No more diapers!

No More Diapers!!!!!

We have been dry for days now! I am still reminding her to go every couple of hours but she has been doing AWESOME! She has been dry the past week or so in the morning so I think our days of shopping for Huggies are finally over! Now what should I spend that $30 a month on?

JC Penny Pics

Saturday I took the kids to Penny's for pictures. I wanted a new 8x10 of each of them since I didn't do it on their birthdays this year. I was really pleased with these!

A few Tyler funnies.....

I am not sure if everyone has quite as sick of a sense of humor as I do but this first funny will either make you think I am a really horrible mom or make you laugh like it did me!

A friend of mine who has her own her little guy passed on a parenting tip to me while we were commiserating about how difficult it can be dealing with a four year old boy. She told me about something that they use called "Sassy Spray". Sassy Spray is a little squirt of apple cider vinegar in the mouth when something sassy comes out. It sounds a little mean but remember vinegar has numerous health benefits so really I am just helping my child to be healthy=)

Ok....so flashback to the end of a very long day when Tyler was just having meltdown upon meltdown. He had been given numerous warnings and was told if he yelled again that he would be getting a spray of Sassy Spray. Well he yelled again and we sprayed a squirt of Sassy Spray in his mouth. The reaction that we got was instant, loud and sorry to admit this, but really pretty damn funny! He yelled, "YUCK YUCKY....GET IT OUT....(ok here is the funny part) AGUA AGUA, AAAAAGGGGUUUUAAAAA!" I have to admit that my first reaction was shock at his reaction followed quickly by utter amusement by his hysterics. Finally I had a small amount of pride that my child is paying attention during his Spanish class....so do I tell his teacher or just keep this little gem of a story to myself?;)

Tyler was dressing himself one morning, a task that can take up to twenty minutes on some mornings because he is the slowest child on earth whenever I am in a hurry. I was fed up and was finally helping him with his shoes so we wouldn't be terribly late. I said to Tyler, "Tyler, you have got to help me in the morning. It is your job to get dressed and put your shoes on your feet." I swear he looked right at me and said, "Mom I don't have a job, I am retired".

Something was said on TV about the President and Tyler asked me what our President did. I told him that he is in charge of our country. I told Tyler that maybe he would be president some day. He said, "Yeah, I can be president and be in charge of everybody, but if I don't be president and just be a dad then I can just be in charge of my kids and tell them what to do".

The highlight of Tyler's day right now is in the morning when I try to make his hair look like what he refers to as "Rock Star Hair". The poor child has never really had the chance to have a boy haircut because he has only ever had it in a buzz cut. He has been begging me to let him grow it so I figured we should give it a shot. We have just the top a little longer and we try to style it into this spiky rock star style that he seems to find pretty darn cool!=)

Photoshop

Marie, Katie, and Matt got me Photoshop for my birthday this year. I am currently taking an online class to try to figure out how to use it. Below is a picture that I tried to make a bit more vintage by adjusting the hue and saturation (check me out....using photography lingo!).

I am also going to take a SLR Photography Class so start watching for an improvement in my photography skills!

A few videos to make you SMILE!=)

Here are a few videos of the kids. The ones of Emma singing and Tyler praying are from May. Wow her speech sure has improved since then!

The dancing one is from today. This is what Marshall came home from work today to find...he was quite entertained!=)

Finger Painting

It is still too hot to do too much outside so we finger painted today. Both of the kids loved it and I was pleasantly surprised how little mess we made!=) After we painted they both decided to to color pencil drawings.....even less mess!!!!

It is so nice that they are both big enough to do the same things now.

Here are my little budding artists...

Another bowling day

I took the kids bowling again today. They had such a great time. Tyler really LOVED it. Emma liked it during the first 7 or 8 frames but then she was done... she was a trooper though and let Tyler finish a whole other game.

Emma spent the last twenty minutes we were there in front of the blower watching her hair blow all of the place!

Tyler

And there he goes. Off to preschool for not TWO but THREE days a week! Where have the last four years of my life gone? How can that cute little red headed boy be the same baby that I swear I cuddled and rocked to sleep just last night?

Busy Vacation Part 2

The second part of our Ca trip was pretty much just as busy as the first! We are home now and I am pretty sure that I am more tired than I was before we left!;) The kids truly enjoyed themselves and had so much with everybody. My mom came out to visit Marie so we were able to get a few days of visiting in with her while we were there.

The last post left off with our visit to the Aquarium with friends on Monday so I will pick up with Tuesday.

Tuesday we went to the beach with my cousin Jake. He was great with Tyler and even after getting hit with a line drive to the chest he continued to play ball with him!=) After Marie got home from work that day we headed to the Oceanside Harbor. There wasn't all that much to do there but the kids got to see LOTS of boats docked. We took the kids out to dinner for Mexican food...poor Tyler had been begging for a bean burrito. After dinner we took him to a real barber shop and he pretty much got a Marine Corps haircut. Since he did so well with that we went out for an ice-cream before heading home from a VERY busy day.

Wednesday we went to Escondido's Children's Museum. It was a cute little place to spend a few hours.

How cute would she have been on Little House on the Prairie?

This thing was cool...it made a bubble surround the kids.

That evening Marshall got in (he came a day early=). I didn't tell the kids that he was coming so when he got there they were just so excited to see him!!

Thursday I had to take my car to get the DVD players installed (a very LONG story), and Marie had to go to San Diego to pick up my mom. She had planned to take the kids to the zoo... so since Marshall got there early he tagged along with her. He gets the Daddy Gold Star Award because he knew how fascinated the kids were by the train so he loaded them up and took the train down to San Diego while Marie drove down, picked up my mom, and then picked them up at the train station.

They headed to the zoo and did a quick run through it. The highlight, according to Tyler, was watching the polar bears poop out carrots!=0 Marshall didn't get many pictures because he was trying to push the kids up some pretty steep hills in a double stroller...hopefully Marie will email some of hers and I can post a few good ones.

Friday we did a family beach day. Emma LOVES the sand and likes to sit and just bury herself. I swear she had sand in places that really shouldn't have sand!!! Tyler entertains himself by just running around in the surf. Someday they will get brave and really play in the water but since The Pacific Ocean is so cold I am ok with not having to get in it with them!

That night we did a repeat of Jazz in the Park. We had another great time with Dave, Corinne, and Mason.

Saturday we headed back to the beach. Everyone had a great time and we all came home with pretty color....and thankfully no burns!

Teaching Tyler to surf

Could Dave, Corinne, and Mason be any cuter?!?

That night Marie and Mom watched the kids so that Marshall and I could go out by ourselves....that was a very much needed and appreciated night out.

Thank you to Marie for being such an awesome Aunt to Tyler and Emma! They love spending time with you and had such a great time in CA. We were so glad to get a chance to see Nana during our vacation. What a treat it was to have so much time with the Morash family. Tyler and Mason were like two little peas in a pod and if you knew what was going on in the minutes surrounding some of the cute photos we took of them you would laugh out loud! Thank you to Ron and Gail for having us over for dinner and for setting up such a fun night for the kids. It was a fun but exhausting trip and we can hardly wait to do it all again!