Mad Tree Decorating Skills

Or at least, I like to say they are, because then I'm not so sad that pretty much none of our ornaments survived to Christmas.

A few weeks ago, we decorated our tree.  I thought it was going to be super easy as I now have TWO toddlers who would LOVE decorating a tree.  I opened up the box that contains all the decorations, and Grayson took out the bag full of unbreakable ornaments that we would be using.



He grabbed some out of the bag, and I showed him how to place them on the tree.  He got excited.  Claire got excited.  Ethan is always excited.  This was going to be great!

After maybe 4 minutes, Grayson got bored and spent the rest of tree decorating time doing this.



In case you don't get what "this" is, he was taking the ornaments out of the bag, and rolling them so far under the tree I had to army crawl under it to fetch them.  He thought this was HYSTERICAL.  Me?  Not so much.  A few fake pine needles happened to make their way behind my glasses to greet my eye as I crawled around under the tree.  Super.

After an hour of fighting with lights, fishing for Christmas balls and repeatedly saying, "No, don't throw that.  No, don't touch that.  No, do not throw balls at your brother's/sister's head/face!" we finally got it all put together.  Notice the sideways star.  That's how we roll.



It looked great for about 24 hours.  It no longer looks like this.  They have (they being Claire and Grasyon) managed to break even unbreakable ornaments.  They've pulled the strings out and have pretty much unraveled yarn from all of them, except for a few at the top.  It's a good thing Target has pretty awesome Christmas clearance, because I'm going to need it.

Baby Curls

We've been having Claire evaluated at the Primary school in town for some speech concerns we've been having and so she can start school next fall as planned. Little does she know, that means potty training. It will be done!!!

A few weeks ago, I took this picture of Grayson.


I set the baby gates up at both of the entrances to the kitchen while I was unpacking and cleaning up. I didn't want him to be under foot while I was trying to organize things. He stood outside happily while I swept and mopped and sang the ABC's too many times to count.

Last week, after a short 30 minute meeting at the primary school with Claire, we shuffled in from the cold. I heard Grayson squeal and his little feet start their short run from the kitchen to the top of the stairs. I was bent down taking off Claire's coat when I heard him say, "Hi! Hi, mommy!" I looked up, and this is what I was met with.


While Claire and I were meeting with the speech teacher and the woman doing the evaluations, David had cut Grayson's hair! All of his beautiful, beautiful baby curls were gone. And, David made the first baby haircut no no...He threw Grayson's hair in the garbage!!! Everyone knows you DON'T DO THAT!! Don't worry, I dug some out.

Granted, it was probably about time for his first haircut. He was constantly brushing hair out of his face during play. Still, I was reluctant. Once the curls come off, they don't come back. And I miss them. I really miss them. He doesn't look like a baby anymore, he looks like a little boy.


And I just don't know if I'm happy about that...

Home Sweet Home

I am finally not busy for a few minutes. I know, it's shocking. You miss me. A lot.

We've been in our new home for a little over a month now, and we love it. There is so much space for the kids to run and play. There's tons of storage. It kind of feels like a blank canvas that I don't know what to do with.

Want to know what it looks like? You're in luck. I'm sharing pictures today! Please, ignore any mess. They were taken not long after move in. Also, please ignore the almost naked Claire with the big black dot covering her. She's in several pictures. Here we go!

You have of course seen the outside of the house a few times now. But, hell, let's see it again!

This is what the rest of the neighborhood looks like.

And now, you get to see the inside!!!

This is what you see when you walk in the front door. Grayson is almost always there, with Teddy sitting right next to him.

And this is what it looks like looking down.

Don't worry, the door wasn't just all open for no reason. David was coming in. He kinda ruined my photographer moment.

This is what our living room looks like.

We like the color. We don't like the hint of crayon that the previous owner's children added to it.

This is what the dining room looks like. At breakfast time. And at pretty much any meal time.

This is our kitchen from the dining room.

And then from the window. (And time out for my GLASS TOP STOVE..(insert excited squeal and high five here)..Please ignore the garbage can. Unpacking does that.)..

This is Claire's room. Super purple. I really want to paint it. The purple kinda kills me a little.

This is our room...And Grayson. It used to be the same color as Claire's. The room, not Grayson. Two coats of paint and as many ruined shirts later, I got it to be this color. Please, ignore our moving in mess. Also, see my super awesome arrows. The previous owners apparently didn't know what painters tape is. They painted the ceiling in every room with big color splotches, and used masking tape to line their borders. I've been scraping it off for weeks.

This is the crazy colored upstairs bathroom that made my mother ask me if we bought our house from a pimp. No really, she did.

And now we head downstairs, where you'll find Ethan's room.

Grayson's room

The laundry room that scares me. Seriously. I don't know what to do with this room.

And the downstairs living room.

So far, our neighborhood is lovely. I haven't had a chance to explore much by foot. It's gotten quite cold. We'll have to wait until spring. I'm enjoying only driving 5-10 minutes to get groceries versus 30-40 minutes. I've been trying to find a part time job near by. So far, no luck. I hear Carter's calling my name though. I'd love to work there. It probably wouldn't be good for my paycheck though. I'd give it right back.

So, now that I'm not as busy, I'll be back. I have lots of posts saved up. Look for one soon. I'll be catching up on you tomorrow.