Hard At Work

What a week! Tello went to Belize for "business" and I got to take care of everything at home, which included uncooperative kids (Dad's away, we have no rules!), ticked off agents at the office (like I have any idea what to do about it), flooded toilets, messes messes & more messes.....

Tello tried to convince me he was hard at work in Belize..... It's hard work making contacts as potential buyers...... spending all day exploring the islands for property to list.....

I really do hope he gets something sold, it would be like winning the lottery, but I'm just not convinced he was hard at work. Maybe I was a bit bitter cuz he was there & I was here.....

My week.....

Tello's week.....

My "clients"............

Tello's "clients"

My hard day filled with work...........

Tello's hard day filled with work.........

Tello at the end of a hard week......

(notice the really bad sunburn)

Me at the end of a hard week........

(notice the tears)

Disney Tea Party

Angelea's chior group The Bella Vocha, hosted a Disney Princess Tea Party at the high school. There was 150 little girls dressed up as princesses, with pre-purchased tickets, that were treated like princesses as they got pampered and fed by the 70 high school girls, also dressed up as princesses.

TERRIFIC TWO'S START TODAY!

My baby is not a baby anymore. She is now officially a toddler. While I love every new stage of her adorable life, I am a little sad she is growing up so fast. I know I can't prevent her from this, and my feeble attempts at keeping her a baby are just hindering her progression and causing problems for later on, but she's my last baby. I want her to stay my lovable, cuddly, rely on mommy for everything, baby.

These are a few things I know I should do at this stage in her life & I am having a struggle wanting to do so....

1- Take away the wubby (I feel a sense of loss just at the thought of it, imagine how she's going to feel)

2- Take away the bottle (and don't replace it with a full time sippy cup)

3- Potty Train (We've been working on that)

4- Detach her some from her blankie (This is an issue that has been passed down from big brother Ben. It was his blankie that he took EVERYWHERE until he started school. Luckily he was OK to go to kindergarten without it, but it was still his security blanket. When Franny was a few days old Ben brought it to me, with tears in his eyes, and said it had kept so many nightmares away from him for so long that he wanted Francine to have it so she can be safe, She has been just as attached to it as Ben was, we've actually had to re-do the top of it after patching, mending & cropping it many times.) And while the warning label on her musical mobile says "up to 6 months" I see no issue with her continuing to fall asleep to stars and music, so I'm not going to even try to take that away. I did that once and she wouldn't sleep in her bed at all until I put it back, that was a long couple of weeks.

I don't think Francine fully grasped the concept that it was her birthday, but she was so cute as she cautiously opened her gifts and her facial expressions said how much she loved each one!

Although she loved getting new toys, I'm pretty sure her favorite part of her birthday was blowing out the candles on her cake.

Tello, Jerica, Morgan, Zac, Chelsee, Zahrah, Ben, Angelea, Birthday Girl, & Andy

She got a cool new tricycle. She can't quited reach the pedals, so she did some cool stunts while standing on it for us.

Our Family seems small in numbers these days. The only ones around were Jerica & Morgan (only because they came to stay with Nate & Chelsee while Jerry & Chris are off playing on a cruise) Marlo and her 4 kids, and us.

Franny got some hair glitter sticks. She had much more fun rubbing them all over her beautiful little face then putting it in her hair!

Birthday Wishes From Russia

Francine was so excited when she opened this birthday card that came from Grandma & Grandpa in Russia that she broke out in song. I think she's singing in tongues. How she learned Russian I will never know.

Weekend at Terri's

I felt the need to go visit my sister, Terri, this past weekend & I'm so glad I did. I just needed to spend time with her and let her know I love her. I am so thankful for my family and I love the close bonds we share. I took Nakia with me so she could ride horses and I took Francine with me because I don't leave home without her :)
Since Terri has a nice, huge, indoor arena, any weather is horse riding weather!

Little Lee...

Marlo had her 3rd boy on January 12th, 2009. I guess that means she will be pregnant again soon. Zahrah really wants a sister. But for now, she's loving her new baby brother, Lee Edward Jones. He'll probably grow up to be some financial genius & start an investing firm, just a hunch.

He was named after my dad (also Marlo's dad) and his dad's grandpa. He kinda looks like my dad, from the top of the head view anyways.

Nah, Dad definitely has more hair than little Lee.

Since Marlo is already going to jail for stealing these photos I figured I'd better take advantage of her stupidity. This was taken by Jenny Cook, you can check out her work at http://jcphotographystudio.blogspot.com/

The Birthday Boy

Friday January 23rd was Andy's 10th birthday. The school wanted to give Andy a special gift for his birthday, so they called off school. COOL! How many kids can say that the school has ever liked them so much they gave everyone a no-school day? The teachers used this special day as an in service day. Most likely they all sat around talking about what a good, talented, smart, obedient, fun, happy & all around great kid Andy is :)

He was pampered by everyone and treated like a king! His day started out with a new Wii game he's been dying for. "The Legend of Zelda" Francine wanted to give him a special birthday surprise so she put it in his cake, (It was a secret though and I have no idea what it was)

At 3:00 his buddies from school started to arrive for an all night party at our house. There was 7 friends that made it to his party. 3 of them weren't able to spend the night and one got sick about 1 am and had his mommy come get him.

Back row: Colton Hughes, Casey Nelson, James Smout & Ben - Front row: Chad Stone, Tommy Anderson, Birthday Boy, Wyatt Williams & Dallen Gifford

From a mothers perspective, the party was a hit!!! I made them one of Andy's favorite dinners, SPAGHETTI & tater tots. I'm disappointed to say that my cake didn't turn out as planned. He wanted a chocolate cake so I made a sheet brownie cake & tried to decorate it but ended up scraping all the decorations off and just frosting it with marshmallow cream and choco frosting. If my mom were here she would have been able to decorate it like the image I had in my head with little people out playing in the snow, but she's in Russia and couldn't make it.

The boys that stayed the night were out playing in the snow till about midnight & were up and ready to party some more by 9 in the morning. So after a plethora of white chocolate chip waffles and running the snow machine out of gas, we loaded up in the Tahoe and went to the Jr. High to go sledding.

It only took a couple hours of climbing the hill before they were all too pooped to party any more. All in all, it was a fun event.

But the birthday celebrations didn't stop there. Sunday we went to Chris & Jerry's for dinner and a birthday party for Andy & Clancey. Andy got lots of money and a book.



Clancey, who's birthday was January 25th, got lots of cars, this really cool flashlight hat and more stuff.

Francine is holding Clancey's baby brother, Lee. Not only is it a blessing to have a new baby in the family, but almost as wonderful of a miracle is that Clancey, who just turned 4, is FINALLY potty trained & hasn't had a single accident since he became a "big brother"

WAY TO GO CLANCEY!!!