Sweetness

When I picked Annabelle up just now, she gave me a big hug and said, "hey there mama. Hey there".

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I haz a new trick

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At the Cheese's

I used to think that Chuck E. Cheese's was only a place to take your kids for a special occasion, but today's visit to Chuck E.'s place made me rethink that.

Chuck E. Cheese's is one of the only places I have found that only charges one token per ride/game. Most other places around here charge up to 4 tokens per game, which works out to be roughly $1.00. Today for $24.99, we got a large pizza, 4 drinks, and 96 tokens. We ate lunch, the kids played for an hour and a half, and they got a prize for about what it costs to have pizza delivered.

When we arrived, they stamped each of our hands with a matching number. When we left, someone verified that we all matched before we left. I found that extremely comforting. It's easy to get separated from your kiddos at Chuck E.'s place especially when I take them there by myself. Colin wants to win tickets, and Tyler wants to ride stuff, which means they are constantly running in different directions. I like knowing that if one of them leaves my field of vision for a minute, that I don't have to worry about someone else leaving with them.

Today was a perfect day with the kiddos. They had a blast, and I didn't go broke funding it.

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Santa Baby

Annabelle loved everything about Santa. She didn't fuss when his elf took her to sit on his lap nor did she fuss the entire time she sat on his lap. She just looked at him like he was the most wonderful, magical person she had ever met.

Santa on the other hand took one look at Annabelle and and declared, "you look like a beard puller. Let's hold hands!".

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Best Punishment Ever

Matching up the world's biggest pile of socks. Mommy hates matching them, so when we get in trouble she makes us do it. She says it's a team building exercise.

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5x7 Folded Card

Berry Merry Frame Holiday Card

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6 Months

In honor of being 6 months old, Annabelle got a big girl cup and some baby candy.



The baby candy is really yogurt melts, but Annabelle ate it with the same gusto as most people eat chocolate.

We also have some new words to report this week. Annabelle can now say:

Hey there!
Daddy
Mama
Mama boobie
Hey Tyla (Tyler)
Hey bubba (brother/Colin)

At her 6 month check up, she was in the 50th percentile for weight and the 90th for height.

She is growing up so fast!

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Craziness

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Mama

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Annabelle Says...

Don't get your tutu in a tangle!

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This guy...

Is now one of four kids reading
on a 3rd grade level in his class!

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I did it mama!

The other day, Tyler broke the training wheels on his motorcycle. He was doing a "big jump" and landed wrong. Luckily, Tyler didn't get hurt. Sam rushed over thinking Tyler was seriously injured, but he quickly discovered that Tyler was crying because his motorcycle was hurt. This is particularly troublesome in Tyler's eyes because he rides an average of 15 miles a weekend.

The broken training wheel necessitated a decision. Did we buy Tyler a new set of training wheels or did we just teach him to ride without them? This was a hard decision because Sam just took Colin's training wheels off of his motorcycle a few weekends ago despite the fact that he's been riding his regular bike without them for two years. Unfortunately, Tyler and Colin have two different brands of motorcycles so we can't use Colin's on Tyler's bike. In the end we decided to see how Tyler did riding his bike without training wheels and go from there.



Tyler tends to do things his own way, and learning to ride without training wheels was no exception. He refused help from anyone. Instead he rode his bike down a grassy hill using his feet to balance. Then when he had gained enough momentum to balance himself, he'd put his feet on the pedals and take off. I figured it would take a few days for him to experience any kind of real success. It actually took him about 30 minutes before he had a pretty good handle on it. By the end of the afternoon he was riding on the concrete.

My guess it that we won't be needing new training wheels for his motorcycle after all.

This is Tyler's 4th or 5th ride down the hill.

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Cuteness

I tried to take one of all three kids, but three out of three of my children didn't want to.


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