WELL spent 75 cents

I've been anxious to take advantage of the after Christmas sales and do a little shopping. Noelle and Sadie, however, are not good shoppers. Noelle begs to be in the cart and Sadie begs to be out of the cart. They both think they deserve a snack every 5 minutes for having to endure the torture.

I decided to pray about it - what an idea! During my quiet time this morning I had a revelation - I'm certain it was from God. I made a proposal to Noelle that I would pay her 75 cents to "babysit" Sadie in the store. Noelle lit up and was super excited about her big-girl responsibility. She got her backpack and filled it with activities for Sadie.

Noelle was amazing. While we were in Kohl's she helped Sadie play with a baby doll, read her a book, drew pictures for her on the Etch and Sketch and, with my permission, rewarded Sadie (and herself) with a package of Smarties candy.

I came out of the store with a bag of clothes, 2 happy kids, and my sanity.

I offered Noelle the choice of 3 quarters or dimes and nickels, also equaling 75 cents. She took the dimes and nickles:)

Math

Noelle looked at our digital thermometer and announced "it's 22 degrees." I didn't think she knew her double digit numbers so I asked her, "How do you know it's 22 degrees?" She said "The thermometer says 2 and 2."
I was amazed so I asked, "What's 3 and 3?" She quickly replied "6."

Hmmm...I guess she's right.

I'm Back

It's pretty sad that Christmas debilitates my blogging for 3 weeks, but what can I say? I decided I valued a clean house over a updated blog (this week anyway).

Since Christmas is long gone, I thought I'd highlight Noelle's birthday - December 30 - and a favorite Christmas activity.

Noelle is now 5 - can you believe it!? For her birthday we went bowling with some of the extended family, including her 2 girl cousins. Noelle had a great time and I'm pretty sure she scored higher them me. Maybe I should play with a with a bumper guard next time.

Cousins: Noelle, Kalysta, and Payton

Another highlight from our time with family was building and decorating gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing just how much candy I could eat and not get sick.

I think Sadie and I tied for the "Most Most Sugar Consumed" award. We paid dearly for that on the 2 hour ride to our parent's home later that night.

Just how long can 2 overtired, over-stimulated, over-sugared kids scream?
I'm not sure. The car ride was over before we got to the end.

Merry Christmas to Us

We gifted ourselves with a Christmas present last week: a fluid bike trainer. It could be that you, like I, have no idea what a fluid bike trainer is. Now that I am so knowledgeable, I'd like to pass on my wisdom...a bike trainer is a stand that you put your bike on to allow you to ride your bike in a stationary position. If you're curious about how this is different then a traditional stationary bike, wikipedia has a general overview.

Here's a close-up of the trainer...not that much to it.

Another plus is that the girls can join in on the garage, exersicing experience. (Just stay away from the saw hanging in the background)

Bunk Beds for the girls

I knew adding exercising to my weekly routine would cut into my blogging time, but apparently exercising and Christmas preparations just about eliminate blogging opportunities. So here's a quick post just to say "hi".

We were able to get a great set of bunk beds from our good friends, the Logozzo's. Brad's mom provided the ultra-cute bedspreads and now we have a cute room for the girls to share. (Sadie still sleeps in the pack-n-play in the room, but we're working on changing to the lower bunk).