Quick update

Okay, here's a run down of our month...

First off, the annual leprechaun trap.

The Leprechaun goes for the gold coin, trips the wire which springs the box on the mouse trap and captures the leprechaun...in theory.

 It almost worked this year...We knocked the magic dust off his coat...

Brinly's favorite thing to do lately is snuggle in her blanket and watch her boyfriend's movie on T.V.  Elmo is so captivating...

When she's not doing that, she likes to make me blank copies. over. and over....

Chelsea had crazy hair day at school.

We are working on some landscaping. Our new method of discipline is having the kids move rocks closer to the garage so Dan can have his parking spot back.

Chelsea and her BF Cloe practicing a duet to perform for their music class at school.

Dan and I got to go on a HOT date! :) Complete with flowers! 

 Dan got me tickets to see Riverdance for Valentine's day. I  have been wanting to see them in person since I first heard of the show. 

  

(Dan was supportive of my picture-taking)

 It was AWESOME. My favorite was the flamenco. SO beautiful! 

If I had another life, I would be a flamenco dancer!

My other favorite was the city vs. Imigrant dance-off. These guys were AMAZING!.

We had some great seats and sat in complete comfort...at least some of us...

And a sneak peak at our home decorating progress...

The green is a little mint-y-er than I wanted...still trying to decide if it's a keeper...

Overheard at our house

We are eating blueberry muffin's for breakfast, Michael's favorite. He always talks about how many muffins he's going to eat.

Michael: "Chelsea, how many muffins have you eaten?"
Chelsea: "This is my first."
Michael: "This is MY twoth!"
Chelsea: "Your tooth?!"
Michael: "Yeah! My Twoth!"

Dance, Dance, Dancin' Machine!

Sorry We've been MIA  lately. We've been having to many dancing parties on our coffee table...

(try to ignore the cluttered house)

Michael has serious moves!

"Go Michael! Go Michael! It's your Birthday! Not really! Sayin' it anyway!"

Um....

OW OW! This WHITE boy can MOVE! :)

Happenings...

So, I'm too far behind to catch up, so I just found some pictures of things that have hapened/are happening around here.

Gingerbread  Grahm cracker houses on New Years Eve

 (Love michael's expression...)

Brinly still loves dancing on the table...

Showing us her muscles that resulted from eating her broccoli...still on her face...

Singing her ABC's. with the magnetic leap frog toy. It's currently her favorite song...

And for the record, here are the words she says:

 Michael, Ow (usually in that order), Chessie, Ses (sis), Daddy, Mommy, Waaerrrrr (Water), Bottle (speaks this one quite clearly...although it means cup), pee (short for sippy), baby, night night, buh bye!, Wii (the game console), and "Wee!" (the happy expression), MO (more), 

Chelsea is consistently bringing home these stuffed animals for good behavior at school. If the teacher catches them being good, she puts an animal on their desk. If it's still there when school ends, they can take it home for the night. Go Chelse!

This past weekend, we finally made it back to Dan's parents house for the weekend. We haven't been back since September....way too long. 

(This was the picture I took right after the one where I told Dan he was making a weird face. Oh well.)

We had a great visit! Hopefully we can return soon!

I did it!

I finally designed and built shelving in the girls' closet! I love it!

However, I'm too worn out to double post it, so you'll have to go here to read more about it.

http://improvingononeslife.blogspot.com/2011/02/girls-closet-customed.html

Elfcapades

Our December was very exciting this year, as our family was chosen to be "elf trainers".

On the morning of December 1st, we received a letter from Santa explaining the training procedure. 

Our elf's name is Jingle. 

            This is his first year of training, and because he is so young, he hasn't quite learned that some secrets of the North Pole need to be kept. So, to keep Jingle from spilling any secrets to us, Santa used some magic to turn him into a doll during the day, but he can come alive at night to explore and report back to Santa each night. Sometimes we are given tasks to help Jingle learn, such as sharing, giving, kindness, and even cleaning! 

             As part of his training, Jingle will report to Santa each night, about how our household is behaving. The children are to also write a report to Santa on what they have done to train Jingle that day. We were given a binder to keep all our records in. At night, the kids sprinkle some magic dust on the elf so he can return to the North Pole. Jingle also brought the kids some new pajamas as a Thank You for helping him learn to be a good elf.

The next morning, we found Jingle in the bathroom. Apparently he was fascinated by the teeth-brushing thing...

One morning, we found that he had built a fort using the food we were collecting for the Salvation Army Food boxes.

reading Stories to babies....

Setting the table for Breakfast....

Jingle also met new friends, like the Grinch. It looks like Jingle won their last boxing match!

Chelsea took her role as Elf Trainer, very seriously. She took him to learn about the nativity, by going to the pageant Michael's preschool put on. 

We taught them to make treats for neighbors.

And to wrap presents..

Jingle was having so much fun at our house, that he asked if his Sister, Belle, could come too!

Belle wasn't due for training until next year, but Santa said she could come if we said it was all right. 

The morning we met Belle, they were eating popcorn and had finished watching Belle's favorite movie: Mickey's Christmas Carol.

Belle and Jingle had lots of fun together, including a snowball fight:

Sliding....

marshmallow roasting....

 flying.....

(I guess they were trying to save their mischievous friend, the Grinch, who had gotten stuck in the light fixture.)

Whheeeeee!!!!

Baking....

And even cleaning on the night before Christmas Eve, so we could spend the day together as a family, instead of cleaning. (This was my personal favorite!)

There were a few tears shed on Christmas Eve, as we will dearly miss our new elf friends. But Santa has said if we're good, they can return next year!

(We fed them Crackers and water each night)