December Dosage!

Like any other female, I get a to-do list that is impossibly long this time of year. I'm trying to not get too far behind on the blog here, so this one as the boys would say is "Really, Really, Really, REALLY LONG" and has lots of pics :) 

We've been taking the boys to the park a lot lately right after the schools get out to give them some play time with other kids. They look forward to it each time we go. It is so funny how the kids react to white children (and women). For instance, we were playing one day and a little boy came running up to me and he said "my mommy want me tell you the Straw Market still open!" The straw market is on the edge of the park + we are a white family which must mean we are rich or tourists= potential customer for souvenir junk...WRONG! 

All the little girls try to pick Joss and Emit up the whole time. Joss has started saying things like, "I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy put me down!" Gotta love it, he knows when he's being babied. 

Another one of the girls has come to me a couple afternoons and she just pets my hair. If I try to pull it back in a pony tail she begs me to keep it down so she can feel it and see it. It just makes me smile! 

The boys are 'pouting in these two'. Probably because I told them they couldn't do the same reckless thing the big kids were all doing off the stage. Gotta love Emit's full on fetal position though... he is SUCH a cute and good little pouter (I'm pretty sure I was quite the dramatic when I was younger too). 

Joss found a fun tree to climb around in. 

Dallas loves to try to play some football with some older kids that are there. 

The slide is always the best part!

Pretty sure I did something terribly wrong here like ask him to smile for me or look at me, what was I thinking?? ;)

I swear, everyday I see this merry-go-round I laugh out loud. It is such a joke, but just our brief search for a slide for the boys for Christmas proved to me how expensive this kind of stuff is. We'll have to start planning a big time community fund raiser to improve our park. Chances are if we don't head it up...it may not happen. 

I finally got around to building the boys their little step stool in the bathroom. I should say Emit and I built it. He's become quite the little helper when I'm out working on stuff. He likes to hold all the tools that I will need and hand them to me. The whole time asking me "what's this? why? go here? why? can I hold this? why?" Today he dumped out my whole container of screws. So I told him he had to help me pick them all up. He said, "I can't. It's too hard for me!" (which is a common saying of his these days) I asked him why it was too hard and talked with him as we were both picking them up that this is why mommy asked him not to spill them because it takes a long time to pick them up. He was listening very well and had a nice long "ohhhh" at the end, so who knows, maybe he won't dump them next time. It will probably be the nails instead :) But it makes me happy to 'work' with him nonetheless. I would love for it to be something my boys grow up doing with me. They helped me paint their little stool and everything :) 

Brushing teeth and getting vitamins at the end of the day are quite the thrill with these guys. They love standing on their stool and making silly faces at themselves in the mirror. 

My sweet boys!

They were fascinated by this dead grasshopper the other day. They enjoyed getting up close and examining it since there was no threat it was going to hop away or on them. 

One of my favorite times (most days) is story time at night. It can be such a sweet time and anytime I can spend reading with my boys I just LOVE it. I try my hardest not to turn them away during the day when they come running up to me asking me to read something to them. It is tough sometimes when I know I have a lot of work that needs to be getting done, but I also remind myself that it won't last forever, and reading is ALWAYS good. Usually buys me some bonus points for a little more cooperation when I ask them to do something. 

I asked Dallas to snap a few shots of us reading the other night because we have quickly outgrown our little glider, and we may be giving it to one of our friends expecting a baby soon. But we have had lots of fun memories sitting in this chair and it is fun to have the visual reminder. I've mentioned before that I am trying to do as many homemade gifts for the boys this year as I can. The little pedal cars are going to have to wait because I still don't have the plans to build them, and I don't want to rush them and not do them properly. One of my big things I wanted to do for them was to create their very own storybook collection of stories. My mom and dad contributed to the book too with their little stories, Dallas helped me write some, I wrote some and then there are some ABC and counting parts that feature pictures of them, their toys, our family, etc. I think they are going to love it, but we'll see. If you're at all interested in seeing the finished project you can see it here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZMWrhs5aNmjmI

Speaking of books... our island had its annual Book Fair again this morning! $45 and 45 books later we are sitting pretty for books under the Christmas tree :) There were some real steals in there too that I KNOW the boys are going to love. They were in there with me for a few minutes and saw a few of the books, but Joss didn't see most of them, and I think Emit forgot about the rest once he got his hands a little dump truck book that he held on to. If nothing else, they will have fun unwrapping all the books, but I know we will have fun reading them too!

Emit is doing so well with his potty training. He just can't have on his shorts inside the house or else he still pee pees. If he's outside he seems to remember better, but when he's inside he just forgets I suppose or maybe has too many other distractions. He told me he had to go poopy the other day, so I took him, he went, I showered him with praises and he looks up at me and says, "Emit made BIG POOPY!?" Remember, Joss always yells out "Big Poopy!" when he's ready to get wiped, so I guess Emit has picked up on it too. YAY!!!! The end of diapers is in sight :) 

A long time ago when Emit was in a grumpy mood we used to joke around and call him Grimmit. Well, over time Dallas has added to the name with an accent in the way he says it. We are to the point now where if we say something to him and call him Grimmit without the accent he is quick to correct us and say, "No. I GRIMMIT!" with the accent and all. I'm pretty sure I have it on video, so I'll try to post that on here too. He cracks us up every time he does it. 

This was the closest shot they gave me to them both smiling at me the other day. Daddy was saying something funny behind me to get them giggling!

Then I asked them to kiss and Joss laid a nice one on baby brother :) 

They've discovered the thrill of turning the cold water on and splashing each other with it. They don't like being the one splashed, but they both get a kick out of the reaction after they splash the other. This game is okay in small doses while it's all laughter. We just have to put a stop to it before someone gets too mad. Emit was at his breaking point below. One too many splashes across the face. 

Joss has started repeating us with a little saying. If he doesn't know what something is or how to do something he'll say, "I don't know what the heck that is". 

And of course, we are finally at our big milestone right now of Joss riding his bike all by himself without training wheels. This kid took to it like a pro!

We've had a couple little wipeouts, luckily nothing too serious, but those are usually when another kiddo crosses paths at the wrong time. 

LOL, I just have to add this one on here below. Joss loves riding with the big boys and going fast past Hagen and Emit, but the big boys are often saying, "try this Joss" or riding in a way that could easily get him hurt, so we have to monitor very closely when they are around. But Caleb (here on the left below) is hilarious with his shorts. Ann Ligon and Joel are all the time telling him not to pull them up so high. The shot below isn't even that great, but he always had them higher than his belly button and it looks so funny. I just had to put a shot of it on here :)

Go Joss, GO!!!! My baby is growing so fast!

Emit was happy for Joss and cheering him on, but he was much more impressed with the monster truck in the mud puddle. 

He didn't want to get out of the road... he was having too much fun in the mud and was begging to go back. 

Here's the view on a daily basis. Emit still pushing his little bike and now Joss riding like a big boy!

We got to go and pick out our tree at the local nursery the other day. It was nice because the prices were very affordable, but we do miss the big tree like we usually get. We are choosing to be thankful though and loving the tree!

The boys had a blast decorating it with us. They kept asking "what's that?" to each one, and we answered as many as we could :) They got to hang up all the little balls for the most part, and you'll see lots of them in one bunch here and there around the tree. At first I thought, I'll go back and change those later, but I haven't touched them. They helped me decorate it and it is absolutely perfect exactly the way it is. We've even made a few to add to it. I'll add pics of those on later. 

Their favorite ornament by far is one we gave them last year that is a little Tonka Dumptruck ornament. They want to get it down and play with it so badly. Once they realized the wheels don't roll they lost a little interest, but they still ask almost everyday to hold it :) 

Joss found the stockings and decided this was where they belong :) I asked him to cover his pee pee for the picture!

I have been playing around trying to get the right settings to snap pics, and it is still a guessing game :) I think we are on our last year of our lights though. Slowly but surely each strand is going out. Hopefully we'll still have some left by the end of the month. Next year I think it will be time to replace them though. And I will most definitely try to catch an after-the-holidays-sale for them. At our store here, I saw a small box, single strand, nothing fancy set for $30...I DON'T THINK SO!

I saw an idea to make a felt tree with felt ornaments and let them rearrange at their hearts' desire, so I thought, that could be fun. And it was....for the first few minutes, they haven't really done much with it since, but every now and then they'll go over and stick one in a different spot. 

I think they were more interested in the cutting and gluing of the ornaments process :) 

More to come Lord willing!!