3 hours?! Yeah right!

Well today was nice and also yucky.  Ty left for work at 4am, but the girls let me sleep in until 8! However I had to rush.  Ty's mom was going to be by before 8:30 to keep and eye on the girls while I went in to take the second glucose test (it was so nice having her around to help this week!). 

I was told the glucose test was a 3 hour test.  You have to fast from midnight to until the test is completed.  My test was set up for 8:45 this morning.  I thought "ok I wont be able to eat until 11:45.. that stinks, but isn't too bad..." However when I got there I had to wait over twenty minutes for them to call me.  Then I was told that the 3 hour clock doesn't start until they get the first results back... which was about 45 minutes later!  I was starving by the time I got out of there!  What got me through it was the promise of a yummy deli sandwich at the cafe right outside.  IT WAS CLOSED!  The next nearest food was a In and Out.  Sounded perfect!  But it was lunchtime and the place was a zoo.. 30 minutes later I had my burger in hand. So by 1:45 my body was happy again.

The view I had while sitting at the hospital for 4 hours.

 After Ty left for his second job today HQ and I went down for a much needed nap.  All that sitting around and wishing I could eat and sit really wore me out.. Izzy entertained herself by working on her new beads she got for Christmas.  They have letters on them so she had a blast making them spell different words.

Tonight HQ was in a VERY playful mood.  She walked around in Izzy's tiara, she talked to the pasta she had for dinner (and it sounded like she had the pasta talk back to her), and then she pulled out all our straws and set them in the grout of the tile and just walked away.  My little creative weirdo.  

HQ.. she is diaperless but wearing her sister's tiara.
Izzy called her "Little Princess No Pants"

HQ using the vacuum she got for Christmas.

I thought it was cute that she headed straight for the tree.  The spot I have vacuum every day.

HQ and Ty playing with her giant stuffed penguin. 

It's late!  Sorry to end so abruptly but I just realized how very tired I am! Good Night :)

Izzy the Seamstress!

Ty and I got our little date today.  It was quite nice.  We dropped the girls off with his mom for a good 3 hours and just spent some time together.  We went to Coco's and used a Christmas GC.  Yay!  We then headed to Joann's to pick up a few sewing items with another gift certificate.  Ty actually likes to walk around that store with me now.  I think I "broke" him. :) HQ usually just likes to pull all the fabric and beads in the cart while Izzy tells me everything she'd like to make if only I would just buy it for her... my little mooches.  

The girl's had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Orpi's house.  Their cousins also came over and they all built a tent out of the dinning room table and watched "How to Train Your Dragon".  When we went back to pick them up HQ was happy to see us, but not too eager to leave.  We stayed to talk a bit and then she started to grump and we realized it was nap time! 

HQ and her cousin at Grandma Orpi's house.

 We put HQ down for her nap and Ty left for work.  It's nice when that happens at the same time because it gives Izzy and me a chance to spend sometime with just the two of us.  Unfortunately I was NOT feeling well at all so Izzy lay down next to me and just wanted to talk.  I love her talks.  So innocent and loving!

Making the most of one of her Christmas gifts :) 

Izzy...

Time for bedtime routine!  Izzy looked forward to her little sister going to bed tonight because she knew that meant we would get to try out her new sewing machine.  HQ seemed just as ready for bed tonight.  As I rocked her before bed she hummed along with me.  I put her in her bed and she immediately pulled her blanket up to her ears, closed her eyes, and fell asleep before I even left the room.

Another night of crazy tub time!

 Since I didn't feel well earlier we saved phonics for tonight.  Izzy completed her book with no pauses and no stumbles!  Now onto box 3!!  Her reward for box two is a Hello Kitty pencil box.  She's excited to go get it because she has one all set in her head.  One with a lock on it.  She has some special pencils she wants to put in there.

Finishing up her phonics :) 

It warmed my heart to see her take to sewing so quickly!  I just had her sew on paper without thread tonight.  I made some patterns on construction paper and just had her follow those.  It was a way for her to get used to the machine, learn some safety, and terminology without adding the possibility of knotting thread and ripped paper to the mix.  She LOVED it.  Her first two tries made her say, "Wow Mom, sewing is really hard!"  I told her about how I started when I was younger.  That the papers I made were so messy and even the first few things I sewed were a disaster, but I kept trying because I liked it so much.  That made her feel better and she kept right on sewing and showed a lot of improvement in the half hour we spent.  Before bed she asked me, "Mom, How do you know everything about sewing?".  I said "I don't know everything, but I know a lot.  I learned it by practicing.  My mommy didn't know how to sew, so I practiced all by myself."  "Whoa mom!  All by yourself?! That had to be really hard!  I'm going to practice a lot then I can show Grandma how to sew too!" She said excitedly.

Starting to sew!

It is now bedtime.  I have a 3 hour long blood test tomorrow morning and I am NOT looking forward to it.  At least I don't have to take the girls!

Tub Tints!

This morning Izzy came home.  HQ was actually still asleep when Izzy arrived so I could tell Izzy was making a little extra noise hoping to wake her sister up.  She has been gone since Saturday... that's a long time for them!  Shortly thereafter HQ woke up and got to witness Izzy open up the last of her presents.  14 of them!! We seriously have some very generous family and friends.

Opening up a gift from her Aunt and Uncle. 

HQ testing out part of Izzy's new percussion set.
(I am honestly very excited about that gift!)

 Before Ty headed to TJ's we took a quick trip to Target to use one of our gift cards.  Don't worry Jen, we got Cranium with yours (She told us it HAD to be used for a more fun non essential item)! :) Izzy always loves going to Target.  Unfortunately our timing was off and HQ was ready for a nap before we could check out... not cool!

Our exciting trip to Target.  As you see here..
it was a jaw dropping experience!

 Izzy was so excited to use their new tub toys tonight I had to hear for about 2 hours how she was ready for her bath.  I like to do it right before bedtime because it usually calms the two of them down.  It did the reverse tonight, but it still really pooped them out too.

Izzy got some tub crayons for Christmas.
In this photo she is explaining to HQ how to get to Grandma's house.
(Yes the water is green due to some "tub tints")

HQ decided she would rather use the bath drum as a bowl.
She would stir the water in it with a drumstick.  

I pulled HQ from the tub and wrapped her in a large towel.  She managed to wiggle her way out and then ran around the house naked.  I found her hiding in our bed underneath our blankets just giggling.  Izzy joined her and we finished with our bedtime routine.

Ty just got home, so it is time for me to hop off and hang out with him before we both crash.  We get to have a mid morning date tomorrow.  I am so excited!

Boy, I Sure Miss My Toys!

Today was back to work for Ty.  After having two whole days off I could tell he really didn't feel like going back.  He left at 4am and worked until 10pm with a short break between jobs.  It was mostly just HQ and I for the day.  We spent a good amount of time relaxing (I hit my third trimester exhaustion!!) and starting to tackle the mess that is Ty's and my room.  The only clean spot is my sewing area.  Everything else is covered with laundry and and for some strange reason, tutus.

Izzy was dropped off at my mom's this morning by her father, so she will be coming home tomorrow.  I guess she asked my mom, "Am I going home tomorrow?"  My mom said, "Yes, Grandpa is dropping you off in the morning".  To which Izzy responded, "Boy, I sure do miss my toys... oh and HQ!"

Enjoying her cheerios and strawberries.

I called Ty's mom yesterday to ask if she wouldn't mind babysitting while I went in for Peanut's check up this afternoon.  Before I even told her what time she excitedly said, "YES!" So she and HQ got an hour to play today which it seemed they both enjoyed.  When I left they were reading books in the girls' room.

The appointment went well and I was told that it's time to start counting kicks.  After every meal I have to count 10 kicks within the hour.  I don't think Peanut will give me any difficulty with that.  All my babies were wiggly, but he is by far the most!  In fact he is kicking me with great gusto as I type.

I found this book on Amazon.com today for real cheap!  We ordered it for Izzy.
It got some great reviews, so I'm hoping she enjoys it.

I guess I should take a quick shower before Ty makes it home.  I smell like HQ... cute for a baby, not so much for an adult.  He works both jobs again tomorrow too.  Boo!  But I am proud of him none the less! 

A Day Off

Oh! One thing I forgot to add in yesterday's blog.  While we were at Ty's mom's house she told us that she had taken Izzy and her cousin to the $.99 store, given them each a $6 budget for their parents ($3 per mom and $3 per dad) and set them free to pick out whatever they wanted to get us.  What an adorable idea!  For me Izzy had picked out a little bouquet of pink fake flowers (I like flowers), a pack of stretchy headbands (I do like headbands), and a giant plastic candy cane.  I think the candy cane was pick more with herself in mind.. :)  For Ty she had picked out a set of blue ornaments (because his favorite color is blue), a naughty/nice santa hat, and a stapler (he actually needed a stapler!).  It made me sad that she wasn't there to give them to us herself, but I knew she put a lot of love into those gifts!  We put the pink bouquet she gave me in a vase.  I wonder if she will notice it when she gets home on Tuesday.

It was so nice being able to be (mostly) lazy with Ty and HQ today.  We slept in as long as we could.  HQ woke up bummed that her sister wasn't there.  If HQ wakes up without Izzy she really lets us know that she isn't happy about it!  Shortly after waking up HQ mellowed and then went into little crazy person mode.  She giggled and played like never before.  Perhaps it was some of that Christmas sugar catching up with her.  It is amazing to see her develop into a little toddler.   :)

We started to get our home back in shape today.  We have a ton of stuff all over the place.  Toys, decorations, clothes, books, etc.  But I also didn't want Ty to work too much today (the guy does enough already!!).  It's just hard because there are also many things I can't do now being as round/pregnant as I am.  I feel like such a lazy mooch...  We did also test out the new Donkey Kong game for the Wii we got.  So far we are enjoying it.

Tonight we went to see Ty's dad's side of the family.  We haven't seen them since this same time last year.  It's a shame, because I do enjoy his family and they all seem to like us.  We had some delicious food (mexican. Yum!) but HQ found the stairs pretty quick and gave us a good work out trying to keep up with her.  Once she found a little stuffed Elmo she was pretty content.  She started to poop out pretty quick (her bedtime is 7:30) so we left around that time.  Poor Ty also has work at 4:15am tomorrow.  Yuck!


 

Merry Christmas!

Ty got to bed around 3:45am.  At 4:11am Izzy came running into our room upset that we had put her to bed in her Christmas dress.  She asked if she could sleep in it earlier that night. I told her no because then it would get all wrinkled and she wouldn't be able to wear it to Grandma and Grandpa's house Christmas morning.  She had completely passed out in the car on the way home and we didn't want to wake her, so Ty carried her right to bed. When she woke up still in her dress she freaked out and was upset that she wouldn't be able to wear it.  I told it was ok. We would just iron it in the morning.  She happily went back to bed

Some of "Santa's" handy work.

The girls woke up at 8:30.  Ty and I could hear them chatting in their room.  It warmed our hearts to know that Izzy didn't leave her sister behind to go check out her gifts.  The moment she heard that Ty and I were awake she stood in her doorway (still in view of HQ so she wouldn't get upset) and peered into our room to make sure we were getting up.  I grabbed HQ and heard Izzy scream with glee in the living room.

Christmas morning with her new bike.

We spent about and hour at home before leaving for my parents since we only had Izzy until noon.  Christmas was very different at their house this year.  By the time we got there everyone else had already opened up their gifts to each other.  Izzy made short work of her gifts as did HQ.  Ty and I got a few gifts from the family and my mom had even wrapped a large box of diapers up for us "from Peanut".  We were excited to see my brother, Mikey, who is in the navy that we haven't seen for quite a while.  I believe he leaves us again in a week already.

Christmassy mess!

My family was all exhausted except for my mother and 14 year old sister.  After we opened our gifts and Izzy was picked up almost everyone fell asleep.  Ty included.  For a good two hours everyone napped.. we know how to party!!  My older brother arrived with his wife (who never likes to go to family functions) and her brother.  She and her brother headed to the mall to hang out while my family played some board games.  After a couple games it was time for us to leave. 

My little brother and Roxanne passed out on the couch.

We headed to Grandma and Grandpa Orpi's house for operation celebrate Christmas #3!  HQ had an excellent nap at my parents today so she was ready to play!  It was a bummer not having Izzy there.  I know her cousins and the rest of the family would have loved to see her.  They gave me her gifts to bring home.  I know she'll be excited about those, but the time with family is the most treasured part!  

Well, Ty and I have a ton of left overs to eat, boxes/wrapping paper to clean up, and sleep to catch up on.  It was so nice to have him around today and I look forward to spending tomorrow with him too!

Eating Cookies with Santa

Busy busy day!  Ty worked early this morning.  While he was gone I sewed the sleeves onto Izzy's dress  (I know, last minute!).  Christmas just came so fast!  I had hoped that being pregnant would make this month last longer.  No way!

Izzy has been super excited all day.  She did her best to get HQ all excited for Christmas, but to no avail.  Actually at one point Izzy got HQ to tattle on her!  While I was sewing in our bedroom, Izzy and HQ were in the living room.  I heard Izzy take something from HQ that she wasn't supposed to be playing with.  Within seconds I heard HQ's little feet storming angrily down the hallway toward me.  When I got into sight she immediately babbled angrily and threw Izzy's name in the midst of her rant all while pointing to the living room where Izzy was.

On our way to Christmas Eve dinner

Tonight we we spent the evening with part of Ty's family.  They have a traditional "polish dinner", spend time with family, and exchange gifts.  The girls made out like bandits!  Ty's dad and stepmom always give them some amazing gifts.  They get most of their goodies from Lakeshore Learning (I LOVE that place).  Izzy loves learning toys/games and crafts and that's exactly what she got.  She had even told me she hoped to get a few more Christmas books this year and she did.  How exciting!  HQ got some learning toys as well and immediately grew attached to a little ball that had come inside one of her gifts.  

Ty and I didn't do so bad either.  We received a basket of gift cards and little Christmas items (the presentation was quite cute).  One of the gift cards was for Joann's. Woohoo!!  

I am currently helping Santa eat some cookies.  We filled some stockings, set up a giant pink fake candy cane (Izzy really wanted one...), and tidied up the living room, but we still have a bike to put together.  Ty is going on 4 hours of sleep for the last 44 hours.  I hope he will get to bed soon!  I'd hate for him to be pooped on Christmas.. but I suppose my parents were always exhausted Christmas morning too.  We just never knew why.  

I pray you enjoy celebrating the birth of our Lord!

Bye Bye Yai Yai!

Today did not start off too well.  I got a text from my mother early this morning that Sofie (our 14 year old toy pomeranian) died in her sleep last night.  She has been in our family for nearly 14 years too.  It wasn't too huge of a shock, she has had heart problems and has become really high maintenance lately (needed more help to make it out to go potty.. etc), but you're still never ready for it! She was always a guest favorite (she's tiny and hyper, people like that I guess) and very noisy.  She seemed as though she was trying to be the guard dog.  Even back when we had our rottweiler she would bully him around.  My baby sister, Shannon, who is now 14 called her "Yai Yai" as a baby and that has since become one of Sofie's nicknames.

Sofie (Yai Yai)

Izzy and HQ were still at my parents' when she died, but fortunately my mom was up first and found Sofie in bed.   It would not have taken Izzy long to notice that Sofie was gone so my mom made sure she told her the truth.  Izzy was very sad, but also had many questions about it and then death in general.  "How?", "Did it hurt Sofie?","Why do our bodies stay here?", "Is Sofie in Heaven?" etc.  The girls were brought home and were very happy to be back.  I missed my beautiful little monsters (they like that nickname!).

Pointing to the tree and saying, "Good Girl?"

Playing "Hide and Seek"
As you can see... HQ isn't very good at it yet.

By dinner time I was completely drained of energy and composure.  I had a lot on my plate today.  SD then texted me and offered to switch our Christmas times around.  He said they really had no plans and if Izzy would be more excited here then it was fine with him.  It was originally he would get her noon Christmas eve to noon Christmas day and we would get noon Christmas day to noon Sunday.  I asked Izzy what she wanted to do and she screamed, "I WANT TO SLEEP AND BE HERE FOR CHRISTMAS!!"  (Like I said they don't celebrate it, so she really wanted to be here for it).  Is does mean that she will miss Christmas dinner/night with G&G Orpi and her little cousins on Ty's side which is still a bummer, but it is still more exciting for her to wake up Christmas morning with her little sister at home.  What a great gift!

Tonight Izzy and I started to watch the documentary "Babies" which was recommended by some friends of ours.  So far, we LOVE it.  I do have to warn you that it may be surprising or yucky to watch for a little kid who has never witness nursing before (Izzy has) and some parts are quite a culture shock for Izzy, but she is really enjoying it and finds it rather cute.  

Ty still has a little ways to go until he gets off work tonight.  At least tomorrow he has a 3 hour long break between jobs and then only works in the morning on Friday.  I am really looking forward to some time with him!

Lonely BoB

Today was spent primarily by myself.  The girls were with my mom and Ty worked both jobs today.  Peanut constantly reminded me that I wasn't completely lacking of human companionship!  He kicked me like crazy today.  Ty came home for about an hour and a half and we tried to find the movie Surfs Up and a giant stuffed penguin for HQ.  The penguin has been found, but we still haven't found the movie.  Ty is going to give it one more try tomorrow, then we just give up.

We were blessed again by a generous friend today!  She gave us a few brand new outfits and a puzzle for HQ.  She was given a surplus of goodies for her little girl who is HQ's age and decided to give us the surplus.  YAY!  About a month ago another friend had given us a bunch of really nice little boy hand me downs for Peanut.  Lucky kids!

My doctor's appointment was cancelled, so worrying about how to get there became a non-issue (another blessing?) I ended up spending the rest of the day sewing.  I really enjoy my new "workspace"!  It faces a large window, so I was able to watch and hear the rain while I sewed.  An ideal situation for me!

HQ's fabric!

After dinner I started to really miss my family.  When you are used to as much noise going on as I am you start to miss it pretty quick.  No sounds of HQ waddling down the hallway, no Izzy chatter, and no Ty asking me "what's for dinner?" or "who took all the movies out and threw them all over the living room? HQ?!".  All music to my ears! 

I had a good conversation with my brother tonight, but it's so interesting how two people can grow up in the same house and have had completely different lives while living under that same roof.  My dad has always told me that his biggest regret for me growing up was that I had "too much life experience too young" and I would agree with that.  My brother's biggest complaint was that he had almost none.. and I would agree with that too.  He is only a year older than me... So odd!

Ty should be home any minute and the girls come home in the morning.  I look forward to both! 

Heavy Rain

I love how the weather has been lately!  Nice heavy rain.  We needed it too.  I think many people that live in our area forget that the rain is essential... We are quite grateful for it!

This morning I did some more sewing (took out a nice chunk of my thumb!) and tidied up around the place.  Izzy loved helping me sew and all the while repeatedly said she hopes she get her own sewing machine for Christmas.  Yay!  When she and I were ready to re-energize with some food she asked for corn on the cob.  I was quite surprised by that request! But we cooked some up. 

When Ty got home from work we headed out to my parents' to drop off Izzy while we finished up our Christmas shopping and ran a few errands.  In the middle of our errands we remembered that I had a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I really didn't want to take the girls with me.  Since Ty works both jobs tomorrow we decided that perhaps having the girls stay the night with Grandma again would be a good idea.  Izzy agreed.  Especially since her little sister was there this time.  Figuring out how to get there without a car is job two.

Woohoo Rain!

We got to see a couple sets of friends tonight.  We went to drop a table off for one friend and ended up staying to chat for a bit (Evie's mom, dad, and some of his family).  Ty also got to see someone he hadn't seen in a long time and they were both excited to see each other.  It was rather cute.  Also, I have had an on again off again struggle with the music I listen to for the past.. oh.. 12 years!  So they lent us a few (ok.. A LOT) of CD's for me to familiarize myself with.  Those paired with the CD's I was made for Christmas should definitely point me in the right direction! 

We then left to see our other friends for dinner and some conversation.  As usual we enjoyed ourselves.  However, we tried our hardest to scare them off with Ty's VERY anti-uber pet parent beliefs (I'm talking crazy people pet parents... long story, but it's his!), they also got to witness my "baby brain" as I had completely blocked my husband out at one point,  but for some reason they still seem to like us.

Cotton Candy Ice Cream!

Just got home and boy are we tired! Ty had work at 4am this morning, so I know he's tired too.  It was a quiet morning with no Izzy here, and HQ and I were pretty lazy... We did get out to find Ty's stocking stuffers though.  And HQ was a hit at Target.  She was is such a jolly mood this morning!  She was humming and talking to the wrapping paper and toys as we passed by them.  She would even wave and say "hi" to complete strangers.

When Ty got home we had a bit of down time before heading out to meet our buddies for a double date night (+ Izzy).  We had made plans to go for ice cream, coffee, and to check out Sleep Hollow (a neighborhood that is completely decorated for Christmas).  It was absolutely pouring when we left home!  Ty's mom let us borrow her car for the evening so that we would have plenty of room to carpool.  HQ was excited by her "new" surroundings.  She could kick and wiggle her legs all she wanted and wouldn't come close to hitting Ty's seat.  She liked that.

We picked up our friends and switched kids with my mom.  We traded HQ for Izzy.  We wanted to bring Izzy tonight because we knew she would enjoy what we were doing and we also knew we wouldn't really get a chance to do it again before Christmas.

Riding in Grandma Orpi's car.  Watching the rain splash the windows.

Waiting for our friends.. Ty looks like he's dreading it, but was actually taking a nap.

 We went to check out Handel's (homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt) first.  Oh my goodness was it delicious!  I totally recommend it!  Our friends Bill and Christina probably sampled just about every flavor they had.  Izzy had picked cotton candy and was surprised when she was handed pink ice cream with rainbow bits in it.  She is so used to seeing it blue...  She asked them what color their mint flavor was and she was happy to know that it was green like "usual".  We finished enjoying our ice cream while driving through Sleepy Hollow which was beautiful.  I have no pictures, because my iphone wont take good outside in the dark shots!. When we had seen it all we headed to Starbucks for some drinks and chatting.  It's always nice to talk to them.  However.. being 5, Izzy grew bored quickly and we headed to the nearest indoor mall so we could walk and chat.

At Starbucks.  Being Izzy.

We passed by Build a Bear Workshop and Izzy REALLY wanted to go in and make a bear.  After being reminded A LOT that Christmas was less than a week away and she doesn't need everything she sees, she finally gave up.  That little creep.  She and Bill played along nicely and she even taught him how to play a "mall tile tick-tack-toe".  I don't know how to play it, but supposedly Bill won. 

Well, I am pooped and Ty is already passed out, so it is time for me to crawl into bed as well! Good Night!

Lame Gifts

Today was a nice change.  Ty had the afternoon off and we were able to spend the rest of the day together.  HQ was ecstatic that he was home for her to play with.  Outside of Izzy, Daddy is her favorite "toy"!

After much thought HQ decided she would change things up and throw Mrs. Gingerman on the floor and
shove Mr. Gingerman's head into the couch cushion... 

Playing peek a boo!
(The game of the day)

Enough Peek-a-Boo! Let's make some labels! 

We realized that today would be the last chance to get the stocking stuffers for the girls without having Izzy around (unless we wanted to go Christmas eve night... ) so we planned on going to Target today.  The tradition in my family growing up was that our stockings were filled with things like new toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, and some candy.   So.. I brought dental hygiene to our kids' stockings. Ty grew up getting the mini cereals from Santa, so that's a tradition he is passing down.  A new one for us is that every year the only gifts Ty and I get for each other are what gets put into our stockings.  Last year Ty filled mine with Japanese candies, a new ducky (I LOVE duckies!), and a box of condoms... a lot of good those did us!  :) I made him a card, got his favorite See's candies, and pair of ipod headphones.   I am still debating what to do for him this year and Christmas is a week away!
 

On our way out for some stocking stuffers.  We hear HQ strike up a conversation with her mermaid pal.

Playing Peek-a-Boo in the car with her big sister's rain jacket. 

Pasta sauce face!
She's looking at Daddy who is eating some of her pasta..

 Izzy has been BEGGING for me to "switch days" so she can be with us on Christmas Eve.  But she will be with SD this year.  Like I have complained and blogged about before.. they don't celebrate Christmas.  She loves him and his family, but she would much rather be with us for holiday celebrations... they don't really celebrate anything other than Persian New Year.  Plus on this side she has 3 large families who have little kids for her to play with at Holiday celebrations.  Also, when his family does buy her gifts, they don't let her keep them.  They do. So technically they are gift she gets to play with 6 days a month...  So she is always bummed about that too.  I totally understand wanting to have special things that are just at Dad's or Grandma's.  That's part of what makes them fun, but to buy a kid gifts and say they can't keep any of them is... lame to say the least.

A text I received from my parents.  Izzy opened her "Christmas Eve gift" early since she wont be with us this year.
She got a new ballet leotard and the little stuffed Santa.  My mom said she wanted to wear her dance outfit to bed.

Izzy ended up spending another night at my parents'.  She wanted to go with them to their church tomorrow since her best friend goes there.  My mom said Izzy loved The Nutcracker, but was confused at first because there was no talking.  When it was over she told my mom it was beautiful.  I can't wait to see her tomorrow so she can tell me all about it! 

Well, time to finish sewing up a gift.  Ty got me some red vines (my favorite sewing snack!) so I am good to go!

Mopping and Breakfast

Today was really nice.  I had a nice texting "conversation" with a dear friend, plus! Ty only worked one job, so he had the afternoon off.  The girls loved having him home too.  We just stayed home and relaxed for the most part.  Izzy is on the final book of box 2 in the Hooked on Phonics Series and is so proud of her self.  She knows her consonant clusters well and is able to read a good amount!  She also LOVES books and loves to read.  Not too shabby for a girl who just turned 5! 

Happy as a clam in her toy box!

 Earlier in the day we did a few chores around the house... normally floor mopping day is Tuesday, but it was such a sick/tired week for me it went undone until today.  Izzy asked if she could do the swiffering and even wanted to do some of the "rough scrubbing".

She loves to swiffer!

Around 5pm Ty's dad stopped by for a quick visit, which was nice.  He works a lot, so we don't often see him.  HQ was so captivated by him she actually quit eating the avocado she was working on just to stare at him.  Normally nothing comes between HQ and her food!  The resemblance between Ty, his dad, and HQ is quite remarkable and I never really noticed it until today.  It makes me all the more curious to see what Peanut is going to look like.  We already know he has Ty's feet!

We had decided to do breakfast for dinner.  Izzy thought it was a great idea!  The girls wanted scrambled eggs, toast, and blueberries.  I wanted french toast and Ty had it all with bacon.  Feeling absolutely stuffed I now regret my carby decision.  After dinner my dad came to pick up Izzy.  She is spending the night with my parents and tomorrow she is going out to lunch at her favorite restaurant, Ruby's, and then off to see "The Nutcracker" with my mom at their local theatre. She is very excited about it and feels very grown up.  My mom lucked out and got the last two tickets available!  Izzy loves dance (watching and doing) and can't wait until February when she gets to start it back up again.

2 gifts hand made by Izzy!
Tonight Izzy had decided she needed to make a couple more gifts.  She was worried some people
my get their feeling hurt if she didn't make them one. 

I look forward to tomorrow.  A co-worker had asked Ty if he would be willing to trade shifts with her so he got the afternoon off again and works Sunday morning instead.  He loses his one day off, but he would much rather work two days 8 hours a day that 1 16 hour day.  I look forward to that too!

Stinky Season

  Ty got one hour to spend with his kids today, but was so exhausted he fell asleep while playing
with HQ.  She didn't mind.  She just lay down right next to him for a good 20 minutes.  When he woke up she got
up excitedly.  She was disappointed when she realized he got up only to leave again!
He worked 4am to noon and then 2pm to 10pm

Little Gym day!  Today's theme was bowling.  I thought Izzy would be excited about that since she loves bowling.  But no.  She says, "I already know how to bowl.  Why can't we do swimming or something?"  Her logic was flawed.. she already knows how to swim too, but if you have ever been to The Little Gym you know they don't have a pool.  When I reminded her of that she responds with, "I know, but they can still teach us how to swim".  An image of little kids lying on the floor wiggling around practicing swimming strokes popped in my head and it made me giggle.  

Wow! She's sharing! :D

"Wait... bring it back..."

I'm not sure what was going on here that help with their bowling skills, but the kids
enjoyed it!

Today was a bit rough.  I think the two jobs are taking a toll on us already.  It's been what? 3 weeks?  But we have a lot of pressure on us right now.  We have to figure out how to afford two cars.  The only car we can use right now is my parents (and once Peanut is born the 3 kids wont fit in that car anymore) since mine was totaled in the accident and Ty's has turned into a money pit.  Of the many things wrong with it, the power steering went out again and I can't even drive it if it did work since the front seat is broken so I can't reach the pedals... (they want $1200 just to fix the seat!).  And we are trying to get out of debt.  Right before I found out I was pregnant with Peanut I had applied for a part time job that paid well.  Many things happened all at once (Ty's work schedule changed, found out I was pregnant, his car started to crap out, etc) and Ty and I realized I wasn't going to be able to work out of the house without paying for a sitter or daycare.  It just would not have been worth it.  With the economy the way it is Ty can't find a single job that we can live off of (he's been looking and applying for 2 years) so two jobs it is.

Ty does his best to remind me that this is only for a season in our lives, but it still really stinks.  Tonight we planned that the girls and I would walk down to his work and bring him dinner.  That way we would get to see him and he could eat some freshly prepared food.  His job switched his dinner time to half an hour earlier last minute so we didn't have time to walk it down to him before he had to clock back in.  This meant he would have gone without dinner... That actually made me cry!

OK... Topic Change... tonight as I rocked HQ before putting her in bed Peanut was kicking like crazy.  I think HQ was able to feel it because she kept eyeballing my round tummy every time he let out a super kick.  I told her, "That's your little brother in there.  I think he's trying to say 'hi'".  She smiled at me like I was a crazy person and patted my belly as though she were humoring me.  I wonder what goes through that beautiful little head of hers.

I discovered this in our freezer tonight.  Izzy and I had a scoop once HQ went to bed.
It was delicious!  I wonder if Ty was trying to hide it from us...

After our ice cream Izzy and I played a round of Mario Party.  She thought it was the perfect way to end tonight (especially since she and I were on a team and we won).  I tucked her into bed and during her bedtime prayers she was thankful for her family, sleep, friends, and Trader Joe's ice cream.  

Ty should be home soon.  At least he should get to sleep in until 7 tomorrow.  Gosh, he slays some serious dragons for us!  There aren't too many people who are willing to work as hard as he does anymore.  I know I am a very lucky lady, but I miss him!

I Love Daddy

Still woke up feeling a little sick and Ty on his morning off took care of the girls this morning to give me an extra 30 minutes rest.  He's too good to me! The girls were nice enough to sleep in until after 8 today.  It's like they knew we needed it.  We had promised Izzy some french toast this morning (after getting nothing but oatmeal for breakfast the past few days), but had forgotten we were out of bread so Ty took the girls with him to Trader Joe's to pick some up while I rested. 

When they got home Izzy and I made breakfast.  She could be a professional egg cracker!  We don't eat syrup (on the list of top 10 worst foods for you... but yes, so good) so Izzy topped them off with some delicious whole strawberry jam.

Making a "Santa Bag".

Ty left us with the car today when he went to work in the afternoon.  We had a few errands to run and oh my goodness did it feel good to get out of the house!  Where is that pink car Ty is supposed to be buying us?  We went to Joann for some ribbon and Target for a couple plastic cups for HQ.
 

At Target.  We want!
We LOVE Sea Creatures and this is so cute.

HQ refuses to sit properly in the cart.  She wants to look around so she can shop...
Not stare at mommy who she sees all the time.

Enjoying her Veggie/fruit juice.
Almost immediately after saying it had spinach in it she stopped drinking for a moment as if to say,
"Wait, Did you say there was spinach in this?!"

Izzy started on her Christmas presents tonight.  After talking her out of cutting up all my expensive fabric she decided paper crafts and jewelry were a good second choice.  She came up with some really cute things!  Sorry, I can't show them since I know some receivers of these gifts read the blog! But they are made with lots of love and she put a bunch of thought into them down to how to wrap them!

Izzy's gift "workspace".

Making an ornament.  

The cute little sea creatures from the hot air balloon light made for us by my secret santa.
Izzy claimed herself as the purple dolphin, HQ as the squid, and Peanut as the little octopus.
I forgot to take a picture of the actual light during the day! 

Izzy's Christmas gift from us arrived tonight.  It is already wrapped and under the tree!
She has wanted a sewing machine for nearly 2 years now and I think she's ready to learn.
I was really excited when I found this a few months back and we decided to wait to get it for Christmas.
It actually works and looks cute!  I have been so disappointed by so many "cute" sewing machines. So Yay!