5 Degrees Short

Our first winter storm came today. It was so close to snowing. Bummer. The kids took advantage of the rain and ran outside in the puddles. Emily was going to go out in her underwear and snow boots, so I wrapped a summer bathing suit cover up around her.

They had fun.

This is Ben's expression for fun!

Doesn't Emily look like a redhead here?

Doesn't Ben look like a redhead here?

Here's a little video of the fun

Dinner Conversation

Me: Emily, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Emily: I dunno.
Me: Do you want to be a vet? A teacher? Chef? Doctor?
Emily: A Doctor.
Me: That sounds good. Ben, what do you want to be?
Ben: A pumpkin.

Ah, to be two!

Halloween Party

I've been so busy this week that I didn't have a chance to write about our Halloween party. We hosted the party for our Mommy Group. The kids enjoyed dressing up a second time around. I didn't paint Ben's face because that make-up comes off rather easily. Plus he still had a runny nose and I didn't want to be smearing green all over his face with my kleenex.

My girl.

You can't really tell, but she is getting little freckles on her nose.

So cute!

Ben decorating a cookie.



Emily eating a cookie.

Bean bag toss.

The gang.

Yes, the little girl in the middle is in a double leg cast to correct a hip problem.

Getting cavities.

We even did a pinata. My kids first time.


Em giving it a whack!

It was a great party and everyone had a fun time. We'll have to do it again next year.

I forgot to mention one of my favorite parts of Halloween night. We met up with some of our friends in our Mom group, so we had like 8 kids in our group that would all go up to each door together. Ben would usually be lagging behind. When he'd get to the door, we'd say, "Ben, what do you say?" Meaning "trick or treat" of course. He'd always say, "What about me?" Then, a very polite "thank you" once he got some candy. He was a riot. Can you tell he's 2?

Shaping Musical Interests

When I got my Ipod 6 months ago, I downloaded some of the kids favorites. We were all thrilled to listen to Jack Johnson sing his hits from Curious George and Sarah McLachlan sign Ordinary Miracle from Charlotte's Web. I actually enjoyed those songs. We also have some favorites that I've sung to them since they were babies, like Kenny Loggins Danny Song. I remember when Emily actually heard it sung for real, meaning in tune. She was all excited saying, "Mommy, it's my song!" She must have thought it was something I made up. Trust me, if I could write such lovely lyrics, I would not be driving a mini-van to Walmart right now!

I made the mistake of downloading the Lion King soundtrack. Now, don't get me wrong, it's nice the first few times. But when I start using the phrase "Hakuna Matata" in an adult conversation, it's time for it to go. Before I threw my IPod out the window, I decided the kids need to expand their musical interests.

I started playing my favorites.

Some music goes over well and some doesn't. The other day, Ben and I were driving to get Emily from preschool. I was flipping through deciding on what I was in the mood for. I spotted Elvis. Now, I always believe you are either an Elvis person or a Beatles person. I like both, but I prefer the Beatles. If I were stuck on a island and HAD to listen to one of them over and over, I would pick the Beatles in a heartbeat. I have one Elvis song on my IPod as my Dad downloaded it when he was at our house. Falling In Love With You is a pretty decent Elvis song, so I put it on. This is how it went down.

Elvis: "Wise men say..."
Ben: "Turn it off."
Elvis: "Only fools rush in..."
Ben: "Turn it off!"
Elvis: "But I can't help..."
Ben: "TURN IT OFF!!!"

Clearly not an Elvis fan.

It's fun to see which songs they like. They are fans of John Mayer and they love the I Am Sam soundtrack which is all Beatles tunes by different artists. Today's favorite which was played 4 times before we made it home was Across The Universe by the Beatles. Emily picks up lyrics fast and I was smiling to myself when by the second go round I could hear her signing, "Nothing's gonna change my world."

I know in a few short years, I won't have much say in their musical interests. For now, I will enjoy influencing them.

Closet Done!!!

I'm done!

I feel like I have gotten so much accomplished in a few days. I painted the shelves in the closet and got everything I could off the floor. It looks better even then when we first moved in. Those few days were such a whirlwind that stuff was everywhere. I don't think it has ever looked so organized. I was able to open the door all the way for the first time. There used to be a tote behind it.

Here's my side.

Here's David's side.

It took longer than expected as I ran across the box of all of our love letters from when we first met. David still writes me nice things, but it's fun to look back and read what we thought when life was just him and I.

Now, I need to clean out the dresser drawers. Or maybe I'll leave something for the spring!

Garage Down, Closet To Go

After I picked up Emily from preschool, I decided to tackle the garage. I was reorganizing a few boxes along the way and packing up Halloween decorations. Emily and Ben kept themselves occupied. They wrote on the floor with chalk. They played on bikes and sat in their power wheels. They also found a piece of styrofoam and decided to break it into a million little pieces.

They did this inside!

I cleaned up the winter wonderland and got back to work. The garage now looks like this and we still have lots of shelf space empty!



The entire left side is filled with Christmas decorations.

We can finally walk through again.


The Humane Society said they would take off Roxie's "growth". We still don't know if it was a fatty tumor or cyst. But our vet suggested to let them take it off since they will do it for free and these things can abscess and cause problems later. She has to wear this cone for 2 weeks and then the stitches come out. This is our poor girl. She is clumsily walking around the house hitting her cone on everything.


Time to tackle the closet. I will not post before pictures as it's too embarrasing, but the after will be pretty!

Whew...

It's been like a whirlwind for the past few days.

We made Daddy a cake just because. It was Emily's idea and she wanted to make chocolate cake.





Ben pretended to be a superhero with my headband.


Emily loves writing her letters with chalk in our garage.


Then came our day trip to the Dentist on Thursday. Yes, day trip. We switched to a new insurance provider and they offered 2 choices of dentists here in our area. One is accepting new patients, just not with our insurance. What? The other has their first available appointment at the end of March! We decided to head to North Phoenix (about 70 minute drive)and have a family appointment. While we were there, I asked my friend Shar to check on Roxie. We decided to put her in the kennel which is in our bedroom since putting her in the backyard didn't work. She was growling a little when David put her in there. We should've known something was up. Shar calls me before noon. We had just sat down in McDonalds for the kids to play before we headed back home. Roxie has a gash on her lip, chipped her tooth and her snout is totally swollen. There is a pile of blood in front of the kennel gate the size of a dinner plate. She obviously did not like being in there. Post tramatic stress syndrome? I don't know, but we won't do that again. We made a vet appointment on our drive home and David took her in once we got here. Thank God my friend check on her. The inside of the kennel looked like somebody took a spray bottle filled with blood and went to town. Needless to say, the kennel is cleaned up and sitting in the garage. Roxie is fine also.
Here's Em lovin' on Roxie.


Friday, Em had school. My Dad and Suzy came up to visit for a few days. The kids decorated cookies with Grandma Suzy.




We carved a pumpkin.




We dressed up for Halloween. Em was Dorothy and Ben was the Wicked Witch.






We worked on home projects. My Dad helps us with a list of things we want to get done, but don't quite know how to do. This weekends project was shelving. We have a 3 car garage. We park both of our cars inside the 2 car garage and the other garage is PACKED. I can't stand it. I found a guy giving away this shelving on craigslist for free. My Dad came up with the brilliant idea on how to hang it. Now, I need to get organized. Hence, my project for the week.

The kids took some time to look in the attic with Papa.





I just realized that my kids rarely have pants on. I don't know why that is. They take them off to go to the bathroom and they don't want them back on.

Here is the final project. The shelves run all the way around the garage. I'll be busy the next few days getting things organized.



We also fixed the shelves in our closet. They only put in a 11 inch shelf at the top of our closet. It wasn't even big enough to hold a large suitcase. So, we'd put things horizontally and hardly nothing would fit up there. We glued some plywood down on top of the shelf and it will add 5 inches which is perfect to fit what we need. Now, I have to paint it white and get all the stuff off of my closet floor.



My Dad and Suzy left Sunday at noon. At 3:00, we had a Halloween party for all the families in our Mom group. I'll have to do another post on that as I have work I need to do and it won't get done if I sit on this computer.