Prayers

Last night I posted on facebook that my mom was admitted into the ICU with blood clots throughout her lungs. I was a mess all night. I hardly slept and have been very emotional. I am so thankful for so many family and friends that I know have been praying for her along with us.

I was able to talk to her on the phone a little while ago. She was moved out of the ICU and into a normal room so she now has a phone. That was so wonderful to be able to hear her voice.
She will be in the hospital for another week. I would appreciate it very much if everyone will continue to keep her in your prayers.
Thanks!

The girls this week

Everyone knows I like a theme so I was glad Abi had her school spirit shirt to wear on Martin Luther King day because it has a Martin Luther King Jr. quote on the back:

"Intelligence plus character... that is the goal of true education."

While Doug and I were busy with the furnace guy I got out some markers and paper for Maddy. She decided to "paint" her toenails....

and her legs.... and her mouth...

Funny girl.

Her cold got progressively worse this week to the point where her coughing made her throw up a couple of days ago. So we have stuck around the house. Here she is yesterday morning having a tea party with Clarisse...

More fun...

Friday night the girls and I ran to Target to get some ice melt. While there I grabbed a tube of glow bracelets from the dollar section to play with the next day.

Saturday we played in the snow some more. Abi built some snow people with candy.

I got cold first but I could see the beginnings of a cold coming on Maddy AGAIN so we packed up and went back inside. I took the girls up for a bath. This is when I surprised them with the glow sticks. I saw the idea on Pinterest. I turned off the light and then broke all the sticks and threw them in the tub with the girls. They LOVED this!!!

They played with them for a really long time and then made them into rings and played some more...

a little hula hooping...

When they got out of the bath the fun continued as Abi made them into a huge jump rope and practiced... seriously $1 and hours of entertainment!

Snow much fun

Last Thursday we finally got our first big snow. it was quite funny because when I found out that Doug was going to be out of town for work I told him that "guaranteed the day after you leave it will finally snow."

Well, he left Wednesday. It snowed Thursday.

When Abi got home from school I got them both in snow clothes so they could play in the snow while I shoveled. Of course, I didn't do much good because it was still snowing at this point but I wanted to at least get something done.

Abi was so happy to play in the snow...

The next morning I went out and tried out the new snowblower for the first time- luckily Doug gave me a lesson before he left. 

I had Abi babysit Maddy while I did it. It was definitely a lot easier and quicker!

I got these pictures later that morning when Abi was out waiting for her bus. Maddy brought down her friends to watch Abi and say goodbye to her...

She cracks me up with how attached she is to all her Mickey and Minnies and her Clarisse. She was watching a cartoon while I was cleaning and I thought she looked so cute...

library storytime

 Maddy loves going to story time at the library. Again, this is mostly for the grandparents. Here are some videos I took at the library last week....

What's a Wuggle?

Last summer Abi started seeing infomercials for wuggle pets. She wanted one right away. I thought they looked dumb so I didn't want to buy it for her. She decided she wanted a Wuggle pet birthday party but I really didn't want to spend the $50 for the kit for her birthday. So, I talked to her about other birthday ideas. Then one day we were in Walmart and she saw that they sold the kits. They were $20 for the starter kit that comes with 2 wuggle pets. She wanted it!

I told her that she could save up her money for it. From that moment on she had a mission!

Abi doesn't get allowance yet so saving up money is not easy for her. Occasionally I need her to 'babysit' Maddy while I do something, sometimes she would get $1 for something special around the house, and she got some money from grandparents for her birthday and Christmas. With all these options it took her until last week to save up the money.

She was so excited to have it saved up that she wanted me to take her to Walmart before school so it would be ready for her the minute she got home.

So, I did. It was so fun to watch her hand it to the cashier and pay for it herself. She was so proud.

As soon as she got home from school that afternoon, she asked for her bag!

She started making her friends right away...

Unicorns are her favorite animal so she was so happy that her kit had one.

these were actually much more fun than I thought they were going to be so she was not at all disappointed and now they both hang on her backpack and make Abi happy every day.

The best thing is now she knows how to save!

Maddy dancing

 This is mostly for the grandparents. It is long. Maddy loves this song and video and here is some proof...

Water of the Earth

Last night Abi came with me to Activity Days. As we were driving there she was looking at the moon because it was low, looked incredibly big, and had an orange glow to it. We started talking about space and planets.
This is when she said, "Mom, when Jesus was creating the Earth I know what happened to make so much water."
"Oh yeah? What?"
"Well, the middle of the Earth was created first into a big ball and then they built land all over it. But they got really tired so they dug some holes and filled them with water."

New Years Eve

This year we started a new tradition of a New Year Tree. 

Abi helped me take down all the ornaments and put them away except for any snowflakes/ stars that were silver, gold, or white. I put a new star ornament that our friends gave us for Christmas for the top of the tree. We put some silver garland I got for next to nothing at Target on it and then the girls tiaras and our New Years crackers. I also took down the tree skirt and wrapped a blanket around the bottom.

Then I sent the girls to rest time and I filled up a bunch of balloons. I wanted them to be silver but Abi wanted purple added and I had to use white instead of silver. I had 4 pennies, 4 nickels, 4 dimes, a dollar, and a bunch of fortunes in them. Then the two on top of the tree had a bunch of confetti I cut out in them. I tied them all to the tree with white, silver, and gold ribbon and then numbered them, putting paper with the numbers on it in a bowl.

After rest time we dressed in the mandatory polka dots for new years eve. (Polka dots on New years eve are supposed to be lucky). Abi wanted to put on make up so I let her put some on herself and Maddy. Then they both wanted their nails painted. This was the first time painting Maddy's nails!

Then I brought them down and they saw the tree covered with balloons. There was a lot of squealing from Maddy!

The make up didn't look too bad in person but it definitely photographed heavy. So cute though. Like little dolls...

It wasn't long before Maddy was mad at Abi for telling her not to pop the balloon...

If looks could kill...

she wanted to look at all the numbers..

Abi had her stitches taken out last Wednesday and it is healing really well. You can see the scar in this picture...

Now, we just had to wait for the New Years festivities to start....

We always have appetizers for dinner on New Years eve so we had some Jalapeno and cream cheese poppers and buffalo wings, Maddy had dino nuggets, and Abi had a lunchable. We watched a little Phineas and Ferb.

Then it was time for the first balloon. Abi got to go first. She picked her paper out of the bowl to see which balloon she got to pop.

She tried lots of things to pop it.

Nothing was working so finally she used a pen to stab it. She got a fortune...

A half hour later it was Maddy's turn and she tried sitting on it...

Finally Doug got our little corn holders and we used those for popping the rest of the night. 

Maddy also got a fortune...

It this point we went in the kitchen and had our first toast of the night...

Then it was time to start the gaming! We got a few new games for Christmas so we wanted to play all of them. Abi was determined to stay up until midnight but we were only letting Maddy stay up until 7 so we played the kid games first.

First up was Disney Pictureka!

then we played the Busytown airport game... which is just as much fun as the other Busytown games. They have the best games.

After this game we did our crackers. I love this picture because you can see all of our crackers!

Maddy liked the cardboard tube from hers the most.

After this I put Maddy down and then we hunkered down to play Life. It was a favorite game of mine as a kid so I was excited to get it. Abi had never played it before. It was so much fun and lasted almost two hours!

At this point we took a little break and got out some chips and salsa, cheese salsa, and spinach and artichoke dip...

Then we played Creationary. Also very fun! We played a few rounds because it goes really fast.

Here is a chair Abi made...

After that we took a long break. Doug was tired so he laid down on the beanbag for awhile while I put the next game together and read a little and Abi watched netflix shows on Doug's phone. 

Then we got together around 11 for the last game of the night...

Heroica

Another really fun game! At this point of the night we were doing balloons every 15 minutes. It started out every 1/2 hour. Abi was the lucky finder of the dollar bill!

It was getting close to midnight and we made some ice cream sundaes. You can tell just how tired Abi was...

After I took that picture I said, "that doesn't look like an ice cream face." So she did this...

We counted down, watched the ball drop, and cheered. Then I had Abi pop the last two balloons.

Happy New Year!