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.

New Things Good and Bad

Good

Emily started AWANA on Thursday. I think I was just as excited about her starting as she was. I have wonderful memories of being in AWANA. She loved it and was so excited about her AWANA bucks she earned! I'm also excited to work on Bible verse memorization. It comes so incredibly easy for her. If you haven't already, ask her to tell you all the verses she memorized for church. There are three pretty decent sized ones and she'll tell them all to you. I was never like that. I memorized ok, but it was kind of out with the old in with the new. We also have to learn the Sparks song...Ally LOVES it. It's a really cute song. Ally missed cubbies by a few months as she has to be three. But I think I'll try to put her after her birthday.

Emily also got Star of the Week at school. She got to take home the spanish/english speaking Elmo doll over the weekend and journal all of the things Elmo did with us this weekend. I'm not overly fond of Elmo, kind of think he's over the top but she had a great time, so we took some pictures.

Mike had to work all day Saturday so my mom and dad let us come hang out all day. It was nice to let them play outside and to have adult interaction and help with the kids.

Bad

Poor Rylee got an eye infection in both eyes, conguntivitis (spelling?), to be exact. So my mom and I had to switch off holding Rylee at church so she wouldn't expose everyone. She took her while she practiced singing and I set up kids church, then I took her for the opening of church and kids church, then she took her while I taught and so on and so on. It worked but I am thankful to the nursery staff who normally watch and play with them!

Right now my girls are eating ribeye Mike cut off from a huge prime rib and because of our diet we aren't even eating any of it with them. Somthing's wrong with that picture. It looks and smells amazing. They love steak though and have lived on grilled chicken, salmon and lean pork for too long.

Good and Bad

My mom couldn't take the kids home for our regular day off because Devon couldn't be exposed to Ry's eye infection. Bummer because we were going to bike ride and run today. The good though is that it was stinkin hot anyway and Emily and I, (and Elmo), got to go to Barnes and Nobles by ourselves and look at books. We had a fun time doing that.

Dieting and Exercising

As you all already know, our church is doing Biggest Loser Bridge Edition. Tricia and I were kindly told we were not allowed to participate. So we've been doing an 8lb challenge for fun. We both happend to want to lose 8lbs so we've been working hard.
So Mike and I find ourselves eating really healthy right now. It's funny because usually I would be craving anything and everything bad...carbs, sweets, salts, ect. But surprisingly I haven't. We've been doing great and not with too much temptations! I've been hearing that from a lot people who are involved, that it's been easier this time for some reason. So to be like Joel and ask some things I've been pondering...

Is it because
A. we're a major competitive bunch?
B. God is helping all of us push through together?
C. We're just all in major denial?
D. We're just that committed to losing weight?

Not sure, but I am curious as to why so many have been saying it's not been to challenging eating. I think for Mike and I it's been a competitive thing, even between us. We don't want to eat bad if the other person isn't. Same with exercise. Mike an I have been running the McConnel Foundation's 2 and a 1/4 mile loop everyday, (Mike is more faithful than I am). Anyway, we've been grilling each other on who finished faster, who ran the, as we call it, the hill of woe and who walked it. If either of us stopped running and walked for any length of time and so on and so on. We've also started using our children free sunday afternoons to bike together and then run/walk the 6mile loop. It's so much fun to do together and the best part? IT'S FREE!

In closing, running sucks. I don't like it one bit. But I do love the feeling AFTER I run. I feel so good and am proud that I made it as far as I have. I definitly recommend pushing through for all of you who hate running too!

Just wanted to share what Mike and I have been up to lately!

Lesson On Vanity

Emily was getting dressed in her room Saturday and I was in their room getting something. I overheard her say..."I deserve to wear a crown." So I asked her, "why do you deserve to wear a crown?" Her response was..."because of the kind of person I am"

Duh, what was I thinking? After holding in laughter, I gave her a lesson on vanity!