Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

My boys' birthdays are only 5 days apart, so we decided to have a joint birthday party to celebrate Cohen turning one and Pierce turning three.  Pierce was obsessed with Mickey Mouse, so a Mickey Mouse Party was in order.  Enjoy the pictures, done by Wendy Childress Photography!

Coming back to the Blog

I decided to try out a couple of different blog sites, and, for someone who isn't very technological, the other sites were too complicated for me. So, I'm back on here.  I find this site to be very simple and user-friendly. Now, if I could tear myself away from all the lesson planning and grading that I have induced upon myself, I would be able to blog a little more.  I moved up to the high school this year, so it's all new curriculum, a new site, and a new grade level.  But, I love it!

Red & Gold!

I am so uber excited for this weekend!  My Niners haven't been in the playoffs since 2002!  I know this will be a great game.  The Saints have the #1 offense in the league and the Niners have the #4 defense in the league--so it should be a good game.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.  But, if we are going to lose to a team, I'd rather lose to a good team, then to some crappy @ss team.  So to gear up for this weekend, I'm getting a head start......

RED & GOLD! RED & GOLD! RED & GOLD! RED & GOLD!

Rock Wall

Ever since Pierce watched his buddy, Erik, climb up the rock wall on his swingset, he does it all the time.  I was nervous the first time he started climbing because I was worried about what would happen if he fell.  But, he hasn't fallen yet! =)

Birthday Party

Pierce was invited to his first birthday party today.  Well, actually, he was invited to another little boys party back in October, who happens to have the exact same birthday as Pierce.  Well, he isn't exactly the type of boy I want my son hanging out with, so I didn't take him to that one.  Not to mention that I just had a baby 10 days before that party, so it wouldn't have worked anyways.  Anyhow, this little girl is in Pierce's class and is super sweet, not to mention a cutie patootie!  They had it at an indoor facility where children can play, in fact, it's called Child's Play.  Pierce loves it there, so he had a blast.  We didn't stay the entire time because it ran well into his naptime, but we stayed until the 30 minutes before it ended.  =)

Here is a picture of M&M's.  We use them when Pierce sits on the potty seat and only when he sits on the potty.  He now allos me to take his diaper off and it's amazing what he will do for a few pieces of M&M's.  It's almost like we are at Sea World and he is Shamu and I'm his personal trainer.  He doesn't always sit back on the potty seat so that his wee wee is in the bowl.  But, if I tell him to scoot back on the seat, he does, all while looking at the chocolates in my hand.  Who knew that these colorful little chocolates would do such wonders.  Now, if only he would actually pee in his chair.............  Oh, he will tell us pee-pee sometimes, but he's usually gone by the time we get to the seat........Oh well, it's a work in progress.

Playtime to Sleepy Time

Yes, it's the next morning once again.....I'm a mom of a two-year-old and a 3 month old, what do you expect? =)  Will add comments later tonight!


Pierce goes to a preschool class 3x a week.  I learned rather early on to send him to school in clothes that you don't mind get dirty and may possibly always carry a dirty stain on it.  No better shirt then a football shirt.  As you can see, he had some fun with markers.  Why am I not surprised.

So, after a long day at preschool, he passed out on the couch.  I didn't want to move him because he is so sweet and angelic-looking when he sleeps.  But, I do love carrying him off to bed because I know one day very soon I won't be able to pick him up and carry him to bed. =(

Two of my favorite things!

Cohen has been learning to sit up on his own for quite some time now.  In fact, he has been holding his own head up since he was about two weeks old.  After a while, his head does start to bob like a bobber just sitting in the middle of a lake waiting for a fish to bait.  But, for as chunky as he may be, I am pretty impressed that he is doing so well. 

Surprisingly, the doctor said that the "little" guy (and I am giggling like a little school girl right about now because even he can't be serious about him being "little") has a small head for his big body.  Still not quite sure how he came to this conclusion, but if he says so, then I guess he is right.  After all, I didn't pay $250k to go to college and work 20 hour days, 6 days a week, to pay said college tuition before I can start making money.  So, he must be right.  So, all in all, I am pretty excited for my baby to start sitting up on his own.  Let's face it, it would make my life so much easier.  He likes to be held, but I don't know how many people would like to hold a 13 lb. sack of potatoes all day long.  That is literally what it feels like for me........

So, after holding my chunky butt for a good portion of my day,and  feeling like I've just played the linebacker position for the Green Bay Packers, I get to enjoy this at the end of my day.....

There is nothing that a little Starbucks cannot cure.  Awwwwwwww.............

Good Night Ya'll



Out with the Old....

One of my goals this year is to get my house completely organized.  It's not messy, nor do we have a lot of stuff lying around, it just needs some organization since the storage space in this house is sufficient enough for Jerry the mouse.  One of the first steps is to get all the Christmas stuff packed up (which we did the day after Christmas) and placed into the attic.  Next step, getting rid of all the plants that I received from students and friends.

My sister-in-law gave us a beautiful bouquet of flowers inside of an ornament vase.  It looks like we can use the vase as a candy jar of some sort.  Anywho, the top of the vase is so pretty that this picture does absolutely no justice to it.

Cohen turned 3 months old on Christmas day.  He is officially 25% of the way to his first birthday.  Of course this means that he is now going to start doing more and more things.  Today's picture is of him grabbing onto some of his dangley toys in his new mat that his grandma bought him.  He truly is amazing!

A day late....

No, I didn't forget to take pictures for the 365 project yesterday.  But, after the tornado (AKA Pierce) went to bed, I was so
exhausted that uploading pictures just wasn't in the cards for me.  So, here they are:

Pierce received these shoes as a Christmas present and wore them for the first time to his class yesterday.  When I went to pick him up, this is the shape they were in.  What you can't really see in this picture is that the white sole has a ton of dirt all over them.  The joys of having a boy!  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I guess if God intended for the shoes to be clean after the first day, he would've given me a girl. =)

Yes, I'm a thumb sucker.  What do you have to say about that?  Nothing?? I didn't think so....  I bet my callous is better looking than the one on your foot....heehee

The 365 Project

In my previous post I talked about not having a specific new years resolution, but somehow forgot to mention that I was feeling ambitious enough to take on a new project: The 365 photo a day project.  Hence, the reason I posted two photos to begin with.  I've seen other people start this, to only stop after a month.  I will be honest, I thought about it all darn day and yet didn't take any pictures until it was almost time to put my little one to bed. And, it's only day 2.  BUT, I did get it done and here I am.  My goal is to do two photos a day--one of something random (non specific) and one of my children (either both or one of them at least).  So here are today's photos:

Ok, tomatoes and ketchup.  Your probably thinking, "This is pretty random....what the hell is she thinking?  She must've been really desperate to take a photo of tomatoes and ketchup."  Well, no, not necessarily.  You see, as explained in my previous entry, I am in the process of trying to get my son, Pierce, to eat vegetables.  And, it's been a pretty slow process.  He will suck up his mash-ups until they are bone dry and he is blue in the face, but the solid stuff, he avoids like the plague.  However, he will eat tomatoes with my mom and eat lettuce or spinach out of my husband's salad.  But, even those can be a hit or miss.  So, the other day while he was napping, I made some lima beans.  I was like, I think I'm going to give some to him when he wakes up.  I mean he won't try them, or at least poke at them like it's a dead frog in a biology class, if I don't at least put them in front of him.  Then, I thought, I will give him a bowl of ketchup and see what he does.  So, when he woke up from his nap, I put the lima beans and ketchup in front of him.  To my surprise he ate them--the whole bowl!  He even asked for more.  Apparently, the secret is in the sauce.  So, tonight's menu: tomatoes and ketchup.  He didn't eat them all, he ate about the equivalent to two grape tomatoes, but hey it's something and it all goes to the same place--the stomach.

Now, for picture #2:

Come on!  How can you NOT look at this photo and NOT smile! =)  Babies are amazing!  They have the innate ability to make even the most hardened criminal or ice queen just turn into a pile of messy chocolate goo....

Till tomorrow!

2012....A New Year!

So, it is the start of a brand new year--2012.  Everyone always has great intentions for a new "you", a better and more successful year, to do things that they didn't do last year, etc...  What is the point of a new year resolutions if you have no intention of keeping them?  Shouldn't we always strive to be better in everything we do, at all times?  Does one really have to wait until Jan. 1st to do so?  I think not.

I never make a resolution as I make one every time I wake up.......to not kill my child when he wakes up at the butt crack of dawn and screams like a banchi.  Uh, Pierce, do you think we don't hear you, considering that your door is about 2 feet from ours?  Whomever came up with the term "Terrible Two's" was not joking.  It takes all of my strength and patience to not pull all of my hair out.  Boys are a lot of work!  But, I do love him, that's for sure.

So, in my husbands attempt to bring some peace to our household he created a list of rules for our #1 son:

Yeah, I got a kick out of rule #5--so true!  I'll let you all know how these work out for us.  Something tells me that these will last about as long as it took to write them--5 minutes.  But, hey, us parents can dream, right?

On a lighter note, Pierce really is a sweet boy.  Evidence #1:

Pierce is trying to feed Simba some of his dinner.  And, yes, afterwards, he did brush Simba's teeth.  God forbid Simba was to get tooth decay or need a root canal.  Pierce does have Simba sit on the potty to use the restroom too.  Another thing on our list of things to do with the kids: Potty Train.  I'm not looking forward to this and have no idea where to start.  He will sit on his potty seat, but he won't let us take the diaper off.  Baby steps I guess.  I can see why people say boys are harder to train.  Somehow I think I'll be glad when this is over, just in time to potty train the little one......Sigh.

Happy New Year Ya'll!