Dance Recital

Woohoo! Dance is over for a little while. We atleast get the summer off. I'm still not sure if we will continue to force the girls to go to dance classes. I get tired of pushing it and I said I was not going to make them go next year but after seeing the recital I'm changing my mind again. Lydia is so good. It makes me sick to let her quit. She loves to dance and she loves to watch people dance but she does not like wearing leotards and she HATES tights. To me that is just such a silly reason to let her quit. Surely she will out grow those things. She changes her mind all the time too. She really enjoys dance once she is there but it's all the whining that I have to put up with to get her there that I just don't know if I can handle. Lauren loves dressing up for dance but she picks up on her sisters negative attitude and then she joins in on the whining and I want to pull my hair out. Is is really worth it? Rafael really wants them to continue with dance even if it requires me dragging them there against their will. He regrets not sticking with a certain sport as a child and he doesn't want that to happen to his kids. It's hard for me too because I really believe that Lydia has a natural talent for dance and if she continues she could be really good. It's hard to just let that go. Lauren is still a little young but I know she certainly has a natural talent as a gymnast. She is fearless and loves to be active. Luckily that is something that I don't have to force. She would love to go to gymnastics everyday.
Well atleast I have a few months to decide what we will do about dance for next year.

Pistachio scare

Okay, this story is strange enough that I just have to share it. Rafael went to the grocery store the other day to pick up a couple of things. He took this opportunity to buy a few things that he likes and I never think to buy. One of those was a big bag of pistachios. The next day we got them out and although the kids were interested in what we were eating we could not talk any of them into to trying this mysterious green nut. Even Lydia refused and she usually eats anything and everything especially if we tell her it is good for her. The next day I packed a few containers of snacks to take for the kids during the girls dance classes. I packed a container of pistachios thinking if they were hungry enough maybe I could tempt them to try them. I know if they tried them they would love them. We got to dance and although I looked and looked in my car I could not find the pistachios anywhere and none of the kids knew where they disappeared to either. It's very odd that particular container disappeared but all the other snacks were just where I sat them. This morning I was on the phone with a good friend of mine and in the middle of our conversation I opened the back of my car to put some groceries in and there was the container of pistachios in the very back of my car. I was so surprised to see it back there that I actually said out loud "Oh there's my pistachios!" and then continued on with what I was saying. She stopped me and said "wait a second, did you say something about pistachios?" She then goes on to tell me that there has been a product recall on pistachios due to possible salmonella poisoning. (Thanks Sabrina!!!) Sure enough I go home and look it up and the pistachios we bought are on the list. Of course I have no idea if our pistachios are contaminated although Rafael was up with an upset stomach last night after eating a bowl of them and I read that in healthy adults salmonella could be nothing more than an upset stomach. However small children are not always so fortunate. Pretty scary! What a close call...sure is a lot of strange coincidences in this story huh? Of course I think that it's much more than just coincidence. Someone up there is looking out for us.

The Flood

Wow! It has not rained so much since 94. We had quite a downpour and then the rain just kept coming. Fortunately we didn't have any major issues at our house. Others we know were not so fortunate. My mom had to battle some water coming in her house but luckily she had my dad and all my brothers over to help fight off a major problem. Her furniture is probably ruined in her Den but the walls will probably dry out and not have to be replaced. A girl that I grew up with is a lot worse off. Check out this news article when you get a chance. http://www.rickeystokesnews.com/article.php/house-on-blackman-rd-has-about-two-feet-of-water-in-it-1642 It's crazy how quickly the water can rise in a flash flood! We drove around after the worse part of the storm had passed and we got some pictures around our neighborhood. Fortunately our pond has a really big spill way so the water never went over the road but it was crazy to see how much water was rushing out of the pond. Keep in mind the water level was about 2 feet over the top of the spill way. CRAZY!

5 Senses

I've been tagged- this one is called the 5 senses tag. You list 4 things you love, and one thing you hate, for each category. Then tag 5 people, leave them a note on their blog so they know. Also, let the person who tagged you know when you post yours. So here we go...
Smell-fresh laundry, baby lotion, homemade bread, roses Hate-dirty dish rags
Touch-soft skin, silky fabric, carpet, warm water Hate-raw meat
Sound-kids laughing, classical music, quiet, ocean Hate-screaming (especially the high pitched squeals my kids let out)
Taste-chocolate, pizza, bread, pickles Hate-anything fishy
Sight-my beautiful kids, flowers, waterfalls, mountains Hate-a messy room

Okay so I tag Courtney Vierra, Jenn Phipps, Jessica Nemnich, Sherie Dotson, and Nicole Ennis

Garrett Home!!!

Okay so Garrett's homecoming was not how we imagined it being. His plane did not get into Atlanta until midnight. First, there was a snow storm that his plane had to fly around and then North Korea threatened that they could not guarantee the safety of any plane flying near their air space so his plane had to go a different course again to avoid being close to N. Korea. That made him miss his flight to Atlanta. He then had to fly into LA and then to Atlanta. Luckily he was able to call my parents from Korea in time to stop us all from going up to Atlanta that morning. My poor parents had to drive to Atlanta that night though and pick him up and then drive home so they did not get in until about 4:00 am. We let them have a few hours to recover before we went over in the morning at about 9:30. It was so nice to see Garrett and to have him here in the USA. It is taking him a while to adjust. He is having a hard time sleeping at night since Russia is about 12 hours different from us. My mom and I went shopping with him yesterday to try and get him a more mature wardrobe (he left when he was 19, still a teenager, and now he is 21, a man). While we were shopping Garrett said when he hears strangers speaking English, his first thought is "Americans!" How funny! It may take him a while to get used to being home. We are sure loving it though!

Garrett's coming home

I am so excited my "baby" brother is coming home. He has been in Russia on a mission for our church for a little over two years. We are going up to Atlanta today to greet him at the airport. I can not wait to see him! I will be posting pictures soon of our reunion. :o)

Happy Birthday Lauren!!!

I have been intending to post this for a few weeks now. Better late than never! Lauren turned 4 on Valentine's day. We had a little family get together to celebrate her b-day. I try to do a big party for my kids every other year or so. The other birthdays we just celebrate with family. It is usually really low key but I had to up it just a notch this year for Lauren because she had been talking about her "birthday party" for atleast the last 6 months. She really wanted a Hello Kitty birthday party. She was so excited when she woke up from her nap and the house was all decorated. She loved all her gifts! She is also really good about sharing them with her big sister. What a fun day. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. She is such a tender hearted little girl. She is really such a joy to have in our family.

Something Homemade!!!

Who else wants to play? No pressure. The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (Might be a little while).
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right?

My Fashion Savvy Boy

I thought only little girls gave you a hard time about what they wear. Andrew has become quite the fashion savvy little 2 year old. The other day when I got him up from a nap he looked at me and said "I don't like you shirt." Then he looked at my straightened hair and said "I don't like you hair." Then Sunday morning he must have over heard Rafael talking about rather or not he should wear a sweater vest over his shirt and tie. A few minutes later Rafael was holding Andrew and he said "Daddy, you not match." Once again later that day when I walked through the door after going visiting teaching he ran to hug me and then looked down at my glittery yellow box flip flops and said "I like you shoes." Now normally a mom might be a little concerned that her son was so into fashion but Andrew is such a boy that I have no worries. Also if you know anything about his dad you would understand. This man probably has more shoes and clothes than I do. So at least we know where he gets it from.

I am so Excited about this blog I found!

If you have any little girls you have to check out this blog!!! These hair styles are sooo cute. I was so excited to try one that I practiced on Lydia's hair tonight just before bedtime. It was so easy and it looked awesome and she loved it. Of course Lauren wanted her's done too. Poor girl...so I tried to do a modified version for her and it actually turned out okay. Her hair is starting to grow a little longer now but I can't wait until she has more hair to play with. Anyways here's the blog, www.hair4myprincess.blogspot.com

Curly vs. Straight

Okay so I straightened my hair this weekend. Rafael and my kids have never seen me with straight hair. I have only done it one other time when Rafael was out of town and Maria did it for me. Here is the verdict from my fam. Lauren loved it. Lydia wasn't sure at first but then decided that she really kind of liked it. Rafael loved it. Andrew didn't notice anything different. I've gotten mixed reviews from others some love it and say I should wear it that way all the time and others say "Are you sure when you wet it the curls will come back?" "It just looks so strange." Several people, including my own parents, didn't recognize me from a distance. I like it both ways and for me it is just so much fun to know that I can actually straighten it when I have time and I am in the mood for something different.

Princess (and prince) party

We had all the kids over for our babysitting night with the addition of Hannah and Leah. My girls got lots of dress up clothes and makeup for Christmas so we decided to have a party to put it all to use. Even Andrew got to join in on the fun. He was able to be our one and only prince charming. He was so excited to be dressed up too. After everyone was all dressed up we watched a Disney princess sing a long dvd. The girls and I loved it and I think that was definately the easy babysitting night Rafael has ever had. For some reason he wasn't much into the whole princess thing but he kept himself entertained by watching some football while the rest of us hung out upstairs.

Is something missing?

Lydia lost her first tooth!!! It had been loose for a couple of weeks and she was over at a friends house and called me to tell me that her tooth fell out. :( I was just sad that she wasn't at home but she said that it didn't hurt at all and that it only bled just a little bit. She was very excited and couldn't wait to come home and put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. My baby is growing up!

New Years Party

I know this is a little delayed but I had too many great pictures to not do a post about our New Years party. Better late than never. We had a fun time celebrating the New Year. We had a few friends and family over and we had taco salad for dinner. There were also tons of other snacks and lots of sweets. Everyone had to load up before that "new years diet". Jason and Maria brought over their guitar hero and everyone had a blast playing that. The time flew by and before we knew it the fireworks needed to be set up and everyone rushed outside to watch the show. We then came in and got the drinks ready for the countdown and turned the tv on and then we realized WE MISSED IT! That was kind of a bummer but we celebrated anyways and just made our own count down. It was really a fun night.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

The girls got into some body glitter and lip gloss. They even let my mom and Sybil in on the fun.

Elaina was not ready to call it quits on all the partying. What is wrong with these girls?

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

After Christmas morning at our house we headed to my parents for a late breakfast. Things are always a little crazy and a lot of fun when we open presents at their house. These two videos make me smile so I hope you will enjoy them too.

Breakfast is done now it is time to open Presents, Presents, Presents!!!

After all the gifts are open it has become a tradition to play in the remnants. When Lydia was eighteen months old every time she saw my brother Matt she would say "Matt mess". That year he broke a bunch of styrofoam into tiny pieces and pretended it was snowing in the living room. Ever since then the kids have had so much fun playing in the wrapping paper and boxes. (No more styrofoam, way too hard to clean up)

Christmas Day!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. The kids were actually really easy to buy for this year. Both of my girls just asked Santa for one thing so anything else he brought was just icing on the cake. Lydia woke up pretty early and was so excited but thankfully Santa wrapped the entry ways into our living room so she had to wait until we would let her wake Lauren up before she could see any of the gifts. Then the girls each picked a doorway and they busted through the wrapping paper. They opened all their presents and headed to Lydia's room to play with their new gifts before Andrew even woke up. He was able to have our undivided attention while opening his gifts and yet he still managed to open two gifts that were not his before we noticed. He loved opening presents no matter what was inside.