Another use for pull-ups?

I was downstairs talking on the phone to my sister when Gabby came to the top of the stairs with "Floaties" on her arms so she could go swimming??? The only problem was that her floaties were pull-ups. Wendy said I had to hurry and take a picture and post it on my blog so here it is. I really don't recommend using pull-ups as floaties even if Gabby seems to think it's a good idea. My kids are so ready for the weather to be nice and it seems like they might be getting a little too anxious.

A new chair!

Wednesday while Kaylee was at school I needed to run a few errands. I was done with my errands and there was still lots of time before Kaylee was out of school so Gabby and I wandered into Down East Home Outlet store. They are remodeling their store so they had some item REALLY marked down just because it got dust on it from the construction. Up near the register was a kids size sectional sofa piece. It was regularly $100 and on clearance for $20 so I decided to go ahead and grab it for the kids play room. They love it...and don't really want to share. But, they have learned when they don't shar no one gets it and the sectional goes into time out. This morning they finally learned their lesson and really wanted to share, and they were REALLY good at sharing. So, I figured I would snap a few pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Going to the Zoo!

I was so excited when I got an email from Nicola this morning inviting us to go to the zoo with her sometime maybe next week or tomorrow. It just so happened that the sometime ended up being TODAY! I haven't seen Nicola and her kids in months and we were all thrilled to go hang out at the zoo, and even better...Wendy and Roman came too. It was such a nice day today and we were all thrilled to be outside enjoying the day.

Kaylee and Noelle were our map readers...Their goal was to get us to the Penguins.

Gabby was running around in circles under this straw umbrella by the black bear.

Our amazing map readers did manage to get us to the penguin exhibit!

This is my favorite picture. We went into the small animal building and Kaylee thought it stunk.

We had so much fun at the zoo! They got to see all the animals and play on the playground.

Gabby's fashion moment

Gabby felt left out that there was a picture of Kaylee in her polka-dot dress...so here is Gabby's picture of her polka-dot dress and hat. The hat kind of drowns her head but at least she likes it.

My little fashion diva

I have been selling Kaylee's and Gabby's clothes from last spring and summer on ebay which means...they get new clothes. I went to Gymboree yesterday and fell in love with the new collection they just came out with. Today Kaylee wanted to model her new dress. She loves wearing dresses lately. So here is one of her new dresses from Gymboree's Ice Cream Social collection.

The flu

Around here just about everyone has been sick with the flu. Everyone except me. Which has left me taking care of 2 kids and a husband with the flu. I think everyone is pretty much over it now. Gabby is still trying to fight off the last little bit of hers, the 3-1/2 hour nap today helped quite a bit.

Our family has been sick NON-stop for at least the last 3 weeks with one thing or another. By the time Paul went to work today I was ready for a break and some time to myself. Luckily with Paul back to work (after being home all of last week on the couch grumpy and sick) the girls were happy to play nicely in the play room all morning after helping me clean, vacuum, and sweep.

I felt so much less stressed today and managed to catch up on some housework, dishes, and I even did Pilates. I was feeling pretty productive this morning. Now I am sore from doing Pilates which just goes to show that I'm not excersizing nearly enough...but my pants size could have told me that.

Hopefully my posts will be more frequent as well as more exciting now that everyone is starting to feel better.

Patriotic Program and Ballerina the Fish

Today was Kaylee's patriotic program at school since president's day is on Monday. It was just a 10 minute program where they sang a couple songs that they learned. Before we even left our house to take Kaylee to school I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen. Kaylee loves to be the center of attention. On show-and-tell day she would love to be first every time. During sharing time at church she would love it if she could always be the volunteer to help up front. She doesn't even mind talking to people at the post office when I go to mail packages. However, her outgoing personality shuts down if she has to perferm in front of a group of adults. All of the sudden she just goes into melt-down. This has happens with every performance she has had at school. Even if her friends are right there with her she thinks it is the scariest thing ever. Today she managed to keep from a complete meltdown. She just sat on the stairs and tried to hide. By the end she was waving her flag and sang a few lines of "Yankee Doodle".

After the program it took me a bit to coax a smile out of Kaylee and even longer to convince her to go back to class. I was really worried about what her teachers were going to have today with her emotions running high. When I picked her up after school she was in an amazingly good mood. I asked her about school and she said it was great and fun. They made valentine bags in art for their party on Wednesday. I was so thrilled that she ended up having a good day at school.

At Kaylee's school it is set up like a little storybook village with a big tree house in the middle. While we were waiting for the patriotic program to start Gabby had tons of fun playing in the little tree house. She didn't want to come out to watch Kaylee sing (Maybe she knew Kaylee wouldn't sing). She was pretty mad when we left Kaylee's school because she wasn't done playing yet.

Before the program I told Kaylee if she got up on the stage and participated in the program we would get her the fish that she has been talking about for over a month now. I really debated whether or not she really participated...but she did better this time than she has in the past. She is getting better and not completely melting down. At first Paul and I decided she didn't really earn the fish but then after a while we decided that she did much better today and hopefully she will keep getting better and better at performing...so...after school today Kaylee got a fish. She named her fish Ballerina.

Thursday with Wendy

Yesterday Wendy came to visit us and scrapbook with me since Spencer had to work in Provo and was driving all the way down here anyway. We had quite the day with tired and grumpy kids. None of them had enough sleep but for the morning they all did pretty well. We decided to go to the mall to shop for b-day presents and before we left Wendy was helping me do the girls hair.

Wendy had done her hair in 2 braids to come to my house, so Kaylee wanted her hair in 2 braids. Then Wendy figured Gabby's hair was probably long enough now to do braids in her hair too. I have gotten her hair into 2 full pigtails but I have never attempted braids. To my surprise Wendy got her hair into braids and they turned out really cute. So, finally, at almost 3 years old Gabby's hair is FINALLY long enough to do something with.

After we got home from the mall we were scrapbooking; I was holding Roman and all of the sudden he spit up everywhere (except on me). He got it all over his outfit and was soaked but somehow he managed to miss me completely. Wendy hadn't packed an extra outfit so I dug through a box of clothes and found a boys summer outfit that would fit him. It had a sailboat on it and said "Captain" on it so I thought is would be funny to give him the little people boat captain.

But, after we had him changed and playing again Wendy remembered that we had found some pajamas at the mall on clearance that she bought for him and they were a lot warmer than the summer outfit. They were from Gap and came packaged with a bow around them so Wendy and I got funny and put it on him as a headband.