So official, I am posting a badge!

While I am waiting for the rest of my pictures to upload, I thought I would post this "badge". I don't know if I will add it to my sidebar, but I am going to make it a real live post, so I can always remember! Go me!

November 30th!

It has been a rather challenging day for me. It seemed to have started off not on the right foot; not on the wrong foot either, but maybe just the left foot. (hehe) I spent a good portion of my quiet time, actually all of my quiet time on the phone trying to figure out dental insurance, and Why NC is such a pain in the butt! Seriously, the entire state of ped dentists have decided not to file insurance. But my insurance won't tell me how much they'll pay, and since we have all dealt with insurance companies before we all know, they don't pay 100%, even though they say they do. I mean it is really clever of the ped dentists not to file and to decide as a group not to file, but is screws people like us, people who have insurance and paid the insurance and don't want to pay and then be reimbursed. Fortunately I was reminded that Gwen is of the age that regular dentists will take and our dentist is a "family" practice. So YAY! She's going on Wed. Now I guess we just won't take Nate to the dentist. I was told by the insurance company that if I could get the ped dentist to send a pretreatment estimate they would let me know how much I would have to pay. Then I called the ped dentist and they told me they don't do that, so I got the codes and then called back the insurance company to find out the info and the claims people don't have access to that information and the lady couldn't really help me, SERIOUSLY? I mean they can't just tell me what the average costs are if I have the codes, I should think someone could help me. Anyhoo, maybe I will just call again tomorrow. Apparently if I could get the pretreatment estimate I could find out what the average cost is for ped dentists around here. Although, I guess I could just do that myself! I am half debating just taking Nate to a ped dentist 1 a year and then when he turns 3 taking him to the regular dentist, I mean we pay for his insurance anyway and since he is only 1 it is not like they do much and sometimes don't even get through a whole appointment. But, we'll see, one of the ped dentist offices are going to call me back after the office manager is back to let me know if they can help me in any way. If they can, then I will likely take Nate there at least once.
When speaking to the hubby the other night, or maybe even listening while he was talking to his Momma, I found out more about Gwen's Santa letter. I had noticed that he had drawn pictures of what she wanted and at the time I didn't think anything about it, until he mentioned it, apparently she asked him to draw the pictures. Pretty smart girl, I think, I mean it is a good way to make sure Daddy is writing down exactly what you say, if you can't read!
I don't have anything else to say, I have got to get back to "work". With my Christmas cards that I ordered, for signing up with a new account I get 100 free prints. It doesn't say how long the prints are free for, but I don't want to pass up this opportunity, so I have been going through the pictures I have already ordered for Nate's scrapbook and trying to get everything together. It is hard to do when you haven't started, I only have 20 or so pictures left on my order, so I hope to finish that up tonight! I foresee a lot of scrapbooking in my future! That is good though, I have time most evenings to get stuff done!
I hope you have enjoyed this month of blogging. I can already tell you tomorrow I won't likely be blogging tomorrow, i have a sorely needed hair appointment in the evening and I might sneak in some Christmas shopping after that, you never know how I might feel with a new haircut and out of the house on my own!

November 29th!

Is anyone else happy that this month only has 30 days? No, huh...I guess that means that we are that much closer to Christmas. I guess I should pay more attention to that. Christmas is coming! Today we had another pretty good day. There were 5 Baptisms this morning at Church. I seem to have gotten used to "facing the East and facing the West" thing. The nice thing is that they allow all the little kids go up to the Baptismal font and watch up close, Gwen LOVES to do that, she lives for that. Today they had the older brother of one of the kids hold the baby in the font, so sweet. In this Church they don't have ushers, at the offertory every other row gets a basket and the person at end of the second row brings up the basket. This morning Gwen brought up the basket. She brought it right up knew exactly what to do. I guess they do learn things and understand things. I think the thing I am concerned most about is that she is going to forget where we are sitting and freak out. But, she is totally cool, always remembers where we are sitting and doesn't appear to be concerned.
Since it was a warm day today, we decided to go for a bike ride on the ATT. We live about a mile from the trail, Eric uses it for his commute. We decided to go the opposite way of his commute, towards Durham. It was late in the afternoon (after Nate's nap) and we decided to turn around when we seemed to hit the projects, or really an area that I wouldn't want to be in by myself after dark. Gwen napped during our bike ride. I had packed some snacks for the kids, just 1 snack cup per kid and since Gwen fell asleep, Nate decided to eat all of her snacks. He just leaned over and took them. Then he tried to return the snack cup to her, he is so mischievous. I don't know that Gwen will know what hit her as he gets older. It was a nice afternoon. The Gwen that we dealt with after her cat nap is the Gwen I wish we had every afternoon. The nap took the edge off, that was awesome!

November 28th!

I can't believe November is almost over, 2 days left of NaBloPoMo, I might just make it. I have to say this year it has been more difficult to keep up with this posting thing! I don't know if it is the 2 kids 1 of whom is not napping anymore, or if it is my move and not having any friends so I have nothing to write about. Well, nothing interesting to write about.
Today, for instance we went for a run, the whole family. We ended up doing 4.5+ miles, I know I ran 2 of those miles without stopping, the rest, well I did some running back, but Nate started to throw a fit so for the last 1.5 mi we let the kids out to walk/run with us. I really enjoyed not having to push the jogger. I know that is the only reason I got so far, I just kept plugging away while the hubby dealt with the kids! Nate was pretty cute after the run, he kept yelling "run, run" or "go, go" and would start running with all his might, he also had several sword fights with his sister using sticks. Lots more injuries in my future with those 2! When we were on the trail we saw people riding these, the human powered kind. It was very interesting to see. I should think after a while you would get pretty tired. But, what do I know, really, I didn't try the thing.
That pretty much took up our morning. This afternoon we wanted to leave but couldn't figure out where to go. I am sure there were places we could go to, we just couldn't think of anything. I guess we will have to put our thinking caps on for tomorrow afternoon. I guess we are pretty boring kind of people and well we just don't know of the fun things to do yet.
The hubby is still working on projects and we are gearing up for the "winter break" aka the break he will never, ever have again. It seems that his rotation is done officially next week (I think) then he has 2 finals and then he is off until sometime in Jan. He has been told that he can still come into work. And, I think he will a little bit, to keep up appearances and such. But I think (although I don't know) most of the time he is planning on being around. I think we will continue with projects and maybe paint a room or 2 so we can start hanging up some pictures that are still in boxes. We are definitely looking forward to making this place more home-y.
Gwen and Eric worked on her Santa letter. I am still undecided on this Santa thing. Don't know how much I want to encourage it. But Gwen dictated the letter and Eric wrote it. Too bad some of the people that are shopping for Gwen have already finished shopping. I am not sure how much Santa is going to bring her though, because she thinks the only thing Nate wants is a stocking and that is not very nice to not suggest things for your brother who can't really express what he wants.
We have noticed that we are cleaning much more, mostly because before we could ignore everything and go downstairs to our kid-free zone until we felt like dealing with it. Now we don't have that luxury, we must deal or step over.
I think that is all for now. I feel pretty tired, even though it is only 8p. I might try to go to bed early...I know it will never happen, but a girl can dream!

Friday that feels like Saturday

We had a great day yesterday. Yes, it was more crowded on the road yesterday than we expected, but we made it there and back and had a lovely dinner with Jess and extended family. Although there was a lot of this going on... we had to monitor Nate every second!!! Gwen on the other hand, we didn't see at all, I snuck upstairs and took this picture. Angela and Gwen spent the whole day together, minus the strange incident where Gwen ran inside saying she didn't want to play anymore and wanted to go home. I don't know what happened, likely she didn't get to do what she wanted so she decided to go home!

We tried to take pictures of the kids today for the Christmas cards, but we ended up with mostly pictures like these...

And I thought, well since we didn't get much maybe we can go back after naps or tomorrow for some pictures and then this happened:

So, then I figured what the heck, I'll be able to find something of use and make do, because Nate's outfit is too dirty for tomorrow. I did get the Christmas card done, to our satisfaction, well I guess to my satisfaction, I just wonder what our critic will think! It is done now, though, so there is nothing I can do about it now.

We also watched the Iron Bowl today. I had some confusion about the time of the game, I totally thought it was at 3:30, so I missed the 1st quarter, and then since when I started to watch the game bama started scoring, I decided to go to the grocery store. The game ended up being more of a nail biter than I think anyone was expecting, and I am sorry we lost, but it was a good game. Now onto the bowl game.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, long about Sunday I had a grand idea, why not do homemade Thanksgiving cards, everyone loves homemade cards, don't they? Well tough, that's what you are getting this year, if your lucky. So, while Eric was beautifying the house, I tried to get the kids to make these "cards". I had the kids put their hands out neither really wanted to co-operate, but finally Gwen let me do it and Eric came in to see what was going on and put down Nate's hand & I traced quickly.

I then ran to the copy machine made copies and I had both kids color on the them. On a side note, every time you say color, Nate runs to the guest bedroom and sits at the table all while yelling "color, color". So cute, he gets the hang of it now, kind of, I mean he still eats it all, but whatever. The only thing I didn't consider is that they wouldn't want to do like 7 of these things at a time...oops, so we did like 3 and sent those out on Monday. I left the unfinished copies in the bedroom for Gwen to work on "when she felt like it" and she did color on them over the next day or so. Now, Nate I had to bring him back in later and direct him to color, which he obliged. I did find this in the bedroom when I went in to check on Gwen's progress:

look, she made her own. And, I think you can tell looking at that picture, Gwen is definitely a lefty, she traced her right hand instead of her left.

We are on our way to Jess and fam for Thanksgiving. Sadly I am taking my terrible looking pie (I hope it tastes good!) and cranbake. I know the cranbake will be good. I hope the kids make it threw the day, I am rather nervous about having them at some one's house that hasn't been baby proofed in like 4 years (have I mentioned the stairs)! Plus the kids won't be on schedule, let's hope they aren't too crazy tomorrow. We hope that you all have a very happy and fun-filled turkey day. Eat lots of turkey and fixin', if you enjoy that kind of thing!

Lighting the house...

Today, since Eric didn't really have to work. He had some helpers.
Here are the finished lights, so far.

Eric apparently took these pictures so he can plan the rest of his lighting scheme...we have way more lights to go up. We have tons of lights, and more coming from Dad's stash. But as we have in years past we will be likely be still adding to our decorations up until Christmas, especially if the weather is still this warm!

Problems

Have I mentioned that having kids can really cramp my style? I mean they can really extend the simple tasks and make them into marathon tasks. This place just doesn't seem to stay clean. I have decided it is no longer worth putting the vacuum away; I vacuum everyday, everyday I tell you. Nate has decided that he wants to take over the vacuuming responsibilities... on the surface, this is a great thing, but in reality it is pretty terrible. He comes running whenever the vacuum starts and then he wants to "help, help, help". But, he vacuums so slow and then gets frustrated whenever he gets stuck on something. A real pain.

This day I distracted him with the popper, much easier for him.

I forgot to post this picture with parade pictures, Gwen was going to carry this backpack for us, but quickly changed her mind, when she realized her backpack was smaller and less cumbersome.

Here is Nate "sit"(-ting) on the "table". His vocab is really improving, and occasionally I can get him to get down by himself. I try to make a big production of the getting down by himself, so he will continue to try.

Now if I could get him to realize that he should sit in chairs and dinner will be ready when it's ready, and it will happen sooner if he stops climbing on the table!

Parade slideshow

Because we took way too many pictures, I am going the slide route yet again! I hope you enjoy all our pictures.

In other news, this morning I was awoken by some strange flashing lights. I looked out the window and there were 3 cop cars at one of the neighbors house. I don't know why and I have heard that is not the first time cops were at their house. But really at 6 in the morning for like 30-45 min! Makes me wonder.
I also forgot to mention, the other night we put Gwen to bed Eric dressed her in her sleep clothes, she got up and she was in pink tights, a shirt, and Nate's sweatshirt! She is a rather crazy kid.
We are gearing up to take the pictures of the kids for Christmas, but as you've noticed Nate has that scratch on his nose, that was starting to heal and now he keeps scratching it, I guess it itches but I don't know what to do to keep him from scratching it. And say if he was my first child (and a girl) I would likely cancel pictures or buy make-up, but he's a boy and he you know he's always going to have scrapes, should I just get used to it. Because it is likely I could have a senior picture that was redone in a way that I am still not happy with...that is a post about my Dad for another day.

oops!

I almost forgot to post today! We have been busy, I guess. Church, working on the house. Big things. Ok, not so big things, just things. I have finally found a Church, have I mentioned that? Well, I joined one. Yay me! On the house, we finally hid the cords that were in the living. Not all of them, but the ones we can see when we are watching TV. I bought the cord hider thingy soon after we moved here and we just got all the necessary things to complete the task YAY! It looks so nice, the hubby did a nice job. So, now when we decide on a color for the inside (instead of flat white, so dirty with kids with grubby hands!) we will be able to slap it right onto the walls. Won't that be exciting, we would probably even be able to get pictures out of the boxes and hang stuff up on the walls!!! Then, it will feel more like a home.
Not much else has gone on around here. I guess this writing everyday thing really shows just how boring our life is around here. I guess I need to get out more!

Parade

Today we went to the Christmas parade in Raleigh, despite any issues of the morning. The hubby thought that whenever we got up we could go, I thought we should pack and leave before the parade started since we had to 30 minutes to get there. The hubby's opinion is that since the kids are young they won't know the difference (but I DID!) He still maintains that we saw the whole parade, I maintain that we didn't. We took some pictures, the kids saw Santa, I guess all went well. The kids enjoyed it, well if you ask Gwen, she didn't "enjoy" it, she "liked" it. Apparently we need to review the definitions of "enjoy" and "like". Pictures will follow later, I don't feel getting the camera and the cord.

Today is ?

I am realizing that I no longer know what the date is. This can really be a problem, one because well, I might miss birthdays, things I plan on doing, etc because I have no idea. I do know what day of the week it is, but the day of the month, no clue! Fortunately the holiday this month is on a Thursday, so it isn't like I am going to miss that! Since we have a house this year, more importantly a 1 story house, it is likely we will be doing a lot of decorating for Christmas, well that and Mom keeps sending us lights from Dad's "collection". Not that we are complaining, don't think that. With the weather being so temperate here, I think it is likely we will do a lot of decorating, with all of us outside "helping". But, I don't really know when to start decorating the outside of the house. We tend to decorate mid-Dec, we leave our decorations up until the first week or so of Jan, so I don't like to put them up too early. Maybe we will start the outside of the house decorating earlier and wait until closer to the end of the month for the tree. We don't actually have space for a tree, but we will have to figure out something, I suspect Nate is going to spend a lot of time trying to climb the tree so we are going to have to figure out some kind of arrangement that discourages taking off the decorations/climbing the tree!
We are debating about going to a parade tomorrow. Eric and I went to the Rose bowl parade when we lived in SoCal and haven't been to one since, we haven't even been able to watch the Macy's day parade since. But, I guess it would be fun for the kids, although Gwen has informed us that she does not want to attend the parade, even though she doesn't know what one is and doesn't care to know. But, maybe we will try anyways! Alright, guess I don't have anything else for now. Ciao!

Choices

We are having a relatively good day around here, despite the congestion that has appeared. We don't have any other symptoms but congestion, I got mine first, I think and then Nate and lastly Gwen. I have to say Nate is super cute, every time I blow my nose or Gwen's he also has to "blow" (his nose). I am sure that is not very hygienic, but whatever, we all have the same thing anyways. Nate's vocabulary is really improving. Some words can confuse, but he probably has close to 50 words now, and he'll try to say anything, I have been working on different fruit with him because he likes to call everything in the fruit bowl "apple" which is really annoying to me, because pears are not apples, but I guess he gets confused because we have green and red apples in our bowl. We also have a new fruit addition to our family, the pomegranate. Approved by 3 of the 4 members of our family (only disliked by Gwen). So if you are keeping track at home, Nate eats-salmon, pomegranate, CHEESE, bread, cereal, grapes, rice. He will occasionally eat corn, apples, pear, and banana-he is rather picky about bananas, the ripeness affects his decision there! I have faith that this is a phase and he will eventually eat more food, Gwen is slowly starting to eat dinner with us-I am hoping by the time they are 20 I won't be having these problems, of course by then I hopefully won't be making them dinner because they've gone away to college!
I think we are finally settling into the lifestyle of our choosing. We knew going into this there were going to be cutbacks and I think we are doing well. We are sticking to our budget and despite some random things we didn't account for we are not at a high level of stress about money (or lack thereof); if we were, I would be looking for a job. We have found we don't really miss the things we cut out and we are wondering where our money went to before.
Gwen is, well getting to be a big girl. She completely dresses herself in the morning. I think she would also like to brush her teeth, but I still brush after her, she is cute trying to brush. She can talk your ear off and she has started talking to random people, strangers really. She'll tell them anything. We were at the play area in the mall and this guy walks up to his wife (who was a friend of the person I was with) and said this little girl (Gwen) just told him "Nate is my brother, he's a boy, he doesn't wear dresses, only shirts, I wear dresses." He didn't know I was her mother! I don't know where she gets this stuff! We have good days and bad days with her; days she can listen and days she can't. I would like her to understand that I am not kidding, when I tell her to help me clean her room, it is not up for debate. But, she gets to the super tired point and starts to cling and hang on me and WHINES instantly! And, she can be bossy, telling us what to do. I think she is going to start to become more helpful and sweet, as her brother becomes more challenging and sweet.

Park

Today I went with my exercise buddy to a woman's only event at a running store. Had some yummy wine and apps and learned what shoes I should be wearing, and why my knees hurt. Informative! Too bad I just bought the wrong shoes. But, I guess this isn't why you come to this website (hi "Ant"!)
Like I said yesterday we went to the park after the run, we had fun. The kids didn't want to leave, so I guess that is a good sign. Here are the pictures I took.

It is not the best park in the world, but since it is not the best park in the world not many people go there, which makes it fun for the kids, not super busy. That day we were the only ones there. The kids love to run around, with 2 that can be a challenge, I tend to let Gwen do whatever and check on her, but follow Nate around like a hawk. (If you notice his face, you will see where he decided to try out a skateboard and landed on his nose, I was standing right there and it looked rather innocuous, he was just sitting on it, how did I know he was going to face plant off it? Will he ever learn?) Nate is learning to climb up and down and "sit, sit, sit" when you go down the slide. We had to go through the same process with Gwen, so at least for this "developmental step" I am prepared, now if he would follow any of her other tendencies I would be prepared. It is funny how different children of the same parentage can be completely different from the getgo. I keep praying that Nate is going through a phase that will one day allow for him to be curious which includes climbing without peril. I mean, if he could just learn that some things are dangerous and wouldn't be so pigheaded I could have less stress.

Deadlines

Don't have much time for a post today. I've been busy. I am trying to get some stuff done for Christmas and I have a 24 hour deadline, which means I have 2 more hours to get the stuff done or I don't get my special deals. The weather is colder here today than yesterday, which made my run today not so great. We had a nice time at the park today, I took some pictures, but haven't had a chance to upload them. Sorry. Since I won't be under a deadline tomorrow, I think, I should be able to do a real post!

Helping

Over the last couple years I have met quite a few mothers, each with their own different style of mothering. I don't really know what my style of Mothering is, but I fully believe that the kids need to know how to fend for themselves...

Gwen now knows how to make her own jelly sandwiches.

She likes to help around the kitchen.

Of course, she still requires some help, but it is nice to have her "help".

Last Sunday

Last weekend Jess and I were FINALLY able to get our families together and hang out. Jess drove here, dropped some stuff of for the kids (THANKS!) and then we headed to Raleigh for the rest of the day. We drove through NC State, and then headed to our favorite museum...we took lots of pictures so I made a slideshow...

The kids had fun, I think, Nate was super exhausted and so was Gwen, but they made it through and that is all we can hope for, Jess says they were well behaved! I am not so sure, but that could be because I was also exhausted! But we had a good time and some good company, glad to be so near friends.

70 degrees?

The hubby and I are beginning to wonder about this fall thing...moving farther south, we are not quite sure that we are going to have winter at all. Seriously, 70 today, mid November! We are finally done with the Ida "remnants", no rain today and I got the rake up all the leaves. I am a bit obsessive about the leaves, I guess since didn't have any in Florida, I don't have any experience with the leaves and the raking! Despite my obsessive problem with the leaves; we had a good day today, the kids spent a lot of time outside. We cleaned up the garage, put more stuff in the attic, so yay, we can walk through the garage again! The hubby did a few odds and ends. We of course have more to do, but I suspect we will always have more to do! :(

Yesterday we received news that my great Uncle died. We are sad to hear it and send our love, thought and prayers to my great Aunt and family.

We don't have much else going on today. So, I'll leave you with some pictures of Gwen and Nate coloring, oh from September, you can tell, Nate must have just gotten a hair cut, he looks scruffy now! (that does not mean I am looking for him to get a haircut!)

Can you see the marker on his face?

Here you can see it better...

Friday, again!

I think yesterday was a Happy day for the hubby. We were able to keep some secrets from him. I made these, they weren't near as pretty, (I had a 3 yr old helper), and I didn't use red velvet cake, but I think they are good. We also had his favorite meal (I called his Mom and got the recipe), made his favorite appetizer, AND we went shopping without the kids. Our very sweet neighbor came over and watched the kids (she called it a vacation, because she has 6 kids!).
The kids and I are spending the day at home today. We had a morning filled with random accidents, all involving Nate, come to think of it. He was "playing" the piano, and fell off the piano bench. Nothing major was hurt, just his pride! I was watching him from the kitchen and it all happened in slow motion, so crazy, but he just landed on his butt! Then, to make matters worse, he climbed up on the hubby's chair and took a big sip of Daddy's coffee. Then he started screaming! Fortunately it had cooled off and wasn't straight out of the pot, and I hope Nate has learned his lesson. His skin turned bright red, but no blisters, YAY! I am going to go ahead and predict he is going to have us in the ER by the time he is 2!
Gwen appears to be having a pretty good day today, I had to give her some special attention because she was stealing toys from her brother, she has claimed everything as hers and I have to "gently" remind her that not everything is HERS!
A week or 2 ago I took out all the kids "big" toys that they never play with, and they haven't noticed. I took out the little people stuff, weeble wobbles and I think next to go is the pop onz. The kids just don't have any interest in that big kind of stuff. Nate was making me chuckle this morning because he was taking his bus and running it over my arm going "vroom" then he was running it over one of the stuffed animals. We need to start cleaning this stuff out before Christmas, plus the kids don't play with it so it is just clutter. And Lord knows this house can't handle clutter! Now that I am done with Eric's secret projects I can start keeping this house clean again, I was spending all my cleaning time working on his project and just straightening up a little, but not much. I wonder how anyone with kids so young keep up with anything. The problem is things get used up so quickly, and then in the old house I used to have the "cave" that I could put stash stuff easily until I had enough to start another bin or do big organizing sessions a LOT easier when you don't have to worry about a 3 & 1 year old finding the stuff. So, I am going to have to figure out how to do that, clutter makes me feel claustrophobic and lazy. It ends up being a negative downward spiral for me and then I hit bottom and start cleaning again. Also Nate gets into EVERYTHING! I also now have to keep the laptops up because he picks them up and puts them on the floor, and since I have never seen him do it, I can only assume that he is not gently placing them on the floor, so our toddler proofing has reached a new height requirement. I would like to think EVENTUALLY he will learn to stop touching and doing, but he is using negative attention right now to get the attention he needs, gotta figure out how to stop that! But, I am off to catch up on house work and de-cluttering. Ciao!

Happy Birthday!

(Huh, that posted just the title when I hit the wrong button, who knew!)

Happy Birthday to Eric today! We have been cooking up surprises and special things for him all day so hopefully he can see how special we think he is! I'm off to start his special evening extravaganza! HA! Just kidding, but I do have some special things for him that I have to get started now that he is on his way home from work, more later!

Happy Veterans Day

This week maybe I have been a little stressed. Eric's birthday is tomorrow and I have been secretly working on some stuff for him, most of which Gwen knows about, sadly. Why do I say sadly, because the kid is 3 and can't keep a secret. Fortunately, she hasn't spilled all the beans on everything we've worked on. But conveniently for me she spilled the beans on this: I think she would have kept the quiet on the quilt, except that someone decided to surprise us and come home early and not give us a call. So, Gwen says "Daddy, Mommy has been working secretly on your quilt, see its over there." Which I guess is good because I was able to finish it in peace, see I have been working on it during naps and I wasn't finished, I had to attach the bottom row and like 3 tshirts on the 4th row. Hopefully now that it is done, I will be less stressed about finishing the top and hopefully this means Gwen will be less crazy, but you never know.
We are currently under lots and lots of rain. We are surviving just fine, but sadly I had to go to the grocery store and we got really wet. The kids didn't care, and I really didn't, but some of the groceries won't be the same. To counteract the rains we have some pictures from before Halloween, we had some beautiful evenings so we decided to eat in the back, (well really the side) and we thought to document the fabulousness of eating outside.

Oh and thanks to our Veterans for serving in the military!

Today

is Tuesday, did you know that? It is my day to meet with my exercise buddy, I noticed it was raining so I contacted my friend and she said she was coming, but I guess she didn't read my email that said it was raining, how do you feel about that. About 15 minutes before we were about to leave she called and said she wasn't coming because it was raining. I was a little frustrated because that is why I contacted her in the first place and if she didn't want to go in the rain, then could she have told me earlier, before I got everyone ready. This put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I was already on tender hooks as it was; today also being my Dad's birthday and Gwen being a real pain, everything was an issue today. Everything I asked her todo was met with "NO" and whining/crying. GRRR!
So today, I leave with picture of my sweet boy, I am still trying to figure out if he is smart or not so smart. I mean he seems to learn things quickly but then doesn't figure out things like, DON'T CLIMB UP IF YOU CAN'T GET DOWN. So, here's my boy, hasn't quite figured out that he shouldn't climb up on the chair when it is pushed under the table.

I don't know what Gwen is trying to do here, but I don't think it is going to be helpful.

But, look, isn't he cute.

Memories Monday

We had a very fun and long day yesterday, well, not really long for us, but I think for the kids it was long, but more on that later, when I download the pictures. So today, we are going to look at pictures from September, Grandmom's visit. This is from our visit to the Museum of Natural Sciences. We love that museum, its free and lots of big stuff to look at, we've been there a lot, (I would say 3 times since we moved here would be a lot, don't you think?)
Here are Grandmom & Gwen looking at the a snake in the butterfly exhibit, well, it was in a cage!
Nate, in the butterfly case! HI!

Nate and Daddy in the dinosaur exhibit. Nate liked this exhibit, we completely missed it the first time.

Gwen listening to something, I don't know what, I guess I should check that stuff out, but I am hoping the content isn't too much for a 3 year old...

Grandmom decided Gwen MUST ride the horse and cart, here she is checking with Gwen to see if she was ok with taking the ride by herself.

For the record, Gwen was fine with the ride, she told Grandmom she was like a princess riding on her pony.

While Gwen was on her ride, Nate made himself at home...seriously just copped a squat.

Still riding

Outside the museum Gwen and Daddy check out the big bell out front, a replica of the Liberty bell...

Nate checking out the bell

Nate checking out underneath, I love the squat they do when they are Nate's age.

I totally stole this idea from Beth.

Yesterday, Saturday!

We have these 2 huge trees in our front yard. This makes for a new fun time for us outside. For a while these leaves have been piling up in our front yard (ok, I have been raking them into a pile in the front yard!) The kids, Eric and I have been playing in this pile...
Raking it, laying in it. The kids don't really get the idea of jumping into the pile this year, they like to walk through it.

Yesterday, Eric, Gwen, and I decided to finally get rid of the pile. The neighbors down the street are trying to sell their house and I feel like a big pile of leaves in our front yard looks trashy.

After Eric had been working for a while, Gwen decided to pull out her wheel barrow and help...

Of course, she doesn't really have the technique down, but she's trying.

(I'm thinking the leaves are probably more tolerable than our molded pumpkin, but I am afraid to touch it now!) Gwen's wheelbarrow pile, not much, but that is all she could tolerate, have I mentioned this girl needs a nap!

Off she goes...

Daddy found a stowaway...

and the rake...

The next batches of leaves Eric did, he had to do with Gwen in the wheelbarrow...

She didn't seem to mind

What did we do with all these leaves, you might ask? I read in one of my magazines that leaves are good for mulch, especially in places you are going to garden, as long as you cut them up first. The article suggested piling leaves up in rows, mowing over them and then using them as mulch. That is why Eric moved about half of them to the back yard, where my garden is going to be next year. We (and by we I mean he) mowed the leaves and I raked them up and used them as mulch in the front, in the back we piled some of them up, the rest we just left to decompose in with the grass. We still have more leaves to drop, but it is nice to get rid of the pile for a little while, the grass underneath was none to happy about that! I am thinking next time we try this project we should have both kids napping, not just the one!