It's a slow life...

That pretty much sums it up for the time being. January and February are always slow around our house. The hustle and bustle of December come to a crashing halt and it takes me about that long to get back into things.

A sleeping giant. So full of energy, spit and vinegar finally slows down and sleeps. His crib is full of stuff, 5-6 animal friends 3-4 blankets and at least 2 pillows. By the time he falls asleep it's mostly gathered around his feet, with his trusty red blanket and Clifford by his side.
Both the boys had Valentine's parties on Friday. Cody passed around his Valentines, checking out the loot in all the bags has he went by.

He was excited to show me his bag that he made. "I put stamps on both sides so I would know it was mine, Mom." Note Ty in the background with his rain gear eating him up.

Tyler helped me pass out his Valentine's as well, very proud and did a great job. We also brought snack and snuck in some cookies for good measure.

After a long week of fun, we traveled to Boise on Sat. The trip went well. Trying to get out of California to Reno took us 5 hours because of the ridiculous chain controls on the mountain. But we made up time across Nevada and cruised into Boise by 9:30 that night.

The house is busy with family, but we're making it work. We hung around on Sunday, watching the NASCAR race.

Monday we ventured out for some fun. Stopping out to the outlet mall to score some deals on clothes for Cody for next fall. ( I never buy in season anymore, the random shirt maybe, but that's about it.) Then we attempted to go ice skating. The only problem was, they were all out of the ice walkers, so Cody had to hug the edge while I kept Ty between my legs with both hands. Not fun for any of us. So after one excruciatingly slow time around the rink, we were done and ready for lunch. But before we hit the ice I did get one picture to prove they had their skates on and we were aiming for fun!

More to come. Cody has a new bike to try out thanks to Uncle Tim, so that will probably be our Tues adventure.

TAG! You're it...

I'm bored and haven't posted anything in days so I'll play the tag game from Jen.

Make a list of things you can see without getting up: My computer in the office closet, the crafty corner screaming at me to get some use.

What were you like when you were five? I.don't.remember! Mom? I know I had a favorite dress I had to wear all the time.

What are you wearing now? A ratty long sleeve T, red vest, jeans and running shoes.

What story/book/novel have you read over and over again in your life? Harry Potter and the Bunch, for some reason they never get old.

What’s the last thing you read/are currently reading? Seduction in Death by J.D. Robb Thanks to the previous mentioned Jen, I'm hooked and can't get enough.

Do you nap a lot? No, but I should! I did fall asleep for a few minutes on the couch the other day, made me more cranky and disoriented.

Who was the last person you hugged? The boys.

What’s your current fandom/obsession/addiction? Panda

What was the last thing you ate today? Panda: half a bowl with fried rice and orange chicken.

What websites do you always visit when you go online? Hotmail, Blogger dashboard, Facebook, Ivillage messageboard, then a random array of other blogs and such.

What was the last thing you bought? Valentine puppies for the boys and a bunch of other regular groceries and household junk.

What are you listening to right now? Tyler playing in the toyroom. But have the Lady Ga Ga song in my head, "Just dance, it'll be okay, do do do, Just dance...."

What movie are (or were!) you most excited to show your kids? Umm...
We were all (still are) very excited about Cars!

If you could have any super power, what would it be? The power to read minds. I always want to know what people are thinking and I'm just that nosy.

What is your favorite weather, and why? Blue skies 75-80 degrees. Makes it nice to be outside without sweating too much.

What time do you usually get up? 7ish

What is your most challenging goal right now? To lose a crap load of weight. I really like the wrong foods too much!

Say something to the person who tagged you: Jen, Love ya Babe!

If you could have a house–totally paid for, fully furnished–anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? On the beach somewhere, but only if we had friends and family nearby. Otherwise I don't know. Boise? Orangevale?

Favorite vacation spot? The beach, although I hear Disneyland is nice.

What is your favorite children’s book? Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, or maybe The BFG

Name one thing you just can’t resist no matter how bad it is for you: Panda or good Mexican Enchiladas

If you could meet anyone famous - Someone very chill, a country music star, Earnhardt JR, ???

If you could go back in time to any part of your life, when would you revisit? High School, live more in the moment and go to college right after.

If you're reading this, consider your ass tagged, sucka! Copy the questions, paste them in your blog and link back in my comments. Kisses!

Puzzling...

I've seriously been sitting on this post since Thursday, had it all written out in my head, but just couldn't seam to make to the computer. Lucky you, I'm finally here!


Last week I finally decided to tackle the puzzle mess in the toy room. Two year olds think it's hilarious to dump out puzzles all over the floor. Yeah, real funny. Usually when dumped, it's not just one but 2-5 at a time. So instead of putting them all away, I finally just dumped them into a grocery sack and stacked the boxes to the side. Probably a dumb thing to do, but I was tired of cleaning up the pieces.

So this was the scene Thursday night...

Luckily there's some good TV on that night and I was able to get them mostly sorted and put together to survey the missing piece factor. To my surprise, all the puzzles put together have every piece. YAY!
I'm almost done. There are 2 sets of puzzles that are not finished, the sets look almost identical even though they each have 2 puzzles. So that's still to come. My life is so exciting!

In other random news of the week:
Cody has decided that he can cross the monkey bars all by himself. Shocked the crap out of me last Tuesday when he reached over from the starting point and went across, one bar at a time to the other side and climbed down. He did it 4 more times! WOW!

Tyler can peddle his bike some now too. He did it a little bit at preschool on Fri, then again later over the weekend when we were walking to get our mail. He's not confident yet that it's him doing it, so more practice to come. This is exciting because I won't have to push him!

Music class is also starting to pay off for him. All year in school, he would just sit on my lap and listen to the songs we sang. Sometimes he would get excited over Old McDonald, but only if he had his favorite puppy by his side. This past Friday, he sang all the songs he knew and did all their motions, I was so happy! Now if we can get him to stand up in the morning roll call, he can catch up to the rest of the class.


Yep, that's our exciting life, I know you are all SO jealous! Off to music class and Mommy gets her quite time to jog/walk.

Young love and some nature...

Saturday, Keith took the boys to a pinewood derby held by the local Boy Scouts. We have some friends with older kids that are in the pack that was hosting, so it was fun. Cody saw a few friends from school, because they have older brothers, so he was over the moon.
Apparently, I don't have just one lover boy, but two on my hands. Cody is a lover. He latches on to the girls in his class, holds hands, gives hugs, probably bugs the crap out of most of them, but it's cute. Ty found a girlfriend at the derby. I have no clue who she is, but she was blond and cute from the sounds of things. They spent a bunch of time sitting on the mini stage, coloring and jumping off. At one point she had wondered off and found some chips, brought them back to where they were sitting and shared with Ty. Then the two of them decided that Ty needed his own bag and headed off on the journey to find some, because she knew where they were, but Keith stepped in and said no at this point. Yikes!

Sunday we headed off to Effie Yauw park for a walk along the nature trails and a puppet show, this was a family field trip that we were able to gain hours for preschool. It's open to all the children that attend the preschool, in any class, along with the other preschool site in the program. Being that it was one of the other teachers hosting the event, we were there with only one other person from our class. So Cody, being the lover that he is, decided they would hold hands and stick together. She went along willingly, so luckly there wasn't much issue there.

The trails wind down by the river, so there are always a lot of deer to see.

We also followed a gaggle of turkey around the place.

We headed over to the puppet show after a snack, then spent some time exploring the center.




Cody makes me laugh with his tendencies to go to the ladies, but it worries me for when we get Jr. High. The biggest thing we've been working on this year is personal space, and staying out of other peoples. It's definatly a work in progress.

Decluttering the Crafty...

The task of the day was decluttering the crafty corner in the office, it's been a mess, with new things arriving for Christmas, and my system not being all the great anyway. So I set out to be productive on this gloomy, rainy day.

Here's how it looked after just getting started this morning, a mess!

This is the finished product. I re-purposed bins and magazine folders I had around the house, then pulled out the label maker and went to town. I moved the small shelves to the other side of the desk to make room for my paper cart. Went through my pink scrappy tote and put all the embellishments (ribbons, buttons, brads, inks, etc.) into my small drawer cube. The things from the small cube were sorted and put into the stripy bins. Now the pink bag is just for cutting tools, pens, pencil and adhesives. The large cube was reorganized, staying much the same except for the paint drawer being put into a bin to make way for big spool ribbons. Cricut things were moved around and now have a safer home.

Shelves before...

After...

The guest bed area was a mess as well, so it was slightly overhauled.

I need to find a home for a memo board, picture and bulletin board (this will probably go in the toy room to start displaying some art. The pile of blue is fleece from an unfinished project that is working as a cover for a ton of pillows that will be worked into projects, hopefully sooner than later. I still have a box problem, but will probably take these out to the shed and let them live there for a while. Good boxes are hard to come by and I hate to let them all go!

So it was a busy day, including 4 loads of laundry, folded and put away, and general breaking up of fights and fussiness brought on by the rain. Maybe now I'll be inspired to work on some layouts I've been avoiding. I have a nice stack of pictures organized and waiting.

Stop getting bigger!

So on one hand I'm so glad the Cody is getting older, becoming very independent, able to do much for himself, loves school and looks forward to new things. The other side is baffled that he's as big as he is, so independent and ready to go!
We were up first thing this morning and off to register for kindergarten. There wasn't the crazy line to deal with, the boys sat nicely, ate their cereal and read books while they waited for me to get through the papers and such. We'll get more information in April to let us know final details. Easy. But damn it, there's now way he's turning 5 in 2 months and heading off to the big school! YIKES!

In other fun for the morning things, the boys started a Music and Movement class today. They loved it! It's a drop off program for 45 min, the boys are in their separate classes. I could barely get Ty's shoes off before he bolted through the door and was off into the kiddie wonderland. Cody had a good time as well, "I've never done anything like that before!" he told me afterward. So yay us, finally getting into something other than school! Hopefully soccer is next on the list for Cody, then maybe swim lessons in the summer for both.

Hockey time!

One of Keith's Christmas presents was a pair of Hockey tickets to see the Stockton Thunder vs the Idaho Steelheads, and a gift card to Applebees for dinner. We had a really good time, Love Hockey! The only "bad" part of the whole deal was that we were pretty much the only people there cheering for the Steely's. Awkward. We had cool seats, sat right behind the Steelheads bench, right on the ice. There were points it was a little hard to see because they would stand up against the rail, but we could look up the jumbo screen and see the action. Much to our dismay, the Steely's lost 3-4 in overtime, sudden death. But it was an awesome game. Here's some pics from the last time they played the Thunder at home in Boise.

Bombersback, awesome player, awesome hair...

Hopefully we'll make it down there one more time before the end of the season, it a really nice arena and only just over an hour away.

Preschool Fun

Wed night at school was the annual PJ party. We also hired Piano Man Tim to come play again, love him! There were cookies and milk, popcorn and lots of fun, Ty enjoyed being apart of the big kid group.

Enjoying his milk and cookies.

Family picture, ahhh...

Listening and watching...

Here's one of the songs he did, Ty was trying so hard to do the actions, catching a lot of them toward the end.

Today we had a field trip to the Fire station, a less than thrilling adventure if you ask Cody. We met at school and built a birthday book for one of the girls in class then drove over. Last year we were able to walk, but teacher has many a foot issues and can't make the trek over right now. We arrived and they taught the kids some basic fire safety, then we toured the station house, ending up in the garage. Poor Cody thought they were going to start the truck and sirens the whole time, so he never did relax, and tried to stay as far away from it as possible. So we waited as all his friends climbed up and passed through the back of the truck, getting hats and stickers on the other side, he didn't want anything to do with it. Then they showed us their gear and how it goes on. About the time they were getting ready to pull the truck out so we could shoot water from the hoses, they got a call, so we were ushered outside and waved as they went to save lives. Cody was glad to be done! We walked down to the village and had a snack, then over to the park to play for a bit.

Seeing as we have a long weekend, Teacher Debbie asked if anyone could take Otto the fish home for the weekend, so we volunteered. Tyler was way excited about this!


Tyler also had an exciting day, Gma S. took him to school. The report back was that he headed straight for the art table, painted a bit, then spent a lot of time at play-doh. Very typical Ty day at school.

So that was the majority of our week, instert friends at the park, the library and a Thomas movie to complete the circle. Oh, we also signed up for a music class that starts on Tues, YAY! Each boy is in their own class, sorted by age, and it's a drop off thing for 45 min. There is a nice park next door, so I can go walk, or if I'm not feeling that, there's a coffee shop nearby as well. Cody is excited about this, and I know Ty will love it once he realizes what we are going for.

Snowy Sunday

Sunday morning we ventured out in search of snow. We finally found some, but ended up about 20 miles from Tahoe before we did, no worries though it was a good drive. Instead of the intended pull of the side of the road and sled, we found a place where we had to pay for our parking spot to play. It was good though, the hills were groomed and they had a phone nearby if there were any issues.

Tyler waiting to get his snow clothes on...

Cody being a goof...

Sleds are out...

Cody taking it back to the top.

Tyler and his perma-grin.

Even dad had to get in on the fun.

Wheee...

Yah-hoo!

Taking a break in the action for a snack.

This was how Tyler spent a good portion of the second half of the trip, hanging out at the bottom with me.

The belly ride...

Tyler's Sledding trip:

Cody's sledding trip:


After a long while sledding and enjoying the mountain sun, we headed down to find some food. The boys were tuckered out to say the least. Totally zoned, most the way to lunch.

So we found some pizza and then headed the rest of the way home. Cody barely made it home, his eye lids had to have weighed 50 lbs a piece. Tyler was wide awake the whole way home, pizza and juice will do that to you I guess! But we made it through the door and everyone took a good rest. We plan to go back this year, having Keith take a day off work to go during the week. Can't wait!

New shoes and a new park.

In an effort to keep the kids from getting too bored, we tried a new park today. Keith found it the other day when driving around and it was a hit! It's defiantly meant for older kids, the slides were huge, but the boys could care less and had a blast.

"Take a picture of me and baby"

"Me Too!"

Then after some much needed naps, the UPS guy dropped off a big box of shoes! YAY!

Our Vincent shoes arrived, from the gift card I won, so all I had to pay out of pocket was $7.50ish. The boys were excited because they helped pick out what they liked online. I didn't get the cutest shoes they had, but went the economical route and bought what they had on sale. The red boots for Cody are great for rain and have enough traction that we can take them to the snow as well. Ty's new blue boots are a little big, but should also fit next winter, hopefully we'll get a chance to try them out soon. Then they both got the same pair of sneakers, a little higher top than I realized, but good. Cody's fit him now, he was outgrowing what he had, so this was a great opportunity. He says they fit good, and are good for running and kicking the ball around. Ty's are a size up from what he wears now, so hopefully will be good for the fall, late summer.

In mourning...

This weekend I've spent my time thinking and mourning food. Tomorrow marks the start of a new diet and will lead into a new lifestyle of eating. The first month is going to suck, and I will be crabby, but give it some time and it will work out. It's just food. I have to keep telling myself that, it's just food. I've thought through the plan and hope that it will come with success, like a lot of pounds gone, success. Reminding myself that if we have a heavy dinner, it's okay, the next day is light.

Also needing to remember that I will be able to have some of my favorites again, maybe in a few months, with new rules in place. Control, it's all about control. Pizza, Panda and Tacos will be introduced again, but there will be more veggies and salads along side. Soda is a drug that needs to go away. I will probably have a soda again, but it's going to be a special thing, not a daily thing, and defiantly not a need. Mocha's are put on hold, but will be re-introduced because I finally nailed down my recipe! It will just be a couple times a week thing, or maybe a Sunday morning thing, instead of an everyday indulgence.

So here's to smashing the fat and getting a new lease on life!


Oh yeah, the new fish died. So not brand new, a few months old, but none the less. Not really sure what happened to him. He started to balloon up, kinda looks like he swallowed a marble, and he finally died. He's been looking bad for a couple of weeks, so it was bound to end. I think we are taking a break from the fish world for a while. The boys haven't noticed yet, so ???

And so it begins...

A new year has begun. I'm hoping somehow it flips a switch for change. We will somehow keep the house cleaner, clothes picked up, counters not cluttered, and such. I will miraculously stop eating everything I see, you know lose some weight and start feeling better. But we'll see.

I'm not setting traditional resolutions, it doesn't work for me. Instead I'm jumping on this band wagon. Set 101 goals or things to do/buy/go in 1001 days. I've started my list and am down to 87, so I'll tweak on it some more later. I probably won't post it, but will start a journal and keep it up there. Plan is to finish it over the weekend and make my start date Monday, my starting day for things.

Check it out, it's inspiring and pisses you off all in a nice little package!


Today we are taking down Christmas, getting the house back to a normal stage, and hopefully doing a little cleaning in the process.

Hope you had a safe and happy New Years eve!