good housekeeping tip

sometimes i feel like no matter now much time i spend cleaning by the end of the day my house still looks the same and i'm still buried in the same pile of laundry :)

so when i came across this tip from maxine i got a chuckle out of it and figured i should share it. i figure that some of you must feel the same way i do at least some of the time :) i hope you find it useful!

Always keep several get well cards on the mantle..... so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you've been sick and unable to clean.

off to madugasgare

as of today, drew has decided that he can skip us on his hunt for knowledge. he has found that what we know is beans. that there is a source that has MUCH MUCH MUCH more to offer.

today drew discovered google.

now, we have talked about it before. he has asked many questions that we haven't been able to give a good enough answer for and we have told him we'd google it for him.

but today he decided to experience it for himself. so when he wanted to find out how to play the madagascar game they had played at the Y - he took it into his own hands. or rather ... he put it into google's.

he went to google and typed in "madugasgare". then, because google is so smart it asked him "did you mean madagascar?"

WELL OF COURSE! so he clicked on it. that pulled up a few pictures from the movie which of course he recognized so he clicked on one of those.

that was the point where i realized what he was doing and told him that he probably wasn't going to find what he was looking for because you have to buy that game to be able to play it at home.

but ... the fact that he was able to get that far on his own ... WOW! you really do get smart when you turn 6!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREW!

it's hard to believe where we were 6 years ago. we were just starting out on our journey as parents. i could have never imagined how incredible the next 6 years would be. of course we have our days -- but as a whole it has been the most incredible journey ever and i can't imagine life any other way!

drewby -- you amaze me more and more each day. you are so smart. you are so kind. and you are so loving. i am SO glad that God gave me you when he did. i love you SO SO SO much! i hope your birthday is as special to you as you are to me. you make me so happy!

happy 6th birthday buddy!

sunny days

this is drew and his teacher, mrs. kucinski. on thursday night we went for family fun night at drew's school. we got to hear the kindergarteners sing us a few songs and then they shared a poem about the weather. this was the first real "concert" he's had and they did a great job!
as we were there i thought back to when i was in elementary school and how things have changed. my first thought was REAL DEEP! ha ha. it was about how lucky we as parents are these days because we only have to listen to our kids. i remember back when i was in school and my parents had to sit through every grade's concert. now they give specific times for when the kids will be singing and you go and just hear their grade sing. although it would have been fun to watch the other kids for a while - i imagine it would've gotten REALLY long!
while i was there i also thought about something that as i spend time at the school i'm discovering more and more and it's kind of sad (whew! long sentence) --parents are so busy. i'm going to step on a ledge and say too busy. since september i have only met the parents of 3 kids in drew's class. and 2 of them have been while dropping drew off at bday parties. the other is a mom that has had lunch with her little boy a few of the same days that i have had lunch with drew. she has also helped with the classroom parties i have helped with. besides us, i don't know that mrs. kucinski gets much help. in fact, at conferences in october i told mrs. kucinski to call me if she needed help with anything and she seemed surprised and said i was the first person to offer. i don't say that to pat myself on the back. i say it more out of shock that out of the 40 other families she has noone else would have offered to help her before that! another example that kind of bothered me - the first week of school we had a meeting with the kindergarten teachers to go over expectations for the year and curriculum. about 11 parents showed up for mrs. kucinski's meeting. now figure she has 40 students between the A and B classes. of the 11 parents a few were couples. so that means MAYBE 8 of the kids were represented. that just seems crazy to me. i was so anxious to find out more about drew's school and what kindergarten would be like for him! i couldn't imagine missing the meeting that talked about what the rest of the year looked like for him! now, i don't want to overdo it and be "that mom" that is always at school. but i do want them to know that i support them 100% and i want to help them help my kids be excited about learning. teachers are placed in such tough situations these days with so many parents so removed. they are expected to take on so much more than i really think they should have to. in my opinion what ends up happening is the busyness of the parents just falls right back on to the already over worked teacher - and then we wonder why it's hard to find teachers and why so many kids are so messed up! *SIGH*
ANYWAY ...
it's been a fun year. drew's teacher is SUCH a sweetheart. she does an incredible job with the kids. everyday drew comes home excited about something new that they learned or did and she is a big reason for his excitement! i had NO idea what to expect this year going in -- but i can truly say that it's been more fun than i expected! i'm excited for all of the years to follow!

our unexpected visitor

yesterday while the boys were taking a bath - someone showed up at our house. he called himself CrabBoy. this "CrabBoy" looked silly and was actually quite crabby. (in fact, as the day went on, drew started picking up on some of CrabBoy's crabby tricks as well.)

alex was not amused.

CrabBoy thought he was pretty funny.

alex and i were really glad when CrabBoy and his partner in crime decided it was time for them to go to sleep for the night.

a little off the top

last night we decided it was time to cut alex's hair. i really didn't want to because once they get their first hair cut they look so much older! but alex's had just gotten to be too long. so we went to snip its! today. he did great! at first he was overly fascinated with the lady's pink comb. this made it tough to do his cut because he kept trying to look at it. but, once she surrendered the comb and let him have it - everything went smooth. they got out some bubbles and put on a show with some fun songs to try to keep him occupied also. but, really the comb was all that he cared about. and when he was done he got a green top as a toy. another example of a simple thing that provides SO much delight. on the ride home he didn't care about the numerous SASSY toys that drew tried to show him. all he wanted was the little green top.

now on to the pictures ....

FIRST .. the before picture

NEXT an action shotAND the finished product (notice the TWO teeth)

human for sale

no i'm not referring to any of my kids. as of today they can still stay around for a while.
i came across this fun website.
www.humanforsale.com
basically you answer different questions about yourself and then it spits out a $ amount of "what you are worth". different answers you give are worth different $$ amounts - from your age to your iq.

i was worth $2,010,024.

just think of what stacey could do with that much money!! don't tell him - he may see if he can find someone that would actually be willing to pay it! :) ha ha :)

*if you go to see how much you're worth leave it in my comments!!

inchin along

8 months and 9 days and it's time to get out a baby gate. alex is on the move. (well ... almost ...) at this point he is not getting anywhere fast. but i'm sure it won't be long. today he really started to master an inchworm/army crawl. i'm kind of excited! with drew of course i was excited for him to crawl. when ben started crawling at 6 months i wasn't at all ready. but with alex i feel like this is the perfect time. i think he is going to enjoy being able to follow the boys around. (i'm sure they'll love it at first too. ha ha) and i know he will enjoy being able to get his own toys! (as will i!)

i'm sure i'll probably be coming back to this blog a month from now and say "what was i thinking!" but for now ... you're doing a great job alex ... keep on movin ... :)

RAPIDO!

so ... i can't even believe it. my favorite team got kicked off of the amazing race by a team that i consider to be nothing more than a joke!
i thought of a few reasons why mirna and shmirna should be gone instead of rob and amber.
1. M&S whine about EVERYTHING! (that could be reason enough)
2. speaking english in a spanish accent does not help someone understand you if they don't speak english.
3. saying RAPIDO! 15 times will not make a driver go any faster than if you say it once.
4. if your partner is a little person you should probably not talk about your teams "short comings".
5. rob and amber are actually clever and it's fun to anticipate what they will do next.
6. because basically there aren't any other teams that i'm super excited to watch. i think it would've been smart for the producers to find a way to keep them in the game. i'm sure it would've helped their ratings!

i guess i'm going to have to cheer for danny and oswald - just because i think they're funny. my favorite line -- "my manicurist would die if she saw me doing this right now!" HA HA HA!

*feel free to add to my list of reasons :)

a cow in sketchers

i bet you didn't know that stacey is multi talented. not only is he great with computers. not only is he a great daddy. he is also a very fine cow. now ... he is not just any cow. he is a dancing, performing cow. HA HA!





tonight was a last minute Go Fish concert. (for those of you not familiar with Go Fish -- you should check them out -- go to www.gofishguys.com). we were planning on the kids watching the concert while we worked out at the table selling merchandise. WELL ... plans changed. stacey happened to be the only person around with "danced as a cow" on his resume. last year he had dressed up as the cow, lion, and horse at a few of the concerts. so tonight when there was noone else around - he stepped up as the perfect man for the job. drew and ben get such a kick out of it! and ... well ... so do i :)

so ... nice job stacey! way to be a good friend and a fun daddy!
i love you !