December Fun

Blogging seems to have taken a low priority this time of year. I'll officially take a sabbatical after this post so that I don't feel guilty for not updating everyone.
December has been full of tree trimming, paper snowflake making, and good book reading - perfectly lovely.

The challenge of promising Noelle she could put the star on top of the tree:

Chief "Paper Snowflaker", hard at work, cutting out Noelle's design

The awe of discovering what all these cuts can make

One of our final products

Sadie's decided to start reading chapter books. She seems especially fond of Cam Jansen books. It's so very entertaining to hear her "read" it. I recommend these short chapter books for anyone looking for something age appropriate for a 4 year old and up.

Thanksgiving Thoughts and Pictures

"If we are only given tomorrow, what we gave thanks for today, how much will I have tomorrow?"
This is a quote I came across today that makes me think more and more about my gratitude, or lack there of.

With that thought, here are some fun times I am grateful for over the Thanksgiving weekend:

sipping hot chocolate with 2 sweet girls

Celebrating cousin Ethan's 2nd Birthday

Hottie husband with his Bro and Sis-in-law after the Turkey Day 10-k (Elizabeth ran too but her race number is on her back...I want to be sure she gets credit for her had work!)

Preparing the Turkey
(Sadie wants to know why there's a hole in the turkey)

The Spence Clan

Shiny Sinks and Heavenly Smells

My birthday was earlier this month and my main present from Brad was having 4 cleaning sessions from a young lady from our church, Beth Survant. I was a little apprehensive on how it would all go since I've never hired someone to clean for me. Should I make a list or does she have her own agenda? Will she be grossed out by the crumbs in my silverware tray? Will she do too much or do too little? etc...

Well I was suitably impressed and I think I'm addicted after just 2 hours. My sink was so shiny and my house smelled heavenly!!!! After Beth left I actually ran through the house squealing with joy at the euphoric feeling of having a beautiful home that smelled sooo good. She could have spent twice as long but alas, I have to limit my indulgences.


At one point during my cleaning session, I sat on the couch and read a book to the girls. I had visions of a postcard I get in the mail every so often...the one with a mom reading books to her kids while a cleaning lady is working in the background. The one with the caption "Life's too short to clean your own house." The one I laugh at and throw in the trash with a judgmental attitude. The one I will never look at the same again.

A Plate of P's

Do you ever sit down to a meal and realize your food is all one color or is all garlic flavored or some other common denomenator? Well today's lunch was a plate of P's.

My intent was to clean out a hodge-podge of food from the refrigerator and this is what we got:
a Pork BBQ sandwich with Pickles, Pizza and Popcorn. Before I had this revelation the girls had asked for popsicles for dessert (spurred on by a popscicle wrapper we had seen at the park earlier in the day). Once I discovered the P theme, I couldn't resist giving in to the Popsicle and having a Picnic :)

Catch-up

I'm still here. I'd like to think I'm too busy enjoying the Fall to blog about it.
Here's some pictures to capture the last month activities:

Carving Pumpkins

End result: 2 happy pumpkins checking each other out.

Trick-or-treating as a bumble bee and flower

2 nights away with friends and no kids!
We went to Nashville, Indiana, a place I've never been, but thoroughly enjoyed the mountains and quaint town.

Making homemade applesauce with Grammy Sauder - yum, yum
And a BIG thank you to Grammy for staying with the kids so we could get away.

Friday on the Levee

I'm a week behind...last Friday was beautiful and our family had a great outing to Newport on the Levee. We traversed the Purple People Bridge and amused ourselves at the incredible playgrounds at Sawyer's Point (at least I think that's where we were). We finished up the evening with a feast of delicious pizza and salads at Dewey's pizza.

From KY to OH

This is what you get when you ask Noelle to pose in front of the flowers:

And this is what you get when we ask Sadie to pose in front of the flowers, "like Noelle did."
Fun on the tire swing

"Guess What Animal I'm Thinking Of"

When I need an activity to keep the kids from driving me crazy at the lunch table or in the car...or anywhere really...I will play a game we call "Guess what animal I'm thinking of".

I think of an animal and then the girls, mainly Noelle, has to ask yes-no questions to figure out what the animal is. Here are some sample questions:

Does it have fur?
Does it have 4 legs?
Is it bigger then you?
Have you ever seen one in real life? (rather then in a book)

Recently Noelle has been trying to play this game with Sadie. It's obvious that Sadie doesn't quite "get it", but the results are very humorous. Here are 2 examples:

Noelle: Sadie lets play "Guess What Animal". You think of an animal and I'll guess it.
Sadie: Ok
N: Does it have 4 legs?
S: No.
N: Does it have 2 legs?
S: No
N: Does it have 3 legs?
S: Yes.
N: Is it a spider?
S: Yes!!

Even funnier is the fact that Noelle didn't see anything wrong with this and thought they'd had a great game.

Sample 2
Noelle: Sadie you think of an animal and I'll try to guess it
S: OK
N: Does it have 4 legs?
S: No
N: Does it have 2 legs?
S: No
N: Does it have any legs?
S: No
N: Is it bigger then you?
S: No
(at this point I thought Sadie was just saying No to everything, so I tried to trick her)
Me: Is it smaller then you?
S: Yes
(okay so much for my theory)
N: Is it a cupcake?
S: YES!!!

Ummm, isn't this game called "Guess What Animal I'm Thinking of"? Again, Noelle and Sadie seemed perfectly pleased with their accomplishment.

Blame It on the Rain

Wasn't it Milli Vanilli that sang "Blame it on the Rain"? That has nothing to do with anything, but I'd like to blame it on the rain for my lack of motivation last week. This week's cool, dry temperatures are giving me nothing to blame, so I better get something done this week!

On Saturday when the rain finally broke (but still threatened) our family felt like an adventure, so we headed to a park we aren't too familiar with; Devou Park. It was nice to get some fresh air and let the kids run. We attempted a family picture with the skyline in the background, but you can see for yourself how successful that was:

Anyway it was a nice time as a family.

On Sunday Brad and Noelle went on a "date" together. They went rollerskating while Sadie and I hung out at home. The Children's Ministry at church had rented out the rink for 2 hours so we thought this would be a "safe" time for Noelle to try out rollerskating. It also had me reminiscing about the many times our church rented out our local rink during my childhood.

When Brad and Noelle came home I was excited to hear what Noelle thought of her first roller skating experience. Her reply was something like this "I liked the food best." Apparently, once she got the skates on all her confidence and excitement drained away. The evening was saved with a hot dog, popcorn and blue slushy. But overall, it was still a good time spent with Daddy.

With all the rain we've also sprouted a whole bunch of I-don't-know-what. They're in our front flower bed which previously had flowers in. I'm assuming they are Cosmos sprouts (the flowers that we planted there in the summer), but we'll give them a little time just to see what they turn into. We figure they'll get too cold pretty soon.

Happy Juice and Fat Straws

Simple pleasure make every day a little brighter. This Spring we discovered the generic brand of Crystal Lite. (basically sugar-free Kool-aid) Brad's favorite is the fruit punch flavor. After a few weeks of seeing Brad drink a lot of it, Noelle asked him why he was always drinking the red juice. Brad said it was just a happy drink.
From then on we called this drink "Happy Juice". We've also discovered 2 mixed drinks, using Happy Juice as a mixer - Fresca with Happy Juice and Ice Tea with Happy Juice.

Sadie especially likes the Fresca mixer. She pronounces Fresca as "Sucka" so the official name is "Sucka with Happy Juice".

I'm more of an Ice Tea and Happy Juice kinda girl - due to the caffeine and all.
I also have a fondness for fat straws, which McDonalds excels at. This cup originally contained an iced latte, but I couldn't part with the appealing cup and fat straw so it's been keeping me hydrated with many a drink. Simple, I know.

A Work in Progress

Brad has a good bit of time off this month and Behr paint was on sale at Home Depot last week. The combination has put us into "project" mode. Unfortunately we are completely inept at picking paint colors. So the paint sale has come and gone and our house has become a paint palette.

After sampling 4 Behr paints and still needing something just a little different, I went to a local paint store and got some personal help. The "paint man" was so generous to loan us his entire color wheel. NOW I think I know what we're getting...you'll just have to come back for the "after" picture. (yes, I know the picture of the girls is sideways. I'm waiting on a good family picture to put there. It could take a while)

Here's Brad's project. This use to be the nursery and it will become the guest room. There's a lot of patching that needed to be done here.

And since the mattress and box-spring are out of the guest room, Brad created a little fort for the girls to play in while we're busy with our projects. We just set the mattress on top of 2 cabinets in the basement and...instant fort. They added the accessories - sleeping bags, books, etc...

Recycling at it's Best

Do you have several bulletins laying around from Pastor Brad's latest sermon series, "Hot Buttons"? Would you like to find a way to reuse them and create a better world... or at least a happy spouse?


Brad found a very creative use for these extra bulletins that got rave reviews from the recipient:


I think this could work in any home, no matter how big a lie it is.
...perhaps waiting for a that special person on their pillow
... or on a bathroom mirror

I'm sure Pastor Brad would be pleased to know all aspects of his sermons are being put to good use.

Sadie's world and Noelle's world

Sadie has adjusted remarkably well to not having her sister home most mornings. I think she enjoys having all the dolls and stuffed animals all to herself. This is what she spends most of her time doing:

I'm pretty sure I did the same thing when I was a little girl. These 2 dolls were actually mine, so they are enjoying another generation of playing on the steps.


Noelle seems to be making all kinds of friends at school and on the bus. As she was walking towards the front of the bus to get off this afternoon I saw a boy lean into the aisle to hug her. Hmmm...I thought I'd ask a few questions over lunch.

Me: I think I saw a boy hug you before you got of the bus.
Noelle: Yes, that's Avery
Me: Is he in your class?
N: Yes
Me: Does he hug everyone before they get off the bus?
N: No

Ok, so Noelle has been at school for less then 2 weeks and boys are already hugging her. I suppose this is only the beginning.

Jazzercise

Jazzercise is a new addition to my schedule this year. With Noelle off to Kindergarten, Sadie and I head off to a Jazzercise class 3 mornings a week. I had no idea what I was getting into...I'm sure it's obvious to everyone in my class.

It's a combination of so many things that I'm SO not qualified to do:

Aerobics: let see I took 1 aerobics class for 1 month in college...that would have been 13 years ago. Fortunately I have retained some of the lingo so I sort of have a clue when the instructor shouts that the next move is "grapevine".

Kickboxing: I once owned a video that I tried for about a month when Noelle was a baby...that would have been 5 years ago. Again, it's nice to know what an "uppercut" and a "roundhouse" are for those kickboxing moments in Jazzercise.

Jazz dance: there's just not much to say about this - I've never done it and I have no natural ability to do it. However I burn a lot of calories trying to figure it out!

Pilates: I have no idea what it is, but at least it doesn't make me sweat as much as the other stuff.

If you want a real laugh, check out this link from a 1980's Jazzercise class (No, I DO NOT wear a ridiculous leotard like they do in the video). If you want to join the humbling experince of trying to make it through 1 hour of marching, lunging, punching, grapevining, toning and sweating, come join me!

Kids Just Don't Make Sense

Today was Noelle's 4th day of Kindergarten and everything is going great . I've been waking her up at 6:45 to get her ready in time for the bus. Other then the first day, I've had to literally pull her out of bed since her preference is to roll over and keep sleeping. She sleeps on the top bunk, so it can be rather challenging to get a hold of her. Since she's obviously still tired at 6:45, what time to you think Noelle and Sadie decided to get up on Saturday?
6:30.
And what time do you think they got up on Sunday?
6:20

Can anyone explain this to me?
I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. Since when to kids make sense?


On the other hand, Sadie was trying to make sense of a situation last week that had me laughing. We were taking a meal to Mike and Kathy Hood, to celebrate baby Natalie's arrival. I told Sadie to get her shoes on because we were going to the Hood's. She came to me a few seconds later with a book and said "This Hood?" The book was Little Red Riding Hood.

Noelle's First Day of Kindergarten

Today is Noelle's first day of Kindergarten, and therefore her first day of riding the bus. She made it easy on Mom and Dad by being excited, with only a moment of hesitation as the bus was coming down the road.

Leading up to the first day of school:

Shopping for school supplies
(princess folders make everything better)

Getting a picture of Noelle in front of her school: Summit View Elementary

And then the momentous first day:

All ready

Here comes the bus!

"Uhh...maybe I don't want to got to school. Maybe I can hide behind mommy"

Then off she goes on the big yellow bus...See you at 12:30 Noelle!

Tricks of the Trade

Anyone who's been a mom for any amount of time is always looking for ideas (or better yet, a magic wand) to make their children act more godly. It would be nice to hear respectful speech, see selfless acts and observe first-time obedience on a more regular basis.

Here are my 2 latest tips that have seemed to help...for the time being.

#1 The "caught ya being good" bell
This tip I learned in Family Fun magazine. When you catch a child doing something selfless or being extra kind (or anything noteworthy), ring a bell and announce it a loud voice "NOELLE KINDLY HELPED SADIE DRESS HER DOLL. WAY TO GO NOELLE!!!"
#2 The 10 Minute Tidy
This idea came from Vicki Bigney years ago but I think it works best on children around age 4 and up. Set the timer for 10 minutes and let the kids know we're going to clean up as much of the house in 10 minutes as we can. When the timer rings we stop cleaning (even if the room is still a little messy) and we'll ______(fill in the blank with an activity they want to do) play Uno, play playdough, go outside etc...

If any one has any other tricks-of-the-trade I'd love to hear them. Or better yet, if you have a magic wand that hasn't been completely worn out, please pass it on to me.

Deep Creek Lake

Last week was Spence week at Deep Creek Lake. 10 Spence's enjoyed a week of lake living in the hills of Maryland. The weather was a bit cool for too many water activities, but we took advantage of any sun we could find. Here are some highlights in pictures:

Playing in the sand and water at a little beach area. Brad, Noelle and nephew Ethan.

Hiking around and playing in nearby waterfalls

Enjoying our house and smiling faces (including the deer)
Elizabeth and Noah

Reading books

And when you get a little too stir-crazy from being in the house all day, entertain the kids by sliding them across the floor in cotton pajamas. "Uncle D" and Sadie.

This and That

I don't have anything too memorable to post today so here is a funny picture of Sadie. I have to laugh since it looks like she has the world on her shoulders. If I remember correctly she's just trying to patiently wait for dessert to be served. Oh the suffering!
And we painted the dresser in the girl's room and the outcome is glorious. Thanks again Ben!

"I Can Do It"

This is a scene Brad happened upon one evening. Since Sadie is suppose to get help with her toothpaste, she quickly reassured him "I can do it Daddy."

Obviously, she has everything under control.

"Help, Our Neighbor is Doing Something!"

Last evening I was brushing Sadie's teeth when I hear Noelle yell from the living room "Mom, come look. Our neighbor is doing something!" Still brushing Sadie's teeth I yell back "Is it something good or something bad?" (I didn't want to interrupt by task unless my neighbor was causing some serious trouble). Noelle's comment back was "I don't know, I think it's bad. She has some sort of thing like Papa Bear uses." At that I had to come see what she was talking about.

Our neighbor lady was cutting her grass with an old-fashion lawn mower...the kind with the cylinder on the front with 2 blades that roll around...the kind that doesn't do a very good job of cutting grass. I had to laugh and assure Noelle that everything was okay, our neighbor just chooses to use a Papa Bear style lawnmower (from the Bernstein Bears).

Sisters

Smiling Sisters...and of course they love each other this much all of the time.

This is what you get when you ask Sadie to smile and rest her cheek on her hand: