Ringing in October

I saw this cute & really simple craft and thought it would be fun to make for the girls and their friends next door. You know help them ring in October tomorrow. You just take toilet paper rolls, glue some cute fall type material around the tube. Then tie off one end with ribbon (I added some plastic spider rings) and then fill with yummy little candies or treats. Tie off the other end and there you have it. These will be at my girls breakfasts spots in the morning. :) Have a great night! :)

Our Weekend

Remember in my last post how I said I was not looking forward to going out of town AGAIN to Dan's early morning race and I was trying to figure out how to get out of it? Weeeeellllllllllll, Dan came off shift Friday morning and it appears I gave Dan my cold. Ooppsss! ;) I felt bad but oh how nice it was to stay home ALL weekend. I can't remember the last time we did that. We slept in, I washed and cleaned out my car, I made a yummy pumpkin dessert and we watched football. I even got a little sewing in.

We even had some wind on Saturday so Morgan was playing with our huge Nemo kite. So relaxing.
While Morgan played with Nemo Ryanne played with her toys in the garage and got as dirty as possible. :)
Something else cool that happened last week is that I got these two free tickets in the mail to the Aquarium. What happened is someone who works there stumbled on my blog after I had talked about our family fun home school day at the aquarium. She passed it around the office there and they contacted me to say,"thanks!" So we went to the mail to find two free passes to visit again. I LOVE when you get little treats that you weren't expecting. So fun!
On Sunday night we even got to go on a date night. Our church bought out an entire theater of so we could all go view the movie Fireproof. It was so funny to walk into a movie and see everyone from church sitting there. We had such a nice time. Our friends Greg and Stephanie picked us up and afterwards we walked down a few blocks and sat outside while enjoying dinner. The movie was really good and had a great message. I think in our minds we all know that our marriages are something that are not full proof on their own and that we need the Lord daily to make them not only work but work for his glory. The thing is with all the crazy business of our lives and all the temptations satan throws out there to try and tempt you to be "self serving" our marriages can go unmaintained for a long time & that only gives satan a foothold. If you are not serving the Lord first and allowing his qualities to flow down into your spouse then you have to be serving someone. If your not serving him then who? it has to be self and in marriage that will never work! The movie touches on allot of these things!
Last but not least here is my sweet Ryanne on her way out the door this morning. All smiles and full of promises to obey! ahhhhhhhhh, thank you God for a new day and your mercy's. How many times have I promised to do the right thing or to obey and fallen short of what you ask of me? Thank you God that you are mercy's are new every morning.

This N' That............

On Friday we had our home school trip to the LA County Fair. So much fun. Ryanne was in school so it was just me, Morgan and my Aunt went with us as well. We had so much fun walking around petting all the animals and Morgan even milked a goat. She is convinced she is going to live on a farm when she gets bigger. :) Here is a really sweet picture of her little hand petting a new chick. Then early Saturday morning Morgan had a swim meet. She did really well beating two of her times. She did her 25m freestyle in 23seconds! Whew-hew! She got DQ'd on her breaststroke because and I quote,"mom, I got this crazy left leg that does weird stuff sometimes!" he,heee! So cute. :)
Here is a picture of her warming up. I have given up on trying to catch her in the middle of her race cause I don't want to be looking through my camera and miss the 23 seconds of excitement. It's over so fast and I can't cheer, jump up and down AND take a clear picture. :)
Right after Morgan's meet we bolted down to Long Beach so Dan could get ready for his race on Sunday AM. It was two REALLY early mornings in a row. Yaaaawwwwwnnnnn! Welcome to race season I guess. Dan has another one this coming weekend and I am trying to figure out how I can get out of going. :) I just want to sleep past 5am for ONE weekend. You can see in the photo below we are starting to look tore up!! Dan did do great shaving a few minutes off his time from last year.
On to my Ryanne. You know I always have great stories of my little tornado for you. As you know Ryanne has started pre-k. We knew that since she just turned 4 this might be a little bit hard for her to adjust but we had faith that she could focus and get the job done. :) We have discovered something about our little pistol and that is she is all smiles and happy as long as nobody is trying to set boundaries for her. Apparently the "free spirit" in her doesn't like to be fenced in. ;) So with two weeks of school under her belt she has been in trouble twice with two card changes. Ugh!!!!Now in case you have not caught on to our parenting tactics we tend to be pretty strict and consistent. I know we fall short in lots of areas but being consistent seems to be both Dan & my strong points. Ryanne however thinks she is stronger than both of us and so she is trying to re-invent the wheel. After she got a RED card change last Friday we decided to make her life a bit hard this weekend. See photo below.
We took away cartoons, friends, and special treats. We told her when she went back to school on Monday she could start by apologizing to her teacher and then if she didn't' get a card change she could pick something to have back. She was so mad at us. Did I say UGH already in this post? UGH! She made it through Monday without a card change and chose to have her special snacks and treats back. If she gets through Wed. without any trouble then she can pick to have friends or cartoons back. We are quickly seeing where her priority's lie. ;) Food, TV, then friends. he,heee! Man oh man I know we are supposed to embrace the season we are in with our kids but God if you could just give me a little, tiny glimpse into the future and let me see that my kids don't end up in prison then I will gladly smile through this season of card changes, rolling of the eyes and time outs! pleeeeaaasssseeeeeeeeee!!!

Sniffles, Birthdays & Flashbacks

*Sniff* AAHHHHH-CHOOOOO! *Sniff* Oh, be glad you are on that side of the monitor this morning. I have a miserable cold. I have been fighting the good fight since late Wed. evening but last night it won. And I mean won! I lost my voice. Have drank more hot tea with honey than a normal body my size should ever take in and gone through more tissue than a nose should ever see. Then this morning I coughed up something that I am pretty sure was alive at one time or another. YUCK! So as my family headed out the door to church I rolled up in my robe and came to update my blog and visit with you good people. :) aaaa-chooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Saturday was my Grandmas birthday so with her three daughters, two of her granddaughters, and one of her great granddaughter's in tow we headed out to lunch. Ya' you guessed it, the girl gene pool is very strong in our family. Which by the way makes for VERY loud and entertaining holidays when we are together. ;) Happy birthday Grandma. I love you!!
Saturday night was Morgan's swim awards banquet. They decided to make it an 80's theme party. So everyone (that was brave enough) dressed the part. It was so fun. Morgan & I totally got into it, blue eyeshadow and all. Dan wore his 80's high school t-shirt but that was it. :)
Here is Morgan with Austin (aka Slash) one of the coaches.
We went early to help set up and the kids were all getting there groove on to 80's music. It was really funny. They kept asking did you have this in the 80's or that and finally Dan said,"yes, and can you believe we even had the WHEEL!" It was so funny.
My mom was in town for my Grandmas birthday which was great cause I had NO IDEA how to apply eyeshadow. She did Morgan's make-up and painted her nails that bright blue! Thanks for your help mom! I am soooooo make-up and hair challenged! We all had lots of fun and the parents really put together a fun night for all the kids. Morgan got her first swim trophy which was SO exciting for her. :) ROCK ON MAN! LONG LIVE THE 80'S!!

*ahhhoooo-choooooo!!*Sniff,sniff*

Aquarium Time

Yesterday was so fun. We got to attend the Aquarium of the Pacific's Home School days. The Aquarium opens its doors for two days for home school families to come and visit and for only $6 dollars a person!! Can't beat that. It was so nice. We left at 7am yesterday morning and checked in at 9am. Then we had free reign over the Aquarium till' noon. Dan had the day off so it was a great family day down in Long Beach. This Sea Lion was hysterical. Every time you walked over to this particular spot he would come hang out with you. I think he is flirting with Morgan here. She was in LOVE!! ;) The funny thing is they had these port holes all over and Ryanne went and stuck her head in one to see if she could see a Sea Lion; all of a sudden this baby came darting out of the back of the tank and went right at the glass. I have NEVER seen Ryanne jump so high or move so fast. Ummmm, I think she momentarily forget she was protected by the glass. he,heeee!
Father and daughter in deep thought over their discoveries.
The minute the girls walked up to the window this octopus came over and spread herself across the window. Not very lady like if you ask me. ;) Seriously though when she was done being photographed and gawked at she turned all white and retreated to this rock where she blended in so well you would have barely noticed her. The lady standing at the window says she does that when she's tired of being stared at and wants to be left alone. Now that sounds more like a woman to me!
We walked up to this window and when the lady asked the girls if they knew what this was called I proudly said,"lunch!" I didn't get the response I was looking for. Dan just rolled his eyes at me. Whhaaaaatttt?????????
This was the shark area where the girls got to pet sharks and watch them get fed. Morgan was so excited because she wants to be a shark scientist when she grows up. They had these tables set up throughout the museum and lots of times Morgan & Ryanne got to talk one on one with the people who were working the tables. So it was really nice and not crowded at all. After we were done there we went and had lunch down by the water. No NOT fish, the girls wouldn't allow it. They think they are pets now. :) This day was yet another reminder of why I love home schooling Morgan. It was a low key day, not stressful and we got to do something fun AND educational all at the same time.

Cooking Class, Published and Pillow Fights!

Now that we are home schooling this year we have more time in the afternoons to do some of things we love to do. Morgan is always asking me if she can cook but with our crazy schedules last year it seemed like either Dan or myself was just throwing things together and we didn't have time to teach the girls how to make some of their favorite foods. I gave Morgan her kids cookbook and told her to mark all the things that looked good and each week she could pick one of the things to make for the family to try. Last week she decided to start with dessert (works for me!) ;) Here she is very serious working at the mixer. Here she is getting ready to put her layered bars in the oven. I totally forgot to take an "after picture" I think its because we ate them to fast! Great job Morgan. This coming Sunday she is making lasagna rolls. Yummy, can't wait!
About 6 months ago after reading a story on my blog that made her laugh out loud my Aunt suggested I have my blog turned into a book so that when our kids get older they have all my writings in book form. I don't know about you but my Blog has become sort of a journal for me. Never in a million years will I be able to remember the barbie, hair cutting incident or the way Morgan melted my heart over something she prayed. To many things happen in a day and we forget all those things that make our lives so fun and rich. I really wanted Morgan & Ryanne to have something they could hold in their hands and read. So I went onto www.blurb.com and created my book.
As you can see I started out very simple to make sure I liked the end result. I am going to do it yearly so I keep up current with my blog & then put them up for the girls when they are older. They we're so excited to see it all in print. It's really fun to make and there are all different price ranges.
Now onto pillow fights. I know the picture below is blurred but I liked it anyway. it showed the intensity at which my husband is throwing these gigantic pillows at his two helpless daughters. Dan had just gotten home yesterday and the girls wanted to play a quick game before Morgan had to leave for swim practice. I was in the office doing something (assuming they were playing go-fish or something) when I hear what sounded like the house being torn apart and lots of screaming.
I go down the hall to find they are throwing these HUGE floor pillows at each other. Really, Dan was pretend bowling and knocking the girls over as they came running at him. They were knocking over all kinds of stuff and destroying the house. I finally put my foot down when a pillow thrown at Dan almost took our lamp down. I know, I know they don't call me the "fun sucker" for nothing. Seriously though Dan was home for one day and its totally wrestle mania, destroy the house, cut Ryanne's leg open, I could go on but I will spare you. :) He's on OT now so all is calm and quiet. Actually the girls are counting the minutes till' the next "attack!!" Gotta' love daddy's!

A Day In The Life Of Ryanne

Well, my little fireball started 3-day pre-k this week. At first I was really nervous because we are friends with her teacher & I thought,"well, that was a nice friendship while it lasted." Don't get me wrong I LOVE my daughter but she is a handful. Dan kept telling me to save our money so we could buy her teacher Andrea a new car at the end of the year as her teacher's gift. he,heee! ;) Here she is below on the way to her first day looking oh so grown up. Over the weekend I started to get really sad thinking about leaving her somewhere for the first time but then that all changed in the blink of an eye. I thought she was in her room asleep for two hours the other afternoon when low and behold I go to check in and "wake her" and I find she has smuggled scissors & glue from her sisters room. Let me just give you a small glimpse into what I found and then you can just imagine the rest. Barbies + scissors + glue. Oh and did I mention her own hair? Ya' due to the fact that the very thought of the scene is still capable of boiling my blood I wont go on any further. Let's just say when Dan called home that night I started crying into the phone,"why didn't you let me send her to 5 day pre-k!!" I think that was followed by,"I hate you for leaving me on a regular basis!!" He,heee!
Here I am with the girls on our way out the door. I thought Morgan would be sad going to her old school (since we are home schooling) but she did great! She was happy to see her old friends and went to see her oh so sweet 1st grade teacher from last year but she was fine leaving too. She likes home schooling because we have more time. We are less stressed and in the car less. Plus we get to do more family things.
Ryanne was so happy to see her friends. She felt right at home. No tears or clingy behavior. Just smiles and lots of,"bye mom, I love you!"
Monkey Ryanne!
Sailor Ryanne wrapping up her week this morning. She loves her teacher Andrea and is VERY serious about me not forgetting to pack her snack. Wouldn't life be grand if the only thing we worried about during the day was our snack? Wait a minute, that is all I worry about! ;)