one.frame.a.day.

January 4th.
Still wiggly.

Still wiggling and wiggling.....no tooth fairy visit yet.

January 5th.
Dedication.

Spencer has been very dedicated this year in wrestling. It is his first year and he loves it. This coming from a kid that had no want to to wrestle, to get up in front of everyone in a singlet. The practices are hard, his practice clothes the other day were drenched in sweat so much so that it looked like he had jumped in a swimming pool.

January 6th.
Richard Simmons....eat your heart out.

This picture of Katie cracks me up. She looks up to Spencer, even wrestles with him sometimes. This day she was exercising with him, her and Natalie both. I guess she decided to dress for the occasion....and boy did she ever! All the way from knee socks to converse!

 January 7th.
Big boy.

At the doctor's office today. Usually they put us in one of the "bigger kids" rooms when Spencer is there. Today we were in the dinosaur room. He has grown so much. I remember when he was little and climbed all over this dinosaur examining table....needed lifted up there to sit.....not anymore.

I picked Spencer up from practice yesterday and I could tell he wasn't feeling well. We came home, he took a shower and some motrin and went to bed for the night.....at 6:00pm. He was running a fever and chilling.
I made a doctor appointment for him this morning and took him in, he was feeling a little better. He has a sinus infection and will be back in school tomorrow.....that is if the snow doesn't accumulate to much.
While we were out today (after the doctor appointment) we had lunch, went to Target to get his prescription filled. We were walking around Target waiting for the prescription, he was bored out of his mind. He looked at me and said, "So mom, is this what you do while we are in school? It's kind of boring." It made me laugh. I wish my days were filled with walking around Target endlessly window shopping with nothing more to do but wait on a prescription.

one.frame.a.day.

 

Little signs of a loose tooth.

Katie has a tooth that she has wiggled and wiggled all day.

It is a little stubborn and won't come out.

She sat at the kitchen table while I cooked dinner and took bite after bite of this apple, 

hoping her tooth would come out.

The tooth fairy won't be visiting her tonight, maybe tomorrow night....hopefully.

~Amber Hope

one.frame.a.day.

After finally finishing our family book from 2007 and finding myself sitting down with it quite often, looking at all the pictures of the kids, reading the memorable things I had written (that I know I would have forgotten had I not kept a record of them). I realized sitting there with that book in my lap that I need to do more. I find our picture folders not as full as they used to be. I find I don't pick up my camera to capture moments like I used to, even if it is just the everyday moments in our life. I find myself wishing that I had taken more, written more and kept a better record of even the simplest things in our lives.
In this new year I decided to do more. I will be doing one.frame.a.day. A small snapshot into our life, daily, even if it something small. I know though that one day that something that I feel is "something small" today, will be something wonderful one day to look back at.
I captured a simple moment January 1st but I am including it in this post today.

January 1st.



cousin sleeping over.
morning in our jammies.
raining outside.
pb&j sandwiches for lunch.
play-doh fun in the kitchen.

January 2nd.







Dear Natalie and Katie,
Tonight I read a favorite book of mine when I was little to you both as I tucked you into bed. I remember this book well and loved it, especially the part where the little mouse made a porcelain bathtub out of a teacup. This book was my favorite when I was a little girl.
When Grammie and Poppie moved from the home I grew up in I hoped to find this book that Grammie had kept. We went through all kinds of things. My sisters, mom and I laughed and talked about what we remembered from everything we were finding and either packing up or taking to our own home to keep. We never did find the book that I had hoped we would find.
Tonight as we opened presents for Christmas at Grammie and Poppies, I was very excited to open this book that your Aunt Laci gave me as a Christmas present. She had spent a lot of time looking at so many used book stores in hopes to find this book for me. She knew it was special to me.
This book was the best Christmas present I could have received, a very heart felt gift from my sister. I found it a blessing to be able to read this book to you both tonight. I was able to see the same smiles on your faces that I know I had on mine when I was little at the simple turn of a page. I hope that one day you will be able to read this same book to your own little babies as you tuck them into bed and kiss them goodnight.
Goodnight my darlings.
Love,
Mommy
xoxo

Decorating our Christmas tree.

We decorated our tree not long ago. Our kids always love pulling their ornaments out of the box. Katie has loved her Dorothy ornament from the time she was really little to now. Each year Dorothy is placed a little higher on our Christmas tree as Katie grows.



Every year the kids argue with each other who's turn it is to put the star on top. Spencer is almost (just 1.5 inches short) as tall as Jerome. Spencer can reach the top of the tree, the girls cannot.....guess who won this argument this year?




Jerome put ribbon on Molly, they kept laughing and saying she looked like Max from the Grinch movie. I guess Molly was Jerome's sidekick for the evening....




We found the Grinch ornament when we were at Universal a few months ago. The kids laugh and joke all the time saying Jerome is the Grinch this time of year. But only when the Christmas tree lights don't work and all the crazy madness out in town gets to be to much.




Jerome Grinch's sidekick Molly Max loves to sing along to Christmas carols too!




Natalie put these candy cane hearts all over the tree.




These mittens were Natalie's when she was three years old.




Icicles were one of my favorite decorations on our tree when I was a child.




The girls love this ornament. Spencer did too when he believed in Santa Claus long, long ago. The girls put their letters to Santa in here....




The "Ruby Red Slippers" Christmas balls we hang on the tree every year....




My little budding photographer. Natalie took this shot and a few other ones on here. She loves to have the camera in her hands. I like how you can see her reflection in the glass Christmas bulb...




The girls read me their Christmas wish list after we decorated the tree. They made their list by going on different sites this year, instead of looking at the toy catalog like most years. I think Katie stayed on the Justice sight a little to long, hahaha.













After we were finished decorating the tree Spencer and Katie started wrestling in the floor. Katie is tough, unlike her sister, she likes to wrestle around with Spencer. Molly goes nuts when they wrestle. She is a very protective dog and she will stand and bark at whoever has the upper hand.




We have a Christmas dinner to go to tonight and then tomorrow morning is Christmas! The kids are excited. I am happy to be finished wrapping presents! We plan on having a big breakfast in the morning, opening presents (although I think I just put those backwards, I'm sure the presents will be opened first) and then we are dressing up and going to see a movie. We all enjoyed it last year. It was a very relaxing day with the ones we love the most.

Sing it with me.....

The first thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Is finding a Christmas tree

The second thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree

The third thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree

The fourth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me

Sending Christmas cards
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree

The fifth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Five months of bills!
Sending Christmas cards
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree

The sixth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Facing my in-laws
Five months of bills!
Oh, I hate those Christmas cards!
Hangovers
Rigging up these lights!
And finding a Christmas tree

The seventh thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
The Salvation Army
Facing my in-laws
Five months of bills!
Sending Christmas cards
Oh, geez!
I'm tryin' to rig up these lights!
And finding a Christmas tree

The eighth thing at Christmas that such a pain to me:
I WANNA TRANSFORMER FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
Charities,
And whataya mean "YOUR in-laws"?!?
Five months of bills!
Ach, making out these cards
Honey, get me a beer, huh?
What, we have no extension cords?!?
And finding a Christmas tree

The ninth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Finding parking spaces
DADDY, I WANT SOME CANDY!!!!
Donations!
Facing my in-laws Five months of bills!
Writing out those Christmas cards
Hangovers!
Now why the hell are they blinking?!?!?
And finding a Christmas tree

The tenth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
"Batteries Not Included"
No parking spaces
BUY ME SOMETHIN'!!!
Get a job, ya bum!
Facing my in-laws!
Five months of bills!
Yo-ho, sending Christmas cards
Oh, geez, look at this!
One light goes out, they ALL go out!!!
And finding a Christmas tree

The eleventh thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Stale TV specials
"Batteries Not Included"
No parking spaces
DAD, I GOTTA GO TA BATHROOM!!
Charities!
She's a witch...I hate her!
Five months of bills!
Oh, I don't even KNOW half these people!
Oh, who's got the toilet paper, huh?
Get a flashlight...I blew a fuse!!
And finding a Christmas tree

The twelfth thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Singing Christmas carols
Stale TV specials
"Batteries Not Included"
No parking?!?
WAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAH!
Charities!
Gotta make 'em dinner!
Five months of bills!
I'm not sendin' them this year, that's it!
Shut up, you!
FINE! YOU'RE SO SMART, YOU RIG UP THE LIGHTS!!!
And finding a Christmas tree

 

Hahaha!!! My husbands FAVORITE holiday song!! Just kidding honey.....I love you!

 

Cozy and Warm.

School was canceled today because of all the snowfall overnight. I had a good time in the snow with the kids today. I took this one of Natalie and Katie warming up under the blanket and fell in love with this picture of the two of them.

His First Wrestling Tournament.

We spent Friday evening and most of Saturday at The Pepsi Invitational Classic Wrestling Tournament. Going in to these I had absolutely no idea they lasted so long. I thought an hour or two maybe......boy, was I wrong. I didn't take my camera with me Friday evening, I wanted to enjoy watching my son wrestle for the first time. The coach came up to me after and asked if I would mind taking pictures (something special he has planned for the boys at the end of the season). So Saturday I took a lot of pictures. Looking back I probably should have used my flash and not bumped my ISO up to 2500 but oh well.....according to my husband only I notice the "technical stuff" anyway.

Spencer's first match he didn't win, but he fought hard for it.


A little advice from the coach.....

His second match ended up being with one of his best friends, Adam. I (and several other moms) don't like how they match up kids from the same school....but I know there is a reason. He fought hard on this one too, but didn't win this match. He put up a good fight though.



Then they took a break and the kids did some more warming up before beginning again.

Spencer was very determined not to lose his next match. I think that determination carried him through because his third match he won. It was great hearing his name being yelled by our home team, "GO SPENCER!".
This was the first round of his third match....


Getting more advice from the coach....

I can really see the determination in him here....



I'm proud of my son! So proud.

His coach was proud of him and Spencer was happy he had won a match. He told me he didn't want to go home without winning one.

Spencer didn't meet the standard for his weight class, he was just a few pounds over and was bumped up to the next weight class. He was at the bottom of the weight class they put him in and wrestled several that were in the top of the weight class (Spencer and Adam both are in the same weight class and both were bumped up). He is working hard to get back down in the weight class he belongs in so that way he will be at the top of his weight class.
It was a long day. When we left the school that was hosting the tournament everything was covered in snow. We made it home safely and enjoyed the rest of the evening.