Christmas Eve

Update of the family

My girls are so excited about Christmas. Gabrielle tells me everyday what she wants from Santa. We've had conversations about we don't always get what we want and that's okay because we are thankful for things that we have. The next day she forgets that talk. It's a constant circle with her. I hate to disappoint her but she will not be getting Biscuit the FurReal Dog for Christmas.

Anyway, Hannah is doing so well in her class. I talk to her teacher on a weekly basis and I had lunch with Hannah on my Birthday last week at her school. It was a holiday lunch, very special. I forget to bring my camera to show everyone. They had the piano playing and candles on the table. We had turkey, gravy, mash potatoes, dressing, green beans and a roll, and you cant forget the chocolate milk. lol
I got a couple of hugs from the other kids. I helped tie some shoes. It was a great afternoon.
Hannah's teacher said she is doing so well that she past 2 of the 3 tests to be excepted in the accelerated program. The third test will be after the holidays. I am such a proud momma!

It's Taleia's turn. :) It's amazing how fast they get bigger and even faster when they have older siblings. She is talking full sentences, using the potty chair sometimes. Some people think I'm slacking on that but I am in no rush to get rid of the diapers. I hate pull ups. I think that they takes longer for kids to get potty trained. So in the Spring when it gets warmer we will do it full force potty training boot camp! lol

So my Birthday was last Wednesday. I am 26! I finally bought a woman coat for myself. It's a black wool peacoat with a hood. I think that's what people call them, peacoat? Very City like, I love it! If you know me, you know I hate coats, they are bulky, hot, I feel that they restrict my movement. So I've always wore a heavy hoodie. Not only that but my husband bought me my first Dooney&Bourke!!!!!! It's supposed to be a Christmas present but I picked it out a couple of weeks ago and when it had a really good price at Macy's, so I told my husband about it. So It is wrapped and put away. I feel really good this year, like I haven't left myself out.

My husband turn 30 this summer. He works really hard. I should give him more credit for our happiness. I tell him sometimes what he's missing out, like the lunch at Hannah's school. But I see that it's my benefit bc I stay at home. I'm not a father so I don't know what the balance should be. My father was a workaholic and climbed the ladder and once he was on the top he worked long hours and was dead tired when he got home. I think that's what I see sometimes my when I see my husband. He's doing so good and improving at his job that he's going to miss things at home. I just had a light bulb moment. They should have a father daughter out to dinner night.

Goals for next month- I am going to get Gabrielle's school shots early because they have kindergarten round up in February for all day kindergarten. So I really hope that we get in the program.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Catch The Stars Fitness Clinic

Saturday morning we went to the mall and Gabrielle got her pictures taken. Had lunch and took Hannah to the High school. Tamika Catchings # 24 for the WNBA Fever team was hosting a great event for the kids called Catch the Stars Fitness Clinic.

When we arrived we signed in and donated our can goods. We walked in the gym and Hannah had a hard time being shy. Tears were running down her face bc she didn't know anybody and she didn't know what she had to do. The volunteers were great and got her a buddy and I had to go bc it was sort of a drop off thing. With 200 kids and the volunteers there's no way parents and siblings could stay for safety reasons they asked parents to go.

While Hannah was at the High school we decided to use that time wisely and go grocery shopping. We went home watched a movie then after that we left to get Hannah. We got there a little early so I got her on video doing a relay race. At the end, Hannah got all kinds of goodies and I got Hannah's pictures taken with Tamika Catchings! How awesome is that!!

The Holidays are coming

The day after the Election I went through the storage closet and I wanted to see what our tree looked like since we got it from a very generous person from freecycle. Freecycle is a website where you post things that you would like to give away for free. It's great! Anyway I took the box out and open it up and the tree is absolutely perfect. It's a prelit tree and there's only a couple of lights that don't work but overall I couldn't ask for a more perfect tree.

Since there's nothing wrong with it I had planned on living it in the box for at least a week . I really didn't feel like putting it back into the storage closet because I arranged everything back really neatly, and the girls had plans of their own. They insisted that the tree has to be up. It was a 1-2-3 step tree so easy. We are saving the decorations for after Thanksgiving!

Is it me or does everybody just love Christmas decorations and collections! I can not figure out how I want my tree. I'm going through all of the collections and I really do love them all. I love the gold, bronze, silver, white, and even the more modern neon colors. So I ask my husband which colors do you like and he says the same thing. Since I can't make up my mind we just going to do the traditional red and green. This year I'm seeing a change.... The display trees don't have garland instead they are using ribbons and I'm thinking of doing the same.

I thought it was alittle crazy to put the tree up early...way early. But I think it's great. I think the holidays is a reminder that it's the people that count in life and now that our tree is up, I think it just helps us remember that much more.

Children's Museum

It's National Chemistry Month and we got free tickets to go to the Children's Museum. We saw some of the new exhibits and did a couple of chemistry experiments. The girls had a lot of fun!

Halloween

We had a Great Halloween! I never really enjoyed walking door to door and seeing strangers and now that I have children I really am against it. So this year and the last we did Trick or Treating and our High School and the Mall. The High School was a great experience bc they did so much for the holiday. They had games, a haunted maze, and tons of candy. They set up tables throughout a section of the school and decorated them and we said trick or treat. The turn out was amazing. I am so proud that our township does this.

We went to the Mall bc the girls were still in the costume and I wanted to use another Place Perks coupon and the radio station was telling people to get there and have more fun. We got there and I guess they were not set up for the candy instead that night they we only doing a costume contest and passing out candy on Friday night. I know there was alot of hot people bc there was a huge crowd, like shopping on Black Friday, It was crazy and no candy!!! The stores was telling people come back tomorrow, we'll have candy on Halloween. I'm sure they did but we didn't go back. Friday, Halloween night, we watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown with Hannah and Gabrielle.

This year I didn't want to spend money Halloween stuff and I looked for ways to achieve this goal. Hannah and Gabrielle's costume was from last year so I just bought some cute accessories and I only got Leia a costume with a $10 coupon I got from my Place Perks so I ended up paying for half of it and it's really cute so now she can play dress up and I got a size bigger so she will wear it again next year. Money isn't tight but saving goes a long way.

Yes we can!

President Obama and First Family!

Election Day was the one of the most memorable days of my life!

Tuesday I watched the morning news to see the turn out. Some places had long, very long lines! My husband and I voted around 4pm with the girls and had no wait at all! But there was a line forming when we left. Talk about good timing!

I think my girls are alittle young to know what this really means but I kept Wed. newspaper for their babybooks!

Sept/Oct so far...

September was a busy month! Soccer practices and games, cheerleading, girl scouts, Labor Day weekend we did it all and still doing it! Last weekend was Hannah's birthday party. she invited 7 girls and I think 6 girls came. She had a really good time. In the pictures where Hannah is opening her presnts, it seems Leia was having just as much fun as Hannah! Earlier that Saturday Hannah and Gabrielle had their soccer games then Hannah and I went with the Brownie Troop for Apple picking at Anderson's Orchard. It was a very nice place. Great Apples, Apple Slushies, and Cider.

This weekend is the End of Soccer and Cheerleading but Hannah has the option to continue with Cheerleading for the Winter. I've missed alot of Gabrielle's soccer games bc Hannah and Gabrielle's were at the same times and I usually stayed home during the practices. So during the Games I watched Hannah's and Daddy watched Gabrielle bc he was the soccer coach this year.

I LOVE the month of October! The weather is beautiful and I love the Autumn activities. Sometimes this month we are going to a pumpkin patch, hopefully. For Gabrielle's birthday, I plan on taking the girls to the Children's Museum Haunted House and no doubt we'll go to Chuck E. Cheese. Gabrielle really wants a pet..any pet. She tell me all the time she wants a puppy. But since we cant have a puppy she has settled for either a turtle or a fish.
Leia makes full sentences now. It's amazing how well she speaks. I haven't tried potty training only bc Im not ready for it. I'm not ready for the panties, pull ups, struggling to get to the potty. Maybe in the next month or two we will start our journey!

Sky Concert

We went downtown to watch the fireworks!

The Colts Slide
It's finally getting dark

Hannah's Cheerleading

Gabrielle's Surgery 8-21

McDonald's at Riley. Mommy had to get breakfast at 5:30am
6:30 Getting ready
These are the wonderful Nurses that took care of Gabby

Gabby right after surgery, it took about 2 hrs.
Later that evening, Daddy Got her the Pinkie Pie Pony that she's been wanting.
Back to sleep!
Ready to go home!

First Day of First Grade

At the State Fair

We did so much at the State Fair. We started out by seeing all the animals before the barns got hot and stinky. Then took the shuttle to the Riley Fun Park area. We did the Elephant rides then the Elephant show right after. Visited some booths like Radio Disney. We did the Riley fun park maze which the got a green hat and a snack at the end. And they rode the trackers that you see in the pictures. Then we sat down for the Tiger show. After the Tiger show we did the pony rides and from there we got on the shuttle to the Dairy Barn, which was my first time. I loved it. We got a chocolate milk shake to share, two grilled sandwhiches and cheese sticks. Yummy yummy!

After lunch we got on some rides. We got on the Farris Wheel, tilt a whirl, and they got on some ride where they lay on their bellies. And that was the whole day. I was so tired, I was more tired than the girls.

Hannah's first cheerleading practice

Hannah started cheerleading today! Her first practice was a lot of fun. Her team cheers for Pike Township youth sports. They are called Indy Lazers...How cute is that!!!!
They will be more pictures to come but there was bad lighting in the gym so there is only one that I put up for now.
I'm really glad that she likes it. I wish more of her friends from her school joined the squad.
I can't wait to start cheering on my daugter and the other girls!! I'm a screamer!!! GO LAZERS!!!!

Indians Game 8-3

What a great weekend! Saturday we went to a birthday party...another one! lol Went to In-Laws house to visit Tarryl's Aunt from Maryland but Hannah said her ear has been hurting all day so we left Gabby and Leia there and took Hannah to the Hospital. 1 hour later dropped of the prescription and headed back to the visiting part. :) Hannah and Gabby spent the night there. Sunday, we went to church and Leia stayed with Nana and Papa, then afterwards a baseball game!

Is was a very nice day! We had great seats. Where the sun was we were in the shade with a nice breeze. We had nachos, ice cream, peanuts, drinks. Two seats in front of me, one seat in front of Hannah (she moved to a empty seat) a older kid got hit with a ball. He's fine, it hit him in the knee. Very scary as a parent, I was a little shaken up. All around good day!