Who needs a vacuum...

...when you have a growing boy to do the job for you?Yesterday morning I gave the boys a huge bowl of cheerios to eat for breakfast. About a half an hour later I thought they were done eating, and then I saw Gabriel taking the opportunity to "vacuum" up the few they had dropped. Looking around for some more... He found them, yummy!

Now it is time to wash them all down. I will take whatever kind of help I can get to keep my house clean. (Even if it is not the most sanitary way. Thanks Gabriel! )

Yes, We Do Celebrate Valentine's Day.

I have just been slacking on the blogging here lately. Valentine's Day was actually a lot of fun this year. We didn't do anything real extravagant we just had a quiet day together as a family and that night Matt and I went out...alone. That morning I got up and made pink heart-shaped pancakes with a side of yummy bananas. (This picture came out blurry. I realized later that I had little fingerprints on my lens. It was Gabriel no doubt.)We were even lucky enough to have some very special quests join us for our breakfast full of love.The Yo Gabba Gabba cast! Seriously, Matt and I agree that buying them was the best $7.00 we have ever spent. Kaia LOVES them. They have to go to bed with her every night and they are often found eating with her too. And heaven forbid we lose one. She definitely notices and we always have to send out our Daddy/Mommy Search and Rescue Team to find the lost little friend. Anyway...back to the subject on hand here. A few weeks before Valentine's Day I was shopping at Target and found little metal mailboxes for $1.00. I picked three up and thought they would be really cute for the holiday and for the kids to play with after.I bought the wooden pieces from Micheals for $0.33 and the ribbon and stickers I already had. Then I just filled them with a little candy. The kids seem to like them. Kaia was so excited for all the candy. She literally tore the box of her conversation hearts open. I have proof:The boys were too busy trying to figure out the mailbox. I don't think that they realized that there was anything in it. That darn lid was just so facinating! LOLThen, later we showed them the candy. The conversation hearts were a hit for them too. Except they didn't eat them, they just ran around the house shaking the box. LOL Matt and I weren't complaining. Candy isn't good for them anyway. Here is a very satisfied little girl. She can't help it that she loves sugar and candy like her mama! Oh and the black mark under her nose is not a bruise. She was doing her make up with me that morning and she grabbed my black eye shadow. I caught her before it was all over her face. I guess I missed that spot when I was cleaning her up. Later that night our good friends, Brain and Stephanie, came over and watched the kids for us while we enjoyed an evening to ourselves. It was nothing fancy just dinner and a walk around the mall. Matt did surprise me with beautiful pink roses the day before. I love flowers! But we decided not to get any big gifts because the movie Twilight and Resident Evil 5 (a video game) is coming out in March. We figured those could be our gifts. Oh and Matt said he would watch Twilight with me, so I don't mind waiting. I hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day full of candy, chocolate, and of course LOVE!

Play Date at the Park...in February?!

Can you believe it? Yesterday was a much warmer 55 degrees! I was so excited and decided I would meet some friends at the park for a play date. Sure it was wet, marshy, and muddy but we didn't care. Kaia was so proud. She didn't need my help getting to the slide and going down. Awww, she IS growing up. Gabriel pretty much stayed in the same spot. (He is the one sitting.) Gatlin is a little more of a wanderer so he made his way around. But, they both found the bark very interesting.
Ooops! Maybe a little too interesting. I guess it tasted good too. I could not get them to stop chewing on it. Oh well a little dirt and wood never hurt anyone right? Boys will be boys.

Doesn't this picture say it all? We had the best time and so did the mud puddles. It was so nice to be outside again. These Cleveland winters sure are long. It's not so bad though if you can have a few days like this thrown in there.

Pajama Riding on a Friday Night.

Last night after we fed the kids dinner, we decided to bathe them and take them for a pajama ride. (Gabriel was so chill...as usual.)
(Gatlin was so tired. He was the only one to fall asleep.)
(Kaia was just singing away. I think we heard "Twinkle, Twinkle" about 5 times. She was in a great mood!)

This night brought back lots of memories from when I was a little girl. When we lived in California we would take a ride into the hills of our town. We would look out over the city until the sunset. Then we would sit and look at the city lights and try to find our house. It was always such a fun and peaceful time. Here in Ohio we do not have any hills or mountains but we did drive around and watch the sunset. We had such a great time. It's moments like these that I wish could last forever.

Why I love Diet Pepsi and Taylor Swift and Why Pink Isn't My Favorite Color Right Now.

I got up today with every intention of taking the kids to Burger King again. For the past two days the weather has actually been sunny and quite pleasant. We were able to make a trip to Wal-Mart, bake cookies, play, enjoy the sunshine, etc. Today some friends wanted to get together for another girl's birthday. I was really excited and thought that it would be a lot of fun. Matt woke me by accident this morning. It was really early. He said he had to get going because it was really bad outside. "Oh, great!," I thought. I rolled back over and went to sleep. Then Kaia came bouncing in later saying her usual, "Hi, hey, hello!" We went potty and laid back down for a little while. I remembered that we were suppose to go hang out so I thought I had better get up. I looked out the window and saw nothing but white! Yikes! It was really bad. There was so much snow I could hardly see the trees in our backyard. We were on a lake effect snow warning until noon and our playdate was at 1:00. I figured it would clear up. After getting the boys ready for the day I noticed that Gatlin's eyes were still red, er PINK. Matt and I noticed this yesterday evening and thought that he was just really tired. (If you have been keeping up with the last few posts you will know that my children have been sick for like EVER.) During lunch it hit me...he has PINK eye. Are you kidding me? As if we haven't been sick enough already. (Poor little Gat-man. He is not happy.)

Sitting by the window I also realized that I didn't live in Louisiana anymore so the weather wasn't going to change in an hour or so. (F.Y.I They say down south that if you don't like the weather wait 10 minutes and it will change. And it is so true!) With a sick baby and the blizzard we had brewing outside I knew my playdate was not going to happen. =c( That is ok though we could still have a good day. I had a lot of laundry to do anyway. So we went about the day as usual. For quiet time I decided to play on the computer in my room while the kiddos watched a movie. I have decided that quiet time sometimes just isn't worth it. I came out of my room and smelled the poop which is really nothing new in my house. I went looking for the boys but found HER instead. Kaia has been potty trained since November but decided to poop in her pants and play in it. I will spare the details. Lets just say about an hour later Kaia, the bathroom, and her bed were all poop free.

(She really isn't as cute and innocent as she looks. Beware of this child.)

Seriously, I had had it and decided I needed some Hershey Kisses and a Diet Pepsi. I am not much of a soda drinker but somedays I need a little extra boost from caffeine. Today was definitely that day. The only positive thing that came out of Kaia and her poop project was that I wasn't going to have to bathe her later. The day really flew by I was vaccuuming, disinfecting, continuing the laundry (I had a few extra loads all of a sudden), and started dinner. Then, the day was good. For Christmas my brother-in-law, Daniel, bought me the Taylor Swift CD "Fearless". I LOVE the song "Love Story" and so does Kaia. If you put that song on she starts singing and dancing.

(Kaia doing her dance. I guess she is pretty cute.)

It has become a part of our bathtime routine. I have a CD player in the boy's room which is across from the bathroom. We put the song on, everyone is quiet and cooperates. It is nice on the nights I am doing this on my own. I didn't have to bathe Kaia so she just danced and sung while I took care of the boys.

(My favorite time of the day, bathtime)

It was at this point of the day I forgave her and remembered why I do what I do everyday. Even though she can be a couple of handfuls sometimes she is just too cute for words and you can't help but love her. The rest of the night went smoothly, Matt made it home safely, we had a nice quiet dinner, and we hung out with some friends. Today was rough but my Diet Pepsi and Taylor Swift CD came to my rescue. Looking at these pictures and typing this is making me miss my babies. Every night I can't wait to see them in the morning and I am curious to know what they will put me through that day. Being a mother is not easy but yes, it is so worth it.