Teacher Appreciation Week ~ Day 1

This week is teacher appreciation week. Allie and I decided we would take a little something for her teachers each day. It's not going to be anything BIG because she has 4 teachers and that could get pretty expensive. Simple & Sweet is what we're going for. We really do appreciate all her teachers have done for her. Because of them she absolutely LOVES school and is so excited about starting Kindergarten next year. She's come a long way since the beginning of the year!

Little notebooks with spring colored pens and a little tag

close up

We had Allie write a little note to each teacher on the first page. I wrote a note from Derek and I on the next page.

The Great Baby Name Debate

I don't know why Derek and I always have such a hard time coming to an agreement on names for our children! Here we are again........not agreeing on anything. Here is a list of names that either I like, he likes, Allie likes or we both/all sort of like. Feel free to comment on your thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc!! Middle name will more than likely be Brooks or James :0)

• Aiden
• Blake
• Brayden
• Emerson
• Hudson
• Layton
• Owen
• Reed
• Will
• Wyatt

 As far as the girls names, for any of you that were curious, that we liked -- I was set on Hayden and Derek actually liked this name too. I also really liked Presley and Camryn, but Derek didn't like those at all. I mentioned Allie coming up with an "A" name a while back. That was Alaina. I hear it a lot now, but she heard it in one of her Barbie movies or something (which is also how she came up with the boy name that she likes).

At the "Waterpark"

Not really the waterpark, but this is what Avery calls it!

Field Day

Today was field day at Scobee. The teachers must have been getting them excited about it all week because Allie kept telling me that she needed to wear shorts & a t-shirt and tennis shoes on Friday. Since Allie is in PM PreK her class had the games to themselves (the rest of the school had already finished.) Her class has 4 teacher and quite a few parents showed up so we divided into groups.......2 kids per adult. NICE and EASY! Plus, I had Allie and her best bud, Penelope........super easy! Of course I had Avery too and she kept running off for the playground. For the most part she was pretty good though.

Here are Allie and Penelope doing the joust.


Avery and one of her best buds, Emma.

We Beat the Odds!!!!

Had my 20 week ultrasound today and we're having a BOY!! We are ecstatic. Of course, we would have been happy with whatever the baby was but this is a new adventure for us!!! There was no denying that it was a boy either. :0) In fact, the ultrasound techs said it was very noticeable from the get go. They said if it turns out to be a girl they will be extremely shocked. I was measuring at 21 weeks 5 days.....technically I'm 20 weeks 3 days. I don't know if that's much of a difference for them to change anything. I guess I'll find that out at my next OB appointment, which isn't until the end of May. Baby looks to be healthy although I was a bit worried when they said they wanted to take another look at the heart after going over the ultrasound pics with the dr. They assured me it was nothing to worry about - - just needed a better picture. Hope it's not anything.

When I called to tell Derek he didn't believe me at all. I could tell the excitement in his voice. It was so sweet. The best though was a call just a few minutes after we hung up and the first thing he said was, "You're not joking with me are you?!" I'm happy he'll have his little buddy to hang out with. Even tonight when he called again just the sound in his voice was pure happiness.

Allie's reaction, however, wasn't as thrilling:

And it got worse.........


And this went on for a good 30 minutes....maybe more. She's fine now. We went and got the 31 cent ice cream at Baskin Robbins to celebrate. Then we went to Old Navy and the girls got to pick out a few outfits for their little brother. Now they are asking when he's going to get here!!

The Great Flood of 2011

Well Happy Easter to us!! The girls woke up early and they enjoyed their Scavenger Hunt to find their Easter baskets.....however because they were up so early they were both pretty cranky today. We went to church in two separate vehicles today because Derek needed to leave a little early to go into work and get stuff done for the trip he's leaving on tomorrow. Since the girls were being so cranky earlier I decided to skip the last hour (we have a three hour block for church). However, I'm wondering if there wasn't some greater reason as to why I decided to come home early. We go home walked in our front door and saw a very flooded house and heard what sounded like roaring rapids coming from the kitchen. I'm surprised I didn't start crying, but I did PANIC! I had no idea what to do!! I ran outside and turned what I thought was the water line off, came back inside and we still had roaring rapids. By this time the girls were crying hysterically. They were scared out of their minds and I'm sure my panicking didn't help any. I couldn't get Derek to answer any of his THREE phones so I ran to the neighbors to see if they knew what to do. By the time the neighbor got her husband I had finally gotten a hold of Derek and he was finally able to tell me how to shut the water off (it took him awhile b/c I think he was in shock). I knew he believed me though because I was so panicked while I was talking to him. He rushed home.....in the meantime our KIND, KIND, KIND neighbors came over and helped me start moving furniture outside and sweeping out the water. The girls tried helping too, but they kept falling down. I was afraid they were going to get seriously hurt! The water was about an inch and a half deep in the ENTIRE downstairs! Another set of neighbors came over to help with a wet vac, and we borrowed 2 others. So there were three of us doing that. While the other two people were soaking up water with towels and blankets. Another neighbor took the girls over to her house to get them out and let them play with her kiddos. I am just so thankful for wonderful neighbors who were so willing to help us out (on Easter to boot). And thankful that this happened on one of the 6 days that Derek is actually home this month.

We decided to tear up the carpet for fear of mold........the wet vacs were getting the carpet dry but not the padding underneath. We ripped out all of the padding.........we're trying to salvage the carpet.

SOME of the blankets, towels, etc hanging out to dry

The girls taking a well deserved break. FYI - Mom & Dad.......this is why Avery was SO dirty. She was sticky from the Popsicle and then played outside and all of the dirt stuck to her!

And finally, we had someone come out and take a look at the damage. We know how holes drilled in the bottoms of our cabinets to suck/dry out all of the water that leaked through. We have 2 dehumidifiers going and 6 industrial fans. It's going to cost us a whopping $1100 and will not be covered by home owners insurance b/c USAA sucks and has a ridiculously high deductible. We have to leave all of this stuff running for the next 2 days to hopefully get everything dried up so there won't be any mold. These things are so loud you can't even hear yourself think. We were hoping this would be our year........luckily it's still early in the year and we can still be a little hopeful. But right now things aren't looking too good.

Egg Hunt & Some Aloha

It's been a crazy, crazy busy day today. I waited until the last minute to go get our food for tomorrow and stuff for the Easter eggs for the girls' Easter baskets........bad decision! I remember working at a grocery store in high school and the day before Easter always seemed like the busiest day.  Luckily I knew what I was going for so I was in and out of 3 stores in an hour and a half.

We've done a lot of baking today. Mini bunny cakes for our neighbors and cupcakes for our 11 year olds at church and for our dessert tomorrow.

Allie & the cupcake she decorated. 

This evening we did our Easter egg hunt. The girls were soooooo excited!

Scoping out the yard

 

They were just as anxious to get in and see what was in their eggs!

Avery stopped after opening the first egg and ripped open her candy.......she thought she was going to be able to do that with every egg. She really would have if we didn't stop her. She loves her sweets!!

Their Easter baskets!! I think they turned out pretty good, especially for getting it all at the last minute. They will be searching for them tomorrow in a scavenger hunt!

And finally, Derek is back from Hawaii! The girls were SO excited to see him. It was pretty cute. They wouldn't leave him alone. He brought us back some ALOHA!

I'll post a video of the Easter egg hunt and scavenger hunt sometime next week. Have a Happy Easter!!

What's Cookin' Wednesday

Sausage, Onion, Potatoes, & Peppers

One of my favorite meals.....and it's pretty simple too. This was an easy decision for me tonight because we've had some sausage in the freezer for a while and we had potatoes and an onion that desperately needed to be used. I did make a stop at the grocery earlier today to get some fresh bell peppers.......only green though. We usually use red and yellow too, but they are way too expensive right now. We ended up not using the onion b/c it was way too far gone. So I replaced it with minced onion for the onion flavor. And yes, the girls love this too. I just have to cut the onion and pepper pieces big so we can pick around it easily :0)

Simple Directions
cut everything up and toss it all together in a pan with a little bit of oil and cook until done!! Add salt & pepper to taste (I also add some fennel seed).

Funny thing that just happened. I asked the girls to start cleaning up their toys since it's almost bed time. Well, like always, they try to find ways to get out of it. Allie all of a sudden has to go to the bathroom and Avery says okay and heads over to the dvd's. I ask her what she's doing, "organizing."

Easter Bunny Visit & Egg Hunt

Saturday we made a trip to the Bass Pro Shops to visit the Easter Bunny and participate in their Easter Egg Hunt. (I don't know why all of my pictures are looking blurry lately). The girls had fun. It was a little frustrating at first because we couldn't find any eggs. When we got there they had already started. We finally found 4 eggs after about 20 minutes of searching, but in order to get their treats they each had to find 5 eggs. At that point we decided to split up. Allie and I found the jackpot........they had just put out new eggs. We grabbed 6 in case Daddy & Avery couldn't find anymore. In the end, everyone was happy. :0)

It was so bright outside.......they were having a hard time looking at the camera

Before we went to see the Easter Bunny we went to the "Taste" at Sam's Club. Our plan was to fill up on the samples and that would be our lunch. Close, but didn't quite work. The girls LOVE eating at Sam's.......they really like their pizza.

Cute Quotes Recently:
We have 2 little basketball hoops for the girls. One has a white backboard and the other has a dirty gray backboard. Allie asked me which one matched her skin and I jokingly said the gray one. She said "No, my skin is white like the white backboard. Avery's is white like this one, yours is white like this one.....but Daddy's is dark like the gray one"  ??????

I know Avery said something really cute too, but I can't think of it right now. She does say "Okay, okay, okay" whenever we ask her to do something. She really exaggerates it and says it like she's giving in. Pretty cute.

Zoo Back Talk

Yesterday isn't really a day I want to remember. It was supposed to be a fun day. It was a no school day. I'm not really sure why there was no school. Something to do with Battle of the Flowers, whatever that is. Probably something to do with this whole Fiesta thing going on. Fiesta is like a two week long festival, called "Party with a Purpose". More like a time to bring crowds, drunks, and money to downtown is what I would say.
So, anywho.....We planned a "fun" trip to the zoo. It started out bad from the beginning. It was crowded. Mostly full of school field trips. One group of kids ran up to where Avery was standing and knocked her flat on her back. Of course the teachers / parents didn't do anything.

It only got worse from there. Later, we went to the Discovery House. More of a place for someone Avery's age, but Allie was really enjoying it and didn't want to leave. After being in there for 35 minutes I said it was time to go see the rest of the animals. Allie was not having that. She threw the biggest tantrum EVER all the way to the car. I said it was time to go when she started yelling at me and hitting me. Plus, on the way out of the zoo we all got pooped on by some birds. We probably won't be making a trip back to the zoo for quite a while.

My little trooper. Such a tired girl and probably dealing with a headache.

Okapi

Our favorite part