happy birthday, aunt janet!

Today is Aunt Janet's birthday. It's a big one but I won't say which big one... I'll just let you wonder if it's her 29th or 30th! (Just ignore Wendy's laughter, Janet...) Janet is Wendy's sister and lives all the way in California, so we don't get to see her all that much. My girls love it when she comes and sometimes pretend to be Aunt Janet when they're playing. I asked the girls to tell me about her today and below are the answers they gave.

This is the baby playing with Janet the last time she was here a few months ago. He's probably looking for her "bubby" (belly button) :)

Our Aunt Janet

Our Aunt Janet is the best aunt in the world!
She is as beautiful as... (T: a butterfly! E: lipstick!)
She is as strong as a ... T: Tarzan! E: hippo!
She is as young as... Bea, our dog!
She is as crazy as a... clown!
Our favorite thing to do with her is...make a necklace.
We want her to come see us again... T: today!! E: when I wake up in the morning.
I wish Aunt Janet would... T: play with me E: go to the zoo ...the next time she comes.
I would not trade my Aunt Janet for a ... T: sparkly flower dress E: farm!


Happy Birthday, Janet! Hope you've had a fabulous day! :)

oops! :}

So Wendy, the Queen of All Things Ebay, found these very cute pj's for the baby on ebay. She saw the picture of them online, got them in the mail, and put them on the baby before she realized something was wrong! It might be too small to notice in this picture, but can you figure out the problem with these pj's??


(My baby loves the see-saw that sits in the playroom! It was supposed to go outside, but never made it out there. It is definitely a favorite toy of all three kids!)

The problem with these is the fact that they are little girl pj's as evidenced by the small bow at the neck of the shirt!! Ha! :) Just by looking at the design of elephants, etc., you would never guess that these were for a girl! The bow will be taken off and no one will ever know...except, of course, those of you who read this blog...! :)

Quick pic of a snuggly moment with his sisters. He is most definitely very well loved!! :)

big boy bed!

Well, after the excitement of my baby learning how to climb out of his pack'n'play crib last week, it was definitely time to dig out the toddler bed. And I do mean DIG. :} It happened to be set up in the upstairs storage room....underneath a rather LARGE mountain of baby clothes, clothes the girls have outgrown, etc.! So after a minor "extreme makeover: storage room edition" (minus the hot host of the show and my future husband, Ty Pennington....), my baby is now the proud owner of his very own big boy bed!

Showing off his brand new bed after he "helped" me make it. Making beds always comes right after breakfast and right before we get dressed in the morning, so now he gets to join in the routine.

Demonstrating how he can climb onto his bed.

Ta Da! :)

Later Monday afternoon and ready for his second nap in his new bed - the first nap in it with Kiki in the house! I set up camp in the girls' room next door and watched him on the baby monitor. He got up ten times and I put him back ten times. He would just stand there with his head down, knowing I was about to come in and plop him back in bed! :) No tears though, just testing to see what the limits were.

After 30 minutes, he went to sleep. Not too bad for the first time! :)

Ok, now I have to share the rest of the story! :) Sunday afternoon was his very first nap in his new bed and Mommy and Daddy were home. Wendy knew he would get up but just left him alone for a while. Here's what she found when she went to check on him.....

Hmmm....evidence of a baby...must have opened the door and closed it again....

Nope! No baby in the bed...! (a bit of clean laundry that's been pulled off the bigger bed...)

Nope! No baby here either.... more laundry...

Aha! There's the baby!! Fast asleep in the middle of a pile of more clean laundry!! :)

So Mommy put him back in his bed where he then stayed for the rest of his nap! :)

uhoh! :)

Well, this is the most recent development in our house! Last weekend the family went out in their RV for a night and came back and said that the baby had climbed IN his pack'n'play (which doubles as his crib at home...poor third child! lol!) :) . Yesterday, I went in to get him up from his nap and he was, as you can see in the picture, on his way OUT of the crib! Today I put him down for his nap and about five minutes later, realized I could hear him talking way too clearly for being up in his room with the door closed. I went to check, and sure enough! there he was, door open, just standing there chatting! Thankfully, his dad had just put a gate up on his door this week. I put him back down, went downstairs again and about 2 minutes later heard little feet running across the floor. I put him back a second time and so far, he has stayed. So far. He is definitely still awake though. He used to go right to sleep but I think now he is too excited about his new-found trick to bother sleeping! :) Hmm...I think it might be time for the toddler bed!

snails for lunch

Yesterday, my oldest had her first dentist appointment and then got to go out to lunch with Mommy. That left me with my two younger kiddos for several hours. Lauren was over and decided we should make something fun for lunch. I had seen this idea in a magazine that Wendy gets and so we ate "snail wraps" for lunch. My middle child thought it was hilarious and very tasty! :)

Best snails I've ever eaten...! (Ok, so I've never actually tried escargot...but I'm pretty sure I would like these better anyways!)

She enjoyed having a bit of extra attention! :)

And she poses with Lauren for a quick pic. :) Oh yeah, and the TV really isn't usually on, but after the last post, of course it happens to be on in this picture! :) Every now and then I turn on Home Improvement reruns while I'm fixing lunch.

pretty in white

No real story here. Just a quick pic from last Friday. I let them watch 20 minutes of TV while picking up and waiting for a friend to arrive. Getting to watch something while Kiki is in charge is a rare treat. We usually have too many other fun things to occupy our time with...and the TV usually goes on pretty soon after I leave...verified by the amount of information my oldest can quote...! Ha! :)

potty time!

Well, it's that time again. Potty training time! My baby will be the fifth child I have potty trained. He is 18 months, which may sound a little early for potty training, but my middle child was done being potty trained shortly after 18 months. It takes oodles of patience, but it can be done! :) Today we are out of our one little pack of "big boy" undies so I left a diaper on him thinking that this was not going to work so well. However, he has surprised me by twice running to the potty and trying to climb on! His diaper was already wet, but at least I know he's making the connection. He especially enjoys the two m&ms he gets for trying on the potty! That's what he's studying in the picture below. :)