Merry Christmas!

This has a been an unusual Christmas season for me. I got in the spirit super early and have never had that rush rush rush feel. I'm not sure why, as the girls and/or I were sick almost all of December so we didn't get a lot of the traditional stuff done. I think God must have given me an extra measure of peace because I was able to let it all roll off of me. We didn't get our family picture done this season and normally I would stress over that because I really like it done, but I figure we won't change that much if we have it done after the new year! So, don't expect that holiday letter from us, it won't be coming but maybe be looking for a new year's letter!

Since Friday, I have been doing a little Christmas catch up. Trying to squeeze in some holiday fun. Mike took off most of Tuesday and all of Wednesday. It was so nice to have him home, I love it. We had a lot of fun family time at home or just going around looking at lights.

I'll gave a brief explanation of each picture and try not to make it too long, that way you won't give up on this posting!

Emily at her Kindergarten Christmas party on Friday

Emily with her teacher, Ms. Maeder!

My dad and mom were kind enough to take the younger two so I could go to Em's school and watch them have their party. I was just getting over being sick so I didn't get to help plan or do anything but it was so much fun watching her at school. She is so good, and so respectful. I love watching what an amazing little girls she's turned into.

My mom wanted to do a Christmas program this year, (which was wonderful) and she wanted to include the kiddos. So she put together the music and scripture reading and my kind awesomly talented Aunt Leslie made all of the costumes herself and donated them to the church for further use. They all looked super cute.

And if I may brag for a second, Emily did the scripture reading and she memorized it and it was flawless on Sunday. She was so serious and did an amazing job. Mike used our camera to record it but accidently deleted it. We were disapppointed. So, since I was going to download it for you and can't, here's what she recited...

Matt. 2:1-2
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

The two most adorable angels you have ever seen !

Christmas Eve we finally made it to see Santa. It was about a 25-30 min wait. The whole time Ally is so excited. Then when we're about 2 families from the front, she starts to shake, then when we're next, she starts to cling to me and cry that she doesn't want to see him. Rylee is fine at this point, she's too young and there's a little puppy in line behind us that is licking her hand and she just thinks that's the funniest thing. Anyway, we start to move towards this super sweet santa and when we get in front of him, Ally lights up and wants to sit on his lap. After telling him what they want, he instructs me who to put where on his lap for a picture. As you can see in the picture, Emily is serene, Ally is holding it together (barely) and Rylee wants nothing to do with him. The only time she wasn't sobbing was when I would ask if she wanted a candy, she would wail "Yeah", look up at Santa like, "Are you giving me the candy? If so , hurry up already" and then start wailing again. I thought the picture turned out cute though.

Decorating Christmas cookies on Christmas eve. Em helped make the dough then wanted to watch a Christmas movie. Ally moved in and was really into cutting out the cookies with cookie cutters. Ally is much more my project girl.

Oh my gosh, look at the pile of sprinkles on that cookie! Only a 6 year old could enjoy that! She was quite proud though!

The girls before Christmas Eve service. I love Ally in this one!

Wait, are you kidding? We actually got a cute picture with all 3 looking nice and in the same direction at the same time?!! It must be a Christmas miracle!

Happy 6th Birthday Emily!

I took a trip down memory lane yesterday and found the pictures from Em's 1st birthday party. In some ways it seems so long ago and yet it feels like just the other day. I still remember her ripping into that cake that first year, it was such a special and fun night. One of Mike's co-workers back then gave her a leopared stuffed animal purse that she fondly calls "yellow kitty" and still sleeps with every night.

Now, she's a big six year old. Full of life, loves to learn, and has a lot of passion.

I also wanted to show pictures of Em's 2-5th birthday but can't seem to find year 2-4 pictures (so nana, send a few over if you can find them). The thing I love in all of those pictures is there is always one person at her side, opening gifts, singing happy birthday ect...Tessa. And it's so fun to see how much they've changed over the years. Tessa is definitly a loved and valued friend!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell her happy birthday and to share with you how much she's grown over the years. I'll post about her actual party another day.

P.S. I've been getting so many comments lately about how much Rylee looks like Ally, but I totally see a little Rylee in Em's one year birthday picture!

Just Wanted To Say Thank You...

Mike, I just wanted to say thank you for teaching our 16 mo. old how to climb the ladder to the top bunk, something she never even considered before you taught her. And double thank you for not teaching her to go down! It's her absolute favorite thing to do and if the ladder is down, she's on it. Luckily, she hasn't yet tried to come down without me.

Oh, and Mike, I know what you're doing next weekend...teaching Rylee how to safely come down. Love you!

Early this week I took the girls out front to ride their bikes as it was beautiful weather. Rylee came out with us and as usual was into everything, including other peoples garages. So I sent up Em to get the bag of Leggo blocks that are in the back of the closet because the girls never play with them. I figured since I never have them out maybe they would distract Rylee.

They didn't distract Rylee but they did distract Ally. She played with them for an hour and a half strait and has basically been playing with them a good portion of every day. It is the ultimate babysitter for me. Now I just have one child following me around. Ally builds towers up as high as she can until they fall, (or Rylee knocks it down), and then builds them back up all over again. She's getting much better at connecting them too. At first it didn't take to long to topple over but now she gets them almost as tall as her. And by the way, she's usually wearing a princess dress while she's building...gotta keep it girly ya know!

4th File 4th photo

This is the morning of Ally's second birthday.

For You Biggest Loser Fans Out There

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/the-biggest-villain-on-biggest-loser--48

This story was on Yahoo about icky vicky being a villain on the biggest loser. It was great!

I have to wonder how here friends at home will view her now and if she'll ever be ashamed of her actions?

Oh Christmas Tree

A week or so ago, (OK 2 weeks ago), we decorated for Christmas. So I thought I would finally post some pictures of the girls decorating. Ally got the honor of putting the star on, much to Em's dismay. We told her she's done it all the years before and it was sissy's turn...that rational didn't help. And to be honest, we should have let her do it because Ally seemed more nervous about Mike dropping her in the tree than the joy of getting to put the star on. Emily insisted on wearing some sort of dress to decorate. She originally came down with her fancy dress from last year, but I made her change.

Ally had so much fun "trying" to put the ornaments on. She would go over, grab one, run to the tree and say "I can't dood (do) it!" and would hand it off to us, run back grab another one and start all over. Rylee was working just as hard to take off the already on ornaments and break them. She still has a thing for the ornaments. Although now she's figured out to run when she hears me coming.

Mike always sings "Oh Christmas Tree" when we decorate and it happens to be on their Barbie Christmas Carol CD. You know you have all girls when Christmas is sung by Barbie. So I thought I would combine the girls version of the first two lines of the song...how they think it goes. And also "We Wish You A Merry Christmas Ally style.

"Oh Chwistmas twee, oh Chwistmas twee how lovely are my brushes. Oh Chwistmas twee, oh Chwistmas twee, how lovely are my brushes."

"We wish you a merry chwistmas we wish you a merry chwistmas we wish you a merry chwistmas and a happy new you!"

Family Pictures

Since my mom hasn't posted them yet, I thought I would show you the pictures we took of the grandkids and grandparents. Oh yeah, and me too.

My dad has this picture of my mom, myself, Emily and Ally that he loves. We're all wearing white shirts and the girls are wearing dresses. He wanted another one like that but with Rylee in it too. I bought him a frame for fathers day for that picture but we never got around to taking it. So this weekend we added Devon and dad and took some pictures. I wish Mike could have been there too but work doesn't allow time off right now. I thought they turned out cute and you might enjoy them.

Potty Rules: According To Ally

Ally has been fully potty trained for a while now, and here are what I think are her potty rules to follow:

1. You must ALWAYS strip down to nothing before going potty, unless of course you are wearing a nightgown or a dress that you don't know how to pull out of the way...then it's ok to leave it on.

2. Never admit to mommy that you are capable of putting one item of that clothing back on. I need her to fully dress me each and every time.

3. It's ok not to sit too far back on the potty, it's fun to watch it fly over the edge onto the ground sometimes. There's no need to report that when it happens, wait for it to be a surprise for the next persons foot!

4. I'm pretty sure the 11th command is NEVER EVER flush the toilet.

5. There is absolutely no need to put the lid down, Rylee likes to play in the water so I'm just providing entertainment. Plus the yellow water is more eye catching!

6. Always tell them you have to go potty after they put you to bed, I'm still newly trained enough that they have to give in and let me get up so as not to ruin the progress made.

Good luck to all the future potty trainers out there! I would love to hear your toddler stories and if you think boys or girls are messier!??!

Where There's A Will, There's A Way

Doesn't she look sweet! And she is but she's also willfull. She knows the word no, it's whether she chooses to obey that is the question.


This is the Rylee during the day...determined to get what she's after and today happened to be Emily's computer. There's always been a chair pushed in to the desk but today she figured out how to scoot the chair out and push herself up on it to play with her favorite thing in the world, (other than the "real" telephone), the computer mouse. I kept taking her down and telling her no. So I decided to fold up the chair and lean it against the desk so it wouldn't be a temptation for her. Left the room only to find her doing this...

And the next thing she attempted was to fully scale the chair to get up on the computer desk to play with it. She is so determined. We decorated for Christmas, and no I'm not kidding-Mike is just as determined as her! Well, Rylee took one look at all those cool ornaments hanging on the tree and is, again, determined to get each and every one. With Emily and Ally they never bothered the tree, but not Rylee. She doesn't care how much trouble she gets into, it is totally worth it to her. Mike and I have a mental tally of how many broken ornaments there will be this season!

On a side note, she had her 15 mo. checkup this past week. She of course looked great. I really don't think they find otherwise unless they had a previous medical problem! She is finally on the growth curve so that's a plus. She weighed in at 20 lbs even, with all her diaper and clothes on that is. I guess now she's old enough to get on the real scale! She was 30.5 inches tall, I think, that parts a little sketchy. It's either that or 31.5. Anyway, she's growing great!

A Few Fun Things...

This is just a little post of some of the fun things the girls have done...more for my memories down the road but the pictures are cute.

The first pictures is of family movie night Sunday. We bought Polar Express in 3D. The glasses didn't work too well so we ended up watching the regular version but that's ok. Ally really liked the movie and has insisted on watching it ever since. I think it was her first time watching it. We plan on picking a new holiday movie each Sunday until Christmas because there are so many good ones out there.

The second picture is just a funny one of Rylee after finishing a half a graham cracker with chocolate frosting. The girls wanted a treat so each of them got to have one. I think by the looks of her, Rylee liked hers!

I'm trying to catch her with Rylee's "pucker up" face she always makes. Ally can get her to do it the most often. But you know how the camera's have a little delay before they take? Well, she's done doing it by the time it snaps, that and she's already figured out, at the old age of 15 mo., that you can see the picture on the digital camera so I can barely take a picture without her coming around to see the picture.

Date Day

Mike and I had our normal date day except for one thing...we didn't spend it excercising all day. We decided to mix it up and go to the movies. But don't worry all you fellow competitors out there, we didn't go for the popcorn!

We saw The Changeling. I personally think it was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It was over two hours long and it kept my attention the entire time.

It was an intruiging, yet very sad, true story of a woman who's son went missing in 1928 that eventually opened up to a police scandal, a cover-up, and a cereal murderer. I was very captivated and it left me not only wanting to see more but to learn more. I came home and read a little more about what happened.

Don't get me wrong, it was not a feel good movie but I think knowing it really happened made it intruiging. I think it was written and directed very well. I could definilty feel the emotion in every aspect of each actors character.

I definitly recommend this movie.

My Three Bee's

In case you can't tell...in order it's Emily, Ally, and Rylee!

The Princesses and the Bee

I'm a little late on the Halloween post but I thought better late than never.

We had a nice, yet wet, Halloween. Thursday, Emily got to wear her costume to school and have a costume parade and a little party. It happened to be rainy and cold that day and Em's costume wasn't the warmest. But, I figured she wouldn't die and she didn't want to wear a shirt underneath so off she went...and she was fine. She also looked very cute as her favorite princess, Ariel.

Allyson got to be her favorite princess also, (and the best part was that we already had the dress!), Cinderella. She was so excited to be wearing her dress and the black chocker just like Cinderella.

And Rylee was our third little bumblebee. Emily wore the costume at 10 mo. old, Ally at 9 mo. and now Rylee at almost 15 gets to wear it. It wasn't her first Halloween but it still counts. She looked really cute and surprisingly didn't touch the black on her nose. When I did Em's when she wore it, she wiped it right off.

Emily had Friday off of school so we relaxed that day, went to Nana's for a while and came home and at 6:15 there was a small break in the downpour and we went trick or treating. There weren't a lot of people home but we managed to get the motherload of candy somehow. I think the people who were giving out candy were handing out handfulls because there weren't a lot of trick or treaters. Plus, we only had about 3 trick or treaters so we had a huge bowl of good candy left over. So for this weeks "dieting" (yeah right), I had a plate of choc. chip cookies calling to me along with leftover cupcakes from school and all that yummy candy. So terrrible!

Full Circle

I have been wanting to write about this for a long time but it seemed like it was bragging, or showing off. And I totally don't mean it that way. This is truly to share how far we've come with our lovely daughter Emily and for her someday, when she looks back and reads this, how far her dad and I truly feel she's come.

5, almost 6 years ago, when Emily was born, she rocked our world. Our peaceful existence was ripped away and replaced with a baby content to sleep for 30 minutes and awake 2 hours wanting to be walked, talked to and entertained. She was always very curious and BUSY! I thought it would be hard for a little while and eventually she would be that sweet baby that sits quietly in the middle of the room playing and we would smile at how cute she was and admire her sweet disposition. We did love and enjoy her, but oh did she keep us on our toes. Mike and I spent a fortune buying room heaters thinking she was cold, music players to keep her enteretained at night and I can't even remember what all. We laugh now at taking her for drives a 4 a.m. because as long as we would go over 45 miles an hour she would sleep, and praying that she would continue to stay asleep when we got home...she never did by the way.

Then the toddler years hit and I remember feeling exhausted and tired. ADHD was mentioned quietly but I never believed that was truly something my child could have. I knew it was just bad parenting and I could fix it. So we waited and we parented and disciplined constantly. It was so frustrating and I hated having to be on her all of a time. I felt like such an awful parent. It's funny when we talk about those days to various people because they said that she was their all time favorite kid ever. She was truly so funny, full of life and loved everyone. She wasn't shy at all. But we were tired.

Then preschool age came and nothing was getting better, I felt totally beat up and tired, now having 2 other children who needed me. So off to the doctor we went. He immediately noticed what I had been seeing, and I brought my research with me. Reading the ADHD symptoms was like reading Em's story. I could have cried and leaped for joy when he prescribed the smallest dose of medication. Before I was absolutely not going to go down that road, but by now I was willing to do anything. She wasn't bad neccessarily, just so busy and unreachable sometimes. It took some time for her body to adjust to the medication but soon her personality was shining through. Her teachers were amazed at how quickly she was picking up academically. It was so refreshing to pick her up from school where before it was always nerve racking, not sure what her day had been like.

And here she is now, in kindergarten, and doing awesome. Her teacher gave a glowing report on her teacher parent conference day. When I help in her class on Monday's I would easily say she is one of the best behaved kids. She's sweet and so smart and a joy to parent now. The only issues we really have are normal five year old issues. If you had asked me what I thought she would have been like a year ago, I wouldn't have even imagined how wonderful it could be. I used to pray daily that God would help me to help her be the person he created her to be. And he did. He answered my prayer in His perfect timing. I learned so much and realized how judgemental I had been towards my parenting and other peoples parenting. I'm so much more understanding now. And I'm grateful for those lessons.

And I'm so grateful to have Emily. She was fun and full of energy before and she's still the same Emily, we just don't have to be constantly frustrated with her and she doesn't have to be frustrated with herself. She gets to enjoy who she is and in turn she's created closer friendships and is able to participate in so much. I really feel like we've come full circle. It may have taken four and a half years to reach this point but looking back, it really allowed me to grow and I think it really shaped who she is as a person. I can't wait to see how God is going to use her in the future. She has such a loving nature and zest for life.

Anyway, I hope this didn't sound too sappy but I've just really been wanting to share this with everyone.

We're so proud of you Em!

1st Princess Dress

Ally is obssessed with princess dresses, but it wasn't always that way. The first time I put one on her, (the first picture), she freaked out. She did not like that dress on her one bit. But it's a different story these days. If she's awake, she has one on. She would wear it to bed if I let her.

Today I was folding laundry and Rylee brought me a princess dress and did her little noise that means, yeah. So I put it on her. She was super proud looking and wore it and wore it. I remembered that it happened to be the same one that I tried putting on Ally the first time. So I thought it would be cute to compare the two. I'm pretty sure they are roughly the same age.

And by the way, I came in from putting laundry away and that was where Rylee was, sitting on the edge of the train set. She loves to sit there.

How Did That Happen?

How did she go from this...

To This?

When did she become more toddler and less baby? I definitly don't know how it happened, but somehow it did. It's so sad and so nice at the same time.

Doesn't she look totally different. Who knew a year could make such a difference! Makes me wonder what she'll be like next year. But I don't like to think of it too much because she'll be just over 2 and that's hard to think about!

Caught With Her Nose On The Wall

Rylee kept turning off Ally's music disney video so I warned her that I would make her put her nose on the wall, so she did it anyway. So I finally caught her on camera doing it. so cute!

Funny Day!

Yesterday was just one of those comical days where the kids were hilarious. So I'll share 3 of their funny moments.

When Ally is doing something she shouldn't and needs a time out, we often have her put her nose on the wall for a few minutes. She hates it so it works great. I guess Rylee's been watching because yesterday Rylee was doing something she shouldn't, getting into things...what else? And so I said, "do you want to put your nose on the wall?" Just joking with her. But she went from arching her back and mad to really quiet and still. So I thought, why not? and put her next to the wall. She faced the wall, put her little tiny nose on it and jetted out her lower lip, all sad. It was so cute I couldn't help but laugh. So now, if she isn't listening, I just have to ask her, "do you want to put your nose on the wall?" and she immediately stops.

Then my friend Crystal and her baby, Marin, came over to visit. Mike got Em from school and came in to tell me she seemed tired. As soon as she walked in she immediately came over and lifted up her zip up sweat shirt revealing NO SHIRT underneath. I panic a little and start bombarding her with questions....

Me: Emily, where's your shirt?

Em: In my room. (I'm thinking classroom, she's been at school all day).

Me: Where did you take it off at? (picturing her doing it in the middle of class).

Em: I didn't take it off.

I'm confused now.

Me: (mike is in the kitchen next to her backpack) Is it in her bag?

Mike: Yeah, it is. (It's actually a thin sweater she accidently brought home).

Me: Emily, why did you take off your shirt?

Em: I didn't, I didn't put it on. It would be too hot with both the shirt and sweater.

Aha! I put her clothes out in the morning, she loved the sweatshirt as it had a cute butterfly on the back and she didn't want to be hot. So what did she do? She just didn't put her shirt on underneath. I'm praying she didn't try to take it off at school. And she also didn't deem it neccessary to put socks on. So my lovely daughter wore a jacket, pants and shoes to school...that's it.

And last but not least, we were coming home last night turning into our neighborhood and our windows were down as it was very nice. As we're turning, I guess Rylee chucked her sock out the window and Emily screams "SHE THREW HER SOCK OUT THE WINDOW...STOP!" Well, that was an old sock and not worth stopping in traffic so we told her it was fine. All of a sudden we realize she's sobbing. Out and out sobbing because Rylee won't have that sock now and it's not nice she liked that sock and on and on and on. So we're telling her it's just a sock, she has more, don't worry about it. Then she goes on sobbing that she was going to make a sock puppet out of it and now it's ruined and we'll never get it back. Mike and I were laughing so hard. When we got home, it was bath and bed. We figured she must be very tired to be so upset about Rylee's sock!

We're In It To Win!

As you have all read on various blogs...The Smith's and us have an annual heater contest. Last year we lost as it was affecting Rylee's sleep, and we don't mess with that. It made the score 1-2, the Smith's being ahead. This year the girls are a lot older and we're in it to win. We broke out the girls footy pajamas, stacked the blankets and are ready to go. The only hiccup right now is that Ally doesn't like the footy pajamas at all. She cries. I think it will take a few times as I want her to wear them regardless of the contest because my girls have a thing about the covers.

The other night I went into their bedroom to check on them and they were both uncovered. So I pulled Ally's comforter down, put her on her sheets and covered her up with the comforter and her blanket. Then I did the same with Emily. As soon as I put the covers over Em, she kicked them off. I re-did them, and looked down at ally and she had come out of hers. So I had to re-cover her. It was crazy. In the span of 60 seconds I had to cover them twice!

The other pictures of Rylee I just thought were cute. Mike and I bought the girls robes for after their baths. That way Mike, who washes, can put them in their robe and send them my way, eliminating the towel. Ally came out first and then Rylee but I was still convincing Ally into the pajamas that she didn't want to wear, so Rylee got to crawl around in her robe for a while. She climbed up on her favorite stool, found her favorite toothbrush, and was brushing away. Just thought it was cute!

****And to all of you slow bloggers out there...you know who you are...we're ready for you to start posting again!!!****

New Things For Rylee

Rylee finally started taking a few steps here and there. She usually goes 8-10 before she sits down, but we're making progress. Michael was really starting to get concerned as Em and Ally walked for their first birthdays.

I took a video of Rylee walking, sorry the cameras moving so much. She walks towards me and I was the one video taping. I also asked her to say please, which is the spitting sounds she makes with her lips. It's cute, but hard to catch. I also asked her to wave, something she's been doing for a while but it's still sweet.

The Toilet paper picture is Rylee's new game. She loves to unrole the toilet paper. I really try to keep bathrooms shut but with 2 children using the bathroom, it's hard to keep it closed 100% of the time. The picture is in my bathroom, it's 2 rolls. It really stinks having to use toilet paper that way.

The other day she came from bathroom downstairs, through the kitchen and in to the living room with a long line of toilet paper. I'm not sure how she managed to keep it in one piece that whole time.

FINALLY!

There was a big first in our household today for Rylee and Ally. They both ate their first peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches. Okay, so it was almond butter, but she wasn't allergic to it. YAY!!!! I feel as though I've missed out on being able to fix that easy sandwich over the last year and a half due to her peanut allergy. Someone told me a long time ago they didn't think almond butter would affect her but with her terrible reactions I was too scared to try. But today I got brave. I tried a little on her hand for 30 seconds and wiped it off. Other than her not liking me smear food on her hand, she was fine. I still was a little nervous to actually let her ingest the food but at lunch I didn't feel like cooking so I made Rylee some and let Ally have a bite. One to see if she liked it because the first time she had it and ended up in the ER, she didn't even like it. And two to make sure she would still be breathing! All was ok so I made her her own. Both she and Rylee, (especially Rylee), liked them. It was soooo nice to make such an easy lunch.

Since we're blogging Biggest Loser Recipes...

Since Brenda blogged her Spicy Turkey Meatball Soup, I thought I would show you the recipe from Chef Rocco called Grilled chicken with warm mango salsa. I thought it was pretty good and only 231 calories per serving. Which I didn't use as much chicken as they said. They said four chicken breasts, boneless skinless, weighing about 1.5 lbs.. I couldn't find peices that big so we picked thin cut chicken, it was really good. It was sweet at first, then spicy. I liked it. It was a nice change from the same old same old we've been having. I printed out a bunch more recipes I'm excited to try.