Monday

Hello Monday morning... I have been up since 5:00 and I've already had three cups of coffee today!

This weekend was a BIG weekend for Lexie and B! She talked about, asked about, thought about, & practiced her "moves" all last week getting ready for her big date to the Daddy Daughter dance.


Kudos to my sister and Raegan who happen to be here to help her get dolled up! My sister has had LOTS & LOTS of practice with hair having two girls of her own. Not to mention... all of the water-perms, curling, and bang trimmin' and fixin' she did on me growing up! HA! (This is where I could put some HILARIOUS pics of my hair experiences from back in the day)

When it was all said and done... she looked and felt GORGEOUS!




Daddy proved to be a great date according to Lexie. She had lots of stories about the dance floor, red carpet, and even said that the picture lady told them that they looked alike (which that is no secret)! No doubt she had the hottest date there!! :)

Say Cheese

My kids... My all-time FAVORITE subjects to take pictures of...


But why?? Why must they turn into monkeys EVERYtime I get my camera out??

It began with this... just a good 'ole hug (or squeeze should I say) from big brother...


Which lead to a "sisterly" kiss... (which any 10 year old boy would love right?)


Then came the immediate tickle war...





Cue the chase here....



I'm surprised that I got any good pics at all.... :)

Blog Worthy

It's been awhile... in fact, a LONG while... since the last time I blogged! Lots has happened since the last time I blogged, but I thought I'd start with some "blog-worthy" material... like Michael Jackson!! HA!

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" cassette tape was my very first one!! I am seriously convinced that this is where my love for music began.


I loved his music and so did B. Anyone that knew B when he was little probably remembers him like the pic below... entertaining everyone & singing Michael Jackson. Rumor has it that he wanted the Michael Jackson red jacket SO BAD and his parents wouldn't buy it for him... so he put a note on his door that read: "DO NOT come in here unless you buy me the Michael Jackson jacket!" (I bet they really wanted to get it for him after that).


Which brings me to today... MJ's music (especially the "Number Ones" album) is one that you will hear often while we are driving in the car or walking by both kids' rooms as they are blaring it on their Ipods trying to do the moon walk just as we did as kids (I'm still trying to get it down). It's funny that they like his music too. It's only natural that we would have to BUY the MJ movie "This Is It" yesterday and watch it with the kids. B and I had already seen the movie, but the kids had not. They were ready... so, we had a small movie premiere last night which included grilled cheeses and tomato bisque soup with homemade croutons. Lexie got ready by making her daddy this book:


I think she got tired of drawing all those people :)



It was a GREAT night!!!

Empy Nest Syndrome

Well... they are gone. Just like that our birds are gone!
Rylan was peeking at the last one just this morning before we left for school!! I'm not really sure if he was peeking or "helping" the last two leave the nest prematurely. All I know is that they were getting too big for the nest... and I went out to see the last two birds that Rylan was telling me about and there was nothing but an empty nest. That was quick.

I am reading a book, yes... me... reading. Not a common thing for me to want to go buy a book and sit and read. I would rather be playing a game of Blocked or Mine Sweeper or heck, I'd rather jog ten miles in a desert than sit and read. :) For now... I am reading the book The Birth Order: Why You Are the Way You Are. LOL It just makes me laugh to think about because some of the things covered in the book are right on. Brian and I both are the "babies" of our families... so, the book even covers the topic of "when both parents are the last born"... or "when both parents are the first born"... so it's great. It helps me understand some things about my children... and helps me understand my siblings and my parents also (who, by the way, are two first borns). My much older sister has always said that I was such a "bratty little sister." Now why would she say that?


What is she talking about? Me... bratty???





After all... according to the author, Dr. Kevin Leman, the last born in the family is usually:

...."charming, an attention seeker (this is where the pics above come in), tenacious, blames others (who me?), affectionate, loves surprises, people person, precocious"...

Here's to all you "last born babies" out there!!

Egg-static!

I admit... I have always loved (and have been a bit obsessed) with nature since I was little. Just ask my sister - she'll tell you about my road trip "lists". My childhood BFF, Leigh Toney, could tell you about all of our attempts to dig up our dead hampsters to see the bones, and even the time that we duct-taped a dead mole (that her cat drug up) to her fort on her swingset... sick. All of these kind of events led me to believe that I was going to be a vet when I grew up... until about my senior year... and I realized that you had to put animals to sleep.

Anyway... today... two things happened.

First, I had Rylan to myself (which is always a treat) b/c Lex stayed with her cousin Emma for the night. Rylan and I decided to take a bike ride / nature walk this morning. It started with seeing a dead squirrel in front of our neighbor's house. It was fresh b/c Rylan had to go inspect and check it out. (I know, I know... I have imposed my obsessions on my children) We moved on to a nice morning time adventure that included picking/eating some honey-suckle by a creek, major hills to ride down, and rain on our heads at the end.

We got back to where the squirrel was and it was G-O-N-E! I told Ry "it must have been a hawk"... b/c we have hawks all around. He went on to inform me that hawks don't eat dead animals. After looking for a minute this is the sight that we saw in the neighbor's yard - I guess this hawk wanted breakfast...


The closer I got the more nervous he got... so off he went. Gross, I know, but nature at its finest. :)


Second... Speaking of nature... remember our little egg? Well... 1 + 5 = 6. That is the total of eggs that momma bird laid in her nest.


I have been taking down my hanging fern everyday to look so the momma would be used to me moving her nest. Today I took it down and sort of "freaked out" b/c these little furry things were in there and I realized that two of the eggs had hatched!! We have babies!!

On top of babies, we also have two dogs that are on the ground underneath them. Enough said. Let's just hope that the babies stay in the nest for now.

Spring Has Sprung!!

Spring has DEFINITELY sprung around here! Here are a few of my favorite things so far...

*MY JAPANESE MAPLE... that is just so delightful to look at!


*I love getting FERNS! The only reason I get them is for possibility that a bird might decide to nest in one and we'll get to see the whole nest to baby process in front of our eyes (like in times past)! Plus, they add a touch of green... I put two on the back porch and one in the front. We brought them in Monday night b/c of the freeze that was due that morning after. When I went to put the ferns back outside I saw what looked like a little nest! It was! I thought "oh no... the bird won't come back... and which side of the porch was the fern on, etc..." Anyway, today... Rylan tells me that he saw a bird in the fern. So, since I got a new camera and have been feeling like blogging again... I went outside to take a pic and TA-DA... here is what we saw! What a pleasant surprise! Now if I can just convince my kids not to mess with it!


*Flowers are also my favorite things of Spring. Everything is so green and colorful and just comes to life! Here are my roses getting ready to bust!

My Petunias....


*My all-time favorite thing... just being outdoors with my kiddos!! :)

Laying in the hammock and playing with the dogs is a favorite past-time....

Happy Spring!! :)

Dancing Queen

For those of you who haven't given up on me... it's been hard to "post" without pics... and it's been hard to have pics without a CAMERA!! My camera just went out on me a little over a month ago!

Anyway, we did get some hiLARious videos of Lexie the other day (while we had her to ourselves b/c Ry was at a party) that I could not resist sharing! This is our child that is so sweet, giving, funny and OHH so fun! This post is for you Jane... and I don't know where she gets her moves. :)