Best Date Ever!

On Saturday, Jeremy took Victoria to Frisco's Daddy-Daughter Dance, and I took Bella to go see a high school production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The girls had so much fun getting ready. We took a shower (something new for them), put on fancy smelling lotion, blow dried our hair, put make-up on (natural colored lipstick, blush, and eye shadow), and painted our fingernails in a pretty pink. We put on our gorgeous dresses, posed for some pictures, then went out as a family to eat an early dinner at Buca de Beppo. Afterward, Jer gave Victoria a corsage with small red roses and whisked her off in her chariot (minivan) to go meet Kate (her best friend) and Dan at the dance. I'm told they had a great time. They ate cookies and danced the entire time with the theme of Alice in Wonderland in the background. Victoria said her favorite song was Hippie, Hippie, Shake. Before I took Bella to the musical, we stopped at the gas station to buy her favorite treat- chocolate M&Ms. The play was amazing! I was blown away by these high school kids and what they could accomplish- it was 10 times better than our high school plays when I was a kid- great costumes, choreography, and singing. It was long though. Bella fell asleep in my arms 50 minutes into it. After a half an hour of sleeping, they had intermission. I asked Bella if she wanted to go home and sleep, or if she wanted to go the restroom, eat M&Ms, and watch the rest of the show. Bella said, "I want to see Beauty and the Beast!" I bought a light up rose for her during intermission. Toward the end of the show, when the Beast dies, the audience turns on our roses and gives him some magic to wake him up as a Prince. Bella had the time of her life with swinging the lighted rose around to produce the magic. After the show, she asked, "Can we watch this again, Mom?" I know she had a great time, as did I. We came home about 10:30 and went to bed. A great date!

Victoria loves her best friend Kate.

Gray Hairs

Bella is gonna be the death of me. This child is soooooo independent and stubborn, not to mention she has an energizer battery switched to the permanently on switch. I can not count the number of times she has been in time out this week. Yesterday alone, she sat on the TO bench 11 times for pulling her sister's hair, throwing food, and completely misbehaving. Twice I gave her a spanking, once for putting scissors in her mouth, and the other time chewing on a stapler with staples in her mouth! (My friend Chris asked if she was practicing for joining the circus to chew on nails.) I've tried time outs, taking away her toys, taking away TV watching priveledges, rewarding her with stickers and the such, and just plain ignoring her bad behaviors. Nothing has been working successfully. Oh, not to mention she got in trouble with the ballet teacher twice for goofing off by playing with to her neighbor and kicking her paper spot on the floor (to send it flying to the front of the class right in front of the teacher.) Oh Bella! And to top it off, she has been the most clingy kid ever- not wanting to go to school or eat or take a bath or go to bed without me. I remember Victoria going through something like this, but never to this extent. I know this is a phase; I pray this is a phase, but I can not wait for it to be over. BTW she does crack me up super hard! Yesterday morning, as I was checking my emails, a little head pops up through my typing hands and says, "Hello Mom!" She was wearing my circa 1980 glasses from High School- the big rim red ones- only for the "cool" kids. (Jer found them in my old car as my backup glasses and brought them inside and left them on the counter. ) I dyed laughing. She is just so precious... and exhausting.

Chalk People

And what does a mommy do while hubby is off skiing? She throws out her back out of coarse :) Yes, on the morning that Jer was leaving at 7:45am, Cindy wakes up, gets out of bed, and is talking to hubby who is putting on his tie in the mirror. Bella comes running into the bedroom and jumps into my arms. I raise her up, and then immediately drop her, and fall on the bed. Jer picks up a crying Bella who has a small bump on her head, but is fine, I, however, can't move. All I can think is- oh, crap, Jer's leaving for 4 days. What am I going to do? Well, luckily I have a great support system. My mother-in-law Carol came over and watched the girls while I went to the chiropractor, then the next day my good friend Chris came over and watched them while I went back to the chiro again. It felt so good to have my back cracked and massaged. Thank you Carol and Chris for all your help! And thank you friends and family for all the great offers to help and prayers. We spent most of the weekend watching movies and just chilling. We also went out to Wigglies Play Center to meet our cousins Caleb, Chloe, and Keira and Aunt Renae. While they bounced and ran, I sat and watched- they and I had a great time. On Saturday, after some more movie watching, the weather was beautiful, so we went outside to draw with chalk. Victoria and Bella drew themselves as chalk people.

Jer's Ski Trip

Jer went skiing a couple of Sunday's ago. He went with our neighbor Dan. They skied mostly Breckenridge, CO, with one day in Vale. He had a great time, with good conditions.

Dad's Birthday

We celebrated my Dad's birthday a couple of Sunday's ago. Jer was on a ski trip, so Victoria, Bella, and I went over to Coppell and met my parents at St. Francis church for their morning mass. It was a long one- hour and a half- the girls kept asking to leave, but for the most part were good. I really enjoy that church with it's gorgeous mural of Jesus and all the decadent singing. Afterward we went to IHOP for a yummy breakfast.
We went to Coppell's park next. The weather was wonderful! This cool park is a big wooden playground about the size of one giant Walmart. It's fully enclosed with a fence, so that you can play hide'n'seek. Victoria was very good at it- I had a hard time finding her.

We went to my parents house next and helped Grandpa Joe sing Happy Birthday and blow out his candles. Bella was a little apprehensive of the fire. And for an extra fun day, we walked to another park that is close to my parents house- Duck Pond Park- and played some more and fed the ducks (who weren't that hungry). A wonderful outdoor day! Happy Birthday Dad!

Celebrating the New Year

We went over to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Joe's house to celebrate the New Year and eat some of my favorite foods- sauerkraut, dumplings, and hot dogs- our tradition to bring in good luck. After supper, Victoria, Bella, and Grandpa played pillow fight. Round one- Bella wins.

Round three was a tie between Victoria and Grandpa.

After a nice bath and PJ's on, Grandpa reads Bella a Bible book. Bella looks at one of the pictures, points, and says, "Look Grandpa, there's an old man." Then Bella puts two and two together and says, "Grandpa you're an old man."

Victoria had been diligently working on this masterpiece in the kitchen. She was looking at an old calendar-type flower book and trying to copy it. Pretty good!

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve with our neighbors, friends, and family this year. Julie and Brealyn came over first.
Our neighbors- Julie, Braelyn and Jay

Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dick chill with Bella and Victoria. (I so need to fix my flash.)

Stella, Stephen, and Jessica

The kids toast each other with a nonalcoholic bubbly.

Some of the party guests included Denise and Dave, and Dan and Darcy. (I wish I would of taken more pictures of the adults. Most of the ones I took didn't come out as well as I would have liked and I didn't get some of my good friends smiling faces.)

I couldn't believe we had all little girls. They had such a fun time playing together.

And how do you get six girls to quiet down? (-so that you can sneak away and enjoy some adult conversation-) put on a Princess Disney movie, of coarse.

At around ten o'clock, I had a wild idea to let the girls play with Silly String to celebrate the New Year. I had bought it at the Dollar Store the day before, and thought- why not? Sounds like fun. Little did I know that their tiny hands would have problems holding down the nozzle to spray the Silly String. So most of the parents had to help the kids spray it.

Jay gets the worst of it, after Braelyn takes off.

I think the kids enjoyed themselves.

Maybe the parents did too.

I tried to take refuge by the refrigerator with Bella as my cover- didn't work.

Dan turns on his own and sabotages Abby.

"I'm gonna get you Daddy."

The on lookers at the aftermath.

We celebrated New Year's at 11 o'clock with the kids by watching Dick Clark host the ball dropping in New York. (I think this might be the last year for him to host.) Most of the guests left then, but I couldn't believe that my girls and Kate and Abby actually stayed up until midnight with us and celebrated the New Year again. It was a fun night.