Cinderella

For Emma's birthday, Grandma and Grandpa gave her 3 tickets to see Cinderella last Saturday at

Emma, Tarin and I had a great time!

There was an Irish Fairy Godmother that wore roller-skates,a giant white dog that ends up looking like a poodle, two silly step-sisters and a cranky step-mother, a rapping page (who danced to hannah montanna), and of course an absolutely charming Prince Charming, who sings. (See above)

This was the funnest and funniest version of Cinderella I have ever seen. If you have never seen the fight over the glass slippers in slowmotion with silent movie music playing, you should see this!

The dog, Rover, even pulled my two girls into the play to dance with him during Cinderella's ball. They had such a blast!

At the beginning of the play, the Irish Fairy Godmother called all the birthday children down to throw a gold coin in the wishing well and make a birthday wish. Then they handed out a little prize to each of the birthday children. Emma was almost beside herself at this point!

This is us sitting in our seats waiting for the show to start.

Below is Emma dancing on the stage during intermission. She is a natural on the stage!

I Scream for Ice Cream!

Well, the date is set!!

(dun-dun-dun!)

I will be having my tonsils removed on Wed, Dec 3rd at 1:30 pm.

I am now accepting all donations of

Popsicles and Fudgesicles

Ice Cream (chocolate based and fruit based are my faves! Go peach!)

Yoplait yogurts

Pudding (I LOVE chocolate-vanilla swirl)

Gogurts (they freeze really well)

and anything else you think I might be able to eat.

I am hoping and praying this will be my last medical trial this year!

Happy Birthday!

Thursday was my beautiful spunky Emma's 7th Birthday.

A couple of weeks ago we gave the girls an option: they could either have a big friend party for their birthday, with a nice present from Mom and Dad

OR

they could go to Disneyland for 1 day with Mom and Dad all by themselves.

They of course each chose to celebrate at Disneyland on their birthday.

Emma, Eli and I had a wonderful time!

We rode every ride at least once, and we managed Matterhorn 6 times, Space Mountain 4 times, Big Thunder Railroad 3 times, and Indiana Jones, Gadgets Go Coaster and Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin 2 times.

Eli loved pushing me around Disneyland in the wheelchair!

Of course, we still had family over for cake and ice cream, which Emma loved. You may be asking yourself: are Jocelyn, Jennifer and Jolie family? They are just like family to us. Especially when we only have a 2 week old cousin to play with, they are a very necessary part of our family fun!

This is baby Jaidyn, yawning in Great-Grandma Dixon's lap.

Here are pictures of Emma throughout the years

Baby Emma

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

Now

I love you Emma!

Barbie Cares

A couple of weeks ago I was walking through WalMart and passed a lady handing out little pink bags with "Barbie Cares" printed on it. She explained that they were collecting old Barbies that they were going to "recycle" and give to little girls in need. I took the bag home to my two little girls and told them about it.

They were really excited to collect some of their Barbies together to give to this cause. I was so proud of them because they not only picked out their old ones that they don't play with anymore, but they also picked out some of their nicest, newest ones also. They told me they thought the little girls would really like to have the neat new ones to play with.

All in all, they pulled together 21 Barbies, 8 Kellys, and 1 baby to donate. They also gave a bag of clothes and accessories; including a bike, pizza oven, and snorkeling equipment.

On Veteran's Day we took all of the Barbie items down to the WalMart and placed them in the big pink mailbox in the Barbie aisle. They were so so excited to do this! They told me they felt really good inside and that they thought the other little girls would love them.

I have such great children!

BTW: Any guesses how many Barbies, Kellys and babies they still have at home to play with????

23!!

Thank Goodness it's Friday??

On Monday of this week I was so excited when I went to the podiatrist because he gave me permission to begin walking on my foot (with my boot and brace)! It's only been over 3 months since I have been stuck on crutches and in a wheelchair, so this was good news to me. However, when I started to transition to putting weight on my foot, the front part of my ankle (where my leg curves into my foot) started killing me! I immediately took my weight off and scheduled an appt for Friday (yesterday) to get it checked out.

Also on Monday, I finished my second round of antibiotics for my tonsils. YEA! (right?) Alas, on Wednesday there was still some swelling, so I decided I better get in to get it checked out. I don't want another abscess after all! This appt was also scheduled for Friday.

Friday was finally here. I started out with my chiropractor (for my car accident), and I had a wonderful adjustment and massage... it looks good so far...

I then booked it across town to make it to my ENT. After an hour wait, I get the news... I have to have my tonsils out! Just between Wed and Fri my tonsil has already gotten worse and is about to flare out of control again. Dr. Gonzalez told me I could leave them in, but I would probably expect a flare up every month or two. Who wants to go through that??? Ironically, people who haven't ever had tonsil problems before (such as me) are more likely to have continuous problems once they abscess. How is that fair?? They asked me if I wanted to schedule it right then, or call after I look at my calendar. I of course decide to call them, because I first want to indulge myself in a ten-minute pity party/freak out. I call Eli and my parents and laugh in disbelief at my luck these days.

So then I have an hour and a half for lunch before I go back to my chiropractor for my electro-therapy on my foot and ankle (this has made the biggest difference in the last 3 weeks!) Understandably, I have no desire to sit at home alone feeling sorry for myself. so I call Melissa and ask her if I can bring a couple of the new Wendy's buffalo-dipped chicken sandwiches over and eat with her. YUMMY! She obliged me, and tried to take my mind off of all my luck.

I had another good experience at the chiropractor. This has been my favorite spot for the last 3 months. Then, I book it over to the other side of town for my podiatrist appt. Now, I have to be honest and tell you that at this point I am pretty much expecting the worst, and am thinking along the lines of surgery. No fun. Thankfully, though, it turns out I just have LOT of swelling around my ankle joint and other portions of my foot because I had kept them completely stationary for 101 days, and they didn't like movement now. The Doc said he will give me a cortisone shot and then write me a prescription for physical therapy. I am liking the sounds of these!

As he prepares the shot I ask him, "On a scale of 1-10, how badly is this going to hurt?" He chuckles and said it won't even register on the scale. I am feeling relieved and sit back for a mostly pain-free shot.

As he starts to administer the shot I am suddenly accosted with writhing pain in my ankle! I try to laugh and not scream (kind of unsuccessfully) as I accuse him of lying to me! He laughs a little and tells me, "Well, you didn't ask me where my 1 started." This was the longest and most painful shot I have ever experienced.

I finally survived the day and headed home. My dear husband took me out to see the new James Bond movie while my sister babysat. It was a pretty good ending to an otherwise really stressful day!

I love you, Eli.

Flower Garden

Every November

Eli pulls out his gardening tools, takes us on a trip to Home Depot, and we plant our flower garden in the front yard. (When I say "we", I mean Eli and the girls; I take the pictures and give suggestions).

By Sring the flowers have completely taken over

our little planting area and look amazing!

In fact, last year they grew so big, they hung out on the driveway,

and I ran over quite a lot of them when I backed out.

Our favorite flowers include pansies, petunias, and snap-dragons.

Yes, the picture of the white snapdragons is loaded sideways. I don't know why, and I couldn't fix it. I guess they just wanted to be unique.

Pumpkins and Cookies

Every year all of my family gets together for Pumpkins and Cookies. We usually have mummy-wrapped fingers dipped in blood (pigs-in -a-blanket), homemade witches brew (rootbeer), and other ghoulishly fun foods. We also gut and carve all of our pumpkins together, and then decorate sugar cookies in all kinds of halloween colors. It is something we all look forward to every halloween season.

Grandpa and Emma gutting her pumpkin. Uncle Daniel, Aunt Darla and Tarin gutting hers.

Here is Daddy, waiting for his turn to attack the pumpkins.

Raggedy Ann and Ella Enchanted

I am seriously behind in my posting and pictures, so I am going to try to catch up today. First, here are pictures of my cute Raggedy Ann and beautiful Ella Enchanted (in her ball gown). In all we attended 3 trunk-or-treats, 2 family parties, 1 literature-parade, and 1 very short bout of trick-or-treating. It was quite a week!

Here are some pictures of them posing out on my parents front lawn:

"Aren't I adorable?!"

"I am all ready for the ball... and my handsome Prince Char!"

"I am still adorable from the back!"

"Oh, is that you Char?"

"Don't you just want to pick me up and squeeze me?"

"Just wait until you see me with my fake eyelashes on!"

This is my one and only picture of them trunk-or -treating.