Goodbye Minivan; Hello Suburban

Last Thursday night, we traded in our minivan for a GMC Yukon Suburban. I really like it! I was prepared to drive that van until it died on us, so when Garrett suggested that we go test drive it I was pretty surprised. Things worked out great because we got an upgrade in cars for only a tiny bit more in price. Now, we're trying to sell the truck (ANYONE WANT TO BUY A GREAT TRUCK?) so we're back down to two payments. The suburban can pull the trailer (which was a must), it has a ton of cargo space, a built in GPS and DVD player and a moon roof. Plus it's fun to drive something big again. I've been missing the Expedition. I've been driving Garrett's focus for the past two days while he took it in for emissions and to go back to the dealership to get the speedometer fixed. Driving in that tiny car with four kids is way to cramped for me. And them! So, I'm glad this all worked out.

Maggie got diamonds

After about a year of working up her courage, Maggie finally decided to get her ears pierced. We are really proud of her for going through with it. She wanted to get them pierced for her 8th birthday, but then decided she wasn't ready. Every now and then she'd say she was ready, but then her worrying got the best of her. We would "practice" with her by having Garrett pinch her ears to show her what the pain would be like. We told her that if we drove all the way to the mall, that she would have to go through with it, since we didn't want to take a trip out there for no reason. So she had to be absolutely sure. So last Saturday, she had made up her mind to just do it. She talked to her friends at school who already had their ears pierced to find out how much it really hurt. After she was done she said it hurt more than what she expected. But, she made it through like the tough girl she is. She picked her birthstone for the earring; diamonds. She loved that. She's really happy that she finally did it and she loves the way they look. She can't wait to wear the dangly earrings, but I guess she has to wait 6 months before she can wear those.

Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse!

This past Saturday we had Paige's 4th birthday party with some friends over. We invited 5 little girls and all 5 were able to come! Her theme this year was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She really loves to watch the show, so she was excited when I suggested it for her party. It was really fun and pretty easy to plan games for.
We had a treasure hunt to find our mouse ears and a "mousekespotter" (like a telescope) to decorate and then use later in the party. Then we ate lunch--Paige's favorite macaroni and cheese and hot dogs and had cake and icecream.
Then I suggested that we go open presents, but when we got to the place where they were, they had disappeared. But, in it's place was a note from Pete saying that he took the presents and hid them as a joke. They could get them back if the girls followed his clues and solved some puzzles. It was pretty cute. It involved some counting, hopping, twirling, finding shapes, matching colors and marching to find the presents, but they found them. Then we opened presents and then all the girls wanted to play dress-up upstairs and that was it. It was a fun theme and I think Paige had a great time.

Paige, Avery, Brooke (front left), Briana, Nicole and Ella. All the girls she knows from church, except Ella who is in her preschool class)

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake
We even had Toodles come with special tools to help find the presents.

The girls using their mousekespotters to find shapes on the ceiling.

Bella Mouseketeer

Our Sugar Plum Fairy

I am really liking the new school that the girls go to. They actually did something for the holidays; whereas Maggie's old school never did a thing. Granted, it got cancelled due to the snow, but they still planned a "Nutcracker" Production for the holidays. Maggie tried out for the Sugar Plum Fairy dancer and got it, along with two other girls. They held practices once a week after school for about 3-4 weeks. Maggie was really bummed when they cancelled it, but I figured that they would try to do it after Christmas--which they did. They put it on last Friday night (9th). The 3rd and 4th graders were the ones involved and it was really well done. They had great costumes (thanks to Terri and Rose, among others), a fun choir and the actors did a great job remembering their lines. The turn out was amazing. It's great to see the community supporting an event like this. There were quite a few kids from our ward that were involved, also and they all did a great job! We are so proud of Maggie for auditioning for the part and showing her talents. I know it's scary up there on stage, but she did a great job and I think she had a pretty good time.



Here's a picture of her in her costume and stage make-up. I'm still working on a video of the dance.

Paigey is 4!!!

Paige, 3 days old

One year old

Two years old



Three years

Three and a half

Four years old. Wearing her new "Fancy Nancy" posh slippers.

Our little Paigey girl turned 4 years old today. She was born at 10:52 in the morning via C-section and the birth went very smoothly. She was 7 lbs. 14 oz and 20 inches long and she had a little tiny bit of dark hair. One thing I do remember about the birth was that Dr. Dierdorff had the radio playing during the operation. When she came out (or a little after), they were playing the song "Daughters" by John Mayer. I thought it was quite appropriate. :) Maggie and Lydia were very excited to have another sister and loved holding her.

Some things about Paige:

1.) She is all girl and loves barbies, polly pockets, dress up and wearing make-up and lots of lotion and chapstick (or lip stick to her).

2.) She is a beautiful dancer and is taking ballet (a.k.a. creative movement) at Forest Grove Dance Arts. She loves to dance around the house doing beautiful ballet moves. She's very excited for her 1st dance recital in June.

3.) Paige is a singer. She loves to sing songs from the Little Mermaid, Barbie movies, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, you name it, she sings it.

4.) She is very loving. She's very good at coming up to us and giving us hugs and kisses for no reason, and she's always the first person to kiss and hug Bella before I put her down for her naps.

5.) She is very helpful around the house. She is eager to help with the dishes and setting the table. And is usually helpful when it comes to putting toys away, but that usually takes a little more persuasion.

6.) She is a good student at home and at church. In fact, her preschool teacher, Miss Linda asked if she could clone Paige because she is very well behaved and polite at school. She loves being a sunbeam at church, finally.

7.) She has a temper. This isn't one of her better points, but it's true. She gets upset very easily and will yell and cry and unfortuneatly hit/kick/scratch the person that has wronged her. We're working on that.... : )

8.) She is a snacker and very picky about food. This kid is constantly eating food throughout the day. I hate to say it but somedays it annoys me because I'd rather worry about food for the 3 meals/day and move on to other things. But she'll eat her breakfast and then an hour later (sometimes less) will be asking for a snack. This goes on throughout the day. Everyday. Maggie and Lydia were never like this, so it's something I have to get used to. Her favorite food of all time is macaroni and cheese. She eats this at least 4 or 5 times a week. I keep trying to get her to eat other things, but its such a battle because she is so picky! So I usually give in.

9.) She is a major gum chewer. I don't know if she just gets bored, or just likes to have something in her mouth all the time, but if she's not snacking, she's chewing gum.

10.) But she is a sweetheart and usually very happy and we love her just the way she is!

Happy Birthday Monkey!

New Years Fun!

We had a pretty good New Years this year. New Years Eve day was spent playing board games most of the morning. We played games that we got for Christmas including Boggle, Candy land and my personal favorite--Clue.

In the afternoon, we took the girls to see "Bolt." It was a really cute movie and the highlight (for Maggie anyway) was that Miley Cyrus was the voice for the little girl, Penny in the movie.

That night we went to an awesome New Years bash at the Nissinens house. We almost weren't able to go for lack of babysitters. We called a bunch of people, but there was a New Year's Eve stake dance, so most of the babysitters went to that. Luckily, we our friend's daughter was able to come over and babysit, on the condition that she bring her two younger sisters with her since her parents were going to be at the party as well. It worked out really well because then our kids were able to have their own New Years Party. Maggie and Lydia were both awake when we got home @ 1 am! They were all giggly and delirious, but I could tell that they had a good time. They watched a couple of movies and played some board games.

I'm not quite at that "dedicated blogger level" where I remember to take my camera to parties, so I have no pictures of the festivities. But, I think Robyn and Kate took a lot of pictures, so you'll have to check out their blogs to see pictures. We all had a great time visiting and playing games and singing along to American Idol karyoke (not me personally) but Tonya and Robyn rocked "Sister Christian". I wonder if anyone got that on video? :) We had a lot of laughs playing their version of Cranium and thanks again Robyn for guessing my lame attempt at acting out "an astronaut". Whew--glad that's over! Thanks again Terri and Aaron for the fun party!

Here's to a great 2009!