My little Plumbers

Well, our drains have been making this gurgling sounds for weeks. Eric informed me that it was because I have Tootie in the tub, J in the shower, the washing machine, and the dishwasher going all at one time. Well on Monday night, as I took Toots in for her bath, I found sewage in our bathtub and both showers. Nothing would drain down and the toilets were backed up. We called Roto Rooter and they were going to send someone out at 11pm but he couldn't make it so we waited until Monday morning. A plumber from there came and since we don't have a clean out, he had to take both toilets off and run the roto rooter thru them and couldn't make any progress. He told me we needed a clean out which would cost $1800-2000. I called Eric and he said he was on his way. He had it done in 3 hours. Woooohooo! This is when it pays to have a husband who can fix ANYTHING. We called, Nick, our plumber back and he came out at 7:30pm, used the clean out and got it roto rooted. Looked like a tree root or something to that effect about 25 ft outside the house, right where our Oak tree used to be.

Today, I was cleaning and Sophi reached a box of Trix and spilled them all over the floor. So Toots thought it would be fun to walk all over them and crunch them. I told her she had to clean up her mess and so she got the broom and called Buddy and swept them out the door and convinced the dog to eat them. She did do a good clean up job, though. And believe it or not Buddy ate all the Trix. LOL!

Cleaning done, Car clean, tomorrow is yard mowing and grocery shopping. I wrote out about 6 pages of notes for Mom and Gig who are watching the kids for 4 days while Eric and I head to NY. Mom is being super grandma and taking J to a birthday party in Plainfield so I needed to write out alternate directions since stupid St Rd 39 is still closed and you can't access 70. But everything is done and we are READY to go!

Tootie's Recital

Her first trophy

1st annual dance recital

Well, today started off a little sketchy. Tootie couldn't wait to get her makeup and Tutu on. She even sat so still; I got some mascara on her. But since we had to get to the performance center 1hr 15 min early. The 3-5 yr olds got a little burned out just standing around backstage. At 3:15 they did there last practice dance and Tootie didn't want any part of it. She had a fit. Luckily, Eric texted me that he was there and forgot Soph's bottle. We traded places! Tootie will do anything for her Daddy. She and I tend to butt heads. Just wait until she's 13 or 14! Woooo! Anyway, she sat with her friends and encouraged all the other girls not to be scared. She even did her tondue passe which was too hard for her to do in class. My video is shaky at the end since I was also holding Soph so I missed her kurtzy. Bummer! Eric had camera problems backstage. I forgot to tell him how to shut off the flash without disturbing the shutter speed so some of the pics with movement came out really blurry. She did so awesome, especially for performing in front of 400 people! She is by far much braver than her mom ever was. She had a great crowd and Nene, Pop, Uncle Craig, Aunt Nic, Mamma, Gig, Mark, Staci, Morgan (and of course, Mom, Dad, J, and Soph) to cheer her on. She even got flowers from us, a carnation from Uncle Craig and Aunt Nic, cookies from Mamma, and treat bags from Nene. AND she got a trophy. In the finale dance she wouldn't stop dancing. It was a hoot. Such a fun time and you should have seen the tumblers, cheers, and partner stunts. I never had to be able to do stuff like that as a cheerleader and the 6 yr old cheer team was amazing!!

Here's some pics. The one with the Colts shirt is right before leaving. She was so excited and wanted me to hurry. Apparently, in dance world, you don't show your costume until show time.

The last dress rehearsal

Today was Tootie's dress rehearsal and I have to say that all the girls are a little burned out of the dance routine. Tootie did it one time thru and was done! The other girls had to use the potty about 10 times. Hopefully, tomorrow will go smoothly! but with a bunch of 3-5 yr olds I won't hold my breath.

Sophi had her 15 month appt yesterday. She is 26 lbs and 35 in. Her height is over the 100th percentile which means she is going to be tall!! She's actually taller than J and C were at this age. She got her chicken pox and MMR. Only 2 more shots at 18m then no more until she turns 5. yay!!! She had an ear infection on top of it but I couldn't tell because I had been giving her Motrin for her teeth so no fever and not terribly fussy. The medicine he prescribed is a new one and I went and called 10 different pharmacies and finally found it. I have some pics I took on my phone today but for some reason they aren't coming thru to my email so I'll have to post later.

Pig Tails

I have mastered how to get Tootie to do something. If I do it to Soph first, Tootie begs me. So I told her I was putting Soph's hair up in pigtails and then she followed.
J went on a great fieldtrip to the Children's Museum with his pre k class yesterday. I wish I had got to go to but those are the brakes when you have little ones. He got to dig for dinsosaur bones, play in lego world, and build a robot. He talked about it all night. Then the kids had swim lessons. J has mastered the freestyle he is just learning how to turn his head side to side to breathe. His instructor says this is hard for kids his age because it feels so weird, but he's trying.

Tootie is by far my most strong willed child. 10 x what J was. So I let her do as much as she can and pick my battle with her. J is very patient with her and with Sophi. He pushed Soph around in his dump truck while I finished mowing, tonight.

J's loose tooth is getting close. He was bummed when he got to school and found out that Mary lost her's first.

Not too much else to report. Just the basic house cleaning, yard mowing, and baking 6 dozen cookies for J's pre k bake sale. Soph has her 15 month appt Friday at 1pm so I'll let you know her stats!!

Sophi sneaks in the shower

Not too much new to report. We had Mark, Staci, and Morgan over for dinner last night which was fun and went by too fast. Eric, J, and Mark went golfing yesterday.

J has his big class fieldtrip to the Children's Museum, tomorrow and then swim lessons later. The pre k class bake sale is Friday so I will be baking to turn in the cookies by Wed. morning.

Sophi snuck into the shower with J this evening; it was hilarious. I wish I was fast enough to get a picture of her while she climbed in while still in her clothes.

We are looking forward to Tootie's recital on Sunday. Nene, Pop, Uncle Craig, Aunt Nic, Mamma, Gig, Mark, Staci, and Morgan are all coming. So keep your fingers crossed that she doesn't get stage fright. LOL!

Tootie's costume

Today, we took Tootie for her group recital pictures for ballet. Here are some pics before we left.

We have a showing tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed.

Open House Weekend

Well we didn't have much luck at the open house yesterday but we had a great time at Mom's. Mamma and Gig came over for lunch and then Mom, Nichole, me, Craig, Eric, Dad, and the kiddos just hung out for the rest of the day and evening. Tootie and I had a nice nap in the car on the way home.

Refreshed Landscaping

Funny Things Said

The kids come back with the funniest comments lately. It is so hard not to laugh.

Last night I was being firm with Tootie and telling her that something she did was wrong. She looked at me and did this little chuckle and said "Oh Mommy, that is too funny, you are so funny"

Then J was following me while I was spraying Liquid fence, for those of you who have never smelled this horrible stuff, it smells like a cross between stink bait and manure. Anyway, J was a few feet behind me while I was spraying and said "Mommy, that smells like pepperoni, you better stop spraying or I might eat your flowers". I gave him a funny look and told him that this stuff doesn't smell like pepperoni and had him bend down and smell the flower. He almost fell over and was yelling "Oh my gosh, that is the grossest stuff I have ever smelled; it is just like poop". It was hilarious.

Sophi said "Crush" today after Tootie's turtle, Crush. It was sooooo cute. I love when she picks up a new word.

Jobs Jobs Jobs

What a crazy week this has been. I had 5 yards of black mulch delivered on Wed. and let me tell you that I never realized how much mulch that was. My pile was on a tarp out in the cul de sac and it was about 8ft tall by 3 ft wide. It took me 2 days and a lot of shoveling into the wheelbarrow and climbing the hill. It covered all of my beds and 6 trees but the landscaping looks beautiful and needless to day I did not need to exercise those 2 days. Tootie did help take a few dump truck loads until she got bored. She also jumped in front of my shovel which met her in the nose so she has a little scrape. I had to hurry up on Thursday and have everything done and cleaned up by 3pm so I could take the kids to swim from 4-5pm. I signed J up for swim team this summer.

His swim instructor teaches the 8yr old swim team and swears J is awesome at freestyle, which I observed on Thursday. He will be practicing with the 8 yr olds but competing with the 5 yr olds. Little did I know it was all summer M-Fr from 8:30 am to 9:30am ughhhh!

Then yesterday, I had to drop J at school at 12:30, get all my groceries, and run to the plant farm for 10 bags of lava rock, 3 potted plants, and 2 flats of flowers, then pick J up early at 2:30 from school then take all 3 kids to their physicals. Then we came home at 5:30pm and I planted all the flowers and laid the rock. I bathed the kids and put them to bed, then I had to bake 3 dozen muffins and a coffee cake for church. Then I had to finish the auction address database for the PTA. I finally got to bed at 12:30am and felt like such a superstar for accomplishing all that.

Another day today, got up and took Tootie to dance lessons. We dropped the food off at the church and came home for me to clean. Then I fertilized my roses and azaleas. Watered all my new plants, sprayed liquid fence to keep away the stupid rabbits and muskrats, helped Eric clean out the shed, swept the walks, fixed dinner, cleaned up dinner, gave all the kids a bath, put them to bed, and then finished my floors. I was so grateful, Eric vacuumed the hardwoods so I could just follow behind to polish. It saved me a lot of time. Then finally a shower and sat down at 10pm. The house, garage, yard, and shed look amazing, though. We are READY for our open house tomorrow.

Happy 3rd Birthday to My Baby Doll

She and I shoveled lots and lots of black mulch, today. Our feet are even stained black! When the guys got home we had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and she got a playhouse. It was missing the mailbox and another piece so we had to call the company and have them send it. The kids passed out about 7:30 very quickly.

It was 3 years today at noon that I had Toots. She is my sweet, sassy, bouncy girl and everyday I ask myself what I ever did before her. She makes me laugh constantly and has this amazing and rare personality.

Tootie's first swim lesson

What a day! It was quite busy with yardwork now and housework. We went for our 3 mile walk/bike ride. I push the girls in the stroller and J rides his bike. He made it the whole way this time. Tootie would say and I quote "Jaason, stay to the wight (right) and swow (slow) down or Mommy won't let you come next time". Little bossy britches was soooo funny.
Then I took the kids to swim lessons. It was so cute. Tootie would not take her googles off. J did awesome. His instructor said he is fabulous at the freestyle and encouraged me to put him into swim team to compete with the 5 year olds but practice with the 8 year olds. That was exciting. I think he is going to be very athletic. You should see him play ball. Tootie was putting her face in and blowing bubbles by the end. Every 10 minutes she would yell across the pool "Mommy are you watchin?" Just making sure I'm there. She says she wants to go to school like Jackson but I guarantee the minute I leave the room, the girl would have a meltdown.
Then I came home and made a couple of casseroles and took them to Shane and Brandi and visited with new baby, Ella Lynn. So cute!

The pictures were hard to get since I was all the way across the pool and holding Sophi so a few are fuzzy since I had to crop them so much

Clips from Easter

clips from Tootie's birthday

Tootie got a Zhu Zhu pet and they are so cute. They are like real hampsters and run through this little hampster house and make noises and go backwards. It is a riot. Her hampster is "Nugget" and J's is "Twinkie" (they come with official names)

Part 2: The Birthday Party