Satan Attacks on Saturdays

Saturday nights more specifically. Seriously. If the kids are going to get sick or have an extremely rough night, or if one of us adults are not going to feel good, it's going to happen during Saturday night so that we cannot go to church on Sunday. In fact, I've become so aware of it lately, that I've started praying out loud that all evil will leave our house before we go to bed Saturday night. However... sure enough. AJ has this cold that's not terrible, but bad enough for us to have a rough night and to not think he should go in the nursery today. And I got a painful plugged milk duct last night that I've been trying to relieve all day. So, we missed another Sunday of church. Then he attacked again, by putting me in crummy mood. I was actually pretty bummed this morning about missing church. I mean as a stay at home mom... I don't go out and see other adults all that much. So church, even though it really is wonderful in and of itself, is more than just church. It's a chance to wear makeup, to talk to other grown-ups, to get out of the house, etc... Plus, I just feel out of the loop with the ongoings of church. Se la vi.

I did however, head out a bit on my own today. Got a coffee, hit Micheals for after Christmas sales, and did some grocery shopping at Aldis & Meijer.

Tonight, New Year's Eve, we are not doing anything other than staying in. And my extremely social hubby is going insane. The travisty of staying home on New Year's Eve is a bit more than he can take. But all of our friends are out of town or have sick kids. Plus, we have our own health issues that we shouldn't be speading to others. It's pathetic, but I may not even make it until midnight. 'Tis the season of life. We did try to have a least a decent dinner. We had a nice roast dinner, then yesterday I made an ice cream roll-up cake with homemade hot fudge icing for dessert tonight. (It actually sounds better than it was - but it was my first attempt). When the kids are older, we'll have to party hard to make up for these sub par celebrations.

Be careful tonight and have a great New Year's Eve.

I can't complain.

Now that I am not working, it's easy for me to lose track of what day it is. However, Marc had today off due to a floating holiday and it's felt like Saturday all day. I keep thinking I need to pull stuff together for church tomorrow.

We had a nice week. Nothing exceptionally exciting happened. Little grocery shopping, little house cleaning, little napping, little cooking... getting back into our little ol' schedules. The boys have had slight colds - nothing terrible. I think AJ is also teething - so couple that with a dripping nose and he's been happy only 90% of the time and not his usual 98%. He's not sleeping all that great, but what else is new? He did, however, figure out how to pull himself up onto things a couple times today and the look on his face said, "World Hunger? Global Warming? BRING IT ON!"

The boys aren't the only ones with maladies. I burnt my right thumb and index finger last night on what I found out was a non-microwavable mug (amazing what 30 seconds can do - and my milk was still cold). So I slept holding on to an ice pack last night. And y'know - a right handed person does an awful lot of things with their right thumb and index finger. Thankfully, the pain is now gone, the fingers are just cracked and crusty. Sorry for the lovely word picture. I also have a slight ailment on my leg. Not sure what yet and neither did my doc. (We layman thought it was bug bites that wouldn't go away - but doc said "no"). So I am on a couple meds for "just in case" scenerios. I just spent the last hour researching the meds before I would take them since I am still nursing AJ. Yes, I asked my doctor about it - but he wasn't real convincing and... well, I wanted to decide for myself. I am not thrilled about taking them. I guess I am supposed to find out what my "bites" are sometime next week-ish.

Tomorrow, I think we are going to try to get some projects done around the house and take our Christmas decor down. It will be nice to free up a little space. Especially now that Santa brought us large Christmas toys.

Ya' know. I was upstairs calming AJ just about an hour ago (Marc is up there now - I told you he wasn't sleeping well) and Andrew was in bed, not yet sleeping, and I was thinking. My life is pretty perfect. I've got two great kids, a terrific hubby, a supportive family and a warm home. Colds, burnt fingers, sleepless nights, itchy legs... BRING IT ON.

Christmas Jammies

Some Christmas Treats

All that work - and AJ just wants to chew on the box.

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus.

Someone got safety scissors for Christmas.

Merry belated Christmas

I hope you all had a truly wonderful day. We did. We actually had a pretty nice entire weekend. We went to Ohio to see my parents and have several Christmas(es) with different sides of the family. I feel like I could write a novel about everything that we did and how the boys did, etc... but I am tired after getting home late last night and “undigging” today so I will make this brief. The boys did incredible - especially considering that schedules were thrown out of whack. There were two days in a row that AJ (yes, the baby) only got one nap each day. And he was an angel. They both struggled a bit at night - but nothing I can complain too much about. Of course, they could wake up Grandma and Papa early in the morning and let us sleep a bit. Both boys got many wonderful gifts. So far the favorites seem to be (Andrew) a roll up racetrack for Matchbox cars and (AJ) a super soft Build-A-Bear.

As you could see in the video below, Andrew is aware of this Santa character this year. So we were expecting Santa to play a bigger role in Andrew's Christmas than he did. We did lay out cookies and milk the night before, but in the morning, Andrew kind of forgot all about Santa.

Get this - I actually dreamt the night before Christmas that some faceless authority figure was scolding me for 'pushing' Santa on a two year old when Christmas is really all about Jesus' birthday. I even woke up feeling guilty. I am not anti-Santa, but it definitely made me think. However, before opening gifts, we did stick a candle in a cookie and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus after reading the Christmas Story (Luke chapter 2).

We really did have a nice Christmas – I hope you did to. I will work on posting pictures soon.

Santa Explained

A must have in a house with a rowdy boy.

The Boo Boo Bunny

Love it...

...when you repeatedly have to move your 8 month old so he doesn't chew on the Christmas lights.

My Favorite Christmas Memory.

When I was around 12, somehow I was able to get out with some money and buy myself an outfit that I really wanted without anyone knowing about it. Then I took it home, wrapped it in Christmas paper, switched tags with a gift for me already under the tree and waited.

On Christmas morning, I opened my outfit. With all the excitement I could muster, I gushed on and on about how great the outfit was, and how I love it, and thank you, thank you, etc…

You should have seen my parent’s faces - each sneaking looks at each other with whispers, "Did you buy that for her?" "No, didn't you?" My Gram was there and I know she got those perplexing looks as well. They even checked the tag to see who it was from, but staring back at my mom was her own handwriting that said, "To Kelli, from Santa".

I couldn't hold up the charade too much longer before I burst out laughing. But I think, for just a moment, my parents really did believe in Santa.

That's my favorite Christmas Memory - what's yours?

He Moves!

I proved it today.

AJ's been pivoting on the tummy for quite a while. But lately he's been getting places.. slowly. So slowly in fact, we never really caught him moving. It was more of a gradual fluke and if left long enough he would somehow back himself under the table.

But a day or two ago, Marc said he saw a distinct army crawl. One with purpose (there was a red matchbox car just out of reach). So today, I tested him. He was playing happily on the floor and I lined up a trail of Cheerios on the floor about 10 inches apart. At the end of 3-4 Cheerios, I laid on my tummy and encouraged him to come get me. Sure enough - stopping long enough to eat each cheerio, AJ army crawled to me. Fortunatly, at this point he is still pretty slow, but I bet by the new year, it will be time to break out the baby gates.

Shiny & Clean

Well, what have I been up to besides compaining about birthday cake or prime time television? Well, my birthday was really nice. We got a sitter, did dinner out and stopped by some friend's house to visit and share my cake. (Ironically - my friend we shared my cake with is named Kelly - with a "y"). Other than that - we really (and I mean really) haven't done much. We stayed in almost the entire weekend. Barely worked around the house and just kinda vegged. Athough I am paying for it now - playing catch up.

Today was a busier one. We ran out and finished Christmas/grocery shopping this morning and stopped by the mall to let Andrew run a bit in their play area. Three stops total. However, due to the holiday vehicle and human traffic, our three stops took 3 hours. The poor kids were knocked clean off their schedules. Over all they did well - but both were grumpy for a while after late naps . I am coming down with a cold - so while I got some done this evening, I don't feel like I made a dent in my 'list'. Although the boys did get tubs so they are 'shiny and clean - shiny and clean' (from Thomas the Tank) and cute as ever!

"Identity"

Marc is gone for Monday night football, the boys are in bed, so I am in front of the tube with my laptop avoiding the mountain high list of the things I should be doing such as cleaning up my kitchen, finishing Christmas projects, wrapping gifts, folding clothes, etc...

Instead, I started watching an incredibly lame show called Identity. Penn's hand guesture are so redundant it's embarassing and the overuse of dramatic pauses (to where they aren't dramatic anymore at all) is irritating. I made it a whole 8 minutes into the show before looking for something better. Maybe I didn't give it a fighting chance - but it stinks that this show will be on all week. I guess I look for yet another rerun of Friends while I finish paying bills.

How to frustrate Marc...

Mispell the birthday girl's name on the cake he especially ordered for her, after repeating the spelling back to him several times.

Twenty Nine and holding...

Yesterday was a weird day. It was Bible Study day, which means that it started out in a state of craziness. The study itself was a really nice beautiful brunch. But again, by the time I got the boys home – they were at their end. I fed them a quick lunch and put them both down for a nap – where they both (yes, both) slept for THREE hours! In fact, I laid down with Andrew and crashed for two hours. I can’t tell you when or if that’s ever happened before. Man, it was nice (and much needed).

However, other than general pick-up and dinner (homemade pizza), I don’t feel like I got much done yesterday. Marc spent a good portion of the evening at the hospital visiting our friend and of course an hour long The Office was on last night.

Oh!, and I did receive my “First Place Christmas Card” yesterday – thank you!

Today is my birthday – my very last birthday ever – and we will be celebrating by getting a sitter tonight and going out to dinner at our usual birthday restaurant. We may even take advantage of the sitter and finish our Christmas shopping.

Other than that – today is a regular day. Laundry needs to be done, kids need to be fed, etc… Have a great weekend.

Beware - Splash Guard Needed

AJ has discovered the art of blowing raspberries and it's become his full time job.

What if all your food came out of the freezer in the shape of an ice cube?

Today was another busy day. Started out with an early phone call (which immediately makes you think something is wrong). A good friend of ours is in the hospital. So Marc went in to see him this morning before heading to work for a while.

With two boys to care for, we just stayed home, prayed, played and worked. And I got a lot done. It was babyfood making day and I can happily say I now have a nice supply of green beans, squash and pears in my freezer for AJ. (I do have other things already made - I don't make the poor kid live on only 3 foods). He loved the pears and didn't even mind the green beans all that much. Marc then came home early, we got a sitter for a couple hours and both of us headed back down to hospital for a bit.

On a good note, I had our sitter pop in a pan of enchaladas from yesterday in the oven, so dinner was ready for us when we got home. We got tubs done and the house somewhat picked up and now cookies are cooling on the rack. I'm blogging and Ryan is over here playing war video games with Marc. I really need to work on my Bible Study as I am behind and work on Christmas gifts. So I'm out.

Lunch Ponderings

Why is it that when I mix a thick liquid such a honey with another thick liquid such as mustard, what I get a thin drippy mixture for my chicken nuggets?

A lotta enchilada

Hmmm... it's been a busy one and I am pooped. We started out first thing this morning at the grocery store. Which, now that AJ isn't in the carrier - it's like a whole new adventure hauling two kids and diaper bag in and out of a store. We got our goods and headed home for AJ to nap and mama to start cookin'.

Miraculously, Andrew went downstairs and played with his train set for a good stretch, which left me time to work. I got two large pans and two small pans of enchiladas made. Enchaladas is a wonderful meal but so messy and time consuming to make – so when I make them, I make a LOT of them. This took until about noon or so. I got the kids fed and Andrew down for nap. With a cranky AJ, I didn’t get much else done before his nap except prep the enchilada toppings – onion, tomato, lettuce, etc… Once both boys were up we headed out to a friend’s house to give her family a pan of enchiladas with the works.

Back at home, a quick noodles with broccoli & alfredo sauce dinner, a catnap for AJ, a shower for Andrew and a major overhaul cleanup of my kitchen later, I am plopped on the couch. I should be getting the boys in bed, but instead they are both sitting here in just their diapers watching Disney’s “Mickey Twice Upon a Christmas.” We stumbled upon it by accident, but Andrew was immediately mesmerized. I am recording it – so he can finished it tomorrow. I am not going to let him stay up until 9:30 and have a feeling that decision is not going to go over well with him. (But I’m the mom). Marc is gone over to watch Monday Night Football & workout with Ryan. So I will have a night to myself (to pay bills).

On a side note, I bought oranges today at the grocery store. I let AJ taste a bit of the juice and he turned into a junkie. To the point where I would let him just gum a wedge. This even got Andrew interested enough to try a triangle or two of orange. Progress.

I love it when...

...I have to compete with his foot when spoon-feeding AJ to see which gets into his mouth first.

The wonderful world of Flint...

Friday, we decided to pack up and head east to stay with some friends on the other side of the state. They have a little boy Andrew's age, so he was super excited to see "all my friends". We hung out with them, the kids played, us grown ups played "Scene It" (I lost both games) and it was a nice little trip.

They had a rocketship cockpit painted on the bottom of thier coffee table. You climb under and head into space. It even lit up with some real buttons. Pretty cool!

The main reason we decided to head there was a large Christmas village we visited complete with a real train ride. The boys' eyes were wide the entire ride. We even crossed a street and the lights went on, the gate went down and we heard the ding ding ding telling all the cars to wait. You can tell from the pictures - it was cold!

(And yes, the boys have socks on their hands - I forgot their mittens)

A beautiful tree with every branch lit up.

A very fast (to a fault - glad we gave Andrew motion sickness medicine earlier that day) merry go round that Andrew really wanted to ride again.

The boys
Goofy kids.

Do you see you?

Because above is a mommy, a daddy, an AJ and Andrew, a grandma, a papa, a Zach and his two baby brothers and all their friends.

Interesting or Weird?

I've been doing this blogging thing long enough that I now have this post to read with this post.

Eight Months, Baby!

Wow - eight months ago today I was totally planning on heading into work and well...

....surprise!

What I did instead was deliver this beautiful happy boy who fills this house with his smiles!

AJ, you are one happy kid and I pray you stay that way until you only have two teeth left. You've really grown on us. You've discovered Cheerios, though getting them to your mouth is more work than it's worth to you right now. But put them in your baby feeder and you are one happy dude. You also like the HBO Classical Baby Music Show (as does your brother) after your afternoon nap. You are adored by your brother who often forgets that you are not 2 and a half years old like he is. You are sitting well by yourself and you pivot great on your belly. You will occasionally make it to your hands and knees to rock a bit before plopping back down (which scootches you backwards - sometimes under something like the table). You still wake a couple times a night. You are learning the joy of kicking in the tub and the cause/effect relationship of your splashes to mommy's squeals. You adore your daddy. You are still not totally sold on the concept of solid foods although you get better every day. Your favorite word is 'ga' and you love to shout it in every tone and pitch you can create. You are trying to master the motorboat sound and pierce your lips together while spitting. You also do this weird tongue/top lip action and quite funny.



Adam, you are a sweetheart and God totally knew what he was doing when he gave you to us!

Somehow, I think he's lying...

Mom: Andrew, did you put the blue marker in your mouth?

Andrew (innocently): No.

You think it's funny I got talked into climbing under the tree, don't you!

Chop Job

Before my first attempt at cutting my son's hair.

After my first attempt at cutting my son's hair.

Yea, pretty much turned into a straight buzz - don't look too closely around his ears. (I even knicked his left one - *sniff*)

...the ditches remain.

Just a few minutes ago, Marc was outside helping someone whose car was stuck in our yard. Yes, right up in our yard. Past the curb, past the grassy edge, and he completely cleared the sidewalk... right up into our yard. But the lovely thing is, is that this kid kept gassing it trying to get out of our yard (wasn't going to happen without help) so now we have two nice ditches in our yard. Um... Marcky not happy. Anyway, this kid's friends showed up, and between them and Marc, the car is out of our front yard. But the ditches remain.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Words from my 2 year olds mouth...

(During dinner at the table where Andrew has been chatting the entire meal)
Me (in very excited voice): Andrew! Tell daddy what you had for lunch today!
Andrew: Stop talking, Mom! I'm eating.

Well, ok - now that I write it and read it in print it looks downright rude. However, in real life it was SO stinking funny that both Marc and I immediately burst into laughter. Apprently he was enjoying my gourmet meal of hambergers, butter noodles and carrot sticks. Little stinker.

Anyway, today was a nice one. We had Bible Study this morning, came home for lunch/naps, and just worked around the house and hung out the rest of the day. I did make a large (and I mean large) batch of split pea soup and will probably be eating it until my fingernails turn green. Then tonight, we made a large batch of cookie dough (that turned out just fine, mom - thanks!). Of course - we had to bake off a small pan tonight before the boys went to bed and good tv started. I love The Office (sorry, mom). However, I went up at 10pm after Marc putting Andrew down at 8pm and the stinker was still awake. He was just in his diaper (his new thing - taking his shirt off to sleep for naps and at night) and was pushing everything off his bed. He just started giggling as soon as he saw me - which made me start giggling and well, not much discipline took place. But Marc went up not too long ago and he was out. Maybe he'll sleep in tomorrow morning.

Still not sure if we will get our Christmas decor up for this weekend or not. I guess if we do, we do and if not - oh well. But we would pretty much have to get it all up tomorrow. I have a church ladies thing Saturday afternoon that I need to take cookies to (hence all the cookie dough tonight) and my folks are coming up Saturday evening. So it's tomorrow or next week. We'll see.

Ok, I need to head to bed. If I don't post tomorrow (hopefully I'll be too busy putting up my Christmas tree) have a great weekend!

By the way - the exciting lunch referenced above was a lunchmeat turkey sandwich cut into a gingerbread man shape. (Andrew kept telling me he was eating the man's shirt when eating the bread - he eats his sandwiches one layer at a time).

Laundry and dishes and sweeping, oh my!

I really debated posting because I feel I have nothing even remotely worth reading to post about. For the last three days we've just been recovering from our Thanksgiving trip. Sunday, we literally slept off and on all day. I didn't even make it out of my pj's and into the shower until 5pm. However, I did make it to the store that night after the kids were in bed. One milk free day was enough torture for Andrew.

Yesterday and today has been cleaning, laundry, etc... All the things that you work on all day, then turn around, look at the house, and wonder what you did all day as it looks the same as when you got up. But I am really hoping to finish straightening the house and moving things around so that later this week we can maybe get our Christmas tree and all the other fixin's up. I am really looking forward to that. Especially with Andrew one year older and that much more aware and excitable. (NOT that he needs anything to excite him - he lives in a constant state of excitement).

So I will leave you with some pictures of an excited boy. But not Andrew. No, this is AJ experiencing pumpkin pie for the first time thanks to Papa.

New Car Seat

Well, after FINALLY learning the hard way that are our oldest son gets car sick (this is after 2 bouts of nastiness on the way over to Iowa), we broke down and bought a new car seat for Andrew. We hate his current seat anyway as we think is defective as it is SO stinking hard to get tight and well, frankly, it's been puked in more times that I would like to count. Since, we will have another child that will have to use the seat after Andrew, we decided it was time (plus I had a 15% off coupon). So here's hoping that it's a good one and that we can keep it 'clean' all the way home to Michigan.

Say Cheese! Or Gobble Gobble Gobble.

Our annual Dykstra Thanksgiving family picture.

Each year we have to write down what we are thankful for. This year, Dad drew Tom Turkey for us to stick our 'thankful' feathers to.

Andrew's feather is the scribbled yellow one in the middle. He wanted me to write for him: dad and mom, Diago, running, bicycle and swimming (of course he was riding Grandpa's tricycle earlier and went swimming the day before). Then he colored it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's Say Thanks...

This website gives you an opportunity to send a free printed postcard to US military personnel stationed overseas showing your support and appreciation for their service to our country. Check it out.

Hey! What are these on the side of my head?!

I remembered this weekend that AJ was due a second flu shot and third rotovirus vaccine. I wanted to get these in before we left for Thanksgiving since traveling and being around a lot of people would make him more susceptable to bugs. I took him in yesterday for a routine in-and-out visit and decided on a hunch (thank you God) to have a doctor check his ears while there. Sure enough, my happy boy snuck in an ear infection when we weren't looking. I would have never taken him in if not for the vaccines since he really wasn't showing any signs of trouble. He did play with his ear a bit for a last couple days but I thought maybe he just 'discovered' he had two soft little flaps on the side of his head.

Anyway, the doc said it was minor, but we got meds anyway. If we were going to be home, I might be tempted to see if it cleared up on it's own before giving the antibiotic since he really seems to be feeling fine. But with us traveling in the car a total of 16 (or more) in the next 4 days, I am going to go ahead and push the meds. First real illness in 7 1/2 months and he's not really crabby? I guess I can't complain.

I Love it When...

....we are walking out of Chili's after paying for our dinner, and I realize that my gift card for Chili's is still in my back pocket.

Mission to my Readers should you choose to accept.

Well, it's the second week of shapes and we are learning about diamonds. So once again, we baked off some diamond cookies.



But I am afraid I have started something I can't finish, unless I get some great ideas from my readers. I went and looked ahead at the future shapes and got a little scared. Check out these shapes that I need to cut out of cookie dough.

Week 1 - Square - Already done by freehand
Week 3 - Diamond - Already done by freehand
Week 5 - Octagon - YIKES!
Week 7 - Star
Week 9 - Circle - Will find a can to use
Week 11 - Crescent
Week 13 - Rectangle - Will be able to do freehand
Week 15 - Oval
Week 17 - Heart - Actually have a heart cookie cutter
Week 19 - Triangle - Will be able to do freehand
Week 21 - Pentagon
Week 23 - Hexagon
Week 25 – Parallelogram

So I need brilliant idea on how I am going to manage these shapes. I know I can count on you!

AJ Squared Away

Daddy went to the store... alone.

And because of that, we are now the proud owners of one Spiderman play tent.

Shooting Poo

Don't cringe - it's not as bad as you think.

Someone recently showed Andrew that Crayola markers can be stuck together end to end to make a ‘marker tower’. He has absolutely no interest in coloring anymore now that he can build these weak structures. Today in fact, he was pretending to ‘shoot’ me without him understanding what shooting or even guns are (must be an innate boy thing). For his sound effect during the shootings he would say “poo poo”. Then in all seriousness he broke the tower in half, gave one half to me and said, “Poo with me, mom.” He repeatedly would ask to me to follow him around the house ‘pooing’. “Come poo in the kitchen, mom.” “Poo over baby AJ’s bouncer, mom”. It was hilarious!

Side note: As I write this, Andrew is talking back to Diego as if he were truly in the room.

Uh Wema Whop, Uh Wema Whop

Thank you for the prayers - AJ had a decent night last night. He was still up three times, but was only up and fed once during the night and then again at 6 this morning (then he fell back asleep until 8:30). There is still room for improvement, but it's a step in the right direction. Today has been busy. I was so out of it yesterday from the lack of sleep that not much more than absolutely necessary was accomplished. So I am making up for it now. I've been busy working on the house and Andrew's lessons. Below is Andrew art he made today. Our theme had been jungle, so he took green paper and glue and 'hid' the lion in the jungle.

We hit the library this morning also after AJ's first nap. Andrew got to play with the train set all by himself - which was exciting since usually there are other 'friends' with whom he has to share. We picked up a few books on kittens (next theme) and came home for lunch of leftovers tacos from dinner last night. Now both boys are in bed and the dishes are done. I need to tackle the rest of the this floor before my crew wakes up.

I'll leave you with a picture of Andrew is daddy's work gear (for when Marc makes calls to the Kelloggs plant). The white 'net' around Andrew's neck is supposed to be a beard guard, but would not stay up on my clean shaven boy. Hopefully it will leave you with a smile.

...is the "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" song in your head now?

You see the problem.

You need the coffee early in the morning, and yet you have to make the coffee early in the morning. People should not be required to make coffee until they have some coffee.
-Jon Carroll

All I want for Christmas is... Sleep!

Well, last night was another rough night. The current sleeping arrangment in our home is Andrew is either in our bed and one of us parents is downstairs on the futon (last two nights was my turn). Although we are thinking about setting up Andrew on the floor in our room so we can both sleep in our bed. Why? Because our stinker of son, AJ, does not sleep well and we are/will be working on it. That means we will not be catering to him as in the past (so that he wouldn't wake up Andrew). This will not make him happy, but hopefully it will be short term. I pray he learns quickly that he does not need to be picked up and fed every two or three hours. And hopefully soon, Andrew can move back into his own bed. (although he is l.o.v.i.n.g. sleeping in mom and dad's bed.

Well, today was a big day for Marc. He got his new car. A Nissan Maxima. We did a little family drive tonight to test it out. I will have to post a picture when it is daylight out. He is very excited and I must admit, it is a nice car. If only there weren't those payments that went along with it. (he gets a car allowance - that's the only way it would be feasible).

Today was the cutest thing. For the first time really...Andrew and AJ were somewhat playing with each other. Well, AJ was in the bouncer, but Andrew was racing his cars for him and Andrew was laughing hysterically (over what I have no idea) and AJ was loving every minute of it. It was so priceless I had to just stop and watch. It gave me a glimpse of what's to come.

Well, it's Monday night and that means that Marc is gone to watch Monday night football and I get the remote (and I get to pay bills). The boys are in bed - here's hoping for a good night.

Have a great week.

Happy Veteren's Day, Dad.

My father is on the left.

I'm so proud.

I'm 82... I mean 28.

Forewarning – again, very tired and thoughts may be random.

What a day. We had to take our car in to get fixed today. It had a $566 owie – to my bank account. But while it was being worked on, we went to our friends’ house to hang out. It was really nice to see them, but the car was only supposed to take 2 maybe three hours. Ideally, we were supposed to be home in time for a late lunch and nap. 5.5 hours and no naps later, we get home around 4:30. The kids finally crashed in the short car ride home and I am spent. Completely spent. We were supposed to run errands (much needed errands) after we got home… but that just wasn’t happening. So tonight, with our cranky boys we did a whole lot of nothing. We ordered pizza since I wasn’t home to pull anything together and it pouring and thundering out. But the storm is kind of nice to listen to. I will be heading to bed early squirrelly tonight (it was another rough night last night).

Man, do I sound old?! Going to bed early on a Friday night. And I am still in my 20’s! Barely – but I am!

Ok, have a great weekend.

Please can I vacuum? Please?

We’ve really struggles getting AJ to eat solid foods. He seems to take on the attitude of, “why are you subjecting me to this?” During dinner tonight, after Andrew got a timeout for not trying his mandarin oranges, he was back at the table (he did eventually take 2 bites). Marc was trying to encourage AJ to open up to feed him some sweet potatoes, when Andrew helpfully suggested that he thought AJ also needed a time out.

Marc did finally get AJ to eat some potatoes much better than he ever eats for me. Then Marc gave him just a bit of the juice out of his bowl of mandarin oranges. For the first time… AJ voluntarily opened his mouth. In fact, he could hardly wait between ‘bites’. I have never seen him excited in his high chair. I know orange juice probably isn’t the best option for him at this time, but we may start alternating bites with a little juice, just so we can get him to eat. It really was cute.

Ok, I feel like I haven’t really posted in quiet a while. And I am not sure that now is the proper time, since I am really tired and will probably be very scattered in my thought process – bear with me.

Today was beautiful outside and unfortunately we really didn’t get to enjoy it all that much. We had Bible Study this morning, which again was amazing. Truly amazing. But it means that by the time we home from it, I have two hungry, tired boys. So I am usually scrambling to pull a quick lunch together (usually one handed since I am holding a fussy infant) and get the boys down for their nap. Well, today – the beautiful warm day of all days – is when they both take incredibly long naps. Not that I am complaining… I am all for long naps. But by the time we got up and out to the playground – we only had about 30-45 minutes to play before it got dark (darn daylight savings time). By the way – we got AJ on a baby swing and he LOVED it. Squealed and laughed the whole time. I SO wish I had my camera! Anyway, it’s been a good day today and of course The Office was on tonight which is always fun.

Tomorrow we are getting our car worked on, so we will be heading over to a friends house for a couple hours while we are carless. I don’t think we have much planned the rest of the weekend – other than Marc gets his new car, which he is totally geeked about.

Other than that, this week was nice. It was a normal week filled with lessons and grocery shopping and naps (none for me), etc… Please pray for sleep at our home. AJ has been getting up s.e.v.e.r.a.l. times a night for that past week and due the boys sharing a room, sleep has been lacking all around. And it’s taking a toll on all our moods, interactions and temperament, etc…

To end on a good note: We have a really nice but very heavy vacuum. Now that we are home and eating more at home (and eventually having another child who will be self feeding), I need to vacuum several times a day. Rather than pull out the big guns each and every time, I got this nice little cheap vacuum that is perfect for quick after meal/snack clean up. And I found out today that I have a little helper who LOVES to use it and actually gets upset when I tell him cleanup time is over.

Never would I have thought...

...that I would have gotten so involved in local politics. (We even have a sign in our yard). But I can say, that I am actually truly bummed that the gubernatorial race didn't end the way I would have hoped.

Bummer

Well, apparently, not everyone (maybe no one) can see the video below even though it shows up just fine for me. So, for those of you who can not see the video, here is the link to see it. (By the way, you need sound to fully appreciate the clip).

Please do me a favor. Please post a comment on this post or the previous one and let me know if you could or could not see it. That way I know whether or not I should post video clips directly anymore. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this clip as much as I did.

If this doesn't make you at least smile, nothing will.

Other side of the coin...

Ok, I received a comment on a recent post calling me the best stay at home mom ever. And while I truly appreciate the compliment (thank you, it really made me smile), it just isn't true. I do have my shining moments. But then... there are moments like today. When our house is a sty since yesterday was craziness and both Marc and I weren't feeling well. So, both boys have been plopped in front of the tube this morning, while I try to dig out a bit. Nice.

This calls for cake.

Today is my 2nd Blogiversary. For two years now, I've kept up this online journal. Who'da thunk it. But it's been nice. Especially now that AJ is about as old as Andrew was when I started this blog. I've been catching myself going back and seeing what Andrew was doing at AJ's age, what he looked like, etc... Even last year when I had my first blogiversary, I never knew we'd make it to see year two. But here we are. It's also a big day for other reasons. Today, AJ turns 7 months old and my Compassion girl, Yesbel, turns 12. With a day like this, we just may need a cake today.

Marvelous!

How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me.

Breakfast this morning and a few more pictures

Is he spoiled or what?!

I mean - how many kids do you know that get Mickey Mouse pancakes?!

(notice I forgot to reverse AJ's name)

We made these cookies this week on the day we learned about squares. Can you tell which ones Andrew decorated?
(Thanks for the recipes, Grandma D.)

Andrew with his completed Learning Poster for his first week of lessons.

Double click on the picture above and you should be able to read it better.

I like my water hot.

The boys are down for their afternoon nap. It looks blizzardy outside. I have plenty I could be doing, but instead I am going to make some hot chocolate (I made a huge batch of mix earlier this week from an awesome recipe!) and post on my blog.

Andrew had a nice time trick or treating. We didn’t hit that many houses since it was SO cold out. But he got enough candy to keep him (and mom and dad) sugared up. Yesterday, we had a nice day of running errands and learning about the letter A with a corresponding Bible verse (Romans 3:23). That is until I walked downstairs to find water in our basement. Lovely. Looks like our water heater is shot. I am currently waiting for the tech to come out to either repair or (more likely) replace the heater. Until then, we have no hot water. So we are dirty family right now. And we have dishes piled in the kitchen. Hot water is definitely something we take for granted, especially when lack of it forces me to wear a ball cap to Bible Study this morning to conceal my greasy hair.

This morning was, as I mentioned, Bible Study. Again, it was incredible. There is so much more to the book of Daniel than meets the eye. Now we are just waiting for the tech and if he is finished before too late, I would like to hit the library quick, but that can wait until tomorrow, too. And today we are learning about the number 1.

Since I don’t have much to post. Here are few pictures I’ve been meaning to share.

This AJ in his new bouncer. He LOVES it! Loves it!!

He helped me licked the brownie batter.

Superman (check out these pictures - note the date) with his cousin, Mr. Incredible.