Chattanooga Aquarium

Kurt had two days off for some random reason, so we took advantage of it and pulled Annie out of school for the day (Friday) and headed to the Chattanooga Aquarium about 2 hours away. It was a great aquarium and the girls loved it. They all did fairly well when Alyse and Madelyn were going at it or Madelyn just crying/whining for no reason....she about did Kurt and I in that day and the next. We got to see all kinds of fun things. I think some of my favorites were the funky seahorses...I'll attach a picture of one of them. Annie's favorite thing was the giant turtle shell and the sea horses. Alyse kept asking to see the shark and it was her favorite too!! Madelyn loved the baby turtles. All of it was very cool. The girls also loved the butterfly garden. Annie had one land on her and Alyse got to hold one too thanks to another girl in there. Madelyn was a little scared of them and did not want Kurt to try and touch one. My mom had just sent some money in the mail to each of the girls, which was perfect because they each got to get something at the gift shop with it.

Annie's two lost teeth

Annie lost her two bottom teeth a few weeks ago and a few days apart. She has started noticing them getting loose and Kurt had kept telling her that she was about the age she should start loosing some teeth...so one day the first one was really loose. She came home from school and said Ms. Melissa (her teacher) tried to pull it out, but it started bleeding and that was it. So that night, Kurt asked Annie if he could pull it out for her. She was so adamant that he could not. Kurt tried reassuring her it wouldn't hurt. Then the rest of the conversation went something like this...
Annie, "No, dad. I don't want you to do it. Ms. Melissa, the tooth puller will do it."
Kurt, "What, your teacher is not a tooth puller. Annie, I'm a dentist. That's what we do, pull teeth. Just let me do it."
A "No dad, Ms. Melissa will do it at school tomorrow."
K, "Why do want Ms. Melissa to do it so bad Annie."
Leah, "Because Kurt, that's the COOL thing to do...to have Ms. Melissa pull it out in front of all her friends."
A "Yeah Dad, the Cool thing, yeah yeah, the cool thing."

She sounded like the biggest nerd and reminded both Kurt and I of my little sister Rebecca!! So cute...Kurt had a little bit of a hard time because Annie would not let him pull it.

The next tooth was lost while Julianna and Miles were here visiting...it was literally handing on by a thread...she would not let Ms.Melissa pull it at school or Kurt pull it at home. Then finally, I remembered that she had asked me if we had any big (not already cut up) apples at home a few days earlier. So, I asked her if she wanted an apple and she did....She barely even made any teeth marks on the apple before it popped out. It was so loose, it didn't even bleed!
Now, the reason she wanted an apple was because a peds dentist had come in to talk to the class and told a story about how he had lost his tooth while eating an apple, so Annie thought that sounded pretty cool and wanted a similar story. So, now she has one....crazy girl!!!

The tooth fairy came both times and gave her a dollar each time, the first time was a gold coin dollar and the second time was a dollar bill. She was pretty excited!
And she looks really cute with her new smile....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A little late, but I just wanted to show pictures of my cute girls in their green from grandma Jacobs. We got an all green package about a week before St. Patrick's Day and the girls loved it! Annie made a leprechaun trap for school, but no body caught one. She was so disappointed :) And she was worried all day about our green dinner because last year she threw up after it, but I told her not to worry. Needless to say, she did not eat any of the green cookies that night. We had pesto pasta, asparagus, green salad, green grapes, lemon-lime kool aid and green snicker doodles...it was so much fun! It was a super nice day, so we played outside almost all day and painted our toes and fingernails green. I was not too happy about painting my fingernails, but Madelyn was about in tears with her request for me to be just like her! We also did cute little "gold" bags for our neighbors/friends....I got a bunch of gold candy (rolos, snickers,twix, werther's, reese's, hershey's nuggets) and put them in little bags with a note "Hey it's your lucky day, a little green leprechaun came your way, to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day" (this is courtesy of my friend Angela). Madelyn and Alyse had so much fun putting it on our friends doors! That night we had a treasure hunt for gold. The girls found clues everywhere that led them to the dryer where the pot of "gold" was hidden!!!

A Good day-March 16th

Yesterday was one of those days that just seemed really good and really productive. I got Annie off to school and both the other girls were still sleeping. Normally I would have gone back to bed, but it was almost 8, so I ate breakfast, said my prayers and read an article in the Ensign (church magazine)...none of which are normal occurrences! Then the girls woke up and we got ready, which took entirely too long, but oh well. I got to the gym (rec center) at 9:50 and renewed our membership for a mere 195 for the family for the year (our tax return money finally came in). Then I had to take the girls to the kid people and refill out forms for the new year. By this time it was already 10:00 and I had to leave by 10:20 to get Alyse to dance on time. So, I almost just bagged the whole thing, but thought, no, this is my first day back in 4 months, so I might as well do something, even if it's only for a few minutes. By the time I got started running on the treadmill, I had 10 minutes left before I had to leave...so that's what I did and at least I did something :)Off to dance we went and I finished my workout there with sit ups, push ups and triceps push ups. It was a beautiful day so I headed to the park with a few good friends and enjoyed being outside and letting the kids run rampant! Then we came back home I finished folding the laundry that had been sitting on the floor for 2 days while the two little girls took a bath and then cleaned my bathroom. The girls played really well together without much fighting. Then Kurt got home a little earlier than usual, so we ate dinner and headed to the neighborhood park. On the way, we had a lesson for Family Home Evening...all in all it felt like a really good day with lots accomplished. So much, I probably will get nothing else done for the rest of the week!

Now my only question to myself is this...why don't I get up a little early every day so I can start with prayer and spiritual reading for upliftment? I have no answer for that, expect that I am not a morning person and I am tired!!!

These pictures are the ones I took for the day trying to keep up on my picture a day project...

Happy Birthday MOM!!

Today is my mom's birthday and I just wanted her to know how much I love her. She is the most amazing person I know. She would do anything for anyone, not just her kids. She's always thinking of others and how she can make their lives better. She's the master of ideas...I always go to her when I need ideas for a lesson, talk, party, gifts for Kurt, etc. She also gives great advice on parenting, keeping your relationship strong and your life interesting! She has an unconditional love for my dad and each one of her kids, their spouse and her grandchildren. I can talk to her about any and every thing and I do...whenever I call home and my dad happens to be there, he'll ask my mom how many times it is that she's talked to me that day...it is usually the third or fourth time :) She's so interested in my life and my children's lives that she never gets bored with the stories I tell! She's always rooting for the underdog and has been that way ever since I can remember. She's made our home so welcoming and inviting that some of our friends have gone to visit my mom even when we're not there. And to this day I LOVE to go home...I am always well taken care of there and just love the feeling of being there. If I had my choice, I would live next door to her! She has a strong testimony of the gospel and it continues to grow...I see it in her thoughts, actions and words as she gets a little older and her wisdom grows...and I love that she is able to share her perspective with us as she looks back on her life. She is constantly trying to help us become better as spouses, parents, friends, siblings, members of the church, etc. She is up for anything, whether it be traveling, tennis, bowling, water/snow skiing, hiking...whatever anyone else wants to do. I could go on, but will end with..I hope to be just like her as I continue to get older also!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day!! Thanks grandpa and grandma for the fun package and the new outfits for V-day! I had a nice morning of sleeping in until almost 9...perfect way to start the day! Then, the girls nixed my idea of heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and had eggo waffles instead. They did come downstairs to a flower, card and stuffed animal from dad and a mailbox with fun stuff inside from me! They loved it. I got beautiful roses from Kurt and a few other things. Kurt's present is coming tonight :) It's just been a nice relaxing day hanging out with each other. The kids decorated sugar cookies and then Kurt took them on a bike ride. The weather's been so nice this past week, we've really enjoyed being outside everyday!! We finished the night with heart shaped pizza, with heart shaped pepperoni, and heart shaped garlic bread with something red to drink...

sorry, this was suppose to be posted yesterday, but my pictures weren't uploading

NO!

I think that this has to be Madelyn's favorite word right now...and I'm sure it was learned from her older sister Alyse. Whenever I ask her to do something, like help clean up or take her diaper to the trash that she just took off for no apparent reason, she yells, not says nicely, but yells, NO! I think this easily comes from Alyse who is also frequently heard saying no, although in a much calmer, I don't really care what you want me to do, tone of voice. For instance, two nights ago it was her turn for family prayer. So, we say, Alyse could you please say the family prayer tonight...without any hesitation or change in her voice or what she's doing she says no and leaves it at that. What?!! Since when did my children have a say in what they do or don't do...crazy kids!

I have a few things to catch up, so my kids know what went on in their lives. Madelyn has been in a bed for a while now, but every once in a while, she won't stay in it, so she has to sleep in her crib for punishment. One such night, after she had fallen asleep I went to go check on her and turn off her night light. This is the sight I found....pj's off, as well as her diaper!!!
It is a good thing I check on the girls before I go to bed at night!!

I am going to sum up what's been happening in our every day lives with pictures...The girls love the wii...alyse not so much, but the other girls love it...Annie is really liking guitar hero, doing either the guitar or the microphone....madelyn loves to do anything we let her, which is mostly holding a remote that is not actually connected to the game :)


The girls love to dance and be silly together...I would say that almost everyday we have some sort of dance party in our house, sometimes with dress ups and other times with just being plain ol' silly. Annie, however, is quite the dancer with her quick feet...you can view the video below...





Some other random shots are of Madelyn eating pepperoni for breakfast...some mornings are just like that...Alyse also ask for hot dogs on occasion and sometimes I really am just not in for a fight that early in the day, so she eats hot dogs or like this day...Madelyn happily eating her pepperoni!

The love to help me clean most of the time and the girls favorite job is the toilets....one they love the clorox wipes used to clean the outside and seat, etc and they REALLY like using the scrub brush to get all the blue cleaning stuff off on the inside of the toilet...If I could just get them to like mopping floors I'd be set!

All in all they are just girlie, silly girls at heart...one of them in the shower, one of Alyse getting her nails done (my girliest!) and two of them in their authentic German dressed from Opi and Omi (Kurt's grandparents)...they are just too cute. I am so grateful to have these three precious girls in my life, through the good and the bad, but mostly good!!!