I am finally getting a short time to blog. Let's start with a couple cute pictures of the rainbow rice project we did last week.






For instructions, check out Pink and Green Mama. For the link, scroll down a few posts. It's late and I'm being lazy. Will link up again when I get a chance.

We both loved this project. I think maybe I loved it more than he did but he did like it. :) Something about those rainbow cupcakes got me all rainbow-obsessed. Nothin' wrong with that, right? :)

7:15-kids awake. Diapers, breakfast. A upset. E gives her pats. So SWEET! Find wasp in E's room. Kill it w/wasp spray. Read the can when finished and see it says not to use indoors under any circumstance. Freak out about fumes and open the windows as much as possible.

8:15-school w/E. LOTW-Rr, color-red, shape-rectangle, song-Row Your Boat, words-rain, rainbow, rabbit and robot. He LOVES it. "Easton so 'cited!"

8:45-E and A play eggs in the LR floor. E asks sis "Do you see orange? Good!" :)

9:10-watch Curious George 2 with E while A takes a nap. Watch a little, play a little cars, play a little tickle fight, watch a little more.

10:35-diaper and daytime clothes for E, shower and clothes for me.

11:20-E asks for "more preschool". Set him up with a snack and pom pom rectangle page. He really likes it and says "Easton put it!"when he puts one on.

11:30-Sis up from nap. Change and get her dressed for the day. Play in floor w/E and A for a bit. Find ants in kitchen. Same place as last year. Spend the rest of the day feeling like I've got bugs crawling on me. UGH!

12:15-lunch for everyone. Change both kids and put A down for 2nd nap. Upload pics to computer while E plays cars. He says he's "just busy mama." A doesn't sleep. She feels hot and is probably teething. I give her Tylenol and a bottle.

1:00-get diaper bag ready and kids out the door on time. Pick up J from work so he can watch the kids during my consultation w/oral surgeon about my wisdom teeth.

2:00-appt goes well. Dr Amos says he DOES NOT recommend taking them out at this time. The pain I've been having is most likely due to a very small cavity that is not yet able to be picked up on xray or from an old filling that is failing. This great news saves J 2 or 3 vacation days, me a lot of pain and our bank account $2315. Nice! We go to Sonic for Happy Hour Cokes to celebrate.

4:00-arrive home. Unload kids and stuff from car. Change diapers and hang out in the living room for a while. A is still fussy and feverish. E asks for a "teever" and keeps putting his hand in his mouth. 2 teething, cranky kids who missed their afternoon nap due to my appt.

5:00-J is working later tonight to make up for missing time earlier in the day. I give the kids fruit and veg for dinner. Both are whiney and cry throughout dinner. Time for Motrin.

5:45-sit down on the couch to feed A her bottle. E gets into my purse and into the lotion. By the time I catch him, he's smeared lotion over his face, the cabinets and a lot of the contents of my purse. Clean him up and get both kids changed and into jammies for the night. Both are already rubbing their eyes and still fussing.

6:00-J comes home. Hooray! We read stories, brush the kid's teeth and put them to bed by 6:45. Whew! Collapse in a heap on the couch and look around at my messy house but am too tired to do anything about it.

Not included in the above list: the 20 or so songs we sang today, the 50 or so messes my kids made (only slightly exaggerated), and the 2 or 3 times I had to put E in timeout for pulling the cat's tail or smacking his sister or the approximately 239 Cheerios I have stepped on today. I vacuumed them up but they'll be back tomorrow, trust me.

7:20-heat up dinner for me and J. Thank goodness I don't have to cook or do homework tonight! Will attempt to upload some pictures and blog tomorrow.

This is gonna be a short post because it's late and I need to get to bed.

Tomorrow I'm going to start making up some "lesson plans" for home preschool with E. He's really interested and loved going to the "preschool store" today. (Teacher supply store in Winchester). I'm planning on using some of my stuff from when I taught at Braddock Street so it should be fun and fairly easy. The hard part will be the planning and getting it all ready before hand so there's no waiting around for E during the day. He's really into counting right now so I bought him some counting bears. They're little plastic colored bears and they come with cups to help with sorting and matching, etc. He really seemed interested in them at the store and they were cheap and cute. I also got him a numbers puzzle so we'll try those out and see how it goes. We're going to start out with only a few things here and there and see how it goes. He's still really young yet but I think he'll do well. He knows all his colors, most of the uppercase letters, can recognize his numbers (mostly) from 1-9 and can count from one to "firteen" (13).

This isn't part of our official "preschool"stuff...that won't come til much later. Lots of planning yet to do. Anyway, tomorrow we're making "rainbow rice" from Pink and Green Mama

photo borrowed from Pink and Green Mama. Can't wait to see how E reacts to this! I hope it dries quickly because I can tell you he is not gonna be able to wait very long to play in it!


P.S. I want to be just like Pink and Green Mama when I grow up. She has such great ideas! And she lives relatively close to me too....Northern Virginia. Pink and green are Apple Blossom colors. OK seriously I am not a stalker but don't you just wanna meet her and hang out with her while she does all these cool projects? I'm gonna stop now before I start sounding real crazy but really I'm just so in awe of some people's creativity!

We had a busy weekend. Lots of playing outside, cooking dinner on the grill and getting stuff done. It was really nice. We did lots of laundry, cleaned a TON, planted the forsythia and lavender I bought last week, played ball with Easton, ate lunch on the front porch and just had a fantastic weekend. He was so cute today! He saw two birds in the sky and said "Hi birds!" Then he looked at me and said "Mama, catch it!" He put his arms out and tried to catch the birds flying overhead. Such a sweetie! I haven't taken any pictures all weekend. I was just too busy runnin after Easton and taking care of Audrey to get out the camera!

It's supposed to rain tomorrow so Easton will be heartbroken that he can't go outside but maybe he'll live. I'm trying to think of something fun to do inside. Maybe we'll make a tent in the living room and read lots of books. That sounds pretty fun to me! Maybe we'll even have a carpet picnic in our tent. We'll see.

Oh man...I had to buy Audrey a big kid car seat this weekend. I can't believe she's outgrown her infant carrier! She weighs 20.9 lbs and is 29 1/2 inches long. She'll be 10 months old a week from today. Of course I've already started planning her birthday party. Any excuse to plan a party and I'm a happy girl! I'm thinking of doing a "Pinkalicious" themed cupcake party. If you haven't read the book called Pinkalicious, it is SO cute! It's about a girl who loves pink and eats too many pink cupcakes. Every little girl needs a copy of this sweet book! (Hint, hint! We don't own that one yet!) There's also a Purplicious and a Goldilicious. Can't wait to read those. And can't wait to have Audrey's party! Has it really been a year already (almost)?! This past year has flown by in a haze of bottles, diapers, formula and many, many pots of coffee. I'm already missing my "little baby" but am perfectly content with my family as it is. No more little ones for this tired mama! (Although someone may have to remind me of that in a few years.)

I can't believe I was wearing shorts and running around outside while all of my family in Oklahoma was dealing with SNOW! On the first day of Spring! So glad all we're getting from that is a little rain tomorrow. I am NOT a fan of the cold/snow/ice. None for me, thanks! Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

Whew! What a week! Why is it that some days are easy-peasy and others are just BRUTAL?! I know, that's just the way life is but MAN, yesterday was a doozy! Easton decided to take his diaper off first thing in the morning before I was even out of bed so my day started out with me having to clean up pee and poop from the carpet. The rest of the day just went downhill from there. I won't get into all the details here because really it was just a bunch of little, tedious, annoying stuff that added up to one exhausting day.

But on a much brighter note, Easton and I have been having lots of talks about God lately. It started out last week with me praying out loud in the car. Then it really picked up after I prayed with him one morning during a rainstorm. We thanked God for the rain, thanked Him for the fact that we are all healthy and happy and safe. Now every day since then Easton has told me "Thank You God uh rain, Mama." Yes, sweet boy, thank you God for the rain.

I'm not really one who prays easily out loud. I know this is really ridiculous of me but I always worry that I'm gonna say the wrong thing or sound silly or whatever. In fact, when my friend asks me to say the blessing before we eat together, I always blush and get real embarrassed and she says it for us. What is up with that? There's absolutely nothing to be shy about! Praying is just talking to God and thanking Him for all he has given us. Why is that embarrassing? You know what? I'm done being embarrassed about that. What a silly waste of energy to be embarrassed over something like that! Also I realized that if Jason and I don't teach our children to pray, then how are they going to learn? So have been making it a point to pray out loud with Easton a lot. It's been really good for us both. :)

And this next part has been the highlight of this crazy, crazy week:

Some of you may have seen this on Facebook already but I just had to share it again. According to Easton, "God plays cars a lot. God needs to vacuum too."
Goodness, I love that little boy!

When my friend Mandy asked about the 2nd verse to You Are My Sunshine, I Googled it (cue Isla Fisher: "Yes, I Googled.") to make sure I was getting it exactly right. Boy, did I learn a lot about a song I thought I knew!

The first verse:
The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.

The familiar part of the song (the chorus):
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

Verse 2:
I'll always love you and make you happy,
If you will only say the same.
But if you leave me to love another,
You'll regret it all some day

Repeat chorus

Verse 3:
You told me once, dear, you really loved me
and no one else could come between.
But now you've left me and love another
You have shattered all my dreams

Chorus

Lyrics found at WICN.org

Isn't that sad?! And apparently this song also carries quite a bit of controversy. Go to Rosemont Records to read an article called "The Theft of an American Classic".

Easton always asks me to sing "cried". He loves that verse for some reason. I love the sweet and happy sounding chorus but the sad part is his favorite.

I've been singing to my babies since before they were born. What? You say you've never heard me sing? Yeah. There's a good reason for that. I do alright I guess but I think I'm probably the only one who thinks so. :) But for my babies, I'll sing anytime, anywhere, any song. Lately Easton has been saying "Mama sing." Well, OK little man. So I sing. And usually he just stares at me with those gorgeous big blue eyes and his little dimpled grin. He waits patiently for me to finish and then says "Sing 'gin". And I do. Over and over and over. Over the Rainbow, You are My Sunshine, Twinkle Twinkle, Los Pollitos, Old McDonald and many more.

Yesterday we were running errands. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the sky was blindingly blue and I just felt like singin'. I sang You Are My Sunshine. First the familiar first verse and then the sad but beautiful second verse, which is Easton's favorite. And for the first time, from the back seat...quietly, beautifully, I heard my little boy singin' right along with me.



It was so wonderful and sweet and unexpected that as soon as I finished the song I started praying right out loud:
"Lord, thank You for this beautiful day! Thank You for Easton and Audrey and Daddy's good job and for Easton's beautiful singing voice. Thank You that we have plenty of food to eat and a nice house to live in. Please help us to be thankful to you even on the gloomy days, but oh, Father, thank You for this beautiful day today!"

I had a smile on my face the rest of the day.

Want to read more "Just for the JOY" posts? Head over to

Good, True and Beautiful. Yeah, I know. 2 posts in a row pointing you to Sharon's blog. You should go. Really. It's good stuff. I promise!


P.S. I know I have posted this pic of E here before but it's my sweet little boy. In the car. Lookin' cute! I just had to post it again with this story. :)

I am continuing to work on E's vehicle-themed room. I took a few pictures of signs and some cars and trucks he likes and had them printed out and framed. Today he helped me choose pictures for a book about cars and trucks. Right now we'll just print this out and make into a book but when it's time we can also use these same pictures to practice handwriting and/or spelling. Just thought I'd post here in case anyone else might be interested in this. E's vehicle book

Seriously? What is this? Like my 4th post in one day? I either have a lot to say or nothing to say. Actually that's not true. I almost always have something to say but no time to blog about it. Update on E's transition to big kid bed. Oh my. Since then he has taken ZERO naps at nap time and fallen asleep in the floor at bedtime more than once. He continues to trash his room during "rest time" and then he has to clean it up after rest time is over. I usually don't get any complaints from him but it sure does take a lot of time for me to sit there and watch him (and help some but not much) clean up all that stuff. He is staying up later now because he gets out of bed to play or cry at the gate in the doorway. He's overly tired and so am I. It has not been pretty. Add in several days of cold and WAAYY too much snow and it has not been pleasant around here. My house is a mess and we are DYING to get outside! Maybe when the roads clear up some I'll take the kiddos over to the Playnasium and let them (Easton) burn off some energy. Too bad that's 20 minutes away on a hilly, curvy road or I'd take them TOMORROW!!!

The many faces of Audrey

We had a little photo shoot one day right after Audrey finished lunch. She sure was in a good mood! What a little ham! I love the one of her loving on her baby doll. Every time you hand it to her she does this. It's almost like she's giving it a kiss. So sweet!










Plus one funny picture of Easton playing in his new big boy bed. In this cardboard bus he's got 19 lovies, 1 telephone, 1 bucket of plastic food, 2 blankets and 2 sippy cups. I think he's ready for anything.

I have HAD IT with winter! Enough! 28 inches is a ridiculous amount of snow. And we're supposed to get another 5 inches or more (MORE!) on Tuesday. Come on! I am about to go insane here from being cooped up in the house. I haven't left the house in 5 days and am not planning on going anywhere tomorrow and probably not Tuesday either because it will most likely be snowing. The kids are crazy too. I am so ready for Spring! Give me clear roads, sunny days and warmer weather! I want to take the kids outside for a ride in the wagon or stroller. We need to get out and get some exercise! There's only so many times we can build a fort inside before it starts to lose its appeal. (Both to me AND to Easton.)

Blogger updated my photos in a weird order this time so it's just a jumble of pictures in no real order. Some inside looking out and some from outside at the end of the driveway. Our neighbors were nice enough to help Jason unbury our mailbox and Easton was helping too. He really had a fun time until his hands started hurting because he refused to wear his mittens!











It's official. I know what we should do with our tax refund. Hawaii trip!

I am 99.9% sure this boy will never take a nap again. Ever. Oh somebody bring me an ibuprofen STAT because I can pretty much guarantee this is not gonna go well.










***Updated***After repeatedly putting E back in his bed and telling him "This is rest time not play time. When the music is on, we stay IN BED." I gave up and put the baby gate up in his doorway. His rest time is usually 2 hours and he stays in there no matter whether he sleeps or not. He has played with his toys for two hours. Dumped out every single one of his blocks, put all of his nearly 10 loveys in a big pile in the floor with the blocks, stripped his bed of all blankets and pillows, rode his bouncy zebra for a while, threw his loveys one by one over the gate, shut and opened his bedroom door about a bazillion times and cried the entire time. Good thing Jason's going to the store and bringing home groceries. And wine. If there was ever a time he deserved a kiss, this would definitely be it.

Throughout the entire 2 hour time, other than a few reminders and two times going in to put him back in bed, I have ignored him. Is this the right thing to do? He has trashed his room and now I have to clean it up. I don't know what to do but I don't think this is it. Oh man. This is not gonna be fun.

***Upadated again***A pic of E's room. And where he finally fell asleep after crying for over two hours.





What you can't see in this picture is the baby gate right at his feet. I'm such a mean ol' mama!

Potty training this weekend was SO much work! Five accidents before lunch time today tells me our boy is not quite ready to quit wearing diapers. He's not even really that interested. Sometimes he thinks he is but I think for the most part he is not quite there. And we chickened out on making his bed into a big boy bed. We thought we were going to have a babysitter last night and didn't want her to have to deal with that so we left the crib. Maybe next weekend. In the meantime though we are going to put him in onesies under his clothes so he can't take off his diaper and potty in the floor. I do not want anymore repeats of the time he came running in here with a bare little bottom saying "Poop EVERYWHERE!" Oh man. That was not fun! We'll wait a couple weeks and try again. Or maybe not. Maybe we'll just let him tell us when he's ready. To be continued...

I think we are officially going to turn E's bed from a crib into a big boy bed this week. He's been taking off his diaper and peeing in his bed so I'm thinking he doesn't like the feel of his wet diper. And really, can you blame him?! We bought 2 big packs of "big boy underwear" yesterday and as soon as they get out of the laundry we'll put them on him and see how that goes. He doesn't seem too concerned about the potty right now though. Whenever he has to go he just strips down and lets it rip. Nice. We've tried bribing rewarding with m&ms or stickers, making a big deal out of it when he goes on the potty, NOT making a big deal out of it when he goes on the potty. We've even tried letting him run around with no pants on. He LOVED that but it sure didn't help him want to use the potty. Now he just wants to be naked all the time. Whew! I am SO not ready for him to grow up but I am VERY ready for him to be potty trained. Man, just think...only one in diapers?! That's gonna be so cheap! lol
Will try changing his bed to a toddler bed and see if he will get up and go potty instead of peeing in bed. Man, I dread this. I knew it was coming but I am anticipating struggles getting him to stay in bed instead of getting up to play. Any suggestions? Let's hope it goes as well as our Christmas tree situation did.
I just knew he'd terrorize the Christmas tree. I imagined broken ornaments, a toppled tree and much headache. I almost didn't do one this year. It just didn't feel like Christmas without one so we put one up and he barely even touched it. I should have given my sweetie more credit. He did great! Pray that's how it goes with his "big boy bed". Fingers crossed!

P.S Still trying to get that stinkin' video to cooperate. Grr! Maybe by this weekend????

Trying to upload video...not working right just yet. Check back soon.

Whew! I am worn out! Oh and by the way...Merry Christmas! It's been a busy 2 weeks since my last post. Audrey is sleeping better now, thank goodness! Easton is doing ok too. The past couple of weeks have been filled with writing several short papers and one 15 pager, finishing up a class (Child Development - I got an A!), shopping for Christmas, working on some craft projects, cleaning and getting ready for our Christmas company.

I wasn't sure if they'd be able to come or not due to the snow we had (TWO FEET!!!) but Jason's sister, Leslie, her husband Terry, their three kids and Jason's cousin came to visit on Monday. We had a really fun time. It was good to see the kids playing together and good visiting with everyone. We did some shopping to help Santa out with a few Christmas presents, went to D.C. to see the sights, played, cleaned, cooked, ate, played, cooked, cleaned some more. I decided that although I LOVE having people come visit us, our house is WAAYY too small for ten people! That and my kids have entirely too many toys. I think in the next month or so we'll be going through all of the toys and getting rid of some of the ones that don't get played with so much. We just simply do not have room for all of this stuff!

Christmas today was really fun. The kids woke up early and we opened presents and had our Christmas breakfast casserole. Then we cleaned up the kitchen just so we could start cooking Christmas dinner. We had apple butter ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls and pumpkin pie. Whew! I'm so tired! Glad that Miss Audrey will be sleeping back in her own bed tonight and not in our room so I can finally get some sleep.

Some pictures of the big snow we got here last weekend:

Easton and Yellow Bear in the snow

Audrey all smiles and bundled up in her warm snow suit.

My hard working hubby taking a break from shoveling snow



I think we used to have a car under there

Is it a table or is it a big snow cone?

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas Eve trip to D.C.:

Riding the Metro

We're seasoned Metro riders by now. Well, OK. Not really. But we should be.

One of the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

The Washington Monument

The White House

I can't take credit for this one. J's sweet cousin McKayla took this one. Great job!

Christmas pictures:

This is a lap full of cute right here. Easton and Alexa waiting for Santa.

Easton reads his new Thomas the Train ABC book.

Audrey loves her doll

Alexa, Mason, Addy, Audrey and Easton.

Audrey and Easton Christmas 2009