Baby Blue

Such a busy day today.  Good thing Lula was easy to spot :-)
We have also decided that we will be coating the garage floor so now the hard part, deciding which color and design to choose.  There are so many great options and no matter what it will look awesome!  I am personally leaning towards the brown one.  I feel like we should do something that stands out more.  The gray reminds me too much of concrete.

I love looking at the girls schoolwork.  I love seeing a little piece of their day.  I love watching their handwriting and seeing how they interpret the instructions.
Here is a worksheet from Hailey, I love her writing and all of her little drawings.

Tonight we rushed to grandma's house to take part in the gender reveal party for Kristin and Bobby.
They had cupcakes made with a colored center.
They each took a cupcake and stood up in the living room in front of everyone. We face-timed Kari and her family and then at the same time they took a bite. 
BLUE!  It's a boy!
Hannah and Hailey were both a little disappointed, they wanted the girls to outnumber the boys.  They got over real soon when they were reminded that in a few short months there was going to be a baby!!  Congrats guys!

Tree x 2

Tonight we went and got our tree. 

We put the small tiny one in the loft for the kids and she fits perfectly!

This morning when we woke up it was pretty obvious that we would find Lula near the new tree.  Although we weren't expecting to find that she had wrapped the girls backpacks- lol

 

Rudolph the Red Nose ReinBEER

Lula with Rudolph the Red Nose RootBeer.

The girls were real happy about this one.  Looks like there will be some root beer floats in our future.

TP Tower

This morning we woke to a TP Tower in the girls bathroom.  Not sure where she got all of those rolls from....We never seem to have that much extra laying around.

Tiniest Tree Ever

I love this time of year.  The girls are so excited to wake up to find Lula and typically once they find her they are shrieking with excitement or full of giggles.

This morning was a shrieking morning. They were real worried that I wouldn't see her and would accidently turn the Ninja on.  Good thing they reminded me ;-)

Decided to put the tree up tonight.  That didn't go so well.

What a joke.  I really was going to try to use this tree and not buy one this year.  As much as I love real trees they are sort of a pain and the idea of spending that money each year to then just throw it away always seems wasteful.  I really am not ready to purchase a new fake one yet though so it looks like we just might be smelling pine again this year!  Now....where can I put this guy?!

Elf with the Elf

She's BACK!  The girls always look forward to this time of year.  They can not wait until Lula's return.
This morning she brought them a new Elf movie, seems appropriate :-)

Flashback

Kay and I went Black Friday shopping this year.  We left Thursday night around midnight, met Stacey out and spent the evening roaming around.
I really wanted to purchase a new camera so Best Buy was our first stop and after that we didn't have much of a plan.


When we walked through Michael's I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw these charms!
What a FLASHBACK!  Instantly I was brought back to the 80's - walking up to Tom Thumb to purchase more charms from the quarter machine.  The ones with the moving parts were by far the coolest!

Hannah has been using the expression 'way back in the 90's' lately.  Cracks us up!  Although to be fair it was almost 20 years ago, but still......does that qualify for 'way back in the' status?  I think not.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  There is always so much to be thankful for.

This year I am so thankful for our health.

We have had too many friends be affected by health issues this year and it makes you stop to realize just how lucky we are. 

Chopsticks

Tonight the girls and I went to LeeAnn Chin.

I was pretty surprised when both of them grabbed chopsticks and started eating.

I know I have never taught them these skills.

When I looked closer I saw that they had taken a straw, folded it in half and then put the end of each chopstick in each end of the straw.  Then like magic you have a perfect chopstick trainer.

(I later learned that one of the staff at A+ taught them this fancy trick!)

Kindness Begins With Me

Every year the school has a theme for the kids and each kid is asked to create a poster with the theme.
This years theme is Kindness Begins With Me.
They work on the posters in art and are expected to do them at school.


This was Hannah's this year.  I am just in love with the way they draw and color when they are little.

 

Mrs Turkey

Hailey came home with a turkey outline.  The assignment:  give the turkey a disguise to hide it from the farmer so it doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving.  We looked around for ideas, brainstormed at breakfast a few days and settled on dressing her up like a princess. 

Truth or Dare

The kids found a Truth or Dare app and have been very interested in it.  Hannah got it out at the cabin a few times this summer and today decided the kids in the neighborhood should play it.
I opened the window to hear them say "Your dare (giggle, giggle, giggle) is to kiss........a rock!"
(good thing I have played this game and know that it is very innocent. But....maybe I will watch them for a while anyways ;-)

Demo Day 1

Brian has never been happy with our garage floor.  There were issues with the structure and after many, many, many emails and conversations, he finally won!  Dale agreed to replace the floor.

It was our chance to also add a drain and possibly think about an epoxy floor- I mean, we might as well since this may be the only time that everything is out of the garage.  Not to mention, Brian spends a lot of time in the garage.  It would definitely be worth it!

This? or This? or This?

As it gets closer and closer to the wedding there is more and more to do.  I offered to make Kim's invites and programs as I had for Kristin and Jennie.

She didn't really have anything in mind and was pretty happy with every idea I had shown her.

I spent the last month sending her ideas from the internet or inspiration that I would find.

Eventually I found one that I loved so decided to mock it up for her and once she saw it it was an easy decision.  Her and Joe both approved.

We printed them out on multiple colors of paper just to make sure they were perfect.  We ended up deciding on the pure white.   I think it was the best choice!

Now the printing, cutting, addressing, licking and mailing begins!

These Boots Were Made For Walking

A LOT of walking.

Hannah got these boots from Kim and wore them so much that I actually went and bought another pair.  They were wore out but Hailey love them too so she made sure they were passed down to her.

The time has come where they no longer fit anyone and it's time to say goodbye.  I have to admit, it makes me a little sad.  I know they are just shoes and I have a million pictures of our girls wearing them but I needed to take one more, just to showcase just how much these boots were loved.

Janet. Ms Jackson if You're Nasty

Our seats were awful. Way at the top and on the side of the stage.  I guess that's what you get when you want to go last minute and don't want to spend a ton of money.  I am so glad we decided to go.  She put on a great show and it was so fun singing and dancing along to her greatest hits.

HallOCWeen

Dave and Noah did a great job decorating the Halloween trailer this year. Each year more and more kids get old enough to ride in the back, still a few young ones so a few parents rode with.

The kids made it through our neighborhood, down Oregon and through the Lennar development behind us.

Hannah was a police lady and Hailey was a 50's girl

2015 Pumpkins

 

Tonight was pumpkin carving night!  The girls each get to pick their own design for their pumpkin. This year they were surprisingly helpful scooping the 'guts' out.
Hannah's pumpkin was the LOVE, Hailey's the owl and mine was the OCW.

OCW Party Bus Vol 2

Another fun night in the books. As usual the party started at the Goman's and ended at Taco Bell.

This year we visited the bars in North East.  Throughout the night we were losing groups left and right.  We kept Uber pretty busy that night!

It made it hard to keep track of everyone because most of the time nobody announced that they were leaving, they just took off so we spent a fair amount of time calling and texting people to assure we weren't leaving anyone behind.

Planning for next year has already started!

We've REALLY BEEN Boo'd

Whoa.  Just Whoa.
Tonight when we got home we found these treasures on our front step alerting us to the fact that we had been Boo'd.  There was SO much stuff in this bag and basket.  SO MUCH!
Full size candy bars, boxes of mac n cheese, decorations for the house, tattoo kit, tons of candy and other treats, gloves, headbands.  These girls were so spoiled!
We have no idea who did this.  I sent a text message to all of the ladies and none of them would fess up.  Whoever it was sure knew how to make these girls feel special.  They were so thrilled with their loot and kept making comments about how lucky they are and how nice our neighbors are.
I have to admit, this left me a little speechless.  I love this place.

Love for Leah

Last night we were at Carl and Leah's.  The girls and Leah were coloring. This morning when I woke Hailey up I saw that she was sleeping with the picture that Leah colored for her.  So sweet!

Not bad considering...

I brought some clothes for the girls so that we could take some fall pictures.  Hannah usually responds really well to these types of requests.  Hailey, not so much.  Don't get me wrong, this girl will pose and smile like a rockstar when she's the one in control.  If I am the one asking, she usually isn't very interested and in some cases will actually put up such a stink that I end up giving up.
Today was no different.  After we argued about what she was going to wear we made our way outside to argue more about where she was willing to stand and how she was willing to pose.

We got started and with the goal to get ONE good picture.  I just needed one.
I started snapping away and within 10 minutes or so, with oooohs and aaaaahs coming from her auntie-peanut-gallery, she finally warmed up.  Soon she was directing me.
"Mom, take one like this.  Take a picture of us here.  Hannah you sit like this and I will do this and mom, you stand over there."

I think that worked out in my favor because these pictures were exactly what I needed!

           

We also were able to spread the GREAT news today that there will be a baby joining our extended family.  Kristin and Bobby are expecting!!  Due March 2016

That's a Wrap

Another season in the books.
Another great summer with great food, weather and company.
Next year, by the time we are back we will have another brother in law/uncle and a new baby!

Today we were up early to dig in and make some progress on the fall clean up that is desperately needed.  Hundreds of mattresses, old furniture, cardboard to burn and loads of other things will keep us busy all weekend.

Yes, she is mine

This gives me heartburn. 

We clean this room all the time and it never stays that way.  I am sure it's a symptom of a little girl who has WAY too much stuff and I have probably never done a great job at holding her accountable to keeping it clean.   

I also know it's payback.  I know that I am getting what I deserve.

I was the messiest kid ever well probably not the messiest ever but it was bad.
I vividly remember having a room so messy that you couldn't even see the floor- not one inch of it.
I think it's harder for me now as an adult of a messy kid.  On one hand I can tell that it probably won't be this way forever.  This won't mean that she will grow up to be a messy adult.  Sometimes I use that as my excuse to leave it how it is.  I am sure that it bothers me more than it bothers her and I try to let it be most of the time.  The only thing that sucks about that is that when I do want it clean for a sleepover or other reason, there is that much more to do.
I know she can clean it, she has before so at least we got that going for us.

Junie B

Kim is the master when it comes to Birthday Presents Events!

Last year each girl was gifted with a special day.  Kim would come to pick them up, take them to lunch then out for an activity.  This year she purchased tickets to the Junie B Jones play for both of them and we made a day out of it.

At the end of the play, which the girls LOVED, we got to meet the actors.