All I Want for Christmas....

Oh, Costco.... they have everything you could ever want, and some things you didn't know you couldn't live without. Jack spotted this cute little dinosaur from across the warehouse. He gasped and got all bright eyed and said "Oh mommy, can I touch him?" Oh sure...but we're just going to pet him, not bring him home right.....? He blinks his eyes, moves his head and roars and even chomps on leaves. He is pretty cute, I almost did buy him but I'm sure he would end up being $150 piece of furniture shoved in the corner after just a week or two. Nolan wouldn't get closer than about 10 feet near the thing and was happy to leave. Jim has turned Jack into a "I want everything I see" child this year. I'm not very happy about it, Jim thinks it's cute. It started with all of the toy catalogs we recieved over the last couple of months. Jack and Nolan will sit in Jim's lap an go through the catalog at least 3 times and Oooo & Awwww over everything. Now Jack says " I want that for Christmas mommy!" at every single toy he sees on t.v. and at the store. Note to self: unplug t.v. after Halloween next year.

my humble garden

I have always wanted a backyard garden. Of course living in Arizona presents some gardening challenges, such as 100 + temps most of the year, rock hard dirt instead of soil and itsy bitsy backyards taken up by the all necessary swimming pool and patio. Albeit these challenges I was set and determined to grow a garden that any Midwesterner would be proud of. So first things first, I obviously needed to start a compost pile to make up for the complete lack of usable soil in my yard. So for months I dedicatingly and persistently chopped and saved every morsel of compostable items from our household. Did you know dryer sheets can be composted? After only a few months of tending to my compost pile, I had beautiful, rich soil! I could hardly wait to get to Lowe's and purchase several pots. I had already ordered some heritage seeds from Victory seeds co. they had been sitting on my kitchen counter top, patiently waiting to be plopped into their compost pots. The day had come. I spent all of 3 days mixing, planting and watering my little seeds. I now had planted; carrots, onions, lemon basil, lemon balm, collard greens, kale, turnip greens, thyme, parsley and oregano. Oh the glory, oh the bountiful harvest I will have in just a few short weeks, my very own vegetables free from ecoli, pesticides and factory altered genetics.

Fast forward about 6 weeks.....................................................................

I had been watering my seedlings 2-3 times a day, moving them to better spots in the yard when they looked heat stroked and making sure they were happy. Mind you it is the end of summer ( I post on a whim). One morning I go outside to water all of my plants which are looking B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. by the way, thank you very much. And what do I find???? A bunch of pots with pathetic looking bare stems poking out in all of their bareness! Oh the shock! What the heck has happened to my lemon balm, my carrots, my KALE....NOT MY KALE! All that were spared was my basil a few carrots the turnip greens and the herbs which were up on the windowsill. Was it the dog, a bird, pests the kids??? No, this was to tidy a job for them. Each leaf was precisely picked off at the stem. I couldn't figure it out, no bugs in sight. The next morning I got up early to go check on what's left of my garden. What do I find in my near demolished collard green pot? The fattest, smuggest, green caterpillar I'd ever seen! He was to fat to escape. He might have even been cute if he hadn't just destroyed my poor little defenseless garden, the garden that had cost me about 20x's what I could have purchased it for at Sprout's. It all made sense now. A couple of days earlier, Britton had chopped down the overgrown, dead pineapple vines that ran along one side of the pool. A few times a year those vines were home to a huge population of beautiful butterflies that we loved to go out and admire. I guess there were still a few caterpillars left amongst the dead vines and when we chopped down their home they took refuge in my poor defenseless garden. Alas, I couldn't be to upset at the little guy. Don't get me wrong, I still tossed the little bugger into my bachelor neighbors house whom I'm sure doesn't have a garden of any kind.

The caterpillar incident took place about 2 months ago. I've moved on. I can look at butterflies and not wince now. After all, I still have a few happy plants growing away. The boys went out and picked there very first, very own baby carrot the other day! They were pretty impressed, which is what inspired me to grow a garden in the first place! Victory! They each plucked their carrot out of actual soil and stared at it in amazement. Jack said "Mommy! I just found a carrot!"

Nolan said "Oooooooo, cawoot!" We went inside and washed it off and to my amazement they both sat and nibbled their carrots away! Unbelievable! Mission accomplished! My children will know that vegetables actually come from hard work and nature and not the produce department.

New bench

So our kitchen table has been slowly falling apart over the years. I finally talked Jim into getting a new one. Nothing fancy since it is sure to be demolished eventually too. Anyway Jim was putting the chairs and bench together and when it was finished Jack walked up to it and gasped "Ohhh Daddy! I just loove my new bench! Thank you for getting it for me!" He's so expressive lately. When it was time for lunch today he said " Mommy is it time for lunch?" me "yes, it sure is." jack "oh good, I think I'll sit on my new bench!" And when Nolan tried to sit on a chair... "Nolan, come on, why don't you sit by me on my new bench!" so funny who would've thought something like a bench would be so much fun. They slide back and forth across it while they are eating which is why I think they like it so much... being still is not one of their strong suits.

I love it too! It is prettier in person. It is a rustic Italian farmhouse table (modernized with an attached leaf that stores under the table ;-). Finally we can have up to 8 guests actually sit at the table with us!

growing up

Britton, you are such a sweet kid! Even when your a little cranky and acting like a teenager, you try your best to think about others and do the right thing. Everyone just loves you and loves to be around you. You have such a positive energy. You are allways so upbeat and happy. I know there are difficult things you have to deal with at your age like mean kids at school, teachers who "just don't understand" and not making the basketball team. You allways take things with a grain of salt and an amazing level of maturity. You are going to make it so far in your life and I just can't wait to see what you become. I am luck to be your mother and your friend! I love you so much!

Music Time

The kids just love going to music time. It was every Tuesday and Thursday for about 6 weeks through the city of Surprise. The teacher always had different fun songs for the kids to sing along to and it was very interactive which of course they love. Their favorites were a song that had them skip, hop, skate, and run to different sounds. Also playing all of the different instruments and of course parachute time and bouncing all of the foam balls across the room. Lots of fun! We can't wait to do it again.

*note jack laying very still and quiet listening to story time at the end of class!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I know, I'm a little late posting, sorry!
We did have a a fun Halloween. I'm always a little skeptical about Halloween, mainly trick or treating, but the boys have so much fun and are sooo cute I can't resist. We went to Papa and Grandma Lloyd's ward trunk or treat party. First there was a chili and hot dog fest and carnival games then we went trunk or treating.


My sweet cuddly teddy bear! I can not believe he is only TWO years old and I am already being given a hard time about "making" him wear a teddy bear costume! First of all, it still fits from last year and I am a waste not want not kind of girl. Secondly, I don't think it's to much to ask that my 2 year old super cute, super chubby, super sweet baby goes as a teddy bear one more year before robots, sports heroes and monsters take over! Even Nolan protested. When we were shopping for Jacks costume and he picked out a robot costume Nolan said " I want wobot cosooom!" I said "You get to be a teddy bear" thinking this would suffice. Nolan adamantly says "NO NO Teddy Beaw, I wan Wobotttt!" Unbelievable. I stuck to my guns as you can see.


Alec/hippy/tattoo guy???

Grandma & PaPa's trunk. hands down best trunk there. Fog machine, strobe lights, scary music, candy &&& play dough. T'was a big success.

Britton, Grandma, Jim, Jack, Papa & Nolan.

Face painting. Jack picked out a sword (which later was terribly missed when washed off) and Nolan "picked" a big kisser, o.k. mommy helped pick it out.

Apparently this was a Transformer character... Optumus Prime. So ever boy age 4-8 said Wooo, Optimus Prime, when they passed Jack. To which he protested, "I'm A Robot!"

Bad Day.

I don't know what happened today but something was off. Jack was extra obnoxious, to put it lightly. It started before the sun was up with banging on the wall and screaming that scared me half to death. after breakfast Jack decided to take the covers off his bed and then pee on them...??? While I was putting those in the washer I noticed that my blanket I had just washed not only turned everything a not so pretty shade of purplish red, but there was enough fluffy stuff in the laundry room to stuff a very large pillow.... everywhere! O.k. so clean out the entire washer and take apart the dryer, vacuum out the dryer, wash the laundry room and now yes, I am completely covered with fuzz, in my hair up my nose everywhere. I go back out into the front room where Jack has been running up and down the hallway with a pencil in his hand dragging it in loopdy loops along the wall. In the meantime Nolan I think watches the clock and about every 15 minutes for absolutely no reason that I can find just stops what he is doing and lays down and throws the worlds biggest temper tantrum. Fun. After giving the dog a very long over due bath I enter the front room to find Jack sitting on the couch watching t.v. soaked in pee. "Jack, why did you pee your pants?" jack " I just did it's o.k.!" It's o.k. is his new catch phrase. jack stop hitting Nolan..."It's ok." Jack stop screaming... "it's o.k.!"

Let's fast forward to 4 p.m. I decide to get them out of the house and go to the park, this is where it gets good. We are there for about 2 minutes when a very interesting young couple mohawk, sleeved tattoos and all come to the playground with there large bull dog running ahead of them without a leash. The dog runs up to Nolan (who is barely 2 years old) and starts jumping on him. The "man" barely glances at the dog and mutters for it to come here. I start walking over to Nolan and the dog runs ahead of me and jumps on him knocking him over and is on top of him! O.K. its probably a friendly dog, but it could bite his head off. The man hardly acknowledges that my two year old is on the ground screaming and just hands the dog to his girlfriend and doesn't say a word to me! Here we go..... I said you know what, even if it wasn't the LAW that your dog was on a leash it is common courtesy and your dog just knocked my baby over in case you didn't notice! He proceeds to roll his eyes at me and says "ya ya ya, maybe you should keep an eye on your kids" "Ummm, we're at a playground, he's two, I'm standing right here and did I mention it's the LAW to leash your dog?" The wife says yeah we heard you the first time! Then the guy, who is in fact wearing a coller of some sort, maybe it was the dogs I dunno, anyway, starts waving his fist at me telling me to get out of here! o.k now I'm kind of scared, I mean what a pshyco! I say that's it I'm calling the cops if you don't back off. I would have just left if Jack wasn't up in the jungle gym somewhere. As he leaves, and I swear I'm not making this up calls Nolan a name I just cannot repeat, let's say pansy but vulgar. I was pretty shaken up wich is to say a lot. They just went right across the street to a smaller park so i gathered the boys and left. Oh, during this altercation Jack fell off the twisty slide and hit his head so now both boys are screaming at the top of there lungs.
So anyway, we get home and the chaos pretty much continues with balls knocking off the dinner I had just set on the table all over the floor. At this point I'm just kinda oblivious. Jack got sent to his room and 2 minutes later I went in there and found him like this... at 6:45 p.m. I just put him in bed and lets hope he makes it through the night asleep.

Phoenix ZOO October 17 2008

New jammies

Jack and Nolan were very excited to put on their new jammies with their favorite characters on them. Jack wants to complete the outfit with some sponge Bob slippers. I'll see what I can do, for now light up dragon slippers will have to do. Nolan is so cute running around in his spider man slippers. He tries to watch his feet while running which as you can imagine has caused a couple of run ins with the wall.
The boys have been making silly faces at each other. These are some of their silly faces. Nolan is so funny, he just watches everything Jack does taking it all in and then tries his best to do what he does.

puppy love

Jack~"mommy, i love Mia cuz she gives me ksses."
me~ "That's nice, is she your friend?"
Jack~ "yah, she's the best friend I ever had."
Awwww

your never to young to have a starbucks.

Just kidding, it's chocolate milk people.
The boys have to have their Saturday dose of chocolate milk and sometimes, even a muffin!
Last Saturday while I was at work, Jim had to do some errands for Britton and took all the boys to Starbucks for a special treat. As soon as they pulled into the drive through Jack said "Is mommy here!"
Hee hee. Of course that's silly right? I mean obviously I was at the coffee bean & tea leaf and NOT a Starbucks (corporate mongrels :-).
Now I know there have been studies about how if you put healthy food in a McDonalds wrapper that kids will gladly eat it where as they wouldn't before. Well the same goes for Starbucks cups with my kids, they will eagerly suck down water or carrot juice & beet juice if it is in a coffee cup with a straw!
You just have to be tricky sometimes. I have also been know to "sneak" spinach, kale, broccoli and a bunch of other veggies into anything I can think of. The boys are going to be very confused if anyone ever makes them Kraft Mac & Cheese and it isn't green!

Egg Carton Critters

The boys have so much fun using their artistic genius to create artful expressions of their world.... o.k. they like to make a big mess. Anyway, it is fun and takes up at least 15 minutes out of the day where no one is screaming, kicking or pushing each other.
We decided to put our used egg cartons to use by making bugs, sharks turtles and robots! The boys love to show off their project of the day when daddy gets home. It is worth all of the mess to hear the excitement in their little voices when they say "Daddy, come see what I made, it's a cattapiwer!"

climb to conquer cancer

Jim and Britton went up to Flagstaff last weekend to do a 7 mile walk/hike up the mountain to raise $$ for the fight against cancer. Jim works for APS and they are very involved in the community. They sponsor several different organizations and are actively involved in donating time and $ to the red cross, schools etc. Jim writes communications for APS and did interviews while on the hike and wrote a column about the event. Britton raised $ to donate.

no autographs please!

My baby is getting so big! He is keeping up with his big brother Jack and copies EVERYTHING he does. Nolan's vocabulary amazes me! It is limitless.
He is becoming quite the little daredevil I'm afraid. He climbs up onto counters and tables and into the toilets and sinks. Child proof locks don't even slow him down at all! We had to turn Britton's and the bathroom door knobs around so we can keep them locked from the inside. He has been getting into Britton's room were the 2 guinea pigs are and climbing into the cage and trying to catch them. I hear the poor things squealing from across the house and have to come to the rescue (about 72 times a day until we turned the locks inside out). Britton has a loft bed 8 feet high which Jack has already fallen off of and landed on his head sending us on a very scary ambulance ride to the hospital. Nolan threw the worlds biggest fit when he couldn't get in the room anymore. He says "I want the bibby pibs, peeeesss mommeeee peeeeesss!" so sad. half of my day has been spent taking them out into the front room so Nolan and Jack can feed them carrots.

Children's museum of Phoenix

This place is amazing! We went twice last week. Well the first time we went the air conditioning was broken so they gave us all free passes to come back. Hot as we were we still had a blast.
There is so much for little guys to do there it can't all be done in a day. This little grocery store was a huge hit for all the kids. Miniature shelves were stocked with groceries & produce complete with scales for weighing. Jack & Nolan loved pushing their little carts around and loading them up. It is so awesome to watch them imagining and pretending. Jack was looking at the canned goods and saying things like "hmmmm, what should we have for dinner mommy?" and "Do we need cereal?" All the kids there were pretending to be different employees of the store; cashier, restocking the shelves, sweeping up.



Jack got to make his very own pizza then bake it in the brick oven. Then he made some soup in the completely stocked and decked out kitchen.




The museum is very hands on, however I was awed by the creative displays of art all throughout. These pictures don't do it justice, it is pretty impressive and everything from the light fixtures to the stair railings has an artistic element. There was a two story high wall of CD's hanging and glimmering in the sun coming in from the two story high windows. Huge origami birds & bugs dangled from the ceiling. You have to see the giant wall of shoes that spans down one hallway. In the "kitchen" there were several really neat sculptures made from hundreds of twisted and tangled silverware, and chandeliers made of cups and cookware were hanging from the ceiling.



Nolan LOVED the ball room. There were so many different things they could put balls in and watch them roll, plop and hit a Levy and go through a funnel and come out a tunnel, too cool. Even the hallways were filled with things to do.