12. Camera hog

March 24th

Madeline had a nightime soccer game this week. 7:00 at night- that's like bedtime, seriously. And it was FREEZING outside. Maison was being such a ham. For the first time ever he was commanding the attention of my camera. Even striking silly little poses and asking to have his picture taken. Maybe I'll finally start getting more un-blurry pictures of the kid. Please don't mind his hacked up hairdo. I get what I pay for and it was free. By me. Hehe. At one point Thor said it looked like I cut around a bowl on his head that had slid off to one side. Haha.

11. Legos!

March 16th

One of our most fun accomplishments this week was a Lego tower that reached from the coffee table to the ceiling. It took MANY tries and we laughed every time it fell.

10. Childhood toys

March 12th

Madeline had her very first soccer game this week! She's number 6. It's so funny to watch these little girls play. And it's hard not to get really into it. All of the parents do. I tell myself NOT to yell to the girls in the field, but it's completely uncontrollable. "Get that ball! Take it from them! Kick it Kick it!" And once they do get it they kick it toward the wrong goal. Freakin' hilarious.

9. Express yourself

February 27th

I can't help but love this picture of Max just home from dirtbiking, flying down the street on his little cousins blue and pink bike with handlebar tassels flying. Showing Madeline how it's done.

8. The view from here

February 25th

My baby girl turned 5 this week!

She was set on having her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese until she learned she could have a pinata if we had the party at home. My girl loves her some CANDY, so she chose the pinata. That morning we picked Thor up at work for a quick breakfast, then headed over to Walmart to pick out her new big bike- she picked a blue one and is practicing to ride without training wheels.

7. Open your heart

February 17th

We've opened our hearts (and our home) to DINOSAURS!

6. Words

February 8th

Maison's clearest and most used words.

*Also, he's been completely daytime potty trained for about 2 weeks now. It took bribing rewarding him with cars and trains each time he went you-know-what for it to finally stick.

5. Muse

February 6th

My muse, musing.

4. Soothing Repetition

January 29th

It takes a lot of blankets to put dad to sleep.

Brainwashed

I finally got brave enough to try the peanut test on Maison. The peanut test sounds irresponsible, but I'll justify it by the fact that I did tell the doctor (twice) that I was going to do it, and he didn't call social services on me or anything. Just told me to have Claritin on hand. So, I decided to give Maison some peanut butter to see if he's still allergic. He has never had a breathing reaction to it, more of a hive reaction, which is maybe why the doctor didn't seem too worried?

Anyways, I thought I'd make it fun and make PB-chocolate chip cookies with the kids. As soon as the peanut butter went into the dough Maison refused to touch it. Of course he LOVES cookie dough. Would. Not. Touch. It. Tried to get him to eat a cookie. Nope. He started crying when I gave him a chocolate chip with a little cookie on it, so I gave up.

Really, I didn't think I had brainwashed him so well. I would only remind him when I'd put a plate of PBJ sandwiches out when other kids were over. I'll have to think of a new plan now. A sneakier plan. Hmmmm...

3. Shades of Grey

My photo only fits this weeks theme because I changed it to black and white. The sky was actually bright blue and the dirt was, of course, brown. It's been so nice outside that we met my parents for a walk along the railroad trail out along Lake Mead. Then met Susie and Rob for Mexican breakfast on Boulder Highway.

This week Maison had his first dentist appointment. He wouldn't let them look in his mouth. His "cleaning" consisted of him brushing his own teeth with the hygenist's polish stuff. The doctor did get him to open up for a few seconds so she could peek in quickly and say it all looks good.

Madeline is a great dental patient. They said her four top front teeth will all fall out at the same time. They're already loose. For now, I'm not allowing her to eat whole apples. With all these loose teeth I was getting paranoid that all her teeth were going to fall out and no new ones would ever grow back in! I'm a worry wart (eww what an ugly word)...

2. Song title

Smile by Uncle Cracker

Maison, you make me smile...

Today, after Iphone-ing, DS-ing, playing in the backyard and playing with the train sets, and before going to dinner at GG's to see Aunt Susie, Thor got the kid's bikes out of the garage, pumped up the tires and they headed over to the park to ride. Maison was extra excited to ride in dad's truck.

I've been really noticing his scar on his lip lately. Almost like it's getting more noticable as he grows. He tipped over a folding lawn chair when he was barely walking and busted his lip. I can see the scar in this picture.

1. Around the house

In an effort to get this poor neglected blog back on track I'm going to commit (I use commit loosely. More like try-to-commit. Or commit-until-I-stop-committing) to a 52 week project. A picture and post a week. At least. For some extra inspiration that I'm hoping will help me document more than my children and their beautiful faces, I'll be following a weekly theme that gets posted on a website I sometimes read.

This weeks theme is around the house. This is one of my favorite pots (I sort of have a thing for kitchenware). Since it's too big to fit in any cupboards in our itty bitty kitchen, it sits on our counter to hold some of our fruits and veges. The oranges are from my Aunt & Uncles orange tree in their back yard in Phoenix. I didn't know, until last year, that some of the best oranges come from Arizona.

Tooth.

4. Seems too little to be losing teeth. She lost it and lost it at the same time. We thought maybe she ate it, but after a little freak out we decided it was just lost in the carpet. The Tooth Fairy did indeed find it and left payment and a nice tooth pillow for next time.

HOLY FREAK

I'm so far behind on this ol' bloggity blog I don't even know where to begin. How about a quick summer recap: We did lots. Alrighty, moving on.

So, we moved. Into a tiny house. In a not-anywhere-as-nice-as-our-old-neighborhood neighborhood. The kids love it here. They were not affected one bit. They like their bedrooms and the all dirt backyard.

It's a nice little house. Very (VERY) cozy. We have only one TV to share instead of three. We have only one living room instead of two. We spend A LOT more time very close to each other. Thor spends A LOT more time watching Tinkerbell and Avatar (I know...bad parents, it is rated PG13!). My "office" is the kitchen table.

I miss our old neighborhood. I miss being able to leave my trunk open while I bring the groceries in and not have to worry someone will steal my stuff (I may be slightly paranoid... but, only slightly as I have already had my Ipod stolen).

The dusting and general messiness is horrendous. But this is TEMPORARY. We aren't sure how temporary, but we're shooting for May. We hope. But if it doesn't happen, we are perfectly fine right here. Seriously, people live in worse. I have to get over this spoiledness. Ughhh.

Enough spoiled-brattiness. Here's a picture of Madeline helping potty-train Maison:


At least I have cute kids to make my day better. :)