Go ISU!

Here's my little Cyclone basketball player! :)

Snow

We went to play in the snow today about an hour away in the mountains. How convenient is it to live that close to snow yet not have it in your own yard?! I call that pure bliss. We met T & B there and even though I knew we'd probably go today, I was not prepared. So here I was an hour prior running into Target to pick up snowpants and a little sled. Yeah. I should have planned ahead b/c the only snowpants left in Baylen's size were orange and gray and they did not match his coat. Oh well. Luckily, I found a pink pair for Brynn. Brynna really enjoyed the snow. She wasn't rolling around in it like Cade was (who LOVED it!!) but she enjoyed sledding around (Dj or I pulling them in the sled) and I did get her to make a snow angel (kind of)...she understood how to do the feet but not that she needed to move her arms and hands simultaneously. Baylen liked the snow but didn't want to sit in it or lay in it. You know how toddlers always think they never want to try anything but then we try and get them to test the waters and usually they end up liking it? Baylen and trying a snow angel: not so much. The kids would just giggle when we pulled them in the sled and loved it. Brynn held on to Tyler in one sled for awhile and Dj pulled Baylen, Brynn and I in the sled for a bit. At one point, we got stuck and Brian had to help push us out. I was laughing so hard and I almost peed my pants! That's when I decided to get out of the sled and walk. I think Dj was grateful too. hahahaha

It was a nice 39 degrees and it was perfect. The snow was super slick/wet and deep in places. At any moment when walking, we would fall right through into the deep snow. I fell like 5 times when we were trying to get a pic taken together. LOL I was laughing so hard. Snow bunny I am not.

We've got LIGHTS!

Finally. I've been pestering Dj about putting up lights on the outside of our house during the Christmas season for years. Finally, this year, he agreed. I was shocked. I have been trying to get him to let me buy deer to put in our yard, little things to hang in our windows that light up, etc. This is only a couple of strings of lights, but hey, it's a start. I am so excited about it, let me tell you. Before you know it, our house is going to be winter wonderland! LOL

By the way: that's Dj's new car on the left. :) Ford Escape Hybrid. Woot!

Decorating the Tree

The kids were anxious to help decorate the Christmas tree when we pulled it out this afternoon. Brynna remembered helping last year and was excited to get started. Baylen just loves getting things out of boxes, so of course, he was thrilled. They both helped for about 15 minutes and then they were done. Baylen hung a few and was done after the few. Brynn hung about 10 ornaments and then was more interested in seeing what else was in all the boxes and playing with bags. We put up all of the decor in a short amount of time, which was good. I still have my nativity scene to put up tomorrow and Dj is going to hang lights outside for the first time this year. :)

Turkey Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. We just snapped a couple of pics b/f we left for dinner tonight. I don't spend all day cooking in the kitchen for my family. It's just not my thing. If we had people over, or went somewhere, then that would be different, and I'd contribute. But we don't. So, instead, we go out to eat. And I had steak. I'm not a big turkey person. But steak: now you're talkin'. Being far from home during any holiday always makes me a little bit sad. So I'm trying not to feel sorry for myself, thinking that Christmas is a short 3 1/2 weeks away and then we'll be able to spend some time with family. It will be here before we know it.

I have so much to be thankful for. This day reminds me of everyone and everything that is good in my life.

Lil' Pum'kin

Check out this adorable little pumpkin...Mister Tyler, Tami and Brian's son. He's just a doll but I had to post this b/c it is just the cutest thing ever.

Mister Mister went to the ER today

I recieved a call around 2:30 from daycare explaining they thought Baylen had hurt his wrist...possibly broken. They weren't sure, but I needed to take him to DR and get it checked to make sure. He wasn't using it/favoring it and complaining it hurt. So, I took off after school to go pick him up and rushed him over to the hospital, which is fortunately 5 minutes from daycare. The ER was empty...good for us so we got right in and saw the Doc right away. Both nurse and Dr. thought it might not be his wrist, but his elbow/or ligament around his elbow. He had to get x-rays taken and was NOT happy about it. Mister spent most of the time in our ER room crying and crying pointing to his wrist. I thought for sure it was bad and kept trying to sing to him and calm him down. I know he was hungry but they told me not to feed him until we knew for sure what was going on with his arm in case they had to do something immediate like surgery or something. They brought him some motrin and about a half hour after motrin, he calmed down. Dj was in the room after we returned from xray and that also helped calm him down to see his sister and daddy. Luckily, Dr. saw no indicators that it was broken or dislocated, and even tried to manually "fix" his elbow ligament, which was another injury he thought he could have had but there was no "pop" and so they ruled it a sprain. Thank God.

AMA's

Did you see the American Music Awards? If so, what did you think of Adam Lambert's performance? Racy? yes. Edgy? definitely. But in all seriousness, it pushes the envelope just as much as Britney Spears, Madonna, and even Lady Gaga. So why are people up in arms? My opinion: b/c he's male and gay.

Christmas Card take one

Well this one is too fuzzy and I have a lot of ideas up my sleeve. So, this one is not going to be this year's xmas card. right now I'm toying with two different ideas OR using a picture we already have....hmmm we'll see...

Read to me, Daddy

We usually take turns reading to the kids before bed, or we'll split them up and one of us will read to Bay and one of us will read to Bee. This night, daddy was reading one of Baylen's favorite books before bed. He loves books and will ask us to read as many as possible. He often throws fits when we don't read him 50 books in a night. I know...bad parents! LOL

P.S. I think that clock is wrong in the pic..the time was not changed after the "gain an hour" so it should say 7:43. oops! haha

Tools!

Thanks to T & B, for loaning us Cade's tool set. Baylen LOVES it! :)

OMG OMG OMG

Black Friday is approaching....can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE just might have to pull out our walkie-talkies again this year. LOL

Things heard at our dinner @ Red Robin w/ friends the other night...

"Stop using your ketchup as finger paint."

"Where did you get those knives?"

"Hey, how did you reach that?"

"ABC: Always be Chewing!"

"No don't eat food off of the floor."

"Don't eat that sticker."

"I think Santa is watching...you better start eating!"

"I'll take those, thank you."

"Let's have a coloring competition."

My how times have changed... ;)

Disney on Ice

Those were the 2 princesses we saw...lighting was bad for photography...and we could only get so close...


We went to see Disney on Ice today. Brynn was really looking forward to it, as we have been talking about going for quite some time. The day finally arrived. Brynn and I went in a little earlier because they had a special Princess corner that we thought was going to be this little area where girls could try on princess costumes, crowns, etc. but what it ended up being Cinderella and the Frog Princess who just came out from behind the curtain and waved for a bit, posed, and then left and switched with the other. There were only 2 princesses there. As soon as Brynn saw Cinderella walk out from behind the curtain, she was ecstatic. Her eyes lit up and he shouted her name, and then I told her to wave to her and she waved and waved! It was just adorable and I couldn't stop tearing up. She was thrilled to see those two princesses in person! She was not afraid at all and wanted to get as close as we could. When we found out there were just 2 princesses, and we'd seen both, I decided it was time to leave b/c the crowd was obnoxiously large, pushy, and they all seemed to be 6 foot tall. So, we squeezed our way out of there. Brynn was very upset we had to leave the princess area. She cried and cried until I convinced her that we should go look at the souvenirs and see what they had for sale. Big mistake. Just like Sesame Street Live and the Circus. all that parapahenila was muy expensivo. However, she decided on an Ariel necklace and that was not horribly priced, so I agreed and we bought it. She was so happy to carry a Disney bag back to her seat.

When the show started, her eyes were glued to the ice. She loved it. She watched the entire 2 hour show. She didn't want to go to the bathroom at intermission. She barely ate. She just watched. Baylen enjoyed the first half of the show. He was clapping, pointing, and seemed really into it, esp when he saw Mickey and Minnie (Goofy & Donald skate around). However, by intermission, he was pretty much checked out. I thought the first half was great, but I knew all of the movie story lines from those movies: Cars, Little Mermaid, Lion King....the second half was all Tinker Bell and all about that new movie that came out about her not that long ago. So that was a Lonnnng second half b/c none of us were familiar with it. The adults were ready to get out of there after 1.5 hours. I think the difference between seeing Disney on Ice vs. Sesame Street Live, is that after while, they all seem to be doing the same things...especially if all the characters on the ice are human. At least in teh first half of the show, we had animals, different costumes, more props, etc. than the last half...

Regardless, they had fun and even though we had to wrestle with Baylen and Dj pretty much held him or kept him stationary for that long, (props to him for that), it was a positive experience. Would we go again? I'm not sure. Maybe just two of us would go b/c I know Brynn would go again. We went with our good friends, Tami, Brian, Cade and Tyler.

It's the weekend!

We're going to Disney on Ice tomorrow and the kids are very excited about it! :)

Santa's Comin' to Town...not IN our house YET...

So just today I started using the whole "Santa's watching" conversations with Brynn. I wanted to test my theory to see if this year, I could use it when no other method would work. So, I started just telling her my story in the car on the way home from school after I picked them up early this afternoon. She was in a good mood, so I thought I'd test the waters. I told her that I had talked to Santa earlier that day and he had told me that he only brings presents to kids who listen to their moms and dads and to kids who behave. She was very interested to know I had chatted with the man in red. She said, "Oh mom. Okay. I'm a good girl. I listen. I want presents from Santa! I'll sit on his lap next year. I'll stand by him this year when I'm 3." The Santa thing had to be brought up again near supper time when she was whining about her dad telling her no and I said to her..."Brynn, Santa wouldn't like you crying...he is looking for little girls who listen when their dad tells them something." and then..tears were instantly gone. It worked like magic! Score! During supper, she was talking our ears off, and we were talking about all sorts of stuff. Randomly, the conversation turned into this:

ME: Brynn, I just saw Santa look in the window to check on you.

Brynn: Looking terrified like she's about to wet her pants...panicking ensues...

Me: Oh, honey don't be scared. He's not going to come in our house.

Brynn: He's not coming in our house, right mom?

Me: No, honey, he just peeks in windows of all houses to make sure kids are behaving and being nice. Don't worry...he left.

Brynn: Oh okay. Did he go back to the mall?

Me: Um (thinking the North Pole thing should be my answer..): Yes, honey he did.

Brynn: Oh to see all the other kids?

Me; Yes.

Brynn: He just looks in the window fast and then leaves?

Me: Yes, honey.

Oh Jeez

Lately, both of our children have taken up enjoying burping and passing gas and then laughing about it. Baylen will purposely drink a large amount of milk at supper so he can try and burp. His burps are quite impressive, I must admit. However, I don't want them going to daycare burping and farting at the b-fast or lunch table...how embarrassing would that conversation with the director be?! Let's just say there is no doubt this humor of bodily functions comes from their father.

Playing Doctor

When the kids get along, they really get along and play well together. On Friday, Brynn was pretending to take Baylen's vitals and he was totally allowing it. I was sitting on the floor with them playing but had to sneak over and snap a couple pics when they weren't noticing. :) It was one of those melt moments. Now, if only they could play together this well like ALL the time, my life would be so much easier.

Earring update

I'm in disbelief that Brynn's ears have been pierced for nearly 8 weeks. Soon, she'll be able to take them out and put in different pairs to match every outfit. :) We went to Claire's on Halloween b/c she had lost an earring (we found the back but not the actual earring) and since it was so close to changing them out, we figured it was best to just buy a new pair to put in her ears. I was shocked how expensive the earrings are in that store!I don't know why the high prices were so disturbing, considering I haven't been in there in ages, but despite them ripping us off, we bought two sets of those like 7-8 pairs of earrings on one little "sheet" and they were like $12 a piece or more. I could not believe we had to spend nearly 25 bucks just for some new earrings. That to me, is crazy. Even a pair of two earrings for her was $6. Ridic! A couple of days after purchasing the sets of earrings, Dj miraculously found the lost one by the foot of her bed! So, we put it back in and it's been fine ever since. My point is, that her earrings have been pretty low maintenance since she's had them. She loves wearing them and showing them off. She doesn't mind getting them cleaned each night and we don't mind helping her. She has never complained of them hurting or of them bothering her. It has been a very pleasant experience.

Poop and all things related...

So the past couple of weeks, we've been studying memoirs in my LA classes. I have been reading a variety of pieces to the kids and came across one from David Sedaris about poop. It's real title is "Big Boy" and the story is all about him going over to a friend's house for Easter and he walks into the bathroom only to find a huge turd sitting in the toilet. He tries to flush it several times and even thinks about chucking it out the window, because he doesn't want the person knocking on the door to think it was his. The story is hilarious. In fact, if you've never read David Sedaris, you are missing out. There's another story called "Tricked" and it's equally funny.

Anyway, so after we read it and the kids were giggling, I shared a personal story about a poop-related incident that happened in college at Dj's fraternity. The kids were just rolling. All of a sudden, a student, who I always tease, Khalid, raises his hand giggling and says, "I have a story about poop, can I share?" I said, "Sure." So he says, "Well, once my brother dared me to do it to his friend, who was one of our neighbors, so I pooped in a bag and then put it in their mailbox." Although this is illegal, I lost it. I was laughing and the kids were laughing and I started crying I was laughing so hard. I then asked, "So...how did you get the poop in the bag?" He was like, "Well, I just put the bag over the toilet and then pooped in it." LOL Ohhh a day filled with poop. The kids all made the comment they will never forget this day in class. haha Good times with middle schoolers. ;0

Shopping Steal of the Week

I stopped into Old Navy the other day and ran into this beautiful tank top. It looks super cute under all colors of cardigans...and it's only $14.50...

Single Parent

I have been a single parent all week. Dj has been in TX for training. The kids and I are looking forward to his return tomorrow night. They have had a pretty good week for the most part. On Wednesday, it took Brynn 33 minutes to get dressed. Yes. 33 minutes. She is the master of wasting time these days. B & B spent the latter part of the week fighting over the mini Magna Doodle G'ma Cindy and Papa Kevin sent to Brynn for Halloween. This weekend we'll be buying a 2nd one b/c seriously, any time Brynn leaves it down for a second, Baylen dives for it and then takes off and runs to go use it. Brynn screams and cries at the top of her lungs until it's returned. Yeah. Not cool. Bee actually shared it tonight, which shocked me. I am not one of those parents who thinks we need two of everything, but this particular toy...well, I think we'll need to give in and buy a second one.

Man I am TIRED! It's been a crazy week at school b/c of all the damn Halloween candy the kids are poppin' in their mouths left and right. By the time 5th period comes around, they are just bouncing off the walls. EEKS. The full moon on Thursday didn't help either. I was up every morning somewhere around 5:30-5:45 to get myself ready and then get the kids up. Some mornings, they were up by 6. We were out the door by 7 and I was actually early to work. By the time 10 p.m. rolls around, though, I'm beat. Volleyball is finally over and I will be able to get back into my exercise routine next week. I thought I could hack it this week, but that did not happen...too many things to keep up with the kids and the house. So next week, the workout resumes, pending this sore throat goes away.

New Flooring...

BEFORE

Our new flooring was installed last week in our bathroom and so was the new toilet. We're two steps closer...still have painting and other things to do, but two more major renovations complete. We were not planning to buy a new toilet, but when Dj removed it before the flooring was installed and noticed a crack in it that the previous owners tried to "fix" and it didn't look very good.




New Potty haha

Are they Twins? part 2

The older Baylen gets, the taller he grows, the more often I am asked if B & B are twins. My answer is always the same. No. It never fails that the follow-up question is, "How far apart are they in age?" I should respond with "Not far enough" but instead, I politely answer: "18 months." I wonder how people would react if I said what I'm really thinking in my head sometimes.

Men ask the most often if they are twins and right behind them are elderly women.

One of these days, no one is going to believe me if Baylen continues growing.

Flashback

Halloween 2008

The Tortoise and the Hare


Halloween 2009

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf


My what a difference a year makes....so many changes. My little butterball turtle is not such a ham anymore, well physically anyway. Brynn looks like such a little girl now...*sigh*

My goal is to hopefully convince them to dress as some sort of duo for like the rest of their lives. Who knows? Maybe Luke and Leia will be able to make their appearance next year...could not find a Luke Skywalker costume in toddler size. haha

And Then Some...plus: Funny Convos #690, 691, 692

Okay, this one's not really funny, just kind of shocking...Last night, we were driving home from TOTing and all of a sudden, Baylen (yes I said BAYLEN) was counting in Spanish. It was soooo cool. :) His teacher has been speaking in both English and Spanish constantly and it's really sinking in. Then Brynn chimed in and helped him get all the way to 10. He also has started singing his ABC's. Sooo cute. :)

****

We went tot eat at Red Robin today and the kids wanted Mac 'n Cheese. So the waiter brings it out:

Brynn: Mommy this Mac 'n Cheese is HOT!

ME: Well, you need to blow on it. Pick up a couple noodles at a time and blow on it, then eat them.

Brynn: eats a few noodles without blowing on them and she's like blowing steam out the side of her mouth. With a full mouth of food, "It's hootttt mooom!"

ME: Take a drink of milk!

Brynn: takes a drink of milk and then says: I put the fire out!

Me: LMAO


********

Brynn and Baylen are playing legos on the floor.

Brynn: Baylen, don't poop your pants, okay?


********

I open the door to get her out of the car this a.m. and she says to me:

SARAH!!! WHOOHOOO! Mom, I'm going to say that when you open the car door, okay?

Me: LOL. Okay, Brynn, whatever you want...

Brynn: giggling non-stop