Friday Fill-Ins

1. I'd really like something chocolaty, right now.

2. Owie! is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe.

3. Possession is 9/10ths of the law.

4. He's not too bad for a skanky old pirate, that Captain Jack Sparrow.

5. Marshmallows and fire go together like pretzels and chocolate.

6. *sings* on and on, on and on.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sleep, tomorrow my plans include shopping and Sunday, I want to actually hear the church service!

2-2-5 and Other Random Comments

MAL (after clobbering Xav in the head with Cranky the Crane): Henry biffed the trucks and Cranky biffed Xavier and a mosquito bit Xavier's ear.
ME: A mosquito did not bite Xavier's ear.
MAL: Absolutely yes! A mosquito-ladybug crawled on Xavier and bit his ear. A mosquito-ladybug-fly bit Xavier.

Teaching Xavier to count.
ME: say 1-2-3.
XAV: 2-2-5!

MAL: You are not a boy, you are a Mommy!

MAL (after watching WallE): Mommy, you look gorgeous.

MAL: I'm wearing a blanky helmet.

The Things You Learn at the Table

Did you know if you stack your graham crackers three high, you get an awful lot of crumbs when you eat them? You do. You really do.



















Want to know what color red and yellow make? Just place your yellow fire truck under a red cup. See? Orange.

Happy Birthday Xavier!

Well, how is this for a terrible Mother? I didn't take any pictures of Xavier blowing out his candles on his birthday. Well, terrible mother I may be, I am clever. Yesterday I let the boys blow out candles again. That's right. I staged my baby's second birthday cake pics. Trouble is, the camera is not as clever as I am. It does not contain any pictures of Xavier blowing out candles. Stupid camera.

I do have these pics of Mal and Xav on the hoppers Aunt Stephie sent out to them. Xav isn't big enough yet to actually hop it, but he does sit on it and bounce or walk with it. They also like to hit each other with the hoppers. Thanks Aunt Steph. I just realized these pics are terrible! If any of you were wondering about Mal's perpetual kool-aid mustache, he has been licking his lip for months and it shows. Sometimes it isn't too bad. Poor Xavier just got up from a nap in this one, but he still looks exhausted. The Potty Power video is playing in the background. I hope it helps!

Wearing My Mommy Helmet

I realized I hadn't posted any new pics of the boys for you, so here they are along with some stories.

Mal was looking at our ginormous dictionary, pointing randomly at pages saying, "words, words, words".

His evaluations with the school district are complete and we meet again tomorrow. After that, we will see the pediatrician for a playdate.

He has also been playing a fun letter game and a cow game on the computer with Daddy in the evenings. He's learning to recognize a few letters as well as the sounds they make. Xavier is right there, sticking his nose in it, trying to play too.

We've also been trying to get Mal to count out loud and sing the ABC song more, but he isn't the most cooperative.
Micah: A B C D E F G
Mal: No Daddy, YOU say H I J K

Today, every time I asked him to do something and he didn't like it, he accused me of wearing my Mommy Helmet (Yooooooou are wearing A mummy helmat!). If that is what I have to do, I guess I'll just wear it everyday. I don't know, but I imagine it looks like a viking helmet with horns.


Here's Xav enjoying a peanut butter sandwich the other day when the guys had a whole day together without mom.


















Then we have Mal playing with a car or something all snuggled in Daddy's chair with Daddy's blanket. Then learning to drive using Mario Kart on the Wii (thanks for the game loans everybody). I believe he is crashing in this picture.

Look What I Can Do TWO!

Yes, I know how to spell too. This is more like... a sequel.

Xavier can climb as well, though maybe not as high as Mal. Notice the Lightning McQueen stepstool on the floor? And it was so sunny, with all the snow the window just looked white. Crazy, huh?




And what in the world is so funny about the word "cookie"? Maybe because it was late and the boys were enjoying a cookie snack, but last night they sat at the table taking turns shouting cookie! and laughing uproariously. One more boy thing I just don't get, I guess.

Speaking of things I don't get; here is M headed into the woods on his new snowshoes in frigid temperatures to start a fire and "chill out". Ha Ha Ha!

January Cards

Some cards I made this month.

Birthday
Since these have probably been received by now, I can post them here. You are the queen was a dollar stamp at Michael's. How cute is that?! The chipboard is from colorbok. The rest is SU!.

Get Well
A friend's daughter was hit by a delivery truck in Mexico almost two weeks ago. She is in the hospital there and they hope she will be home with them next week. Please pray for Vanessa that she heals well and quickly from this ordeal and isn't any the worse for the hospital stay in Mexico. The inside of the card says simply "praying for you" (it's from the set you see below).

Valentine's Day
We made these cards at my small MOPS group last night. The paper is more of the DCWV Christmas Stack from 2007 (I will be using that paper for. ev. er.). That particular piece of striped paper paired nicely with Pacific Point and Bashful Blue cardstock. I used So Many Sayings from SU! for the sentiments. That was a set of three stamps, but I had M get me some square sticks (with the dowel rods) and I cut them up and got 36 individual sayings and borders. They are so easy to use now. I have another set like it that I need to get sticks cut for so I can use that one too! These were inspired by THIS card by Silke Ledlow.

All About Mal Today

Mal has refused to wear any jammies except for dinosaurs for months. That became a minor problem this winter. It got colder and all of his dino jammies are short sleeved. He also won't wear one piece sleepers. He just takes them off in the middle of the night. He got several warmer sets of jammies for Christmas, two with dinosaurs, and I finally convinced him to wear them (it didn't hurt that the other three sets were in the laundry!). Of course last night he was back in his short sleeves, but I tell myself baby steps.

Yesterday, Mal climbed on my lap and asked, "what would you like for Christmas, Mommy?" I figure, I don't have anything to lose, so I told him I'd love it if both he and Xavier are potty trained by Christmas.

Some of Mal's testing took place yesterday also. It was a bit of sorting, drawing and questions like, "are these the same or different?". I think he did alright. Thursday is the Speech and Language testing.

They're Baa-aack!

The deer were back today. 11:30 this morning, the 11th, not the 10th (time to fix the AM/PM on the camera). These pictures were taken through the kitchen door. They came out pretty well though. Both boys got to see them too. Mal said they were Santa's reindeer. When they left Xav told them "bye, bye".

Grandma Mattoon

This is Gramma.



















I've been on a quest to find a bread recipe "just like Gramma's" for a very long time. I found a video recipe for plain old white bread on, of all places, Kristina Werner's blog. Well, I've made it many times since and we love it.













This is just my memory of Gramma, and it's been over 23 years since she left us for Heaven, so I can't vouch for the accuracy.

Gramma would get up early every morning and sit at the table next to the window. She could see the birds in the feeder and she would read her Bible. I think she made bread most weekends, or at least it seemed like it. Gramma didn't measure anything. She just threw it all into a big bowl and an hour later, we were eating scrumptious, hot bread and rolls. I remember the entire counter top being covered from the sink to the window with yummy bread. Cousins would come over and help eat it and before you knew it, most of it was gone.

I also remember Gramma always had room on her lap. Even when we were too big for laps. She would sit in her rocking chair, rock, and hum her hymns to us. I wish I could remember some of the songs. Sometimes, when I hear an old hymn, I think that might be one of them, but I just don't know.

This bread makes me a bit reminisce-y and another thing I think about is get-togethers at Gramma's house. We did holidays there and everyone would visit there from Erie, PA and North Carolina. Those were crazy fun times with the big kids teaching us Red Light, Green Light and Mother, May I?. Remember jarts? None of us were ever injured with them! :) If you can think of some fun backyard games, leave a comment and tell me about it.

I love you, Gramma.

More of the Boys

Xavier is getting more independent all the time. Here he can be seen "feeding" himself, his shirt, the table and the floor.



















Mal is just getting mouthier. He is always shushing us or saying "shut up". Since that gets him put in the corner, he tried a new one today. "You shut your mouth." Since he picked up a lot of sass talk from some of his movies, he couldn't watch any last night or all day today. It isn't all bad, though. He likes to argue over who loves who more. "No Mommy. I love YOOOOU more."

Here's the winter wonderland we woke up to the other morning. You can really see what the deer have done to the trees at the end of the pond. M finally got to try out the snowshoes he got for Christmas. When he got back, there were more fresh deer tracks in the middle of the back yard. I don't know how we missed seeing them out the back door!

Pound For Pound Challenge

I took the PFP challenge to lose weight and help a local food bank. Join me!

Look What I Can Do!

With all of the room rearranging, we decided to bring the bunk beds into Xavier's old room so we could offer guests a comfortable place to sleep. All day they have tried and failed to reach the summit of bunkbed-dom. No longer. Let us rejoice! And pray no one breaks their head.

Snips and Snails

Little boys are an enigma to me. Big boys are too. Have you ever seen a walking Lincoln Log bucket? Wait. Who *is* that? It's Xavier!



















You have a perfectly nice twin bed, complete with Thomas tent. Where do you sleep? Why, in the crib with your brother of course!



















Here's the new room with both boys' beds and dressers and Mal's tent. Xavier is taking advantage of the floor space to get himself dizzy - a favorite pastime.














OK. This I understand. Who doesn't like a good book?

Nature Revisited

Look what those deer are doing to our ornamental trees! Bambi and his buddies better not let us catch them!

The Big Move

We made the big leap yesterday and for various reasons decided to move Xavier into Mal's room. We were a bit concerned that they would keep each other up, so we put Xav to bed first and once he was asleep, tucked Mal in. They both slept pretty well. Xav woke up a few times between 5:00 and 7:00 though. M or I rushed in there each time, so he wouldn't wake Mal. I needn't have worried. I actually had to wake Mal up at 9:30 this morning!

Tonight didn't go as well. We put them to bed at the same time, like usual. I guess Xav was getting on Mal's nerves. He suddenly shouted out, "stop it! stop it! Yoo-ooo-ou. Shut. Up!" Well, he isn't supposed to say shut up, but it must have worked. All has been quiet ever since.

Lunch and a Movie

Yesterday we took the boys to a movie. But first, while Daddy put in his 1/2 day at work, the boys and I shopped and went out for lunch. We ate at Friendly's. While trying to teach them a few manners, I told Mal not to be quite so loud. He told me he needs to laugh. I said, "you can laugh, but you don't need to yell or laugh loudly." So Xavier sat there for two minutes loudly saying "LLLLOUD!" over and over.

We picked up a couple small trains at one store and while we got rung up, Mal asked the female cashier, "excuse me sir, may I have my new trains please?" We are working on the sir/ma'am distinction, but he still doesn't get it. *smile*

Finally, we went to see The Tale of Despereaux about an honorable gentlemanly little mouse. This was the first time the boys have been to the theater. They were really well behaved. Xavier was a little antsy, but sat on my lap most of the film or stood in front of me. Mal sat by Daddy and spoke a little loudly a few times, but really, they were great.