Disney Trip Days 1 and 2

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Oh, Zippy!!

We have had so much fun with our Elf of the Shelf, Zippy! The girls can hardly wait to come downstairs every morning to see what sorts of "trouble" he has gotten into. The following are some of the pictures we have taken since his joining our family:

Zippy peed (green) in our potty:

He decided to be one of the Shepperds visiting the baby Jesus:

Zippy borrowed Barbie's hot tub and took a marshmallow bath!

Zippy completely bumped his head and brought one of the girls' gifts EARLY! They fell in LOVE with the play kitchen he put together for them!

Zippy and some of his new friends built a zip line to slide down the stairs!

He stole the toothpaste to sign his name under a message from Santa!

While at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving Zippy snuck some of Grandma's pecan pie, rode the turkey and took Barbie for a crazy ride in her car. (We didn't get a picture of the pie, or the car, but they were SOO funny!)

Zippy must have wanted to feel like he was at the North Pole again because we found him IN the fridge, changing our milk pink!

Every time Abbie sees Zippy somewhere new, she says, "Oh, Zippy!" Or, "Oh no, Zippy!" Or, "Poor Zippy!" She is IN LOVE with him, but doesn't seem to like his crazy antics!

Welcome to the Family, Zippy

We have a new addition to our family! A couple weeks ago Santa sent us our very own Elf! He was sweet enough to bring us a breakfast, straight from the North Pole... he brought a mountain of snow donuts, hot chocolate, marshmallows, and even had new socks for each of the girls! He had notes for all 3 girls, reminding them to be super good, letting them know that Santa knows what they would like for Christmas, and telling them that he would be watching them every day and then taking a report of the behavior to Santa every night. We named him Zippy, cause, man, is he fast!

Abbie LOVED the snow donuts!

We soon found out that Zippy was very, very mischevious once he returned from the North Pole. Just look what he did to the picture of my gorgeous girls!

The next morning we woke to find him playing (and betting) cards with some of our favorite stuffed animals!

This is just the beginning of his mischevious ways... I will post the other photos when I have time. He is proving to be a very sneaky, sneaky Elf. Daddy is threatening to call Santa and tell him what Zippy has been up to! I hope he gets to stay!

Abbie's House

I made Abbie a little "house" out of the box that Zippy, our elf, brought the kitchenette in. She LOOOOVED it! She went in and out of it for at least 25 minutes, going in, closing the door, sitting down, standing up, coming out and hugging me, and starting all over again. She is so stinkin' cute!

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Life is so busy!

Ugh! It has been so, so long since I have blogged! I had no idea our lives could be so busy. :/ Wish school, soccer, piano, violin, church callings, trips, and about a thousand other things, I just haven't had time to keep this thing updated. I NEED to catch it up, as I am using this as a sort of "journal" about some of our happenings, I just haven't had time. HOPEFULLY, I can update soon... realistically, it will probably be after our trip to Disney World NEXT WEEK! Eeek! We are SO excited!

Melissa's Birthday.... from SEPTEMBER!

I just realized I never posted pictures from Melissa's amazing Fancy Nancy party. Yikes!

We had an amazing time and really enjoyed her guests.

Here are a FEW of the hundreds of pictures I took.

This is Melissa getting ready for her party:

Isn't she pretty?

Her party room:

She wanted a

She has some really great friends, who we LOVE!

Lessons learned

I learned so much about myself and my family during the power outage that came as a result of hurricane Irene. I wrote a few of them down and want to preserve them on this blog, so that, when another hurricane comes through and we are without electricity, I can be more prepared.

The first and MOST IMPORTANT lesson I learned is, I get grumpy when I am hot. VERY, VERY grumpy... like, an ogre. It isn't pretty. Second, I have never loved my husband more than I did when he returned home from Home Depot with a generator. I then learned that said generator INHALES gas and oil. I found out I cry when I can't figure out why the generator stops working.. note to future self, *Check the oil*.

I found it pointless trying to make myself pretty without air conditioning. Within an hour the hair will be in a frizzy ponytail, make-up will be sweated off and clothes will be sticky... my children, however, will still be gorgeous. Especially my naked baby. A naked baby is a happy baby. It was too hot for her to wear anything more than a diaper!

I learned that clothes lines are MANDATORY. Also, little girls squeal with delight at the sight of a clothesline full of clothes. They said, "That is SO cute!" Well, alright then! I also found out that the clothespins I bought for making hair bows are PRICELESS when it comes to actually hanging up clothes. I wish I had paid attention to knot tying at girls camp... it would have helped the clothes line stay up better......

I found out that Desitin melts when hot, pudding is a good (and almost healthy) way to get calories into a baby that is too hot, and a hot mommy is not a happy mommy.. did I mention that?

I also found out that food preparation takes 3 x's as long as it usually does. The girls were uncontrollably grumpy one afternoon and I decided they needed something familiar. So, I undertook the task of making mashed potatoes. 1 HOUR later, they were finished, the children partook, and silence came into our home... *Mashed potatoes calm grumpy children.*

My patience seems to return at night (around 11:30) when the house finally cools off... It's amazing. It's like my patience switch is turned back on. :)

I found that my husband works 100x's harder than he should to make sure his girls are taken care of.

Though it was hard, I am thankful we had the opportunity to spend several hot, quiet days together. I am thankful the Lord watched over and protected us and I am thankful for my family. Now, next time I need to get more fans.....

Hurricane Irene

Our adventures with Hurricane Irene... notes and pictures to follow soon!

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Soccer

Melissa and Kayla started soccer last week and they LOVE it! I decided to let them play because I heard that they do not make the younger kids hit the ball with their heads... so far, no injuries!

Melissa, after playing with her new teammates:

Mel, there with the ball over her head:

Kayla, there in the back on the left:

The girls before we left:

Brushing Teeth

Abbie LOOOOOVES to brush her teeth... and her Daddy's teeth. I just HAD to post these pictures. :)

Mean Mom

My Melissa is a sneaky, very mischievous girl! A couple weeks ago I was trying desperately to get us ready to start school. I was studying, cleaning, working on lesson plans, decorating and also trying to keep up with a cranky, teething Abbie... needless to say, I wasn't paying as much attention to my "big" girls as I usually do. Melissa quickly picked up on this and decided to use this opportunity to get into any and everything that crossed her mind. She poured water on the bathroom floor, re-arranged her room, painted her bedroom floor, and proceeded to eat sugar. Tons and tons of sugar. The cup below was 1/2 full (or empty) and she ate every bit of it. That would be 1/2 CUP of sugar....

A few hours later I found candy wrappers, open honey and this:

I decided that enough was enough and went into "scare mode". I love this part of my parenting strategy! I told Melissa that the peanut butter was some that I needed to throw away because it had expired. I then told her that I needed to call poison control to find out what needed to be done. We are fairly familiar with poison control around here, so she knew this was serious business. I then proceeded to (fake) call P.C. and get the instructions, which were to have Melissa lay completely flat on her stomach for 15 minutes. She couldn't move or speak and if she started to get sick I should call an ambulance... or her dad. She followed directions VERY well and hardly moved. Kayla became very worried and started praying for Melissa, begging the Lord to let her live. She was singing her songs and praying. Bless her heart. Eventually "poison control" called us back and told us she could get up again. Kayla began saying Hallelujah!! and praying her thanks to the Lord. Melissa also thanked Him and promised to never eat anything without asking me again. Mean? Maybe. Lesson learned? YES! :)

Kayla Turns 5!

Kayla had such a good Birthday this year! She had 3 (yes THREE) parties and LOVED every one of them. Thank you to everyone who was able to celebrate with us! We love you, Kayla Brooke!

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I have NO idea why the video below posted twice. Feel free to watch it a second time... my kid IS that cute! LOL And forgive my slow, slurred speech... I was 2 days post surgery and my mouth was killing me!

Helping with the Harvest

This little lady LOVES to help process the green beans! She is such a fun helper!

Abbie Reads The Paper.

Abbie LOVES to read the paper!! She also loves to show off her crazy (new) walking skills. Hope you enjoy!

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Outside Fun!

Abbie Turns 1!

I FINALLY finished the video from Abbie's Birthday!! Hope you enjoy!

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Monster Zucchini!!

We have been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of zucchini we have had this year! We, and by we, I mean Ray, have literally picked hundreds of zucchini and are finally to a point that we don't know what to do with it. We have cooked it, frozen it and even gave it away.. now we are at a loss. Ray found this monster of a zucchini WAY back under one of the plants and the girls decided to get a little creative.

Abbie thought it would make a good chew-toy, but soon found it to be a bit too green. She then decided to ride on it (wish I had a picture of that!) and finally resorted to yelling at it. (shown below)

Kayla and Melissa named her "Mrs. Big" and affectionately dressed her up. (see below)

Who knew zucchini could be such fun??

Abbie Rae

The foll0wing pictures are of my Abbie Rae on her 1st Birthday. She showed so much of her personality while they were being taken. She decided she would not smile and she stuck to her plan! Out of 300+ pictures, she only smiled in 6. LOL.. little booger! Smile or not, the pictures turned out gorgeous. I love my beautiful angel!!

Thank you, again, Cherad!!

Slumber Party W/The BFF's!!

The girls invited their BFF's over for a slumber party a few weeks ago and had SO much fun! They made pizza, watched Tangled, ate popcorn with milkshakes, stayed up until almost midnight and giggled the entire time! We need to do this again!!

(I have no idea what I did to the pictures, but they are completely out of order.. sorry!)

While making the pizza, Sadie said, "I can't believe I am doing this! Who knew I could be a chef??" about 30 times! So cute!

Conversations caught on video: