Please pass the Grey Poupon

Reese loves mustard! She obviously got this from her father, because I hate the stuff unless it is mixed in with something else (like my aunt's awesome potato salad). Anyhoo, Reese loves mustard, but unfortunately cannot pronounce the word. Whenever we have mustard at the dinner table, she says, "I want some muster!" We may have to teach her the catchphrase of the 90's, "Please pass the Grey Poupon", so that others can understand what she is asking for!

Room to breathe!

The toy situation was getting out of control in our house! The kids get everything out in the living room, toy room and both bedrooms and never clean up. I would be ok with them getting everything out, but they don't play with any of it! They have a select few items that they constantly fight over. As long as one has one of the coveted toys, the other wants it. As soon as I distract the one with something else, the child with the toy is finished with it! It is so frustrating to constantly be breaking up fights over toys all the while tripping over the abundance of toys that don't get touched.
Tonight I reached my breaking point and we moved all of the toys down to the basement toy room. This way at least if all of the toys are out and scattered all over the place, it is not the first thing that people see upon entering our house. I am sure that the toys will eventually work their way back upstairs, but at least for now I feel like my living room can breathe.
Now that all of the toys are moved, I need to begin the daunting task of going through the toys and weeding out the ones that they don't play with or are broken. Though I don't think that I will be able to get rid of very many toys (I have more of an attachment to some of them than the kids do!), I do plan to put some of them away in a closet. It seems like putting some of the toys away and switching them out every few weeks keeps the toys new to the kids and more interesting to play with. Being in the basement tonight was actually enough of a change in environment to keep the kids playing nicely while I was working on decluttering the rest of the house of toys. Hopefully the change in environment along with a weeding out of toys will make play time a little bit less of a hassle and a lot more fun!

Oh the drama!

While racing her cousin the other day, Reese tripped and skinned her knee on the concrete. We fixed her up with a bandaid and after 30 minutes of sulking in the car she finally rejoined her cousins to play. When we got home later that night, she asked me to take the bandaid off. I obliged and pulled it off as quickly as I could. After several minutes of whimpering in pain she finally revealed how much pain she was in, "Mommy, I feel like I am dying!"

Easter 2011

My daughter woke me up at 6:30 am, ecstatic that the Easter bunny had come and left her a basketful of goodies. She dove right into her basket, eating as much candy as she could.

Aidan was equally excited to see his basket when he woke up a few minutes later.

The kids then got to try out their gifts from mom and dad. Reese got Just Dance 2 for the Wii and Aidan got a four wheeler:


They would have ridden that thing all day, but eventually we went in to get ready for the day. Here are my babies all dolled up!

We got in the car and drove to my uncle's for brunch with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids. We only see some of these people once a year and it is always great to get together.
Before leaving to head back home, we got together to take a family picture. How long can it take to get 18 people together for a photo? Quite awhile! We asked my cousin to take a family photo with my siblings and all of our kids at our recent Easter brunch. She thought it would be funny to document the process of getting our whole group together:


Still gathering kids who were having too much fun to be bothered with photography!

The gang is all here, but we need to fill in the gaps.

Passing babies around! My god, our family multiplies like rabbits!

Looking pretty good, but why is my brother-in-law hiding in the back?

Finally, almost everyone is looking at the camera! My daughter is crying, Parker looks like she is chocking and my husband and I are too tall to be standing in the front, but we have proof that we were all toghether for Easter!

Though I knew the kids were tired and cranky, we tried for a photograph of just our family:

My daughter is still crying, my son looks like he is trying to look down my dress and my husband looks like he has been goosed! My husband did not understand why I wanted to even try taking a picture because he knew that it would not turn out. I said it is not about having a perfect picture, but actually to remember the moment! I will always remember that the kids had a great time running and playing with their cousins and were just worn out and overstimulated from the days activities.

After a quick nap in the car the kids were nice and refreshed for the remainder of the days activities. We had an egg hunt with their cousins from my husband's side of the family.



Then the kids played which allowed us a nice chance to visit with family. It was a wonderful and fun day with all of our family!

A new tradition

We have several traditions for Easter, including baskets full of goodies from the Easter bunny, brunch with my extended family and dinner with my husband's family. As a kid I remember dying eggs but we have never tried it with the kids. Finally, this year I decided that we needed to add egg dying to our Easter traditions.
Fortunately for me, the carton of eggs gave easy directions for boiling eggs! I told you the last time I did this I was a kid and we do not eat hard boiled eggs, egg salad or deviled eggs. After boiling the eggs, I set up all of the supplies from a kit we had purchased. I got Reese a pair of gloves to wear to prevent staining her hands with the dye. Then she picked the colors which I squeezed into the baggie with the egg. We then rubbed the dye into the egg. She really wanted to do it by herself, but I was afraid of the egg falling out of the baggie.

I then sat Aidan down to help me color the eggs. He picked colors as well as he could (repeating the color choices I gave him) and really enjoyed rubbing the color into the egg.

When we were finished we had nine beautifully tie-dyed eggs!

It was a lot of fun, but I think that next year we will try a different method to give the kids a little bit more freedom to do it by themselves.

Yuck lemonade!

Reese: "Yuck! Mommy this must be yuck lemonade because it tastes yucky!"

Aunt Steffy

While at the airport waiting for Randy's flight to come in, a man and his granddaughter were sitting near us. After they announced the arrival of Randy's flight, the man turned to his granddaughter and told her that it was time to go see Steffy. Aidan's face lit up and he ran up to the man. He grabbed the man's hand and started pulling him by the hand while saying, "Steffy, I wanna see Steffy!" The man looked very confused until I explained that we also had an aunt Steffy in our family. Aidan thought that the man knew his aunt Steffy and was disappointed to learn that was not the case. He was only slightly more excited to see his dad arrive a few minutes later!

Cruising

On any day that we are able to go outside, you will see Aidan driving his purple cozy coupe!

Cool Moves

My friend recently sent me some of her daughters' clothes which were getting to small. Out of the boxes of cute clothes Reese found a little leotard which she would wear daily if I let her!

Last night Reese was dancing around the house to her cd player in her leotard when she said, "Mom, I got some cool moves!"
We have got to get this girl in some dance classes!

Daddy has big boobs!

Since our trip to Florida Reese has been taking showers. The other night while helping her in the shower, we had the following conversation:

Reese: "Mommy, these are my boobs."

Me: "Yes, honey those are your breasts."

Reese: "I have little boobs and mommy and daddy have big boobs!"

Me: "Yes we do, but I will let you tell daddy that little tidbit!"

Scared of the dark

This afternoon while playing outside, Reese and I went inside to change her shoes. I left the doors between the garage, pantry and sunroom open. After changing Reese's shoes, I got distracted with getting the patio chair cushions out of the attic and putting them on the chairs on the front deck. About 10-15 minutes later I decided to go to the backyard to check on Aidan (whom I had left outside with his father). As I rounded the garage, I heard Aidan crying. I ran into the garage and pulled open the garage door to the house and found him shut in the pantry in the dark and screaming! He must have followed Randy into the house and somehow both doors closed on him. I immediately picked him up and he snuggled right into my shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. He kept saying, "dark", "scared". I carried him out onto the deck and rocked with him for a good five minutes before he calmed down. After he calmed down, I offered to go get him some jelly beans. Reese was so sweet and offered to snuggle with him while I ran in the house to get the jelly beans. She sat on the porch swing and I helped to sit him in her lap. I heard him telling her all about his ordeal in the dark, scary room as I ran into the house to get them a snack. It made my heart melt to see them comforting each other! It made me realize that they do love each other and can lean on each other in tough times.

My ABC's

I just saw this on a blog that I follow and thought that it would be fun to do. If you’ve done it, leave me the link to your post in the comments! I love learning random facts about you guys. :)


{a} age: 30

{b} bed size: Queen - My husband has tried talking me into a king, but I like the closeness.


{c} chore you hate: I actually love cleaning, except for toilets and showers!

{d} dogs: none! We had pets before children and were not very good pet parents! (One was run over by a car and the other was so naughty we returned him to the pound.) Fortunately that was not an indicator as to how we would be as parents to children.

{e} essential start to your day: shower. I do not feel awake until I have had my shower.

{f} favorite color: lime green.

{g} gold or silver: Silver or white gold.

{h} height: 5’9”

{i} instruments you play: I played the clarinet for 8 years, but am not sure that I could still play it today!

{j} job title: Currently a Special Education Aide. Next year I will start working as a substitute teacher.

{k} kids: two. Reese (3) and Aidan (2). I guess 3 if you count my husband, Randy.


{l} live: Princeton, IA

{m} mom's name: Laura. Here she is with her pride and joy, her grandkids.


{n} nicknames: My friends call me Aubs. My husband calls me babes.

{o} overnight hospital stays: tonsils and adnoids as a child, for depression in high school, and childbirth as an adult.

{p} pet peeves: people not picking up after themselves.

{q} quote from a movie: "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."

{r} right- or left-handed: left handed

{s} siblings: 3 younger brothers and 1 younger sister. My mom named us in alphabetical order (Aubrey, Brandon, Courtney, Devin & Elliot).


{t} time you wake up: 5 am during the week and as late as 6:30 on non-working days!

{u} underwear: Victoria's Secret

{v} vegetables you dislike: I like vegetables, I just don't choose to eat them as much as I should.

{w} what makes you run late: changing clothes 100 times, the kids not cooperating.

{x} x-rays you've had: Broken leg, sprained wrist

{y} yummy food you make: I do not really like to cook. We make whatever is quick and easy. My husband does like my chicken and rice baked with cream of mushroom soup, but everything else comes from a recipe from his mom!

{z} zoo - favorite animal: monkeys and panda bears.

Now you know just a little bit about me, that you never really wanted to know!