Everyone was Kung Fu....

Red, White, & PINK!

Here are Eden and Hallé posing before they come to wake mommy up in bed with a Carmel Frappacino, Candy, Creations, and Carnations...."True Love"
My wild haired Hallé Claire-she makes my bed head look tame at times

Eden, the only girl I know who can change 3-5 times before breakfast! She has already morphed into a cheerleader at this point!

We already are very mushy and lovey most any chance we can get and very much appreciate all of those in our lives that we love! Soooo, Valentines Day Weekend ended up being a bunch of red dye and an attempt to create a Red, White, & Pink weekend including all we wore, ate, and gifted!

Here is our weekend in Red, White, & PINK!

The girls had to clean their rooms and wait while the love counter was set up for them. They love the anticipation of surprises as much as I do! (I think I see a peeker...)

Hallé thrilled about her new pink gaucho capri's, pink milk, pink lifesavers, pink shirt, and pink gum!

Eden showing off her pink new shorts that are purely for kung fu kicking (?), her pink bubbles, lip gloss.....

and of course: PINK FINGERNAILS drying while breakfast is prepared!

Pink milk plates & napkins, pink heart eggs, pink whipped cream and strawberries, heart pancakes,red bacon & carnations, ketchup, and syrup...yum-they are so spoiled. Although I want them to have the "memory" of this special occasion. I'm thinking I don't want to have to keep up with this zealous attempt every year! LOL - at least they kept saying it was the best day of their lives!

"PINK"

"Sisters out playing in Pink shorts with their Pink soccer ball"

(Notice Baxter Bear buckled into the swing. Eden is student of the week and gets to journal about all the places she takes Baxter; the classroom bear this week with her. She is taking her job very seriously and loving Baxter sleeping with her so much!)

Eden got to go out shopping with daddy and got the new outfit she is wearing. I think they picked really well; and I'm glad they didn't pick PINK! This is the girls excited to tear into some cards and treats at dinnertime that family and friends had dropped off throughout the day.

Pink Applesauce & Pink Ranch dressing. Red plates and Red Ketchup

(from my beloved Pumper!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Off to spend some Red, White, & Pink time with Grandma Jolene and Papa!

Pink heart treasure boxes.....Pink Slinky's!!!

" Help me please Papa; mine so stuck!"

"Ahhhhh, Pink candy, Pink & Red suckers, and Care Bear Fruit snacks!"

Yup, this is either how slow my camera is or how fast Hallé is, because it was capturing a sweet kiss and hug of thanks to Grandma Jolene for the Pink Blessings of Love.

A night of LUB...

The girls were so happy to get to go to Grammie and Grampie's for dinner on Tuesday night because they know that anything on top of the buffet goes home with us...usually lost barretts, solo socks, pie pans, art work, pictures, treasures from mom's Kindergarten classroom...but last week they went to spy on the buffet and were stopped being told: Those are Valentine's treasures you'll need in order to celebrate the Love Weekend coming up. You'll have to wait until Tuesday when you get to come over and eat pink fish for dinner!(Salmon)

...here are a couple cute moments of "Lub" (love)

Window stickers, mini snow globes, valentine tattoos, and most importantly for the sake of cute little teeth and Dr.Luczynski :); candy accompanied by new toothbrushes!

Hallé wearing Eden's Valentine outfit that mom picked out 5 years ago for Eden..We are about to explain to her that those are not stickers in front of her, but TATTOOS! They LUB LUB LUB TATTOOS.
Grampie Gene and Hallé admiring the new ability of Hal to draw in lines....well "start" inside lines and be free after that!

There was a prediction for snow that night of 1-2" and the girls were very excited and loved Grammie Beth reading a Holiday story to them.

I Never Knew I Needed It...

Eden has never been so excited unloading off the school bus and hopping in the van as she was today...

Her "GIRLS" (and Michael) were all illegally clown shoved into the back row...(No I don't go on a main road-I'm a car seat Nazi, we literally roll down the road over three speed bumps in our development and pick her up at the mailboxes...) These extra friends (x4) were all screaming and giggling and dog piling and hugging like animals at this greeting of Eden. Today was a car seat exception as Becky's kids along with the twins were ALL here today because Becky was with Amber while she delivered a beautiful baby boy.

...All the above to say that it provided the perfect opportunity to test out my newest blessing...I recently have been blessed with the most miraculous invention I never knew I needed! Last Wednesday the girls and Derrick went grocery shopping and came home with this $1 item

??????

It Has-made lunch and dinners exciting

It Has-made meals less messy

It Has-come to be a privilege leverage to use or not to use

It Has-made me feel like I'm still running the Food Booth at the Fair Booth LOL

It Has-become Indispensable!

What could I have received that I'd never thought to beg for before? What could make my kids happy to stay home to eat over going to Fast Food???

MY KETCHUP PUMP...

The pump showed today that it's price tag needed to get a clue on it's true VALUE while I was tending to 9 toddler plates...

No- drips between each of the nine plates

No-"mine do myself" (but really can't after 2 minutes)

No-"I don't know what I'll do if you don't clean up all the toys for lunch"
How did my parenting get so complicated when it came down to a $1 PUMP?

The girls adore their friends & loved the chicken nugget feast that followed Prayers of thanks for probably chicken nuggets, family, and KETCHUP PUMPERS!Grady, Abby, Eden, Jaedyn, Ella, Hallé, Michael, (not visible: Sydney & Justin)

Not as I had planned!!!

Logan(daycare buddy), Hallé, & Eden enjoying (with much motherly hesitation)...some God-awful Lollipops that Logan's mom brought for them all yesterday...before they even got started I knew I wasn't getting paid enough for this. And, once the hair was all stuck to the lollipops and they began to use them as batons while twirling...

........ (cute as they were)


They disappeared??!??
(I hope the stains on Eden's pink pants disappear too)

And finally; this picture just made me laugh. I was trying to take a picture of the playdough desserts that Hallé made all on her own. She came over to show them to me in her little cupcake pan and said because of the shape; that they were "Mimmy Mouse Clubhouse Ear Cookies!" Anyways, that part was for me: "cute mom moment". The funny part was that I had taken so many attempted pictures and she kept looking away, etc. So, I said sternly and just about fed up with capturing the "moment". "Hallé! Where are you supposed to be looking?" and clicked in hopes I would trick her into gazing at the lens for a moment.

With no reply; this is what I got!!!

I love this little girl soooooo much!

She knew exactly what she was doing because I was giggling and said "Hallé Claire!"

Her reply: "Mine trick you Mama!"

January moments...from Princess' to Wii-tards!

Dress up time..The dress that Eden is wearing is amazing. Her great grandma Joey hand made the whole thing for her (you can tell she made it extra big, knowing that it would be a hit and need to last awhile). And the dress that Hallé is wearing is "hand" me-down from Eden's dress up attire!

Snuggling up and watching The Bee movie on the couch. The tv/dvd player are literally 2feet away to the left, but it's "cooler" to watch on the portable player!

Mommy's little "Wii-tards" if you don't get why it's funny and not rude...Ask Morgan. It's from a Facebook flair that she laughed at for hours and then 4 hours later when the joke was still being laughed about...it was discovered by my inner genius that I hadn't "gotten" the joke and blah blah blah....it was downhill from there. (Notice the moose?...It's the only way I could keep Eden from boxing the tv screen....she and Hallé are Wii contenders for sure! They each knocked each other out!)

This is Eden practicing her jump roping skills. On Saturday, January 17th her Papa lost his best friend of 30some years at age 55 to a massive heart attack. Eden's heart was sad for her whole family and their huge loss. She knew her daddy was doing the funeral and that everyone was crying a lot, so it was really amazing that her school happened to be doing Jump Rope for Heart-athon. She with my help got to make her own little web page and set fundraising goals and sent out letters for support. She was very excited at her success and seemed at peace with this distraction for how to grieve this special friend she had been camping with just this September. She made the web site and her jump-a-thon in honor of Dave Gross who had died the Saturday prior. This is her certificate that went up in the gym with his name/info. on it.

We couldn't believe it had just snowed the week prior and it was gorgeous out....almost 60degrees...............aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Spring arrive asap. I can't stand being cold.

This is Eden's handwriting at the bottom and side. She has improved so much since Kindergarten started disciplining her speedy chicken scratch penmanship...I think she gets it from her Uncle Paul. He has terrible handwriting; always has, yet he is now Dr.Luczynski 3rd year dental student!

The girls pets.....I know it's not looking hopeful that they will talk their mom into a pet anytime soon. At least not until a few more daycare kids are potty trained!! I vow to only potty train one species at a time; I think I've earned it!

Sidewalk painting...with snacks of course?

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Tails!?

WE'RE BABYSITTING!!!

(January 6th, 2009)

Auntie finally had a need to leave our cousin Conner with us for the evening and we were lucky enough that it was on bath day. He is 4 weeks old in these pictures.

He is the perfect cuddler. "Hey cuz I don't have any teeth either!"

Ahhhhhh.....this was the moment that Hallé educated me on Conner's "tail". Clearly she only has a sister she baths with and went on to inform me of everyone she knows and whether or not they have a "tail" or a "bare bum" in front she called them?? Too funny. I'll post for help if she is still calling them "cute" in a few years.

All cleaned up and ready for bed!
Note to Conner: if you keep puking up soy everytime after Auntie Sarah gives you baths...we are going to need to do some negotiating!!!

Author and Illustrator...Eden Hatke!

Do you think my love of Hawaii has rubbed off on her? How long do you think it will take me to teach her Hawaii's original and "true" state fish?

....Humuhumunukunukuapuaa!

This is the book she published and learned to illustrate at Kindergarten and brought home yesterday! I don't know if I love the grass skirt or coconut trees more???

PRECIOUS!!!!!