Table Finished...Finally!

Our dining room table was in pretty bad shape. We bought it well before Abby was born. We knew that it needed some repairs, and decided that we would re-finish it instead of replacing it. We will eventually replace it, but not until the girls are older and know how to take care of things better. We decided to paint it black and put a polyurethane coating on top. We started with a "spray" polyurethene, but it wasn't working. Steve used some old poly that we had from the last furniture we refinished, but it was WAY TOO glossy. We stripped it off, and finally got it the was we wanted it. Steve's contract for the last job he had got cut (right after Valentines day), so he had a couple weeks "off", and finished it up. It was a good distraction while waiting on the phone to ring. He started a new job last Monday, and so far it is going really well. Keep us in your prayers! At any rate...the table turned out great! :)

Student of the Month

Abby got the award of Student of the Month again this year! We are so proud of her. The teachers from each class (1st-5th) pick a kid every month to be featured as the student of the month. Abby's certificate said that she was chosen because " she is a wonderful student, and I enjoy having her in my class". Written by her 2nd grade teacher. She was also invited to a special breakfast to honor the Students of the Month. Daddy was out of work at the time, and got to go with us this year. We are so proud of you, Abigail! :)

Cheer and Basketball Ends

The girls had a great season of Basketball (Abby) and cheerleading (Jillian). Jillian will be starting soccer for the spring, and Abby will be taking a break. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony at the end. Aparently Steve got called up on the stage to do some sort of funky dance. I wasn't able to attend, so you'll have to ask him about that!:)

Jillian is 6!

Well, it happened...Jillian had another birthday! I cannot believe that she is already 6! That is crazy! We went to Ted's for dinner on her actual birthday. She LOVED it. She kept asking us when they were going to come put the hat on her and sing to her. She LOVES being the center of attention! :) She had a small birthday party at home the weekend after her birthday. She had a great time with her friends and breaking the pinata (her favorite). It's hard to believe that she will be in 1st grade next year, and will be in all day school! We'll go to the Dr. for the 6 year old check up in April, and I will share her "stats" then. I'm guessing about 33 pounds, and 42 inches tall (if they measure her with shoes on). I'm hoping that she is 42 inches because then she can ride more of what she wants to ride at Disney World this summer! Happy Birthday Monkey! :)

Couples Retreat

Steve and I went on the Church's Couples Retreat on Valentine's weekend. We had so much fun! It was a great weekend away with friends. We watched the movie "fireproof". While the acting will not win any Academy Awards, the story line was great! It was an awesome weekend away from kids and good for me and Steve!

Too funny not to post!

OK, let me explain! One of the young kids were playing with these balls that Uncle Mike had in his basement, and they put the ball under their shirt. Forgive me as I can't remember which kid did it first. Then, all the adults started laughing so hard that all the kids started doing it. I'm embarrased to say it, but I think Jillian enjoyed the "new addition" the best! :)

Grandma's 80th Birthday!

We surprised my Grandma in the end of January on ther 80th birthday. Almost all of the family was there. She was totally surprised and caught off guard. It is one of the very few times that I have seen her cry. I was so glad that we could be there for her special day. It was great to be there surrounded by family! We love you Grandma Iris!

Sledding!

At the end of January, we had some days off of school for ice, sleet, snow. The last day was really not needed. I don't know why they closed the schools on the last day because the roads were fine. We got out and drove to a local park to go sledding. The first night we went with Daddy, and the next day we went with Leann and the boys. Mostly because Leann and I were tired of seeing the walls in our houses! I made Steve and Leann drive because I'm still chicken of bad roads. She is such a good sport! :) We had an awesome time and it wasn't even that busy!

Josh and Jill

I was watching Josh one morning before school. It's always a toss up as to how well Josh and Jillian will get along. They have an ongoing love/ hate relationship. It just so happened that they got along great this day. I was concerned when I didn't hear any noise. I came out to the living room and saw them watching TV together this way. They are so cute sometimes! :)

Car Drama

Well, as most of you know, we have the WORST luck when it comes to cars! Steve went inside a McDonalds to get some lunch, and came outside to this! He thinks that a big truck was parked across the parking lot from him (Steve was backed into his spot), and that the truck's trailer hitch went thru his front fender and when they went forward, they pulled off his front bumper. We like to think that the truck was so big that the driver didn't feel, see, or hear this impact. Regardless, we are thankful that Steve wasn't in the car this time and that no one was hurt...just the savings account! :)

Christmas Catch up

We had a great Christmas! I would tell you all about it, but since it's March, you probably would be bored. I did promise that I would post the "crafts" the girls made for their Grandparents this year, so here they are! The apron was for my Mom, and said "Mema's Angels". The towels were for Steve's parents. The girls each made a reindeer with their foot and hands, and then made the wreath together out of each of their hands. They were a big hit!

Matching Jammies

I got the girls matching jammies for Christmas morning so they will look so cute when opening their presents. They chose these gowns because they have matching doll dresses. They LOVE them, and they are so soft and warm. Steve and I had a hard time matching the girls' PJ's, so we will have coordinating ones for just us...Steve is thrilled! He LOVES matching things...NOT!!!! Oh well, he gives in every now and then. I also threw in a little "jamming" session with Daddy in their new "jammies"! :) These are the last pictures until Christmas morning. I would love to show you the cute crafts that the girls did for their grandparents, but it will have to wait until they open them on Thursday. Merry Christmas everyone!

Jillian's class party

Jillian also had a class party on Thursday. I remember 2 years ago on that day I went to Abby's party and then to Jacksons birth! It's hard to believe it's been 2 years! Anyway, Jillian had a great time. They made a little candy cane craft and then had snacks. She was glad that I came (and brought Jackson for a little while)! :)

Abby's Class Party

Abby did have a great party last Thursday, but her silly Mom remembered everything but the camera! I did sneak in and take a couple of pictures of her and her teacher after Jillian's party that afternoon. Sugar was had, and that is really all that matters!:)

Festival of Light 2008

My family (including my parents) have made it a tradition to go see the lights in Chickasha every Christmas season. We usually go earlier in the year, but it didn't work out this time. We went on the 12th, and had a great time. We always take the carraige ride thru the lights, but this year the girls got to sit up front with the driver! They were so excited! We always go in the gift shop there because they have such unique ornaments and gifts, and of course to get some hot chocolate. Then we walk down to the bridge of lights and take our picture. Daddy got some food to feed the ducks this year, and the girls loved it. While they were doing that, Papa was hanging out around the bridge and was asked if he could take a picture of a couple. He gladly did. When we got across the bridge, we heard this clapping and saw the girl crying. They had just gotten engaged! We felt so special that we helped them with their special evening, and of course Steve took their picture for them again. It was a great time this year! :)

Gingerbread Houses

Abby's class made Gingerbread Houses last week at school. She had a great time and it was eaten by the family that night (the candy that is, the graham crackers were attached to a milk carton).

Christmas Card 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! :) i couldn't get my scanner to cooperate, so you will just have to imagine it. I used these 2 pictures of my cute family.

Basketball/ Cheering

Abby decided that she didn't want to cheer this winter season. She would rather play Basketball instead. I was shocked, but decided to let her give it a try. She does a pretty good job. She is a good defender, great at running the court, and awesome at dribbling. We're still working at passing and shooting. For her first year, I'd say she's doing great. The only thing that's hard is that her games are at different times on different courts each Saturday. That makes it hard when her sister is Cheering at the same time in a different place. Glad there is only 2 of them!
Jillian is finally old enough this year to be a cheerleader. She is SO cute! She remembers all the cheers from last year when Abby was a cheerleader, and has even been known to correct the coach a time or two! The smallest you could order of the uniforms was a youth small which is a size 6/6X. For a girl that wears a 4, it's pretty big! :) The uniform isn't too bad (glad for a drawstring waist), but the mock turtleneck is a joke. No biggie, we just put a plain white t-shirt underneath. It's been a lot of fun watching them this year so far. They are both good at sports (unlike thier Mom), and really like atheletic activities. I'm good at coming to the games, supporting them and bringing the snacks. Steve does the coaching. :)

Decorating Stockings/ Stone Soup

My fear came true. I was always afraid that the girls would have 2 different things going on in their classrooms at the same time and only 1 Mommy to be there taking pictures. Jillian's class was decorating their stockings preparing them for candy/ trinket handouts later in the week. Abby's class had just finished the story "Stone Soup" and was making it in class. Jillian's class was suppose to have plenty of helpers and I was just going to be there to take pictures of Jillian while she made her stocking. The other Mom's didn't show up so it was just me and the homeroom Mom. Since we were the only 2 there, they let our children go first. I was hoping Jillian would go later since Abby's class was already making stone soup. No fear! Jillian got started and was being very careful as she worked. Which was great except it made the decorating go slow. Jillian finally finished and I ran to Abby's room to try to catch some of the stone soup. Abby was sad that i was late. She said "you told me you would be here and you weren't". I told her that I was here now and so sorry that I was late, but sister has things going on in her classroom too! I managed to get a few pictures of the end of Stone soup and help quickly clean up and head back to jillian's room to help the only other Mom that was there with the stockings and lots of little Kindergartners. It was crazy, but fun. I'm glad I got to go to both events, but will try to plan better in the future! :)

Thanksgiving in Newton

Yet another trip in November. See why I haven't updated my blog since Hawaii? I was only home 12 days out of 30 in November. I don't know how people that travel all the time do it! We drove to Newton, KS to spend thanksgiving with my side of the family. We had a great time playing games (wii), and shopping with cousins on Black Friday. I love having a Dodge van. The storage compartments for the middle 2 seats make great smuggling holds for Christmas presents! We also put the pies there when we traveled and they did great! We had a heavy heart missing Uncle Mike Tieszen and Aunt Sharon Morton this year. It has been a really hard year for our family. Who would have guessed that I would lose an Aunt and an Uncle only in their 50's? The 2nd cousins had a great time playing together, and I'm pretty sure that the 1st cousins had a great time too. They played football, helped kids fly kites, and played Wii games. It was a really good Thanksgiving!

Trip to Michigan

4 days after getting back from Hawaii, all 4 of us boarded a plane to Michigan. Talk about culture shock. It was close to 90 in Hawaii, and snowing and in the 20's in Michigan! Steve's last grandma passed away in late October, and we flew up for the Memorial. The girls had a great time on the plane. My Dad had 2 frequent flier miles that he let us have, but they were on 2 different airlines. The girls and I flew together and checked all the luggage since we had a direct flight, and Steve had 1 stop and a longer flight, but no kids. It took some moving around since we couldn't get seats together, but people were nice and switched with me so that I could sit across from the girls and they could sit together. Despite the reason we went to Michigan, we had a great time. We got to see cousins and 2nd cousins that we hadn't seen in years. Steve and I also got to meet up with a good friend of ours, Michael Thomas. hea was a groomsman in our wedding, and is now married too! We got to meet his fiancee at the time (now his wife :)), and she is great! I think they will be really good together. The kids favorite part of the trip was swimming in the hotel pool with thier cousins. Since they moved to NC, we don't get to see them anymore. It was a great time and we got a lot of great pictures. Check out facebook to see them all.

HAWAII!!!!!

OK, I will not even possibly be able to describe to you how beautiful it is there! I went snorkeling and parasailing. Oh yea, I competed there too! :) Our chorus was seeded to come in 27th out of 33 choruses, based on our regional scores. We placed 14th overall!!! We were so proud. Only 2 people too many to win the Harmony Achievement award that we won in Vegas 2006. This is the award that is given to the smaller choruses based on the # on stage and the points earned. We took only 73 singers (including our director), and placed higher than choruses a lot larger than we were. We knew we did VERY well when our director winked at us after we sang our ballad. It is hard to tell on stage how well you do because you cannot hear yourself. You just have to go with the "plan" and try to tell how well you are doing by the way it "feels". Our uptune was a HUGE SUCCESS!! We got lots of giggles and screams. At the end of our preformance, we were blessed with an immediate standing ovation. The lady helping us off the stage says that she has not seen the audience react that way to any other chorus that she had seen that day, and we sang 26th! We were so excited! There were a lot of wonderful choruses there. A majority of them had well over 100 members on stage. Anyway, we had a great competition and are very excited about our ranking. Our director has been having some health problems, and has decided that he needs to retire. This was his last International Competition with us. He will direct us at Regional in March and that will be his big bow out. It is extremely hard to see him go since he has directed our chorus for 47 years. We were just told last week that our Baritone section leader, Mary Rhea will be taking over. I was so excited to hear that because I think she is WONDERFUL and so very talented!
On another note, I personally had a great time in Hawaii. Like I mentioned before, I went parasailing (even though I don't like heights), and snorkeling. I wanted to learn how to surf while I was there, but I ran out of time and didn't want to spend the extra money! :) We saw Michael, Rebekah, and Kaylee while we were there. That is the Priebe's sister, husband, and niece. Rebekah and Kaylee showed us around the island the first 2 days that we were there and showed us all the "hot spots". It was a great trip. I'll try to see if Steve can upload them to our photo gallery so that you can see them all. We went to the Dole Plantation, USS Arizona Memorial, USS Oklahoma Memorial, USS Utah memorial (on a military base), Wikiki beach, North Shore, famouse Shaved Ice store, and lots of beautiful scenery. It was a great trip!

Crazy Hair Day

The girls had a crazy hair day at school a few weeks ago. Abby would only let me put a wig on her head which I was told only lasted a few minutes once she got in the building. Jillian, of couse, wanted to go all out. She was very proud of the fact that she was the only one in her class that participated! :)

For Andrew

Andrew came over to our house to return some clothes that Amy had borrowed and got a little more than he barganed for. He did get to play some guitar hero with Steve, but I think the girls had more fun with him. See what happens when you have nice thick hair? :)

Zoo Field Trip

Jillian had a field trip to the zoo in the end of October. It was suppose to be on October 14th, but got rescheduled to the 30th due to inclimate weather. It was a beautiful day on the 30th, and we all had a great time.

Cheer Clinic

We signed the girls up to do a cheer clinic at the local high school again this fall. Unfortunatly, Abby got really sick the night before the clinic and couldn't go. Steve was a GREAT Daddy and took Jillian. He snuck over to where the 2nd graders were working and video taped thier dance and pom routine so that Abby could watch it and still cheer at the game the following week. I guess it was fair play. He took a lot of pictures of Jillian during the clinc (because Abby was not there). Then, during the preformace at the game, Jillian stood in the back where you couldn't see her so we only got pictures of Abby. The video of the dance routine was great! Abby caught right on and did the routine perfectly. I was so proud of both of the girls! And of course, Daddy for being so smart as to video tape the routine for Abby. Steve forgot to bring a coat to the game, so I ended up zipping out the liner of my jacket, and he wore that and wrapped his hands in a dress up jacket. We have enrolled the girls in basketball and Cheerleading for the winter season. Abby blew us all away when she said that she would like to learn how to play basketball and give up Cheering for this season! I guess more of Grandpa Morton got into her bloodstream than just those big beautiful eyes! We can't wait to see how she plays and watch Jillian Cheer!

Steve's Birthday

Steve's birthday was on the 8th of October. Yes, I know it's been a while! I thought he deserved his own post though. Last year for his birthday, the family bought him a Wii, which he loves and it has made gift giving easy for him. This year he had be talking alot about the Wii Fit, and I told him that I had heard a lot of good things about it. I FINALLY found one on his actual birhtday and we wrapped it up and gave it to him. He says he likes it, but I think he doesn't enjoy the fact that I got him "exercise stuff" for his birthday. i didn't even think about it that way and it was not intended to imply anything! I hope that he still likes it and knows his wife loves him and meant NOTHING bad by this gift. Love you, honey!

October Activities

OK, I know I'm several weeks/ months behind. I have a good excuse...Leann introduced me to facebook. :) I have uploaded most of my pictues there because I can do an entire album at a time, and I have not figured out how to do that or do a slide show here. Anyways, I'm going to take a quick break from work (that I should be doing), and catch up blogger. the girls were Sharpay (from High School Musical), and an Angel this year. Abby was Sharpay and Jillian was the angel (hee hee). Actually, Jillian changed to a bride after a friend of ours gave us some dress up clothes. We did the family Fall festival night at church, Haunted the Zoo and trick-or-treated the local dorms. We also made our own Halloween suckers and went to a sock hop at their school. We had a great time! We didn't do much on the actual Halloween night because I was washing and packing like a crazy woman trying to get ready for my competition in Hawaii. Here is a picture of the girls at each event. If you want to see all the pictures, look me up on facebook. :)

Boomer Sooner

Steve and I were able to get some free tickets to a Sooner game (thank you Stone family)! My parents had just had the kids overnight the night before, so we felt guilty having them watch the kids again. It was also a Saturday night and the kids needed to get to bed at a decent hour. So, Steve took my Dad with him to the game, and Mom came over for a "girls night out". We all had a great time! The Sooners won and us girls played Wii, board games, and watched "Enchanted". Thanks again Don and Heather for the great tickets!

Curly Q

Jillian was blessed with bone straight hair. I LOVE her hair and am so jealous that her hair is so easy to take care of. She, of course, loves curly hair and would prefer that I curl it everyday. This is how she looks in the afternoon after sleeping on sponge rollers. I like the loose curl. Unfortunatly, at the end of the day she is back to straight hair. Poor thing! :)

Girls will be girls

One night when I was gone (apparently), Steve let the girls paint their own fingernails. Of course they told me the minute I got home what Daddy "let" them do. They had a great time!

Day of Character

The Zoo had a day of Character day sometime in September. It was really cool. You could go around and listen to different "character qualites" that animals have and how you should have them too(like self-esteem, leadership, etc...). Once you collected all your cards, you could turn them in for a prize. The girls both chose the posters of the animals and their "characters". They gave the girls free t-shirts and they got to do crafts too. It was really a ton of fun and we got to see the fin and feather show and all of our favorite animals. We ran into several people that we knew too! It was a terrific family fun day.

Home Improvements

Here are some pictures that we took of our new living room furniture and our mantle that I changed. It's been a busy month. All of this was done before Steve "changed jobs" in the end of August. I was pretty proud of the new purchases. I will eventually make light blue/ turquoise pillows to go on the couch for contrast, but I have put a freeze on extra spending for right now. :) We are LOVING the microfiber though! So much easier to keep clean!

3...2...1....Contact

We have all seen the movie Contact or know what it is about. However, just tonight I was told of a more jaw dropping event that is about to happen. Most people don't remember the dates but August 6 and 9, 1945 will always be remembered by approximatly 1 in 18 people that we either interact with throughtout the day or pass by on the street. That date was the day that our own President Harry S. Trueman ordered the "Little Boy" to be dropped on Hiroshima. We all know the impact that made on the world.

Well that was only the beginning. Three days after Hiroshima, the Japanese willingly did not give up it's battle. Then came the bomb on the morning of August 9, 1945 where a U.S. B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, flown by the crew of 393rd Squadron commander Major Charles W. Sweeney, carried the nuclear bomb code-named "Fat Man". Where did it hit......anybody have a guess. If you guessed Nagasaki you are right. The plane was low on fuel and the cloud cover was very horrible and the mission was almost called off but with a few second window they dropped Fat Man. This plutonium filled bomb was detonated at 469 meters above the earth's floor. Hence, a blast that yielded an equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT. This resulted in the second live combat nuclear destruction with an astounding TOTAL destruction zone of just over two miles, and that does not inclued the aftermath. Where am I going with this you may ask. Well, in just three days our world will conduct a test that may supersede these explostions that may unknowningly top Little Boy and Fat Man to somewhere say......close to infinity. If you don't know what made these bombs so useful it is called either nuclear fusion which is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. The second way these bombs can carve such a destructive (even more so than fusion) path is called nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing free neutrons and other smaller nuclei, which may eventually produce photons (in the form of gamma rays). So what would you say if we were to split a photon? This will all be unveiled starting on Wednesday. Dr. Lyn Evans (the third from the left) is in charge of building the giant atom smasher buried underground at Cern – the European Centre for Nuclear Research – in Switzerland. Dr. Lyn Evans is the mastermind of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the test — taking place 300ft underground near the French-Swiss border — atomic particles, inside the LHC, will be fired in opposite directions along a 17-mile tunnel at mind-boggling speeds. When I say mind boggling speeds, I mean speeds within a fraction of the speed of light. So what is going to happen when they fire these atomic particles, or photons, on Wednesday. Well nothing! This would be a boring story if that were the end. However, when Dr. Lyn Evans starts the machine up on Wednesday are we just looking to see if we can get the atomic particles to make it around the 17 mile tunnel and shut it down? Nope! This wonderful, in it's own way, experimentation will keep the lab running. You may ask yourself.....for how long? Well the intention of the Dr. Evans and his Scientists is to attempt to recreate conditions in the first billionths of a second after the Big Bang start of the universe. Why would this concern us? Well to simulate the creation of the universe you would have both fusion and fission working together to create matter. However, when this matter evolves into something that we can see we end up with one of many things, but for this example I will use our Star. Yes the star that the nine...wait 10 planets are revolving around. Will our star last forever? Dustin, don't give it away for every body else. Nope...our star will soon die. When our star dies it will become either a black dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, depending on how massive it is, in which we don't even know the exact weight of our star. We will likely not see a black hole but we will surely see a black dwarf or a neutron star. Don't worry....if our star dies it will expand way past Jupiter before it implodes into a speck of a high light producing mass and we will all be burnt up and toasted like an OU tailgate party. OK...OK...Back to the LHC. With these atomic particles spinning in opposite directions they will eventually hit each other. When this happens they will split and we all know what that does. It produces energy. So now more particles are spinning in opposite directions. So when they flip the switch on Wednesday will we all submit ourselves to an earth destroying black hole. No. The scientists predict that they will not see results for approximatly four years. I will end my post with this.
Tom Feilden, a top science expert in the world stated on BBC Radio 4’s Today show.

He said: “Don’t panic. The world is not going to end on Wednesday.
The Collider almost certainly WILL produce microscopic black holes, perhaps at a rate as high as one every second. But these will be so small and unstable that they will vanish as quickly as they form."

Hmmmm...Yes, I will take the number 3 with large fries and a couple black holes on the side please.

First Day of School

Whew! 11 posts later, and I'm finally on the last post (for right now, anyways). Last Wednesday was the girls' first day of school. Both of them have really good teachers and were so excited to go! This was the first year that I didn't cry. Abby is a 2nd grader this year, still in team time. That is really nice because her class will be pretty much the same kids until 5th grade. Since they do "team projects" 2-3 times a week with the other grades (1-5), she already knew her teacher and her teacher squealed (yes squealed) when Abby came to Information day. I think she will have an awesome year. She told me she loves her teacher because she is funny. I'm thinking you need a good sense of humor to teach 2nd graders.
Jillian is so excited to be in the "big school" with Abby. All she talked about this summer is that she would get to be at the pole with Abby at the end of the day for pick up. Steve had a Dr's appointment Wednesday afternoon, and took the rest of the day off (he had use it or lose it hours, belive it or not), so he got to go with us to drop off Jillian for the first day of Kindergarten. It was the first time that he has been able to go, and thought it was really neat to see what all they do. Jillian had a new teacher this year. She is new to the school, but not new to teaching. We ran into her at Mardel's the day after Information day. I'm thinking that's a good sign! She seems really sweet, Jillian loves her and she remembered Jillian's name outside of school after only meeting her once. Like I said, I think this will be a great year. We did have a couple of first day "hiccups". Abby called me from school about 12:00, and told me that she broke her shoe on the playground, and could I bring her a new pair (one extra trip to the school). Jillian came home with a band-aid on her leg from falling off the monkey bars and landing on the rocks. What a first day!
I was really proud of myself. I did NOT sign up for homeroom Mom this year. That is a HUGE deal for me. I have always been the homeroom Mom for one of my children. i signed up to bring things for the party or help with them, but not to be in charge of them. Steve was very impressed. I have just decided that it is too much with working as much as I do during the school year.
Here's too another great school year! Hope you all had a great first day!

Tooth #4

I'm glad I took pictures with just one tooth missing from the top. 2 days later, the other top tooth was ready to go. This one was a little more attached to the gum than the last one, but it came out with the first yank. This one bled a little bit more, so the tooth fairy left her $1.50. I guess inflation has really gone up in the last 25 years or so! :) You have to love that toothless grin!

A Day with Jack Jack

Leann had a meeting one Thursday, and Josh was out of town, so we watched just Jackson. It was really neat to watch the girls play with him and mother him. He really likes music. The girls would play their Hannah Montana CD and he would just jump along and dance to the music. He had a pretty good tea party with Abby too. It was neat just to have him one on one. Love you, Jackson! Next time we will have to just have Josh! :)

I can Tie!!!!

Apparently, August 13th was a big milestone day in our house. Jillian learned how to tie her own shoe. I knew she was trying, and my Mom said that she was close. She kept wanting to wear her "tie shoes", and so I tied one while she tied the other and showed her the steps one at a time. Once we did tha, she had it figured out! We are so proud of her. She picked up on this skill pretty fast.

Missing our first upper tooth

Abby finally got tired of her wiggly tooth because it was getting harder to eat. On Wednesday, August 13th, she had her Daddy pull it. This was our first one not pulled by the dentist. It scared her, but she did really well. This beautiful tooth was worth $1.00.

First Attempt

Abby's 3rd tooth was just hanging by a small piece of her upper gum, and she thought she wanted me to pull it. Luckily, Leann was over getting ready for the blogger bash. I needed her to tie a slip knot for me and take pictures. I didn't have enough nerve to yank it, so it waited a few more days. This was our failed attempt, but it did make it more loose!

Haircut anyone?

Jillian was playing with her bunny the other day, and decided that the computer chair made a good hairdresser's chair. She found a mirror, put it in front of the bunny and began her work. I must say, I was impressed with the creativity.

Me and Jilly being Silly

Abby was spending the night up at the church, and Jillian was feeling a little left out, and wanted to take pictues. She loves to bounce up and down on my legs while I sing a little song to her. We did that for a while and then took pictures of ourselves. It was a great time!

Craft Projects

The girls had been begging me all summer to paint. That is one thing that they love to do, and I hate it! Just because it's alot of work for me. They had been really good, so I took them to their favorite place, Hobby Lobby. They picked out these items from the unfinished wood section, and we took them home, got out the craft table cloth, changed into our paint clothes and began working. They had a great time and have really used them for items in thier rooms. Pretty good deal! :)

End of Dance Class

The girls had their last dance class at the Poteet theater on August 1st. They had a fun last class and enjoyed the break from "boring things" this summer. Since I hurt my back at the beginning of July and spent most of my time in Physical Therapy and trying to work, they really looked forward to getting out! :)

Ears Pierced, again!

We let Jillian get her ears pierced when she was 3. She threw such a fit about it AFTER she had them done that once we were able to take out her studs, she would not let us put any back in. I told her that was fine, but to never ask me to get them done again. At the end of July, she had been begging me for over a week to get them pierced and I kept saying "no", because I told her that I would not go thru that again, even though she promised me that she would not throw a fit (and she is 2 years older). On my birthday, while I was at chorus, Steve took her to walmart and got them done. He said that she didn't even cry. I guess that she understood that "mom" wouldn't let her get them re-done, but that Dad would! :) She has been taking care of them herself (and doing a good job). I guess that just goes to tell me that she was just too young. We'll see what happens when she can take out the studs and change them out!

Hang On!

Because I'm going to catch you up! I haven't filled you in since the end of July, and A LOT has happened since then! I had a birthday (21 again :)), and I got a lot of nice gifts. Some Born shoes and clothes from my parents, Cottonwood gift certificate from the hubby and kids, lunch out and Sharpies (yes, I asked for them) from Leann and the Priebe clan, flowers from my sister, Shannon, and money from Steve's parents. I also got several cards from people and a lot of calls. Thank you all! I didn't take pictures of all of my gifts, but I took a picture of the flowers that Shannon sent me so that she could see how beautiful they were the following morning. Happy Birthday me! :)