Yet another Sierra Story...

Last night Sierra was sitting on my lap and I was reading a book. She told me she wanted to stay awake late, but I knew she was really tired, so I told her that she could snuggle on my lap until she fell asleep. She was so cute and she just snuggled in and then she looked up at me and said in a really sleepy voice, " Mom, when my eyes close, that means I love you." And then she closed her eyes and fell asleep. How can you not just eat that up?

Cinderelly, Cinderelly...

I just had to post one more thing. Sierra watched Cinderella the other day and she has been singing the follows:

Cinderelly, cinderelly, we can help our Cinderelly...
Tie a bow around it. Put a ribon though it.

Then dancing at the MALL
She'll be more bee-utiful than all..

In the lovely dress we'll make for Cinderelly.

Then just the other day she came to me and said, all dreamily, "I can't wait until someday I can go to the MALL, and dance and sing..."

I'm Back!

Just a couple of pictures from Sierra's first dance recital. She is the cutest kid ever! I just can't get enough of her. I just love Christmas time. I don't know how you can't just love it. Especially, when you get to share it with your kids. It is so exciting and new again. Everything is such a surprise. I love reading Sierra all my favorite Christmas stories. We have been reading the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We have read it about a thousand times, but I think it just gets better every time I read it. Sierra is starting to get some of the lines memorized, and so when it gets to a part that she knows she "reads" that part. It is so cute! She watched the movie the other day and she has been going around singing, "Your a mean one...your a nasty wasty skunk!" Over and over. She thinks that is so funny.

I have been getting all my Christmas cards finished up and mailed. I love writing Christmas cards. It is one of my favorite things. It reminds me how many people I love in the world, and how many people love me back. I get to think about each person and family. It just brings back such good memories. I usually get all misty eyed when I write my Christmas cards. That is probably why it always takes me so long to get them done...

I don't know what it is, but for some reason I just feel so grateful this year. I just feel like my family has been blessed. I think there are so many families that are struggling this year, some I know personally, and I just think how grateful I am that my family is together and happy.

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. Most of you know that I have been really busy taking some classes. I ended up with the highest score in my Nutrition Class, and the second highest score in my Chemistry class...can I just say I am awesome. Truly, I worked hard for it though. I am pretty proud of myself, since I wasn't feeling all that smart before I went back to school. I was having a conversation with my sister Erica and she was telling me about how she was afraid her kids were going to die of Carbon Monoxide poisoning from this space heater at my Mom's house...and I told her, "Well, actually you shouldn't have to worry about that, because it is an electric heater and Carbon Monoxide is a byproduct of the combustion of carbon based fuels." (yes, I actually said that!) And she said, "That's exactly what Landon said! You guys are nerds." And then I said, "SECOND HIGHEST SCORE IN MY CLASS, SUCKAS!!!"

So just don't have any conversations with me until I can work this out of my system, ok...

Peace.

A little ranting...

For those of you who don't follow my cousin Becca's blog, I just thought I would re-post a portion of her post....

The one that has been getting my goat lately has been SOCIALISM. Let me help sort this out for us. First: Socialism is an economic system, not a political system. Therefore, our country would not be transitioning from a democracy to socialism. If such a transition to socialism was occurring, we would be transitioning from capitalism to socialism. Second, Marxist theory classifies socialism as characterized by unequal distribution of goods and compensation according to work done. Let's take health care reform, then, as an example. A chief complaint about this reform is that people who do nothing get something, but socialist theory clearly states that people who do stuff get stuff, and people who do nothing get nothing. So while health care reform might be a big steaming pile of you-know-what, it just isn't socialist.Count Henri de Saint-Simon is regarded as the first individual to coin the term socialism. He advocated the creation of a society in which each person was ranked according to his or her capacities and rewarded according to his or her work. Economically, socialism denotes an economic system of state ownership and/or worker ownership of the means of production and distribution. There are elements of both of these principles in our society now, and they were in place long before our current president. Think about Medicare, Medicaid, our PUBLIC lands system, and our system of PUBLIC education, just to name a few. I don't necessarily think that all of these programs are run well, but they have been around for decades, yet it is only recently that talking heads have started screaming "SOCIALISM!"My final note comes from Che Guevara, and I'll quote:
"Socialism cannot exist without a change in consciousness resulting in a new fraternal attitude toward humanity, both at an individual level, within the societies where socialism is being built or has been built, and on a world scale, with regard to all peoples suffering..."See? We Americans could never be socialist because we don't give a **** about anybody else.The moral of the story: Go ahead, call the state of affairs in this nation a joke, call our President delusional, say that Congress has their heads in dark places, and say that the proposed health care plan will never work. Just don't call it Socialism. It isn't.

Thanks Becca...I totally get it, you rule.

I just want to say, that maybe some of you are sitting out there and thinking, "Boy, I sure wish I had healthcare, that would sure be nice..." or maybe you are thinking, "Boy, that grand I've been dropping every month on my health insurance would sure go a long way in the grocery store/towards my kid's dance lessons/get some new shoes/car or mortgage payment..." Or maybe you (like my friend Annie) have great health insurance until you get real sick and have to have surgery...and your health insurance won't cover you anymore...

Whether you are republican, or democrat you can agree that health insurance reform is needed. Every other well developed nation has better health care than we do, and it costs less...that alone should tell you there is a better way to do this. And maybe Obama's plan isn't perfect, but what plan ever proposed by the government for any reason is ever perfect? I can't understand all this fear mongering about socialism and our country going down the toilet, and all our children are going to have to pay for it for thousands of years....because who wouldn't pay for it? You already pay for it! If you knew your child or even somebody else's child or your sister or cousin or grandparent or even your next door neighbor was going to have health insurance, was not going to be denied coverage, was going to be able to afford life saving surgery/chemo/prescription drugs and not go bankrupt and lose their house...who wouldn't pitch in? Who wouldn't try to pull together to help them? This is healthcare, not gun law, not abortion rights... This shouldn't be a grand debate, for me this one is easy.

The Miner Family Comedy Tour...

I just had to post this quickly. I am supposed to be doing homework for my class, but this was just too much fun.

Two nights ago, I am putting Lillie to bed and, normally, I give her a bottle of milk and she drinks it and she has her snuggy and she just snuggles in and goes right to sleep. Well, I am rocking her in the chair and she drinks her milk and closes her eyes. I am rocking and it is quiet and dark in her room, and I think she has just fallen asleep...and she starts fake snoring!!! I am not even kidding, and she opens her eyes and looks right at me and just smiles the biggest smile! I know she was just thinking that she really got me, and she totally did!!! I couldn't even help it, I got the giggles, I mean, how does a baby know how to tease like that? How does a one-year-old understand that concept? But she totally caught me off guard, it was completely well played! I got the giggles, and then it was on...she was just giggling and laughing. It was so funny! I knew it was going to take another half hour just to get her calmed down enough to go to sleep, but it was totally worth it! I got faked out by a one-year-old...

Then, this happened this morning at breakfast...I am trying to teach Lillie that we don't throw food on the floor, or feed the dog while we are eating. I have been very firm with her, but this morning she threw all her pancake on the floor for the dog. Well, I was so mad and I yelled at her...LOUD!! Sierra looked right at me and said, "Mom, you don't need to yell at Lillie like that! You need to use your quiet inside yelling voice." Well, what do you say to that? I totally got the giggles...I couldn't help myself.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my kids??? They are the most awesome little people ever!!

First Day of Dance!

I promised Coco I would post these. This is Sierra on her first day of Dance class and Tumbling class. She absolutely LOVES her classes. She is so dang cute. She is learning so much. She comes home and has to show me all that she learned that day. She askes me ever day, "Is this day my dance class day?" I am just so proud of her and so amazed every day at how grown up she is getting. It is just such an indescribable feeling when you see your baby become a little girl. It seems so fast, but at the same time I am so excited for her. She is such a sweet sweet girl.

P-rades and School Days...

Catching Candy!

Lilly and Papa

I took this picture just yesterday. Sierra and her friends holding hands walking across our backyard to the neighbors. These girls are just such good friends and they play together so cute. It just makes me smile to see them together.

Well, this is my second post today, but I figured I had more to say. I just wanted to post some pics of the Summit County Fair parade. I just love the fair. It is one of my favorite summer traditions. We always watch the parade and then go to the rodeo. I love getting to catch the candy and the parade with my girls. It is so fun to watch them with their giant grocery sacks of candy. They get so excited. Lilly was so funny, she was fearless. She wanted to pet the ponys and she would put her hand up and wave at all the rodeo princesses. It was a good fair this year. I think it was the first time in my life I have ever worn a jacket at the parade though! I thought it was going to rain, but we didn't even have a drop. The rodeo was really good this year, too. I always enjoy that this time of year.

Secondly, I would like to announce that I have been accepted to USU, again. I will be going back to school this fall. For those of you who are worried about me going back to college let me say this in my defense. I think I shall go to class more this time around, and party a bit less......

No wisecracks about my GPA either, Rose!!!! You know why!!!! I am pretty excited actually. I am going to finish some prerequisite classes I need so I can apply to the nursing program. Yep, folks, I am really going to make something of myself someday. Truthfully, I am a little nervous. I don't really know what I was thinking, because I have signed Sierra up for preschool, dance, and tumbling classes...and they are all at the same time I am supposed to be going to class. I think I can work it all out. I have some rides already put together, and hopefully Miner will commit to pick up the slack. I just have to figure out what to do when Miner is traveling....I haven't gotten that far yet, wish me luck!!

Art Day! Hoo-ray!!

Nanny Had fresh apricots!

Art Day with the Cousins!!

Watch me paint!!

My little artist, hard at work!

My Sierra just LOVES to do art projects. My mom loves teaching art. What do you get when two trains collide??? Art day at Nannie's house, of course! We had so much fun. A few days ago, my mom had Sierra, Lilly, Tyler, Brook, and Chris over to her house to have an art day. Sierra couldn't have been more thrilled. She is such a cute artist. She works so hard at her pictures. My mom had all kinds of fun paint and glitter and paint brushes to use. The kids really were cute. As you can see, even Lilly got into it. She was a little mad at me, because I was trying to not let her paint her clothes, skin, hair...you name it, and that is what she really would have liked painting the most. Also, she decided she really needed a big drink of the paint water, and I didn't think that was the greatest idea either....It was otherwise a giant success.

Ever since art day at Nannie's, Sierra has had to write letters to all her friends and invite them to her Art Show, "Saturday Noon." That's what she tells me to write. And Nannie's Glitter is apparently the best glitter, because Sierra has been telling me to write "Nannie's Glitter" on the grocery shopping list so I don't forget to buy some for her. But the best thing she has said, she just said yesterday. This is how our conversation went...

Sierra: "Mom, do we have any glitter like Nannie's Glitter?"

Me: "No."

Sierra: "I KNOW!!!! We can make our own glitter!!!"

Me: "I don't know how to make glitter."

Sierra: "I do. First you add 4 cups of sugar. Then you add some sprinkles..."

Me: "Sprinkles and sugar...got it."

Sierra: "...and then you slowly stir in milk, water, and juice!!! It is very simple and easy!!!"

Me: "Yup. Probably."

Good old Glitter. If any of you decide to try out this recipe, let me know how it turns out...I'd be very interested.

Chi-Town 2009!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

July 2009 MoFo!!!

Just waiting for the fire works to start!!

Sparklers and Black Cats at Nanny's

Well, here it is. My July post. We have been so busy, really we have. I feel like all I have been doing is running around. What a great month we have had. We have really done everything. I started the month with a fourth of July 5K run. I did pretty good, considering I shaved 3 minutes off my time. However, I got shin splints pretty bad and I haven't been able to run since...story of my life right there. Miner ran it with me and took fourth place in his age group. I was pretty proud of him. We had so much fun on the fourth of July. We went to Evanston to watch fireworks. If you haven't ever done this I would TOTALLY recommend it. They light off every firework known to man. It is a giant free-for-all. Literally, we went to a big park that had lots of ball fields and people just parked their cars in this big parking lot and just started lighting a gillion fireworks!! Talk about hometown fire work show. It was parking lot of fire!!! It was a little white trash, but totally fun! Then the city actually puts on a pretty good fire work show when it gets dark, and it is all free, unless you spend $10,000 on fireworks to light off in the parking lot, and I swear people must have spent that much, because this went on for hours. When we left to go home at 11:30pm they were still going STRONG!! I am going there next year for sure.

The next weekend we got to go to Chicago (my new favorite city) to see our friends Rusty and Collette get MARRIED!!! We had so much fun while we were there. You can check out my slide show to see all the coolness! But we went to the Sears/Willis Tower, the glass balconies they just installed are AMAZING! It totally gave me butterflies to walk out there, but it was such and incredible view from up there and it almost felt like you were flying. We took a water taxi through the city down to Navy Pier. We had lunch at Navy pier and walked all over the City. We had so much fun with the Griffin family, it was the most fun I have ever had at a wedding. The Griffins are such party animals!!! I love you guys so much!! And I have to give a shout out to my girl Lindsay, I am so glad I met you, because you are the best friend I have every had on facebook!! HA HA! And I also want to say that I totally ROCK at Wii bowling and Rick is a baby bowler who is to afraid of a rematch!! I just tell it like it is... Moving on, we went to the Cubby Bear and we got see Wrigley Field. The Cubs were playing but we didn't have time to see a game, which would have been pretty cool. I have to say, the weather was amazing while we were there. Even the humidity felt good, kind of reminded me of Oregon in that respect. After the wedding we got to take a trolley tour of the city with the wedding party. I saw the biggest black guy I have ever seen and he had the longest dreads I have ever seen...I told him he had great dreads, but I was kind of afraid to say it to him, that's how big he was!! He probably thought I was the smallest whitest girl he had ever seen, so I guess we are even... We got to have dessert at the top of the John Hancock building, and the city lights were so gorgeous, and they were lighting fireworks at Navy pier and we could see it from way up there. It was just so fun to be with such good friends and just to have such a great time. P.S. Collette's family is straight out of the Mafia and I think they totally adopted Miner into the "family" if you know what I mean, and so be respectful, if you know what I mean!!!

The next weekend we went to a Miner family reunion. These are always fun, because I don't get to spend much time with Miners extended family and so it is good for me to meet them all over again. Plus, we had the best waterfight ever! And I played Volleyball...for those of you who know me, you will be surprised by this since you should be aware of my fear of ball sports (these include sports in which a ball is used, if you couldn't tell). I think I would have been better at volleyball if I would have managed the art of keeping my eyes open when the ball came towards me. This is extremely difficult for me to do, since I have been practicing keeping my eyes closed practically my whole life. Finally, Lilly started crying and this saved my team from my services. Then the Candy cannons were brought out. Roger Miner (my father-in-law) has a new hobby. It is making cannons out of PVC pipe which he uses to lauch candy several hundred feet in the air. Children love this. So he made several of them and we launched candy for about 45 mins.

Miner now owns his own Candy cannon, and it is actually quite awesome. We used it at Sierra's Birthday party and it was a huge hit.

My Sierra turned four!! I can hardly believe it. She is the light of my life. She is such a great kid. She just wants to be good and make her mom and dad happy. She loves to help me clean and she loves to play with Lilly. She just is so happy and it rubs off on everyone around her. You just can't help smile at her. She is that cute. She loves to play with her friends and her cousins. I just can't get enough of her, really I can't!! I love you, bug. Happy Birthday!!

Miner and I had our Anniversary. We have been married 9 years!! We are just getting older and older....We didn't really celebrate. We feel like we have just been celebrating all month long, so we played golf. OH!! You will want to know this, I hit my first real BIRDIE!! It was awesome. It was a par 3 on the back nine at Thanksgiving point and it was totally awesome, because I drove the green and ended up about 4 feet from the hole and I totally sunk my put!! How awesome is that? I am so amazing! Someday, I may actually be able to play a full round!! Ha ha Ha...

And that brings us pretty much up to date. I signed Sierra up for preschool today. It is sort of a sad and exited feeling for me. I think her preschool is going to be awesome. Her teacher is really a neat lady. I will keep you posted. Maybe I will have time to update the ol' blog more often!! Peace!

JUNE!

Lilly turns 1!!

Visit to Oregon!

14 hours in the car...Yeah!

Zoo Train!

As big as a Gorilla!

We can see it!!!

Well, I would have been blogging, but I have been really busy. I did want to mention some fun things we have been doing. June 4th, my sweet Lilly turned 1 year old. I have to say, she is just the best kid. I love her so much. She is so smart. She is walking and learning sign language, and when she laughs...I promise there is nothing better in the world. I truly have the best kids. They make me smile all the time.

Sierra dressed up in her pink tutu and her dancing slippers and got her pink pom poms out just the other day. She was so cute. I could hear her in her room doing her "cheers" and when I really got listening to what she was saying I realized she was cheering, "TIE HER UP! TIE HER UP! TIE HER UP!"...oh well...I guess we can't win them all!

We took our kids to Oregon to see our good friends Rusty and Collette graduate from college. It was so fun. Even the 14 hours to and from weren't too bad. Rusty and Collette had our entire weekend filled with events. And we just had the best time. We also got to stop by and visit with our good friends Barbara and Judy, who were our neighbors in when we lived in Oregon. They were doing so good, and their daughter Jessica was also graduating college and she was there and it was so wonderful to know they are just doing so well and to get to see them! There is just a special place in my heart for Oregon and the people I know and love there.

I turned 32 on the 24th....I had just recently had a conversation with Sierra about how people die when they get old, and so, not thinking I said,"Congratulations to me, I'm OLD!!" Well, of course Sierra burst into tears, because she didn't want me to be old..."AND DIE!!" But, lucky for me, I'm not quite that old, yet....My friend Becky says that since 30 is the new 20, I actually only turned 22. And that is the age I will give when you ask me how old I am...

I took my kids to the zoo. That is one of my favorite summer activities. My sister Sara and her kids were there and my Mom and Dad brought Jack and Lachlan. It was fun. Kids just love the zoo. Even Lilly loved the animals, she really loved the Monkeys, the cats, the elephants, and the bears. I thought the Giraffe would be more exciting especially because it stuck it's head right up to her, but she wasn't thrilled about that.

Sierra loves animals. She said the elephants and the giraffes were her favorite. We also had fun talking like King Julian, the ring tail lemur from Madagascar!! He is my favorite, but Sierra was a little miffed that the real ring tail lemur at the zoo didn't actually SAY anything. She said she likes "talking animals" the best...I guess that means cartoon animals are better than anything that the crappy old zoo had, but she had a good time at the zoo anyway.

We have been doing swimming lessons the last two weeks. It has been so fun. Sierra is a pretty good swimmer! She even goes under the water. She LOVES her teacher, but she did inform me that next year she hopes she gets a boy teacher...those of you who follow my blog know how scared I am for the teen years!! Lilly LOVES swimming! She is a little fish. She kicks her legs and dunks her face under and giggles the whole time!! I have never seen a kid who likes to go under water, but she doesn't even care. When we get to the pool she gets so excited and claps her hands! I am telling you, I have cute kids!

Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of June! It is just flying by!! I expect that I will probably be doing the same kind of post for July!! Hope you are enjoying your summer. Cheers!

Vegas Here Us Come!!

We went to Vegas over Memorial Weekend to visit Aunt Erica and Uncle Landon and Babies Will and Holden. It was so so much fun! I was a little worried about if maybe the kids would be scared, but no way, they loved every minute of it....well, as you can tell by the picture Lilly was a little unsure about the fountain show, but she was real tired by then too, so it could have been that. We played in the pool, we went golfing, we went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, we walked the strip and watched the fountains at the Belagio and the Volcano at the Mirage. I am surprised how many family friendly things there are to do in Vegas. Everyone is so nice to you when you have your kids there, and they don't hand you any porn when you walk down the street. I thought that was very respectful of the porn dealers!! Sierra said, "Boy, there sure are a lot of cards in the road!" and I was all, "...um...yeah....cards...." Anyway, Thanks Landon and Erica for showing us a good time!

The Pics!!

Pics and Cones!

I just took my girls to Kiddie Kandids to have some spring pictures taken! I think they turned out so cute. My appointment was at 10AM this morning. I got my girls all dressed and in their cute dresses, it was all so perfect. We got right to the store (which is located in the Logan Mall) about 10 minutes before our scheduled appointment time. My girls were happy, cute, smiling, in a good mood, the whole bit. Just as we were getting checked in for our appointment the mall security came in and said that everyone had to evacuate the mall immediately, because of a gas leak!! So my kids and I spent the next 45 min. waiting in our car in the parking lot while the fire department checked out the gas leak!! After that I had to bribe the girls with an ice cream cone just so they would go back into the store with me :( ...but it actually turned out. I think the pictures turned out really cute. I'm just glad they let us back in, because it is actually a lot of work to get your kids ready for picure day, and rescheduling is NOT an option, if you get what I mean!!

P.S. My kids are not really that deprived, but after I bought the ice cream cones, Sierra thinks I am the greatest mom in all the wide world!! She has been playing "cone lady" all day long!! She just brought me a rock and told me to "just pretend it's and ice cream cone, but don't really lick it, Mom, because it's really just a rock!"

My Poor Little Lilly!

Poor Lilly! She had a double ear infection so the Doctor gave her some antibiotics. Well, the antibiotics gave her terrible diarrhea which in turn gave her the WORST diaper rash! It is so sad. If I even walk toward the changing table she starts to cry. Her bum is all blistered and the skin is peeling off!!! I have to keep giving her the antibiotics, and I have to keep changing her diaper, but I can tell it just hurts so BAD!! I feel so bad for her!! It has been going on for a couple of days now. I have a special cream I am putting on it to see if I can get it healed up faster, and I am giving her some probiotics to help with the diarrhea... so we will see how it goes the next couple of days... It is so hard for me, because I know she isn't feeling good and is hurting and I can't do anything for her! It makes me just feel terrible!!

Baby Animal Days!

Lilly asleep in the stroller

The baby bunny

The chickens...Sierra's favorite!

Lilly with the Easter bunny!

Rose and I took the kids to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center. It was really fun, but really crowded. I just thought I would share some pictures.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINER!

Sierra put the candles on!!

Sometimes I don't think I give my husband enough credit, but he is so great! I just thought you all would like to know some of the things I admire about him.

Miner can talk to anyone. He is such a good conversationalist, he can strike up a conversation with the most random people, but he can identify with them and he makes them feel important and he is truly interested in what people have to say.

Miner is a good friend. I think the fact that he really is interested in people is what makes him a good friend, but he really does care a lot about his friends. He stays in touch and wants them to be an active part of his life.

Miner has an amazing work ethic. He is such a hard worker and he loves a project.

Miner is really smart. He has good common sense and learns new things easily. And, he has a great memory. I am so amazed, because I have to write things down to remember them, but he just has great recall...as a side note...this has also been a problem for me!! HA HA!!

Miner is really athletic. He doesn't even have to work at it!

Miner is really lucky!! If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times...good things just happen to him. I don't know how this works...I have terrible luck (as many of you know). So I am hoping that if I stay married to him for long enough a little of this will rub off on me.

I love you, Miner! Happy 33rd Birthday!

Dancing Queens and Washing Machines...

First thing first...If any of you guys reading this blog need a washer and dryer, I have one to give away to a good home. They are nice decent machines in good running condition. I gave them to Rose to use when she got into her new laundry room, but now that she has a new laundry room, she decided to go ahead and just get new machines...so first come first served. Leave me a comment if you want them and I could possibly deliver them to you, if you don't live too far away. If nobody wants them I am going to put an ad in the paper and sell them, so speak now or forever hold you peace.

On to other news, Sierra has been learning spanish from her cartoons and recently she told me she had learned how to say thank you in spanish. I said, "Oh, Gracias!" and she said, "No mom, Gassy-ass!" I have tried to correct her by repeating the word to her correctly, but it hasn't caught on, so...you know. Tonight we had this conversation.

Sierra: "Mom, Lilly just broke this." (hands me wet, mangled toy.)
Me: "It's no big deal. I think I can fix that."
Sierra: "Oh, Great! Gassy-ass Mom."

Here are some more spanish words Sierra knows:

Bicycle: Babaganoosh (that is what is sounds like when she says it, I swear!)
Hello: OH, LA!! (you have to do it as if you were singing it...)
Climb up: Yoob-ay, Yoob-ay, Yoob-ay (also in a sing song voice and you must be marching on your sofa)
Red: rojo, but sometimes ro-ho-ho.

Someday, Sierra will visit Mexico and be terribly disappointed that all hispanic people don't dance around singing "OH LA, OH LA!", saving wild animals, and riding around on their babaganoosh.

Also, I have to write that Lilly has learned to dance! She has a little music table and she can really get that thing rockin'! She is so dang cute, seriously! Recently, Sierra formed a band in which she plays the drums, I play the tuba, Miner plays the guitar, and Aunt Erica plays the violin...so maybe when Lilly gets old enough, she can join our band.

That's all I've got for tonight...peace.

Lilly's New Tricks!

So Lilly is quite the quick learner lately. She can now wave hello/goodbye. She also waves if you tell her to say goodnight. It is really cute. She is just crawling all over the place. She has recently become very fast. I had the pantry door open and she was in the living room and she made a mad dash to get in there before I could close the door. She also has decided that eating tiny pieces of torn up TP out of the garbage can is her new favorite snack...so I have to keep all the garbage cans locked up or up high so she can't get to them. She just pulled herself up on her own for the first time today. She has figured out how to take dishes out of the lower rack of the dishwasher. She has decided that baby food is no longer for her and screeches at the top of her lungs if you are eating something and you don't give her a taste. She decided tonight to open Sierra's markers and gave herself a nice Cindy Crawford mole. I got some cute pictures of her with my cell phone and as soon as I can figure out how to transfer them to my computer I will post them. (Yes, I have only had the phone for about 4 years...) She loves her mom and gets very upset when Mom leaves her at Aunt Rose's house...sorry Rose ( I owe you one!) And sorry in advance to Sara (It's to late to cancel now!! But maybe it's just Rose?!?!).

She is just so cute. You guys that don't get to see her every day miss so much. She is such a sweet and busy little baby. We are looking forward to the warmer weather so that we can play outside.

Sierra has been looking forward to Miner's Birthday. She has been planning the party. She has the guest list mostly worked out and so far I know we need noisemakers (because apparently that is just what every party must have). She has even decided what he needs as a present (A bubblemaker, "he can even use her bubbles if he wants!"). So it's pretty much a done deal at this point...hopefully your on the list, because it should be a real barn burner...

And you can't sleep because???

This is what went to bed with Sierra last night.

7 stuffed animals
3 pieces of construction paper
1 flashlight
10 binkies
1 dirty sock
2 slippers
1 extra blanket

and where did she end up spending most of the night....my bed. If I had that much junk in my bed, I would have gone somewhere else to sleep also.

LOOOOK INTO ME EYES...

So Sierra has been doing the funniest thing lately! I don't know where she picked it up but here is the story.

Sierra: Mom, I want you to put a cartoon on for me.

Me: Not right now, I'm busy.

Sierra: Mom, I want you to put a cartoon on for me.

Me: Go away, go play in your room or something.

Sierra: MOOOOM, MOOOOM, LOOOOOK INTO ME EYES...LOOOOK INTO ME EYES....YOU WANT TO PUT A CARTOON ON FOR ME...

Of course, I put a cartoon on for her and I laughed about it, so apparently she thought it must have worked, because now if I tell her "no" or "not right now" then I must be hipnotized into it.

Lilly is getting pirate teeth! HA HA HA, just so you know I am totally laughing. I can't wait until they are all the way in, because she has one tooth on bottom, and one tooth directly above it on top coming in. She is going to look just like a pirate!! HA HA HA! When her teeth come in I will try to get a picture of her. AAAUUURRRGGG, matey!

The other day we were about town, and Sierra was STARVING. I didn't want to go get fast food at McDonalds, but I did need to get gas, so I wheeled into the gas station and I grabbed her a lunchable out of the cooler. Well, apparently, it was the best luch Sierra had had in a while, because they are her new favorite thing! She calles it a lunch box and she askes for one for every meal! Maybe she did inherit my gas station food loving gene!!! Actually, that would be too bad. I was hoping maybe that would skip a generation.

I have some cute pictures and video of all of us sledding at the Miner's cabin, but I have to hurry and get some lunch before Lillian wakes up from her nap, so maybe that can come later. As a side note, February has been spent coughing, blowing noses, dispensing antibiotics, and cold medicine, and taking temperatures. I think maybe by the end of the week we could finally be coming out of our disease infestation, but if you are sick, please do not come around me or my family...it would be greatly appreciated. Come to think about it, if you are healthy, don't come around us either, because we should probably spend some time in quarantine...just to be safe. Peace.

The eyes have had it...

Well, a couple of days ago Sierra fell off her chair in the kitchen and blackened her eye. I have some pictures to post, but I am using the laptop at the moment and my CF card won't fit, so I will have to post the pics later. Then, yesterday, Lilly was running a low grade fever and was kind of fussy and not feeling well. WELL, today, she woke up and both her eyes were so goopy and her eyelid was red and swollen. I took her into the pediatrician, and she has pink eye!! So my poor girls have the funniest looking eyes. I should put them both together and get a picture of them with their poor swollen eyes!! I hope Lilly is better by Sunday, because we are supposed to go to a Super Bowl party!! Which brings me to my next topic...GO CARDS!!

Mini Pre-Midlife Crisis

Well, I have been saying for a few years now that I am just going to chop it all off...and now, in a moment of frump...I have finally done it! I just had been feeling like I needed a change...maybe it is because I have been watching too much Obama coverage, but something just got into me. I almost chickened out right at the last minute, but I'm glad I didn't, because I REALLY like it. I hope you all do to, since I actually do care what people think about me. But it feels so fun and fresh and I just love it.

WE WELOME CHANGE!

There's a Voice across the Nation like a might ocean-hail,

Borne up from out the Southward as the seas before the gale;

Its breath is in the streaming Flag and in the flying sail -As we go sailing on.

'Tis a Voice that we remember - ere its summons soothed asnow -

When it rang in battle-challenge, and we answered vow withvow,

With roar of gun and hiss of sword and crash of prow andprow,

As we went sailing on.

Our hope sank, even as we saw the sun sink faint and far,

The Ship of State went groping through the blinding smoke of War

Through blackest midnight lurching, all uncheered of moon or star,

Yet sailing - sailing on.

As One who spake the dead awake, with life-blood leaping warm

Who walked the troubled waters, all unscathed, in mortal form,

We felt our Pilot's presence with His hand upon the storm,

As we went sailing on.

O Voice of passion lulled to peace, this dawning of To-day

O Voices twain now blent as one, ye sing all fears away,

Since foe and foe are friends, and lo! the Lord, as glad as they.

He sends us sailing on.

A Peace Hymn of the Republic-James Whitcomb Riley

Christmas Pics...

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