uh oh

Apparently our hiding spot wasn't to great because today the girls brought me their present from Santa....
"Did you buy this for me?" " Can we have it?" " Will you open it?"
Still didn't get an answer about why they actually looked in the closet.
Any suggestions?

True story

In the line of It happened to me and True Story I give you my version.
This afternoon after coming home from running a couple of errands John goes upstairs to the bedroom to change into uniform only to find the door to the bedroom door somehow was locked. A quick trip to the shed to gather up all flat head screws driving and we're back at the door to try and pop the lock. Only to find that the key hole is requires an actual key. Next best guess let's break the door down (no I am not kidding), would you believe it's actually not that easy to do? Or perhaps we just have an extra thick door from heck. That does work next and so we go to the next idea -there's an odd vent thing at the bottom can we just uncover it from the layers of paint and open it that way? There was a small measure of success with that only to find that there was a matching vent screwed in from the other side. On to the fourth idea of the day - was to go into second bedroom and cut a hole from that closet into ours and send our oldest child through. It worked and she loved it and thought it was a great adventure. Now to do the patch job....

Angels explained by children

Got this as a cute forward and I couldn't resist posting it.

ANGELS EXPLAINED BY CHILDREN

I only know the names of two angels, Hark and
Harold.
~~~Gregory, 5

Everybody's got it all wrong. Angels don't wear
halos anymore. I forget
why, but scientists are working on
it.
~~~Olive, 9

It's not easy to become an angel!
First, you die. Then you go to Heaven,
and then there's still the
flight training to go through. And then you got
to agree to wear
those angel clothes.
~~~Matthew, 9

Angels work for God
and watch over kids when God has to go do something

else.
~~~Mitchell, 7

My guardian angel helps
me with math, but he's not much good for
science.
~~~Henry,
8

Angels don't eat, but they drink milk from Holy
Cows!!!
~~~Jack, 6

Angels talk all the way while they're
flying you up to heaven. The main
subject is where you went wrong
before you got dead.
~~~Daniel, 9

When an angel gets
mad, he takes a deep breath and counts to ten. And
when he lets out
his breath, somewhere there's a tornado.
~~~Reagan,
10

Angels have a lot to do and they keep very busy. If you lose a
tooth, an
angel comes in through your window and leaves money under
your pillow.
Then when it gets cold, angels go south for the
winter.
~~~Sara, 6

Angels live in cloud houses made by
God and his son, who's a very good
carpenter.
~~~Jared,
8

All angels are girls because they gotta wear dresses and boys
didn't go
for it.
~~~Antonio, 9

My angel is
my grandma who died last year. She got a big head start on
helping me
while she was still down here on earth.
>Lynn, 9

Some
of the angels are in charge of helping heal sick animals and pets.

And if they don't make the animals get better, they help the child
get over
it.
~~~Vicki, 8

What I don't get
about angels is why, when someone is in love, they
shoot arrows at
them.
~~~ Sarah, 7

Update and back posting

So I've been ignoring my blog for quite awhile now - almost a month since my last post. So to fill in family and friends I'm going to be back posting several events or cute things to fill in the gap. This week has been so hectic - Monday we had to drive up to Richmond to take mom home for her return flight on the way we stopped at the pet store and wound up bringing home two gerbils named Alfredo and Linguine. They're a very fun addition to the house and Smaug the cat is very interested in them (yes they are in a cat proof place and closely watched). Then on Tuesday John had his eye surgery and that evening the girls had cheer practice at a new gym - keeping my fingers crossed that this will work out. On Wednesday John had his next day follow up appointment with the great news that his vision will be great once the fuzziness clears up. Thursday was our only day to stay at home all day, we watched several Christmas movies and took a nap. Yeah naps! LOL. And now here it is Friday and John is back to work. Blech. But someone has to bring home the bacon and I'm old fashioned enough to to believe it's the man's job and modern enough to go get a job if it's required. Ok that's enough rambling for today.

Fall leaves

Pandora playing in the leaves - one of her favorite things to do.

The girls helping out with the raking. Ganging up on mommy and being buried in the leaf pile. A few of our favorite fall activities.

Elf Yourself

This is to cute, check out the link.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1216386126

Day 3 post surgery

He can see! And reports that it was definitely worth the surgery for the results that he has gotten. You can see a little bit of the broken blood vessels around his eyes. That is the only way you can tell that he has even had surgery. Yeah for 20/20 & 20/25 which is what he can currently see (as of Wednesday 12/5) although a little fuzzy. And here he is modeling a new pair of Nonprescription sunglasses, his first pair of those in years. Mainly due to the camera flash being to bright to his sensitive eyes.

Homemade creativity

Cheap and crafty - two of my favorite things. Thanks to Home Depot who was giving away the boughs from trimmed Christmas trees I was able to make a cute holiday wreath.

Playing at the park

We had a great time at the park - except for poor Pandora who was very cold despite frequent snuggling under the nears adult's jacket. We even managed to talk Mom aka Grega into going down a slide.

Away in a basket?

I almost woke her up with my giggling my cute silly Gwenie falling asleep in a clothes basket. The next day we asked her why she was sleeping there - the answer was she fell asleep waiting for us to come upstairs so she could cuddle. Apparently it was a comfortable enough bed and she was surrounded by the all important Mr. Bear(s) I can make out at least two of them with her of the three or four she currently has.

The end of cheerleading

At least for now it's over. So long Renegades....

Counting Down

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Inspiration has arrived

For the regulars I hope you notice the new layout to my blog. I'm hoping to write more often as this is a really good outlet for me and helps to calm my mind down before bed. I've also redone my myspace page.

First competition

Yeah - I'm so proud of my little cheerleaders. Here we are at the parking garage for the Champion Cup Nationals. They were held at Old Dominion University with a policy of no camera's including video. Sorry everyone but this is my only shot from the day. I am waiting for the official photographer to update his website and hopefully there will be a few good shots of the girls to order. I did buy the video however so hopefully in a couple of weeks I can post their routine. If I can figure out how to copy just that portion. There was two tiny tot teams and our girls came in second. But they had a blast and so did John and I. John I am happy to report is one very proud cheer daddy! He even used the megaphone that Coach Theresa gave him.

Uniform photo sessison

Gigi & Gwenie

Almost have the splits - and she learned this on her own by watching TV of all things!

Gigi's close up

Gwenie's closeup

Cheer practice

The Benefit of showing up early is extra practice time with the Coach.

















And we're up - Gwenie is a flyer! On top of the pyramid.
















Two pyramids - with a lot of help from the coach.

Tivo is awesome

Every day I am learning more and more about tivo and I am loving it! Sorry McDonald's but they deserve the I'm Lovin' It slogan so much more! lol

11 days and counting!

I am so excited. The girls are about to go to their first competition in just 11 short days. At first we didn't know if they were even going to be allowed to go because they're not ready. I wanted them to do it either way because they're a bunch (9 at the newest count) of 4 and 5 year old little girls who are used to practicing in a little gym and then stick them out on a huge competition floor with a lot of people screaming and yelling and bright lights.... well I'm sure you get the picture. So keep your fingers crossed for them and I'll post the results. Plus I'm sure a cute picture or two of them in their uniforms.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

I am so excited. My husband calls me on his way to work and tells me to look up this date on a website, and asks me when do tickets go on sale and how much. Much to my surprise I pull up an ad for the "World Famous" Lipizzaner Stallions! Yeah now hopefully we can go but at least I know that John is trying to buy tickets. Yeah!

Gigi the Witch

 
 
Deja vu anyone?

Gwenie the Witch

 
 

And of course we're almost identical to our sister.

Another cheerleading tuesday

You know the thing that mother's are always telling you about how if you have a problem with someone you should talk it out with them - hate say that it does work. Alicia and I were having some issues with the coach, few of the things that she was saying and the way in which they were said was just really rubbing me the wrong way. And today wasn't a good day for that anyways, I was tired and cranky. So I took a mini walk, vented a little to Alicia, was short with the team parent (I really need to tell her that I am so very sorry), and then finally let Alicia talk to her. Alls well that ends well and I do feel better about it. So hopefully some things can change and in fact already have for the better.
I'm not sure if it's official or not but we were asked to help out with the goodie bags the girls get at a competition and then to help out with the parent spirit things. That's awesome and I'm really excited to be actually doing something with my time then watching the girls and my bum slowly going numb on a metal chair.
Of course, I am completely blaming my inability to sleep tonight on the fact that I was checking out some ideas for all of the above. I believe that the Oriental Trading Company will be an excellent resource for the girl's goodies. Perhaps look around in the local dollars stores too.
And the most exciting part is that the girls have gotten some of their uniform! I am so excited, I can't wait to take pictures of them. All that is left to get is the turtleneck piece, bloomers, and then the socks. She already has the hair bows that we're going to use too. I must ask Alicia to help me out in learning how to put curlers in.

Gwenie's birthday party

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Gwenie and Daddy

An adorable shot that I happened to luck into. I think this one I will have to print out and frame.

Gwenie's photo shoot

This is my all time favorite shot from Gwenie's birthday photo shoot.

Gwenie and Daddy

Just had to share the cutest picture of Gwenie and John. We were in the middle of her birthday photo shoot (she turns 4 next saturday) and I got lucky and snapped this shot of them walking to the next location. She was so adorable today. And what a big girl sitting through a record 70 shots. My husband brings up the point that not even the "big girls" (he meant older) on America's Next Top Model did as well doing their 80 frames.

Playing around with a few things