It's here....

 
Yes, it is here. The world of everything you never knew you needed. The new Target is finally open! I'm pretty sure that is going to be a bad thing for my budget, but I promise to attempt and practice some self control. Who can resist $4 shorts for kids? At $4 I don't care what they get all over them. Also, I'm pretty pumped about the grocery section. It is much bigger than the one in Fayetteville, and most importantly they carry my very favorite cookies!(which Fayetteville didn't)

Yummy!

 

Bug is now 10 months old. When that happened, I'm not sure. She is a sweetie, and loves cuddling, but I could do without the new screaming tactics. We're working on sign language more and more so that she can communicate instead of just screaming. She is crawling all over and into EVERYTHING. I think tornado would've been a much more fitting name. She is thinning out, despite the tons of food she eats. She loves having one thing in each hand while she eats (notice the pop tart in one hand and strawberry in the other) - this girl doesn't waste time. She weighs 16.5 lbs and is 28 inches long. So, she is tall and skinny according to the growth charts. I'm thinking Sydney is going to have a big little sister.

Teeth!

 

'Jamas Day

Sydney has PJ day at school and was thrilled to go. She'd been out sick the rest of the week, and was DYING to get back. No way was she going to miss "Jamas Day"

 

Now THAT is love

I bought Sydney cupcakes the other day because when she was sick. I'm thrilled to say that six cupcakes lasted two days, (yes TWO!) in our house. How is that for self control? While we were finishing up dishes after dinner, Sydney decided to share her blue cupcake with Elle. They were so delirously happy! And as with most things that make little ones delirously happy, this event ended with a bath.

 

 

Here we go, again.

I think that my pediatrician should open a frequent flyer's club. You know, the kind where after so many visits you at least get to sit in the comfy chairs? Or what about caffiene since if you are there, chances are you didn't get a good night's sleep before. Or makeovers, because with a sick kid, who actually gets a chance to put on makeup or even bathe before going? Or a personal steward who can entertain the healthy child you've toted along, because you can't call and ask a friend to watch your healthy, but probably germ-infested child. Or at least chocolate - that fixes everything.

So here I sit, with one sick 4-year-old permanately attached to me and a 10 month old who is just fussy (crossing my fingers it is that monster top row of teeth coming in that is causing said fussiness.) We are all in terrible need of bath, a new house (because I'm pretty sure moving would be easier than defeating the mountain of laudnry that seems to be procreating throughout my house), and some sort of sustanance that takes more than five seconds to create. Oh, and while we're being choosy, mom could use some sleep.

Why oh why do they grow up so fast....

At dance yesterday Sydney stuck her elbows in her leotard and ran up to Mrs. Brittaney and said, "Mrs. Brittaney - check out my big boobies."

nice.

Chick-a-wa-wa

S: Mom, remember when I held that Chick-a-wa-wa?

M: The what?

S: Chick-a-wa-wa. At that store. Where there was a lady.

M: Honey, I have no idea what you are talking about.

S: A Chick-a-wa-wa! Remember. And we picked Raspberries.

M: Oh!

This one's for you Ben Fuller

 

'Nuff said.

Why my husband rocks:

So, if there is one thing I'm great at, it's turing my kids into horrible sleepers, which translates into 4 years of waking up a million times a night.

David told me he didn't get me anything for Valentine's day which made me really mad (that is the day he proposed for crying out loud!) It wasn't so much the no gift, but that he didn't put time into thinking about it. I had planned a party for my grandma's 80th birthday (happy birthday Nanny!) so we had planned on just going out for dessert. He had a headache, so I suggested we just do it another night, but he insisted on going.

We got in the car, started driving to Chilli's and decided we weren't hungry, so he pulled over in a parking lot (no, don't get your hopes up this is a family show) and he said, "well, I did get you a card." So, he pulled out a hotel key card. He said, "I thought you might enjoy a good night's sleep." He told me he had packed my bags and had them in the car. I was pretty excited. When we started driving to Wal-Mart to get a few things, I teared up when I realized what a thoughtful gift it was. I'm telling you, a full night of sleep was worth way more than anything else he could have gotten me. NINE STRAIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP!!!!

So, he is offically back on the good list.

Birthday Bear!

 

 

 

 

Sydney turned 4 in January. After four celebrations in one week (yes, she is terribly spoiled)I can say that I'm a bit wiser. We had a dinner and party on her actual birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Rieske, a lunch celebration at Chick-fil-a (since Daddy always takes her out for lunch on her birthday, but he was gone), a Build-a-Bear Party with her friends, and then a family party with our extended family to top it all off.

Lessons learned:

1. Decorating cakes with candy is way easier than actually trying to make things out of icing (especially with two little ones running around.) But, instead of a fight over who gets the flowers, balloons, etc. on the cake, it is a fight over the rock candy.

2. Cookie cakes are really quick, especially when you buy the buck of dough from Sam's.

3. Paying someone else to do the party is TOTALLY worth it. We had her party at Build-a-Bear and at a $10 minimum per guest, we told her she could only invite five friends (hey, we aren't made of money!) So, she decided to invite only girls, and chose Megan, Kate, Katelyn, Kaitlin, and Grace. What was I ever thinking inviting a million kids to parties in the first place? This was so much easier. (Oh, and she needs to find friends with different names!)

4. Cameras need batteries. Yep, I left mine plugged into the wall at home. Thankfully Amy bailed me out and ran home to get hers. I ended up with some amazing pics, so thanks Amy!

5. Don't put David in charge of taking the pictures. See the picture above of all of the kids around the flowers? Yes, that is the picture he took of the cake. Nice, huh? If you squint you can almost see it. I cropped the cake out of a corner of another picture, so you can kind of see it.

So here are the numbers:

4 celebrations
3 cakes
2 types of lasagna (for the family party)
1 ice cream treat from Chick-fil-a

= One happy four year old!

The very hungry but slow caterpillar

****I wrote this back in January and forgot to post. Oops.****

Well, Elle is offically 8 months old and barely thinking about crawling. But, hey, who can blame her. Why crawl when your sister kicks you everything you need? She loves being held and is still suffering from "my bottom is touching the ground" syndrome. This condition is induced by visiting grandparents and having grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles, great-grandmas, great-aunts and great-uncles (you get the picture) who will gladly sit around and hold you all day. We did discover that the child will eat anything (as you can see from her roly-poly figure) and loves midnight snacks. I think Papa Hill even let her indulge in a 2 a.m. snack. Oh, and did I mention that she LOVES pizza. I think that is officially her favorite food.

Her first tooth also showed up during Christmas break. One night she kept screaming and crying and would not sleep (even when held). So, a few lost hours of sleep and a nickname later (thanks, daddy) we have tooth number one. It is on the bottom and she loves grinding it into crackers. I think she is amused by the sound it makes.

A Sunbeat!

***Another post I forgot to actually post***

Well, the time has come and Sydney is offically a Sunbeat, I mean Sunbeam.
She missed the cutoff for last year by two weeks, so now that she is almost four she was definitely ready to move out of nursery and into real Sunday school. She was so excited and loves her teachers Jared and Lurana. She totes the picture from their wedding invitation around and shows everyone that will listen her teachers.

It was my turn to teach Sharing Time and I was a little worried how Sydney would do with me teaching. As expected, she thought she should get to help, too. As soon as I started talking she walked up to me and whispered, "Mom, tell them I'm have a birthday at Build-A-Bear." I tried to explain to her that I was trying to teach and that she needed to sit down. Overall, she only got up three or four times, which was much less than I expected. Heck, I was thrilled that she chose to sit in her seat at all. Jared and Lurana are saints...they have 12 (yes TWELVE!) Sunbeams to keep up with. (The Sunbeam class is everyone who has turned 3 before Jan. 1)

When I asked how Sunbeams went she frowned and said, "Not good, not good at all. I couldn't remember how to be reverent!"

This week we went and bought her a tiny Book of Mormon and scripture case so she can take her scriptures to Primary. She thinks she is hot stuff with her own scriptures and hasn't lost them in the three days she has owned them. Impressive.

 

Saturday morning my mom, Sydney and I were sitting in front of the allergist's office inhaling, I mean, eating bagels from Einsteins. It was a windy, overcast day and Sydney had wormed her way into the front seat. We were watching the clouds moving across the sky and all of a sudden there was a break in the clouds and the sun shined through. Sydney yelled, "Look Mom, I think it's God!"

Fellow bloggers - check this out

I got an e-mail this morning from Kelly about bloggled.com It is a site that will back up your blog for free! I've been thinking about doing this lately, but hadn't looked into it too much. It took me less than five minutes to create an account and back up my blog. (Yes, you all know that I do all things in five minute snippets and if it takes longer than that, well, it probably doesn't happen) They will be offereing a service to convert your blog into a book soon - I can't wait!

Patience is a virtue

I needed a pretty dress for David's work Christmas party, so I decided to stop by JC Penny while I was out finishing my Christmas shopping. I tried on about a million dresses (why do all of the cute have to be made for, well, um, ladies who are less "blessed" than me??) Sydney was all about it until about dress #10. She goes running down the aisle and yells (very loudly so that everyone turned around to look), "That's right, Mom. I'm tired of this store. I'm tired of it and I'm yelling about it and I'm not being patient ANYMORE!" A little lady turns around to me and said, "didn't you hear that - she isn't being patient ANYMORE!"

How to inflate your sister

In an attempt to get some pics for our Christmas cards:

 

The girls had other plans.

New Haircuts!!

Finally, I got myself and Sydney a haircut. I've been putting it off forever because we had fallen out of love with our old stylist and I HATE going through 15 people to find a new one, only to find out that they don't work in the same place anymore. Anyway, Lanelle is working at JC Penny now and I LOVE my cute new cut. She fixed it all special-occasion-like because we had the Elders Quorum Christmas party that night. I got a million compliments and even one from a stranger!!(we had to stop for a vanilla coke at Kum and Go on the way home)Talk about a self-esteem booster!! Thanks Lanelle - you rock!!!

 

The next American Idol

 

One of Sydney's favorite thing to do at Grandma and Papa Hill's is to sing on the microphone. Elle is starting to think she should get in on the action, too.

'Tis the season to be jolly?

Well, it is here. The great "Christmas threw up in our house" tradition. We're really Christmas nuts and you can tell as soon as you drive by our house. Some Rieskes (who shall go nameless) always manage to get a little grumpy when putting up lights. Here is proof (he was actually trying to force a smile):

 

But, like the husband said, it wouldn't be Christmas if he didn't mumble and groan about putting up our decorations. No one told me that I was marrying the Grinch (except he gets really excited once it is all up)

Of course, I didn't think he was doing it right, so me and my little Elf had to help (trust me, this is a much better picture than the one he took of only my derrier - diet anyone?)