Sneak Peak

I've been working on some cotton washcloth/dishcloths. I heart them!! They will be in my little shop soon. *Squeeeeee*

Took a Stroll

At the zoo on Saturday. One of my favorite places in town.



I love this pic.

The three amigos

And my favorite photo...my fearless daughter, blowing kisses at the mountain lion. (She couldn't get close enough.)

SCORE!!!!

Their loss is my gain..KB Toystore that is!! Yesterday while hoofin it at the mall, I happened to see some very very low prices...as the store is going out of business. Unfortunately, I was all geared up for walking and not for shopping, so I didn't have any money on me. Oh, and let me add that there was hardly a soul there too...*tumbleweed blowing across store*

Soooo, I went back today, money in hand, and was ready to browse. Well, it was more like a free for all frenzy. My first indication that it was wild there, was that as soon as I swung open the doors to the mall this woman was standing there with 2 HUGE KB toystore bags...I walked a little further, and this man was coming toward me with I'd say 5 ginormous bags from the store. I walked in and the place was ravaged. I did, however, find quite a few things that my little Lady will love in the future, like dress up and tea time stuff...and this baaaaad Remote control car for the boy next Christmas. It was pretty awesome!! The best part was it only cost $56 with a total of $126 in savings!!!

All done

Little lady just blows my mind sometimes!! She loves to eat just about anything, and for the last few weeks, I have been wondering if there is a cut off for how much she eats, or if she is just a bottomless pit!! The one and only sign language cue I have done for her all along is "all done" which my son really took to, but she hadn't done anything with.

Well, on Friday, I just kept putting more and more food on her little tray as she would eat it right up....I noticed her slowing down a bit, and finally, she looks at me, touches her little fingers together and brings them apart while saying, "Ah dieeen." PRESH. She just told me she was done!! I am loving this now, because she has a say in when enough is enough.

She is really working with the word BABY a lot too. The other morning she woke up, I laid her on the changing table, and the first thing she sees is a picture of her when she was first born. She says, Baayyyyba. I say it correctly for her, and she keeps practicing it until her sweet little voice says, "Baybee." Oh I just love it!

Little man is doing great as well. He just loves his toys, and he just loves his sister's toys too! I have to remind him to share with Sissy all the time, and pry his hands off her hands as he is trying to move her away from her own toys!!

He is so awesome with his alphabet, he is constantly pointing out the letters anywhere he sees them. I have to be on my guard because he will say it until I acknowledge I see it too. He can identify all his capital letters, most his lower case letters, and me being the former teacher that I am...He also is saying their phonetic sound as well. I think I have a baby Einstein on my hands.

I'm working on a diet. Ya, I haven't really mentioned it before, but I am. It has been two weeks now, and I feel really good. I must admit though, that I did indulge in some junk food this weekend, and I don't feel like I ruined everything! I am back on track today, eating my one egg spinach omelet, plain yogurt and blueberries for breakfast!! The hubs and I both feel sooo much better when we are eating right. So far I have lost 8 lbs. I have many more to go, and I will keep you posted as to my progress in a once a week update.

I'm THAT mom

Unbelievable. You would think for teaching as long as I did, carefully observing what I WOULD NOT be like as a parent as long as I did, but here I stand, head hung low in shame, drawing circles in the sand with the toe of my shoe...I admit, I have a problem: I have become, unbeknownst to me, extraordinarily attatched to my baby. And what is worse? I blame it all on her.

G got up early yesterday morning to get ready to head for church. He holds rehearsal for about an hour and a half before service. I usually attend the 11:00 service since the kids wake at different times every day. I took my shower shortly after he left and got myself ready. Soon afterward, the children were awake, I got them fed and dressed and were pretty much ready by the time first service started. I thought I would get us out the door to run a couple errands. After a short bought with choking and gagging on a pretzel and nearly ruining his shirt (my son),and my babe spitting up all over her jacket and pants, we were out the door. (It is no easy task to get three people ready!!

We gassed up the truck, drove by my parent's house, and then headed to church, half an hour early. The whole way there, I kept talking to my son about his class. He seemed very excited to go...then he would call out the instrument playing on the radio. (He's awesome like that.) Baby girl was in the best of moods...singing and practicing her "baba, mama, dada" mad skills. Got there, enjoyed a few cookies...(well my children did, I am being good...and that is another entry in and of itself) and finally, church service number one was dismissed. We headed against the flow of people making there exodous out the two glass doors, struggling past coats and purses and people who think it is a good idea to start visiting right in the middle of an aisle. Little man loooooves to watch the drummer play and he was fixated on him the entire time I am walking them to the front of the building. (I must put a side note that I think the best thing about being a musician's family is that the kids are not scared of the band, and that they don't think it is too loud!) I plopped them down front and center and they just took in the sights and sounds of the groove.

Little man had a little bit of a hard time when Daddy checked him into his class, but nothing of note, I kept little lady with me. She loves the music, and will either sing and squeal when I am singing, or like yesterday, blow raspberries the whole time. We sit down to hear the message, and she lets out the loudest screech, then starts fussin' like it was her job. I promptly take her to the nursery and set her on the floor to play with blocks. She LOVES throwing building blocks around so she started tearin' it up with the blocks and watching the other little girls. I snuck out and back to my seat. All the while, telling the nursery worker, "She is really attached, I'll be back if she has a hard time."

Two minutes later, I think I hear her cry so I am at the window, peeking in. Nope, she is still happily tossing blocks. I sit down. I do hear her cry. I'm up at the window, she's crying...a nursery worker picks her up...she's not crying. I sit down...She's screaming, I'm at the nursery door...The nursery worker is now reading her a story. I go back to sit down and I think, well I might as well just stand at the window. I'm standing...I'm peeking...she sees me, she's screaming, she's crying, she's distracted, she remembers and she's crying. I'm in that room faster than you can say...."Momma's got a problem." I ended up staying with her in the nursery for the rest of the service...and she, moved on to tossing other nursery items. My husband peeked his head in the nursery about two minutes into me being in there and told me our son was having a meltdown in his class, so little man ended up in the nursery with me too.

I can't help it. I can't sit there and pretend everything is fine while my babes are screaming bloody murder in their respective classes. I don't know how the mother of the little boy who was screaming for like 15 whole minutes in the nursery did it. They have me wrapped around their little fingers...and I kinda don't mind.

I Just Loooooove What You Have Done With the Place...

While he was supposed to be sleeping all snug in his bed, with visions of monster trucks driving wrecklessly in his head...

It got awefully quiet and we thought he was sleeping, sure he complained...and then he did a little more singing...but we really thought he was happily making mimi's...

About a couple hours he started making noise again. My husband went into his room to get him up and get a fresh diaper on him. He walks in to find that Captian Destructo had visited our boy's room during Saturday's naptime. Daddy is slightly hurt because, ya know, this was the room we spent dreaming in and planning and working on before little man arrived two years ago. He asks his little boy, "Did you do that?" and monkey answers, "I pull it. I pull it haaaaarrrrrd." How do you keep a smile off your face with an answer like that?

Thank goodness one roll of border was not enough to do the whole room originally, we almost have an entire roll left over...Just not something we really really wanted to re-DO.

Something for ME

For Christmas, I received a bag of really nice yarn from Santa...AKA my momma. I have been drooling over all the different color schemes and have been really looking forward to creating a hat for myself...seems like all I have been doing lately is making stuff for other people. I have a pattern that is absolutely adorable...my mom got her hands on it and has been making $$$ selling these hats EVERYWHERE. Like she will go into the bank, and people will ask her about the hat, and she will make a sell. She has even made a sell at Red Lobster for Pete's sake...Sooo I am eyeballing my yarn, picking my colors and I am steadfast and determined to create a headturner for myself. Yes, that would be all well and good if I could get the blasted thing over my head. I totally used up two balls of yarn on a hat that doesn't fit.

So then, my Mother in law would like a hat. She lives in Florida, and I think, oh, I will buy the type of yarn the pattern calls for, sportweight, and make her a light and comfy hat...same pattern. I finish in record time, hold up the finished product...and dang diddly do dah...same problem. I am soooo done making that hat. My mom told me she will come over after her trip to see my brother and his new babe and make one for me. awww...gotta love mommas and their sympathy.

Well, all that to say, I have been on the quest for a different hat pattern for myself. I found one the other day and finally had a chance to make it yesterday. I like it, and I think it is unique, but like the U2 song, "I still....haven't found.....what I'm looking for..." Me thinks it shall be in the etsy shop verrrry soon. (It's the one in the picture)

And totally off topic...I have not been a teacher for two years now...and all the stress of teaching has totally been a distant memory, however it happened again last night. I had that frustrating, out of control, me standing in the middle of a classroom full of unruly ten year olds dream, trying to write things on the chalk board and the chalkdust is just too blurry on the board...My teacher from fifth grade is usually in my dreams too...she was trying to mentor me but things were falling apart...as they usually do in my school dreams. weird, I know. I just realize, everytime I have these dreams, how much I really don't miss that part of my life.

A new year, a new address...

As exciting as it sounds...no I haven't moved where I live...only where I tell you about my life. I am deleting myspace from my life in my effort to simplify, but have come to really enjoy the whole posting thing, thus the blogspot! (Obligatory intro to blogspot over)

We have a little Bob Dylan on our hands. I would never have thought...being hubby sings, and sings well....and I do a little bit of singin myself. I was driving home from church yesterday and my sonny is just making these crazy aweful noises in the backseat...I think he's crying because we put him in the 2-3 year old class for the first time...I'm asking him if he liked his class, telling him to talk like a big boy...then it dawns on me...my child is singing about his first class. And by singing, I mean...putting all his words together in one long sad sing songish sentence and wailing. We got home and were all chillin on the bed and he started singing again...As hilarious and funny as it is, I am sure hoping this is a phase.

Little Ladybug is just doing so well!! She has come to the point where rolling just isn't cutting it for her. She has finally had enough and is moving in a bit of a struggled forward motion I can kind of call crawling. She is so funny, such a girl. We were at Kmart (of all places) and were browsing clearance toys...(not anywhere as amazing as Target's toy clearance I might add) and there were lots of boyish toys...I was pushing the boy in his cart and hubby was pushing little lady...suddenly I hear this screech of all screeches....hubby is laughing. I look over and he is stopped in front of a princess doll on a pony. Of course.

Well, my little man beckons. Thanks for reading!