Warm Thoughts

This is the time of year when we snuggle up and keep warm. Winter brings chilly weather along with periodic snow for us up here in the high country. I use to think ................ I would never let my child come into my bed and sleep with me as it was a "bad habit." Those phases did come and go and I allowed it periodically.

I do miss that and I loved it when they came in my room and snuck into my bed thinking I didn't know it. With my head turned the other way with one eye open and a cracked smile on my face....... I loved it!

Still to this day every once in a while one of the girls will wake up early in the morning and come walking to my side of the house and I hear them stop at my door way and stare for a minute. She must be thinking ...... "Will I, Should I, Can I crawl into bed with mommy?"

Just this am Shae did just that. I heard her stand still at my door then proceed to my side of the bed. Then quietly crawled up onto my bed near my feet and wiggled up next to me and lay her head on my pillow. She still has her blanket in hand near her face and shares it with me by putting some on my face too. Oh, how I love the smell of her old tattered blanket as it has her smell all over it.

How she feels safe and comfy snuggled up beside me and how I know this will not last forever. The warmth of a mother and daughter is amazing!

I will now take that cuddle whenever it comes sneaking in.

Community Service

We are so pround of Kayla getting right out there and playing her guitar and for the community. On Sunday .... instead of their traditional recital at the University they played for a local nursing home. The residents sat and watch patiently for 2 hours while the kids of all ages played the piano, guitars and sang their hearts out. It was great! Afterwards the kids passed out cookies and punch to the elders. I think now we are done playing Christmas music. :) Until next year.....

Click the triangle to play video


Rockin Around The Christmas Tree

A little Sledding Fun

The girls have been wanting to go sledding so we took them. We found a great local spot that was only 30 minutes away from our house. Although it was several days after our snow and a bit bare the girls had a blast!

Shae in Bam Bam's hat that she leaves here for when she comes up to visit
Kayla's wipe out!

Shae in action with the hat ready to fly off her head. She reminds of one of the characters in Cat in the Hat.

Let It Snow!!!

FINALLY SNOW!!! It has snowed here on and off for three days and it just didn't stick. The girls were so dissapointed and bummed out. Then this morning their WISH came true!
They played outside for over 2 hours and rolled the biggest snow balls. They used up pretty much every speck of snow in the yard.

They created a darling snow friend.

Then it was was snow ice cream making time.

A little sugar, milk and vanilla and you have it.

YUMMY!

While downloading my pictures I noticed that the girls must of taken my camera and went around the house for their own photo shoot by the trees.
The card tree.....
This week we also went to the Christmas festival downtown.
Made ornaments
And cuddled with our hamsters. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

The snow topped off the holiday.

Acker Musical Festival

Okay, so I couldn't stay away from blogging for too long .........

This was Kayla's first Acker Festival performance and she did great! There were 9 guitar players and the lady in black with Kayla is her guitar teacher~ Mrs. Patty from the Volante Academy of the Arts.

She played 2 songs with the "band" as back up for the choir and 2 songs with just the guitar players.

And she was the only guitar player to do a solo song... play and sing. She did awesome!

In case you missed the Acker festival here are 3 short videos of her playing. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!!!

Oh what a wonderful year it has been!

Merry Christmas to my friends and to my closest family....... you know who you are! :)

I am hoping for a even better year to follow. First, with the sale of my house! We have a bright future ahead. This year has opened my eyes to a different life. One that will live more frugal and eat well (all those yummy organics), have lots more fun, love learning, live each day without so much "stuff" and just enjoy life as it is. Oh ... and most importantly ...look for a cheaper home where ever that will be and that will suit us for a good while and pay it off asap!

I wish all you bloggers a wonderful sign off to this year and have a great one to come. With that said ... check in once in a while as there may be a new post before this year ends. I will be back in full force with many blogging posts in 2009.

CLICK

Where has the time gone??

Tom came across this picture today in his desk drawer.

WOW! Where has the time gone? I can honestly remember every moment of their lives. I really haven't missed a wink and love that feeling. These girls are so precious to me!

Kayla is so smart and loves to chit chat (much like me) and she loves to be precise (like her dad) and know what she is doing ... even two weeks from now (much like me). She wants to always look perfect (like her dad). When she shops .... she takes her time and takes forever to choose something to buy (like bam bam). If I am wrong she will let me know and have a debate with me to prove she is right. Maybe she will be a lawyer??

Shae is so sweet, caring and thoughtful to all creatures (even bugs). She is very sensitive. She is funny and laughs from her belly. She is also stubborn (like me) yet quiet in her own way (like her dad). She doesn't care if her shirt is dirty and on backwards and inside out (kind of reminds of my one brother). If she has money with her she has to spend it and she will buy the first thing she sees. She loves to be cuddled with and knows she is our baby. Her favorite thing to do is to draw and says she is an artist. And she may be an artist one day or work in a zoo??

I appreciate my children and appreciate all the time I get to spend with them. I am greatful and thankful that my husband can provide for us and I can do what I do. And that is be a 100% full-time mom. But more than a "mom" ... a teacher, best friend, and someone to lean on.

Shae is finally 6!!

At times Shae wishes she was the older sibling... but today she was as happy as can be to be 6 years old. She really didn't say what she wanted for her birthday. However, once at Barnes N Noble she liked the "mini American Girl dolls" so we got her that and she just loves it and wants all the "mini" ones now.

Kayla made this wonderful bunkbed for all Shae's LPS. Shae was so excited and loved it very much!Dad made her this coloring card with her 3 favorite cartoons on it.
A big surprise for Shae on her sixth birthday was that she noticed that her 2 front teeth are loose. How perfect as for the past week ... Kayla and Shae have been singing "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth".

Shae wanted to go see "Santa Claus" so we did. And she told me that he wasn't the "real" one because he didn't have glasses on and his breathe stunk. tee,hee,hee!

Her trip to the mall ended with her own personal chair massage. And of course her choice of dinner that night which was .... Peter Piper Pizza. Actually, I think we live there!

Happy Birthday Shae! We love you very much! You are a funny and sweet little girl! I couldn't imagine life without you!

A peek into our week

Shae has been enjoying her school work. We have been focusing on her reading a lot as well as her math. Thanks to "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" her reading has gotten so much smoother and she is feeling more proud of herself. She is counting up to 100 and more and she does great with addition and subtraction. I made this cute bunny and carrot slider thing to help her see the subtraction problems better. She likes to show her dad and make the bunnies eat the carrots."There are 7 carrots and the bunny ate 3 of them. How many are left?" And she slides the carrots to figure out the answer.
We have done the seed thing before but our science book was talking about how plants grow and our friend just did this ... so we had to do it again. She loves to watch the beans sprout.
As soon as we placed them at the window she watched them for a bit then asked "When will they grow?" We are charting how many days it takes and at day 2 one has already begun to sprout.
Kayla is very interested in sewing and since I am pretty good at sewing I will teach her. Plus I have way too many adult girl~friends who cannot sew even a button on a pair of pants. My daughters will definately know how to sew. I know first hand how important sewing is as I have altered just about every piece of clothing the girls and I have. I owe "thanks" to my mother who taught me how to sew when I was a young girl.

Kayla decided to make a butterfly pillow. So I dug out the scrap fabric. I made up a simple pattern and had her hand sew on several pieces first. She finally figured out how to knot the thread. She did awesome! She worked on this for a few days on and off.
She couldn't wait to get to the "real'" sewing machine. I didn't think about how curvy the butterfly was so it was a bit of a challenge. She did great and had good control of the fabric.
Finally, she got to hand sew on the buttons for eyes which was fun for her and then stuff it. Great job Kayla! She loves her pillow and has slept with it every night.
This is Kayla preparing for her performance at the adult day care center that we go to every month. This week was great! As Kayla was playing and singing her song she had one elderly lady singing along with her and several others clapping along to the beat. She is very confident and loves to play for people.
She is pretty excited to be playing a song at the Prescott Acker Christmas Festival this year.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving day!
I am now ready to eat my chocolate chip cookies and hang out on the couch with Tom and the girls.
As soon as I click "publish post"

Finally ..... 8 years old!

"Mom, when am I really going to be 8?"

At 10:23 am my dear child. :)

She woke up to the house smelling just delightful with a cookie sheet full of fresh cinna bites covered in frosting.... her favorite over cake.

Shae drew her big sissy a picture of her favorite bug "lady bug". She put it in a gift bag and presented to her with a happy smile. Just like a "5" year old would and should.

Thanks Aunt Judi! Kayla says "WOW! A million dollars!" And of course I wouldn't leave out lil grams either for her cash donations. Kayla is saving some for when she grows up and saving the rest for the "big sales" after Christmas.

This one is pretty funny! Kayla wrapped herself one of her new books and made a card that said "To: Kayla ~ From: Buttercup (her pet hamster)". And she said "oh my goodness ... Buttercup got me something". It was rather funny.

All she wanted was a basketball and that is what we got her.

After our breakfast we took the girls to a local school play ground to try out the basketball. But do you think the city is smart and would have kids height basketball hoops at a elementary school? Of course not! They were 10 feet tall and for adults. So, we played on the playground and then hit 2 more parks and played all after noon for Kayla's birthday. We spend the girls actual birthday together as a family. They get to pick out anywhere they want to go and eat for dinner and Kayla picked Peter Piper Pizza and that is how our day concluded.

Congratulations Kayla!

You are such a young lady and I can't think of life without you. I look at you daily and know how lucky I am to have a daughter like you and how lucky I am to be able spend so much time with you.

Love, mommy

All Aboard .....................

The Polar Express!

We told the girls that we were going out to dinner at a new place and it was a bit of a drive. Kayla wasn't feeling well but she went for it anyway. A couple of miles before we got to the exit in Williams I gave each of them a envelope with their golden ticket that I had made inside. I punched it with a nail with the word.... "Believe."

They about jumped out of their seats with joy! Kayla read it out loud and knew right away that they were going on the "Polar Express."

Of course we went to visit Mrs. Claus and she was delighted to see the girls.

They each got to write Santa their letters.
And mail them They were so excited to get on the train!
We all got hot chocolate and cookies. YUMMY!

We finally stopped at the "North Pole" which was lite up and Santa and his sleigh was there. We opened up the train windows and waved to him. Then he got on the train with us and passed out each child a large bell.

Listening to the bell ringing.

What fun it was!