A whole lotta randomness

So since this blog is supposed to chronicle our life I figured I should post some of the recent stories, happenings and saying that ive posted on facebook.

Tonight at dinner Anna got in a bit of trouble. Our little climber can't seem to sit on her bottom in her chair. So she got scolded and pouted for a while. When she finally got back to the table, she decided she still wasn't ready to sit down and contained to crawl under the table and around the chairs. After a while I noticed she had finally gotten quiet and still so I look down at her and she is diligently trying to stuff a piece of steak that Addison had dropped on the floor into our air conditioning grate. When I finally got the kid in a chair, I have her a string cheese and about halfway through it I could see that she was losing interest so I asked if she wanted strawberries.. She screamed YES!! And simultaneously chunked the piece of string cheese so hard that it actually hit the window.

2) my Facebook status today was "What's worse than having a two yea old tell you that she flushed her panties down the potty? ... Having. Two year old who can't count tell you HOW MANY undies she flushed down the potty. For the record Anna said she flushed two and I fished a pair out and she was holding a pair in her hands so I'm hoping those are the two she's referring to.

Did I mention she's a climber? She pushes stools and chairs to get hat she wants. Ie. cookies on the cake plate. See pic below.

Addison started singing a little jig the other night. "I always tell the truth and nothing but the truth, now you!" still have no idea where she picked it up.

Ok so that's the majority of the past. Couple of days. More to come. Aj is in Fourth grade now and is turning 9 on Saturday!!!

The Dentist..

When I was a child, I hated going to the dentist. The set up at my dentist's office was that of a big room with 5 cusioned table type seats lining each side. So you could see and talk to pretty much anyone else jn the room. In the back there was a private room; it was enclosed with a big glass window and door. So whenever you saw someone being assigned to "the room" you knew there was going to be a show. Most kids who were put in the room were screamers, squirmers and usually 4 or 5 hygienists would accompany the dentist in to hold the kid down. But even with the door shut, you could still hear the kids screaming. Today, on the 28th of May, Addison was scheduled to have her first cleaning. And while we love our pediatric dentist, I was anxious of how she would do. Out of our 3 girls, Addison has usually been the one to freak out in new situations. I just knew that she was going to be a screamer. We had been talking it up for a few days in hopes that she wouldn't be one of "those" kids and this morning she was so excited to go. What I had failed to do was to prepare Anna that she would NOT be getting her teeth cleaned. (I thought having one kid get her teeth cleaned for the first time was going to be a handful). So when I asked Addison in the car who was going to go first, her or AJ, Anna piped up "I go first!!". I explained that she wouldn't be getting her teeth cleaned and OH MY WORD. You would've thought that I had just scolded her. She hung her head down and those lips and cheeks puffed out and I seriously thought she was going to cry. When we got there the girls played in the playroom and when we were called back, Addison walked right up to the chair, climbed in and laid back. I was so proud. She was a champ! So after the hygienist and doctor checked her she hopped down and Anna hopped straight out of my lap and climbed into the chair and she tells Dr. Anglin "my turn!". We all cracked up. Appointment or not, she was going to get her teeth cleaned. The hygienist was so amused by her determinedness that she checked and brushed her teeth and gave her a new toothbrush and goody bag just like Addison had gotten. So Anna got her unofficial first dental cleaning too. :)

The drama:
Addison and Anna both suck their middle two fingers and Addison has a pronounced overbite. The dentist told us that we need to get her to quit soon so that it doesn't cause bone structure deformities. We had been trying to get her to stop for some time now but when she's tired those fingers go in her mouth. I bought some bitter nail polish to put on their fingers and man, it has been a trying day. Anna whined because she didn't like the taste and kept soaking her shorts with drool trying to spit the taste out of her mouth. Addison mainly sucks her fingers when she goes to bed. She puts two fingers in her mouth and uses her pinkie to tickle her upper lip. Its how she soothes herself to sleep. Needless to say she had the hardest time trying to take a nap. We laid in bed for almost 2 hours and she just cried. She kept saying "I want to suck my fingers" but she didn't dare put them in her mouth. It broke my heart to see her struggling like that. I eventually calmed her by playing some music with nature sounds and then teaching her to tickle her upper lip like she usually does when she has her fingers in her mouth but with the corner of a blanket. We gave up trying to nap when Ken got home and he suggested we try different method- distraction and a goal. So we told her if she went to bed tonight without crying and without sucking her fingers, we would get a big blow up pool and take her to the movies tomorrow. And I'm happy to announce that she did so good!!! She tickled her lips with the blanket and fell asleep not even ten minutes later! Woohoo! And while I realize that this is not the end of the war, I'm counting this little skirmish a VICTORY! So prayers for an easier transition for her would be really appreciated! We're going to need it. :)

If you spill a bag of pretzels

If you spill a bag of pretzels,
Mommy will clean it up.
After mommy cleans it up, she will get the vacuum out to clean up the crumbs.
While she's vacuuming up the crumbs.. She starts cleaning out the pantry. After she finishes cleaning out the pantry she sits back and looks at the fridge. Then she thinks of all the food that needs to be cleaned out. She opens the door and starts cleaning all the shelves and drawers. When she's done cleaning the fridge, she looks over at the pile of dishes overflowing onto the counter top. She cleans off the counter top and looks at all the papers piled on top of the microwave. She clears off the top and accidentally pushes a bag of candy behind the microwave. She calls her husband to come hold the microwave while she retrieves the bows, mail, pictures and candy wrappers from behind the microwave. Daddy helps vacuum and takes the vacuum to clean out the crumbs under the stove. Mommy finishes cleaning the microwave and sits down on the floor. While she's sitting on the floor her eyes lock on the two overflowing junk drawers. She decides to clean it out. After she cleans it out, she does the dishes. And after the dishes she remembers dinner needs to be cooked. She looks around at her clean kitchen and decides its a take out kind of night. :)

Father's day or as we call it.. Daddy Day

Fathers play such an instrumental role in our lives. When we are children, their presence, attention, affection and attentiveness shape who we become as adults. I am fortunate enough to have known 3 great fathers in my life.

The first is my dad or baba as I call him. He was an amazing man. Smart, strong, loving and a hard worker. He was wonderful and I miss him so much every day. It's hard to believe its been three years already.

The second is my personal favorite. My amazing husband Ken. He is such a phenomenal daddy to our girls. Loving, attentive, caring, playful, ... I could go on and on. An active father figure is so important in a young girls' life. It shapes how they see themselves, men and the world. I think its because of this reason that God blessed us with three girls. Ken is the ideal man to raise girls to become strong, secure women. The way he talks, plays with and treats them is something to be admired. truly.

And last but certainly not least, my father in law, Mike. He is an amazing dad and pappy. It is because of him that my husband is such a great father. He had a wonderful role model to watch as he was growing up. We adore him.

So to baba, daddy, dad and all the other fathers out there... Thank you for everything that you do! We love you!!!
Happy Father's Day!

Ken and Annie's Tour de Europe

Click here to view this photo book larger

I just made our photo book chronicling our trip abroad! Feel free to take a look. It may take a while to load..

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Being serious.

Ok I'm seriously loving the faces this girl makes. It almost makes up for all the terrible twos behavior lately. :)

Stubbornness and Determination

Well as I said in the last post, Addison finally got the stomach bug this past week. And while I'm sure most of you can imagine what a stomach bug entails, I'm going to elaborate a little for you anyway. ( so if you're the weak stomached type. Skip this first paragraph now.) It was the middle of the night and Addison had been throwing up and of course screaming bloody murder in between bouts of getting sick. I knew by the look in her eyes when she was going to get sick again so I would grab the bucket and hold it in front of her. She would start crying and say "no I don't want to! I don't want to!" and would you believe it that girl held it down several times. And if it came up, she would force it back down or refuse to spit it out. ( I know, I know, GROSS!) but ken and I just looked at each other amazed at how stubborn she was. She had made up her mind that she did NOT like the throwing up one bit and was NOT going to do it anymore. Ha! Can you say strong willed child? Lol! I wonder where she gets that from ;)


Ok so this little tidbit I just thought was cute. Ken was in the kitchen fixing his lunch when Addison came in. "daddy, Anna take buggy upstairs..." (picture her saying that in an "I'm telling on ou" sing songy voice.) a few minutes later Ken hears Anna noisily coming down the stairs and repeating to herself in a soft determined voice "I got it. I got it. I got it.." he looks and Anna ( sweet, little, short, Anna) is carrying her plastic grocery cart down our stairs. She makes it to the bottom, drops the buggy and comes running in the kitchen pushing her buggy yelling "I did it!!!"

Here's a completely unrelated pic of Addison and Anna picking up balls at the tennis courts. Anna spent several minutes trying to get all the balls she found over the fence. :). She also had her first run in with fire ants that day and other than a whiny "mommy!!" she never cried even though they stung her several times on her hand and her foot.

The gift I wish would stop giving...

So Sunday was mothers day and we had a fabulous morning at church then we drove out to Ken's parents new house on the lake. Which by the way is AMAZING! Seriously those views are gorgeous. But I digress, we had a great lunch. My father in law made my favorite grilled pork chops, my mother in law made a delicious fried corn recipe which I'm sure packed on a couple of pounds and then of course we had birthday cupcakes to celebrate Anna's birthday the day before. ( I realize that's a really long sentence. Forgive me)
After lunch we were sitting around talking when Anna climbed up on me and "lost her lunch" on me. Twice. Happy mothers day! Its the stomach flu! The poor kiddo never cried and was so pitiful we ended up going home a little early to get her comfortable. After her nap in her crib, she was back to normal and ready for dinner. Well early Tuesday morning ken got sick, I got sick Tuesday night and Alexis got it Wednesday morning. Thank heavens for my wonderful mother in law who not only came over to take care of the babies but also ended up taking care of all of us sickos and cleaned up my mess of a house. She is awesome.

Thursday, everyone seemed to be better or at least on the mend; so I began disinfecting the house. Floors, doors, walls, remotes, you name it. I was determined to wash or scrub the stomach flu out of the house. And wouldn't you know it, just as we're getting the girls ready for bed Addison walks in the playroom and gets sick.... Great.. Poor thing is gonna have a rough night tonight.

Thank you stomach flu, you have given us enough. Please stop giving.

Some of you may have caught wind that Ken is doing (what has been named) the Fat Boy challenge. The challenge is to run a 6 minute mile by March 3rd. Since he's been training, he's been eating healthier which has rippled into all of us eating healthier.. Lots of fruits and veggies!!

So Ken and I have decided to take it a step further.. We are going on a juice fast!

What? Annie not EAT anything? No meats? No cokes? I know.. mind blowing.. I type this as I stuff my face with cheetos, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Stop judging me!!

WHY??? You may ask, are you doing this? While I can't speak for Ken, I am going to do it for a couple of reasons. And while I don't want to sound cliche, its probably going to come out that way anyway so here goes. I am trying to be a better person, I'll keep the details to myself but let's just say eating and feeding my family heathier foods is on the docket. Enter the juice fast! And if I drop a pound or two in the process thats a bonus. :) The juice fast we'll be following is inspired by the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" if you haven't heard of it, you should Definitely watch it.

So this week, Ken and I will be starting our fast. Stay tuned for updates!