My two youngest girls, McKenzie and Bailey have the most amazing imaginations I’ve ever encountered. It is so much fun to watch them play together (when they are getting along, of course). This morning, for the last two hours they’ve just been playing all sorts of pretend games. They had this amazing picnic in our “quiet room” with a blanket, all of their dollies and food. Then, they found some markers they got for Valentine’s Day and decided to color for a little bit. Next thing I notice, McKenzie has strapped Bailey to their stick unicorn, they ride on.. upside down and she’s sending her to the moon on a rocket!

And finally, they are going on a treasure hunt, looking for diamonds and jewels, for some reason, they put sandwich bags on their hands and feet (have to have gloves and boots to search for those treasures)…

My babies are so entertaining!

Two slideshows for ya…. one is a collage of pics of Tanner over the last 13 years. The other is from his birthday weekend. Enjoy!

I am so proud of my son and I can’t believe he is 13 years old! I love how smart you are. I love that you still hug and kiss me goodnight. I love that you say thank you for dinner every single night, even when it’s not something you particularly enjoy. I love that you are such a big helper to me and your dad, and help us out when we need you to. I love that you still watch Spongebob and play board games with your little sisters. I love that you offer to let your sisters sit up front in the van without a second thought or argument. I love that when something falls on the ground, you pick it up - no matter who dropped it. I love the way you relentlessly try to tickle my feet. I love your giggle and your bright smile. Your goofy jokes drive me nuts, but I still love them. You are a wonderful young man and you make me proud every day!

Bailey got to go to a Blazers game with Daddy… we couldn’t find a Blazers jersey that would fit her. Even the smallest child’s size was $50, so I decided to maker our own. She had the red tshirt from her Christmas PJ’s from Plain Grandma and I bought the fabric paints for .97 each at Walmart. She got lots of compliments on it at the game and she had a great time. Daddy even bought her Blazers poms.

We had a great Valentines Day. Bailey spent the night with Grandpa on Wednesday night, so she didn’t have breakfast here, but if she had… I would have made her the traditional heart shaped pancakes. I made cupcakes to take to preshool. Dangit if I didn’t get any pictures of the cupcakes themselves, but for being such a non-artist in the baking/decorating department, I think I did okay.

One of the ways I make the kids feel special on their birthdays is letting them pick out their food for the day. Bailey wanted McDonald’s for lunch and pizza and chocolate milk for dinner. How easy was that? I bought Papa Murhpy’s, knowing they had their heart shaped special pizzas for Valentine’s Day. Cheap and GOOD pizza.

Bailey’s big gift was this big dollhouse I found at Target. She had 2 of the Only Heart dolls already, and my mom and I both got her one each to go with them, so now she has 4. They are SO much cuter than Barbies and fit the dollhouse perfectly. She also got some clothes, other dollies, doll stroller, sandals from Ashlyn, play glamour phone from Sissy, a really cute dress up dress, and Tanner got her 2 posters from the book fair at school. She had a great day and she’s already looking forward to turning 6.

I made it through the day without tears. I think that it will hit me REALLY hard when she gets on that school bus in the Fall. I am not nearly prepared for that. But…. I am so blessed to have 5 beautiful, healthy children…. with Bailey completing our family 100%. Happy Birthday my sweet girl! I can’t wait to see what God has in His plans for you.

Kids Valentines: Only 3 doing them this year. Bailey had Disney Princess ones. Ashlyn and Kenzie had cat and dog pet ones, and we added air heads in all of them for an extra treat

Bailey, in her birthday dress.
Sharing cupcakes at Preschool

Favorite Lunch! Daddy was able to get off work early and we enjoyed our lunch with daddy very much. Tanner creating static hair on Grandma’s head.
Papa Murphy’s Special
Thanks Sissy for the gifts!
Grandma and Lane
New Doll Stroller! Ohyah… “I got Snow Buddies!! woohoo”
See that cute little thumbs up?
Say CHEESE - LOL. This camera was like $2.54 at Walmart and a big hit with all the goofy kids.
Bailey as she was getting her new dollhouse!

Cake Time! Make a Wish!

Opening Valentines Gifts from Plain Grandma

Kenzie checking out her new HSM2 magazine I got her for Vday

Ash with her gifts

It’s my party and I can cry if I want to. Probably still crying over the green sucker her and Lane were fighting over LOL.

New Webkinz for all… The Love Frog

And Ty girl dolls, these are cool. The girls each got the same thing pretty much. A Ty doll, a new Love Frog, a coloring book, lots of candy. Ashlyn & Kenzie both got HSM and Hannah Montana magazines/activity books, and flip flops. Bailey got polly pocket wheels and two new cups and silverware sets. Tanner got 2 PSP games, a DS Stylus set, and a brain teaser thing and candy. My kids are spoiled. But, I’m a thrifty shopper, so while these things amounted to a bit value wise…. it really didn’t cost much - the Webkinz were the most expensive things I bought and even those were buy 1 get 1 half off at the store I buy them at.

Bailey had her first Field Trip at preschool Thursday. They are learning about careers in the community right now, so they walked to the post office, flower shop, and library. Bailey brought home a carnation from the flower shop and a bookmark from the library. Today, we got a surprise in the mail. During their time at the post office, they wrote out Valentine post cards and sent them to us in the mail. Bailey wanted it to be a surprise so she didn’t say a word about it, til it arrived. It was VERY sweet.

The back of it says “I L U M” and “Bailey”. She said it says: “I love you mommy” LOL. I told her that was a good acronym

Have I mentioned how much I adore her preschool teacher?

This whole week Bailey has been attending “Mini Spudder Cheer Camp“. This is put on by the cheerleaders at the high school (we are The Spudders, yes like the potato LOL, in fact the kids’ elementary school is The Tater Tots LOL). This has been quite the experience into the cheerleading world for her (and us). There must have been 150 girls (and I did see one boy, but I think that was it), in this Cheer Camp at the high school. Bailey was in a group with a bunch of other girls ages 4-5 (but not yet in Kindergarten). I was amazed at how much these girls learned in 3 one hour practices! They were awesome!

Funny side note: David went into Applebee’s tonight to order our dinner, and there was a group of little girls all dressed up in fancy dresses and their daddies were all decked out in suits & ties. We thought maybe they were going to a wedding. David came out laughing because he had joined them all in a familiar cheer “What about, what about, what about our colors.. shout it… orange orange orange orange, blue blue blue blue blue blue…” complete with hip shaking. They had all been to cheer camp last week. I think David has had as much fun with this as Bailey has… maybe he should have been cheering all those years ago at Ilwaco rather than playing football and basketbal Love ya honey

So pictures are below, and then I have several youtube clips of the girls during halftime at the game on Thursday. I can’t wait for the next camp!

Yes, we had to buy the matching poms
Bailey is the one in the black capris, looking like she’s trying to catch a fly

Watching the big girls warm up…
Bailey and her friend Kaitlyn, that is in her preschool and dance class.
Practicing!!

I watch the Super Bowl for the commercials (my favorite one was the Justin Timberlake/Pepsi one), and sometimes for the Halftime Show entertainment (Tom Petty was really cool - reminded me of driving around with my dad when I was a kid, thinking he was the best singer in the world). I’m not a big football fan, but it has grown on me a ton since I met David. This is a big thing for me, because I honestly dreaded Monday Night Football in my house growing up. It meant… I couldn’t watch any of *my* shows, and I’ll be honest - my life totally revolved around the boob tube LOL.

So… I do watch some amount of football and Superbowl Sunday is no exception. Thank God for Excedrin. Not only was the TV blasted, but with the hoopin and hollering between my mother-in-law, 15 year old daughter, and Dear Husband, my head was pounding. They couldn’t have been more happy/excited if they were playing for the Giants themselves!!

My 3 youngest girls are all goofballs. They were all SO excited about the SB. Bailey even learned a little bit about it on Thursday. They have all been SO excited about this day, and I realized this morning that they *know* that Superbowl Sunday = Tons Of Food. Not so much this year, with David and I both really watching what we are eating, but we did have KFC and nachos and some other little snackies. Nothing like that nutty smorgasboard of crap we normally have.

David was a proud papa today…. Bailey climbed up on my lap and shooshed everyone because “the sueprbowl is on”. LOL. She didn’t last long, but long enough for us all to smile about it. About 2nd quarter, Ashlyn and McKenzie came downstairs with their faces written on (see picture 1)… I had no idea they were doing this… you should see their faces now - the redness from them scrubbing it all off - youch! But they were SO cute. David was so thrilled with that. Shortly after, Bailey came around the corner from the kitchen. She had colored on tape and put it on her face (see picture 2). She kept saying “Go Blazers”… LOL. We tried to tell her that it wasn’t the Blazers playing but she didn’t care, she just kept saying “Go Blazers”. That’s right baby… GO BLAZERS!! LOL… it was so funny.

I told the girls to make mean football faces (which McKenzie nailed!) Ashlyn says “I don’t know how”
She has the worst stink eye in the house!! LOL Bailey “GO BLAZERS” mac n cheese face LOL

I stumbled upon this website: http://www.freerice.com and thought I’d share. They give you a vocabulary word and you select the answer, in multiple choice format. They donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations for every word you get correct. I spent about 5 minutes answering the words, and I decided I needed to know how many grains of rice would make a serving. I Googled a bit and came up with 2,000 grains = 1/4 cup. I pulled out my Minute Rice box and found that 1/2 cup dry rice makes one full cup cooked, which is equal to one serving. I figured if I could spend 15 minutes a day answering vocab words that would equate to a donation of one serving of rice every two days, to someone who is going hungry and cannot afford to buy food, then I might as well give it a try.

I did spend exactly 15 minutes to get up to 2,000 grains of rice before coming to post about this here, it seems like a good cause and a good way to help out others.

This site launched in October of 2007… to date, they have donated 17,078,325,370 grains of rice. If my math is correct, that is 4,269,581 one cup servings of rice (cooked). That is so great! Hopefully, more and more people will take time to use this site and make this total bigger!

Warm Fuzzies

We played “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” on Saturday night (David, his mom, Tanner, Ashlyn, McKenzie and myself). Ashlyn was the only one that went home with money!! Just so happens… all this stuff is fresh on her mind I guess. (She’s in 6th grade).

When you are playing your turn, everyone else playing writes down their answers when the question is read. If you don’t know the answer, you can choose to peek at another person’s answer or copy their answer (without looking to see what it is).

David’s first question on one round was “First Grade Music: Is the oboe a member of the wind family or the brass family of music instruments?” David wasn’t sure, and Tanner said “Dad, you can copy someone’s answer that is in band”. (Tanner plays the clarinet in the school band). David decides to copy his answer and Tanner (full well knowing that the answer was Woodwind) had written “Brass” hoping that David would copy his answer. It worked, he totally tricked him. It was SO funny.

This was a fun game. Frustrating for the adults I think… but fun anyway Does this look familiar David?

Katy’s Winter Dance

Katy’s Winter Dance was on Saturday. She went with a guy named Lucas. Aren’t they cute together? She spent the day with my sister, getting ready and having her hair/nails done. She was really nervous to begin with but ended up having a great time and was completely relaxed by the time I picked her up.

Ashlyn’s Basketball Team

Ashlyn’s basketball season is getting close to over! They haven’t won any games, but they are learning the game and their skill is improving. After all, it is her first time playing ever!

Libby - #1 Blazers Fan

Friday night was Pet Appreciation Night at the Blazers game. We sent in a picture of Libby but I don’t think they showed it. Isn’t she cute?

Bailey’s Date With Plain Grandma

Grandma made a date with Bailey a few weeks ago, to take her to hot chocolate and to dance on Friday. She had a GREAT time and was even able to squeeze Subway out of the deal

Jessica