A day at the Zoo

This past Saturday was the ultimate Saturday for our kids. For starters they got to wear their pj's to Chick-Fil-A for a free breakfast. They were thrilled as they had never gone anywhere in their pj's before. Calvin was telling people all day that he went in his pj's. After breakfast we came back and put on party clothes. Then headed off to Birthday parties. Hannah to a princess party, and Calvin to a Toy Story party. Both enjoyed a great time with friends and lots of cake. Then as if that wasn't enough fun...due to a 50 degree day, I took them to the Zoo! by the time we got back home, ate dinner, took baths it was time to call it a day.

Hannah's wild ride

To say the least. Just when we have her figured out, she changes. I'll contribute this to her age.
Hannah never ceases to amaze me, good or bad. One day she loves something and then the next she hates it with a passion so fierce you want to remove your self from her presence.

Monday Hannah loved school. Tuesday morning she hated it and didn't want to go(hence the previous post) Tuesday some things happened and she swore she'd never go back...Wednesday they had a snow day and it was all tears! I kid you not. She was up at 730 crying over the fact that she had to stay home. Life was SO unfair. It was as if (in her little mind) that the supper-intendent had woke up that morning and said "I don't think Hannah should attend school today, I am going to cancel today". Never mind the snow on the ground or the fact that safety was an issue busing kids to school. She was very upset. Then by Thursday she was ready to go back. Today she happily bounced out of the van.

I went in yesterday and spoke with her teacher. I wanted to make sure Hannah was adjusting well and see if there was anything I should know about. The teacher said Hannah is an excellent reader and has made quit a few friends.

So to end, I guess we will just have to stay tuned to see if she had a great day or not. She has a fun-filled weekend ahead, so maybe that will help her to be in a positive mindset for Monday. Pray for her as we attempt to rear her in a Godly manner during this time. I feel like I am drowning some days with her. But just when I want to give up she somehow lets me see a glimpse of something to let me know a great person is hidden down inside...

The honeymoon is SO over!

Hannah doesn't like school anymore....I am trying not to laugh as I type this. This is so typical of her personality (Dan might add here "I wonder where she gets it") I guess I am partly to blame on this one. I tried my hardest last week to not say a word about what Calvin and I did while she was at school. I didn't mention anywhere we went, games we played, who we saw, what we ate ect.

Yesterday, after a 3 1/2 day weekend, I let my guard down (or in all reality simply forgot). I let Calvin hang up his pictures on the fridge and later in the evening when he asked if he could play wii "again" Hannah heard him. I think it clicked in her little head that life continues when she is gone. Something she had never thought of before. I really think she thought we didn't do anything while she was there...And then she got jealous again (one of the reasons she is in school in the first place) It doesn't help that when I dropped her off for school yesterday morning the little girl behind us was crying and didn't want to go to school.

This morning she woke up saying that her tummy hurt and that she had got MiriLou's cold. My guess is that she didn't want to miss anything at home and she has been seeing kids at school getting to stay at home when they were sick and thought she would give it a try!! You should have seen the look on her face when I told her she was fine and that she needed to get out of bed. Better luck next time girlfriend!!

On the brighter side of life...she scored a 100% on her spelling test yesterday(b/c of the snow day Friday). The word are VERY easy. The class work she is doing is stuff she did at the end of K.

9-Months

HAPPY 9 MONTHS
MiriLou!!

She is a very healthy girl according to the Dr. She weighs a whopping 21lbs and is 27 and something inches long. Here she is waiting to see the Dr. She didn't like the white paper she was sitting on. I think it was cold.

She is getting better at going from a sitting position to a tummy position. She was having a hard time getting the 2nd leg back. But as you can see, they are pretty chunky:)

~~~~~~~~~~

In other news...Hannah had an early release yesterday and a snow day today! She was pretty upset about it b/c they keep moving the end date for Summer back. Apparently they didn't have 6 snow days in Dec and Jan built in. They are now getting out approximately June 2. But we have had a great day playing with friends and eating fries at McD's.

Hannah goes to school

Yesterday was Hannah's first day of "Real School" (as she calls it) This has been a long time coming. We home schooled her in K, and it was challenging, but once she started to read it went a lot better. Calvin just sat on my lap and learned as she was learning. Then along came MiriLou...and educating Hannah with 2 younger siblings running around, watching TV, playing, eating...anything to get him out of our way/crying/diapering and feeding MiriLou...and BOOM, it was like a whole new Hannah appeared. She made it clear from the get go in August that she didn't want to learn! ANYTHING!! SO we fought and cried and yelled and gave up. In December we made the choice to put her in the public school system here. So on Jan 3rd we went and enrolled her. They conveniently placed her in an elementary very far away. So, we put in for a transfer and got it last Friday. Because Monday was a holiday, she started yesterday.

We went early and filled out the paper work, and met her teacher and saw where her desk was. There is no window in the room, which I think may be depressing at times, but she had the walls decked out nicely. Her teacher is very nice and seemed VERY happy. Then I took her back to the cafeteria and dropped her off. Car riders go to the cafeteria and wait in a designated spot with their class until the teacher comes to get them. She went and sat next to a "girl" Alex (she only had a boy Alex friend up to this point and thought it pretty funny that a girl was named Alex) Then the teacher came and they walked off together. She gave me a quick hug and took off, never looking back. I was pretty shocked. She had been very excited all weekend, but the closer it got to yesterday morning, the more nervous she was.

When I picked her up I wasn't sure what to expect. She was either going to be in shambles or had had a great day. The "car rider" pick up line was out of control. We were double stacked and it wrapped and weaved around the parking lot 2 times!!!! Needless to say, get there early!!!

Her first words when she got in the car where "Can I finish my lunch?" -There's my girl! Couldn't eat all her lunch...no surprise there:) The girl never eats anything and much less in under 20 minutes. BUT, she ended up eating the rest of her lunch and the granola bar I brought with me, then an hour later ate dinner and seconds(which she never does...mostly b/c picky Hannah doesn't like the food), then we went for ice cream, and then when we got home she ate a quesadilla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can we all say WOW together. She never eats that much, ever!

Her favorite subject they had yesterday was Spanish, even though she didn't know what they were saying. She will have it 3 times a week, so I guess she will pick it up quickly. She also enjoyed gym and meeting the other kids. She had such a great time that she asked me how soon she could go back. Every day! I do think I am going to have to move her bed time up 20 minutes though, b/c she seamed worn out and complained this morning of being tired.

All-in-All, God has blessed us beyond what we could have asked for!! Thanks to all of you who prayed for her on her first day. She really enjoys it and we are happy for her.

Also, a huge second praise...Dan has received enough online classes to pay for his school and her school next Fall. (she will be attending a local private school here)! More thanks to God for blessing us!!

*side note: The photos up top were taken Saturday...I tried to take them and pass them off for yesterday, but alas the silly monsoon that we had yesterday morning should be a dead give away that I really am a dorky mom:) O well. We had fun taking the picture Saturday and peeping in the windows. PLUS, I would have never taken the time to take pictures yesterday with ML,C and rain!

Goose

As I was walking by the front window the other day I notice my neighbor standing and staring at the road. I looked closer and saw what she saw! A goose in my front lawn!! Needless to say I rushed the kids out to feed it the last of our bread. They had a great time and when it "flew" away they were sad.

my gamer

game face!

Bubby is learning how to bowl! He is ok(I do most of the work for him still) he does know the difference between knocking a lot of pins down and a few. He puts his right hand in the air and yells loudly when he gets a "fare" SO cute:)

In other news...we have a few inches of snow. The kids had a snow day yesterday. The puffy chair (striped one you see in photo) has officially died. Dan can no longer nail it back together. He is very sad as this was "his chair" We are going window shopping Saturday.

Look familiar?

What are the chances that we would have 2 kids that scootched? She isn't very good yet, but she is getting better each day.

MiriLou is a grabber too. On my BD dinner outing she grabbed the soup and poured it into my lap. This morning she grabbed Hannah's juice box and turned it upside down and started squeezing it everywhere.

She is starting to lean forward to go into a crawl, but she keeps getting stuck. She can't quite get her 2nd leg under her enormous body!! no joke! Her 9mo check is on the 21st, so we'll get current stats then.

For your viewing pleasure

All Smiles

Zzzz's

If only they were this cute while awake...

Reindeer Food

The kids were sent reindeer food. The instructions were to spread it around and then the reindeer's would know to come to our house!! Totally against what we believe and teach our kids...BUT, what kid wouldn't have to time of their life running around the front yard tossing out food for reindeer's:) The mixture consisted (for those of you who want to know) of oats and sprinkles. I will be making this again next year for them. When they were done they got to have "Snowman soup".

*great ideas for using up time on Christmas eve!!

Christmas Morning

Our kids always open their gift so fast I can never get any good pictures. Here are the best ones of each of them. They have really enjoyed their gifts. Thank You cards are on the way. We have just been very busy this week!!

Merry Christmas PART 2

Merry Christmas again! The kids had a great day. They played with all their new toys and then played out in the snow. We made Ginger Bread houses. (or graham cracker houses) Hannah had a great time. This was the first time we had done this. They ate more frosting and candy than are on the houses:) The blue one is Bubby's (with a lot of help) and the pink on is Hannah's.

It has been pretty cold here so we are laying low. I have done a lot of cleaning and re-arranging. (to make room for the new toys and clothes) We have also ate out a lot with our many gift cards. The kids got McDonald's 2 nights in a row!!
Hannah and Calvin had a friend over this morning and again all day tomorrow. It is nice to have another play mate. And it gives me some extra time too.

Merry Christmas PART 1

Stop taking our picture MOM!!!