Zoo

Ali, Dash, Gretchen, Kenny, Sammie

Gretchen and Ali

I Can't

Today we were invited to go swimming with the Gallamores. Dash has been in a mood lately as he is just exhausted from life. We are going to need a vacation from vacation next week. As it is I am keeping him home from school on Monday. Anyway....we had a very lazy morning today. As a matter of fact we didn't get dressed until 1:30pm today and we only got dressed because we were leaving. So when I asked him to get dressed

D: "I'cant"
M: "you can't?"
D: "I'm sick and my sick will get ruined"

he was so serious! All I could do was laugh at him.

Lets get ready to fumble....

This football season, I have played the "pump it up song" for the kids. Today Dash was singing, "let's get ready to fumble" I thought it was funny since it is really Rumble. Love it!

Grandma's Tree

1st Snow

Saturday, December 4th was our first snow fall here in WI. We took Sammie to gymnastics then went to The Weber's house to deliver some snow pants for Kenny. We hung out for a bit and then picked Sammie up. After that we came home and played outside for another hour

St. Nick

For St. Nick I have decided to make it a tradition to get them St. Nick jammies. Something that is warm and fuzzy, just what we need in this WI weather. So above is this year's jammies.

Physical Touch

I have really been holding and snuggling Sammie more than usual. I just feel that is the best I can do to help with her behavior. It seems as though she wouldn't accept words of kindness and praise. She wouldn't accept positive reinforcement. She would then take that as permission to be naughty. I am not sure why, but I have been just holding and snuggling her. 

It dawned on me today that her love language is Physical Touch. Why it has taken me so long to figure out, I don't know. But as I was sitting and holding her this morning, it just clicked. She is so much me, that I should have known this for months! So, here we go, adventuring on a new way of life, showing love in a physical way. I have always hugged and kissed her, but just sitting and holding is hard for me. It means me sitting still. Which is hard for me to do. Just another way Jesus is teaching me to slow down and enjoy the simple things.

Ornaments

Gretchen, Kenny, Sammie, Dash

This summer I had the chance to go to a pottery shop with Sammie for a bridal shower. We had a blast there and spent WAAAY too much money. I thought it would be a fun tradition to go yearly and make ornaments with the kids. However with my kids as young as they are it would be a waste of money to go to a pottery shop. So, I was going to let the idea pass me by. Until I saw ornament kits, a 2 pack for $2! I could not go wrong there. They were felt and perfect for Dash and Sammie's age. I called my friend Heidi, who I talked about the pottery shop ornament idea with and we thought this would be an awesome idea. So we planned a no school(dash cuz hes 4k)/no school(gretchen cuz she's full day). Heidi, Gretchen, and Kenny all came over Thursday afternoon. We waited(mostly preped the table) for Sammie to get up. Heidi and I ended up getting different kinds of ornaments, she got painting ones and i got the felt, but it was ok, we opened them all up and let the kids share and create. Dash made 1 ornament and was done. Sammie made the most. There was one point that it was just Heidi, Sammie, and I in the kitchen while the other 3 were off playing. It was an even more perfect day, because Ryan had off so he took Ali with him while he took my mom and brother Christmas tree shopping. How perfect of a husband to take MY mom Christmas tree shopping with a toddler! It was so nice to have Heidi and the kids over. I don't get the chance to host often, mostly never. Then to host a friend that I really feel on the same page of life with and she feels the same. There was a point that Dash had asked me to come play with him and I said, "Dash, you know how you have your friends over to play with, well Mommy has her friend over, Ms. Heidi, that she would like to talk to. I can play with you later. Please let Mommy talk to her friend." and he did. He left us be. The time came where they had to leave, and they forgot their ornaments. Dash was very very sad because I ran out to try to catch Heidi as she drove off. To him, he saw her ignoring me and not coming back. I thought, well, lets just drive them to her house. However, since Ryan had the van and took his set of keys, i did not have a key to drive the gray car. So I called Heidi, she heard Dash crying about it and without complaining, turned around and picked them up. What a good mom, one to hear the sound of my crying child and willing to sacrifice her gas to "make him happy". I am so glad that she is my friend! Thank you Jesus for Heidi

First Snow of 2010-2011 year

Saturday Morning we woke up to about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. The kids have been waiting for the snow to throw some snow balls! We also did some sledding. I know, I know how can you snow with no hill and only 2 inches~with the amazing sleds I have. I got them at Wal-Mart years ago and they are the bomb! They have foam on the top and some sort of plastic on the bottom, but it doesn't take much to get them to go. So with a good push from Mom, we could make it half way across the yard. Can't wait until we get our snow pile from Mr. Bert plowing our driveway into a hill for us! He is too good to us that way!

dishes with Daddy

Big Boy

Pouring his own cereal for breakfast!