Arts and Crafts Time

I don't do a lot of crafty things generally, but I do enjoy them. Abby absolutely LOVES things like that - like all little girls I suppose.

I bought some wood things for my young women to paint for an activity and Abby wanted to paint too. She even let me change her clothes into something she could get paint on just in case. (She rarely lets me dictate what she will wear without a gigantic tantrum.) She had a blast painting and kept wanting more and more things to paint. I'll have to grab some extra wood odds and ends from the shed for her to paint one of these days.

As you can see, we are having some smiling issues these days. This was the best smile, and I don't think it even counts as one!

Once again, I attempt to become Super Nerd!

Yeah, so I already know I'm pretty nerdy--but I've been adding to it lately. Let me give you a run down.
1- I am a computer programmer
2- I watch Japanese cartoons (anime) and dramas
3- I read science fiction and fantasy novels
4- I have fallen over multiple times attempting aerobics
5- I don't like to talk to strangers (maybe not nerdy, but definitely weird)
6- I play GameBoy games (or DS) a lot
7- I have expounded multiple times on Han Solo's boast of how fast the Millenium Falcon is

So these are a few of my qualities that make me pretty darn nerdy. My newest one is: I love World of Warcraft. Right now my character is a level 23 Night Elf Hunter. Cool, huh? I have a pet bear named Dwayne and he is really good at killing gigantic tarantulas that drop crunchy spider legs and various other body parts after they die. This game is pretty addicting and I have been staying up WAY too late playing it. Oh well. I'll have to take a break when this month's subscription runs out.



There you have it. Super Nerd. At least I can admit it.

I'm a loser

So, we're doing a contest to lose weight these days. We started on January 2nd and I'm almost down 20 pounds. I think that's pretty good. I want to lose about 50 more at least, so I have a long way to go still. I'm not doing anything fancy, just old fashioned exercise and eating right. I'm hoping to make this a habit and not go back to my old ways. It's nice when I can start getting into my old jeans again.

Work has been a little hectic. I like the extra money that comes with more hours, but I feel bad about ignoring the girls while I work. They are good sports, though. Luckily, Sophie still takes really good naps. She still gets tired after being awake for 2-3 hours. She's kind of a wimp and needs her beauty rest.

Abby does some of the funniest things. Sometimes, when we're in the car, Abby complains that she can't get "comfy". She gets really upset and squirms around trying to find a better position on her booster seat. I always ask if she needs to go potty and she vehemently denies it. She usually will ask for a blanket or a pillow or something. (I never have what she wants.) A few minutes later she'll, inevitably, say she really has to go potty and we'd better get home quickly. She's silly. Abby doesn't want to go potty on someone else's terms.

Sophie is still such a little girl. She's still wearing a lot of 12 month clothes - and she's 14 months old now. So, I often forget that she is actually growing a bit and is getting better at reaching things. She keeps pulling things off the table and making a mess. I left Abby's mostly eaten Cafe Rio food on the table then left the room for a while. Sophie wandered over and pulled it down onto the chair. She then decided to grab the fork and attempt to finish it off while nobody was looking. Po tried to help out, but he isn't really tall enough. It was funny to see her holding the fork trying to get more out.

Anyway, things are good here, but completely disorganized. I'll get things in hand one of these days . . .

Abby is 4

Abby just had her birthday and now she is a big four year old. It seemed like a milestone birthday to me, but then I guess all of your birthdays are when you're that young. Finally I didn't have to have people look at me weird when I said she was three. She's so big that people thought I was joking. She's just a tall girl, which I think is fun. Anyway, she had a Tinkerbell party - which means we bought a few tinkerbell party supplies and called it good. She isn't a real stickler for continuity.

She had her girl friends come over and they colored, played a few games, and terrorized the dog. She just HAD to wear her favorite dress to look beautiful for her party. It just so happens that her favorite dress right now is her Christmas one. I think I'm going to have to hide it for a while. She got princess accessories, a barbie, stuff to color with, a pony and lots of other fun little girl things. Doesn't she look happy to show off her new things?

Happy 4th Birthday Abby!

Gingerbread Dreams

Tom bought a gingerbread house kit at Costco and we put it together for family night. Well, we really should have read the directions beforehand. Apparently you're supposed to let the frosting "glue" dry before putting the candy on. We didn't. The weight was too much for our little gingerbread house to bear. The roof started caving in, so we propped it up with gingerbread men. Eventually the whole thing fell in on itself and we were forced to eat it. Tragedy! I know, it's horrible. Here are some pictures to help illustrate my little story. You can see the gap in the roof and the four supportive gingerbread men. They tried really hard, but failed and were unfortunately executed later by Sophie. She is a seasoned cookie executor, she shows no compassion to her victims.

Sophie's First Birthday

Our little Sophie turned one today! She's walking and acting like a big girl now. She had lots of family over to give her presents and watch her make a mess out of her cake. We had her grandparents over for dinner, then all the other people who could come afterwards for some yummy cake and ice cream. Sophie looks a little doubtful here with Uncle Will, but she warmed up to the party idea soon enough.


Sophie didn't have much of a problem figuring out the cake thing. She devoured it almost as soon as it touched her tray. One thing to note, don't give a baby her own ice cream. That makes the real mess. I'm not sure who gave it to her, but it was probably Tom. I have lots more birthday pictures, but I'm too lazy to figure out a slide show right now.

Anyway, we're so glad to have Sophie in our family. She's a lot of fun and pretty much irresistible.

Blogs, crawling, reading, and Pokemon

So, I just read Tom's blog. It was pretty good. He's a funny guy, but I think he's much more so when he isn't around me. I have a lot of people tell me he's the funniest guy they know. I used to be kind of funny too, but then I got married and stuff. I've lost whatever innate sense of humor that I used to have. It's sad really.

Sophie is crawling now. I had forgotten how much stuff babies get into once they start moving around. She has an uncanny ability to go towards cords--somewhere babies are not particularly allowed. She won't really crawl that far when I'm watching, but when I look away she must move like lightning. Sophie also tends to suck on everything she can. Suck, drool, and spit up on everything she can. I know Abby didn't spit up this much. It's really rather annoying. Babies aren't supposed to be wet all the time, right?

I got Pokemon Diamond when it came out in April and I've just tapered off my playing. I've literally caught them all. I have them all neatly arranged in boxes according to their pokedex number and everything. So, I'm kinda done with it for a while. I cheated, of course. Tom bought me an action replay so I could cheat. Maybe it's better this way--I can devote more of my time to reading and taking care of the kids and whatnot. I was really going to talk about picking up reading again. I read a pretty good book the other day. It was a quick read and pretty entertaining. ("We'll always have Parrots") I like reading, it gives me a better sense of accomplishment than playing Gameboy does. I picked up a book I had been reading before. I can't get into it. It sucks, but I want to read it because it might get better. Hopefully it does.

We've been looking into selling/buying a house. We walked through this trashed house yesterday. I'm not really willing to do THAT much work. I think I could handle paint and some flooring changes, but this house needs a complete overhaul. I think I'm done for now. I want to go eat a cookie or something. I must be getting hungry, or bored. I can't usually tell the difference.