Maddy's television debut

So, guess where I was at 4:30 this morning......in my bed perhaps.....sound asleep? NO! I was getting into my car bundled up because.....it was SNOWING......and getting Maddy to the theatre. One of the local news channels wanted to do a little blurb about Peter Pan and so all the kids had to be there at 4:30 to start live filming at 5:00a.m. We were there until about 7:00 and they filmed about 6 different spots. I took some pictures but I can't find my camera so I will try and post them later.

Here is where you can view a couple of the spots. You can TOTALLY see Maddy in the first one but not quite as much in the other two. She did some fun flying in one of the blurbs that they didn't put on here but oh well! She was excited to see herself on TV!

http://www.kgw.com/video/carney-index.html?nvid=336306&shu=1

I personally am really excited to see the whole thing come together tomorrow night!

Bored or Creative?

So this is how my girls entertained themselves the other day. It really cracked me up. First they decided that they were going to help the environment and head outside to clean things up. They were out there for longer than I expected and when I went out to find them this is what I found...

Do you see how EVERYTHING is strewn all the way down the street? And I couldn't figure out why the washcloth was on the tree until later when they told me they were saving electricity by drying it out on the tree. We so live in Oregon.

I found them in the backyard trying to save our trees that deflated in the ice storm. But since they aren't ours we really haven't done anything with them.

And then this is how they spent another big part pf the day. They set up scene after scene in our doll house and then took pictures of them. I wasn't aware that they took pictures of all these until I was going through my camera and all these weird pictures came up. These were some of my particular favorites that made me laugh. I

At least they weren't watching tv right?

A Potpourri Post

Today was one of those days that I really enjoyed being a mom. There just seemed to be a bunch of random things that I had to document. First of all the most exciting news......Josey FINALLY lost her first tooth!! This is something she has been waiting and waiting for (even though she is only 6 and a half). She has watched Maddy lose tooth after tooth and most if not all of her friends. Some of them even already have their permanent teeth in. But her little pearly whites just haven't wanted to budge. But today she lost her first tooth. She is so excited to go to school tomorrow and finally add her name to the list in her class of people that have lost teeth. Here she is bloody teeth and all.

And after school today she brought home an early valentine for everyone. She hung them all next to every ones beds. It was just too cute.

And Maddy brought home something as well. She made this poster in her free time in her class over the last week. She said that she had to spend her entire last recess finishing it up. But she wanted to make a poster for Lilly because "she hasn't been sleeping well and has been really cranky". Personally I am not sure that she is any more or less cranky than normal but it was really cute and thoughtful of Maddy. She had all her friends sign it and write nice things to Lilly. She loved it of course.

And then she also pulled out of her backpack a special valentine present she got from a boy in her class. She came home yesterday telling me that this little boy was going to bring her a special valentine present today. I wasn't sure if that was something that was really going to happen or not. But today she came home with a box of chocolates, a little container of chocolate covered sunflower seeds (which are really good by the way!), and a webkin, all in a cute little purse with a ornament that said Happy Vday. That's a pretty good present for a 2nd grader! I am a little shocked that she would get such an elaborate gift at 8! I felt a little guilty for a minute like we should get something for the little boy......but then I didn't feel guilty anymore.

So all in all it was a fun day to spend with my beautiful girls. I can't believe how old they are all getting. It was one of those days where they seemed to be growing up more quickly than I realized. They have their days when they fight like only sisters can. But really they are best friends and love each other so much and I am so proud of that.

PS. I finally cleaned my playroom mom!! It was a good day!

She's a Potty Champion

A couple of weeks ago I got a little potty training kit in the mail complete with stickers. Since we were still working on consistently going in the potty I thought we would give it a try. I completely underestimated how well it was going to work. Lilly was SO excited to have a potty chart to put stickers on. As soon as we put it up she was going on the potty every time! And she was so content to put a sticker on the chart we didn't even need any treats. So we finally filled it all in the other day and since both the other girls have a picture with their first potty chart, here is one of Lilly as well. She actually went "#2" today for the first time as well in the potty! It is about the most exciting thing that has happened to Dustin and I since the last child went poo poo in the potty! Everyone of them has used this same potty and every one now has a picture at about the same age with their potty chart sitting on this potty. I love when I can be consistent with all three because it so rarely happens anymore.

I had this weird realization as we started doing the potty chart. I realized that Lilly is almost the exact same age that Maddy was when she did her first potty chart. The reason this is such a weird realization is that in my memory Maddy seemed so much older! I thing this is the curse of the first born and the baby. I think that the parents of the first born child tend to forget how little they really are. At least for myself it seems that way. But the baby also get a warped age from the parent as they always seem younger than they really are. I guess maybe it is only the middle children that get treated as their rightful age, not too old and not too young!

more performances by Josey and Lilly

So after long last I have finally recorded another riveting performance by Josey, and Lilly wanted in on the action this time as well. Lilly is a HUGE Taylor Swift fan. Seriously, she loves her songs every time they come on the radio and proclaims them her favorite song. Recently it has been Taylor Swift's "Love Song" that she has preferred. So I have been playing it for her on the computer at home. The girls decided they wanted to do a performance and I thought, it has been a while since I video taped them, so here you go! (Maddy was at her play rehearsal which is why she wasn't video taped.) If you have missed any of Joselyn's previous "performances", they are here and here .

Steroid Power

Well I thought I should give some background on the previous post. If you didn't read the post I did about my sinuses, I have been on a steroid for a couple of weeks. While I DESPISE the puffy face, the weight gain, and the mild irritability that has accompanied this pill popping, I am LOVING the energy and motivation I have to clean my house. I have been obsessively cleaning my house for the last couple of weeks. It started in the kitchen when I just couldn't take the disorganized cupboards and pantry. I spent hours cleaning out every crevice. And I couldn't stop. I started scrubbing every wall, every baseboard, cleaning out the window tracks and even soaking all the vents (all things I NEVER do). I was out organizing my garage at 10:00 the other night and I can't stop!! I feel like I am on a time line because I only have three days left of the steroid! I am afraid that all this energy and compulsion is going to disappear. I am hoping that just finally getting rid of the infection that has plagued my body for EVER might be part of the reason that I feel so energetic. But I guess we will see. I have one more room, a closet and 2 bathrooms that are in desperate need of a good scrubbing.

ANYWAY about the last post, I was so excited when I found those bedspreads for my girls at Fred Meyer at 80% off! At that price I thought they were cute enough to get for their room. So I have talked with my mother extensively about the cleaning and told her all about the room rearranging and the bedspreads and she was on her way out the door from work and wanted to see some pictures before she left. So I quickly snapped some shots and put them on my blog and that is the explanation for the random pictures of my girls rooms. It's not that I think I did a particularly great "decorating" job it is just that it is SUCH an improvement from what it was before, I was excited as were the girls. The looks on their faces when they went in their rooms was seriously priceless. They were so excited to have a "cute" room they spent most of the afternoon in there reading and listening to music together. It made all the hours of cleaning and organizing and rearranging worth it.

The girls room

Here is the finished product mom! What do you think? Not bad for a rental house and trying to work with what we already had?
One of Josey's balls fell down ......I need to fix that.

Lilly instisted on posing like this.

The beloved Jonas Brothers wall.

Our new organized closet. This is how cluttery my girls are. There was half that stuff on that shelf before they got home. They have only been hom like an hour and a half.
This is what I did to Lilly's room. That is a completely organized toy box too! YEAH!

She can fly, she can fly, she can fly!

I finally remembered to bring my camera to one of Maddy's play rehearsals. She has had so much fun doing this play. It has been fun to watch her because she just enjoys it so much. But this past Saturday she got to fly finally! She has been so excited about this. Here is my little star!
And here is my littlest star trying to be just like her.
Maddy was getting a pep talk from her "brother" John.And then she for some instruction from the head of the "fly team".And then she took to the air! She was laughing and smiling the whole time. She just loved it. She didn't want to get off.

I think afterward she felt pretty cool, judging by this pose.

In the meantime, Josey has been such a helper keeping Lilly entertained at the theatre. We have had to spend A LOT of time there this past month and it is only going to get worse. So I always try to bring lots of snacks and activities to try and keep them as quiet and entertained as possible. But really without Josey I think Lilly would drive me nuts. Thanks Jose!

The Moyes Pet Shop

We have decided that we are going to start a Moyes Family Pet Shop. It is going to be filled with all the random pets that you can have in a rental house that no kids can actually play or interact with. Doesn't that sound fun? So we have (had.....it's a long story involving a disposal accident. I have to replace the fish tomorrow) Beta fish, a snail, a hamster, butterflies and 2 birds. Maybe someday we can actually have a dog or cat or something normal.

Seriously though we added a couple of pets to our growing list. For Christmas Josey got a butterfly cage thing that you can grow butterflies in. So we sent away for the caterpillars and they came a couple of weeks ago and we have been watching these creepy crawly little pre-butterflies growing. Once they cacoon up we will move them into the butterfly cage and watch them hatch and grow. Josey has been very excited about this. And then they other day I got an email that said this lady was giving away her parakeets. I thought about it and decided that I wanted them. I have always liked birds and I have some fond memories of birds at a grandmas house (I actually can't completely place the memory but it is there in my head somewhere). So I called her up and she was giving away the birds, the cage, the food, you name it for free. How could Dustin argue with that right? The girls were so excited and we are the proud owner of two parakeets now named Georgia and Sunshine.

I am hoping that this will help bridge the gap between my sister and I. Alli has a couple of birds that she treats JUST like her kids. It's sad really. So I thought at least this way maybe she will have some interest in talking with me because at least we can talk about our birds right? I am just hoping that she won't get all competitive on me with what her birds are doing

And this is one of my littlest pets Lilly. I just loved this picture.