doodlebug

so my sweet little doodle bug you are 2. it got here so fast. i can't imagine my life without your sweet smile and your completely contagious giggle. you can light up a room with your fun little personality the minute you enter it. your birth was by far the hardest one. you were upside down and that should have been my first clue that you were going to turn my life upside down and beat to a rhythm of your own. not getting to snuggle you those first few days was the hardest thing for me. i just wanted to cuddle you and hold you close. you have more then made up for it now though and are still the best snuggler. you love to give bear hugs and when it's time to go to sleep you always ask to rock longer. you melt my heart with your tender spirit and the absolute love you have for your brother and sister. you are still learning how to be as gentle physically as you are spiritually as you are all boy all the time. you love to run and jump and play with your daddy. you love tractors and trucks and being outside. it's hard to get you distracted from a tractor fix - just ask your papa. =) i love to listen to you sing "jesus loves me" and you very often sing it to eli if he's fussing. you love to shout "amen" at the end of the prayer and pick up books and tell me you are reading about "fafer God". your vocabulary amazes me and makes you seem so much older. but when i look at you i see my little boy. it's an image i'm sure i will still see when you i look at you at 18, at 30 and beyond. the little boy inside a child, a teenager and eventually a man. you try so hard to keep up with mia and do all the things she does. you will do all of them my little one but in the mean time i love watching you learn and grow and figure things out. don't be in too big a hurry doodlebug. this time is so very precious and i am so very proud of you. i feel so truly blessed that God picked me to be your mom. i love you so very much. happy birthday doodlebug.

say (chuck E) cheese

so for the past few weeks every time i tell asher that it's dinner time he looks at me so hopefully and says "chuck - a - cheese". don't know where the obsession started but since it wasn't going away we decided to take the family there for his birthday yesterday. the kids had a blast. we sat in the little kids section right next to the Bob the Builder ride. asher was in heaven!!! thankfully it wasn't all that crowded because i am not exaggerating he rode the ride nonstop for almost 30 minutes. i was able to finally convince him to try a few other things but they were all short lived and back on to "Scoop" he went. he got down long enough each time to get another token and tell me "bye", "love you" or "have a good day". it was all really very cute. mia and pete were off winning tickets and playing other games. eli and i just watched asher hang out with "Scoop". he was so tired when we left but we still had to pry him out of the thing. pete was placing the extra tokens we had in the bag and they spilled - twice. the first time asher was happy to help clean them up. the second time he couldn't resist the temptation to snag one and climb back on for just one more ride. it was one of those moments as a parent where you know you're not supposed to laugh but it's so hard not to that you have to turn around for a minute or two to compose yourself. his little face was so excited that he had managed to get another token. oh my!

what's your vote??

we've been talking to the kids about the fact that elections are tomorrow and that we get to pick a new president. mia got so excited when we told her that we get to vote and then was so upset when she realized that she was too little. so we decided to have our own vote. as you can see we're voting on dinner. each of the kids got to pick what they wanted for an entree, a side dish and what to drink (we figured that was enough choices for the first time we try this). pete voiced his choices and we left it at three ... that way we were guaranteed to have a winner in each category. so here's your choices - entree: pizza, hamburgers or tacos, side dish - french fries, granola bars or onion rings (really healthy huh??) drinks - lemonade, juice or chocolate milk. we used the pictures to help the kids think about their choices. so far mia has already changed her mind a few times and asher seems to agree with whatever his sister is voting for. =) so cast your vote and let us know what you think should win. we'll post the winning dinner tomorrow night! don't forget to vote tomorrow!!!

Happy Halloween!

so i truly have mixed feelings about this holiday. i am very not into the scary part of it at all. you can draw your own conclusions as to why that is but i will simply say that it's not a spirit i want in my house or near my children. that said ... i love the fall aspect. i love watching little ones get all excited to dress up like something new and fun. i love the crispness in the air and the gentle falling leaves. i love visiting pumpkin patches and carving the pumpkins that come home. i love to watch all the families leave the house together for a night of fun and being silly together. i love getting together with friends and seeing everyone's creativity.

so this is how we spent our halloween. mia chose to be a princess. it was a decision that came down to the wire. she kept switching between a butterfly and a princess and finally made up her mind. asher was a construction worker (see the previous post if you're curious about that one!) and eli fit into the lamb costume so that's what he was. our only problem was that asher did not want to wear his hard hat or his tool belt. well, without these things he looked rather like a regular 2 year old in jeans and a plaid shirt. i felt like i was taking my 2 year old out in a "this IS my costume" t-shirt that you see high school kids wear. it was terrible! =) he boycotted his outfit on two occasion so for trick-or-treat we changed the plan.

we headed over to sarah and daniel's to meet up with a bunch of the kids friends. now when i say a bunch i literally mean 16 kids under the age of 5. i think people were a little overwhelmed when our crazy group arrived at their doors. they were quiet a sight all running around, saying trick-or-treat and thank you (not always in the right order or context) and laughing at anything. it was lots of fun. anyways, sarah very sweetly offered asher his choice of costumes from her selection and he chose the koala bear. it was very cute ... very much too small for him ... but very cute. he did actually wear the hat for a little while but that didn't last too long either. he's two, what are ya gonna do? so here's one of the attempts to get a photo of all the kids before we left and yes, quiet a few of them had run off.

so here's the tricky part of trick-or-treating that i can't believe i am actually posting. mia had not napped in two days and had finally fallen asleep at 10 the night before only to be up at 6:30. needless to say she was tired. friday nap time came and no sooner did i get her into bed then she got out ... and got out ... and got out. this went on for almost an hour and a half. so reaching my limit i simply said to her that she could either chose to stay in her bed or she wouldn't be able to trick-or-treat. of course no sooner does this leave my mouth then i am praying that she will stay in bed. you know what happened ... out she popped. so there was no trick-or-treating for her. she was allowed to go to the party since the choice just involved trick-or-treat and she had the choice to either walk with her friends (just not go to the houses) or stay back at sarah's. she chose to walk with her friends and did amazing!! she didn't try to trick-or-treat and every time she was asked about it by an adult this was honestly her response (no prompting) "i can't go trick-or-treating because i chose not to listen to mom and got out of my bed. maybe next year." though it broke my heart it was so awesome to listen to her and know that she was learning how much control she had of her own life. that her choices directly affect her life. it was probably one of the hardest things i have had to do as a mom but i am so proud of her (and of me for sticking to it!). pete and i have been told not to act powerful unless you mean it ... well, i guess i mean it. so i hope you don't think i'm a terrible mom but i figure it's better for her to learn the lesson at 3 at a halloween she probably won't remember then to have to learn it later when the stakes are even higher.

hope you all had a great halloween!!