Poker Party Pictures

Jason was able to snag these from the guy who took them (Keith) online album, since Britty was looking for some...

A well-stocked fridge...


The set-up...


My man, the host...




My man with his boss (Michael) in the background...


Michael (J's boss again) and Neil (J's former officemate)...


Rob (J's current officemate and Kaiden's dad)...


Keith's (he's the one taking the pictures, remember) attempt at being artistic, which I can totally appreciate:

J is amused that the Surgeron General's Warning you see there states that cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes.

And Keith thinks Keystone Light is a funny beer to drink...so that's what he brought to the party while he smoked the skinny cigarillos seen above...


Keith is a very very amusing guy. Jason brightens many of my days (which are already quite bright!) with the occasional "Keith story". So here he is, the man behind the camera...


And there you have it, a smattering of pictures from a party I wasn't invited to. :)

My Preschool Hooligan

After naps and Q.T. yesterday we went to Walgreens so I could begin my bargain shopping for the week. I did pretty well stocking up on kids Tylenol and Motrin (and Tylenol Cold) for CHEAP as well as a couple things that will be free with their rebates. Nice.

Next we headed over to Wal-Mart for the fixin's for spaghetti and an apple crisp. I was talking on the phone with my childhood best friend (Hi Kelli!) in the morning and apple crisp came up. I couldn't get it out of my head so I had to make one. And spaghetti was a nice, simple choice that everyone in the house will eat so I went with it as peeling and chopping 5 cups of apples is somewhat labor intensive.

What did the boys do while I did all that peeling and chopping? They watched a free rental from Redbox.

You want to know how to brighten someone's day? Show up at a crowded Redbox station with a free code in hand and offer it to everyone there. I shared it with the 3 people in front of me and the woman who later came behind me. Everyone likes free stuff, right? They all sure did.

So we had a fun dinner...

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Followed by yummy apple crisp a la mode.

Dalton slept through the night again. Looking back, he slept through two nights, then he woke up at about 5:00 a.m. the next two nights. We gave him water one night and nothing the second night. And like I said, last night he slept through again...hopefully we're moving that direction as a more frequent occurence.

Today was school. Easton did fantastic for drop off once again. Even though there was a substitue today. Mrs. M prepared them last week for this, only I didn't really know it. Easton told me that that she was going "to the mountains with all the teachers" for a professional retreat...and they don't have school on Thursday because of this. But apparently Mrs. M is special and is getting things set up for everyone else or something? She wasn't there but E walked in and talked to the sub which I was glad to see.

I wish I could say that Dalton and I had a fantastic Easton-less bonding session but today we didn't. We ate breakfast (apple crisp for me!) and then I emptied the dishwasher, folded some laundry, made dinner in the Crock-Pot and chopped and mixed the black bean salad we'll have with it... Before long it was time to get Bubbs. His class was on the playground when we drove by. Easton was in the sandbox. Dalton and I went inside to wait with the other parents. I saw Easton coming down the hall...what a spaz! He was the only one not walking normally...he was skipping and bouncing. While I don't like that he's the class goob, I loved seeing him be happy at school. He saw me and shouted, "Mama!!!" all happily but he had to go back in the class for a more official dismissal and hand-shaking.

He came out and we hugged and he went to get his backpack. While he was doing that the twin girls came out and I overheard one of them announce promptly to her grandmother, "Easton pushed me."

What!?!?!?

The grandmother said, "What's that? Let's move over here so I can hear you better." I said, "I want to hear too because that's my kid she's talking about!" So yeah, basically the little girl said that Easton pushed her on the playground because her twin sister was in the way. He didn't even push the right kid? Okay, I know. There's no "right" kid to push, of course. I'm just saying...

So then I talked to Easton about it. He confirmed that yes he pushed her because he wanted to line up next to Isaac and I guess she was there. She didn't fall or cry. But she told Mrs. L (the assistant teacher). He said it was a little push.

I'm shocked. Surely there must be another Easton in the class that she was talking about? Because he's my sweet boy who never does anything wrong (not!) I'm trying to rationalize it. Like, surely the girl is just an over-sensitive tattle tale. But I know that's not right either. Easton is not known for being physical with other kids...but I know that it doesn't mean it can't happen, he's hit another kid before although for the life of me I currently can't remember when or who.

Anyway, the school incident today must not have been too big of a deal because Mrs. L didn't mention it to me. The twins' grandma wasn't thinking it was a big deal at all. She saw me talking to E about it and that he was upset. She told him, "It's okay...bye Ethan!" Hee hee.

So then I have this big dilemma about wanting to make sure Easton knows to keep his hands to himself, to use his words, and to just friggin' deal with it if he can't stand next to Isaac for thirty seconds. But I also don't want to make it such a painful ordeal that he starts to get sad about school again and having a "bad experience" there. It's a fine line, I must say. He's a strange kid, you know.

I think we're done talking about it. He's really embarassed and from the way the grandma reacted "Why did he push you?", from the way no one else said anything about it, and all that, I think even if I tried to unbias myself I'd see that the little girl is probably a bit of a tattle tale. I'm certain there was contact between the two of them. Easton even said there was. But I doubt it was a full-fledged two-handed shove or anything. I bet it was more of an aggressive elbowing for the next spot in line. I tried to get him to demonstrate at home but he was embarassed and wasn't playing along. Oh well.

Now, part of me is like, oh crap...do I call the parents and apologize? Will they call me? This is my first experience with anything like this. I pray that he does not become a bully. Trying to see the positives, I'm thrilled that he likes Issac--the friend I picked out for him--enough to fight over standing next to him in line.

Anyway, while Easton earned another sticker for his chart we did not go do anything fun even though he was asking to go play at a park. Just because of his not keeping his hands to himself or however it all went down. Instead we came home for lunch in front of a repeat showing of yesterday's Redbox rental. Gotta turn it back in later, you know, to keep it free and all...

Easton is acting like he's going to take a nap now, after nearly an hour of playing quietly in his room with music on. Hmmmmm.

But that's all I've got for today, folks. The one measly picture and the long-ish video. Catch you on the flip side! Adios!

Catching Up

Sorry it's been awhile, especially for me. But on Friday, instead of blogging, I had Lauren come up to babysit the boys and I went out to take care of a few things. Lauren is looking for extra cash to pay for the make-up she's looking to buy for her future career training and I took her up on it!

I went out and got my hair cut, did some shopping for my free Clinique gift with purchase, and then went to get my brows waxed. Good times.

Here's my hair the way the hair dresser did it:


And here it is today in the "wash and wear" laziness I'm known for:


I don't love it, but it's fine. I liked my 'do in February (the last time I got it cut!!!) much better but that salon disappeared and I have no way of finding that fab hair do-er girl. :(

Friday night found Jason hosting a poker party here at the house with 8 of his closest work pals. We've never been big entertainers so I'm proud of J for doing something like this. Because of the cigar smoking they had it in the garage. Jason brought out lots of lamps, they set up four card tables to make one big table. Rob wisely bought a tablecloth to put over all of them. Someone brought poker chips, lots of them brought cigars, everyone brought beer. We got chips and dip and pretzels and J played some music from his mp3 player through his truck's speakers and they had hours and hours of fun coming inside only to use the bathroom.

The boys and I stayed out of their way. J got home from work a little early to set up and see us:




Then he went to set up and the boys and I went to Noodles for dinner. Both boys were so well behaved and ate so well. We got a Rice Krispy treat for afterwards and I pulled off a big hunk to give to Easton. He must've thought I'd given him the whole thing because he pulled off a chunk and gave it to Dalton and another chunk for me. What a sweetie!!! We called Jason at that point to see if they wanted us to pick up pizza while we were out versus paying someone to deliver it. Easton said, "Who are you talking to?" and I told him and he said, "You can't talk to him! He's eating pretzels!" which is basically his way of saying..."Daddy is busy having a party that we bought pretzels for." Anyway, we ended up swinging by the pizza place on our way home and picked up their pizzas before bringing them to the garage. We said a quick hello and then a quick goodbye and I got the boys off to baths and bed and settled in with some onion dip I'd reserved for myself to have with my Grey's Anatomy.

It was weirding me out to have people (some who I did not know) coming in and out of my house. I had the boys in their rooms with their doors shut and I was in my room with the door shut. I was so afraid two people would want to use the bathroom at once and someone would come upstairs or something. So I closed the baby gate. That made me feel safe enough to finally fall asleep, I guess. :)

In the morning Jason offered to take us out for breakfast and took the boys to go get dressed:


After breakfast we all headed to E's swimming class. He did well:




After class we did nap/quiet time and then we decided to go to Elitch's. These pics are all with J's camera phone:




We were finally brave enough to let Dalton do the airplanes. In the past we'd been afraid he'd get tired of it and stand up while way up high in the air and fall out. But he's been doing well on the lower-to-the-ground rides so we let him do it:

As they were flying by the ride operator was like, "Look at your little son" in a "he's so cute" way. Then he added, "I wouldn't have trusted him on the ride". Oh, thanks for telling us now that he's all the way up there, dude. But luckily D did just fine. Whew.

Then we went to check out a brand new ride. It's called "Ghost Blasters" and it's similar to the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at Disney. Except without all the cool Disney stuff. Mostly it's "scary" stuff that you "blast" with a laser gun in a black light environment as your car goes through the house on a track. Both boys were able to ride it and neither was scared or even used their guns (we're anti-gun, here). We had to wait for SO long to ride it...because it's new to the park, everyone and their mother was in line:


After that Easton and I did a spin on the Spider. It's one of the few rides in the main part of the park that he's tall enough for:


We came home and did dinner and bed. Jason watched LSU win.

Sunday morning found Jason back at the church he'd tested last week. The main pastor wasn't there last week (that always seems to happen to us!) and so he went back. He liked the main guy too so I'm going to check it out next week!

Stuck back at home, the boys and I made muffins. For the first time I let them both help:


Then Easton took some pictures:








The boys and I ran to the store after our muffins, mostly to get me a newspaper full of coupons again--and hey...anyone who gets coupons, doesn't use them, and wants to send them to me feel free ;)

We met up with Jason back home to watch the early Broncos game. Cannot believe they lost!! Oh well. We ran to Guitar Center after that because we had yet another coupon and Jason was able to get a little something for himself.

Came back home for dinner and then Easton proposed a quick trip to the park so we did that before bed. Fun.

This morning was doughnut day...and I've been catching up on a little laundry. And we sat to do some crafts from G-Ma and July:


Dalton's got his first Foamie and got to try his hand at that:








Easton's robot in a spaceship craft is a little more complicated than we thought so parts of it are drying during quiet time. But he was able work on the robot part. "Let's give him some nipples!" he said:




I have to figure out tonight's dinner still and then we'll probably go buy the stuff for it.

That's about all that's going on over here. But before we go, here's a silly video of Dalton from the weekend. Watch his eyebrows...he'd started raising them to the beat of the song causing me to crack up. It wasn't quite as funny or in time with the music once I'd whipped out the camera, but they're still little cuties:

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Till next time!

Miss Jenny Day

Dalton's AussieROO teacher and the librarian at Circle Time are both called Miss Jenny. Funny.

First, we must go back to yesterday. Easton was good and then bad and then great. As we were out running errands we had to go to Chipotle for some pico de gallo I needed for dinner. Holding Dalton on my hip and Easton's hand I let go of E's hand when we got on the sidewalk so that I could open the door to the restaurant. I turned around to watch him walk in. Only E wasn't there! Seriously he disappeared as quickly as David Copperfield. I thought maybe he was behind a large post hiding. I went around it. Nope. Where the frick was he? After about 20 seconds of heart-pounding searching I saw that he'd gone onto the patio and went into a side door. I walked over him and tried to give him a very stern talking to about how wrong that was. He wasn't listening. He was looking away and whining. So he got hauled into his carseat for a time out while Dalton and I stood behind the car and waited. Then we had the talking to I tried to give him earlier. I was sooooo not happy. In the restaurant (finally) he knew he was in hot water and stuck right by me as expected. Stinker.

But at home I was going to fix dinner and turned on a TV show for the boys to watch while I cooked but E asked, "Can you snuggle me?" so I jumped at the chance to reconnect with both my boys. Dinner could wait. And it did. Easton was very well behaved the rest of the night.

And when J got home I was able to brag on all my savings: I'd bought the boys' Halloween costumes, right?...well the next day (yesterday) coupons for that store arrived in my mailbox and they would've saved us $15!!! So I marched back into the store to return the costumes and buy them again with the coupons. And lots of you are asking what the boys are going to be...do you not know me at all? ;) Of course I'll be waiting for a later date to do a "big reveal"...with pictures. I won't make you wait all the way till Halloween...and it'll probably be easy to figure out their outfits as we let the boys pic their own (Diddles too).

We also went to Target where I did some fabulous couponing...I "stacked" a Target coupon with a manufacturer coupon to save $2.50 on a $2.79 bag of chocolate chips (insane, right?) and Cheerios are on sale at Targs, plus I had mega-coupons so we got boxes of Cheerios for $1.75 each...they're normally nearly $4 a box! I was so proud of myself. What am I gonna do with all that cereal? Well, the Cheerios website has lots of cute snack ideas and even muffins to make. I'll be sure to share recipes if we taste any winners.

Today Easton has been perfect so far. I had to wake both boys up this morning but we got Easton ready for school. Today was picture day so he's looking super slick. I had him practice his smile for me:


Wearing a new pair of shoes:


We dropped him off at school. Another boy was in there simply wailing away. :( Sounded much like Easton a few weeks ago. It made Easton a little tentative and I saw him start walking a little slower and he asked Mrs. M about it. She said, "Yeah...he's having a hard time today. You remember when you were having a hard time?" But he went off to play with Isaac and was fine.

Dalton and I chatted with Kylie and Caleb and then we went to the bakery for a bite to eat. My Diddlebug is so cute and loves to carry his little cooler with his sippy cup in it:


We sat and ate...the highchair I'd picked up was filthy so I just had D sit next to me on the bench seat. He noticed my camera in my purse and insisted on a, "Cheese!"


Actually we had the whole bench to ourselves so D spread out a few tables down from me:


Then we were off to AussieROO and the young Miss Jenny. Class was great. Dalton did well. He got monkey stamps on his hands. He's really starting to learn the routine. Even getting out of the car there he shouted, "Yay!" and clapped. Then he knew we had to take off our shoes and where we put them. Then he pointed at the door to the room and said, "Roo! Roo!" What fun. I love having a little class to focus just on him for awhile. It's one reason I was so looking forward to preschool for E: D time.

After AussieROO we headed to Circle Time at the 'brary with the old(er) Miss Jenny. There was 50 kids there today!!! I'm not sure we'll go back. It's insane. Soooo many kids, so many moms chatting with one another during the stories so that no one can hear anything. Dalton likes it but really only to people watch. So we'll see. I think it's way too full. It's not like it used to be when I'd take Easton.

Today's theme was potatoes and he got a snack of fake french fries (veggie stick thingies) and then we headed to school for Bubbs. As we were driving Easton said, "Hey Mom...you wanna go somewhere to play?" so I was like, "Sure we can" and we went to a new park we'd never been to and played for a bit.

Then we came home for lunch and quiet time which brings us up to date.

Tonight is the season premiere of 3 of our shows (we only watch 4 this fall!) and that means 5 hours of TV just tonight! Ack! Actually, Jason doesn't even watch Grey's Anatomy so we'll watch the two hour Survivor premiere followed by the 1 hour premiere of The Office and then I'll watch Grey's tomorrow. (SVU is our other show). If Bachelor, Scrubs, or LOST was on this fall they'd be on our list too but they're not coming till after the new year, and actually no clue on Scrubs.

So that's that. Till next time...

Just a Wednesday

I feel like I don't have much to say today.

Let's see...after Q.T. yesterday we went to get the boys' Halloween costumes. Dalton is not a fan of all the animated decorations and masks and such. He clung so tightly to me and if I moved at all he'd grab desperately with all his parts. Easton is not so afraid, however he was checking out a wall full of masks when a store employee came along behind him and got something out of a box. Clearly not expecting the noise it made Easton jump nearly out of his skin. I laughed and then so did he declaring, "That made my body wiggle!"

After the costumes we went to Babies R Us for black socks and then stopped by Barnes and Noble to play at the train table for a bit.

Then we came home to meet Jason. Last night was our dinner out night...we went to the Italian buffet place because kids eat free on Tuesdays and we also had a coupon for $10 off our total bill. Not bad, eh?

This morning in the wee hours Diddles woke up wanting milk. I told him no milk and tried to soothe him back to sleep with a back rub. I left. He started crying a little while later so J went in. He was quiet a little longer but then J had to go back in and offered a sippy of cold milk. We'll try that for a few nights. Hopefully Dalton will decide it's not worth waking for but if he keeps waking then we'll move to water for a few and then to nothing at all. But, I can see him being hungry after 10 hours, ya know? Lots of kids only sleep 10 hours a night.

He woke up before Easton this morning and then once E joined us we had muffins and then went to the Children's Museum:




Some grocery shopping:




Train tables...




Climbing in the fire truck...


When it was time to leave Easton turned into his recent difficult self. He sneezed and some one said, "Bless you!" and he made a very rude noise at her and shouted, "She's not nice!" Grrrr. So we talked about that and then he spotted the park in the parking lot and was like, "I wanna play! Park!!! Park!!! Ahhhhhhh!" and I said, "I'm sorry, we're not going to play. You were rude and it's time to go." So he tried to stop walking...got him to do it. But then he wouldn't get in the car. Then he wouldn't get in his seat. Then he wouldn't let me do his buckles.

I told him he'd be taking a nap when we got home. He's in there trying. That's really all I can ask. I know he's not asleep but he's certainly trying.

We'll be doing some shopping this afternoon.

That's all I've got.

Bye!

Bye-Bye Boobie

Dalton is 19 months old today. And awhile ago I decided today would be his last day nursing. Since we got back from Vegas he's only been nursing about twice a day...once in the wee hours of the morning and once when he wakes up for the day.

The last week or so I'd cut him down to just the night-waking one. So he was only nursing once a day.

Last night the sweet little thing slept entirely through the night again: 7:30-7:15 and I was glad. Because then I was fully conscious and able to savor and photograph my second-born's last time to breastfeed:

Look at those eyes sparkling up at Mommy. I was teary eyed when he pulled off and told me "All done." Little does he know it's forever. :( We'll be okay, I think. It was relatively easy to get him off the paci. It's harder on me, for sure.

He's still going to be my sweet, snuggly little guy, I know...


Anyhoo, on to other topics...The Alabamaws sent a package that the boys got to open last night:



They both got light-up shirts (look for those tomorrow on the blog, I'm sure) and Easton got some cool craft kits. Dalton got his very own Tato Head and an Elmo book. He is thrilled with his Potato Head...we've never seen something hold his attention quite like this before:


He played with it before dinner, after dinner, and again this morning. Thank you, Maws!!!

Easton did superb with school again today! He loves when we "practice" at home so we did that a few times last night. Dalton was Connor. :) Then we did it again this morning and even though I had to wake him from a sound sleep, he was excited all morning:


As we drove past the playground he said, "That's where we go and then we go inside and eat our breakfast and then the mommies and daddies come." He doesn't eat much actual breakfast on school days so I guess that's what he thinks his snack is? Today I didn't even offer him any breakfast. Just his juice.

Drop off went great. Other kids crying but not mine this time! Woo hoo!

Dalton and I left and as soon as we turned down the road Dalton shouted, "Bright! Bright!" so I had to give him some shades:



We went to the bagel store with my buy 3 get 3 free coupon and then came home to eat some. You guys better be glad you're online as I had a garlic bagel with chive and onion cream cheese. Yowsa! But I'm keeping vampires away so that's always good. ;) Dalton enjoyed a plain Hawaiian bagel which I'd never had (or even heard of) before but I hope to have again soon. It was yummy.

We also went to Target and Wal-Mart and, like a huge nerd, I wrote down the prices of a lot of our staples. I have no idea how much a lot of things cost. I just buy what we need, we have some brand loyalty with a few things, and luckily I haven't had to worry about it much before. Not that we're worrying about it now, it's just that I seriously have no clue on some items. So, when I had that $1.50 off chocolate chips couopn recently I had to stop and go...wow, I have no idea how much chocolate chips even cost. I mean, was the bag going to end up costing mere pennies...or still another $1.50? Also, I wanted to be able to compare to Sam's Club. So, coupon at Wal-Mart/Target versus stocking up at Sam's...have to know these things so I don't drive around town with my coupon box wasting money on gas to "save" elsewhere, know what I mean?

Anyhoo, that's what we did. Then we went back to get Bubbs and he was still doing great. He picked out his Batman slippers as his prize and put them on immediately. Even though I hadn't heard much about his day, the inch of sand he dumped out of his shoes--and into my car--told me he at least played in the sandbox. When he was on the phone with Jason he told him he and his friends made pretend cookie dough in the sandbox. And snack was crackers and raisins and juice. I don't know much else. More ends up coming out as his day goes on. Like right now he's upstairs singing, "Willaby wallaby, Weeston. An elephant sat on Easton. Willaby wallaby, Wisaac...an elephant sat on Isaac." He's also thrown in Connor and Payton and Daisy. I'm glad he knows other kids' names finally. At least some of them. He and Isaac were sitting next to each other again when I went to pick him up. I think I did the right thing by trying to find him some friends early on. He's doing so well these last few times!

In the pile of papers I picked up today I learned that Easton has a field trip coming up in October to a nearby farm and that they'll be singing in the church service in November! Grammy and Gramoo (my local readers) you're certainly invited!!!

Okay...E's busted out the harmonica again...time to move him to my room!