12 on the 12th

Friday, December 12th:

-----------------------------------------


Up at 6:30 to head to the gym. It takes me almost 15 minutes to get there now & I meet Ashley (one of my good friends & awesome workout partner) at 7. Well I try to be there at 7! :) I'm usually within a couple of minutes.

Ellie was fascinated with the lights on the tree. Once we got the ornaments on she loved those too, but we only had lights up for a few days because I needed to buy more & didn't want to decorate before the rest of the lights were on. I did end up letting the kids just go nuts & decorate themselves (they loved it & it kept them busy for quite a while), then I took the ornaments off to add the new lights one night.

Callie loved this Strawberry Shortcake ornament that I had as a kid. I loved it then too! It's the only ornament that I kept from my childhood (maybe it was the only one that was just mine?). For the couple of days before we decorated the tree she would often pick it up & lovingly look at it.





I bed you didn't know one of my hidden talents is being a pancake artist (lol)! Our special order pancakes used to be the basic Mickey Mouse, but now I get requests for all kinds of things. Because we've all been in a holiday mood, Jack requested a star & Callie wanted a Christmas tree. I was hoping they would have requested an ornament! ;)



I love that Jack's such a little bookworm! He can often be found lying on his bed or sitting on the couch looking at books.

To the untrained eye this may just look like a pile of clothes, but a mother of a 4 year old girl will discover that it's not just any old clothes, it's dance clothes! Tights, skirt, leotard, & shrug. Callie has dance on Fridays & they've been getting ready for their Christmas recital! She loves her dance class!

This was from our first shoot for Christmas card pictures. Yes, I said first!

We had the company Christmas party at Golden Corral. This was the end of the evening but Callie had been a little sleepy the whole time so she had spent a good deal of time on my mom's lap. That was nice for Jeremiah & I because Jack on the other hand was a wild animal who could not be tamed!

I stopped to get gas on the way home from the Christmas party & was thrilled with the gas prices (even though my sisters have paid like 50 cents less!).

We pass by the kids' dentist office every time we drive "to town" and at least one of them each time happily sings "the dentist!" It always makes me laugh! I'm sure eventually they'll stop saying it, but it's been a month so far!

I decided to take the kids to look at Christmas lights on our way home & they were so excited at every house. This one was a favorite (we drive by it often but usually during the day). Some people really love their inflatables!

"How do dinosaurs learn to play? They romp & stomp the friendly way!" I got Jack a little pocket set of the How Do Dinosaurs... books & he loves them. I love that it's bedtime!

12 on the 12th

Wednesday, November 12th:

At church on Sunday somebody lost a ring. Jeremiah joked that the quickest way to find it would be to stick a couple of babies on the floor. Probably because no matter how picked up a floor is Ellie will find something to put in her mouth! Not saying that the floor was picked up this morning at all! But this is what Ellie does these days - stick things in her mouth.


Callie doesn't enjoy her homework so much when it's practicing her letters I don't think, but she was excited to do this homework - color the fish, cut them out & glue them to the fish bowl. Jack had got a hold of her paper before Callie started working on it & colored all the fish yellow. Callie was devastated! Thank goodness for copiers! Callie was able to start with a blank slate.



I can't remember what Jack's in time out for this time. Maybe it was coloring the fish yellow when he'd been told to leave her paper alone. Maybe it was for not getting his underwear on after going potty (and being told several times to do it). Maybe it was for torturing Ellie or Callie. The latter 2 are the most common reasons he gets put in time out.



So I made mac & cheese for lunch and it was the first time I'd "cooked" in more than a week! Sad, huh? That's the way it goes when you're doing improvements to one home & moving out of another. In this family you can't have mac & cheese without strawberry milk!



Picking Callie up from school. She loves her teacher & her classmates. When we ask her what she's learned that day she almost always says nothing or I don't know. But she likes to tell us about things that happened with friends. She also likes to sing the songs she's learning in class.

The drive to the new house, which we've been making back & forth several times a day. It's not at all conveniently located! It's 10 minutes from the old house & almost 15 to Walmart! I remember when we moved here from CA & people would complain about going to Golden Valley which is about 15 mins away & we'd roll our eyes since in CA it took 10 minutes just to go to the grocery store & about 15 to go anywhere else. But we've been here long enough now that yeah, it's a pain that we have to drive 15 minutes to Walmart! :)

How many times do I have to tell Jack (and Callie) to scoot back from the tv?! They just can't help themselves! I'm thankful anyway that my mom brought her tv/dvd combo to help keep the kids occupied while we're working.

Ellie has been a pretty good sport about all of this. She's spent quite a bit of time playing & napping in the Pack n Play over the last few days.

Today was a great day because our new appliances were delivered! Yay! Jeremiah's spent the evening working on installation & is getting ready to do the microwave. Thank goodness we don't have to do this very often!

The past few nights one of us has taken the kids home & put them in bed, but we both wanted to stay & work late tonight & the kids were tired enough that they crashed out on the floor. They are really being great for all that's going on.

So I really don't like cut in work! Mine isn't very good & then there's my mom's who's work looks completely professional. Fortunately she's done most of it in the kids' rooms. She's been the hugest help with this house! What would we do without her?

"It usually gets worse before it gets better" applies here. If you think this is bad you should have seen it yesterday morning! :)

12 on the 12th

Sunday, October 12th:


Okay, this picture is on the 11th, not the 12th, but since I forgot to start taking pictures till we'd been driving for an hour & a half I'm adding it to my 12th collection. We stayed with Jason (Jer's bro) & Richelle while we were in CA for the weekend & our kids think they are totally fun!!



In Barstow we let the kids play at Mickey D's to give them a break then we went through the drive-thru to get some lunch. You'd think I'd have taken a picture of them playing or something, but it wasn't until we were in the drive-thru that I remembered to pull out the camera for the day.




Ellie had been getting a little tired of being in her seat so I handed her the package of wipes since she likes to play with crinkly things. I kid you not she was entertained by those wipes for a little more than half an hour! She even got some of them out of the package a couple of times!



Thank goodness for movies in the car! We let the kids take turns choosing movies & this trip was kind of funny. Jack chose Peter Pan every time & Callie chose Sleeping Beauty every time & they'd both complain about the other's choice! In this picture Sleeping Beauty is on!



Jeremiah laughs at me every time I take pictures of myself cause I'll take one, look at it, decide it's bad & take another & this goes on & on & on & on. So not that this was a great one, but I woke up & washed my face & put on new make-up before getting in the car. It's as good as it was gonna get!



Hooray! We finally made it home! So the drive is only just over 4 1/2 hours, but when you have kids & have to make long stops it makes for a long day! We were in Barstow forever!!! Plus on the way over the kids slept a good part of the trip since it was night time, but on the way home when we leave in the morning we're lucky if any naps are taken (other than by Ellie). I have to say the kids were pretty good travelers! Callie's finally old enough that it's not so hard to go on trips with her. Jack's still hit or miss!



When we got into town we headed straight for my mom & dad's house & dropped off the kids. Somebody wanted to come look at our house (we're trying to rent it out) and we had left it only half clean so my family was kind enough to take care of our kids while Jeremiah & I busted a move it get it all picked up!



Afterwards we invited ourselves to dinner! :) I wonder if my mom had figured she'd end up feeding us since when we got there she was making a huge recipe of one of our favorite soups - chicken enchilada soup!


Jack is so good at playing with toys! Callie needs people to play with her most of the time, but Jack is very good at playing on his own. I love how serious he usually looks when he plays!



Another Hickory Kist treat! My mom brought back a grasshopper rice krispy treat. Okay, it looks kind of gross, but is was seriously good! Even when it was almost a week old! Have I mentioned I love Hickory Kist?! I'm so jealous Shannon & Leslie! :)



Jeremiah's parents got lots of toys & books at a yard sale before we visited them in Oregon last month and we brought most of the books home. Jack loves this book because you can push the trucks on the side & they make different sounds. He loves to read books & have them read to him.



Ahhh! Finally the kids are in bed, our home is clean & we can relax! Jeremiah watched tv a few feet away from me & I checked email & caught up on blogs!

12 on the 12th

Tuesday, August 12th:

Totally didn't get 12 today. Just one of those days...

Started the day at the gym. Yay me! I signed up with a friend so I'm going to stick with it! For 6 months anyway - that's my goal. Only doing cardio for now.



Following my realtor to a house. Today's houses were much better than yesterday's! The whole thing is a bummer though! For supposedly being a buyer's market, it doesn't seem like much of one. There's just not that much inventory. And some people have their houses completely overpriced & they've been sitting on the market for months, more than a year in a couple of cases, & they've hardly lowered their price. Don't their realtors tell them they're never going to sell their house at those prices? It just makes me mad that some people are so pretentious! Well they obviously aren't desperate to sell their houses when they're $60,000 overpriced!!!



Callie, Jack & Ellie all went to my friend's house while I did some house hunting. Callie was so happy to hang out with her best friend Corinne! :) I think it's funny that my 4 year old has a BFF!


It's a bit ridiculous that at almost 3 Jack still eats like a 1 year old! It drives me nuts! My mom said that she almost quit after 3 kids (she had 6) because she was tired of cleaning up after meals. Amen! This is a regular occurrance at most mealtimes! Milk on the table, chicken on the floor, RIDICULOUS!


Checking out floorplans online in case we decide to go that route. We'd planned on building (we've been planning that forever but we've now actually paid to have real plans drafted!), but with the market being as bad as it is, we're going to have to hold on to our blueprints & keep our house & rent it out. We now plan on buying or building less of a house for the time being.

Watching the Olympics with Jonny & Katie. Thrilling. Not really. I'm just not that into it. But go USA anyway!

12 on the 12th

Saturday, July 12th
----------------------------

Jeremiah made us all breakfast sandwiches! I love that he enjoys cooking & is a good cook! I'm so fortunate!


I am so burned out on throwing baby showers right now! If you're really my friend, you won't get pregnant! This cake was for a baby shower I was throwing in the afternoon for a gal I visit teach. Kind of funny story - I usually ask the person the shower is for if they have any preferences as for a theme & colors but this time I didn't ask. The invitations were pink & brown & the stuff at the shower coordinated w/the invites. I gave the mom-to-be a little play dress that was blue & her mother (who I've known for a long time & can tell me this) told me Amy was so thrilled to get something for the baby that isn't pink because she detests pink!!!! *wince* I almost did purple & brown instead of the pink & brown & I totally should have! Oh well. She'd better get used to it - most little girls like pink. Fact of life. Oh yeah, & if you're really my friend I'll still throw you a baby shower - happily! So go ahead - get pregnant - you have my blessing.

Ellie was extremely cooperative while I worked on the cake. She took a very long nap in the swing & I was able to mostly finish getting ready for the baby shower.

Callie & Jack got to go to grandpa & grandma's house to jump on the trampoline & play in the bird bath! Yuck! Jeremiah let them pick out flavored milks when he took them to the store so they proudly toted those around as they played.

I was so glad that Jeremiah gave Ellie a bath - she was due for one! Look at her fat thighs! I LOVE them! Callie & Jack never had fat like Ellie does! I saw a scrapbook lo that somebody did once about her fat baby & her title was "Body by Breyers." I think about that when I see all of Ellie's chubby parts! Although for Ellie it was more like DQ.

Jackson is addicted to Dora. He'd watch her all day if I let him! Callie used to be the same way but she's not so bad anymore. Maybe it's because she's added Charlie & Lola, Little Bear, & Franklin to her list of favorites!

What can I say? Jeremiah's a stud! He cleaned up my cake mess & all of my other stuff while I was at the baby shower!

It had been a long week & day and we hadn't had a date night so we got ribs & chicken fingers from Kingman Steakhouse for dinner. I think most of the 12ths have been dinner out. I swear I really do cook!

Callie & Jack like to play mermaid & shark lately. This is a game they've made up. Sometimes Jack plays the mermaid. I enjoy watching them flop around on the ground trying to eat each other.

I normally take my car to the car wash, but Jeremiah went out with the kids & washed the cars. I don't know that they were that helpful, but it was nice to have a clean car!

After the kids went to bed it was time for a treat! Jeremiah went to Sonic & got us an Oreo blast to share. He did more sharing - I did more eating.

Jeremiah bringin' his A-game (& his game face), playing Call of Duty w/his brothers.