Last day of November

Today's the last day of the blog-a-day challenge and well, we did pretty good. Missed a few days at the end of the month, but overall, pretty good....

I liked having this challenge, it made me post when I might not have, and most of the things I posted I'm sure I will be glad that I did. I hope you all enjoyed reading our ramblings this past month, and I hope those of you that were also doing this blog-a-day challenge will continue to post a lot as well.

Making cookies...

Today we made some cookies with the kids. Here are some pictures:

Here they are rolling and cutting out the cookies:


And here they are "decorating" the cookies:

They all had a good time and loved the cookies :)

Paging Nicky Boyd, Nicky Boyd...

Ok, random post time. Ever since I've moved back to Arizona I keep thinking about a friend I had in elementary school here. Her name is Nicky Boyd. She was from Wales; then she moved here and we went to Najavo Elementary School. After I moved to San Diego, at some point she moved back to Wales. We kept in contact through letters for a while...then stopped.
When I was in high school I went to Europe and somehow I ended up connecting with her and got to visit with her and her mom in London. Then we lost contact again. One time when I was in college I came here to visit the fam and I took a chance and went to her old house and knocked on the door. Her parents still lived there; and I was able to re-connect with her again. That was the last time I talked to her. Skip to present time. Here I am in Arizona and I have not randomly run into her. James and I did try to drive by her parents' house--my memory is not as good as it used to be...I wasn't exactly sure where her house was...I've tried doing some internet searching and looking on facebook...so I thought I would put her name out into the universe. Who knows, maybe she'll google her name and this blog will come up...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, it's been a few days since I've written. Hope everyone had a great turkey day :)
We had dinner at our house with Grandma (my mom), Grandma-Grandma (my Grandma), and Leo (our au pair). Everything was YUMMY! James favorite part of the meal was the cranberries (that crazy kid! Of course he is the one that likes to eat lemons...)

Here are some pictures: (and yes, I know--they look sooo big!, especially James, he looks like such a big boy)

Elizabeth with Grandma-Grandma (her Great Grnadma)

Sorry, no post tonight. Trying to upload pictures to Costco's website.
New post with pictures tomorrow....

More pictures from the zoo

Here are a couple more pictures from the zoo:

I didn't notice until now that the monkey Joshua is sitting on has a pretty scary face for being on a children's ride. Luckily, the kids never saw the front. Only the back in which this monkey is wearing pants. I think the monkey was the only animal wearing clothes...not sure what that is about. But it's cool because the kids all talk about what animals they were riding and Joshua's is always "monkey pants" pretty fitting for Joshua-monkey pants-hehehehehehe. Ok, I'm totally rambling now, time for bed :)

I really took a lot of pictures that day--I might have enough to make it through the rest of November, one-picture-at-a-time :) heheehehe

Remember in a previous post how I said we went to the Wildlife World Zoo and the animals were sooo close-even the tigers?! Well, we went again today and I have the pictures to prove it:

Here kitty, kitty...

Ok, that one might be a little deceiving :)
Here's one of the boys:

Now, that's up close and personal!

Oh-No.......

We missed our post yesterday. :(

Sorry to our faithful reads out there. You would think between the 2 of us, one of us would of remembered. Well, what is done is done. Maybe we will post twice today. I know it does not make up for it, but it is something.

I think between our meeting with our Local Care Coordinator(Au Pair thing) and Stephanie working on the kids free photo books, posting to the blog slipped through the cracks.

Look for some more infor or new story tonight.

Where'd it go?

So I really should be going to bed right now, but I got this damm post a day shit to do....so here goes.
First, some background: the kids often hide things and then say "where's the book? where's book? There it is!" or "where'd book go? There it is!"
So the other morning I was having all the kids go pee-pee in the potty (that's good times, I'll tell you...) and their new favorite game is to go potty and then run off before they put on their underwear. Well James did that and I was waiting with Elizabeth for her to finish and I look up to see James (naked from the waist down) standing up against the wall and he says "where'd penis go? where'd penis go?" and Elizabeth starts chiming in as well "where'd penis go?" Then James jumps out from the wall and the two of them say, "there it is!"

James' favorite new phrase

"Something else"
I think it started with something like, "Do you want an apple for snack or something else?"

Now he picked up on that phrase and uses it a lot. When he doesn't like what is on the t.v., or what type of food he has, or many other times throughout the day, he says, "something else".

But of course since he is two and a half it sounds more like this, "Something else. Something else. Something else! Something else please. Something else please. Something else!"

It was cute at first.....

Ah yes, good times, good times....

One of those days.......

Where the only cure is cuddling on the couch with some kids.

By myself

So, the kids have started to use a new phrase. “Myself”, which means they would like to try and do whatever the current task is by themselves. It could be as simple as getting down out of their highchairs or something kind of complicated as buckling themselves into their car seats. This is just another step in their pursuit to being independent. Stephanie and I enjoy these little moments but when it takes an extra 10-15 minutes to sit there and let them try, it gets a little hard not to just take over and do it for them. Once they have completed said task, they smile and exclaim, “By myself!”

Mommy, Elizabeth and a rice cake.

I know, not the greatest quality, it was taking with our old digital camera.

Just something to blog.

Enjoy!!

do I have to?

blogity blog blog blog
there, I blogged :)

Sorry, I'll do more tomorrow!

A tearjerker-don't say I didn't warn you!

So yesterday we took the kids to the library and one of the DVDs they wanted to check out was "The Muppet's: A Christmas Carol ". I thought it would be good because it was the Muppet's the the kid are all into Christmas (this year will be sooo fun!!!!). I didn't really pay attention to the fact that it was A Christmas Carol.
It was a little weird because some of the characters were rel people and some were Muppet's. Anyways, the kids and I were sitting all snuggly on the couch (Daddy and Leo, our au pair, were on a run) watching the movie. I was doing a lot of fast forwarding because I quickly realized it wasn' t really a movie for 2 1/2 year olds...I stopped at a part that had Kermit and Miss Piggy ("Froggy and Piggy" as they are now called) and they were the family that his Tiny Tim in it (Tiny Tim being a little Kermit)
ANYWAYS, they are all having a nice dinner, laughing and joking...then we fast forward to Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Not Yet.. and they visit the same house and we find Miss Piggy and the two little piggies crying, and Scrooge realizes that Tiny Time has died. HERE'S THE PART YOU ARE WAITING FOR: I look over at baby James and he has tears in his eyes. I ask him, "are you crying?" and I notice a line of tears running down his sweet little face.
"Yea," he says.
Oh, talk about breaking my little heart!

We watch more and the end has Scrooge going to Tiny Tim's House and bringing a big feast, everyone's happy and jolly. Tiny Tim delivers his famous last line, oh, happy ending! There's Baby James with tears in his eyes again. As soon as the movie ends, he's asking to see it again!

That boy, I tell you, he can be so sweet! And he obviously understands a lot.

Anybody there?

Just thought I would remind all you readers that there is an option to add a comment after reading my blogs :) Thank you to my two faithful commenters!

Just needing some love.....

Oh the cute things kids say...

One night in the tub someone kept tooting. I said "who has gas tonight?" James replied, "car". Yes, James, the car does have gas :)

Here's a phase Elizabeth uses a lot, "o.k. thank you". Sometimes she says it while she is talking to herself. Sometimes she says it in response to a questions she asks someone. As in, "Mommy go outside? O.k., thank you"
She's also started what my mom calls Martian Talk. It's like she wants to say a whole sentence or a couple sentences but she only knows a few of the words. Like, "Ababish doub doub go outside", or "Immish graishh drink water grandma". Has anyone else heard kids talking like this?

We were all watching t.v. and some music came on. Joshua was sitting next to me on the couch and he started dancing in his seat. I starting moving too and Joshua said "No mommy. No mommy dancing". Geegsh! Everybody's a critic these days!

Good times, good times...

233rd Birthday of the Marine Corps.

OOH-RAH

From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From the dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And have never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

Semper Fi!!

You're cute

So let me preface this story by telling you that when my kids talk they don't understand pronouns and they just copy what other people say. For example, when Joshua wants me to carry him down the stairs after nap time he says "carry you" because i used to ask him if he wanted me to carry him , and I would say "do you want me to carry you?" And he would reply, "carry you".
Well, today we took the kids to the park and Elizabeth and I were playing together. A car drove by and she said "car, Grandma"
I said, "no, not Grandma".
She thought for a second and said "people".
"Right, people"
"No Grandma, people" and she laughed.
A minute later Daddy walked up and I was telling him the story. Elizabeth was close enough to overhear us talking about her and she was listening in. Daddy and I laughed at the cute story and looked over at her. Elizabeth said "you're cute". And of course she is talking about herself because it's something she's heard a thousand times before...
So cute :)

So I decided I better do the blogging tonight before my husband takes over :) Just kidding honey! (But then again, I just remembered one of my original posts was his reaction to me telling him that I started a blog, which was "what do you have to blog about?"....)
Anyways, I'm home alone tonight! Well, except for three sleeping children...I'm home alone. I almost don't know what to do with myself.... And what have I done with Daddy, you ask?! Well, he took our new au pair out! Yes, that 's right, our new au pair arrived last night. Things are going well so far. The kids seem to like him. He just has to get used to this whole U.S. thing (the food here is different...) and this whole Arizona thing (it's hot here...) Oops, good thing he got here this week and not two weeks ago. It's like cool here to us. I was wearing jeans the other day (and as my friend Eden said "90s is jeans weather in Arizona"). But the two of them went out to but some electronics and go to Dave and Busters to play some video games (total boy stuff, ya know? and if I had any idea how to spell the sound that Tim the Tool Man Taylor used to make on Home Improvement then I would add that here)
So I'm home alone. I watched some t.v. and ate some snacks (some Halloween candy....) and now I'm blogging before I watch some more t.v. (but this time I will do some school work).
That's it-my exciting Saturday night.

Sham Wow (Dad)

So there was a request for me to report on my newest as seen on TV product.

Let me first say I am a sucker for those infomercials. I can watch them all day and I would buy every one of them if I could. Except that, I know better and Stephanie would kill me. (But baby I don't know who sent us $2,000 dollars worth of as seen on tv products, I would say with a sly grin.)

I have owned a couple already and they don't always work as reported. Egg Wave - trashed, Pasta Pronto - trashed, Hurcules Hooks - still have and do work, Magic Bullet - Love'm, Snap Hooks - work good on windows(but thats about it) and I am sure I have had couple others that I can not recall at this moment.



Here is my report. The note that comes with the Sham Wow says that there is a break in time and that they will get better the more you use them. As of right now I am happy with them, they do pull up spills out of carpet rather well and wet counter tops are a breeze. Mirrors and glass currently still leaves streaks. I am hoping the more I use them the better they will become.

I will follow up this post with one later, after I have used them a little more

From the mouths of our kids...(Dad again)

I think this will be the first of many quick little posts that will help get Stephanie and I through the month of November. Also, since Mom is a little under the weather Dad is taking back the reins and doing a little blogging.

We were playing at the Children Museum and it was getting close to going and Mom told James that is was almost time to go, James' reply was, "In a minute". He did not yell no like some kids, instead he replied with that. Which would make sense because we have started to give all the kids choices when they want to do something, right now or in a minute. Most of the time they choose in a minute, but that is okay, because we are alright with waiting another minute. They are usually okay with leaving after a short wait since that was their choice.

Such great tactics we learn as parents. More to come soon.

Hi. It's me-posting again. I love how everyone is posting everyday, it's fun to know that I'll have something to read every night. It's also interesting how many people are commenting about election day and the election results. It's even more interesting to see the differences in people's thoughts on the election...but, I'm not one to talk much about politics....so, here is my topic tonight: it's actually a question-when someone posts a comment on your blog and you feel like you should answer it, do you answer it as a comment? But what if that person doesn't look at the rest of your comments to see that you replied to their comment. (I just wanted to see how many times I could say comment) Or do you reply in a post? I suppose you could email the person directly? Or, stranger then all of those ideas is to talk to the person?! No, that can't be the answer :)

Well, since I am talking about it, I'm going to reply to some comments here:

Andrea's comment to Daddy: What type of potty did you bring? A fold-up kind?
That would be a no to the fold up kind. Daddy was caring the big plastic potty that converts to the step stool. Time for us to invest in a fold up kind :)

Eden's comment:
Cute idea for the costumes! So, I want to know, did you really give them more candy the next day or did it get tossed???:)
I really thought that the next day I would give them some candy (and I thought that we did) but Daddy said no we did not. There were some crackers and mini oreos that we kept to give them. The rest was put out for our trick or treaters or kept for Mommy and Daddy :)

Kay said...
I hope it is ok that I sneak a peek at your cute family occasionaly. It is so fun for me to see you and Eden as Moms, then remember the silly kids you were.
Yes, feel free to check my blog whenever you want :)

Eden said...
I'll give it a shot...the whole "a post a day thing", does 5 posts in one day cover me for the 1st thru the 5th (because that is my typical m.o.) or do I have to post every single day?

Here's Andrea's response to your comment:
Andrea said...
To answer Eden's Q: NO! Five posts in one day does NOT count for five days-worth. You can post multiple times a day, but you must post every single day! Even if it's just a pic.

And I wanted to tell you (Eden) that you can write posts and schedule them to post on a different day. That way if you have a couple things to write about you can spread them out over a couple days. I"m not sure if that is "cheating" but I won't tell if you don't :)

Time to go-see you all soon (at the Blogs!)

A trip to the park. (Posted by Dad)

So, Stephanie was working late on Nov 3rd, which left me home alone with the kids from 2:00pm til 6:00pm. What was a Dad to do? My first thought, have the kids dig some holes in the back yard, then I thought, what would the kids like to do and the park sounds like a good idea. I changed out out of my work clothes, got the kids some shoes and socks. Packed up some snacks, a potty (in case some one needs to go while we are out), sand toys, food for the ducks, and oh yeah the kids.

They all did very good walking together, listening to Dad and even holding hands while we crossed the street. Joshua was either holding my hand or helping me pull the wagon. (he is the cutest) It was a little warm so we did not walk to fast, wanted them to have some energy when we got to the park.

We decided to stop and feed the ducks prior to walking over to the park. Even though the ducks did not want to have anything to do with us. The ducks must of been fed plenty earlier that day. Either way the kids still loved throwing food at the ducks in the water. Next off to the park.

We did some slides, a little chasing, and some swings. Then it was about snack time. I wrangled them up and we all sat on the bench to have a little something to eat. Right about the time we were done, this little girl (about the age of 5) came over and sat next to us and exclaimed "Hi, I'm just going to sit here". Then she proceeded to let me know she was going to play with Elizabeth once she was done with her snack.

The boys and I played while Elizabeth sat and finished her snack, along with her new friend waiting in toe. When finished, Elizabeth and the girl we walking hand and hand around the play area. The little girl was asking her questions like, "You want to swing?, You want to slide?" In turn Elizabeth would just smile. Eventually Elizabeth did want to swing, so I lifted her in and the little girl was going to push her. They did that for about 5-10 mins, while I was playing with the boys. It was kind of nice, but I was a little put off by how friendly the little girl was (I know I am crazy, but something about people in mine or my kids personal space makes me a little weird), unless we know you, then your cool. =)

After about an hour of playing it was time to go. I love how they seem to be okay with leaving, as long as you give them a 2 minute warning then they are fine. But, here was the one problem with leaving. Since we brought so much stuff and now the kids wanted to ride home in the wagon someone would have to carry all the other stuff. Let see who the winner was. Right, Elizabeth, I loaded her up like a little pack mule and pulled her behind the wagon. I am just kidding. In one hand Dad had the wagon full of three tired kids, over his sholder he had the diaper bag, and in the other hand, a potty, sand toys, and food for the ducks.

The walk home seemed a little longer then the walk there, maybe because I was sweating like crazy and seeing black spots.

We made it home safe and sound. I only had to drink a gallon of water to get hydrated :)

Spanish! Spanish!

One time the DVD "Frosty the Snowman" started to play in Spanish for some reason during the day while no one that was technology-savvy was here, so the kids watched it in Spanish.
That night Daddy got it back to English. The next day when I was putting "Snowman! Snowman!" on the t.v. I got this plea from James, "Spanish! Spanish!" Yes, he wanted to watch "Frosty the Snowman" in Spanish. Okayyyy--sometimes my kids are weird. However, it's pretty funny to see the 3 kids watching the movie in Spanish. Who knows, they probably understand more of it then I do!

Happy Halloween!

Here are our cuties on Halloween! Our knights in shining armour and the little princess!

Here's James with the helmet on:
Elizabeth with her best pose for the camera: And Joshua with his helmet on:

We took them trick or treating to a couple houses around the neighborhood. Before we took them, Daddy was explaining to them what they were going to do.

"You knock on the door and say trick-or-treat. Then they will give you candy and you say thank you." Then Daddy had them practice.

"When they open the door, what do you say?"

James replies, "CANDY!!" Um, no. That would be rude.

Of course, we had nothing to worry about because 90% of the time the kids became shy and said nothing at all. What?! My kids shy with nothing to say?!

But luckily, also about 90% of the time they did say thank you. Well, at least at every house at least one child said thank you.

We had to keep telling them to put their candy in their buckets and when we get home they could have some candy. Joshua kept trying to eat the candy with the wrapper on.

After we got home we gave them a couple of pieces of candy and then Daddy took their buckets away with promises to have more candy the next day. The boys were fine with that, but Elizabeth started crying. She did not want to give up her candy!

But eating candy has given me my new favorite word of the week courtesy of Joshua: "lickypop" (that would be lollipop). It makes sense, it's a lollipop and you lick it: lickypop!

Good times, good times :)

November 1st

Really, its November?!
It's hard to believe that for two reasons:
1. The year 2008 is almost over, and

b. It still freakin hot here in Arizona!! Well, not really, it's not HOT, it's only in the mid 90s! :)

**********************************************************
So my friend and fellow blogger Andrea posted this comment on the blog the other day:
"Are you doing the NaBloPoMo challenge? A post a day everyday during the month of November? C'mon, DO IT! Even just a picture counts. : )"

So I have no idea what NaBloPoMo means (and since I don't have any contact with my friends except through my blog I'm sure Andrea will tell me in another comment), but I think I am up to the challenge of a post a day :) Daddy says that he will help as well!

And maybe my other bloggin' friends will be up to the challenge as well! :)
.....was that one too many smiley faces?! :)