Spriggs Family

Thanksgiving

2011-12-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

We did our usual this Thanksgiving.
We've given up the driving all over town and just spend the day at my mom's the entire time instead of leaving and going to Josh's two other aunts' houses. We love getting to see them on holidays too but it just ends up being way too stressful.
My Uncle Mike and his girlfriend Marcy were in town for Thanksgiving. It was really great to see him. He has made some big changes in his life this year and it was really amazing to see what a difference there was in him. My mom really had a great time with them while they were visiting.
The boys were stoked to watch the Thanksgiving parade with me this year. I've always loved watching the parades so it was nice to be able to share that with them this year.
Josh brought the mashed potatoes again this year....he really does make the best. We brought a potato bar this time with three different flavors. He made horseradish mashed, country style and a garlic and mushroom. They were a big hit.
All of the food was amazing as usual. My mom made some of my grandma's appetizers that she always would make during family functions. It was delicious!!
The boys had a great day playing and running around. Floyd found this remote control dump truck that they played with non stop all day long.

I was passed the torch this year and informed that this will be our last year for Thanksgiving at my mom's. Next year will be at our house since we have more room to be able to put a table that we can all sit at together.
I have to get on the hunt now for Thanksgiving decorations for next year!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T13:11:00.000-04:00

So, for Halloween we go to my mom's house. I skipped class that night, I miss enough of the boys' lives I just couldn't justify missing getting to see them trick or treat too.
I got to mom's early since I went straight to her house from work since the bridge situation between Indiana and Kentucky has been hell lately.
I got to relax and get ready before everyone started showing up and the boys came over with Josh and Nana.

We all had a really great time trick or treating this year. The boys really got into it. They were running from house to house. It was so different than the last few years where we made it to a few houses and it was really slow going. My sister's sister-in-law came over with her husband and her son Max. Max was able to show the boys how to really do it.
We had a huge troop of adults with the kids this year. We had of course myself, Joshua, my mom, her best friend and her sisters, my sisters, my brother-in-law, my aunt, cousin and her husband, my mom's neighbors and their son, and a few more I don't remember. My step dad always stays behind and gives out candy.

My mom really goes all out every year. Her decorations have turned into an obsession I think. She is always on the look out for new awesome Halloween decorations. She has something like over 10+ large bins of Halloween decorations in her basement and it takes her a few days to get everything up.
The house always looks amazing.

Mom & Nana

Mom & Ash

Mom feeding the boys chili before we head out

Taylor

Wario, Mario & Luigi

Peach & Luigi

Mom & Cousin Bri

Ash & I

Callum

the boys had us draw on their mustaches once they were done wearing their stick on ones.

Taylor

Visit with Grandpa John

2011-10-21T13:04:00.006-04:00

My dad visited this week from Australia for his yearly visit.
He came in pretty late Friday night and the boys couldn't go to sleep and stayed up late waiting for him to get in. They were SO excited to see him. Ash had planned the next day for us to go to Huber's up in Indiana to the pumpkin patch and they also have a winery there.
It was a beautiful day, a tad cold but a beautiful sunny day.
We went out to the pumpkin patch, did some shopping, got a pitcher of Sangria and went into the kids area for the boys to play.
Taylor navigated us through a corn maze and did a great job. We let him lead the way and decide all our turns and he found our way out pretty fast. He was so proud!

It was another pretty low key visit. We didn't really do a ton, I had to do my clinicals Monday and Tuesday but I took the days off work so I could see him during the day and then head out to clinicals at night. Sunday we went to the mall for a while, had lunch and went down to the Riverfront park to walk around.
Monday we went to an antique mall and walked around and talked and then had lunch at a Mediterranean place in our neighborhood. When we were done I had to head home and change and go up to Sellersburg for my clinical that night and they all went to some more antique and thrift shops since my sister was still on the hunt for some costume stuff.
Dad and I went up to the boys school Tuesday and had lunch with them and walked around the track during their recess time after lunch. They were beaming and so happy that he came to school to see them.
It was sad to see him go again, but there's always next year!

I have no ass!

Five Year Olds!!

2011-09-02T14:16:00.014-04:00

The boys turned FIVE Monday!
My does time fly. I know that every mother says this and it's so true. I just can't believe how big they are. I remember them as my little squishy big headed babies!

The boys were so excited to go to school Monday on their birthday. I couldn't help but chuckle and think that this definitely won't last forever. I took Monday off so I could decorate the house and go up and have lunch with the boys and bring cupcakes for their class.

They decided early on that they wanted a "Toothless" Birthday, meaning they wanted it all to do with "How to Train your Dragon". Let me tell you, this was a feat. Apparently they did market this movie when it originally came out, but there is hardly ANY toys on the shelf anywhere for it. It's such a cute movie, we actually took them to see it when it came out in the theater (back when they didn't scream about how loud it was). I found out that WalMart had some toys on clearance and I ended up breaking my golden rule of never stepping foot into WalMart. I ended up going to three WalMarts in one day. I think it's the most I've been there in years.
I found them each a small Toothless dragon and each a Hiccup toy. They also had little plate sets and got them each one of those and the movie, which I was surprised we didn't have in the first place. They also had a giant Toothless dragon that makes all sorts of noises on super clearance and of course they only had one. The scramble was on to find a second one and I ended up having to order it on Ebay.

Anyway, so I got the decorations up that morning and then headed to their school for lunch. It was so adorable. I got to see them go through their lunch line and was so happy with their choices for lunch. The boys have been buying their lunch even though I would prefer to pack it they really like being able to choose what they want and I have trusted that they would make good decisions with how we've raised them and they sure do.
Sure, Callum has chocolate milk everyday but they chose the fish option of lunch that day instead of a hotdog or a grilled cheese sandwich and they both chose carrots and a banana with their lunch. I was so proud.

Their classmates were so cute and talked non stop during lunch. The boys were wearing cute rubber bracelets that said Happy Birthday that the teacher gave them. Ms Davidson their main teach came up and hugged me so hard I thought she was going to squeeze all the air out of me! She told me what a joy they are to have in class and thanked me for bringing them to her and how much they love them. It was so nice and reassuring to hear that from their teacher. It was good to know that they're so loved at school when I have my freak outs about them being in school!

After they came home from school I had to go and take a Pharmacology test and then left school right after my test so I could come home and see them open presents and have more cupcakes.

They were so stoked on their presents and it was awesome to watch their faces light up. Josh got them viking helmets and I am pretty sure that was by far their favorite.
After dinner and cupcakes we watched "How to Train your Dragon".

The boys birthday party is tomorrow at KaZoing at 4:15 and they're so excited. Taylor asked specifically for a place they could bounce. We didn't invite any of the kids from school since we would have had to invite ALL of their class, all 47 kids. Since they just started and I don't really have contacts for any of the parents I figured this will be our last year of inviting our friends and their kids exclusively and after this year it's going to be all about their schoolmates.

The first day of the rest of their academic lives.

2011-08-17T14:11:00.001-04:00

The day has finally come!
I can't believe that I am a mother to two school aged kids.
The boys did great this morning. We've been talking about "big boy" school all summer and getting them ramped up. Last night they told me they were a little nervous and we talked about how most of the kids will probably be nervous and even mommy was nervous on her first day back to school, it's normal to feel that way but they were going to have a great day and will love going.

We went to their orientation last Friday and met their teachers, toured the school again and got a bunch of paper work to fill out. They got to find their desks and see where they're sitting and explore the classroom. They're in the same class but sitting pretty far away from each other, so that will be good to have them together but get the chance to make friends on their own with the kids around them.
We got their two four digit numbers, one each for their lunch number and the other is their car rider number for them to memorize. The lunch number they'll use basically for the rest of the JCPS school career and the other will be called aloud when someone shows up to pick them up at the end of the day.

We had a storm blow through here Saturday and they pushed back the first day until Wednesday from Monday so we were glad to have the extra time to help them memorize their numbers and do our parent homework filling out all the papers.

The boys woke up right when my alarm went off at 7 and jumped into gear getting themselves changed and ready for school. They both told me they weren't nervous anymore and were SO excited to go to school.
Josh and I drove them in and we got to see how they'll start their days. They sit in the cafeteria in designated tables for different teachers and wait for their teacher to come take them to their class.
We took the boys through the lunch line and had them buy juice and tell the lady their numbers for practice and I dropped off a check to put money in their lunch accounts.
Once we got back to the table again they asked us "why are you still here?"
I have to admit I did start to get a little teary eyed seeing them ready to be so independent.
Ms. Davidson came and lined the kids up to head to their room. They got everyone situated and started circle to read a book to the parents called "Kissing Hand" about a mom having a hard time letting her baby raccoon go off to school. It was so cute.
Josh and I gave them hugs and kisses and left our babies to enjoy their first day.
There were no tears on their part and only a couple on mine.
I'm so proud of them and I know they'll do great.
I can't wait to come home from school myself tonight and hear all about their first day.

they were both picked out their own outfits.

I'm ashamed to say I did the lick and swipe. Didn't want to send him off covered in toothpaste on his face.

going through the lunch line

waiting for our teacher.

reading the Kissing hand. some of the kids look so big!!!

Taylor at his desk

Callum at his desk

Summer!

2011-07-05T12:51:00.001-04:00

We thought long and hard about buying an "easy set" pool for us to use this summer. I sat on the idea for a few weeks and we finally decided to go for it. It was NOT easy by all means and was a major pain in the ass to set up, but it's been worth all the pain a million times over. This weekend alone we've been in every single day since Friday when I hit the door from work. I figure this is where I'll be most of the summer.
The boys have been having a blast in it. It's finally warmed up to almost 90 degrees thankfully. Last weekend wasn't quite as nice when it was around 80 degrees. I still managed to get a good amount of sun last week and am happily adding to my tan this weekend.
Mammaw bought them some life jackets, kick boards and pool toys to play with. The boys can reach the bottom and walk while I float around them. Today they added more squirting toys and some creepy goggles that look like lizard eyes. Taylor calls them his dragon eyes. The boys still aren't too keen on letting me try to teach them how to float on their backs, but they'll float on their bellies with the kick boards and kick their feet...so they're getting the general idea of swimming for now. Ideally I'd really like them to get swim lessons.
The pool has been a great source of entertainment and keeping us out of the house and enjoying our backyard for the summer. It makes me feel better about the boys not spending the summer inside watching tv and playing video games constantly.

I'm on a two week break from school! Thank goodness. I definitely needed it. I'm pretty happy to report that I am mostly positive that this will be another 4.0 quarter for me. Next quarter looks brutal so I am thrilled to have this break to come straight home from work, eat warm dinner with my family and enjoy our boys before kindergarten starts up sooner than I'd like to think about.

Callum is figuring out how to float and kick himself around the pool with the little kickboards. He was brave enough to float around on his back with them yesterday.

Taylor zooming around the pool with Aunt Ashley

These water shooters were the best $1 spent at the dollar store, although getting shot in the face with it is not fun.

Firefly catch and release

This is exactly how I want to spend the summer!

Our Weekend

2011-06-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

This weekend was Nana's birthday and Sunday we had tickets to go and meet Thomas at the KY Railway Museum.
Saturday after we went out to lunch with Nana for her birthday we stopped by Brown Park in St Matthews. They were having some sort of health fair with all sorts of fun activities for the kids. They had at least five bounce houses, a Tumble Bus, the St Matthews fire department and all sorts of other vendors giving away free swag.
We ran into our old neighbor that we lived next to almost four years ago now when the boys were babies. He had a booth giving out information for dental screenings for kids going into school this year.
I didn't even think to take my camera with me since we were just going out to lunch and then stopped by to check this out. Josh and Nana took a few pictures on their phones right before we were leaving. They had a little petting zoo and the boys got to pick up chickens, pet llamas, a horse, a pig and some bunnies.
The boys spent a ton of time on the Tumble Bus. It took them a while to even want to get on there and check it out, but once they did they didn't want to get off. The lady in there with them was so nice and they really liked her. The vendors there including the bus and the petting zoo had a good set up for the free advertisement. I'll definitely remember them for future birthday party ideas.

Callum petting the horse and Taylor posing

Chicken wrangling!

Sunday we drove to New Haven, KY to go to the KY Railway Museum for the "Day out with Thomas". The drive was really pretty. Being a city girl my whole life, I love taking drives out into the country. I have to admit that they make me a little bit nervous. I was happy that Josh drove so I could sit in the passenger seat and stare out the window.
The boys had a great time. It started out fairly overcast but by the end of the day was pretty sunny and hot. We got there over an hour early before we got to take our ride on the train so we got to walk around and have fun at the little stations they had set up for the kids. The boys go to play with bubbles at the Bubble Truck and jump in a bounce house, and play with the train tables they had set up under a tent.
They had an area to meet and get your picture taken with Sir Toppem Hat, but the boys couldn't be less interested in waiting in line. They were pretty disinterested in waiting in line to get a picture in front of Thomas either. The less waiting in line was just fine with me.
The train ride was really cute. The boys got to give their tickets to the conductor and it was about a 20 minute ride. They just take a ride out a ways backwards and then you go back into the station.
It was the boys first train ride and they thought it was pretty neat. Taylor was amazed that there was a "real" Thomas. He's convinced that they made the show after the "real" Thomas.
The gift shop tent of Thomas stuff was highway robbery. Thankfully my kids picked their usual stuffed animals and were just fine with spending $7 rather than having to have the $30 trains.

It was a great family fun weekend!

Bella's Birthday

2011-05-13T12:40:00.000-04:00

I can’t believe I forgot to post about this!

Isabella had her 3^rd birthday party at the Louisville Equestrian Center.

While their employees and policies definitely left something to be desired, the boys had a great time!

The kids all got a turn to ride on a horse.

They also did a strange game of putting candy in piles of hay for the kids to find, and they got to finger paint a horse and take a group picture. The boys of course wanted nothing to do with the finger painting, goodness forbid they get their hands dirty!

I was worried that my kids would be the ones to have total meltdowns and freak out once they got on the horse. They definitely surprised me. They both took it very serious and had a great time! I think that during the rules portion before we went out to the horses scared them. They explained, no screaming, no flashes or you can spook the horse and make them run or freak out.

Callum loves horses and one of his favorite stuffed animals is his “boo-boo” horse.

Mammaw gave it to him years ago when he had to have surgery. He was excited that there was a horse that looked just like Boo-Boo.

The boys were so excited to be able to share in the day’s festivities for Noodle’s birthday.

Getting on their helmets and listening to the rules

Birthday girl & her mom Kristen

Waiting their turn

Getting Excited!

Callum on Spot

Taylor couldn’t remember his horse’s name

Callum and his half smile. They were too serious for smiles

Walking through the stables

Looking for candy in the hay

Callum and his loot (we won’t talk about the bad haircut)

Fingerpainted horse

No interest in the getting messy

Faceless blueberry horse cupcake!

Crazy

Mothers Day

2011-05-11T11:19:00.000-04:00

I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother’s Day!

I had a great day.

The sisters and I took my mom and my mother in law out to brunch…well we were going to do brunch. The place we wanted to go didn’t take reservations and when we got there it was an hour to two-hour wait. We decided to drive around and find another place to go.

We ended up going to a place called Mojito Tapas; I thought their food was amazing. I think we were all pretty happy with our change at the last minute.

After lunch we went back to my mom’s house and Josh brought the boys over. We spent the day lounging around in the sun and “swimming” with the boys in my mom and Floyd’s hot tub. Taylor had a blast! Callum isn’t much for swimming. He’s still pretty apprehensive. Taylor knows he can stand up in the middle and walk around so he was good to go. I spent a couple hours in there with him pulling him around and him jumping from the sides to me.

I got some reading in on the new Sookie book and finished it up that night.

It was a perfect day. Definitely what I needed for the weekend.

School has been going pretty good. I wasn’t too happy with my last test score, but that was definitely all my fault. I didn’t put in the time I should have with that test. I thought I was good, but apparently I was wrong!

I’m definitely buckling down more this week and making sure to do my regular studying routine for our test next week.

We’ve started our clinicals this quarter. I really like it. It’s a little nerve wracking jumping right in there, but I like having that hands on training. It helps to feel a little more comfortable with the things that we’re learning in the clinical lab on mannequins.

Today is the ceremony for the President’s Award for 4.0 grades from last quarter. I actually get one! I’m not going to the ceremony since I have to work during the day, but I was so excited to receive one. I worked my butt off for it.

My momma & me around 1981

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T11:30:00.000-04:00

The boys had a great Easter. They kept telling me that night what a great day they had! That's definitely what it's all about for me.
Saturday the boys and I dyed eggs and cleaned up the house a bit so the bunny could arrive the next morning and not trip over all the toys scattered around the house.
I wasn't too thrilled with the kits that I bought, but they did the job regardless.
While we were dyeing eggs the boys told me that they thought the Easter bunny would steal the eggs we dyed out of the fridge and hide them around the house so Josh planned to wake up early and do just that.

Mr Bunny and I stayed up late that night to stuff eggs for the egg hunt and getting the boys baskets together. I tried to make a last minute trip to the Disney Store on Friday night so the bunny could bring Special Agent Oso and Wolfie instead of the traditional stuffed bunnies for their baskets, but they were sold out. I ended up getting the cutest Thumper stuffed animals that were on sale for $5 a piece. They're so soft and cuddly!

Sunday morning Josh woke me up with "the boys are downstairs!" He heard them talking about their movies in their baskets. I couldn't believe it! They never get up in the morning without waking us up, even on Christmas morning. Thankfully Josh is a light sleeper.
They were so excited. The holidays are so much more fun getting to watch their excitement and joy in their eyes. It makes all the stressing about getting everything together worth it.
I was able to distract them for a little bit so Josh could hide the dyed eggs like we had planned and then we set them loose. Somehow they were still a bit wet and left us all with blue fingers!

Unfortunately, we got a call early in the morning that I missed that my mom was going to have to cancel Easter at her house. We've had a ridiculous amount of rain here in Louisville lately and there is flooding everywhere. They had one of their sumps go out and flood their basement. They had been up all night trying to make sure they were turning on.
I started calling my sisters to figure out what we wanted to do. We ended up having everyone at our house for the day.
Cue me running around cleaning even more like a crazy person. Thankfully I had started some cleaning Saturday, but not what I deemed enough to have 15 people in my house! I started de-doghairing the couches, vacuuming, mopping and wiping everything down. Josh ran to Kroger to get a small turkey and some sodas and dinner rolls and started cooking when he got back.
He made the most amazing Horseradish mashed potatoes. YUM!

Bunny Ears!

Because of all the rain we ended up having to do the other egg hunt with the plastic eggs for the kids indoors. They really didn't seem to mind at all.

It turned out to be a really good day with the family. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

We actually got to get outside for a little bit before the rain started again.
Taylor got himself a good boo boo after running around. We think he slipped and then went head first into the side of my sister's car! I'm a mean mommy and couldn't help but laugh. Thankfully he wasn't hurt too bad, he just scuffed up his knee a bit. It was the beginning of him having a slight melt down. I think all the candy and not eating real food most of the day will do that to you.

Candy Overload!

Going ons.

2011-04-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

I’ve definitely been neglecting my blog writings lately. With school and work, I don’t have much time to get online anymore.

Things are going really good. I aced my first quarter with a 4.0! It was a hard quarter, getting back into the swing of things and really studying my butt off.

I have been pretty much a hermit throughout the first quarter. There were many nights of frustration, second-guessing myself, and some tears. My “anatomy” class (that was actually called Integration of Human Sciences) was rough, even though it was an introduction and not full blown anatomy it was a LOT to learn.

I have a whole five day break until school starts back up Monday. This second quarter we have Fundamentals and we start our clinical rotation. I got my clinical assignment yesterday. I will be at a nursing home in Indiana every Wednesday night from 5-11. I have a feeling Wednesday nights I am going to pass out from exhaustion, since I fight with insomnia most nights, I can hope that’s the case.

The boys are doing great. Nana has been on a seven cruise to Belize, Honduras, Mexico and the Keys (that bitch! I’m a little jealous) this week so we’ve been adjusting to just being the four of us. She made them a calendar for each day of the week so they can cross off and know when she’s coming home. It also shows them where she is on that day, whether she’s on the ship or on a plane. It’s really cute. It’s been nice to just be the four of us. We’ve been sitting at the dining room table to eat dinner every night and the boys have really enjoyed that. I’ve loved being able to have that time with them, since I normally don’t get home until it’s almost bedtime.

They’ve been going back to their preschool this week half days. They’ve really enjoyed seeing all their old friends and the teachers. Since Josh was laid off they’ve been spending the days with Josh and Nana, so this was a nice change.

I was so hesitant about putting them in a chain daycare before they started going there, but the staff really makes the place. We’ve loved it for them.

The boys have been working on word cards and are really getting great at recognizing most letters and can spell a couple of words. They can also read basic stories that Nana has written and practiced with them. It’s so amazing to watching them figuring this out.

Joshua and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary this week! It’s gone by so fast it seems. We’ve had our fair sure of triumph and challenges and we’re still chugging along. He is such a great partner, husband, dad, and friend. I feel lucky everyday. He knows all of the bad and good things about me, loves me madly and has such patience.

We have our moments of course, not everything is sunshine and rainbows…but I wouldn’t change a minute of it.

Pre Derby Time

2011-04-08T12:21:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again here for us Louisvillians.
I can't say that I am all that ecstatic to deal with all the extra traffic and craziness around town, but the boys are old enough now to enjoy a lot of the pre Derby celebrations leading up to the big horse race.

Last night the grandmas took the boys to a pre Thunder kick off party that they were having at Bowman's Field. They had bounce houses, slides, firetrucks, giveaways and retailers peddling their brand. The theme this year has something to do with Superheroes, that's definitely up the boys alley.

They also had a lot of the planes used in the air show for Thunder. The boys had a blast. Mammaw got to tell them about their Grandpa John riding in some of those planes when he was in the air force and they thought that was super cool.

They brought home each a bag full of more junk toys to fill up their playroom that Aunt Ashley & I had just finished doing a sneak attack on while they were gone. I couldn't help but laugh.

Nana forgot to bring her camera but she took some pictures on her cell phone. She still has an old flip phone, but these came out pretty good considering.

Creepy Ronald! I hate clowns anyway.....

Few & Far Between

2011-03-13T21:05:00.002-04:00

As we're nearing the end of this quarter at school my updates and picture taking are getting fewer and further between.
My new toy that arrived last week has helped some. I've been drooling over the Iphone for a while and now that it's come to Verizon I just had to have it!
We'll go ahead and call it a "yay you're in school" present.
It's definitely helped to try to take more photos of the boys on the fly since I don't always have my real camera attached at the hip like I do my phone.

This week will mark the last week of this quarter that I have a Thursday class. I have to admit that I'm nervous about this "final". We have to act like the nurse in the situation (since that's what we're going to school for, of course) and run through a certain function at different stations.
I think I have the Gtube station and the Vital Signs down....the range of motion have seemed to be more difficult to remember. They aren't that hard, but trying to do them all without forgetting one is another thing.

Since this week we only have two exams I tried to do a little something with the boys since lately I am the absentee mother.
We decided on lunch and a movie.
They requested that this included milkshakes and Rango.
Taylor made it through about a half of a minute of the previews before having a melt down screaming and covering his ears that it was too loud.Josh had to take him out into the lobby while Callum and I sat and tried to enjoy the movie. Callum kept asking if his brother was coming back in and mentioning how Taylor would have loved that part.
Finally before the movie ended Callum decided that he missed his brother too much and he was finished with the movie.
Yep, we were totally that family. We had one kid screaming and crying that had to be escorted out at the very beginning, and then we were the people trying to leave and excusing ourselves past other viewers probably grumbling that we were up and in their way.
Now we know.....it's definitely more cost efficient to just go ahead and buy the DVD when it comes out rather than go to the movies....at least until they can handle the sound.

Either way I was glad to get out of the house and spend some time with the family before heading back into isolation with my notes and schoolbooks.

Hike

2011-02-24T13:52:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I went on a hike with my sisters and brother in law.
Each weekend since starting school has consisted of me holed up in my bedroom pouring over note cards and my notes from class.
It felt great to get out of the house and enjoy some fresh air with some of my favorite people.
We drove down near Fort Knox and went on both trails at Tioga Falls.
I think in all we hiked about 6 miles. I was exhausted at the end of the day but felt great. It wasn't too sunny or too cold. I think it was a perfect day for hiking.

School & Nice Days.

2011-02-18T20:48:00.001-05:00

We have been having some scattered days of nice weather.
It's definitely been a welcome change to the usual frigid cold and crazy windy days.
The boys love to be able to go outside and run around in the backyard.
Could it be spring finally showing up?!
Before I get too excited, I have to remember that here in the lovely Ohio Valley she's an evil temptress that will show us some great weather before we get another horrible cold snap again.
For now...we enjoy it while we can.
I definitely want to take advantage of the nice weekends all that I can.
Since starting school about a month ago I have a different feeling about the weekends. Of course they've turned into my time to study, but they're pretty much the only time I get to see anyone or spend time with the boys and Joshua.
I'm looking forward to some sister time tomorrow.

School has been pretty great so far. In typical Rhiana fashion I worry too much, freak out and stress over everything. That's pretty much standard routine for me.
I did really good on my first exam and did pretty well (much to my dismay) on this second one we just had.
We have three weekends to study until our next exam on five chapters. This has been a whole new world for me.
I am excited at how excited the boys are for me. I love coming home and hearing them ask how my day at work and school were and ask me to hang out in my school scrubs for a while. They think I should wear they to bed since they look like pajamas.
It's been a pretty grueling schedule and I've been adjusting best I can. I try to get out of bed as early as I can seem to peel myself away to go to work and then go straight from work to school until anywhere between 8 and 9. Once I get home I hole up in my room and scatter my books, notes and notecards across the bed to get studying done.
It will all be worth it in the end. In the meantime I can't help but really feel proud of myself. I've finally followed through on something I've been wanting to do for nearly 14 years. No more excuses and I seem to be doing pretty good.
Joshua & Nana have been amazing at home taking care of the boys, cleaning, cooking, even doing my laundry! My mom comes over and spends time with the boys every week.
I'm so lucky to have the support system that I do. It wouldn't be possible without it.

Sock Hop

2011-02-08T10:54:00.000-05:00

Our friend Kristen runs a preschool and put together an adorable Sweetheart Sock Hop this weekend.
I jumped at the opportunity to dress the boys up and take them to a sock hop with thoughts of seeing them dancing and having a great time.
Well......they did look adorable, but there was no dancing involved.
She had a great band that was playing 50s music and the kids and teachers were all dressed in poodle skirts and little greaser outfits. Everyone looked so cute!
The boys were having none of the dancing or listening to the band.
They spent the entire time screaming about how loud it was and refused to stay in the auditorium to enjoy the dance.
I should have known seeing as Josh has pretty sensitive eyes and ears and the boys definitely have the sensitive eyes and now we know for sure they have sensitive ears as well.
They did have a great time playing in one of the classrooms.
Little Isabella kept coming in and asking them to please come dance with her.
They kept saying they would wait until they got used to the noise but never felt comfortable enough to go in and partake in the dance.

Where has the time gone?!

2011-02-03T14:22:00.000-05:00

Wasn't this only yesterday?

This week Josh went and registered the boys for Kindergarten!
I can't believe it. The boys will be starting in "big boy" school right before their fifth birthday.
I've never been much of a crybaby mom, but this just may constitute a whole lot of tears on my part come August.

Snow Babies

2011-01-25T11:48:00.000-05:00

We've gotten a pretty good amount of snow this year.
The boys are old enough now to decide if they want to go outside and play in it or not.
It's been pretty hard to get them to leave the comfort of the living room with the fire going to play outside in the cold.
This night Callum was ready to go outside and play in it but he woke up in a pretty bad mood from nap and spent most of the time upset that the snow wasn't wet enough to make a proper snowball and they kept falling apart.
Finally after watching from the sliding glass door Taylor was ready to come outside about the same time Callum was ready to go in.
Taylor was happy to eat the snow, throw snowballs at the sliding glass door to taunt his brother and walk around the house with me. We talked about how quiet everything was with the snow covering the neighborhood.

Callum with his snowball he clung onto dear life

Taylor was ready to come out and play!

Snow Day

2011-01-13T13:46:00.000-05:00

We've had some pretty good snow here in the last couple of weeks.
It really hasn't been enough for the boys to play in until this week. They've been talking about being able to play in the snow but once it came around to it Nana and Daddy had to practically drag them outside.
Not that I can blame them, it's too darn cold with the wind chill.

It hasn't been enough snow fall for me to get a snow day off from work of course!

Josh played photographer for me while I was at work when the boys finally went out to play in it. It gets too dark by the time I get home to enjoy any outside time in the snow with the boys.

throwing snowballs with Nana

Eating Snow like a Puppy

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-12T16:20:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T12:31:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year and rang in the year with lots of fun, safety and hope for the new year.
I rang in the New Year at my sister Ashley's with her and my brother in law Matt.
It was a perfect evening, calm and relaxing. That is exactly what I would like for this year!
I went and picked up my husband from a party on the way home and really had a whole new perspective walking in totally sober.
It was definitely interesting!
The boys got to ring in the New Year with Nana and Isabella (the Noodle). Nana put together a little party for them, they decorated cupcakes, had dinner, watched some movies and stayed up late.

This year for us has had it's ups and downs.

We bought our first home around April this year. It was so exciting to have our own place and know that we could provide a home for the boys to grow up in.
I was able to get a fairly new car and not have a car payment! I was pretty excited to not have to drive the mini van any longer and have something reliable.
The end of the year I was accepted into Nursing school.
We got to watch our boys grow and learn new things everyday.
We made it through the year fairly unscathed and all of us healthy.

With the good there was of course the bad. I am trying to not dwell on the bad things of this past year, but a few do stick out in my mind.

Joshua was laid off in October and with how horrible the job market is hasn't really had any nibbles on the thousands of resumes he's been sending out.
My cousin lost her baby daughter Keilyn only a day after being born. This has caused her and her husband and our whole family more pain than anyone should have to withstand.
She was also in a horrible car accident around Christmas and is lucky to be alive. She came out of it with a broken arm that had to have surgery and metal rods and pins placed in it to heal and both sides of her pelvis broken.
Seeing the pictures, it's amazing that she or her husband lived.
She is so amazingly strong and I know will be able to heal from the accident even though she may never full heal from the pain of losing Keilyn. She has an attitude about life that can inspire.

I lost a great friend and co worker to cancer this year. Victor was an amazing person that had one of the best attitudes I have ever come across. He was so positive, even through everything he was going through.
I think about him regularly.
I realize how lucky I am to have known him and had him in my life for the short time I knew him.

I know 2011 will bring a whole new set of challenges but I am hopeful that this is a great year for us and my loved ones. I know this year will bring lots of love, laughter and happiness.
I am hoping for us that this year I can kick ass in nursing school and still keep myself sane and with enough time to spend with my family.
I hope for myself to try to be a healthier person and kick my butt in gear with some sort of work out routine.
I of course hope for my husband that he finds a job that he will feel fulfilled and happy going to everyday.
I can't wait to spend another year watching these boys grow.
This upcoming year will bring a big FIFTH birthday for the boys and of course with that comes Kindergarten!

I'll end this with a year in pictures of the boys since I could keep going on for things that I wish for.
I think instead of wishing this year will be the year of DO.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Christmas in Photos

2010-12-27T15:33:00.003-05:00

The boys had a wonderful Christmas, dare I say we may have even overdone it a bit.
Every year I worry and stress about getting nearly everything they ask for...within reason of course.
I think next year my goal will be to cut back a little bit.

We had a very relaxing Christmas Eve, we baked cookies for Santa and finished up wrapping. The boys had a bath and got to open one of their gifts.

Cookies and snacks for the reindeer

The boys got to open a present from their Aunt Mary that night! We all had fun coloring it.

The boys got to eat their bumble gum guys Grandpa John & Grandma Lisa sent for them

Taylor

Callum

Christmas Morning:

I woke up before anyone in the house, which is a miracle in itself!
I made coffee that was way too strong even for my mother in law....I definitely need to perfect my barista skills.

The boys woke up about 10 minutes after Joshua and myself.
I heard them calling from the stairs "Mommy, did he come?!"
I told them to come on down and check!
Taylor exclaimed that he heard Reindeer on the roof during the night while he was trying to sleep and he heard Santa's bells!!

This age is so much fun.

The haul pre kid attack

checking out their goodies

Trio Batman stuff was a big hit in our house this year, it has also caused a lot of headaches for the adults I must add.

Callum slightly overwhelmed

Daddy was thrilled about having to put together the Trio Batcave!

Stocking goodies.

Stocking aftermath

Callum's 1st wardrobe change of the day into new pjs from Santa, hanging his stocking ornament.

Ready to head to Mammaw's!

Buzz & Woody Dress Up, a big hit!

Callum & Mammaw

Pappaw tickling Taylor

Mommy & Daddy

Mr Spriggs a few White Russians into the evening.

Momma & Taylor

Momma & Callum

Ready to watch Daddy play Epic Mickey and in our new pjs!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T14:27:00.000-05:00

Santa

2010-12-22T19:57:00.001-05:00

Josh braved the crowds of the mall this close to Christmas to take the boys to see Santa today.
He said the line was incredibly long and the people were crazy there of course.
He messaged me that he had a headache and the people were all smelly and stupid!

The boys were so excited to see the big man.
Taylor talked and talked as he is prone to do to anyone that will listen.
Santa listened intently even with the long line.

We really like the Santa at this mall. He's been there ever since the boys first visit to Santa when they were four months old.
We did strayed once to the other mall because we were having portraits done and it was convenient but, I instantly regretted it as he was not a very personable Santa even though he was a very great looking Santa.
He didn't really talk to the boys much and the workers there were more about getting the snapshot than letting them enjoy the experience. I finally snapped at them to just let them enjoy it and I think that picture came out pretty good.

Between the two I will definitely pick the Oxmoor Santa as long as it's still the same guy.

2010

2009

2008

2006

Christmas Secrets

2010-12-21T12:53:00.000-05:00

I decided to try and take the boys to shop for each other this year. They've never really cared any other year but showed a bit of interest this year to buy something special for their "bubby"
Taylor was overwhelmed and had a hard time because being the perfectionist he is, he wanted to pick out the most perfect present that his brother would love and play with every day.
He had a couple of melt downs in Target and then finally settled on some Galactic Heroes.
After the near failure of the first shopping trip it took me about a week to take Callum to shop for his brother.
Callum was a bit better. I knew better than walking up and down all the toy aisles. I steered him into the direction of the action figures since Taylor had a request for a certain item.
Callum decided against the item Taylor had requested and found a Batman figure he thought his brother would like and another that had Nightwing, Batgirl and the Penguin. Both excellent choices, I know Taylor would be very happy with them.
As soon as we got home Callum and Taylor snuck off to their Nana's bedroom and Callum whispered to him that he got him Batman, the pack with Nightwing and the other Galactic Hero he had chosen against.
I hear Taylor exclaim "you got me everything I ever wanted bubby! You're such a great bubby!"
Josh whispers to me that he hears Callum spilling the beans.
"Callum, are you telling your brother what you got?" "No mommy!"
I couldn't help but laugh. We can't expect four year olds to keep secrets from each other, especially two little boys that are this close.
The only problem with this, is Callum told his brother something that he didn't end up getting him! Taylor is definitely going to be disappointed and I can't decide if I should run out and get it and make it a stocking stuffer since it is a small item.
The other option would be to let him learn the disappointment of not always getting what you ask for.
I explained that I didn't think Callum got all those things, he just wouldn't have it.
If Callum said so his word was gold....even against mommy's.

A Boy and His Dogs

2010-12-17T23:43:00.000-05:00

Our dogs have never really been too keen on hanging around anywhere that the boys are.
I can't say that I blame them. Trying to keep up with baby, toddler and now "big boy" twins can be rough.
The dogs pretty much steered clear of anywhere that they were.
Just recently they've started to hang out with the family more often and even trusting the boys.
They've really warmed up to Taylor. He's definitely the calmer of our boys and likes to have them snuggle up every great once in a while.
I think like everyone else in the house, he has a severe preference for Olivia aka Pig.
She's just a lot more relaxed and not so IN YOUR FACE at all times like Minnie can be.

Messages from Santa!

2010-12-16T20:59:00.002-05:00

These are so awesome. The boys were SO excited.
They brought tears to my eyes watching them watch their videos!

Taylor's Video from Santa

Callum's Video from Santa

I highly recommend going to their website and doing one or lots of them!

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home

It's Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas!

2010-12-01T11:45:00.001-05:00

Our tree is up and we've had our first fire ever in the new house!
The boys loved the fire and sat in front of the fireplace for a long time last night.
We got to top the night off with watching "How the Grunch Stole Christmas", which is what the boys call it.
They're so excited for Christmas. I have a feeling this will be a long month of asking when Christmas will be.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-28T23:44:00.031-05:00

Thanksgiving was great. The food was phenomenal as always, the company was awesome.
I love being around my family during the holidays. I wish things didn't always have to be so hectic and everyone having other stops to make throughout the day.
I really do love getting to spend the time with everybody, laughing, talking and of course demolishing some amazing food.

It was a pretty cold day this year. My mom's streak of amazing weather for family functions didn't quite come through that day.

This would be what I look forward to every year! Floyd's amazing Sweet Potatoes.

My beautiful sister Ashley & Brother in law Matt

Daddy & Taylor watching football

Callum is a big Turkey

Aunt Jan and her son in law Shane

The boys and their second cousin Cayden playing with toys in Pappaw's Superman room!

Yours truly

That delicious bird!

My beautiful cousin Brionne & her husband Shane

YUM

Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T14:19:00.000-04:00

The boys had a great Halloween! They have had their costumes picked out for over a month. Callum took a bit longer than Taylor to decide what he wanted to be.
He originally wanted to be Superman, Taylor of course wanted to be Batman all along.
He then chose to be Captain America and exclaimed that it made no sense to be Captain American if his brother was going to be Batman. He finally chose Robin.

We went Friday to Kristen's Trunk or Treat at her daycare out off Dixie Highway. She had a great turnout and the boys had a blast.
Callum was pretty skeptical about something called Trunk or Treat and wasn't happy to be trick or treating out in a parking lot.

Sunday we took the boys to my mom's house. This has become something of a tradition for us.
My mom goes all out for Halloween. She's definitely the best decorated house in her neighborhood.
She cooks a big pot of chili and we all meet up there to hang out and then take the boys trick or treating.
Typically we all dress up to take the boys around her neighborhood.
My sister Ashley & Brother in Law Matt both always dress up amazingly. It was also their 7th wedding anniversary this year.

It was pretty sad to see how many less kids there were out this year than their usually is. I don't know if this has something to do with it being on a Sunday or if the holiday just seems to be dwindling with all the Trunk or Treats, mall trick or treating and trick or treating at zoos.
Regardless the boys had such a great time. Their little legs only managed to hold up for about two blocks and they were ready to quit.
I think they were just too antsy to start eating what they had already collected.

Ashley & Matt as Henchmen

Group shot with my mom as Malificent

Shannon & Jason

Floyd

Nana & Callum

Nana & Taylor

Anniversary Henchmen

Joshua Bandito

Taylor eating the bounty.

Pumpkin Patch Visit

2010-10-18T20:06:00.000-04:00

Saturday we got up early and got dressed to take the boys to Huber's up in Starlight IN.
We had gone a few years back when they were really little and couldn't really appreciate it.
I figured it was time to go back now that they are all about anything Halloween.
We stopped on our way up at my sister's house since she's living up in that area now. She ended up squeezing between the boy's car seats and riding there with us.

I had really great ideas of awesome pictures in the pumpkin patch that of course went by the wayside once we entered the madness of the place.

We got there and immediately realized that they only took cash and had to seek out an ATM, thankfully they had one in their store. We scoped the place out and ended up wanting to take the boys to the kid friendly stuff before we attempted the long line to the actual pumpkin patch.
We took a ride on a tractor out to feed the "farm animals", this really consisted of all goats. We got to feed them corn from little containers.
The boys really thought that was cool.
We got to see bunnies, eat ice cream, go down a blow up slide and try to not get trampled by the thousands of people.
The line to get out to the pumpkin patch was so long the whole time we were there so we didn't end up going out to the actual pumpkin patch. Two four year olds way past nap time didn't seem like a good match for the long line in the sun.
The line inside of their little general store was crazy too, I didn't even get to buy a bunch of baked goods like I had planned on!
Either way....the boys had fun and enjoyed their pumpkin patch visit even without the actual pumpkin patch.

The boys and I on the ride out to the goats

Aunt Shannon & Callum feeding goats

Taylor and I feeding goats

The ride back

Ice Cream Time! The boys got Superman and I nom nomed some Pumpkin

Callum looked very excited but ended up coming back down. Taylor went down the slide with a little girl that helped him since he didn't want to go down alone after his brother backed out on him

Before we left we picked pumpkins at the general store and attempted some pictures. It was so bright and way past nap time.

Aunt Shannon & Taylor

Visit at Mammaw & Pappaw's

2010-09-29T22:48:00.000-04:00

The boys and I went and hung out at my mom and Floyd's this past Sunday.
The weather was gorgeous. We had sunny, chilly and overcast all in the same day.
It made for a perfect day of just hanging out in their great backyard.
I love going to my mom's to relax. Even if it is with the boys and not always totally relaxing...they just have the best backyard to just chill.
Pappaw had a little garage sale going on in the driveway when we got there.
He pulled out a slot car track he bought at a yard sale when the boys were probably one years old.
He figured they were old enough now to enjoy it and they sure did.
It took a little bit of fixing up and sanding the track a bit so the cars made connection but once it was up and running the boys had a blast.
They had a water fight with Pappaw. It was them with spray bottles versus him with a cup full of water or a squirt gun. Not really a fair fight!

They love wandering around their backyard and checking out the garden and all of the flowers my mom has back there.
It's just beautiful.
I got to lounge in the sun and the boys went swimming in the hot tub.
That's a flashback to my childhood and growing up practically living in my grandparent's hot tub.
Taylor knows he can reach the bottom and really has gotten daring about going from the sides to standing on the bottom and jumping around.
It's good to see him getting so confident in himself.
Callum was a little more leery and not quite ready to let go of Mammaw while they were in there.
He was a little spider monkey and not impressed with his brother trying to egg him on to walk on the bottom with him.

It was a great day.

Pappaw sanding some of the pieces of the slot cars while the boys waited patiently

Time for water fights!

Hot Tub Time!

Callum's very serious face

Mammaw & the boys

Taylor trying to get his brother to see how he can stand in the middle.....didn't go over well

Interviews

2010-09-23T13:46:00.000-04:00

I love doing little interviews with the boys and have them tell stories while I record them.
Some of them are just hysterical.
They love performing for me when I have the video turned on, mostly because they want to watch it back right when I'm done recording and they crack up at themselves.

Taylor telling Star Wars Stories

The boys giving me what they call the crazy stares

Trying to ask the boys their names and how old they are

Riding Mower

2010-09-20T11:57:00.000-04:00

So even though this makes me extremely nervous the boys love it.
We got a ride on mower a few months back from our friends Kristen and Jesse.
Jesse had rebuilt the engine and we did a trade for it.
It's great to have, it definitely makes mowing our grass more enjoyable.
When Jesse brought it over the first time the boys got to take a ride with him on it and they've been dying to take a ride again.
Daddy mowed the lawn yesterday and when he was done they each got to take a ride for a few circles around the backyard.
They LOVED it.

Daddy & Callum

Daddy & Taylor

Taylor was very serious about his job til the end

1st Day of School PreK

2010-09-08T18:30:00.000-04:00

After trying to go through the application process for our local county public pre-k programs we decided for the boys to go back to Kindercare where they had been going for preschool.
The cost was definitely a factor.
Public Pre-K was over $300 a week for the two of them to go to...uhhh...no clue where we would pull that money from.
Of course we were "made too much money" to qualify for anything but the standard tuition rate.
sheesh.
Anyway, so the boys love their little school. It's a pretty penny itself but less than public and they already know all the teachers and were comfortable there.
Yesterday was their first day back from their summer off with Nana.
I am pretty sure Nana was ready for them to go back to school as well!
They were super excited to be going back and seeing all their friends and their favorite teachers.
They said they had a great first day back and met new friends.

Still sleepy

Big PreK boys!

Volcano Making

2010-09-03T19:53:00.000-04:00

Besides the copious amounts of Star Wars toys the boys got for their birthday they also got a Volcano kit from our friends Michele & Jason and their kids.
They've been itching to make it since they opened it and we finally did this week.
Nana had it all set up to start when I got home from work the other day.
Callum wasn't nearly as into it as Taylor.
He loved putting on the mad scientist goggles and helped with every part of making it.
Callum checked in on our progress from time to time. But as usual he is a very busy boy and had lots of other things to do.
Nana was kind enough to take some pictures of Taylor and I making the volcano since I am always the one taking pictures and rarely in them.

Taylor's ready to go

Getting started and pouring the mix with Nana

Callum coming to check out what we're doing and doing what he does best....acting like a nut!

He decides to help mix in some water

Taylor mixing

Mommy & Taylor start putting the mix on the volcano mold

It was really messy

Checking out our finished product and waiting for it to dry.

I resorted to the only thing to make Callum look directly at the camera and smile

I told him I was going to toot on him.

Hey, whatever works!

We've had many eruptions from our new volcano this week, but I haven't had the chance to take pictures of that just yet.
To be honest the eruptions are kind of weak.
I think we need to reposition the tube that goes through it that controls the "eruption"
But either way, the boys love it!

Visit with Grandpa John

2010-09-03T15:23:00.002-04:00

My dad came to visit us during his annual trip back to the states.
It was a nice visit. We did a lot of relaxing and general loafing about.
Typically our visits are a whirlwind of activity which wasn't lacking totally on this trip with the boys birthday falling on the weekend he was here.
I realized that with all of our laziness that I hadn't taken a picture of him and the boys.
I made sure to grab the camera before he was getting ready to leave for the airport and snap some shots with him and the boys.

That picture proves just how squirelly Callum can be. He's always very busy and has things to do and people to see at all times

Taylor & Grandpa John

Callum trying to be good, but Grandpa John looking the wrong way.

Fourth Birthday!

2010-09-01T11:40:00.001-04:00

The boys fourth birthday was this weekend.
We had my dad in town for the weekend too, they were super excited to have Grandpa John in town for their birthday.
We did it at home and rented a bounce house.
We lucked out and found a guy in our neighborhood newsletter that was cheaper than the rest and a super nice guy.
He's a local fireman that runs the business on his own.
The bounce house was more than I could imagine!
Of course the boys picked Star Wars as this years "theme" for their birthday.
I usually try to go light on the themed stuff....I got the Clone Wars napkins, a tablecloth and a banner.
My mom and sister came over early and helped me decorated and get the backyard set up.
The boys had a GREAT time.
We had a pretty good turnout.
We bought way too much pizza and had tons of cake left over.
I baked the cakes Friday and Ashley constructed an R2D2 cake for the boys.
They were really stoked about it.
My sisters were such a huge help at the party, between the cake and helping clean up they were so awesome.
I even had someone ask to adopt my family because they're pretty awesome.
I have to say I did definitely luck out in the sister department.
The boys favorite teacher from their preschool even came by for a little bit. They were so excited to see Miss Sharon stop by.
They had to show her the whole house and their Star Wars room of course.
I can't believe how fast four years have gone by!
Where are my babies?!
They make me proud. They are such great big boys.

the birthday boys playing with balloons before anyone got there

the enormous bounce house!

Callum in the shark pool that sprayed water out of his head

slip n slide

presents!

Miss Sharon watching the boys open presents

The kids all shooting my cousin Justyn. The boys favorite present was definitely the Boba Fett helmets

Taylor with Pappaw Floyd and Mammaw (my mom and stepdad)

Cake time!! The boys were so mad, one of the little girls blew out their candles before they could! lol lovely little meltdown....no biggie, just lit and let them go again. They also refused to let me put holes in their R2 cake so I had to put the little candles in cupcakes! haha

Taylor and Miss Isabella the Noodle

Jumping with Aunt Shannon, my cousin's son Cayden & Taylor

Jesse was doing flips with the kids

Josh going down headfirst

Callum

Taylor sums up the end of the day! lol exhausted and grumpy

Daredevils

2010-08-03T17:14:00.003-04:00

The boys new thing is practicing their jumping, practicing their dancing, pretty much practicing everything.

They have been building things with their chairs so that they can jump off into a pile of pillows and stuffed animals.
This gives me a near heart attack to watch them do.

I had to put a stop to this after Callum did this exact jump and hurt his foot. Thankfully nothing was broken or hurt badly.
They weren't very happy but I couldn't feel good about just letting them act like Evel Knievel.

This is a fine line for me. I don't want to be the mom that won't let them do anything that little boys do and it's hard to sit idly by while they do things that could potentially have us visiting the nearby Emergency Room.

I guess having little boys we'll always be walking a fine line of being overprotective and letting them do what little boys do.

Science Museum

2010-08-03T12:37:00.001-04:00

The boys and I went to our local Science Museum Saturday.
We spent almost five hours there. I was exhausted by the end of the day.
They had a blast. Right now they have Body by Sesame Street as a visiting exhibition.
They loved being able to see Elmo's house, play in Harper's grocery store and especially the grosser parts of the exhibit about poop, sneezing, and stomach acid.

Besides that part of the museum they love going to see the giant Polar Bears the museum has had for years. They're still scared to stand too close to the glass figuring they will wake up any second.

This was Grover's relay to teach them over, under, through, sliding and jumping. Callum was getting mad at the other kids that were going the wrong way.

Sneeze Machine

We were stopped more times than I can even count to ask if they were twins. Everyone had the usual "you have your hands full" "I'm glad I'm not you" the typical stupid comments that people normally make when we're out in public.
The boys hardly notice anymore when they're being ogled and I am being questioned about if they were conceived the "regular" way or not.

Birthday Coming up!

2010-07-29T12:02:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it. The boys will be four in exactly one month!
It really does seem like a million years and just yesterday that they were born.
We've come so far, but it's gone by so quickly.
They amaze me everyday.
Their speech is getting better and better. They're so smart and perceptive. Nothing gets by them.
I feel totally amazed at these two little guys.
I'm thankful every day to have them in my life.
I couldn't imagine it without them.
They're becoming so independent compared to just a year ago.
It's strange, sad and exciting all at once.
We're having a hard time figuring out what to do for their birthday this year.
I would like to have it at our new house in the backyard and inside. I just like the feel of home birthdays.
It's a lot of work with clean up before and after.
I keep swaying between doing it at home and just doing it at a kids play place.
We have a great place local called Puzzle's Fun Dome.
You have limited time in their party room, but you can play in their play area basically until they close.
When we did the party at the other place last year you get a total of about two hours to play, eat pizza, do cake and open presents.
While crammed into a short time frame it seemed so frenzied.

Taylor showing us his Star Wars Room

2010-07-29T11:53:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-28T18:01:00.000-04:00

What I came home to.
Sweet faces.

The boys sing their ABCs

2010-07-27T11:31:00.000-04:00

Boyisms

2010-07-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

Last week we took the boys to get new shoes at Kohls.
Callum picked out these cute Sketchers and Taylor picked the same ones. It was kind of funny because I told them they could pick whatever they wanted and didn't have to get the same....but they still picked the same.
After they tried them on Callum was running around the store saying "SUPER STRAP, I never have to tie my shoes again"
I had no idea what he was talking about. I asked him what he was saying and rolled his eyes and said "Mommy, its my shoes! That's the commercial!"
I can't believe he remembered some random commercial.
Goes to show you that advertising geared towards kids WORKS.

They got to pick out some new PJs as well while we were there.
These adorable Carter's PJs were on sale that were dress up PJs. They had construction workers, race car drivers, doctors and astronauts.
The boys picked out the doctor and astronaut.
They were so cute.

The boys are really into me taking their pictures right now.
Mostly because they want to be able to view them right after I do them.
They like to pose or do crazy faces.
We sat on the couch last night for a while looking through all the videos I have of them on my camera.
They can both mostly pick out themselves in pictures. Every now and then they pick the wrong one. Now that Taylor has his Harry Potter like scar they can definitely pick out who is who.

I was watching the news getting ready for work yesterday and Callum was up sitting on my bed watching the news with me.
They had on the story about the twin astronauts. He thought that was amazing and told me, "I told you Mommy, we want to be astronauts!"
It's funny, every day they have a new profession that they want to be.
After shoe shopping Callum told me he wanted to be a farmer, Taylor said he wanted to be a cow! lol
Earlier this week Callum wanted to own his own restaurant. He said he'll serve tomatoes, "cause people like tomatoes"

while this looks adorable like they're holding hands, Taylor was trying to grab his brother's penis.

Taylor being pouty face

Callum being a crazy person!

What the boys are up to about now.

2010-07-12T22:35:00.000-04:00

They are growing so fast.

It's just crazy.

Taylor lays awake at night because he is too busy trying to do math.

He'll call out, what's two two's? What are three three's?

Also, is a crocodile nocturnal?

They are both in love with math right now and it's so awesome to watch them figure it out. You can see the little gears moving.

They are both SO into Star Wars. My husband ~~downloaded~~ purchased all six scores from the movies. The boys were so excited. It really brought a tear to my eye to see them so passionate about it.

They were both bopping their heads and humming along and asking what the name of each of the songs were.

We are now rid of the baby potty's in the house and they are strictly using the little seats that go on the toilets.

We found seats that look like this , they're really great. The boys feel more like "big boys" using a big seat with their own little seat that magnetizes right up into the big seat. We get to be happy to not have little potties all over the house, or seats with Elmo, Diego and other characters in every bathroom.

We have also rid ourselves of pull-ups at any time of the day or night! I am really excited about this. Callum was hanging on there for a while and finally decided that he doesn't want to use them anymore. They were a crutch for him for a little bit. Taylor has been without the pull-ups since before we moved. Callum never wore them for naptime but felt he really needed them at night. So far so good!!

They've been on vacation from preschool for the summer spending a lot of time with their Nana and breaking my heart.

One of the mornings Callum declared that I must really hate to go places with them since Nana is always taking them.

Cue hearing my heart shatter into a million pieces.

I had to explain that this is why weekends are so important to Daddy and I. and this is when we get to do things with them. We have to work so that we can have our nice house and all of our fun things like our Wii and the games and toys we have.

I wanted to try to explain it without having to have the "well do you want a roof over your head?" mentality.

I still went to work with my shoulders slumped and my head hanging low.

It hurts to hear that, even if it is just because they're three and don't understand why you have to go to work everyday.

I didn't have off for the day after the Fourth of July, but did get to come home early so I made extra effort to tag along to wherever they were headed with Nana that day.

Thank goodness our town has great little water parks for kids all over.

They had a blast, I nearly got sun stroke but felt happy to be going out and doing things with them during the week.

I can't always go to the library or take them to the museum but I want to make sure that the time I do spend I try to consciously make it quality time.

Happy Fourth of July

2010-07-05T10:24:00.000-04:00

ER Visit #2

2010-06-24T21:33:00.000-04:00

We had our second trip to the ER today.
This makes the second trip for Taylor, the first one because we thought he had swallowed a penny. He had ended up swallowing a little sequence that didn't show up on any xrays or anything.

I got a call at work today from Nana that Callum had thrown his cup and hit Taylor in the face. He was bleeding and it had split his forehead open.
She had stopped the bleeding but wasn't sure to tell me to come home for it or not. She wasn't sure if he would need stitches.
She ended up bring the boys to my work so I could take a look at it and see what we wanted to do.

I took him back to the bathroom to clean up all the blood off of his hands and take a look at it once they got to my work.
I wasn't sure if it needed a butterfly suture or stitches so we made the trip to Kosair Children's Hospital downtown.

I could barely find a parking spot in their huge parking garage. I was in tears when we finally found one at my second go around the garage.
Taylor was totally calm and munching on cookies in the back seat. Nana had me follow her and Callum there since I wasn't quite sure how to get there from where I work.

Once we got in there was NO one in the waiting room
The staff was super nice and got us in really fast. They were all really great.
Taylor was a total trooper, Callum freaked out more about the blood and was so apologetic about hitting him with his cup.
We had a long talk about why we ask them to not throw things at each other or hit each other because things like this can happen.

We went back to a room and the ladies came in and put some cold numbing gel on Taylors cut and we sat and waited for more than a half hour for it to really set in.
I wasn't sure what they were thinking we were going to have to do, but it ended up being stitches.
When they thought it was good and numb they took us to a room across the hall.
They told me that they would have to papoose him and asked if I wanted to come with him.
I of course went since they let me.

I helped them get him in the papoose thing and stood down by his midsection to hold his waist and rub him and tell him how proud I was of him.
He cried while they cleaned the wound out, I think mostly because he was really unhappy about them squirting water on him and it rolling down into his eyes.
He hates that.
He cried a little while they did the stitches, but he was such a brave guy. I was SO proud of him. He got a total of FOUR stitches.
The doctor that stitched him told me they needed me working for them with how calm I was with him and trying to help them keep him in the papoose.
If I was in my right mind I would have been like HEYYY, looking to go to nursing school here wanna pay?! lol

Once they were done he was up and running.
They brought him and Callum both popcicles, stickers, crayons and coloring sheets.
Taylor wanted to go and visit Mammaw and show him her stitches so we stopped by her work for a little before we came home for him to nap.

Every time Callum sees his stitches he keeps apologizing to him over and over. It's sweet.
I really hope this helps to sink in why they shouldn't do these things that we've asked them not to....over and over.

I figure this won't be the first or last set of stitches with having two boys that love to wrestle and act crazy. I was so glad that he was so amazing and took it all like a trooper....and that I could hold my cool.

This is after the admitting nurse bandaged him up so he wasn't bleeding everywhere

He was in great spirits and playing "Star Wars" with his fingers! lol

He was stoked to get the syringe to play with that they had used to clean out his wound.

I took the bandaid off while it was still numb so it wouldn't hurt. This is enough to break your heart.

Looking all TUFF

Lightning Bug Hunters

2010-06-21T19:31:00.000-04:00

Things are moving along nicely with us getting settled in.
We still have lots of things to hang and find a place for everything.
The boys playroom is still in disarray. We need new storage shelves for everything.
I love having so much more space.
It's been really weird getting used to the creaks and noises at a new house.
The old house I would walk through in the pitch black and feel totally comfortable, I'm not quite there yet with the new house. I'm a big chicken and I still get jumpy.
The first week or more I kept one of the kitchen lights on if I was up late so I could have a light on when I moved from the downstairs family room to our room upstairs instead of being in the dark.
The boys started yelling at me about a light being on downstairs so I had to buck up.

Because we live next to a huge empty field we have SO many lightening bugs at night.
The boys favorite thing is to go out at dusk and collect a few each in a container we've poked holes in.
They like to have them in their room up on a dresses to blink through the night.
My mom bought them little bug catcher things but there seems to be a way for them to get out. Each morning when we go to release them there aren't any left in there.
We've got a good catch and release program going on.
Except some have escaped and are hiding in the house somewhere.

Taylor & Nana capturing bugs

Taylor's Catch

Callum's Catch

Snuggling in bed with Nana with their buddies for the night

Happy Birthday Nana!

2010-06-14T11:54:00.001-04:00

I try to make sure that my mother in law knows how much we appreciate her as often as I can. In my opinion I can't tell her enough, and I'm sure that I don't.

She's amazing with the boys and they absolutely adore her.
She has made our lives so much easier having her around. Things aren't always easy raising your children with another woman in the house. Things aren't always perfect, but I definitely lucked out with her as my mother in law.
I couldn't have wished for a better one.

Happy Birthday Nana!! We Love you!

Lightsabers

2010-06-08T12:20:00.002-04:00

The boys are totally obsessed with Star Wars right now. Hence the new Star Wars room!
They play Star Wars Lego on Wii as often as we will let them and are constantly asking to watch Clone Wars. Nana took them during the move and bought them lightsabers to play with.
They are only allowed to play with them outside and have a blast running all around the backyard yelling and pretending to be different characters.

Callum

Taylor

Climbing out from under the boxes

2010-06-06T21:43:00.001-04:00

We're moved into the new house.
It's been pretty insane the last few weeks.
It's starting to hit me, this huge financial obligation of owning your own home.
I think we'll do well, but we definitely have some budget cracking down to do.

The boys and the dogs both are loving the bigger house.
More room to run and play.
Hopefully we'll get more settled in as the weeks go on.
I can't wait to start using our big yard and having bbqs and stuff over the summer.
There is so many things I'd like to do. We just have to pace ourselves since we're in this for the long haul.

I think the small changes we made before we moved in have definitely helped make feel more like home.
We painted over wood paneling in the family room since it felt like a dungeon.
My arch nemesis the wallpaper is gone. The bathroom upstairs looks so much better without it.
We still have lots of pictures to hang and things to put up, we've told ourselves we'll do a room a day and start getting it all done.
Living with tons of boxes is really driving me nuts, its all part of the process I suppose. It still makes me crazy.
We have things to still get from the old house.
Thankfully since we were renting from a family friend she is in no rush for all of our crap to be completely gone.
I didn't make any trips over there last week. Josh and his mom have been going over every day to grab something.

I haven't made any use of our Y membership that Josh got me for mother's day. With all the moving there just hasn't been time.

The boys last week of preschool is this coming week.
Nana wanted to keep them part of summer instead of us having to pay for them to stay where they are.
That will be a huge chunk of change saved.
JESUS preschool is expensive.
If we hadn't stashed money away for it there would be no way that the boys could have gone.

I get to go this week and get them registered for public PreK. I have no idea what the cost is of that, but I'll find out soon enough.
Just the thought of them going to an actual elementary school already is just insane!!

Here are a few pictures of the house. I've posted some on facebook so I am sure some of you have seen them already.
I'll do some before and afters.
Unfortunately I didn't take ANY of the bathroom fully wallpapered! I have no idea how I forgot!

During the peeling process

This is a piece of the wallpaper

new bathroom! I also painted the vanity black

Living Room Before

Living Room after and still in process

The boys room is looking amazing. My sister is doing such an awesome job in there.
She painted the Millenium Falcon Saturday night. The boys are so excited about their Star Wars room!

Our room looks barren! We have two dressers our bed and two side tables and we have SO much room, I don't know what to do with it all!

Moving Day

2010-06-01T13:47:00.003-04:00

This is what the boys did on moving day.

Let me tell you, I would have much rathered to spend the day in the sprinklers with them!

New House

2010-06-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

It's been so long since I've posted!
Things have been crazy on our end.
We've moved into our new house over the long weekend.
Hopefully I'll be able to upload photos soon. As soon as we have our internet at home back up and running so I can get our pictures uploaded.

The boys LOVE the new house.
My sister has been painting them a Star Wars room. They are beyond excited about this.
She has painted a bunch of the Star Wars planets and has one ship up so far.
They didn't even care that they were sleeping in a new house since they were so psyched about their new room.
They now refer to their room as their Star Wars room and not just their bedroom.

Sisters

2010-05-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

My sisters are my best friends.

I couldn't imagine going through life without knowing they have my back.

We share the same humor and can share a thought with only a glance.

They're my favorite people to hang out with on a regular basis.

We actually all work at the same place and see each other every day, and still hang out with each other on the weekends, BY CHOICE!

Like all sisters, we had or have our moments of being annoyed with each other but can always come through it. We seem to be bonded even stronger because of all of those moments.

They were my major decision to move back near my family. I really missed being close to them.

Mommy & Me Monday

2010-05-17T10:40:00.000-04:00

Hosted by Krystyn

With everything going on with our new house, I have of course lacked in the taking pictures department!
I will go with an oldie again this week
:)

January 2009

Getting to Know Me!

2010-05-16T10:35:00.000-04:00

Check it out every Sunday for the questions & participate!

1. The most expensive thing hanging in my closet is.....?
My wedding dress!

2. Have you ever played a team sport?
I’ve never been much for sports. I’m not very coordinated. I hated running in high school because I was more developed than others at a young age and got teased.

3. If you were a bug, what kind would you be?
Bumblebee!

4. Where on your body is the worst place to get sunburned? (thanks Ian)
Where my bra straps have to go.

5. Are you happy?
Most Definitely!

6. People are always abbreviating..are there any abbreviations that make your skin crawl when people use them?
I cant really think of just one that annoys me! The internet speak can really get annoying. I think the number one skin crawling one is when people use totes for totally.

7. Do you love where you live..or could you live anywhere?
I really love where I live. I really miss California though.

8. What, if any, extreme measures do you go to to keep yourself from overeating when you're full?
I’m terrible at not stopping.

Follow Friday!

2010-05-14T10:28:00.000-04:00

Mostly this blog is for myself to keep record of our life to look back on.
It's also for my family to be able to take a peek at what's going on with us since we are all spread out over the globe.

I found Follow Friday a few weeks ago! It's a great premise. It's nice to find new and interesting blogs to read.

I admit, I don't update quite as often as I should, but I've been trying to find new tops to post about regularly to keep things interesting!

Style

2010-05-11T13:04:00.000-04:00

With our impending move I've been thinking a lot about our style.
There are things that I LOVE, certain things I HATE and totally at a loss about how to create a home that I would be proud of.
I'm not very artistically inclined. I can pick out things that I would love to utilize in my own home, but have a really hard time actually decorating.
I found this website that is pretty awesome.
You take a short quiz of decor that you love, like, hate and it tells you what it thinks your style is.
I think it got me pretty dead on.

Check it out!

Sproost says my interior design style is:
40% Vintage Modern
40% Modern Elegance
20% Rustic Revival

Vintage Modern

Flea Market anyone? You know you are drawn to modern furniture and interiors, and yet you really don't like a space that feels cold and sterile. And who could blame you? And that's why Vintage Modern is so appealing to you. Though the backdrop of the room, the walls and windows, are many times white or monochromatic, the furniture and accessories have the color, shape and texture to bring the warmth into the space. The great thing about Vintage Modern is ease of mixing different styles in the one space. You can have a new modular sofa mixed with a great pair of chairs that your grandmother purchased in the late 1950's and the new and old work appear as though they were destined for each other. What's great is that even if you don't have time for swap meets and garage sales, so many of the pieces from the mid-century were so great that they have been remade and mimicked year after year.

Materials

The other great thing about Vintage Modern is how low maintenance it can be — fabrics such as cotton, microfiber or ultra-suede and leather all look great and function even better. So whether you are having a cocktail party with friends, or kids are in the picture, the room and the furnishings can handle it. Because the style harkens back to the early twentieth century, the innovative developed during that time are very popular: acrylic, plastic and fiberglass, chrome and steel, and molded plywood. Concrete floors, countertops and furniture are also very popular and lacquered finishes are very common.

Colors

When it comes to color, walls are seen as backdrops for the room. Neutral tones of gray, white, beige and brown are very common and black is a common accent color. Pops of color on the art, furniture and accessories can vary dramatically based on the person, however very common colors are teal blues, army greens and yellow as well as deep oranges and bright reds.

Mommy & Me Monday

2010-05-10T09:02:00.004-04:00

We had a wonderful Mother's Day. The boys made me the cutest cards at school. My sisters and I took my mom to brunch. My idea of a perfect day.

My sisters and I with my Mommy on Mother's Day!

Callum & Mommy on Mother's Day

Hosted by Krystyn

Always a great reason to get in front of the camera instead of always behind it.

Getting to know Me.

2010-05-09T09:05:00.002-04:00

The questions..

1. What has been your most memorable Mother's Day? (with your mom, as a mom, or with your wife)

2. Have you ever been pulled over for speeding and were you able to talk your way out of it?

3. What's the oldest thing you have hanging in your closet?

4. Do you whiten your teeth?

5. Underwear or Panties..What do you call your "unmentionables"?

6. If you could go on vacation right now..today..where would you go?

7. Do you get offended when people cuss on their blogs?

8. If you had to give up one luxury item, it would be....?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Answers!

1. What has been your most memorable Mother's Day? (with your mom, as a mom, or with your wife)

This year was pretty fabulous. We too my mom to brunch at Proof on Main in 21C
The food was amazing, the company was great. It was a gorgeous day.
My husband got me cards from him and the boys and a Y membership! I've been wanting one forever. I'm excited to use it. The boys made me some great cards at school. They were pretty hilarious. Taylor's card says he loves his Mom because she makes him dinner! hahaha. If anyone knows me, they know I hardly cook...like ever. It was adorable.

2. Have you ever been pulled over for speeding and were you able to talk your way out of it?

I've actually never been pulled over for speeding. I've been pulled over for running a stop sign. I live on the edge.

3. What's the oldest thing you have hanging in your closet?

I don't tend to keep clothes long, I'm a slob when I eat and everything ends up stained. So I guess the oldest thing in my closet would be my wedding dress.

4. Do you whiten your teeth?

I use whitening toothpaste. I would LOVE to get them professionally whitened. That would be amazing. I just don't think I can give up my coffee to make it worth it.

5. Underwear or Panties..What do you call your "unmetionables"?

Panties.

6. If you could go on vacation right now..today..where would you go?

I would take a vacation to ANYWHERE right about now.

7. Do you get offended when people cuss on their blogs?

I'm not easily offended. ever.

8. If you had to give up one luxury item, it would be....?

I am guessing cable maybe? You can pretty much download anything nowadays.

Button button who's got the button!

2010-05-04T14:03:00.000-04:00

The wonderful Kerry Ball made me a button!
I really don't know what else to do with it, and I have no idea how to make the little box underneath it so other people can grab it.

Mommy & Me Monday

2010-05-03T10:17:00.002-04:00

Hosted by Krystyn

I'm hoping this will get me motivated to take pictures of me with the boys.

The last picture I have that will have to suffice for this first Mommy & Me Monday is the boys and I at Thanksgiving.

Yep, It's been that long!

Homeowners!

2010-04-30T10:32:00.000-04:00

My husband and I have taken one of the largest steps, (besides having the boys of course) of our relationship!

We are now homeowners!

The process went much faster than we had anticipated.

The first house we saw was "the one".

We went and looked at a few others, not feeling comfortable to just go with the very first house we saw.

As soon as we looked at a few others, we knew that it was the one for us.

I'm so excited!

We've been talking to the boys about each night, trying to get them used to the idea.

They've asked a million questions about each thing in the house that they want to know if it is coming to the new house.

We keep telling them EVERYTHING, but they ask about each item.

It's pretty cute.

We've asked them what color they want their new room. Taylor wanted blue, Callum responded first with black. It was hilarious, Josh quoted Beetlejuice of course. "my life is one big black darkroom".

I don't think I feel comfortable with painting a three year old's room black just yet.

Callum now says he wants yellow.

They change their minds each time we ask them.

The seller has to stay in the house until the 15th, she's waiting to close on her new place.

She'll be paying us a prorated amount for each day she's there.

Now on to packing and moving!

Preschool

2010-04-28T14:13:00.005-04:00

On a lighter note, we got the boys first ever school pictures.

They were so cute.

They even took one of the two of them together.

I really didn't expect them to do that, it came out pretty cute.

Taylor, our ham bone.

Callum with his hair all in his face.

Memorial Fund

2010-04-28T11:33:00.003-04:00

I've set up a way to donate to help my cousin Danielle and her husband Matthew with the costs of the memorial for their precious angel Keilyn.

If you would like to donate, anything, even a small amount will help.
He owns his own lawn company and she is a third grade teacher.

Thank you for all the love you've sent my and my family's way.
It's been greatly appreciated.

Heartwrenching

2010-04-27T11:28:00.001-04:00

No family should ever have to endure this.

My cousin gave birth to a beautiful daughter Sunday morning. Keilyn Alannah was born at 10:23 am weighing over 8 pounds.

She born a healthy little girl.

The picture below was taken the day she was born.

I received a call this morning that she has passed away last night.

My pain for Danielle is just breaking my heart.

My heart is aching for them.

She would have been a great mom to baby Keilyn.

Life is unfair.

Girlfriend!

2010-04-23T11:17:00.001-04:00

The boys informed me a while back that they have a girlfriend.
Not one of them has a girlfriend, and the other has a different girl.
NO. She is THEIR girlfriend.
Her name is Alexis.
They always talk about Alexis, what Alexis did that day, if Alexis was in school or not, how she shares and how much they like her.
While the boys were sick for two weeks this month when I called in the codirector Theresa told me that Alexis's mom took her home that day.
Because when they showed up and Alexis saw her boyfriends weren't in school she refused to stay! ha.
Dayum boys.
Alexis's birthday was yesterday. I couldn't take the boys to her party since it was during work hours, but Nana took them to her birthday party at a park.
I've finally gotten to see a picture of my future only daughter in law, cause apparently they are both marrying her.
Alexis's parents are from Germany and both speak German. She is also bilingual which is pretty awesome.
My mother in law said it was the best kids party she's been too, and being an early childhood educator for many years, she's been to a fair share.
She said it was pretty laid back and the kids had a great time.
They brought home little penny banks that they painted and lots of little toys in their goody bags.
They also came home talking ALL about Alexis of course!
Nana said the whole time Alexis kept calling for the boys "where are my twins?" "my twins, lets go play!"

This is so adorable. I am sure when we have real first girlfriends I may not think it's so cute!

Taylor left refusing to look at the camera, Alexis and Callum

Nostalgic

2010-04-23T11:14:00.003-04:00

Going through old photos while I was waiting for flickr to upload I came across this video from when the boys were first born.
OMG!
When were my almost four year old crazy little boys this TEENY!
woah.

Getting to know YOU

2010-04-18T08:49:00.030-04:00

I just decided to start participating in this. I have seen it on quite a few blogs and decided it would be something fun and new to do over here.

The questions..

1. Mens chests..hairy or hairless?

2. How often do you run red lights?
3. If you could raid any celebrity's closet..whose would you raid?
4. Would you rather have more followers/friends on Facebook, Twitter, or your Blog?
5. What makes you feel sexy?
6. I get excited when...........?
7. Are you the "outdoorsy" type or more "indoorsy"?

8. Would you rather have your dream home or a million dollars?

My answers:
1. Hairy or hairless? Gonna have to go with hairy. My husband has some fur, nothing crazy...but a little bit of hair is nice.
2. Red light running? Can I plead the fifth? In my defense, I swear they were yellow!
3. Celebrity closet raid? This is a really hard one. I have a slight crush on Jennifer Love Hewitt, and really all of her clothes are usually timeless and very classy but comfortable looking....so I'll go with her.
4. I would say on my blog. Twitter is so impersonal really. Facebook I do use daily and I already have plenty of friends on there from high school, family and old friends.
5. My husband is pretty good at making me feel sexy. I think feeling confident in myself and having a good day really help as well.
6. I get excited when ... my kids are excited, my tattoo artist comes to town, good things happen to the people I love.
7. I am a bit of both. I am not much a rugged outdoorsy type of girl, but I do like to camp now and then.
8. I'd definitely take the cash! I can build or buy our dream home for much less than a million!!

Creepy

2010-04-12T09:31:00.002-04:00

I apologize for all of the pictures being unavailable.
I have received some emails from someone on Flickr about people using the boys pictures without my permission.
This really creeped me out and has me changing all of their picture to "friends only" or private on flickr.
This is something that has bothered me from the beginning with sharing things about my family on public forums.
For now all of the pictures will be unavailable unless we are friends on flickr then you should be able to click on them to go to the flickr account.
This will have to stay like this until I figure out a solution I am more comfortable with.
Thank you

Easter

2010-04-07T09:39:00.006-04:00

We had a great Easter.
The boys were very excited for the Easter festivities to begin and were so excited to see their baskets in the living room when they woke up.
Taylor exclaimed that once the Easter Bunny delivered their baskets he had to hop back to the mall so he could be there for other children.
We woke early for the baskets and so Josh could make his mash potatoes that have become a staple at our family functions.
He does make the best mashed ever.
I love the family functions with my family. They are usually very laid back and we all can just sit around and laugh and talk and enjoy each other's company.
Unfortunately my mom wasn't feeling very well and had to go up and take a nap half through the day, but she didn't miss the boys egg hunt.

Egg Dyeing

2010-04-05T09:33:00.005-04:00

The boys didn't remember dyeing eggs last year.
Taylor was very into it, Callum was so so about the whole thing this year.
Taylor orchestrated and directed where he wanted everyone's eggs to be and appointed himself in charge of when they needed to come out and where to place to dry.
They had a lot of fun doing them and would have kept going had we boiled more than a dozen.
Taylor did NOT want to eat his egg that had his name and threw a fit when Nana wanted to crack it for him. He decided he was just going to hang on to it for a while.

2010-03-22T10:40:00.002-04:00

So far so good on our first day with Nana on vacation.
She made them little calendars to mark off each day while she's gone.
Today is their first day going to a full day of school.

The boys both have a cough and haven't been feeling too well so we didn't do much this weekend.
We did go Friday with my sister to the park with her dogs and the boys had fun on the swings.
I took a few pictures that I really liked.

Last Weekend

2010-03-12T09:16:00.004-05:00

We were so lucky to have some great weather last weekend.
I made sure that we got out of the house most of the weekend and enjoyed it!
One thing I've loved about Louisville since I've moved here is watching the city come to life every year once Spring comes.
Everyone is out and about walking, playing with their kids or dogs. It just gives me a happy feeling every year.

The boys were so excited to get to go outside and play in the sun.

Things

2010-02-23T10:52:00.002-05:00

We had to go shopping for a new fridge last night.
Ours starting acting squirrely last week. The freezer went out first and then the fridge side stopped getting cold later that evening.
We had to move everything to our fridge we have in the basement.
Thank goodness we had that down there for beer or extra stuff for the freezer. I would have been pissed had we lost everything.

I haven't really been messing with my new camera too much lately. I can't wait to get outside when it gets nicer and take some outdoors. I did take some of the boys and Josh this weekend.

We're supposed to be getting more snow. I'm not too thrilled with that. The snow we had finally melted over the weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend and I was layed up most of the weekend with my lower back acting crazy.
I must have pulled something or did something to my muscle. It hurts like hell.

Camera Porn

2010-02-19T17:08:00.007-05:00

I've been scouting cameras online for ages now.

My husband got me my current camera for my birthday when the boys weren't yet one year old.
That camera has been so good to me. I've been able to take so many great shots of the boys growing up.
I've been so happy with my Canon S5IS.
It wasn't a DSLR, but not just a point and shoot. I was always scared to really figure out manual modes, not really understanding the concept of everything involved.

So, for my Valentine's gift the husband got me a new camera! He got me a Canon Rebel T1i and I'm in love. I have to admit that I've only practiced just a little bit since it's been delivered.
I've been busy ready everything I can get my hands on to learn more about how to use the manual modes of the camera and really understand what it can do.
I'm so excited to start taking many more shots with this new camera, but so far I've done alright with the few that I have taken.
I just sat on the floor in front of our fish tank and in front of our dogs with camera in hand and my book next to me on the floor and changed the options a million times until I came up with something I liked.

Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-02-17T15:03:00.005-05:00

I almost forgot!
I was honored last week with the Beautiful Blogger Award by the wonderful Shelby over at http://www.prologuetoatwinsblog.blogspot.com/ and again today by http://2chicklets4me.blogspot.com/
Check out their wonderful blogs!!

Thank you so much! It's so nice to get nominated for something like this.
I started my blog mostly for my family to be able to see what the boys and our family have been up to.

It's nice to have other readers as well!!

If I nominated you, congrats and here are the instructions:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and insert a link to their blog.

2. Pass on the award to about 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are great!

3. Contact the other bloggers and let them know they have been chosen for this award.

4. Say 7 things about yourself.

7 Things About Myself

1. I went to nearly eight schools moving around as a kid.

2. I'm addicted to Criminal Minds and watch almost two episodes a night as I fall asleep. My husband blames it on the fact that these shows are geared towards women.

3. I love to travel and haven't been able to do that in quite a while. I always have a serious case of the wanderlust. I "blame" this on having parents on two sides of the states and always getting to travel every summer. I was definitely lucky in that aspect. My parents both loved to travel and we did a lot of road trips when I was a kid.

4. I've wanted to be a nurse since as far as I can remember. I'm finally following through and applying and going to school!

5. Even though it was hard as a kid, I'm glad that my parents separated when I was young. I can't imagine not having all the extended family it has granted me. I have three sisters and two brothers.

6. I've always hated tea, I just never had the taste for it. I then got pregnant with the boys and couldn't get enough of it! I still like it.

7. I'm a constant worry wart.

The Blogs that I nominate for the Beautiful Blogger Award are:

http://twinhappyjen.blogspot.com/ Twin Happy
http://dailycynema.blogspot.com/ Daily Cynema
http://m0mmy-x3.blogspot.com/ Mommy to a lil lady [bug]
http://twins-books.com/ Double Up Books
http://twolittlemonkeys1.blogspot.com/ Two Little Monkeys
http://2setsoftwins-helene.blogspot.com/ I'm Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor
http://misadventuresinbabyraising.blogspot.com/ Misadventures in Baby Raising
http://www.doubletheadventure.com/ Double The Adventure
http://thepioneerwoman.com/The Pioneer Woman
http://granvillehouse.blogspot.com/ 320* Sycamore

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-17T11:21:00.004-05:00

11/18/06

1/31/10

Snow Day

2010-02-10T10:54:00.003-05:00

I got to leave work early yesterday. Just as I was pulling in the boys were out front with Nana having a great time building a snowman.
I'm so glad I got to go home in time to play out in the snow with them.
They really enjoyed throwing snowballs at me and thought it was hysterical when I hit them with one.
We had a great time and were all exhausted once we were done playing in the snow.

I took this with my phone so you could see how high the snow was.

Callum very pleased with himself after he hit me with a snowball

Taylor

I also got the pleasure of shoveling off our driveway after the boys went down for a nap.
Let me tell you, that is NO fun.
I got just enough done so I could pull up further and Josh could park at the end of the drive.
My back is killing me today.

Our Weekend

2010-02-09T08:30:00.002-05:00

We had a pretty good weekend. Our couches were delivered bright and early Saturday morning.
They look so great in the room and are so comfy.
I told Josh that now I feel like we're grown folk! It's the first time we've had a living room compiled of mostly things that we've picked out ourselves.
It's a great feeling.
Josh had picked up a fish tank a few weeks ago from a listing on Craigslist I think.
We have been wanting a tank since we've been living together.
He went Saturday afternoon to pick up all the stuff to go with it. We only had the tank and no hood, lights, stand and other supplies for it.
With all of that together he ended up just spending $20 more and buying a HUGE tank.
So now we have the extra tank to save for the boys once they get interested in having frogs or lizards.
We took the boys to pick out some fish yesterday. We only have about 8 fish so far in the 72 gallons.
We'll add them slowly each week to make sure the PH doesn't go out of whack.
Taylor and Callum both picked a Mollie each and also a school of bleeding heart tetras.
They're in total love with the tank. They said goodnight to them last night and good morning to them this morning and told them they'd see them after school.
It's so cute.

The boys wanted me to take a picture of them holding their junk. Boys will be boys.

I took a video of the boys playing Wii the other day too. It's just hilarious to watch. It's like they dance around each other while playing.
Taylor thinks he has to move to make his character move.....which is fine by me!

Snow!

2010-02-09T08:28:00.001-05:00

We finally got some real snow last night.
They kept calling for two to four inches last night and another four today.
I kept dismissing it since our weather guys are hardly spot on for anything.
But, I woke up this morning to a good amount of snow.
My wonderful husband got my van scraped off and started for me this morning.
The boys stayed home with Nana since she has to walk to pick them up and walk them home the short way from school.....but walking with snow possibly up to their knees would not have been fun at all.
I'm however at work, as are most of the ladies I work with....the men however are another story! Six women here, to two of the men showed up.
ha!

Here's the front of our house as I was pulling out this morning

Happenings

2010-02-03T15:54:00.005-05:00

The boys have been in preschool for about three weeks now.
Unfortunately as of today they've missed four days of those three weeks!
We've come up with our first ever ear infection and round of antibiotics for Taylor.
I have to say proudly, for an almost four year old that's not too shabby.

Both of them have had a terrible cough and Taylor had a cold that seemed to progress to something much worse than Callum's. We finally went to see our family doctor and low and behold the poor thing had a terrible ear infection in both ears.

In other good news we got our family pictures back from our session with Sears a few weeks back.
The boys were less than cooperative and I was fairly certain that we would come up empty handed with how badly they behaved.
We got lucky with the wonderful Kelly as our photographer. She managed get a few good shots beside the circumstances!!

And really........my all time favorite!!

And yes, I did buy sheets of this one! haha

Preschool & Furniture!

2010-01-18T10:35:00.000-05:00

Today was the boys first official day at preschool!
It's so weird to not just call up Nana to see how they're doing.

Callum was up and ready to get dressed this morning and Taylor was dragging his feet, begging to stay home and that he was too tired to go and would have NO fun today.
He finally relented and was happy as a clam once we got there.
It's so nice to have the school so close to our house.
Nana will walk up there and pick them up between 12 and 12:30 each day after they have lunch and before they have naptime at school.

We went in on Friday for them to meet the teachers and to see their classroom and ended up staying for a few hours Friday, they didn't want to leave!
I think once the novelty wears off some they may cry once we get to school.
Today was very smooth though, as soon as we got there they went to their activities and basically ignored me!
I'm so glad that it's been a seemingly easy transition so far and has been easy on me since they aren't screaming when I leave them.

Josh and I went and bought new couches this weekend!!
I'm so excited. This is our first big furniture purchase together besides our bed, and our first living room piece that isn't a hand me down!
My skin will also thank me once I don't have to sit on the faux leather couches we have.
The actual purchase was so easy. We both agreed on the same one basically straight away!

Our House on a Nightly.

2010-01-12T12:35:00.002-05:00

The boys have taken to the Wii like woah.
The first thing out of the boys mouths when either of us get home is not "hello mommy or daddy" it's "can you put on Batman?"
If we let them they would play for hours and not say a word, so we've taken to setting a timer for them to play in smaller increments.
The Batman game is really for 10 year olds+.

Callum he plays like you would think any three year old would play a video game. He's interested in just running around, beating up the bad guys and jumping off ledges and killing his character over and over.
Taylor is a different story. He has really amazed us, he really gets it. He runs around and does the storyline, puts the legos together to make things to advance the game. He's figured out how to open up areas that you have to throw your batarang? to open and is exploring the game like a true gamer.
I know it's just a video game, but seeing how quickly he's picking up on what needs to be done is just awesome to watch. You can see his little gears turning to figure things out.

I had to tell his Aunt Ashley right away about this development. I knew she'd be excited to have a little budding gamer to teach.
Now to try and find an educational game for the wii that's just as fun.

Snow Day!

2010-01-08T10:17:00.002-05:00

We finally got an accumulation of snow!
If we even get two inches here it shuts down the whole city.
It's kind of ridiculous.
I was still able to go to work yesterday and today as well.
So, the boys went out with Nana yesterday to play in the snow.
They were so excited. We had told them Wednesday night that we were supposed to be getting a lot of snow, enough to play in.
Callum's first words when he woke up Thursday morning was "did we get a bunch of noe?"

I was sad that I didn't get to go out and play in it with them, but Nana was awesome enough to take pictures of them for me.

getting geared up

Sipping on Hot Chocolate once they were done to warm up

Nana brought them in a bowl of snow to play with!

Going Ons.

2010-01-06T12:17:00.001-05:00

The boys are signed up for preschool!
I am so nervous for it, but thankfully the boys are pretty excited.
The school wasn't really on my radar as far as top choices, but it was very convenient for us.
I didn't want to send them to a chain daycare and preferred quite a number of other schools.
Nana wanted to make sure that we start them with just half days for now to ease them into school.
We figured it would be a hassle for me to have to take my lunch break to pick them up early, bring them home and then come back to work.
Instead of doing all that we went and looked at the place up the street from us.
I really liked the teachers and felt comfortable there as well.
It will be so easy to drive up the street to drop them off and Nana will pick them up before the nap time at 12:30.
I just hope that once they're in the school that it will still be a good idea.
I really hope that it helps them thrive and become a little more socialized.

I had to buy the boys a bunch of underwear, I'm hoping that they'll go along with the excuse "you have to wear underwear at school".
Right now they hate underwear and usually just wear their pj bottoms and go commando.
We'll see how that goes over.

Josh is going on his second week at his new job, and is really liking it. I can tell that his stress level is really down.
It also helps that he's not in school anymore as well.
He got out of his old job in the nick of time. He talked to one of his old co-workers and they told him that they're not paying any of their health insurance and have taken away paid vacation this year!

I've had to pick up our family health insurance, that's a big hit to my paycheck....but now Josh doesn't have it coming out of his.
I have to pay something like $150 a week for the four of us to be insured. eesh.

I'm doing pretty good. I had to work Sunday for our end of year inventory, but not Saturday so I'm thankful since a lot of people had to work both.
I need to finish filling out my application for school. I would be starting in April.
I'm super nervous about it.
The fact that I'll be going back to school after 14 years...and I'll be missing all three of my guys something terrible.

Here are some pictures of the boys from New Years Day.
All the swimming they did with Nana while they were at the hotel that night really suited them!
Their hair was so cute that day.

Callum is such a goob! He will hardly ever stop and smile for a camera anymore. This is his crazy person fake smile.

Taylor is a big old hambone and requests for his picture to be taken.

Build A Bear

2009-12-28T12:09:00.000-05:00

The boys decided as their gift to each other that they wanted to go to Build a Bear Workshop.
Taylor really wanted a spider, which of course they didn't have. He ended up picking a bunny, which seemed like a total opposite of what he originally wanted. He named his Bunny "Rover".
I knew Callum would pick a monkey, for some reason he's been wanting a monkey stuffed animal. Callum wanted to name his Monkey "Monkey Doo Doo Head" which I immedately nixed, so he was like fine, his name is "Fluffy". haha.
We went and they immediately plugged their ears from all the screeching little girls that were in there, it was pretty hysterical.
We didn't take any pictures during the process.
They each picked two outfits for their "stuffies" as they call them.
Callum picked a Darth Vader outfit and a Star Wars pj set.
Taylor picked a Batman outift and the Star Wars pj set as well.
Most kids just like to sleep with their stuffed animals but the boys love playing with theirs. I've never seen kids play with their stuffed animals like they do.

On to Fluffy & Rover

Christmas

2009-12-28T11:59:00.001-05:00

We had a great Christmas.
Christmas Eve was pretty quiet, we got our last minute wrapping done and just hung out around the house.
The Tiptons came over that night with the Noodle to exchange the kids gifts.
They loved what they got! They both got tool sets that are awesome and had so many tools.
Josh and I were up until after 1 getting Santa stuff out and set up.

The boys didn't wake up until almost 9 Christmas morning. They weren't really crazy and took their time investigating everything they got.
They were very excited about their Phineus, Ferb and Perry dolls and said their favorite thing was their Dragon Castle.
We opened gifts from under the tree to each other and from my Dad and Lisa.
The boys loved everything they got!

We headed to my mom's around 1 and spent time with them until around 5 or so when we headed to Josh's Aunt Mary's house.
The boys were so overwhelmed at my mom's and hardly opened a single present.
It was definitely overstimulation and they started getting whiney and weird.
It could have also been that they had no nap that day as well.
The boys got the kids rough and tough cameras from my mom and Floyd and they LOVED them. They've taken so many pictures and are finally figuring out how to really use them.
We got so many great presents and had a really great day.
Floyd made an awesome lasagna and I ate SO much food!

Everyone was gone from his Aunt's house so it was relaxing going over there, we just hung out, ate more food and watched some tv.

I got most of the living room cleaned up that evening but our kitchen is still a disaster.
The day after Christmas I got the boys pictures from their cameras uploaded and programmed their Tag readers they got from Grandpa John and Grandma Lisa. They've been a big hit.

The boys getting their toolbelts on with Kristen

Noodle

The boys put out their cookies they made with Nana and "reindeer food" We didn't have carrots, so it entailed oats, granola and raisins.

After Santa came

Waking up and checking out the loot

At Mammaw's

Ashley & Matt

Josh & I

Mom & Floyd

Shannon & Josh

Mom & the boys

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T21:45:00.001-05:00

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Fun

2009-12-14T22:31:00.002-05:00

We've been trying to do some fun things leading up to Christmas.
Lately we've been taking the long way places, or home so the boys can enjoy all the Christmas lights.
They LOVE it.
It's sort of a competition between them because they boast who has what out of "their" window.

Yesterday we went and bought stuff for a Gingerbread House, I will admit I cheated.
I bought a Gingerbread kit instead of having to bake it, put it together and decorate it.
The kit came already assembled and had all the goodies to decorate.
I was looking forward to doing it with the boys, but they were way to excited to wait for me to come home from work to do.
I told Nana if it became an issue for her to do it since either way it was for them, even if I didn't get to witness it.

We also bought all of the stuff to make holiday cookies.
I've never been much of a cook, and not a baker either. I put the full amount of butter in which made it a bit difficult and sticky to use the cookie cutters with.
I did another "cheat" and once they came out of the oven looking nothing like what they went in as, I cut them with the cookie cutter again!
It worked perfectly.
The boys had a blast decorating them and couldn't wait to devour all of them.
I of course told them they could only pick ONE tonight. We had enough icing licks to keep them up all night.

Don't worry, we didn't let the excess go to waste.

Taylor with his chosen cookie

Callum with his chosen cookie

Fun with Markers

2009-12-14T22:15:00.000-05:00

Want to know what happens in the three minutes it takes for you to go to the kitchen and get the phone?

In our defense. This is our first Marker offense.

Santa Claus

2009-12-08T20:12:00.000-05:00

Nana and I took the boys shopping at the Disney Store yesterday for her to get them their big potty training toy since they've been doing so great.
They've wanted a Buzz & Woody all along and I figured that Nana wouldn't be able to get it anytime soon, so I had of course put them on layaway for Santa presents.
Guess what they picked?! I'm not surprised, they've been asking for them for months.
They're in love with Woody moreso than Buzz, but Woody is definitely more cuddly.
While we were at the mall we walked past Santa and there was NO line!
They asked to go in and see him and I of course bought pictures.
This Santa was their very first Santa from when they were infants, so that was really cool. I was looking through our pictures to do a Santa timeline and realized that we missed a year and didn't see Santa.

Santa @ 4 months old 2006

Santa @ 2 years old 2008

Santa @ 3 years old 2009

He was in the middle of talking to the boys so he looks kinda angry, but the lady just told me to pretend he was ho ho hoing. So that's what I'll think!
haha.

The boys adored him and Callum talked his head off to him about all the he wants for Christmas, and talked for his brother since Taylor usually clams up when it's talking to strangers.
At home he's never quiet!

Feeling Like Christmas!

2009-12-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

The boys are getting SO excited for Christmas.
It's adorable.
They have certain ornaments that they know they're allowed to play with on the tree, so they like to take them off and put them back on.
Last night Callum sang "Santa's Coming to Town" while he put them back on and changed "Santa" to "Snowman" or "Stocking" depending on the ornament he was hanging.
It was hysterical.
This is going to be such a fun Christmas with them this year.
We haven't made it to see a Santa just yet. They caught a glimpse of him in the mall a few weeks ago, but that's been it so far.
We're going to the Bass Pro Shop near where I work since their set up looks so awesome, definitely more magical than the mall Santa.

My dad and Lisa sent us a Wii for Christmas, and we definitely couldn't wait to open it!
The boys have mastered it pretty much and have been having so much fun.

Thanksgiving.

2009-11-30T14:48:00.002-05:00

list of things that made it a good weekend.

* putting up the christmas tree with the boys. They were so excited to have it up and to help decorate.
* getting a WII from my dad and watching the boys play. They were so funny to watch and they had a blast.
* snuggling in bed with the boys and Josh watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
* homemade pumpkin pie & my favorite sweet potatoes ever!
* not fighting any Black Friday crowds!
* spending time with my family.
* getting time to relax on Thanksgiving at Josh's Aunt Mary's while Nana played in the basement with the boys.

The sisters & I with Mom

My Papa & I (my stepdad Floyd)

The boys & I

Taylor & Daddy

Hanging out watching football

The boys with my cousin's son Cayden

Callum aka Mr Attitude

Potty Training!

2009-11-23T10:28:00.002-05:00

We've started what we'd like to call "Potty Training Boot Camp" at our house.
Nana was watching our friend's daughter, now that she's in a daycare Nana is focusing on the boys potty training at home.
Last week was their first week of serious potty training.
We aren't using any diapers or pull ups throughout the day, only for nap and nighttime.
We've cleaned a lot of pee and poop off the floor in the last week.
Callum is really catching on and is doing so awesome! He goes when he has to and tells you when he has to go. He's woke up most mornings with a dry pull up.
Taylor is a little more slow going. He's definitely more stubborn than his brother.
When this began I thought for sure it would be Callum that was more slow going. He was after all the one that said he would rather wait for Santa to bring his Potty Present rather than have to work for it.
Both boys have decided that they'd rather go commando and just wear their pj pants and nothing else.
I've given in and figured at least it's a little less in laundry we'll have to do.
We have to stay on top of Taylor and really get him to sit on the potty often through out the day even if he says he doesn't have to.
Last night the golden quote after asking him to go potty was

"Taylor do you have to potty?"
"No"
"Then why are you playing with your penis?"
"Because it's mine!"

I didn't have much of an answer for that one but to tell him to sit on the potty and try to go.

Thoughts of the Future.

2009-11-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

Josh graduates in a month! It's been a long road this past two years.
I'm so incredibly proud of him.
He's graduating with just under a 4.0 and with quite a few dean's list certificates under his belt.
I'm sure in a few years he'll want to go back again and possibly get an engineering degree as well.
Right now it's my turn to start investigating school for myself.
I have a meeting next week with an adviser at Galen Nursing School to start their application process.
Ultimately I'd like to get my RN but will start with the LPN process part time.
Their January start date is probably full already so most likely I'll be looking at starting in April.
I'm nervous and excited at the thought of going back to school.
It seems like it's been so long since I've been in school. Let's just hope I can keep up.
Part time LPN programs will take me about 21 months to complete and then another year or so to finish the LPN to RN bridge.
It's time.
I'm ready to have a career instead of just a job.
I love the job I'm at now and hope I can continue working here while I go through school.
I love the people and the environment but have to think about my and my family's future.

Take a Chance!!

2009-11-10T15:50:00.001-05:00

I've been drooling over the Kindle! I get a chance to win if I tell you about it so go give it a shot! and maybe we can both win!! It's valued at $259 and if you don't want it, you're crazy!!

Wishlists

2009-11-10T15:41:00.004-05:00

For those who may want to know.
The boys wishlist can still be found at Amazon.
I try to keep it current with things they're into right now and update what has been purchased.
I've added some things recently.

Callum & Taylor's Wishlist on Amazon

And, just in case you want to know mine!!

Rhiana's Wishlist

General Stuff

2009-11-10T15:39:00.001-05:00

The boys are still dressing up daily.
Josh's Aunt Mary has added a crazy Rockabilly and Gorilla costume to the mix.

They're really into Scooby Doo right now.

Callum has to sleep with: Mickey, his Teddy Bear on specific sides of the bed, at the head of his bed it must be Black Cat, Black Dog, Bulldog, Snoopy & His Boo Boo Horsey (from his testicle surgery) Save us all of any of these can't be found because they have to play with them throughout the day and they always go missing.

Taylor has to sleep with: Mickey, Teddy Bear also on specific sides of the bed, at the head of his bed, Catty Moose (what he named his cat), Bulldog, mini Ming Ming, mini Tuck, mini Linny, Snoopy and sometimes Blue but he can be forgotten and no worries. Save us all if any of these go missing too.
Josh and I get to spend however amount of time to find the missing items or argue with them to go to sleep since they should have been left in their bed regardless.

They're always asking about people's mom's or dad's lately.
They made my mom cry asking about who her mom was.
They are trying to make the connections and understand who everyone's parents are.
They asked about Josh's Dad.
They know his name was Buddy and he isn't alive anymore. He got very sick and didn't get better.

They definitely know how to work me. They are always telling me how much they miss me during the day, or that they will miss me when I leave.
Rip my heart out why don't you! lol
They also know that I'm a sucker for cuddle time and will try to extend their bedtimes by telling me they didn't get any cuddle time.

Their vocabularies are unbelievable. They really shock me sometimes.

The memory on both of them is amazing as well. They can remember things from over a year ago in great detail.

I'm really having to push myself to try and not curse in front of them in any way shape or form.
Hearing them say "what the F" isn't so great either. Mother of the year over here.

Callum has been increasingly whiney lately. I just tell him I can't understand him unless he talks like a big boy and uses his normal talking voice.

They're SO stubborn about potty training. This has been so hard to do.
We have potty charts and rewards and nothing seems to motivate them.
Taylor did sit on the potty three times and got to fill his squares on the chart for some of today with stickers.
Callum just FLAT OUT refuses.
When Nana told them they could pick out a special toy for filling their charts they chose a Buzz for Taylor and Callum chose a Woody.
They told me tonight that they'd rather wait for Santa to bring them.

I'm really really trying to not raise my voice and stay cool and calm.
This is very difficult.
I hate how I sound and I really want to break the cycle.
I don't want them to grow up thinking that's the right way to communicate.
But fuck, sometimes getting heard over two three year olds needs a raised voice.

I really have a hard time feeling like I am molding my kids how I want them to be.
I am sick of people giving me shit or butting in about how things should be handled.

I need to just follow my heart and do what I feel is right.