Picture of the Day ~ Week 43

We said goodbye to Grandma and A today after lunch.  (Side note:  I think I Man has finally forgiven Grandma for watching him while D and I went to Chicago because not only did he pose happily for this picture, but when he got up from his nap he said, "Grandma doing?")

When we got back to our house after lunch, D's dad was there with his chainsaw ready to help D trim some trees.  L and Cousin K had a great time watching all of the action and even got to help stack some 'logs' in the shed!

I Man might not have gotten any presents last weekend, but he certainly is enjoying L's balloons (when she's not in the room anyway...)!

Tuesday {10.25.11}

We had L's 4 year pictures (as well as a few family pictures) taken today.  I'll use one of those for today's POTD.  You can check them out here.

Unfortunately, this is 'real life' at our house most days...sigh!

L got to spend some of her birthday money from her Great Grandparents today on a new car!  She must really love it because she didn't even come into my room when she woke up Friday morning, but headed straight to the playroom to play with it! 

We watched game 7 of the World Series today on our totally outdated TV.  I gotta say, it's hard to tell who's winning {especially when you're not paying attention to the game...ahem!} when you can only see one team's score!

We did some more winterizing this weekend which included raking leaves {again!}, hauling away rotten crab apples and putting the plexi-glass windows up on our 3 season porch. 

Reality Bites!

Alternately titled:  This One's For You Jen!

Ok, so sometimes I look through my blog and think to myself, "Wow, self, your life looks perfect (some of you are laughing right now, aren't you?!)."  It's true that I love my life, I have the best husband, 2 adorable kids and far more blessings than I deserve, but perfect?  Um...nope, not at all, not even close...  And I'm sure you know, that I only put the things that I want you to see on this blog.  Things like the kids' projects, cute stories, daily pictures and documented memories that I hope to look back on once my kids are grown.  However, one day last week (or was it 2 weeks ago now?) I was talking with my sister and as the conversation ended, I said, "I better get going, my house is a pigsty!"  She said, "yeah right" and laughed.  What she didn't know is that I was serious.  Really!  So, a few days ago when my house was once again a pigsty, I decided to take pictures (right before I cleaned it all up because I can only take it for so long!!!!!)... 

Here's a panoramic view

of my very messy



pigsty kitchen counters



including the pan from last night's supper {I was letting it soak...ahem!}

and the garbage, which made it out of the bin but not into the garage. 

Yikes, that's disgusting and pathetic.  I'm pretty sure the jury is still out on whether or not I'll even click 'publish' on this one.  Definitely not moving on to any other rooms in the house {you're welcome!}.  But while we're on the subject...those kids?  They aren't perfect either!  I was just reminded of this this morning when both kids had their bowls (that had once held applesauce!!) turned over and were using their spoons to hit them like drums.



I Man tried it again at lunch (this time with peaches).

And even though there are more and more glimmers of hope that someday my kids will actually get along on a regular basis, they still fight...a lot!

Today it was over a library book (I Man's shirt had been removed because of aforementioned peach incident)



See?  Sigh!

So, there you have it and now you know; my life is not perfect (surprise! *enter sarcasm here*), in fact some days, reality bites!

Caught

with his hand in the cookie jar pantry!

Uh oh, mom caught me...oh well, she'll probably just keep taking pictures.

I knew it!  Hmmm...what do I want?

{looking high}

{looking low}

Maybe if I smile and say "Cheese!" she'll give me what I want?

Sorry I Man, no such luck, but I did get some pretty cute pictures...thanks!

I'd guess that it's not much of a secret that I haven't been as good at documenting the little things for I Man as I was for L.  Not to shift the blame, but he is the second born child, it's to be expected, isn't it?  Sigh!  But now that I Man is getting more verbal and definitely showing his own personality I want to remember a few things about him.  Here goes...

**He is very polite almost always saying please when he asks for something and usually saying thank you.  If you don't respond to his thank you though, he will say it again and again until you do. 

**He gets attached to certain books wanting to read them over and over again.  Some of his favorites are Bubbles, Bubbles (he likes to say, "pop, pop, pop" with me) and any of the Llama Llama books (he can finish most of the phrases in these books).  He will often come in with a book saying, "sit down!" or "read?"

**He loves (as in adores!) L or "eye-yi" and if she doesn't come in with me to get him out of his crib the first thing he says is, "eye-yi?"  Of course, he also loves to pester her, taking her things just to hear her pitch a fit (ugh!).  Fun for all, I'm tellin' ya!

**He is starting to say yes or 'es' instead of saying no to absolutely everything (seriously, L used to explain to D that 'no' {in a calm voice} meant yes and 'NO!!' meant no!).  Don't get me wrong though, he still says no...

**He likes to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with L but really only because of the hot dog dance.  You should see his dance, it's a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e!

**And my favorite {at this moment} is when I lay him down at bedtime and he says, "night night" and "love you" with his cute little grin.

Click here to see what L was doing at about this age!

Picture of the Day ~ Week 42

 

I Man seems to be broadening his horizons lately {though he still loves to play with balls!} to include trucks, cars, stuffed animals and tractors!  He spent a good 15 minutes today 'vrooming' this tractor around backwards saying, "beep, beep" and attempting to put a small teddy bear in and out of the driver's seat!

L turned 4 years old today!

We enjoyed a fire in our 'new' fireplace tonight (our 'old' house didn't have a fireplace so this is a whole new venture for us!).

L and I did this art project today and I have to say it was really, really, very cool!  Anyone know why this works?!

Both kids had haircuts today at. the. same. time! 

We enjoyed a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Mom and A today!

We celebrated L's 4th birthday today with family and a few feathered friends, sort of!  ;-)

What a Hoot!

When I asked L what kind of a cake she wanted for her birthday this year, she originally said, "a cow cake!" (which is what Cousin K had for his 2nd birthday) but when she saw some owl decor in a magazine I was reading she changed her mind and said she'd like an owl cake.  I said, "great idea!" and didn't ask her again (for fear that she'd change her mind) since I liked the owl theme and knew there were a lot of cute owl ideas out there!  Here's what her party ended up looking like...

The invitation

{my idea though probably not original!}

The birthday balloon wreath

{idea found here though I used WAY more balloons then she did!}

The Decorations

{printable found here}

{handprint cake idea from here}

{owl decorations and thank yous (which L gave to each guest as they left) idea found here wording my own though again, probably not original!}

The cake

{idea from here}

and baby owl cupcakes!

Once the decorations were up and the food was prepared, it was time for the guests (though some of them seem to have avoided the camera, including D...what!?),

the presents

the "Happy Birthday" song

birthday wishes

and, of course, cake

YUM!

Thanks to all who were able to come, it really was a hoot!

The Pumpkin Patch {in Pictures}

Mom and A took Friday off of work so they could spend some extra time with us (in addition to L's birthday party) this weekend.  Since we hadn't been to the pumpkin patch yet, we all went together!  As always, I took a ton of pictures and so I'll just let them do the talking writing(?) for this post...

(I have no idea how we got both kids to look and smile at the same time!?  Enjoy it, because I don't think it happened again for the rest of the day...sigh!)

(these pictures may or may not make the guys look better at roping than they actually were...ahem!)

(We took this picture because I have one from 4 years ago of D and I standing by this same sign.  I was 9 months pregnant with L and D was holding a pumpkin.  I went looking for it today because I thought it would be a fun now and then picture comparison.  As it turns out, me and '9 months pregnant' don't make for a very cute picture so I nixed it.  You're welcome!)

Thanks so much for taking extra time to spend with us Mom and A, we had a wonderful time!