Summer Reading Kick Off

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We are kicking off our 2009 Summer reading with a great start. The girls are really excited and love going to the bookstore. Today we went to Barnes and Noble and the girls picked out the following books. I don't officially have the list of all that they will read for this school year complete yet, but to start off this is what they will be reading. The girls were really excited about the books they read all the way home.


Marie:
-Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
-Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Madison:
- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
-Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia Maclachlan
-Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Mikayla:
-One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
-A Fly Went By by Dr. Seuss
-Adventuress of The Berenstain Bears by Stan & Jan Berenstain

*Madison & Mikayla also got Brain Quest Workbooks for 3rd & 1st grades for summer review.*

Montana:
-Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry's
-I'm a Big Sister by Ronne Randall
-Mr Brown Can Moo Can You by Dr. Seuss

Barnes and Noble is offering there summer reading program, check details here, where a child can earn a free book for every 8 books they read ( limit is 2 free books = 16 books read). Make sure you stop by and get your reading log so your child can pick out their book.

Marie's 1st hair cut

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Today was the day for Marie's hair cut. Our day started very early (6 A.M.)with me relaxing, washing, blow drying her hair in prepartion for the big cut. Marie has very fine,curly hair. The finest of all the girls so far (we shall see if McKenzie has hair like Marie's or one of her other sisters). She was very excited to get a cut, as I was not allowed to get my hair cut until I was 16 years old. But she needed to get those dead ends off her hair that were weighing it down. The hairdresser was really nice. This was the first time we had used this particular lady as the lady that cuts my hair was booked solid through June. I told her we wanted a dry cut in a bob style with no layers. You should have seen the style Marie wanted, something like this without the bangs. However, I like simple, classic styles...I know I need to let her embrace her creativity and fashion sense, but not with her hair, not at 12 years old, right? Maybe when she is older, and out in college, and/or married, she can cut, style, dye her hair any way she would like, but for now, it is a simple, classic bob, you can't go wrong with that.


Before:



During:




After:






Waiting sisters:
Madison, Mikayla, & Montana getting in on the photo action. Montana made it known that she had to get her nails and toes polished, because she wanted it. That's her new thing, she WANTS things, or the world melts for her. Keep on melting baby because you can't have everything you want. Slowly but surely she is learning this life lesson.

Did you get it? Wiggle it!!!

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I awoke this morning to the sounds of 3 giggling girls in the hall bathroom.
Mikayla:Did you get it?
Mikayla:Wiggle it!
Montana:Wiggle it S. Madison Caffey! *Montana has taken to calling Madison by her full name*
Mikayla:To the side?
Mikayla:You got it?!?
Mikayla & Montana:YOU GOT IT!!!
Madison & Mikayla:It's bleeding, eewww!!!
Montana:Mommy, Madison is reeding and she pulled her teeth out!

That's the play by play from this mornings action. Madison has lost another tooth, her 6th one. Yes, my children are late teethers, in fact Miss Madison didn't get her first tooth until she was 15 months! I thought my baby didn't have any teeth.
She will be getting sealants this Thursday put on her 6 year old molars that have finally finished coming in, I told you they were late teethers :-)

Almost home...

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Almost home...We can't wait! Too soon to make the countdown chain, but exciting enough to be halfway through this deployment. Mike will not come back to WA but instead he will meet us in Virginia sometime in late July.

Thanks for doing all you do for our Country and our family, love you always!

Wordless Wednesday

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Still needs a nap

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Montana fights me when it is nap time. She wants to be big like sisters and stay up in the afternoon and not take a nap, but she really does need one. She gets quite honorary around 6 p.m. when she doesn't have one. Here she is on two separate occasions conked out around 5:30 p.m. while I was preparing dinner.

T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz

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T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz: "

Take the fun, Mom to Mom quiz and discover your parenting style.

"
That's right, I'm the Admiral in this house, 4 stars at that :-) Take the quiz and see how you do.

It's a....

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Girl!!! Baby girl # 5 for us, what a blessing! We have decided that her name shall be called Faith McKenzie Caffey. She is about 10 oz in weight and 19 weeks 3 day, pushing my due date up a week. Once I heard that day I immediately pulled out my Blackberry and checked the calendar, Spet.13th is my 37 week ( I normally deliver the day I turn 37 weeks { 3 out of 4 times so far}. Montana's birthday is the 13th and Mike's is the 17th, so we shall see what happens when we get closer. We are all excited about the news, we have been waiting.
From now on I will call her McKenzie on the blog to match her sisters. She is an active one, just like her sisters too. I love the picture of her hand and foot, so tiny and delicate. Mike is going to bed a proud daddy tonight, he waited up all night, it is currently after midnight, to see pictures and to hear from me.

3 more days...

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In three more days we will find out if our newest blessing is a boy or girl. Let's take a poll, what do you think, boy or girl? Leave your guess in the comment section and I will let you know as soon as I get home from the ultrasound the name we have chosen along with pictures.

Imagine Children's Museum

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We spent the day at the local children's museum today for a friends daughter's birthday. The girls had a blast, starting from our adventures of trying to find a parking spot. I can not parallel park at all, so that was not an option, after driving around the block a few times we finally found a spot, real close by to the entrance. It was a nice day today so the rooftop playground was open. We spent over an hour up there with the girls playing. Montana went down the slides probably 50+ times after getting over her initial fear. The slides were fast so she fell off of them a few times but enjoyed every moment. Madison & Mikayla enjoyed the airplane, pretending to be the pilot and flight attendant. We even found there was an intercom inside the plane, which was fun. Marie hung out with Montana for much of the day and played with her. It was a great day!

The Best of Middle School

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Tonight was Marie's Best of Middle school program. It was a great night and I was really happy that the little ones lasted the whole three hours that we were there. Montana being the two year old that she is took off her socks and shoes during the choir program and exclaimed very loudly (in a quiet moment in the program), "Marie's not singing!!!". By that point she was pretty much done and wanted to go home and let everyone in front and back rows of us know it. Thankfully there were only 2 more songs by that point so I was able to pacify her for a few more minutes. All in all we had a great night and Marie did a great job on her Heritage board and singing. Many people were surprised that she has 336 Iwako Japanese erasers. Yes, 336! Mike and her are going to build a display case when we get settled into our new home in VA, to keep her sisters inquiring hands off of them.

Spring cleaning Day 3- playroom

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Okay, I have been a bad mommy, the girls destroyed the playroom, it literally exploded, my desk and all. I blame myself, fully, I was too tired after a full day of work and the whole situation was taken advantage of. It was so easy to just close the door. I am not perfect, I know that so I forgive myself for the mess that was created, and let's keep that door wide open. I am back in the saddle and everything is getting cleaned, white glove cleaned for the next 2 weeks. Okay, here are the shocking before and after pictures

before:


after:

My vacuum died

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What's a gal to do without a vaccum??? I was right in the middle of finishing up my Day 3 cleaning of the playroom and the vaccum just died. I throughly checked and rechecked it and it is not clogged or anything, it just plain won't turn on. We have had old red for 6 1/2 years and it has been faithfully cleaning up the floors. How long is a vaccum supposed to last anyways? I guess mine is probably about 10+ years old with the amount of useage it received, with the daycare and all. Why does it always seem to be that when you get a little breathing room financially, something breaks? It could be worse though, right(knock on wood)? So what kind of vaccum do you have and how long have you had it? Can I really justify buying a Dyson or one of the new Hoovers at that price? I guess I could tell my husband it is a Mother's Day gift to myself :-)

Wordless Wednesday

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Spring cleaning day 2-family room

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So today I finally got the family room cleaned up for the after daycare look. It looks really good, if I say so myself. The walls are bare and will stay that way because the movers come in 6 weeks. The room looks totally different and I love it. What will I clean/declutter next,stayed tuned to find out. Make sure you check out Simple Mom for info on the spring cleaning party.
Before photo:


After photo:

No more tangles, no more tears

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I have four daughters and combing hair for my younger two is D-r-a-m-a, daily. You would think I am torturing them with the amount of commotion that goes on from the youngest, Miss Montana (who has been known to hide the comb during hair time). Now, my girls have a nice texture to their hair, no complaints there, but they all have A LOT of hair! Hmmm, where could they have gotten that from???? I have been known to break a few combs and brushes from the sheer volume and thickness of my hair.
Today I decided enough already, let's make mommy's life a bit less stressful and straighten her hair with the hot comb on the lowest setting just to get the tangles out(not looking for the super straight hair that her sisters like). She sat peacefully for a bit while I did my work, gazing at herself with the handheld mirror. The whole process took about 45 minutes and I even trimmed off her dead ends. She loves her hair now, tossing her head side to side, shaking it, even combing it herself. The comb glided through her hair like butter, just the way mommy likes it, No tangles, No tears.

I need a schedule

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Help!
I need a daily schedule to help me stay focused and on track during the day. What do some of you do during your day? Do you have a schedule you follow? Is it written down or do you just know what you need to do each day? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks a bunch!

Menu Plan Monday- 04-08 May09

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I have been absent in posting my menus for a while, but now I am back. Things are a bit too quite around here with daycare over, so that will take some getting used to. It's official I have 6 weeks from today until the movers come and pack our household items into a truck for the trek to VA. Exciting and stressful times. I have a lot to get done, so I need to come up with a plan so that I can accomplish at least something, anything each day. Okay, I digress here is the menu plan for this week.

Breakfasts:
S-pancakes, oranges
M-cereal, applesauce
T-banana/strawberry smoothie, wheat toast
W-oatmeal, fruit cocktail
Th-scrambled eggs, bananas
F-French toast sticks, peaches
S-cereal, orange juice

Dinners:
S-ffy
M-steak, buttery bread rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, corn
T-beef steak taquitos, refried beans, spanish rice, apple slices
W-hm chili, french bread,strawberries
Th-baked ziti, tomato/cucumber salad, garlic bread
F-leftovers- best of middle school program
S-pizza birthday party with friends

After school snacks:
goldfish, applesauce
wheat ritz, cream cheese
yogurt, graham crackers
granola bar, milk
pretzels, juice