"Growing Up"

Talia gets her ears pierced!!

I remember I had to wait until I was about 12 years old to get my ears pierced. Talia doesn't realize how lucky she is! When she was a baby, her mom pierced her ears, but they only lasted a few days because she had an allergic reaction to the earrings. So Troy and I thought we would try again. We went to Arundel Mills on Saturday, and were walking around to burn some of the kids energy. We came across the store Icings/Claire's (what ever it's called now). There was a big sign in the window that said "Free Ear Piercing"....so of course with Troy and I seeing the word "Free", we decided to go in. We looked at the prices of the earrings (which is where they normally get you), and decided that we could afford $16.00 to pierce her ears. We asked Talia if she wanted to get them done, and she shook her head yes. So we sat her in the big chair (which was like a kings throne to her), and told her what would happen. We told her that she would feel a little pinch, then it would be over. The lady pierced one ear, and we were expecting a cry or a scream....but she didn't do anything except frown! Same reaction after the second ear. When she got down from the chair, she must have gone to every mirror in that store (and believe me, there are many of them) and checked out her new earrings. Stainless steel....they are wonderful! Anyways, the pictures below are of her once we got home (mine and Troy's apartment).

Demari Learns to Shave

So the day before Talia got her ears pierced (after we got back from our failed attempt to trick-or-treat), Troy decided to go into the bathroom to shave. Of course Demari was very inquisitive as to what daddy was doing. So, what does Troy do? He stands Demari up on the toilet seat, puts shaving cream on his face, and gives him a razor (don't freak out....the razor has the safety cover on it so the blade wasn't exposed at all!). Troy began to show Demari how to shave. Demari was loving it! I have never seen him smile so much! It made him feel like he was such a big boy! So what did I do? I grabbed my camera and started snapping away! I thought it was so cute! I captured them from start (well, almost the start) to finish!

"Halloween....What a BUST!!!"

Yes.....the costumes are the same, but it's a different day! Thank goodness for that trunk-or-treat a week or so ago because Halloween was a BUST!! Troy and I were thinking that because we live in a HUGE apartment complex, that it would be awesome for trick-or-treating. Boy....were we ever wrong! The kids got in their costumes (Talia had to wear her boots instead of her Cindrella shoes....which was fine with me because I'm sure her boots were more comfortable) and we headed out for what we thought would be a fun night of knocking on doors, getting lots of candy (yay....sugar rushes!!! lol) and hearing, "Awwww....how cute." This was NOT the case. We started in the building next us..... "knock, knock, knock" on one door...... no answer. So "knock, knock, knock" on another door..... no answer here either. "knock, knock, knock" times 16 doors = no answer at any of the doors which = disappointment. I think Troy and I were the most disappointed because we thought it was so rude for people not to answer the door for kids. "Well, maybe they weren't home" were some responses I got from some people...... nope, they were home. Lights on, music blasting, people talking inside....they were definitely home! But what can you do? At least the kids had the opportunity to do something for Halloween which they probably wouldn't have had if they weren't with us for the weekend. They had a lot of fun at the trunk-or-treat, and they just enjoyed putting their costumes on for Halloween. They thought it was pretty neat that the dogs went with us too.... and that they too had on costumes! :) Next year, we're just going to go to a mall where they have halloween activities and trick-or-treating from store to store. Halloween sure isn't what it use to be when we were kids!


The pictures are of Demari, "Daddy", Talia, Maxie, and Jeminye (Maxie as an angel, and Jeminye as a devil). Maxie is super easy to take pictures of because she will stay if you tell her to. Jeminye has a super hard time being calm and paying attention (Troy says she has ADD....LOL).

Hmm......have you ever noticed that I'm never in pictures??

"Doggie Graduation"

Over the past 8 weeks on Thursday evenings, we have been faithfully taking our doggies to the "Beginner Training Class" at our local Pet Smart. We have definitely seen improvements with our dogs. The most noticable improvement with Maxie was her behavior with other dogs. She's never ever ever been mean to other dogs (she doesn't have a mean bone in her), but she is definitely a shy dog around other dogs! The very first week she was stuck under the chair the entire class. After about the 3rd or 4th week....she came around and started venturing to the center of the class....which is where she tried to be the entertainment of the class (she was pretty successful most times)! Of course Maxie was the oldest (almost 3), and the other dogs were all under 1, including Jeminye so some things came easier for Maxie. BUT, Maxie went through her puppy stage too!! With Jeminye, the most noticable improvement was her decreased level of hyperness during class. The first several weeks she was super hyper that it made it impossible to do anything! She finally calmed down a little bit which made it not so impossible.....not by much, but some is better than nothing!

So after the 8 long weeks the class is finally over and our doggies graduated with their "Class." Yay doggies! :)

The two pictures above are Jeminye's and Maxie's classmates. The one on the top is 1 year old Noosie, and the one on the bottom is Bono (I'm not sure how old he is, but I know he's under 1). The dogs all got so excited each time they saw each other in class!

Below are attempts to take pictures of Jeminye with the graduation cap on.........she was more interested in chewing the hat than wearing it!

Attempt 1.......

Attempt 2......

Attempt 3.......

Attempt 4......

Attempt 5.....

Attempt 6....We gave up at this point!

And then there's Maxie.......

Picture 1 of 2

Picture 2 of 2

We love our doggies!

"Trick-or-Treat"

So tonight (Saturday, October 25th), Liz, Chris, Emily, CJ, my mom, Troy, Deonte, Talia, and Demari (and me of course) all got together and went to the "Trunk-or-Treat" at the church. Emily was a cheerleader, CJ was a dragon, Talia was Cinderella, and Demari was Thomas the Train.

Normally what happens is all the kids come in their costumes, and play games inside the church gym for a little while. Then later on, they all go outside to the cars that are lined up to the sidewalk with their trunks nearest the sidewalk. They usually decorate the trunks for Halloween, and the kids go trunk-or-treating. Well, it didn't exactly happen as planned. It was raining all day so the plans had to be modified. The trunk-or-treat turned into a trick-or-treat inside the church hallways. The kids got a ton of candy..... it should last them for weeks - and halloween hasn't even arrived yet! :)

All in all, EVERYBODY really enjoyed themselves! Troy and Deonte enjoyed watching all the kids run around, and got several good laughs. The costumes were great, and the games were entertaining and rewarding! I took a bunch of pictures and couldn't decide which ones to post, so I'm posting them all.

Emily reminds me of myself when I was her age! Chris and Jessica know.... there's a picture of the three of us when we went trick-or-treating. Chris and Jessica were posing for the picture, and I was there opening a piece of candy!

Emily at the ring toss (above)

(ABOVE) Emily quickly realized that if she got closer, the ring toss would be much easier, and she would get more rings on the post.

(ABOVE) Demari, Emily, Liz, and 1/2 of moms body...at the ring toss again!

(ABOVE) Demari learned the same lesson Emily did about the ring toss....the closer he is the easier it is!

Emily gets a boost from grandma (above)

Talia has her "shot" at basketball. I think she actually made this one! (above)

Emily poses for the camera....she is too cute! :)

Talia and Demari try their luck at the bean bag toss (above)

Emily trying to hold CJ (grandma had to help)

The whole crew

Demari.....uh um, excuse me....Thomas the Tank Engine

Grandma and the little dragon, CJ

Emily and Talia at the fish pond (above and below)

FINALLY!!!

Ok, so the shoe pictured above is the first shoe I want as soon as Troy starts his new job! YAY!!! He got a job! WHEW! :) He will be working in an unnamed store that sells unnamed shoes....can't say what, otherwise it could jeopardize his job! He loves selling shoes, and he's good at selling them too! This job will be so much better than the one he had before, mainly because it won't take such a toll on his body! Brand new shoes....here I come!!

"Lifestyle Changes"

Why is there a picture of Gold's Gym and iPod Nano's you ask? Well, it's quite simple. Other than the fact that I didn't really have anything else to post.....it's here because Troy and I decided to get our non-shapely bodies in shape! Yes, I'm probably making up words, but that doesn't really matter...you all get the point! Anyways, after months of feeling like we needed to do something about our ever increasing weight, we decided to join the gym when our apartment complex was having a promotion with the gym. $25/month, and only $25/down....you can't beat that anywhere really! Usually when there's a "promotional rate", the membership is limited... but not ours! We get full benefits! The really cool thing is that there is a seperate work out room for the women. This I'm sure will be used at some point in time! :)



And for the iPod nanos......you can't work out without some tunes! Troy and I broke down and bought one for each of us. We each got an 8GB nano for a really really good price! Troy got the lime green, and I got (you guessed it), PINK!! We decided to buy them because we are always paying bills and we needed to do something for us. Yes, money is tight, but in order to stay motivated and to get our $$ worth at the gym, we needed something! So, right before I updated our blog, I played around with both iPod nanos and converted all the music I had to iTunes.... which came out to be 976 tunes! Then I synchronized our iPod's....and now we each have nearly 1,000 tunes to keep us running! That should last for quite some time....oh, and the memory isn't even 1/2 full yet! Why didn't we get one earlier??? These things are AWESOME!!!

Wish us luck!