dance party

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whats a party without dancing!

4 years old!

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shreya gave her that shirt for her bday. kiki of course had to rip off the shirt she had on and put this on!

kiki's birthday

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we did the fishing pole game. for prizes. all animal related games....to go with the pet shop theme. notice the animal ears

work horse

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will tom ever say no to them....not likely....

first day

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first day going to the park! you can see how excited all the kid were!!! thats our hotel in the background and the boat taking us to the park! if you stay at universal's hotels you get fast passes for all the rides. we really made the most of our trip not having to wait in any lines. it was awesome! only the best for our hero, jeff!

lucy missed her daddy

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lucy was so excited to have her daddy with us!
kiki's hair........yikes
i was trying to lean out of the picture....now i just look odd.
on the boat ride to universal!

kiki's birthday

kiki got to celebrate her birthday at universal studios. what a cool birthday! i brought her presents there to open that morning. she was so happy!

its pictures like this that are deceiving about kiki's hair. somehow it looks so soft and flowing.....scroll down to see what it looks like more often.

universal studios

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this is adam's birthday. he got the costume that morning. of course, everyone at the park called him harry, someone even asked if they could take a picture with him. thrilling!!! he really does look the park and act it!
universal studios with the may family was amazing! in march we took the boys with us, so they had fun telling their dad what they had done before!
they sell those hair wraps at the park for $3 an inch. i did them for the girls before we left. they were so cute!
it was a very hot trip, we wore our bathing suits and cover ups the whole time and stoped at the water areas to keep cool! the curious george water area is sooo fun!

dolphins

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more from sea world....
this is a good picture of kiki's hair in its natural state. a big ratty mess. this is why when she asked me to cut it a couple months ago, i nearly got emotional. finally the day had arrived when i would never have to deal with her rats nests again! pictures to come, its so cute in a bob!

summer of fun

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we had the best summer. oh course the highlight was jeff being home. this is our trip to sea world! the kids had the best time! we had to go in aug. though and it was sooo hot.

tampa

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while jeff was here we took a trip to the beach. off of tampa. it was awesome. got a hotel so close to the beach! we had the best time.

no weight limit

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yup, once again, the only two adults on the ride....that and lazer tag....

go karts

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tom loved having jeff around before he left and for the couple weeks he was here. another adult sized kid. i wish he could have been here this year!

the biggest kids

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tom and jeff both had to get the unlimited wristbands at johnny Gs. they did the go karts about 20 times taking turns with all the kids, till they were sick and couldn't do it anymore.

posers

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this is way back from when jeff got to come home for a couple weeks. of course we went to our favorite fun center, johnny G's. the girls love to dance on the random table that is there. i love how they have taught lucy to pose this year.

Q&A

saw on a friends blog. so i copied.

interview with kiki

what is your fav food: pizza
what do you want to be when you grow up: a rock star
what is your favorite movie: snow white
what is your favorite book: tom thumb
who is your best friend: lucy
what makes you happy: you (meaning me, of course!)
what makes you sad: when lily hit me.
what if your favorite animal: pepper
what is your favorite song: everybody dance now
favorite vacation: going to UT
what are you excite about: going to grandma's house
favorite thing to do: "play with you"
what are you good at: doing school

interview with halle:

favorite food: ice cream
favorite song: on top of old smokey (the crude, i shot my poor teacher version)
what are you good at: playing nice
best friend: "you" (me again!
what makes you sad: when anybody's being mean to me
what makes you happy: "you" (best mom ever, i guess)
favorite vacation: universal studios
favorite book: blame game, berstein bears
favorite movie: annie
favorite thing to do: play with pepper, can we please stop. (typical halle and her 2 min attention span)

Fall

this is the earliest fall has come to GA. and by fall, i mean it cools down a little at night and in the mornings (the days are still pretty hot), but today its clouded over and breezy and nice. we've had the windows open all day. today the girls have played outside in the backyard since 10am, and from 9-10 we went for a bike ride. so now its 4:30....i'm thinking its time to say come in but i mentioned it a while ago and the girls looked like they were shocked and disappointed....really 8 hours isn't long enough. luckily the neighbor kids are homeschooled too, so they have been outside all day. set up an adoption center wtih all their baby dolls, pretty fun day. i've been cleaning up inside and getting ready for our trip, got a lot done. not a typical day for us. we usually wait till 4 when the cousins get home from school and play outside till evening.

we've been in somewhat of a scheduale....which is different for us. we get up, eat, and do school stuff for one hour. then when lynn gets done dropping the boys off at 9am, we all go for a walk/run and then excercise in lynn's drive way. kiera and halle ride their bikes or halle rides in the power wheels car. then we come back to the house and do more school work. take a break, do more work, take a break , do more work, and then we just hang out.

homeschool so far has been so fun. it hasn't really changed my life or days very much. i am used to spending the day with the girls playing, reading and doing crafts. that is pretty much kindergarten in a nutshell....we got a free curiuclum from the online program k12. they sent us 3 huge boxes of books, counting blocks, science stuff, globes, cds, ect. the subjects are really fun. the history book is just full of fun stuff... "visiting" each country. coloring flags, watching stories online from that country. listening to music form that country, reading story books....the girls love it. language arts is reading a story, usually a classic, then they sent a book of crafts to go along with the story and then act it out. . science is fun, lots of activities. tom is doing that with them. and then of course, math, phonics, handwritting. social studies, health, i think thats it. no one complains , they both love it. kiera is doing the first half of the math and phonics books. it was stuff me and halle have already done. kiki loves feeling like a big girl. she also does puzzles at the table when i need to do something with just halle, halle is in awe everyday at how that could be at all fun to do, but kiki loves it.

we are in a homeschool group. it is like brownies, but called keepers. like brownies with religion (gotta love the south, everything gots a little bible mixed in). the girls love it. there are about 50 young girls (age 5-12) in the group. they meet every other week. and do crafts , a skill and learn a value.

the girls started gymnastics this month too. they love it. kiki keeps telling me, "its so much funner then ballet" i think the girls are too active to do ballet and don't like being told how to dance. they do that every day their own hip hop style.

i need to do another post about how our summer was. maybe tonight. it was a great summer, the funnest i've ever had, so i want to write it all down so i don't forget it.

baby pepper

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we just can't get enough of pepper. okay, i can, but the girls can't. she makes me crazy on a daily basis. i actually had to get rid of the other puppy, dezzy. the two dogs together was too much for me. and no one really liked dezzy anyways. but pepper is just the sweetest thing ever and the girls love to baby her!

hair wraps

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i put hair wraps in the girls hair before our trip to universal studios. its 3 bucks an inch there, so cheap mom saves the day again. the girls loved them, got tons of compliments on them which made them love them even more. they were cute, with charms hanging off them too!

save me!

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poor pepper. she just get so much love! playing "going to the vet" is old favorite of the girls.

tea party

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tea parties with the cousins never gets old. its back to school for the boys so its back to just the girls during the day. these girls love each other sooo much. the girls always find baby stuff for lily at the store and think i should buy it for her. "no, her mom can get her diapers" or "no , her mom buys her clothes"....yestarday kiki was begging me to buy her something, "mom, i would really love to see her in this dress" and i heard halle say, "kiki, mommy doesn't want to waste her money on lily." ....it made me laugh....i'm such a tight wad


quotes of the day:
Halle, "mom, did you just see that a motor cycle passed you"
me, "yeah"
halle, "i guess this truck is going really slow"

out on a walk looking at neighbor's dog:
me, "you see that big dog, he probably eats way more then our little dog, huh?"
halle, "he probably eats babies"
me, "what???"
halle, "did you see the size of his mouth, he could fit a whole baby in that"

kiki never lets me forget to read them the scriptures at night, but one night it was just too late and i wasn't feeling great so i said not tonight....
next morning kiki says, "mommy, when you didn't read us the scriptures last night, i had to say a scripture in my head."
me, "you did? what did you say?"
kiki, "i love to see the temple, i'm going there someday"
so cute!

yestarday was a lazy day.
halle said, "mom, were you in your pjs all day?!?!"
me, "yup"
halle, "OH MY GOSH< you didn't even wear a bra all day?!?!?!" and then laughs and laughs at me.....

snuggled on daddy

snuggled on daddy, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

this is meow-zers.....the stray kitty tom brought home. the sweetest, coolest cat ever! everyone fell in love, especially tom and kiera. at first my cat allergy didn't kick in, then meowzers started to grow up, a few weeks later, and i started to get sick. i told the girls that when that happened we had to find the kitty a new home. so they were ok with that. but having kitty around was so much fun, that that is why we decided to get the puppies. when we got married, me and tom made a pack that we would never have a dog.....so much for that!

halle got on all her "kitty" stuff for a pic with kitty

halle got on all her "kitty" stuff for a pic with kitty, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

lucy and dezzy

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to come up with the names , the whole family had to go to a dog names website and everyone had to like the name or we moved on. it took awhile. pepper was a hit because the dog is black like pepper. the girls love to think they're clever. (just like naming the loudest guinea pig, squeakers, they thought that was the most amazing name ever)

pepper!

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we got two new puppies. this is one of them. she is so sweet and always up for a belly rub. she loves to sleep like this on her back. we got her from a neighbor, who runs a rescue, someone could not take care of her, she is only 6 months old, (and not house trained, so both puppies are getting trained). she is a yorkie/ poodle mix. we are all obssessed with her!

Dezzy!

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new puppy!

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we got a new puppy. only 10 weeks old. we named him Dezzy, the girls wanted to name him salt. to go with pepper, the other dog. he is a lhasa apso/poodle mix. so cute and fluffy. we are having fun with out puppies!

playing outside

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halle and kiera are natural model's . love the poses! adam is always cold when he's wet, even in the heat of the summer! and rose is our neighborhood friend that comes over to play all the time, she is so sweet.

we have been having the funnest days lately! i love the spring and summer time!

~last week we went to our homeschool group, end of the year summer party. kiera found a 10 year old girl to latch on to. she played with kiera the whole time, it was like i had a nanny! and kiera LOVEs the attention!
~we also went to the fair with our neighbors, who got free tickets and shared them with us. we had to put kiera in wheely shoes so she could get on the scary rides!

yestarday me and lynn hung out all day and then that night i had a wii party at the house, we invited our neighbors with the 5 kids. its always a party with 5 extra kids in the house. we played the wii and all over the house from 6-10pm!!!

today lucy had her birthday party at 10am. the neighbors came again. we had cake and ice cream, opened presents and then played with the presents. at noon, we were h aving fun talking and the kids were having a great time, so we decided to pull lunch togther instead of ending the party. we had taco salads outside and then a rain storm came through. the kids played in the rain for a long time and got soaked! everyone went home to change and then met back at my house for more playing, and wii! lynn , me and ally all cleaned my kitchen! the party finally ended at 5pm! wow , a 7 hour party for a 3 year old!!!

finally some updates

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i just did quite a few new posts....i need to get back into keeping this blog updated, as its my only record/journal that i do.....and the girls love to look at past posts and have me read it to them, so i gotta get updated....

i love this picture of halle. everyday i tell her to go get dressed and sometimes she just loves to spend some time putting together her masterpiece for the day. this was after a trip to the thrift store and i let her pick out the shirt and scarf... she feels like a super model every time she looks in the mirror. her and kiera are absolutely in LOVE with themselves and it makes me happy to know they have some serious self esteem!

soccer camp

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this year during spring break the rec center had a free soccer clinic. it was fun for the kids and just so cute to see kiki in her little pink shin guards. they gave us lunch. we played on the playground and even went for hike around in the woods outside the rec center, which turned out to be the kids favorite part.

our good friends and neighbors have 5 kids from age 5-11. they went too. we play with them pretty much every day since their house backs up to lynn's house and they have a big lot of grass that we can play on. they are the funnest , nicest kids. they come over sometimes to play at our house, or for dinner, or we meet at the playground or any thing else fun we do around town.
they are homeschooled, so they are in a fun home school group that the girls are also in. the kids just can't get enough of each other!!!

at the strawberry patch

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there is strawberry patch about 15 min. from here. we go a lot in the spring time. this year we also went to the lane strawberry patch a bit further from here. they had a festival day with food, bounce houses and a find the biggest strawberry contest. me and tom and the girls looked and looked for the biggest strawberry. it was a fun day....didn't win the contest still had a great time!

strike a pose!

strike a pose!, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

who could do a better job then kiera of posing with a strawberry?

while melanie was here, we went to the strawberry patch. yummm...the kids ate tons of strawberry's , picked a bucket and then i made strawberry shortcake and bought ice cream and whipped cream......really the store strawberries just dont' compare!

easter sunday

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trying to get all the kids to smile before church on easter sunday. did not happen.... halle is squinting from the sun in every pic i took....oh well, at least we got them all in a picture. who would of though, lucy was in the mood to smile the most.....
well, these are some cute kids, but to get some frame worthy pictures, we need a do over!

riding her bike

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halle LOVES to ride her bike. she rides EVERY DAY!!! she is really good at it and can ride way faster then me, i'm a coward, she's fearless. we play outside everyday when the boys get home from school till dinner time and sometimes after that. these girls play HARD, from riding bikes to playing tag with the neighborhood kids, to practising cartwheels, running through the sprinklers. we live in a great neighborhood with some really fun neighborhood kids!

oh, lily!

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lily is the cutest baby ever! i just love her big ol' belly and lily adores me. she wants me to hold her all the time!!!!

the perfect baby

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i thought my girls would have been more interested in holding gavin when he came because they are always bugging me about having another baby....but they really didnt' hold gavin that much.....then i realized that lily is what they have in their head that they want. the perfect baby. she looks like a baby and doesn't talk, unless they tell her to say something and she tries to copy them, getting her to say ca-ca always cracks everyone up, she likes to be fed, but can follow direction. they can dress her and ask her yes and no questions and she nods or shakes her head no. she smiles and usually listens to them, and for some reason her stubborn streak doesn't bother halle. halle can put a diaper on her, give her a passy or her blanket and carry her around the house, and halle is totally oblivious to whether lily want to be carried or not, haha.....if halle wants to carry her, lily gets carried. but lily loves halle and loves to give all the kids hugs and play with them. she really is the perfect baby. any younger and she would still be fragile and any older and the girls wouldn't see her as a baby anymore.....if she could stay this age forever, it'd be halle's dream come true!

johnny g's

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kiera and lucy are the cutest little friends. when we went out of town lucy asked lynn, are my sisters home yet? the girls just have so much fun together. the first question i get in the morning has changed from< i want breakfast. to : can we go to lynn's house?

johnny g's

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a new ride at johnny g's! what could be better! this is already our favorite place to play! for 15 bucks you get a bag of tokens, 2 wristbands for unlimited rides, mini golf, bounce houses, train ride, ball pit, tubes and slides, plus a one topping large pizza and a pitcher of soda. seriously???!!! its a mini disneyland right next to home. we took melanie here when she visited and spent 4 hours there!!!!

gavin

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melanie came for a visit last month. she just brought her youngest, gavin, who i hadnt' met yet. even though i was sad that her other 3 older boys weren' t coming with her, i was happy that melanie got to take a relaxing , well deserved vacation. plus me and lynn got to take turns loving on gavin. he is the cutest sweetest baby and i could not get enough of him.

we had sooo much fun while melanie was here. we went to playgrounds, out to eat, and cooked some of our favorites, like egg rolls and won tongs, a lopez tradition...yummmmm.....

we also planned an easter party for all of the kids and their friends. everyone brought a snack to share and eggs to hide. then all the kids played on the playground and went on an egg hunt. the kids all had a great time!

melanie got to spend easter with us. we painted eggs and got a visit from the easter bunny!

more pictures on flickr of her trip and more posts to come!

late night pj party!

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halle has been begging me to have a party for her, a late-night, pj party. i hear reminders everyday....after i crimped her hair, "oh, i wanna crimp the girls hair at my party" or if we drink koolaid, "i want to have koolaid at my party" or hear a certain song, "we should dance to this at my party".....i had a free friday, so we went around to the neighborhood girls with invitations , and we had the funnest pj party. we had 10 girls total, but since they were neighborhood friends , their ages varied from our cousin lucy, a couple 5 year olds, 6, three 9 year olds, up to 11 years old. i didn't realize how much fun this would make the party because it wasn't just chaos....all the girls came in their pjs. first we had dinner. halle wanted mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in cresent rolls) and kiki wanted mac and cheese. halle wanted koolaid, which was a huge treat and kiki wanted me to make jello, two things i never make....kiki wanted me to buy potato chips and halle asked for a chocolate cake, which the girls decorated with candies. after dinner i got out all our nail polish and tooth picks. one of the girls brought a nail decorating idea book and the girls did pocka dots , sparkles, ect. for an hour!! then we went up stairs and they put on make up. i put on eye liner and mascara on all the girls and they thought that was pretty cool. then they played for a while and then laid out their sleeping bags and watched a little bit of a movie while i crimped hair. then we had cake and played the wii. it was such a fun night! i can't wait to do it again! halle and kiera were so giddy and giggly the whole night. it is fun to do something so easy that i know will make them sooo happy!

we didn't want to leave our cousins out of the party , but knew it was just too girly. so lynn had a boys party at the same time for her boys and the neighborhood boys. they had a fun night too!

we are really lucky to live in such a nice neighborhood with some really fun neighborhood kids. we have been going out everyday from after school time, when all the kids get home till night. the weather is awesome and the kids are having a great time!