All Abooooooooard!!!!!!!!!!!!

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to spend at a train museum. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Sharon came with us and had as much fun as I did watching Sam run from one train to the next (with four pit stops at the cookie table)

The Jackson Street Roundhouse is one of the nation's last functioning roundhouse. They are celebrating their 100th anniversary this weekend.
We had a blast exploring the different kinds of engines, cabooses, and passenger cars that have been restored.

Before and After (That's Sam looking out the window)


A work in progress






Some of the sights we saw:







We even got to go for a train ride!

I can't help but think of the Brady Bunch when I look at this picture. Riding in style Sam walked or ran for four hours today. The only thing missing in our perfect day was Daddy. He has a bad cold and had to stay home. He probably felt like he was there after he looked at the 200 pictures I took.

Photo Hunters: This weeks theme is "Hobby"

Before I had kids I used to have time to make pottery. My favorite pieces are the ones that were fired in a wood kiln. I have given most of my pottery away as gifts over the years, but these three I'll always hang onto. They're my favorites.

Fra "G" lay

Brian and I attended a wedding on Friday night.
It was refreshing to dress up and spend an
evening out with my husband.


Bet you've never seen this as a wedding present before!
Can you tell they're big "A Christmas Story" fans?
(No, this wasn't from us, but I totally knew that's what was in the crate when I saw it at the gift table)
We watch that movie every year.
We even have our own leg lamp. Thankfully it's only the nightlight size one!

Sam's Half Birthday

Sam two years ago, celebrating his first half birthday.
 

He used a sippy cup for the first time that day.
 

Here is Sam today, celebrating his 3rd half birthday.
We made half a cake and half a batch of cupcakes, went to half of school (we were late because the cake was still in the oven), and had a half birthday party.
It wasn't half bad. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)

 

We love you Sammy Sam!!!

The Best Of The 85 Pictures From Easter

Cool Slideshows

Another First For Julia

 

April (Snow)Showers

will hopefully bring May flowers and
hopefully this will be Sam's last chance to play in the snow this spring. He scooped as long as his little fingers could stand to be cold and wet (about 3 minutes) and then .....
 

he came inside to scoop in the comfort of the dining room.
 
(Notice the two spring coats he's wearing? Foolish me packed away all the winter stuff too soon.)

What a perfect opportunity for Julia to experience snow!
I think she liked it.
 

I'm Way Behind (That's a good thing)

 

A while back I promised to post a list of Sam's words. On Tuesday night Sam said a seven word sentence. (Sammy stay home with Daddy and Julia.) I guess it's about time I get caught up before he learns even more words and I get further behind in documenting Sam's growing vocabulary. We are still in awe of how far he's come. From not saying more than five words right before his 2nd birthday - to talking in sentences in six short months.
sank-a : Thank you
baff : bath
fosty : Frosty the Snowman
coomies : excuse me
ba-LOOO : blue
yecky : yellow
JoJo : Julia
oopdi-daisy : oops-a-dasies
blop : truck (he's finally saying truck now)
fighty blop : fire truck
blum : grandma
blop : grandma (yes, that was also his word for truck)
***He's saying gammy and gandpa now****
shinny : Sharon (Brian's sister)
fedgy sticks : veggie sticks
serzy : cereal
yuke : yogurt
applesauzy : apple sauce
mitty : peanuts
exersizy : exercise
gox : Grant
B : Brianna
sauzy : sorry
love "A" you : love you
vinny : vitamin
f***y : vacuum (luckily this swear-word like word isn't said in public...much)

***********More recent additions*****************

peeky-boo : hide and seek
ABC : able to see
siggy : silly
cuz : because
too-ee : kiwi
doubloo : "W"

*****bonus material*******
No. Sammy self. - Brian's favorite Sam-ism.
Here you go Mommy - His very first real sentence
Oooh! That's funny!
Why not MaMom (or DaDa)? - "because SamSam" is often our reply

Thirteen Jobs I've Had In My Life

1. Babysitter - there's a shocker huh? I was 13 and spent a summer watching two boys (6 and 8) for 11 hours
a day, 5 days a week. Pay: $100 a week
2. Tobacco Harvester - Hard, dirty, physical labor. The farmer I worked for didn't allow the workers to talk unless it was break time. If I think hard enough I can smell the
big green leaves. Yuck! Pay: $4.25 an hour
3.McDonald's - Doesn't everyone work at a fast food restaurant at some point?
4. Waitress at a small family restaurant - so small that I had to bus my own tables and wash
the dishes too. Pay: $3.90 an hour
5. Studio Assistant - in the pottery studio of my college. I helped other students with their ceramic projects and kept the studio clean. I got paid to do my own homework.
6.Telemarketer - for a cable company selling HBO and Cinemax. I'd never had cable before in my life, but I was suppose to talk people into wasting their money on this product.
7.Canvaser - I went door to door asking for money for an environmental watchdog group. When after one night of shadowing another canvaser and one more night working by myself they asked me to train a new person. I gave my notice and got the heck out of there.
8.Cell Phone Refurbisher - Not a job situation I'm proud of. I was working there through a temp agency and was so disgusted by a permanent employee's slacking that I told him off one day. He proceeded to make life miserable for me and after I asked a supervisor to move me to a different area they fired me. They told the temp agency that I was disruptive. As if! My hard work (the numbers don't lie buddy!) was paying for this losers profit sharing. Thankfully since I was technically employed by the temp agency I won't have to say on future job applications that I've been fired before.
9.Nanny - I watched my cousins from the time they were infants until they were 6 and 4. I even took Sam with for a year until I got too sick during my pregnancy with Julia and had to resign.
10.Professional Gift Wrapper - I'm not kidding!!! I was that girl behind the counter at Dayton's who'd wrap that wedding gift you could get gift wrapped for free.
11.National Park Service Ranger - Not as a gun-slinging ranger, but an Interpretive Ranger (that's NPS lingo for Naturalist)
12.Rebate Redemption - I spent countless hours shuffling through receipts and rebate forms so I could enter names and addresses into a computer about Best Buy and Friske's Cat Food rebates. My employer claimed I could make big bucks doing this - Typing 60 wpm must not be fast enough because I never made much money at this job.
13. Daycare Provider My current job - I get to play all day, stay in my pj's if I want, and my commute is as long as it takes me to walk down a set of stairs. Best of all I am home with my kids simultaneously doing the best job in the world - being a mom.
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Moving Mountains

 

I let Sam pick the stories we read during Circle Time for my daycare. Normally he picks a few favorites and we try to get them read before one of the babies is ready for a nap. Today for some reason Sam kept bringing in more and more books. He would not stop. So after Grant and Julia were asleep I thought it would be fun for Sam and I to lay on the floor and work our way through the mountain of books he'd created. We didn't quite make it. I read about eight and he was ready for the next activity. I wasn't about to pick up all these books myself or Sam wouldn't learn anything from this. Besides, he'd carried them all into the room, he could darn well carry them back out - and that's what he did. I'm so proud of him for picking them all up (mostly) by himself. I did carry one load in an effort to promote teamwork. God can move mountains, but so can my Sammy - mountains of books that is.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Our Angel

 

Our little angel is being anything but an angel....when it comes to sleeping at night. We are at our wits end and am using this post to solicit advice on what to do.
Here's a rundown of where we were at:
Julia had been sleeping from 8-7ish with one feeding during the night. She went down really well after breastfeeding at 7:30. I try to rouse her a little when I lay her down so she's not asleep when I put her in bed. We did drop her third cat-nap that she used to take around 5:30 because she wasn't tired at that time anymore.
This is where we are now:
I nurse her at 7 or 7:20 now since she's tired earlier and half the time she ends up more awake after eating than when I started nursing. We bring her downstairs rather than trying to force her to go to bed. When she starts getting sleepy again I take her back upstairs, nurse her again, and then lay her down. For a week now she's been waking 30 minutes - 2hrs later and refusing to go back to sleep. Last night it took four hours of letting her cry, picking her up, trying to nurse (but by this point I don't have a drop of milk left in me), Brian would pace with her, I would sing to her. NOTHING worked. At midnight she finally gave up and went to sleep - nursing, in my bed.

HELP!!!!!!

Making Friends

 
It's nice to meet you Julia

 
Can you do this?

 
Give me five!

 
Smooooooch!!!

Easter Blessings

 

I look at this picture and am filled with love for my kids and my husband. We are blessed beyond measure.
On this day especially, I am humbled by the sacrifice the Lord made for each and every one of us.
My mom sent me a card today that had the following written on it:

Jesus came into this world before we were living in it.
He gave His life before we had ever committed a sin....

If He did that much for us before we were born,
think of all He desires to bless us with now that
we are here!

May your Easter be a time of fully enjoying His gift, His blessings, and His love for you.

(Thanks for the card Mom. I hope you don't mind that I shared it with my blogging buddies.)

You can lead a child to the Easter Bunny.....

...but you can't make him sit on his lap. (At least when they're big enough to throw a fit.) Julia on the other hand had to endure this pose for a moment so I could take a picture. I don't think we'll bother the bunny next year. For some reason I felt compelled to take Julia because that's what we did when Sam was a baby. Silly, I know.

 
That's Sam over to the left with his back to the Easter Bunny. He wanted nothing to do with him. I can't blame him though - this one looked kinda creepy. I mean what's with the glasses?

First Easters

Today is Julia's first Easter. I know I'll take a ton of pictures in hopes of getting that one shot that lets her personality shine through. Oh how times have changed now that digital cameras are around!

 
This Easter picture of Brian is the earliest photo we have of him as a baby (he was about 5 months old when it was taken).

On a side note: I used to play with a pink teddy bear exactly like the one sitting next to Brian.

 
I'm not even sure if this is my first Easter picture, but I'm guessing it is because of the chicken and egg on the dress.
 
We didn't get a digital camera until Sam was almost seven months old so we don't have nearly as many pictures of him as a baby. It makes me appreciate the ones we do have.

I'll take more pictures today than I used to take in six months thanks to digital technology. Hopefully I'll have some good ones to share of Julia's first Easter.

Hunting for Hop-Hops

 
Sam can say Rabbit now, but when he first started talking they were "hop-hops". The name stuck with us. We looked for Easter eggs at my mom's house today and she was so thoughtful to fill the eggs with
organic hop-hop shaped crackers instead of candy.

 
The loot

 
Looking for eggs is serious business!