Thankful Thursday

Short and Sweet!

I'm thankful for
1. Peanut Butter... yummy, give me a jar of Jif and a spoon!
2. Vacuums
3. Husbands who stay at home with the kiddos so their wives can go shopping!
4. Warm Vegas Winters... I love this 65 degree weather.
5. Little girls that wash their hands vigilantly!

The Finance Lady

I've launched it!

http://thefinancelady.blogspot.com/

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

And we're all back for Sunday Pictures!

(you don't need to adjust your screens, it's a lot of hot pink!)

The colds and fevers have subsided (fingers crossed it stays that way), although we think Kadyn might be teething.. here's a cute picture of her in her bumbo, too bad Kacey's in it more than Kadyn is.

I really think I'm liking 1 pm church. We've created quite a good routine... I switch Kacey's nap to 10 am, we have time in the morning to get organized, we do a big meal right before church... and our new thing is breakfast when we come home from church. (Waffles!) I made some dang good scrapple today, I know you PA people would appreciate that! I didn't eat it, the girls wouldn't touch it, so it was a feast for Matthew. I was just proud because it didn't fall apart in the pan (that usually happens to me, I flip too soon) If you don't know what scrapple is, don't ask... it really tastes quite good, but the actual ingredients are gross.

***Weekly Round-Up***

Us today baking and decorating cupcakes for a fun Saturday night with friends. Surprisingly, we have 18 cupcakes... I thought we'd have more casualties with the amount of eating we did compared to the amount of decorating.

It's been a while since I did a weekly round-up... big events this week: new beds for the big girls and Kadyn started baby cereal!

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This was before we even started, she's already not too thrilled.

Now she gets it!!!Happy Mommy, food's all gone!

Bedtime has become super fun in our house!!! Kacey LOVES her new bed, which is wonderful. She ditched her toddler bed, refused to sleep on it, and would only sleep on the floor. Matthew and I figured it was time for a new bed.

This is Kylie's new bed, she loves it so much she's gone back to napping. Well, she doesn't fall asleep... but when Kacey goes down for her nap, Kylie goes in her room, under her covers and watches a movie.

We do naptime the right way... tea and cookies by our bed (although the tea is really water and our tea set is really a combination of 3 different tea sets) but it's FUN!

This is what Matthew and Kadyn were doing during Kacey and Kylie's naptime. They're all asleep, I should make a run for it!!!Here are some other cute pictures from this week :)

We got a bumbo for Kadyn... Kacey loves it!

This one cracks me up!

Happy Taxes season!!!

I am seriously debating starting a finances blog to share all my pearls, so to speak. We'll see, it's all I can do to keep this blog current much less start a new one. :)

Thankful Thursday

There is MUCH to be thankful for!!!

I've had a cloud hanging over me, at least it's felt like that. Just waiting. My mom had some blood work done (twice) and some of her levels came back quite strange. We were concerned that she might have a tumor in her pancreas, we found this out just before Thanksgiving. It's seemed like forever. She had a CT scan, and with persistence (it's nearly impossible for anyone can give you results promptly) NO tumor... she still has to go to an endocrinologist and figure out why some of her levels are off (--hello, losing 80 pounds in a year and half will throw your body a little out of whack...)

But I am so happy and so thankful!

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On a lighter note, I am thankful for:

1. Surprise Cafe Rio dinner brought home by my hubby, he even asked for the shredded lettuce... good man!

2. Smooth transitions. We're giving Kacey Kylie's daybed, and we bought Kylie a new bed. (Kacey loves Kylie's daybed and Kylie was willing to give it to her for a new bed that matches her furniture collection!!!) The transition is going great, no meltdowns at bedtime. I was worried how this all would blow over.

3. Taxes. Call me crazy, I've got a degree in Econ for a reason I guess... but I LOVE doing our taxes. Love it, love it, love it. I look forward to it all year, just ask my husband. I get positively giddy, not sure why... we always put our refund in the savings, we never spend it. But I love it, maybe I love using my brain... I don't know. That and a small sidenote: today Obama's talking about lower the effective tax rate not only for '09, but for '08 too. Meaning higher refunds for last year and less $$$ being taken out of paychecks now. There's even talk of another stimulus package. Last year, people were in denial about us being in a recession. Ask my husband, I've been saying all along... it's not a recession, we're mimicking some of the key characteristics of the Great Depression! And if you doubt that, go compare some vital factors like increase in unemployment rates, lack of consumer confidence, spending trends just for Christmas alone, tremendous daily drops in the stock market, bankruptcies/foreclosures. And the housing market speaks for itself. (anyway, this isn't an economic blog... I've rambled) Not that we will ever get as bad as the Great Depression, because we've learned too much... But anyway, the solution to an upward boom is more money to the common people like stimulus packages... not free money being given to the big fancy companies. I'm done, off my little pedestal. Moving on.

4. I'm thankful that Maggie had her yearly tests done- she's epileptic and is on meds that damage her liver but keep her seizures under control- and we have to do yearly tests to monitor everything. All her levels came back in the normal range. Good, good.

5. I am thankful for a fun phone call from a fabulous friend the other night. (you know who you are!) It was so nice to hear your voice, I miss you... we need to do that more often.

Ballet

Kylie had her first ballet/tap class today! I think we label her as "athletic," because she loves to run fast and play against the boys... I didn't want her to miss out on something just because that's what Matthew and I think she is... so we figured we'd try ballet for something different. And if she didn't like it, her ballet and tap shoes would definitely get good use with my younger girls.

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AND.......

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She loved it!!!!! She had so much fun and can't wait for next week's class!!!

She was so excited not only for the pretty outfits and fun shoes, but also because her good buddy Riley was in her class.

The best part for me was Kacey being able to play with Riley's little sister Chloe. Kacey and Chloe shared snacks and toys, and made life much eaiser for me and Missy- the hour flew by!!! (bummer, I should have gotten a picture of the babies too!!!)

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

And we're still missing people for this week's Sunday pictures.

(I think Kylie's trying to wink here)

While Kacey is better, she did manage to breath all over little Kadyn. As hard as I tried to separate them, it just wasn't good enough. We took Kadyn into the Dr. on Friday, he said she's got the beginnings of RSV and she would get worse. Oh fun! And he was right... she is worse, but I don't think it's as bad because I'm anticipating it. Luckily, I haven't gotten sick yet... which is really fortunate because Mommies don't get sick days off- I'm on call 24/7 ready and waiting at my little munchkins' service. So far so good for Kylie and Matthew too. Kylie's got the immunity strength of Superman, nothing can bring her down.

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Love these little pigtails!!!

Rose Bowl Pictures

A little late, but here are Matthew's pictures from the Rose Bowl on Thursday. As he was pulling in to park, he called me informing me how awesome it was to be there and how I was "the best wife ever!" Needless to say, I think I dug myself in a hole because now he'd like to go every year!

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I have no clue what pictures to post (I've got 60+ to choose from) and not sure what exactly to comment on since I wasn't there and didn't watch the game, I do know that they got clobbered.... but here are the pictures I liked.

He did say one of the neat things was if he wanted to he could just walk onto the field-- not that he was allowed to or had a wish to go to jail, but the stadium was set up that way that it was all just "right there." He said that was really cool.

Thankful Thursday

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

1. I'm thankful Kacey's feeling better. We had one really, really, really bad sleepless night. Her temperature was nearly 105, and she was burning up. Matthew gave her a blessing -thankful for those too- and we're better now thank goodness.

2. I'm thankful for random sporadic moments of creativity that actually turn out to be really fun. Example: us being "culturally diverse" (girls eating with chopsticks... thank you Kung Fu Panda)

3. I'm thankful that Matthew got to make a fun trip out of his Rose Bowl ticket. He was able to work out of the LA office Wed, spend the night in a nice hotel and eat out (thank you ADT) so he doesn't just have to drive down on the 1st. He so owes me big... I'm gonna milk it too! :)

4. I'm thankful that we're not going to 9 am church, 1 pm is definitely the better choice of the two (especially when I get 4 females ready while Matthew's gone for meetings... I need all the time I can get!).

5. Every New Years Eve, after we put the girls to bed, I sit on the computer and make a photo book of all the great pictures we took during the year (usually more than 1 as we have more kids and take a bizzillion pictures). Last night's was INSANE. It took me 4 hours to pick the pictures and upload them- 627 photos (to be exact) made the cut. I'm SOOOO glad it's over and done with. I mean I'll cherish it in years to come, which is why I didn't procrastinate it. But we take too many pictures!

Sunday Morning Pictures

Hmm, seems we're missing a few people. Kacey's not been feeling too well. Every 4-6 weeks, she develops some sort of cold: runny nose, watery eyes, a cough, fever. Boggles our minds as to why, but we've come to expect it now. It still makes me nervous, I check her temperature all night. She'll get up to 104... freaks me out. With Tylenol she comes down, but still... My poor child, the one who nursed significantly longer than her sisters, who should have the strongest immunity, totally doesn't. Poor thing. So her and I (and Kadyn) stayed home, watched a movie, ate some popcorn, and cuddled. (she gets mushy when she's sick and just wants to be held) However, I heard that there were only 2 kids today in the middle nursery, so maybe there's something going around.

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Ugh, it's the last Sunday of 11 am church- that's the best time and I hate to switch... Next week we'll be titling these posts Sunday Afternoon Pictures.

Christmas!

Let the gluttony begin... seriously this year was overboard.

I say every year that we did too much and I vow to take it easier next year... never happens.

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Santa came by our house around 10:30 Wed night (only took 2 hours for wrapping- amazing how quick I can be once I get going). We were tracking Santa on the computer and the girls knew they needed to fall asleep fast.

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Christmas morning flew by in a whirlwind, we were up at 7 am. Thank you Kacey, she's always up at 7 and she always wakes everyone up. Opening presents was slightly chaotic, wrapping paper everywhere, everyone talking, Christmas music on in the background. It was fun, then all of a sudden it was 12:30 pm. Crazy.

Highlights:

Kylie's favorite gift: Pink digital camera. She'd taken nearly 200 pictures just in the morning, she won't put the camera down.

Kacey's favorite gift: Pony that links to the TV for learning games.

Kadyn's favorite gift: unknown, she's just happy to be apart of the group

But for argument sake, we'll say the doorway playhouse. In another few months, she'll be pulling herself up and this will be exciting for her.

My favorite gift: The massive dollhouse my parents bought for the girls, it's so awesome! I can't wait until the girls go to bed and I can have it all to myself. They got every single accessory for the furniture and the SUV. WOW!

Matthew's favorite gift: The gift I had to wait for all day Christmas Eve to sign for, from FedEx, his surprise ticket to the Rose Bowl. Row 5, I should be nominated for the Wife of the Year Award!

Merry Christmas Everyone!