Memories

Memories with me, Joel or the kids.

1. As a comment, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It will be funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

I got this idea from my sisters' blogs (here & here) ...... it sounded like fun!

(I've enabled annomyous comments, so anyone should be able to leave one :)

Birthday Boy - Take 1

My "baby" boy turned 1 yesterday! We did a small party with Grandpa, Aunt Sandy, and Uncle Greg... This ended up serving as a dry run for his bigger party planned Saturday...:) Grant will be unusually lucky in that he's going to get 2 messy cake face pictures!

For those of you that are shocked - yes - that is a cake from HyVee. (And boy was it easy!) I'll still make the real thing for Saturday, though - I'm not completely out of my cake making (yet!) :)

Grant reaching for the frosting.

While we were singing.

Reagan helping Grant with the candle.

Grant's first piece of cake.





After he got cleaned up, he got to open his present from Grandpa... Finally a toy that makes him want to stay in the bathtub! Thanks, Grandpa!

A Day at the Beach

On Saturday we took the kids to Big Creek to the beach. Reagan was more excited about this than even her birthday! (She was excited because "Dora and Boots went to the beach" and now she got to go.) Thankfully for me it was overcast, but still somewhat warm... We had a fun time and Reagan wants to go back ASAP. Here are a couple of pictures: Reagan on her way to the water. "Wait, Reagan - you need to be with Mom or Dad!" Grant - clean at the beginning of the day. Grant, Daddy, and Reagan. I happened to stop at a garage sale on Friday night and found the pink innertube for a quarter. It turned out to be Reagan's very favorite and it was super helpful keeping her afloat since I forgot their life jackets. Reagan and Grant making a sand castle. Grant eating sand grapes. What are sand grapes? Grapes cut in quarters & rolled in sand. This picture could also be titled "Sally's lowest parenting standard yet." We stopped at DQ on the way home. Reagan fell asleep while eating her ice cream - that is a tired girl!
Reagan allowed me to interview her after the trip to the beach...

Some Random Pictures

Grant's favorite basket of toys -- the sippy cups

This became Grant's favorite thing to do with Daddy -- load the dishwasher. We're not sure the door is rated for 26lbs+ so the dishes get loaded either really quietly, or after Grant is in bed... :)

Grant and Reagan in the car. This was taken just before they started fighting over who got to honk the horn.

Every night before bed, Reagan and Joel play "David and Goliath". Joel is Goliath and wraps a blanket around his head like this because that's apparently what giants in the olden days used to do...? Reagan asked for it one night and this is a picture of her thinking she looks like a "superhero with a cape".

This is a picture of all the stuff I got today for 40 cents. I've still been doing "couponing" I just haven't posted anything about it, because I think its boring to most people... Today was a good day at Walgreen's, though. :) (The toothpaste was 8 cents and was from Target :)

And this is a picture of stuff I got way back on July 3rd. (that I was pretty excited about :) I intended to post it for Money Saving Mom, but it was a holiday weekend, and it didn't get done. This was 6 packs of (Walgreen's) diapers and the other stuff for about $8 or so. (If you're wondering about the quality of diapers, it seems that they vary (Sadie got some bad ones) but the ones I ended up with worked great - much better than Huggies. I am still partial to Pampers, they just cost so much!)


And lastly, for those of you I haven't talked to, Grant will be one on Sunday!! We are having a birthday party for him on Saturday, August 2nd around lunch time. We'll be grilling up some lunch with cake to follow. (I can't think of what to make for Grant's cake - any ideas??) If you are available on Saturday (like 11ish until 1 or 2?), please join us for some lunch and some messy cake face(s) :)

The Glass is Half Empty

Sorry, Joel for this post, but you make me laugh :-)

It was only 3 or 4 short months ago that we were begging for just 4 hours of sleep in a row. Reagan was up all the time with night terrors & sleeplessness or something. It was getting hard to function in the daytime (for both of us) and now look at the difference... Its been so great!

I keep telling people that Joel is the happiest pessimist you'll ever meet... He is nearly always cheerful, helpful, smiley, and yet pessimistic. Its a very strange combination. Here is a (paraphrased) example from last night:

Me: "Boy, its been nice having Reagan sleep though the night! She goes from 8pm to 6/7am and only gets up once to go potty 3 nights a week...? What a great change from where we were 4 months ago!!"

Joel: "Yeah, that has been really nice. Now, if we could just do something about Grant!"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Joel: "Grant's been getting up so much - I think we just need to make him cry it out more."

Me: "What are you talking about?!? Usually, Grant sleeps from 7 to 6 without making a sound!"

Joel: "I know! And the last couple days he's gotten up at 5:30am! That's way too early!"

Me: "You know Joe, I think most parents would be happy if their kid slept for 10.5 hours."

Joel: "Yeah, I guess. But 5:30 is really early."

Baby Talk

For her birthday, Reagan got a baby that talks. It says a limited amount of phrases and is generally sort of 'whiny'. Reagan usually enjoys playing with her and either pushes her in the stroller or puts her to bed in the doll crib.

This afternoon while I was fixing supper for Grant, Reagan was "taking the baby to the library" in the stroller. The baby kept 'crying' while they were en route. Here's the conversation they had:

Baby: "Tell me a story, Mommy."
Reagan: "Just a minute, Baby - we're almost there."
<30 seconds goes by>

Baby: "Waa. I wanna play."
Reagan: "Not yet, Baby. We're not there yet."
<30 seconds goes by>

Baby: "Tell me a story, Mommy."
Reagan: "I said not yet. Please stop asking me."
<30 seconds goes by>

Baby: "Waa. I wanna play."
Reagan: (impatiently) "No, Baby. Not yet."

Finally Reagan got fed up and said to me: "Mom! The baby keeps saying it wants a story. But I said no, but the baby keeps asking and it won't. stop. asking. me!"


Oh, the irony...

The Faces of Fun...

This Saturday, we took a trip to Waterloo to visit my Grandparents, my cousins, and my Aunts and Uncle. It was fun and hectic (there were a LOT of kids in a confined space!). After all that, Sarah, Sadie, and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese in an attempt to hang out (and wear them down) before driving home...

All the kids :) (Unfortunately, Reagan's face is right in front of my Grandpa's.)

You talkin' to me?

Joel being Joel at Chuck E. Cheese.

"The Aftermath"

Conversations in the Car...

This afternoon, in the van, driving down US 30...

Reagan: "Wook, Mommy!"
Me: "What, Reagan?"
Reagan: (pointing at the DVD player - still in the car from Saturday) "Mommy, Wook!"
Me: "Reagan, I can't look. I have to watch the road in font of us."
Reagan: "Why?"
Me: "To keep us safe."
Reagan: "But why do you always keep looking out that window?" (the windshield)
Me: "Because my job is to drive and to keep the van on the road."
Reagan: "Why do you have to keep the van on the road?"
Me: "Because if the van goes off the road, we will get a bad ow-ie."
Reagan: "Yeah, and then we will have to get a Band-Aid!"
Me: "It will probably be worse than that. We might even have to go to the hospital."
Reagan: (hesitating) "...and we would get a baby at the hospital?"
Me: "uh... no... we probably wouldn't get a baby this time..."

(Very) Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July is turning into one of my favorite holidays with the kids. No outlandish shopping for gifts, plenty of entertainment (for free!) and lots of family time... This weekend has also been one of Reagan's favorite weekends, too. :) When you're 3, this is what your favorite weekend might look like:

A parade with your cousins on Friday morning. Reagan unplugged her ears just long enough to pick up a bag full of candy (with some help from Addy and Creighton :)


Fireworks Friday night with Mom and Dad's undivided attention. (Grant stayed home with Grandpa :) Add in a can of orange Sunkist, popcorn, Skittles, a glow stick necklace from the family sitting next to you, 2 burned fingers from your first Sparkler, and what's that spell? F-U-N.












A trip to the "Big City" on Saturday means you get to watch a movie in the car. Grant and Reagan both like Baby Einstein's farm movie and Joel and I get to talk. (You can see why this is becoming my favorite holiday...? :)

A trip to the "Big City" and Chuck E. Cheese!?




(A preview of Reagan at 17 and Grant at 15. Doesn't Grant look like he's about to jump out of the car?)

Reagan was giddy! She got some glitter tattoos, a sucker, and a piece of taffy for her tickets. They say money can't buy happiness, but $20 at Chuck E. Cheese was a good investment for us this afternoon :)

On the way home Grant fell asleep - he wore himself out on the Toddler Slide. :)

All this fun and we haven't even gotten to Sunday yet... what a great weekend!

Happy 4th of July!!

Lazy Summer Evenings

Tonight Reagan and I sat outside on our back deck and ate popsicles. I sat on the porch swing overlooking the trees while there was a gentle breeze coming up from the south. If ever there was a "moment" that I should have enjoyed, that sure sounds like one, huh??

Instead -- here's how it actually went: Reagan is 3 and has a short attention span. Eating a popsicle in one place and sitting and talking to mom is boring. Instead, she walked around and went down the slides a couple of times (dripping blue sugar juice all over). After 5 minutes of that, I got too frustrated and told her she had to pick a spot and sit down. She lost interest in her almost entirely melted popsicle when she discovered a dead bird that Jezzie brought up for us. She begged to touch it, and I compromised by letting her touch it with a stick. Soon after, it was bath time and our poetic, summer, popsicle-on-the-back-deck-evening was over. And it wasn't nearly as "perfect" as it sounded like at first...

Maybe we'll try again tomorrow night... :-)