Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am wearing green....are you?

I am 50% Irish.
My mom was born in Ireland

Kyle calls Ireland "Irish-land"
It is cute.

I am making Irish Soda Bread today. Yum.
I plan to serve some green things for dinner: broccoli, asparagus, green milk, pea pods, etc.

Photos of my kids wearing green......to come later

did you know....

*Mac and Cheese makes a wonderful hair gel
*It is very difficult to find 2 K's, and 2 E's in the entire box of ABC cookies from Trader Joes
*I had to buy two sets of foam bath letters so that I could spell "Kyle and Kaden" on the wall
*I am terrified to take my 17 month old on an airplane next month
*The Imagination Movers CD has some very catchy tunes on it
*You can lose 6.6 pounds in 10 days when you cut out sugar, salt, carbs, and caffeine
*It is very hard to cut out sugar, salt, carbs, and caffeine...all at the same time!
*When you try to do this....even a fishy cracker sounds delicious!

just a few things floating through my head today.

oh, and the house is now decorated for St. Patrick's Day- Kiss ME! I'm IRISH!

confessions of an overwhelmed mama

confession # 1: I am an overwhelmed mama

-sometimes I put Kaden in the bathtub just so he can be contained in one place for more than 20 seconds

-sometimes I let Kyle watch "just one more show" so that I can get something done

-I used to be organized....then I had kids

-I wish I could be home....by myself....at least 1 hour per week!

-Right now, my house looks like a tornado just hit it

-I love my kids, but being a stay at home mommy is the HARDEST job I have ever had!

No More "Turning" Wheels

I am a proud MaMa
Kyle is officially a big boy bike rider. He is no longer in need of his training wheels (he calls them "turning" wheels)
He has been ready to take them off for quite a while now, but was lacking the confidence to do it. He is not a big fan of "change" so that was the difficult part for him.
Our neighbor boys (Ethan, Caleb, and Greyson) all ride without training wheels so Kyle was motivated to be like them. :)
As soon as he decided to do it and Troy took them off....he was fine.
Off he went.
He never even fell down.
I can't believe my baby is so big! Way to go Kyle!


Daddy giving Kyle a "pep" talk before he rides


Kyle- sit on the seat not the front wheel :)



Ready to go!

Video of his first time riding without training wheels

Yeah!

3 years later

I have not blogged in a long time. Sorry for that. I have not really been myself lately....so here I go....trying to be more like myself.

For some reason, I enjoy taking photos of Kyle and then re-creating the same photo with Kaden at the same age. Here is my latest work:


Ethan and Kyle March 2008



Kaden Feb. 2011
Same hat, same monkey shirt

I love my little monkeys!

my little artist

Kyle decided he wanted to draw a picture of our family.
He did a great job!
I am really impressed.
He is not really "into" coloring so he does not draw very much.
I was surprised at the amount of detail he was able to do.

I put a big piece of paper on the floor in the garage.




Working hard on every detail. Check out how long our arms are!



The finished product.





Do we really look like this?





He even got every one's height correct.
Daddy is the tallest and Kaden is the smallest.
So cute!
I am a proud mama (and kindergarten teacher)

Happy Halloween

When I was a child, Halloween was a 1 day event. For some reason, Halloween has become a month-long celebration. My kids have been to parties, church events, birthday parties (Halloween themed), Preschool Harvest parties, multiple pumpkin farms, etc.
Kyle had 3 costumes this year. (I only bought 1)
He was a Jedi at a birthday party and for trick-or-treating....Thanks Tanya for making the costumes for Deek's birthday!
Kyle was a Knight and Kaden was a dragon *these are the "original" costumes that we planned on
Kyle had a Harvest Party at school and could not be anything scary or violent...so I did not let him have his Knight sword or his Light Saber...so he was a lion.
Kaden was a monkey for that party :)
We went to Bellingham to spend the day at MiMi and PaPa's. We dressed in costumes and attempted to get photos with our baby cousin, Owen. It is very challenging to get a good photo of a stubborn 4 year old, a wiggly 1 year old and a 2 month old who cannot sit up :)
this is the best we could do....not bad.


Kyle, Kaden, Owen...our little Halloween boys!



A good one of the two littles



Smiley Mr. Dragon Boy...he ATE (literally) the pumpkin sitting on his left. Took bites out of it and swallowed them!




The Knight Slaying the Dragon
(this was taken before our Church Family Night)





A Lion and a Monkey...ready for preschool party....well...they need to get shoes on :)

All in all....it has been a fun month...but I am glad to see October go and November come!
I am exhausted.
I need a vacation....good thing we leave for Cabo in 1 week!!!! (Minus kiddos)