A Link to Pictures From the Past Month

I did post earlier today about the snow so if you haven't already done so check it out below. I did want to post a link to pictures from the last month or so. You can see them by clicking this link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053052&id=1429356370&l=df218f8559

If you want to view a larger version of the picture just double click on the picture.
Enjoy!
Deachi

Snow!

It SNOWED!!! It's funny, I'm not really a huge fan of snow. I would much rather have warm weather any day but I found myself yesterday hoping that it would snow in great quantities so that Calyn could make that snow angel that she "has always dreamed about making"
Unfortunately as quickly as it started, it also melted. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that it was just 70 degrees two days ago. There for awhile I had my hopes up though. The flakes were HUGE and were really coming down. It was fun to watch and the kids had a blast trying to catch it on their tongues.
Of course, I took pictures.

Right after this shot he caught a BIG one!

I'm not convinced that Max actually understood why I told him to stick out his tongue. :)

Corry trying to catch them on the fly

Calyn really getting into it. Don't you just dig her outfit?

My little snow bunny

Drew telling me his hands were freezing (I got them all gloves soon after)

I love the snow sticking to Corry's hair in this one!

A cute little twerp isn't he?!

The Paci Blues

Oh...Paci, Paci, how I love you,
Too bad I will soon be the age of two,
You give me comfort when I cry,
It will be hard when the time comes to say goodbye.

Mommy and Daddy have set new rules,
that I can only use you when I snooze,
I guess it is time to start growing up,
Afterall, I do like to use a sippy cup.

Just remember my dear paci,
you once made me very happy,
So, as I begin my journey in saying adieu...
I look forward to all things exciting and new!

I wish I could say I was the one that came up with that cute poem but alas I was not… I copied it from another blog. I feel it applies to poor Max these days.
Matt and I have started taking away his paci in the morning and he only gets it back during nap time and bed time. You would think this is pretty easy. You just take it away and put it out of sight so he can’t see it… yeah right! This kid has paci radar! For example, Last night Max was throwing a royal fit. I think it had something to do with him wanting M&M’s and me not giving them to him because he didn’t eat any dinner. Papa Charlie got to witness this lovely show first hand. Poor Max cried and cried for about 30 minutes. After that time, I decided to do one of the few things, aside from paci, that makes him stop; I gave him a bath. This worked until it was time to get out. Once again cue the waterworks. Oh how I wanted to give him that paci and me a stiff drink at this point, but I didn’t.
I left the room for a few minutes to start Calyn’s bath water. I told Papa Charlie that I would be right back. After Calyn’s water was high enough I turned it off and noticed something, pure silence! How did Papa Charlie do it? It was a miracle! I was going to have him come over every night and help! I walked into the living room and there they were, sitting on our big chair so comfy watching TV and Max with a paci in the left hand and one in his mouth…. Go figure.
In Papa Charlie’s defense he did not give them to Max. I told you he has radar. He had completely emptied the diaper bag and found them…. Sigh.
I did take them away which brought upon another tantrum… by the time Matt got home I was exhausted!
I don’t remember getting rid of paci’s during the day being this hard with Calyn. It seems like her withdrawal just lasted a few days. Max’s has lasted more like 2 weeks (and counting)!
I know it will pass. I just feel sorry for the poor guy all he wants is that little coveted rubber thing that we call Paci...

5 Years Ago, Yesterday

I wish I could have posted this yesterday but I didn't have the pictures scanned into my home computer, just work.
Who remembers what happened 5 years ago yesterday? If you don't it's OK I will give you a hint...

I bought one of these

Then I had one of these

On February 21, 2005 Matt and I found out that our world was going to change. It's been a fun change!Here are a few of the fun events that led up to Ms. Calyn's birth.

Telling them family was fun! Lois and Charlie still lived in Ponca at the time so they didn't get to hear it in person but we called them. The rest of the family we invited over and I told them I wanted to take their picture. I counted 1, 2, ok say "Deachi's Pregnant!" This was their reaction. Even Meghan was excited. :)

Ooooo then I got big! (Lookin good!)

And in October along came our beautiful little girl

We are so blessed!!

Happy 60th Birthday Lois!!

Today is Lois' (Matt's mom) 60th birthday. Matt spent most of the day yesterday smoking some yummy ribs, I made my famous baked beans, a cake and a cheese cake (Lois' favorite)
Around 5:30 everyone came over to help us celebrate.

Here are some signs that Lois' coworkers posted all over the building the week before her birthday

Time to blow out the candles. Who wants spit on their cake!?

Lois making a wish

Max's turn

Drewski's turn

Corry's turn

and finally Calyn's turn

Max could not get enough of blowing out the candles! He kept saying "again!" Olech would relight the candle and Max would say "happy to you!" then would blow out the candle. Olech tried to take out the candle and just hold it so that they could start cutting the cake. He took it out and Max said "blow out" so Olech lit it (and was still just holding it) Max said "no in there, in there" and pointed to the cake. I swear he must have blown the candle out at least 20 times!

Oh that Drewski.... he is so funny. He wanted to play a game with us all. Do you want to play too? OK here it goes. It's called find the goldfish.... can you do it?

With the cookies

With the pie (this one is tricky)

and finally with the cake

The girls with "flat Stanley" (I will explain "Flat Stanley in a post in the coming weeks) GO POKES!!

ummmmmm. who are you to judge me? I was thirsty and besides this punch was DELICIOUS!!!

Stella and Dot

What a fun party!! My friend Leslie has started selling Stella and Dot jewelry. If you've never seen this jewelry you need to! They have some cute stuff!! The best news it delivers fast!
Last night Leslie drove over from Katy to have a party at my house. I had several friends over. We ate, drank, laughed and did what girls do best... shopped!
Of course I took pictures!

This was my drink :)

My party is still open and you can place orders all the way through Sunday. If you are interested in some darling jewelry go to www.stelladot.com/leslietiarks. To the right there will be a place that you can click that says Can't make it to the Trunk Show? Find your hostess. Type in my first name and last name then shop til you drop!!!

Calyn's Take on the Earthquake in Haiti

To preface this story, a couple of weeks ago Corry brought home a milk carton that she was to put money if for donations for Haiti. Jimmy asked Corry if she knew what happened in Haiti (Calyn and I were standing there when he asked) and Corry said yes, the ground started to shake and buildings started to fall and Haiti got hurt (I know that is not word for word but it is similar) Jimmy explained that the ground shaking is called an earthquake and Haiti was not a person but a country. Corry seemed to understand this in a second you will see that I don't think Calyn did... I also want to say that during story time with my mom a lot of times she couldn't tell when they had gotten to the end of their story so the next person could go. To fix this she taught them to say "that's my story and I'm stickin to it" when they were done with their story so the next person would know when it was there turn to talk.

Last night when I got home, Calyn talked my ear off like usual. She said "I want you to tell me a story" I told her I am always the one telling the stories, I wanted her to tell me one, and so she did...I have a feeling in Calyn's mind this is her rendition of the earthquake in Haiti It went something like this.

Calyn: Once there was this little girl named Calyn, her brother Max, her mommy, her daddy. They were all running really fast because this monster was chasing them.
Me: Ooooh was the monster big?
Calyn: VERY big
Me: What color was he?
Calyn: Brown with yellow eyes... mommy let me finish. Calyn, Max, mommy and daddy ran really fast but the monster ate them with one big bite.
Me: OH NO!
Calyn: They went into the monster's tummy but they were lucky because they found a big ladder. The put the ladder up and climbed up. They couldn't get out though because the monsters teeth were shut like this (clinching her teeth shut)
Me: What did they do?
Calyn: They punched his teeth out and climbed out. They had to run again because he was still chasing them. He tried to eat them again but he couldn't because he didn't have any teeth any more. Then this other monster came so we had to run really fast again. The monster was chasing two more people.
Me: What were their names
Calyn: Haiti and her mommy. We ran really really fast and we were able to hide in the trees and Haiti and her mommy ran into their house.
Me: Wow!
Calyn: The monster ran up to their house and ate the whole thing. He made the ground shake and made their house break and they couldn't get out.
Me: Oh no were they ok in there?
Calyn: yes but the monsters teeth were shut tight so we had to break out his teeth like the last time and climb in there to get them. We all got out and ran really fast to get away. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sleepovers, Fire, Superbowl and Birthdays

We had a fun filled weekend. Every Friday night as you know we have Crown and Coke night at Merrick and Jimmy's (hopefully soon Catoctin and Coke) Every Friday one or both of the girls come with the question, "is it a work night?" followed by "do we have gymnastics tomorrow?" When both answers are no then the next thing they say is "that means we can have a sleepover!"

It was our turn to have the girls come to our house this time. When I said a sleepover would be fine Drew chimed in saying he wanted to come too, so he joined us as well. He is quite the momma's boy so I figured we would be having Merrick or Jimmy back at our house before bed time but to our surprise he did great! Not one tear was shed!
In the morning, I asked the kids what they wanted for breakfast and the answer was unanamous, DONUTS!!!

Drew chose a donut with sprinkles. The evidence is all over his face

The girls enjoying their drinks

Max enjoying a donut hole 

Saturday, we didn't do much. The kids and I went shopping with mom while Matt went and shot rifles with Olech, Dad and Jimmy. We went to Hobby Lobby for some things and I ended up getting this picture and the words for our hall. I thought it was cute.

The middle picture says "Once in a while, right in the middle of ordinary life, love comes along and brings you a fairy tale"

After some shopping and lunch we headed home to meet Matt. Our friends Angie and Chad got married in Vegas so to celebrate a bunch of us that used to work with Angie got together at Rico's a Mexican restaurant to celebrate their wedding. It was a good time.

When we got home Matt built a fire in the fire pit and we sat there and got all toasty warm.

The kids warming their tootsies by the fire

Say Cheese Pizza!!!!

After the fire started to die we headed inside so the kids could take a snuggie warm bath. Both kids had major meltdowns and it was realized very quickly by Matt and I that bed time was in both of their near future! Both kids fell asleep pretty easy on Saturday night.

Sunday we just hung around the house most of the day. After Max's nap time we headed over to Olech and Lindsay's house to watch some football and celebrate Lindsay's brother, Randy's, 16th birthday. The kids always have a blast over at their house!

Max's confused face after Bailey stole his cracker

Princess Calyn

Sleepy Drewski and my foot

I snapped this one as Corry was trying to get away from the camera. It turned out really cute

One of the dogs tasted the cake to make sure it was ok for us to eat.

You are probably wondering who these two fine specimens since you never see us in pictures.

Let me introduce you, I'm on the one with 15 chins and the really thick neck, the other is Merrick. 

Today it is back to reality. I am only working 3 days this week and will have a 5 day weekend (I am off Thurs-Mon!) I can't wait for the break!

Floor Update

It appears that they will now not be ripping up all the wood today. The guy said he was willing to do what ever we wanted to make us satisfied but suggested that we give the flooring a few weeks to settle to see if it stops. At that time if we still feel it needs to be ripped up they will be back out with their crew. So for today, they are just changing out the transition pieces.... we will see what the next few weeks are like with the floor.

They're Back!!!

The guy's that put down our floors are back today. It's not because we decided to put wood in our entire house though. On Sunday Matt was walking across our living room floor and we both noticed the floor go down. As if he were walking on a plank and it gave in the middle. Immediatly we both knew... they didn't level our floors before they installed them... sigh. Matt said that he had questioned the guys working on the floor why they didn't use any of the 6 bags of leveling compound that we had given them. (left over from our glory days of rehabbing houses.) The guy said we didn't need any your floor is very level. (RED FLAG!)
Luckily as soon as we noticed the dip Matt called the guy who runs the compnay, also named Matt, and told him our problem. He was very apologetic and assured us he would not quit until we were 100% satisfied with our floors. Needless to say, I have a feeling all the floors will be coming up to day and they will be redoing them.
I am really conflicted with this company. On the one hand, my thoughts are, you shouldn't try and cheat your customers. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say maybe they thought it was level, but really? They do this every day! They should know better. My Matt even recognized that they didn't do it correctly and he has only merely assisted in putting down one wood floor in Merrick and Jimmy's old house years and years ago. Not to mention we had given them the 6 bags of compound. So that whole part of it wasn't even going to come out of their pocket!!!
On the other hand, their customer service really has been impeckable. Matt the owner/manager (what ever he is) has been easy to contact, quick to answer any questions we have, and quick to get a crew to come over and fix the problems that we are having.
Hopefully by the end of the weekend all will be fixed next Thursday I am having a party at my house with around 20 people attending! I would hate to have everyone over with a 1/2 completed floor. :) I will post about the party soon!