Halloween

Halloween is awesome. The kids get all excited all month long, spooky decorations are placed, punkins are carved...then after about 5 houses of trick or treating they are done and ready to go home. Pretty sweet indeed.


This is a recap of our events:

Playdate party:

I will take any excuse to have a party. So when Addi asked if her friends could come over to a Halloween party I was all over it.

turning into mummies

spooky food...thanks for the ideas pinterest



monsters out of playdough

Pumpkins Carved:

Growing up in the Flint family we didn't do pumpkin carving. If you ask my mom she simply replies that it is way too messy to be allowed. My dad however was constantly convinced that fingers would be left inside the punkin cavity and I'm pretty sure he still has nightmares about the possibility of that. So when Addi begged to carve some this year I was at a loss. I simply didn't know how to go about that. But Ronnie is a pro and carve we did:

Addi choose the classic, triangles and teeth.  I attempted a kitty but will improve with more experience people, dont judge.  Ron did the pi symbol...he thinks he is witty.

This part made both Addi and Ron gag.  That made me giggle.

Costumes:

This was all the cousins:  Witch, Chase's girlfriend, Chase was the creepy mask guy, Grey and Kru were Ron Burgundy and Brick, Cauley had to dress like The Situation for her softball halloween party, and my gals were the cute ones:  an Angel and a Ghost

Look how pumped Ellie was!  I love that face, Halloween is awesome!

One of my favorites things that happened was that Addi's school party was actually the day after on November 1st, she was so sick of being an Angel that she told me she was done with that costume.  Which secretely made me happy because all I could think about was her trying to take off her leotard by herself when she had to pee.  That would have been rough.  So we improvised...

track suit + sweat band + 1/2 marathon medal = runner.  Classic.

Needless to say by today I was done with Halloween, every decoration was ripped down and I felt like a weight had been lifted. Now all Addi can talk about is Christmas. She just wants everything on TV, not a lot, just everything. It will be quite a year.


Happy Halloween everyone!

Its been awhile...

And in that long while lots has been happening around here.  Here is our list of things that have been filling our days:
1.  Softball:  alas, another year is finally over and we I for one am very happy to have the end.  It was a tough year.  Im sure some of you who followed us know that we went undefeated in our Region and took state this year so you are saying to yourself, "Mandy is off her rocker if she thinks that means it was a tough year, oh poor girl." But I am here to tell you that I was standing in the dugout begging people for some sort of relaxant so that I could get through the games.  I was a giant ball of stress and I feel bad about that because I know I didnt have as much fun as I could have.  I just wanted these gals to win so badly and I was constantly feeling the fear that something was going to go wrong.  I think maybe last year (making it to the championship game and getting beat) had me in some sort of post traumatic stress disorder and it was just stupid how hard I took every run and every setback.  Needless to say I was so happy when they won it, but so relieved as well.  Cauley was nothing short of totally amazing and I will be so happy to watch her next year tear it up at SLCC.  She is my hero.

This is her hugging my daddy after the win, sucky pic but I stole it from the internet so thats what I get for stealing.

2.  13.1:  My brother, in all his kind and generous ways, called me up in early April and told me that he had an early birthday present for me...he was giving me his half marathon to run.  Nice present hu?  He is a giver.  But I took it as a chalange and started running.  I ran 3 miles the first week and thought for sure that people had to be drunk when they registered for this race, but week by week as my miles increased my attitude did too and soon enough I was huddled with thousands of people about to start my race.  As I ran for my 2 hours and 12 minutes, I kept thinking, I can do this...but why?  Im I really having fun right now?  Couldnt I be home in my jamies watching a Spongebob episode?  I mean I am happy to say that I did it, but I am also happy its over.  I think maybe when my kids are a little bigger and I have a little more time to train it will be better.  (there are no pictures, just imagine a hunched over achey body with a beet for a head because I turn an awesome shade of reddish purple while running)
3.  Our yard:  We have grass! Our yard went from a weedy mess to an awesome haven of happiness for me and the gals.  Maybe not so much for Ronnie because he gets to mow the sucker, but we gals sure like it.  A great guy named Bryce Wilcox did the work, if you want his number we would be so happy to pass it out because he was awesome.  I have been too busy/lazy to take shots of just the yard, I will get at it and post them.  You can see glimpses of it at the bottom of this post.
4.  School Ended:  Addi graduated from her first year of Preschool and was super cute in doing so.  I just wish I could find that camera that I took the pictures with so that I could post them.  They are somewhere in our mini van (yep, thats right.  Ron got me an mini van and I will never be the same again.  I adore my mini.) Anyway, its somewhere and I have faith that someday I will find it.  Someday.
*note...after much searching (why the H do they put so many freaking cubbies in those things?  I found it!

This is her during her performance, I dont have great ones from after because again, I suck at being a good and organized mommy and my camera immediatly ran out of power.  Nice.

5.  Ellie is a big girl:  My baby turned one! I know everyone says this about their own kids, but she is truly awesome.  She is so amazing in so many ways (ways that we never really experienced with Addi, my oldest who was stuck to me like tar paper for the first year of her life.)  I never knew how awesome it was to have a baby that was happy with whoever loved her.  Who was instantly funny, (you should see her dance to any Ke$sha or Katy Perry song) and who was brillent and beautiful (dispite the ever noticable lack of hair) and who has added so much to our family.  I even love her when she throws crazy fits and throws her head back in absolute anger, she is simply awesome and I could not be happier to have her be my baby for as long as she will be. 

Shaking her party makers before the shin-dig

Here was the set up.  Damn wind.  It was to be a cool luau setting, it ended up just a cool day.



Here we are roasting our smores that followed the dogs that were roasted on our new fire pit.  It was awesome.



Look at her cute lips prepared to blow out the flame, oh who was I kidding, the flame lasted .2 seconds before the wind blew it out.  That why first birthdays are awesome because the b-day gal couldnt care less if the candel was not really lit.

The damage.

She makes me so happy

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Addi's Number 4

 I now officially have a 4 year old.  I know I have said this before, but it always surprises me how sentimental I get about her birthday.  I tear up all day thinking about how I felt on the day she was actually born, how amazing it was to bring her into the world and how cool it was the first time I got to hold her.  Now 30 some odd pounds later its still just as cool, just a lot heavier and much more chatty.

This year Addi wanted a Tangled party so we had her little play group over after preschool and partied like people who had been locked away in a tower all our lives.

We played pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider, had little Pascals all over the place, painted like Rapunzel and had food in frying pans.  It was so fun!  Glad I had lots of back up from my mom and mother in law, kids are needy.

Later we had her family party, also so much fun.  Party people kept with the theme and gave her lots of Tangled stuff.  She was also crazy pumped to her her Monster High dolls that she has been obsessing about since October. She was a happy little 4 year old.  Now anytime she sees anyone...even perfect strangers, she excitedly tells them how she is now four and begins to tell them the list of things she wants for her 5th birthday. 

Since I am terrible at loading pictures on this thing, I will just go out of order and describe everything:

Addi, Parks (future husband) and Whitlee painting their master pieces

Best I could get them to do for a group shot, they were all too excited to see the presents

This was prior to her family shin dig.  She got way too much, but in my defence, I got most things on after Christmas sales for like 75% off.  I promise.

Her tangled wig.  So cute but I want to burn it.  If I find one more extremely long hair in my babies diaper I will strangler the maker of this wig.



Cake...did not go the way I wanted.  Addi helped decorate



Pascal party blowers.  Definite hit.

Happy Birthday big girl. Love you and how wonderful you are at making friends and having fun.  I love your imagination, your sweet tender feelings and how easy it is to discipline you because you got your guilt from me and everything makes you feel bad.  I love how you still want to hold my hand when you are super tired.  Love how you love your sister...unless she has one of your toys.  I simply love you.

Happy Birthday Ronny!

My baby daddy had a birthday last week and I just wanted to show what his fab gals gave him. 

Ellie was completly pumped about the oatmeal cookies she gave.

Addi picked out the BOY Monster High doll all by herself.

You can see they both thought their presents to him were the best.

Happy Birthday Ron!  Hope you loved your presents....The girls love you I promise, they are just a bit selfish.

A 3 year old teen?

I remember when I first found out I was having a girl 4 some odd years ago.  Many replies were as follows:
"Oh a girl huh?  They are drama!"
Well all that just skimmed over my head and all that was left was the image of cute bows of every color and fluffy dresses and locks of hair to braid.  I thought of all the fun things we would do together and I would have years and years of that before the dreaded "drama" came with the teen years.
My life has been full of the bows and dresses and all the fun stuff, but no one ever told me the drama of a teen would take place just before hitting four years old.
Seriously people...I have a crazy woman living at my house and she is in the body of a cute 3.8 year old.

Looks pretty cute and innocent right....and she is, but then she has this switch that she just pulls and suddenly I am dealing with something I am totally unfamiliar with.
Examples you ask....DELIVERED.
Picture an early morning. Ellie had a rough night and was up a lot so both me and her were totally crashed.  Addi wanted to watch TV in my bed which I told her was great but she would need to be quiet so that Ellie and I could catch up on some missed Z's.  However the little yacker simply could not stop talking and telling me everything about what Spongebob and Patrick were doing.  Finally I told her to just keep her mouth shut and watch her cartoons, (remember...I was SO tired.)  Crying, she got off the bed and announced:
"I just want my life back!"
"What?" I asked...surely I had heard that wrong because what the pee pee does that even mean coming out of a preschoolers mouth.
So she repeated it.  I couldn't help but chuckle inside a little, I mean where did she even get that?  It sounded so full of teen angst that I was blown away.
She also is extremely particular about her wardrobe which has led to many a morning fights.  Its out of her Bell Jamies or some random and completely summer type dress or tank top.  If I EVER tell her she needs a coat she bursts into millions of tiny misery driven tears.  Every morning I have a small panic attack when I tell her that it is time to get dressed because I have no idea what response I will get. One day i needed to get her ready to go play at her friends house. The temperature outside was about 5 degrees. My little girl demanded to wear her 'exercise suit' which is a skimpy tank top and shorts.  When I told her it was too cold to go outside in that she told me she was just going to sit in her bed the rest of the day and be sad. Seriously.  She is so effin cute but I want to ring her neck sometimes. 
I ask you to do this...just tell me it will be alright and that she will grow out of this and just be a sweet and rational little girl for the remainder of her days.  Even if it is a lie...lie to me people.
Meanwhile...look how cute they are:

This is her in her blessing dress...she looks crazy cute huh?

Laying on the floor laughing <3

Nevermind...she is too cute to be frustrated at <3

Catching up

Most days something happens that makes me think "I should blog about that."  then the day is over and I am covered in baby drool and have watched enough Sponge Bob to kill a person and I am over it.  So today I vow to catch up.

Happy new year everyone, hope all your Christmas's were awesome and all that.  Christmas simply rocks and that's all there  is to it.  Addi got everything she has ever dreamed of getting and her list just keeps continuing to grow.  I guess that is the great life of a 3.5 year old.  Ellie got what she wanted too:

See those two pearly whites?  She has been using them with lots of vigor and force. She is also hoping that the top two join the party soon. 

A tradition in our family is to have a cooking battle for New years.  In the past I have ROCKED this competition and I felt that I would once again dominate.  I forgot one thing...who was judging.  All the young ens' get to pick the winner and when you serve 'Beef Braised Beef over Gorgonzola Polenta' kids tend to be a little shy.  But between me and you it was amazingly awesome and I have dreams about polenta now.  I want to serve all things with polenta.  Mac n' cheese...and polenta.  Chocolate cake...and polenta.  I love it.  I also love the new cooking vessel that I get to make all my new dishes in.

I forgot to take good pictures during the competition so this is the aftermath.  We were all pleasantly stuffed, regardless of the fact that BOTH my brothers beat me with their dishes.  Brisket sandwiches and Meatloaf.  Yes, I got hosed.

Addi also had an accident (we wont mention that it was her mothers fault because she was sitting by the increasingly needy Ellie and cleaning pictures frames on the floor and  that the glass freakishly jumped up and sliced the top of her foot all up)  all you need to know is that for a solid week she has been running around with her own version of a cast...

Preschool was attended in the Hello Kitty slipper, she slept with it on at night.  She even had to bathe with a sock on so she still had her "cast" to protect it.  Poor gal.  I finally did get it off and promptly into the wash...it was starting to gain some serious funk.

All in all, things are good.  I'm glad we are back to some sort of normal.  Happy new year everyone!