Recently..

Recently..

My new sayings (that I say all day long) are: "Well, as much fun as this is..." and "Because I said so."

Recently..

I've discovered that my darling Crannie, my 4-soon-to-be-5-year-old can be more challenging at times (bless her innocent well-meaning little heart!) than my 2 B's combined.

Recently..

I've discovered that the amount of laundry that needs to be done when there are 3 sick kiddos as opposed to when there used to be 2 sick kiddos not only multiplies 3x, but more like 1,000x. Thank goodness they don't have a stomach bug like that infamous time last December, otherwise I might be doing laundry literally ALL DAY LONG.

Recently..

Dan has come up with a brilliant plan. Yep, I think it's brilliant. He told me tonight after dinner that once a week we should wait to eat dinner til after the girlies are in bed. This way we can enjoy a nice "date" once a week and eat in peace without having to inhale our food as so often happens.
** We will start this tomorrow night since I have a sweet spinach and mushroom stuffed pork loin to make that I doubt our little ladies will enjoy as much as we might. The sweetest part about this pork loin is that I got it for a mere $1.79/lb because somebody made a typo and it was supposed to be $7.79/lb! I live for deals.

Sick, and just one Flop

Got my three little girls here in our bedroom with me. I try and find the silver lining in having these three sick, and I found it: they're all my babies again. They just want to be held and have me close. I love these girls!

*****

Flop was the only one that wanted to come to the library with me this afternoon while Abrie "napped" at home. Maddie wanted to stay home with Dan, and it was a chance for Faith and I have to get some time alone. I love being with them individually. Faith was singing her versions of all her favorite CD songs, and the way she sings is the best: you get the last word of each chorus line, and in a very delayed way. It reminds me of the way Dan sings-- mumbling and acting as though he knows the song word-for-word, and then you just hear the last word to every line. It's hilarious hearing Faith sing! Not to mention, the conversations with my Flop are priceless. I was telling Dan all about the things that she was telling me, and we laugh about how cute she is.

She was so very proud to be my helper this afternoon! She's so funny too in that she specifically kept telling me that she wanted to pick "a show for Dee, and a book for Beeba Show." So, she went and picked things that she knew her sisters would like, then picked stuff for herself, and then did puzzles. She was so proud too to show Maddie and Abrie what she had carefully chosen for them when we got back home.

3rd birthday in review

Faith's birthday was a success!

These little girls of ours are lucky girls. I tell them that all the time. I remember when we were little, we of course had a little birthday celebration in the form of a party, but that was about it. These lovely little ladies get a week-long or so celebration. We don't ever go "overboard" persay, but we definitely love making a fuss over them on their special day and letting them pick what they like to do.

Faith's party was yesterday. It was her first real birthday party, and she loved it. She wanted a 'White party' and she's already asking for an 'Aurora party' for next year. I somehow managed a little Snow White cake (after the first attempt at a graham cracker cottage failed, Dan had the brilliant idea to put icing over some Swiss Cake rolls!), and she just loved it. The look on her face when she saw it was absolutely priceless. She told me "thank you, Momma" over and over again.

They had a dwarf scavenger hunt and some other little "games," and we went down to the duck pond with cousins. It was a beautiful day yesterday. November and January (Maddie) aren't the most ideal months for birthday parties here, but the weather was perfect yesterday-- mid 50's and sunny.

We spent today doing whatever she wanted to do. She picked pancakes for her breakfast, so I made her a stack of pancakes. My girl LOVES her pancakes. We gave her her present from us-- a little princess roll-out art desk-y type thing with crayons and markers (they are coloring and drawing non-stop these days) which she loved. She had picked shrimp corn chowder the other day as her birthday dinner of choice, and so she helped me make that this afternoon. She and her Dee made bead bracelets, and Faith finished painting her little plaster figurine from yesterday. And, we spent the afternoon at the library which she loves. Not to mention, as long as the weather holds out, we're headed to Sesame Place this weekend to cap off Faith's 3rd birthday week!

My little Flop is 3 years old now and, as sentimental as I get about her getting older, I am so very excited to spend another year with my little girl.

*** Last picture is a picture of a ghost she made the other day that I thought was adorable. She calls it her "ghost with one eye!"

My little Beebster is (almost) 3!

In anticipation of her 3rd birthday tomorrow, Flop got to watch her video this morning. She asked to watch it three times in a row-- they love this tradition.

I feel like a broken record always saying the same exact thing, but I don't know how it is possible that tomorrow we will be celebrating the third anniversary of Faith's birth day. It feels like she should still be this tiny little baby with that fuzzy, black hair.

These girls of ours are growing up too quickly, but I'm enjoying every second of it, and I'm looking forward to what this 'chapter' of Faith's life will bring.

Celery becomes interesting

The old osmosis lesson was quite intriguing for my big girls yesterday afternoon. That and some caterpillars they fashioned out of egg cartons kept them busy during the Show's afternoon nap.

Today was a day spent with their best friends in the world, their cousins. You can't beat it. 'Guy' and 'Diga Diga' are two forever nicknames for Donovan and Ella, but Ella has also christened our three little ladies with some sweet nicknames of her own! Maddie is 'Manny' to her, Faith is 'Fefe' (but used to sound like 'Feces!!!!!!!!!'), and Abrie is 'the baby!!' It's always fun getting them together.

Glimpse into the future, part 2

Playing 'Pretty Pretty Princess' and they "asked" Abrie if she wanted to play!

Raking at Nene and Grampa's house

Spent a very fun day at Nene's house "raking" leaves.

Girlies are quite excited about their money earned by raking today, but more than anything, they had a blast with their family. Grampa made a delicious meatloaf, and they got to have fun with their sweet cousins.

Nothing beats a Sunday spent with family!

Sissys reading, and projects

Maddie wanted Abrie to sit on her lap the other day so that she could read her a book. Faith plopped herself down right next to them, and opened up a Pillsbury cookbook and said she was also reading to 'ShowCase.' Haha.

Their art 'project' for the other day was gluing and decorating cut-outs of people onto their construction paper. They loved it, and I found some left over tiny beads and ribbon from Faith's bake-it bracelet pack that they used for the girls. Maddie was upset that there were only 4 people holding hands in the cut-out, and said "no, this won't do. We need the Bay Breeze" (aka Abrielle.. the girl answers to a variety of names!). The little cockroach looking thing in Maddie's drawing is Abrie in my arms. Ha! And, Faith is getting quite good at coloring eyes and hair on people.

Funny

Faith cracked me up today with the following:

During Abrie's afternoon nap, I always do school work and 'activities' with my 2 big girls. They had helped me make dinner this afternoon, and then we were playing Old Maid (which is quite interesting when you've got Maddie who hates to pick cards in games that she knows are detrimental to her chances of winning, and you've got Faith who thinks these cards are wonderful!) and doing puzzles.

Maddie is a whiz at puzzles. This girl was making me time her as to how quickly she could get a puzzle done. And, it was quite super-fast. Faith is getting pretty good at them too, and insists on doing Maddie's puzzles instead of hers. There was one piece though that was giving her problems, and she turns to me and goes, "Help me, class Mom!" (as in, 'Classroom Mom' aka Teacher Mom). Haha.

Christmas trees and new favorites

Just as I had suspected, miss Abrielle absolutely loves the Christmas tree! She seems mesmerized by it, and it gives her something new to drool over in excitement;) Luckily she is not pulling herself up or anything like that yet, so I think it should be fairly safe for her as long as we're always there to make sure she doesn't pull ornaments down and into her mouth!

Considering Abrie is already mesmerized by the Christmas tree, it means that- yep!- Dan and my big girls put it up yesterday afternoon. I knew they were thinking about it and that Dan had mentioned it to Maddie and Faith yesterday morning. And, I should have definitely known something was up when Abrie and I got back from the library yesterday afternoon and all was quiet with the lights dimmed in the living room. They were hiding behind couch pillows and snickering quietly, and yelled "Ta Da!" as Abrie and I reached the top of the stairs. They were very proud, and this was Dan's first undertaking of putting up the Christmas tree alone. It was such an ugly day out yesterday anyway, that it was a good project for them!

******

Totally unrelated, but our Maddie has gotten us all hooked on Honeycrisp apples. I thought I had tasted every single type of apple in my life, until Aunt Lisi brought over some Honeycrips about 3 weeks ago and Maddie tasted them for the first time. The girl (who loves apples-- she always wants them whole, and wants them washed the way Gepetto does in 'Pinocchio' which would means she wants to wipe it clean with her sleeve!) has now snubbed all other apples for the most part, and insists on only Honeycrisps. The apples are too darn good. It's like drinking apple cider straight from an apple! I just picked up some Jonagald's this morning (since the Honeycrisp were not on sale), and what would have otherwise been a huge treat for Maddie turned into "but, but, but, but... they're NOT HONEYCRISP!!"

Another new obsession of the big girls is "The Sound of Music." They just love that movie! I was finally able to get it through the interlibrary loan, and we have it for a week. They've been watching it non-stop, but not the whole movie of course. They love all the parts where the kids are singing, and even Faith has the "So Long, Farewell" song memorized. It's cute when she says "Cuckoo, Cuckoo" all the time!

Comediennes and Christmas

These little girls of ours crack me up constantly.

Maddie and Faith were "married" this afternoon. Apparently Faith was the groom (although she called herself the 'broom') and Maddie was the bride. They even kissed on the lips since "that is how you are supposed to kiss when you are married." They literally find the fun in everything, and are each other's best friend. I was doing some cleaning today, and they were pretending that the Pledge and the Windex were two characters from a 'Barbie' movie. It will be so funny to see the three of them playing like this when Abrie is a bit older. I am in no way wanting to rush that though, and I love the way they are so gentle with her right now while she's their baby. They have even tried to learn 'Riqui Ran' with the sole purpose of wanting to make her laugh. It's quite funny listening to them try to say all of the little riddle in Spanish!

*******

Dan and I are huge suckers for Christmas. It's so darn hard to not get sucked up into wanting to get this, this, and that for our three lovely ladies and try to stick to a budget. We've picked up a few things here and there that we've seen on clearance racks, and now we're waiting to get other 'bigger' things. But, we went to Target this afternoon just to look at the decorations. Maddie and Faith started belting out the Disney Princess Christmas songs that were playing from the section that showcases their selection of Christmas music. They have been borrowing that CD from the library now since last spring! It's so fun though to look at all the Christmas decorations, and Abrielle just loves all of the lights. I think she'll get such a kick out of the tree when we put it up this year.

Toilet-learning lingo

I can't help but laugh when Faith tells us she needs to go the toilet, and then goes on to tell us that she is going to make "plenty of poop."

"Are you sure it's not going to be just a little bit, Faith?"

"Nope. Plenty!"

Beeba Show

My girl is such a content baby these days.

I'm thinking that when teething rears it's ugly head, our Show will go through another 'fussy' stage, but boy is she mostly pleasant lately.

Our 4-year-old princess

Cran really wishes she were a "real" princess.

I tell her all the time that she IS a princess. She's OUR princess. And, I think she loves to hear that!

She makes up the funniest names for princesses and princes. The other night she was 'Princess Annabelle' and Dan was her prince, 'Prince Arnie.'

She is all about fairytales, and told me the other day that I shouldn't be married to Dan: "Daddy is just a man. He's just a father. A prince is supposed to have a sword!" Her expectations are seriously quite high. And, we like it this way. She also told me in another conversation that she wants to marry Faith, and that you can't ever kiss until after you are married. I love it.

She is very into the Barbie movie, "Barbie the Island Princess" right now. She found it the other day at the library, and I reluctantly checked it out for her. I am not too fond of Barbies and all, but Maddie just loves anything full of fantasy and enchantment. Of course, the movie is full of catchy songs that Maddie has already learned. This girl picks up on songs, rhymes, stories, etc within 1-2 listenings and then repeats everything almost word-for-word. It's crazy!

Happily exhausted

Dan has been gone since 11am for tailgating festivities for the Eagles game tonight. My big girls went to bed tonight asking why they didn't see Daddy on TV, even though I had the Chargers/Giants game on while I nursed the Breeze. They are anxiously awaiting him to "check in" on them tonight when he gets home!

******

Summary of today..

Beebster helped me make a new casserole for dinner, along with some cookies. Big girls made their 2nd versions of their Christmas lists (they made their Santa lists earlier this week with Dan's help, and today they made their Nene/Grampa lists). Abrie took two incredibly short naps, which (in a way) was a blessing because it afforded us more outdoor time on this beautiful day. Went to the bookstore this afternoon to look for bargain books, and then spent almost 2 hours at the "instrument" playground in Wyomissing. Who knew it could be short sleeve weather in NOVEMBER! It's supposed to be 70+ degrees tomorrow too, and I am more than excited.

I am now officially exhausted. Happily exhausted.

Random thoughts

Totally random things today.

*****
There is a reason why they say patience is a virtue. Sometimes I think I am the most patient person in the world, and then I am reminded in a second that I must constantly learn and re-learn the virtue of patience. This will be quite necessary for my survival this winter. The weather here is affording me some snippets here and there of practice for this upcoming winter; today it was a mere 48 degrees (but, with a cold wind) which meant thick coats and loosening of car seat straps to ensure that these three padded girlies fit into their seats. The padding does, however, help Abrie to sit nicely in the grocery cart at Giant. She is less likely to flop to one side or the other, and she kept smiling the entire time this morning while she was in the grocery cart. I'm thinking she thought it was the coolest thing ever to be a "big girl!"

Ironically, it is supposed to get back into the low 60's within the next few days.


*****

I love our new neighborhood. It took me a little while to acclimate myself to our new house, but I truly do love where we live. It's definitely becoming our "home" faster than I thought could be possible.

The neighborhood is my favorite thing. There are some of the coolest places to take pictures. I love all of the alley-ways and the interesting old houses. Our house is from the 60's, but there are so many that are closer to 100 years old. I love that Redner's is a 5-minute walk for me. I love that I can see the mountain (Mt. Penn) from outside of our house. I love that there are so many old trees around that the girls have tons of leave to crunch their feet in when we go for walks. I love that even Abrie appreciates her surroundings-- I took her for a walk this afternoon while my big girls stayed with Dan, and she "talks" almost the entire time. I'm always asking her, "what do you see?" and she'll just ooooh and aaah.

******

Totally random, but my little Disney aficionados and I were trying to think of all the Disney characters in the movies that have common voices for their characters. We even made a list. This is what happens in the mornings when Daylight savings time has ended, I mess up and set the clocks ahead an hour instead of back an hour, get myself ready at 5am thinking it's 7am (and in doing so, wake up the rest of my clan), and we have nothing to do while waiting for Dan to get home from work and waiting for Maddie's stiff neck to alleviate itself. Ha! This is what we came up with (and there's lots more, but this is what we thought of on that particular day)-- I love doing stuff like this.. they sit there and concentrate so intensely, and it's cute:

White Rabbit from 'Alice in Wonderland' and Smee from 'Peter Pan'
Duchess from 'Aristocats' and Bianca from 'The Rescuers'
Fairy Godmother from 'Cinderella' and Flora from 'Sleeping Beauty' AND Nanny from '101 Dalmations'
Alice from 'Alice in Wonderland' and Wendy from 'Peter Pan'
Cheshire Cat from 'Alice in Wonderland' and Kaa from 'Jungle Book'
Baloo from 'Jungle Book' and Thomas O'Malley from 'Aristocats' AND Little John from 'Robin Hood'
Chief from 'Fox and the Hound' and Sheriff of Nottingham from 'Robin Hood'
Mowgli from 'Jungle Book' and Wart from 'Sword in the Stone'
Bert's uncle from 'Mary Poppins' and Mad Hatter from 'Alice in Wonderland'
Gideon from 'Pinocchio' and Dopey from 'Snow White'
Bashful from 'Snow White' and big Flower from 'Bambi'

*******

I just love my girls. I truly don't know what I would do without them.

Right now as I type, my sweet baby girl is passed out in her crib-- green blankie tucked under her little arm, and her princess blankie draped over her. If only my USB port were working, I could upload all of her sweet smiley pictures from today. She is a little gem.

My Faith-y girl is passed out next to her hero, her Dee. They are two peas in a pod those girls. Faith is asleep in a Belle dress-up dress. And, Maddie is passed out with her braids still in her hair (today she wanted a 'Giselle' hair-do) and her arm around her Ariel doll who is dressed in a nightgown.

I've been blessed with three sweet girls.

Trick-or-Treat 2009

Better late than never.

Trick-or-Treat was a slight bust this year. It started POURING within 10 minutes after starting to trick-or-treat. And, I mean sheets of rain coming down diagonally and into your eyes. Thank goodness that it was 60+ degrees that night, otherwise we would have all been quite sick the next morning.

On the plus side, my little bunny (or, as Faith said: "Lilly the tiny bunny") took handfuls of candy from the unsuspecting people that did open their doors to our crazy Trick-or-Treaters. I was actually a little worried that somebody would report Dan and I for having the girls out in that awful rain!

It was a nice time though for my little ladies. Or, should I say my tiger, bunny, and bumblebee. They came back and trick-or-treated with Dan-- as in, they would pretend to knock on an imaginary door, and Dan would dump candy into their pails. They thought that was great. They did have a great time though with Nora, and got to make their own pizza at her house.