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Thursday we celebrated Mommy's birthday! I asked Collin how old he thought I was and he said, "a hundred and fifty-two!" Not quite yet Collin. Luckily it was only the big 2-8. But I do know of someone else who lives in this house that turns 30 in March... just a reminder, babe ;) ;)

Of course we celebrated with some cake, candle blowing, and sweet gifts. One of those gifts was a "Date Voucher" from Daddy, which we took advantage of last night! That silly Daddy.

Here are some pictures that I ran across that never made it to the blog. It is so very fun being a mommy to these little munchkins... even if I do feel like I'm 152 years old sometimes from chasing after them. Only kidding. Sort of.

Enjoying a beautiful day at the park in December

Outfit handmade by sweet Lolly

                                                               

Chef Collin is always willing to help in the kitchen.

 

Such kissable cheeks!

B giving us a little attitude. Surely not Brantlee.

Happy Sunday everyone! We plan on enjoying this beautiful day God has given us!

A good exam

Tonight, Brantlee gave Daddy a routine exam with the dr's kit Collin got for Christmas. She was very serious about each procedure.

This serious face cracks me up!



"Now I give you a flu shot," she says - ha. Right in the neck- just where you want one!

And here is Collin multitasking- "reading" and watching t.v. We heard him "reading" this baby Bible for a minute. Then he told us he had been reading about hearts and sharing. That's so encouraging!! Maybe they do actually hear a little of what we say ;)

Our handsome boys watching Diego... must have been pretty interesting tonight. Ya think?

For months and months, a friend of mine has been telling me to get this book! I kept putting it off and forgetting about it. But, in raising our two toddlers, we have discovered that we are less than adequate to do it on our own. It is TOUGH and down right exasperating at times! We struggle with sharing, defiance, fighting, whining, etc. Sometimes all day!! And our struggles are just as much our fault, too. We really need some consistency in our discipline and some changes in our own attitudes and how we handle situations and problems. (Please tell me we aren't alone in this.) I am halfway through this book, and I can honestly say it has changed my perspective on parenting, our role as parents, and just everything really. It is a challenging read, but I highly recommend it! It has already helped us so much.

Have a great rest of the week  and happy hump day!

Static

How do you explain something like this?? I am speechless.

Mommy had a Premiere Jewelry party Saturday and some special friends came to play. They had such a fun time and got a little dose of static too... although not quite to the extent that B did.

Karsen, Allie & Collin - all 3 years old

 

I think Collin was a little embarrassed about his static problem.

 

But Brantlee just rocked her static without a care in the world. Wow.

 

After that gathering, we regrouped (and combed our hair) and went to a birthday party where we played with even more friends.

 

We are out of school tomorrow for MLK Day. Whoo hoo! What shall we do???

It is COLD y'all!

It seems like we have been in hibernation since Sunday when a "Winter Storm" came through and covered our area in ice! We were out of school Monday, which was really nice. But we had two disappointed children when they woke up and there was no snow :( I mean, really disappointed. Hopefully we will get to see some white stuff at some point this winter.

Even though the ice is gone, it has still been too cold to play outside. So things like foam crafts, crayons, markers, glue, stickers, and paint have kept us sort of busy. Honestly though, on any given day with any type of weather, these activities would still keep these two happily occupied.

And on days like these, we don't bother to put on real clothes or brush our hair, or anything unnecessary like that ;)

And if we get tired of crafting, we make "tents" and have Oh, so much fun!

Off the subject a little, but I think it is necessary to document one of our current struggles. Brantlee is so opinionated about what she wears these days! For example, she has this one shirt that, if she sees it, you can hang it up on her wearing what you had planned. It's a cute shirt... but I don't want to see it EVERYDAY. Same thing with her black boots. If she ever sees them, that's it. She will throw a fit to wear them. It is no surprise that her Dora pajamas are now a favorite item. Unfortunately this set of pj's has seen its better days. The top is too short/tight and it has this gross stain on the front. Not to mention, it needed to be washed last night. But of course none of that mattered to B. And the several, precious sets of pajamas she got for Christmas apparently don't matter to her either.  Last night, the child screamed until she couldn't catch her breath and I took off her blue snow flake pj's and put on these. Some battles we fight. Some we don't. We chose not to fight this one :)



Winter's not so bad...

We are usually a little bummed after the holidays are over, and we still have 3 months of cold weather, dead grass, runny noses, and staying indoors a lot. But his winter, we don't dread it at all, and I think we are going to enjoy it. Maybe it's because of the new swing set. Or maybe it's because kids are so dang cute all bundled up in winter gear;) Just a warning here. Lots of pics in this post to recap our activities following Chrismas.

On this beautiful day playing outside I snapped a picture of dear ole Daisy while trying out my zoom lense.

One day Collin's sweet friend Allie invited some school friends over to play and decorate cupcakes. Brantlee tried with everything she had to be "big" and hang in there with Collin and his friends. She did pretty good that day with no nap.

On New Year's Eve we shot fireworks with Lolly and Poppy. Collin was so intense and pumped about these fireworks! Thank goodness the rain slacked up enough for us to shoot some. I don't think Collin's heart could have handled it if we weren't able to do this.

B really wanted to like them, and she did for the first few.

 

This girl loves her Poppy!

And the little boy below loved those sprinklers!

                                And then she had ENOUGH!! Those things are just too loud!

On New Year's Day, Baby Alive was starving and couldn't wait one second longer to eat. So we fed her, of course. Then we said the heck with this weather... we put on our rain boots and played outside in the wet yard.

That night we shot the last of our fireworks with Nana and Poppa. The excitement was still fresh!

I just cannot get enough of little kids in tobagans :)

Sunday night we celebrated Paw Paw Bob turning 75. It was really sweet. These three really seemed to understand that it was his birthday, and they enjoyed it as much or more than he did. They were even nice enough to blow out his candles for him.

Shortly after his gathering is where it all went down hill. We all started dropping like flies with the stomach bug-ha. Since my last post, Nana and Uncle Derek got the virus too :( And this brings me to the final picture.

On Monday while I was sick in bed, it is my understanding that Brantlee got Thomas the Train stuck in her hair??? Kyle told me they had to eventually use scissors to get it out. I didn't ask any questions :/  And props to Kyle for grabbing the camera! It was one of those "see it to believe it" kind of moments.

Whew! 2011...

We hope you are better to us throughout the year than you have been thus far- ha! Almost the ENTIRE family has had this horrible stomach virus that started with yours truly on Sunday night. Here is the order of  victims so far: Me, Collin, Kyle, Paw Paw Bob, Mom, Dad, and Casey. It has been a BEAST! And the good news is that it's only Tuesday night :/  How Fischer and Brantlee aren't on the list yet, we really have no idea. And yes, we were all together for Paw Paw's 75th birthday Sunday when this saga began. (I'll post pics from the little party sometime later. Maybe when Kyle and I aren't as... green perhaps.) Poor Paw Paw is still very sick with this. And with all kidding aside, please remember him in your prayers. He did not need this for a birthday present!

Regardless, tomorrow is back to business, back to school, work, routines, etc. Judging by the sound in B's bedroom, the whole bedtime routine thing isn't going so well tonight. But hopefully we will all get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight. Surely.

Well I must wrap this up before Kyle strangles me. The family is on edge to say the least. We've all been home together since December 18th. The togetherness, as wonderful as it has been, has left us all a little frazzled  irritable?? You get the idea. Hey, blogs are all about honesty, right?

But let me finish with two funny conversations from the last couple of days.

Collin: "Momma, let's go in the kitchen and get me some Nerves out of the candy basket."
Me: "Nerves?? Oh, you mean Nerds."
Collin: "Yeah, Nerds." smiling
Me: "Oh I could really use some new nerves right about now!"


Brantlee: getting ready for bed at 8:30 with teeth already brushed and everything. "Mommy, I ready to eat lunch." If she wasn't so cute I would've told her 'No.' But off to the kitchen we went for "lunch" that evening.


Good night, Good night!