Personalities

People have been asking us forever if we see personalities in each of the girls. I know the politically correct answer is yes, but honestly, until recently the answer was no. In the last couple of weeks though we have started seeing major differences in the girls. Not only do they look very different but they act very different too!

Let me demonstrate for you. Here the sweet little girlies were both wanting the same toy.
Jemma got it first. She is happy happy happy. Jaycie...not so much. She's a little ticked that Jemma has the toy.

Jemma keeps playing with the toy but is very interested in her Mama. She's talking to me watching me laughing with me. Jaycie - TOY. 

So while my little social Jemma is still playing with Mommy, focused Jaycie reaches over and gets the toy. Jemma doesn't even notice.

And when it's all said and done... everyone is happy happy happy! Jaycie got the toy she was so focused on 

 And Jemma got to keep playing with Mommy!

Right now at 8 1/2 months the girls are so different it's fun! Jemma is very very social. She talks all the time. She has said Dada a few times. She laughs HARD when you bounce her or kiss her neck. She laughs so hard that I laugh when she's laughing. It's fantastic! She doesn't move as much (although she moves just fine and can do whatever she wants) she'd just rather hang out and talk.

Jaycie is focused. She sees a toy and she goes after it. She isn't officially crawling but she gets where ever she wants to get quickly. She has already discovered the presents under the tree and has tried to rip them open. If I move her after she's crawled someplace she shouldn't be - she goes right back. She tries to mimic facial expressions and also laughs a lot. 

It's fun. We've been in "survival" mode for so many months that it's nice to finally remember what it's like to have babies in the house. We still have our survival times but we also are starting to get to spend more individual time with the girls and getting to know them better! 

Between the 3 of them.... We are in for quite a ride!! :)

Prepare Yourselves :) (for the cuteness)

I'm home with the babies today because our Tuesday sitter is sick today. I feel badly for my mother-in-law - she's been sick for a week, but I love when I get to stay home with the babies for a legitimate reason (and everyone here is healthy - yay!)

Jaycie is still going through 5ish outfits a day, but today was the last dose of the antibiotics so hopefully we are almost done with the diarrhea stuff. Anyway, she had a blow out right before I tried to take these pictures so she didn't get to stay in the adorable snowman jammies! :)

I will attempt pictures by the tree again when I have some back up. The girls are sitting up well, but I really didn't want anyone to fall into the tree - so I was quick (and some pics are a little off center..!!)!

I know I've said it before but you should know that Greg and I are so Blessed - and we know it! :)

Thanksgiving Break

I had high hopes for Thanksgiving. It was warm. I thought the kids could play outside all day and just have a blast. Well, it was warm, but it was windy and we are passing a cold around in our house so I had to nix Jadyn on the 4-wheeler. BUMMER! The kids did have a great time though, they played downstairs a lot at my parents house. Papa got a lot of the old "toys" working again... skeeball, ms. pack-man  the bouncy house... etc. It's pretty awesome.  Anyway, it was great they played downstairs since Nana was still recooperating from surgery last Tuesday . I must admit though, it is very difficult to remember to take pictures while taking care of Jaycie and Jemma. It is hard! :) I am making a promise to you now to take more at Christmas!

The girls did have Thanksgiving dresses. Jaycie wore hers for a whole hour before she had a blow out. Her ear infection called for antibiotics which has lead to diarrhea. Yay for us! Anyway, I did get a few pictures of her with Jemma before it happened, but none of the 3 girls.

(I love this picture of Jemma. A lot. It might need to be GIANT on my wall at home.) 

Tonight I wanted to get a picture of all the Franz girls. It's been awhile. We need another person here to do this because it takes Greg to take the picture but no one to make goofy faces! I will try again soon because I BELIEVE that we can get one of everyone looking and smiling. Yes, I have high hopes.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend. :)

Fun in the.... fall.

I'm not gonna lie. I LOVE this weather. I like there to be snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but then it can stay in the 50s and 60s for our winter and I am one HAPPY Mama. 

Today Jadyn realized how nice out it was so she begged Daddy to take her outside to do chalk. That quickly morphed into playing in the backyard too. The babies were still asleep so I was able to grab the camera and get a few shots. 

I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little sad that she's too big for this swing. She likes to go so high that I feel much better when she is strapped in nice and tight! She still fits, so I guess we will go with it for awhile! 

Hard to see but here is her chalk drawing. Mommy and Daddy are to the right of the door, the babies are crawling on the left of the door and Jadyn is outside the house in her playhouse. :) She is really into us having a "bigger" house so this was her drawing of it. 

The slide! She loves it and I love that she's big enough to go up and down by herself. Maybe I should say confident enough... :) 

My little fashionista. 

Look Mom! I can lay on my back and go down the slide while Daddy throws the ball at me. 

So stinkin cute! 

Then little Jemma woke up. It was getting cool enough that I put a hat on her. Then I realized that she looked ADORABLE so I sat her down and snapped a few pics. I love them!!!! 

Jaycie didn't get to play outside. She is fighting an ear infection and thankfully slept through all our play time. She's getting better though and should be back to herself in no time! 

I just looked up the weather and saw that it's supposed to be 63 on Thanksgiving!!! Who-hoo! Four wheelers, bikes, and playsets (OH MY!!!). We are excited! 

Nasty ol' ear infection

It's 3:45 a.m. The only time 3:45 a.m. is an acceptable time is when I'm getting up to head to the airport to catch a flight to Hawaii, which ironically  this is the morning that we would leave if we were going there for Thanksgiving (DAD. HELLO????)

Jaycie is up. She has a nasty ear infection. We went to urgent care earlier today.

Let me back up. Jaycie woke up Saturday morning happy. She got fussy about 9am, but I just thought she was ready for her morning nap, so I put her back down. She woke up about  and was not happy. When I got her up she was burning up. I took her temp and it was only 99.4. We ate lunch and she remained unhappy. I certainly couldn't put her down and she fussed even in my arms. I took her temp again and it was 100.5. In "baby word" 100.4 is the magic number for when the doctors will start to take your seriously that something may be wrong. I went to the girls' room and rocked Jaycie who immediately started batting her left ear.

Duh.

Jadyn had many ear infections so I knew right away that Jaycie must have one.

I headed to Urgent Care to make sure I was right and get antibiotics if so. My Mom met me there. I'm so thankful because they ask you to fill out about 3 pages of paperwork that I couldn't not have done if I had to hold Jaycie while doing it.

Jaycie was very hot while I was holding her and the nurse took her temp and told me she didn't have one. Um, wrong. She does. The doctor came in and asked me a few questions and I thought she was going to "blow me off" but then she felt Jaycie and said that she thought Jay had a temp too and looked in her right ear. The doc said her right ear was red but not an infection. They she looked in the left and was like "Oh my gosh this is nasty."

So here I am. I just put more ear drops in her ear and moved her to the playroom. She's kind of fake crying. I'm waiting to make sure that's all it's going to be and then I'm headed back to bed (if Jadyn hasn't taken my spot). I'm hoping that tomorrow about 5pm things are better because that will be the 24hr mark on antibiotics. My poor baby hurts. And that makes this Mama hurt. :(

Sweet baby, just wants to be snuggled.

I tried a cool rag on her head (the top is the only place it would stay put). It seemed to help for a little while.

Here is sassy big sister. I will post this whole pic another day because this is just her head and her "pose" tells the other part of the story.

Just in case...

Somebody who reads this blog isn't my facebook friends, would you help out our school?

BRCS has been nominated for a Power a Bright Future grant from the Clorox Company in hopes of securing up to $50,000 in funding. Now is the tme for our school community to show its support. The program that receives the highest number of 

votes will be awarded the grand-prize grant and the next top vote getters will each be awarded a $25,000 grant. A panel of Clorox judges will also select three schools, one in each category to win a $25,000 judge's choice grant. There are two ways to vote for BRCS: 1) Text (Message and data rates may apply) Text the code 1000pbf to 95248. You can vote one time each day. 2) Vote on-line. Go tohttps://powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/ and find the BRCS nomination to vote. Again, you can vote one time each day. Spread the word to all your family and friends and have them vote as well!

A trip to the zoo...

Last Friday the weather here was B-E-A-utiful! Like my perfect kind of day beautiful. I had been watching the forecast and knew it was coming so Greg and I arranged to play hooky for an afternoon of work and took our girlies to the zoo. I am so thankful we did! The zoo opens at 9:30 and closes at 4:00. We are in school past those hours. The weekend (especially during nice weather) lends itself to a crazy crowded zoo - and that is NOT fun with a double stroller! Jadyn had been begging to go to the zoo, so this seemed like the perfect time to take her again! Did I already say I am so glad we did! It was not crowded, we were able to take our time, and we got to be together as a family enjoying the lovely weather. It was a delightful start to the weekend.

I got a lot of cute pictures.... so hang on! Oh and they uploaded in random order....so deal with it :)

Jadyn and the polar bear. This is as close as she would get. The zoo is usually so crowded that I cannot give time to try to get her with the bear! :)

 Jadyn and Daddy! My little explorers. :)

 "Daddy will you carry me? I'm so tired!" How can you resist that? Of course that left me pushing the stroller which wasn't bad until we hit a hill. Then I thought I was going to die. :)

 These statues are all over Asia in the zoo. Jadyn kept posing with them. I couldn't resist.

 Here she is driving us home. Haha. I'm the tall one in the back....

Jadyn the polar bear!

 Jadyn on the merry go round. She's a pro by now but still squeals! I love it!

Jaycie's first time on the merry go round. She rode with Daddy. She seemed to like it a lot too! 

Here's my picture fail of the day. I had Jemma when we rode the merry go round and couldn't take a picture of her while holding her. So when we stopped I put her up with Jadyn. Yeah, that didn't work either. :) (Greg has a hold of her...she wasn't about to fall. It only looks like it. This was the best picture...YIKES!) She did love it though! 

Jadyn posing. Her idea. Do you think we are in trouble?!?

My sweet sweet Jaycie bug!

 Happy happy Jemma bean!

 And last but not least... the story of the day.

This is the tiger in the new tiger exhibit at the zoo. IT was pretty cool. The railing, however, is right at eye level for Jadyn. So, Greg picked her up so she could see the tiger and she started screaming "Daddy, don't throw me in. Please don't throw me in."

People turned around and stared at us (except for the dad standing beside us who was about to wet his pants.)

Like I said. It was an awesome day!

Spirit Banquet

Tonight was our spirit banquet at school. It's a night where the school family and friends get together to celebrate our school. All of the kids perform (P-12th) and a wonderful meal is provided. It's a fun evening - especially now that I have a kid performing! 

My family (Greg's side) joined me at my table this year. Oh and my favorite gal pal, Raylene. (I've never used gal pal before.... it just might have to stick. What do you think Raylene?) She is a lovely friend who took these pictures for me so I can just sit back and take in the moment. I love that about her. :) 

Anyway, my little cutie did an awesome job! She sang her little heart out. She blew me kisses. She waved to the family. She did well. She even did all the motions when she was supposed to and didn't correct anyone when they weren't doing it quite right. Ha. 

All the leaves are falling down....

I'm a nut...

Listening to applause! 

"come on Miss Raylene...enough with the pictures." :) 

 More leaves? Maybe Noah built the ark...

Here come the animals 2x2

 The preschool with the "big kids" for "America America"

Great job, Lu! (and all the other kids who contributed to the performance.)

Grandma Carmen - this one is for you!

On Saturday Jadyn announced that we needed to "spruce up her room" (her words). When I asked her what she meant she said we needed to paint.

Um, no.

So, instead I offered to rearrange her room. I wasn't sure she would be in to it, but she was. We moved her bed and in doing so moved out the rocking chair (that breaking sound you hear is my heart...). She LOVED not having the chair in her room because she has so much more play space!

Then she asked if we could clean out her closet so her dress up clothes could be in there too. I thought it was a great idea and off we went.

I was nervous that she wouldn't sleep well or that we'd need the rocker or.... but she's done great!

Here is what it looks like, and Grandma she asked me to show you! :)