Christmas

We are celebrating our last Christmas in the condo and what a ball! The girls were so excited that "Ho Ho Ho" had some they were about ready to burst. The video on the bottom is them running straight for the Ariel salon. It was a special gift from Idaho elves. They were so excited they didn't even notice the other gifts for at least ten minutes!

Ky adored her "nemo" pez dispenser so much it took some coaxing to open her other gifts. Savvy got what she has been asking for -

Wall-E! She had to have us put it in right then!

Sorry for the poor video quality - I really need to hand the camera off to Ty in important moments.

Thanks for everyone that helped make our Christmas so magical - we hope everyone else had a wonderful day!

Daddy's Day

Last week was "bring your family to work day" at Ty's job. It was fun to take the girls and show them where daddy goes during the day. Ky jumped right in and wanted to sit at daddy's desk.

Savvy just wanted daddy to hold her. She is such a daddy's girl! She also made sure to tell every one of Ty's co-workers "HI!" with a big wave.

I think Ty just liked showing off his girls, and really - who can blame him? I just want him to know how much the girls and I love him and appreciate all the hard work he does for our family!

Ky's Christmas Party!

Ky's class got a visit from Santa today. They were all so excited to see him. Ky's smile stayed on her face the whole time.

She was a little shy, but she sat on his lap anyway.

This may sound a little crazy, but I was so excited for my first "handmade" gift from one of my kids. I am sure that I will recieve many over the years, but this first one is so special. She even wrapped it herself. Didn't she do an awesome job? I can't wait to open it on Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We finally got around to putting up our Christmas tree. The girls had tons of fun putting on all the ornaments and listening to Christmas music. Ky even put on the silver beads - can you tell?

This is how the tree looked right after it was decorated. Over the last couple days all the trimmings have been getting higher and higher. In fact the top fourth now has every decoration. It is still the prettiest tree I have ever seen!

After we decorated our tree, we made a tree of another sort. Grandma Nelson sent the girls a gingerbread tree kit. A huge thanks to Grandma - she must know how much we love art/craft projects! The girls loved putting it together. Savvy especially liked eating the ornaments!

Ky was so proud of the final result. She showed Daddy with a big excited "Ta-Dah!"

Ky couldn't let the extra icing go to waste. She took care of that in a hurry! I love this picture because of Savvy. She's trying to hear the jingle bell ornament by putting her ear up to it. She is too funny.

My little monkey

looks so cute in her new dress-up outfit! Maybe later we can get Ky to put hers on.

Changes...

There are going to be a lot of changes in our lives over the next month! As most people who read this blog know - we have been living a roller coaster of emotions the last couple months. We had purchased a house only to have it fall through and then had a hard time selling our condo. However, in the past week or so it seems that we have been extremely blessed and things have fallen into place. We got an offer on the condo and I can only hope they love it as much as we have. We in turn found a house. Not just any house... the perfect house. Want to see it? I know you do! So here you go!

Now for the details...
It has two floors and is a total of 2430 square feet.
Upstairs has the living room (tv/family room for now), kitchen (with the 50's double oven), 2 regular bedrooms (girl's room and playroom), master bedroom, and bath.
Downstairs has an "unfinished" food storage room (with shelves), an "unfinished" work/craft room, a 3/4 bath, a huge family room (we want to turn it into a movie theatre room someday), and a big guest bedroom with built in desks (great for when my girls are older.)
Outside has a 1 car garage, a rose garden (we will convert it into a regular garden), a large fruit tree (we think it's apple but we are not sure), a little work shed, and 2 big areas of grass with a concrete pad perfect for bike riding in the backyard. It is fully fenced and they have planted really tall hedges all around it so once you are in the yard you can't see out. It is also within three blocks of all the schools the girls will eventually go to.
Now we just keep praying that everything continues falling into place. According to the current paperwork we should be moving into the new place on the 28th! :) It will be such a wonderful Christmas gift for our girls to finally have room to run and play!

I wonder...

who found the leftover bag of Halloween candy...

Snuggles

This weekend Savvy was super snuggly. She especially loved Grandpa cuddles! So, I decided to add a picture of Savvy with her hair all nice and even. Thanks Heather!

Haircuts!

Somehow in all the food, family, and fun of this Thanksgiving I didn't get any pictures. I am still so amazed we got all twenty-three of us fed that I didn't even think to pick up the camera. It was a great day with tons of fun and a lot of great memories.

This morning my oldest sister was cutting hair so the girls got new looks. It was Savvy's first haircut and now all her hair is about the same length! Ky got her first big girl haircut. She looks so grown up! Her bangs are now even with the rest of her hair and she looks like a little lady. *sigh* Sometimes I just wish she would stay little!

Whoops...

When we picked up Ky from preschool today we had a minor accident in the parking lot. The car door was open, and in her excitement she didn't see it. She ended up running into it at full speed and the greasy latch on the edge went straight into her forehead. It left a small hole, but it was really deep and it just wouldn't stop bleeding. So off to the doctor we went... she was excited to sit up on the bed until they cleaned her head.

They opted to superglue it since the hole was more deep than wide, and they said it would be more comfortable than stitches. It should also minimize the scar, which is a good thing since I doubt this will be our last visit with her. She was very glad for the whole thing to be over, but she looked pretty good for being held together with glue.

Tagged again.

I must be really loved, because I got tagged - AGAIN!

Rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2)Answer the six "8" items
3)Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows:
- Gilmore Girls
- Friends
- Psych
- Roseanne
- Night Court
- Cops
- Good Eats
- Mostly anything on the Disney Channel. Yeah, I admit it. I enjoy watching Hanna Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and the Suite Life as much as my kids.

8 Things I did yesterday:
- Showed the condo
- Took Ky to Preschool
- Chatted with my friend Melanie about mommy stuff (you know, how to get marker off various items...)
- Made our Thanksgiving plans
- We grilled for lunch and tried grilled bananas for the first time
- Danced with my girls
- Caught up on clipping my coupons
- Watched Psych on DVD with Ty after the girls went to bed

8 Things I look forward to:
- The holidays
- Selling the condo and getting into a house (long story, but the one we had fell through...)
- Taking my kids to Disneyland and Disneyworld for the first time
- Seeing High School Musical 3 with the girls
- Ty finishing school and getting a job he loves
- Having more kids
- Watching my kids grow up
- Growing our own garden and being more frugal

8 Favorite Restaurants:
- Blimpie
- Little Ceasers
- Canton Wok
- Sonic
- Olive Garden
- Famous Dave's
- Golden Corral
- Anywhere with a playplace

8 Things on my wish list:
- To finish college
- For my kids to be happy and healthy
- To travel with my hubby and kids (especially to Disney)
- To be completely debt-free (only the house to go!)
- Have a romantic weekend away with just me and Ty
- Ky's speech to catch-up
- To be settled into a house
- To have enough money to live comfortably

8 people to tag: (I only have 7, but oh-well)
- April
- Heather
- Trish
- Keely
- Chantel
- Sarah
- Rachel

Baking

My mom sent another set of aprons for the girls. They are vinyl and have princesses on them. I love them because I can just wipe them off and the girls love them because they know it is art or baking time when they make an appearance. So, just for fun we made chocolate chip cookies last night from some refridgerated dough. Notice their attempt to roll up little cookies.

After they had cooled I gave them each one. I ran out of the room for maybe one minute and when I came back the kitchen chairs were pushed over to the stove. All but two of the cookies were missing, and the girls had suspicious chocolatey smiles. They were very proud of themselves.

We won!

My favorite website had a Madagascar recipe contest. The rules said you had to use General Mills products and try to stick to the theme. The winner got reserved seats for four people to see Madagascar 2 today - a week or so before the general public. Me and the girls decided to enter and we came up with "Alex Peanut Butter Cookies."

Here was the recipe:

1 pouch Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix

1 C. crushed Chex (we used honey nut)

handful of chocolate chips

Betty Crocker decorator icing (black or brown)

Directions: Make cookie dough according to package directions. When forming the dough into balls before cooking cover just the edges in crushed Chex cereal. Bake as directed. Before cookies cool put two chocolate chips into the warm cookies to create eyes. After they cool, add a nose and "lion mouth" with decorator icing. They look like Alex the lion from the movie - mane and all.

Here was our finished product:

And guess what? We won! (Okay, Okay... so not many entered, but we still will count this as a small victory!) We got up early this morning and made it to the showing by 10. When we got there we got to skip the line and go to special reserved seats. They even gave the girls Apple Dippers from McDonalds for the show. It was in IMAX and we sat in the balcony - 3rd row and dead center. The seats were perfect and the movie was hilarious. I think we decided that we like it better than the first one! Here are the girls waiting for it to start, aren't they cute?

I also have to say, they were very well behaved. We didn't have to leave once, and Ky even clapped when it was over. I want to say thanks to PYP for holding the contest and for all you do! If anyone hasn't been there - I have a link on the right side of this page. It is a great place to learn about saving money, and the people are an incredible family of friends.

Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween is such a fun day! We tried to make the most of it - starting the day off at Toys R Us. They did a costume parade for the kids and let them trick or treat around the store. Ky loved meeting Geoffrey, but Savvy wasn't so sure.

We took a lunch break at home with one of our favorite family traditions. Every year we get pizzas from Papa Murphy's in the shapes of jack-o-lanterns. Ky thought that the "Umpkin" was "cute!"

The girls looked great when they were ready to go trick-or-treating. We were so proud of our little Gators - they made it two whole hours before they were exhausted! Savvy couldn't believe her good fourtune and wanted to open all the candy at once. She was too excited to take more than one bite of anything. Ky was equally excited but gobbled every bite of anything she managed to get open.
Oh, how much fun these little girls are.

Bop to the Top

Last week we were among the small percentage of the population that hadn't seen the movie "High School Musical." Honestly, I didn't think I would like it. Wow. I don't think I could have been more wrong. Not only do I love it, but the girls were fast fans as well. In fact, all day long I get asked for "bop bop top." I thought I would share how cute they are when I play it for them. I think they just may get the DVD or the soundtrack in a stocking come Christmas.

Ky's Preschool Party!

Ok, ok... I know this post is a little picture heavy, but she just looked so darn cute. This is our little Gator cheerleader all ready to go to her first school Halloween party. You would never guess that her Daddy grew up in Florida.

The whole class looked so darn cute. It was a trick to try and get all of them looking at once, so this was the best I could do.

They got to make paper spiders (Ky's ended up looking very squid-like), play with black and orange play-doh, make trick-or-treat sacks, and decorate sugar cookies. The cookies were Ky's favorite. She lovingly carried hers the whole way home and gave it to Savvy. She is a great big sister.

Ky took play-doh for each of her classmates. She thought she was so cool handing them out. She sat very nicely for the other kids to hand out their treats. Her teacher told me she had never seen her sit so still for so long. Well duh! There was chocolate involved!


She was so good she got to be the leader in the costume parade. She was very proud!

Only 2 more days and we'll have two Gator cheerleaders going trick-or-treating! I can't wait to get pictures. They have been practicing saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" all week...

I am almost as excited as they are!

Rock Star

Our friends came over for "band practice" and since the Rock Band stuff was in use Savvy got to play the Guitar Hero guitar. She was putting on quite a show... she is a little rock star. I asked her what she was playing and she said "Bop-Bop-Top." I think she was trying to tell me "Bop to the Top" from High School Musical. She loves that movie. It's too bad I didn't get a picture of Ky on the drums.

Mail Time!

When we got the mail today there was a special package to Ky and Savvy from Grandma. The girls were so excited. They LOVE to get mail!

When we finally got it ripped open, grandma had made them aprons! Now they can be little Iron Chefs!

Ky's is bright pink and loud... kind-of like her.


Savvy's is soft pink and quiet... kind-of like her.

They love them so much they still haven't taken them off. Ky wants to help "tir tir tir" something in the kitchen right now!

Thanks Grandma!

Pumpkins

I decorated the girls pumpkins today. I tried to have the Ky help, but once she saw the "insides" she said "Ewwwwww!" and ran away. She gets that from her Daddy. Savvy just wanted to eat them, but after one bite she became unimpressed as well. So I took advantage of naptime and did them myself. Savvy's turned into Sleeping Beauty's Castle and Ky's is Malificent as the Dragon. I was pretty proud of myself. The girl's really liked them once they were finished.

Sadly Ky's is so small the candle doesn't make it glow to well, but Savvy's looked pretty cool.

Now we just hope they don't go rotten before the big day!

Tagged

I was over reading Trish's blog today and she challenged us to find the fourth picture in our fourth folder and post it. So, here it goes...

The picture happened to be from Ty's phone which explains why it is blurry. If you can't tell, the picture is Ky eating prunes. I can't believe she liked prunes, she is now such a picky eater. Ky is such an incredible little girl and I don't know how we ever lived without her. She is such a little spitfire, but also is one of the most compassionate kids I have ever met. We are so blessed she is part of our family.

So, if you are reading this (cough*aprilandheatherespecially*cough) consider yourself tagged. Fourth folder, fourth picture. I can't wait to see it.

Pumpkin Patch

Today was Ky's first field trip. She was so excited that she got to ride on a bus. She loved looking at the window at everything and pointing out trains and cars to me along the way.

Her preschool class all went to a pumpkin patch. It was so great to see her play with her friends. Her and Cameron had a lot of fun in the hay bale maze. He's going to live just down the street when we get to our new house.

They even posed for pictures with the scarecrows.

Ky picked two pumpkins. One for her and one for "sista!" I love how she always makes sure Savvy is never left out.

I'm so glad she is doing so well in Preschool and growing in so many ways. She is turning into quite the little social butterfly. I was really happy when she fell asleep in my lap on the bus ride home though. It made me feel like she's still my baby. Days like this really make you want to make every moment count.

Feety Jammies

To my kids it's one of the first signs of fall. As soon as the nights get cool enough we break out the feety jammies. I just think they look so cute in them, and they sleep better.

Two weeks ago I tried the 18 month size on Savvy and it was fine, tonight they look really tight. She must have had a growth spurt. Not a big deal, but I already packed the 2T ones off to storage for the move. Ty will be thrilled when he gets to go find them tommorrow!

"Our Family"

according to Ky.

For Sale

We have been very busy this past week! Getting the condo ready to sell has been a ton of work, but we are officially on the market and had our first showing tonight. :) We're hoping it sells fast. Here are some pictures from our listing... for those that have been here will be impressed at the amount of stuff we have gotten moved to storage.

Packing isn't fun.

Buying a house seemed like such an awesome idea until we started packing. We are currently taking everything out of the condo except our basic needs so that the relator can start showing it on Monday. That means lots of messes, boxes, and craziness! My friend Melanie came over to lend me a hand and brought her handsome little boy along. Seriously, isn't he just a doll? The girls love playing with him! I felt bad he bumped his lip, but hopefully the popsicle helped!

By bedtime I may have been over-tired, but I thought Ky's imagination was quite good when it came to keeping herself entertained. I know this house will be worth it in the end, but man packing isn't fun!

Back on the nebulizer again.

Since last year we have been able to avoid it, but this cold finally hit Savvy's lungs. For those not familiar with Savvy's tough start, she was born at 34.5 weeks without any serfactin in her lungs. Without that lubrication her lungs could not expand, and she was put on a ventilator and artifical lubrication was injected. The doctors took Ty and I aside before they lifefilghted her to take a family picture in case she didn't make it. I still have that film, but I haven't had the heart to have it developed. I was glad to have it though, because over the course of the next 2 days she crashed twice. After 3 days she was able to come off the vent and 15 days later she was able to come home. She has some permenant lung damage and asthma as a result of her prematurity. Luckily, she has an incredible pediatrician who set us up with a nebulizer at home for times like these. Last winter it seemed like we used it every other week, but we had been nebulizer free for almost nine months! Then, she woke up this morning with raspy breathing and by afternoon she was struggling to catch her breath. It was time for a treatment... she was not amused. Thankfully it helped a ton and the steriods opened up her little lungs. Crisis avoided for now. Stupid cold.

We're under contract!

This is our new house. Yup, you read that right. We're buying a house! Could we be any more excited?!? We are scheduled to close the end of October and we put our condo on the market early next week. It has 4 bedrooms (master, the girls, an office/sewing room, and a playroom), 2 bathrooms, and 2 family rooms (one is unfinished that we will use for storage.) Plus the basics - kitchen, dining room, and utility room. BUT WAIT! The best part is it comes with a yard. Yes, a yard! Complete with slide, sandbox, garden, and storage shed. We couldn't be happier - well that is until we think about moving. :)

A day of cousins and fun.

Today we got to hang out with Izzy and Dylan and man did we have fun. The girls loved having other kids to play with. Ty made us all pancakes for breakfast and then we did the chocolate fountain for dessert. Gotta love chocolate, marshmellows, and sprinkles at 9 am.

Then we did bubble art. In case you aren't familiar with bubble art - you just put a touch of food coloring into pre-made bubble mix and blow bubbles so they pop on paper. It makes fancy designs and was a fun art project. Izzy's was really neat - she did four colors on one sheet and it was "fancy."

We had pizza and garlic bread for lunch. We also had special sodas and fruit snacks. *gasp* Just don't tell April. After a rousing game of "house" and a water tea party we had a dance party. See the video below. I thought April might disown me for letting them dance to Vanilla Ice... then Izzy started to sing along.

We finished by making chocolate chocolate-chip muffins and playing with all sorts of play-doh and play-doh accessories. Dylan liked making turtles and cutting their heads off. Izzy and Ky made confetti and Savvy just wanted to watch Cars.




We had so much fun! Hopefully April will let them come over again really soon... that is if she doesn't ask Dylan exactly how many fruit snacks he actually consummed.