TJ & His 1st Place Trophy!

TJ has been going to Awana at Michigan Center Bible Church ( the church my husbands Aunt and Uncle go to) He enjoys it so much and was very excited to get his vest and workbook!


A few weeks ago they had their Awana Grand Prix. The kids are given a car kit (wood block, wheels, etc) and are supposed to make a car to race. TJ of course is too little to wield a knife to carve out his car, so his daddy had him pick out what he wanted his car to look like and he cut it all out for him. TJ decided on a bat mobile :) So his daddy spent hours and hours getting it just right. TJ painted it and put the Grand Prix sticker on it. It was a nice father son project for the two of them :)

Here are a few pics from the night of the Grand Prix:

Waiting in line to race his car..
Cheese!!
TJ ended up winning two races and almost was in the finals! Unfortunately he lost his last race and was eliminated. BUT they not only gave trophies for speed.. they also gave them for design!! TJ won 1st place in the Sparkies for design! He was SO excited (and so was his mommy and daddy :) Here he is with his car and trophy:
This was his car

Ellie's 8 Month Photo Shoot

These were taken 1 week before Ellie's 9 month "birthday" :) All photos were taken by J.Lynn Imagery.

These are my favorites!


This is the classic "look" Ellie gives people when they are trying to get her to smile or talk to them and she doesn't wanna..lol..
Beads!! YUM!!
I made this hat for Jen to use in her studio :) I love Ellie's smirk!! And the poochy lip... she didn't want to cooperate and smile for us. We had to work for every smile Jen captured!
This is my absolute favorite. Her sweetness is shining through :)
TEETH!! :D



*All hats and the black headband were made by me over at Soft & Sweet Boutique. "Like" us on facebook for new product updates and giveaways!

Mater :)

As most of you know, my husband is a BIG fan of old trucks. Well it seems he is passing his love with them onto our son...
....yep T.J. and his "Mater". You can't see his face very well unless you zoom in , but he is way too excited about this truck and you can see it on his face.

Sigh

Looks like I have more trucks in my yard to look forward to. lol.

What A Difference A Year Makes!

We recently received TJ's school pictures for this year, and when I went to place this year's in the frame holding last year's school photo, I couldn't believe how much he has grown!

I mean he basically still looks the same, but there was still some baby-ish quality to his pre-k pic compared to his kindergarten pic where he looked more like a little man....

Pre-K School Picture 2009:

Kindergarten School Picture 2010:
Ugh.. he is growing up so fast!!

His sister is growing by leaps and bounds as well! It amazes me how many changes occur in the first year of a child's life! They go from this tiny little wonder to an active, chubby mover in such a short time!

Ellie at 1 month:

Ellie at 5 months:
They need to stop growing!! LOL :D

I look at Ellie and remember when TJ was that small...they are so much alike. He was such a happy baby.. all smiles and giggles. And now he is this little boy who can lift 16lb bags of dog food into a shopping cart on his own, work outside stacking wood with his daddy and do an excellent job, and fracture a finger one day and act like nothing happened the next. He says he is my "tough BIG boy"... but I say he will always be my little baby boy <3

Apple Picking!

Last Sunday afternoon we took TJ apple picking at Kapnick's Orchard. It has become a family tradition to go there in the fall , pick apples, and get some of their yummy cider, doughnuts, and apple fritters! The picture above is us waiting to go on our wagon ride out to the apple orchard.

Here is TJ before we got on the wagon... he is such a goofy guy!


This is TJ picking apples... he had such fun!


Daddy let Ellie suck on her first apple. It was actually pretty funny.... I guess she thought it was yummy, so whenever Titus took it away from her mouth she cried and cried and as soon as he put it back she was happy again :)


Me and Titus <3

The boys hunting for apples...



We had such a good time that day. After we went apple picking, we ate some chinese ( TJ's favorite) and then headed home to relax before going out and chopping/stacking firewood.

Now.. off to figure out what yummy things I want to make with all these apples .... :)

Day Out With Mommy Under $10

Thought I would give this a try today with my two kiddos to see if it could be done.

Well it can. :P

First off, we went to the Jackson 10 Theater to watch Marmaduke with my brother Josh. During the fall they have FREE matinee's on Saturday's at 9am and 10am. I also am a part of their frequent movie goer program, so I get discounted concessions. We ended up getting a 130 oz popcorn and 44 oz pop to share for $4.34.

After the movie TJ, Ellie and I went to the mall to walk around. TJ got to look at toys in Toys 'R Us and I let him pick something out at the Dollar Tree. He got a Cars paint by number and we picked out an adorable ladybug stuffed animal for Ellie for $2.12.

Then we headed to Bath and Body Works to get me a few goodies! :) I got a free 2oz sample of their new Secret Wonderland lotion , a Candy Corn pocket hand sanitizer, and a 3oz bottle of sweet pea body spray for a total of $1.59!

From Bath and Body Works we headed to Target to see what kind of deals we could get with our remaining $1.95... and we came across a bag for strawberry marshmallows on clearance for $.86!! TJ has been BEGGING me to buy him some of those but at over $2 a bag I have refused to do so.. but for $.86... why not? :D

When we got home we used the marshmallows to make strawberry rice krispy treats and they were soooo yummy!

We ended up having a super fun day and came home with $1.09 left over.

TJ and His Sunflower

A while back my husband bought T.J. a pack of sunflower seeds to plant. TJ planted them and has been watering them (when he remembers :P) and FINALLY two of them started to grow!

He was watering them again today and I decided to get a few pics of him with them. If you can't tell from the pics... he was super excited :)




My favorite!! Little hands :)

Video Camera

Today in church T.J. noticed the video camera up on a shelf at the back of the sanctuary.

T.J.: "Mommy.. what is that thing back there?"

Me: "It is a video camera. It tapes the service and the pastor's sermons in case anyone wants to see them again later."

T.J.: "Does it send it to God too?"

Excuses, Excuses

My son has a habit of trying to come up with some kind of ailment whenever I ask him to cleanup his room. LOL. Conversations usually go something like this:

Me: "Go in your room and clean it up. It is a complete mess."

TJ: "Well I cleaned it up a little bit...I made a path so you could walk."

Me: "No I don't want a path I want the room picked up."

TJ: "oooooookkkkkkkkk...."

5 min later...

TJ: "Moooooommm... my head hurts and it doesn't want to pick up my room anymore."

Me: "I'm sorry your head hurts but you don't pick up your room with your head so you will be fine."

TJ: "But it really hurts and my back and my legs hurt too... oh and my arms."

Me: " I'm sorry maybe you can take a nap after you are done picking up your room."

TJ: "Can I take one now and not pick up my room?"

Me: "No"

Titus: "Pick up your room like mommy said or my hand will connect with your bottom"

THE END

LOL

Ah... Peace And Quiet...

I really love my kids. They're cute, funny, and keep me so busy during the day that I am hardly ever bored. But after a loooong day of taking care of them and listening to the crying, yelling, noise and having to answer fifty million questions two times in a row because someone didn't hear me the first time.. LOL... I am SO thankful when bedtime rolls around!

After I get them in bed I usually sit and listen to the quiet all around me..lol. Then it is mommy time! I can shower and go to the bathroom in peace... I can eat ice cream and not have to share :P... I can spend time with my husband... I can take some time to do something I want to do after doing things for everyone else all day long. It's so nice. :)

I am so thankful for this small amount of quiet each day!

And then right before I head to bed I check on my little ones...I love watching them sleep :)





Follow, Comment, Goodnight :)

Blueberries

A few days ago we were sitting down to eat dinner and I didn't have enough fruit salad for all of us. So I gave the rest to T.J. and then got out a container of blueberries for me and Titus to eat. Well T.J. looks at his fruit salad and looks at the blueberries and goes, "Mom, can you PLEASE put some more blueberries in my fruit salad because it would be a PLEASURE!"

Titus and I couldn't help laughing and T.J. is just sitting there looking at us like.. "What?"
Then a few seconds later he lets out a little giggle and says, "Yep it would be a pleasure!"

Silly kid :P


Follow, Comment, Blueberries are a pleasure! :)

Flowers Anyone?

T.J. loves to bring me flowers.....dandelions, flowers picked off of my hanging baskets or out of the flower bed, or just all kinds of funky looking weeds. If it is a plant and he thinks it is awesome it makes it's way into my house. One time he pulled up a WHOLE plant and brought it to me roots and all saying " You need to put this in water RIGHT AWAY mom.." and I was like.. "um... yes sir.." LOL!

So when you come to my house in the spring/summer you can expect to see 2-3 vases of flowers/weeds sitting around. He will keep an eye on them for me too.. letting me know if they need more water or checking to see if they are dead or missing (by missing I mean that Mommy threw them away :P) because he WILL bring me more if he thinks I need them!


Follow, Comment, Pick LOTS of Flowers! :)