My Spring Break Reading

I had several suggestions as to some good books for Spring Break reading, but haven't gotten to any of those yet. I did manage to read two books over break, both were good, but they were VERY different! The first book I read was a good "beach read"...John Grisham's Playing for Pizza.

Basically it's an easy read about an NFL 3rd string quarterback who goes to play football in Italy where it's pretty much a club sport. I wouldn't really consider this a sports book, more a life story with life lessons (fictional).

The second book I read was also a life story with life lessons, but much more heart wrenching and depressing...Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. I would not consider this book a "beach read", not light hearted enough, although I do recommend this book.

This book is mainly about the lives and treatment of people (primarily women) in Afghanistan over the past 35 years. It is a history lesson in the most personal of ways. At one point I wanted to put this book down and never finish reading it, but I am glad I read through to the end.

"I'm five years old today!"

And she sang..."I'm five years old today...and tomorrow I'll still be five...ready, set, go.."

Happy 5th Birthday, Allison! What a blessing it is to have you in our lives. You are so sweet, smart, and caring. We love you more every day!

3 months old and nothing but smiles

Still smiling at 6 months

I thought you were going to eat the flower when this picture was taken!

So big...learning to stand on your own at 9 months. This picture made Grandpa Renier so sad because you were getting too big too fast for his liking.


Our first "real" family photo. Look at all those curls you had when you were 1.

18 months old

2 years old...our little doll

Our brown eyed girl

A little lady at 3 years old

Our beautiful Ally~4 years old

Finally 5! Ally is all smiles...she got a Taylor Swift CD.

Making her birthday wish

Happy 5th Birthday, Ally!

Smoothies & Sunshine

Sunday was a really nice day so we made smoothies and sat outside to drink them.

Ally LOVES smoothies! Especially with "whooped cream" on top!

Peyton LOVES to drink through a straw.

Peyton kept looking for planes in the sky. She would say "plane, plane". Another favorite phrase of hers is "Do it!" which means "I'll do it myself!". If you look closely, you can see her mismatched outfit which is a result of "Do it!". Her shirt matches Ally's--black and white stars and stripes, pink pajama pants, striped socks (the right one is upside down with the rubber grips on the top of her foot), and brown shoes. What a character!

I took a few videos of the kids outside too, but can't seem to get them to transfer properly to my computer from my camera. I'll have to keep trying!

One year Anniversary

As I was going through the archives of my blog this evening, I came to the realization that I started this blog exactly one year ago today. While I may not update as often I had hoped I would, I do enjoy posting and reading the posts of my friends. I had no idea if I would like blogging, but it's fun and sort of scratches my scrapbooking itch (if you think I'm behind in blogging, you have no idea how far behind my scrapbooks are!!!). So, thanks to Kristy and Michelle for getting me on the bandwagon and to Jen and Tara for joining too. I feel like I still know what's going on in your lives even though we only see each other about once a year.

That's My Grandpa!

This week my Grandpa was inducted into the Hammond Sports Hall of Fame. Unfortunately we were unable to attend since the ceremony fell during the week and was in NW Indiana. Several members of our family were there to celebrate with him and said that the ceremony was wonderful. My Uncle Bob had the privilege of introducing Grandpa during the ceremony. We're very proud of you, Grandpa! We love you!

Below is what was listed in The Times about him:
Robert E. Burns
During his first season running high school cross country, the 1948 Hammond Tech graduate placed fifth in the state meet. He would be a state finalist again the following year and also go on to star in track and field, earning third place in the state meet. Offered university scholarships to continue his athletic career, he declined to remain at home to help support his mother and siblings following the premature death of his father. He is a retired Hammond police sergeant.

There is also a video online. My Uncle Bob comes on to introduce Grandpa Burns around the 5 1/2 minute mark.
http://www.regionsports.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1718&Itemid=200

Spring Break Reading List

Alright girls, I'm looking for some help here. We're driving to Florida for Spring Break in a few weeks and I want to take some light, entertaining reading material. I am open to suggestions...please help.

I LOVE my kids!!

I'm feeling like a bad blogger lately. I do check in on my fellow-bloggers and read their posts on a fairly regular basis, but I've been bad about updating mine. I always tell myself, "I'll get to it this weekend when I have more time." Do you know what? The weekend comes and goes much faster than I ever wanted it to! So here we are a month and a half after my last post...

I've certainly got lots to report on after all that time, but here are the highlights:

Allison is going to be 5 in about 5 weeks. She will start Kindergarten in the fall and I'm starting to feel some internal conflict with that. How in the world could she possibly be turning 5 already?! She was telling me tonight about how she baked a cake at the babysitter's house and she got to crack an egg all by herself (something I have not yet let her try at home when we're baking). When I commented to her about how proud I am of her and how big she's getting, she said to me sweetly, "You think I should just stay little and not get big." Obviously I've said this to her a billion times! It's not that I don't want her to get bigger, it's just that I want her to stay little for a while longer. Ok, Fellow-Moms-of-little-ones-about-to-be-bigger-ones, does this seem like such an unreasonable request???

Allison has also been progressing quite well through swim lessons this past fall and winter. She spent one final session in Pike, moved up to Eel for one 7-week session, and has been moved up once more to Ray. This is very exciting when you're not quite 5 and you might get to be with the 6-8 year olds! I love you and am so proud of you, Ally!

And then there's little Miss Peyton Mary...this kid is a handful! She'll be getting into something or squaking at the top of her lungs and then flash you the sweetest, most innocent smile. One of her favorite things to do right now is put things in the kitchen cabinets. By things, I of course am referring to items which would not normally be found in kitchen cabinets such as shoes, her toys, the TV remote, sippy cups full of milk or juice, her hat and gloves, etc. She is talking A LOT and has tons of recognizable words now. She enjoys talking on the phone, usually though it's when no one is really on the other end to talk back to her. She's very good at having a pretend conversation though! Peyton also seems to have an obsession with Dora, or as she says "doh wa", and Elmo. Peyt also loves her "no man" sweater which now seems to be a bit more 3/4 length sleeve that long-sleeve, but it's been through a lot. At one point in time, the sweater belonged to her big cousin McKenna who will be turning 11 this summer.

Peyton's most recent trick is climbing out of her crib at naptime on the weekends. I am not ready to move her to a big girl bed yet, for fear that she will NEVER stay in it and naptime as we know it will be gone for good. Oh the trials of the mommy of a not-quite-2-year-old! Love you, Peyt! Thanks for keeping me on my toes.