Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

I've made a tradition with picking Halloween costumes out.  Every year we end up with a catalog that showcases all the new and fun costumes for the year.  I sit down with each boy and let them go through the catalog and pick out their costume.  We then go to the store and pick it up.  It saves a lot of extra stressful time in the store and keep them from changing their minds a million times. Of course Ricky and I try to sway them to something we think would be super cute but with with my two very independent thinking boys, I'm not that successful and we end up with exactly their pick.  I've learned to just be okay with it...even if it isn't part of the theme I was going for.

We went to a trunk or treat party on Saturday and Logan is finally getting it.  He said treat or treat at almost every car.  Last year he tried to eat the candy right as they gave it to him but this year he was excited to collect it and fill his bucket. They are super excited to go trick-or-treating tonight.

Happy Halloween!
Lincoln decided this year instead of carving a face into the pumpkin that he just wanted to color it instead.
After a day or two the entire pumpkin was covered with pictures.
He's not really a fan of grabbing the slimy pumpkin insides but he tries every year and he's getting better about it.  Logan wanted nothing to do with it. 
Logan picked Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba.
I'm personally not a fan of Brobee but how can you not fall in love with this adorable little face.
It's probably not a surprise that Lincoln picked a Star Wars costume.  
This year he's an AFR Trooper. 
We actually let him wear the mask and carry the blaster gun so he's pretty excited.







Tuesday, October 30, 2012

We Did It!

Hopefully I'm not jinxing us but I think at this point it's safe to say that Logan is potty trained!!  He still sleeps with a pull up on at night but more often than not he wakes up dry.  He went from being terrified to have a BM in the toilet, to going 3-5 times a day.  I think he just likes to try so that he can get a treat. It's been about two weeks so we're not totally out of it yet but there's already a relief from not having to change diapers constantly.  Soon enough we'll be able to go without the diaper bag.  What a fabulous day that will be.
Logan is also totally done with bottles.  It's been a month or two since he's had his morning milk in a bottle but I forgot to blog about it.  He made the switch to a sippy cup (which he was not happy about originally) and now there are days he won't even drink milk and would rather eat breakfast.  Logan is also totally off soy milk. Yay! He is processing regular whole milk without any issues which makes life so much easier for us and saves some money.
His third birthday is this weekend and he is definitely growing up. Everyday I feel like he's becoming more of a little boy than a baby.  It's a bitter sweet moment.  I look forward to him learning and growing but he is the baby of the family and we're quickly moving away from that stage of our lives.
 Successfully taking care of business.
 Little boy face.
He loves the ipad.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

More Funny Conversations

A Child's Prayer: Lincoln said this little prayer a couple of days ago. So sweet. So innocent.

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.
Please help me find this piece (pointing to the Lego piece on the box) if you know where it is.

Please help me be nice to brother.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

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Last week Logan asked for the kamote (which is really the remote). 
Lincoln corrected him. "No, it's not a kamote, it's a Wamote."
(Let's remember that Lincoln called it a kamote too for the longest time. But I guess he knows better now.) smile.
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We were getting out of the car to go into a store and a lady nearby was smoking.  Ricky and I of course, with little tolerance of cigarette smoke, make faces of disgust and rush to get the kids out so we can get inside.
Lincoln: "Someone's smoking."
Me: "Yep, it's SO yucky.  It's not healthy for our bodies."
Lincoln: "Nope, it's not.  Only milk is."  
(Funny coming from a little boy who doesn't drink enough milk!)
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Logan's vocabulary is quickly increasing.  Everyday he surprises us with a new word. Now he's playing with different voice inflections when responding or stating something.
Lincoln: "Look Logan, a carwash!"
Logan: "That's cool!"  (Said so cool, confident and casually.)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Funny Conversations

All of these conversations took place this month.  I wish I could remember and write them all down but here's a few that I was able to capture.
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Lincoln wanted something out of one of the upper cupboards in the kitchen so he told me he would get it down.
Me: "What do you think you are, 6 feet tall?"
Lincoln: "No, but I'm a good climber."

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The other day Lincoln and I were in the car driving to Phoenix.  We were on the freeway when I hear him yell with excitement in his voice that I need to look at the tiny car on the road.  I look over and see the Smart car driving a couple lanes over from us.  I tell Lincoln that it's called a Smart car, and yes, it've very tiny.  He then quickly points out another small car right next to us.  I tell him that car is called a bug and yes, it to is small compared to our truck.  He quickly replies, "if those two cars get mixed up then you would have a SmartBug!"  Pretty clever guy.

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We were doing something on the other side of the room and Logan grabbed a toy that Lincoln was playing with.  (A common occurrence around our house.) Lincoln begins to scream and Ricky and I rush over to assess the situation.
Ricky: "Logan, can you take your hand off it please?"
Logan: "No!"
Lincoln: "Logan, is your hand glued on there? Then take it off!"

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Logan has been stuck on a car washing kick recently.  It's all he talks about when we're in the car.  He wants to go to the car wash, see the car wash, he talks about how it works, etc.  We all try to have a lot of patience with him but I admit that hearing about the car wash, and being asked to go to the car wash, 24/7 gets a little old.

One day Logan was on his usual car wash questions when Lincoln had had enough.  His response: "Logan, this whole earth is not made out of car washes and it's not filled up with car washes.  It has some things else!"



School Work

Instead of trying to keep every paper or project the boys do, I've decided it's much more realistic to take pictures on their work and save it in our blog.  Here is a sampling of what they've been doing at school.

 Lincoln's 1st official spelling test. 
 Drawing of the hot AZ sun.
 A monkey Lincoln made.
 Practice writing the letter 'M'
 This is what his homework packet looks like everyweek.
 Lincoln finger painting people.
 Lincoln's picture of him playing with his brother.
 Lincoln's homework. He had to write three sentences using a spelling word in each one. 
 Lincoln's spelling words and three pictures that start with 'm' - mouse, monkey and mom.  I think he gave me some pretty cool hair. 
 The week they studied 'A' and apples in class he drew this picture. 
 Lincoln and brother carrying a stack of something. 
 Lincoln's coloring has come a long way.  He used to just draw a couple lines across the page and call it a day but now he's quick to color the entire picture. 
 Lincoln's Apple Book...


 They actually used apples as sponge/stencils to paint. 
 He loves math and he's working on counting, adding and subtracting. 
One of my favorite projects he did was his rainbow book.  We went all around the house and found things of all different rainbow colors and then he glued them in his book on the right color page.
Logan did water color painting.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Work Trip to Pasadena

I spent several days last week in Pasadena, CA for business. I like to travel but it does add a lot of work for Ricky at home and me at work. I got to meet one of my co-workers that I've worked with for a while but have never met.  We had a successful event and a fun trip.

The first night we went to Yard House for dinner in Old Town Pasadena and went to the Ice House for a hilarious stand up comedy show.  I always enjoy a good comedy club and Ice House never disappoints.   After our job fair the next day we found a really cute champagne bar that served yummy, fun, different desserts.  It was nice to go relax and visit after our long day of work.

On Friday before our flight home, as part of tradition, we found a cupcake shop that has won cupcake wars.  We found My Sweet Cupcake Shop in South Pasadena.  They won on season one of the show.  The storefront was a little hard to find and parking was terrible.  I was also disappointed in lack-luster decor of the shop once we were inside.  I think it could've been much better. The most important thing though is how delicious their cupcakes are.  In my opinion they didn't have the best selection but the flavors I picked looked yummy so I was excited to get them home so my team of tasters (i.e Ricky and the boys) could get to tasting.  Ricky as always tastes the vanilla/vanilla.  He said it was really good.  I, as always, taste the red velvet.  It was DELISH.  One of the best I've had.  Not my favorite shop but would recommend based on taste.

 Shadonna, Me and Jennifer
 My Sweet Cupcake

Red Velvet, Vanilla, Lemon, Chocolate, Smore's, and vanilla. 

September Happenings

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures that help show our everyday life.
 It's still hot here so water time and popsicles are a part of our activites. 

 Girls night out for me!  One of my friends was turning the big 4-0 so we went our to celebrate.
 Playtime at our park. 
 The slide tends to be Logan's favorite thing. 
 Lincoln earned some new Hot Wheels tracks so the boys took turns (or attempted to take turns) racing their cars down the tracks. 

Tennis Grand Slam Champion

Ricky has been very supportive of me playing tennis.  He often comes to watched my mixed doubles matches on Friday nights and I think he started to catch a little bit of the tennis bug - the itch to play.  He and I have hit around a few times but he's never taken lessons or played competitively.  We have such beautiful courts with great programs so close to our house that I figured he should take advantage of them.  I enrolled him in an adult quick start program that teaches the basics of tennis.  He was happy the one of our friends also wanted to take the classes so he enrolled and they did it together.

Luckily Ricky's back was able to handle it for the most part and didn't cause him too much pain.  I'm impressed with how quickly Ricky has been able to learn and he'll be playing in the US Open in not too long!  I'd like to see him good enough to play in mixed doubles with me.  We'll have to wait and see!
 Nice backhand shots. 

 Ricky and our friend Leo playing together. 
 Nice forehand shot. 
 I took the boys one night to the courts to watch.  They lasted just a few minutes before they were off playing and gathering stray tennis balls. 
Coach Mario running drills with the class. 

It's All Handled

Since shortly after we bought our house I've been asking (or maybe nagging?) Ricky to put handles on our kitchen cupboards and drawers.  We recently had a garage sale and decided we'd take some of that money to pay for the handles and knobs to complete the project. We tried to pick handles that would give us a contemporary, classic and simple look.  I know Ricky's been dreading it but he did an awesome job and I think it turned out great.



Fall 2012 School Pictures

I'm never overly impressed with the boys school pictures but this year they turned out really cute. I couldn't pass them up.