what xander is into

* hannah montanta
* super why - tv show
* backyardigans - tv show
* "doing homework" - playing old nintendo video games
* sports
* wii
* play ball classes
* baseball - braves (he admitted that if the braves and the red sox were playing in the world series he would cheer for the braves)
* byu cougars
* football
* "Honor, Traditon, Spirit " *(or something like that) - the movie about bronco mendenhall and the 2006 byu football team
* his friends - wesley, at school (they "talk" on their cell phones at night, and then report back to each other the next day)
- makayla
- maggie (and her sisters!)
- rocco
- tyler
- jayden (next door neighbor)
- nicholas (next door neighbor)
- ethan
* getting married - he's promised himself to at least three of the girls in his class at school, wants to marry me, and can't figure out why he can't marry cassidy
* his college girlfriend - jenny
* high school musical 1 & 2
* suite life of zach & cody - tv show
* singing along to hannah montana, high school musical 1 & 2, backyardigans, joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat, wicked, hairspray
* watching sports movies
* watching the disney channel (not at home, we don't have it)
* taking care of his sister, being "in charge" of her, taking her out of her crib on saturday mornings, and protecting her
* talking on the cell phone and leaving voice messages

"bless you momma"

the other day i had a sneezing fit like i haven't had in a long time. remember the days that i used to sneeze as the family counted....up to 25 times once, i think.
so why am i writing about sneezing? not the classiest image to conjure up, but this time was different.
this time i had a little 20 month old baby girl saying "bless you momma" after each one. 12 times to be exact. she didn't miss one.

spring break is over

long over!
and with it went the time that i had to finish my office, to fold laundry, to get the house straightened, and the time to sleep in.
so, the office is only half done. i did not reach my goal.i did laundry, but didn't make the time to fold it all, and so it sits in baskets.and all the straightening is always undone with two kids around.
i need another spring break!
however, i cannot complain about spring break. i didn't accomplish as much as i wanted around the house but i had fun with my kids. and yes, they actually let me sleep in until 7:30 or 8:00 each day. we visited ink - an interactive museum for kids, we played with friends - great friends that we only ever get to see when there is a day off school, and we went to helen. we took almost three days away from home and drove an hour away to the little vacation town. we swam in the indoor pool, od'd on sugar (caramel apples, ice cream, funnel cake) stayed up late, and hiked with 4 kids up to "magic" waterfalls. after a stop at a playground, a quick "game" of soccer and lots of bubbles our friends had to leave. but we weren't alone very long, for we were joined by todd's parent's (the owners of the condo/time share) and todd - and we went for walks and took naps, swam some more, ate more food, played games, watched movies, stayed up late and then visited babyland general, where the cabbage patch kids are born, before returning home.
it turned out to be a very busy week, but there was very little time constraints, very few glimpses at my watch, we just went with the flow, enjoyed each other's company and enjoyed the company of our friends.
true to form, xander wanted nothing to do with school the monday after spring break. "mom, i just want to stay here at the house with you and cassidy." after a week of that, i was loving it too! hard to go back, and if almost felt foreign that first day. oh and x's question later that night "mom, when is dad going to lose his job again so he'll stay home with us?" well, we hope that doesn't happen. but it was nice seeing each other a little more than usual.
thank you spring break. we'll miss you. come back again soon. maybe then i'll get my office finished! 4 boxes down, 3 1/2 more to go! (pictures will be posted upon completion. no peeking before. it is just as embarrassing as the before pictures!)

didn't we love them?

didn't we raise them good....
a trying night with the kids. they're cute, but it was definitely time for bed.
i had another cute story i was going to tell, and to write about our spring break. but that is going to have to wait til tomorrow. i'm too frustrated, too tired and too swamped with housework, schoolwork and churchwork.
so nothing good tonight. just a tired mom.

naming names

i'm not, but cassidy is.

the other night she pointed to me and todd, saying (respectively) mommy and daddy. but she really has not said xander's name. we ask her to imitate us ..."say xander"...you know, that kind of thing. and although we can get her to say a myriad of other words she would not say xander. so a few nights ago we asked her to say "alex" and clear as day (minus the "l") we got "ayex". just to make sure she new who alex was we asked her to point to alex, then we asked her to give alex a kiss. she was very confident and went straight to him. we began pointing to everyone again, with cassidy obliging and saying all of our names. then we pointed to her...."cassisy". yup! she said her own name. we loved it so much we begged it out of her a few more times.

the next morning sitting at the table eating breakfast she did something she felt proud of (i don't even know or remember what it was) and she yelled "yeah cassie". i loved it. i laughed, she smiled, i laughed some more.

i really wish i could keep a recording device with me all day long, just to hear all the new things she is coming up with.

friend's names, yup, she is jumping right in with the friends we play with. even naming xander's friend's from the neighborhood.

so is also showing total understanding of possessives. "daddy's shoes" "mommy's cup" "xander's hat"

she is amazing. a project for this weekend would be to list out all the words that she knows...had i done it last week i am sure it would have been 20 words shorter than it will be now.

seeing black & white

black & white - has kind of a stigma to it. old tv, old pictures, old people (i'm thinking the hair thing!) but have you ever noticed early in the morning, as the sun is coming up, and the room is still dark because the curtains are drawn, that everything appears black & white? this maybe one of favorite times of day. no, i am not a morning person. no i'm not an old person. but it is in these wee hours that my kids wake up. although i do admit when i hear them i am secretly wishing they would go back to sleep for a while. but on mornings when we don't have anywhere to be they will lay in bed with us and talk, and giggle and snuggle. so while you are being climbed all over, stepped on, and given sloppy kisses one might realize, that seeing black & white isn't such an old thing after all....all of a sudden it becomes classic!

melts my heart

so the other day we are driving home from school and i glanced in the rear view mirror and i saw my two sweet children holding hands. they didn't say anything, didn't call attention to it, but i think they held hands for close to five minutes. i couldn't even see their faces, just their baby hands (i know they aren't babies, but they still have the cute chubby hands). little moments like that really do melt my heart. wished i had a camera at that moment.

snow pictures

no, it isn't snowing now, but i realized i never put up the pictures i took the night it snowed in january. school was canceled the next day, but most of the snow was gone by the time we were up to try to play in it. so these were the only pictures i got. it snowed on the 19th too (todd's birthday) but we didn't get to play in it, so no pictures of that one.
i asked xander if he remembered playing in the snow last year. april 4th one year ago we were in boston and it snowed. he remembered building a snow man with my dad and having a snow ball fight and going to the mall and riding the carousel - while watching it snow outside.
but living in georgia, this is about the extent of our snow experience.

project office : before pictures

i posted this on my scrap blog too.....




this is quite embarrassing, but my office was/is a mess. not just a small mess, but a big, huge, i need a professional organizer kind of mess. well i can't hire a professional, so i'm going to have to give it a go on my own. so here are pictures i took the end of the year...my goal is to have new pictures of my "after" in one week.