EmmaLee's 3rd Birthday Portraits

Give a Day-Get a Day

We are on the mailing list for Disneyland info and got this email a few weeks ago explaining Disney's new "Give a Day-Get a Day" promotion.
It said: Life gives us so many feel-good reasons to celebrate: birthdays, anniversaries, reunions and beyond. But this year, Disney Parks is celebrating a new reason—and that's the good things we do for each other. Basically the gist is: give one day of volunteer service-and disney sends you a days ticket to Disneyland! The ticket can be used at ANY time during the next year-no black outs, no weird off days or off hours, etc. no stipulations period! Too cool! So I signed Mike & I up to help Habitat for Humanity here in Ellensburg. 

It seemed silly for us to hire a babysitter for both our kiddos for 8+ hours and pay THEM just so that WE could go volunteer, so Mike stayed home with the kids and I went alone this Saturday-and he'll volunteer next Saturday.

Well, there I was at 8am in the rain and all- having NOT THE FIRST CLUE of anything related to the construction of ANYTHING-let alone someone's house! Yikes. But never you fear-I wasn't alone. :) Another elementary school teacher here in town had brought her family to work there for the disney promo too! So at least I had company with my lack of expertise! Luckily I knew one of the job site managers and he quickly put the 2 of us to work.

We sided the ENTIRE outside of the house with a styrofoam underlayment material (to get the house ready for siding to be applied), then we went inside for instructions from the electrician on site. He had us drilling 1 1/2 inch holes through EVERY BLESSED stud with this GIANT 12 inch long drill bit!  When that was finished we fished all different kinds of wiring through the holes and up into the trusses....whew! It was definitely different work than what I am used to, but I learned SO much and spent my day out in the fresh air, among enjoyable company-laughing at our lack of construction skills, and sinking practically knee deep in glorious mud!

While there we unknowingly bumped into and started "girl talking" with the soon to be occupant of the home. She is a single mom with 3 kids ages 8-12! She showed us her binder full of paint swatches and landscape design ideas, etc.-so fun! Obviously she's VERY excited about this project! When she found out I was a "Martone", she quickly shook my hand and thanked me for coming to help. She was really excited to meet me and told me all about how her daughter LOVES Mike because he was her FAVORITE teacher! The teacher lady I had been working with recognized my name at the same time and called her daughter over in excitement too-apparently he was also HER daughters favorite teacher back in 7th grade too! So of course I was instantly proud of my Poobee! I hear this a lot about him-so 2 thumbs up for Mike today! (We'll just have to see how much they love his CONSTRUCTION skills next weekend! he he he!)

I will most certainly have to go again-what a great opportunity to serve people you don't even know!

I can tell you how to get to: SESAME STREET!!!

We have a POOL!

Didn't you know? Just kidding! Our kids THINK it is a pool by the way they "swim" in our bathtub-the tidal wave sized "splashes" that come spraying out, and the almost half hour spent together giggling with their  water toys etc. but, alas-it is just a regular ol' tub....bummer huh? Hey-these 2 don't think so:

Yo Ho Yo Ho-A Big Boy Bed for ME!

Mr. Man, just like his sister at this age, has made a decision for us-he can no longer use his crib. He climbs out EVERY time. His speed in catapulting his way over the top of it is like a flash of lightning. You put him to bed and 30 seconds later he is greeting you at the couch with a mischievous little grin on his face. It has finally come down to it-Bryce is now in a big boy bed. We lay with him till he falls asleep and then quickly sneak outta there! I still need to get guard rails for both sides of the bed, but if (heaven forbid) he DID roll off, the ground is only 10 inches away. lol! They grow up too fast. He's my last baby-I wanted him to stay that way for a while longer. What happened? He was only 18 months old the last time I checked-now he thinks he's old enough for this?

Too Sleepy to Care

Miss Brinkley sleeps on our bed with us every night. She usually starts in between us, gets loved on for a few minutes, then she moves herself to the end of the bed. (She is probably most fond of this spot because it is also the place she bonded with and chose to "teeth" on as a puppy-as you can clearly see in the picture-but that's an unpleasant story for a later date!)
On a rare occasion, Peyton will chose to join us-normally he is a hot sleeper and wants to spread out with more room than the 3 of us will share with him on a queen sized bed. Last night was one of those nights, he fell asleep in the living room and in the middle of the night decided to come in bed with us. He walked in with his eyes shut (literally) and jumped up on the bed making himself instantly cozy. Too bad for Brinkely I guess-because when I reached over for my camera, this is what I caught....

Poor thing-her head is now in his crotch, one giant rough padded paw in her face and another heavy leg on her neck! I kept whispering loudly "Peyton-get off of her! Peyton....move!"

Then this is the look I got....kinda like he's saying "I'm just too tired to care" and I guess Brinkley was too-because that's how we all stayed for the next 6 hours :)

Un-stoppable Em!

For the past 4 months or so, Emma has really been into those My First Look & Find books-where they display a list down one side of the items you are supposed to "hunt" for in the scene. My mom sent both kids a couple of these books about a year ago-one was Mickey for Bryce and one was Disney Princess for Em . They are board books (thank heaven) because they have been very loved. Last year for Em's birthday Grandma & Papa got her another one-NEMO-with a matching puzzle!

The puzzle has always been a hit-but the books REALLY became new favorites as of late. Em will be found on many occasions, sitting in her room or on the couch with a stack of these books, just reading away. One day Mike and I wondered if she really knew what she was doing or if she was just mimicking what she saw us do when we read. So we sat with her one say and asked her to "read" to us...it was AMAZING! She would point to a picture on the list and say "Ok-now we need to find this one...where is it?" And then she'd find it-in a snap! Now of course, she has them all memorized (so her brother got her a couple more for her birthday-shhhhhh).

This all brought me to thinking though-maybe she can do more????? Is she begging me for some school type stuff? The teacher in me said "duh"-so I pulled out the workbooks I usually send home with my preschoolers and put one in a "special" binder for Em. She was THRILLED and asked if she could put it in a cubby when she was done! Even though she doesn't have one-I said, "Of course baby" :)
So I sat down and had her write an "E" on the top of the page with me, and showed her the first activity while explaining the directions. I hadn't even got to the point where I showed her an example when she looked at me like "yeah, yeah Mom-I got it" and she took a crayon and FLEW through about 8 pages~WTH??? She was squealing with delight as the pages turned and she continued to search for the "hidden objects".

(this is typical Em...Tinkerbell on one page-and Wolverine on the other! lol)

Part of it was that she was sitting at the preschool table in my classroom, and part of it was the excitement of getting a sticker after she completed each page (because that's what she sees the preschoolers earn each day)-but the other fun was that it was just like her reading books, but she got to COLOR it this time! Awww....my little Pre-reader is well on her way at almost 3 years old.

The other thing she loves is to pull out (as she would say)"E for Emma" everywhere we go. She loves to read environmental print all over town: on people's sweatshirts, fire extinguishers, fast food signs, etc. She is un-stoppable! This kid has a major thirst for knowledge-my baby is growing up so fast. The best part is that at this point in the game, all her motivation is internal (which I just LOVE)-she figures something out for herself and SHE says "Oh wow Mom-see???? I'm so proud of you!" I do tell her that a lot-you can never hear it too much-because one day, I hope she'll fall back on that same motivator-making her parents Proud of Her.

The Story of Us

This is the title of my new favorite movie. It's not for everyone I guess, (as it IS rated R) but Mike and I rented it the other night for on of our "at home" date nights. Both of us loved it-and could totally relate to a lot of it...in an odd way. Anyhow-I love the soundtrack all by Eric Clapton. Our first dance song from our wedding is even in it too! It tugged at our heartstrings (even Mikes). Needless to say, I've watched it almost everyday for the past 5 days-being reminded each time to appreciate my husband and my marriage like I should.

Chores are done-now it's time to Dance!

Emma has recently appointed herself as the dishwasher utensils "putter awayer"...she loves to help and though it annoys me greatly to have her at my heels when I am loading and unloading the dishes, she's been FANTASTIC since she discovered "chores". I take out all the knives, and hand the basket of utensils to her. She thinks it's great (so can someone remind her of this when she's a teenager????) She merrily puts away all her plastic spoons, etc. and then moves on to the drawer  for the sippy cup lids and Bryce's ba-ba's. It's fun to watch her clap for herself when the task is complete! I give her a treat for her "hard" work and she runs to tell brother what a good job she did. I love this kid!

Today when she finished her "chores" she decided she earned the treat of dancing with her brother-...ok-whatever floats your boat??? So here they are:

Cake Decorator Extraordinaire!

My wanted new title....
I went to Michaels a few weeks ago and picked out supplies for my new hobby-cake decorating! I have NO CLUE what I am doing with the tools-I only know that I've always wanted to try it, but my apprehension has pulled me back all this time.
Well-I've been practicing and practicing for Em's upcoming birthday. She's having a Pirate/Tinkerbell party, so I get the fun job of making a treasure chest cake. With my personality-not just any cake will do! This cake needs to be big enough to make a statement, but small enough to be her personal cake. It needs to be exploding with "treasures"-some edible and some not...but most of all-it needs to LOOK like a treasure chest...
I've been stupid and started watching Ace of Cakes on HGTV, which only makes me more nervous-duh, I'll NEVER amount to that on the first go round, but I do have a new appreciation for the show :)

(ummm....yeah-that is a CAKE they made of Yankee Stadium...)

(oh-and that is another one of their CAKE masterpieces- a replica of my very camera. See what I mean about intimidating??)

I downloaded a recipe for fondant and practiced making Tinkerbell shoes as toppers for some of the cupcakes from this super cute idea I found....I have to say I didn't do too bad with my test run! I'll post the end product when Em's party rolls around

Tragedy

Seems that "Jailbird Woody" decided to go out in the snow all by himself a couple days ago....

Doesn't look like it was too fun after all huh? No coat, random jammie tops and bottoms, socks without shoes, no mittens....can't understand why the sour face Bryce :) Dadda thought it was pretty funny-so he grabbed the camera. Poor baby.

The "Potty Train"

Emma started this process when she was 18 months old-she knew when she had gone in her diaper and she would freak out over the yuckies in there. She wore panties to her 2nd birthday party without any accidents too. She's always caught on quickly-although we've had some points of digression along the way-I think it's safe to say, she's 100% got it at this point!

Which brings us to yesterday...Bryce came up to me and said "Uh Oh Poopies"....to which my response was "Emma went poopie? Where?" Normally Em is quite proud of herself for doing #2 in the toilet and wants everyone to know about it-so Bryce will happily take the job she gives him of the little messenger boy in the hopes to bring an audience to the toilet. When I asked him where Emma went though, he looked at me confused, and paused for a while before saying it again "Uh-oh poopies" and then he pointed to him own bum. Yeah right I thought-so to appease him, I checked it out and sure enough! POOPIE! He was so proud. So here we go again-another 18 month old telling me what's up. Seriously-someone slow down this Potty Train cuz I want off! I've got 1 million and 1 things going on right now-can't he wait until summer at least? Well anyhow-I am proud of him nonetheless and he is pleased as punch being a big boy just like sister. For me though-he is my baby and I'm not ready :(

The Kids FIRST Slumber Party!!!

Em & Bryce invited their friends Marissa and Ayden over for a slumber party last night-a first for all kids involved! The plan was to pick the kids up at 5pm and take them straight to the movies to see...Yep. The Princess & The Frog! The bummer was it wasn't playing at the theater as of that morning! Grrr....so we quickly came up with a plan B of creating our own theater-because the excitement is all about not being at "home".

So while I picked up the kids, Mike took our popcorn machine over to his classroom, pushed aside the desks and placed his "theater chairs" in the center of the room, and put a rented Redbox movie in the computer/projector-VIOLA! Instant personal theater-and the showing was "The Emperor's New Groove"!
Meanwhile the kids and I checked out the Dollar Store for some movie treats and then headed to meet Mike at McDonald's for an ever so nutritious chicken nugget & fries dinner, but hey-it's a kid favorite!
Dinner and the movie were a hit-the kids loved that they had their "own" theater, and after the show was over-Mike played some YouTube Princess & Frog clips on the big screen for them-they were over the moon! I think Ayden liked the YouTube Frog/Alligator clips better than anything we did that night! His little laugh was hillarious!
We went home, got in jammies (the boys both wore Woody jams-which they thought was SO cool!lol), snuggled in their sleeping bags with stuffed animals on the couch, and started watching Happily NEVER After (an odd movie we rented-but whatever-the kids liked it). All kids were zonked by 10pm-woo-hoo! They woke up this morning at 8:30am ready for making Chocolate Chip pancakes.
They danced and danced around the dining room until breakfast was ready-scarfed it down and threw on their snow gear to shoot out the door for sledding before it was time to go home!
It was a blast-everyone was so well behaved too. We'll have to do it again sometime.

Kristi-Brinkley

Brinkley now loves me more than Mike-with this last act, I am convinced! Ha ha ha! That's what he gets for her whole "foot" thing. She is recovering really well, but likes to nap a lot-I think she's a little depressed. Poor thing. Today I went in my bedroom for something and found her like this:

She has pulled my shirt and sweater up on the bed and put them on my pillow, then she cozied in for a nap....she used to do this all the time as a puppy-but it was with Mike's clothes....he USED to be her favorite....MOVE ON OVER BUDDY-I'm the new #1~ She and I have spent a lot of time together, unwrapping and redressing her wound-apparently that was bonding 101 for Brinks and I and I LOVE it! :)

Mickey Mouse Ears

I am going to run the risk of making myself look like a total crap parent here by admitting that I am indeed...human.

We all know the beloved, innocent Disney rodant with a heart of gold and ears that are 2nd to Dumbo in size-big enough to hear EVERYTHING (both things one should and shouldn't not)....um-yeah, my Em has those now. BOOOOOO!
It really brings things I say to light, and things she sees/hears on t.v or in public. Oh my goodness.
Those wonderful Mickey Mouse ears had her walking around all weekend saying "Oh Shit" and "Oh My GOD" (one that I absolutely despise and did NOT come from anywhere in this house).

Now-when this has happened in the past with other children (like at preschool) I have laughed in my mind and then kindly reminded the child that we don't say "said word" because it's not a nice thing to say. However, when it happened with my own child-Mike and I stood their dumb-founded for what felt like an eternity. She had NO CLUE that it was bad,  she just used it matter of fact like and went on with her business. So we let it go in the hopes that not bringing attention to it would make it GO AWAY! Alas-no beans. She reffered to the not so pleasant poop word over and over-and sadly-in context everytime. One of the major problems with this is-she is 2 and is being raised by two parents with Masters degrees-so you'd THINK we'd have much better vocabulary skills than what we must use.

I want to crawl in a hole and die! Needless to say-we talked to her and explained that it is not nice to say that and it is a bad word. Mommy and Daddy shouldn't talk like that and we are sorry. We are now (thanks to Em) MUCH more aware of what we say, especially around her. If we can keep those things from coming out of our mouths while we have our "teacher" hats on, then we certainly can when we have our "parent" hats on. Geeesh. Now you can judge me all you want-but just wait....karma is a..... (oops-there I go again! Just kidding-lol)

Another Big Box-WOW!

Today the kids got another HUGE package in the mail from their Nana. People don't believe me-but she supplies the kids with their wardrobes...and everything is always from Gymboree, they recieve a new box every season, with matching pretties, socks & all! It is something my mom enjoys doing since she lives so far away from the kids, and I'm obviously totally up for it too since we don't have any of Maddy's great hand-me downs left! For those that don't believe me and continue to think I have random Gymbo shopping sprees...here's the proof, straight out of the postal box! My kids are spoiled from afar.

As Em opened the box she kept saying, "is this from Ashley momma?" (Can you tell she is used to getting stuff from her Auntie Ashley?-that's a good thing...) I told her "No baby-these ones are from Nana again!" So as she continued to open she's say "Oh wow Nana-oh wow!"
Funny kid
Bryce's favorite things were the Pirate shirts...he toddled around with a shirt singing "Yo Ho, Yo Ho.....meeeeeee!"
Emma thought all the accessories were the best part. :) Such a girl!
Thanks bunches Mom!

It's Official....

Mike's parents generously gave each of the 3 families, $500 as part of our christmas gifts this year, like last year, and we were told to "do something fun with it-it wasn't for bills, etc."
So....we have decided to postpone our annual California trip to see Nana this summer....instead-we are heading to Orange County to share Halloween & my Mom's birthday with her at DISNEYLAND!!!!

I know it is only January-but I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Em & B are going to be THRILLED! Halloween has become my favorite holiday since I had kids....I can only imagine what it will be like adding all the Disney festivities to it! Whoo hooo!! We have 9 months to save up the rest of the dough for the trip and come up with some FABULOUS costumes for the kids...that should be do-able. :) I'm sure EmmaLee's suggestion will be something to do with "The Princess & The Frog"-ha ha ha. Hmmmmm???? Bryce would make the cutest little frog.....

But I wonder if I can talk them into another of their favorite shows-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse instead:

can't you just see the cute Minnie Ears on that hat? I can totally doctor that up!

But cutest of all......

My little Brycey boy as one of these! He'll totally prefer the skeleton, but here's hopin' for the chubby pumpkin Donald :)

Tubin' in a Winter Wonderland

Mike and I randomly decided to take the kids out after breakfast to enjoy the snow. Grandma and Papa had given us an extra snow tube that they had at their place and figured we could use it with the weather we get around here-and so we did just that!

We went out to the golf course and joined a few other sledders and beginning snow boarders there. Em was not hesitant at all-she's our little dare devil-ready to jump on the second it was pumped up! She plopped herself on Dadda's lap and whoosh....they were off like lightning! So fun....

Bryce on the other hand-as usual-HATES the snow....so it took him a little longer to warm up to the idea. About an hour later-he had stopped crying about the fact that he was there, and began crying because it was time to leave! Poor guy-he'll catch on some day.

Em enjoyed waiting for her brother to climb on the tube and then PUSH it un-announced to him....
Mike & I had fun standing back sipping our cocoa and watching the two of them play and play together-they were completely content and having a ball.

(yeah...that is Bryce heading down the hill-wondering why-with a face covered in dirt...lol)

Once they realized we had warm drinks-they were done and made a be-line for us! I guess we know to bring hot chocky for the kids too next time! I love family adventures.

The Last Fireworks of 2009!!!

Courtney invited us out to Craig & Nancy's tonight for New Years Eve fireworks. Since we live within city limits-we decided to oblige and head out to the country for some good old fashioned family fun! Em & Bryce both fell asleep in the truck before we even got there, but were ramped up ready for fun the minute we took them out of the vehicle! Ryssa and Ayden were there of course and Em acted like she hadn't seen them in forever-when in fact she sees them EVERYDAY! They had a ton of fun sliding down the stairs on their rumper bumpers while we waited for the guys to set up the "explosives" outside!

Finally it was time! Everyone got bundled up and went outside-all the kids played in the snow and had their fun with sparklers, while Bryce was more obsessed with...yep-THE DOG (who desperately wanted inside-away from the fireworks!) We adults stood around the bonfire chit chattin' as the fireworks show thrilled Emma & completely mesmerized Mr. B.

It was a "Blue Moon" tonight too-which was extra special. That almost NEVER happens (when there are 2 full moons in a month)....beautiful...

We headed home early (around 8pm) and both kids were completely zonked....no waitin' till midnight for these little buckaroo's! It was a Happy New Year all the same though.