I am STILL HERE!

Disclaimer*:  Post could be unusually long with picture overload.  Read at your own risk. . .

Yes, we are still alive and well.  I know it has been a WHILE since I've made time to sit down and update our blog, just been busy with the kids and a few projects around the house.  Its been just a little CrAzY around here lately...

Last month we had a cheerleader in the house!!  Yes, Anna was a cheerleader at one of the Valley View High School games.  (Valley View is wear she attends school.)  She went to cheer camp one Saturday morning and was scheduled to have 2nd day of camp the following Thursday but it was canceled due to the snow. She had a BLAST!!  I think mom knew the cheers just as much as she did for all the practicing she did here at home.  She told me after she performed at the game that she now wants to be a cheerleader...  however we decided to stick with one thing at a time and for now it is ballet.  : )

The pics are a little dark but it was the best I could do with the camera I had and being so far away...

That is her waving...

 ...Shoot that ball in the Hoop, Hoop!!!



Steven and I have been tackling some remodeling projects in the house.  It all started when we were watching a show that we recorded where they remodeled a room and stripped wall paper off the walls and we both were suprised at how easy they made it look.  We did some research, created our own recipe for a wallpaper removal solution and we decided to tackle some ugly wallpaper of our own!!  (It was the wallpaper in our master bath that we have hated since we bought the house 9 yrs ago.)

Before we took the paper down...



TAKING THE PAPER DOWN!!!

 It was so easy, we let Anna help us rip it down!

After the wallpaper was removed...



The entire removal process only took a couple of hours to do, then it was on to choosing a new paint color... which I have to admit took about a week.  (Don't want to have to paint it again so we thought long and hard on choosing the right color.)

Steven spackled and sanded all the holes and needed spots & painted the ceiling then I painted all the trim and doors white then on to painting the walls... "Aeution" blue.

All three of us contributed on painting the walls!

 "This is so much FUN!"

I am happy to announce that the bathroom is now COMPLETED!!

Steven being silly- he just finished putting up the new faux wood blinds!

 (and happy that we are done with this project)

One project down and TWO more to go...

Remove border/ choose a color / paint

 Remove Wallpaper /paint

I don't know about you but we are ready for SPRING!!  Anna was out of school for snow only 2 days in January (for 2 different snows) and thought we were doing good until... 3 more snow days just last week!  We got snow on Monday the 7th and they went back to school Tuesday the 8th only to have yet AnOtHeR snow on Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday they were scheduled to be out of school for Parent /Teacher confrences, which of course were cancelled due to the roads still slick.  So I am thankful that Friday did not count as a snow day.  (They only plan 5 snow days into the school year and they are now all gone!)  We did have fun playing in the snow and staying home together. 

Wilson LOVES playing in the snow too!!!

Then coming in for some HOT CHOCOLATE and cuddling up on the couch and watching a cartoon

Anna even tucked in Wilson for a nap to help him warm up : )

I have temporaraly taken in a new kiddo during the week.  A good friend of mine asked me to keep her 4 month old, Saul.  Unfortunately, they will be moving to Alabama in the beginning of March.  : (  So I am enjoying the time I get to spend with Saul while he is here.  Breanna, his mom has LOVED the schedule that I have put him on so that her day can flow MUCH easier --He is even sleeping through the night for her now.  YEAH!! 

Little Saul Sleeping

 Steven likes to rock the little ones too!! 

For those of you who didn't know, I also keep another friend of mine, Courtney's kids -Jagger (2 yrs old in March) and his sister Layla (6 months old).  So with 4 little ones at one time, it keeps me pretty busy.  Will however loves having all the playmates in the house.  Jagger has become his best play buddy!

Jagger and Will

 Jagger and Will reading a book and playing cars... TOO CUTE

 Layla playing in the floor

And Yes, Jagger and Layla both have red hair as well, if you couldn't tell in the pics. 

OK, I think that is all for now... I promise to update more often!!  I do have several pictures to share from Valentines that I will post soon, so stay tuned...

The Nutcracker Ballet

We have been extremely busy with Nutcracker Ballet rehearsals and I have volunteered to help with the costumes. She has had 2 full dress rehearsals and her last dress rehearsal is tonight before performing live tomorrow for several schools.  She is having so much fun and is very excited about the performances that start tomorrow, December 1 and will be every day until Tuesday, December 7th!!  They have 2 day shows both Wed the 1st and Thurs the 2nd  for local schools that come to The Forum.  Friday nights performance is special invitations only (casts immediate family) and then starting Saturday will be open for the public.  I know several of you are coming to see our cute little mouse perform on Saturday-- we can't wait to have you here. 

Let the Shows Begin...

Here is a sneak peak of our cute little mouse...

Student of the Month!

With the craziness of the month of November I am just now getting pics of Anna, who was named, "Student of the Month" for the month of October!!  A student is chosen from each class by the teacher for this honor.  Students are chosen for doing their best, having a positive attitude and behavior, and being helpful to others. 

She was rewarded by getting to eat lunch in the "bee hive", which is a special place for just the chosen students.  They get to watch a movie while enjoying their lunch and she received a goodie bag of candy for dessert.  They take a group picture of all the students for each month and the photo goes on the wall by the main entrance of the school for everyone to see as they enter the building!  We are very proud of her for her achievement!!

Anna's "Decorated" finger

My poor baby girl, Anna, slammed her right handed pointer finger in the car door Friday afternoon!!  She was getting out of the car and somehow closed the door on the finger and I am thinking when she did, she pulled it out and it pulled the fingernail completely off.  I will spare all the gorey details and end with an emergency trip to the doctors office where they removed what was left of the nail.  OUCH!!!  They bandaged it up good to help stop the bleeding and sent her home, with pain medicine!!  I will say that she has been a REAL TROOPER through all of it!  I was very proud of her for being such a big girl with it being such a bad injury. 

I told Steven that night, he was at work through all of all of this, I was pretty shocked by myself too!  You may have heard the saying, "you will react differently, when it happens to your own kids."  Well, that saying is DEFINITELY true, my mom instincts kicked in and nothing fazed me that afternoon!!  I get grossed out and a weak stomach so easily with the site of blood or injuries on TV let alone in person.  So for all the moms and dads out there who may be worried about what you would do if... not to fear- God somehow gives us the strength and knowledge on what to do to make our babies boo boo's feel better!! 

We do ask for your prayers on the healing process of the nail bed and that the nail would grow back properly (or even at all).  When I asked the doctor if the nail would grow back, she hesitated and answered with a "We hope..."  Also, with it being on her right hand (which is the hand she writes with) she will have an adjustment to make with it being so sensitive after we decide to take the large bandage off.  

Steven came up with the cute idea of tying a ribbon around it to decorate the bandage for it was so noticeable we might as well make it pretty!!  She liked the idea and she now calls the bad finger her "decorated finger."  We went to Walmart and bought a yard of ribbon in the colors she wears most so we can change it up a little.  She also refers to it as her ballet slipper finger- when I the ribbon just right, she thinks it looks like a ballet point shoe tied up!  Might as well make the most of it, right!?!

Party, Party, Party!!

Well, we are all still alive and well!!  I know it has been a while since my last post but we have had no spare time lately.  We have had Anna's Nutcracker Ballet rehearsals, ballet class, school functions, birthday partys, baby showers, Steven working his night job at UPS, my daycare job ---and this is just to name a few of the things that have kept us busy lately...  but I will say that while it has been tiresome at times, we have had a lot of fun doing most of it!!!

We've gone to not 1, not 2, nope not 3 -but 4 birthday parties that Anna's received invites to.  And YES, we went to ALL of them!  (Anna has become our social bug, can ya tell??!!)

The 1st and 2nd invites were to our neighbors/ friends 2 parties, 2 sisters with November birthdays had theirs at the skating rink on the same night one Thursday night.  Anna had only been skating one other time about a year ago, so we had them "lock up the wheels" so she basically scooted her feet.  She got brave and wanted to try "real skating" ... well, lets just say we didn't make it very far.  She held on to me slipping all over the place, she decided that it was much more fun pretending to skate.  : )  Will did go with us and at first was so excited to go to a party so he could get "CAKE"!!  Once he got there, he had much fun pretending to play the video games off to the side.  We did take time out "playing games" to get us a piece of yummy strawberry cake!

The 3rd and 4th parties she was invited to were friends of hers. One was from church and the other from her class at school.  They fell on the same Saturday and almost the same time!!  One was at 10 am and the other at 11 am.  Steven has weekends off so he was able to join us for these!!  We went to the 10 o'clock party and stayed for her to open presents, eat cake and then we were off the the 11 o'clock one, which was at our local park.  Will loved both of these as well because they had a blow up bouncy house at the 10 and he got to play at the park at 11.  Afterwards, nap time!!

NOTICE: Will isn't in any of the pictures--he was having so much fun, he wouldn't stay still long enough for me to snap one good pic!!  LOL!

PARTY #1 AND 2

 PARTY #3

PARTY #4

 

Dress up WEEK!

Last week Anna had many costumes...  It was Red Ribbon Week (drug free) at school and they had a theme for each day of the week.  For Monday, it was wear red day--which she just wore normal red clothes, Tuesday was 20's day (which stumped me- I didn't know what to do until after the fact) Wednesday was 80's day!  This one, I had a lot of fun with!  I got on the internet and pulled up all the popular fads of the 80's and reminisced in my childhood days.  I pulled out a few things out of my own closet for this one, a bright blue shirt which for her was over sized and a chain belt and necklaces I've had for years, thrown in with some of her own things like bright pink leggings, a pink tank top, and her jelly sandals.  That morning she LET me tease up her bangs to where they were practically standing on end. I even made "wings" by spraying the sides of her hair and blowing it dry so that it would stand out!!  LOL  I did make her turn away from the mirror so she couldn't see what I was doing until the finished product was complete and when she finally saw it she LAUGHED!!!  She said, "I can't believe you actually wore your hair that way mom!!!!!"  I have to admit I laughed along with her because, looking back at it now-- it was a pretty weird fad, to think of all the money we could have saved on hairspray!!!

                                               

 Notice, she is still LAUGHING in the photos!!!

Thursday was 70's day however, that was the day her class went on a field trip so we didn't get to participate in that one, she just got to wear her new class shirt.  Friday was 50's day!  I again went on line and found some of the popular fads other than the poodle skirt of course.  We didn't have a poodle skirt so, I did the next best thing and got one of her black dresses with polka dots on it and put a tutu under it to make it full like they wore in the days.  I got one of her cardigan sweaters and safety pinned Steven's high school letter to it- to make the popular sweater the girls wore to say they had a boyfriend.  We put her hair up in a pony tail and tied it with a scarf (that I again- DUG out of the closet). 

                      She loved the pony tail!!  She is so used to having ballerina buns and never a pony tail. 

She even WON BEST DRESSED for the day!!!  I was so proud of my creation! (She was too because she was awarded with a goodie bag of candy!!)

Then Saturday the kids and I got bored that night and I decided to get them dressed up in their Halloween costumes and go to a local church for their Trunk and Treat. (Steven was working at Motion -doing their annual inventory and didn't get home till about 7:30 or so that night.)  Last but not least... Sunday.  We got all dressed up once again for our Sunday School class party.  We all had lots of fun at this party... chili cookoff, hay ride, fixing smores over the bon fire and we moms even took ALL the kids trick or treating to individuals on her street that she knew from the church.  Anna was so excited that she got to go trick or treating... this was the first year we have been.  We always do church activities for it is warmer and safer!

Will, Thomas the Train, was SO excited he got a Tootsie Roll -his favorite as well as his dads! 

 Anna, the Barbie Princess, headed to the next house

We were on our hayride, Will was more interested in where we were going. 

Ewww, I am done with dress up days for a while.  Thankfully! (but it was a lot of fun)