Five on Friday

1. I'm in love with the mums on our front porch. I finally figured out the secret to them not blowing over in the wind. Buy huge ones. They are more expensive but so worth it. They make a huge difference and they are just my type of flower, virtually indestructible. The kids love to water them and everyday Christian points out the hole that is in the purple one where he got off balance and fell in the flowers."Mama! Hole!"


2. Excited to report that I have started Christmas shopping! and somehow this has to coincide with the fact that I haven't finished birthday shopping for my Mom, Dad & brother whose birthdays are in August. I LOVE shopping for my kids for Christmas. It is going to take great deal of restriant this year because they are really starting to get it, but our house is bursting at seams right now.


3. Crossing my fingers that I can find what I want my kids to take in for Halloween treats for their party. I think it will be ring pops, pez dispensers and fun dip. I know since I already have the idea I won't be able to find fun dip anywhere or pez dispensers at a reasonable price. I never have ideas ahead of time and when I do nothing works out.


4. For every "professional " photo shoot we have attempted Kamryn has thrown a tantrum. HUGE meltdowns. I thought when we sat for a family portrait it would be different because I would be holding her. Wrong. I have learned that whatever I think will happen..is wrong. Even holding her produced crying and screaming. I was sure that the school pictures would be more of the same. So when I picked her up form school on picture day I was sure what the report would be. -cross your fingers for the make up session-. Well was I wrong. She did great AND smiled. Who knew. Christian had a harder time. The photographers set up in the gym where the kids never go so they were a little freaked out. Christian has tears and half a smile. Kamryn did a little better than that. I wonder if they are over their "photo shoot phobia" ? The Christmas card shoot is right around the corner.
5. I have to admit it is a struggle but I am doing my best to let the kids choose their own Halloween costumes this year. I have a hundred ideas of what they could be. There are so many cute ideas for two. I really wanted them to be Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. There are alot of cute Red Riding Hood costunes out there and no wolf costumes for toddlers. Good thing though....Dan brought to my attention that Christian would refuse anything on his head anyway. So they did choose their own costumes anyway...(kind of) and its for the best. They fully understand Halloween so they are even more into it since they could choose their own costume. They studied the Party City catalog for weeks. They were obsessed with it!!

Rough Day

I picked Christian up from school on Thursday and he was so excited to show me his very first band aid. He pointed to it and then he immediately wanted to take it off. He had a hard day though with two trips to the nurses office. I guess he fell over a chair and got a mark on his cheek which I never did see and then he scraped his knee on the playground. So on the way to the car he kept trying to take off the band aid...but he never ended up getting around to it. It was a rough and tumble day.

Thomas the Train Bandaid

Moving Right Along

I guess my method of operation is do what I need to do and I can always go back and fix it later. Like shove this pile of papers here and go thru them later. Fold the laundry (or my mom folds the laundry) and put it away later...and then it never gets put away because time catches up and its time to wear it again before I ever got around to putting it away. And here on my blog I have all of these posting ideas and I think I can just back date them for later. Like the Mothers's day post, the balloon post I was going to do -this and that.

But right now life is moving right along changing day by day and minute by minute and if I don't write this stuff down I will probably forget by the time 4 more months rolls around and I try to do 10 posts in a row. So I am just going to have to settle for out of order.

So the kids started a specialized preschool program to help with their Apraxia. Its called Summit and they have been going 5 days a week since April 19th. Over the last couple of days we have started to reap the rewards. This past Monday I was sleeping during the day (cause I work during the night) and I woke up after the kids ate dinner. So I go down stairs and play with /hug/kiss/talk to them. I ask Christian "What did you have for dinner?' He says" Ehh" (eggs). "really" I say. "Good job buddy" I said (for saying/ attempting the word egg). And then I always try to include Kamryn even though she never says anything. So I said "Kamryn, what did you have for dinner? " and she SAID "aehhh". SHE SAID IT. She answered a question!! This is so huge!

Also it seems like every day Christian says a new word. Alot of the time it is the word dead on and sometimes it is an approximation of the word. Its pretty exciting when a new word comes out of nowhere and it is so cool when he spontaneously says something. Like the other day we were driving along the river and out of nowhere he says "wah-ter". Today he said boo-boo and knee--cause that is where his boo boo is. I want to be able to look back and measure his progress so here is a list of words that Christian can say so far:

Mama

Dada

Papa

Nana

Bah loon

Wah-ter

Knee

Teacher

Cracker

Boo Boo

Blue

Geeeen -for green

car

baby

I did it

Oh No

No

Whoa Baby

Up

Tight

Help

Eye

Ball

Pooper (Cooper)

Pup-ple ( Purple)

Wed (red)

Two

and Kamryn can say Ahh, a soft mm and put her lips together for the mm and p. Right now she is just practicing turning her voice on.

Sesame Street Live!

I don't think anything we said could have prepared the kids what they were in for when we went to see Sesame Street Live on Wednesday. We kept telling them that we were going to go see Big Bird and Elmo and they always nodded their heads that they wanted to go see them. I really wasn't sure what their reaction would be. That's why I went with the Wednesday night deal. Opening night tickets were only $10 so if they were freaked out we could always leave if we needed to and be okay with it. So first we went to Tully's where they had a kids pay what they weigh promotion and then we were off to the show. We were so excited to see their faces!! Here they are before we left. Kamryn holding her ear is becoming her new signature. Her finger isn't in her ear -just touching the top. She has a think for wrinkles and "bubbles" in her clothes-she plays with them constantly so may the ear is just another one of those.

Here is walking into Shea's --so beautiful.

Dan and Christian before the show.

The kids were terrified and fascinated at the same time.

As soon as the first character appeared Christian started signing all done like crazy and Kamryn buried her head in my shoulder for the next 10 minutes. Finally she turned around and couldn't take her eyes away and started pointing at Big Bird-her fave- and Elmo. Our seats were in the third row off to the left so they could see everything great. Except when you are in the third row that is right next tot he speaker so every time there was a song or a dance that's when they would cry because it was so loud. At intermission they got Elmo light up spinners that cured everything and by the end of the show Kamryn was waving to all the characters spontaneously without my prompting. Overall we had the best time and can't wait to go back. I think in another year they wont be afraid anymore. The next day they agreed that they wanted to go see Big Bird and Elmo again.

Dan is 40!

Dan turned 40 on March 4th. I think we are all still in shock. Dan is currently working on getting in the best shape of his life though and he has his sights set on running a half marathon in the near future. He really enjoys running and hopefully he will have at least 40 more birthdays. 40 seems old but when you think it could be less than half of your life, it puts things in a new perspective.

Happy Birthday Dan!!! we love you!

I made the cake above at Dan's request. It is our favorite cake. I dont think we will ever get sick of it. We don't have it often but it is so worth it when we do. Soon I will post the recipe on my recipe blog.

Tyler's 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday baby Tyler!!! We went to a great birthday party to celebrate Tyler turning 1 with lots of balloons and lots of our favorite Great Northern Pizza Kitchen pizza. We had a great time and the best part is watching Tyler's personality really pop out. He is such a cute little boy full of smiles that light up the room.

This cake stuff is some serious business!

Best Dressed @ The Bunny Bunch

Some of the teachers at daycare joke that Kamryn is the "best dressed"

cute reindeer boots

Ei Ei Yiiiii it is hard to dress such a little fashion diva.

The pressure is on every morning now that its not just daycare or school as we call it.

Its a Fashion Show.