Today

1.We recreated the screaming situation from yesterday in Target
2. I listened to Sydney say "No Way!" at least 64 times. That doesn't include the many times she just said "No!"
3. I changed 5 poopy diapers. Make that 6.
4. Sydney dumped a container of yogurt on her head. Lovely.5. I got so frustrated with the craziness that I ate chocolate covered pretzels and took my kids to Target - a clear sign I was not thinking clearly.
6. I ordered recycle bins
7. We ate fresh raspberries for breakfast
8. Mady screamed the whole time I made dinner - don't worry, our happy little head is back.
9. Sydney started her own movie
10. We were super duper happy when Daddy came home. Mady was so happy she did yoga. Now it's 10 pm and bedtime. Why is Mady so hyper?

The Joys

You know how every time you go to the grocery store there is at least one kid screaming bloody murder? Today that kid was mine. Numero uno that is. Numero dos was an angel. Uno was screaming her lungs out, crying to get down, crying to be held, begging for food, etc. Also she may have bitten directly into a kiwi and tried to wipe off her tongue for the next few minutes. Apparently those hairy things taste icky. Who knew. When we got home she slept for 4 hours. Um, I'm an awesome mom and make my tired kids stay awake to go to the grocery store. Yup.
Ooh, click over there --> (book club bloggers) to see the awesome books I've been reading lately. Come on, you know you want to.

Yup, that's what it was

So we're still mourning the fact that my parents had to go home (darn those jobs), but the kids were a little better than yesterday. As in, not quite so whiny. We are putting the girls in the same room to sleep now, which is good and bad. Good because we might actually have a room that isn't filled with toys and small clothes. Bad because when one wakes up, so does the other. Today at 6:45, early riser Mady woke up (it's usually 6:09, so this was good). Aaron went to grab her and Sydney immediately woke up. He brought her to me, went back for Mady, and she was asleep. The kid slept until 8:15, which left lots of time for breakfast, clothes, and a bubble bath. She got a head start.

This kid loves bubbles and baths, so this was a winning combination. I was not fast enough getting her in, obviously.
Happy happy day

After a 2.5 hour nap, we went to lunch with a friend. We grabbed Subway and ate it at the splash park nearby. Mady was happy to just look around.

Sydney was particularly attached to this metal sculpture of a bear. She kept kissing his bum. What can I say, she's a friendly kid.

Great story for today: While eating our lunch, a very friendly little girl (around 2-3 years old) came and sat by us. As in, right in the middle of our little group. Normally I'm all for small children running around and playing with other people (their parents are watching from afar, right?), but Sydney was already distracted and her new little friend was not helping with my attempts to get her to eat something besides bear. After a couple of polite attempts to get the girl to go back to her mom, we sort of gave up. Finally her mom came huffing over all put out and said, (very loudly, I might add), "Come on, Aspen. I've been watching and these people obviously don't want you around their little girl. She must not be very nice!" and again as "Aspen" was dragged away, "She must not be a very nice little girl, they don't want you by her."
Yeah, that's what it was. My kid is mean so I was concerned for your kid's well-being. Mmm-hmm. Maybe it's just me, but I usually try to assume that people don't want my kids around and let them tell me differently instead of the other way around. I guess I'm weird like that. How about you?

Then I took Sydney to the Splash park since she kept saying "splash" and "kids!" over and over. She was less than thrilled. The swim suit was completely unnecessary. She got about 10 drops of water on her as I dragged her through one fountain saying, "no no no!"
We had some sisterly bonding during diaper changes (Mady is trying to hold Sydney's hand while Sydney is saying "No Mady!")
Daddy showed off his mad Lego building skills and built a house for all of Sydney's beloved animals. I was impressed. Aaron decided we need more Lego's. Can you really ever have enough? It's fun to see Sydney engage in imaginative play though now. And she can play by herself for slightly longer periods of time. Oh the joys. Today I sat and watched her while I read 5 pages of a book. Good times.
We ended the day by eating s'mores (Syd's first). She wasn't overly impressed and preferred the straight marshmallows. Also I discovered that marshmallows do not roast very well when held over the BBQ grill. I think I'll start a fire in a metal bowl next time and try that.

Oh Crap

Just a quick story from today. First, my mom and dad left and the girls totally knew it. They were cranky and whiny most of the day since somehow I am unable to meet all of their demands as quickly as my mom, dad, and I put together were. Weird. Anyhow, I've been putting off my monster stock up trip to Walmart for 2 obvious reasons. Their pictures are posted over there --> if you want to see them. Anyway, I finally got up the gumption to do it today. We went, we shopped, no one got lost, we got almost everything we needed, and I used $25 worth of coupons. Success.
We got to the car and Mady stayed put while Sydney ran around in the mulch picking up sticks (always park on the end by the bushes to entertain your toddlers). I rearranged all of my groceries since the girl bagging them didn't know that if you buy 20 containers of yogurt they don't all have to go in separate bags, and toilet cleaner doesn't go in with the cheese. (Note: I was in a hurry and needed to throw the cold stuff in the fridge and leave.) I finally got everything in and slammed the trunk shut. I turned to grab my keys to stow my children in my car and got that awful sinking feeling. Yes. They were in the trunk along with all of my (now) perfectly bagged groceries.
Aaron was in a business meeting and a minimum of 30 min away even if he could leave right away. I ended up calling my neighbor, sending them to my house to get my spare house key (thank you tornado for blowing it out of it's hiding place so we could remember it was there!). Then he had to go into my bedroom and go through my stuff to find my spare car keys and bring them to me. Good thing Walmart is 5 minutes from my house. I got to sit in the parking lot with 2 increasingly cranky (and smelly) kids for awhile and be thankful I had my cell phone and my neighbor's number and that they were home. Thank you Caleb & Michelle. You saved us.
The funny thing? Not one person stopped to ask if everything was ok. Cause most moms I know enjoy hanging out in the Walmart parking lot around dinner time with small children. I know I do.

Build a Box

Aaron got a whole bunch of sample cabinet doors from work that were being thrown away and he created something really cool: a toy box for all our girlies' stuff. Step 1: Go through the mind numbing process of trying to make a million different sizes of wood into precisely measured sides without cutting them. Ouch. It made our brains hurt.

Step 2: Allow your goofy wife to take pictures of her hot handy man playing with power tools. It's important.

Step 3: More pictures while you build a box

Box complete!
Step 4: Convince father-in-law to come help you attach cabinet panels

Step 5: Spend lots of time doing so while wife continues shooting pics

Step 6: Bring completed box inside and fill with toys!
Step 7: Admire. Doesn't it look awesome? I have to admit, I had some serious doubts, but as always, my man delivered and used his skills to create an awesome and very useful piece of furniture! I love it! Thanks Aaron and to my dad for helping! Come on, you know you wanna come see it! ;)

Unexpected

We had an exciting Sunday. So exciting that I'm just now posting about it... Tuesday night. My parents are in town and we thought we'd show them how exciting life in the big city is, so we had a tornado come to town. Ok, so we actually had nothing to do with it, but there really was one! We have church at 1pm and at about 2 pm (shortly before it was over), Aaron and I both found ourselves in the hall with crying babies while my parents were inside. Everyone was congregating by the doors and Aaron showed me something like this:

That is called golf ball sized hail my friends. And my baby was holding it. And wouldn't let it go. People kept wanting to see it and she was mad. A very short time later we saw something like this:
These two pictures were actually taken by our good friends (we don't regularly take our camera to church), but Aaron did get one on his phone. Aaron watched it touch down 3 times and I saw it happen twice. Needless to say, we missed the last few minutes of church because we were glued to the weather. Someone opened the doors and we realized the tornado sirens were blaring, but no one could hear them because the wind was so loud! Traffic stopped and everyone just stared. It was very impressive.

We drove home quickly hoping that Mady's room wasn't soaked from the rain (window open). It wasn't. But the power was out. Aaron got to open the garage door the old fashioned way. We stood in the garage and watched the hail storm end. Then Sydney and I put on our rain coats and ran outside in the rain. Look how happy she is. You wouldn't be able to say no to her either.

Daddy and Grammy came out too later but they didn't splash. Why waste a perfectly good puddle?

The tornado did a fair amount of damage. There is a large mall 1/2 mile from our house that got hit (car overturned, light posts bent over, debris everywhere, etc.) including a brand new Lowes that has been open for 1 month. The whole experience was crazy, yet slightly exciting (only because all we lost was a few leaves off our trees!) Even more weird than the tornado? The fact that Progressive contacted us within 24 hours to find out if we had any damage from the storm that they could take care of. What? Now that's progressive!

P.S. I promise to post before another week and a half are up. I am getting behind again. And I have garage sale plunder. Can't wait for Friday!

Perspective

Last night I found out that a friend from college had died of cancer a few months ago. We weren't close, and actually hadn't spoken in 4 years, but I was still in shock. She was only a few months older than me, and it really shook me. She had 2 little kids that are now 3 and 5 and a husband trying to hold their family together. It gave me some perspective and some serious gratitude for what I have: health, a home, family, friends, and the cutest darn girls ever. So when Sydney begged to go outside at 8:30 pm while clad only in a diaper and my high heels, what do you think I said?

I'm not that nice! Yes, she's distraught.

So we compromised. I took away the shoes (she would have broken her neck!) and replaced them with her flip flops. Then I made her put on her rain coat.
Then we jumped in puddles!

She was so thrilled by this and honestly, it wasn't going to kill her! I'm sure my neighbors thought we were nuts, but we had fun.

I know it's dark, sorry. It is almost 9pm.

We warmed up with hot chocolate when we were done. In order to keep Sydney slightly clean I gave her a straw.

She was so happy about it she even said "More chocolate pease!" The first time she's ever said 3 words together! We can barely get her to say 2 words together, so this was huge! Then she handed me the camera and said "cheese!" Yup, that's chocolate on her mouth, not dirt.

Sydney learned 4 new words yesterday (which is pretty normal now). She learned rain, markers, puddle, and chapstick (oh goody).

I'm not going to spend time dwelling on the depressing facts of life that are all around me, but I am going to try to live each day to the fullest. We've been richly blessed and we need to enjoy the good times so we have great memories to look back on when storms come into our lives. Then again, when those storms come, maybe we can just jump in the puddles!

A Perfect Summer Day

We had such a perfect day today, I just have to quickly post about it. First, we had an awesome weekend - Aaron took me garage sale-ing (my idea). Hooray! We got a tricycle for Sydney, a booster seat for Mady, 2 sets of Mega blocks, 2 little toy trucks, and a dinosaur bowling set for $11.50. Yay!

Today we made it out the door by noon. Sydney has been sleeping in (bless her!), although Mady continues to wake up the roosters between 5:30 and 6:30 AM each day. But bless her too please. We made a couple of quick stops and then went to Target. We hit the jackpot and brought all this home:

It includes: 10 rolls of Bounty and Viva paper towels, 4 Dove deodorants, 2 each of Dove lotions, body washes, soaps, poufs, and body sprays, travel sunscreen, Glade flameless candle refills, Herbal Essences hair gel, 2 Schick razors, 2 Caress soaps, 4 Caress body washes, 3 packages Pop Rocks, 13 boxes of Puffs Kleenex, and 3 bottles of Arm & Hammer laundry detergent. Incredibly enough, I got all of this for under $15! (not including tax - the sign is wrong). I had tons of coupons and it was sooo exciting. I had a blast.

Next we went to Burger King. A few weeks ago I tried this for the first time. Lugged both girls and all our crap into the restaurant, changed bums in the restroom while Sydney screamed because she wanted a hamburger (possibly her favorite food ever), waited in line while she screamed and the woman who gave us our food looked like she was sad when I told her it was for here, not to go. Sydney dropped her burger immediately on the floor, etc. You get the picture, it wasn't pretty. This time, I learned my lesson. We changed bums at Target, went through the drive-through, and sat in the parking lot on a grassy spot where Sydney was blocked in on 3 sides effectively so she couldn't run away or get run over. It was beautiful, we had yummy food, happy kids, and only 1 stop left before we went home. It was a perfect picnic. Here's Sydney with her own water cup. She backwashes.

After dinner (both girls crashed in the car and transferred to the house for naps until Aaron got home), Aaron & Sydney mowed the lawn and I weeded while Mady took another nap. What do you think? Yes, that's a broom she has. Helpful, I know.

What do you think? Would you hire this kid to mow your driveway? (She's not so effective on grass yet). She charges 50 cents or a hamburger.

All in all, we got a bunch done, let Sydney have a bubble bath, and try some Pop Rocks. This video isn't overly exciting, but I thought it was cute. Mostly I loved when she would start bobbing her head a little like she was trying to jam to the music, then realizing the music was inside her mouth. I think it was sort of trippy for her, but she's a fan!

Oh we're so happy to have summer back! Yay for $3 picnics and all the other joys summer brings!

We Love Summer!

Am I the only one that is always playing catch up? I feel like I am so behind. Oh well, at least I am blogging a little! We've all been sick over the past couple weeks and are finally starting to feel normal again. We've been having awesome weather (85 degrees) and trying to take advantage of it. I also tried to take some more pics of Poquito Tito here. Aaron thinks my backdrop makes it look like a DMV photo. Ha ha!

Don't you love baby toes? Oh, and my $10 Craigslist Bumbo that Sydney loves? Not Mady, Sydney.

Background: I love this dress. No reason, it's just one of my faves. Someone with awesome taste gave it to us when Syd was born. Too bad it was December when it fit her. I was worried Mady was going to miss out too, but I squeezed her into it and snapped some shots. YAY!!!

She just wanted to eat it the whole time

Assembly line style
Sydney's new favorite thing to say, "No, no!" as she wags her little finger and does naughty things. Stinker girl.
We discovered sidewalk chalk this week. She's in love.
First lawn trim of the season. Look who got in on the action with her 50 cent (garage sale!) mower! She couldn't stop saying, "vroom vroom!"

Mady discovered her voice this week and is constantly cooing or gurgling now. She also smiles and giggles at almost everything and everyone. It's so fun to see her mellow little personality shining through now!

Family Photos

My great friend Alli (click here to visit her blog) was good enough to do some rather impromptu family photos for us in time for mother's day, and they turned out great! The one at the top of the blog is our new official family pic and the one in the post below is just too darn cute. I'm so happy Alli captured that moment! This would be the perfect little Kodak moment if it wasn't for Mady's sad sad face. :(

My sweet girl

The one we have of Mady sort of smiling. Too bad Sydney looks like such a sour puss.You just gotta love Syd's baby blues in this one. She's showing Alli her rock. Very important.
Thanks so much Alli! We love them and you did a great job!

Happy Women's Day

I have a confession: I'm slightly anti-mother's day. I mean don't get me wrong, I love being pampered and told why I am a great mom and have a day be about me, but I hate the exclusivity of it. (Is that a word?) I think it should be about all women, not just those that have been blessed with children. I know lots of women who don't have children that are MUCH better mothers than a lot of women that DO have children. Children don't make you a mom, not in the sense I mean. Being a mom is something that you cultivate inside yourself. Being loving, caring, and nurturing to those around you. In that vein, there are some women in my life who deserve some serious kudos today.

Moms that raised Aaron and I, Aunts that helped raise each of us, Grandmas, without whom our moms (or aunts) would not be here. Then there are sisters and sister-in-laws that have been the best friends I could have asked for and the best aunties my girls could ever have, friends that should be sisters, cousins and many many more.

"As daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we have always been mothers. If we really want to make a difference, it will happen as we mother those we have borne and those we are willing to bear with." (read the rest of this talk)

So as my tribute to YOU (yes, you), Happy Womens, Mothers, Sisters, Aunts, Cousins, and Grandmas Day. We love you! Now go kiss and hug the women in your life!

More of those darling pictures to come soon!

Mess Maker

Aaron got home from a business trip tonight (good thing too or my neighbor might have inherited a couple of children for a short time). Both of my girls are good, but the do have a tendency to gang up on me when Aaron is gone and they were terrible sleepers! Seriously, 8 hours of sleep over 3 days doesn't cut it. We're so so so glad to have Daddy back. Here are some highlights lately:

While playing at a friend's house, the kiddos all played in some gravel. Everyone else was digging and playing and staying fairly clean. Sydney sat in a large puddle and proceeded to shovel gravel in her mouth and try to drink from the puddle. Rock on. (don't worry, she spit them all out). I stripped her down and let her play.

I went to Qdoba (yum!) and grabbed lunch. Sydney stole it when I left the table.

Little girl+ ginormous burrito= pure bliss

She threw a fit when I asked her to give it back

For some reason, she was thrilled to sit all squished up in her doll box.
Remember how this doll stroller is for dolls? And how it was mine as a kid! That would make it about 20 years old, so we're having to be much more careful and keep her out of it since I would hate for her to break it now!

Just before Aaron left we got his suitcase and Sydney had so much fun playing with it. As you can tell, she thinks squealing/screaming is fun and is uber good at it.

We haven't taken a lot of Mady videos, but I finally got her to smile and giggle while the camera was in sight today. Wait for it, it's about 2/3 through the video, but it's worth it. I'm biased. I like this squishy little kid. How is she 3.5 months old?

Mady continues to be my cuddle bug. We fell asleep on the couch together today (remember the lack of sleep?). I love sleeping with babies. So snuggly. Then sweet Sydney came and woke me up to inform me that the garbage truck was at our house. Thanks babe. Love you. :)