Rodent problems?

I wish we could take credit for inventing this device, but think we might steal the design. We have some squirrels that continuously tease Sam and ate holes in our American flag.

Fishcapades

Merlin II didn't make it. I found him floating upside down under the filter yesterday morning. I was a bit worried about him, since like Merlin the First, Merlin II was always hiding in the corner. I did see St. Nicholas bullying Merlin II around even though they were the same size. Well at least, Merlin II died with in the one week warranty program, and I can get a free replacement. More importantly, I am glad that my kids get along (slightly) better in our 2400 square foot house, than 3 fish in a 5 gallon tank. There is still some bullying, stealing of food, and hitting, but no one ends up missing or dead.

The end of an era

As mentioned previously, we have had a lot of birthday parties to attend this month. I think 5 was the final count. We have done rollerskating, bouncy houses, treasures hunts, cake, cake, and more cakes. I wouldn't want to forget to mention ice cream also. Between the two girls I think I counted 15 pieces of cake and 6 cups of ice cream. Our final birthday party was had a "Once a upon a time" theme. Elizabeth was quite worried that she was going to have to suffer through another princess party. But I assured her that a couple of her guy friends were going, there would be pirate ship and a treasure hunt, and that she wouldn't have to dress up like a princess. Elizabeth is still not fond of princesses but she doesn't hate them anymore. I will give all the credit to my sister-in-law, Lauren, who got her the book "The Princess Knight" for Christmas. It is about Princess Violetta who is raised by her father and three brother to joust and fight. When her father holds a jousting tournament to find a groom for his daughter. Princess Violetta enters the contest in disguise and wins, knocking all the men off their horses. She decides that none of the knights are good enough for her, she travels the lands and finally settles down with the gardener's son.Ava on the other hand had no problems with princesses, and has declared herself Pinkalicious after receiving that book from my mom this Christmas. For those of you who don't know the story, it is about a girl who turns pink (then red) from eating to many pink cupcakes, and the only way to return to flesh tone is by eating green veggies. Despite the two girls being polar oppisites there are times that they get along surprisingly well.

I know, it isn't quite as funny as Ava's robot dance.

New Addition

I was waiting to share the news with all of you until the time was right. I wasn't sure they were going to make it, but now enough time has passed that I think things are going to be alright. No, I am not pregnant, but recently, we have adopted 3 fish into our household. One of the kids Christmas presents was a fish tank. Ryan's idea, not mine. I thought we had enough responsibility with three kids and a dog without adding fish to the mix, but he said the girls would enjoy them. He was right, and fortunately they seem to be a pretty hardy group and we haven't had to have any fishy funerals (yet). Due to Ryan's work schedule, I got take the kids fish shopping. Elizabeth picked out a big blue fish which she named St. Nicholas. He is always hanging out at the top of the fish tank looking for his next meal. Ava picked a medium sized pink fish which she calls Pinky. Her fish is a super fast swimmer and never stays still. We tried to get a green fish for Casey (his assigned color), but the pet store was out of green fish, so we took home a little tiny blue and red neon fish home and named Merlin. He is the most timid and hides most of the time. I also let the girls pick out a few decorations for their fish tank. True to form, Elizabeth picked out some blue plants and a pirate skull. Ava picked some pink plants and a pagoda, which she calls a castle. Since Casey couldn't have a green fish, Elizabeth picked out green frog statue for him.The girls were fighting over who got to feed the fish, so we worked out a schedule. Ava in the morning and Elizabeth in the evening, which I think is more than we remember to feed the dog some days. The girls get a kick out of watching their fish eat and swim around their watery play land. Slowly, Ryan is winning me over that the fish tank was a good present. Update: I wrote this entry on 1/19, but hadn't published it because I was slow in uploading some pictures to go with it. Around 1/24 we noticed that Merlin had pulled a vanishing act. After a thorough search of the tank, we came to the conclusion that most likely became dinner for St. Nicholas (aka Fatty Fish). So over the weekend, the girls and I picked out a new fish for Casey. This time they had some green ones, and we chose a slightly larger fish. Merlin II is about the same size at St. Nicholas. We are hoping that Pinkie is not now at the bottom of the food chain. I will keep you updated on how everything turns out in our 5 gallon fish tank.

Social Butterfly

Where as Ava keeps a bit more to herself, Elizabeth is quite the social butterfly. If you ask Elizabeth who her friends are she will rattle off at least a dozen kids she knows from daycare and playgroups. If you ask Ava her her friends are she will respond Casey and Sissy (even though the girls fight like cats and dogs quite often). Ava still has no real inclination to widen her peer social network and can't name any of the kids in her class, but she is fond of her teachers and knows their names. However, Elizabeth has informed me that Ava has a friend named Sara. I haven't been able to confirm this rumor yet. As for Elizabeth, she has been in daycare less than a month, and she has received 5 birthday invitations. Two weeks ago it was roller skating with Mandy. This past weekend was a bouncy house place for Ignacio's party, as well as party for Rylee (Ryan's stepbrother's daughter). Next weekend is filled with parties on both Saturday and Sunday again. Lets not to forget to mention that Elizabeth has her own birthday party coming up in less than a month. I don't think I can stand anymore cake, but the girls are still going strong. The girls think home and school are pretty boring. They still get excited to go to the grocery store, but it is really a special treat for them to go to the birthday parties. I like to make the weekends fun and exciting for them, since now their weeks are relatively routine compared to when I was staying home. On a side note, Elizabeth blurted out her first bad word this weekend. At Rylee's party, her mother was running about snapping pictures. Ryan makes it a point not to smile for pictures, and wasn't about to cave for his sister-in-law, Cyndy. Cyndy's response to his pouty face was, "Smile dammit," which Elizabeth promptly parroted. Cyndy was a ahgast and promtly apologized and gave Elizabeth a lesson on language. Ryan and I were still too busy laughing. Check back next week for more birthday antics. I think Elizabeth needs to survive another princess party, but at least this one involves a bouncy castle and a treasure hunt...much cooler than a tea party. Ava is all about princesses and the colors pink and purple, so she is really looking forward to it. Elizabeth can't quite understand why some girls aren't as excited as she is about pirates and Spiderman.

2024 Olympics: Here we come!

Okay probably not, but Elizabeth did have a good time putting on her gymnastics show. Which is a good thing, because I was pretty worried about her. She didn't have gymnastics class for over a month because of the holidays. Plus, since starting daycare she has had some separation anxiety, and spent 20 minutes of her first gymnastics of the new year crying/sulking, even though I was watching her on the other side of a glass window. Ava on the other hand has not had some of the same fears as Elizabeth and absolutely loves gymnastics and her big sister. She can't wait to turn three and sign up for gymnastics with Elizabeth. Ava being a bit impatient couldn't wait for the summer and put on her leotard in order to sneak into Elizabeth's gymnastics show. It worked for a bit. She was able to participate in the activities on the big red mat, but I did have to corral her for the individual routines. She still probably ended up in many other families' pictures, because I was trying to take pictures myself and entertain Casey.

For the show, the whole family (minus Ryan due to work) got to come into the gym area and participate in some group activities plus watch Elizabeth perform her individual routines. Her routines were a bit rough since she has had such a long break from classes. Plus plenty of distractions with 16 wild kids and all their families in the room. Listening and good manners were hanging on by a loose thread. The instructors were spotting heavily to ensure no one got hurt and trying to encourage the kids to do at least a couple of the skills that they have been working on the last 16 weeks. You have to give the parents their money's worth.

Elizabeth loves the bar and could swing from it all day. The balance beam is a favorite also. Not for walking on, but for jumping off of it. She made it through all of her routines and got a medal at the end of class for a job well done. (Note the Spiderman hands!)

The most important thing is that she had a good class, mostly because Ava was in the room with her and the two of them tumbled around like a couple of little puppies. The next session starts up in two weeks, and even though Ava won't be there to join her. I am hoping she will get back into it like before, because she will be in a class with two of her friends.

Roller Mania

The girls are adjusting to daycare. Elizabeth still cries every morning when I drop her off, but she is making friends. On the other hand, Ava's teachers told me they were worried that Ava wasn't playing with the other kids. I told them that is just who she is. Ava marches to the beat of her own drum. Elizabeth's new best friend, Mandy, invited us to her 4th birthday party held at a local roller rink. This was the 1st time the girls got up on skates and for Ava it didn't last for more than about 3 minutes, but Elizabeth got the hang of it and had a blast hanging out with her new friend Mandy (girl in green in the videos). In fact, both girls proclaimed that it was the best birthday party ever. Ava had a blast dancing, and Casey was mesmerized by the Disco ball. Included are three videos for those of you who have the ability and inclination to further investigate our adventures at the roller rink.

The first is of Elizabeth getting the hang of her roller skates.

The second is of Ava getting her groove on. I think she went the Milo Knight School of Dance. This is a much watch video. Absolutely hilarious! (or maybe that is just her mother's opinion)

The third is of Casey chasing after the disco ball lights. I think these are the first action shots of Casey crawling that I have posted. He is really zipping along now.

Happy New Year!

Greetings to all, as you can see we are ringing in the love this year. The kids promise me that there will be no more fighting, whining, or crying.

Their resolution was broken about 10 minutes into the new year, but it was a nice idea anyway.

Roommate

Lucky for me my college roommate and best friend has a brother that lives in Austin, TX (about an hour up the road). I got to see her when I was in Washington DC for job training, and again when she was in TX visiting family. What a great holiday treat! Crystal and I have been best friends for the last 11 years, and we were fortunate enough to spend the last 4 years living nearby in DC. During that time our families grew closer together also. Her two girls, Joey (5) and Dani (3 1/2), are close enough in age that it made for fun social gatherings. It has been 8 months since the kids have gotten together, and it was so great to see them form even stronger bonds because they are a bit older and can play better together. I think Crystal and I will do our parts to help encourage their friendship. I am not sure where Casey will fall into this whole mess, but hopefully the four girls don't cause any permanent physical or physiological damage. P.S. Ava started the whole no shirt thing. I pray that won't continue into her teenage years.

Santa Claus

Thank you family and friends for helping make the kids' Christmas wonderful. They are blessed with so many grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends that there is always a plethora of good things under the tree. There is nothing like the wide eyes and bright grin on a child's face Christmas morning. Obviously, they had you all fooled, because they probably didn't deserve anything other than coal this year. There are definitely some rough days trying to keep up with 3 kids under the age of 4. Christmas week was no exception when all three kids came down sick. Thank goodness for Tylenol, Motrin, and cough syrup...and lots of it. We were able to get them a point of medicated bliss, so that they could actually enjoy the holiday.

Ava looking a little out of it, but trust me, the see-saw is one of her favorite toys. She doesn't even like to let her sister use it.

This will probably be our last mellow Christmas. Elizabeth is now at an age where she gets pretty stoked about Christmas.

Another masterpiece!

She starts her list early in the year, and loves the whole concept of Santa Claus. She was the one who called out with glee upon seeing scooters, motorcycles, presents, and a picnic table under the tree on Christmas morning. At least, she remains grateful and wants to call Santa and thank him for all the great presents. (I told her she has to write him a letter.) Ryan even heard her and Ava a few days later chanting "thank you Santa" while riding their see-saw. Next year Ava will be three and we think Christmas will be a flurry of wrapping paper and screams as Captain Destructo really gets into the action.

Despite their illness, there was still some holiday cheer. My little mermaids checked out their stocking stuffer, color changing tablets for the bath tub.

Elizabeth is still a fan of pirates. With costumes, ships, and action figures for Christmas, what more could a girl want. Casey even got into the action. He thought the fish tank was pretty cool. Actually just to bow which he kept yanking off and eating.Ava's favorite gift was pink and purple underwear. I can now say with some confidence that she is potty trained. We have been working on it for the last month and a half, and I think she finally has it. She is just so pleased with herself to be wearing undies now. That and pink glitter shoes. Happy New Year!

It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Yesterday, it was 76 degrees and we went to buy our Christmas tree in shorts and a t-shirt. I am not sure how I feel about this. I like being able to enjoy the outdoors for so many months out of the year, but I do like snow. There are some other big differences between D.C. and Texas. Last year, we went to buy our Christmas tree on December 24th at 4pm. The salesman seemed insulted when we asked if there were any discounts on their trees. No discount, slim pick'ins, and we sulked away with a $50 tree. Trees were always overpriced in DC, but I was still a little worries about what we would pay in DC since the evergreen tree isn't native. This year there were still slim pick'ins because we procrastinated so long, in fact the first place we stopped had closed up shop. So, we drove over to a local nursery, they had 42 trees left to be exact, but they were all half off. The original price on most was $75. We had narrowed down our selection when one of the sales ladies mentioned that there were a couple of trees up front for sale. That had been decorated and used in the background for their pictures with Santa promotion. Ryan and I took a look, one of the trees was about 4ft tall, but he other one was great. A 7ft tall Douglas Fir with lights, tinsel, some ornaments, a big bow, and fake snow all for the special price of $27. Merry Christmas, who doesn't love a good deal! You will be sure to see some pictures of this fabulous find on Christmas Day. Happy Holidays! P.S. Today it is in the 40's and very windy, so much for the balmy weather of last week.

He moves!

It is official, upon me returning from Washington, D.C. Casey is on the move. He can now crawl all over the house, and even climb the one step up and out of our sunken living room. He can even pull himself up and get into all sorts of trouble. He isn't climbing out of his crib yet, but he is pulling stuff off of bookcases.

Here are a couple of pictures of our happy little guy, and I will post some video of him on the prowl soon.

More visitors

Immediately following my mom's departure, Annie, Billy, and Reina flew in for the week. We were able to get everyone together at our house for lunch before Ryan went to work, I flew out of town, and kids had naps. I don't think the girls consumed much food, but they were successful in pulling out every toy we own. As I mentioned above, I had to jump an airplane and head out of town, so this is where our adventures separate. While I was in DC for job orientation, I got to spend some time with my other sister-in-law Lauren and her son Milo (Andrew was out of town) and my best friends Crystal and Siusan. Meanwhile, back in Texas, the kids and Ryan celebrated Bub's and Reina's birthdays and Annie and Billy volunteered to watch kids one day while Ryan worked. Four kids under the age of four!!! Wow... thanks again for helping us out. Before Annie, Billy, and Reina flew back to Ohio we were able to meet back up with them as a family and enjoy a nice dinner, plus Gram and Bub. The holidays are all about family and friends, and it has been nice to see some many of you during the month of December.

Visit from Grammy

Before I headed back to work full time, we were fortunate enough to enjoy a visit from my mom, aka. "Grammy" to the kids. The kids had a blast with her. The girls showed her all their toys, drawings, and chatted up a storm. Casey was content to smile endlessly, and he continued to make progress towards crawling. Some of the highlights of her visit included: A Christmas Play- where the girls got to participate in the play by helping "Dolly" find her hair, and helping Santa put some presents under the tree. Afterward, we took some obligatory photos with Santa. Ava was more excited about receiving a candy cane, rather than a photo op. An early Christmas-Grammy, being much nicer than I am, allowed the kids to open their Christmas presents from her early. Elizabeth wasn't a big fan of a princess wand, but his costume went over great. She proclaims herself a "King-Horser," from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty ("All the King's horses, and all the King's men").Ava on the other hand was a big fan of the princess wand. She also enjoyed playing with her new fairy doll (now named Pink Girl), and some bottles for her Baby Ava. I am not sure why I don't have any pictures, but it is probably because she never sits still. A trip to the New Braunfels Children's Museum-I had taken the girls to the Children's Museusm in North Carolina before and we had a blast. It still remains my favorite Museum for children. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the one in New Braunfels. They had lots of activities for the kids, including ones that the them get dirty and wet.

Right now Elizabeth is a huge fan of painting and dress up.

Ava on the hand has a more nurturing side. She was content doctoring baby's in the hospital and pushing her baby all around the museum in a shopping cart.Casey had a good time with blocks in mirrors in the "under 3" area.Overall a successful outing that entertained all age groups for a good 3 1/2 hours.

Rub-a-Dub- Dub, Three Kids in the Tub

Casey loves the bath tub. He gets a blast out of splashing and it always brings a huge smile to his faces and gets him talking. Today, Ava was enjoying getting into the action as well. Elizabeth on the other hand was a crabby from not napping and wasn't enjoying bath time very much. Needless to say, immediately after this video was shot, I yanked her out of the tub and made her stand in the corner for her antics. Why can't they all just get along!

Birthday Mania

As I mentioned previously, the kids had another friend's birthday party coming up that they were really looking forward to. Their friend, Rich, celebrated his 3rd birthday this weekend at Lifetime Fitness, a national globo gym chain. The party started right by fueling the kids with pizza, juice, ice cream, and cake before proceeding to the party games. The gym staff coordinators tried to wrangle a bunch of 18months-5 year olds into two teams for an organized game of soccer. That lasted about 5 minutes and was not a pretty sight. The staff quickly decided they need to take this party in another direction and brought out a giant parachute which the kids loved playing with, under, and on. They probably got about 15 minutes of fun out of that one. Then came the scooters!I don't know if anyone else had used the scooter before, but we had them at my elementary school and would have a blast during gym class playing scooter hockey, where you sit on your butt and scoot yourself around backwards and forwards and hit a wiffle ball with mini hockey sticks. At this birthday party, the kids didn't play anything that advance. In fact, they couldn't quite figure out how to get the scooter to move while sitting on them, which resulted in "Mommy, push me!" They did manage to figured out that if they laid down on their tummies they could spin themselves around in circles. Then some how the two activities were combined., an before you knew it parents were slingshoting their kids around the gym. You just grab a foot or two, spin around in a circle and then let them fly towards a wall (preferably padded).That lasted for quite a while, and then while I was taking Casey for a ride on a scooter, my girls came over to request another ride. These scooters are a little more high tech than the wood ones from my elementary school days, and hook together. So what started as a 4 person train with my kids and I, quickly turned into me trying to push all the kids at the birthday party across the floor on a mega scooter train.At its largest, I think we had 10 kids on nine scooters racing across the gym floor. Fortunately, a couple of the other parents took a few turns pushing the train also, because it was a beast to get moving. I know I worked up a sweat. Even little Casey got his exercise, practicing crawling across the gym floor. Don't be fooled, he still isn't going anywhere.

Happy Thanksgiving

Aw, some quiet time to update this site. All the kids (including Ryan are napping), so I actually have a little over an hour to myself. As much as I would like to take a nap too, I can think of more productive ways to spend my time. Ryan has been working the night shift for the last 3 weeks (11pm-7am), and Thanksgiving was no exception. Since Ryan worked Wednesday night, I spent Thursday morning keeping the kids quiet, so that Ryan could get some sleep. Still, I had to wake him up early, so that we could make the trek to Gram and Bub's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. The Knight/Friesenhahn crowd could rival a Melink gathering. There were probably 30-40 folks for dinner. We enjoyed turkey with all the sides and about 8 different desserts. As you can see, the party wore everyone out.

If I would have only had my camera...

Miracle of miracles, I actually got Elizabeth to dress up like a princess! The girl who owns 1 pair of Batman pj's, one Batman T-shirt, 2 Spiderman T-shirts, one Spider-man basketball uniform, one Batman cape, and a Spiderman Halloween costume, actually donned a princess dress and shoes to attend a birthday party. Note, she would wear her super hero outfits everywhere if I hadn't put my foot down and said that she could only use them as pajams. One of her friends, Lily, from school invited Elizabeth to her 4th birthday party. The theme was a princess tea party for girls only, and they were all asked to dress up as princesses. Upon first recieving the invitation, Elizabeth informed me that she was going to dress up as Spiderman and everyone else could be princesses. It took me a couple of weeks but she finally agreed to be a yellow princess (the dress belonged to Ava). Poor Elizabeth wasn't her normal chipper self at the party and was looking pretty glum until she found some binoculars with an attached flashlight in Lily's brother's room. She then proceeded to shut herself in the bathroom with all the lights out so she could try out the binoculars. I think those binoculars and cake and ice cream were the best part of the party, because she wasn't to into decorating princess crowns with stickers or eating finger sandwiches. In fact, there were even tears because she thought I had left her there. Anyway, she survived the birthday party, and she is still good friends with Lily. They just have different interests. On the other hand, Elizabeth is really looking forward to her friend Rich's birthday party next weekend, since it is a sport's party and she can wear her football jersey.

Beach in November?!?!

While my sister who lives in upstate New York enjoyed a foot of snow before Halloween, and even our beach condo in North Carolina had a dusting of snow last week, we were able to relax on the sunny shores of Texas beaches this past weekend. However, I do have to admit that we did have a bit of a cold snap and the highs were only in the low 70's and Saturday was pretty gusty. Still, it was great to be out at the beach in mid-November.Lizzy came up with the idea the other week that she wanted to go to the beach, we all agreed that it wasn't a bad idea at all. Luckily, Ryan had a free weekend (this was the first time he's had two consecutive days off in a row since starting in July), so we were able to meet up with Gram and Bub at their place in Port Aransas. We check out the Texas State Aquarium on Saturday, and took in some of the local dining establishments, and played at the beach on Sunday. It was a nice weekend get away, and we had a good time with the kids.

Leftover Halloween Fun

A few days after Halloween I hit the thrift stores to see if I could find any discounted costumes for the girls dress up box. I had some luck and picked up a purple princess outfit, a spider costume, and a clown outfit complete with a big bow tie and face paint. The girls were begging me to let them paint their faces, so I figured the bathtub was the safest place to conduct this activity. They had a good time and we have pictures to remember it. Luckily we used up all the paint so I don't have to repeat this activity anytime soon, because I still have a red ring in my bathtub.

All clean!