Happy Birthday to me!

Well we are back from our weekend in Charleston. It was fun but crazy too. We went up on Saturday. We drove right into the cute little downtown historic part and parked. It happened to be a little "Charleston Dog Show" down there so everyone had dogs. How fun! We got food at the Farmers Market and it was fresh and wonderful. I had an omlet with fresh eggs. Yummy! Brian got a gyro thing. Stephen ate off our food and had tons of these fresh strawberries we got. Ethan ate baby food jars and some of everything else.

Then we walked after a while we arrived at a cute little shop called "cupcake". They sell nothing but cupcakes and they were GOOD. We ate 4 between the 4 of us.

We drove to Brian's friend Bill's house. He and his wonderful wife Jeanie (sp?) were kind enough to let us stay in their home while we were there. They have a dog Javy too. He's a cute fat beagle looking dog. The boys loved him.

We ate dinner that night and bought drugs (I needed some drugs I had upset tummy, I ALWAYS have upset tummy in Charleston, you may remember last time I went I came home and had to go to the hospital).

Sunday we went to Magnolia Plantation. WOW that's the most beautiful place ever. That's where all the pics I'm putting are from, I kept forgetting the camera until that day. They have a petting zoo with deer in it! I'd never pet a deer. And gardens for miles and a hedge maze and peacocks running all over. It was great. Oh and I've never in my life smelled a magnolia blossom and I love them! I will have to see if that mall store what's it called, Bath and Works or whatever has magnolia sented crap.

Then back to the house for naptime. The boys were so tired they went staight to sleep. Oh on the issue of sleep it stunk! Stephen had to sleep with us and that's a mess. Ethan slept in the pack and play but I don't think it's too comfy. We all came home tired. We do not plan to take any more trips for at least a year, it was just not relaxing at all in that way. We will just do all the day trips you can possibly do from here.

We ate dinner Saturday at this fantastic resturant that Bill chose. It was so yummy. It was seafood. Then we went to the park by his house and to bed. Oh I saw Saturday Night Live, which I've never watched before, it's cute! (This was a show of old epsiodes)

Monday we got up early (Thanks Ethan) and went to breakfast because you can't drive from Bill's house into Charleston at rush hour. At breakfast at the lovely McDonalds Stephen fell and chipped a tooth and cut his lip. Sometime during the day he also got a black eye and Ethan got a knot on his forehead. We really are good parents, I swear my kids just are determined to get banged up. It's sad really. They are both fine though. (I'm going to see if a dentist wants to sand the tooth down so it's not sharp and goofy looking I'll keep you posted)

It was cold Monday so we went to the Aquarium instead of walking downtown like we planned. The Aquarium was awesome, as they always are. Ethan had "Fish Joy" for the first time. Fish Joy is when you see fish in a huge tank and it's like magic and you can't take your eyes away. He had Penguin Joy as a young baby (they are high contrast ya know) but this was his frist Fish Joy. Nothing like seeing your children discover the wonderful creations of Heavenly Father.

After we got out of the Aquarium it was warmer so we walked downtown. We went to this other market but it was really just a touristie flee market. Then more food at this Crab resturant. It was pretty good. When Brian went to pay he found he had left his card in an ATM earlier that day. He left me to pay while he ran back to see if it was still there. Right when he leaves the kids start screaming. Our waiter doesn't come back to take my money for like 15 minutes and they are both shreaking but I can't take them out because I have to pay and it got so bad that when I finally did leave the section cheered! Of course they had stopped crying when they saw we were leaving but when people cheered Stephen was hurt and cried all over again! I told him they were cheering because they love him and shot them all dirty looks and almost cried because it was all too much and also I was wondering where my husband was and if my credit card was stolen and all. Brian got back right when I walked out the door. The machine automaticly sucks them back up if you don't take them within a short period of time and demagnatizes them. The employees saw it and tried to catch it so they could just return it but were not fast enough. We have new cards ordered and they will be here in a week! No debit card till then. OUCH!

So we drove home. I drove actually Brian has a cold. Traffic wasn't too bad. I slept like a ROCK last night. :)

I had 23 packages/cards waiting for me when I got home. Happy Birthday to me! I have awesome friends and family.

Today Marcia took me out to lunch. I love May!

Catching up.. it's a long one.

We will start with today! I am sick I have mastitis (everyone cept my daddy go google that if you don't know, Dad, you don't want to know). So fever and pain and all. Well Brian took the day off to watch the boys. We called the Dr and she called in drugs for me. (they work SUPER fast, I'm way better already) So he got those and stuff during naptime. After naptime we decided to go in the pool for a bit and here are the pics:
Stephen is a huge pool wimp still and just wanted to play on the patio and put his feet in! WIMP!
This was his favorite, to throw something like a ball in then go, "Uh Oh! MOMMY!!" like it's my job to retrieve these things. (yea, he says Mommy now, and it's music to my ears, he says all sorts of things, everyone should come visit.)
Look at that happy boy.
Ethan was less of a wimp. he would ride on this aligator with Daddy, then later in his own float.

Two weekends ago we went up to Tallahassee. We planned to eat at a lunch spot I loved, then go to the "spring game" which is a warmup type game for FSU football. (GO NOLES) Then to Dan's apartment for naptime and to the FSU Flying High Circus.

Things did not go as planned.

The lunch spot was a totally different resturant. We did have a pretty good lunch at a different place.

Dan wasn't home! Then he did show up right before we left in total confusion. We couldn't park at his place as planned but we were ok.

The game was fine, we had to leave early because the boys were tired.

Then they didn't want to nap at Uncle Dan's.

The dinner spot was closed too!

Then we leave to walk to the circus, this is where it gets REALLY bad. It was sprinkling. Now we had to park on campus so there is no car even if we did decide not to walk. (Dan has one but no carseats...)

So we start to walk, it starts to pour. And pour. And pour. We get there finally, totally and completely drenched. I was holding Ethan, Brian holding Stephen. I lucked out, Ethan thought it was funny, Stephen cried. They were sooo wet. Like we had all been swimming in clothes. We had a sweatshirt for Stephen and put it on him, and I bought a T shirt for me and put it on Ethan. After the show we walked back to the cars and got home well after 1am. The boys both had fevers in the morning. :(

Here's pics:

Stephen enjoying the spring game
Dan.. um.. enjoying? being an uncle.
Mommy and Ethan (see the huge shirt on him) waving at the clowns.

And this is another day and what happens if you tickle Ethan a bunch:

Ok, that's pretty much everything. Hope to see you all soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN

Here are pics of Stephen and Ethan opening Stpehen's Birthday Presents! He got a book from Brian and I and a car and a cool tablet thing from my mom. He loves them all. The tablet is probably his favorite thing ever. You draw on it and it's sorta like an etch-a-sketch only it has Elmo and CookieMonster on it. He actually slept with it for bedtime and naptime. He's a nut! The car is cool it drives itself and knows when it hits a wall to back up. Ethan thinks it's magic I think and he loves it soooo much. Stephen likes it bunches too but really Ethan loves it best. They have all their stuff together anyhow so that's fine.

Well some other stuff happened but it wasn't cool so I'll leave that out! Everyone have a great day. Oh here's pics:

Happy Easter!

We had an eventful weekend. Friday night I went to a crop and made cards and generally hung out. Brian had the boys and they had dinner and went to do some shopping.

Saturday we got up and went to an Easter Egg hunt. It was very fun, but cold so Brian had to run home and get a sweatshirt for Stephen and socks for Ethan. Stephen found 5 eggs at the hunt and loved them. Brian helped Ethan find one egg. There was a bunny (person in costume) to see and it was all very cute. The had the little kids hunt in a different area than the big kids which I think was a great way to do it.

After that we went to this HUGE art store I never knew was in town and it was very cool. I didn't buy anything but man I could have! Then to Hobby Lobby where these new markers I love were. I found piles of them on clearance for less than half what I would otherwise have to pay. So OF COURSE I had to get 11 of them! *wink* (if you happen to be on this blog and super interested in markers I have a big write up on my Erin K Creations blog).

When we got home we put the kids to their naps and Brian went outside. I was going to organize my new markers, when he came in with Charlotte in his arms. She had been bitten. It was terrible, puss oozing wound, not even bleeding, just stinky puss. I've never seen anything like that. So we got the kids back up and took her to the Emergency Vet down the road and she had to have a shunt put in and stitches and shaved. It's all very gross. I have to take her back TWO MORE TIMES to get the shunt and stitches out. It's all very expensive and depressing. She does not seem to be in pain which boggles my mind but I'm glad. She's sleeping in the laundry room for now, that shunt means she's just dripping bloody eww stuff everywhere so she's not allowed in the rest of the house.

Today I woke up feeling really stinky. Brian took Stephen to church and me and Ethan napped all afternoon. I still feel yucky but will be ok.

I hope you all had nice Easters and that you feel the love of our Savior all throught the year and especially today.

Silly Spring

OK, first of all what is the name of that flower? I want more, it just comes up magicly each year we don't take care of it or anything and Brian is pretty sure he's mowed it a few times. And just look at that flower! I love it. Stephen does too and decided to get in on the photos.

Kitty is still around too. Here he is looking majestic by the pool, that is the prettiest cat I've ever seen.

Ok, more later, keep checking back.

More fun!

Don't they look like they are having a great time in the tub! I can't wait till it's hot enough to play in the pool. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you how wet this left the bathroom.

Then there's this... Food stashing. What you see here are parts of Stephen's lunch from today. It's a little bread, you never know when you will need a bite to eat! I'm forever having to check this and other toys that have little stash holes for food and candy, there was some milk in here today too, ewwwww.

You'll never guess... right now, today everyone is healthy! I'm so glad.

Boys are in a napping funk this week though, they don't wanna take them. Errrrr.

Well that's all for now folks.

Trip to the Park

Today we went to the park. Brian took today as a floating holiday so it was fun to go play. I put a ton of pics up on the Picturetrail site today from our trip. Ethan swings now so that's fun for him, he also was starting to want to climb on the big slide thingie. Stephen is all over the park now.

After the park we went to the Chinese Buffet where Stephen gets sushi, He ate 16 pieces of sushi today! That's a record for him, last time he had 15. He LOVES the stuff. Ethan ate two jars of baby food and three french fries. (which are on the buffet, although they are not Chinese)

Next stop was Marshalls, I need clothes, but all the styles are crappy right now I just got angry after trying on a million tops and none were cute. Then I decided to get shoes but that didn't work out either. Ended getting Stephen a Magic Jersey and leaving there. Nothing cool in Tuesday Morning either.

So I was pretty bummed when I got home but guess what 4 PACKAGES! Two were for Brian so that was nice for him, but 2 were for me! Hurray me!

Well the boys are sleeping, I might either lay down with a book or stamp things. :)

Cloth diaper Update

So here is Ethan in his sleepykat cloth diaper! I have tons of cloth diapers now and it's great. My friend Annette sent me three of these, and I have 16 from the other company I was using. I do still love the others, but I'm gonna talk about these for a moment.

Ok, look there is a cat on his bum! How cute is that?? The other two she sent are just like this but blue with a white (I think) cat on the rear. They are made super well and fit the boys, especially Stephen great. Stephen is sleeping right now and if you think I'm waking him up to take a picture of his diaper you are out of your mind.

Overall I'm loving the cloth diapers. I only use the disposables now over night and if we go out for more than like one stop. If you don't change the cloth ones shortly after a pee they will eventually leak. It's sorta distressing to think of how long I let them be in peeful disposables, but they never FEEL wet. I'm hoping that because Stephen really feels it now when he's wet that will help him want to potty train. He now insists on being changed the very second he pees. As soon as I can get him to tell me BEFORE he pees we will be in business. :)

Hmm, what else is going on. I'm not sure what was up with Stephen's eye but it got better in like two days, but I still did the drops the whole time I was supposed to. No one else got pink eye or anything. Maybe it was some lesser eye infection.

Ethan has been snotty for weeks now. I think I'm giving him till Monday then taking him back in to the DR's and demanding something to clear him up. It's getting out of hand if you ask me. He is acting fine though.

I took the Grape (the car Brian's Gram gave us) into the AC repair place and I have AC now! It might not last, they think there is a leak, they put some special coolant with die in it and if I loose cold air they will be able to tell where the leak is and fix it. But anyhow for right now the AC works and just in time too because it's been hot here lately.

I think that's all the news.

Huggeronies.

Pink Eye

Yesterday when Stephen woke up from his nap he had one puffy eye and was crying a ton and rubbing it. Within a few hours he had two red puffy eyes. This morning we went to urgent care. After a few hours and scarry drops in his eyes and stuff the Dr. decided he has pink eye. We have to put these drops in 3 times a day, guess how much they cost? $56!!! YIKES. Shocking! He does seem to be in less pain already.

So far Ethan seems fine, but we all know he will probably end up with pink eye too and there goes another $56 I guess! I'm trying not to let it happen, but they are best buds and unless me and Ethan go get a hotel room I don't see avoiding it. Ethan did have a fever though. All the sudden he was 100.8. Not too bad. We gave him some motrin and he threw up. It was CRAZY throwing up, like shot several feet. Maybe he just gagged we are not sure. We are gonna stick to tylenol for the rest of the night, he's had motrin before but just to be safe you know? He's acting just fine now, chasing his brother around and laughing.

My dad called me and said he is having issues with this blog. I'm looking into it but so far cannot find a reason he wouldn't be able to open it. Any suggestions? He can see like a screen preview but can't scroll or leave a comment or anything. We can't have that!

Why aren't you people leaving comments?

Each one of you should be leaving comments on how cute these boys are. Why are you not doing it? I know you look, I can tell! *wink*


also I updated the Erin K Creations Link, I had the address wrong and it took you so some other junk that's not me. It now takes you to my craft blog. :)

General News

These pictures are just the general mess my boys are always working on. They are diggingin the bottom drawer of the computer desk. At least they are doing it together right?

So big news around here: I moved Stephen's bed into Ethan's room and everything else out so they both sleep in the same room and have a play room. I LOVE it during the day, I can keep things clean better and there are way less toys all over my house. They are going to bed ok, but waking up super early. It's only the second day so who knows. Word on the street is it takes a few days or a week to adjust to sleeping with another person in the room. I was at the end of my rope earlier, but they finally took a nap for 3 hours together in there. When I got them out Stephen had crawled under Ethan's crib and was sleeping there. I have no idea why he would do such a thing. Whatever makes him happy though.

My other big news is we are switching to cloth diapers! At least part time. Those of you who are familiar with them, but from 20 years ago, they are totally different now. No pins, no plastic pants. I have a kind called pocket diapers, Basicly there is a shell that is waterproof on the outside and fuzzy material on the inside. You stuff extra absorbant stuff between these two layers. The stuff I have is a hemp/cotton blend that is actually super soft but super absorbant. I tried them on Stephen but he hated it, so I'm only using them on Ethan right now. I also only have 3, so I'm obviously using a lot of disposables too. We didn't want to buy tons before we knew if we could handle it. (Yes, I mean if I could handle it, Brian doesn't really mess with them) So I LOVE them. I gotta get more. :)

Well it's probably time to go stuff all my stationary back in the drawer. Is nothing safe? NOPE! heehee

Plague hits the Kellogg house again!

Isn't that cute? Ethan just loves that huge penguin we call it his "Big Friend".

So we are all sick again. And of course not Brian, he never gets sick. At least not often, and that's good. First it was Stephen, his fever was at least 105 but I swear he felt hotter than that earlier that day. Then Ethan started climbing. I stayed on top of keeping him drugged up and kept him under 102 most of the time. We did do to the Dr. she said there is some funk going around, everyone is testing neg for strep and influenza. She did test Stephen, no point in testing Ethan too they obviously have the same thing. Stephen was negative. Well they started being better. They have snotty noses. (I think they ALWAYS do lately.) Friday I started feeling hot and dizzy during the day. By evening I was on the couch, couldn't get up at all and had chills and sweats. My fever got up to 103 but wasn't staying really high, just sorta up and down. I'm still taking it easy. My throat is super sore. If Stephen hadn't gotten a neg on his strep test I'd swear I have strep. I guess it's just "Kid Plague", that's what Brian and I are calling it.

BATHTIME!

Arn't they cute! I took a ton of pics of this. This is the best where they are both smiling. There is a funny story, I took a streaming video too and it's cute and all and I was gonna send it to some of yall but two things: 1. Stephen keeps standing and he's all naked so that's not great, although I could have gotten over that but 2. At the end of it Ethan who was standing falls down and it looks TERRIBLE in the video. In real life he was fine, laughing the whole time, not going under water or hitting his head or anything and I was right there and got him up and he laughed and laughed so it was fine. But in the video you just see him slip, his feet go up and then the camera turns away and turns off all fast (because in real life I'm catching him) So just imagine he had a great time!

This bath is in direct relation to the last post where Ethan eats his first pancake, What a mess!

Online exclusive!!

Ok, I'm not telling anyone in emial or on the phone about this. Well maybe Marcia as she does not have a computer so she has an excuse. But the rest of you, if you don't come to our blog you won't know. Just this very minute Ethan ate his first pancake! He loved it as you can see. I just had to give him a bit more because he was getting frantic looking for it. Looks like a bath is in our future.

Oh and for the record Stephen is not being ignored, he just loves the camera so much he won't let me take his pic, he wants to be the one taking the pictures! He gets all nutty as soon as I take the camera out. I will try harder and get some cool pictures of him.

Playing together!

Well it's getting cute around here. The boys play together all the time now. Stephen thinks he can ride Ethan's back like a pony. Thank heavens he doesn't put his weight down on him, and that Ethan thinks it's super funny. Actually Ethan thinks everything Stephen does is great. In this pic Ethan is tearing up this book, which is a favorite pastime of my boys. Stephen saw him and joined in. Ethan does get on Stephen's nerves sometimes, he just seems to want to be involved in everything Stephen does. Stephen only has so much patience. Stephen does love him though, gives him lots of hugs. A favorite time for them is bathtime, they go at the same time and they get in a big splash war, I'll tell you too, Ethan holds his own in the splash contest!

Stephen is adding new words to his vocabulary all the time. I think about 5 words a day most days.

Ethan pulls up now and also eats crackers if you break them up. He's pretty proud of that. He still won't drink out of any type container. We continue to work on that.

Clear the roadways I'm on the loose

I just got of the phone with Geico I restored full coverage to the second car and am on the go again. Tomorrow I'll make Brian take the car without carseats in it and I'm gonna go somewhere! Probably the boring post office but just to get out on my own.

This picture is totally unrelated of course, Ethan wouldn't stop messing with my craft stuff so I stuck him in this tote so I could finish putting away my inks and stuff and it was just too cute for words! Doesn't look like he minded one bit, you can't see but I put a book in there with him.

No, Stephen please don't put your brother in a box!

Stephen thinks he can pick Ethan up, he can't. He wants very much to put him in one of these big Huggies boxes and drag him around the house. Ethan is up for anything his big brother does! He never ever leaves Stephen's side. They are just too cute, it's giggles all day around here. Stephen calls Ethan "Broder" or "EEEEEE" which are both adorable. Oh sometimes, "Baby" too, but usually the Broder.


Update on the diaper taking off and general nakedness. When I got Stephen up he had taken his diaper off, but he had the snap together type PJ's on so he couldn't get his pants off. So the diaper was just hanging out in his pants, but not on his body. It was not a poopy mess as I'm sure you are imagining so that's good.


Did I ever share that Stephen's favorite special snack is ice cubes? He loves them, he will stand in front of the freezer and say "Cubes Please, Cubes Please" over and over. He actually eats them too, crunch crunch. Very strange. Thank heavens we don't have one of those door mounted ice cube things where he could get them all he wanted.


Ethan still doesn't drink from anything except nursing. I guess I'm done trying bottles. He's very insistant that he's not going to drink from one, but he doesn't really get drinking from a cup. I'm ready for him to drink some water and even juice now, I'm always afraid he's going to get drhydrated.


Oh and Stephen loves salad! I think that's really cool. So we have been having salads with our dinner. Just me and Stephen, Brian won't touch the stuff. His loss! Right now Stephen and I are into this iceburg and blue cheese salad I totally copied from this resturant Brio I went to. The salad was the best part and now I can make it myself. Yummo! (Did I really just say that?)

Well tonight I'm going to a "Crop" at the Local Stamp Store. It's where you pay $5 then can hang out there all night and use their tables and supplies to make your scrapbook pages or cards or whatever. I don't have anything specific to make but it will be nice to get out of the house and hang out with friends. I'm going to try to go once a month from no on. Ethan can be without me for that long now so I'm doing it!


Oh I can drive again in two weeks! I have been on short trips twice but very soon I'll be totally free again! We got a new car during this time and it will be the car I'm driving so that's sorta funny, I'm out of practice and now have to drive something new. But it's a good car, a Camery. Is it Camery, or Camary? Anyhow you know what I mean. (Yes, I did hear about my spelling errors, you must just move on and pretend you love me for other attributes than my outstanding spelling.)

Well that's all the news for today I think.

Have you all checked out my craft blog ErinKCreations. You can see some of my latest projects and also hear about companies I dig and stuff on there.

Back from our trip, and back from our colds

Well me and the boys at least. Brian has a cold now, He always gets them right when we are getting better.

We had a good time. I wished we had more time to spend with the family but it's "season" down in West Palm so they had to work. Jobs, they just get in the way of life. Anyhow we had a good visit. Brian did all he wanted with the Superbowl and got a bunch of signatures. Stephen said "Gramp" and "Sue" and "Gram" which made everyone happy. My mom gave him some Elmo stuff so he loved that. I was pleased, most days they did nap in spite of not being in their own beds.

Ethan is getting into all sorts of trouble, at least once a day he finds something on the floor to choke on. Today it was a leaf that came in from outside, yesterday it was a scrap of paper. It doesn't even phase me anymore, I just reach in and get the junk out of his mouth and move on. He and Stephen are having some issues, Ethan is all over Stephen and Stephen doesn't always have the patience for it. They are both sweet though. I think it will be fine.

Stephen went crazy today and took off all his clothes and ran around naked for about an hour. He kept sitting on his potty so maybe he's ready to potty train, we will see. Finally I had to put him in clothes it was almost nap time and I knew he was gonna have to go to the bathroom during his nap. He was so offended I put clothes on him he sat in his room crying for over 20 minutes! I talked to him but he didn't want to see me. Crazy nudist kid! Someone tell me this is normal... All kids have days they can't stand clothes right?

Sick day for us

Well me and the boys are sick. By the boys I mean just Stephen and Ethan, thank heavens Brian's ok, someone's gotta do laundry and dishes and cook! Haha. It's just colds but I tell you a cold can really put you on your butt. And of course I hate to see the boys sick, especially Ethan because he's so small still. (he looks small to be sick, but this boy is growing!)

I started another blog, this one is for my cardmaking and any other crafts. It's Erin K Creations if you care to look at what I'm making these days. I only started it today so there are just two cards over there. I've also learned how to cute the blogs up a bit so I might be making a few changes to this one. Not sure yet.

Oh please leave a comment to this question: Should every entry have a picture, even if it's not directly dealing with the entry. Like this entry about being sick, I'm not taking a pic of our snotty noses, but would this be better if I just stuck up a random cute picture anyhow? Be honest do you come here for the info or the cute pics?

Update on Cats

Well we don't have any animals living in the house now! We went from maybe three to none.

Kitty moved in for a day and didn't figure out about the litter box or let us touch him or anything so I moved him back out. We are still considering him ours and will be taking him to the vet for shots and stuff very soon.

Sassy is a pee cat. We've tried everything and taken her to the vet and so on and such forth and she's just a pee cat. She always has been even when she was our only cat and no kids. So I moved her out too. I just couldn't take it anymore with the babies crawling and all. She loves it out there though and her and Kitty have become good friends and they pal around together.

So we were down to one cat, Charlotte, or CharBear as we call her. Well I continued to find pee and set a trap and caught her peeing so she went out too. Nothing is wrong with these cats, I think it's just because I didn't crack down hard enough so they sort of learned that they can just pee all over. Anyhow not only did CharBear get kicked out but the loveseat she was peeing on got kicked out too. I moved it out all on my own the other day. Brian was suprised I had the strength to do it. I think he's used to me being pregnant or something, I mean I'm a tough girl, I can move furniture! She seems ok out there, she's less accpeting than Sassy was but the three of them seem to hang out together.

Now I'm going to get someone in here to clean the carpets and get a new couch and we should be pee free. For a moment at least, Stephen will be potty training very soon! If it isn't one thing it's another right?

On the move!

Well we had an eventful weekend. Friday night Brian went to a Scout Campout and I stayed home with the kids. Our computer died that night. It took us three stores and until Monday but we finally have a new one. I got tons done while the computer was down though. I even took down curtains and washed them! Also one of our cars seems to be broken. Brian's working on it though, he actually knows a bit about cars. His father taught him. Luckily it's not the car we use mostly.

Biggest news though, Ethan crawls now. He's been sorta scooting and moving backwards for a few weeks, but this weekend he started really crawling forward. He's fast too! As you can see in this picture he's very proud of his accomplishment.

Well I don't know that I put this on here but I made a commitment with a friend Sherri not to buy any craft stuff all January. The month is almost over and neither of us has bought anything. We are both going crazy of course! I have two lists made out of stuff I want to buy online. One is this new company I found Pink Cat Studio. I mean they are new to me, I don't think new all together. All my online friends are in a Stamping Bella craze, but right now I'm nuts for Eat Cake Graphics. Anyhow I have figured out what I'm getting from Pink Cat and Eat Cake. Also I decided to do this with almost NO white paper. I need some very badly. I'm such a huge paper snob I'm not sure still where I will order paper from. The good news is that I sold a bunch of stamps that I wasn't using anymore and made just over $170 so I have a bunch to get new stuff with. (Which was the point of course)

I'm visiting my Dad next week and I can't wait!

Well until next time!

Welcome 2007

Well as you can see in the picture Ethan is growing in leaps and bounds. He crawls now, but only backwards. He eats tons and tons of jars of food. He isn't nursing any less either. You know that comercial that says a todler's stomach is only about the size of his little fist. IT'S A LIE. I watch both of these boys consume more food than would fit in their heads, nevermind their fists.

Stephen is still slowly but surely coming along with his speach. He now picks out the words he knows in any sentences. We will be talking about dinner ideas and all the sudden he's marching around, "Chicken! Chicken!". It's pretty much adorable.

We are helping Marcia find a condo up here in Jacksonville. There is one prospect she is considering right now. I'm amazed at how much money condos cost right now. This little one bedroom one is more than our first house cost! And that wasn't too long ago.

I have a new resolution, I guess it's a new year's one, but I just happened to do it now. You all know I make cards. (Didn't know that? maybe this is the wrong blog as you've obviously not met me!) Well I'm going to send a lot more off for publication this year. I got three in magazines last year, but I want more. If you don't know how it works you usually don't get paid for them, it's all about the fame. Sometimes you get a free issue of the magazine you are in. I'll keep you all posted so you can run to your local bookstores to get "MY" magazines. I also made a commitment with my good friend Sherri, we are both not buying any craft items all month. Now keep in mind we just both placed large orders with a stamp company we have yet to receive, so it's not like we won't GET any stuff this month. ;)

Oh that stray cat is still around. It's a boy cat. He has been in the house a few times. We once thought he was in for good but he peed in our bed, so he had to go back out. So we are still working on it.

I hope everyone has a great 2007.

We all had a great Christmas

We had a blast. Do you see all those presents? It took us two hours to open all that. Of course Stephen had to play with each toy as he opened it. Ethan was really more interested in the wrapping still. Stephen did get a kick out of ripping the paper off of presents, but by the end just wanted his toys out of there. This huge penguin is Ethan's new best friend. What's really cool is it seems to be a great friend in the crib too. He isn't as fussy when I put him down. I thought it might be scarry to have a bird larger than him looking down at him, but he loves that thing.
Brian and I were totally spoiled too. Brian made a list this year and got every single thing on it. I got piles of stuff and some cool gift certificates. I got all new pots and pans too. I had them in time to cook up my Christmas dinner with.
I totally blew my diet on Christmas day, but what ya gonna do? I did ok at Thanksgiving so I feel good about that. I'll just have to be really good from here on out. (which means stay out of those leftovers!)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that those of you who couldn't be here with us know we had you in our hearts.

Oh I almost forgot. Ethan has his first tooth! I discovered it yesterday. He hardly fussed while teething at all, just drooled a bunch.

Holidays are in full force

And so is cold season. Stephen started with a cough last week and then it hit me and Ethan. Stephen just has the runny nose now, and not too bad, but Ethan and I are still pretty miserable. I'm not getting any sleep with it, but luckily the boys are both sleeping tons so that's good.

We went to a Christmas dinner last night in St. Augustine. Brian's Aunt and Uncles were there so we had it at Gram's house. It was super good. There were some presents and I think Stephen figured out from that what all those things under our tree are! Today he was much more interested in them than normal. Thank heavens for the baby gate keeping him out of the front room.

The stray cat is still around. We have decided it's a boy. Still not coming up to us too much or letting us pet it. I guess he's not worried about it getting too cold. Looks like it's just going to be an outside cat then. I still need to catch it and get it shots and fixed. I'm sure the Vet's office is going to love that; "Um, this cat is pretty much wild, but we'd like you to give it shots and surgery." But what ya gonna do?

Friday we went to Brian's work party. It was called "Snow in the Citi" and they did have snow. Stephen loved playing in it, even though all the big kids were throwing snowballs at us the whole time. I had flip flops on because it was a warm day and let me tell you they offer no traction on packed snow! I almost fell right on my butt a few times! We also saw Santa and decorated cookies. There was an ice skating show too which Stephen thought was great. Ethan just looked all pitiful and slept some. Poor sick baby.

Way behind, let's blame the holidays

Well things are busy as usual around here, but great news! Ethan has not been a good nap taker his whole life. (yea the entire 6 months he's been here hehe) So this week I started putting him in for a nap, turning off the light and trying to block out his fussing. Well the past two days it has worked! He's slept for hours. And he's still ready for bed at the normal time. And so much friendlier in the evening. The best part... It's the same time Stephen is taking a nap! So I have two babies napping for hours at the same time! I feel like I've recovered a whole new part of myself! I've been crafting and cleaning and talking on the phone with friends and I even took one nap! It's amazing what a few hours of free time will do for ya.

Ethan is still working on getting around, he doesn't quite crawl yet. He does eat now though, he seems to like sweet potatoe best. Oh he only likes peas if I actually smash up real peas, he doesn't care for the ones in the jars. So you know what I did right? I tasted the jar ones and they are NOT as good! So I'm going to just smash peas for him from now on. My mom got me a cool book about making your own baby food so I'm going to do some of those recipes. (Thanks to Julie who recomended it)

Well we are getting ready for Christmas. We will have 12 people here, counting Ethan, who doesn't eat Christmas food, so maybe shouldn't count. I'm doing a ham and all the regular sides. I also made 24 Christmas ornaments and of course I made all the Christmas cards again.

Speaking of Christmas my parents are spoiling the boys I think! There is a mountain of presents under the tree! I have no idea where I'm going to put all that stuff. But it will be fun for sure! (and I think some of that stuff is for me!)

Talk to you soon!