There Were 5 in the Bed, and the Little One Said Roll Over...

I am beginning to wonder if Brian and I will ever get our bed back... On any given night, we either have at least one child in our bed for part of the night, or we are sleeping with another child in their bed. Just a few examples of our recent sleeping arrangements: Brian falling asleep on the bottom bunk trying to keep Hadley from being scared, me sleeping on Kami's floor so she stays in her room without waking up the rest of the house (she was awake from midnight until 4:30 the other morning), Hadley coming into our bed, me sleeping in Brooke's bed, all five of us snuggling in our bed (this is my favorite, as long as it isn't all night :)) I know that the experts don't recommend you let your kids sleep with you, but when it's the only way ANY of you are going to get sleep, I don't really care about the experts! I am worn out by the end of the day, and I need sleep. One day they'll sleep all night... and by then I'll miss their snuggling.

Here are the kids at the super bowl party we went to at the Kates' house. They were dancing during the halftime show and having a great time. It's always fun (and crazy) when we get all the kids together.

Hadley and Brooke dressed Kami up as a ballerina and she wasn't very amused.

This is how I found them one morning while Hadley was at school. They climbed up onto the table to eat chips! I think I need to start taking the chairs away from the table, or stop taking their picture so they don't think it's ok, oops.

Hadley was being Mommy.

I can't get these to go in the right order, ugghhh, but look at the these two and then look at the last two. Is this the same girl??

"I'm a pretty lady, Mommy"

I took a few pictures of Brooke in her 3 shirt for her birthday pictures.

What a happy girl!

Brooke goes Wednesday for her assessment at the school. She's pretty excited about getting to see her friends :) We are taking our mini vacation to Bloomington on Saturday. Wish us luck! I think the girls would be happy swimming all day, so I'm not too worried about the museum being overly crowded. Other than that, we are patiently waiting for Spring's arrival. Oh wait, who am I kidding, we aren't patient anymore! Those few days a couple weeks ago were SO nice. We went for walks, played outside, went to the park. I took the girls to that new Southwind Park (those of you in the Springfield area should check it out). It has a nice rubber surface so it wasn't muddy like other playgrounds. This day at the park was a sneak peek at what our summer is going to be like, and I'm a little nervous! Kami was everywhere, Brooke was everywhere and Hadley was everywhere! Last year, Kami wasn't walking too much, so she didn't mind being in the stroller. This year, not so much. Last year, Brooke was still pretty cautious. She liked having help when she tried something new. This year, not so much. And, Hadley, well she played very nicely with the same little boy she played with the last time we were there. What are the odds?? I definitely need to get my running shoes ready! Have a wonderful week! Happy March--can you believe it!?!?

"She Is My Always With Me Best Friend!"

After making a comment to Hadley about how nicely she and Brooke were playing together, Hadley looks at me and says, "Well, she is my always with me best friend." Awww! If that doesn't melt a mommy's heart, I don't know what will. They really do play so nicely together, and they do always have a playmate. A few months ago, Hadley did more bossing than playing and Brooke just kind of went along with her big sister. Recently, however, Brooke is doing more playing and is becoming much more "conversational" (is that a word?) when she plays. Instead of Hadley telling Brooke what she is going to do and say, Brooke plays right along side her. It really is funny to sit back and listen to them. It's also nice because it gives me a chance to have some one on one time with Kami.

Don't get me wrong...we've had our fair share of fights, but what sisters don't fight, what siblings don't fight? Hadley has always said she will protect Brooke and she sure does. She is always looking out for her sister. We were driving in the car the other day and we drove by the elementary school. Hadley begins to tell Brooke that when she is in kindergarten and Brooke is in pre-k, they will be able to see each other at recess, in the hallways and at lunch. Hadley then asks Brooke if she wants to sit together at lunch. They were so excited with their idea, I didn't have the heart to tell them, they wouldn't be able to sit together. When you girls are 17 and 16, I hope you are still "always with me best friends."

The girls playing at their diner.

Brooke telling Hadley a secret at Build-a-Bear.

One of our nightly concerts... Hadley has made up a song about Noah's Ark that is priceless. It's on the wrong video camera, but we are working on getting it for the blog.

Working on a project together.

Poor Kami (Kani) has even been banned from their room!

Best Friends :)

Brooke's School Visit

Last week, I took Brooke to meet her teacher, Mrs. Puccetti. She still isn't officially in the class, but I wanted her to meet Mrs. Puccetti and see her classroom before she goes for her evaluation. I thought that might help when it comes time to sit with strangers. Brooke was so excited and had been talking about it all week. She had her outfit picked out and her bookbag ready. Just a quick story from the day before we went school -- Brooke was playing with her baby doll and was getting him dressed. She looked at me and told me that "Jimmy had a big day tomorrow" so he needed to take a nap. When I asked what Jimmy would be doing, she told me he would be going to school.

When we got to school, she was a little nervous and it took her a few minutes to warm up. After getting comfortable, she was quick to explore her classroom. A few of her favorite things were the little toilet in the bathroom :), the sand area, the kitchen, and the puzzles. I asked lots of questions and am feeling more comfortable about sending my baby to school.

Happy LOVE Day!

Brian and I celebrated Valentine's Day the Saturday before the actual day. We had a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse, courtesy of Butch and Max. Butch and Max are the dog and cat from across the street. Brian watches them for our neighbor and every year they get us a gift card to show their appreciation :) Thanks Butch, Max and Glenn!

On Monday morning, Hadley had her Valentine's Day/Pajama Party at school. Brian was invited to be the pancake making daddy and I was there to help as well. It was "P" week at school so the kids wore their pajamas and ate pancakes for snack. They also went fishing for love fish, made a cute craft, played with the parachute and passed out their valentines.

When Brian got home from work, the girls opened their Valentine's from Mommy and Daddy. We got each of them an outfit, a book, and a new beach towel, because we are taking a "mini vacation" (as Hadley calls it) in a few weeks. We are taking the girls to Bloomington to the Children's museum. We are staying in a hotel that has a pool so the girls can go swimming and we are going to watch donuts being made at Krispy Kreme. It's the first time that we have taken all three of the girls on an overnight adventure, just the five of us.

Kami had more fun with the tissue paper...

I found these Justin Bieber shirts at Wal-Mart for one dollar!!! I normally wouldn't buy them something like this, but a buck! I couldn't resist. I'm sure it's not the first shirt with some young heart throb we will have to buy.

We had Nana and Papa Blade and Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon over for dinner that night. The girls made them heart magnets and we got each set of grandparents a copy of our blog book. I LOVE our blog book. So far we only have the 2009 edition, but I love it. I'm not the best at scrapbooking or writing in the girls baby books, so it's perfect. I now have a hard copy of each of our blog posts. It's also making me a better blogger, because I am much more diligent about making sure I include everything I want to be published. We actually have to read the blog book as one of our bedtime books. The girls love hearing stories about them and looking at their pictures.

The girls opened their valentine's from their grandparents. Thanks for the money for our mini vacation, the Toys R Us gift cards and the puzzles! You are all SO good to our girls! They are blessed, blessed, blessed (and so are we, we, we)! We love you!

Grandma and Grandpa with their girls

Nana and Papa with their girls

If you are looking at the girls outfits, and thinking they look a little bit like rag-a-muffins, and I'll admit they do... They had put on their new outfits, matching or not. Poor Kami had on a pair of pants that were supposed to be capris, but they looked like pants (and they were rolled).

Papa Clark and Brooke putting together her Snow White puzzle. Snow White is her favorite princess. Whenever we watch a Disney movie and Cinderella's castle appears at the beginning, Hadley yells "Cinderella's castle!!" to which Brooke yells "Snow White's castle!!" which of course prompts an argument--every time!

They ended the evening with a harmonica concert. Here are "The Tweryon Twins" (as Hadley calls them) serenading their grandparents with a lovely ballad.

NO MORE SNOW!

Some people called it Snowpacolypse. Others called it Snowmaggedon. Whatever it was called, by the time it was over we had about 11 inches of snow on the ground. I like a good snow storm as much as the next guy (especially now that I don't have to drive to work), but I have had enough snow for this year! This particular blizzard started on Monday afternoon and we were officially home bound from Monday around noon until Friday morning when we took Hadley to school. There have been weeks where we didn't go anywhere for a couple days, but, when you know you CAN'T go anywhere, well that can drive you crazy! You can only keep three children occupied for so long before you are all going nuts. I was also fighting a double ear infection and didn't feel super great.

Here are a bunch of pictures of our time with snow. It's not just this past storm, but a collection of all the snows we've had this year.

This picture doesn't really do all the snow justice and this was before it finally quit.

The Village of Rochester truck hit our mailbox with the snow plow! And, worse, they won't admit it or pay for a new one, even though Brian and I both saw it happen. Frustrating!

We made "ice jellies" out of snow. They were so yummy! It was nice having Brian home for a snow day. Horace Mann was closed on Wednesday, but back to reality on Thursday.

We decided to bring the snow inside rather than going outside. I wasn't about to take all three girls out by myself anyway!

Kami decided she needed her coat on to play. She really didn't want anything to do with the snow until she had her coat on.

My little puppy dogs...

Later, we made snow ice cream. Yummy! Then, we made snow volcanoes. My brother and I used to make volcanoes in our sand box using baking soda and vinegar. We would use food coloring to make colored lava and it would ruin our sand. So, we tried it with snow and it works just the same. The girls got a kick out of it and it helped cure our cabin fever, for a little while anyway.

These next pictures are from the snow a while back. We took the girls over to Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's and let them play. Brian was busy building a snow fort and the girls were enjoying rides on the tractor, in the wagon and behind the four wheeler.

Faster Grandpa!!!

She was having a ball doing this :)

Brooke preferred riding on the tractor and wanted NOTHING to do with being pulled behind the four wheeler.