I love jewelry! I've always thought I'd love to design rings. I remember thinking that when I was young. The first real ring I got was when I was in 4th grade I think. I remember looking at the rings at Service Merchandise and picking out a birthstone ring. I remember Mom and Dad making me wear a cheap, play ring for a long time to prove I could take care of a nice one. I still love rings to this day. Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is to tell about a giveaway on another blog. (I get an extra chance to win the giveaway if I write about it on my blog.) The blog is called Cinnamon Sticks Boutique. It is found at http://www.cinnamonsticksboutique.blogspot.com/. I found this blog through Etsy, the site where people sell homemade items. She sells her jewelry there. We bought a necklace from her to give to Julie after she found out she was pregnant. Anyway, check it out. She has really neat stuff.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Valentine's Day 2010
Friday night, before Valentine's Day, we went to Bucca di Beppo for dinner with the girls. We don't really go to nice restaurants very often so this was a treat. The girls are so much easier to take to restaurants now! Soooooo much easier! It's actually enjoyable now. Then Sunday I gave them a little treat bag for Valentine's day. The bags had a movie, a heart with chocolates, a container of gum and a card. They got the most excited about the gum! 
Belt Graduation
Lyla has been doing karate for about 6 months now. She was finally ready to graduate from the beginning white belt to the yellow belt. In the beginning of karate she wasn't that into it. I had to make her go, basically. We hoped it would help with obedience and respect and discipline issues we were dealing with at home. I'm happy to announce that I think it has helped. She's definitely improved her behavior over the last 6 months! She's not perfect but she's definitely much easier to handle. Anyway, in the last couple of months, she's started enjoying karate more and has stopped saying she doesn't want to go. Then when she found out that she was graduating to the next belt level she really got excited. She asks to go to karate now! She is so proud of herself and it is so cute. They had a graduation ceremony last Saturday and she was very excited to go. The 2nd picture of her is showing her giving me the thumbs-up. She does this all the time. I love it. She gives me the thumbs-up and does a clicking noise out of the side of her mouth at the same time. She is so proud in these pictures. Its so great to see her have such confidence and pride in herself. She's worked hard and really learned what they teach. I chose this karate class because they teach karate but they also teach self-defense and a lot of character building. They have to do a character building workbook lesson each month and they also talk a lot about the lessons in their karate classes every day. I'm very impressed. At home, she'll come to me and tell me when she has had self-control or perserverance. Here are the pictures. The two teachers are husband and wife. 
Lyla's Vday Party
Lyla is not a morning person
Lyla is not a morning person. She needs 12 hours of sleep. So, to get 12 hours of sleep on a school night, she would need to be ASLEEP at 7:30pm. It just doesn't happen. So, she is not ready to get up on school or church mornings. To make things easier on me, mainly to avoid nagging and crying, I basically do everything for her. I go in her room to wake her up, very sweetly of course, and pick out her clothes. Now, she will DEFINITELY veto an outfit when she sees what I've gotten out. Anyway, I dress her in the bed, half asleep. Then I carry her downstairs, pull her pants down, sit her on the potty and wipe her. Then I stand her up at the sink, fix her hair and brush her teeth. Then she walks to the family room red chair. Then I take her hot chocolate to her. She stays in that chair until we walk out the door, at which point I get her shoes out for her to put on. I usually have to bring her coat to her too. I know this is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY ridiculous! I vow that next year when she starts kindergarten I will not do this for her. But for now, it works best for me. Joni said I need to document this ridiculous routine in pictures. Well, I tried but didn't get very far. She did not want me to take her pictures. It was making her very mad and she would not cooperate. So, this is all I got. 
Saturday morning mess
This past Saturday morning was very nice...until I got out of bed. The girls have reached a very nice age. They can play by themselves for a long time, somewhat unsupervised. The best part of this comes on Saturday mornings when they get up but don't wake me and Eric up. This past Saturday was one of those mornings. I heard them wake up but they never came to get me, so I went back to sleep. They can turn the TV on, find a cartoon, and even get their own drink and cereal now. Very nice. They played for a long time Saturday morning and I got to sleep in, which I love to do. But, when I did get up this is what I found. And, these are pictures from downstairs only. I didn't even take pictures of the huge mess upstairs! All of these areas were clean as of Saturday night.
Huge mess!!! But, I do have to say that they cleaned it up all by themselves, with a little direction. They even washed the dishes that they used (which created a wet mess on the kitchen floor, but we're not talking about that right now). This is a good age.
More Easton
After Easton was born on Wednesday, Lyla and I went back to the hospital by ourselves on Friday and then we went to Julie's house the following Friday too. Lyla will sit and hold Easton for so long! Here are the pictures of the little man.
The girls "setting up"
Last week I was cleaning my bathroom and they decided they wanted to clean the toilet and wipe the bathroom with cleaning wipes too. So, I sent them to the other bathroom with cleaning supplies. After they were done with that they came and shut the bathroom door to the bathroom that I was in and told me not to come out because they were "making a mess". I knew they were up to something. They like to surprise me every now and then by cleaning up a room or two but this time they wanted to trick me into thinking they were making a mess, probably because I'm constantly telling them to please NOT make a big mess. So, I stayed in the bathroom and kept cleaning while listening to them giggle and laugh and talk about how surprised I would be. They finally came and got me to show me the "mess". Of course, they had made my bed and picked up both of their rooms and made their beds. I took pictures of their beds because it cracks me up how they "set up" their beds. They like to organize things all in a row or make them look neat, even though they're not exactly in the right places. Here are the few pictures I took. They're so funny, at least to me. Look at the pillows on their beds.
Elye Kate at 9 months
Here are the pictures Joni and I took of Elye Kate for her 9 month "photo shoot". They were taken at The Factory in Franklin. I did send these 5 pictures to a friend that has photoshop. I've included a couple of the before shots so I can see the difference. They're subtle differences but they do change the picture for the better, in my opinion. I would LOVE to have a new computer with photoshop on it. I would probably spend way too much time playing with photography though. Who knows, maybe one day I could know enough to make a business out of it. That would be a dream job in my opinion.
Before 
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Baby Easton Daniel - the golden child
Well, it finally happened. After 3 daughters (me, Julie and Joni) and 4 granddaughters, my parents finally got a boy. Easton was born on Feb. 3rd and was 5 lbs 15.5 oz. He's a tiny little thing but perfect. He's a great baby and doesn't get mad very often. The girls loved seeing him and we had to have timed turns to hold him. It amazes me how long Lyla will sit perfectly still to hold him. Lyla and I went to the hospital on the Friday after he was born to visit and keep Julie company. Lyla practically held him the whole afternoon! He's adorable with lots of dark hair. I wish we lived closer to Julie and Jason so we could see him more often. Here are some of the pictures that I took in the hospital. 
