2054 Miles

Pinteractive: A New 'Do

2012-02-20T09:32:00.000-06:00

I have a confession to make: until last week, I hadn't gotten my hair cut in almost a year. The stylist I've been going to ever since I moved to Iowa had a baby last spring and decided she wanted to stay home with him. Having done the same thing myself, I totally understood but I was really sad to lose Abby. She was so wonderful- great cuts and color, nice and she always started by massaging some deliciously scented oil into my head. And she looked like Genevieve Gorder and Penny from Lost's (who apparently is really Sonya Walger) little sister. Anyhow, it was time to suck it up and find a new stylist. I did a little internet researching and finally settled a new girl at a new salon- mainly picking her because she had cute hair, no complaints, and the same name as my sister. Once I was scheduled with her it was on to picking the style. Hello, Pinterest! Let's see what I could find.

First up was the previous style I had and really liked, inspired by Jennifer Nettles-

Source: thehairstyler.com via Shelby on Pinterest

Love it but was wondering if maybe I should try something else this time. So I started pinning a bunch of things I found on Pinterest and out wandering the web. These were some of my faves-

Source: google.com via Shelby on Pinterest

Source: stylebistro.com via Shelby on Pinterest

Source: zimbio.com via Shelby on Pinterest

Besides them all being blonde, a definite theme was emerging. Side-swept bangs with a messy layered bob kind of look. So that's what I went with. The stylist did it very straight with a flat-iron which looked good but I'm more of a messy, go-with-the-flow girl so this is how it looks when I do it up-

It somehow looks kind of frizzy in the picture which I don't think it looks like at all. But you get the idea. It is pretty easy to style in the morning but it's only been a few days so I'm still getting the hang of it. Loving it so far though! It was long overdue and I'm so glad I finally got it cut. Oh, and Megan was great too so yay for finding a new stylist!

In other Pinteractive news, I tried this slow cooker sesame chicken recipe that Shannon pinned as well as a tip that you can shred chicken with your KitchenAid mixer. I was skeptical on the mixer (using paddle attachment) being able to shred chicken but it totally works- in about 20 seconds too. Awesome. So a big thanks to Shannon for the tip and for helping me find a new tasty recipe for chicken! Yay for Pinteractive!!

Paging Dr. Rex

2012-02-13T14:43:00.000-06:00

We had another emergency this morning that required medical attention- George hurt his foot. At least that was Rex's diagnosis. It's snowing out today and it didn't seem like a good idea to drive in this kind of weather so it was up to Dr. Rex to get the monkey's foot fixed.

First he had to clamp it_

Next a little suction-

Then the drilling began-

I guess things got a little dicey at that point because he reached for the phone to consult with "Dr. Flimp" (which is what he calls his pediatrician, Dr. Smith).

I'm not real sure what they discussed but apparently George needed to relax on a monkey pillow pet and have Turner the screwdriver shoved up his nose. Not sure how this fixes a monkey's foot but clearly I'm not the expert here. Looks like Rex was expecting it to get a little messy at this point since he decided to add the full face splash shield.

So that was our morning. I'm thinking doctor set for Rex's birthday because the medical treatment one receives here is pretty sketchy. Would you want your doctor coming at you with a welding mask, power drill, Black & Decker clamp, and a Handy Manny screwdriver? I sure wouldn't.

Getting Pinteractive With My BFF

2012-02-13T13:54:00.001-06:00

Like Nanette, I love, love, love, love Pinterest. I think it is wonderful because I can take all the fabulous ideas I come across and store them all in one place. Oh how I love organization! No more thinking, "I loved that paint color I saw in that one living room- now which website was I looking at when I saw it?" Even when I could remember where I saw it, I sometimes had trouble finding the exact photo/recipe/craft/whatever it was I wanted. It is also so helpful with the hubs. Sometimes I have ideas in my head of things I want to do to our house and I use Pinterest to find something similar to show him. It works much better than explaining- he doesn't always seem to get my vision. And I can't draw for anything so Pinterest is oh-so-helpful.

Nanette has started a "Pinteractive" link-up party where she is challenging people to make or do things they have pinned and then share your projects. I thought that would be good motivation for me to tackle some things I have been wanting to do. I realized though in going through my pins, that I do a good job of following through- especially when it comes to the recipes. I didn't get a chance to make anything for this inaugural Pinteractive edition but I thought I could go through some of the things I've done so far.

Crafts:

I have tried only one thing exactly and it came out rough. I'm not very artistic but found a project (inspired by another Pinterest challenge) where you stick stickers on a canvas and then spray paint over to do some artwork. I thought it would be great to try this for some cheap Christmas artwork for the house. It turned out so bad.

The paint got under the stickers and kind of glued them to the canvas and it just turned into one big hot mess. The silver background one wasn't so bad and I actually did put that one up. I had much better success using some Halloween wreaths I found on Pinterest for inspiration and then making my own.

Decor:

I have pinned a lot of things for seasonal decor inspiration but am now moving onto bedroom decor for all 3 of our bedrooms. First up is the master bedroom because there have been some attempts at the boys' rooms already and we deserve something next. I love this color scheme:

Source: bowerpowerblog.com via Shelby on Pinterest

We already had stuff in the room in a similar green so now I'm just trying to add the navy blue. I want to paint the wall our headboard is on too. I plan on making this one of my Pinteractive projects but it's going to be a while still before I'm ready to share I think. Mostly because it's going to be a while still before it is warm enough so that we can paint.

Recipes:

I have found some really good things on here, some interesting and some not-so-good. First of all, this pizza dip is so incredibly delicious.

Source: closetcooking.com via Shelby on Pinterest

I had two chicken dishes that didn't go over too great in our house- baked fried chicken and country farm chicken casserole. I love this list of chicken recipes I found though and I'll keep trying things from it. I'm sure I'll find some winners.

I really want to try the homemade twix and homemade pop tarts so be looking for the results on those soon in one of my upcoming Pinteractive posts.

Source: notwithoutsalt.com via Shelby on Pinterest

Source: bakememore.com via Shelby on Pinterest

Hair:

I am going to get my haircut on Wednesday so I think I'll save this one for next week's Pinteractive post! But here are my ideas.

The First ER Trip

2012-02-03T08:49:00.000-06:00

Having two boys, I knew I would be making at least one trip to the local ER at some point. Let's be realistic- it will almost certainly be more than one trip. Trip number 1turned out to be this past Tuesday night. Rob had bought an apple pie at the store earlier in the day and Rex had been eyeballing the thing all day/night. He wanted a piece as soon as Rob brought it home but we told him to wait until after dinner. He kept asking for some and then finally we told him okay, it was time for pie. Rex took off from the family room and headed for the kitchen like a shot. In his excitement, he bumbled the one step up from the family room into the rest of the house and hit his chin really hard. It was gushing blood. A lot of blood. We knew it was serious. There was even one point where his eyes were kind of rolling back in his head and he was hyperventilating. Rob got him calmed down and then the bleeding stopped. I think that was the point where Rob and I finally started breathing again. Now we could get a peek at it but it was a big ol' mess and hard to see what was going on. Even though it was barely bleeding and we couldn't see the wound real well, we thought it was still a good idea to take him to the ER. Rex and I changed our bloody clothes and got in the car and headed to the hospital. We were seen right away, which was awesome, and it turned out that Rex definitely needed 2 or 3 stitches. He did really good with everyone looking at it, cleaning it and even applying the numbing gel that had to sit there for about 20 minutes. The actual stitches part wasn't too good- he kept yelling at them "Done! Done!" The doctor and nurses were awesome with him and got him all put back together very nicely and quickly (though Rex would probably tell you it took forever).

We finally got home a little after 10:00 p.m. and he got his pie. He really wasn't that into the pie (not surprising) at that point so we put him to bed and he was out. The stitches will come out on their own in a week or so. So glad we don't have to go back and have them taken out. Keeping Rex from playing with the stitches is a full-time job for me now. The thing I keep thinking about is that step and how many discussions Rob and I had before building it to make sure it was as safe as we could make it. There was a LOT of time spent designing that step and it still ended up being a danger. Anyhow, I hope we are done with the ER for a long time now and I am glad it wasn't a broken bone that we were there for. At least this time.

Five

2012-02-02T14:12:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe it has already been five years since this-

It seems like it was just maybe a year or two ago. But then I think about all the changes in our lives that we've made since then and I realize it is amazing how much we have crammed into those five years! New state, new jobs (then quit my job to stay home), new house, lots of remodeling to house and, best of all, two new kids. Whew. That's a lot. I really love being married to Rob. He makes me laugh every day and I have so much fun with him. He's a great partner and I can't believe how lucky I am. I just think he is the greatest thing ever. He's a wonderful father too and the boys just love him to pieces. It's amazing that we turned this happy couple (picture from our first anniversary when I was about 4 months pregnant with Rex)-

Into a happy family of 4-

It's been a fun and adventurous start to our life together and I can't wait to see what the next 50 or so years have for us!

Take It Easy

2012-01-22T15:17:00.000-06:00

I know I have been a bad blogger this month but I have been on a reading binge lately. It seems I have spent all my free time reading books this month and very little doing anything else. I've read all 3 of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series (soo sooo good) and then some from the Rizzoli and Isles series (also good but not addictive like the Stieg Larsson ones). So anyhow, I would recommend them all and that's mostly what I have been up to for January.

We did take our first family vacation last weekend. Finally. We went to Honey Creek Resort in southeast Iowa. I got us one of their little cottages to stay in for a few nights which worked out really well.

They are basically like a little tract house- ours had two bedrooms and two baths, a full kitchen, dining area and living room. It was really nice but I had a few concerns. Wyatt had never slept anywhere besides our house and I was nervous about him sleeping in the pack & play. And he had to share a room with Rex. Looks like it went okay.

They both did really good with sharing a room and sleeping in beds other than their own. The other major concern was childproofing of the cabin. I brought some doorknob covers, knowing that would be my biggest battle. Of course, all the doors had lever-type handles and my covers only fit the standard round ones. Ugh. Here they are, trying to make a break for it.

And this doesn't look like much of a problem, does it?

What could be wrong with standing on the oven door?? Oh my. It was a challenging trip but we had fun too at the waterpark and playing around in our cottage.

It snowed a little while we were there and that was kind of fun too. Everything was fine on the drive there and back. It snowed some more this week and Rob finally had to break out the snowblower.

Today is brutal though- freezing rain. That is the worst. Driving in snow= not so great. Driving on ice= crashing and bad things. So we are staying put for today and probably tomorrow (except for Rob going to work). Looks like it should be warm and sunny enough on Tuesday to get rid of this crap. I still have two more books from the library though so I am set! The boys will definitely be stir-crazy by then so we'll for sure have to get out and do something on Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a great weekend and Go Niners!

To 2012- More Fun. Less Work.

2012-01-06T13:39:00.001-06:00

2011 is over and man am I glad about that. It was a tough year. Rob has been working on a multi-year project that is just about wrapping up now but it was a lot of workin' last year for him. And when he wasn't doing that, he was doing the family room. In 2011, we went on zero vacations. I haven't been anywhere overnight away from the house since I was in the hospital giving birth to Wyatt. WOW. He's nearly 20 months old, by the way. No one else has gone anywhere either, it's not like I just got left out. All we did in 2011 was work our butts off, especially Rob. Rob and I had a little funtime drinks at home on New Year's Eve and he asked me to make the toast and this is what I said, "To 2012- More fun. Less work." We have some small projects for the house this year but most of them involve painting and/or organizing. The biggest thing we need to get done is get a new garage door and garage door opener installed but we will be hiring that out. Too much work. So to sum up 2011, good year but not enough fun. Looking to turn that around for 2012.

The weather this winter has been crazy. It's snowed twice, maybe three times, and nothing has stayed on the ground. It is warm here- many of our highs for December and January have been in the 40s and 50s. Yesterday, according to the thermometer in our backyard, it got up to 61 degrees. 61 degrees on January 5th!!!! That is nuts. The boys and I took a walk and ran around in the backyard all afternoon. It was awesome.

There has been a lot of playing with all the Christmas gifts around here. It is a lot of fun for me to just sit back and see what they come up with. Like this first picture here...

Working on Tiny with his Handy Manny tools-

Modeling their Spiderman jammies-

Apparently, Wyatt got the power to scale buildings (and beds) with his jammies-

And here is Rex, using the train table as a desk so he can color on his new Cars coloring book-

It's going to be a busy, busy weekend around here for Rob and I don't think we'll be seeing much of him. My plans for the weekend are just to do whatever he needs us to do and help him so he can wrap up this work project and be done with it on Monday. And then we can start looking at what to do for a vacation- Yay!!

Christmas Fun

2011-12-29T19:49:00.004-06:00

We have had a very busy few weeks around here, just like everyone else I'm sure. One thing I didn't do too much of this year though was baking. I just wasn't into making the batches and batches of cookies like I usually do. Here I am with the boys making my one and only batch of eggnog sugar cookies for the year.

My cookie decorator decided to help himself to a few while he was supposed to be working.

It was fun this year because Rex finally understood the whole Santa thing. Even better was that we could now use that as a way to get him to behave a little better for a few weeks anyhow. I only got a few photos of the boys in their matching pajamas on Christmas morning because as soon as Rex saw his new Curious George shirt in his stocking, he took off to put that on and the cute Christmas jammies were over.

Opening stockings and playing with one of the many new Handy Manny toys-

Playing with the new train table from Santa-

More Handy Manny toys (that is Felipe in Wyatt's hand)-

Modeling the new Curious George shirt I mentioned and his brother's new Cars sunglasses-

Opening more presents-

Almost done-

It took forever to get all the presents opened. Every birthday and Christmas I think, "Okay- now is the time they are finally going to just tear into all the presents and it will just be a present frenzy." Still hasn't happened. My boys like to open something and then play with it. And then after a while, maybe they'll open something else. Maybe not. It is tiring and takes so long. So you will probably notice the still unopened packages on the shelf behind the couch which sat there for quite a while. They did manage to get everything opened by lunchtime I think but I stopped photographing at this point because I was over it. We cooked a beef tenderloin for dinner which was fantastic and just had a fun and low-key day at the house by ourselves. Although we did miss our families a lot, we got to Skype with quite a few people which helps.

One strange thing about our Christmas was not having any snow on the ground. Our winter has been so bizarre here. I think it has snowed just twice and both times it was very little and melted quickly. We have lots of highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s. It has even been in the 50s this week. I ran out to get the trash can at the curb today with no shoes or jacket on and I was totally fine. Normally I think my feet would have frozen to the driveway if I tried that at the end of December. I imagine our good fortune here with the weather will run out eventually but we are enjoying it as long as we can get it!

The Penultimate Family Room Project Update

2011-12-11T11:10:00.001-06:00

So, here it is. Finally. After nearly 6 months. The almost done family room.

Ta da! We still need to stain and paint some trimwork and cover the spot where the air conditioning unit will go and put wood covers over the metal shelving. But that's it! We have been enjoying the new space a lot. In fact, Rex keeps asking to go play in the basement and I just don't ever want to go down there because I love being in the family room so much. We incorporated toy storage behind the couch as you can see in the last picture so he has things to play with- don't feel too bad for him. I realize it's not as much fun for him as the basement but for now, I just want to be in the new space that we've worked so hard on for so long.

We moved a lot of the furniture from the living room out there so now the living room looks kind of empty.

It's hard to really get a feel for just how sparse it is from the picture but let me tell you, with only two chairs and an end table (we have moved that old record player out now too) in a room that is about 24 by 14 feet, it feels mighty empty in there. This morning we moved everything else out and did the super-clean on the floors. Now Rob got distracted watching The Polar Express with Rex so we will start working on it again in a little while. We put some new lighting up last night and now we need to bring the dining table and chairs and the loveseat back upstairs. They had been banished to the basement for storage because there wasn't enough room for everything before the family room was finished. Once we get that all done, I will put up some pictures of how our new living and dining area turns out.

And before I wrap this up, I would like to follow up on a few things from my last post. The Disney Store is sending out the Mickey Mouse that I ordered (yay!) though it is questionable if it will be here in time for Christmas (boo!). They also told me to keep the wall border and donate it to my favorite charity. Since there are toy donation things all over the place, I plan on dropping it off at one of those. My disappointing fresh garland continues to disappoint. A week after putting it up, it is all dried out and droopy and nasty. We took it all down this morning because it was so bad. I guess my comment on fresh garland would be this: Only use it outdoors. Maybe, maybe, if you live somewhere you don't have to use a heater much you could have it indoors. I learned my lesson though and I will be picking up some fake stuff at the after-Christmas sales.

And here is a funny picture I took of my boys this week in their awesome big and little brother t-shirts just because.

Do you see the problem here?

2011-12-06T14:27:00.001-06:00

I have begun my Christmas shopping and would like to get it all done by the end of this weekend. We'll see. I'm not doing too good so far though with it- check this out.

So instead of the crocheted Mickey Mouse I ordered for Wyatt, I got peel and stick Fantastic 4 wall borders. Or maybe it's all the Marvel Heroes, I guess. It doesn't really matter though because it is not appropriate for my almost 19 month old son. Someday, it would be awesome. But not right now. Now I get to fix Christmas gift orders in addition to trying to finish my shopping. Geez.

Things around here are really good besides that. Rob spent the weekend hooking up all the electronic stuff in the family room.

We have the tv and all related equipment out there now as well as our couch, chair and some other furniture. I need to take more pictures of the family room and what's going on with the living room too but that will have to be for the next posting. We put up an artificial tree in the family room with some cheap little decorations and hopefully it will all be little boy proof because they were all over it as soon as it went up.

The decorations and tree are holding up pretty good so far. It is really nice not having to worry about them spilling water out of the tree stand so that right there makes the artificial tree worth it. Generally, I despise them but for now, it works much better for our family. I got some fresh garland and put it up around the house hoping that would bring in that wonderful Christmas tree smell but as it turns out, not so much. It looks good though even if it doesn't have that wonderful tree smell I was wanting.

It snowed the other day a little bit and Rex couldn't wait to get out in it. He tried to catch it in his mouth and even make snow angels.

I didn't tell him to do either of those things either. He just went for it. I laughed so hard when he tried to do the snow angels. I told him he was going to need a little more snow on the ground for that to work. We still haven't had too much at this point but I'm sure he will get the chance to do snow angels before too long.

Since I am always the photographer, I rarely manage to get in the pictures but here are some I got lately with my boys.

In the snow with Rex-

Hanging out with Wyatt-

Well, I think I will go contact Disney customer service now and see about getting a Mickey Mouse doll instead of the Marvel Heroes' wall border. Wish me luck!

Let's Eat Turkey From My Big Brown Shoe

2011-11-25T14:30:00.001-06:00

When I went out to pick up the pumpkin pie Wednesday evening, I overheard a kid (probably about 10-12 years old) tell his dad, "They don't have any Thanksgiving songs." I missed everything else in the conversation so I'm not sure what brought that statement up but I wanted to tell him, "Oh sweetheart, you are too young to know but there is a totally awesome Thanksgiving song out there." I blame the parents for not raising the boy right. Then again, he may have been a bit young to hear that song just yet. My title for this posting is a line from the song, just in case you thought I actually ate Thanksgiving dinner from a brown shoe.

Rob smoked a whole turkey in our smoker and it came out good. I made most everything else to go with it, except the pie. I never make the pie. I have so much else to do and I know I can buy one that will be much better than what I can make so I just do that. Here's the bird.

It looks different when it comes out of a smoker compared to oven so if you might be thinking it looks burnt, it is not. It was perfect. Here are the guys all having a drink and waiting for me to stop taking pictures and sit down so they can start eating.

And the aftermath.

Everything is cleaned up pretty good by now but man, what a mess! It was a wonderful day- I think it was supposed to be 68 degrees! I don't think it maybe got that warm but it was definitely in the 60's which is strange (it set the record for a high) and awesome. So we had a very nice Thanksgiving here at our house.

I have been looking forward to today so that I can start my Christmas decorating for probably a month now. And now that the day is here, I haven't done hardly any decorating. My big issue is that I hate to put anything up now when everything is going to change so much in the next week. Our tv mount gets here on Wednesday and that should be the day we move everything into the new family room. AND I'm trying to convince Rob to paint the living room after we move the furniture out so I can't really decorate in either of those rooms. I did manage to finish up the wreath I was making and I hung it on our front door today.

Hopefully I will be putting up some new pictures next week with everything in our new room and then later after it gets decorated too!

Move In Ready... Almost

2011-11-22T10:12:00.001-06:00

This weekend, it was finally time to remove the door between the new family room and the rest of the house. Rob and I removed the door then Rob knocked the frame out but left the final blow for his number one assistant.

Rex thought it was all his doing that got the frame out which he just loved. We did that Friday night and then Saturday and Sunday Rob put up all the new trim around the door and finished the step (it was just the bare 2 x 4's up until then). The room is pretty much move-in ready now.

I say "pretty much" move-in ready because we do still have the electrician coming to finish up the electrical work so we can get the tv and related tv/audio equipment installed. The big hole to the right of the fireplace is for the air conditioning unit but we will just be covering it up with some artwork until next spring when we are ready to purchase the unit. All the oak trim at the doorway and around the fireplace still needs to be stained and we have to figure out what we are doing for shelves for the cable box, dvd player and audio equipment. So there are a few minor things to take care of but I am hopeful that we will be able to be sitting out there and watching tv by this time next week. We've been having fun playing soccer and just running around in the big empty room though too.

I have been getting ready for Christmas as much as I can. I love to decorate for the holidays but I have never been even close to satisfied with my decorations in this house. They always seem so sparse and I have been working on projects and coming up with ideas to make it the space I want it to be. We picked up a lot of decorations at our neighbors' garage sale this summer when they moved out. We even scored a 7' artificial tree which will go in the family room while we have a real one in the living room. I have picked a new color scheme of silver, white and bright green to go in most of the house. The family room will probably be a color overload though mostly because I still want to use some old things that don't fit the color scheme and because that steal of a tree we got included multi-color lights on the tree. Anyhow, I spied some fun artwork I wanted to try using paint and stickers on canvas (paint over stickers to reveal the silhouettes) so I gave it a go. Turns out I am not very good at painting even when I cheat and use stickers.

The one on the left may be salvageable but I think the one on the right is a complete FAIL. The paint got under the stickers and basically glued them down so now I can't peel them off. Oops. Well, on to other things I suppose. I have a wreath wrapped in white yarn that has been sitting there for weeks just waiting to be finished. Considering I need to put it up this weekend, I'd say the time has come to complete that project.

Our Thanksgiving plans are simple- without any family around or a dining room table to accommodate more than our family, it is just going to be us. Rob is going to cook the turkey in our smoker and I will make the usuals to go with it. I have been so busy thinking about Christmas that I confess Thanksgiving hasn't gotten much attention. I am so happy for Rob to have some time off though and I am sure we will have a wonderful time. I hope you do too!

Craigslist Love

2011-11-14T14:10:00.001-06:00

Thank goodness for craigslist. We have gotten some really good bargains for our family room project, especially the electric fireplace and our carpet tiles. Rob installed the carpet tiles this weekend as well as some vinyl hardwood planks by the exterior door.

First Rob put the adhesive down-

Then he put the carpet tiles in-

And here it is after the vinyl planks went in too-

The tiles are a little wild but once we get our very neutral and boring couches in, it should tone it down some. I like it and for $100 worth of carpet tiles, it is hard to beat that.

I mentioned recently that I have been looking on craigslist for an old entertainment center to turn into a kids' play workbench. I kept looking through ads then finally posted my own wanted ad when I couldn't find any for free. It was just a few days before a lovely lady contacted me and told me she had one in her garage that I could have. Yay! I looked at it last Thursday and it is perfect. Tomorrow night we are going to go pick it up then I can start that project.

We had a garage sale a few weeks ago (that I posted on craigslist) and two of our items were some wall cabinets out of our bathroom and the former bike shop (now our beautiful family room). Now, they aren't lovely but I thought someone could use them for their garage or something since they are in excellent shape. Rob thought I was nuts for trying to sell them. I guess he was right; no one was interested. I put them out by the curb and put an ad on craigslist in the free section. Still no came for them. I was really surprised now. I waited a while and finally reposted them last night and this morning I had FOUR emails from people wanting them! The guy who emailed me first came over at 9:00 this morning- he couldn't get them fast enough. I love that I get stuff out of my way and he was very happy to have them to use at his house.

Craigslist seems to come through for me a lot. I love you craigslist.

Basement Play and Let the Potty Training Begin!

2011-11-08T14:34:00.001-06:00

I thought we were doing such a good job on making the basement more appealing for wintertime play- until I saw this photo I took yesterday.

There are a few things working against me- I was taking it with my camera phone and the lighting down there is great but not the best for photos. Anyhow, I'm trying to get their play area fixed up to give us more options for the winter months and it is coming along good. I took the playhouse apart and washed it all down on Sunday (when it was warm and sunny) then brought it downstairs and reassembled it. I also washed up their bbq and set it up so they have a whole little house and yard thing going on with their new picnic table. Even though they aren't playing with it in this photo, they do spend a lot of time playing in the house and Rex likes to cook up things on the grill and then serve it to me and Wyatt while we sit at the table. I still have to move some things around down there (like the fireplace surround with the area rug thrown on top of it) but it is almost how I want it. And good news with the crappy camera situation- I took my camera apart this weekend, by myself thankyouverymuch, and got it working again. Go me.

Time for the family room project update- all the window and door trim and baseboards have been painted and we are ready for carpet tile install. Yay!!! Rob asked me to help him on Saturday while the boys were napping and I agreed. As it turned out, he wanted me to spackle all the nail holes on the baseboard. There were a lot- I think someone got a little carried away with their new nail gun maybe... Anyhow, as I was working my way around the room, something on dawned on me. I asked Rob, "Am I doing this because it's a really crappy job and you just don't want to do it? Tell me the truth." He replied, "Yes, That is it 100%" Since he had done the spackling on the window trim, I couldn't be too upset that he had gotten me to do the baseboard. The trim is all painted white (Swiss Coffee to be exact) and looks pretty much the same in pictures as before so I didn't bother to take any more photos.

This morning we went out and did a big grocery shopping trip because we are supposed to get our first snow tonight. The National Weather Service is predicting 2-4 inches but since it is still pretty warm, I am not expecting much of it to stick around. But you never know so I figured I would get us all set up for a few days so we don't have to go out. It also is a great chance to finally get Rex through the 3 day potty training bonanza. I am kind of dreading it but when I think about not changing his diapers anymore and not having to spend all the money on diapers for him, it doesn't seem so bad anymore. He is definitely old enough, he understands that he should be doing it, he has used the toilet several times in the past; we just have to make it the daily routine now. I feel pretty confident that it will work and we will be successful, we just have to make it though the next three very long days.

Family Room Update and Basemp Picnic

2011-11-04T15:09:00.000-05:00

As usual, there has been a lot of home improvement going on around our house. Last weekend Rob got the fireplace in its spot. Sorry for the crappy photos- my camera is still stuck on movie mode so all I have to work with for now is my phone on my camera.

There was a little hiccup with the fireplace installation because it turned out the opening was just a tad too small. When Rob measured the fireplace insert, he didn't include the little bun feet that it sits on. Oops. It was a quick fix though so that was lucky. We've run the fireplace out there a few times and it is amazing how well it heats up that space. I am pretty impressed with it. He also got the windows all trimmed out. I only got a picture of the one but the other one looks just the same as this.

We were both impressed at how good the windows look at all finished up. We took three in-stock windows off the shelf at Menards and just made them fit our space. Rob did such an awesome job with it- both the framing of it and the trim. I don't know how he got everything to fit the space so good when nothing was custom made or ordered and it had to fit the existing openings. I think he is done with all the baseboard and trim nail-hole-filling and caulking and it is ready for paint now. I can't wait for that to be done so I can get started on laying out the carpet tiles. I am really anxious to see how they will look.

Rob took a short break to mow the lawns this weekend. Rex must have known that Daddy needed to get back to his other projects so he decided to lend a hand.

The boys and I were out on a little shopping excursion yesterday morning and ended up at K-Mart where we found a little kids' picnic table on clearance. I thought it would be fun in the basement (or basemp as Rex calls it) for the winter and, of course, in the backyard for the summer. I'm trying to get the basement a little more fun for the winter so they can play down there more. I'm going to put their playhouse down there and I could just see it all set up with the playhouse, the Little Tikes BBQ and the picnic table all set up. Rex and I tested out the table yesterday at lunchtime.

It was pretty fun but the cable guy came to FINALLY replace our crappy cable box so picnic time got cut a little short. I have one more project idea for playtime in the basement that I am going to get working on pretty soon here. I have seen a lot of kids' play kitchens that are repurposed from old entertainment centers and I think it is so neat and such a good idea. I didn't really want to build the boys a play kitchen though (even though boys can be chefs- Rex cooks and bakes with me all the time) and then yesterday I came up with the idea to turn one of those old entertainment centers into a workbench play area. They love tools and I think this would be a lot more fun for them than a kitchen. Everyone is getting new tv's that require a different style entertainment center so I am hopeful that I can get one of the old ones for free. I keep looking on craigslist and people want anywhere from $20 to $150 for them. People are so crazy with their prices on craigslist sometimes- do you really think someone is going to give you $150 for your ancient entertainment center that only fits an ancient tv? Please. Anyhow, I'll keep looking and I know I may have to break down and give someone a few bucks for one. I'll be sure to post the project on here when I get to it.

Our Favorite Holiday

2011-10-31T20:57:00.000-05:00

Rob and I both love Halloween so much. I just love to see the boys dressed up in their costumes- it is the cutest thing ever. Rob is on trick-or-treating duty which he thinks is great. He always comes back and tells me what a great time they all had. I am pretty sure it is Rex's favorite holiday too. He loves to ring doorbells and he gets candy for doing it instead of getting in trouble like he usually does. Two words- Awe. Some.

Wyatt ended up in the stroller after two houses but he had a good time too. I stayed home and made a jack-o-lantern pizza and handed out candy. Rob said Rex opened a few people's door when they took too long to answer after he rang the doorbell. Oh dear. We will have to work on our Halloween etiquette for next year I suppose. Last year, he went into people's houses, this year he opened their doors so maybe next year he will get it finally. We had two little boys (I would guess they were about 2 years old) that were twins come to our door dressed as Mario and Luigi and they get my vote for best costume- they were adorable. Besides my two boys of course.

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-25T10:39:00.013-05:00

Our trip to the pumpkin patch falls into the "Better Late Than Never" category. I've been trying to go for the last three weekends with our whole family and it just never has worked out. Today is a beautiful day and I decided to just take the boys by myself. I loaded them up and took them to the farm of one of my favorites from our local farmers' market which turned out to be a great choice. For one thing, the lady could be mother-in-law's twin and I always get a kick out of seeing her. Anyhow, the boys had so much fun on their trip out to the farm to get pumpkins.

So they had a good time with the pumpkins, but they actually spent a majority of the time playing with the rocks in the driveway and with the cat (you can't see the cat in the second picture but it is in the tarp).

It turned out to be a lot of work, taking the two of them there by myself so we didn't stay all that long. It was just off a busy road and every time Wyatt heard or saw a big truck go by, he would take off towards the road so he could see it. Umm, I don't think so Wyatt. We got a nice big pumpkin, perfect for carving, as well as some smaller pumpkins and gourds and even some pumpkin butter (soooo yummy). Trips out to the country always make me want to live there and this time was even worse with the boys running around and loving it. We will stay put for now but I am sure it will always be something we are thinking about.

Cheating and Stealing

2011-10-20T10:40:00.011-05:00

Our theme this past weekend seemed to be cheating and stealing. Not that we were actually doing that, it just felt like we were. We decided to get up early and go to Des Moines Saturday morning so that we could go out to breakfast, go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Sears. Breakfast was great put the next two stops were awesome. The ReStore had an ad on craigslist for some carpet tile that we were interested in for the family room. I called and it turned out that they had a lot more carpet tile than just what was shown in the ad. When we got there, we discovered they had HUGE piles of new carpet tile for 37 cents/sq ft. SCORE. But there were two small problems- they were all different colors and styles (a few multiples of some but lots of singles) and they were commercial style, not residential (hard and dense versus soft and plush). We figured we could get enough tiles in similar colors to do the room so problem one was solved- hopefully it will look something like this.

Then Rob pointed out that Hot Wheels go a lot better on this type of carpet then something thicker so it made me feel better about that. We bought enough tiles to do the room plus about 10 extras for when some need replacing in the future- and with my two boys, that is a when and not an if. So it ended up only costing us a little over 100 bucks to carpet the room, plus spares. Feels like stealing but it is not. In fact, we are helping Habitat for Humanity so that makes even more awesome. I also picked up some banquet table legs (for only $7!) that I have been looking all over for to make this large piece of wood we have (I think it's an old door) into an extra table. I think I was more excited about that than the carpet tiles! Anyhow, then it was on to Sears. My dad bought Rob a cordless circular saw for his birthday that was really nice, but we ended up exchanging it for this air compressor/nail gun combo. Rob got the baseboard and some door trim up this weekend and he said it was so easy, it felt like he was cheating thanks to the nail gun.

Rob also finally busted out my birthday gift to him, a compound miter saw, to do the baseboard and build a step going from the house out into the family room.

I help a little, but mostly I just try to keep an eye on the boys. They need it. Here's what they do when you turn your back for a second.

Actually, I helped Rex into the monkey costume. It is from last year and we were checking to make sure it still fit. It does- yay! And then I was making a cake with Rex and watching Wyatt as he climbed onto the table. I don't think Rex ever tried that. Rex does some crazy things but I think Wyatt is even more of a daredevil. Oh dear. In related news, I colored my hair this week to cover up all the gray. Not that I have that much, but it certainly does seem to be coming in more and more over the past 3 years. Thanks boys.

Artistically Challenged

2011-10-12T12:23:00.007-05:00

I am terrible at drawing and it seems Rex has inherited this from me. He likes to draw circles, jump ropes, snakes and even a plug and cord (this is what he says his drawings are- too funny!). What he lacks in drawing abilities, he certainly makes up for with his creativity and imagination. Here he is with a little of his artwork.

While I can't draw, I do okay with some creative pursuits. I like crafts and scrapbooking and things usually turn out pretty good. Lately I have been trying to make a few wreaths after picking up the BH&G Holiday Crafts magazine. I made a Halloween wreath partially inspired by that magazine and this wreath.

For my first attempt at a wreath, I am very happy with it. I thought it would be easy to find a spider at the store but couldn't find one in the right size so ended up making my own. He had a tragic accident and lost half his legs but he has a nice home on our wreath on our front door now. Maybe there is hope for Rex after all!

What Haven't We Been Up To?!

2011-10-08T16:09:00.009-05:00

It has been crazy around here for most of September and the first few days of October too. So last time I blogged Rob's parents had just been here and now my parents just visited us too. Here are Nana and Papa with the boys.

They spent 2 weeks in the midwest- some of it here with us and some of it sightseeing through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. I feel like I can never say enough about how much we enjoy having our family visit- it is just the best times. Unfortunately I was sick for the first part of their visit but we did manage to have a yard sale during that time. (Oh yes, at least one of us was sick for about half the month of September. Ugh.) When they got back from their road trip though everyone was feeling good and we had a lot more fun then playing cards, going out and having fun with the boys. I also got my dad to help me on a little painting project Rob has been resistant to. I asked if I could take over the fourth bedroom for an office and if I could design it however I wanted. Rob agreed but he wasn't really into my idea of painting stripes on the wall. I was determined to do it though and finally got it done. Here it is.

I think the stripes came out really nice. Now I just have to get everything else in order in the room. We are still trying to finish up the family room project so most of our time is spent there. Rob had his own little painting project going on while I was busy striping the office.

The fireplace bump-out still needs to be painted and there is a good chance it will be the same color as the stripes in the office (the wall color in the two rooms are the same- Churchill Hotel Vanilla). Rob also hung the ceiling fan in the room. He is working on the threshold for the new exterior door right now and trying to get that door all sealed up just in case it ever decides to get cold around here (it has been in the 80's for several days- crazy!). I am sure it will be plenty cold so I am just enjoying the warm weather for as long as we can get it.

The boys are doing what they do best- being crazy and getting into things. Here are some of their greatest hits over the last few weeks.

Yeah, so they're doing just fine. Rex also started a soccer class a few weeks ago. The parents have to stay the whole time and work with them. It has been fun but Rex would rather just run around than try to learn anything. Rex is best at running and throwing the ball inbounds (the kid can throw a ball like nobody's business- I really should have gotten him into some toddler quarterback class). He also likes kicking the ball at the "goal".

I am setting a new goal to blog once a week, probably on the weekends, so that I can have a deadline to work at. I don't mean to neglect this but I just get so busy sometimes. Thanks to those of you for sticking with me and who keep reading!

Progress

2011-09-13T22:58:00.005-05:00

Our family room project has been cruising right along and lots of work has been taking place. In my previous post, I had pictures of the spray foam insulation process and how it turned out. Once that was done, we were able to get the drywall (or drivewall as Rex calls it) hung.

Here's Rob working on it late last night to get ready for the guys to start the taping/mudding/finishing process today.

We had a crew of 4 guys over for a couple hours today doing some taping and mudding in the room. Rob tells me they'll be back tomorrow afternoon to sand and do some more mudding (floating? I'm not sure of all the drywall lingo) and then they'll be back one more time after that to spray the texture on the walls and ceiling. We are hopeful that we can get the painting done this weekend and have the room usable by the time my parents get here next Wednesday. There may still be some small things like trim work to do but that's no reason we can't get out there and start using our fabulous new family room, right?! I can't wait!

Speaking of visitors, Rob's parents were out for a few days recently to visit. We had so much fun, especially the boys and it would have been nice to see them for even longer. Rob and his dad were going to go to a sprint car race in Knoxville, IA but it was rained out. Booooo. Marge and I went out shopping one afternoon and that was really nice to have some girl time. Mostly though, we ate, hung out around the house and played with Rex and Wyatt.

Wyatt walks everywhere now- he is a walking machine. He was tottering around for a month or so and then finally one day, he was just all over it and totally stopped crawling. He loves to splash in the toilet (toilet latches installed- check), pull all my cookbooks off the shelves and throw his toys in our media console. He is learning some new words and knows now how to high five. And the chicks dig him.

Rex's latest thing is changing his clothes. Changing his clothes like 37 times a day like a junior high girl at summer camp. He just got a bunch of new clothes for winter (hello Labor Day sales!) and is busy wearing them ALL. He does pretty good though sometimes his pants are on backwards or he is wearing something that is way too hot for the current weather (note to Rex- although it is getting colder, your winter coat is not yet needed). This outfit today though cracked me up and I had to get a picture of it.

I can't decide if it is so wrong, or so wrong it actually works. But you can't go wrong with a straw fedora so he gets points for that and being bold enough to pull off the hat. I think he is going to be pretty into his clothes when he gets older which I think is just funny and I totally support it. It's always important to look your best. He already tells strangers in the grocery store about his shoes, shirt or something he is wearing. I've also already got him brainwashed that we don't ever go out of the house in our pajamas because it drives me crazy when people do that! It seems the apple hasn't fallen too far from the tree.

Well, I have to get up for bootcamp class in exactly 6 hours so that doesn't look too promising. Oops. It has been kind of a disappointment for me. In addition to not getting the results I was expecting, a lot of the people go to the same church and the class ends up having a very high school vibe to it. If you go to that particular church (which we tried and did not care for) then you are part of the cool kids and if not, then you just aren't cool like they are. I didn't mind so much at first but that aspect is starting to annoy me and really wear on me after 3 months. I think I'll start going to the gym again after this bootcamp session is over at the end of the month. It has been a good experience and I know I am a lot stronger than I probably have ever been so I wouldn't say it was a waste of time- but I wouldn't go back either. One more life lesson learned. I am not a bootcamper, at least not for 5 days a week anyhow!

Family Room Project Update

2011-08-29T15:27:00.010-05:00

Last week, our bike-shop-to-family-room project was looking like this-

Lots of mess everywhere and not totally closed off yet. There is the big issue of closing off the room from the garage but there were tons of little places all around the perimeter of the room at the ceiling that needed to be sealed off too. Last Friday we got the word that the guys we hired to do our spray foam insulation would be there on Monday. I asked Rob, "Like 10 days Monday or like 3 days Monday?" Turns out it was like 3 days Monday. Rob worked so hard all weekend and I pitched in too as much as I could. I pounded nails, cut sheets of OSB with the circular saw and even had some really good ideas on how to seal off the tricky ceiling areas. We finally finished a little after 2:00 a.m. last night- here it is all cleaned up and ready for some foam.

It hasn't been that empty or clean in 4 1/2 years! The guys showed up about 15 minutes early (we were still not quite ready) and got to work while Rob and I finished off the last couple items. Here is one of the guys spraying the ceiling.

And here it is once he was all done.

I can't believe how much brighter it is in there now with the white foam instead of all the wood walls! Wow. It has me so excited to get this project done so we can start using the space. A friend of ours, the one that totally bailed us out with shingling the roof last fall, is going to be drywalling for us, probably even this week! I have been busy trying to pick out paint colors but we are all over the place with that. It is our usual tug-of-war between something more Pottery Barn contemporary style and something more IKEA modern style. Hopefully we can choose a color soon and start enjoying our room as soon as possible!

4.5 Years and 2054 Miles Later

2011-08-16T12:00:00.006-05:00

Nanette shared a little news with me last week that they are moving to Portland, Oregon and it got me thinking, "What would I say about my experience moving to a new state?" It has been exactly 4 1/2 years since Rob and I left California for Iowa and really, what hasn't changed about our lives? New jobs, new house, new kids- I think our XTerra is the only constant we have besides each other! Some of my thoughts about the move were positive but others weren't so much. So for Nanette's benefit and anyone else contemplating/recently making a big move (and I know there are a few of you!), here are my thoughts on the matter.

Starting with the glass half full... The Positives.

1. Quality of Life- I do enjoy the clean air, Midwestern people, no traffic, and very low crime. The best part is being able to stay home with the boys while they are young. The way they eat, I will certainly have to work when they go to school to be able to feed them, but I love my time home with them for now. Schools are another big part of this that we haven't really gotten into yet but a future positive, nonetheless.

2. Cost of Living- Depending on where you are moving from and to, this may be on the negatives list but for us it was a positive. Affordable housing and goods are also a big part of why I get to stay home with the boys.

3. Four Seasons- The period of time when we get snow could be shortened up a little and you wouldn't hear me complain, but I do love having four distinct seasons. A white Christmas just feels so much more... Christmasy. Spring and summer are so much better after a snowy winter, seeing the white melt away and the green take over. And a crisp fall day with the leaves turning bright colors- I don't know if it gets any better than that.

And now, The Negatives...

1. Missing Family and Friends- Without a doubt, this is the toughest part of moving to a new state. It wasn't so bad when it was just Rob and I because we had the money and ability to fly back to California often. Then Rex came along and it got more expensive and challenging and now there is Wyatt and it just seems impossible. He hates driving more than about 30 minutes in the car and I can't imagine him on a plane for 3 1/2 hours. For now, we have to rely on people coming to see us. We miss seeing everyone anytime we wanted and having the kids away from grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins is about as bad as it gets. And then It really hit me how tough it is not to have any family to help once Wyatt came along. When it was just me and Rex during the day, it was fine to take him all around town on errands and he just didn't wear me out like the two of them do. I can't imagine what it would be like to have more than two kids! Not having grandparents nearby + more than 1 kid = REALLY HARD.

2. Food- I miss a good bean and cheese burrito and In-N-Out burgers (my mouth honestly started watering when I looked at their website just now!), Rob misses George's shish kebab and we both miss Teriyaki Don just to name a few. We try to recreate these things but it is never the same. Of course we have new favorite things and places here, but we still miss the old favorites.

3. Making New Friends is Tough- It just takes time to build up a group of friends- I mean, it took me 30 years to know all the people I do in California! I'm sure once the kids get involved in more activities and school, we will be meeting a lot more people which will make it easier. And there aren't too many people our ages with young kids so either we have friends our age with older kids, or younger friends with kids the same ages as ours.

After 4 1/2 years, I still think we made the right decision by moving to Iowa. The pros outweigh the cons and if we felt any differently, we would be back at the Penske truck rental to pack it all up and move back to the Golden State.

Good luck with the move Nanette and Brent, we hope you love your new home and we can't wait to visit you in Portland!!

August Already?

2011-08-01T15:12:00.003-05:00

Warning- Completely random, stream-of-consciousness post below. Was going to fix it up a little better but ran out of time!

I can't believe it is August 1st already! Rob's birthday is in just a few days and I am totally not prepared. I'm thinking about tools so he can keep working on projects around the house- is that more a present for me or for him though? I will have to keep working on ideas I guess. My dad gets here for a visit on Wednesday so I have been busy thinking about that and what I need to do to get the house ready. He booked his flight so long ago and it felt like it was so far off- I can't believe it is time already. One good thing about time going so quickly is that it has to cool down sometime, right? It has been so hot for a month now and it doesn't even cool down at night. I've got a few things planned while my dad is here and one is to paint some stripes on one wall of our office. Rob doesn't really approve because he is concerned that they will not be perfectly straight and he is a little cuckoo like that. It'll be close enough for me though so I'm going ahead with it. Hopefully I will have the stripes done and have the office ready for photos in the next week or two. It is definitely a catch-all kind of place right now and needs some help. I just saw the internet service guy go by so I better wrap this up. Time to find out why our service is so sketchy lately! Here's a picture of the boys from this morning though that I thought was adorable.

Hotter Than A Firecracker

2011-07-28T15:35:00.007-05:00

Wow, has it been hot, humid and nasty here for the last few weeks. It gets that way here in the summer of course but it doesn't usually last this long. Rex and I went to the pool a few weeks ago and I really wish we could go every day. We both had so much fun!

We went during the "toddler time" hours which are exactly the same as Wyatt's nap time so Rob stayed home with Wyatt. It would be nice if we could all go one of these days.

The big thing around our house right now is the family room project. There was some framing to do for the bump-out which will have an electric fireplace with a mantel and tv above it. I think Rob is just about done with that and ready to move on to some wiring next. Here is how it is looking so far.

We will have an electrician come in to finish up the wiring and tie it in to the panel but Rob can run the wire in the room to keep the project going for now since the electrician is backed up at the moment. He also put the housing units in for the six can lights we are doing and the thing that the ceiling fan will attach to. Then we get some insulation and walls up and paint and flooring... It will still be a while but it is nice to be working on the project again and finishing up what we started last fall.

The boys are doing great. Wyatt just started clapping today which is so adorable. He keeps adding new words to his vocabulary all the time- the latest is "cheese" which is probably one of his top 3 favorite foods. Wyatt is taking some steps around the house by himself now but he still crawls if he is in a hurry. I don't have video yet of him on his own (I've been too busy just watching him and having fun) but here he is cruising around with his little car.

Rex is 3 now and it seems he can go from cute and sweet to pain in the rear in nanoseconds. He melts down for the littlest thing, everything is "I do it" and he just doesn't want to listen to me and Rob. I had a feeling 3 year olds should be feared more than 2 year olds and it looks like I was right. He is so cute though and he just wants to help a lot of times so we try to find ways for him to be involved and "help". Here he is from a few days ago, wanting to cook lunch for us.

It seems that balsamic vinegar by the tablespoon is on the menu. Hmm, maybe mommy needs to make lunch after all. The boys find a new way to make messes/destroy things all the time. Need your clean laundry dumped all over the floor and then rolled over? Done.

Maybe you need a nightlight taken apart and unplugged? They've got that covered too.

And finally, if you need diapers, or anything really, taken out of the dresser and tossed around the room, Wyatt is the guy for the job.

They are a lot of fun and crack me up all the time. I guess that is about it for us for now- hopefully it won't be so long before my next posting!

In a Nesting/Decorating Mood

2011-07-06T17:15:00.002-05:00

About two weeks ago, Rob and I were about to take the boys out on a walk after dinner when we started talking to our neighbors. We were taking some "Twins Day" pictures and they were just getting home from a dinner date and asked if we wanted a picture of all of us. I explained I was just trying to get this picture of Rob and Rex since they were dressed similarly that day.

After chatting outside for a little bit, we went on into their house to see their latest projects. They are always doing something and have such great taste that I love seeing what they've been up to. And I was VERY interested in seeing their new Ikea Ektorp sectional and testing it out. We need a new sofa badly and I have my eye on that one- slipcovers in this house is a must. Anyhow, it got Rob and me both inspired to dress up our living room a bit and spent the weekend before last doing that. We had a lot of stuff around the house already and I bought a few items at Target and now it looks so much better.

House Beautiful doesn't plan on stopping by any time soon but it is such an accomplishment for us! We tried to banish toys to the bedrooms and basement but that just doesn't seem to be practical. I bought some nice woven baskets to keep them in a while back and soon found Rex dismantling them. This time, I went for the much cheaper and indestructible canvas tub/basket things. They are holding up much better. We had most of the artwork just sitting in the basement and we decided to just hang it all rather than pick 2 or 3 things ala Emily Henderson. I have to say, I really like it this way because now it incorporates both of our things and I feel like it is so much more "us" rather than just my stuff or Rob's. It is tough to accessorize with 2 rambunctious young boys- so many things I would like to put on the end tables or ottoman would just be destroyed. We are also in the mood now to get the bike shop/family room project we started last fall finished up so be on the lookout for that soon.

We had a great 4th of July. Some friends invited us to a lunchtime bbq party. We met a lot of new people and Rex got to run around and play with the loads of kids that were there. AND someone asked me for the recipe of the item I brought and very few things make me happier than that. I always feel like I'm Martha Stewart or something when I get asked for a recipe. The lunchtime party was perfect because we brought the boys home for their naps then got up and had a light dinner, watched the fireworks shows on PBS and NBC (NBC's was way better, I thought) and went in the backyard to do our little sparkler display. That's all that is allowed here- I don't think fireworks are allowed in the whole state. SO LAME.

It has been hot and humid here lately. Yuck. We have a new city aquatic center and we've been promising to take Rex there but I think I am more excited than he is. It is huge with a toddler area, lazy river, several big slides and a huge pool area. In a few years I am sure we will be buying the summer family pass because we will be there all the time. Everything else is going good around here- hope you had a good July 4th too!

Happy (insert holiday here)!

2011-06-24T11:13:00.002-05:00

The last week or so has been busy- there was Father's Day on Sunday and then Rex's 3rd birthday on Monday. Rob decided he wanted to smoke some ribs in our smoker for his special dinner so that was what we did. He also wanted iced tea and I made a big pot of beans. My recipe is very similar to this one but I use kidney beans and butter beans instead of lima and black. I made a festive little banner for the day too that Rob didn't realize for a few days that I had made. I guess it looked so good he thought I bought it- ha! I got the idea for it here.

Wyatt unhappily modeling his special Father's Day shirt-

And a special Father's Day treat I ordered from California-

It was a really good day. Looks like I'm missing any pictures of Rob from Father's Day though. Oops. I will do better next year! I thought we would just get a pizza for dinner on Rex's birthday but we decided to go out to eat instead. Rex got a cheeseburger and had 3 or 4 young waitresses sing happy birthday to him and give him ice cream so I am sure he was pleased with the decision.

He had lots of presents, including this Sheriff Woody toy-

The whole time Rex was opening his gifts, Wyatt just sat off to the side and played with his toys. I don't know why I thought that was so funny but I did. Here's Wyatt playing with his toy puppy.

Finally, we had some birthday cake. I made a dinosaur cake again this year because I vowed to make one every year forever on his birthday. Even when he is 42, I will make a dinosaur cake for him.

Nobody spent much time with the cake though because it was time to get back to the toys! Seriously, I don't think Rex took even one bite of the cake. He was too excited about all the new toys and ran right out of the kitchen to go play again after he blew the candle out. Since it was his birthday, I let him. He definitely was asking for the cake the next day though. Good thing for him I saved a piece!

Gotta play-

Wyatt is doing good. He is more and more mobile all the time and has stepped off like he was going to walk but just fell. Poor guy. He holds on to the couch or my hands and walks but he still needs that little bit of help. He's not quite there yet but it can't be too much longer. I am doing good too. I started a bootcamp fitness class last week and I have never been so sore in my life. I am more of a cardio girl than a strength training girl so this is a big change for me. I enjoy the class and getting some time just for me- it is unfortunate though that the class is at 6:00 a.m. everyday (Mon-Fri) and I have to get up at 5:30 a.m. Yikes. I thought it was bad that I used to have to get up at 7:00. I signed up for 14 weeks so that means only 13 more weeks until I can sleep in again!

If a Tree Falls in The Forest...

2011-06-13T15:55:00.009-05:00

Last Monday we had a dying spruce tree removed from our backyard. I also decided once they got here to have them trim up the two trees out front. Rob wasn't thrilled with my little add-on project but he did say that it looked nice once they were done. He was at work while they were here and I didn't want him to miss the excitement of taking out the big tree so I recorded it. I didn't mean to narrate the clip, I just happened to be talking to someone on the phone at the same time and I was telling them what was going on.

Here is how the corner looks now-

Now we have to figure out what to do with our empty corner. Our plan was to put in a small-ish swingset but I'm not sure there is enough room and we kind of blew the budget on tree removal and pruning. We definitely need to do some screening along the fence to get some privacy and block the view of the neighbor's house for everyone's benefit. I am thinking it is a perfect spot for a little fenced-in vegetable garden like this.

It was ridiculously hot earlier in the week and then by the end of last week, and still by today, it has been cool and rainy with lots of hunderflash (that's Rex-speak for thunder and lightning), much to Rex's dismay. I took the boys out for a walk on Saturday morning when we had a little break in the weather and we went to the Farmer's Market. Apparently all there is in Iowa at this point is cilantro and I think I saw some onions too. I bought some baked goods and jams at one stand from people I have purchased tasty treats from before but that was it for us. I decided I better just plant my own stuff if I want some homegrown produce so Rex and I went to Lowe's on Sunday and bought 2 tomato plants, 1 cherry tomato plant and a cantaloupe plant. I have never grown cantaloupes before so I have no idea what to expect from that but it was only $3 so I thought it was worth a try.

I bought 2 delphinium and 2 foxgloves too because I love them and planted them in the bed along with the tomato and cantaloupe plants.

The boys are doing good. No real big excitement for them this past week except Rex can finally say his name! Yay Rex!!! He has always just said "Reh" or maybe "Rek" but couldn't quite get that x sound until this past week. Here is what they are looking like on Monday, June 13th.

Wyatt playing with Rex's blocks-

Rex in our front yard, just as it was starting to rain this morning-

DIY Weekend

2011-06-06T10:09:00.003-05:00

I took the boys out on a walk Saturday morning- it is something we do every day, weather permitting- and found an awesome retro stereo console for sale at a yard sale. I had to cross the street and get a better look at it because it just looked so cool and I was thinking it would be perfect for under our tv. I was right, it is!

And it was only $35- woohoo! I don't know what Rob was planning on doing this weekend but I know what he ended up doing. He gutted the old stereo and record player parts from the cabinet and put our cable box and dvd player in there.

He also put his nice amp in there and hooked it up to the speakers so we could put the big speakers (that used to be hooked up to the tv) away. Rex loved to unhook the wires and he can't do that anymore which is awesome. Rob bought a remote relay thingamajiggie so that the remote still works even with everything all closed up inside. We still need to attach something to the wall to hide the cords and then put a latch on top of the console so Rex can't get in there and then it will be perfect.

I had my own little DIY project I have been working on, trying to recreate a Pottery Barn trellis that I love. I got it all put together but it was a while before we had a non-windy day so that I could spray paint the thing. I finally got that done on Saturday and here it is in my garden.

I would still like to get some solar string lights to go on it but it looks good for now. That was my prototype and since I am happy with the way it turned out, I'm going to make two more. I think I'll end up spending about $30 for four of them instead of $99 for one. AND mine doesn't have any lame hearts on it. Holly Hobby I am not.

Rob and I discovered we may have hit the jackpot with Rex. He loves to play with his teeball set in the backyard which he and I do a lot during the week. I knew he batted opposite of me but I didn't know that was a big deal that he hit it left-handed. So when Rob saw him do it, he was pretty interested. We tried to get him to bat right-handed and that was not happening. He hits (naturally!) way better left-handed. So then we did a little test with his throwing and discovered that he throws right-handed. Rob tells me that a player who hits left and throws right is desirable and rare. I just want him to have fun and as long as he likes to play, I will encourage it. I would never be a parent who forces my kid to play a sport they don't like or ruin something they like to do and have fun with. But if he turned out to be a baseball superstar, that would be pretty awesome.

Rex got his first skinned knee this week. Poor baby. He looks just like his mommy though.

Wyatt is getting closer and closer to walking all the time. He is figuring so much out every day and you can tell he just can't wait to walk like his big brother does. Part of his development is pulling himself up onto things- AND out of things it seems. I put him in his walker the other day, walked in the kitchen and came back seconds later to find him like this:

It is possible that Rex helped him but I really doubt it. I am certain Wyatt did this all on his own. See that cheshire cat grin? That's the face of a boy who is awfully proud of himself.

We had a good weekend working on projects but Rob and I actually got to go out to dinner on a little date Friday night which was the best part of the weekend, without a doubt. We left both boys with a sitter for the first time ever and went to a work dinner Rob had which was a lot of fun. They had a raffle for prizes and we both left with stuff. Lucky us!

Happy 300th Post!

2011-05-30T22:15:00.003-05:00

Yowza- this makes 300 posts! I really enjoy blogging and using this as a way to keep in touch with all our long-distance family and friends (which is most of the people we know). I hope anyone who is still reading this is enjoying it too!

It was a nice long Memorial Day weekend for us. After the awful week we had with Wyatt being sick, it was so wonderful to finally all have some fun and enjoy life again. There was a lot of shopping (most of it doesn't matter but I got these shoes and I LOVE them!) and working on projects around the house AND we even all went out to dinner on Saturday night. I was wanting to eat food at a Mexican restaurant because I can't even tell you how long it has been since I did that. I asked Rob if we could get take-out sometime soon and he said we should all just go and eat there. I guess I was feeling pretty brave that day so we did. The boys were the opposite of the first, and only other, time we ever all have eaten in a restaurant. Wyatt was a peach and Rex was the challenging one. Since I was on Wyatt duty, I had a great time. I don't think Rob (who was on Rex duty- we play man-to-man defense here) would probably give it such a good review. I also had a tasty glass of sangria to celebrate the end of my nursing duties so that may be why I had such a great time too.

Our projects around the house didn't get finished because we both needed to paint. Rob was working on some window trim and I was working on building my own version of these. I have been coveting these garden trellises from Pottery Barn for a while now and though they did recently go on sale, they are still too pricey for me. I could do one but I really want like 3 or 5 of them and who wants to spend $300+ on these for their yard? And that is without the lights still! So I'm working on creating my own and I'm going to blog all about it once it is done. It has been pretty windy here too so my plans to Round-Up some undesirables in my yard have been put on hold. I was also working some indoors on our office and trying to get it more organized. I would like to do a little scrapbooking again now that the boys are getting to be easier to manage. I can not wait until Wyatt gets to one nap a day and I have a nice block of time everyday when they are both asleep. That will be awesome.

The boys are doing great. Wyatt said his first word today "cra-ka" for his graham crackers. He babbles "mama" and "dada" but that goes without saying that he would say those first. Rex keeps us laughing all the time. Earlier today, he hurt himself doing something and was crying so Rob told him, "It's okay. You're fine." And Rex told him, "Rex not fine. Rex owie." He nearly always talks about himself in the third person. One really fun word he has lately is "hunderflash" for a thunderstorm- he hates the hunderflash but it is so funny to hear him talk about it. He loves to play with Wyatt and make him laugh and even try to soothe him when he is upset. Rex knows all his letters and can now sing the alphabet with them all in the right order too. We were just talking today about how smart he is and then he was jamming his fork in his ear at the dinner table so who knows? Really smart but no common sense apparently.

Sorry for no pictures this time but I'll try to get some this week and definitely some of my trellis project as soon as there is a good day to spray paint!

Happy 1st Birthday Wyatt!

2011-05-20T22:14:00.008-05:00

Guess who just had his first birthday?

Wyatt did! Wyatt's first birthday was yesterday and we all had a really fun day. Rob and I discussed going out of town for a long weekend but we decided that it might be more trouble than fun with a 1 and 2 year old. We ended up going to Des Moines to do a little birthday shopping at Toys R Us and the Jordan Creek mall in the morning and have lunch there too.

Wyatt, just after lunch.

Yes, we ate lunch at the mall food court. A little lame but a lot easier with the boys than a restaurant is.

We wore him out- time to load up and go home.

We all got some toys and/or clothes so it was a good day for everyone, not just the birthday boy. Apparently we wore both of them out with the excursion- besides sleeping in the car on the way home, they both took giant naps once we got them home. I went out during naptime to pick up Wyatt's cake and take care of dinner. Here are some dinner and cake pictures.

Finally, we ended the night with opening presents and then playing with all the toys he got.

It was a wonderful day and let me tell you, we all slept a ton last night after such a busy day! Wyatt seemed like he had a good day and I know the rest of us did. Today was the crappy flipside to yesterday though- four shots at the doctor's visit. Yuck. He did okay though. Although we've finally got him eating good, he's still a skinny guy. He's not quite 19 pounds yet. He's kind of a shorty too but I think the weight and length will start to pick up now that he is eating good. He is finally a pretty good sleeper too so we've come a long way in this first year. Wyatt is such an amazing little guy and I love every second with him. We are so lucky to be his parents. Here's to another 99 fantastic birthdays!

Mother's Day and More

2011-05-14T11:10:00.003-05:00

Last weekend was a great weekend. We had some friends over on Friday night for dinner. We barbecued a tri tip and ate outside because the weather was great. A little cloudy but still pretty close to perfect. Rob uses this rub on tri tip and it is fantastic. I tried making Armenian Rice Pilaf and it came out really good, which was good news since it made a TON. I don't really remember what we did on Saturday but my Mother's Day was so nice and relaxing. Rex woke up super early so Rob got him dressed and took him out to breakfast while Wyatt and I slept in. They brought me back my favorite cinnamon toast bagel- Yum. I went out shopping by myself for a few hours and it was so nice to just get in and out of my car without having to deal with two carseats! I got some new clothes and shoes for my self and got everyone else something too. We ended up eating leftovers for dinner because we'd been cooking a lot lately and didn't feel like or need to cook more food. Here I am with my two boys on Mother's Day.

In case you were wondering why there aren't many photos of me, that's why. My husband doesn't have the patience to take a bunch of photos or to make sure I am looking my best in the photos he does take. Anyhow, I had a nice relaxing day doing whatever I wanted to do and that is awesome.

Yesterday Rex and I went on a little adventure. Rex always gets so excited when he sees a bus driving around town and yells out "Bus! Bus!" Actually, he says, "Buth! Buth!" because he has a hard time with the letter S. Rob and I talk all the time about taking Rex on the bus and going to the library so he can finally ride a "buth". Rob got home from work a little early yesterday so I grabbed Rex and we headed off to the bus stop. We got on the bus and he was so quiet and wide-eyed the whole time. We sat close to the front on the way there but I was smarter on the way home and we sat in the back which is higher up and he could see a lot better from there. I could tell he was way more excited when he could actually see out the windows and see what was going on. And he had a blast at the library, like he always does, so I think it will go down as Best Day Ever. The library has a lot of toys and a fishtank and then we get to bring more books home with us to read so what's not to love? He was literally jumping up and down as he talked to the librarian because he was just so excited to be there. I tried to take photos with my phone on the bus and at the library but the piece of junk kept telling me "capture failed" so we didn't get any pictures of the trip.

The weather has been really crazy lately. It was kind of cool last weekend, in the 60s, then it got record-setting hot (it was 97 I think) at the beginning of the week and now it's cool and rainy again. Rex loves to be outside so I try to get him out there as much as I can but the weather doesn't always cooperate. Seems like a lot of this week was either too hot or too cold/wet for being outside. Rob and I are talking about putting a playset/swingset in the yard for Rex because he just goes bananas over the ones at the park. He would slide from sunup until sundown if he could. He can't get enough. Rob and Rex are off to Lowe's right now to pick up a lilac bush for our backyard. My plan for this weekend is to get some yardwork done while it is nice and cool out and the ground is easy to work since it's been raining. I have some things that need to go in my big brown trash can and I have some things that need to be relocated to those vacant spots so we can make some room for that playset! Isn't it funny how your opinions on things change once you have kids? Our house is a few blocks from the park and I swore that we would never have "one of those ugly swingsets" in our yard- the kids could just go to the park. But now that I know how much Rex loves it, I think it would be great to have one right in our backyard that he can play on whenever he wants.

Daily Thoughts

2011-05-10T09:32:00.008-05:00

The other day I thought, "Jay Mohr- sometimes funny, but sometimes just an idiot." My next thought was, "I think about some weird stuff. It would be kind of funny to start a Twitter account for one day and just record all the random thoughts I have throughout the day." The more I thought about it, I decided it would just be easier to put it all in one blog post instead of opening a one-day Twitter account that no one would know about or follow. So here goes, my thoughts for Tuesday, May 10, 2011. I won't put the boring everyday stuff in like grocery shopping or the kids, just the crazy, off-the-wall stuff I think about too much.

9:07- Is Lady Gaga the new Madonna? Hmm. Madonna's good stuff was probably when she was just born or a toddler. Why is the early music always better? It doesn't seem like people with long careers have as good music later on. Madonna, Michael Jackson... Except U2. They are still rockin'.

9:37- How does Sesame Street get so many good people on their show? Well, if I was famous, I would totally go on Sesame Street. I guess everyone else feels like that too.

1:00- I don't seem to have as many random thoughts as I thought I would. Most of my day seems to be taken up with regular everyday things- mostly trying to keep Rex on track and out of trouble.

1:25- If I went back to school to get my masters degree, it would be cool to tie my thesis into The Wire somehow. It's probably been done already by someone, but I'd like to take a crack at it and see what I could come up with.

3:46- What is up with the whole wedding dress thing? I just flipped past an entire show dedicated to finding one and see girls paying $5000 to $6000 for a dress. That is crazy! That is like $500-$1000 an hour. I mean, seriously, it's just a dress. I got married and I wanted to look beautiful that day and I get it but that's no reason to go crazy. You could feed a lot of people with that kind of money- and still have a lovely dress. I'm glad we have 2 boys so I won't ever have to worry about having a fight over buying a wedding dress.

4:10- Fresh salsa- so much better than the stuff out of a jar.

Well, there were problems with Blogger and it wiped out the last part of this post. It did get all my thoughts I had for the day because once Rob got home, I forgot about this. My experiment made me realize that I don't have as many random thoughts in a day as I would have expected and when I did have them, I couldn't get to a computer fast enough to get them down before they left my head again. It was a fun little experiment though and now I'm thinking about starting a second blog where I can post one of my random thoughts every day. But I don't want it to be contrived so I'm going to think on it for a while and see how I feel about that.

Step By Step

2011-04-27T12:30:00.007-05:00

There are some things I don't teach Rex how to do because it makes my life a little easier. Climbing down stairs was one of those things. With him believing he couldn't climb down stairs, he couldn't get out of the house because all 3 doors have steps and he couldn't go down to the basement. Last Wednesday, he went out the back door and down the steps to the backyard. Hmm. We grabbed him and brought him back in. He went to the garage door and went down those steps. Uh oh. We secured those two doors so he couldn't do that anymore (the third door was already secured). Then he got really brave and tried the basement stairs which are pretty steep. He did just fine. And it turns out, he loves being in the basement. We couldn't keep him out of there so we decided to go ahead and fix it up so he could play down there. Part of the basement is finished- finished in 1960s style and not my taste but it could work. I spent some time clearing out the finished part of the basement this winter and organizing our stuff down there so it only needed a little work to be ready for playtime. Rob replaced the overhead lights and some ceiling tiles and cleaned it up. We got some big rugs and moved some furniture down there and both boys have had a blast playing down there.

The biggest surprise of all is how much Rob and I like being down there. We thought it would feel like you are in a hole but it doesn't. With the paneling, good lighting and new rugs, it feels nice. It feels like we added on to the house or we are on vacation or something. There are still things to do as far as decorating and storage but it is usable and comfortable now. And since the only guest room is downstairs now, I don't feel bad at all about having people stay in the basement because now it is a nice place to be.

We had a nice Easter. I was really excited about the Easter baskets because I got some new ones for the boys. I wanted to get Rex one with his name embroidered on the liner for his first Easter but I thought I should wait to do that until his little brother/sister came along so they could have matching, or at least coordinating, baskets. Since I had been waiting a few years to do this, I did it right and got nice ones from Pottery Barn Kids. Here they are before Rex got to them.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the boys with their baskets because Rex took them all apart before I even got Wyatt out to see them and get any pictures taken. Oh well. I am just lucky I took this photo so at least I had something. We didn't do any egg hunts because it was cold and rainy for Easter weekend. I am not a fan of ham so I took another crack at making lechon asado which uses a fresh ham. I found a 17 pound bone-in fresh ham and cooked the whole thing. It was crazy- I've never cooked anything that big. I went ahead and copied the whole Versailles menu and did rice, black beans and fried plantains too. My plantains came out perfect. They were so delicious. We had some guests which were kind of a last-minute deal and I was a little nervous to feed them my Cuban Easter meal but they said they liked it. Rob and I thought it all came out really good. I wish I had some photos but between being cook and hostess, I didn't have a chance to be photographer too.

Rex has his first cold today. I guess we did good because he is almost 3 years old and he's never had a runny nose, cough, any of that before but our luck has run out. I noticed he sounded a little stuffed up and then I noticed his nose was running and now he even has a very tiny fever too. He doesn't seems to feel too bad but is definitely not running at 100%. I had a migraine yesterday, my first in about 2 years, so thank goodness these health issues are back-to-back and not overlapping. Hopefully we can keep Wyatt and Rob healthy and get everyone back to feeling good soon!

Nothing To Say

2011-04-18T12:02:00.002-05:00

It has been very uneventful around here lately. We were going to go to a big festival thing that we went to last year but it was so cold and rainy that we decided to skip it. When I did the link to my post about last year's festival, I noticed a photo of Rob mowing for the first time. It just so happens that he mowed yesterday for the first time this year- AND for the first time with his new mower! Yay for the new mower! It is much taller so he doesn't have to hunch way down and it actually starts the first time you try to start it. This was the first year I didn't get a picture of him mowing the grass and he even had the new mower so I really blew it. It is very exciting stuff to mow your yard around here because it means you made it through another winter and you don't have to deal with snow for the next 6 months or so.

I got my haircut on Friday night and got a little time out for myself which was nice. I like the haircut too and if it wasn't still wet right now, I would take a picture and share. I don't have any pictures of anything to share this time so I'll be sure to start taking some photos right away. The only photos on my camera were from Rex's first number 2 in the potty and that is not something to share with the world. Potty training continues at a snail's pace. The boys are getting restless and I don't really have anything to say so I think this is it for now.

The Great Outdoors

2011-04-10T22:03:00.009-05:00

It has been so warm and wonderful for the last week or so- it was 82 here today and in the 80s last weekend as well. We all have been having a great time outside but nobody more so than Rex. He loves to go to the park a few blocks away and go on the slide and jungle gym.

When we can't make it to the park, he likes to play around in the backyard too. He has a little golf set, tee ball set, soccer ball and various toys for the backyard. His favorite? Taking the golf "bag" for his clubs and pretending to vacuum with it. I'm trying to get him to butch it up a little but what woman wouldn't want a man who does the vacuuming? I guess it is good to be well-rounded.

He has this cool big wheels trike to ride on but he is having trouble getting the hang of it so Rob decided to show him how it is done.

Even though Wyatt can't do as much as his big brother just yet, he still likes to be outside and feel the wind blowing through his hair (what little of it there is!).

After a long cold winter, it is so nice to be outside again! I love playing with the boys outside and seeing all my flowers come out of the ground. Right now I have daffodils and hyacinth in bloom and the tulips aren't far behind. Rob will probably even have to mow the grass sometime this week. He got a new mower that he is pretty fired up to use- I'm surprised he hasn't been out there mowing yet just so he can use his new toy. Maybe he is just pacing himself because there will be plenty of time to use it in the next few months. It was a pretty low-key weekend for us. Rob worked on some stuff around the house and I took care of the boys. We're still working on the potty training and man is that a drag. I think I'd almost prefer to change diapers until he is old enough where I can just explain it to him, he gets it and we're done. And it's weird to tell someone how to pee when it is all very different from how you do it. There's a bit of a learning curve there for both of us. Anyhow, still plugging away at that. I realized today that if I can get Wyatt potty trained around the time he is 2, I only have like 1 more year of diapers to go. Woohoo for that!!

Table For 4

2011-04-08T11:46:00.002-05:00

Our new table was delivered this week!

It is so nice. So is Wyatt's new Space Saver Highchair that we had to buy because our old full-size one no longer fit in the dining area. Now I need to find a new impermeable vinyl tablecloth so the boys don't destroy the new table. There are already sticky handprints all over the table where the two of them sit.

The new table and finding related accessories has been the big excitement for the week. We are on the hunt for a new garage door but not sure what to do. All I know is I really don't want the standard raised panel garage door that everyone uses these days. It looks fine on newer homes but I just think they look weird on old homes like ours because they don't go at all. I think something like this, in the Westfield design, would be great. Lots of decisions still to make but we are working on it.

Wyatt is getting better and better about eating. This week I've gotten him to eat some Cheerios, ground beef and rice. Baby food doesn't really seem to get him excited but he does okay eating bits of whatever we are eating. He also does a lot better if he can feed himself. I decided yesterday that I've had it with changing Rex's diapers and so we are now working on using the potty. He gets ADD though as soon as he gets in the bathroom (toilet paper! curtain! towel! sink!) so it's tough to get him to focus on the task at hand. He isn't telling me when he needs to go either so we just keep trying every hour or so. It's very time consuming which is tough with a baby in the house that needs a lot of attention too. We'll get there, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Best Birthday Ever

2011-03-31T15:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 34. I'm not thrilled to be moving from "early 30s" to "mid 30s" but oh well. The day started off kind of crappy when Wyatt woke up at 1:45 a.m. with a nightmare. He's had a few of them now and they are awful. He doesn't wake up and he just keeps crying and screaming and then finally he will wake up and stop. Then I have to settle him down and get him back to sleep. I feel so bad for the little guy when it happens. I do everything I can to help him but it's one of those things I can't really fix. So he finally got back to sleep a little after 3:00 a.m. and then was up and ready to go at 7:00. The morning was full of the usual household business like cleaning floors, changing diapers and doing dishes. The day really picked up though when Rob came home early from work. He took over Daddy duty and gave me my present. Technically he gave me a flyer with a bunch of different Macs on it but that was so I could go pick out the one I wanted. Yippee!!!!! My iMac was 6 years old and out of date. I went out to do a little investigating and then we all went out after naptime and Rob bought this for me-

Hmm- I probably should have taken a picture of the actual computer and not the box because now it looks like I just got a big box. The new computer is so wonderful! It is big (27 inches!) and fast and has a webcam and the newer version of iPhoto works so much better and I'm sure I will find even more to love as I continue to get familiar with it. I already used google talk and skype to talk with my family and Nanette back in California. We had dinner (pizza was my choice) and I opened the rest of my gifts from my family. Lots of gift cards and it looks like I have a lot of shopping to do. Rob got me a little birthday cake too that we all shared. Rex, who sings "Birthday To You!" every time he sees a cake or box of cake mix, wouldn't sing to me but Rob did. Thanks honey. I didn't get a picture with the cake but here's one after pizza and before cake.

Despite an awful start to the day, I think it turned out to be my best birthday ever.

Wyatt's First Restaurant Experience

2011-03-27T11:30:00.009-05:00

On Wednesday Rob left work a little early and we packed up the boys for a little trip to Des Moines to look for a new table to go in the kitchen. This trip was going to be during dinner time too so I packed up stuff for Wyatt and prepared for his first meal at a restaurant. I fed him lunch at the Jordan Creek mall food court last month on a trip to Des Moines but this was different. We opted for the Machine Shed restaurant since it is a big, noisy, family place. It went pretty good. Wyatt was excited and he likes to scream when he's excited so that was unfortunate. Other than that, Rex did awesome and we had a good meal. Wyatt did eat pretty good when he wasn't looking all around trying to soak up the new experience. We took some photos but didn't want to use a flash so they turned out a little blurry. Oops.

We visited a few places looking at tables and were finally successful at Homemakers. The table and chairs will be delivered next week- yay! Rob finished the painting in the kitchen so by next Wednesday, our kitchen is going to look awesome. We won't have to do any more projects in there for a very long time. There are still lots of projects to do other places though so there are lots of visits to Lowe's and Home Depot in our future. Here are Rex and Wyatt on a recent trip to Home Depot.

Rex loves riding in carts that look like cars- in addition to this one at Home Depot, the supermarkets around here have them too. They don't look like Joey Logano's car but they are still pretty cool.

We were taking a lot of walks and playing outside a bunch but that has ended. It was in the 50s and 60s for a while but now the temperature has dropped and the highs are only in the 30s and 40s. Yikes. It should be warmer by next weekend. Here we are enjoying the sunshine we had.

That's all the excitement that I can think of for us over the last 10 days or so. Wyatt ate a graham cracker, even fed it to himself, this week. That may not sound too exciting to you, but for that guy, there should be a parade in his honor for such an accomplishment. He is such a picky eater. I have no idea where he gets it. [For those of you who don't know me so well, he gets it from me. I only pretend not to know.] Today Rob is going to put the curtains back up in the kitchen and hang the new ones in Wyatt's room so I'll be posting photos of those two areas soon. It feels nice to have some parts of the house looking how I want them and how Rob wants them. I could dwell on all there still is to do but I think I'll just leave it at that and enjoy what we have accomplished so far.

Home Improvement

2011-03-14T08:17:00.007-05:00

Rob has hated the kitchen paint color for a long time now and this past week, he decided he was going to do something about it. I liked the color but I have to admit, it was pretty dark.

First we were going to paint it green. A search began for the perfect green, not too minty and not too yellow-y either. As I finally got it narrowed down to two choices, Rob tells me he doesn't want green after all. He wants cream with white trim. So we had a big discussion about design choices in general and what our style is. We both complain a lot about our house not having any color but realized we love the Pottery Barn look which doesn't use a lot of color. A neutral look with a little hit of color here and there is what we like. Now that we had that figured out, it was time to pick the right cream and white color. Back to Lowe's and Ace for more paint sample cards. Finally, we decided to go with Valspar Churchill Hotel Vanilla which is what all our bedrooms are painted. On one hand, I felt like we were stuck and not branching out but on the other hand, I felt like we knew what we were getting and we are keeping a continuous look. The house I owned when I was single looked like a box of crayons, with every room a different color, and it did bother me a little that I didn't have a cohesive look. I'm trying to make it a point this time around to make sure the house looks like it has one personality instead of 20. We picked up the paint and supplies Friday night and Rob got to work on Saturday. I was taking care of the boys while Rob painted so I wasn't much help. Rob got all the taping and prep work and primer done Saturday and then got the color on the walls and ceiling yesterday. It is so bright and lovely in our kitchen now!

As you can see, there is still a little work to be done. The trim all got primed but still needs to be painted (we chose Valspar Swiss Coffee for that). It's really nice to have a kitchen I can work in again though- we ate out too much this weekend. In fact, Rob made it a point to wrap things up early enough last night so we could make our own dinner. We have a kitchen table issue that we are having a hard time resolving. Our little table we used to have can't fit the 4 of us so we have this temporary one set up for now while we try to find one we like and that will fit okay. I think a trip to Ikea may be in our future!

Rob had a little home improvement project last weekend too- he got a new toilet for the main bath and installed it. Not a very sexy project or my favorite way to spend money, but it sure is nice to have that done. I didn't take any pictures of that project because it's a toilet. It's shiny and white but I still didn't feel like I want to put a picture up of our new toilet. I did my own little home improvement project yesterday in Wyatt's room and put up the giraffe and tree wall decals I bought months ago. I was afraid they wouldn't stick to our walls- I had that problem with the ones in Rex's room. These were a different brand and seem to be doing fine. Wyatt is asleep now so I can't in there to take pictures of his room. I also bought curtains for our little rooster's room (he's been waking up so early lately!). I will try to get a picture once the curtains are hung and everything is looking good. Hopefully the curtains will help block out the light and he will start sleeping later. The time change seems to have helped with that too. Anyhow, that's what we have been doing lately. Now that it is warming up, I am sure there will be a lot more projects, indoors and outdoors, going on at our house.

The Curious George Room

2011-03-10T14:03:00.015-06:00

When we took Rex out of the crib last summer and put him in his "big boy" bed, it was time to also do a new decorating theme in there. It didn't have much of one before so really it was just time to do some decorating. Rob and I were planning on doing a mountainy, lodgey kind of theme. As I was planning that out I realized that was more for us and what Rex would love is a Curious George room. I started looking for George things to decorate with and came up with nothing. Well, a few posters to choose from and a package of wall decals. No bedding though. Ok, that's not true. There was one set I could find but it was red gingham and not very cute and a little on the girly side. Pottery Barn Kids has some cute bedding now but nothing at the time I was looking. So I commissioned a Curious George quilt to be made by my mom. She found the fabrics and put it all together and it is awesome. I didn't even have to ask him to pose with George; he already had him in his hand.

Then I needed a rug. I thought it would be cool if I could find a rug that looked like a Twister mat. After some internet searching, I found one from Company Kids. The brown chair is not used much so I think we will relocate that when we get the family room done.

Finally, we needed some storage. There were a couple of bookshelves that the previous owners left behind in the basement so we brought one of those upstairs to put toys and books on. I have no idea where we kept all this stuff before. I think a lot of it was just piled on the dresser and the rest was out in our living room. It's also great if you want to cruise through and steal your big brother's toys.

We put up some of the decals around the room but found they didn't stay up too well on our bumpy walls. I put a bunch on the lampshade so he has a Curious George lamp which worked out good but it was a bummer that they don't stay on the walls very good. There were some yellow curtains up that were not very functional so we swapped those out for some red ones that matched and worked better. The alphabet poster finished it off and that is Rex's new Curious George room!

And here are a couple more fun photos from our little photo shoot this morning.

Slacker.

2011-03-04T11:12:00.006-06:00

Wow- almost 4 weeks since I posted my last blog entry. I haven't been slacking though; it's just been crazy busy around here. I'll work my way back.

My parents returned to California after being at our house for a week. It was so good to see them and we had a good time. We played cards (the boys KILLED the girls- it was ugly), they watched the boys while Rob and I had a very nice dinner out and went to look at laptop computers, and we just had a good time playing with the boys and catching up. We didn't all go anywhere since the weather is still not the greatest and our car doesn't even hold 6 people anyhow. Rob smoked a turkey breast in the smoker and it came out so, so, so very good. We decided we should try and do a whole turkey for Thanksgiving. Here are Nana and Papa with the boys.

The weekend before they got here (almost 2 weeks ago) we took Wyatt on his first trip out of town and went shopping in Des Moines for a little while. I got some new running shoes and Rob got something- I can't remember what right now though. We met some friends for lunch and ate at the food court. I know that sounds kind of lame but we haven't taken Wyatt to a restaurant yet and I wasn't ready to attempt going out of town, shopping and a restaurant experience all at the same time. He did great though. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the trip but I didn't. Bad mommy. Here's a picture of Wyatt and Rex in their matching robot shirts instead.

We got our taxes done a few weeks ago and were happy to learn that we will be getting enough back (I think) to finish the family room project we started last fall. Rob redid the roof (with some help on the shingles), put up some new siding and replaced the six windows before the weather turned cold and snowy. He still needs to put up rain gutters and window trim but most of the exterior work and the things he had to do are finished. We are busy making decisions on what needs to happen to get the room finished. Heating and cooling and the access from the rest of the house are the hot-button issues. I wanted to enlarge the existing single door and have double french doors but since that wall used to be an exterior wall and is therefore a load-bearing wall, it's probably not worth the money and trouble to do that. Anyhow, lots of research to do and decisions to make before we get going again on it.

Wyatt is now 9.5 months old. He had a check-up with his doctor a few weeks ago and he's doing great. He's kind of skinny but I think that has to do with his refusal to eat solid foods until he was 8 months old. Now that he's eating good, it should go up. Rex is doing good too. He drives me crazy sometimes because he completely ignores what he is told to do but just when I've had it up to here with him, he does something so sweet or so funny and I remember what a great kid he is and that he is just two and being a pill goes along with being two. Except when he hit me in the face with a water bottle the other night- then I was just mad. I deserve the presents when he turns 3 I think for getting through the past year. Seriously, he's a good kid, just full of a lot of energy and it is time for spring to come so he can get outside again and get those wiggles out!

Both kids are melting down now so I better end this and get back to them. I haven't taken too many pictures lately but here is one more cute one I found from the past month.

High and Tight

2011-02-08T16:48:00.008-06:00

Rex's hair is so crazy. He has a giant cowlick right in front and he wakes up most mornings with his hair just going every direction possible. I'd been thinking about cutting it really short for a while now and Rob and I decided it was time to do that. However, we had different opinions on how it should be done. Since neither of us has ever used clippers or cut anyone's hair, I thought Rex should go get his haircut at the place we usually take him to. Rob thought we should buy clippers and do it ourselves. Who won?

Rob won. It went... okay. It looked pretty good but Rex was not thrilled with having it done. We learned some things that will make it easier in the future too. I think he looks pretty cute and I love how the hair is not crazy anymore.

It is so cold today. The high is supposed to be 2 but I'm not sure if it even got there. It is supposed to be in the 30s and 40s for the weekend so things are looking better once we get through today. We haven't been doing much lately. Rob is a big Packers fan so we watched the Super Bowl and had some fun snacks on Sunday. Rex even got to eat his dinner in front of the tv, on the floor (like a picnic), and he thought that was pretty cool. He likes to watch football with his dad so it probably went down as one of the top 5 days so far of his life. Rob is teaching him to be a good Packers fan and he likes to yell at the tv, "Go Crackers!" instead of "Go Packers!" which is so funny.

Last weekend we tried out the smoker we got for Christmas. Technically, Rob got it for me, but it really is for all of us. This is what it looks like-

And this is our first attempt at cooking with it. We cooked a small pork roast and it came out pretty good. The little hole in the middle of it is from where the temperature probe goes.

I can't wait to try more meats and more recipes in it. IF Rob will let me take a crack at it. He kind of took over this time, which is fine, but I want to try some stuff too. I'm sure he'll let me. It is a good thing that we are both so fired up about using it. I can't wait to try some turkey in it- Yum! Maybe with the nicer weather we are supposed to have this weekend, we can try it out again.

I went to the dentist (boo!) and to get new glasses (yay!) yesterday. I am so excited about the glasses. My current pair have been rearranged by Rex a number of times now and sit so crooked on my face. I will have to be more careful with my new ones so that he can't get a chance at them or he will break those too.

Happy 4 Year Anniversary To Us!

2011-02-02T22:30:00.000-06:00

Rob and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary today. Yay for us! We didn't celebrate too big because our boys make that kind of tough. At 2 years old and 8 months old, they are just too much work for a high school kid to babysit and since no family is close by, we decided we better stay at home. We were going to get take out but with all the blizzard warnings going on and lots of snow, I made dinner instead. I made a roast with potatoes and carrots, buttermilk biscuits, jello and carrot cake for dessert.

My bundt pan is shaped kind of crazy and makes cakes look a little funky when frosted.

Here are our dinner guests that joined us-

I don't mind having them joining us but I did tell Rob that I hope it is the first and last anniversary dinner we share with them. I feel a little bad saying that but we need at least one day out of the year to celebrate us and enjoy each other's company without any interruptions. I gave Rob The Pacific on dvd- nothing says "I love you!" like World War II. Seriously, he really wanted to see it and was very happy with his gift. I purchased a food processor that was part Christmas and part anniversary gift. It came in really handy for grating all the carrots for the carrot cake! I think Rob really benefits when I get new things for the kitchen so I think those are his favorite kinds of gifts. And not that he picks them out, I want them and I pick them out. This isn't a Father of the Bride "He bought me a blender" kind of breakdown thing. No no. These are things that I want and pick out. So we both got really good gifts and had a nice dinner to celebrate our four years of marriage.

It's hard to believe how much has changed for us in the last four years- new jobs, new house, new state, and 2 new people in our family. Wow. Here we are on my favorite day, the day that started it all.

Things I've Learned About Snow

2011-01-24T08:40:00.001-06:00

I've learned a lot since this picture was taken (our first weekend in Iowa in 2007)-

Now that I think about it, I learned a lot that weekend about snow and winter weather. I didn't know there was such thing as freezing rain but I found out fast. The craziest weather I have seen so far was "thundersnow" where it was snowing AND had thunder with it. I think that has only happened once so it is pretty rare. Even the snow itself can be very different depending on how wet or dry it is. Try making a snowman with dry snow- you'll be there all day because that stuff doesn't stick together at all.

Driving in the snow was the thing that concerned me the most about moving to Iowa. I pictured that every day would be like that Bridgestone commercial.

It's not like that at all. I mean, it does happen sometimes but we just don't drive when it's bad like that. The plows come through quickly to clear the snow and the main roads are fine in no time. Residential roads and ones with less traffic take a little longer to get rid of all the snow but that is okay because there aren't that many cars on those streets so if you struggle a little, it isn't a big deal. When a snowstorm is coming, you plan ahead for groceries and things like that so you don't have to go out. If you do have to go out, take the bus. Let them crash. Speaking of crash, you have to just prepare yourself for falling on your butt. It will happen. It gets pretty slick and icy out there and everyone will be on their butt at some point. It hasn't happened to me yet but I think God's been looking out for me since I've been pregnant or carrying small children around most of the time. Rob's wadded it up a time or two though and I am sure my time is coming.

The thing I think about first though when I think about snow is how beautiful and peaceful it is after a snowstorm passes through. I love the snow before anyone has walked or driven through it, before the snowplows have come through- the snow just sparkles when you look at it and it is amazing to see. It truly looks like there are diamonds all in it. The snow blankets all the houses, trees and everything in white and no one is out driving around so it is just so quiet. Even a boring, ugly chain-link fence looks pretty when there is snow on it.

I still look forward to spring and summer but I'm learning that winter is a pretty special time too.

Good Eats

2011-01-19T16:22:00.006-06:00

I have about two minutes to type this up but I just have to share my news. Last week we had a turning point with Wyatt's eating- he is finally starting to eat some baby food. I can not find the words to adequately express how excited I am about this. We have been working with him for months and finally have made progress. We've tried all kinds of things- Gerber baby food or homemade, Rob and I both trying to feed him, tried letting him feed himself, and foods of all kinds (that he is allowed to have at this point). Now we know that he doesn't care who is feeding him, he prefers completely pureed things rather than textured, chunky foods and he likes the apples and pears the best. Today, at exactly 8 months old, he ate an entire container (his first of any kind) of apples for lunch.

He likes to take little breaks and play with the spoon.

Wyatt opens his mouth now when the spoon is coming towards him. So much better than the pursed lips we used to be faced with when he saw the spoon coming.

An actual smile while eating. A miracle.

Yay Wyatt!!!

My Snow Angels

2011-01-14T08:40:00.006-06:00

Rex has all the gear now to go play in the snow- heavy duty jacket, boots, gloves and hat- so we've taken him out in the yard a few times to let him play. Here he is with his dad.

Aren't they so cute? Cute AND naughty.

I was just trying to capture this nice moment of my husband and son playing in the snow together and I get nailed by a snowball. I have a feeling it's not the last snowball I will get hit with. Truthfully, I don't mind. I love that I have two sons which makes for a total of 3 boys in my house. I just have to remember that things in my house will get broken and trips to the emergency room are likely. I will keep hoping that they don't though.

Things have been pretty slow around here. Although my resolutions to be more organized and lose weight were kind of half-hearted, I have been making progress on both. Rob built some shelves for me in the basement and I bought a bunch of storage containers so we've been working on getting things put away and organized. Once the basement started looking a little better, I felt like going down there to use my treadmill and so I did almost 4 miles on the thing this morning. It took a little encouragement from Rob to get me out of bed but I'm so glad I listened to him and exercised. It definitely puts me in a better mood for the day. Someone who is not in a good mood right now is Wyatt- he is running out of patience with me while I work on this so I better get going.

Super Sleeper

2011-01-07T11:39:00.008-06:00

I love superhero jammies for my boys. I don't have any for Wyatt- just a onesie so far for him- but Rex is a different story. First, there was the generic superhero one piece outfit. Then we upgraded him to Batman pajamas (cape not pictured). And now as he moves into yet another size, he has not one, but FOUR superhero jammies- a Christmas gift from Nana and Papa.

First up is Spiderman.

Next we have the Man of Steel.

Here he is sporting the latest from the Dark Knight collection.

Finally, we have Mr. Tony Stark, aka Ironman.

I wasn't aware that Ironman and Curious George had that much in common but they seem to be hitting it off here. I often complain about how little girls' clothes are so cute and it is a lot harder to find cute things for boys. I have to say that the superhero pajama collection may just make up for that.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T12:48:00.007-06:00

Wyatt got into the spirit of things with this special onesie-

Rob and I stayed up for midnight on New Year's Eve- I only got a little kiss though because I was informed that I smelled like pepperoni (we had pizza for dinner). Thanks honey. We spent our New Year's Day taking down the Christmas tree and some of the decorations. We got sidetracked though when we took down the tree and decided to totally redesign our living room. We took the dining table out so it is all living room now. This is mostly because the family room project is costing more than planned and, therefore, taking longer than planned. We all need more room and since we can eat at the table in the kitchen, it was decided that the dining table would be stored in the basement for now and we would have a large living room now. I'm not going to lie, it's a little crowded to eat in the kitchen but since it is only temporary, we can deal with it. New Year's is all about organizing and making life better, right? I'd say we did just that.

I read that in the Japanese culture, sweet potatoes (or satsumaimo, as they call it) is part of a dish called kurikinton which is supposed to bring you wealth in the new year. I don't know what kurikinton is exactly and didn't have any sweet potatoes on hand but I did have a container of Gerber sweet potatoes (I think you see where this is heading). I heated up the container and we all took a bite- even forced a very small amount on Wyatt- in hopes of landing a big prize (HGTV Dream House, perhaps) or a big jackpot (Mega Millions is up to $290 million- Yowza!) in 2011. Not expecting much but it couldn't hurt, right?

As for the rest of my plans for the year, I'm not sure that I have any resolutions prepared. Last year I set out to blog 8 times a month which was reasonable until Wyatt was born. I never met my goal after his birth because I am so busy with the two of them all the time. I did have 19 more posts than 2009 so I consider it a success. I have some weight loss goals that I'd like to meet but until Wyatt sleeps better and I can devote time to my new treadmill in the basement, those goals look pretty tough. I miss my running though and as soon as I can get a decent night's sleep, I am all over that treadmill. I consider myself a pretty organized person but as I look around my house, I see I could make quite a few improvements there. I suppose my goals are to weigh less and be more organized on December 31st than I was on January 1st!

The Best and Worst of 2010

2010-12-31T22:58:00.005-06:00

This year was a busy one. Like every year, there were good times and bad. Let's review.

Best:

-Wyatt's birth. Hands down the highlight of my year. Seeing him grow and watching him now as he starts to interact with me, Rob and Rex is just amazing.

-Rex. He's 2 and he's pretty crazy and doesn't listen well but man, that kid is so funny and smart! The things he says and thinks about just blow me away sometimes. He is so observant and I love that he is speaking in sentences more now and can relate what is going on in that giant head of his. He is so much fun every day.

-My husband is the greatest. He does so much for our family- he works so hard every day at his job then does so much here at the house too. He is amazing and I love him so much. And an extra special shout-out for tearing the roof off part of our house and fixing it. It was way more work than either of us anticipated but he did great and the house looks and functions better now.

-Visits from friends and family. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time and spent their money to come see us. We really appreciate it and are so happy you did.

Worst:

-The Floods. Not only did it flood a bunch but we had to boil all our water or use the bottled stuff for almost a week. That was tough. I am thankful though that we had no flood damage at our house and the water issue was all I had to worry about.

-My health. There were the pregnancy and recovery issues that I expected to deal with this year but I also was sick enough to go on antibiotics twice during the first two months of Wyatt's life and then I had the flu two weeks ago. Hoping for better luck in 2011.

-Wyatt's eating and sleeping- really the problem is not eating or sleeping good still. I can deal with it for a while but he is almost 8 months old and only wants breast milk straight from the source. No bottles, no formula, no rice cereal, no oatmeal, no veggies or fruit. Rob has had very little success with applesauce and I've had no success with anything. He makes it so that his tongue blocks any potential opening you may find to get food in his mouth. If you try to push the issue, he just uses that tongue to force everything back out. He is still gaining weight but we are definitely starting to have a supply issue because I can't keep up anymore. He's just too big. AND he wakes up once or twice a night (sometimes even up to four times a night!) to eat. I'm exhausted. He's had a couple of good runs where he sleeps through the night for a week or two and I think we're over the hurdle but then it all falls apart. Will just keep praying and hoping that this gets better. SOON.

Merry Crink Crink!

2010-12-27T07:44:00.016-06:00

We had a very nice christmas here at home with our family- or should I say a nice "crink crink". Rex says "crink crink" instead of "christmas" which is a lot of fun. He told everyone "Merry Crink Crink!" and he loved to go look at all the "crink crink lighties" that people had up on their houses. Anyhow, Rob had Christmas Eve and the day before that off too which was really nice. He and Rex helped me out with my eggnog sugar cookies. I made the dough, rolled it out and cut out the cookies and then handed them off to the two of them for decorating.

Rex was really, really, really into it. He would get a little mad if he ran out of cookies to decorate so I had to hurry up and make sure I was getting them ready for him fast enough. He wouldn't get off that chair he was standing on either until we were totally done. It was pretty cute. He didn't have his usual 2-3 hour nap that day so he was pretty spun out by bedtime. It seems a multi-vitamin does the same thing to him as they do to me- gives us a big shot of energy and then we can't sleep. So he had the vitamin with his lunch and then when he laid down right after, it was not happening. Christmas Eve was a very long day and we didn't get up until after 9:00 a.m. Christmas morning. We unwrapped all our gifts and had a lot of nice stuff.

Santa brought Rex a digital camera, a Buzz Lightyear toy and a pillow pet- the monkey, of course. Wyatt got a bunch of toys and the bear pillow pet. He seemed to really like the little Curious George stuffed animal my sister sent for Rex though. Rex wanted to get his hands on some of Wyatt's toys too so I'm sure they'll all be mixed together before long. We gave Rex a big tool set that is pretty realistic looking and just as I thought, he loved it. He's been drilling on the book shelf, grinding the kitchen cabinets and here he is welding on the living room wall.

Note to Rex- the goggles work better if they are covering your eyes instead of your forehead. All the toys and books and clothes were a lot of fun but this is my favorite picture of the day. I just love seeing them in their matching Christmas jammies on Christmas morning.

Rob did pretty good with presents but mine was better- I got an electric smoker. This may sound like a weird present but I really wanted it. For several months out of the year, we can't barbecue. Total bummer. So, a lot of people here in Iowa have smokers to cook their meat in. A lot of them barbecue in their garage too but the way ours is set up, that's not possible. Now I have to go to the store and get some meat so we can try that thing out!

I had the flu last weekend and it was bad. That's what I get for not getting my flu shot, I guess. Thankfully the guys all have their shots so I didn't get them sick. I will be going to Walgreens this week to get mine- I don't want to get it twice. Getting the flu the week before Christmas is no good but I am so happy I didn't have it on Christmas. I had most of my Christmas shopping and chores all under control so it wasn't too bad. Anyhow, there wasn't a lot going on around here leading up to Christmas. And yesterday we spent a lot of time trying to find homes for all the new toys and books and washing new clothes. Santa left Rex a "Mao meow" (that's Mickey Mouse to the rest of us) shirt that he is so anxious to wear. It's all ready to go for today. He was not too happy with me that he couldn't wear it yesterday- sorry, kid. It was a good thing his other favorite shirt with trains on it was available. We had to bring up a bookshelf out of the basement to put in Rex's room for all his toys. I've been asking Rob to do that for a few months but now it had to be done. A lot of toys that used to be in the living room are in his room now which is great for two reasons. First, they are not in the living room anymore. Yay for that. Second, it makes Rex's room feel more like his space now that his stuff is in there.

I think I've babbled on about Christmas long enough now. Hope everyone else had a great Christmas too!!

Hot Streak

2010-12-14T11:57:00.007-06:00

I like to gamble. I don't go to Vegas much or even to any of the nearby Indian casinos- is that even right? Native American casinos sounds weird but Indian seems not PC and like it's people from India. Anyhow, I don't gamble with slot machines, cards or table games much but I do make sure I get my Powerball and Mega Millions tickets- as well as the occasional scratcher- every week. The last two weeks I have been winning all kinds of money- I even got $100 playing Powerball! Altogether I think it's about $160 so far. I've put a lot right back in because the goal is to win a jackpot or at least the $200,000/$250,000 prize, not $100. I'm taking some of my winnings though and putting it towards a special Christmas present... for myself! Honestly, I don't even care about moving to a huge house on the beach or fancy cars or anything like that. I would probably get a new car and a new MacBook and a few small toys (a super-duper DSLR camera for starters) but mostly I'd like it to travel, have something for retirement, and help people and causes I care about. Seriously. I better make sure I get my ticket for tonight too because the Mega Millions jackpot tonight is $104 million. Ok, with that much, I might think about the beach house after all!

Rex is on a hot streak too- he got a fever yesterday and it still is going on today. My poor baby. He does not feel good at all. Hopefully he gets better soon because I hate seeing him like this. Well, maybe not just like this because he looks so cute asleep but you know what I mean.

One thing that is not hot around here is the weather. It snowed this weekend and this will be sticking around. We've had a little snow prior to this weekend but nothing much. It all melted away pretty fast. But this is cold and windy and nasty now. It's nice that we'll have a white Christmas though- I was beginning to think we may not this year. I would have missed that but only a little. The snow and cold is only something to be tolerated in exchange for the pleasant summers, springs and falls that I love so much. I think Rob is liking the snow a little better this year now that he has this:

We have a snowblower now- Yay! No more shoveling. Not that I have done much of it since I was pregnant 2 out of the 3 winters we've been here but I still felt bad for Rob always out there, shoveling the snow. Not anymore though.

Time Flies When You're Doing Nothing

2010-12-07T11:04:00.009-06:00

It seems like we've been so busy lately but when I sit down to write about it, I can't really think what we've been doing. Rob finished up all the yard work stuff for winter and put up the storm windows this weekend. I did a lot of the pruning already but he needed to get all the leaves picked up and mulched. Rob also got the Christmas lights on the house last weekend and put up the garland over the front door and garage door this weekend. It is so fun to see Rex's reaction to the lights on all the houses he sees. He starts giggling and squealing and saying, "Crink-crink lighties!!!" Sometimes there's a "Wow!" or an "Oh boy!" in there too. It's a lot of fun. It's hard to believe what a big boy he is turning into. I took this photo of him this weekend and I looked at it and thought "Wow-look at him in the jeans and Star Wars t-shirt. He looks like a boy now so much." I'm sure he'll seem little when I look back at this photo in 5 years but for now, he looks like a big kid.

My other boy is getting big too. He had his 6-month check-up with the doctor last week and he is doing great. He is almost 17 pounds (a lightweight compared to Rex who was 20 pounds at 6 months!) and 27 inches. We took him to get professional photos done at the 6 month mark but I did his monthly photo shoot and here's one of those pictures.

I guess we've just been busy with everyday life things and a little Christmas too. We picked out some stuff for Rex but since he was with us, we just discussed it slyly and one of us will have to go back for it. I'm trying to do some of my shopping, as much as possible, from small local businesses this year. Shopping online and in big stores is nice but I'd like to spend my money so that it goes to people here too. Rex has been trapped in his room this whole time and he is starting to get restless so I better wrap this up. Here's one last photo of my 3 guys. I think I need to get in some of these photos though next time...

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T19:43:00.006-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving from Iowa! We cooked a big dinner here at home but we did cheat a little. We bought a package from our supermarket that had the turkey already cooked, gravy, rolls, pie and cranberry sauce. You had to heat up the turkey and gravy but it was super-easy. There was just no time to do a full dinner and look after a two year old and 6 month old. Here's our tasty dinner (we had dinner rolls and jello too but they didn't make it in the photo).

And here are Rob and Rex enjoying the tasty dinner.

Rex liked it all except the sweet potatoes.

Tomorrow is time to put up the Christmas lights and decorate the house- yay! I love, love, love doing that. I got some new stuff for the outside of the house already. I realized that my decorating inside is going to be sparse for the next few years (thank you boys) and so I should focus on the outside of the house. I'm way excited about it. The holiday season around here is made even busier by 7 family birthdays between November 23rd and January 23rd. It is a lot to keep track of and try to get everything bought/ordered/mailed/shipped/wrapped on time. Anyhow, the decorating hopefully will begin tomorrow and definitely will be done by Sunday night- except for the tree. I don't know what in the world to do to keep Rex away from it. Last year we put the short tree up on a 3-foot tall stand but he is so much taller this year that we need to come up with a different plan. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment with your idea!

The Cutest Boys In The World

2010-11-24T16:35:00.006-06:00

I have the two cutest boys in the world and I have proof:

How cute are they in their matching shirts? I love it. I also recently bought them matching Christmas pajamas. I promise not to go overboard with the matchy-matchy because it would make even me want to vomit but a little of it is kind of fun. After I took that photo Rex starting a mini-meltdown but I got another cute one of Wyatt.

Mondays Suck

2010-11-22T23:00:00.000-06:00

Today was crazy. It started off with us totally oversleeping. We all scrambled to get in the car and get Rob to work as quickly as we could. He was still pretty late though and he said it was the worst day ever to be late. Crap. Then I fell down the stairs to the basement. I was carrying 3 loads of laundry and I missed the last two steps. Thankfully, all that dirty laundry ended up between me and the floor so it wasn't a bad fall. Wyatt was just spun out all day. He is kind of cranky anyhow but he was super cranky today. I tried to make dinner but he was screaming the whole time so I gave up. He didn't want anything besides attention and Rob was gone to the store getting supplies for Thanksgiving dinner and trying to get his hair cut so it was up to me to give him the attention he was wanting so badly. I got Wyatt to sleep okay tonight but I'm worried how the rest of the night will go... There were other things too but I just want to forget about them. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day!

The (Mostly) Terrific Two's

2010-11-15T07:48:00.003-06:00

Rex is a fantastic kid. He is and always has been a great sleeper, a great eater and an all-around happy guy. He's two and he does things you would expect a two-year old to do like have little meltdowns but those times are rare. My biggest problem is usually he is trying to "help" with something which means he is actually making what I am trying to do harder. Not such a bad problem to have. He could listen a little better but he does okay. I love that kid so much and wanted to share some of the funny things he has been doing lately.

He has been picking up on a lot of chicks lately. On Thursday, it was a college girl at the grocery store. I couldn't hear him but Rob told me later he was saying what sounded like, "Car? Eat?" Apparently he was trying to ask her out on a date? Then Rob took him to eat burgers Saturday for lunch and there just happened to be a high school dance team dining there. Rex was talking to the girls and Rob said they were all just eating it up. Attention Iowa- lock up your daughters.

Although Rex was picking up on the local girls, I think his true love is Giada deLaurentiis. He can't say "Giada" though so he calls her "Gia". We watch Giada at Home every day at 11:30. (The only other thing he actually asks to watch is Curious George.) He knows when it is time and starts saying "Gia? Gia?" He also pretends to talk to her on the phone. It is so funny. He has also walked up to the tv before trying to give her a kiss. Rob and I think he has made a good pick- besides the age difference and fact that she is already married, of course. She is a good looking woman that can cook too. Good job, Rex. He also likes to mimic what she does on the show. Right now, he stirs everything on his plate at meal times and says "Quick. Quick." I'm guessing one of the episodes recently had Giada giving something a "quick stir" and now he does that too. For a while it was always "heat it up" when I turned the stove on to cook. He knows what a lot of foods are now too thanks to her. He does like everything to do with cooking and being in the kitchen so maybe he'll be a chef someday.

He is really good about sharing. He even tried to share his fries with an older lady that worked at the burger place on Saturday. He shares with everyone. However, he also expects you to share whatever you have that he wants. He really is a genius though because instead of screaming "I want!" or something most kids do, he just looks up at you with those big cow eyes and says, "Share?" If you don't share with him, you obviously are a bad person because everyone is supposed to share. A career in politics maybe? Public relations? He sure does know how to spin things already.

Like I mentioned earlier, Rex is a fantastic sleeper and even better is how he wakes up- happy and he will wait in bed for probably 2 hours, just patiently waiting, until you come and get him. No screaming, no crying. He just lays there and plays with his stuffed animals that are in his bed with him and talks. His brother does not wake up so quietly and happy so I realize now how good I have it with Rex.

One of Rex's favorite things to do now is say "Are you (fill in the blank)?" He means "Where are you?" but he leaves out the where. So, for example, when he is looking for his cup, he walks around saying, "Are you cup?" It's pretty cute. The cup must not think so though because it never answers.

He is so good with his brother. He loves to give him kisses and talk and sing to him. Rex is pretty gentle with Wyatt and I am so thankful for that. Wyatt just eats it all up. Sometimes he can get kind of cranky but as soon as Rex starts talking to him, he stops and is all smiles again.

For a kid who makes some of the biggest messes I've ever seen, he sure does like to be clean. He always wants to wash his hands if they are "dirtily" and even if they are not. If he spills something on the floor, he'll say "clean 'em up" and find a towel to clean it up with. He announces to the world "all clean" whenever any of us have just had a "va" (that means bath) or "sha sha" (shower). The kid just likes everything and everyone to be clean.

I keep modifying this post as I remember things so check back on this again in a day or two because it may still change again!

Raise the Roof

2010-11-13T22:31:00.004-06:00

Rob has been working extremely hard to turn the flat roof portion of our house into a pitched roof. A friend of ours does construction work so we hired him to do the ice shield, paper and shingles and he did such a great job. It was so much work to do all that framing and get the plywood on and we were more than happy to pay someone else to do the rest of it. Rob was pretty worn out and we missed him a lot. But now the roof is all done!

The roof was all done by Sunday night which was cutting it pretty close- it rained like cats and dogs here starting Thursday night. There is still a little work to be done with the fascia and siding which Rob will tackle tomorrow. But we know now that it is water tight. Yay for that.

Rob's parents were here for a week visiting. We had fun and I think they really enjoyed their time here with the boys.

I haven't been up to a whole lot besides being mommy and trying to be a good hostess to my houseguests. I made some pumpkin bread yesterday, mainly to give as a gift to our neighbors for putting up with all our roof craziness for the past two months. We gave them a bottle of wine too so I think if they were put out at all with our project (and I don't think they really were), they probably don't mind by now. We felt bad though and wanted to do something nice for them because they are outstanding neighbors.

I better scoot off to bed now. Wyatt is back to feeding twice in the night so I have to get my sleep while I can- my opportunities are limited these days.

It was a busy month

2010-11-03T15:49:00.013-05:00

October was crazy busy and I still don't have much time so I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking. Rob spent every spare minute framing a section of our roof that used to be flat. It seemed like it wasn't too big of a job and that he could do it in no time. We were so wrong. And now when I look at this picture I think, "That's a lot of work- what were we thinking?!"

He also has put all the plywood on and now we are going to turn the project over to someone else for getting the ice shield, paper and shingles on. Yay for that because we all miss Rob. We tried giving Wyatt some rice cereal recently. He looks so tiny in the highchair compared to Rex.

It was not the greatest experience ever for any of us. He screamed and cried and refused to swallow it by the second bite. He just sat there screaming with it all pooled in the bottom of his mouth. I don't know what to do. He only wants breastmilk and refuses to drink from a bottle so it's getting tough on me after almost 6 months of it. He needs to eat something else. The one thing he will eat? His foot.

This picture shows his eye color the best but I still don't know what it is. I am tempted to say hazel but they could still go brown I suppose. I think that blue is definitely out now but it could go either way with the hazel and brown still. I have been working with Wyatt for just a few days on the blankets, trying to get him to roll over and today he did it all on his own! He was actually in his crib and I missed it because I went to the living room to get his carseat. I left and he was on his back and when I returned he was on his tummy! Besides eating his toes and rolling over, he also loves to get in his jumperoo.

He is actually asleep in the thing right now. He just wore himself out. He gets bored a lot so it's nice that he is loving that jumperoo so much for now.

The latest Rex news is he went on his first trick-or-treating adventure this past weekend. I got him a monkey outfit since he loves Curious George and all monkeys so much. It was a good choice because the kid loved it.

Rob took him around the neighborhood and he came back with some pretty funny stories. First, Rex would say "trick or treat" to some people but he made monkey sounds for just about everyone. He loves to ring doorbells so he was thrilled to be able to do that for once instead of being told that we can't just ring everyone's doorbell. I think my favorite part though was the fact that he actually just walked right in to a few people's houses. Nice. Rob had to go in and get him out of there. Well, he rang the doorbell but when they opened the door, he just cruised right in. He got a nice little supply of candy. He has never had it before but now he tells us " fun candy" "candy more" and "candy mmm" all the time. Here he is with some of his "fun candy".

Sorry for being such a slacker blogger last month but with Rob so busy up on the roof all the time, I had very little free time. Since that project is wrapping up now, I plan on doing a much better blogging job for November and the rest of the year!

Dinner Ideas

2010-10-02T17:15:00.000-05:00

Nanette mentioned to me once about blogging about my dinners for a week or so to help give her (and others) some inspiration for their own meals. It would've been nice if I had taken pictures to go with all this but I didn't think that far ahead. Sorry about that. We've had some colder days which have been great for using my new crockpot. I love my new one- the last two Rival Smartpots I had both ended up incinerating the food and this GE crockpot I bought is working great so far. I love all the settings it has and the retractable cord is awesome. But definitely its strong point is that it doesn't burn our food. So here's some of our recent meals.

*Sweet and Sour Chicken (the recipe was on Hy-Vee's website but I can't find it now) with steamed rice. It's an easy meal (lots of prep work with cutting but the cooking goes super fast) and good for you too.

*Scalloped potatoes and ham, corn and strawberry/pineapple/banana jello salad. I am not the biggest fan of ham, but even I really liked this. The scalloped potatoes and ham recipe was from the Fix It and Forget It cookbook- one of my faves.

*Barbecued shredded/pulled pork, rolls, corn and mashed potatoes. I have to admit that one of our local grocery stores makes far better pulled pork than I ever do so I finally just gave up and only buy theirs.

*Deep pit beef, oven roasted potatoes, jello, green salad and rolls. The deep pit beef was disappointing but it was my fault because I didn't get it marinating soon enough. It was okay but it didn't really have any flavor. We started making our own salad dressing a while back- from the packages at the store, nothing crazy- and I would recommend that. It is so good and makes you want to eat more salad. Deep pit beef recipe also in the Fix It and Forget It cookbook.

*Shredded beef tacos. I reinvented the deep pit into shredded beef for tacos and that tasted great.

*Barbecue chicken, rice and salad. This is probably what we do the most during the summer. Barbecue some meat, and eat a carb/starch and a vegetable with it. We really like to use McCormick's GrillMates Montreal Chicken seasoning.

*Spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. I make my own sauce- nothing fancy but it tastes better than anything out of a jar and is really quick and easy. It makes a lot so we reuse it in our own made up dish I like to call "stuffed bell pepper casserole". Rob calls it Spanish rice but that isn't right either. You just mix up the leftover sauce with cooked rice, bell peppers and cheese and cook it in the oven just long enough to heat it all up.

We don't cook like this all the time but these are some of the highlights from the last two weeks. Hopefully this helps Nanette or anyone else come up with an idea for dinner- I know what a struggle that can be!

Hard to Believe

2010-09-24T09:01:00.006-05:00

It's hard to believe Wyatt is already 4 months old. He hit the milestone on Sunday so we did another photo shoot.

He also had a well-baby exam this week and he is doing great. He weighs 15 pounds, 9 ounces (65th percentile) and is 26 inches long (85th percentile). I'm also happy to report he has a completely average size head (unlike the giant melon on top of Rex's shoulders) so maybe he can actually wear some baby-size hats and it won't be such a struggle to get a shirt over his head every day. He had to get just two shots this time and he did great with those too- a little crying at first but that was it. We talked about what he is doing and the best thing is that he is laughing now. I love it. He's trying to turn over from his back to his tummy but so far has only got up on his side and then can't quite finish. He hates laying down for tummy time or back time so it's hard to work on that. He still wakes up a lot in the night sometimes and now I know why. I always put him down in his crib after I get him to sleep so any time he wakes up, he thinks, "Wait- how did I get here? Where am I and where's my mom?" He usually goes right back to sleep once I hold him and rock him (sometimes with feeding and sometimes not). The doctor said I should get him used to going in the crib while he is still awake to help stop this but I'm having trouble with that. The doc said he'll probably cry at first but then he'll get used to it. The crying we could deal with except Rex usually goes to bed at the same time and I don't want Wyatt waking Rex up. So, we'll just keep doing what we're doing for now. When Rex was a baby, I always put him in the crib once he'd fallen asleep and there was just a natural point to make the switch where I would put him down while he was still awake and it went fine. I think (I hope) there will be that natural point with Wyatt too and I'm not ready to force the issue just yet.

When we did the 4 month photo shoot, I had a really hard time keeping Rex off the bed and I finally gave up. I had him get up there so I could get a few pictures of them together and this was the best one.

They really like each other so much and I hope they always do! Wyatt will have a big smile and coo at Rex anytime Rex gets close to him and Rex just loves to give him kisses and talk to him. It's a lot of fun to watch my two boys interact with each other.

Meeting George

2010-09-21T08:22:00.012-05:00

This past weekend, there was a special storytime with Curious George featuring an appearance by George himself. Right away, Rob and I made plans to go because we knew Rex had to be there. Curious George is a pretty special guy. Whenever you see a picture of Rex, George is usually close by. We are redecorating Rex's room with George stuff- my mom's making a quilt and we've gotten some wall decals and a poster. They started out with a storytime for all the kids followed by a little meet and greet time with George.

There were way too many people for the small area but we all managed somehow.

Since it was just me and Rex, I ended up holding Rex for most of the time. I think I'm ready for one of those Strong Man competitions now. Anyhow, I was so excited for the part where Rex could go up and meet George and we could take a picture. I thought he would just be so excited and all over him.

I was wrong. He wasn't afraid of him- I think apprehensive is probably a good word. He was fine with getting this close and waving and saying hi but that was it. I tried to get him closer and he did not want to. So we got a little souvenir and headed home.

He plays music and scoots along on his little scooter. Pretty cool but the song (Camptown Races) plays at like 250 decibels so we've got to fix that somehow. I think Rex had fun and I'm glad we went even if it didn't turn out how I'd envisioned it- things rarely do in life.

Rob worked on getting the rest of the bike shop demoed (demo'd? demo'ed?). Hopefully the weather cooperates this week and weekend so he can get the roof done. Here he is removing the ceiling.

I just have one more funny photo of something Rex does. He has OCD-ish quirks just like his mommy and daddy and has for a while now but this is the most recent.

For a kid who tears through the house all day and leaves it looking like Hurricane Katrina part II just blew through, it is so funny to see him line up his little cars in a perfectly straight line. But he does. All the time. I just love that kid.

Family Room

2010-09-13T13:42:00.008-05:00

Recently I insisted to Rob that we had to find more space in this house for me and the boys to spend time in every day. Our living room space is pretty large but we use half of it as a dining room so that makes the living room a little tight. You can't spend much time outdoors from November-March so maximizing your indoor space is critical. I have just barely made it through the two winters Rex and I have spent at home so far. Now that Rex is up and playing more and we have Wyatt, I realized I would never make it through this winter in the space we have. There were two options- fixing up either the basement or converting our 3 season room (known as the "bike shop") into a family room. Spending time in the basement still seems strange so we decided we'd rather be above-ground. It only gives us about half the additional space the basement would (250 sq ft as opposed to 500 sq ft) but the family room will be a lot nicer space. The first step was to remove the old windows and install new ones which Rob was able to do. He spent the last two weekends on it and is all done now.

He still has the trim to put on the outside of the house but that's not so bad. I've helped as much as I can- thankfully, Rob didn't need much help since I need to keep an eye on the boys. Here's what happened when I went to help Rob yesterday.

Rex was having a snack and I thought I could just leave him eating his yogurt while I helped Rob for a few minutes. When I came back in, Rex had smeared the yogurt on everything within his reach. I just laughed. I didn't know what else to do. I got Rob to come in and look and he started laughing too and said, "How do you get mad at that?" Exactly. I know he loves to smear his food in his hair so what was I thinking when I left him alone with a full container of yogurt? Anyhow, someone is coming by to help us make a decision on the roof- it is a flat roof that has leaked in the past and we need to make sure that won't happen again. Then it will be on to the drywall, electrical, flooring and maybe a few other things too. It's a good thing Rob likes to have a project and be busy around the house!

Everything else is going good here. Rob has been our chef since Wyatt was born so I've been doing a lot of cooking now that Rob is busy with the family room project. I got a new crockpot because I had to. The old one would have things boiling hot when set on low. The new one did fantastic with the roast I made last weekend and I think I'll be relying on it a lot this winter. Wyatt is awake and crying now so I better go before he wakes up Rex. Here he is in a much happier mood.

I Am Old

2010-09-09T16:13:00.004-05:00

I just ordered a new cell phone today because the old one is about 98% dead. It has been randomly shutting itself off (a trick my last phone also used to do to me) and now you can only talk on it using the speakerphone. The speakerphone is not really an option when you have a 2 year old that likes to talk loudly while mommy is on the phone and a 3 month old who may or may not be quiet when I want him to. So as I am looking through the phones on the website (because they are cheaper there and I don't have time to go to the store), I can hear myself thinking things in my head that definitely sound like someone I can't believe I have turned into. Things like "What the heck is an android phone? I see the commercials but I don't think my arms will actually start turning into robot arms so what does this phone actually do?" And "What's the difference between email and mobile email?" Then "Can't I just find a damn phone that I can talk and text on? I'm just a stay at home mom who doesn't twitter, facebook or have the need to put a bunch of music or tv on my phone!" I don't know how I got so out of touch with cell phone technology but I did. I was trying to get up to speed in about 20 minutes but I don't think I learned anything. I do still care enough though that I picked one of the cooler looking phones (I hope) so at least I look like I have a clue. I will have a huge learning curve when it gets here tomorrow. I ended up ordering one of the android phones, still not knowing what it does and why it's an android so if you see me and I have robot arms, please help me!

If You Just Heard That Thunk...

2010-09-02T08:47:00.014-05:00

So here's the story of Rex dropping the F-bomb on us. All four of us were in our not-so-spacious bathroom because it was bath night for both boys and it takes everyone to get through that. I was working on getting Wyatt cleaned up while Rob was trying to get Rex undressed and in the bath. Rex bonked his head on the cabinet and Rob told me, "If you just heard that thunk, it was Rex's head hitting the cabinet." Apparently Rex thought "thunk" was a funny word so he kept trying to say it. At first it sounded a little like thunk but as he kept trying to say it, it ended up sounding exactly like the F-word. I was laughing so hard but I had my head down and kind of turned so Rex couldn't see me. I managed to not make a sound with my laughing which is very important- once he hears a laugh, he will just keep going and going with something. There were also tears running down my face from laughing so much. Rob was doing the same as me, laughing with no sound, but he pulled it together a little faster than I did. So, Rex dropped the F-bomb without hearing it from anyone and even better, has not ever said it again since. Here's my funny guy now, with my headband on his face. Apparently, he thought they were glasses.

Rex is pretty helpful now. He keeps the fridge stocked for me with Coke Zero.

He has quite an imagination and he likes to pretend a lot now. One of his favorite things is to pretend like he is going to Lowe's or the grocery store. He gets his keys and my old sunglasses on, sometimes he puts on shoes and grabs one of his phones too, and tells us "time" (which means "have a good time") and tells us he loves us then proceeds to the door. It is so so funny.

Wyatt is doing good too. He is a terrible sleeper. I hope that when he starts on rice cereal in a few weeks things will get better. Last night, he went to sleep around 10:30 and woke up at 1:00 a.m., 4:55 a.m., 6:20 a.m., and then it was touch and go from there. That is too much getting up in the night. He has times where he'll sleep 6 or 7 hours but those times have been very few. He is so different from his brother. I knew Rex was an easy baby and I was afraid this time would be more difficult and it is. I'm sure it could be worse though and really, it's not so bad. Knowing that it won't always be like this makes me feel much better. We've got to be getting past it soon. Wyatt also isn't as smily as Rex was. We took him to get his 3 month old photos taken a few weeks ago and he would not smile. Even when I tried to take his 3-month old photos that I do at home that same day, he wouldn't smile for his mommy either. Very serious kid and if you get a smile from him, you know you earned it. Wyatt's a great kid, he is just a little more work than his brother was but Rex was seriously the easiest baby in the history of the world. Seriously. Here are some of the photos I took for the 3 month old photo shoot.

Okay, I did get a little smile out of him- finally!

I'm going to try and do better with my blog posts this month. It is incredibly hard with Wyatt though since he doesn't nap much and always wants attention. I promise to do better than last month though!

TMI

2010-08-27T16:49:00.007-05:00

I have too much information to share and I just don't know where to start. Wyatt just crashed out next to me in his bouncy seat which is awesome but now Rex is awake so I will have to keep this short for now. It's hard to believe that at the beginning of this month I had nothing to blog about! Our water was turned back on 2 days earlier than expected so that was such an unexpected blessing. Everything in my life is back to normal now but I know there are a lot of people who will be dealing with the flooding for months still. My father came for a visit last week so I have things to share from that too but I will save it for the next post when I have more time. Rex dropped the F-Bomb on us the other night which deserves its own post. I do have to say though that he did not hear the word from our mouths- or anyone's actually. Wyatt turned 3 months old a week ago and we did another monthly photo shoot as well as took him to get professional photos done. Our weather has been alternating between pretty hot and humid and really nice. I am just thankful for the nice periods because it makes 90 degrees and humid easier to deal with when you get a break. Anyhow, better get going but here are some pictures of us.

My friend Amy made these adorable shirts for the boys.

Me and my two boys.

When I was taking Wyatt's 3 month old pictures, Rob said "Change it to say '3 boys' and Rex and I can get in there too" so here they are, my 3 boys.

Water Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

2010-08-14T23:04:00.012-05:00

So, funny story. I realized last weekend that I hadn't posted anything in quite some time and thought maybe I should do something about that. But then I couldn't think of anything to write about. Rob's birthday was on Tuesday so I thought I would just wait until I had some material from that. Before I could post anything about that, I got way more material than I ever could've imagined. First though, Rob's birthday.

It's tough to get much done during the day but I decided we had to do something for Rob's birthday. I took the kids out and got a cake, balloons and posterboard to make a sign. The idea was to put Rex and Wyatt's handprints on the sign, but as soon as I tried it with Rex I realized it was not the best idea I ever had. Rex wanted to basically fingerpaint all over the sign rather than just make handprints so that was a struggle. Then the paint, which was face paint, wouldn't really come off his hands too well so I decided we would just skip Wyatt's part in the sign-making process. The sign didn't turn out quite how I imagined but I'm learning that is just how it goes when you are working with kids. We had dinner at home- Rob had to buy and cook his own dinner. It sounds terrible, I know, but listen to me first. He picked up the groceries on his way home from the massage I booked him so that's not so bad, right? Then he had the option of cooking or watching the kids while I cooked and he picked cooking. Not like I know how to grill up a steak for him anyways so that all worked out for the best. Here we all are with the birthday cake.

I took two pictures like this using the camera's timer and this was the better one since 3 out of 4 are actually looking at the camera. The dinner and the cake were yummy and I think Rob had a very good birthday.

So on to my really big and crazy news. It's flooding here. It is CRAZY. Our house is completely fine. There was a small puddle in one corner of the basement- so small it could just be wiped up with a towel- and that was it. We are very thankful for that. Rob was able to make it to work on Wednesday by going way out of town and around and then back again only to discover that there was no power where he works and nothing really he could do. He left work around 11:00 a.m. and they ended up telling all the employees not to come in at all on Thursday. This is what it looked like all over town on Wednesday- lots of flooded streets and lots of people looking around at it all.

The worst news was still to come though. Because of all the flooding, there was a chance our water supply was contaminated and we have been under a boil water order since Wednesday afternoon. Thank goodness Rob was home because he went out to the store immediately to stock up on bottled water and bought a few gallons in the milk jug type containers too. We can only use very little water while they try to get the water towers (which were nearly drained empty) filled back up and then flush the whole city water system. You can take a shower but it has to be less than 5 minutes and you better keep your mouth closed while you are in there. How do you wash a 2 year old and a baby though? With store-bought gallons of water apparently- at least, that's what we did last night. They can't keep their mouths closed the whole time so we bought a bunch of water on Friday to use for their baths last night. It was either that or go rent a hotel room in another city so buying the water didn't seem so expensive after all. We have been using paper plates/bowls and plastic silverware as much as possible to avoid getting any dishes dirty. It's a lot like camping around here. They hope to have everything back to normal by Tuesday evening which is far later than they first predicted. They also thought there was only one water main break to begin with too so there you go. Although it is all incredibly inconvenient and annoying, I am very happy that is all we are having to deal with right now. It could have been much worse and I know there are a lot of people not very far from here who are dealing with much worse circumstances.

Blown Away

2010-07-27T13:52:00.014-05:00

Last weekend we had a quite a storm that started in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I knew it might rain so I wasn't shocked when I heard the rain, thunder and lightning when I got up to feed Wyatt in the middle of the night. It also sounded really windy but I was still very surprised to see this when I looked across the street the next morning. (If you click on the photo below to make it bigger, you'll see the huge limb that took out the neighbor's fence and also landed on the garage. You can also see a lot of sticks and branches in our yard.)

I couldn't believe it! Wow. We have some serious storms here but I haven't seen anything like that before. Trees were down all over the place. Or there was so much damage that you had to take the whole tree out, like we had to. This is our backyard.

If you ask me, this was a special gift from God just for me. Rob would not agree. That tree had been a sore point between us ever since the squirrels planted it for us there. I wanted it gone when I saw it coming up and Rob wanted it to stay. I hated it because it shaded too many of my plants that I like which require a lot of sun. Rob liked the privacy it gave our yard. I agree that we need something tall in that area for privacy but a large bush/shrub that doesn't shade my plants would be a far better option. Rob asked me that morning, "Did you see the backyard?" I told him yes and he said, "So how happy are you right now?" Hee Hee- oh so happy! So long tree!!

Since so many people had so much damage, the city allowed everyone to put all their fallen limbs and branches in your front yard for a special free pickup they would provide. Nice. And then every street you went down looked like this.

It turned out the winds were above 70 mph in our area- woah! Anyhow, it was quite the storm. I think a lot of people were unhappy with the damage done but I couldn't be more pleased with how it all turned out for us. And now, I actually have both boys asleep in both their beds so I am going to write some thank-you notes which are long overdue!

2 Months Old

2010-07-20T19:28:00.005-05:00

Wyatt turned two months old yesterday so it was time for another photo shoot.

I took Wyatt to the doctor today for his 2-month old checkup and he is doing just great. He weighs 12 pounds, 4 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. I looked up Rex's measurements at this point and was shocked to see that Rex already weighed 14 lbs, 10 oz at this point and was 1/4 inch shorter- what a pudge! I was sick- again!- and had to take my second round of antibiotics in just six weeks. It was something different each time. I don't get sick very often at all so this has been really crappy. But I am doing much better now. Rob's good and the boys are both good too. It's been super hot here lately (115 heat index) but is a little better now. We had a crazy storm this weekend. I have a lot to say about that and will put it in my next post with pictures of some of the damage. One more exciting thing to report is that Wyatt is now sleeping in his crib. His first night was the same night as the big storm so that didn't go too well but it's been going a lot better since. My boys are both getting so big!

Block Party

2010-07-19T09:09:00.008-05:00

Last week, there was a block party in our neighborhood that we went to. You can get a trailer that has tables and tents (other stuff too, I think) from the city and they even come and block off your street for you.

It was a potluck and there were lots of good things to eat. It was nice to get a break from planning and making dinner. Not that I do much of that anymore but I think Rob appreciated the night off. I have a wonderful husband. Rex had the BEST time running around with the other kids that were there. When I saw Rex I asked Rob, "Did you pour some water on him to cool him down or is he just that sweaty?" Turns out, he was just that sweaty.

Towards the end of the evening, a policeman stopped by to say hello and the kids all got those little sticker badges and got to check out the police car. They all thought it was pretty cool. Hopefully, this is as close to the back- or front- of a police car as Rex ever gets.

Coo-Coo-Kachoo

2010-07-16T21:13:00.006-05:00

It has been milestone mania with Wyatt lately. He is smiling now which I posted last time. And then, about a day later, he started cooing. These are two of my most favorite things so I am just in heaven right now. Here's a little of the cooing (you can also hear Rex screaming and having a good time taking his bath in the background).

Finally, he rolled over the other night- I believe it was Wednesday night- from his tummy to his back for the first time. I got him to do it twice to be sure it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't- he was two for two. I didn't get a video of that yet. Rex hit all his big milestones kind of late and it seems like Wyatt is going to be on the fast-track. Not that one is better than the other or anything, it's just funny how two kids from the same gene pool can be so different!

Since You've Been Gone

2010-07-11T10:58:00.011-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! So much has been going on and for a while, I thought our computer was dead. We recently had our internet "upgraded" by our service provider which meant it started working like crap. Then one day, my computer just randomly shut itself off and I could not get it started up again. I thought for sure it was dead. I love my iMac but I was ready to run right out and get a MacBook. First though, I loaded up Rex and the iMac for a trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar in Des Moines where it started up with no problem. The genius tuned it up a little and explained some problems that our service provider is having and why our internet connection is so slow. It all works great now and we've had no more problems so time to blog!

To help ease my and Rob's workload, we are teaching our little superhero how to clean.

We are also teaching him how to give his brother a bath.

Ha! Both of those are not true- duh- but they are funny. In the first one, Rex kept grabbing the duster and "helping" his dad clean up one morning. In the second one, it was bath time and as soon as Rex got in the bathroom he started stripping down. That would explain the lack of pants on the kid. We told him to hang on a minute because Wyatt had to get his bath first. It is so funny that Rex can't wait for his bath now because he used to hate bath time.

Why is it that I think of so many good things to blog about during the day then now, when I finally get a few minutes to work on this, I can't think of anything? Wyatt was up to 11 pounds, 14 ounces when we got his weight checked on June 29th so he is growing a ton. He just started smiling on Friday and I tried to capture it with my camera but ended up getting two almost-smiles.

Rex started sleeping in his big boy bed this week. The first night did not go well at all but things have been getting better little by little ever since. Here he is spending one of his last nights in the crib and waking up from a nap in the new bed.

Rob and I haven't been up to much. Just trying to stay sane with a new baby and a 2 year old is enough. We so look forward to the day they can walk out to the car, get in it and we can all go somewhere. Or just to a time when we don't have to change any diapers anymore. I do remind myself to enjoy this phase too and that when they are more independent, then I will wish they would spend more time with us. I'm sure there is no perfect age- you just have to enjoy the good parts of each phase and get through the not-so-good parts. I have been enjoying all the flowers in my yard right now. Everything looks so beautiful out there and I will try to remember to get some pictures to post next time. I think that's all for us and since Rex just took his pants off and told me "diaper", I guess I better go get him changed!

One More Celebration

2010-06-24T11:47:00.005-05:00

I forgot to mention that Wyatt turned one month old last Saturday. Yay Wyatt! I took some photos of him that day.

I was inspired by pictures Nanette did of her daughter every month. I wasn't prepared though and didn't get the stickers in time to put on a shirt so I had to use Rex's bathtub toy letters and numbers. I can't decide if I should keep going with that look or get the stickers for the rest of the months. Hmm...

Seemed Like A Good Idea

2010-06-24T11:07:00.013-05:00

I realized not too long after Rex was born that his 2nd birthday and Father's Day would be the same day. I thought that was pretty cool until it actually got here. I still think it is somewhat cool, I just didn't think about how much work that would be to celebrate all that. Then you throw in a new baby and a grandma with a birthday the very next day (my parents are visiting right now) and it just seems like all out mayhem. Mostly, Rex's birthday got celebrated. We kind of celebrated my mom's birthday with Rex and we kind of celebrated the next day too but neither was all that great, I'm afraid. I'm also sorry to say that Rob made breakfast and dinner that day and didn't even have a present to open. But that was only because he got his present in April (golf clubs) as his Father's Day/birthday/and-maybe-even-Christmas-too present.

Rex had a good time, I think. He had his dinosaur cake which I will make him every year. Well, actually I managed to sweet talk his Papa into making the cake since I was busy with Wyatt. He opened his presents after that. Rob did most of the birthday present shopping so he got Flarp (putty that makes a fart noise when you stick your finger in it that he actually is not even old enough to play with yet), a bubble gun, magnetic letters for the fridge (the kid seriously already knows about half the alphabet- hopefully this will help him learn the rest), and a rubber duckie and boat for the bath. I got him a set of Curious George dvds a while back so I wrapped those up for him too. Here are some birthday photos.

That's Rob playing with the Flarp in the background- guess who he really got it for?

So it was a busy weekend to say the least. I think everybody had a good time though. As I mentioned earlier, my parents are here visiting right now. Actually, they are on a little road trip for a few days but they will be back tonight. They got to meet Wyatt and are having fun with Rex too- he is a lot different than the last time they saw him in November! We are enjoying visiting with them as well and it is sooo nice to have helpers in the house again! Wyatt seems to be going through his 6-week growth spurt a little early so I better get back to my duties.

Like Father, Like Son

2010-06-16T14:36:00.008-05:00

We get a lot of comments about how Wyatt looks so much like Rex. And he does. But here is who he really looks like.

That is Rob at 3 months old. Here is a picture of Wyatt that I took yesterday.

I was trying to prop Wyatt up so the pictures would be really similar but he just kept sinking down so that didn't really work out. I'm glad Wyatt looks like Rob- Rex looks a lot like me and now we each have our own mini-me. Ha!

My parents arrived yesterday and it is so good to see them. It has been nearly a year since they were here last. And I'm not gonna lie, it is also really nice to have some helpers around again. We haven't been up to much lately. I think I have only been out twice since Wyatt was born- once to a doctor appointment and once to get my Powerball ticket (I will win the jackpot one of these days- I will!). Rob is doing so great with taking care of all the shopping, making dinner and doing the dishes. I have such a wonderful husband! Oh, by the way, Wyatt is 4 weeks old today. I can hardly believe it- time is just flying by. And Rex will be 2 on Sunday. Wow. And I would like a nap now while the boys are both asleep so I better get to it. Goodnight!

Naptime

2010-06-04T14:10:00.018-05:00

Holy cow- both kids are asleep right now and I have a few quick moments to blog. I wasn't sure when I would have a chance again. Rob's parents were here to visit and help us while Wyatt was born. They were so much help to us and it was a sad day when they left this Tuesday. To make matters worse, that was the day I got sick. Little infection, lot of fever and a total mess. I got some antibiotics from the doctor and am on the mend now but it's been a really rough few days at our house. Tuesday was also the day we had Wyatt's 2-week-old check up with the pediatrician. He's quite the healthy guy and healthy eater- he gained 13 ounces in 11 days. Everything looked good and there were no shots- just the kind of appointments we like to have. I got this picture of him a few days ago with his eyes open (a rare thing since he sleeps so much of the time). Very serious baby.

Rob's dad helped him build a gate and trellis on the side of our house. We used to have one there but it was falling apart and the paint was peeling off the thing so Rob took it out a while back. Now that we have a little boy who likes to run around the yard, it seemed like a really good idea to get that gate back up. The little boy who caused all the work decided to pitch in.

He helped dig the holes for the posts with his dad.

Then he decided he would rather sit back and supervise...

And let somebody else do all the work.

The three of them did a great job- it is coming together very nicely though it isn't quite done yet.

So, to recap, Wyatt is doing great, I am getting better, and Rob and Rex make a good team. I'm even managing to do okay with the two of them while Rob is at work and I'm on my own. It should seem like cake then once I'm feeling good again, right? We took a walk today and I used the double stroller to tote around my boys. With 90+ pounds of stroller, car seat and kids to push around, I was surprised at how easy it was to steer and maneuver. There are a couple of places where we go uphill some and that was tough but besides that, it was not bad.

Wyatt should be getting up soon so I better wrap this up. Don't want him to wake up, start crying and then wake his brother up too! But first, one more picture of my two boys.

What's In a Name?

2010-05-27T15:20:00.011-05:00

Oh Juliet, there is so much to a name. Let me tell you. We had the hardest time coming up with a name for our precious little boy. We went through so many. First of all, I did not want something popular which I determined would be anything in the top 100 names on the Social Security website for 2008. Other things that were important to us were having a short name and something that was most definitely a boy's name. I get things addressed to "Mr. Shelby" and it drives me nuts. One name we really liked was Dean but it is the name of Rob's boss so it was out. Next was Clark but we could both think of Clarks we don't like so that was out. We liked Harrison for a while but got over it. I liked Wade, Grant, Finn and Sawyer but Rob said no. Rob liked Buck and Huck (seriously) and I said no. Some others we considered were Henry and Theodore which were both in the top 100 so they were out. I liked Reid but it sounds funny with our last name, Let's take a quick break in our story now for a cute baby photo.

Finally, I realized I was stuck on names that sounded like they were out of the wild west- Cole, Cooper, Bennett, Jasper among others we had already discussed. Wyatt was one that had already been on my mind but I was afraid it was too popular, thus violating my one main rule. With Rex, I was stuck on names that sounded like old-time movie stars- Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, Clark Gable and the like. But this time it was outlaws and cowboys of the wild west for some reason. So one night Rob was looking on the computer and he came up with Zane. Zane was the leading contender for quite a while but we couldn't find a middle name (which had to be a family name) that we liked with it and I still preferred Wyatt. About 2 weeks before baby was going to be born, I asked myself, "Would you rather have a name you really, really liked or one you didn't like as much but chose just because it was less popular?" Hmm. So I finally, with maybe one week to go, decided that it was more important to have a name I really liked and we chose Wyatt which was absolutely the right choice. Here's Wyatt again.

There's a New Sheriff in Town

2010-05-21T16:17:00.006-05:00

Our beautiful and perfect (just like his big brother) new son, Wyatt.

Wyatt was born on Wednesday, May 19th at 4:52 pm. He weighs 8 pounds, 13 ounces and is 21 inches long. He is almost the same size as Rex was when he was born- just a little smaller. It was a really smooth and easy labor and delivery. Well, as easy as it can be, I suppose. Here we are.

We are both doing great now and happy to be home. I can't wait to get back to my boys already so I'll just let the last two pictures speak for themselves. I have more to share later (especially the whole name selection story) and will probably have plenty of time in the middle of the night to do just that this week.

14 Hours To Go

2010-05-18T16:48:00.010-05:00

I have about 5 minutes to write this post today and really, I don't even know that I have that much time but I'm taking it. Being scheduled to give birth (barring any surprises) is both good and bad. It's nice to know when it will happen but it makes you kind of lazy. We didn't get any furniture moved until Sunday and I've been trying to cram 3 months of preparation (at least, that's how much time I spent prepping for Rex's arrival) into 3 days. The baby's room is kind of a crazy hodge-podge right now anyhow since he will be sleeping in the bassinet in our room while Rex continues to sleep in the crib for the next 2-3 months. The closet also needs to be cleaned out and I can probably think of many other things to do but they'll just all have to wait. I managed to get a lot of laundry done and my house fairly clean before Rob's parents arrive in the next hour which was my biggest goal for today. Now I just have to get the laundry put away and get my suitcase packed. That would be the suitcase that I just had Rob get for me last night out of the basement. The bassinet and car seat are still down there. Like I said, being scheduled for your delivery can make you pretty lazy. Here is one final picture of pregnant Shelby- and I mean final for, like, the rest of time.

I do have to share one more thing and that is a list of things I am looking forward to:

- Meeting my new son and sharing photos and info with everyone.
- Eating a Jimmy Johns turkey sandwich for lunch on Thursday, if not dinner tomorrow.
- Sleeping on my tummy and back. Sleeping on my side is awful though the use of a Snoogle has made it slightly better. Slightly.
- Turning around easily in car to look out rear window while backing up. So, so hard to do while pregnant.
- No more swollen hands and feet, numb fingers, heartburn, shortness of breath and sore, painful hips.
- And after some time, no more maternity clothes and having an adult beverage.

I'm sure there are plenty more things to look forward to but now Rex is awake and I have spent 20 minutes instead on this instead of the 5 I said I was going to. Time to get Rex, clean the bathroom, put laundry away and get ready to go out to dinner! Then back home to watch Lost, pack and try to get some sleep tonight. Somehow, after all of today's activities/chores, I don't think it will be a problem.

V- The Visitors

2010-05-13T13:07:00.006-05:00

We had some visitors this past weekend. None of the crazy lizard visitors like on tv though- we had this adorable one and her mommy.

Nanette came to visit us for a long weekend and brought her daughter along with her. The weather this weekend was rotten (cold and rainy) so we were confined to the house most of the time. The kids played great together and had a lot of fun. The biggest problem was that Rex turned into the Kissing Bandit and I could not get him to stop kissing the two of them! Not such a bad problem to have though, I suppose. Certainly better than having a kid who hits or bites! Nanette and I were able to catch up and we both enjoyed spending time with each other's kids. Rob took good care of us on Mother's Day and fixed a really nice dinner. He also put our new double stroller together so we could take the kids on a walk and go to the park. That's where I snapped the photo above and also these.

It was such a great visit and an added bonus was that it kept my mind busy and not so focused on the baby. I had another appointment with my doctor yesterday and everything is still going wonderfully. Well, I have some numb and tingly fingers because my hand is so swollen but that's temporary. Next time I see her will be Wednesday morning at the hospital- yay!! Only 6 days to go. We still have to move some furniture around to get ready for baby but Rex has been sick and I've had to put off doing that because I don't want our friend to come over while Rex is sick. Oh yes, Rex is sick now. I noticed Tuesday afternoon he had a fever and he didn't want to eat. Yesterday he still had the fever and would not eat or drink anything. I know something is up when the kid won't drink apple juice. I was starting to get nervous about him getting dehydrated so I took him to the doctor this morning. Of course, he drank a ton of juice this morning but we still went anyhow. I wasn't sure what was bothering him- he was crying off and on and seemed to be in pain. I thought maybe he had teeth coming in but it didn't explain why he wouldn't drink anything. Finally, I realized his throat was probably sore which the doctor confirmed. He has a virus that is causing the fever and sore throat but does not have strep throat, thankfully. The doctor said it may last through the weekend but he already seems to be doing much better today. I told a friend it was good to have a distraction right now but I would have liked another type of distraction, preferably something like winning the Powerball jackpot. I am just hoping he feels better soon, that it's totally gone by the time the baby comes home and that I don't catch it. I also hate that I can't really hold and cuddle him like he wants because I don't have much of a lap right now. Poor baby.

Hello? I'd Like to Order a Baby Delivery Please.

2010-05-06T07:53:00.010-05:00

I had another check-up yesterday with my doctor and everything is still going really good. He's a big dude with a strong heartbeat and I am worn out. We talked again about inducing me and even picked the date. It will be May 19th- only 13 days to go unless he decides to make a break for it before that! My doctor does not think he will though based on my previous experience. It is kind of strange to schedule your delivery and get a little appointment card for when to show up to the hospital. But this seems to be the way my body works so that is the way it has to be. I do like it though and like I said in my last post, randomly going into labor seems really weird to me. I have been surprised how similar this pregnancy, especially these last few weeks, has been to my first one. They both had big growth spurts at the same time then kind of stopped growing and my body has progressed the same (already dilated 2 cm). Only one more appointment with the doctor and then the next time I see her will be at the hospital. Wow!

So we've been working in the yard a lot because, well, two things really. The first is that there is a lot to do when you go from winter to summer here. Lots and lots of de-winterizing, pruning and just getting things ready to grow again. Second reason is because I don't foresee a lot of extra time for gardening this summer. Just keeping up with mowing and some weeding will be all we can handle. We have been trying to get a few plants in the ground and yesterday we had a big pile of dirt delivered so we can fill up the planting bed Rob built for me last summer. My plan for that is to plant dahlias, snapdragons, zinnias and maybe sweet peas in it. I would like to get some vegetables in there too but I just think that is too much for this year. I don't have to time to be tending a vegetable garden. But next near I would like to!

They dropped it off in the driveway so Rob had to cart it all to the back yard where the bed is.

As you can see, Rex wanted to be right in the middle of it. So we let him. It's pretty fun to see your boy playing in a big dirt pile and just having the time of his life.

I still have to get the seeds planted in all our new dirt and get a few plants in the ground but I think we'll make it by the 19th. And if we don't, oh well!

Number 8

2010-04-30T14:03:00.005-05:00

This post is number 8 for April which means I've met my blogging goal every month so far like I resolved to do this year. Yay for me!

I went to the doctor last Wednesday for my now weekly check-up. If you are wondering where I am on a Wednesday afternoon, that is where I'll be for the next few weeks. Everything is continuing to go very well. Last time, my doctor was concerned about how large I was measuring at this point with Rex and I'm even a little bigger at 36 weeks this time around. I had to do an ultrasound to see how big Rex was and he was big, but he didn't get much bigger after this point. My doctor thinks this is probably going to be the same way- that there won't be much more growth between now and delivery- so we are holding off on an ultrasound for now. We talked about it and she offered to let me do one but there wasn't much to be gained or anything she would do differently so I decided to pass. My insurance company probably thanks me for saving them a few hundred dollars. As my doctor was leaving the exam room, I told her, "See you next Wednesday" and she told me, "See you then- or call us if you go into labor!" Yikes. I honestly have not even thought about that. I had to be induced last time and we've just been planning on doing it that way again and I forgot that I could actually go into labor. It seems a little weird to me to have a baby that way since my only experience was not like that. I just think you show up to the hospital at your scheduled time with your suitcase, get checked in and settled and then start your labor and have a baby. As long as this baby doesn't come before Rob's parents get here, I'm fine with whatever way he decides to make his entrance!

We have a lot to do this weekend. The biggest item on my agenda is to get someone to help us move furniture around so I can get the baby's room set up. Other than that, I'd like to get a few things planted in the back yard and some work done out there. But getting the house and the bedrooms in order and making this place ready for the baby is my main concern right now. I need to get stuff out of the basement too- the bassinet, carseat, suitcase and make sure all that is ready to go. There is still a lot to do and only 19 days left!!

35 Weeks, 1 Day

2010-04-26T16:44:00.004-05:00

Here's a picture I took of myself last Thursday, when I was 35 weeks and 1 day along.

Things are going okay. I got a massage this weekend to help with the nonstop headaches and they are gone now. It helped a lot with my hips too but after picking up Rex for a day or two, they are screwed up again. I try not to pick him up so much but I have to get him on the changing table, in his highchair, in the car seat, etc, so it is impossible to just not pick him up. Just a few days left to go so I can make it. I think.

You can see my new haircut in the picture above. I am so glad I finally got it cut and I really like the style. I hadn't gotten my hair cut in almost a year- yikes. The girl that cut my hair got married and moved away last May and I just kept putting off finding anyone else. I couldn't take it anymore so I called the salon she used to work at to schedule with someone else and was so, so, so excited when they told me she was back. She still lives a few hours away but she works at the salon 1 day a week. I styled it horribly the first time but I have the hang of it now.

It hasn't been too exciting for us lately. We should probably be doing more baby preparation than we are but it will all work out fine. The weather has been cool and rainy so we have all been stuck inside a lot. Besides the good news with my hair and the massage, I know this post is kind of a bummer. I am just ready to be done with being pregnant, and if not that, at least be outside in some good weather.

Hardworkin' Man

2010-04-19T15:04:00.017-05:00

As promised, this post is about my wonderful husband. I love you honey!

Rob was a busy guy this weekend. When he got home Friday night after work, he mowed the yard for the first time in 2010.

Then he watched Rex for a while and fed him dinner while I went to get my hair cut. (That's a story- and a picture- for another time though.) We all played in the backyard for a while when I got home and called it a night not too much after that. Saturday morning, we went to a big festival thing in the area. The idea was to get there during the parade, watch part of it and then find some yummy food to eat. Since we got there as the parade was going on, we didn't get a very good spot to watch it. Luckily, Rex has a very tall daddy and he could still see things pretty good from where we were.

The next item on the agenda was eating. The big thing to get, that special food that everyone just has to have, is a cherry pie. I don't ever have to have cherry pie (yuck) no matter where I am so Rob and Rex shared one.

It is tempting to let you all think I was just being good and avoided the sweets but that would be a lie. I hit up the homemade ice cream stand and also bought a small bag of homemade fudge to bring home. We didn't stay as long as I thought we would- I have been having a lot of pain in my lower back and I didn't want to walk around any longer. Anyhow, we came back home and Rob had another first for 2010- he went out to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. I wasn't really up for cooking dinner that night so we got some takeout and watched the ridiculously long (20 innings!) Mets-Cardinals game on tv. Yesterday we did a lot of work in the backyard while Rex ran around and had fun in the sunshine. We also cleaned up our bike shop (3 season room) since it tends to get thrashed during the winter. We spent a good amount of time fixing it up last summer and wanted it to look good again and be usable this summer as well. Finally, since Rob had worked on his swing over the weekend, it was time for him to help Rex with his putting. Rex did MUCH better than I was expecting- as in, he actually hit it. His technique could use a little help but not bad for his first time!

My one suggestion for next time though would be to work on the putting outside rather than inside the house. It was a busy weekend where we had a lot of fun and also got a lot accomplished.

Change of Scenery

2010-04-15T07:34:00.008-05:00

Rex and I are back at our walks now everyday and sometimes the same old route gets a little boring. Last year I tried a path around a park and Rex hated it (I think because it all looked the same) and I have been nervous to try anything else ever since. When we did that path, it was a 3 mile loop and once you were on it, there was no shortcut to get back to your car. You could turn around but we were about halfway through when he started losing it. Yesterday I decided to take him to some botanical gardens and walk around there. We have a membership so it's free and we could leave whenever we needed to. There wasn't much in the gardens to look at yet except for some tulips and daffodils but it was still nice to just be outside in the sunshine. And I was checking out all their pruning to see what I needed to do at home- fun and educational.

We were just about the only people there so I let him get out and walk for a while, rather than ride in the stroller.

I think he was having a good time!

The 15-foot gnome is a new addition for this year.

The gardens.

Lookin' Like A Fool With Your Pants On The Ground

2010-04-14T14:37:00.012-05:00

Rex is now at the wonderful stage where he has discovered he can remove his own pants. It was a few months ago that he first took his shirt off but now he has realized he can take the pants off too. The diaper has come off a time or two as well but he is usually caught before that happens. Yesterday, I beat him at his own game though. Here he is.

I am sure he will figure out a way to get the overalls off too but they work great for now! I told Rob he is wearing that outfit every day until he forgets about pulling down his pants.

Not that this is all that exciting, but I got a funny series of shots of Rex last night as he was sitting in one of the baskets his toys are stored in.

Climbing in...

Looking cute, sitting nicely in basket...

Oh, but guess what happens when you start rocking the basket back and forth too much!

Lots of Rex pictures this time- I'm sure the grandparents will all love this post! I'm going to the doctor for one of my many check-ups in just a few minutes so the next post will probably be all about me and the new baby. I should probably think of something to write about that wonderful husband of mine- I just realized a lot of the posts are about Rex, then me and the baby but not too many about Rob.

Twin Cities Trip

2010-04-12T15:38:00.010-05:00

Last Friday, Rob, Rex and I headed up to the Twin Cities. Rob left work a few hours early so we got there right around dinner time. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn this time rather than the Radisson where we usually stay. All the room prices for the Radisson were really high- I guess they had something big going on that they could get away with gouging people. Anyhow, the Hilton was in a good location, the breakfast was really good but the room was smaller than the Radisson's rooms. Not too big of a deal except Rex had a lot of wiggles to get out after the long car ride and we all would have appreciated some more square footage. We ate at an Olive Garden restaurant that was close to the hotel. We don't have one close to us so it had been a long time since I ate at an Olive Garden and those breadsticks are still as good as I remember! We went to the Golf Galaxy store after that- oh yay!- and then headed back to our hotel. I didn't take too many pictures on the trip but here is Rex sleeping in another Eastern European orphanage-style crib at the hotel.

I decided to go with the hotel crib rather than bring our pack and play since he doesn't fit in the pack and play anymore. As it turned out, he barely fit in that crib! Yikes. We will have to remember not to stay in any hotels until he can sleep in a bed. Saturday morning, we had a great breakfast at the hotel. It had an extensive buffet with hot food made-to-order so it was way better than most places with their offerings of yogurt, a muffin and maybe a packet of instant oatmeal you can mix with hot water. Stuffed with our yummy breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and we headed to....

IKEA! I was checking on their store hours Friday morning before we left and I discovered that they were having a grand reopening celebration that weekend as they had just completed 6 months of remodeling their showroom. Rob's response? "Oh good. At least it won't be busy this weekend!" Uh, oops. So, yes, it was quite busy there so we just went around and grabbed our stuff quickly (that means it took 2 hours instead of the usual 4!). We got some things for when we redo Rex's room this summer and I picked out some shelves (we got the black-brown color) for the living room and a new planter for the front porch. The most exciting purchase was this chair cover that we got for $5!! Our chair desperately needed a cover but I could never bring myself to pay $50 for one. Yay for sales and 90% off! We were on the road out of town around 12:30 pm. There is an outlet mall right around the Iowa-Minnesota border that I always want to stop at but it seems we never have the time. Since we were quicker than usual at IKEA, we finally had a chance to stop. We looked for golf shoes for Rob at the Nike outlet (no luck) and got some shoes for Rex at Old Navy. We left there and drove a short while before stopping for a late lunch. It was a nice, but quick, trip before the baby gets here and we are stuck at home for a while. And it was nice to be home Saturday evening and still have Sunday to relax and do some work around the house before Rob had to go back to work today.

Rex's Twin

2010-04-06T11:40:00.009-05:00

Here is my child. Unfortunately he has a weird look on his face but I chose this photo mainly because of what he has on.

Here is another little boy who is not my child but he looks a LOT like him! Rob and I both had to look at the picture twice to make sure that it wasn't our kid.

My mom saw the photo of the other little boy in their newspaper and she sent it to me. Sorry it is a scanned newspaper photo and the quality is terrible. Nanette mentioned to me about a month or so ago that the little boy on the front of her Parents magazine looked just like Rex and I am now wondering if it is the same kid. That kid is getting a lot of work- maybe he could use some help from another kid who looks just like him? Or maybe they could play twins or share a job on a tv show? Or not. But it is pretty crazy to come across another little boy who looks so much like Rex!

Easter Weekend Recap

2010-04-05T15:25:00.009-05:00

Our weekend absolutely flew by! I had a huge list of things I wanted to get done and I think the only thing that was accomplished was some of the landscaping work. We were busy all the time so I don't know what happened or where all the time went. Now that spring is here, there is so much to do both inside and outside the house- taking down storm windows, tons of yard work and many other things I either didn't have to deal with in California or it was a lot less work. And then we have some preparation still to do before the new kid's arrival so there is a lot going on here at our house.

I went out Saturday morning to get stuff for Rex's Easter basket. Not smart waiting so late but I couldn't take him with me so it was hard to find a good time to go. I got the favorite Easter candies for Rob (the original Cadbury creme eggs and Whoppers Robin Eggs) and me (Cadbury mini eggs and Starburst jelly beans) and picked up some good presents for Rex so it was a successful trip as it turned out. Sunday morning I put the basket together and gave it to him with our yummy breakfast- waffles with whipped cream and strawberries!

I put all the candy in the basket but Rob and I will be eating that, not Rex. He did just fine so don't feel too bad for the guy. He got a new book with Elmo in it, a bottle of bubbles (which he loved!) and a See & Say. I still have my See & Say from when I was a kid but I don't really want him to play with it. It may have made it through my childhood and 30+ years on this planet, but I don't know that it could handle Rex. He had a good time playing with the See & Say, empty Easter bucket and plastic eggs for the rest of the day.

I had an interesting development recently- it seems I may have some pregnancy-induced restless leg syndrome. So weird! I always thought it sounded like a pretty silly condition but it is not silly or funny. It's really irritating. I feel like I have to move my legs or they will just explode or something. Like I said, it is really weird. I did a little internet checking (not always the most reliable source, I know) and read on some pregnant mommy forums that a lot of other pregnant women experience the same thing and found that iron supplements or calcium and magnesium supplements made it go away. I started taking my prenatal vitamins a little before bedtime (when I was having so much trouble) and it seems to have fixed the problem for now. I will still talk to my doctor next week about it but at least I can get some relief until then.

Birthday Recap and Other News

2010-03-31T14:18:00.012-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a very good day. Rob took the morning off from work to watch Rex so I could go to my doctor appointment. It was just a quick check-up (I am on the once-every-two-weeks schedule now) and everything was fine. I'm measuring bigger than I was at this point with Rex and on the bigger side in general. It looks like I will have another ultrasound once we get a little closer to delivery time so we can see just how big this guy is. I had a dream a few nights ago that the baby weighed 24 lbs 4 oz when he was born so obviously I have been a little concerned about this kid being huge. I told my doctor about the dream and we both had a good laugh about a 24 pound newborn. Anyhow, I came home to find that Rob had done all the dishes, vacuumed the living room rug and decorated for my birthday. It was so sweet and such a nice surprise.

They also had my gift and card ready so we opened my presents and then it was time to take Rob to work. Rob really wanted to take me out to dinner but sometimes eating out with Rex is more of a chore than a relaxing thing so I opted to get pizza instead. We ate our pizza and watched Lost which is a great night, if you ask me. I had another good surprise yesterday too for my birthday- our daffodils started blooming!

The weather has been wonderful lately so it was not a big surprise that all our bulbs are jumping out of the ground now. Rex and I have been on quite a few walks now and on Monday, I took him to the park too. I had visions of taking him on the slide this year but I can't quite make it up to the top of the slide and probably going down one isn't a good idea either. We settled for some swinging and running around instead. As I mentioned before, he can count to five and recognizes the numbers too so he had a good time with one part of the playset, in particular.