Life with the Leonard’s

Snowdays are snow much fun!

2012-01-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2012

I felt like a kid again as I peaked out our upstairs window this morning because I saw lots of beautiful white snow!! I've been rather upset because Western Washington has been getting hammered with snow and we've had nothing but cold temperatures. It was snow much fun to watch the snow falling this morning. As soon as it was light LeAnne and I bundled up and went outside to play and take pictures!! She played in the front yard while I shoveled snow off the side walks then we went out back so the fur kids could play. Gracie loves running and jumping in the snow. Bella stayed under the picnic table.

Looking down our road

Once LeAnne had turned into a popsicle we came inside to warm up and do a bit of fun learning. She has been missing school and I thought I think I'll start teaching her a sight word a week. So today we worked on the word see. I typed I see a and a period on the computer, printed them out, and had her cut out pictures of things she liked. Then I put together the first sentence together then had her tell me how to put together the next three sentences. Next I found a I see book online, printed it, she read it to me then colored. It was sentences like I see crayons, I see books and I see friends. She LOVED it!! I love teaching my little girl. I love her hunger to learn!

Then we went back outside to play in the snow again and I shoveled another few inches of snow. We had snow much fun!!!

The next day wasn't nearly as fun because our snow turned to sleet and freezing rain. Everything was covered with a thick layer of ice. I will shovel snow any day over scrapping ice off side walks in the freezing rain. I stayed home from work even though our school was the ONLY school open in the region. My husband said the roads were really scary. I later heard 12 kids came to school. I hate not being there for my student. LeAnne and I spent the day learning more sight words (Can and My). I saw a cool idea on Pintrest where a mom put the sight words on pumpkins. So I found a cute butterfly pattern, pasted it into photoshop,added the sight words in the middle, printed it, we colored and hung on LeAnne's wall. This weekend we are going to get out the paints to make hand and feet prints to to us in My book. (My feet, My hands, My house...)

Sight Word Butterfly Decor

Our school is running 2 hours late today and I am going to brave the roads and see how it goes. Preschool is also running late but I am going to have LeAnne stay home with daddy. Doesn't make sense to take the chance of getting into an accident for 2 hours of school. I am really hoping this mess melts away this weekend so we can have a normal school week. I LOVE the snow and hope we get more this winter but don't love the ice.

Good Bye 2011 & Hello 2012

2011-12-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

As I begin to reflect on 2011 it was an overall good year. Of course we had our share of challenges and trials but I am overwhelmed more by how blessed we are as a family. We've triumphed over challenges and continue to live a blessed life. John and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in May. I thank God every day for my amazing husband and pray God will continue to show me how to love him as He loves him. Amanda graduated from high school in June, and started College in September. LeAnne turned 4 in October, continues to thrive in Preschool and keep us on our toes. The blessings continue... John and I both have good jobs, decent health, a beautiful home, food in our bellies and lots of LOVE to share!

I've never been good at new years resolutions so I would like to list my hopes & prayers for 2012.

Praying God will guide John in his job search(as he looks to better provide for our family and find that new career path).

Praying God will bless our family with a new bundle of joy in 2012!

Praying for continued good health, for safety for our family and that we would be better stewards of the money God blesses our family with.

Praying for Amanda as she begins her Veterinary Assistant course in January!

Praying for God's guidance in regards to my job. My student has one more year at his current school then will move to another district. I pray that IF it is God's will I will go with him and IF it's not His will that he will show me the way to my new career. I love working with children with Special Needs so I pray He would find another child I can help be the best he/she can be!!

In 2012 my goals in no particular order are to:

Go on more dates with my husband. We need some adventure for us.

Spend less money, pay down debt and save more money!!!

Eat the right foods!

Make excuses less and exercise more!

Balance my time with my technology ( I luv it but sometimes it robs me of real life experiences)

Be more organized & pay more attention to detail

Spend more time reading the bible & growing as Jesus's daughter

Go to Church

Spend more time crafting & teaching our princess

Scrap book more

Keep reading (read 24 books this year thnx to my Kindle)

Make friends

Learn something new

I am excited to spend New Years Eve with my Mama and Grandma who are now home for the winter. Then if I can stay away ring in 2012 with my amazing husband!!

Happy New Year to all my family and friends!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve LeAnne and daddy has a blast tracking Santa with NORAD. He would first show her on his phone or laptop where Santa was and where we were then they bust out daddy's globe and show her where we lived and were Santa was. It was a precious teaching moment for sure!

Let's see where Santa is...

Then Daddy read LeAnne Twas the Nigh before Christmas and we tucked her into bed.

Santa's been here...

I woke up at 4:45am Christmas morning. Enjoy a few cups of coffee and watched a Christmas church service online and had some nice quiet time with my Savior. Happy Birthday Jesus! I am so thankful you're in my life! I had a nice instant message chat with a dear friend who retired and move to Arizona this year. Then at 7am I was about to go wake up LeAnne when she poked her head out the door of her room. I ushered her upstairs to wake up daddy then we all came down stairs and let the Christmas chaos begin. LeAnne was so happy to see Santa had left her Willa, a Fijit Friend, some new Little mermaid PJ's and princess slippers!! As she opened her presents she kept saying "this is what I always wanted"! As most kids on Christmas morning she was overwhelmed a bit. She was very excited to show daddy and I the awesome calendar she had made for us at school. Seeing her hand prints done different ways is so precious.

Christmas afternoon we headed down to the Tucannon to spend the rest of the day with family. We had a lot of fun visiting and playing with the little ones. I was thankful for the time with my sister.

LeAnne was none to happy when we took down our Christmas decorations earlier this week. We told her they'd be back next year. Oh boy was I ever happy to pack up her favorite Christmas movie, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas or Mickey Ho Ho as she calls it, I think we watched it at least 10 times this season.

Little girl is already moving into the next holiday. She says "guess what, it's almost Valentines Day". Silly girl we have January/February birthday's first. One of which is mine birthday January 10th. I really can't believe I am as old as I am. I don't feel like it.

This Christmas break has been very nice and relaxing! I am thankful for the weekend Amanda was here and that John has as much time off as he did!! I am thankful my mom and grandma made it home this week and it looks like they'll be here for the Winter.

Thank-you Lord for blessing our life!!

LeAnne & her new Cabbage patch Maddie

Stencil fun

LeAnne & baby Cinderella

LeAnne loves her Gumballs


Beautiful ornament I for from my Student

Mama & daughter Christmas morning!

Our Whole Family Under One Roof for a Week!!

2011-12-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

It was amazing to have both of our girls under one roof for a week. To make the week even sweeter John was off work the whole time she was here. Amanda arrived Friday night via train and left EARLY this morning. My heart was full of joy as I watched our girls play together. LeAnne absolutely adores her big sister! She enjoyed waking her up every morning by jumping on her. One morning she came upstairs to tell us "Amanda won't get up, she just says mmmm (moaning) " hee hee! While Amanda was here she and LeAnne decorated a gingerbread house, help decorate cookies, and Amanda showed her how to work her new Wii draw game. We had a family game night and visited one of her cousins. Amanda definitely loves her little sister as well. I hope these girls will be close as they grow up. Amanda and I enjoyed lunch and went to see Breaking Dawn together which was a lot of fun. Both John and I had some nice talks with Amanda. Amanda is very excited to start her Veterinary Assistant program January 9th! We are very proud of our girls! :-) I love being a wife and a mama!

Christmas Cookies, Gingerbread house and more!

2011-12-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a blast with baking with my girls! We made sugar cookies, snow top cookies, snicker doodles, and chocolate chip cookies. We had a great assembly process going this year that made things go smoothly. I would rolls and cut out the cookies then give them to the girls to decorate. LeAnne really got into decorating this year. She kept asking her big sister if the cookies looked good. The girls also dd a beautiful job of decorating a gingerbread house. Then later in the evening we played Candy Land and Apples to Apples. This was LeAnne's first real experience playing Candy Land. She caught on quickly and we had a blast. Apples to Apples is a hilariously funny game. Thank you Amanda for the wonderful Christmas gift!! It is so much fun to have our whole family together this week. LeAnne absolutely adores her big sister! IIt so nice to be able to talk with Amanda. Amanda is very excited to start her 12 week veterinary assistant course in January! Were very proud of her!!

Oh Christmas tree

2011-12-14T20:53:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we drove to a small tree farm about 20 minutes away from our house. The trees were naturally flocked due to our cold temperatures. LeAnne had a lot of fun running in and out of the trees. We found a beautiful tree, strapped it to the top of the car and headed home. This is the first year LeAnne has really gotten into decorating the tree. It was fun telling her about the special ornaments. She especially loved the foot print ornament from her first Christmas. Later that night she was going to helping daddy wrap presents but fell asleep early so daddy and I wrapped presents. When she saw the presents the next morning here is how the conversation went;

LeAnne; where did the presents come from
Me: Daddy and I wrapped then last night
LeAnne: Who are they for?
Me: Read the tags
LeAnne: This one is for ME!
LeAnne: Why are they wrapped?
Me: So the gifts are a surprise on Christmas day
LeAnne: Who's the big box for?
LeAnne: Can I open them now?
Me: Nope not until Christmas day.

Christmas Kickoff

2011-12-14T20:29:00.000-08:00

In the evening the day after Thanksgiving our little family enjoyed our towns Christmas kickoff festivities! Our first stop was the live nativity. A local church put on small skit and we sang some beautiful Christmas songs! Next we walked over to Main Street to enjoy the lighted Christmas parade. The parade was beautiful! LeAnne was clapping and loving every bit of it. Of course no farming town Christmas parade would be complete without a huge lighted tractor. :=) We had a little while before the fireworks would start so we walked over to the bakery for some some coffee to warm up. The fireworks were amazing!!

Then on Saturday we did some shopping at our stores in town, visited Santa Claus and LeAnne got to play on the new playground in town. LeAnne was so excited to see Santa and once we got there she clammed up when on his lap. She was talking very quiet or not at all. It was the quietest I've EVER seen her. After we left she talked all afternoon about her visit with Santa. It was a very fun Christmas kick off!

Snow fun and more LeAnnisms

2011-11-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

We got about 1-3 inches of snow between Friday night - Saturday morning (Nov 18-19). It was almost enough to entirely cover the grass. LeAnne was so excited to see the snow and it was hard keeping her inside until it got light and warmed up a bit. All bundled up in her new snow pants, jacket, scarf, gloves and boots as we walk outside she says to me "Do you like my style". I'd never heard her say this before and it caught me off guard. She had a lot of fun walking in the snow, throwing snow balls at ME and building a teeny tiny snowman.

Other LeAnnisms:

Today at the grocery store she says "guess what" to which I responded "what" and she said "no I am talking to her (pointing the the checker) and the checker says "what" to which she responds "its almost Thanksgiving" Then she goes on to talk about how Christmas comes next and the checker asks her what her favorite Christmas song is. She gives the deer in the head light look and I say what song have you been singing all week? Then she sang "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" 5 times. I bet that lady never asks a little kid what their fave song is again. LOL!!

Lately LeAnne has been telling me "You have to pay attention" to which I say okay, um are you hearing that a lot from Ms. Miranda. She says Yes. At LeAnne's conference this week I asked her about how she was doing at circle time and told her about her telling me to pay attention. She says yep I say that quite often but she is doing better, she's not touching kids anymore. :-) Oh boy!

This morning while I was preparing my grocery list she asked to do a dot to do book. I couldn't find the dot to dot but found a number and letter Pre-K skills book and she wanted to do those. Oh my gosh it was like the girl was ravenous for learning! She was asking me directions and then she would do the page in 2.2 seconds and be ready for the next. It was activities like color all the spaces with 4 dots to find a hidden picture, color all the A or a to find a hidden picture, circle how many are in this group, only circle groups of 3, dot to do, follow the A a to solve the puzzle and trace numbers. WOW! I love seeing her so excited to learn. She almost finished both books. For Christmas I'll be finding more books like them.

She is re-telling stories a lot these days. When I put her to bed I leave the book I read with her and listen to her re-tell the story over the baby monitor before she drifts off to sleep. She is also making up some interesting once upon a time stories. As she gets older daddy and I must keep her engaged in reading and I pray she loves it. Good readers make amazing writers too!!

She is beyond excited for Christmas this year. Talks about decorating all the time, about Santa and his reindeer. This Friday and Saturday will be our towns Christmas kick off. Their will be a lighted parade and fireworks on Friday. Then a live nativity, mule drawn sleigh rides, caroling and much more on Saturday.

In other new our Black Walnut tree is no longer standing. No more walnut messes or falling limbs! Yahoos to some beautiful Black Walnut wood we will have milled and John hopes to make our head board and foot board out of.

View from the back yard minus Walnut tree


Walnut tree is down - it's quite the mess at the moment

Do you like my style?

LeAnne & her tiny snowman

She was so proud of her big snowball

See my foot prints?

Found out the hard way that making a snow Angle without gloves is COLD!

Fall School Photos

2011-11-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here are LeAnne's Fall 2011 school photos! I wasn't there to comb her hair so it was combed straight down and it really shows she has TONS of hair. I think in the Spring we will get her pictures professionally done.

I am SUPER blessed to have Wednesday - Friday off of school/work due to teacher/parent conferences and Veterans day on Friday. I am enjoying the extra time with princes Why... oh I mean LeAnne. Yes the why phases has begun. It's comical at times but down right aggravating other times. A friend of mine said try answering with a question. I tried and it seemed to work a bit once time but then the next time not at all. It comes to a point where I say "Because I said so, or that's just the way it is". Hee hee!!

This pose is fits her personality perfect!!

HUGE Baby Bump Giveaway

2011-11-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

Baby Bump Giveaway – Prize Pack Worth Over $450!

One lucky reader will win…

BabyBjorn Baby Carrier Miracle

visit the BabyBjorn Facebook page and follow @BabyBjornUS on Twitter

Baby Dipper Bowl and Utensil Set

visit the Baby Dipper Facebook page and follow Baby Dipper on Twitter

Choice of Hat from Beanie Designs

visit the Beanie Designs Facebook page, and follow @BeanieDesigns

MAM Baby Prize Pack (includes 1 triple pack of bottles, 1 oral care rabbit, and 2 pacifiers)

visit the MAM Baby Facebook page, and follow @MAMBABY on Twitter

Boogie Wipes

visit the Boogie Wipes Facebook page, and follow @BoogieMom on Twitter

Boppy Newborn Lounger

visit the Boppy Facebook page, and follow @BoppyCompany on Twitter

Pampers Gift Bag

visit the Pampers Facebook page and follow @Pampers on Twitter

Dr. Sears Family Essentials Baby Skincare Products

visit the Dr. Sears Family Essentials Facebook page and follow @AskDoctorSears on Twitter

Chewbeads Jewelry Set

visit the Chewbeads Facebook page

3 pack of 5 oz. Tommee Tippee bottles

visit the Tommee Tippee Facebook page and follow @TommeeTippee_NA on Twitter

Little Girls dance their ways into our hearts

2011-11-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

Thank-you Auntie Katie!!

A few fun moment with LeAnne;

This morning on the way to school it was very foggy and dark so LeAnne told me to drive slow and don't hit any deer, giraffes or penguins. I told if I saw any of those animals I would stop for sure. LOL!!

She wrote my name the other day! It was so exciting. :-) She is also learning to write her first and last name. She is also learning to count to 30 in school.

One day last week she kept going around saying "Where's the Beef". I am like where did you hear that because I know you don't know those commercials . She said I heard it from budderball from Space buddies!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's a bird, its a plane. No wait it's.... SUPER Girl! Oh I mean Super LeAnne Leonard! She has a very fun day at preschool. The preschooler's sang the older classes 2 songs that were adorable of course. Then after trick or treating in the older classes they enjoyed a fun Harvest party. They frosted cookies, played games and ate treats.

Then that evening LeAnne and I went over to our neighbors house where the kids had a blast eating some festive foods and then we went trick or treating.

Super Girl & The Jail Bird - LeAnne wanted to know if I could fly? LOL!!

Our Little Performer

2011-10-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our little princess is quite the performer. She loves to dress up, dance and sing. Here she is dressed up as Arial from the Little Mermaid singing along with a card she got for her birthday. It was so sweet.

Happy Birthday LeAnne

2011-10-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

October 11th was an amazing day this year and 4 years ago! People think I am nuts but LeAnne's birth was an empowering day and I look pray I am blessed with the opportunity to experience labor and delivery again!!

LeAnne has been so excited for her birthday this year. She took cupcakes to school on Monday and got to wear a birthday crown.

She loved spending the morning with Grandma Marcia making cookies. Then after I got off work we headed in to town to have dinner, and dessert. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and LeAnne got her own cheese personal pan pizza which she loved. Then we headed to Petco so LeAnne could pick out which fish she wanted as part of her birthday presents. She got an adorable Little Mermaid fish tank and a beautiful Betta fish that she named Fishy Splash. After that we headed to Dairy Queen for a birthday dessert. She got a chocolate covered ice cream cone and was most interested in the cone rather than the ice cream.

Then we headed home she got to open her gifts from daddy and mama. As she opened her Leap Frog camera she said "Sweet"! She is having a blast with it. She also got Fox in the Hounds DVD and an education computer game.

It was an amazing day and we look forward to celebrating with family and friends on Sunday.

Fish Splashes home

Fishy Splash

See what LeAnne did in schoo!!

Grandma Marica is coming to our house on Sunday !

2011-09-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

LeAnne has been missing her Grandma Marcia a lot since she's been on the other side of the BIG mountain taking care of Grandma Nana (her mom)! Many times a week I hear "Grandma is coming to my house" or "Grandma is coming to out house on Sunday" or "I am going to show Grandma my big her bed and butterflies".
Here's LeAnne in a dress Grandma Marica sent to her!! :-)

Lookin 2 cute & she said what?

2011-09-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while LeAnne was home with John she says to him "Daddy you have a dirty movie", can you imagine daddy's wide eyes and shock? Then she says "Look it's dusty"! Hee hee!!

Time for her 2nd day of school and she's looking 2 cute in her new outfit from Auntie Katie! Thank-you Auntie!!

First day of school for our little girl

2011-09-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

LeAnne had her first day of school yesterday. She woke up about 5am and when I went in to say good morning I asked her if she was ready for her first day of school and she squealed with delight! She loves learning!! Our little social butterfly also loves socializing with her kids as she calls them.

I didn't realized until today how much I miss working with the preschoolers. I had a lot of fun helping out in preschool last year. All the kids have grown so much and I am so excited to see their academic progress this year. Its an older class and all but LeAnne will start Kindergartener next year so there the teachers will be working through early Kindergarten curriculum as long as its received well by the students.

I asked her teacher how she did and was shocked to hear her say she was quiet in class today. LOL!!

I am so excited to see her grow this year. The weather is suppose to be cooling down on Wednesday so I can't wait to put her in an adorable dress she got from Auntie Katie. Our girl loves clothes and I love dressing her up. :-)

It's Time to Fill the backpack - Check out this Giveaway!!

2011-08-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

It's almost time to say good by to our amazing summer vacation and Hello to the new school year. LeAnne has been telling me she is going to Kindergarten all by herself. I've had to tell her she can go to Preschool all by herself. She is very excited to get back to school to see her friends, do crafts and learn. I am so thankful our little girl loves to learn like she does. She has a huge passion for letters and numbers.

I will be heading back to school Monday for a planning day and then our first day is September 6th and Preschool starts September 12th. I can't wait to see how much the kids have grown. I've missed my student so much this summer. The contest I am about to tell you about would be a HUGE blessing to my family but more importantly our school because I would share the supplies I win with the school who like so many schools is on a limited budget.

Next weekend our family will be heading to Tri-Cities to go school shopping! I am so excited to get her some new clothes and a new backpack! Speaking of backpacks... do I have an amazing contest to share with you!

I am also excited to share that some of the strain of shopping can be eased thanks to the “Win an overstuffed backpack of goodies from ~~Fill the Backpack~~ from Splash Creative & The Centsible Life valued at over $750. giveaway. That's right! The Centsible Life is working with seven other bloggers for Communities in Schools.

From The Centsible Life's site:

"Fill the Backpack benefits Communities in Schools

This isn’t just an ordinary giveaway though, it’s also a way for Splash Creative Media to give back. 10% of our net profits are going to our nonprofit beneficiary, Communities in Schools, a wonderful organization that surrounds students with a “community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.”

A donation to Communities In Schools is an investment in the future of our country. For approximately $200 per child per year, we are able to keep 97 percent of the young people we serve in school and on track to graduation.

You can find out more about Communities in Schools, ~~donate~~, or learn how you can volunteer via their ~~website~~, twitter and ~~Facebook~~ pages.

Fill the Backpack Giveaway includes:

Eventbrite: $50 credit for Eventbrite events-great for school events and fundraisers.

Leapfrog: LeapFrog’s Leapster Explorer ($69.99) provides handheld learning experiences in a portable device designed for ages 4-9. It serves as a mobile hub for downloadable Learning Apps that include eBooks, video, games, and flash cards that auto adjust during game play according to a child’s needs and skills and works with LeapFrog cartridges (prices vary).

Sleep Innovations: Help your kids get proper rest, so they can study better Sleep Innovations REMedy Study Bundle set, twin XL, contains a 1 1/2 inch twin XL-size gel memory foam topper and gel memory foam pillow in a reusable zippered canvas bag.($80)

Etymotic: an exciting new family product from Etymotic that will be released next month! You’ll be among the first to own it! ($49 or $79)

Snapfish: A $50 gift card to Snapfish with tons of great ideas for back-to-school including photo skins for gear, personalized notebooks, and more!

AVG: AVG 2012 ($54.99), the latest Internet security solution from the leader in online security.

Mabels Labels: The Ultimate Back to School Combo ($39) with everything you need for labeling everything for back to school, and Bag Tags ($21)

Marble Jar: Looking for a way to help reinforce positive behavior for your family? The Marble Jar app for iPhone ($2.99) can help.

ChicaLogic: ChicaLogic is a company that creates software for women, by women to keep your PC running smoothly. ChicaPC Shield ($29.95) and ChicaPC Fix ($29.95) work to scan your PC to find and remove threats caused by malware invasions and errors caused by regular use.

Lands’ End: You can’t beat Lands’ End backpacks for durability and quality for kids of all ages. (prices vary)

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac ($150) or Microsoft Office 2010 for PC ($149.95) are packed with features that help you tackle every assignment, and work together on group projects-from almost anywhere.

California Innovations: California Innovations eco-friendly lunchboxes are offered in a variety of colors, sizes, and even with your children’s favorite Disney characters. Made from recycled material (and PVC free), this is a great alternative to paper bags.

Stonyfield: From everyone’s favorite organic yogurt company, we have a gift pack with coupons for YoKids, an activity book, and more!

Carolina Pad: Carolina Pad offers a fun back to school package featuring exceptional quality and design. You can find everything from binders to notebooks, planners to folders for back to school in their online store or at retailers nationwide.

Scholastic: Literacy is the cornerstone of a child’s growth, and for nearly 90 years Scholastic has created quality products and services that educate, entertain and motivate children and are designed to help enlarge their understanding of the world around them.

P&G: P&G offers an Back to School box filled with tons of great products to help you and your family get back to school. Even better you can help kids stay in school by purchasing products using P&G’s brandSAVER.

Johnson’s & Johnson’s: A back to school gift pack including Johnson’s products including detangler (no more tears over hair brushing), hand and face wipes (perfect for on the go cleanup), and baby powder (for everything from the locker room to your shoes. For all those playground scrapes, and bumps they’ve also included Neosporin, and Mickey Mouse Band Aids.They work better together.

Playful Planet: Keep your kids healthy, and get some fun exercise in on rainy or cold day with the Splash Creative Media as part of the Fill the Backpack Campaign.

This is a lot of swag!

Enter on all the Splash sites!

Visit the sites of the Splash Creative Media team to learn about the other companies who have generously donated items for our Fill the Backpack giveaway! The Fill the Backpack team consists of:

TechSavvyMama by Leticia Barr @TechSavvyMama

Clueless Mama by Laurie Cooper, @Clueless_Mama

Formerly Gracie by Grace Duffy, @GraceDuffy

Savvy Sassy Moms by Andrea Fellman, @SavvySassyMoms

Just Precious by Julie Meyers Pron, @JustPrecious

Sassy Moms in the City by Alison Ray @SassyMomChicago

It’s My Life by Jessica Rosenberg, @Kikarose

The Centsible Life by Kelly Whalen, @CentsibleLife"

Visit all of the sites and enter for a total of 8 chances to win!

Sea Creature Creations

2011-08-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

This afternoon LeAnne & I used the Beach Buddies Shell Crafts kit from Creativity For Kids to make sea creature creations. I won this awesome kit from a blog giveaway so it was a few hours of FREE fun! The kit is very well put together and easy to use. The first thing we did was pick out a sea creature from felt; LeAnne chose a green sea horse and I chose an orange crab. Next we painted our sea creature and shells. While we waited for the paint to dry LeAnne took a nap. Once she was up from her nap we glued the shells onto the flannel, added some eyes and we had beautiful sea creations all ready for a puppet show.

Daddy & Baby Sea Horse

Sebastian the Crab

The sometimes friendly, sometimes angry SHARK!

Then LeAnne and I decorated a piece of paper to look like an ocean backdrop. I thought it was so precious how she was pretending with her creatures I suggested she put on a show for me and was she ever willing. Without further babbling form mama bear let the show begin!!!

Look who got a hair cut & a nice scratch on her face...

2011-08-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Lately LeAnne been telling me what she wants to be when she gets older and one week it was a cooker then the next week she wanted to be a hair cutter like Vickie (her hair stylist). She even said she would cut my hair all the time. I am imagining myself bald from too many hair cuts. hee hee! On Monday Vickie gave LeAnne a new hair style. Its cute but a tiny bit too short. It will grow and it is much easier to care for. Before Vickie started she was sure to tell her "Don't cut too much"!

Then Tuesday morning while she was taking a bath, while I was putting on my make up I hear a bang follow by her crying. Poor girl was playing and had hit her face, right under her eye on the water faucet. Of course this bath faucet has been covered by an adorable yellow rubber ducky for the last 3 1/2 years then a week ago the duck broke so I threw it away. She had not hit herself the whole time the duck was there then BAM! I have another faucet cover on the way from Target. Daddy says she'll probably never hit it again but I say IF I don't have a new cover for it she will. The new cover is cool anyway because I can use it to rinse her hair with.

In other news LeAnne informed me earlier this week she was going to to be going to Kindergarten all by herself. I told her she had a few more years before Kindergarten but she could go to preschool all by herself. I found out this week she will have 7 kids in her class including her. She's very excited to go back to school. I start back September 6th and she starts September 12th (Daddy's birthday).

Earlier this week LeAnne comes in from the back yard all upset saying "Bella (our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) is in time out just like we have at school". I say "0h, what happen". She says "She wouldn't come inside when I called her" I say "Good luck with the time out", and laugh. She says "It's not funny, I am angry"! Hee hee!!

See her ouch under her left eye?

Oregon Vacation

2011-08-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

Friday August 12th we packed up our Ford Freestyle and headed to see Grammy & Grampy in Salem Oregon. We stayed there Friday and Saturday. On Saturday we went to the Polk County fair where LeAnne got to pet a pig on the nose for the first time and she built her own little tool box at the Home Depot Exhibit. It was lots of fun!!

The best surprise of our vacation was that Amanda wanted to come with us!! On Sunday morning we all headed out for the beach! Amanda hadn't slept the night before so she was in a very hyper/talkative mood which John and I LOVED! It been a long time since she'd talked to us that much. It was a nice treat. Then of course 10 minutes from out destination both girls fell asleep.

We arrived a few hours before check in so our first stop was the beach in front of our hotel. Oh the feel of the sand between our toes! The smell of salt water and the sound of crashing ocean waves! Then we headed into town to get some lunch and walk down Broadway browsing in shops.

The next day we went to the aquarium where LeAnne had a blast feeding the seals, looking at all the sea life and touching some sea creatures. After that John and LeAnne went to play on the beach. This gave Amanda and I some time to walk around and chat. It was nice! She's a very special young lady! Next we headed to lunch then the Carousel Mall to do some shopping and LeAnne rode the Carousel.

After nap time we headed to the beach to fly kites and then into town to have dinner and play at a family fun center. That was a day full of fun!!

Our last morning their we checked out, made a few last shopping stops and were on our way home. That was a long day of traveling for sure! That was by far one of the best vacations we've had in a while. It was very nice to have our girls together. LeAnne absolutely adores her big sister. I love the ocean and the weather was beautiful!! I know we'll be going back to Seaside, Oregon to vacation.

Animated she is for sure!!

2011-08-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows our little at all knows she is very animated and full of life! Here are a few videos I've captured this summer of her dancing and singing. Watching her makes my heart full of love!!!

Remembering an amazing Friend - Michael Fidecaro

2011-08-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Michael living across the street from me all my life. (birth until high school) Through out our childhood we spent a lot of time playing together. One day we thought it would be a good idea to play tic tac toe on the hard wood floor of my bedroom with a red marker. That is the only time in my life I ever recall getting soap in my mouth. I must have gotten lippy with my mama. We walked to and from school at Highlands Elementary school and then McKnight Middle School (getting rides to school together sometimes). Halloween was always fun and kinda spooky at his house. His mom would dress up as a really scary witch and scare us kids. She also made homemade popcorn balls that were so yummy. Michael and I spent many an evenings driving around talking or walking at Coulon Park talking. We both had family struggles and could always count on one another to vent to. I remember the day in high school went we didn't want to stick around for a bbq/field day so we snuck out of school, had lunch at Coulon Park then snuck back into school. LOL!! Another fun memory I have is from our 1st semester of our Freshman year at Hazen High School. A lot was going in my life and I begun to spiral, my GPA went from 3.6 to 1.5. I told him I'd be dead after my parents saw my report card. Upon getting home he brought me over some dead roses in a vase. :-) On many occasion we'd talk on the phone looking at each other out the window. Don't ask me now why we did this but it was fun.

Michael was very kind, sweet, sensitive and caring! He was very funny and had this special laugh when he thought something was really funny. He was a great friend!! He knew how to make you feel special. He was great at cheering people up. I also love that if he didn't like what I was doing or if he thought I was about to make a stupid choice he would straight out tell me I was being dumb. Even though I loved that quality about him I think it contributed to us growing apart during and after high school. I regret we lost touch but I'll be forever grateful for the many great years we had as best friends.

I am very sad to say Michael was taken from us way too soon. (15 years ago this September) He is missed by many! I am thankful to have had him in my life and I look forward to seeing him again one day!!

LeAnnisms

2011-07-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

Our little girl has quite the dynamic personality! Not a day in her life have I ever wondered how she was feeling. All is well with the world when LeAnne is content but look out when she's not upset.

She is quite the extrovert. During the school year she would enter the school building and say "Good Morning kids!" Actually she will say hi to just about anyone she meets. Everyone who talks back to her is her best friend.

It's been fun this summer to watch her imagination expand. Adorable are the backseat telephone calls she has with Grammy Sally. One such conversation went something like this "Hi Grammy Sally, you want to come to my house to see my tower? Okay see ya later bye!"

She has exceptional hearing which causes us to be on our toes because she is quite the parrot. I am famous for joking around telling John to be nice to me when he jokes with me. Well one of LeAnne's recent lectures to me went like this "you need to be nice to me, it's not nice to be angry, you need to be happy, okay mom?!" Oh boy! The other day while she was picking up walnuts in the back yard I heard her say "more walnuts, you're killing me Grrr!" She gets the inflections perfect!

She is a very polite little girl who does very well saying please and thank-you. She keeps us accountable by telling us when we need to say please, thank you and your welcome. Geesh! LOL!! She is very kind. Many times a day she tells me "I'm so proud of you!" She doesn't quite get the concept but know its good and makes mama happy.

I can't believe how quickly these last 3 1/2 years have gone by. Our little girl is now sleeping in a beautiful full size bed(Thank-you Auntie for the Crib that converts, I'll get a picture up soon).

She's been testing her mama a lot this summer. Its frustrating but I stay strong, talk with her a lot and keep her accountable for her behavior. I'm thankful she has an amazing daddy who's amazing when it comes to discipline, spends quality time with her and tells her how much he loves her all the time.

I love you my precious girl! I am very thankful for summer when I can be home with you!

I had to update this post by adding what LeAnne said to me this morning. We were just hanging out around the house before daddy went to bed and she says "Fiddy abby ahnt", I am thinking huh? So I said had her say it a few more times. John and I had no clue. Then I said where did you hear that, she said Toy Story, so I asked who said it to which she answered Buzz Light Year so I think some more and say it to myself a few times "Fiddy Abby Ahnt, Fiddy Abby Ahnt. Then it his me she was saying "To infinity and beyond"! She confirmed that was what she was saying! Hysterical!

Time for School in the Pool !

2011-07-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

LeAnne had her first swim lesson at our home town swimming pool today! We told her that she was going to school in the pool to learn how to swim. As soon as we got there she was very excited to get right into the little pool. I was a bit apprehensive to let her go in by herself so daddy went in with her but she was soon off playing on her own. She has no fear of the water which is great and I am happy she is learning these very important skills. She is the youngest and the only girl in her class of four. Waiting for the other kids to work with the instructor is the hardest part for her. Today was a little windy so it was a little chilly for her. I am very excited to see her learn how to swim these next two weeks.

Miss Snail

2011-07-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

On our recent visit to see family & friends in Western Washington LeAnne's great aunt Katie found her a snail on the driveway of Grandma Nana's. At first LeAnne thought she was kinda of icky but soon became fascinated with her and they shared a fun morning together. Snail (as LeAnne named her) had a box with grass and flowers in it but who knew snails were so darn quick, she'd escape out of the box every time we turned around. While sitting at the table visiting with family I could hear LeAnne talking to Snail. She gave her a few tours of the deck which included the beautiful (boofidal as LeAnne says) spider web. I got quite the shock when she brought her snail to visit me. No warning I turn around to a snail inches away from me. Icky! LeAnne says it's okay, isn't she adorable and beautiful and a lovely lady? Later that morning she proceeded to give her kisses, tell her good night and sweet dreams. The last snail encounter came when she told me Snail had something on her. I think she may have pulled something off and touched her a bit too much because soon Snail didn't come out of her shell. We told LeAnne she was napping and then later than afternoon we told her to throw snail in to the garden so she could go play with her friends. Thank-you little snail for your sacrifice. You provided a little girl with an afternoon of fun. Thank-you auntie Katie for finding Snail.

WIN a Stork Craft 4 in 1 Verona Crib!

2011-07-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to share that Stork Craft has generously offered one lucky True Cuddles reader a Stork Craft 4 in 1 Verona crib, valued at $400!

About the Verona 4 in 1 Fixed Side Convertible Crib:

The charming Verona 4 in 1 Fixed Side Convertible Crib by Stork Craft surrounds your little sweetie in comfort and style! All four sides are stationary and include an adjustable mattress support base to accommodate your babies’ growth. The Verona is a smart investment as it converts from a standard crib to a toddler bed to a daybed and finally into a full-size bed complete with headboard and footboard (full size bed rails not included). It has a well built construction made of solid wood and wood products, offered in a selection of non toxic, durable finishes (white, cherry, espresso, black, cognac or oak). You can purchase the Verona crib at Sears Canada or any other major retailer across the USA!

Click HERE to enter to win this amazing crib and follow the directions given. While there I encourage you to look around this great blog. A group of moms write super reviews, and point us parents to great deals!! Thank-you!!

Fun Under the Big Top

2011-07-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

We had a blast at the Carson and Barnes Circus June 30, 2011. LeAnne absolutely loved the circus and riding the animals ! It was a very fun experience under the big top!! It was so fun to see LeAnne clapping and cheering the the performers on. She thought Alex the clown was very funny. We can't wait to see another circus!!!

Alex the clown was hilarious!! The elephants were awesome!

Riding ta pony during intermission

Ridding an elephant with daddy before the show


Loved riding the camel too!


Riding the Camel with her friend Riley

Close up of LeAnne & her friend riding the camel

We have a house in our house

2011-06-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

I got LeAnne this cool cardboard cottage that she can color and then play inside of it. I slightly under estimate the actual size of the thing. It takes up half of our kitchen. She is having a blast coloring it and playing inside of it. One of these days when I can no longer stand it in our kitchen it may be moving outside for the remaining of its days. :-)

Sprinkler time!!

2011-06-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day! It was between 85 - 90 degrees. LeAnne put on her gorgeous new Disney Princess bathing suit, put on sun block and ran through the sprinkler in our back yard. She LOVED it!!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

As I sit here trying to think of the right words to best celebrate and honor the father's closest to me in my life none seem to do justice to the smile on my face.

I smile when I think about those quiet moments I've shared with my dad where he told me he was proud of me. I smile when I think about a conversation I had with my dad when I was in my young 20's, here I was expecting yet another lecture about going to college when he started talking about me following my passion. I smile when I think about all the telephone calls where my dad has just listened, he didn't offer any one piece of advice, he didn't tell me what to do, instead he just listened and told me he knew I'd make the best decision. Thank-you dad!

Talking to my dad the morning after LeAnne was born!

He was so excited to meet his grand-daughter! :-)

I smile when I think about the man God blessed my life with. One of the first things that attracted me to him was how he treated his daughter. I am thankful for his leadership as the head of our family. I love watching him with our daughters. I appreciate the time he takes to teach our daughters important life lessons as well as the time he spends having fun with them. Thank-you for being an awesome daddy to our children! I love you!!

John & Amanda - June 10th at her High School graduation

Holding LeAnne in the hospital - Oct 2007


LeAnne' 1st Valentine from daddy!

Wordless Wednesday - Tinker Toy Vacuum

2011-06-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

For more wordless Wednesday fun head on over to 5 minutes for mom's


It's a Tinker Toy vacuum

Children's Museum

2011-05-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

LeAnne's preschool class celebrated their last day of preschool with a field trip to our local Children's Museum. The kids were first and foremost excited to get to ride the BIG school bus!! The Children's museum brought out the kid in all of us and we had a blast. I think LeAnne and I will be visiting there again this summer for sure. Here are a few pictures where I've cropped out her classmates out of respect for their privacy.

Preschool Graduation

2011-05-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

This year LeAnne's preschool class put on an end of the year program showing what they've learned and honored 4 students moving up to Kindergarten next year. One of the mom's in the class put together an amazing slide show set to the song Let Them Be Little by Lonestar. Then the children told us their favorite part of Preschool. LeAnne's answer was supposed to be "bouncing" but it didn't quite come out that way. Then the kids sang their ABC, Days of the Week and Months of the year. Next they told us what they wanted to be when they grew up. LeAnne says she wants to be a doctor. Then they sang a graduation song recapping some of the things they learned this year and the graduates received their diplomas. The program was followed up by a reception in the Preschool room. We had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun. LeAnne LOVED being on stage!!! I have some great videos that I am uploading to Youtube and more pictures I'd love to share with you via e-mail (dropcqueen@yahoo.com) since I don't want to post pictures and/or videos of her classmates on the Internet.

School Stage decorated

Preschoolers Finger painted their names

Showing Grandma & Daddy her shape in the classroom

Oh she loves the stage!!

High Time for an update & new pictures...eh?

2011-05-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I have not blogged since Easter! I guess we've just been busy living life. School will be out soon and I'll have more time to take more pictures and blog.

LeAnne has 3 days of preschool left for the year. Her last day is this Friday and the kids get to ride on the big school bus because they are going on a field trip to the Children's Museum. I am very excited my mama is coming home for a week this Tuesday. She is going to be here to see LeAnne's first end of the year preschool performance/graduation for the kids going into Kindergarten. This will be our school's first time having a end of the year/graduation program for preschool and it is going to be adorable. One of the moms has made the most precious photo slide show of the kids through out the year. I don't think their will be a dry eye in the place once it's seen.

She was boycotting nap but later fell asleep in daddy's chair!

Let me back up though and show you some pictures I've taken since my last update. The end of April I attended an amazing class about Sensory Processing Dysfunction in Spokane. While there I couldn't help but take a detour into Toysrus and bought LeAnne some bubbles and Tinker Toys. I am not sure who's had more fun with them her or I. I had a blast building a tractor and a robot with her. I still have not mastered how to build the Jet and Windmill. Hee hee!

A robot I created & she loved playing with!


LeAnne's awesome creation!

Then this Mother's Day LeAnne & I headed over the BIG mountain to spend the weekend with my mama, Nana, Auntie and as a bonus got to see my cousin, my sister in law and most adorable nephew. LeAnne was ecstatic to see her grandma Marica! She misses her so much. While there Auntie Katie filled a large plastic tub with some sugar and LeAnne has a blast playing in it on Nana's deck.

This past Thursday, May 19th, John and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. The day itself wasn't how either of us envisioned. The night before my niece gave birth to her son and there were complications. Soon after birth he was airlifted to a bigger hospital. The hours leading up to a diagnosis were rough. We've since found out he has a congenital diaphoramic hernia that can be repaired with surgery. We hope the surgery will be this weekend. He was born 8 lbs 10 oz, full term and is a very strong baby. The doctors are amazed by how well he is doing. We'd appreciate your prayers for this young family. He will be having surgery today at 1pm. Our family did enjoy a very nice dinner in town and dessert afterward. John & I have an amazing marriage. I feel so blessed to have a wonderful friend. He and I plan to get away for a weekend together when we can to celebrate and look forward to another 50 years together.

Oh a brief update on the last blog... LeAnne's plants didn't make it but this was mama's fault. The directions said plant 2 seeds but the seeds were so small I planted more. I should have trusted the directions because they turned into Chia pet plants and didn't make it. :-( She does have 2 tomato plants growing at school and will help mama plant our garden next weekend. In other news I got into Fort Hays University. If I can get some financial aid through FAFSA I will be starting Fall quarter. My goal is to earn my Bachelor degree in Elementary Education with Minor in Special Education. It may take me a while but that is the plan. I am excited and nervous!

As I sit here finishing up this blog post this morning I have an incredible sense of just how blessed our family is. Praises be to God for providing us with all we need!! We are healthy, we have a beautiful family, beautiful home, transportation and jobs. Time sure does fly fast because I can hardly believe Amanda will be graduating in a few weeks, and she was just 8 when we got married. Then their is our little princess, my youngest niece said it best yesterday when she said "she sure if full of personality". So true! This morning the first thing she said when she woke up was "see my belly"! I can't wait until Thursday night for her program...they're giving her a microphone to answer a question! Look out! I think they might hear her answer in the next town! Thanks for reading my ramblings!!

Garden angel…..hear me pray...

2011-04-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Protect LeAnne's garden….night and day!! This mama's gardening skills have been hit or miss so I was a bit nervous planting LeAnne's Tomatoes & Radishes today that she got for Easter from Auntie Katie. On the label it says guaranteed to grow so we shall see. :-) If these plants don't grow never fear little girl mama is going to plant you some veggies in the garden when it warms up. Our princess has already requested peas, beans, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. Thanks to Grandma Marcia she will also get to grow a few sunflowers this year!


All Things Grow with Love!!

She loves blowing bubbles!

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

He has risen! Happy Easter family & friends!!! Yesterday I read LeAnne the book called The Miracle of Easter and then asked her why we celebrate Easter. She said "Jesus". Then I tried to simply explain His crucifixion and resurrection. To which she said "Jesus comes back to life and picks up Easter eggs". Hee hee! It's a start.

Yesterday LeAnne & I went to our towns city park Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful day, a lot of fun to see friends, pick up eggs and win prizes. LeAnne found one of the golden eggs and won a huge Easter bunny. We then came home where she got to color eggs for the first time. She thought this was lots of fun!! Later in the day we baked cookies in our newly fixed oven and played bubbles outside.

This morning she opened all her Easter prizes from family and loved them!! She also had a special chocolate Easter bunny on the porch from our neighbor. The rest of the day will be very low key this year because daddy is working. We will do an Easter egg hunt, and finish making our sugar cookies.

A few Firsts and a Few more stories read by LeAnne

2011-04-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! Yesterday was the first time LeAnne has been to a day care. Up until now except for church and school she has always been in the care of a family member. It was an anxious afternoon for mama but LeAnne had lots of fun. The gal who will be watching her a few days a week came highly recommended and seems like a real sweet heart. My boss's daughter, who is also in LeAnne's preschool class goes there too so she knows someone already. She will be going there Monday & Friday after preschool this week and all day today. She is excited to go back!

On May 4th LeAnne will participate in her first School Fun run/walk. It is a really fun event for our school. All K-5 children & staff ride the bus to a track 15 minutes away. Each child has a number that is punched each time they go around the track. The PTSA serves water and oranges to the participants. Prizes are awards for the highest amount of laps completed and the most money raised for the school. John is off work that day so he will bring LeAnne down to participate as well since preschoolers are not allowed to ride the bus for safety reasons. All proceeds from the fun run go to the Dixie PTSO who use the money for special events and equipment for the children. Dixie Grade school has been a big blessing in our families life and we'd greatly appreciate anyone who would like to sponsor LeAnne. You can pledge by the lap or a set amount of money. Please make checks out to Dixie PTSO. All money needs to be collected by May 6th. Thank-you so much in advance for your support of an amazing little country school !!


A new outfit she got this weekend!

Here is LeAnne reading Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see, a book from school. See how she is learning to use her reader finger. :-) One of our favorite things to do together is sit on the living room floor and take turns reading books. :-)

Autism Awareness Month giveaway

2011-04-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

Autism Awareness Month giveaway at Smartknit Kids and Autism Spectrum

Our friends over at SmartKnitKids and Autism Spectrum are having a HUGE giveaway right now! This is such an amazing prize package I just had to share it with all of you!!!

1 GRAND PRIZE WINNER WILL BE AWARDED!
Dizzy Disc Jr
Eye Spy Sensory Bag
Tactile Discs
Color Wonder Lap Desk
Hand Print Canvas Set
Flower Head Vase
Flip Video Camera
2 pairs of SmartKnitKIDS Socks
1 pair of SmartKnitKIDS Undies
1 SmartKnitKIDS Seamless Under-Tee

What an amazing Group of companies!!!!!! SmartKnitKids was also a HUGE sponsor for the SPD Foundation and our event back in October!! Awesome Company, Great Products! They really go above and beyond for our special little guys!!!

As a para-professional my life has been greatly impacted by a young man with PPD, ADHD, SPD and ONH. He is an amazing young man who keeps on exceeding expectations of others. I am so very proud of him!!

THANK YOU, SmartknitKids and Autism Spectrum!!!!

She's an emergent reader, tinker, and artist!

2011-04-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

As our Spring break in winding down I wanted to share some of our fun with you. LeAnne started our vacation being sick with a low grade fever and a stomach ache. Praise God the bug passed quickly and a follow up appointment to her doctor on Tuesday confirmed that her ear infections are gone! It only took 3 different antibiotics to do the trick! We've had a very low key Spring break. Princes LeAnne's body clock is set so we were up between 5 -5:30am every morning. I made up for that by slowly sipping coffee while either surfing the web or reading while she watched a few early morning cartoons.

My dad came to visit us for 4 days. LeAnne enjoyed seeing her Grandpa! John loved having dad here to help him in his shop with dry wall and electrical. I always love time to catch up with my dad. My favorite parts of the visit were the quiet times when dad shared bits and pieces of his life. He's a very kind, quiet soul who has lived a very interesting life. We missed seeing Grandma Elaine and her health is in our prayers.

A few weeks ago LeAnne asked me to come into her room. I found her sitting on her bed with a book and she asked me to sit criss cross in front of her so she could read me a book. It was the most adorable and precious thing I'd ever seen. I tried to have her do it again for the camera this morning, it's cute but it was so much better when she had the idea all on her own.

She's very into the books books by Laura Numeroff at the moment. One afternoon we read If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, and If You Give a Pig a Party.

This is a book called the Legend of the 3 trees. It's a very special story, click on this link to see part of the DVD that comes with the book. If you click this link you hear another part with a song I LOVE. I also found another telling of the story online. LeAnne's simple version of this story melted my heart. :-)

LeAnne's class has been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. LeAnne loves saying the word chrysalis. John was shocked when she knew what it was. This is a drawing a caterpillar. See where she started to spell daddy, not sure if that is a dp or meant to be a da. She said daddy as she was writing.

A friend of our gave LeAnne a big bag of scrap booking goodies and a few toys. She has made many mater pieces with the stickers and absolutely loves these Smart Links from a Wendy's kids meal. She loves working with her hands, building things which makes us wonder if she will be an architect one day! She's our little tinker. :-)

Today LeAnne & I went into town to have some lunch and then spent some time playing at Dayton Elementary school.

Have I told you all lately how much I love being a wife and a mother? I hope its obvious by the love I let shine through the pages of our blog. I am so blessed !!

Preschool Picture/Spring break

2011-04-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

LeAnne absolutely loves preschool! She is learning a lot and building her immune system. Poor girl had never been to the doctor for an illness before she started preschool and now she's had 3 ear infections, a few colds and the stomach flu. It took 3 different antibiotics to get rid of her ear infections. Knock on wood... she's been healthy for a few days.

Her preschool class is learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and have 5 caterpillars in class that they hope turn into butterflies. LeAnne loves the word chrysalis. Her teacher had them act out the life style on the floor and I've been trying to get that on video.

This week is our Spring break. It's been a great week so far and makes me excited for Summer vacation. It's been a very low key vacation. We had a very nice visit with Grandpa Larry. Both LeAnne and I got our hair cut. We've done some crafts, and read a lot of books together yesterday.

My goal is to post some recent pictures this week of our princess but for now here is her preschool picture.

This and That...

2011-03-14T06:06:00.000-07:00

LeAnne had her first school pictures taken on Friday March 11th. It was class/school picture day with an option to get individuals. We are all lined up to get the whole school photo when I hear "Little girl put your dress down", followed by Mrs. Leonard that is your daughter. Oh my word! Two photos in a row, up went the dress until our K-2 teacher said LeAnne dress down, hands in your lap. Oh boy I think were in for a wild ride with our princess. It couldn't be she's been over photographed!. LOL!!

Later that day I asked her teacher how she had done for circle time. She said she is busy ALL the time. I said "yes, she has been like that since the day she was born".

That night at dinner LeAnne says "I sat in time out today with my head town". I asked why and she said she was talking during circle time. oh my!

Another funny this week... Her teacher asked her what her last name was and she said pumpkin. Daddy and I are surprised she didn't rattle off LeAnne Kimberly Leonard Wing nut princess pumpkin monkey girl. Oops! Hence we've started to ask her a few times a day what her first and last name are. She can spell her first name out loud and can almost write it. The e is a little bit of a struggle and putting the letters in order on paper. I have to remind myself she did just start school the last day of January this year.

Just this last week she has started to take books that she knows really well and pretend she is reading them. Sunday night she asked me if I wanted her to read me a story. Of course I said yes, to which she said okay sit criss cross, hands in your lap and no talking. She would look at the page, then turn the book towards me and tell me something about that page. It was so precious!!

In other news;

John will be heading down to Oregon to pick up Amanda this coming Saturday the 19th. She is going to spend her Spring break with us! We are so HAPPY to have some time with her. It's unreal to think she'll be 18 in April and only has about 12 weeks of high school left.

John is now a pick up man again. He scored a great deal on a nice looking truck. I'll take some pictures to post this week.

I am once again considering going back to school to earn my Bachelor's degree in Education. It would be an online degree from an accredited university. It will take me about 3 years to earn but it's at a pace I can handle; 1 class at a time that last 5 weeks. Next step is to make sure I could be certified through the state with this course and then Financial Aid.

Have an amazing week!!

Our new car

2011-03-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

I'm so proud of my guy! He was willing to trade in his truck to get a car with better gas millage. He put a lot of work into that truck and loved it so I know it was hard for him to say good bye to the old girl. Thank-you honey for making this sacrifice for your family!! His new car is a 2009 Ford Focus. On our grocery trip to town yesterday we were averaging 35 miles per gallon of gas. Gotta LOVE that!!

2009 Ford Focus

Sport Instrument Cluster

Front Seat

Back seat

Lots of room in the trunk

Do you have months is your ear?

2011-03-07T05:58:00.000-08:00

LeAnne loves is our music lover. She loves to sing and dance all the time. Last weekend we heard Peanut on a rail road track, the ABC's, and Brown Bear Brown Bear a zillion times. This weekend it was her version of Months of the year otherwise know as Months of the Ear. Some where along the way January and February were lost along with the Y sound. Its very precious but their are times I had to take a short break from the grand production. Her favorite cartoon these days has been Little Einsteins and she is learning music terms such as Adagio,Allegro,Forte,presto, and Prestissimo, She knows when to use them too. It's adorable!! :-)

Here are some of her preschool art projects.

Here are some cute photos of Miss Independent getting herself all beautiful for school one morning.

Hey! No pictures yet! I'm not ready!

Oh boy did she ever have fun with that spray bottle

Now I'm ready!

1st Ear Infection

2011-02-23T05:26:00.000-08:00

Poor little girl has had a cold for a week then on Sunday night. She woke up screaming! Daddy was on his way down the stairs to talk with her because she is known to freak out when one of her stuffed animals is missing from her bed. Then I heard her say "my ear hurts" so I got up and we spent a very long miserable night together. I felt so bad for her because she couldn't get into a comfortable position and just wanted to sleep. I was dressed and ready to walk out the door to the ER when she fell asleep on the couch. We could not get into see her regular Dr but saw one of the other Doctors in his office on Monday morning. One look in her ears revealed bad ear infections in both ears! The doctor could not believe this was the first time EVER that she had been seen for an illness! We've been blessed with a very healthy little girl. When I told the Dr she just started preschool, she said yep that will do it. She said on average kids get 1 cold a month their first year of preschool. Oh joy! We are now 48hrs into the medication and she feels a lot better. Unless she doesn't feel well this morning she is going to school today.

For More wordless Wednesday Fun head on over to 5 Minutes for Moms.

Valentine's Day 2011

2011-02-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

We all had a wonderful Valentines day! LeAnne's first school Valentine party was a lot of fun. The kids had a few cute craft projects to do, then we had a yummy cup cake and played some games. Her Preschool teacher had the classroom decorated so nice! Daddy spoiled both of his girls with flowers and a balloon! :-) He also gave me a beautiful angel necklace! LeAnne spent the evening with grandma while John and I went out to dinner and coffee at Starbucks. We are very lucky girls to have such an amazing guy in our life.

Tidbits from the Leonard's home

2011-02-09T05:27:00.000-08:00

Showing us her new hair cut

She got a lollipop for being so good for the hairstylist!

E snack for Preschool - Eggs on a Grill

Pretzels, melted white chocolate & Yellow M&M

Future scrapbooker

Striking a pose to show off her nose

She was helping me in the kitchen make the eggs on a grill when out of no where she says I have an owie on my nose. Then she picked up daddy's nose strips for sleeping. When I explained those were not band aids she went into the bathroom and put a princess band aid on her nose. LOL!!

Songs she has learned in preschool

2011-02-07T05:29:00.000-08:00

Our girl is absolutely loving Preschool! She did very well without me in the classroom on Friday and learned this new song. It is so precious I had to share. Until I heard her sing it a few times I thought it was a tiger song but duh mom they were studying the letter D last week. Hee Hee!! The other song is Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee, she doesn't quite know that one yet. :-)

I'm a Mean Old Dinosaur
(Tune: I'm a little Tea Pot)
I'm a mean old Dinosaur
   (Make a mean face, the kids make the cutest mean faces)
Big and Tall
   (Gesture hands big and tall )
Here is my tail, here is my claw.
   (Gesture hands behind your back for tail and make claw hands)
When I get all hungry
   (rub your tummy)
I just growl
(have the kids exaggerate the grrroooowwwlll)
Look out kids I'm on the prowl.
(Here I tickle each one of the tummy and they all giggle)

LeAnne's first day of Preschool

2011-02-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

Our girl was very excited for her first day of school. She's been talking about it for weeks now and was bubbling over with joy. When we arrived she enjoyed playing with the other kids (6 girls & 1 boy with a few kids absent). When it came time to clean up for carpet time that was an odd concept to her but she followed along with the other kids and my prompting well. During circle time I was working with two of the older girls in the hallway on pre-reading skills so I was not in the classroom. The other teacher said she was a bit wiggly, not sure was it meant to sit kris cross (Indian style) on the floor but did pretty well. Then came time for the craft... she had to color a front and a back of a Dinosaur (D week) and then cut them out. Oh boy she's only ever practiced cutting any way she'd like, cut a few squared and circles but nothing like this. She struggled a lot but with the other teacher's help she got the first side cut out. I had to back away because she was pulling the I can't with me. When she was done I could tell her little brain was done and she wanted NOTHING to do with cutting out the other side. It was quite the struggle to get her to pick up the scissors and try. Tears were shed, many "I can't were said", but eventually the other teacher got her to cut a tiny bit and then cut the rest out for her. In all fairness this was a difficult art project for most of the kids, it took a lot longer than we expected and we had a few casualties. A few Dino heads, tails and body parts cut off; thank goodness for tape. LOL!! Then thankfully it was time for recess. She loved running around with the other kids but didn't like she couldn't play on the big toys. She walked in a line for the first time ever, listened to a story nicely and then it was time for lunch. Then my niece picked her up. She said she was so exhausted and almost fell asleep on the way home.

This mama bear was a bit worn out too... It's a little stressful having your kid in class. I have no doubt we'll both get the hang of this preschool thing in no time!

Walking into school

Ready to go into school

Such a big door for a little girl !

Her 1st Preschool Art project

D is for Dinosaur - All the kids projects

Our Precious Preschooler

2011-01-31T06:43:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! I can't believe this day is really here! LeAnne is really starting preschool today! WOW where did the time go? She is so excited! I am excited and a little nervous. Thankful I will be with her on Mondays and Wednesdays since I am helping teach the preschool class those days this year. I am also glad though she will have one day without me in there on Fridays. Time to go warm up the car and get a move on it. I will post more pictures tonight.

She is so EXCITED for her 1st day of Preschool

Here VERY cool lunch box!

Lunch packed with healthy foods she likes!

Off we go to preschool!!

Her 1st trip to Chuck E. Cheese , Organization & Art projects

2011-01-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

We took LeAnne to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time on January 22, 2011 and she had a blast!!

Art projects are a blast!!

Mama's attempt to organize LeAnne's room!!

Quick Hello

2011-01-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! Happy Wednesday! Up up up and over da hump of the week we go. It's a short week here since we had no school/work on Monday (Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day) and we are taking the whole school skiing on Friday. Yesterday was my first day back to work in a week! I was sick all last week with bad Strep throat and I've had a cold/flu since the beginning of December. Knock on wood I think I might actually be illness free. Other than that all is well in our house. We are very thankful little Miss LeAnne has an amazing immune system and has not caught our cold. She continues to be one busy little bee, who is looking forward to starting preschool January 31st. I am a little nervous for her and very excited! I have some pictures on my camera of how I organized her room and some crafts projects we've done so I will post this weekend if not before. Oh I can't forget our guy will be switching to day shift starting the first week of February! Yahooo!! We are an incredibly blessed family! Have a wonderful, wild, wacky and whimsical Wednesday!!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Our house before/after

2011-01-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

The couple who bought our house to fix it up and flip did an AMAZING job! We LOVE our home!

Before

After


February 2008

July 2009 - Landscaping, Fence & Porch improvement

December 2010

(almost) Wordless Wednesday - We love snow!!

2011-01-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

Wednesday fun head on over to 5 Minutes for Moms

Hubby in his awesome Mad Bomber Rabbit Hat!!

Publish Post

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

2010 was the year I began relax, enjoy the blessings that surround me and find peace! "I'm choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I'm making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises." — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

We ended 2009 saying Good-Bye to LeAnne's pacifier and began 2010 with the potty training saga. I am learning on the way about the journey called parenthood. Each phase/milestone is bigger than life when you're in it but when it passes it is just another check point along the way.

Mom and I watched Eat, Pray Love yesterday afternoon. It's an excellent move with lots of insights. I highly recommend the book then movie!! It is full of amazing truths & insight about life!

One such truth I need to heed is: "You're wishin' too much baby. You gotta' stop wearin' your wishbone where your backbone oughta be!" — Elizabeth Gilbert. Just reading that statement makes me feel awkward because I know it applies to a lot thing in my life. The stubborn yet meek part of me says I know what I want and I hope it will be when I know that if I want it to be I need to take an active part in making it happen. That reminds me of a statement I say way too much... "I know". It's one thing to know but it's another thing to hold myself accountable for what I know and make changes.

In 2011 I am excited to:

1. Celebrate 10 years of marriage (May 19th)! I am so thankful for my amazing husband. We make a great team.

2. Celebrate Amanda's graduation from High School in June 2011.

3. See LeAnne start Preschool in February 2011. She's growing up way too fast!! She told me this morning I will blow out 5 candles on my birthday cake so I guess in 9 days I'll be celebrating the 7th anniversary of my 5th birthday. (January 10th) I am hoping to convince her it's okay to take down the Christmas decorations because we need to decorate for Mama's birthday then for Valentines day. :-)

In 2011 I WILL move towards these goals;

1. Finding a healthy life balance which to me means less computer time, procrastination, junk piles, and more organization, and cultivating relationships.

2. Getting healthy which to me means eating better and EXERCISING!

3. Dare to be uncomfortable. Take chances.

4. Find more peace...

"But at some point you have to make peace with what you were given and if God wanted me to be a shy girl with think, dark hair, He would have made me that way, but He didn't. Useful, then, might be to accept how I was made and embody myself fully therein."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

In general I want to read more (1 book a month), spend more time scrap booking, not read into what people say, take tiny steps daily to work toward my goals, learn how to do something new, experience a brand new adventure with my husband, be spontaneous, worry less, spend more time with God cultivating a relationship, make a friend, find ways to give back to others and be the best wife, mother, daughter, and friend I can be.

Here is my new years prayer for all of my loved ones;

Christmas Day 2010

2010-12-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

I am a little late blogging about Christmas day but since I use my blog for scrap book journal writing too I wanted to make sure to write it down. This Christmas season has been one of the most magical since I was a kid. It's been so much fun watching LeAnne be so excited about Christmas

Around 4am I heard LeAnne hollering her drink was missing. When I got to her room she was pretty crabby so I gave her the drink and said go back to sleep. She later woke up happy around 6:30am. Since her room is right next to the living room, I showed her the stockings were filled then we turned upstairs to wake up daddy. Sensing her excitement daddy was outa bed in a flash. Once down stairs LeAnne found her gift from Santa, which was a Chugginton Training Yard Loop Set. She absolutely LOVES her train set and trains!!

While she was playing I passed out presents then daddy & I started opening our gifts to each other. My husband spoiled me once again! Thank-you so much honey!!

Once LeAnne saw us opening gifts she was all over opening her gifts. She was a bit overwhelmed with all her gifts. After all the gifts were opened we put in the Beauty and the Beast DVD she got from Auntie Katie. Auntie also got her a set of the movie characters so each time a new character was introduced we'd give them to her and she'd compare them with the TV saying :"match". We've now seen Beauty and the Best 4 times and she loves playing with the characters.

What is the saying... It isn't Christmas until someone cries. I made cinnamon rolls and fruit for breakfast thinking LeAnne would love this. Ha ha that is what I get for thinking. It was like absolute torture to get her to even take a bit. Ended up with her going to her room crying and the movie being paused. After a short while daddy sat down to have cinnamon roll with her and as I thought she loved it once she took a bite. "Tastes like candy"

Adorable moment alert... Christmas morning I was busy cleaning up the kitchen when I turned to see LeAnne totally naked, with her Christmas dress wrapped around her playing with her train set. Okay I think it's time to get dressed. hee hee!

Around noon we picked up Grandma Marcia and headed down Clear View Springs farm where we had a lot of fun with my sister and her family. It was one of the most relaxed Christmas celebrations I've had in a few years! LeAnn wore her cute Christmas dress and mud boots so she was ready to ride Buddy. All the food was yummy. Oh the prime rib...yum! Every time I turned around LeAnne had a handful of veggies from the veggie tray. I love that she loves vegetables.

Okay as I am typing this LeAnne is singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, ABC Santa's sleigh, Santa's sled, Yeah" She is quite the little singer this year. She sings E (we) Wish you a Merry Christmas, and Jingle Jingle Little Bell a lot.

In fact here is a performance by Miss LeAnne Kimberly Leonard Wingnut Princess Pumpkin !!

This post is really random so I am just going to let the pictures and videos we took do the talking.


Christmas morning mess! Watching Beauty & The Beast!!

Loving her Hungry Hippo Game from Uncle Greg, Auntie C resent & Dane

Learning how to ply her Leap Frog Zippity

Dr. Leonard getting ready to give mama a shot

Christmas Eve 2010

2010-12-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we ventured over the river and through the city streets to Grandma Marcia's house. (a 5 minute journey across town for our family) We had way too much yummy food to snack on through out the evening. We opened gifts and then watched The Christmas Carol. It was a tad bit scary for LeAnne but she handled it very well. LeAnne was beyond excited the whole evening. She sang and danced all night long.

Once at home LeAnne helped prepare a plate of goodies for Santa & the reindeer. She insisted Santa wanted an egg, some cookies and milk. Thank goodness we'd brought home some deviled eggs from grandmas. The reindeer got some baby carrots. Then daddy read her the Night Before Christmas and we tucked her into bed.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - 5 Fave photos from Christmas

2010-12-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

Daddy reading the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

Helping make Snicker doodles! She mixed the cinnamon , sugar & sprinkles then rolled the balls in her mixture!

Bella, LeAnne & Gracie

She absolutely LOVES her Chuggington Play set from Santa

Sitting on Buddy Christmas day

The Christmas Mess!

For More wordless Wednesday Fun head on over to 5 Minutes for Moms.

Merry Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

"It's Christmas Eve, it's the one night of the year where we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more...for a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be. It's a miracle, it's really sort of a miracle, because it happens every Christmas Eve...(quote from the Grinch)

LeAnne & I made cupcakes for Jesus. We shall sing Him happy birthday tomorrow! LeAnne opened door #24 in her advent calendar and carried the church around most of the morning. Our stockings are hung with care, most of the presents are wrapped, I have a few more meal preparations to make, and LeAnne is taking a nap before the fun begins at Grandma Marcia's.

Here are a few pictures and a video of her singing right before her nap. It's not the best quality video but I wanted to share her sweet voice. :-)

She was on such a sugar high after eating the frosting as we decorated!

Bella, LeAnne & Gracie


Our beautiful gingerbread Christmas tree - This was FUN to make!!

Christmas cookies

2010-12-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

LeAnne has been getting into Christmas big time this year! She and I had so much fun making Christmas cookies. Her favorite to eat this year are Snicker doodles. We will be making up plates of cookies and a home salt dough ornament for our neighbors. She also helped me to make treats for the dogs yesterday.

She mixed the sugar, cinnamon & sprinkles then rolled the Snicker doodles all by herself

Wordless Wednesday - She had a snowtastic time!

2010-12-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

Gettin ready to throw a snowball at mama!

For more Wordless Wednesday fun head on over to 5 Minutes for Moms

School Christmas Program

2010-12-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

My mom, LeAnne & I attended the Christmas program at the school I work at on Thursday night. The preschooler children sang a snow man song, then Jingle Jingle Little Bell and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was adorable! Mom said LeAnne was singing right along with them. I can't wait to see her on stage next year.

Then the K-5th grade presented a Wizard of Oz Christmas story play. The kids worked very hard to memorize their lines, and to become their characters. The show was a huge hit with the audience! I am so proud of our kids! Mom said LeAnne loved it. According to mom she was singing along with all the songs and announcing the characters. :-)

Then after the program Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus visited the school. While we stood in line waiting our turn LeAnne was so excited but quickly changed her mind when it was her turn to sit on his lap. I ended up holding her next to Santa.

Christmas Tree & Seeing Santa

2010-12-15T06:16:00.000-08:00

This year we went to a small privately own Christmas tree farm about 20 minutes from home. The field use to be used to grow alfalfa then the kids moved away, with no help to harvest the hay, the farmer planted Christmas trees. He had many nice tree's priced very reasonably. It was nice to have our tree cut that day and support the community I work in. LeAnne wasn't all together thrilled with the search for the tree. In fact I ended up carrying her up and down the hill while daddy and I picked out a tree. I tried to get her to play hide and seek like I use to with my little brother but she was just too cold.

Decorating the tree on the other hand, she had a blast!! We cranked up the Christmas tunes, she danced and impatiently waited while daddy strung the lights and garland. Our tree is decorated with beautiful ornaments and memories.

On Sunday night we went to the Walla Walla Law enforcement Christmas party. It was nice to meet John's partner and his family. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and LeAnne loved seeing Santa. She was not afraid at all, in fact she was very excited to see him. We were surprised when each family got a gift. LeAnne thinks Santa is pretty amazing!!

She loved that her baby had a matching dress!

On the way home from the party LeAnne was a bit worn out, we turned on one of her Jesus CD's, silly thing kept skipping so we had trouble finding a song that would work for her and then we said "How is this one"? She said "okay, I shake my booty" and begun to bust a move in her car seat. I was so precious!! :-)

This is the best Christmas yet with her. She went from not understanding Christmas at all last year to be so full of excitement this year. She loves the decorations, the lights, the music, Santa of course, and wrapping presents. She tells us Merry Christmas at least a few times a day. It's precious!

Wordless Wednesday - Her 1st Christmas

2010-12-08T06:41:00.000-08:00

Just a quick look back at LeAnne's 1st Christmas. She was 3 months old.

A quick hello

2010-12-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! I am so happy to say we are all healthy again and I am going back to work today. That was the sickest I've been in years. LeAnne is feeling better too and enjoying the Christmas season. She says Merry Christmas to us at least a few times a day. She is very excited to talk with Santa this next weekend. She's watched Mickey's Christmas so many times I've lost count. (10 plus). Next year for sure we must take her to Disney on ice. Seeing Christmas through her eyes is such a gift. We've been talking about the reason for the season and I am thinking I might make a small birthday cake with a candle and we'll sing Happy Birthday Jesus Christmas day to help her understand a little.

I must get ready to work but I wanted to leave you with a few cute pictures of our girl LeAnne Kimberly Leonard Wingnut Princess Pumpkin (she actually says that is her full name and corrects us if we get it out of order) hee hee! She has been into dressing up and make believe play a lot lately. Sunday night she walks out of her room with this hat, sunglasses and bracelet saying "That's me"!

Enter to win a Hearts 4 Hearts Doll

2010-12-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Here I am again to write about another doll I found on my search for a doll for LeAnne for Christmas. The Heart for Heart girls represent different parts of the world and they each have a story about how they help to give back in their community. Each doll stands 14" has a poseable, smooth vinyl body, and high-quality rooted hair for hours of doll play. I love that they are conservatively dressed, come with adorable accessories and a mini story about the dolls life.

This doll scored major points with me when I read that when you buy a doll, Hearts For Hearts Girls donates part of the purchase price through their charitable partner, World Vision, to programs that support girls in that country. Whether it’s malaria nets in Africa, schoolbooks in Asia, or food supplies in the US, these programs help girls to thrive and succeed. Now that's awesome!!!

My favorite doll is Dell from the USA. Dell comes from a family who's had hard times but through hard work they are making ends meet. Dell's father was a coal miner, lost his job at the mine, and now makes guitars. Dell's mom is cafeteria worker at her school. I love that Dell gives back by knitting blankets and hats for people in the Appalachians. I also like that when your child registers on the heart 4 heart girls web page they can play games, read their dolls diaries and learn how to help in their community.

I also appreciate that these dolls are very affordable at just $24.99. At that price I would love t o get my daughter a few of the dolls over time to teach her about different parts of our world. :-)

The Bragging Mommy is giving away one of these beautiful dolls to a lucky reader as part of her Brag Worthy Christmas event. She has a lot of great giveaways going on right now. The Hearts 4 Hearts doll giveaway ends Dec. 6.

BFC 18" ink doll Giveaway @Momspotted

2010-12-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

I recently started searching for a doll to give LeAnne for Christmas so it was perfect timing that I came upon this giveaway. BFC, Ink. has offered one Mom Spotted Reader a BFC, Ink. 18″ Large Doll Set! I like these dolls because they are modern and conservatively dressed. I also really appreciate that each of the dolls has a story that will help young girls deal with real life challenges. This is a doll I would love to win and put away for LeAnne when she gets a little bit older.

Kaitlin looks the most like LeAnne and I think she might be able to relate to her artistic abilities.

I was struck by how much Noelle reminds me of myself. She's organized, sweet, caring, painfully shy and loves animals.

I also love that these dolls are available for $30 - $35 each. A very affordable quality doll.

Hurry now, head on over to Mom Spotted to enter to win your own BFC Ink doll.

Our Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-01T07:42:00.000-08:00

The afternoon before Thanksgiving we loaded up the car and headed over the river and through the woods to Grammy and Grammpy's house in Salem, Oregon! John thoroughly check all the traffic websites and and felt comfortable. It was hit and miss their for a while and down right scary on Hwy 84. The traffic websites had said spots of ice but it was more like spots of pavement. We left at 1:30pm and arrived at 9pm. LeAnne had slept on and off the whole trip, but she was none to happy when she woke up and was still trapped in her car seat. We knew exactly how she felt and we were never so happy to pull into Grammy and Grammpy's driveway.

Thanksgiving day brought the arrival of John's brother & his family. It was great to see them and watch the kids play. LeAnne has an absolute blast playing with their 2 1/2 year old son, Cash. Their oldest, Emma, 4 1/2, brightened up the room with her beautiful smile and jokes. Oh precious little kid jokes. :-) We had a yummy feast, Thank-you Grammy! Then since LeAnne had boycotted a nap that day when her cousins left for the hotel she settled down and was fast asleep by 5:30pm. This helped to convince daddy that we needed to get up early to participate in Black Friday, his first ever. Amanda arrived at Grammy's later that evening and said she'd love to go with us.

Black Friday LeAnne woke us up at 5am and we were out the door to Fred Myers by 6am. Back up a second; I don't want to forget to include LeAnne's precious chatting in my arms as everyone woke up. I don't recall what she said but it was so fun to listen to Amanda get a chuckle out of her sister. How I wish those girls had more time together. Back at Fred Myers, we parked and headed to the electronics section. On the trip down we made the decision our princess needed an early Christmas present; a portable DVD player. I have had mixed feeling about these things for a while, not wanting our girl to turn into a zombie and miss the scenery around her as we drove but daddy had a point when he said pick your monsters; screaming banshee or happy zombie. Then I thought about our sanity and gave into getting the DVD player. We made some good scores there. Next stop McDonald's for breakfast then Khols to score a great deal on a Leap Frog Zippity for our princess. While at Khols we also found LeAnne a Christmas dress for a great price. Oh how I wish we had a Khols here in small town America. The shopping trip was a great experience and it was nice to spend time with our girls together. The stores were packed but there were a lot less people there than a typical day at any Seattle Shopping Mall. I'd do Black Friday shopping in Salem again in a heart beat.

Back at Grammy and Grampy's house we settled down to rest, chat and watched The Search for Santa Paws. Overall I would give this movie a 5 on a scale of 1-10. It wasn't terrible but very predictable and the Santa Claus character was creepy. Amanda and I thought he took advantage of the Holiday special we saw on a reader board in Salem; $9.95 Botox injections and went a little overboard. Just as the movie was getting over Aunt Carrie, Uncle Dave and their kids arrived. WOW it is absolutely amazing how much those kids have grown up.

While everyone was together I thought it would be fun to break out the ginger bread village I had bought. This was one interesting project for sure. The kids had a good time and were way better architect's than their oldest cousin and myself. My house looked like an outhouse that was going to collapse at any moment. The rest of the afternoon was filled with talking, foot balls games and the disappearance of LeAnne.

While we were making the gingerbread houses LeAnne had been there to help or should I say eat the decorations for a short while then went back to playing with Cash. After we'd cleaned up I realized I had not seen or heard LeAnne for a while. I looked where she had been playing and when I asked if they knew where she was they said we thought she was with you. So began the search and the thoughts of her wandering outside because she'd slipped out the door. By this time a few were helping to look for her when John thought She couldn't be under the kids tent but sure enough as he lifted it up there lay LeAnne fast asleep under the kids tent. We could not believe she had fallen asleep with all the noise going on around her. She stayed there sleeping until everyone had gone home.

We were so happy to have been able to see Amanda. We had a very nice visit. She is growing up to be such quite the beautiful lady with such a kind heart. It's something to believe she will be 18 in April and graduating from High School June 10th. Then it's on to a Linn-Benton Community College in the fall of 2011. We are very proud of our girl and miss her so much. Please keep her in your prayers as she enjoys the last of her high school year, looks for a job and searches for her path in this world.

Our plan was to stay in Salem until Sunday morning but the road conditions were not looking good at all. The road conditions for 84 were icy. John had a bad feeling in his stomach about the drive home the way we came. So I threw out the idea of driving up to the Seattle area Saturday, staying the night with some of my family and driving home that way instead. After checking those road conditions the decision was made that would be a good idea so we packed up, said our good byes and headed out on I-5. We made plans to stay with my Grandma and Auntie. Then somewhere along the way the idea to go to Point Defiance Zoo lights came to mind and plans were made to meet my aunt in Tacoma. LeAnne napped the first part of the trip, we had lunch and then oh my you should have seen her reaction when we started up Tinkerbell in the DVD player. Oh portable DVD playing how I love you. I was even able to finish reading a great book, The Thorn by Beverly Lewis. I can't wait for the next book to come out in April 2011. I love reading about the Amish and Beverly Lewis is a great author.

LeAnne was very excited to see Auntie Katie. We grabbed a quick bit to eat and headed off to the zoo lights at Point Defiance zoo. I am so happy we were able to do the zoo lights with Auntie Katie! LeAnne kept saying it's bootiful (beautiful) and gorgeous. The way she says gorgeous is so adorable, Katie said it perfectly she says it like Sandra Bullock in Ms. Congeniality when Gracie Lou Freebush says "You think I'm gorgeous, you wanna kiss me". Click here to hear a clip. The lights were amazing. We heard a walrus barking, pet a goat, saw a lot of different fish including a rare glimpse of an octopus.

how she loves carousel rides


We got out pic taken with Prancer

It was so fun that Auntie road too!

Then we headed to Lake Taps to Grandma's house. We visited with Grandma, LeAnne had some tea with Auntie Katie then we headed to bed. The next morning the first thing out of LeAnne's mouth was "Lets have tea" and she wanted to wake Auntie. We had a yummy breakfast, checked the road conditions and were on the road again. It was a very non eventful trip home with great roads and Tinkerbell on the DVD player.

This story isn't over... Somewhere in our travels we came in contact with a nasty flu virus. LeAnne woke up throwing up Monday morning. Poor girl threw up on and off through out the day. This is the most sick she's ever been and had no clue why she was spitting this stuff out of her mouth. She kept trying to run away from it and it ended up on me, and if we were lucky the towel we were chasing her with. She kept saying "I'm sorry". It was so sad. She spiked a temp of 101 on Monday night, had a rough night of sleeping with mama Monday night. Tuesday morning she seemed somewhat better but not 100 percent. Then the bug hit me and oh boy this has not been fun. My stomach has not rumbled and turned this much ever. I keep wondering where when it will stop. UGH! I am home from work for the 3rd day and I am so done with this flu bug. Oh I forgot to mention to bug also go daddy who stayed home last night too. Oh flu bug go away!!

LeAnne is really getting into Christmas this year. She knows who Santa is, doesn't really understand all about him though. She knows their should be presents under the tree and it really bothered her when Grandma Marcia didn't have any under her tree yet. She even went into Grandma's room where she found a few presents and put them under the tree then said "perfect". We've been reading her Christmas stories and look forward to sharing with her the reason for the season.

(almost) Wordles Wednesday - Gorgeous Zoo Lights

2010-11-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

Rainbow at Point Defiance Zoo Lights in Tacoma, WA

For more Wordless Wednesday fun head on over to 5 minutes for moms.

Auntie Katie, LeAnne & I


We loved sharing the gorgeous zoo lights with Auntie Katie!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday - Pre-Thanksgiving Winter Storm

2010-11-24T06:20:00.000-08:00

Putting on daddy's snow boots - Lace em up tight

Winter Wonderland ?

Head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom's for more Wordless Wednesday fun!