Funcakes!

Last night, poor Odette could not get comfortable.  After what seemed like hours of her tossing and turning and drinking lots of water, I finally decided that maybe she was too hot.  She loves her monkey footie pajamas, but she gets hot very easily, so I had her take her pajamas off and just sleep in her diaper.  That worked.  She laid in the crook of my arm and slept peacefully for the rest of the night.  :)

When the girls woke up (and woke me up), we cuddled and laid in bed for a while longer until both girls were too hungry to wait anymore.  We got dressed and went to have breakfast.

I surprised the girls with Mickey Mouse pancakes (FUNcakes!), which they loved!  :)

Odette loved it so much, she didn't wait for me to bring her a fork...she just dug in with her bare hands!

After breakfast, I got the diaper bag ready and we went grocery shopping.  The forecast originally said there would be rain in the afternoon, so I wanted to get that out of the way so I didn't have to drag the girls out in the rain.

Once the shopping was done, we came back home, had some lunch, and then Odette went down for a nap.

While Odette napped, Alegria played on the computer and I worked on a project I'd been meaning to get done a long time ago.

My mom purchased three really neat educational books for Alegria a while back.  When I was looking through them, I realized that they were workbooks, but they're so great, that I was a little sad that if Alegria worked in them, Odette, or any other children of ours for that matter, would miss out!  So today I finally cut the binding off of one, laminated every page, and then put it back together with binder rings!  I forgot to take a before picture of the book I worked on today, but the other two books look like this:

And the first book now looks like this:

Side by side comparison:

Thickness comparison:

A view when opened:

The book is a lot heavier and thicker now, but it's also more durable!  I found these neat dry erase crayons this summer when I was getting the girls' birthday party together, so that's what I plan on having Alegria and Odette use when we work in these books!  The girls were so excited as they saw me putting the book together, that we read the first few pages, which basically just introduced the alphabet.  They got to trace the letters with their fingers and trace shapes that letters use...I can't wait to get more in depth into it!  :)

The rest of the day was pretty low-key.  We colored, played, watched a movie, had dinner, I bathed the girls, they brushed their teeth...

Then it was countdown time again.  :)

(Notice Odette's wearing her summer PJs!  Hopefully she'll sleep better tonight!)

Once the girls were in bed, I prepared my class for tomorrow.

And now I'm going to watch a little TV and then go to bed!  

Good night!  :)

Miracle of Miracles!

What a laaaaazy day!!!  Not really THAT lazy...but we DID stay in all day...

We got up, had breakfast, I worked out, and the girls played.

I finally folded all of the laundry and even put it all away right away.  Wow.  If that isn't a miracle in and of itself, I don't know what is...oh wait...yes, I do...!  (Coming up, I'll tell you what is...)

While I put the laundry away and then proceeded to tidy up the rest of the house, the girls found a pair of sunglasses that Cameron had popped the lenses out of for Odette to have glasses that looked liked Hallie's for their Doc McStuffins birthday party back in August.  Alegria looks gorgeous in glasses, don't you think?!

And of course, once Alegria tried them on, Odette HAD to try them on, too!  :)  What a cutie!!!  :)

After getting the house cleaned up, I called Maintenance to come and fix our oven, kitchen sink sprayer, and to spray for pests.  The grand miracle was that for the first time EVER, Maintenance actually got their people to come and fix every single one of those things today, the SAME day that I called!!!  I was AMAZED!!!

The guy who came to fix the oven found out that the ignitor (sp?) in the oven was broken.  Everything else worked except for that, and he had to go back to the shop to get a new part, so he asked if I would be home later so that he could come back with the new part and fix it.  That was my deal breaker.  I needed to go to the grocery store, but that gave me the excuse to decide to make it ooooone more day without going grocery shopping.

So the rest of the day, the girls and I just colored, read books, watched cartoons, and played.  Here's a picture of the girls playing with balloons that they'd throw up in the air and try to bump with their heads or catch or bounce back and forth to each other:

And later on, as I fixed dinner for all of us, Odette was playing with her stick horse, so I started "singing" and she loved it, so she kept asking me to do it over and over again!

Of course, Alegria had to have a turn!!!

After dinner, some cuddles and "Classical Baby," the girls got in their pjs, brushed their teeth, and we did our daily countdown:

While Alegria drew a masterpiece in today's calendar square, Odette pulled a bead out to add it to our countdown necklace:

Done with her elephant drawing!

Our beautiful girlies!!!

Tomorrow I HAVE to go to the grocery store, so I'm going to head to bed...hopefully the girls have left some room for me!  That's right...they're back to sleeping in bed with me while Daddy is in Ranger School!  But only for 18 more nights!  :)

Good night everyone!!!  :)

The Countdown Begins...Again!

We got to sleep in this morning until about 8:20.  Cameron went to go get the girls and brought them back into our bed where we all cuddled and read books until the girls started asking for breakfast.

After breakfast, we all got ready...Cameron even brushed Alegria's hair to untangle it prior to my putting it in pigtails.  That proved to be a little more difficult than expected!  Alegria was acting silly and trying to wriggle away!!!

In the meantime, I fixed Odette's hair while she played on the Nook:

Finally, Alegria's hair was fixed, too:

(Please excuse the laundry in the background...it's been there for a few days, I know, but spending quality time with the family is the priority right now, so the laundry has taken a back seat to having fun family times!!!)

Once we were all ready, we headed over to Commando's to pick up a few supplies that Cameron was in need of.

Finally, we came back home, had some lunch, and then headed back out, this time to the Columbus Museum.

Unfortunately, when I got my camera out to take pictures in the children's area of the Museum, I found out that it was broken.  I had dropped it earlier today when I was helping Odette put her coat on.  I didn't realize until I tried to use it again that the case that I had it in did not protect it sufficiently from the drop.  :(  I don't know WHY I have butterfingers of late!!!  :(

That being said...I apologize that for the next few days, the pictures I post from now on will be of pretty poor quality because I will be taking them on my phone until I can get a replacement camera.

Aside from that, we had a fun time at the museum, drawing and coloring, playing, and just enjoying ourselves:

After we'd had our fill of fun, we headed back home and just relaxed and cuddled on the couch and watched a movie and had some popcorn.  

Then I shaved Cameron's head, he got rid of his beard, and he got his rucksack together.

At 5:15, we left to Camp Rogers, where we dropped Cameron off for his last phase of Ranger School...Florida/Swamp Phase.  Our goodbyes were quick...we didn't want to drag them out...and then the girls and I came back home.

Back home, we had some dinner and finished watching our movie.

Then it was time to take a bath.

Once both girls were bathed, in pajamas, and had their teeth brushed, we recommenced our daily countdown to Daddy's graduation from Ranger School on a new family-pictures-filled calendar that we got for Christmas from Cameron's parents!  

Our countdown necklace is getting quite long!!!

Hugs and (quasi) smiles for the camera (phone!)!!!  :)

Only 21 days and a wake-up left!  

Good night y'all!!!  :)

Fun-Filled Day!!!

The day started off early.  The girls had gotten used to sleeping in until between 8:15 and 8:45.  Today, though, they were up at 7:45!!!  At least, that's when we heard their little voices making their way into our bedroom.  No matter!  We were happy to get started with our day!

We had breakfast, got ready, and then headed out.

Our first errand of the day was to go to the car dealership to see if they could get the Jeep's DVD player fixed.  A couple of days ago, it was working just fine, and then all of a sudden, it wasn't working anymore!  It would play music CDs, but not DVDs.  Anyway.  They sent us to a detailing shop, where the DVD player had been installed to begin with.  They switched our DVD player out temporarily and will be ordering a replacement one.  

After that, we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A in the mall's food court:

Next, we went to the Peachtree Cinemas at the mall, a second-run cinema where the tickets are only $2.25 a piece!  Awesome!  We watched "Hotel Transylvania."  It was GREAT!!!  We loved it!!!  We were there right smack-dab in the middle of Odette's nap, though, so she ended up falling asleep in Cameron's arms during most of the movie.  But the rest of us had good laughs!!!  That's one of those movies that I KNOW I will have to purchase the DVD!!!  :)

Once the movie was over, we went to Shooters of Columbus.  Say hello to the newest member of our family:

I feel safer already.  :)

Back home, we just played.  Here are Odette and Alegria, sporting some cute outfits that their Great Aunt, Tia Marina sent them:

In the evening, we went to Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt place...YUM!!!  

Once home, we had a simple dinner (I know, we did it a little backwards today...dessert first and then dinner!  You gotta have SOME days like that every now and then!!!).  Then we read scriptures and had a short Family Home Evening lesson on Temples.

Finally it was time for the girls to go to bed.

It was another wonderful day today!!!

Good night!  :)

Welcome, Welcome, 2013!!!

What better way to start the New Year than at home, relaxing and having fun with family!?!?!?

We colored:

Put together some puzzles:

Enjoyed hugs and cuddles while watching college football:

And had ourselves an Odette Sandwich!

I also did laundry, the girls and Daddy jumped on the trampoline, and we watched some movies and had popcorn!  It was an excellent day!!!

2013 is going to be GRRRRREAT!!!  :)