Merry Christmas Everyone!

Oh, Oh, Oh!

Just a quick note because for some reason we are pretty busy around here. :0)

Sarah is really starting to talk, not clearly, but I understand a lot of what she's trying to say. Lately she picked up thank you, sounds more like 'ank oo, if you ask her what Santa says she says, "Oh, oh, oh!" So, cute.

Last night when I was getting Amanda ready for bed I was coaching her on what to say when she gets a gift from someone...Me: Amanda, what do you say when someone gives you a present?
A: I don't know
Me: Let's say Gma gives you a present, what do you say?
A: Thank you!
Me: That's right. What if it's a present you don't like?
A: No thank you?!
Me: Well, you shouldn't say that. You don't want to hurt their feelings. You should still say thank you. Because it's important to let them know that you appreciate them thinking about you. (Not sure if I lost her half way thru this little speech, but maybe some of it got in that little head of hers)
A: If someone gives me a gift I don't like I'll say 'Ohhh, Thank you' (She said that like she was being told to eat spinach in order to get a piece of cake)

Then as I was leaving her room, I blew her a kiss from the door, and she rolled over and said, "Mom, when you get old and die, I'm going to miss you very much."

Where did that come from? I told her..."I'll miss you very much, too. But, you don't have to think about that right now."

We've been very busy around here getting ready for xmas, like I'm sure everybody is. We also had a visit from my best friend from San Fran. She came up for a long weekend. It was a lot of fun. She came just in time to see Amanda's xmas program in preschool. I have a lot of pic's but I haven't got them on the comp. yet. Hopefully I'll get to that sometime soon.

Hope all of you are surviving the holiday build up. I hope to visit your sites soon. Take care.

'Tis The Season

Sorry I haven't been around to visit all the blogs lately. It's Dec. and we all know what that means...Christmas cards and letters. I have been very busy getting ours done. I finally got them printed out and I've stuffed the majority. I'm just waiting on a few last min. address changes. Then, I can mail those little puppies off. Yay!

I have to give my Mom a huge shout out! She watched the girls yesterday so we could get our shopping done. We have almost every one done already. A first for me. I'm usually scrambling up to the last min. But, thank goodness for Grandma. She came over and Dave and I took off for about 5 hours. I couldn't believe how well Dave did...even in Walmart...he hates that store. Good job honey. I love you.

Hope you all are coming right along and staying sane. I'll try to get to you all and see what's up in your lives. Happy Holidays!

Antique Pictures

I was a little disappointed in the antique pic's, but not enough to not buy any. :o) I was looking at other area's that have done these photo's and ours seem rather plain. There really isn't any cute backgrounds and they didn't put color into the flower on the girls' hats. But, the girls were so darn cute...I couldn't resist. I warned you Dave. :0)

So, here they are.

Here I Am!

As you may have noticed, I have not been here for a while. We went to SD to visit Dave's family over the Thanksgiving Holiday. We were gone a total of 10 days. It was a lot of fun visiting everybody. I think the girls really liked it. In fact, one day during the visit, Amanda said she didn't want to leave. I asked her if she was sure. She would miss her pre-school and she said..."I can go to pre-school here."

We spent some time at our cousin Megan and Derek's house....oh, yeah, we visited with Al and Lori, too. :0) Amanda and Megan were hardly seen the entire time they were together. They got along so well. When they were apart for a few days, Amanda kept asking when Megan was coming. So, cute. I'm glad they get along so well. Derek was great with the girls, too. I think he liked playing with Sarah, too. He's really good with the little ones.

The only downer to the vacation was that both girls, and to a lesser extent, Dave and I, all got sick while we were over there. Amanda came down with a really high fever, 104.1, on Mon. and Sarah got the same 104 temp on Thurs. Happy Thanksgiving. We thought Amanda was getting better, but the night before we left, she spiked a 103 temp. at the hotel. She still has a temp. today. We've been to the Dr. and she said Amanda has a red ear, not infected, but her right lung sounds bad. So, she's on Azithromiacin (I know I spelled that wrong) She hates taking it. Thank goodness it's only once a day. I tasted a drop of it and it is truly awful. It tastes like bubble gum at first and then the after taste hits. It's like someone put cleaning fluid in your mouth. I think I'm going to call the pharm. and see if that's what it's supposed to taste like.
Yuck, :P ! While I was brushing Amanda's teeth this morn. I had her open real wide and saw Awwww, and I saw a bunch of little white spots on the back of her throat, so I'm wondering if she has strep. I wish the Dr.'s office would call me back so I can take her in...again.

Boy, it seems the girls are sick all the time now. I hope that means they'll have healthy immune sys. when grade school comes along.

I got back in time to get my Antique pic.'s. I need to scan them and let you see them. They turned out pretty good. I'll do that on another post. Gotta go check on the munchkins. Hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Just Friday

Ah, I feel young again. OK, I look young-er-ish. :o) I just finished coloring my hair and now I don't look like the girls grandma anymore. Yay! Amanda saw me color my hair one time and asked what color I was going to color it. I asked her what color she thought it should be....Green...of course. That's her favorite color.

The other night I was getting Amanda ready for bed and was putting her toothbrush away. When I came back into the room, she said she wanted some flowers. Flowers? I said. Yes, roses. As she said this her little lips started to turn down, like she was trying not to cry. I asked her why was she going to cry and she just burst into tears. Apparently, she was sad because a rose had died, either one she had or one her little friend had. She was beside herself. It took me about 5 min. to calm her down. I kept saying that that was the good thing about plants, they kept growing new flowers

Then, last night I was sitting on the floor in her room listening to a song on her CD player before bed. She was playing with a stuffed puppy she just loves. She was petting it and cooing to it. I said, You really love your puppy. Do you want a real puppy? She said, Oh, yes! I said, Puppies jump and bark a lot. She said, When I turn 4, we can get a puppy. I said, Daddy may not want to get a puppy. Her answer for that was, When Daddy dies we'll get a new puppy.

Yikes!

Front Yard Fall Pictures

Movie Night

We had our first movie night as a family this week. We have been seeing "Dora Saves the Mermaids" commercials now for a couple of weeks. Every time Amanda saw these commercials she would come running to me and asking when she can watch it. She was very excited. So, the day of the show....Monday at 7 pm....Amanda, that morning, comes running into my room, "Mommy, Mommy, Dora saves the mermaids is on tonight." Then, she ran back out of the room and down the stairs. All day that's all she could talk about. So, after dinner we got all cleaned up and got our PJ's on and popped some popcorn and settled in to watch the show. It was pretty fun. It has only been recently that Amanda could stay interested longer than 10 min. to watch anything. So, we just may have to do this more often.

I remember how excited as a kid I would get when the Christmas shows would come on or the Charlie Brown shows. We would get to stay up "late"....it was so special. Now, I'm kind of sad that we can just plug those movies in to the DVD and watch them any old time. It isn't "special" any more. What do they have to look forward to now? Hmmm, I wonder what my girls will look back on when they get older that makes them smile.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody! I just thought I would post a couple pic's of our pumpkins. For some reason I don't have one of Amanda's pumpkin loaded on to the computer yet. But, I know I took one today, so when I get around to loading the disc onto the computer maybe you'll see it with the girls costumes. Any way, enjoy the pic's....

This is Sarah's pumpkin. Design by Daddy.....


This is my pumpkin...design...stole it from some website....modeled by Sarah. (isn't she cute?)

Dave's pumpkin...stole from the same web site...a real hit with the kids. :0)

Hello Stranger

Well, I have had one heck of a month for Oct. Seems like it's been one thing after another. But, I'm back...I think. Every time I say I'm back somebody gets sick or I put my back out. I fighting a little cold now my self.

But, enough feeling sorry for myself...I just wanted to post a few pic's. I'll start tonight with some I took of Amanda and hopefully get some of Sarah up next. But, I need to get to bed now, so enjoy!

When It Rains, It Pours

So, here's my sorry story for today. Amanda is finally starting to get better, but she is still a bit needy. Now, Sarah woke up with a nasty, croupy cough and 102 temp. Wait, that's not all! Dave is getting a crown today and...AND...I have put my neck out. So, we are so happy around here these days.

Now some happier things...Sarah is really, really starting to communicate with us. She understands almost everything we ask or tell her. She doesn't have a lot of words of her own though. We had to start the time outs with her already. She likes to get up on the couch and walk or more likely, run on it. Well, I got tired of barking "no" at her all the time. So, I told her the next time, I was going to put her in time out. She did it and she went in to the pack-n-play. Boy, cant that girl scream! Sat., she had 4 time outs in a row. As soon as I got her out of time out, she was back on the couch with a look on her face that said, "Try to stop me!" Stubborn little thing. She now barks when she is talking about dogs, or if she sees or hears one. She points up to the sky and says "A" when she hears an airplane or we ask her where planes fly. We play this really fun "game" together...I ask a question like "Do we need to change your diaper?" (the smell says yes) and Sarah will say "No!" I say "yes". She screams no and it goes on like that for a few min. Sounds really annoying, but it makes me giggle most of the time, because she straightens out all her limbs and really gets her whole body into the "no's"

Well, I need to go see what the little monsters are up to. I should go ice my neck, too.

Wings and Wheels Festival

Last weekend we went to the Wings and Wheels Festival. It's to celebrate the first Trans-Pacific Flight. We started out at the airport. It was a little chilly there. Nothing to break the wind. They were offering plane rides for $20 and Helicopter rides, too. Last year Dave took Amanda up in one of the airplanes. She was free then. If she really wanted to go this year he would have, but she was more interested in coloring in one of the hangers. Dave was a little interested in the copter ride, but didn't think it would compare to the one he took in Hawaii, so decided against it.

After the airport we headed into town where the Wheels part of the festival was. It's where they showcase local owners of old timer cars. Although, some of those cars were from when I was a kid....Oh, I'm getting old! They also had some free kids activities. I took video of that, but there was just too much going on to get still shots. Amanda really liked the blow up bounce houses. One was set up like an obstacle course with two sides and the kids could race. Amanda was almost too small for it, but with a little help she did pretty good.

After lunch we headed home for naps, but returned later for the carnival part of the festivities. It was a lot smaller this year. I'm glad we didn't have to pay admission. It was perfect for Amanda. She went on 3 rides, the fun house and played a game and won a flower. It's one of those games where everybody wins. Sarah had fun watching, but is still too little to do much at these things.

This weekend I'm trying to get everybody healthy, so we didn't do much. We were going to go to the fire stations open house, but thought we better not. Good thing Amanda's class already did it. That way she doesn't feel like she was missing out. Hopefully she'll be better by tomorrow so she can go to preschool. She's so worried that she won't get to go. She is getting better. It was a little scary there for a few days. She woke up Wed and couldn't talk and could hardly breath. She was running a temp and had a sore throat. By Fri. night she was running a 103.8 temp. Luckily I had already gone to the Dr. and she gave us some prescript.'s for Amanda. At one point I was sleeping on her floor, and she was getting up every hour. Her fever broke three times and I had to change her sheets every time. They were soaked through as well as her. But, now she's running around and wants to go outside all the time. She just has a cough and sounds very squeaky.

Hope you all are doing well. More later.

I'm Back....

But, I don't know for how long. :0) Wow, I took quite a little break! Haven't had much to write about and then we've been sick around here. So, I took a little break and took care of the fam. It's a bit late right now so I won't post too much, but will be posting a pic and telling about what we did last weekend. Stay tuned! :0)

I'm trying to get to everybody's blogs and get caught up. Geez, you take a few days off, and you have about an hour of reading to do to get caught up with everybody. :0) But, it'll be nice to get back into the swing of things. More later. ;0)

Sarah's One Year Old Pictures

Here are the pictures of Sarah that I had taken at Sears. Her one year old pic's. I wish they had turned out better. They are OK, they just don't show Sarah's true smile and personality. She was such a bear trying to get these taken. She would only sit for about one pic. then she would take off running. I was so hot from chasing her down, by the time we were done, my hair was soaked and I wished I had worn shorts. But, they are better than nothing.

Sarah's 1st Birthday

Our baby girl celebrated her first birthday on Aug. 3rd. And, I'm a bad mommy for not posting this earlier. It just took me this long to get the pictures on to the computer. So, at least I have them on now.

We celebrated at home with friends and family. The kids all really enjoyed playing on our new swing set and play structure in the backyard. It was a pretty warm day. Sarah got a lot of cute toys and clothes. Thank you everyone for the gifts and for coming to help us celebrate our baby's first birthday.

Oh my, we can't call her our baby anymore. She's a toddler! Aaaahhhh! Here are the many names we have given our little darling....Sarah-boo, Boobooo, Sarah-dactil, Baby monster, Screacher creature, Godzoockie, Sweet pea, and termite. I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them right now.

Our little wonder girl is constantly keeping us on our toes. She is now running and climbing on everything. She has no fear, that's OK, I have enough for the both of us. She is so easy going and loves to go to everybody. We rarely have separation anxiety, in fact the only time she cries when we leave is because she wants to go outside, too. She's not upset that we are leaving. :0)

Below are some pictures from her birthday party. Enjoy!

Oh my, look at all the helpers who want to help Sarah unwrap her gifts. :0)

Great Gma and Sarah opening presents.

I made Sarah a butterfly birthday cake. I made sure to make it chocolate so it would show up better in the pictures. :0)

Are you sure I'm supposed to eat this?

Hmmm, this looks interesting. I wonder if it tastes good.

OOoooohhhh, squishy, squishy! I like it!

Now I'm getting the hang of this eating cake thing. Yummmm!

What? Aren't I supposed to make a mess? :0)

Tomatie Harvest

Here is Amanda showing off her tomatie harvest. They took a long time to turn red. I've heard from a lot of people that the tomato harvest all over was like that. We had/have a lot of green tomatoes but they are sure taking their time turning red. That's her giant tomato plant to her right. I didn't know they got that big, it was draped all over the ground and climbing the tree and fence. Next year I think we'll fix it up with some string or something to climb. And, yes there is a metal shield thingy that helps support the plant somewhere in there. It just wasn't big enough. Oh well, this was our first try at this, we'll know more for next year.

Camping And Ticket Fines

Camping....

Below you will see a slide show of the camping "trip" Dave and Amanda took in the back yard. Dave really wanted to go camping one more time this year, but it just didn't work out for us. So, he and Amanda decided to set up the tent in the backyard and camp back there. It was a lot of fun for them. Especially Amanda. She and Sarah both had fun setting up the tent. Sarah stayed inside with me that night, but played in the tent with her sister until Smores time. I got the girls all ready for bed and while I was doing that, Dave set up an old grill with wood burning to make our smores. They were soooooo good. Def. have to do that again. :0)

Ticket Fines.....
Last week I parked in a 15 min. spot for Amanda's gym class. I thought it was just a sign the building manager had put up and I've parked there before and didn't get into trouble. Well, I was taught a lesson that day. It is def. a city sign and I got a $15 ticket. So, this week I took the girls with me to the police station to pay my fine. Amanda asked what we were doing. I told her that I had gotten a parking ticket for parking in the wrong spot. I told her that I wasn't following the rules like I was supposed to and got in trouble. Then, we went to the Y and I worked out while they played in the kids play area. About an hour later I picked them up and we went back to the car and were driving down to Amanda's gym. She asked where we were going. I said, "We are going to your gymnastics class." And, she asked, "Are you going to follow the rules this time?" I giggled and said, "Yes, I'll follow the rules this time." ERRRrrrrrrr!!!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Story time!

Another cute Amanda story. Let me know if you get tired of hearing them....on second thought, don't. I like telling them. :0)

Any who....We were driving over the bridge to go to swimming lessons and I was thinking out loud that I thought Dave and I should start shopping for a new car. Amanda asked why I drove a car and Dad drove a truck. Then I explained that my SUV wasn't a car, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then, I said I would really love to have a mini-van. We had one when I was in high school and we loved it. Amanda said, "A mini-van. That's so silly." I said, "Why's that so silly." I was insulted by my 3 year old! She says, "If you have a mini-van, then Daddy has a Mickey Truck." So, funny. They take everything so literally.

That reminds me of the time we went camping with some friends and their son (who was about 3 or 4 at the time) was helping his mother to play cards. When it was her turn she said, "OK, draw a card." He said, "OK, but I don't have any paper or a pen." Then, later he was in the camper calling for his mother. When she went in to see what he wanted, he couldn't think of what he called her for. So, she got tired of waiting for him to tell her and said, "Come on, spit it out." With total exasperation he says, "I don't have anything in my mouth!" Kids are so funny!

Below you will see a slide show of the pic's we took at the county fair. We went to two dif. ones this year. So, I will be posting those pic's later. Enjoy!

Check out my Slide Show!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

(This picture is of Amanda showing off her turkey. She got to make this project after sleeping in her own bed for 7 nights in a row. For the longest time she would sleep just fine, but then this spring the birds started waking her up at 4 am and she would either get us up, or try to sleep with us. So, I went to the craft store and bought a bunch of $1 crafts and when she completes her chart, she gets to pick what craft she wants to do. It has worked great. )

I stole the title to this post from my sis in law...thanx Lori. :0)

Dave was out of town yesterday, and when he called to tell me he made it to his destination all right. He told me a story about Amanda that he had forgotten to tell me earlier.

One morning while they were up early eating breakfast (one of those days that I took advantage of Daddy getting up early, so I could sleep in) Amanda got Dave's attention..."Daddy, don't, " Smack, Smack ( she makes the sound with her mouth wide open, showing all the food in her mouth) "nobody wants to hear that!" She does pay attention when I tell her to eat with her mouth closed! Yay! Now, maybe between the two of us we can get Dave to listen. Oh, that story makes Dave look like a neanderthal, he really does have very good table manners, he just slips up everyonce in a while. I'm sure I do to.

Don't box me in.

It's just amazing how much money we spend on toys as a society, when in reality the best toy in the world is a beat up old cardboard box. My girls have so much fun playing in them. As you can see in my slide show.

Sorry, it's been so long since I've written. We've just been a little bit busy and I just haven't made the time to write. But, I'm back... :0)

Some cute stories,

After Amanda's 2nd day in school, I found out from one of her teachers that she had been playing in their rice sand box. And, she was pretending it was a farm. The teacher said that Amanda was telling them all about how her Grandma and Grandpa used to have a farm and that her Daddy used to live there, too. Then as we were leaving the parking lot, Amanda told me they sang Old McDonald Had a Farm. (I'm guessing that's why she told them all about G-Ma and G-Pa's farm) Then I said "Can you sing it to me?" And, Amanda says, "Mom, that's a school song, not a car song." Oh, well, OK, fine. :0)

The other night, Dave was getting Amanda ready for bed. While she was picking out stories to read, he decided to go to the bathroom. Being 3 years old and not knowing what privacy is, Amanda walked in on him. Of course, Dave was going as only boys can. Amanda looked at him and said "Why do boys pee like that, Daddy?" Not really wanting to explain male/female anatomy and how and why it works the way it does, Dave said, "I don't know, they just do." Then, Amanda said, "When I get bigger and get a spout like you, I can pee standing up, too. Just like a girl/boy." Tee-Hee!

Now, not to leave Sarah out, here's a update on her antics. Her stories aren't quite as humorous, but still cute. She's really becoming quite a climber. She's beat Amanda on the ladder by about 6 mos., she climbs on the couch and into her highchair now. She's trying to give me heart attacks. She's really trying to communicate now. She nods and shakes her head no. She points and now says Sishy for Fishy and Sissy. She says "No, no, no" and Da for Amanda. Now, I know I'm not supposed to compare the girls, but.....I just can't get over how very dif. they are. At this age Amanda had over 50 words in her vocab. but, she wasn't as phys. as Sarah. Amanda was always very sensitive...if you raised your voice at all toward her, she would dissolve in tears (still does), Sarah could care less. The other day, she was reaching for something (prob. a knife) on the dinning room table and I slapped the table really hard and said no. She just looked at me for a half a second and kept on reaching. I could tell Amanda not to do something and she would almost always never bother whatever it was again. Yeah, I bet you could guess that doesn't happen with Sarah. I knew it was too much to ask to have two obedient children. But, I have to say, I think we do have two very good girls and I wouldn't ask for anything more. I just love them so much I can't stand it.

Check out my Slide Show!

9/11

Never forget those lost.
Never forget those who served.
Never forget those serving.
God Bless.

Amanda's first day of school

Well, Amanda had her first day yesterday. It went very well! I was thinking I may have to go in with her. She kept asking me if I was going to go with her. But, when we got there, a teacher from another room took her under her wing until her teacher came out. At Amanda's preschool, the teachers meet each child at their car and then all walk into the class at the same time. Amanda was the first one there. As I was pulling away, I could hear the teacher say, "Wave bye-bye." When I looked into the rear view mirror, I could see Amanda waving and looking around with an expression on her face like....What am I waving at. :0) But, she wasn't crying. Yay!

When I picked her up 2 hours later, I was first in line. I'm not sure how I became first both times, I'm usually late to everything. :0) But, when the bell rang, here they all came holding hands. Then Amanda saw my car and she burst into a huge grin and yelled "Mommy, I missed you!" Aaahhhh, melt my heart. She did great, but getting info out of her describing her day was like pulling teeth. As the evening progressed, she would tell me a little more and a little more. So, I got a good idea what she did. So, nosy mom got her fix. :0)

Here are some pic's of Amanda right before we left the house to go to school. She was so proud and kept saying "Take a pic. of this and take a pic. of that!" So, cute.

Here's the whole outfit. When I asked Amanda what she wanted to wear, she said a dress. That's when I realized, she doesn't have many dresses. She has a lot of skirts, but not many dresses. Hmmmm, I guess that means I need to go shopping....oh, darn. :0)

This is what happens when you have swim lessons and preschool on the same day. Poor kid was wiped out...Even when Sarah was screaming and poking her, she didn't wake up.