Celebrating the Young and the Younger!

As you could probably tell from my Picture of the Day post this week, we celebrated birthdays for Baby I (who's almost ONE!) and Great Grandpa D (who's a few years older) on Saturday. This was also our postponed Christmas with D's family so there were a lot of presents, family, food and well, take a look...

Birthday Boy #1 (the young)

Birthday Boy #2 (the younger)

Presents...

presents...

and more...

presents!!

Obviously, a popular one!?

Now on to the cake(s)!
{Uncle J made the a.m.a.z.i.n.g(!) baseball stadium cake and I made the baseball cake and cupcakes. When I asked L if they looked like baseballs, she said, "they don't look like baseballs, mom, they look like cupcakes!"}

Talking it over, while waiting for cake...

"Huh, what's this?"

Great Grandpa gets in on the cake...

and the mess!

"Mmmm!"

{the damage}

"Please, take it away...I've had enough!"

L enjoyed the cake too, preferring to eat the frosting first.

Cousin K wasn't as picky!

Guests included... Uncle J

{a.k.a. The Cake Maker}

Great Uncle R

A and Grandma M

Grandpa P and L and many others (who seem to have avoided the camera!)!

Thank you to all who were able to help us celebrate the young and the younger! It was a very good day.

Picture of the Day ~ Week 2

L filled her "Good Girl Jar" halfway today earning a prize. She chose a sucker and a new book. Oh, and apparently, when L's Sunday School teacher told her that she liked her 'new' dress, L said, "Thanks, I got it from a garage sale!" :-)

D usually calls once or twice a day just to see how we're doing {he's sweet, isn't he?}. Both kids like to talk to him on the phone. L is quite the conversationalist asking him "What are you doing?" and "When are you coming home?" Baby I, on the other hand, is more into pressing the buttons (and occasionally hanging up) but will also say, "Dada!" with prompts from D.

D and I ordered new glasses recently and they came in today.
On a side note: my glasses give me a headache meaning something is wrong with either my prescription or the glasses. Either way I'm not currently wearing them...bummer!

Since grocery shopping with two small children isn't something I care to do, I order my groceries online and have them delivered to my house. So. much. easier!!

Every 3 or 4 weeks I take the kids to the library. L and I pick out a whole bunch of books (and usually a couple of movies) while Baby I hangs out in the stroller. I'm sure L would enjoy going to the library everyday but I can only handle telling her, "please whisper!" many, many times (to which she responds, "I AM WHISPERING") about once a month! ;-)

Tubby time! My routine, as of late, has been to give the kids their baths on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Baby I is especially fond of baths since discovering L's tubby toys!

Today we celebrated birthdays for Baby I {Jan. 20} and Great Grandpa D {Jan. 17}. We also had our postponed Christmas so there was a lot of presents, family, food and fun!

{Blog post coming soon (hopefully!)...}

The Writing on the Wall Bear

Today, while I was giving Baby I his bath, L came in with pink bear...

and this was how he (yes, L says that Pink Bear is a 'he') looked.

The culprit? This {non-washable} marker from our new Melissa and Doug cupcake set and of course, a certain little girl who lives in our house...

needless to say, the cupcake set has been shelved for a while!

Poor, poor Pink Bear! Not only does he look like this, but L is afraid of him. Yes, AFRAID!! She has always hated things that are broken or lost (whether or not she was the one to break or lose them) and has been known to cover her eyes if she knows something is going to break or get ruined on PBS Kids, in a movie or a book. After she came to show me Pink Bear I couldn't deal with it right away (hello, Baby I was in the bathtub!?!). When I had Baby I out and dressed I went to find her and she did not want to even look at Pink Bear. I had the bear with me so we could talk about it and she was crying and hiding saying she didn't want to look at him. I said, "what do you want me to do with him?" and she said, "put him in the washing machine and clean him up!" Unfortunately, I tried that and even my super, duper stain fighter couldn't undo the damage to Pink Bear. So, I'm not sure what will happen to him... As for me, I was glad it was Pink Bear and not my carpet, furniture or walls!! I would have been much more upset if the writing really had been on the wall!

Snow!

Last year, I posted about a snow day that D and L enjoyed in January. I thought I'd do the same this year (seeing as how I took the pictures and everything!!)...

"Look, a snowball!"

L loves to make footprints in the snow...

An upside down snow angel (no, she did NOT put her face in the snow!)??

Daddy's litte helper

Inside for some hot chocolate (and on a side note: I love these two!).

The following pictures are from today, when I took L out to catch some snowflakes...

Unfortunately, the snow was very light and the flakes were all crumpled up. We did spot one that was quite beautiful though {I've circled it in yellow for you}.

Picture of the Day ~ Week 1

So, here it is, my first "Picture of the Day" post and I must confess...I love this!!! I find myself looking at every moment of our day as a photo opportunity. I suppose that's really what it's all about, remembering the little, non-important, everyday stuff! The only problem I have with it, is narrowing it down to just ONE picture for each day. However, since it's my blog (and eventually my blog book) I can do what I want, right? So this week I have 2 pictures for a couple of days since I just couldn't choose which one to use. When I add this post to my blog book, I'll have to decide if I'll keep both pictures or narrow it down but for now, you get 10 pictures for the price of 8 (an extra picture because January 1st fell on a Saturday)! Lucky you!

We ended 2010 with double blizzards. One came through on Thursday leaving a layer of ice (from freezing drizzle) and around 5 inches of new snow. Another blizzard came on Friday leaving us 5 more inches and HUGE drifts everywhere! The interstates all around us were closed and no travel was advised. We had to postpone our Christmas with D's family and didn't leave the house at all Thursday, Friday or Saturday (I take that back, D did go out to shovel!). Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

After Church today, we took the kids to Target. L got to spend some of her very own Christmas money (thanks, Greg and Connie!). She got some glow bracelets and four books {one is already lost, SIGH!}. I had her pick out 5 things from the dollar section thinking she would spend all $5. However, I neglected to look at the clearance signs hung all over and when we went to check out (L gave her money to the clerk and everything!) the total was only $2.14. I guess L has some more money to spend...or save!

He crawls! Baby I has learned to crawl on his hands and knees. It's funny though, because he is actually faster at the army crawl and still prefers to do that if he's going a long way!

We had banana and raisin snowmen for dessert tonight. I owe the credit for this fun and healthy snack to another mom in the blog world only I can't remember where I saw it! Just know that it was NOT my idea! ;-)

As I was picking up some toys today I found this puzzle. Do you notice which letters are missing?!

I play the 'Sibling Ref' on a daily basis but today, the kids were actually playing together. L was building towers for Baby I who would then crawl over to knock them down. However, L doesn't get the concept of moving away to build the tower elsewhere and so before she can finish building it, Baby I is already there to knock it down. This is apparently very frustrating to L {note the look on her face} and to me (as I have to referee)...

Baby I loves to put things in his mouth (his blankie, toys, books etc.) and today I got this picture of him with his sock in his mouth. He was actually crawling around with it in there! So funny! He is going to be our comedian, for sure!

You should know, that I hate loathe scrubbing the kitchen floor, or any floor for that matter, but especially the kitchen floor. I have two little kids and after our next meal the floor is going to need to be scrubbed again. Seriously, what is the point!? Today, I scrubbed the kitchen floor anyway; there is just something about clean that makes me happy!

Saturday is the one day a week that we typically eat breakfast as a family (Monday - Friday D is gone by the time both kids are up and Sunday is a crazy busy morning trying to get everyone ready and out the door for Church!). Today, D made waffles - YUM!

Shoveling is perhaps the job that D hates but does anyway {thank you, D!}. Strong winds the past couple of days, had made the snow drift in our driveway and D went out to work on getting it cleaned up. When he was just about done, I sent L out to 'help' him finish the job!

Scrabble!

That's right...I played Scrabble with my 3 year old today. Well, sort of! You see, I found an idea for a fun letter project here and since L loves to 'build words' I thought it would be fun to try. So...

I printed off the 'winter spelling words' sheets and broke out our Scrabble game...

I took out the letters L would need to build the words...

and let her at it!

See?

I think she enjoyed it.

Pink bear even got in on the fun!

L did the first 3 by herself and then she got silly (she'd put the wrong letter down, you know, just for fun) so we did the last 3 together. I'd find a letter and then she would until we were done.

Ah, sweet L... I'm afraid it won't be too long and we'll be playing Scrabble for real!

It's a New Year

and I for one hate New Year's resolutions! I've never really been the type to actually write out my resolutions, but I always have them (among others ~ eat better, exercise more, daily devotions etc.). So, why do I hate them? Well, let's see...today is January 4th (4 days into the new year) and I have broken each and every resolution I have made thus far. SIGH! I'm much more of a 'start over again tomorrow' kind of girl than a 'better luck next year' (good thing too, can you imagine what I'd have to deal with in 2012 if I let the next 361 days go by??).

Now, at this point, you are probably wondering why I'm sharing this on my blog. Well, it actually has nothing to do with the resolutions I've listed above, but rather a goal that I have for this blog. It's called "Picture of the Day." My friend Lesley did this on her blog last year and I so enjoyed the weekly posts that I thought it might be fun for me to try this year. The point is for me to take a picture each day of our 'everyday life.' I'll post them here weekly (on Mondays, I hope!) and eventually they'll end up in my scrapbook blog book (since this blog is quickly becoming my only scrapbook!!) for the year. A perfect way to remember the little things that might otherwise be forgotten... Lesley does a much better job of explaining this than I ever could. You can check it out here if you're interested!

So, how am I doing thus far? Well, as I mentioned above, I have broken each and every resolution thus far (this one included) so, I've done some scrambling to make up for January 1, 2 and 3 and am starting today with "Pictures of the Day." Stay tuned as I try to "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big." ~Robert Brault {Thanks for the quote, Lesley and the whole Picture of the Day idea!!!}

Oh, and because I know you all come here for the pictures (as opposed to my crazy ramblings) I leave you with this...

Their New Year's resolution must be to share!

Or not...this picture was taken approximately 2.2 seconds before they began fighting over this new toy (which belongs to Baby I). Baby I got it away from L who than began whining that he wasn't sharing. Apparently, they aren't big fans of New Year's resolutions either. Sigh! There's always tomorrow, right?!?