Happy Valen-nine!

Garrett turned 9 months old yesterday. This week has been the week of the chocolate everything! I'll be putting it all away very shortly. The kids have had fun with their Valentine parties at school, so here are a few pics....or alot actually.

As far as G is concerned....he had a great time at Emmy's last week. I wish I had pics of him, but I haven't had time to pester them about pictures. They said they had a great time. Just in that week he started pulling up on everything and even moving along furniture. He's still scooching, but if you take his shirt off he'll crawl because he doesn't like his belly on the floor. I need to film him with his shirt off because it is quite funny! He's gotten 2 more teeth, but I don't know how much he's grown...seems like alot to me.



I gave him cheerios yesterday! For some reason we always start cheerios at 9 months. He was a big fan!
NOT a big fan of the sheep yesterday...bad sheep.

Just a good tooth pic, but you can't see the top ones yet.

Standing tall.

Heart from head to toe.

M and Mary....This little one is so funny. She was trying so hard to get Mary to pose. She even told her to put her hand down.

These are all mixed up...lazy posting syndrome. Allie and her friend M from school going through their loot.

Always a poser.

One of the boys.

"Camel" made Mary moo a heart and gave it to her. We got a hug and a smile out of that one. She told me this morning he was her "Balentine"
Big smile:)

25 things about me.

Katie tagged me to write 25 random things about me...and so I don't even know how you come up with 25 things, but here goes in random order.

1. The last thing I should be doing right now is blogging, but it's one of my favorite addictions.

2. I don't like my feet AT ALL, but the hubs things his are "nice". Who thinks they have nice feet anyways?

3. I have scary elevator dreams when I get stressed out. After having babies, I would consistently dream that I was falling in an elevator and about to hit the bottom. For that reason, I'm not crazy about being in an elevator.

4. I wish I were more organized, but realize I will be a work in progress. The hubs just asked 2 days ago when Beth Ann was coming to help me again as the snacks were falling out of the cabinet on top of me. I am finally going to make it to her house this spring break so that we can find some hidden talent I have to help her.

5. Someone from Rochester runs across my mind every day. They were some of the dearest friends I've ever known and I miss bunches. Victoria, I'm praying for you every day until that baby gets here on Monday. Can't wait to hear what you are having.

6. I don't miss the snow there, although I do prefer cold weather to hot.

7. I liked being a pharmacist, but I get enough practice having 3 snotty kids of my own, 5 neices (1 on the way), and 2 nephews. I do love each of them so much and am thankful that we have family trips for the cousins to get together.

8. I don't know how moms work all day and get the laundry done, the meals cooked, and the groceries bought. My mom is one of my biggest heroes...she did it all.

9. My dad is also a hero who has worked 12 hour days for years and years and years. He purchased 21 years of college with all those hours, so I hope by now he is spending it on himself. He's fishing more which makes me happy.

10. I think my memaw and granddad are the sweetest most genuine people who ever walked the earth. I don't think I've heard them utter a bad thing about anyone.

11. I love my friends. Every stage of life I've traveled through I've met GREAT people and FUNNY people too. I love FUNNY people!

12. I wish I were more thoughtful...or that i acted on my thoughts more when thinking about other people.

13. I love God and am thankful that He saved me.

14. I'm only on 14??? Seriously this is really hard...you should try it.

15. I can type faster than Hubs, but he is better than me at alot of things. He really is one of the smartest people I've known. I can out whit him though on occasion!!! He is also a very entertaining writer, although he would never admit it. I would ask him to be a guest writer on my blog, but he thinks he is above "blogging". He secretly has a blog, but he calls it his "website". It's where he and all his fantasy football peeps have been hanging out for years "blogging" even though they don't call it that.

16. I wish I loved to read as much as other folks. I do like to, but I get distracted by all these kids who live with me. I just listed to the Shack on the way to CO. If you haven't read it, it is excellent. It makes you think...which I may need to do more of.

17. I have awesome in-laws.

18. Faber's sister Mando has emailed me several times a week for at least the 8 years I've been married. Is that the craziest thing?? Good emailers are hard to find...I wish I were better at it.

19. I didn't get the fashion gene...I now buy things and leave the tag on so Em can approve yeah or neh and if not approved, I can return them.

20. Em is more of a sister than I ever imagined she would be. I really couldn't stand her growing up, but I love her to pieces now. I hope I'm as good of an aunt as she is...I'm going to try REALLY hard.

21. Am I done yet?

22. I was proud of myself skiing this year. Seriously! I am such a fraidy cat when it comes to moving fast in any form, but I think I tucked it a few times actually.

23. I wish I were just a little shorter. I feel awkward in pictures with my "shorter" friends. I feel like a giraffe. Sometimes when em and I are trying on clothes, if it's is too tight, we just say..."oh well...too short". That is a nice thing because many times it is too short and too tight!

24. I used to be a runner. Runners are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I want to be a runner again...I really have no good excuse except that it hurts for a few weeks! Maybe I'll try the mill....one more time.

25. My kids make me laugh and cry. We are in the crazy, someone always needs something phase. I can see the light though way down there at the end of the tunnel...until we reach the teenager tunnel. Then I don't know if there will be a light at all. Ok...sheww that took up way more time, but it was kindof fun. You should try it.

Awesome..

Awesome..the one word to describe both videos below. I will probably be in big trouble for the second video (sorry Jason from one outlaw to another). It just made me laugh so hard that I couldn't leave it out. I so dumbly turned the camera when I was recording, but you'll get the drift. The first one is just a great illustration of what a responsible parent I am. Allie was REALLY into finding "jumps". She wanted to go through every tree she saw, and of course I wanted to film at least one. Hubs said, "There's a good one, head on down there and film it Mer." Usually Allie is a controlled skiier (seriously), but she decided to turn off her pizza (stopping wedge) and turn on her french fries (skis down the mountaing) toward this jump, and well you'll see how it all went down. I've placed a poll to the right if you'd like to vote for your favorite.

Daddy let me drive!

Daddy let me drive the snow mobile yesterday! It was the funnest thing I ever did in my whole entire life. And I loved it because there was a few bumps in the road and there was some really big hills and we went straight down them. And we went side to side over deep walls and it got really bumpy. There was a snack thing and I liked to call it the snack shack where we stopped. And I fed these snow birds half of my sandwich, and then mommy got to drive, and she raced Katie and Bunny all around the mountain. And Bunny, Katie, and mommy were all tired of holding on when we got back down the mountain. I also hit Jason with a snowball and Pappy too!

Pitiful...

Yesterday when we dropped the girls off at ski school, I was given a card that said pick up time 3-330. Being the overly anxious parents we are, we showed up at 3:29..ha! Well, the card was apparently for Mary's school and not Allie's which ended at 3. When we got there, she was the lone ranger with her teacher....and TIRED!

1..2..3..SKI!

We are anti-airline folks...Yes, we'd rather spend 2 days in the car with our lovely quiet children than the alternative. After living in NY for several years, and after a NUMBER of really bad airline experiences, we are happy to strap the kids in for better or for worse! They do great though (baby G was not in tow..check out Em and Adam's blog to view his vacation). Allie has always been an amazing traveler. She may be a talker at ALL other times, but when it comes to a long road trip, she is perfectly content to be in the car for hours. Mary, however, is learning. She did great for her age, but is still getting used to the White Way to travel.

We drove 12 hours on Friday, and parked it at the same hotel we always stay at on our way out west. The girls and the hubs went for a swim. Mary decided to jump in without warning. After a time under water, upon being rescued, her response was "That was weird". We traveled around 7 hours the second day, and finally reached our destination. By nightfall the rest of the hubs fam arrived. Mando and company did not get to come, and we miss them much!!!

Here I come Daddy...ready or not.

Time for some sledding.
Wow...this white stuff is cold.

Ready to hit the slopes. Allie was flying after a couple of runs. This is her 3rd year to ski, and she loves it! I got a great video, but can't get it to upload....not the greatest broadband connection.

Hey MOM!

Happy Birthday Mary!

My Mary turned 3 yesterday!!! Happy Birthday sweet girl...did we just leave the terrible twos?!!! It's all relative, but they didn't seem too terrible to me:) You are fun kid for sure...a little timid (ok a lot timid), imaginative, and sweet. You love to play by yourself if it is before 6pm, but you come alive at night and..kindof like your daddy! Well actually you are a LOT like your daddy.

Vital stats: 38 inch tall (75%)
35 pounds (85%)
Things you've accomplished this year: Potty trained...whoohooo..one more to go! You can recognize your name and randomly pick out most of the letters and a few numbers. You love to color and draw. I've seen you draw an M and smiley faces. Your favorite activities are listening to music, dressing up, swinging, and we have to pry you away from the pantry most days..sorry. I love you Mary moo!!!



We had Mary's popcorn party last night! It was Hubs, Me, and Emmy VERSUS 8 three year olds plus Mary moo. We opted to have the parents drop off their kids from 5-7pm while we played, ate, and theoretically watched a movie! Mary has lots of friends that are boys, so I didn't think there would be alot of movie watching! The kids did GREAT!!!! The weather ended up being absolutely perfect (75deg!). My friend Amy threw in her bounce house at the last minute and the kids of course loved it! I can't believe we were able to play outside for an hour before dark in January! They ate pizza, popcorn, and cake and then settled down to watch a movie. They actually watched it for 45 min!!! Sheww...I'm all partied out for this month!!