Christmas Story

Here is this year's edition of our Holiday Letter.

Christmas Letter 2009


Believe me, I'll know who has watched it all!!

PS: vista users, click on the support tab on the photodex and it should walk you through how to allow the program :)

Ellie Says...

"Mother, would you please sit that baby's butt in time out!"

Me- "Why didn't you zip your coat?" (you know, cause it's only 12 below zero)
Ellie-"Well, mom, the people wouldn't see my dress>"

"How come Aunt Emily gets a coach purse? I just want ONE coach purse!"

Ellie- "I think I want a DS and an American Girl Doll for Christmas."
Me- "Well, I'm pretty sure each child only gets one expensive gift, so you'll probably only get one"
Ellie- "Well, that's between me and Santa, isn't it?"

"Mom, do you think the next time I break my arm, Daddy will get me the big pet shop?" (Good Lord, any more broken bones in this child, and they'll haul me off)

Ellie-"Ok, Mom, that was really stupid of you"
Me- "Stupid is not a nice word"
Ellie- "I know, but it doesn't change the fact that that was really stupid"


and for good measure:

When I see bunny crackers raining down over the bannister:
Me- "Kailey!!"
Kailey- throwing her hands into the air- "Happened, mommy?"

They will be the end of me....

A Bit of the Last Month

The pretty little fairy

Hanging out in her tutu

Halloween Parade at school

Carving the pumpkin

Playing at the beach

Collecting shells

Having ice cream on the balcony

More to come, I promise!!

The Flower Girl

And the tired little sister

I took a little blogging break recently, as real life is sucking my time away. So, I promise that I will get up some pics of the beach, of halloween, and of my cutie pies very soon!

We are doing well, just a whole lot of stuff happening around here lately!!!

Boys vs Girls

Well, isn't that the age old question?

I recently read an article on which gender is harder to raise, boys or girls. This article talked about many different aspects of raising your children, from communication, to discipline, to safety. It talked about how, statistically boys were more difficult in this certain area, and girls in that, and blah, blah, blah.

You get the idea.

Articles like this irritate me immensely. Why I read them, I'll never understand. I have never thought it fair to classify children whether or not they are hard to raise. First of all, isn't child rearing supposed to be hard? I really don't ever remembering dropping off a baby girl on my doorstep and telling me she'd be all sweetness and sunshine all the time. No one ever said that when you have a child, things are going to get easier. That is part of the sacrifice that we, as parents, are willing to make. But to actually label a child as harder to raise than another, seems too harsh to me.

Every one's idea of what is hard is different. For some, the world of fairytale and make believe that I live in must seem easy. Two little girls, all sweetness and sunshine, long brown hair and chocolate eyes. Dressed in pretty dresses and matching bows. Perfect. Lovely. Easy. However, we have been through more major injuries than most little boys I know. We make mud puddles on "rock mountain" in our backyard. Both boy dominated worlds, or so you will read. And the communication? Well, lets just say that whoever says a little girl is easier to communicate and reason with hasn't had the experience of talking to one since, little girls are midget adolescent girls waiting to be unleashed.

And my view of boys is probably a bit tainted too. They don't all love their mama's best or play ball well with the other boys. Boys are not any easier than girls, that much I know is true. But as a whole, do I think one sex is harder than the other? Nope. Not one bit. Because to say that gives many new parents a negative view and attitude on the challenge of raising their children. "The expert says my son will be hard to discipline, so I can't do this or that because that is just hard for him." "My daughter will hard to talk to when she is older, so I should just expect that."

Each child comes with his or her own set of inborn challenges that we, as parents, have to learn how to handle. And while one child may present more challenges than another, we have to turn our entire heart and mind into being up for the challenge. The prize is raising happy, successful, competent adults, and knowing that we shaped that adult into who they are. The hoops we have to jump through along the way are part of the process. Sometimes we miss and knock a hoop down. Sometime we fall though one. We hop up, dust ourselves off and keep on jumping.

So, should it be Boys vs Girls? No. As a mother of girls, I will do my very best to make sure my daughters are happy, confident, and successful. I will show them how to be assertive, how to make their own way in the world and how prepare themselves to be good wives and mothers someday. And I would hope that the mommies of boys would do the same. Because in the end, boys and girls work and live side by side. And as adults, we must deal with both boys and girls, men and women. And as we all know as well, it is the quality of character in the individual person that makes them easy or difficult to work with or be with.

Not that they are a boy or a girl.

A Bit of This and That

I don't suppose you all could take me to Disney World? See, I went and found this book all by myself to read about it.

Let me just get situated...

I gotta read about the mouse.

September is here, and we are busy as usual. Kailey is 15 months today. (sigh) She went for her checkup today, and has gained a whopping ounce. You know, the difference in how much air blew on the scale this time. Her height and head are exactly the same as before. She has ground to a screeching halt with her growth. I'm not too worried about it though. Ellie currently is exactly 15 pounds heavier than Kailey is. You know, Ellie could still be in a rear facing car seat, if not for the fact that she would look weird when we pulled up to school :) My girls are tiny and tall. I have no idea where they got that trait. It most certainly was not their mother.
Kailey is walking all over and talking up a storm. She has learned to climb well, and climbed up the drawers on the counter the other day. She climbs up shelves in the closet. She navigates the stairs very well on her own. She is jabbering a lot. She says a few things like mama, dada, Ellie (ey-e), dog, and of course our favorites-princess (sis-sis) and mickey (ke-ke) The girl loves her mickey and her elmo.
We have started on our mini fence. It is our way of having a place for the dogs so that we can travel. They can just come in and out as they please. Except that we forgot the fact that we live on a solid slab of rock. So putting in 8 fence post ended up taking 2 days and involved jackhammering and pulling rocks out with our bare hands. It will be worth it when we are not spending hundreds to board the dogs, or worse, having to stay home.
And of course, we are working on our basement. Slowly but surely, all these projects are getting accomplished. By Christmas, we will hopefully have a great basement space to play and relax in. And then, I'm sure we'll find something else to occupy our time...

Tutu Cute

14 months

Loving my cute new pink tutu!

I am so happy!

And so super cute!!

Just Some Random Pics

Project the first day of school

Showing off her new dress

Splashing in the pool

Slipping and sliding

The cookie dough thief. She pushed the stepstool over to the counter all by herself.

Kindergarten Woes

Kindergarten is hard.

Very very hard.

So hard, that I haven't been able to post pics of my baby's first day.

Because there were tears.

And a lot of them.

The kindergartener has had a very rough start.

As has her mom and dad.

Hopefully, this will improve. Hopefully we won't regret putting her in public school this year. Hopefully, this is the right decision.

Cause Kindergarten has been a nightmare so far...

A Bit from Minnesota

Crawling through the tree at the Children's museum
Ditto...

What's in this mailbox?

The girls with Great Grammy Eleanor

Ellie and 95 year old great grammy

Just chilling

There are some thinks that dramatically drop your manhood-this could be one..

Eating with her American Girl at the cafe

She's been waiting to eat here for a very long time!

The girls playing at the Lego store at the Mall of America

About Time!

It's amazing what you can accomplish when your big sister is out of town and unable to cater to your every desire :)

Just A Few Pictures

My hot and sweaty baby

Being so sweet... (look, no cast!)

We feed these goats every time we come to Deanna Rose

Just hanging out

Kailey's First Birthday Party

Playing with the presents Mommy, Daddy and Ellie got me

I still am refusing to walk....

Checking out my presents. My big sister helped me with opening them.So pretty!

Checking out this cake that's all for me!

Mmmm, cake!

I'm making a really big mess!But I really liked it!

Happy 1st Birthday, Kailey!!

Our Sweet baby girl is one!

Birthday party pictures tomorrow!!

Eighteen

Happy Birthday Baby Sister!

My sister Emily, turned eighteen today. I don't know how we got here. Eighteen years old and, in the eyes of the world, a legal adult. No longer the little girl that I'd grown so used to having for a sister. We have lived apart longer then we ever lived together. I left behind a little girl, only three years older than Ellie now, when I joined the world as an adult. While I was starting a family, she was working through her junior high years. And now she leaves school as my own child begins it.
I missed it. Here she is, all grown up and I missed it all.
Not by choice, but by the nature of our lives. It is nothing that can be helped, nor anything that could change. It is inevitable that this would happen, for we are so far apart in age.
I always knew this day would come. I always knew she would become this adult, this beautiful girl that could navigate her own way through the world. I knew that she would be smarter, prettier and much more prepared for what life has in store than I ever was.
I always knew it, but I never believed it would happen.
The little girl I left behind has grown up without me. I know she needed her big sister along the way, but not in the way I wanted to be there for her. Let's face it, I was raising babies of my own, busy with my life.
I shouldn't be sad that this day has come. A day we all anticipated so much we could taste it, when it was our turn. I am so very excited for her. So happy she is ready for all life will throw.
But I am sad. Because, she is all grown up. And she did it without me there.

Happy 18th Birthday Emily. You were the dream that made me believe dreams come true. You were my first real prayer answered. You will always and forever be my baby sister, and I will always and forever love you.

A Blast From the Past

Ellie sitting in the drawer
Ellie having an ice cream cone

Kailey having an ice cream cone

Kailey sitting in the drawer

After I took these pictures of Kailey the other day, I realized that I had the exact same ones of Ellie at the same age! It cracks me up that my girls just love sitting in the drawer!