I am alive and blogging again

First, sorry for the long break. I have been in hiding without really knowing it. Things have not been crazy, no sick babies, no real drama, no excuses. Just not blogging. Well, I'm back. Things here have been moving at normal speed. Blake is still a wild, wild three year old. I am at my wits ends with him and not listening. I was beginning to think that I was the only mother who has a three year old who is still not listening. I have tried many, many different discipline techniques which all work for a little while and then seem to loose the magic. Yesterday I implemented a new one. I began taking away his beloved toys. Oh, the heartbreak. After a nice little episode of me repeating myself for the 50th time, I calmly walked to my room and got a bag. I then took Blake into his room and made him place one of his race cars into the bag. I then explained that Daddy works very hard so that Blake can have these nice toys and that there are a lot of little boys who don't have any toys to play with. I told him it is his job to listen to us and that if he can't do that I will begin taking toys away to give to the little boys who do listen. INSERT TEARS AND SNOT. He LOVES his cars and I feel horrible taking them, but something has to give. I am crossing my fingers that this will work.
Kayce is growing and meeting milestones like crazy. She is FINALLY crawling, 10 months later, and is now starting to pull up. She is eating us out of all of our food. She loves to eat. I have not found anything that she will not eat. She has not gotten any teeth yet, but that does not slow her down with eating. She is a very sweet baby. She is a huge snuggler. She is very happy to be held and rocked. All she needs is her lovey and her thumb.
Darren and I are the same just older. We love to be in bed at 9:30 and we are not the least bit embarrassed by this little fact. I still can't not believe that I used to be able to stay up into the wee hours of the night and then wake up and go to class. What was I thinking?? I have no desire to be out past dark these days. It is sad. On our anniversary we got a babysitter and went out to a local cuban resturant. We had a couple glasses of wine with our dinner. When it was over Darren asked if I wanted to go somewhere and get a drink. I actually said that I would rather go get a cup of coffee and go sit on the beach and watch the sunset. He thought it was a great idea. We are getting old.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Things Change

It is funny how things change as you get older and have kids. I used to LOVE daylight savings time because it meant that I could sleep 1 extra hour, even if only for one day. Now I HATE daylight savings time. Children have internal clocks and have no concept of the fact that the clock says 6:00AM. To their bodies, it is still 7:00am. So for the past two mornings, my children have been up and ready to play at 6:00am. What is wrong with them??? Don't they know that you can sleep for one extra hour??? Obviously, not children from my genes. Not only that but Blake loved to go outside and play after dinner because here in this hot state, that is when the weather was bearable enough to enjoy yourself. Now it is dark when we eat dinner, so he burns his energy running around in the house instead of out of the house. Not only am I overly tired, I have a 3 year old bouncing off the walls. Calgon, take me away!!!!

It's Winter in Florida!! Yeah Right!

This weekend has been wonderful here. The highs were in the high 70's, low 80's and the low's were in the mid to upper 60's. Now for Darren and I, this meant that we wore shorts and long sleeved shirts or short sleeved shirts and jeans. For most everyone else here in the state of Florida, it meant sweatshirts, sweaters, jeans and long sleeved t-shirts. These people would freeze to death if they lived anywhere else where the temps actually drop to 30 degrees and lower. Because the weather was so wonderful, we spent a lot of time outside this weekend. We planted new plants in our pots, Darren and Blake mowed the lawn (a weekly chore) and other odd ends around the house. We have had a wonderful relaxing weekend.

Its a bird, Its a plane, No its Superman (AKA- Blake in his halloween costume)

Blake insisted on being superman this year even though he has never seen the movie nor have we really ever talked about superman. But he LOVES the costume and loves to wear it whenever he can. Kayce is going to be a ladybug this year. She is not as crazy about her costume, probably because she knows that it will be 100% degrees outside on Halloween night and her costume is fleece. That is the downfall of living in Florida around the holidays. It is very hard to find costumes that are made for hot weather. So all of the parents torture the kids by dressing them in hot costumes for the sake of some Halloween fun. I am one of those parents. Today, after both kids got their flu shots, we went to the park and almost suffered from heat stroke. It is so sad to see everyone enjoying fall weather and we are still enjoying the hot Florida weather. Oh well!!!! Here are the pics of the kids in their Halloween Costumes.

I'm Back!!!

It has been a while since my last post and here is why. The kids and I flew to Atl on the 25th of Sept. We met my parents and then we all drove to Ky to see family. Then we came back to Atl and went to Darrens parents until last Monday, Columbus Day. We had a great time but it sure does make us homesick. It does not help that Blake cries when we have to come home. He loves being with his grandparents and I feel horrible that he does not get to spend more time with them. So now we are home and getting back into the swing of things. This harder than one might think. Blake loves to help me get things put away but his version of put away and my version are two different ideas. I am still trying to get clothes put up. Today while I was feeding Kayce, Blake decided to help around the house. I did not think anything of this and paid no attention. All of a sudden I heard something fall and a little voice say, "Sorry mommy". I did not even want to look around the corner, but when I did, I saw part of our door frame on the ground and Blake standing there with his play hammer. To his benefit, the door frame was already cracked, but it was by no means hanging off. Then he looked at me with big sad eyes and said," that was my fault, I am sorry" and walked into his room and put himself in time-out. I felt horrible for him but at the same time was fuming inside because I know what a task it will be to fix it. But since he was already punishing himself, I did not have to. What a morning!!

My clothes monster

Blake is so funny these days. Of course, he is funny when he is not getting into something, which is most of the time. So in those spare moments, he is doing some pretty funny stuff. The most recent being that he likes to wear pajamas. He loves them. The past couple of days I have put him down for his nap in the clothes he is wearing for the day (shorts and t-shirt) and he wakes up in long sleeve, long pants pajamas. He is very neat about the whole thing. He puts the shorts and t-shirt in the dirty clothes and makes sure to close his pajama drawer when he done changing. When he wakes up, he insists on wearing the pajamas for the rest of the day. It doesn't matter that it is still in the 90's here in good ole sunny florida and that he sweats the whole time he is running around. Nope, he has to keep those winter pajamas on. Whatever makes him happy, right??? He is also saying the funniest things. I have a list of Blakeism's:
1. tomorrow in actually "tomoyo"
2. in the morning is "tomorning"
3. most mornings he wakes up and tells me that he dreamed about "the jungle".
4. Darren is "yes, mam". This one makes me really laugh. Of course, Darren does not see the humor.
5. Kayce will forever be "baby Kayce".

THere are more but I have "mommy brain" these days and can't remember them all. I will keep posting them as I remember.

I've Been Tagged!!

My friend over at foursillysisters, Mary Beth, has so graciously tagged me. This means that I am to write 8 things that you might not know about me. Now I was actually tagged a little over a week ago and I have not done my tagging duty because I have been trying to think of eight random things about me to tell. The problem is that I lead a VERY BORING life. Really I do. There is no drama, no abnormal happenings and no excitement that I can think of to write about. I lead a very normal day to day life. Here are the few things I could think of to write.

1. I once was a probation officer and I carried a gun. I was able to shoot a 98 out of 100 almost every time I had to qualify. No, I never had to use it out on the street, only to qualify. I do not miss that job at all. I can still shoot a gun and I still have one that I keep close when Darren is gone but I like not having to deal with the scum of the earth on a daily basis.

2. Darren and I have been happily married for seven years and have been together for ten. I am very proud of this, as it seems like divorce is so common these days. Darren and I have been through a lot together, including moving our family away from home. This is something that will either pull you closer together or make you turn against each other. This move brought us closer together and although we are ready to move closer to home, we know that we can make it through anything together.

3. I do not like to admit when I am wrong. I actually hate it. My dad used to tell me that if I did not go to law school it would be a waste of talent. I can argue with a wall. I like to think that I am better about this now that I am older but I am sure Darren will say that I am not any better. I do know this is a weakness of mine and I do try to work on this everyday.

4. I am a Disney World Junkie. I love the place. It really is the most magical place on earth. Darren hates it. So needless to say, when he asks me what I want to do on the weekends and I say, Lets go to Disney, he cringes. Blake is taking after me in this area. He also loves going to Disney. Most days he asks if we can go see Mickey after his nap. Hopefully, Kayce will also follow the trend and then we will out number Darren.

5. My first car was a 74 VW beetle. I loved this car. I paid about 500 dollars for it and it was worth every penny. Of course, at the time I did not appreciate it as I should have. I locked the engine up twice because I did not keep tabs on the oil levels. I wish I still had that car but then I guess it would not be as practical as my mini.

That is really all I can think of. If any of you can think of some interesting facts about me that I don't know, please feel free to let me know. By the way, I am supposed to tag other bloggers now, so Susie and Kristina, your tagged!!!!!!!!!

Get the Camera Mommy

Now that Blake is three and "a big boy", it is no longer cool to let mommy take his picture. So when Blake tells me to get the camera, no matter what we look like or what we are wearing, I get the camera. Last night, in pajamas and all, Blake told me to get the camera, so I got it and started taking pictures. He was being so sweet with Kayce, which is not an everyday occurrence. Here are some of the pics I captured.

Nanas Visit

Nana is my great-aunt, my grandfathers sister. She and I have always had a special bond and we love to spend time together. Every year she comes to stay with us for about a week. It is always a great time and the kids love having Nana here to play with. She lives in Kentucky and since we are now 14 hours away from each other, we don't get visit as much as we used to. Here are some pics of our visit.

The Best Friends a Girl Could Ever Ask For!!

Three years ago when Darren and I moved our little family of three to Vero Beach Florida, we never anticipated to make some of the best friends we have ever known. We were ready to pack up and move home after the first six months here; however, slowly but surely we started to make friends. These friends have been our family while we are away from home. Tonight we had some of our friends over to celebrate my birthday. The original plan was for the adults to go out to a nice restaurant and leave the kids with babysitters. This did not work out because all of the babysitters were out of town. So the plans changed and everyone (including kids) came to our house to celebrate. I am so glad that our original plans did not work out. I can not think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than with the people who we love to be with. The kids ran around all night and played and the adults spent some much needed social time together. It was a great night.

On another note, Blake graduated to his new lazy boy seat today. Actually, it is just a huge car seat but it might as well be a recliner in the van. It is HUGE!! But he loves it and he fits much better in it. We bought it at Babies R us and decided to put it right in the car in the parking lot. BIG MISTAKE!!! If any of you know Darren, you know that if things do not work according to his plan, he gets completely stressed out. Well, we start putting the seat into the car and attach all of the latch connections. Then Darren tries to tighten the straps; however, he can't get them to tighten. He tries for a good twenty minutes and still no luck. After taking the seat out and inspecting it and reading the directions, still no luck. The seat was about to be thrown across the parking lot when I called my brother and sister-in-law for their help as they have the same car seat. Turns out that there was a little trick to pulling the strap that the directions do not tell you about. THANK YOU JOHN AND DEBBIE for saving the seat from a life in the parking lot of Babies R us. So now the seat is in the van and Blake is riding in style.

Kayce is really starting to get a little personality. It is amazing how two people conceived by the same two people can be so different. Kayce is the complete opposite of Blake. She is so laid back and happy. Blake is happy but he is into everything and needs to be entertained all the time. He does not like to play by himself. Kayce is quite content with jumping in her bouncearoo or sitting on her blanket with her toys. Don't get me wrong, she LOVES to be held but is fine when she is by herself. I would say that it is just that she is the second child but I was the second child and I was more like Blake while by brother was more like Kayce. It does not really matter why it is the way it is, I am just amazed at the difference.

Sorry there have not been any pictures. I am working on uploading some and will post them as I get them on the computer.

Here Birdie, Birdie

Last weekend while Brenda and Richard, aka Nanny and Papa, were here, Nanny and Blake made a spot in our backyard for the birds complete with a bird feeder and bird bath. This is the new play area for Blake. Yesterday I looked outside and he was using the birdbath as a pond for his boats. I explained to him that the birds won't come enjoy the birdbath if he is always playing in it. A little while later I looked out and he had scooped some dirt out of the ground and was stirring it into the birdbath. He explained to me that he was making the birds a cake to eat. Wasn't that nice of him??? So again, I told him that the if he wants the birds to come and take a bath, they need clean water. I went back inside to finish up what I was doing and all of a sudden I hear Blake screaming at the top of his voice, "Here birdie, birdie!!" over and over. I went outside and asked what he was doing, like I did not know. He told me that he was calling the birds to come and eat and take a bath. I told him he was doing a great job!!!!. I have yet to see any birds taking the chance in our new bird sanctuary; however, Blake loves it so thanks Nanny.

We are being taken over by ANTS!!!!!

I HATE ANTS!!!!!!!!! Not the big fire ants and not the big black ones but the little bitty microscopic annoying little ones. If one day my family and I go missing, just walk into our back yard and look in one of the ant hills and you will find us. I really feel like I spend the majority of my life battling the ants and they are winning the battle. Unfortunately, Dan the bug man said the best thing to do is to use terro. The problem with this is that you put a drop of this mixture on a piece of paper and put it down in their path. Then the problem has to get much worse before it gets better. The idea is that the ants will ingest the poison and then carry it back to the rest of their family and then they will all die. Last night I swear I had millions of these little pests in my bedroom and the sliding glass door. Blake LOVED it!!! It was driving my mad and he was using his hammer to "kill" them one by one. I have to admit, it did keep him entertained for quite some time but should I be a little concerned that he found enjoyment in "killing" them??? Secretly, I was enjoying him kill them. Bad mommy!!!!! I guess in the end it is working because today there are only a few of them left. I guess I have won the battle for now. Next week might be a different story.

Welcome to our new blog

I feel like I have entered the "cool" crowd on the internet. I now have a blogspot. I am tired of having to send an email and a snapfish message everytime I have new pictures to share. Also, it takes forever to attach and send videos of the kids using yahoo and bellsouth. Now everyone can come here and see what we are up to. I actually lead a very boring life so don't expect to much from this site. But for those of you who we talk to daily (you know who you are), now you can see what we are doing instead of finding out over the phone.

Brenda and Richard brought us our jumparoo that we had for Blake. It had been living at their house and we deceided that it was time to introduce Kayce to the fun of jumping. It now lives here in Florida and is being used on a daily basis. Kayce LOVES it. It is so funny to watch her jump.

Blake, what can I say. He is three. Need I say more.

Yesterday we went to Orlando to pick Nana (aka: Aunt Neil) up at the airport. We got there early, so we went to the Florida mall. I found Blake a pair of flip flops and he insisted on wearing them from the point I paid for them. This would not be a big deal except that he has only worn flip flops with straps holding them on his feet, so to wear a pair with no strap was a big deal for him. It took us thirty minutes to go from the door of the store to our car. He fell about 10 times. It was pretty funny. We tried to get him to put his other shoes back on but NOOOOO, he had to wear the new ones. Then he insisted on wearing them throughout the Orlando Airport. I was ready to throw the new flip flops out by the end of the day. I guess this is one of those things he will just have to learn to do since we do live in the hottest state and flip flops are the shoe of choice here.

Thats all for now.