And I'm Off......

Off to my retreat! I really wish I had something more exciting to post but I've been looking forward to this for so long and everything is finally ready and waiting in the van. Actually it was all ready and in the van last night! I'll be home in about 48 hours and I'll update you! I know you just can't wait to find out all about it...hahahaha! I'll put up some pics of the kids and David as well. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Thanks mom and David for sending me on this retreat for my birthday (and Wayne for watching the kids so David can work on Friday)! I have such an awesome family!

Scrappy Time

It's finally almost here....scrapbook retreat weekend! We registered a couple months ago and it's finally almost time. I have packed my scrappy stuff and here's some of what I am taking! I'm going to take a smaller bag that sets on top of my large roller bag to hold those extra items that just don't fit anywhere. We leave on Friday and get home on Sunday. Daddy will be holding down the fort and he has lots of fun things planned for the kids.

Sorry this picture is sideways but I was too lazy to go back and fix it when it can be shown either way and it really doesn't matter. I can't wait to go and scrapbook all weekend and of course have some adult time....no kids all weekend! By Sunday I'm sure I will be ready to come back (sure hope they are ready for me since it's my birthday on Sunday! hint hint David).

Little People Tea Party

The other morning Grace woke up about an hour and a half before Andrew and we were trying to decide what to do. She watched Yo Gabba Gabba (just like everyday) and then asked me so sweetly if I would play with her in her room. We ended up playing with her Little People and had they had a tea party. I thought it was so sweet so I had to take pictures! She played with them for a long time and eventually it began to rain and they had to go in the house! When's the last time you got to have a tea party? Hope you enjoy your day!

Announcing our new Cousin!

Proud Uncle David holding his new nephew standing next to the proud papa!

Grace and her new cousin. She couldn't wait to hold him!

Can you tell how happy Andrew is? He loves holding babies...actually they both do and are so excited to have a new cousin. He was born on April 20th. Dezsel Jeremy 8lb 14 oz 20 in. His name is pronounced with a long e at the beginning, like Diesel. We got to spend some time with him this weekend. I worked all day Sunday and didn't get to go back but David and the kids went back and played for a few hours on Sunday as well.

This Face

This face says it all! Grace had to get her yearly blood work done today to go along with her physical for turning the big 3! She was doing great but the lady chose the wrong vein and kept moving the needle around and Grace started pouring tears, not wailing or throwing a fit but the tears were flowing. Finally after trying to get the vein about 5 or 6 times (not exaggerating here) she finally decided to try another vein. I have to say that Grace was very brave and didn't ever throw a fit although she did try to jerk her arm back with the second try b/c it was taking so long and the lady still had to move the needle around to keep up the flow. Afterward, the lady kept apologizing to me but it happens and I know that. She gave Grace about 30 stickers, many of them you can see on her pants in the picture. She did this on the way home and is now on the couch watching "Yo Gabba Gabba." It's her all-time favorite show to watch so I just stay out of the room. You've never watched it? I dare you to watch just 2 minutes of it and you will understand! Hope you have a better day than my poor Gracie!

Not a lot going on

We haven't really had much going on around here lately. I mean the big haircut event kind of makes everything else rather boring! Yesterday Grace had ballet and I got some more cute pictures. I really need to leave my camera at home next Monday! I got a better video of the little dance "Strawberry Shake" that they do at the end. So cute but it's still on my camera! The kids got a little sunburn this weekend from playing outside. I barely walked outside on Saturday so it never occurred to me that they should have had sunscreen on! I had a bad headache on Saturday so I was lazy all day. Today we are going to the library and to get Grace's blood work done from her yearly physical. I think she has to pee in a cup.....hello? Do you know what that means? I will be covered in pee from trying to make this happen! YUCK! Not looking forward to this. Hopefully she will sit relatively still. She is usually a little easier to handle when it's time for shots than Andrew. We always have to hold him down and he fights the whole time. Oh well. That's about as exciting as our life gets this week. I'll try to find something more exciting to write about next time!

Grace's Hair

It doesn't look that bad. The first day it drove me crazy and I was worried about how I would hide it but I'm already over it! She cut the center of her bangs really short and even went back into her hair a bit so that will take a long time to grow out so I see lots of little clips in our future. She also cut the left side (your right) quite a bit. You can see little pieces sticking out in the last picture but the curls kind of hide it even when I pull it in a pony tail. Yesterday morning I did her hair before church and found a bunch of little pieces sticking out all over and realized that she cut a bunch of chunks out. Those will be a little annoying as the grow since they are so short right now it will take a while to get them under control. Oh well. It's just hair and it will grow back!

I'll Be Back! (and a story about scissors)

I'm disappearing for a few days. In fact, I'm turning off my computer and am going to try not to turn it on until this weekend. I spend a lot of time on here and you could say I'm addicted. Today I was trying to add songs to my MP3 player and it took me a while to figure it all out (needed an upgrade and didn't realize it for a while) and the kids had been in and out of the office with me and wanted to cut paper. Of course I said yes but only cut it over the trash can. They disappear and this is something that Grace has done quite a few times so I didn't even have a second thought. Well, I just happened to walk out to check on them b/c it was so quiet and when I called out Grace's name she called back and said, "I'm cutting my hair." I immediately ran and grabbed the scissors but the damage was done and it was a lot. The whole middle of her bangs are missing and a bunch from the side. Now if you've seen her hair you will know that everything but the bangs will be fine, just annoying as it grows but her bangs look terrible. I'm going to go search the house and make sure that all the scissors are put away and up high. I put her in front of a movie so that I could type this up to let everyone know that I am going to take a few days off from the computer and try to reschedule my days to make time for this. Obviously what I am doing is not working. Have a great rest of the week!

more ballet pictures

You guys are probably going to get tired of seeing these pictures of Grace at ballet but since today was her first day with her tap shoes I wanted to get some pictures up. She did really good again today but she kept coming over to ask for candy (which I did not have with me.) She kept watching her teacher and the other little girls to figure out how to do something and then ended up being last almost every time. It was cute though. She kept trying even though she was the last one out on the floor and all the parents were watching her and it didn't bother her at all! She was really excited when I told her it was time to go to ballet class. I'm so glad she likes it so much!

Today-UPDATED!

UPDATE: Added new albums to my picasa albums ourlittlefamilyoffour.

I'm completely exhausted but thought I should update you quickly about the party. It was small (much smaller than ever before) and it was great. Grace doesn't handle large crowds very well and even this was a little much but she tolerated it. She loved having the kids over to get in the jumper with her. We only had 8 kids and they were all 3-4 years old which is a change. Usually we have all ages and it just seems too chaotic. So this time we decided to only invite the little ones and make it small for Grace. Andrew has already said he wants to invite the whole world so we'll see what happens. It was really windy this morning and I was really upset b/c all Grace wanted was a jumper at her party and in high winds we can't use it. We had the tables set up in the garage to keep everyone out of the wind(thanks hubby for cleaning it up) and it was really cold at first. I had on a jacket and eventually put on another one of David's over it. Then all of a sudden the wind slowed down (but never stopped) and it warmed up a little. It was beautiful! Thank you God for giving us that short time of beautiful weather for Grace. She is so sweet and growing up so fast. She loves to jump and play and eat candy (especially m&m's) and the icing off the cake! I'm thinking a trampoline next year! We'll see what Daddy says, he's not too excited about that idea! I'll upload pictures later tonight or tomorrow but for now I want to go enjoy the rest of our time with the kids in the jumper as they will pick it up soon! Lots of laughs when we are all in there together!

Happy Birthday Grace!

Candles on the muffins daddy bought for breakfast. We've celebrated all day and sang to her about 6 times at least. She loves her birthday and will be so sad to see it go. This has been one of our most enjoyable days in a loooooong time. She was so sweet to everyone and loved having all the attention.

After her pictures this morning, she wanted to leave on her tutu instead of changing back into her leggings and skirt. She insisted on carrying the box with her bear inside and walking ahead of us. She kept turning around to make sure we were there.

The picture should make Grannylou very proud!

Grace picked out her own cake when we were at Super Target last week. She was excited to get it tonight!

And this is the way you eat cake!

Ballet and Birthday at library

Here are pics and a video of Grace at ballet and then a pic of her from the library with her birthday hat on. Hope you enjoy! She loved doing her ballet class and followed along with all the little girls. I'm going to get her the tap shoes before the next class so she can hear the tap when she does all the moves.

Happy Easter!

Here are the kids all dressed up and ready for church. We chose to attend service on Saturday afternoon since I will be serving in the preschool area on Sunday morning. When I get home we will head to Grandma's house and spend the afternoon with family.

(I bought Grace some pretty lacy tights to wear but couldn't find them when it was time to get ready which is why she is wearing socks instead. At least they were lacy and ended up looking ok. Wasn't what I had planned but it worked!)

Virtual Easter Basket

Thanks to Little Did I Know and Among the Mess for sending me this yummy {virtual} Hershey's Better Easter basket!



This basket didn't cost a thing but it's worth 10.00 to the Children's Miracle Network! Here's how it works:

Hershey's is partnering with bloggers to donate $5,000 to the Children's Miracle Network! They are hosting a blog hop and for each blog entry, Hershey's will donate $10 to the Children's Miracle Network.

Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop Rules

1. Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
2. Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger — you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want!
3. Link back to the person who gave you an Easter Basket.
4. Let each person you are giving a Virtual Basket know you have given them a Basket.
5. Leave your link at Better Basket info in the comment section. You can also find the official rules of this betterbasket blog hop and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
6. Hershey’s is donating $10 per blog participating in the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to a total of $5000 by blog posts written by April 4, 2010).
7. Please note that only one blog post per blog url will count towards the donation.

Hopefully the following bloggers will also participate and accept my virtual Easter Basket!

Heather over at Half Dozen Blessings
Miranda over at Sippycups and Fingerprints
Sandy over at One Day at a Time