Making Cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve we made some chocolate chip cookies for Santa. Dylan & Ryan both had so much fun. It was great to be able to spend time together like that.

After the cookies were done we poured a glass of milk, Dylan & Ryan each chose a cookie for sant & put it on his plate - then went off to bed to dream of sugar plums...

The next morning Ryan was the first one up. He was so excited to go see if Santa had come. I had put a gate up in the hallway so they couldn't get into the living room without us. Ryan was wanting over the gate really bad so I told him he had to go get Daddy up first. He ran into our bedroom to JD saying "Daddy Up...up!" Whenever we made it to the living room the first thing they did was look on the cookie plate & in the milk cup to see if Santa had ate their cookies & drank their milk. They were so excited to see he had!

Green Peas.....

Oh wow its been a long time. I have a lot to tell you about Christmas, but that will have to wait. It's time to talk about Green Peas!

Ok so Green Peas are yuck! Though I have always encouraged my boys to try new things even if JD or I don't like them.
So back when Dylan first started eating table foods I made it a game for him to get to eat my peas if we had them. It has always been kind of a special thing & he loves doing it. I've never wanted to tell him I don't like them because I have a feeling he'll try to be the same & stop eating them.
So when Ryan started eating table foods of course he became a part of this little game. Now when I have peas (that most likely I have picked out of some other food) I always ask "who wants mommys peas?" and they both usually respond "ME!" So I then divide then between the two.
So tonight was no different we had bought a bag of frozen mixed veggies and of course it had peas in it. So tonight we started eating, and as usual I was eating everything but the peas. When I was done I asked "who wants Mommys peas" and as usual they both responded "ME!" so I proceeded to divide them up. Then Dylan asks the long awaited & much dreaded question - "Mommy why don't you eat your peas?" I've always known that someday I would have to answer this, but I hoped I still had awhile. So as a thought really quickly I respond to him saying "because I know how much you guys like them & I want to give you and Ryan a special treat!" It worked!! He then said "Thank you Mommy I do like them, I Love You & I love veggies!!" He's such a sweet heart! He then quickly went into his rendition of the Veggie Tales theme song. Which let me breathe a much needed sigh of relief.

The joys of having two wonderful little blessings are overwhelming sometimes, but I thank God everyday for giving them to me.

Visitors - from far away...

Last month the Upchurch family (-1) came to visit us! It was great, we loved seeing them! Dylan enjoyed having more people to play with. We sat around our house until my daycare kids went home then we went out to eat. It was great to just sit around talking. I'm just upset that I forgot to take the camera with us so I only got a couple shots while they were at the house.



Thanks guys for stopping by to see us!

Halloween 2007

This year for Halloween Dylan was Sorcerers Apprentice Mickey Mouse & Ryan was a Playful Puppy! They were soooo cute in their costumes.
The day before Halloween we took them downtown to the Halloween festival. They had a great time, each ate a hot dog(Ryans favorite part) and got a lot of candy(Dylans favorite part).
:)
On Halloween night we took them around town to see Nana & a few of our friends. Then came back home so they could trick or treat in our new neighborhood. Even Ryan got into it! He was great at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you". Dylan was ready to go to the next house as soon as he got his candy. We'll have to work on the "thank yous" for next year!!

Circus!

Tonight the boys & I went to the circus. It was okay, but I can't wait until a nice one comes to town. This was our second one to go to this year. The boys had more fun at this one though!

We were there with Dylan's Friends Kaylee & Zane.

There were Pony rides & Snake pictures. So I scanned in our snake picture. Dylan was so excited....I better get used to this kind of stuff...I have boys....

Pizza Pizza!!

Well, this was our first meal in our new house. We didn't have our table moved in yet so we sat on the floor.

Of course we hadn't actually moved it yet either. This was the day we signed the contract & got the keys. We stayed here for the weekend just because we could!!

Painting - Family Style

All the walls in the house were white, don't get me wrong whites a great color(or lack there of) but they had to go! So we painted!!
First our room, then Dylan & Ryans.

The boys helped with there room as you can see. They now have "hands on" experience with painting! They "hand" painted their closet.

Welcome Home

Well we did it! We finally did it! We purchased a house! Our very own!

So far we are loving it! Still moving in, hopefully to be moved in completely this coming weekend!

The boys are loving it too! We now have 4 bedrooms which is a big change from 2. So the boys have a playroom which is wonderful in my opinion - its been a big help with us trying to paint & unpack boxes.

Lots of extra room for visitors too!!! :)

We found this little guy at the new house. A little Skink Lizard. Dylan loved it. Mom turned the picture into a cartoon.

Theme Time - Celebrating Friends

For Daycare we have been using the Funshine Express curriculum program. A couple weeks ago one of our themes was "Celebrating Friends". We did so many activities about making friends and what having friends means. One of our activities was to make friendship bracelets out of pipe cleaners & cut up plastic straws. Dylan & Ryan loved it! I was amazed that Ryan was so good at it! He had great hand eye coordination at 15 months. He made his all by himself!

All of the kids really are loving this program. We've been doing it for about 8 weeks now & I am amazed at how quickly they are learning! Even the 1yr. olds! They are learning colors & are able to point as I count while following along correctly at 15-17 months! Their talking and sign language have improved a great deal also! I'm soooo glad I found this stuff!

Computer Repairman or Demolisher? That is the question!

Last night I thought I heard Ryan typing on JD's work computer, yes I said WORK. So I grabbed the camera to snap a few shots only to realize he wasn't typing....
Yes....He was tearing off the keys! Do you know how hard it is to putting those things back on?? I do! I had to fix it!



Why does it take 3 pieces of plastic and a metal wire to put a key on? Can't they just make them snap on to 1 piece? Or do they just think things like this are funny??

Frogs really do wear underwear!

Meet "Little Fred" he is one of Dylan's many Fred's. Dylan is fully potty trained, and now thinks it's a good time to teach "Little Fred" to use the potty. So all day yesterday "Little Fred" wore underpants. I actually saw him in a few different pairs so it must have been a rough first day! :)

Fresh New Hair Cuts!

Well, the boys were starting to look a little shabby....so.....I gave them a trim. Probably not the straightest, but have you ever given a cat a bath? It went a little something like that.....I think you can imagine what I mean.

It looks a little better now, after a couple days of growing out...
Plus you gotta love Dylans messy little face! :)

County Fair ~ Part 3

The Pony Rides!
Dylan & Ryan were both BIG enough for these! Pony rides are great! Although a little pricey! $3.00/person and they only went around like 3 times! Very short rides! But it was worth it! The boys had a Blast!
Ryan was saying Bye to his Pony the whole time he was riding!

County Fair ~ Part 2

Sooo....we went back the next day - with the camera!! :) Haha, gotcha Mom!

Dylan loved the rides! He was just barely big enough! He had to be 36 in tall to ride - he's 37....(sigh-thank goodness, it would have been a very sad trip)

Tickets were $2.50 each (1 per ride) so we had to limit it to 4 rides.

First he rode the Airplane/UFO thing. It went about 7 feet off the ground, he loved that! He had to ride the green one, it's the one he picked out the night before but we only did 3 rides then so we skipped this one.



Then on to the fishies! He picked out brown this time. This ride was kinda cute, the fish went up & down on the ends of octopus tentacles like they were swimming.




Next the Roller Coaster! Dylan's first! This cute little Dragons highest point was about 5 feet off the ground & lowest was about 1 foot off, so for someone so little it was probably pretty exciting! It's hard to get a good picture of a moving Roller Coaster!

Last, but not least the cars!! Dylan had to ride in the blue Mustang! As you can see this little car was very popular! He made friends very quickly with this little gang!

Our First County Fair ~ Part 1

On Aug. 31st We went to our first county fair. We had a blast! Dylan got to ride a bunch of rides, we saw tractor pulls, & both of the boys got to have Pony rides. But....we forgot the camera.....Sorry!

Sponge Bob (#2)

Well as you can see, this fishy doesn't look exactly like the first picture. Just like Dorothy from Elmo's World (Sesame Street), he seems to look different all the time.
Anyways, meet Sponge Bob Jr. He is a fantail goldfish. A little more expensive then the first ($1.26), but just as cute! We have had him a week now, I thought he had made it long enough to put his pic up.
Of course the switch did not go as planned.....Dylan saw the empty fish bowl...
At least he got to help pick out the new one that way though.

Beautiful Boys

I was just looking at pictures on my computer today & found these. Dylan & Ryan have such wonderful smiles!

Ya know.....I sure am blessed with two wonderful boys!

If only they could stay this size forever! I feel like they are growing up way too fast. They are growing so fast I just can't keep up.

I'm a year and a half behind on Dylan's album & about a year behind on Ryan's. I just can't find the time to scrapbook. If I have 20 free minutes I'd rather be reading to them or playing with them.

Summer Reading Program

This summer we signed Dylan up for the Summer Reading Program at the Library. Every week they had special guests come speak, act, read, juggle..etc. We took him to see the juggler!(I can't remember his name)

Dylan of course doesn't read on his own yet, but we read to him. By reading 20 hours of books he got invited to the award ceremony. He was so excited about getting it. He loves us reading books to him.

I printed off some phonics books from the Internet and he has started reading those by himself. He has one called "I can move" that he really loves.

Jammy Baby

This is Ryan in his Pj's. I told Mom about his outfit today and she begged me to take a pic to put on here, so here it is.

Ryan is sporting the years hottest 1 yr. old look! An oversized t-shirt from the Meramec Caverns (our most recent adventure) & his Teddy Bear slippers!

New China....yummy!

A couple of weeks ago Ryan had to have some blood tests done. They took so much blood for him being so tiny - So we wanted to re-energize him quickly! Off to New China we went! He loved it as you can see. Both of our boys really love eating there!

Just For JD

Love you Dear! MmmBop!

Newest Member Of Our Family

This is Dylans new pet fish. His name is Sponge Bob. We got him a week ago today, but Dylan just now named him.

Goldfish are great first pets - if they kick the bucket you can easily replace them, but we haven't had to yet!! :) He was a cheap pet too! $0.12(fish) plus $2.46(food) is awesome!

Mom's Birthday

In July the boys & I got to go visit Mom in Tx for a week. It was nice because we got to be there for her birthday. That day we had lunch at Chick-fil-a...then did a little shopping...

That night we out to dinner at Outback SteakHouse.

Later on back at her house we had cake, the boys loved that part.

She maybe another year older, but she's another year sweeter too!!

Aquarium Trip

Last month we took a trip with my cousin & her family to the Aquarium in Jenks OK. We had a great time.

Dylan & I got to feed Turtles - Daddy & Dylan fed the Sting Rays.

Ryan cared more about playing with Aaron than looking at the fish.
These two are the only ones in the family with red hair.....whats up with that?
They had a great time running around with each other.

Dylan's Story Hour

On Monday evenings each week we take Dylan to Story Hour at our local library. He loves it. They read books, sing songs, watch film strips, & do art activites. They do a new theme each week. His good friend Kaylee also goes to Story Hour with him.

The second picture is him with his first teacher Ms. Linda. She recently had to move away. He really liked her, and was sad when she left.

Lasagna Boy

This kid Loves Lasagna! Here is the first time Ryan had lasagna and you can tell he loved it. He ate a ton. His little tummy was pooching out so far afterwards. Everything but the sauce made it inside, he was trying to save the sauce for later I guess... (I washed it off though) :)

Of cousre Ryan loves to eat almost anything....he just doesn't always paint himself with it...hehe

Wow, Ok.....I'm sorry it's been awhile! A Long While!!

Well the boys are getting huge! They are so active. We have been so busy lately. Recently we went to MN & WI. We took a family vacation to the Oshkosh Airshow in Oshkosh Wisconsin. It was great! Dylan is really into Airplanes so he had a blast. Ryan is into whatever Dylan is into so he had a blast too. On our way we stopped to see a family I used to babysit for (their girls were the flower girls in our wedding too!). It was nice to get to see them & Dylan really misses them now. Maybe we'll see them again soon though.

We also finally got the boys birthday pictures taken! So here they are! I will put more pics on soon - including Ryan's first time to eat Lasagna