Soccer Star

Gracie's first day of soccer was today. I know she is alread in ballet and gymnastics but when I asked her what she wanted to do, she always said "soccer." So Chuck and I took her today. Of course you can't go in but you can watch from the little windows on the doors as you can see from my movies. Yes, I was the hovering mother. The other parents just kind of looked at me. But there were a few others going over to the windows too to take pictures. She got to kick the ball around and they learned how to stop the ball and dribble it between their feet. Gracie is not very coordinated in that department but at least she had fun. She was laughing at herself and at her coaches. She came running out with a big smile on her face. We asked her which activity she liked the best and she said "soccer." It only runs for a few weeks so we will see. My little girly girl going jock! Oh well, now I am a true soccer mom!

What do you think?

Is this not the cutest ballerina you have ever seen? We just got the information about her recital at the Rialto and we are all excited!

Big Family, Small Town

This weekend we loaded up our mini and headed down south.....to Edwardsville actually.

Chuck's family lives down south so we headed down there for a long weekend. We haven't seen anyone since summer so we were due for a trip. We headed out Friday night after dinner. The kids were excited about the duel DVD player that Santa brought us. I think they watched Toy Story 2 or 3 times.

We got into town around 10:30 Friday night, and who greeted us but this!

My brother-in-law is a hunter and this is his new pride and joy. (the room that this turkey is in is also filled with deer heads and fish mounted too. It's gross to me, but the kids loved it.)

The next day Papa and Grandma Vicky and Uncle Chad and Jordin came over to celebrate Christmas. Yes, we know we are 2 months late but we were not able to come down until now.

Gracie had fun playing with Maddie and they had fun trying on shoes.

Evie and Presley LOVED the stairs at Uncle Frog's. I think we spent half the weekend on them. They know how to climb up pretty good but coming down is a different story.

We had a great lunch and had fun catching up.

Then it was time for presents. It's funny, because all the gifts were still wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper.

Evie got some new clothes from Aunt Mandi.

Presley got a Little People car ramp.

And Gracie got some new clothes and a some new books including her new favorite, The Very Hungry Catepillar.

Evie and Presley had such a great time and warmed up to everyone in no time.

We finally tried to get a good picture with Papa and Grandma Vicky. This was the best we could do.

Gracie had fun reading her new book to cousin Jordin.

And then she had great fun jumping around and playing with Papa.

The twins had fun enjoying the country. They were looking out the window and just talking away.

That's when I realized that Uncle Corndog was playing with them.

Cousin Sydney also came over later and her and Gracie had fun playing dolls.

The next day we headed out for lunch. Presley impressed everyone, including Papa, with his eating skills. He was the first one to start eating and the last one to stop.

Then the kids had fun burning off their lunch. Including Daddy.

After lunch, we headed to Grandma Sue's. We tried to get everyone down to nap but Gracie was the only one who actually fell asleep.

So we took Evie and Presley outside. It hit 70 degrees down there! No jackets! Yay!

Presley had fun riding in the car.

And playing in the playhouse.

And so did Evie.

She drove the car too.

Presley tried to play a little football with the guys.

And Evie watched from the picnic table.

Then it was time for a kids picture. There were also another set of twins there, Maddie and Ellie, who are 2 and another playmate, Aurora, who is only 9 days younger than my twins. Again, the best pic I could get.

But then we had to add Brennan in the pic too since he is a "little critter" like Grandma Sue said. And Gracie got her camera and took pics of us taking pics of her! Silly girl!

Actually I was impressed at how well Evie and Presley sat. They never sit this still.

After a nice visit with the Wellen family, we headed back to Uncle Frog's and Drake and Maddie wanted to sleep in the closet, because we were taking over their rooms. Gracie thought about joining the slumber party.

And then we got up early today and headed home. It was a great weekend but tiring too.

Except maybe for Evie, who is always full of energy and smiles.

And Gracie who was just happy to be watching Toy Story......again!

Thanks for everything Weiss family! It was great seeing everyone. See you again this summer. Remember, you are always welcome to come up to the big city too!

The Ballerina

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Having Valentine's Day on a Monday is little bit, well....yuck! Knowing parties were going to be today already made me tired. This little surprise helped. They came during the party at school when I was ready to be done for the day.

But after all the craziness at school, I got to go pick up my 3 Valentine's. They all had on little cute Valentine shirts but it was hard to get a picture because no one likes to sit still. I enjoyed giving them each a little bag of goodies this morning before work, puzzles, books, new cups, etc.

Here is my Bub. He is going to be a ladies man.

Gracie got some new Toy Story figures from Grandma and Grandpa. She was pretty smitten with them.

Evie just wanted to play and eat cheese crackers that Auntie Amy gave her. Ignore her socks. They are actually Christmas socks. But I put them on her anyways because I am a bit behind on the laundry.

And then Daddy came home and bought everyone more books. The kind with all the buttons that play music. Thanks daddy!

And then the kids went to bed shortly after that so I could continue to watch The Bachelor, as seen on my TV above and let my Chipolte, courtesy of my husband, yummy, digest.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun Valentine's Crafts

The other day, I signed Gracie up for a Valentine's Day class. I went with her and it was taught by one of her teachers so she was super excited. Here are some Valentine's crafts that we made.

For one, we got to paint our hands different colors and make flowers. A cute, handmade gift that will melt any mother's heart. And let me tell you, anything that involves my kids handprints, I keep! They are only going to be this little once!

Then we got to decorate a flower pot. We colored popsicle sticks for stems and attached hearts and foam stickers to be flowers. We even filled it with dirt. Don't worry, ours is sitting in a sunny spot so that the "flowers" grow.

Then we got to paint a wax paper heart with some gel paint. We then pressed another wax paper heart on top and hung it in our window for a lovely stained glass heart.

Finally, we got to paint half a heart and then fold it over and press the other side down so that the other half matched the first one.

This wasn't part of the class but Gracie was pretty proud of her tower of love that she made for Princess Belle. She worked really hard and had to rebuild it once because Evie knocked it down. Here is my princess with her lovely tower.

Gymnastics and Birthdays!

Today was quite the busy day. We had gymnastics, and not 1, but 2 birthday parties!

After gymnastics (you can see Gracie doing a backwards somersault at the bottom), we headed to the first birthday party. This party was a bowling party! Gracie had never been bowling before, unless you count playing on Wii, and she is pretty good at that.

She was so excited to put on her bowling shoes!

It was Branden's birthday party and he loves bowling.

Gracie couldn't wait to get started. In fact, she used Branden's new bowling ball that he had gotten for his birthday. It doesn't have holes in it yet but it is green and ready to roll!

They put up the bumper things for the kids to use and Gracie walked right up there and pushed that ball as hard as she could!


After she pushed it everytime, she would run back yelling "yay, I did it!" She was so proud of herself that she didn't even care how many pins she knocked down!

But I will tell you, she played against 2 other boys and she won! And they had both been bowling before too! Way to go Gracie for your first time bowling! She even got a spare all on her own! My little bowling champ!

After bowling, it was time to head home, load up Evie and Presley, and head to Frankfort to the Trolley House, which is like a children's musuem.

The place is so super cute. They have train tables, a stage with dressup clothes, a supermarket with all kinds of food, building blocks stations, a light room, tents, arts and crafts, sand and water tables, and lots more! The cool thing about this birthday party was that they rented out the place! We had it all to ourselves!

Here is Presley playing trains with one of the birthday boys! Levi turned one!

And the other birthday boy, Scotty, Gracie's BFF, turned 3! They had fun playing and dressing up on the stage.

Gracie was enjoying all the animal masks to try on. Of course she made the sound as she wore each one.

Then it was off to the supermarket and Gracie was the one in charge of that.

I tried to get Presley to try on some hats. This is the only picture that turned out because he ripped them off as soon I put them on him. Oh well. He still made for a cute construction worker.

And then Gracie set the tables and laid out food for everyone to eat.

Evie enjoyed her hot dog!

Presley and Evie just liked sitting at the table. Maybe I should get one for our upstairs....

Even Miss Shelby came to the party and had a fabulous time!

And I thought Presley would like making music with the pipes since he is the music man but he did not like it too much. It must have been all the people watching him. You know how much of a wuss he is....

Then it was time for cupcakes and singing "Happy birthday." Gracie sat right by Scotty.

And enjoyed the yummy cupcakes that Jessica made! Yum!

Then it was time to go and play some more. Gracie wanted to dressup so we tried talking Evie and Presley into it too.

And Jackson joined us. Next time we come back, he may be walking on his own!

It was a fun party and we definately want to go back to The Trolley House again to play!

Here are some videos of gymanstics and Gracie bowling.