Catching Up

I know I've been neglecting my blog.

Christmas was a success! The kids were beyond thrilled Christmas morning! The Christmas All-Star toys this year were the kitchen, both kids ADORE this! We have been "eating" and "cooking" up a storm since Christmas! Joey's favorite toy by far was spike and Julianna loves her Princess dress up clothes (as you can see in the last picture of the last post!). And she is so funny when she has it on...you can't call her Julie or Julianna, she is PRINCESS JULES! She'll correct you in a second if she isn't called by this while wearing her princess outfit!

As I've stated before in previous posts, I have been concerned about Allie not pulling up. Well 2 days ago I was making a sandwich and turned around to find this...


Allie pulled herself up and was standing!!!! I was beyond thrilled...and a lot relieved! Thankfully my camera was sitting right on the counter and I was able to capture this milestone! She is now pulling up on EVERYTHING!

We leave for Maryland tomorrow! I am soooo excited about this trip! I have a few concerns about the flight. Flying with 3 kids is never fun or easy. Wish us luck! So tons of pictures in the near future! I can't wait to get my hands on my sweet niece born a week ago! More to come soon! Hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

Christmas' Past...

2002- The proposal

2003-We added Joe!

2004

2005

2006-We added Julianna!

2007

Oh and Dad in case you wondering...this is what YOU got the kids!

From you we got Julianna this Dollhouse.

We got Joe "Spike" from you...which he will LOVE!

And as a joint gift to the 3 of them we got this kitchen

Your gift cards we a big help this year especially with money so tight! Thank you and we love you! Can't wait to see you next week!!!

My Niece is ON THE WAY!!!

Going to keep updates here, not that I expect most of you will be reading this in the middle of the night but it will be a nice record for Jackie to have :)

Tuesday, December 23rd.

6:02 AM-



5:01 AM- Ashlynn is here! 7lbs 6oz, Although we couldn't be there Mom and I witnessed the birth via. telephone with Kristen giving us play by plays. We hear she has a head full of dark hair and looks like Bradley. Picture to come as soon as we get it!

4:00 AM- 9 cent.

12:50 AM- 6 cent.

12:10 AM- Checked again...4-5 cent. Moving right along!

Monday, December 22nd.

11:25 PM- Dr. is there and she is now 3 cent. I just talked to her on the phone and it sounds like she is in a lot of pain. Hopefully she'll get the epidural soon!

10:20 PM- She was just checked...2 cent. It's gonna be a long night!

10:15 PM- Jackie's water broke in the car on the way to the hospital! She is having contractions every 4 minutes.

A Few Updates

So I have a couple new things to "report" on.

1. We found Julianna's glasses!!!!! Huge relief! I honestly didn't think I would ever find them. But low and behold cleaning out Joey's room and there they were sitting perfectly unharmed under a toybox. And the thing is we had moved that toybox to clean the carpets about 6 weeks ago. We are all still amazed that they are found and are a little bewildered on how they got under the toybox and why we hadn't seen them earlier. Hmmm...

2. She is actually WEARING them!!! She gets up every morning (the last 3 mornings) and puts them on and leaves them on all day. A Christmas Miracle in itself! We have been trying to get her to do this for the last year and a half!

3. Julianna's last day of therapy was Friday. As I said before I have had mixed emotions about this in the past. I'm fine with it now. I am going to miss her therapist. She has been a huge part of Julianna's life for the past 2 years. I owe them so much gratitude! I didn't get any pictures on her last day but I do have to go into the office on Monday to pick up Julianna's new braces so I'll take some pics. then. It is going to feel strange not taking the drive to Porter every Friday, it's all we've known the last 2 years. They will re-evaluate her in 3 months just to make sure she is not regressing and then that's it!

4. Joey won a bike from his dentist office!!! Every kids who had a dentist apt. in December was entered into the drawing and Joe won! We pick it up on Monday!

5. Allie cut her 5th and 6th tooth today! It is the ones on either side of her two front teeth! Maybe that is the reason for the constant crying the last couple of days? My poor baby, I'll be so glad when this teething stage is done with!

Bittersweet Birthday

Today would have been Allie's Scott's 5th Birthday. It's hard to think that she would have been 5. I've been sad all morning (it's going to be a long day), I can only imagine how Jenny feels. It so unfair that things like this have to happen. I'm loving on my kids a little extra today. If it's one thing Allie's life has taught me it's the life and health is a gift and definitely not promised.

Happy Birthday Angel Baby. If there is a heaven I know you are there.

In honor and loving memory of
Allie Scott
December 17, 2003- September 13, 2004

M.I.A.

So I know I've been "missing" for a couple days. The whole house has been sick. It started off with a horrible stomach bug that went on a rampage through the house. Then Allie got Strep Throat. So we are all just now getting healthy again. I'm also having memory card problems. For some reason I can't get pictures from my memory card to the computer so that's been ticking me off. Anyway, enough complaining.

While Allie was at the doctors for her throat we found out she weighs 21 lbs 6oz. At this age (10 months) Julianna weighed 25lbs 6oz. Allie is definitely our smallest baby at this point by 4 whole pounds (Joe weighed the most at this age)! And really she is not "small" at all! I'm a little worried about her because she is not really pulling herself up yet. I feel like she should be. I know kids hit milestones at different times and I don't think anything is wrong with her. I am just slightly concerned about this.

Joe and Julie are so excited about Christmas! They ask me everyday "When is Christmas"! They are both at such a great age! Joe has a field trip on Friday to the Post Office and surprisingly he is really looking forward to it. Joe has been making lots of progress lately. His latest acomplishment is dressing himself. I lay his clothes out the night before and every morning he gets up and gets himself dressed! This is just so exciting to me! He amazes me all the time at the things he is doing, granted there are things that he is not able to do but I really stay positive and concentrate on what he is doing.

Eyes are getting heavy, I'll be back tomorrow to finish this post and with some new pics...hopefully!

It's SNOWING!!!

It's snowing in the Houston area! We can't believe it!!! The news said it was going to snow but no one believed it. I mean it doesn't snow in Houston Texas, not the Houston Texas that was in the 60's over the weekend! Not the Houston Texas that MAKES THEIR OWN FAKE SNOW so the poor snow deprived Texan children can look at and wish for in their own yards! Yes, in case you didn't catch that...our malls and museums this time of year set aside an outdoor area and have snow machines blow snow onto children (who are usually wearing shorts!) so they know what it feels like to have snow! Well it did and it is... SNOWING! We were at dinner tonight when it started snowing and you would have thought the entire restaurant had won the lottery! We were then informed that it hadn't snowed like this since 1993! I heard one lady describe it as a "December Miracle"! We are all on cloud 9! Not to mention it's Julianna and Allie's first ever snow! The kids haven't been able to get out in it. Not sure if it will be here still in the morning but if it is I'll for sure add pictures of them in it!

Plane Tickets...Check!

I'm an avid list maker, I have a list for EVERYTHING! This time of year I have many lists! I can officially check plane tickets off! We purchased them on Saturday! We'll be in Maryland December 30th through January 18th! Joe can't miss that much school so he is flying out with me and flying home with Ron on January 9th. So the thinking and stressing begins...flying with 3 kids ALONE...AHHHH!!! I will stress over the logistics of this trip until it's happening! I'll post more about this in a later blog, can't bare to think about it right now!

Another stress is Christmas! I always stress over presents, did I spend enough? did I get them enough? This year will be a little less than last year. We just spent $700 on plane tickets (oh yeah they went up $30 each way the day after I posted that they were $89 each way...I was ticked!) so I'm not going to have as much as I did last year. I'm aiming at $250 a kid ($150 a kid already purchased). And my dad always spends a good amount of them too so that should be enough. I don't know why I stress on this subject each year but I do. I wish I was more laid back!!! Because really the kids are happy no matter what you spend! And I know presents aren't what this season is all about...right now at 5, 2.5 and 9 months it's all they know! Try explaining to a two year old what Christmas is all about! She just stands there and looks at you like you have 3 heads. Last year I tried the whole "It's "supposed" to be Jesus' birthday that we are celebrating", they just don't get it yet.

I promised a picture of the Christmas tee...it's coming! I haven't taken one because it's still not done! I have been so SLACK this year on decorating. I'm usually on the ball but I've been in a slump! So I'm going to get off of here and "attempt" to make some progress!

Julianna's Winter Recital!

Julianna (on the right of the little boy) with her class and helpers

Julianna, Madison and Hope

With her ornament (I can tell she wasn't feeling good in this pic.)
After her performance
Pretty Girl
Julie with her dad
With her flowers and presents

Julianna's dance recital went well today. As you'll see in the video I posted below, at this age they don't really "do" a whole lot but they sure are cute! There teacher warned us in saying "Their 2, I can't promise they'll get up there and do ANYTHING but I can promise they'll be cute as they can be and the video will be excellent to pull out and embarrass them on their 18th birthday!" I've seen them practice every week and in class they had the routine down much better. Today, they all kinda froze. Julianna had fun and that's all that matters to us! And not to mention the poor baby was sick today! She has had a fever the last 2 nights and if it wasn't for the fact that it was a recital I wouldn't have made her go. She was a trooper though! After her recital we took her to Olive Garden for dinner to celebrate. I'm going to let the video finish the post :)

UPDATE: I've tried for 3 days to upload the video, I can't get it to upload onto myspace either. Don't know the problem. Gonna work on it some more but for now I'm posting this without the video...sorry!

Houston Holiday Parade

Love the face in this one!
Julianna's teacher is the one with her back to us. I just ordered Julianna this outfit, she can't wait for it to get in!
Julie and her classmate Madison

Having Fun!

Jules on the float

Me with Julie and Madison

Waving to the crowd

Wee Steepers...Julianna will be one of them next year.

The older girls danced the 3 mile parade route.

Last night was the annual Houston Holiday Parade. Julianna had a great time! We had to get there at 5 which I thought was really early since the parade didn't start until 6:30! That's a long time to keep two 2 year olds entertained. There are five kids in Julie's class but only two of them attended the parade, Julianna and Madison. So...the parade started at 6:30 and it was a much bigger parade that I anticipated. And all the floats were done in Christmas lights (it was a nighttime parade) so it was also very pretty! Even the horses wore Christmas lights! Julianna was really in awe of everything. I don't think she really got what was going on to much. She just knew she had to wave, lol. She wanted to dance and I had a hard time explaining to her that she wasn't supposed to dance she was just supposed to sit there and wave. We didn't get done until a little after 8. Oh and the weather was great, it was in the low 60's so we were thankful for that. Took a small video too, it was hard to get many good pictures or video because we were sitting right on top of each other. Tonight is dress rehearsal and Saturday is her recital, more pictures and video to come!

Dance Dance Dance

This week is all about dance! Julianna and I are going to be in a parade tomorrow afternoon, she has dress rehearsal (the costumes are ADORABLE) on Wednesday and her Winter Recital is Saturday! She is beside herself with excitement! I'll post a video and tons of pictures!

I DID IT!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RON!

Tomorrow is my step-dad's birthday! Today we had a little party since Cindy has to work tomorrow. We didn't do presents today we'll do that on his actual birthday and Kristy I remembered the cards ;) They are with are stuff to give him tomorrow! So I'm cutting this short tonight. Much longer post tomorrow! That's alot of "tomorrow's" in such a little post, lol!

New Layout

Obviously if you're reading this you've noticed the new layout. Not sold on it yet, I'm still looking BUT I am sold on the header! It's my dad and Santa...doesn't get much better than that!

Crawling Baby + Christmas Tree = TROUBLE!

And so the fun begins...Allie WILL NOT leave the Christmas tree alone! I should have known. Although Julianna on her first Christmas was only 2 weeks younger than Allie and I don't remember these problems! I didn't post a full picture of the tree yet because it isn't done. We had some tree drama today. I went to put the tree up and noticed the whole top half of the tree's lights were blown. I've had the tree 6 years so...to the store I went to get another one. I really like the new one it actually looks alot like my old one which was the idea. It's 3/4 done. Joe and Julie had a really good time decorating! I didn't get any good pictures of Joe but trust me he was totally into it! Tomorrow I'm finishing this tree and starting Mom's tree (we have our own!) and decorating the house. I did get some awesome bargains today! We shopped all day! We fought Wal-Mart (2 different ones), Target, The Mall and Circuit City! I know crazy right? But so worth it!

Allie "helping"

Julianna really helping...she did awesome!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had an alright day so far. I still have a hard time with holidays. This will be our 3rd year in Texas and holidays still don't "feel right". I miss home now more than ever. It's something that I'm sure gets easier with time but it hasn't gotten easier yet. Speaking of home I'm getting ready to make plane reservations to go back! Southwest has all airline tickets after the New Year for $89! I'm jumping on that! I'm looking at being in Maryland the 6th through the 26th of January. I'm not sure yet what to do about Joe. He has to go to school. At first I thought about taking him out of school for a week and then letting him fly back to Texas with Ron (Ron is in Maryland every other week) so that he only misses one week of school and not 2. Then Mom suggested he just stay home and go to Maryland in the summer (we go home every summer too). I'm not sure what to do. It's to expensive to go while he is out of school on break and I want to go around the time my niece is born (Jackie is due January 1st). I have to think on it?

Back to Thanksgiving, I got side tracked! So in a couple hours we are hitting up The Main Event for a game of bowling...Kristy and John we are going to miss you! No one has a nicer "spin" than John, haha! And tomorrow we are hitting up Black Friday!!! Check this sight out for Black Friday sales http://www.blackfriday.info/sales/. In honor of Thanksgiving I'm leaving with a short list of things/people I am thankful for today...

* 3 great kids who make my day everyday
* Jazz
* An awesome set of parents who are sooo supportive
* Bubba for loving our kids unconditionally
*3 kick ass sisters and brother
*Cool in-laws
*The most loving Grandparents anyone could ask for (they seriously are the best)
*Tony, my rock, I'd be lost without him
*Kristen (my "other" sister) for ALWAYS making me laugh
*Health, right now everyone is healthy, what more could we ask for?

And really that' s just the tip of the ice berg. I'm asking everyone to keep my niece Miki in your thoughts (she has been really sick) and the victims of Mumbai. I have been following this story closely and my heart really goes out to them.

9 Months

I know it's a day late...