Princess A

My friend, Nicole, watched A & Z yesterday. I think that all the times that I've called A princess have gone to her head, she convinced Nicole & Emma to dress her up....

Trying out a new crown.

Hi Ho Hi Ho, to the dentist we go

Today was Z's first dentist appointment! Last week when I took the big kids he went with us and was VERY interested in what was going on - SO we made Z an appointment and it went very well. I was proud of my little two year old - he listened, did what he was asked and generally just behaved like a big kid! :) The only thing he was uncomfortable with was when Mr. Daniel (our hygienist) blew up a plastic glove, Z leaned back and said, "I don't want you to do that again!" Otherwise nothing scared him and he was happy the entire time. Enjoy this little slide show.

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Blog worthy

Tonight as Jason and I spent our "quiet time" watching the news and preparing for bed we heard a door open down the hall. We both stopped typing on our computers, looked at each other and then at our door. Here is what we witnessed; a wee little two year old carrying his beloved baby bear stumble into the door frame and say in his most innocent voice, "can I watch Blues Clues?" We couldn't help ourselves, we laughed out loud! I took him to the bathroom, assured him that I was getting ready to go to bed (it was indeed night time) and then I sang him the "Bible" song (Jesus Loves Me) and put him back to bed. Do I hear a collective, "Aww!"?

Busy Lady

I didn't realize what a busy lady I was until I stopped and put some pictures on my computer. When I did I realized that I had to share! So here is the play by play:

I have assisted in the hunt for the perfect binkie...

This little duck wasn't it!

I have helped this super hero,
known only as Z to find and successfully use the "big boy potty."


I have supported this walking, piano playing, savant.

I have aided and abetted these two in camouflaging themselves
... on the recliner?!


In addition to all of this I have provided entertainment of
untold excitement to this motley crew of hooligans.
Yep that is the dryer - who knew?!


Even Max had some fun stuff to watch!


Finally I have fed this little darling even though she insists on blowing raspberries.

So I guess I'm busier than I thought! :)

Tidbits

Here are some tidbits from my day.

First of all Z is doing well with the whole potty training thing... as long as I say one of the following things: "Do you need to go...?" "Is it time to...?" OR our favorite "Z it is time to..." - so I'm not entirely convinced that he's trained. I think that I AM trained! :) Oh well, it is going good and I'm so thrilled that a week ago he was doing all his stuff in a diaper and now he's doing most of his stuff in his potty (truly he's only had two accidents in the last two days).

Tonight we gave K a belated birthday present, she and I went to see Enchanted. We met Jason at the theater and he took the other three kids home while K and I stayed and had a girls night at the movies. We walked into the theater, bought our tickets and watched as the girl who sold us our tickets got on the walkie talkie and told them to start Enchanted in theater 2 - we were the ONLY ones in the theater! FUN! We got our popcorn, candy and drinks and then went to watch OUR movie. Here's my critique - this was a super fun movie but let me just say that my opinion might be skewed because I was with the sweetest, funniest and by all accounts the most terrific 8 year old girl in the whole wide world. We had a blast laughing out loud at the movie and then shushing each other. I hope that this evening was as memorable and fun for her as it was for me.

Finally, I got B a ride to swimming tonight so that I wouldn't be stressed about getting home after the movie. When I called to tell Jason, he asked in an awe-filled voice, "how do you plan all of this?" My smarty pants answer, "between bites of bon-bons!" :)


Here are a couple of pictures of that super, fantastic 8 year old I mentioned earlier opening her presents last night.

Bath time

I love this type of picture. As you can tell!
I have video of B... but he was the first!
Maybe after I get A's crawling up I will try to find B getting ready for bathtime!
So here's a trip down memory lane...

K & B 11/15/00

Z 12/14/06

A 1/21/07

Happy Birthday K

8 years ago today we were overjoyed to welcome a beautiful (although slightly blue) little girl to our family. We have spent the last 8 years being entertained and loved by this terrific girl, oh yea and she's not blue anymore.

Happy Birthday my sweet K, we love you SO much!

Happy Birthday Cheryl

My sister-in-law, Cheryl, is a great lady! She's got a heart of gold, a great sense of humor (she did marry my brother after all) and we love having her in our family!

Happy Birthday Cheryl - we love you!

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend. B celebrated his birthday this weekend with his friends, Harrison & Hank. They played, we had ice cream cake and they went to the pizza joint that we like to refer to as Chuck E. Cheese on Steroids. Woo hoo! I think a good time was had by all.

Blow B, blow!

Z had a pretty good weekend in the area of potty training. As I thought, we aren't over all the hurtles yet. We still have some learning and practicing to do.

This is Z and Jason taking turns sitting on top of each other! Silly kids!

K is now officially selling GS cookies. Um Yum!

Doesn't she look sweet? I'd buy a box from her!

A has officially discovered there are rooms other than the living room in which she can roam - eeks! Help!

Aw so sweet, can you resist that face?

Finally here's a picture of one of my favorite people doing one of the things that makes him a favorite.... playing jungle gym to my babies!

Excitement!

He did it, he did it, he really, really did it!!!

Z made it all day, no accidents! Yea Z!

I'm not so naive to say that we are done... but wow - way to go Z!!! :)

I'm lovin' it

No I'm not talking about McD's - I'm talking about life. I am currently trying to potty train Z, it is still a one-sided process, in other words I want it more than he does, but he's catching on. We had four successful trips yesterday and two ALREADY today! I have high hopes!
A is growing and changing EVERY day. She is crawling like a champ, has great eye sight (she can spot something dropped by one of the big kids within a millisecond of it being dropped) and she's even trying to pull herself up on stuff (our hands and her "thinking" chair are her favorite things to pull up on). B is now officially (as of 7:22am) 10 years old, K is officially going to turn 8 in four days! Those are just a few of the wonderful, awesome things that I'm lovin' about this life!

What has kept me from blogging recently are mundane things.... grocery shopping, my dryer is going wacky (actually it is the tube that shoots the hot air out of the house - it has a clog, which is my fault!), and just general housekeeping stuff.

Here's some pictures to bring you up to date on Jason's Clan.

K is working on some patches for Girl Scouts - this week they did face painting.

Working on pulling up like a big girl!

Crawling!

Our Debbie blessed us with a little Christmas in January!
B was VERY thrilled with his new Roboreptile (as was Z).

Cows in our backyard! Well sort of... in the field behind our house
(along with the vultures, scorpions, snakes and other assortment of wild life!)

Finally here are my boys hamming it up for the camera.

P.S. Yes I'm still working on the video clip of A crawling.

Happy Birthday B!

10 years ago today Jason and I (along with our family) welcomed one of the most wonderful, beautiful, terrific and fantastic people into this world!
Happy Birthday 10 year old! We love you SO much!

I'm still here... call this a writer's strike! :)

While you wait for me to get back to writing/putting pictures on here for you to peruse... here's a little cliff hanger of what is to come.
1.) We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and I'm working on a montage of that...
2.) My baby girl is crawling (video to be available soon)...
3.) My eldest daughter was painted as a kitten tonight picture to come soon
4.) When A throws a fit her eyes develop red circles around them and she gets red spots on her forehead - not attractive but we have pictorial proof to use later as blackmail.
5.) I also have pictorial proof that Z has begun using the potty successfully (about once per day!)... but I'll refrain from that.
Finally....
6.) I will be the mother of a 10 year old boy this weekend! AWWW!!! And an 8 year old girl next week - double AWWW!!!

Siblings

I like my brother, Mark! I think he's a really neat guy and here's the thing that I like the most about him... he's living proof that you can be wrong about a person! I used to think there couldn't be any good reason that my mom kept him around. :0)
Guess I was wrong! These are a couple of pictures from our Christmas with Mark & his family (FYI - the other reasons that I think Mark's a good guy... Shawn, Justin and Cheryl are pictured too).

Mark giving A her Christmas present.

Justin with his cousin A.

Shawn relaxing.

My mom, Terri & Mark's wife, Cheryl
(one of Mark's greatest attributes - he wisely married her!)

Another reason Mark is fun - he knows how to act like a fool! :)

She's clapping!! ... or does she want more?

Here's a little video clip for our loved ones far away. A has really begun to "grow up" before our very eyes. Yesterday she started clapping and I was so happy to be the FIRST one to see it. We had lots of fun with her clapping yesterday but it was a little bit of a problem since we also gave her finger foods for the first time and I was trying to show her sign language for more... I may have to rethink that.

Other things you need to know before you watch the video...
1.) Z wanted me to video him too, as you will see.
2.) When Z is being video taped he wants to "see" himself so I have to turn the screen, causing the camera to shake - sorry about that.
3.) In the first part look at these adorable pants with the little pockets on A!!! So cute! Thanks Nicole.

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Some pictures of Z&A

A playing with her new doll house.

Z helping A out with the pacifier...
the next picture was of him taking the pacifier away
(sorry not included, it was blurry)!

Z fixing Buzz... who knew that Santa would bring a defective toy! HA!

A with her new chair. Thanks Aunt Erin & Uncle Alex, great chew toy!

A getting angry with all this going backwards stuff!!!

Z in a box
(don't get ruffled, the lid isn't shut, he put himself in
and I took it away soon after these pictures were taken).

Laughter

I read a statistic the other day that made me sad, the average American child laughs 200 times per day, while us straight-laced adults only laugh about 15 times per day! So I challenge you... LAUGH! Laugh often, laugh hard and laugh out loud! :)

So here's a great way to start, share a funny story or memory. You can do it here as a comment or you can just post it on your own blog.

Here's mine. Last night as I was going to bed I had a mental image of myself as a prepubescent child... picture this if you will (AND LAUGH)!!!

Me in periwinkle blue knicker pants, plaid high collar shirt, knee high socks and of course the 70's hair parted down the middle and feathered on each side! The best part about it... I thought I was lookin' good and oohh so stylish!!

I'll try to get my hands on a picture so I can give you a good laugh on another date... until then share a laugh with us!

Our little A girl news

I thought I would post a blog to let you know all of A's news. Our sweet, happy little girl is now officially crawling... backward! Sitting up after being on her belly and now has 5 teeth (two top ones, three on the bottom). I'll post pictures and maybe even a montage later this week.
I couldn't help but reminisce this morning that a year ago today she was just a flutter in my belly... wow how time flies!
Happy New Year!