Daddy's Cheap Labor

Wordless Wednesday

Oranges

Rachel loves oranges. She eats them almost everyday. Grapefruit style, just cut em in half & she goes to town.

Dancing with Olivia

Guess who else loves Dancing with the Stars? I will give you 4 hints...

This is her dancing outfit. A swimsuit & skirt combo that she just had to change into when the show began last night.

Did anyone else watch Dancing with the Stars??? I know Laura did, because we were texting each other throughout the show. Sometimes, 8 hours a day just isn't enough interaction with my bestie! Ha!

Anywho, about the show. I hate to admit that I am this kind of person, but most of you know me so this will not be a shock -- I was happy to see Kate Gosselin do badly last night. I nearly fell off of my chair when the judge said "you looked like you were pushing a shopping cart around dancing with her" HAHAHA! That's mean, but funny at the same time. And Pamela Anderson looked intoxicated to me. Maybe she is just overly bubbly all the time, but I would wager that she had some type of self-medicating going on.

I have never watched the show before, but I think I am hooked!

The Girls' Room

Whew! {that was a sigh of relief}

Sunday, I changed this (obviously this is very much a before picture - notice the strategic placement of every single piece of crap that Olivia & Rachel own)

into this.

And the girls now sleep here.

(you know, as opposed to Olivia in her twin bed & Rachel on her crib mattress on the floor.)

And thanks to Jarrett's Dad for making this toybox which was painted by Jarrett's Mom. Very nice, huh?! I love it!

I can't take very much of the credit for their bedroom transformation. My Mom & Dad bought & delivered the new mattresses. Jarrett's Mom & Dad painted his old bunkbeds. All I did was tell Jarrett to set them up Sunday. Oh yeah, and I moved Olivia's old bed out & found enough toys to keep a family with 10 children occupied for days & days. Under that bed was a black-hole. Not very nice...no pictures of that monstrosity.

The first night of sleeping in their new beds went so well. I am sure I am jinxing the crap out of myself to even say it. I am amazed at how well it went. My lil' Rachel fears change, but we told her that she is a big girl. I think the little piece of coaxing that made her actually sleep there all night was a reminder that she would be just like Andrew (you know, one of those little crazy Brownies.) She surprised us both by sleeping there all night. And this morning she declared to me that "I big girl". Yes you are Rachey, yes you are! Olivia did just as well. Each is already unbelievably territorial. "This is my bed" "No Sissy". Luckily, Rachel can't scale the ladder to the top bunk yet.

Granted, the bedroom still needs some work. General fine tuning & finding places for everything. But this is a step in the right direction.

Olivia's School FIRE Program

Here is my lovely Olivia at the FIRE program at her school. {FIRE = Fight Illiteracy Read Everyday} I got to take the day off of work Friday to accompany her. And I am so glad I did. We had so much fun!

I am very pleased to announce, the lil girl that is a complete spit-fire at home is very well-behaved at school. She is like a sponge just soaking up all of the Kindergarten goodness. We spent the afternoon going from station to station & she was showing off all of her fancy book learnin. I loved it! I am so proud of her.

Spring Fever

Dear Sunshine -

Oh how I missed you dearly for the last few days, weeks, months, etc...It is so nice to see you out again. 60+ degrees today!!! How fabulous! Let's keep it up m'kay.

Smoochies,

Daddy's Girl

Rachel is a bit of a Daddy's girl. Who can blame her?

Daddy does fun stuff.

Daddy makes funny faces.

Daddy cracks her up.

This is it...

HAPPINESS

Having a sleeping daughter in both hands.

MELTS. MY. HEART.

Oh, and it didn't hurt that I was watchin' some Law & Order Criminal Intent while they were both peacefully snoozing on my lap.

First Baking Experience

I was going to post this last week, but I am lazy...

Directly after having my lovely new stove delivered, and I mean directly, the girls and I enjoyed baking some cinnamon muffin melts. Nevermind that I got these at a Tastefully Simple party thrown by my Bestie like a full 4 months ago. They were still delicious.

The girls had so much fun. Rachel was mostly a spectator, but she provided some comedic relief with the muffin papers. Olivia was totally into it. She wants to bake all the time now.

her father's daughter

Olivia is turning into a dare devil. She has no fear. I don't know where she gets it. Okay, I do...but it ain't from me. She is her father's daughter. Here she demonstrates her mad bike riding skillz! Luckily, she successfully completed her little trick slide stop each time. She was pretty proud of herself. She can't wait to ride without training wheels. She was ready for them to come off this weekend, but I'm not quite ready yet, HA!

I know it's really dark...sorry about that.

a little thing called WILL-POWER

Generally speaking, I think I seriously lack all kinds of will-power. But today, for some strange reason, I am doing quite well.

I have successfully walked by 2 ginormous cakes & several coolers full of pop. And I have only stopped to smell the thick chocolate frosting. I haven't tasted any.

For lunch, my BFF LAURA and I went to Subway. Chicken breast on wheat bread with apples...that's right apples. I walked right by the delicous cool ranch dorritos & went for the apples. That is definitely saying a lot, especially for me. Chips are my weakness. 35 calories for apples vs. 250 for chips = I WIN!!! Apples are also a "filling food" according to Chub Club. Ask me in about 2 hours how full I feel though, HA!

Plus, I have also been able to avoid all Girl Scout cookies. (Wow, my mouth just started watering.) Anyway, I ordered 3 boxes of cookies but they all remain unopened thus far. Some of my peeps at work even have opened boxes out for the taking. "Here have a cookie." No thanks has been my response today. WOW!

Now, the true test will be tomorrow at weigh in number 2. After my first official week as an active member of the Chub Club, I feel somewhat confidant. Keep your fingers crossed for me, just in case!

smiles & frowns

What happens when 2 little girls who almost never get to have soda of any kind actually do get soda? PURE CRAZINESS! Jarrett actually gave Rachel some coke in her sippy cup...see the photographic proof.



And here are the various moods that resulted from the coke. Olivia was wound up...all the rest of the pictures I got of her, she looked like a complete crazy person. So here she is demonstrating her frown.



Here is Miss Rachel's frown.



And the complete craziness of laughing & cheesing it up!

my kind of morning...

this little girl has so many expressions