Spirit, Spirit and Plenty of Christmas Spirit!

Cutie with curls.

Her part as Mama Bell. (second bell from the left)

Playing her recorder. (with the black flower headband)


Ellery on the other hand took her roll in her school program VERY seriously! She auditioned and received the part of Mama Bell 'Re'. She had to go to school serveral morning for early practice. The first day we made it on the time. The second day we were late and she was M.A.D. at me. She asked me what she was supposed to tell her teacher. I told her to tell her teacher that her moms hair didn't work out and it took a bit longer that expected. She did not find this FUNNY. She gave me the silent treatment all the way to school and when I asked her is she wasn't speaking do me she was like 'duh can't you tell'. So she had to be to early practice at the auditorium on a Friday and the auditorium is in the same building that her Grandma Shirley works at, so she made arrangement to stay over at Grandma Shirleys that night to ensure that she wouldn't be late.

I do have to say all her hard work was worth it, she did a wonderful job and to top it off we finnally got to hear the whole group of kids playing their recorders that they have been faithfully practicing for months! AND bonus, they get to play them for two more years! YEAH me.

Zero Christmas Spirit.

This is the photo that was in our local newspaper, see how all the kids are pointing to their noses..and Calvin is not.

This is Calvin not participating.

This is Calvin with his legs apart, they were like that the whole time. Again no participation.

This is Calvin giving me the 'Stink Eye'

Calvin had his school program last Monday. He was singing his songs at home all the time, practicing away. So imagine my surprise when we actually go to his program and he doesn't do much singing or actions. He told me that he would have but I was taking pictures of him. His church Christmas program went even better. NOT. More on that to come.

Copycat Copycat

Ser.ious.ly. My whole life she had copied everything I do.

I graduate high school.
SHE graduates high school.

I go to college.
SHE goes to college.

I turn 21.
SHE turns 21.

I get married.
SHE gets married.

I have a baby.
SHE has a baby.

Will it ever end?

PS. Don't you love this picture of her. She is pretending she is riding a pogo stick. Hee hee.

Julie, Julia & Stacie

So I started another blog... out of spite, but now I can see it actually might be kind of fun.

See it all started because Hannah started a new cooking blog:

http://ijustwanttocook.blogspot.com/

I may or may not have told her she was a loser for starting another blog.

Then we were watching the movie Julie and Julia the other day. And I said during the movie, oh I think (mind you this was in a sarcastic voice) I am going to start a food blog too and call it Julie, Julia & Stacie. We laughed, but really it was quite clever if I do say so myself. THEN I find out Hannah went and changed her cooking blog, which was called I Just Want To Cook, to Julie, Julia and Hannah. WHAHAHAHTT. Bring it sister. So welcome to my new blog:

http://juliejuliastacie.blogspot.com/

Now Hannah can cook and I cannot. So hers will probably include recipes and such, mine on the other hand is going to be more about my relationship with the Schwans guy and eating out! I will also be trying Hannahs recipes from her blog and will review them on mine! Oh this is going to be soooo fun. So start submitting your recipes to Hannah, and I will keep you informed on what Schwans dinner we will be eating next! Enjoy!

PS. The movie Julie and Julia is super cute! Watch it.

Brecky

This photo is a couple of months old, I just remembered I had it...this sweet little boy blew out of two diapers while I was watching him at my house. With zero outfits left, I ran down the basement to the doll clothes bin and found this cute number (which used to be Ellery's) and crammed him into it!

I think he can totally pull off pink, no problem!

Santa.

outside enjoying the snow before this deep freeze set in.


We went to see Santa tonight at the annual Christmas dinner at the legion. Before we left I asked Calvin what he was going to ask for and he matter of factly told me that he was going to ask for a couch with a bed like the new one Hannah just got ..the one with the chaise lounger. HAHA. That kid.

He actually asked for a car. I think he panicked and that is all he could come up with because Santa asked him several more times if he wanted anything else and he kept saying car. Ellery asked for a paint set.

On the way home I asked him why he only asked for a car and he said because Ellery took was he was going to say. He is too much.

Now he is off to open skate and Ellery is finger knitting and I am trying to pick out a X-mas card, it is so hard, they are all so cute!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

For quite some time now Ellery has been telling us that she wants to be a dentist when she grows up. Then she decided that she would prefer to be an orthodontist. She has asked how long she has to go go school, if she needs to have good grades and how far away she has to go to school (she wants to stay close to home, that is what she says now anyway). She also has her office location picked out downtown Litchfield, so I assume she will be coming back some day to open up an office...=)

The other day Calvin had a dentist appointment to have a filling, she made sure she was right in there watching everything. After this appointment she decided she wanted to be a dentist who only works with kids, so I told her yes she could do that, and it is a called a pediatric dentist.

Perfect, right?! Until I heard her tell someone the other day that she was going to be an OrthoPediatric Dentist when she grows up. Now I am not a dental expert, but I do not believe OrthoPediatric is an option. I love how she threw those two professions together and that way she doesn't have decide between pediatrics and orthodontist.

I don't remember what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I am 99% sure it was more along the lines of a ballerina or Annie. No seriously I wanted to be Annie when I grew up, I even had my hair permed just like hers (see photo above). I can't make that up. I think I looked lovely. The sun will come out tomorrow....

So Thankful For....

my kids.
my husband.
a warm home.
health.
laughter.
glee. (the tv show)
my job.
when Calvin tells me he can count to 100 and says 'one, two skip a few, 99, 100'
peace.
freedom.
my sister.
hope.
prayers.
books. (currently reading 'The Help')
friends.
trust.
chicken ceasar wraps.
snow.
family.
my mom.
my moms mittens.
my moms hats.
my moms cooking.
my moms help.
hugs & kisses.
the way ellery runs and kisses grandpa tom EVERY time she sees him.
blogs.
my brothers.
my dad.
my dad doing goofy things.
time.
cousins.
faith.

I am thankful for so many things and am so blessed that I am able to be thankful for all those things!

Fun, Food and Sexy Mami

So Brian and I are in Card Club, it is a group of 6 couples that gather at each others homes once a month..sometimes we play cards, sometimes we just chat and other times, we take it on the road. This month we headed to Fuji in St. Cloud and it happened to fall on our fellow card cluber Becky's birthday. It was our first time trying Fuji, which is a japanese hibachi grill & lounge. It was a blast and the food was GREAT. I did not try the sushi, I was a chicken, but those that had it said it was great! The pictures above is Becky spinning and cracking an egg on the grill! It was her birthday so she got to do all sorts of fun stuff and the chef kept calling her SEXI MAMI. She LOVED it (not so much), but we got a kick out of it.


'Sexy Mami' is the cute one in the middle!

I found this taped to Calvins bedroom door. It says 'NO ELLERY ALLOWED', I am not sure why he made a road with a car on the bottom, maybe he was planning on running her over...those two have their days. Days when they just can't seem to get along at all, and then we times like these....



...when they get along beautifully, okay with maybe a few reminders to get along.

I am pretty sure I always got along with my brothers and sisters. I do believe we were model children! Please do not verify that with my mother...

Nine.

She officially turns nine in 20 minutes. She is sound asleep in her room as I type this up, in a few short hours she will get up and get ready to go to hockey, but not before she wants to open up a few of her birthday gifts. What can I say about that girl she:

loves school
likes to be organized, yet hates to keep her room tidy
dislikes breakfast
loves to read
likes her brother
dislikes combing her hair
loves her nails painted
likes wearing hats, even to bed
dislikes me blogging about her
loves baking with grandma
likes hockey
dislikes being late
loves her cousins
likes sleeping in
loves learning to play the guitar
likes playing the recorder
and I know she will love being nine!

Here is to another fun filled year with my sweet Ellery!

Who drinks wine.

I am not sure how this conversation started, but it had to do with wine...and here was Ellery's input:

Hey mom, guys don't drink wine, well, I mean they do, but only at church!

Good observation I would say, as her dad has probably never had a glass of wine in his life. Me on the other hand, well I am off to book club...to have some wine!

Found these on my phone.

All photos taken by Ellery:

Wanted: Red Ryder BB Gun

Calvin comes running in the house the other day, tears streaming down his face, holding what looks like the bottom quarter of a pumpkin. Through his tears he is trying to tell me that yes in fact that WAS his pumpkin. My first thought. That damn black squirrel. So we go out to investigate. Where the pumpkin once sat, there is now only a stem and some seeds, oh and the base of the pumpkin to which Calvin is still carrying around crying about.

That damn squirrel will sit on our ledge of the front porch and stare us down, he brings all his nuts and such back to our porch and eats them there, our porch is a mess. Now he is messing with our pumpkins. I had the kids bring the pumpkins to the enclosed porch until I can kill that squirrel. We all know that Brian shouldn't be allowed to carry or shoot a fire arm, so I guess that leaves it up to me. HA just kidding, I think I better call my dad. Damn Squirrel.

Chores.

So it is high time the kids start helping around the house. I bought a wipe erase calendar board, at the beginning of the week I write down one chore for them to do each day, this is above and beyond the normal pick up clothes, brush your teeth, etc., by now those just come as habit..sort of! So I am having them do some actual housework, like helping me fold laundry, sort and match socks, vaccum, sweep or even put away the dishes.

The other day I had them both on put away the dishes duty. This is what my cupboard looked like when they were done:






I love that the plastic kids plates are stacked on the very top shelf of the coffee cups, when clearly they go on bottom right shelf where the rest of the kids plates are. Or that fact they they put cups inside the bowls. But hey who am I to complain, I didn't have to do it! So it went fairly well last week, but Ellery already asked if once a week they could have a 'free' day. I told her not until I get a 'free' day!!

It must have been a full moon, or the planets must have been aligned because last night my children were so kind to each other. Now don't get me wrong they do get along on a pretty regular basis, but last night, they got along for about 3 full hours.

First Ellery helped Calvin with his homework, then they took a good long bubble bath and then she read books to Calvin (as seen on the above picture, I know it is blurry, but I didn't want them to know I was taking it).

They are both doing the Book-It program at school. Ellery has to read 200 minutes per month and Calvin has to have 10 books read to him. Ellery has already read 50 minutes on Monday and then she read another 50 minutes on Tuesday, so she is five days into the month and has half of her reading done oh and Calvin is done too because on Tuesday she read the 10 books to Calvin so we killed two birds with one stone.

These are the days I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I told them that too. I told them how much I appreciate when they get along and are kind to each other. They looked at me like..yah sure, don't get yourself all excited because tomorrow is a new day, a new day that I pray is the same as today!

Window Washer...

Want to entertain your son for hours, purchase one of these:



And you get this:







Yep I just stopped to fill the tank up with gas, and he hops out too, to wash the windows, except, if you know Calvin he had to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW and I was only about half way filled up with gas. So I only got half a tank of gas and had to RUN in with him to go to the bathroom. Then he came back out to complete the window washing, I think he spent like 10 minutes washing my windows! I am picking one of these up Wal-Mart tonight!

Birthday Party.

I know this picture is a bit dark and hard to see, but those are dinosaurs, well more like dinosaur skeletons on a homemade legos vehicle. So now he is obsessed with:

1. Star Wars
2. Legos
3. Dinosaur Skeletons
4. Gym time at school

He has had a great first couple of weeks of school. Yesterday he told me he had so much fun at school. I asked him what he did that was so much fun? Gym. Yep, gym was so much fun, he said it was like a birthday party.

Well whatever floats your boat and makes you want to go to school everyday, I am in!

Do not worry, he is in very good hands.

Mondays & Tuesday I am done with work at 3. Yah me. So I, I mean we (me, cal & elle) are watching Breck until his mom or dad come pick him up. Yesterday we picked him up from Grandma Barricks and then went to our house. I laid out a blanket, gave him some toys and asked the kids to watch him while I went to change my clothes. The above photo is how I found him when I came back, minus the two children that were supposed to be watching him. So I called for the two children and first asked them why they weren't with Breck, and they both shrugged their shoulders and second I asked why his pants were around his ankles. Ellery explained that they needed to take a picture of his THIGHS. I can't say as I blame them. They are really nice chunky squishy yummy thighs! Don't worry Hannah he is in very good hands!! Plus I believe we have some excellent pictures of his thighs!

Dancing with the Grandmas.

Ellery and I were watching Dancing with the Stars tonight. We watched Brandi, Bristol, and a few other 'stars' do their dance. Next up: Florence Henderson, aka Mrs. Brady. So she did her dance and it was yes a bit..AWKWARD. Ellery kept giggling and looking at me. She said well she isn't so good at that. I told her well lets google and see how old she is. Flo is 76. So I told Ellery that would be like Grandma Eleanor (my grandma who is 80) dancing. And Ellery said 'yah except Grandma Eleanor would NEVER be able to do that'. Right. As her cane might just get in the way and that is why we are even more even impressed that Flo was out there stutting her stuff ....sort of.

A boring Saturday.

(he said he was a Kung Fu Clown)

Sometimes Saturdays are BORING. You have exhausted all other options: trampoline-check, wii-check, saturday morning cartoons-check, computer games-check. So you head upstairs to the closet full of dress up clothes. They like to each dress up and come down and then I have to pick the one I like the best. They will do this oh, maybe 10 times before they are bored, but I do have to say when they go play dress up, they get along really really well, so I enjoy it even more than they will ever know!

Here's to a few more boring Saturdays of dress up!!

Who are your friends?

Yesterday G & G Smith went to lunch for the first time with Calvin as a Kindergartner.
After school he and grandma were talking all about it. She said he ate EVERYTHING. Then she asked him who his little stocky friend was that was sitting by him? His reply:

My grandpa.

Baa ha ha aha ha. Love it.

Which White House?

Yesterday we went to visit a neighbor that lived next door to us when I was growing up on North Holcombe.

We just stopped in for a quick chat and a few snacks. Ellery asked me how we knew her and I explained that she lived next door to us when we lived in the 'white house'. I have driven by before and showen her the 'white' house that I grew up in, so I figured that would make perfect sense. NOPE.

With wide eyes and huge voice she says 'you lived in the White House?'

Uhm no, not THAT white house you silly girl, the one down the street from where we live now...

Ohhhhhh, she said and smiled!

Oh that girl, she is so funny.

Day 5.

Now let me start off by saying that I fully expected this to happen, but not on day five of school.

Calvin and Ellery take the bus to my work on Monday and Tuesday. As they walk in, I notice that Calvin doesn't have his fleece on nor a backpack strapped on. So I ask him where his stuff is. He tells me that he didn't bring his backpack that morning (nice job Brian) and someone 'stole' his jacket. Uhm back up. STOLE your jacket I ask him?

Yep. he said, it wasn't in my cubby when it was time to go home.

So I said did you tell your teacher?

Nope, he said.

Well you should have told your teacher, to which he replied,

It was warm out today I didn't need it.

Uhm little sir, yes you do need your jacket. UGH.

So the next morning I sent Brian with him to school to find the 'stolen' jacket.

It was accidentally taken home by another little boy and returned the next day..thankfully.

So now we had a chit chat that he must come home with his coat..EVERYDAY!

How many more years do I have of this?

The Farm.

(click on the photo to enlarge)

I wish I knew when this photo was taken. I will have to check on that, but how cool is this old photo of the farm that my dad grew up on? He lived in the teal house to the left and his grandparents lived in the white house back to the right. We (me, Zach, Hannah & Ty) also spent plenty of time there when we visited. We would snowmobile all over those fields and the boys would shoot things back in the woods. The 'teal' house is no longer teal and the barns are no longer in the shape they once were, so it is fun to see how things looked back in the 'heyday' and imagine what it was like to grow up there!

My MA.

This is my mother. She loves to knit, make salsa, hates flies in her house, hates to lose at games and thinks she is funny. And she is. Speaking of funny. I found this funny photo of her on my phone. It is a couple of months old and we were going to visit Grandpa Erv. It was sprinkling out. And by sprinkling out I mean, two drops feel from the sky. So imagine my surprise when I see her walking up to the nursing home like this. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. I told her to stop so I could take her picture to send to Hannah. Because this would make Hannah crack up. Although I think I forgot to send it to Hannah, so I decided I best post it on my blog. Enjoy Hannah!

LOVE YA MA!

Between your legs.

So Hannah is getting re-licensed for daycare. She was reading over some of the paper work and mentioned tornado and fire drills. So she asked Ellery and Calvin what do we do when there is a fire:

Calvin says: go sit in the hallway
Ellery says: go over to Melissa's house (a neighbors house)

So Hannah prompts Calvin again, no 'FIRE DRILL' and he says oh yeah, Melissa's house. Okay good.

Then she asks them what do we do in a tornado:

Calvin: go sit in the hallway
Ellery: yep, go sit in the hallway

Then Hannah asks what do we do next?

Blank stares from both of them.

So she says, where do you put your heads:

Calvin: ??
Ellery: in the closet?

I just about peed my pants laughing. Hannah and I were seriously dying.

The correct answer Hannah was looking for: between your legs.

When Hannah told them the correct answer, Ellery was like ..oh yeah I knew that.

So if you ever find her with her head stuck in a closet, she is probably doing a tornado drill. Seriously that girl has some serious blonde moments!

Sew Fun.

Sew, Grandpa Red loves his infomercials. He bought the 'Handy Stitch' years ago and misplaced it. Lucky for us he found it again and we happened to stop by. He was having problems threading the 'Handy Stitch' so I helped him out and then he and the kids started sewing. I wonder what beautiful 'Handy Stitch' items we can all expect for Christmas, maybe a nice coaster or a toaster cover. Can't WAIT!

PS: did you notice the box says 'portable and cordless' oh the endless possibilities.

Shots. Stink.

My boy had his shots in preparation for Kindergarten. He was worried all day long and even more worried once we got to the doctors office. We had the normal check up and then came in the two nurses with the dreaded shots. I held his hands and then they started, he immediatly screamed and cried. It was so sad. I carried him out to the car and then we headed to Wal-Mart, he got out of the car at Wal-Mart and could barely walk, he limped a bit, but once he was in and started roaming the toy isle, there wasn't a limp in site. Weird.

Then we headed home for dinner and he had baseball that night. He ran around like a crazy man, sliding in to bases, hitting balls, you name it, he did it. THEN he came home and couldn't get into the shower by himself or get dressed, because his knees wouldn't bend. =) So we helped him along and got him to bed, he couldn't get into bed either, so we got him all tucked in and he was fast asleep within minutes. It had been a long day!

Stats:

Height 44 1/4 - 67%
Weight 42lbs - 55%

AND ready for Kingergaten!

I throw my hands up........

So at 5:15, I put Cal's spikes & t-ball shirt on him, grabbed his glove and hat and we headed out to T-ball. ..... Only to get there and realize there are NO community ed events this week. Sooooooooooooooo since we are already in the car, we went to McDonalds (for the kids) and Subway (for the adults). Yes, I do own a calendar and yes I use it, I just didn't use it today. Tomorrow, tomorrow will be a new day.

Sparklers!!

More Sparklers!!

Some fun with Breck!!

What a fun weekend.

FRIDAY - we went to the Willmar pool with the Barricks, Estradas and Huhners. HOT and fun, and lots of snacking going on. Then mom went out with the girls to go see Eclipse. I am still an Edward fan!

SATURDAY - Brian went to the Twins games, so the kids and I loaded up with the Estradas and went over to Spicer where Becky's sister was camping. This campground had a nice pool, so we played in the pool for about 3 hours, then headed home to have supper with Grandma Shirl!

SUNDAY - 4th of July party at the Huhners, very fun relaxing day of tubing, bean bags, and a few chilled beverages! Becky and I went tubing, my arms still hurt..I am a weakling. Then I tubed with the two little boys, Creighton and Calvin, they had gotten dumped off earlier in the day and were not having it. So we convinced them to try again if I went with. Calvin bawled for about 2 minutes and then they had a good time!

MONDAY - Relaxed, had lunch at my parents, and then more relaxing!

What a perfect 4th, now onto Watercade, then a quick trip to Duluth to see the air show, then a few weddings and school will be here before we know it!

Happy 4th of July!