09.20.2008 Apple Picking Saturday #1

It's that time of year again, time for the 3rd Annual HCA (Hamilton Christian Academy) annual apple picking day. Each year we meet at the Brion's orchard to pick apples from their lovely McIntosh Apple trees. This was actually the first year Danielle was big enough to "help"-and Daddy and Bubba were off to a clients house. Erick helped out again this year-what a trooper to drag himself out of bed at 8am on a Saturday. I'm still battling this cold and feeling crappy overall but managed to snap some photos and pick some apples. We sell them for fundraising to people who like canning, making pies, and APPLE DAYS coming up! We usually can raise about a Thousand dollars which is great, and the Brions are happy to have their trees picked. It's a big job, they have well over 50 trees.

 

 

Danielle, ever the princess, gets a push from Tim. Her chariot's batteries were dead.

 

Erick joins in the fun! He gets the ones beyond my reach (even with the 8ft ladders!). Still not feeling well, we lasted only a couple of hours. This year the apples are pretty small and quite a few had worms. (Organic no pesticides so those varmits had their fill on the nice big apples!) What a fun Saturday! Now mommy gets to go home and nap! We have another weekend of picking coming up. There are so many we can't finish in 1 day!

We also stopped by to feed the ducks, and picked up some crickets for Spots (the frog)-so an eventful Saturday, but thankfully, back home before 1pm. Ha, still lots of day left to sleep.

09.17.2008 Pretty in PINK

 

Ok, so every Wednesday is "Chapel Day" at Danielle's school. Dress is mandatory! Well lucky for her she has plenty to chose from, and obviously doesn't mind posing for the camera. Her grandma ROCKS! This is a cute hot pink dress with raised polka dots which is too cute. It almost got put back on the rack cuz we had a few others and the total was growing....but thanks to Grandma she got 5 dresses that day. This will obviously be one of her favorites too. We are 3 weeks into school and she still hasn't worn the same thing twice. She has the matching headband (loving those this year) and she also is sporting her Gymboree bracelet style Button watch with multicolored plastic buttons. Adorable! It's good to be a girl!

09.16.2008 Bubba goes to the Dentist

Well, actually, he went to the Dentist last Thursday too for his checkup and we had to make this appt. today to fix the cavity. He was a trooper last week with the xrays and cleaning. We knew he had a cavity, it was visible, poor baby. So we got it taken care of right away and today was the day. He did so well, they gave him nitrous (to relax and calm him) and the topical to numb it before the shot. He didn't even squirm for the shot! He is such a good boy! He now has a crown to match sis- on his back right lower molar. Hopefully now that he brushes much better (3x a day even!) this will be our last. Too much money we have spent on baby teeth!

Here's Bubba with his Nitrous Space Mask watching a movie on the screens they have on the ceiling! No doubt our family has paid for at least one of those over the last year and a half! LOL He's wearing his Veggie Tales shirt from the concert!

Here is Dr. Tiede doing the work. She is soooo awesome and gentle. She has such a wonderful and calming way with the children, i wish she was my dentist!

09.15.2008 Monday -BLAH-

Well that's it. Today sucks. Danielle has an ear infection (she went to the Dr. on Friday) but is responding well to her antibiotic. On Saturday night i started feeling yucky, and all day yesterday, and by today I am full blown MISERABLE. What is it about colds that just make you whiney and mopey? Ughhh. The good news, is that Daddy took Danielle to school for me, since i had no intention of going to work today! I dropped Bubba off late at Daycare so we (I) could take my time. Today was his 2nd day of school (yeah!) and we even remembered his backpack! He picked it out the same day as sissy and has been patiently waiting to be able to start school and use it *awwww*. It's Camo- go figure! He's a boy (well you wouldn't have guessed from the last blog but he really is) I blogged my heart out trying to get caught up and then took a 3 hour nap. Well really only 2 cuz i was so uncomforatble for the 1st hour i couldn't even sleep. I ache, my nose is running like a faucet, i have pressure bordering on a migraine...........whaaaaaaaaaaaa! Anyway, hope everyone's Monday was better than mine. I did get up for 3 1/2 hrs to attend a cooking show ( i shouldn't have gone) that my friend Wendy had bought tickets for about a month ago and i couldn't let her down. I made it an hour or so into the actual demo then had to leave. I went straight to bed. Yummy Theraflu you are my friend!

My precious BIG BOY all ready for school!

09.14.2008 Sunday Dress Up

So today, Sunday, Mommy is sick-I'm coming down with a cold and not feeling like doing much. Instead of finishing the garage, i did manage to bring in a couple of hodge-podge boxes of mixed stuff and get it sorted out. Trash/garage sale/keep. I didn't feel like doing much else, and the kids were basically housebound. What's a kid to do? Well Bubba decided he wanted to play dress up. He and sissy brought up the trunk of treasures, and he proceeded to pick out his dress & accessories! He even went so far as to want to wear the earrings-but "ouch, they hurt" and we tried the tiara but it wouldn't stay on his big head. I was laughing, and blogging and just KNEW this was a camera worthy moment. A VERY worthy moment, with a devlish grin i happily obliged to buttoning and fixing and helping with the shoes. OMG FUNNY. Fast forward to Senior Graduation of High School...you know, where the parent supplies a baby photo & the current photo to see how much the kids have changed. Oh i was seeing this picture flashed up on a 200 inch screen in the multi-purpose room. So without further adue----here's Bubba!

You gotta love it. The pink dress, the teal wrap shawl, the high heels. He was actually smiling and happy, until the shoes. Now he sees what girls go through in the name of fashion. Man he couldn't wait to get them OFF.

Danielle got in on the action and posed with brother in their dress-up favorites!

Danielle later got on all the fixins - with the baby and all - and announced "This is what I am going to look like when I'm a mom". Oh boy, i sure hope not. Looks like a Hookers Unite party or something. ROFLMAO Enjoy!

09.13.2008 What a BUSY Saturday

What a LONG and busy day. Today was the day we decided to clean out/organize our garage. Those who know us well, will laugh at such a prospect! But HELLO! it's been cold each morning, and having a 4 car garage that no cars can park in is a problem for me! So we got busy moving stuff around. The main problem was that we moved all of our garage sale stuff and overflow out of our storage (who PAYS to store crap?)to the garage last month. We have 2 HUGE storage warehouses and need to consolidate down to 1. So we made really good progress-and in the process found a new pet lurking under stuff. It was a FROG. Oh the glee on Danielle's face at this marvelous find! We just happened to have bought a tank (though she killed the last pet before it made it to the new tank-yikes) so we are gonna see how long this one will make it.

 

This is the new frog "Spots" in his new tank.

 

Spots really likes to perch himself up on "DUM-DUM". It's a cute Easter Island Mini Statue just like in the movie 'Night at the Museum' (which the kids love!) It's adorable to see him up there checking us out! He seems pretty happy and is getting a constant diet of stunned/but not dead flies we swat and give to him, crickets (Danielle caught them herself) and Frog pellets we got from the pet store

09.13.2008 Katie is getting BIG

It's hard to believe we got her at only 8 weeks...so tiny...and now she is porking right up. Our other cat Pixie was about 14 months old and was barely this big. Katie is already passing her up.
 
I couldn't help but take some pics of her by the window. She was trying to catch a fly.
 
She was nice, and decided to turn and look for a picture. She really is quite pretty.

Danielle starts DANCE

Okay, okay. So she is a monkey girl...but why not learn some grace and poise too? We thought about Ballet but she is so NOT the ballerina type. So we compromised and let her try out this dance class once a week. They teach Modern dance which includes some ballet moves but really more free flowing, stretching, get up and move kind of thing. Right up her alley! She will be going each Friday, so this year is quite busy with Gymnastics, Awana, and Dance each week. We might try soccer in the Spring if she can handle one more thing! For now she is excited about each one of her "extracurriculars" and loves them all!


See, compared to those other two, she's got the stance and perfect arm extension-this might work out after all *wink*

09.12.2008 Bubba's 1st Day of School--FINALLY!

After much jumping through hoops we have finally culminated our journey through the "system" and got Bubba the services he needs. As you know, he has had hearing loss and speech problems and delays due to his ongoing ear problems. After 2 surgeries (and one more big one to come in 2 more years) plus speech therapy for over a year, we were finally able to convince the school he qualified for speech therapy through the state/public school system. Let me tell you paying for speech therapy is EXPENSIVE. We are so thankful he will finally be getting it more often and at the same time enjoying the school setting in the pre-K program at Corvallis Primary School. He will get 1 hour a week-probably (2) 30 min sessions or (3) 20 min sessions through an IEP. We just know this will help him, and get him caught up with his peers. We are very excited, as was he! He started on a Friday and will be attending Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoons. His new daycare is 1 block away and they walk him to and from school each day.

Mom took the afternoon off (Danielle too!) and walked with him and Ms. Marcie from daycare to the new school. He wore his favorite Gymboree Crocodile shirt and was so proud. Danielle showing Bubba the way to school.

Bubba looks so small outside the BIG door to the BIG boy school. All summer he waited and waited for this day, yeah, it's finally here!

Bubba inside his new classroom. His teachers are Mrs. Marlene and Ms. Mickey. He wasn't ready to let go of me, but he saw they had a Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book (one of his favorites - so it must be okay) and cars with a cool rug/mat that Ms. Mickey showed him how to make a tunnel with the blocks...then he was good to go! Bye Mom!

09.11.2008 Veggie Tales

Yippe! After missing 5 days with the kids while we were in Denver, we wanted to treat them to something fun. I got us all tickets to a Veggie Tales play/concert. They don't come through Montana very often so this was a big treat. We had alot of fun and the kids enjoyed it. Gotta love dancing and singing produce. That's Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber incase you were unaware.

Daddy and Bubba watching the Veggie Tales intently.

Danielle is all smiles after the concert and poses in front of the Veggie Tales poster......"...broccoli, celery, gotta be, Veggie Tales!"

09.09.2008 It's Raining APPLES

It's rather funny when your child gets excited about rain. Wanna know why? Cuz then she gets to wear the adorable outfit complete with matching apple umbrella (thanks go again to grandma for hooking her up!) and the adorable matching rainboots mom just got for her. Never have i seen her so excited for rain. You can't see the cute tights (beige with apples running down the sides) or the rainboots (that match the umrella) and the headband (also matching the umbrella & boots. Can you see the cute necklace? Oh she is her mothers daughter- and she loves matchy, matchy. hehehehehehe

 

Say "apples" for the camera!

 

She just HAD to open the umbrella in the house, oh why not?, it IS adorable.

09.04.2008 CEDIA

You know what is the MOST stressful about the first week of school? The fact that Mom & Dad aren't ever there for it!!! Our industry (Home Automation/Home Theater) has the huge annual trade show each year and it always falls during that first week of school. We have been blessed the last 2 years to have others step in and stay at our house and take care of the kids with all the chaos of that 1st week! In the meantime we are busy cutting deals, getting discounted product, seeing all the new things in our industry! It's pretty cool. This was the last yr. it will be in Denver-next year it will be Atlanta...yikes...a plane ride? Dunno if I'll go.

Derell and I enjoying the COntrol4 Party Like a Rockstar Party. It was alot of fun. They rented out a club in Downtown Denver for a private party for all their dealers. Then we got to get on a party bus, and when we arrived there was a red carpet complete with papparazzi and screaming "fans" that wanted our autograph. It was funny and cool.

This year, we also let Erick come and join us in the festivities. He works in our business so we agreed it would be a good idea for him to see what it is all about, take some training classes, and have some fun. You have to be 18 - but he grew out some facial hair, wore his ballcap, and pretty much looked the part. He really enjoyed it and learned alot!

This car (Ericks favorite-a mustang) was being raffled off. We didn't win, but he didn't mind posing for mom to take a pic in front of his dream car. Cheese!

09.03.2008 Danielle starts Gymnastics

Monkey Girl finally does it!!! As many of you already know, we call Danielle "Monkey Girl". For oh so many reasons, but namely her fondness for the Monkey Bars. She is fast, agile, fearless and above all truly a Monkey. We have tried twice to take her to the gymnastics studio to try out the summer camps available. She just was too young and not ready. But now, at 6, and for the last few months she has begged. We relented.

 

Not to mention isn't she just plain ol' adorable in the gymnastics getup? She has 2. Thanks to Karen/Ali and Jacque for the hand-me-downs that finally came in handy.

 

Stretch, stretch, stretch. They also get to play in a foam pit, work the balance beam, and her 2nd week the teacher Mr. Jamie even put her on the parallel bars. Whoo-Hooo! I think this is a sport we can do!

Not to mention, being short, petite and adorable is a PLUS in this sport!

09.02.2008 The FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Oh what to wear, what to wear!!! Besides having all your school supplies, the coolest backpack, a new lunch box, the REAL dilemma of any 2nd grader is what to wear the first day of school. Danielle had really just too much to choose from this year, thanks to a whole lot of shopping over 2 weeks, and not to mention that awesome trip to California when mommy went for her Reunion and went shopping in Ventura with the Aunties and Grandma. Grandma really hooked her up this year. She got AMAZING dresses at Macy's and all the cutest gear from Gymboree, and more. She chose this cute Brown floral dress Grandma got her as the winner. She just LOVES headbands (the stretchy ones that go all the way around or the kind with the elastic that attaches the rubber ones and makes them one big circle) now that she found a style she likes that doesn't hurt her head.

 

Here she is-looking radiant for her 1st day of school. At least i got some good pics.

 

Little miss diva in her ensemble, we love, love, love you grandma!!!!

 

No outfit would be complete without the must-have "Hannah Montana Backpack". We actually spent over 30 minutes in the backpack aisle trying to find just the right one. Danielle's criteria;
*Must have at least 2 zip pockets
*Comfy straps
*Match with most of my clothes
*Have a water bottle holder
She really wanted the littlest pet shop one but it did not meet crteria #3 and #4. LOL

 

At school, lined up to go to class. I caught a pic of Danielle and her friend Talon. She has known him the longest of all her school friends. They started out in preschool together and have been with each other since age 2. (Lucky Danielle started a year early in Kindergarten otherwise Talon would be a year ahead). He really grew this summer. Danielle just loves to chase Talon. Poor thing, she is fast enough to catch him!

08.30.2008 Bubba's Fair Favorites

It wouldn't be "fair" -pun intended- if we didn't include what Bubba liked most about the Fair this year. Funny how things change each year even though the fair stays the same. Well first off, lets start with the food. While mom has an affinity to the Soft Pretzels (i ate one each time i went to the fair-yes, a total of 4 pretzels over 3 days) Bubba is definately a Cotton Candy and Caramel Apple kind of kid. For Danielle it was the Cotton Candy also. For Dad it was the sliced Caramel Apples too!

 

This is definately one of Bubba's favorites (probably ranked #2 out of top 3) It's the maze/slide combo thing. The sad part this year, is when daddy went with him on this, he tripped and fell and jammed his glasses into his eye and got the HUGEST shiner (black eye) over the next few days! Danger, Danger!

 

Dad takes Bubba on the Carosel. Not Bubba's favorite, but he gets to ride a horse (a plus) and have his Dad right there with him....awwwww!

 

By far this is Bubba's #1 Favorite ride of the Fair. The HELICOPTERS. They go up and down and travel around. There were Police Helo's, Marine Helo's, Search & Rescue Helo's...you name it. He tried them all. Like Danielle and The Spider, this was Bubba's "go to" ride that he did OVER and OVER and OVER.

 

Bubba's friend Aiden (also called Bubba)and Bubba ride in the Helicopter together. ZOOM ZOOM

STICKY BUGS

This is definately BLOG worthy for those of you that know my daughter. She does NOT have an affinity for the outside. As a matter of fact she is a rather "indoor girl" like her mother. This summer that all changed. Last year at the end of school she was stung by a wasp and had a yucky reaction. That kind of sealed her fear of all things that fly and crawl (ok, ok, so she IS her mothers child!) I, being the ever paranoid of buggies herself self-appointed psychologist, decided she can't go thru life being afraid of everything that crawls, flies and buzzes. (Oh the analogies of "pot calling the kettle black" i can hear them now...but i digress...back to the story) I really tried to make her comfortable by being myself uncomfortable and pointing out things like "bees only want to smell you to see if you are a flower" and other nonsense. I put on a brave face everytime we were confronted with an insect/bee/spider, etc. Anyway, well this summer she found Grasshoppers and Crickets. Oh man, you better watch out if you are a grasshopper. She is constantly on a mission to find you, scoop you up and put you in her bug catcher. We purchased not 1, but 4 different types of bug catchers in an effort to allay her fears. It worked. Not only does she try to touch and catch everything, she's moved to lots of different kinds of bugs, frogs, lizards, whatever. This summer she and Bubba were so into grasshopeers, they dedicated an entire week at daycare to finding out all things about insects and grasshoppers. Oh they will never forget Danielle that is for sure.

 

Her new affinity is "Sticky Bugs" they are actually Pine Beetles but they "stick" to everything so that is what she has named them. She catches them all the time. We were even at our storage unit and she found about 7 of these little darlings. Here she is showing off her hunting prowess. Don't let the picture fool you, she wasn't afraid of them, she was afraid one might get away in the 15 seconds it took for mom to snap a picture of her catch!

 

Not the best picture i know, sorry! All 7 made it home in her hands safely and into a bug catcher. We made her let them go that night. We've had lots of captives that didn't survive overnight in the bug catcher. She is ok with the catch and release theory now, and the next day it's a new adventure of finding them again. RUN BUGS< RUN!!!

The SPIDER

Ok, so previously i was wondering if the Dragon would hold up as the favorite Fair ride... and the answer is NOPE. Danielle's absolute favorite is the Spider. I can honestly say the girl went on this ride at least 15 times over the 3 days we enjoyed the fair....she also wanted to go on the Kamikaze, The Zipper, The Dice (thankfully she was still too short for those cuz i am sure mommy would have hurled). But this is the winner!

Danielle talked Reigan into trying it out. She coaxed her by telling her how much fun it is. I went on it with the 2 girls. It started out fine & Reigan said she liked it. About 3/4 through Reigan had the panic face and wanted it to be over. She said the cutest thing though after we were done... (i love 6yr old logic)..she didn't like it but wanted to go on it again because maybe she would like it better the 2nd time. ??? I was stunned with that but ok. And they did do it again, with the other friends, over and over and over. =) I LOVE THE FAIR.

Ivy, Reigan Danielle and Madison. Notice Danielle is the tiniest arms. LOL They loved it so much all the girls would put their hands up. It was ADORABLE.

Madison Pigman and Danielle on the Spider.