The latest

So, we leave tomorrow for our big first family trip. I'm so excited. I've been planning and dreaming about this trip for 4 months or more. We bought the Disneyland tickets at the beginning of December and booked our hotels right after that. I've been picking up extra shifts for 4 months to help pay for it. Then life happened and the universe tried to keep us from going.

Last Monday, Jonathan was in a car accident on the freeway and totaled our Buick that my parents had so nicely given us when we were having car trouble. It feels like we're ALWAYS having car trouble. Well, we decided to take the money from the crash and our tax refund and buy a gently used van. I couldn't stand the stress of doing it right before our trip, but on Friday we were hanging out and thought that we'd go see the vans at Carmax. We fell in love with a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan and actually drove off the lot with it. Then I went to our credit union and got it financed at a great rate with a nice down payment. It all sounds so nice when I sit here a couple days later and type it, but it stressed me out completely. I couldn't eat all that day and still feel anxious about spending that much money. Well, our great luck with cars continued because yesterday I went to start our Malibu and it wouldn't turn over. My awesome dad was nice enough to spend the entire afternoon figuring out that it was the fuel pump and it probably needs to be replaced. Well, it won't run and I guess it's really amazing that we went and bought the van because without it, we'd be stranded and wouldn't be able to go on our trip until the car was fixed. Now, we can still leave as planned and just worry about the car when we get back. I even have a friend at work who's husband is a mechanic and he thinks he can replace it. So, I guess it kind of depends on how you look at things. Either it's a pretty amazing string of events that we didn't take the Malibu and get stranded here or in California with a broken car. Or, it's the Universe trying in every way possible to tell us not to go on this dream vacation of ours. Time will tell for sure. We'll post when we get home hopefully safe and sound next Sunday.

That Darn Cat

We have a love/hate relationship with the cat we inherited from my parents who got stuck with her after my little sister got married. The kids love her and the parents hate her. Her name is Sneakers and she's about 13 or so years old maybe more who knows. She's a great cat - good with the kids and all but she is a TALKER. She is constantly whining about how we need to feed her milk or pet her while she eats. The only time she's quiet is when she's sleeping which luckily for us is a lot of the daytime. It's taken her a while to get really comfortable with all of us in this close space we have. There's 4 people, a dog and a cat in less than 1,000 square feet. That's cozy. Plus, we can't let her outside without a leash. She used to be an indoor/outdoor cat and was used to being able to come and go as she pleased. Now every time we open the door she bolts out to pee in the super small garden area in our backyard. That's fine with me - one less scoop I have to clean out of her litter box. Anyway, she decided the other day she wanted to snuggle with the kids on the couch. Actually, I believe it started with her taking over the dog's usual place on the couch and the kids spotting her and then snuggling with her. It was so cute I had to snap some photos. Right after the photos Sneakers decided she had enough and hissed at the kids took a swipe at Emily's hand - giving her a tiny little scratch- and bolted upstairs. She hasn't been downstairs much at all today so I think she decided that usurping the dog's position on the couch wasn't worth having to snuggle with the girls.

Emily's Birthday

Emily snuggling with one of her favorite lovies. Jonathan bought a Piglet for Gwen and a Mickey for Emily when we were first planning our family trip to Disneyland. They are really soft and Emily uses them to snuggle to sleep with. We try to get her to stick to her Mickey, but she can't resist stealing one of Gwen's toys and then getting into a screaming match with her over it.

For Emily's birthday we made her favorite dinner - frozen lasagna. She'd probably prefer homemade lasagna but her mom is just too lazy for that. Walmart makes a very tasty family size lasagna and it's pretty cheap. I just can't be bothered to work that hard when it can be so easy. Her birthday was so much fun. We got to spend the entire day together as a family because her birthday was on a Saturday this year and I got the day off work. We had a party with most of her cousins that night at Grandma Buckholts' house.Here's Emily opening her presents at her party. That's Sam, Gwen, and Noah helping and Kim video taping it - well sort-of.

Emily thought it was fun to hide the presents under the used wrapping paper and then find them again.

This little phone with sound and buttons was (and still is) a big hit.

Noah came to the party but the rest of his family stayed home with Max who had just gotten released from the hospital. They needed the rest and relaxation after such a busy week.

We bought little $1 presents for everyone to celebrate Emily's first year. That was funner for me than Emily getting presents. I think the kids liked the idea of getting a present at someone else's birthday too.

Gwen showing Emily how to work her new phone.

The birthday cake that Gwen and I made. Gwen helped frost and put the letters on it. I had to keep showing her where they went so it would spell the right things. That's Sam, Mason, Gwen, and Noah lined up to watch.

Emily loved being the center of attention and having all her big cousins over. It's fun when you're the littlest and there's so many big kids to play with.

Emily eating her birthday cake. She loved the frosting which she delicately ate with her little fingers but the biggest hit was the two scoops of ice cream that she got with it. She didn't touch the actual cake.

Our newest little cousin, Max, just got home from China where he's been since he was born 16 months ago. Aunt Laura and Uncle Dude brought home really neat presents for everyone when they went on their trip to bring him home. The girls each got beautiful Chinese "princess" dresses that they wore to church last week. The funnest part of that was getting to tell everyone about Max when they asked about the dresses. Gwen loves talking about her little cousin Max who is Noah's brother.

I'm almost sad that they have to grow out of these dresses because they look so beautiful in them. Thanks Laura and Dude.

Yes, Emily's walking and she's getting better and better each day. The above video is a quick example of her newest skill in action.

Update

Update: Emily's birthday party has been changed to Saturday February 20th at 6:00 pm. It's still at Grandma Buckholts' house.

Our New Table (and picture download)

Okay everyone. Emily is having her first birthday party on February 20th. If you read this blog or are related to her than you can come. It's going to be at 11:00 am at Grandma and Grandpa Buckholts' house. We're serving lasagna and cake and ice cream. You don't have to bring a present, but it you do she likes balls, buttons, and anything that already belongs to Gwen. Oh, and she took her first steps on Super Bowl Sunday morning.

Emily on Christmas morning. Sorry we had to get a new computer so I haven't posted pictures in a while.

Gwen and Emily breaking into their loot on Christmas. Emily got fruit in her stocking but immediately switched it out for candy canes when she found them in Gwen's stocking. What was Santa thinking?

Gwen's Cookie Grandma and Farmer Floyd (Jonathan's mom and step-dad) made this beautiful table and chairs for the girls. The pictures don't do them justice. They are perfect. Just the right size for my little princesses and they love them.

Emily no longer wants to eat in her high chair. She's too big for that. They both want to eat all their meals at the new table and spend a lot of their time climbing on it or coloring on it or having many, many tea parties. I love having little girls. No doubt that if they were boys the table would be destroyed in minutes.

Cookie Grandma and the girls at the table. They brought the table down from their place in Idaho this last weekend while I was away at work. I could hardly believe my eyes when I got home and saw it in person. They assure us that it's such good quality that it will last through the grand kids. Thank you so much Cookie Grandma and Farmer Floyd.

Oh, Gwenners.

So, I was sitting here thinking about my favorite things: my daughters, and thought that I'd update about some of their funnier things they've been up to:

Gwen thinks her name is "Gwenners". It's one of her nicknames that we don't really like but she does. She introduces herself as "Gwenners" to new people and when we're playing she'll tell me that she's Mommy and I'm Gwenners. So, I think this nickname is stuck. At least for now.

Gwen re-named Emily for a day last week. She named her "Han". I have no idea where she even picked up that name or where she could have possibly heard it before but all day she told everyone to call Emily "Han". It was only for a day and the next day her little sister was back to being Emily and now her baby doll is named Han previously named Baby Bobby. Also, she calls Emily, Em-o-lee all drawn out like that most of the time.

Emily's first "word" is uh-uh. She loves to use it and mimics us when she is told uh-uh. It doesn't necessarily stop her from doing what is uh-uh though. She also says "bleah" which is what we tell her when she's eating the dog or cat food to get her to spit it out. She'll crawl toward the pet food going "bleah, bleah". At least she let's us know where she's headed.

Emily gets goofy at night time. I usually work in the evenings so I didn't really know about that until I had a couple days off this week. She would crawl over to a pillow on the floor and rear up on her knees as tall as she can get then fall face first onto the pillow and laugh. She'll also squeal as loud as possible and then crawl away from you as fast as she can trying to get you to chase her.

This week we finally moved Emily out of our room and into the bedroom with Gwen. Gwen loves the idea of having Emily in there with her and luckily she's a sound sleeper and hasn't yet woken up to Emily's midnight fussing. Yes, Emily still gets up in the night to feed - twice! I like that she wakes up at midnight to feed because I need it by then after working all evening away from her. The 4:00 am feeding I could do without. She doesn't need it, it's just habit at this point. I'm scared of letting her cry it out because that would probably wake up Gwen. We'll get this worked out and it'll be time to wean her.

We're planning our first family trip to Disneyland in March. Or as Gwen calls it "Bisney-go-land". She's so excited to see where the princesses live. She keeps telling everyone that we're going there tomorrow which is little kid speak for soon and not today. I can't wait, I'm probably just as or even more excited than she is.

Christmas and the New Year

Before I forget about everything that happened over the Holidays, I thought I should jump on here and make a post. We had a really fun, nice, and safe Christmas and New Years. This year for Christmas Eve we had a pretty quiet evening. I roasted a chicken that I had brined with one of Jonathan's famous turkey brines since we forgot to do one for Thanksgiving this year. The chicken was very moist and yummy. We invited my parents over for our little feast and it was nice to actually have other people in our little space. Emily thought that the stuffing was the best part of the dinner - she was scooping it up into her mouth with both fists as quickly as she could. After dinner we had the girls open one of their presents. Then we said good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa and tucked the girls into the car and drove around looking at Christmas lights. Gwen fell asleep faster than Emily did. Jonathan and I stayed up late watching TV together.

Christmas morning Gwen woke up early - how can a three-year-old who can't tell time know to wake up early because it's Christmas? She came into our room and asked if Santa had come yet. We all went downstairs together and opened the rest of our presents. Gwen got a few princess barbies and princess movies. I love that Gwen was so excited that the reindeers had eaten some of our carrots and Santa had some hot cocoa while he was dropping off her presents. Emily, of course, didn't really know what was going on but loved playing with the paper. She also loves crawling around with her hands on books or dvd cases so her hands slide and she can crawl really fast because she doesn't have to pick up her hands. She's really clever like that. These days she's really into walking and has found out that she can push around some of her toys and use them as walkers so she can get around the house. She'll be walking on her own before I know it.

Christmas afternoon we packed up and went over to my parents' house for brunch. While we were there, Jonathan's mom and step-dad stopped by to spoil the girls. Gwen got a princess tea set from them that she adores. She loves to make us pretend to drink out of her little pink cups. My sisters and their families came over for dinner and we all got to spend time together playing Beatles Rock Band until late (9:30-ish hey that's late when you have little kids). It was such a fun Christmas. I swear that each Christmas gets funner as my kids get bigger. The very best present was season passes to Lagoon from my parents. That means that I get a whole summer of spending time with my fun mom, sisters and nieces and nephews. I am so excited for that. I'm also very excited for our other big present - a trip to Disneyland over spring break. I can't even think about it too much or I get really distracted.

Between Christmas and New Years I got to spend an evening with some of my high school and after friends. I love spending time with them, not only because I'm really beginning to value any time spent with people not as into Dora the Explorer as Gwen, but because they've known me for such a long time and we have little inside jokes that are so comfortable and familiar.

For New Year's Eve we went to my parents' house again. They got an amazing big screen TV and sound system so everyone will be spending more time there in days to come. Some of my sisters and their kids came and we had a New Year's countdown at 9:00 - remember that's super late for little kids and then Gwen, Noah (4), and Sam (4) had a sleepover in Grandma's front room. It was Gwen's first sleepover and first time sleeping away from us. I was nervous for her but after kissing her goodnight and offering to stay a little longer my sweet little Gwen looked me right in the eye and said "I want you to leave right now, Mommy." It was pretty obvious that she wasn't as reluctant about this new adventure as I was. The next morning when I came to pick her up I learned that she's not as well behaved as I had believed. Apparently, she's a bit of a goof and kept the other two kids up until almost midnight with her antics. She'd make herself burp and then giggle loudly, she's climb into her sleeping bag head first and then laugh, and she made monster noises to scare her older cousins. I still am a bit amazed that she's big enough to have a sleepover. Really I think it's a bigger deal to me than to her. Hopefully, her aunt's will still want her to spend the night on the rare instance after reading this post.