Michaleigh Loses Her First Tooth

Today was another big moment for Michaleigh...she lost her first tooth. We've been waiting for this moment for quite some time now. She has a big girl tooth that has been waiting behind her baby tooth for it to fall out and today it finally did! We thought for sure that she was going to lose it yesterday. It was hanging on by a thread so we ordered pizza for lunch in the hopes that it would fall out while she was eating. Andy and I were watching her so closely just waiting...and waiting...and waiting. But after two pieces of pizza it was still hanging on! This morning as Michaleigh was still in bed, I started getting her dressed for school and she sat up and put her cupped hands up to her mouth and suddenly it popped out!
Can you see her missing tooth on the bottom? The big tooth is already there.
Since it was a special day, Michaleigh got the special red plate for her snack. She of course wanted ice cream to celebrate...she is her dad's daughter! :)

Below is picture of Michaleigh placing her tooth in her pillow for the tooth fairy.This pillow was my pillow when I was a little girl. I'm excited to be able to pass it down to my girls to use for all of their lost teeth. Michaleigh included a note for the tooth fairy letting he or she know that she would like to keep her tooth. If you can't read the note, it says "Dear Tooth Fairy, This is my 1st tooth. Can I please keep it? Thank you! I (Heart) U MICHALEIGH"

Michaleigh's First Bus Ride

So today was another momentous day...the first trip on the school bus! We decided to try the bus for a few days to see how it goes. Poor kid has to get on the bus at 7:00 am! If you know Michaleigh, you know she's not much of a morning person. She prefers to sleep until about 9:00 or so. This could make for some interesting mornings in the future but today she was a trooper. She got up and got ready and couldn't wait for the bus to arrive. Below is picture of her waiting at the end of our driveway for the bus.
There she goes, getting on the bus and below is a picture of her bus coming in the afternoon to drop her off. Since she is the only kid on the bus in the afternoon, I couldn't get to the bus quick enough to get her picture getting off...oh well, there's always tomorrow. I asked her today what was the best part of her day and she told me riding the bus! Yeah bus ride!

Little Mermaid Part 2

Sorry for the delay in getting part two of the Little Mermaids posted. Well, I guess you never realized that we didn't have part two since we couldn't get part one to post. We haven't posted much this year because we've been having problems getting our posts to publish. Andy, smarty that he is, finally figured out another way to get this blog to work...so here we go again!
Anyhow, in our first Little Mermaid post (July 20th) we showed you how Michaleigh was doing with jumping into the pool. We had hoped to also show you how Anastin was doing with jumping into the pool but as I mentioned we couldn't get it to work. Here is a short video of Anastin and her love of the water. Enjoy!

Michaleigh's First Day of Kindergarten

Here is Michaleigh on her first day of Kindergarten, September 7th, 2011. She had a great time and is excited to go back tomorrow.




















Here is Michaleigh with her Kindergarten teacher, Miss Alexander.





















This is Michaleigh getting ready to head home after a busy day of school. You can also see her teacher's aide, Mrs. Yacono.

Little Mermaid Part 1

Here is a quick video of our biggest "little mermaid". She has really taken off with her swimming in the last week or two. Now she's jumping in the pool without any help and without any floaties. She's also swimming under water for 5-10 seconds at a time.

Easter Morning...

Okay, so I know Easter was a couple of weeks ago, but we've been a little busy around here so I'm just now getting a chance to post some photos of the girls. Easter is always a really big deal to us because we love the signifigance of this day. No other holiday has had such a profound effect on our lives. We are so grateful to be able to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. As much as we love Christmas and everything the Christmas season has to offer, without Easter, Christmas would just be another day. How many other belief systems or religions can claim that their leader not only paid the sacrifice THEY owed by dying a horrible death in THEIR place but on top of that, rose from the dead to prove He was G0d! NONE!!! Okay, I could go on and on but you are probably here to see cute pictures of the girls so I will try to spare you having to read a novel. So back to our Easter morning, the girls got all gussied up and came downstairs to look in their Easter baskets. Then we headed off to church where we experienced an awesome message. If you are interested, you can listen to it here...http://www.northridgerochester.com/sermons/details/184

In the next post, I'll show you some photos of the girls Easter egg hunt...so cute!

Michaleigh's new love

So Michaleigh has been begging for an American Girl doll for several months now. We told her that she would have to wait until she was a little older and was able to understand how much they cost and would be responsible enough to take care of such an investment. Plus, she didn't really know anything about the dolls and she couldn't find one that looked exactly like her. So we were thinking about getting her one for her next birthday in December hoping that by then she would either be able to find one that looked like her or learn about one that she was interested in. However...we hadn't planned on finding one at an auction. Our church has a school, Northridge Christian School, which is where Michaleigh will be going next year for Kindergarten. Each year they hold an auction to benefit the school. I was scheduled to work at the event so we headed over to check out the kid's carnival, silent auction, etc. Wouldn't you know that one of the items for the live auction was an American Girl doll! Of course Michaleigh zoned in on that right away and begged for us to get it. We weren't planning on staying for the live auction but when we looked at the doll, it definitely reminded us of Michaleigh (the hair was the closest to hers that I've seen and the eyes are a little greener than Michaleigh's but it's still close) and knowing that the money would go to the school rather than to the American Girl company, we felt like we needed to at least try. At dinner, Andy and I discussed what we thought we would have to pay if we were to order one online and determined what we would be willing to spend for the doll. That night we anxiously waited to the doll to come up and when it did Andy used his super bidding skills and won the doll for Michaleigh! If the doll had gone for a dollar more she would belong to another little girl but our little girl was ecstatic to find out that daddy had won her. You can tell by the grin that went ear to ear!

Jumping in with both feet

Okay, so here is another short video clip of Michaleigh jumping into the pool during swimming lessons. Her instructors have been working with her to jump in without holding anyone's hands and to jump out rather than right at the instructor. This was one of her best attempts to date!

Look Mom...No bubble!

Michaleigh has been taking swimming lessons at the Y for the last few months and this past week they were testing the kids to see how they are progressing. This video clip shows her trying to swim (I think she was supposed to do the backstroke) without any bubble. She did it 2 or 3 times. It wasn't easy but she is definitely progressing. She swam the whole rest of the class with only one bubble rather than 2, 3 or 4 bubbles. So, we're getting there.

Anastin's passion for pears

Yesterday, the girls and I returned home after picking up Michaleigh from preschool and while I was busy getting something for Michaleigh, Anastin was busy herself. You see, lately she has insisted on being a big girl and doing things herself, like eating from a spoon or getting on a chair, or climbing the stairs instead of being carried. Well, after taking care of Michaleigh, I discovered Anastin had climbed up on her sister's chair and had chosen a pear out of the bowl on the kitchen table. Our girls LOVE pears! Anyhow, she was already busy digging into the pear with her new teeth...no need to have mommy cut it up anymore, she's a big girl now!

Dizzy girl!

Storytime with Pancake Pig

This past Saturday, we took the girls to Barnes and Noble for storytime with Anastin's favorite pig. They read the books "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and "If You Give a Pig a Party". If you know Anastin, you know her favorite thing is her pig. She sleeps with it every night and takes it wherever she goes so to see a giant version of her favorite stuffed animal was adorable. Anastin didn't want to touch the big pig but she kept pointing to it, smiling and waving.

My favorite part was when the pig had to leave and Anastin took off chasing the big pig while holding her little pig. So Cute!

This one is for my mom...

Here are some pics of the girls I took with my mom in mind since she got these outfits for the girls.

Trick or Treat

So here are a few pics from our "exciting" Halloween night. For those of you who haven't been to our house, we live in a very large development with lots of families so we were anticipating tons of trick or treaters. In addition to living in a large development, here in Rochester, trick or treating doesn't have a time frame...kids can go all day if they wanted. So we figured we needed lots of candy. We went to BJ's and bought three huge bags of candy in preparation for all the trick or treaters we had. Then on Sunday night, our good friends, the Dudleys came over for pizza, pumpkin roll and trick or treating. The kids headed out a little before 6 and so far, we hadn't had any trick or treaters. I was a little worried. I think we were the first ones to head out but the night was getting colder and the dark was coming. We made it down the street and the sleet started. It was crazy! The kids only made it to a handful of houses before having to head home. Their buckets weren't very full but they had a good time. After the Dudleys went home, Michaleigh and I headed out to hit a few more houses. Needless to say with the sleet and cold temperatures, we didn't end up with a lot of trick or treaters but we did end up with a truck load of candy!

Here are the trick or treaters...Andy, the baseball player; Anastin, the giraffe; Mark, Elvis; Drew, Obe One Kinobee ( I have no idea how to spell that); Michaleigh, the cutest Tinkerbell ever; and Will, Darth Vader.

Anastin's newest trick...

Anastin just started really walking today. She took a step yesterday but has taken off today. At this rate, she'll be running at one and doing cartwheels by one and a half!

Our 4th of July weekend...Saturday

On Saturday our family headed to a new favorite...Seabreeze Amusement Park. It was a great day to be at the park.

Here is a photo of Andy and Michaleigh riding the caboose of the train. They had the whole train to themselves.




















Here is Andy and Michaleigh on the tea cups. We like this ride and take turns riding with Michaleigh.



















Here is another favorite, the carousel, because the whole family can ride.














Here is my favorite attraction to ride with Michaleigh...the Tilt-a-whirl. I don't know what it is about this but it makes me giggle everytime I ride it. Michaleigh and I laugh and laugh the whole time.

















Seabreeze also has a bunch of water rides too. This is the lazy river. Michaleigh loves this one too although you have to steer the tube away from all the water obstacles because she doesn't want to get drenched!

Our 4th of July weekend...Friday

So we started off our 4th of July weekend by cooking S'mores over Andy's new fire pit. We chose a fire pit for Andy's father's day gift because like so many men out there, he likes to play with fire. At our old house, we had a wood stove and so he could get his fix but no such luck here. After much frustration...we didn't have much kindling...we got our fire going for roasting marshmallows.

Here is Michaleigh enjoying her ooey-gooey S'more. It was yummy...and sticky!

We are looking forward to many more nights of sitting under the stars, by the fire, roasting marshmallows and talking together.

Anastin's first bike ride

So today we took the girls for a bike ride. We've been waiting for Anastin to be big enough to ride along in the bike trailer. Michaleigh wanted to ride too making for a good workout for the biker! She was a good helper in keeping Anastin's helmet out of her eyes or putting her binkie in if necessary. Everytime we got back to our house, Michaleigh asked "Can we go again?"

Photos of Seabreeze

Okay, here are a few photos from our time at Seabreeze on Father's Day. These were pictures Andy took with his camera phone.

Michaleigh had the whole ride to herself. It's so fun to watch her ride the rides.

Driving along in my automobile....

We love carousels and there are tons of them here in Rochester. This was Anastin's first time on a carousel and it is a beautiful one.

We spent a good bit of time at the pool/splash area. Anastin took a nap in her stroller giving Michaleigh the chance to play on the kiddie slides, splash in the pool and shoot water cannons. She had a blast. Andy and I also took turns checking out the different water slides...FUN! Once Anastin woke up, we had to give her a chance to splash and she loved it, of course.

Father's Day Fun!

Here is Daddy with his two beautiful little girls. We had a great Father's Day. After church, we cooked steaks on the grill (Andy's favorite) and then headed to Seabreeze Amusment Park to enjoy the beautiful weather and time together as a family. It was our first time at Seabreeze and we really liked it. It has some amusement park rides as well as lots of water slides and water play areas. You can check it out here http://www.seabreeze.com/ . Afterwards, we went to Bill Gray's and had dinner then headed home. The girls' gave daddy a fire pit as a gift so that we can all cook S'mores whenever we want! It was a great day.

I am so thankful the Lord gave me a husband who enjoys his role as a dad so much! He has fun with his girls and makes time to make special memories with them. He is a great leader and provider for our family. If you notice in this picture Andy is wearing a "tie" that Michaleigh made for him in Sunday School last year. She pulled out his tie for him to wear to church on Father's Day and he proudly wore it! What a great dad...not to mention good looking! :)

I am also thankful for my dad as well. It is such a huge blessing to grow up in a home where you know your dad loves you and values you (even if you were girl #5.) My dad also made a lot of great memories with me and is still one of my heros. He is an equally great pappy! Love you dad!