What the crap am I supposed to do with this?!?!?!

So Jake cut a chunk of Gracie's hair off the top of her head. I took her in the have it 'fixed' and this is what they came up with. SERIOUSLY? Seriously! She looks like a lesbian cowgirl. Any advise on what to do next is welcome.

Birthday, Christmas, New Years

I know, I am the worst blogger in the world. So I'll kind of catch up and throw in a bunch of pictures. Gracie turned 2 in December. She's such a princess and is the light of our lives (and Jake). She and Jake are little buddies and are starting to get quite mischievous together. The other day they filled the toilet with toilet paper and blown up balloons. It was interesting to clean up to say the least.


Dave's and my parents joined us for dinner. Pretty uneventful but fun. We were lucky to have Linzie and the kids over for Gracie's little party. We miss them so bad it hurts :(

Linz decided to cut Jared's hair at our house and was half-way through when I realized I couldn't find my hair scissors, so she used fabric scissors. She described it perfectly... "It looks like he was attacked by a flock of seagulls!"


The kids had a sleepover with Linc and Avery that night. Dave and I feel asleep around 1 a.m. to the sound of giggles. I loved it! It brought back memories of sleepovers when I was a kid. I'm not sure when they finally fell asleep, but at least they had fun.



We love the Smith family (Jared, Linzie, Avery, Lincoln and Liam). They feel closer than family to us and we are grateful to have them in our lives. Little Liam is doing great and is now crawling!!! What a miracle that little boy is. Love him!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. It was fun to have little kids who get so excited. It was a nice relaxing evening.




I didn't get pictures of Christmas morning (I video taped instead). It was fun and the kids loved their stash. Jake found most of his presents a couple of weeks before Christmas, so he got a lot from us and only a little from Santa. Oh, well.

We spent New Years Eve with Dave's family and it was way fun (as usual). Except when we played a certain game called 'Make Me Laugh'. Everyone sits in a circle and one person is in the middle. That person does/says anything to try to get someone to laugh. If someone laughs they are then in the middle. It was hilarious! Dave's brothers and sisters are so funny and creative. Then I laughed and had to go in the middle. I just stood there for what felt like an eternity saying, "I really can't do this". I looked and felt like a total idiot. Finally Dave got up and took my place. I don't mean to be so awkward around Dave's family sometimes but I can't help it. I guess they are just funnier than me :)

We then went to the Heslop's house and played games til the wee hours of the morning. Fun, fun!!! We never have pictures of me because I'm always the one behind the camera. So I put Dave in charge of the camera this year and this is the New Years Eve picture he got. Way to go, babe!


That's about it. I'm still teaching Aerial Silks at the dance studio and I LOVE MY JOB!!! I love the girls, I love my boss, I love the silks, I love all of it. Here's some pics at the Dew Tour we performed at (so you know what I'm talking about).

Love My Jake

First of all, Jake found his Christmas presents. Not sure how to handle that.

And the Jakie quote of the day:
I was showing him a calander...

Me: "Ok, there's today; then tomorrow; then the next day is Christmas Eve," [Jake starts to giggle] "And the next day what?"

Jake: "We go catch butterflies!!!" Talk about random thoughts! I was expecting him to say Santa or Christmas or parties or anything related to that. Funny, crazy kid.

Slurpee

Me: Jake, do you want a Slurpee?

Jake: Um, I don't know. Is that kinda like a wedgie?

Say NO to Ambulances

So after Gracie's 'pistachio' incident (the ride in the ambulance to the ER), the docs decided to give us epi-pens and test her for allergies. So here's the list of what she's allergic to (almost everything they tested for):

-Soy (which is in EVERYTHING)
-Egg Whites and Yokes
-Dogs and Cats
-Molds (indoor and outdoor)
-Ragweed
-Sagebrush
-A bunch of other pollens
-Peanuts (including Chinese food which she loves... peanut oil)
-Almonds, walnuts, etc. (any tree nut)
-A few more, but I can't remember right now

Needless to say, it's a bit life-changing. I didn't realize that Soy is in almost everything we buy and no going out to eat. I do make a lot of homemade stuff, but that uses eggs most of the time. I found a recipe for egg substitution so that won't be too bad. I just feel bad for her! Today she wanted what my dad was eating but she couldn't and she was soooo sad. The good news is that if we keep her away from eggs and soy, she'll probably outgrow those ones. Here's me crossing my fingers.

Anyway, if any of you have ideas or recipes I would LOVE them. I didn't realize how hard this was until I had to deal with it myself... isn't that how it usually goes ;0). Here's hoping Thanksgiving goes by without incident (no epi-pens or ambulances). Wish us luck!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween... we carved pumpkins, had a spontaneous water fight (I started it; Dave finished it), went trunk-or-treating, went to a carnival and hung out with my brothers and sweet sis-in-law. It was fun!



Kids sure make holidays magical. Jake already has big plans for Christmas and is making us listen to Christmas music already. It drives Dave nuts but I love it. It's good for kids to have something to look forward to.



I didn't notice the smudge on my camera until it was too late so sorry for the blur.

Painful Pictures

Disney gives Baby Einstein refund for 'duping' parents into thinking they can put their baby in front of mind-numbing television while making them smarter. Now they are being sued for 'deceptive advertising'. Really?! Well, all I have to say to that is, "DUH!!!"


In other news, we had our family pictures taken by our sweet sister-in-law, Sarah, on Friday. She took about 350 pictures and most of them turned out like this...

He was supposed to kiss me but licked my mouth instead. YUCK!!!

Notice the bruises and scratches on his face which can easily be removed with photoshop. I am aware that I look like crap in these pics but you get the feel for how painful it was to get a good shot or two. Jake is barely cooperating in the 'good' pics, so when you get your Christmas card just remember how hard poor Sarah worked to get that one.

A little side note: Jake climbed in bed with me this morning and looked down and said, "Hey!!! What the HE@% happened to my pants!" Yes he got in trouble and yes I had to try really hard not to smile. I'm not glad he said it, but it was funny.