This cute little devil will take you back to my wierd little world...
Comment on the girls?
See what other people say
Who They Are...
These pics were taken at Wal-Mart Studios, on the 14th
of January, 2000
This is Breanna as a newborn...Picture taken in the hospital:)
Number eight...22 August 01
Well, Rebekah is back in school. I had occasionally suffered from visions of home-schooling the girls, but it's so peaceful at home during the day, I don't think I could give it up. Rebekah and Sam are no longer at each other's throats all the time! So, for now, my mind's made up...And it's off to school! Next year Sam gets to start Kindergarten...That's going to be another big change...
Rebekah likes her class. She's still really vague about school, though. I don't know if she forgets everything on the way home, or if she just doesn't think anything she does is worth mentioning...
Bree has grown those nifty things called teeth. She has two, on the bottom. She's a really quiet teether, too. I caught the first one after it had been in her mouth probably 2-3 days. The second one broke through a day later! And she didn't compain, or fuss, or even really run a fever. I was very impressed.
Sam is going through the hair cutting stage. She chops and chops away...At this point, if I want to get her an even hair cut, I would have to buzz her head. She clipped the bangs right down to her scalp! It's a good thing that I haven't heard horror stories about kids cutting off their ears...So far, she hasn't so much as nicked herself, but I still worry. Unfortuneately, she's very sneaky, and it's hard to catch her in the act.
Those are the major updates with the girls. They are all doing really well...And I think that Sam is as glad to have a little respite from Rebekah as I am to have a break from the constant fighting! Catch you all later:)
Number seven...15 July 01
Okay, eons and eons have passed. My best friend got hitched, and I was way too busy sewing up costumes for her wedding to even think about things like webpages and e-mail...On the flip side, there will be pictures to put up in a week or so, and I'm done with the insane rush to make my children look adorable:)
They did look adorable, by the way. Rebekah and Sam got to be flower girls (Rebekah was wearing a lace-up vest, a chemise, an underskirt, and a lace overskirt, and Sam was supposed to wear a fairy costume-she took off the wings most of the time). Breanna was a baby fairy without wings (they get damaged in strollers!) Rebekah wore mostly blue (her current favorite color) and Sam looked like cotton candy in lots of pink. Breanna wore a white fairy dress over a pink onesie...Time contraints kept me from really completing what I had in mind for her, and she is cute enough without frills:)
Aside from wedding adorableness, the kids have been doing great. Rebekah graduated first grade, and is really looking forward to second in August. She reads before bedtime, and she loves going outside to play. She likes going to the pool more, though! She's got a bunch of friends in the apartment complex we live in, and she loves to hang out with them. She's even had a couple sleep-overs:)
Sam is also collecting friends. Another 3 year old moved in, and she loves to play with her. She spends most of her time outside, too. Sam also tries to talk us into keeping the local stray cats...Poor thing, she wants one very much. I wouldn't mind, either, but I agree with Brent that we can't really afford one right now.
Breanna is really mobile now. She crawls and tries to pull herself up on the porch landing! Which is really scarey, since it's on the second story and she can easily slip though the bars. She also tries to eat everything! She still lets us feed her baby cereal, but she also eats peanut butter sandwiches, canned fruit, fresh fruit, vienna sausage, mashed potatoes, and she's beginning to get the hang of chicken. She doesn't have any teeth yet, so we're stuck feeding her food that doesn't need chewing...
All in all, the girls are doing great. I'm really anxious to see the pictures from the wedding...They should be posted sometime in the next couple weeks, so check back again. See you all later:)
Number six...8 May 01
Once again, long time...Guess it comes with having too much time. The Thursday night street fairs are going on downtown, and we try to make it to them...Much fun:) They have roving puppet people who both delight and terrify the girls...Sam loves them from a distance, but she has issues with close encounters of the costumed kind. We like to roam the streets and smell the strawberries, which are in season now, and look at all the pretty things on display.
Rebekah is doing awesome in school! She gets mostly spelling tests back with only one word spelled incorrectly. The amazement! I was so determined not to learn to read in 1st grade...I'm glad she's enjoying it. Tomorrow her class is going to the Chico Creek Nature Center, and I'm so very excited about it. I love the Nature Center, and I'm sure she'll find it as wonderful as I do:)
Sam is discovering new friends...She has about half a dozen kids to invite to her birthday party...A year from now! She loves to be outside, no matter how hot it gets...At least it's not as humid as in North Carolina. I imagine we'll spend a lot of the summer playing in the creek at in Bidwell Park:)
Breanna...Wow! She scoots in some fashion...We don't exactly know how quite, because she doesn't do it while we are watching. She eats more than a full grown horse! She is very alert and happy. She's discovered the wonderful world of toys:) She almost sits by herself, and she is comtemplating the idea of crawling sometime. She's amazing...
Anyway, I'll try to get around to this more often...Same promise, different day, huh? Have fun:)
Number five...18 Mar. 01
Long time, huh? Sorry it took so long...Things have been way, way up in the air:) We found a apartment and moved in at the beginning of the month...Things are starting to be unpacked, and it kinda looks like we have a house at this point. Sam and Rebekah each have their own bedrooms, Breanna is still in with us. Which works well, since I don't have to go far to feed her in the morning:)
Rebekah is in school again...She has a teacher named Mrs. Knox. Her class out here is smaller. She is getting really good at reading:) She now reads to her sisters before bedtime...I usually read the longer stories, but she reads the ones with a couple sentences a page:)
Sam has been doing her very, very best to spend the whole deposit we left on the apartment...It's a good thing that I got a little carpet cleaner! She has had a kinda hard time adjusting to the move...She's gotten a lot more stranger shy. She has really warmed up to some people, though, so all hope isn't lost:)
Breanna is getting huge! She can roll onto her back from her belly, and she likes to talk. She loves all the attention she's been getting (everybody wants to see the baby!) She has a friend who shares her birthday...My sister watches him. When we go visit Aunt Mary, Breanna gets a playdate!
I think that the girls are doing well. We'll probably invest in some little bookcases for the girls' bedrooms, and maybe then the rooms will be a little neater:) I might get a few pics from various family members who have digital cameras, so look for new pictures in the next few weeks:) See ya all later...
Number four...16 Feb. 01
Well...Okay, quick update before the move takes me away for another month or so:) The move is causing great anticipation, and stress, around my house. We have lots of clingy girls, and about half of our stuff packed...This weekend we finish up, and away goes the girls rooms...
Sam talks a lot about the people she hopes to see out there...I hope that everyone she encounters will be sensitive to her desire to actually meet you, but her very genuine fear of strangers. I'm not sure how well she's going to take to having tons of counsins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents wanting to hold and play with her...
Rebekah is really looking forward to visiting her Aunt Zeneta, so she can see horses. I'm not sure why...Last time we tried that, she was totally terrified of them! We went to her bookfair to pick up a couple books for the trip home...Rebekah found a series about jewel princesses (she has #6 now) and the little sisters of the babysitters club. I plan to have her read out loud to me on the way home...It should help her with reading, and if she has problems with the words, she can spell them to me, and I'll be able to help out:)
Breanna is actually being very good about the whole move...She gets kinda cranky when no one pays attention to her, but she's generally cheerful, and of course, as a baby, isn't worried we'll leave her behind! She holds her head really, really well now, and scoots around a blanket on her back:) She giggles and smiles and grins...She coos a lot! She's trying to figure out how to get that thumb right for sucking (at this point, she's mostly stuck with gnawing on the outside of a clenched fist!). And she's outgrowing the 3-6 month clothes we have for her...
All in all, they are doing the best that they can. I think things will get a lot easier once we are in a home again, and unpacking...And they know that we didn't manage to forget them somewhere. And I think that's it until we get out there...Hope everyone enjoyed it!
Number three...10 Jan. 01
Christmas, Christmas time is here...And now that it's been gone for over 3 weeks, I feel I can write about it...
Actually, it went really well. Rebekah and Sam remembered that they couldn't go downstairs until we (the parents) were up, and they satisfied themselves with digging in stockings in the middle of our bed until we gave in and went downstairs. Rebekah and Sam got a good haul...Barbies, Barbie's horse, baby dolls, doll beds, and various other nonsense, to include board games and, in Rebekah's case, a radio-alarm clock. No, she doesn't use the alarm part...Breanna got a bunch of rattles, which didn't impress her in the least. Now she's starting to think they are interesting...
We concocted a variety of dishes, and headed next door to spend Christmas with the neighbors, since they had no family coming in, and neither did we. We donated mashed potatoes and candies sweet potatoes, Brent's expert advise on how to cook a turkey and a ham, and 4 pies. The caramel apple crunch pie was such a hit, I think I'll put it on my recipe page...
Rebekah brought gifts over one at a time to show the neighbor girl, until it occured to them it would work faster if they just went over to Rebekah's room and saw it all at once...Then the girls came back to the neighbors', and we all stayed there until about midnight. Sam got tired and was laid down on their couch around 9, and as the adults were finishing their game, Rebekah came downstairs, ready to go home, and that was Christmas...
Sam's birthday was a chaotic after thought of Christmas. We cleaned all the Chrsitmas decor out, and decorated for birthday, invited her friends the day before, and managed to occupy four other tots in our house for about an hour. The insanity. Sam got a wooden box puzzle, that you can arrange and rearrange with the bear in different outfits. She got Poke`mon Memory, and couple Barbies (the girls are going through a Barbie revolution at this point) and various Barbie accesories, a noisy alphabet toy, and some stuffed animals. Her cake had Barbie on it.
Then we hit New Years...Rebekah stayed up until the ball dropped, wished us Happy New Year, and went upstairs to sleep. Sam had wandered up there a few hours earlier. Breanna woke up in time to see the new year in, and eat. Since we stayed at home, and had no one over, it was a much quieter affair than it's been in the past.
Somewhere in the midst of all the holiday excitement and cheer, Rebekah lost her second tooth. I think it was a couple days before Christmas...Anyway, the tooth fairy found her some really cute earrings to stick under the pillow, and she's been wearing them ever since! They are little hearts with rhinestones on wire hooks that clasp in the back, so she hasn't managed to lose them (unlike her teeth!). She got a Barbie Jeep with the money the tooth fairy gave her for her first.
Now it's the end of the 2nd week of Jan, and Rebekah's back in school, and things are a little quieter. We're gearing up for the big move (had to get a baby carrier to keep my hands free so I can begin packing, Breanna's turned into a koala!), and Rebekah and Sam are ready to go. Everytime I seal a new box, they volunteer for their room to be the next one packed! They are ready to go home, and renew relationships with their family.
I think that's about the total of the big news...Breanna still sleeps most of the time, but she smiles now, and she laughs. Rebekah and Sam fight a lot, but I think it'll settle a little once the tension of moving is gone. We're all doing well, and hope everyone else had as spectacular a holiday season as we did:) Bright blessings until I get back to this again!
Number two...19 Dec. 00
Well, I survived Rebekah's party. It was rather hectic...Having an additional 2 girls spend the night was rather loud and disorganised. It was fun, too. We had a couple boys over for the cake and ice cream part, and after that we sent them home, because the boys were even louder than the girls! We had pizza for dinner, and doughnuts the next morning for breakfast. Rebekah got oodles of stuff, from a Carmen Sandiego board game and a tea set to Barbies, make-up and jewelry. The girls watched "The Road to El Dorado", and played with Rebekah's new toys, and I finally broke down and read them all to sleep with various Christmas stories. I suppose I'll do it again sometime, but I think not before I'm back in California!
Sam was pretty good. She got into everybody else's party bag, and she requisitioned Rebekah's Barbie shoes, and she was quite insistant that she not be left out of the big girl activities, but she behaved well other than that. We managed to get everything back to the kids who were supposed to have it, and I think everyone went home happy...
Breanna was thrown for a loop. Our house isn't exactly quiet, but it is usually a little calmer than when there are two extra 6 year-olds around. She has decided that she needs to be awake a lot, and since she can't really do anything herself, she needs to be entertained. We spend a lot of time rocking her, shaking rattles in front of her, and trying to find new things to do with her. It's very interesting:)
Well, I think that about covers last weekend...At some point, I'll write about how Christmas goes this year:) Happy Holidays Everyone!
Number one...12 Dec. 00
Wow, time to begin again...New addition, so it's only fair:) But also, I'm running out of space on the last page, I think, and thought I'd start this one before I really ran out.
Anyway, new pics should be available sometime around New Year's, including ones of Breanna. So come look around then...
Today was Breanna's first doctor appointment. She's up to 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and 20.4 inches long. She seems to have a couple yeast infections, but those should clear up in a few days. The doctor prescribed something that's supposed to make it all better. She peed on the nurse who took her measurements, and screamed at the doctor. She was rather upset about being naked, I think. Also, her umbilical cord came off, so now she's completely done:) Pretty big day for her...
Rebekah got to see a live production of The Nutcracker ballet with her school. She had a blast. I guess we're going to spend a lot of time at Laxon Auditorium when we come home:) She's getting better at reading, and we're reading the Narnia series as bedtime stories. After she reads to me from Dr. Seuss, or something similar, I read to her a chapter of C.S. Lewis. She seems to enjoy it. We started with The Magician's Nephew, and we're going to read The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe next. And then go through them in numerical order, I think.
Sam is really hyped up for her birthday. Since Rebekah's comes first, she's getting all the excitement...She is ready to celebrate her own. Of course, they are both rather unfortunate in that their birthdays are over the Winter Break, and all of their friends are visiting family when the girls are celebrating their births:) Sam is still all over her sister...Now that Breanna is 2 weeks old, Sam tries to pick her up and cuddle her if we leave her unbuckled in the carseat. It's very cute. Of course, we have to watch her a lot...We don't want her to accidently hurt her sister!
I'll probably update this page sometime this weekend. Rebekah's having a sleepover in conjunction with her birthday party, so I'll have to chronical how that goes over. Then of course, there's Christmas to write about, and Sam's birthday. So, I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of activety here in the next few weeks...Keep your eyes open:) See you soon!
