Our dog snores.

That is all.

Grace's post

So Grace saw the post with the video of Ariel and the racetrack in her messy room. So she went and cleaned her room then wanted to post a picture and type a post!

Good job Grace!

From Grace

imagine my room is a mess. instead it is clean. look closely and you will see my racetrack. i got for Christmas. it comes with cars. even my dog Ariel got something for Christmas.

A gift that everyone can enjoy...

even Ariel!

Um pretend Grace's room is nice and clean. It was Christmas morning. I'm not sure what happened after that.

Maybe there was a typhoon in there while I was at the store?

That sounds right.

Yes I'm sure that was it.

My dream of being on Top Chef...

came to an abrupt end tonight when I caught the oven on fire.

Don't worry no garlic bread was harmed in the creating of this post.

I found a funny picture online to go with my story!

Mad Skills

So the girls each got a mini etch a sketch for Christmas and Grace is seriously good at it! She can draw letters, shapes and different pictures.

Bonus: we even know what they are without her telling us. :)

Here I'll back up my bragging with a photo of a Christmas tree she did yesterday. She also did a laptop computer and the alphabet. :)

Two of My Pretty Pretty Princesses

This isn't how I remember the song?

Merry Christmas to our family and friends!

P.S.

Brianna loves the post-it notes.

P.P.S. Yes her pajamas don't match!

Dear Santa,

Great job on finding the diary Grace was asking for, and sure you would bring her, and even bigger bonus that it was Hello Kitty and on clearance! Of course the fact it was on clearance should have alerted you to the fact it was DATED on the inside for 2008 and that YES Grace realized it right away. Thankfully she thought you were so busy and happy to have the diary you didn't realize it and that she could just cross out the incorrect day of the week and write in the correct one. It was close for a minute there though!

:)

I'm a mind reader

I made a batch of cookies and gave the girls each one. Brianna was so excited and this is the conversation we had before she tried hers:

Brianna: Thank you Mommy for making my favorite cookies!
Me: Your welcome but I've never made these cookies before.
Brianna: Then how did you know they were my favorite?

I guess I'm a mind reader. Although they have oatmeal, pecans and chocolate chips so what's not to love? :)

Grace the texter!

So lately Grace has been asking whichever parent she is with if she can use their cellphone to send the other parent a text message.

This is the conversation we had this morning:

Grace: Can I borrow your cell phone?
Me: What for?
G: I want to send Daddy a text message.
M: Ok let me just get to the right part.
G: Oh I don't need you to do it, I can do it myself.
M: Ok here you go.

slight pause

Grace: How do you spell crazy?
Me: C-R-A-Z-Y

another slight pause

Grace: Ok I sent it but I couldn't find the period.

So I send Josh another message that says Grace sent the last message and I have no idea what it said, then he sends one back that says I should read it because it's funny. Here is what she sent:

Hi how are you doing at work i hope you are crazy if you are im glad

HAHA!

I think she missed a word or two!

:)

It's the little things

So I have been checking the commissary for the jimmy dean sausage that I use to make stuffing and in the breakfast casserole I make for Christmas morning. Well they haven't had it in forever. I went yesterday and it was still out and I was pretty discouraged that they would get it at this point. I could make the stuffing without it and it would be no big deal but what was I going to do about breakfast for Christmas? I love this casserole because you make it the night before then pop it into the over in the morning so once the presents are all opened it's ready! Perfect in my humble opinion! They had some other sausage but nothing that seemed like it would work. For some reason I've been really bothered by this. Not only are we away from family but it seemed like an end to a tradition that really in the big picture isn't a big deal, but to me, yesterday, it was.

So I'm sure you're wondering what the point of this rambling post it! Well this morning Josh called to have me bring him his razor (he's on duty and has been gone since yesterday morning) so after we dropped it off I figured I would run by the commissary real quick to get wax paper since I was already out. Well while we were there I thought I'll just check one last time for the sausage and IT WAS THERE! I could have cried I was so happy.

About sausage.

Strange I know.

Apparently I have issues.

Blame my mother.

Just kidding Mom!

:)

Golf day

So Josh played in the Seabee Golf Tournament today and tied for Third place! Of course then they flipped for who would get the prize and he lost the coin toss. Ah well he had fun anyways!

On another note Brianna keeps calling Josh "step-father" and it's driving him crazy! :) I told him it should make him feel better that she calls me "step-mother" at least she only does it when she is pretending to be a princess. He tried telling her not all princesses have step-parents but alas his logic is lost on the four year old who watches too many Disney movies.

Grace is not a morning person...

just like her Mommy!

Did I mention we have had EIGHT green days in a row!

Yay Grace!!!

Can I smell the flowers?

Brianna LOVES these flowers but will not accept the fact that they are fake and have no scent. My Dad and Lisa gave them to me in 1994 (yes I save everything) so they have been around her entire life but she still wants to smell them all the time!

One day I should spray them with perfume so they smell when she sniffs them!

:)

Charley's in Guam...

does not have the same menu as Charley's in California!

Nothing to say today so here's a couple pictures!

Santa looks a little different in Guam

Today they had a Holiday party at the gym and Santa was there. It seems here in Guam even Santa is more relaxed!

The girls got to decorate their own cookies!

Even the Nativity is a bit different! :)

Brianna loves...

someone more then me.

She was standing looking at some pictures and says "Guess who I love more then you?" so I asked who and she said "Hopper" which translates to Harper her cousin in California.

Silly kid.

She then said she loves Hoppers whole family in California but they live too far away to walk.

Um yeah.

Unless you're Jesus that's a walk you won't be making.

All that worry...

for nothing.

So last night was pretty quiet. Our lights flickered twice so we got the candles and flashlights out just in case but nothing happened. It's still raining this morning but the wind seems to have died down.

So a funny thing. I went off base yesterday after I picked the girls up and keep in mind everything on base has been canceled and places are closing early. As I'm driving down the main road I see a couple at a park on the beach dressed in their wedding finery with a photographer clicking away!!!

I thought the contrast between the two things was funny.

I'm out of the loop, as usual.

I guess were in a tropical storm warning.

My neighbor mentioned something when we were outside, in the pouring rain, when the power was out and now I just got an email saying cheer leading practice was canceled and places were closing early today. Plus tomorrow is their last performance and it may be canceled also due to weather. Crazy!

Maybe I should go to the commissary?

Eh maybe not. :)

Welcome to the jungle

I was talking on the phone on the way to the hospital and I always get cut off driving down the road to get there. I said it's like driving through the jungle so I though I'd post a picture.

Good thing...

I didn't bother resetting all the clocks yet because the power went out again today!

Right before I was going to fix Brianna lunch.

At least the Leapster runs on batteries so I read and Brianna played Leapster for a little bit since we weren't going to be home long enough to break out arts and crafts.

Christmas Party

Ask and you shall receive...
(my black purse is on my shoulder)

So I don't think...

Guam likes me very much.

Now I have a ear infection!

What's up with that?

I need a bubble to live in.

Picture request

Brianna's cheer leading team was asked to come and cheer at the Army vs. Navy game last weekend. Of course they cheered for Navy! Grace didn't want to go sit and watch the football game in the heat so I stayed home with her while Josh took Brianna.

Brianna is always ready to smile for the camera!

They had games for the kids during half time and Brianna won a silver medal in a kick/throw competition. Go Brianna!

We didn't take any pictures of the Christmas party on our camera and we haven't gotten any of the other yet but as soon as we do I'll post those as well!

Just when...

we get all the clocks in the house set to the right time they shut the power off, again.

Ugh.

Did I mention that they don't notify us if it's going to be for two hours or less? Of course they don't usually notify us when it's longer then that either.

Grace's note

So Grace got upset and went to her room and wrote us this note:

I cracked up at the thank you for your support addition!!!

She came back out a little bit later with another note that said "I love you Brianna and Mommy and Daddyyyyyyy signed by Gracie Cotterell"

Personally I like that she puts her last name also, you know just in case we thought it was another Gracie! :)

Did I mention...

Grace was on green on Thursday also???

Friday was a green day as well!!

Yipee!!!

Thursday highs and lows

Thursday night was the Christmas party for Josh's work. It was held at one of the big hotels down on hotel row and was really nice. They had a bunch of prizes and we lucked out because both our tickets won. The first time our ticket was called Josh went up and you get to pick from a table of wrapped gifts, well he picked a painted beer mug. Um ok? So later in the night during the last drawing our other number got pulled so this time I went up and picked and I got a digital picture frame! Yay! I am pretty excited about it!

One cheesy thing though was the first number pulled belonged to one of the guys who bought and wrapped all the gifts so of course what gift did he pick. The Wii! Of course the best gift in the bunch! We all thought it was great he won but he should have let someone else pick for him since he wrapped the gifts!!!

When we got home we found out Grace had been great but Brianna wouldn't go to bed AND had broken Grace's collectible Christmas snow globe. Ugh!

Can't wait to see what is in store for the weekend! We have a cheer leading show, a pool party and a birthday party!

Woo Hoo

Grace had ANOTHER green day!!!

Brianna on the other hand, not so much. ;)

Yay Grace!

Grace came home today and not only did she have a green day, her teacher even wrote "Great day!" with a happy face!!!

While things aren't perfect it helps me think we made some good decisions.

Best seat in the house.

Hey I forgot to brag...

about my girls!

So we had parent teacher conferences a couple weeks ago. The school sets up the times and when you have more then one child in the school they schedule them one after the other. How nice is that!!!

Anyways we went to Brianna's first (thankfully it was on a day Josh had taken off!) and had a very good chat with her teacher. Brianna is doing very well. She knows her letters, colors, shapes, and body parts which is what they stress working on this quarter in pre-K. Her teacher said she is very smart and catches on very quick when learning new things. She also said Brianna is definitely a leader, in other words bossy, which we have noticed also. I think it comes with having a strong willed older sister. :) We had brought up an issue with Brianna not being able to take a nap because of being in the afternoon class and the teacher had also noticed that sometimes Brianna does seems tired so since some kids are moving from the morning class we decided to try her out in that one and see if it helped. So far so good! She does really miss her friends in the afternoon class though so we will see what happens.

Next came Grace's conference. As usual Grace is doing very well in academics but is still struggling with behavior. Her teacher is great though and has tons of patience and really works with her. We couldn't have asked for a better one! Her teacher has something called centers that the kids can do when they finish their regular work. Well Grace really likes the centers so her teacher makes sure she has plenty of things for Grace to do since she finishes quickly. She even got out some extra activities for her to work on. Her teacher also works on giving her extra tasks which she loves. We were lucky last year because Grace was in such a small class so she received lots of attention but this year she is in a MUCH larger class so it's very different.

We really like both of their teachers and the girls really like them as well so I think that this year is off to a great start.

Sunday

Brianna says we're going to watch "Barbie and the Christmas Harold"

um I think she means "Barbie and the Christmas Carol" haha!

We went to the exchange today because we got a flyer that said Santa would be there from 11-2. Well turns out it was a mistake and he is only there on Saturdays. Talk about two disappointed little girls. They handled it very well so we got the Barbie movie instead.

Maybe we will see Santa next weekend...

We have...

lots of cookies


and a Christmas tree!

Come over to our side...

We have cookies!

It's begining...

to look a lot like Christmas.

Oh wait it's not.

Not at all, not even a little bit!

:)

We had a good Thanksgiving. We got together for a potluck with several neighbors and I think a good time was had by all. I brought stuffing and baked homemade pecan pies. YUM!! Plus they were super easy! Only bad thing about pot luck is no leftovers! Oh well there will be some at Christmas.

Today we are going to bake sugar cookies. Grace and I made the dough while Josh and Brianna were out and about and now it's chilling in the fridge. When Grace gets home from Judo and Brianna gets up from her nap we will roll them out and set the girls loose with the cookie cutters. I'll be sure to post pictures after the girls decorate them!

After the cookies we are going to put up the tree. They are VERY excited about it. I was thinking one good thing about have kids who are getting older is I don't worry about how to block off the tree anymore. Nice!

Happy Thanksgiving

from our family to you!

Don't try this at home...

unless you happen to have your own helicopter.

Banana Spider

This was in my front yard.

Yes it's a big as it looks.

Yes it's poisonous.

Yes Josh killed it!

But he only did it because it tried to come visit inside.

I was in the shower and didn't have to deal with it.

Thank goodness.

What?

Is the lipstick too much?

My parenting skills...

have really gone down hill.

Check out the red nail polish, dirty feet and a tattoo.

Nice!

Problem solved...

She would be smiling but, you know, she can't.

Hehe

Three down, thirty three to go...

As of today we have been here for three months which means we have thirty three left. Of course if we leave at the beginning of summer we can knock about two months off there so that's only about 31 months left! Woo hoo!

Josh isn't as excited.

He likes Guam.

He said he would like to retire here.

I know I couldn't believe it either.

I'm sure going to miss him.

:)

Welcome to Guam

Sprint just sent me a text message that said Welcome to Guam and listed the number for Customer Service.

For the fifth time.

I've been here almost three months.

Get with the program people.

She made the paper...

Uh oh

This morning is when I wish I drank coffee...

Brianna

1. Brianna woke up at midnight and as I tucked her back into bed (which is really a mattress on the floor since the parts to put her bed together never turned up when we unpacked) she mumbled in her sleep " I wanna move back to California now".

2. It's 2am and she is watching House Hunters with me (hey don't judge unless you're willing to come out here) and got all excited because they are in Las Vegas.

3. It's now 225am and she is sleeping on the couch, and I'm not going to wake her up. I'm just going to let her sleep there. So there.

4. It's now 235am and she woke up, do you see why I didn't try to move her? haha

5. 245am I sang her Hush Little Baby and she went back to sleep.

6. 320am she fell off the couch. Feel free to judge.

7. 325am she insisted on going back to sleep on the couch. This time I put a pillow on the tile floor.

What are the odds I will get any sleep tonight?

FYI

I paid $3.599 a gallon for gas yesterday. That's the 87 stuff nothing fancy here!

My little stars

On Saturday they had a family fun day up at the Navy housing about 40 minutes from where we live and Grace's Judo and Brianna's cheer (among other things) did a little performance. They had food and a fun time was had by all.

First the little cheerleaders had to get ready:

Then they had to practice:

Then it was time to wait because the Judo was first!

Here comes Grace! She was the youngest and the newest who participated in the display:

Next came the cheerleaders and first they did their dance:

Then some cheers:

Then we had lunch and drove home. After all that Miss B needed a nap and Josh took Grace to a party at the beach for his work. They had a great time but since I didn't go there aren't any pictures! :)