Full Moon Behavior

So if you have kids or work with kids, you have probably heard people use the excuse "A full moon is coming" for moody, cranky or hyper behavior. Whether it's true or not, I'm not sure... BUT, tonight, the upcoming full moon (tomorrow) seems to be affecting Bryce in the OPPOSITE way! He has been BEYOND good tonight! Asking if he can set the table, getting Jenna's bear & blanket for her when she gets hurt, telling me he wants to go to bed early, saying he's going to sleep in his bed all night (Yes.... I'm one of those parents that lets him come into my bed quite often... more than I should!), eating all his dinner without me hounding him to eat "4 more bites", taking his dishes to the sink. It went on and on. Here he is comforting Jenna in a "scary" part of his Power Rangers movie! What a sweetie!

Trust me, it's not always like this though. Earlier this week he came downstairs claiming he needed help finding his Iowa Football pants. I said, "They are in your closet". He said, "I can't find them though!". So I walk upstairs to find this.......

Well.... I guess I can't blame him for not looking!! By the way, we did find them.... hanging in his closet! ;)

The way they are interacting and playing together amazes me each and everyday! My little girl is NOT a baby anymore! In fact, she turns 2 on Sunday! I seriously can't believe it!

Oldies, but Goodies!

Today I was looking at some old videos I have on YouTube. These videos from our wedding are so good, I had to post them! They are oldies, but goodies!

Sonya and Stacy's video has over 22,000 views!!! Wow! You two are web-sensations!!




And then of course there is Scott's song.... who could forget!




Love it!

Making Decisions

How do you make decisions? What do you base it on?

Yesterday, Bryce and I visited 2 schools that have a 5 year old program. We decided a few months ago that we are not going to send Bryce to Kindergarten next year since he is a Summer birthday. He'll start Kindergarten when he's 6. That in itself was a very hard decision, but after much deliberating and talking with friends & family, we decided the best thing for Bryce was to give him an extra year to grow physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. I think this is a very individual decision for each family and that there is no "right answer" to this situation, but we feel good about our choice and are confident it help Bryce in the long run! :)

Anyways.... as I was saying, we visited 2 different programs yesterday. Both of them are designed for kids that turn 5 in the Summer or have very early fall birthdays and just miss the cut off. I liked both of them. I didn't walk out of either with that "this is definitely it" feeling, but really liked them both. Each had it's own pros and cons and gave me much to think about.

I wanted to know what Bryce thought. I want him to feel important in making this decision. I asked him which school he liked better. He said, "the second one". I said, "Why did you like the 2nd one better?". He replied with, "Because they have a kitchen like Sam's." Yes - he's talking about a plastic, play kitchen! Apparently the kitchen they have to play with at the 2nd school is the same one that his buddy Sam has at his house!! Interesting. I had to chuckle to myself at WHY he liked the second school better. He said he liked all of the teachers, all of the kids and all of the toys at both schools. His decision is based soley on this play kitchen that is apparently just like Sam's!

When we went to pick Jenna up, I was talking to my daycare provider about the day and what we found. I told her about why Bryce liked the second school better. We smiled at each other and she said, "Well, kids at this age often look for something that is familiar to them and that is what makes them feel comfortable." I thought about that a lot last night. I think we, even as adults, probably base our decisions on what is comfortable and familiar to us as well. Obviously our decisions are rarely based on play kitchens.... ha, but after taking the time to think about it, his reason and how he decided which school he liked better, it's probably very similar to how we make some of our own decisions! :)

Where is the baby??

Yesterday we had to stop at the grocery store to pick up Jenna's prescription. (Yes - she has a double ear infection - AGAIN!) I had a few groceries to pick up, so we started walking through the aisles. We went past the baby section and Bryce got excited and said "MOOOOMMM, we should buy some baby food for our new baby!!!" (No - I am NOT pregnant!!) I said, "What do you mean Bryce? We don't have a new baby." He said, "Well, we will someday, right??" I said, "Yes, we will some day, but it's going to be a LONG time." Bryce asked, "How long Mommy?" I said, "I don't know for sure. Maybe 1 or 2 years. The baby isn't even in my tummy yet." (Big mistake. Why did I even bring that up!??!!) Bryce said, "HE'S NOT???????!!!!!!!!!! (complete astonished!!) Well.......... where is the baby???" Hmmmmmm. That's a good question. WHERE IS the baby? I didn't say anything for a couple moments, so Bryce said "Is the baby in heaven??" Hmmmmmm, my mind was racing 100 mph trying to decide how I was going to answer this question. I am NOT prepared for this conversation, especially as I am walking through the crowded aisles of the grocery store!!! I thought about saying "Maybe you should ask Daddy!!" haha! Instead, I decided to try to escape the situation, looked down at my grocery list and said, "Hey, we forgot to get the milk!!" Bryce's mind quickly went from where babies are stored before entering Mommy's tummy -- to -- let's go back to pick up milk!! I feel bad for totally avoiding his question. But I panicked and did not want to try to have that conversation while pushing a cart with Jenna screaming b/c she wants to get cookies and dozens of random people walking by!!! I guess I need to Google "How to answer kids questions about babies" soon and start getting prepared for the next time I'm faced with this question!!!!! :)

Sending an SOS

That's right... this ship is distressed!! Like I said in a recent post, my decorating skills leave much to be desired and I basically hang picture frames up EVERYWHERE to compensate my lack of decor skills!!!

I would love to get suggestions from you to help me redecorate the Family Room. As you know, we recently created a toy room in our house, so the toys moved out of the family room!! WHOOO HOOO! We also got the new LCD TV, so we re-arranged a little to put the TV above the fireplace. I think I like it there. What do you guys think? Ok? Or not so much? Obviously some work needs to be done...... that's where your advice would be VERY helpful!

I will be purchasing a black audio/media tower to sit on the right side of the fireplace. To house the DVR, DVD player, wii, etc. I'm hoping to pick one out over the next couple weeks. You can barely see it in this picture, but right now the DVR is sitting on our end table! ha!

We are going to be re-painting the whole main level. I am thinking I will do the 2 outside white walls in a tan color. Originally, I wanted to do the accent wall (fireplace wall) in a red. I really loved the red my sister-in-law had in her old family room. But now I'm questioning if the red will be too much behind the TV?? Thoughts? What color do you think I should paint that wall?

I have a feeling I will be blogging about that wall this Spring as I try to re-paint it. The original owners of our house painted it with Ralph Lauren River Rock paint. It leave little specs of river rock on the wall and gives it more texture. It looks cool, yes. But from what I have read online, it is a PAIN to repaint. We'll see!!

My next issue is how to decorate around the TV? (Once we get the audio tower, we will hide those cords better.) But what do I put next to the TV? Picture frames don't look right. Now I'm stumped!! ;) Suggestions? Color schemes??

My last issue (for this blog anyways) is the lighting. I will NEVER understand why builders don't put lights on the ceiling!?!? Arg. We pointed the spot lights in front of the fireplace out towards the walls and they actually look fine. It doesn't interfere with the TV at all. But it is definitely not enough to light up the room. I have 2 lamps. One will sit on the end table next to the big recliner (once the end table is done with it's DVR holding duties). The other lamp is standing next to the mirror on the left hand side of the room. I just do not know where to put it??

I should have taken a better picture of that side of the room.... but what you can't see on the left hand side is that another window starts right where the picture is cutting off. The couch is up against a half wall that separates our family room and kitchen. The couch lines the whole half wall, there is no room to squeeze a lamp in next to the couch. The lamp looks OK where it is now, but it's kind of awkward how it stands right in front of that big mirror.

I don't know. I am the world's worst home decorator!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Foof and Money

FOOF & MONEY!!!!!!!!! Jenna yells it from across the house! I WANT FOOF and MONEY!!!!!!!

What does this mean? Why is my almost-2-year-old asking for money? She's not. Foof is Fish. Gold fish. Money is M&M's! haha! Ohhh - how much easier life would be if money was as easy to come by as M&M's!! :)

I want money, I want money, I want money! I'm hearing it again as I'm typing this. She must have ran out! :)

I do too Jenna! We all do!!

Complete 180

Isn't it crazy how fast things can take a complete 180 and change from good to bad? Last Friday, I took Jenna to the doctor to get her ears checked (a checkup from her last ear infection). Look how happy she is! Her ears looked GREAT, her tubes were clear! In fact, the doctor said it was the best set of ears she had looked in all day!! How 'bout that!!!

She was playing peek a boo with me in the room as we were waiting for the doctor! She was being a silly goose!

BOOM. Saturday hits and she has a fever, a runny nose, a horrible cough and is just plain miserable. Sunday she was a MESS. Just a wreck! You would take one look at her and just feel awful! Cory stayed home with her Monday. She went back to daycare yesterday, but I still don't think she is feeling quite herself. Her cough is still terrible and she took a 4 1/2 hour nap yesterday!!! I really hope she starts to feel better soon, but I have a feeling, this will turn into an ear infection. And so the cycle continues.....

Get better soon Miss Pooh!!!!

A Recipe for Snow

I saw a post today on a forum I read about making snow ice cream! I thought it sounded fun and yummy, so we gave it a try tonight!!

Snow Cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
large bowl of snow (about 3 quarts)

Blend milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough snow to make snow cream to an ice cream consistency.

Variations - There are many variations for snow cream. For example, substitute canned cream for milk for a heavier flavor. Add Nestles Quik for a chocolate snow cream, or use instant cocoa mix. Another variation is to add plump raisins and cinnamon, or add a beaten egg for a nog taste. Puree an overripe banana and add to the mixture. Get creative - you know your family's tastes.

We used the canned sweetened condensed milk tonight to give it more flavor. It was yummy!

Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying it! They really got a kick out of being able to use snow in the recipe!! :)

My cookie monster needed to add some chips ahoy to the mix!!

Just thought I would pass on the recipe to those of you home-bound because of all this mid-west snow!! WHEN WILL IT STOP!?!

And I think this goes without saying, but make SURE you find CLEAN snow!! :)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

How 'bout them Hawks!!! Whoooo Hooo!!! Bryce has really been getting into Football this year.... much to his father's liking!! :)

This video totally CRACKS ME UP! If you have ever watched an Iowa game with Cory, you will laugh at this. Hmmmm.... wonder where he gets it!

By the way, he went up to put his own PJ's on! I did NOT dress him in shorts!!! haha!

GO HAWKS! Great game!

Organization

Wow. It's been a long time since I have blogged! Things have been busy to say the least. We got home a week ago from our Christmas extravaganza! And I'm happy to report the weather did allow us to get together with everyone! Yay! We had a fantastic Christmas and we feel so blessed to have such wonderful family & friends!

Our refrigerator took a dump, so we spent a couple nights last week shopping for the best deal and looking for a new TV as well. We sold our HUGE projection big screen tv and decided to upgrade to a LCD tv! After a couple nights of shopping, we ordered the TV online and bought the fridge at Menards. You would think the retailers would have been ready to wheel & deal with us since we were making 2 large purchases, but the online TV deals were hard to beat and Menards had the best deal on a fridge (plus we had a coupon!).

Our fridge was scheduled to be delivered on Saturday morning. Cory decided to plug our old fridge back in on Friday just to see if it was still broke. (In my head I was thinking, DUH, it doesn't just fix it self!!!) Sure enough, the damn thing worked and started making ice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me!?!??! Although it was working, I am sure with a little time, it would be back in it's old ways of not holding a safe temperature and would eventually die again. We decided to go through with the new fridge purchase.... reluctantly. (They aren't cheap!!!) We kept our old fridge and moved it to the basement. We figure if it's going to work, we can use it to house beer & pop downstairs.... stuff that won't rot if the temp does go up and down. The Menards delivery guy almost killed my husband as they were taking the fridge downstairs! He let go of the dolly and the fridge fell on Cory 5 steps!!!! He's ok though!!! :)

With the new year, we have vowed to get MORE ORGANIZED around the house! (Along with the "usual" losing weight resolution!) Our basement is a disaster area. It seriously looks like we were victims of a tornado. That will be a future project! The higher visibility problem is the enormous amount of toys our kids have and the lack of room we have to put them! My kids both have 10x10 rooms, so not a whole lot of room to work with toy storage up there. And since our basement is a war zone, can't really send them down there to play. Cory suggested we make our front living room a toy room. Get rid of the couch we have in there and just make it all toys. I HATE that idea. I really do not want the first thing people see when they walk into my house to be a heap of toys and clutter. BUT... we have to do something. I said I would think about it. I then asked Cory what he though about selling our office furniture or moving the office furniture down to the basement (hey - why not add to the mess we already have there!) and making the office our toy room??? We have very nice office furniture, but we NEVER sit in there. We use our laptop most frequently and just don't use the office. The office is on the main floor and a perfect place for the kids toys. (Plus, the office has doors that we could shut when people come over!!) He agreed! We decided to clear a section of the basement and set the office up down there. (Translation.... basically move everything from one corner to another and set up the office!!)

It was a HUGE project to get the office taken apart and everything moved to the basement, then put back together. Especially with my sore wrist. (For those that didn't see me over the holidays... I fell on the dang ice and sprained my wrist! ha! I'm getting old!!!!) We spent all of Saturday emptying the room and getting ready to fill it back up. We moved the big items and the new Christmas toys into the toy room Saturday night. The kids were getting so excited.

Sunday I headed to Home Depot to buy some wire shelves. We hung up 2 rows of shelves on one wall and 1 smaller shelf on another wall. (I have to add here that my husband has become MUCH more handy over the years! We hung up these same wire shelves when we lived in our first house and almost got a divorce over the deal!! This time, he installed the shelves like a pro!!:) Then we started sorting through the toys, organizing them and moving them into the play room.

Here is a BEFORE picture!! :) This is not quite how they were stored before. I had already moved a set of bins and had dumped a bunch of stuff on the floor, but this isn't far off from how it looked a lot of the time!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

And here are a few pictures of the finished room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH! I hear the angels singing that Darcy was talking about in her blog!! :)

Ignore the Obama picture!! haha! That was a gag gift and was hanging in our office. It's going to be taken down and replaced with some art from the kids! The kiddos are even lucky enough to have a TiVo in their toy room and we have a bunch of kids shows recorded! The shelf up on the wall contains all the games and art & crafts.

The picture above the book shelves is one that Cory drew when he was a kid! His Mom had it framed for him. It actually looks really cool!!! :)

These two shelves still have some things that need to be put in totes. I didn't have all the sizes I needed and will have to go back to get more.... but you get the idea! That huge box up there is dress up clothes! Both of the kids LOVE to dress up!!!

The table in the corner is one of the kids favorite things... they sit there to color or play for HOURS!

Lastly, I thought I would show you a couple pictures of the kids ENJOYING the new toy room!


So what do you think?? It was a LOT of work, but is well worth it! This is the first time our family room hasn't had toys stored in it since we moved into this house 4 1/2 years ago!!! Crazy!!! We also re-arranged our family room to accommodate the new TV that will arrive soon! I'll post pictures of that later! :)