Pajama Day & Morgan wins!!

This week at Morgan's school is spirit week. Each day the kids get to come to school some fun, unusual way. Today was PJ day. I can't tell you how happy Morgan was to roll out of bed and into the car for school with no fuss of getting clothes. It made my life alot easier as well. I think we might be on to something here; I mean forget school uniforms and bring on the PJ'S and the happy stress free mornings. I know on the RARE occasion that I get to stay in my grungies all day I am a happier me. :) I will post pictures each day of what she does. Stay tuned cause tomorrow is crazy hat and sunglasses day. Too cute!! The second half of my post "Morgan wins!" goes waaaaaayyyy back to about a year ago. Morgan has been begging Dan to let her get her ears pierced. Now I for one could care less. I am not a huge jewelry person and we had decided from the get go that we would let our girls decided on their own when they were ready to get their ears pierced and when they were ready to care for them. Well, the time came and Dan freaked! He got all wierded out and acted like she was going to get a tatoo or something. On and on for weeks about how she was his first baby and so on. Really very dramatic. :) Sorry honey its true. So Morgan backed off for a long time and then a couple of weeks ago came to him and said she had been praying about it and if it dishonored God she didn't want to do it. It took everything Dan had to not let her think it dishonored God. So tonight with Dan dragging behind us at the mall we went and she got her ears pierced. She was so cute and brave. Dan too!

Here she is before..................

Here she is on the second hole. She and Dan are holding hands. Darn it I should have taken a picture of that too.

Here she is after. When it was all over she pulled me down and said,"mom, that REALLY hurt ya' know." We all went out for a family dinner and topped off the evening with a celebration milk shake. Good job Morgan, I think you look beautiful.

Cousin Time

Happy Sunday everyone! Today we got to go down and see the twins Nathaniel & Alexandra (newest members of our family) I had met them but the girls had not gotten to meet them yet so they were VERY excited. The babes are about 6 weeks old now & doing great! Morgan was so excited to hold her new cousins.
Ryanne did a great job too and was really gentle with them. Although after about half an hour she lost interest and went outside to play with the dogs. ;)
David, Kim & Tyler came over as well and joined us for lunch.
The dad's and all their babes! Although ours aren't looking so little anymore.
Right before everyone headed for home we thought to get a shot of all the cousins on the couch together. I think we waited to long because Tyler was exhausted and Ryanne was well; Ryanne was just Ryanne. The twins slept and Morgan smiled enough for everyone. :) I think everytime we get together I will take this shot so we can watch how much they change.

Easter Sunday

Well I hope everyone had a great Easter with their families. The girls and I went to church in the morning & then headed down to the fire station so we could spend some time with Dan and his crew. The girls got their Easter buckets there and did a little egg hunt with Dan. It was fun and the guys REALLY enjoyed the carrot cake we made them. :) After the fire station we headed back up to Yucaipa to hang out at my Aunts house for the day. Below are some pictures of our day. Have a great Monday everyone!! Morgan & my mom
Ryanne and her great Grandma
My brother and Ryanne
This is a line up of all the grandkids in order by age, starting with me the oldest.
Then we lined up the grandkids along with the great grandkids so my grandma would have a current picture of us all together. :) My nephew Blake is missing from the picture and he is two years older than Morgan

Caught up

What a fun week. With school, swimming, work and just trying to get ready for Easter it sure flew by. On Wednesday we had the treat of our friends Brian and Yvonne who live up in Fresno come to stay with us for the night. Even though they got stuck running around to pick up carpool and sitting through Morgan's swim practice it was still fun to visit with them and go out to dinner that night. The girls just adore them. The whole time they were here Brian kept messing with Ryanne and telling her his name was not Brian but Frank so this in some wierd way bonded them for life as apparently Ryanne fell in LOVE with "Frank" and was crying for him after he left. ;) Thanks Brian! She keeps asking where her "Frank" & "Wonda" went.
The guys were getting annoyed with us because we would have them take our picture and then check to make sure we looked ok cause we were going to Blog the photo. We would take it and then say,"you know the shadows look bad lets move over here!" He,hee!
We had the best day Friday; Morgan had the day off for Good Friday so we took the girls to get their hair cut, went to lunch and then went to the movies to see Horton Hears A Who. After we got home we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and colored some Easter eggs on the patio. It took all of about 4 minutes before Ryanne dumped an entire bowl of blus dye down the front of my lap. Yup, good times. My toes are still dyed blue!! ;)
To top off our fun day/evening Morgans best friend Calab came over and stayed the night. I was so happy that they let me sleep in that I made them cinnamon french toast, eggs, and chocolate dipped strawberries for breakfast! Yummy! That was our week so far and now your all caught up! Have a blessed Easter. God is good and faithful. He is Risen!

A Hole In One!!

When Morgan started first grade this year she quickly realized she was one of the last few kids who still had not lost any teeth. So started the praying every morning before school. I mean this kid was faithful in asking God to remove her tooth. It was really cute. She would say,"God I just want to see what it feels like, so could you get my tooth out please?" Seven months later you guessed it; she lost her tooth last night. The way we jumped around screaming you would have thought we won the lottery. :) Dan is on a 72 so we decided to put her tooth in her "tooth fairy jar" and save it for daddy to see. Morgan asked me to put a note by the jar in the kitchen last night that said,"tooth fairy, please do not take this yet!" She figured a tooth just lying around was fair game. :) Here she is on her way to school this morning. She gets to sign her name on the tooth poster today and get a sticker. Ahhhhh..........to be little again. :)

Long over due.....................

Yesterday the girls and I made a long over due trip to see an old friend from youth group. Jon lives in Laguna Niegel. We were in the youth group together at SBCC and his dad Don was our pastor. We had some really fun times that have been imprinted on my heart for life. On the way to Jon's house I got a little bonus gift. One of my great friends from high school (we also played softball together & caused alot of trouble) lives down there near by with her husband and three kids. We stopped and met Cindi (who I have not seen since graduation) and her two girls for lunch. A quick shot while waiting for them to arrive.
The girls were fast friends. Not like my kids really give you a choice. They were all up in poor Kaitlyns face the minute she walked in.
After lunch we all headed over to Jon's. Here is Cindi with her youngest, Jon, me and Ryanne. Morgan took the picture. She is getting really good at that. :)
Now here we all are together. It was a really nice day and I loved getting to see Jon and pick on him since it had been so long. :) We looked at some old youth group pictures and laughed at how everyone looked. Really fun. I think often time the gift God has given us in memory although it can be hard to look back really is a treasure. We learn from them and we are also blessed by them. Thanks for a fun day Cindi and Jon. :)

Another day in the life of Ryanne......

The weather could not have been more beautiful on Monday so after being "over" doing the laundry and cleaning the house Ryanne and I decided to give in to our sping fever and head to the park. I love that I am a spontanious person and am able to just pick up and go at the slightest mention of fun. But I hate that I often think about it to late. Honestly, I have no problem skirting around my so called responsibilitys as a stay at home mom. If there is fun to be had I have no problem leaving the dishwasher full, the laundry folded on the table, or the kids rooms a mess. Its just that sometimes I get tunnel vision and think that is what is important. Dont get me wrong I like my house clean and picked up, I like to have clean clothes to wear but I LOVE life more. And lets be honest living is not done in the laundry room. ;)
I often think the second child gets left out on some of the spontaneous moments that you shared when you only had one. You were more care free, only had one other little person to look after etc. But now we have big sisters homework, big sisters swim practice, big sisters social life and swim meets, and church outings and on and on and on. The babe just gets used to tagging along.
So today I threw the blanket in the car, grabbed the camera, stopped and got us lunch and some lemonade (see there I go living on the edge again) and we went and just laid in the grass together. I felt so refreshed, happy, and Ryanne felt important and doted on.
I let her take a picture of us. Cute huh?
I am glad I took the time to "just be" and yes after an hour or so of throwing our cares and all the stuff I should have been doing it was back to carpool, homework, swim practice, & dinner. You want to know the most amazing part though? When I got home the laundry was still there, the dishes were still dirty, and the rooms still not picked up. But the dirt all over Ryanne's face, tha band-aid on her knees, and the fact that she got to tell big sis all about her day at the park with mommy was priceless. Have a great day today.

Calling All Kids

This past Saturday Dan brought me home this healthy cooking insert from a newspaper and it had all kinds of yummy snacks that I could eat. Chocolate chip cookies with no dairy or gluten and all these recipes for healthy bite size treats that the kids could practically make on their own. The girls and I decided to try one out. It was REALLY easy, REALLY healthy, and REALLY fun for them as it only took about ten minutes and tasted great.Sisters working together to coat their treats in coconut........
Chef's in the making................................
And of course the finfished product. I will put the recipe below but dont let that stop you from inventing all kinds of new things to make the "nibblers" your own. :)

Crunchy Coconut Balls

1/4 cup almond butter

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup rice crispies (we

used organic to avoid the gluten and high fructose corn syrup)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Combine almond butter and honey with a fork. Add cereal and mash it well with a fork. Form into bite size balls and roll into coconut. Put in fridge for 10 minutes to firm up. We also chopped up dark chocolate chips and and added them to the mix. See you can add whatever you like! Some other iseas that we are going to try is pretzels, cocoa powder, raisins. YUMMY!

Make a photobook - it's easy!

Need VS. Want

So my friend Jessica (you can find of her on my list of blogs) posted a challenge last week to see if anyone wanted to join her in saving money for the month of March. The way you do it is to not buy anything you dont "need". To often we pick up this or that and impulse buy. All the little things add up so quickly. It got me thinking so I decided to join her along with a few other people brave enough to really look at what they are spending their money on. I started playing a little extra game to take it one step further. I put an envelope in my car and everytime I would normally go through and get a tea at starbucks I put that money in the envelope instead. I kept track at the grocery store yesterday and everytime I reached for something I didn't need but that just looked good I took that amount and stuck it in my envelope. Just walking through Clraks I saved $20. I will skip my lunch date with aunt this week; cha-ching! another $12. I will keep you posted as the month goes on & let you know how much I made in my stash. I am going on vacation to SF with my cousin in April so what ever money I save this month will be a little "mad money" for my trip. :) Yay!
Oh and yes many of you are thinking,"hey, didnt you get a massage yesterday?" yes but that is a NEED. It helps me to keep moving with my arthritis. :)

If anyone else wants to join in its not to late! :)

Running non-stop............

This weekend was busy for our family. First thing Friday morning I dropped Ryanne off at her friend Hope's house; Then ran to pick up my grandma to meet up with Dan at Morgan's school. Each year they set aside a day to honor grandparents. Its very sweet, they have coffee and cookies and all the kids from each grade perform something they have been working on for the year. Then after the assembly the grandparents go to the classrooms and get to spend time with the kids. They get the tour and find out what they have been doing all year. The kids also make them cards and things like that.
Morgan was so cute, she was taking her great grandma all around introducing her to all her friends and to her teacher. After they are done they get to leave school at around 11:30 to take their grandparents to lunch and then spend the rest of the day with them. We all headed to Red Robin and had a great rest of the afternoon.
Then bright and early Saturday morning we headed to Palm Springs for Morgans swim meet. We originally thought she was in two really early events so we didnt even pack snacks or things for Ryanne to play with. Turns out they had her in the wrong events and we were there ALL DAY!!! Did you hear me? ALL DAY!! At least it was 84 degrees and beautiful outside. It was her first long course event which means she swam a 50m in backstroke and freestyle. That is double the distance she has been swimming. It was SOOOO crazy. I think I held my breath and closed my eyes the entire time she was swimming. She made it and I am pretty sure she thought she was going to die as she came out of the water. :) Here's my baby swimming across the pool in her final event. After we got home from the meet we headed over to my Aunt and Uncles house for my cousins 21st b-day party (sorry no pictures, forgot my camera).
After going to early service this morning we headed over to Caleb and Luke's for their joint birthday party. Fun was had by all but now I am ready to put my feet up. Whew, we have a really busy week ahead too! At least mine starts off with a massage tomorrow morning. :)