Stanley

This is Stanley. Or better said, this is what Stanley used to look like. Taylie got him when she was 4 months old and he has been her special pal ever since.

Stanley has lived a very active life belonging to Taylie. He now looks like this:

I know, right? The poor thing. He has been on many adventures with the family and I am sure plenty of things have happened to him that I just care to not know about. The poor thing hasn't been washed in months, but I feel bad to push too hard because he looks like any day he may loose and arm, but I really want to try and get that permanent marker off his face.

I post this because I have been on a quest for several months now to find, not a replacement Stanley...okay I guess that is what it is. I mean, he is just so...anyway. I came super close to finding one at the IHop, but he was brown. Close, but not quite.

I had a huge breakthrough when I found the exact one I had been looking for! Thank you Amazon.com! Oh, but wait, they only wanted $68.95 for him! Um, what?! Yeah, thanks but no thanks.

So I post this out of desperation. If anybody comes across this cute little pink monkey who we call Stanley, would you PLEASE let me know!? I will pay for it and pay for it to be shipped if that is what it takes. I am wanting to keep this in the $10-15 range if possible. Still an outrageous price to pay just for a lovey, but you do what you gotta do.

Until a reasonable price can be found, my quest continues!

MY pre-school homework!

Having to do little projects like this for Taylie really is a HUGE reminder of how fast my little girl is growing up. For starters, she is in pre-school! That is craziness all in its own element and then when I have to do projects like this for her to take to school is makes me want to cry and get my little baby girl back. But then I think of how much fun it is to have her help me with these things and get to learn stuff about her.

Take a look at what we did this afternoon:

Up until 3 hours ago, I was under the impression that her favorite color was pink! Who knew it was red?! Certainly not me. I am super scared to see how fast the rest of these few short year will fly but I am excited to see the ways that she will change and evolve.

snow day

We finally got that snow that we have been hearing so much about. Nothing ever came of that huge blizzard that we were supposed to get, it rustled some leaves around, but that is about it. When we woke up to snow this morning, the kids were dying to go out immediately! We managed to get some breakfast in them and throw them into some warm clothes before they ran out in their jammies.

Taylie was all for exploring and seeing what she could and couldn't do in the snow:

Luke was outside for about 97 seconds before he fell down, started crying, and waving his hands around saying "eeeeewwwww!" He pretty much sat and cried most of the time, but didn't want to go inside.

He tried digging in the snow with a shovel a bit...

...but decided to go back to crying.

Taylie learned quick how to throw a snowball. I, of course, threw snow right back at her. It made Luke giggle as long as it was not tossed in his direction.

when I decided to try hiding behind Luke to avoid snowballs...

...Luke cried, but didn't want to go inside.
This pretty much shows the profound difference in my 2 kiddos

Luke bummed out after we went out back and played on the swings. I had to carry him for him to agree to go anywhere besides the front steps. We went out back and played on the swings and then he was ready to go in. Dad helped get him in and all warmed up while Taylie and I played for a bit longer.

This video cracks me up. She tried to throw a snowball at me, and as I try to run away, she scolds me.

I also love the part where she gets hair in her mouth! So funny!

Finding pre-formed snowballs made by the snowplow. What a cheater.

After she got a bit of snow down the back of her collar, she decided that she was done :)

We came in a had hot showers and then I made hot chocolate, which was a huge hit. Imagine how awesome I would be if I put marshmallows in them...I would be their hero!

We had a really fun morning and a relaxing afternoon! I love being able to play with my kiddos and that they still enjoy having me around.

Let it snow!

I have changed my background early for 2 reasons:
1) We are getting a MAJOR blizzard this afternoon
and
2)I am just way stoked for Christmas!

Hope y'all dig it.

Happy 2nd Birthday Lucas!

On Friday the 19th my little baby turned 2! I cannot believe how fast the last 2 years have gone. Sometimes, it felt like it would last forever, but for the most part, he has been a happy little boy.

So, look at this picture and see if you can guess why he is SO happy?

Answer: He snooped in my closet and found his birthday present 2 days early
That is bound to make anybody happy, right?

Jacob got to do the honors of setting it up while the kids were trying to crawl through it because they were so excited to play in it. (you will totally notice a theme running through his birthday this year...)

This is what they spent most of Wednesday doing:

this picture with the 2 little booties sticking out is one of my favorites!

The cake (do you see the pattern yet?)

The day of his birthday we went and partied at Grandma Brooks' house. Luke really wanted pizza for his birthday dinner so Grandma made him homemade pizza! It was so yummy and he inhaled 2 full pieces.

While the pizza was cooking, Grandma gave him his birthday present which is:

Cowboy boots that look just like Woody's from Toy Story, but they are slippers! Then, to spoil him even further, she stuffed a pack of M&Ms in one boot and some balloons in the other. So pretty much his two favorite things stuffed in the cutest little boots ever.
(do you see the theme yet? It is right there...)

He tried to blow up his own balloon and it was hilarious!

Homemade Pizza!

My little squishy boy with his birthday cake

I was so impressed when he was able to blow out his own candle without spitting on it! To this day, Taylie has still not figured out how to blow out a candle.

and this funny face is what he pulled when everybody started singing "Happy Birthday!" to Luke. It kind of freaked him out. :)

He thought it was a much better idea to use Buzz Lightyear to scrap the frosting off his cake and eat it that way then to use a fork.

After the festivities, we went home and he put on the boots and spent the rest of the night playing with the Buzz Lightyear space ship that Grandpa and Grandma S. got him for his birthday! He has a wonderful birthday and it even carried over to the next day. Grandpa Jon and Grandma Karen came over Saturday evening to visit him and they brought him a Tricycle!
I will post some more pictures when I get them.

So, that is my birthday boy. All grown up at the age of 2.

I think he is going to be one of those kids who is just an old soul. He is a very serious boy who is not into may frivolous things. He has those times where he likes to play and giggle hard, but overall he is...serious. That is really the only way to put it! Very careful about everything and loves his little routines and pretty much likes to do the same thing in any given situation. He totally cracks me up!

I love my little Lukie bear! He goes in for his 2 year check next week and I will post more about his little personality then!

Kidism

(after the 4th time Taylie has emerged from her room during rest time, which included waking me up twice)...
Me: "If you come out again I am taking your toys away for the rest of the day!"
(63 seconds later)...
Taylie: "Mom, I want-"
Me: "Okay, I am going to pack up your toys right now!"
(4 minutes later)
Taylie: "Mom, thanks for cleaning my room. Now I don't have to do it!"


This is one of those lessons I do not think will be making much of an impact.

I heart SpaceBags!

I love them!

I have always wanted to try them, but not willing to spend the money in case they didn't work. After testimonials from 2 of my best friends (including the phrase "the medium sized ones are crap!") I tried them. I fell in love with my newest organizational tool.

Here is a Jumbo size bag that claims to hold 2 queen sized comforters and 4 pillows. I took two of my biggest King sized comforters and crammed them in, zipped it up and sucked out the air.

Before:

After:

*cue angels singing*

My closets are in for a brand new makeover! If anyone wants to know what to get me for Christmas, go for SpaceBags.

that's my boy!

He never fails to make my jaw drop!

What we have been up to...

Our last weekend (not this most current one, but the one before that) was crazy nuts! A few months ago, our upstairs neighbor had her water heater spring a leak. As I am sure you can deduce, gravity did its thing and our ceiling was toast. Our landlord is totally awesome. She told Jacob to go ahead and do the work so he could make some money off of the inconvenience of the whole ordeal. *cue angels singing*

Yuck, huh?

He started this the same weekend I told my best friend that I would help her with laundry. She found yucky black mold in her apartment and had to drop everything and move. I told her to bring over all her laundry and I would help her get it done because I didn't want her taking mold spores to her new apartment.

So you take this:

...plus this...

...and add this...

and you get one WAY crowded laundry room! We made it work though. I tried to stay out of the way and keep the kids busy, so we spent Saturday morning doing this:

while Dad did this:

We had lots of fun coloring on the sidewalk and Taylie is getting really good at recognizing letters and people's names so it was educational as well.

See that slipper, that is my foot. I was trying to help, but this is about the extent of my skills that I could contribute.

and this little chalk-covered bootie was my favorite part of the morning!

It took a good 3 days to get the wash done, and at the same time, it took Jake about 2 and 1/2 days to do the ceiling. Then I thought we should move onto something a bit more fun!

Again, this story begins with the upstairs neighbor. She is a sweet woman, but without fail, she comes home everyday during naptime. She slams the front door and stomps up the stairs and walks around doing who knows what. Everyday, Taylie emerges from her room and tell me that she hears something upstairs. She is convinced that it is Santa Clause and his sleigh on the roof and that he will be coming out the chimney any moment.

I thought that it may be better for her to be able to visualize how many days are left until Santa will be coming to our house, so we decided to make a chain and hang it up in the house.

Luke wanted to be in charge of green and Taylie wanted the red. We did the first link the in chain with glue and it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. We switched to staples and the novelty of hooking paper together wore off in about 3 minutes.

Taylie did an awesome job of tracing the letters on the paper with glue and they both had a blast with the glitter. I mean, they were encouraged to be messy! It was great :)

So, after hooking together 46 pieces of paper, we were done and they wanted it hung on the wall that is between their rooms. They still do not understand why I ask them to rip a piece off every morning after breakfast. It may just end up being a decoration for this year.

I love doing fun little things with the 2 cute kids! Next, we are going to string popcorn to hang on our Christmas Tree. I hope their interest in this last for a bit longer. :)

What is in your purse??

In my little life, Jacob constantly asks me why I have so many purses and why I wish to obtain more. Let me tell you why. Which purse/bag I use depends on which child/children I am toting around for the day.

Example: Today, Taylie went to preschool, Jacob went to class, and it was just Luke and me for the morning. Even though I had only 1 child for a few hours, I had my largest bag in tow. Yes, I know it is humongous. Yes, I know that people are probably watching me and waiting for a little dog to pop out and yap at them. And yes, I know that this stylish black quilted bag (with the pink daisy to boot) in no way, shape or form fits in with my usual Nike, hoodie, and basketball shorts ensemble. What isn't understood, is that it is completely necessary!!! Here is the list of things that ended up in my bag:

These were my necessities:

• Wallet
• Insurance Cards
• Cell Phone
• Vitamin B-12 pills
• Water Bottle
• Keys
  

This is everything that ended ended up in my bag by 9:30am:

• Wallet
• Insurance Cards
• Cell Phone
• Vitamin B-12 pills
• Water Bottle
• Keys
  
• Buzz Lightyear
• Woody (and hat)
• Miniature Tigger
• Luke's favorite blankey
• Luke's sippy cup
  

I barley escaped out the door before he added his Binky and cowboy hat.

Now, why not say "no" you ask? How could you deny such a simple request made by this face:

(this pout gets me every time, I can't even stand it!)

If there is still anyone out there who is mystified by why I cave to these demands, I dare you to try walking by the Disney Store in the mall with a toddler and then tell him you are not going inside.

As much as I get teased for having a big bag that I can never find anything in, in an odd way, it simplifies life. So next time you see a woman with a bag so big it not only goes against nature, but any and all fashion statements, take a minute to wonder: What is she carrying in that bag?!