Remember...

Remember when I said last week that I took the kids to the park and enjoyed the most beautiful day...yeah well...today we look out the window to snow, ice and freezing cold temperatures. It is absolutely insane weather!

I just wanted to let you all know that!

Have a good day!

Flower Girl Dress update!

Well, last night I cut out Jaicie's Dress for Bridgette's Wedding. I got it all pinned and ready to sew, and this afternoon and evening, I sewed it. Things went a little better with this one. I didn't have to undo any seams...which was a huge plus!

From Flower Girl Dresses

But here is Jaicie's Dress.

here are the girls in their dresses

From Flower Girl Dresses

The Zipper turned out better on Jaicie's dress, than Felicity's did.

From Flower Girl Dresses

All that is left of the dresses now is to hem them, and then they will each have a 'belt' sewn on that matches the color of the bridesmaid dresses. It will go around the front and be attached at the seam, and then tie in a bow in the back of the dress. That will be added later. But I think for now, they look great!

A few Updates

Well, Since my post the other day, there have been a few updates...Well, on update and a couple of extra pictures!



Jaicie's Lost Teeth

Jaicie came home from school on Thursday with a small pink box...On the box it said tooth saver. she was beaming as she walked in the door. She was so excited. During the day at school, she had pulled it out, all on her own. "I was playing with it and wanted to pull it out," she said. "it hurt really bad, but I wanted to be breave, so I just kept pulling on it. And it came out." Apparently, there was blood and she was sent to the nurses office where she was given her treasure box to keep her tooth in.

Well Thursday night, she showed us that her other bottom center tooth was also loose. she played with it all day yesterday and about half the day today, until she decided she was sick of it wiggling in her mouth and walked into the bathroom and pulled it out. I guess she is my brave little girl!



A Day at the Park
We went for an afternoon at the park the other day. The day looks beautiful in all the pictures...let me just tell you that it was even more beautiful than the pictures make it look. It was 80 Degrees, Sunny and absolutely beautiful! I got a bunch of really cute pictures of the kids. Jaicie was really enjoying showing off her grin without her bottom tooth. It is so cute! Sorry for the pictures of the inside of her mouth...Jaicie's grandpa is a dentist...those pictures are just for him!

So...the last set of pictures is something that I have been workingo n the past couple of days. A very good friend of ours is gettting married in Dallas in May. She and her fiance asked the girls to be flower girls at their wedding. We were talking about flower girl dresses and we decided that I would make them...(Bridgette is extremely trusting of my inexperience in sewing) she sent me the material and pattern from Dallas with her sister, Jessica, and on Thursday I cut out the dress. On friday I put everything together except for the zipper. Today I put in the zipper and it is already to go, except the hem, which I am holding off on in case of any big growth spurts int he next few months. The pictures below are the pictures of liccy's dress. I haven't started Jaicie's yet. But I think the dress turned out great and I wanted to show it off a little. It made me think that my mom might just be a little proud of me watching down looking over my sewing...Or maybe she was sitting there helping me...Anyway, Here are the pictures. and the slideshow below!

Something Loose, Something New..Something Exciting...Something Fun

I felt like being somewhat creative on the title...So there ya go!

Something Loose...
Despite the many things that may be loose...a screw here and there...It is actually Jaicie's first tooth that is loose this time. She has been asking me for about 6 months when she is going to loose her first tooth. Last night, while attending an activity for the Spouse alliance, Justin called me to tell me that our little girl was growing up. Her first tooth is loose and from the looks of it this morning, about ready to fall out. I will post some pictures whenever that happens...But unlike my dad, the dentist, I do not plan on keeping the tooth...The toothfairy can throw it the way of the world...

Something New...
I got my new shirt from my sisters cafe Press store, and I love it! It says "I Married my Edward". As you can imagine, Justin loves it too! It is really cute and I totally love it! I don't have a picture of me in it, but it is cute. So far people have really liked it. So if you want one of your own...or any other Twilight related shirt (among many others) take a look at my sisters site!

Something Exciting...
Collin has finally started siting up. Again, no pictures today...but he is sitting. He really likes it, but doesn't stay up for a ton of time. He just rolls down onto his stomach and rolls around. He is also working his first tooth through his gums right now. We think it is coming pretty soon, but I guess we will see. He rolls all around the floor now and is causing me to keep the floor a little cleaner. He sticks everything in his mouth!

Something Fun...
So last October, Justin and I bought Guitar Hero World Tour. We have played it a few times, and the kids love it. Felicity has taken a particular liking to one song in particular and it is so cute. Liccy will start randomly singing "No Sleep Til Brooklyn"..It is adorable. I have to get a video of it, because it always makes me smile. So, once I get a video of her singing, I will post it here.

So that is a little bit of fun for things around our house...Oh and since Justin is the only one not mentioned...He hates psychiatry...or at least practicing it. He is doing his psych rotation and does not enjoy it. While we are glad that there are people who can handle it, he is not one of them...He doesn't not enjoy it so much! But the schedule rocks!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation. We were able to leave in the early evening on Dec 19th and drive out to Las Vegas for two weeks. It was so wonderful to be able to visit with our family. We spent the majority of the first week with the Clayton's and the majority of the 2nd week with the Pierce's. Dad and Kay were out of town the first week and so we celebrated Christmas with them the following Sunday.

One of our first orders of business when we got into town was for Justin to see his twin Brother Brett, who finished PA school in September and moved from Pennsylvania back to Las Vegas. Justin and Brett had not seen each other in over 2 1/2 years. So it was a long awaited reunion. (It was also good to see the rest of Brett's family... didn't mean to leave the rest of you out) We had a lot of fun being back with them and look forward to another visit sometime in the future. Though we are not sure when that will be.

It was so wonderful to be able to spend so much time with both our families. We only wish it was more often.

As for Christmas, everyone made out quite well with gifts, despite the fact that we had to make it back in our van with all of the gifts!


The girls got new bikes for Christmas. Santa left them in Lubbock for them though! :)


Justin, and apparently Collin, got a new Volcan something or other nerf machine gun for Christmas.


Each year the Clayton Family acts out the Nativity while reading it. Here are a couple pictures from that.

We got the kids all dressed up for Church the Sunday before we left for Vegas. We tried to get a relly good cute picture of them...unfortunately, they didn't come out to well. This one was the best, and I guess it really does capture the kids the way they really are...

From Our attempt

That is the extent of pictures that we got for Christmas. I am appalled at myself for our lack of picture taking throughout the whole time in Vegas. We will have to get the rest of the pictures people have from Angie and whoever else took pictures while we were there.

All in all, it was a fun trip We enjoyed the time that we were able to have with people, and we really do wish that there was opportunity for more trips. As of right now, it is looking like Christmas 2009 will be spent as a family here in Lubbock. It makes us all very sad that we may not see all of our families for a long while. Hopefully we can fix that.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and for those that don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays.

catch-up on the Family

While I haven't posted in a month now. I can hardly believe that it has been that long!

Justin finished up his surgery rotation just before Christmas. It was a wonderful break after a very hectic two months. while it wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be, it was still a difficult adjustment. One which I will have to make all over again when Justin starts his fourth. As of right now we are anticipating him being gone for at least 2 months on away rotations, maybe 2 1/2. We are hoping that the family can all go with him to Rochester Minnesota in July to spend a month there with him. Right now it looks like a strong possibility, IF he gets a rotation there. Regardless he really did enjoy surgery. Not so much the general aspect of it, but he loved being in the operating room.

Jaicie finished up the first semester of kindergarten. We are expecting (I think) a report card for her today. She has done remarkably well throughout all of school so far and we are very proud of her. She is now reading some new books. She got a Judy Blume book from Santa for Christmas, as well as a level 3 (first grade) reader about Disney's Fairies. She has read both of them with a great understanding. she lvoes to pick up books and just read. Right now she is working hard on teaching Felicity all of her letters and sounds. There are a few words that Felicity can identify the beginning sound of, but even more letters that she can identify the sounds for. But Jaicie is a great example to her siblings.

Felicity is really developing a lot. Her speech has become quite clear and for the most part is very well-spoken. She spends her days with Mom and Collin and enjoys it. She has a couple of really good friends that she just loves spending time with. As I said before, she is learning her letters and sounds really well right now and has also learned the concept of counting about 20. Although, she still struggles with actually counting to 20, she really does get 81, 82, 83---and so on. We are working with her and hope to get her enrolled in some sort of preschool starting in August.

Collin is still growing like a weed. He is 7 months now and eats well, sleeps well and does not have any interest in sitting. As soon as we sit him down he just leans over and sucks on his toes until he face plants into the floor. He has kind of started scooting across the floor. But sitting and crawling he is not interested in at all. He is a good boy and makes us all very happy.

As for me, I am doing well. So far this week I am thoroughly enjoying Justin's psychiatry rotation. He is able to take Jaicie to school in the morning when it is my turn to drive and he is home by about 5:00. I have begun trying to do more for myself, spiritually and physically, kind of a new years resolution, but those always get broken, so just a goal. Right now I am working on getting my pregnancy weight off from all 3 babies. Justin got me a gym membership for Christmas and I have made a habit of going every weekday possible. I am also restarting my study of the Book of Mormon. I have not been as diligent as I would have liked to be at studying it in my life, so I am working on improving that. I listen to the mp3 on my phone while I exercise and in my car while i am driving. Usually just about every trip in the car that I make gives me time to get through one chapter. So far, after 1 day, things are going well. I am also learning not to over-commit. Which I have a habit of doing. so I am trying to improve myself and hopefully everything else will fall into place for me! :)

I think that is a good catch up for all of us. I will post some stuff about Christmas next!