A Sunny Day with Warmth

With a few hours of nice weather after work, we took advantage of it. Thankfully it was a Friday night and none of us had to get up early the next morning.

Bruce did a great job of riding his tricycle. Last year, he really didn't want anything to do with it and couldn't quite get the pedals to go round and round.

Aleah had her first wipe out of the season. Of course, it involved a hill and turning at the bottom of it. I'll let you figure out the rest. Thankfully, there was no blood. This is why we where helmets. I had just asked her where her elbow and knee pads were when it happened. I'm glad she had on jeans!

Bruce decided to get an early start on the mowing for us.

Mom, she talks funny.

Once again Aleah noticed someone else.  At least she described the lady as wearing a blue shirt.  I'm not sure where the accent is from, but Aleah noticed she had one.  I asked her if she could tell what words she was saying because she was speaking English, and Aleah said no.  Hmm....how do I follow up with this one?

Where did my Baby Girl go? The first lost tooth!

So, about two weeks ago I got a phone call from my mom who promptly put Aleah on the phone. Now, she doesn't make it a habit to call me at work, so I was a little concerned. Well....Aleah told me she had a loose tooth. I could not believe it! When I saw her after work, sure enough, a loose tooth.

Tonight, I was putting the kiddos to bed when Aleah started complaining that her tooth was hurting. After Bruce got to bed, I checked her tooth, and it was REALLY loose. I told her it was ready to come out and convinced her that tonight was the night. How did I convince her? Well, she knows about the Tooth Fairy(TF) because she has seen that on Arthur (PBS show). I basically acted SOOOO excited that the TF could come tonight if she let me pull it out. She asked if it would hurt, of course I said no. Amazingly enough, she agreed! Off I went for the supplies. Camera, wet wash cloth, dental floss. Shoot, the batteries are dead.....grabbed the other batteries. Alright, here we go.....

After I got the floss on the tooth, I kept asking her if she was ready in between talking about the TF. (For a moment there, I didn't think I could do it. I just put those thoughts out of my mind.) As I was talking, I just YANKED. Aleah's eyes were HUGE. I pushed the wet wash cloth into her mouth and told her to bite it.

When she finally looked in the mirror, her eyes got HUGE all over again. She did GREAT! I am so proud of her. I can't believe she lost her first tooth so early. She won't be 5 until April 18. WOW!

Of course, she had to put it under her pillow. Hmm....How much is a tooth worth these days?

Do they speak English?

Recently, we were went to a neighboring state so I could attend the viewing of a coworker's grandfather and Aleah had a funny quote as we were leaving.  First, she asked where we were and we answered that but went on to explain where we live compared to where we visited.  The next question knocked us off our rockers.  I should say that Scott and the kiddos stayed in the van watching a Cinderella movie while I was inside, so she didn't talk to anyone there.  She asked, "Do they speak English there?"  Since Scott was laughing....the conversation continued as follows:

Mom:  Yes, sweetie.  The speak English here.

Aleah:  Are you sure?  They don't speak Spanish?

Mom:  No, Aleah, they don't speak Spanish.  They speak English like we do.

Aleah:  Mom, what's English?

We were dying by this time.  I guess her world is finally getting bigger.  She is realizing that there are differences in our world and even closer.

Valentine's Day

For breakfast, we had pink heart and pink banana pancakes.

A good friend gave us gingerbread houses at Christmas time, but we just didn't have the time to get them done. So, we decided it would be a great Valentine project for Daddy. They worked very hard and got them done with time to spare.





Daddy loved them and we finished off the day with a heart pizza from Papa Murphy's.

Aleah's gingerbread house.


Bruce's gingerbread house.

# 3 for Bruce

Bruce's birthday is January 23. It fell on a Wednesday this year. We decided that the party would be on the 26th, the Sunday following his big day. On the 23rd, we made his favorite dinner (mac & cheese), put three candles in a ding dong for him to blow out and gave him his presents from Momma and Daddy. He was so excited about that. Unfortunately, I had the flu that entire week and we had to postpone his bigger party until Super Bowl Sunday. He had a great time. His cousin wanted in on the fun, too.

Along with the guitar cake, we had rocky road and peanut butter tracks ice creams to go with the "Rockin' Star" theme.  Aleah always says rockin' star instead of rock star.  :)

Musta been yummy!

The making of a cake

Since Bruce started his fascination with guitars, we decided to make a guitar cake for his birthday. Since I used a half sheet cake pan, 3 boxes of yellow cake mix, and almost 4 containers of icing, it was "fun" trying to find something to fit the length of it for the base.

Monkey Bread

One Saturday morning, the Aleah and Bruce helped me make monkey bread. It took a little longer than I would have liked, but I know they enjoyed doing their part. This was the first time they had tried it. I wonder if it has something to do with all the sugar. It was a HIT!

Ice Skating with Uncle Caleb 01.03.2008

At the hockey game on New Year's Eve, Caleb and Aleah had a conversation about ice skating. We really wanted to go to the outdoor rink, but the week before Caleb went back to college the weather turned bitter cold. The indoor rink was just fine. Aleah did great with this little red stand to push around to keep her balance. She absolutely loved it. If she fell, she would just recruit the closest person around to help her get up and get stabilized.



Bruce on the other hand...he didn't take to it as well. Thanks to Uncle Caleb, he did enjoy some of his time on the ice. Of course, his skates weren't really on the ice. :)