Pictures from the dentist.....

This is the ONLY reason why she let anyone near her mouth-so she could SPIT. I won't even tell you how much water went on the floor or down the front of her dress:)

Pictures...

I bet you thought I was going to post pictures of Todd's closet and all of his undergarments but I am not. They are not nearly as interesting as our weekend pictures:) All of these kids went to the same babysitter when they were babies:)



This is J. He was adopted from Lang Son about 6 months ago....he doesn't like to be bossed around.

He should have taken his clothes with him.....

Todd left on Friday morning for a weekend golf trip.....those of us left at home were oh so sad. :) BUT, we managed to fit in some eating out, playing at a park, going to see a movie, and staying up late. I also managed to spring clean Todd's closets and drawers....not something he was too thrilled about but it makes my heart sing when I pass by those neatly hung shirts and organized sweaters. Someone down at Goodwill will just love his 22 year old suit with dust on the shoulders or a pair shiny blue golf pants WITH pleats AND cuffs. I will post pictures tomorrow.

I forgot the best part!!!

Once she had the flowers in her hands to take home to her daddy, she said, "This will make all of his dreams come true." Do you THINK she might watch too many princess videos??

Daddy's Girl

If we are out shopping and Isabella catches sight of ANY flower-cut, dried, planted-she will immediately say, "I want to buy flowers for Daddy." Usually I can get away with picking a dandelion but sometimes she is relentless. This weekend, while shopping for plants for mom, Bella decided that Daddy had to have flowers. As hard as I tried to steer her away from the flowers, the little monkey spotted them. "FLOWERS for DADDY!!! FLOWERS for DADDY!!" Shit. I picked the cheapest I could find and then did my best to find a toy I could buy instead! I found an entire container of princess stamps, stickers, markers, and paper. "Which one do you want Bella....flowers or THIS REALLY NEAT PRINCESS PACK WITH ALL THESE REALLY COOL THINGS???" Do you know what she picked??? THE FLOWERS. Dumb on her part because she missed out on hours of fun but so incredibly sweet that she loves her daddy that much:)

Best Mother's Day EVER

A belated birthday present from mom :) Elisabeth's own kayak!

Dad and Bella sniffing the lilacs.













Two WHOLE days of shopping and eating out with my own mom and without my children. Now that is a good Mother's Day:) Todd kept the kids home with him at my mom's house while we spent money:) Of course, I spent money on THEM!

The only downside to this awesome weekend was that Bella was sick...big surprise. I swear she hasn't been sick in about 2 months! Our longest sick-free time. It started with impetigo, then came the fever, then came the sores in her mouth. She cried and whine all the way to Syracuse, the entire time we were there, and 3 hours and 45 minutes on the way home. I even threatened to stow her away in Rebekah's carry on if she didn't knock it off. Honestly, I know her mouth hurts-she didn't eat all weekend long- but come on!! Enough is enough already. I even took her to the emergent care place in town to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or strep throat. My diagnosis: 90% brat, 10% sick.

Lawn mowing and early birthday gifts.....

Elisabeth wanted to give lawn mowing a try-it lasted 5 minutes.

Just like I like her-nice and quiet:)

Aunt Rebekah sent Isabella 4 new Baby Lulu outfits for her birthday....I think instead of celebrating birthday week, Bella would prefer celebrating birthday pre- and post- month.

Todd actually pulled the car over to show Isabella the sheep:)

Maroon and Grey Award + an all A report card = NEW CELL PHONE

I have one very happy 12 year old. She brought home all A's this semester :) AND just received the Maroon and Grey Award from school. Every 2 months, 35 of the 500+ students in 6th grade receive this award for good behavior and grades. To say Elisabeth was happy was an understatement. We are extremely proud of her. Todd thought a way to motivate her at the beginning of the school year to do well would be to give her a large sum of money for every A she got. Little did he know that she would be an A student for the ENTIRE year. Poor guy. Luckily he has a paypal account to cover this little expenditure (AKA an LG Xenon bright red cell phone WITH texting:) Yup, we have one smart, HAPPY young lady living with us and one very poor father.

$260.00

The garage sale was successful. It taught me a few things, though.

•Garage sales suck - setting them up, waiting for people to stop by, waiting for people to buy, wishing people would stop asking for a better deal, and trying to figure out what to do with whatever is left.

•Think twice before you buy anything-and remember you will only get about 1/8th of what you paid for it when you try to turn around and sell it. With that beings said, I don't think my garage sale was as successful as I thought seeing that I gave 3120.00 dollars worth of merchandise away for 260.00 dollars. Dumb. Real dumb.

Hey, but my basement looks great!!!

Garage sales

We are having our first, and ONLY, garage sale today, tomorrow, and Sunday. I thought it would be pretty simple-bring the stuff from downstairs and put it in the garage. About 20 hours later and many swear words, half of our life is sitting in the garage-for sale. A crib, stroller, carseats, dog cage, baby swing, baby toys, stuffed animals, dolls, foosball table, table and chairs. And do you want to know what my basement looks like??? Oh, happy days!!! It is finally clean!!!! (Except for Todd's boxes HINT HINT that he needs HINT to go through HINT HINT). Todd is in charge this morning and I take over this afternoon. I have been calling him and he doesn't answer so that must mean he is busy making money!!!

Oh...and all the proceeds from this is sale are going to Bella's birth family in Vietnam. My sister Rebekah is traveling there in June and is hoping to meet them!!! How cool is that????

Taco Bell

After Elisabeth's soccer game and after enduring Isabella's constant whine of "I want a drink!", I decided to go to Taco Bell for dinner. I look at her in the car and say, "I will get you a drink at Taco Bell" to which she replied, "I don't want to talk to Belle...I want a DRINK". And it went on and on......"I don't like Belle. I went to see Belle with Mya. The beast scared me. I want a drink. I don't want to talk to Belle." We finally get to the damn restaurant and I point up at the sign and say, "See... T A C O B E L L spells TACO BELL." "NO", she says, "It spells W E M E- Bella." HUH? I give up!

Another great weekend:)

Don't you love the face?

Yes, she dressed herself. Apparently flowers go together regardless of the pattern or color.

Being theatrical. Wondered what 12 year old she learned that from????

Playing in our new Wal-Mart special.

"It's my party and I will stand by the cake and guard it eventhough it says Happy Birthday, Kaely on it."

Isabella with the birthday girl.

Elisabeth trying to catch a water balloon.

Perfect pouty face.

Perfect 12 year old. :)

We accomplished tons of things around the house on top of 2 soccer games, 2 plays, 2 birthday parties, and church!

I am WOMAN...hear me ROAR:)

Tired of waiting for someone in my family to get off his little heiny and do what I have requested for many weeks, I took off to Lowe's with Bella in tow. We bought a new digital thermostat for the house, a replacement heating vent for the kitchen (the other one, removed by me, was rusty from dog piss-yuck), replacement foot boards for the kitchen (also nasty from dog piss), and wood for a new floor for the play set in the yard. The last two were not simple-I had to measure and find the materials and then tell the Lowe's guy how I wanted each one cut. And guess what? It all worked and have to return NOTHING!!! OH....and I also bought 3 plant hangers so I could PLANT MY OWN FLOWERS IN THEM WITH DIRT FROM A BAG. Unreal. Simply amazing. I didn't know I had it in me. And remember- Bella was with me the whole time. The only thing I would have changed would have been her shoes-new flip flops which she kept putting on the wrong feet so that the thingy that was supposed to fit in between her first two toes actually went between the 4th and 5th toes making it almost impossible to walk. Not real easy on the mama who had to push a cart with many pieces of wood and many LONG pieces of floor board hanging out. And, no, I did not get pictures:)

The many faces of Bella

Meeting Daddy for lunch