Birthday flowers

a wonderful surprise at my sushi dinner tonight.

Mandy

link to my gallery of scrapbook pages

Have fun enjoying some of the more current pages I create that just never seem to make it to the blog in any semblance of urgency.

Mandy's Scrapbook Gallery

3 Little Monkeys

3 Little Monkeys
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

My God is So Big and the "Resculers"

My God is So Big and the "Resculers"
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Megan sings her ABCs

ABCs
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

First movie

Megan and Samantha waiting to watch Wall-E.

Mandy

Welcome to the Big Apple!

It's official...

I royally suck at keeping this blog updated. I've always wanted to keep it chronological but with how I do my scrapbooking it just isn't working. I like to bounce around based on what kits I am getting for free or on a good sale and that means I'm not scrapping chronologically. So..... I've decided the blog just isn't going to be chronological anymore! Plus I'm not sure if I'm going to post images anymore or just give you links to pages I've created and uploaded to my scrapbooking website since I really don't have the time to upload them twice, once there and then again for the blog elsewhere. My apologies to those of you that follow this blog.

A Couple of Blue Tongues

A Little More Wasabi Please...

Double Trouble

I think the pictures say it all...

Mandy

Megan has figured out chopsticks!

Mandy

Dec2007_Baby Jesus Cakes

Dec2007_Baby Jesus Cakes
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

A tradition Mimi started years ago has begun again and oh did Megan like it! Decorating her very own birthday cake for baby Jesus thrilled her to no end. She loved singing happy birthday and blowing out the candle for him.

Dec2007_Christmas2007

Dec2007_Christmas2007
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Christmas at Mimi and Papa's is always a jam-packed day. It was cousin Blake's first Christmas and it was Megan's first one where she really took an interest in each gift. She took the longest to open all her gifts because she wanted to play with each one.

Dec2007_How To Eat SnoBalls by Megan

Dec2007_How To Eat SnoBalls by Megan
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Another introduction by Uncle Rich - this time to a Sno Ball. I had asked Alan to take pictures for me as I visited with Mom inside, little did I know that I could practically make a video out of it for the quantity he took! This was a fun page to put together!

Dec2007_Christmas 2007

Dec2007_Christmas 2007
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

We had such a fun Christmas at Mom's. The highlight of Megan's day though was the princess wedding dress that Grandma and Grandpa gave her. I'm not sure we'll ever go a day for at least a month where she won't want to wear it!

Dec2007_1st Twinkie

Dec2007_1st Twinkie
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Megan had her first introduction to a twinkie by Uncle Rich. Oh and don't you love the hairstyle - that's a Megan style all her own!

Dec2007_Aunt Jacque & Uncle Rich

Dec2007_Aunt Jacque & Uncle Rich
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Megan normally is reserved around "new" people but it didn't take but a few minutes and she was attached to the hips of Jacque & Rich. I'm not sure who had more fun though!

Dec2007_Silly Girl Turned Adorable

Dec2007_Silly Girl Turned Adorable
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

I love these moments and Megan does too - she's quite the little ham!

Dec2007_Christmas 2008 FamilyPhoto

Dec2007_Christmas 2008 FamilyPhoto
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Not very often we get a "family" shot since I'm usually taking all the pictures but our friend Allyn helped us out with this one. Merry Christmas!!!

Dec2007_HolidayFun

Dec2007_HolidayFun
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Each year the Wild Animal Park brings in snow for the kids to have fun in plus for the animals as well. We headed off for a fun but chilly evening with our friends. Megan loved it - too bad the patch of "snow" they got to play in was practically ice and dirty at that.

Dec2007_My New Trampoline

Dec2007_My New Trampoline
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Yes we did get a trampoline for Megan for her Christmas present and she loves it. The walls aren't up yet in the pictures but they were the next day! It's alot of fun when all three of us are on there, although we don't all jump at the same time!

Close your eyes...

Part of my night time routine with Megan is that I hum a song to her after we say prayers. Usually I hum Jesus Loves Me and sometimes I encourage her to hum with me. Well tonight I asked her to hum a song to me and she was all over it. So she starts humming and I happened to open my eyes to watch her and she saw that I’d opened my eyes and promptly told me “close your eyes mama”. The most hilarious thing about that statement is that it’s what I typically have to remind her to do when I’m humming to her! Do you know how hard it is to keep your eyes closed and contain laughter while trying to maintain a straight face and keep on humming – impossible to say the least!

Dec2007_Santa Visits our Playgroup

Dec2007_Santa Visits our Playgroup
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Dec2007_CootieGame

Dec2007_CootieGame
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Oh does the Cootie Game bring back childhood memories! Megan had a blast playing this with Alan.

Little Bunny Tofu

Along time ago, we began using the little nursery rhyme “little bunny foo foo” as a means to entertain Megan in the car and now little bunny is used to help keep her awake when we don’t want her falling asleep. Well today as we were returning from a lunch with Alan, I as usual encouraged Megan to sing a song and she pipes up with “little bunny tofu” – oh my goodness, I couldn’t help but giggle it was so cute. So our remaining time in the car was laughing and singing her silly version of Little Bunny Tofu.

Dec2007_Christmas with the Gang

Dec2007_Christmas with the Gang
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Christmas with friends - it's always a night full of fun and laughter!

Dec2007_StarStuddedAffair

Dec2007_StarStuddedAffair
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

I love that Alan doesn't mind doing Megan's hair and have his picture taken doing so!!!

Dec 2007 - Singing about Jesus

As I was putting Megan to bed, I asked her if she had fun at church this morning and she of course said yes like she always does. When asked what she liked the most, she said singing about Jesus. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what song she was referring to - Jesus Loves Me. So we began singing Jesus Loves Me and it was the most precious thing in the world to hear her sing with me. She knew about 70% of the words, which totally blew me away.

On a side note, Alan has been taking some classes over at Palomar for the past several months on children’s music education and of course he’s been taking what he’s been learning and having fun with Megan. They have a “music class” where they sing songs and try to do the hand motions if the song has them. A week ago they did "Where is Thumbkin" and by the time they were done, Megan was in a fit of giggles. I just love that sound.

Dec 2007 - Reality Stinks

In early December Megan got to take her little stocking of coins and drop them into the big collection stocking at church. Alan had taken her to class and said she was totally excited to take her stocking over and put it in the big stocking but then the reality sunk in that her money was gone! Ahhh darling, you’re too young to have that reality hit you like a 2x4.

Dec2007_MeganColoring

Dec2007_MeganColoring
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

A little girl that has discovered she likes to draw and is pretty good at it too!

It's me again - behind as usual!

Not sure this will ever get easy but here are at least some pictures of Megan from her 3rd birthday! I'm hoping to get some more scrapbook pages posted soon but trying to figure out a better and faster way to upload them. I think I may end up doing it through Flickr, which is the same place we've used for a long time to upload our photos from.

Couple of cowgirls having fun

Couple of cowgirls having fun
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

What a face!

What a face!
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

The horses were thirsty!

The horses were thirsty!
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Even Uncle Allyn got into the horse rides

Even Uncle Allyn got into the horse rides
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Getting ready for the barrell races

Getting ready for the barrell races
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Showing off her pinata haul

Showing off her pinata haul
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Ride 'em cowgirl!

Ride 'em cowgirl!
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Blowing out her candles

Blowing out her candles
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

I'm 3!!!!!!!!!

I'm 3!!!!!!!!!
Originally uploaded by Alan and Mandy

Where does she pick these things up????

So we are on the way to the grocery store and Megan is telling me something and she finishes it off with ''for reals mama''..... Now I haven't used the term ''for reals'' since I was a kid so where is she picking this up from! It really is too cute!!

Mandy

It's Mine -- No it's Mine!

hmmm... Do we need a lesson again in sharing?

(Alan and Megan ''sharing'' an Orange Bang drink at Mariachi's)

Mandy

Butterfly Tissues

Megan and I have been battling colds since Monday. I think Megan is getting over hers much quicker due to a lovely 3+ hour nap on Monday, thanks to Benadryl! Yesterday was by far my worst day and today is much better but I’m praying this is nothing more than just a cold since Alan heads out for a business trip on Sunday. I do have to relay a hilarious moment from this morning though. Megan had come to me needing her nose cleaned up and I told her I too had lots of yucky stuff coming out of my nose. I proceeded to clear my sinuses and figured why not show her. Well I have no idea what possessed me to say this but well the “stuff” on the tissue resembled a butterfly and the words just popped out of my mouth. Megan then said she wanted to make a butterfly too. You gotta love the literal mind of an almost 3 year old!

Ahhh a Wendy's Frosty

the perfect way to end a fun day!

Mandy

Happy Chinese New Year!

Here we are waiting for the parade.

Mandy

Sweet Fortunes

Megan having fun with her fortune cookie.

Aurora Daddy!

"look sweetheart! The prince gave Ariel a kiss and she woke up!"......."That's Aurora daddy....not Ariel!" ....... "Uhhh... Ya... That's what I meant..."

It will take some getting used to. Being wrong that is. I guess I better get used to it!

Mama having fun with her new cell phone!

My last post was done with my new cell and photos taken on it the other night at dinner. I'm loving this!!! Thanks Daddy for my birthday gift!

Aunt Jacque

Megan having tons of fun with Jacque, Rich & Kyle

Who Knew?

Megan can be motivated to clean up her toys in no time flat - for money!!! At church last weekend they sent her home with a tiny flannel stocking to fill with coins for a special Christmas gift to the missionary assigned to their class. The idea was to have the children earn some coins for doing extra little things around the house. When I told Megan that to earn some money she needed to clean up her toys, I figured nah she’s not going to be motivated by this. So I told her that what I meant by clean was that no toys could be on mama’s rug (aka living room rug) and if she did that she’d get some money for her missionary’s stocking. I was in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast/lunch at this point and by the time I was done (maybe 15-20 minutes) she came in and said I cleaned up my toys mama. I turned around and looked and by golly the girl had put away every single toy on that rug! I couldn’t get to my wallet fast enough to dig out some coins for that stocking! After that she said she wanted to put away more toys to get more money. Yep - I quickly found more toys for her to clean up to earn those extra quarters! When Alan got home that night, the first words out of her mouth when he walked in the door were “Daddy I need more money”. Oh were we ever dying of laughter and simultaneously cringing at the thought that she’s already asking for money at age 2-1/2!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family or friends! We had a wonderful time.

Our Thanksgiving desert trip was a shorter one this year. We both had overlooked getting substitutes for our ministry obligations at church so we had to be back home by Saturday night. That just meant we had to make the most of our one full day. We had fun playing in the sand, making sand angels, going for a walk and picking flowers, roasting some wieners over the fire and most of all playing hide-n-seek with Matthew and his friend Thomas. One cute thing when they kids were playing hide-n-seek, Alan told Megan that the front door was where she would count. She promptly walked over and began counting 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 – absolute perfection! That was the first time she’d done it without skipping over a number of two – we’re so proud! Blake was of course an adorable little man, having only a few times where he was inconsolable because his mommy wasn’t there, which whenever I held him Megan would remind me that she cried the last time I held someone else besides her. By the time we got on the road for home that night, Megan was dead asleep before we made it to town.

It's 6:30pm and what is your child doing?

Guess what – ours is already in bed! We had catastrophic melt down at the dinner table and decided Megan needed to go to bed a little early tonight. She was out in under 2 minutes. I don't think Megan has gone to bed that early in over 9 months!

Major progress

By George I think she’s got it! At church this morning, Megan told her teacher that she needed to go potty and just did her thing when the teacher took her! This is a first and we’re so proud of her! Of course it wasn’t until I thought more about it that I realized she never went before we left the house this morning – eek! My poor baby was probably ready to burst but still she told her teacher instead of having an accident in her pull-up! Wahoooooooo!

Socks, Socks, Socks

Megan is all about socks at the moment. She can put them on herself and loves to do so all day long. Although she gets very annoyed if the seam in the toe is not in the perfect spot. Next we’ll have to work on understanding that there is a top and a bottom to a sock like there is a front and a back to her pants. We are well on our way to dressing ourselves. She can take off her shirts and pants and she can pull on her pants although she has a little trouble with the back if they are jeans. Shirts are a little tougher but with just a little bit of help with the arms, she can get it from there most times.

Oh back to the socks… we have a book that she loves to read that is about a bunny that needs new shoes because her feet have grown. So they go down to the shoe store and when the store owner puts on one of her new red shoes, she says that now she wants a blue one for her other foot just like Spunky Spaniel in her favorite tv show. Can you guess what she’s been doing with her socks? Yep – she wears two different colored socks – it’s so cute!

So far so good!

We’ve not had any unavoidable accidents yet! Although I’m really hesitant to let her go to church without a pullup yet. Afterall she’s in her class for 2 services because we attend the first service and then have our ministries at the second service. I figure if we see her not have an accident in her pullup for several weeks straight, then we’ll try panties on Sundays too. I'm so proud of her!!!

Cell phone decision time

Man I didn't think making this decision would be so hard! But I think I've pretty much decided on buying the Treo 680 cell phone and getting setup with unlimited internet access through AT&T. Now all we’ve got to do is figure out how much of a discount we can get with Alan’s corporate discount and then buy the phone and get setup! I can’t wait!!!

Oh my....

Yes I know a week or so ago I was saying how I thought it was time for Megan to go to wearing panties, well today SHE asked me if she could wear them. Can you tell I'm the one not ready for this? Thank goodness girls are easier to potty train than boys!

Megan says her first prayer

Last night Megan said her first complete prayer at bedtime! She did it all on her own without any need for me to help her along – it was just precious! I can only imagine the smile on the Lord’s face as he heard that adorable little voice saying thank you for this, that and everything. Then today at lunch I asked her if she wanted to say our lunch prayer and she said yes and thanked the Lord for our food and it’s so amazing to hear her little voice say “in Jesus name, Amen”. Ahhh - my cup runneth over!

Thank you Daddy and Megan!!!

We went out for my birthday dinner to our favorite noodle house tonight. While we waited for our meal to come out, Alan and Megan gave me my birthday present. Wahoooooo – I get to go select the cell phone of my choosing. For quite some time I’ve wanted a cell phone that could contain our calendar and have internet access. I can’t wait – just have to figure out which phone I’m going to get and when!

Mama's birthday

Ahhh a birthday party just how I like it - small, uneventful and with the best of friends and family. (Yes to those who know today's not THE day, it just worked better for getting everyone together.)

Dressing up our kitty cat

Happy Halloween!

We have one tired cowgirl after all the fun she's had today. We started off the afternoon going to Daddy's work to be in the costume parade, then to church for the Harvest Festival and finally coming home and going out trick-or-treating. You would never know it though - she's one tough cookie when it comes to having fun!