Rain Boots!

You may remember the boys got rain boots from their Grammy back at Stephen's birthday? Well it hasn't rained much sense they got them. So being the fun mommy that I am I decided to make our own mud/rain puddles for them to stomp.

I'd like to also add that I see adorable photos like this only with kids wearing cute clothes and looking all groomed and smashing. What's up? Am I the only mom who lets her kids hang out in PJ tops and underwear/diapers half the day? I could hardly make them go get dressed just to do this photo shoot, and I'd have hated to miss the opportunity ya know. So anyhow this is how we roll at The Kellogg Show.



*note to self, right by the brick wall is not the very best place to build a mud puddle for stomping*

In other news both boys have the cold or whatever it is, but no one is super sick. Last night they seemed sicker, I think it's one of those ones where it's worse when you are trying to sleep.

Ethan peed in the potty yesterday. Just a tiny tinkle, more of just a "tink" really, but he did it and he was proud. I don't really think he knows yet when he's gonna pee though, he was totally shocked that pee came out of his little business. Stephen is doing great, he had one accident a few days ago, but it was while RUNNING for the potty. He got caught off gaurd, during dinner. All the sudden, "Mommy I gotta go potty RIGHT NOW!" And he ran. But then I hear, "Mommy I peed in the potty and all over around it." He wasn't kidding either, it was all over. But one accident in more than a week is wonderful and we are very happy.

Brian is well on his way to fixing the pool pump! He researched online and stuff and took photos of it before taking it apart and found a part that needs replacing and we ordered it from our local Pinch-A-Penny.

I think that's all my new news. Did I tell yall I was published in another magazine? It's the current issue of Stamp and Scrap Arts. I'm actually RIGHT next to my super stamping idol Kim Hughes. I might put a pic of that later.

Too much America's Next Top Model

Stephen has been watching too much America's Next Top Model. He was posing for me when I did pics of him with his friend Xander.

This is the last play date with Xander too. :( They are moving to Idaho.

check out the toe action on this one!
Ethan is still snotty, but the fever is gone.
Oh and this morning I woke up to another suprise! But a good one! HAHAHA. I woke up and they were totally quite. That's usually bad so I flew out of bed and raced over to their rooms. They were shut in Ethan's room. I wondered what horror awaited me behind that door. It was... Two boys sitting on Ethan's bed reading books. Stephen was leaning over to Ethan's book saying, "This one is the..." When he saw me. I was so proud! Everyone was dressed, there wasn't any ointment anywhere, they were being peaceful and happy and quite. GREAT way to start the day.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good

I had the best Birthday ever. The night before friends from church took me out for ice cream. It was all young moms we ate then talked for hours at the ice cream shop. Totally fun. Then on Friday I slept in a bit, then the boys got up and my mom called. I got SEVEN vintage aprons (photos soon) from her. Awesome. I have no idea where to store seven aprons, plus the 5 I already have, but whatever. Then me and the boys had a nice day, they were good all day. After nap time though Ethan had a fever, more on that under "the bad". In the evening Marcia watched the boys and Brian and I went out to dinner.

The Bad

Ethan is sick. So far Stephen seems ok. Ethan had 104 then 102 then 103 fevers. That's Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He is not hot today but is super snotty. Coughing some, must mostly super duper snotty. I'm hoping he is ok.

The Ugly

Two days in a row the boys have gotten into terrible trouble in their rooms in the early hours of the morning. Sunday they pushed a box over to the changing table and got down a new HUGE tub of A&D Ointment. For the record even carpet cleaning professionals cannot get that out of carpet. We know that from a past ointment experience. It was everywhere. On clothes, in hair, in eyes, in carpet, in miniblinds, on puppies. It took hours to clean up. Boys were in so much trouble, no tv for a day, no puppies, no blankie, no fun, no candy, no craft time, no happy parents. Ethan was sick too. Then today I get up to the same thing only with poop instead of ointment. Ethan's poop. Stephen actually tried to clean it up, but you know how it goes when a 3 yr old tries to clean stuff, just made it worse. It was everywhere. Not in hair. I had to shave their hair yesterday because we could not get the ointment out of it. *and by the way if you shave a very blonde kid with a fever and bags under his eyes he looks like a lukemia patient, and no, I don't have a photo of that*

I do have a few photos though so let me share them now.

This is Ethan in the car. We couldn't take him into the nursing home when we went to visit Brian's grandfather. I don't think they like you to take very sick children into nursing homes. So me and Ethan sat in the hot hot car for the visit. Not one of my most brilliant ideas. Should have stayed home. See his misery?This is the boys, sitting in a box that our new computer came in watching TV. Oh, did I forget to mention the new computer? Our old one died. We had to get a new one, I was without the internet for almost a week. It was horrible. Also the AC died in one car and our pool pump broke. It's been a fantastic week. I'm ready to jump off a bridge. *to offense to the relatives of those who have jumped off bridges, suicide is very serious, I'm not QUITE that desperate yet* Anyhow this was really cute in real life, I don't know why they all look to snarky in this photo.

there is more crap, but don't you think that's enough of a downer for now? yea, me too.

Magic, Potty, Library... that might be all.

Look, Mom! Photos.

Brian and Stephen went to an Orlando Magic game this week. The next morning (they got home aftermidnight) I got this report from Stephen, "Mommy, it was super fun, there was a green dragon and fireworks came out of his hands, then he did flips with some guys and I ate a big big hot pretzle" Later he told me he ate a huge bucket of popcorn too. Apparently Brian's trick to get Stephen to watch an entire basketball game is keep him busy with food! I approve of course. :)

Doesn't he look old in this photo? Crazy. Here they are in their seats during the game. Still smiling.
I'm sure Brian knows who this guy is...
The Magic did win that game so they go on to the next level of whatever it's called. Brackets or something. I dunno.

Stephen is finally willingly potty training! Hurray. He told me he wanted to the other day. Today is day three. He had two accidents on day one, two on day two and none today! Only pee though, he only poops overnight. So he's still in diapers for bedtime. I'm still happy. No diapers during the day for us on him is awesome. What's super cute is Ethan. He's really interested in all this, he has to sit on the potty each time Stephen does, he gets you to take his diaper off and everything. So far nothing from him, but he's thinking about it. Yesterday he pushed his penis down and said, "Come OUT" but nothing. Totally cute though. We are doing sitting down. It's working for us so that's what we do. I'm also doing rewards. Stephen gets one skittle each time. If he brings it up he gets two skittles. Like if he says, "I need a potty break" that's worth two skittles. I'm trying to say, "Time for a potty break" every hour or so and if he pees on a mandatory potty break he just gets one skittle. I'm trying to get him to tell me when he needs to go.

We have gone out two times during this. Once to Chilli's resturant. No accident, I made him sit on the potty there, but he said he didn't have pee and he was right. We went to the park after so that was a good two hour outing.

Then today we went to the library. The BIG Main library down town. It was awesome. We had never been. I gotta get a babysitter and go for hours alone. I could live there, it was like libraries in movies, seriously you can't imagine if you have a dinky library *MOM* what this is like. HUGE. So they have this giant Children's Libary section, and seriously it's about the size of most branch libraries. We did story time, then a different story time where an owl tells you the story, it's in this room that looks like you are outside and it's an animatronic owl. Super cute. Then art time, today was painting where you flick wet paint at paper. After that we had lunch in this courtyard they have. On the second floor, which was really the third floor. *they had a "basement" but it was above ground... that's Florida for you* Anyhow in the courtyard there were trees and such. I love gardens that are above ground level.

My point, besides that it was super fun and I forgot my camera, is that this whole thing was over 3 hours. And NO accidents from Stephen!

Oh and Stephen has always had bad skin, eczema and lots of diaper rashes. But no rashes on his butt now. So that's great for him, as he totally hates the cream. He does like the powder and asked about that. I guess we don't really powder our bums anymore once we wear big boy/girl underwear.

Oh and other news. Me and my mom have started another blog. It's called Thrift Finds and we are writing about all the magical deals we find at garage sales and thrift shops and such. It already has a bunch of entries so go ahead and click on over there and check it out. We are considering adding other contributers to it over time, so all our friends can blog about what they find all over the country on one blog. I got an awesome dining room table that I love for $20 last weekend! CHA CHING!

Well that's about all. Oh tonight's tick us off moment is when we opened a brand new bill! We now pay $120 a year for garbage and rainwater removal. It's actually half and half. $60 a year for garbage doesn't sound horrible honestly, but $60 to let rain water run into existing gutters? And it's not MY water, we all know who is responsible for that water, although I rekon I'd rather pay it than send Him a bill. So they break this joy up for us into two $60 payments a year. I tell you guys every single month there is an unexpected bill of $60. I guess this is May's bill because I had a bunch last month from the mamogram. *seperate bill from everyone who looked at it, and you'd think I would be charging to let people look at my boobies, nope I gotta pay people to do it*

And that really is all. good day to you.