A hair milestone

For the last year Abby has been talking about and begging to have long hair. Now anyone who knows her or has seen her hair knows that this could be a trial! She has the curliest hair, seriously it is tight curls! I have always kept it a little short just for convenience for me. I mean I am the one taking care of it! It is really hard to comb out and as a result we go through A LOT of detangler!! It is our best friend! Anyway I cut her hair every so often and have probably cut close to about 8 inches all together. It is just so much easier to deal with when it is short! Well since she saw Enchanted she has wanted long hair like Giselle. She talks about it all the time so I got talked into trying to let it grow out. We thought that maybe if it got longer it would weigh it down since whenever I cut it it springs into tighter curls, well this hasn't really worked!! When it is wet it hangs down between her shoulder blades but when it dries it springs back up to the middle of her neck!! Totally crazy! So anyway with it getting longer I thought she should be introduced to the world of french braids! And lo and behold it worked! Now I have to admit that my braiding skill are a little rusty and I am used to dealing with my own straight hair. Curls just add another difficulty to the whole process! But she loved them!

"I made a word!"

Abby is a little type A- she gets that from me- and she gets alittle fanatical about her books!

Abby has been trying to figure out how to read words for alittle while now. Within the last week it has really clicked that letters make sounds and sound make words and words make stories. She will bring me a book and sit down and start sounding out words! It really suprised me how quick she has picked it up. The first time she figured out a word by herself she was sitting on my lap at church and she was looking at a book (obviously!!), she put her little finger under each letter, made the sounds, said them alittle faster and then faster and the realized she said the word- she turned and looked at me with a huge smile on her face and said in a whisper "I made a word! I made a word with the letters!"! She was so excited! Now she is on her way to "read in her head" as she calls it! Whenever I am reading a book she will come up and ask "Mom? Are you reading in your head? When I get big I can read in my head?"! She cracks me up!

Something Fun!!

Hey for those of you who have a playlist, when you get the code to post it on your blog there is am option to change the background! You can totally add a picture! It is totally fun! I tried it out so you can check it out way down at the bottom!!! I think it is something I am going to have to change up alot!!!

Pirates!!

Well Dylan is into pirates right now. He loves the Pirate of the Caribbean movies (edited a little!). In the dress-up stuff the kids got for Christmas I stuck some boy stuff because I didn't think Bryan would want Dylan running around in princess dresses! So I got some pirate hats and boots and he just loves them! I found this shirt and as soon as I pulled it out of the bag he said "pirates! pirates! I a pirate shirt" So needless to say I haven't really been able to get him out of it!

Dylan also doesn't particularly care to stay in his bed when we put him down for the night especially when he is really really tired. He will get down from his bed and play with cars or look at books in the hallway. He is usually really quite and you don't even know he is there until he starts talking to himself!

The other night Bryan and I were watching the end of Parent Trap on t.v.-if you are familiar with the movie (the Lindsey Lohan edition) after they get back from the camping trip the girls are up in their room going to bed and the Dennis Quaid comes in and says "Good night Ladies" well after this happens we hear a little voice in the hallway "good night ladies" We both started laughing, I turned around and said "what are you doing?" He was standing there smiling and says "I watching a movie!" I said "No your not you get back in bed mister!" Dylan smiled his mischievous smile and says "Yes My Am!". That went back and forth a couple times and ended of course with Dylan asleep in his bed. You just have to love his spunk, quick mind and the beginning grammar (that is my fav!)!

Bryan on Twilight and Allison falling!

First of all Happy 100th post to me!

Well I finally talked Bryan into listening to Twilight on CD in the car. He listens to it to and from work and school so he was able to get through it pretty quickly. It was pretty funny after he had just started I asked him what he thought and he smiled and said he didn't want to tell me cause he had made so much fun of me when I read it! He liked-of course!! His only problem was that there is alot of "we-are-in-love-you-are-my-life" talk. My brother-in-law Mark said the same thing so I thought about that and decided that the reason they felt like that was because they are guys!!! As girls reading we are totally into the feelings and expressions and the whys and having it told from a girls point og view we get all those things. For a guy it seems like they just want to get on with the story!! He liked the book overall but is really furious with Bella because she want to be a vampire. He keeps calling her "that stupid girl". I wont tell him how anything turns out so that is bugging him too! I am getting New Moon for him next and I told him that he just has to get through the first half and then he will enjoy it!! We will see!

On another funny note I totally biffed it doing papers this morning! And it wasn't even because of the ice!! I have been trying to be extra careful because we have gone 2 and 1/2 years with only minor bumps and bruises and I just know that now that the end is so near something is going to happen and I will end up with a broken arm or something! So this morning I tripped on the sidewalk and fell straight on my knees and papers went flying!! I skinned my knee and that made me feel like a 2 year old! But the worst part was I ripped a hole in my most favorite pair of jeans!! That is totally not cool! I was so mad! So since that happened at the very beginning (of course) I spent the rest of the time with 4 degree cold air shooting in my jeans at the knee!! That was just fantastic!

Lacey's new skill!

Well Lacey has a new skill and it has taken me awhile to get a pic of it! She likes to climb up on the pic-nik table and chill out on it.

Unfortunately she hasn't quite figured out how to get down! She can get down off the couch or a bed but she hasn't mastered the table!

So she will sit and scream and cry till someone comes to rescue her! About 2 seconds before I took this picture she had her head down and was crying into the table. It was too funny but she was quicker than my camera and looked up before I could capture it!

Is it cold enough?!

Let me start off by saying Holy Frozen Yogurt it is cold out here!! There are other places that are colder than here but you expect it from those places this is IOWA!!! When you think "Iowa" does -21 with a windchill of -50? Does it?!! Well it didn't to me!! That is COLD! Now close your eyes and picture this- you are nice and warm in bed, your alarm goes off (at 2:15 cuz you just got like 7 more inches of snow so you need more time for papers), you get up get dresses and you remember to put on a pair of fleece jamma pants under your other pants, get your hat and gloves and then you open your door and that disgustingly cold air whips you in the face! Talk about a wake-up call!! My car barely started and I had to come back home after I got started to put on another shirt find another pair of gloves and another hat!! Seriously that is way too cold!! We have ice on the inside of the window!! So is it cold enough? I say yes-it was cold enough when it reached 30 degrees!! Maybe we should learn something from the birds and all go south for the winter next year!!

Enough ranting! The other day when Bryan got home from work I went to the store by myself! Bryan knew I needed a little sanity time after being cooped up with 5 kids 4 and under for the last couple days! So I left and had a very nice relaxing time! No one was reaching for things, asking for things, telling the other person to stop looking at them, or to stop touching them! I got home about 6:30 and as I opened the door it opened to silence. I was like what? I go in and Bryan is laying on the couch and I only see Dylan who is asleep in the rocking chair with his plate of food. All the kids were asleep! Abby fell asleep at 5:30 waiting for dinner, Dylan held on to help Bryan make dinner and take one bite before he drifted off and Lacey ate and was promptly put in bed (she doesn't really care what time it is when she goes down well at least she can't tell us if she does yet!!). So Bryan knowing me as well as he does grabbed the camera and snapped some pics and even got a video of Dylan falling asleep sitting on the floor! Thanks Bry!! Well I guess when you wake-up before 6 for a week it is bound to catch-up with you sooner or later!

Wasn't workin!

Um yeah, that look wasn't really working for me so I am in the middle of changing it! I don't really know what it was but it just made me cringe everytime I got on! Hopefully this works better!

Busy Busy!

Well unfortunatly I don't have anything really cute or super funny to relate so I wouldn't blame you if you clicked on to the next blog!! We have been really busy at our house! I started babysitting for a lady that Bryan works with, which is why we are quiting the paper routes! Yea!! So anyway I am doing both during the week untill our time is up with the papers so I get up at 2:30 am home between 4:30-5ish, the boys (2 and 1 years old) come at 5:30! Yikes uh?! They go back to sleep and everyone gets up around 7. We do breakfast and then playtime -blah blah etc etc, lunch, naps and then the boys leave 2:30-3ish. So that is really nice but poor me! All last week I was asleep by 7:30!!! I didn't get anything done all week! And I had a lot of things to do!! So this weekend I was playing catch up! Hopefully I will be able to handle the schedule a little better this week!!

Light at the end of the Tunnel

A light can be seen! Our days delivering papers are numbered! Yea!!! After two and half years of waking up at 2:30 in the mornibg I will now be able to sleep all night! I can not tell you how excited I am! The only problem is the the paper people continue to be really stupid and really irritating and because of some rule somewhere we won't be done till the end of February. But at least the countdown can begin!!

Stoker Family Holiday Party!

Every year after Christmas Bryan's parents host a family party. They buy gift enough gifts for everyone to have. We always have to play a game to earn our present so for some one like me who doesn't really appreciate being the center of attention I usually dread the game! Bryan family on the other hand thrives and sometimes competes for that spot! We started the night off with food-of course! Then we played a Christmas carol game. A name was drawn and then that person picked a category, answered the question and then if you agreed with the answer than you raised your hand and if you were right you go some candy! That game made everyone happy!

The next game was the funniest thing! Each group had a pair of pantyhose (un-used!!hehe!) and six small balloons. We had to blow up the balloon and stuff them in the hose, put it on someones head and then all had to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer! It was totally hysterical!

After that we had another round of Christmas Carol Karaoke! This time you get to enjoy the musical stylings of Bryan's sister Natalie and her husband Mark. I should mention that Natalie after hearing that I taped a video forbade me from putting it on the blog!! But she isn't at my house to stop me and I say it goes up!!

Don't let this last picture scare you! Lacey is getting her pacifier! She likes to play this game where you hold the pacifier backwards in your mouth and she will grab it with hers. For some reason she finds this very entertaining. She is constantly shoving her pacifier in our faces! Unfortunately for others that we are around Lacey being 15 months old really has no consideration for other's personal space and will try to shove her pacifier into any one's face who talks to her! This was her first time having any real interaction with her Uncle Mark and she just loved him! It was really cute!

Christmas at our house!

Bryan's family has always done fondue on Christmas Eve and this year we were able to have it at our house. Bill (Bryan's Dad) learned to make it on his mission and does a fantastic job every year! This is year to my surprise Abby and Dylan actually tried it and liked it! after we ate we played a Christmas carol board game that Jenny (Bryan's Mom) brought, where you have sing the next line of a song or guess song titles and that kind of thing. We played boys against girls and it actually came down to the roll of the die because you have to have the exact number to make it to the final square. The girls won in case you were wondering!

The next morning Bill and Jenny came up to watch the kids open presents and for some breakfast. Santa was good to us this year and Abby and Dylan had a blast opening up their gifts. The one surprise to me was Lacey. She wanted to sit on Jenny's lap but we took her and but her on the floor so she could open presents and that totally ticked her off!! She started crying and kicking her feet and she pushed away anything we gave her! So we handed her back to Jenny and Abby and Dylan got to open all her stuff! And they didn't mind at all!

One of the presents was a box of dress-up stuff. I went after Halloween and bought a ton of costumes when they all went on clearance! I even remembered to get some "boy" things! I didn't think Bryan would appreciate his son running around in princess stuff!

(10 pts if you can identify the movie playing!)

Abby was excited about her Lemon Meringue doll. She saw it when we were at the store and of course there was only one left so I told that we were buying it for her cousin and maybe her cousin would get one for her! She was all for it! My mom told me that Christmas lies don't count against you! She better be right!

Christmas afternoon was spent at Bill and Jenny's house. We had a super delicious ham dinner with all the extra! Bill has a train around the tree that the kids can control and make the horn blow-Dylan was completely engrossed!

Jenny found a Christmas karaoke cd and thought that would be fun. We got Bryan and his brother Kris up at the mic. It was hilarious! Now I will say that the key of the song and the accompaniment did make them a little difficult to sing but oh my gosh!!! Take a listen and see what you think!!

The evening ended with a round of Rock Band which seems to be the way every family gathering ends these days!

It was a very nice fun-exciting-on-the-relaxing-side-of-things kind of day!

Impromtu Sleepover

I can home from doing papers the other morning and found Abby and Dylan had decided to have an impromptu early morning sleepover in the living room! They brought out pillows and blankets and everything. It was really funny. And to make it even better they both slept through the "transfer" back to their beds so that was wonderful!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Well instead of a White Christmas we are having a White Christmas Eve! It looks beautiful and it almost makes me like snow again! Then I remember that is will still be here after Christmas and that makes the good feelings start to slip away but I am trying to put the anti-snow feelings aside and enjoy the gently falling snow!

We wish a very Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

Santa!

After the recital fiasco (see below) we had a Christmas party at church. I asked Abby if Santa was there if she would go sit on his lap and tell him what she would like for Christmas and shaking her head she said "no"! I said " really? Not even to ask for a toy?" Her response was "I just want him to come in and put my present under the tree while I am sleeping."! That made me laugh-the funny thing was she was totally serious!

Well Santa came and after she figured out that is was just Papa in a Santa costume she was totally fine! It was the first year without tears! Last year she was crying and saying "I no want to sit on Hoho's (that is what he is called in our house) lap" over and over and over. It took us a half an hour to calm her down and convince her it was Papa so to not be scared!

I wanted to get one with just Lacey but right after this picture was taken Dylan pulled down Santa's beard and freaked Lacey out and she started screaming! So that didn't work out! Oh well, there is always next year!

Dancing and Santa

We have had a really knock-you-off-your-feet cold going around our house this week so not much has gotten done including blogging! So I am playing catch-up trying to get things done before Christmas sneaks up on me!

Abby had a little Christmas Recital on Saturday. We didn't have to buy tickets which was nice and all proceeds from their bake sale and donations were given to the Make A Wish Foundation. Each class did a routine that was seriously like 30 seconds long! Abby was really excited to get all ready and to do her dance. I had to drop her off in the cafeteria and for being left with people she really didn't know she did really well! I was alittle afraid to leave her honestly because there were lots of 3 and 4 year olds and not very many adults watching them and I was afraid she would start crying when I left! But she did great! So I left to go sit with Bryan and his Parents. So unfortunately the video I got wasn't the greatest. I wasn't sure where she would be and there were alot of little girls, and I knew that their routine was really short and I didn't want to miss it looking for her and our camera doesn't zoom once you start recording. So lots of things working against me! So here is the video, Abby is in the back row in the middle-about half way through they do a little "free" dance and she is the one jumping up and down! It took me half of the dance to figure out which one she was!

Since I didn't to miss the dance I didn't get a pic of her on stage but they were all coming back on stage at the end to sing a song and see Santa so I figured I would get one then. So Abby waited with the rest of her class and all the other kids until it was time.

So the curtains open and all the little kids are up front and looking so cute. And I am looking and looking and looking and no Abby. So my heart starts going alittle faster and I tell myself that she is on the short side of things so she is probably just behind someone or on the other end on the side, trying not to panic! They are all singing and Santa comes out. Now all of you who know Abby know that she has a serious problem with Santa-she doesn't like him! So I knew she wouldn't sit on his lap. After the song was done they announced that the kids could see Santa if they wanted or the parents could come get them. So up and everyone is getting their little kids and I am looking and looking some more-nothing. No Abby. I asked one of the ladies if everyone came out thinking that if they told the kids Santa was coming that Abby would have refused to go and she said that everyone was there so I said "Well I can't find my daughter", she politely asked me how old she was and when I said "4" she made this face like "oh no!". NOT HELPING!!! She said that some might be back in the cafeteria so I race through the halls dodging little kids and their parents while not trying to be rude but starting to go into full blown panic because while I know they were watching the kids there wasn't anything really stopping anyone who wasn't a parent from going in - I know, I know, highly unlikely but I have a huge imagination that seems to run wild sometimes! I burst through the doors and there she is. Smiling. Eating Chips. Alone. She says to me "Hi!". I had to sit down. A lady was like "I am so sorry! I don't know how she got back here! No one was here when we left!" So after talking to Abby we discovered that she had gone out and sang the song but when Santa came she "didn't want to sit on his lap" so some older girls who had been helping the younger ones had gone back to the cafeteria and she went with them whether they were aware of it or not! Nice recital experience right?!

Just Venting!

Just a couple things and if you don't want to hear me complain then don't read this and it won't hurt my feelings!

First of all this weather is driving me crazy! Most of it is having to deliver papers. I always give people a few days after a storm to clear thier porchs and stuff. I bag them for those days and I don't mind at all. But after like 3 or 4 days your porch, steps, driveway, and sidewalk should be clear! If you are having the paper delivered than you would think they could be alittle courteous! But NO! This morning I was out and there was ice everywhere! Some of the porches were still covered in snow. I had to search for a dry place to put the paper! And when you have like 160ish papers doing that a couple times adds up quick! Then I was slipping everywhere! I mean I just want to get home with out bruises and broken bones and in a relatively short amont of time! Is it too much to ask for people to shovel and put down some salt?! I didn't think so but apperently it is!!

Next and any suggestions would be greatly accepted! Dylan is in to ripping apart any book he gets his hands on! It is driving me insane! I dont know if he thinks it is fun or fascinating. I dont get it. And he is ruining all the books! We have had talks about how that hurts the books feelings and we dont treat books like that way. Time out. Everything! It makes me so sad! Those of you who know me know I LOVE books and I hate for them to be treated badly! I know your saying "get a grip!"! For my books sake help me please!

Eating Bugs!

Well I finally have my own copy of "The Other Side of Heaven"! I know I am probably way behind the curve on that one! We watched it with Abby and Dylan last night. Abby thought it was great and was talking all day today about how she will be baptized when she is eight. Dylan, being a boy, picked out one thing in the entire movie to obssess over. Two guesses but I am sure if you remember the movie then you will only need one! You guesses it-eating bugs! He has been slapping the side of his face and licking his hand and then laughing hysterically! Totally gross! Totally boy! I would like to think that when he is alittle older he will get more out of the movie!

St. Nicholas drives!

I am an Air Force brat and proud of it! Growing up in the Air Force, I got the chance to travel around, which I LOVED! Each place we went my mom found something fun from that culture to incorporate into our family traditions. While in Germany we adopted the celebration of St. Nicholas Day. There St. Nicholas comes on dec. 6th. You put one of your shoes outside and if you were good than you would get a toy and if you were bad then you got sticks or coal. Now every kid likes to think that they are always good but one year something went drastically wrong! We all got up in the morning and ran with anticipation to check our shoes and what did we find? Sticks! Sticks tied in a string. We were completely devastated! I mean it's Christmas!! Now if you hear this story from my mom she will tell you that it was a joke played by some friends of ours and that we all got toys. But if you ask any of my siblings curiously no one remembers the toys! So celebrating St. Nicholas Day is a tradition that I have brought to my own family. So the kids put out their shoes and were excited to get a gift. They thought it was great! Later that night Abby was sitting on my lap and asked "Mom, what color is St. Nicholas' car?". Hmmm, apparently I didn't do a good job of explaining that St. Nicholas is more traditional and doesn't drive a car!

And she is walking!

Well I have been trying to get a video of Lacey walking but she hasn't been very cooperative! Every time I would grab the camera she would sit and crawl over to me! I was like "come on!!"! She would laugh and think it was a fun game. Seriously I have been trying for the past two weeks! But this morning was the magic morning! I love watching babies when they are just learning how to walk! They look so cute and way to little to be walking! Just ignore my messy kitchen! We had family over after church for lunch and never quite got around to getting it cleaned up! So don't look at it! After watching the video back it is a wonder that Lacey was even able to learn how to walk at all with Dylan and Abby running around her! It is pretty funny the things in the background that you don't really notice! Like Dylan trying to get some bread! They certainly make life fun!

Trees and Snow!

We usually have a nice big christmas tree with glass ornaments downstairs with all the decorations out and it looks beautiful and I love it! But this year we decided to have the tree upstairs and since I didnt want my whole livingroom all tree we opted for a smaller tree! We also got plastic ornaments this year which actually look like real ones, because I lost alot of my nice ornaments last year to little fingers and with a 14 month old I had visions of none of the ornaments making it to next year! And I didnt want to spend the month stressed out about little fingers touching things! We let the kids decorate this year, since the ornaments were shatterproof!, and they had a blast!

Then we got a big blast of winter after our little blast that we had on Sunday! I really think that snow is only good for one thing and that is to look pretty on Christmas morning! After that I don't want to look at it, shovel it, drive in it, watch it fall. Nothing! Unfortunatly for me I married someone who lives in a place where we typically have snow till around march. Not cool!! But as much as I hate it the kids love it! Last year they really weren't into playing in it. But I let Abby and Dylan play while I was shoveling and they had so much fun! I had to make them come in after a 1/2 hour because it was so cold! Abby actually asked me if we could go to the park this morning! I told her no way! It was like 10 degrees this morning! I know the pictures look like I was only watching Dylan but I got more videoclips of her because she was alittle more interactive with the snow than Dylan was!

A little fun with books!

Abby decided that she needed a doll house for her princess figurines and being the creative little girl that she is built one with a bunch of books! She was very proud of herself!

Lacey decided that she would pull on the books she could reach from her seat and knock down the doll house that Abby had worked so hard on and read a story by herself! She was very proud of herself!

Dylan decided to take over the space where the books are supposed to go! He was very proud of himself!

A Little Holiday Cheer!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

and winter is here!

Well goodbye fall and HELLO winter! Yesturday I woke up to shouts of "it's snowing it's snowing lets go make a snowman!" So I figured we had snow. Not my most favorite thing! I had to quickly pull all the blinds before little hand pulled them off the window. They were so excited! It is our first snowfall with some accumulation. So there we were getting ready for church and Abby and Dylan were jumping up and down saying "let's make snowballs!" They didn't quite grasp that you need more than 1/4 inch of snow to do those things! Seriously there was about enough snow to leave a footprint! Getting them in the car was a real treat. They were running through the yard and having a really great time so I had to be the mean mom and stop the fun! Then I finally got them in and then the complaining started "my feet are wet, I am cold"! It's funny how those complaints in the 2 minute drive to church simply disappear when they hop out of the car and run to the grass to make more track in the snow!