Friday, December 28, 2007

Melanie's Two Month Stats!

This morning was Melanie's two month appt. She is growing so well. Now she is 14.5 lbs., 24 inches long, and her head is 16 inches. Andy made the comment that her head still isn't as big as Anne's was when Anne was born (18 inches--trust me, I know). :) I plan to take Melanie to get her 2 month shots next week. They would have given them to her at our Dr.'s office, but I prefer to take her to the County Health Clinic. Our Dr. advised us to do this when Anne was born for two reasons: 1. it's cheaper--always a plus, and 2. the children hate going to that clinic, but not our family doctor's office. :) Our Dr. also commented that if she continues to keep growing at this rate she will be as tall as her Mommy! The determining factor is puberty. Thankfully we have a while before that happens. :)

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas to All!

I thought I would take a few moments to wish everyone a Merry CHRISTmas today before time gets away from me. Anne and Naomi are finishing up breakfast. Melanie is happily smiling and cooing in her bouncy seat. She slept from 11pm till 8:30am!!! YEAH!! Next on the agenda is to make sugar cookies for Santa! So begins the hustle and bustle from now until tomorrow night. :) The feeling of so much to do and so little time. I plan to just take things one at a time, get done what I can, and make sure that I'm enjoying every minute of this CHRISTmas time with family and loved ones. All the while emphasizing the true meaning of CHRISTmas with our girls. For without Jesus CHRISTmas would be pointless. So, from our family to yours:

Have a VERY Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year!


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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Randon Christmas Hoopla!

Tagged once again. Thanks Emily! :)
Here are the rules.
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla'.
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done.

1. For the last few years I have been a last minute shopper. This year I'm pretty much done with shopping, but I have been caught out Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve before.
2. I love any Christmas music!! This year with all the confusion of our house remodeling I thought my CDs were in storage. Andy, my wonderful husband, got my CDs out of storage for me. Only when I opened the cases they were empty. I had organized them with our other CDs in Case Logic notebooks which have been in our house all along!
3. My all time favorite Christmas movie is "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby. I have to watch it at least once each year, and belt out every tune and line I know. :)
4. Melanie, our newest princess, made her debut as Baby Jesus in our church's Christmas cantata this year. She absolutely stole the show!!
5. While we don't put Christmas lights on our house I really enjoy looking at other people's light creations on their houses. I could just drive around all night looking at them.
6. I'm usually anal about the ornaments being spaced just so on the tree, but not this year. I let Anne and Naomi put the ornaments on, and I haven't rearranged any of them.
7. I don't remember ever making/decorating a gingerbread house when I was little, but last year I started the tradition. I made "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and royal icing for my girls and nieces and nephews to decorate. I enjoyed watching them decorate them so much I decided to keep the tradition going. It also gives them something else fun to do on Christmas day.
8. Speaking of starting traditions...last year I made kolaches, a sweet roll with cherry pie filling in the middle. I have a fond childhood memory of my mom making them around the holidays. I found a recipe last year, made them, and the second batch turned out just like I remembered. They are time consuming so I'm not sure that I'll get them made this year with a new baby in the house. But it is a tradition that I would like to keep going--maybe next year. :)
9. The Christmas holidays with family has been fairly easy on Andy and I. We spend Christmas Eve night with his side of the family, and Christmas day with mine. Thankfully we aren't trying to go to two places in the same day.
10. I collect the New England Village pieces. Andy usually gets me one each year. They are prominently placed on top of the piano I inherited from my Grandma Dick.
11. My mom and I enjoyed taking the girls to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO this year for their Christmas season. The last time I had been there was when Anne was six months old! We had so much fun watching the girls take it all in.
12 In response to Emily's #12...You have to try eggnog!! I hadn't tried it till I married Andy because he likes it. We buy the kind from the store. I don't think I could handle drinking a recipe with actual eggs in it!

Now I'm tagging the only other blogger I know...
1. Rebecca Edwards

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Man Song!

I guess I'm just a blogging fool lately. :) Andy sent this to me today, and I couldn't resist posting it. TGIF!

I Got Elfed!

This was a lot of fun once I figured out how to upload pictures that would work. :)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1395682915

Have fun!!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Melanie Smiles!! :)

I couldn't resist blogging these pictures of Melanie smiling. She has been smiling every now and then lately, but this morning she just kept doing it. She'll be seven weeks old this Saturday. ENJOY!




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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Baby Mel update

I thought I would give an update on Melanie while I'm blogging. She is now 6 1/2 weeks old. I have no idea what her weight it, but I'm sure it's more than 12 1/2 lbs. now. :) I love this outfit she has on from my sister. She's already in 3-6 month clothes! She was so happy and content on the changing table after a bath that I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures.


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Couldn't Be Prouder!

I just couldn't be a prouder sister. This past Sunday night my brother and the praise band he plays in played at a Christian bookstore/coffee house. They did an awesome job, and if memory serves me right Jaron was pretty much the lead singer! I always enjoy hearing them play.

My brother, Jaron!


The drummer--Wynn
Guitarists (from left to right)--Colt, Eli, and Jaron
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Saturday, December 8, 2007

The Gentry Christmas Parade

Tonight was the Gentry Christmas parade. The weather was a little frightful. :) Actually, the picture makes it look worse than it really was. Believe it or not that's just drizzle falling, but the flash on my camera made it look like snow--I wish! Our Awana program let all the kids that wanted to ride on the float. Our daughter, Anne, is the angel on the left in the back of the truck. Naomi is more difficult to see, but she's on the trailer behind the truck. Both girls were so excited about getting to be in the parade. This was Anne's second parade. She was able to be on the gymnastics float last weekend in the Siloam Springs parade.
Then Santa was at the old Carl gym in town so that kids could have their picture taken with him. Anne jumped at the chance. She had already had her picture taken with another Santa at Wal-Mart earlier today. :)
Naomi wasn't as excited about Santa as Anne was, but finally conceded to having her picture taken with him.
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Monday, December 3, 2007

Our Branson Trip!

What a weekend! I wasn't quite sure if I was being brave or crazy while we were traveling to Branson, but it turned out to be a terrific time!! I haven't been to Branson, let alone Silver Dollar City, since Anne was 3 months old. It has changed quite a bit since then.

We left late Friday morning and arrived at our cabin early afternoon. After unloading the van we left for Silver Dollar City. Anne and Naomi had no idea of what was in store for them!! They thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie ride area!! Their favorite was the roller coaster. They would ride that several times in a row. There was an elephant ride that they enjoyed on Friday. They could make the elephant go higher by pushing a button. We went back to SDC on Saturday, but they weren't allowed to ride the elephant ride. The man told them that they weren't tall enough and would need an adult. My oldest daughter, Anne, put up a good defense, though. She told him, "But I'm 11 feet tall." :) I think she also tried to convince the guy that Naomi was 10 feet tall. Bless their hearts.




Even my mom enjoyed the frog ride with the girls! :)


The parade came through twice at 6pm and 8pm. The girls got to see it both times. The first time I was was feeding Melanie (SDC has nursing stations--yeah!) and didn't get to see the girls enjoy the parade. But I got to see it at 8pm with them. We were standing by a food cart by ourselves so the girls got a lot of attention from the characters in the parade.


I'm so glad that it worked out for us to go. We're planning to go again next year on the first weekend of December and would like to make it an anual event. Although we'll plan to stay a little longer so that we can enjoy shopping at the outlet malls, too.
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