I am the worst blog slacker, ok, slacker in general =/

Family update: Michael has been promoted to asst. store manager at Buy Buy Baby. He got a nice raise, and hopefully will be moving up again in position soon.

Ella Grace is sweet as ever. She now has 3 bottom teeth, crawls, and is pulling up on furniture, people, etc. Basically whatever she can use to help her stand up, she uses it. She has yet to start cruising, but I'm sure that's not too far ahead in our future. She says mama and dada. She claps (which is so darn cute) and has recently started waving.

Kaitlyne is getting so grown up. :( She is such a good sister, and daughter too of course. She still loves preschool and dance class. I'm not so sure what she will think when summer comes around and there is no more school. I've tried to prepare her for it, but I don't think she fully understands what I mean.

Spring is finally here for the most part weather wise and it always puts me in a good mood when the weather is nice. It's interesting that now that I have kids...I notice things a little more. For example driving K to school in the mornings, we talk about the blooming trees, etc. That is something I probably wouldn't have given much thought about before, but explaining it to K and seeing things through her eyes is so much fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Yesterday, the girls and I ended up running over to HT for some groceries. We got some stuff to make Blondies for V-day, and some other stuff that was a good deal at HT this week with E-vic + coupons (.49 olive oil!!)

So last night Kaitlyne and I made blondies. Instead of just using chocolate chips, we used half choc. chips and half peanut butter chips (OMG) They turned out super yummy.

Today wasn't as lonely as I thought it would be. Michael's mom called me this morning to see if we wanted to go out for lunch. So Steve and Matt dropped her off here on their way to the car show at the state fairgrounds, and we headed over to Fat Daddy's for lunch (yummmy!)

She got Kaitlyne a maisy doll and book for V-day, and Ella this cute set of musical instrument toys that Ella really likes and has been playing with all day. She also got me a box of chocolates :)
We went to wal mart afterwards b/c I had to pick up cat food and some juice for Kaitlyne for school and home. Then, Debbie filled up my gas tank!!!! She's such a great help to us.

We came back to the house and hung out here for awhile until Steve came back to pick her up. We had fun watching Ella attempting to crawl (mostly backwards :) ) Ella has another tooth that has broken through the bottom, so now both of her bottom two teeth are out!

Now it's close to 5:30 and Kaitlyne is in her room playing and watching monster's inc. Ella is asleep in the swing! And I'm actually getting some time to mess around on the computer/blog, etc.!!!! WoOT!

I cleaned up the house today, vacuumed, did a couple loads of laundry (mainly kaitlyne's bedding again) and unloaded and re-ran the dishwasher. It's been an accomplished day I think :) I'm looking forward to tonight b/c the new season of amazing race comes on!!! yay!

Busy week at our house.  Wednesday was Ella's dr.'s appointment with Dr. Helmrath, her pediatric surgeon at UNC Children's hospital.  Gma Debbie and Gpa Steve (and Matt) came over to our house to play/watch Kaitlyne so that Michael and I could take Ella to her appointment.  She had to get chest x-rays first thing, then we went up to see the Doctor.  He was really happy with her x-rays, and said that her left lung looks completely back to normal!!!!  We were really happy to hear that.  After driving back home, the whole fam went out to eat over at Vincent's for lunch; it was ok.

Then the girls, Michael and I headed over to the new Harris Teeter for its grand opening day.  It is 2 stories and it is soooo nice.  They had a lot of great deals and samples, etc.  They even had a chocolate fountain!!! (Chocolate fountain.....I'm there!!!)  We looked around there for a bit then headed home.

Thursday was an interesting day.  Kaitlyne had her Valentine's  party at school.  We made valentines for her friends that were little bags filled with teddy grahams, then a handmade tag that said "Bear Hugs to _____ from Kaitlyne".  They were really cute and a big hit at the party.  I dropped K off at school that morning, and I had a few errands to run before I came back for the party.  I ran to Target and Michaels, then to Papa Johns to pick up the pizza for the party.  At the party, the kids sang a couple songs.  "God is bigger than the boogey-man" and "Going on a bear hunt" (both veggie tales songs, I think).  Then they all shared valentines and ate pizza/fruit, etc.

After school, I got a call from Michael saying that the asst. manager of his store quit!!  This asst. manager was supposed to be flying out the next day (Friday) for Tampa to help with a store opening.  So, they asked Michael if he would be able to fill in, and fly to Tampa.  Michael said sure, and so he flew out today (Saturday) on his way to Tampa to help out.  We're crossing our fingers that when he gets back to his store, that he will be possibly up for a promotion to a new position.  His store manager is behind him, so its now up to the district manager to decide.  He will be in Tampa for 10 days.

So here the girls and I sit at home today.  It snowed last night, and Kaitlyne has been sick (Thurs. night mostly) so for now we're just going to hang out at home and hope that I can drudge up something to make for dinner :)

We've spent the day at home today for the most part. Michael has the day off and he put up the book shelf in the girls' play room. I clipped coupons out of the Sunday paper (surprise!). We're watching the super bowl right now and Michael is making some appetizers for dinner. Ella has been a little grumpy today b/c her tooth is probably bothering her. She had one of her bottom teeth (left one) break out a week or so ago and she's been a little irritable lately, so there may be more teeth on our horizon.

Kaitlye said something funny a few nights ago. Michael and I were bickering about something silly, and we asked Kaitlyne a question about it....she responded "This is so annoyin' " and proceeded to walk out of the room!!!! Needless to say, Michael and I were both speechless :) What can I say, she has attitude. haha....

I'm glad to finally have my coupon binder somewhat organized. I had been sooo behind on coupons, it wasn't even funny. So now hopefully I can keep up with it and I won't feel so overwhelmed. We shall see!