Food Critic

I have a food critic living in my house. Katie seems to have become our little foodie. She will try just about anything and has definite opinions on what she's tried.

I took the girls to McDonalds this morning for breakfast because the Mr and his Bro left to go fishing bright and early. Madeleine LOVES the burritos but Katie has never tried them. This morning, she asked M if she could try it. She took a bite. Chewed. Swallowed. Thought for a moment. Then said with a very serious look on her face..."Hmmm. A tad spicy. Goes down easy. But I like it!"

Last week, I made Chicken Cordon Bleu. Katie wrinkled up her nose and said "YUCK!!" while I was preparing it. When it was done, she tried it and exclaimed..."YUMMY! It's like it's got a surprise inside!"

I've got to quit letting her watch Iron Chef!

Cuteness

Just some random cuteness from the last few weeks.

So proud of my girls

As I sit here and type, I feel so thankful and grateful for the things I have in my life. Sunday morning, a little boy died when his house caught fire. His family lost everything.

My sister-in-law knows the family. When David was telling us about it at breakfast this morning my girls really surprised me. They heard that there was a 2year old little girl who not only lost a brother, a home, but her clothing and toys. They jumped into action. Madeleine came down stairs carrying her Lucky dog (it does tricks and responds to voice commands) and said she wanted that little girl to have Lucky. That prompted Katie to bring down her Fisher Price doll house to give her. Books, stuffed animals and clothing followed. We are taking 2 bags of toys and clothing to Sweeny today.

I'm so proud of my girls!

Handy Girls

I think I've got 2 engineers in the works...



I found them taking apart their rocking chair. They accomplished something most men can't....they put it back together without any extra parts!!

Trick or Treat Trail

We decided to brave the crowds this year and attend the city's annual Trick or Treat Trail. It's usually held at a local park along the wooded walking trail, but because we had a ton of rain, they moved it to the high school parking lot. It was nice. I wish they had it here every year. Normally, you park at the high school and they take you to the park by school bus. This is why we haven't been before. This year, we parked on one side of the stadium and walked to the other side for the trail.


A bunch of local businesses had booths and handed out candy. There were costumed mascots walking around (which M&K hate!), games, food and buckets of fun. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Halloween

I did it again...I waited till the last minute to get the girls costumes. I normally try to persuade them to get something "cute" or coordinated." This is what they came home with when David took them to get costumes.


Spiderella (notice the straight hair!) and Super Girl


They loved their costumes. They still put them on and wear them around the house!

I'm sick of the flu!

It all started with M. Saturday, she started complaining of her throat hurting. She'd been having seasonal allergies, so I just figured it was irritated. Sunday morning, she woke up with 102 degree fever. I called our pediatrician's office and the doctor called me back in about 10 minutes. I explained her symptoms and luckily she called in a prescription for Tamiflu. After 2 doses, her fever was gone and she was acting like herself.

By Sunday evening, David was sneezing and complaining of a headache. He still sounds all stuffy, but he hasn't had any fever. Then this morning, David called me while I was at the grocery store and told me Katie was running a fever. Lovely! The doctor had given us a prescription for Katie incase she started showing symptoms. She's only had a fever of 100 degrees. I hope this is the end of it. I've been washing my hand so much they are raw. I walk around the house with Lysol and antibacterial wipes. We are living in a steril zone!

Stay healthy!

Cuteness!

After picking up Madeleine from school today, we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends, Jennifer and her daughter Rose. We needed to get a few photos of M for her school project.



We had to come home early because M was having a "brat attack" as I like to call it. Once home, her attack spread to Katie, so they were banished to their rooms to clean. (Hmmm...sounds like Cinderella)


This is how I found Katie . Fast asleep...with a super messy room!

Just Fishin'

September is a busy birthday month for the LaCombes...M, Parrain, Uncie Monkey and several anniversaries. To celebrate Parrain's (Glen, David's brother...parrain is french for godfather. He is the girls godfather so that's what they call him)birthday, he invited us to his fishing camp.



He is a member of a private fishing club and he rented the clubhouse so we could eat and sit in the AC. Right across the drive is a little house that is out over the water. The inside of the house is a big square hole that is open to the water. The girls fished inside the house most of the itme.

After fishing for about 15 minutes, Katie caught a fish! She was excited and afraid at the same time. Luckily, her cousin Corey was right next to her helping and he took the fish off the hook. After that, both girls decided it was more fun playing with the bait worms! They spent the rest of the day making the worms their pets!

We had a great time and can't wait to go back fishing again.

St. Andrew's Pumpkin Patch

Katie and I stopped at the annual pumpkin patch at St Andrew's Episcopal Church for some photos. She was getting into posing and picking out the perfect pumpkin. As we were leaving, she spotted another area they set up for photos. She ran over, jumped up on the bale of hay and proceeded to fall in a hole (not unusual for her...you will notice her black eye in her photos...more on that later). When she lifted up the hand she caught herself with, she had a quarter in it.

That girls can literally find money in a haystack! We can be anywhere and she will find money. I think I need to start leading her into finance!

Now, about the black eye. Last Sunday, we decided to give St. Andrews Episcopal another try. Well...they leaft a mark on our family. About 10 minutes into the service, Katie slipped off the pew and bonked her cheekbone on the pew in front of us. It immediaetly swelled up and by the time we got home was a pretty blackish-purple color.

Mission Accomplished!

After about an hour of letting Madeleine & Katie "ride" their bikes without the pedals...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!

David put the pedals back on their bikes last night. We figured we would still have to push them and then have them coast with their feet on the pedals, but those 2 had a different idea. They got right on and started pedaling all around the cul-de-sac!

Pure joy and elation!

2 girls

2 bikes

0 training wheels

PRICELESS!

I was fortunate enough to capture the look of joy on Madeleine's face the first time she rode across the street.

Gymnastics

Just a short video of the girls last day at gymnastics. Sorry about the noise in the background...I haven't figured out how to edit a movie and add music.

This is the girls' favorite part of class!

Life Lesson #1

Hard work =REWARD

Happy Girls

The girls learned today that hard work earns them rewards. We've been instituting a new chore system/reward system. They have set chores they must complete daily. When they complete a task they earn a smiley face. At the end of the week, if they have completed their "job" they get a reward.

The last few weeks, I've really felt like I've had to nag them to get their jobs done. I was getting frustrated and ready to just do their jobs myself. But my 2 precious girls really surprised me today. While I was on the phone with my aunt (HI Ber-Ber!), they took it upon themselves to go into the laundry room, get the clothes out of the dryer and fold ALL the towels! By themselves...without me nagging! I couldn't believe it. They even put them away without me asking. I guess our new system is making a difference.

I decided to really reward them to make a point of their taking the initiative to do a job without me telling them to. So...we went to Build A Bear. They LOVE build A Bear! I'm ashamed to say that between the two of them we have about 15 different animals from there.

Any way, they each picked out a dog, an outfit and shoes. Katie came home with a Jack Russell Terrier (it looks like our Maggie) and named her Fancy. Maddie chose a Border Collie (like our Harley) and named her Kaylee. Maddie's little dog ended up with a polka-dot bikini and purple flip flops! Katie's little Fancy got a pink floral dress and matching sketchers.

As I sit here typing, they are currently playing with all their build a bears happy as larks.

Life is good!

Monday's Memory

Today, I'm keeping a friends daughter for a while. While I was trying to figure out what to do with them, Maddie found my pet rock Rocky.

Rocky is about 30 years old and was given to me by one of my favorite cousins, Tony. Rocky has traveled with me from Alvin, to my desk at EC Mason, to Lubbock and now back to the Gulf Coast. He now sits guard at our front door. Everytime I look at him, I have such fond memories of my childhood and my cousin.

So, what did the girls do? They painted their own pet rocks!

Out of the mouths of babes...

My SIL bought the girls' a DIARY today. This is the conversation I had with Katie tonight.

Me: "Katie, are you writing in your diary?"
Katie: " No Mommy. I need you to unlock my Diarrhea."

Me: "Umm, Katie, I think you mean DIARY."
Katie: NO Mommy, it's called a DIARRHEA!"

The girl is adamant that it's called a Diarrhea.

Responsibility & The Little Messes

Well...a new era is beginning in our household. The girls have always had little chores they had to do, but we are finally going to a full blown chore chart. I sat down tonight to design what I think will work for us. I've come up with 7 chores that the girls will be responsible for each week.

They are: Make your bed (with help), set& clear the table, help with dinner (M only), collect trash (bring down their trash cans 2X week), pick up toys & books, help fold towels and help dust.

I've printed out the chores on cardstock, orange for Maddie and yellow for Katie. I also printed some of them multiple times. For example, because I want them to make their bed every day, I printed 7 tags for each girl. The "help dust" tag was only printed once for each girl since we will do this once a week. Make sense?

I ran them through a laminator (for durability) and then through my Xyron machine using the magnetic adhesive to turn them into little magnets. The girls will get to put their color magnet on the chart each day when they complete their chore. Our week will begin on Monday, and on Sunday, if they have completed their chores, they will be able to choose a special treat coupon. I found the coupons here and printed the ones I wanted to use.

My goal is to begin introducing an allowance after a couple of months. These first few months, I really want to push the idea that the girls are necessary and valuable members of our household and they help keep things running. We all do things to help one another whether we like the chore or not. (ie...I HATE to put away the folded clothes!)

Any ideas? I hope I can make this work!

Wish me luck...

The Three Musketeers

Had to share this picture from Mackie's visit with us. The girls had a blast playing in the water all weekend!

Cousins

David's cousin Nicole and her family recently moved to Houston from Louisiana, or as David calls it "The Mother Land." We are so happy to have them close by and in our lives now. It's amazing how much our two families have in common. We look forward to many hours spent with them!

Maddie & Katie are sooo happy to have met their new cousin! They finally have someone their own age to play with in the family. Katie & Mackie's birthdays are only a couple of weeks apart.

I've got some pictures of their visit with us this past weekend and will get them posted sometime this week. (as soon as I can get on David's comuputer!)

Julie

Gymnastics

This summer, I've signed the girls up for a gymnastics class at a local gym. I've been very impressed with what they are learning. They are learning the basics of the balance beam, various forward and back somersaults, the uneven bars, cartwheels, and different things on the trampoline. I started to sign them up for 2 days a week, but wasn't sure what they would be doing. Now I wish I had registered them for 2 days! We will definitely be signing them up for lessons after this session.

Maddie walking backwards on the balance beam

Katie practicing a forward roll on the balance beam