Ah, to be three again!

I guess when you turn three, you have life all figured out! I took Quinn to her free trial class at The Little Gym. I wasn't sure how she would do since this was an independent class for her (she did My Gym last year, which was parent participation). She did great! The first half of the class they did gymnastics and the second half was tap dancing (she got a little scared because it was too loud but got over it and went back in) and ballet. It was too cute!

Anyway, after her class we were on our way to Payless to get her tap shoes and ballet shoes. She told me, and this is pretty much word-for-word, "I'm going to go to school tomorrow. But I'm going without you Mommy. All of the Quinn's get to ride on the bus. I'm just going to miss you. But I'll be back." Huh? She repeated this a few times and threw in a "I'll miss Sydney too" here and there. It was so funny. I just don't know where she comes up with this stuff! Cracks me up, that's for sure!

Now I get it!

So I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm all of a sudden getting the days off from work that I requested and wondered if it had anything to do with my current boss transferring to another store. It doesn't. Shortly after I was told I couldn't get those days off, I requested my start time to be 5 or later during the week and also requested my hours per week be kept to around 24/26. Turns out they met me half way and gave me the two days off that I originally requested and made my start time 5 or later for 2 out of the 3 week days that I work during the week. I only had 24 hours last week but that's because I had Saturday off for Quinn's b-day! I'm still scheduled and working right around 30 hours per week.

I'm not going to complain however! I know there are lots of people that would snatch that job away from me in a heartbeat! I'll just adjust and smile every other Friday when I see that money in my account!

In other news....I think I'm going to sign the girls up for some classes - dance/gymnastics for Quinn and a sort of tumbling (from what I gather) for Sydney. We are going for our free trial classes this week - Quinn tomorrow and Sydney on Thursday (so much for my nights off!) so we'll see if it's something they'll enjoy. All those extra hours I didn't want will fund those so I guess it all turns out for the best in the end!

Quinn's Big Birthday Bash

It's hard to believe but our little Quinny turned 3 today!

K.C. and I decorated her room in the middle of the night. She came into our room this morning telling me all about the decorations in her room and adding "but it's not my birthday". She's been hearing that it's not her birthday for I don't know how long now! Once I gave her the good news, that it actually IS her birthday today, she got the biggest smile on her face. It was priceless! Here are our decorating skills - don't expect too much, it was midnight after all!


She slept through the decorating process!

Doing her happy decoration dance. She never sits still!

Moved the happy decoration dance to her bed.

Next up was Quinn's requested breakfast - cinnamon rolls!

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And every authentic Princess MUST have a Cinderella moment. Or, as is this case, a Quinnerella moment:

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Next up was the party! And I have to say, only MY daughter can plan her own surprise party and actually be surprised! As for the dress, I don't normally get Holiday dresses. However, when I got to work on Friday night and saw this particular dress, I knew I'd be leaving that night with two of them (yes, Sydney has a matching one so watch for the Holiday pictures.) They were cheap enough to justify spending the money on them as I figure after the holidays they can use them to play dress up. I may even try to make them into their Halloween costumes too! Anyway, here is a 'scrapbook' of the party:

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As you can see, we had a great time at the party. We wish you all could have been here but are very thankful for the friends that were able to come help Quinn celebrate! She's already planning her 4th birthday party! If you ask her how old she is, she'll probably tell you that she's going to be 4 on her next birthday. Oh lordy!

Big Girls & Bad Cars

So Sydney does this thing where she likes to stick her hands down her diaper. Short of cutting off her hands and/or duct taping her diaper to her, I have no idea how to fix this. Such is the case as this morning, she will often times stick her hand down the back to 'collect' the treasures that are sitting and waiting. Then I find poop wiped on her top and sometimes on other things and she'll even, dare I say it, stick it in her mouth. Gross, I know, but I have no idea how to stop this! That really has nothing to do with her being a big girl so don't know why I even brought it up other than to have it documented so that I can torment her with it when she's older:) Anyway, as I'm changing her diaper first thing this morning I ask her if she wants to go potty. She says "yes" very enthusiastically. So, thinking that she has no idea what I'm talking about and is just saying yes, I let her get up before putting the clean diaper on her and she runs to the bathroom, lifts up the lid, turns around and waits for me to pick her up and set her on it! I was truly impressed by this! She even pushed a little to try to get something, anything, to come out but the damage was already done in her diaper. So, I go through the whole motion of wiping her off and get her down off the toilet and she flushes it. I was hoping that watching Quinn do this, she would pretty much potty train herself. Without jinxing it, I think she may be a little easier and earlier with the potty training! Yippee! This picture is of our second try after we got home from stroller strides. Nothing was deposited but as least she's willing to try!







While still in a good mood at the thought of an easy potty training ahead, we get in the car to go to stroller strides and I find that my stupid, freakin' seat is broken and I can't scoot it up! It's always something with that car! I panic at first, thinking there is no way I'll be able to drive around like this. Then I remember the old school way of reaching the pedals and run inside for some pillows. I have to say, I feel a little white trashy but what else am I going to do?! Quinn was kind enough to take a picture for me but insisted that she get her picture taken too. Silly kid!

It's Official...

After a year and 8 months of living here, we are officially Pacific Northwesterners with our first purchase of rain boots! I got the only pair in my size so will deal with the design I guess. Quinn got to choose her design as her size was available in a few different ones. Sydney, like me, had to go with the only design we could find in her size (those are horses on hers). K.C. wasn't with us so he'll have to be assimilated later:)

Just in the last few days...

Here's a run down of what my darling girls were up to in the last few days:

Quinn shoved a popcorn kernel up her nose on Friday. I thought it was a boogie so was trying to dig it out with a q-tip. When she protested I had her blow her nose and was actually shocked to see the kernel. Yes, I took a picture!



This is what they were doing when I left for work on Sunday:



Those cartoons were sure interesting!

And I found these pictures on the camera so I know what they did while I was at work:




We went to the salmon hatchery today but I couldn't find my camera so will have to post pictures whenever one of the other moms posts theirs on our meet up site. K.C. met us there so that was nice that we could all be there together. It was fun and the kids got to feed the rainbow trout, which seemed to be the highlight of the whole visit! Sydney was an expert and really impressed the docent with her mad fish food grabbing/throwing abilities. Yes, yes, our little one is gifted and we are so proud:)

***Here is a picture from the hatchery I got from another mom:

That's all of the antics so far but stay tuned - you never know what's going to happen around here!

I lived to see my first pay check!

Friday was pay day and marked two weeks and one day for me at Costco! I'm still trying to deal with the late nights but actually think that I'm getting too much sleep now. In my mind I think I need to sleep longer instead of getting up with the alarm so end up sleeping for 10 hours sometimes! That's easily fixed though. I'm not getting bruised as much so that's good and I'm actually starting to 'help' out people that are about a week behind me in the hiring process.

My boss is going to a different store so now all of a sudden my request for certain days off and certain start times are being honored. Don't know if one has anything to do with the other or not but I'm not complaining either way!

K.C. is doing a great job with the girls and the house. I've been trying to get a chore board in place for us but he's just stepped up on his own to take care of things so don't know that we really need it now!

The girls are loving their time with Daddy and don't ever protest when I leave for work (well, Quinn did once but she was woken up from a too-short nap in the car). That makes me feel good. I like that they aren't so dependant on me and actually go to Daddy when I'm home sometimes.

I've had my next door neighbors come through my line which was funny for both of us! I know the kids more than I know the parents so I'm sure I had a confused look on my face, as did they, when we saw each other. My friend Annie and her family were in too so found me to say hi.

I'm going to have to go shopping for smaller jeans again! Between the AdvoCare products (http://www.advocare.com/08081251) and all of the exercise I'm getting while working, my 'skinny' jeans are too big for me now! BONUS! I've almost got my pre-baby body back so that means I'll probably get knocked up again:)

So, all in all, the job is going well and everyone is adjusting to it just fine. I loved seeing that check and loved that I didn't have to split it with anyone because of child care this time! Instead, I sent it ALL to the credit card company:( I only have to do that about a dozen or so more times before I can start calling it all mine! (sigh)

Speaking of Birthdays....

Now that the month is almost over I guess it'd be nice if I wished the September folks a happy birthday! We talked to some of you but not all of you. So, I will now sing to you:

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Kylie, Kim, Vicki, Quinn and anyone else I may have forgotten or don't know about
Happy Birthday to YYYYOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you had/have a great one and wish we could be there to help you celebrate (except for Quinn - not only will we be there but we're paying for it)!

Normally I'd make a cake and take a picture of it to post for you but since it's almost midnight and I just got home from work, you'll have to settle for the thought of the cake (hey, it's not like you could really have a piece of it anyway).

Love & Miss you!

Quinn's Birthday Picks

For whatever reason I decided that last night was the night I was going to take Quinn to the party store so she could pick out her decerations. I wasn't too sure what to expect from her and really, really, really tried to let HER do the picking without my influence. I think I told her no just a few times when the cost of the item (or how many she wanted) was way more than I felt appropriate for a 3rd birthday party. So, this is what she chose:

Party hats (I tried to get just 1 pack of 8 but it seemed really important to her that EVERYONE wears a party hat so sprung for 2 packs of the cheapest that I could find), green and pink plates, orange napkins, red and pink forks, a pack of squawkers (I guess for when we 'surprise' her) and not pictured is a round, foil balloon that is purple and says 'Princess' on it, an Alligator/Crocodile balloon (don't know why but she chose it so I went with it) and then we got a dozen latex balloons (2 in each color) in these colors (all chosen by her, obviously): green, yellow, purple, pink, red and brown. Should be a colorful party! The most important buy of all though was her purple tiara. She wouldn't leave the store without it and it actually took a little convincing to get her to take it off long enough for the cashier to ring it up. We are in SO much trouble if that is any indication of how she's going to be as a teen!

I thought about making one of those doll cakes but then decided that I just don't want to stress out about a 3 year old's party and since I'll be working the night before her party, I won't have time to do much with it. So, we headed over to Safeway to order a cake. We looked at the ones on display but she found one in their little book that she liked. The bakery was closed so we stopped back by this morning after stroller strides and she still picked that same one. It's actually cupcakes and then they frost them all too look like a cake and put her name on it. That's it! Oh, I guess there are some balloons on it. Simple and colorful!

As far as I know she is still wanting pizza to eat so we'll see if that changes or not by next week. Hey, if I can just order pizza and have it delivered, I'm a happy Mommy! Otherwise, I'll be buying Costco deli stuff Friday night after work:)

One thing that she thought she really needed was an 'Old McDonald' plastic table cloth. I told her I had several plastic table clothes at home and she could pick out the color we use. That seemed to be a good compromise to her so that's good. Although when we got home and were telling Daddy about everything we bought, she told him we got the table cloth and that we didn't get the Alligator/Crocodile balloon because, in her words, That's Silly! Hmmmmm, guess she'll be surprised!

Bruises, Babies, Beds, Birthdays & Beaks...

It's been longer than I intended since my last post. I don't know if I'm coming or going these days! Apparently 'part-time' out here means anything under 60 hours a week! Okay, so it's not that bad. It's more like a minimum of 24 hours is considered part-time at Costco. Perfect! Except I keep getting scheduled for 30+ hours! Not so perfect. At first I figured I'd just get the card paid off faster which would lead to money in savings faster and then, of course, a new car faster. After a week of that I've changed my mind and have decided that faster is not always better. So I've kindly requested that my hours be kept to the respectable 24/26 hours per week. Of course after I got home from an 8 hour day yesterday, K.C. and I kind of agreed that maybe it would have been better if HE got the job at Costco and worked two jobs while I continued to take care of everything at home. If only....

My second day at work they stuck me outside doing carts. I thought they were trying to kill me! Do you know how heavy one cart is (someone said 90lbs - don't know if that's true or not but it sure felt like it)? Now try pulling 10 of them at a time! You'd think being such a big company they'd have those fancy cart pushing machines. Nope. I got a stinky safety vest and a rope as my only tools. Apparently there is some debate on which is easier/better, pulling the carts or pushing them. My 'buddy' for the day is a puller so, therefore, I was a puller for the day. I have bruises up and down the right side of my body! It's been over a week now and I STILL have the bruises! I'm scheduled for carts again this week so I may test out the pushing aspect and see how that goes. I could go into all kinds of reasons why everyone should be extra kind to the cart collectors you see in parking lots but I think it's something you have to experience to really appreciate. But try to be patient and kind to them anyway. It's hard work!

Sydney Stories:
Sydney has started to 'feed' her babies. It's so cute to watch her. She lays them across her lap and shares her milk/water with them. She even shares MY water with them, that's how kind she is. And I can't believe I haven't taken a single picture of it yet. This darn work think is really getting in the way of my fun and enjoyment!

Sydney has been working on her jump shot and victory dance. She's really good too!

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Quinn Stories:
Miss Quinn is something else. Bedtime has been a hassle for her - she keeps getting up for whatever reasons. I guess it has gotten a little easier since I've been working and K.C. is in charge of it. He lets her stay up until SHE's ready to go to bed (what a concept!). I guess they'll be hanging out and she'll announce that she is tired and going to bed and will march straight into our room and fall asleep in our bed. He moves her into her room when he goes to bed so it's been working out nicely I guess. She's too funny.

She has also been talking A LOT about her birthday party. Actually, she has been planning it and, I've got to tell you, it's been taking a lot of stress/pressure off of me. It is so funny. She tells me what kind of cake she's going to have (it keeps changing but as of now it's going to be a princess cake), what color party hats and balloons she's going to have, who's going to be there. She even told me that we all were going to hide and then she would come downstairs and we would all jump out and yell surprise to her. I sure hope it goes as well as she sees it in her head!

Here is a Quinn fact for you: Snow White is a super hero! Quinn pointed out her cape to me as if that was all of the proof anyone would need!

Quinn & Sydney stories:
The girls and I took some bread to the park to feed to the ducks. I don't know why but Quinn was brave enough to let one duck take the bread out of her hand! I'm not even brave enough for that! Of course I didn't have the camera rolling for it and she wouldn't do it again - I don't blame her! But I did get some video after that. The ducks and the girls were upset when we ran out of bread. We'll have to remember to take more next time!

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The girls have been adjusting to me working pretty well. I think it helps that they are with Daddy instead of at someones house. They watched him do some house work so I found them 'helping' me one morning. They were vacuuming under the couch cushions for me. SO helpful!



I guess that's about all that's going on around here. Hope everyone has made it back safely from their travels over the weekend. And I especially hope that my Houston family and their friends can get back home and find that everything is as they left it! We are sure thinking about you!

Love & Miss you all!

Weekly Update - 09/05/08

(sigh)
What a week!

I spent A LOT of money on Sunday getting myself to Advisor status for Advocare. So now I'm ready for everyone to buy, Buy, BUY! I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think the products are so darn good! In fact, I have lost another inch off my waist in just the last four days! I didn't really notice until I put a belt on today and had to tighten it up to the next set of holes. I pulled out the measuring tape just to see and tada! That was a nice surprise! I measured my thighs and hips too but didn't lose any more off those. I'll take what I can get!

We had a good Labor Day Weekend. We didn't do too much! The girls and I brought K.C. to Stroller Strides with us on Monday. I was actually surprised at the number of Dads there! We had a good work out and the girls got a kick out of seeing Daddy there too. Little miss Bossy Boss Quinn kept telling K.C. what he was supposed to be doing (i.e. You're supposed to SING Daddy - You're supposed to RUN Daddy etc.).

I had my orientaion for Costco today - so my first day of work basically! I've been assigned to the Front End instead of the Food Court so that was good. Not that I have anything against the food court! I'll work wherever they want me to work as long as there is a pay check attached! I kind of expected to do the orientation today and then 'talk' about when I'd start the actual work. They do things a little different! I got my schedule for the rest of week and I'm working every day - Friday through Sunday! Guess I'm going to start earning my credit-card-pay-off-money faster that I realized! K.C. stayed home with the girls and it sounds like they had a good day. The drama didn't start until I got home I guess so it must just be something they save for me:)

I'll have a couple extra kids tomorrow so thought I'd get this update posted a day early. Dylan & Braden will be here as Jen is going through her own orientaion for Safeway. She'll be working evenings and weekends too so I guess it worked out for both of us to keep what we make instead of splitting it with each other! Gotta like that.


Quinn took this picture of Sydney - or Syd as she is now calling her


So then I had to take a picture of Quinn and she just looks so darn cute

This is what they do for fun around here:

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Video Update 07/18/08 - Test

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