Thursday, December 15, 2011

Nativity

So on a recent visit to the most awesome toy store ever we picked up our first Nativity set. 

I have always wanted a nativity set and have almost bought one many many times.  This set is by Playmobil, is not breakable and has all the important components/characters:

Mary 

Joseph

Baby Jesus

Three Wise Men

A camel

A manger

Two Sheep

A carrot (for said sheep) or Mary and Joseph?

A staff for Joseph

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

APine tree covered with snow.

To date,

Joseph has used his staff to shoot the sheep.

The Wise Men have all flown, thanks to their super-capes.

Baby Jesus has been force fed the carrot.

The camel has played the role of bad guy, big dog and the donkey from Shrek.

Once again, the short people in the house have opened my eyes to all the possible scenarios that could have been played out on the night our savior was born.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and joy in unexpected places!

Elfless

We don't participate in the Elf on the Shelf madness and I am beginning to wonder if we are the only people that don't?  It seems like everyone is doing it, which has never been a motivating factor for me, but I hate to make my kids the outcast by association because we don't have an inanimate object dictating behavior around here.....thoughts?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Because we "needed" another dog

Willie and I switched roles last week.

He brought home a dog that needed a home.

Said dog (very cute furball) has now been dubbed Mauser.

He is 6 weeks old, black with a white spot on his chest and chin, half labrador, half boxer, ginourmous paws and of course sharp puppy teeth and  insane puppy breath.

I still don't consistently sleep though the night but at least Kimber doesn't need to go OUTSIDE in the FREEZING COLD to DO HIS  BUSINESS in the MIDDLE of the NIGHT!

I just thought my potty training days were over, lord help me.

He is cute and cuddly and the boys love him..except when he is trying to chew on them or consume nerf bullets.  He has quickly figured out that under the table at mealtime is THE place to be.  He stands and gives his bowl the evil eye when he is hungry.  It took Muppet a few days to accept her new sibling but she is having fun chasing, wrestling and carousing with her new buddy.  He has also discovered that sleeping children are warm.

Did I mention he is growing at least an inch a day?









Saturday, December 10, 2011

Slacker

Yep, you guessed it, I have become a slacker in my old age.

Last week, okay...well several months ago... we made our first scarecrow and the boys were quite impressed with the mess that accompanied the construction phase, I am not sure our neighbors love the straw infested yard we now have but the boys have a scarecrow that is happily plopped on our porch guarding our pumpkins.

Upon completion of the scarecrow I was feeling pretty proud, I thought it turned out cute and the boys were sitting in his lap when all of the sudden Matthew discovered that our scarecrow did not have "parts".  Yes, that is my word for little boy genitalia and no, it never occurred to me to make our scarecrow anatomically correct.  Who knew the quality control police would go lurking in the scarecrows drawers?

Our happy...penis-free...scarecrow, or scarecrowess?

Friday, December 9, 2011

Green Light

After months/years of erratic wake-up times I decided to take matters into my own hands and started researching clocks for the boys room.  I am a morning person but also enjoy somewhat of a schedule and one morning they would be up ready to go at 4:30 AM and the next day it would be 6:30.  There was NO science to it at all and I desperately needed to average it out a bit.

Moral of the story, we bought a nightlight/clock for the boys room that serves as a night light during the night and then turns from yellow to green when it is time to wake up.  I hyped it it big time and hoped/prayed/crossed my fingers it would work.  It did, kind of..well at least for Matthew.  Soon after the clocks introduction I made a sticker chart as a reward for staying in bed until the green light comes on, that was the trick.  Matthew became quite adept at staying in bed until the green light appeared.  Kimber, well he is not a big player in this yet...as he still toddles into our room and climbs up into our bed about 1 AM every morning.

Anyways, we completed the sticker chart and I thought great, we have established a habit and we are good.

Well.......not so much.  A few mornings ago Matthew came in about 10 minutes before his light came on and we asked him if his green light was on and he promptly replied, "no, my green light is broken".

So, here we are back to square one I think.....but at least he is consistently sleeping into the 6:00 hour so it was kind of a success, right?

lights up when it is time to wake up.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

4 eggs, 3 oranges, 16 ozs of milk

(2) little boys consumed this before 8 AM this morning.

They are both super impressed with eggs right now and about 75% of the time Matthew can crack the eggs without shell droppage!!

This morning, after eating they both thought it prudent to show off their "big" muscles, truly the cutest biceps I have ever laid eyes on.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Longest, fastest project EVER

Once upon a time I bought a fabric remnant I LOVED.  I had grand plans for awesome throw pillows for the couch...until the reality that this awesome fabric was linen..thus not super washable for the rambunctiousness that is my house.

Then I thought it would be the perfect fabric for the boys book bin in their room.  Then I thought, well maybe it is just a bit too floral, not that they care now but I want something that will last a long time in there.

So I thought, and I thought and the fabric collected a little dust and I thought some more and finally, it hit me.

I have a canvas a friend gave me,



I have this big empty space above my bed

and I have this awesome fabric I love....



WAA-LAA



Cheapest, easiest, prettiest work of art in my house, happy Friday to me!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Leaves..leaves..leaves..

* DISCLAIMER *
I have absolutely no control when it comes to taking pictures of my little reds in the leaves, don't say I didn't warn you, there are WAY TOO MANY pictures in this post.

Our most favorite activity every fall.....raking and playing in the leaves.   We even had a genius friend rake up all her leaves for a party game...best party game EVER!!

Have I mentioned recently how much we love our trees!!









2011..and we FINALLY like SANTA!!

Another parenting first here....both boys willingly sat on Santa's lap this year.  While neither one spoke up real loud they did sit on his lap on their own.  They are getting so big..so big.



Thursday, December 1, 2011

Flashbacks

In an effort to curb my eating, I recently revisited gum chewing.  The little people are thoroughly enjoying my new endeavor.  They have been thrilled with popping bubbles...and just generally investigating what is happening in my mouth.

This is pretty funny to me because EVERY SINGLE TIME they pop a bubble I am taken back a few..okay...a lot of years.  See my dad used to drive us all over this country and we derived an insane amount of pleasure from popping his bubbles..while he was driving.  I know, not very safe but this was back in the day where kids ran amok in the car.  You remember those days right, sleeping in the back window, fighting over the hump, sitting on laps and driving, sticking ear plugs up your nose and scaring the bejeezus out of unsuspecting truckers.  Yeah, that was us. 

There is a part of me that thinks about the germs on the little hands popping my bubbles, you know..like when they are sitting in the "sanitized" grocery cart and popping my bubbles while we shop..EWWW.

Then there is this other part of me that wonders how my dad does not suffer from bubble popping PTSD.  There were three of us, popping his bubbles and I am pretty sure none of us had great aim and well, we were all a bit older than my 2 and 4 year old so a bit stronger...and with better aim...theoretically speaking of course.