Not feeling great

Today Chad and I both took the day off. I actually left school yesterday after lunch. I had a headache all morning and then eventually my stomach got upset. I tried to make it all day, but my stomach wasn't going to let me. After lunch I called down to my secretary who was able to find me a sub, so I was able to leave. I decided that I should do lesson plans for today just in case I wasn't feeling any better before I left school. So I got sub plans done but not before I got sick. :( I drove to Chad's school to switch vehicles so he could get the girls and I could go home and take a nap. Addison didn't sleep well at all last night. I think she was up almost every hour, if not every two hours. So, I didn't get a good night of sleep obviously. Thankfully I did get to feeling a little better, but wasn't all the way better this morning and I was still really tired, so I decided to take today off too.

When Chad got up this morning he had a headache and he wasn't feeling the greatest either. So he decided to take the day off too. He went to school and did sub plans while I got the girls ready. I knew that I needed to rest today so Chad took the girls to his moms today. Plus, they were having their Easter Egg hunt today and I didn't want them to miss out on that fun. I told Chad I shouldn't take the day off with him anymore. I felt like I needed to be doing something. So, I got more laundry done and put away and also switched out Addison's winter clothes and put them away in bins and got out Presley's summer clothes from last year and hung them up in Addison's closet. I started switching out my summer and winter clothes too.

I was able to get in a little nap this afternoon though. I feel better, but still not all the way back to normal. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better. Chad has his girls basketball awards tomorrow night and Thursday we have Parent/Teacher conferences from 12:00 - 3:00 and 5:00 - 8:00. It's a long day, but it's also nice to get them all done with in one day.

Thankfully the girls don't seem be sick at all. We're hoping they will be fine and not get what we got. We are going home this weekend for my cousins wedding and it would stink if one or all of us are sick. I'm going to turn in a little early tonight so hopefully I will wake up refreshed tomorrow morning.

Friends

Tonight our friends Roxy, Brian and Grayden came over to our house. Brian came over to help Chad with a little electrical problem in the basement. I had already put the girls to bed, but I could hear Presley still up in her crib just talking. I knew that she would like to see Grayden so I got her up. While Chad and Brian were working and Roxy and I were talking, Presley and Grayden played. They were having a blast, chasing each other around the house and squealing with laughter. They then read books, drew, and played the piano. She got her *first kiss*.

Do you see how Grayden has his eyes closed? Isn't he sweet? Roxy asked me if I minded first, I said no of course, but when I showed Chad the picture he said I should've said yes. :) Presley looks like she's not sure about it. That's ok with me.

It was ironic that they came over tonight. I had just put her Curious George pajamas on after her bath for the first time tonight. Grayden gave these to Presley for her birthday last year and the first time she wore them he came over and it wasn't even planned. How cool is that?

All about Addison

This weekend was a special weekend for Addison. We had her dedication today at church. My parents came down to be with us. It was nice having all of our family on both sides with us today. After church all 18 of us went to Papa Vino's for lunch.

The girls did ok during the actual dedication. Addison didn't try to grab the pastor's mic or grab on his face and try her famous claws out on him. Presley didn't yell "NO!" and didn't run around, so I guess we can call it a success. I was prepared this time around. I took an extra outfit for Addison just in case. When we had Presley dedicated she had a MAJOR blow-out about 10 minutes before the pastor called us up on stage all over her outfit that I had gotten specifically for her dedication. Luckily, I had another dress packed in the diaper bag that I was able to quickly change her, but I wasn't really planning on using it, so it wasn't necessarily "cute" and didn't go with the shoes she was wearing with the first dress. This time I packed a dress AND matching shoes that I liked enough to use if I needed to, but thankfully we didn't need it. The only problem was that Presley didn't want to pray and didn't want Chad to pray either when the pastor was praying for Addison. She was trying to push away from Chad. I think she was scared that the pastor was going to hold her next (he was holding Addison while praying for her). Chad and I looked at the video today and it was funny watching her try and squirm away from Chad and grabbing on to his hands to try and separate them so he wouldn't pray either. No one would've noticed unless they were peeking during prayer. ;) We tried to get a few pictures after church, but Presley is NOT into pictures at this age. Oh well, we got a couple. Pictures here. Addison did get a mouth-full of rose as we were walking off stage. They had given me a rose because I represent the love in the family and Addison decided that it looked pretty appetizing. Luckily she didn't bite any of it off.

Lunch didn't go over so great. The food was wonderful, but the girls had had enough. Addison was tired and hungry and Presley was just tired. She wasn't about sitting. She wanted to go. Thankfully we had Mom B., Cindy and Gabi to help distract Presley and Jenny held/rocked Addison so Chad and I were able to eat a little. We are so thankful for family. As soon as we got home both girls went right to bed without a sound and slept for almost 3 hours. When they got up they both enjoyed the wonderful weather we are having by playing outside.

What a great weekend - family, warm weather, wagon rides, walks, swinging, good food, church, laundry finished, house cleaned, and LOTS of sunshine.

It's THAT nice.

The weather this week has just been GREAT!!! I am loving the warm springy weather. Chad even uncovered the grill and fired it up for dinner this week. We had yummy cheeseburgers. This weekend has been even greater (weather-wise) than this past week. We spent lots of time outside. Presley is loving being outside and actually throws a fit when we have to come in. We're crossing our fingers that it stays nice.

These things are AmAzInG!

This is what I imagine Addison is saying to herself. She has discovered her toes, and she is having a blast. The minute I lay her down, she is trying to get her toes in her mouth. She gets frustrated when she has socks on because she can't hang on to her toes. Diaper changes are a little harder now, because I can't get her legs stretched out.Do you see her owwie? She had her booster shot for her flu shot today. They were done before she even made a sound. She did great. She wasn't too happy afterwards, but during she did great! When we got home, I was changing her diaper and Presley saw her owwie and gave it a kiss on her own. So sweet that girl is. She is just beginning to army crawl backwards now. She doesn't get up on on fours, but she pushes herself up on her hands, and then scoots backwards. I think she gets frustrated because she sees something in front of her, and tries to get it, but ends up even further away than she was to begin with. I'm sure it won't be much longer. Did you notice her cute toes? Presley helped me paint them the other day. Presley got her two big toes painted before I had to put it away. She kept saying "Preckley do it." She didn't want me to paint them, she wanted to do it herself.And before I go, do you think this has anything to do with the fact that Addison still isn't sleeping through the night consistently. :) Just kidding. It looks like she is dead tired in this picture, and needing a caffeine pick me up.

Happy Day!

I found this on another blog I was reading and it had my laughing so loud. I was actually crying I was laughing so hard. I LOVeD it! I dare you to watch it and not laugh!

funeral services via the flush

It hasn't been a great two days here for the animals in our house, more specifically the fish. Presley has had 3 fish for almost a year. Two goldfish and one black fish. For some reason unknown to us, the black one died yesterday. I went in to feed them last night and saw him floating on the top. I'm not sure why, but I almost cried. It was just sad to see him up there floating. Well, I called Chad up from the basement to deal with him. I just couldn't do it. We noticed that the two others weren't looking so good either. I knew it wouldn't be long. This morning when I got Presley out of bed, I found one of the goldfish floating on the top and the other one just sitting still on the bottom, barely holding on. By this afternoon, that fish had died too. :( So, now we are fishless. We didn't show Presley obviously, we didn't tell her anything and she wasn't around when Chad was taking care of them ( read - flushing). Tonight when I put her to bed, she noticed that her fish tank with fishies wasn't there. She asked me, "fishies go?" I didn't know what to say. So I just repeated what she had said, and in the next minute she was on to something else.

So in two days, we have lost 3 fish. We are watching Chad's sisters dog, Maizy this weekend while they are away. They may want to come home sooner than they were planning. Our record with animals isn't so great right now. :) We started with 5 animals on Friday, and now we are down to 2. I hope no one calls the ASPCA reporting animal abuse on us.

Why is it...

that it is easier for babies to make the "da da" sound than the "ma ma" sound? Addison has provided more evidence that this is indeed true. This past week she has been saying "da da da da" over and over again. I know she doesn't have a clue as to what she is really saying yet, just stringing sounds together, but still. Chad is enjoying this new communication. I guess I'm not that surprised. Presley did say da da before ma ma. I guess I just feel like I should hear ma ma first just once. I'm the one they see more. :) Middle of the night feedings, it's me, middle of the night (or anytime really) poopy diaper changes, me again. sigh. I guess I still have some chance left, if she associates "ma ma" with me before she catches on to "da da" I will count that one up for me. Keep your fingers crossed, and help me out by saying "ma ma" to Addison every time you see her. Wait, maybe that won't work. She will think everyone is called "ma ma". Maybe I can just tape my voice and put it in her tape player on repeat while she is sleeping. A little subliminal message never hurt anyone. :)

close call

Yesterday I ran more errands with both girls. They are doing so great. We ran to Meijer to pick up some dog food, so I stopped by the birds, fish, guinea pigs, and hamsters for Presley to see for awhile. She LOVES animals. She got so excited. She kept saying "look Addy, see it? tiny? baby? so cute kitty. so cute bunny. uh tiny." I guess she thought the guinea pigs and/or hamsters were either kitties or bunnies. I admit it is hard to tell when they are all curled up asleep. So I can understand why she would call them kitties and bunnies. All you can see is a furball. She was doing great, having so much fun...until it was time to say good-bye to them. She wasn't ready to leave apparently. :) The key I have found is to either A.) ignore her or B.) distract her. Option A.) wasn't really an option considering we were in Meijer so I went with option B.) Distraction. Luckily for me, the lighting aisle is right next to the pet section. I quickly pushed the cart down that aisle, and in her next breath she went from wailing to saying, "look mommy, addy? light, uh see it? onnnne - twwwwwo - threeeeee - sevennnnn - EIGHT! She loves the number 8 for some reason. We were fine after that. :) Tantrum avoided!

11 hours...

That's how long Addison went last night between feedings. I had cards, so I had fed Addison around 6 right before I left. Chad fed her a little sweet potatoes while I was gone, but no bottle. She went down around 7:30 and didn't wake up AT ALL! She slept straight through until I woke her up at 5 to feed her when I got up. I couldn't believe it. She slept all night. This was her first time going that long. She has slept around 6 hours or so, but this was a record for her. I was so happy. I wonder if it's the food? She is a pretty good sleeper, not as good as Presley was, but not bad either. She has been waking up around 3 or 4 for a quick feeding. I think it's just for comfort and out of habit because it's not for very long. I am wondering if we will be back to that tonight, or if she is starting to sleep through the night. I have my fingers crossed. :)Edited to add: No such luck with the 11 hour sleep thing. Addy was back to her usual routine of waking up around 3 to eat. :(

farm girls

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday in their "farm" outfits. Still, having fun with coordinating their clothes. I had given Addy a piggy tail and Presley decided that she wanted one too. I know it was only because Addison had one. I guess I should take that as a hint to me, when I want to do Presley's hair cute, then I should just do Addison's first. It didn't matter to me why, but I was glad she let me. She used to be so good about sitting while I could play with her hair, put it in pigtails, pony tails, whatever I wanted, now... it's a miracle I even get it combed each morning. She arches her back and throws a fit when I try and comb her hair. I think it's just an age thing, because her hair is really smooth, and she hardly ever has any tangles. Now Addison on the other hand I could understand if she threw a fit because she rubs her head back and forth so much during her sleep that she gets some big tangles in the back.

Like Presley's face in this picture? Here is a beginning to one of her fits. AND you want to know what this one is about??? She decided she didn't want mommy to take a picture. "no, picture mommy." I mean what was I thinking??? Torturing her with a camera? ;) Oh well, I couldn't resist taking a picture, she looked like such a big girl. Do you notice how light her hair is getting? It is growing in so light now. I'm wondering what will happen this summer if it will get even lighter?

Happy Birthday Mom B!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Mom/Grandma
Happy Birthday to you!

(I thought about having Chad and I sing it to you and record it and put it on here, but that wouldn't be pretty, and I also thought about having the girls try, but that wouldn't go so great either. Next year maybe.) :)

Just wanted to wish you a very happy day and a great year. We are so thankful for who you are and all you do. The girls are lucky to be able to spend their days with you. We love and appreciate you. Happy Birthday!

Spring Fever

We are loving this spring weather we have had the last few days. I hear it's just a tease, as they say it isn't going to last. I would almost rather it just stay cold until it warms up for good, but oh well. We will enjoy it while it is here. The girls and I have been enjoying the warmer weather by going on walks. It's actually the first time the girls have been able to use this stroller even though we have had it almost a year now. I love it! We got it for Presley's birthday last year, but we had to wait until Addison was strong enough to sit up in it. The girls both love it too! They were so relaxed. We went for walks around our subdivision and Presley kept pointing out all kinds of things. She really is doing so well at talking. I love that we can have conversations now. We met some of our neighbors on our walk. Nathaniel, Nicholas, Elizabeth, and their mommy were out on a walk too. They are 5, 3, and 1. Presley didn't want to come in. After we had made our first lap around the subdivision we stopped back and home, and I started to get Presley out to go inside and she decided that she wanted to push Addison in the stroller, so I let her help me push her around another lap before we came in. She still didn't want to come in and let me know by throwing a fit. I'm afraid we are getting into that stage of fits. sigh. Speaking of having conversations...yesterday I took the girls out by myself to run some errands. It actually went pretty good. I just make sure that I park either near the door to the store or near a shopping cart. I put Addison up front and Presley sits in the back. Presley did want me to hold her towards the end, but after a few whimpers she stopped. Coming home was another story. Addison must've been tired or hungry but soon after we got in the car and heading home, she started crying....hard. Presley was trying so hard to get her to be happy. She was singing songs with me, talking to her, "it's 'tay Addy." (It's ok, Addy.) She even offered her the binky that was in her mouth. That's a big deal. Presley loves her binky. She can only have it during her naps or at night for the most part, but she didn't want back in her car seat either, so I had given her one for the way home. I heard her talking to Addy and looked back to see her holding her hand out with the binky I had given her. She was trying to offer it to Addy. How sweet! They quite often hold hands while we are in the car.

Solids

We have started Addison on solids. We started with sweet potatoes and she LOVED them. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. She ate the whole container the first time she tried them. With Presley it would take her 3 meals to get through a container....not Addy. She doesn't always eat them as well as that first time, but she is doing really good with them.

We also have tried the biter biscuits. They were a big hit also.

Do I look pretty?

Now that I have two girls who have hair that is long enough to put hair clips in, I have had to buy some more. The clips also seem to be disappearing on me. Presley is at the stage where when you put her down for her naps, she will unzip her sweater or sweatshirt, take off her socks take out her hair clip and throw everything out of her crib. So, quite a few have come up missing. I bought a few different packages of different clips the other day and Presley found them before I had a chance to put them away. She insisted on putting them all in her hair at once. So, what do you think? Does she have a future as a hairdresser like her mom? :)

New Specs

The girls helped their friend Katie at Day Care celebrate her 4th birthday yesterday. They came home with these new sunglasses in their goodie bags. Addison's glasses kept sliding down her face because she didn't have a big enough nose to hold them up.

bath hats

Check out the girls' new hats! What do you think? Pretty cute, huh? These are the little blue bowls that the hospital sends home with you for giving newborns a sponge bath. Presley plays with hers in the bath, and just discovered that they can be fabulous hats too! And of course everything Presley does, she thinks Addison should do too. Addison isn't quite as crazy about the hat as Presley is.

as promised...

Here are a few shots of the basement so far. Hilary came over tonight and helped paint (well, I guess I should say pretty much painted the whole basement herself. Chad got busy working on the drop ceiling and I wasn't feeling the greatest for some reason. So, she got almost all the walls done herself and I painted the corners with a brush.) We were talking about how Hilary has helped us paint at least 7 of our rooms in our house so far. We are lucky she isn't charging us. :) I guess we will owe her once she moves into her own house someday. Chad is basically done with the ceiling, except the side pieces that he still needs to cut. Notice how Queenie is supervising Chad's work...



She's also checking out the work in the office too. She's a nosy little doggy.
I promise that the office isn't as bright as the picture looks. It's actually pretty dark, almost a cranberryish type color. Anyways, there you go. Don't mind the mess.

Now we will work on getting all the doors up and painted, installing the door hardware, and painting the trim and getting it up. Then we will be ready for carpet! :)

correction

***We painted the office in Ground Nutmeg (not Pumpkin Patch). And, we have changed the New Chestnut in the rest of the basement to Toasted Wheat. The Chestnut color was just a tad to dark for me, especially since it was a basement.***

We have gotten three coats painted in the office, and I think we are done with the painting in there. We still have probably one more coat in the rest of the basement to do with the Toasted Wheat color. I am debating whether I will do one wall a different (darker) color from the rest, and if I decide to do that, then I will have to paint that wall again. We picked out and ordered our carpet on Saturday morning. It should be in sometime this week. Chad and his Uncle Kenny worked on the basement for quite a few hours on Saturday while Addison and I were at the bridal shower (Presley napped almost the entire time at home.) They got a door hung up and worked on some trim. Sunday Chad's dad and Uncle Rusty came over and got lots done on the drop ceiling. We ended up going with something similar to this. It's about 1/2 way done and Chad has put about 1/2 the lights up in the drop ceiling. Things are definitely rolling now. Chad and I painted until close to midnight on Friday night then he worked in the basement all day Saturday and Hilary and I painted after the shower on Saturday night and Sunday Chad worked in the basement all day and Hilary and I painted again last night. I think Chad and I decided to take tonight off, so no work in the basement for us. We are hoping to get to bed early. We have been spending a lot of time in the basement, and we both woke up still exhausted today. So we will go back for more painting tomorrow night. Hilary has offered to come back and help again. After the painting is done and the drop ceiling in, we will go back and work on getting the rest of the doors in and then putting up the trim. It seems like we have gotten so much done, but when I think about all there is still left to do, wow! I guess it's because everything is happening so fast. Oh well, I know we will be so thankful when it is finished. Chad was saying that he won't have anything else to work on in the house after this is finished and I reminded him that Presley and Addison's birthdays are coming up and we will need a playset installed in the backyard soon.... :) I'm sure there will always be something.

Sorry there aren't any pictures. I guess I don't think about grabbing the camera while we are busy working. I will try to get down and take some tonight. Happy Monday!

Basement Update - 2

Yesterday Chad stayed home from school to work more on the basement. He got lots done! He washed all the walls and got them all primed, he got the ceiling primed and painted, he installed the lights, and put the registers back together. After school I picked up the girls and met him at Home Depot. We picked up the paint for the basement. We ended up going with a burnt orange color for the office and a light chocolate color for the rest of the basement. (I tried to put a link in here so you could see the colors, but it wouldn't work. If you want to see them, click on this and go to color smart and type in Pumpkin Patch and New Chestnut. Those are the two we picked. If you have trouble seeing the colors, just wait and I will post pictures after we are finished hopefully by the end of the weekend.) We felt kind of in a hurry to pick them out, so I hope I like them. Presley was only interested in sitting on the "tracker" (tractor). She was running down the aisle to get to them. We took turns taking her to see them while we were waiting for our paint to be mixed. She learned the route to take to get from the paint department to the tractor department. After we left and were on the way home, every once in awhile she would wave and say "bye tracker, yater, yove" (see you later, I love you.) She would also say the same thing to the color green. "Bye green, yater, yove". She had picked out a green sample paint card with a picture of Mickey on it that we left at the store.

After we got home we ate dinner, then the guy came over to measure our basement for carpet. We then put the girls to bed and Chad and I painted the first coat in the office. When we got the paint, they recommended a tinted primer, but because Chad had already primed it white, we just decided that we would do more than one coat of paint. We definitely need at least two coats. I'm not sure I'm loving the color just now. It's hard to tell, I think it will be fine once we get a second/possibly third coat on it and it dries. So, the plan for tonight is to do that second coat in the office. Tomorrow morning we are meeting the carpet guy to pick out and order our carpet, then we hope to go pick out and buy our trim. In the afternoon I have a bridal shower to go to for my cousin and then when I get back I think we will attempt to paint the rest of the basement and the trim. Sunday I'm sure we will be doing second coats. Sometime Chad is hoping to get some help to hang up our drop-ceiling and also the doors. We still have lots to do, but it is looking like a real place to live now. It's exciting. I'm hoping to have pictures to share later this weekend. Hope everyone has a good one!

Addy's Belly Laugh

I mentioned before that Addy was really starting to get a belly laugh. Here is an example. Don't mind the music in the background, I have no idea what it is. I think the tv must've been on. Happy Friday!

A funny

I've seen this several time on my emails from teacher friends in the last couple of years. I got it again today and thought I would share. :)

This is the message that the P***** P******** High School ( California ) staff voted unanimously to record on their school answering machine. This is [allegedly--I didn't check the sources, but thought it was funny] the actual answering machine message for the school, which came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework *gasp*.

The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough schoolwork to pass their classes[parents really crack me up].

The outgoing message:

"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

*To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
* To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2
* To complain about what we do - Press 3
* To swear at staff members - Press 4
* To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyer's mailed to you - Press 5
* If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
* If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone -Press 7
* To request another teacher, for the third time this year -Press 8
* To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
* To complain about school lunches - Press 0
* If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!