Saturday, July 24, 2010

Thursday, July 22, 2010

A Word of Thought From My Friend James Dobson

Never forget that girls are made out of the same stuff their mothers are. Put sweet little notes and cards in your daughter's coat pocket or in her shoe. Write a short prayer and put it under her pillow. Girls love flowers. It's in their DNA! They beam when you express pride to others about them. Look for anything that will bring your daughter into your world or you into hers. While you are at it, tell her you love her every time you are together. You will be her hero forever. ~ Dr. James Dobson

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wordful Wednesday

I'm forgoing my 'Wordless Wednesday' post for what I call ~ Wordful Wednesday. Why? Because I have a story that is much to funny not to share and not one photo right now that would be up to the standards of a 'Wordless Wednesday' post.

For those of you who missed my tweets from yesterday, I mentioned my fiasco regarding nap time. I was dead tired yesterday. Running on minimal sleep and minimal caffeine, I decided yesterday was going to be a nap day for all the D girls. We have had Vacation Bible School every morning this week which has completely sucked the living life out of my children. The stimulation and excitement, not to mention non stop hours packed full of crafts and friends has really thrown my kids energy reserves out of whack. Whiny and crying, I dragged them home, shoveled a bit of non-nutritious food into their tummies and then proceeded to plunge my way up the stairs for the daunting yet rewarding act of putting them to bed. The sooner I got them into bed, the sooner I could get into bed. I had already decided it was going to be cereal for supper, the dishes would wait until tomorrow, and not one item of clothing needed to be washed. I would be resting my tired body without a care in the world - maybe.

I laid Mattea into her bed first. I snuggled up next to her and placed her head in my lap, I was in heaven - UNTIL....Paloma came trodding in wondering when I would be putting her to bed. I told her she had to be patient and that I was tending to her sister first. And that was all I remember. I was out. Without another thought, I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I'm not sure how long I was comatose but all I remember was waking in a complete state of panic. Where was I, was time was it, and where was my second born??? When I finally collected my thoughts, I remembered that it was the afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and I had completely forgotten to tuck Paloma in. Running downstairs, I saw evidence that Paloma had been there. She had climbed on a chair and gotten her sheep down from VBS. She had gotten her scissors out because some coupons had been cut and the rest of the house was empty.

Still in a complete panic with my heart beating 500 beats a minutes, I ran upstairs to find my sweet little toddler cuddled up in my bed with her blankie and a stuffed animal. I was relieved (and still secretly wondering how I was going to finish that nap.)

I was downstairs sweeping when Paloma woke up and stumbled down to greet me. All I heard from her muttering little voice was "momma, you neveer (never) tucked me in, you neveer came and swept (slept) wif (with) me." I apologized profusely and asked her what she did before she so responsibly put herself to sleep. "Everyfing (everything). I guess I will never know what she did to entertain herself during that time where she had complete run of the house. Instead of slipping out of the patio door to play outside by herself, or perhaps sneaking into the pantry to munch on a bag of opened veggie chips, or better yet scan the cleaners under the sink for the best bleach bottle to lick - my little Lomi grabbed her "mimi" and headed upstairs to the best place she could find to lay her little body down and rest. Momma's bed. Sweet dreams little Lomi. Looks like I'll be tucking you in first next time.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Continuing Down The Wisconsin Path

Ok y'all, it is time to continue on the photo tour of our recent trip to Wisconsin. After visiting with family on Saturday and Sunday, we packed into our rented minivan and headed to Wisconsin Dells where we were able to stay at a stupendous resort with my parents. If you have ever been to Wisconsin Dells, you know that it is a town of pure bliss. Food galore, just about anything you want to do you can find it there, and of course it is geared around children. I experienced it as a child and couldn't wait to let my kids share in the same enthusiasm.

Here is a picture of Paloma and grandpa as they enjoyed the circus we took in while we were there.



On our first day, we stopped and visited a place called Storybook Gardens. Had several animals and then it incorporated many of the all time classic stories into the tour. For example, we visited Jack from 'Jack and the Beanstalk,' saw Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall, encountered and sat on Cinderella's carriage, and toured a life size doll house. Cheesy for the adults, but fun for the kids.

I was the only one brave enough to feed the giraffes. Holy buckets do those guys have long, slobbery tongues. But they were so sweet and gentle, a little greedy with the food, but sweet nonetheless.



Mattea was brave enough to feed some animals as well. Paloma was a bit more reserved but did come around. Her hesitation was definitely more than her sister's.



My two fairy princesses being whisked away to the ball....



Humpty Dumpty.....



The next few pics are from the deer park we visited. I know my mom kept talking about it before we arrived and I remember thinking to myself, "I'm not going to any stinkin deer park." But to be quite honest, it was fun. The deer were so tame and there were literally hundreds running around freely, willing to meet you along the path as long as you had snack in hand. I especially enjoyed watching the girls faces as they deer would surprise them from behind and try and swipe their snacks. I'm glad we listened to dear old grandma and went.









Have you had enough of the Wisconsin pictures yet? Good, there are more to come....

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

Model Material







Now if this isn't a smile that will some day adorn the runways....

Movin Up


Congratulations to my newest little "EEL." Mattea finally passed out of her previous swimming group "Super Pikes" after about 8 rounds of lessons. Just couldn't see to grasp some of the concepts needed for moving on. But with sister in her class this round, Mattea flourished, was amazing, and passed with flying colors. She joins her new group of friends tomorrow for her official "EEL" lesson. Although Paloma is bummed that she is no longer with her "sissy" she is looking forward to more swimming lessons as well.

Have I mentioned how much I love summer~

Back To Reality

Where have I been you may ask. Well, the girls and I took a week long vacation back to the Midwest - my old homeland. Feeling like the kids needed to get back to visit family and also feeling like I needed some time away, David graciously donated all of his frequent flyer miles so the girls and I could head out to the very humid, sticky, hot lands of Wisconsin.

If you are not too interested in reading about family fun, silly adventures, or boring old stories - feel free to skip ahead to past posts. I'll mostly be posting a lot of pictures and reminiscing about the fun we had in good ole' cheese land.

To begin, we flew in on Sat. the 3rd. Great grandma Stockers came over that night for yummy home cooked food (including my dad's potato salad) and came outside to enjoy a few fireworks and sparklers. It took her awhile to get going, but once she did, great-grandma didn't want to stop ~ in fact she almost refused to go home.



A few pictures of the girls and their sparklers.



Never too old for fun...





And then of course, it was not a problem falling fast asleep that evening. After a long day of travel and a long night of fun, the girls were exhausted.



The next morning, after a fairly sleepless night, the girls woke up to grandpa's homemade pancakes. I think if I remember correctly, Mattea ate 3. I grabbed a large coffee and the family and I packed into the rented minivan and headed to see Great grandma Trulson.



After a brief visit, we passed some time at McDonald's play land where the kids worked on some very cute arts and crafts while trying to dodge the torrential downpour that was occurring outside. We enjoyed dinner with my Uncle Denny and then of course some more fireworks to commemorate the 4th of July.





And I do believe that is where I'm going to end the "Journey to Wisconsin" post. Much more to come for sure, but reality is calling and I must attempt some housework (although I will say my husband worked very hard while we were away cleaning, doing windows, laundry, yard work, grocery shopping, cleaning the garage....so it is not like I have a ton to do, but duty calls.)

Stay tuned for another round tomorrow.....

Saturday, July 10, 2010