Randomness

We have lots of cute pics coming.... =)

Lainey says "abwoo" now too, for "help you."

Yesterday morning, Lainey stuck a magnet (a photo magnet with a picture of baby Emily in it) up her shirt and pretended she was pregnant. =P That was her first pregnancy. So cute. Emily is pregnant many times a day. =) My favorite is when the baby is something random, like a skein of yarn. =P

Emily likes tonic water. She always offers me some, even though she knows I don't like it. I don't know if she remembers I don't like it until she offers it or if she is offering it like a joke because she knows I don't like it. I think she just offers out of habit because we're always offering each other whatever we have and then she realizes what she offered me. =P One day she offered me some and I said "no thanks, I don't really like tonic water, babe." She said "Oh. Yeah. That's a Daddy and Emmy drink." =P I think it's so gross. She claims it tastes like strawberries. =P It's not flavored, though.

We stopped at a gas station and Emily asked Harp "Can I do some gas pumpin' wif you Daddy?"

Tagged

Hey! Well Jen tagged me like a week ago and I'm finally posting. =)

Here's how it works:
*Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
*Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
*Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
*Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


So here are seven random or weird facts about me:

(1) When I swab my right ear, I cough. And when I was pregnant with Emily, it made me throw up.
(2) I took AP Calculus BC when I was 14. I was 15 for the second semester, but it's more weird at 14. =P
(3) (So far) I like giving birth. There's something strangely fun about it. =P
(4) I know there is plenty weird about me but now that I'm supposed to be listing stuff, I can't think of stuff. Is that weird? Does that count? =)
(5) I taught high school Geometry and Alg II when I was 20. I had a student that was 20.
(6) I like the smell of earwax.
(7) I like to eat raw potato with salt. (I don't think this is weird because my mom does, too, but Harp is grossed out by it every time.) =)


I have not been keeping up with blogs for a while, so if you have already been tagged, you can just ignore me. Sorry! =) I tag Stephanie, Gracie, Lauren, Julia, Cassie, and Bonnie. I know, that's six but Dana just did it and I don't know who else to tag. =)

Funny Cuties

Lainey says "abwee! abwee!" It means "Help me! Help me!" =) So cute. =)

A couple days ago Emily told me "I love you, Mommy. You are so cute. You look like a grandma just like Grandma!" =) Tee hee! I asked why I looked like a grandma but she didn't have a specific reason. I asked if I just looked like my mommy and she said yeah. =P

Lainey likes to eat dog biscuits. She has eaten one and a half of them, stolen from my parents' dog. Eew!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We slept in the living room until 5am, when we realized the pilot light went out and it was freezing in our house. Harp tried for a long time and couldn't get it lit (it has been having issues for a while), so we ended up sleeping on the floor in the girls' room (where we have a space heater). Harp got the pilot light lit this morning and we're getting the house as warm as we can in case it goes out again. =)

Our dishwasher broke yesterday and I have tons of dishes to do by hand today. =( At this point, I don't even have room to make the dessert I'm taking to Scott and Alyssa's tonight. Eek! I guess girls will nap in a bit so I will tackle it then.

Oh lol yesterday Emily locked a door. She is not allowed to play with the locks because we don't have a key to the door to the craft room. She had locked herself in there once and got out fine, but this time she locked it and came out. It was a serious lock, not the kind you can just stick a hanger in. Harp ended up having to bash the doorknob to take it off. So we had Emily carry the mangled doorknob around for the rest of the morning so she would remember what happened and remember to obey Daddy even when it didn't make sense to her. =P I wish I had a picture. She was so cute about it. When we went over to the Wisners' she was telling them how she locked the door and Daddy had to smash it and she was carrying it so she would remember not to do it again. =)

Emily got a vacuum for Christmas and she is SO thrilled. She keeps telling me about it and vacuuming the floors. =P So cute! The girls have on every bit of girliness they got. They are wearing their Mexican twirlie skirts and play silks as capes and Lainey is wearing a tutu over her skirt, too. =P

Harp got me an iPod (hey, I'm cool now! lol) so I'm going to get him to help me figure out how to get songs on it. =) I'm so excited! Blog ya later!

Long Time No Post

Hey! Well this is gonna be quick. Sorry I haven't been updating. =)

Em and Lainey are still up and very excited that we are all camping out in the living room tonight. Kathy was telling me her family (of 8!) has done this for years on Christmas Eve and we thought it sounded fun so we're kinda stealing their tradition. =P

Lainey is SO big, wanting to do everything Emily does. She has spent a few nights in the toddler bed, whenever Emily feels like switching with her for the night. =) She's done a really great job, but we still haven't gotten the other toddler bed out. I'm thinkin' in the spring because there is so much stuff in front of it in the garage and it's chilly outside! =P

Harp and I were spelling a bunch to each other a couple days ago so Em wouldn't understand and she piped in with "T O S M O L O P!" =P Hehe! Cutie. =P

Today we hung out at the Wisners' for a couple hours. We took their presents over and just had a fun time. Okay my family is ready for bed. =) Night!

Cool Gift

Hey, so I didn't realize my sister actually had this up and running but if you have no idea what to get your great-great-grandma for Christmas... Or really it would be for all her great-great-grandkids, I guess... =) My sister has this business, Live and Let Write, and she writes biographies and has them bound. You can check out her website at www.liveandletwrite.com. You could give them the gift of their life story (well like tell them about the gift and then my sis would write it, not do it in a week). =)

Update

Hey! Sunday was our church talent show-ish thing. It was a blast. Everything was so good. Harp and I were going to do something but decided right before it started not to do it. We spent so much time getting the computer and everything set up right that we never practiced all the way through and we didn't want to completely wing it. So maybe next year.

Em was disappointed that she wasn't going to get to dance (I was going to play flute for her to dance while H set up our thing), so when there was some extra time at the end, Bethany and I played a song for Em and Hannah and Lainey to dance to on the stage. I missed all the dancing because I was squinting at the music, but everyone was cracking up and I've been told by many that I have to see the video. =P Maybe I'll find it tonight. Anyway Bethany was amazing, just sight reading the song I picked! She plays piano and her job is the accompanist at a local high school. Very cool. =)

Oh and I made Kahlua cream truffles for the dinner - mmmmmmmm. Can't eat just one. Or two. Or three or four or... =)

This morning we went out shopping. Met Harp for lunch (Hog Wild BBQ - mmm!) and then I worked on some presents while girlies slept. Then when Harp got home, we went and picked up CK and Raven and went to see our friend Lindsey at the hospital birth center. She had a baby girl last night. Eeeeek! She is so adorable! Allison (Allie) Anne (or Ann?) and she weighed just between my girls - 8 lb 11 oz. It was so funny thinking that my kids used to be just that size! We got the honor of giving Allie her first pink clothes and of taking the first family pic. =) Fun! Lindsey had a great birth. Nice and quick with no meds so she is feeling great now.

After that, we stopped by Panera and got a bunch of bagels and took them to the Wisners' and we all hung out for a long time before we came home. =P

Beth had her baby today and I haven't seen pics (she lives in Florida - married to Jeremiah Wisner, but they visit every summer for a while because he teaches) but I can't wait. They had a girl, Ruth-Elizabeth Louise (Ruthee). Cuteness!

Tomorrow we're decorating gingerbread houses with Emily and Caleb and Eden. Wednesday we're going to hang out with CK because she's off school for Christmas starting then. Hey that reminds me of this video that a friend sent. Very cute, about homeschool family stereotypes. =P

Oh the other day we were on the stage practicing at church and Lainey started signing and saying "hat!" I was a little confused but asked if she wanted a hat and she got all excited like yeah! So I thought about it for a sec and then asked "Do you want us to sing Happy Birthday to you?" Hehe! She got all giddy - excited that we understood her. =P At our church, we sing Happy Birthday to people on stage and have them wear silly hats (there is a story behind it but our kids don't know that and they think that wearing silly hats really has something to do with singing Happy Birthday). =P Too cute.

Mom and Dad, we got your DVD tonight! It was great! =) The girls had fun staying up late to watch it (we didn't check mail until we got back from the Wisners').

One Of These Days

One of these days I'll finish taking pictures of my scrapbook pages and you will have a very very long post of page pics. =)

I have decided to do Mexico half and half. I will do some full pages and I will also do a 2-page spread that's just crammed full.

Tomorrow night is craft night and I'm excited but I don't think I'm going to be scrappin'. I am making the girls Mexican twirly skirts so I think that will be my craft tomorrow night. I am also making Emily a dress-up princess dress (found pretty pink glittery satin for $1.50/yard on the Halloween distress rack) but that might be for her birthday. =P Kinda convenient that it's a week after Christmas. If I don't get something done, I have an extra week, lol. =)

Today

After girlies woke up, we went to the scrappin' store with CK, picked papers and got chipboard and die cut 24 pages & 48 papers... Then to her house to assemble them. The girls were thrilled to be at the Wisners' house. =P Harp went there when he got off work and we hung out until 6 and realized we needed to run home so I could eat before girls' group. But they just invited us to stay for dinner, so we had a very yummy dinner with them. =) Then Harp took the van home with the girlies and put them to bed and I had his car to drive home (fun, fun!) after the study. Tori made yummy, yummy cinnamon rolls from scratch. Oh, so good! And CK and I hung out and talked to Kathy (Tori's mom) for about a half an hour.

Harp is playing a video game so I'm going to start some laundry or something to get a head start on tomorrow. Night!

Scrapbookin' & Stuff

I'm trying to decide if I want to cram tons of Mexico pics on a 2-page spread or if I want to do separate pages. Really I think I'd like separate pages because then there's more room for the stories that go with them (unless I do some kind of tag-behind-each-picture thing). But that might take up a whole album, lol! And I'd have to be pickier about what pictures I put in. Hmmmm... =P

This afternoon the girlies and I are headed to the scrapbook store to pick out some stuff to make mini-albums for all the girls in my girls' study. CK is going to help me put them together. Actually I'm going to bring her to the store too so she can help pick something out. Hmm maybe we should get the stuff and have the girls make the albums as a craft thing after the study... I'll think about that.

This morning we played with Caleb and Eden. The kids decorated gingerbread men and ladies and then they played and fought. Ugh, yeah. Em and Caleb were both willful this morning and they pushed each other repeatedly. It's funny because Caleb was kinda bummed all last week that we were in Mexico and Em talked about him while we were gone, too. But now they see each other and fight? It's a good opportunity to train, though, for Em and Caleb. The play date ended well so that was good. =)

I got an envelope full of cute & fun goodies from Liz (My Inner Martha) and I got to use some today. =) Thanks, Liz!

Oh and I told Karen about PaperTrey Ink and she is going to see if she can order from them next time she does a stamp order. I'm excited because then I can get them at 20% off with no shipping. =P

Well I'm going to play until my girls wake up and then it's off to play some more. =P

Oh and the symphony was fun last night. =)

Chillin'

That's what we're doing, watching a Veg in the basement. That's also what we are 'cause it's pretty chilly down here! And that's what our cookie dough is doin' in the fridge. =) We're making gingerbread men and ladies and decorating them. I can hardly wait! We went to The Spice Merchant on Sunday afternoon and got some spices, smelled lots of yummy stuff, and got two big (like 8") cookie cutters. I thought it would be fun to decorate a big one. I have 4 other sizes of men but the biggest is maybe 5 inches. Maybe I'll do lots of them but I am excited about the huge ones. =)

This morning a friend came over for some help studying for her math final. That was fun and it's good to exercise my brain now and then. =P The girls were very sweet and played quietly while she was here and then we all had lunch together. I made chicken noodle soup like my grandma's (only she made it with beef, but the rest is the same) but Harp suggested sticking a bay leaf in it, too. Well now I am happy to at least know what the bay leaf tastes like. I have never tried a recipe with and without it so I never really knew what was bay leafy about anything. Now I know. And now I know I don't like it in Grandma's soup. =P It's still good, but it doesn't taste right to me.

Tonight we are going to the symphony and taking Emmy! I'm so excited. Em thinks that Wendy's has something to do with the symphony because she saw our Wendy's cups from the night we went alone. We were going to go out but the wait was ridiculous everywhere (one place was 2 hours and 5 min!) so Wendy's it was. She asked today "Why is the symphony called 'Wendy's?'" I don't know if she would remember ever going there to eat...

Daddy's home!

Shoes, Scrapbookin', Stuff

My mom sent Lainey Joy some shoes today. Lainey was so excited, she laughed and laughed the whole time I was putting them on her. =) She is so funny! I don't know why she likes shoes so much unless it's just because her big sister wears shoes and I didn't really put shoes on her when she was tiny. Maybe it's just a girl thing, but she doesn't get it from me.

We went by the scrapbook store today to grab stuff to make kits for my class. As of now, nobody is signed up! Kind of a bummer, kind of a relief. I made sure that this one would be a fast kit to make, but even so, I don't feel like making a bunch of kits. I'm just going to make two and we'll see what happens. I wouldn't even mind if it was canceled.

Karen ordered me Mindy's Zoo stamps. Yay! I got them with birthday money my mom gave me. And I got some other goodies, too. Three colors of stickles, a green chalk ink pad, some fun flowers and brads, and some ribbons.

My mom sent me a scrapbook magazine so I had a fun afternoon looking through that. And now I feel like scrapbooking again. =)

I'm about to watch a movie with H-Bot. Could be aborted if Cori calls because she has a math final tomorrow and she asked for help, but I don't know when yet. Anyway yeah have a good night!

Oh and Lainey is sleeping in a toddler bed tonight. The girls switched for the night. Cute, huh?!

Emmy in the Airplane

Harp's mom wrote this for me in a comment so I could post it. =) Here ya go:

On the plane coming home, Emily sat very seriously reading the emergency pamphlet before take off. She was studying all the pictures and asking me all about the oxygen masks and emergency escape slide. Then, when the flight attendant announced preparations for landing she told everyone to push the sliver button on their armrest to bring their seats to the upright position. Emily heard that she was to push the silver button. She was very serious, and asked if she was pushing the right button. Then she wanted to know why she had to push the button. I told her the pilot couldn't land the plane until we all did the things the stewardess asked us to do. She started pushing the button over and over. After a few minutes, she asked why we were still in the air if she had pushed the button. I told her that it takes a long time for the plane to land. She continued to push the button until she got bored. When we felt the plane touch down she said, "I pushed the button and the plane turned two times and then fell down!" She was convinced that she had landed the plane! LOL:)

Oh and I forgot to blog about how Emily called the guacamole broccomole the first time. I still want to call it that because it was so cute. =P

Pictures, Round 2

Yesterday morning we were walking along the beach because there had been huge waves. Quin found some sea turtles coming out of the sand. We thought there were just a few, but they kept coming and coming. Then some guy came that was looking for them and he collected them in this big tub to release at night when they would be safer. He dug down in the sand to get them out and there were over a hundred of them! It was so cool.

Sand-covered baby sea turtles.

The entry way at our hotel. It's really really dark and has 6 or maybe it was 8 huge Mayan statues. And music that's really neat but sometimes a little scary for the girls. =P

When we got to Wichita, waiting for baggage. Sorry these are in reverse order and not even really in order. They are in reverse order about 5 at a time. =P If you use blogger, you probably know what I mean...

Iguanas were all over the grassy places by the river.

One of the best toys (Lainey's car seat). =P This is in the room, under one of the side tables.

You can see how far the water came. Usually none of the sand you see in this picture got wet. It kind of drops off after what you see and there is more sand below.

There was a game for the kids at the fiesta. It should have been 5 years and up or something because there were a lot of little kids that were clueless. =) They were supposed to put the hat on the next person's head, like hot potato, and not get stuck with the hat when the music turned off.

This boy was so sweet. Em got stuck with the hat, but he took it back quickly and put it on his own head. What a little gentleman!

Lainey sacked out at the fiesta.

Laine didn't like the sand at first and then it was like she suddenly realized how fun it was and couldn't get enough. She grabbed two handfuls close to her and let the sand fall out. Then she grabbed some from father away and then farther still and then she just sprawled herself out on the sand, playing with it. Then my battery died. =( As if I didn't take enough pictures.... =)

Terrie, Quin, and Stewart at the fiesta.

Terrie got the girls these pretty hand-embroidered dresses at the fiesta.

Lainey does this funny scrunch sometimes so now we get her to do it. =) It reminds me of the face Em made in that video when I asked if she wanted a banana when she was 14 months old. =P

Em's vase she decorated at the kids' center.

Silly girl.

Cool plant..

Em asked me to finish the spots she missed on the dolphin when she was done with it.

On a boat ride with a goat milk sucker.

Funny face. =)

Harp =)

A neat manger scene. It was huge.

Riding a golf cart thing to dinner at Guido's.

Harp's dad

Pesto-faced Laine. Mmm, I love pesto.

Em was so cute watching the guy shape little glass things.

Em painting her dolphin.

Whew! I'm so done posting pictures.