Friday, October 30, 2009

Getting Ready

I cannot believe how tolerant Joci was with letting me put hot rollers in her hair to get ready for her class today.She found Jon's wig for his costume and was playing around with it...

Pre-Halloween

Today was lots of fun. Joe got to wear his costume to school and had a big party in his class plus a Halloween parade. He was so not into posing for pictures this morning...I'm hoping I can get a lot more tomorrow of him.

Joci got to wear her costume to her little PeeWee Play Class. She was so into posing for pictures...in fact, there for awhile I thought I had a mini Paris Hilton on my hands.

After Jon got home from work we went to buy some pumpkins and then did some carving. Jon always thinks I'm crazy for doing fancy carvings for the kids, but I love it. Joci picked out a Cinderella pumpkin stencil and Joe wanted to do his own design. I was a little nervous with him carving it himself, but I admit, he did a really awesome job. I was pleasantly surprised at his skills.Tomorrow will be a busy day. First we have flag football, then Schnepf Farms, and then it's on to Trick or Treating.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Football Pictures

Some pictures of the kids at the flag football games last Saturday:




Joe, after the ref accidentally elbowed him in the eye:

Run, Baby, run!
Joci and the girls playing with the wagon while they were waiting for the Bear's game to end.

These are the kids that always have to wait for the Bear's game...the coach's kids.


Love this picture of Joe. He was a little upset because the girls were excluding him.

Thinking of Having Kids?

I was cracking up this morning when I read the Joy's Hope blog about a 10 step program people should do before they have kids.

Like her, I LOVE being a Mom, THE Mom to my little ones. But it is, by far, one of the hardest things in life to do, and so to add a little humor and make fun of ourselves, well, I think that is a good thing. Here is her posting. Go visit Joy's blog, it's great and she is a fantastic writer.

Thinking of Having Kids?
Do This 10 Step Program First
Lesson 1
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline
2. Lack of patience
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels
4. Allowing their children to run wild
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.
Lesson 2
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approx. 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down gently, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at midnight and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1am.
4. Set alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45.
7. Get up at 3am when alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4am.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive.)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.
Lesson 3
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?
Lesson 4
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus in the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this- all morning.
Lesson 5
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle Cheerios all over the floor, them smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
Lesson 6
Go to the grocery store. Take the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.
Lesson 7
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a 9 month-old baby.
Lesson 8
Learn the names of every character from all shows on PBS, the Disney Channel and Noggin. Watch nothing else on TV but shows from these channels for at least 5 years. (I know, you're thinking "what is Noggin?") Exactly the point.
Lesson 9
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.
Lesson 10
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from lesson 9 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.Read more: http://www.joyshope.com/2009/10/old-skool-week-thinking-of-having-kids.html#ixzz0VFwIf1A9

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

My Little Girl

How, can, this, be, possible?

I've noticed lately that little Miss Jocelyn seems to be going through a growth spurt. Of course, I noticed when last week and the weather was cooler, yes 80 is cool in Arizona, that Joci's jeans were definitely too short for her to wear for winter. Thank goodness our friend Hannah, at daycare, was growing too and gave us a new crop of jeans. I also noticed when Joci put on her princess dress and it wasn't dragging on the ground anymore, even though it is still way too big in the bodice. I've noticed that she can now reach the faucet better, and looks so long while sleeping in her bed.

So this morning while I was playing our usual game of me telling the kids how much they grew overnight, Joci ran over to our growth chart to show me. Typically, I wouldn't have gone with her, knowing that she couldn't have grown that much, but I was compelled to do so and found that she has grown an inch in four months.

How can that be possible? Should this be allowed? My baby growing way faster than I think should be allowed. It gives me a major case of "Help me, time is moving way to fast!" syndrome.

So I got my sharpie marker and marked her height, telling her at the time how much she really did grow, and I saw how proud she was, making so much progress.

I hate to even think what Joe's height would be if I were to check it today. I think I will wait a little while so I can get over the shock of Jocelyn growing to fast first.