Simmons Party of Five: January 2009

Friday, January 23, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Tara, Kenny, Braxton and Vivian came to visit over the weekend. We had so much fun playing Catan until midnight or later! =) Here's some pictures from our photo session with Brax and Vivi. Brax is 6 years old, Vivi is 8 weeks old.

Braxton's hands, Vivian's feet

New Years Eve 2008

On New Years Eve, we went to Chris and Amy Lee's house (last minute plans since my cousins decided to not come until the next morning). Jason and Michelle came with us and we had a great time playing the dice game, snacking on foods and drank sparkling red grape juice (yummy!) as the ball dropped. I was sooooo tired from painting all day (the first day of 4 that I started the painting job at my house). We had fun anyway! Here's some pics.

Me and Tony

Michelle and Jason Steffenhagen

Chris and Amy Lee

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Funny Things Kids Say... (Brayden)

Kenny says to Brayden: "Brayden, we're moving in and taking over your room forever. Is that okay?"
Brayden: "Um, ok..." (shrugs shoulders)
Me: "Is that okay, Brayden? You want to move into the playroom?"
Brayden: "Well, I will miss my music." (they go to sleep with music on)
Memaw Linda: "You could come live with us."
Brayden: "OK!" (extremely excited)
Me: "But, Brayden, wouldn't you miss us?" (I'm giving him a pout look)
Brayden: "Well, yeah, but your guys' internet messes up a lot."

So, I guess we better get our internet fixed so our son will want to live with us! LOL! We were all cracking up over this.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

GOONDA!

As some of you may remember, this is Brayden. When he was this age (about 1 year old), he would often ask for a "Goonda." Being his parents, we knew what it meant, DRINK. We have no idea or any clue where he came up with "Goonda" but we knew he was always talking about his sippy cup.
This morning, before school and breakfast, the boys and Emy started to watch an old Ewoks movie. We have it on DVD. At breakfast, Brayden tells me... "Mom, on the Ewoks movie, Wicket says, "Goonda" for drink so when I was a baby, I spoke EWOK!" I just started laughing... thinking, surely I've GOT to see this! Sure enough, Wicket DOES say GOONDA. I couldn't tell in the movie what the word meant, but it definetly meant drink or food. So, I looked it up on google... you know how George Lucas LOVES to come up with different languages for his movies. So, it was pretty easy to find. GOONDA means food in Ewok.
Now, I ask... how in the world did my little baby know that word and come up with it in the right context?! We didn't even have this movie or watch it until recently.
It's a mystery.... but Brayden sure LOVES the story of Goonda...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy Birthday to Tony!

Tony turned 34 on December 15th. We all go to Red Lobster every year for his birthday - his favorite restaurant. Here we are having some fun with the funny glasses our server gave him.

Ashton is wearing Tony's glasses... anything for a laugh

Everyone had fun with the glasses...

Cleveland Flood 2009

Yesterday, schools were closed here in Cleveland due to the flooding in the area from the rain on Tuesday. It was soooo crazy! These pictures are of the area that I take pictures all the time... the golf course on Candies Lane right by our house. The flood water came from the creek there, Candies Creek.

This all field and greens normally...

All this water should not be here

The road is closed because of the water.

People stopping to take pictures... such craziness.... we drove there again today. It's all dried up now.

Sleepy Emy

Emy fell asleep watching WALL-E... she looked way too cute to not take pictures of her!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Emy and Brayden - Too Cute 4 Words

Let me just say this... my front porch has AWESOME lighting! I LOVE taking pictures against the brick. Here's some cute pics of two of my cuties. Ashton was around, but not for the camera at that moment. =)

Emy with her adorable hat

What a doll

Brayden lost both front teeth at Christmas time. He lost the first front tooth on the 23rd at Memaw Sarah's and he lost the second front tooth at home on Saturday. He's so adorable without them!

Brayden is very much into Indiana Jones at the moment. Thanks to Memaw T and Papaw Steve who got him Indiana Jones figures and the LEGOS Indiana Jones video game for his DS - he has become a huge fan. We actually got the boys an Indiana Jones costume for Christmas (halloween clearance-LOVE that!) so Brayden has been wearing that everyday day (I made him take off to wash it this day) along with Emalyn's camoflauge purse for his Indy bag. I just ordered him a real Indiana Jones bag off ebay so he would stop carrying Emy's purse around. The looks we got at Las Margaritas! Sheesh! He's so funny with all his "characters" he's so into...

I've Been Busy...

I know what some of you are thinking... Come on! You've been home from Cincinnati a whole week now and STILL haven't put up pictures from Christmas? Ok, here's why. I pretty much took the whole week to paint the inside of our house. I planned on just doing the main area - foyer, living room and upstairs hallway. But, when I bought the paint, they gave me a contractor's discount (Tony has used them for lots of stuff with his murals at church) - so I decided to do the dining room and kitchen, too. What a difference it has made! It feels like home now and looks so gorgeous. Tony even realized how not at home he felt once he saw it finished. It feels like a whole different place. We love it. While I was painting (this was like the third or fourth day of painting), Ashton said, "Man, Mom. You are doing SUCH a good job at painting. You've been painting for days!" Ah, my hard work didn't go un-noticed. =)

Dining Room - color, Brown Mustard

Kitchen - color, Cedar Chest

Kitchen-ette (aka Computer Room)

Foyer - color, Applesauce Cake

Living Room - color, Applesauce cake

Living Room

She loves this hat!

When Emy was a baby, a friend bought this hat for Emy. The woman who bought it was a mother of a boy who was in Brayden's pre-school class (that's how long ago it has been!). She had a daughter the same age as Emy and bought the hats for both girls. Emy STILL loves this hat. Here's some pictures to show how special this hat is.

Emalyn's 1 year old pictures

Emalyn's 2 year old pictures

Taken the other day... Emalyn - 3 and 1/2 years old

Simmons Party of Five