Updating

I've slowly been updating the blog, I'll try to have it all updated before we leave on Tuesday...5 days!!!

Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day was very special this year, I think it keeps getting better and better every year :) Quaid had given us an envelope with some coupon's in it good for: Cleaning his room, doing the dishes and writing for fun. Needless to say, they are all things he is to do on a daily basis...but it was cute to see what he came up with.

We had our Valentine's Dinner on Friday night because the kid's were going to a Birthday Party on Valentine's Day, so we had a family dinner on Friday and Mommy & Daddy got their own Valentine's Dinner together. After dinner both the kid's went back to Bailey's room to get our Valentine Presents ready for the next morning. It was very interesting to listen to them and trying to figure out what was for who??

We wake up on Valentine's Day and open our boxes we made, then read our Valentine's from our family, very sweet from Quaid, Bailey's were a little scribbly and sweet..lol Then the kid's wanted to open their present's, so Daddy got a Lion (lil toy), Quaid got a Bunny (Bailey's bunny by the way), I got a Bib, yes a Baby's Bib...the kid's said it was for my "BABY", hmmm...didn't know I had a Baby?? Then they proceeded to tell me it's for when I have a real baby. TOO FUNNY!!! Then Bailey got a Dragon Tale book (her's also)..lol That was fun and very cute of them!! Then they got to open their present from us a Kidi Art Studio that hook's up to the TV, they can take pic's of themselves and paint, dress up, all kind's of fun things. You can also hook it up to the computer and email pics too, we have yet to get that far...they are having way too much fun on TV.

That evening the kid's went to their friend Sophia's birthday party, thanks to her Wonderful parent's offering to have all our kid's over on Valentine's Day!!! :) Johnny and I headed down to the Mall to hit the Disney Store for our upcoming Vacation. We found lots of lil character's, they were B1G1!! Instead of buying them while we are at Disney, we thought we would buy them now and leave them for the housekeeper's each day, then when we return for the night...they have a new character to sleep with :) After the Mall, we headed back to pick up the kid's...with no real dinner plans and our main goal was Disney Store...we stopped at McDonald's for dinner!!! Can you believe it? Here we are on a Valentine's Date and we eat at McDonald's...we didn't even have the kids!!! I really just wanted some fries, Johnny wanted a Quarter Pounder...if you buy 1 you get 1 for whatever the temp was the day before. (they got him) We picked up the kid's and hung out with the Graham's and some other friends picking up their kid's...they made us all a Margarita and we sat around and chatted while the kid's were still running around like crazy..lol It was a fun Day all together and filled with LOVE :)

Icky, Sicky

Believe it or not, we haven't had to make a trip to the Dr. office yet this Winter for anything, until the other day when we had to take Quaid in for his foot. When he was going to bed one night he started screaming and crying that he stepped on something, he cried for a loooong time, but seemed to be a little better the next day (he also had a field trip too, so he was very eager to go) After about 4 day's he said it still hurt, so I looked at it and it was protruding out, which didn't look like it was healing right?? So I took him in to the Dr and she immediately said, Wart. Then she said, wait, let me look closer and was poking around it because it had some puss (sorry if it's TMI) coming out, then out popped this little thing. I was freaking out and wondering what the heck it was, while also trying to stay calm for Quaid, who has NO idea what is going on and what just popped out of his foot. Then she grabs some tweezer's and out came the......TOOTHPICK!!!!! OUCH!!! I felt so bad for the poor guy :( Thankfully he is doing much, much better now :)

Although we haven't made any Doctor visit's this year doesn't mean we haven't been through our round's :( Bailey was sick a few week's ago with a BAD stomach bug, thankfully though she much better a day later. Quaid just oddly enough had a fever one day, that's it...just a fever, nothing else!! Weird, huh? Now they both have a little cold, poor Bailey is just a snotty yucky mess :( We're praying this all leave's our house and we can all be healthy for Vacation!!

A Mommy's still gotta care for her baby even when she's sick..lol

Our friend, JOE

HA, I finally found out his name...our recycling friend anyway. Guess what he gave us now...2 BIG stuffed CHRISTMAS Bear's! I have a feeling I'm gonna have to start cutting back on my dumpster time or I might end up with a whole ZOO!!!

Oh well, it was very nice of him and of course the kid's LOVE them, just kind of odd...lol

Our Friend, "The Recycling Man"

Yes, I have a friend now at Recycling, he work's there!! It all started when he started to give me a bag of Coupon insert's, then I wanted to do something nice for all the guy's there (they are alway's so nice and helpful) For Chrismtas I gave them all Razor gift set's, you can't really bake for them...eating in a recycling center...YUCK! Anyway, as soon as I gave my "friend" his gift, he said, "now hold on a min, I have something for you too"...ok..(kinda wary) He hands me this little Christmas Tree pin that light's up, he say's, "You can wear it on your blouse when you get all dressed up to go out", "Oh THANK YOU" What a sweet Man, I thought, however thought it was odd. A few week's go by and he tell's the kid's one day that he has some Easter Bunnie's for them at home, he'll bring them next week. After this, my kid's won't forget these Easter Bunnie's till the following recycling day. We went back and our "friend" forgot them, the next week he wasn't there, then FINALLY I go in there and he say's, "Are you gonna be in on Saturday? I've got those Easter Bunnie's for those kid's". "Oh, Ok, sure I'll bring them in". Of course we walk in greeted by "The Recycling Man", who quickly walk's over to get the Easter Bunnie's, so he give's the kid's their bag with the Easter Bunnie's in it along with my bag of coupon's. After over a month of not knowing what these Easter Bunnie's were, here are the beloved Easter Bunnie's ;)

Proud Cousin's

Welcome Paige Annabelle

I'm an Auntie!!! Congrats to Jason & Julie, they welcomed their first daughter, Paige Annabelle on Sunday, Jan. 11 @ 7:44pm, weighing in at 7lbs, 5 oz, 19 1/2in. Let me tell you, she is the most adorable baby EVER...except for my own of course..lol We are all very excited she's FINALLY here...poor Bailey thought she would never get here.

A lil bit of what Bailey is all about

Going shopping with her Baby
Trying to wear these out to a playgroup...in the snow!!

She fixed her own hair

Just had to snap this one...lol

Performing a Ballerina Dance

The BEST Christmas EVER!!!

This Christmas was truly our BEST Christmas yet. Every year we all go out and buy or try to find gift's for everyone in our family, when in all actuality we really don't need anything. I admit it is fun shopping and trying to find those perfect gift's for everyone, however it does get very expensive and sometime's you really just end up grabbing a gift card or just anything because you can't find them anything. So really, how much thought was put into that gift??

This year my Mom and I thought we would try something different, homemade gifts! On Thanksgiving, we all drew names and kept them secret (although my Mom ended up knowing who everyone got...guess we all still need advice from Mom...lol) We had a month to figure out and make our gift's. I had drawn my brother Jake, Johnny had drawn my brother Jason, our kid's didn't draw names this year, we decided they would just get spoiled as it is and really wouldn't truly appreciate the homemade gift's yet. Christmas morning came, we were having everyone over for Christmas morning brunch, which was really nice to have our Christmas with the kid's, play with them for a bit, then fix breakfast together while listening to Christmas music :)

Present time....of course the kid's couldn't wait, I couldn't either because of the anticipation of seeing what everyone came up with as their gifts :) We alway's go youngest to oldest, so Haylee was first, my brother Jake got her and not being very creative he made up a little ryhym for her with $10 to get what she wanted...lol Then came Jake, I had made him a fleece tie blanket of his own, I guess he steals my Mom's all the time, so I got this idea from her..lol Then Julie got a scrapbooking kit from my Mom with some cute little cricut people, Jason got a handmade toolbox from Johnny, it was pretty cool :) I got from Jason (totally not expecting something so creative) 3 ornament's he had handmade from lightbulb's, 2 snowmen and a Santa...they were sooo cute and I was just blown away at his creativity...I loved them :) Then came Johnny's gift from my Dad, a framed sketched picture of our kid's...awwww, that one really blew me away and is sooo precious!!! My Dad is a very good artist, however hasn't really done much lately because he's always so busy, after seeing this I hope he does alot more...especially because Johnny has claimed the picture as his ( I know it was his gift) I wanted to hang it in the house, but he's taking it to his office :( My birthday is coming up in case you wanna give me a homemade gift Dad!!!! HINT, HINT Then it was my Mom's turn and Haylee had made her a new fleece tie blanket as well...very cute hot pink and green :) Then Dad got some homemade chocolate covered cherries from Julie...what a PERFECT gift for him. (every year Dad get's chocolate covered cherries..they are his favorite)

This is definitely a tradition worth carrying on from now on.

Christmas 2008

Santa...not EVERYONE loves him!!!

Sitting on Santa's lap is alway's an adventure for every child, especially if they don't like him very much!! Quaid was really excited to go see Santa this year and has really gotten into the magic of Santa. At school, they had 2 little elves in their classroom, everyday they were somewhere different. Quaid would come home from school telling me all about these sneaky elves. Here's his letter from school that he wrote to Santa:

As you can tell he is really into Santa this year, however I keep stressing the fact that he's MAGICAL...so that when they do find out he's not real, but he's just Magical.
Although Bailey is a totally different story, she doesn't like Santa ONE BIT!!! She didn't want any present's from him, just for her birthday she kept telling us. When it was time to go see Santa and sit on his lap, she had told us that she might sit on his lap, however didn't want to even go past a certain point to see him. We told her it was alright and Santa still gave her brother a candy cane to give to her :)
I only managed to get a picture of the 2 of them standing by a pole, not by Santa this year...lol Quaid did go see Santa though...he didn't sit on his lap though, guess he's getting too big :(

Jedi Master

That's right, we have our very own Jedi Master living in our house!!! Quaid has a book from Star Wars and apparantly think's he really is one day going to go off and leave us to be a Jedi Master...lol The other night he wore this hilarious outfit with his robe (that is way too small) and his hood from his winter coat to bed. I asked why he wore this, his reply was because he's getting ready to be a Jedi Master! Oh the imaginiation's of a child :)

A look into the day's of our live's

*On the way to storytime after a snowfall, I asked Bailey if the tree's were pretty with their fresh snow cover.

Her response "Mommy, when do they talk?"

Me: "Ummm, when does what talk?"

Her: "The tree's, when do they talk"

Me: "Sweetie, Tree's don't talk"

Her: "No, when will they be able to"

Me: "Tree's won't ever talk, they just get bigger"



*One day after breakfast she run's in to her room and get's some tight's on. I asked her why she put them on, she said, "Because they make me healthy"...lol I think she meant warm...lol



*On our way home from Awana one Sunday evening, we were talking about Santa and Bailey said she didn't want to sit on his lap, she didn't want any presents and she just doesn't like him. Quaid's response, "Bailey, Jesus doesn't like that, He wants us to love everyone"...lol



*When Bailey goes to bed at night, she usually ALWAY'S has to go potty one last time after I tuck her in, so she run's to the potty and I have to wait to shut the door until she get's in her bed, then she always says "Wait Mommy, I have to ask you a question", it's alway something totally bizarre, like "Can we go to the Zoo sometime" or "Mommy, Quaid forgot to go to school today", when it was Saturday...lol

*The kid's were getting ready to go out to play in the snow, Quaid is all dressed and waiting by the door as I got Bailey's mittens and hat on. Bailey say's to Quaid, "You know why I'm smiling at you", "WHY", "because I love you"...no they are not like this ALL the time, they do have their moments just like any other brother and sister, but how I do cherish those moment's when they actually act like they love each other...lol

*Quaid has been reading ALOT lately, he just finished his first Chapter book!!! I'm so proud of him :) He also comes home after school usually on Monday's they get their spelling words and homework (about 4/5 pages) that is due back on Friday (test day), Quaid get's his homework done right away (after playing in the snow and doing his chores) He is sooo eager to learn right now and it just warms my heart!! So the other day he was telling me a math problem (they have to make up a story to go with their addition or subtraction). I told him he did a great job, he say's, "I know and I learned it from nowhere"...lol

*Bailey is becoming very independant lately and loves to do things on her own. The other day she decided she was going to fix her hair, here she is putting a barrette in her hair, she really didn't do too bad, looked kinda cute :)

*Our house is CRAZY on the weekend's, especially now it's colder outside and the kid's can get out but for a little bit. It's ok sometime's though because they both have great imagination's. They will play doctor, school, games, house or superhero's (Quaid get's his choice in too) So here is Quaid dressed up like Indiana Jones, not sure about the sword, but I thought he was pretty cool, just had to snap this for when he's older...lol

Snow, Snow and more snow

As most of you know we had a VERY snowy winter last year with over 100 inches of snow!! This year it has started earlier and is looking like much of the same. The kid's however are LOVING it, when we get Quaid on the bus, we all bundle up and head out a little early so they can play in the snow together. Then when Quaid get's home from school, I don't see him for at least 30 min after he get's off the bus, he will play till it get's dark and sometimes later (of course it get's dark here between 4:30 and 5)

Here are some pic's of the kid's enjoying the snow!!!

Awana Program

We have such a great program at our church for kid's, Bailey is in Cubbies and Quaid is in Sparks. They have a book and read from it each week, then have to memorize and recite Bible verses to get patches for their vest's. This past week, our story for each night is a chapter in Quaid's Spark's book, then I quiz him on his verses. He memorized a total of 6 verses this week and earned his wing's and a green jewel for his vest, he also earned his red jewel however has to bring a friend to get it next week. I am sooo proud of him, he is so eager to learn more about God's word.