Happy B-day to Mallory

Happy Birthday to my lovely Mallory. She was 6 two days ago and she is loving the new found freedom of a 6 year old. She now gets to go into the kid zone at our local health club so she is thrilled about that. We are having her friends and family party this weekend. So she is excited have all her friends at her house. I don't have anything planned as of now. I figure we will do a craft, eat and watch a movie. So those are my big plans. That means I have a lot of things to do the end of this week.

I have finally taken some pictures this month. I looked at my May 2010 iPhoto folder and I had barely any pictures in it so I made up for it this weekend.

Here is an amazing bug on my rose flower

I think these are our chives or onion plants


These are our new perennials that we planted in the front of the house. I don't know what they are called but they produce pretty flowers.

I love these flowers and I like this picture, except for my bulging vein in my arm.


Another spring flower that I don't know the name of.


This is my rain barrel's third base. This one is obviously large enough to fit the entire bottom so hopefully it will not sag and overflow. So far it has worked and I am still loving it.


Julianne had an unmotivated game on Sunday. She was so not into it because of a couple reasons but she ended up not playing in the second half because we told her if she was not going to be in it 100 % then she should not play. So she decided not to play.
These are the pictures I took during the game. Yes I did say during the game and notice how she is all alone and not really looking for the ball.


So since she was not really playing I took pictures of Nathan and Mallory

I love his facial expression in this picture.

I love his tongue.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Celebrating Mallory's birthday
-Nathan asking if I want to lay in my bed with him, he wants a snuggle
-My new veggie garden

"Did you cut yours off?"

D heard a conversation between Nathan and Mallory. He said it was adorable and he loved hearing them have a conversation together. After he told me about it I asked the kids about it and this is a summary of how the conversation went from D, Mallory and Nathan. Nathan asked Mallory if she cut her penis off. Mallory said, "No Nathan. I am different from you. You and Daddy have a penis, his is just bigger than yours." So that is how the conversation went while they were in the shower together. I talked to Nathan the next day and we talked about that girls, like Mallory and Julianne, have vagina's and boy's have penises. He still insisted that she cut hers off. He told me that, "She cut hers off." He could not be convinced otherwise. So that was too funny. I still think that he believes that we are all born with penises and women just choose to cut theirs off.

I had a great mother's day. D does a great job spoiling me on Mother's day. He cooks a meal for me, bought flowers, and he buys me a few spring outfits. On top of that he also makes sure he sees his mom. It is nice to feel like he appreciates all that I do as a mom for our kids and our family. So I appreciate all that he does and I try to replicate his generosity on Father's Day.

I can't think of anything else right now. We are loving our new driveway and D loves his new basketball hoop. It has already been put to good use and I know will be well used and loved throughout the years.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-A great supportive family
-Great weather

Our first 911 call

On Monday I was cleaning up the dishes as the kids were quietly playing in the basement (that should have been a sign). I was enjoying the piece and quiet when my phone rang. “Private Caller” showed up on the caller ID and I answered it since some of my friends and relatives have unlisted phone numbers. This lady said this is 911 and someone called from your phone. I looked over to where my phone was and my other phone was sitting right there.
I said, “Are you sure? Our phone number is XXX-XXXX.” I thought it was a mistake so I wanted to verify that 911 was really calling me back.
She said “Yes that is correct and is xxxx street name your address?”
“Yes, that is our address,” I replied.
“Well someone called from your phone and we wanted to know if we should send some help,” she responded.
I opened the basement door and said, “Are you guys playing with the phone?” Mallory cried out, “Julianne was!”
I knew after she said that that Julianne had called 911. I shut the basement door and told the lady that we did not need any emergency help and that I was sorry that someone called from our house.

I hung up and went back downstairs and reiterated how important it was to not call that number unless it is an emergency. I think she was just testing it out to really see what happened when you dialed that number. I was just glad that I was in the house to answer that phone call instead of emergency vehicles showing up at our house. Hopefully that will be our last phone call to 911.

Mallory finally lost her second bottom tooth after months of it hanging on. Her adult tooth has been coming up behind it for a long time but her baby tooth just did not want to budge. So I tried the pliers this weekend on it and that helped loosen it up and then on Sunday night I pulled again and it came out. Well the tooth fairy did not come that night because we like to teach patients. Mostly it was because the tooth fairy forgot one of Julianne’s teeth so we told her that since she lost it so late in the night the fairy probably did not have time to get it with all the other teeth she had to collect from earlier in the day. So Tuesday morning Mallory comes into our room saying that the tooth fairy did not come again. So that was two nights and no tooth fairy. I had completely forgotten about her tooth and went to bed. D played basketball that night so he came home after I was in bed. He said he remembered but did not do anything about it. So anyway, the tooth fairy managed to come last night, thank goodness, and now little Mallory is doing much better.

Well it rained all weekend and my rain barrel is completely full, and is now tilting forward. I heightened the barrel on bricks so that we could get to the spout and I think the soil underneath the front of the rain barrel sank and now the barrel is leaning forward. So I went to the hardware store and bought rocks and some large pavers so that I can re-engineer the base for the barrel. I am however, mad that I have to empty out the water and fix it because it is leaning and I am afraid it might fall and it just drives me nuts that it is not level. So hopefully I will get to it this weekend.

I must say that I love my rain barrel. The kids can fill up whatever water filled object they want and I don’t have to worry about the spigot being left on, dripping or wasting water. So whenever they want water for water guns, watering cans, etc they know where to go. Additionally, before I set up the hose they would come in the house to fill up the water sprayers and now they do not have to keep coming in through the house to get more water.

My completely stubborn Nathan again pulled off his screaming and wailing episode because he did not want to put “different” clothes on. He was in his favorite soccer shirt and shorts and we were headed to Julianne’s evening soccer practice. It was really cold, he was outside and he had goose bumps all over him but he kept saying that he did not want pants or a jacket on. I had on jeans, a long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt on. We had a freeze warning that night so it was cold. Usually I don’t stress about if I think he is cold or not. I figure if he is cold he will tell me. But this was not one of those instances, I knew it was cold and I wanted to put pants and a long sleeve shirt on. So once again I told him that I was going to put these clothes on him and he again refused to give in. So after about 15 minutes I took him in his room and changed him. Again he fought but my neighborhood babysitter was visiting so she witnessed his stubbornness and helped get his clothes on. So this was much easier than the last time I had to fight him. So we changed him and he survived but man he is one stubborn child.

Here are how my plants are progressing now. I am so happy that they are actually growing. I think that now they are getting to tall for my artificial light and now the leaves are not looking very good. So I may move them in Julianne's room so that they can get real light.



We also had a lot of action at our house last week. We had our driveway torn up and a new concrete driveway put in. When I would shovel the snow chunks of our old driveway could come up. We knew it was time to either get a new one or keep patching the old one. So we took the plunge and purchased a new concrete one. So we are glad that hopefully this will be the only driveway we will have to put in. The kids had a blast that day. It was instant entertainment. We love the new driveway and we even had them put in a base for our new basketball hoop. D is in heaven. He loves his new basketball hoop so I am happy that he loves it.

The workers let Mallory and Nathan ride in the digger. Nathan did not want to go in it at first but he did after Mallory rode in it. Julianne did not want to ride it in. They had a great time helping drive it and lift the shovel up and down.










Things I am grateful/thankful for:
- my rain barrel (what a great idea)
- A great yoga teacher
-being able to get a new driveway.

Updates

Well I have been busy working in the yard, enjoying the beautiful weather and not posting on my blog. Within the past two weeks we have received two fun and special gifts. I now own a composter and a rain barrel. I am so excited. The composter was more of a purchase in order to test it for work. Someone at work submitted a composting proposal for use in the home office. So it was basically approved and we thought it was a great idea with all the cafeteria scraps that currently are thrown away. The maintenance director wanted to wait until the early summer in order to give the current staff time to adjust to the new recycling routine and to get up to full time staff. He also wanted me to get references for the composter that the team member proposed. He wanted to know it if was really durable, what the end product would look like, etc. So I wrote the company asking them to send me some references. I did not receive a response so I then called and left two messages. I did not receive a response. So I ended up buying one so that I could test it out. I have been wanting to purchase a compost tumbler for a while so this was motivation to actually do it. So we have had it for two weeks and it has been really nice. It is easy to use, gets lots of air in it and it very durable. We have been throwing in our kitchen scraps and throwing our yard waste into it for the past two weeks. Within the next week we will stop putting stuff in it so that it can compost. Then hopefully I will be able to see the results and report those back to our office.


Here it is. The picture is terrible but I don't feel like taking another picture of it.

Inside shot

My second toy is my rain barrel. I have been wanting to get one of these since I first saw them a few years ago. I was a little hesitant about cutting my gutter but within the past year they have developed easier ways to connect it to your gutter. Additionally, if it fills up the water goes back into the gutter. So why would I not use one? It was easy to install, I drilled a hole in my gutter and hooked up the attachment. I also strategically located it next to my garden so that hopefully I can put a soaker hose in my garden and then just attach it to the rain barrel nossel. I had it installed for about a week before we got any rain. Friday was our first rain and it filled about half way up. So that was exciting first of all that it worked and secondly that it filled up so fast. I have already used it and I love not having to turn on my facet, move my hose around, etc.


Hail to the rain barrel.

The left is the area for my garden.

So anyway, that is about it. Julianne had her first soccer game of the season yesterday. She did an excellent job during the game. D and I talked about how much progress she has made since her first game in the fall and her first game this spring. This game she was aggressive, she knew what was going on, she was not afraid of making mistakes and she enjoyed herself. So it was great to see. She even scored a goal so that made her super excited. It is great to see her gain self confidence in something that she does and we are proud of her for that.


Julianne talking to her friend during their break.


She is going after the ball. Go Julianne. She definitely had that splotching red face after the game from running so hard.


What a kick. I wish the picture was better. Look at her red face.

She is in the action now.

Nathan and his favorite babysitter.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-great spring weather
-Spring blooms
-fantastic, loving and involved hubby

Our Easter weekend

We had a great weekend. On Saturday we went with my sister to her country club for an Easter brunch and hunt. The cousins had time playing with each other and the girls had a fun time hunting Easter eggs. I had a little delimma with Nathan that was funny and also very frustrating. I had to get him "dressed up" which entailed a short sleeve button down shirt and khaki pants. Forty minutes before we left I told him that we needed to get him dressed. He said he did not want to wear that outfit and I told him that I was sorry that he did not want to wear it but that we were going to put it on him. He said he did not want to wear it and I told him that he could spend time in his room until he was ready to put on his outfit. Five to ten minutes later he came back and asked me if he could get out of his room and I told him that he could not come out until he was ready to get dressed. He continued to be stubborn and would not allow me to get him dressed. So about 30 minutes later we had to leave so I told him that I was getting him dressed weather he liked it or not. Well I ended up forcing him to get dressed while he was screaming. He is one strong three year old. He was kicking and screaming and making a big deal out of nothing. Julianne was in our neighbors driveway and she said that she could hear Nathan screaming all the way to their house. I was so frustrated with him. He drove me nuts. We never make him get dressed and it just frustrated me that he did not understand that we were putting the clothes on weather he liked it or not and that he just needed to deal with it in a better way. Oh well that is my perspective. His stubborn perspective is that he did not want to wear the outfit that I picked out for him and he did not understand why I wanted him to wear it. So now I can laugh at his stubbornness and strong willed personality but at the time it was very frustrating. It took him awhile for him to relax and enjoy himself.

On Sunday D's mom and stepdad came over for brunch and egg hunting. We had a great time and we enjoyed their company on this holiday. The kids had fun hunting for the eggs. We grilled out that night and went to the park. So it was a nice family filled day. I love those days.


This is the doll I made for Lexee from my brother's baby lovey. It turned out really well. The blanket was so thin that I had to put fusible interfacing on all the fabric so that it would hold up to stitches and stuffing.

Here are all the cousins. Note that Nathan was not in this picture. He was still being stubborn from his outfit fiasco.

The girls had their face painted and the lady did an excellent job. We were sad that we had to take the face painting off at night.

This was our family picture. None of the kids were participating well. They were all off and not really looking at me all at once. So I never really got a great picture.



Julianne's competitive spirit came out as she ran to look for the most eggs.

Nathan was running all over the place and loving looking for Easter eggs.


D's cute butt.

I love Julianne's face in this picture.

Mallory was supper sweet and she gave Nathan a couple eggs since she had more than he did.

Here is Mallory skiing. I forgot my camera so my sister took these pictures.

Here is another one of Mallory and cousin Caitlyn.

Here is all the girls.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-great weather days
-family fun filled days
-Mallory (Julianne also shared later) sharing her Easter eggs with Nathan
-Spending quality time with D