Girl is quick!

We were at Price Club at one point in the past 2 weeks, and we came across one of the little carts with food. This cart had pizza, and Jilly asked me if she could have some. I said sure, and we weaved our way over, and Jilly asked "I have one please?" The little Asian lady said, "Sure, here you go." Jilly turned to her, and plain as day said "Shea-shea." And the little lady looked her in the eye with out skipping a beat and said "Woo ka chi."

Now for the explanation: Jilly watches "Ni Hao Kai-lan" on Nickelodeon, and the show is all about a little Chinese girl, her grandpa and her friends. The show has good moral lessons, and teaches kids how to speak some Chinese. What it boils down to, is my 3 year old saw this little Asian lady and told her Thank you in Chinese.

(No matter how badly I may feel about my parenting skills on some days, its days like that one that remind me I must be doing something right for my kids to be so polite, and in more than one language!)

stupid computer!

So we FINALLY got the computer fixed, and I promise to get everyone updated as soon as I can. Hope you are all doing well, and I will fill you all in on all the news here just as soon as I can.

Mother's Day

I must say that this Mother's Day was one of the best in recent years. Courtney and I did some shopping...poor kid needed some new shorts that fit. It's amazing how much she has grown since last summer...I'm not use to her growing so much so quickly! We then spent the better part of the afternoon playing in the garden, planting all kinds of things. Then while the 2 littlest ones were sleeping, we started getting the house organized for when the new baby arrives. After all the clothes we went through yesterday, I sure hope that this one is another girl! I know some of you really want us to have a boy, but we seem to have the raising of girls down to a science, not to mention an entire wardrobe and rooms full of girly toys already!

Uncle Bubba's B-day

Tonight we went out to see Russell and Amber's new house, and it is beautiful. Russell made us all a wonderful dinner...beef wellington, great potatoes, green beans...it was great! We sat out on the deck in the nice weather, the kids played (nicely for the most part!), we did cake and presents (we also did mother's day for Gran-ma). I think the highlight of the night was when Jilly realised that now that Uncle Bubba had his birthday, hers is close to follow. But she made it know that "All I want is a card, I don't need anything else." Now keep in mind that for the last month (at least) every time she turns around you hear "Can I have that for my Happy Birthday, please?" It's all because she heard uncle Bubba tell me that yesterday when he was here to fix my stove. It just blows my mind the things she retains and repeats (and correctly), it also scares me a little how quickly she picks things up.

Here's looking forward to Jilly's Happy Birthday, she's going to be in her first horse show that weekend as well. It should be fun!

Back to being miserable

It all started back in the begining of April with my washing machine...then 2 weeks ago it was the garbage disposal, and last night I nearly caught my kitchen on fire while trying to cook dinner. Thank goodness that my brother works for Sterling Appliance. He came by this morning to look at it, and there was a short in one of the switches to turn on a burner. The part should be in sometime in the next few days, and hopefully I will have a happy kitchen again.

Potty Talk

Cooper has moved up to size 4 diapers...Jilly was 18 months before she was in that size. Jilly is now 100%, completely potty trained. She has been wearing a pull up just at night (just in case) since the beginning of the year. Since mid February, she hasn't wet them over night, and for a month now (ever since getting over the flu) she will wake up and tell us she has to potty. For the past 5 nights Jilly has been sleeping in her " real big girl panties" and hasn't had an accident. We are all very proud of her, but she is extremely proud of herself.

-Way to go Big Girl!

it's official

I'm not sure what the law is, and I'm sorry Fay, but I think I now have to sign up at least one of my kids for soccer...we bought a mini-van yesterday. It's a means to an end, we now have enought room for all the kids, which is the important thing. Now we just have to work on the space issue in the house, that's going to be a little more difficult, but by the grace of God we'll figure it out somehow.

Birthday wishes

In our family, we have a birthday almost once a month. It was Courtney's birthday last year that Jilly kinda got the whole "I have a birthday, and I get a cake and presents" idea behind a b-day party. At Jeff's dinner back in March, Jilly asked when her birthday was, and we told her it was right after Uncle Bubba's. And now that we have been talking about Russell's b-day dinner, Jilly has been reminding me that "my happy birthday party is next", and has been asking for random things for her b-day. The best was one day last week. We were driving back from Gra-ma's house, and there is a brick building in between the McDonald's and the Cactoctin Auto sales. Jilly said to me "I want those ponies for my happy birthday, OK Mommy?" It took us a few times of driving by this same spot and her saying the same thing before I finally got what she was trying to tell me. In front of this building (I think it might be a bank...I really have no idea!) there are 4 yellow posts that all have horse heads on them. They remind me of on old hitching post from a western movie...you know, something to tie your horse to. And now whenever we pass it, all I hear is "Pwease Mommy, I can have those ponies for my happy birthday?" I love the way this kid thinks...just cause it's her b-day, she should get what ever she asks for...oh, if only it were that simple.

I almost forgot!

OK, so blame it on being pregnant and hormones, or the lack of sleep as of late, but I forgot to let you all know about Courtney's report card. She had the best report card since receiving letter grades in 4th grade. For the first time ever she earned an A in math (which is quite an accomplishment, due to the fact that she inherited my "math allergies"). She worked very hard this semester, and it showed when she came home with an A in every subject, and a B in history. Jeff and I are so incredibly happy and proud of how hard she has worked. As with anything we do, it's not about the grade (or ribbon) but the hard work you put into something. We have always told her that as long as she tries her best, and asks for help when she needs it, that we are always proud of her.

We have always done something special when she makes the honor roll. In 4th grade, every time a report card came home and she had all A's and B's, we would take her and a friend to Chuck-E-Cheese for a night of games. That seemed to get boring for her, so we decided that if she could make the honor roll for all of last year, she could pick a friend and go to Six Flags. (She and Macy had an absolute blast, we got there about 10 am, and left about 9 pm!) So now we have to decide if we do that again, or go in a different direction.

There is talk about getting her a new cell phone (right now it is just talk and she has no idea) (it's more a necessary evil than anything else in my opinion) if she can keep A's and B's for this last report card of the year. Seeing as how we are doing mostly SOL review at this point, as long as Bug still works hard, I don't think she'll have any problems at all.

Sorry, I forgot

I forgot to let you all know that Cooper finally got the hang of crawling forward! She is so proud of herself, and I really think it won't be long before she is walking. She pulls herself up on anything she can get her hands on, and loves to stand. Jilly started walking with in the week after her 1st birthday, my guess is that Cooper will be walking before that. Who knows...I'm not trying to compare the two, I'm just trying to give everybody a reference.