Carving our Pumpkins!

Well I totally slacked on Halloween this year. I have no idea where my decorations are and we skipped the pumpkin patch this year. I normally am all about pumpkin carving and I buy a fancy kit and do some intricate design.  This year we used a basic knife and a basic design.  We did manage to carve our pumpkins tonight and they turned out great!

Getting ready to go! 

Putting these kids to work.  Amazingly mommy was the only one who got her hands dirty...

The finished product!  Not too bad. 

Couldn't resist this pic of Madeline showing off her belly!

The girls are SO excited for Halloween now.  We are keeping our pumpkins inside until Halloween night so they don't rot out in the heat before then.  It's strange living in the heat again during the Fall!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  We had a lazy day and then had a BBQ at the Burns' house.  The girls had two desserts so they thought it was the best night ever!

Trying to make silly faces. 

An attempt at a kiss. 

Silly faces finally!  They thought this was HILARIOUS.

Madeline of course kept her tongue out for the rest of the day practically.  We didn't see any fireworks this year but it was still a great day overall! 

Fathers Day gifts

Now that the gifts have been given, I can post this :). I took the girls to a local pottery place to choose something to make for Curtis. We got there before the store opened and they were so excited they were knocking on the door to get in! Brooke chose to paint a coffee mug and Madeline chose a piggy bank. They both had a blast and Madeline only ate the paint a few times....

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!  Yesterday we had a great day with gorgeous weather.  We all went to a diner for an early breakfast.  The kids did very well even though Madeline ended up eating 3/4 of my breakfast plus all of hers. She's a bottomless pit!  We forgot the camera so we only snapped a few pics on our phones.  Madeline all of the sudden is very into dressing up so please note the 7 necklaces plus 5 bracelets she chose to wear. 

We then headed to a park to run around for a bit.  It's finally nice here and it was great to get some fresh air and some sunshine.  Madeline spent most of her time on the swings and Brooke was running around so much we never got a pic of her!

Of course no holiday would be complete without a group picture.  FAIL.  Madeline was so mad we pulled her off of the slide for this picture that this is all we could get.  Brooke at least looks at the camera these days!

After the park, we came home and I went upstairs and laid in bed while watching "Dirty Dancing".  I even took a short nap!  We ended the day at a relative's house for a BBQ and all kids were in bed by 7.  It was a great day!

Pure Joy in the Ticket Booth

Hello Everyone!  I have been slacking on the blog lately but we had family visiting and just too much going on!  I have a ton to catch up on this week but I thought I would post a video for everyone to enjoy because I love it so much.

The girls birthday party (which I still have yet to blog about) was at Chuck E Cheese this year.  All Brooke talked about was going into the ticket booth to get the "magic ticket".  She saw this on TV and has been obsessed over it for quite some time.  Well this was her lucky day because she got to go twice since Madeline was not old enough to go.  We told Brooke to shove the tickets into her shirt to save them and she didn't want to, but ended up doing this in the end.  Oh and she ended up getting the "magic ticket" so she was thrilled.   We had bets she would cry once she got in there but she proved us wrong and LOVED IT! 

Happy Easter!

Sadly, we really slacked on the picture taking this Easter!  The girls had a great time!  Loved finding the eggs hidden around the house and all of their goodies!

In the afternoon we headed to Uncle Eddies and Aunt Margaret's for dinner.  Our photo shoot failed there as well :)  Curtis and I didn't even make it into a picture! 

Easter Egg Painting!

Today we colored Easter Eggs.  This is the first year Madeline participated and she loved it!  I gave her a whisk to put the eggs in and dip them into the dye.  That worked for a while but then she saw how Brooke did it and quickly pulled the egg out of the whisk.  I did LOVE using a muffin tin for the dyes though.  It was perfect! 

Of course after all of this, all of the eggs were dyed in under 10 minutes.  It's still one of my favorite traditions though! 

A trip to see the Easter Bunny!

Somehow Easter is sneaking up on us and I figured this week would be better than next to go visit the Easter Bunny! Yes, I pay $25 to get these pics taken, but I love looking at them every year to see how the kids have grown :)  Luckily there was no one in line and Madeline did not even freak out!  Score!

Here is our pic from today!

 And for comparison, here is last year's photo!

Happy Belated St. Patty's Day

I guess I completely forgot to post these!  Oops!  I feel like our weeks are getting super busy and I guess its just a sign of what's to come as the kids get older.

Sadly, my great picture streak ended with this holiday.   I was able to only take two pics before the camera died.  Their shirts say "Kiss me I'm Irish" but of course I have no full shot of it!

The weather warmed up for a bit so we set up the sand table and the outside toys.  Looking forward to when its permanently warm (its back down into the 40's this week).  I really hate the long winters here, but at least we didn't get much snow this year! 

Giveaway winner! The winner of the March blog giveaway was Evelyn!  Please contact me with your email address and I can put you in touch with Carrie for your free organic cleaner!  Thanks to all who entered!  If you are interested in sponsoring a giveaway please contact me for further information!  Thanks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!  Here are some pics from our photo shoot today!  I must admit, we are getting some better shots these days!

Christmas Celebration #1

Right after arriving in CA, we had a Christmas Celebration with my mom's side of the family.  It was nice to see all of our relatives we had not seen in a year!  My uncle dressed up as Santa and the kids were thrilled!

Behold a family photo that is halfway decent!

Here are the kids with Santa.  Brooke was on cloud nine!  Madeline actually sat on his lap which I was shocked at since our visit to Santa at the mall did not go over so well!

We then opened gifts which of course was their favorite part of the night!  It also gave us some things to keep the kids entertained at Grandma's until Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season so far!  I am going to try my best to not fall behind on this blog while we are out of town but that is not going so well :) 

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is my 5th Mother's Day! I can't believe it! I have dreams of a Mother's Day when the kids wake up by themselves, make their own breakfast, and stay quietly downstairs until I arise from my slumber. Well that's not happening yet so here is how it goes with a 4 year old and 1 year old.

I got up as usual with Madeline (she did not get the memo that she needs to sleep in at least until 9am on Mother's day). Curtis was getting ready to go to his football game when he gave me my awesome Spa Gift Certificate for a Day at the Spa. Just what the doctor ordered! I am booking this on Monday so I don't have to wait until the end of summer when space opens up again!

When Brooke woke up I decided we should all take a nice walk to the bagel shop to kill time until Curtis got home from football. Well there were a few issues with this. Problem 1: The line was 20 people deep and out the door. Hello! I forgot its Sunday AND a holiday. There were gobs of men looking frantic as they ordered their bagels while holding giant bouquets of flowers they bought next door. Last minute planning guys? LOL! Problem 2: While waiting in line Brooke decided she wanted a giant cupcake. The issue is that they did not have the exact same cupcake she saw in the store last week. She did not want the plain chocolate one. The one she wanted had a white flower on top and was not present. Problem 3: Madeline. While very good when the stroller is in motion, she is not a fan of just sitting there waiting. She starts to flip out, I convince Brooke to let Madeline hold her rubber Princess Aurora Polly Pocket, fighting and screaming ensues, etc. The gobs of men at this point were not thrilled with my two.

Finally our bagels are ready and we head out to the lovely tune of Brooke whining about her lack of cupcake ownership and the fact that Madeline had touched Princess Aurora. At this point she was scolded on the side of a busy street with witnesses. This mortified her. Then I was oh so lucky have to hear here bawling her eyes out for the rest of the walk. To top it off she then tripped and scuffed her brand new crock. DRAMA! Finally I turned to her and said "It's Mother's Day. Can you please just be a nice girl for mom on Mother's day? No more whining and crying". Her reply as she sobs "Well mom, kids are mothers too!!!". Um, nice try kid.

When we walked through the door I decided Mother's Day was starting over at 10:00 am. I am forgetting about my attempt to have a nice morning with the kids. Madeline went down for a nap and I treated myself to a long hot shower free of screaming children. Curtis got home and we headed out to the park! Yippeee! The weather is finally nice enough to be outside and need sunscreen. The park was a blast and I realized that my summer will mostly involve fishing sand and rocks out of Madeline's mouth. Brooke is at least old enough now that she requires very little assistance at the park so it all balances out.

Here is the group shot. I so happy that both kids look relatively happy and are looking at the camera!

Spring Break!

Last week Brooke was on Spring Break from school and Grandma was visiting. We had grand plans to do a lot of things, but quickly realized that doing anything with a one year old was very very hard. Instead we did a lot of mall trips and hung out around the house. We still had fun and hopefully next time Grandma and Grandpa come to visit we can get out a little more!

Grandma taught Madeline how to smell the flowers:


Brooke posing in her new outfit (and not looking at the camera of course)


Madeline's new love-SUNGLASSES!


Cousin pic on Easter. Madeline is thrilled as usual.


Madeline trying on a new outfit from her birthday. Hopefully we can wear it in a month!

The Rapunzel outfit!

Cupcake love!

Dressing up!

Happy Easter!

I am finally catching up on this blog after a week off! Whew! We were busy! We had a great Easter Morning this year! Grandma was here too which made it even better!

Both girls had great fun digging into their baskets. Later in the day they got dressed up for a photo shoot outside and we headed off to Uncle Ed's and Aunt Margaret's for dinner!




The weather was so nice that day! No jackets needed for once!