A Valentines Package

My Mom was so kind to get several things for the kids and mail them a very nice package. They were so excited to open it and loved everything! Brianna is really excited to make the valentines candy, maybe for her preschool class next week. She loves the foam hearts, she's played with them almost non-stop since getting them. Tyler likes his little car now, it just took him a little while to get used to it, he wants us to shake it for him all the time so that he can watch it go across the floor! Thanks so much, Grampy and Grammy for the great package!

And the winner is . . . .

My Dad! I think his photo title of "Open wide and say Ahhh!" was great. It did look like Sophie was trying to see what was going on in there! Thanks to everyone who left a comment! :)

Photo contest - Do you have a great caption for this photo?

I snapped this picture the other day while Tyler was playing and Sophie decided to inch her way into the house. Tyler has recently been very intrigued with Sophie and loves to pet her, she does seem to get on his nerves a little bit with the constant squirming and moving. Ahhh, the joys of owning a hyper cocker spaniel! :) Ok, a little background on the picture, they never actually made contact, it does certainly look like Tyler intended to kiss her but couldn't quite get up the nerve to follow through!

So, anyone that has a great caption, feel free to leave it in the comment section! I'll pick my favorite and the prize is, . . are you ready?! Recognition on my blog! See, I knew you'd be thrilled!

Looking forward to hearing what everyone comes up with!

A great idea . . . .

Two things about me. I love to read and I love to cook. This book combines both hobbies quite nicely. I found it on sale one day at Walden Books and couldn't pass it up. Everything I had heard about it piqued my curiosity. Jessica Seinfield, a SAHM, wrote this book/cookbook in order to get healthier food into her kids without them realizing that they were actually eating more healthy. She suggests steaming vegetables and then pureeing them to use in the recipes that she wrote. Although not all of the recipes look like something my family would eat, a lot of them do. So far Brianna hasn't been able to tell that carrots were in her quesodillas,(I know thats not spelled right but for the life of me I can't remember how to spell it and blogger spellcheck is being of NO help at all!), cauliflower in her scrambled eggs or spinach in the brownies! It's an interesting concept that we'll be using from time to time to bump up that fruit and vegetable intake!

A minor mishap,

that could have been a lot worse. Thank God that it wasn't. I knew that this day would come, when you live in a 2-story house with small children it seems like they are bound to fall down the stairs one time or another! Up until today Tyler has NEVER attempted to go down the stairs, we don't even have a gate at the bottom to keep him from climbing UP the stairs, he just doesn't ever attempt them. Until today . . . the kids and I were upstairs and Brianna went downstairs and Tyler must have decided that today was the day that he was going to conquer those stairs! Needless to say, I heard this slow thumping sound ALL the way down, thank goodness for carpeted stairs. He doesn't seem any worse for the wear other than the 2 carpet burns on his forehead, he even tried to maneuver the stairs again but I got him before he stepped off the second step. That must have been where it all went south the first time, little stinker! :) I think I have a more adventurous child on my hands this time, definitely all boy!

My little man, a little banged up!

Still happy!

(Please excuse the pretzel stains on the shirt, this was toward the end of the day and he had already had a couple outfit changes today! Who knew that pretzels could produce 'juice' ? :)

The new ride

A new four wheeler, a Yamaha 700 Grizzly! I'm not sure who was more anxious to go pick it up, Tim or Brianna. Every day last week she would ask me what day it was and when I could finally say it was Saturday, she was thrilled! She was so excited to go with Tim to pick it up that I let her stay with him and Tyler and I went shopping on our own. Tim grabbed the first couple of photos when they got home, before he took it off the trailer, she looks like she's on top of the world! And oh yeah, Tim is really having fun with it too! :)

Little Bookworm

I find it so interesting how different and sometimes how alike my children can be. Up until just a month or so ago, Tyler really was very much like his sister, not so much anymore! He has started 'hollering' at you, not really yelling, but definitely trying to talk and get his point across! He has completely stopped saying all the words that he picked up several months ago and is now jabbering in his own language, it's so cute! He is very persistent, very much unlike his sister. Last night he was trying to sit in his chair, it tipped and he fell out and hit his head. After some cuddling from Mommy he went right back over to his chair and tried again, this time successfully! One thing that I love about both of the kids is their love of reading and books. Tyler has recently started picking up books and pulling them off of the bookshelf to look at. Below are some photos I snapped of him the other day during a deep study session! :-)

And the remodeling begins!

We have been renting a large, old, (very old) farmhouse out in the country for the past 14 months, it's just getting to be too much for us, the heating bills are sky high, and well, there's just too many things wrong to list, I'd be here all day! So for the past several months we have been looking for a house in town and last month we finally found one. We were able to get a really good deal on it as it was a fore closer and the bank really wanted to get rid of it. The lady that owns the bank is a friend and gave us a great deal, we are thankful to have it. It comes with 5 acres, plenty of room for everybody to roam, although we plan to put up a fence for Sophie(and the kids) as it is still in city limits and dogs can't just run loose. We've been having central air and heat put in for the last 2 weeks, hopefully that can be finished this week so that we can get inside and start tearing wall-paper off walls (ugh, is there anything worse?) and start the painting. I've been meaning to take some pictures of the inside but every time we go over there I forget my camera. I always love to see before and after pictures, it makes it all seem worthwhile! The garage that you see in the 2nd picture is going to torn down this spring and we'll be building a new one.

The side view

In other news, Brianna started preschool again today. I though that was an extremely long break, but in a way kinda nice. She seemed to have fun and especially since they FINALLY got to have their Christmas party, it had been canceled several times due to bad weather in December so the teacher just decided to have it the first day back in January. There was a gift exchange and she came home with a Bratz Baby, those things are so weird looking. Needless to say, it might not be sticking around here for that long! :)

I would love to have some input from some home-schooling mothers out there. I've been thinking about what to do for Kindergarten this coming year and still haven't made up my mind. There is not a Christian school (of any kind) here so I've thought about home-schooling, but don't really know that much about it. I would love to hear what curriculum's are used and what works well, and is somewhat easy for the teacher also! Any comments would be appreciated! :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

We want to wish a very Happy Birthday to the world's greatest Mom, Mother-in-law, and Grammy! We hope you have a great day, (even though it includes a lot of caulking! :)

Brianna and Tyler wanted to wish you a happy birthday too!


Love,
Tim, Lori, Brianna and Tyler

P.S. Is it 39 yrs. old again this year? :-)

A visit to Sesame Street

Well, Tim and I survived a show from Sesame Street Live, this was the first show like this that we have gone to and probably the last for a little while at least! After a while, all the shrill singing and talking can really start to bother the eardrums! As we were leaving the parking lot I made the comment to Tim that after a while all the songs start sounding the same and he defiantly agreed with me! The important thing to remember is that we were doing it for the kids and they had a lot of fun, which is all that really matters! Brianna of course really enjoyed seeing all the characters but I was really surprised how much Tyler liked it too, he really seemed to get into all the singing and clapping, when everyone else clapped, so did he! It was so cute!
We've been thinking about where to go on vacation this year and I think we're heading back to Disneyland again, we had so much fun last year and the kids will enjoy it even more this year. Tyler, definitely, he was only 6 mo. old last time and spent the majority of Disney sleeping in the stroller! :)

A new game of " Toss the Potatoes"

Tyler has recently discovered the bin of potatoes, ugghhh. Actually, I'm surprised that they haven't been the source of entertainment until now, but I guess my children's OVERFLOWING playroom has been doing it's job! :-)

This is how the game goes: Tyler empties all the potatoes onto the floor, mostly by tossing them to his sister

Brianna then lines them up and organizes them

Gathers them into a pile
Returns them to the bin
And the fun starts all over again!

Disclaimer: Just in case there are any Mothers out there gasping right now at the thought of potatoes being played with in the kitchen, I have to say that this isn't an everyday occurence but when it does happen, it does keep everybody occupied while I prepare dinner!
My motto for the new year: "Don't sweat the small stuff" :)

" Patiently waiting for 'Sissy's' time out to end"

A wonderful Christmas present, and a wonderful little girl!

The dustbuster above had been on my Christmas list for several months, I've never had one and thought they would be so great for cleaning up those little messes that kids continually make throughout the day. Well, sure enough, Santa was kind enough to bring me one on on Christmas morning and it has certainly been well used since then. The other day I was cooking in the kitchen and gave the kids a snack and pretty soon the floor had lots of crumbs on it, as usual. I handed the dustbuster to Brianna and showed her how to use it, hoping that she would think it was 'fun' to clean up the mess! :) My wish was granted and she ended up vacuuming the WHOLE floor on her little hands and knees, she really liked it! That was just yesterday so this morning the floor still looked pretty good, just a few spots here and there. We were eating breakfast this morning and she starts checking out the floor and then asked me, "Mom, can I mow the floor again, please?" What kind of a mother would I be if I didn't let my daughter do what she really wanted to do? :) Needless to say, my kitchen floor is very clean at the moment and I'm hoping the novelty of the dustbuster doesn't wear off too soon!