Oh What Fun

I've been having a great time just relaxing after the holidays. The two days after Christmas were spent meeting top priorities only. We didn't go anywhere, we stayed in our pjs, and I got to watch some tv of my choosing! I watched marathons of Project Runway, the first season and The Biggest Loser, the second season - neither of which had I seen before. It's funny how you're in such a better mood and get along so much better with your kids and spouse (at least me anyway), when you aren't trying to get things done or go here or there. If only...

I'm trying to figure out in my mind how to simply the holidays but also keep them special....hmmm. Anyway, we had a great Christmas - but the days being super lazy were my favorite! I hope you all got to do some relaxing as well. More info and pics to come.

We did go out today to Ava's ear appt. She got tubes at 9 months old. They were still sitting in her ears, so the doctor took them out today. He also noticed fluid behind her ears so they did some hearing tests. She's borderline normal but we're trying antibiotics and will retest her in a few weeks to see if the fluid has cleared up. I asked the doctor if this is why sometimes it seems like she talks SOOOO loud. He actually said it could very well be. I'm not sure her loud talking isn't just genetic. ;)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! GR, from church, took our pics.

Here's my favorite of Ava and Elise.

Naughty, Naughty Dogs!

Caution: Gross details below...also - because it was so dramatic to me, I'm making what could be a short story - long.

It took almost all I had today not to lose it today when I saw what my dogs had done. I come home after a morning of playgroup (Toddler Open Gym), and errands, anxious to get my girls a quick lunch and down for naps.

I enter the kitchen...on the floor, pieces of chewed plastic grocery bag. A few feet down - a brown pile of vomit. I look into the living room, a box 3/4 eaten of chocolate covered orange sticks. (I thought I had picked up all of the bags from the floor but in my rush to get out of the door - had missed one). I look at my couch. My heart sinks. My dogs like to sit at the top of the couch to sleep. There is not only vomit on the carpet right next to the couch, but vomit spilling down the front of the back cushions.

I hate vomit. I can deal with the pees and the poops but vomits are much worse for me. Ughhh.

There's more. After I had seen the initial mess, I put the dogs in my bathroom so they wouldn't puke anywhere else. I had to put Elise to bed (sleeps in my room), so I let the dogs out of my bathroom. I come out of the bedroom - TWO NEW VOMIT STAINS! I put the dogs outside. I don't care how cold it was. While getting Ava her lunch, she, of course, steps in the big pile of it on the kitchen floor, tracking it as she goes.

I let the dogs in once Ava was in bed too. I'm cleaning up and I hear Maya drinking out of our Christmas tree water. Of course, their bowl was empty Chocolate must make them thirsty because they tried to tank up. I confiscated the bowl, knowing what drinking too much too soon does. I thought they were done, but later - TWO MORE NEW VOMIT STAINS!

A lady rings the doorbell, dogs bark, Ava wakes up from her nap 20 minutes in.

I'm not happy. Dogs go in the guest bathroom rest of afternoon. Mom, Ava, and Elise hide in Mom's bedroom the rest of the afternoon, watching Dora and Diego, awaiting Daddy's arrival and not wanting to confront the spotted living room.

Enter husband - he steam cleans all of the vomit and saves the day! I'm SOOOO thankful for him doing this. He didn't complain, except to say that the orange part of the chocolate confection may leave a permanent reminder on our carpet....and also to say that we should take the dogs to the pound (idle threat used when dogs are bad). He wasn't surprised by the vomit. He was in training all day but I had been communicating with him via his blackberry...I love being able to get ahold of him whenever I need to....so he knew what awaited him.

Another sweet thing was when I told Ava how upset and sad I was. She hugged and kissed me and said, "It's okay." I said I was really upset because I had to clean up all of the throw-up. She then said, "It's okay, Mommy. Daddy can clean it up." I guess she really does know how things work around here. :)

Thank you, Chris, for saving the day.

Space Issues

Chris and I have talked about and we've decided that we need more space...

on my computer.

Every day when I got online I have a warning message:
Warning: you're running out of room on Drive C
Warning: disk space low
Warning: disk space very low
Warning: aren't you listening? disk space low, woman! Delete some stuff
after deleting and rearranging things still:
Warning: computer will self-destruct if you do not free up some space!

So, needless to say - I can't really upload all of my great pics and stuff to blog about what we've been up to. This leaves me less excited about updating my blog.

If any of you are still checking to see if I've updated - I'm sorry. A new computer is in the works, however so I should be back up and blogging soon and receiving fewer (hopefully) threatening warnings. I'll also be adding some posts soon of some of the things I'm behind on but do have pics for....if anyone still cares. (I must just be playing to my ego that people are waiting on pins and needles to see what silly new expressions Elise has said or what "darndest" thing Ava said the other day or to hear me say "how fun" or "great" something was. ) ;) Good things I rationalize time spent blogging as keeping a record and family history for myself and posterity. I'm in a silly mood - better stop for tonight! :)

10 Years Later: Where are they now?

My friend Nora has inspired me to finally write about my HS reunion. So here's my tribute.

My ten year reunion came and went. I didn't go. I don't regret it. I saw the pictures and it looked pretty lame...I thought a lot about whether or not I really wanted to go. Other than a few people, there just wasn't anyone I felt like I needed or wanted to see. I wasn't all that involved in high school really...always thought I was too cool for school and wanted to steer clear of all that HS drama, especially Senior year. So, if I was always too cool for high school when I was in high school, then why would I go to the reunion, right?

Anyway, I have 3 really great girlfriends from high school that I've kept in touch with over the years. I think we made good friends because we were all smart, funny and cute. Did I mention cool, creative, hilarious, genius, ...Sorry, I know that isn't being very modest. :)


Above is a picture of us at graduation. There's Kelly, Nora, me, Asna. (also pictured: Michelle & LeeAnn) I should've named this picture, "BIG CHEESE".

Below: A picture of all of us with our dates, ready for prom. We took a limo to the Ritz Carlton on the Plaza, headed back to town for our Prom, then over to Nora's for a supervised after party/slumber party.

We caught up with each other a few years ago and have tried to keep in contact ever since. Above is a picture of us while I was pregnant with Ava. We met and had lunch downtown.

A couple of weeks ago, we had our own 10-year reunion - a dinner party at my house. It was great to see each other and reminisce about our days in high school. Each of these girls is amazing and very special to me. I hope we can continue to keep in touch and have our own frequent mini-reunions.

So, where are they now?

Kelly lives nearby, was a manager for McDonalds for a long time but is going back to school and working for an architectural firm doing drafting. She's been married to Wes, (her prom date) for 7 years.

Asna lives in CO and works as a business consultant. She has a great guy, Mike, who we got to meet recently, who has a beautiful daughter. Wedding bells?

Nora lives in Kansas City and works part time as a dentist. The other part of the time she's raising a cute little boy, Levi, and enjoying her marriage to another great guy, David.

Lori - if you're a faithful blog patron, then you know what I'm up to. But just for the record, I graduated from KU with a degree in Elementary Ed, taught for a few years and am now raising my sweet little girls, Ava & Elise. I've also been happily married for over 8 years to Chris.

Happy 10 years!

Cake

Heidi & Luke

I'm behind with writing about my Sister Heidi's wedding reception October 20th. It was a very busy time for my family! We all did our part to help out - the benefit of a big family. I did all of Heidi's flowers and helped her in any other way that I could. Overall, I think things turned out elegant and classy. Above is the picture of the cake that my mom made...yep, she made it - and the dress too. I added the flowers to the cake for the final touches. It tasted as good as it looks!


Guest table. I think this arrangement was my favorite. I got to take it home afterwards to keep. I wish there was a close-up because I found this great red tinted greenery which made it fun. I also used cranberries to fill in the vases. It was amazing how much color that added.

The happy couple. Heidi and Luke actually went to High School together but didn't date until He served his mission over a year ago in Taiwan.

The family. It was fun to have my Aunt Ann, and cousin Karen with her family out for the reception. It was nice to visit with them - they were also a huge help with the reception.

Finishing touches before the reception. I wish I would've take some close ups of the flowers from the front. This is more of the side/back view. Heidi did a chocolate fountain too, which was kind of fun...messy, but fun.

Heidi and her bouquet.

The highlight of the whole reception had to have been all of the kids dancing, especially my five year old nephew, William. He was hilarious! He started doing semi-robotic, semi-hip hop dance moves. At one point we got the crowd clapping for him. He LOVED it. A few minutes later, there's William again, but on the stage bustin' a groove! I'm having trouble loading more pics but might add one of him later, as if it would do the whole thing justice though! Gotta love uninhibited kids!

Blogging Plug

Blogging is such the craze now. I personally like to blog for a few reasons: to post pics and updates for free to share with family and friends not close by, and also to keep a family history/record/journal of sorts. I also enjoying keeping up with people that I might not be great about corresponding with otherwise, by reading their blogs. I hope to copy Michelle and make a yearly book using blurb or mypublisher websites.

Anyway, blogging has been great for me. I've been thinking for a while about people I wish would blog or at least blog more. Funny thing is, recently a few of those people are doing just that....Cheryl, Nora, & Heidi. I aslo recently stumbled across a friend from HS, Amelia's blog.

People who I think might enjoy blogging or at least I'd enjoy it if they were blogging:
My friends from HS: Cheryl, Nora, Asna, Kelly, my sis Heidi, my SIL Vanessa, my cousins Karen, Laura, Gma Patty, my friends Melissa R., Rebecca S., etc.

There are lots more but this is just a start. Start a blog today!

Can I just say...

I LOVE BABY ELISE! I'm not the biggest fan of newborns. Yes, they are very sweet and provide many tender moments of awe and amazement...However, they cry a lot, are hard to read and don't fill your day with tons of smiles and giggles. Some of you might remember the days back in April or so when, as my friend Nora so affectionately puts it, I sounded "like I was going to kill [my]self". :) Those tough days are behind me and I can finally see myself possibly- in the distant, distant future, having more children.

Elise is 7 months old now. I think this is my absolute favorite baby stage. She's happy, learning, enjoying life, and can't get into everything yet!

What I love about Elise right now:

1. I love her chubby cheeked, dimpled filled smiles!
2. I love that she almost always wakes up happy, even if we have to wake her up early for some reason.
3. I love that she just laughs and laughs at her big sister.
4. I love that she laughs every time I pretend to nibble on her cheek or neck. It's a ritual for me now to nibble her chin or neck before I lay her down to sleep. With her eyes closed and binky in her mouth, I see, hear, and feel her giggling.
5. I love that she loves her momma. She looks for me and is happiest when with me. (Now, of course while this makes me feel special - it has it drawbacks too.)
6. I love how excited she is to learn new tricks. Recent tricks include: clapping hands, waving, scooting herself on her bottom on the slick kitchen floor, saying "momma", "dadda", "babba", pretend singing, putting her binky in her mouth turned the right way all by herself.
7. I love how I can wrap her up (still swaddling), lay her down and she'll go to sleep all by herself! I remember rocking and rocking Ava to sleep every day. Sometimes Elise needs more singing or for me to lie next to her, but for the most part she's out. She also sleeps more than Ava did - love that.
8. I love how good and happy she is at stores and other places usually, as long as she can watch and see what is going on.
9. I love that I can sit her down for a few minutes with a few toys, which she's enjoying banging together - cause & effect, and she's happy for long enough for me to get something done.
10. I'm loving that she's learning to feed herself - holding her bottle, stuffing cheerios and puffs into her mouth, trying to drink from a cup...
11. I love how chubby and full she feels. It's so fun to cuddle a baby that feels so healthy and robust.
12. I love how much she likes to watch our doggies. She'll reach out & pet them or laugh or smile when she sees one of them.
13. I love how her feet kick really fast when she's excited.
14. I love how even when her nose is running and you know she's sick, she's still fairly happy and in good spirits.
15. I LOVE that I get to be her mommy.

Recent Snapshots

Chris got Ava this cool cutting set from Melissa & Doug. Ava loves cutting so much we had to take it away so she'd go to sleep.

Here's Ava doing laps around the Jayhawk.

Mommy & Ava during our OKC visit.

Bunch of Pumpkins

Happiest Bear on the Block!

Twins?

I.CRY.EVERY.TIME.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index

Halloween Festivities

PLAYGROUP HALLOWEEN PARTY:
October was such a busy month! It was fun to enjoy some Halloween festivities. The first was our Playgroup's Halloween Party. As you can see above, Ava was not going to pose for a picture and Elise didn't have much choice.
The party was fun. They did a craft, coloring page, got to play with special orange dough and decorated cookies. I think Ava decorated about five cookies and ate probably 2 1/2. I brought our new parachute (got it at Costco for $14.99!) for the kids to play with.

CHURCH TRUNK-OR-TREAT:
On Tuesday, we went to the annual Trunk-or-Treat at church. I think the crowd was a bit lighter than previous years when it was held on Halloween night, but all the same, the kids had a good time.

So, our official costumes this year....we decided, actually it was Chris' idea, to go as Goldilocks & the Three Bears! We were thinking of having Ava go as a princess like Cinderella for a while. We knew Elise would be going as a bear since we had the costume when Ava was a baby.

I made Ava's costume (with LOTS of help from my friend Rebecca -thank you). It turned out really cute. I think I may be sewing more dresses in the future. On a side note, I bought some after Halloween sale costumes for dress-up and the quality is so poor compared to a handmade costume. I may have started a tradition of making costumes. Tune in next year to see if that sticks. I also made the ears, bow tie and bows so that we all coordinated. The saddest thing was when at least 4 different people at first thought we were mice. ;)

We had to hurry and teach Ava the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I actually found a cute British cartoon of the simplified story here: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-stories-goldilocks.htm We watched it several times and then checked out books from the library. Now she definitely knows who was sleeping in Baby Bear's bed.

Elise is so photogenic! She loves to smile for the camera.
Here's Ava with her little friend Payton the Giraffe. So cute!
Here are 4 of the 5 cousins: William the Ninja, Ava as Goldilocks, Elise the Bear, and Kate the Ladybug. Ava's other cousin, Ryan, went as Steve from Blue's Clues. We met up with him on Halloween night.

HALLOWEEN EVENING:
Since the Trunk-or-Treat was the night before Halloween, this left us time on Halloween to try something new...Trick-or-Treating Downtown. We had never been so didn't know what to expect. It got really busy towards the end and I don't know how many suckers and tootsie rolls she got - tons. It makes sense that they'd be giving out cheapy candy because of all of the trick-or-treaters. Sadly, most of this candy will end up going to charity (like Chris' workplace) or into the circular file.

Here's our little family. Ava really got the hang of trick-or-treating this year. She learned quickly to say, "Trick or Treat", and also usually remembered to say "Thank You!"
I like this picture, taken by my sis, Heidi, of Ava and Elise. We like to "beep" noses at our house. Ava must have thought Elise needed her nose "beeped".

After trick-or-treating downtown, we met up with family at my parents' house. Then, Ava and her cousin Ryan, went trick-or-treating for real, up and down my parents' street. They were so funny! First of all, Ava was trotting along in William's shoes (at least 2 sizes too big) because her other shoes hurt her feet. That didn't stop her. She and Ryan loved knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell. The only thing was that Ava would knock, knock, knock, knock, until someone answered the door...the same thing with holding the doorbell button down. She also wanted to grab the candy out of the bowl. After several houses, Halloween etiquette learned.

Overall, a fun week of Halloween.

It's Bunko Time!

Friday night, we had our now annual Halloween Bunko Party! First, I must mention the instigator of all of this bunko madness. Without Camie starting the Bunko tradition while she lived here just a few short years ago, none of this ever could've happened...so, a shout out to Camie!

This is the 2nd year I've hosted Bunko at my house. Thanks to Gaia for hosting with me this year. We had a great turnout, 20 people - that's FIVE tables of 4.

I had each person draw to see what costume they would wear, and had the costumes ready for them. The costumes this year included: Girls: cheerleader, cat, angel,

flapper, bunny, devil, punk girl, movie star, princess, and a Southern Belle. For the Guys: coach, pirate, cowboy, cop, rat, geek, clown, Jason, wizard and an ambiguous super hero.

I wish I would've taken a picture of the food. It was really yummy. I made my cheeseball with crackers, we had veggies and dip (thanks, Livia!), chex mix and punch (thanks, Gaia) and a chocolate fountain. Yumm. Dipping items inlcluded: pretzels, marshmallow, strawberries, bananas and peanut butter balls that I made. Those were my favorite! After everyone left, I dipped the rest of them in chocolate and put them in my fridge. Better than Reeces if you ask me. I then shared them with my visiting teachees.

If you want to see more pics, you can visit Livia's or Sammy's blogs. I'm not pictured in the group photo I posted but am in Livia and Sammy's. I couldn't leave out our Bishop's wife.

By the way, our bishop had the highest score. He also told me that he reads some of our blogs. So way to go, Bishop! (now you have to leave a comment!)
Thanks to everyone for making it a great party!

Art Class & Pumpkins

We enrolled Ava in an Art Class for 2-3 year olds through our Parks and Rec dept. Tonight was the 2nd time for the class. Ava LOVES getting messy and being creative. It's so fun to see your child go for it in a new environment. I think every house needs a messy room like this art room - somewhere you can just be creative and not worry about paint on clothes and furniture, etc. (On a side note - one mom got splattered with paint AND then her kid put a big dark purple handprint on her white shirt. The teacher said it was supposed to be washable but I don't know. I guess we'll find out next class.)
We came home and did our pumkin decorating. We found this light/peg set, similar to a lite bright idea, and thought it would be good for Ava since no cutting was involved. She did get to use a mallet. You'll notice the cheapy one in picture 1 and then the heavy duty one in picture two.
I didn't get a great pic of the pumpkin lit since the light it came with is a flashing one. You get the idea though.

GROWTH SPURT

Elise woke up this morning looking like this...we're not sure what happened.

MEGA BLOG

I'm finally updating my blog...since I'm so behind, this will be a MEGA BLOG! Since I like to use it as somewhat of a journal, I want to highlight certain events of the last several weeks.

1. OKLAHOMA TRIP, Labor Day Weekend
We took a trip to Oklahoma City to visit my grandmother. We really enjoy our visits and always leave feeling uplifted. I love spending time just talking to my Grandma. She is so positive and so spiritual. Love her! We also got to spend time with my Aunt Ann, her husband, Doug and my cousin, Karen and her family. We had a great time playing Grunt, a card came, aka President or Scum, etc. Above you'll see Ava doing a puppet show at the Omniplex in OKC.



2. ELISE TURNS 6 MONTHS OLD!, Sept. 27th
My little baby is growing up! I know I've said it before, but she is SOOO sweet. She loves being social and watching everything around her. She's now sitting up very well and saying, "Da-da-da-da-da-da." She's in the 91st percentile for weight and the 96th for height...following in her sister's footsteps. She has the most adorable, dimple-filled, smile. We love you Lise!
3. MOMMY'S PRESCHOOL
This fall a group of girls from church and I started a Mommy's preschool for our little girls once a week. We take turns hosting and teaching, which has been fun. Ava and Payton are our 2 year olds and Claire and Erin are 3. They are already learning so much!

4. DONUT GIRL

One special morning, Daddy took Ava to Dunkin Donuts to pick out some yummy breakfast treats. Ava had a blast peering over the counter and pointing to her tasty selections. She was so excited to dig in when she got home. The nerve of Mommy making her smile for a picture first.

5. GIRL'S NIGHT, October 2nd

My sister, Heidi, was getting married on Oct.5th in Nauvoo. We had a "Girl's Night" Party for her a few days before her wedding. It was a blast! We did a Name that Chick Flick game, a 20 Questions game where we asked the groom 20 q's and saw how many Heidi got right - except I video-taped Luke's responses without her knowing. It was fun to see his reactions on tape. We did a few more activities including Karaoke, Heidi's favorite. We had to take a pic of our mom and all of the sisters and sisters-in-laws while we were all together.
These girls were singing away! We'll have to do it again sometime.

6. NAUVOO WEDDING, October 5th

Heidi and Luke were married at noon in Nauvoo. Chris, myself and the girls, and some other family members, were able to travel to Nauvoo to be a part of the festivities there. Activities included: staying up late to make Heidi's temple bouquet -silk this time, a big family breakfast, (Kelly set off the smoke alarm with her bacon cooking - luckily not for long), swimming, touring a little bit of Old Nauvoo, and eating at Alpha's on the River after the sealing. Congrats Heidi & Luke!


Heidi & Luke in front of the temple.
We got back from the temple, mind you it was HOT that day, and the kids were cranky. We were all ready to change and get ready for our late lunch/early dinner. Of course the maid service was cleaning our room right then. We waited out in the stairwell until they finished. Elise didn't seem to mind.
Do you know the difference between a cow and an ox? Do you know why early pioneers often opted for oxen over horses to lead their wagons? Well, I didn't before - but I do now.

7.PUMPKIN PATCH, Oct. 15th

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this year. I love seeing my girls getting measured. Each year adds more inches and even a new little pumkin this time - Elise! Ava really got into the patch this year. On the hayride she said, "This is fun!" She picked out a baby pumpkin for Elise, a big girl pumpkin for Ava and a Mommy pumkin and a Daddy pumpkin.
Heidi put Elise in her jacket to help her keep warm. It was a very cold and windy 60 degrees.
I Spy with my little eye...what do you notice about this picture? Look carefully. (You may need to click on it to make it bigger.)
Our little family.
Still more updating to come - but this is a start!