No Kids = No Pictures

Joe and I had the chance to get away to Hawaii for 5 wonderful days, without the kids! We lounged, we ate, we drank...we had a blast. Here is the funny thing -- we took about 10 pictures the whole time, most of them scenic shots. What the heck?? Before kids I'd take tons of pictures on vacation, after kids all I do is take pictures of my kids. So there we were in beautiful Hawaii and I have just a couple of pictures to prove the trip even happened. You can bet if the kids had been along we'd have filled up the whole SD card with wonderful pictures. Anyways, here is our trip...




That's about it! Aloha!!

Letters to Someone

My Dear Lovely Lauren,

I think you are adorable, but the fact that you have started throwing tantrums is just not cool. Your dramatics should be saved for your teen years - I think 15 months is a little young for this much angst. At 15 years old I will expect it. No you can not steal your brother's favorite dinosaur and bolt into the other room and then throw a major fit when he grabs it back from you. In Daniel's defense he had it first and you know (I know you do!) it's his favorite. Sorry, but you can not have a Capri Sun - you will just squirt it everywhere and make a huge mess. Just because I will not give you one does not give you the ok to throw yourself on the ground and kick and scream. Seriously girl??

Also, can we talk a little about shoes? They are to go on your feet. They are not loveys that you carry around. Now I love shoes as much as the next girl, but I prefer to wear them. And I mean wear both of them. Stop taking one shoe off and leaving one on. Let's compromise -- at home you can carry around a shoe, but when we go outside you MUST wear BOTH shoes.

Love,
Your Do NOT "Save your Drama for Your Mama" Mommy

Here is Lauren having a fit about shoes. Notice Daniel trying to hold her hand.


My Dear Sweet Daniel,

I do love the sight of your face and your Cars jammies in the morning, but not at 3:45am. That's just way too early and still the middle of night as far as this household is concerned. Three visits between 3:45 am and 4:45 am was not a fun way to start off my Monday. While we are on the topic of sleeping, how about sleeping in once in a while??!!

Love,
Your Tired Mommy

Here is Daniel playing with his favorite dinosaur, before Lauren stole it.


Dear Sunny Hawaii,

Three days and counting my love, three days.

From,
A very anxious soon to be visitor

Felt Food, Bows and More

I hope my 3-year old niece Julia doesn't read my blog because she's about to find out her Christmas present. Check out this spread of yummy food...it's made out of felt!

How fun is that? My goal is to make a basket full of felt food for Julia, an apron and maybe some matching kitchen towels. I got the idea from my friend Melinda who made an awesome basket of felt food for Daniel's birthday -- he absolutely loves it and I just knew I needed to get cooking, er...I mean sewing. Next up is a banana, a cupcake and fixings for a sandwich.

The next item on my crafty list is more hair bows. Here are some of my most recent creations.

I love making these - if your little girl has a birthday coming up don't be surprised if she gets some. And if you are reading this and don't personally know me, I can always sell you some.

Lastly I made myself an scarf from this tutorial. Jamie at Pretty Ditty makes some ridiculously cute stuff and this scarf was so easy and cheap. I bought 2 yards of fabric on sale for $6 bucks and cut it into three long scarves. So each scarf is costing me $2 plus maybe a dollar for extra materials. And I read someplace recently that purple is the color for this fall. Whatever - it's cute. I made one for myself, am in the process of making one for my sister and still deciding who gets the last one. Maybe you??

A Decision Has Been Made

It looks like we're going with Spiderman this year for Daniel's Halloween costume. It was sort of decided by accident. My nephew Christopher came over the other day and he was so excited about the Incredible Hulk costume that he very nicely asked Daniel if he could borrow it for Halloween and Daniel (not really knowing what he was agreeing to) kindly responded yes. So there you have it...Daniel will be Spiderman and Christopher will be the Incredible Hulk.

My favorite part of these costumes is the built in muscles. Both boys love showing off their muscles and it cracks me up every time Daniel says to me, "Look at my muscles mommy!"

Not Me Monday

There is a tidal wave going around the blog world called "Not Me Monday." MckMama created the idea of Not Me Monday as a way to share the things that we (mostly moms) would NEVER do. So here is my first Not Me Monday post...

It was NOT ME who took a quick nap while my daughter slept and my son played quietly with his blocks today. I did NOT try to convince him to nap as well.

It was NOT ME who opened the enormous animal cookie container at Costco just to stuff my kids mouths so I could finish my shopping. My kids are always perfect angels when we are out shopping so I would NEVER have to do that.

It was NOT ME who was fine with my kids just eating breadsticks for dinner tonight. They always eat a well balanced and healthy dinner around here.

It was NOT ME who bought a ton of stuff at said Costco trip only to realize I had both strollers in the back of the car and no room for the 20-pack of paper towels, 224 pack of size 3 diapers and huge bag of Mickey Mouse chicken (which I did NOT feed to my kids for lunch...again, we eat healthy around here).

It was NOT ME who drank a big glass of wine while the kids ate those breadsticks for dinner and my daughter walked around the patio of the restaurant barefoot...

Always Smilin'

Lauren is always smiling. Seriously, that girl cracks me up. She laughs to herself in her car seat, giggles in her crib with her dolls, shakes her lil' booty when she hears music...you name it, she is happy. The other day she had a fever and was just not herself and it was so hard to see her not completely happy. I'm just not used to that! She's all better now and back to her happy self. Here she is playing in the yard at our water table.


P.S. in all honesty, of course Lauren has her cranky moments, but they are when she is tired or hungry. I don't want you all to think she never cries!

It's Beginning to Look Like Halloween

Last weekend we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday, but it was Daniel who walked away with the best presents -- his older cousin Parker's old Halloween costumes! Now the big decision is Incredible Hulk or Spiderman. We've worn both costumes everyday since last weekend, it's just such a hard decision...


Cousin Molly and Daniel (Molly is the best with the kids!)



And not to be left out, Parker with Lauren