The things kids say.

Jeremy and I keep laughing about last Christmas when we had just finished opening gifts at Jeremy's parent's house and Hayley was sitting next to Jeremy looking so pleased with herself and all of the gifts she got. She turned to him and said, "I've been naughty all week, and I STILL got presents." PRICELESS!!!!

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Vitamin Seeds

Hayley: Sydney, you need to drink your Orange Juice.
Sydney: I KNOW Hayley.
Hayley: Sydney, it is FULL of Vitamin Seeds! Right mom?!?
Mom: Vitamin Seeds- YES Hayley. LOTS of Vitamin Seeds.

Sydney's 1st grade winter concert

The kids did GREAT! They sang 4 songs. The movie below is about "Snowpants". I'm amazed that the teacher can get all 120+ 1st graders to do all of the actions without getting TOO goofy.

Sydney is in the top row, 4th one over from the right. I think I sat in the ONLY seat in the house that I had a hard time getting her in the movie from where her teacher was standing.

This is a picture of Sydney and some of her friends from her class.

M&M's

So while she is IN to everything, she came out of the pantry holding the M&M's with the funniest look on her face.

Addy and the Tree

It's kinda fuzzy but she was having SO much fun playing near the Christmas tree with her baby.

Santa

The girls have seen Santa 3 times now. We are having breakfast with him tomorrow morning too. Addy LOVES him and has even started saying "tanta."

IN to everything

No really, she is IN to everything. Somehow she got this drawer out of our pantry and had to be IN it.

The butt of all jokes

You know how potty humor is SO funny to kids. Well, Hayley came down from getting ready for bed one night in her jammies like this. Of course it caused Jeremy to break out in his favorite chorus of "I like big butts"

Mommy's letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of choc.bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any colour, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with three kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your sister," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season.

Would it be too much trouble to declare tomato sauce a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my daughter saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think she wants her crayon back.

Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,
A Mom
P.S. One more thing … you can cancel all my requests if you keep my children happy, healthy and always believing.

Addyson is ONE!

Addy had a great birthday. It's hard to believe she is one year old already. She is walking and babbling so much. Mostly dada and mama. But Nana bribed her to say "Nana." Nana told her she'd give her $50 each time she said "Nana!" Funny!!!
Here is my birthday girl!

Sweet sweet Addy

My baby is growing up! How is it possible that she will be ONE this month? I am feeling especially sad about it, probably because I know she is my last baby.

But then again- she is so much fun too. She is walking now. Those fun stumbly steps. But she is SO determined. When she falls, she picks herself up and tries again with as much enthusiasm as before.

And smiles- does she smile? The only time she doesn't smile is when one of her sisters starts bugging her too much. It's funny how they learn that "eeehhhhhhh!" noise pretty fast which means 'BACK OFF SISTER!"

This weekend she started signing "more" when she wants more to eat. And she has her own sign for "all done."

And the one thing I wish I could get a picture of without exposing myself... when she is nursing at night and getting REALLY tired, she puts one hand up to her eyes to play peek-a-boo. I think it starts out as her hand over her eyes to block the light then she remembers, "Hey- I know this fun game that makes mama smile." If I don't watch her she reaches her hand up to pull my chin down to watch- then she does it again until she gets the reaction she wants.

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I found her playing in the shoe basket this weekend. Nothing is more fun that big sisters' stinky shoes.

Fun with friends

The girls had their friends over to play on Friday night. The girls had fun playing dress-up and Blake and Addison were SO cute together!

Trick-or-Treat night 2007

It is HARD to get the girls to all cooperate for a picture. Addy was the least thrilled about the idea. She really didn't mind her costume, but she just did NOT want her picture taken.


Hayley had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. We bought this Unicorn costume, but evidently she thought people would make fun of her in it. (It's another phase.) So then she thought she'd just wear her Cinderella costume from last year. I finally convinced her to be Cinderella riding the Unicorn!

Halloween 2007

Our local grocery store has Trick-or-Treating for the kids a few days before Halloween. They had a scavenger hunt with treats in the different departments. Charlie Coyote was in the frozen foods waiting for a picture. Addy kept smiling at him and waving. I'm glad she wasn't afraid.

Look how big Addy looks with Jeremy holding her! What happened to my baby?



Nana plays this game with the girls in the pool where she pretends to be "Octonana" Well when I found this Octopus costume for Addy I just knew she'd have to be "Octo-Addy!" In these pictures from the library she looks like she is even playing the "blah blah blah" part of the game!



Hayley was IN story time and too busy for a picture, but here is Sydney in her witch costume at the Library.

Balloons at the Dome

I totally swiped these pictures from our daycare's blog (I hope that is ok) but I wanted to share how cool it is that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons come to OUR town to be tested each year!! And how nice it is that our daycare mom tries to take the kids to see them

Homecoming

It was homecoming weekend here last weekend. The girls enjoyed the parade. Jeremy's uncle Rog got to ride in the parade on a float since he was on the one and only national championship team at USD. The quote on their float said, "The older we get, the better we were." Too funny!

The Sprinkler????

Yes, after the pumpkin patch we had to break out THE SPRINKLER! ON OCTOBER 6th. What is going on?

The Pumpkin Patch

We were happy to be able to go back to our favorite pumpkin patch this year. Last year it was closed because the new owners didn't have time to plant the pumpkins. The girls had a great time. And it was HOT! 94 degrees on October 6th!

Video?

I'm testing a movie of busy Miss Addy!

Eating Ice Cream

Sydney was feeding Addyson some ice cream after a trip to Dairy Queen. Sydney won't share her ice cream with many people. Lucky Addy!

First Words

It's amazing how much you forget from one child to the next. Forgetting when they roll over and crawl and first steps and all of that.

Well, Addy is a VERY vocal baby. Her favorite word right now is "bob." Lots of "bob bob bob bob". Especially when dOg comes near.

Today when I went to pick Hayley up for preschool Addy got excited to see me. So I took her from the daycare mom to give her a hug and I SWEAR she said, "Hi mama!" We'll just go with that, it made "mama" very happy!

Tamra and Nick's Wedding

Here are some pictures of the girls from Jeremy's cousin Tamra's wedding this past weekend in Minneapolis. This last picture shows the fun of trying to get all 3 girls to smile in ONE picture. It never happened. Addy isn't thrilled with the idea of one of her sisters holding her.