"my music"

A friend of mine told me about this great kids CD that her girls love so Santa got it for Grace for Christmas. My girls LOVE it!! They are constantly asking for "my music". Thankfully the songs aren't terribly annoying so I can tolerate them. The best thing about the music is that they are learning too! There are counting sounds, letter sound songs, opposites songs, manners, months, math, etc. Even Emma loves the songs and tries to sing along. I think Grace knows practically all the words to most the songs. So if you are looking for a cute gift for Valentines day or something to throw into the Easter basket in a couple months this is a GREAT one!!

"Sounds Like Fun" by Discovery Toys. It was actually first made in the early 80's so some of you may have heard it before. Here is a link to where I ordered it from but I saw it listed on ebay as well. Not cheap at $15, but well worth the money!! You can also search youtube for some videos of the songs.

And for your viewing pleasure a video of the girls singing the Alphabet sounds song. This was from last week when Emma wasn't feeling very well just in case you notice she looks sleepy!

oh my...

I was in my bedroom putting laundry away (for maybe 5 minutes) and I come back into the living room to find 3 packages (that were previously unopened) of wipes torn out of their packages and thrown all around my living room. This was one of those "oh no they didn't" moments. I told them to go stand in time-out and boy did they know what they had done wasn't okay because they marched to time out and put their little faces in the corner without saying one complaint. Can you tell they have done this before? So after I took a picture or two I gave each of them a bag and told them to clean it up. I put the salvageable wipes (some were torn to shreds) into a ziplock baggie and we will be using every one of those. I can't waste wipes!! I thought about taking money out of their piggy banks but I it was kind of funny so hopefully they learned their lessons. It could have been much worse!

Wipes.... all over... my house....Time out....
My two little cleaners....

GRACE

And she writes her name. We have been working on this ALL YEAR so its a thrill to finally see her do it all on her own! I think she is pretty darn proud too.

a little random today

First off, I just wanted to update on my sweet sister-in-law, Christee. She is doing great and believe it or not she is done with chemo. Unfortunately she still has a big road ahead. She is scheduled to have her double mastectomy next Thursday, January 21st. About 2 weeks after the surgery she will start 7 weeks of radiation and then a few months after the radiation is complete she will undergo reconstructive surgery.

Please send prayers her way for a smooth surgery and quick recovery both physically and mentally. I can't even imagine how she must feel, but I hope she feels all the love that is coming to her! We are heading to Austin this weekend to hang out with her and get her mind off next week.

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Next, bedtime and nap time have gotten a bit better.

Crying has been reduced and Emma isn't grabbing onto everything possible to keep me from bringing her into her crib. Honestly, I thought she might learn how to get out of her crib during all this because trust me she definitely wanted out! We didn't really change a whole lot, just tried to keep it consistent and let her cry. We knew she was tired.

Now the problem is that she just chats away in her crib. I mean for like an hour sometimes?! We have tried keeping her later, putting her down earlier, etc and no matter what she just hangs out in her bed talking to her babies. It's actually sort of cute. We are totally not ready to move her to a big girl bed so we'll keep working on her. I don't think it has helped any that she is getting in all 4 of her eye teeth right now and she has a bit of a cough/cold. Maybe things will get back to normal once all that passes?

Thank you for all your sweet advice. I guess I just needed to vent more than anything.

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And yet reason why you should coupon... I got all this for $12.37 (thanks to some great coupons and good sales!). It would have cost me over $70!! What is frustrating is I had additional coupon for $2.50 off that I meant to use. Oh well I can use it next time. Oh and I only went to Kroger for all this!!(5 crescent rolls, 2 cinnamon rolls, 2 biscuits, 2 hot chocolates, 1 softsoap, 1 Dannon 6pk yogurt, 4 bags Nabisco snacks, 2 boxes oatmeal, 1 taco seasoning, 1 pkg strawberries, 1 package blueberries, 1 avocado, 1 bunch cilantro, 2 cans corn, 1 can black beans, 2 packets tuna, 1 V8 fusions, 1 Gatorade, 1 can tomatoes chopped, and 8 packs of Rolaids - don't really need Rolaids its just that I made .80 cents on every 2 I bought so it helped my bill - if you know someone that needs Rolaids let me know!!)

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Grace and Emma got some new dress up stuff for Christmas from their Aunt Tricia and Uncle Todd. The girls LOVE all the jewelry it came with.

Emma has every piece of jewelry on that she can wear, while holding a purse and pushing her baby. Such a little mommy in the making. :)

Grace posing for a cute picture with wild hair!

sleep

I've always thought that I was pretty good at getting my kids on a good little routine for sleep.

Grace has always been a pretty good sleeper. However she did wake up once a night until she was a good 8 months old, she would get up, eat and drift back off to sleep. I always thought the breast milk didn't fill her up as much. But after that she was a pro. Even today she sleeps a good 10 hours at night (if not more) and usually a hour to hour and half nap. Yes she is nearly 4 and still takes a nap. Honestly, she does okay without it, but after a couple days she is wreck so she gets a nap unless its a school day.

Emma on the other hand was a fantastic sleeper really from day one. I remember in the hospital her going 4-5 hours at night. Pretty much unheard of - or least it seems most of my friends weren't so lucky. She dropped down to one waking within a couple weeks and was sleeping through the night (9pm-6am) by 2 months. Oh and she had several daytime good naps. She really has been a good sleeper and for the most part is still, but we are having a problem. She is having a hard time settling to go to sleep for naps and bedtime. I know she is tired, but has been fighting us terribly. She cries when we put her in her crib and that has been lasting for a good 15+ minutes and then she will play for another 15+ minutes and then this is followed by a 3-4 hour nap during the day or 11 hours at night. I've tried talking about and for the most part our days are much alike.

So my question - any ideas? At night our routine is bath (every other night), pjs, hang out, brush teeth, books, etc. 95% of the time its the same. During the day she always goes down shortly after lunch for nap. We eat, clean up and usually read a book or something quiet for 15 minutes or so and then I lay her down. This has only been lasting for the last month or so. Could it be just a phase. I'm starting to worry because we are planning to transition her into a big girl bed this Spring/early Summer sometime so I want this to be a thing of the past or bedtime will really be bad.

OH and I should add that Adam and I were rocking her when this all first started to get her to relax or calm down but it didn't help and honestly I think it was starting to make it worse. So the last few days we have just been saying "its night night time and we love you".

Any recommendations? Really hoping its just a phase.

It's crazy for me to think that we moved Grace to a big girl bed at this age. She was 22 months when we moved here (yes we have been here 2 years!). I could not imagine Emma in a bed. SCARY!!

New Year

Welcome 2010. We had a rough end of the year with the death of my granny so we thought a couple days away would be nice. We went to see Adam's parents for a night and then left the girls for an additional night and we headed to visit our friends, Joey and Hailey, in Arkansas. It was a breath of fresh air to get to hang out with them. I miss them and wished they lived closer, but at least we can drive - only 5 hours!

Miss Presley was ready to party - or maybe just eat the sunglasses.

Adam and I's self photo.

And Hailey and I lookin' cute!

It wasn't anything too wild and crazy, but I did stay up till 3am. That is like a world record for me!! Thanks for a fun time Hailey and Joey.

here

Yes I'm here. Wow what a busy, fun, exhausting, relaxing and exciting last few weeks we have had. I can't tell you how many people have asked me if I'm not blogging anymore! Really I had no idea that anyone was actually still reading. I know I have been terrible. Honestly no excuses - life has just gotten in the way and blogging hasn't been on the agenda. Someone also told me that "blogging was so last year"... really? I do really enjoy blogging. I love looking back at the silly things I wrote about my girls or my life or the lack thereof. But mostly I enjoy reading about other friends and family and their lives. So yes I'm still here. And ready to give some updates!!



So here they are... (Tiffany style) ... either click on the link below or keep scrolling. Enjoy.

Granny

Christmas-time fun

Christmas 2009

Christmas cards 2009