Clayton's Birthday Party

Aunt Dana made the cake! It was so cute.


Enjoying his cake



The partygoers....


All smiles.

Carsten

for those who can't view videos

a sideways video...sorry

Justin is a frog.

And...Justin being a Froggie.....

Clayton is learning to walk. He is so darn adorable....

This morning both boys were playing contently in the living room (5 feet from me)...I turned around to find Clayton with a big grin on his face and happy as ever.

the parade

Nellie (Todd's Mom) and little Nellie came to visit this past weekend. We went to the parade on Saturday. Here is Patty, Nellie, Todd, Little Nellie, and Justin (or his yellow hat)



I was getting a bit tired of holding Clayton, so my friends Dad took him....Clayton's not too sure about him...but stayed with him for a long time



Justin sat with Todd the whole time...didn't want to be up front getting candy...

My little helper

Yesterday I watched Reese and Carsten for an hour or so. Reese was designated "Clayton sitter"...self appointed. He loved it. Clayton loves both boys so much. They come up and play with him and love to make him giggle and laugh.

end of week 3-swimming

We ended our 3rd week of swim lessons. Justin still doesn't like to get in, but his new teacher takes him and hold him and makes him be in the water...no sitting on the steps. So, she looked at me yesterday and asked if she could just "dunk" him. I said sure with a nod. So, this is a bit later. He was a trooper. Last night in the tub he was dipping his ear in and getting the back of his head wet like he did at lessons...good signs. Maybe he trusts this teacher more? Here is a video, compliments of Aunt Dana.

End of Phase I - Swim lessons

Well, we finished our 2 weeks of swim lessons...today was the best day yet...no screaming to get into water...still takes time to lure Justin in...but after 15 minutes in pool, they got to go outside and play....

Hot Days..

So, it is hotter than it has been...I guess we have are getting used to our new weather already. We don't have AC..maybe next year...so today it hit 83 in the house by the evening...not really bad when I think I used to set the AC in CA to 79 on the HOT days....I can't complain. And, Todd was in the attic getting stuff down and putting away...it was probably 100 up there...

Here they are tonight enjoying the evening. Just hanging out playing. Clayton can now can hold on well enough to not fall down...

Swin lesson - day 2

Yes, that would be MY son leaching onto the instructor. Refused to get dressed this morning knowing we were going to lessons. Finally got him dressed....showed him his treat if he got in the water....so thought we would make it today. NOPE....had to drag him to the waters edge...hand him to instructor and he screamed the rest of the 1/2 hour lesson. She held him and took him to deeper, then her helper took him and sat with him on the steps trying to get him to kick, etc...nothing! He saw me and wanted "mommy"....finally I went over and tried to get him in....nothing....reminded him of the thomas prize and he put a foot in (the timer went off and we had to get out)....so, we will try again tomorrow.

Daddy's Helper

We finally had to add child safety locks to some stuff in the kitchen...Clayton is now getting into everything!

Boys, Boys, and more Boys

Reese and Carsten spent the afternoon with us and the evening...we had fun...there was a band...

And art studio:

Carsten, the Birthday Boy!

And later, the three amigo's playing with the tonka trucks!

Next time we will do a sleepover....they had so much fun...

Clayton

Let's build a fort!

Aunt Dana was here today watching the boys while I had a Dr. appt....they made a fort under the kitchen table, covered it with a blanket or two and had a fun time! We are excited to have Reese and Carsten over tomorrow...need to think up something fun as tomorrow is Carsten's Birthday....

Justin's Thomas room

We finished his room last weekend...added the decals (removable) this past week. He loves his trains.....when Reese and Carsten came to visit...first thing was "Reese, Carsten, wanna see my trains"....too cute!

Remembering Mom

Today marks Mom being gone 2 years. This picture taken about 3 years ago....Mom, Dad, Justin, and I went to the coast for the day. Her favorite place....today we are going to the Ocean for Dinner and to just be there....something about it...

I miss her so much! I miss that she didn't get to meet Clayton and watch her grandbabies grow up....I miss that she isn't just a phone call away...she always made everything better...

Mom - We miss you and Love you!

Busted!

Clayton loves to get 'into" things...the pantry is a favorite...so if we leave the doors open and he catches his eye to it...beware he is on it....busted getting into my Ziploc loot! Crazy kid!

Thomas the train room

Todd always has a "honey do" list...although he is getting project done (down to 6 for now)...here is one he hopes to complete today, with Justin's master painter skills to help!

This will be Thomas Red on the bottom and Thomas Blue on top, white strip in middle and we got some "Thomas" decals at Target to add to the room. Pretty exciting.

Reading together.

Yesterday I was putting laundry away so the boys were in Justin's room "reading" books. This does mean taking all the books off the shelf...but they were in there for at least 30 minutes...Justin was very cute and when Clayton would get a book he shouldn't have, he would says "No Clayton, you can have this one"....or if he was chewing on them, etc...

So cute!

6 years ....

Yesterday Todd and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. Wow has life changed since we got married....countless moves, 3 houses, a few cars, and 2 kids later...we find ourselves back close to my hometown (I never thought I would move back). We spend yesterday working around the house, getting plants for outside and then a nice dinner with the kids....

I have the best husband in the world! He works hard all week long and then works hard on the weekend around here with us.

Cheap Chicken

So, I just cooked up a bunch of Chicken for Cooking Club...it has been in the freezer for 2 months...a 4 pound back from Safeway. Now, usually I like the tenders from Costco, but when Chicken is on sale, I buy some...we bought some last Cooking Club when on a good sale...so we had some for this club cooking.

So, after I had cut off all the "gross" stuff, it was 20.50 Oz. of gross stuff to throw out. what a waste of my time. Tenders only have a tiny bit that I throw away and I never get bloody spots in them either. Here is my calculations

there is 64 oz to a 4 pound bag at 6.76 on sale, making it .105 per oz.

I had a good 43.50 oz to cook, still paying 6.76 for the 4 pounds bag, making this .155 per oz...and then if you calculate it, I paid 9.94 for that bag and 2.48 per pound!

So, moral of the story, but the good stuff from COSTCO!

Clatyon is Crawling...

Our house yesterday (saturday)

Clayton was still very fussy all day yesterday, so we hung out in the house...you can see his eyes still not 100%, luckily today he is better (sunday). He was happy for a bit pulling out all the books...and I was fine with it....I had been holding him for over 24 hours...on and off all the time since he was so sick...glad for a bit of a break.



Todd and Justin washed the Tahoe and cleaned it out on the nice sunny day we had yesterday....

More projects on our house...

Oh where oh where has my husband been? Busy building Clayton's built in for his room. Yes, the boys will have seperate rooms. Clayton has been in his own room for a few weeks now. He is such a light sleeper that every time we moved it woke him up...then he would cry, and all night of this was too exhausting...so now he gets his own room.

This is what it looked like before the project. The empty spot on the LEFT used to have a computer cabinet, but we sold it at our yard sale (which was awesome)....

Before....


And the after:


We are hoping that the measurements worked out correctly. Hope that Clayton's Crib will fit in there for now and then someday a full size bed....he hasn't ever actually slept in his crib....well, once for a nap. So, tomorrow we will move the crib over to his room and call it good. Will post more when that is done....so proud of my hard working hubby!

More projects on his "to do" list too.

My Cute Little one...

a fun day with Reese and Carsten

We forgot to take a picture of the three dirty boys after playing in the backyard at Jim and Dana's yesterday...I did remember to take a photo of the clothes in the bag...before hitting the washer....

a quick note on my kids...

Clayton - today was his hardest day yet. He has been eating baby food for almost a week...pretty much demanding to be fed food at the table...but today he had a hard time with the #2's...he fussed ALL day and cried when he had to have a "movement"...hard for mommy to watch...so I held him almost all day. It was a miracle that dinner got done and 2 loads of laundry.

Justin - he is getting so big...now if I could just get him Potty trained? HHHmmm...soon maybe. But, as I was nursing Clayton tonight, he got his little baby, sat next to me, and nursed his baby too. Shirt up and all....I had a really hard time not laughing out loud :)

2 years ago

Okay, in loooking for pics of Todd to post for his Bday, I found ones of Justin 2 years ago....thought it would be fun to share pics!

It is amazing how time flies by and how much he has grown....

Happy Birthday to Todd today

Yup, the hubby turns "34" today.....

Old picture of us...pre-Clayton

clayton has a voice

Todd's project yesterday

Todd has been a busy guy the past few weekends painting. Yesterday was our Master Bedroom. I didn't get a before Pic, but the same color as the other walls...makes the room feel bigger..

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning we ventured to my hometown for an Easter Egg hunt with some of my High School friends-thought we might see Todd's cousins, but we were in the 0-3 group and when we were done, we were COLD...so didn't go try to find them all (sorry)....Luckily it didn't rain on us...and there were tons of eggs for the little ones. Here is the field filled with eggs (plastic ones....and when you get done, you give the eggs back so they can recycle them), but there was goodies inside...stickers, candy, balloons.

All bundled up. Didn't know if Justin would "get" what to do with the eggs, but after we showed him, he was into it....gloves and all.

Christina: Note the boots...

And on our way back...a very full bucket. Now some of you may say, he doesn't have an "easter basket"...well, Mommy is too cheap (economical) to get an easter basket that will sit or that I would sell at the yard sale...so we stopped at the dollar store and got a multi-purpose bucket....now we are ready for the OCEAN!

Here is Clayton...snuggled up with Dad.

Sharing the tubby!

Tonight was bath night at our house....Here are the boys..Pictures are edited... :)

Clayton says "get me outta here"...first time trying to climb out of the tubby...he now want to go...still to lazy to actually crawl...he does roll over now though, when he wants to.

I couldn't resist the smiles....and Justin is a normal smile...