Brody's Birthday Party

Since Brody was sick for his birthday party, we had to wait a few weeks to go to the Jumpin Monkey. Here are just a few of the gazillion photos the my mom, sister, and I took!

The kids had a ball!

Duh Nuh Nuh

Seth LOVES the SuperMan theme song. Here he is singing along. Too cute.

Our Big Helper

Seth is such a big help. He cleans up. He puts dishes in the sink. He throws away trash.

*sigh*

Here he is helping us in the yard.

Our *snow* day

I am going back through my photos now because there were some things I wanted to post, but never got around to it.

Our Valentines Day was a let down. We had all the valentines ready to go to school. Brody and Seth were all excited! Unfortunately, we had a snow storm. I use the term extremely loosely.

*sigh* When you live in Virginia Beach, this amount of snow is cause to open the schools 2 hours late. And when your kid is in preschool, which only meets for 3 hours anyway, school is closed...

So... because of this blizzard, Brody was home all day and Valentines Day was postponed.



All you people in Michgan and New York and those places that you cant actually see houses because of snow drifts, you can stop laughing now and go out and buy some bread, milk, and toilet paper. :)

Pancake Puffs!

This makes me laugh out loud, every time. My kids could be completely engrossed in anything but the tv, but if this commercial comes on, they are GLUED to the TV! They get all excited when the Pancake Puff commercial comes on. Too funny. Then Seth continually keeps asking me for a muffin. Oh, the power of advertising!

Here are some photos of them...




and here is the hypnotic ad that they love so much! It is such a trip.

Christmas Continues

Yes... it is February 22nd, but my kids still ask to watch the Polar Express DAILY.

*sigh*

Our *new* bathroom

www.craigslist.com is my new best friend. For those of you who don't know about it yet, it is a website that is nationwide. You can post things for sale, or items you need, and it helps people hook up to buy stuff. Kind of like a glorified yard sale, although there are some high ticket items there, too.

I wanted a new mirror for our 1/2 bath. We had one of those large wall mirrors, and I had finally gotten so sick of it, that I went onto craigslist to see if I could find a mirror for sale.

A sweet older woman about 20 minutes from my house was selling an ornate, gold painted framed mirror for $10. I drove out there today, bought the mirror, painted it to match our bathroom cabinet (which I had just refinished with a mohogany stain), and hung it up on the wall. I am so happy with our 10 dollar purchase! Now, I am looking for a $10 light fixture! :)

The End Result

Thought I would post a photo of the end result to my Kids Shoe Organization Extravaganza. This is minus the shoes that are in the baskets by the door and in the garage (rain boots, etc...)

Isn't this COMPLETELY CRAZY?

I have maybe 10 pairs of shoes and our kids have 60. There is something so wrong with this.

How Whacked is This?

In an effort to clean up, organize, categorize, and catalog our home... I decided to get ALL of the boys shoes (some we bought and a LOT of hand me downs), take photos of them to put on the outside of the boxes, organize by size, etc...

We have SIXTY pairs of shoes for these kids. 2 kids. 4 years and 2 years old. SIXTY pairs of shoes.

Seriously. And right now, they both have literally 1 pair that fits. And I bought those today.

Lord, save me from all our worldly shoes!

Check This Out!

My dear friend Charlotte, who came to do a photo shoot of my family a few months back, has made a photo album of it.

Sigh.

She is so awesome.
Of course, she had REALLY cute content matter, also! :)

http://charlottegeary.livejournal.com/169311.html?view=2770015#t2770015

My friend's reveal

Some of you may know this friend, and most of you won't... but this is such a wonderful thing they did for their family. They are pregnant (after a long time trying) and when they went to find out the sex, they had the nurse put it in an envelope. Then, they waited a couple of weeks until their family was all together (some from out of town), had a big dinner together, and opened the envelope with their family there. I love the fact that everyone is sitting around with cell phones. You can tell they have all been waiting to find out and that there are even MORE people out there that wanted to know RIGHT AWAY, so they all had their phones on. The sheer joy of seeing the whole family that excited is entertainment for anyone, whether they know the couple or not... See for yourself!

A Little Bit Closer!

Okay... so, the kitchen saga continues... MAJOR forward motion this weekend!

The crown moulding (molding?) has been up for a little while, the kitchen has been repainted... and today

we put up the tile!!!! Kurt cut the pieces while I did the mortar and tile work. I LOVE it!

We still need to seal the tiles (they are slate, so they need to be sealed to prevent staining and water damage) and then grout. We should be done within a week, I hope.

I am in the process of painting some of our kitchen accessories, including the window treatment rods (I wanted wrought iron, but cant afford them, so we are painting them with "wrought iron paint")

I will keep posting as we go along!

Give me a Yipppeeee for the tilework!

Open Wide

I haven't posted in a while and there are a few other things I will go back to post, but I wanted to get these photos up.

Brody went to the dentist today for the first time. He was so excited and LOVED it. He thought most of it was hysterical and is over-the-top happy that he has TWENTY teeth. He kept insisting he had 8. :)

Here he is getting his teeth checked out.

We did it (by the way!)

I had someone ask me the other day if we were able to keep from eating out the entire month of January. We did it! We saved huge amounts of money, lost weight, ate as a family, got healthier, and were really proud of ourselves.

I am in the process of printing out our meals for all of February and the 1st week of March right now, with all of the shopping lists already done. It takes a little planning, but makes it SO much easier. Especially because I can ask Kurt to go to the store too and just hand him the list of stuff.
:)

planning meals and shopping for them is one of my least favorite things. In fact, I always felt like we were having the same dinners over and over.

Now that I plan them out with all of our favorite recipes, I find myself being sad because we have about 45 recipes we really love and that I make well, so we might not have our favorite recipe in a whole month. How crazy is that!?

:)

If you find yourself getting in a rut, just start making a list of the dinners you and your family loved. Then plan out a month (adding in leftover nights) and see how many nights you can do with different meals! It is awesome!

Now, if only I could just get to the store when I need to!

Slish Slosh

Okay, so this freaks me out. Brody does this all the time... you may need to turn up your volume to hear it...

Just the boys

Our family has a LOT of boys. It is nice to see them together. I am sure they will grow up to be good friends. Here are Brody, Seth, and their cousin, Will.

Superbowl Party

We went to a superbowl party across the street at our friends house and watched while all the kids played together. It is nice to have so many friends with kids the same age so they can all entertain each other while us adults hang out!

Brody's anti-climactic birthday

So, it was very sad. Brody turned 4. We had all the family in town. We had reserved The Jumpin' Monkey for his party. We had the big chocolate chip cookie... and the balloons... and the favor bags...

and Brody got sick. I mean, the ALL NIGHT kind of sick. So.... we postponed a birthday party. We did eat his big cookie and open the presents from the family that was in town.







After the weekend... they all went home and all got sick, as did I.

No fun.

Then, Monday (his actual birthday rolled around) and it was his day to have his birthday at school. Nope. Sick. Kurt took him in the morning and after he dropped him off, realized he probably should have kept him home, so back home he came.

It was so sad. Poor kid.

We are planning on having his party at a later date. I will have to post the fun party pictures then.

It's a good thing...

... we have so many toys upstairs in the playroom. Don't you think?

Brody Boxing

Everyone who has seen this has asked me if I have it on video. So, here it is.

Brody loves to play boxing on the Wii. He is quite the spectacle... and it would be really really funny if Kurt or I could actually beat him at it. Seriously. We even try. Hard.

So, we have resorted to using his method of boxing to see if we can win. Still doesn't work for us.

Oh well... Here is Kurt boxing in style of Brody.

Putting my kids to Work!

I am so tired of picking up after my kids. I realized when I saw Brody go the fridge, take out the milk, take out the Ovaltine, pour milk, add chocolate, then stir.... that he just might possibly be able to pick up his own messes. Call me crazy.

So... to make the task more inviting... I spent a little money at Target, spent some time printing pictures, and tasked my brain at organizing Brody's room and the playroom. This is what I came up with.

The bins are great... the pictures tell the kids exactly where stuff goes... and THEY ARE CLEANING UP!

Woooo Hooooo!

Kitchen Update

Yep... the crown moulding is up! And tonight, I am going to paint the walls. I will post a photo after that!

This kitchen project is REALLY coming together!

Why books about raising kids are obsolete

I read a gazillion books when we had Brody, our first child. I actually remember being up at 5am (after LONG hours of crying and having nursing problems) with Kurt on the floor, and 5 books, yes, literally 5 books open on the floor around him. I wish I had the sense to take a picture, but as you can guess, I was otherwise occupied.

Well, none of those books did us a darn bit of good. You want to know why? Because you can never predict or generalize down in just 200 pages what kids will do, or think of, or say...

for instance...

Brody was in the family room playing the Wii on the TV about 2 weeks ago. He has been potty trained for quite some time now, but has problems *stopping what he is doing* and going to the bathroom when he is having fun on the Wii. So, the penalty is... if he doesn't stop playing to go to the bathroom, he loses Wii privileges for the rest of that day. (I am sure someone who has read one of those books is *gasping* that I am punishing my kid for having an accident. go ahead. gasp away. I read that book too.)

Anywho... so, I go into the room where he is, and immediately SMELL it. If you are a parent, you know what I mean. If you are not a parent, you still know what I mean.

I ask him, "Brody, did you have an accident?"

"Yes, in my pants. I didn't stop what I was doing."

We go into the bathroom and I am repeating the lecture for about the &#($*$^ nth time, when Brody says, "There is more poopies hiding."

"What, you have more in your bottom? Do you need to sit on the potty?"

"No, the poopies are hiding."

"What do you mean hiding? Inside you?"

"No, they are out of me. The are hiding."

The realization hits me... and I ask....

b r o d y ..... where are the poopies hiding ?

He leads me into the family room and points behind the entertainment center.

Yes, my friends, my child, not wanting to get caught for pooping in his pants, took them *out* of his pants and *THREW* them behind the television.

Where in your books does it say ANYTHING about turds hurled behind the tv? I rest my case.

Street Light Magic

This story is so special to me. Let me give you the background.

When I was little, my dad (daddy) used to count at stop lights to make them turn green. I truly thought he was magic and could make them change. I don't know how old I was when I figured it out, but it took me a while.

Well, I do the same things to my kids. We count 1 - 2 - 3 Green! And incredibly, the light turns! Well, the kids have started doing it on their own. Thing is, they don't really know yet the logistics of street lights, so they end up counting about 20 times before the light turns. When it does turn, they get all excited because *they made the light turn green*.

The other day, we were sitting at a light and they didn't count. When the light turned green, Brody said, "Oh, good. Someone in the other cars must have counted because the light turned green."

:) Cute, huh? Oh, the burden of a 4 year old to make the light turn EVERY TIME.

Gift Card Anyone?

Kurt and I have this strange quirk of receiving a gift card from someone, filing it away in the kitchen drawer, and forgetting about it. We just came across 10-12 cards, all of them with money on them. We are LIVING the HIGH LIFE!

Maestro Seth

Kitchen Update

For those of you following the saga of the kitchen remodeling project... we are in the process of putting up crown moulding at the tops of the cabinets... and I am sure there is nothing in the world that Kurt hates more right now.

;)

Maybe in about 4 months we will actually finish cutting these 8 pieces of trim at the right length and the right angle, have them meet up at the corners just right, nail them up, prime, paint, and have it all ready for you to see.

**Just kidding Kurt, sweetheart... I am sure it won't take any more than 3 months. ;)**

Still Eating In

Can you believe it? It is January 21st and Kurt and I have not eaten out AT ALL so far this month! We started the month with the goal of only eating groceries we buy and taking leftovers to work. Well, it has worked! We have eaten so much healthier and have saved GOBS of money. I am going to go back and see what we spent last night on eating out just to see how much less we spent. I feel so much better about what we are feeding oursevles and our kids, less money stress, and more like I think a mommy *should* be.
:)

Big Helper in our House!

After Seth's birthday, we had a plastic tablecloth that I was going to throw away. Instead, I made it into a map that Brody uses to set the table. The best part is that he LOVES to do it! He is so proud of himself and makes sure that everyone has their cups and plates in the right place during the whole meal.

He has grown up so much. His chore chart has exploded with all of the things he does each day around the house, and he loves to check the things off. If he hasn't done something and I am awarding the checks, he wants to run and do them real quick so he can get all of his things checked off. It makes life MUCH EASIER for us!

Anywho, here he is setting the table.




Oh, and if anyone is wondering, in an effort to be healthier and practice portion control, Kurt and I have also started using kids plates! :)

Seth and the Big Screen

Today was a big day! It was Seth's first trip to the movie theater! Yaaaaayyyy!

When Brody turned 2, we went to see Cars in the theater. Today, we took Seth to see the new Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. He lasted through the whole thing. He didn't stay in the seat the whole time or actually watch the whole movie, but he had fun. He kept saying, "I like that part."

I was prepared with popcorn, fruit treats, Teddy Grahams (which are actually shaped like the SuperFriends) and juice boxes, so that made it a lot easier to make it through the whole movie. :) As a parent you learn, kids can make it through anything as long as you keep feeding them!

Aging = Short Term Memory .... what was I typing?

Yeah. I can remember every song that was on the radio from age 10 to age 25. Now, just ask me to tell you all the ingredients in a recipe that I make weekly. CANT DO IT!!!


Aaaaarrrrrghhh!

Built-in playmates

During the past 6 months, Brody and Seth have actually started playing together. They laugh all day and I love to walk in on them and see things like this...



Last night, before bath and bedtime, Kurt and I played hide and go seek with the boys. It is so much fun to play with them. Seth always hides in the last place that we found someone, so he is easy, and Brody just giggles the whole time, as well as slams doors. Too funny.

The Eating In Effort

Ten days down in our effort to eat in for the entire month of January!

In an effort to recuperate from Christmas, Seth's birthday, and Brody's birthday, we decided to eat in the entire month of January. And, I don't just mean dinner... I mean NO eating out. No lunch, no ice cream, no tropical smoothie, no coffee, no dinner, no breakfast, no grabbing a soda from the drive through, NOTHING.

It has been AWESOME! I made a calendar of every night in January (adding in a *leftovers night" each week) and put a meal for each night. I made shopping lists for each week. I can't believe how much of what we spent was going to food on our credit card bill! We are eating MUCH healthier, using the groceries that we have instead of throwing them away because they went bad, and it has been liberating for me to know what we will be having for dinner each night! I just put the meat that needs to thaw in the fridge the night before.

I wonder how long we can do this. I bet we could do it past January!

Best Husband Ever

I am reminded very often just how wonderful my husband is. You wanna know how great he is? He gets up in the morning, gets the kids up, gets them breakfast, and gets them dressed... but the kicker...

he puts the kids clothes in the dryer while they are eating breakfast so they are toasty warm when they put them on...

Everybody now...


*Awwwwwwwwww*

:)

:o)

TWO!

Well, my baby turned two last week. Two. As in, not one. Not a baby. Two.

Seth LOVES the show Blues Clues, so we had our family (along with our friends who are just like family) over for a party. He was adorable and enjoyed every minute! He is so proud to be two.

I wrapped a chair from our living room in red fleece and made it into the *Thinking Chair*. The kids got a real kick out of that.



I also made a shirt for Seth to wear that looks just like the shirt that the host of Blue's Clues wears. :) Here he is with his new Blue doll and drawing in his *Handy Dandy Notebook*.



The kids played in a big *Blues House* that I made out of cardboard.





The cake was Blue, too.





He got lots of wonderful presents, including this Harley Davidson ride on toy *He is really into motorcycles*.



Thank you to everyone for making his party so wonderful!

NOW I get it

I really didn't get this ad when I was younger. I *get it* now. Brody goes back to school tomorrow after 3 weeks off...

Beware Shipping Bay E from Santas workshop

Just a word of advice...

Brody wanted a *motekuntrol* robot from Santa this year. Santa brought it for him, but I found out it shipped out of the North Pole from their Shipping Bay E, or E Bay. There were some problems with the item. We had to send it back to Santa in the mail the next day and ask him to fix it and send it to another kid. Santa mailed a present back to Brody that very day! Brody got a couple new games for the Wii and is extremely happy!

So, a word of advice... make sure that Santa doesn't send *THE GIFT* that your child wants from his Bay E. It may not be exactly what you want.

Got it?