"Mommy..."

"Mommy, I think something sneezed on me. And I think it was a gummy bear." - Lucy

Sir Flops-a-Lot

Bunsen is not usually a flopper, but here he was in full flop:You pull a blanket over your legs and Bunsen will be ON the blanket within minutes. Since Tom had his legs in a weird spot, Bunsen couldn't get settled in his normal little rolled up kitty ball. Instead, Bunsen just settled in and flopped across his lap.

On certain occasions you just have to flip the bird.

Apparently this was one of them. Guess that's what I get for tying him up too tightly.

Hey Dad...

Do you think you can fit through the hole in the back of the chair? -Sam

Now, my response would be something along the lines of "Probably not," or maybe "I'm not going to try - I'd probably get stuck." But Tom's response was "I dunno - let's see!"

Guess what? He fits.

Gotta love a man who is willing to stuff himself through the back of a chair to see if he'll fit just because his kid asks.

Little kid soccer

Ever wonder what soccer looks like when you get a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds on a field with a killer coach that has MAD kid-wrangling skills? They play soccer!

Getting started

Learning a new move

Trapping the ball

Dribbling around

(If you can't spot her, Lucy's in the bright orange short and pink pants. She's Miss No-Matchy Matchy these days.)

Sleeping sweetly

Taking her afternoon nap is so much more fun when she can do it her way. She's all snuggled up in her blankets on the floor and tucked in right behind her door.

Cleat to the face

OUCH! Sam took a cleat to the face and kept on going. At one of his indoor games earlier this season a kiddo did some crazy high kick and missed the ball and landed on Sam's face instead. He went down immediately, clearly in agony. But once he got some ice on it and calmed down a bit he was good to go and finished out the game. After the game I snapped this pic of the bruise on his face. It popped up almost immediately and left just as quickly, but it was crazy close to his eye, so we were quite thankful that it landed where it did and not a quarter inch down on his eye! He's a tough kid, that's for sure.

Everyday Snaps

I've been using a program called Everyday to capture images of myself so that at some point, when I'm bored taking pictures of myself I can make one of those cool videos that shows all the pictures in sequence and you can see how I've changed (or not) over the year. On occasion Miss Lucy pops in on the picture (there's a reminder that goes off each day at the same time) and if she's around, then she's certainly welcome. I have to line my face up in the guides - they make it SUPER easy to do - and so she's squished off to the side when she joins me, but I suspect this won't be the last time she shows up in one of these snaps!

Sexy and I Know It

If you haven't seen this yet you need to. Bruce Springsteen really is the Boss.

And we love both of them even more for this!

Contemplating Your Belly Button

Out of Lucy's mouth just now:

Ha ha! Everyone has parts.

Nipples and parts.

Look at those cute belly buttons.

Look - baby parts! They are so cute!

This book is funny.

I gonna get another book that is funny.

Yeah, she's three. But it's a brilliant book. Have this one (Contemplating Your Belly Button) along with The Gas We Pass, The Holes in Your Nose, and the classic Everyone Poops. I love my mom for buying these for the boys. She spent hours reading these with them when they were little, and I'm sure that she appreciates the giggles that her youngest grandchild is getting out of them!

SCIENCE FAIR!!!

Ian and Sam decided to participate in their school's Science and Engineering Expo (squeeeee!!!). The first ideas out of their mouths had to do with things exploding, baking soda volcanoes, and crating machines that would throw stuff. Of course, right on the form it says no baking soda and vinegar volcanoes (not proper science) and no projectiles (too dangerous for the under 10 crowd). So they talked it over with each other, talked it over with their big brother (who had loads of crazy and not quite right for ES science fair ideas) and talked it over with Tom and I, and decided to race Lego cars down a track and see what happened when they added weight to the car. Track building was a little tricky but they got it worked out, the experiment went well, and they wrapped up their project looking like super scientists.

They presented their research (He he he!) at the Expo at school to rave reviews. And on their birthday, to boot! Great job guys! see a future full of loads of science fairs, following in your mama's steps!

Messy Bed

And you wonder how she gets any sleep. Yeah, so do I some days.

Give two kids some marble track pieces...

And they build an AWESOME marble track!

Lucy's Butterfly

Mom, draw me a butterfly.

Mom, draw me Sam.

Mom, draw me a doggie.

Hey Lucy, why don't you draw me a butterfly?

O.K.

Here's the happy butterfly from my little lefty:

You go, big girl!

Fix My ZIPPER!

I have three pairs of jeans where the zipper seems to have completely given up.

One pair is a bit snug, so the zipper stays a little better, but the other two are loose and the zipper just slides down and stays there until Tom kindly points out that my zipper is down AGAIN. Notice I said Tom - I've walked around for HOURS with my zipper down and no one said a peep. So I hopped online and found a simple fix:

(Thanks Maggie Berg for a GREAT idea!)

But I didn't have a round key ring thing that would work, so I grabbed the closest thing I could - a little paperclip:

and that seemed to do the trick! So, next time your zipper makes a run for it, grab a smallish keyring or a smallish paperclip (don't use the bigger ones or the zipper won't zip up high enough), and go to town (without having your undies hanging out)!

Facetime

We love Skype, and have for several years. Now, we love Facetime too! Lucy wanted to talk to her cousin Nicholas, so we popped online and hunted up Uncle Bill, and Voila! The kids were thrilled, as you can see, to be able to chat with him!

Just how cool is that???!!!

I {heart} Star Wars!

Why on Earth can't I get a heart in my title?

Anyway, saw this commercial tonight and HAD to share:

Love this one in particular: "Star fighter - that's like a million dollars in gas." "Yeah, that's pricey." He he he. Just spreading the Star Wars love.

What's on our TiVos these days

We have two TiVos in the house - one is mine, and the other is really for the kids, but I occasionally park stuff on it. (Don't judge - I watch a LOT of TV but that's for another post.) All of these shows are in season now, and there's a whole host of cool shows that pop up in the off season for these that we really enjoy (Psych, Dr. Who, etc.). But it's been a long while since my TiVo was empty since they started showing various things at different times of the year. What's on your DVR?

Shameless - new favorite, definitely not for the kiddos but it makes you feel good about yourself and how NOT screwed up you are

Justified - reminds me of Texas crazy and Timothy Olyphant is easy on the eyes

Parenthood - LOVE this one but it makes me cry pretty much every episode

Grimm and Once Upon a Time - not 100% on either of these, and I assume one or both will be cancelled, but I like the idea

NCIS/CSI/Law & Order - All episodes of all of these guys and their spin offs - LOVE the crime dramas

Castle - speaking of crime dramas - MAJOR crush on Nathan Fillion

Robot Chicken - YEA! back on the air with NEW episodes, full of GREAT things to quote and VERY inappropriate (for some adults as well as kiddos!)

Glee/American Idol/The Voice/Smash - LOVE the music shows (mainly the singing parts, not so much the drama) and can't wait for the next one

White Collar - Crushing on Matt Bomer (Neil, of course) and enjoy the mindlessness of it

Raising Hope - LOVE this show - cheeky and irreverent

The Firm/The Mentalist/Fringe - Fun to watch but missing an episode isn't a big deal

What's on the kids' TiVo: (Most of these are clearly for Lucy - she wants to see all kinds of different things on a whim, and so we just keep them all around instead of tapes or DVD's)

LazyTown - Who doesn't love Sportacus (well, Lucy probably doesn't, but I could watch that man flip around all day)

Dora the Explorer - SWIPER NO SWIPING!

Octonauts - It's new and kinda cute

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - Gotta love the Mouse!

My Little Pony - It's the third incarnation of this horse fest and even more drippy than before

Yo Gabba Gabba - A favorite of hers and tolerable, sometimes even enjoyable for me

Bubble Guppies - Bubba bubba bubba guppa guppa guppa (Lucy's version of the theme song)

Max and Ruby - Ruby and Max (he he he)

Chuggington - It's not Thomas, by any stretch of the imagination

Blue's Clues - We love Steve more but Lucy seems to like them both

Frenemies - That's the boys - not a clue what it is

American Idol - This one's for Max

Pokemon - Most likely NOT for Lucy...let's see...Ian and Sam?

Various version of Zack and Cody/Shake It Up/Lemonade Mouth/whatever tween shows that Max grabs

What Tom watches: Soccer, oh, and soccer. Occasionally he catches a soccer game or two as well. I do catch him channel surfing, looking for soccer. And during football season? The kids shows get bumped as their TiVo mysteriously gets filled with my football games. Love that little TiVo guy!

#1,000

What a road it's been. 1,000 posts ago I restarted my blog. It all started up again when we picked up and left Texas for the Washington DC area. Who knows what happened to my old blog, how many posts were written, or even what I was thinking when I abandoned it, but here we are. Five years and all kinds of life behind me, I'm still writing. Some posts are just me dumping thoughts out, some are sharing family time, and some are confessions. I'm not the best writer on the planet, nor am I the most expressive. My writing has improved over the years, as has my typing. But I'm getting it all down - my story, our story, the journey. We've lost folks, gained folks, moved, and grown. Looking back the past five years have been crazy and peaceful all at the same time. I hope to keep writing for the next five years. Never would have guessed that it lasted this long, but hey, it's a journey and I've learned a lot. I hope that you continue with me as I share more adventures, more loves, and more crazies - you know we are all a little crazy here anyway.

And this is where I admit to reading Republican blogs

Saw this gem the other day:

Mitt Romney 2012; you don’t have to get excited, just get on board.

Well doesn't that just about sum it all up.