I forgot to tell this VERY funny story. We all know about our little Emily's sensory issue. Well, this has been her biggest struggle in school. She has a hard time focusing because it's too loud, cold, hot, smells funny, etc. She is always saying she doesn't like school because it's too loud. So the other day she came home and told us with great expression, "Guess what, I had the BEST (you know how she uses her hands so expressively to emphasize words) day today!" Andrew asked her why and she said, " because we all got in trouble and the teachers turned off the lights and there was no talking, but I liked it because it was so quiet!" God I love her!! Haha. I can imagine what the other kids said to their parents about this.

Dinner with my girlies

My grandma has been picking emily up from school, so for the past 2 nights we have been over there for dinner. I know this will be a shocker, but my grandma cooked complete meals...and they were delicious!! (Love you grandma :). Tonight, we decided to venture out and go to Baja Fresh. I don't think I have been out to dinner with the girls for so long! At least at Baja it was okay for them to destroy everything. Plus, with 3 small appetites, we shared a burrito, beans, and rice...and the girls had tons of chips and salsa. They shared nicely. Alyssa dips her chips in the salsa so gracefully. I am glad she's feeling better again. Not that she's ever cranky, but she just wasn't as upbeat last week.

Busy days

We have all been very busy. Andrew is working 50 hour weeks and I was asked to teach a 400 level class at UNR this semester as an LOA, which is a time-consuming second job! Emily is busy with school, homework, and picking on her sister. In the after school program, they are practicing a dance routine that they are performing at half time at a Hug High School basketball game this Friday night. Alyssa love to dance with the big kids when we pick Em up...its so cute! Speaking of Alyssa, she was back at the Dr.'s office last week and was diagnosed with her 6th sinus infection!! Every cold she gets goes straight to her sinuses. So we had to take her off cow's milk products completely to see if it helps and if not, tubes in her ears are the next step :( hopefully all the ridiculously priced goat's milk products will help!

Big helper.

Emily now wants to change Alyssa's diapers!! I'm thrilled. The funny thing is that she tells Alyssa to lay down and Alyssa does. Then she actually stays still for Emily unlike when we change her. Of course, she has yet to do a #2. Yesterday I asked her "what if she's poopy?" Emily said, "I don't care, I will change it." When she finally got the diaper open, she said, "awwww...you do it, I don't want to smell that!"

Lazy day!

Today the girls and I have been doing nothing. I love the long weekends. It has been nice spending so much time with them this weekend. Alyssa was so tired this morning, she took a short nap from 10-11, then went back down around 2:30. Emily have played trouble 3 times. Emily was working away at her art table when I found her doing this....

Fun day

Today the kids and I got to hang out with Misty, which we never get to do. We took the kids to Old Navy, all 5 of them! Somehow, we still managed to have a successful shopping trip. I got 12 shirts, including 3 wool sweaters, for $65!!! I love that store. The kids were actually pretty good. Misty only had to part with about 12 quarters for the machines they have in there.

Balocity

Misty and I told the kids that if they were good at Old Navy, we would take them to Chuckee Cheese. Chuckee Cheese had a line and a wait!!! They were filled to their max capacity. Crazy. So we went to Balocity instead. They all had a blast and it was nice to have the older ones to help with the younger ones. Pictured below is Emily and Anthony through the screen.

More Balocity

Alyssa was in the toddler area, but she wanted to be with the big kids. She would ask for sister the whole time. When emily would come down the slide, they would kiss through the net. Not very sanitary, but o well.

New Years Eve

Andrew's bestie, Randy, was up here for New Years and since we didn't have a sitter, I sent him on his merry way to have a great time. The girls and I hung out. We went to the store and bought some sparkling cider..one for all of us with dinner and one for me after bedtime :). I had bought everything to make a really yummy pasta dish, but at the last minute decided I was against cooking on New Years Eve, so we stopped at In and Out burger. I was just telling Jen the other day that I did not like In and Out. I of course had not had it in years and was taking that statement back shortly after the first bite. The girls enjoyed fries and sparkling cider. They were still in bed by 8:30 and I had a quiet evening.

A couple more pics...

From the blackberry.. Top to bottom...

1. Emily's artset from Grandma Camille..definitely a favorite..Thank You!

2. Emily crashes on my mom's couch from pure exhaustion!

3. Andrew liked the erector set more than Emily.

4 & 5. The microscope was a huge hit for everybody. We found a live ant to put in there and even Alyssa liked looking at it.

A nice weekend!

The girls and I ended up staying in Fernley all weekend. On Saturday, Andrew and Katie were snowboarding and my mom agreed to watch the girls for the afternoon so Peg and I could get some adult sister time in. We went to Pho (a new tradition), and went shopping. Our mission was to buy me some work clothes, but somehow, we came home with 3 bags of scrapbooking stuff and only 2 sweaters from Old Navy. The sweaters were marked down from 27.50 to 10.50, so that made me happy. We scrapbooked all day on Sunday!

Another Christmas

My sister was in town, and at this point, we had not yet seen her. Andrew worked on Friday, so the girls and I went out to Fernley to have yet another Christmas, where the girls got a few more presents. Andrew joined us for Christmas dinner that night.

Christmas Afternoon/Evening

About 1:00, we finally loaded up and went over to spend Christmas with the rest of the Hammonds. It was the most relaxing and chill Christmas day! We opened gifts and just hung out, then ate dinner. The girls were so good. I don't have pics because I forgot our camera. We got some good ones on Kathy's camera, but she took off to New Zealand for 3 weeks so the pics will be posted at a later date.

At the end of the night, we were talking about how bad the girls needed haircuts, and Kathy and I decided to give them both one. Andrew pitched a fit, but was out-numbered. So grandma got to give Alyssa her first cute haircut..no more mullet :) We had to bribe them both with ice cream of course.

Christmas morning...

So we stayed home Christmas Eve night and got the luxury of also staying home on Christmas morning in our jammies until about 1:00. We didn't do much Christmas this year. Working with poor families who have nothing has made it difficult to buy gifts for my children, who really have more than everything they will ever need. Plus, the grandmas spoil them enough that we don't have to (thanks guys :). They each got a couple small gifts that kept them entertained for a while. We re-gifted a lot of their things that they completely forgot about. (This works just fine for Alyssa for now). Emily got a real microscope Andrew picked up on Ebay and an erector set I picked up at Wal-mart. Alyssa got a play tool kit with a hard hat that was her absolute favorite. Andrew and I got a cruise..yay! (haha)

Let's start with Christmas Eve

So I'm going to attempt to catch up a bit...

Christmas Eve, Andrew went to Butcher Boy and got really nice filet mignon! He made the most excellent dinner complete with Bernaise sauce! It was so yummy.

A full rainbow in Reno today!

A cold but beautiful day in Reno. I can't wait to go to warmer weather tomorrow! I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still alive. I will try to blog about christmas/New Years tonight so that when we get back from our cruise, I can blog about that! We are setting sail tomorrow for a 7 night Mexican Riveria and will visit Mazatlan, Puerto Vallerta, and Cabo San Lucas; all of which are supposed to have 80 degree weather!!!! Bon Voyage.