Hungry shopping

Last night I remembered why I was always told not to go to the grocery store hungry. I ate some Lucky Charms at like 3:30 so when David got home around six I wasn't very hungry. Alana had gone with Nicole to my dad's house and since Ava either has breastmilk or baby food, I didn't bother to make dinner. It was Friday, I needed a break. So at that point in the day I wasn't really hungry and didn't feel like cooking.

So about an hour after David came home we decided to go to Walmart. We just got our tax return and the money is kind of burning a hole in our pockets. I didn't really intend to buy any food, maybe some bananas since I ate the last one, maybe a candy bar because candy always tastes good. So we walk through the store and I end up in the ice cream aisle staring at the Ben & Jerry's. What harm could possibly come from a small thing of half baked ice cream? Then we skipped the next couple aisles and ended up in the cereal aisle, where I picked up like 3 boxes of cereal, then the baking aisle where I got cookie mix. Then we wandered around a little bit more, looked at the TVs, circled back and went up front to pay. As I was putting my groceries up at the register I realized how much crap I threw in the cart. I usually pay close attention to what I'm getting, maybe only buy a candy at the cash register, and go to the store with a full stomach. I bought 3 boxes of sweet cereal, frozen waffles (which I NEVER buy), ice cream, a kit kat, cookie mix, actual cookies and bananas for a little variety. To top that off David got two bottles of soda and a box of popsicles. We must have looked like junk food junkies!

It really made me remember why I always eat before I go to the grocery store - so I don't buy everything that sounds even remotely appetizing!

Disneyland Bound

All went according to plan with my bank account and the IRS and our tax refund was deposited at midnight last night. I actually logged in to my account at 2 o'clock this  morning when I was up feeding Ava. I couldn't help it, I was way too impatient and curious. When I saw the balance had increased dramatically I was so excited. So then at seven am David got up because he wanted to check our bank balance to see if we'd gotten our money. When he got up it woke me up so we decided to pay our bills and make our reservations right then. So as of 7:30 this morning our reservation is made and paid for at the Disneyland hotel, our tickets bought, our rental car reserved, the credit card I'm using for the rental car is paid off, we set aside a generous amount of spending money for vacation and we even managed to pay off some bills, including paying off our Best Buy card.

We decided this year to splurge and stay at a Disney hotel. The past two years we stayed right across the street at the Fairfield Inn which was ok, but not great. I love that its within walking distance and its pretty clean, but the rooms are really small, a little bit overpriced for the size and the corridors are outside. Thats not a big deal when you're an adult, but when you have a 3 year old who wants to walk by herself and you're on the sixth floor and the railing doesn't really look that sturdy, that's a dealbreaker. Plus, Disneyland hotels are having a special that if you buy 3 nights you get 2 for free. How could I pass that up?

All thats left to do is make reservations for a couple of character meals, probably breakfasts, which we really love. Its so nice when Minnie Mouse and Snow White come to you, instead of the other way around. One of our favorite things about Disneyland are all of the characters and its great to not have to wait in line to see them for just a second or see the character and go to get in line and the line is closed. We only get pictures with them though, I think its overkill to gets Mickey Mouse's autograph. Not to mention that its a little mean to make that character hold a pen with their big awkward hand.

I'm so excited to go! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve right before we go to Disneyland, even though most of the stuff that we do is for little kids. We can't really go on the big rides for right now since our kids are little and 2 of the times that we've gone I've been pregnant. Its worth it just to see how much fun Alana has and this will be Ava's first time (in the womb doesn't count!).

The Impossible Dream

This morning something I thought would never ever happen actually happened. It happened without me asking for it to happen, or nagging about it or even doing a little bit of "gentle encouraging" - Alana used her potty chair! I was in the kitchen at the computer and Alana came in all excited saying that she peed. I was hesitant to believe since she is 3 and tends to stretch the truth a bit. So I went into the bedroom where she had moved the potty chair, what can I say, she likes to watch TV on the pot, and sure enough there was a lot of pee. I almost didn't believe my eyes. I had thrown in the towel on potty training months ago. After all, you can't physically make someone go to the bathroom in the toilet if they really really don't want to. And she really really didn't want to. She would actually cry when you put her on the toilet.

Not that she never had small bits of success. Once during the summer David offered to buy her a Barbie if she peed on the toilet. So later that day after at least an hour of sitting in the bathroom, we went to Walmart and bought a purple mermaid Barbie. But we can't buy her a Barbie every time she uses the bathroom.

So now I'm holding my breath that she will be potty trained before we go to Disneyland next month. With everything I thought that she would never do because of her stubborn will she has made overnight progress. Its not an impossible goal, since she's already had a repeat of her success. She peed in the potty a second time just this morning. My only worry is that she won't want to use an actual toilet and I'm not carrying a bright green frog potty chair around everywhere I go. So for now I'm keeping my fingers crossed and putting a diaper on her when we go in public, because if you've ever left Walmart carrying a wet child because they just peed in the toy aisle, you know you're better off safe than sorry.

Ready and waiting

Ever since we told Alana that we're going to Disneyland she has been really excited. Who wouldn't be excited to go to the happiest place on earth? The downside of telling her in advance is that she keeps asking when we're going to go. Since three year olds don't really have any concept of time explaining that we are going at the end of February is impossible. She keeps saying stuff like "Me go to bed then me wake up then we go to Disneyland!" That will eventually happen, but first she has to go to bed like 30 times.

David and I are just as excited and anxious to go on vacation as Alana. Ava doesn't know the difference yet since everyday is like vacation to her. We need a break from the monotony of 40 hour work weeks and doing the dishes (not that David ever does the dishes). One week without taking out the trash and trying to figure out what to cook for dinner would be nice. I don't mind actually cooking dinner, I kind of even maybe like to cook, but deciding what to have is a pain. I don't even bother asking David's opinion when planning meals cause all he ever says is "I don't know, what do you want?" That wasn't what I asked, I know what I want to eat, what do you want to eat. Not to mention one week away from folding stupid laundry would also be nice. Matching socks isn't really my idea of a good time.

So as soon as that refund hits our bank account the reservations will be made and we will be Disney bound. This will be the third year in a row that we go and we always say we aren't gonna go again next year, we're just gonna stay home or something. That definitely wasn't the case this year cause the idea of another vacation was just too appealing to pass up.

Earring pic

So here is a pic of one of Ava's earrings. She was on the floor next to Alana who was coloring so she kept rolling over to get to Alana, which made the task of taking her picture challenging. Add that to the fact that whenever I have the camera out I usually say "Ava, look at Mommy" so she kept looking at me no matter what I did. I seriously moved the camera back and forth for like a minute trying to get a picture of the side of her head, but no matter what I did she followed the camera with her gaze. So I ended up practically putting the camera on the floor so that I could see her little earring in the picure. As a result of that, all of Alana's coloring pages and part of one of her legs are in the background.

She looks so cute with earrings but it almost makes me kid of sad, because she looks a little bit more grown up. Hard to look like a newborn with big CZ earrings sticking out of your little ears. It almost makes me wish I had waited to get her ears pierced so that she could still be my little baby for a while longer, but with or without earrings she will eventually grow up. She does look pretty cute though.

Bling

Ava is now a woman. That's right, her ears are now pierced. I always feel a little guilty taking my poor innocent child somewhere and letting a stranger poke them with a sharp pair of earrings, but it will eventually be worth it. I'd rather she get them pierced as a baby and not remember than try to do it when she gets a little bit older. So now she is looking more glamorous than ever with her new fake diamond earrings. No more people asking if she is a boy or a girl (hopefully not anyway). I will post a pic later but right now she still has the marker from where they marked the holes and its less than photo ready.

Sitting Pretty

The rumors are true - Ava can sit up by herself! Try not to be too jealous of her mad sitting skills, they do take a little bit of work. But she's a natural. Its almost as if she's been sitting all of her life. She is still a little wobbly on some occasions due to the two distractions right in front of her - her feet. She will occasionally tip over to the side because she's preoccupied with pulling off her socks. Because of this most of her sitting is done with me sitting right behind her to keep her from falling. Other than the occasional tipping she is good to go!

Baby pattern baldness

I suppose no matter how much time a baby spends on their belly they will eventually develop a big bald spot on the back of their little head. I like to call it baby pattern baldness. At about 3 months Ava's hair started getting a little bit thin in the back. It eventually rubbed off to the point that it was completely smooth, almost as if I had shaved her head to look like that. It was so perfectly bald that the hair above it was in a perfectly straight line, like a little bowl cut. The hair underneath the baldness is long and smooth so that makes it even more obvious. Now its starting to grow back since she chooses to spend most of her time on her tummy. It kind of has a little bit of stubble where its coming back in. Her head has 5 o'clock shadow! Pretty soon it will grow back completely and her days of belonging to the hair club for babies will be over. She's not just the president of the hair club for babies, she's also a member!

Ava Jordan likes to jump, jump!

The past week Ava has decided she enjoys bouncing around more than ever before. She must have gotten just a little bit taller because when I first put her in the jumper at Nicole's house in November her little feet barely touched the ground. Now she reaches up with her arms and grabs the rainbow and tries to lick the sun, then she turns herself a little bit and tries to jump for the frog that is just out of her reach. Sometimes when I'm putting her in it she will grab the frog on the way down and try to eat it. He must look delicious, most blue frogs do! I'm just glad to have something to occupy her time while I cook dinner or sit at the computer. She is actually bouncing around in it right now and having a good time. Thanks for the loaner Nicole!

Yummy!

Ava has been eating "solid" foods for about one and a half months now and for the most part she likes them. She is more than willing to eat bananas, pears, peaches and carrots. Mix those up with some rice cereal and you've got a meal! She doesn't really seem ecstatic about the green beans, but she reluctantly eats them anyway. Maybe she figures they're an acquired taste. I'm not that crazy about the green beans, between the way they smell and the resulting diaper I'd just as soon not deal with them.

Soon she'll be moving on to stage 2 foods and eventually to things that more closely resemble actual food. I don't think I would eat that pureed goop. I can remember sitting at the table as a child in a battle of wills over eating green beans and can't believe that as an adult I actually like green beans. Alana even wanted to try the baby food. She wasn't impressed. Before I know it Ava will be sitting in the high chair at the table with the rest of us throwing food overboard and refusing to eat her vegetables.

Disney Dreams

After much deliberation and countless pro/con lists we have made a decision: another Disneyland vacation! We were going to skip vacation this year since we didn't want to spend our entire tax refund on one thing, but due to the ginormous-ness of our tax return we decided to go for it. All that's left to do is wait till next week for our $$$ to be deposited in our account and the reservation is as good as made. After this year I'd prefer to wait to go again till Ava is 2 because 1 year olds don't really have as much patience waiting in line as I would like. But Ava won't mind. So at the end of February that's where we'll be - seeing Mickey and  Minnie and going on a submarine ride with Nemo. Maybe we'll throw in a Princess breakfast just for the heck of it. One thing cannot be denied - we love Disneyland!

Adventures at Walmart

Whenever we go grocery shopping Alana finds a way to make it interesting. Ava goes to sleep in her carseat and makes my life a little easier and Alana entertains me. First stop is the donut case by customer service to get something fried with frosting. Then for the first couple of aisles she sits in the cart preoccupied with her sugar rush until she is done - usually she's "done" with the donut after she eats the frosting off the top. Then she is released into the store to burn off the donut she just ate. She always makes sure to say hi to every old person she sees, to her everyone over 45 looks like a grandparent. She points out every baby and occasional service dog. One nice old lady who we see there pretty frequently has a chihuahua service dog named Tinkerbell that she lets Alana pet. Who knows what service a chihuahua can actually perform? Looking bug eyed and shivering? Anyways, then she always asks if we can look at the toys. I usually let her, though we don't buy one and she is pretty accepting of that.

The last time we went to Walmart we were walking through the electronics department and they were playing that Michael Jackson movie on all of the TV's. She said "look Mommy, it's Michael Jackson!" Then she stopped in the middle of the aisle, stood in a very Michael Jackson looking pose and proceeded to dance along with the music. She was mimicking the moves on the video and really pulling out all of the stops. I was surprised she didn't start moonwalking right there. We were kind of in a back aisle so no one was treated to a free show of her moves, but I'm sure they would've been impressed.

If Alana has been reasonably well behaved and we're running low on popsicles I usually let her pick out a box. She narrows it down to 2 choices: Dora pops or Ice Age pops. The Ice Age pops are slow melt (great for kids who eat their popsicles as slow as Alana) but have a nasty gummy candy in the top so she usually goes with Dora. She doesn't like fruit snacks or granola bars so I never have to make deals in that aisle. Just the frozen section.

Occasionally we will venture over to the seasonal section where she will attempt to put some kind of stuffed monstrosity with cheap looking fur into the cart. I put her off, saying maybe next time or for Christmas. Then when we get to the register and she is looking all cute and helping me put food up on the conveyor belt I sometimes offer her the chance to get candy. She always picks something obnoxious, like a candy baby bottle with gross pink sugar inside that she will inevitably spill on the carpet.

I'm just glad that whenever I take her to the store she is always well behaved. She puts toys back on the shelf without crying when I tell her to, she politely says hi to everybody (except the greeter with the stickers, she hates them) and she isn't yet big enough to throw lots of junk food in the cart.

Favorite quotes from The Office

I watched a few old episodes of The Office last night, which is currently my favorite show ever. I never get tired of watching the same episodes over and over again, no matter how recently I've seen them. Plus the new episode that was on last night was pretty much a compilation of clips of previous shows, which I didn't mind because they were all pretty funny. So here a few of my favorite quotes from The Office:

Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you are a racist, I will attack you with the north."

Imagine driving along and all of a sudden your cappa is detated.

Guess what? I have flaws. What are they? Oh I donno, I sing in the shower? Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Occasionally I'll hit somebody with my car. So sue me-- no, don't sue me. That is opposite the point I'm trying to make.

I am your host Michael Scott. And I just wanna tell you please, please do not drink and drive because you may hit a bump and spill the drink.

Oh I am taking responsibility. And it is up to me, to get rid of the curse, that hit Meredith, with my care. I am not superstitious, but I'm a little 'stitious

Myth: Three Americans every year die from rabies. Fact: Four Americans every year die from rabies.

Picking Favorites

The past couple of days Alana has been on a favorites kick. Whenever she sees something that she likes she claims its her favorite. Yesterday at Walmart she told the old man in front of us in line that Cars is her favorite movie. That was really random since she hasn't even watched Cars in like a year. This morning when she was coloring she picked up a yellow marker and said it was her favorite yellow. I didn't know you could have a favorite yellow, but I guess if you can why not that one. Since proclaiming her love for Cars yesterday she has claimed at least 5 different movies are her favorite, including Coraline and Lady and the tramp. She is one crazy lady.

Party at my house: 1 A.M.

***Disclaimer - This blog is about vomit!

Last night around one I was sitting on the couch feeding Ava, who hasn't been sleeping that great because she has a little bit of a cold. All of a sudden I heard Alana crying really loud from the bedroom and David telling her to go to the bathroom. She had thrown up all over the bed and she wasn't done yet. I don't know what compelled David to tell her to go to the bathroom while she was still puking but she listened to him and went to the bathroom. This resulted in a trail of puke from the bed to the bathroom. Then he said "I need help!" and so I had to put Ava down to investigate. Alana was standing there with puke in her hair and on her jammies and David was getting a bunch of toilet paper to "clean" up the hallway floor and Alana. Like toilet paper was really going to get the job done. I ended up having to send him to the living room with Ava while I got a washcloth and cleaned up the mess, then changed Alana's clothes and took the sheets off of the bed.

Why on earth would he tell her to walk 20 feet when she was throwing up? Why not just let her stay on the bed? At least on the bed I can just take the sheets off and put them in the washing machine. Instead I ended up cleaning up throw up from the hall carpet, the bathroom rug, the bathroom floor and the bed. She ended up throwing up 3 more times before she was done and completely ready to go back to bed, but at least those times she was on a blanket so I could just pick it up and put it in the washing machine.

To make everything a little worse she had eaten spaghetti for dinner. After dinner she had an unusually big appetite and had a banana, half a dozen little smokies, lucky charms and a bowl of strawberry yogurt. I don't think I'll be able to eat spaghetti for a while after that.

Not a fair weather fan

Anyone who knows my family knows that David is OBSESSED with the Dallas Cowboys. He has countless Cowboys collectibles, shirts, jerseys, football cards, even a pair of shoes and a lamp. He lives and breathes the Cowboys at this time of year. Every week is spent in anticipation of the next game. He hates to go to work after they lose because so many people know that he likes the Cowboys that he gets heckled for an entire day or two. His phone is constantly buzzing after a game with people telling him their personal opinion about the team: they suck/rock, they're gonna win/lose next week, they need to fire the coach, they need to pay so-and-so more money, etc. He refers to the team as "we" because he almost considers himself to be an honorary member. "We" are going to win this week. "We" need to cut Roy Williams. "We" should've gone for it on 4th and 1. So yesterday the Cowboys played the Vikings in the second round of the playoffs and it wasn't pretty. My poor husband took his jersey off at halftime. (I personally think he is approaching the age when wearing a jersey is kind of dumb, but that's a whole other story!) He claimed he wasn't going to watch the second half. He was going to sell all of his stuff. He was done with football for the rest of the season. But he's not a fair weather fan. He eventually turned it back to the game after halftime, he's keeping his stuff and he will watch all of the other games that come on till football is over. He is a fan for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. He will eventually get over yesterday's loss and find a way to get excited about next season. Hopefully next year will go a little better for him. At least he still has the pro bowl.

It's raining sunshine!

Lately my life has been: Cloudy with a chance of...watching that movie 5 times in one day! Alana has become obsessed with Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. We watch it first thing in the morning, at some point before lunch, after David goes back to work after lunch and I use it as an incentive to take a nap. If you take a nap we can watch "chance meatballs" again. We take an occasional break to watch Coraline or an old favorite like Toy Story, but for the most part we are all about the meatballs. Somedays I hear "four eyes, four eyes, you need glasses to see!" like 10 times! At least its a fairly amusing movie, its no Pixar flick, but it will do for now. It will only be a matter of time before the obsession changes and next time I might not be so lucky. At least its not Dora!

She's on the move! (sort of)

Yesterday Ava discovered that she can get virtually anywhere by rolling over. In one day she went from rolling over occasionally, usually only when the mood would strike her, to rolling over every single time you put her on the floor. I will put her down on the floor on her back and she immediately rolls over onto her stomach. The surprising thing about that is that she is choosing to be on her stomach most of the time. Once she is on her stomach she pushes her front up off of the floor and lifts her feet in the air. She kind of looks like she is skydiving! From this position she can sort of push herself around (mostly backwards) and turn her body to face whichever direction she chooses. To top that off she can pretty much sit up by herself now too. She leans forward a little bit too much when she is sitting so she isn't as stable yet as she will be but she will have it mastered before I know it. At this rate she will probably be crawling by six months.

Discovery

Ava has made what she considers to bo a groundbreaking discovery: her feet! At first she was just staring them down, wondering who the heck put them there. Now she is grabbing at them, pulling on them and even making a few attempts to chew on them. She in constantly grabbing at her pant leg or pajama foot and rolling aroung trying to pull her foot up closer to her face for closer inspection. Those little feet are like built in toys!

Stubborn

Alana is currently trying out for the Guinness Book of World Records for the most stubborn 3 year old ever. She insists on having things her way or the highway. She will ask a question, which she already knows the answer to, and if you don't give her the answer she wants she will correct you. She insists on "shaving" with lotion just like her Daddy and also insists that she watch cartoons in the bedroom whenever she eats a bowl of cereal. She won't even start eating the cereal until you turn on the stupid TV. All of the greeters at Walmart should remember her by now. She is the child who screams at the top of her lungs if they attempt to put a stupid smiley face sticker on her. Not that she doesn't like stickers, she just doesn't like ugly yellow stickers from strange old people. She insists on putting her "baby" of the moment in Ava's swing, then turning it on and turning on the music. This means that at random times during the day if Ava isn't in her swing then a DVD or stuffed animal is being rocked to sleep in it. I guess being this stubborn may benefit her in the future. No one will take advantage of her. No one else will ever get their way! Hopefully she will learn to compromise just a little bit more before she goes to school!

5 months old!

My Ava Jo is 5 months old today! She is a happy-go-lucky sweet and easy going baby. She is rolling over both ways now but prefers to just roll from her back to her side. She feels this gives her the maximum amount of toy grabbing ability. She holds her head up for a really long time when she's on her belly and even reaches out to pull stuff in towards her. She chews on whatever she can get her little hands on and loves to suck her thumb. She is eating a small variety of baby foods now including cereal, bananas and peaches. She loves everybody, especially her big sister and always has a smile ready whenever Alana comes near. She is getting more vocal and yells and grunts a lot of the time, especially when she is getting tired. She still sleeps in her swing most of the night but lately has taken to getting up at 6 am. Nobody else in our family is a morning person so I'm sure she'll adapt to sleeping till 8 like everybody else. She weighs 14 1/2 lbs and is getting some chubby little cheeks on her. She is always sweet, always happy and always my favorite chubby little baby!

Not so great luck

It was a long 3 weeks without my computer. I had a spell of not-so-great luck. One week before Christmas my washing machine broke. Then my computer wasn't working. Then the day before New Years Eve both of my ladies had pink eye. There were no open Drs offices in Benson so I ended up taking them to Benson hospital ER. Alana was the least cooperative child EVER when they tried to examine her. The Dr. managed to sneak a look into her ears and as luck would have it she had an ear infection in both ears. That meant she had to take anti-biotics on top of the eye drops I was already going to have to force upon her. It wasn't a picnic either. Forcing a 3 year old to take medicine and eyedrops against her will is quite a task. David and I had to hold her down and pry open her eyelids, then we would squirt the antibiotics into her mouth when she was distracted from the eye drops. About one week in she decided she was a big girl and would willingly take her medicine without crying. I don't know what prompted this change of heart but I'm very grateful for it. I would give her the medicine dropper full, she would put it in her own mouth and drink it without complaining.

The next week Ava was coughing and sounding not so great, there were still no drs so that meant a return trip to Benson hospital. She ended up having nothing wrong with her, luckily, but just to top off my day someone hit my car in the parking lot and drove off. Who does that? Whatever happened to taking responsibility for your actions? Someone saw it happen and got the license plate number but I decided not to do anything since there was no significant damage to my crappy ten year old car. I'm not even sure which scratch or little dent happened that day. The paint on my car is beyond repair so one more scratch isn't hurting anything. That person should thank their lucky stars I'm too lazy to pursue anything.

Besides the string of mediocre luck the past few weeks have been fairly uneventful. We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and my girls both enjoyed it. David and I both want that 2 hours of our life back. We did absolutely nothing on New Years Eve. It took us about 2 hours to decide what to have for dinner, we finally decided on chili dogs, then we watched TV and everyone was in bed before 10 pm. We lead exciting lives, I know.

Now the washing machine is fixed and it only cost $40 for the part and my dad fixed it for free. The computer is fixed (knock on wood) and it didn't cost me anything. Both ladies are happy and healthy. My car is no worse than it was before someone hit it. Hopefully its all uphill from here.

Christmas Pics - better late then never

Miraculous Recovery?

Today I called a computer repair place for a rough estimate to fix my presumably dead computer. They charge $50 an hour and quoted me a price of at least $100 - $150. There goes all my spending money. They also said it would cost me extra for them to retrieve the pictures I have stored on the computer that I didn't have backed up. I kept meaning to back them up but I never got around to it. Some of them are on Walmart's photo website, but not all of them. That was my #1 concern when the computer stopped working. I would be so mad if my ladies didn't have all of their baby pictures that I've taken (the number is pretty high) even though they would have some of them.

I figured it wouldn't hurt anything if I gave fixing the computer one more try, even though I previously deemed it a lost cause. So I turned it on, reconnected the modem and waited. The first thing I did was open my image zone, where all of my pictures are stored, which I couldn't access because of the virus that was not letting me open any programs or files. It worked! So I opened iTunes, David's #1 concern, and it worked! So I thought I'd push my luck and get online. My beloved internet, source of all outside communication, my bill paying resource, where I get all of my news and information about everything. It worked! I don't want to push my luck so I'm staying clear of Myspace because I'm pretty sure that was the source of the virus. I want to close my account, but there is no way I'm going to log on and risk my computer crashing.

So for now, hopefully, God willing, my computer is working. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, backing up my pictures and upgrading my anti-virus software. I just can't do without my computer again.

Christmas 2009

Christmas has already come and gone and I am partly relieved that its over and partly sad because it goes by so quick. I already took down my decorations and now my house looks so bare.

It was Ava's first Christmas and she was so cute and sweet all day that I just wanted to pinch her chubby cheeks. She put every toy that we handed her in her mouth, just to taste test it and check it for durability. She really loved to stare at the lights on the tree and at the brightly colored christmas shower curtain that we had in the bathroom. (I know a Christmas shower curtain sounds sort of lame but mine is AWESOME!)

Alana acted so surprised and happy with each new toy that she opened. She was so cute! She really loved her toy flat iron from Aunt Dole and has literally spent hours since then "doing" her hair. She also got quite a few disney themed barbies, a barbie convertible (I'm jealous since I always wanted one) and lots of coloring stuff .  She was really excited on Christmas Eve when I put on her puffy dress because she loves to be glamourous. She was spinning around in circles and smiling.

David and I are lame-o's who pick out our own presents so there were no surprise there. It was a really good and fun Christmas and I'm really grateful that I got to spend it with family.

Computer withdrawal

So my computer at home is still not working. Leave it to my bad luck that my washing machine and computer both broke in the same week and that happened to be the week before Christmas. I didn't realize how much I'm on the computer until mine broke. When both girls are asleep I find myself wandering through the kitchen, gazing longingly at the blank screen. Even David will go in the kitchen and move the mouse to "wake up" the computer, then realize its dead.

Its not entirely dead, but the virus it has contracted has made it completely unusable. It is a virus claiming to be anti-virus software, which wants us to pay it $50 to cure it of the virus that it has. We can't open ANYTHING! David has all of his itunes music on there and I have all of my pictures. I really miss it.

It will probably be at least a couple of weeks till I can get it fixed since we spent all of our money on Christmas and our washing machine died two days earlier. Until then I will just have to find other ways to occupy my time when my ladies are napping.