Christmas so far

With the holiday season here, I thought I would give a quick update on how ours is going.

-Brady and I made a gingerbread house (well really it was a kit, but who cares). I did not realize how difficult and time consuming the houses are. I made the mistake and tried to move the house from the table to the counter before it was set, I thought the boys would knock it over on the table. Silly me, I was moving it and it all fell apart with a few pieces crashing to the ground. Before I could get them all picked up, Dexter found and ate 1/4 of the back panel. I had to do a quick repair job with graham crackers and lots of icing. B and I decorated the house and I had to let go of my particular ways and let Brady put the candy on because he wanted to so bad. It actually WAS a cute house, but it was very easy to tell I had lots of help from a 3 year old. I say "was" because Dexter decided to make it a treat for himself one afternoon when we were out of the house. I did not even get a picture.

-The Christmas tree. We went to a cute little tree farm not far from our house to pick out the tree. After much searching we found what we thought was the perfect tree. Jamie started to saw it down and I reached in to hold it so it did not fall on a child. Inside was a birds nest, yes a nest - luckily no birds or eggs. We took the next out and loaded it up to take home. After 2 tree stands - it is still crooked.

-Decorating the tree has been interesting with the boys. I started with putting the breakable decorations up high and ones that were ok to touch lower, they stayed on the tree all of one day. All decorations are now on the top 1/2 of the tree, I have to admit it looks pretty funny.

-Back to baking, I decided to make sugar cookies and have Brady help decorate. I used to love doing that as a child, however I am pretty sure my mom did not have us decorating at age 3. Brady was not into frosting the cookies, instead he just wanted to put on sprinkles. He loves his sprinkles, most cookies are more sprinkles than frosting. Colby watched and ate the whole time.

That is the Christmas update for now, more to come I am sure. Pictures to come too.

Missing Maddie

Today we had the horrible task of deciding to put our cat, Maddie to sleep. We will miss her.

Maddie was a cat that loved to be left alone yet you knew when she wanted something. She had the loudest howl I have ever heard from a cat. Mostly she would exercise her lungs when the rest of us were trying to get some shut eye. Many nights I woke up to her "singing". I remember one night shortly after we were married she was singing. I got up to quiet her down to find her in the kitchen with a dead mouse - yes a mouse in the house - I guess she wanted to give me a present.

Maddie put up with a lot in the last 3 years - since the boys came along. She never once scratched one of the boys even though they sometimes loved on her a bit too hard. Or thought she was something to drag around.

If you have a pet hug them, we never know how long they will be around to make us smile. We miss you girl.

Halloween

So I am late posting pics from Halloween but here we go. This was the first Halloween where Jamie actually took the boys trick or treating. Brady walked and Colby followed in the wagon. From what Jamie tells me, Brady did not quite understand the concept of trick or treating. His understanding was that it was a social call. After ringing the doorbell and getting an answer Brady would follow it up by saying "hi" and wanting to go in and chat (with complete strangers). I am not sure he ever really understood what he was suppose to do. However, he does know that he does not at all like scary masks and still talks to me about the "scary guy."

For those of you who remember Brady's first Halloween costume, yes it is the same turtle. I could not part with the costume yet. I LOVED that costume and it fit Colby so perfectly this year. As a middle child I swore I would never recycle costumes to my children, but I had to get one more use out of this one. Mom and Dad - I now understand.

Brady and I often butt heads over many things during the day. I blame it on my lack of sleep and him being a 2 year old. Or I could go that we are both Scorpio's (not sure if that matters, but is sounds good). Today was a particularly trying day with him. He did not nap (really what's new with that though), he was being mean to his little brother and he was pushing EVERY button possible with me. So I decided we had to get out of the house.

The trip was to get me a flu shot at the local Safeway. A little background, yesterday Colby had his flu shot (B already had the flu mist) and I was asking B to tell Colby that it would be alright and he could hold his hand while he had it done if he wanted to help him feel better. B sat on the chair right next to us and told C it would be okay and hurt only for a little while. So today it was my turn. I sat on the chair, both boys in the shopping cart and B kept asking what I was doing, so I told him getting my flu shot. No sooner did he reach out his hand and ask to hold mine while I had my shot and told me it would be okay. As I held his hand a little tear came to my eye.

All is forgiven.

One question answered

Often while I am out driving I will see one shoe laying on the road. This leads me to the question of how does someone lose just one shoe? I have wondered this for years as I am driving and see yet another shoe on the road.

Today my lovely husband answered the question for me without saying a word. We packed the boys (he loaded B, I loaded C) into the truck to head to Costco to pick up the things we need in large quantities (wipes, dog food, cat litter and Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches). We drove the 15 minutes to get there, getting on the interstate, crossing the river and back off the interstate finally arriving at Costco. While unloading the boys, my lovely husband asks where are B's shoes? My lovely husband had them coming out of the house so I guessed he knew where the were. We both looked at the back of the truck (yes, outside the truck) and saw just one shoe. Apparently my lovely husband forgot that shoes are not meant to ride on the back of the truck where they can so easily fall off while diving at high rates of speed and making many turns.

If you are driving anywhere between my house and Costco and see a size 8 toddler boys green sandal on the road, do me a favor and pick it up. Yes, we did return the same route we went but were unable to find the poor lost shoe. Did I mention I loved those shoes because B had not yet figured how to get them off in the car? And did I mention my lovely husband.....?

So next time you see a single shoe on the road you will know a possible way how it got there.

Off and running

I knew this day would come, but I was hoping it would be later rather than sooner. Colby is full on walking now. He is so proud of himself to get up and go. He only resorts back to crawling when he needs to get somewhere really quick, like away from his brother. He has also learned how to climb up onto the couch and chairs - great.

Now fear is setting in on both of these boys keeping me running and trying to catch them when they fall.

Happy 1st Birthday!

It is so hard to believe that Colby is already 1. He turned 1 on the 1st of September, boy has time gone so fast this last year. I remember last year so clearly when he was born, it seems like yesterday.

We celebrated by visiting the zoo early in the day and then a quiet family party after Dad got home from work. Of course B had to help open all of the presents and break them in for C. Isn't that what big brothers are for? Colby also enjoyed his first cake, I am not sure who got more - Colby or Dexter. It made some great pictures though.

Happy Birthday little man.