Saturday, December 11, 2010

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we propped open the door to our apartment and Lan's apartment, across the hall, and had a bunch of families come over.( you can see in this first pic. we are at the Downings, and our apartment is across the hallway) We had 8 adults, and 15 kids. I was worried it was going to be crazy, But it was really great.

SERIOUSLY! Could he be any cuter? I love him! Everywhere we go people just get attached to him. He just has a charisma that sucks people in. It doesn't help that he will lay on almost everybody's shoulders and give hugs when they hold him. He is just such a lover.

Lan and Justice. She is pretty sweet herself! She recently tried to give Josh some sloberry baby kisses and Josh not-so-nicely refused. It broke her little heart.


Jodi and Titus. Shannon and Hannah


Their Hubbies Eric and Beau


Emmanual, Jillian, Elizabeth, and JP

The kids played outside most of the time, which I think helped keep down the craziness. It was a gorgeous day! Notice all these crazy girls are bare foot!


Cute outfit Trinity!


Of course, we were planning for our big Black Friday adventure.

We left at 11:00 pm and hit walmart first. Then we took a pit stop at IHOP!



We stood in line at target for an hour. Luckily it wasn't too cold. We were all a little giddy and a little delirious by the end of the night.

We had a great holiday with good friends and good food! It is so great to have so much in life to be grateful for.

Ice skating on the Law wives!

Law wives had a couples night and they paid for dinner, ice skating, and childcare. What more could we ask for?


We started off the night at the university eating pizza!

Elizabeth and Eva, and Victoria and Emmalynne


The Buttars and the Downings


Then we hit the ice skating rink. I was pretty sure exactly how Josh would act. He didn't disappoint. He made sure we were all laughing.


We were very confident off the ice!


And like I said, he didn't disappoint. Always posing!



Poor guy just couldn't be normal! He definitely made my night!

Ballet

We had visitors day in ballet. Hope's class was first. She did ok in the beginning but halfway through she decided that she didn't want to dance anymore and was hanging on my leg. I made her go back out and dance. She did so great. She is very natural.


The next week she refused to go to ballet. I was tired of fighting her every Saturday morning so I told her she didn't have to go. She still hasn't wanted to go back. We haven't decided if we should make her. She has become more and more introverted. She just wants to stay home everyday.
Brielle was next and she loves every second of it. She loved having me there so she could show off.

She loves the time to freestyle!

She is a very good listener and does exactly what her teacher tells her to do.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Kiddo Updates!



BRIELLE:

* I went to her parent teacher conference recently and her teacher said she was doing great in reading. She said she passed level 3 (which is where they want them to be at the end of Kindergarten). I had no idea that she could even read. Yup, number one mom right here! Now that I know she can do it, we are pushing her a little more at home and she is cruising through books.

* She is a great friend at school. We have tried really hard to stress the importance of people and treating EVERYBODY nicely. I think she is getting it because her teacher says she is really nice to everyone.



* We were walking out of walmart and passed the salvation army bell ringer. "Mom" she said "why is everybody giving them money but we aren't?" I explained to her that it was donations to help the needy and that I didn't have any cash. She then asked if we could turn around and she could give them her dollar. I couldn't have been more proud. Hope followed her example and gave her dollar too.

* When my Aunt was visiting she said to her "How old are you?" My aunt relied..."62" Brielle quickly said "WHOA...you should be dead!"

* She is loving school, ballet, and church. She loves Heavenly Father and loves to pray for her friends, family and teacher at night.



* I have to force dinner down her almost every night. For lunch and breakfast she gets to eat what she wants, but for dinner we try new things. She doesn't like this.

* She loves to have FAMILY dinner ALL together. I often say that Heavenly Father gave us her first so she could help me get my act together on dinner, family night, and family prayer. She loves to do things together as a family.

* She did great in her primary program getting up and reciting her part perfectly her part was:
"He showed his love for me by helping me be able to repent."

*Brielle recently taught herself how to tie her shoes!



HOPE:

* Hope is doing very well in speech and loves to go. Her teachers name is Mr. Sharp but she calls him Mr. Shark.

* She has recently decided she hates her bed and will only sleep on the floor or with Brielle.


* She is really good at making BIG messes. But not really good at cleaning them up.

* She loves to eat chicky yuggies (chicken nuggets)

* Every night in her prayers she thanks God that mommy and daddy got married. So sweet!

* When she is on she is on and great. But when she is off, WATCH OUT! She has had some rage lately. We are trying to work on that.
* Hope loves the color PURPLE! She loves to color everything purple. It is so strange because I used to hate the color pink and purple. When Brie started loving pink it grew on me and now I love it. Now Hope loves purple and it too is growing on me.

* She is 4 years old and I am still potty training her. I am at a loss. I have pretty much tried everything, but she still has accidents all the time. Poor girl!

* She has to be forced to go pretty much everywhere but then enjoys it once there. This includes: Speech, ballet, primary.

* Hope still loves to play all by herself.

* Hope did really well on her primary part too. I was a little worried. Her part was "BEING BAPTIZED" Every time we practiced this she would say her part and then after she would say "but I don't wanna get baptized! I don't wanna get my head wet!" I was just crossing my fingers she didn't add this when she said it in the microphone. Luckily she didn't!

RIGDON:

* HE IS EVERYWHERE! and into EVERYTHING! He can crawl so fast now, and pulls himself up on everything.

* He has 5 teeth and is working on more. He is 10 months old (yikes)!


* He is very social and will smile and go to EVERYBODY. This little guy will melt anyone's heart.

* He still takes two naps. The second one is usually longer than the first. He generally sleeps from 7-7:30 until 8:00 am every night(about 12-13 hours). He has always been a great sleeper.

* He is wearing 12-18 month clothes, and size 3 diapers. He has( 3) 8 ounce bottles a day, and eats about 3 jars of baby food a day. For dinner he pretty much eats what we are eating now.

* He will only snuggle right after he wakes up for about 5 minutes. Other than that he is on the go the whole time he is awake. I have officially trained the girls to put the toilet seat down to keep him out!

* I always thought I would have a mommies boy, but I have sadly realized that this boy LOVES his daddy! He will leap out of my arms to get to him. It's a good thing I love his daddy too.

* Somebody recently asked me if his big sisters were making him tough! I thought that was a PERFECT way to describe it! YES! They are making him tough. They cart him around, and accidentally drop him occasionally. They roll around with him and he just lets them. He never complains. He loves his big sisters!


I love my three beautiful children and I am so thankful God sent them to me to raise. It is hard to imagine what life would be like without them.

Vistiors Welcome!

We were so excited when Grandma....
AND aunt Brenda came to visit! They loved loving on this little man! Who wouldn't?


We had so much fun watching movies every night, eating, shopping and staying up WAY too late. These Grandmas wear me out! They are night owls.


We went to the Cape Henry lighthouse.


It was cold but we saw some dolphins!



Then we drove across the Chesapeak bay bridge. My Aunt was terrified. I probably wouldn't have suggested this had I known that she was afraid of bridges, let alone a 12 mile long bridge/tunnel! But we survived and I think she enjoyed it. Then we ate at the little cafe over looking the ocean. It was a lot of fun.


Then we went to Williamsburg to the Yankee candle store. It was all decked for Christmas.


The kiddos all mesmerized by a little animated puppet show.
We had a blast and ran, ran, ran.
WE love you Grandma, and Aunt Brenda!

Our Halloween (super late!)

We started off our celebration by helping out in Brielles class. They got to put on a little parade for the school and then came back to a party.

They decorated cupcakes, colored pictures, did a craft and played some games. It was fun to be part of.

Then the next day (sat.) We got to dress up for ballet, then we came back to the village fall festival. It was fun. The kids loved it and they got to get their faces painted, which made for easy costume make-up.

My little fairies. We went trick or treating to some friends houses around the village. They are so cute. I love these girls and their fun, unique personalities.

The crazy trio!


My handsome little man.


All the pretty fairies, loading up on candy.
(I don't know if you can see it but my girls hair is pink! That was Brielle's one request. Pink hair for a pink fairy!)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

My pumpkin patch!


Girls WEEKEND Va style!

A group of law wives headed off to Williamsburg for the weekend. We shopped, ate lots of yummy food, and went to Busch Gardens. We left our 10 kids behind with our amazingly busy husbands who sacrificed their weekend to give us a break. I love you Josh!

Lan and I were bed buddies, and our beds were HUGE!!! (it was a double!) Surprisingly enough I think we only touched once all night long!
At Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens turned into one big haunted house after six. If you know me well you know that this is not a good thing. I HATE haunted houses. Everybody thought that the rat area was built especially for me. Walking out of the park we were clinging to each other and screaming. Yeah, you get the picture.
GROSS! Lan had to get a turkey leg.

Great weekend. Great girls. Great shopping deals. Great husbands!