Bliss

Oh the sounds of joyful song and laughter coming from my children. Bliss!

Now, if only every moment could be as blissful as this. They come often enough to keep me content and sane on most days, but last Friday was not one of those days. I don't even think I need to paint the scene of what was going on. I don't even really remember, but I'm sure it involved Robby being fussy and stubborn and not taking his nap and Tyler being whiny and uncooperative.

It was the kind of day where I was grateful for the childproof lock I had put on my pantry door a few years ago. What's that? You don't have a lock on your pantry? You really should look in to getting one. I highly recommend it. Not only does it keep your overly hungry boy from eating everything and anything he can find at any hour of that day that he pleases, BUT it just might become your new sanctuary....you know, the place you retreat when you just need a moment to catch your breath. Some of you choose to take your mommy time out in your bedroom, but here's the secret- that's not where the food is. Oh sure, you could keep your secret stash of M&M's under your bed, but if you hide it in the pantry, the possibilities are endless. If you're having a particularly difficult moment and need a little extra time in your "mommy time out" you could have a couple pretzels with you M&M's- rounding out your sweet with a little salty. And if you're lucky, you just might find a forgotten unopened juice box to wash it all down. What could be better? Bliss!

Back to the story of last Friday. I decided that I needed more than a moment in the pantry with my favorite snacks (plus we were out of chocolate and chewing on beef bouillon or something else from my food storage just didn't sound appetizing). John got home from work, so I handed over the boys and let him know I'd be back in an hour. My plan was just to wander around the new department store that recently opened less than a mile from my house- unwind a bit, enjoy the peace and quite, savor the fact that no one is crying, and relish the clean and organized atmosphere. Simple enough, right? That's what I thought until I got there. One word: SALE. And we're not talking Kohl's sale here, because we all know EVERYTHING is on sale at Kohl's. We're talking like 40% off clearance.

I found myself in the children's department loading up on Ralph Lauren long-sleeved button down shirts for not $35.00...no, not even $13.99...I got them for (drum roll, please) $8.39!!! Needless to say, I got some for both boys in a couple sizes and colors. You seriously can't beat that. Not to worry, I didn't spend all my time looking for clothes for my boys. When I discovered how good the deals were, I spent some time and found a few really cute things for myself. I went home rejuvenated from having some time to myself and giddy for finding such great deals. Let's just say, the bottom of my receipt said that I saved $286.00. That's almost double what I spent. Oh yeah, the deals were that good. Bliss!

But the fun doesn't even end there. The next night I called my friend Jen to see if she wanted to join me for a second trip. Deals that amazing are too good not to share. Glad she was up for a little outing even though she was fighting off a nasty cold. We laughed (at me trying a shirt on backwards), cried (at clothes not fitting our post-pregnancy bodies), and savored the sanity. We picked up some smoothies and had a great chat. I'm so grateful for friends in my life who lift my spirits, make me laugh, motivate me to be a better person, and share their talents and time with me. Bliss!

Whether it's happy children, chocolates in the pantry, good deals at the store, or fun moments with friends, we all gotta find a few bits of bliss in our lives, right?

Did the Easter Bunny come for a visit?

Why, yes he did. And he stayed a while to keep us entertained.

(brings up a whole new image to the game "chubby bunny" doesn't it? And it's fairly reminiscent of those Cadburry Egg commercials with the different animals trying to impersonate the Cadburry Bunny).

I don't have any pictures of the boys dressed in their new spring outfits--simply because I didn't buy new spring outfits. I know, I am an unfit mother and must do penance at my local Children's Place.

Easter was low key (obviously, considering our lack of matching shirts and sweater vests). Tyler got a basket with candy, found a bunch of eggs, and this year was delighted to find a chocolate bunny thrown in the mix, and he very dutifully tore it open and bit off the ears straight away.

He was also thrilled to find a small Lego kit in his basket. And guess what? I love it too! It has kept him so happily occupied over the last week, it's a blessing! Tyler is amazingly good at puzzles and LOVES to figure out how to put things together, so we thought he would enjoy this little challenge. At first I was a bit worried looking at how complex the directions were and given that the box says ages 6-12. Much to my delight, Tyler has been very successful at his new toy. The kit is a three in one, so with the one kit he can create a jet boat, a rocket ship, and a jet plane. I love watching him crouching over a couple dozen Lego's as he looks back and forth between the little direction book and matches it up with his small work in progress. Once he finishes, we all admire his work, then he takes it apart and sets to work making one of the other two options. After a week, he only rarely asks for help and by the time I look at the directions, get my barrings, and figure out how to help, he already has the problem solved. He will for sure be the best driving buddy ever- he is so good with spatial activities. Reading a map will be a peace of cake for this kiddo. John says that Ty and I make quite the pair working together. (I am not so blessed in my spatial abilities, so sadly enough, Tyler is WAY better at this kind of stuff than I am).

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend (I know it was over a week ago, but I like to pretend I'm not always a week behind).

I've turned into one of those bloggers who only ever writes about her kids and never posts pictures of herself or her own life. But as with most of you, my kids ARE my life. So here are a few pictures of what I have been up to lately.

Let's see...where do I begin with my glamorous life?

To start off with, the other day while I was fixing breakfast, Tyler decided it would be funny to attach these chip clips to the back of my shirt and because I was in a hurry and trying to do too many things at the same time, I didn't even notice. I spent the rest of the day with these things attached to my shirt. It wasn't until we got in the car to go somewhere that I realized what he'd done. I wonder if anyone at Target would have had to guts to tell me that I had chip clips attached to my clothes or would they just have wondered if I was starting a new fashion trend? Nah, this has "clueless mom" written all over it.

Later that evening, I thought it would be fun to attempt jumping (softly) on the trampoline with Robby. I spent so many months sitting on the sidelines during my pregnancy (because seriously, it only takes trying that one time to discover why it's a bad idea for a pregnant lady to jump on a trampoline...need I say more?) that I wanted to "jump" right in a play with my boys like we used to do. Not such a good idea.

Lucky for me, the baby puke totally missed my new shirt (thanks again Jen), because as a mom, I only have a handful of cute clothes that actually fit and are somewhat clean at any given time. I needed the shirt to wear the next day on our trip to the zoo.

(Sorry...I just had to throw in this picture of my guys at the zoo. They are just too cute).

Then this weekend we packed up the car for our picnic at the park with our friends from church. Sounds fun enough, right?

But this is how I really felt about it. Darn Texas weather! It was FREEZING!

My family is my life. And I like it that way, but I am glad for some of the other things in my life that let me step out of that role. Last August, I jumped in as our community social committee chairman. Luckily I have a co-chair who helps me spearhead all these activities and events. It's been good for me to feel like I'm a part of the community and like I do something besides the "mommy gig." I've met some fabulous people and have had a lot of fun.

Last week we put on our community Easter egg hunt. It was a TON of work, but I feel like it was a huge success and I'm pleased with how things turned out. There are a few things I'd like to change for next year, mainly purchasing about double the eggs. I guess I was wrong in thinking 600 eggs was enough! Poor Tyler didn't even find any eggs in his age grouping. Luckily he had a few connections and I snuck him in with the older kids. At least we had enough cookies and lemonade and even had some good relay games for afterward.

Here is my co-chair, Michele, she is super fun! When she approached me about purchasing an Easter Bunny costume, my response was, "Sure, but who would be crazy enough to wear that thing?" Silly me. Michele loves this kind of stuff. She thrives on throwing a good party! (Sorry the picture is so blurry. I couldn't hold still because I was laughing so hard. Oh, and I didn't get a picture of Tyler with her. He was way too terrified...not sure I blame him).


Well, there you have it. The average weekend of a stay at home mom. At least I left out all the parts about mountainous loads of laundry, floors that never stay clean and one poopy diaper after another.Life is good.

Hoppy Easter!

Tyler Tales

Oh, Tyler...where do I begin?

He is so funny. He has such enthusiasm and excitement...it's contagious. I suppose everyone needs a four year old in their life just to keep them entertained. Here are some of the funny things Tyler has done and said over the past few weeks:

*After attempting to do several push-ups, he says, "I'm doing my exercises so that I can grow up and have big muscles like my dad and then I can drive the van." (He loves our new van and I'm glad he has some big aspirations in life.)

*The other day he opened up the fireplace screen and yelled up the chimney, "Santa...I want a transformer puzzle for Christmas!" (Wonder if Santa got that message)

*Several weeks ago, Tyler said, "Mom, I want one of those red blankets with holes in it." At first I didn't know what he was talking about, but then he said, "You know- that way it would keep my arms warm. I saw it on TV at Grandma Marcia's house." (He has mentioned this several times since then. Couple this with his Chia Pet fascination and I just might be able to finish his Christmas shopping before June!)

*Last week I was very busy one afternoon and didn't have time to play with Tyler like I had promised. When I apologized to him he said, "That's okay mom. We can start over later." (so glad repentance and forgiveness works that easily)

*Tyler was playing with toys and I was rushing to get a quick shower. I looked at Tyler and said, "I'll be in the shower." Tyler turned around and looked at me like I was crazy and said, "You're going to pee in the shower?" (Don't know if I should be worried about his hearing or relieved that the thought of peeing in the shower still grosses him out.)

*We were flipping through channels on TV and we came across a particular bike race being televised. Tyler looked at all the guys in their biking gear and asked, "Which one is daddy?" (Glad to know he thinks John could compete with Lance.)

*On a couple different occasions when Tyler was being introduced to adults, they would ask how old he is. He politely responds and then politely returns the question and says, "How old are you?" (The replies to this are varied and interesting.)

*Tyler recently developed a new found interest in transformers. It has definitely made life interesting. If I want to get him to do something for me, sometimes all I have to do is ask him if he thinks he could do it better himself or if he could do it better if he transformed into a robot. (oh, the joys of manipulation...c'mon, sometimes it's our only tool as parents.)

Here is a recent videos of this silly kid. And yes, he is wearing his pj bottoms in this video. I made those shorts for pajamas last year and I think it's funny that Tyler understands the idea of "comfortable clothes." He will frequently say, "I just want to put on my pajamas." Can't say I blame him...I do the same all the time.

In this video, he's trying to sing the song from the Transformers cartoon. Either he seriously needs his hearing checked or he just doesn't know what all those words are. Either way, it's pretty funny.

We love our Tyler bear and are so grateful for the energy and enthusiasm he brings to our family. He is a sweet boy and has been such a good big brother. It melts my heart when I see him gently playing with Robby and I love when he says, "Who loves you, Robby? Big brother does!!!"

The Robby Report

My goodness...I can't believe how quickly our little Robby is growing up. Here are a few fun facts, pictures and videos of our little bug.

Robby has quit all cooing and is now communicating solely through spitting. Is this just a boy thing or is it a baby phase? Both of my boys did this. If he's not working up a good spit, he's squealing his high pitched squeal that signals that he is tired. It's pretty funny. As you can imagine, it has been quite the messy ordeal trying to put any kind of solids into that little motor mouth. Oh well. At least he does it with gusto!

Robby is very physical, but it's been fun to see the difference between he and Tyler. Tyler loved this bouncy chair and he figured out the resonant frequency...meaning he could kick his legs at just the right rhythm to get this chair bouncing almost all the way to the floor in the back. Robby, on the other hand, loves the hanging toys. We joke that he has very good eye-foot coordination. I love when he grabs the toys between his two feet. Very early on he learned to grab things with his hands, but unlike Tyler he doesn't quickly shove them in his mouth. Everything Tyler touched went directly to his mouth. Robby will rotate it, flip it, explore it, and pass it from hand to hand. It's so cute.

Robby does indeed love his exer-saucer. His legs are so strong and he loves to stand and bounce.


Robby also loves to kick back and chill. Almost every time we put him in his high chair, this is how he ends up. It's so cute...it makes us totally ignore our "no feet on the table" policy.

Seriously...

Could these two be any cuter!?!

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Last week we had a hale storm blast our area. I promised a few family members some pictures of the hale stones that we keep in our freezer as a gentle reminder to keep our 72 hour kits up to date.

We've lived here long enough to have experienced our fair share of Texas storms, but none have ever pounded us with hale as big as this. These were in the category of "golf ball size," but I tell you what, when I looked out the window at our lawn, I couldn't tell the difference between the hale stones and Tyler's baseballs out on our lawn. I don't even know how to begin to explain the sound of hundreds of these stones pounding our roof and windows. Luckily, both cars fit in our garage so we are dent free. Our roof doesn't seem to have any problems and no windows were broken. Whew! It was a very intense 5 minutes and I'm SOOOO glad John wasn't out of town for this one. I always tell him that I hate him traveling in the spring during tornado season and this is exactly why.

So there you have it folks...Texas size hale!

The Fort

For the past several months, John and I have been discussing getting a play structure of some sort to keep our boys entertained in the back yard. Due to the location and slope of our lot, this wasn't as easy as we had hoped. We looked in to every possible option, but finally decided that all Tyler really needed was a good fort with a few climbing features, a sandbox (heaven help me) and a swing for Robby. Leave it to John to design and construct such a play structure. Tyler has become quite the helper and I am loving sitting by the kitchen window and watching these two work for HOURS on end together. It is actually quite comical. John is quite creative in finding ways to involve Tyler in the process. It's been a fun project so far, and I'll be sure to update you when it is completed.

Here is how things are coming along so far:


First, they had to go pick up the wood.

Next, they measured and built a box. On this day, Tyler was mostly preoccupied with the tape measure. He even named it Larry and wanted it to be his new pet. Larry went everywhere with him that day. John had to ask every time he wanted to borrow it.

Then, they cut wood with the saw and drilled lots of holes.

(Do you love my hat on John? He couldn't find his and thanks to this crazy Texas spring weather, it was FREEZING cold that day.)

Here is Tyler very dutifully screwing these boards to the dirt. Well done, my boy. If you listen closely, you can hear him say, "I'm strong. I'm not afraid of anything." You can also hear John ask him multiple times how it's going. When Tyler isn't helping, he sits by the kitchen window and asks John a million times, "So how's it going, Dad?"

They have now reached a point in construction where they can have a little fun. If you're thinking this looks like an accident waiting to happen, you don't have little boys. Their favorite game at this stage is to play American Gladiators, where they run through the fort and on to the trampoline, avoiding getting pounded by the soccer and footballs that the opponent is throwing.

When I consider how much fun Tyler has had (and John too) with building this thing, along with how well it has kept him occupied, I'd be okay if they just kept working on it for several more weeks to come.

Picture taking fun

What? You want to take more pictures of me?

But I don't want my picture taken again!

Oh, all right, but try to get my good side this time.