The Gigaball

Last winter, I bought the kids a mini-trampoline for the basement to help them work off some energy. Before that, we had 2 different jump-o-lenes. A few months ago, I saw a gigaball online and was very intrigued by it. I thought it would be perfect for this winter in the basement, but it got horrible reviews so I didn't buy it. Well, we need something to blow off steam. Last week proved that point to me clearly. YesterdayI saw a gigaball in a store and bought it. It was cheaper than us going to a movie so I decided if it provides at least 2 hours of entertainment, it'll be worth it. The thing must have 12 different spots to put air in it so it took forever to blow up. Patience is not one of the virtues in this household, unfortunately. Finally after a good 30 minutes, the kids got to draw straws to decide who would get to try it out first. Well, I got to go first to "test it out." (It's rated to 150 pounds so no comments about me popping it!)

The gigaball proved to be a big hit! I'll let you know how long it lasts~

For Dan - TV Included : )

Some Assembly Required

Dan and I have been talking about buying a flat screen TV for our living room for a while. The problem has been the cabinet (hadn't found one I liked) and the size. Dan was insistent we were not buying anything smaller than 42 inches. 42" is huge! I was insistent we weren't buying anything over 40 inches. 40" is still huge enough. We've been at an impasse every time we've talked about it so we haven't done anything. I know Dan wanted a bigger TV and let's face it, he got a promotion and a raise. He deserves to get something he wants for a change (well, he eventually gets everything he wants - don't let this post fool you). Anyway, over Christmas, we had the discussion again with him saying 42 or bigger and me saying 40 or smaller. Finally, he conceded, "I guess 40 is big enough." Ha! I won! I started hunting online and found a cabinet I liked at BJs on sale with free shipping. I ordered it last weekend along with a 40" TV. It was well worth the $20 shipping for the fedex man to show up at the door with that humongous TV box.

While out shopping for "sturdy straps" as the instructions said to secure the TV to the wall, we found Caden a new tool kit. I love that they have Christmas money to spend still. It's so much fun for them. He wanted to be my handy helper. Unfortunately, I didn't start assembling anything until after he was in bed.

The cabinet came yesterday. The base was already assembled. All I had to do was assemble the top. Nothing lined up quite right and it would have been so nice to have a second person helping. You know me, I never take no for an answer, and I persevered.

I am thrilled with the finished cabinet and the TV is the perfect size. The kids loved getting up this morning to watch Dora in widescreen high definition :p.

I still have to move the component around to hid the cords and set up the Wii. I'm thrilled there's a spot for it so I won't have to look at those cords hanging down anymore. I guess in the end Dan and I both won!

Not Ready for a Weekend

Sorry I haven't blogged much this week. It, honestly, was a very long week. Monday was great with friends. Dinner that night was so much fun with Krissy's family. The kids had a ball and I enjoyed the grown-up conversation.

Tuesday, the kids had dentist appointments. No cavities! Everyone has done a great job of brushing, especially Jaelyn with her braces. Allie was thrilled to show Dr. D her lose tooth. We talked about Allie's tiny mouth and big huge adult teeth. She thinks Allie might get to see Dr. G, Jaelyn's orthodontist, as well. Her 6 year molars are in so we'll be getting them sealed in a couple of months. Caden's hurt front tooth still looks good. There's been no change in color which makes me so happy.

Tuesday afternoon, Allison, Jaelyn's best friend, came to play. I know why they are friends. They are right about the same age and on the same maturity level. I loved listening to Allison singing Wonder Pets songs. Jaelyn is still right there with her loving to watch cartoons rather than Hannah Montana and High School Musical. They also whine at each other exactly the same. Hilarious.

Wednesday was a home day. We were going to run some errands and go to a park, but the kids were all wound up from being home and weren't listening to a word I said. There was no way I was taking them anywhere to not listen and not follow directions, even though they needed to get out so badly.

I was ecstatic to get up Thursday morning and send the girls off to school. I skipped home from the bus stop right along with Caden. Have I mentioned that Caden loves to skip? He's really good at it too. Good coordination. We had a great day together.

So that's our week. I'm not ready for a weekend after only 2 days of school. I see Panera and a good book in my future on Monday morning!

Our Day

We met Karon, Kelley and kids for breakfast at Ikea this morning. We went thinking they were having free breakfasts. They weren't, but they were doing kids' lunches free. So...we paid for breakfast, but their breakfast plates are only $.99 so it didn't exactly break the bank. After eating, we took 5 kids to Smalland to check them in. Normally we would have gotten 1 1/2 hours, but the kids were crazy excited and I think we scared the poor lady who was working. We only got an hour. It was plenty of time to shop and visit before checking the kids out and taking them back to the cafeteria for lunch. Silly I know, but fun and free!

This afternoon, we dropped Caden off at his friend's house to play. The girls and I are baking a cake, complete with my friend Kendra's chocolate buttercream frosting recipe, to take back to Nathan house for dessert after dinner. It's nice to have somewhere to go tonight for dinner. Funny that I've made it all day without having to cook a meal (the cake doesn't count because that's baking and it's fun!)

Spending Their $$$

The kids received a lot of cash for Christmas and Caden's birthday. Half went into their saving's account and we've been storing the rest in the cash jars from Baba lined up on the table. Talk about temptation, but as far as I know the cash hasn't been messed with.

Yesterday, we counted the money, put it in individual envelopes, and took it to Walmart for our first spending expedition. We did this last year and it worked so well. The kids were allowed to buy one toy each. Jaelyn won our contest and got to pick first. She wandered up and down the aisles. First she wanted a little pet shop set, then a small horse. Finally she found what she really wanted. Before Christmas, we had seen big horses in the middle of Walmart for either $39 or 49 - I can't remember. Well, she found one high up on a clearance shelf for $17. She named her black horse Midnight and it sits proudly with Samantha, her Christmas doll, who happens to be the perfect size for rides. Allie got to go next. She pondered several Barbies before spying a Princess and the Frog Polly Pocket set. As if we need more Polly's. Caden was last and I was tired of going up and down the aisles. Caden is usually very indecisive so when he immediately picked up a Buzz Lightyear phaser-dart gun, I said yes. As we made our way to the check-out, I had second thoughts listening to the phaser noises as Caden shot everything in sight. There was no way I was turning back at that point, but I did make Caden promise to only use his gun in the basement. Are you wondering what happened to the Mom who said her kids would not play with toy guns? Yeah, me too!

We spent the gift cards from Uncle Chad, Aunt Karen, Nick and Jared! Thank you!

The best part is we still have enough money for one or two more shopping trips in February and March.

I'm Brave

Jaelyn has a pretty steady hand. I let her start painting my toenails a few months ago. She also gets to paint her fingernail and toenails in very light colors since she still colors outside the lines a little. The other day, Allie begged to paint my toenails so I let her. Touch up with polish remover was required, but you've got to start learning somewhere, right?!

It Has Finally Happened

Allie will turn 7 in 3 months. She has all of her baby teeth still and she wants desperately to lose her first tooth. By 7, Jaelyn had lost 8 teeth, but Allie was a much later teether than we suspect Jaelyn was. Allie bit into a carrot today and told me her front bottom tooth hurt. I checked it later and sure enough, we have a loose tooth! It's not very loose so it'll be a while, but Allie's excited that the tooth fairy is finally going to start visiting her.

50+ = Great Day

We had a rough morning. By 8:15, children had been kicked and hit, we had one foot stomped on, and my favorite plant ended up on the floor with dirt and shattered pot everywhere - and I didn't do any of it :p. I was so glad to get the girls onto the bus. It was my helper day so as I was driving Caden to school, I was blaming the yucky gray clouds for our bad morning. Actually, the hit was accidental, but the kicking and stomping were on purpose and I'm sure the child who played possum and started whining at 9 o'clock needed more sleep.

I had a great time with Caden's class helping with finger painting. Only Caden got paint on me - a big 'ole hand print on my butt. Oops. At least it was washable paint :p. It was early release and when we left his school at 10:30, it was warm and the beautiful sun had conquered the clouds. My thermometer in the car read 51! If Dan were home, he'd be running around in shorts and a t-shirt.

The girls got home at 1:00 (remind me to write a rant about early release and teacher development days in June when we have to go 3 weeks longer than kids everywhere else!). Anyway, we went to the library for new movies and books and we stayed to play on the playground for an hour. We were the only ones there which surprised me because it was 55 degrees. Jaelyn kept telling I could read a book, but I just wanted to sit on the swing and soak up vitamin D.

We had a pleasant dinner tonight. Caden ate a 1/3 cup serving of maceroni and cheese. I was falling off my chair from shock. He also ate his 1 carrot and bite of cucumber happily although they still get thumbs down. The 1 bite method is working! After dinner, Jaelyn and I played mancala and sequence. She must have been distracted because I beat her 3 times in a row at Sequence. That doesn't happen very often. Allie and Caden played with Caden's Star Wars figures and now they are all settled down watching a movie. Good day!

Sunshine and My Mood

I am so dependant on the sun. No wonder I was so depressed when we moved to Germany. It was 4 months before we saw the gray clouds part to let the sun shine through. Yesterday, it was cold and over cast and all I did was sit on the couch. I had no desire to do anything and I let poor Caden watch movies all day. Today, it was still cold, but I could see the beautiful sun. I really do take it for granted. Instead of moping today, I vacuumed and dusted and cleaned the bathrooms. Caden and I set up quite the Star Wars battle. General Grievous took over Batman's cave for his lair and the Rebel Alliance took over the Gorilla Jungle. The tree canopies were perfect hiding places for Wicket and all his buddies. Yoda and Anakin defeated the Separatists (sad that I know all the names, huh?) in a huge victory. The girls even came home happy. We had a great evening and amazingly, the kids have been in bed for 30 minutes and I haven't heard a peep.

Mr. Sunshine, please come again tomorrow. I need you!

Hump Day

We've survived to Hump Day. Just 4 more hump days and Dan will be home. Putting it like that, it doesn't sound so bad. 4 more weeks and Dan will be home sounds like an eternity, which is sad when we've lived through much longer. I was mad at Dan when he left so, honestly, I was fine with him leaving, but all has been forgiven and I want him home now. The kids are in agreement.

Allie's been having trouble in schools on Wednesday and has brought home a yellow light the last 5 Wednesdays. I emailed with her teacher last week and today, I instituted our first Hump Day Reward. Unfortunately, Mrs. Y's maternity leave started Monday (she had a beautiful baby girl) and Mrs. R the substitute isn't well liked yet. Jaelyn says she yells. Allie says Mrs. R got sent to the butler's office today (aka Mrs. Buckler, the assistant principal). Anyway...I'm not sure how Allie's going to do in Mrs. R's class until her much loved teacher returns. Allie doesn't exactly like to follow the rules and Mrs. R is a retired teacher who sounds very set in her ways. Thankfully, we've only seen green lights for the last 3 days; so I guess Allie is behaving. Our hump day reward was hump day happy meals and playtime. It turned into kids' meals at Chick Fil A instead of McDs. I'm not sure I'm taking Jaelyn anywhere until Dan gets home again though because she was horrible leaving. She started her tantrum in the parking lot - because I grabbed her and held her back when she tried to walk out in front of a car. I had to carry her across the parking lot. She escalated in the car and got to spend the rest of the night in her room. Fun times at our house...not! At least she had worn herself out so bedtime was pretty easy tonight.

PS I just looked back at the blog and noticed I hadn't mentioned Dan's trip. He left Monday to go to a school in Missouri for a month. He'll be home mid-February for 2 weeks before heading to Korea for another 3 weeks. Hopefully, after March, his traveling will settle down. Oh, and still no word on orders. We are thinking no news is good news and are praying ILE for February 2011 works out.

Caden's Birthday

Caden has had many birthday celebrations this year. We started on New Year's Day at my parents house. My mom baked cookies and we used left over icing and decorations from Jesus' birthday cake to decorate Caden's cookies. My mom had been sick and didn't do a lot of shopping. She gave Caden a card with money in it. He got excited about his money, but then put it down and whispered "Daddy, can I open my presents now" to Dan. When we told him the money was his present, his eyes got glassy and his bottom lip started quivering. We all felt so bad that Dan and I took Caden to Walmart and let him pick out 3 new toys with his money. We took them back to my mom. Then she wrapped them up and gave them to him. He was much happier and so was Baba until we were getting in the car to leave and he asked her is she was going to mail him his presents on his birthday. Caden, without realizing, really knows how to work Baba. The afternoon we left to drive home, she was out shopping for more presents for Caden. She did good and Caden LOVES his new super hero boxer briefs!!! :p
Caden celebrated with cupcakes on his actual birthday and we had a small party for him on Saturday. He wanted to go to a bounce place, but I wasn't organized enough before Christmas to get it all arranged. Instead, we invited 2 of his friends to go with us to Chuck E. Cheese. They had a blast.

Caden and NathanAllie flying highJaelyn had a stash of ticketsCaden and the mouseAlyssa, Caden, Jaelyn, Allie and NathanThank you everyone for making Caden's day so special.

My favorite present that we gave Caden were these Yoda Christmas lights. They are supposed to be strung on a Christmas tree. Instead, I drilled new holes in their backs to move the lights from their bottoms and hung them on Caden's curtain rod. He LOVES LOVES LOVES his new night light!

The Rest of the Pictures - Christmas 2009

Last week, I spent time updating the blog with all the stories of our Christmas. I took well over 500 pictures with my new ;) camera. Here are a few of my favorites that I may or may not have shared already...

We got a Wii

We started talking about buying a Wii over a year ago. I had very successfully talked Dan out of it or at least postponing the purchase all that time. Not that I didn't think a Wii would be fun, it's just that I didn't want the wires hanging down everywhere in our living room. We have 1 living room/family/whatever you want to call it and I didn't want it junked up. It's my space. The kids have their space in the basement, Dan has his dumping grounds other places. The living room is my area. So anyway, Dan went off to get something the other day. He was gone much longer than I thought he would be. He came home with that dreaded white box. Yea for Christmas money. The kids have had a ball with it and so far, when not in use, it has been stored and tucked away in the nice lidded box I gave Dan. I'm hopeful that'll last!

Decluttering

Several of my blogging friends are on decluttering kicks. I love to clean, declutter and organize so I jumped right on their bandwagon. I have a very analytical brain. I need my world to be in order to be able to think. Dan doesn't get it at all, but I know there must be other people like me out there :p. When my house is a mess, I feel like my brain is in chaos. I'm more forgetful and scatterbrained.

So, we came home on Sunday afternoon. I was already motivated to clean because of my friends' blogs and because of the piles of stuff we were bringing home. By the time I went to bed Sunday night, I had our Christmas stuff sorted and packed away. Monday, I pulled everything out of our storage closet and the blue room. (The blue room as we call it is our guest room which doubles as another storage room. Since we don't have a garage, it stores Dan's Army gear and our bicycles among other things. By the way, encase you are wondering, the walls are blue, hence the name) By lunch on Monday, I had the toys sorted and moved to a shelving unit in the store closet and the blue room looking like a guest room (anyone want to come visit? - better come quick before it becomes a dumping ground again). I took a van full, literally, of stuff to Goodwill before the girls got out of school and it felt so good to get rid of all of that stuff. If things don't add value to our lives, I don't see the point in storing them. Dan let go of books he's had since he was in college, and has never opened again. What's the point?

I've been tackling some project since then. Last night, I sorted out the 2 drawers in our TV armoire and cleaned out the kids' younger DVD. This morning, schools were delayed 2 hours for snow so Jaelyn helped me empty our craft and game cabinet and organize it. It looks so much nicer and we can find everything now. I've smiled every time I opened it today.

Next up is bedroom closets!!!!

A Successful Dinner

Dinner is usually a hit and a miss at our house. Allie always eats what Dan and I eat with the exception of Chinese food. Jaelyn and Caden can be very picky. Usually I can get a few bites of meat and 1/2 a cup of veggies in Jaelyn as long as there's Ranch dressing. I'm lucky if we get a bite of everything into Caden. Our newest rule is you have to eat 1 bite of everything and then you can fix yourself a bowl of cereal. It's working. Caden is trying more foods. It's still only 1 bite, but it's becoming more voluntary rather than Mommy making him eat it.

I pan fried pork chops tonight. I added a cinnamon chipotle grilling rub to the flour and they turned out really good. I'm not a big pork chop person and I was gnawing the bone. Caden ate his bite of pork chop and declared that it was good! He then proceeded to eat a few bites of carrots and several bites of green beans so that he could eat okra. The boy loves fried okra which cracks me up when he doesn't like any other vegetables. I don't fry very often, but whenever I do, okra is always included in the meal. Jaelyn even ate all of hers without complaint. It was the nicest dinner we've had in a long time.

Finally Got Tired of Being Cold

We have lived several places that have been very cold. I've always made do with a coat and gloves and the strategy of not spending too much time outside. I've frozen and just dealt with it. My feet always feel like ice in winter. Thankfully, Dan's understanding and lets me put my cold feet on his legs at night. I guess I could blame my Florida upbringing on being totally unprepared to live in cold climates.

It's barely January and the cold has finally gotten to me or maybe I've finally gotten smart. I thought you'd enjoy a picture of how I dress for winter these days. Dan bought me the coat in October. I knitted the scarf in November. The gloves, boots and cuddle duds I've had and I just bought the wool socks and hat yesterday. I didn't even shiver at the bus stop this afternoon!

Happy Birthday Little Man

I cannot fathom how Caden could be turning 5 today. It just doesn't seem possible. I see him as my baby boy, but when I look at recent photos, I can indeed see a maturing little boy. I tell Caden all the time that he can't grow up, but he promises me that he'll still hug and kiss me when he's grown. I really do need to get that promise in writing or maybe video since he can't write anything other than his name very well.

We started celebrating Caden's birthday in Pensacola with presents and cookies. Today we had lunch with friends and came home to bake cupcakes for him to take to school tomorrow. Saturday, we are having a "surprise party" for him at Chuck E. Cheese with 2 of his little friends.

I've Been Ordered...

...to update my blog. I like to please people and I try hard to follow directions. This morning, I brought my camera bag in from the car finally. I know I've been home for 4 days, but it's so cold. I still haven't managed to bring in the food processor or the DVD players. And before you ask, yes, we did travel with a food processor. It doesn't sound nearly as funny if I tell you why so I won't. That was step 1. Step 2 turned out to be impossible at the moment. It seems the extreme cold has sucked all life out of my rechargable batteries. Alas, you'll all have to wait for the batteries to charge before I can download my pictures to my computer and then upload them to my blog because honestly, who wants to read a bunch of stories when a picture is worth a thousand words.

Be patient!

ETA...scroll down, I added a few posts in chronological order. I'll work on the rest tomorrow. Right now, I need to go ice cupcakes for the little man's birthday!!! Can you believe he's 5 today?

Happy New Year 2010

The last year dragged in the beginning, but the end sure did zip past! I'm looking forward to learning what the new year has in store for us. We are still in limbo land as far as orders and moving. Hopefully, Dan will have an email in his inbox when he goes back to work on Tuesday.

Blogging about the rest of our trip will have to wait until we get home. We leave tomorrow morning to start the trek north. We always look forward to coming, but that drive home...well, it's not always as much fun.