Cupid

Tonight in the bath, Ava says to me:

"Mom, what is the name of that baby that doesn't wear a diaper and spits water out his mouth?"

Me: "Ummm, Cupid?"

Ava: "Yeah, Cupid! We are pretending we are Cupid; watch!"

Then she proceeds to suck up a mouthful of water, stand up, hold her arms like she is holding a bow and arrow, shoots the bow and spits out the water.

Hilarious! Ninny was doing it too, so cute!

Valentines Day 2011

We had our usual "I love you" pancakes. I got up early to accomplish it, and was glad I did. The girls have gotten used to this, and I think would have been dissapointed without it.


Payden had a dance at school that day, so she was wearing a dress. She danced with boys!


Ava and Corrine loved the cherries.

And Michaela made sure I wasn't left out; she made me mine! It was very sweet.

That afternoon when everyone got home, we got to work cleaning up and decorating. The little girls took charge of the table. Ava washed it off, then put the table cloth on. Then they made decorations, set it, and put stickers on the glasses. I really didn't give them much direction!

Then we couldn't wait to give gifts. Ava had seen this heart box of chocolates in the store, and wanted so badly to get it for me that I let them buy it for me. (Read: I paid for my own Valentines present!) But she wanted to give it to me, and I will never forget her sweetness about it. I will keep that box forever.

Michaela and a new scarf and fuzzy socks.

Ava and Ninny got some little toys.

Payden with her hat and fuzzy socks.

We lit the candles and served dinner. Shrimp, fish, asparagus and the best company I could ever ask for.

After dinner, we made our own disco ball and put on a dance. Everyone danced and had so much fun, until Ava dropped Ninny on her head. She was ok, but the moment was kind of broken, so we moved on to other activities!

Our disco ball; a balloon covered in foil and sparkly stickers, hung from the ceiling and lit up with flashlights!

For an activity, we covered pink marsmallows in chocolate and dipped it in toppings.

Yummy and pretty. I also made heart shaped custards for dessert, but they didn't hold their shape so no picture! They tasted good, though.

And then, to top off a wonderful night, a neighbor came over with a tray of goodies, one for each of us. She said that she thinks of me being alone, and wanted to let me know she was thinking of me. She also said that she loves me and wants to keep me here! I was flattered and touched. I don't know if she knows how much her kind gesture meant to me.

The only problem with this fabulous day is that now I have a counter full of goodies and candies! Willpower!

New Years Eve 2011

For New Years Eve, we stayed home and celebrated with our traditional appetizer dinner. Ava got sick while at Walmart purchasing our food, and as soon as we got home she started throwing up. Poor thing. She wanted so bad to come out and join our celebration. We included her from her bed!

Walmart was out of all their fun new years stuff, so we improvised. We made our own noise makers with metal measuring cups and spoons. We had our countdown at nine so Ava could get some rest and Ninny could go to bed. Then the older girls and I stayed up till midnight.


Poor baby, using her noisemaker from bed!


We also had silly spray, which was fun.

Gotcha!

The pro. Notice the glove. She put that on because the can was contaminated. It was such because I had been cleaning up puke, and touched the can. Nevermind that I washed my hands!

Our New Years toast.

Here is sad little Ava. Her ginger ale didn't stay where it was supposed to.

Happy New Year!

Ice skating

While PJ and Jackie were here for Christmas break, we went ice skating at the rec center. We all had so much fun, I am sure we will be going again!

Me and Ninny. She had to take a few breaks and sat with Grandma, who was taking the pictures.

They had these little walker things for the kids who didn't know how to skate. Ninny couldn't make hers go by herself, but she had no problem being pushed around as fast as you could push her! That was quite a work out.


Here is Ava on hers. She was cruising with this thing! She would run, fall down, get up, run some more, fall down, over and over. She was having fun and didn't seem to mind falling down until at the end when she got tired.

PJ was kind of funny; when he got on the ice he said "whoa." Then, "I don't like this... I don't like this at all..." We were all cracking up. He held my hand while we skated around, and after a while did warm up.

Me and Ninny!

Michaela and Payden got right out there no problem, even though they had never been before.

Here is PJ's first moments. He stayed very close to the wall for a while.

Ava running on the tips of her skates!

I think I also remember PJ saying something like, "this is wrong"!

Michaela really liked it too, although she got some uncomfortable skates and got a bruise and a blister.

We skated for about 2 hours and it was such a good time. We even got to see the zamboni thing grooming the ice.
Here is my cutie pie!

Christmas 2011

We had a very nice Christmas. It was wonderful to have PJ and Jackie in town and get to hang out with them. We played games, ate good food, watched movies, and just had fun together. We also went ice skating, which I will post pics of later.
PJ and Jackie got in late Friday night, at about 1am. So we went home and went straight to bed! They were very tired. Saturday we cooked and talked, and that night we played wii and read and acted out the Christmas story.

Go PJ! Its still fun to watch him play Just Dance 2!


We had a yummy dinner, turkey and other goodies. And we all fit around my table!


PJ was a wise man, I was a shephard, Payden was Joseph, Ninny an angel, Ava was Mary, and Jackie was the donkey. The kids all took turns riding the donkey! That is her on the floor under the monkey blanket, with Ava on top of her.




After the Christmas story, we opened up matching pajamas, made by yours truly.

My gorgeous girlies! Just a little excited for the morning!

The little girls put out the cookies and milk for Santa. Corrine left her stuffed animal out by the cookies, and she came running out a couple of minutes later, saying, "I'll be really quick so he doesn't see me!" It was adorable. She was in different pj's by this point because she puked in bed and I had to change her. So she didn't match for long. But luckily she wasn't sick again and she could enjoy Christmas.

We played Farkle after the kids went to bed, and Jackie had us wear a Farkle hat (a bowl) when we farkled. We had to wear it until someone else farkled!

Christmas morning we got up at 6 am so PJ and Jackie could leave for Idaho when they wanted. It was early! But we had plenty of time and didn't have to rush, so that was nice.

I got my brother a road id bracelet that had contact info on it and a message that says "Watch out for walnuts". Its an inside joke!

Then we went to church at one, and we had a very nice service where everybody but Ninny was involved. Ninny was so tired that she fell asleep on my lap. Then later that day Jason came over to exchange gifts with the girls. All in all, a nice day.

Corrine's Daycare Program 2011

Corrine's day care had a cute program for Christmas. Ninny was in two dances, and was an angel for the nativity scene.

I had to laugh watching the differences between the boys and the girls. The girls knew their dance steps, stayed in formation, and stayed in formation. Ninny did really well following the steps; I was impressed! The boys did their own dance, and were all over the stage. No formation, no reconizeable steps, just chaos. They just did their own thing up there.

The school is run by a spanish speaking director, and some of the teachers are spanish speaking. They teach the kids spanish and Ninny is learning a lot. So for the program, they did mostly Mexican dances. It was very cute.

We had such fun watching Ninny perform. She is a true performer; she loves being on stage. No fear at all, she wanted to be the center of attention!