Ha-App-y Holidays Blog Party

So my friend Ariel was invited to a bloggers party that our friend Cherie, the Queen of Free and Verizon were having at the Creation Cafe downtown. And since I have a blog, she thought I should go. I didn't really think I was a serious enough blogger to actually attend, but I'm glad Ariel kept hounding me to sign up. And once we got there, we really did have a fun night out and came home with lots of fun things. 

We got to sit and eat yummy desserts and play with new phones. As part of the event, Verizon gave all the bloggers new smartphones to play with over the holidays. We had to answer a survey beforehand so that we were matched up with the right phone. I came home with the Droid 2, and Ariel got a Droid X. I'm in love! It'll be hard to send it back. I'm having a blast and can't wait to try out the Grocery IQ app the next time I go grocery shopping. Oh and Swype, how I love you!!

Stay tuned, I'll update as I find super cool apps to share. Nic is pretty jealous that I get to have a smart phone, but I'm sure he'll play with it too.

Here we are playing with our phones.

Christmas Cards

Every year I'm faced with the decision to design Christmas cards or not. Which of course leads the hassle of finding pictures good enough to use and then designing the card. As a graphic designer I feel obligated to design my own cards. However it just never gets done because it's like the plumber's sink, it's always the last to get fixed. I can never find time to design my own stuff.

I've been a customer of Shutterfly for a long time. Every year I print all our pictures up into a photobook and every Christmas I print up calendars for the grandparents (which reminds me that I need to finish those while I still have a $10 off coupon at Shutterfly). I've always been happy with their quality.

Well Christmas cards might actually get done this year by using Shutterfly's Christmas cards designs. They have awesome designs and they pass my picky standards. They are offering a great deal right now where they will give you 50 free Christmas cards. Check it out here.

Poor guy

I remember having a moment with Belle when I was like "well there goes my mother of the year award". I believe she was an infant and I just watched as she fell off the bed. Never a good sound to hear your baby hit the floor. She of course was fine cause kids are resilient like that. It is also not a good sound to hear your child scream out in complete pain because he is getting his arm set back into place. Even worse when they have to try to do it 3x.

Poor Ethan had to go to the ER today because he threw a tantrum at a friends house and I'm not quite sure what happened. Either he threw himself down while I had a hold of his wrist or I might have pulled him towards me. Either way they think he got nursemaid's elbow. However when they set it, it never seemed to fix the problem. Ethan still cried out in pain and didn't want to use his arm. So they think there is a small fracture. Nothing is broken and all looks fine on the xray. So we are off to the orthopedist on Monday. So he was sent home in a soft cast sort of thing and a sling. Yea right, a two year old keep a sling on. Not a chance!

But knowing Ethan, nothing will keep him down for long. He was already climbing on things and not doing things he should with his arm. I always knew he'd end up in the ER, I just didn't think it would be my fault. Oh well, who needs a mother of the year award anyway. =)

Here he is rocking the cast and gown that they gave him to come home in. No idea what he's going to wear for the next couple days. Excuse the peaches in his mouth.





Update: He's just fine. We went to the orthopedist and his xrays looked fine to him and once the bandage came off Ethan had full use of his arm. He was thinking that maybe it was just really sore and had to heal up before he'd use it. The diagnosis of Nursemaid's elbow stood. Whew!!

Camping

We decided to go camping a couple weeks ago. It was the first time we ever took both of the kids. They did really well. We went to McCormicks Creek. It verged on being too cold, but with a heater in the tent at night we did ok.

The kids rode their bikes and played at the playground. Belle even made some friends and played soccer with them. The kids were such troopers on the hikes. Although the last day we found ourselves on a really steep trail. Nic and I were having a hard enough time climbing the trail ourselves and we weren't about to carry any kids. So we ended up bribing the kids with cookies to get to the top. It worked. Poor little Ethan with the shortest legs did awesome.

Jam packed weekend

Man we crammed a lot into this weekend. First we started off at Appleworks. This has been an annual trip. It was sooo busy, but atleast the kids were in a picture taking mood. We were able to ride the tractor back to the pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin each.

We ran into our friend Kelly and her family. Once Belle and Michaela saw each other they were inseparable.

Afterwards we came home and let Ethan take a nap while Belle and I made stops to get her hair cut and too the toy store.

We actually managed to get a family picture.


Ethan got to ride the train this year.


Getting Bigger. Check out last year's post to see how much they've grown.










Once it started getting dark, we headed to Kelsay Farms and the kids played in the kiddie hay maze and rolled around in the corn. The kids could've probably played in the corn for hours. Then we took our flashlights and went through the big corn maze. I was surprised, Belle was a little scared, but not enough to stop. But Ethan, I think he could've gone on by himself and not cared where we were. He was loving it.

Then as if that was enough to put in a weekend, we decided to go to the Children's museum. That was sort of crazy going by yourself with two kids. Actually more than 2 kids, Jamie and Ariel came with us along with their kiddos.





The boys would've stood there all day I think.


Sliding on their bellies like penquins


Belle and Olivia at the Barbie exhibit

Ethan is 2!!

Ethan turned two last weekend. Its hard to believe but I definitely don't have a baby in the house anymore. I took him to his two year check up and when we got back in the room I started taking his clothes off to be weighed. Only to find out that he didn't have to get on the baby scale anymore. Ethan did a great job standing on the scale and then stood perfectly up against the wall to have his height measured.

His party was last Saturday. I was going to have the party at the park like last year, but it turned out to be a cold and rainy day. So we had the party at the house.



I'm so bummed that I didn't get a group shot of the kids like last year.




Brody figured out what he wants Santa to bring this year.




Ethan didn't get a nap the whole day. So after the last person left and we came back in the house, this is what we found.

Tap

I was able to video Belle's tap class for the first time tonight. She's taking the class with a friend of ours, Olivia. All the girls were acting really hyper and crazy, but I think Belle did pretty good for the most part. I think the routine will be cute by the end of the year. I'm already wondering what the costumes will look like. Little Sailor outfits maybe?



About halfway through this video you'll see a little girl try to take Olivia's square. It was pretty funny to watch Olivia fight over her personal space.

The cat is out of the bag

Well a couple weeks ago I saw some free kittens at a garage sale around the corner. That was Thursday and for some reason I could not stop thinking about these darn cats so we drove back by on Saturday and sure enough there were still two left. Two gray tabby cats, one boy and one girl. The boy jumped right out and was friendly while the girl had to be pulled out for us to see. Nic didn't particularly want a boy, but we took him.

Now some of you may remember our last cat incident. Well I feel fairly confident that this cat will NOT be like Kiki. The poor thing lets the kids drag him around like a doll and he always wants to snuggle. Unfortunately sometimes its snuggling with my face at 5am.

Meet Remy

My little addict

Belle seriously has a candy problem. Everyday, I mean EVERYDAY, Belle asks for candy. And by candy she means anything sweet. A popsicle, cookie, whatever.

Today her argument was that "mom, I'm a candy girl and that is the way God made me. Just the way I am". Oh geez, life is going to be tough with this one. God help me when she becomes a teenager.

Is there some sort of kiddie rehab I can send her for her candy addiction?

Check out this song. It sounds like Belle.

Sneaky

I took like an hour nap today. Not long enough though. I thought Belle was watching a movie. She gave herself away though when I came to my laptop to find a million programs open and just as many pictures just like this one.

She's getting way too computer literate.