My Family is Weird!

I mean "weird" in our own sweet, perfect, little ways... :)

Emma is OBSESSED with not getting dirty. If I spill water on her shirt when I brush her teeth she freaks out (of course she never spills anything on herself). We go to a sandbox and she jumps in and then comes running out because she doesn't like the feel of dirt on her toes. She had a nose bleed in bed and after I washed her sheets they still had a couple small spots on them. Sheets are clean - just a little stain or two... no big deal right? Nope, she she can't go to bed so we have to change her sheets/pillowcases. Oh my.... I'm going to have to buy her new sheets. She got her ears pierced and every time I put alcohol on them she flips out if any of it drops on her shirt. Any bump, bruise, scrape is a traumatic experience for her. Emma, I love you...

On a completely different note, Emm said to me "Mommy, when you are not here I will make a margarita by myself and drink it. I will sneak it..." ummmmm... should i be worried?

Here are a few super sweet pics from her 4th bday party:









Emma right before getting her Ears Pier'd


And after



Megan saw a plastic Harmonica in Justice one day and threw a huge temper tantrum for because I told her I wasn't buying it. They don't normally ask for much in stores because they know I won't buy it. My typical response is "let's put that on our list for santa..." So, I was shocked with this harmonica tantrum. I asked her in the car when we left Justice if she would be interested in a real harmonica. She loved the idea. I ended up finding this guy who teaches at Kingwood Music School. He drives from Humble once a week to teach her. She can play twinkle twinkle little star and she is so proud. I hope she continues to have something that only she is good at. I guess I'm always worried about her feeling "lost in the middle" as she grows up. But maybe they are so close in age it doesn't matter...?

Megan is proud that she is in Gold level gymnastics with Claire. She has this awesome natural technique and is in tumbling class with 8, 9 and 10 year old girls and can hang with the best of em. She's so happy and proud of herself while she's there.

Love, love this of Meg's sweet little hands:


And, I don't think I posted this christmas picture of Megan... I just love it



Big sister Claire is thriving in school. We've gotten 3 report cards and she has gotten all E's on everything. Probably the norm for kindegarteners because they don't really grade just yet, but hey... I'm reading this Birth Order book by Kevin Leman and she is such a typical first born. She has high expectations of herself. Not the compliant one though... she is definitely the opposite of that. If I ask her to do anything there is usually a struggle. But she does love order and she loves to please. She asked her dad the other night when he put her to bed... "Daddy, how can I be smarter? What do I need to do...?" Ummmmmmm.... she must not be my child. That's all I have to say about that.

The girl has lost about 10 teeth in the last week...! j/k but it seems that it has happened all at once. I think she has lost 6 teeth total... here... let's look at the progression:
Besties May 09


Oct 09



Feb 10



Mar 10


Ok, I'm missing some pictures... I have been looking for the past hour for her missing teeth pictures. A little detour but we'll work on that next week... :)

Claire's 1st Valentine - he basically threw the card at her and ran across the room back to his seat. This was no ordinary valentine. He drew he and Claire on a piece of construction paper and wrote sweet little nothings... Cooper is so sweet. All we have to do is say "Cooper" and Claire's response is a "What?!?" She will never respond to anything we ask her when his name is mentioned. So funny!
So sad my camera was acting up that day - all I got were fuzzy pictures!







Until next time "Happy Easter!"

So much going on, so little time to post...

But, I have to upload these pics for my girls... I love this pic with Aunt Grace & Uncle Maxie although the light was really bright. I don't have too many of them with all 3 of the girls and Dan so this one is extra special to me. I am so happy to be a part of their family and it means a lot that they have welcomed me with open arms.
Time is really flying by... we had a great, stress free Christmas this year. I decided to forgo putting up a Christmas tree and you wouldn't believe how much stress this took off of me. I was so dreading having to decorate the tree by myself. The kids say they help, but when you have 90% breakable ornaments, there's not a whole lot of helping... it's mainly me stressing they don't break the ornaments and me cleaning up their mess. This year, I'm going to find a nice fake one so I don't have to worry about getting a real one every year and lighting the darn thing. My kids did not skip a beat. I started a countdown to Christmas and they woke up each morning (10 days before Christmas) and were able to open a bag filled with surprises. Ummmmm.... warning.... if you do this do not ever put candy in their bags. They wanted to eat it right away which led to sugar filled gremlins at 8:30 in the morn. No thanks, not this year. My cute little bags that they had so much fun with...




Little Emmie had her 1st Christmas program at school on stage. She was so not liking her outfit but it was soooo cute.
Before the program:


During the program:



She was scared poor thing and there were a couple times I thought she was going to put her thumb in her mouth... my sweet baby is growing up. The girl toots like you wouldn't believe. And she laughs about it. Anytime you tickle her you can count on what sounds like a gun show. She told Mamo the other day "Mamo, smell my stinky feet (as she's stinking her feet in mamo's face)." I'm not sure where she gets this from! cough cough...

She's getting a bit more brave. She doesn't cry when I drop her off at school anymore and she is starting to go on more roller coaster rides. We took her to Itz yesterday and she went on all the rides. Well, I had to practically drag her on one, but hey - she needed a little push. She loved it and went on it several times later. She will thank me later I am certain.

Since this blog is my scrapbook for my girls, here are some pictures for Claire from her Kindegarten Christmas party & other random lunch shots:
One of her buds Kayden whom she had her 1st sleepover with a couple weeks ago. BTW - she is loving her independence from me. Loves, loves, loves it... should I be worried?


Her friend Brian who sits by her everyday at lunch. He is also the sweetest boy ever. We have so much fun when I go visit and have lunch with them. Brian was sticking his carrot in her ketchup the other day and they were totally teasing each other. It was pretty stinkin cute!


The class:





Sweet Kiley:




Meg has started having her friend Ella come over for Movie nights and we took Ella to ITZ with us yesterday when claire stayed with Eliza for her 2nd sleepover. The girls had a ball at ITZ. Here's a cute pic of them having movie night. Megan loves Ella and I love her mommy. Such sweet ladies.



Here are pics from our last cousin visit. What a great time... mani's/pedi's, marshmellow guns, chuck e cheese, movies, shopping, etc thus makes for a super tired aunty. But, I wouldn't trade a second of it. My girls adore their cousins. We are so very blessed.










And last but not least, the FIRST YEAR EVER that Emmie did not cry going to Santa. Matter of fact, she went back and gave him a hug after the pictures were all said and done... it was priceless!

RPR Christmas Party 09

My one time a year I get to dress up. So much fun. Party was held again this year at Grappino di Nino's.... I ate way too much and then wanted to go back to the hotel to sleep.... geez, I'm getting old. But how can I pass on any of the food? The servers walk around shoving appetizers in my mouth! :) Ok, not really but.... we had a great time. We are so very thankful Dan works for RPR. We are thankful for Bob and all he and the rest of RPR built and thankful they brought Dan on. So thankful that in this economy Dan has job security. That is so hard to find it seems now days...
One of the few pictures I have of Bob (to the right):


Sweet, sweet couple I met for the first time:


Dan's partner in crime at work, my girls just adore Ashley:

November ='s All About Meggie Month

Even though poor daddy's birthday is squeezed in there too. It seems Meg has been on countdown starting November 1st and skips over daddys (21st) until finally the 24th is here. Then, the morning after her birthday she wakes up and her first question to me is "Mommy, how many days until my birthday?" Girls, they are so funny! When, I told her 364 days - you should have seen the look on her face. November is always such a busy month with 2 birthdays and Thanksgiving. We always do Thanksgiving at our house so that makes it even trickier. Meg had her party this year at Pump it Up -the day after Thanksgiving. I think we'll plan next year to do it the first weekend in December.

Our cousins were down this year for Meg's birthday and Thanksgiving which was so nice. Meggie loved that they were able to go with her to Build a Bear (her very first trip), out to eat and her birthday party too. I love when they are down. There is such a sweet, comfortable, contagious love between the cousins. They are lifted when they are around each other. ummmmmmm.... until about the 4th or 5th day... then it's a great time to seperate! :) But really, we are so blessed to have Madi & McKenna and so blessed that Jason takes the time to come and see us so often. What a wonderful brother I have.

This pic is priceless... Meg's 1st trip to Build a Bear which she has been waiting so long for. She's holding in her hands the Moose's heart. She's giving it lots of love before she stuffs it in her moose. She named the moose Triscuit.


Slide show of pics from Meg's party at Pump it Up:


Great pic of my mom, Aunt Kathy & Aunt Patti on Thanksgiving:


I sure do love my sweet girls....

Mother/Daughter Retreat with Claire

One on one time with each one of my kiddos!?! What's that? It's almost non-existent for us, but I know how important it is for each of them... So, I decided I am going to try and take them each on a trip by themselves once a year. I'll start this when they turn 6. So, I started with Claire and we went on a Mother Daughter Retreat at Sky Ranch (long long drive that I'll probably never make again). We had such an amazing weekend though. It seemed super short, but hopefully Claire will remember the fun activities - let's see.... the things that stick out in my head are:

1.) Claire is so competitive! She volunteered to get up on stage and tell everyone why she was having so much fun with her mom on the trip. Her answer "The Zipline...."
She wanted to race to be the first in line at everything. She entered the crazy hair contest and was runner up. Matter of fact she entered every contest she could. She was runner up also for the hoola hoop contest. I had no idea she even knew how to use a hoola hoop! My mouth was on the floor because we don't even own one single hoola hoop. She fell asleep Saturday night brainstorming how she could win next years big hair contest. I actually won the "biggest bubble contest." I had no idea not everyone could blow big bubbles like I :) Claire hugged me and was very proud when I won. It was cute.

2.) She is very independent... this part I already knew but still makes me a little sad. Right when we got there the kids broke away from the mom's and went outside to the campfire while the mom's stayed in to chat. Now, Claire was the youngest one there. Most of the girls were between 8 and 12. While many of the girls were clinging to their moms not wanting to seperate to the campfire, here is what happened between Claire and I.
Claire: So, I get to go without you to eat smores at the campfire?
Me: Yes, is that ok?
Claire: YES!!!! (while swinging her arms as if she had just hit the jackpot...
oh, sigh for me....)
She has also been hounding me to go to camp at Sky Ranch this summer (knowing that it is 7 whole nights away from mommy and daddy). Let's see.... ummmmm, nope I'm not ready for that yet! :)

3.) When she gets tired she has a serious attitude. Everything and the whole world is against her. It's pretty funny! Since she goes to bed so early every night, it was a bit of a shock for her to go to bed at 10, 11 and 12 at night. At about 8:30every night it was "I'm mad at you" or "You're mean mommy" or "Why didn't I get to do that?" or "Why didn't they call us first to get in the buffet line?" All of this was really funny to me because I knew she was just tired. And the more I told her she was just tired the more attitude I got. Ok, so I am a bit of an instigator. :)

4.) Claire is a little dare devil. She went on the Zip Line, a Pendulum Swing, one of the ropes course poles that you crawl all the way up and then jump off of and she wasn't scared of any of them. I couldn't believe it. We went on the zipline first and she didn't even wait for me. She took off and swung down before the other 3 of us even left.

5.) She was a little young and didn't quite get the sentimental parts of it. We had speakers who talked about the struggles we go through as mom's and of course I cried at nearly every speaker. She thought I was just weird. We sat down at private table for dinner on Saturday night and there was a card we were suppose to read off questions to our daughters. The intent was to get our daughters to open up to us. Clearly it was intended for an older age group. Here is an excerpt from one of the questions:

Me: Claire, has there ever been a time when you felt left out of the crowd - where you didn't feel like you fit in?
Claire: What does that mean?
Me: Well, have you ever felt like you didn't belong or felt weird around friends or with certain people or in a certain situation - say at school?
Claire: UH HELLO, NO MOM - why would I ever feel like that? I always feel like I belong to everything (insert the attitude that I was talking about earlier).

I got such a kick out of that but it's true that Claire is so secure in herself and her surroundings and her environment. I hope this continues through her life, because I must say that I was never that secure in my surroundings. Especially when the friend I thought was my best friend as a young child really was not. It's tough and little girls can be so mean. I pray that she never treats anyone with a mean heart. This so badly I want for all of my girls. I know she will run into some of that and I do know from personal experience that these things only make you stronger. I am prepared to help all of my little chickies along. :)

Halloween 09

I just love Halloween!!! Candy, Dress-up, Fun with friends, carving pumpkins with daddy.... love love it. Matter of fact, the older I get the more I appreciate our family traditions. This year we had the cutest Bumble Bee I have ever seen, the most beautiful Sassy Seniorita (whom I've decided looks absolutely fantastic in red) and a Rockin RockStar with a serious attitude. Yes, I am talking about Claire. :) Not sure where she gets the attitude from :)...

On the Friday before Halloween we went to Eliza's Halloween party and dressed up as the Magill's. Ummmmmm, I was Penny and Dan was shoot.... I can't even remember his name. The guy from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." I think this is one of Dan's all time favorite movies so of course this was his idea. We looked hideous. Matter of fact, no one knew who we were. I knew this would be the case. We had a great time at the party though...

Saturday, we dressed the girls up and took them trick or treating. This year was a little more stressful as Claire was running door to door leaving her sisters behind and trying to be the first to ring every door bell. The girl is so competitive I can't even begin to tell you.

VERTIGO & uuuhhhh car show too!

I got Vertigo on Friday. Go ahead and google it. Ever heard of it? Yeah, me either... barely. The only reason I had heard of it was because my aunt recently got it post surgery a few months back. It was the strangest thing every. I went to my Pilates class on Friday morning (the trainer can kick some serious you know what).... and as soon as I was walking out of the class I told my friend I felt dizzy. For the next 3 hours I thought I was possibly on my death bed. Came home, ate a banana and drank some water - still didn't do the trick. Long story short - my doc was able to see me and she diagnosed me with vertigo. You feel as if the room around you is spinning and moving in circles. I could barely walk without feeling like I was going to topple over. Anxiety and nauseau took over at this point. Dan and I had our weekend getaway all planned out. Perfect timing. Capital Grille reservations at 6:15 and I couldn't even see straight. Come to find out - the doc thinks that putting my body (head) in those weird Pilates positions may have dislodged a calcium deposit in my ear. When this happens your equillibrium is all off balance. I thought I was either having a heart attack or stroke. Thank goodness it all ended about a day later. We stayed at the Doubletree by Galleria this weekend and slept and ate all weekend long.

Headed to the car show on Saturday night to debut Dan's new truck. I am so happy for him it is all finished. Goodness, this is the project he had just started when I first met him. So this has been going on our whole marriage. He swears he's not taking on any more project that are over a weekend long. We'll see how that lasts... :) The truck is beautiful.

Before



Putting it all together



Ta Da