Milestones

This is my 100th post and I thought that as such I would highlight the various milestones that have been reached in our family lately.

James: On Sunday James will be 30, while he is getting older, he still had a Star Wars birthday party and received Lego's. James has also been very successful in his attempts at losing weight and has now lost 50 lbs, way to go James!
He is secure enough in his masculinity to not worry about his candles being pink :)La Tisha: I have been planning on getting a large part of my backyard that was nothing but weeds ready for a garden, and thanks to my wonderful father-in-law I was able to get that done last week. We are hoping to be able to do a large garden this year. I also started several of my plants in the house last week and most of them have started to sprout already. I have never grown anything from seed before so I am excited to be able to plant them in the garden and follow them all the way to the dinner table.
MacKayla: While her grandparents were here MacKayla had Grandpa teach her how to ride a bike and she is now a pro at zipping down the street on her bike. MacKayla was also lucky enough to win an Easter basket at the city egg hunt.

Annika: At the Easter egg hunt put on by the city Annika won a bike and was able to get on and ride away with the best of them. She is very excited because it is the same bike as MacKayla's.
Arabella: I was hoping to be able to post that she was walking by now, but alas the little stinker refuses to do so. She has gotten pretty good at getting to a standing position in the middle of the room, so walking should be coming soon. She has also figured out how to climb onto her bouncing horse and get it to bounce by herself, I will get a picture of that soon. Bella is also learning how to crawl up and down the stairs on her own. She has been a pro at going up for a while, but only recently has she been willing to go down them.
So there you have it, the big events of our lives.
The girls with the eggs they found in the house.
A great reminder that at the end of all of the bad, there is always something good. I love double rainbows.

March books read

Seventh Son: The Tales of Alvin Maker Book 1
Card - 241
Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker Book 2
Card - 311
Prentice Alvin: The Tales of Alvin Maker Book 3
Card - 342
Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker Book 4
Card - 400
Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker Book 5
Card - 336
The Crystal City: A Tale of Alvin Maker
Card - 340
I really enjoyed this series of Books. They were very well written as Card is known to do, and the story was great as well. The first book took a little bit to get into as the books is written in many parts as the people speak, but once you are used to it, it flows well. The second book focused more on another character than Alvin and left me wanting more Alvin, but was still pretty good. The rest of the books were very enjoyable.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Demigod Files (I really enjoyed this and I am looking forward to the new Percy Jackson book coming out in May)
Riordan - 151

Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret (I started this one last month and had to work hard to finish it this month. I just found the story to not be that engrossing, oh well...)
Skye - 245

Now I am not one who is big on fan fiction, I think most of it is written by overly hormonal girls and that they lack substance and skill. I was however led to a story that I feel is very well written and I have enjoyed the writers style and take on the characters. It is a Twilight fan fiction, but only in that the characters names and general persona are the same. The characters are all human and the story is about Bella overcoming a very difficult event in her childhood that has caused her to be unable to speak. As the book has not been published and is just being read online I used the word count (391,587) and the industry standard of 250 word per page to get the page count. The author writes the chapters with the guys as she feels that teenage guys speak and as such there is quite a bit of language at the beginning of the story. There are also some adult relations in the story. But if you are interested in reading the story, here is the link for it.

Breaking the Silence
Jersey - 1560

Page count for March: 3926
Total for 2009 thus far: 9002

New beds and birthday party pics

We had been promising Annika that we would get her a new bed for her birthday, well that was five months ago and we just barely got it yesterday. She had been sleeping in her crib turned toddler bed. It was starting to get comical to put this tall lanky kid in the same bed that she slept in as an infant. We decided to get a bunk bed so that we would have enough beds that when Bella moves up and a new baby joins the family (no I am not announcing anything, just planning ahead) we wouldn't run out of room. So here are some pictures of the girls enjoying their new beds. (I love how their room actually looks purple, that is the color that it was supposed to be, but when put on the walls it's pink.)
MacKayla gets the top and Annika the bottom; Annika is a wiggly kid even in her sleep, she would probably kill herself sleeping on a top bunk.
We had MacKayla's birthday party on the 14th and she was able to have several of her friends over for a bug party. They had a lot of fun and she really enjoyed the party.
We decided to not have a cake for her birthday and instead we had delicious dirt. It was packed with dirty goodness and the bugs were even crawling out to say hello. The dirt was made with brownies, chocolate pudding, crushed Oreo's and gummy bugs, and healthy they might not have been, but delicious they were.
So how do you keep a room full of six year olds entertained, well bring out the baby toys of course. I swear they had more fun with Bella's toys than she does.
Big chessy MacKayla grins.
A few of her presents...this kid made out like a bandit, she has some very generous friends.
Mom and Mackity-Mack love.
She's cute and she knows it.
Here MacKayla is sitting next to her "boyfriend" S. The two of them are cute together and enjoy playing together. I thought it was funny how whatever they were doing they were always near each other. MacKayla is also very controlling in the relationship, here she was explaining to him how he had to put the frosting on his treat (he doesn't like chocolate, I'm not sure he is a good match for this family, j/k.) He is a cute kid.
Goofy faces, why cant' I ever get cute ones....

Good deals

I swear I do more than just shop, however, that seems to be about all that I have been posting lately. Oh well...

Today I spent $40, and I got six bags of diapers, six tubs of wipes, 1 bag of wipes refill, 4 cases of coke, and one loaf of french bread. As Billie the coupon queen would say, I bought three bags of diapers and got everything else free :)

Good deals and cute kids

MacKayla's birthday was last week and I will post about it soon, I am just waiting until we do her party this weekend.

But here is the deal of the day for todayTotal OOP: $15.94, and I have a coupon for $5.00 off of my next order, yeah for great coupons (thanks Billie). The soda was all on sale and everything on top I had coupons to get for free.


MacKayla won the boxtops drawing at school and wound up with this Webkins poodle that she has named Saia (Say-ah). She has the most interesting names for some of her toys, except her teddy-bear who is simply named Teddy. She is also wearing one of the outfits that she got from her Grandparents for her birthday.
I am still trying to get a great photo of Bella to use as her 1 year photo, so far this is what I have some up with. If anyone feels the need to practice their photography skills, I would love a good photo of this kid.
Leave me alone
Please no moreHappy but not looking at the cameraPlaying with her books, but not smilingLooking somber
Very cute, but where's the adorable smile
Here she is being silly in her high chair, she likes to cock her head to the side until you do it and laughShe has learned the game "where's your nose" and will proudly point to her nose whenever askedMacKayla and her birthday presents
MacKayla opening one of her birthday presents, she got a Disney Princess Wii game. She is just starting to figure out the controls, but she did seem to like it.
MacKayla also got a snow cone maker for her birthday.
MacKayla was also given money for her birthday and wanted to buy some new clothes. I have never really taken her clothes shopping and I am not sure that I want to again. She was such a little girly-girl, she had to look at everything, reject whatever I picked out and it took us 10 minutes to settle on the shirt. Oh vey! She got a new pair of jeans as well but we have to exchange them still.
These are the new jammies that she picked out as well.
Annika being cute!

The next three photos are to show the difference in my crazy kids. They had each eaten a bit of chocolate birthday cake and they each have their own way of doing it. MacKayla has a slight bit of cake around her mouth, Annika gets it all over her mouth and some on her forehead, and then Bella gets it everywhere, gotta love messy kids.

The girls all sharing a few minutes together before bed.

Books Read in February

Here's the update for what I read in February...


Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (Really enjoyed the first series)
Patterson - 422
Maximum Ride: School's Out - Forever
Patterson - 409
Maximum Ride: Saving the World
Patterson - 432
Maximum Ride: The Final Warning (This is the second series of Maximum Ride, and it was nowhere near as good. The whole book was about man-made global warming and how we are destroying the polar caps...it was very tiresome)
Patterson - 304
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (It was a fun, quick read)
Rowling - 112
Stonefather (Really loved this story. It is a short story out of the coming Mithermages series. I am really looking forward to the series coming out.)
Card - 112
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (This was an okay story, geared more to younger children though.)
Patterson - 288
Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (The story was pretty good, however the writing was very good. Even when not entirely into the story I enjoyed how the author was putting it together.)
Skye - 400
The Time Traveler's Wife (I really enjoyed this story. I have read it before and I picked it up in Friday night and was done by Saturday night, the story is that engrossing. A warning though: it is not a book for younger readers, it contains language and adult relations.)
Niffenegger - 546
Leven Thumps and the Wispered Secret (The story still feels like it is meandering a bit, but written well.)
Skye - 162 (only finished the first third of it this month)

Page count for February: 3187
Total for 2009 thus far: 5076