Brown, Black, Yellow and Pink

Avery participated in a mini cheer camp last month. It was so great. She seemed to enjoy it even if the picture looks sad. Their school district's colors are brown, yellow and white. We did our best to color coordinate. She performed at half time at a varsity basketball game and she was so busy people watching she kept missing the dance moves, it was awesome!

This here it what I love about Pittsburgh. The girls were supposed to wear all their black and yellow in support of the Steelers on the Friday before the Superbowl. They had a pep rally at school and everything. We were sad they didn't win, but we still had a good time celebrating the return to the Superbowl!

I also have to brag about how well the girls did on their Valentines this year. They both chose to make something rather than buy some to share with their friends. Avery made flowers and butterflies that you attach to a lollipop (from here). She cut out every one. I was so proud of her. She didn't complain once and finished it all in one evening.

This is her box that she made to take to school. Simple, but cute and of course, pink!

Ashby made little hearts out of card stock that you fill with M&M's to share with her friends (from here). She also cut them out and filled them herself (I did help a little because there are 27 kids in her class..... 27!)

This is Ashby's box that she made for school. It's a Valentine's ghost, see? I was pleased to at least see that she wanted to put valentiney stickers on it.

And this kid, what can I say? This is what he looked like all week because we were potty training. He's a total champ. I was expecting the worst and was very surprised at how easy it went. I know there's a long way to go, we hardly went anywhere last week, but I think he's made an impressive start. We've only have one wet bed since we started a week ago. Go Lukey!

When mom's busy

three lollipops are always better than one.

It feels ridiculous...

to post pictures of Christmas, but there were a few I wanted to remember, so here they are anyway.

This is what I love about Christmas day, still in your jammies playing with the new stuff. Ashby and her Lego's and Avery with her DS.

Luke got some new trucks and a new puzzle. The puzzle he doesn't really care about anymore, but the trucks and the trains are still full steam ahead, yea!

Avery got a scooter. And see Luke with the dart gun, was it his favorite? Yes. Did it cost the least? Yes.

Ashby got a new bike. It's a bummer to get bikes and scooters during the winter, but come spring it will be lots of fun!

Quilters: Look away now. I wanted to post a picture of this apron because I was so darn proud of myself. I stole the idea from a friends to give aprons to the girls' teachers for Christmas. I had a lot of irregularly cut squares that I didn't use for another project. I loved the fabric and still wanted to use it. So I sewed them all together knowing they were different sizes then sewed strips together hoping it would look purposefully skiwampus. I put a black background on, black bias tape around the edges and a black satin blanket binding for the tie. I was so happy how it turned out because it all came from my little brain. It turned out better than I imagined, yippee! I know the quilters are shuddering in horror at the imperfection, that's why I told you to look away and it's not my fault if you kept reading and then looked at the picture...

The regular freak out

There's always a freak out, right? I mean sometime during the year it's bound to happen, right? This is my week. Why do you ask? Well I got called to be the Primary Chorister....yes you read that right. Chelsea, who has zero musical talent to speak of was called to teach songs to and sing with kids every week at church. Yikes. The good news is that I love the kids and it will be fun to sing with them. I can't help freaking out about the new songs I have to learn and then teach them at the beginning of the year. I know if I prepare enough and pray enough I can do it, but I still want to freak out and pray for so much snow it cancels church until June...

I'm feeling a little....

ripe and drained. I haven't had a proper shower since Saturday, gross huh? Although, I shouldn't underestimate the goodness of a sponge bath, it works well in a pinch. Why do you ask? Because Roger found about an inch of water in parts of our basement on Saturday, our hot water heater was leaking. What was so very annoying about it other than the lack of hot water, was that the heater wasn't even four years old. The good news is it was still under warranty. We got a new one for only the price of installation. I'll be thrilled to take a shower later when the water is warm!

For those of you keeping track at home, well really for myself, 2010 hasn't been a great year for household items...

We replaced our fridge in June because it wasn't working. This is the new one.

We replaced our car in August. The old one was working, but needed a lot of repairs.

We replaced our furnace in September. It had been non-functional since March.

And I really hope lastly we just replaced our hot water heater.

Do you see why me and my bank account are feeling so drained? I would be remiss though if I didn't say how truly blessed we are. This has been an overall great year for us. We have learned and done a lot. We are so looking forward to the holidays and the birth of our baby boy (did I mention we found out we're having another boy?) in March.

Halloween

Every year after we do three birthdays in a month's time, it shocks me that we still have Halloween to get through. If it wasn't for Grandma Worth's Costume Store, my kids would go as themselves. The kids love Halloween and chose easy costumes.

Ashby was what she called a black ghost. I'm not sure what that means and honestly it was kind of lame, but she loved it.

Avery was a pirate girl. I thought her costume came together pretty well, considering all the time I put into it (about 30 seconds)

Luke was a cowboy. He was really cute with his hat and stick horse, unfortunately he wouldn't hold either one while we trick or treated. It was really cold too, so he had to wear his coat. He looked like the kid without a costume. At least he wasn't 15 and still trying to pull it off.

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. The kids did most of the gutting themselves. I loved this pictured because it shows them all getting in on the messy action!

I really would like to make some cute creative costumes for my kids. Maybe if I get it done in July...

Wolf and Delo

My parents were here for Ashby's baptism and stayed for about a week after that. The visit was as usual, too short. We had all kinds of plans, but weren't able to do as much as we wanted. My dad was sick for the majority of the visit, Ashby was sick too as were Roger and I. We still had fun and managed to cram some fun in with all the germs. We took the girls out of school one day so we could go to the zoo. It was the perfect day, not too busy and not too cold.

The polar bear exhibit is seriously so cool. You can see the polar bears from ground level, but they have this cool tunnel that you can go in as well. The bears were extremely playful and put on a good show. I could have stayed and watched them all day, but the kids wanted to see something else....

There was also a tunnel for shark viewing. Luke was digging it, can you tell?

This is the only picture I have as proof that indeed my mom was here. We had so much fun and were so sad to see them go.

When we were all feeling better, my parents, Luke and I drove out to the Flight 93 memorial. It's about 2 hours from here. A permanent memorial is being constructed, but what is there is truly powerful. Here's the plaque that hangs in the overlook area. The overlook area is where the media and most of the investigative crews set up in the days following 9/11. When Flight 93 struck the ground the plane was upside down and going over 500 mph. It immediately burst into flames and created a huge crater. A few days after, a crew back filled the crater and it became the permanent resting place for everyone on the flight. Only family members are allowed on the ground where the plane actually went down. The first phase of the memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011.

Here's the field as you can see it from the overlook. That's memorial construction going on in the right of the picture. If I read the plaque right the plane crashed in the field in the middle of this picture, where the little mound of dirt is. What really struck me about this site is that it is truly in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have a street address. The passengers on Flight 93 were definitely heroes.