"Hey Mom, Miss C. said we can bring a movie into school tomorrow. But, we don't have a DVD player in our classroom, so it has to be one of those really old rectangle movies."

Ready for her first ballet class.

First day of first grade (almost)...

She doesn't start until tomorrow, but we tried everything on one last time to make sure everything still fit, and I figured I'd post a pre-first-day picture today in case I run out of time tomorrow.

Abby's new do.

Merry Christmas, friends!

Abby's school held their annual Christmas pageant on Wednesday, and there was one song that was rather touching. After the show, and referring to this particular song, Abby asked me, "Hey Mom! Did you cry your eyes out when we sang that slow song?" I guess the teachers were going for this effect, and explained to the kids their motive. So when she asked, I had to laugh sentimentally, and of course tell her that I did cry my eyes out.

"In fact," I said to her, "There wasn't a dry eye in the house." I knew this was especially true for George, who did actually get a bit choked up during the performance.

She was quite pleased with herself, and with the rest of her class. They worked really hard on their show for weeks, and in the end, their efforts and many practices paid off. The show was a hit!

The pageant at school got my spirit jumping, and now the excitement of the next few days is staring to creep up on me. I figure by tonight, when the tree is finally standing and decorated, I will be acting like a 9 year old again, as I tend to regress every year at this time. The kids, of course, couldn't be more charged, and are getting a tad impatient with the wait.

I keep reminding them, "Only two (and a half) more days until Christmas. It really is almost here!" I remember the anticipation, and when I think back to the years when I was an exuberant child - tearing frantically into my gifts on that one magical morning of the year, hoping and praying for the perfect toy. The feelings of jubliance come right back again when I watch my own children's faces light up with curiosity and wonder to see the many packages under the tree, these packages that were absent when they headed up to bed the night before. I relate to their utter elation when they realize that Santa has visited their home to grant their every wish.

Since becoming a mother, Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning for me. It's not about life on the receiving end anymore; the meaning has, by far, surpassed that. It's more rewarding than I could ever imagined, to give these memories to my children and live these precious moments with them.

The holidays always add warmth during the coldest winter days. May you have everything and everyone you need to make this year the warmest Christmas and happiest New Year, and I hope this holiday season brings you health, happiness and great memories to cherish.

Merry Christmas!

The tooth fairy is coming tonight!

My baby lost her first tooth today during her sleepover at Grandma's house! I haven't seen it for myself yet, but here's the picture they sent me! Her new saccharine smile makes me gushy and proud!

A Bumblebee and a Flower

by Abby


A Bumblebee and a Flower 

She Wee Hello.

Abby and I are listening to her new favorite song: She Will Be Loved, by Maroon 5. I didn't even know she knew this song until we were driving home from the store tonight and it started playing on the radio. Low and behold, she started to sing along. I love her interpretations of the lyrics! She thinks Adam is singing "she wee hello!" when the words are actually "she will be loved!" Hehe! She's cute!

I'm researching online where to find some tapes my grandmom used to have for me when I was a kid that I think Abby would really like. I found out that they are all out of print, but I can buy them through an out-of-print Christian record company. The tapes are full of really cute stories for kids to teach them about God. I'll check with my grandmom first to see if she happens to still have them. I'd love it if she did, but if not I'll have to pay $20 for a cassette!! lol

I'm just about finished my essay for English class on Tuesday. Hooray! Tomorrow night I have Sociology class so I guess I should get my assigned reading done!

Annie and Abby

annie and abby 

Tables are for glasses, not for a****

I sent George out tonight because I have alot to do around the house... So far I have accomplished nothing! Oh, well... it's nice to have things quiet for a while. I have to get back in touch with the administrations department tomorrow about my math class from the summer. Apparantly the school thinks I dropped the class. I was there every day, took every test, and the teacher gave me my grade on the last day of classes... I got a 98! I definitely want to make sure those credits are counted! I worked hard (and paid good money) in that class! Anyway, I have some stuff to do, but I just wanted to add in that Georgie is now climbing on everything!! I was cleaning the dishes earlier, and while I was in the kitchen, Abby yelled up the staris, "Mom! Georgie's on the table!! He's being so bad! But not me. I'm not bad. I'm a really good girl! Come and see!" I dried my hands and walked down the steps to find the baby on the kids table! He climbed onto one of the chairs, and then onto the table! What next? I think it;s so funny, that for a kid who's afraid to walk, for fear of falling, has no fear of climbing high onto furniture (or anything else, for that matter)!! He's a character! At first, when I came downstairs, he looked very guilty, like he knew he wasn't supposed to be where he was...

oops... am i in trouble??

So, anyway... he was so proud of himself that he made it onto the table! He was laughing & smiling like mad, and showing off his cup ...

check me out, mom!

...until Abby decided to climb up with him.

hey mom! she's in my shot!

That was a mistake! His ego was crushed that Abby too, shared this rare talent that he only recently discovered he possessed... He was so mad that she could climb onto the table too, and very upset that she stole the spotlight, even if only for a second!

crushed...

Ah, rivalry... it starts so young.

This is...

...my very first entry in my new blog! I still have my journal on blurty.com, but I plan on moving those entries to this site eventually. Probably when we get back from vacation! The kids are doing great. Georgie is still not walking... sort of. He can walk, and has in the past, but after a few bad falls, he decided that crawling is still the safest mode of transportation! Oh well, he will do it in good time. He's so funny! His personality is definitely coming through more and more every day. Abby and I worked very hard to scrub her little house clean, and get it set up on the yard for her! She and Georgie played in it all day Sunday. Nick came over for a while on Sunday afternoon, and played in the yard with us. Abby was in the tub later that night, around 7, and Nick came back over, and informed us that he was going mini-golfing with his mom and dad... and he said Abby was coming with him. I asked Abby if she wanted to go, and she jumped out of the tub, and into her clothes, as fast as she could! She was sooo excited! They left to go golfing... I put the baby to bed and George and I watched Six Feet Under... by the time the show was about half-way over, Abby was home. She was so excited to tell me everything about golfing and playing skee-ball! She had a strawberry shake, that she was more than willing to share with George and me. Apparently, she only played 9 holes at the golf course, and whenever she would swing the club, she would hit herself in the chin! :) Gerri said she did pretty well, for her first time, though.

She had a very busy weekend... on top of playing in the yard on Sunday and golfing that night, she had James' birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's on Saturday. She had a great time there!


Chuck E. Cheese!

She played alot of games, and went on the "rides." (She played alot of skee-ball at Chuck E's and with Nick Sunday at Nifty Fifties.) James seemed to have a good time too, at his party!


abby and the birthday boy!

When we got home from party on Saturday, George wanted to get some yardwork done, so I put Abby and Georgie in the wagon, and pulled them to the playground. What a trip! It's uphill bothways! Very steeply uphill, I might add... You go down a big hill, and then as soon as you get to the bottom, you go right back up again, and on the way home it's the same: down the hill, then back up and up and up again to get home...

We are getting ready to start our late summer trips soon. Our first one is this weekend coming up, to the shore with Jay and Lisa and the kids. It should be alot of fun! It'll be Georgie's first time on the beach... (with the exception of last year.. when he was a newborn)! I hope he likes it! Abby is psyched! She can't wait!

Poor Georgie... he has been so beat up lately! He had a horrible diaper rash that would not budge. He split his chin open when he was trying to walk across the room, but instead fell into the side of the toybox. He got so bit up by mosquitos, that his legs and face were so swollen and irritated... some of the bites got infected. He has so many bruises from falling. He has multiple teeth breaking through, so his mouth hurts all the time. Nothing stops his appetite, though! He is such a good eater! He loves everything you put in front of him! We call him "chicken-little" though! He's afraid of everything... toys that make noise, stuffed animals, he's afraid to stand up... hehe! He's so cute!

Abby is determined to make him walk! She grabs him by the arms and drags him around the room, yelling, "Stand up, Baby G! I am going to teach you how to walk right now!!" He finally gives into her, stands up and takes a couple steps... and then as soon as she lets go of his hands to clap for him, he sits down and crawls away as fast as he can! They play really well together. They miss each other terribly when one is away from the other too long.

Abby got a book in the mail from my grandmom the other day! She ran all over the house with the envelope, screaming, "I got mail!! I got mail!!" I finally caught up with her, and asked if she wanted to open it, and of course, she did! It's a cute little book, called "All Things Bright and Beautiful." It's about everything God created.

While we were playing in the yard Sunday, we found a grasshopper... he was missing a leg,and wasn't doing very well. We put him on a leaf, and placed him in the shade to keep him comfortable. Abby would walk him around the yard occasionally, showing him the sites, every now and then... when she was done walking him, she would put him back in her little house. At the end of the day, I was putting things away, and I found the poor little guy, squished. We think it was either Nick or George that carelessly assaulted him. Abby came up behind me, before I could hide him, and asked what happened to the grasshopper? I had no choice but to tell her the truth... so I told he that he was really, really hurt, and really sick. I asked her what we should do, and she told me that she wanted him to go to Heaven, where he wouldn't be sick anymore. She then proceeded to pray to God, and call to him to come and take her friend to Heaven where he would be happy and safe. We closed our eyes, and counted to five, and when we opened them again, the grasshopper was gone, and Abby was so happy, she kept thanking God for her friend grasshopper, thanking him for taking her grasshopper to heaven, and thanking him for her family and friends... She's too sweet! She's going to marry my grandmom when she gets big, she said!

I signed up for my fall classes last month... English and Sociology... Woohoo! I start in one month! It's still just two nights a week. Tuesday is for English, and Wednesday is Sociology (I think... but, it may be the other way around. I have to check on that). The classes are three hours long. Three hours of writing English essays... ugh! I hope (but I know I'm wrong) that there is not an overload of homework! What do you think? Highly unlikely, right?

Girl's night out.

Abby and I went out for "girls night" tonight. We headed over to the mall, on a mission. We found two dresses for her almost instantly, and just as easily found a pair of shoes, and a new purse for her for the wedding tomorrow. Afterwards, we wandered around from dress to dress, until I finally settled on one I like OK. I ran down to the shoe department and found a pair of heels that work well with the dress, and I got myself a purse too. I figured if Abby got a new one, why not? We were both hungry... shopping will do that to you, so we got dinner and ice cream! Abby didn't care what flavor of ice cream she had, as long as it was pink (her new favorite color)! So, she wound up with rasberry sherbert. She was as happy as a lark. On our way home, we decided to drive by Al and Dot's (just because), and it so happened that Al was just pulling up to the house at the same time we were driving by. We stopped in to say hello, because Abby, of course, wanted to show off her new purse and dresses. We stayed for about an hour or so, but by then Abby and I were worn out (shopping will do that to you too)! We said goodbye, and headed the four blocks home. We showed George what we had bought, and then I quickly put curlers in Abby's hair, before she put up too much of a protest. She looks so cute with her hair all rolled up in the curlers!! It will look really cute for the wedding tomorrow too (when I take the rollers out, of course)! Anyway, I'll report back about the whole wedding on Sunday, I suppose.

Abby's birthday.

Abby's 3 today!! At first she did not want to turn 3. In fact, for weeks, she's protested that she was staying 2 forever! But last night she went to bed psyched that it was her birthday the next morning... and she would, in fact, be another year older! She woke up very excited, and anxious for the day to begin... and to pass time in the morning, Abby helped me hang a 'Princess Party' banner with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle on it. She especially loves Cinderella, as I think all little girls do. We got dressed and packed our backpacks with all of the very important things that we can absolutely not leave the house without, and headed out the door, lolipops in hand. Abby enjoyed her cherry-flavored taffy, and I had watermelon! Yum! We picked up grandma at her house, and off we went to the Discovery Museum.

When we got to the museum, the first thing we saw were computers... they were there to write your own news article about your day at the museum! It's an adlib type of project... they have most of the story filled out except for a few key words that you fill in however you like! Here's how Abby's read (the underlined words are the ones she chose and filled in):

A Visit to the Museum
By Abby

After visiting the museum 1 time, this reporter has the full scoop on what it is like at the Garden State Discovery Museum. The first time I walked in the Museum's door I felt really silly.

Of all the activities the Museum had to offer, I liked having a party the best. It is something that 3-year-olds really like to do. There are even things to keep adults busy at the Museum. They especially like to play with Abby when they visit.

Even though I liked visiting very much, nothing is perfect. While the Museum has almost everything you can imagine, this reporter hopes they will add a dinosaur real soon.

Visiting the Museum is really a memorable experience. Personally, I will never forget when it's my birthday. I even got to see something I never saw before... an American Flag Cow!

After we wrote the article, we went into the first room of the museum, where they had a huge boat set up, with fishing poles to catch the "fish" in the "water" below! Abby loved walking up the long ramp, to the top of the boat... she caught many fish! We then played some games (grandma enjoyed these more than anyone, I think...lol)! Bean bag toss, tic tac toe with wiffle balls, etc... The next room had snakes, frogs, turtles, and weird bugs... it was pretty neat. From there, we walked further into the museum, where Abby "fueled" up and old Volkswagen, and then "drove off" into the sunset, with her grandma in the passenger seat! After driving around, Abby ran her own Pet Grooming Service, Veterinarian's Office (she looked so cute in her doctors coat and stethoscope), then she dressed in costumes and performed live on stage, she ran a diner... taking food orders for me and mom, after all this she still ran the checkout of the produce department... ringing up people's fruits and veggies... she baked bread, worked on a construction site, slid down a giant slide... and the list just goes on and on... Even Georgie got to play! They had an infant playground set up where he could crawl around safely and play with all kinds of cool toys! I could write all day about what we did, because that's how busy we were today. My little girl. So big. Out of all the little girls in the whole world, how did I get so lucky? God gave me the best one. I love you Abby! Happy Birthday!