One of those days...

So far this morning I have tried, unsuccessfully, to pee by myself 3 separate times. I have broken up 3.4 fights over who gets to play with the talking baby doll. I have watched in shock as my son intentionally spit on the kitchen floor. I have answered the phone 4 times and said hello to 4 different telemarketers. I have cleaned the toilet 2 times already. I have walked into the kitchen to find the freezer wide open, more than once. And my toenail polish chipped when my daughter shut her closet door on my toes. Yep, it's been a lovely morning. I can only hope that my day continues to be as wonderful as it has been during the first 4 hours.

Busy weekend

Guess what we spent our weekend doing...

and for the record...the kids are LOVING it.

Tuesday Thoughts

What have we been up to?

Brynne started ballet last Wednesday and loved almost every minute of it. She had one minor meltdown when another little girl stepped on Brynne's foot and accidentally knocked her over. A few of the parents who were watching the class gasped, or chuckled and this sent her into instant tears. She got a quick hug from Mama and she was right back out there. I was so proud of her. Just another example of how different she and Landon are. Had he been knocked over and chuckled at he would have completely lost it and hid, crying in the corner for at least an hour, LOL. The second ballet class is tomorrow and already Brynne can't wait. I am hoping she continues to love it and will continue to take classes for years to come. Taking ballet/tap/jazz with my sister when I was younger are amongst some of my best childhood memories!

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Travis has been working hard to get the front yard finished over these past few weeks. It's hard to concentrate on the front "yard" when your house sits on 4 acres, in the dry California foothills. He carved out a nice area for a lawn, used railroad ties to create an area for landscaping rock, and planted new bushes after removing the old, partially dead plants. It came together SO nicely and made a huge change to the look of the house. I couldn't take pictures today because once again California has forgotten that it is spring and it is cold, windy and rainy. Pictures to come later on in the week.

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We are going to move our project focus for the house onto the backyard now. I have some cute decorating ideas that I am already working on. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the vision in my head will seamlessly become the vision on our patio. We plan to order sod to keep the backyard cooler and to give the kids a nice, soft area to play. We will also use landscape rock in the back and give the kids' playhouse a more permanent and play friendly location. I am SO excited to work on the backyard. It has taking us 2 1/2 years to be able to get to where we can finally stop pouring money into the interior of the house and start to focus on the exterior. That was one of the hardest things about leaving our old house. The backyard was perfect, and kid friendly. Not so much here. But that will definitely be changing in the next few weeks!

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It seems that we have seen a real shift in the kids, and how they relate to each other, in the past month or so. They are getting along SO well lately, and spend a lot of time playing together in their rooms. The fighting is (dare I say...) almost nonexistent anymore. It is so nice to see them laughing, playing, and having fun together. It gives me a chance to stay on top of the housework, and laundry which I could rarely do before. So it has been a wonderful change and the kids are SO happy throughout the day, not arguing about who has what toy.

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Brynne got the hang of potty training very quickly. She is fully potty trained now, actual has been for a month! She rarely has accidents and if she does it is usually my fault. I get sidetracked after she tells me she has to go, or I forget that she is newly potty trained and dress her in tight jeans that are nearly impossible for her to get off quickly. Oops. Landon was a HUGE help in getting Brynne to make the transition from diapers to panties. He encouraged Brynne the entire time and was her biggest cheerleader each time she used the potty. He is so proud of his sister and reminds her often to use the potty. Man, girls are definitely easier than boys. At least until the teenage years...Oy Vey!

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I can't believe that June is right around the corner. Only a month left before we have a 4 year old!! So hard to believe. Time sure does fly by when you have two toddlers!

Hope you all have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday!

It's a BIG day for our beautiful girl...

How'd you spend your week?

I can't believe this week is over already! With the end of this week the month of April is over. That means only 2 months until Landon's 4th birthday. Hold me.

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This week we~

Enjoyed a beautiful spring day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Complete with a squirt gun fight with Daddy and Uncle Nate

playtime in the water sprinkler

and of course, bubbles!

We also tried out a new park this week. I am in LOVE with this park. It has a special area just for toddlers with toddler size toys!

It was an important day for Landon who finally mastered the monkey bars (thanks to the tot-friendly size) He was SO excited, and played on them the entire time.

So proud of you Buddy!!

Wednesday we had lunch with Amanda and her boys

and relaxed by the duck pond,

watched for bugs and had a great time!

We also went to Matty's T-ball game. Landon was SO exited to see his best buddy play baseball and hasn't stopped talking about it since.

Look at this little tot out there!

Way to go Matty!!

Travis and his Mini-Me

We had such a great time watching the kids play!

So that's how we spent our week!

How did you spend yours??

He completely missed the point...

We live in a dry, desert, foothill area...after all this is Southern California. Yesterday our neighbors killed a very large rattlesnake. It is really early in the season to see any snakes, so we were pretty surprised! We did actually have snow only a few days ago. The snow melted quickly and the temps warmed up fast. Raising two toddlers in a "snake area" is a constant stress for me during the summer months. I have never been a snake person myself, and I try hard not to pass on my fears to the kids. So we try and find a balance between educating them about the potential danger of snakes, and encouraging them to be curious and interested in reptiles. This morning I had a talk with Landon before he went out to the backyard to play. I'm hoping he got the point...

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Me: "Landon, yesterday at Kyle's house they found a VERY big, dangerous snake. They took it away so it can't hurt you, but Mama and Daddy want you to be very careful when you play outside now. You are only allowed to play in the back yard and you have to stay inside the fence."

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Landon: "Where's da big snake at Mom?"

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Me: "They got rid of it! Anyway, listen to what I am saying to you. If you see ANY snake you need to run away and come and get me or Daddy right away! DO NOT try to touch it, or even stand there and look at it. Come get me and Daddy and we Daddy will take care of it!"

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Landon: "Did Kyle see da snake Mom?"

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Me: "Yes, Kyle saw a snake and he was very scared so he ran and got his Mommy and Daddy and they saved him and took care of it. So are you listening? Do you understand? Watch what you are doing while you play out back and come get Mama or Daddy as soon as you see a snake! Understand?"

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Landon: "Ok Mom, if I see da snake I come reawwy fast and get you, or Dad! Annnnnd, I promise I will not touch any wolves."

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Me: "Wolves?"

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Landon: "Yep, no touching da wolves."

I don't even know what to say to that...

Wordless Wednesday!

Potty talk

I was walking down the hall and out to the kitchen as I do every morning. As I passed the hall bathroom Landon called out "Look Mama, I can pee from all da way back here!" I peeked in on him and he was standing on his step stool 2 feet away from the toilet, with a pretty big smile on his face. I yelled at him to stop, as I watched pee splashing everywhere. I talked with him about correct potty form, and then cleaned the bathroom. This kid is a stand up comedians dream child! I could write an entire show based around his toilet humor alone.

It's a gloomy, rainy, cold day here in Southern Ca. Since it's too nasty out to really go anywhere I decided to stay home with the kids today and really tackle Brynne's potty training. We started trying to potty train her when she turned 2 in January. Unfortunately the kids and I were pretty sick for most of January and February. She didn't show much promise in those first days, and not having any energy I let it slide and just gave up. We decided to wait for a month or two and try again. So today is the big day! And I am happy to report, so far so good! Brynne and Landon were playing down the hallway, and she ran all the way to her potty, and made it in time! Landon and I sang and danced around and made a HUGE deal out of it. Brynne got a marshmallow, a sticker, and some M&M's. She was smiling from ear to ear so I am really hoping this day ends as well as it started!

Huntington Beach 04-07-10

Yesterday the kids and I spent the day at Huntington Beach with some of our good friends. The beach was pretty crowded for a Wednesday afternoon, but it is Spring Break. It was 80* and the weather was perfect, and we had such a great day!

We have taken Landon to the beach before, but he was pretty young at the time.

Here he is having lunch...
Brynne hadn't been to the beach before, but she always seems to go along with the flow, and was excited to see her friends. When we got there a ladybug nest was hatching, or something, because there were TONS of ladybugs flying out of the sand and onto everything we had with is. At one point I pulled 12 of them out of Brynne's hair!! It was kinda gross, but the kids liked the ladybugs.
Here's Brynne showing me a "laylee buh" like the one on her bathing suit!

For the first hour or so Brynne didn't leave Landon's side. He showed her around like he was an old pro or something.

Landon is always a little catious about new situations, and while Brynne ran full force to the waters edge, he took his time and watched for a while. Eventually he got right in with her and they were running from the waves.

Brynne does not like to be dirty! Don't get me wrong, she will play in the dirt for hours, but likes to use a stick or shovel to do so. She hates to have her hands dirty. So she kept whining to me about her dirty hands. I finally just told her that she was going to be dirty all day so we will clean up as soon as we get to the car to head home. That speech seemed to work and she stopped asking me to clean her off.

As the kids were running through the waves I could see that Brynne was getting more and more comfortable. One particular time she went out a little too far and I could tell that the wave that was about to hit the beach was a bit bigger than the ones that they had been playing in. I told her to come closer and she said "No, Mama, My playing in da water!" Needless to say the wave hit the beach and swept her off her feet. She quickly was rolling through the wave and ended up face down floating in the ocean. The wave was pulling her out further and further and I could not stop laughing long enough to grab her. I was balancing my camera in one hand and finally had to just run out into the water and yank her out by her arm.

The above picture is about 10 minutes after that big nasty ocean almost got her! She came out of that water hysterical and had sand on every inch of her body. She pretty much kept her distance from the waves after that!

Landon was is dump truck Heaven with all the sand!

While Brynne was resting and drying off after her fall she noticed all the seagulls. She loves animals and asked me over and over if she can hold the birds. Here she is watching them closely.

Brynne played in the sand for the rest of our day and would only go near the water if Mama was holding her tightly. I'm hoping the next time we go to the beach she will have forgotten about the fall into the waves.

There were 4 of us girls there and we each have 2 kids. 8 kids running around the beach can get a bit scary at times, but we never lost any of them, LOL!

70 sandy toes...

Landon found a deep hole and spent about 10 minutes filling it back up. He requested that I take this picture so he could show Daddy "his working."

Beautiful day, look at that sky!

Brynne spent most of the afternoon laying around in the sand. It was amazing how fast she got over her dislike for being dirty!

Mama and her boy

Brynne, Ethan Walters, Landon, and Aiden Walters

The boys loved driving their Tonka trucks through the waves and wet sand.

Happy little guy!

Brynne and Jessica playing Princess in the sand.

8 kids, 4 tired Mama's, and a beautiful day spent at the beach!

We can't wait to go back!