Preschool Day One

Preschool Day 1, Year 3, Old Hat.

Sad business.

Welcome Home from Preschool Swim.  It is amazing to me that a Little Tykes slide and a Plastic Play pool can provide so much joy.

And to Complete Ryder's outdoor experience, Daddy added Nick Jr. to the patio.  Somehow this seems like an oxymoron.  We send you outside to play and get away from all of the technology that fills the modern house...but wait.  Huh. 

Thank goodness we finally found some chairs  (on clearance) for our pool-filled, Nick Jr. watching afternoons outside.

Wordless Wednesday- Front Porch Edition

Documenting Milestones and Making Friends along the Way

I am terrible with grabbing pen and paper to jot things down the traditional way. In the beginning our blog was a way I could document my boys happenings as they occurred. I never imagined when I started this little virtual journal that I would make some great friends along the way. I read about the daily trials and joys that come along with life and parenting on Carley, Heather, and Mary's blogs every week.  They make me feel a little more normal on a crazy day...they humble me when I start to think I'm getting this whole parenting thing under my thumb.  We got together today at a Splash Park to cool our tots down on this 106 Degree August day. Thank you, girls! I had so much fun and I think the kids did, too!   We'll have to do it again once the temps dip back down into the mid-90's, ha!

Miss Tatum! (She belongs to Heather)

Mr. Ty!  (Mary's sweet boy)

Trevor...one really cool and grown up kiddo (Tatum's big brother)

Cody..he reminds me so much of my two stinkers (Carley's)

How cute are these two together? Eating their suckers like big boys!

Mr. Ryder

Moving Up

 It is quite possible that I could go bonkers without the TLC Network. I am a TLC junkie. I watch all of their shows..its hard to rate my favorite, but I do love The Cake Boss, Say Yes to the Dress, Moving Up and The Little Couple.

Today is a very lazy Sunday morning.  I must add that this is largely thanks to my husband who is keeping Ryder entertained as they deep scrub both of the cars, and Rustin who is quite possibly the best baby ever. Back to Back Episodes of "Moving Up" are on TLC and this equals amazing. I get inspired.   I feel like we have done tons to our "Moving Up" home...but then it seems otherwise when I see what the people on this show accomplish.  How do people afford a new home and then afford the cost of gutting the inside? Hmmm...thoughts to ponder.

We can't afford to do all of the gutting that happens on "Moving Up", but we can do lots of little things and many of them are at very little to no cost. Let me show you Ryder's bathroom mirror. I (actually We...OK, mostly Matt) gave it an inexpensive makeover. We bought just a few pieces of Trim at Lowe's. Measured twice, cut once and spray painted.


Here is the  BEFORE:

Now for the AFTER:

I re-staged this little truck from his room to the vanity and added a little finger-tip towel to the truck bed.

This was the only "Transportation" Toothbrush holder I could find.  We brought it from the old house, so we've had it awhile. Some vinyl cut outs decorated his soap bottle without buying a new dispenser.  I copied this idea from a sweet friend, the Queen of Cute :-)

And I had to throw this in...while I was snapping these pics Ryder was there...I asked to him to practice smiling pretty and this is what I got.  Hmmmm.  We'll have to keep working on that one!

Playing Catch Up

 Wow. We've been home since Friday night and it is only until now that I am feeling a little refreshed and caught up. I still have loads of laundry to do, but other than that all is in order from our trip. We were brave, very brave. We took Ryder and Rustin on a cruise from Galveston to Cozumel. Luckily we had Matt's family there to provide us moral support when we needed it most.

I think most of you will agree that a vacation with two toddlers is A LOT of work. I would do it again in a heartbeat though. The week before the trip was spent packing. There is something about knowing that you are going to be on a boat in the middle of the ocean with no Target or CVS around that made me become a super packer. I think we had our entire medicine cabinet, four weeks worth of clothes for each boy and six months worth of baby wipes in our suitcase. Thank goodness. Rustin had some issues the entire week which resulted in full use of his four weeks of clothes and depletion of the wipes.

Ryder had the time of his life. We spent most of our time on the top of the boat hitting up the mini water park. At one point I looked at Matt and said, "Maybe we should have just gotten a hotel room next door to Hurricane Harbor.". Rustin hung with us in his stroller. God love him! He has the best temperament and never fusses. Even when we keep him in a stroller, at a faux water park, for hours on end with nothing to do except watch his brother go up and down a slide that he can't use because it clearly states that children in swim diapers are not allowed. Seriously??? I'll just say that after seeing several swim diapered toddlers sliding away, we broke the rules and let Rustin experience the rush with his brother.

 
When we weren't at the water park, we were riding the elevator (a very close second to the water park for Ryder), loading up on pizza and mac'n'cheese. Reintroducing healthy foods back into a certain two year old's diet has been slightly less than fun this week. I can do a whole post on Ryder's poor eating habits and the ploys he pulls at the table. Sheesh.

We swam with Stingrays in Cozumel which was amazing. We snorkeled, we napped (Ryder has to nap...he is crazy crabby without a nap..so we napped too. What else can you do when your two kids are sleeping in dark little sardine can sized room?), we got all dressed up and we took lots of crazy pictures.

On our way home we stopped at NASA and the Space Center. It is an amazing little museum for parents and kiddos. Ryder was in love and again Rustin hung in his stroller like a trooper. There were a zillion people there being that it is still summer. We lost Ryder at one point. We found him. In an elevator (told you he loved them), by himself, riding up and down.

Climbing the Rockwall at Space Center Houston...all by himself!  Actually he had a little help from Matt, but I was still impressed...pretty sure I couldn't do it.

Blowing Rustin's luxurious locks of golden blond hair through a wind tunnel mock up.   ;)

The End.

What in the Heck?

I have lots of updating to do from our trip last week, but first things first. Lets start Monday off with a good laugh.

Explanation:   Ryder is always putting on my glasses and walking dizzily around the house.  Can't imagine how that is good for his eyes.  So....I found these (strictly for cosmetic purposes was stated on the tag..what???) at Wal-Mart this weekend.    These remind me of what I wore in the 7th grade.  Has that style come back and I missed the fashion update?  For real people. 

Anyway, I placed them in the drawer where I keep my prescription lenses and like magic he started wearing them around. 

This Week at Ft. Smith

 We've been playing a lot of Patty-Cake and Itsy Bitsy Spider

We've been eating lots of Raisins.  Actually this box was empty and just for play...but Ryder has been eating lots of raisins.

We've been practicing driving our big green truck around the driveway.

 We've gotten serious on the little green truck..using wrist action to rev it up and "Go Fast".

Spending lots of time in our new back porch home.

 Boys Only Please.

  We tried to tame that silly monkey hair with a haircut.

 And we went through the costume closet.

When we were playing with the costumes...I had to laugh.  Remember this picture of Ryder from 2-years ago?  It is a perfect demonstration of their totally different personalities.  They are both so unique and I am so blessed to be their Mom.

Kind of a boring week, but we kept them busy and cool during this scorching hot week.  

Y'all say a quick prayer for us.  We are taking a family vacation on a Cruise Ship.  It should be interesting with these two little ones!

So Thankful

Just after I laid both boys down for a nap, I started flipping through yesterday's Dallas Morning News. I came across this article and started reading. Tears filled my eyes and were soon dripping onto the paper. I wanted to go wake my two angels and hold them, so thankful that I have them and they have me. What a touching story and what a beautiful lady Leah Siegel must have been. When I read that she was at Baylor Dallas, my heart warmed a little, knowing that Matt spends his days on that campus working to build a Cancer Center that can hopefully help people in the same situation as Leah live longer, cancer free lives.

More of Leah's story can be found here.

Aftershave

What happens when I decide to take a minute for myself in the bathroom? Things like this.

I really didn't even know how to respond, other than grabbing the camera of course. His head should be nice and cool after being doused with refreshing, aftershave cream.

The little man responsible for this took off in two seconds flat, dropping the bottle at Rustin's feet when he heard me coming down the hall.  No worries Ryder..I was absolutely born yesterday and I am sure you were innocently sitting in your room while Rustin squirted aftershave all over himself.  You just stick to that story brother!

This is my life people, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!