Weekend Recap

I'll start with a funny story from yesterday...the girls were watching Back To The Future (again) yesterday morning before church. They get to the part where Doc and Marty are in the mall parking lot testing out the time machine. Aly is laughing at everything that is going on, Marty sees Einstein disappear and says "Holy Sh*!". Aly looks at me, laughs and says "Holy Sh*!s" I start busting up laughing and Corey comes out of the kitchen and "seriously" tries to say "Aly, we don't say that, it's a bad word". I jump up from the couch, run to the kitchen and laugh uncontrollably with Corey out of Aly's sight. It was so innocent...and kind of cute. I never realized how much bad language was in the movie and it's rated PG. Boy, times have changed.

Anyway, we had a fun weekend. Our friends, The DeShon's, came into town on Thursday night to spend a couple of nights with us. The BOYS took the kiddos out so that Laura I could have a day of shopping to ourselves. It was very sweet of them and we enjoyed ourselves. We went down to Historic Main Street St. Charles and at lunch at Miss Aimee B's tea room. It was really fun to do girly stuff and have adult conversation without all of the kids in tow. The BOYS took the kiddos to Whites for lunch and then to the magic house. From the pictures they took it looks like everyone had a blast.

We had a babysitter (Aunt Lisa) for the kiddos on Friday night and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot...yum!

The rest of the weekend was a pretty lazy one! I was feeling pretty under the weather so we spent alot of time resting and sleeping...and enjoying the NKOTB Behind The Music.

Crappy Halloween Candy

So I want to know what is the crappiest Halloween Candy you ever received. For me it would definitely have to be Necco Wafers...gag...you might as well go eat a container of Tums. At least Tums do not have a black licorice flavor.



I do however love those black and orange peanut butter taffy things (ironically made by the same company that makes Necco Wafers)...I am sure some of you are gagging right now at the thought of those but this is coming from the girl who loves Circus Peanuts and Peeps.

DANGEROUS

I love candy!! Anything that is chewy, gummy, sweet but sour...you get the picture. So on Tuesday after the girls' dance class we headed over Target to peruse the Halloween candy aisles. I've been in pursuit of the giant bag of Twizzlers Pull & Peel licorice. This is the only time if year when you can find green apple pull & peel. I was thrilled to find that my beloved licorice finally made it to the shelf. As I was trying to leave the candy aisle these little gems caught my eye:


















Holy moly are these things dangerously addicting. They kind of taste like the Nerd Rope but better! I could've eaten the whole bag by myself but I practiced restraint and saved some for my family. If you haven't tried these get over to Target and get yourself a bag, or ten...you better hurry because I may not have left you any on the shelf!

Bones

When I was 8 months pregnant with Ashley (2 days before Christmas) I ended up in the hospital. I woke up in the middle of the night with excrutiating pain in my back and thought maybe I was in pre-term labor. It turned out to be kidney stones. It was horrible. I had to have an MRI or something like that...they told me that my baby could be exposed to radiation. Great, what every pregnant lady wants to hear. So here I was being wheeled down to the X-Ray room, huge and pregnant with a hospital gown that was open in the back (thank God they let me keep my sweatpants on) and the person who was taking me down kept having to stop at every trash can so that I could puke my guts out not caring that everyone could probably see my "groceries".

After they had done the X-ray or whatever it was called the doctor came upstairs and held up this X-ray film and said "look what we found". It was a picture of Ashley and the doc had typed "Merry Christmas Mom & Dad, I love you" on the slide. Somehow that picture made all of it worth it.

I gave you the background because we have been rearranging things upstairs in the girls' rooms this past week and I have been unpacking their keepsake boxes. Everytime I run across the picture of Ashley I take it out of the envelope and remember that day...fondly. This time I showed it to Ashley. She was terrified at first...then I told her that it was her...I think that scared her even more. We talked about it a little, I told her that was when she was in my belly. I think she likes it now and is proud because she keeps asking me if she can "see her bones".

The Girl Has It All Figured Out

Here's a little update on our Tiny Dancer. Ashley has totally figured out that she only has to impress me on Tuesday mornings. After her four times on the potty yesterday she informed me that she wasn't going to go in the potty anymore because..."I don't want to". Makes sense, she got what she wanted and we will play this little charade again until next Tuesday when she decides to be big again.

It's all worth it though because her little tap shoes are size 6! If you are a Target shoe shopper than you know that that's only one size bigger than all of the "baby" shoes.

Amanda - to answer your question, it's not really typical for studios to let the parents watch their children on a week in week out basis. Some studios have double sided glass so the kiddos can't see you but you can see them. Our studio has an observation week 3 times per year where parents and grandparents can go into the class and watch but Aly always does better when she knows that I am not watching. I was only able to snap these few pics of Ash yesterday because we get special privileges at the studio...I grew up in that dance studio, taught some preschool dance and managed the office all through college. The owner is thrilled to have us back and has been asking Ash every week if she's wearing "big girl panties" yet so that she can give her tap shoes and sign her up for class. It's actually quite cute and I certainly don't mind the "favor" especially since it "favors" my checking account! I guess all of those years that my Dad "invested" his checkbook into me is paying off for my kiddos...I'll have to remember to thank him!

Finally

We've been promising Ashley that when she potty's like a big girl she will get to take dance class like Sissy. Well a couple of weeks ago Ash went on the big girl potty before we took Aly to dance class and she didn't understand that in order to take class she had to go on the potty consistently not just Tuesday mornings before dance class. So that morning I dressed her in regular clothes but I let her wear panties. We dropped Aly off at dance and then left to run a few errands. As I took Ashley out of her car seat at our first stop I noticed that she peed her pants. Ugh...good thing I brought extra clothes. She was pretty much like "you told me I could take dance class if I peed in the big girl potty, I did, and now you're not letting me take dance class so I am just going to continue to pee in my pants".

Fast forward two weeks to today. Ashley peed twice in the potty before we left for dance class so I did what any good Mom would do...I dressed her in dance clothes, packed her dance bag and took her to class too. I purposely signed Aly up for a class that had a beginners class at the same same time so that when Ash was finally ready I would only have to make one trip to the studio each week.

Ashley had a big time...she did awesome. Very impressive for a 2 1/2 year old. Her teacher said she had excellent coordination (must have been Coach Bob and Tumblebees) and picked up very quickly. Here are a few pics of her first day. As a side note...it's 2:18 pm and Ash has peed 4 times on the potty and not once in her pants!!

The Painted Zebra

Last Wednesday Grandma and Aunt Lisa took the girls to The Painted Zebra while Corey and I went to do some volunteer work at our new church, Faith Church St. Louis. The pictures turned out so cute I couldn't help but share them with you all!

PS - Contrary to what some may think I do not curl Ashley's pigtails, she has those "Cindy Brady" curls all by herself.

Baseball & Branson

On Friday Aly left for her big girl trip to Branson with her MawMaw, PawPaw (Corey's Mom & Dad) and cousin Alex. Ashley was really missing her "Owie" (Aly) and couldn't wait to talk with her on the phone.
























Friday night, Corey, Ashley and I met up with some friends from Columbia at the STL Cardinals game. Unfortunately the Cards lost but we had a great time of fellowship with our friends from Victory. Here's a pic of Ashley & Corey and also Sarah B & David to commemorate the event!

Arcs

We had a ton of rain last Thursday and every time it rains we are continually frustrated by the water that accumulates in the empty lot next to us and our back yard. Supposedly the Homeowners association in partnership with the builder are working to take care of this problem. You know you have issues when your kids
look out the window and ask if they can go swimming, uh...I don't think so. I was glad the rain finally subsided otherwise my project for next week was going to be starting the Arc!


PS - Check our our new Vinyl fence, didn't Corey do a great job!!

Cheerleader Girls

I didn't realize it had been a week since I posted. I've been a smidge busy with everything...maybe more about that tomorrow. The girls and I went to a football game this past Saturday that my sister Lisa was cheering at. Her little fan club showed up in their cheerleader gear complete with pom poms! Their DCC uniforms were as close as we could get to Francis Howell Central uniforms. I know my Texas family is loving it, STL family...not so much!