The Night Cap

Yes, my child still sleeps with his pacy. Bad Mommy. Sometime within the next ten years, I promise to break my child from his pacy. Hold me to it folks. ha. In all truth, we are about to take the plunge, and have him throw all his pacy's away. Sigh.

Yes, I did manage to wake him up by taking this picture. Notice how his little eyes are squinty. Thankfully, he went right back to sleep. The boy loves his hats. Right now, he is in bed sleeping with a fireman hat. What can I say, he wants to be prepared in case a fire springs up in the night. I feel a little safer knowing he is next door ready at a moments notice. The only issue with that is I would have to run in and spring him from his crib, and remove his pacy so he could breathe a bit better. Maybe he should stick to sleeping in his ball cap, or maybe I should go in search of a true night cap. I wonder if Ebeneezer Scrooge still has his handy. :)

Family Devotions Singspiration Style

Zachy

I thought I would do a little update on Zach. He has changed so much in the last few weeks. He talks like crazy now, and I love to hear all his words. Some of my favorites being when he is asked to do something he will say otay (okay) or sure. He called me Mom for a little while, and now for some reason he switched it to Me-Me. I love it! On a side note, since Tyler has started school he now calls me Mom. I am definitely not loving that. He does slip and call me Mommy once in awhile, and I relish those moments.

Sunday I was putting Zachy in his car seat and I bounced him in on accident. He looked at me and said, "be hairful (careful). I love how he is learning new things every day. His eyes just sparkle when he smiles, and he has these impossibly long eyelashes. Even with him entering the terrible two stage of life, every moment of the day I could squeeze him until his eyes bug. (well, almost every moment:)

Here is a video clip of him talking...

Taking a look at his tasty little treat, AKA the candle.

Munching down.

No day is complete without a sombrero and a candle to munch. I kid you not, the child eats my candles. He gets it from my Mom's side of the family. They love to sit around eating candles. The best time to indulge in a candle is right after it has been lit for awhile and the wax is toasty warm. Its a delicacy really...you should give it a try. Although, for some reason all of my family members are constantly getting ear cleanings, and are incredibly hard of hearing....must be all the wax build up. :) haha. Totally kidding. Not kidding about my kid eating candles though. If anyone has any spare candles lying around think of me. It would be so nice to see a candle without teeth marks in it.

No worries, I do not allow my child to indulge in this behavior. He just so happened, to get in the cabinet and find this little treasure. I did remove it from him before he ate any of it. I didn't remove it from him before he dropped it on the floor, and started using it as his golf ball though.

YARD SALE SMOCKING SMORGASBORD!!

Today I went yard saling with my Mom, and my three munchkins. Mom and I took turns sitting in the van with the boys while the other checked out all the goods. At one such yard sale it was Mom's turn to go first, when I spotted a bit of smocked merchandise out of the corner of my glassy eyes. I quickly shoved her back in her van seat with a firm don't even think about moving and I did a swift high diving jump (not sure how you dive and jump at the same time, but hey, it sounds dramatic) out of the van on to the golden driveway. I did a special kung foo move to knock all the other garage sale-ees out of my path, grabbed all the loot, and paid the garage sale-ess. I then ran, or in my case, waddled my way back to the van so we could rush to our next unsuspecting yard sale. The End.

Okay, so I stretched the truth a bit. Okay, a lot. Really the only truth is that I found some great smocked clothes for the boys. In all honesty, we all know that if I tried any kind of kung foo move I would not be writing this blog right now. No, I would most definitely be sequestered away in the hospital writhing in pain.

Back to my clothing finds. I took pictures of everything so I could share my joy with you. I also found an adorable Janie and Jack sweater with matching scarf and gloves. Its 12-18 months, but I'm hoping I can squeeze Zachy in it this fall. Sweaters run big, right? If you see Zach walking around with a sweater that the sleeves barely reach his elbows... you will know it was my yard sale find. Oh well, if it doesn't work for him, Carter will be wearing it next fall come rain or shine.

I am including pictures of the shirts and jammies I bought at the yard sale. That way you can get the full impact of everything I bought at this sale.

Now on to all the good stuff. The first outfit is reversible so I took pictures of both sides.

Are you ready to know the grand total for all of these items? Twenty bucks. I was expecting a lot higher price when I took my stack of items to the "garage sale-ess". I was so excited. Its not every day you find smocked clothing at yard sales.

Well, I had better go get some sleep. I need to make sure I'm rested up for next weeks yard sale adventure. Who knows, I might have to break out my tae kwon do skills.  Sigh. Yard saling is such hard work.

OUR VERY SPECIAL ADVENTURE FRIP

We were blessed to be able to go on a small family vacation last week. Tyler called it our adventure and Zachy called it our frip (trip). We went to Naples, which is approximately 3 hours away, and had an absolutely wonderful time.

We visited the Naples Zoo. It was incredibly hot, but we still enjoyed the giraffes, monkeys, lions, zebras, sloths, vultures,etc. Yes, I did say vultures. We went to a special presentation and learned that vultures are practically disease proof. That's why they can eat a variety of "goodies" without keeling over. Another little vulture fact, do you know why vultures have bald heads? After they finish eating their "goodies" they just have to bury their heads in the sand to scrub it clean, no shampoo needed. I wonder if that's why I keep catching Jonathan with his head buried in the boy's sand box...he's busy cleaning his balding head. :) I personally love the zoo its a great time for me to reflect on what an incredible God we serve. He created each animal with a purpose in mind, and made them each beautiful and unique in their own way.

We also went to a restored train station/depot. The boys were in heaven. They were able to ride on a mini train, walk through old train cars that had been restored, and enjoy a small train "village".

We also went down to the Naples pier/ beach. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera with us to Naples. So all of our pictures are from our phones. I really wish that our beach pictures could have been taken with our "true blue" camera. On the bright side, at least we have pictures to document the occasion.

We attended both Sunday Services in Naples, and it was neat to see how different churches worship. The morning service we went to a very large church. We found out that it was the church Chuck Colson attended before he passed away.  Tyler took it upon himself to inform one of the ladies that he and Zach were twins. If that's the case, I had one of the longest labors in history. It lasted approximately 26 months  in between birthing each child. :) Sunday evening was a completely different story. We knew the church would be smaller and thought there would approximately be fifty people in attendance.  We pulled into the parking lot, and there were 2 cars. I repeat 2 cars. We walked in the church, and more than doubled the congregation. There were four of them and five of us. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of a small church, and loved chatting with the "fill" in Pastor and his wife.  They assured us that the Pastor would have loved to have met us, but he was in rehabilitation after a hospital stay. He just so happens to be 83 years old. I would have loved to have met him.

We made some very special memories on our FRIP. Looking forward to the next time Hubby, myself, Carter and the TWINS take another ADVENTURE.

DISCLAIMER: No feelings were hurt in the writing of this post. In other words, my husband is not sensitive about the fact that he might be just slightly balding. His dream is to shave his head in the near future. This is one dream that I hope takes him years to fulfill. Although, I may be one of the main reasons his head is scantily clad with hair. Six years being married to the likes of me, yep, I'd say I've killed a few of his hair buds.

Tyler's First Day of School!

First Day of School poem ::Author: Unknown/// He started school this morning, And he seemed so very small. As I walked there beside him In the pre-Kindergarten hall. And as he took his place beside the others in the class, I realized how all too soon Those first few years can pass. Remembering, I saw him as He first learned how to walk. The words that we alone made out When he began to talk. This little boy so much absorbed In learning how to write. It seems as though he must have grown To boyhood overnight. My eyes were blurred but hastily I brushed the tears away Lest by some word or sign of mine I mar his first big day. Oh how I longed to stay with him And keep him by the hand To lead him through the places That he couldn’t understand. And something closely kin to fear Was mingled with my pride. I knew he would no longer be A baby by my side. But he must have his chance to live, To work his problems out, The privilege to grow and learn What life is all about. And I must share my little boy With friends and work and play; He’s not a baby anymore – He’s in pre- Kindergarten today.//// If you hadn't already guessed, Tyler started Pre-K this week. He loves it! He is very proud of the fact that he now knows how to sit criss cross applesauce. His favorite part of the day would probably be snack time. He can't wait to find out what has been packed in his lunch box..its like buried treasure to him. When asked what he had learned today, he said, " Lots of stuff".//// I have to admit, I cried. When I saw him slip his backpack on I felt a lump form in the back of my throat, and it was all down hill from there. Earlier this summer, Tyler and I were talking about baby Carter (or as Zachy says Baby Cars) and I told Tyler that I had three babies: Tyler, Zachy and Carter. Tyler was very offended that I called him a baby, and quickly informed me that he wasn't a baby anymore. They grow up way too fast!//// Much to my chagrin, Tyler has been a bit obsessed with burping lately. At first we just made sure he said excuse me, but then it become a lovely past time. Jonathan explained to him that if he absolutely had to burp then he could do it under his breath. Tyler was very confused, and kept saying how do I hold my breath and burp at the same time. I instructed Tyler that he is absolutely not allowed to burp at school because it is rude. A little while later he looked at me and said,"Mommy, I can't go to school because I can't burp." Boys will be boys. For the record, he has happily been attending school without burping.//// Excuse the fact that this whole post is in one large paragraph the new blogger format is giving me fits. I ended up using the backslash lines to help differentiate paragraphs. GRRR, blogger.

FAMILY TIME!

Where have we been?? Why making priceless memories, of course. We went on a great road trip, got to spend time with lots of family, and to sweeten the deal a few outlet mall stops were made along the way. :)  The only downer to our trip was the boys getting sick the last leg of the journey. So we are now quarantined until we get over hand, foot and mouth disease  and a dollop of strep throat to make life a bit more interesting. Let the good times roll...:) Instead of me prattling on, I will let the pictures do the talking.