April

April has been a very busy month for us here are a few highlights.

~I ran in my first 5K at the end of march and I made it to the end without fainting. I wasn't last and I didn't run the whole thing but it felt great to try.

~Mike has been traveling for more than half the month he goes to Dallas, Nashville and St. Louis quiet a bit her is rarely home which means he wasn't home for his birthday or mine. He did make it home for Maggie's which is what was most important. He has also entered into a 5K in may we will see how he does.

~ Cecilia has been very busy with school projects and working on the school play"The Wiz:." She is a munchkin and is in alot of the dancing scenes which means lots of costume changes. Every time I thought we had everything bought she would come home saying " mom I need another costume." The play is finally here and we are hoping that may will calm down for her.

~Holly hasn't been to busy this month until this week her tumbling recital starts Thursday and doesn't end until Saturday night. Three nights of recital should be fun. Holly also has softball clinic on Saturday which will start off softball season at our house.

~Maggie has been shuffled around from one thing to the next and is great at going with the flow. She turned three this month and according to her that means a whole week of celebrating her. She started off the week with a card from GandG Payne with monies in it which made her day she then had a lovely time picking out just the right out fit with her monies. She walked around singing happy birthday to herself and she couldn't wait until her friends came over to play with her and eat her cake. She asked me everyday for a week and had her own little count down. She is going through a dress and bow stage, she will only wear a dress and wants to wear a bow to match every day she says is a girl not a boy and only boys wear pants. Not sure where she got that but we are letting her have her fun.

Well may should be a little less busy but I wouldn't count on it.

Spring

Spring is finally here! We have opened up the house and let all the winter germs out but with doing so let all the spring time pollen in and maggie was sick with allergies for a day. She woke up throwing up and then laid around the house and wouldn't eat much, poor little girl. We closed up the house and and have been giving her alegra since.
Cecilia just finished up ISAT's at school and is busy with her play. She was able to help make pizzas for the girls camp fundraiser since she will be able to go this year. She is a little nervous but at the same time excited.
Holly is just busy. She never likes to stay in one place to long and since the weather is getting better is out side riding her bike and running around the neighborhood with all her friends. She just started doing art classes and loves it.
Mike is busy traveling for work and we are just happy to have him when he is home.
March has been a very busy month and April doesn't look like we are going to slow down.

Holly

Almost eight years ago we brought home our second child and second girl to our family. It still amazes me that it has been eight years since we had Holly. She is a very strong child, she lets you know her opinion on things and loves to push your buttons. She loves to play outdoors with her friends and loves to do art. She does like to talk a lot and has an attitude but if she didn't I would wonder if she was really mine. Everyone says she looked like her daddy when she was born and even called her little mike which didn't sit well with mike since he thought his daughter looked like a girl and not a boy. Now as she grows older I think she is looking more and more like me and my sisters, people I grew up with take one look at her and say I know who your mom is and you look just like her. I say she looks like me but much prettier. Holly is having her first slumber party tomorrow night and is so excited to get to kick Cecilia out of the basement , which is what happens when Cecilia has her friends over. Mike is such a good dad her just rolls with the punches and is learning a lot about little girls. Holly will also be baptized the Saturday following her birthday and she is not nervous at all , she does wish they didn't have to give all the talks before and after, she would rather be baptized,confirmed and have refreshments. That's my kid keep it short and sweet and get right to the point.

January has found us live and well but with a touch of cabin fever. The snow finally came on Christmas day and hasn't left us yet, not to mention the bitter cold temps we have had on top of the wind that could make you think twice about living here. I am not sure how our ancestors survived these types of conditions. O,K of the subject of weather, the girls are back to school and doing much better this semester Cecilia is trying out for the school play today and I hope she gets the part she wants and I really hope she enjoys doing this. Holly is on a count down to her eight birthday she is so excited to be getting her first slumber party and getting baptized. She tried on my baptism dress yesterday and found it to be a tad sung on her which upsets me a little since I was really hoping all my girls could wear my dress to be baptized in. I am taking it to a friend of mine next week to see if it can be let out a little to help fit her. I'm crossing my fingers in hope it works. Maggie decided to use her vocab alot more lately and has been coming up with phrases that crack us up. On our trip to St.Louis mike got to use his new GPS system and every time the GPS told us to turn Maggie would say"People that lady told my dad to turn left" if we didn't say anything to her she would just getting on saying this phrase over and over until we responded. It cracked us up to think Maggie has people we later found out that her people are her sisters. She is talking so much some days too much, luckily she has not started into the why phase yet.

Holidays

Christmas was a success! Santa brought the girls just what they wanted and family far and close did a great job as well. We ended up with duplicates of some presents but the girls we are aloud to return them and they were able to shop one of their favorite pastimes but not mine.They love to look at everything in the store and weight their options I on the other hand like to have a list get into the store and get out especially when I have the girls and Mike with me.

The snow finally came to Illinois and stuck around for christmas and the days after, we had fun the other day trying to make a snow man and sledding down our hill in the front yard neither activity was succesful we just ended up playing in the snow and making snow angels.

We have had a lot of fun this winter break with the kids and are enjoying having Mike home for the rest of the week. We have seen on movie and are planning on another one tomorrow. Wishing everyone a Happy and safe New Year.

This is a picture of mike'shandy work in our basement , he did a great job and I love it.

Christmas is almost here and we have been busy making lots of goodies for teachers and friends. Cecilia really enjoys making chocolates but not cookies since they need to be watched and careful done, she prefers to just throw things together and call it good she may turn out to be our chef of the family while I am still the baker. Holly has been learning to deal with partial braces she was excited to receive them then after a few days she didn't think they were so great. She does like it when she goes to the ortho and she gets to change the colors of the bands. Maggie is talking so much more and loves to imitate anything Cecilia does which of course iterates Cecilia. Mike is getting closer to finishing up our built ins but every time he starts to work on it another issue which takes priority comes up. I am not doing anything different just the mom stuff ,keeping peace in the house and making sure everyone gets to where they need to be on time. We are wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year.

Not a whole lot of things happening here in Peoria, just the usually mike is hard at work and is traveling alot but at least he has a job, the girls are hard at work doing their school work and their after school activities,Maggie is hard at work finding new things to get into and talking more and more. We just took her fall pictures and she gave the photographer a run for her money she wouldn't sit still and refused to smile long enough for a picture we ended up taking 150 pictures and only four turned out well, good thing it was a friend that took all the photos. Right now we are just getting ready for the holidays I can't wait my sisters are coming for thanksgiving it should be fun, hopefully the husbands will survive the three of us together.

Here are some of the pictures we took of Maggie.