Oh, the sweetness of a toddler

Connor can flip flop shockingly fast between screaming over everything and being generally obnoxious, to being just the sweetest little guy on the planet. Yesterday was an overall ROUGH day around here where Connor was concerned. Now that he's in the big boy bed (the toddler bed), and not the crib, he's waking up EARLY. Normally, I'd hear him stir a bit around 6am or 6:30am or so, but he'd settle in and go back to sleep for another hour to an hour and a half. NOW, he stirs a bit THEN GETS UP! And there's nothing I can do about it. As a result, he's Mr. Crankypants by about 10am instead of making until 12:30/1pm or so (the preferred naptime). After he'd screamed yesterday about not wanting his diaper changed, then WANTING his diaper changed, then wanting the toy Jared had, then throwing it down once Jared kindly shared it with him (etc), he suddenly turned very very sweet. I had gotten out a roll of Ritz crackers to pass a few out per kid as a SMALL snack since dinner was running late. Connor spotted me, held out one hand with the other hand pressed up against his chin in his sign for "thank you" (we haven't mastered "please" yet, unprompted, but an early "thank you" works just as well, in my opinion!). I gave him two crackers, and he started to take a bite, then started yelling "ded! ded!" (which as of two days ago, means "Jared"; and sometimes sounds more like "dird"). I handed him another two crackers and the sweet little mister ran right over and gave them to Jared! Then he ran back saying SOMETHING (he obviously hasn't mastered any sort of repeatable version of Emily's name yet), so I gave him another two crackers, which he promptly ran over and gave to Emily. I never told him to pass the crackers out; he just did it. I was so overwhelmed with how sweet he was, I just stood there and sighed and felt my love for this devil/angel child of mine grow all the more. I promptly called his daddy and bragged that our not-even-two-year-old BABY (because I can call him that until he's two) shared with his siblings without even being asked. HOW SWEET IS HE????

I tried to get a good video of him repeating words (especially saying "Jared" because it truly is pretty funny), but Jared kept distracting him, and Connor wasn't cooperating all that well anyway, so I only got a few words recorded:

A new baby!!

My friend Bree and her husband Brian welcomed their sweet new baby, Kelwyn, into their family on April 16th. They were trusting enough to allow me to fiddle around with Photoshop Elements and some pictures they'd sent me, and let me be in charge of creating a birth announcement. I blacked out his last name for privacy purposes...


Isn't he adorable? He's got his mommy's nose, I can tell that for sure. Otherwise, I've only seen him from his newborn pictures and have only met his daddy once (they live kind of far away!) so I can't say how much he resembles anyone else. LOL

NEW BEDS!

The new bunk beds for the boys finally made their way to our house yesterday late afternoon. We got the lower portion put together last night because Jared was excited to have his new bed, and we'll put the upper portion on tonight, probably. Neither Dan nor I trust Connor having anything to do with the ladder in that room (not for any navigational purposes on and off the ladder, but more what he'd do once he's up there...like FALL OFF), so Jared will stay in the lower bunk for probably another year and Connor will be in the little toddler bed. We'll just keep the ladder totally off for now, except the special occasions we plan to allow Emily up in the top bunk for "sleepovers" with her brothers. My other plan had been to keep Connor in the crib until this weekend and THEN work on getting him to stay put in the toddler bed when we weren't worried about everyone getting enough sleep for school/work the next day. HE, however, had far different plans, and as soon as Mr. Jared was settled into HIS new bed, Connor ran over, climbed into the toddler bed, propped his head up on one arm, then pointed to his crib in demand of his pillow, blanket, and sippy cup of water. He was far too adorable to resist!!! I have to admit I'm A LOT sad seeing my "baby" moved into a "big boy" bed. This time, there's no new BABY baby (of mine) on the way to take his place, and the crib will be gone within the next week or two, heading to my friend Bree, and HER new baby.

Jared is soooo excited about his new bed!!


Connor is sooooooo excited about HIS new bed as well!!


Jared, sound asleep:


Connor, sound asleep:


Connor, sound asleep, ON THE FLOOR????


That last one really cracked me up when I went in to check on the boys. I have no clue if he fell out, woke up enough to grab at his pillow and pull it down with him, or if he and the pillow all fell out at once, or what??

You can kind of see the crib next to the toddler bed in the pictures where Connor is still IN bed. I'm pretty sure we're taking it down today, then the bunks will go on THAT wall, and the toddler bed will go back on the wall where it was before (where Jared's bed is at the moment).

LOTS OF CHANGE!

Birthday Luncheon

My Aunt Cheryl hosted a birthday luncheon in honor of the May birthdays on that side of the family: Emily, my cousin Haylee, and myself. Because this year is my 30th birthday (29th, I tell you, TWENTY-NINETH!!!!! that's my story and I'm sticking to it), she did everything geared towards me (usually they're geared more towards Emily because she's just a little girl and the birthdays mean more to her!). Didn't she do a beautiful job on the table?




After a fabulous meal we went over in the livingroom area to open presents. After Emily and I had our turns, we sat back to watch Haylee open hers and my kids all piled up into my lap. They sat very nicely until I requested a picture, at which point, Connor decided he was done, and Emily apparently wasn't real into it either...


Apparently Emily isn't all that big on people singing Happy Birthday to her either?? (this is a cropped down version of a picture of all three birthday girls so you could clearly see her face!!)


I asked her about that face and she said she does NOT remember making it and says she really enjoyed the luncheon!

6 days and counting until I'm TWENTY-NINE (again). LOL

AUGHHH!

I lied about not blogging today, but something blog-worthy came up in the wee-ish hours of the morning. I recently got off the phone with my husband, who was calling from work, asking me if I knew why his Target VISA card wasn't working. I said I'd paid off his balance the last time a bill came through (and the check has since cleared) and haven't received any other bills, so it should be at zero balance. He called customer service and was told there was a stop on his card because of an unpaid $8 balance as of April 10th. We NEVER received a bill in the mail, because BELIEVE ME, I'd have paid off the $8 balance!!! We've had Target VISA cards for 10 years now and never once missed a payment and they're going to put a stop on his card over an $8 balance????????? Needless to say, Dan is FURIOUS, has since cut up his card and is now bullying me into cutting up mine. However, Emily's dance classes and Jared's preschool are on automatic bill paying on that card (so I don't have to remember to write a check for each place each month as they don't send out bills, I just pay the credit card when that bill comes), so I'll oblige with canceling mine after those two things are done for the year so I don't have to mess around with the paperwork of it all. I seriously love Target, and when I was 19/20 years old, they were the only ones willing to let me have a credit card because I had no other credit history at that point, but this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!!!!! It's not like it was an $8,000.00 balance we didn't pay. It was EIGHT DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEY NEVER SENT A STUPID BILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and I wouldn't have known he'd USED the card to have known there SHOULD have been a bill). I'm not nearly as furious as my husband is, but I'm highly annoyed and very disappointed that Target let me down BIG TIME. Dan's company issue gas card maxed out on him this month (because they've had him working 6 days a week an hour away, so he's used more gas than usual), so he tried to pay with his Target VISA, which also didn't work. So it's a VERY LUCKY THING he had $20 in cash in his wallet, or the kids and I would have been packing up to haul off to give him gas money! So much for carrying a credit card in case of emergencies! AUGHHHH!!!!!!!

sorry

Nothing interesting, funny, etc from me today! This has been one of the most exhausting weeks of my life, on top of battling with allergies, and I almost want to just sit down and cry. I've been doing nothing but GO GO GO GO GO GO GOOOOOOOOO since last weekend; kid activities, mommy responsibilities, housework, errands, school events, babysitting, allergies, more errands, more housework, laundry laundry laundry, crying babies (Connor and babysitting baby)... I'm exhausted. And cranky. And overwhelmed. But I'll bet you couldn't tell! HA! I probably won't be blogging tomorrow because we have the birthday luncheon for Emily, my cousin Haylee, and myself in the morning, and then I'm hostessing a SimplyFun game party in the afternoon (with minutes to spare between the two events). Maybe Sunday. I almost took a picture to share of all the things the boys (Jared, neighbor boy, and babysitting boy) broke today, but it's too depressing. So I'll leave you with your own mental images and call it good. Pour on the sympathy, I need it. *grin*

PS Emily and I have a night out tonight with my mom to see a musical of Cinderella. I'm looking forward to it!

It's all about the poop

We went to the zoo today with Jared's preschool class. The first stop was the elephant exhibit and the kids were excited and chattering away as they watched the elephant eat. After about a minute, they'd kind of had their fill, overall, of watching it eat and they got a little quieter. Suddenly, the "silence" (I use that word loosely becuase it wasn't totally quiet, but quieter than when we'd first stopped) was broken by Jared announcing to his friends (rather loudly), "I think that elephant is going to do a gigantic POOP!"

And yesterday, all he and his little friend Logan talked about was POOP POOP POOP! No matter how many times I reminded them WE DON'T TALK ABOUT POOP (especially at the table), it wasn't long before I'd hear little boy giggles, mouth-made toot sounds, and some dialogue involving POOP. UGH

What is it about poop that children find so fascinating?

So THAT'S where it went...

I gave Jared permission to get some gum a little while ago. Immediately upon opening the drawer where we store it, he FLIPPED OUT that all the gum was gone. Considering I'd just been in that drawer that morning and had plainly seen gum left in two separate packs, my reaction to his "freak out" moment, was to none-too-nicely tell him to open his eyes and LOOK (so I admit I'm not a perfect mom). When he didn't calm down right away, I walked over, and sure enough, two empty packs of gum, lots of empty wrappers tossed back in. There was only one logical explanations. CONNOR. Just then, the gum bandit himself rounded the corner with what was clearly several pieces of gum in his mouth. I guess we'll be finding a new place to store packs of gum!


*disclaimer: two empty packs does NOT mean that he actually chewed two full packs worth of gum. It means there were some remaining pieces in each pack and he chewed what was left of each pack!*

I'm babysitting!

I've got Gracie for a little while today; isn't she just the sweetest thing??

The dress doesn't fit

Here's a touch of advice for you, for future reference: Don't stay up late viewing wedding gowns and flowergirl dresses with a friend who is getting married in a few months. I guarantee you'll have strange dreams! Maybe even something like you have a dress to wear to the wedding, but it keeps getting smaller and smaller, and you're sure you must be getting fat, except the scale says you weigh the same. Then you find out the bride is altering your dress over and over again to make you feel fat and so you have nothing to wear to her wedding and so can't attend. And then everyone realizes the dress now fits your daughter perfectly, so SHE wears it to the wedding instead. Which reminds me, I'm gonna actually have to start dress shopping so I DO have something to wear to the wedding, and then I'm putting it under lock and key in case that dream was some sort of premonition (stay away from my dress Jessica!) ha ha ha!

My Children Are Confused

Emily came home with this picture in her Thursday Folder awhile ago.


(Notice the "Red Goblin" is blue)

At a recent trip to the doctor's office, Jared picked up this flyer and said, "Look mom, a sick beaver!"


(I guess we need to work on our animals?)

And Connor, apparently, doesn't care WHOSE shoes he wears outside, as long as they're easier to put on by himself than HIS shoes

Lance Armstrong ain't got nothin' on me!

Gotta love "bike and sack lunch" day at preschool!

Letter From the Garden

(imagine this spoken in the voice of the rose in Alice in Wonderland)

Dearest Auntie,

We are in desperate need of your tender loving care, your attention to detail in the garden, and your green thumb. Things are in dire condition at this point in time and we're not sure how much longer we can survive like this. Whilst some people (like you) have a special knack in the garden, a talent, a PASSION, it appears our owner has other less than desirable traits (weed aider and abetter, plant neglecter, and TWO brown thumbs...GASP!) and things need to be rectified immediately. We're pretty sure we're on borrowed time at this point; you should see the distateful things growing up around us. I can't express with enough urgency how desperately we need your help...

Sincerely,

The plants and flowers in Leah's garden, whom are worthy of far better treatment than they've thus received

PS We're pretty sure Leah would help...We're also pretty sure it's not her fault she's no gardener (she can't help it that it's in her blood!)

PPS Enclosed are some pictures for evidence of what torture we're being forced to endure (Oh, such horror!)

Um.....????

I'm a big kid now!

Someone has decided to start USING the potty-chair from time to time, instead of always just wanting to SIT on it. FOUR TIMES in the last two days, which considering he's not quite 22 months old, is really awesome in my book! YAY CJ!!

AWWWW!!!

Let's just ignore the fact that the picture is out of focus, and pay attention to the completely adorable little smile on Jared's face (that ever-so-hard-to-capture-on-film smile) as he's happily holding Gracie. And then let's pay attention to the fact that she's got a completely adorable little smile of her own!

MS Walk

Yesterday was the MS Walk I'd been gearing up for the last few weeks. For those of you that don't know, the MS Walk is something I try to do every year (assuming I'm not rather heavily pregnant at the time, which means I've missed it three times in the last eight years since we've started participating!). It's a way to raise money for treatment and research of Multiple Sclerosis, a disease which affects both of my parents currently, and which took my aunt's life when I was nine. The walk for our area was five miles, and we couldn't have asked for a better day for the event. I walked with my mom (pictured middle left), her friend, Mary(far left), and my friend/cousin-in-law-to-be, Jessica (far right).


I'd like to publicly acknowledge and thank the following people for sponsoring me in this event; I was able to raise the $250 I'd hoped to raise:

My Aunt Pam and Uncle Tom
My friend Kris
My cousin Tiff and her husband, Aaron
My friend Syra
My Aunt Tee
My in-laws, Dan and Michele
My daddy
and myself (LOL...I needed the last $25 to reach my goal!)

Another friend's mom said she would donate, but I didn't find out until after I'd turned in my money and pledge sheets, so I need to figure out getting another pledge envelope or something!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to you generous people who were able/willing to sponsor me for this year's walk. Every dollar counts and you're making a wonderful difference in the lives of many people.

I spy with my little eye...

(we'll never know what he spied with his little eye, because as hard as we looked, we never did see anything!)

Oh boy...

Bunkbeds were ordered Monday for the boys. Apparently they were ordered ALMOST just in time...


Someone decided they're a little too big for a crib!

Imagine my surprise a half hour after I'd put him down for a nap and was talking to my neighbor on the phone when Mr. Man comes traipsing out of his room, with the proudest little face you ever saw. And wasn't he ever fit to be tied when I promptly stuck him right back in and told him "YOU LAY DOWN!". And wasn't I surprised when I'd barely turned my back to leave when I heard a giant thud and he was running for the door again. So far he's unwilling to go for a third escape. Now I just hear "hep! hep!" (help, help) while he balances along the top edge. PUNK!

OUCH!

Jare-bear slipped on the wet grass outside at preschool today and smacked his face on the wooden boat on the way down. Now he's sporting a lovely welted bruise. From what I hear, he took it like a champ and moved on, refusing ice or parental attention. The little girls in class jumped to attention and held his hand and helped him around the playground for awhile afterwards and "ladies man" Jared milked it for all he could. Apparently it was quite the show (of course, it wasn't my day to work in the classroom so I missed it). When I arrived at the end of class to pick him up, in true Jared fashion (those of you that know him well will be nodding and laughing in agreement), he came running over to me saying, "In case I'm ever a pirate, I already have a scratch!"

(these pictures do NOT do justice to the size and color of the injury, I might add)




It's nice knowing he's already got plans of working it to his advantage (you know, in case he's ever a pirate or something!!).

Spring is in the air!!

I love the bright pink of the peach tree blossoms!

Quote of the Week

You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.

~PJ O'Rourke~

"PW Rolls"

If you don't follow "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman" and haven't seen her AMAZINGLY delicious looking cinnamon roll recipe, and you don't have a friend Jen who's followed the recipe several times and RAVED about the "PW Rolls" (as we call them) and nudged you into making them yourself, then let me be the person to introduce you to "PW Rolls":

PW ROLLS

I'll warn you the recipe makes A LOT of PW Rolls; they're meant to share with friends and family. They use a lot of ingredients. They make a major mess. They take a lot of time. THEY ARE SOOOOOOOOOOO WORTH IT!!!! (I'm mad at myself for fighting to urge to make them for so long!)

(I made SEVEN pans of cinnamon rolls, and only thought to take a picture of my hard-work after I'd given a pan to my parents)


Did I mention these are soooooooooooooooooooooo worth it??? YOU MUST MAKE THESE. NOW!!!

Go forth and purchase supplies, clear your calendar for the day, clean your kitchen for an hour afterwards, EAT EAT EAT and realize you've died and gone to heaven. YES, they're THAT good.

Milestones

smiling (check)
rolling over (check)
sitting up (check)
crawling (check)
walking (check)
talking (check)
pedaling a trike (check)
potty-training (check)
first day of preschool (check)
first time on stage (check)
first day of Kindergarten (check)
learning to read and write (check)
first time sleeping over at a friend's house (check)

Emily Grace had her first sleepover at a friend's house and she was soooooooo excited about it! She made it through the night, too! It's exciting that she's getting old enough to do things like this, but it makes me sad, too. I can't wait for her to come home and tell me all about her experience!

Up Close and Personal

We got to spend some time with a friend's three new puppies (three weeks old) and Connor got down to the proper level with one of the puppies for eye contact. It was pretty cute!


He really didn't know WHAT to think of the puppies!

Who Knew??

I'll just apologize right off the bat for the DOWNWARD DIRECTION of today's post...

I was informed by my husband that I needed to go carefully inspect Jared's "grow it" Spiderman (you know those little things you stick in a bowl of water and they grow to a bazillion times their original size, or whatever?), because it was really funny. So this morning, I go over and carefully inspect Spiderman, and eventually had a good laugh. At the prompting of my friend Jen, it's today's blog post.

Think "downward" as you view the pic and see if you can see the humor.

Another Thwarted Attempt

I have VERY FEW pictures of all three of my children together. Well, I have very few pictures of all three of my children together THAT ARE WORTH PRINTING AND DISPLAYING, I guess I should say. I tried the other day. I really really tried.


Emily was only concerned that her flower would show. Jared was more concerned with the next thing on his "to do" list, and Connor wanted NO part of it.

After ONE fast, half-hearted smile, Jared was GONE


Connor was done before we even started and threw himself down on the ground, then took off and was GONE


But the camera-ham, diva-girl hung around and cooperated


Then Jared wondered why I was taking so many pictures of Emily and wanted a turn as well, and I got a GREAT one of Em and J together (only two out of three kids, though)


And I ended up with decent enough pics which in sepia-tone, worked out pretty great for signature picture on a mommy website I'm a part of

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Chanin over at Hey! What's with all the pink?"

Here are the rules
1) Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4) Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 things about me:

1) I've lived in the same town my entire life, and currently live 7 minutes from the house I grew up in

2) All of my jobs have involved children (babysitter, daycare worker, nanny, elementary school employee, mom)

3) My dream house has a covered, wrap-around front porch, and lots of details through the exterior design, a landscaped yard, includes a PANTRY in the kitchen, walk-in closets in all the bedrooms, and everything is NEW, and NOTHING NEEDS UPDATING/REPAIRING.

4) I'm determined to get my kids to Disneyland, even if it means I have to leave Mr. Anti-Disneyland Dan at home.

5) I love making cards, knitting, sewing, fiddling with Photoshop Elements, spending time with my children, family, and friends, etc.

6) I always put boxes away in the cupboards the exact same way (so the front of the box is to the right) and it annoys the heck out of me when DAN doesn't. LOL!!

7) I'm a hoarder. There, I admit it. I save almost everything (within reason). You never know when it's gonna come in handy. I have a hard time throwing out perfectly good and potentially useful items. That said, I only "hoard" what can fit in cupboards and closets. I'm not one of those people who has small pathways through their house because of all the crap. It's selective hoarding (crafty items, kid toys, things I think I could sell IF I ever have a garage sale, etc).

I tag Kristina, Betsy, Cattigan, Kaci, Jen, Shan, and Valarie

My Purse

Maria tagged me for a purse meme, so here I go...

My purse was given to me by my friend Beth, who said it was far too small for her own use any longer, and it "bothered" her that all I had was little travel-style purse (basically big enough for a checkbook, an ID and maybe a few small items like tampons and a chapstick or something). I never NEEDED more space, but now that I HAVE more space, I find that I'm USING IT. LOL!

Here it is from the front:


Here it is from the back:


Here's the top-open view: (my camera is generally in that other little pocket you see EMPTY in the picture)


In the little zippered pocket on the backside, I have some chapstick, a compact powder, my allergy eye drops, some OTC pain meds in a baggy from who-knows-how-long-ago, and some coupons for the JCPenney Portrait Studio, and apparently, that's also where I stashed my birth stone ring the day I showed up at Jared Galleria to pick up my Mother's Ring.


In the front section, I have my cell phone, my new bluetooth (which I only got because my friend Liz could get them at a can't-pass-it-up price, but I hardly ever use my cell phone, so I don't really NEED the bluetooth, but you just NEVER KNOW), my change purse, some cough drops, a paper with Em's classroom phone number on it, as well as the phone number for Transportation in case there's a problem involving the school bus (because I've been too lazy to program those numbers into my phone), a pack of gum, a scrunchy, a heart-shaped chocolate, and a lollipop.


Did I mention it's a Santa lollipop? Think it's been in there for awhile?


In the back section, I have my checkbook, a little pink calculator (it was $1 at Target one day!), the kids' immunization records (because otherwise I forget to show up with the records for appts if they aren't already with me in my purse!), two pens, and a little book Emily made that I like to pull out and brag on from time to time (it reads from back to front, and she has the "front" labled "begining", and the end labled "the end").


In the little middle zipper section, I have some credit cards (not pictured) and some somewhat outdated pictures of the kids, and a Starbucks gift card


And that's my purse! I now tag Kristina, Betsy, Cattigan, Kaci, Jen, Shan, Valarie, and Chanin