September 8, 2012

Big Girl Living Room

We've been waiting for our new living room furniture for a while.  The room used to look like this:

While the kids really enjoyed the running space, the adults were tired of being relegated to the toy room in order to sit down. The furniture came today, and the room now looks like this:


Ahhh....feels good to have that complete.

More Art

This time by The Boy.  The Man found this picture taped to the lighpost outside our house next to a Missing Dog poster.

September 7, 2012

Photography

I want to cover every wall of my house with this woman's work.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolynCochrane

I only have one wall to fill though.  What to do?

August 23, 2012

Kindergarten

It was the Boy's first day of kindergarten this week.  I have lots of video - unfortunately I used his name in almost every one.  But here he is walking to his classroom:

He did great and I managed to not cry. On Friday he hugged his teacher goodbye and told her he'd miss her on Saturday and Sunday. I think he likes school.  After his first day he got to choose dinner.  We had ham, boxed mac n' cheese, and blueberry cake.  I hadn't really heard of blueberry cake, but he insisted he did not want pie or muffins so I googled it.  Lo and behold, I found a blueberry cake recipe and he loved it.

August 16, 2012

What Do You Get...

...when you mix a cold with spaghetti and blue iced sugar cookies?


This.

August 15, 2012

My Boy

The other day the Boy told me this:

"Mom, when I get older I'm going to buy a house next to you and marry the Girl so that I can take care of you both."

That made my heart just melt. I told him how very sweet that was and then had to briefly explain that he isn't allowed to marry his sister.  He insisted it was okay because he loves her very much.

August 13, 2012

Toys

Finally the toys have been organized. They used to look like this (plus a bookshelf and drawers you can't see here:



Now they look like this:

It took me a long time and three different companies to find and get something that finally worked, looked good, and wasn't ridiculously expensive. The train table is up in the Boy's room, but I think I'll sell it soon.  Looking at this makes me happy.

July 31, 2012

The Beach


We finally made it to the beach this weekend.


The water was freezing, but the kids didn't seem to care.



Even the Boy, who shivers at the sight of an unheated pool, played and played. 

July 24, 2012

Learning to Ride a Bike



The Man and the Boy chose a new "big boy" bike together. It's lime green. I've bribed him to learn to ride by promising to buy the new Angry Birds Space game on the iPad.



The Girl is pretty interested in learning, too.

July 14, 2012

Climbing

The Boy never bothered crawling out of his crib. I think he was around three before we even decided to put him in a toddler bed. The Girl, though, found her way out of the Pack 'n' Play while we were in the process of moving and then realized she could climb out of her crib once we got here.


She has slowly stopped coming out of her room, but this is sometimes how I find her.

July 10, 2012

Hello, California


We have arrived.  The first thing we did was take the Boy to soccer practice.  Now  it's time to unpack and hopefully stay a while.

June 29, 2012

Goodbye, St. Louis


I have really enjoyed living here.  After only a year, I'm a little sad to be moving away tomorrow.  Knowing all along that this was only a temporary gig makes it a bit easier, though.  On to California!

June 22, 2012

British Soccer Camp


The Boy had soccer camp this week.


We loved Coach Mike and Mike and their British accents.


It was so hot all week long, but he never complained once.

June 15, 2012

Happy Birthday, Girl


She'll be two next week, but we celebrated tonight so Papa could be there. I seem to have lost her birthday sash so we got a ribbon instead. I think I like it more than the sash idea - way easier and something she might be willing to wear every birthday up until 18.


The ice cream cupcakes were a hit with her. Then she opened presents:


A baby doll from Papa.


 A backpack with Mini Mouse inside from Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Jim.


A few things from Daddy, Mommy, and the Boy including her own vacuum cleaner.

Happy Birthday, my beautiful baby. I can't believe you're so big already. We love you!

June 12, 2012

I Want...

Yesterday the Boy kept telling me things that he wishes he had. At some point he became slightly whiny about it.  So I decided to have a brief discussion about how "stuff" does not make us happy, and how we are most happy when we are grateful for the things we have. To which he responded,

"But Mom, I want to have more things to be grateful for".

All I could do was giggle.

June 3, 2012

Sing a Song


She loves to sing in church now.  It is followed by walking up and down the aisle to avoid sitting and to gain attention from as many people as possible.

June 2, 2012

It Begins



This was the first day of my soccer mom life.


He had a good time - I'm hoping soccer is his sport.

June 1, 2012

Missouri Drivers

My sister has listened to me rant about Missouri drivers since I moved here.  She visited us back in February and realized I wasn't kidding.  Seriously, they just cannot stay in their lanes.  So when she saw this card at the store, she couldn't resist sending it to me as a reminder to be careful what I say in front of the punks.  Hehe...

May 25, 2012

Yay!

I love summer TV for one reason alone...So You Think You Can Dance.  Should I consider that a guilty pleasure?  If you don't watch, you missed something amazing last night.  At first I thought this guy and his description of his dance style was creepy and weird.  Then he started dancing. Admittedly, what he said is still weird and creepy, but he is incredible. Watch this.

May 18, 2012

Back From Phoenix

We spent a week in Phoenix with The Man's brother and family. I tried to blog from there using the iPad, but apparently there isn't "an App for that". At least not a good one.





We swam a little, and went to the lake a little, and watched a lot of TV. The Man and his brother spent a good while filling up water balloons for the kids. 

The fight lasted about 1 minute.

It was a nice break.

Last Day of School


On to kindergarten....how did he get so big so fast?

May 6, 2012

Because They Looked So Sweet...





...we took pictures

May 4, 2012

I Love my Ward

The Young Women sold pre-made, uncooked pizzas as a fundraiser for girl's camp.  Someone from the ward bought one and secretly sent it to us.  Wasn't that nice?


I added some fontina cheese, fresh tomato, goat cheese, kalamata olives, and basil to it.  It was sooooo good.  Thanks for the pizza, whoever you are!

April 24, 2012

Bad Parenting

Today my house smells like bad parenting.

I gave the Girl her milk before nap time today. When she was finished, I scooped her up hard and fast and plopped her onto my hip to carry her to her room. Ten seconds later she tossed half of that milk up onto her clothes and the floor.  A quick bath ensued, but that smell is hard to get out of carpet.

Second, while we were at Wal-mart this morning I let the Girl have four, yes four, of those fruit/applesauce snacks.  The ones where you suck it right out of the bag.  That much fruit wreaks havoc on a baby digestive track, which in turn wreaks havoc on her diaper and clothes about 7 hours later.  Know what I mean?

Finally, during the Girl's nap the Boy and I were roughhousing on the couch.  That ended up this way:


It may be hard to see in the picture, but we did a number on his left thumb. We aren't sure if it's broken or just sprained - we are waiting for the doc to get home and decide.  At least this doesn't smell.  While he was still recovering from the pain I asked the Boy if he was mad at me for getting him hurt. He said through his tears, "It's just too hard to stay mad at you".

April 15, 2012

Gas Money

My gas light was on all day yesterday and I still forgot to fill up. I forgot until about half way to church this morning. I told the Boy we'd have to stop and get gas or we might not make it, but then I realized I had no money with me. We made it just fine there and back, but that's not what this story is about.

When I picked up the Boy from his Primary class after church, he had a dollar in his pocket. I inquired of his teacher where he got it (since he was too busy to answer). She said a lady came to visit their class and tell a story. When she was finished, the Boy asked her if he could have some money. Yep. So she gave him a dollar.

I turned to the Boy and asked what happened. He said, "I have some money, let's go get some gas!" I died laughing and felt embarrassed at the same time. My five-year-old pulled the old "we need money for gas" bit with success.

April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!


The kids and I spent last week in Arkansas with my family. We had an Easter egg hunt down there as well as one today. The kids enjoyed both very much.

Before church we took some pictures, too. I felt the pain of my parents and photographers everywhere trying to get both my kids to stay in the shot and smile at the same time.

I think we managed to get a few cute ones in there.

Happy Easter to you all!