Busy Week!!!

It was a busy week, with no one day standing out enough to write about just it.

One day, Miko watched TV while eating her breakfast (she wanted a Pop-Tart that day). She stood on a crib mattress that she uses to bounce on. We wanted to get her a trampoline for Christmas (girl loves to bounce), but the funds weren't there for that kind of extravagant gift (maybe when she's older, we'll get her one of those big ones you put in the backyard!). PJ's best friend Ili had given us a crib when we were pregnant with Miko. The crib had some stripped screws and wobbled when we put it together, so we got a "mini" crib from a consignment shop to use. The crib Ili gave us sat out in our garage with Chad promising that he would glue the pieces together to make it more sturdy so Miko could use it...it really is a beautiful crib. Well, Chad never got around to fixing it, and Miko moved on to a big girl bed. Now Tori is using the little crib that Miko used. Anyway, we brought the mattress that came with Ili's crib inside so Miko could have something besides the couch to jump on. She loves it!

Another day, Miko and PJ decided to have a "craft" kind of day. PJ decided to make colored macaroni noodles. Miko got a small beaded purse for Christmas, and there's not a lot that will fit in it...although she did bend a puzzle piece enough to jam it in there. Ha ha! So, PJ made colored macaroni for her to put in there.

Miko, on the other hand, painted to her hearts content...by the time she was done, she needed a shower!

On another day, Tori decided to pose nice for the camera after she rolled over during tummy-time!

Then there was the day that PJ put Tori in the highchair while she was fixing dinner and Miko gave her a bunch of her favorite books and toys to look at and started pushing the chair around the kitchen. This was the result:

Now, during all this excitement with the girls, the furkids didn't want to be left out...namely our newest fur-son, Wrangler.

PJ will leave him out of his crate during nap times for a couple hours, and he usually does just fine. Well, one night we decided to see how he would do overnight with access to just the living room and kitchen. This is what we woke up to find:

Sake just wanted to get in the shot.

So, from now on it will be this:

 

At least until we feel we can try trusting him again! 

"I thought you had my back, Sake!"

Fun on 1-11-11!

Chad had to work...when he left, it was -10 degrees outside! We were tempted to grab some of Miko's bubbles and go outside and blow some to see if they would freeze, but neither one of us wanted to go out in that freezing cold. He did eventually head out to work and PJ felt bad for him.

PJ spent the day in our 70+ degree house with the girls. Miko wanted to sing and dance to The Wiggles (it's a group of four men from Australia that sing and dance for the kids...PJ actually loves them and has a small crush on Sam - the yellow Wiggle. Hee hee.) After doing that for a whole show, PJ was ready to do some sort of game. On our Netflix...Miko actually knows how to turn it on through our Wii and pick her own shows to watch. Usually it's Dora, Diego, or Blue's Clues. Lately it's been Fraggle Rock, Rug Rats, The Littles, Thomas and Friends, Pingu, or The Wiggles...and sometimes Barney. PJ tries to limit the amount of TV she gets, so she milks it and uses it as much as she can.

PJ sat Miko in her high chair (we got it out for Connor when BobbiJo stayed with us in October, but kept it out so Miko could do messy crafts in a more confined area), and gave her a dollop of shaving cream. Miko was thrilled! She was so gentle with it in the beginning. She even started making elephant sounds because it looked like it had a trunk.

Making elephant sounds

Carefully removing the "elephant trunk" - she was amazed watching it disappear when she rubbed her fingers!

Here she was counting...she can count to 5 most times perfectly!

She's an excited counter!

Starting to get into the texture of the shaving cream

It was fun watching her have fun!

While Miko was having fun with the shaving cream, Tori was having fun laying around watching things move.

And, what was she fascinated in? It was a Jeff Gordon mobile PJ's sister gave us when she was pregnant with Miko...everyone just knew we were gonna have a boy. PJ saved it in case we had a boy for our last kid. Well, since we were blessed with two girls, she broke it out anyway. Hey, girls can love NASCAR just as much as the guys do...look at PJ! Ha ha!

The coolest mobile ever!!!

 We finally got a family picture as well!

Skyping on Christopher's 5th Birthday...

On Tuesday the 4th, our nephew Christopher turned 5 years old! We decided to Skype with him to wish him a happy birthday. Shortly after our call began and he started showing us all the toys he received for his birthday, his daddy called through from Afghanistan, so we ended the call...we're planning to head down to Colorado Springs to see BobbiJo's family this weekend anyway.

So, after hanging up with him, we noticed that Crystal was signed in, so we made a quick call to her. PJ was making dinner so Chad and the girls talked to her...Wrangler joined in (we swear he thinks he's a cat!). PJ snapped a quick picture, and we wanted to share it with y'all.

One...Two...Three...

Oh! The joys of being a parent! While we love our girls to death and would die for them in a heartbeat, we sometimes find ourselves wanting to kill them! Tori not so much, but that Miko! Boy, can she work your nerves!

Of course we kid, we would never kill our daughters, but sometimes we find ourselves having to walk away and count and breath slowly, or have the other parent take over for a little while. We have a motto that we try to live by: pick and choose your battles. We try to let the little things roll and pay more attention to the bigger, more dangerous ones, but we also try to set boundaries so the girls won't run wild as they get older.

We try not to spank when disciplining Miko, but sometimes a quick swat on her overly-padded, cloth-diapered butt seems to get her attention, and she cries for all of two seconds. Time outs don't seem to work too well unless we stand right there with her to make sure she doesn't move from the spot, which then she just looks at us and laughs the whole time. Redirecting works, to a point. As soon as she's bored with whatever the redirection was, she's back to doing the thing she was redirected from in the first place. It can be so frustrating at times. Last night we found that if we tell her that she has until the count of five to do something, we get to about the number three, then she runs to do it. We have to have a stern and commanding voice, and repeat the command when we get to the count of three, but so far it seems to be working.

Tonight, Chad told Miko to stop playing in the furkids' water dish (something she does on a constant basis). She didn't, so he proceeded with, "I'll give you until the count of five, then you're getting spanked. One...two...three. Stop playing in the water!" Well, she smiled a goofy grin at him, and he started laughing, which got her laughing as well. Now, how can you go and swat the bottom of a little girl that's so cute and melts your heart when she smiles at you? You can't, really. So, Chad got up and picked up the water dish and told her that she was "bad"...but he did it with a smile...so, she grabbed his pant leg and said, "Hug. Hug." Awwww! It was so sweet...but the moment of "proper disciplinary action" had came and went.

Luckily, we know how to just let things roll...

Happy New Year!!!

2010 was full of ups and downs for our family. We found out we were pregnant, lost Barbara, had Tori, lost Rodeo, and adopted Wrangler. We're hoping for more ups than downs in 2011. We're looking forward to Miko being potty trained (she seems to be more and more interested in it now); Tori saying her first word and crawling, then walking; all the furkids being healthy and happy; and us being content with everything happening in our world.

We've made a few resolutions, mainly ones that will get us back on track with planning for the future. We're looking forward to a couple trips this year as well. We plan to work hard to have fun, but have fun doing it.

We also plan to try to keep up with the blog posting a lot better this year. The daily picture will more than likely be a weekly family pic from now on, just to make it easier for us to do...the girls are not always so cooperative in the evenings, so the weekends would probably be better to snap a shot.

So, Happy New Year, everyone!!!

Here's a few videos of our kids (minus the kitties) doing great things:

Miko's vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger.

Tori is starting to smile and coo a lot more:

Sake and Wrangler are becoming best friends fast:

And a few pictures of our new "son" settling in:

He's so happy

He loves Sake...we think he's attached to her like she was to Rodeo

He is addicted to chews

We love him!!!