TTS

Our kids favorite "daddy game" is "Tickle, tackle, snuggle". . . . The name pretty much says it all!

Big Dork

The big dork in his gear

My sweet girl

Too sweet to resist

My boy is sooooo sweet the bugs just can't resist him. He is apparently highly allergic to them though. He swells up like a tomato when he gets bit. Below is how my poor boy looked yesterday. He looked so pitiful. It didn't really stop him from playing. He would stop and rub on his head trying to scratch sometimes but that's about it. Once I got the cream on him and the benadryl in him he was lots better.

The bites on the neck if how all bite look on him. The others are what happens if the bites are near something soft like an eyebrow or ear. 

Notice my thumb in the picture to give you a relative size of this bite. 

Look at that eyebrow!

One ear was bright red and swollen.

Poor baby!

Family fun day

Today we left our house at 10 am and went to Burns Park to play. All four of us! We started on the tall rocket slide for Emma but since Garrett was too little to do it we moved over to the main playground quickly. As we were moving over there, emma noticed the Funland Park with kiddy carnival rides. We told her no cash on us sorry and kept moving. When I went to get the car and move it, I checked the prices. only $8 for unlimited rides or $1  ticket (most rides were 2 tickets). Well we went on playing at he park. Having fun with Mommy and Daddy. Emma showed us she could do the monkey bars all by herself. We were shocked and so proud. There was another little girl her size there and her mom said something like "look. she looks like she's your age" I said "yeah she's 4" Other mom said "oh (shocked voice) mines 6. yours is tall!" Yeah we get that a lot actually. :) Anyway we kept on playing until Daddy got a rumbly in his tumbly. We went off to Back Yard Burgers for Daddy. The drove through an ATM and went back to the Funland Park. Emma face lit up so bright when her Daddy said she could go to it! We got each of the kids an unlimited pass ad me $4 worth of tickets so I could ride a couple of rides with them. They had a blast! Both of them! It was well worth the money. Next time I'm going to get me an unlimited band too so we can ride more rides over and over. They were all rides emma could do alone. And most of them, if you're brave, garrett could do with her. I had to overcome some fears with my babies and let them actually do things by themselves but it turned out great for them and for me too. Garrett got to ride a train with sissy. He loved it. Emma finally got to ride the ferris wheel. Which she loved. They both loved the helicopter ride. I think they rode it 6 times! Emma rode one ride she was supposed to have a taller person with her on. I went to the ticket booth to grab some tickets so I could ride it with her but apparently I was taking too long. She got on with an older girl (prob about 10 years old). Don't worry Matt was there the whole time and approved the move. :) Well, I guess she didn't realize it was a fast spinning ride. She had a look of fear o her most of the time. As soon as she got off and spotted mommy the tears came. The rest of the time she said "I didn't like that ride." or "I don't want to ride that again" So that one's out for now. Other than that it was a great trip! Cheaper than six flags and catered to young children. Thanks Burns Park. Here's a slideshow of our day. 

A movie of the ferris wheel

The helicopter ride

Garrett's GOOD haircut

I finally did it. I got Garrett a haircut instead of hacking at it and destroying it again. One of my co-workers and friends went to school to do hairstyling but just didn't finish because she was just too sick with her pregnancy. So she actually knew what se was doing. :) I had to cut his hair on my break the other day. It looks handsome. Kellie says it makes him look to big though. He is the big 02 so he was bound to start looking big soon anyway. :)

A side view. Look mom the ears are done good!

A back view. Look Tanya, no mullet!

Gymnastics program

Tuesday was Emma's gymnastics program at school. It was 30 minutes long. They showed us all the things they'd been working on all school year. It was the pre-K 3, pre-K 4, and K's. It looked like it was going to go terribly wrong when she and Isaac both fell down on the way into the gym. She got that trembling lip and started acting like she was going to sit down and cry. But she worked it out quickly and it went great from there. I was busy catching it all on the camcorder. Mr. Casey was taking still pictures of Isaac and a couple of Emma (I of course forgot my still camera) and Matt was taking care of Garrett while watching Emma. It make Emma's day that mommy and daddy were both there! She felt so big. Here's her once we got home . . notice the pink medal.

Emma's Favorites

As I was coloring with Emma last night we got on the topic of her favorites. here's her favorite things to do with different members of her family:

Mommy - color with her
Daddy - drive her to school - talking and singing on the way
Garrett - play with her, read to him, watch TV
Tanya - getting picked up while getting a hug
Granny - play with her, look at the birds
Big Daddy - Play with her, snuggle
Lucky - play with him, hold him
Me-me - color with her
Po-po - honk the horn of the motor home
Grammie and Jesse - playing with her
favorite thing about school - small group at table or on floor

It's interesting to get a glimpse into her world sometimes. :)

Family trip to Madagascar?

We have been watching a lot of the movie Madagascar lately. All 3 kids love it. (thanks Aunt Tanya for the present!) The other day Emma said she wanted to go to Madagascar and I told her it was too far away. Then she starts singing "new york" (from the movie) and says she wants to go there too. I tell her that's about 4 hours away from Grammie's house and someday we'll take a trip there. She thinks a minute then says she wants to take Grammie, Jesse, and Kyle to the New York Zoo to see Alex, Marty, Melvin, and Gloria (characters from the movie). Then proceeded to tell me who was dressing up like which character. It was all too cute and quite funny. :)

When Jesus comes back

Emma was coloring yesterday. She made a pile of a couple of "churchy" pictures and told me "These are for Jesus when he comes back. I think he'll like them" I had to smile on my face and in my heart. Ahh the innocence of youth. :) I told her "yes he would like them" and dropped it at that.

Reading to brother

I caught Emma reading to her brother the other night. It was the cutest thing! I even got the camera turned on and some recorded before she knew what I was doing. :)

2 year check up

Garrett went in Friday for his two year check up. Here's his stats:
he is in the 80% in weight at 31lbs
he is in the 85% in height at 36'

He had to get one shot which he wasn't happy about while she was doing it. He stood up and wanted the band-aid off. I told him "it's not the band-aid that hurt you abby. It was the shot. it's all done. the band-aid will keep it clean" The nurse was real good. She still had the needle and showed him, her putting it in the bucket saying "bye bye shot" then he was fine and happy.

We had his finger x-rayed because he pinched it in the recliner sunday and it was still very swollen and tender to the touch Our Dr. said it looked like just a bad bruise but she was sending the x-rays to Children's to be sure. I'll let you know if it turns out to be anything worse. :)

All in all he did great!

He has a huge vocab for a 2 year old. Most of the time everyone other than mommy can understand him too. ;)
he is going to be the class clown. he loves joking and tricking.
he has a huge variety of facial expressions and he using them to keep people laughing!
He LOVES trains, cars, and balls

We had fun at Granny and BIg Daddy's house this past weekend. Here are the few pictures I took. For some reason I didn't go camera happy this weekend so there's only a few. :) The kids loved it. They always have fun with Granny, Big Daddy, Me-me and Po-po. Though Emma did say "I wish tanya could have come too" Maybe next time baby. :) AS a highlight, hannah got to come and play for the afternoon on Saturday. Emma and Hannah played outside for hours! Thankfully I put sunscreen on them because I sat out there 45 minutes without sunscreen and was lobster red!

KIte flying

A couple of days ago it was beautiful outside. So, after picking up Emma and Isaac we went to kroger and bought kites for the kids. After looking at he prices on the kites I talked the two older kids into the cheapest kites. Garrett was another story. Once I said we were getting kites he kept yelling "i want dragon kite" When he saw a dragon kite at kroger there was no talking him out of it. :) I gave it to avoid the huge meltdown. pick your battles I say. :) It turned out to not be windy enough to really keep the kites in the air so after some attempts we went back home to play with the new cat. :)

Emma - princess,  Isaac - spiderman, Garrett - dragon

One of the few minutes we got a kite to go up

Trying to pull the kite around

What do you do if your kite starts flying in the wind when you're not ready? . . you sit on it! :)

Garrett and the cat

Here's the much awaited picture of Garrett and Lucky!

Sleeping Beauty

A few nights ago, I was woken up by Garrett fussing. I went in three, found his passy, put socks on him, and went back to bed. The next morning Emma came in and wanted to go downstairs and play. I said "yes but don't go in your brothers room and wake up your brother" She looked at em funny and said "garretts sleeping in the hall" . . say what?? I got up and this is what I found. :)




Apparently sometime after 3am (when i went in) he decided to get up and find mommy. Finding mommy asleep in her own bed, he made hi sway back to his room. Apparently he gave up and laid down in the hallway and went back to sleep.

After school care is cool again

I planned Garrett's dr. appointment for after I got off work on Friday. Usually I can get Kellie to pick up emma on those days and keep her until I get there. This past Friday I didn't ask her to because Emma had been whining a few days earlier that she didn't get to stay in After School Care. So I told her she could stay on Friday. Below is an email I got from Kellie later that day. . . . DOes anyone remember "wanting" to go to After School care instead of getting to go home with mom and play at your own house???

From Kellie:

So when I went to get Isaac today, I thought, maybe I will get Emma too. Then when I got there, they were sending the aftercare kids down the hall. She promptly stood up and went over to the teacher and said, "Me too, my mommy said I could go today!" with such excitement that I decided not to rock the boat! I was afraid if I offerred, Isaac would hear and be disappointed if she said no. She was very proud of herself and excited!

Aunt Tanya . . . Pet Sitter?

I've told emma Lucky (the kitten) had to sleep in the laundry room for a couple of weeks until I was sure he knew his way around good enough that he wouldn't get hurt while I slept. Emma asked me last night "can Lucky stay out tonight?" I said "No honey. there's no way to make sure he's safe while we sleep" She thinks a minute then says "Well, maybe Tanya could come up . She stays up later than us. She could stay up and make sure Lucky was safe" I laughed out loud and told her Tanya was not coming up tonight and staying up all night to make sure Lucky was safe and could sleep with her. I do give her props for her quick thinking and her thinking skills. :)

OLd Mill 2008

I have started a tradition of taking my kids in their Easter outfits and taking pictures at The Old Mill. I did it last year and I did it again this year and plan on doing it each year hereafter. I do not care about it being "on Easter". I want to do it near Easter when it's a pretty day and warm enough for the kids to smile! :) I loved taking pictures with them. They did a great job! Here's a few of the one's I liked best.

Our new CAT

Yes you read that right . . we now have a family pet. A cute 3-4 month old grey and white kitten. The kids adore him! Emma named him Lucky. (way better than Matt's choice of Gandolf) Here's a few shots of our new bundle of joy.


(Garrett fell asleep on the way home from PetSmart so pictures of him and lucky will follow in a day or two)

Spring cookies

Tonight we finally made use of the new rolling pin, cookies cutters, and $5 for cookie mix me-me and po-po sent Emma a few weeks back. Emma was sooo excited to get to make them. She loved getting to use the rolling pin all by herself. Garrett loved sticking his hand into the flour jar. :) It was fun getting to do this with the kids but also very hard on me . . as anyone who knows me at all knows I'd rather eat the cookie dough than actually make the cookies! But as any good mother would do, I sacrificed for my child's happiness and made the cookies. . . . I only kept back a small portion of dough to eat. I did help my children enjoy some dough while we baked too. The kids had their aprons. Emma's courtesy of Kellie. Garrett's courtesy of Grammie.

Using the rolling pin me-me sent her. It's a kid sized one so a lot easier for her to use. 

Squishing down the "quack quack" cutter

Some of our cookies . . plus the portion we kept for eating only. (another me-me's house tradition. She always kept a portion aside for us to eat while baking so we wouldn't try to eat the dough that was supposed to be cooked)

our finished products

Puzzle time

Emma recently got a Dora puzzle from Aunt Jesse and Jeff. It is bigger than most of the ones she already has. She did a really good job putting it together (with only a little help from Mom) She felt very proud when she finished it.

Garrett's cough

My poor baby ended up coughing literally all morning every 5-8 minutes last wednesday. I took him into the Dr. He had Broncolitis and an ear infection. They put him on an antibiotic and an inhaler. After 24 hours on both he was a new kid. No cough hardly at all! It is such a blessing to have a good Dr we can trust. Here's him at the Dr.

Here he his on the ride home after the Dr. Poor baby's tuckered out!




Here's what he sounded like literally from 6:30 am - 11:30 when we went to the Dr. He kept this up until he finally fell asleep around 9:30 pm.

Old made new

Tonight Emma wanted to "do something fun" when we got home from dinner. Nice. So, we busted out The "Mickey Mouse Make It Book" from when I was little. :) We made Dumbo and a parrot. She loved being able to make the easy craft. She LOVES arts and crafts! Here's a shot of our lovely work. 

Emma's Headaches

For the last 10-12 days Emma has been complaining of headaches in the morning and in the afternoon. At first I gave some Advil and didn't worry about it. Then I tried Advil and claritin thinking it was allergies since I've had 3 migrains in the last month in a half from my allergies. Still she complained so I took her to the Dr Friday. They took and extra and one side of her sinus cavity was almost filled with pus. She has a sinus infection which is probably why her head has been hurting in the front. We got her a script for amocillin. Hopefully in a  day or two she won't have headaches anymore. I can tell you I was getting worried about my 4 year old having daily headaches. I'm glad it turns out to be something small this time.

potty training laughs

So like i said in an earlier post we are not pushing Garrett toward potty training since he just turned 2. BUT if he shows an interest I will help him and see where it goes. Yesterday at daycare he said "mommy poo-poo coming out" and sure enough he had just pooped. That's a good sign that he knows that it's happening. JUst now in the car he said "Mommy poo-poo coming out" so I said "can you make it stop so we can go sit on the Dora potty?" he looked down at his lap and said "poo-poo stop!" Matt and I had to laugh. That's was pretty funny! So Then I tried to explain "can you squeeze your bottom and make it stop?" Not sure he understood but it's worth a try I guess. We went inside and his warning must have worked too good because his diaper was wet but not stinky. Though he also didn't go while sitting on potty. I don't know if this is going anywhere soon or if we'll be in this phase for a while but hey it's a start. and I know there's a light at the end of this. Maybe in another year we can be DIAPER FREE!!! Two words every parent loves to hear! 

potty bath

Garrett LOVES taking baths. especially with his sister. They have so much fun my floor and walls get clean too. :) Last night I went out to get subs for dinner. When I get home Garrett's hair if wet. I ask emma what happened she says "garrett was playing in the potty" I laugh and go get the while story from Matt. Garrett was taking a cup from the sink, dipping it in the potty, and taking it over to the bath and pouring it in. Apparently he was trying to fill up the tub so he could take a bath! Nice!