Merry Christmas & Happy New Years!

Wow am I glad Christmas is over but now I have 5 days until Luke turns 7 and he wants me to make his birthday cake. Still trying to figure that one out.

I have missed all of you guys so much and I will be making my rounds here soon and life will be back to normal.

First off here are a few of the things that had me really busy this past month. First, I made 4 little girls purses and I have one more to still make. I made them all different and two of the girls that got them were thrilled to get them. The other one was to busy with other things to care and my other niece was not at Christmas this year so I will not get to see her open hers either.

First up... Princes purse #1.
It is exactly the same on both sides.

Princes purse #2
Front view

Back view.

Princes purse #3
Front view

Back view
(oh and this was my favorite of them all)

Princes purse #4
Front view

Back view
This one came out the best as far as sewing goes
but I think I got better with each purse. The 5th
purse I need to make will be like this one.I also made a Mickey Mouse fleece blanket for Thomas.

I have just really started getting into sewing but I have lots of things I want to try and do.

I think the kids had a great Christmas. Luke got lots of Lego's and that is great because he can sit and play Lego's for hours on end.

I also had two sick kids, one with strep right after school let out for the Holiday's and one that ended up with Croop (spelling), really bad cough and fever that started Christmas day. Figures!

I have this next week off and looking forward to putting my house back in order and celebrating my babies 7th birthday and ringing in the new year.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New Year. If I find time I will get some more pictures of Christmas up soon.

Tree Picking

Went on Sunday and selected our Christmas tree. The boys had a blast running in and out of the rows of trees. Gotta love kids!
Unfortunately, my tree is leaning against the wall and still not in water. This is not good. My husband has been sick and not able to get it cut and into the stand. I am hoping this will happen soon or we are going to have a dead tree.

Don't know when I will get it decorated and Christmas is right around the corner. Makes me a little nervous that we are this far behind this year.

Other updates, still lots to do and feels like nothing is getting done. Sorry if I haven't been around much. I promise I will do my best to make it around when I can and after the New Year all should be back to normal.

Oh and Diane, sorry I had to turn the word verification back on. I am getting spam in my comments daily and I have had enough of it.

Happy Holiday's all!

A whole lot to do

I am sure most of you have noticed my lack of presents recently. I have been super busy and just can't seem to find the time to blog and I am having trouble thinking of things to blog about. I guess a lot of my thoughts often come to me during my work day but this past month work has been crazy insane and my full focus is required if I am going to keep my head above water.

On top of crazy work tasks, my life has been really full of craziness. Hosted my first ever Thanksgiving this year. Wow is that an undertaking. I was going to take lots of pictures also and totally forgot. My husband is redoing our dinning room. Was supposed to be done for Thanksgiving but I am not holding my breath for Christmas because he is so slow.

I am also sewing some gifts for Christmas. Can't wait to finish, take pictures and share. All the little girls are getting purses and my first one came out fantastic. I am also making a Mickey Mouse Fleece blanket for Thomas. I have to find the time to do that one also when he isn't around.

Have not started Christmas shopping yet. My girlfriend is going with me on Friday and I am thrilled because I love spending time with her. We went to a Daughtry concert in Kentucky a couple weeks ago and I had a blast. Great concert to see! We got a hotel room because it was a far drive home for me. We stayed up until 2 in the morning just talking away. I swear we could talk none stop for days and not run out of things to talk about.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season.

Where Is My Mom's Manual

I grew up in a house as the oldest child. I can remember my mom always being way harder on me than my little brother. It often created a major rift between me and my mom because I felt so unfairly treated. I think for this reason I was a daddies girl but also I think he saw how much harder my mom was on me and he had to compensate for it with me.

Today, I have two boys. It was just Luke and me for the first 4 almost 5 years of his life. We were very close and I did everything for this child. We were really tight and then his baby brother was born. Now I had to find a way to divide myself between two children. Something that truly is not as easy as one might think.

As Thomas has grown, I have found he gets the majority of my attention and Luke not as much. I have also found that I am so much harder on Luke. I yell at him more because he is supposed to know better. He should do more for himself and should be more grown up. When he doesn't do these things I become very frustrated with him and I am often really hard on him.

This really bothers me because I am treating Luke just like my mom did me. I now see her side of it but it still doesn't make it any better for Luke. I have to remind myself, yes he should know better, and yes he can do these things for himself but he is still only six years old.

Recently the two of them together have pushed every button I have and I end the day frustrated and flat out exhausted. I don't want to be like this and I have got to figure out how to be easier on Luke, but he can't just get away with things either.

So my question to all you moms with two or more kids. How do you divide yourself among your children? How do you make sure they feel equally loved by you? Its not that I don't love them equally but I do not manage my time well between them and I am a lot less patient with one over the other.

DADDY WATER

When Luke was two he could not tell us he wanted Fruit2O flavored water. His dad loves the stuff and drinks it often but I don't like it and drink regular water. Because he couldn't say Fruit2O Luke called it "daddy water" and he was very specific that he did not want "mommy water" as it was just water. Soon we were all referencing flavored water as "daddy water".

Even now at the age of 6 Luke calls it "daddy water" just as we all still do.

Then the other day Thomas's babysitter asks me, "what is daddy water". I just laughed because clearly flavored water will always be called "daddy water" in our house.

Crazy about Hat's

Someone has a new found interest in hats.

Especially the kind that are way to big for his little head.

Bye-Bye Bottle

Right now I really have nothing new to share or post about. Since I can't seem to think of anything new and exciting I will share some good news that happened last month but I never found the time to post about it.

As you all remember my husband and I took our weekend trip to Nashville, TN.

(Side note: I still owe you all pictures for that but can't find my adapter to get the pictures out of my old camera. This is why I don't like to use that camera but we did so until I find the adapter they are stuck inside my camera.)

Anyway we took our trip and my parents watched my boys. My wonderful mother decided she was going to try and break my son of his bottle habit. This was one of those things that I needed to do but I was so afraid to do. His habit was strong and I wasn' t up for that all night fight, the crying and the saying no.

Well my mom took a bottle to her house but hid it and anytime Thomas asked she said it had gone bye-bye. He went for three days and had no bottle. I was so impressed and thrilled but I also new that he would push me harder for it when I came home.

Sunday night we return home and he instantly asks me for his ba-ba. I tell him it went bye-bye and we had a 45 minute melt down but I new I had to hold strong.

He still asks me almost every day for a ba-ba and I have to tell him it went bye-bye. He has come to accept this and the ba-ba is no long in the picture thanks to my mom. The best part was we actually broke him of the bottle before he turned two. I thought for sure I was going to have a two year old walking around with a bottle.

My biggest issue with taking it away is he will not drink milk from a cup for me. He still refused to drink milk for me in a cup. The good news is he will drink milk in a cup at the sitters and at grandma's houses.

Have you had a hard time breaking your kids of something?

Saying A Bad Word

Something I learned long ago is our little ones look up to us as role models and they do mimic the things we say and do.

I am not a person who uses curse words, well very little anyway. I don’t drop the “F” word ever, I don’t say “S#!@” but on occasion I do say “Damn it”. Funny thing is Luke has taught me to say “barnacles” because he says that often and it is a Sponge Bob phrase.

I should have learned years ago. When Luke was two I said “Damn it” often. Sure enough at the age of two Luke started saying “damn it” and he said it often. I felt very bad about teaching my child to use this word. From that point on I became very conscious about what I said and really made an effort not to say these things.

However I am human (not perfect) and it is one of those things that slip’s out when I get really frustrated. Typically occurs at times when my child has decided to dump the dog’s water bowl all over the floor for the third time. Yes, it is these times when the “Damn it” flies from my tong and it comes across in a very frustrated tone.

Wouldn’t you know it, at the age of two, Thomas dropped the word “damn it”. He was getting mad about something and sure enough in his moment of anger he yelled it out. I instantly corrected Thomas and this has only encouraged him to say it more. At that point I ignored him and he stopped saying it.

It is just funny to me (OK not funny) how both my boys have learned this word from me and at the very young age of two. My efforts are good but obviously not good enough and I must try harder.

I grew up in a house with parents who cursed all the time but we were not allowed to say those words. I always thought that was a double standard and I still to this day feel like it is a double standard. Because I feel this way, I need to set an example and not use this type of language in front of my kids. Good news is my parents have grown with age and also curb their words especially around the kids.

Have your kids ever picked up a behavior from you that you wished they had not?

Playing Soccer

Luke has played soccer since he was three years old.

We thought it would be something fun for him to do.
We quickly learned soccer wasn't really his thing.

OK, at 3 it isn't really any child's thing but they are learning.

At 4 he would sit down in the middle of the field or was off picking dandelions.

At the age of 5 we put him on a team with one of his friends.
Big mistake as these two would run around the field holding hands,
trying to do cart wheels and anything else but play soccer.

After that fall season we decided it was time to give soccer a rest.
Luke's dad coached a few times and his dad was really starting to lose his patients.

This fall Luke wanted to play again.
Of course what parent can say no when their child wants to play.
No really big hope for him playing but we signed him up anyway.

Well guess what?
At the age of 6 he has figured out that he can play soccer
and he does it very well.

My little all star played so well this year and we were so proud of him.

I guess this is why they say never give up.

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

Happy Halloween 2009

Saturday was a big day with all the
Halloween activities taking place in our house.
We started our day off with a little pumpkin carving.
Notice my kitchen gloves on Luke.
He did not want to clean out the pumpkin unless he wore gloves.

I was a nervous wreck watching this child carve a pumpkin with a knife.
He is just growing up way to fast.

Thomas thinks he is carving on Luke's finished pumpkin.
He was funny!

On Mickey Mouse carved pumpkin. Thanks to me!
Oh and excuse this childs shirt and face.
I don't remember him being such a mess.

Luke's finished pumpkin he carved all by himself.

Our finished products all lit up.

Now it is time to go Trick-or-treating.

One Indiana Jones &

one little puppy.

His little puppy costume was almost two small.
Notice the feet?

And what event out wouldn't be complete
with out a full blown temper tantrum.
He did not take a nap today & is now tired.

If only you could hear him singing the Indiana theme song. Funny!

A couple outside shots before we drive into town.

Let's go!
Thomas was hooked once he new he was getting candy.

This was the first year we were having to keep up
with Luke instead of the other way around.

Remember that nap we missed?
It caught up to us.

Happy Halloween!
I hope you all had as much fun as we did.

Ladybug I am So Sorry

I am sitting here catching up on blogs and Thomas starts beating his train table with a toy hammer. He is beating it and beating it! Then he comes to me holding out his hand to give me something. My child has decided to beat an innocent little ladybug into a flat pancake.

So I ask him, did you smash the bug with your hammer. He just gives me this huge smile like, I took care of the problem.

I guess the ladybugs currently hanging out in my house need to take note that they are not allowed to crawl around on the train table.

Party Time!

We had a great birthday party for Thomas on Sunday. It was a great party even with all the stress we had before the party began. I was up at 7 AM Sunday morning, skipped Church to try and get everything done I needed to do before the party at 4. Top priority was the cake and second on the list was keeping the house clean and finish someone of the cleaning things I had not done on Saturday. Let me just say nothing ever goes as planned especially with kids. But even with all the craziness before the party we did it and were putting the final touches on when everyone arrived.

An here is the cake, the cake that I am so proud of yet it took me 8 hours to put it together but Thomas loved it. Once we stuck the ears on he knew it was Mickey Mouse.
Dad was in charge of the pictures so I have no real great pictures of Thomas's huge smile's. But trust me they were their.
He loved trying to blow out his candles. He made me so nervous as he leaned in so close to try and blow them out. I had to help!
I should have taken an after picture of my cake all cut up. It was hard to put that much time and effort into something to watch it get chopped up in 5 minutes. Everyone did say it was very yummy! My cake was from a box mix but I made my icing from scratch and loved it. My husband even thought it was good and he is a cake snob so it is hard to get his approval but we did.

Now onto presents. Thomas wasn't to interested in opening gifts. The kids had a couple character balloons they were using to smack my brother with. They were having more fun doing that than opening presents.
This years big gift was a train set. I spent very little on Thomas's Birthday. The table is actually a train table we bought for Luke years ago. It has been in the garage for probably three years now, so it was brand new to Thomas. I then bought a new wooden train set, 70 pieces for $27 at Target. It was a great deal and fit the table perfect. Then other people bought a few trains and add on pieces to make it a great set. We had wooded trains from before but over the years my dogs have enjoyed them as chew toys so I only had a few things left. Plus when Luke was big into Thomas the Train we had a lot of motorized and die cast ones and only a few wood ones.
Finally the train set is open and Thomas got about 2 minutes of play before all the party kids were around the table playing and having a good time.

Interstingly enough Thomas's older brother who hasn't played with Trains for years is really enjoying this train table. I see several fights over this thing in the near future.

I look back and find it funny that both my boys at the age of two were big into Thomas the Train. Luke's big birthday present when he turned two was a Thomas the Train Toddler bed. I just recently sold that Thomas bed to someone else because we couldn't use it because we have bunk beds in the boys room. Thomas was so upset when someone drove off with that bed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today's the Day!
Today my little Thomas turned 2.
You were not actually due until November 4th
but you just couldn't wait to get out and see the world.

It seems like just yesterday I was taking this picture of you in the hospital.

You have gone from the tiny little baby who needed me for everything.

Quickly wasting no time figuring out this world around you.

I can remember you jumping & jumping
like it was the best thing in this world.

And then you started crawling.....

And then walking.....

From that point their has been no stopping you!

So happy birthday to my (I can't believe it) two year old boy.

Where did the time go!

We have lots of party pictures and we will share those later and my cake came out really well and I can't wait to share it with everyone.

Just Chillin

For some reason this has become his
favorite place to just sit, hang out and eat.

Cracks me up how he straddles the column.

Oh and excuse the chewed up wood work!
This is all thanks to that pretty red gold retriever you see in the picture.
One of her many things she has destroyed over the years.

Nashville

We did it! We took our weekend and went away with out the boys. It was a really great time with the exception of this awful cold I have. The one part I was looking forward to the most was a good nights sleep because Thomas is not a sleeper and not having him around would mean two fantastic nights of sleep. WRONG!!! Not when you spend the entire two nights up coughing your lungs out.

A few of the fun things we did while we were in Nashville was visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, I love country music so this was great for me. Eric probably not so much be he loves history so I think he still enjoyed himself.

Also went to The Parthenon, Nashville's version of the Ancient Greece temple of the Roman Gods.

Finally, The Hermitage, the cotton plantation and home to Andrew Jackson our 9th President.

All very interesting and very cool things to see and do. I have a few pictures and more to share but my thoughts are not all together yet so I will share more about our trip later.

For now I am just happy to be home and feel like I have all my weekend chores to catch up on.

ANOTHER YEAR

Another year of life has been officially notched under my belt. As I reflect on my 6th time turning 29 (Yes, I will be celebrating my 29th birthday the rest of my life)I ask myself, do I look and feel like a 35 year old?

Then it hits me, turning 35 means I am half way to 40. So do I look at this as the glass half empty or half full? Not sure on that one. Being in my 30's I still feel very young and really don't look my age so that is a plus. But as I head down that path to 40 I wonder will I still feel youthful at 40?

My dad is in his late 50's and he doesn't perceive age with any meaning. To him it is all about how we approach life. I think he has the right attitude so hopefully I can take that with me.

Anyway last year was a very blessed year in my life and I pray that next year will be just as beautiful if not better than the past. Only time will tell what the future has in store for us. Hopefully all will be well when I post about next years 29th birthday. :)

ROUND 2, CAKE DECORATING

If you missed round one, click here. (sorry I am a bit late posting this)

This time I tossed a few things out the window. First to go... baking my cake from scratch. I decided I am going to do it the way I know best and that would be using two yummy boxes of Pillsbury cake mix. I also went back to my two pans so baking is easier because the cake isn't nearly as thick. (Less chance of it falling)

Fondant, bought some ready made. Yes, yes, much easier to work with. Not exactly yummy but makes my cake look much nicer. Presentation is so important here. :)

As you can see the Mickey house is not real smooth using Rice Crispy treats to form them. Plus when I stuck my Mickey head on the pencil I used to support it it split in half. Ugh....Instead I am going to do what others have done and use Styrofoam balls to create the house and then wrap them in store bought colored fondant. No one is going to eat this part anyway so lets not make every thing so hard. Oh and I am not sure why my house looks orange in the picture. It was red but that makes me think I need to make the red darker.

I rolled out my yellow fence that goes around the outside of my cake and made the gate. I actually didn't do to bad with this part. I know what I need to do next time to make it better. Trimmed around the top with icing to make it look like grass. I also will cut out little circles to make stepping stones and add store bought Mickey and friends to top off the cake.

I haven't decided but I do think I am going to skip the foot, hand and slide that is part of the club house. I might change my mind last minute but I am fearful of really messing this up.

In the end my big plan is on Saturday (Oct 24) to make all the decorations that go on top of my cake. Then on Sunday (day of party) bake the cake, decorate it. This might be a bad choice but I do want it to taste good and I noticed just after one day my sample cake didn't taste all that great because it lost a lot of its freshness.

I do have to make sure that I buy everything ahead of time so I am prepared. I can not forget anything!

Funny thing is I have spent a fortune doing this. Between buying new cake pans, supplies and more supplies it has become very expensive. I could have paid someone else to make two really nice cakes at this point. The good thing is most things purchased can be tucked away for next time and used again. So in some ways I have made an investment, that or an insane commitment to decorating all birthday cakes from this point forward. Not sure how I feel about that yet.

Wish me lots of LUCK! I will share the final cake after the birthday party.

Trial Birthday Cake: ROUND 1

A few weeks ago I started down the path of making a trial birthday cake. Baking is never an issue for me but I have no skills or patience when it comes to decorating. I got a couple books at the library, read several things online and decided, I can do this! LOL... LOL... LOL....

Let me just say, I haven't given up but my trials have been funny to say the least.

My goal is to make a Mickey Mouse Club House Cake for Thomas's Birthday that is in two weeks.

Round 1:

How do I make the Club House part that would sit on top the cake?
This would be the cute house shaped like Mickey's body and head. It also has a hand, foot and slide. I decided to try to use rice crispy treats and wrap them in fondant icing to give them that nice smooth color and shape.

Found a recipe to make my own fondant. Making the fondant requires lots of patients as it takes a while to need until it forms as it should. Shockingly enough, I did it. I got it to shape and turn out just like the picture. Now it was time to role it so it could be applied to my rice crispy catastrophe (I will get to that later). Ha, I don't care how much shortening and confection sugar I added to the table surface it just kept sticking. I was getting so mad because I couldn't lift it with out it ripping. Eventually I just took it and smooshed it onto the rice crispy shaped head. It stuck, just didn't look very nice. (Remember that whole patience thing, yeah mine were gone)

RICE CRISPYS PART
I can not ever remember making a good batch of Rice Crispy Treats in my entire life. I have failed at this task time and again. This time was no exception. I could not get them to shape into a ball and spear for nothing. Eventually I smooshed some into on oval shaped bowl and used wax paper to smoosh into a ball. I then had to let them sit for a few days to get hard. (Never really did that, still fell apart when I would touch them).

My frustration has reached a high point with the house part of the cake.

BAKING THE CAKE
I moved on to baking the cake part. I used a deap 8-1/2 inch pan and made my cake from scratch. As it was baking I had to open the door to check on it and it fell. UGH.....

Now my cake has a huge crevous in the middle of it. OK, this is trial 1 so lets flip it over and decorate it anyway. So I flip it and leave it sit on the counter to cool. At this point the phone is ringing...

One rule in my house, never walk away from food on the counter or it will disappear thanks to my dogs. I walked away.... when I returned the cake was still on the counter but it had a huge bit out of the side. At this point I am so mad that I am just done....

Come back tomorrow for ROUND 2 of my Cake Decorating. Surprisingly I haven't given up, not yet. Oh and I will have pictures tomorrow.

LETS TAKE A TRIP

Aloha Friday!

My husband and I are thinking of getting away for a weekend here soon (just the two of us). Yes, that's right no kids! I don't think I can say that with enough glee in a post to express how excited I am about a get away, WITH OUT KIDS.

We are trying to think of a nice place two spend about three days. At the top of our list is Nashville, Tennessee.

So my Question(s):

Have you ever been to Nashville, Tennessee? If you have did you like it and did you do anything fun? If you have not been to Nashville, tell me about one of your favorite weekend get away spots?

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.

Flash Cards

I often find it amazing how one child will watch and mimic another child.

Each night at dinner we go through Luke's spelling words and sight words that are on flash cards. We ask him to spell certain words out loud and also when he looks at the flash cards he has to tell us what that word is with in one second or less.

As we do this every night, Thomas has started to join in on the fun. As Luke spells, Thomas spells along with him. He also wants to see the flash cards so he can say the word.

The other night at bed time he picked up a book and held it in front of me and quickly say's "doggy" and then he grabs another and say's "mickey". He was using the books like flash cards testing me on what was on the books. It was the funniest thing.

Have you experienced one child mimicking what an older sibling is learning or doing at a certain time?

I often wonder if we kept reinforcing and showing the sight words to Thomas if he would not learn those spelling words right along with Luke. Hard to say but they say at this age their little brains are like sponges.

Our First ER Trip

My boys are all boy and rough housing is very natural for them. With my two boys I have had no doubt that a few emergency room trips would take place at some point in the future. I had no idea that our first one would happen this soon.

Last night I am trying to put both my boys to bed. Neither of them are cooperative because we were babysitting my nieces and nephew. So I have the boys in their room, Thomas in his bed and Luke not in his. They both want a drink so I head downstairs to get a drink for them. I then hear Thomas crying really hard and as I enter the room Luke is hiding under his blanket.

Instantly my reaction is WHAT DID YOU DO? First response from Luke was nothing. As Thomas cries I ask again, what did you do? Then I get the response "I pulled his arm through the bed rails." Thomas will not stop crying and you can not move his arm with out major screams. We go sit on the bed and I try to calm him and figure out if he is going to be OK. Thomas calms down but only if you would hold very still. The moment we moved his arm he would begin to cry again. At this point we new it was time to take a trip to the emergency room. Before we could go we had to wait 15 minutes for my in-laws to show up to get the kids. My mother-in-law stayed at our house so that Luke could stay home and go to bed.

Off we went to the ER of the Children's Hospital. Of course at 9:30 at night it is crazy busy and lots of sick coughing children. Not really where I want to be but we had no choice.

The hospital was great and moved us almost instantly into a room. I was so thankful to be out of the waiting area where I felt like germs were just everywhere begging to make us all sick.

Finally around midnight when the doctor came to see us he said it was probably Nurse Maid elbow, basically Thomas elbow was pulled out of socket. He twisted his are from side to side for about a minute popping it back into place. He left and came back with a Popsicle for Thomas and instantly Thomas held his hurt arm up read to take the popsicle. We were as good as new.

I was so thankful to see it all went OK. Having two boys, I have no doubt this will be my last trip either.

Leftover Food

Aloha!
So it is Friday and I am exhausted from this week. Lets take it easy today and keep it simple, shall we.

Question: Do you use up or throw away majority of your leftovers? If you are successful at using your leftovers, how do you do it?

I feel like we waist so much food. We always have extra food left over after a meal. It will go in a pretty plastic container and then into the fridge, never to be seen again. OK it is seen again just sometimes it is unrecognizable (did I just admit that), but never found until I am cleaning out the fridge a couple weeks later. At that point everything ends up in the trash.

I always forget that we have stuff that needs to be used up. Then when I do think about it I find that it is no longer any good.

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.

Resting His Head

What happens when your little one
refuses to take a nap all day long?

He ends up falling asleep here.

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

Where do I go from here?

When Luke was little he was watched by a stay at home mom who babysat other kids. She had to stop watching Luke when he turned two. At that point I enrolled him into a local preschool/daycare. It was a fantastic program and it did wonders for him at that age and all the way up until he started school.

Thomas will be turning two in October and I have really been trying to decide what would be best for him after he turns two. He is currently with a stay at home mom who babysits. Do I make the leap and enroll him into the same preschool and give him all the same opportunities Luke has had or do I wait.

So I decided step one should be get pricing and details from the preschool. This is where my choice gets hard because it is so expensive. Currently I pay $100 a week for Thomas to go to his sitter 4 days a week but I do have the option for the 5th day at the same price. The preschool would cost me $152 for 3 days a week. This is hard to stomach when you are use to paying less than this. If I go with the 3 days a week (this is what Luke did) than both grandma's will have to go back to watching Thomas one day a week every week. Something I am not sure I want nor do I think either of them can do anymore.

My second option would be to pay for the 3 days at the preschool and retain current sitter for 1 day a week for an additional $25 but that is now $75 more a week. Not exactly something I thrilled about.

I have tried to way out the pros and cons of each.

• Preschool -very proactive at age 2 with potty training
• Sitter- not very helpful with potty training.
• Preschool -always open except holidays.
• Sitter- takes time off leaving me without child care
• Preschool -charges even if child doesn't attend & no price change for closed holidays.
• Sitter -only charges when child is their.
• Preschool -learning environment
• Sitter-playing environment
• Preschool -very expensive
• Sitter -much more budget friendly
• Preschool -sick more often (at least this was the case with Luke)
  
• Sitter -healthier environment
  

When I look down this list I see money as a major factor and I am not looking at what is best for Thomas. My car has been paid off so it isn't like I couldn't apply that money here but this is not how I wanted to spend that extra money.

I guess I am just very torn and cant decide if I just shouldn't wait one more year. Currently Thomas has some very bad habits from the sitters due to very aggressive kids but I can't be certain that won't be an issue with the daycare also.

I also really want that learning environment and my sitter does not spend time with them teaching them things. She said that from day one that is just not what she does. When he was a baby I was fine with that because at that stage the nurturing seemed more important to me.

I just don't know what to do? I can't seem to come to a decision that makes me happy.

ALOHA HALLOWEEN VERSION

ALOHA FRIDAY!

Halloween is about a month away. I started looking and thinking about costumes back in August. One thing I do is procrastinate to the last possible minute for Halloween costumes. Every year I freak out because I can’t find the costume that Luke wants to be. Last year we made our Sponge Bob costume and we were up (OK my husband was up, I quit at midnight) almost all night finishing it for school the next day. Click if you feel like checking out last years home made Sponge Bob costume.

This year we have known for a while now and I still have not made the purchase. Luke wants to be Indiana Jones, I hate the costume and want to find the various elements instead of buying the costume. Thomas loves to pretend to be a puppy so that was an easy choice. I found a really cute puppy costume but it costs way too much money. I found one at Target that is not as cute but much cheaper. I just find that my lack of ability to make a choice and buy the darn thing is what causes me to end up on the short end of things each year.

(LUKE, AGE 2)

So my question:

Have you already bought your kids Halloween costumes?

If they are grown and don’t dress up anymore did you always buy them early or last minute? Oh and when I say early I am thinking before October.

I swear everyone buys them early and is why I end up in the same dilemma each and every year.

(LUKE, AGE 3)

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.

Luke (age 2)

Lately I have had a lot of thoughts about Thomas turning 2 in October. Well today I went looking through some old photo's and found some great ones of Luke at about the exact same age.

It just amazes me how much my boys look alike.

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

ONE BIG FUNK

Do you ever find yourself in a funk that you just can't seem to shake?

Here lately I can't seem to find things that make me happy. Sure, my boys playful smiles and silly sayings always bring me joy but everything else is just lost on me right now.

I can't keep my house clean, can't keep up with my huge list of projects, I don't even want to talk about the laundry. I have so much I want to do and yet get nothing done. I can't even account for what I am doing with my time. Where has the day gone, what did I do today?

I guess I am just frustrated with myself because I can't seem to find that drive that use to accomplish so many things in any given day. Instead, I watch the tumble weeds of dog hair float across the floor and the dishes begging to be loaded into the dishwasher. Strange thing is this is not me, I am a clean freak. Can't stand to see dog hair anywhere, dishes in the sink is just a no-no in my house and yet I look around and just sigh....

How do I find my drive again?

Kitchen Organizing

Aloha!

Last weekend I made my first ever trip to an IKEA store. It is not close to my home but I have wanted to go for a really long time.

Wow, Wow & Wow... I love this store.

I did not buy anything because I really think about everything before I make a purchase but they had lots of great kitchen gadgets and storage ideas for the kitchen.
So with that said, my question for you:
Do you have any cool items in your kitchen for storing and organizing things?

I have a kitchen from the 80's and the cabinets are awful and I have nothing to help with organizing them. At least not yet! I found these great wall mount organizers that you hang on the wall under the cabinets. Each display kitchen had them and put lots of different items in them. I am certain this is going to be my first IKEA purchase.


Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.

05-09 Day Out with Thomas

I shared with everyone yesterday about riding Thomas the Train on Saturday.
This was not our first train ride on Thomas.

Here is a photo of Luke when he was two for the Day Out with Thomas.

Here is this years version of the same type of photo but now we have Luke and our Thomas.

My favorite part of taking these photos was that Thomas was standing their banging his little butt on the fence while I was trying to get the picture. Luke did this exact same thing when we were getting his picture in 2005. It was a great flash back moment for me.

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

A DAY OUT

Remember when I said we had a very buys weekend. On Saturday we did something very exciting for the little guy anyway.

What could possibly strike these expression of ahh in two little boys?

Why THOMAS THE TRAIN of course!
(Those were their expressions as they first saw Thomas pulling into the station.)

When Luke was 2 we took him to ride Thomas because he loved Thomas.
These days our Thomas has started to show interest in Thomas the Train
or "choo choo Thomas" as he calls him.
He is a little younger than Luke when we took Luke but he stilled loved it.

I got some great shots of these two on this day.

This child would not sit in his seat the entire 30 minute train ride.

Luke smiled big and enjoyed the train ride but other than that he said this was for his brother. He didn't care if he saw Thomas or not. So he say's but I am pretty sure he was having fun.

We never have entire family shots and some guy was so nice to offer to take a picture of all of us.

I will finish our day with a short video clip of the boys on the train.

Thomas and his head bobbing yes to all my questions is so cute!