Last post of the year

Well for the last post of this year, I figured I would give a little blurb about everyone:

Emmaline - She is constantly amazing us with what she is learning and *remembering* at school. Lately her favorite topic is what makes a pattern and explaining patterns like "ABAB" or "ABCABC". It's pretty cool. She is in such a fun age where she has so many interesting insights and fun things to say.

Liliana - Well as I posted before, her speech is really coming along. She is also developing a really sweet heart. She is very hot and cold. One moment she can be mad about something, but then the next moment she will wrap her arms around you and give the tightest hug, and sweetest kiss and say, "I love you!" She loves to cuddle but also has so much energy and finds so much thrill in everything she does. We also recently night-trained her and she is doing so well with that. With her strong spirit we didn't want to push the issue so we waited for awhile from when we day-trained her. She has been dry the last two nights without even having to get her up in the night to take her to the bathroom.

Imogene - Idgie is also amazing us with her speech. It is soft and quiet, but she is now saying three words sentences and popping out with new words everyday. Her new fun word is "Stinky" which means anything to do with her diaper or diaper changes. She loves following around the other girls and copying and getting involved in whatever it is that they are doing. She also learned how to open doors a few days ago!

AJ - AJ got an end of year raise and got good reviews at work so we are happy with that!

Bethany - I am busy creating a human life. That has to be an impressive accomplishment - right?

Rating: 5 Lollipops

24 weeks

I had my 24 week appointment today. My OB said everything is looking good. She said that upon further review of my last ultrasound, that we are actually having another girl!!!

Kidding, kidding!!!

What she did say is that the second reviewer of the ultrasound didn't think that the kidneys were actually overly enlarged. They were large - but not outside of "normal" range. So that is a good thing. They will still do another ultrasound in another month or so just to check the umbilical cord. They weren't able to get a good look last time to verify that it has three vessels.

My OB also agreed with me that I could skip my 1 hour glucose test next time, and skip straight to the 3 hour test. I always fail the 1 hour so it made no sense to me at all to have to waste my time doing it. So in another month I will being doing that!

And here is a 24 week picture!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Happy Anniversary!

AJ and I went out to celebrate our 9th Anniversary! It isn't actually our anniversary until January 3 but that happens to be both a Sunday and Liliana's birthday. Not to mention the fact that AJ's mom is here visiting so it made sense to just go out a few days early. We put the kids to bed early and then went out to dinner. It was nice to get to spend some time alone together. I can't believe we are starting in on the last year of our first decade of marriage!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

The Movies

Emmaline when to a birthday party today and for the very first time ever - she got to go to a movie! Can you believe we've never taken any of them to a movie yet?

We went and saw The Princess and the Frog. It was a cute movie and Emmaline declared, "I liked everything but the evil parts!" She didn't even know about previews and all that so I had to explain to her that they were "commercials" before the movie. "But mom, I HATE commercials!"

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Endings

Well today was the last day of speech for Liliana. She will turn three in a few days and no longer qualify. Her therapist had a little party. They made a craft, had a snack, and played. It is amazing to think about how different Lil is from a year ago!

Remember when I first got the phone numbers to call?

And when I decided not to call?

And then when I decided to call after all?

How she was only saying 35 words a year ago?

And when she finally had her evaluation?

We have come such a long way since then! Her speech is still "mushy" but she is talking up a storm! I definitely no longer have concerns about her vocabulary and she is using more advanced sentences too. It really is phenomenal the difference!

We are so proud of you Liliana!

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Christmas

Well I'd say Christmas was a success! On Christmas Eve, we had a floor picnic of finger foods and watched The Polar Express. The girls loved it. There was fruit, veggies, crackers, meats, steak kabobs, tater tots, cocktail weinies, and many other yummy things.






Then we told the story of Christ's birth, the girls put out their stockings, and they rushed off to bed. While they were sleeping, Santa came and here is what he brought them:

Idgie - Cardboard blocks, Magna Doodle, and Books



Liliana - Sit and Spin, Tinkerbell Movie, and books

Emmaline - Camera, MedicAlert Bracelet, Piano Books

And here are some other pictures of the girls opening presents:

The funny part of the day is that Emmaline and Lil spent the day playing with the blocks nad magnadoodle, and Idgie spent a good part of the day playing with the Sit and Spin. It's like the gifts went to the wrong kids! Other hits of the day came in the stockings. They each had a stocking filled with fabulous socks. There were Disney Princess, Sesame Street, Aliens, Hello Kitty, Tinkerbell, and more. Then there were also some puppy purses with the stockings. Basically stuffed dogs with a zipper on the back and a strap. It is funny how the simplest things can be so loved! Idgie got a Yorkie, Emmaline a Pug, and Liliana a Beagle.
Instead of gifts from each other this year, we got the entire family the Wii Fit Plus. We are very happy with it. Emmaline spent two hours running in place, while playing a bicycling game! How can you argue with that? Lil and Idgie get into it as well and stand on the floor and run in place too!

For Christmas dinner we had ribs again - and did NOT have a fire or order Chinese. A success!

Rating: 5 Candy Canes

Getting Behind

Well I haven't blogged for most of this month and have now gone back and added a few posts and backdated them to put them in order. So you might want to scroll back through the month of December in case you were worried you might have missed something!

Cookies Cookies!

Well it is that time of year again to make sugar cookies for Santa! Mostly it helps keep the kids occupied for the day while they hurry up and wait to go to bed.

The girls of course loved eating the dough and I let them go wild with the frosting. I swear Emmaline's cookies are more frosting than actual cookie!

Safe Sugar Cookie Recipe HERE

Santa can come now! We're ready!

Rating: 24 Sugar Cookies

Christmas Sunday

In our church we don't have special services on Christmas Eve or Day. The Sunday before Christmas is the one we use to have our Christmas Program for the year. The entire program was performed by the choir along with scripture reading of the Christmas story, and some congregational hymns as well.
During the rest of the year, the musical numbers at church are generally much more quiet and reverent, but for Christmas we pull out all the stops. I was involved in helping to accompany the choir on the piano. Several of the pieces involved a piano duet + organ + either flute or violin (so four of us playing). Of course in order for the piano to be heard along with the pipe organ, you have to lift the lid all the way AND pound your heart out! So few songs (in or out of church) do you get to do that. Nothing says fun and powerful like getting to put your whole heart and energy into playing something like Joy to the World! It was a ton of fun.
Now I just have to wait to get to do it again next year.

Rating: 4 Lollipops

Kindergarten Concert

Emmaline had her Kindergarten Christmas Program today! It was a short little program during the day. They just sang three songs. It was super cute though - mostly because they kept messing up and getting out of sync with the music! Afterward they went to the cafeteria and made gingerbread houses. Emmaline's of course was all made from safe graham crackers, frosting, and candy. YUM!

Rating: 1 Gingerbread house!

Dressing Up

You might remember that when Lil was the same age as Idgie, that she also liked to dress up. That at least was in the summer. Idgie has found a love of dressing up now as well - but it is in her winter gear!

Also, a few months ago, Lil's speech therapist did an evaluation on Idgie and determined that she was slightly behind on her speech. Well not anymore! Idgie is talking up a storm and even saying phrases like "I want socks" "I want boots" "Watch show" and so on. So no worries there anymore!

Rating: 4 Pixie Dust

Christmas Lists

Last night we went to the Christmas party at church. Emmaline was completely excited to go because she knew Santa was going to show up! She had a list all prepared of exactly what she wanted to tell him. When her turn came she sat on his lap and said, "You have three choices of what I want. I want a new bracelet (MedicAlert), a camera, or a yo-yo." I loved that she gave him a choice! When I asked Lil what she was going to tell Santa that she wanted for Christmas, she told me, "candy." Smart girl! However, when her turn actually came she started saying, "no! no! no!" so she didn't sit on his lap afterall! Idgie of course is luckily still too young to care!

Rating: 3 Candy Canes

Measuring Time

Some people measure time by minutes, or hours, or days, or weeks, or months. Not in our house. We measure time by birthdays. It all started with teeth brushing. To make sure Emmaline's teeth were brushed for a decent amount of time, we started singing "Happy Birthday" while she brushed. We would just sing it to whoever had a birthday next in the family. But not just our family - we include grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins as well. Not only is she now pretty good at telling you the order of birthdays in our family (not the exact date - but the order) but she has begun to measure time by it. "Mom how many birthday's until our new baby comes?" (seven) Well today we were talking about how it is Uncle Jeremy's birthday. She asked whose birthday was next (Uncle Dwight) and then whose birthday is after that? When I responded that Jesus' Birthday was after that she began to dance around the room singing: "One more birthday until Christmas!" and then ran to the office saying, "Daddy, Daddy, good news! One more birthday until Christmas! I love holidays!"

Rating: 3 Candy Canes

Thoughts on motherhood and other things

So last night, AJ had his work Christmas Party. We've never been able to make it in the past so we made every effort to be able to attend this year. We even hired teenage babysitters - something we have never done before! The party was held at a hotel and had an open bar and catered dinner. The whole bar thing isn't our scene since neither of us have any experience with drinking. Luckily, I asked around weeks ago to friends and found out that they usually have juice and soda at the bar as well, so that worked out okay. Drinking is such a foreign concept to us that we didn't even know that much so I was glad I had asked around! Dinner was "fancy" in that it tried too hard to be fancy - but the truth is it was so "fancy" it wasn't good and everything was actually really hard to eat politely without making a mess! Maybe we're just not high-class enough to enjoy that kind of thing - I don't know! We're not even picky eaters!

Anyway, we concluded at the end that while the party was free, the amount that we had to spend to get babysitters in order to be able to go out, would have been much better spent in a multitude of other ways (like takeout from Red Lobster and cuddling on the couch watching a movie).

Oh and what does all this have to do with motherhood? Well it was a fancy party so we had to dress up. That means that I had to actually do my hair which involved pulling it out of the messy ponytail that I wear every single day, and actually styling it! Idgie apparently has never really seen me with my hair down because it genuinely scared her! She would look at me really weird and nervouslike, and then go to AJ. She wouldn't touch me at all! Apparently I don't get out of my motherhood uniform nearly often enough!

Rating: 1 Fireball (for a lame evening)

The Belly - Halfway

Well amongst all the excitement about finding out the gender - I didn't post my belly shot! Here it is at 20 weeks!

Rating: 1 Giant Gumball

And the results are in!

Congratulations to the 57% of you that guessed boy! It looks like we have big changes coming to our household. Emmaline jumped up and down when we told her and said, "A brother! I've never had one of those before!"

Overall the ultrasound went well. There was one minor concern. The kidneys are slightly enlarged. Apparently it usually resolves itself but in a small percent of cases it could require surgery after the birth. The OB said it certainly wasn't anything to stress over. Apparently this is a much more common problem in boys than it girls - which helps to confirm to me that the turtle we saw on the ultrasound really is a turtle. I will get a few more ultrasounds through the pregnancy just to keep an eye on things.

Maybe I should rethink the overwhelmingly pink theme of the blog ...

Here's our little guy:

Rating: Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Gender Poll

Well this is the week that we finally find out the gender of Baby #4! Will it be the first boy for our family? Will it be a 4th girl?

AJ felt really strongly for quite awhile that it is a boy but he last couple weeks he has been wavering again and feels unsure.

I honestly have no guesses or intuition in either direction. I actually had a dream a couple weeks ago where the ultrasound tech told us that it was a boy and then we laughed at her and told her that we knew were in a dream and that in real life it is a girl. So who knows what in the world THAT means! I've had two other dreams where I'm getting an ultrasound but the dream never gets to the point where they tell us the gender!

So the big day is on Friday, Dec 4. In the meantime, take the poll over there on the right hand side and/or feel free to leave us a comment with your guess as well. Maybe you have some questions about various gender predictors (Chinese calendar stuff, how I'm carrying, what I crave, etc) that you want answered so you can make a guess? Let me know!

Help us pass the time!

Rating: Sugar and spice and everything nice (or is it snips and snails and puppy dog tails?)

Pearl Street Mall

The Pearl Street Mall is a tourist trap in Boulder. When we have house guests we usually take them there to soak in the local atmosphere. There are always street performers, and lots of interesting shops and people to look at!

Well today was no different - my sister and her husband are here visiting for the week so we took them down there! We saw people playing the guitar, the harp, and even the didgeridoo. All that is normal - but today there were a few things out of ordinary!

1) There was a man in long dread locks wearing the colors of the Jamaican flag and doing yoga. It was quite a sight and he was surprisingly flexible!

2) Emmaline saw a panhandler (not uncommon there) and says to her as we were walking by: "What are you doing?"
"I'm holding a sign"
"Why?"
"For money"
"Why?"
The lady answered but we were just out of earshot at that point. I wonder what Emmaline would have said to whatever the response was?

3) We saw a couple walking with a camera crew following them. They kept walking and rewalking the same area to get different shots. The whole scene looked familiar and AJ and I knew instantly what it had to be about! Then some sort of production type person appeared so I went up to her and asked her if they were filming House Hunters! She was surprised and said that yes they were and wanted to know how I knew what show it was! I told her I could tell by the way they were filming the couple - it just looked like the show! She told me how the show would air with the new season in January and that the idea for that episode was that it is a young couple who want to live in Boulder but can't afford it, so they are going to be looking in other towns around Boulder instead. She said the couple still wanted the "feel" of Boulder so they were filming the couple walking through the Pearl Street Mall in order to get shots of the "vibe" of Boulder! It was pretty neat. I don't know how often they get people coming up to them but she was a really nice lady and seemed more than pleased to talk to a fan of the show!

So all in all - a good trip to Pearl Street!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Happy Birthday AJ!

Sadly AJ had to go to work on his birthday as most grown-ups do. But overall I think he had a good day! The girls selected some gifts from The Dollar Tree. Emmaline got him a huge (think 2 feet long) pencil, Lil got him a sudoku book, and Idgie got him some Beef Jerky. I skipped the Dollar Tree and got him some model railroad stuff instead! (Read that: I told him how much he had to spend and let him pick out his own stuff!). For dinner we fed the kids chicken nuggets, and then ordered Red Lobster after bedtime for us! Then we watched Battlestar Galactica and AJ played a new computer game he got.

Happy Birthday AJ!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Shelving

Check out these AWESOME shelves AJ made for me! The hold our water barrels and our food storage that is in #10 cans. For those unfamiliar with what we are working on - here is a link to explain it: Provident Living.

The shelves are slanted so the cans roll forward as we need them. Here is the before:

And here is after we put the cans in. Don't kid yourself into thinking those shelves are all full! It just looks that way because it all rolls forward!

And for those interested in the fine details of the construction here are a couple pictures that show some of the details:

Rating: 5 Lollipops (great job AJ!!!)

16 weeks

Already 16 weeks! YAY! The nausea is starting to wear off finally though I still am exhausted! I had an appointment today. It was right after school so I picked up Emmaline and took her with me. There was a nerve wracking moment where the OB couldn't find the heartbeat on the doppler. So instead she did an ultrasound and everything looked good! Emmaline thought it was great to see baby on the ultrasound.

Here is baby. It was actually really hard to get a good picture - the placenta was right in the way and we'd get a random body part poking out from behind but never a full body shot. This will have to do!




And here is me at 16 weeks! Why am I already big??? Why oh why?





Ratin: 3 Lollipops

Most Improved

We got a paper home from school the other day that there would be an assembly and Emmaline had been selected to receive a quarterly award for her class. It turns out what she got was "Most Improved". They said it was for the child who has been working hard, and following rules, etc. I'd say based on the parent/teacher conference we had the other week, that what it means is that Emmaline was bouncing off the walls and not focusing on her work and gabbing too much at the start of the year, and now she is doing much better on those things!

Is anyone else besides me amused that she is a whole head shorter than the other kids in her class???

Good Job Emmaline!





Rating: 5 rolls of Smarties (Emmaline's favorite candy!)

Halloween

I confess that this year I really didn't have the energy to think too hard about costumes. Luckily, last Christmas, my sister made each girl a cute animal hat to go into their dress-up basket! I found appropriate colored clothing to go with each hat and had instant costumes! Emmaline was a Princess Monkey (see the crown?), Lil a cat, and Idgie a pig.

They may all look all cute and innocent:


Put really the evening festivities made them more giggly and wired - like this:


Rating: Too, too, too much Halloween Candy

Pumpkin Pancake Party

Today Emmaline had a class party for Halloween. They got to wear their pajamas to school and for the party they got to eat Pumpkin Pancakes! This worried me a great deal actually since pancakes involve eggs and milk, so I volunteered to help out at the party. It was a good thing I did since they were planning on letting the kids actually help make the pancakes and not just eat! They made sure to have Emmaline be in my group to cook and I was able to keep an eye on things and allow her to participate as much as possible while minimizing the chance of contact. She did things like mixing the dry ingredients while the other kids mixed wet ingredients. Last time Emmaline was touched with just a trace of egg residue she looked like this - so I didn't take this party lightly.

Her teacher and all the other parents helping were really great and made every effort to keep things clean and to have the kids to good handwashing and such. I really, really appreciated the effort they all made. Emmaline had a fantastic time at her party and she was thrilled to have me there. Give it another couple of years and she'll be embarrassed to have me, but I'll enjoy it for now!

Rating: 4 Pumpkin Pies

Parent/Teacher Conferences

First off - we got Emmaline's school pictures back!


We had our very first conference with Emmaline's teacher! Emmaline is doing very well in school overall and we are all really happy with how she is doing. The only things that her teacher mentioned could be worked on have more to do with maturity than academics. That is no surprise since Emmaline is the youngest in her class. She said that Emmaline needs to work on focusing on getting her work done and to not talk quite so much. We both nodded in agreement - since we are very familiar with those issues at home too! It isn't that her talking is bad necessarily - it is that she ALWAYS has something to say! And she does tend to get distracted while doing a task and let her brain wander off into La-La Land. Both things will be cured with age and aren't a huge concern.



You're doing a great job in school Emmaline-Pie!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Speech Evaluation

So today Liliana had her speech evaluation with the school district. She ages out of her current speech therapy when she turns three in January. At that point, kids who need services move to a preschool setting if they qualify. We went for the evaluation and Liliana did really really well. I doubt she will qualify for the preschool. It was funny to see the evaluators reading the reports from her Speech and Occupational Therapist and have them say, "this is not the same child as what is written on these papers!" Lil WAS having an exceptionally good day. One of those perfect angel days!

I am so proud of her and how far she has come in her speech. She really is a different child from a year ago. She has her moments, but she also has such a sweet tender heart and is so quick to give hugs and kisses and to cuddle.

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Soy Challenge

She passed!!!!!!

Emmaline passed her soy challenge today. Not a single drop of vomit! (Well I vomited, but that didn't have anything to do with soy)

We need to be careful for a few more days but then after that we can feed her soy! YAY!


Rating: 5 Tofutti Bars!

Lately

Lately I haven't been blogging much. So this is just a little post to catch up on what the kiddos are up to these days. Along with it I give you some cute pictures I took of them a few days ago eating apples. Even Idgie consumed half of her apple all on her own - gnawing away at it with her six little teeth!

IDGIE

Lately Idgie has been jabbering away at us. She also has taken very nicely to walking and follows the other girls around like crazy. She wants in on the fun! At bed time she goes to both Lil's and Emmaline's beds and leans in to give them kisses. It is so cute! Last Saturday, she got to wear shoes for the very first time. Can you believe we've never put her in shoes? We never needed to since she took so long to walk! It was hilarious to watch her try to figure out trying to walk in them. She HATES shoes. However, she loves boots! That girl is content to clomp around in a pair of snow boots but don't you dare but those cute sparkly pink and purple sneakers on her! No way!

LIL

Remember what a fashonista Lil is? Well lately she has been into socks. We keep all the kids socks in a bucket - it is just easier that way and she digs through, past all the plain white socks, to find the most colorful, sparkly, fabulous socks she can find. She has no concept of what matches her outfit, she will rock whatever glitzy socks she can find. We're considering writing to Santa and asking him to fill her stockings with stockings this year - the flashier the better! Lil has also been talking up a storm! This is not the same girl who started speech therapy at the beginning of the year. She is speaking in full sentences and trying out new words everyday. She expresses her opinion using words instead of screeches - it's great! When she turns three, she will "age out" of the current therapy she is in and potentially qualify for a free preschool program through the school district. She has an evaluation next week for that!

EMMALINE

Emmaline is just loving school. She is so excited about everything she learns and still begs to do her homework every night. She reports that the boys chase her on the playground every day and try to capture her and put her in their castle. Hmmmmm..... not sure how much I like that. She also has had a few funny one liners lately. We were discussing the new baby and she said how glad she was that she "landed in the right tummy" so that she could be in our family! She also reports that if this baby is a boy that she will "tease it and call it names." Good to know.

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

12 Weeks

Well I have made it to the 12 week mark. That is when people magically start feeling better right???? Lies. All lies. At 12 weeks though I figure it is okay to start taking pictures - even though most of my belly is just bowel displacement and not quite cute baby yet!

By the time you hit #4 though - it is NOT a lie that things start to fall apart sooner - assuming they went back to "normal" at all. So for fun I give you a new photo and also a photo from the family archives!

Here I am pregnant with Liliana (baby #2) at 21 weeks! This was almost exactly 3 years ago in September 2006.

And here I am currently at just 12 weeks! EEK!

Rating: 4 Lollipops

Babies Babies Everywhere!

That's right! I am now finally ready to admit my secret to all. It appears that another little baby is set to join our family on about April 21!

I told Emmaline today that I was going to the doctor today because my tummy hurt. She has noticed all the puking lately and was glad I was going to see a doctor! So then I came home and showed her the pictures of WHY my stomach has felt so bad and she was thrilled! "I just knew it!" she said. She also insists that she hopes that it is another girl so that we can have four girls at our house! Lil and Idgie didn't care - but they will when it starts to really affect them!

Rating: 200 Lollipops!

Milk Challenge

Emmaline has her allergy testing a while ago, and based on her RAST testing, the doctor determined that we could try a milk challenge. She did one two years ago and failed so I didn't have a lot of hope for this one. We went in and did that today. The nurse put in 5 grams of powdered milk into a tablespoon of water and Emmaline drank it. About 2 minutes later she started to complain of a "sore throat" and had hives around her month. And that was that!

That doctor still thinks she might be able to tolerate the milk in baked goods, so in January we are going to try that instead. Also next month we are going to do a challenge for soy. Last time we did that it was digestive pyrotechnics - so that should be fun.

Rating: 2 Fireballs (bad news I guess, but not exactly unexpected)

Belly Up

Our dear sweet Goldie has passed on. I guess that is what happens when pretzels (Liliana) and eraser bits (Emmaline) get into the water. A goldfish just can't take that kind of abuse. We reminded Emmaline how in Finding Nemo, that all drains lead to the ocean, so she lovingly helped AJ place Goldie in the toilet. Then she said some sweet words to Goldie about what a good pet she was, and how happy she was to have her come live with us. Then Emmaline pressed the handle and flushed her away. Then she wept in our arms for 15 minutes and slept with a picture of her.



Life lessons are hard.



Rating: 5 Fireballs

Birthday Party

Emmaline had her very first birthday party! She was so excited and kept talking and talking about it. She told me months ago that she wanted a cake that looked just like a banana, and since she likes to pretend she is a "Princess Monkey", we went with a jungle theme. We had a craft activity, Pin the Banana on the Monkey, Musical Pillows (with jungle music of course!), and a monkey pinata. Since Emmaline can't have ice cream, and the safe stuff is very expensive, we did Snow Cones instead and those were a HUGE hit!

Rating: 1 Banana Birthday Cake!

Stitches

AJ was installing the car stereo from his old car, into his new car. He decided it wouldn't be too bad to just use a utility knife to cut a thick piece of plastic. What he soon discovered is that the knife didn't work too well on the plastic, but it slices through pinkie fingers with ease. He was the lucky recipient of five stitches in the ER and he left blood splatter through the interior of his new car. Nice.

Rating: 5 Fireballs

Happy Birthday Emmaline!

Five year ago today, it was Labor Day, and I was in labor! I can't believe how much time has passed. Emmaline declares that it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! She said that everything felt and tasted different when you are five years old! We let her open her gifts first thing this morning - still in her pajamas. The biggest hit for her birthday gifts was a goldfish!She named it ...... are you ready for this? Are you sure??? She named it ......

GOLDIE!

This is a child with a stuffed dog named Poodle Dragster and countless silly names for her My Little Ponies - and she named it - Goldie. Sigh.

For her birthday dinner she picked to have a Baked Potato Bar and Green Beans. How awesome is that?

Happy Birthday Emmaline-Pie!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

New Car

So we weren't exactly planning on getting a new car, it just kind of happened. We had talked about it briefly during the Cash for Clunkers program since AJ's car was in sad, sad shape. However, that piece of tin didn't qualify and the program was only for new cars anyway.

So I was listening to the radio and I heard an ad for a dealership in Denver that was offering $4500 for ANY trade-in and towards new OR used cars! We decided that it was certainly worth checking out since the trade-in value of AJ's car is about $500 and we originally bought it for about $4300. It seemed like a good deal!

We discovered that you could only choose from certain cars on the lot - ones that had been damaged by hail a couple of months ago! Luckily it was all cosmetic damage and since we drive our cars until they wheeze their last breath, a few dents didn't bother us much. Since we were able to trade in AJ's car for so much, we were able to get our new (used) ride for pretty dang cheap!

See the dents down the side? There is only damage on one side of the car and a tiny bit on the roof. You actually can barely even see it unless you are looking for it or taking a picture with your macro settings on your camera!

Rating: 4 Lollipops!

Walking!

Idgie took her first steps! She has been able to stand up independently (without using something to lean on or pull herself up) for a couple of weeks, and finally she decided walking was a good idea too. I wasn't even paying attention, and I looked over and she stood up and took three steps! I guess when she was finally ready to go - she went!

I will endeavor to get a video soon!

Go Idgie!

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Foxy Loxy

AJ spotted this guy in our yard a few days ago, but today he came back and I was able to get some pictures! He is a BIG fox! He probably lounged in our backyard for a good 15-20 minutes before jumping the fence to go to the neighbor's yard.

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Family Photos

Back in June we had some family photos taken. My friend Carolyn is a photographer and she did a great job. It was quite a task getting all the girls to focus and look the same way! Here are a few shots of the whole family. You can spot Lil's "foo-foo" in every picture. Letting her hold that stuffed dog kept her happy for the picture taking (mostly) so we let it slide.



This next one cracks me up because there were some little ducks that were following us. You can see them there in the grass.

Rating: 5 Lollipops!

The Kissing Hand

Have you ever heard of the book The Kissing Hand? Good little story! It is about a little raccoon that is scared to go to school, so his mother gives him a kiss on his hand to keep with him when he goes to school. I've been doing the same thing for Emmaline and she has been doing much better! She keeps the kiss in her hand and if she feels sad or lonely then she can put the kiss on her cheek.

Rating: 1 Mommy Kiss