A bead that will go down in history...

Yesterday I cleaned out our junk cabinet. Yes, most people have a junk drawer. We have one of those too, but we also have a junk cabinet. It's right above the junk drawer, which is right below the junk countertop. It's slightly more dangerous than the average persons junk drawer since it is always possible to open the cabinet and have a bottle of glue or something crash onto your head. So, I was cleaning out the cabinet and found that most of the cabinet junk was the girl's collection of arts and crafts supplies. Once the girls discovered the newly appointed craft supply box, the rest of the day was spent crafting, of course.

First up, glittered pine cone ornaments, then glittered kitchen table, followed by glittered kitchen rug. Then some cutting and gluing, some pipe cleaner thingys, and then beaded bracelets. Everything was going great until Olivia piped up, "There's a bead in my nose!". At first Tim didn't believe her, but a quick exam with a flashlight showed a shiny booger covered pink bead way up there.

First we tried to suck it out with one of the 5 baby booger suckers that I had found in the junk cabinet...no luck. Then Olivia tried to blow it out, no luck. Then steady hand Momma got the tweezers and after two tries kinda pushed it up a little further. Tim wanted a go at the tweezers but I was too freaked out to let him and threw the tweezers across the room, yelling "We're done! We're going to the ER!"

On the way there we wanted to try and make sure that there was only one bead in there. Olivia confirmed this by saying, " My nose is just a one bead nose." I don't know, maybe she tried to put another one in there and it just wasn't working out, who knows.

Well, 10 minutes in the waiting room, followed by 20 minutes in an exam and I decided that it might just work if Olivia jumped up and down to try and get the bead out. Tim wasn't excited about this idea, but Olivia was. I think it was probably a good thing that Olivia has a little cold right now and so boogers were starting to build up some amount of pressure behind the bead. Just enough pressure, along with the jumping, and a little blowing of her nose and out popped the bead! Right into my hand! All covered with baby boogers! Yuck! But, at least it wasn't in her nose anymore....

Oh, Christmas Tree!

The day after Thanksgiving, we drove up into the mountains to find the perfect Christmas tree. Tim and I spent about 30 minutes hiking around looking for the best tree possible, while the girls spent their time collecting pine cones and juniper berries. Final we happened upon a clump of decent looking trees. Since we all were running low on pocket space for pine cones, we decided that one of these trees was going to have to suck it up and be the best Christmas tree it could be.

Coal for Christmas?

Last weekend we went out for dinner and then walked around the mall for a bit. First stop was the American Girl store...holy cow. That's all I really have to say about that store, and that it was totally awesome. While walking in the mall we noticed that Santa's workshop was all set up and the sign read that he would be arriving the next day! Holy cow again. So, of course Annie was wide awake bright and early the next morning begging to go see Santa. Tim wasn't up for it and so it was up to me to create the distraction.

Annie - Let's go, let's go, let's go see Santa!!!
Me - Well, it's not even Thanksgiving yet.
Annie - Huh?
Me - Well, the weeks before Thanksgiving...see only bad kids go to see Santa before Thanksgiving. They met to work out agreements to see if they can get off the naughty list in time for Christmas.
Annie - Oh, well...I don't want to see him today then! I'm a good girl!

She hasn't mentioned Santa since. I wonder how long I can continue to make up stories to avoid things. What can I say? It's fun for me plus it works! I guess I forgot to mention that the "packrat" came to our house last week and ate all the Halloween candy....well, they did leave their candy bucket on the floor right there for the snacking on.

Hola Senorita?

The girls go to a Spanish class at school each Monday and Friday. Annie has picked up quite a few animal names, colors, and numbers. Olivia surprised us the other night by counting to 10 in Spanish. I think they are starting to talk about holidays in their class because both of the girls are especially smitten by the phrase "Feliz Navidad". While I was putting Annie to bed last night, she made me promise that I would go downstairs and write the phrase down on a note. I'm not sure why, but I did it for her. Probably because she never forgets making those requests and if I hadn't written it down, it would come back to me in a few weeks. Just a few minutes ago, Olivia asked me to say Merry Christmas in Spanish....after I said it, in my very best "acento español", she said..."no no no, it goes like Police Flappeda". I'm not sure she would fair very well south of the border.

Halloween!

These photos were stuck in our camera for the last week...then last night Tim discovered something stuck to the contact points of our camera's memory card that was gumming up the works. I few seconds of cleaning up the card and voila!, let there be Halloween photos.

Here are the girls in their Mermaid costumes that Nana whipped up for them. I made the crowns with some sea shells and leave it to Annie to lose her crown the day before trick or treat. I looked everywhere for that thing...finally found it in the basement storage room, inside the baby cradle under a bunch of blankets. It's always in the last place you look, and I cannot believe I thought to look there. It was missing one of the shells, but a few drops of superglue fixed that and almost fixed my fingers to the crown (whoops!) Olivia made it around half the block before deciding to call it a night and hung out with me on the front porch to pass out our candy to the neighborhood kids. Annie made it around our block and the next block down...I cannot believe how much candy she ended up with!

Annie's way of thinking

Annie has had a few interesting ideas come into her head tonight. After dinner, we all had a little bowl of ice cream. When I was done with mine, she leaned over and asked "Who ever heard of ice cream that comes with a kiss?" Then she gave me a little peck on the cheek. How sweet is that? Olivia heard this and leaned over and asked me the same question, but she gave me a big slobbery kiss right smack on the lips.

Later in the evening, I was looking for a misplaced item and usually when things get misplaced around our house I loose my temper. I'm not very proud of this trait, and it's something I'm trying to stop, but sometimes it happens. Well, tonight I didn't yell or slam doors, or scare Bailey...I just walked around a little more aggressively than I normally would. Finally, I found what I was looking for and sat down exclaiming "Well, I did pretty good keeping myself under control there!" Annie replied by asking "How do you keep yourself under control with out a remote controller?" Hmmm, maybe that is what I need! Anyone know where can I get a personal remote controller???

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gym...

A story, as told to me by Tim...

Last week, we drove to the gym and parked close to some sort of asphalt roadway equipment, which stunk like roadway asphalt. Annie jumped out of the truck and exclaimed "Let's get out of here! This stink is going to make my boogers taste bad!"

Funny Stuff.

BIG NEWS!!!

Drum roll please.....

After one year and 4 days of Tim being a full time stay at home Dad....he's decided to make a career move and get back to engineering!

My only complaint is that he has had one year and 4 days to paint our new doors but has yet to finish them all. Oh well, I guess you can't always get what you want. Although he doesn't start until next Tuesday so I guess he has a few more days to make a last ditch effort to get this job done.

Congrats Daddy! I know Olivia is not going to like being seperated from him, she's grown into quite the Daddy's Girl over the last year.

Art!

Last week held a lot of art enrichment for us girls. First I attended a painting session with a girlfriend and created this "masterpiece". My only regret is that I wasn't exactly following the painting that everyone else was and didn't realize that middle ground flowers should have been painted before foreground, so I had to leave those out, but you live and learn I guess. My next one will be twice as good...maybe. Here is my painting.


And here is the painting the teacher was leading most other people in...



I also had Tim and the girls help with painting some of the equipment the bridge group was using in our office putt-putt fund raiser. Tim splatter painted a return box and Annie fell in love with how beautiful it was. Incidentally, I fared very well in the putt-putt challenge - first place ya'll! And our hole was voted second best, loosing out to a Halloween themed hole. Whatever, it's not even Halloween yet. Anywho, here is a photo of our putt-putt hole.


Since Annie thought the splatter painted box was so great, I decided to let her and Olivia have a go at it. Super fun! And as soon as I remember to buy more paint (we ran out soon after Olivia decided to smear it all over her body), we are definitely going to do it again.

Scissor Ban is in Effect!

So, you might recall from earlier in the week how Olivia fashioned some new bangs. On Friday she decided to make some modifications. As a result, we decided to take her to the professional hair stylists to see what could be done. Her answer - not much. Here are the before and after photos.

Olivia's First Haircut

Olivia decided to give herself a new look with some self cut bangs this morning. I actually think it turned out pretty good! Look at her trying to wave off the paparazzi!

Farmers for a day

Yesterday we headed out to the country to help with the harvest. Miller Farms was having a harvest festival and for a small fee, they would load you into a wagon and pull you around the farm to pick whatever you could find. We ended up with a lot of whatever you could find and now we're thinking the small fee might include the purchase of a freezer and a lot of canning supplies! In the end we got 3 bags of onions, 2 bags of beets, 4 heads of cabbage, 3 bags of potatoes, 5 bags of sweet corn, some turnips (I think), 3 bags of random peppers, one of which we traded for a bag of tomatoes, a bunch of acorn and butternut squash, about 20 pounds of carrots, and 3 giant pumpkins. Anyone know what to do with beets...are you really supposed to eat them?

After we cleared the fields, we went back to check out the rest of the place. They had a giant pyramid of hay bales to climb, random trackers, old fire trucks and airplanes to climb on, bucket train rides, the world's largest bouncy house, and Annie (sporting her new tattoo) even found her best-est friend ever.

Look at my Baby being all 2 and a half...

School is in!

Both the girls are back in school now. Annie goes to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Olivia goes in the mornings on Monday and Wednesday. What does this mean? It means Tim and I can go back to having our lunch dates!!! Or maybe not.

Annie was practically scratching at the door a few weeks ago to get back to school. I think she really missed being around kids her own age over the summer. So now she might be overloaded with kids her own age with school starting and also being on the Sparkling Volcanos Soccer Team.

Olivia's first day of school was today and we were really worried that she wouldn't adjust well. We took her to met her teachers and check things out last Friday and she just clung to my leg the whole time and didn't want to play with any of the other kids. Today I picked her up and her teachers told me she had a great day and didn't cry once and they also said that she was so smart. That's our girl! Super Smarty! Went we were walking out of the school, she kept showing me things and telling me, "This is my school!" so I think she really liked it.

Annie's First Soccer Game

Yesterday we attended Annie's first soccer game. Currently she plays on the Sparkling Volcanos team, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see her sign on with the Colorado Rapids in the next year or so.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

Olivia, the Little Fish

We joined the neighborhood pool this summer and have been making the most of it. Annie's lessons have improved her swimming, though she still has trouble breathing without sinking. Olivia hasn't taken any lessons because, well, what can you really teach a 2-1/2 year old that they will remember? It turns out that she didn't need lessons, since she is a fish. She is very adventurous, but can't get her head out of the water by herself. She likes jumping off the side of the pool and the diving board. She also enjoys retrieving dive toys from the bottom, as evidenced by this video. Enjoy!

Annie's First Book of Cleaning

Here is Annie's first book. She came up with the idea to write the book on her own. She dictated the story and drew most of the illustrations. She has already hinted at another instructional book to come, but hasn't started it yet. Hope you like it. (I really didn't know I looked so mean while mowing the lawn... I'll have to work on that.)

A future writer?

Annie is getting to be more and more expressive in her speech. I love hearing her describe things. Here are a few examples....

The other day we were at a party for our friend Alexis's 1st Birthday! They have 2 cats, who occasionally go outside....2 cats who don't like to be bothered by little girls who love cats. So Annie spent some time chasing one cat around and I guess she was surprised that the cat doesn't stay in the back yard like our Bailey does. So she ran up and said, "Excuse me, but that cat just went into the front yard and scampered under the truck" Love that word, scampered...this might be the first time I've used it myself. Annie also decided to compose a birthday card for Alexis, complete with pencil drawn flowers. It went along these lines -

Dear Alexis,
Will there be cupcakes at your party? I think you should talk it over between yourselves, it might be a good idea. I hear it is your birthday and you will be one. Happy Birthday!

So thoughtful! My only disappointment in her letter is that she didn't sign off with her usual by-line,"Goodbye, Ribbit!"

Then yesterday, Tim and the girls decided to run up the street to the playground at the corner of our neighborhood. I mean "run" literally. It's about 4 blocks and apparently they ran most of the way, with occasional stops to smell the flowers and such. Just steps before they got to the school, Annie tripped and skinned her knee. They decided the pain was too much to play through and came back home. Annie related the story to me thusly..."I was running so fast that I stummbled on some rocks and hurt my knee. When we decided to come home Olivia just burst into tears at the thought of not playing on the playground." I'm not sure I've described any crying by saying burst into tears. I wonder if she will keep up with this use of totally awesome phrases. It really makes stories from 4 year olds much more entertaining.

She has also self published a book entitled "First Book of Cleaning". It has about 4 chapters with advice on cleaning as well as illustrations to go along. I think the illustrations are my favorite. Every person that she drew has extend-o-matic arms. That would be great if you could clean up without actually bending over to pick something up. I'll have to scan the book in and a post it sometime. I'm sure it will be a best seller someday.

4th o'Fun!

Over the 4th of July we dumped Bailey at the kennel and drove to South Dakota to spend the weekend with Uncle John, Aunt Bonnie and Cousin Lily who made the drive all the way from Ohio. We had made camping reservations at Custer State Park (which is close to Mt. Rushmore) for a few days and then we would be heading to the town of Deadwood which is the gold mining boom town, once home to Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. Well it's still their home, they are buried there and we all paid one dollar to make sure it was true. We arrived at our campsite around dinner time and found out that great minds truly do think alike...earlier we had decided to split dinner duties between Ohio folk and CO folk...we brought Fajita fixin's, and so did they...we brought cheddar cheese chex mix, so did they...I could go on, but honestly I forgot what else matched...it was funny though.

The next day we woke up and decided to head out to see Mount Rushmore. I was kinda bummed because I had read that they were canceling their firework show due to the dry environment, but hopefully there would be fireworks in Deadwood later in the week. We took the scenic drive to M.R. and it really was pretty - there were tunnels to go through, and in some places the road spiraled under itself to get up and down over the hills. Here is our first sighting of the monument...I really thought it would be more impressive.So what else did we do while in Custer State Park?

We struck it rich panning in a nearby creek, baby! Well we'll be rich only if the price of mica goes up soon...


We bathed...

We struck a pose or two in our 4th of July finery...

Another sighting of Mount Rushmore...really thought there was more than one president up there.

We even discovered where the Buffalo roam (even though they are really Bison). It's at the corner of Oak Draw Road and Wildlife Loop Road.

After seeing the Bison Roaming, the next day we headed up to Deadwood - home of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, and also the ghost of Seth Bullock, one time sheriff of Deadwood...who apparently hates Bill and Jane for some reason. (We read that little tidbit in a book that John bought). Once again we decided to take the scenic option up through an area called the Needles District to get there. Here is the tunnel we had to drive through once we got to the top - only 8'-4" of clearance. We measured the camper and figured we were alright-ish to fit through well enough with 6" to spare. I still got out of the truck to make sure we didn't hit the sides.

We got into town just in time to see the 4th of July parade go through. The girls we fortunate that there really weren't very many people out watching the parade (they were all in the casinos) so they end up collecting about 5 pounds of candy that was thrown from the parade floats.The parade included I think probably every piece of fire rescue equipment within 30 miles, every horse within 5 miles, two guys on dirt bikes jumping over a truck mounted ramp, the Deadwood HS class of 1976, the community band (which I'm happy to say did not include any saxophones), and a flatbed truck carrying the Richardson Family Reunion. I'm not sure who the Richardsons were, but apparently they were important enough to be part of the parade.

Later that evening we drove over to the next town to watch the fireworks. We drove up on a side road and ended up being about 600 feet above the town, right at eye level with the fireworks. Once they started, of course Olivia became scratchy (translation - scared). She snuggled up with me and watched out of the corner of her eye while I covered up her ears. A few minutes later she said "That one looks like a jellyfish!" After that she was perfectly happy watching them. After the show we walked back to the truck and the girls instantly fell asleep, and Tim and I waited in a traffic jam for about 40 minutes before we started to move.
So, what else happened?

Annie turned 4 and a half...

Tim and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary!

And finally...finally we found the real Mount Rushmore.