Keepin' it real

Just thought I'd share a few pics from the last week or so -- just everyday, routine things . . .yet things that I hope I never forget!

I looked in the bathroom this morning to see Kayla brushing her baby's "teeth" -- toothpaste and all!


Yesterday, Joshua was coloring with stencils at the table while I was picking up in the living room. He called to me "Mom, look at my picture. It's the Christmas light show!" Holy cow -- for those of you have seen the light layout, the stars along the top are where the colored snowflakes are. And, Joshua informed me that the banners are supposed to be the rolling snowscapes -- can you tell our family has been eating, thinking, breathing Christmas light show??? Joshua is SOOO pumped!


Disclaimer: I do not normally have dumped out suitcases on the floor . . . I guess the kids felt the need to "unpack" from Grandma and Grandpa's before the suitcase made it upstairs.

Anyway, on Sat. night, the Lawrence Welk show was on (hey, when you don't have cable, options are a little limited!!!!) and Joshua was imitating the tap dancer -- cracked me up!


Earlier in the day on Saturday was homemade pizza -- this is what you get when you say "Say Cheese!"

I wanted to make an advent calendar with activity pockets for the kids, so when I saw this canvas on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $1, I decided the kids would have fun painting it. Joshua claimed it would be eaiser to go "shirtless" than to put on a scrappy big T-shirt . . . ok, whatever!


Kayla thought it was great -- and yes, she got more on her sleeve, than on the canvas! Fun times!

Happy B-day, Kayla!!!!

Yesterday we celebrated Kayla's b-day! I think Joshua was just as or more excited than Kayla . . partly because he knows this HIS birthday is 3 weeks after Kayla's! He insisted on "helping" with her cake, so he was the "official" ladybug spot "putter-onner!"

As you can see Joshua was right ready to help "guide" Kayla in all of the birthday proceedings!

She really gave it her all when she was blowing out the candles --so much so that half of the cake was designated as "Kayla's" due to the excessive saliva on the cake!

She actually wasn't all that interested in opening gifts -- when she had the first one unwrapped, she said, "All Done" and took off for the playroom! Joshua convinced her otherwise, though!

Opening the "Kayla-sized" chairs from G/G Nelson.

This was the baby (pretend, not real!) from Mommy and Daddy -- she actually played with it that evening and today it has been THE ONLY THING she wants!


Feeding the baby in the crib. This was actually MY crib when I was growing up -- so fun! Happy Birthday, Kayla! So much has happened in the last two years -- can't believe how time has flown!

This week . . .

Let's see . . . Kayla got her first haircut last weekend. I actually took her to my stylist to see how "a professional" does it! She did GREAT! This was pretty much her expression the entire cut, but hey . . . she tolerated everything just fine . . . so we weren't complaining!


We had a stretch of BEAUTIFUL weather the last couple of days, so we tried to take advantage of it! Joshua on his bike . . . SHHH . . .don' tell him, but this will probably be one of his last rides on this bike . . .he's getting one for his birthday in December!

Some sibling bonding in the sandbox . . . trust me, they only peacefully coincide for about 3 minutes and then it becomes "MY SAND" and "YOUR SAND" and woe to the person who takes the other's sand!

What a look of childhood fun!

Last weekend, we celebrated Uncle Brian's birthday and Joshua insisted on not only having a balloon for him, but also wrapping him a present! Happy Birthday, Brian! Oh -- BTW, count 'em . . . do you see the 3 purchased soft drinks??? Guess my family doesn't like our caffeine free diet Pepsi!!!


Check this out . .. NO SPOTS ON THE CARPET! Got it cleaned today, and the kids loved having all of the extra room!

They also loved getting to go through the "tunnel" on the way upstairs. Their 5-month pregnant mama, on the other hand, carefully calculated each and every trip upstairs, deeming it absolutely necessary before proceeding!



. . . and this here would be our baby in his new "Cubbies" uniform! He is LOVING Cubbies so far . . . one of the highlights of his week!

Wow -- what a big day!

Well, our Friday started off with Joshua's first dentist appt.! Kayla and I went grocery shopping and Bryan did the honors!

Let's just say that times have changed since MY first dentist appt.!

Bryan said he did well -- way to go, Joshua!

Hopefully, this was a step in the right direction!

This picture is dedicated to my dear husband! We were outside working in the yard and so I needed to put together a QUICK meal . . . so Tuna Tetrizini it was! (You might say that it isn't his fave!) Anyway, what a great way to start the Trick or Treating -- right????

Our little ladybug and dinosaur! The weather was PERFECT!

That is quite the tail!

Fixin' the handle on the bucket!

G/G stopped by for a minute before the kids were off.

About half way through, the dinosaur got extremely tired . . .at least there wasn't a 10-lb. tail to carry along, too!

My sis got back in town tonight -- super good to see her! (and everyone else, too!)

Joshua showing Aunt Bem the art of organizing candy! Wow -- I think it's time to call it a day and get ready for the rest of the weekend!

All in a Thursday afternoon!

We had quite an exciting afternoon on Thursday . . .well, not that exciting! I guess the fire dept. was doing some kind of testing on the hydrants. It was still fun to see a fire truck in front of the house, though!

Wow -- would you look at that??? The kids were pretty enthralled.

And then . . .since the weather was just beautiful outside, Joshua opted NOT to take a nap, and Kayla opted to be done with her nap by 1:45 . . . I decided that it was A PERFECT DAY to make a Sonic Happy Hour run! Wah-hoo! I spent $1.07 for a Route 44 Lemon Berry Slush (No, I didn't eat all of it -- I brought cups for the kids!) and am happy to report I still have $5.42 left on my gift card from my birthday. Folks, that's FIVE, count 'em FIVE trips to Happy Hour! Extra Big Wa-hoo!

Joshua was delighted there was another boy his age there -- he is very "bored" now when it is only Kayla and/or Mommy!

And, this was a monumental day -- Joshua went down the Sonic slide by himself. After he went down he said, "Wow, that wasn't scary."

Kayla was just glad to be along for the ride! The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time doing something a little spontaneous and unplanned. (Very hard for a Type A to do)!

Pumpkin Carving

I must admit that we have not carved a pumpkin since the first year we were married . . yep . . . seven years ago. So, this was our evening's activity . . .

Since Bryan's much more gifted at the "artistic" side of the pumpkin carving process, he was the designer, me the photographer!

Look at Joshua -- gettin' his hands all yucky and stuff -- you the man, bud!

Final touches . . .

Finished product. After the candle was lit for all of 13 seconds, Joshua was begging to blow it out . . . short tenure!

Last Weekend

How is it that what I COMPLETELY intended to post Sunday night is JUST NOW getting done??? Anyway, here are a few pics from our weekend!

The GINORMOUS pumpkin above is at a local grocery store -- referred to as "big pump-in" by the one and only Kayla. Pretty self-explanatory! The first time I let them get close enough to touch it, you would have thought it was one of the seven wonders of the world! I love this age -- doesn't take much to wow them! I only wish you could have seen Bryan trying to take this picture from across the parking lot without having passing cars in front of the kids! Quite the sight!

I saw this magazine idea to make your own robots out of empty cans and spare junk drawer parts using magnets.

$2.44 later in magnets . . . this is what we achieved. So glad we did the basement
project so we would have all kinds of goodies for this project! We now have four magnetic "Mr. Potato Heads" that are inter-changeable.


Our church had their annual "Trunk or Treat" halloween alternative on Sunday night. It was REALLY windy, which made for a chilly night! We decorated the van like a jungle (yes . . . that's the kid's shower curtain . . .why????) The ladybug (aka. Kayla) much preferred the wind break of the van. My brother Brian SAVED THE DAY by being an extra set of adult hands to pass out candy, take the kids, etc. Thanks, bro!

I can't believe this is the ONLY picture of Joshua that I got. I managed to pick up this dinosaur costume for $2 at a garage sale, and thankfully, he was fine with being a dinosaur! (The lady bug costume set us back 75 cents at a garage sale -- life is good!)

Joshua BEGGED today to make "shape cookies." He is my official "flour-er." Trust me, the cookies NEVER stick to the pastry cloth with his ample flouring!

He loves to make these cookies (disclaimer-- they're from a pouch, hence we get right to business with rolling out the dough . . .none of the mixing stuff!)


This was . . um . . . a close call today. Kayla discovered how to take off the lid of the sprinkles -- yes, that means at one time there were 6 open places for sprinkles to just come tumbling out. Whew!