Happy Monday

We received some EXCELLENT news today. Rae Carol called me after the morning announcements at school and Ashleigh was named as the Kindergarten Student of the Week. I'm not sure what all it entails, but she will get her picture put up on the school's main bulletin board. I'm so proud of that girl. I feel like she is grabbing school by the horns and getting everything out of it she possibly can! I'll try to get a picture of the bulletin board to share with you.


I went to Brittany's last ever flute recital. This is the one that's through her private flute lesson instructor. We always dread going to these and sitting through the million flute performances not to mention driving down to south Fort Worth where they are held. But you know, this one was very special. Brittany performed so beautifully. She looked beautiful and grown up and she made us all so proud. You can see her performance by clicking here. Not only that, but since she is a Senior, she got to give a speech, which she spoke so fluently and gracefully. She truly is thankful for her wonderful parents and her incredible teachers and mentors. It really was a great evening and I may very well miss going next year.

I scrapbooked with my friends on Saturday (minus Meredith due to family being in town). I didn't get too much done, but I did do 2 layouts. I also left all of my scrapbook stuff out so I can work on it here and there. Hopefully, I'll find the time because my dining room looks more like a craft room. RC came over and worked on Brittany's senior scrapbook yesterday. She needs a bit of help because she's not the most creative person in the world. I was helping her with a page yesterday and it was looking real nice and I picked out some letters for her to use, then I had to walk away for maybe 2 minutes to tend to a child, and I come back and couldn't believe what I saw. She took those letters to spell out "Justin and Brittany" for the Homecoming page and she didn't space them out right, ran out of room, and started going down when the rest of them were going across. Oy Vey! Can't leave her alone for 2 minutes! LOL! Anyway, she's getting better the further she gets. Hopefully, Ally will come over to work on her book. She's neglected that thing for a couple of years now. I've been storing her stuff and she needs to get busy! Peyton is 4 years old and she's not even done with her 1st year yet! Geesh!

Ally went on a picnic with the York's on Saturday at the Botanic Gardens. They were having such a good time that they wanted her to spend the night. She had no bag packed or anything, but they made do. They said Ash behaved very well and did everything she was told. That all came to a screeching halt on Sunday morning when Ash decided it would be a good idea to jump off of a stool. Normally, this can be accomplished without any negative results. Well, Ashleigh landed on the metal bed frame in the playroom with her knee. She has a big ol' gash and it's bruised and swollen. She's still limping today and is very protective of it. Apparently, it was quite the drama scene, though, I'm not surprised, this is Ashleigh we're talking about. Uncle Steve couldn't even drive her home because she was crying so hysterically. So Daddy had to go pick her up. Later that evening when I was drying her off from her bath, I saw another injury on her right foot. It was a big ol' bruise with a cut in the middle. She had no idea how it happened. I suspect it happened at the same time as the knee but didn't feel it since the pain from the knee was worse. Yes, Ashleigh is a klutz! I say that in the most loving way possible! Klutz and drama queen are not a good combination. Makes for a lot of tears around here!

It was my turn to drive to violin/piano lessons tonight. Brittany went with me, so that was nice. But the meanie got in the car eating the most delectable looking piece of strawberry cake and didn't cut me a piece! Such a Brat!

Ever since the spanking Brian served me last week on Wii tennis, I have been spanking him right back! He doesn't like it and it is so funny! The 1st time I did it, I made sure the can of Solarcaine was on his pillow waiting for him like he did to me! LOL!! Funny thing is, he hasn't been wanting to play the past few nights. Hmmm....tired maybe? Yup, tired of getting his ASS spanked!!! LMAO!! Go Andi!! Go Andi!!

Here are some pictures from the week...

Pardon the blurriness of this one. Addy was crying and trying to get to me very quickly and I couldn't snap it fast enough. But I wanted you to see her cute dress from the Easter Bunny:




Ashleigh showing Shasta some love. And no, those bruises are existing, this was taken before the incident at the York's. That girl ALWAYS has bruises on her shins:





Addy Paddy digging the sippy cups with the straws, she actually will finally drink water if it's in one of these cups. But she's still a bottle baby, I can't put milk in these because it gets trapped and gets so nasty:





More of Addy Paddy:




I love those big, brown eyes:

A little young to be wearing "off the shoulder" but it wouldn't stay up:

Daddy literally gave her a little crumb of a chocolate chip cookie and this is the result:

No progress yet on Ashleigh's 2 loose teeth. They feel about the same as last week. She lets me wiggle them only once a day. She's so funny!

Onkel Johann and Tante Dagmar (Brian's Aunt and Uncle from Germany) will be in town tomorrow night and will be here for the next 5 weeks. Margarete and Happy are so excited to have the company again and we all love them being here. I'm sure there will be pictures to follow so stay tuned!

We have to make sure the pantry is closed now. Addy thinks it's funny to throw perfectly good food from the pantry in the trash. Oh, and phones, bottles, and Mommy's bills. NICE. Going to have to figure something out to prevent this! And she got a red crayon and scribbled all over Ashleigh's bedroom door. I need to take a picture. I'm so thankful for the Magic Eraser.

That's all I have for now. Oh, I'll share one more picture. I just LOVED this one of Brittany:



Have a GREAT week! Sleep Tight!

Videos Galore

It's Monday again. OMG, this work day went by sooo slow! I had a real hard time getting motivated and never really hit a good working stride. I think I'm going to have to use a couple hours of vacation to make up for it. Between Addy's whining and me signing up/figuring out Twitter, it put me about 2 hours behind. Probably because I wasn't too busy, so I guess it worked out.

The reason Addy was probably whining so much is two more teeth broke through. That makes, hmmmm, 16 teeth? I think that's it until she gets her 2nd year molars. Which, at the speed she grows teeth, shouldn't be too far away.

Speaking of teeth, Ashleigh has her first and second official loose teeth! The two on the bottom in the middle are loose. It was kind of a fluke how I found out they were loose. Ash was holding Addy and Addy gave Ash a little head-butt into the mouth. So I had checked Ash's mouth to be sure it wasn't bleeding or anything and that's how I noticed they were loose. I don't think Addy knocked them loose, it would have had to been a really hard head-butt. Anyway, when I told Ashleigh she had two loose teeth, she got very upset and went in her closet and cried. It truly broke my heart to see her that worried and scared. We've talked about this coming and she seemed excited about it, but I guess the reality of it was too much to handle. So I went in the closet with her, we talked about it some more, and then she was fine. Now she is excited again to tell everyone about her loose teeth! I asked her what she thought the Tooth Fairy should bring her for her 1st tooth and she said "99". I was like "99 what?" thinking the worst, of course. But she said "99 pennies". Phew, I think the Tooth Fairy can handle that! I'm conducting research for some sort of Tooth Fairy pillow or something similar plus a keepsake box I can use to store her baby teeth. My Baby Girl is growing up so fast! I can't even imagine when she'll look like with missing teeth, not to mention what she'll look like with Adult-sized teeth! Please Lord, let them grow in straight!

The other night I whooped up on my husband in Wii Tennis! And I guess I may have rubbed it in a little. Because last night he S-P-A-N-K-E-D me in tennis and he is STILL not letting up on throwing it in my face! He's saying things like, "want me to get some Solarcaine for your ass that must be sore?!?!". When I came to bed last night, there was a can of it on my pillow. Asshole! But it did make me laugh! Just wait until I beat him next time! I try to throw back that I made pro status in bowling first and got my sparkly ball, but it doesn't seem to phase him. Pisses me off! This subject makes me curse, I better change the subject! LOL, just some evil friendly competition!

Found out I have to go to the monthly S.A.M.E. (Society of American Military Engineers for those of you who don't habla) luncheon meetings. I'm hoping Ally will be able to watch Addy if I give her enough notice. She tends to forget a lot lately, so hopefully she doesn't let me down! And I guess I need to go shopping for some decent clothes, probably not a good idea if I wear my one nice outfit over and over each month. Whatever. I'm really happy being secluded in my little corner not having to socialize with strangers, but I'll do what is asked of me.

Oh, I made my VERY first ever homemade cookies...yes, from scratch. They turned out pretty good. Here are some pictures from my little adventure:

Here are my guinea pigs:

Margarete, Brian's Mom, LOVED them! Even had two for breakfast the next day, LOL!

Smartass, LOL! He's not a huge chocolate fan, but said they were good:

Of course Ashleigh liked them:

Brittany's Senior Prom was on Saturday. Her boyfriend, Jason, came into town to be able to take her. Brittany was very excited and she looked so beautiful. I took photos for them and here are a few of them...unedited.









I'm a jack of all trades, I even had to alter Brittany's dress. Doesn't she look beautiful?!?! Ugh, she's so grown up!

Here are the videos I promised (try not to examine my messy house in the background!):

This one was Addy feeding Cheerios to Shasta. It just put a huge smile on my face because she was laughing pretty hard. This was at least a month ago:



hehehehe, Brian and his Mom boxing on Wii. Not nice of Brian to knock his Mom out. He knocked me out too!:



Ashleigh and her master bowling technique. She consistently kicks our butt in bowling with her strike after strike after, well, you get the idea:



This was our Easter morning. The big afternoon Easter egg hunt was on a different disc that I haven't finalized yet, so its not on here. But you get to see how well my little toddler is walking (in her Christmas PJs, I might add, LOL!):

Oh goodness, it's 10:25 pm and Brian just turned on the Wii. Looks like a tennis match is in my near future. Lordy, I need some sleep! Have a GREAT week, sleep tight!

Happy Easter

I know I'm a little late blogging, I'm sorry! I was sooo exhausted last night after our Easter celebration, I just couldn't muster up the energy. But here I am now. I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Easter! Ours was filled with great company, fun times, and PLENTY of good food! As usual, Ashleigh was up by 7:30 and I immediately told her to come in our room when I heard her door open. You see, the Easter Bunny hides real eggs at our house and we the Easter Bunny couldn't hide them the night before. So our day started pretty early. The girls had a Great time finding their Easter eggs and Addy caught on real quick. In the 3 seconds it took me to go get the family to see their Easter goodies, Shasta had re-arranged a few of the eggs. She didn't break any of them, just put them in her mouth. Weirdo. I don't think she knew what to do! Silly me forgot the night before when I was putting Addy in her PJs that it was Easter, so she was in her Christmas PJs, too funny! I'm a dork! Oh, and that night Brian and I couldn't sleep so we played Wii between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM. Double Dorks! Needless to say, we're still trying to catch up on our sleep. We caught a break with the weather. I was stressing all week about the predicted thunderstorms. We did have a couple of big storms come through, but it stopped in time and the sun came out just in time to dry the yard enough for the big hunt that afternoon. Speaking of those storms, our power kept going out Saturday night, so I was stuffing a couple hundred eggs by candle and flash light. Fun times!

Brian has been working hard on our fence repairs. I should say fence replacement. He is finished with the right side of the house and now he still needs to do a small section on the left side of the house. He did a really good job and built it from scratch. He used metal poles this round because that fence is subjected to such a strong south wind, the wood poles just don't stand a chance.

Addy has her 15-month well child check-up tomorrow so I'll keep you posted on how that goes. ECI, the speech therapists, are coming to our house on Friday to start the paperwork for her speech. then they will schedule an evaluation after that. They are different that the original therapists at Baylor - Grapevine. It was a no-brainer because ECI comes to your house for the therapy AND whatever the insurance doesn't cover, they don't bill you for (they are state-sponsored). Duh! Much better than paying to go to Grapevine! This is how it was when Ash first started speech, so hopefully it hasn't changed! But definitely 3 solid words now - Mama, Hi, and Uh-Oh. She can sign even more than that - more, please, apple, thank you, cookie, and all gone. Too funny! She's a smart girl.

Today is Kim's birthday...Happy Birthday Kim!!! Kim is Brian's half sister's (Jessica's) Mom. We love her and she is such a great person! We hope you had a GREAT day today, Kim!!

Last Friday was Alma's birthday...Happy Birthday Alma! I already know Alma had a GREAT birthday weekend with her family! She loves the Dallas Arboretum and got to spend some time there.

I really need to start writing down through the week what I want to write about because by the time I sit down to blog, I can't remember!! I do have some video I want to post, so I'll work on that this week. Here are the pictures from the week:

I couldn't resist taking this picture. Addy (please disregard the baby food on her clothes, she is refusing bibs these days and sometimes blows bubbles when she gets full, ugh!) was carrying around a picture of her Great Oma (grandmother in German for those of you who don't habla). Oma is Margarete's (Brian's Mom) Mom who has passed away. By the way, Margarete was offered a job! And a raise! It took 3 months to find a job, but hopefully the wait was worth it! Congratulations, Marga!

This was Thursday night coloring Easter eggs at RC's house after a yummy chicken fried steak dinner and homemade mashed potatoes. Ashleigh lost interest pretty quickly, especially when Kevin and Brittany turned on the Wii. Ash is an awesome bowler!

My brown-eyed girl:

Addy with one of her Easter Bunny goodies, a movie. Actually, that looks like Ash's movie, Barbie:

Ashleigh checking out her Easter Bunny goodies:

Showing off her Easter eggs:

Addy getting into the thrill of finding Easter eggs:

These are later in the afternoon with the rest of the clan. This is our nephew, Tekoa (Katie's son):

Ashleigh doing her thing:

Kaileyanna (Katie's daughter) and Sydney racking it in:

Daddy helping Addy with the big hunt and Jaydon watching on:

Jessica and Jilian enjoying the day and watching the kiddos pick up the hundreds of eggs. The Rogers joined us this year because most of their family is in Miami. I knew the kiddos would love the big hunt!

Peyton doing a good job. Her and Ash were funny because they would pass 20 perfectly good eggs to get to one that was "prettier". Oy vey! Girls, don't you realize there is M-O-N-E-Y in those eggs!

Jacoby did an awesome job getting those eggs! Look at him go:

Alrighty, You guys have a GREAT week! Sleep Tight!

Spring Has Sprung

Geesh, I had a lot of pictures to upload this week and it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R!! Blogger only lets me upload 3 at a time and because of the file size, it just takes a while. Anyway, we got quite a bit done today. I really wanted the fence fixed before Easter...its only been broken for a year, help up by weed eater cord! So Brian gave in to my pleas and started that task this morning. He started by knocking down the fence panels and then began the laborious task of digging out the fence posts and associated concrete. Not as easy as it sounds, especially in our neighborhood. See more on this story below with the pictures. Lets just say Brian stayed true to his reputation and Linder-sized this project!

I got a TON of laundry done today but naturally, I'm still not done. I hate when I do this, it builds up and up and then I'm stuck doing it all day long for 3 days in a row! If only I would do 2 loads a day, I might be able to keep up!

Oh, and then I cleaned up the CDs that were all over the floor....37 times!!! Addy is relentless with the CD/DVD cabinet! We are definitely in need of some sort of lock for that thing! UGH!

Yesterday, Brian went to Bike Night. Its typically the first Saturday of the month, but he got there and there were a bunch of cars but no motorcycles. He called and had me look at the schedule...sure enough, Bike Night is now the second Saturday of the month. Can you guess where he'll be next Saturday? You guessed it! The Girls and I just hung out at home while he was gone. I made a good dent in backing p my photos to CDs. I'm ashamed to say that it needed to be done since last May. You would have thought I learned my lesson in keeping up with it since we already lost a bunch of pictures when Ashleigh was a baby when our computer crashed. Its heart breaking so I am going to try to be better! Plus, I'm going to purchase one of those $50 per year services that backs your computer up automatically. Better safe than sorry!

The weather has been so incredibly nice around here...like in the 70s and 80s! Then today, Mother Nature decided to take it all away...it was in the 50s with a VERY cold north wind. Brrrrr!! It was sunny, but quite chilly! It should warm up again mid-week, thank goodness! Now we just have to pray for no rain on Easter for our big Easter Egg Hunt! If it rains, I'm not sure what we'll do. I guess we'll figure it out.

Addy is toddling all over the place. I just can't believe how fast my Baby Girl is growing up. When I was uploading these pictures it really hit me that she is no longer a baby, but an actual toddler. My last baby is no longer a baby. **sigh** She is now saying what I would consider 3 words: "Momma" (of course), "uh-oh", and "Hi". We have progress, so I'm pleased. She flat out refuses to say "Dada", it's so frustrating! Brian says it doesn't bother him, but I think it does to some extent.

Ashleigh got a color change this past Friday..the first one in quite some time. She didn't complete her work and was totally off-task. I was very disappointed but as long as she doesn't get another one this 6 weeks, then she'll still get her citizenship award. Other than that, she's been doing very well in school. She'll get her level 13 reader tomorrow so her reading is progressing nicely! Kindergarten performed at the PTA meeting on Thursday evening and it was very cute. Though, Ash was a little disappointed that I was the only one there. Daddy had a big changeout and couldn't come and Ash asked if the York's and the Harris' were coming and when I said no, she was sad. She's over it, but it made me sad at the time. The good part, though, is that RC watched Addy during the program since she was getting tired and cranky and I didn't want to risk a meltdown in the middle of it. Anyway, Addy did not cry at all while I was gone! I think she is finally starting to take a liking to Auntie Rae!! I'm so relieved! Now I just need to make sure she sees Auntie Rae on a somewhat regular basis so she doesn't start to regress!

Okay, onto the pictures. On Tuesday we took bluebonnet pictures. There has not been many bluebonnets this year, but my friend, Deena works at the airport and she has been keeping an eye on them as they are good by her building. Peyton and Addy were not happy campers but we managed.

Here is one of the better ones of Peyton. Most of them are of her pouting!



The Harris Girls:




The Cousins:



I couldn't get a good individual one of Addy, rolling down the hill may have had something to do with it:



Ashleigh was the only one who didn't complain one bit. Yes, even Brittany was complaining!

Ash got to bring home Lily, her class pet. Each child gets a turn and then they have to do a scrapbook page. Ash was 1st to have her because Mrs. Roberts knew I would set a good example to the other parents as to how the scrapbook should look. Awww, pat on the back! So this is Ash, Addy, and Lily:

Ashleigh with her teacher, Mrs. Roberts, and Lily, after the PTA program:

My Baby Girl, Addy, being a big girl toddler:

hehehe, this cracked me up! Addy put on one of Ash's headbands and then she covered her ears when her Sissy was blowing into a wrapping paper tube:

Okay, this picture freaked me out. My little 5-year old looks so grown up in this picture! I don't know what it is?!?! This was yesterday (Saturday), it was VERY warm outside!

Ashleigh pushing her sister in her new (was Peyton's) car:



Addy returned the favor (well, tried anyway):

Ash, ummm, you really don't fit in there!

Addy toddling again:

Awwww, sissys love each other!

Pretty Girl, Ash:

Pretty Girl, Addy:

These are from today and it was COOOOLLLLLD outside:

Ash helping her Daddy with the fence repair. We have so much rock in our subsurface, he had a VERY hard time digging up the concrete and making the holes for the new poles. Here, he is using a BIG ASS jack to try to pry the concrete out of the ground:

After about 3 of those pain-in-the-ass holes, he went to Home Depot and rented this thing, now he's a happy man! You see what I mean about a Linder-sized project?!?!?! It never fails! Nothing is easy around here! So not only did he dig the holes for the new posts, he dug an entire trench along the fence line to make the whole thing concrete!! And broke a secondary sprinkler system line in the process! Oy Vey! Yup, nothings easy! I threatened his life that he better not tear up the yard...luckily, he managed not to:

Ash helping her Daddy again:

So what I didn't get a picture of is that he decided to go ahead and do the fence on the other side of the house too while he had this track hoe thingie. He decided this at 7:00 pm....he dug his little trench, only this time he managed to cut our cable line (we have satellite, but we use cable for our phone AND internet!!! Did I mention that I telecommute for work...I H-A-V-E to have internet!!!) He also broke the sprinkler system MAIN line!!! Double Oy Vey!!! Yup, nothings easy!!! So after I got the Girls to sleep, I went out and held the flash light while he repaired the cable line. Thank goodness he used to be the Cable Man so he's good at that sort of thing! Lord help me! So, we currently have no fence, the sides that face the front, on either side of the house. Not only did it get dark on us, but it was WAY too windy today to set the posts. Hopefully tomorrow.

Gosh, this day flew, it's 10:40 and I still have to put clothes in the drier and hang up some others. Have a GREAT week! Sleep Tight!