BIRTHDAY BONANZA!

The months February, March and April bring the Birthday Season to our house.

To start us off, on February 3, Maggie turned ONE!! There were balloons, party hats, cake, presents and the best part......
Grammy Judy and my niece Nicolette were visiting!
We all wore the party hats, but Maggie wanted nothing to do with them. I think that is the way with a lot of things on a baby's first birthday. They really could care less, but we enjoy a party.
I made lemon cupcakes. Not a big hit for anyone - especially Maggie. She wanted nothing to do with those also. She tasted a bit of the frosting by force, but it still didn't entice her. Rachel who loves frosting (she usually "eats" cupcakes by licking the frosting off the top) didn't like them. Hey it was the only cake mix and frosting I had on hand. (And by the way, I liked them!)

Is that a look or what?
She did do pretty good with opening presents and enjoyed tearing paper.
Poppa Bob sent some money to get Rachel and Claire something too, so Nicolette picked them out some gifts. They loved them! Thanks Poppa Bob!
Rachel and her basketballs.
Claire with her Little People bride, groom and wedding cake
Maggie carefully checked out each gift as she opened it and didn't want to give it up to open another gift. Hence Paul's idea that they only need one present anyway or even just a box to tear the wrapping paper off of.
She got a yummy gift of Baby Mum Mums. I love these treats for her because they don't crumble and make a mess like crackers do. Nothing like a practical gift.
Can you feel the excitement?

Nicolette and Maggie

Claire with a scary party face!
Grammy Judy and Rachel.
It's the Birthday Girl!


Showing off her new digs - compliments of Aunt Kari.

Maggie was a little distracted by the balloons making it difficult to get a good picture.

Maggie and all her goods! I can't believe my baby is ONE!!

Then came Claire! March 7 marked her 6th birthday. Preparations for the Pink Poodle Puppy Party began weeks before. I spent a few nights up late making game decorations, party favors, cake, etc. Paul always make fun of me but I really do enjoy doing it. I just am and have always been a procrastinator. So it makes for a few late nights.

First there was the cans to take home party favors. These are made from old formula cans. I was pretty impressed with my crafty self. With a little help from the cricut machine (compliments of Grammy Judy), scrapbook paper, and modge podge, I was able to make these.

Since it was a puppy party, I made puppy chow from cocoa puffs and scooby doo graham cracker bones.
I also have a ton of baby food jars that I have been trying to find uses for, so I used a few of those to make birthday snow globes for the girls. You can't see the sparkles from the glitter in these, but they were pretty cool if I may say so myself. I made the cakes and candles from aluminum foil covered by modeling clay and stuck with a paperclip for the candle. I then glued them in the lid and hot glued the lids on. I think they started to leak after a time, but they were fun while they lasted.
This along with fruit rolls and pink poodle puppy tatoos made up the party favors. I think they were a big hit.Then came the cake. I ordered the cake topper and then made the three layers. I'm not a professional and it's a little tilted, but it tasted good. For the party, we took the top off for later and ate the bottom two layers.

Claire seemed to like her cake.


PARTY TIME!!!
There were 9 girls plus Claire and Rachel. Balloons everywhere just brings, jumping, shrieks, more jumping and laughs.


They played pin the tail on the poodle and when it came time to open presents, they sat in a circle and passed a poodle around until music stopped and whoever was holding the poodle gave Claire the present they brought. It worked pretty good to keep the usual crowding around the birthday girl to a minimum.

Paige, Rachel, Claire and Nina. (and back of Mia's head)
Claire showing off some of her goods! Oh the excitement of opening presents!
Lucy, Laken, Christian Anne and Kylea.

Caroline, Katey, Lucy, Laken, Christian Anne and Kylea.

The suspense....
Christian Anne, Kylea, Mia and Paige.

Then it comes time for the cake!

Make a wish!!
Claire made a wish, but wouldn't tell me what it was for fear it won't come true.
After cake, I had a couple more games for them to play, but it was such a beautiful day that they just wanted to go outside and play. Sounded good to me!!
Mia's mom pushing Laken and Christian Anne. (She and a couple other moms stayed and were such a big help to me because Paul was distracted by fixing the headlight on our car!)
Caroline

Nina
Mia
Rachel

Mia
Laken and Christian Anne
Kylea
The Birthday Girl!
Katey and the poster for pin the tail on the poodle.
Because her party was actually a couple days earlier than her real birthday, we celebrated again on her "real birthday" with our neighbors Bob and Esther!
And of course they couldn't leave Rachel out and brought her birthday present a few days early!
"It's not even my birthday!"
Katey (from across the street) joined us for the festivities too.
We used the top layer of the cake for the birthday cake this night. Clarie got to make another wish!
And once again, wouldn't tell me what it was.
I love the excitement they get opening presents!


Claire with her "stash"!
She also is showing off her award she got at school for being the "Most Responsible Student". While I know she is a good girl, "most responsible"? It is amazing the personality that comes out at school vs. home.
She couldn't wait to try out her new Hello Kitty scooter. Her friend Paige came to check it out too.
It was a little different being on a "real" scooter, but she picked it up right away and was cruisin everywhere.
Next came Rachel's 3rd Birthday! We celebrated on March 12 with chocolate cupcakes for breakfast! ("Mom is great, she feeds us chocolate cake!" - just a little trip down memory lane for you Cosby Show fans)
Nothing like chocolate caked on your teeth first think in the morning!
mmmmm

"What's wrong, do I have something on my face?"
Now, I am a fun mom who will feed her children chocolate cupcakes for breakfast, but I did draw the line at feeding it to my one year old (she really didn't want any - I don't know who's kid she is).
Her hair is getting so long, I am able to put it in a ponytail in the back. It does give it a little bit a mullet look, but hey, we're in Kentucky.

Later that evening, it was time for Rachel's presents.
This is the look I got when I told her she had to wait for a few minutes....
And this is the look I got when I told her she could open them! (I wish I could just capture that smile and bottle it up!)

"It's just what I wanted! In fact, it's just what I picked out!"

"It's a box!!!!"

"Any more??"
She is my crazy, cute, funny birthday girl!

Rachel with her birthday goods.
Claire somehow got another present in all this mess too.
And if this one doesn't look like she's up to something....
Paul and our girls!

This was Rachel's "cake". When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she told me, "A purple and green chocolate cake with Dora, Boots, Tico, Benny the Bull, Isa the Iguana, Swiper and Fresh Beat Band." I tried to figure out how to put this all together and cupcakes seemed to bring them all together flawlessly.
Well, Rachel liked it! And that is all that matters.

She loved to blow the candle out - over and over.

And then came the old folks. Paul's birthday was on April 2. We got an ice cream cake for his party (wasn't that great, a real disappointment actually).
I can't believe I'm married to someone who is 37! How does he get older every year? According to him, life is pretty much over when you turn 35, luckily he has four amazing girls to live with to remind him otherwise.

Everyone wanted to help him get his wish by blowing out his candles for him.

Then it was time for presents. Oh the excitement again!
Claire decided to wear special bunny ears for the festivities.

The girls got him a present and it was so big, we had to be creative wrapping it up! Bet you can't guess what it is!
Even Maggie felt the anticipation.
Claire picked the present out herself.Oh, the suspense....
It's a ball!!
On to the next one.
Rachel got just as excited at everyone else's parties at present time as she did at her own. I hope she doesn't lose that enthusiasm anytime soon.All the partying just got to be too much for Maggie. Or maybe she is in a chocolate ice cream coma.And, lest we forget...J.J. the Great's Birthday! I was in St. George, UT visiting Kari and Grammy Judy and my niece Emilia on my birthday so we of course had a big celebration! Rachel and Maggie flew out with me (suffice it to say Maggie does not like flying - actually I don't think it is the flying part so much as the having to sit down part - either way, it was a pretty long trip both there and back). Claire stayed home with Paul so she didn't miss any school.

I was treated like a queen!!
Aunt Kari, Millie,Rachel, me and Maggie getting ready for the big bash.
Grammy Judy was ready to party too.

Everyone enjoyed the yummy chocolate cake - don't know why you would ever have any other flavor than chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Even Maggie was ready by then for more cake!

Millie love it and like everyone else, ended up with a bit on her chin.


Millie and Rachel did a few dances for us outside after the rainstorm. We came hoping for swimming pool and laying out weather and Mother Nature did not cooperate, so when we did get some warmth and sunshine, it was time for dancing!
We had chocolate cake for a few days! Rachel wanted candles on it each time to blow out again. Luckily I don't mind celebrating day after day - I wouldn't mind if we all celebrated a "birthday week"! (notice the "healthy" meal - this is what happens when it is just the girls)


I guess that's it til next year!

Smilin' Maggie Grace

Maggie is always full of smiles to brighten my day!




And she is one fancy girl! Loves to dress up, wear necklaces, sunglasses - anything shiny or sparkly. I love it!!

Rachel Funnies

All my girls continually amaze me with he things that come out of their mouth, but Rachel has had a few lately.

My mom and niece, Nicolette, were here visiting recently (I of course will post some more about this later - maybe next year sometime if I am on my usual schedule) and we had a great time! They got to spend a lot of time together while Paul and I were at work and one day while my mom was so graciously changing Rachel's diaper, she started singing "Rachel, Rachel, I declare, you have poopy underwear." To which Rachel replied, "You not deClaire, you Grammy!"

Today, she was stinky once again and asked me to change her diaper (obviously ready to potty train if she asks to have her diaper changed, but still won't cooperate). Anyway, I was changing a poopy diaper and she started saying "Yucky, yucky! We don't like poop." I got a little excited and was going to once again suggest that we can avoid this situation if she goes in the potty, when she then added "We don't eat it. We don't like to eat poop." I guess I've done an okay job teaching that concept - we'll just have to keep working on the potty thing.

She is a goofy one, but she is also a sweetie. She told Grammy and I both "I love you!" Which in itself melts my heart, but then she added, "I love your face!" How does a 2 year old know just what I need?!

Another Claire Funny

The other night Claire was laying in bed and yelled for me to come in there so she could ask me a question. "Mommy, are there strings or something attached to our eyeballs in our head so they don't come out?" I explained to her that there are muscles and skin that are like strings that hold them in there so that they don't fall out or pop out. I asked her if she was worried about her eyeballs coming out and she said yes. So I reassured her that her eyeballs were safe. She then went right to sleep. Oh, if this were my only worry that kept me up at night.

Happenings 1/18/2010 - 1/24/2010

It was back to full normal for everyone the last two weeks. The semester started on the 11th, and so it was back to teaching and all of the stuff that was put off before Christmas and piled on now. Since I've been here, the second half of January and February have always been busy and somewhat stressful because that is also the time period when we have to complete our annual evaluation portfolios, which always takes more time than expected. I began working on mine during the break, so I am a little ahead of where I was last year, and am in pretty good shape. The problem for me is that other responsibilities have arisen for more work for me.

My freshman composition class seemed dead in the water for the first week, and I was worried because they weren't reading or making any comments. We had Monday off the second week for MLK Jr. Day, and then I told them they would be having a quiz and things livened up -- they began reading. The material we are covering is not the easiest -- we are reading classical rhetoric texts of Aristotle and Plato, but the translation they have is pretty easy to read if they would try. But they have become more interested as I've explained things in class. I haven't done this before -- I am collaborating with a colleague in piloting the use of classical texts in composition to teach rhetoric. I was supposed to teach an honors class like him, but mine didn't fill, so I am teaching a regular class, and they are struggling more than his class. But I think it will get better.

We've had warm weather since we had the week or two of really cold temperatures. It has been between 40 and 55 degrees with a lot of clouds and rain which makes the night not so cold as well, so that has been nice. On MLK Jr. Day, J.J. had to work but I arranged a babysitter so that I could help with a ward move, which only took about 2 hours because we had so many of us there. After the move, I took the girls to the park, and it was packed with kids because of the pleasant weather, including some people from our ward.

The week before last we went to two MSU basketball games, one on Monday and the other on Saturday. We take two cars so that everyone can go to the women's game and then I help everyone out to the car and go back to the men's game. There is always plenty of room for us at the women's game, and the girls enjoy playing around. (I wish I got to see a little more of the games. My job is to watch the girls so that they don't fall down the stairs, annoy others around us, get in trouble for playing on the stairs or aisles, etc. Not much fun. But it is fun to watch the girls dance to the music or with the cheerleaders. The first game, Maggie was great. She just watched the game and the lights and listened to the music and sat in her car seat the whole time. The second time we went, she was not so content. I spent my time letting her crawl a bit until she got too close to the stairs and then walking her back the 20 feet she just crawled and chasing after her again. I didn't want to spend my night this way, so I went ahead and took the girls home while Paul stayed to watch the game. I think next time he needs to take them home so I can watch a game sometime.) The men's team is really good, undefeated in the conference so far and fun to watch. They seem to be able to turn it up a notch anytime they need to, probably like BYU is doing this year.

With the nice weather, I was able to work on cleaning the cars and fixing a few things in the garage and on the cars since before two weeks ago it was even too cold to work in the garage. This last week, Claire was lucky to be able to eat lunch with J.J. on Thursday, the normal day that J.J. volunteers, and then I went on Friday. Her teacher told me that Claire is doing really well with her reading, and I had to agree because we are impressed at how quickly she is learning to read.

(I started going to a card kickboxing class a couple weeks ago. I go 3 times a week and I am sore!!!! The guy who owns the gym is "famous" around Murray. Mr. Dinh. He teaches tai kwon do and some other classes too. His classes are known for being a good workout and believe me they are. The first class I went to, he would karate chop you on the belly when we were doing sit ups. I have even been trying to go at 5:15am, but it is so hard to get up when the clock says four something. I did it once last week and plan to go at that time again this week. I like to have it done in the morning and not have to worry about it later in the evening. A couple other days during the week, I have been going to the Wellness Center at MSU to walk/jog on the treadmills. Starting to get a routine which I definitely need.)

On Friday evening we joined the Bakes at a local hotel where a new family in our ward is living until they close on their house. They moved here from Layton and he is a human resource manager at a local company. It is great to have them here, and they invited us over for the kids to swim in the indoor pool at the hotel and they ordered pizza. It was fun. (Claire slowly picked back up her swimming, but by the end of the night, she was once again swimming short distances without floaties or anything. Rachel started warm up a little too and ventured down a couple steps by herself. She still doesn't trust a lifejacket or boober suit - maybe that is from the time she thought Paul was going to catch her - he didn't and she walked right in the pool and tipped over even with her bobber suit on. Anyway - they had a great time and it wore them out! I loved it. Saturday I went to kickboxing class - another bonus is that I get to get all my aggressions out punching and kicking a bag. Then later in the day we went to the boat show and the girls played in some bouncy houses and loved touring and playing on all the fancy pontoon type boats they had there. It was fun to check out all the water fun! We then all went to a Mexican Restaurant to eat and then home. Paul left to go to "Old School Wrestling" - local professional type wrestling - that is pretty big here. He went with Doug - one of the young newly married guys in our ward. I put the girls to bed and then watch "Confessions of a Shopaholic". It was okay - the book was much better. I love the shopaholic books but the movie was just okay. I knitted and worked on some picture things and then went to bed and tried to read my book for MSU Women's Group book club. It is "The Sparrow"' by Mary Russell. It is a science fiction book and I am having a really hard time trying to get through it. I'm not sure I will finish it by Tuesday.)

(Maggie is so funny lately. She is walking all over the place - quickly I might add. The other girls didn't walk until they were thirteen years old. And now she throws tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants and it is pretty funny. She will throw herself down on her belly and let out a scream and then look up to be sure you are watching her. She also walks around with pretty much any object or no object by her ear and tilts her head sideways like she is on the phone and say "o? o?" and babbles while walking around on her "phone". Church is not fun at all right now. I never hear sacrament meeting anymore between the three girls and spend half the time chasing Maggie up the aisle before she reaches the stairs to the stands or taking her out in the hall because she is screaming. I don't want to wish time away because I want them to stay little, but I don't like sacrament meeting between the ages of 12 months and 18 months.)

(Just thought I would update you a little on me and the girls since I don't usually get to the letters anymore before Paul sends them out. We love you and hope you all are doing well.)

Happenings 9/14/09 - 9/20/09

Another interesting week for us. Pretty normal during the day with school and work and everything, but we had the sister missionaries over for dinner on Tuesday evening, and then they stayed and taught another lesson to the girl who was baptized on Sunday in Bowling Green.

I had a lot to do this week in preparation for a couple of things going on. I had a workshop that I led for faculty on Friday, and a follow-up meeting for the summer institute teachers on Saturday morning. I also had to do some things for my class in preparation for the next few weeks. But the big time consumer was grading, which I had a lot of for both of my classes. I got all that done by the end of the week, though. J.J. was able to volunteer in Claire's class on Thursday, which she will do each week, and she and Claire enjoyed that.

On Saturday after the follow-up meeting in the morning, I picked up Doug and we came back to our house to pick up the couch we had previously picked up from the missionaries a few weeks ago. Since it wouldn't fit in my office, Doug and Heidi decided they could use it, so we moved it to their place. After that, I went home and we loaded up in the car, picked up the sister missionaries, then drove out to visit the lady who lives in a storage shed in the woods. (Literally a storage shed in the woods - no water, no electricity, no insulation - but it is her "home") She had a stroke a couple of weeks ago, but is home now. We ended up putting together a cabinet for her and helping her cook noodles on her propane grill. (It is absolutely amazing how people live She is happy out there and likes her little home, but it sure makes me grateful for all the blessings I have.We were glad we were able to go out there. We came back to Murray, dropped the sisters off and then went to a birthday party for the 1-year-old daughter of some friends of ours, Matt and Abigail -- people J.J. used to work with. Their families were there and we had a barbeque and we had cake. Our favorite gift was a lifetime hunting license for Tennessee -- can't beat that when you turn one. (It was quite the redneck birthday. I love this family but couldn't help giggling ore the hunting license and with every present, it was "git it, git it, git it!" to get her rip off the wrapping paper. Gotta love Kentucky!)

Happenings 8/30/09- 9/13/09

We have had some busy weeks. The most distressing
part of the past two weeks was the discovery of fleas
on our cats, which led to the discovery of fleas
around the house -- not good. J.J. believes it
reflects badly on us as housekeepers, but everyone
has assured us that it is very common. Common or not,
however, eradicating fleas is not an easy process. (Common or not, it's still disgusting)
First, we banished the cats to the garage, and spent
some time combing through them to remove the fleas
from them. (this has to be a daily or every other day occurrence. NOT FUN!! I am so creeped out anyway that then combing and picking them off the cats makes me itchy, gross and want to shower.) Then we washed all of our bedding, (pillows, blankets, scrubbing cushions, rugs, towels, anything you could get in a washer)
vacuumed every day for a weekend, (vacuuming every day for many days - deep vacuuming - moving everything, getting in all the corners, anywhere you can get a vacuum tube.) had a pest control
guy come and spray, and then we had our carpets
cleaned. What we learned is that carpet cleaning
doesn't do anything, but we needed that done anyway
so we didn't mind -- and that vacuuming makes the
flea problem seem worse because it sucks the fleas
and eggs out of the carpet and warmly encourages
those eggs to hatch. We then talked to the vet and
she recommended a spray that we used all over the
house and so far, we notice a difference, but they
still come out at night and jump into the soapy water
dishes that we set out. (Another fun nightly and morning ritual to add to my life. The word "we" should be taken lightly here. Every night, I go put dish soap in 6 pie tins, fill them with a little water and set them out under night lights throughout the house. Then in the morning I go around and empty them all out and clean out the dead fleas. What fun!) The pest control guy is due
to come again for a second treatment included in the
original price, so we'll see what happens. The cats
are pretty much free of the fleas, but they are still
banished from the house. (I am waiting for the expensive, very poisonous flea medicine to come in the mail and put it on them and then wait for about 1 week before they can come back in. They are pretty sad)

The benefit, of course, is now our house is quite
clean, but that is small consolation when fleas are
jumping around at bedtime.

In other news, we attended a wedding on September 5
at the Nashville temple -- the couple is in our ward
and are former young single adults who are attending
college here. They asked me to officiate at their
ring ceremony. I don't know if I did a great job, but
I said a few nice things and made some jokes about
them and then sent them off for a receiving line. (Paul did a really great job. It was a typical Mormon reception, but not many people there. We did get a few fun dances in though. With Claire and Rachel, you can always be the only ones on the dance floor and not feel so silly.) In
between the wedding and the reception, we went out to
eat with some other people there that we knew and
then had ice cream at Maggie Moo's. We headed home
right after the reception. I checked the score of the
BYU game without any optimism and was quite surprised
that it was close. I didn't know it was on TV, so
while we put the kids to bed, I just checked the
score now and then and was excited that they won. I
had resolved to not care about football this fall
because of everything else going on, but then BYU
went and put themselves in the top 10.

On Monday, we went with the Bakes family to Jungle
Golf about 45 minutes north of us. (It's called Maggie's Jungle Golf. This was a "Maggie" weekend with Maggie Moo Ice Cream and Maggie's Jungle Golf.) There is a fun
little miniature golf place and a place you can walk
and feed animals. We had a picnic lunch beforehand,
and then played golf and walked around the place.
Claire was the only one to get a hole in one, but was
more excited about the two 10s she got on other
holes. Rachel improved all of our scores by picking
up our balls and placing them in the hole. It was a
fun way to spend Labor Day.

This week I had a busy weekend. I had a director's
meeting for all state director's of regional writing
projects in Louisville on Friday, and then attached
to that was a state conference for writing project
participants on Saturday. I arrived home at 5:30 on
Saturday, and went immediately with the rest of the
family out to eat and then to the grocery store and
then home. Sunday was our ward conference, and so
after church J.J. was in charge of the luncheon for
the stake and ward leaders, and then she had already
met with the stake leaders and so she went home while
I did tithing and then along with the bishop met with
the stake presidency to discuss what is going well in the ward and what can be worked on. By that time,
it was 3:30, and after our meeting, the sister
missionaries asked me to drive them 2 hours to
Bowling Green because a girl that moved here from
there to go to school was ready to be baptized once
she turned 18 and decided that she needed to do it
that night. She wanted her boyfriend's family to
perform the baptism --he is in Utah going to school
-- and so it needed to be in BG. (That's Bowling Green for you non Kentuckians.) So the sisters
received permission from the mission president to go,
and I told them they needed to check with J.J., and
she said I could go, so I drove the three sisters
there. (A little scandalous if you ask me - One male with 3 sister missionaries for a long drive late at night.) We had a late start and drove as fast as I
dared and we got there just after the baptism at
7:45. But I was able to help confirm her and we
visited for a little while and then we followed the
girl, Stephanie, back to Murray. They have a rule
that with three sisters, any M priesthood holder can
drive them, but that meant that none of them could
ride with Stephanie on the way home. We didn't get
back until 11:30, but it was a good experience and I
enjoyed talking with the sisters.

That about covers it. Claire is still doing well in
school. I went to lunch at her school one day and
that was fun -- she liked having me there and it was
interesting to eat school cafeteria food again. Her
teacher said she is a great student. Anyway, we hope
all are well and we love you.