Taking a sick day

Sometimes, I wish it was me that got to take a sick day, but it just seems that I don't get sick (knock on wood), even when pregnant. Lucky me! But sometimes, my kiddos do get sick, then it's up to good ol' mom to take care of 'em. I can't really complain, they don't seem to get sick all too often, and for that I'm VERY grateful.

Halli came running into our room this morning at 5am to inform us that Peyton was throwing up. We ran up there and sure enough, it was all over the bed. So, we cleaned her up, and ushered her downstairs to our room to sleep so we could help her make the bowl should it happen again. Luckily we slept through what was left of our night, and she seemed to be doing much better during the day.

That is till she threw up again, great! But that was it for today, so I'm hoping tonight goes well, and that it's a short lived virus.

At 2:00 though, we got a call from the nurse at school. Halli had a tummy ache, and a fever. She hasn't thrown up yet (knock on wood again), and won't be going to school tomorrow cause her fever was too high, so we have all the girls at home and sometimes they feel sick, and other times they don't, that's always fun.

These photos were taken right around dinner time, when everyone was feeling good and happy. Kevin got a remote control helicopter for christmas and the girls have effectively taken it over. They are FASCINATED by it, especially Lexie. It's pretty fun to see how excited they get about it.

This is an overhead shot that shows the helicopter on the table. I think the girls broke it, or Kevin did and he's blaming it on them.:)

Also, since it was so cold today, Kevin got to stay home from work. Thank goodness! So we were able to work on a few projects around the house that we've been wanting to do for awhile, first was adding knobs to our cabinets in the kitchen, next will be the drawer pulls, I love it!

Needing a break

Sometimes there are days when the kids just won't stop. Lexie woke up in a bad mood and it just didn't stop all day. She was mad at her sisters, she was mad at me, and I just couldn't figure out what to do to help the poor girl. The worst thing is that when she's mad, she screams, and when she screams, it's loud, and long! I'm actually suprised that she still has her voice.

I've never had a child go through the terrible two's at two. It's usually been closer to three. For some reason though, this little girl wants to go through it at 18 months. Not quite sure how to handle it, but I REALLY hope it's just a phase and that it'll end soon. Cause with two older sisters, she doesn't get her way as much as she would like, and then it's on! It's a good thing she's as adorable as she is.:)

So at one point today, I was trying to clean my bathroom, and decided it was a good time for a little break. On came the baby einstein, and for the most part these two sat and watched it, and I had some quiet for about 30 minutes. I also got to see the girls enjoy each other a little bit too.

The next two pictures are really photos of my room, since I realized that I never posted photos of the finished product after we finished decorating it.

This photo just shows the beadboard ceiling, my favorite feature of the room. I love it!

Our morning routine

Luckily for me, at least when it comes to school days, is that our girls are all morning people. They wake up early, they're generally happy, and getting ready doesn't really take us too long most days. That is, assuming they can stop playing long enough to eat their breakfast. But most mornings, after getting dressed, and doing their hair, and getting some food in their tummies, it's the girls job to unload the dishwasher.

You see, that is my least favorite job. I know, most people hate loading, but I almost refuse to unload it. The sink needs to be piled pretty high before I'll decide to unload it.

Luckily I have two great helpers that unload for me most mornings. Halli does the majority of it, while Peyton has to be scolded into submission:) and now Lexie's trying to get in on the action. As long as she doesn't unload anything glass, I'm alright with that!

So here are the girls happily working together this morning. Peyton was putting dishes away when I snapped this picture, but be assured, she is there! I think Lexie is standing on the dishwasher door in this photo, she's really not that tall. :)

Project 365 - Day 1

As I was blog-hopping today, I came upon a great idea that I'd love to do this year, assuming I can stay on top of it. It's called Project 365, and you're supposed to take a picture every day and scrapbook it. You can scrapbook a picture a day, make a page once a week with 7 pictures, or a page once a month with 30 pictures.

Now, I should scrapbook it, but that probably won't happen and I figure that someday I really will get my blog put into a book, so this is gonna have to work for this year. At least I know it'll get done and hopefully at the end of the year I'll have a wonderful journal of our everyday lives.

Of course, this could make my blog VERY boring, cause I don't really lead that exciting of a life, unless you think cooking, changing diapers and trying to keep the peace is exciting. (Notice how I didn't say cleaning? I try to do that as little as possible, sorry Kevin!)

So to start, I actually have two pictures that really depict life at our house these days.

Crying girls, because they're all still learning how to share. Halli had just kicked Lexie off the chair that she had been sitting on earlier. Gotta love big sisters!:)

Then they turn around and really are great big sisters. Halli can take care of Lexie like the best little mom ever when she wants to. Sometimes she becomes a little too motherly, but man, these girls really do play hard together, and rarely does 5 minutes go by without someone screaming or crying. Luckily moments like this make up for it all! Sorry about the glare on Halli's face, but I had to use this picture cause Lexies face is priceless.


These are amazing girls, I look forward to the day (and I REALLY hope there is one), that there will be more laughing and playing and sisterly love than fighting.

December catch-up

So, I've kinda been a slacker when it comes to blogging this month, so there are a few things that happened around here that deserve a little mention. First thing that rarely happens in Houston (although, it did happen last year too) it snowed! It snowed for quite awhile too, the kids loved seeing it, and as soon as Halli got home from school they were outside playing in it. It had piled up a little bit on the fence so there was just enough to be able to gather to make small snowballs and an itty bitty snowman.

Kevin and Halli making the snowman. It was a little difficult cause the snow was really wet, but they managed it.

So proud of their little creation. Love it!

we had our ward party, and the kids got to wear thei pajamas. Halli got to sing a few songs with the primary, I can't wait to see Peyton up there with her next year!

Then of course, it was time to meet santa. I was exhausted at this point, it was late, Peyton didn't feel like getting anywhere near santa, and Kevin was running around with Lexie, so it's just Halli. She was so excited to ask santa for her gifts.

One of the biggest things that happened this month was that Halli lost her first tooth! She was beyond excited and even pulled it out herself. She is basically the last of all her friends to lose a tooth, so she was glad to be joining the permenant teeth club. Funny thing is that the permenant tooth was already half in behind the baby tooth, so it almost doesn't look like she lost a tooth at all. Her two top teeth are loose now too, so we'll see which one's next!

And last but not least is Lexie, her hair is FINALLY growing, and I can actually get a little pony tail on top of her head. I love it, she looks adorable and people have stopped calling her a boy.

Now, if I could just get her to leave the bow in all day.

So, there's a quick catch up on our little family this past month. Maybe next month I'll do a better job of staying on top of it all!:)

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was a little more mellow for us. I let a few things fall by the wayside that we normally do...sorry if you didn't get a christmas card or a plate of goodies, just didn't feel up to all of it. But I did get to spend alot of time with the girls, baking, and especially helping Halli make bunches of letters to hand out to friends and family. She was on fire this year, wanting to make gifts for everyone. I love that she loves to give to others, whatever she has to give, she wants to do it.

One of the most fun things we did this year, and something that I'm sure will become a new tradition for our family, was heading out a couple days before christmas to get sibling gifts. We headed to McDonalds for a delicious and healthy:) breakfast, and after that it was on to Walmart. each girl got $5 per sibling, Kevin took Peyton and I had Halli and Lexie and we spent a little while picking out something that they could give their sisters. Lexie of course could care less, but Halli had a blast trying to find something for Peyton for $3 so that she could still have money left to get her some candy. I don't know how Peyton reacted to it all, but I'm guessing she had fun morning hanging out with dad.

The next day on Christmas Eve, we spent the morning hanging out and making cookies for santa. The girls, as always, love frosting (or eating the frosting) cookies.

Eating the frosting, I have no idea how much sugar this girl has eaten in the last week, but I think it's safe to say our house desperately needs to become a sugar free zone very soon!

Then that evening we headed down south to sing christmas carols and eat pizza with some of Kevins extended family. The girls had fun, and we enjoyed seeing some family members that we don't get to see very often. Once we got home it was time to open their christmas eve gift, pajamas, read the christmas story, and unwrap our last book under the tree, twas the night before christmas.

I have never seen the girls go to bed so quickly and so easily before. They didn't fuss at all, and they didn't come out once. Santa was waiting to come, so I checked on the girls at 9 and was shocked that they were actually sound asleep. They were also given strick instructions that they were not to wake Lexie up when they woke up. They were allowed to go through their stockings, but they couldn't open gifts, and they couldn't wake us up. Amazingly, they did very well!

The traditional photo of the christmas tree, I love seeing it all lit up, and loaded with presents underneath.

Can I just say as a side note, I am in love with hobby lobby wrapping paper, it's SO pretty!

The big gift for the girls this year. They LOVED it, and played with it for over an hour before insisting that we get out of bed. It's massive, I know, but I justify it by saying that we have three girls, so it'll be good to have a big one, maybe they'll actually share it!

Pure joy while opening gifts, LOVE it!

Actually playing nicely together, that is until Lexie tried to join in.

Kevin, so excited about his tickets to the rockets/lakers game from my mom.

I know this is a pure disaster, but this was christmas morning. wrapping paper everywhere, toys everywhere, and three completely happy little girls. I had started putting all the wrapping paper in garbage bags, but eventually gave up, it was just more fun to watch the girls.

Last, I have to show one of Halli's gifts to me. She is so wonderful and creative. She wrote this letter to me and included all the corresponding candy bars. She knows me too well!

To translate her 6 year old writing, it says:

dear mom,

when you change Lexie's diaper, you are a butterfinger, when you work you are a sweetart. When you laugh you are an airhead. Sometimes you are a rolo, when you eat you are a kit kat. When you tell a joke you make me snicker. when you eat starbursts, it is yum.

love, halli

We had a wonderful christmas, it was relaxing and enjoyable, and we got to just spend time together as a family. I have been given the greatest gifts every in our three beautiful daughters, and my amazing husband, what more could a girl ask for?

Family Pictures

While we were in California over Thanksgiving, my family all got together for some major photo sessions. Individual families, the whole family, kids, and even one of my very best friends from high school. I was able to practice some of the photography I had learned from my class, and even more fun, the editing! Plus, I was able to get some great photos of my family to hang up, and put on our Christmas card.

So, way too many photos to follow, but these are some of the family photos I took of my sister and her hubby, my brother and his family, and one of my best and oldest friends, Aubree and her cute family too.

Brittany was a little over 2o weeks in these photos, so she was wanting to show off her belly even though it's not all that big!:) But it sure does look cute!

This is my brothers family and his two little boys, who are adorable, and are great at getting their photos taken, unlike my girls.

This is one of my favorite photos, I love how the boys are looking at each other.

This one is slightly blurry, but I love it anyway!

This is Aubree and her husband Tyler. I've known Aubree since we were 9, and I remember way back when teasing her and calling her "Aubree Berry", who knew she'd actually end up marrying the boy we always teased her about, and now that's her real name! They have the CUTEST kids, and their son, Cohen, is seriously photogenic!

Finally, after way too many photos, here are some amazing pictures taken by my sister-in-law, Kate. She did a great job, especially considering we had to have two different sessions because during the first one, a little girl was VERY unhappy, and the second one, another sweet baby girl was freezing, and kinda grumpy. But Kate was good and still got some great pictures, despite working around my kids.

And lastly, the whole family got together to get a huge family shot. We hadn't all been together for 3 years, so it was great to have all the aunts, uncles, and cousins under one roof. I don't have a picture of the whole group, cause it's on the other computer, but here is a picture of my nephew and my mom, that I just loved.

Grandma & grandpa with their 6 grandchildren. Lexie is a little off by herself, but she was happy, when we tried to get her closer in with the group, she just started screaming, thats what happens when you have a very stubborn little girl. I absolutely LOVE this photo and how happy they all look together, what amazing grandparents, and what wonderful cousins my girls have.