Big Girls

Today begins the madness that will be my weekends for the next month....and I don't really even want to look at March to see what it holds.  All I know is that for the month of February, we are pretty well booked up!  I'm not complaining though...there are lots of fun things coming up.  Today was no different.  We'll start with Ava.  She got to participate in her first cookie booth this morning and it was super cute to watch her and her friends in action.  They were really learning to talk to people without acting so silly and shy, learning how to sell something, and learning how to take money and give change.  I know I say this a lot, but I truly am so thankful we joined Girl Scouts.  There are so many things that it has been able to help me teach my girls, in a fun environment!  Anyway, she had a great time, although I do recall that she talked about wanting to eat for most of the time....that girl has good FOOD on the brain all.the.time.  Luckily we were only there for an hour!

While she was at the cookie booth, Elle had been invited to a very special birthday party at a Beauty School in Austin.  The invitation said to dress sparkly and be prepared for makeup, a hair style, and a fashion photo shoot!  I was almost jealous!  :)  She has been beside herself with excitement all week and could not wait for this weekend.  I am so very thankful that she never got sick this week.  I was so concerned that with Shawn, me and Levi being sick, she'd get it too, right in time to miss the party.  THANKFULLY she didn't!  When I went to pick her up, I felt so so so dumb.  I walked in the room and saw 8 little girls looking far older than their actual age....the foolish part was when I started tearing up and had the semi-chin quiver thing going on.  I had to do some seriously stern talking to myself to get it under control quickly before a tear felt out!  Luckily I did, but it was really hard to see Elle looking so mature and feeling like I was looking into a window into the very near future, where she's going to want to try out makeup, and hairstyles, and clothes that are more mature.  Those years are so close...I've seen it over and over with girls at every congregation we've been at.  One day, they are "baby faced" and naive and the next day they look 25 and are singing along with all the pop songs on the radio.  Deep Breath...it's a wonderful, exciting and terrifying road we are on and I can only pray that I am raising girls who will be confident enough to be themselves even if it doesn't quite go with the flow.  What a great day it was!  Oh and Elle begged me to not make her take a shower tonite...she is hoping and praying that her curls are still there tomorrow morning so she can wear them to church...guess I need to start Youtubing how to make curls stay in hair that won't stay curly!

A Lost Tooth

No literally, her tooth is lost...missing...unaccounted for.  Yep, just like that.  And truly I wouldn't expect it any other way from my Ava.  This just fits right in with her personality as a whole!  She walked out from school today looking a little strange....then she smiled real big and I noticed the big hole!  Then I noticed that strange look on her face again.  Of course I asked "Where's the tooth???!!!" and that's when I realized why she had a strange look on her face.  She had lost her tooth...both ways.  She said she was at lunch, eating her popsicle when all the sudden she felt the tooth come out.  She began searching all around her, in her popsicle, on the floor, on the table, everywhere!  She said she enlisted the help of all her friends and some adults and yet, no tooth.  I wish I could have seen her table all scrambling around trying to help her find her tooth....what's even funnier to imagine is if that tooth happened to land in someone's pocket, or lunchbox and was later found by a parent....what a story that could be.  Anyway, no one ever found her tooth.  I think the strange look on her face was worry.  I think she's concerned that since she doesn't actually have her tooth as proof, then the tooth fairy won't come visit her....I tried to put her fears to rest by having her write a little note to the tooth fairy.  Let's hope it does the trick.  She is SO very proud and relieved to FINALLY have lost this tooth.  Can't believe my second child has started losing teeth!!!

A Pedi, some Cookies, and Luggage

I love nail polish...a lot.  It's a cheap "fix" for me.  The other day I was on pinterest and kept finding all these gorgeous pictures of all kinds of things that all had the color scheme of green and turquoise in them.  I was Pinspired to redo my toenails asap!  I love love love this paint job...pretty sure it's my favorite ever!  It's too bad that it's too cold outside to show them off....guess that's what a blog is for......

 

Also, Wednesday was officially the first day of Girl Scout Cookie Season!  We started with 58 boxes and our goal was for each girl to sell at least 25 boxes so they could get a patch.  Approximately 12 hours after receiving the boxes, and feeling overwhelmed by the idea of trying to pedal these, I promptly begged Shawn to take over this aspect of our life....and he gladly accepted!  I can't explain what a burden this lifted off of me.  I am not the best person to try to sell these cookies...I don't exactly lead a lifestyle that has me in contact with lots of other adults....and our congregation is saturated with other girl scouts.  Shawn on the other hand deals with quite a few businesses on a weekly basis and I'm very proud to say that he had every box sold by yesterday!!!  HE ROCKED THE COOKIE SALE!!!  He took both girls yesterday afternoon all around our neighborhood and sold all the rest of the boxes we had.  I was so excited and proud of him and the girls.  I even snuck a picture of them selling to a neighbor!

 

 

Step 2 our of European Vaca Planning....find a new suitcase at a good price!  Today, we headed out to do a little errand running since it's Shawn's day off.  While at Target I found THE luggage I wanted for our trip...and it was on Clearance!!!  Cha-Ching!  The last time I bought luggage was in 2005 and that luggage was completely torn up....our belongings would not have survived a trip to Europe in the old suitcase and I love that this one will be very easy to spot on the luggage belt at the airport!  Super excited!!!

Step One

As many of you know, Shawn and I have officially set plans to go to Europe this fall.  We have been planning a trip since our tenth anniversary, for our fifteenth and saving diligently every single month since then.  In May, we'll celebrate 14 years of marriage...which means #15 is right around the corner!  So, this past Friday, we took the first real measurable step in this dream trip becoming a reality!  I had a passport picture taken and sent in my old passport to get it renewed!  So it's official!!!  Our next biggest hurdle is getting airline tickets and using frequent flyer miles so that my ticket is free....it's a lot like trying to schedule your last semester of classes in college and needing every single thing to line up perfectly....kind of nerve-racking.  Once I get that taken care of, the rest of the planning will be fun.  Our desire is to spend 3-4 days in London, and then 3-4 days in Paris.  We are ecstatic!  My girls asked me why we were going and we said it was to celebrate that our marriage has survived three babies!  Ha! 

 

Girls being Girls

Elle invited her best friend from church over last week for a sleepover since Christmas break was winding down.  Her friend brought a "sleepover kit" which included a cute blanket, popcorn and popcorn holder, and mud masks.  My girls had never done one of these before but it was so funny to see these little girls trying to be older...I have to say, the older girls thought it was fun....Ava wanted it wiped off just about the time the last bit was smeared on her face.  :)

NYE 2012

For New Year's Eve this year, I wanted to go very low key...no big party with 25 people in my house....it's too exhausting to stay up till midnight with my own 3 kids, much less lots of people and other kids around!  So we opted for just a few little munchkins coming over this time around.  We started around 7 pm and for the most part tried to ignore the kids the whole time...sure we fed them when they needed food, and watered them when they were thirsty, and changed out the DVD when the movie was over....but other than that, they were on their own! :)  I had a confetti gun that I shot off just about every half hour and the kids got a kick out of that.  By midnight we were all just begging for it to be over already and can we please go to bed now?  One day I'll do the Times Square thing....but that time is not now.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!!

 

This is our victory picture....as in we considered it a victory that we made it to midnight with three kids who were STILL awake (thought Levi wasn't too happy about it.)  For the record he could have gone to sleep anytime, but he's social like me and doesn't want to miss anything that might happen if he goes to sleep.

 

We drank two bottle of sparkling GRAPE JUICE, and I have to say, it's great to sip once or twice, but we decided that starting at 11 pm we'd pour each adult a glass and every 15 minutes a different adult would have to come up with something to toast too....it was quite funny and we were totally over the flavor by midnight!

 

Shawn and Izzy even started the New Year off by greeting one another with a holy kiss!  One of these guys didn't know this was about to happen :)

 

Great memories but I think Valerie and I decided that next year, "midnight" is going to come at 10 pm and we'll just hope the kids go with it!

Mondez Christmas

While in Tyler, we had a whole day of nothing planned....and that can be a lot of fun...if you don't have 3 cooped up kids to contend with.  Seeing the desperation in my eyes, our friends the Valdez's who have family just a short drive out of Tyler, invited us to come spend the day with them, playing in the snow, riding on a tractor and just having some fun!  We packed in that car faster that we could hang up the phone!

Here's all our kiddos in the snow...right before Valerie shook snow all over their heads!  :)

 

Me and my bestie!

 

Elle being a good sport and letting to munchkins throw snow at her.  They were so funny to watch because no matter how many times they threw snowballs, there almost never connected with the intended target!

 

Trouble on Ice

 

Tractor Rides!

 

Two Rednecks getting back to their roots!!!

Christmas with Nana and Poppy

Christmas at Nana and Poppy's was extra extra extra special this year.  About the time we pulled up to their house around 4:30 or so, the snow began to gently fall....and then it picked up speed quickly and it truly felt like a blizzard (and least what this Texas girl considers a blizzard to be like!)  After some totally freak out behavior on all of our parts, in the front yard, we came in, dried off, and ate a delicious dinner.  Then the moment we'd all been waiting for....PRESENTS! 

 

My grandmother came to celebrate with us too.

 

Levi loved this sticker book he got.  I found him numerous times during our trip, off by himself quietly looking at this book :)

 

Elle got a GOB of earrings and she was so excited!

 

Ava's face is priceless...she got an easy-bake oven!

 

A photo of my mom's famous world renowned stockings!  She is so good at stocking stuffers!!!

Christmas with Gramme

We stayed with Shawn's mom for Christmas and it's a 3 for 1 type of deal.  We get Gramme, Grandma and Max!  :)  The kids absolutely love staying at Gramme's house!

 

Each of them holding their favorite gift...Elle's beloved pink dog has returned.  I almost cried when I watched her open that gift and be so extremely excited that it was a new pink dog just like the one she lost back in the summer!  Priceless reaction!

 

I sure do hope I'm like this when I have grandkids! 

 

One of my very favorite pictures from our trip....Shawn took this on his phone of Levi and me snuggled up while I play Angry Birds on Christmas night.

A White Christmas

This deserves it's own post. Christmas Day 2012 in Tyler, Texas...my favorite Christmas memory ever (and that's saying a lot because I love presents!)

The Most Wonderful Day.....

It finally arrived!!!  The day we anticipated more than anything ever finally arrived!!!!  Christmas morning...truly the most exciting time for not just our kids, but us as parents.  We plan, we work, we scheme, we organize, we shop, we save, we keep secrets and surprises....all leading up to today!

 

It did not disappoint.  Here's my little munchkins on the stairs, raring to go!

 

First look!

 

As requested, Santa brought Levi Skittles, one red, and one blue, for Christmas....he added a few other things too.

 

Elle's favorite gift was rollerblades.  She lives in them.  She has mastered going up and down our stairs with them on.  We have to make her take them off to shower.  She got right out on the pavement and acted like she'd been rollerblading since birth.  :)

 

I got a bible study book on Esther, but if you look closely, it reads "It's tough being a woman."  Tell me about it!  lol

 

I have a yearly tradition of giving each child something I've made for them.  This year is was messenger bags....wasn't sure exactly how that would go over but they LOVE them.  They all picked out their own fabric without knowing that's what they were doing and now Levi doesn't carry around a Barbie purse everywhere. 

 

Paul and Carolyn gave me us a Cotton Candy maker for Christmas!  Can't wait to try it out!!!

 

Shawn wanted bow ties, which are super expensive in the store...so I found a pattern online and made him this one and another.  Elle sewed him a third that she picked out the fabric for.  She was very proud to give him that bow tie :)

Again, our presents exceeded our "goodness."  Santa must do a lot of overlooking!

35 years and counting

This exact book has been used every since my first Christmas in 1978 at the age of 5 months old.