The Chronicles of a Brother and a Sister......

Goodbye 2011; Goodmorning 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:46:00 +0000

Well our New Years Eve ended with a bang! Literally. Daddy took out his cannon that he had as a kid and let go. Bang Bang. Wiggles heard it first and said Whoa! Must be a Nutcracker. Had me laughing so hard. Then just as new years was approaching and both kids were still up. Monkey asked to have his glow sticks activated. As any good mom would do I opened them up and proceeded to crack them all to activate them. Even shaking them so that the glow was even. Only there was a problem. We started to see electric glow stick goo on the blinds, walls, floor, carpet, stuffed animals, blankets you get the picture right. Yup one of the sticks broke and as I was shaking them its goo went flying. Quite funny but oh my what a mess. I tried to take a picture but it didn't work.

Kids trying NOT to fall asleep a 1/2 hour till Midnight.

Happy New Year!! Monkey taking pictures.

Kids playing with their glow sticks and their poppers!

Monkey ready for bed just not willing to go yet. The excitement has ended. Not that exciting staying up till Midnight I guess.

We didn't do anything exciting this morning I was hoping the kids would sleep in. They did but not as much as I wanted them too. Wiggles got up at 7:30 came into our room and climbed into bed. I moved to the couch and then Monkey woke up. I got to sleep until 8:45 on the front couch. Still tired though, LOL. Hope everyone had a save and fun New Years Eve.

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY NEAR AND FAR!!

Happy New Years 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:59:00 +0000

From our family to yours!!

So you might ask how did we celebrate New Years Eve this year. Both kids wanted to stay up this year and as I write this they are still up one more hour to go... Will they make it? Well with this week being an emotional one we choose to stay home and just ring in the new year as a family. We've had our ups and downs this week. Scott's Grandpa S past away on Thursday, and our anniversary was Friday. Scott had to work all week and he drove out to see his Grandpa and sit with his mom. So as you can imagine we just weren't really in the party mood. So we stayed home.

Monkey has been playing Wii on and off today also playing with his slot cars.

Wiggles has chosen to watch movies in our room and play Wii with her brother on and off.

Daddy has been scanning pictures of his grandpa for his parents, and I've been blogging to meet my goal of getting all the pictures I have up. Quiet night and I love it just the four of us. Happy New Years everyone! I hope God Richly Blesses all your families in 2012!

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

We let our kids sleep until they want on Christmas Day. This year Wiggles got up at her normal time and Monkey slept until almost 8am. We had a late night and drive the night before so I expected the kids to sleep in. So I make sticky buns for breakfast. Wiggles, Daddy and I ate breakfast together while waiting for Monkey to get up. I forgot to take pictures of us but managed to get one of Monkey eating breakfast.

Time to open up presents. Both kids got lots of things these are some highlights. Monkey getting Darth Vader Pj's and Wiggles getting her own American Girl doll.

Traditional pictures with their gifts.

Auntie Glitter Bug came over for dinner later in the day and played with slot cars with Monkey.

Christmas Eve

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:34:00 +0000

This year Christmas Eve was at Daddy's parents house. We got to visit with my Aunt and Uncle this year but for some reason I never got my camera out. Opps. We had a great time visiting with everyone. It was nice to see my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin we don't usually get too.

Getting ready to hear the story of Jesus' birth.

Monkey waiting for his part to the story.

Taking his part seriously.

You think it's hard to take a picture of 5 kids looking the same way try 8 even harder. When you say okay this is what happens. Below Picture.

Kids go running in each direction, well except the one with a small one on her lap. Do you see the pure joy on Monkey's face? He was happy to get the all clear sign.

Did someone call for a Ginger Girl?

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:14:00 +0000

Once again our little Wiggles was in her ballet schools Nutcracker. She was so excited this year because of two reasons. 1. She would most likely be a Ginger girl. 2. If she was a Ginger girl she would be dancing with Daddy's co-worker. Well yes she was cast as a Ginger Girl. Win win again. She did an amazing job and we are so proud of all she's learning in ballet.

Our Ginger Girl.

Chirstmas Take 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:04:00 +0000

It's hard to get 5 kids to all look in the same direction.

Wiggles and Monkey with their cousins.

Wiggles playing with M dancing around the backroom.

Daddy trying to play with M she warmed up to him this trip. Ang playing planes on the iPad.

Daddy and Monkey during our little service before opening gifts.

A son I think your too big for that bike.

Watching Monkey's performance at church.

Present time.

A opening his present from Papa, I think M liked the stage she got out of the present.

Good thing that box was sturdy.

Nani opening her present. A warm and cozy blanket.

K opening one of her gifts.

Monkey opening his a slot car set. He has enjoyed this present since opening it up. Thanks everyone for a great day!

Movie Day @ School

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:40:00 +0000

Every year the kids get a movie day after their school wide Christmas Program. So this year they scheduled to watch Santa Clause 2 with Tim Allen. I was lucky enough to sub that day at the school so I could try and take pictures of the kids. Well we had some technical difficulty and this is what the kids got to watch for about 20 mins before getting another computer to use.

Apparently the computer was doing an update all of a sudden. Great timing people....

Here is Monkey getting comfy on the floor and Wiggles is right there to the left of Monkey in the green sleeping bag.

The kids had fun even with the inconvenience of the computer issues. Lucky for us teachers no kid puked this year! Win Win I say.

Wiggles and Monkey's School Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:32:00 +0000

This year both kids were in the school performance and both did a great job!

Monkey's Performance 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:42:00 +0000

Another look at our little ham.

Monkey's performance.

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:41:00 +0000

So this year Monkey was able to participate in our Church's Christmas Program. He had so much fun in it. You can see for yourself in these two videos.

Baby it's COLD outside....

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:15:00 +0000

Our church had a movie night in the park and showed It's a Charlie Brown Christmas. So we decided to go on out and have some fun with our church family. We'd missed the one in the summer time for some reason. So we put it on the calendar and made sure to go. Boy was it cold out that night. It even snowed at the end of the movie and the kids had SO much fun in it.

Setting up under the gazebo for the fundraiser for Haiti.

Monkey dancing to carols being sung.

All snuggled in watching the movie.

Wait! What's this is it snowing? Really?

Sure looks like snow.

Wiggles having fun in the 'snow'....

A Christmas tree hunt we will go.

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:59:00 +0000

The problem we have every year is real or fake? Fake or real? This year we decided on REAL after all Monkey had never had one in all the 5 Christmas' before so why not. Weird thing though he wanted the fake tree down, go figure. Well lucky for us he doesn't make the decisions and we dragged him out to find a real tree. Of course we looked on line for places to go first and lucky for us the first place we went we found our tree! I gotta say we had such an easy time of it this year I think it took 10 to 15 mins to decided on a tree. That's a record for our family.

Okay lets go find our tree!

This one Daddy!

Taking it away to get cleaned up and ready to transport.

Cleaned up and bagging it.

Loading her up! Took this guy 5 mins.

Load er' up and ready go.

Kids with the tree on top they loved the experience of picking out their Fresh REAL tree.

Now to take er' down.

Now here is a funny story of Monkey's sense of humor. We got home and Monkey goes inside, starts working on a lego project. I give him about 5 mins and this is the conversation that enfolds.

Me: Hey Monkey why don't you come help with the tree. Monkey: Oh mom I don't want to. Me: You need to come help with the tree. Monkey: But Mom it's too heavy for me to lift. Me: (not said but thought) Okay I didn't ask you to take it off the car. I just wanted you to come help/watch Daddy take it off the car. He has many one liners that just make me laugh on the inside.

B and N fundraiser Event

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:37:00 +0000

Since Wiggles entered 2nd grade this year she has been able to join lots of after school activities. One of them is Chorus. If you know Wiggles at all you know she loves to sing. Here she is with her school at a fundraiser event for school.

Wiggle and her friend waiting for the program to start.

Monkey waiting with his friends for the event to happen.

Monkey's teacher Mrs. B reading to all the kids.

Wiggles and her friend lining up ready to sing notice they are holding hands they were SO nervous. This was the first time performing outside of school.

Finally they sang. They did an amazing job for being so nervous. We were really proud of Wiggles.

Monkey was reading a Curious George book waiting patiently.

When the event was done I went looking for Daddy and Monkey, this is where I found Monkey. In a corner playing Angry Birds.

Oh look this nook. You can play Angry Birds on it too!

Our ride home...

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:16:00 +0000

So on our ride home from Thanksgiving we let the kids watch a movie on the iPad. This is what I'd see when I'd turn around to see how the kids were doing. Can you guess what the movie was?

So the movie was Princes Bride. They didn't do this the entire time just during the fire swamp scene.

Checking out Old Planes

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:01:00 +0000

One of the days we went to the old airplane scrapyard. It took some work but we found it and took some pics from the outside since we weren't aloud inside. It was pretty fun to look at the old planes and parts.

Even Wiggles wanted a closer look. Now I know why we got the sun roof in the 4 runner.

Desert Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:34:00 +0000

Once again for Thanksgiving we went out to the desert. The kids were ready to get out and have some fun as were we. It's always nice to get out and let the kids have some independence.

We took Monkey on a drive and a little hike while Wiggles stayed at camp with family. Here is Monkey taking Papa his hat.

Monkey and I looking out over the vista.

Daddy and Monkey at the top of our vista overlook.

Wiggles with Auntie S exploring camp.

Wiggles happy to be at camp playing with cousins, hiking near camp and just enjoying her freedom.

We loved hanging out with family.

K with Uncle R sitting around camp.

Monkey playing in the dirt with A. They had lots of fun playing with the trucks.

Monkey being his usual silly self.

Hanging out at camp.

Dentist

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0000

I take my kids to the dentist every 6 months. You might ask why? Well we have the insurance and because I never went until I was about 16 years old or so and almost ended up with a root canal. So I see the importance of taking your children to the dentist when they are young. A couple weeks ago I took both Wiggles and Monkey in for check ups. Wiggles had a great appointment we are watching one tooth but not for a cavity one of her teeth seems to be getting crowded out by two others. She also was recommended to have sealants done to her teeth. Since she's lost a lot of her teeth we decided to go for it. Her appt was easy and quick. Monkey on the other hand had two cavities and needed to have them filled. Since they are his baby teeth and he's no where near loosing them we knew he had to go in. So we made the appointment and we went in. On the advice of the dentist we didn't tell Monkey what they were doing. He originally had a rough time when we went in for his check up so all Monkey knew was he was going back. He was a little upset this morning because he didn't get breakfast. Tears and all, even with a promise of a milkshake there were still tears. So we got to the dentist.

Here is Monkey getting ready for his procedure. Little nervous.

Here's Monkey after all the work was done. He had some Laughing Gas. They took his sunglasses off to quick so I didn't get the full pic of him looking like an "astronaut" or "fighter pilot".

Head on pic. Happy the work is done and he's cavity free now.

Monkey got two prizes for being so well behaved. He didn't move or anything while they worked on him.

Getting his "breakfast" after the appointment. We stopped at Jamba Juice since he couldn't have dairy. For lunch he had pizza and was back to his normal self. He's good to go with no problems. I'm so proud of my little patient he did amazing!

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:00:00 +0000

A camping they shall go!

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:52:00 +0000

So Daddy and Wiggles went out on their 2nd Indian Princesses camping trip. They both had an awesome time. Daddy's shredded pork was a big hit and was talked about for two days. Their tent got here just in time for the camp out. It came on Tuesday and they left Friday afternoon. Nothing like cutting it close, thankfully UPS delivered a day early. We didn't even need the directions that came with the tent. Good thing too cause they were for a different tent. LOL We put the tent up in the back room to check it out.

With out the rain fly

With the rain fly. See the little window? It came in very handy this trip.

So this trip they expected a rain store and they were NOT disappointed. It turned out that some other tribes ditched their tents and came back then next day. To which most just pitched their tents in the dumpster. Their new tent though was amazing and didn't have any trouble. Since it was scheduled to rain they packed extra, and got a few more camping supplies like a new cooler that unfortunately doesn't really fit well in Daddy's car. So we had to switch cars for the weekend. Now this doesn't really confuse Monkey but for some reason it did this time and he asked when we went to get his soccer trophy "Did Daddy and Wiggles take the trailer with them?" I had to laugh at this because the trailer was right in front of him he just wasn't paying any mind to it.

Daddy packing my car up with their stuff.

A closer look of it all packed in. :) There was only two of them in the tent and car.

Chicken Noodle and Pork Butt

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:37:00 +0000

Okay this is a real random post. I made chicken noodle soup in the crock pot and my son LOVED it. This says a lot cause he's not even a soup fan but he ate it and asked again for it the next two days.

Chicken Noodle Soup Yummy!

So Daddy and Wiggles are in Indian Princesses and once a month they go car camping with their tribe. So Dear Hubby signed up to bring dinner one night. He choose to bring pulled pork. So went the sleepless night. Well not all sleepless but it sure lacked lots of sleep that night he made it. I think we were up at like 3am shredding pork to finish at 5am then to have two kids wake up at 6am. Well the dinner went off wonderfully and the Dad's were so thankful that it wasn't just bought at the store but really bbq'd and shredded personally. Maybe next time I will request that some get left behind so that those left behind can have some too. :)

Pirate Invasion

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:33:00 +0000

At our new AWANA Group they had a Pirate theme night. This is what we came up with. Thanks to my cousin for having a pirate themed 1st Birthday for her son. Otherwise my two pirates would have only had the bandana's on their heads.

Trick or Treat?

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:15:00 +0000

Well this year the kids went trick or treating for the first time. In past years we've stayed home and passed out candy and gone to a community event at church. This year we took Wiggles and Monkey trick or treating. I've gotta say I'm not a big fan of Halloween or even trick or treating. You tell your kids don't talk to strangers 364 times a year but 1 time a year you go door to door (strangers doors) and ask for candy. Hmmm Anyways we took them down our street over to our friends Parents house and then home. Thankfully our son was not really into it and kept asking to go home. They got enough candy to fill a Costco size Pretzel container. I've since told my husband that I'm going to make him take it to work so they can take care of it. Cause we all know I don't need that stuff around. So here are some pictures of our little walk. Oh and yes my husband made them ask what the score was on the football game. Cause he wanted to know. And my kids were more then willing to ask. They were the most polite trick or treaters that these neighbors have ever seen. Pleases and Thank Yous and compliments to the home owners.

The two ready to go. Iron Man and Princess.

Last minute I went to the grocery store on Halloween and picked up a pumpkin. Went online and found an Angry Bird stencil and since Monkey loves them I surprised the kids with this when they got home.

Walking the neighborhood. Poor Monkey's mask kept falling so he couldn't see where he was going. He tried his best the eye slits were just that slits which really when you look it's a miracle any kid would be able to see out of it.

Ahh yes! Wiggles asked for a piece of candy so I gave her a warhead to try. Sadly we only had one otherwise I would have had Monkey try one too. If you like sour that's the candy to try. I remember as a kid trying the warheads, so I thought it only fair to make mine try them too. :) They had fun with the trick or treating. I would have done better hanging out at home.

A sunflower for our princess

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:59:00 +0000

This year we have been so busy that we didn't have a regular party for Wiggles. We ended up doing a quick dinner with friends for her "party". It was actually really nice and so easy to do.

When I asked what kind of cake Wiggles wanted she said a sunflower cake. Seemed easy enough to me. So I went out and found a pan and then made the cake. When I asked Wiggles if she liked her cake she said yeah it looks like mac and cheese color. LOL Well I tried to make it look like sunflower shades but I guess Mac and Cheese coloring will work. They were suppose to be trick candles but we didn't let them flame long enough. Oh well we tried. Thanks to all that showed up on such short notice! We had a blast and Wiggles was so happy!

Harvest Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:36:00 +0000

This years school Harvest Festival was on Wiggles Birthday so we had a VERY busy day. Lots going on that day but we managed to fit it all in with no troubles. Nani came for Monkey's soccer game, and then stayed for the festival too. Both Monkey and Wiggles were super excited to see Nani. Here are some pictures from the Harvest Festival

Here are the kids getting ready for the festival. Poor Monkey couldn't see out of his mask most the time. I know your not surprised at all by Wiggles outfit. Our little princess.

Wiggles came up to me while I was working a booth and asked for my camera. I asked why and she said to take a picture. This was the picture that she had taken. I thought she was taking the picture not asking someone to take her picture. :) Too bad the sun was in her eyes.

Here is Monkey with some classmates. He had lots of fun finding his friends and hanging out with some of them.

Here is Monkey taking a hay ride, he didn't look to sure on this ride at first but then he warmed up to it and had fun.

And here is our little princess cashing in her tickets for a chance at a prize and of course candy.

We don't normally take family pictures and trying to get us all sitting nicely and smiling together seems to be getting harder. So I thought instead of putting in the better picture I'd put the funny picture in. See we can have fun too. : )

Mexican Food Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Mama Monkey) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:30:00 +0000

While our friends were down we went out for Authentic Mexican food. It was fantastic wish we could got there more often. The kids had SO much fun with their friends!

Little E having dessert! Yummy!!!

It's hard to get two kids to look the same way. Filling up on chips. :)

M and Monkey eating dessert too.

J and Wiggles having a conversation about something important I'm sure.