Thanksgiving Day Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving Day. I thought since our Christmas pictures weren't too good, we could try to take some at home. I liked this one of all of the girls (Gaby 7 years, Kadyn 3 1/2 years, and Mia 3mo.).

Mia is waiting for the next picture pose!

Dustin and I after the dinner has been fixed! We are both tired from a long day of cooking and eating!

My table set up- we use the "real dishes", you know the ones that can brake. And I made name cards and napkin rings as a part of my decorations!

The day was fun and busy. Dustin was up by 6am getting his turkey in the smoker. We both worked on side dishes and getting the house finished up. Then 1pm, we loaded up and had our first meal with The Fluke side (Dustin's dad) then came home finished up the rest of the sides and had my family and Dustin's mom side over at our place! Dustin started our meal off with a prayer. After he was done, Gaby requested she pray and come up with a beautiful little prayer as well. I am sad I didn't tape it, she even thank God for the table decorations! By 11:00pm, I was in bed snoozing from a long but great day!

Today we are enjoying some time at home in our PJ's doing nothing! And it is great! Dustin had to work so the girls and I are hanging out. I hope everyone had an awesome day with their family and friends.

PGD Thanksgiving Feast!

Today at daycare we prepared a Thanksgiving Feast. I posted a sign up sheet so parents and kids could bring a side dish for our meal. As it was getting close to time to eat we got the table ready. We put a table cloth on, used place sitting cards we made, and even had napkins with hand made napkin rings! They were very proud of their hard work.

Our Thanksgiving table... (before)

Here is a close up of our art projects this morning... we stamped on orange paper, cut into strips and made place cards and rings out of them. The older kids even helped stuff the napkin in the ring... that is harder then it looks for little hands!

Our table after the eating had began. After our table was fixed so pretty we almost lost some plates of food so we opted not to use the table cloth after all. (I know the kids are not in the same spots, we took a bathroom break and washed hands)

I know many of my daycare family will not be here tomorrow so I wish all of you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful families to work with everyday!

Our Meal Time prayer...

This is our prayer we say everyday before we eat. If I forget to start it, someone is always reminding me about our prayer!

corn project...

I am going on week 2 of no printer paper and no ink for my computer printers (yes, I went to the store and forgot to pick it up) so we are continuing to more hands on projects and learning. Today we discussed Thanksgiving and talked about our feast tomorrow. We also talked about the foods we would be eating this week. Today we made corn on the cobs! We glued cotton balls in the shape of corn husks and the painted them yellow. It was a fun little craft to do.





Here are some of the finished corn on the cobs. I know that some of my little guys are not pictured. This was something the bigger kids could do just by following my directions as the little kids needed more hands on help such as not eating the cotton ball, not eating the paint brush, not sticking their entire hand into the paint bowl ect. So, while helping them, it is hard to get their picture. But theya re doing great stuff too!!!

Oh... what a weekend!!!

As a couple of my dear friends have pointed out, I have not updated my blog since Thursday. And now I have some much I want to say, I don't even know where to start. So, I thought I could tell you about my weekend. It was fun, tiring, expensive all at the same time. So, hang on and here we go....
Friday night started out as soon as the last daycare kid left. I had a hair appointment (5:15pm) that was before Dustin would be getting home from work. I rushed the kids over to my neighbors' house (Thanks Courtney and kids) where they stayed for about an hour.

Here I am with my new hair... well, same ol' hair, new color and cut! I love the look and the edges of the cut. I hate being boring so I go to great expense to have it look fun and sassy. My daycare parents are probably saying, she never looks like this when we drop off... yeah, sorry guys!
After the hair appointment (8:15pm), I met Dustin and the girls at our next event... a birthday gathering for our small group leader Matt. Matt and his wife Rachael open their house up to our small group every other Thursday so we can fellowship, pray for each other, and complete a bible lesson. Then once a month, we try to get together for a social gathering.

Tonight we had snacks, (I made chili, yummo) games, and fun conversations! Here I am acting out my word...football! Love the picture, huh???!!! I think it was their goal to get the greatest pose from each person who played, and I am thinking this was mine!

Next we finished up Gaby's birthday with her "friend" party at CAGE gymnastics. The party was stress free and worth every penny spent. All Dustin and I had to do was show up with the girls, cupcakes, and checkbook. They had an hour on the gym floor and then gifts and cake. At one point in the party they opened it up to parents. We could go on the floor, play with our kids, and use their toys. I thought it would be fun to get in the foam pit to play with Kadyn and Gaby. No one told me that it was like being in quick sand. It was a long, funny, drawn out experience. It ended with one of the teachers and Dustin helping me out. Just what a 30 year old wants... 2 men pulling her out of a pit of foam... Go Me! (I thought I would spare details, red faced pictures, and video... but if you want more laughs follow the link on the side to Dawn's blog)

Here I am in the pit from... you know where... laughing to the point I am in tears, losing my shoes, and trying to figure out how to get out! Here I am, parent of the year!

Here is the table and kids getting ready for cake, goodie bags, and gifts!

AFter Gaby's party Dustin and I didn't want to cook, we treated our family to dinner at our favorite place... Olive Garden. We got there just before the rush. We had a great time with our family, stuffed our bellies full, and came home and crashed.

This is out of order... Saturday I was lucky enough to score a whole day to myself. I went scrapbooking. I was really needing to get my family album caught up to Mia's birth so I could start a new album, get Gaby's updated to 1st grade, and Kadyn's preschool days in her album. I was scrapbooking from 9am to 5pm and completed23 pages. I worked in everyones but Kadyn's. Here is a sample of Gaby's first day of school for first grade! Scrapbooking is such a great hobby for me. I love taking pictures, I love seeing how my kids grow, and I love to see how our family works.

Today I have been playing catch up. I was totally embarrassed with the way my house looked this morning for drop off's but I just did not have it in me to clean Sunday night... again, sorry daycare parents! But, before my kids arrived I did mange to start the laundry, pick up toys (which seems silly when they are right back out within minutes of the first kid being here), get my check book balanced, and fix Dustin's lunch. As the kids were finishing up breakfast, I washed the dishes (put them in the dish washer) and put together Mia's fun new chair!
Here she is for the first time in her big girl chair. Looks good huh, Jill???!!! (my awesome friend and daycare parent purchased this cool chair as our shower gift).
Anyway- here is my weekend... hope everyone is off to a wonderful (shorten) week!!!

Today my baby is 7 years old!

Warning: Today's post may be sappy! Today is Gabrielle's 7th birthday. Normally I am yelling and running around trying to get her ready for school on time but today was different, she was up before the first daycare kiddo arrived! First thing she said was, "Mommy, today I am the birthday girl". While she was getting dressed Dustin ran to Dillons and brought back balloons to start her day right!
Gaby is my oldest child. Through her I have learned to be a parent, learned to love unconditionally, praise, be patient(still working on this), be thankful, listen and be humble. With Gaby's seven years of life I know that she will become something great, someone that helps others, and some who loves with all of their heart.
Gaby and I have a bond that I think you only have with your first born, there is something there that I can not explain... not favoritism but something. Last night as we were driving to her gymnastics class, I gave her a pep talk...try everything, be open to new challenges, you can do the high beam ect. The time came that it was her turn to do the beam... as she is trying to get up there she looks over at me. I give a smile, and "you can do it". She then gets on the beam and starts to balance her way across. It seemed like time stood still as my heart stopped and I watched her. She completed her task and when she jumped off she looked at me and nodded with great pride. I thought to myself, this was a special moment as a mom to a) be there to support her and pump her up for a challenge b) be there when she accomplished her goal.
Anyway- I wanted to share some things about my little girl that still wants to hold my hand, still says, "I love you mommy, you're the best", and still wants to have girls nights with me! She is one of a kind!

Gaby and her birthday balloons. We are having a birthday party tonight for family the Sunday she is doing a gymnastics party at CAGE. Busy birthday weekend!

This is Gaby when she was a month old. Mia looks just like her, same frown and all!

Taco Bell for me...Sloppy Joes for them!

Everyone who knows me just understands I have some weird "corks" that make me function. I have come to terms with the fact that I : can not pee in a public restroom if anyone else is in there, can not have my food touching, can not leave the house before hitting the refresh button on the computer, I hate tomatoes but love V-8 juice. The lists goes on and on and on. Another one being Nacho Bell Grande's... Four years ago while I was pregant with Kadyn I ate this meal from Taco Bell. Later that night in the parking lot of Barns and Nobel, I puked it up. It took me over a year just to order this again and even then I ordered it without tomatoes, green things, and taco meat! Well, I am proud to say, today, I ordered the fool thing with the taco meat and it was great! It has only taken me 4 years to get to this point but it was yummy! Today was a break threw type of a day!
Next question, " do you feel bad for eating out when the daycare kids ate sloppy joes?". Not so much. I am a very picky eater and do not base my menus from that. If I did, the children would be eating frozen pizza and hot pockets every day. Some how I think the food program would frown on that. I like to offer them a variety of home cooked meals, new foods to try, and somewhat healthy foods. Taco Bell doesn't fit in any of these, so with that, I am okay with eating something different from the kiddos, now my waste line might differ! With that, I am signing off, who knew I could write a post about Taco Bell. And that would be another cork about me that everyone loves!!!

How the daycare functions...

When I am asked, "what do you do for a living", I reply, " I own a home daycare". The next comment usually is, "I don't know how you do it". The biggest thing for me is having the kids on a routine. They know when they come they have free play and TV time until Gaby gets on the bus. Then we move into our preschool/learning time ect. Another great help is having centers. I am no where close to operating like a child care center would but I like the idea of having 2-3 stations they can go to in smaller groups. This leads to less chaos, fighting, and waiting for turns. I use centers while doing I am doing one on one art time, flashcard time, or working on writing skills ect. Today we had several things going: coloring, dry erase board, blocks, and train. This was our morning!

Our Christmas Pictures!

For better and worse, here are the Christmas/birthday/3mo. pictures we had taken at Sears last night! Let start by saying, I love Sears...they have coupons, fast turn around, and take great pictures. Last night was a different story! We have okay pictures, the staff was not educated on their specials, and no one was there to order pictures with us until I was ready to pay. Hum.... I will spare you the incredibly disappointing events that took place and share these pictures with you!

Mia's 3 month picture... not sooo bad!

Now her feet are higher then her face!

Another okay one..

This one of Kadyn scares me... she looks like the devil. She never smiles like this...scary!

We actually ordered pictures in this pose!

And I liked Gaby in this one as well! Very pretty girls standing by their numbers!

Gaby's head is titled crazy weird and throws the whole picture off! Plus Kadyn's look...

The above pose is what we ordered the cheap package in...better then nothing!

"Catch the baby, she is rolling..."

And last but not least, the Kadyn elf ear is sticking out... little details like this just bug me to no end. Maybe it was a sign not to spend too much money on pictures. We walked away with a package and 8 sheets of 5x7's (buy one, get one free) for $27.00. Oh well... better luck next year!!!

Fall hand wreaths

Today we had a blast getting a little messy. We made hand print fall wreaths. It is so simple just so fun. We took a piece of card stock and did a circle of hand prints in red paint, then orange, and finished up with yellow. Cut around the hand prints, cut the middle out, tie orange ribbon and you have a festive hand wreath...simple, huh??!! The kids loved them. We also went over the fall colors we were using, patterns, and counting!

Here are the peanuts showing off their wreaths and sitting by Grammy. It is next to impossible to get all of them looking up at me at once but you get the point!


Here is the littlest peanut, Mia. This was her first art project since being in mommy's daycare! I tried painting her hands but she had them balled up so tight there was no way I could get her hand print, so we used her feet and it came out just as cute!

Happy 3 months lil' nugget!

Today Mia is 3 months old. It is hard to believe she has been in our life for 3 months now. With each day I love seeing her new expressions, cooing, and smiles! So far, Mia is a spitting image of Gaby when she was a baby. Mia is sweet little girl already. She turning and following voices, smiles at mom and dad, and last night started grabbing a toy and brought it to her mouth. She loves her swing which helps me during busy daycare moments, sleeps in her crib all night (started Tuesday of this week) and is starting to sit in her bumbo seat. What a new stage of development Mia is in. As you all know, I love taking pictures, it is fun to look back to when she was born and see how much she has changed already!

Mia Rose-1 day old

Mia- 1 month old (doing her "kissy lips")

Mia- 2mo (at her check up)

Mia-3mo (trying new ways to make tummy time AWESOME)

Dancing with the stars...

This is the first season I have watched Dancing with the Stars. In the past if there was nothing on TV I might have stopped and started watching it for a while. This season, because of my "sisterhood", I have watched every episode within 24 hours of taping it. Here are some of my thoughts on the show... This is the man I would like to win this season. He is a big dude and he can jump, jive and whale with the rest of them. Warren Sapp has an awesome personality and can dance! I enjoy him and his wonderful partner and hope they can make it all the way!

Here is my next pick... Cody (from Disney's Hannah Montana). Him and his partner have such a cute chemistry. They may not be the best in the competition but each week they give it their best. Cody has improved every week, charms the crowd, and works his butt off every time!

So, there it is... my picks for the season of dancing with the stars! Enjoy!

The highlight of the day!

It thrills me to no end how much the kids love being outside. As we were getting ready to line up I see the three older kids hovering over the slide. I repeated the instructions to line up and K replies, " Ah mommy, it's boo-tee-ful". I went down to see what they were looking at and she had found a lady bug. They wanted to keep it for our class pet but we decided it was best for the lady bug to stay outside.

It was a cute moment to realize what a positive influence nature can have on us all.

9 kids and counting....

Today was on of those great fall mornings! After circle time and calendar we got bundled up and went outside to play. The kids love being out there...they can scream, roll in the leafs, run, and just be kids. We tried counting leafs but there were just too many and we lost count around 25. It was just a refreshing time for us. Here are some cute pictures of my growing daycare family!

Little Mia and her Target gloves/hat from the 1.00 bin.

Kadyn and her new coat! Thank you 50% off at Sears!

Middle A and his new hair cut...they started with coats on but got hot after running!

Big brother A and his new hair cut. He informed me his head wasn't hot anymore! =)

Little A had a good time in the playhouse-this picture was the only tie she was out in the open!

C had a great time swinging on the disk swing-today was the 1st day he stayed on it!

J loves the swing set and the digging area under the slide area. He doesn't even need a push to get started anymore!

Little Bitty A is still exploring the back yard. She stays in the same area right now.

H loves just running- you can see she is in motion as I am trying to get her picture!