Grandparents central

While Matt and I were at the above wedding Emma and Garrett were at Grandparent Central from thursday afternoon to sunday late afternoon. Mom and Davy were so nice to take care of our kids that whole time! Mom dropped Garrett off for playtime at "popo's house" (as Garrett now calls it) while she and Emma went to get Emma's hair cut and visit Tanya at work. Then mom switched Emma and Garrett. Garrett went shopping with Granny and Emma stayed at me-me and po-po's. No doubt she played tea party and dolls. They baked sugar cookies and iced them (a me-me's house tradition dating back to my youth) Emma even spent the night. They had fun playing with Granny, Big Daddy, me-me, po-po and, tanya. They say garrett only cried for me once and that's when he was talking to me on the phone and saw my picture on the phone. Then he apparently remembered who mommy was and wanted her . . for about a minute . . . then he was fine. Emma was fine except the night before we came back. She fell out of bed, woke up and saw a shadow, and started screaming bloody murder. Granny and Tanya came running. (Tanya beat Granny) Then as told by Emma "I laid on Tanyas tummy and she rubbed my back. Then she tried to leave and I asked her where she was going and she said to get her phone. Then she slept with me all night" . . . . So apparently Tanya tried to escape after a few minutes and got caught. But then she took the high road and stayed with my wiggle worm daughter the rest of the night. Thanks Aunt Tanya! 

Wedding of a lifetime

I was privy to the "wedding of a lifetime" this weekend. Matt was asked to be a groomsman for our friend JR. JR grew up like most of the people I know- middle class. JR's bride grew up far above that. :) BUt did that make her or her family snooty? NO! They were the nicest people you would ever meet. They took awsome care of everybody that came for the wedding. They remembered everyones names and talked to each of them like old friends . . . even me whom they'd never met before. I felt priviledged to be a part of this wedding. But like I said they are far above middle class. This wedding was more than I could ever have imagined. Every little thing that could be thought of was thought of. Every whim we could need was taken care of. I kid not when I say it was "the wedding of a lifetime" I dare say I will never go to another wedding that even comes close to the grandness, excessiveness, and beauty of this one. Thank you JR and JHR for letting Matt and I part of your family for a weekend and for showing us Texan hospitality. You two are greatly loved by one and all and it's not hard to see why. :) I wish you two all the happiness in the world. 

Christmas again

Today we opened the 2 big boxes of presents from the Natick said of the family. It was great! Garrett was so excited about getting a "bball packpack" (red sox baseball back pack) he wanted to wear it right then. He almost wouldn't put it down long enough to see there were presents in it. On present in it was a Red Sox Mr. Potatohead. He LOVES it! 

Emma liked her pink back pack but that turned into love when i showed her it was a special back pack that was just the right size for her Leap Pad. It has special pockets for her leap pad books and cartridges. She LOVED her fur real tiger. It responds to your touch. 

I am going to enjoy my gift cards that were greatly needed! Thank you SO much!

It was a good 2nd Christmas morning. :) 

Mommy and Me Day

Today started off with intentions to go into work and get started on some copying of files. Well, I got to work and couldn't find the page to print off to being all the copying on my bosses laptop. (she wasn't there. I wasn't even scheduled to go in but wanted to get a head start on this) So I stayed and worked on my new room for about 45 minutes. Then, as we were leaving Emma kept asking to go to Chuck E. Cheese. I considered it, then I remembered we were on the side of town that The Wonder Place was on. We went by to see if they were open. They were! We went in from 11:30 - 2. Left to go to McDonalds. Came back until 3:15. Thanks to Kellie who told me they'd stamp your hand to leave and come back. ;) Emma was super excited about that! The kids loved it! Garrett loved the water table and car table the best. Emma loved the sand and drama centers the best. It was a great way to let them play with several different things. There weren't very many kids so mine could play as they wished without waiting turns. A little before we left the rain turned to snow for about 10 minutes. Emma believes Grammie sent it down for her since she talked to her last night and Grammie said she had too much snow. Emma's been sad this Christmas because she hasn't had any snow. She wanted Grammie to send some down in a big box for her. So, today Grammie sent some down. :) Thanks Grammie! We came home and  the kids spelt from 3:30 - 5:30 at which point I went in and woke them up so they'd go back to sleep sometime tonight! :) It was a fun Mommy and kids day. I hope your day after Christmas was a fun filly family one. 

TV screening

I went out on a limb tonight. I allowed my kids to sit with me and watch The Incredibles tonight. Why do i say out on a limb? because untill tonight I haven't let my kids, especially the oldest, watch any type of TV show that has any kind of vilolence, even cartoon ones. I am not the type that thinks my kids are gonna be ruined by playing cops and robbers or anything, but in these days and times cops and robbers could get you kicked out of school. Plus I figure the later I introduce them to violence the better for them to remain innocent. It did lead to several instances where I had to explain why the mean man was being mean and why he was trying to hurt the other people and the like. I tried my best to make my answers vague and yet still answer her. I still believe she (nor garrett) need to be exposed to violence so we will not be watching many more shows/cartoons that has fighting. Noggin, and Sprout channels for us for a while longer.

New Puppy

We got a new puppy for Christmas . . . . . . for those of you who know me you may be a little confused. Don't worry it's not a REAL puppy. :) It actually came from our cousin Hannah G. Emma and Garrett LOVE it. It moves and barks like a real puppy. BUT unlike a real puppy it doesn't need to walk or eat or pee on your carpet or bite and I can turn it off and leave it all day in one place if I want. :)

Blow Up King

We went out last night to find this house we were told about with tons of blow ups and a Santa sitting in the drive way. It was in a word "awsome"! Thank you Mrs. Michelle for posting baout this house so we could go by and enjoy it! The kids loved it. They also loved being able to see Santa and get a candycane. Here's a few shots for your enjoyment. (If you live near us you really should make the trip out to see this!

A front shot:

Elmo!

More blow ups!

Merry Christmas 2007

This weekend we had Christmas in Texarkana. It was a wonderful time with family. We got there friday night. We ended up leaveing later than expected because we had to wait for my Christmas present from Matthew to arrive. A new computer! Awsome!

A few pictures of our trip.

Matching PJ's!


Cousins

Discovering the stockings

Stockings

Emma and her pile



Look Granny!
Funnies from this weekend . . . .
Jen, Laura, Tanya, and I going to the shoe store and lets say Tanya was red handed with white crocks.
Going out to shop in the tornado wind.
Watching the kids sing on TV.

2007 Emmas class Christmas Party

Today was Emma's class Christmas party. The day started out sleeping in for Mommy (till 6:40am!) Then Emma and I got up and went to McDonalds for breakfast (Daddy has used the last of the milk up the night before so we had no milk for breakfast).


Next I dropped Emma off at school. Went to walmart for milk. Got home in time to change a stinky diaper on Garrett. I finished wrapping presents for this weekend. Got Garrett dressed and went to McDonalds for the 13 Happy Meals I needed. Grabbed two gift cards. Then finally ended up back at school with Emma. They ate their McDonalds. Played outside a few minutes. Had Santa visit. Then did a Christmas Tree edible craft (thanks Mrs. Kellie!) All in All it was a great day for Emma, Garrett, and I.



Mandy came too! . . . . . Meagan was there too but we didn't get a picture.

Our reindeer shirts:
Making our Christmas Trees



Thank you Santa!


There's only a few tears:

Fighting Kids

According to the test on Facebook . . . . . I could take 30, 5 year olds in a fight! Sweet!


I could take 30

The only rules were you are in a enclosed area about the size of a gym. No weapons. Everyone wears a cup. No other rules.
I so rock!

Christmas lights

Tonight we went for our family trip to drive through Burns Park. They have it all lit up with different scenes. Emma loved it last year so we went again this year. I let the kids out of their carseats while matt drove slow. They loved it! Especially the light tunnels since we have a sunroof. It was a fun family trip. It will be a yearly family trip.

Christmas program

Today was Emma's class Christmas Program. It was very cute. Each grade had a Christmas song to sing. Each class was dressed up according to their song. Emma's class sang Jingle Bells. They'd made jingle bell necklaces and bracelets. It was so cute to watch her up there. Kellie and I sat down in the isle to video their singing. As they walked in, Garrett saw Emma and was saying "sissy, sissy!" After, their song was done they sat in the front row. Matt, Garrett, and I snuck around and in front of her to take pictures of ehr and so she could see Daddy was there. At the end of the program all the kids got up there and sang one last song. I snuck around the backway to meet them in their room. When they go tto the room Emma was crying. She was upset because she thought I'd left without saying bye. :) Then since she was upset she didn't want me to leave. By this point I needed to get going so I asked her if she just wanted to go with me. She did. So I took her to daycare with me. A little bit later I got a call from Kellie, Isaac was crying because Emma was supposed to go home with him today and he was sad because she went with me. aahhh! So many tears!

It's Mandy! We love our Mandy!

My ABCs

As I was cooking dinner tonight, Garrett was playing with the magnetci letters on the fridge. He grabbed the lower case D and was saying "d. daddy" then he grabbed the uppercase D, saying the same thing. I though it was sweet. Next he grabbed the C and was trying to turn it sideways saying "sissy". At this point I decided to try and see if all this was a fluke.

Clifford

Clifford was at the Sherwood Library this past week. It took Emma a little bit to warm up but once she did she was over there hugging him, giving him 5's, and tugging on his tail. As we were walking out she looks at me and says "He's not thr real Clifford. He was just somebody dressed up." I answer her saying "yeah. but it was still fun wasn't it?" She says "Yeah" . . . . . Garrett on the other hand would not go near him even with Mommy with him.




Mommy asking Garrett "Do you want to go see Clifford?"

Painting toes

This is what I saw when I went upstairs this afternoon. Apparently, he CAN get the lid off Emma's nailpolish. Yikes!



This is when he got caught and was saying "uh-oh"

PJs

We got new Christmas Pj's! . . . . After 8 stores I finally found Pj's that matched for all 4 of us. We are all going to wear them Christmas eve so we can all have matching Pj's for Christmas morning pictures. :) I think we're going to start this as a new tradition every December 1st.


Garrett was sad for a little bit that he couldn't wear his "chomp chomp" Pj's that Jojo gave him. So he carried them around and snuggled them.

countdown

Most 4 year olds have a countdown till Christmas this time of year. . . . MY 4 year old has a coundown till we go see Wicked. :) That's my girl!

1st time out

I just put Garrett in his first time out. Don't get me wrong he's been swatted on the hand and leg for things and made to sit down for a minute for other things but he's never had a real "pt-him-in-his-room-and-shutthe-door" time out. He did NOT like it. He and emma were fighting because he was taking her colors and throwing them. That's two offences right there. she got told to go to her room for pushing him down. he got put in his room for his offences. They both cried a bunch. I think it hurt his feelings mor ethat he was banned from Mommy than anything. He prob. didn't really undestand but we have to start sometime. Tonight seemed like the time. (they both only stayed in their rooms about 2 minutes) They were both playing happily within a couple of minutes. :)

The power of the truth

This week our sweet 4 year old litle girl has really begun telling bold faced lies to us. I know it's age appropriate to do this and to begin learning the power of telling the truth but I may have to kill her. We have already had two alks in the past 3 days about telling mommy the truth even if she thinks she'll get in trouble or even if she doesn't like it. So far the lies have been about things she wanted so she told a story about them. But I am treating them like a big lie so maybe we can nip this thing before it gets too out of hand. Ah the fun times in parenting! :)

4 kinds of kissing

Our 4 year old proudly claims (in the car the other night) that she knows the 4 kids of kissing. Then proceeds to tell us them:
1. Hershey kisses
2. nose kisses
3. mouth kisses
and
4. tongue kisses

wait what?! my 4 year old said what?!

So Matt and I look at each other questionly. I ask her "where did you learn about those?" She says "Tanya told me" (should have known!) She then proceeds to show me what a tongue kiss looks like. APPARENTLY it's when Tanya is pretending to lick her face. Lovely. All I need is my sweet little girl telling people she knows how to tongue kiss!

Super smart at 20 months

I was holding Garrett this morning during church. He looked up at the banner above our heads and said "My G, My G" pointing to the banner. The banner says "Building strong families for the glory of God" I thought he was super smart . . . . untill he then said "mommys G" ok well at least he can recognize they are letters up there and they are supposed to go with someone's name. :)

My Hero

Matthew is my hero. He found most of the pictures I thought were lost for good after Garrett fried my last laptop with an open soda! He found them zipped up into a file. I am soooo excited! I thought ll those pictures were gonners. They were all the ones off our old family website. Yea for Matthew!

Gymnastics Party

Today we went to a friend of mine's son's 4 year Birthday party at River City Gymnastics It was a lot of fun. Well organized. Lots for the kids to do. Highly entertaining and lots of movement. They start with their 2 coaches at the pirate ship slide. Which you climb up a and slide down into a pit of foam blocks. They next move on to an obstacle course with a blow up jumping/slide thing, a couple of smaller trampolines, and big foam pieces to climb over, and a small on the floor balance beam. Next, they dance along with a CD. After that, they go over to the "runway" trampoline and jump along and jump into another foam block pit. Flowing that they go and sit in a circle around the Birthday kid. Each guest gets to take a turn taking their present up to the birthday kid and watching them open it. ( i like this idea) Finally it is followed up with cake and juice. I was really impressed with the whole thing. Emma doesn't really know Casen (birthday boy) but Garrett does and Julie's my friend so we went. Emma had a blast! Nathan was there so she did at least know one kid there but I don't think she cared because she was having so much fun. Thank you Julie for inviting us and HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASEN!

The pirate ship slide:
The 1st foam pit:

Garrett got really excited about the blocks!

Pretty girl.
The jumping/slide thing:


One of the trampolines:

Mommy had to get in to help Garrett out of the 2nd foam pit.

Mr. Ben and Case opening his presnet from Emma and Garrett.

Eating cake.

Scrapbooking Party

Last night the kids and I went to a scrapbooking party. I had to work till 5 and the friend/coworkers house it was at lives literally 5 minutes away from work so I took the kids with me. Which turned out ok because Rachel had two of hers there and Jen had her two (one of which was JO JO, Garrett's BEST friend). I told Garrett we were going to Jo jo's house when we were in the drive through line at Wendys. The whole way to the house he was in the back seat saying "jo jo house. jo jo house" He was soooo excited. Emma was glad fredrick and gracen were there to play with and that jo jo's house has a big play room! Since I decided to go at the last minute I didn't have any of my stuff with me but I wanted to go to spend some time with friends/coworkers/girls my age. It was a fun time. Especially my and rachels impromptu trip to walgreens and trainee Josephs reaction while there but . . . "what happens at cropping parties stays at cropping parties" I definitely want to make an effort to go to more cropping parties especially if Rachel, Julie, and Jennifer are there. They were firstly coworkers but they are now all good friends! I love them!

Bull Visit

We were blessed this past weekend to have our good friends The Bulls visit us. They are missionarys in Bolivia and are here on furlogh. I loved getting to spend time with our friends. "Baby" Nathan has grown up so much. Emma didn't quite know what to do since Nathan played with Garrett and she was finally odd man out. Usually it's her and Isaac with Garrett being left out.

Don't turn 4

Isaac was telling his mommy "I don't want Emma to turn 4 first" For while we all thought it was typical I wanna be first stuff. But he kept saying it and getting upset about it. Finally Kellie asked him "Why don't you want her to turn 4?" Apparently he thought once she turned 4 she would move up to the PreK4's and not be in class with him anymore. :) And apparently she thought this as well. I had to explain that once they started big school they only moved up at the begining of each school year not when they had their birthdays, and that was how it happened at church as well. :) Cute. He was worried about losing his friend.

Emma School Party

I met Emma at school Tuesday with cupcakes for her birthday. We made pink cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles. She got to be the line leader all day and wear a special birthday hat. She got to pass out the cupcakes to her friends. Then we sang Happy Birthday and ate the cupcakes. I think she felt pretty special.