CakePops Round 3

My friend Jill had a baby on Sunday (Father's Day). I can't wait to meet their newest addition tomorrow. I'm bringing dinner over and thought I would make Bakerella's cupcake pops for dessert. She has two older boys and I figured they would enjoy these too.

They are supposed to resemble mini cupcakes......thus the name Cupcake Pops.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with the way they turned out. Pretty stinkin cute.

Do you know how difficult it is to make these while you have three sets of eyes watching you just waiting for you to make a mistake so they can have the "bad" one?

I used to get a whole week......

My mom kind of spoiled me, growing up we would get a birthday week; a week of "happy birthdays", a week of choosing the meals, a whole week. Then I met Paul and he jumped on the birthday week bandwagon and continued to spoil me. Then I had kids. This morning, I woke to "I'm hungry, can you bake us some muffins?" It was barely 7:30 and I hadn't even had coffee yet. My oh my, have times changed.

Birthdays are definitely different now. But I can't imagine anything better than sitting between my babies and blowing out the candle on my ice cream cake. I'm one lucky 33 year old!!!

Sometimes it really is the simple things.....

Dinner out with the family. Sometimes it can be quite pleasant and sometimes we're just trying to get through it before someone has to go outside and get "talked to." Last night was one of the best family dinners out we have had in a long time. Both kids finished their meals and no one, let me repeat, NO ONE had a melt down. It was so enjoyable. It was as if the kids new this was my birthday dinner and we're trying to be on their best behavior.

Look at them. They even enjoyed each others company.

When she's doing this without being prompted ......you know things are good.

This is one of those things he picked up at school, Longhorns in EVERY picture. Note Em's beads, they're still a major player in the wardrobe.

.......and yes, Tyson got a haircut. He told us he wanted a "man haircut" for summer, which means short , "like Daddy." It's still growing on me. He used to have his hair this short when he was younger and we were tired of his hair sticking to his head with sweat. I really had no idea just how long his hair had grown. He's still my handsome boy, just with spikey hair.

1 week-- LOTS of Memories

This was the third summer for Tyson to attend Concordia's Vacation Bible school. This by far was his favorite. In one week he learned so much and would come home and tell us all about the daily bible verse. He begged me to buy the CD's with the songs they had learned this week. I absolutely loved hearing Tyson sing songs about Jesus in the car and then explain what they meant to Emmy so she could sing along too.

This was Tyson's gift from his Vacation Bible school crew leader. Isn't this just the coolest thing? She took pictures all week and put them into a collage with a personalized frame.


Meet Vick and Hannah. These two young ladies were the reason behind my son's BIG smile each morning as I would leave him at VBS. They were his crew leaders. And they were just as sweet as they could be.

Tyson, Colton and Bailey on the first morning. They had so much fun together this week. I was so glad they were all in the same group.

Geri took the kids out to lunch the day I had my root canal. We're lucky to have such good friends.

The funniest thing in this picture to me is Colton's t-shirt.

"Vick"

"Hannah"

The group on the last day. Tyson actually teared up a little in the car and said he was "kinda sad and would miss his church school."

She's FANCY

Em's week hasn't been as eventful as Tyson's. She isn't old enough for Vacation Bible School yet. So she's had the mornings to herself; a lot of play time and a lot of dress up time. She has the huge infatuation with jewelry lately. It's my fault. I cleaned out my jewelry box and gave her tons of old necklaces and bracelets. Now she wants to wear ALL of them at ALL times.

At least she shares them with "her guys" (that's her term for her stuffed animals and dolls). Look closely.......everyone from Ariel to Hello Kitty is wearing plastic beads.

The numbers don't lie

Well the tooth fairy had to make a stop here last night. Tyson finally lost that front top tooth. That makes 3 total. It came at a good time since his well check visit was scheduled for this week too. He was also excited because Grandma and Grandpa were here to see the tooth.

I know he is growing but when I see the numbers it just seems unreal. I can still clearly remember placing this naked little butterball on the scale while he screamed, now he just hops onto the rocket ship scale.

He weighs 50 lbs and is 46 1/4 inches tall, that's 13 lbs and 5 1/2 inches in 2 years. WOW!!!

How can he really being heading off to college???

Halloween 2007

From the minute I heard that there was a Toy Story 3 coming out I couldn't wait to see it with Tyson. Buzz Lightyear was Tyson's first super hero he idolized. There was a period of time where he would only watch Toy Story........and by only I mean 10 times a day. He had a Buzz birthday party which he insisted on wearing his Buzz t-shirt. He had a Buzz backpack for pre school. Buzz was important.

However, Andy always held a special place in my heart. I loved the way he played with his toys and how great his imagination was. Which is why when I found out he was heading off to college I got this big lump in my throat. I teared up reading about the movie before I ever even saw it. Because we all know what college kids don't take with them to college......toys, even of they're his favorite toys. I won't spoil the ending for everyone that hasn't seen it. But, it was emotional. The whole thing......SAD. Yeah, sure the kids were following the story about the toys trapped in the daycare but the moms were awaiting the inevitable. What would happen when Andy got ready to leave??? How would he say good bye? Thank goodness I wore waterproof mascara. Otherwise I may have scared the children. I boohooed like a baby. I'm not sure when I turned into this big baby . It must have something to do with being a Mom. It's softened me.

Tyson's buddy Colton and his sister Bailey joined us for the movie.

This was Tyson's first 3D movie experience. How cute are these three with their glasses?

I can't imagine Tyson telling me he's ready to leave for college, and I can just get rid of his old toys. What about blue blanket? Russ? Buzz Bear? Tommy the Turtle? And his special purple pencil?

Can someone hit the "pause" button on the Life remote?

4 Kids, 3 dogs and 2 mommies in a beach house....

The kids and I spent the last few days down in Port A with Wendy and her boys at the beach house. To say that we had a great time would be an understatement. The kids had so much fun!!! It has been a while since we had gotten all four of the kids together. And truth be told it has been a while since Wendy and I had hung out too. So once those tired kids hit the bed, her and I caught up over a glass, or two......... or three, of wine out on the deck. Good times all the way around!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the kids from our trip.

Ready to hit the beach for round 1. Do you know how long it takes to get 4 really wound kids all sunscreened up?!?

The boys really enjoyed hanging out together. Someone had dug this huge hole on the beach and our kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.



Tyson loved running. He ran in the sand. He ran into the waves and he ran out of the waves. Run, Run and more running.

The boys also loved climbing the sand dunes.

They also did a lot of this. Tyson has this things with sea shells, he loves digging for them. He thought he had found a clam without a shell.....turned out it was a baby jelly fish. It was a small sting and stopped hurting after a while. We all survived.

In case you are wondering, she's surfing........on land.

Sometimes I can't believe we've been hanging out with these guys since it was just Tyson and Ethan and Ethan couldn't even walk. Time flies!!!!

Playing Around

It seems that this has become our night time ritual. I mean how else can you burn up the evening energy these kids have built up. Em's been averaging a three hour nap daily and Tyson is sleeping till 8:30. So after dinner we grab a ball, bicycle and some cold drinks and head up to the school so Tyson can practice his jump shot and Em can wreak havoc on the playground.

that's about right

Look out! Em's behind the wheel and she's ALL over the place!!!

Too bad you don't get points for facial expressions

..............a little sweat under that hat

"it's just a phase, it's just a phase........."

Emerson Grace makes me smile, but..........she also makes me CRAZY. At a little more than 2 and a half years old she is a huge handful. She's headstrong, fearless and things have to be her way. Emmy hit the "terrible twos" around 18 months and is heading right into "terrible threes." I'm not a big fan of those nick names, however this often describes my second child's behavior. One minute she is as sweet and loving as she can be and the next she will turn you to stone with one glance. Today was one of those days, it wasn't even 11 am and she had been spanked twice and visited time out at least three times. I keep reminding myself that it's a phase and "that this too shall pass." I guess that's why I thought I should write about it. One day (hopefully soon) this phase will be gone and we will be on to new challenges.

Emmy Grace Mommy loves you!!!!