SOMEone has a birthday this week...



Could anything be better than seeing the BATMOBILE to start off your birthday week?
I think not.

I AM BATMAN

Assisting KC's finest

Keeping the city safe.

 Some video fun, with four parts. You have to suffer through longer videos when I slack off and don't post very often. Sorry!
1.) Callie torturing MC. She LOVES to "pet" her, and for some reason MC keeps coming back for more. I guess this shows you how starved the cats are for attention. They welcome a beating from a one year old.
2.) SHOES! It only took over a year, but Callie (finally) wore some shoes this weekend for more than two minutes. It is a miracle! I think I could listen to her little feet clomping around all day. (clomp, clomp, clomp) Seriously. And I love that she walks like she's had a few too many tequilas.
3.) Preston visiting the Batmobile today. What a lucky kid! Some people from the local paper took his pic as well as people from the Tumbler Tour, so he's pretty famous now. Obvioulsy he has some experience with having his picture taken. Wonder why? Hopefully they'll keep his secret identity safe.
4.) Soccer hilights from today. He says he doesn't like it, but I think he's coming around. The boy needs an energy burn, so I hope we can find something he likes---soon!
Enjoy!





Easter 2012

Egg Monsters. According to Preston's direction with decor, they are as follows. Daddy, Preston, Callie, and Mommy. Pretty accurate portrayals??

This is one seriously cute (bald) chick!

Please do not judge my parenting skills (or lack thereof) in these videos. How many jelly beans does Preston eat throughout the egg hunts? Why was I telling him not to open the eggs? He's three. He's holding a plastic egg full of candy. He HAS to open every.single.one. I think there is a rule about that written somewhere. Duh, Mom! (And the videos are both LONG. Don't feel obligated to watch unless you are a grandparent, though there are some pretty cute moments scattered in there. These are for you, Mimi, Mima, and Papas!)

I'll end this Easter post with a little nugget from Preston today at church. As the collection plate came around, we put some money in it. Preston said, "God can put it in his piggy bank!"

And one from dinner tonight while playing I Spy. Preston said, "I spy wiff my widdle eye something that has cwanky pants all the time. CALLIE!" (She's had an ear infection and we think-hope-is working on some more teeth. CRANKY PANTS!)

From the mouths of babes...

Time Keeps On Slipping...

Time is slipping away from me. Seriously. Where does it go?! Hard to fit blogging into the schedule these days, so here is a recap with some videos.

My Funny Valentine- Preston had a great Valentine's Day and LOVED getting candy. The kid would only eat candy if we would let him. We made some SUPER cute treats for his classmates, too.

                                                                          


Sweet Sibs



What most of my photos look like. 99 out of 100, anyway.



Our future star- Callie has started pulling up on everything, and a few days ago started playing the piano for us. Preston was amazed and I think has finally realized that she will be fun to play with soon! (Not yet, but maybe soon? PLEASE??) She's also drinking by herself now...wait till the end for the "ahhh" noise I taught her. So refreshing! This afternoon she decided she was ready to crawl all the way upstairs. I, however, am not ready for this. Time to dust off the baby gate.

Carnival- My school holds a carnival every other year, and Preston had a blast last night. (Callie stayed home with Daddy since her bedtime is so early.)  P loved the "bouncy house" best, as well as the cotton candy. Smart kid.

More fun to come, I'm sure!





She's Baaack

After a flu bug and 3 new teeth busting through, I think we finally have our happy girl back. PHEW!



Callie turned 10 months old this weekend, and that just doesn't seem possible.  Probably the lack of hair leads me to believe she is still a tiny baby, but she is most definitely NOT.  Lately she won't even eat baby food- only small pieces of fruit, toast, peas, or whatever we're having. Hoping she will be our good eater since Preston would be happy to survive on waffles and candy alone every.single.day.  I thought maybe some peer pressure from Callie would get him to eat and enjoy some new foods, but tonight he took one bite of what we were having and promptly said "No, thank you!" while making a gross-out face. Sigh. Those books that say 10-15 exposures to a food will do the trick are full of it.  

Some peek-a-boo fun!                          No mas peek-a-boo, Mom.

Maybe they could take this show on the road and make us millions? As a side note, I never NEVER thought I'd be the parent who puts their kids in pjs like Preston is wearing in this picture. But, alas, last night he was wearing Woody and Buzz, and Callie was wearing Tinker Bell. What has happened to me?! Have I lost all will to fight??

Here's a little bed time story for you read by Preston. If you aren't familiar with the DAVID books, I recommend them. He may not be a good role model, but he makes me giggle. Especially when he runs naked through the streets. I'm fully expecting Preston do to that some day. Soon.  

Wook At Dis!

A movie of our Christmas, starting with one present on Christmas Eve.  Preston LOVED all of his presents, but I think the toy computer was the winner. Way to go, Santa! (Yes, Santa left toys, but he also left a note reminding Preston to behave.)

Some of my favorite parts of this movie are all of the "WOOK! WOOK!" moments. If you stick it out until the very end, you can see some sweet peek-a-boo from Callie.

Hope you enjoyed the day with your family!

Carols, Naughty List, and Crawling

We recently watched Preston's video from his school Christmas performance last year, so he wanted to act it out for us again this year. (No program at school this year- BOO!) Here are some songs he wanted to sing. Love the made up words he throws in there...and all of the W sounds instead of R sounds crack me up. I also like how he stops mid-song to tell me how Santa comes in the chimney. Love when he is my sweet boy! (He was a very sweet boy today- must know Santa will be here soon!)

Preston got a special video message from Santa the other day. He got one of these last year, too, but he was on the nice list then. This year it is questionable. Does anyone actually not give their kids gifts on Christmas for being naughty? Doubtful.  Am I mean for putting him on the naughty list for this video? Probably. But he definitely knows he needs to try harder!

Don't want to forget about Callie- she is a wild woman and all over the place at all times. Preston is learning how to distract her from HIS toys by offering her something he doesn't want to play with. Let the sharing lessons begin!

A Christmas Dance

You don't need a shirt to feel the Christmas joy...

Santa Visit and Claps

Preston got to go visit Santa this week at our neighborhood tree lighting ceremony. Santa read the kids a story, listened to their long lists of 'I-wants', and then dazzled the crowd with his sleigh. Not just any old makeshift sleigh...his super-duper-rocket-booster sleigh! Preston was a sweet and patient boy while in the same room as Santa. He literally sat still for over 10 minutes waiting for his turn- you can see a small part of this in the video. Now if we could only transfer that perfect behavior into our everyday lives! We had our magic Santa Cameras installed this week to see if that will help. They are inside the smoke detectors and he has been talking about them frequently.

"Mommy, I see a wed light up thewe."

"That means it's working."

"I'm scawed of the light, Mommy."

"Don't be scared...just be a sweet boy and Santa will be happy!"

Thank you, Christmas, for giving me some leverage over my child at the moment. Stellar parenting? Probably not. But I'll take what I can get.

 

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 And here are some claps from my sweet girl. YAY! 8 months old and full of energy. Crawling everywhere (still almost exclusively army style), laughing, clapping, climbing up stairs, cutting two teeth, putting any and everything in her mouth, pulling up on the couch, following big bro around, and trying to escape from her crib are some of her latest milestones. Sleeping completely through the night is a milestone we're still waiting for. Desperately waiting.







Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving week with Mimi Mary, Papa Joe, and Cousin Kevin! Preston decided to be on his best behavior...or not. He was a bit of a disaster all week (and that's putting it mildly), but he loved spending time with them. Kevin was tons of fun, and the boys played together very well. They even took a trip to the bouncy house and went swimming at the hotel pool! Kevin was super sweet with Callie, and she enjoyed watching the boys play. We all ate too much a Mima Ceese's house on Turkey Day.  Well, I did at least.

Preston was asking for them today...hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of everyone together, but here is a super long video to make up for that. We're thankful that they endured the LONG drive to get here and back home to spend time with us.

 

Super Boots

Did you know Superman wears rain boots? Me either.

Lots of army crawling and rockin' from Callie lately. She'll be for-real crawling in no time, but I don't think it will make her any faster. She's a quick little squirt! I like the part of this video where she talks to Preston. And the second part with the monitor is from this morning. Thank you, Daylight Savings, for the early morning wake up call. "It's wake up time! It's wake up time! It's wake up time!" He probably said this at least 75 times (no exaggeration) before I finally went up there. I miss the days when we got an extra hour out at the bar as a result of the time change OR an extra hour of sleep! Ahhh, sleep. I miss you.



Halloween 2011

Some nuggets of cuteness in this video...a little long, but worth it. Hope you ate as much candy as I did!  

Sorry for the lack of photos lately. Still haven't bought a new camera, and the phone camera just isn't quite fast enough to get a non-blurry picture of a 3 year old and a 7 month old. Here are a few from the Cider Mill last weekend and playing in the leaves. 

Family Photos

A BIG thank you to Molly and Betsy for doing a little family photo shoot for us this weekend! The weather was perfect, and they did an amazing job.  Of course, Preston got a big 'ol rug burn on his chin the morning of the pictures, so we'll be doing some photoshop work before we print any. But I think they do a good job of making us look like we have it all together! Those who know us know the truth. Here are a few of my favorites!