THANKSGIVING

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My sister and her family came in from New York, and I can't describe how happy I was to see them. We were also lucky enough to have my Grandma come in from California as well. It's been too long since we've seen her, and it was wonderful to have her here. We had almost our whole family together again, and that never happens. We missed my sister Amanda (she's in California). One day I hope we can all be together. My brother was nice enough to take our family pictures for us. We haven't done that since Ethan was about 4 months old. It was cold, but I think they turned out pretty good. Thanks Brian. And thanks to all our family for sharing such a great thanksgiving with us. I think thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Halloween

We had a Halloween party for Jared's family. It was a lot of fun. We decorated pumpkins, played games, and ate. Emma was a Queen, so watch out if you call her a pretty princess, I thought she was going to kill people with the looks she was giving them after they mistook her for a princess. Ethan was Yoda. You can't tell in these pictures because he wouldn't ware the ears. Anyway he looked really cute, and Emma was really pretty.

So I see I've been tagged on a couple of other people's blogs. I will do them. I'm just trying to figure out what I want to share, and what I'll keep to myself. Hang in there a minute for me.

Who needs their toes?

Okay so this happened I guess about a month ago, but as you can see it takes me forever to update my blog. I thought I might be good at this, but not so much. Anyway, we were at my Mom's and the kids were in the backyard playing. We heard a blood curtailing scream, and thought UGH, I wish they'd just get along. Well they were getting along, just not with the brick that Ethan dropped on his foot. OUCH! I ran outside and all I saw was blood, so I screamed, yes I stay very calm in these situations, for what? My Mom. That's right. I'm 29 and still screaming for my Mom. Ethan had gone into shock by now, and that was very scary. I couldn't get him calmed down. We tried putting him in a bath to see how bad it was, but he just couldn't calm down. I thought he had broken his foot. My Mom and I took him to instacare and Jared met us there. Luckily it was broken just filleted. YUCK! He got to pick the color of his bandage. He of course out of all the bright blues, and greens opted for yes, pink. Oh well, what ever makes him happy. He said as we left the doctors, Emma's gonna love it. Kids are funny. I'm so glad that he's okay and I'm grateful for codeine!

The Zoo

Well I just wanted to give an update on Emma and Kindergarten. She had her first Field trip and I got to go with her. We went to the zoo. I wish I had pictures, but the batteries died. I couldn't bring myself to buy batteries that must have super powers because of the way they're priced. I won't rant and rave about the ridiculously priced products at our local ZOO, cause I'm sure you've all experienced that bureaucracy. Anyway we were spit up into groups and my group of 2, yes 2, Emma and the "worse" kid in the class. You know you'll never sign up for one of these things again when all the parents come up to you and wish you luck, and they've never met the kid. We've all just been informed by our kids how he behaves. Then when the teacher hands you her cell phone number and tells you to call her if there's any problems. I've been to the Zoo, and it's not that great even if I did get in for only $5.oo. I wanted to go home. Why do I do these kinds of things to myself? Emma gave "naughty" a talking to on the bus ride up, warning him that he'd better be good for her mommy. (SHE KNOWS)! Well he was just fine. I only lost him once, and threatened time out. Not too bad I must say. It was fun. Ask me if I'm signing on for the next one........ probably. I did love how when I did buy a stuffed animal for Ethan, sorry he could come purchase, that the girl at the register asked if I wanted to donate my .32 cents in change to the Zoo. WHAT!!! Don't I already pay taxes, give me my change. (okay, I gave it to the zoo. wonder if that's a write off? HA!)
Oh, and good news, Emma's bear is holding up just fine and is the most decorated of the the class (that's my girl). Also, the mean girl is nice now. That's always a good thing.

scrap-n-scribe

Well we finally did it! My sister Anna and I have talked about starting a business for a long time. We tossed ideas around with our sister Jessica and our parents. Everyone would always get excited and then we wouldn't do anything about it. I think Jared got sick of hearing about my "great" ideas and never thought it would really happen. Well it's happened. On kind of a whim we were hanging out at my parents house and talking about our ambitions and now I'm the CEO of scrap-n-scribe, and Anna is the COO. My parents also got on board and my Mom is our CFO and my Dad is our CIO. Jessica lives in New York now and has a lot on her plate there. But when she moves back!, we have a place for her too. scrap-n-scribe is a .com business and is a combination of all of our talents. We love scrap booking and card making and so we decided why not try to make a living doing something that we all love. In addition to cards and scrapbook pages we make brag books, journals, and bath gift sets (they're really cute). We've had a lot of fun getting everything started and are really optimistic about the whole adventure. Just recently we added my brother, Brian, to the group as well. He's an amazing photographer and is going to be selling his prints on the site. He's awesome at finding the perfect flower or sunset and getting incredible shots. So we're really excited to add his talent with ours. Go check out the web site, scrapnscribe.com, (there's a link from my blog). My Dad has done an amazing job, and we couldn't have done anything with out him. Thanks to all who have supported us and believe in our dreams!!!! (husbands included).

Kindergarten

EMMA STARTED KINDERGARTEN!!! Can't believe that we have a kindergartner. After sleepless nights and throwing up in anticipation to starting school she's finally here. Emma was so afraid that she wasn't smart enough for kindergarten and was really nervous. After meeting her teacher and seeing other kids who were just as scared as her, she felt a lot better about going. Grandma and Grandpa came to see her off for the first day and that meant a lot to all of us. Lot's of phone calls of encouragement and hearing how her day was, were really appreciated. She was excited to tell any one who would listen all about her first day. There's a mean girl and a Miranda. Always a mean girl right? I'm just wondering why there were no calls to the MOM. It's hard to send your baby out, hence the sun glasses. I'm very proud of myself though, I held it together until she was in the building and we were on our way home. The ride home was all tears.

Emma's first homework assignment was to decorate a paper bear. She really took this and ran with it. I think she a little like her father and Grandpa in the overachieving department. The bear "Nelli" weighs in at about 5 pounds. I was a little nervous her teacher, Miss Van den Akker, would have trouble hanging it up. Emma was really happy with how the whole thing turned out. She said, "I'm a decorator". I'm just glad I was able to meet the demands of her imagination.

T Ball

Here are some more pictures of T Ball. Brian, my brother, took them. He does a better job at picture taking than I do. Isn't our little man so cute!

Here's Emma playing her first game of T Ball. She's on the team with her friend Jessica. They have a ton of fun together. The best thing about this is, all of their shirts are like dresses. One size fits all, right? It's so cute.

We started T Ball tonight. As you can see Ethan liked kicking the dirt more than playing the game. His shoes are filthy!! He said he had fun, so that's what matters. He's playing with his cousin, Mckayla (she's in the other picture) and his two friends James, and Ryan. It's a lot of fun to have friends on the same team. The only thing I don't like about T Ball is, it's HOT!!!! outside.

On the bench are all the kids that came. James, Emma, Lea, Ethan and Chloe. I love that shot. I also love the other pictures. Kids are so dang CUTE!

Here's Ethan, Chloe, and Emma feeding the ducks. They're huge and come right up to you. The kids liked the ones behind the fence.

Hello to all. Welcome to our first attempt at a blog. Hopefully someone out there will enjoy it. Here are some pics of the kids my friend did. We went to Wheeler Historic Farm. Don't forget the "Historic" part or your navigation system will send you on a 500 mile journey. The kids had a ton of fun. Emma is 5 now and Ethan is 3. Growing up way too fast!!!!