Who's your woobie?

Remember that movie Mr. Mom? I loved that movie. When I was a kid I loved the parts that involved the wobbie... like when the vaccum cleaner "jaws" attacked or when his dad was trying to wash the little guys wobbie. The other night I realized that My kids had "Wobbies" of their own and wanted to document the name & faces of these special little creatures!

Leah has Gus-Gus the Elephant (he came before Gus our dog)

and a little puppy she's named Shiney Rose Ethan has the Pup... "Oh-No" Alex has this little snoopy dog that his pal Rick got for him a long time ago and it seems to be the only stuffed animal that's stayed around... even though he "doesnt use it" it somehow remains in the general vicinity of his bed.
At this 'ol guy was MY woobie as a kid. Funny that Alex and I both have a snoopy. This poor guy has survived about 100 moves and and about as many "surgeries" to reattach his nose. This was a well loved stuffed animal and after seeing the movie Toy Story 3 (and crying) I was so happy that I still have this guy around. Even if he's in the linen closet most of the time. I hope that I'm able to hang onto the kids special woobies until they get older too!

Life lessons... from Kohls???

So Leah had been asking for weeks and weeks if she could have a pair of Twinkle Toes shoes. They are a pair of ridiculously be-jeweled, glittery tennis shoes made by sketcher. She HAD to have them! They were SOOO pretty!!!

Luckily for her, she got a pair for her birthday from Grandma & Grandpa! She was so excited and kept saying she was going to wear them on her first day of school! So she wore her sparkly shoes with her sparkly skirt & sparkly shirt on her first day of school and when I went to pick her up, the first words out of her mouth were "MY FEET HURT"

She took the shoes off as soon as we got home and she refused to wear them again. So here we had what I would call ,"expensive" for a child, tennis shoes sitting UN-worn in the mud room. I just couldn't take it so I took the shoes back to Kohl's were Grandma had gotten them.
The lady behind the counter was so nice and as she was handing me the gift card she looked at Leah and said "Just because something looks cool on TV doesn't mean it's going to be cool for you! You have to do whats best for you Little Lady"
I thought that was pretty poetic for a pair of shoes..... so we went and tried on several pairs of shoes and found a comfy pair that were also quite "cool looking" and as were were walking out Leah says "I guess I found what was best for ME!"

I wish I could bottle that up!!!

What are you thankful for?

So I realized today, that I was complaining ALOT!!! Theo has been out of work for 4 weeks because of an ankle injury. So he's been home... resting his ankle.. which looks alot like loafing in his recliner... and I've been running around like a crazy woman all week... so I realized i was getting a little ...uh....snotty... yeah lets go with that word.... snotty with him. I was down at my neighbors house when their next door neighbor pulled in wearing name tags for Children's hospital.. their 2 week old baby is at Children's hospital... heart problems.... but they were so happy and hopeful.... and I realized on my short walk home that I was in DESPERATE need of and attitude adjustment.

So today I'm thankful for

Doctors, nurses and physical therapists to speed Theo in his recovery

Great schools for my kids to go to

smart, funny, & healthy kids

dirty dishes because that means we didn't go hungry

a big slobbery dog that loves me unconditionally

a computer to stay in touch with people that are far, far away

my corny, story telling, dancing & singing father

a husband that forgives my bad moods and messy ways

friends that tell me their secrets and listen to mine

have I mentioned Chocolate

bed sheets that are soft and smooth like butter

calculators

the flowers that surround my front porch swing

I'm able to be myself and still have so many people that love me!

What could I possibly complain about now??? How about you? What are YOU thankful for?

The never ending first day of school...

Well we've had a HUGE milestone happen in our house this year...all three of my babies are going to school! Its hard to believe that for a few precious hours every week I'll have the house ALL TO MYSELF! I really have NO idea how I'll spend the time. So while they are all going to school, none of them started on the same day!

Alex is in 4th grade and started on Wednesday. Leah who's in Kindergarten started the following Friday

(I think she looks like my sis in this one)Ethan started preschool a week and half later. E will only be going 2 mornings a week, so he and I'll get to have all kinds of fun while the older two are gone all day! It's going to be so werid having just one kid bopping around the house. I have a feeling he is going to get SO bored with just me to play with so we'll have to get ourselves out and about.

Can you believe my babies are soooo big???

Geesh! Oh and did I mention they all start school at 9 am but at 2 different places! Luckily Leah & ALex will be at the same school so I can drop them off together and then race over to the preschool. I told Ethan's teachers to just plan that we will ALWAYS be late. Ugh you know how I HATE to be late! It stresses me out so much, but I'm gonna work on it!

Hau`oli Lā Hānau

We celebrated the little girls 5th birthday this weekend up at Nanny & Ken's house. She wanted a Luau so we got a bunch of leis, grass skirts and even some fun Hawaiian hats. She also picked out some little umbrellas for our drinks, but I didnt make a frozen strawberry drink for her to put the umbrellas in so Daddy decided that a T-bone was as good a place as any to stick his umbrella!

As most of you know Leah is QUITE the girly girl so in the weeks leading up to her birthday when you asked her what she wanted for her birthday she'd say "twinkle toes"... which are sparkly tennis shoes by sketcher... So you can imagine her excitment when she opened her present for Papa & Grandma Ann and her sparkly shoes were inside!

She also was asking for the Barbie doll from Toy Story 3, and a few weeks ago our sweet neighbors brough over a little present and it was the barbie. Well as you may or may not know that Barbie is rocking the leg warmers and she made the comment that she wished she could have some too! Lucky for her she has an Aunt that can knit and whipped up a pair of pink leg warmers!!!

After a day of swiming and fishing and playing with her new toys, we ended the night with a game of taboo (like the game Catch phrase) Leah is AWESOME at that game!!! It was such a fun day!

So here's the Top Ten list to decribe Five Year old Leah Nicole

10. Her nickname is Mouth of the South because she talks ALL the time

9. She still has the same cry that she had as a baby

8. What she really wants for her birthday is to get her "Ears A pierced".

7.Loves to be read to and is always trying to read along

6. Walks around on her tip toes, especially when playing make believe

5. Still has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger

4. Can not wait to go to Kindergarten

3. Would put butter, salt, and Ranch dressing on anything if you'd let her.

2. Is currently trying to become the understudy for Stacey London from that show "what not to wear" on TLC. If it has pink, glitter, hearts, lace, sequence, or animal print, she loves and wants to wear it, have it, or hang it on her wall!

1. She is the most amazingly adorable, sweet, kind hearted, girly, smart, giggly, fiesty, 5 year old little girl that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing!

Little George

I keep forgetting to write about this, and this is something I definitely want to remember 40 years from now. So Ethan is 3 right now, a few months ago he started to figure out that we can't see everything that he does or doesn't do. So he'd try to lie about stuff... whether or not he washed his hands... if he put his dirty clothes down the laundry shoot... if he was the one that got into the candy. It was innocent enough and we could sometimes tell if he was lying but I also noticed that he, at times, has a pretty good poker face. I was getting a little nervous that I was raising the next Baby face Nelson. But then he made a fatal error.... he created Little George.

Little George is Ethan's blue haired "friend." He has a blue motorcycle and a white house and he vacations in Hawaii. He also conveniently lives close enough that Ethan can duck out to his house so he doesn't have to do things at our house. If something is a mess or broken... Little George must have done it.... if he doesn't want to take a nap...its because he already took one at Little Georges house. Dinner looking a little suspicious... he's full Little George already made Chicken nuggets.

He even brings up little George when he's making up stories of place he's been. He and Little George went to Hawaii last week and I never noticed he was gone. They've been to the President's house, to a waterfall and even up in a Hot Air Balloon. Ethan has a great imagination and I love that he's created a little friend. Especially since his "real" friends have become a bit scarce lately with people moving out of town. He came up to me one day last week and with eyes full of tears he said "I think all mines friends are dead" And just started to bawl! Poor kid! I keep telling him he's going to make friends once Pre-school starts, but to a 3 year old Sept 7th is a life time away.
So for now, we've got Little George.... here is a video of him talking about little George, It's so stinking cute!

What just happened

How did this... Turn into this???

It struck me last night how much Leah has grown... her little legs use to barely come to Theo's waist and now they stretch past his knees.

When did this happen??? How did she get to be so big?

She's almost 5... she'll be starting Kindergarten in 2 weeks.... weren't we just sitting on the couch with a bowl of Ice cream resting on my belly as we tried to decide on names for her???