Our world....

cheer banquet

2009-05-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Alyssa got all dressed up for a cheer banquet! Gah she is growing up!

Disney World!!!

2009-04-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well...I almost forgot I HAD a blog! So I probably don't have any more readers! Well just in case I do...these are some pics from Disney World. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Alyssa had a national cheer competition at Disney so we brought the whole family to check it out. Alyssa's team won first place for her division! We packed a lot in for five days! The bad news was Emily got a nasty nasty stomach flu the night before we left, which made for not only a bad night but a bad day for traveling home. She didn't have anything to eat for days! The good news was she waited to get sick until after we were done having fun! We also were able to see an old army friend we meet in Georgia, Paul, and that was fun too!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

We took an overnight trip to the beach the weekend before we had to go back to school and work. We all really really love going to the beach. And I LOVE that we can go to the beach in January. The Ales came too so the kids were able to play with their cousins. The ocean was cold and only a few of our group went in but we had nice sunny weather in the upper 70's. Alyssa was lucky enough to bring two friends and they were helpful to have around.

Emily forgot her bathing suit! But she squeezed into one of Leanna's cuz I packed her two. Although, I don't think Leanna would have fit into it!

rDamien ready to go out boogy boarding with Nolan.
The group from afar!

December 2008

2009-01-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

We had a great relaxing Christmas break at our house. Of course December is always busy with school parties and performances but then we got a full two weeks to recover.

I don't think Emily liked the present below! It was clothes when she kept looking for the Nintendo DS she asked for!

Santa left Benny a bone!

The second grade class Christmas performance.

November 2008

2009-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Well, the main thing I remember from November is Thanksgiving! Papa, Sylvie, Julie, little brother Zack, and little sis Chloe came for a visit. It was busy but fun. We started out having Thanksgiving dinner at the Ales house. The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins. They so generously had everyone over and all the food was really delicious. Also, during their visit we took a trip to Austin. I read that 6th street was the happening street but it smelled of urine so we renamed it something else. And we did a quick drive thru tour of the University of Texas just to get Alyssa starting to think about where to go to college (you can never start to early)! We also took a trip to one of our favorite parks that has a train to ride, playground equipment, and a river full of ducks. We also ate out a lot, which is fun. Alyssa babysat for us one night and we went to the riverwalk. It actually was a lot of fun. And my brother and sister are SO CUTE!

Happy Fall!

2008-11-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

The girls love Halloween. And there are usually lots of activities going on. Emily was Amelia Bedelia for the annual book character parade and a cheer leader for Halloween night. Leanna was a cheer leader for both her school parade and for Halloween night. Alyssa was an 80's girl or something. And Benny was just released from prison. We had a house full on Halloween night with the Ales and friends, and Alyssa had lots of kids come over. Before Halloween we did go to an "orchard" to do some fall activities such as a hayride and pumpkin painting.
Anyways we have been busy here but everything is going well! I even squeezed in a few minutes to blog!

Back to Blogging!

2008-10-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well...it's been super busy around here with back to school, work, and of course Benny! Our schedule is a bit hectic! Damien went to China and Las Vegas for work! China was quite the experience for him. Thankfully, I am liking my job and isn't boring. I have been meeting with families of preschool age children to determine what school services we can provide and doing autism assessments. The only problem we have been having is getting the house stuff done so I think we will have to splurge and get a house keeper to help.
Alyssa also keeps a busy schedule with cheerleading and homework. Since she is on two teams she has practice monday through thursday. She doesn't get home untill after 9 on Tuesday's and Thursday's. But it has been keeping her focused and helping her learn to use her time wisely!
Emily has an awesome second grade teacher that keeps us very well informed will everything. I volunteer every other week in the classroom so I can see first hand what is happening in there. Emily has had to adjust to earning letter grades, having weekly math and spelling tests, and keeping up with a daily reading log. So far so good with all A's : )!
Leanna also has an awesome preschool teacher! This is the first year that Leanna can't wait to get to school and never complains about going! She is always talking about what her teacher taught them that day. She keeps talking about the names of her bones like her phalenges and patullas which is funny to hear her say those big/strange words that I can't even spell!
Benny has grown really tall! He is going to be a big boy! But thankfully, he has been such a good doggy! He listens and is really fun to be around! And he forces us to get out and exercise!

After a long walk....

Back to School and More...

2008-09-03T17:07:00.001-07:00

Well we officially have an 8th grader, a 2nd grader, and a four year old in Pre-K! We are officially in a routine. And I am officially working! Benny is growing like crazy! He will probably be much bigger than the foster mother predicted. But that's okay! He has been SO good with potty training and has had no accidents in over a week!! And I have even left him in the kitchen all morning while I worked! He has learned down, sit, come (not always), leave it etc. The main problem we have his with nipping when he gets excited and hyper. We take him for two walks a day. Amy- he needs to eat 3 meals a day at regularish times and go out regularly. He sleeps in his crate all night in our room but starts strirring around 6:30. So no more need for an alarm clock!
The girls are all liking school but it is an adjustment!

Alyssa's 13!!

2008-09-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Well we had a busy August. Alyssa finally became a teenager and I actually tried to get creative with a birthday party. We had 11 girls and took them to the mall to do various tasks. Then a SLEEPOVER! Call me crazy but one sleeping pill later and I didn't mind at all! Actually it all went pretty good!
Grandma and Grandpa Brunet came too for a week long visit and helped out A LOT!

The Group after they were all done!

Each group had to find a bike to sit on.
Each group had to do a back bend in an elevator.
Each group had to kiss live crabs
Find a big pair of sunglasses.
Read a newspaper.
Take a picture of someone in uniform. And a get a free makeover.
Take a picture in a bathroom stall.
Have a hollister salesperson wear a bikini top.
Dress like a mannequin.

Other tasks included things like buying kids an ice cream, finding a skeleton and a rainbow, finding a bathtub etc.

More Benny Pics...

2008-08-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

Benny kinda resembles Emily!
Kisses! And Benny's first bath!

You can see how tall he is here. Sorta.

Well by popular demand, I had to put on more Benny pictures! O.k. I am turning into a freaky dog lady. I'm going to start walking around with pictures of Benny and having a big photo of him in my office! I always thought dog people were so weird! Anyways..the girls really enjoying him. We took Benny (in the car!)to pick Alyssa up from cheer camp. Alyssa is wiped from long workout and no sleep.
Well Benny is a lot of work especially because I am having to learn everything from scratch. I've never had a dog and never paid any attention to other dogs! Well we have Benny on a schedule and are getting him potty trained.

Meet Benny!

2008-08-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well we did it! We got a brand new labradoodle from the humane society. We named him Benny. Isn't he cute?

More pics from Michigan trip!

2008-07-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

We are home in Texas now enjoying the heat and the pool. But I these are the last of my Michigan pictures. We had a good time and saw almost everyone we wanted to. We said goodbye to Selina after her two week stay and were so happy to see her again. We had a new cousin and nephew born while we were there too! Bryan is his name and he is cute. Below are all the grandkids together for the first time!

A tea party at Grandma Sharons!

Crafts and more crafts at Grandma Sharons!
A trip to the Detroit Zoo with Grandma Linda and Bill! We did a lot of walking that day!
Gracie and Alyssa!
Looking at farm animals with Grandma!
I love back shots!
Polar bear exhibit was certainly exciting!
We had some seriously tired kiddos! Selina carried one and so did Alyssa.
Brother Zach! Just turned 2!
Sister Chloe! Just turned 2!
Quite the 2 year birthday party with a huge inflatable! Yeah!

Packing it all in in Michigan

2008-07-08T21:12:00.001-07:00

Well we are packing it all in in Michigan. Straight from the Georgia wedding we went to Michigan to visit our friends and family. Selina came from Germany also to visit. We have been at both Grandparents house and trying to see everybody that we haven't seen in a long time. We have seen my sister and my little niece Gracie they have blog linked on the left. We also saw Billie, John, Holland and Eden. Their blog is also linked on the left! We saw Damien's uncle Skip and aunt Mia on two nights. And we saw my brother and his wife who are expecting. Damien was able to stay a week but then had to leave to bring home the bacon! So since we have been so busy....I have LOTS of pictures! I will share!
Selina and Alyssa relaxing on the hammock at the Brunet's house.
Grandma Brunet with silly faces.
More silly faces at the science museum with Grandma Linda! Looking like monkey faced bats.
What pretty minerals and gems they had at the museum!
The Stegasausares Rocks!
Group Hug with Leanna, Gracie, Holland, Eden, and Emily!
Watching Awesome fireworks at Uncle Skips house. Too loud for Leanna but Gracie loved it!
Gracie and Holland having fun with Selina!
My cousin Megan having silly girls always attacking her.
My brother Steven and sister in law Elaine and their unnamed baby boy due any day!
The girls Alyssa, Megan, and Selina going for a canoe ride.
Going for a canoe ride with two Daddy's.

The girls ventured out into Pine Lake although it was a bit chilly.
Emily enjoying some time with her Great Uncle Skip.

Sister Lisa acting silly. Little did she know this would end up on the blog!
The girls taking a jet bubble bath at Grandma Linda's. They think that is fun!

Trying to catch some fish

Wedding in Georgia

2008-07-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well we left on the 27th of July for Atlanta Georgia. Damien's brother Pierre and his new wife Deb had a reception to celebrate their wedding. It was our first time meeting Deb and her son Jayden. We all liked them very much! We stayed a long weekend at a nearby hotel and Alyssa even made a friend her age and had a sleep over at her house one night. Savana and P.J. have grown up and were so sweet and cuddly! It was a lot of fun but of course we wished we could have spent more time with them. Damien was there but I guess he avoided the camera!

This is the happy couple making their entrance.
Grandma and Leanna danced the night away.

Savana all grown up and looking beautiful.
Grandpa with some good looking kids. There is our new addition Jayden on the far left.

Damien's Mom, brother Paul and sister Noel whom both flew in for the wedding.

My Baby is 4!

2008-06-23T08:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Leanna. I can't believe she is already four years old! She woke up so excited that it was HER birthday. She stood up on the coffee table and said "Look how big I am now!" She planned the party with a little help from Emily. This is the truly homemade cake they decorated with a skittles rainbow, ponies, cats and dogs!

This is the smile Leanna couldn't stop wearing. Like this is MY birthday smile.

The pinata that Leanna and Emily stuffed.
Still smiling....
Her new bedding for her birthday! She could hardly fall asleep after all the excitement.

This is Alyssa with her friends before they went to a quincenerra (a Mexican traditional party when one turns 15).

Fathers Day and lots of swimming!

2008-06-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Well we have been spending almost EVERY day at the pool. We all love to go. Damien had a good Fathers Day. Happy day to him. He got to do everything he wanted! And he even got a gift he actually wanted...a BB gun. He spent the morning shooting the gun with ALL the girls off the deck at paper "targets". Then we went hiking for geocashes. (spelling?) This is the family before the hike. Which was only supposed to take a "few" minutes.
Emily's face after the hike that really took closer to 2 hours!

Happy 7th birthday Emily!

2008-06-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Emily celebrated her 7th birthday on June 7th. She invited her favorite friend from school, Shelby for a sleepover. We also had her neighborhood friends and cousins come for some cupcake cones, games, and pinata. She was excited for all her really cool gifts.
We surprised her with horseback riding lessons. Emily just loves animals and had a good time on her horse Pom Pom.
We are also proud of her for receiving the Citizenship award at school for her class. It is nice to see that her good behavior gets recognized!
She also has turned into quite a fish with her swim lessons! She loves to do real laps while Leanna takes her lesson or before and after hers. It is really good exercise! It is amazing how much both girls have learned.
We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Michigan! I will be BACK TO WORK in August! I am very fortunate to have found a school psychologist position right here where I live. It is a smaller district with about 10,000 kids but I will be within five miles of my home and the girls schools at all times. ALSO, although I was willing to take anything...something part time opened up! So I will work three days a week and have two days home! Leanna will be going to pre-K part time four days a week. There will be a few extra hours I will need a sitter, but fortunately my neighbor can watch her during those times. More later!

Dorthy

2008-06-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

Alyssa played Dorthoy in the Wizard of Oz in a production performed by her Theater Class. She had a LOT of lines to memorize for the end of the year in a addition to the other finals she had to study for. Good Job Alyssa!

Enchanted Rock

2008-05-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well for Mother's Day I picked for us all to go to Enchanted Rock. It is about a 2 hour drive in the hill country. We hiked up the 1 billion year old rock. It was fun.
We have been back to doing a lot of swimming. Our community pool just opened and we are making good use out of it. The girls have been showing off their newly acquired swim skills. Emily is just perfecting her strokes and Leanna actually started swimming on her own for a few feet! She was so proud of herself!

Alyssa had her awards ceremony last night. She made the all A honor roll. She was one of 28 on it (out of her class of about 330). We were very proud! See if you can find her.

bloggers block

2008-05-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

Leanna got a turn to take Emily's Fiesta float through the hall.There is Emily taking it for the Fiesta parade at school.
There Damien is the proud parent who helped make the beautiful creation of a float.
Leanna has become an absolute MANIAC on her bike.
Alyssa can be REALLY hard to photograph sometimes. I just take what I can get!

O.k. I have had a serious case of bloggers block. I just couldn't do it for the longest time. But I'm back! I guess a lot has probably happened since the last post. First Damien is still liking his new job, I guess since I don't hear too much about it. He comes home at a reasonable hour and the girls are just loving that. Alyssa has been just working hard at school, going to cheerleading practice, getting her weekly allergy shots, taking a break from texting, and we have been working on a texas wildflower project. Emily had fun with her Texas Fiesta float as you can see from the pictures, is gaining lots of confidence on her bike (we have been taking the girls to the high school parking lot on the weekend and she just loves that), reading every night, and is very excited about her first pet (a fish) which she bought with her very own money. Leanna is seriously a maniac on her bike and insists on going everywhere on it. We have been working REALLY hard on getting her to sleep all night in HER bed before she turns four! I swear you would think by the time all your kids were four you could sleep all night. We have tried EVERYTHING. First, we tried a reward system but she could have cared less. Then we tried just locking our door and taking her back upstairs which would take many days to work. After a week of sleeping good, she would be back at it again and we would have to start over again. Then we tried putting a plastic child door protector, which worked if she didn't scream for us in the night and until Emily showed her how to get out. Now, we have a real lock on the door with a two way monitor, so if she screams or needs something we can talk back to her without getting out of bed. It has been working unless she has to go to the bathroom or unless on two occasions I forgot to lock the door. She must be getting up every night and trying the door! Why doesn't she stay asleep?? Also, anything like company or going somewhere overnight will totally take us back to square one! I will keep you all posted. But I really need a good night sleep that lasts more than one night!
O.k. Billie tagged me to write about seven weird or random facts about me. She tagged me awhile back and I never did it. I don't know how to show her link on my blog...I need to figure that out but she is under my list of links. Anyways....here we go.
1. I eat really strange things for breakfast. My favorite is to eat leftover veggies. Or anything leftover for that matter like meatloaf, salad, chicken, anything!
2. Sometimes I go on avocado binges. Lately I have just been eating whole avocados. Sometimes for dessert - I mash them up and put fresh lemon juice on it. For lunch I cut them up into my salad.
3. I spend way to much time thinking about food and what I should eat or what I shouldn't eat. Or what I should buy to eat. Or what I should fix the kids to eat. Or what is really healthy and what isn't. Or talking about eating.
4. I am also a freak about sleeping. I worry about my kids getting enough sleep. Damien calls me the sleep Nazi. I feel very stressed when the kids are up past their bed time. I insist Alyssa goes to bed at a reasonable time also. I also make sure I get enough rest although I can't guarantee that it won't be interrupted. I nag Damien to go to bed too but it doesn't always work.
5. I am a news junkie. I am constantly reading the news. Like Billie I also am obsessed with true crime stories and am a frequent reader of the crime library archives that used to be on the courtv website. But I also read about current events, the latest political, health, world, and education news.
6. I spend way too much time on the computer and phone and really need to work on that!
7. I am committing to run a marathon in November 2008.

Packing it all in!

2008-04-01T15:18:00.001-07:00

Well, it has been too long since my last post but we have been packing it in! Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Pierre came to visit for two weeks and we stayed very busy. We celebrated Grandma's birthday and went to Port Aransas for a long Easter weekend to enjoy the beach. We rented a house with Gma and Gpa and the Ales. Alyssa brought her friend Paige and we were lucky enough to have wonderful weather!
In other news, Alyssa spent the week after spring break trying out for cheerleading which is an exhausting experience. Thankfully, she made the team. I think I was just as nervous as she was, not because I am some psycho cheer mom but because I would hate to see her really really disappointed. So, phew that is over, now we just have to pay for it and hope that they do more this year in terms of competing.
Emily recently sang with all the first grade students from her school .... all about Texas. She wore the same hat that Leanna wore for her program. It was really cute although Emily is not a big fan of singing or dancing in front of people. She also got a new bike from the Easter Bunny and we were able to take her and Leanna to a huge empty parking lot this past weekend and she really enjoyed it because she didn't have to worry about hitting anything!
Both Emily and Leanna started swim lessons. They both loved their first lesson even though the instructor really pushed them to swim. I can tell they are going to learn a lot.
Emily and Leanna both got another ear infection. That totals nine between the two of them since July!! And that doesn't include having to go in when the antibotics did not work. So, I have an appointment for ENT for Leanna next week. We will see what they have to say...

I have become sadistically addicted to running lately. I even ran my first race which was a 10 mile trail run. I have been running three times a week between 3 and 7 miles. And I feel like I would like to run more than that. I'll see if I can fit it in.
Damien took the week of Spring Break off and he enjoyed being off and spending time with the kids. Now, its back to the grind!

The Phantom and more...

2008-03-02T07:39:00.001-08:00

Well for Christmas, I got Phantom tickets for last Thursday. I took Damien and Alyssa to be my guests. Here we are for a picture before we left. I had a great time but unfortunately I think they may have lacked my enthusiasm! I even remembered all the words to the songs which they were both so lucky to have me sing all the way home!

We were lucky enough to have Alicia come over and babysit while we were gone. Or should I say the girls were lucky! They love having Alicia over to play with.

Leanna making her big debut singing Texas songs at Preschool.

Shopping with Alyssa can be oh so much fun! Her face says it all! We spent an evening shopping at the outlets with Cricket and Alicia to start stocking up on spring/summer clothes. I just wonder how many people can fit into these bikinis that they are selling? And how short can they make shorts these days?

Lovely weather

2008-02-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a cold day...I think it was in the upper 40's and Leanna HAD to wear a winter hat and she was really mad that she couldn't ride her bike! That is Leanna's mad face, sometimes we have to look at it a lot! Then it warmed up to summer weather, the kids even ran through the sprinklers one day and have been riding their bikes daily (they got new baskets too). Emily can start by herself now! Leanna likes to ride her bike all the way to Emily's school to pick her up. But then look what happens when she gets on the couch. Doesn't she look huge there? Leanna wore her cowgirl hat to school the other day for a cowboy/girl lunch.
Damien is really enjoying his new job - thankfully! Alyssa has still been busy with school projects, having fun with friends, and babysitting her sisters! I am getting all the kids to help with chores a lot more. And I like it!

Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I know it has been awhile again! Let me just give you the latest update...We all finally recovered from being sick. Leanna needed antibotic for another ear infection. One more and she will have to go to ENT. Alyssa and I both developed sinus infections and also needed antibotics. Emily was sick again the day before and the day of Valentines day with a fever. Although she had to miss Valentines day at school, she was able to recover quickly. Emily has gotten really proficient on her bike without training wheels and moved up to a bigger bike. Leanna took over the smaller bike and is now off of her tricycle! I actually had them both ride their bike all the way to our neighborhood park which is probably a little over half a mile. Well it wasn't so easy for me because Emily can't start off by herself yet, so every time she stops, I have to run up and give her a start. Then Leanna will get distracted and start riding right off the curb! Good thing for helmets! Alyssa was kind enough to be seen with me and her sisters to help me one way but I was on my for the way back after we played. Isn't it just awesome that in January and February we can be out riding bikes and going to the park? I LOVE it here! I have surprisingly started running - or I should say jogging. Never in my life have I run more than two miles before as of late. Now I have gotten up to 4 miles at once without stopping and with hills! I can hardly believe it myself!
Alyssa is thinking of trying out for cheer next year and tryouts are coming up again. She is also thinking of running track for the spring. I am thinking of having Emily and Leanna take swim lessons for the spring for our busy swim season here in Texas.
Last night, we took the little girls to the planetarium to learn about the planets with the Ales boys. Alyssa had to work at the school dance.
We are also planing an upcoming Michigan vacation this summer and hope to see everyone we know!
Above is a picture of the girls doing "science experiments" with their Valentines candy which is way better than eating it!

I'm back....

2008-01-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well...after a long break from blogging, I'm back! First, I just got lazy and then our computer broke. We finally have a new computer that Damien put together last night. Anyways, over the Christmas break, Damien and I made sure to do things with each of the girls by themselves. Here is a picture of Damien and Alyssa going to the Spurs game. Alyssa was glad to go too! Emily really enjoys being taken out to eat because she loves to eat like her mama! She loves to go out for breakfast too. But a two week vacation seemed long enough and we were starting to go a little stir crazy. Then the first weekend after school got back, Emily came down with a little stomach bug. So we stayed at home. Then last weekend the girls had a long weekend off, and we deceided to go try the free H-E-B lodge up in the hill country. You can see the pictures of it here. Well, it was a short but sweet visit! Emily came down with another illness that started with a fever. She threw up all over the car right before we got there. And if anyone knows me very well, I am not much of a camper and am a little picky about where I stay. And of course, an outdoorsy lodge place without a cleaning service isn't where you want to bath your child that just made quite a mess of herself! Then add two finicky vocal girls like Alyssa and Alicia to the mix! Ha! And why in the world would I pack the entire car full of stuff and forget water??? So, after a long night of Emily groaning from a high fever (you can see her in bed in the picture)and the big girls hee hee and ha haing, we woke up explored the area , made some lunch and packed up! When we got home, Alyssa was so crabby she got sent to her room and fell asleep for 3 hours! Then it became clear that she was getting sick too. They both didn't move for a couple of days and then Leanna and I were struck with the obnoxious virus! Leanna and I just laid around in bed and the couch for a few days. Now we are all still recoving with running noses, coughs, etc! Phew. What a week! Tommorow, Alyssa is taking the SAT. They have all the seventh graders that performed well enough on the state exam take it. Oh and here is a picture of my new chicken soup receipe , Italian style from Rachel Ray. Yumm-O!

Holiday break...

2008-01-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

Well, Santa came to our house. The girls were all very excited. I think everyone got most of what they asked for so you can't complain about that. Also, thank you to everyone who mailed us gifts - the girls loved them! We still have some gift card shopping to do. We spent Christmas Eve at our next door neighbor's house - Ms. Diane. And we had Christmas Day with the Ales, Cricket and family, and the Ales grandparents (Ron and Kathy). Leanna fell asleep in my arms before her bed time on Christmas Eve! Damien stayed home sick with some stomach bug which then I got and then Alyssa got. And Leanna had to go to the doctor on the 27th for another ear infection! Whew! My 33rd birthday was on the 27th!! Aunt Noel coincedently took the little girls for a sleepover on the 26th (pictures are on her blog) so I had a quiet birthday morning to myself (Alyssa sleeps in anyways)! What a treat! When I came to pick them up all the kids sang Happy Birthday and we had angel food cake with berries! Yum. Then for dinner we had Thai with the Nickersons and Damien got a cake and we sang all over again. Anyways, it is busy with all the kids home for two weeks. Here I have a picture of Emily helping me wash wine glasses. She has been such a good little helper for me this vacation! She also lost her second front tooth so she looks like she is getting older! Alyssa has been seeming to enjoy being home and relaxing! Damien started his new job at HEB today! We hope he likes it!

It's the Holiday Season...

2007-12-23T15:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, I got quite a response from my last blog post even from people who did not leave a comment! I am just wondering what you all cook at your house? I just want to point out that I don't cook like that EVERY day! Sometimes it is just eggs and toast for dinner, leftovers, or whatever else I can scrounge up! Anyways, I am really not that much of a baker but during Christmas we always like to make some homemade cookies. I thought about trying the chocolate chip and chickpea recipe out of the Seinfeld book but decided to stick to my old tried and true recipes. We ended up just picking two kinds of cookies to do. We did about 80 Neiman Marcus chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies and about 50 shortbread cookies. Then we had plenty to share with neighbors. I also did a couple of the cauliflower banana breads and homemade tomato soup with ham. Yummy! Emily and Alyssa won't normally eat tomatoes but they sure will eat the soup!
In other news, we officially became the "most embarrasing parents" ever. Even more than X's parents - and "THAT is REALLY embarrasing". I guess it had something to do with singing if your happy and you know it at Cici's pizza with an 8th grade boy from school sitting in the booth behind us. Then when we were leaving I spilled water all over the floor in front their table! It's not easy being twelve I guess.
Well, we are now on Christmas break. Sixteen days of NO SCHOOL! The girls are loving it all ready!
Emily is really crafty. Not like her mother at all! The other day when we were making soup together - next thing I know she and Leanna had washed out the empty chickpea cans, taken off the outside paper, and were gluing sparkles all over the can to make a pencil holder. I asked where she got that idea and she said it just came to her. You can see a picture here of her with her can and a life sized girl holding a baby she created this morning. Alyssa also surprised me this week with her T-shirt making skills (not pictured). She and her friend bought all their own materials, cut out letters from fabric saying "Alyssa is my Bestie" and "Allie is my Bestie", and "Christmas '07" on the back. I told her plans were too ambitious in the time frame she had but she proved me wrong! Then she hand sewed green stuff around their sleeves. I was like "how did you know how to do that?" (Because she didn't learn anything of the sort from me). She was like it is just in and out and said she was "self taught".
Anyways the girls are really excited for Christmas!

What's Cooking in Kristin's Kitchen?

2007-12-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

People always ask, What are you making for dinner tonight? I too am always curious as to what other people are eating at their house. Growing up I always loved to eat over at other peoples house to try new things and see what they eat. Basically, I just love to eat good food! Well, for breakfast we have been having either eggs, whole wheat toast, whole grain waffles, whole grain cereal or oatmeal, and/or smoothies made with berries, natural yogurt, flaxseed, and juice. Then lunch during the week is usually whatever we have for leftovers from dinner or sandwiches (turkey or ham or natural peanut butter). Healthy snacks that I try to make are homemade hummus, guacamole, pretzels, fruit, cut up vegetables, and organic snack bars. Also, I have found some great new recipes in the Seinfeld cookbook. The banana bread made with cauliflower and the peanut butter and banana muffins (also made with cauliflower) are delicious. Although my kids will eat vegetables, the recipes in the book are good just for making regular recipe's more healthy. For dinner, the book also has a good chicken nugget recipe that all me kids loved. I dipped the chicken in sweet potato puree and then breaded the chicken with flaxseed meal and breadcrumbs. We also love to eat faitja's for dinner. I started marinating vegetables such as zucchini, squash, onions, and pepper (pictured) to go with the faitja's. I also add black beans and corn to the mix then top with guacamole. I so love this that I will eat it for breakfast and lunch the next few days until it is all gone! Also, when I make taco meat now I started adding tomato sauce and carrot puree and it tastes really good. Another dinner staple in our house is spaghetti but sometimes we mix it up by having either lasagna (pictured) or mostacholi or a noodle bake with cream cheese etc. I started using organic spaghetti sauce that is low in sugar. And everyone likes it more than our regular sauce. I also have always been using 100% whole wheat pasta for a long time now without any complaints! We also try to have salmon regularly. I usually make that with a couscous mix and a salad. Grilled chicken and flank steak with veggies and salad are eaten here too. I also have been experimenting with different soups. I have found an easy chicken noodle that is popular here and then I freeze the leftover in individual servings for a quick snack. Also, white bean chicken chili happens a lot! I made a homemade chicken pot pie the other night that was way better than any frozen or bisquick recipe. O.k...so that is basically what I do with my time. I am either thinking about food, making it, or shopping for it! Let me know if you want any recipes!

Snow in Schertz Texas

2007-12-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

O.K...I am going to tell everyone again how much I love living in Schertz Texas! It is a small town only 20 minutes away from the "big" city! The schools are all close to our house and there are sidewalks everywhere. It was recently ranked as the #40th best place to live by U.S. News and as one of the fastest growing cities by Forbes! They are building a brand new huge library, planning new parks with lots of trails, building a fitness center, and a few more new schools. And we will be able to ride our bike or walk to everything!
Schertz had their annual snow festival this weekend. It is actually pretty funny if you have grown up around snow all your life. They basically just grind up ice and throw it in a pile and make a little hill to sled down. You can see by the pictures what I am talking about! Leanna has been talking all week about touching snow and playing with snow. So when she saw the pathetic pile of snow she was SO excited! "Snow!" Well we had fun and ate free food! Yeah!
Emily had her Christmas concert this week also! That was exciting. We have two Christmas work parties to go to because Damien is taking a new job within the company so we are doing both parties! So thankful to have Alyssa to babysit! And she does a pretty good job too! Alyssa has been more difficult to photograph but I found this picture of her on the camera that she took of herself!
Well...still have LOTS of shopping to do!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-11-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well, my Dad, Sylvie, Sylvie's Mom Julie, my brother Zach, and my sister Chloe came into town for Thanksgiving. We went straight from the airport to the Ales for Thanksgiving dinner. There we were joined with Gregg's brother Brian, his wife Jody, and Gregg's Dad Ron. It was really fun. The weather turned really cold just for Thanksgiving and the weekend. It went from 80 to 40! So we took a chilly trip to the zoo before the anticipated rain on Saturday and Sunday. Then we went to my favorite restaurant on the river walk at night while Alyssa was brave enough to stay home with the twins(16 months old), Leanna, and Emily. Alicia was nice enough to come over and help her too! Then on Saturday we took the Brunet girls to the movie "The Enchanted" while Julie watched Chloe and Zach. Then we ate at Chillies - YUM! On Sunday we went to the children's museum and out to eat in the historic town of Gruene.

The Grandparents were In....

2007-11-18T20:35:00.000-08:00

Well, we had an 18 day whirlwind visit from Grandma and Grandpa Brunet. Even Uncle Paul came in for a week! Emily did get the stomach flu in the beginning but thankfully, no one was yet visting overnight at our house. Emily also had another ear infection a few weeks before that! Well, I actually took off for a few days to go to Michigan. I saw my family and a couple of friends (Billie and Nico). Everyone I saw has younger kids than me and I was noticing how much more work that is! But, they do grow up fast! Meanwhile, back at home Grandma and Grandpa were in charge while Damien was at work! Almost all the pictures here are from Grandma's camera. Grandma loves to take pictures and since I haven't taken any I had many to chose from. You can see that Grandma was able to take Leanna to school and snap a shot at the door. She also go to have lunch and volunteer in Emily's classroom and get a shot of Emily playing outside on the playground. She even went incognito to the football game and got some undercover photos of Alyssa cheering. Alyssa wouldn't want anyone she knows to know that she actually has parents or a family! But nonetheless even Uncle Paul made it to the game. And what is that I see them eating in the picture....? Something their mother would never get them! Also, what is going on in Leanna's bed while I was gone? What is on her head? And what is with the balloons? You can see Damien's fun project he did with the girls - making a headboard for Leanna.
The one picture I did take is the one of Damien entering the attic. We smelled a dead rat. And he did some research on how to find it, made me go up in the attic with him with the flashlight, and searched under insulation - lots of it! But then he found it!!! Really Gross, I have to tell you!

All things Halloween!

2007-11-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

O.k. I have finally got to my blog! I guess the latest was the Halloween "season." Phew now that we are done with that we need to gear up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We successfully got through the first nine weeks of school! It is going by so fast! Alyssa made all 100's in her four main classes! But she needs to work on improving in one elective - journalism. She's having too much fun in that class apparently! Here are all my pictures. Leanna is wearing gross teeth in the top one. Alyssa is getting harder to photograph. The ones I have are the ones she took with her friends! The one with Alicia wearing the make-up was funny because the next day I woke her up at the last minute for Sunday school and she couldn't get the lipstick off because it was my long lasting lipstick! She looked so funny! But then we realized you could use make up remover.
For Halloween, we had fun at the nearby pumpkin patch. Then we went over to an outdoor garden with our friends McKenna and Hayden where they had a maze and moon bounce. Then Emily and Leanna both had costume parade the SAME day at their different schools. Which made for a very hectic morning! As you can see, Emily was a fairy and Leanna was a dragon. However, Grandma is in town and got her a cute witch outfit too which we took her picture in. Also, we had a fun Halloween party to go to at Hayden and McKenna's house. Then we had lots of fun trick or treating in our neighborhood with the Ales boys and girl (picture in the pumpkin bag) and the Grandparents. Leanna quit half way through though and said she was going home by HERSELF. So, Grandpa had to trail her so she couldn't see him all the way home.

Hey....

2007-10-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Things are all good here. Busy busy with school! Alyssa is very busy with lots of homework and cheerleading. Emily has to read 20 min. every day and about 20 more on other homework. So, that is what I am doing every afternoon! Here are the photos of the plants for Alyssa's science project. She made an 108%!! Leanna is loving pre-k.

Port Aransas

2007-09-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well we had an impromptu visit to Port Aransas near Corpus Christi. Friday night we decided to leave in the morning and spend one night there. Emily was SO excited she had her bag packed in a few minutes and waiting at the front door. Leanna was jumping around too in excitement. Alyssa hardly complained so you could tell she wanted to go too! We packed Sat. morning left about 9:45 and were on the beach swimming by 1:00. Well have to do that again soon! Working on getting video on the blog.
.

Firsts....

2007-09-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the day before school started, Alyssa had the great idea to go ice skating! So there the kids are all bundled up on a 90 degree day to have some fun on the ice. It was Leanna's first time ice skating and Emily's second time. It was fun minus the part where I could hardly move after I got home! I did get to show off some of my old moves too! Actually it was quite funny seeing me try any moves at all! Emily enjoyed herself too although she needed a lot of help. Leanna didn't last too long out there at all. Alyssa and her friends seemed to really like it.
Alyssa started the seventh grade. And so far says that she really likes it! Yeah! Emily started first! And she ALSO had a great first week and likes it! I'm glad we got started off well! I actually got there picture at the END of the day by the front door. At the beginning of the day, I couldn't find Emily anywhere twice, the first time I found her bundled up on the couch trying to go back to sleep (I took her picture there) and then I found her bundled up in my bed trying to go back to sleep! She is not a morning person! But by the second week she is getting much better. There Leanna is with her new preschool teacher. Leanna couldn't stop smiling at her met the teacher day. In fact she has spent a few mornings crying that she doesn't get to school while her sisters are getting ready to go (Leanna starts her first day tomorrow). I hope she also keeps up the good school attitude!
And another first for us, was meeting our new niece/cousin Aleah Ales!!! She is so cute as you can see from the pictures and so little too! The girls were in shock to see her! Emily was the most enthralled and would have held her all night if she could. Leanna looked a little nervous but ever since has been walking around with babies inside her shirt saying she is going to have a baby. Now Damien LOVES babies and I didn't want to stay too long in case he got any ideas!

Last days of fun

2007-08-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

Trying to squeeze that last bit of fun in before it is back to school! Alyssa got her schedule and books for the year. She gets a set of books to keep at home which is nice. Her classes are theater, p.e., journalism, pre-AP (science, social studies, Language Arts, and Math. So seven classes with seven different teachers! Her school is falling apart but she will be the last one to go through because they are building a new one. I have some pics of her birthday on here. A picture at Olive Garden and then Cricket surprised her with a desired cookie cake after we got home! There we are in front of it.
Emily met her teacher. And of course I am relieved because from first impressions it seems that I made a good choice with my teacher request that I obsessed about! We are working on riding a two wheeler this week.
Leanna has been carrying around a postcard her teacher sent her about when they will meet one one. She even wants to sleep with it! We are working on sleeping in our own bed this week! She likes to travel down to our room in the night, which makes us all sleepy the next day. Every time I break her of the habit something happens that gets her back in to it (ex. ear infection).
I took the girls to the zoo to tour the zoo kitchen and feed the kangaroos. That was fun but no pictures! Baby Addisyn turned one, and the girls went to her party at Inflatable World.
Here is Emily in the pool doing cheerleading stunts.

Happy 12th Birthday Alyssa!

2007-08-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

Well....Alyssa has turned 12 today August 19th!! Yay! Last night we had the Ales over for a birthday dinner and Damien whipped up a cake for her! It was delicious! Today she opened her presents, went swimming, and went to the Olive Garden for dinner.

Feeling better!

2007-08-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

I think the girls are all feeling better. Finally, a little sleep around here! I had a really good time taking Alyssa and Alicia to Six Flags the other day. It was F-U-N! Cricket was nice enough to get Emily and Leanna from camp and keep them for the afternoon while the big girls and I had a day out! We mostly did the water park then went out to lunch, got ice cream, did a little shopping, and then went back to do a few more rides and then saw the Plain White T's in concert! Here is a picture before we left.
Alyssa babysat Hayden, McKenna, Emily and Leanna the other day while Julie and I ran our errands. They did a beautiful fashion show when we got back. Here is the after picture of them together.
Here is Emily with her favorite baby Addisyn! Emily loves babies and Addisyn is a really good one to play with! Addisyn is Beth's baby and we always have a good time together! I am adding her blog on my link page soon!
Then the other day we went to the Witte Museum in San Antonio. It was the free day so it was busy! Anyways our cousins Nolan and Nathan also went along with our friends Hayden and McKenna. They have a cool dinosaur exhibit that Emily was especially interested in. Here we are in front of one of the dinosaurs. Also, here the kids are looking for dinosaur bones. Then that us leaving the place (minus our cousins who stayed longer)!

Earaches and more....

2007-08-08T06:27:00.001-07:00

My poor babies! The other day I took Leanna to her fourth doctors appoint. for her double ear infection. She was still crying in the night and miserable during the day. A couple hours before the appointment Emily said her ear hurt. Well, I thought that it really couldn't be true but it is not in her character to complain about something that isn't real. But I told her to tell me in a few hours if it still hurt. Then she went to her friends to play and I was going to take Leanna to the doctor. Well, she comes home early and starts screaming and screaming about her ear. Totally hysterical. I gave her Motrin and Leanna's numbing drops. She settled down after she fell asleep in the car. Leanna gave her some of her own advice in the car ride in the form of a song "you put your finger in your ear to make it feel better.." That is what Leanna had been doing all day! At Leanna's doctor appoint. I asked them to peek in Emily's ear. They said wow her ears are even worse than Leanna's! So, Emily is a tough cookie! They seem to feeling better after the new med. we got. The first picture is of Leanna finally falling asleep the other night but she wanted to stay sitting up.
In other news, Emily is learning to ride a two wheeler bike! Alyssa and I are reading Harry Potter 7, Emily is working on a book called Molly the Brave and Me. Leanna has just wanted to read the books Grandma Sharon makes.
Here Damien is reading Emily's favorite book a kid's nature encyclopedia. She wants us to read every word.
Here is Alyssa at her cheer camp with the team.
And we also hosted a block party for National Night Out and a fire truck and the police came. It was fun.

Day in and out

2007-07-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we don't always have time for fun. There is still the daily laundry, food shopping, breakfast/lunch/dinner cooking, picking up, more picking up, dishes, more dishes, getting the girls to do their daily chores, cleaning bathrooms, and washing the floors. Here the girls are "helping" me! We try and do at least one fun thing a day even if it is for just a little while. Usually it is swimming if it is not raining hard. But sometimes it is art work. Here Damien traced the girls on some big paper he brought home we cut them out and then we made clothes, hair and faces with construction paper and other art materials. They ended up quite cute. We went to an art studio the other day to play. Here you can see Emily helping her sister. Alyssa started cheer camp this week. Here she is in one of her new outfits ready to go!

More Rain...

2007-07-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

We have had historic amounts of rain here. The good news is it is keeping it cooler which helps with the electric bill and we don't have to water at all which helps with the water bill! Alyssa is home now! Here she is reading which we are still doing a lot of especially with the rain. Emily and Leanna did Vacation Bible School all week with their friends Hannah, Hayden and McKenna. Leanna always cried when I dropped her off but I would stick around and see that she would stop in about five minutes. Then when I picked them up, she told me how much fun she had! Now she runs around the house singing the songs she learned. Yesterday we went on a long bug walk when the rain let up so Emily could find some new bugs for her bug home. I have to admit I was feeling a little queasy watching her pick up bugs with her little tweezers! Anyways, the summer has been flying by but we still have five whole weeks left! Yeah! Meanwhile, Alyssa is growing like a weed! She grew an inch in six weeks! I just hope she won't outgrow the very expensive cheer uniforms we ordered for her in May!

Photo Shoot

2007-07-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well we had an impromptu photo shoot last night before our "tubby time!" First the girls attempted mad faces but Leanna couldn't help but smile! Then happy faces, then monkey faces (Leanna is looking at Emily for monkey advice), then surprised faces! Then I got a shot of Emily showing off her second lost tooth, and Leanna showing us her "loose tooth!" Then I let Emily take MY picture while she was in the tub (the camera survived).
In other news....Alyssa is still in Michigan. We really miss her! But...it sounds like she is having lots of fun, eating really well, shopping, and going lots of places. My sister Lisa has posted some pics from her trip on her blog, click on Gracie under my links to see Gracie, Alyssa, and my cousin Megan. I can tell she will probably want to do it again!
Well the rest of us have been just hanging out at home having a good time. We have been reading a lot and taking lots of trips to the library! Since, there is nothing good on T.V. I have been reading books myself! I have read four books in the last couple of weeks! Emily had read at least 20! And we have read Leanna lots too! Alyssa called and said she is finishing up the books she took with her to Michigan. And she read quite a few before she left.
The other day I told Leanna and Emily we had to go to Kohl's to exchange a shirt for Daddy. (Damien needed some new clothes because he cut out eating so much junk food!) Earlier Leanna said that she did NOT want to go to the store. Anyways, Leanna was SO excited to get in the car. I thought it strange at the time. Then we get to the parking lot and she says enthusiastically I am going to tell Kohl all about my cut on my chin. Emily and I looked at each other smiling. We tried to explain to her that Kohl's was a store and not a person. But Leanna did not agree. So, we start walking around the store and Leanna keeps incessantly asking "where is Kohl?" And saying "I don't see Kohl anywhere!" Emily and I continued to try and explain the situation but Leanna became more and more distressed. Finally, we stopped in front of a nicely dressed and pleasant looking mannequin. I said "oh there Kohl is, we finally found her." Leanna wasn't so sure though. I picked her up and said "now tell her all about the cut on your chin." Leanna looked and looked suspiciously "but Mom she isn't talking!" I told her Kohl doesn't talk. So, Leanna then told her all about her chin. Emily laughed so hard she cried! It was funny but perhaps you had to be there!

More of our visit....

2007-07-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Damien has fixed the photo problem and I have a lot to share! First, we spent a lot of time in Crickets pool! She was so inviting to let us spend so much time over visiting! The kids really enjoyed the slide. P.J. was very cautious at first just staying on the steps. We didn't give him any pressure and before we knew it, he was down the slide and jumping into the deep end! We also went to a nearby water park that is part of a river. All the kids including P.J. and Leanna, went down the big blue slide there that is in the picture. We also went to the Guadalupe river at a nearby state park. The weather was overcast and drizzly but we made the best of it! The big kids took turns taking a tube ride down the river with Damien, and they played in the shallow pretending to be swept away. Then on our last day we went to the zoo. Savana remembered everything from the last time we went a year ago! She knew what was coming up next. And P.J. just ran from one exhibit to the next all very excited. Later, we meet up with our other cousins Nolan and Nathan. We all feed the birds out of nectar cups, visited the snakes, and played in the tiny tot nature spot. Phew.....then we went home went for a quick swim and had a rest! I think I might rest all week!

Happy 3rd Birthday Leanna!

2007-07-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, Leanna was SOOOOO cute on her birthday on June 22nd! She had zero expectations and she was like "for ME??" about everything! A lot better than her last birthday which she spent having jaw surgery! We started the day with a day trip to Chuckie Cheese with her sisters, Savana, and P.J. I walked in to find Leanna pulling the Dora cake her Aunt Noel made out of the fridge holding it in two hands, thinking we should bring it to Chuckie! I thankfully saved the cake! I let the kids run wild at Chuckie. Then we came home for a rest and prepare for her "big" party!! Well, it was supposed to be a pool party but it rained so I quickly threw together some decorations for the house. We had her friends McKenna and Hayden over with their parents, her big friend Alicia with her parents, her sisters, and her cousins Savana and P.J. Unfortunately, her cousins Nathan and Nolan were out of town for the weekend. But, Aunt Noel surprised her with a Dora cake and Miss Julie surprised her with a rainbow cake! So the lucky girl had two cakes! Then it was on to presents which she couldn't believe they were all for her! You can see her wearing her new headband, bathing suit, and holding the Dora that was in her cake.

Technical Difficulties

2007-07-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

I have been TRYING to post but something is wrong with the port with my camera! I have many cute pictures to share! Damien is working on the problem. Anyways, we are having a good time with Savana and P.J. They are both really good nice kids. We are really glad we got them to visit! The four of them play for hours without a peep! We have been doing lots of swimming too. Too bad their Dad is coming to take them home tomorrow! Alyssa then leaves Thursday for Michigan! Her first trip on the airplane by herself! She has an action packed week planned and I am sure will have fun!
New pictures as SOON as the problem is fixed!

Happy 6th Birthday Emily!

2007-06-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

Emily had a good birthday party at the pool! Just the right amount of guests and gifts! Emily loved every minute! After her party, I was able to take her to build a bear all by herself. She really seemed to like that too!
In other news, my friend Valerie came from New York with her adorable little girl Ava. Valerie has a been a friend since high school and we had not seen each other since my wedding seven years ago! She is having another baby in September, just took a break from working, and seized an opportunity to come visit! YEAH! We had a lot of fun. We did the usual things like the zoo, parks, water park, and the river walk. One night after dinner we ran across a man who had some birds and a flat looking squirrel. Emily showed no fear and really liked it. Alyssa and Leanna look a little bit nervous in their picture! Leanna's birthday is coming up too. Leanna just wants a cake for her birthday. It is so cute. Every time I ask her what she wants or give her ideas she says no just a cake. My mom got her shoes and loves them and calls them her birthday shoes. How practical! I think I am rubbing off on her! Alyssa has been busy with camps. The last two weeks she has been doing drama camp, with a performance tomorrow! She also has planned a short visit to Michigan by her self in a few weeks! Also, we get to have our niece and nephew Savana and P.J. come and stay with us!!! We are really excited about that and can't wait! More pictures to follow!!!!

Vacation!

2007-05-31T06:38:00.001-07:00

Here we are on South Padre Island. We went for four nights. We stayed in a two bedroom condo on the beach. We basically ate, went to the pool, and the beach. We did see the turtle rescue again and saw Shrek 2. Emily enjoyed the turtly rescue the most and listened very intently to the speaker that explained everything about the turtles. Alyssa enjoyed boogie boarding with Damien and I. The conditions were quite good and it was fun! Leanna and Emily would just get themselves covered from head to toe with sand. They thought it was hilarious. Emily loved playing in the surf too. Leanna finally got up the nerve on the last day to join her sister. We had a good time but it was nice to come home too.

No more school!

2007-05-31T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well, the girls are all done with school! The last week of school was very busy with all of their events. And then we took off for South Padre. So I have lots of pictures to share! I think I will do two seperate blogs.
Alyssa is officially a 7th grader now! We went to her talent show and she did a routine from cheerleading. I have a shot of her going up as a "flyer", and I am grateful she did not fall! Then later in the week we went to her award ceremony. She got the triple award for perfect attendance, some gold president award, and all A's. She actually had a 98 average this year! It looks like next year she will do all pre-advanced placement classes. So she will be busy with school and cheerleading!
Emily finished Kindergarten! She has grown so much this year! She had an award ceremony also where she was recognized for her outstanding attendance and got her kindergarten completion certificate. Her teacher also made a really cute scrapbook for her. Emily learned so much this year! She can read now, add, subtract, and is ready for next year! On the last day, her class had a party and you can see Mrs. England let them do shaving cream on the tables. That was fun.
Leanna is done to her great relief with her Kids Day out program. We went and peeked at her classroom next in the preschool. The room looks very inviting and she seemed excited to be able to go there next year.

Back to the pool....

2007-05-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here I am at Emily's school having my muffin for Mom in honors of Mothers Day. Try and notice my new hairdoo.
Well it is finally in the upper 80's so we can get back to swimming everyday. The water was 86 degrees and we still thought it was a bit chilly. Alyssa put sun-in in her hair and it changed color. We can't wait till it is like a warm bath! We spent Mother's Day relaxing at the pool for hours. I think we all got a bit too much sun though! Damien made a great breakfast and he and the girls did all the chores! The girls made a really cool and creative scrap book for me! It was so nice! Ahhh...I wish everyday was Mother's Day!
Saturday, I took Emily to an educational program at the zoo. She had three other kids learned all about creatures of the wetland. She was SO into it! She got to see a box turtle, some type of lizard, and a dwarf something or another up close. And then did a craft and found some of these animals in the zoo. I can't remember the details but I am sure Emily does!

Too much stuff!!!

2007-05-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

I don't have any new pictures! So I found one of me and Damien! We just bought a new video camera (our old one broke) so we have been spending more time with the new video camera. We are down to 12 more days of school! Our big accomplishment this week was getting little Leanna to stay in her bed all night for three nights in a row!! She had been coming into our bed every night for weeks. And it was getting more and more disruptive. We were tired from all the tossing and turning and feet in our face. And also, she looked exhausted after she woke in the morning like she hadn't gotten a good night sleep. I tried bribery to no avail. I tried carrying her back up to bed but she would come back and I was just too tired to remain consistent. So....I told her before bed that we were going to lock our bedroom door. I took her to the door and showed her that it would NOT open if she came down. I repeated this to her multiple times before bed. I showed her the monitor next to her bed that she could use to call us if she needed to. My plan was to carry her up if she came crying at our door but she DIDN'T come! I repeated the "talk" two times after and she still did not come down. She even sleeps in longer now! And Damien and I feel much better! Well worth it, I must say!
O.k... This weekend we went to the state park and had a nice picnic at the river, it was very nice. On Sunday, I got really motivated to help clean Alyssa and Emily's rooms. You would not believe the amount of STUFF they have. We ended up with TEN trash bags and seven bags to give to charity!!! And packed away a big box of china dolls for the attic. We went through all the clothes that either don't fit or are to worn out to give away. We went through all the knick knacks, papers, toys, etc. We decided to get rid of anything that does not provide any value to our life. Which was SOOOO much. They were holding on to things that they had no recollection of how they got them or why they had them. Then there are the things that have some "memory" for them. Things aren't memories though and they just sit and collect dust. What to do with all the trophy's? What purpose to they have? Oh look I got a trophy for playing soccer one season. And when they went in the garbage, there was almost a look of relief on Alyssa's face, like oh good now I don't have to keep dusting that and moving it around to make more room for other items. I guess we can't just keep getting more and more and not take just as much out! Damien and I were just shaking our heads at all the stuff we have bought them. Why??? Did we really need to buy them five souvenirs from every country we visited while living in Germany? Do they even care about it now?
Oh and all these toys, my kids don't even play with them! They don't! Why do we keep getting more? For ten minutes of excitement?? They do enjoy books, computer games, videos, simple easy crafts, and simple outdoor toys like a bike and chalk. That's it!}
So, that brings me to my next dilemma. Emily's birthday party! She is inviting 12 kids for a pool party at our community pool. I am glad that I have limited the party to 12 kids, which I would have liked to have kept it to six but oh well. We are trying to think of a creative way to not receive tons of gifts that just get tossed aside and never played with. Perhaps donate to a charity, ask for no presents, do a book exchange, ask for only an inexpensive book or art supply? In addition, ask family and friends to limit their gift for Emily and Leanna to ONE gift. The rest can be donated. Any ideas?
I saw this on the Birthday's without Pressure website, when looking for ideas.
Consequences of too many presents to children:
* They are overindulged by too many presents.
* They feel entitled to what they want, not just want they need.
* They feel envious of friends who get more—and someone will always get more.
* They feel disappointed, because enough is never enough.
* Long term, they develop materialistic values that equate personal celebrations with accumulating things.
For Parents:
* They feel overloaded with TOO MUCH STUFF, which they have to manage, organize, and clean up.
* They feel an energy drain from planning, shopping, preparing, and hosting the party.
* They feel regret or resentment afterwards when their child, or others, is not appreciative enough—“Why did I extend myself so much?”
* They run up debt from their own parties and from buying gifts for other parties.

I'm such a PARTY POOPER!!

Feeling Lazy....

2007-04-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Just feeling lazy so I haven't blogged! So sorry to all my faithful readers out there! Well...we had little Gracie and Aunt Lisa at our house earlier this month for Easter weekend. Wow, Gracie sure has gotten big! She is really really cute! But, it sure does bring me back to the days of having a little one into everything. How quickly we forget! Summer break is coming soon...the girls get out on May 24th. We will be going to S. Padre for four nights as soon as they get out! Then I am trying to plan activities to keep the girls busy. These children sure are expensive! We bought our season passes to Fiesta Texas (Six Flags), so we can go to a water park any day we want and ride some scary rides. This year Leanna JUST makes the height requirement to get on much more rides than last year! I signed Leanna and Emily up for a 8 week summer camp that is two days a week 9 to 2, which I hear is very fun. As for Alyssa, she is planning on doing a week long day camp with some friends, a week long tumbling camp, a week of vacation bible school with her sisters, hopefully theater camp for a week, and then cheerleading camp with her squad. Oh by the way, I just added up everything for cheerleading this year at the public school, it is costing $1,000! She did sell some candles that took $125 off. It's just crazy! Anyways, we are also working on getting Leanna to sleep in her bed all night. She has been sneaking down in the night to our bed, giving us all a rotten night sleep. So we are trying bribery but that hasn't been working so well. The last two nights, I just got my lazy self up and carried her back up. Maybe that will work. I have been awful not taking pictures. In fact, I took Leanna to the zoo yesterday and I forgot the camera! We had signed up for a program to feed the hippos. She really liked it. We got to go to the kitchen were they make all the animals food. The kids got to make their own bag of food for the hippos. Then we got to inside the hippo area and throw food up into their open mouths. I just felt so sad that Emily was at school because she would have loved it! Emily is SO into learning about animals, she remembers all kinds of facts about them. And I am like "really??? How do you know that??" Maybe all those episodes on animal planet?? Next blog, more updated pictures I promise.

2007-04-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, a lot has happended since my last post! The girls had a wonderful time on their fancy cruise. They came home and had to adjust togetting their own drinks and not being served all day! I was able to see the videos of them enjoying the pool on the ship and their performances in the talent show. Here are some pictures of us at the Alamo with my Mom. Bill is quite the camera man let me tell ya! Then we jumped right back into school. Emily was so not pleased! Alyssa had a VERY busy week with cheerleading tryouts. She did not get home untill 6 at night, then she and Alicia would practice for two to three hours every night! It was just exhausting watching! Then on Friday they had the actual tryouts in front of the judges. Alyssa even got up the nerve to do a round off back hand spring. Then later that night, they lined all the girls up and gave them envelopes which they opened in front of everyone on whether they made it or not. There were a lot of sad girls... Fortunately, Alyssa made it and here is a picture of the cake Aunt Noel made for her the next day.
Above, is a picture of Damien's favorite activity with the girls...eating ice cream and taking them to the park.
Now, we have a nasty virus in the house that has affected Leanna, Emily and myself. Leanna can't stop going to the bathroom and Emily has a fever with throw up. Fun, fun, fun!

Empty Nest

2007-03-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well the girls Alyssa & Emily are off cruising with Grandma and Bill. They sailed off from Galveston Texas and have gone to Belize, Cozumal, Roatan (Honduras), and Costa Maya. They are eating a lot too. I REALLY MISS THEM!! It has been a long week without them! Alyssa was emailing me a lot from the ship giving me updates but then apparently she just got to busy. Apparently she is practicing "24/7" on a talent show. Hopefully it will all be on film and I can see it tommorow!
Well, I thought Leanna would be lost and lonely without her sisters however, she is more like relishing in her only child status. She is loving all the individual attention! I can answer all her relentless questions such as "what is this?, where are we at?, what is this place?, tell me what this does."
Here are pictures of us at the zoo and playing in the driveway. We had a GREAT time at the zoo and Leanna seems to have a talent for remembering animal names. At one exhibit she ran over before me and screamed MOM it's an ARMIDILLO over there! She insisted on seeing the black bear as soon as we walked in. When we got home she listed off about 20 animals that we saw and then named some we didn't see and said "mom we didn't see those." After the zoo however she asked to eat at Wendy's and to go in and sit at a table. After we ordered our food and were walking to our table she went into FULL temper tantrum mode, complete with growling, yelling, kicking throwing herself on the floor, saying I WILL NOT STOP yelling! So I hastily put our food together and left with her screaming sideways of my arm. In the car she continued and then each shoe one after the other came flying at me. When that didn't work, she tried each hair bow that she successfully ripped off her head. Finally, by the time she got home she calmed down! Fortunately, these tantrums are getting fewer and fewer far between.
Well, I will update with cruise pictures after the girls get back!

Highlights of the visit...

2007-03-01T07:47:00.000-08:00

O

The Grandparents have gone back to the cold in Michigan. We had a good time over here. We kept very busy. We had a suprise 60th birthday party for Grandma at Chuckie Cheese. The kids obviously had a good time there. We also took a day trip to Gruene Texas where you can see Leanna and her buddy/cousin Nathan at the river and the local store. They are too cute together.
Next week, Grammy Linda and Bill come to visit at our house for a few days. Then they are going to take Alyssa and Emily on a week long cruize that sails out of Galveston Texas!

The Grandparents are In....

2007-02-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

O.K...things are busy around here. Grandma and Grandpa are in town! As you can see, a lot comes with them! They are staying with us for about a week and then with the Ales a week. And Damien's brother Paul comes next week too! So, the girls are getting some good quality grandparent time. The weather had been a bit cold for Texas standards. Here are some pictures of the girls posing at the mall. Grandma had them get all dressed up for a few fun pictures.
As for the latest with the girls....First Alyssa, she is really growing up. She is working hard to get her back flip before cheerleading try outs. Oh and I have become the least cool person on the planet and now I know I should never leave the house with out my hair straightened and I really should retire those old sweats before taking her somewhere!
Emily, would just like to sleep in every morning and go to a school were they just play and have fun. She is all about fun! She loves crafts. Oh and she is fun too!
Leanna, finally has the hang of using the potty 95% of the time. She is getting to the age I really enjoy. You can even reason with her a little now.
I have been working a little doing contract work. And Damien got a new car! Pictures to come!

First Lost Tooth!

2007-01-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

Emily is getting big - she lost her first tooth!

Iced in....

2007-01-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well we got two snow days in San Antonio (even though it was just really ice)! Adding them on to Martin Luther's birthday made for a nice long vacation! I think we stayed in our pajamas for three whole days. It was sooooooo nice! We kept the fire going, played lots of games, stayed up late, slept in, and had hot chocolate. The girls did venture outside to get some icicles and eat them. Alyssa of course insisted on wearing her flip flops. Now we are back to the routine....Leanna had not napped in about two weeks. However, today I found her fast asleep watching Dora at 11:30 and she didn't wake up untill 4:00! I guess she had some napping to catch up on! Oh here is a picture of Alyssa hiding under the blanket because her hair wasn't "done" for a picture!

more projects...

2007-01-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

Having a house sure does keep you busy! We worked on painting the living room (formally known as the dining room). We took down the dining light fixture and got a new one. Then we worked on painting an accent wall in the family room as you can see. It doesn't look so bright in person as it does in the picture. Here is Emily's new haircut and you can see the new light fixtures we put up in the kitchen. In other news, I have had a little work at the school districts lately which throws me off a little. Alyssa got another great report card with all A's. Emily also got a good report card and is well on her way with reading. And Leanna is doing quite well with the potty. We went to the dentist the other day. No cavaties. However, Alyssa is "dentally delayed," which means she still has about 6 baby teeth to lose. I guess if your going to be delayed in any area that would be a good area. Looks like she won't need any braces - yeah! Emily must be growing up because she has a LOOSE TOOTH!!! I can hardly believe it. Leanna was examined too and the dentist had to agree she is quite fiesty! I'm surprised he still has any fingers. That's all for now!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all! The kids are back to school :( but it is kinda nice to back to a routine. Even Leanna went to preschool yesterday. I thought she might cry because we had such a long break but she didn't! I suppose crying for the first two and a half months got it all out of her system. In fact when I asked her how her morning was she said "I don't cry at school, I am happy at school!" Yeah finally! She actually has been quite fiesty at home lately. Very full of herself and acting independant. She even wants to walk herself up and climb into her crib by herself at nap time. The other morning, I woke up to her eating cold pancakes from the fridge in the living room. Her and Emily just laugh around the house all the time making poop jokes. It is kinda cute. O.k. I added some old pics this time. Emily and Leanna got haircuts. You can see Leanna's but I still need to capture Emily.
Happy Birthday Damien! More pics to follow since we didn't get to have the cake yet. Unfortunately, he ended up working really late. Thank You Ales for keeping the girls!

Christmas

2006-12-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

We had a very nice Christmas! The girls got about everything they wanted. And it is nice having them home from school. We have been busy with gingerbread houses, cookies, and crafts. "Alyssa" also dog sat for two dogs. The puppy stayed at our house over night. We are convinced now that we really don't have the time or energy for a dog (even a good one!). We also celebrated my 32nd birthday! Earlier in the month we celebrated Crickets birthday too.

It's Almost Christmas

2006-12-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

The girls are really getting excited for Christmas! Espically Emily! Emily and Alyssa both had Christmas concerts at school. Emily will play an angel and Alyssa will be the lead shepard at the Christmas mass at church. Alyssa wanted to back out but we told her she is the most experienced for the job since we used to have so much sheep in our back yard in Germany. She thinks we are so funny (ha)! No really Alyssa has been acting more and more like a teenager. Emily is realy looking forward to having a Christmas break and doing crafts. Her favorite channel on T.V. lately has been Discovery Health. She loves to watch surgies etc. Damien did leave her watching it while putting Leanna to bed and when he came down she had a very intersting story about what happened to a prisioner and what he had done to himself. Emily has also really been into reading about reptiles, mammals and the earth lately. That is all she wants to read at night - she calls them "learning books." Leanna's favorite show lately is Go Diego Go. She also is very interested in animals and learning what to call them. She also has quite an imagination. She finally stopped crying when I take her to school. Phew.
Here is a picture of what happend to Damien's car after he drove under a bridge that was falling apart. Now he needs to get a new sun roof! Ugh!

Thank You

2006-11-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

Thank You all for the lovely comments. They really helped Alyssa feel better about her glasses!!
Emily had a birthday party at a snake farm. She has no fear of snakes.
We had a really good Thanksgiving at our house with the Ales (Damien's sister and family), and neighbors. All the food turned out delicious. However we ate leftovers all weekend for like every meal and I do not even want to think about the food anymore! Damien had the week off and it was very relaxing...We went to the park many times. Here you can see the girls going down head first together. Leanna took a little fall at the park and said really loud "I fell down, now I need to go to the hospital!!" We assured her she was fine. But it is so nice wearing flip flops in the end of November.
Today I got bite by my very first scorpion. OUCH!!! I was putting our Christmas wreath up when the thing bite me. It has been over five hours and the things still tingles and hurts!

"The world is a better place!"

2006-11-20T07:34:00.000-08:00

That is what Alyssa said when she got her new glasses...We were watching T.V. the other day when I realized that she couldn't read the digital clock. And then she informed me that she couldn't read the board at school! So, off to the eye doctor! It was a little traumatic for her but these are the stylish frames she ended up with. We got two for the about the same price as one. We are taking a poll, do we like glasses #1 or #2 better????

A trip to Michigan...

2006-11-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry Sorry Sorry to everyone I didn't see! And that really does mean everyone! Just came for a long weekend for my Grandpa Ray's funeral. So, I spent all my time with just family. I did get to spend a short amount of time with my new brother and sister, Zach and Choloe. Here they are with their big sis. I also saw my niece Gracie and many cousins. Here some are! I just wish I had had more time to visit everyone... Damien stayed home with the kids and everyone survived! Actually, he did a really good job! Although, when I told Leanna it was time to go home yesterday she said "home! YEAH time for ice cream!" HMMMMM.... that hasn't happend before : )

Halloween...

2006-11-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Well the girls love Halloween! Leanna and Emily both had Halloween parades and parties at school. Damien and I went to an adult Halloween party at Dave and Busters and brought along Alyssa and her friend. And of course we were all able to Karoke! Then went to our neighbors for a neighborhood party. Then of course we went Trick or Treating on Tuesday with our cousins Nolan and Nathan (the batman boys). So a very busy Halloween! Leanna couldn't get enough of trick or teating or eating candy all day and night. I finally had to put it all away. Alyssa got quite the loot as she made it her mission to get as much candy in one night as humanly possible.

Pumpkin Patching!

2006-10-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

So, we got a nice cool day to go drive out to the Texas pumpkin patch. I think the temp. was in the 70's! Perfect.

Turns out the pumpkin patch we went to was on a cattle ranch and they don't grow pumpkins.

But they did have a 7 acre maze with some kind of grass since corn couldn't grow well there.

Alyssa took her friend Alicia. I took LOTS of pictures.

This week we stayed home alot. Emily and Leanna had a cold that really wiped them out. Emily stayed home two days and then Leanna started a fever. So we just laid around all week which was kinda nice. So the pumpkin patch was our big venture out and about!

Home improving....

2006-10-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally picked some curtains after much indecision. Here they are. Just need to pick some tie backs and who knows how LONG that will take me!
We spent all last weekend painting Emily's room. We ended up doing the walls yellow and the ceiling and sink area light blue. She is really into the "Princess" theme. Perhaps Santa will bring her some princess curtains to finish off the look? You can kinda see where Cricket made her a crown above her bed - it says "Princess Emily." Then Emily had alot of fun putting up Princess stickers all over her walls too.
I was walking around doing lots of fun things the last few days with a dead camera so no good pictures of the girls. Sorry! Since my last post, we went to the children's museum after school one day. I even got Alyssa 45 min. from school early. Since I have never done that spontaneously she thought for sure something terrible happended when they told to pack up and go home! We also did a spooky Halloween day at Sea World. Leanna has been imagining flamingos in her bed at night and Sea World had plenty of real flamingos, stuffed flamingos, and people walking around in flamingo costumes. Imagine that! They also had some scary pirates and costumes that were a little scary. That's it for now!

Camping is not for everyone....

2006-10-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

One night of camping couldn't be that bad..right?? That is what I told myself before we left. My main concerns were bugs, bathrooms, and Leanna sleeping in a tent. Fortunately the mosquites were not out and the bathrooms were clean. But we had to watch out for fire ants and keep the swarms of flies from our food. Emily made some friends her age and we had good company (people from Damien's work). But the worst part was sleeping. Or the lack of sleeping. First, it was too noisy untill about 1:30am for me to sleep (radio, talking etc.) Then Leanna and Emily were up from 1:30 untill 5:00am! Emily just said she couldn't sleep and Leanna was just confused. Then we were all up at 7:30 in the morning. I just really don't get the camping thing. Although, Alyssa and Emily said they really had fun. The scenery was nice but I think we could have just gone for the day and skipped all the packing, unpacking and now laundry!

Can't turn your back.....

2006-09-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Can't turn your back for even a minute on these little devils!!!! Unfortunately, I did not buy the washable markers because the other one's were on sale! They both needed a VERY LONG soak in the tub and a very rigorous scrub! And I still couldn't get it completely off. To top it off the next day they both had picture day at school!!!

Just the latest...

2006-09-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the family to the horse races. That was our first time! Here the girls are on a pony ride! We lost five dollars betting so we will have to go back again and try to win something! A real jockey came over to talk to us after a race. We tried to get him to take a picture with the kids but only Emily was brave enough. Leanna ran away screaming - literally. Ran away. Damien had to go chase her down!

After Alyssa was voted in for student council, she deceided to run for school secretary. So of course she comes home from school yesterday saying that she "HAS to go to Wallmart" for campain materials such as posterboard etc. I am like "you crazy" you can't make buttons and posters and go shopping and type your speech and do your homework all in one night. Just forget aboout it! Who needs to be secretary anyways?? But the girl is very persistant and next thing you know our house is over run by the campaign. She had four friends over, her aunt, neighbors, and me all working for HER! Paper, markers, glue, streamers, pins everywhere! I guess she will get an A for effort even if she doesn't win...

Emily has a new hairdo. She does braids in at night so she has curly hair in the morning! Yesterday, I was taking Leanna to the zoo with my neighbor after we dropped Emily and Hayden at school. I was trying to keep it somewhat quiet however, Leanna's friend keeps telling Emily she is going to the zoo in the car. Emily from all the way in the back of the van says "Mommy is Leanna going to the zoo??" I said "yes." She says with her voice cracking "by herself??" (meaning without me??) I said "yes." She says, with big silent tears running down her face and really quiet "but you know that I love the zoo." Poor thing! But she is learning A LOT!
In other news, since people have been asking about Leanna. She is doing really good and is eating everything now and gained all her weight back. She still is a little traumatized. She is very fearful and cautious at the park now. She made Damien hold her on the play equiment the other day but kept saying "Daddy don't fall, Daddy don't fall" !!! She also brought the accident up out of the blue the other day at lunch. She said "Mommy goes to the park with me. I cry at the park." I said "why?" She said "I fall and break at the park." I said yes but we took you to the hospital to get you better. She says "mommy lays down with me at the hospital, it goes beep beep beep and the doctor turns it off, they poke me and give me shots." So she remembers...
Also, we have straightened out most of the bills that they were not covering. We still have to pay a lot but not as much as they tried to get us to pay. That's it for now!

Housewife!

2006-09-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well my part time position that I had last year was just temporary because they did not have enough full time people. (They only hire full time people.) So, this year they didn't need me. I will still probably get some sporadic contract testing but nothing steady. So, I am officially a housewife for now! Which is totally fine with me because I don't know how I ever fit in work last year! There just seems to be an endless list of things to do and places to go and laundry to do! Oh and cooking and cleaning and making lunches and picking up and dropping off. Oh and still more decorating!
Here is Leanna on her second day of Kids Day Out. She goes two mornings a week from 9 to 12. Barely enough time for me to run home and vacuum, wash the floors and clean the bathrooms! Life of a housewife!

Back to school and Alyssa's 11th b-day!

2006-08-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Well back to the school routine! But now there are two! Emily had a good first week at school but thinks it is "boring." She thought it would be more like her preschool class with lots of play time. But now that she is in her second week she is getting used to it. Alyssa likes her teachers this year and was glad to get back to school. Alyssa had a sleepover birthday party on Friday - she turned 11! It was a good night to have it because all the girls were tired from their first week of school : )! Her present from us was to have her room painted. She picked pink and purple. We even managed to do a fancy faux. She took this goofy picture but you can kinda see what it looks like.

Here you have it...August!

2006-08-08T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hey! We have still been busy around here. Alyssa ran a 5K race with Damien a few weeks ago. She ran the whole way and did not come near to last! In fact, Damien said that she decided to sprint the last block and was going so fast that he was secretly hoping that she would slow down so that he could keep up and not get beat by a 10 year old! Here she is crossing the finish line. Alyssa has also started to do some cheerleading which she really likes.
We also were able to have my sister Lisa and baby Gracie come visit us for a few days. Gracie is growing up so fast. So fast in fact she is catching up with Leanna! We were able to do our usual outings like the zoo and Sea World.
Leanna is only 22 pounds. She is still not eating like she used to. I tried giving her the chocolate pediasure yesterday which she promptly told me in her exact words "chocolate milk is disgusting and I do NOT like it." She is the most verbal 2 year old I have ever had. And everything lately had been "No Way Mommy" or "I DO IT". She knows most of her colors and counts "1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10" and honestly I don't try and teach her a thing! She also is using the potty at home with only a handful of accidents. I have yet to be brave enough to take her out in public though without a diaper. But that is my next step! In bad news...the insurance company is not paying our medical bills! They are saying we are responsible for around 11k of them! The bills for the doctor that performed the two surgeries were for about 10k and they are only agreeing to pay only 15% of that! We have a max amount we should have to pay (3400) but they say that the max does not apply to expenses that go above the "allowable"!! Then we have the hospital bills and radiology bills on top of that! They claim that since he was an "out of network" doctor, he does not have to charge a contracted rate even though there was NO in network oral surgeons for us to see. So…so much for having medical insurance!
Anyways, Emily is still just as happy as ever. Here she is catching butterflies (we have had an explosion of them) in our front yard. She is excited to start kindergarten NEXT WEEK! (I am not and I am sure Leanna is going to miss her during the day). I am afraid she might be burnt out before school starts because she wants to do nothing but the workbooks I bought her. I took her out for just a day with Mommy the other day, which she said was the "best day of her life!" We spent the morning at Chuckie Cheese playing games and won over 300 tickets that she was able to get the make-up kit she has wanted for the last year but never had near enough tickets for. Then we had lunch (she picked Chick-fil-A) and went to buy some new school clothes. Well we never went shopping for her with just the two of us and she just kept going around the store saying what her “style” was and trying everything on. It was very cute. Well I will tell you all how back to school goes next week!

Summer Days...

2006-07-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well so sorry for the delay in my blogging! We had a good visit with Grandma here in San Antonio. We were able to do lots of fun things like go to the Children's Musuem, Sea World, and the zoo. It was nice to have someone help around here while we did doctor appointments and getting Leanna to recover. Thank you Grandma! Leanna is doing much better. She has gained some of her weight back. She can eat most foods unless it is too hard or crunchy. She is still not quite back to herself. She has been more clingy and scared of things than she was before the accident. She did have a little birthday celebration at her Aunt Noel's house with Grandma and she had a wonderful Dora cake. She was so happy to have her very own birthday cake and have everyone sing to her! She is really making us laugh with everything that she says now. She can basically say everything now and is using sentences. She takes off her own diaper after she goes, puts it in the garbage, wipes herself, and asks for a new diaper. So very soon I am going to do away with diapers during waking hours!
Emily has been very busy with her social calendar. She did a cooking class all last week in the morning at her old preschool and playing with her friends in the afternoon. One of her favorite friends is Hayden. Here are they are together with their "family." Yes, I am a proud grandparent to a baby girl named Banana. And they have a pet pony also. Banana goes back and forth between our house and Hayden's house. Since Hayden has gone on vacation this week, Emily has had to get together with some other friends from preschool and the neighborhood.

Alyssa has been watching too much T.V., helping with the kids at the house, and hanging out with her favorite friend Alicia every day! Oh I have to add that she has quite a pet sitting business! She is very motivated despite my complete lack of encouragement!! She has taken care of three bunnies, three cats, and a dog (Maggie) that stayed at our house. Maggie was fun to have around (we also had him last year) and the girls were sad to see him go. But you should have seen how full my vacuum was after he left!
This week both Emily and Alyssa are doing Vacation Bible School in the morning. Next year all three girls will be eligible to go!! Alyssa thought it might be boring but is having fun. I also got them some work books to work on. Emily seems to enjoy doing the work books but Alyssa not so much espically since I just got her a math book!

Getting back to normal

2006-07-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

We went in for surgery on Thursday night and Leanna had her wires removed. She was not happy to be back at the hospital and she couldn't drink anything for six hours before (her surgery was at 6 p.m.) and so I had to tell her no to juice and food. Saying no for juice or food to a starving baby is NOT easy. When they weighed her she had lost four pounds in one week. However, since we have had her home she has been eating and drinking very well. Although she can not chew she can manage to get much more food down. For breakfast today she had two over easy eggs and fruit (chopped up really well). So I think that the weight will come back on quickly. It is still hard to tell how well her jaw was put back together. Her bottom teeth are still not quite back in the same place as before. I was able to brush them though which was much needed! And she is much happier. She is playing and finally slept through the night last night for the first time since the accident. So hopefully this week we will do some fun things and get some good pictures!

Back at home....

2006-06-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

We were discharged from the hospital on Sunday. Here is Leanna on her last day at the hospital. She looks much better in this picture than she had looked. Since we have been home we have been going to doctor appointments and trying to keep her drinking. She will hardly eat anything and you can tell that she has lost weight. When her pain medicine starts to wear off she does point to her mouth and say "hurt me." She is not sleeping so well either. However, yesterday night we did go to the Ales for dinner and she cheered up a bit. She actually was smiling and laughing. Grandma Sharon has come in to help too. Selina had to leave Monday from Dallas. We were sad to see her go! Grandma drove the girls up. Tommorow night Leanna will have a surgery to remove the wires in her mouth at the hospital. Hopefully she will not have to spend the night there. I am really really tired!

Getting better....

2006-06-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Leanna is doing much better. She does not seem to be in as much pain. She slept pretty good last night except for pulling out her IV and having to have a new one put in which took three very long attempts. She no longer has the IV for fluids and is drinking and eating some soft food on her own. Therefore, the doctor said she can go home tommorow. She will be become unwired on Thursday. However, he said it may be up to six months before she has normal function of her jaw and will need soft food for awhile. Selina is leaving from Dallas on Monday. Damien went to take all the girls to Sea World today for her last full day here in San Antonio. We will be sad to see her go! More later!!

Surgery

2006-06-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

The doctor said that the surgery went very well. He said he was able to get her jaw back into position and line up her teeth properly. He doesn't how the work affected the two bone bends on her sides of her jaw. He said that she should be sleeping hard after the surgery due to the medication. However when we went to get her she was fairly alert. It was a little shocking to see how much more swollen her face got and that she was bleeding all over again. I was worried that she would be swollowing all the blood again and would throw up with her mouth wired closed. She was deathly afraid of the sucker that would suck it out. But when I held her really tight and got it in there she was okay untill she needed it done again. I think she was angry about her mouth being closed. She kept shaking her head no no no no and pointing to her mouth and going "grrrrr." The doctor said most kids won't even try to talk with their mouth wired shut. But she started asking for a popsicle and a drink right away. They chopped one up for her but she just held it tightly in her hands but never tried to get it in her mouth (and did NOT want anyone to help her). They are giving her Demeral, Zofran for nausea, Morfien every two hours, and Tylenol with Codeine. Since I hadn't slept in two nights and the girls needed someone home, I slept at home and Damien stayed with Leanna. It was very hard leaving her though. Looking at her is probably the saddest thing ever.

Not a happy birthday....

2006-06-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

Today is Leanna's second birthday. But no cake or presents for her...She will be having surgery at 4 in the afternoon. They will be putting a plate in her lower jaw and wiring her mouth shut. She has one nasty fracture in front and the bones are bent on the sides. She is in a lot of pain now and has some more to go. The doctor said the injury like she has at her age is virtually unheard of and can not predict what the outcome will be. She really isn't sleeping much. I am trying to get the older girls things to do and places to go while we are at the hospital. We just feel terrible for Leanna!

A bad accident

2006-06-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

Poor Leanna. Yesterday we went to the park to play after dinner. Damien was holding Leanna and slipped and fell. Leanna's chin landed on a balance beam. Blood was everywhere and she was screaming. We took her straight to the emergency room. Her lower teeth are all still there but are in a strange shape. Zig Zag. After X-Rays they thought she fractured her jaw in two places. The oral surgeon they called told them to send us home for the night and come in the morning. We saw the oral surgeon this morning who said (without looking or seeing any X-rays) that he doubted she had any fractures because it is so difficult to fracture a jaw of a child that age. We are going in later this afternoon for a CT scan to determine exactly what happended. Meanwhile she can hardly sleep, both sides of her face or swollen, and is basically miserable. She hasn't eaten anything since last night, which she ended up throwing up anyways because she swallowed SO MUCH blood. We won't know anything about the CT scan untill tommorow. I will post again then.

Happy Birthday Emily!! 5!!!!

2006-06-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hello again! Emily had a very fun pool party for her fifth birthday! No one has ever met a child that loves her birthday so much. All day she just kept saying how much she loved loved loved her birthday. She never even wanted to go to sleep. The night before her birthday however, Emily complained that she has been waiting SO LONG for her birthday and every one else had theirs before hers! Now she has to wait one more year..As you can see her Aunt Noel made her a lovely princess cake. She also got a great princess pinata from Mexico that the kids hit untill all the candy and toys came out.
Also, we have had MAJOR computer problems so I was unable to blog in a timely manner. It looks like we lost some pictures from this year and perhaps some video. I also probably lost all but one of my psych reports I wrote this year. I usually use my old ones to help write my new ones. I will just have to track down my hard copies. Good lesson in backing things up!

Anyways after our trip to South Padre, I took Alyssa and Selina shopping at the mall Sat. night and the girls bought a few things. Then Sunday we went on my brother-in-laws (Gregg's) boat. We all tubed and some of us wake boarded. That was fun too! Then for many days we just have been swimming and swimming!
.

On Friday we went to Six Flags over Texas with Noel, Gregg, and my neighbors. We spent 9 hours there. We did most of the water park and then rode some rides. We watched a dancing show and the girls wanted a picture with the dancing girls. I don't know what I was thinking but the big girls talked me into riding the crazy upside down really fast roller coaster and I felt really sick for quite awhile after that!

Today, Emily had her dance recital downtown. It was really cute. Here is a picture with her dress and make-up on.
Then we went to the mall downtown, the Alamo, the riverwalk, and then ate at the Rain Forest Cafe. Selina thought that was pretty cool with all the animals etc.
Leanna had no nap all day and Emily has been short on sleep so they went straight to bed. So then the girls spent a few hours next door swimming some more!! What a life!!

More fun in South Padre

2006-06-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

We are still having fun on our vacation! We all just love boogie boarding!! Well, except for Emily and Leanna who really don't want much to do with going into the ocean. I think we may want to think about going professional. Although, I have yet to get a good picture of us doing this activity. We also tried out a dolphin watch boat ride. However, there were not that many dolphins and I unfortunately felt sea sick. But everyone else seemed to have fun. Yesterday, we went into Mexico because Damien just HAD to go! There are the girls on the bus. We did some shopping and ate at the only safe looking place which was actually quite good and fancy (had a piano player and that is always fancy!). Salina was very disturbed by what we call french fries. We had those thick country fries with seasoning on top and she just kept saying that they were not french fries but potatoes. You can see her with her french fry in the picture. The town though was very poor and depressing and the people were just begging for our money.
We are also trying to play some tennis. Tommorow we are going to snorkel. Damien insists that I won't get sick because we will be on the bay. I hope he's right! We leave Saturday.......

2006-05-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

Alyssa and I made it to Dallas. We had fun going to Chiles, the mall and a movie. Then we got Salina! We then drove to South Padre and got in at about 1am. Leanna was really out of sorts and was scared to go to sleep so she slept on Damien all night. Salina had quite a long day of traveling but never complained. We like our place here on the beach. Alyssa and Salina have being going out in the ocean on their boggie boards. Emily and Leanna really enjoy the sand more than anything. I took a very long nap with Leanna. I also was able to take Salina and Alyssa to Wal-Mart. The girls got flip flops and sunglasses.

Off we go....

2006-05-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

Alyssa and I are taking a road trip to Dallas to pick up Salina. We are spending the night in Dallas. Then on Sat. we will go straight to South Padre Island.
This was another busy week. I finished my reports for work. Alyssa had her last week of school. She did awesome in the talent show! We went to her award ceremony were she got an award for all A's all year and she was one of two who won the big Director music award for giving "200%" in choir.
Emily graduated from Preschool. She was able to sit up front and the teacher talked about Emily. She said Emily wants to be a doctor, dolphin trainer, or singer when she grows up. Her favorite shape is a heart because it reminds her of how much she loves her Mommy!
Leanna is working hard on her little potty too. She is very interested in the potty and DOES NOT want to wear diapers.
I will have pictures as soon as we are back from our trip!!!

Busy, Busy

2006-05-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

Hello! We have been very busy lately! First we had the Au's come and that was really fun! Their boys were really sweet as you can see them here. Here is Lisa and I with our crabby babies. We did a lot like Sea World and the river walk. We actually went to the river walk without the kids which turned out really well. It was sad to see them go though!

I have been busy with the work. It is the rush at the end of the school year but I think I finally have a handle on it. Just two more reports to write and I am through for the summer!! Then we go to South Padre Island for the week!!

Damien just put in a new red maple tree in our front yard. He tried to dig the whole with a pic axe and a shovel but hit a big huge gigantic rock. So...he rented a big jack hammar and was then able to plant the tree. Here is a picture of Alyssa in front of the tree. Alyssa made the final cut for the school talent show. Out of 170 acts 30 were picked. Go Alyssa! She is going to sing with her friend Catherine "Jesus take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. I had no idea she even knew any country songs! So that will be next Tuesday.

Emily has turned into quite a fish at the pool. She can nearly swim the length of the pool by herself and loves being under water. It is amazing how quickly she learned to swim. I managed a big bow in Leanna's hair yesterday to match her BIG personality. (I don't have a picture though.) Lately her favorite activity is to push the stroller around the house with her baby.

Damien and I had our 6th wedding aniversary on May 12th! This is one of my gifts!

Projects...

2006-04-30T07:22:00.001-07:00

Trying to get the girls to work together and help clean up aroundthe house! Here they are doing the dishes....
We are working on a few projects outside in the front yard. We made two new flower beds to cover up the ugly electrical box and the cable thing. Here is what we have started....

Next weekend we have friends from Indiana coming (Jeff and Lisa Au with their two boys Will and Zachary). We lived together in Georgia and in Germany. We are planning a trip to Sea World and of course the riverwalk. We are also making plans for Alyssa's friend Salina to come visit from Germany. We are thinking she will come near the end of May and stay about a month. Leanna seems to be outgrowing her day time nap allready! Some days she just stays awake in bed for over an hour without going to sleep and on the days she does sleep she can't fall asleep at night at a reasonable hour!!! However, she does sleep untill about 9:30 in the morning lately. Emily is allready eagerly planning her 5th birthday party. She keeps revising her invite list and the location. Alyssa is very busy with her social life with sleepovers, swiming, movies and shopping.

Happy Easter!!!

2006-04-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!! We spent Saturday at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Then Sat. night at a neighbors for another hunt and dinner. Our bunny at the house hid 85 plastic filled eggs last night...Leanna was really into finding the eggs! It was our first Easter at our new house. Alyssa got new purple t-shirt sheets, Emily got a My Little Pony bath toy, and Leanna got a Dora bath toy. She said "Dora!" They all got a new outfit and a stuffed bunny! Emily said she never wants Easter to end. I made egg salad!
In other news, our new couch came! Here it is!

company

2006-04-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

So we had company all week. Damien's brother Pierre came with Michelle, Savana, and P.J. We had lots of fun. Here we are at the zoo. Just missing Alyssa who was at school.

Anyways the Brunets were busy seeing the Alamo, zoo, and they went to the drive thru Safari.

We also fit in lots of swimming!! Cricket my next door neighbor has a brand new pool with a slide that we got to try out.

After the company left, Alyssa and I worked hard on "our" Ohio project for school. We also found out that Leanna is allergic to strawberries, Emily is probably allergic to shellfish, and Alyssa is going nuts with seasonal allergies. Not good!!

Decorating......

2006-04-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

We have lots of space not enough furniture! So we are searching for a sectional for our family room. The one we are thinking of now is a red sectional in microfiber. This is the space we are working with. The long part of the sectional would be up against the windows and the short part the area left of the windows. Any suggestions for curtains???
Pierre and Michelle Brunet are coming today with Savanna and P.J. They are going to stay a week. Emily has THREE birthday parties this weekend!! Alyssa needs to work on a school state project - she has to do Ohio. Leanna is finally getting some hair and I even managed a pony tail yesterday!

Day 1 Introduction

2006-03-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone! Just thought I would start a blog to keep updated pictures and events of our family. I am just getting the hang of it and it is seems really cool. I will try to update it often! Anyways, the new news with us is that I am just recovering from an incisional hernia repair but am pretty much back to normal, Damien got a promotion!, Alyssa made the A honor roll!, Emily started to play soccor, and Leanna is starting to say LOTs of things and had her first time out yesterday (for hitting!).

This is Damien in Oct.......

Me and Alyssa (10) at a park in Austin!

Emily (4 years old) at the zoo.

Leanna (21 months) at Sea World

Please let us know what you think of the new blog! Or what I could add to make it more interesting......

Hit Counter