EVERY SINGLE DAY

Every single day I have to hear Sierra ask if she can move the Christmas Star (on our Christmas countdown calendar) and 'How many more sleeps 'til Christmas?' And then she counts the pockets on the countdown calendar every day and says '24 days until Christmas is here!!!!' LOL! We keep telling her that the calendar doesn't work until Saturday! So I am trying to think of crafts to do with the girls to keep them busy and just because they love to do 'art.' We spent the last few days making an Advent calendar (complete with candy!) They had a ball, and if you want instructions, I'm going to put them on Aleta's Art

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Here is our Christmas tree. Its a white pre-lit one, but lo-and-behold, only the middle section works this year :( So we just bypassed the pre-lit sections and added our own 'Rainbow Lights' as Sierra calls them. Notice only the top half of the tree is decorated. Yeah, well, the whole tree did have ornaments on it, until Karis kept bringing us the ornaments. So we would just put them up higher! Yesterday I caught the little stinker dragging a chair over trying to reach the ornaments!
We don't have a chimney, so here is our Santa Stocking Holder. These are the girls stockings, from the top, Sierra, Rubriana, and Karis. Mommy and Daddy's are on the other side.

Our Ruby-Rudolph!

Sierra is getting so big!

Oh what a stinker!!

UGGGHHH!

Thanksgiving is Thursday... I still have to go to the commissary and buy everything. Maybe I'll get there this afternoon... or maybe after Dustin gets home. But if I don't get a Turkey today, I don't think it will be thawed by Thursday!

Sierra is excited to help me bake, so we will be doing most of the baking on Wednesday. And the girls are super excited about getting the Christmas decorations out this weekend! I told them they have to keep the house clean until Friday.

Anyway, this is what I have planned for Thursday:

Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes (Dustin's favorite)
Green Bean Casserole
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie - the girls both are excited about the pies because they get to use their child size pie tins for their own personal pies :D
Crescent rolls

ADDED: Peanut Butter Fudge, Pecan Pie, Dressing, a TURKEY (duh) and a Ham. And I'm cooking it all myself... nice...

I asked Sierra if that sounded good and if we should get anything else. She said, "Yeah Mom! We need Turkey!" and looked at me like Duh! LOL! Um yeah, I kind of figured that would be a given! What a hoot she is!

From the mind of a 4 year old!

Sierra is such a character! She, of course, knows EV-RY-THING! And she will tell you matter of factly (with an eye roll and a head shake) what she thinks!

Conversation while watching TV and discussing what Daddy would like for his birthday:

Mommy: Sierra, what do you think Daddy wants for his birthday

Sierra: Um, I think he doesn't want anything.... Oh wait, maybe he wants a pink birthday cake!

Mommy: You think DADDY wants a PINK birthday cake. Hmmm... well, what present should we get Daddy for his birthday, what does he like to do?

Sierra: Daddy likes to do dishes
(insert much laughing from Mommy and Daddy!)

Daddy: you think that's my favorite thing to do, I don't do anything else?

Sierra: Oh yeah, you like to sit on the park bench and watch us play!

Daddy: I don't ever play anything, any games? (trying to get Sierra to mention Xbox 360)

Sierra: Oh yeah, you like to play Barbies and cars too. Maybe Daddy wants a boy Barbie because he says he doesn't like to be the girl Barbies!


Conversation while eating breakfast (waffles and sausage):

Ruby: Mommy, why are you eating waffles with us, don't you eat diet food?

Mommy: Well, Mommy tries to be healthy, but I'm eating waffles today, its okay.

Sierra: Yeah, Mommy and Daddy eat diet foods

Ruby: Do you guys like diet chicken food?
(hehehe, we eat a lot of chicken)

Mommy: Yeah, we eat chicken too. We should all be healthy and eat our chicken and vegetables

Sierra: No, Daddy, likes pizza, he ALWAYS wants pizza. And then Mommy gets mad and tells him 'no more pizza' and then Daddy says he wants Pizza Hut, or Anthony's or Kid Zone... and then Mommy says 'Fine! Get pizza if you want it!' So Daddy likes pizza, not diet food!


Comment from the Peanut Gallery

Dustin and I were discussing him needing to eat more vegetables - he was getting changed from work and I was sitting on the bed. The girls were playing in their room.

Me: You need to eat more vegetables - you don't eat any veggies!

Dustin: No, I eat green beans

(I started laughing)
Me: oh, I'm sorry, you eat green beans my mistake (still laughing)

Dustin: No, I eat asparagus, and broccoli, and carrots... I ate a whole can of carrots yesterday!

Sierra comes out of her room and pops her head in our door
Sierra: (she clicked her tongue - think like nuh) you ate a whole can of carrots (insert more tongue clicking, an eye roll and head shake) and then she walked away

We looked at each other and busted up laughing!!!

Happy Halloween!

So we had a Ballerina Witch, a Pink Kitty Meow Meow, and Tinkerbell! The girls were exited to go Trick or Treating. I had to tell them all day long, when Daddy gets home, AFTER DINNER, we will go. Of course, the second Dustin walked in the door they started squealing and asking if it was time to go Trick or Treating yet! LOL!

Checking out the goods!

Daddy's checking the candy (and planning on what he's going to steal after the girls are in bed)

Karis was such a stinker! She refused to let go of her bucket and had to have a sucker in her hand while we went around. We had to PRY! the bucket from her hand when we got home. And then she realized the girls were dumping out their buckets for Daddy to 'check' them and she dumped hers out too! Such a character!

And this is what the girls are going to do after all the candy they ate tonight!

Pumpkins!

So last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and the girls each picked out a pumpkin. Sierra got the biggest one, Ruby picked out a medium one, and Mommy chose a baby one for Karis. I'm a bad Mommy and forgot to bring my camera for the pumpkin picking though!

Tonight the girls wanted to carve and paint their pumpkins. Sierra was the only one who wanted to carve her pumpkin, and she was really interested in the pumpkin seeds. So we let her pick all the seeds out and Mommy cooked them up while Daddy finished carving the face. Then we got the paint out and let the girls paint them. Enjoy the pics

Karis was so funny. When I first gave her the cup of paint with the paintbrush sticking out she put it in her mouth to drink it like a straw! LOL! I showed her it was a brush so she grabbed it... and held on to it. I brushed it on the pumpkin and it put blue on her pumpkin. AHA! She grabbed the paintbrush from me and had a ball paining her pumpkin!


Ruby didn't want to carve a face in her pumpkin. She thought Sierra's looked cool, but wasn't interested, she just wanted to paint them.


Sierra liked that we carved her pumpkin and we put a candle in it and turned out the lights and she thought it was 'awesome' that it glowed! Hopefully since its cooler here her pumpkin won't wilt before Halloween. We told her that after Halloween though she has to throw her pumpkin out. So we will see how much of a fit she throws.


Afterwards, the girls were pretty painted up, so we gave them baths. After the bath they got to eat the pumpkin seeds. Sierra said she didn't like them, Ruby tasted them but didn't want anymore, and Karis was grabbing them by the handful and shoving them in her mouth! LOL! So I guess she likes them. :D

Family Pictures

Halloween and Dress Up

So the girls have been anxiously awaiting Halloween. We've got their costumes all ready and they try them on at least once a week! Here are some pictures of them, and a few more cute ones I pulled off the computer ;-)

Karis is going to be Tinkerbell

Three Amigas

Ruby is Pink 'Meow Meow'

Karis digging into the popcorn!

Sierra is going to be a Ballerina

My girlies!

Ruby dressed up as her favorite princess!

Daddy told her to put the Cheezits back in the pantry :(

Sgt. Sierra

Me and my Ruby

Update

I am no longer a daycare provider as of Friday night. Dustin and I aren't really too upset, this will give us more time to focus on our family. Oh, and more time to scrapbook :D Thanks for all your prayers and support!
~Aleta

STILL Potty Training!

Yep, that's Ruby... IN APRIL 2006!!! And look, here it is SEPTEMBER 2007 and she is still not potty trained! She likes to sit on the potty, will pee-pee occasionally and if we catch her in the process of going poo-poo we sit her on the potty to finish. But she will not tell us that she has to go (unless its 10:30pm at night and she wants an excuse to get out of bed :eyeroll: ) We've tried threatening, bribing, singing and dancing, giving candy, buying ice cream... EV-VRY-THING!!!

She just doesn't care. So I have come to terms with it. Hey, if I wait a little while longer, I'll probably be able to potty train Karis and Ruby at the same time - lol!

Ruby Ruby Ruby!

Miss Rubriana is 3! We ended up going over to Kid Zone on Friday with some friends for a pizza and cake. Ruby wanted a Snow White cake, so here she is. Sierra said that the cake was very beautiful, but would be even more pretty with a necklace. So I put a necklace on her. LOL!

Ruby can't do the regular "I'm Three" fingers, so we taught her the German way. Hehehe.

Opening up gifts

The girls eating pizza and chicken. And Ruby is checking to make sure her cake is still okay on the other table.

Baby Barbies - her favorite!

A princess cake for my Princess!

MMMM... Sissy's cake is Good!

Neunkirchen Zoo

A few weekends back we went to the Zoo at Neunkirchen. Zoos in Germany are more open and you can get up real close to the animals. The one right down the road in Kaiserslautern is scary! The lions and tiger are within reach, and one day they were not happy and looked like they wanted to eat Sierra! LOL! But we normally go to the one in Neunkirchen because its bigger and has more animals at it (real animals, not farm animals hehehe). Enjoy the pics!