Happy Halloween!

Everyone,

Hope you all had a great day!

We have a ton of candy here and loving it.

Safire

18 Month Old Pictures

Everyone,

It's H week at our house. My friend Lolli had a great idea that we should take the kids hiking! Fun! I love to hike. Butterfly was a little less than thrilled with the aspect but after me telling her "We're going! End of story! Put your boots on!" she complied. Both boys, on the other hand, had me put on their shoes (Shhh??) and were pounding at the door while she dilly dallied. Did you know both the boys know where their coats are? I didn't. But I do now!

No pictures of Butterfly because she is being camera shy for me.

Also, I may not be around for the next few days. Off on an adventure!

Safire

Just a Few Admin Notes

Everyone,

I have been enjoying my forced hiatus from the blog this month. I say forced because the kids and Juice have been sick. Oh so sick too. Pigs have been mentioned but never fully diagnosed. I remained above it all (amazingly enough! Knock on wood.) but I have been buried under needy kids and a very cranky hubby. He is not a good sick person, FYI. I, in turn, have been eating too much of the Halloween candy and craving doughnuts.

What I have not been doing is checking my blog. Or really anyone's blog lately. I'll get back onto the band wagon next month. Why next month? Well, first off because it starts on Sunday! (Also, daylight savings time, yay for another hour of sleep.) And then there is this:
That's right. It's my 3rd year doing this (I think?) and I'm looking forward to it again. If anything, November will be my best documented month ever. Look for me every day in November and December because I need to challenge myself a little. I know a few people that's going to make very happy (hi Nana!) so this should be fun.

One thing I have been obsessing about lately has been a website called Swagbucks. Basically it's a search and earn site where you use their search engine and they reward you with bucks. Then you can turn in those bucks for prizes. What kind of prizes you ask? Things like electronic stuff, mp3s, gift cards, and more. I am loving the amazon gift cards. I get about $5 a week from amazon and it's been buying part of Christmas this year. Seriously, sign in here and start earning easy money!

So, let's recap. We have been sick. Everyone is feeling better (it's almost 9pm and I hear the boys and Butterfly saying, "uh-oh! uh-oh!" and laughing. They are feeling better!) and I will be writing every day soon. Also, sign up with swagbucks and earn some dough!

Everyone up to date?

Good.

Safire

Bushwacked

Everyone,

Last night as I was giving the boys a bath I was looking at the back of their necks. (They were putting their faces in the water and blowing bubbles...so cute!) I noticed that Professor had a very long tail of hair that went almost down to the base of his neck. I knew they had needed hair cuts for awhile but I had been putting it off. I don't know what got into me because the next minute I was kneeling over them with a pair of sharp scissors in my hands. Snip, off went that long tail of hair. Snip, off went the long piece of hair hanging over his ear. Snip, off went the other long piece of hair by the other ear. I was thinking I was doing pretty good at this so I decided to take some hair off the top.

Now remember that I had both boys in the tub who were playing at the moment. This is an important point.

Through the whole thing Pirate is grabbing at his hair and saying, "uh-oh!" and pointing at the scissors. So I switch over to snipping at Pirate's hair. He thought it was so funny and laughing the whole time. He thought it was time to play. So when I moved from the back of his neck to the top of his head, he was pretty high on laughter.

I pulled the hair up and went to snip. He decided to duck or squirm at that moment or something and off went A LOT of hair. Oops. It didn't look too bad but I did put the scissors away at that point.

Both boys out and running around in their froggy towel and piggy towel and straight over to their daddy. He pulled Pirate's hood down and asked me, "What did you do to his hair?" Um, yeah. It didn't look too bad when his hair was wet. Now that it's dry, it looks terrible. Professor's too.

No pictures because they are taking a really early nap. I'll try to get some after they wake up. Until then, I'm going to watch this again!

18 Months Old and Burning Up

Everyone,

This past Sunday the boys turned 18 months old! They are now closer to 2 than they are to 1 and it's exciting! I am loving this stage I think because we have two very sweet little boys. I was curious and looked back at Butterfly's 18 month old post and they are so different! Although I do have some of the same worries. I worry that the boys are not eating enough like I did with Butterfly this time in her life. I don't know why I worried, she was enormous then! The boys are tiny compared to her.

We have not gone to the doctor for their check up yet because everyone here is sick. It started out with Butterfly complaining that her tummy hurt to a full blown snot ridden week. Both the boys have raging fevers today and I am typing this with a little furnace in my lap (aka Pirate). I am pretty sure they have the flu (piggy or non, I'm not sure). Wonderfully high fevers, cough, congestion, and Butterfly and Pirate have both thrown up. Amazingly, Professor seems to be the least affected by this and is stomping around the house. He does have his binkie and cries when I take it away so I figure he can have it while he is sick.

I also have not taken their 18 month old pictures. There is no reason why they should have the glazed doughnut look and huge sunken eyes for them!

I just did a post on things they were doing a week ago but I'll update just a few things.

Professor is my sunshine. What a sweet and happy little guy he is. And he is tiny. Some of his winter clothes from last year are still fitting him. He said his first two word sentence the day before he turned 18 months old while my parents were here. We were having Chinese food for dinner and Juice was eating Lo Mien. Professor crawled into his lap, looked at the plate and said, "Noodles Mama?" It was so cute and clear. Things that he says shoes (Shhh! while chucking one at you), cheese (zzzeee? always a question), Mama (maMA!), woof woof (ufff!), dog (da!), and uh-oh (uh-oh...this one is very clear), no. He says barely a third of what Butterfly said at this stage. The county came and assessed both the boys for speech therapy but they don't qualify. Still, if they are not saying anything more in 6 months, I need to have them rechecked.

He is pushing boundaries this one and will constantly try to tip over the dog's water or climb up where he shouldn't. He almost always announces that he is going to do something by pointing at it and saying "noooooo". I'm not always around to catch that and he ends up in the toilet or on top of the table or in a heap on the floor. He loves hats and wears his Halloween costume hat around just for fun. He will come over to Butterfly and chatter to her while she tries to block him from any toys she is playing with.

Pirate is my little snuggle bug. He loves to be held by mommy, sick or not. He has the best smile and the saddest face. He is getting better at walking but still runs head first into things several times a day. He loves to hold my hand and walk around. He always beams when he is doing this like he is the most important person in the world for holding my hand. He is sensitive and has been crying when Professor or Butterfly cry in earnest. He hates diaper changes and can really lock his legs and spin himself around while changing. Makes it very difficult to change him lately!

He is not saying much. Only uh-oh. He doesn't babble a whole lot either. I'm just trying to go with it and he'll talk when he's ready. He loves to see how things work. My parents were visiting this week and he was fascinated with Grandpa's camera. Grandpa was really nice and let him use the camera a little bit. He had shutter pushing down! He's not afraid to ask you to help him with something he can't do. He loves to hold remotes while movies are playing and actually is starting to watch them now. He is great with the Wii and gets all excited when it's time to play. He loves to play peek-a-boo and to clap. He loves being the center of attention and applause. He is one tidy baby and loves to put things back into our toy bins, much to Butterfly's annoyance when she has just dumped them out to play with.

The year is flying by so fast and soon they will be 2!

Safire

Pirate Snapshots

Everyone,

Here is a similar list about Pirate.

• He is one tidy baby. I guess he's really not a baby anymore is he?! He loves to pick up things and put things away.
• He does not like to be tidy while eating. While Professor throws his food off the front of the high chair, Pirate sneaks it off the back. I just deep cleaned their high chairs (something I do about weekly?) and I found a pile of food behind his. Ick!
• He is going to be my enforcer. He already announces "uh-oh!" whenever Professor or Butterfly is into something he doesn't think they should be in.
• He is a kid of extremes. He has the best smile, the most infectious laugh, and comes at life with wide open arms. He also has the saddest face I've ever seen, a keening wail and a need to be held by me. A lot.
• He tends to hit his head or get hurt several times a day. Each time, only mommy arms will do.
  
• He has long uneven eyelashes like his Grandpa Juice (Juice's dad). His eyes are big like mine but more of a brown-y green. Butterfly's were this color at this age too. Once she hit two, her eyes deepened into the brown she has now. I imagine his will do the same.
  
• He loves to have a remote in his hand while the tv is going. This often gets interesting because he pushes buttons and I'm not quite sure what he does to the settings sometimes.

I love my little boy!

Safire

Professor Snapshots

Everyone,

I don't have enough brain power to type more than bullets so here is a little list about Professor.

• He has an adorable dimple in his little round face that goes great with his bright blue eyes.
• He needs another hair cut and is getting a little halo of blond hair around his ears. Sadly, there is no hint of curl. At all. Sorry kid.
• He has started stomping really fast if he is excited or upset. It's so completely adorable when he does it right before he runs off to see something.
• He makes sure he is in the room with me and I am looking at him before he has a temper tantrum. Complete with flopping on the floor and sobbing instantly. If I leave, he stops and comes looking for me to do it all over again.
  
• According to the ladies that came to test his hearing this morning, he has more selective hearing. He gets absorbed in something and then tunes everything out. Thanks for that Juice.
• When toys are taken from him (and they always are) he screams bloody murder. It is loud. It is piercing. It makes me want to instantly fix it. Which includes buying another of whatever they are fighting over. Right now, his favorite toys include pushing sister's doll stroller around, bouncing Daddy's soccar ball, any sort of utensil makes a good sword, and cars. The stroller regularly gets a time out. Poor stroller. It's just too much fun!
• He knows where his shoes are. When he wants to go outside, you better watch out! He chucks his shoes, Pirate's shoes, and mine at me when he's ready to go outside. He also holds up each foot to have his shoe put on and checks the velcro before going outside.

He is my little sunshine!

Safire

Crazy Monday

Everyone,

Today started off with a hasty and cool walk to a school and ended with a sob. There was everything and anything in between. Want to know the details?

So, this morning Lala calls me to tell me her daughter (just a few weeks older than my boys) had to be rushed to the doctor for some tummy trouble. Her hubby just pulled a double all night shift (working from 4pm-8am) and she needed me to watch Vinny. Vinny is in school and was supposed to be there right as soon as she needed to be at the doctor's. Since we live near his school, I just offered to drop him off this morning. Butterfly was in heaven. They had so much fun scampering together to school and Vinny knew right where to go. I got to have some exercise, the dog got out, it was a win/win for everyone I think. It was also really refreshing to walk to school and then walk home with all my children. I don't know why but it put me in a holiday mood. I'm sure I will have more of a holiday mood when all my kids are in school and I can actually think through the day but today was sweet. I enjoyed having everyone home.

I've been dying to try my hand at making sesame noodles but I was missing some ingredients. I knew my regular grocery store didn't have them, so off to the Asian market. Lala was able to come along, minus sick daughter (who napped at home). We lingered in the store and watched crabs attack each other in the pot and then people attack the crabs to take them home. We watched poor fish swim in tanks and marveled that you can actually buy frozen ox blood to eat. Ugh. Butterfly picked out a very bright pink bucket of cookies with sayings in a language I can't even guess at. That's what she had for lunch. Very nutritious.

We stopped by the drug store and the home goods store and the bank but had to come home because my boys were asleep. Everyone napped and I tried to clean before they woke up.

And they woke up hungry! So in between rushing around trying to feed them, keep them from killing each other over the doll stroller, I am trying to get Butterfly ready for dance class. Juice was kind enough to come home and watch the boys while I took her to dance class. My friend K and her daughter were there as always, but she was also baby-less. The hour flew by as we sat and chatted in the coffee shop. So nice!

I came home to a partially burned dinner (apparently Juice is not too great at multitasking). Dinner, FHE, bedtime (which Butterfly did not want to do and ended up crying over) and cleaning. It's now 9pm and the first time I've had a chance to sit down.

I'm tired.

Safire

Catching Up

Everyone,

Well, obviously I am being a bad blogger. I have no excuses but three small ones that I have to keep safe. And clean. And fed. Especially fed. They do not like having empty stomachs.

So, let's play catch up! Here is my calender that I write everything down on and here are some quick highlights of the past few weeks.

Saturday Sept 19th we went to Mt. Vernon to their fall festival. It was a lot of fun until they shot off the cannon and scared the boys. Also, they were hungry. They had some awesome people dressed in period costumes selling stuff and the regiment patrolling the ground. This is why we were talking about artillery during A week. Professor spilled hot chocolate all down his shirt here and I still can't get it out. Any ideas?

We had D week which was loads of fun! We talked about Dalmatians, dragons, dinosaurs, did a lot of dot to dots, had a date with Daddy to go visit the dogs (they went to the local pet shop and pet the puppies), and Lolli, AJ and me and Butterfly (no boys, they stayed home with Daddy) went to get doughnuts and feed the ducks.

We went apple picking. We brought home 6 huge bags full of apples. Much thanks to my friend Lala (not Lolli) who was kid less that day and climbed up in the trees to get the apples. I would say this day was kind of a bust because I had zero fun. Maybe I'll do it again when the boys are 4 which is in about 3 years. Still, it was an experience and I'm glad I went!

We had another letter week, T this time in honor of the Christmas Train that came through town. It was promoting the new Christmas Carol movie and it was really fun. And free! We had a great time riding the train down there, and back and lunch at the train station. Such fun! We also watched Tarzan, read books on toys and trains and turkeys, and even made our own turkey out of a toilet paper roll. I had a bunch of word find stuff I got at the Christmas Train and asked her to find all the T's instead of all the words. It's now her favorite thing and begs me to print off more from the computer.

We've been going to the PRC a lot lately, at least once a week. It's a lot more stressful than when I just had Butterfly going there. She is great and can do whatever she pleases while she is there. But the boys want to dump the gravel on the ground or touch some one's newly painted picture with their hands or eat play dough... I go because I think it will be good for them one day but man am I tired after. The teachers even take pity on me and shut the gravel play area while we are there. Otherwise I spend the entire time sweeping.

I got together with my friend Lala and we did a marathon bake with all those apples we picked. We made pizza pockets, small apple pies, and more. It was yummy and fun and my feet and calves ached for days after. But now I have some easy stuff in my freezer. I also spent most of the day yesterday while listening to conference making apple sauce. I really need to learn how to can the stuff because right now, it is filling up my fridge!

This up coming week is going to be hectic. Not only do I have something written down for every single day (even Saturday and Sunday!), but I am preparing for my parents visit next week. I am still trying to organize all my pictures so I don't have any today. I've got to come up with a better system but I just can't seem to keep on top of it.

Life is full and rich. I'm loving it and it makes me sleep well at night. I have so many projects swirling though. I've taken to making lists before I go to bed, only to add to them in the morning. I'm trying to focus on the pictures right now, which means I have neglected my email/blog/computer related stuff lately. So sorry if you haven't heard from me!

Hopefully I'll make some time for the blog at least.

Safire