Good Friends!

Okay so all my worries about whether or not these two would get along have been completely laid to rest. As Abbie has grown into a toddler these last few weeks, she has discovered that she wants to do EVERYTHING that her big sister does! Maggie in turn has discovered that she likes to teach Abbie everything she knows!!!

It is so sweet to watch her help Abbie onto their little tricycle! Then Maggie will push Abbie around on it!

When Maggie gets tired of the game and walks away, Abbie just gives this little whimper and Maggie comes running back to her aid!!!

Grandma's surprise

This is a little out of order but while my mother was here she bought a little ball at Target for Maggie. If she had known how popular it would be she would have bought 2 of them because Maggie and Abbie chase that thing for ever in our side yard!

It's a really neat ball because it has little beads that float around inside it.

I love this picture because the ball is mid-air right after Abbie threw it!

How Leschorns sleep!

Ummmm.... SERIOUSLY?

So...WHY do we have a bed for each child?

(The sheet that was on the bed at bed time is wrapped up around Hannah's legs!!! Pillows are on the floor... along with the blanket. But who needs blankets when you've got a dog to keep you warm!)

My New Hero...

I don't know how many of you know who this woman is. Her name is Irena Sendler. I learned about her last night as I watched the new Hallmark movie about her life story. Then I did further research today via the internet. In the course of 2 1/2 years she rescued 2500 children from the ghetto in Warsaw Poland durring the German occupation in WWII. One at a time, she and several colleagues smuggled Jewish babies and children through under ground sewers, in coffins, in wheel barrows, in ambulances and even a tool box!

She not only saved these children from certain death but re-homed them and kept record of where the children were being sent so that they could one day be reunited with their Jewish families!

The truly amazing thing to me is that when she was finally captured. She endured three months of torture where her legs and feet were broken and her teeth pulled. Yet, she NEVER reveled any information about the people who helped her or the where abouts of the children. She lived to be 98 years old and was never happy with how "few" children she was able to save.

I'd like to think that I would be as courageous as this woman if I were in the same situation but I guess you never know how you'd react to a given situation until you're in it.

(PS. In 2007 she was nominated for the nobel peace prize but it was granted to Al Gore for his work in the documentory about Global Warming! - I am ashamed to know that the human race has come to this!)

WHAT NOT TO WEAR!

Would SOMEBODY turn me in already! I mean I watch Stacy and Clinton all the time. I TRY to follow their rules...really, I do. But come on. Every time I think I have an outfit that looks good I see myself in a picture and want to cringe.
I don't just want the clothes! I want the hair... the makeup... the jewelry! The whole thing darn it!
Or maybe I could do that extreme makeover thing and get my teeth done too!
Okay I'm done with my little pity party...mostly. It's just that I'm really tired of looking so frumpy, and never allowing pictures to be taken on me with my kids because I don't want to be the scummy mom with t-shirts and jeans all the time.
Okay deep breath ... (sigh)

Disposable Pets!!!!

Okay when I was young there was this tv show. I think it was Family Ties but I'm not sure. Anyway, I specifically remember this episode where Alex (Michele J Fox) takes the little brother to preschool and teaches the whole class about running a business. As a class they decide to "run" a pet store. So Alex starts helping them plan the kinds of animals they're gonna have. Some little kid says "Lets sell frogs!"
That's when Alex says "...okay now we have to separate the frogs...tree frogs, slimy frogs, disposable frogs..."
At that point the teacher interrupts, "DISPOSABLE frogs?"
Alex's reply? "Yeah you know, the kind that die as soon as you bring them home."

Well, there we go! Because Alex P. Keaton said it was so, we know they exist! All of this story has a point. Little Max is dying! Honestly it TICKS ME OFF! I mean really Is it that hard to check and make sure that the hamster your selling is healthy!?! I mean I paid 16 bucks for the silly little thing! Since we brought him home he's had diarrhea and now he's cold and only moves if you poke him!!!! All any moron would have had to do is check his cage before they sold him to us. THAT'S HOW WE FOUND OUT!!! UUUUUGGGGG! (I DID look but it was spotless...as in just-been-cleaned-so-someone-should have-noticed-the green slime spotless) Can you FEEL my frustration? Poor Ammon! The worst part about it is that we are afraid that what ever Max has... Zorro will get it to!
So, now I can take them in for an even exchange! We can't get our money back and go to a different store AND we can't have little Max back so that Ammon can bury him. What does that teach my 8-yr-old!?!

PET SMART STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Oh yeah, and they're way over priced to!)

Welcome Max and Zoro!

As you all know Ammon lost his Olivia about 3 weeks ago. Knowing that Olivia was going to pass, we have been talking about the option of getting a new pet. Neither John or I pushed and we let Ammon decide when he was ready. Ammon was clear about his feelings that there would never be another lizard like Olivia, but he was interested in getting different pet. His Choice? Russian Dwarf Hamsters. NOT MY FIRST CHOICE... FOR SURE! He loves them though!

This is the tashmahaul (I know I didn't spell that right but I even googled it and could not find the correct spelling!) of all hamster cages. John and I bought the cage and Ammon bought the extra tubes (17.00 can you believe it!?!) Ammon has a grand plan of having tubing and cages running all over our school room!

Ummm...We'll see.Here's Ammon as I tried to take a picture of his squirmy self holding his new little guys. (see bottom right corner) One of them is climbing down his back at this point so the picture was a wash!

First Timer!

Announcing the loss of Gabie John's first tooth! He had a little help knocking it loose from his older sister - who gave him a good blow (accidentally of course) resulting in 5 stitches behind his ear - ironically it fell out the day he was having his stitches removed!
Funny story: The Tooth Fairy mistakenly grabbed 2 FIVE dollar bills instead of 2 one dollar bills and put them in Gabie's froggy pillow. She was not aware of this until Gabie informed his mother!!!!

Blue and Gold!

Ammon's first Blue and Gold Banquet was in March and with all of the chaos lately I haven't had the chance to blog about it yet. He was so tickled to have an evening all about him! I was so excited for him and he now has a new found desire to earn his Wolf! I'm so excited! We've been working on a couple of his badges and he's just about ready to sign off on them! Malachi and Gabie can't wait until they get to be in scouts to and neither can John!!!! He loves doing all of those activities with his boys!

Look what I got!

Two bones fractured clean through and a third has stress fractures! No cool story... I don't know how I did it!

Chi's Birthday Surprise!

As promised...Here is Chi's big birthday SURPRISE! I was so excited about this, I could barely contain myself! I called a nice restaurant last week and arranged for Malachi to have a tour of their kitchen. PERFECT for my future Chef/Scientist! John took him for the tour, and then they ate dinner. (Mommy got to stay home with a sick baby.) They went for the tour and Chi barely said a word the entire night... even when they surprised him and John by bringing out a huge brownie with 7 candles on it he barely spoke.
On the way home John called me to tell me he was a little disappointed by Chi's reaction (he wasn't as animated as you would expect a 7-yr-old receiving the perfect gift should be) I assured him that he loved it and that he needed a chance to soak it all in and then he'd tell us how much he liked it.
Sure enough! First thing this morning Malachi started telling me all about the tour, and the restaurant, and the kitchen. Did you know that they have refrigerators and freezers big enough to walk in!?! He told me about how fast every one was moving around and how fast people were cutting things up. "... and they didn't use recipe cards like you, MOM!"

Any fear that he didn't enjoy himself completely disappeared! I am so excited for him! Happy Birthday Chi-Chi!