The Water Dish...here we go again.

That water dish was mostly full when she started playing in it...by the time she was done, her pj's were mostly full of water.  :)

Notice Shordy behind her getting the food dishes out of the way so she can't get in them...he is my little policeman.

Yeah for me.

Tiny has found the dog dishes.

And when I say "Yeah for me."...I mean, "Great.  Here we go again."  :)

And, I'm pretty sure she's not gonna listen and learn nearly as well as her big brother.  He found the dishes and only drove me crazy playing in them for a couple of weeks.  I'm pretty sure this "Little Monster" isn't gonna be that easy.

Yeah for me.

Seriously???

Umm...so we got a PILE of snow yesterday and last night.  A PILE!!  Something like 18-24".

Seriously?

Because we didn't already have enough snow on the ground with the first 2 feed there, we had to add another 2 feet?

Seriously?

Anyway...When I looked out and saw the snow on the bird-feeder I was a little amazed how much was there.  Then I started to worry the little roof would collapse on the bird feeder and might squish one of the little chickadees that feeds there quite frequently.

So, I started to think maybe I should go out there and and clean the snow off the bird feeder to save the chickadees.

But then...I realized it would take about 45 minutes to navigate through the 3-4 feet of snow on the ground and about 5 seconds to clean off the roof on the bird feeder and then 45 minutes to get back to the house.

So...I made the only logical decision...

The chickadee's can die.

Gammy & Papa Pond come to visit...

Going for a walk w/ Papa

Tiny just chillin' w/ Grammy

Passed out after going to the Jumping Junction w/ Grammy & Papa and playing with them most of the afternoon.

This is the funny face she pulls when she's eating something she really likes, or is just excited about.  She scrunches up her nose and breathes in and out really fast...it's so dang funny.  :)

Doing a craft with Grammy

Playing in the common's area at Homer High School.  She was crawling really well after that ball.

In the Homer High School Gym...Tiny is eyeing Grammy's noodles.  :)

Hanging out in the gym...Papa actually got her to sleep for a little bit.

Because it's Shayne's last year of coaching high school basketball for awhile, he asked his mom & dad to come up and watch him coach some of his last games.  They never missed any of his basketball games when he was in high school, and he thought they'd like to come see him coach.So, they came up the last week of February and watched a couple of games.

One game was at Skyview against Kenai, and one down in Homer.  Unfortunately, they lost to Kenai, even though they had beaten them at Kenai earlier in the year.  But, they beat Homer at Homer in a single overtime.  Last year they lost in a double overtime, so the boys were ecstatic they beat them this year.  So, was Shayne.

We were supposed to get a massive snow storm on the way back, but we stayed just ahead of it, so it wasn't too bad driving.  However, it DUMPED that night and all the next day, Sunday.  Luckily Shayne's parents flew out early Sunday before we got the worst of it.  And when I say worst...I mean 18-24".

They were only here for about 5-6 days, but it was fun to have them here.  It's always nice to get any sort of break this time of year when I'm starting to go crazy because of the darkness and basketball.  Shayne loved having them here as well.

They spent lots of time with Shordy & Tiny, which was a win-win situation for everyone.   :)  Both the kids warmed up pretty quick to having Grammy & Papa around.  Shordy loved going for rides with Papa especially because he would take him to McDonald's and get him ice cream.  One day Grammy & Papa took him to Jumping Junction and then to McDonald's...talk about a good day for Shordy.  :)

Tiny just loved having two extra people to shower her with attention and smiles.  She's  not real cuddily but she does love to talk and play and interact with people.

I definitely wish we lived closer so we could spend more time with grandma's & grandpa's, but we make the most out of the time we do get, that's for sure.

Crawling...and Pulling Up

This little girl thinks she is so smart!

If you couldn't tell she started crawling really well in the past couple of days...and then started pulling up on her toys.  She loves the view from where she's at when she's standing, b/c she's been doing a lot of this pulling up stuff.

She started crawling across the room and pulling on on things on the 23rd and then today she not only pulled up she actually let go to stand on her own.

Sheesh!  Like crawling wasn't a big enough accomplishment?!

Anyway...How cute is this Tiny Girl?!

Shayne's Boys

Back L-R: Coach Shayne, Gabe Holly, Sam Deatherage, Zach (Dewey) Schwartz, Kaleb Henderson,  Cameron McCollum, Chad Harley
Front L-R:  DJ Collier, Dylan Webb, Bailey Jones, Micah Hilbish, Tay Harling, Brandon Rice, Carl Hatten (Manager)
Not pictured:  Austin Cunningham

For whatever reason, this year when the school took basketball pics they didn't take any team pics.  So, Shayne asked me to bring my camera to one of their home games and get a pic of his Junior Varsity team.  They wanted a serious pic and then one where they smiled...hence the two different pics.

This was a great team this year, who have been very successful.  He's had more wins this year than in the previous years, and that's pretty impressive for the JV teams, b/c they are a group of kids from C-team and varsity that come together usually only for games and that makes it hard for the team to play as a team real well.  But, this year Shayne actually has a JV team that plays pretty much only JV, so they've really come together and played well...which is awesome for Shayne.

These boys love Shayne and play hard for him, and he loves them and gives a lot of his time, thoughts, and energy so they can be successful.

So while it's hard for me during basketball b/c Shayne spends so much time in gyms, I can understand why he does it for these boys.  They are good boys and they give a lot back to Shayne and make the time worth it.

I'm glad it's been a good year for Shayne.  I'm really glad these boys have done well this year.  They are good boys.

9 Months!!

Shordy loves to play with his Leapster on Explorer...he get VERY into it and into his own world while playing it.  Especially in the evenings when it's about time for bed.  I love that he just sat down on the floor, crossed his legs, and started playing.  Pretty dang cute to me.  :)

Our Tiny Girl is 9 months old!!  I can't believe it but it's true.  She keeps getting bigger even though I demand she slow down...she doesn't seem to listen very well.  :)

Here's some fun information about our sweet baby girl at 9 moths:

~On Jan. 22nd her top left tooth popped through...eeekk for me!
~On Jan 24th she was trying to pull herself up on things...slow down!
~On Jan 26th, she was up on her hands and knees and rocking herself...she's getting ready to crawl.
~On Jan 30th while dad was holding her he let go and she was able to stand up all by herself.
~As of Feb 5th, she has all 4 top teeth in (along with all 4 bottom teeth).  How did that happen so fast?!  And she never fevered, was grumpy or anything.  She just drooled a little more than normal.  Yeah for me!  I now lovingly call her piranha.  :)
~On Feb 6th she started going from her belly to sitting up...that's a major accomplishment.
~Then a week later she started crawling...granted it was only about 3-4 "steps" but she's definitely starting to move.
~Feb 16th she started to pull up using my plants, and some of her toys.  I'm not a big fan of using my plants, but she thinks they are very helpful.
~At her 9 month appointment she was 18.2lbs or the 50% and 28" long or 75%.  She's dropped a bit in the height % but she's still tall and skinny.  She has very long arms and legs.  It's very different for us to have a long baby.  :)

So these are the developmental milestones she's accomplished this month.

She's still a very, very, very happy and smiley baby.  She smiles at everyone and immediately has everyone in love with her.  She's extremely social and loves to have people looking at her and talking to her.  She's been a little more of a momma's girl lately and not as big of fan of hanging out with someone else when I'm around, but when I leave she's completely content to hang out with no fussing.

She LOVE, LOVES, LOVES, her big brother and looks for him wherever she's at.  In fact, when I've left her with a friend for awhile she had to have Shordy in the room or she would start to cry.  I may be her most favorite person, but her big brother runs a close second.  She loves her dad too, especially b/c he plays with her, tosses her in the air, tickles her, and rolls around on the ground with her.

She loves all kinds of food...nothing she won't eat.  But, she's not a huge fan of being fed.  She would much rather feed herself...which is much more messy and takes a lot longer, but what can you do when she just screams to have her own spoon and food?

She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to jump and bounce.  She does this all day while you are holding her.  My arms are in much better shape now b/c of holding her while she jumps and bounces.  So, a friend let us use her bouncy seat and she becomes a crazy girl when she's in it.  She jumps non-stop.  I love it b/c it's not my arms that are completely worn out and she's still getting the great exercise.  :)  It's a win-win situation for me.  :)

I'm sure there's lots of other things I should put in here, b/c this girl does all kinds of funny and sweet things every day.

All I need to say is we love this little girl more than anything.  I tell her everyday she's the prettiest and sweetest little girl I've ever met...and for us it's true.  We love her and could not imagine our home without her.  She brings a whole different feeling and spirit into our home.

We love her!

Shoveling...AKA: Slave Labor

I love that little 3 year old boys love to go outside and shovel snow...and think it's FUN!!

Dad got him this new shovel this week and needless to say he wants to be just like his daddy and shovel snow like him.  And who am I to quash a child's dreams?

So...shovel away Shordy!  Shovel Away!!

I just hope he loves to shovel like this 5 years from now.  :)  A mom can dream can't she?

Another Night in the Gym

Just another winter night in the home gym for us.

The kids have the routine down pretty well so it hasn't been too bad.  Tiny chills in the car seat for awhile until she's ready to see what else is going on, then she hangs out in between the bleachers and plays with toys.

Shordy has his own backpack filled with stuff to play with and he slowly works through most of it, ending up with his Leapster Explorer he got for Christmas as the toy he spends the most time playing with.  It's also so nice this year, b/c I don't worry about him playing around the benches and falling off...like the past couple of years.

This lets me actually watch some of Shayne's games...it also helps I have Katie Malatesta who has a daughter who plays bball, and whose older son, Joe, played for Shayne for 4 years (he's the Italian Godfather) who sits with me at EVERY game and helps watch and entertain kids.  She's been such a blessing this year!  I love her...and Stephanie, her daughter, who loves to take Tiny and chill with her until her own game.

So...even thought it may be dark and cold outside...it's pretty light in the gym...and it's not the house right?