First Day of School

Last Monday was the first day of school. It was 95 degrees with a heat index of 105. I'm pretty sure it was about 98% humidity, but 'summer' is officially over!

This is Catelin's last year in elementary school and Alex's first year in Pre-K. This is the first and only year they will be in the same school.
I am so glad she is there to take care of Alex and make sure he gets to his classroom every morning!


The very important Spiderman backpack.

Showing off his Spiderman moves.

Such a good big sister. In case you can't tell from the pictures, Catelin has gotten very tall this summer!
Catelin's picture was supposed to be at the top, but it's been so long since I posted I forgot how to do this.....

Alex's 4th Birthday

Yeah, I know, better late than never!

No, he isn't a ham... why do you ask?

WWF Family Style

Sometimes for fun we turn the Shetland Pony lose in the house to play!

"But we looovve you Catie!"

Poor Abbey........, sorta'.......

This evasive maneuver may be 'sacrifice the weak' or 'you only have to be faster than the guy behind you'!

It should be the 'Terrible Threes'

As you all know Alex struggles with his speech.
Specifically with articulation, he'll talk to you in complete sentences, but is very difficult to understand.

Alex's uttered his best, longest, clearest sentence this morning. I say uttered, but actually it was screamed... shrieked really, right into my face.

"Mommy, you give me dat bak wight NOW!"

I don't even remember what it was that I took away from him. But it was something he had taken off of the bathroom counter, and was not supposed to have.

But the righteous indignation, the shout, glare and demand was all rewarded by me saying "Good words, Honey!"

What he really needed was a time-out.

The Big "3"!

Just so everyone will say, "Awww, I can't believe he is already three!".

Because that's what I walked around saying all day Monday & Tuesday.
"Three, that can't be right, He's not three years old. He can't be..."

Catelin and I made a birthday cake. Alex requested a blue cake. The best we could do was a 'Funfetti' cake with blue sprinkles in and on the cake.

After requesting "blue" for everything from cake and ice cream, to napkins; when we got to the store he spied the "Cars" decorations and only wanted THAT! So much for my blue and Thomas Train theme.

Loving Mack.

Ooohhh, what's in there, look Catie!

In all of the pictures, except the first one, he has icing on his lips. We hadn't even cut the cake yet!

By the way, Funfetti cake with cream cheese icing and sprinkles is waaay gooood!

Soooo, funny...

Catelin taught Alex a joke.


Catelin: What.
Alex: What?
Catelin: Chicken Butt!!!!

Laugh like a maniac & run around the house screaming: "chicken butt", "what?", "chicken butt!", "chicken butt!".

He can't say his name, but by-gosh he can say 'chicken butt'.

His Speech Therapist is going to be so proud.

What Limb?

At 7:00 pm last Thursday the kids and I were hanging out in the backyard. Alex was playing tractors in the dirt and Catelin was turning cartwheels.

Suddenly, Catelin remembered Friday was "puzzle day" at school. Everyone was supposed to bring a puzzle.

Of course, we do not even own one puzzle! Tears began, whining continued, etc, etc... 'she'll be the only one without a puzzle, she won't get to play, life ruined, etc...'

After a few minutes the guilt got to me. There wasn't really any reason we couldn't go back out, I just didn't want to.

We pulled Alex out of the dirt and we piled into the car and went looking for Dollar Tree or someplace to get a puzzle.

("NOT a baby one and it can't be more than 300 pieces, and I want it to have a dog....")

About 7:40 we cruised back home, crisis averted. The day would not be ruined, we had a 300 piece dog puzzle.

Mark asks from the back deck, "When did this happen?"

Me: "What happen?"

Mark: "That Limb, that fell."

Me: "Huh, WHAT limb??"

THIS LIMB!

In the 30-ish minutes that we were gone the top broke off one of the trees. And it fell down into the backyard.

RIGHT WHERE ALEX HAD BEEN PLAYING IN THE DIRT!!!

If you look closely you can see 2 green John Deere tractors in the leaves.

The view from the deck.

Hmmmmmmm........

Ummm, I can explain....

Alternate titles for this post:
Catelin Made Me Do It!
Alex said, "Mine, Mine beebee arf-arf."
She's Chocolate (and white), who doesn't love chocolate?
The cat was getting too cocky.

She is about 3 months old. The Pet Rescue Group said, their best guess, is Australian shepard and New Foundland mix.(?) She has golden eyes, like a chocolate lab. There were 3 puppies in the litter, they were rescued from the local landfill when they were only a few days old. Their names are Hershey, S'more and Reese. We have Reese, but were not sure if we are going to keep that name or change it...

A Sunny Winter Day

I will take a break from talking about houses to post some pictures! I knew you'd be happy about that!

This is what a 2 year old can get up to when you are not looking.

It was a beautiful day today. Sunny and about 69 degrees. Not to rub it in or anything, but, the daffodils are blooming here.

We spent most of the afternoon playing in the backyard. Alexander was as happy as a clam!

If he's a good boy, for fun, we let him move the wood pile.

It's a special treat.

Load the wood, move the wood to another area of the yard. Unload the wood.

Reload the wood into your wagon. Move to another part of the yard. Unload the wood.

Repeat endlessly.

Remember how Alex used to like to 'line things up', trains, cars, etc.? I think I may have a whole post I could write about this little eccentricity of his...

I swear, I had him tested, he is NOT special!

He just likes things order-ly.

Of course, Alex playing in the yard would not be complete without his trusty sidekick. Whenever Alex goes out, he calls Lucy to come out with him. Very cute, especially since he calls her "My BeeBee". He stand at the back door and calls, "BeeBee, BeeBee gout" (yes, he says 'gout' not 'go out', it's not a typo). And that cat comes running for him.

We can't figure it out... but she had a lovely time rolling in the dirt.

She's finally grown and put on some weight. We were starting to think she was going to be a runt forever.

Eventually, he will take off his shoes and socks. If you're lucky you'll catch them before he pitches them over the fence.

Now, I did not deliberately leave out Catelin. She allowed me to take one picture so everyone could see her hair cut. Then she was off to do more important things than play with us in the backyard.

Although she did leave instructions for me to be sure and take some pictures of Lucy. See how good I follow instructions!

THE END!

Saving For Therapy

As we pull into the driveway this evening, we see that the neighbor's cat has left us a lovely gift. A tasty, dead squirrel. Headless.

She loves us very much...

As we get out of the car, Mark decides to "show" Catelin the squirrel.

So, you already know what kind of father my children have.......

He proceeds to chase Catelin around the driveway slinging a dead, headless squirrel by the tail.

She is shrieking bloody murder: "Mom, Mom, help, make him stooooopppp, why'd you marry him anyway???!!!!" AAAAAHHHHHH, Help!!

She shoves poor bewildered Alex down on the concrete. He is already confused & frightened, not sure what is going on. Usually if Catelin cries, he cries too (just in case).

She is screaming like a maniac, Alex is bawling HIS head off and Mark is running after Catelin yelling "EEEEWWWWW!".

The peace and quiet of our little neighborhood is shattered.

Don't you think the neighbors just love us?

Such is my life, dead squirrels and all.

Still Potty Training

This afternoon:

Me: Alex, your pants are still dry. Do you need to potty? Let's sit on the potty!

Alex: NOOOOOOOOO..... NA-HUN! NOOOOO....
(Throws self on floor. Kicks dresser.)

Five minutes later, changing wet Pull-Up.

Me: (Stern voice) Alex, look at this... all wet, next time you put your pee in the potty!

Alex points at the potty chair and says: No, dat's eeeewwwww.

**Sigh**

Christmas 2008

We made our own home-made Reindeer Food to feed Santa's reindeer.

Alex wasn't too interested in sprinkling out the 'reindeer food'. The neighbor's cat came over and started eating the Wheat Chex out of the Reindeer Food. Alex was more interested in chasing the cat around the yard!

Some of us took nice Christmas picture.

Some of of didn't....

Catelin put out letters for Santa and cookies and milk.

We played our favorite Christmas Game. Wrap the baby in a blanket and wait for him to find his way out...

Catelin ripped through her gifts on Christmas like a crazy kid. With her usual 'jump in with both feet-gotta see everything' zest for life and excitement.

Their very different personalities were obvious.

Alex was content to open one gift at a time, take it over to the coffee table and examine it completely. It didn't bother him a bit that there was a whole pile of presents with his name on them.

It drove Catelin nuts. She wanted to open his presents for him.

They really liked all their gifts and had a great time playing. Thanks for everything!!!

Santa even brought a toy for Lucy. What a nice Santa we have.

The best "free" Christmas present ever!!

Playing Wii Boxing.