Late Thanksgiving

I didn't take my camera to Thanksgiving dinner so this is the only picture I have from the holiday, curtesy of Amy. Reagan, as you can tell, quite enjoyed having all that food AND a big girl cup!

Dear Santa

While I went out shopping Friday morning with my mom and sisters, Nate helped the girls make Christmas lists and it turned out quite interesting. . .

Savannah's Christmas List
(in her exact words)

1. hair fixing doll with head and neck (you can fix her hair and spray it and put all kinds of sparkles on it).
2. Furry coat that's warm.
3. Webkin that's a lion.
4. Candy necklace-making kit.
5. Barbie that comes w/ clothes.
6. Lots of Barbie clothes.
7. Lipstick (all kinds and colors).
8. Make-up set with lots of make-up.
9. Disney Princess Barbies (Sleeping Beauty doll. She is comfy.)
10. Hula Hoop.

London's Christmas List
(in her exact words).

1. Gooey eyeball like Savy's.
2. Wall-e and Eve stuffed animals.
3. Candy maker that makes every candy.
4. Harry Potter setup (stuff that Harry Potter has). Note: she's especially excited to get the cloak that makes you invisible -- I hear about that all the time.
5. Wall-e blanket and bedspread.
6. Orange wig.
7. An E.T. that if you pull it's cord it walks around.
8. Wall-e bike.
9. Clouds of Meatballs -- the movie (whatever that is!)
10. Hula Hoop.

You can really see their personalities! I don't know where London came from, but she's definitely an interesting child! I hope she's not too disappointed on Christmas morning!

just a thought. . .

White House reports billions of improper payments in 2009

The CNN article above claims $98 billion in improper payments were made in 2009.

Do we really want these people running our health care?


I don't.


p.s. another thought:

How many pages is the Constitution? Compare that to the health care bill which is about 2000+ pages. Do we really need 2000+ pages for health care when the Constitution -- which changed the world forever by creating the most prosperous country ever before seen through it's limited government and free market system -- is only about 20 pages (depending on your font size)?

Finally - Savy lost a tooth!

I last posted about London's lost tooth and how upsetting this was to Savannah that her younger sister lost one before her. Well, yesterday Savannah comes home with a kleenex and a very loose tooth which decided to come out in the middle of Target. Lovely. After searching Target's floor for a while, we finally found the tooth and Savy was ecstatic.

BUT London is not to be outdone. . . .
her second tooth fell out only two hours later.
Curse little sisters!
and, for the life of me, I could not get a normal picture of these two weirdos!

London's first lost tooth

On Sunday London lost her first tooth
(thank you, Halloween candy).

It turned out to be a rather dramatic experience between London's excitement and Savannah's despair (she, 15 months older, has yet to lose a tooth). I think Savy's the only first grader with all her baby teeth still . . . and it really bothers her. She even has one growing in behind a baby tooth, but that little tooth is happy where it is and doesn't want to dislodge! The last two times we've been to the dentist she's asked why she hasn't lost any teeth yet.

And now London beat her to it.

Sometimes having little sisters just isn't fun.

The whole experience has made me ponder about all the little competitions and issues we may have while having two girlies growing up so close in age. Should be fun. . .

Halloween!

The "Pirate-Girl"

The Witch

and the sweet little lion

In the afternoon, we headed over to Grandma Cyndee and Aunt Megan's house for our big Halloween Party.Can't you just feel their excitement?

Then we changed into the costumes . . .

Pirate-girl, Prince Caspian, the Hulk and Batman

Caleb and Reagan are quite the buddies now -- well, it's more of a love-hate relationship.

The group ready to go trick-or-treating!

Their neighborhood was quite festive and for the first time ever, I was tempted to take pictures of people and their displays. So here we go with more picture overload!

The very independent trick-or-treater!

Tom fit into their creepy display quite nicely, don't you think?

and finally, checking out the loot . . . .

I hope you had as fun a holiday as we did!

REWIND: Savannah's Kindergarten Graduation

Wow!
It's only been four months and I swear she looks so young in these pictures! Time flies too fast (and it scares me a little).

Receiving her perfect attendance award from the principal, Mr. McCloud. She also received a medallion which she wore for two weeks after school ended. Really hard for me to put a picture of myself up, but here it is out there for posterity's sake. Savy can never do normal smiles for cameras, but she's so cute that it really doesn't matter.

Mrs. Cammack.Mrs. Christiansen, the teacher's aide.

1st GRADE!!!??!!

This picture turned out blurry but I just love it because of the way Reagan's looking at Aidan. These two definitely have a bond and love eachother! my chicas

Updates

Savannah

She loves first grade, but can't seem to remember any of her friends' names (she's a blond through and through). Still jabbering constantly and just as crafty as ever. I went shopping today in her bedroom where she and London had set up a whole store full of home-made books (I love seeing how she's trying to spell things) and cherry pies (a paper plate colored and then the sides folded up - very clever). I even gave her real pennies and she was thrilled beyond belief.

London

London, on the other hand, will name off about six names of her "best friends" in two seconds. She is quite the popular girl and I can just see her thriving in kindergarten. Everyday is something new and exciting. She is still just as obsessed with Wall-e and Eve as ever and claims she will name her children after them someday. Her vast array of stuffed animals that she insists on sleeping with have suddenly been hung from the bunk bed above her which makes the ordeal of making her bed much easier as the animals are now hanging instead of falling between the wall and bed. She's a funny girl with her hanging stuffed animals over her head. Her number one bedfellow is still Aslan - her stuffed lion from Santa a few years back when she was a baby.

Pres. Obama Speech at School

One funny thing that happened this week was when I asked them about Pres. Obama's speech to the children. The only thing they had to say about it was that "he said bad words, mom." My girls have taken me very literally and very serious about what not to say. In our house we never say words like "hate" or "stupid." NEVER. So, to them, they are super-bad words and I guess Pres. Obama said stupid a few times. I read the speech beforehand, but failed to notice that. I thought it was pretty funny that they were appalled. After clearing that up, they then told me that he told them to do good in school. Good.

Reagan

I still can't leave the house without people commenting on her! Seriously, it's every time I go out. Today Nate took her to Sportsman's Warehouse where they fawned all over her then I was stopped twice in Wal-mart. One time was a lady telling me she should be in a Swiss Miss commercial. People are funny.

Reagan has a mouth full of teeth now. She refuses to even attempt to talk, but she'll laugh her head off at you (London especially). I can't figure out if the lack of talking is due to her love of binkies or laziness or something else. The girl has also discovered dancing and will dance to anything with a beat -- the other day she danced and wiggled in the cart at Fry's to the background music in the store. Funny girl.

Kindergarten

I have another kindergartner!

It is London's turn.

Is she not the cutest??

Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Ctibor (who, coincidentally is the mom of a girl I knew in Junior High - how cool is that? And yes, for anyone wondering, her husband is Mr. Ctibor that taught at Poston years and years ago.) I think she'll be great and London will love her.

I am super-excited that despite the fact that we moved (yes, we moved), I got my girls into the Franklin school here in Mesa. I loved the curriculumn last year and felt like Savy thrived so much. Today we met the teachers and I felt so good about my choice despite the fact that our local public school is very good and in a good school district. For me, the academics at Franklin rule out everything else. I am so excited for my girlies! Tomorrow is the first day.

coming back soon. . .

I am working on getting back into blogging -- heaven knows school is starting next week and I haven't even posted Savy's kindergarten graduation from May!!! I'm coming back, but in the meantime, here's a quick conversation not to be forgotten with the ever-intriguing London:

We were discussing what the girls would name their babies some day and London says,

"I am going to name my baby Lover."

Me: "Where did you hear that name?" Mind you, I do not call Nate lover.

London, innocently: "from 'loving.'"

construction and conversations

Under Construction.

I'm tired of my blog look so I am in the process of changing, but have a screaming baby and can't do it all right now, so I'll just leave you all with our conversations of late. . . .very interesting.

The way to church:

London: I am going to ask Santa for a Wall-e dress for church.
(my kids think Santa can do absolutely anything and it's getting scary).

Savannah: I don't even know if Jesus likes Wall-e.


This morning during breakfast:

London: Savannah you ate without a prayer, don't you know that tells Heavenly Father that you don't care about him or respect him? You should be ashamed of yourself.

Wow -- London is our little prayer-nazi. But I have no idea where she got the "ashamed of yourself" part because that's definitely not words I use - must be those lovely cartoons. . .

Joyschool Graduation

Porter, Talmage, Sydnie, Davyn, Mackenzie and London.

I don't know what's funnier, Mackenzie's crazy dancing or London's dancing where she distorts her body without really moving. Preschoolers are so funny!

London had her Joyschool Graduation at Amy's house (2 weeks ago? or was it last week? I don't remember). Amy is so good at putting things together and it turned out so cute. They made graduation hats, wrote thank-you notes to all the moms/teachers, sang an ABC song, sang the days of the week and put on a play -- Billy Goat's Gruff. London used Nate's favorite Halloween mask to be the grumpy old troll under the bridge. She loved it, but it turns out Talmage was afraid of the mask and wouldn't participate, but other than that, it all turned out so cute.

Talmage is our next-door neighbor who London and Savs love to play with. He also plans on marrying London. His mom told me he was asking once about the families and babies, etc. She explained about Adam and Eve and then how he would have children some day too to which he replied, "no, London will." London stole his heart by liking to play with "boy toys."

Finished!

I finished my 90 days of P90X a week ago.

Then I took a week off -- well, not off from exercising. I did some of my old videos -- Biggest Loser Body Sculpt, 30 Day Shred, Winsor Pilates Accelerated, and Pilates Buns & Thighs.

I must say that I am quite impressed with how much strength I built up doing P90X. I didn't lose all the inches I wanted, but I figure that will come when I finally decide to stop munching on tasty things and start eating better. I was just surprised at how well I did my old videos that used to be hard.

For example, I decided to try out the third level of 30 Day Shred and, guess what, it wasn't that bad! In fact, a lot of the moves can be found in P90X.

Then with Pilates I actually did every move! And let me tell you that I used to just laugh at some of those moves on the accelerated video because they seemed so crazy-hard, but thanks to some hard-core P90X Yoga, I was able to do the whole video without a problem!

All that made me super-pumped for today. . . the day I started the Classic program.

Here's to the next 90 days!

We'll see if I can't trim a few inches (especially in the belly and thighs -- buns wouldn't hurt either). Actually, I'm just happy that Nate can't squish my muscles into oblivion now when I make him feel them -- they actually stay there now!!

Tyler and Gina's Whirlwind Visit

Last weekend Tyler and Gina came down for just the weekend. Despite the short time spent together, all the cousins thoroughly enjoyed each other's company -- especially these two!

Ryder and Reagan fascinated eachother. I don't know who enjoyed the interaction more -- the babies or the adults!

As for Miss Reagan walking, don't even ask. She will stand and balance, even clap standing up, but when it comes to taking a step, forget it. She has absolutely NO interest in walking. She'll cruise the furniture or walk around the house holding my hand, but the minute I let go, she automatically collapses. No interest whatsoever.

Reag's first introduction to the classic Hendrix camping favorite: chocolate/peanut butter rice krispie treats. I think she liked them.

London was miss snuggler the whole time -- either with Nate or Grandma Cyndee.

I was just messing around with my camera, but I love this picture of Reagan!