Update on us...

After an extremely busy holiday season and many days of breathing machine treatments, cleaning up after stomach bugs (ICK!) and a FORTIETH birthday (Rodney!) I am finally starting to feel like my feet are on solid ground again. Our girls (and I) were hit hard by illness over the holidays, but I am happy to report that all lingering symptoms are GONE! So I finally have a few moments to update...

Anna Beth - earned third place in the school district spelling competition (UIL). She's also continued to earn all A's on report cards, earned the most Accelerated Reader points for her class for the year, received the Personal Success Award for being an all around great student, received the "Caring" character award (voted by her peers). She's also dancing several nights a week. Her two favorite activities are still reading & dancing.

Corinne - continues to blossom in Dual Language. She was invited to sing at the local Lions Club meeting. She & several classmates from the Dual Language program really entertained the crowd while they showcased our wonderful school. Corinne has also earned the "Independent Learner" award from her teachers. She loves her class & has quickly learned to speak a lot of Spanish. She & Anna Beth have Spanish conversations much of the time. I guess that means I need to order the Spanish version of Rosetta Stone so that I can make sure they aren't planning any trouble!

Lila - is writing her name by herself. It's nice that it is just L-I-L-A, but what an accomplishment before you are three & a half! She can count to 20 in Spanish & will say several words in Spanish (thanks, big sisters!). Arriba, medio & abajo are her favorite Spanish words to use & explain. She loves, loves, loves her baby sister, Vivian. Lila is often my shadow as I work around the house & care for Vivian. She continues to take ballet & tap and LOVES every minute of it.

Vivian - lost all of her hair and it is growing back like wildfire! Her eyes & hair look just like Anna Beth's did at this age. Wonder if she will be another blue eyed blonde? She loves to play with her sisters and cannot take her eyes off of Daddy when he is home. She is now drinking almost 40 ounces of formula each day and eagerly eats mashed banana & baby oatmeal made with organic grape juice. I sometimes miss nursing my sweet baby (weaned during the holidays), but I literally could not keep up with her gargantuan appetite. She weighed 17 pounds about 2 weeks ago and that was after her bout with the stomach flu. I'll bet that she will be 19-20 pounds at her six month check up in a few weeks.

Rodney - Turned FORTY on New Year's Day. We had a family party at his parents house that was a lot of fun in spite of sick kids. I just hope we didn't give everyone a party favor they didn't want (courtesy of Vivian). He works so hard, but loves what he does and he is incredible at what he does. He has that smart science brain AND people skills which is hard to find. I can learn a thing or a dozen from him about how to handle people.

Me - I am wearing my volunteer hat a lot these days. I am chairing the silent auction at the big girls' school for their Spring Fair. It's my third consecutive year to do so. I will finish that in late March and then get busy for Junior League. I am chairing Stuff the Bus this year...our signature project in which we provide school supplies for more than 11,000 needy children in our community. It's an amazing group of women and an amazing project. I look forward to making an impact in our community.

Well, I know that's not everything that we've been up to, but it's a start. I didn't make any resolutions this new year, but I do hope to blog more often. We'll see how that goes!

Best Wishes for an amazing 2010 full of fun, love & blessings!

Four Little Turkeys

Happy Thanksgiving from our four little turkeys!

We decided to stay here in BCS for the holiday. Since Rodney is hopping at the office, his day off yesterday wasn't really what we had planned. Add to that a sinus infection for Anna Beth, we are thankful that we stayed here. It wasn't exactly a traditional Thanksgiving (we had pizza for lunch!), but it was relaxing & stress-free. Exactly what we hoped for. We will head to Dallas over the weekend to attend Richard's forty year anniversary celebration that our former church is throwing, so we'll finish the holiday weekend with some family time.

We hope that everyone's Thanksgiving celebrations are safe, blessed & happy!

Return to Craftiness

I've taken a far too long hiatus from crafting/sewing. Creating things is something that I thoroughly enjoy. Since Vivian has finally ceased her daily/nightly hours of screaming I can now get back into my crafty mode.

I had this fun (maybe crazy) idea that I would make at least one Christmas gift for each of the girls this year. Today I was able to create & complete (GASP!) Vivian's gift. I was so pleased with the results that I have plans to make a companion item to give her as well.

Have you ever heard of Taggies? They are a double sided, super cute sensory blanket for babies. They retail for $20. I searched for an online tutorial so that I could create my own since I did not want to pay $20 for a square fleece blanket embellished with scraps of ribbon. Here is the tutorial in case you would like to make one!

It was incredibly easy & talk about inexpensive! I think it cost me all of about $3 in spare ribbons, thread & the fleece (on sale!) I purchased at Joann's. Here is my finished product... I think it is even cuter than the original Taggie blankets.

I enlisted Anna Beth & Corinne to craft with me today. It was a ton of fun to work with them. Anna Beth really got into it. We made hats for their American Girl dolls. Anna Beth is creating items for her doll that she doesn't even have yet! She will be purchasing her Kit doll this weekend in Dallas. She has been saving for it for months. Anyway, I will have to post a picture when Hannah (Corinne's doll) is awake & willing to model her hat.

Here's to happy creating!

And the winner is....

University Interscholastic League is a literary and scholastic competitive program. Anna Beth was asked to represent her school in third grade spelling. This was quite a challenge for her due to her Spanish curriculum. She is just now learning English spelling words this year and they are probably words that most regular first graders learn. Since she is such a strong reader (reading on a 7th & 8th grade level) we had faith in her ability to learn. After many weeks of practice before & after school and on weekends, she had a great time this morning at the UIL competition. Despite a low grade fever (masked by some Motrin!) the results were......

To avoid eye strain, please look for Anna Beth in the near center/right, about three "rows" back (does that make any sense at all?!) And please forgive my poor filming from today. I was juggling Vivian, Lila & the flip camera. At least Corinne was sitting on the floor watching!

Vocabulary Hat Parade

The girls' school has an annual Vocabulary Hat Parade to celebrate Halloween. This year our words were...

Anna Beth - Community
Corinne - Winter

It's a fun time for the kids (maybe less so for the parents with all of the "creating" going on), but all in all we enjoy it. It was extra special this year because Rodney surprised the girls with his attendance. He had been working in Dallas all week & was able to finish up in time to schedule his arrival at the Vocabulary Hat Parade.

Bald is beautiful

All of our babies have been bald. For what seems like forever...until they are at least two! Corinne never had any hair until she was two & a half and then boy, did it come in! Imagine our surprise when Vivian was born with hair. Lots of dark hair. We all thought that she would be our brunette baby in a house full of blondies. Things are changing.

Vivian's hair has been steadily falling out all week. I was shocked the other day when I was nursing her, I rubbed her head (one of my favorite things in the world is rubbing our babies' heads, so soft!) and I had a clump of dark, fuzzy hair wrapped around my fingers. WHAT?!?!

Her hairline has receded all the way back to the back 2/3 of her head. She looks so funny, but I know it will look normal when she finishes shedding. Here is a picture of the top of her now very bald head. I've also included a "before" photo, one from the other day before the serious shedding began. She still has the "old man ring" of hair around the back. I wonder when that will disappear? No matter what, she is a beautiful baby to us!

I did it!

I survived a week alone with all four girls!

Rodney left on Sunday for 5 nights in Dallas. I was petrified to be on my own, but we made it. Even with Lila and her stomach bug. I hate to ask for help. I am the type of person who really wants to do it myself...well, that is no longer the case!

I asked our next door neighbors to watch Vivian yesterday while I cleaned up my car and Lila (who had thrown up all over herself on the way home from preschool - NASTY!) and I also asked a friend to bring Anna Beth home from dance last night. I definitely could not have made it through yesterday's "trauma" without these special friends. They were such blessings since our family is 3+ hours away. I almost made an "emergency" phone call to have Gran Jan come down here to help. Lila is fine now & I am hoping that no one else comes down with the bug.

I am definitely more confident about a few days of being a "single mom", but I am not ready to try it again anytime soon. Having Rodney gone this week definitely makes me more appreciative of his involvement as a father and husband. I will now overlook his dirty laundry on the floor!