Week 44

So it turns out that my "weeks" are a wee bit off... some weeks were more like 10 days... and that sorta kinda made the week count off - by a week. Awe well, at least I am trying! I decided that blogging every day last year was a big commitment but once a week turned out to be more do-able. I am quite proud that I managed to keep doing this for this long. So far you seem to love the blog books, which I know will be great memories one day, many moons from now. You love reading about when you were itty bitty's.(I do too!) Telling you how funny you were and how reading your stories makes my heart pitter patter. I miss our baby days my darlings but love our time now just as much; just in a new way! 

On Sunday we had a bit of a big storm roll through. The news kept saying that the conditions were just right for a possible tornado, however even though the gusty winds and pounding rain made it's appearance nothing bad ever happened. It actually was kind of fun - we decided to set up the Christmas tree! So, we spent all evening unpacking Christmas boxes, reminiscing, and enjoying one another's company as the rain/sleet pelleted the house.

 

Every morning Gg wants to snuggle mommy... and Saturday morning she sat in my lap until it was time for swim lessons!

This Saturday was our last swim lesson. If they offer them again in January we will definitely partake!

And briefly throughout the snow storm on Saturday we had peeks of sunshine. It sure was pretty!

Purpose is Important!

I hope you see the common denominator here girlies, it's keep your focus -- don't let others interfere! You have control over your actions and I hope every action you put forth has a purpose to better the world.

Week 43

Monday was Veterans Day! We celebrated daddy for serving our country by saying thank you and taking him out to Bob Evans for dinner. It was an all about Daddy evening.

 

  I love Choir Tuesday's! Kk comes home singing like a song bird and Gg and I come home and clean the house or make dinner. Well today when we came home we decided to bring in the Alvin & the Chipmunks cd too. Oh my gosh the giggles and delight that this cd has brought our family over the years. You could listen to it all year long because you adore listening to Alvin get into trouble. Our house is starting to fill with Christmasy cheer! We put up the Christmas village over the weekend and mommy put out some snowman decor... it's starting to feel a winter wonderland! It's too bad we don't have any snow to make it feel more "Christmasy" though! 

Thursday night Gg started her First Communion Classes. It's a crazy thought that she is old enough to accomplish this huge step in our faith already. Mommy was a little apprehensive about this 7 p.m. start time in Indian River but we were home by 8:40 and you both were very eager to get to bed. Trying to keep you awake in the car was not easy! We started out singing Christmas Carols... but after 5 minutes I was singing alone. My "beautiful" singing voice must has lulled you to sleep! Silly girly girls! 

I delightful moment in the evening was Gg was getting out of the shower and she said, "Mom can you help me with my towel hair, just on 'this day'?" Instead of saying today, sometimes Gg says "this day". I love that! Another lovely moment was when Lilly was hacking, Gg shouts, "Oh I think Lilly has a cough ball!" Yep, it's the little moments that make being a mommy perfect I tell ya! 

Friday night we were watching Cupcake Wars; this episode was for Barbie. The show had mentioned that Barbie was a role model and daddy said, "really she's a doll, how is she a role model?" Gg chimed in quickly, "Dad, Barbie has her own clothing and SHE has been to Africa!" It was so matter of fact and made so much sense to Gg. I love the reasoning behind this; after some prying it turns out it's because Barbie is an entrepreneur and a humanitarian. Entrepreneur means she builds businesses. Humanitarian means she cares for and wants to help other people. One day you'll appreciate this darlings!

Tonight Kk said, "mom, if I could just read all day I would." I said, "me too, it sounds delightful!" Then Kk replies, "Is there a job that I can do that would let me do that?" To which I said, "Of course! You could be an Archivist (which is someone who responsible for organizing, collecting, and preserving important documents and other types of records.) Or an Editor (They develop ideas for stories that their staff writers should write, and then check them for accuracy and errors once they’re complete. This occupation requires a ton of reading and editing, often on a tight deadline.) Or a Lawyer (Being a good lawyer requires a ton of research, and in many cases, research means reading. If snuggling up with a legal contract, patent filing, or a thick volume of legislation sounds like fun to you, then you might just be cut out to work as a lawyer.) Or an English Professor (One of the biggest jobs that English professors have is to instill a love of reading and literature in their students.) Or a Proofreader (Proofreading might not be the most glamorous job in the world, but it’s an important one. Without proofreaders, the books and articles that we read would be riddled with missing words, grammatical errors, and missing punctuation. In short, reading anything at all would be pretty miserable if proofreaders weren’t around.) Or a Historian (Historians analyze, interpret, and research the past by studying historical documents and artifacts. To do their jobs effectively, historians have to spend a great deal of their time reading books, diaries, newspapers, historical accounts, contracts, and other types of documents so that they can develop an accurate representation of a person, time, culture, or event.) See there are lots of jobs where you can spend your day reading... however it won't be fairy or unicorn books... but it's reading nontheless! I think you would make an amazing Editor or English Professor, I could really see you as a Historian or Archivist too. As of now Kk you love factual information just as much as fantasy... so I could totally see you doing something with facts too!  

Saturday is our swimming class day! You both LOVE swimming! I never have to argue with you to go. You both are always so eager that by 8 a.m. you have your swim suits and towels on and ready to go... it would be great but we don't leave until 10:30. Awe well, it's the best half hour ever! You both are now more confident about floating on your backs, holding your breath (which you have been doing for 2 years now) but for a longer count under water, you also are getting really good at the back stroke too! We are thinking about signing you up for the December or January swim too!

Week 42

Monday was Gracie's 8th birthday and mommy's last day at Central! It is unbelievable that my little Gus Gus can already be 8. That number is harder to accept than 7... I think because it's a big transition in independence. Mommy longs for the days that I needed me to feed you yogurt or want me to play My Little Ponies. *sigh* As long as you'll always snuggle me, I'll be ok. xoxo

 

 Tuesday I began a new chapter in our lives -- driving to school together and leaving school together EVERY DAY! 

 Wednesday was a stay at home with daddy in your pj's day! You played in the basement, you played on the wii u, you played the Monster High game again (which is really fun)! It is similar to truth or dare which is a really fun game too when you're older... kinda. 

Saturday Kailee woke up not feeling well and missed swim lessons, then Sunday mommy woke up feeling gross and missed Church and then slept all day and went to bed at 7. :-/

It has been a crazy week with no school Wednesday but hopefully next week will start feeling routine. I look forward to driving you to school, being able to leave at 7:45'ish and make it to school in record time! I look forward to having mid-day "I love you's" and smooches in the hallway. I am making extra effort to get into that lunch room to smooch you both every day! I miss my girls!! 

xoxo 

Happy 8th Birthday Grace Elizabeth!

Dearest Gracie,

My love for you is never something you have to doubt. It's much different than any kind of love you will ever have in your lifetime. A mother's love is something that runs deep into the soul and no matter what the circumstances, that love is endless and will always be there. We had to have this talk a few days ago, one day you were pretty naughty (so naughty we had to cancel your friend birthday party - sassy mouth gets you in trouble every time sis!) Anyway on that day you said, "You don't love me!" Well, to which I said, "darling there will be days where I do not like the choices you make. Just like when you don't like the choices I make but my love for you is something completely different. My love for you and your sister is a forever no matter how naughty, mean, or nasty you are I will always love you." I hope as you grow older you truly know this!

It's amazing to me how many new concepts you are learning, in math you're starting to add two digit numbers, subtract and your starting to understand what multiplication is about. Reading your doing wonderful, you read every night for at least a half hour before lights out but some nights if we let you go longer, you will read for an hour or more! You never really liked chapter books until this year, you could read and comprehend them but you wouldn't just pick one up and read it, so to see you do this now feels like such a big girl thing to do. You're really into science experiments and magic lately too! You want to know how everything works and why. All wonderful things... mostly we have to look up answers on the internet because my mommy knowledge doesn't seem to be enough for you anymore. Boo Hoo.

Your love of animals is still strong! You love on Lilly like she's your baby. Every morning you give her fresh water, you make sure her food is full, and you even brush her daily. You loved those Woolybear Caterpillars that were found every where this Fall. You would bring them inside the house and try to keep them. We attempted to but couldn't find any milk weed and had to let him go free when he wouldn't eat any of the lettuce we gave him.

This year we went camping with our friends the Conklin's for a week during the summer, you played with Kailee and Autumn all week pretty well! We let you ride your bike around the loop we were on (only because we could see you through the trees). I was very impressed with how well you all played together. Then Auntie Tab came, you and Kailee played so well with Veda and Grayson. While I thought you would be more into baby Grant, you really weren't. While you enjoy talking to babies that seems to be the extent of your interest.Over this past weekend you stayed at Gramma Deb and Grampa Lou's house with Allie and Abby. You 4 hoolies had a ball! You played for hours non-stop in the playroom together, no problems at all. It's nice to see you compromise with others. I'm proud of the choices you have been making!

You are a great friend; your besties include (Alynna - 5 years being besties, Lia, Grace E., and Kora). You love to eat candy! Your favorite color is teal. Your favorite thing to do is either play with your toys (Monster High Dolls - yes I finally gave in to that after avoiding it for 2 years!) or d.s. Your favorite tv show is Full House or Haunted Hathaways or anything educational that happens to be on. You love those shows where you learn something; like How it's Made or How the Planets Formed. You're just like your daddy!

You dislike having your picture taken still, but this year when I attempted round 1 of school photos you were very smiley and happy. They turned out cute for sure! You're coming out of your shell too, Mr. Hitsman (the custodian at Ottawa) said that finally after 5 years of him smiling at you, talking to you and waving to you - you FINALLY wave to him and say hi. He just thinks you're a little doll, he loves that shy personality. He always has taken a liking to you and Kailee since day 1. He's a grandpa who doesn't get to see his grandkids often, so you being kind and sweet really brightens his day.

You have the funniest personality too! You try and make everyone laugh, which I adore. By everyone I mean anyone besides Kailee. You are having a rough time being kind to your sister...but we're working on it. You should know I mean business all the time... I think you just love to hear me repeat the same thing over and over again. Grace if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. I think I say that a dozen times from 3:05-7 p.m. when you go to bed! Oh yeah, your bedtime is now 7, you're moving on up to a later bedtime. You read until 7:30 and then lights out. You use to love to sleep in but this year you're right on the ball, you get up out of bed and get ready for school without any qualms! I appreciate that more than you will ever know!

I am so proud of you my little Gus Gus, I know you're not a fan of that nickname but I love it. As long as it's just mommy calling you that; you don't mind. It's when daddy starts in with the teasing that you get upset. Ah not to worry he loves you too. Teasing is daddy's way of showing his love. I hope the next year goes a little slower and we have a million more laughs! I love you baby girl! xoxo

Week 41: Super Girls make Halloween Great!

Gg has been really into list making and organizing. Gotta say I L-O-V-E IT!! We went back over to Miss Kellys new place it is coming together. She has all the carpet ripped out and is going to get the floors redone. It is gonna look fab!

 

 

We carved up some punkins on Sunday evening at home! Instead of carving though we actually did a "light bright" punkins... see far below! 

On Monday we went to Grandpa Bob & Grandma Sandee's to carve punkins. That was pretty fun! Gg did an upside down peace sign and Kk did a smiling jack-o-latern.

  

Our cool light bright punkins! Look sweet!

  Halloween 2013 was kinda a "bust" since our day started out gloomy, rainy and terribly icky out! Mommy was home for the morning so it made it so I could go to your Halloweeny Parties at school!! Daddy and I took turns going to parties which was fun! 

After the Halloween parties at school we went to Boyne City and starting our Trick or Treating at Bob Mather's Ford where we visited Grampa Lou who was dressed up too... well kinda... he looked like a greasy mechanic... turns out that's what he really is! 

Then we went trick or treating at Grampa Lou & Gramma Deb's house too! Where you made out like little Super Hero bandits!

We made our way back to Petoskey where we stopped to visit Aunt Gina, Uncle Ben, Makenna and Lyrica who were all dressed up too! They bought you these really cool Halloween bags which were full of candy so it made not trick or treating in the rain much easier! 

Then we finished up our trick or treating at Grandpa Bob and Grandma Sandee's house. Where you received many more pieces of candy... and a friendship bracelet maker, which was really cool too.

Once we made it home, we went next door to deliver some little goodies to our new neighbor boys and then we trick or treated a few houses in the rain! The last house we went to was Grandpa Bill and Grandma BJ's. We got to see Grandpa Bill's acknowledgement for creating the crest for the Airforce. It was really cool! He even gave us a copy of his article. It is a huge honor because he created that more than 60 years ago and finally after all these years he was honored for it. 

I hope that you always remember Halloween 2013 as the Super Girls who made Halloween extra special!