The Inauguration

We were blessed yesterday to be able to witness the 2009 Inauguration. The girls found everything to be "very interesting" as Melissa put it. I felt very blessed to be able to witness the swearing in of President Barack Obama. I may not agree with everything that he believes in, but I do support him as the President of our great country. I pray that the Lord will guide him. Kayla LOVED the entire process and this was her take on the Inauguration: "I love Jimmy Carter. I love old President Bush. I love Aretha Franklin. I love Yo-Yo Ma. I love Barack Obama. I love Michelle Obama's dress." And at the conclusion she yelled, "Yay America!" She was intrigued by the whole event and didn't want to take a nap because she wanted to watch it again. She seems to like political things... hmmm... Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your future President of the United States of America. Kayla Brooke.

My baby needs to pee...

One of the two things that Kayla asked Santa for was a baby doll potty. She is constantly saying, "My baby needs to pee!" Santa came through and brought her a potty and she has had so much fun with it! Today, however, just having a potty for her baby wasn't enough and she decided that her baby needs privacy! No way! Really? She and Melissa used their "yoga" mats to build bathroom walls so that their babies could have privacy while they do their business. Mommy isn't allowed in the bathroom, but they had no problem with me taking pictures of the whole thing. Too cute! * On a side note* Melissa is becoming more and more like her mommy in that she takes things quite literally. Friday while we were driving to the store she asked Ray for a "healthy snack." Ray gave her 1/2 of a cereal bar and said, "Here is a Whole Grain Cereal Bar." Without missing a beat she said, "No, Dad. This is only HALF of a cereal bar. It isn't a WHOLE grain!" She is too smart!

New Boots

The thought of taking the girls to church in their "church" shoes on Sunday made my stomach turn because it has been so cold, so after my sleep appointment Saturday morning I went to a nearly deserted Wal-Mart (it is fun to shop at 6:30AM!) to get them some inexpensive boots. I have never purchased boots for children before and for some reason thought I would be able to find some cute brown or black ones. I was wrong. Instead we now have beautiful pink princess and blue tinkerbell boots! Aren't they cute? They are not exactly "church" boots, but their feet stayed warm! AND continue to stay warm as they have worn them pretty much since taking them out of the box. Good buy!

Chore Charts

Kayla and Melissa are REALLY, REALLY good at making messes throughout the day and need a little help in the clean-up department, so, we made new chore charts. Every so often I have to change things up a bit and this is what we came up with this time. They LOVE them! They willingly do their chores now without needing a "reward" just so they can move their magnets onto their charts. My mom even asked them what they get when they finish their chores and Melissa said, "What do you mean?" It never occurred to her that she needed anything other than the satisfaction of moving her magnet. Life is good!

Melissa can read!

Two days ago I sat down with Melissa with the intention of beginning to show her how to read. I was going to explain that all of the letters that she knows so well "mush" together to make words. We sat down to read, "Hog and Dog" by Diane Wright Landolf and she completely blew me away by jumping right in and reading 6 ENTIRE pages all by herself! She even figured out the word "splash!" I was FLOORED! She is only 4 and can read! (the worst part is, I didn't realize she COULD read until that very moment!)

Mommy's Potty Mouth

I REALLY need to watch what I say. A few days ago Kayla very excitedly stated, "My new favorite word is CRAP!" She was SO pleased with herself for saying this and surprised me because she has NEVER told anyone that she even has favorite words! I told her that "crap" isn't an appropriate word for a 2 year old to use and that mommy shouldn't use such potty mouth. I apologized and said I would watch my language. She thought about this for a few seconds and said, "My new favorite word is CRAP-OLA!" I am in trouble! (I guess it all depends on how you feel about the word "crap"... a friend of mine refers to the use of the word as a family "legacy" :) she uses it, her mom and grandma used it! Too funny! I think it is too 'strong' of a word for a 2 year old!)

Cell phone vacation...

Cell phone usage is becoming a "problem" with some of the youth in our ward and desperate for a solution I turned to the Internet in search of the answer. I came across this CUTE idea. We are going to be sending the cell phones on little vacations each week. The girls can choose to send their phones to one of 4 "places"... the Spa, camping, somewhere tropical, or a ski/mountain retreat. While my mom was here I utilized her sewing talents and she made the sleeping bags and robes. She is, once again, a lifesaver! I am introducing the concept tonight... Pray for me!

A scarf for the ski/mountain retreat... A "grass" skirt for the tropical getaway...

A sleeping bag for the camping trip...

A Robe for the Spa treatment.

Christmas 2008

The following is a LONG video of our Christmas in the woods. Instead of posting and writing about each thing that we did, I decided to cut my time and make a video. Don't feel that you have to watch it... it really is super long. My girls will enjoy watching it! We had so much fun! Merry Christmas!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Making Christmas cookies with Grandma

Grandma made Christmas cookies with the grandbabies one morning. They had SO much fun!

what a face! such concentration!

Evan got in on the action too!

The cabin in the woods

This year for Christmas my siblings and Ray and I took my mom and dad away on a surprise Christmas trip to a little "cabin in the woods." It was so beautiful and relaxing and we really needed it. We went to the SMALL town of Roxboro, NC and lived for a week on 11 SECLUDED acres of lake-front beauty. It was so peaceful and quiet... well, it was quiet in the middle of the night! There were 14 of us and well, none of us are quiet people! The following are pictures of a couple of the rooms. I need to figure out how to download pictures from our video recorder so that I can post some pictures of the outside too!

Melissa's "favorite thing"... the hutch! :)

Our room... there was a second bed in here too that we moved so that Josh would have a bed!

One of the upstairs rooms...

Kayla's "favorite thing"... the sofa! Kids are SO funny!

Grandma and Poppa's room... very pretty!