Dance Pics!

How beautiful are these?!!! A big HUGE thanks to our awesome friends Jen and Paul!!! Butler Photography is by new best friend!! We were finally able to do Abby's dance pictures and even got some of her in last years costume (the yellow one). Is it kind of sad that she still fit into it! I mean seriously it fit her perfectly still!!! She obviously on the petit side of things!! Anyway I am so excited how these turned out and cant wait to get some developed!!

Well.......

......at least it isn't food or condiments this time. And the markers are washable and not permanent. But man she was doing so good!!! We went and got her some "Lacey Lotion"-some baby lotion that I put in a small container. We also had a talk about not putting food on our arms, legs, and face and if you want to put some thing on then you can use Lacey's lotion! She was all excited and was putting it on and loving it! So I guess in her defence never in that talk did I say she couldn't use markers.

Back to School!

Well Abby made it through the summer! For her summer was just something that she had to deal with till school started. She has been dying for school to start pretty much since it ended in May.

We got her some new clothes and having them sit in the closet, not being able to wear them has been killing her! It was nice to be able to put the first day of school on our calender on the fridge because then she wasn't asking me every day when it was. Then to add to her torture/excitement last Thursday was Unpack Your Backpack Night. So we got to go find her classroom and put away all her supplies. At the end of the school year last year they already had the kids assigned to the next years classes so she was able to meet her teacher before summer. This year she had Mrs. Wall and Abby is one excited girl!! She had big smiles when I picked her up that day after school-she jumped in the car and said "I have Mrs. Wall!! I wanted her to be my teacher! She came into the gym one time when we were having gym class and she had on the coolest shirt Mom! And I said to myself "oh I hope she is my next teacher because she wears super pretty shirts!" ! How funny is she?!!

So anyway she has not stopped talking since we were there on Thursday. She has had her outfit all picked out and has been telling what she thinks she will say on Monday when she wakes up! She said "I think when I wake up on Monday and I remember that it is the first day of school then I will say "oh I'm so excited its the first day of school! School is starting school is starting!"!

She was all smiles when we took her to school and to her classroom. Then this afternoon she hops in the car and says "I had a GREAT day!"

War of the Walls

A war of the walls has begun in Stokerville- it seems to be 2 against 3. Bryan and Allison aka "The Rules and Cleanliness Enforcers" or RCE's against the 3 kids. Thier ultimate goal is to win obviously! They are fighting for the right to have clean walls. The opposing forces-Abby, Dylan and mostly Lacey aka "The In-House Graffiti Artists" or IHGA's for short are fighting against the No-Drawing-On-The-Walls rule. Now the leader of the IHGA's is not the oldest as you would expect. A funny change of influence happened when Lacey the youngest join the group. She became the undisputed leader. Armed with her imposing personality, strong lungs, loud voice and willingness to do harm to anyone around her, the older 2 members quickly cowered under her dominance. The 2 other members, Abby and Dylan knew the rules of Stokerville. Having been minor offenders once upon a time but quickly reformed after consequences were quickly enforced, they had led rule abiding lives from then on. All was calm on the walls until Lacey came of age and discovered what is usually the wonderful world of coloring. One day Lacey decided that the paper she had just wasnt big enough-she needed a big canvas for her masterpiece. She looked around and saw plenty of empty space on the wall. So quietly with a crafty smile on her face she drew on the wall. Abby and Dylan knowing the repercussions of alerting both sides of the rule breaking could not figure out from what side the would get the biggest punishment-from their leader they would be yelled at and possible chased down and beaten, from the RCE's they would have to clean it up, get a lecture and some solitary confinement. Weighing both sides they decided that it would be worse to upset their Leader. They then decided that if she could then they could and so began what they would call beautiful murals and what the RCE's call graffiti. The latest battle in the War of the Walls was waged just this morning. It has led to drastic measures being taken on the side of the RCE's and a massive regrouping of the IHGAs. The morning was quiet on all fronts till an Officer of the RCE realized it was a little too quiet and looked around to account for all the IHGAs. 2 were found and accounted for 1 was MIA. Dylan's name was called and he came to check in with his hands behind his back and an innocent smile on his face. Upon the following questioning it was discovered that he "wasn't doing anything in Lacey room" and was in possession of a contraband red crayon. An investigation was quickly launched. At the scene of the crime 3 things were discovered. First, Lacey was not involved, having gotten her graffiti urge out the day before with a black crayon on the yellow living room wall. Second, when asked Dylan readily confessed to drawing on the wall and third, Abby was also obviously involved in today's dirty work. Even though she wasn't around to question what was on the wall had her name written all over it. Literally-she wrote her name in red on the baseboard! Confessions were made and included answers to questions like "I don''t know", "just because" and "I know". Consequences were handed out including but not limited to cleaning up the mess they made and all of the contraband coloring instruments being thrown in the trashcan. Now while this latest attempt of the RCE to stop the colorful actions of the IHGAs is fresh and the full effect has not been felt, it will be soon enough. All coloring paraphernalia will be properly dealt with and stored till further notice. These changes might take a while to truly be felt by the members of the IHGAs-maybe days, maybe weeks. They will be under surveillance for any possible rebellions. (As an added note these actions might not have any effect on the offenders at all-all members of the IHGA are also members of the Kids-Against-Picking-Up-Toys aka KA-PUT's. The consequence handed out to them was all toys, books, everything taken way-they went over 6 months without asking for anything back).

I'm having a flashback!

This morning while I was putting away clothes Lacey decided to have a little unsupervised fun. In the kitchen. With the butter.

At least this time she knew when she got caught she was in trouble and that didnt make her happy at all!!

Is anyone else having a flashback to a couple years ago??!! Lacey and some crisco? I really dont know what her deal is with playing in food. Crisco, butter, soap, lotion, sour cream, ketchup, ranch dressing-you name it and it has been on her arms, legs, face, and hair or in a fun little picture on the kitchen table. She is diffinatly ALOT busier that Abby or Dylan was. I think it is because she is the 3rd kid. Does anyone else have the 3rd kids curse?!!! (and I mean curse in the most loving way possible!!!)

Crazy Crazy!

Alright I am back! The laptop has been down for the count so blogging has been a little hard and then my energy level has been pretty much on low the last couple months! But the laptop is back so that makes me happy! Anyway update on us-Abby is registered for 1 grade and for her Ballet class so she is a happy camper. She is very excited for school to start-so am I cuz then I wont have to hear her ask everyday when school is starting! Dylan is sad that he cant go to school yet-but I have some preschool activities planned for him so that should make him happy! We are trying to get Lacey potty trained before the baby comes. She is doing pretty good so hopefully we will be able to get a few weeks diaper free! That would be awesome!! I am dying to redo the kids's rooms but Bryan keeps trying to hold me off! I know it seems like I am always redoing the kids rooms but really they haven't been completely finished and then we decide to rearrange what kids is in what room so what was going on the walls doesn't fit who is in the room!!! We are actually switching kids around again. Abby and Dylan will share the bunk beds in a room and Lacey will be in a room by herself. It is the only solution to deal with Lacey! She is such a stinker-she has a hard time going to sleep if anyone else is in the room and that keeps Abby and Dylan up because she will walk over anyone on the floor or throw pillows or poke someone-we have had all 3 sleeping in the same room because the girls room had the air unit in the window. So anyway Abby and Dylan will fall asleep quickly if Lacey isn't there and Lacey by herself falls asleep fast-so that is why the switch so we will see how that goes!! Anyway everything else is on the good side of things-we have a list of things we need to for the baby-which is just about everything! All the baby boy clothes I have from Dylan are summer so those wont work! And our infant carrier we have used for the others expired this year!! So the list goes on but I am waiting till school starts to worry about all that! Anyway off to put Lacey down for a nap that she wont take!!

Can You Say "Excited"?!!!

Well I am officially announcing the coming arrival of one more Stoker baby!! Baby number 4 is one its way! I am 21 weeks and we found out today that it is a boy!! Wahooo!!! I am very excited that it is not a girl-that may sound mean and I love my 2 girls but they are very intense about ohhhh everything! Now we will have 2 of each and as Abby said as she danced around the room after we told her it was a boy "It's equal! It's equal! It's equal!!!" She was very happy that we would have the same number of boys and girls in the family!! The pic is blurry but will just have to do for now!!

Dancing Fun!

Abby had her Spring Recital on Saturday. I volunteered to be one of the class mom's to help with all the girls. Now you might be wondering why I did that when I should be sitting in the audience to watch with all the other parents-well I did it for a couple of reasons-first they needed people and didn't have any volunteers for her class and night-second she wanted to stay for the finale and I knew that if she was going to stay that long she wouldn't want to be with someone she didn't know and third it was one less ticket we had to buy! and fourth it saved Bryan from having to sit through 3 hours of dances when Abby's was 7th of the night!! He was a happy boy!

Anyway Abby was excited that I was going to be with her the whole time and that I would be able to watch her dance from backstage. She did awesome and had a great time!

The video of her dancing is from the Rehearsal night-they don't allow recording or taking picture on the actual performance night which is too bad for you guys because Abby spends most of this dance watching the other girls as she dances and on the actual performance she looked straight ahead like she was supposed to! I was so proud of her!

Bill and Jenny were able to come and they brought her flower-which she was soooo excited for, she had been talking all day about hoping someone brought her some flowers!

Abby's last day of Kindergarten!

Abby wanted to do something for her teacher since it was the last day of school so we made a candy gram! I totally love these! We bought a bunch of candy and used them to write a little note. I wrote it out on the poster board to make sure we could get it all on there and Abby decorated all of the empty space.

Then this morning I helped her take it to school. Her teacher loved it! It was fun to see Abby give it to her. She loves Mrs. McCulloh!-she was just the kind of teacher Abby needed to get her in the groove of going to school. She also has Abby so excited about 1st grade! All I hear about is "when I am in 1st grade..., I am doing 1st grade coloring..., when does 1st grade start?". They were able to go to the classroom they will be in next year and meet their teacher. When I asked her about her teacher for next year she said "Mrs. Wall is my teacher! I wanted Mrs. Wall to be my teacher! She came into gym one time and she had on a really cool shirt!". Leave it to a girl to want a teacher because of what she is wearing!

She also got a list of Scholastic Summer Challenge book list and is excited to read her way through it and is ready to go to the library and get started! She is hilarious!

For those who are interested the candy gram said

"Dear Mrs. McCulloh,

You started the year with a bunch of RUNTS but are ending it with a bunch of

STAR(s)BURST(ing) with the (sour punch straws) PUNCH of knowlege you gave! We had MOUNDS of SNICKERS in class when we learned about WHATCHAMACALLIT?! We might have made some WHOPPERS and sort have fallen to PIECES but ....DOTS.... you were there with hugs and the supply of those were GOOD & PLENTY! You are an awesome teacher and the REISON that for me the MILKYWAY is the limit! So this summer TAKE 5 and go on a shopping SPREE on 5th AVE.- You deserve it!!!

So on more EXTRA big thank you!

Love, Abby"

Happy Birthday Dylan!

This is a couple days late but I can't find my discs of pictures so I had to spend some time looking then gave up and had to figure out how to share files between computers! And I did it! So that was really exciting!!

Anyway Dylan is 4!! I can't even believe it! These are a couple of my favorite pics of him just after he was born. He was reall jaundiced even though he was a big baby so he got to wear a belly blanket for a couple weeks! Wasn't he so cute!!

A lot of people dont believe me when I say that despite being amost 10 pounds he was really skinny so this pic is for all of you! He is in a 3 month outfit.

See I told you! It took him a while to get some meat on those bones!

He is really excited for his Transformer party on Sunday so I will have pics of that. We have some fun stuff planned! He has been living and breathing Transformers for the last little bit and wants to watch the movie pretty much everyday. He is one silly boy!

We made it!!

The end is here!! Lacey was able to get her cast off for good yesterday! Can you tell how excited I am! Lacey did really good when they cut this one off and once it was done she pulled her blanket over her leg just like she did last time. I don't know what kind of powers that blanket has but apparently it does something! Once we got the news that she was good to go I put her shoe on and stood her up-she held her foot up and tried to sit down. She wouldn't walk or do anything on her foot. So when we went to pick up Dylan I got her out of the car and stood her on the ground, held her hand and made her walk. And she did of course-but it was a little diffucult. She kept a death grip on my hand-it was sad but also funny to watch her try to refind her center of balance after walking with her cast for 2 and a half weeks!

In the afternoon we went outside and she spent about 25 mins in the sand box-she has been missing the sand box! And then the momment that I have been waiting for----BATH TIME!! Once Lacey got in the tub she just laughed and laughed she was so happy! and I was happy because she was clean! A sponge bath in the kitchen sink for 5 and a half weeks for a 2 year old just does not cut it!!! (I know this picture makes her look a little wierd but with her wiggling all around and the picture coming from my phone not much I can do!)

Abby's Spring Program

Abby had her Spring Program at school today. She has been so excited! She did great! Thier theme was "American All"- the narration was they were doing an internet search of the word "American" and it talked about all the people who came from other countries and that we are all Americans. So the songs they sang were from all around the world. Abby had a great time. Here are a couple clips. I tried to pick ones that you could understand most of the words, sometimes it wasnt that easy!!

Sorry this one is a little bumpy but Lacey was trying to climb all over me! Abby specifially asked me to get this song-she likes at the end when they all bow thier heads-she thought that was cool!

Happy Birthday Abigail!!

Abby is 6! She has been so excited about her birthday! She has been talking about what kind of party she wants for about the last 8 months. Since then it has been Fancy Nancy. So we planned a Fancy Nancy themed party-luckily I hadnt botten anything yet because last monday she changed her mind and wanted a Pinkalicious party. She loves loves loves pink and loves the book Pinkalicious! So we scraped the Fancy Nancy plans and went on to the Pink!

Everything was pink! Streamers, balloons, tablecloth, plates, silverware, napkins, pink cupcakes (the girl in Pinkalicious turns pink by eating too many pink cupcakes) with pink frosting and pink sprinkles! She got lots of pink presents, including her own copy of the Pinkalicious book! (You might think it wierd that she didn't already have a copy but last year my mom took her to the book store to buy it for her for her birthday and she decided to get Purpleicious because she hadnt read that one yet!)

Here she is with one of her fav presents-her pink hula-hoop! And man she can hula!!

Lacey's New Cast

Well Lacey got her new cast yesterday! I was a little worried about how she would handle it when they had to cut her cast off-but she did awesome! She was upset of course but didn't completely freak out. Once it was off she immediately covered her leg with her blanket like it had some special protection powers or something-it was kinda funny! She wouldn't even let me look at her leg or touch it. Every time I would try to pull the blanket back she would say "No! Stop it! Don't touch!" as she pulled her blanket back over it. She barely let the Doctor look and touch her leg! the funny thing was as much as she didn't want anyone touching it as soon as the guys came in to put on the new cast and he pulled out the sock thing they put on first she held her leg out for him and didn't put up any fuss at all! She just sat there totally fine and didn't make a sound! Before the doctor came in I showed her the paper with all the cast colors and asked her which one she wanted-she picked purple as you can tell! I asked her twice just to make sure and she picked purple both times!

So now she has her little shoe so she can walk-but will she? Nope! She wont but any weight on it, she wouldn't even crawl! It is almost like she needs to figure out how to do things all over again-since she wont use her leg at all, not even her knee-it is pretty funny to watch her try to get up on a chair or the couch! I finally got her to crawl this morning but mostly she just scoots on her bum. I knew it would take her a little while before she would walk on it so we will keep you posted!

How Lacey entertains herself

Since mobility is an issue for Lacey and she doesn't really have the patience to crawl or scoot around this is what she does-

Lacey's Exciting Day!

Well it all began on Sunday afternoon. Lacey and Abby were dancing around to some music in their room while we were moving the kids bedrooms around. One second everyone was happy, the next Lacey was crying on the floor saying her foot hurt. So we just figured that she had sprained her ankle. There wasn't anything in their room to jump off of since we were moving stuff around so I don't even know what really happened. She cried for a while and we gave her some Motrin and put a little wrap on it, but she wouldn't but any pressure on it at all, she wouldn't even crawl around! She wanted to be carried all around.

Monday morning she was the same, still said it hurt and still would not put any pressure on it. So I called my Dad who give excellent advise on just about everything! He said keep an eye on her and call the doctor and see what they say. So I ended up calling mostly just to see "how long is too long to wait to take her in", the lady went to ask a nurse, got back on the phone and asked it I could bring her in later that morning. So to the doctor we went.

The doctor felt her foot and ankle and moved her foot around and only once did Lacey flinch. She never said a word or made a sound! The only time she cried was when he stood her up to see if she would walk, which of course she didn't. He was like "well if she was really hurt she wouldn't be letting me poke and push on her like that but we will take some x-rays just in case.

So now we are back in the room after x-rays which she didn't enjoy at all and we waited for the doctor to come in. The door opens and the doctors stands there for like 3 seconds with this look of astonishment on his face and is silent! I was like "what?" He said "she broke her tibia!" I asked where at and as he turns to leave the room he says "I'll get the x-ray, I just can't believe it!" I was really funny!

Then he says that she will be in a cast for 6 weeks and I was like "oh great-this will be fun!". So then we were off the the Orthopedic place to get her cast. She was awesome!! When we got there she was all smiles and talking and all the nurses were like "She doesn't seem like a little girl with a broken leg!" What can I say, I have weird kids.

So then the Pediatric Orthopedic guy comes in and says "All right we need to keep her leg immobilized so she will be in a cast from her toes to the top of her thigh for 2 weeks then come back and we will put on that goes to her knee for 4 weeks" I was like "oh my gosh!! there goes your Easter egg hunt Lacey!"

She sat on my lap the whole time they put her purple cast on with one of her famous scowls on her cute little face and was completely silent! She didn't utter one sound! She was awesome and they were all amazed at how good she did.

So now she want everyone to sign it, its pretty cute. And we painted her toes so now they look cute sticking out of her cast.

She is doing really well. She can get down off of anything, but only get up onto the couch, everything else is too high for her. She has tried crawling but since we don't have carpet in the living room her cast slips all over the place and she doesn't get very far! So most of the time she scoots on her butt, even then she mostly is scooting over to someone for them to pick her up. Here is her new position while we are shopping!

It will be a long two weeks!!

Music in my dreams!

I was peacefully dreaming early this morning, I don't remember what I was dreaming about but I remember all of sudden I realized music started playing in the background! It was real quiet like in a movie. So then I was wondering where the music was coming from! That was when I started to wake up and realized it was coming from the tv!! Bryan uses the tv as an alarm clock and has the timer set to turn on in the morning-last night I fell asleep watching Real World (I know I know but it can be pretty funny!). So anyway they play music videos in the morning apparently-I was just lucky that it was a nice mellow clean song that was playing! It kind of scares me to think of what would have happened in my dream if the song had been different!! It also makes you wonders what else influences your dreams at night!

Catching Up!

We finally got a new power cord thing for the laptop so now I can update the blog. I have been putting off because the cord we had wasn't charging the battery and you had to have it positioned a certain way or it would turn off! Totally annoying and not easy to work with! So now with pictures loaded up here we go! Lacey found the flour container while Bryan was cooking dinner and I was on my way home with Abby from her dance class! She was not happy to have her fun put to an end!

(if laceys shirt looks a little wierd its because it was edited a little because she was shirtless)

Here is Dylan proudly displaying his letter puzzle that he did all by himself. He is really good at it when he isn't peeling the pictures of the top of the puzzle pieces! What is it with boys and taking things apart?! Abby bought herself a "life size" barbie puzzle with some Christmas money-she was so excited! Lacey was awesome doing her breathing treatments-she would hold it by herself, we just had to keep an eye on her to make sure she kept it in her mouth!

One saturday a couple weeks ago we were watching some kids of a friend of mine while they went to the temple, I was cleaning and went into my room and found everyone squeezed on to the bed watching cartoons! Lacey was up there too but she doesn't sit still for too long and apparently taking a picture put her way past her limit!

Poor Bryan!

This is Lacey pretty much all day. She talks and talks and talks. In the beginning of the video when she is all scowling she was mad that I was watching her through the camera and not looking directly at her! she is so funny!

Super Slacker!

o.k. well I thought I should put something up since it has been a while. We have been partly busy and partly lazy. Life has just been crazy with my kids, the 2 boys I babysit and then we started watching our neighbors' little girl after school. But these last 2 weeks we have been dealing with sick kids. Not fun! Abby, Lacey, Bryan and I all got an 8 hour flu bug all on different days of course. Dylan and Lacey both had really bad ear infections and respiratory crap so they were both on breathing treatments-Dylan twice a day and Lacey every 4 hours. Lacey pretty much stopped eating and drinking because her ears were bothering her because she refused to take the antibiotic-so that has been stressful-but after a week and a half of that-her second trip to the doctor and a different antibiotic she was finally eating today. Abby was off and on with a fever every couple days, not having one long enough to have to take her in but just long and often enough to make it annoying! Everyone seems to be doing pretty good now so that is good. I can finally catch up on all the things that I needed and wanted to do but couldn't because I was sleep deprived after sitting up with Dylan 3 nights in a row. I am so ready for winter to be done!!! On a fun note, last Saturday I had a girls game night and it was a total blast!! Lots and lots of laughing going on and needed by everyone I think! I didn't get home till 11:30-it had been a long time since I was even up that late not to mention out some where! And tonight is the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics!! wahooo!!!!!! I absolutely love the Olympics! It is on pretty much all day at our house, I am so excited! 2 conversations with Abby- A-hey mom I want some of that Me-no way abby is moms and i am not sharing this time! A-why? I want some Me-Because I am the mom and when you are the mom you have have a goody all to yourself too A-When I'm the mom I can have whatever I want? Me-yep! That is one of the fun things of being a mom! A-oh o.k. (big smile) A-Mom are we to the store yet? Me-almost just a couple more minutes A-you live to far from the store-when I am a mom I will live close to the store-you can come see me mom. Me-o.k. I think I will do that thanks! A-but then I will live far from Mc Donalds so I will come visit you!

Lacey's Naps

I went to check on Lacey one afternoon while she was taking a nap and this is what I found. Who knows what goes on in her little 2 year old mind!