A couple months review

Okay nothing is going to stop me from updating now!

I have started this update so many freaking times.

Okay so here is the update right now.

Most everyone know already but Tait’s Father about a month an ago had a heart attack. He is improving everyday and he says he’s really sore after therapy. He had to have a three bypasses done (I think that’s how you say it) so he has been pretty sore. We have been getting updates everyday which is a good thing and we have heard that he improves everyday. I know he’s probably ready to get back to life. So it’s been a stressful time for our family. We went up the weekend that he had the heart attack to make sure that he was okay and this was before the surgery happened… they didn’t set the surgery until several days later due to scheduling which was frustrating. I’m glad that he’s okay though and I’m happy that he’s been improving.

Two weekends ago we had plans that we were going to go to see him in Wisconsin but on Wednesday Night Lehna was running a fever and Maya’s teacher at daycare said that she had the chicken pox… so we ran them to an urgent care and Lehna was given some antibodies for her soar throat and Maya they said that her “chicken pox” was actually bug bites they thought… but to watch them. So we decided instead of taking the risk of getting Tim exposed to chicken pox and a sore throat we decided to stay home. I was very disappointed b/c I wanted to check on Tim and also see my parents. We will just have to go up another time.

Maya doing a Belly flog onto the bean bag
The month of June as a whole was a pretty insane month. I turned older… this was a rough birthday for me for some reason b/c it’s one year closer to the big 30 which I don’t know why that makes me sad but it does… I mean you’d think being the mother of two would be enough for me to realize that I’m getting OLDER… but still it was a little rough. I guess we can’t stay young forever.

Maya eating a toy

Maya with a spoon

We also have been doing some cool things with the girls this month. We took them to the strawberry festival and that was fun. Maya slept through most of it until it was time to eat then she woke up waiting to eat some tiger ear and corn dog. Lehna had a blast, when we first got there I thought it was going to be horrible b/c Lehna saw a clown and demanded to go home and was crying and was REALLY upset. So we got her settled down but having her ride the ponies and she really liked that. She held on to Tait with a death grip but eventually she kind of settled down and kind of was really to play.

Maya playing the duck game

Lehna Showing her Lute

Lehna and Tait with the pony
Now onto July. July has been yet another busy month. But what else would you expect right.

The beginning of the month started busy and it hasn’t settled down yet… thank goodness it’s almost August although looking ahead doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier. But I digress.

The Fourth of July was really fun. We had a BBQ the beginning of this month. We were supposed to go to Wisconsin that weekend to check on Tait’s dad but as you can see from that last week in June we had too sick kids so we couldn’t go. So plans were kind of turned on their head. We went to Marcus and Jackie’s for the Fourth of July for a little BBQ. Lehna’s fever was gone she was still on antibiotics but Jackie said we could come over anyways and Maya’s “spots” turned out to be mosquito bites. So we could have gone but oh well.

Lehna & Zach in the pool

Maya in the pool

Zach in the pool

Pool Party

Lehna and bubbles

Maya and bubbles

On the Sunday of July 4th we went to Peru b/c my cousin who I haven’t seen in several years was there. We got to see Sarah and I got to meet her daughter Aubree. It’s so strange seeing people you haven’t seen in awhile and I haven’t really talked to Sarah either by email or anything for awhile so it was kind of strange, but it was good to see her. We were TWO peas in a pod growing up. We are only two months apart in age so you can imagine J she also took some really cute pictures of my kids. So is quite the photographer.

Picture by Sarah

Picture by Sarah

The next weekend we welcome a new baby into our family. Jackie and Marcus we able to welcome a new baby Evan Kristopher into their family on July 10th. He is SUCH a cutie. Jackie went REALLY fast from start to finish; I think it was a total of an hour and a half. So very quick indeed. We took Zachary to our house the day Jackie was released from the hospital so that was really fun. Zach and Lehna played so well together, Maya followed along in their shadow but they all seemed to have a good time. Zach didn’t really come out of his shell until later on in the evening and then he was chasing Lehna down the hall and laughing and really playing well it was fun. He was exhausted he crawled up on Tait’s lap he wouldn’t sleep but he just layer there all tried, it was cute.
I have one picture of him... when I first saw him I forgot to get pictures so I'm a HORRIBLE aunt...

Last week we had the 4-H fair so we went up there to look around and have dinner and stuff and we happened to hit the night that Dance by Deborah a dance troop in Lafayette was performing. It’s very similar to the dance troop I was in when I was younger so it was exciting to see Lehna watch the dance troop. There was one particular dance she wouldn’t stop talking about. It was the song from Cinderella called “We Can Do it” it was two little girls about Lehna’s age dressed up in cute little pink tutus with little mouse ears and tails and they did ballet and I use the term ballet loosely. She watched with STARS IN HER EYES and she kept saying that she wanted to get up there and try and she watched the next class line up and go up on stage and she was so very excited about it. Tait and I had talked about getting her involved with dance come fall so this was really a push. She talked about the dance and wanted them to come back and do the dance again and of course I tried to explain to her that it didn’t work that way but it was very cute.

So the next day I started calling the three different dance troops in our town and we decided to go with Crawfordsville Dance Academy. I think that she will really like it. The classes are going to be easy for us to get her to and it’s pretty reasonable as far as pricing so I was excited. We told Lehna and she keeps asking if she is going to do dance class today. They start in September this group only performs one big recital in June and then during the summer they have lots of places they go to perform. They also do some things during the fall but it’s mainly just “learning time” I think Lehna will really enjoy it. I can’t wait until Maya is old enough to learn as well b/c I think Maya will enjoy it too b/c big sis is involved. But they also have gymnastics around here to… so if Maya wants she can do that if she doesn’t want to do dance. We want to involve both girls into golf when they get a little older so that will be our “family” time as far as activities. I know Tait is ITCHING for them to get older so he can teach them his favorite sport. We have enough golf clubs for them we will have to cut a set down but that will be okay. It should be cool but that is in the future.

Then that weekend we went to Peru for the Annual FOP golf Tournament. It was A TON OF FUN. I love this golf tournament we always have so much fun. We played with Trent, Tanna, Tait, and I. That would are team of champions. We did okay I mean we were 5 under by the end of the round by 11 under won. So that SUCKED but we did have a good time. We managed to be Sam’s team, Tanna’s boyfriend, so that was fun. We stayed at their house over night and then went home on Sunday. Sam has a pool so the girls had some pool time. Tait’s Aunt and Uncle came up and watched all five kids at Sam’s house and so I am very appreciative for them b/c it allowed me to have fun.

So that is us up to date. Tim is doing much better they are actually going to try coming down this weekend and staying a couple of days so that’s a good sign of improvement. Helen is really excited. This weekend is going to be BUSY. We have our 5 year anniversary on Saturday and we have gotten a sitter for Saturday to Sunday to Tait and I can celebrate our anniversary in style. Then on Sunday we have two family things going on. We have Tait’s family reunion on Sunday at noon then we are going to jump to Lafayette to have my grandma’s annual birthday celebration dinner at 5 on Sunday… so it will be a busy day. But it should be an AWSOME weekend, I just can’t wait.

This week we have some excitement going on. We have the annual Lafayette Transitional Housing Bingo thing on Thursday. It can’t wait… I like playing bingo too. I like the pull tabs they are so much fun. Tait jokingly said that if his parents are still here next week they will be able to visit him in the hospital. I mean Tait has Appendicitis once at this bingo and now he carries a grudge… LOL… just rub some dirt on it honey.

So it’s been busy busy busy recently but we all seem to strive when it’s busy. The girls are growing up so fast it is really changing. Maya has moved to a new room at day care she is now with the toddlers so with the new move she is starting to babble more. Her comprehension is excellent you can ask her if she wants a drink and she will shake her head yes or no… but talking… that’s still a struggle. She calls everyone dada… which drives me totally batty, I just want her to call me mama… she will say it if you say… who am I… sometimes… but not often enough for me… usually she wonder through the house going “dada dada” and I don’t know if she means me dada or Tait dada. She’s such a cute doll baby. We got her first hair cute two weekends ago and her bangs are SOOOO straight... .she looks adorable still but her bangs… man they are straight… She is slowly getting hair in but it has a reddish tint to it… its more red then my hair is… but it’s like blond red like strawberry blond or something. It’s really cute.

And now a tribute to my best friend and husband
5 years already… it has been challenging but it has been really amazing at the same time. We have managed to bring two beautiful children into the world. And so far we haven’t had any major issues which is good. We have a home and we both have careers that are rewarding and challenging. I love being married to Tait he puts up with all my crazy mantic moments and loves me full in return.
The last couple of months have been so very hard but we are really doing well with all the stresses of life and we are growing closer together. I am definitely learning to appreciate Tait much more and I know he has learned similar things. I’m proud to have Tait as my husband he has such a giving heart and is a caring person. He loves me and that is a challenge in itself. He is a wonderful father and provider to our family and he is my partner in every aspect. I love you honey and the past 12 years have really been amazing. I can’t believe we have been married for 5 years already. You truly make me happy; I can’t wait for the next 80 years. Like our Wedding Invitations stated “Today I will marry my friend the one I will learn to live with, laugh with, and love” That is still all true I would marry you all over again. You are my best friend and I am still reminded every day how lucky I am to have you in my life. Happy Anniversary sleepy bear.

Finally.... an UPDATE!

It’s time FINALLY for an update. I know that I have been very lax in my updates but things have been happening around here that have made it very difficult.

The first thing that I want to say is I want to give notice to Tait’s grandfather passing two weeks ago. Richard Dale Wagner he was known as Shad in the Williamsport community. Dick was a great man. Tait really had a bond with his grandfather and spent many summers being with his grandfather. It was his grandfather that taught Tait how to golf. Dick had a stoke about 6 years ago and since then he wasn’t able to get around as easily any more so a lot of the activities that he enjoyed doing he was restricted on. Dick was a great woodworker and built several pieces for his grandchildren and his home. He was also a Veteran and he was a Chaplin for his local VFW and the American Legion. He was also a freemason. He was well known in his community and was very involved with his Chaplin responsibilities and performed many funeral services for fallen soldiers of 5 different wars. He was an honoree cuss if you ask Alta his wife and he was always making jokes and loved his grandchildren and smiled when you came to visit. He is missed.

Life for us has been really busy we have had some changes and have been focusing on our children and all of that kind of thing! Maya is walking… she’s been walking for awhile actually… I started an update with that information but it has been soooo long that I can’t use it anymore. She has been walking for about 2 months. She is so cute when she walks b/c she kind of walks with her legs spread apart and I don’t know it’s just really cute. I have been calling her my little monkey b/c when you hold her hand she kind of reminds you of an orangutan She has gotten her walking down enough to were she is now starting to develop her speech. She knows Mama and Dadda but she does call everyone Mamma which is REALLY cute. Tait always goes “no I’m dada” She talks a lot in the morning so we always converse back with her. Most of the time you can tell you she’s telling you something but you really don’t know what she’s telling you about.

One major change that has happened with our children is we decided to change daycares. The girls were both going to Dover Daycare and it was WONDERFUL I loved it. I loved the people there I totally trusted them with my children I really enjoyed them I was really happy with them. Then right before the new year they had a director change. The director had been the director for about 9 years and decided that since her children were out of school she wanted to change careers. So she found something else and they hired a new director. At first I was WAY excited b/c there were something things that I thought needed improvement such as the communication between parent and child. I thought that we needed some converstation as to what the kids were studying and how my children were doing with the information etc. Well she started a newsletter and it was WONDERFUL b/c I found out what was going on with the kids… well I was a little unsure about how to take the new director b/c when I would go in to the daycare she would NEVER say hi or talk to us or ANYTHING… I mean the old daycare director would tell us silly things all the time… just little stories that really made me feel like she knew my child. Well the director never talked to me EVER even after I told her that that’s one thing that I wanted to see improved was the communication between parent and child. Well so in February they announced they were going to raise the rates which is I was totally willing to pay. I mean I understand why they are raising them… but was still really disappointed in the service so I started looking for a new daycare. I really didn’t want to go anywhere. I wanted ot keep my children at daycare I really felt like Lehna would have a HARD time adjusting to the new daycare b/c she was a favorite. I knew that Maya would be okay b/c she’s a baby and she doesn’t care. So after a couple of weeks we found one that had openings. So we decided that we were going to switch them. Let me tell you this was a switch that was SOOOO easy for my kids. Maya has found a favorite teacher that she loves. It’s an older lady that Maya looks for everyday and gets upset when she’s not available to hold her right away. Tait says she’s climbs right up into her lap everyday and holds a grudge if she’s not available when Maya gets there and she’s holding another baby. Lehna has really grown too since she’s been there. She has learned number recognition already. She never could tell you numbers before. She is learning basic Spanish and is just really excelling. She doesn’t really talk about her old friends at all I mean every once awhile maybe but for the most part they are a long forgotten memory which just makes me sad. I was probably taking the move a lot harder then what she was which is kind of amusing. I told the director why we were leaving and she said that if the new daycare doesn’t work out we can go back. Which was a relief to me b/c I was worried that if I didn’t like the new daycare I wouldn’t have a place to take them. But I’m glad that we made the move they are REALLY close to Tait he has taken Lehna out to lunch since it’s literally right down the road from his office and is able to get them really quickly if anything happens so it’s a good thing. So it was a good move for us.

Tait moved new offices for his job. They moved to the inside of an old Mall which is kind of interesting but his office is WAY better then what it was. They were in an old HOUSE that was falling apart and was really kind of a depressing place to be. The new office is filled with cubical and everyone is in ONE BIG ROOM which is very similar to what I have, except I don’t have a cube I’m open air with everyone.

Work for me is going well… we have challenge right now that we have to hit a certain amount of clients for this quarter that we have been working to try to accomplish we are SOOOOO close to the mark… but we haven’t it yet. We still need to finish June strong and so far… it’s doable just not there yet. So I hope we get it b/c it entitles us to a VERY nice bonus and I will always take that.

Some exciting news after 5 YEARS of waiting I FINALLY gets my swing for my yard. I have wanted a swing for so long it’s kind of strange that it’s FINALLY going to happen. Tait and I are going to pick it out on Wednesday… I just can’t wait. We have had a TON of storms lately so I don’t know if I’m going to put it up right away or not but I just can’t wait for it, at least when I have it I will know it’s at my house and I CAN set it up whenever I want… you know so it’s just the idea that it’s soooo close. I am SOOOOOO VERY EXCITED. I have wanted a swing for every birthday and anniversary that we have had since we moved into our home 5 years ago!

This year I don’t think Tait and I are going to take a vacation so that’s not very exciting. I will have vacation in July so there will be a little bit of time for vacation but usually I use my vacation within the first couple of weeks… which really SUCKS but oh well… since July 4th is on a FRIDAY this year I’ll get a 3 day weekend so that’s cool! Yeah for me!

The girls just got their pictures taken by Stephen and Jennifer they came down and took them to the Purdue Horticulture Park and they did a great job. At first the girls were AWFUL and felt horrible that they had driven so far for my kids to scream and cry LOL but eventually Lehna warmed up and she was ready to get her picture taken she was QUITE THE HAM so as soon as I pick out what I want I’ll put them up on the web… well maybe if I get Stephen’s permission of course. But I have to go over them and decide what pictures I want big and little they turned out REALLY well… They did a GREAT job. I’m glad that my kids decided to relax.

Speaking of pictures next weekend I get to be a model LOL for Annette and her wedding website. I’m kind of nervous and hope that everything turns out okay with them, but she needs help with the pictures and she wants to show “all sizes” so I’m volunteered for it. So that should be fun… well it will be fun I hope. I like to get dressed up and do my hair and stuff like that so hopefully! LOL I roped Tanna into it too so that will be fun for all of us.

Okay well that’s all I got for now…

Thanks for reading about us.

Pictures for everyone

Okay so I am FINALLY adding pictures!
Enjoy!

Birthday cake!
Notice how there are no princesses on it... I took a picture of it BEFORE I added the princesses

Maya's First Impression of Cake!

This tastes a little off!

A little Cake on the Diaper

Deklyn sitting in her car like a big girl!

Maya and Deklyn dancing!

Landyn being Cute!

"Who say's I'm Rotten??"

Lehna eating Pizza!

Anyone care for pizza in the ear?

Okay so I know I'm cute!

Another Weekend Wizzes By!

Well Greetings we have survived another weekend! It was a close call but we managed to make it!

This weekend was busy but it was SOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL outside this weekend it made it okay.

On Saturday morning we packed up the kids and headed to Peru to help Tait’s parents load their U-Hal and also get our U-Hal as well from Kokomo so we could take the Freg, dresser, treadmill, nordiflex, punching bag, and a bunch of boxes for Trent and Tait. I must admit I really didn’t help all that much. It was hard to know what to do to be honest with you since Helen was “sorting” everything before we could pack it. It was MUCH easier to “sort stuff” when Helen was standing right over your shoulder telling you to save everything. So after we got our truck and their truck loaded we headed back to our house. Lehna was upset we weren’t staying the night but the beds were on the way to Wisconsin SOOOO we REALLY didn’t want to sleep on the floor. But we got home… THIS IS WHEN IT GETS INTERESTING.

B/c we had the refrigerator and when we loaded it Sam and Tait pretty much loaded the I didn’t really help, b/c Sam and Tait pretty much did it on their own. So on the way to our house to unload the thing. I tired to call reinforcements to have some help… Well no one was available. Soooo Tait and I backed the truck up to the front door and worked it in. It was HORRIBLE. It was so freaking heavy and I managed to pinch my arm between the wall and my freg it hurt SOOOO BADLY. I have a big bruise on my arm as my war wound. So then we got the dumb thing in the kitchen and set into place after moving the other freg out of the way. Well we really wanted to move the Freg out the back door since that was the closest door and well… needless to say we got it stuck. So we had to back it out of the backdoor and go out the front and load it unto the truck. Did I mention that I had already gotten the house back in “order” so I had to move everything thing around and such a pain in the butt. The hardest part was getting the freg back up the ramp back into the truck. Our neighbors must have been laughing their butts off. After laughing for what felt like 5 years they must have felt sorry for us b/c they came over and offered to help us move. LOL We got it up in the truck then the neighbors disappeared after they figured out we aren’t moving out we were just rearranging furniture… So that’s what happens when you are number one in the neighborhood I guess. Then we unloaded the truck and got all of that done. All this time by the way the girls were in their rooms CRYING b/c we had shut the door and wouldn’t let them out. Let me tell you how FUN it was!

Then on Sunday Lehna saw that it was sunny outside and she went outside for pretty much most of it. I got SOOOO sunburned by Lehna didn’t get anything. So I’m grateful for that. I got to switch out the laundry on the line and also get things folded and put away. Of course our dryer was only “half working” every once awhile the dryer decides that it isn’t going to turn on. I guess it gets too hot or something. I think it has something to do with the fact that it takes two cycles in order to get the stupid thing to dry anything… I guess we need to invest in a new dryer… (sigh) when does it end? So since it was nice I still got to make progress with the laundry I would have been really sad if I would have had to just look at the laundry sit on our floor and on the kid’s floor all week. You know what I mean so that was a blessing in the end.

Maya has been under the weather for the last couple of days and I’m hoping that she recovers really quickly. She was okay on Saturday but I think she got a bug from Deklyn so hopefully it won’t last long. We had to give her SEVERAL baths yesterday. Also Maya is getting in two new teeth FINALLY we can see them coming through of course we don’t see them all the way… but they are there. Also she’s still refusing to walk the little rat! I guess she is going to crawl forever. She’s a smart little monkey though. She knows how to open and close the baby gates so keeping her confined to the front room is very difficult! I keep trying to tell her if she just stops putting random things in her mouth she could have free roam.

So I have a funny story to tell you about Lehna.

On Friday Tait and I took the girls to go get Burger King and as we waited to get our food from the drive through window Lehna goes “looks there’s Jesus” and Tait and I kind of looked around just thinking what in the heck is she talking about… and we were like ‘where?’ and she goes “right there” pointing at the Burger King King… yep that’s right she thought that the Burger King King was JESUS! It was pretty funny… We told her that it wasn’t him but it was pretty hilarious… Tait goes “Great our daughter thinks Jesus is the Burger King King…”

Well that was our weekend and I hope you all have a great week!

Birthday Round Up!

Well its official I have a one year old AND a three year old now and we had a fabulous party to celebrate the occasion. I have to say the way it started out… I thought it was going to be the birthday party from HELL! But it actually turned out rather nice.

Let me explain…

On Thursday on my lunch hour I went to Kroger’s and placed an order for a princess birthday cake and 12 cupcakes with Purple and Pink icing. On the cake I wanted the 4 princesses and also to have the cake say “Happy Birthday Princess Lehna and Princess Maya” right… not to hard… Well I told the lady taking the cake order I would be picking the cake up at 5:15 pm on my way home from work and she said that she would have it ready.

Well on Friday at 5:15 pm I showed up at Kroger’s wanting to pick up my princess birthday cake and the lady pulls it out of the refrigerator and says to the cake decorator “there is no writing on this cake” and the cake decorator promptly ignores the other bakery associate. The bakery associate goes “I’m sorry but there is no writing on this cake” THEN out of now where the cake decorator then YELLS across the bakery “Oh mama there is no writing on the cake” and I was like… well I don’t have time to wait on the cake since I had to pick the girls up from daycare at 6 p.m. So I was hot… first of all… they have had over 24 hours to prepare my cake then when I go to pick it up it’s not completely ready… I mean when they decorated the cake why didn’t they put the writing on THEN instead of waiting… makes NO sense to me. So I called the Manager and complained and good for me they refunded the cake! YEAH!

So then on Saturday the day of the party I called Pizza Hut to place an order for the pizzas I called as early as I called like 10:30 or something close to that… and told them that I was having a party and that I needed to pizzas to be delivered at 1:45 p.m. So that was all squared away and so I was excited b/c I was ready to go the girls were ready to go and Tait and Trent were going to follow shortly behind us b/c I was going to get the party set up. Well when I was in the car and the phone rang and it was the lady from Pizza Hut asking me if she could delivery the pizzas early b/c she didn’t put the time on the pizzas visible to where the makers could see it so the pizzas were ready and she wanted to know if she could have them delivered now… and I go “hum no” I explained to her that the party didn’t start until 1:30 so that would be the earliest that I would need them by… and she goes “well I don’t really know what to do” and I was like well you really should talk to your manager and see what he wants to do b/c I don’t need the pizzas right now. So she put me on hold then goes “okay there is no problem” so I’m like thinking that I’m going to get pizza that has been sitting around for the last 2 hours… so when the pizza guy got there I had to ‘check the pizzas’ the guy that delivered them was a more mature man and he didn’t hear really very clearly… so when I told him what I was doing he kept going “what your doing what” LOL So that was fun but surprise surprise the pizzas were FRESH nothing 2 hours old!

Then I was thinking… Man I hope that our room is going to be ready for the party when I get there. B/c that had been weighing on my mind that something was going to go wrong with that… and sure enough the phone rang… and it was the lady from the front desk at the hotel… and she wanted to just double check my reservation for the room… so I was RELIEVED that she wasn’t calling telling me something was wrong.

So like I said that everything turned out really well it just was stressful for a couple of hours. There was a lot of people there so THANK YOU for all attending, the majority was Tait’s family but heck I think it was fun for EVERYONE at least I hope it was! I know I had fun. I have found out that Maya is our water baby and Lehna isn’t so much a water baby. Which is strange b/c Lehna jumps in the tub the fastest, maybe its b/c the pool was so big. Little pools she’s fine with so who knows so it was fun I had a good time. I am working on the Thank yours so hopefully you’ll be getting them soon!

I do have a few pictures… I was really busy so I didn’t get a lot of pictures taken but Tait had the camcorder and so he recorded a few moments of the girl’s being sung too and then Maya eating her cupcake. Maya basically tasted the icing and made a very funny face then put her foot right in the cake it was pretty funny… then she sat in it… we were sitting on the floor on a plastic mat. She wanted to crawl all over.

Big news for Maya she took 6 steps all by herself! The first unassisted steps she took were to her papal Terry she took 4 big steps to him. Then later she took 2 big steps to Papal Tim so I was pretty excited! That makes both of our children walking other people as their first steps… Lehna walked to Trent first and Maya walked to Terry first. So that’s exciting. I can’t wait for her just to take off. She is just growing so fast its crazy!

Well this is my Dancing with the Star Rant for Today. I realize that the show results were yesterday but I just had some opinions about the show that I wanted to share. First of all I’m a BIG FAN of the show I have watched it every season (except the first) and I just really enjoy it. Lehna watches it with me… so I’m not the only person to take over the TV. But I have to say that they are picking better contestants the dancing has been really good so far and they are only in week three, but from what I saw this week I was very sad. The Broadway Star Marissa (something) danced the jive and I think that the judges were VERY hard on her. I felt that Carrie Ann’s comments about her being boring and that the dance was bad were really mean. I mean it’s week THREE for goodness sakes and they are really acting like it’s week 8 or something. I mean Marissa isn’t a normal contestant she’s a bigger girl so her movements are going to be different compared to the “skinny” people on the show but that doesn’t make her less talented. I thought that Carrie Ann was being a jerk and I think she should apologize to her and to her partner b/c saying to her partner that he doesn’t care and is letting her down was rude.

Personally I think that Shannon Elizabeth isn’t that great! I mean they really praised her over and over about how “GREAT” she was but personally I don’t think she was that great… her legs are soooo stiff and she preamps her hands into positions which annoy me. I mean I realize that she has never danced before but personally I thought she was the same as Marissa this week. But anyways that is my Dancing with the Stars Rant for the day!

Enjoy your day!

Easter Wrap Up

Well I wanted to write a quick update…

Easter has come and gone the Easter Bunny brought his baskets full of candy and has left. Lehna got a new baby b/c that’s what she wanted and Maya got some new bath toys. Pretty low key since their birthdays are of course THIS weekend!

I must say that I’m excited about their birthdays I think that the party should be a success; at least I hope it is. Most of the people that are going to be there are going to be Tait’s side of the family. Many of my family members have a prior engagement which is totally fine. So it should be fun. I just hope people show up! LOL

I didn’t really take many pictures this weekend to be honest with you most of them were just pictures of Maya and Deklyn playing with one another. Maya can’t quite walk yet but Deklyn can so every time Deklyn walked by Maya, Maya would pull Deklyn down it was VERY entertaining. I don’t think Maya necessarily wanted her to come down but I think she just wanted to be able to stand up and the only way Maya knows how to stand ups by using something to pull her up… so Deklyn was the closest thing.

Maya is still cursing on furniture and has only taken just a few very brief steps away from things. I don’t think it will be long but she doesn’t “trust” herself yet. She also is getting a new tooth in. She has been really fussy for the last couple of days where NOTHING makes her feel better so I’m hoping that that was the major problem. Helen noticed it this weekend and it’s finally starting to cut through… so she’ll have three teeth to eat her birthday cake! So that will be fun to watch I’m sure… I can’t wait to get there and set up the party… that’s always my FAVORITE part!

Lehna is really very excited about her birthday and I think it should be a lot of fun for her. She can tell you how old she’s going to be. She really doesn’t understand days or the week or time lines or anything like that so when you say her birthday is in 2 days she really doesn’t understand what you are saying… or if you say your birthday is on Saturday it just goes RIGHT over her head. Last night Tait and I were taking a walk with the two girls and we were trying to teach Lehna Left and Right she did pretty well but she kept pointing with her right hand straight saying “right” and we would say “no that’s straight” then she would go “oh straight” She talked the ENTIRE walk just singing and babbling about this and that… Maya covered her ears because Lehna was talking so much… that was really funny.

This past weekend we went to Peru just so we could help Helen and Tim get their house packed up and I have to say all people living in that house are MAJOR pack rats! Yikes! I’m sure that’s what it was like for Dad when he was going through our old house when he moved with Teresa but STILL YIKE A RAMA! We threw lots of things away… don’t tell Helen! I would keep her distracted in the living room with boxes for her to “sort” and we would throw things away when she wasn’t standing right there with us. We HAD to though my goodness they have soooo much stuff. So next weekend we are going to go up again and hit it again… Hopefully they won’t have too much to do… but time will tell.

Well that’s life right now pretty much running around like crazy then stopping every once and awhile to breathe. Tait mentioned that he wants to pencil in a weekend at home soon so I think we have the second weekend in April free to do that!

Enjoy some pictures.

Picture Of Daisy...
Lehna thinks she went to live at the farm with her family...


Kris and Maya

Lehna in Prison!


"what'd you say?"

Catching up with us this week!

Well I have to tell you Lehna is really just developing her own personality and she has said some of the funniest things over the past couple of days that I wanted to share with you.

We were in church and Lehna was coloring on her white paper and Lehna grabbed her white crayon and goes “The White doesn’t work I think it needs batteries”

Then later on that day We were sitting with Lehna and Maya on our laps and Maya started to cry for her bottle and Lehna looks me in the eye and grabs the sides of my head and goes “give her, her bottle this is SERIOUS” That was hilarious.

When ever Tait has to be called out to an investigation we tell Lehna that ‘daddy is going to save babies’ so she doesn’t get upset when Tait has to leave. Well the other night Tait was called out on an investigation and when Lehna came back she had asked where Tait had been and Tait goes “I went to save babies” then goes “oh well did you bring me one?”

She cracks me up just the funny things she is starting to say. She also LOVES to perform as long as you don’t look at her. LOL Which sounds kind of strange but she’s a big show off loves to be in the middle and have all the attention well if you watch her and she doesn’t want to she gets upset. She loves to sing to herself and put on pretty dresses and pretend she’s going to the party. It’s all very sweet and I can’t believe how much she’s really changed.

Maya on the other hand is fast approaching walking. She is soooo close to it she can almost taste it. We have really been working with her every night to try to get her to move her feet and walk to us but she still favors crawling over all. Not that I want her to be mobile but I know that when they walk they seem to get around better and things are easier/harder all at the same time… if that makes any sense.

She also LOVES to babble she can say Mama and Dada really clearly, when she says it we know she’s talking to us. She also squeals when you tickle her belly and also SMILES greatly when her big sister is around.

Both girls really enjoy each other and I’m sooooo glad they do even though this is a HARD age on me I’m really glad that they have someone so close to them. I just hope that later I don’t regret having them so close.

They are both fast approaching birthdays! I can’t believe it! It doesn’t seem like this time last year I was waiting for Maya b/c for some reason once you get the babies here you feel like you have had them your entire life but it doesn’t feel like she could be one. She’s still really small for her age she’s very short… so she’s got that going for her but she’s so cute. She definitely doesn’t miss a meal but she’s got these big eyes and just is so curious she wants to always be right next to Lehna.

We are going to do a big birthday party for their birthday which some people may think that it’s a bit much. Of course it IS a bit much but the thing is it’s kind of hard to either do something too small and offend someone or do something REALLY big and outlandish LOL of course we are doing the outlandish. We are going to have a swim party at one of the hotels that has an indoor pool. I think the girls will REALLY enjoy it and for those that have children I thought it would be fun for them to come and have them have fun too. So it should be fun I think. But it being a 3 year birthday and a 1 year birthday we wanted to do something special for them. I know I’m going to be one of those parents that makes a really big deal out of their birthdays but OH WELL at least they will look back and remember they had good birthdays! Of course at 1 and 3 they may not remember much but at least I will… and I think that’s all that matters. Hehehe

Spring is going to be a season for changing. Tait’s parents are going to be moving… guess where? That’s right WISCONSIN! What are the chances right?!!! They planned to be moved by April 8th I have to say that it’s going to be CRAZY they are going through there stuff and getting rid of stuff. So Easter will be a time of sorting and shifting through their stuff, which I can’t wait to help b/c I know that they need the help.

This is going to be A BIG change for us. I have to say that I’m very sad to see them leave. I know that things change from time to time so you have to adjust. I know the girls will really miss them but I know they will survive. My parents get to see the girls fairly often about every other month so that’s really not too bad. It could be much worse. I think the hardest adjustment for us is going to be adjusting to the fact that Tait and I won’t be able to go to Peru as much. We will still go there for family holidays with my family but it will be hard not to have a weekend “off.” Tait and I kind of used Peru as a place to recharge our batteries, Helen would watch our children so Tait and I could play golf or play bingo and stuff like that and so that will be a BIG adjustment. It will be hard not to have a place to escape to but I know that we will survive just like the girls. Helen said she’s planning on coming down to visit as often as she can and she’ll stay with us and stay with Tanna and also travel down to Williamsport as well. I will just have to find a sitter or something in my area so Tait and I can still escape.

So that is all that is going on right now. We do have the Easter Bunny coming this weekend. So that will be fun. I’ll take pictures…

Wisconsin Update!

Oh I love Wisconsin every time I go there it MAKES ME WANT TO MOVE THERE! I just love being so close to my family. I told Tait every time I go up there I want to move there… but of course I probably won’t but it is sure nice to dream.

Well we had another VERY nice vacation. It was so wonderful. We traveled up to Wisconsin on Thursday night and go there about 10:30 there time… 11:30 their time… which both girls had fallen asleep so they were ready to go for another time around the block… which was annoying b/c after driving there I just wanted them to go to bed so I could unwind. So Maya was the toughest bird to put back to bed but after about an hour or so she was ready to sleep.

Maya and the Window (this was a hard picture to capture just so you know)

On Friday we relaxed around their house and just played with the girls. I think mom enjoyed herself Terry had to work so he went to work. Then about 4 we left to go to the Wisconsin Dells. I definitely recommend the Dells it was really fun. We have always talked about going there and we were able to finally go. Mom chooses the best hotel it was such a cool place. I have pictures which I’m attaching that you should check out. We had a hot tub IN OUR HOTEL ROOM it was in the living room so everyone watched you sit in the wonderful bubbles but that was a TON of fun, and my mom she loves me so much she took both girls into their room. So Tait and I got two nights of peace and quiet it was so wonderful. So thank you thank you thank you mom and Terry that was so wonderful!

Picture of the Hot tub

Another picture of Hotel Room
But we also had like a kitchen in our hotel room it was seriously like its own personal apartment it was really nice. Then Terry caught up with us that evening. We had been in the hot tub once so we then went to bed. Lehna wasn’t her full self this weekend. She didn’t feel really good while we were there so she was crappy off and on, more moody then anything.

Lehna Smile
On Saturday we went down to the indoor water park. Now Maya seemed to enjoy herself, Lehna on the other hand was a bit more difficult. She really didn’t want to go in the water so we had to do some forcing. She is not a water baby in a big pool she was fine in the hot tub in our room but when it came to have multiple people in the pool she didn’t like it. So she had a life jacket on her and we were in the shallow pool and she cried and wanted to be picked up and stuff. So I held her and Tait held her we tried to play with her to release the death grip but she didn’t really care for it all that much. So we wondered around a bit trying to get Lehna to play and they had this big tower thing that was like a massive jungle gym. So we all went up that and played on that a bit. They did have a lazy river which Tait and I went on. Then Terry took Lehna on she cried at first but she went around twice and by the second time she was fine. I don’t know how much of it was Lehna not feeling well and how much was Lehna being Lehna she can be SOOOOO stubborn sometimes. But we got in the big hot tub down there and stuff. It was fun. Tait and I went on these two big slides, for two people. The one slide was like a big windy slide that was like green so you kind of glowed as you went down, but it was REALLY fast by the time you got to the bottom. Then we went on this one slide that was REALLY busy so we thought that it must be fun, but you got to “choose your own adventure” we only went on it once so we don’t know if you actually did choose your own adventure or not. But the slide was really dark then you got in this big pot type thing and it just swished you round and round until you came down the end and then you went down into the big pool it was interesting to say the least but I think the green glowing one was better. It was fun.

Lehna's Birthday Suprise
(We celebrated her birthday a bit early)

Then after the water park we changed and let the babies take a nap. Maya was REALLY tired, and then after Maya woke up Lehna fell asleep so we let her sleep for about an hour. Then we woke her up and took her to WIZARD QUEST. Now I have to admit it was a bit dinky but it sounded like fun. You can play the “game” two different ways. You could either play the easy way this means that your goal is to local your wizards and use your “magic wand” and let them free, or you have to gather the magic by answering questions and going to different stations then you have to have enough Magic to release the wizards. Well we did the easy way so our goals were just to find the wizards. The first Wizard was EASY to find he was in the first tunnel we looked in. Even the third wizard was easy to find he was in the first portal. But the other two wizards were HARD to find. There were slides you could go down, little houses you went in, mirror mazes, a seaweed maze, and just different things. Well the stupid wizard in the Earth realm was really tricky, we looked everywhere. They had this BIG castle that had these different locked doors that we tried to open but they had this slide that you couldn’t get too. So Terry said “well I guess you just have to go up the slide” Well Tait stood in front of the camera so the people wouldn’t come up and yell at us. But Terry climbed up the slide and we waited at the bottom, Tait could hear him talking and he kept saying things like “there’s a potion room but no scanner” so finally he came back down the slide the right way after a few curse words later. And we still continued to look. We kept walking round and round looking in the same tunnels and then finally we were in the mirror maze again I was looking through this door and I could see the wizard through this little hole. Well we could get the door to open we pushed and pulled but it wouldn’t open… Well Terry came over and he pushed on the door like the wrong side and that finally opened the door. It was crazy. It was fun over all my favorite part was listen to Terry grumble but he was hilarious he just was funny to listen too. Like I said it was dinky but it was fun overall I laughed and had a good time. I really think my older brothers would have enjoyed it; it was kind of up their alley.

Lehna Sleeping

THE WIZARD QUEST!
After we went to the Wizard Quest we headed back to the hotel we wanted to eat and then my parents let us have the night off. They watched Maya and Lehna and we headed to the Casino! The Casino was only like two exits away and that was fun. It was PACKED! It was the Casino Ho Chunk! Which personally the name was a bit a turn off but it was okay, my mother in law would have drooled they had a BIG bingo hall. It was funny there was sign that said Bingo was closed due to renovations then we walked by it and it was open… so I don’t know if it was an old sign or was just a warning of things to come. We won $50 bucks on a machine but that was all we won on. When we first came in we played this slot machine that was racking up like 30 bucks… (It was quarter machine, so that’s A LOT of wining) but we walked away from that machine and that was about as best our luck was. We played this one game that was BIG wheel a fortune that was like a penny game… well we put $20 in the machine and it was gone like in really fast!!! You had to play all 40 lines which is like 4.00 bucks a spin… so it went quickly. The first time we sat down we won like $30 bucks but we pissed it all away. LOL… It was fun we were only gone like 2 hours but it was a nice break. Mom played with Lehna in the hot tub they didn’t go back down to the pool again but Lehna was happy with the small pool, but the time we came back both babies were fast asleep. That’s the good thing about vacation is they always are tired in the evenings.

Maya in her PJs
On Sunday we had breakfast stopped by the outlet mall so I could get something new for my new Nephew and the girls have pictures coming up for the yearly pictures. Soo I wanted to get them done and then we came home. The hour shift has been kind of crazy I must say loosing and hour really just sucks. I feel like by the time I get unwound from work it’s time for bed… so not so happy about moving times… I liked it better when we stayed the same the ENTIRE YEAR! Crazy Crazy!

Maya and her Nana!
That was our trip it was really fun. I really had a good time and I hope we can go back to Dells again b/c it was a ton of fun. I think it would be fun for all of my brothers and sisters in law to go up there, especially in the summer b/c there’s lots of things to do. So keep that in mind… maybe not this summer since Marcus and Jackie are expecting a new baby but maybe next year it would be fun for all.

We came home to our house and it was all picked up. Trent picked up the toys while we were gone so that was nice. Of course it only took seconds for Lehna and Maya get it back messy again… but it was nice not to have to step over toys. I usually like to pick up the house before I leave b/c it makes coming home really nice, but I didn’t have time to get that accomplished.

Steve and Maya (and Earlier event)

Picture of Vince Gill (from last post)

Update!

Okay so I’m finally writing an update I know that I totally suck I haven’t updated in two very long months so I’m sure you are all on pins and needles wanting to know what’s going on… well… Let me just summarize…

The flu hit us, I had a business trip, Valentine’s Day, I saw midget celebrities, Trip to Wisconsin, It’s a new year, and EVERYTHING in-between it’s been busy!

Let’s start with the update…

We all are slowly coming back to life after the flu struck us over the past two weeks. It was NASTY it’s kind of like the type of flu where you really do just want to crawl under a rock and sleep for like 500 days. I managed to bring it back with me from my business trip and it was horrible. Maya had it first, and then I, then Tait, then lastly this week Lehna Belle got it. It just wipes you out and for us it sat in our sinus (still not fully recovered from that but I’m surviving). It’s been exciting. Having children and being sick just isn’t the best combination I mean when I was sick I depended quite a bit on Tait and Tait did quite a bit for me, he did a wonderful job. When he was sick he didn’t miss any work he just kept on trucking through it. Then I got to be provider for the girls which it was easier for me b/c it was the weekend.

I did go on my first really (big deal) business trip. We went down for an annual conference in Nashville Tennessee. It was a ton of fun. I left Wednesday Night and didn’t get back until Sunday afternoon. My entire office got to attend so that was a lot of fun. We drove down instead of flying since it was so close. Which that wasn’t too bad considering there were 6 adults in the back of a big SUV but it was quite roomy so it wasn’t bad. We had our own personal Vince Gill concert which I’m a country fan but he’s not my favorite… I only know like ONE of his songs… but it was cool to be so CLOSE to him. We also had General Collin Powell speak at our conference… he was interesting actually. He has some interesting political views that he divulged I guess is the correct terminology. But he was interesting.

Then my BIG news we are going to change names of our company, which really doesn’t bother me too much it’s just going to a pain… LOL we are supposed to start calling ourselves out new name April 1st and I guess deep down I’m hoping that they come out and go “just kidding April Fools” but I don’t think that is going to happen… Oh well. So we are having an update… I don’t want to say the new name or tell you what our old name is actually just in case there are haters in the audience… and I don’t want obscenities on my blog! LOL

But then some other exciting news is when I was out our FABOULOUS hotel this place was AMAZING I got to see some Famous people other than Collin Powell and Vince Gill that is… I ran into the family that is on the TLC show Big World Little People… which is a reality TV show about this family of midgets living in the US. Well it was funny but the father of the show went by me in his little scooter and I glanced at him and thought “man he looks familiar” but I couldn’t quite place as to why he looked familiar. Then I went into this store and I saw the mother of the show and she was paying and I was like ‘OH MY GOSH THEY ARE FROM THAT SHOW!’ So I was trying not to stare at them… they had the TV crew and everything following them so that was a bit strange… but it was pretty cool… I didn’t take a picture of them b/c I didn’t want to be “that girl that took a picture of midgets” if that makes sense… but I thought it was cool.

So that was my business trip. I got home and welcomed seeing my children and stepping back into mommy shoes. I really do enjoy being their mommy so it’s all good.

Well we are going to go to Wisconsin THIS weekend so I can’t really update you on that YET. BUT I can tell you what we are planning on doing. We are going to a hotel that has an INDOOR WATERPARK for the girls. We are going north to the Dells and I have heard really cool things about the Dells so it will be fun to go and see them. I can’t WAIT! The thought of me being in a bathing suit in public I’m not so thrilled about… but oh well… I’m going for the girls.

Lehna of course wins the Child to get stitches first on BOTH sides of the family… if you didn’t know there was a competition there was and Lehna won....LOL She was playing this weekend in the hallway with one of those BIG exercise balls and she slipped on her pant leg and bit into her lip. Well it bled of course… and it stopped but she had this major gash in her lip so we decided to take her to the ER. Well let me tell you that was an experience from HELL! I went with Lehna and Tait stayed with Maya at home and everything was fine for the first hour… then after about hour 2 Lehna was driving me INSANE she wouldn’t sit still she was all over the room she would play with the automatic doors, she put quarters on the floor and tried to run away from me a couple of times… I was ready to KILL… which I know her lip is split and it’s been 2 hours very hard on her… Well… I decided that I had to have back up so I called Tait and Tait came and Trent stayed with Maya. I was grateful for the help. Well after 4 hours we FINALLY got back to the area where they actually see the doctor… well we saw the NP and basically she said “okay let’s stitch it up” and we they did… they did it with a pain number which I know is hard but we didn’t have a choice it was either half sedate her or stick her with more needles and I personally don’t think she would have stood for that. So we went with nothing… she cried but she wasn’t too bad she cried… and I held her feet and tried to calm her down as much as I could… hard to do by her feet but we ha to put a stitch in I didn’t want her scared for the rest of her life. So she’s being showing everyone her stitch all week. I guess one of the kids a daycare told her she had bug on her lip and she cried b/c Tait was telling me that story and she started to cry. So she was teased this week the poor baby. So she’s all better and bad to her old self.

Maya is truly going leaps and bounds. She still is creeping along she doesn't ventured away from something close. She did take her first step by but she instantly fell. Tait and I were trying to get her to walk by herself and we I took her fingers off and she took ONE step then fell down. So we are working on it. But it was very sweet. She is STARTING to babble but not all that much. I thought she would really take off quickly with speaking but she really hasn’t yet. She also doesn’t really want to eat baby food any more. We have been giving her baby food b/c that’s easiest but she really wants to eat big people food, which is hard when she only has 2 teeth. It’s so crazy I totally expected her to be away ahead of the pack but she really hasn’t. She’s kind of slugging along at her own pace. I guess Lehna was just quick. I have been putting Maya in 18 month clothes b/c she has the same Buda butt that she is cursed with the length is RIDICULOUS on how long it is… but 12 month she can’t really bend her knees so you know it’s one or the other.

Church. Well it’s going. I loved to say I love my calling and it’s wonderful… but I can’t tell you how much work it truly is. I love working with the Young Women but I have to come with activities and plan things and all that jazz and I have to say it’s difficult. I keep coming up with ideas to do like crafty things which are kind of boring if you do that all the time. This week I had to come up with an idea in Divine Nature which is kind of hard… So I have Individual Worth next month so I have to come up with something that’s not so crafty. I don’t know I just don’t want to bore them to death. I just need a good book to come up with some ideas. It’s just hard to come home and then have to turn right around and go to church for Mutual luckily I just have to go once a month instead of every week or I WOULD go crazy. I really don’t know how the other lady who has 3 young children does it. I mean she’s a stay at home mom so she probably welcomes the break. I just can’t believe how many members in our ward is stay at home moms. It’s crazy! I’m like the odd duck that is a working mom. It’s so insane.

Okay well that’s all I have for now. I will update better. I will just have to make time for it!

Okay so I totally SUCK!

I didn't even update in Janurary! We are in February already! I promise and UPDATE IS COMING SOON! I promise!

So please don't hurt me :(

December Update

So thought that I was doing well until I was mentioning updating blogs at Christmas when it was brought to my attention that I haven’t updated my blog since November I thought… November surely not but YEP it really has been THAT LONG! Wow so mercy me time just flies by!!!! So here’s the month long update.

The first weekend in December we had a wedding to attend. My uncle Steve got married to my new aunt Jennifer. It was a very nice wedding. We went up early on Saturday b/c my parents were there and we wanted to see them before we had to get all dressed up and ready to go to the wedding. But in the meantime the weather turned pretty awful, and my siblings couldn’t make it b/c the closed down interstate 65. The wedding was a bit longer then I thought it was going to be it was about a 2 hour ceremony which we sang Christmas carols we sang 12 actually ALL verses. The reason why is b/c part of the ceremony they had a contract for all the members of the audience to sign so that took awhile for everyone in the audience to come forward and since this huge poster board contact thing. So that took awhile. Lehna & Terry went for a walk during the ceremony so that was nice that I only had to bounce one baby back and forth between my mom and me. The reception was beautiful the hall was decorated very Christmassy. It had white satin draped all over the chairs with big red bows. So that was really a lot of fun. I really enjoyed myself at the reception. I had no idea there were so many dancers in our family.

Here are some pictures of the wedding.

Maya and Lehna

Lehna was VERY tired with all the dancing

Maya was pretty tired too!


The second weekend in December we had kind of an interesting weekend. On Friday afternoon I was on my way back from lunch during work and I was driving down the road when this 79 year old lady turns RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY CAR! I didn’t have any kind of stopping distance whatsoever. I mean seriously I couldn’t stop it was awful! My airbags went off and my chest was killing me. I had some burns on my hands from the air bag but my chest hurt from the seat belt. I went to the hospital after calling my husband and work to let them know where I was. Kaity (my coworker) took my straight to the ER just to get checked out and to make sure that I didn’t have any broken ribs or anything like that I came back clear of anything like that. So I spent the weekend resting. I was pretty sore. But I was lucky that I didn’t have my children in the car.

Picture of the sunfire

So the third week in December I was searching for a new vehicle. I was driving the Corsica everyday to work and that car was starting to worry me as far as dependability b/c the first day I tried to go to work it took three times before it would turn over…. Soooooo can have a job and not have a car! Soooo I was looking on the internet for a new van actually. We decided long ago that if we could get a van that would really be easier for us as far as traveling and since the SUV is a piece of crap a van would be so much easier. So I knew what I wanted: bucket seats in the second row, automatic doors, and a DVD player. So that’s what I hunted for, the only thing that came close to that that was in my price range was the town and country so I found a couple of them and went to see them on Wednesday to a local dealer here in Lafayette. I loved the car he showed me it was totally was I was looking for so I found out that they want 15,000 well that was our CEILING price… sooo I started doing some comparisons and I found a van that was very similar to the van that I looked at but it didn’t have as many amenities. It did have one door automatic, DVD player, and the second row as bucket seats. So they were starting at 15,000 so I talked that guy down to 12,000 then I went back to the other dealer to see if I could get him to move at all… and he wouldn’t move. Soooo I went with the guy in Indianapolis. We got the new van the third weekend and Trent watched the girls when we went to do that.

I don’t have pictures of the van so enjoy some of the girls instead

Maya looking REALLY cute!

Another picture of Maya Looking Cute!

The 4th weekend in December was of course Christmas well Christmassy so that’s always exciting. We had our Christmas for the Girls a little early. Santa came during the day on Thursday so we had the girls open the Christmas gifts on Thursday night. Talk about a mad dash home, Santa doesn’t always wrap the presents he leaves soooo I had to HURRY home to make sure that they were all wrapped; most were NOT wrapped so I got to wrap. We told Lehna when she got in from daycare that Santa came when she was gone and we wanted to see if she would like open presents… she thought that Santa was still at the house and so then REFUSED to go inside the house when we got home… and she kept peering around corners just making sure Santa wasn’t still in the house. She’s VERY afraid of him. I didn’t force her to see Santa this year. She HATES clowns so I figured Santa would be in that same boat, every time I asked if she would like to go see Santa she goes “no he’s too busy,” when I would ask her follow up questions like what is he busy doing she would reply “shopping” so apparently Santa shops rather than building toys.

Christmas After all the Unwrapping!

Lehna Looking Pretty

Looking REALLY Pretty!

Christmas Eve (Matching PJs you don't know how hard it was to take this picture!)

Maya opening her Stocking

We had a last minute change of plans b/c we found out that one of my high school teachers passed away unexpectedly. I had heard she was sick and she did pass away it was a very fast thing. Her name was Janice Nowling and she was the Consumer and Family Sciences teacher at the high school. I LOVED her class. Tait knew the family as well b/c the golf pro at the Peru Golf Course is Bob Nowling and so he knew the family through golfing. I have known of Mrs. Nowling for YEARS she knew me back when I was a very young child through the Baptist Church and she knew my dad and step mother very well. I was very sad to hear of her passing. She always told me that I should go into teaching specifically Consumer and Family Sciences I always wondered what it would have been like to teach that or to teach at all so she did plant that seed in me. So once we got to Peru we went to the viewing. We decided not to go to the funeral. I was very sad at the viewing. There were lots of people there so I know she was well remembered.

We managed to see all sides of the family this year for Christmas (well except my parents and they didn’t come down from Wisconsin) they will be coming down later in January. Usually we normally just see Tait’s family and my family but this year since Tait’s grandparents had Christmas on Sunday before Christmas it allowed A LOT more people to come to it. Which is FABULOUS? Tait’s grandparents crack me up, Dick and Alta are so nice and they are super funny. Dick still cracks jokes and he’s always going ‘Tait I bet you haven’t heard this one before’ but he only addresses Tait when he gets ready to tell a joke so it’s kind of funny. They had LOTS of people in their quant little house though so we kind of rotated from the bedrooms to the front rooms since there were sooooo many people. I liked to be able to see them though.

Lehna and Landyn Dancing Lehna LOVES to dress up and once she's dressed up she likes to dance!

Deklyn in her Prisoner Dress!

Maya singing her pretty song

Helen didn’t disappoint with the food supply. Always when we come home she always cooks and makes super good meals. It’s nice not having to cook or clean up for the matter. I do nothing but eat when I’m at their house though they always have candy and good stuff like that so I always come home with a full belly. She made Ham and a FULL turkey for Christmas and along with that she made egg rolls and noodles and mashed potatoes my favorite things! It was really wonderful. I love eating Helen’s cooking. If I could rent her to come and cook for me on a daily basis I would be like a size 30 but damn it I would LOVE it!

The girls made out like freaking bandits they got soooo much stuff from Tanna, Helen, us, Santa, and the grandparents it was insane. I’m glad we got the van though or we wouldn’t have been able to get everything home. I have heard that Santa dropped off a load at my mom’s house too in Wisconsin!!! Which Tait and I kept telling people… they really don’t need anything they have so much already but we didn’t even listen to our own advice.

So I’m putting some pictures up here for you to enjoy. I don’t know which pictures to include and which ones not too. So I’ll add until I get tired.

Enjoy!

We are all working on New Year’s Eve so that kind of sucks but it should be a good time for New Year’s Eve I mean we will probably stay home and put the kids to bed at normal time but at least we get the next day off!

Well hopefully I’ll update sooner next time but if I don’t… look forward to another month long update!!!

Last picture... Lehna LOVES her baby sister and Maya LOVES her big sister