the year in review and to be

We spent New Years and the weekend at the beach house. Nancy and Courtney and families were able to come and we had such a great time.
So...we had a super 2008. Couldn't have been much better if you ask me! I have no complaints and so much to be thankful for! I am going to try to look back at my calendar and think of something for each month:

January: Sydney turned 4 and had an indoor Luau party and it snowed outside! It was awesome!

February: went to the beach for a weekend getaway with my friend Holly, had a great time!

March: closed on our beach house in Cherry Grove, SC (N. Myrtle Beach)

April: went back to the beach to do some work, had a great time at Farm Days, saw Mr. Al, went on a scrapbook trip with my good friends Daniele and Ashley

May: Phil's one year anniv. at eplus and his award. Went to the lake for Memorial Day weekend

June: Mom moved here!

July: family beach trip, lake trp for the 4th

August: long and hot and boring

September: Girls started back to preschool, Sydney 3 mornings, Mollie 2 mornings per week, Phil won his BMW! More beach...

October: married 8 years :) Went on our super fun wine trip! Chase turned one!

November: our house started to get the 7 year itch and it seemed like nothing worked for a period of time! It's all fixed now...we think. We moved here Nov. 27th, 2001
I unexpectedly went back to work part-time.

December: Mollie turned 3!

In 2009...
Sydney will be 5, start kindergarten, I know at least 8 people off the top of my head who will have babies in 2009! Oops, just thought of a 9th.
We will go to Disney World!
And who knows what other joys and frustrations we will experience.
Here comes another year!

beach

We're at the beach. Mollie is currently snoozing after the disappointment of no open ice cream places close by in Cherry Grove...
Sydney is playing, Phil is working some, I'm hanging out.

Nancy, Travis, Chase, Courtney, and Cameron are on their way down. We're having our own little New Year's celebration here tonight, just us and the sleeping kiddos. Cam is making the yummy low country boil and we have stuff for chocolate fondue for dessert:) Courtney got me a fondue pot for Christmas so we'll get to try it out.

Most people I know are staying in tonight. I never like to really be out on New Years Eve, I'm afraid of all the crazies. So if you go out be careful!!!

new pictures

are posted to the right----->

more Christmas...

We spent the weekend at Phil's mom's house in Elkin. The girls had the best time and did not step foot outside of her house b/w 4pm Friday and 10am Sunday.
Friday evening we had a small celebration and dinner with Phil's brother, David, and his family. His Dad also came down also. Although his parents have been divorced for like 29 years or something, in recent years they have been pretty accomodating about holidays and hanging around each other. That makes it much more convenient for at least us and David's family because we used to have to have a seperate Christmas with him which usually made about 5 Christmas celebrations, one being with my family:) It was very nice.
Olivia (10) and Emma (5) are a lot of fun and the girls have a great time together.
Saturday Phil and I had planned to get out for a while. There is no way I could have sat around there all day. We thought we'd invite his mom also and have the whole family go, but they didn't want to so just Phil and I went and "shopped" in Elkin. That consisted of Belk, Hallmark, Bath and Body Works, Big Lots, and Wal-Mart, haha all in 2.5 hours. Which is fine. It's a nice little town.
Saturday night is whole extended family on his Mom's side came over. That is always a lot of fun. I think there were 28 people there. Lots of kids ages 3 to 14. Mollie's the youngest.

Sunday we came back home and unpacked and relaxed some!
Off to the beach we go on Tuesday!

Christmas day!!!!

Santa came to our house sometime during the night. I was a little worried about Sydney coming down in the middle of the night, but my mom told her to come to her room first because she had a special present for her. She ended up yelling for me from the upstairs hall at 6:20. I ran up there and said, what are you doing? And she was like, oh yeah, I have to go get Gramma! So they woke up Mollie at 6:30, I woke Phil up, and they came downstairs.
Sydney came down the stairs and said, "no double stroller, oh well" in this fake voice. I said, "yes you do, see, that is a double one" and she says "oh, but it doesn't have a back seat". I told her that Santa doesn't know how to make that kind, just this kind. She was like, oh, okay. And she went to check it out. But she was VERY happy with the purple one! (We just gave her both) So yay! Glad we kept it! She's played with them both a lot and even had her stuffed dog in the double one with her baby. We all tried to make a big deal out of how much better that one was.
Mollie was a little half asleep and happy to see her castle. She also got the Loving Family Grand Dollhouse. My Mother in law was going to give her the Little People Dance and Twirl Palace, but she kept telling every that Santa was going to bring her a castle and a princess so we figured we better put it out just in case. Even though the doll house is the same class of toy, haha. She loved both of them. We're giving my mother in law the set of princess barbie like dolls to give to her instead. They both got some dress up clothes, hooded bath towels, new Jr. Wolfpack club stuff that got her just in the nick of time, haha! Sydney got a new Leapster 2 so Mollie will inherit her very old Leapster that I got from a consignment store over the summer. And a new game. Sydney got a pink guitar from Gramma (last year she was diappointed by the cheap electric guitar that Santa brought, apparently she wanted one like her music teacher at school, but never said that!). Gramma got Mollie more "room sets" for her new doll house. They got several new movies, Enchanted, Sleeping Beauty, Wall-E, Schoolhouse Rock, and the original Annie (we have the made for tv version). And their Wii game from daddy and paint from me. And probably some other things I'm forgetting! Oh, and Elizabeth, Michael's wife, made them these doll slings!!! They are so cute. Sydney has always wanted a sling for her babies (can you tell she is obsessed with babies???), but they don't really make them for kids. So she experimented with one and made some adorable adjustable ones out of Tinkerbell and Dora fabric. Very neat.
Everyone in my family was here for lunch and then gradually left throughout the day as we ate, napped, watched movies...finally showered:)
Then James and Michele, our neighbors, came over and brought the girls those 25th Anniversary Cabbage Patch dolls with matching outfits! Sisters! They are so cute and I think Michele and I were a little more excited than Sydney and Mollie, haha. They smell so good and are just like the ones we had when we were little. Our girls are very special to them and vice versa and that was a great special gift!
We ended up wanting to get out of the house so we went with mom and dad to TGIFridays, the only restaurant open in Apex, for dinner! It was good! I've never been a fan, but it was really yummy.
Anyway, a great day all around!
We are now headed to Elkin for parts 2 and 3 of Christmas with the in-laws:)

Christmas Eve and the stroller situation

Christmas Eve morning we a happy one, Phil off of work, girls playing. We're laying in bed that morning discussing how Sydney had told the Santa in our neighborhood the night before that she wanted a double stroller. She had been asking for this purple stroller at Target for months. Like probably 6 months. We already have 2 umbrella strollers and I was trying to steer her toward something new so I suggested a double stroller. She was pretty set on the purple one so I got it. We then thought she had changed her mind and wanted a double one. So we returned the purple one (stupidly) and went to Toysrus to get a double one we had seen that was front to back and had little removeable car seats. We already have 2 of those also, but thought we could just get rid of those with the 2 umbrella strollers we've had for like 3 years. They didn't have one! Then I realized that I couldn't even find a spot on the shelf where they had been, went home, looked online, and I don't think they even make it anymore! So I ran back to Target to rebuy the purple one. Lesson learned. She still talked about the purple one. Then a few weeks ago she stared on this huge double stroller kick, telling everyone she wanted one. They still didn't have them like that anywhere and I just knew that is probably the one she wanted. And then she still talked some about the purple one and we thought, well, it won't really matter, we'll just give her the purple one, she'll be happy and we'll say that Santa only can fit one stroller in the sleigh. The night before Christmas Eve we visited this Santa house. She told him again that she wanted a double stroller. We were like, what do we do? Still thought it would be okay and if it's not we'll just get her a double one for her birthday in January.
Christmas Eve morning we all get up, are sitting in the living room and here is my conversation with Sydney while she is playing with her baby:
S: this baby sure if heavy. I better not put her in my new double stroller because she might break it if it's made out of plastic.
Me: well, maybe if Santa brings you a purple stroller she won't break that
S: well, if Santa brings me a purple stroller then he wasn't listening to me because I TOLD him I want a double stroller.

Phil looked over her head at me like, "oh crap". I started laughing and tears were streaming down my face. So I called my mom, she said we could bring them over, and we went to Walmart, Toysrus, KB Toys at the mall, and Target. We could only find a side by side at Toysrus, which I thought was very cute. Nancy looked at the Walmart in Holly Springs to try to see if we could find a front/back. None.
So note to self: next Christmas I will buy everything they mention they want. On Christmas Eve we will decide what they really want and take the rest back later!!!!!!
******************
Gramma and Grandpa met us at Church for the 5pm mass, along with our friends Jennifer and Matthew, at 3:30, haha. Very crowded, have to get there early. We got a seat and they will start as soon as the church is full. They started about 4:30. When we left at 5:30 the fellowship hall was so full for the overflow service that was still going on that there were people standing outside on the sidewalks. Still trying to see and listen.
We then went to Nancy's house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. Courtney and Cameron were there as well as Travis's parents.
My brother Michael and his wife Elizabeth got to our house about 10:30 so we ended up with a full house!
Courtney, Cameron, and Stubbs, my dogphew, staying the basement so Stubbs wouldn't have to be left at home. We don't have a very dog friendly house, but he is a good crater and slept in the office side in his crate and had frequent walks. Courtney and Cam slept on the futon on the big room side. The girls really enjoyed hanging out with him and Sydney went for a big walk with he and his parents.
Sydney insisted on Gramma being here to spend the night so although their apartment is just a few miles away she and Grandpa slept upstairs in the guest room. Sydney would not let MOllie sleep in her room! She was pitching a fit! We were hoping to have them sleep together and give Michael and Elizabeth a bed, but she wasn't having it. So they slept on an air mattress in the playroom downstairs, haha. Poor Elizabeth. I don't think she got much sleep.
We all went to bed around midnight so that Santa could come!

Merry Christmas from rock star Barbierella

super cold! and presents

It is very cold today! Very! (for NC)
I think it was about 26 this morning when I headed out. The high is supposed to be 38, it's now 34 at 3:30pm.
At our fiesta on Sat. (which was fabulous by the way) we collected things for the children's services division at WakeMed hospital. Their child life division serves the main pediatric floor, they have a Children's ER, and our new Apex WakeMed ER facility serves children. I talked to a girl who is one of their child life specialists and she gave me a list that all of their people have designated as highest needs right now. Anyway, we always collect things at our party for some sort of charity so we chose them this year. We don't want to just ask people for money to contribute because they like to shop for specific things! And I know they trust us, but how to they really know where the money is going? This way it's a concrete thing to support.
I had an appt. at 10am today to deliver the stuff to the pediatric floor. Well, WakeMed Raleigh is pretty far. Well, about 40 min. across town. And it was 26 degrees. I planned to take the girls with me because I thought it would be a good experience to see us donating to people in need and to see that they are very lucky to be happy and healthy and all that. We talked a lot about how some kids will have to be at the hospital on Christmas. I assured them that Santa will still come. We had to park in the parking deck and walk over to the main entrance with 2 huge bags and a box. I took my stroller so we could load it up. Well Mollie was freaking out because she was so cold and wanted me to hold her. She was flipping out. So I was holding a 35 lb toddler and pushing a loaded down stroller and keeping up with Sydney who was trying to help me with the stroller, but was really freakin' cold herself, haha. It all turned out okay, they go to play in the play room a little, the child life staff was very appreciative, especially for the Transformer and PS2 games. Then we ventured back into the cold with Mollie IN the stoller to go back to the car.
Next year, if it's below 40 degrees I'll just tell the girls about how nice it was, haha. Although now I think they had such a good time they might think it's fun to be in the hospital.

I think we're all ready for Christmas here. I have learned to get used to Phil's annual Christmas Eve freak out where he thinks we didn't get enough presents for people even though I keep him in the loop the whole time and we've been shopping together some this year. He thinks everyone might need a last minute electronic item of some sort. And he always gets the girls something just from him. He already got them a Wii game, but I'm afraid that since it wasn't on Christmas Eve he'll find something else too :)
Sydney's been helping me wrap and is quite good at it. I see a future seasonal job for her. Maybe next year. She helped wrap the angel tree gifts from our church and after that she was doing some on her own. They look pretty good! So she wrapped my neices' gifts also and a few more.
This year our family drew names for gifts since we now are all married and stuff. We all buy for the kids and Mom and Dad, but the sibling girls drew a girl name and the boys drew a boy name. It really made it a lot easier and a lot cheaper! And we stopped doing gifts with Phil's brother and his wife last year and just do it for my neices so that helps a lot also. Actually, now that I think of it, Phil did get his brother a gift anyway...but he really wanted him to have it. I'm going to have to have a talk with him about the reason we made these Christmas procedural arrangements I think;)

Last night I went to the grocery store and am going to try not to go back until after Christmas! We'll have Christmas dinner over here around lunch time that day. I should be ready!

Little Spitfire

So, turning 3 has brought out a whole new dimension to the Mollie otherwise known as "princess". She really doesn't like to leave places and will throw down and you have to carry her out. Luckily these episodes don't last long and she's still pretty easily talked out of/into things. She wants to wear dresses every day and at home she likes to wear dress up dresses. Especially the Barbie cheerleader dress that is getting so nasty now even though I wash it! But she's still a beautiful princess in it.
She says the funniest things! Today I was asking her if she wanted to do a puzzle with me (that she had taken apart and thrown all over the floor). She said, "the princess doesn't want to do that right now". She asked me for gum the other day in the car. I told her I would have to wait to find it in my purse when we got to a stop light or our destination. I was telling her that it wasn't safe because I was driving. I had my left hand on the wheel and my right hand in my lap. Then I get "mommy, use your other hand then, use your right one". I didn't, by the way.
And I hurt the princess's feelings a lot. Like when I tell her it's time to take a nap or go to bed or stop terrorizing Sydney when she is trying to do something.
She does ballet dances all around the house. I can't wait for her to start dance again in January in the 3-5 class. She calls Phil either "Daddio" or "Prince Charming" and takes him into her castle. Today I was the Queen Princess and had to follow her around with the glass slipper that kept "accidentally" falling off of her foot. She has quite an imagination.
While her attitude has really come out, she is also proven to be such an empathetic, kind friend. There have been many times lately that she has been concerned about someone, given back toys that someone has tried to take from her. After a few minutes that is. She'll play with it just to prove her point that it was her turn, but then say "you can have it now". She is a very sweet happy girl. And when she's not being her sassy self she is so polite and genuinely thankful for things and compassionate.
I always wanted to have kids that are funny, nice, polite, and smart, both in every day life and academics. I can just pray that it happens! I think we're getting there. We have to keep working on the manners, but I think that's probably normal.
I used to tell parents that kids wouldn't be kids if they never get in trouble! It's nice to see that sneaky streak every once in a while to show that kids are still kids. Don't want them to be little robots!

Christmas time

It's so busy that it can really be a pain in the rump. All the shopping, cooking, things to go to, etc.
Move the elf before bed.
Make sure there is something in the Advent calendar.
Make sure I have a dozen cookies for this.
Remember to make the lunches for the girls for preschool because it seems like I already did something with food, was that not it?
Remember to go to work. Cramps my style a little this time of year, what was I thinking (except that this little girl actually came up with her own rhyming word this morning for the first time in a month, phew!)

BUT IT'S ALL SO MUCH FUN AT THE SAME TIME!!

One of these days my Christmas cards will come in the mail and then I'll stay up extra late to get them out! Because I love Christmas cards!

busy, but super, weekend

Tonight we're just laying low and recovering from our really busy weekend.
Friday I worked in the morning, ran to Target, got home to them and our babysitter Krystina. She took Mollie to pick out a birthday present, so sweet!
Friday night we went with my friend Dawn, her daughter Ava and her sister Amanda to the Christmas production, Imagine, at their church. Like everything their church does, it was amazing! The girls loved it. Phil had a little holiday outing with his office to Frankie's Fun Park, but was home by the time we got home around 9:30. Then I went back to Target. Seriously. Dawn and Amanda will die that I did that, haha. At 10pm. But I ran into my friend Ann who I only see when we run into each other at Target late at nigth! I got home around 11! I just had to hunt for these cute shoes I found, but not in my size, at the Cary Target and I needed them for my parties. Found them. And a few things I needed for Saturday party cooking since we were going to also have a busy Saturday.

Saturday we played/cleaned up some then the girls and I went over to Nancy's because we hadn't played with Chase in a few weeks. We have seen him a few times, but not play quality time. And he's doing more and more every day. It's truly amazing how he has changed since getting those tubes in his ears! Eating and drinking more, crawling around, pulling up some, saying several words! He's so sweet. And he loves to play with Sydney. You say "where's Sydney?" and he points to her. He also loves the sound of the Swiffer WetJet. Weird.
Came home, Sydney played with a neighbor friend Emily and Mollie napped. Phil was doing something and I think I fell asleep on the couch...
Then we made our final preparations for our Babysteps playgroup adult party at our house. We get together a lot as families and mostly as moms and kids every week, but have not had an adult thing since I've been around. So we had it in the basement here. We had a neighbor babysitter come over to hang with the girls until bed time. There were probably 13 or so of us and it was so much fun! My face and stomach were sore from smiling and laughing so much. Wonderful friends!

Sunday we were tired!! I slept in, then Phil took a nap. Cleaned up some, then ate lunch at mom's apartment which looked great decorated for Christmas!! Dad was there and played Goldilocks and the 3 bears with Sydney and Mollie and then Mollie did her ballerina performance. She wants to be just like the few ballerinas that were in the Christmas performance on Friday night, haha.
Then we jetted home for her nap and went to Durham, really on the Raleigh line at Brier Creek, to my cousin Laura's very nice new house. We hadn't seen it yet and they've lived there for 2.5 months! The girls all got to play and then we all went to dinner. Laura's having a baby girl in March and looks so cute! We got home right at bedtime and I went to bed pretty early. Phil had to stay up and watch football because it's an important time you know for fantasy football;) He could be making it to the super bowl again this year which would make the first time anyone in his league has made it 3 times.

So this morning I worked, picked the girls up, then Sydney had a friend come home with her for a play date. I've been cleaning up more and am hopefully going to get to bed early. Phil has to watch Monday Night football because it's an important night for his team and all, haha. I realized that I still have some shopping to do. The girls are done, but we have odds and ends to take care of. I have returns to make already, more grocery shopping, etc....and have to get ready for our Fiesta on Saturday night!!!!!!!! We must be crazy...

Christmas Magic

So...we finally got in the swing of things to prepare to Christmas! Last week was insanely busy. I had the naked tree up, but we hadn't had time to decorate it! Yesterday the girls and I decorated the tree and it was so cute, they were really into it. And they did a decent job hanging the ornaments. They are concentrated in the very front bottom of the tree, haha, but that's what they can reach! I moved a few around later, but mostly left it alone. I tried to grab and decorate the top with the more fragile ornaments while they were doing that to spread them around.




We got The Elf on the Shelf this year. I put the box outside the front door yesterday morning before I left for work so that when I got home we could check for packages and the girls would find what Santa left for them while they were at school! Well we got a wonderful surprise on the way home when we saw Santa walking into Lee Tailor at the corner of Hunter and Salem Streets in Apex! Wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, this guy had a full, white beard and a Santa hat on! The girls saw him get out of his truck and walk to the door of the shop and it was so exciting! I told them I thought Santa was making a surprise visit to Apex to check on us. I wonder if he left us anything...
So we get home and they run to the not yet decorated tree, haha, and nothing. We checked the porch for packages and there was our Elf box! We read the story about him and after much discussion named him Snowy. Because Sydney kept trying to describe him in a sentence. She was full of adjectives...or things he liked to do. But she could not name him! She said, "the Elf who loves Santa", "Santa's favorite elf who wears red", "A silly wiggly little elf". But she said "the Elf who loves snow" several times so I got her to name him Snowy. Mollie just kept saying all these silly rhyming words and wanted to hold him. But one of the rules in the story is that you can not touch him or he will lose his magic. And every night he flies back to report to Santa about if they were naughty or nice that day. Snowy started out on the mantle, but this morning he was on the speaker by the TV. They were very happy when they saw him!
And whoever that sneaky Santa dude having his suit hemmed in Apex gets a huge thank you for me! It was just an awesome piece to support the Magic!

Oh, and last night Mollie kept saying she wanted a train to go under our tree. Phil loves trains and actually had a toy train set that his Dad gave him that we were saving for a rainy day. After they went to bed he set it up under the Christmas tree. Mollie was so happy this morning she thought Santa left it for us early! Turns out the train set sucks, it goes way too fast so the train flies off the track, but he's going to either try to slow it down somehow or get a different one.

Here's Snowy!!

Pediatric Express

I just wanted to highly recommend The Pediatric Express to those of you in this area. It's a pediatric urgent care. Mollie started complaining yesterday around lunch time of her ear hurting and it just got worse and worse. She was also very tired so this made it worse. I gave her Motrin (wonder drug) and put her down for a nap. I knew if I called our ped. they would have me talk to a nurse and then call me back if they wanted me to come, etc. They're pretty good about it. But I had heard of this pediatric urgent care in Morrisville and thought that might just be easier so I wanted to try it out.
I woke her up from her nap around 4 and she said she was all better. So much better. But I wanted to take her anyway because she had been so miserable earlier and she doesn't just say her ear hurts and cry for no reason. We had a party to go to yesterday evening (with the girls) so Phil took Sydney and I took Mollie to Pediatric Express. We got there at 5:05. We were the only ones there, but someone came in shortly after us. We got right in, the dr. said her right ear was really bad, gave us our Rx, gave her a sticker, let her take a candy cane off their office tree, and off we went to Walgreens. Got in and out of there and at 5:45 were on our way to the party!
Now I know you think, your kids has an EI and you're going to a party!? She was acting fine. Very happy.
It was a going away/football party for my cousin who is moving to CO and our friends are big Alabama fans and it was the SEC championship or something like that. We really wanted to have a party for him and they were already having this other party so we combined. Worked great. But I kind of needed to go, and would not have if she was not fine. But I gave her her first dose of Amox. there and she was a happy camper. Never mentioned the darn ear again. That wonderful Motrin!!!
Anyway, we had a great experience there. I wanted to let everyone know it's there. At the corner of McCrimmon Pkwy. and Davis Dr. by the new Harris Teeter. WAY easier than dealing with the pediatrician after hours.
So we wish J.R. the best of luck on his trip out west and Mollie with her ear, haha!

all in a day's work

The kids in one of my groups were talking about their new silver teeth. Showing off silver caps and comparing them. Some wishing they had them. Not sure if they all went to the dentist/clinic at the same time or what, but suddenly, this was a big news. It was a kindergarten group with about 7 kids so this took a good 5 minutes.

Then I found out that the silliest thing that had ever happened in one kid's life was when her baby sister pooted on her. And a first grader told me that if monster tried to get him he would just hit it in the privates and that would do the trick. The kindergarteners were reading Silly Sally, great book!!! And the first graders were reading There's a Nightmare in My Closet.

Never a dull moment.

Happy Birthday Mollie!

Today is Mollie's 3rd birthday! I can't believe 3 years has gone by since that wild time! Oh, I love her so, so much.

Highlights of her birth:
At 37 weeks we were very surprised to learn that Mollie was no longer head down! This was a mystery because at 35 weeks she had been and they had estimated her weight already at 7lbs. Yikes. So we weren't sure how she flipped.
I was supposed to have a c-section Dec. 1st. Before they inserted my IV they did an ultrasound and she was back head down. How does that happen without feeling it? Not sure.
The hospital didn't have any beds so they sent me home and I began the most mentally unstable day of my life. I was a wreck. I didn't want to leave without my baby. I had everything set up. Family coming in, Sydney was taken care of. Everything. They said they would call me and they were "doing me a favor" by inducing me the next day since I had thought I would have my baby already. My due date was the 8th. Finally at 9am on the 2nd they called me and we headed to the hospital.
Hung in for a while, got epidural, they broke my water. Nancy and Courtney were in attendance. We actually had a pretty good time hanging out in there, haha. Mollie finally arrived at 10:11pm!
Then they put her on the scale.
What did you say?
9lbs?
Good thing I was laying down. Might have passed out. Sydney was 7lb. 1oz.
2nd babies are apparently MUCH easier to deliver.

Sydney met her the next day and our favorite memory is when she kept pointing to the bassinet in the room and saying "put her back in" every time Mom or I was holding her. Poor girl. She was 6 weeks shy of her 2nd birthday and had no idea what had just happened to her world! Now I'm sure she'd say she wouldn't have it any other way. At least 75% of the time;)

My precious little Moo with the best marshmallow cheeks around!


I had to put this picture. Mollie at 6 months old. Notice what she's drinking out of. This was our compromise in the "Hell no I'm not drinking out of that bottle even if it's shaped like a fake boob" battle.

Mollie at one! Blogger is not letting me load the Mollie at 2 picture. Not sure why.

This morning talking to Daddy on the phone! She's 3!

Ugh, I feel old. Time should not go by this fast!

what a lovely weekend

We have had a great long weekend!
Well, it started Tuesday night with our neighbors James and Michele coming over for a little pre-Thanksgiving hang out time. We played a new game they got and drank some wine and had cheese ball. The year I was pregnant (2005) with Mollie and couldn't travel...maybe couldn't fit in the car...we had T-giving dinner with them. It was so much fun. They went to CO this year to visit some friends. We are definitely thankful for them as friends !
Oh, and around midnight Mollie woke up with a fever. She had started with a little cough that afternoon. She was fine by the next day, but I guess it was just the kick-off of a cold.

Wednesday Phil took the day off work. Mollie was still sniffly, but no fever. I had a dentist appt. We all had a great day hanging out at home. And Q-doba for lunch. Kim, the chicken nachos were in honor of you.

Thursday: difficult to explain, but my parents decided to cancel our T-giving dinner at Nancy's house. We hung out at home until about 2 then left for Dobson, NC to Phil's Aunt Brenda's house for his mom's side of the family's T-giving dinner. He has gone every year for like 30 years. Minus 2005! We had a great dinner and lots of fun. He is really close with all of his cousins and aunt and uncle and there are now 11 kids among he, his brother, and all his cousins ranging from 3-12 I think. We went to spend the night at Phil's mom's house. The girls love it there. Short trips are great ;)
We did learn some disturbing news about Phil's mom's health. She had some pretty in-depth surgery in May where lymph nodes in her leg were removed because of some Melanoma. She didn't have to have any further treatment because they were confident that they "got it all". Last week she had a mole removed that came back as Melanoma as well. They said they got it all, but are concerned because apparently it is metastatic (spreads). So we're definitely praying about that situation and ask for yours as well. His Dad has also had Cancer 3 times and is getting ready to have another surgery for some tumors on his skin that they believe to be benign, but yet keep growing.

Friday we left around lunch time and headed to Mocksville. We had borrowed my brother in law Travis's trailer and loaded up some stuff for my mom to move to her apartment in Apex. She was in Mocksville for the weekend. We brought lots of boxes back and the twin beds that the girls always slept in at their house! They were very excited. So now Mom's 2nd bedroom is turning into the girls' room! Mom followed us back home.

Saturday we had the last home NCSU football game. Mollie still had the sniffles and we convinced Gramma to let her play over there for the day. She took a nap in her Dora bed and had a great time! It was so cold and a little rainy at the game, but we won! Sydney had a lot of fun playing with her cousins Olivia and Emma. During the 3rd quarter my sister in law Angela took the girls all back to their car because of the yucky weather and they played and Phil, his brother and I enjoyed watching the rest of the great game. I usually do not watch that much of the game because I usually have someone climbing on me!

Today I took just Sydney to church so that Mollie could get all the way better for school tomorrow and her birthday on Tuesday!! We pretty much laid around all day, cleaned, made playdoh for Sydney's class this week, did lesson plans, went to Bear Rock for dinner and went to Home Depot and Lowes.
And...I got my new tree tonight. The one I wanted at Lowes. It just looked the most real! And I've had a real tree all my life. I realize that the burden lies on Phil, who doesn't care about a real tree, to put it in the darn stand and take it down as it explodes needles all over our home...
But still, I said, if we get an artificial tree, it has to look real! Phil finally gave in to my wishes. And to repay him...when we checked out it rang up for $60 less!! Then we had a $10 off coupon so we only paid $228 instead of $298 for my real looking fake tree. He was very happy and I was very happy.
We're very happy people in the Greenehouse tonight after our lovely weekend as a family. And the tree will go up on Wednesday after my beautiful girl celebrates her 3rd birthday on Tuesday!

rudolph the red nosed reindeer

I am very tired and will blog more later about our lovely Thanksgiving.
But going down the road the girls wanted to listen to their Christmas CD and were singing Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
Here are the lyrics I think you probably missed:
"then one foggy trick or treat Santa came to say..."

in case you didn't know....

nerdy

I hope the girls get our nerdy genes.
Sunday at MacGregor for lunch they bring out Sydney's plate and she says, "I really don't like these octagon plates they use." We haven't talked about shapes in a long time. Maybe they are at school.
Mollie tonight at the gym looking up at the key rack: "Daddy, those keys over there are very similar to yours." It was an Acura key. She recognized the symbol on it.
Mollie also said tonight during dinner that Cinderella was a mommy, "just like you mommy". I said, "she is? to who", and she said "she is like a mommy to the mice!" Duh.

Speaking of nerdy, Phil is really an electronics guy if you didn't know. He loves to look through the weekly ads on Sunday morning and see what's out there. I think he memorizes them. If you need something call him at like 10am on Sunday and he'll tell you where it is the cheapest without looking. I guess along with this comes his interest in money. Saving money, earning money, saving money, me not spending money, etc. I won't call him cheap. We'll say frugal. We got a new tv for the living room a few weeks ago. My only problem is that a new tv was still "necessary", but he doesn't want to pay $300 for the new Christmas tree I want after finally conceeding to the artificial when I've had real all my life. But I digress.

Anyway, we bought the tv from Best Buy and it was an open box. At the time it was $300 less than the current sale price. Well this week it went on sale for $100 less than we paid for it for a brand new one. We were out Christmas shopping yesterday evening so we went into Best Buy. Phil had his receipt and wanted to see if he could get $100 back for a price adjustment since technically he could return ours and get a new one cheaper. Which would be a huge hassle and we wouldn't really do. The girl was very nice (maybe not very smart) and said that we could return it if we wanted to, but to save the work that that would be she would just give us 10% back because that's what they would mark the return down for as an open box item on the floor. Yeah, I guess just crediting us $100 was not an option. So instead she credited us $330, haha.
And then I still did not get my Christmas tree! I WILL have it by next weekend...stay tuned;)

Annie

We had such a great night last night. It was so much fun, our girls night out. I hope to have many more. It was so neat for my mom and sister to be able to go with us. And Phil was oh so thankful that he didn't have to go! It does make me so happy that I have 2 girls.

We met for dinner first at Mellow Mushroom downtown. It was the best ever! Super fresh crust. Yum. I want to go back soon. I can still taste the yumminess! We then went to Memorial Auditorium and got there just in time. They were so mesmerized when the lights went down and the curtain opened. Mollie was singing right along to all the songs and danced in the aisles. Sydney loved it too, but is just does not get quite as openly excited as Mollie does about things like that. Mollie's pretty dramatic. I see performances in her future. They both loved Mrs. Hannigan and thought she was hilarious and loved that Sandy was a real dog! That really surprised them for some reason. It was a long play. Intermission (half time as Sydney called it) was more like 3/4 way through. Oh and there were some kids we saw there in pajamas! I thought that was a great idea. Because we didn't get home until almost 10:30!

We saw that the Wizard of Oz is coming in May and we're definitely going to try to go to that.

I love to do fun things like this with the girls. Economically speaking it's not reasonable to do very often. We had the $27 tickets and you know they add like $6.50 for handling fees per freakin' ticket! And really, I guess it wouldn't really be SO special if you did it all the time....but when we have such a good time and when I tear up at their every little morsel of excitement it makes me want to do it every day!

flurries

We had lots of flurries this afternoon. It was cool!
Sydney was at gymnastics and Mollie ran over by the door and noticed the snow out the glass door/windows.
She exclaimed so beautifully, "it's winter!!!"
A little while later she and her little friend ran back over by the window. Mollie said, "it's not winter anymore!"
It was so cute. I really hope we have a good snow this year for them to play in! Too bad they won't have any good snow gear since it's such a gamble around here about whether we'll have any or not.

first day with the kids

Today was my first official day back at work that I got paid for:) Friday I took Mollie with me and got my class lists, a rough schedule set up and an idea of what to do this week. I had to get copies of all the literacy assessments to see what letters they know/don't know, print concept check lists, and phonics assessments. Mollie was really good, the secretary gave her 2 pieces of candy, and we said hello to all the new people I didn't know.

This morning I went to HR to get a new badge made. I have no idea what I did with my old one. Probably burned it b/c it was a horrible picture that I used to cover up with a sticker of a frog.

I have 4 groups on M&W, 5 on Fridays.

I have 3-4 kids in 3 of the Kindergarten groups. My fourth Kindergarten group is about 6 kids who only need help with rhyme. That will change based on phonics assessments. The teachers will decide what the next critical area is based on ongoing assessment and the group and focus will change.
On Fridays I'm there a little longer so I'll have a high first grade group to do a book study/literature circle with. There are 6 kids in that group right now all on the same level, about end of first grade level. We're doing Frog and Toad first. One of my favorites:)
So I'm working 9:30-12 on M&W and 9:30-12:30 on Fridays. Phil is dropping off the girls most M&W's so I can get in a little earlier and gather materials, plan ahead, etc. Then I pick up at 12:15. Actually my friend Jennifer is going to go ahead and get Mollie most days for me and go ahead and start lunch with Mollie and her little one Lindsay outside.
Krystina, our babysitter, will be dropping Sydney off and picking her up on Fridays and hanging out with Mollie so I won't be rushing to or from.

It all seems to be working out nicely, for the first day, haha. It was fun! Sounds weird to say it was fun, but it is!

does anyone remember this Sydney?

What was I feeding that girl? I was showing these to Sydney the other day and she got a huge kick out of it!

weekly report, haha

The blue ribbon funny that I will never forget:
The girls were in the bathtub. Phil and I were up there too and went in the guest room/my office to work on some things with my computer, junk, etc. They were playing with their soap bars. We heard them singing, they frequently sing in the tub. We walked back in and they're standing up, backs to us, little naked butts shining...scrubbing the walls with their soaps singing "It's a hard knock life for us, It's a hard knock life for us! Stead of treated we get tricked! It's a hard knock life!"
No camera near by, the funniest thing ever. We go see Annie next week and I can't wait! Mom, Nancy, Courtney (my sisters) and I are taking the girls. They have their pretty dresses ready for their night at the theater and I told them they can wear mascara, their favorite:)

Chase got tubes in his ears on Wednesday! He did great. He is so, so cute. I have some adorable pictures from the beach last weekend and this week that I need to post soon. And so now hopefully he'll start feeling better on a regular basis. You should see that dude with his camo sippy cup now and some pizza. He'll tear it up.
Yesterday Nancy stayed home with him again so they came over for a while. He loves Sydney. She really plays with him and he gets really excited when he sees her now. I had made some chili and corn muffins for dinner so we coerced Courtney to make the journey from Chapel Hill and Mom came over. If I had known I could get Courtney to come over during the week just for chili and grilled cheese I would have made it a long time ago. We broke out a holiday cheese ball and had a great time. Travis and Cameron were busy and Phil got home at the tail end of the party. It is fun having family close by. And this is exactly why mom wanted to move here!

I start my job finally today. I didn't find out until Wed. evening. I had already told my babysitter I didn't need her today because I hadn't heard anything. My principal said I could either start today or Monday, depending on child care, but it would be good to go today, get all the details worked out, then start seeing kids on Monday. I told him I would love to come today, but don't have my babysitter so just start paying me Monday and I'll bring Mollie with me for today. It's just a few hours. Then everyone can see one of my cute little reasons for only wanting to work 8 hours a week! I'm excited. Guess I better go shower if I want to look decent and be ready to take Sydney to school...at least Friday is jean day at school. Actually, I think you have to wear a Reedy Creek shirt to wear jeans. But I think I still have like 5 somewhere.

And Leanne G. it was so nice to see you at the gym and I'm glad you read my blog! HI!

christmas junkie

I just started listening to Christmas music. I couldn't help it. I love it. I can't wait! I love shopping. I love buying things for people that I know they will like. I am about 1/2 way done now probably. I know it's early. I don't mean for Thanksgiving to get the shaft. I love Thanksgiving too. But I see it as more of a kick off to Christmas, haha.

I've been talking to Sydney's teachers some about how she's doing. She's doing great in school! She just is really focused on her friend Ayden right now and doesn't want to play with anyone else in her class. We've been having a lot of talks about playing with everyone. They said that she is very well liked, she just needs to spread herself around, haha. Phil said, it's because she's OCD, have they heard about the tank tops? I almost died laughing. She is so like that. She picks something that she gets so focused on and doesn't want to give it up. The tank top is an extreme case of something that is probably not going away. She wears them under her clothes every day, and sometimes 2!!
Anyway, luckily Ayden doesn't seem to mind that Sydney is possessive. She goes and plays with others just fine and Sydney doesn't mind. But if Sydney and Ayden are playing she will put other kids in their place about them playing alone. Not too nice, but we're working on it. Poor Ayden, haha!! Her teachers are really good about redirecting her. I do like one of them a lot more now. The other one I like a little more, still not sold.
Oh! But she really does this with 2 other friends also. Matthew and our neighbor Emily. She is currently waiting for Emily to come over after she gets off the school bus. She swears that she has to be home by now. But Emily's mom already told her she will send her over when she gets home. She won't do anything else so she can be on the lookout. We just tickled each other for about 10 minutes, but really, how long can that last?;)

Mollie is happy and having fun as usual. We're seeing some of the almost 3 year old girl coming out in her dramatically at times, but she is really so happy unless she has just woken up or Sydney is trying to take something from her or is "in her space".
I can't wait to take these girls to Disney in Jan! We spent almost an hour in the Disney store at the outlets at the beach. It was great fun! I feel like I'm going to end up with a smile permanently tatooed on my face by the end of January with birthdays, Christmas and Disney!

beach

We're at the beach now. Got here around 6. Had a yummy dinner at a little pizza place down the street and bought a few groceries to just get us by until Sunday. On the way down Phil called Time Warner to talk about our cable bill. He hasn't really been paying attention to it as it is drafted and we kind of just stick it with the beach stuff every month. Well he noticed that it has been like $20 more the last few months. He called in to talk about our rates, see if there are any specials, etc. thinking that the special we signed up under just expired after 6 months. Nooooo....come to find out a renter we had on July 13th signed us up for HBO via remote control!! You can do that!!!??? Yes. Subscribed us with the click of a button and $12 a month. We had blocked out all the pay per view channels and password protected we thought everything. Little did we know you could subscribe to a new channel with a freakin' remote control, haha. Bad, but sort of funny. Especially considering our luck lately. We got it taken off and are going to call the rental company and tell them. I'm sure they won't do anything, but at least they'll know. And we totally know now we should have paid more attention to the bill!

Anyway, the place was really clean when we got here. The people here last did a good job cleaning up and we have some new entries in our guest book so that's exciting! Can't find the broom. Maybe our $4.97 Walmart broom was so exciting that they had to take it with them. Last time we were here the mop was gone. Are cleaning products really that exciting?....maybe I'm missing something.

flu shots and sisters

So we had a flu shot appt. for today. I asked the nurse if they could get the mist and she reluctantly said yes. Not sure why she was so weird about it. But Sydney was disappointed! She wanted a shot! I said, well, if you don't like it you can have the shot next year. And don't worry, you have your 5 year check up in January and you'll get some shots then. She was like, okay. Weird!!!

After our yummy Beef O'Brady's dinner with Kim and Joshua where the kids were all silly all through dinner...
Sydney is getting in the car and said "I wish I didn't have a sister. She sure is a lot of work for me." I said, "Sydney that is not very nice, you love your sister." She said, "yeah, but she sure does like to fight with me." So I said, "yes Sydney, and you fight with her as well."
"oh yeah"
She didn't even say it with a mean voice, just like she'd been seriously considering it, HAHA!

wowsers

• Dishwasher still broken. I never heard back from the "magic people" yesterday about the repair that supposed to occur. They just called and said that another authorized dealer would be contacting me to set up a time. Better be today. I'm getting impatient and cranky in my old age:)
• Garage door can now be added to the broken list. As I'm trying to get out to the gym yesterday morning we realize that we are stuck and not going anywhere. I tried lots of things and Phil came home from work to look at it. Thank God he was in his office and not on the road like he is today until Friday! So I'm currently sitting at home waiting for the garage door people to come fix it. We moved the car seats to Phil's car, thankfully he has a rental for travel this month.
• Our internet router has been on the blink. Finally last night at 8:45 Phil said he thinks it needs to be replaced. I said well Circuit City closes in 15 min, you better get your buns over there because I'm not dealing with no internet with 2 days until you get back home. Can't take one more broken thing. He did. It was on sale:) Shaunt our neighbor works there and tried to get Phil his discount. Because it was on sale the discount was $.08, haha.
• Unfortunately I take these frustrations out on Phil. Poor guy. Why do we do that? I just expect him to be able to fix things for me! He is really good at being handy around the house, but a broken dishwasher, garage door spring...that's just beyond him. And that's fine. He's probably glad to be leaving:)

Last night was so exciting! 2 couples from our neighborhood came over to watch the election coverage. It was great because regardless of who you supported, it was just such an important election. So we sat around and drank some wine. No one even talked about who they voted for President-wise. I'm pretty sure it was split 50/50 between the 6 of us. But we didn't need to share that. We talked about some local races where we had no idea who the people were and all admitted we ended up voting for a few based on signs, haha. It was just fun and exciting to watch something happen that will be such a turning point for our country for better or worse. And NC where there were a lot of big races as well.

dishwasher vent

We got a new dishwasher. I've been begging for one for about a year. It was delivered on Friday. Phil hooked it up Sat. morning. He's done it before, we don't think he screwed it up. He started testing it out, it did a few things, then error code. In the lovely manual it says if you get one of these error codes call the manufacturer. Super. Of course they're not open on weekends. He called Best Buy b/c they have a 30 day guarantee. They're coming today sometime. Have they called yet to give me their "window"? No. Luckily all I have on the agenda is Sydney's gymnastics class at 2. But I need my dishwasher!!!! We have been handwashing since Sat. Now, I realize there are worse things and I should count my blessings that I have one. But I just don't feel like they're clean enough. It really makes me wonder about all the dirty dishes that we probably ate off of when I was growing up and it was Nancy and I's job to wash them. I guess I lived. Anyway, now I have my old dishwasher that still runs, I just hate it, sitting in my kitchen floor in case they have to take my new one away and order me another new one. And I feel selfish for wanting a new dishwasher. But the old one is so freakin' loud you have to turn up the tv to hear over it and you can't talk to someone across the room. And the top rack dishes rarely get all the way clean.
I'm really hoping Best Buy calls in the next 30 min and is able to fix my lovely new one that I've been staring at for 2 days and can't use!

TGI-over

Well, we had a fun, exciting, stressful Halloween week in our house. The girls mostly had a blast. I am glad it's over and yet have a bowl of candy the size of a small mountain. Granted, there were other things going on in "real" life (as opposed to "party" life) that contributed to the craziness.

It started last Saturday with the Apex Halloween Carnival at the community center. It is geared toward kids under 8, yet the time is always 2-4. So they knock out the whole napping crowd. I just took Sydney and Phil stayed home while Mollie slept. She decided to wear a cute witch costume that my mom had gotten to keep at her apt. for dress up clothes. She got to hang out with her BFF Matthew so it was a good time!

Tuesday a girl in Sydney's class invited us to a party at her house. It was huge! There were tons of kids there and food, crafts, games all over the place! It was somewhat chaotic, but a lot of fun. I forgot my camera for that one, but took this one before we left:

Wednesday was Sydney's Halloween parade and song performance at her school. She was really shy about all the people around and was not in the mood to smile for many pictures. She didn't sing either, but she had been singing all the songs at home so I had already heard her do it:) I love things like this!

Thursday we had our TH playgroup Halloween party at our friends Kim, Aaron and Sarah's house. That was more low key because it was all the kids we usually hang out with and very well organized.

Last night our friends the Wrights met us for trick or treating. Their oldest 2 are Sydney and Mollie's ages. Trick or treating was FUN. The girls all had a blast and didn't really complain about being cold. We went to Ms. Mary's house (Mollie's dance teacher) and about 1/2 the houses in this little circle of our neighborhood.

Now we get about a month reprieve before Christmas kick in full swing!

Happy Birthday Chase!

Today is Chase's first birthday! I can't believe he's a year old! Sweet baby is getting big!

He didn't love his cake. He's not a big eater anyway though. But he loved his presents and playing with his cousins! He is getting tubes in his ears Nov. 11 and hopefully that will help him feel better so it doesn't hurt when he swallows. Nancy really has a hard time getting much food in him. He's so long and skinny! Oh, and in these pics you'll get to also see his new hair cut!

back in the saddle

So...the perfect (I hope) little job just landed in my lap. Anyone ever work 20%? I'm going to:) I worked 50% between Sydney and Mollie. And have really enjoyed working 0%!

Most of you know I'm still close to the people I worked with at Reedy Creek, the first and only school I've worked at, haha. It's in Cary, close to our old house, about 10 miles from here. Well, I guess it was last Thursday, the 16th when Phil and I were on our way to the football game. I got a call from my friend Daniele who teaches K there. She said they had lots of kids who need extra help. I had volunteered in her room some this year. She said the principal had a small amount of extra funds and would I be willing to come in some to help and actually get paid, haha. I said I could only work while the girls were in school, maybe a little more. I talked to my college student babysitter who happened to be at my house that night and she doesn't have Friday classes this semester or next. So I decided that I could work from 9:30-12 on M and W and longer on Friday b/c I would have a babysitter. But I didn't want to pay child care on M and W at all. All of this was just me and Daniele talking or me thinking in my head. I finally talked to my principal this past Friday, haha!
And then today.

So it was just too easy to say yes to working a little, doing what I like to do, and things I already know how to plan for. And if I don't go back to work for a year or 2 more it will be a little filler on my resume! That's also one good thing about it: it will just be this year. Very temporary. I already let them know about days I need to be out for special things at the girls' school and for our Disney trip, etc. I'm excited because I already know most of the teachers and I have known the principal for about 8 years and they all already know me!
One funny thing is that he reminded me that I need to go to HR and renew my application, haha. I never thought about that! So I'll try to do that this week. He (principal) is sending in some form tomorrow recommending me for employment again. I just hope they retake my badge pic. because my last one was horrible!

fall fun

There is so much to do around here! We are very lucky. What to choose, what to choose...

Yesterday our playgroup went to Kazoom, a puppet theater in downtown Raleigh. They do a different theme show every month and October is Halloween! They happen to be conveniently located a block from Mellow Mushroom, a yummy pizza place. We went to the 10am puppet show where they had costumes the kids could dress up in and it was so interactive and cool! I'd love to go back in November for Thankful month. They really enjoyed it. We went over to MM for lunch and my friend had reserved a semi-private area for us to sit and preordered cheese pizza. YUM! Sydney ate 3 pieces! This is our attempt at a picture of a bunch of 2-4 year olds on a stage, haha...

The girls were worn out and both fell asleep on the way back home, before 12:30 even! Somehow they both stayed asleep at home. Phil came home around 3:15 and then we left to go to the NC State Fair! Last year they didn't do any rides there, but after our July Tweetsie Railroad trip we knew they would be much more into it this year. You really could spend a small fortune at the fair. We even bought advance tickets and while it helped a tad, I didn't buy near enough ride tickets. I wasn't anticipating having to ride with Mollie on kiddie rides because she wasn't yet 36" or whatever it was. I hate spinning around and round. Oh, let me add that Phil actually wantd to go on, but they would have none of that. Mommy! Mommy! The swings weren't so bad, really fun actually. Tea cups, not so much. I hate that. I am even afraid of the Ferris Wheel in my old age. The one at Tweetsie killed me, haha. But this one had seats more shaped like buckets with 2 seats facing each other. So we all went on together. To the tune of 4 tickets each which are $1 each so $16 for a freakin' Ferris Wheel ride!!! The tickets were $1 at the fair, but when you get advance ones they are $10 for 18. Much better deal. But I only bought one book of them. Not enough.

We did let them do one fishing game where they were guaranteed a prize, they had chicken on a stick for dinner with fries and lemonade. That actually was pretty cool because it was like 4 huge nuggets on a stick, fries and a drink for $7. Well they let us split it and gave us 2 small drinks for the girls. Definitely enough food for them. Eat at the church sponsored booths! They're nice and so much less Carnie-like! Then they wanted ice cream. By this time it is really getting very cold. Face painting was $5 each so we finally made them choose between ice cream or face painting. They chose ice cream. Phil and I ended up not even eating there because we were so busy with the girls and were getting cold.

It was REALLY fun though with them. Next year we know to allow a lot more time and buy a lot more advance tickets and bring a lot more cash, haha. They were SO happy and had so much fun...I can't wait to go to Disney in January!!

We haven't even made it to a pumpkin farm, haven't been to the Farmer's Market to get our big carving pumpkin yet (hopefully Sunday), and are going to miss Boo at the Zoo. I have just learned that we can't do everything and there's always next year. I didn't get to do all this crap when I was little, haha.

all in 7 weeks

I just counted up on the calendar that in the six and a half weeks of our lives between Dec. 2 and Jan. 17 we have:
Dec. 2nd- Mollie's 3rd birthday
Dec. 19th-Phil's birthday, not 3rd:)
Dec. 25th- Christmas!! my favorite holiday
Jan. 16th- Sydney's 5th birthday
Jan. 17th- leave for a week at Disney World

Can we say busy, crazy and expensive!???? And most of all FUN!!

things that happened this weekend

Saturday the most absolutely nothing we've had in a long time! I didn't take off my pj's and shower until 2:30. By then Sydney had had on at least a dozen outfits. Phil showered at 4:30 when we were getting ready to go to Nancy's for dinner (I invited ourselves over). The girls hopped right in the bath with Chase and for about an hour Sydney was convinced she was spending the night. Until it came time to put the sheets on the bed and she said she thought she'd try another time:)
Chase got his first hair cut and it looks FREAKIN ADORABLE!!! I wish I had a picture. I forgot my camera.

Sunday I hosted a Southern Living at Home party and we had a few friends over (some who came for the party and then husbands joined and some who are football companions for Phil) for some dogs and brats. It was lots of fun. I got to hold baby Emmy for a long time and and Sydney and Mollie got to play with cousin Chloe and baby Brennan who is 3.5 but they still call him baby Brennan:)
Mollie did actually manage to eat a bite of her hot dog with her fork crown before someone caught her. I don't want to squash the extremely intelligent concept of a fork crown so I struggled with making her stop. But I did. What would it be next? The Mr. Potato hat for a spoon?

Busy Bees

We have been pretty busy lately (maybe I always am and this time was also tired!) and I just haven't gotten to blog much!
Quick recap of our activities. Last Friday morning Mollie was invited to a princess tea party at her friend Eliza's house. She and her mom LeAnne are so much fun! Sydney spent the morning at her BFF Matthew's house and had a great time. They're so cute together and way dramatic about how much they like each other. It will be interesting to see how that continues over time.
Friday evening we drove to Elkin, NC to Phil's mom's house. It's about 2.5 hours away. Phil and I left Sat. morning for our wine trip with 3 other couples. Last year we explored our way around the Yadkin Valley wine country area and decided it would be fun to do it with more people (and a limo and a hotel room). So it was our anniversary trip and the girls stayed with their Nana who was so happy to have them. She was really tired when we got back Sunday though! It was the first time they had stayed there without us. But luckily arriving on Friday and not going to bed until 9:50 and waking up at 5:45am the next morning wore them out so they slept well the next day/night!

Monday morning I dropped the girls off and went to help my friend Dawn at the pediatrician with her twins for their 4 month appointment. It was fun. I love doing things like that. I should volunteer at Apex. Ped. for multiples visits, haha. Always get to hold a baby! And of course they were perfect!
I had signed up for a class through the NC Museum of History for teacher renewal credit back in August. The session was 6 weeks, started the first of Sept. and ended on Oct. 15th. It was 5 assignments and guess when I started? Monday afternoon;) Phil was gone Monday night so I had some time to work then and then every spare moment on Tuesday and Wed. and got it done with no problem.
Wednesday night Phil was gone again and my friend LeAnne's husband had a meeting so we went back over there and trashed her playroom for the 2nd time in a week! This time Sydney got to come and she and Eliza really enjoyed playing together! It's nice that the age difference doesn't mean much for any of them at this point. We did have a few locking door incidents and have been struggling with some "truth" issues lately with Sydney, but we had a great time playing and eating until bed time. LeAnne, the banana bread lasted about 12 hours. Maybe. :)

That brings us to yesterday. We had a home football game against Fl. St. last night at 7:30. Phil and I actually didn't have anyone riding with us for the first time in a while, maybe ever, so we took the convertible! It was so much fun riding to the game and through the traffic with the top down! Traffice was awful after the game though and we didn't get home until 12:30. Considering our babysitter came over at 4:30 she made a killing off of our pleasure!

This morning Sydney had school so Mollie and I went to Cary Town Center to take advantage of early voting. I'm so glad I did it. It took about 35 minutes, but she was a perfect angel. We had fun just goofing off at the mall after that since it was raining a little outside. We split a nugget meal at Chickfila and went to go meet Sydney at school. Sydney went home with a little girl in her class today for a play date which was pretty cool. But I had forgotten to write the teachers a note about it so we went to get her out of class and for me to just make sure she understood that she was going home with Ayden and that I would pick her up later. No problem there, she could have cared less about that! She was so excited!
That also means that while she is there and Mollie is napping it is totally quiet here...I think I actually just heard a bird chirp outside...

fork crown

"Mommy. I have a fork crown in the playroom, can I eat my pancakes with my fork crown?"

"No Mollie, you may not eat your pancakes with your fork crown. It's actually not a fork. Sorry:)"

speaking of outfits

See if you can guess why it matches.

it's all about the outfit...

Tonight before dinner the girls and I went to Apex Community Park to walk around the trail around the lake. (bad idea, I won't do it again with 74 lb. of kid and 27lb. of stroller for 2 miles)
We did get plenty of glimpses of nature even though it took forever. We notice 2 beautiful swans on the side of the lake.
I am about to point them out and Sydney notices a jacket hanging from a tree close to the swans. I'm talking about the swans and Mollie is oohing and ahhing as Sydney keeps saying, "but Mommy someone left their jacket! See the jacket?" I am saying, "yes Sydney, but look at the beautiful swans" and trying to be all educational and observant and stuff.
We are completely passing each other with my swan talk and her jacket talk. So I finally said, "Sydney. Who cares about the jacket? Someone will come get it or maybe they left it. It is not yours so don't worry about it."

"Yes," she says, "but it would look really good with my blue outfit."

lots of excitement

Well, small pieces of excitement!

I forgot to say Happy Birthday to Grandpa on Sunday!

Tuesday we found out that our base school, Baucom, which was just changed to year-round last school year, is now going back to traditional calendar next school year. Sydney's Kindergarten year. Guess who's pissed off? HAHA, me! I wanted them in year-round! So now I think I have to apply to YR calendar and hope I get it. According to Phil there's nothing I can do about it right now so just calm down;) I guess I'll get over it, we still live in a great school system, the student assignment people and the school board are just really making me think that they have no idea what they're doing! Registration is in February. I already can't believe that I'll be sending my first born to elementary school!

Yesterday Mollie got a special surprise at preschool with a note from her "fairy godmother"

A box with 2 beautiful hand-made dresses! I didn't tell her who her fairy godmother is, but it's one of her teachers! Last winter Mollie had a brown corduroy long sleeve dress with small cupcakes embroidered on the top from Gymboree. Her teacher borrowed it to see if she could see how it was made. That was like last Jan! So she made Mollie a short sleeved one with 3 cupcakes and a summer dress. Sewing is one of her hobbies. It just was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for us and I was about to cry! She didn't want any attention of course for it because she didn't want anyone to know that she had done it as that could obviously cause some issues in the MMO, haha. I brought her some flowers at the end of the day after the other kids had left. She said that Mollie just holds a special place in her heart (she has 4 kids elementary to college age), sniff, sniff...

The girls are still really into pretend play and Sydney has been back into playing babies more than ever. She set up her own little nursery in the dining room yesterday. The girls also were playing "hair place" in the living room and got out the cape and everything. It was very cute.

Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to us! 8 years later and we're older, wiser, rounder, and happier!

Tonight we're going to go eat some Mexican food at Cancun Grill with the 2 little best things that have happened since we got married:)
This weekend we are doing our NC wine tour! Last year we did it by ourselves and had so much fun. This year we have 4 couples, a limo, a hotel and a Nana watching the grandbabies at her house in Elkin!

*for some reason the date is showing Oct.6 at the top, but it's the 7th!

my smart little ladies

Sydney is really loving school! She is so happy when I pick her up. She's starting to want to work more on "writing" things and I copied her a bunch of stationery pages that are all sizes so she can write letters to people. Holly, she wrote one to Dylan, but I'm not sure what happened to it!
I gave her a folder and wrote all these words in it that she wants to write a lot, like names of people, love, from, etc. She loves her file folder, haha. I remember loving office supplies when I was little. Especially post-it notes. I love watching her learn. She's pretty good at looking at beginning sounds and guessing what word it will be. It's cute. She can also count to 30. I'm not really bragging;) Just writing all this down so I can have a good record of it! And because I guess it's my blog so I can brag if I want to. I'm taking the time to focus on these things and not the sneaky pinching, kicking, making up words that rhyme with poop or boobies...you know, that stuff. Oh, and she is still so shy when she sees people sometimes! Yesterday we ran into her teacher from last year, Mrs. Medlin, in the bathroom at her school. She would not even speak to her! She hid behind me. Even Matthew gave her a hug and a few other kids. She was very interested to know how Sydney was doing and talked to her. Sydney finally gave her a little wave when we were leaving, it was funny. She was just so shocked to see her!

Mollie can count to 20 and knows all of her letters and the sounds that they make. I really didn't give her a quiz, I just have noticed, haha. She's been able to do it for a while. The letters, the counting has gotten better in the last few months. She can write her name sometimes and other times she gets confused about her M, makes a W, and the whole thing falls apart! But she spells her name, Sydney's name, Mommy, and sometimes Daddy. She writes Gramma Gaaaammm or some assortment like that. She really likes school also and it's so great that she has the same teachers from last year. She is NOT good about going potty at school. Not that she has accidents, but she does her leaking thing and when they take her to the bathroom she won't usually go. On Monday she told Ms. Caroline she had to go for the first time and they were so proud of her. Mollie really enjoys driving her sister crazy. Looking right at her, grabbing something of hers, and running. Speaking of running, her running has really improved. She is so, so cute! She used to have trouble getting her chubby legs off the ground:) But now she really runs with more of a gait and her legs are getting longer and slimmer. She has really gotten tall this summer. I put on a pair of 2T jeans the other day that were high waters! So of her 24 pair of pants, really some are 2's that will not fit that much longer, and the rest are 3's. And some 3's will still be a little long. I love how in the Fall you see a bunch of kids with new clothes on that are too big.

Today we're off to another noon football game. Hopefully the girls will hang in there okay like they did last time. The weather is going to be beautiful! I bought their tailgating Pringles so we should be good until game time;) Isn't it fun to have a snack that you're only allowed to have in certain situations? I never buy crap like Pringles (because I would eat the whole can).

24

The number of pants I just counted while putting Fall clothes in Mollie's armoire...that's not counting a few pair that go with outfits in her closet. Or the other things like shirts, dresses, etc.
;-)

new header, schools, mom, etc.

Like my new header picture? My Adobe trial that I keep trying...and trying...and trying...ran out;) I was impatient about waiting for Phil to reinstall something for me so I found this site called www.picnik.com. It's a free photo editor! I thought it was really cool just for simple stuff I like to do.

Today I went to visit my friend Daniele's classroom at my old school. The girls were at preschool. She taught next to me for my 5 years in Kindergarten. We started together as first year teachers and are still good friends. Anyway, I've been meaning to go hang out there more and really haven't. So I made today the day. And holy crap I kind of can't believe I used to do that. She is super woman. Really, one of the best teachers I've ever met. Her class is adorable, but after hanging out in suberbia for so long and in the preschool and the families I am surrounded by on a daily basis, well, it was humbling. (I'm not sure if that was a sentence, sorry). A lot of statistics are based on free and reduced lunch populations so that's what I'll use to base it on. That school is over 40%. This percentage is what they base Title 1 funds on which is a federally funded reading program. My reading job I had was just like Title 1, but funded through the county. There have a large ESL population also (English as a Second Language). It has always been this way, I just forgot. I forgot how you could have kids who speak NO English in the same room with these 2 little girls who are going to the library alone to take Accelerated Reader tests because they are so brilliant. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. And I loved the ESL kids. K is the best place to have them. They learn so fast! My 2nd year teaching I had 22 kids, a part time assistant, 8 ESL students and one white girl!
I swear some of the kids in her class this year are at a developmentally 3 year old level. So I think I'm going to go in most Wednesdays and volunteer during her literacy time so I can help with assessment or center while she does reading groups, etc. It will be fun. They were all so sweet!
A lot of schools around here, as in our end of Wake Co., are not Title 1 schools and probably have less than 30 or even 20% F&R. BUT, I said, I'm glad I taught here before anywhere else becuase it would be hard to have a job in this setting after being in a school with more parental involvement, higher level learners, etc. It would be hard to go back. And I really prefer to have a class of needy than a class of needy parents who are breathing down your neck all the time! Definitely made me miss it. Not that I think I could dedicate myself to working full time with little kids again all day AT ALL, but it helps me feel like I'm staying in the education loop.

Okay, my Mom has an apartment starting tomorrow. She's been living here since mid-June. She's very excited and the girls are a little confused about her moving out. But she'll be very close by! My Dad is coming up again this weekend to check it out and to celebrate his birthday on Sunday.

Our October is shaping up to be super busy! I think we already have something planed every weekend through the end of the month. Chase will be 1 on the 27th! I can't believe it!

pictures and video

I have uploaded new pictures to our Shutterfly site. It's updated through September. I can't believe it's almost October! Can you tell I like to take pictures? You'd think I'd have a fancier camera.

Here is a link to the "Made out of Gold show" on YouTube that Sydney loves. Now she can watch it over and over and I have discovered that she and Mollie both are proficient in my laptop mouse now!

weekend

Sydney's had quite a weekend! Friday night she went to our neighbor Emily's house for her 6th birthday party and didn't get home until 9:30, haha. Emily's mom Wendy is the one who watched Sydney for me when I was working part time. So Sydney and Emily played every day then even though Sydney was pretty small at the time. Emily's I guess a year and a few months older than her, but they love to play together. She's in first grade now so they play in the evenings or when Emily is in tracked out (year round school).

Our newest neighbor Debbie's brother's family is moving down from Boston so they have been staying with her for a few days until their apartment is ready. Debbie has a 5 year old neice and she had told her about Sydney. So after lunch yesterday they invited her over to play. We left for the football game about 3:30 and mom and dad said that Sydney didn't come until about 5:30! Emily had been looking for Sydney to play again so after supper she played over here until 8 when Sydney and Mollie HAD to get a bath and go to bed after all the excitement!

Today Debbie called back and said that her neice wanted to play with Sydney again so she's over there now:) I think Christina will come play over here after dinner for a little while. And then the napper Mollie will get to share in some of the excitement. Wow! Sydney's never been so popular, but she's loving it! And it's weird sending her to play without me, but I'm loving that too!

Last night kind of stunk because it rained so hard during the football game and they got stomped by the University of S. Florida. My friend Billy from high school came up for the game and he and his friend Jeremy came with us. We gave him tickets last year and this year. He works at Disney and is getting our whole family in free all week when we are there in January! So we owe him big! Plus he's just awesome and fun to hang out with, great to see him again!

Nancy and Travis brought Chase over and we all rode together while Gramma and Grandpa had all the kids. So then we all got to ride together and use one of our spots for tailgating, much more room. Nancy and Travis spent the night since we got home so late. 7:30 games are fun, but tiring! We left when the pouring started and went back to the parking lot under our EZ-up tent to stay dry and listened to the crappy game.

So today we had a cookout for lunch since they were here and Phil's brother David was in town with his family. They have the 4 seats in front of us, but this is the first game they all came to this season. The girls didn't get to see their cousins Olivia and Emma yesterday so we hung out for a while before they had to go back home. And we talked a lot about our Disney trip in January. We are all going together and it is going to be so fun! Sydney and Mollie will be interested in some other things that Olivia and Emma might not care about and vice versa so we won't spend the whole time together, but we're in the same hotel and will do most meals together. I'm so excited!

This is random, but I just loaded some pics from the ECU football game a few weeks ago and look at this super cute picture of Mollie in her princess glasses: