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!"