Dick&Erica's BLOG

Epiphanies

2011-11-18T09:55:00.004-05:00

I had a major epiphany about Ruby the other day. She doesn't really have her own little friends, and I realize that she's only 4, so it doesn't really matter. She goes to preschool 3 times a week and there are only about 8 kids in her class. A photographer came to take their school pictures a while ago and we were able to look at them online, along with all of the other kids in her class. As we were clicking through the pictures, she could only tell me one girl's name, but no one else in her class. Then, a few days later, we went out to lunch with my friend Kristen and her little boy Nixon. When it was time to go, Ruby latched onto Kristen's leg and begged her not to leave. She kept saying goodbye to her over and over again. When we were driving back home, it all started clicking. Ruby is friends with adults, not kids. A couple months ago, our babysitter Rebekkah was leaving and Ruby was freaking out, crying and begging her not to leave. She probably thinks we beat her or something! She cried for an hour once because she thought my friend Kate didn't hear her say goodbye after we left her house. No mention of her kids- just Kate. She practically mauls the other Mom at the bus stop every morning, hugging her and showing her her latest trick of walking backwards. She gets very attached to her aunts whenever we're around them. I imagine that she likes the attention she gets from grown ups. And the hugs. She's very snuggly and wants to hug all throughout the day. Maybe she's figured out that kids her age won't let her sit on their lap and wrap her arms around their necks? I absolutely love Ruby and love figuring out little things about her personality. She is definitely one of a kind!

She's also been asking to take pictures with my phone or my camera a ton lately, so Santa had an epiphany about what to get her for Christmas!

Ella has been having her own epiphanies lately as well. Yesterday, she came off the bus so excited because she had figured out how to snap her fingers! It's a soft snap, but she's definitely getting it. She practiced all night and couldn't wait to get to school to show her friends. This morning, her thumb looked like it had a blister on it!

She is also really doing well at school. We had parent/teacher conferences a couple weeks ago and her teacher had so many wonderful things to say about Ella. She said she was polite and happy. She was excelling in each academic area and really grasping the concepts. I was smiling from ear to ear. Ella tries so hard and is really maturing (as much as a 5 year old can). She has much more control of her emotions and can really stop and figure things out. Not to say that every moment is perfect, but her disposition has really mellowed out in the past year. She loves school and reports that every day is a great day when we pick her up from the bus stop.

It is so fun, as a parent, to see her learning new things every day. A couple nights ago, she picked up a book I had checked out from the library (one of the easy reader-type books) and read the whole thing out loud. I was amazed! I love kindergarten for her! We read "The Indian in the Cupboard" last month, a chapter a night before bed and she really liked it. Last night we started "Little House on the Prairie", which I have never read before. Ruby tunes in once in a while, but mostly likes to roll around and play with Annie.

Oh Two-dles!

2011-11-17T13:05:00.014-05:00

I can't believe my baby is 2! Annie had her birthday on the 13th, but we celebrated a day early. We had some of her friends over for a (very loosely themed) Minnie Mouse party. She had so much fun and kept wanting to look at her cake and say, "It's my birthday party!"

A little about Annie at 2:

- she is the ultimate snuggler! She will always stop for hugs. The past few months, whenever I hold her, she wraps her arms around my neck and puts her head on my shoulder. It's the best feeling ever.

- she is a chatty cathy. She talks a ton and constantly amuses us with the phrases she picks up. I love this stage because anything she says is cute and funny. (How come it's not so cute and funny when the 4 and 5 year olds say the same thing?) A few favorites are: Didjou see that?!, That's okay, I'm sorry mama, For meeeeee?!, Don't like it (insert item here), I wanna hold you!

-this girl is trouble! In fact, Richard has taught her to say "Trouble" when you ask her what she is. I can't keep up with her mischief! Just today she spread diaper cream all over her face, hands, and feet. After I cleaned that up, I gave her a little cup of yogurt for a snack. When my back was turned, she spread the yogurt all over her face. She was running around with a bottle of black paint five minutes later. Luckily I intercepted that one! Every day it's something new...dumping out the box of Cheerios, digging out every tube of chapstick I own, pulling all of Richard's clothes off the hangers, painting the table with applesauce, unrolling the roll of toilet paper, and on, and on. It sounds like I never pay attention to her, but she's just so darn fast. She's making a new mess while I'm cleaning up the last one!

-speaking of trouble, a couple months ago, she learned how to climb out of her crib! Ella and Ruby never did this, so it's all uncharted territory for us. I guess there was always a new baby on the way for the other two, so they moved into toddler beds around 2. Who knows? It was ridiculous the first couple of weeks. She would get out and we'd put her right back in. She'd run and hide under Ella's bed. Then we she got caught she'd immediately hug me and say, "I'm sorry Mama." It was hard to keep a straight face. Luckily, the novelty has kind of worn off and she stays in there at night now. Nap time is a little trickier. If she's not totally ready for her nap, she'll keep coming out since she knows the other kids are up. I have to admit, it's kind of nice that she gets herself out of bed in the morning!

-she is a sponge. She really listens to what her sisters say and I love when I hear her counting or saying letters.

-she LOVES her sisters. She and Ruby are becoming good friends, now that she's getting a little older. The other day, they were at the kitchen table coloring with markers and I hear Annie say in a really deep voice, "Let's get messy!" and Ruby was cracking up. They went back and forth saying the same thing over and over, both of them laughing just as hard every time.

-she is a whiz at the iPad. I don't know if that's good, bad, or just a sign of the times, but when she gets to use it, she knows exactly what to do to put Netflix on and watch My Big, Big Friend.

-she loves nursery. All through sacrament meeting she's asking to go to class and play bubbles. She has so much fun in there and every time we go to pick her up, she holds up her coloring page and says, "Look what I made!"

-she's really not interested in toys, except for dress ups. She loves to wear princess dresses and especially shoes. She walks around in those little plastic high heels all day, up and down the stairs.

-she definitely knows how to throw a tantrum. If she doesn't want to do something, she will cry and fight it. If it's something like eating, I usually just let her cry and after 30 seconds, she comes over and eats. I guess she just needs a minute to let it all out. She's also a pro at time out. I don't know if it's because she sees her sisters do it, but she actually stays there with her nose on the wall. It's hilarious!

-she is a sweet heart. She is quick to say sorry to anyone and loves to give hugs and kisses before bed. She's good about sharing and loves her family. She's a big mama's girl, but loves to play with her Daddy and give him loves.

For her party, we had Mickey shaped nuggets and cheese, goldfish, oranges, and juice boxes. I made Mickey/Minnie ears for all the kids. I thought they turned out pretty cute. Here's Nixon modeling the Mickey ears:

And Kensi with the Minnie ears:

Ben won our game of pin the nose on Minnie. I had a few other games planned, but the kids were just having fun playing, so we never got around to them.

Here's her sad, sad cake! The night before the party, I still had to finish all the ears, so we just bought a cake from Wal-mart at 10 pm. I scraped off the Quinceanera flowers (and damaged the white frosting in the process) and added the Minnie head. She thought it was great, so I guess that's what matters!

After a little instruction, she blew out her two candles all on her own!

She was very spoiled by her friends with presents. It is hilarious to watch kids during the present opening. She had lots of help!
We sure do love our little Annie Mae! She is a big blessing to our family. She is so full of personality. For every ounce of trouble that she is, she is ten times as loving and cute!

Marine Corps Birthday Ball

2011-11-07T16:08:00.003-05:00

Ever year, the Marine Corps has a birthday ball that we get to (have to) go to. I will admit that it's fun to get dressed up in formal attire, but the tickets are expensive and the food is terrible. Oh well. What can you do?! At least it's fun to have a date night and I do like the people Richard works with. This year they held it at the OClub and it was just for the Officers, so it wasn't a huge crowd like last year.

The day of the ball, I had to take Ella to a dental appointment in Wilmington, which is almost 2 hours away. And since I was already in Wilmington, I had to take advantage of going to Costco. And a real mall. I had to find a specific lipstick that my friend Molly recommended to me so that I could wear it that night. This is all really important stuff right? Well, it made me late. Of course. I'm late for everything. Richard could not be late to the ceremony, so he hitched a ride with a friend that lives nearby. I went home and quickly got ready. I guess it wasn't really that quick. By the time I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, chatted with my friend, Amanda, who was watching the kids, and drove 45 minutes to the base, I had missed the entire program. Not that I minded. It is kind of boring. I did make it in time for dinner. So we ate, had some birthday cake, and mingled with everyone. It was fun and I love seeing Richard around the people he works with. Anyway, how could I not have fun with such a hot date?! I do love the blue uniforms a lot more than the white ones.

Since I was so late, we had to take pictures at the end of the night, so my hair looks kind of dumb.

Halloween and Other October Hi-jinx

2011-11-07T14:29:00.027-05:00

October was a great month! The weather started to change and the humidity is finally gone. We've loved having our windows open all day and playing out on the deck. The past couple of years, I feel like by the time actual Halloween day comes around, we're already costumed and candied out because there are 800 different activities to attend. So this year we skipped the pre-Halloween festivities like trick-or-treating at the aquarium and the town party, and just kept it simple. I feel like, that way, the actual Halloween night is so much more fun for the kids. (Who am I kidding? My kids would love dressing up and getting candy 500 times in two weeks. It's me who doesn't like it. I'll keep control when and where I can!)

We went to a local church that had a pumpkin patch and let the kids pick the ones they wanted to carve. Ella and Ruby had a few requirements for their jack-o-lanterns: eyelashes, lips, and a wig. Oh, girls! And Annie was so mad when Richard cut the top open of hers. She kept saying, "Daddy ruined my punkin!" She eventually got over it when we put the little candle inside and she saw the face all lit up.

After we carved the pumpkins, we made hot chocolate for everybody. A couple minutes later, I look over at Ruby and she had chocolate splattered all over her face! How does that even happen?! This girl has serious talent!

Since Halloween was on a school day, the girls got to wear their costumes to class. Ella wore her cat outfit, but I didn't get a picture before school. We go to the bus stop at 6:45 am and it's still dark outside at that time. They did get to walk around to the other classrooms and have a costume parade.

Ruby's preschool had a little party so she dressed up as a "nice" witch.

Ruby and Miss Heather: (I asked Ruby if she wanted to take a picture with Miss Heather and this little Woody told me yes and went over into the picture. Whatever!)

Ruby and Miss Stacey:

Annie was so happy she finally got to play on the playground!

Ruby's school ends at noon and Ella had early release at the same time that day, so we all came home for a special Halloween lunch: Mummy Dogs, jello jigglers, and apples with caramel dip.

Once Richard got home, the kids got back into their costumes and we painted their faces. Ruby had it set in her mind that she wanted a green witch face, so this is what we came up with. Annie got to be whatever fit her in the costume bin. It was between a mouse and a hula girl, and since it was 50 degrees outside, the mouse won out. Poor third child!

We went out to our old neighborhood in Jacksonville and trick-or-treated with our friends, the Millers. These girls were all so cute. The older ones raced from house to house. Ruby was running the whole time and would get so excited every time she got candy. The little ones hung with their daddies and took their time. Annie was loving it so much! By the end, their buckets were really full of treats, but Annie would not let Richard help her carry it. That thing was heavy, but there was no way she was letting go of it for a second! We got around to most of the neighborhood by the time it started raining, so we decided to call it quits and go eat some dinner at Cook Out. We got home, bathed the kiddos, and tucked everyone into bed.

Ella and Ruby frequently want to wear lip gloss, and on this day, Ruby was kind enough to share some with Annie. And so it begins! Sisters doing each other's makeup!

On one of the warmer days, I sent Annie out on the deck to paint. She had fun, but didn't get a whole lot of paint on the paper. It's much more fun to paint your legs and feet. Plus, that way you get to do your other favorite activity...take a bath!

One weekend, Jonas and Phebe came for a visit. We took them to El Zarape for dinner, then went to the beach on Saturday. They had to get back to Raleigh that afternoon and I had already called a babysitter for that night, thinking we'd all go out without the kids. Since they had to leave, we decided we'd go out anyway. We ended up going out with one of Richard's friends from work and his wife and had so much fun! It was a great weekend!
Every time Ruby sees this picture she says, "It's good that we have this picture so I don't miss Jonas and Phebe so much."

Also that weekend, my friend Kate had a birthday party for her little boy Ethan. He is a few weeks older than Annie, so they are great friends. Kate is amazing, especially when it comes to throwing parties. She did a Curious George at the Circus theme and went all out. There was a little photo booth area setup with a bunch of different props. I thought these mustaches were hilarious!

Now that October is done, we are ready for a wonderful November. It's one of my favorite months because of the crisp fall air, pumpkin baked goods, and reminders to reflect on all that we are thankful for. We truly are so blessed! Plus, it's less than six weeks till we move!!!!

Going Going Back Back to Cali Cali

2011-09-30T13:26:00.003-04:00

Yes, I just quoted Biggie Smalls on my blog.

Richard just got orders to move to San Diego in December!!!!!! We are beyond excited! I can't wait to live in a normal town. I will definitely miss the fantastic friends I've made here and our awesome ward, and living this close to the beach, but I'm excited to be within driving distance of Arizona and be back in California!

About a month ago, Richard met with the detailer (the guys who assigns you to your next duty station) to start looking at where we were thinking about going when his time was done here in NC in about 18 months. We went back and forth over staying on the East Coast, which we have loved, or trying to get out West, closer to our family. After dental school, our top two choices of where to go were both in San Diego, but we got our third choice, which was Camp LeJeune, in Jacksonville. So we finally decided that we'd go back to our original plan of moving out West. We saw that there is a naval base in Port Hueneme, CA which is really close to where I grew up in Simi Valley. We decided that that would be our first pick. Anyway, Richard didn't have to give the detailer his official choices until early next year, so this was all just talk.

About a week later, Richard got an email about a Hot Fill (when a position opens up that needs to be filled quickly) in San Diego. He quickly asked me what I thought and we decided we might as well go for it. So he responded and talked to the guy in charge. It didn't seem likely that he would get it since he hadn't been at LeJeune for two years. The guy said he would keep Richard in mind, but would see if there was any other interest. Long story short, we ended up having to wait to hear the answer until we got back from our Disney trip. Since Richard's email is government, he wasn't able to check it while he wasn't at work. So I was actually glad for him to go back to work on Monday so that he could check his email. Well, he got it!!! His bosses gave him great reviews and were confident that he would be able to do the job.

He will be the only dentist on a brand new ship, the USS Anchorage, that's still being built in New Orleans. So a little while after we move, he'll have to go out there and set up the whole clinic. Then the ship will be commissioned and he'll get to stay in San Diego. He takes care of about 600 sailors and he'll have to go out with the ship when it does. I think this is a really great opportunity for him! It definitely makes work more interesting than just doing exams all day. He'll hopefully get to see cool places and maybe sometimes I can meet up with him at different ports. So, our opportunity came sooner than we expected, and we are ready for it!

We are looking forward to this change and are excited that we'll be closer to family and friends out there. We definitely want visitors, so feel free to stay with us! And I'm excited that it's a military move, so I don't have to pack or move our stuff!

Ruby's 4th Birthday!

2011-09-30T10:57:00.022-04:00

I can't believe Ruby is 4! She has been waiting for her birthday for a long time because she knew we were going to Disney. And she knew that Preschool started when she turned 4.

This girl has so much personality wrapped up in her little body! It just keeps getting better and better. Here's a little about 4 year old Ruby:

- she loves to play ponies, princesses, and dress up. She loves imaginative play and I often hear her say, "Let's pretend that..." She and Ella like to play "stories".

- she can write all her letters and is starting to sound out words. She listens in on Ella's homework and tries to do the same things.

- she is definitely an artist. She will sit and color or draw forever. Her pictures are very detailed too. Now that she's in school, she gets to do way more arts and crafts projects there, so she is thrilled! In fact, a couple weeks ago, her Primary teacher told me that Ruby got very upset with her for accidentally bumping her while she was coloring.

- she still says some words wrong, but I think it's so cute that I just can't correct it. Some favorites are:

Don't leave ABOUT me! (about = without)

I am big HAS Ella. (has= as)

I'm nice and comfTy. (comfty= comfy)

- she still has a temper! If she gets upset, it takes major work and time for her to calm down. She can't really be reasoned with.

- one thing that upsets her the most is when Daddy teases her (which makes him do it even more!!!!). If he inserts her name into a song, she goes nuts. She often says, "NO DADDY!!!" to him. I have to remind her not to get worked up by saying, "What does Daddy love to do?" and then she usually laughs and says, "Tease!" Then she won't believe a word he says. It's pretty funny actually.

- She is so brave in some regards, like picking up bugs, getting dirty, and talking to anyone, but also has many fears. She doesn't like heights. If Richard tries to pick her up really high, she gets petrified. She won't go on the Dumbo ride at Disney. Now that I think of it, the first time I took her to Disneyland when she wasn't quite 2, she screamed bloody murder on the Dumbo ride. I guess some things are just ingrained.

- She LOVES Ella! She would follow her around and play with her all day long if Ella would let her. She thinks Annie's great, for a baby, but is a last resort playmate. I think it's because Annie doesn't have the imagination play down yet.

- She's starting to ask some deep questions about church. When we have family home evening, she listens (for the most part) and really thinks about the topic. She loves to be the one saying the prayer. She still ends her bedtime prayers with, "Help us not to play in the drawers and closets." This dates back to one night in our Buffalo house, and she still hasn't let it go!

- She loves to wear dresses and skirts. Maybe someday one of my daughters will let me put them in jeans or shorts. Sigh. Ruby loves to pick out her outfit the night before school and lay it out on the floor to see if it's cute.

- She is very loving. She randomly says, "I love you" to me throughout the day. She's such a sweet heart! She loves to cuddle and be held and hug.

- Every time she puts her shoes on, without fail, they are on the wrong feet. And it doesn't bother her one bit to walk around with them like that.

We had a really fun time at Disney World for her birthday. The only downside was that it was blasted hot and humid still in Florida. It kind of cut our days short, but on the plus side, we drank lots of Slurpees to cool off!

On the night of Ruby's actual birthday, we ate dinner at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The food was really yummy, but it cost way too much! Especially when you add in the kids. I don't know what we were thinking, but oh well. It was a celebration, right?! We brought a cake that we had made at the Super Target bakery (ah, Super Target. Will I ever live by one of them?!). So after dinner, we sang and had cake. Then Ruby opened her present, a giant Pony setup, which was just what she asked for. That thing provided hours of entertainment for the kids, which allowed me watch lots of HGTV at the condo we were staying at. We don't have cable, so we watched lots of Property Brothers, Pawn Stars, and Storage Wars. Richard also watched Dog the Bounty Hunter, but I couldn't handle it!

We went to Chevy's the night after Ruby's birthday and told them it was her birthday. They sang to her and gave her this giant sombrero! She almost decided to wear it to Animal Kingdom the next day, but changed her mind at the last minute. At least it would have kept the sun out of her eyes!
We had such a fun trip and are excited to go again in a couple weeks with some of our family. We sure do love our little Rubes!

Odds and Ends

2011-09-30T10:11:00.012-04:00

I recently got a new phone that has a pretty good camera, so I've been taking more pictures with that. I finally figured out how to take them off the phone and put them on my computer. Yes, I love technology. I'm trying really hard to not be one of those people who is constantly attached to and checking their phones. But, I will admit that having the internet while on a road trip has definitely come in handy! So these are random pictures from my phone.

We had our first real hurricane here at the end of August. Our town declared a mandatory evacuation, so we headed up to Chapel Hill for the weekend and stayed at Phoebe's house. The storm ended up not being as strong as was predicted, so we came through relatively unscathed. The only damage was a large branch across our driveway and our mailbox was ripped out of the ground. We feel very lucky that we didn't have more damage or flooding. As far as natural disasters go, I'm glad that hurricanes give you lots of warning. We had several days to prepare for it, unlike with an earthquake that happens without warning. I don't like earthquakes.

We went to the aquarium one afternoon with our friends, the Miller's. My kids never tire of that place!

After the hurricane, I took the girls down to the beach thinking there would be some really cool shells that had washed up. No such luck. All we found were lots of washed up tires and dying sea creatures. I'm pretty sure they were the animal that lives inside the clam shells. There were tons of them. It was kind of sad.

Ella had a little half-day orientation at her school, so we took some cute pictures before we left.

Annie's a little jealous that she doesn't have a back pack and Twinkle Toes, so she puts them on when the girls get home from school.

It's taken some adjusting for her after Ella leaves for school and then we drop Ruby off. The first day they were both gone, she threw this lovely little fit in the car:

This little sweetheart is very intense some times. That intensity shines through when she says "No!" or makes a giant mess while she looks you right in the eye. It has landed her in time out a few times. Usually, when we tell her to go put her nose on the wall, she says, "Ok Mommy." and goes and does it. It is the funniest thing ever!!! She's so cute with her face totally smooshed up against the wall.

I've been experimenting with Ella and Ruby's hair lately. I watched youtube videos to learn how to French Braid and I've seen a couple different hairstyles online that I've tried. Some of the girl's hairstyle websites are a little out of control for me, but I like some of them. It especially helps with Ruby's hair. It always looks scraggly to me and I'd love to get her bob back again, but she really wants long hair like Rapunzel, so we'll see.

Sometimes when Ella and Ruby are at school, I take Annie down to the beach for the morning. She enjoyed herself for a few minutes, then wanted to go. I guess playing with me isn't as fun as playing with her sisters. I can't really blame her!

Finally- Ruby Starts Preschool

2011-09-27T06:13:00.002-04:00

This day has been a long time coming for Ruby! Ever since Ella started Preschool two years ago, Ruby has been begging for her turn to go to school. The day finally arrived and she couldn't have been more excited! She has her very own back pack and lunch box for her snack that she has to bring. We found a great little school at a Presbyterian church nearby. Her teachers seem really great and so far Ruby is absolutely loving it. She goes 3 days a week and is sad when it's not a school day. She has so much fun doing art projects (she is definitely an artist!) and learning songs. Her favorite thing is playing on the playground. I am so excited for her to have her own activities and experiences to talk about. It's always been her following Ella and her friends around. We never seem to meet people with girls Ruby's age, so she's never really had an actual friend to call her own. So I am excited for her to meet and play with kids her own age and level.

So for three hours a day, three days a week, it's just me and Annie. I think she's a little confused. She'll randomly ask, "Where Ruby?" and "Where Ella?" and I remind her we took them to school and she says, "Oh. Chool." She is happy to be able to play with whatever toys she wants while they're away!

On the days where just Ella is at school, poor Ruby is just lost. She's constantly wanting someone to play ponies or princesses with her. I usually try to play, but sometimes I'm trying to get housework done and I have to tell her no. She just keeps asking non-stop. And when I do play, it's painful for me! I know that's so bad to say and it makes me a terrible Mom, but I truly think I've lost my imagination because I have such a hard time playing her little "stories". I try, I really do, but I just don't like it. Annie's still too young for the imagination play, so she's not an option for Ruby most times. A couple days after Ella started school, Ruby was eating lunch and she would come show me every time she took a bite. "Look at these chips! They're stuck together!" "Look at this turkey hanging out of my mouth!" I was starting to wonder why she was so needy all of the sudden, when it dawned on me that she normally has Ella to show all this stuff to. Now that Ella wasn't there, I got to see it all. Yikes! I just love Ruby so much and love her personality. I am so happy that she finally has a school to go to and is loving every minute of it!

Ella's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-27T05:43:00.005-04:00

I have been dreading this day for a long time. What ever happened to starting school when you're 5 and having half-day Kindergarten?! Ella's done preschool for two years and I was fine with that because it was only 3 hours, 3 days a week. Not a big deal. But now that she's in Kindergarten, she is gone for almost 9 hours every day!!!! She's only 5 years old! I know I sound like a crazy Mom, but I can't help it.

So even though I was dreading it, Ella was very excited for school to start. Her only concern was that her teacher would make her stand up and read to the class, but she didn't know how to read yet. How cute is that?! Once I explained that her teachers and I would help her learn how to read and that's what you do in Kindergarten, she was much more at ease.

I made her french toast for her first day breakfast, and yes, notice that it's still dark outside. I have to wake her up at 6 am so that she can catch the bus at 6:40! It's just not right! On the second day of school, she said, "Mom, I like school, but I don't like waking up in the night to get ready." Poor girl! She eats breakfast while I pack her lunch and snack, then she goes to my room, where she's laid out her outfit the night before, and gets dressed. She brushes her teeth and I do her hair. We try to be as quiet as possible to not wake up Ruby and Annie, but most of the time, Ruby gets up. She likes to walk to the bus stop with us.

Here she is, waiting for the bus.

I'm not gonna lie, I was very emotional when she was leaving, but I held it in. After the bus drove away, I almost started crying, but Ruby kept going on and on, whining about how Ella didn't say goodbye to her. So she cried the whole way home and ruined my sentimental moment. Oh well.
So far, she is loving school, but I think the long days are wearing on her. She came home the second week and said, "Mom, I'm ready for a vacation. I just want to go on vacation and have a nice long rest." She is definitely our daughter!! Apparently, it's assigned seating on the bus, and the first week, she was sitting next to a rambunctious boy who hit her in the nose. I told her to ask him kindly to stop, then if he kept doing it, to tell her bus driver. She surprised me one day by telling me that this boy had to switch seats. I guess she told the bus driver about him and she told her to go to the office. She went there all by herself and told them what was going on, so they put two other kindergartners next to her instead. I couldn't believe she was so brave! So, that problem is solved. Her only trouble so far is that she's had to move her behavior clip from green to red for talking. During the first ten minutes of lunch time, there is a strict no talking rule. I guess she just has too much to say because she's slowly learning that having to move your clip is no fun.

I am really excited for Ella to be learning so much. Her teacher seems great and she goes to an awesome school. I just wish I could keep her home with me a little longer!

I Love It When We're Cruisin' Together

2011-09-26T21:07:00.026-04:00

During Richard's residency, he wasn't really allowed to take time off, so as soon as it ended, we planned to go on our first cruise to the Bahamas. His mom and sister, Amy and her two little boys came to watch the girls for a week while we flew down to Miami and set sail aboard a Norwegian Cruise Ship. It was so strange, yet relaxing to not have to worry about taking care of children for a whole week!

Leaving the Port in Miami:

One of the main reasons we wanted to try a cruise was for the food! Endless options at all times is right up our alley. It was all soooooo good, except for one night when I got brave and ordered leg of lamb. It was so nasty!!!! Never again. Luckily, we just headed down to the buffet after we left that restaurant and got ourselves some delicious dessert instead.

Our first stop was in Freeport. We cruised through the night and when we woke up and looked out our window, we were a little shocked to see a town right outside. We caught a taxi, with Bahama Mama as our driver, and headed to the market area in town. It's kind of a sad little island. It looks like it used to be pretty nice, but apparently a hurricane ruined a lot of buildings a few years ago and with America's bad economy, it just never recovered. There are lots of abandoned stores, restaurants, and hotels. We looked around the market for a while, then went down to the beach to swim in the clear blue water.

Gotta love the towel animals!

The next day might be my favorite. We went to the cruise lines private island. It was a cove with tons of beach chairs set up and that lovely clear blue water. It was super hot while we were there, so I just alternated from my lounge chair to a chair in the water while I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (excellent book, by the way). Richard snorkeled and explored the island. It was just such a relaxing and peaceful day.

We sailed on to Nassau the next day and had lots of fun there. After much debate of what to do, we decided on a taxi tour of the city, which was just ok. We did stop by the Atlantis hotel and it made me drool. It's gorgeous! After that, we made it back just in time to catch our snorkeling adventure boat. We rode out to a spot and they let us all off the boat to snorkel. We saw lots of fish and even a barracuda (yikes!). The fish weren't as tropical looking as the ones in Hawaii, but it could have just been our location there.

On the ride back, we got a little tour and they pointed out all of the gigantic mansions along the way. These ones belong to Oprah. That's right...she bought one and then bought the one next door as well. She probably just didn't want neighbors! And check out that boat out front!

We did a little souvenir shopping once we got back to the port. We went through this big tent market where everyone had their little booths set up. I don't know how they make any money because there were hundreds of booths and they were all selling the same stuff! Somehow we decided to buy a fan from this lady. We thought it would be the perfect gift for Ella. She finished stitching it and was nice enough to let me take a picture of her with it. She was very nice! When hurricane Irene hit a couple weeks later, I heard that this particular market got severely damaged and I immediately thought of this lady and hoped that she'd be able to recover her business quickly.

On the walk back to the ship, I bought a giant conch shell and Richard enjoyed a delicious coconut. Ah, the island life! We had so much fun just hanging out on the ship too. The pool was great, food was awesome, and I even got to get a spa treatment while I was there. This was just what we needed. A nice trip with just the two of us where we could relax and recharge!

And don't be sad that our girls didn't get to come. They had so much fun with Grandma Lari and Aunt Amy! Ruby especially loved having Landon around to play with.

Here's Annie with baby Crew. She enjoyed the playmat and bouncy seat as much as he did. She was very sad when I put it away after they left.

Amy and Lari were very brave and ventured out with all five kids in public! I love this picture. Everyone is happy and having a grand time, and then there's Ruby.

They went to the beach almost every afternoon .

And even got to go to the aquarium. The one by our house is awesome!

We are so glad that we have amazing family that is willing to come watch our kids so that we can go on a trip. The kids had a great time and we were all sad to see them go!

AEGD Graduation

2011-09-26T20:52:00.005-04:00

At the end of July, Richard graduated from his one year AEGD Residency. He really got to do a lot of interesting cases and sharpen his dentistry skills, so I think the experience was definitely worth the extra year in the military.

They had a small ceremony to hand out certificates to the residents. I was the only one who brought kids, so I was trying my best to keep them quiet. Unfortunately, when Commander Mayberry started giving his speech, Annie yelled out, "Quiet!". Then a few minutes later, while he was still talking, she yelled out, "Sit down!". Luckily, he had a great sense of humor about it!

The best part was that Richard was named the top resident! I couldn't be more proud and I'm not surprised. He's the hardest worker I know. Afterwards, we got to stay for a potluck lunch and mingle with the other doctors and techs and assistants. He worked with some very nice people, so it was a fun afternoon.

The AEGD Residents

Chillcut, Richard, Mendoza, Shaul, and Hicks

Summer Days

2011-09-26T20:27:00.012-04:00

Ah, the lazy days of summer. We tried to soak in as much family fun as we could before school and schedules and alarm clocks started.

Saturday morning breakfast at Mike's Restaurant. Apparently, they're discussing the hot real estate on Emerald Isle!!!

The girls were invited to a birthday party at Jumpin' Jax and had a blast.

Many sunsets were watched from our deck. It's just as amazing every day!

Heading down to the beach. We loaded up all our gear and these crazy girls hitched a ride. We tried out this wagon, but I felt like it was going to run me over and I may or may not have tipped it over while Annie was inside! We returned it and opted for a smaller one that works much better.

I really hope Ella and Ruby stay close friends forever. They sat like this for a really long time and I just wondered what they were discussing. All the great mysteries of life according to a 3 and 5 year old, I'm sure.

One morning we were at the beach there were tons of little jelly fish in the water. Needless to say, we didn't swim that day, but the girls had lots of fun spotting washed up ones and having Daddy shovel them into their bucket. They loved watching them float up and down.

Fourth of July

2011-09-26T11:30:00.004-04:00

We moved into our new house on 4th of July weekend, so we figured we'd take advantage of the firework show at the pier here. I invited my friend Kate and her two kids to come hang out and enjoy the show with us. We ate dinner, then headed down to the beach by our house and let the kids play until the sun went down. The show at the pier was awesome, but I thought the best part was watching everyone on the beach put on their own show with fireworks they bought. Some of them were pretty impressive!

Annie, Ella, Ethan, Isabelle, and Ruby.

Me and Kate

These cute girls couldn't take their eyes off the fireworks behind me for a picture!

The Move to Emerald Isle

2011-09-26T10:31:00.007-04:00

When we got back to North Carolina, after our Arizona/Utah adventure, we had two weeks to pack up our entire house (that we had just moved into a year earlier) and move. We were renting that house and the owner decided to sell it. We asked them if they would be willing to let us sign a two year lease, so they'd be guaranteed to have renters, but they never even gave us an answer. So our choices were to stay in that house month-to-month and have to show it to prospective buyers (no one ever came to look at it!) and then have to scramble to find a house if it sold, OR we could just go ahead and move. We decided that we would move to the beach. We went to dinner with one of the doctors from Richard's work who lives on Emerald Isle. After talking to him and another resident who lives here, we decided it would be a great place to live. It takes Richard about 40 minutes to drive to work on base, but he spent the same amount of time getting to work from our old house in Jacksonville, it was just 40 minutes of traffic.

We found a house to rent here that is a five minute walk from the beach. The island is long and skinny, so there's not a whole lot to it. There are little shops and restaurants and in the summer, LOTS of tourists. Most of the houses around us are vacation rentals, so I think we only have one actual neighbor on our street.

Our actual move was a nightmare! Since it wasn't a PCS, the military did not move us this time. We decided to pack the house up ourselves and hire a moving company to load and unload everything. The guy who came out to do the estimate was really nice and I felt like we made a good choice. Boy were we wrong! First, they showed up with the tiniest moving truck I've ever seen. They started loading stuff in it and said they were waiting for another truck to get here that was coming from Buffalo (!). The two guys that came first were actually really nice and fast workers. They promised they'd be done and out of there at 1:00, since I had scheduled the carpet cleaners to come at 2. We had to be out of the house that day by 5, or our property managers were going to charge us an extra $200 to keep the house over the 4th of July weekend, since they wouldn't be in the office to take the keys. The truck from Buffalo finally showed up, so now there were 4 workers. I was hopeful that they'd be done on schedule. Around 11:30, Richard went to pick up pizzas for them and that's pretty much when the work came to a grinding halt. They sat around while he went to get lunch, then ate, then smoked for another hour. The two original workers mysteriously disappeared after they ate, so we were left with the two guys who had unloaded someone's stuff in Buffalo, drove all night, and were now dead tired. The work went slooooow after that. The carpet cleaner came and said he couldn't do the carpets because his van had to be in the driveway, but the moving truck was still there, only half loaded. He was nice enough to volunteer to come on Saturday morning and just leave the key in the house when he finished. The movers didn't get out of there until 5:30, then I stayed to finish cleaning. To make a long story short, they finished unloading our stuff in the new house at 11 pm. They refused to move our couch up the stairs, so Richard and I had to do it a couple days later. They left lots of boxes downstairs that were clearly marked to go to upstairs rooms. I can't really blame those workers. They were already exhausted before they started and our new house has three flights of stirs, with the main living area on the third floor. I just think their company is terrible! That main guy who came in the morning, left these two poor guys to do a really hard job. By the end, they could hardly stand up. And they still had to drive both trucks back to Raleigh that night, which is a 3 hour drive!

Anyway, now we're in this house and we are loving where we live. This is a cute little town and it's so fun to head to the beach whenever we want. Like I said, the house is a little different than normal. The main living area is up on the third floor, since that's where the views are. We can see the ocean from one side of the room and the sound from the other side. The stairs aren't really that bad, it just makes it kind of inconvenient with three kids. The only real complaints I have are that there's no storage in this house and it's surrounded by trees, so we get lots of bugs.

Here's the bridge we have to cross to get to the island:

And here's our taaaaaalllll house. :

Here's the view of the ocean from one of our decks upstairs:

Here's the third floor. It's a giant, open room with the kitchen, living room, dining room, and office all together. I know the "office" is hideous, but we haven't gotten around to building a desk and finding an armoire for all the office/crafts supplies. It's that no storage thing!

I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I can't really decorate this house. There are no shelves, all the walls are windows, and I just don't have the right furniture for all the empty space. But I know that this house isn't permanent, so I figured I'd rather not waste the time and money to decorate it. Maybe someday when we own a house again and I can paint!

Here's the view of the sound from the other deck. We come out here almost every night to watch the sunset.
The best part about living here, besides the beach, is that the ward we go to is amazing! I feel so at home there and everyone is genuinely friendly. I have met some fantastic friends and love teaching the 12 year olds Sunday School.

One of the biggest bummers about moving from our old house is that two weeks before we moved, a family moved in next door that has three little girls, exactly the same ages as mine!!!!! What are the odds?! It was really hard to leave after that. Fortunately, we have play dates with them and have gotten to know them and love them. And guess what...our house still sits empty next door!

Utah...A Week of Best Friends!!!

2011-09-06T11:49:00.024-04:00

Who would have ever thought I'd love visiting Utah so much? I don't think I've been there since mine and Richard's honeymoon to Park City. I think this trip was one of my favorite of all time, due to the fact that I got to see so many of my favorite girlfriends in one trip. I just want to build a little community where we can all live next to each other, because man oh man, I have missed these ladies in my life! And my kids have missed their friends, too.

The drive from AZ to Utah really wasn't that bad. My kids and I loaded up with movies, snacks, music, toys, and saw lots of gorgeous scenery along the way. We only had to stop once in Page, so we made pretty good time to Abby and Jeff's house. Melanie had gotten there earlier that day, so it was quite the reunion!!!

Me, Melanie, and Abby

The next day was spent chatting and shopping. We went to the Provo Mall (I think?) and had lunch. We were quite the sight with all 7 of our kids. Wait. I take that back. We were in Utah, we were the norm.

Cadence, Ruby, Annie, and Perry

That afternoon, we all treked up to Angela and John's house in Draper. They were kind enough to host our little girl's reunion at their house. We had such a great time staying there, especially looking at the gorgeous view of the Draper Temple, right in front of their house. We had lots of fun hanging out and getting all caught up with each other's lives. We stayed up late and ate lots of yummy food. We even went out for dinner and dessert one night, thanks to John, who braved babysitting all 10 kids!!!

One of the highlights of my time there was running in the Dirty Dash 5K. Let me just say, I am not a runner. Not even close. But this sounded too fun to pass up. It was a mud obstacle course and race. My poor team mates had to stop and wait for me several times to catch up with them, but I finished! It was so fun!!!

Team Patriots at the finish line!

Angela and I, nice and muddy!

After our race, the kids got to do a Piglet Dash. They went up a huge hill of mud, across the mountain and down a huge inflatable slide. It took some coaxing, but we got Ella, Ruby, Ally, and Max to do it. They had such a blast!

My muddy girls!

The kids had so much fun playing together every day. I just love all these little people and am glad that our kids get along.

The entire group. Abby with her two kids Max and Perry (and one in the oven), Angela with her three kids Allison, Christian, and Logan, me with Ella, Ruby, and Annie, and Melanie with her two kids Ciella and Cadence.

Melanie and Abby left on Sunday, so I went and spent the day with my Dad and Gayle. We went to Provo Canyon and had a picnic, then hung out at their house till after dinner time. Then the girls and I headed back to Angela's for another day. We took the kids to the park and then to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum. It was so fun to spend so much time with such great friends.

After that, it was on to the next friend! Luckily, I have fantastic friends who are willing to let me and my three kids come and crash their houses! We got to Kristi's house in Sandy and within 2 minutes of being there, Ella and Samantha were already hugging each other. Kristi has amazing kids and they all got along so well. And being around Kristi just makes me feel good. She truly is an amazing friend. We got a babysitter one night and went out to dinner. I just never tire of talking to her!

Lucas, Ruby, Samantha, Ella, Tyler, and Cameron. (Annie wouldn't get in the picture.)

Instant friends- Samantha and Ella. We were all in awe of Sammi because she's quite the gymnast, and she's barely 6 years old.

Annie and Cameron- a love hate relationship. He loved to hug her, she hated it!

Here's what you get when you ask Ruby to take a picture. My SD Card was full halfway through my Utah trip, so I missed out on a lot of picture taking. Finally, the night before we left, I went and bought a new one.

We took the kids to the pool one day and went and got frozen yogurt...which I haven't stopped thinking about since! Lemon frozen yogurt with cheesecake pieces. Yum!

One of the days, our friend Jenn from high school, met up with us and we all took the train into SLC to go to the children's museum. It was so good to see Jenn and meet her cute kids! I'm telling you, I have missed all of these wonderful friends from every part of my life! The train was a fun adventure for about 30 seconds, then the kids were whining about how long it was taking...at least mine were! The museum was so much fun, then we went and ate at the Gateway food court. We walked down to the part that has the splash pad and let the kids play there for a while. They were so cute, playing together, doing handstands (Kristi's kids!), and dancing to the music. Jenn was nice enough to take pictures of everyone and send them to me.

Ruby and Megan riding the train.

Annie Mae at the splash pad.

All of the kids together. Ella loved having Lucas around. He's 8 and acted like the perfect older brother to her.

And actual proof that we were together!

Jenn, Kristi, and me.

On the way out of town, we even stopped and had breakfast with Missy, Bryker, and Makenna. She was nice enough to drive to Sandy to meet up with us! I am so fortunate to know so many great friends and have the chance to meet up with them for a few days.

The kids and I drove back to AZ and stayed for two days, then flew back to North Carolina. Annie cried for a long time on the plane, but I totally lucked out and had amazingly kind people all around me that tried to help. I, of course, was in tears. I was so glad to see Richard when we got home, but not excited for the 3 hour drive back home from Raleigh. Next up, we had two weeks to pack up and move!

Bethany & Blake's Wedding in Arizona

2011-08-20T19:39:00.039-04:00

At the end of May, we had a fantastic trip out to Arizona for Buff and Blake to get married. The pictures are a little out of order because I had to steal a bunch, but I'll try to explain.

Here's the whole entire Smith family! What a crowd!

Our little family. These were taken with Papa's cell phone, that's why we're looking at something else.

All the grandkids together (except baby Crew, who was being held.)

Ruby caught the bouquet! She was so excited and said, "Now I get to get married!!!"

Creepy brothers.

All the sisters.

Ok, here's the start of the trip. We left town a few days before school ended for Ella, so she had her last day/birthday celebration on the day we left. We brought in cupcakes for her class and I snapped some pictures of her friends and teachers. This is her with Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Gump.

Ella's 5th birthday was on a Saturday and Richard had to work that day, so we didn't tell her it was her birthday. Is that bad?! We told her it was on Tuesday, since that was the day we were flying to AZ and having a big cousin/friend party at Grandma's house. She was none the wiser! She told the flight attendant when we got on the plane that it was her birthday, so toward the end of the flight, that lady had the entire plane sing to Ella. It was so sweet! Then when we were getting off, she said Ella could go in the cockpit and check it out. The pilot was so nice and showed her what some of the many buttons do. She felt so special! Gotta love Southwest!

Once we got to AZ, we ran around getting last minute stuff for Ella's party. We had lots of family and friends come to celebrate and hang out. Ella got spoiled rotten and was so happy!

Ruby and Merrick. Can you tell these two are cousins?!

Ella and Kendyll. Ella is convinced that they are cousins.

Uncle Brock and Grandma Debby. She was very loved that night!!!!

Ruby. In her own world.

A little bundle of Annie Mae.

One night we went out to dinner with EmmaLee and Ray to the Roaring Fork in Scottsdale. So good!

The happily married couple. Blake and Bethany. Love her dress. She made it.

Ready to catch the bouquet.

The day after the wedding, I had the awesome chance (thanks to Kristi's sneaky husband) to fly up to Utah to surprise Kristi at her *surprise* 30th birthday party. I flew up in the morning by myself -which was heavenly- and had a few hours to kill before the party, so I hit up the Gateway Mall in SLC and had a fantastic time shopping with no kids. I could actually try stuff on! Then I headed over to Sandy to a retirement home for the party. Yes, Jared threw her 30th birthday party at an old folks home! Nice! She was very surprised and it was so fun to see her and her cute family. I also got to catch up with her family and friends who I haven't seen forever.

Kristi and Jared. I love that he made her wear an "Old Fart" hat.

After the party, some of us headed over to the Real Salt Lake soccer game. It was the first soccer game I've ever been to. I quickly learned that it is pronounced "Reeee-AL" not "Reel", like I had been saying in my mind. I'm such an amateur.

I just can't say how much I love this girl! We realized that we've been best friends for 15 years...half our lives! Not only does that make me feel old, but for someone who has moved around a ton in my life, I feel very thankful to have a friend that has seen me through thick and thin for all this time. I truly don't know what I'd do without her. I really wish we lived near each other, but there's no way we'd ever move to Utah.

Right after I got back to AZ (about 24 hours after I had left), we went straight to church at Richard's parent's ward. All of the grand kids did a musical number of Follow the Prophet. It was so cute and they all did a great job.

Later that afternoon, we dropped the kids off at my Mom's house for a slumber party. They were so excited to be there, but poor Ruby ended up getting sick. She caught whatever Annie had a couple days before and was throwing up all night. My poor mom! But it was just a little bug that didn't last long. They still had a fun time hanging with Grandma and all their Uncles.

Meanwhile, Richard and I had an early anniversary trip to Scottsdale for the night. We stayed at a really nice hotel and laid out by the pool. Heavenly! We ate dinner at Culinary Dropout and it was sooooo good! I still think about the soft pretzels and cheese dip. They had a band playing and lots of fun people watching to keep us thoroughly entertained. We also went and saw the new Pirates movie.

For breakfast, we went to Olive & Ivy. It was a Monday morning, so they didn't have their delicious brunch going, but the little cafe in the front had yummy breakfast to order. I love eating leisurely meals. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but sometimes it's nice to eat a meal not having to worry about anyone else.

When we pulled up, the parking lot was full of Lamborghini's and Ferrari's. Guess we forgot to drive ours that day. We took the old PT Cruiser instead! Ha ha! Gotta love Scottsdale.

We headed out to Phoenix to meet up with Melinda and Aunt Amy at the cemetery where Jake is buried. It was Memorial Day, so they were having a little program to honor all the veterans. It was so nice to be able to go to that, since we didn't get to come to his funeral. We love Jake and are thankful to him every day!

We had lots of cousin time! The kids swam and played together a lot. Here's Ruby, Canaya, Ella, and Landon.

Ruby, being Ruby. Love this girl.

Ella holding Crew. She goes on and on about how cute he is. I agree!

One of my favorite days was when my Mom and I went to the temple. I was thinking about it and realized that we hadn't done a session together since my wedding. It's been a long time! It was a sweet experience to be there together and I wish I could do it more. It was also nice to be there with my Aunt Sandra and also to see my cousin Heather while we were there. It's a great feeling to just run into family members. We definitely miss out on that, living so far away.

After all the Arizona fun, Richard headed back to NC and the girls and I packed up the rental car for our long drive to Utah! The drive was actually gorgeous. The mountains and forests of Northern Arizona, the Grand Canyon, the red rocks of Southern Utah, and then the giant mountains.

The End of Spring

2011-07-28T15:22:00.014-04:00

The end of Spring meant it was finally berry picking time. We went out to a cute strawberry farm and picked lots of yummy berries. The next day, while Ella was at school, Ruby and Annie helped me make lots of freezer jam. Then, of course, we had to make some delicious bread to go along with it. Nothing better!
I've been making all of our bread for several months now and this is the very best recipe for whole wheat bread ever! I put the recipe on our Sweet teeth blog. Try it!

My cute assistant:

She was fabulous at mashing up all those strawberries!

We also celebrated Richard's birthday on the 11th. We may have come up with a new tradition...skookies! Richard's not really a fan of cake, so these were perfect!

It was also (disgusting) Mustache May. Ew. Richard even taught Annie to say "mustache" and point to it.

Richard's work had a really fun Family Day with bounce houses, food, petting zoos, and pony rides. The girls were so excited!!!! Ruby especially, since she's obsessed with all things horse, pony, or unicorn.

The dentists even got to participate in a little tug-o-war action! Richard was the anchor and got some pretty nasty rope burns from having the rope tied around his waist. Unfortunately they lost. Probably because they're dentists. Ha ha!

I love this picture!

And the big news...Annie finally started nursery!!! She did ok for a couple of weeks, but then we went on vacation. After we got back, we only had a couple weeks left in our Jacksonville ward. That nursery is a little out of control and she would not settle down, so we just kept her out. Now that we're in our new ward, she LOVES nursery and asks for "class. bubbles." all the time.

Dental School Girls Trip

2011-07-26T10:39:00.009-04:00

In early May, Mother's Day weekend, I drove up to Maryland for the first dental school girls reunion. Six of us made it there that weekend, and the rest were definitely missed! We had thrown around plans of going into DC and other adventures, but when it came down to it, we mostly just wanted to hang out and talk, talk, talk, talk talk. And eat. We all stayed at Christy's beautiful house and ate her delicious food. She is quite the chef! Pretty much everyone had to bring their kids, so I figured that I'd bring Ruby along for some bonding time. We had a babysitter come over all day Friday to stay with Ella and Annie while Richard was working (golfing!). Then he was home for the rest of the weekend. I figured that if I took Ella, Ruby would be lost without her at home. And I knew that Ella would appreciate the time to play on her own for a few days. She asks me pretty often if she can just play by herself, whereas Ruby would follow her around all day long. Ruby had so much fun with the other kids there, and even randomly told me she missed Ella. One day while she was coloring, she said, "I miss Ella. She's the best sister cause she teaches me everything she knows, like how to swing high on the swings." It about broke my heart. The funniest (and saddest) part was that Richard said Ella never even mentioned Ruby! She was in heaven, playing her own stories and setting up her room the way she wanted. I have hope that some day they'll realize how great it is to have a sister!

Stephanie, me, Kashann, Jerry, Christy, Briste, and Kristen

One of the nights, we all went to Jerry's Restaurant, which is known for it's crab cakes. Here is Jerry with us in our only full group shot! I was brave and ordered the haddock and crab cakes. Not a fan. The haddock was ok for a little bit, but I got tired of the flavor. All of the side dishes, which Jerry kept bringing out in waves for us, were excellent! And the desserts were amazing. I'm pretty sure we tried one of everything on the menu.

Another day, we went to the beach for a while and enjoyed relaxing in the beautiful scenery. And of course, talking.

Ruby, Crew, and Haven

I miss this girl so much!!!!!!

Me, Stephanie, Kristen, and Christy

This trip was so much fun! I have missed my friends from Buffalo so much! I loved talking with everyone and hearing their wisdom and ideas. It's great to have friends that know you and care about you. So until next year....

Growing Up

2011-07-21T08:08:00.003-04:00

Mike's Restaurant, Emerald Isle, NC, July 9, 2011

Time is just flying by right now! We are pretty much settled into our new house on Emerald Isle (more on that later) and we're just trying to soak in these hot, humid Summer days before all the schedules and responsibility start.

I went to Beaufort yesterday to get Ella registered for Kindergarten. She will be going to a really great school this Fall and I'm so excited for her to continue learning and making friends. She is what I like to call "quietly social". She's not as in-your-face as Ruby, commanding everyone's attention. She's a little more reserved, but before you know it, she's got several friends around her and she is leading the game. She loves to be with friends (and has since she was a baby). She loves to learn and be active. I know that Kindergarten will be SO MUCH fun for her! She's ready! BUT, I am so torn. I'm happy for her to progress and grow, but as she begins this new phase of her little life, I'm kind of mourning the one that will be left behind. I know this sounds dramatic, but her carefree days are over. From now until forever, she will have responsibility. School every day for the next 12+ years. This school is full day, from 8-3 plus time to get to and from school on the bus. She will be gone for more hours in the day than I will see her. What if she gets sad or tired? Also, she'll be exposed to so many more outside influences all day long. I don't want her to know who Justin Bieber is or what the middle finger means yet! Another big shock for us is now that she's in the actual school system, we can't just go on vacation whenever we feel like it. They actually care if she's absent! Richard hasn't really been able to take much time off during his residency this past year, so now that it's ending, he's coming up with all these plans. I have to keep reminding him that we can't just take off for three weeks in January, because Ella will be in school.

The rational part of my brain knows that this is just growing up and it will seem normal after a month. But the irrational, mothering side of my brain is sad and scared.

Ruby is finally all signed up for preschool! She has been waiting for this day for two years, ever since Ella started going. She has always cried to go too, and has asked Ella so many questions about school and friends and teachers and scissors and paint. I think she will love it! Richard thinks she doesn't really need it because she already writes all of the alphabet and can write all of our names, but I have to remind him that preschool isn't really for academics. It's more for behavioral learning, taking turns, handling situations where things don't go your way, treating people kindly, etc. These are all skills that Ruby will benefit from greatly. I'm so excited for her to make friends. She's never really had a true friend of her own. If someone says hi to her, she tells me, "She's my best friend!" , but never learns their name. We seem to always meet people with kids Ella or Annie's age. It's not a common occurrence out here to see someone with three kids the same ages as mine. Of course, the week before we moved from Jacksonville, a family moved in right next door with three girls the exact ages of ours. Of course!!! Anyway, I'm excited for Ruby to have something of her own and I think she will love having the structure of school.

Annie is growing like crazy!!! She's 20 months now and talks all the time! She speaks in complete sentences and is definitely opinionated. My favorite is when she sees something and it triggers her to spout off all the words she associates with that thing. For example, when she sees a dog, she starts talking really fast, "doggy, awwwww, soft, outside, walking." And then she'll keep repeating it. She loves her sisters so much and wants to do everything they do. She will fight to have a turn and sticks up for herself. She is definitely feisty and mischievous, always up to no good if it's too quiet. A few days ago, we went to the aquarium in the morning and came home to make lunch. Our house is three stories tall, with the living room and kitchen up on the third floor. So as I was making lunch, I noticed that Annie wasn't in the room and it was too quiet. I sent Ruby to see if she was playing in my makeup drawer downstairs (which she has been caught doing several times) and Ruby couldn't find her. I went downstairs, looked in all the bedrooms and didn't find her. So I went to the first floor where the playroom is and noticed that the door was opened. As I went out that door into the garage, I noticed that the door from the garage to the outside was open (we don't really have a true front door). I went out there, expecting to see Annie in the yard, but couldn't find her. So I ran outside and looked all over. I finally spotted her across the street in the neighbor's driveway. She had walked barefoot down our extremely steep driveway, across the street, all to chase a CAT! I was freaked out and we immediately dug through boxes to find the child safety door handles. I'm just thankful we live on a quiet cul-de-sac!

As much trouble as she is, she's also very snuggly and loving. She will randomly come up throughout the day and ask for "hugs" from everyone in the room. She is always up for snuggling and kisses. We have fun teaching her funny words and asking her to dance. And she's the best picture taker! Whenever she sees the camera, she immediately says cheese and gives her biggest cheese face!

I love watching my girls grow and learn new things. I love seeing their personalities develop. But I also want to freeze them where they're at because I can't believe I already have a child entering real school! It seems like Ella was just barely doing the same funny tricks as Annie. I guess that's just life!

Disney in May

2011-07-13T10:45:00.023-04:00

In May, Richard had a long weekend, so we surprised the girls and drove down to Disney World after we picked up Ella from school. They were so excited! We had such a good time! You'd think we'd be sick of it by now, but we love it more and more each time. We always discover something new.

Meeting Rapunzel and Flynn. This was first on our to-do list, since the line for this gets outrageous!

We normally don't stay for the parade at night because that makes for one looooong day, but we decided to do it this time and it was so much fun! We were planning on staying for the fireworks as well, but Annie was definitely done by then.

Hanging out at the hotel.

Spring Break with the Moeller's

2011-07-13T10:19:00.003-04:00

It's kind of sad that Richard will never have another mandated Spring Break again. So when Anthony and Kristie came to hang out during their Spring Break in March, poor Richard had to work the whole time. But we did still have lots of fun and went on lots of adventures, even though it was still a little chilly here. At least there was no snow, like there still was in Buffalo!

I'm kind of sad that Anthony bent down in this picture, because it makes me look like a GIANT!

Downtown Wilmington, March 2011

We went to the beach a couple of times. Once to Emerald Isle and once to Onslow Beach. Since Anthony is Air Force, they were able to come on base to the beach there. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and the kids didn't care one bit about the cold!

Parker, Ella, Kenzie, and Ruby

The kids had so much fun playing together. Kristie has the perfect family. Each one of my kids has a friend! They all played so well together.

We spent a day at the Fort Fisher Aquarium at Kure Beach. It was pretty cool and the kids loved it!

Nobody's very excited to take a picture.

It looks like Ruby's about to vomit!

It was so much fun to have Kristie here! I miss her so much. She is the funniest, kindest, most relaxed person to be around. If I could be half the mom she is, my kids would like me a lot better!

Ella and Parker had lots of fun playing together again. And while I was taking this picture, I lost Ruby. She ran out into the parking lot and was being comforted by some strangers and a security guard when I finally tracked her down. Awesome Mom Award goes straight to me!

The Moeller's are moving to the Florida Panhandle, so looks like we'll definitely be vacationing there at some point! And we could always meet at Disneyworld!

Springtime Pictures

2011-07-13T10:01:00.001-04:00

Spring time here in North Carolina was beautiful! The trees that lined the entrance to our neighborhood had blossomed into "popcorn" so it was fun to drive through them everytime and sing "Popcorn Popping". The weather was so nice and we got to go on walks every day.

We woke up one morning to see that we'd been "flocked" during the night! A flock of flamingos landed in our yard (thanks to the OWC) and the girls were very excited about it!

This little girl should be renamed to the Tasmanian Devil. I can't keep up with her and her mess making! Every time I turn around, she's into something else. I would frequently find her on the counter, pulling out all of the coloring books. As I clean up one mess, she's already moving on to the next.

We had lots of fun playing with our friends from down the street. This is Daniel and he is so nice to Annie. He is always very concerned with her and makes sure she's got something to play with.

And Annie was finally able to have her hair in pigtails! They are the cutest little things and make her look so big. It's nice to have a way to disguise the baby mullet she's got going on. It's not as bad as Ruby's was, but still pretty WT.

Valentine's PJ Party

2011-05-04T16:12:00.010-04:00

Ella and Ruby beg me pretty much every day to have a party. My explanations that we don't know enough people to have a party are lost on them. So before Valentine's day, I gave in and let them have a party. Ella really wanted a PJ party, so that became the theme. As far as who to invite, they wanted girls only, since it was Valentine's Day. I made invitations and had them give them to all the girls in their Primary classes, and all the girls in Ella's school class and dance class. I was pretty surprised that we had so many people actually come! A few of the moms even stayed and hung out, so it was fun for me!

Everything for the party was kept pretty simple. The decorations were hearts I had cut out from my scrapbook paper stash. Ella and Ruby had lots of fun hanging them all over the house. For dinner, we made heart-shaped pizzas and had strawberries, veggies, and pink lemonade. And of course, loads of sweet treats!

We played fun little games!

Amara won the "Conversation Heart Stacking" game.

Freeze Dance!

And "Eat the Licorice with No Hands" game!

Here's Ella with her favorite friend from school, Rena. She's all she ever talks about.

And her little friend Julie from dance class.

The party really was fun and cute, especially because the girls helped so much with the planning and decorating. Everyone had lots of fun! I decided it was better than a birthday party because you don't have to worry about presents and party favors. Plus, the theme is already built in! And of course, the next weekend, Ella was asking to have another party.

On actual Valentine's Day, Ruby and I went to Richard's work to deliver donuts to everyone in his hall of the dental clinic. And we heart attacked his car on our way out! I loved the thought of him walking out with all these tough Marines around and seeing his car covered in heart doilies!!!

RAM Man Trip

2011-05-04T15:46:00.008-04:00

In the beginning of February, Richard and his buddies from dental school put a trip together to Tennessee to work at a RAM (Remote Area Medical) expedition. It was a grueling/exhausting/fun/rewarding weekend for everyone. They had grand plans of staying up all night playing XBox, but were totally exhausted after 14 hours of pulling hundreds of teeth. But I do know that a good time was had by all! Richard loves going on these trips because he learns so much and gets to help people. And getting to spend the weekend with the boys was icing on the cake!

Some guy I don't know, Dave, Aaron, Richard, Jonas, and Brent

Brent, hard at work.

Dave, hard at work.

Jonas, not working! Ha ha!

The setup.

The rotten fruits of their labor.

NC Zoo

2011-05-04T15:31:00.005-04:00

We went out to stay with Jonas in Chapel Hill for a weekend in January. While w were out there, we made a trip out to Asheboro to check out the NC Zoo. It was nice and will probably be better in the Spring and Summer when all the plants aren't dead. It kind of reminded me of the Phoenix Zoo, where there are lots of animals but you have to walk a mile in between exhibits. It's great for the animals because they have lots of room to roam, but when you look at them, they seem really far away. I miss the Buffalo Zoo, where they had every major animal and they were in tiny areas so you could see them up close. I know that sounds terrible, but it's true!

Shackleford Banks

2011-05-04T13:43:00.009-04:00

Jonas and Phoebe came out here for the weekend in January. We decided that since it was sunny, we'd go to Shackleford Banks and do some shell collecting.

Ella and Ruby followed Phoebe around like lost puppies. They were with her while she did her makeup in the morning, so she gave them a bit of face painting.

We got to Beaufort (one of Blackbeard's old stomping grounds) and found the boat dock to the Island.

The ride over was a little (ok, a lot) chilly. I think all our faces were numb by the end of the 10 minute ride!

Once we got there, we walked down the beach a little bit, collecting shells along the way. One benefit to coming when it's freezing, is that hardly anyone else is there, so you get the best pick of shells. We found some huge ones!

The zoom on my camera wasn't working, but this was so cute. Richard was dancing down the beach with Annie. She loves when he does that. He's such a great Daddy to his daughters.

We found a dune to camp on and hide from the wind for a while. We devoured our snacks, looked around for the wild horses, saw shirtless campers, and laughed at Jonas trying to fight Richard with his seashell knuckles. Then we got on the freezing boat again and went to dinner.

Getting Through the Winter

2011-05-04T11:06:00.009-04:00

This was our first winter in North Carolina, so we weren't really sure what kind of weather to expect. All I knew was that it HAD to be better than Buffalo. It was actually kind of nice. It was definitely cold and snowed 3-4 times, but Spring came by the end of March. I can handle winter, just not the loooooong Buffalo 7 month winter. I guess it's pretty uncommon for it to snow that much here, so everything shuts down at the threat of snow. And when I say everything, I mean everything! One night that a storm was forecast, I went to get something from the store and it looked like a ghost town. It hadn't started snowing yet, but at 8 pm, even Walgreen's was closed! The nice part about that is the base was closed a few times, so Richard got to have some random days off. I won't ever complain about that!

We had to get creative passing the cold days away, so Ella and Ruby built a "nest" in their room and got to sleep in it for a few nights.

This might be my favorite thing ever! I love seeing Annie laying on her belly and coloring away. Ella and Ruby color all the time, so she has naturally picked it up as well. She even holds the crayons really well.

And she noticed the camera!

Ruby must have had some WILD dreams in the night, because this was her hair when she woke up:

And Daddy was kind enough to take these two out in the snow to build a snow princess. They couldn't have been happier. And I'm pretty sure Ella's snow pants are 18 months size. And Ruby's coat got caught in an unfortunate laundry accident with a blue crayon. At least they're just playing in the back yard, not out in public.

And here's the little monkey, climbing back and forth from the chair to the couch. Always a fun pastime.

Ringing in the New Year at Disney

2011-05-02T15:48:00.028-04:00

Is it obvious yet that we love Disney World? We thought since Richard had a few days off, we'd head on down to Florida. The weather was fantastic and we had such a fun time!

Ella on the Buzz Lightyear Rockets. Richard will have to take her next time because it made me motion sick.

We had some fun waiting for the parade to start. The Holiday parade really is the best one!

These toy soldiers were so cool. You'd think with those giant boxes on their feet, they wouldn't be able to do much, but they were dancing like crazy! It was awesome!!!

Getting a hug from Snow White.

Meeting Belle. They got the Beauty and the Beast DVD for Christmas, so they were super excited to meet her this time.

Meeting Marie from The Aristocats.

Epcot is mine and Richard's favorite park. You can meet all the characters so easily, and we always stuff ourselves sick with all the delicious food from each of the countries. It's all soooooo good! One of our favorite spots is in France, there's a little corner where there are trees and benches, where hardly anyone ever goes. We go get delicious treats from the Patisserie and relax there for a while. The girls can run around and collect leaves without the crowds. It's also right by the door where the characters come out, so we've met Sleeping Beauty several times that way.

This day at the Magic Kingdom was the BEST!!!! Before we left, I went through Ella's back pack and removed several unnecessary items (stuffed animals, books, etc.). One of the items was this lovely pink spandex dance costume. She wanted to bring it to wear when she met the Princesses. She said it was her Jasmine costume "without her belly hanging out". I took it out of her bag, but somehow she secreted it back in!!! It was there when we got to the hotel and she was so excited to wear it. I just couldn't say no. So at the risk of Richard dying from embarrassment, she wore it to the Magic Kingdom. I can not wait to use these pictures as blackmail one day!!!!! That's actually the main reason I said she could do it! Does that make me a bad Mom?!

Proud as can be! Gotta love that confidence and innocence.

Trying to pull the sword from the stone.

Meeting Rosetta.

Watching the Celebration Parade.

I wish I knew what was so funny. I do love that Ruby still has her big round baby belly! It's starting to go away, which makes me so sad.

Annie always kept her distance from the characters.

Pictures are moments in time, right? Well, I guess with this picture, I'll always remember that Ella was in a really bad mood and absolutely refused to smile for the camera. But I love my girls anyway!!!!

Christmas 2010

2011-05-02T15:05:00.013-04:00

The details of Christmas are definitely fading. After all, it was five months ago! Luckily I have pictures to jog my memory. We baked some gingerbread cookies and brownie-covered Oreos to leave for Santa. The girls set them out, along with some carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. We had gone out to look at Christmas lights around town, read "The Night Before Christmas", and then it was off to bed so Santa could get to work!

Kids really do make holidays so much fun. Ella had asked Santa for a REAL white kitty. We were a little worried that she'd be majorly disappointed when she woke up and found a pretend kitty instead. She never batted an eye and treats it like her real pet.

Ruby asked Santa for a pony in a treehouse with a monster in a cage. Gotta love that girl! Santa pretty much delivered with a pony in a remote controlled airplane and a Gremlin. She was beyond thrilled!!!!

Annie was pretty out of it and a little overwhelmed, but after a little while, she started playing with all the toys (and wrapping paper).

And lest you think we are the kind of people who keep lawn furniture inside our house, let me explain the blue Adirondack chairs. Santa came up with a great present for Richard (it doesn't happen all that often...he's hard to shop for). He got those two chairs, along with a fire pit and those giant campfire marshmallows.

After opening all the presents, we had a smorgasbord of delicious food while we checked out our new stuff. Ella and Ruby both got makeup kits, so we had a little makeover party. I had no idea that blue eyeshadow smeared all over my cheek could be so stylish! We just lounged around for the rest of the day and Skyped with the family. I really love having our own little Christmas at home, although we do miss celebrating with our families.

Richard was on duty the next day, so he had to go into work all day. And, better late than never, we got a white (day after) Christmas! It snowed a ton! Ella and Ruby had fun for a little while making snow angels and Annie had fun eating the snow. I was kind of bored that day, so I ended up taking down all of the Christmas decorations. It was a little sad to have it all gone, but a relief to know that it was done.

And after that, we drove off into the sunset, headed to Disney World for New Year's!!!!

2010 Ornaments and Jammies

2011-04-13T11:01:00.009-04:00

The Christmas Elvises left some cute jammies on our doorstep on Christmas Eve. I just love these three cute girls, especially when they show love for each other.

Checking out the presents before they head off to bed.

Here are our ornaments for 2010:

Me and Richard

A seashell to commemorate moving to the beach.

Ella

Ballet shoes to commemorate her first year doing dance class. She really loves it!

Ruby

A pony to commemorate her LOVE of all things horses. She even sleeps with a giant plastic unicorn.

Annie

A monkey, since that's what we find ourselves saying about her all the time. She is constantly climbing on everything, even though she is so little!

Christmas Festivities

2011-04-13T10:13:00.010-04:00

As soon as we got back from Arizona, the Christmas festivities started happening. I really liked having time to hang out with our little family and do what we wanted to do.

Ella's preschool took a field trip to the high school to watch a performance of "The Nutcracker". It was really cute and had loads of dancing, which Ella loved. I had actually never seen it before, so what I did get to see, was great. I kept thinking that some of the little girls weren't much older than Ella, and here they were, dancing on a stage in front of tons of people. I didn't get to see all of it because I was out in the hall with Annie for a lot of it. For some reason at Ella's preschool, parents have to be with their child for every field trip. For me, this means schlepping Ruby and Annie along as well. It's not that fun. Is it bad that I didn't even send Ella on her last field trip because I didn't want to bring all the kids and try to keep them quiet and still for a performance? I just kept Ella home that day and she was none the wiser!

On a side note, I think my kids have been to Disney World a few too many times because they think that they have to pose for pictures with anyone in a costume.

Ella's preschool also had a little Christmas concert in December. I brought Ruby, but left Annie at home with a babysitter since it was her nap time. Each class performed a little song. Their class dressed up as stars! (Ella's in the top right corner). The poor music teacher was up front, leading all the songs and basically doing a solo for each class. The kids weren't really singing a whole lot. But they were all really good at their little hands motions! It was really cute!

Here's Annie lounging in her bathrobe! Look at that cheeser of a grin.

The Dental Battalion had a really fun Christmas party one Saturday morning. They served breakfast, had fun crafts for the kids, had lots of party favors including Little Golden Books and reindeer headbands. The kids played musical chairs and it was hilarious to see the ones Ella's age and younger try to understand the rules. They caught on pretty quickly and had a pretty intense competition going.

Is it bad if sometimes Richard tells Ruby to say, "I'm Bell's Palsy girl" because she makes this crooked face all the time?

Even Santa showed up!!! Everyone was excited, except Annie. She was not having it. But Ella and Ruby were fine with meeting him. Ella gave him her wish list of a real white kitty (more on that later) and Ruby told him she wanted a pony with a tree house and a monster in a cage (more on that later too.)

A couple nights before Christmas, we decorated gingerbread houses. It was lots of fun and the girls did a great job utilizing every piece of candy there was.

Let's Finish Up Thanksgiving, Shall We?

2011-04-07T15:10:00.006-04:00

So, I've been informed that I've turned into the worst blogger ever. (Thanks for keeping it real Buff.) I figured that while my kids are fully engrossed in watching Calliou and I'd rather gouge my own eyes out than watch that show, I'd finish up documenting last year! Oh, I'm so far behind.

The main reason we chose to go to Arizona for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas was that it was the big Smith Family Reunion. We had so much fun seeing siblings, cousins, parents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and even Grandma Smith was there! It's hard being all the way across the country, but it sure is fun when we manage to get together.

Kami is Ruby's doppleganger. They look SO much alike!

And here is Ella's doppleganger...Natalli (Richard's youngest sister). They look a lot alike and even have the same hair color.

Here's where Ruby spent a lot of her time:

She loves horses and was very brave feeding them grass.

Here's me and Leah:

And the pumpkin bum scarecrow. He's like part of the family.

We ate a ton, visited a ton, had the family auction (I don't think we won anything), and even made our kids participate in the talent show. While their cousins all played musical instruments and recited poetry, our girls "danced". They were the only ones to insist on taking the stage. Ella showed of her mad toe tapping skills and Ruby twirled herself dizzy. Would I consider it talent? Maybe. Maybe not. But it's more skill than I have.

The Toy Monster Strikes (finally)!!!!!

2011-03-05T09:16:00.008-05:00

After years of threats, the Toy Monster finally followed through and "ate" the girls toys. We made up this idea of a "Toy Monster" to help motivate Ella and Ruby to clean up their toys. If their toys weren't cleaned up at night, then a monster (that only ate toys, not kids) would come and gobble up the toys that were left out. It worked pretty well for a long time. They would clean up their toys every night so they wouldn't get eaten. After a while, and especially after friends would come over to play, the cleaning up wasn't getting done. If it did get "cleaned", stuff was shoved in corners or put in the wrong bins. Our playroom was out of control. I know we have far too many toys, but when you have a giant room above the garage, there's space for all the toys.

I had finally had enough of the play room being a disaster, so last night, the Toy Monster paid us a little visit. 40 minutes and 7 bags later, there wasn't a whole lot left in that room.

He left a little note on the door, written in mud (aka chocolate pudding)...

I wish I had taken a before picture, but I was too fired up and just wanted to get it done. Just imagine not being able to see the floor and "set-ups" (or, as I like to call them, "piles of junk") made by Ella all over the place. Toys that were in their correct spots got to stay. Here is the after:

The loot in the attic. 7 garbage bags full, plus a ride-on toy and baby crib. Yeah, we have way too many toys.

Here was Ella's reaction after she went upstairs to get her stuffed panda bear. She was very sad, but MISSED THE WHOLE POINT! She immediately said, "Mom, we have to go today and buy some new toys!"

To which I said, "No. We don't have money for new toys."

Her idea was, "We have to get some money! We could use what we have in our piggy banks." (Which is probably 37 cents).

I tried to explain that what she really needed to do is take care of the toys she had. Hopefully, it's starting to sink in.

Ruby walked around the play room taking stock of all the toys the Toy Monster didn't get. She kept saying, "The Toy Monster is mean!" but she never cried.

And Annie couldn't care less. As long as she has her book with a picture of a cow in it (her new favorite word), she's happy as a clam!

So here's my dilemma...what do I do with the toys? I definitely think we need to cut back on the amount of toys we have, so I don't want to bring them all back. But that's also hundreds of dollars worth of toys that I don't want to just get rid of. They really enjoy playing with most of them. Should they be able to earn them back? I haven't really planned the final outcome of this little fable. I realize they are kids, and kids are messy, but it was out of control. I definitely want them to learn their lesson.

One other perk of the Toy Monster taking their toys is that they aren't mad at us, because "we" aren't the ones who took their toys. They are mad at the TM, but I just keep explaining that he was just doing his job and they were the ones that made the mess. Them's the breaks!!!!

(And I will finish blogging about Arizona, Christmas activities, actual Christmas, New Years at Disney World, fun in the snow, a Valentine's Day party, a weekend in Chapel Hill, etc., etc. at some point. Maybe in this lifetime. )

Livin' It Up at the Beauty Shop

2011-02-25T10:59:00.007-05:00

The girls and I really needed haircuts, so of course, we went and saw Sharisa. She works at Adorn in Downtown Mesa and it's the cutest salon. I loved it, and of course loved the way Sharisa did our hair. When I told Ella and Ruby we were going to the Beauty Shop, they were all for it! I couldn't just tell them we were going to get their hair cut, so I had to make it sound like they were getting something fancy done. It totally worked!

Here's Ella's before:

And the after:

Her #1 goal right now is to have hair like Rapunzel's and I figured I'd cause her permanent emotional damage if I cut it off. So Sharisa trimmed it and put in lots of pretty layers. Then she curled it for her. I think it turned out beautiful. Ella LOVED it!

Ruby was a big talker leading up to her turn. Of course when it came time for her to get up in the chair, she lost it. I had to do lots of convincing and yes, bribing. Finally, with an Oreo in hand, she had her turn.

About halfway through the haircut, Sharisa was laughing and told me to look at Ruby. She was totally falling asleep! Her head kept nodding off and then she'd jerk and wake up. It was hilarious!!!

The finished product:

I absolutely LOVE it! It's such a cute little bob and has made a huge difference in the amount of tangles this girl has in her hair. Brushing it every morning when it was long, was like torture...for both of us. I love this picture too. Classic Ruby, looking cute, chic even. But the true Ruby is always evident...the face full of chocolate cookie crumbs!

The Polar Express

2011-02-25T10:31:00.010-05:00

After Richard left to go back to Jacksonville, I remembered that they do the Polar Express train ride in Williams every year. Luckily, they still had some tickets left, so we made the drive up north to the Grand Canyon Railway. I convinced Melinda to come with us and I am SO GLAD she did. She even came on her birthday! We had so much fun and she was great with keeping the girls entertained on the long drive. Plus, I got to have some amazing conversations with her on the drive, which I really needed! Love you Melinda!

Here's the conductor punching our tickets:

Everyone is so excited for the train to start!

They passed out cookies and hot chocolate while they played the "Hot Choc-o-late" song from the movie (that's my fave)!

We sang lots of Christmas Carols on the way to the North Pole. We got there and saw Santa out on his sleigh, waving at the train as we passed. Then we started the return trip. All of the sudden, in the middle of a song, we heard some jingle bells. Then who walked into the train car? Santa! The kids were beyond excited!

Santa went around and talked to everyone and gave each kid a silver jingle bell, just like in the movie.

This was a really fun night! I would definitely do it again, if we got the chance.

Cute Cousins

2011-02-25T09:49:00.011-05:00

We got to Gilbert the weekend after Annie's first birthday, so we thought we would do a little party for her with our family. Brynlee also just celebrated her birthday, so she already had a party planned on Sunday night. So, being the kind and considerate people we are, we glommed onto Brynlee's party. Don't you just love us?

This is probably how everyone felt about Annie on that trip:

She started getting sick half way through the flight there. She had a really yucky cough/cold that she kindly passed along to all the other kids there.

This is the cake that EmmaLee made for Brynlee. She loves Yo Gabba Gabba, so she was so excited for this. Em is really amazing at cake decorating.

Like I said before, we glommed on, so we got to have the DJ Lance hat part of the cake for Annie. Since we were in Disneyworld for her actual birthday, she didn't get a cake. No cake for your first birthday?! Yikes! That's just un-American! So we set the cake in front of her, lit a candle and sang "Happy Birthday". In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Not a fan.

We stayed with Steven and Adina in their wonderful new house. The girls had so much fun playing with Canaya and Mikee. I love that they got know them more. Canaya was so nice to share all of her toys and play with everyone. One night they played Beauty Shop and got their nails done. Canaya's looking like a pro, doing all the dirty work:

All prettied up:

They even did a little bit of Christmas crafting:

I LOVE this cute picture!

Ella talks about her cousins all the time and really wants to move to Arizona. She's still having a hard time with our move to North Carolina. She gets sad every couple of weeks and asks for her old friends and old school. It's so hard for kids to understand distance. They just love it when we get to go to Arizona.

Marine Corps Ball

2011-02-25T09:31:00.004-05:00

I forgot to put this little gem of a picture in! Don't you just love self-timer pictures? I don't. It's hideous, but it's all we've got. The Marine Corps celebrated it's birthday with a Ball the night before we left for Arizona. It was fun to get all dressed up and to see Richard in his spiffy uniform. They held the event at at a hotel right on the water in Wilmington. Everything was very nice (except the food- blech!) but we had fun chatting with the people at our table and watching all the cool ceremonies. I've never seen a birthday cake cut using a sword before. Go Marines!

We didn't stay too late because we had to get the kiddos home to bed (they had childcare at the hotel). But it was fun to get out and socialize with the people Richard knows.

It felt like we were going to prom.

Hanging Out With My Family

2011-02-02T14:59:00.007-05:00

Even though the Smith Family Reunion was going on, we were still able to spend lots of time with my family while we were there. Last year was a rough and crazy one for my family and I was out East the whole time, so it felt good to be there with my Mom and my brothers and feel reconnected to my family. We missed Justin, Shannon, and Davis, but it was so fun to have three of my brothers there.

We spent the afternoon of Thanksgiving at my Mom's house. I think it was round two of food for all of us, so there were lots of leftovers. It was good just to hang out. We were missing Ben that day, but finally managed to snap a picture of almost all of us. It was great to have Brock there because he ended up leaving for Denmark just before Christmas to play International Volleyball.

Mom, Tyler, Brock, Katie, Ruby, me, Annie, Ella, and Richard.

My Mom was so nice to take a bunch of us to the aquarium one day. The kids had a blast looking at all the fish. It's a pretty cool place, especially considering it's in the Mills Mall! It was awesome to hang out with Merrick too. I had gone to breakfast with Sharisa earlier in the week and got to see him in action. He is all boy!! I just love him!

Merrick, Ruby, and Ella touching the starfish.

Cute cousins!

Ruby, Katie, Brock, Merrick, Ben, Ella, me, and Annie.

My girls loved all the attention they got from their uncles. They tirelessly played with them, which was such a blessing for me. Once Richard left to go back home, I stayed for a couple extra weeks. I was pretty worn out by the end, so it was nice to have some extra entertainment for my kids. I just love my brothers and wish that I could see them more often than once a year (if we're lucky).

My Mom and I took the kids to see the temple lights one night. It was nice to be there, although we got approached by 8,000 missionaries. I wanted to hang a sign around my neck that said, "I'm already Mormon!". Ha ha! Just kidding! It's always nice to be at the temple. And of course it's nice to be able to chat with my Mom. I hate being so far away from her, but it makes me that much more appreciative for the time we do get to spend together. She's a strong woman and a great example to me.

My Dad also came to Gilbert for an afternoon and we got to eat lunch with him and his (now new) wife Gayle. It was nice to see them, since they're all the way in Utah now.

I got to see aunts, uncles, and cousins while we were there too. I wish we could come visit more often, but have you priced airline tickets for 5 people lately?! It's outrageous!

Fun Friends in Arizona

2011-02-02T13:49:00.014-05:00

We got to see lots of fun friends while we were home for Thanksgiving. We wish we could just pack them all up and move them here so we could have someone to hang out with!

Straight from the airport, we picked up our rental car and followed Cosmo and Jenn's directions to some random neighborhood in Mesa. We parked in front of a house and walked into their backyard. Their yard and carport had been converted to a "restaurant" serving delicious, authentic Mexican food. It's just some random family that decided to make their own little restaurant. It's advertised by work of mouth only (I'm sure it's probably illegal to run a restaurant in your backyard). But let me tell you...it was absolutely delicious and the perfect way to start off our trip in Arizona! Here's Ruby being best friends with Jenn:

We convinced Levi and Heather to come down from Payson to hang out. All of us ladies took our daughters to see "Tangled" while the men watched the babies and played video games. Bea and Berlyn must have already left when we took this picture, but we all had so much fun! Ella and Ruby were a bit traumatized by the end when [spoiler alert] Rapunzel's hair gets chopped off. They were both crying and kept asking when her hair was going to grow back and be beautiful. Despite the hair heartbreak, we all had such a fun time on our girl's night out.

Kendyll, Ella, Canaya, and Ruby

Ella was in heaven having Kendyll to play with for the day. She talks about her all the time and has so much fun when they get together. I really wish we lived closer to them!

We went up to Prescott for an afternoon to visit my Grammy and Uncle Bill. I remember taking lots of pictures, but they must have all been with Grammy's camera. We stayed there for a while, then went down to Prescott Valley to visit Blake and Faith. Richard and Blake have been friends since they were babies, so it's fun to be able to visit them every year. They fed us a wonderful dinner (I ate elk for the first time!) and we got all caught up on each others lives.

Ella and Brea are just a few months apart and have a great time playing together.

After looking through the pictures for this post, I realized that Ruby doesn't have any of her own friends. Her friend is this horse. But look at that happy face! She's glad just to play with toys and Ella and her friends.

Three silly girls. Brea had lots of fun toys and dress-ups. It was hard to get my girls to leave!

We hung out with my cousin Ally a couple of times, so my girls got to play with her cute kiddos. They sure had fun and even cleaned up the playroom when they were all done!

Tylee, Ella, Tate, and Ruby

Lucky for us, the Couser's were still in Gilbert while we were there, so we got to hang out with them a few times. Richard and I went to dinner with Gary and Missy one night, then we got the kids together to play (and for Missy and I to chat!) a couple other times. I sure miss them and I'm sad they won't be in Arizona anymore. Stinky Utah. Stealing all my friends.

Annie and Makenna

Here's Bryker, flipping me the bird! Ha ha! I don't know how I caught this, but I think it's hilarious.

We went to Tumbleweed park one day and it was so much fun. Ella, Bryker, and Ruby had a good time running all over the place.

I also got to meet up with my friend Jenn and let our kids play at the park. She has kids the same ages as mine, so it's great to play with them. Everyone's got a buddy. Jenn and I got caught up and the kids got some energy out. Can't ask for more!

Annie, Peyton, Ruby, Ella, and Brooklyn (Logan must have been in his stroller still).

Winter at the Beach

2011-01-10T18:18:00.004-05:00

Topsail Island,
January 10, 2011

I am super behind on blogging. I still haven't put up anything from our trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving, let alone all of the activities leading up to and including Christmas. Then there's the New Year's trip to Disneyworld. It's all a little overwhelming to me. So until I get up a ton of motivation and time, I'll just let you see what we've got going on here in NC today....snow. Lots of it. I think one of the coolest sights I've seen is snow right on the beach. It's sort of magical.

The Big O-N-E!!!!!

2010-11-18T08:25:00.021-05:00

How in the world is my baby one already?! It makes me really sad that she's growing up so fast and that I won't remember just what she was like as a baby. But, I'm also very excited to see her learning new things every day. Ah, mixed emotions! Annie is truly a joy of a child. She just kind of goes with the flow and loves being in the mix of our crazy family. Her personality is showing more and more each day. We decided sort of last minute to head down to Disneyworld for her birthday. Richard had the time off since it was Veteran's Day weekend, so we got to enjoy three days there. She didn't love being in the stroller/carried all day long, so when she got the chance to walk, she was all over the place. She even refused to hold our hands most of the time. She wanted her freedom!
We were at Epcot on the afternoon of her actual birthday and they were having the Food and Wine Festival, so there were all these giant cakes on display...very fitting!

Ella was very excited for Annie's birthday and said that we needed to invite everyone at Disneyworld to her birthday party. She had a hard time understanding that just being there was the present.

Annie was not loving the characters. She would walk near them (unlike Ruby, who wouldn't go near anyone but the princesses), but as soon as they started giving her attention, she would get the pouty lip, turn around, and run away.

Just disregard the fact that Ella is copping a feel here. Poor Sleeping Beauty.

Here's a little about Annie at 1:

- She started walking at a little over 11 months (our earliest one yet!).

-She has mastered going up and down the stairs. She had great motivation to learn this skill, since the playroom is the only room upstairs. Before she learned to go down, she would sit at the top of the stairs and yell until someone came and got her.

- She has never taken a pacifier, but would suck on an empty bottle for hours. My confession is that sometimes when she wakes up at 5 am, I bring a bottle to her that has about an inch of water in it. She will sleep for 2-3 more hours when I do this. Bottles in bed...I know...it's a no-no. But at least it's just a little bit of water. After our trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving, the bottle will be taken away.

- She can sort of say a few words. No one else would know that she's saying anything, but we think we hear it. She says Ella (sounds like "Ewa") and uses this interchangeably for Ella and Ruby. She says dada, but I don't think she knows what it means. When she does the sign for fish, she sort of says, "isssshhhhh". The only other sign she does is "all done". She used to sign "more", but won't do it any more.

- She has a couple of tricks that she will do on command. She plays peek-a-boo, and can do a few animal sounds. She does cow, monkey, and lion. She can point to her nose and eyes. She even says, "Eyes".

- She points at things and babbles on and on, like she's telling you the most important thing in the world.

- She's had her two lower teeth for several months, but is just now getting her four upper teeth. One of the central ones is coming in a little more slowly than the other 3, so she looks a little goofy.

- She goes to bed at about 7:30 pm and wakes up at about 6:30 (or later, depending if I use the bottle trick or not). She takes a morning nap after we take Ella to preschool or go to the gym, from about 9:30-11:30. Then an afternoon nap from 2:30-4:30. Except for the early waking up, she's a pretty great sleeper.

- She loves playing with her sisters! She's even liking Ruby more and more these days. She goes up to the playroom with them and dinks around with all the toys, playing just like they do. She loves to play chase and sit on the couch with them. She also loves to hold crayons or pencils and "write" on paper.

- We got her one of those Whisper Ride Buggy's on Craigslist for her birthday present, but ended up giving it to her a month early since the weather is so nice. She loves going on walks and riding in it!

- She still loves "The Wheels on the Bus". She's also starting to like the "Baby Signing Time" movies more. We figured she would be an expert at signing after our drive to Disney. She watched them over and over.

- She has a few nick names. Annie Mae, stink, bubs.

Here's a little video of Annie walking. I shot this almost a month ago. We like to call this "The Truffle Shuffle":

We all love our little Annie Mae!

Trickin' & Treatin'

2010-11-01T21:29:00.009-04:00

We had so much fun going trick-or treating this year. Our new neighborhood is great. Tons of kids everywhere and lots of people go all out with the decorating. Ella and Ruby were in heaven, running from house to house. They'd knock and say "Trick or treat", then say, "Thank you! Happy Halloween!". Then as soon as they turned around to go down the steps, they'd yell, "Mom!!! He gave me chocolate/gum/lollipops/this thing!!!!!" It was pretty funny. Annie had a grand time riding around in her little pink car (that is supposed to be her birthday present, but we've been using it for the past couple of weeks!) and sucking on a dum-dum. We lasted about an hour. It was a gorgeous night, and didn't get chilly until the sun went down.

Ella as Alice in Wonderland

I had to do a bit of convincing early on so that Ella would change her mind about being Sleeping Beauty again. But she quickly jumped on board, and I think she makes the perfect little Alice. I ordered her costume using a Groupon I got, but they only had a size 6/7. So I did a little tweaking and I think it turned out pretty well...just don't look too closely at the seams!

Ruby as a Butterfly

Ruby changed her mind about 800 times before deciding on a butterfly. Lucky for me, we already had this dress, which I picked up for $2 at her dance school's costume "yard sale". We borrowed the wings from a friend and Ruby was happy as a clam. At pretty much every house we trick or treated to, she would let them know that she was a butterfly.

Annie as a Cat

Annie did not want to pose for a picture. She just wanted to hold the pumpkins and find rocks. So this is the best we've got! Still a pretty cute kitty if you ask me. This is the same one Ruby wore a couple of years ago. I tried to make them all a theme, but there aren't a whole lot of girl characters in Alice and Wonderland. So if you stretch your imagination, Ella is Alice, Ruby is the caterpillar after he turns into a butterfly, and Annie is Dinah (Alice's cat). It works, right?!

We got to participate in lots of activities leading up to Halloween. The first was our Ward Halloween party, which was actually pretty lame. They had fun games for the kids, but other than that, it was super blah. It was no Buffalo Ward Halloween party, that's for sure! I think we were there for 30 minutes. We haven't quite gotten into the groove of this new ward yet, if it even has a groove.

We went to the pumpkin patch at Mike's Farm again (we went the first time with my Mom). My friend is in a group called MOPS (Mom's Of PreSchoolers) and she organizes the monthly playgroups for them. She invited me along as an honorary member. Their group meets at the same time as Ruby's dance class, so it doesn't work for me to join. Plus, I just don't find myself as the group joining type. I'm too flaky. But that was a lot of fun to hang out with some other girls and let the kids run wild.

Ella's class had a little pumpkin decorating party, with treats and face painting. That was lots of fun to see Ella with all her little class mates. She's already made some cute little girlfriends and they ran around together the whole time. The next day, her class had a field trip to Jumpin Jax. It's one of those places with a bunch of bounce houses. The kids all had an absolute blast. We stayed for a good 2 hours and they played hard the whole time. Ella surprised me with what a dare devil she was. She went up the tallest slide and would bounce at the top, then leap off and kind of slide/bounce all the way down. It was hilarious to watch! Ruby is pretty nervous around heights, so she mostly stayed in the toddler sized bouncers. Until the last 30 minutes or so, she finally got brave and went down one of the tamer (but still big for her) slides. She couldn't get enough! It was fun to see them have such a great time, and I got to chat with some other moms for a while.

On Halloween afternoon, our neighborhood HOA put on a festival at the park and it was such a blast. I was debating even taking the kids, but I am so glad I did (minus the first 10 minutes we got there when Ruby wandered off while I was getting Annie in her stroller. I had the firemen, who were there to give tours of their truck, looking for her. I finally found her on the swings, having a grand time. I was so mad!). After that though, we got to play on more bounce houses, get free food, play games, and march in a parade. They had a police car in front, then all the kids and their parents, then a bunch of guys on motorcycles, then the hayride tractor, then the fire engine. We paraded around the street and waved at all the people who came out to look at the kids. When that was done, we headed home and got our buckets to go Trick or Treating. What a fun week we've had. November is going to fly by! We've got lots going on and it's all really exciting stuff!

I threw this picture in just because I love it. Look at those smiles!! I love these girls!!!!

Finally, Some Family!

2010-10-24T16:25:00.020-04:00

We've had lots of friends come visit us so far, but last week we had our first family member come check out our new digs. My Mom came for a whole splendid week! We realized that it's been almost a year since we've seen each other. We haven't been to AZ since our famous last minute Christmas Day drive cross the country. This is definitely a new record for us! So suffice it to say, we were ecstatic to have my Mom here. She's been through a lot this past year, so I'm glad she got to get away and relax and just play with her grand daughters, who absolutely adore her by the way.

We went straight from the airport to check out the Mumfest in New Bern. We walked around the Tryon Palace gardens, but it kind of went downhill from there. Ruby was crying and complaining that her tummy hurt. Ella was riding in the stroller and felt warm. I knew she definitely wasn't herself when she turned down a bite of funnel cake. So we only stayed for a little bit (and never saw a single Mum either!). They felt better after we got home and gave them some medicine and put their jammies on. I swear that jammies have magic healing powers. Ella got better after that day, but Ruby had a fever on and off all week. We still managed to have a grand time though.

Grandma and Annie watching the band.

The pretty flowers at the Tryon Gardens.

On Columbus Day, Richard had work off, so we headed to Onslow Beach for the day. It's still in the 80's here, so the weather was absolutely perfect! The girls had a blast and we all got to relax and play in the sand.

We spent one day at the aquarium and we all had a ton of fun. We actually ended up getting the annual family pass because it gets us into a lot of other zoos and aquariums all over the country. The highlight was being able to pet the stingrays. Ella loved it! Ruby took a while to warm up to the idea, but she eventually couldn't get enough.

Grandma and her girlies!

One of the nights we drove to the historic downtown Wilmington- the location of One Tree Hill, for all you CW fans out there! It is the cutest little town. We got there too late to do any of the tours, so I was a little disappointed about that. It was still fun to walk around on the Riverwalk and watch the sunset. We ate at the Front Street Brewery and finished up the night with some chocolate from a cute little old-fashioned candy shop.

All the girls at the Riverwalk in Wilmington.

Proof that Richard was actually there some of the time!

Grandma and Rubes

We decided to try out the local Pumpkin Patch and it was pretty cute. We went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and got to pick out our pumpkins. They had a little crafty store that sold baked goods, lots of rocking chairs to relax on, and several animals to look at and feed. The best part about the animals, was this sign on the fences:

Who makes a petting zoo with an electric fence???!!!! Luckily, we realized they weren't turned on (or real?) thanks to a brave daycare kid that was all over it. Again, I was surprised by Ruby's bravery at feeding the animals. She's normally kind of a wuss, but she had no qualms with the goats basically munching on her hand. I can't really figure her out. We had so much fun on the hayride (even though we could see some of the creepies hanging in the trees for the haunted hayride). The girls each chose a pumpkin and my Mom got me some mums. Or front porch is looking wonderfully fallish now!

Fun on the hayride!!!

We ate lots of good food (it was awesome having someone to go out to lunch with!), went lots of fun places, got to sit in on Ruby's dance class, Richard and I even got to go on a date thanks to my Mom. It was so fun to have her here. It was hard to say goodbye, but it helped knowing that we'll see her for Thanksgiving. We love you Mom and miss you lots!

School Days

2010-10-06T09:32:00.007-04:00

I just realized that I never put up the pictures of Ella from her first day of school. She's in her second year of Preschool and she was so excited to start again. She really loves going and is so happy that this year they have a special music class, with their own separate music teacher. She's always teaching us the songs she learns there. I was planning on having her in Pre-K through the elementary school, since that's what they do in Buffalo (and it's FREE!!!), but unfortunately, our county doesn't have Pre-K here. Bummer! So instead of having two kids in school (we were going to pay for Ruby to go to school this year, since Ella's was free), we decided to send Ella again and wait on Ruby until next year. It actually works out ok because of when Ruby's birthday is. She will miss the cutoff for kindergarten by a couple of weeks, so if I put her in preschool this year, she'd be in it for three years. How many times can you learn the ABC's?! So when Ella's at school (three days a week), Ruby and I do "school" for her. We focus on one letter a week. We learn the sound, how to write it, what words start with the letter, and do lots of different letter themed activities. It's working out pretty well so far.

Anyway, back to Ella. She is a pretty funny girl. I love the person she is becoming. She's pretty calm and is a great big sister to Annie. She and Ruby play together a lot (the good/bad side of having no friends) therefore they fight a lot. Most of the time, they play really well together and I LOVE listening in on all the different games they make up. They are great at pretending. It reminds me so much of my brothers and I when we were growing up. We had silly languages (but the cuminafuuuum delie. I won!), inside jokes (corn dogs!!), and made up games (kitty house). It's so fun to always have a playmate. Ella is really good with other kids and I have seen her try to offer alternatives when kids are getting crabby about sharing. It's great to see her personality shining through more and more. She is also very emotional though. She gets her feelings hurt and bursts into tears. Richard is convinced she gets it from me (me? have unbalanced emotions? never!) but I recall hearing that he was quite emotional as a child, so I think maybe it's a little of both.

Since Ella's school is at an Episcopal church, they go to chapel each week. The first time they went, Ella came home and said, "Mom! There is a church in my school! And I got to go inside!" She thinks it's pretty cool. I hear her singing little songs about the light of God and I think it's cute. On a family note, we've started having Family Home Evening. Ruby still wanders around and is a space cadet while we're talking about the lesson (that may have more to do with her personality, not her age!), but Ella is just a sponge. She listens and remembers everything that is said. We had a lesson where I told the story of the Little Red Hen about a month ago and last night she said she wanted to tell me a story. She retold that story, after only hearing it once. My Dad sent me the Mark Mabry book "Another Testament: Reflections of Christ" for my birthday. Richard was gone at study club on our FHE night, so I went through some of the pictures and scriptures in the book with the girls and Ella was very interested and I felt like she understood a lot more of the scriptures. I am loving Age 4 Ella. She is such a joy to have around. Don't get me wrong, of course there are times when she's bugging the heck out of me, asking for snacks 800 times a day or constantly wiggling around. BUT I keep catching myself just watching her and listening to her, being overwhelmed with love for her. Actually, that has happened quite frequently with all three of my girls and with Richard since we moved here. I am convinced that it's because we don't have a ton of friends here yet, so we have been spending all of our time together. I'll admit, for the first month we moved here, it was a little much to be together all of the time. We were used to hanging out with friends all the time, going fun places, and having lots of activities. Now it's just us, and we're slowly adding in activities, but for the most part, we hang out with each other. Surprisingly, I've really enjoyed this time of doing our own thing and really getting to know my kids. Of course I've always truly loved my kids, but I feel like there's this deeper love there that really humbles me and makes me unbelievably grateful for my family.

Anyways, now that I've gotten all sappy, I'll leave you with a couple of my favorite Ella things as of right now. First, is her love of coloring. We probably have 5 spiral notebooks that have every inch of every page colored on. We always have a box of crayons and paper out on the counter because she and Ruby will color for hours every day. It's usually pictures of people we know, mostly pink.

And the second thing is her version of Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe. I sang it once in the bath because she and Ruby were arguing over who had to get their hair washed first. Ever since then, she sings it whenever a choice needs to be made, mostly about toys. Here are the lyrics to her version:
Eedy, Mighty, Piedy, Oh.
Catch a spider, appen doh.
My mother said to pick the very first one and you are it.

I LOVE it!!!

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

2010-09-30T13:43:00.004-04:00

It's been raining for four days straight here. Like, torrential downpour rain. We were having some major cabin fever around here, so we finally got some rain boots and the girls have been loving the puddle jumping today. We might have our very own lake in the backyard soon if this keeps up!

P.S. Annie broke the 'U' key on my computer, so I have to press it extra hard in just the right spot to get it to work. I never realized how much I used that letter. If I typed withot thinking abot it, my sentences wold look like this. Frstrating!