Yesterday was Paige's birthday, she turned the big 03!!!! We had some hot dogs and ice cream cake with my dad and the Cross Family over here at my brother's. We will be leaving VA on Emma's birthday, which is Monday. Emm and Paige loved having a party and they each got a razor scooter (Paige got blue and Em got pink). We partied so late I can't believe how much energy the girls had! My brother let Mike and me sleep in this morning while he took care of all 3 girls and fed them breakfast, it was quite a treat!!!!!!!!! He even had a hot breakfast waiting for me when I woke up!!!!! It has been nice being on vacation, I haven't had to change a poopy diaper in days!
Well, the girls just woke up from a late nap (getting ready for the new year!) and we are going to a shoe store. Then I'm making chicken divan for my bro and then we start partying! Hopefully I will make it to midnight!!!!

posted by Melissa 4:39 PM

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

We took the girls to the ice rink this morning. They had a great time.. for 30 minutes. So we didn't quite make the entire 2 hours that the session lasted. Emma wants to take lessons when we get back to Florida. There is a rink about 25 minutes from the house, so we'll see what we can do about that.

posted by Michael 4:48 PM

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Here are christmas pics! We didn't take that many, in fact, we didn't take any while they were opening presents because I was taking a video with the video camera. The girls were thrilled with the Dora Kitchen from the Cross Fam and the Princess Canopies were also a big hit with Paige and Em. Sophia LOVES the baby Cabbage Patch from Aunt Bette and Uncle Woz! Thank you to everyone who mailed the girls presents, we really appreciate you thinking of them!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

posted by Melissa 1:42 PM

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Here are some recent pics....More playground pics, we still have not received our rock wall or rope ladder or extra swing!!! The guy is a total douche! Oh well, the girls are happy for now but they keep asking where the rock wall is! Hopefully it will be delivered while we are in VA/MD.
Next pic is of Paige sleeping. She went to bed with all the lights on after we told her to go lay down. She looked so cute I had to snap a pic!
Next pic is of my new teakettle that nannie got me for xmas to match my new stove!! It looks totally awesome! Thanks nannie!!! P.S. I love the new book too!!! You are so awesome and know me so well!
Last order of business... two birthdays happened yesterday so I'd like to give a shout out to my man Ethan who is now a whopping 6 years old!!! And also, my cousin Robbie had a baby boy, Tristen, yesterday in Alaska. Word. Congrats to you all!

Merry Christmas everyone.
TRISTEN PICS

posted by Melissa 8:25 PM

Friday, December 23, 2005

Yesterday at 430pm the playground people finally arrived (after 2 days of excuses!). They worked until 10pm putting together the girls playground, an xmas gift from us and the grandparents. However, it is still not completed. The girls were very excited to out this morning, finished or not! The set is still missing a 7 foot rock wall, a 7 foot rope ladder, one swing and a tarp for the "fort." Hopefully that will be here today but I won't hold my breath...
In the meantime we will just play with what IS there. We played already for an hour at 715 this morning and now we are inside warming up! Yes, it is very "freezing" here today!

posted by Melissa 8:50 AM

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Today I brought in a little treat for Paige and her classmates to celebrate Paige's birthday. Because of my awful timing Paige and Emma are almost never going to get to have school on their birthday! So we decided to celebrate today! The kids got little powdered doughnuts, baby oranges (clementines) and pre-mixed chocolate milk (Paige's fav). The kids were so excited so I was happy that we made the right breakfast choice! Sophia ended up spilling her milk all down the front of her clothes. There was hardly anyone at the school this week so there were plenty of doughnuts to go around.

posted by Melissa 1:12 PM

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Some choose to decorate in their undies, some choose to decorate in their cheerleading outfits and the rest choose to decorate in their mardi gra beads....

posted by Melissa 3:27 PM

Last night the girls helped me make Merry Xmas Cookies. They are like sugar cookies, except crazy delicious. Emma did very good at rolling out the dough. I thought she might need some direction but I just told her once what to do and what not to do and she did it. Paige on the other hand is not to that point yet. She rolled the dough so flat it was stuck to the counter! Sophia on the other hand....couldn't get the dough into her mouth fast enough.
We had the boyz over today to decorate the cookies. The came over for breakfast and then we got down to business. I don't have any pics because my camera ran out of batteries. Jen will forward me some and I will post them later! Anyway, we made the icing and let the cookie monsters go to work. They did such a good job. Last year we did this and it was a huge mess. Fun, but messy. This year they did a much better job at keeping the sprinkles, non parels and icing on their cookies. And by "they" I mean everyone but Sophi. She got fired from her frosting job pretty early in the game due to the fact that she was eating everything within reach. The cookies were also much prettier this year. It will be neat to see the same cookies 5 years down the road and how they decorate them then!

posted by Melissa 1:27 PM

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Last night was Katie's graduation party! It was at 7pm but seeing as how all of our baby sitters were at the party we elected to bring the children. Plus, once they found out it was Katie's party there was no telling them they couldn't go. They took a late nap and were in pretty good moods. I think they were pretty popular at the party, all the adults could not stop laughing with/at them dancing! They got to play with Kallie Hoots, a girl from Em's class and Sailor, who is the curly haired blond girl. She is the granddaughter of Judy, the lady that married Mike and I. Sailor is only 6 weeks older than Sophi. They had a great time dancing and playing. Chris and Jen also got to come to the party though without the boyz. Boo. Chris even busted a couple of dance moves! The party was great and we were so proud of the girls for behaving. We finally left after 2 hours of dancing and the girls weren't even tired! I had so much fun too! Once again I'd like to say how proud we all are of Katie! Ok, I'm going to cry....

posted by Melissa 2:51 PM

Friday, December 16, 2005

Thursday was the St. Paul's Christmas Show. Both of the older girls participated in singing holiday songs. Sophia, Mike, Katie, Mom and I were all in the audience. Paige stared at me the whole time while I filmed video so I mouthed the words to her. She thought that was hilarious and did the same thing. We were laughing so hard that I'm sure my video is pretty shaky! It was so warm on Thursday that I was wearing short sleeves and drove with the windows down....

posted by Melissa 9:39 PM

posted by Melissa 9:29 PM

Let's see...these are pics of the girls running back and forth after their bath. It was a really interesting game, I guess. They got a kick out of it and I got some sweet shots of flying hair so I'm happy!

posted by Melissa 9:23 PM

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Last night we attended Katie's graduation. She is now a registered nurse! She is the first one in her family to graduate from college so we are all extremely proud of her. She will be moving to Orlando in January and already has a job lined up in the pediatric wing of a hospital over there! She is on the ball! I am very sad to be losing her but at least she will only be an hour away. The ceremony was very nice and Katie had been nominated by her classmates to speak so she read a very nice speech she had written that was a big hit with the audience. Congrats to my girlfriend!

posted by Melissa 2:39 PM

Sophia's room is finally done! We dismantled the crib and everything! A lot of extra toys are in there because we had to make room for the christmas tree. The girls love playing in the new bed and think it is neat that their toys are in their rooms instead of the toy room! Sophia recently discovered a doll from my youth! She is quite in love with him.

posted by Melissa 2:17 PM

Mike took charge this year and put the christmas tree and lights up all by himself. Well, he had a little help from his elves! The tree looks really good but the pics are weird cause it is daytime! I want everyone to notice, but not be too jealous, that our windows are open!

posted by Melissa 2:00 PM