Miracle at daycare

What to my wondering eyes did appear was twenty small children napping quite near. HOW DO THEY DO THAT!!! It's like a freak of nature. I can't even get my toddler to nap by himself, but if you add one other toddler to play with, he'll never get to sleep. Yet there they all were napping peacefully on the floor in one room. Wow. I ask how they do that and she says "It works quite well." I see that it works, but how? She also tells me Sabian was one of the first to fall asleep and napped easily. My Sabian? I want to know where they hide the magic wand.

What happens when I watch infomercials

Usually when I watch infomercials I scoff at how they make some cumbersome new gadget seem like something everyone would use and love, yet today I found something I have been waiting for. Kodak Easyshare – Revolutionary Inkjet Printing System for Fantastic Photos and Prints. I have an HP all-in-one printer, which is the very printer they compare theirs too. I don't use it for all my photos because I know the ink is not permanent, I've seen the photo completely erased by a little humidity. I only use it for printing quick photos to show off or for Naomi when she wants to scrapbook with me, yet still, I have to replace the expensive cartriges. That's why I still order my prints from sam's club, but that takes time, so I've got thousands of photos stuck on my computer waiting to be developed when I have time and money. This Kodak printer uses pigments which are as permanent as the lab photos, they compare pigments to the pictographs on cave walls. They also use less and cost less. Looks like a win-win situation. Too bad I didn't find this printer before buying the HP last spring. Maybe I'll get this for Christmas or my birthday.

Procrastination is costly.

Andy knew he needed a bow-tie for his national guard dinner. He knew this over a month ago. Did he order it a month ago? No. He ordered it 5 days before he had to leave. The good news is it only cost $2 on the Army website. The bad news is it didn't get here on time. So what did he do? He went to Dillard and bought one for $30. Let that be a lesson to you. Do you think he learned anything? I can only hope, but I doubt it. I think procrastination is in our blood.

CatGenie - The World's Only Self-Flushing, Self Washing Cat Box

Check this out : CatGenie - The World's Only Self-Flushing, Self Washing Cat Box That is the only way to do litter boxes! At least when the kids get into it thinking it's a sand box, it won't be quite as disgusting.

I've got the cutest kids!

Now Open

Wednesdays from 6pm to 8pm, from now until new year, we will be opening our home to share our train display and hot chocolate!

Duplo

Here is Naomi's latest duplo creation. She has it on her dresser, says she wants to save it forever. :) I think her daddy's "don't touch my legos" mentality is rubbing off on her.

Sleep!

Adora slept through the night last night for the first time! Andy put her in the baby swing around 8pm I think and I got home from work around 11pm. She looked so peaceful I decided to let her stay there and turned on the baby monitor. She was still sleeping when I woke up at 6am. She was hungry when she woke up though :) I finally felt rested. Time to sing praises! :)

Sleeping

Did you know children can fall asleep faster than I can say the alphabet backwards? I've watched Adora go from staring at me to her eyes rolling in the back of her head sleeping with her eyes open, but I figured that was where the "sleeping like a baby" phrase came from. She falls asleep fast and sleeps through unimaginable things like demolition derbies. Amazingly enough, Sabian falls asleep quickly too. Must be the result of using up all that toddler strength energy. He hasn't been sleeping lately, I think partly due to his abandonment issues resulting from inconsistency with daycares, so I've had to stay with him until he falls asleep. I watch him and it rarely takes more than 5 minutes, he's usually in a deep sleep snoring in less than 2. I wonder if he could teach me that trick so I can take speedy power naps.

Funny story on ebay

If you haven't checked out the rantings of the mother of 6 who listed pokemon cards on ebay, follow the link before it expires; I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair. You need to read some of the additional comments in the questions section, she maxed out on responses.

Listen to your wife

Naomi knows when to throw in some attitude and it makes me laugh. I was downstairs with the kids waiting for Andy to come down to watch a movie with us. Sabian climbed in my lap with his blanket and wanted his sippy cup. I asked Naomi to call up the stairs for Daddy to bring it down with him. When she did, his reply was,"Tell mama to get it herself!" Rather than parroting that back to me she immediately retorted,"Don't you want to listen to your WIFE!!!" I just busted up laughing, she sure told him. His next reply was "I can't find any" after which I realized Sabian must have been listening to our conversation as he bolted up the stairs to show Daddy which drawer the sippy cups were kept in. Now he was out of excuses. I love my kids.

Andy's train 2006

This was the best picture I could find of Andy's Christmas garden last year. You can barely see the O scale train behind the scene.

Lego Train

Sabian is obsessed with trains right now, so I decided to let Andy set up his train table early to display his Lego train for Halloween. He'll still do his regular winter scene with his O scale train for Christmas. He gets pretty excited about his Christmas Garden. He also plans to do a layout for his HO and N scale trains too. Yes, that means I will have no space left in my front room. At least it keeps Andy and the kids happy. The neighbors say they can see it too from the highway. Someday Andy hopes to consume the house with his trains and have a display like Mr. Sanda's house by the airport. If he can match Joel Sanda, then Andy will open his house to the public too. He's a long way from that. Here's a picture of his Lego train. It is surrounded by his Bionicle creations. He's trying to win more tracks off of ebay to finish it.
On a side note, we started full force potty training with Sabian on Friday and he is doing very well. He's successful about 90% of the time. Now we've just got to conquer the elusive no. 2. I'm open to suggestions.

Massive Train Layout - MTH Trains lionel atlas huge american

Sabian's new favorite video.

Adora rolls over

Spud Day

Spud Day is always fun. Andy and Steven Ran in the Spud Run, Andy did a 5k and Steven did a 10k. Steven came in 3rd over all, and won a first place medal for his age division. Andy rode his bike in the parade with Sabian riding behind him and Naomi rode her own bike beside him and did really well. We enjoyed the free baked pototoes, watched a magic show on the free stage, then met some star wars characters. Then we waited in line 4ever to get some frogs for Naomi. We then decided it was too hot, so we bought the movie Eragon and came home to watch it. Then we went to the demolition derby, but were too late to get seats, so we had to sit way up front and dodge the mud that was flung by the tires, making it a more interactive experience.

Adora's smile

Demolition Derby

We took Sabian to the demolition derby on Saturday and he loved it. I don't know if he's ever watched anything so intently. I took the kids to my parents house on Tuesday morning and my mom called to ask me if I'd taken Sabian to the demolition derby. "How did you know?" I asked as I thought of the mud flung on us I thought perhaps I missed a spot when I bathed him. She tells me she's noticed a dramatic change in his play behavior. He used to peacefully drive his toy trucks all around the room saying "vroom, vroom." Now he must always have at least 2 cars and continually crashes them into each other. Boys will be boys I suppose.

Sabian is 2

We went camping at Stoddard for Sabian's Birthday. He had lots of fun pushing his dump truck around the campground and hauling leaves or water. As soon as he figured out it was his birthday, he ran to the camping trailer and came out with the candles and an ice cream scoop. He knows what birthdays are about. He got a dutch oven dinner of barbecue chicken, potatoes, and blackberry cobbler. We all had a great time.

He loved playing with his new trains on his new playmat. He loves anything to do with trucks or trains.

Adora's First Studio Session

Adora had her picture taken on 8-27-07. Here she is, exactly 2 months old. Even though she was in an elaborate (not comfortable) dress, every photo was adorable. She never even fussed once, seemed rather intrigued by the whole affair.

Baby's growing

I took Adora to the Doctor on Friday to be weighed and she was 9 lbs 13 1/2 oz. How do babies grow so fast? Sabian will be 2 yr old on Friday. Naomi's in kindergarten and loving it. I let Naomi and Sabian go to Grandma Kathy's for the weekend and I'd swear Sabian grew up a little more while he was gone. I'm sure he's already planning for the day he gets to drive a real car.

Duathlon

Andy and Steven participated in the persuit of excellence duathlon yesterday. Steven ran 5k (in less than 20 minutes!) then Andy rode his bike for 25k then Steven ran the last 5k. I had fun watching and cheering them on. Here are some photos.

Keveren Reunion

We all had fun at the reunion this year. Andy enjoyed cooking (just not all the extra work preparing). Swimming at Downata was fun for all. Most kids enjoyed playing in the sand around the volleyball court. Sabian loved the playground although the slide got the better of him on several occasions.

Pancake Art

This morning at breakfast I left Naomi alone with the stack of pancakes and told her to fix up her own plate while I cooked the rest. When I came back to the table, this is what she'd made. Who knew breakfast could spark such creativity. I hereby declare that pancake art is excluded from the "don't play with your food" rule.

heres my stuff

New Blog

I'm feeling like the only person in the world without some sort of web page, so I created this blog. Mostly I just want to share my photos, after all, my kids are cuter than your kids. :)