Radio Station Tour

Uncle Ben took us all on a radio station tour.  He does a radio show in the mornings and took some time to show us around.  We met his producer and saw the rooms where they record.

Molly was a little upset that they weren't putting her chatter on "live."  She kept asking if the "cars" could hear her talk.  (On the way to the station we put the radio on in the car as we were explaining what we were doing.)

 

We even got to make a recording (I will try to figure out how to download and embed).  Grady has a great line at the end which they might use for a clip on the show!

Thanks Uncle Ben!!!

Getting rid of Ellery....

Grady seems to think that he only needs two sisters; Briley first, then Molly.  He says we can get rid of Ellery.  His next thought is we keep them all, then have 2 more boys.  Twin.  We are going to name them Finn and Lightening.  (Lightening after Lightening McQueen, of course!) 

Honestly, if we could guarantee a boy, we'd probably have another.  Statistically though, the odds are not in our favor.  I'm not a betting girl, but historically we've proven a 25% chance of having a boy.  Not the best odds! :)

What a wonderful day!

Today our first born went down in front of our church to publicly profess that she had accepted Jesus Christ, our Savior, into her heart!  We are so proud as parents and are looking forward to her Baptism next weekend.

S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g

My dear son is over the moon about trains.  At Christmas, we watched "Polar Express" every day.  I mean every.  Single.  Day.  You know the part where the 2 kids are on the back on the train singing a little song about Christmas?  Well, the G-man has been humming that since mid-December.  All day.  Every day.  It was adorable....at first....but now is getting a little old. 

We're sitting at the dinner table this evening and he started humming it.  I look over at Joe and say, "I'm just about S-I-C-K of that song," with a smile (kind of).  Molly turns to us and says, "he sure does L-O-V-E that song!"

Visit with Santa

Today is Christmas Eve and the busy neglectful mom that I've been lately has put off our annual Santa picture to the last minute...so...off to the mall we go.  On the way there we were prepping G that we were going to see Santa and that he was going to ask what the kids wanted for Christmas.  I was hoping that this would be the first year without a screaming kid (no such luck) and was trying to preemptively calm the fears of our 2 year old.  We get to the mall and the girls go right up to Santa, give him a hug and hop on his lap.  Hesitantly Grady looks over at him, checks him out, then runs up, gives him a quick hug, takes a few steps back and yells at him "Nanas" then runs away.  (Nanas = Thomas the Tank Engine).  Needless to say, the next few minutes were spent forcing G to sit on Santa's lap so we could snap a quick picture (which we did end up getting...its not good, but we have it!)

Oh, and...I overheard the girls telling Santa that they wanted magic wands.  Not sure where Santa is going to come up with those, but while he's making them, I'd like one too!

The Nutcracker Ballet

In keeping with the season and trying to be a good parent that exposed her children to culture (well, as much as I'm going to be able to in this small town) I thought I would take my girls to go see the Nutcracker. Not. My. Best. Idea. I think it would have been a little easier if I wasn't 7 1/2 months pregnant and of course the fact that its TWO AND A HALF HOURS long, so for a 4 and 6 year old that's like 3 weeks. Anyway....the house lights finally went down after 15 minutes of this conversation:

Child: "When is it going to start Mom? When?"

Me: "5 minutes, sweetpea."

Child: "That's what you said last time" (which actually happened to be 5 minutes earlier and and would have been correct if they had started on time.)

Me: "I know punkin, but that when it was supposed to start."

Don't these people know that there are antsy children (and a lot of them from what I saw) sitting in the audience???

Here is just a tiny snippet of the conversations that were interrupting everyone around us (poor, poor people who thought they were coming for a nice afternoon of cultural entertainment)

Act I: the party -- these are just a few of the questions I got

M: "is this supposed to be a party?"

M: "what are they doing?"

E: "Can I sit on your lap?" (mind you...belly out to here, no lap available anymore.)

M: "why isn't anyone talking?"

M: "is this all it is??? Just music??"

E: "I feel like I want to take my shoes off, can I?" (sure, why not, we're going to be here for awhile.)

M: "Can I sit on your lap?" (see above)

E: After Act I ends "it that all? Is it finally over? This is taking forever" (nope, just the first act....)

At Intermission: E: "Can we go home now???"

Note to self...wait until they are older...much, much older before trying this again.

Bribing Santa

I walk into the living room the other day to see this on the tree...

The note says, "To Santa, I love you, From Molly." Hey, its worth a try, right?

Molly's teeth are getting knocked out

Well, ok, just one...but this was done by her sister. It was loose anyway, and she wouldn't let daddy touch it. All it took was an elbow to the chin as she and her sister were wrestling and...pop...out it came! Her 5th tooth.

Now we're waiting for another incredibly loose one to fall out...(which did a few days later because her brother knocked her in the mouth with a book and out it came!)

Another one from Ellery...

We have an upright electric piano in our living room, something I married into. Don't get me wrong...I took piano lessons for years as a kid, and at one point was quite good, I just don't practice anymore and it messes with my decor. Well, the kids LOVE the piano and actually know how to work it (all the demo songs and such). They'll turn it on and dance around in the living room. Quite cute!

Well, this morning, they are on it and had the volume full blast. My usual remark, "volume please." Ellery pipes back, "you never let us play adagio." (What she meant was Crescendo, but I'll forgive her 4 year old self for the mistake.) Molly turns to me and says, "that means loud, mom." Oh, right...silly me.

Have they been watching Little Einstein's???

Is the world flat?

Molly asks "Mom, if the world is round, why is it that everywhere we go is straight?" I started to explain about relative size and all that but, man, she's only 6; I'm going to have to get much smarter...before she does! =)

Short shorts

Usually, to hasten the morning routine, I pick out the kids clothes the night before. On the mornings the clothes aren't laid out, the girls get themselves dressed...like this morning. Molly keeps coming to me with choices, and I keep telling her to just get dressed. She came in wearing a pair of shorts and told her she'd have to change. They were too short for school...even for Kindergarten there is a dress code! She says, "Mom, they're called shorts. They're supposed to be short!"

How do you argue with that??? (I still made her change.)

Molly's race

All weekend Molly's been complaining about going to school today (Monday). She keeps saying she feels like she needs to stay home. Come Sunday evening, I finally get out of her why she doesn't want to go. You see, they're doing that Presidential Health thingy. You know, you remember, the see-how-far-past-your-toes-you-can-stretch thing, and the how many push-ups and sit-ups you can do, and the timed running thing??? I remember. I loved it....but then again, I was pretty athletic way back when. =) So, I guess in P.E. today, they were doing the running part and Molly didn't want to do it. She thought they had to race for a mile and was telling me, "that's an awfully long time to run." So...when I picked her up today, she was pretty excited. Not only did she run the whole distance (which turned out the be a 1/4 of a mile), but she "won." Meaning she got the fastest time out of the whole Kindergarten. It wasn't a race at all, but she was excited that she still came in first. I was pretty surprised especially since she's one of the smallest kids in the class. I guess those short little legs can motor pretty fast...unless I've asked her to do something...?

Musical Beds

We've been playing musical beds at our house. Or at least the kids and Joe have. It seems, by morning, that the two children that can escape from their beds, have. The final location changes a bit...sometimes our bed, sometimes the couch, sometimes the floor, sometimes each other's beds...you just never know where they are going to end up, but most likely, it isn't' their own beds. Sometimes Joe moves around with them, or ends up in one of their beds. I, however, will rarely give up my spot. It's my bed. It's comfortable. I paid for it. I'm sleeping there.

Well, one early morning I was awoken by a little person in our bathroom. When she finished and climbed into our bed she was a little upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "there is no spot for me." I answered back, "yes there is...its up in your bed." "I don't like that spot," she replies wiggling down under the covers. Well, you lucked out this morning kiddo, cuz I'm too tired to argue with ya!

Bye Bye Nanna

After a week and a half trip, we (the girls and I) took Nanna back to the airport today. Not a problem until we started to close up the doors after we got Mom and her bags out. I think that's the point the girls realized what we were doing....saying goodbye.

Ellery
"Mommy...I think I'm going to cry. Nanny's hurting my feelings 'cuz she's leaving. Nanna's broke my heart." After a few tears, she put her thumb in her mouth and that was that.

Molly
She WAILED for almost the entire 45 minute drive home. As if that didn't get old fast within the confines of the car, it was interspersed with the following thoughts said randomly through the tears:
"Oh, Nanny."
"I didn't get to play with Nanna today."
"I miss Nanna"
"She's at the airport now."
"I was laughing when she was here, but now I'm crying."
"I don't want her to leave."
"I'm not crying because I'm tired, I'm crying because I miss Nanny."
"When will she come back?"
"I always miss her when she leaves, but I don't miss her when she's here."

Halfway into the trip Ellery turned to Molly and yelled, "Molly...stop making so much noise!" (Amen, sister!!!) Mom...you are already missed...by all the Gallagher gals! Sadly, I agree with Molly, but am able to control myself a little better...most of the time! =)

How to get money

We lose pacifiers around here like they are disposable. Instead of buying more I'm bribing the girls with a quarter for each paci they find. They are showing up randomly and I'll hear the girls shout, "Mommy...I get a quarter...I found one!" This morning, Molly found one and after her cry of excitement, I told her I'd have to find a quarter for her. She says, "just get one from daddy. He makes money." "Oh really," I replied? "Ya," she says, "he does something for the company and they pay him." I was trying to decide how to respond when she says, "or at least that's what he told me."

Here are my first two pages of 2009...well of 2008 AND 2009 for that matter!

These are the fruits of my hard work. 2 Evenings. Wow...I must get better at this, because at the rate I'm going, I might get Grady's 1st Birthday done before he graduates high school. I'm going to aim for getting 1 page done a week. They all won't be as time consuming as this one was...I hope. At least since these apply to all my kids, I might save myself some time a color copy them. Do you think Grady will mind the pink??? These are are family trees. This is something I had planned on doing when I started Molly's book. My girlfriends in Bellingham laughed when I showed them my outline for Molly's album. Title page, pregnancy, baby showers, birth, firsts, etc... Hey, I wanted to make sure I included everything, after all it was my first baby book. Here I am 5 1/2 years later and barely up to her 1st Birthday. Ellery keeps asking where her book is, I keep telling her I'm going to start it next. I suppose I should at least GET the book, maybe throw in a picture or two so she has SOMETHING to look at! Grady, well, the only reason he has anything is because my dear friend Amy scrapped him a handful of pages as a baby gift so that all I'd have to do was plop some pictures in. Have I done that yet you might ask? Nope!So, here I am, finally taking some time for one of my loves. No more dreaming about layouts. No more organizing embellies and filing pretty papers. I going to use them! (Can you tell that I'm on week one of a New Year's Resolution? Hear the excitement in my words? Check back with me in March, let's see how many pages are actually done...especially since tax season has begun...!)

Molly's big haircut

We did it. After 5 1/2 years, Molly got the haircut. It was overdue, but we were waiting until her hair was long enough to donate to the Locks of Love. Molly wouldn't let me do it, so I had to take her to my hairdresser to have it done. Since then, every time I comb her hair she says, "Kim does it better."

Molly lost her 2nd tooth today

Really...it just fell out. We've been trying to get her to let Joe pull it out (I have no desire to remove teeth), but she won't let him near her mouth. Anyway...2nd tooth gone.

Molly gets glasses

Is she too cute or what? I love them on her. I was really surprised at how much of a non-issue this was for her. (It was probably more of an issue for me, who knows nothing about glasses or contacts, than for her.) I think she really likes them and has, so far, taken really good care of them. It's my understand that they might not be permanent. Apparently she has lazy eye, which kills me because one of my best friends is a pediatric optometrist (did I get it right Amy?) and I should know better. So to all my loyal readers...all 5 of you? take your kids in to get their eyes check by an actual eye doctor, not just the pediatrician. The earlier you diagnose the easier it is to "retrain" the eyes. We're hoping to strengthen her eye so that she won't have to wear them anymore. For now, all her drawings of our family include glasses for daddy and Molly, and mommy needs to figure out how to take pictures that won't "glare" off the lenses. (Any tips, Betsy?)

Ready for school

The girls are having a Christmas party at school today. They got these sweaters in their advent calendar today and Nanna sent the cute headbands. My babies are not babies anymore. I cannot believe how big they are getting.

And we can't forget about this little guy....who has already spit up multiple times before 8:30 in the morning.