Chuck E Cheeses: "Where a kid can be a kid, and moms can relax."

When Jenna grows up she wants to be a "child doctor" or otherwise known as a pediatrician. Needless to say I am so proud (already). But really, I could see her in marketing or advertising. Here is why.

Jenna: "Mom, we need to go to Chuck E Cheeses. I never been there before."

Me: "Oh really, that is too bad. Maybe we will go there someday or when the one in the valley is finished being built."

Jenna: "Come on Mom. We can go to Chuck E Cheeses because that is where a kid can be a kid and you can sit back and relax."

We went two days later...

*note to self...try going on a weekday afternoon next time...Saturdays are crazier than a day after Thanksgiving Wal-mart (with some weird looking people as well)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREW!!!

Drew's birthday was on January 11th...he came into this world demanding attention (he was in the NICU for about 8 days after and emergency c-section) and is still running the show and demanding attention today. What a boy.

The Lightning McQueen cake I made for him...Cars is his favorite movie.

Blowing out the candles...we only had to do it a couple of times. "More candles!"

One of the many cool gifts that was recieved...an automatic baseball tee...really cool. Hopefully it will pay off someday with a big MLB contract. Thank you all three sets of terrific grandparents for all the candy, books, balloon, cars stuff, and sooooo much more!

Let's not forget the future "child doctor" who also had a birthday.....which leads to another post.

Starting off the new year with a bang...or a whole lot of posts

Well it is about time...right?! I have been dragging my feet to keep up on my blog and have considered even quitting. But then I talked to my wonderful sis-in-law, who decided to up and leave the wonderful 4 feet of snow here in Spokane for the warm-all-year round Texas...by the way, and I realized that in order to keep in touch with my close friends and family who keep moving from Spokompton I need to continue the quest of the blogging world...but I am not promising much...just to try. So hold on to your seats because here we go!(warning this is the mother load of all posts and I already have a headache)...

for all of you who haven't heard we were hit real hard this year by Mother Nature...

this is proof--view outside on my grill and back deck (pre-icicles)...i bet you are wondering where rocky went potty...let's not even go there.

There were also crazy icicles that were hanging off of our house...then comes story

we got a leak in our house because we had ice dams form on our roof because the ice was so thick and the icicles were so big...so I googled what causes these icicles and this popped up...

BAD INSULATION

so I had my trusty handy-man Joel climb in the attic to find that we had

NO INSULATION.

Stupid dam icicles...(doesn't this remind you of the time we went on our Summiteer hike --AJ and Marianne??? Jeana too if you are out there.) I am not cursing because they really are dam icicles.--Besides that is another new year resolution.

Next step...call the builder. So we did this and thankfully he had the insulation company come out the next week and insulate our house...apparently it was missed. But my question is...how did the housing inspector miss that one???? And another question was answered as to why we pay out the nose for our heating bills. It is just amazing how different our house feels and sounds with proper insulation like when it gets windy at night we do not hear the high pitched howling of the wind ripping through our attic...(things just seem to make sense now).

Well the outcome is okay because our builder is fixing everything and is even putting in tile in our master bathroom and has offered us tickets to Gonzaga basketball games... but we couldn't go because we were going to off the Chuck e cheeses for Drew's birthday. Which leads me to post numero dos.

From the mouth of Jenna...

I just need to write down these little things before I forget...I sometimes just love ease-dropping on my kids and hearing what they have to say...

for instance...

Drew is crying and Jenna shouts out, "Drew, you need to get a grip!"

or the other night at my Mom's...

"Grandma, pigs are made out of ham and hotdogs."

Ohhhh, the list could go on and on...

This is not candy...

Sorry, not a quality image...but this is not candy!!!

I have been having to beat Drew off with a stick because he has been literally craving and crying over these delicious gummy vitamins.

Not that I can blame him...when I was preggo with Drew I ate (literally) a half a bottle of gummy flinstone vitamins one late night...don't ask...please. Lets just say I really did overdose and felt sick for a day or two.

Maybe I should start giving him the disgusting chalk flinstone vitamins that I ate when I was little...I bet he would run the other direction when I said it was time for vitamins.

What a mixed up message though...gummy bears are good, candy. Car gummies...bad, vitamins.

Summary

Well, it has been a while and this is a summary of what we have been up to...

Joel has been busy working his crazy schedule and is finishing up school. He recently shaved his head bald...it was a Halloween costume idea that went horribly, horribly wrong....I don't have an exact picture but I tried to find one that represented him the best I could...

Doesn't really do him justice. (Yes, Joel this is what you get for shaving off your hair--and you had hair--some people are not as lucky as you were). He doesn't know I am writing this...he is in the living room watching my taped episode of the Hills. Anyways...

I am staying busy volunteering at Jenna's school, trying to potty train and "manage" Drew, and changing and occasional diaper and fixing a bottle or two for this little man...

This explains how easy going of a kid he is...he falls asleep in my Mom's Johnny Jumper...what a sweetheart.

Jenna is great as usual. We are excited to go to High School Musical on ice on Friday night with Grandma Netter. This has become a little tradition and we have a really good time.

Like I mentioned before Drew is starting to use the toilet. He also sleeps in his own big bed and room now--although he still needs a bottle and binki. Who cares if you do things in order right? We pick our battles one at a time. Last night he was caught red-handed using a ball point pen to color Joel's big screen T.V. That was an ordeal. Like I said, we are trying to "manage" this little boy who is extremely cute and intelligent.

Lastly, is Ethan...the picture above says it all and really I am too tired to write anything else--

This is a BIG deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drew went number 2 on the toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is the first time he has ever done anything on the potty...






more to post later....

I want candy!!!

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. This year was another success. Mounds and mounds of candy was collected and passed out. Hundreds and hundreds of extra calories consumed. And the possibility of cavities has increased. What a sweet success! Here are some highlights of the night. First I started out the day taking Ethan to the doctor to get some shots...I know...not very nice on Halloween, but it's not Christmas people. Next, I was the only mom (besides the moms that were running the party) to attend Jenna's kindergarten Halloween party. I thought more mom's or dad's would have showed...oh well, I had fun. Plus it gave me a chance to get some ideas for the Valentines party that I am in charge of. Next I stopped by my good friend Marianne's house to say "hi". Then I went home to see what was going on and I found my husband had shaved his hair off(yes, he did have hair before the "incident").........more to come in another post. We then ran down to my Mom's house to trick-or-treat. Next we flew back home where we had our annual Halloween gathering with my sister-in-laws, family, and friends. We ate pizza, talked, and most importantly....made our way around the block to trick-or-treat.

Here is Jenna with her "vampire" pumpkin she helped design and carve. We had a fun night carving pumpkins and watching Charlie Brown's Halloween special on Wedensday.

This is Jenna's kindergarten class...Mrs. McNeice is the bee...what a cool teacher.The kids on their way to Grandma Netter's. Trick-or-Treat! Drew loved trick-or-treating...he would walk as fast as his little legs would go and he looked so funny in his "fat" dragon suit. I joked that he ate so much candy that I would take the costume off and he would really be that big...he ate so much candy he puked before bed...whoops.Presenting Cleopatra or as Jenna says, "An Egyptian princess!" Jenna was the only kindergartner with make-up on too...I can see how those pageant moms can get out of hand. It was fun for one day!

Here is the gang...it was funny because when we started taking these kids trick-or-treating together four years ago we would only make it to a couple of houses and they would be exhausted and cold. Now we were the ones exhausted trying to keep up...they really have perfected the art of trick-or-treating!Joel and Ethan."Mom, why do you make me wear this weird looking hat!?"My camera was soooo fuzzy, darn it! After the night was over Drew kept pushing me toward our front door, his pumpkin pail in hand, saying "Walk, walk." He wanted to go out again he loved it so much.Happy Ethan with his little pumpkin. Aunt Holly and I agreed that he would make a good Charlie Brown for Halloween with that round head of his.

A very tired 6 month old...yes, he fell asleep as the clock struck 8.A very happy almost two-year old. "Candy, candy peeeess!"----NO MORE CANDY!!!!