Happy Valentine's Day!

A little early.
Someone went to Target! There was a V-day sale.

Look at the cute cupcake sandals I bought for Baby Girl. It was an ahhhh I'm so glad I still get to buy cute little things - moment. They are a size 5 and swallow her foot.

On another note, this holiday is worse than Halloween. I am eating candy and chocolate (see first picture) non-stop. I am baking for preschool parties and sampling everything. I need an intervention. It's just not good.

Bodda-Bing!

This is where you sleep when you write on my walls and break my cabinet doors. I'm kidding, people!!!!

Maybe. ;-)

Five is Devine

A five year old. Right here:
By five and a half I bet those bangs will have grown out.

I finally got my picture of him on the stairs in this irresistible shirt. You can scroll down to see the details of that or click here.


I was going to put a picture of him at 3 in this shirt. It just isn't working out so well.

One of his teachers calls him "peanut butter and jelly face" and with good reason. He brings a bag of acorns home from the playground most days and tells me on the ride home how they are like a pumpkin inside. Yesterday a neighbor was over playing and he came in the house to tell me "We are going to get married."

When we are in the car he drives me crazy messing with Baby Girl. I am constantly saying "don't touch her" and "leave her alone". I do like the way he will lean over and whisper to her "I am going to love you forever." That is so sweet. But, just you wait and see what he did to the house...

Screamin' Beans

Your kids will love this. My boys were howling and played it four times before I told them they had to give my computer back.

We had chili for dinner so it was very appropriate.

Oh-Five

Happy Birthday, Little Guy!

He is a moody little fellow. you never know if you will get a snarl or a big loving hug from him. If I am in a hurry I walk on eggshells so nothing will set him off. He is a brilliant negotiator. He hops, climbs and jumps. A lot. He adds Ls to words that don't have Ls in them (blathroom). He refers to any date in the past as "yesterday". He is loud, has an evil laugh and a bad haircut and I love him. He is all about coloring and drawing (often in the wrong places). He wants a real jeep and is so sweet to his little sister. He sometimes takes her out by the legs, but you know, in a nice way. His teacher calls him "peanutbutter jelly face" with good reason. He loves his PB&J and would eat it for every meal if we let him. I would have too at that age and am still rather fond of it. He has become skinny so I think he could use a little extra peanutbutter. I tried to sneak him almondbutter a few times. He isn't buying that.

Happy Birthday, Little Guy (and Elvis too).

Today he has on tap: Leader at school and birthday party with his classmates, baking his own birthday cake with Grammy (wish her luck), and a playdate at our house. He will get a few gifts as well and I hope they aren't books.

Little Guy-Eve

On the Eve of my Little Guy's Fifth birthday, I have some pre-birthday activities to post. The Big Guy calls the night before his birthday Big Guy Eve and we laugh and laugh and laugh..

I went to Party City to get a few things for my boys' joint birthday party. I bought some Kung Fu Panda stickers a couple of months ago and thought I would get some plates and party stuff with the same theme for the Little Guy. It was nowhere to be found and I asked two employees if they had it. They both shook their heads with pity and said "Oh no. We don't carry that." They said it almost as if it was a ridiculous question I had asked. The second person said "We have never had that!". I didn't bother to tell them how wrong they were. Is there something I don't know about Kung Fu Panda? Why?

There is no extra charge for awesomeness... OR attractiveness.

We had a joint birthday party for both of my boys last week at a jumpy place. There is a jumpy place right across the street from us and apparently it was too close. We had to drive 20 minutes to this one. I said if they had it there they had to share the party and they were okay with it so Woo-HOOOO! It was all of the Big Guy's idea and he is lucky his little brother idolizes him and does whatever he wants. Above is the one picture during the party that my Big Guy stopped running for me to take a picture of him. Below is when I asked The Little Guy to stop (he had to be held down). Although it was a joint party, The Big Guy refused to go sit next to his brother and blow out the candles. They were at opposite ends of the table and had a stand off on which one would move next to the other. I don't have a lot of patience for that especially with a room full of people and a worker-bee standing with a big cake waiting to put it down. So, there you have it. Decision made. I would like to say The Big Guy learned a life lesson, but he probably doesn't even remember or care now.
The Little Guy always licks his plate clean when he eats cake. How can you even argue with that? You should have had some of that cake - you might have done the same. Again, I ate most of what was left of the cake when we got home. Brown-noser? I can't wait for his bangs to grow back out.

Our older friend made him a cake this week and gave him 3 gifts. I might also add that she was very generous giving him more money than a 5 year old needs. Anyway, the 3 gifts were all books from her Mt. Rushmore trip. After opening the third one he threw it on the floor and started crying. It was pretty embarrassing although I secretly could not blame him.

What Five year old boy wants a book about girls riding horses for his birthday? TOYS! Bring on the jeeps and car tracks, lady!

I tried to explain that he could buy a toy with his money and I think he was too distraught to grasp that concept.

Here we are with cake #2. It was actually a brownie with icing and eats just as well.He was smiling in this picture because it was before he opened his gifts and still had hope.

Happy Birthday, Little Guy (becoming Big).

New Years Eve 2008

I'd like to buy the world a Coke.

My Baby Girl went to bed long before the festivities began. This was the only little girl partying with us and she had to play with a bunch of rough lightsaber-toting boys. Her hair is like that because she was forced to be Princess Lea.
Our 11th New Year's Eve together. We are not always this fun and festive. We are often heard saying "no," "stop it," "keep it down," "hurry and buckle up" and "flush please." My hubby thinks it is okay to squirt whipped cream into the open mouth of any nearby child so I guess we he has his moments.







































Glow sticks saved the night when we ran out of sparklers. They were great. They don't catch the yard on fire although they do cause fighting over "connectors" and a few got stuck in the trees.





My girlfriend would be horrified if she knew I shared with anyone in the world the game we played with the kids. Don't judge us.


3....2....1!

Here we are right at Midnight watching the Ball drop. It is probably not the best idea to keep little kids under the age of 8 up until midnight. It is the next day that they we pay for it. They had a good time and there were no questions about Dick Clark from them (thankfully). Right after this was when I Googled him. He is 80 in case you are wondering.


This is what the kids drank. I don't think any of them actually drank it and I was too scared to try it.


I have no New Years resolutions. I will continue to try and not eat as much and keep a cleaner and more organized home. That is nothing new. Toys, kid's artwork and chocolate keep tripping me up.

I think I may be saying this for the last time in 2009 so listen up...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Flashback Friday New Years Edition

We had sparklers this year on New Year's eve. There were four little kids and it was quite exciting for them. Only one of them caught the backyard on fire. It was dark and I wasn't sure what or who was on fire so I helped by telling one of the Dads "RUN!" It must have worked because no damage was done.

It reminded me of the first time my boys ever had sparklers. It was New Years Eve in Orlando and no jackets were needed.
(no long pants needed either I should add.)

New Years Day 2006

We spent that New Years Day in Disney World. Like most of our Disney trips, the boys inadvertently licked something and had a stomach virus for the following 24 hours.

Mayberry Parade

pre-Christmas activities

Some pictures can tell a thousand words. This one does not.
That is what they were waiting for. It is the Christmas parade in our town. It is the same every year except they added a small HS band this year. Santa trails behind at the end in a little carriage and usually goes so fast I don't get a picture. They circle our main round-about twice and then he throws dust on the tree to light it. It's no Macy's Day Parade and is humorous to me. We know a lot of the people there so I guess it is a good get together. The Little Guy sang with his school beforehand. There was no fuzz picking of sweaters there because they were crammed too close together. He could not compete with the very dramatic-hand-waving girl in front of him and eventually just stepped off the riser behind her so we couldn't even see him. I don't think our boys are going to end up being famous musical performers (you never know...).

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Alternately titled: The family most worthy of hair makeovers.

I love these little children no matter how bad their hair looks. Merry Christmas to all of you.

ANGEL

One of my little angels.

This was before his school Christmas performance. It is in his classroom and now that I can see his teacher's humongous computer monitor in the background, I am feeling bad that I didn't give more to their annual fund. That woman needs a laptop!

Cute little costumes and lots of them. Guess which Mom did not help with them? That would be me. They start talking about cutting fabric and anything close to sewing and I break out in a cold sweat. I contribute by being the Prayer Mom. I pray lots and lots for dead cats and fish, run-away animals and anything else that troubles a 7 year old's little mind. It can be difficult to pray about the same things over and over in a meaningful way. It has been a different walk I have been able to take with God praying with these children so often. It will probably end up benefiting me more than them.

Christmas has touched me in a new way again this year. I came across an old friend on Facebook that is an Atheist and seems to openly hate Christianity. My world seems to be mostly church friends and others a lot like me. I don't encounter people like this too often that hate what I stand for so much that you can feel it. There was nothing I could say to change his mind at this point in time so I hope that I was able to show kindness and love so that a seed could be planted and someday he will feel differently. I am so thankful for what I know and how God is the one in control of my life. I am so thankful that he would come down in the form of a baby to save me. I can see the contrast in my life and my friends by not the lack of messiness but by the hope and love I feel and can accept. As I typed this he just sent me a "holiday wish" message hoping I get everything I want... I will reply "Merry Christmas!" and hope that I don't make him mad again tonight. Say a little prayer for him...

I just meant to write a little post and show you how big the computer monitor was. Sorry for too much sap that might have come your way. After the last paragraph we went to our Christmas Eve Family service at church. My Big Guy said it best when he said "it wasn't my favorite, but it was okay." I'm so glad he can occasionally have tact (unlike later when he opened a gift from me and said "that isn't too exciting").

I am feeling exhausted and have some hours of work ahead of me baking and preparing for tomorrow. I am a bit too cranky I guess because my husband asked if I would be snapping at him all evening. I told him I hoped not but he shouldn't ask so many silly questions.

It is now time for some chocolate almond ice cream and to find the channel with the marathon of A Christmas Story. It just isn't Christmas Eve without the kid's tongue stuck to the pole.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Fuzzy and Bright

I can't find one of my camera cards. The little purple one (that is how old it is - I don't think they make purple ones any more). I don't know how to get the video off my camera either. If I could I would surely post the Big Guy's Christmas program at church. He had another one at his school that was extremely impressive, moving, the works. His church choir sang for about 30 minutes and all of them had a line or two. It was fine except they should have ended it about a song or two before they did. I'm certainly not one to judge, but why are they putting all of those little 6 and 7 year old boys together on stage? Isn't that just asking for trouble? The Big Guy was next to his very best friend who just happened to be wearing a lovely red Christmas sweater. I told his Mama he was never to wear a Christmas sweater ever again. During the last song he pulled off a big fuzz ball from that sweater and blew it into the air. It was just too funny for the Big Guy to contain himself. He had to pick one off and blow it too. The higher the fuzz ball floated, the harder they laughed. This continued and eventually the little fuzzies landed on the boys in front of them. Again, just too funny for them to contain themselves and pretty soon they all were blowing fuzzies to the boys on the bottom row. It was chaos. I think I might have smiled a little bit and I will admit that if it had not been my child, I would have laughed hard. In the moment it was pretty stressful not knowing where their antics might lead. I contemplated walking across the big room in front of all the video cameras to pull them off stage. I thought that might have made things even worse so I didn't. When it was over I turned to see other Mother's faces and a few of them looked like they were ready to kill someone. Luckily, I had planned a quick escape strategy with my husband earlier when all of those kids were having dinner and eating cookies as big as their heads. We got out of there quick. When I walked in the door my good friend (the mother of the sweater boy) was calling to see if there was anything in that parenting book we are studying in Sunday School that covers this sort of thing. I flipped through and told her it says we should pray. I realized that during these performances, everyone concentrates on their own kids and either do not notice how bad the other ones are acting or it doesn't bother them as much. After some time, perspective and wine, several of us reviewed the video at one of our Christmas parties. Oh, yes, your kid was kicking the one next to him. Gosh, I never even noticed him on the front row completely taking his shirt off...

My Big Guy was unfazed by all of these events. He had already been grounded until the next week for previous events so this was just one more thing to him. When my friend called that night her son had cried all the way home and was in his room packing his bags to leave home. One of the little twins we carpool with declared on the ride home that night that they should just be put out on the side of the road like trash (the more dramatic of the two boys as you can tell). Their usually high-strung music teacher didn't seem to notice or care about everything that happened. Good for her if she has some new medication or something.

I will post a clip of that video here one day even if it is next June. If someone wins $10K on AFV and I don't get a cut of it I will be MAD. *


* not the Christmas Spirit

Christmas Dinner 2008

Will hopefully be a lot like Thanksgiving dinner 2008 with Baby Girl flying over the turkey at Grammy's house.

I think we will actually do a ham. We don't have a picture of her flying over a ham yet.

(Sorry, I get hungry late at night and I am thinking ahead.)

Not exactly our Christmas Tree

Bradford Pear

I'm just surprised that the tree in our backyard still has so many leaves in December. We have been raking leaves a lot lately. We may be raking up through March if they don't drop soon.

Trimming the Tree

We are still trying...

There is also a new hole in one of our walls.

My Little Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all. :-)

Halloween Recap

Baby Girl is involved in things whether she wants to be or not. She and I both are having trouble adjusting to the cooler weather. We keep trying to wear our summer clothes.

Kissed by a clone trooper (Captain Rex).

I told my husband I did not want to be involved in any way with the whole carving the pumpkin-thing. I wasn't and this is what we got. The Big Guy sketched out one side and the Little Guy the other.
My sweet aunt, my little ladybug and....what is your brother doing!
A better view of Baby Gap.


A little Princess Leah in our neighborhood. Her mom pretty much made the costume. That is why Baby Girl couldn't be that. I just can't. I can buy stuff on sale, though.
The end of me. Guess which one I am going for first. The Reese's. It is the only one there because I already pulled the other 15 for my own personal stash. The Big Guy gave me a handful before we were even home. He knows the deal.

A bouquet of suckers. For myself, of course.