Why BUY toy's????

Why buy toys when you already have a laundry basket?

           

Hope does a pretty good job at entertaining herself. Whether that is getting into the cupboards and taking everything out, taking all the clothes out of the drawers of the dresser, finding every toothbrush in the house and walking around the house with it in her mouth, OR finding a laundry basket and riding it, sitting in it, standing on top of it and even throwing it. She has much more fun doing those things than she does with the TOYS that have been bought. Although on this day she had just as much fun riding the laundry basket as she did as sitting inside the dolly's bed.

Happy 9th Birthday Thomas!!

I can't believe that Thomas is turning 9! 

Seriously where has the time gone. He is growing up so fast. In just a few short years I'm pretty sure he will be taller than me.  This picture was taken a year ago and at that time he was only like a head shorter than I me. It's going to be a sad day when it finally happens.

Here are my NINE favorite things about Thomas:

1. He LOVES his Auntie. Without fail no matter where he is or what he is doing he will stop and come, greet me and ALWAYS gives me a hug. When he leaves or I leave he ALWAYS says "Bye Auntie I love you so much". 

2. He is such a great reader and he takes after Kelly for his love of reading. Coming from someone who doesn't enjoy reading and wishes that she does, I'm grateful that he does.

3. He is a GREAT big brother. Not only is he surrounded by sisters at Kelly's house but he is also surrounded by sisters at Ryan's house. He is going to make a great boyfriend/husband.

4. He has a great desire to learn. He loves school and does well when he's there.

5. He adjusts well to change. Another thing I wish I did as well as he does.

6. His sensitivity. There are very few movies that he can get through without a tear. If he hears of someone being sick he needs to know what is happening and when they will be better. Kelly has learned not to share her work stories around him. 

7. HIS CONTAGIOUS SMILE. LOVE. IT.

8. His love of electronics. He is going to take after his Auntie. 

9. His desire to do good and to help those that are in need.  

I love this kid so much!! I don't know what life would be like without him in it. I can't wait to see what this year brings for him. 

Here are a few of his birthday pictures. 

 

 

 

My Auntie’s Awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monster Truck Mania

The Monster Trucks are always in town in January. Just in time for Thomas' birthday. I had taken him to Sacramento to see them for his fourth birthday. When I was getting ready to write this post I thought I'd go back and look at the pictures from that day. A flood of memories came back. Sometimes I wish these kids would stay little forever. Thomas and I had such a fun day. He still to this day talks about when we went to see the Monster Trucks. It's amazing the memory this kid has.  So, Thomas is getting ready to celebrate his ninth birthday in a couple of weeks. Kelly thought it would be fun to surprise him with a trip to see the Monster Trucks again with his friend Tyler. 

We had pit passes so the boys had the opportunity to go and meet the drivers and the trucks before the show.




 
It was an eventful night at the show. One of the trucks lost it’s transmission. 

Then this guy fell off his quad and then got ran over by it. He was trooper though and got right back up and finished.

The boys had a great night. I’m sure it’s another birthday that Thomas won’t forget. I'm so glad to be able to share these times with him. 

Happy Birthday BUG!!

Happy Birthday Pop

Noelle’s new classroom

Anyone that knows Noelle knows how much she enjoys teaching. Since the time Noelle started preschool she has played school on a daily basis. This is by far one of her most favorite things to do. It keeps her busy for hours. It’s a lot of fun to sit back and observe her (never letting her know that your doing it) while she is teaching.  She has had great teachers over the past few years that have been such great role models for her. She starts her day taking attendance and then taking the hot lunch orders. Then she gets right in to whatever is on her mind at the time. Her lesson might consist of reading a book, doing workbook pages, math problems or it could be a variety of things. The funniest part is when she is disciplines one of her students. The names of her students are the kids from her day care or her class at school. A lot of the times she repeats whatever she has heard the teacher tell them during class. What Kelly and I have learned is to really watch what we say when we discipline one of the kids because those are the exact words she uses with her class. 

So, for Christmas she asked me to get her a “classroom”. So that’s what Auntie did. We spent this afternoon setting up her classroom.

This is the best picture I could get due the way her bedroom is set up but the letters and numbers around the room. Then there is a chart with colors and another one with numbers to 100.  I forgot about getting a pointer so she improvising with a wooden spoon. 

Happy New Year

I’ve had some pretty bad luck over the past few months. Back in November my refrigerator broke, a few days later while cleaning out all the nasty food that spoiled in the said refrigerator the pipes from the garbage disposal backed up and all the nastiness backed up into the washer pipes and ended up in the garage. My car battery died and needed to be replaced and I got a nail in my tire that needed to be fixed. The week of Christmas the pilot light went would not light so I had almost a week and a half of no hot water (luckily I was able to stay at Kelly’s so I could have a hot shower). Then on New Years Eve my garage door opener decided to break. So, my first purchase of 2014 was a new garage door opener. 

On the positive side I did a pretty good job at saving money in 2013 and had the money to fix the things that needed fixing. I also have very handy and supportive family members that were here on a moments notice willing to help me fix the things that needed to be fixed.  I only needed to pay someone to install the garage door opener. I don’t know where I’d be without such supportive people in my life.
 
Kelly and Dave had to work on New Years day so after finding my garage door opener Noelle, Karly, Hope and I got the chance to hang out. We took a ride out to Wal-Mart with Grandma to get Pop some new socks for his birthday and some other things.

Noelle and Karly found this Duck Dynasty hat and thought it would look great on Hope.

Then we came home a played a little. Hope decided to take Noelle’s snack and give them to her baby doll. Noelle was a good sport and tried to feed them to the baby and Hope. Hope didn’t find that funny. 

         

While Hope napped Noelle, Karly and I did some baking. While we were at the store the girls picked out a Funfetti cake mix with hot pink frosting. Karly decided that the cake needed to “fun” to so we used some dye to make it purple.

We spent a little time talking about the New Year and what that means. Made a special dinner, played a little more and took baths.  Then they got to spend time decorating their cakes and eating them.

I think that the girls were in bed by 8:00 which gave me a little time to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. It was a great day and perfect way to start 2014. I’m looking forward to all the adventures that this year is going to bring.