Random Pics and a Video or Two

What is it about dirt that boys are just drawn to? We played in the back yard a few days ago and he immediately found a grassless patch and started digging. He also likes to dump handfuls of it on his head...lovely.

I don't know what this was all about. He randomly decided to hug a tree.

The next 3 pictures are just cute snap shots I got while they played.

Lizzie is turning into little miss independent. She no longer allows me to feed her. She wants to do it herself. And as you can see, she does a great job!
Here she is trying to feed me...

And some more dancing videos. It's been a while. :)

Well folks, I think that's all I've got for ya today.

Sacrament Meeting Blues

Normally, my children do really well at church. I feel like we pack our entire house with things to entertain them with during sacrament meeting. The backpack we take with us is like Mary Poppin's carpet bag. It's bottomless and has endless sources of entertainment in it. From toys and book and crayons to snack and sippy cups. You name it...it's in there. When they get tired of one thing we move on to the next and we make it quite peacefully through the meeting and actually get to listen to the speakers. But then we switched to the 11am meeting time, and while it makes it easier to make it to church on time, it has been a nightmare keeping the kids quite. It's right during their normal lunch time and on any other day of the week, their most active time of the day. Last week we had crying, screaming, and kicking. They wanted nothing to do with the endless treasures in the pack pack. They just wanted OUT! And they let everyone else in the meeting know about it. After church someone asked me jokingly, "Sister Arnold, were you pinching your kids during sacrament meeting?" No, but you'd think by the way they were acting that they were being tortured. I felt bad for the people sitting in front of us. At one point Jacob was under the bench rubbing the leg of the lady in front of us. I assume she had smooth nylons on or something. Who knows. She was laughing about it, but I was so embarrassed. I made Mike yank him out from under the bench and he was NOT happy. Mike ended up having to take him out and have a little talk with him.

Today, about 20 minutes into the meeting he decided he had had enough and announced loudly, "Okay, a ready a sreesree". Sreesree=nursery. He loves nursery. Lots of toys and running around and snacks. Why were we making him sit through this boring meeting?!?! I sat him back down on the bench and whispered to him to sit quietly and we would take him to nursery in a little bit. Then he says with a grin on his face, again rather loudly, "Eww...STINKY". Evidently he thought something was stinky. And he thought it was funny. I don't know if he thought I smelled or what. I did take a shower this morning and I did brush my teeth before I left. I popped a mint in my mouth after that just in case. There is nothing like a toddler to make you self conscious.

I guess I'm gonna have to figure out other tactics to survive sacrament meeting... Maybe we will just sit out in the foyer from now on.

Happy V-day!

Well, Valentine's day ended up being a pretty average day for us. I worked on these little Valentines for the kids and for Mike during the week and then filled them with little goodies the night before. (Okay, so I made one for myself too.) I got both kids little stuffed animals to go with them just for funzies. They LOVED them. I didn't get a stuffed animal for Mike, but he got some goodies in his as well. He saw his the night before and didn't act to thrilled about it. I put his on his alarm clock the next morning and put the kids out in the living room where they would see them when they woke up. Mike evidently didn't see his and he came into the living room and asks, "Do I get one too?" all excited. I think he was just humoring me. (I found this cute idea from this fun blog.)

We had plans to do fondue for dinner with chocolate covered Strawberries for dessert, but ended up having to do our bi-monthly grocery shopping trip that afternoon and since we have to go all the way out to Leavenworth it pretty much took up the rest of our day. We ended up grabbing a pizza on the way home and ate it in the car. I had no motivation to cook after a long shopping trip. So, we decided to save the fondue for my birthday and I made the chocolate covered strawberries today.

I had lots of leftover chocolate, so I dipped some banana slices...still had some left over, so I made a chocolate cow pie for Mike. Now that's love I tell ya!! Who could ask for more than chocolate poop.

Yummmmmmmmm!

I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's/Singles Awareness Day full of lurve...and ate lots of chocolate!!!!!

Money Pit

Mike actually said it well in his "Ode to My Clunker" post he did today. I will be very surprised of ol' Suzy lasts long after we move. I'm beginning to wonder if she'll last the 3 1/2 months until then. She's served us well, but it's time for her to go. She's costing us too much money. If we were making enough now for a monthly car payment we would have traded her in already. But for now we just have to hope she doesn't drain our savings from all her repairs before we move so we will still have enough for a down payment on a newer car when we get there. Come on Suzy. Hang in there just a little bit longer!!

She CAN do it!

Evidently she's been hiding it from us this whole time. I posted before about Lizzie taking her first steps without us. We have been trying and trying to get her to do it again and she did once. Just once and it was just one step. I kept thinking, how is it that she can climb up on almost anything and she can stand up by herself without having to pull her self up on anything, she has great balance, but yet she won't walk?! Evidently she was just waiting for us to stop bugging her about it. I guess she likes to do thing in her OWN time without people nagging her about it. We pretty much gave up on trying to coax her to do it. Then today I took her in to Jacobs room so we could say prayers before he went to bed. Mike was sitting on the floor with Jacob and I put Lizzie down on her feet, which I normally do. Usually she would immediately fall to her knees and start crawling, but this time she took us by surprise and took a couple steps before falling to her knees. I thought it was a one time thing, but then I picked her up and set her down again and she took not one...not two...not three...but EIGHT steps with NO problems. She walked to Mike like she'd been walking for weeks. full of confidence and no stumbling. I think she's been secretly practicing when no one is watching. So, I guess now I know to just leave her alone and let her do her thing.

(I was hoping to get a video to post on here of her walking, but surprise, surprise...she refuses to do it again. She's a stubborn one!)

Word Verification Wednesday

I found this idea while blog surfing a few days ago. I can't remember who's blog it was on. So if any of my readers know her, let me know so I can give her a shout out. I just don't have time to go search for her again unfortunately. But it looked fun. So, here goes.

Click on comment, check out the word verification and give me a definition for it. It can either be the real definition (yes, many of them do have real definitions. haha) or just whatever. Kind of like Balderdash. Ready, set, go...

Crazy Kids

Or crazy me. Whichever. Jacob was extra bored today and while I was cleaning he was getting into all sorts of trouble. We got a new TV a while ago and put the old one in Jacobs room. Well, I hear them laughing about something in the living room and when I found them, Jacob was holding the rabbit ear antennae that goes to the TV in his room and one was broken. I went to inspect the rest of the damage and found he had also managed to unhook the digital converter box and unplug several other things, so I thought maybe I should find something more constructive for him to do. I actually got this idea out of the Toddler Busy Book and don't know what I was thinking by actually trying it. They sure loved it though. In theory it probably would work if I had a tarp big enough to cover the entire floor...and didn't have a kid who likes to throw things in the air. But it did not end up being a contained mess. By the time they finished, the majority of the paper was off the tarp.

When Mike got home he found the first clear space he could see and took a nap to wait out the disaster.
Then he was nice enough to help me clean up. After that I decided to have the kids do something that would make a little less of a mess and let them play with some plastic Easter eggs I found stashed away from last year. I should have just done that in the first place. That occupied them for a long time and was much easier to clean up. I guess it really is time for me to get on the ball and plan out some daily activities for these kids so they don't get bored. Have I mentioned that I really want a fenced in back yard?? One day, one day!