Day 2

SAMs grocery shopping, lunch at Firehouse Subs, once a month hamburger meat browning (LOVE my deep freezer!), and Legos! What a great way to end our Christmas break!

365 Challenge

I'm trying something new for the new year! Welcome to my 365 challenge! My goal is to take one picture a day and blog at least a couple of sentences about the day for one entire year.

Today is Sunday, the first day of the week and coincidentally the first day of 2012. We have a couple of things already to look forward to this year...Freyja turns 5 and starts Kindergarten. Jaxon will turn 2. I get to see my all time favorite band (Pink Floyd) in concert. And who knows what else this year will hold for us! 2011 was a great year, 2012 will be better :-)

Today's picture represents what we hold most precious to our hearts...each other! If you look close you'll even see Star in the picture! We have a strong family bond and love our time together. This is the perfect shot to start off my challenge!

Hot Buggs in the Summertime

Wow, A month to the day that I have last blogged... well I will try to hit some highlights before the bigg bugg wakes up and my house falls into chaos once more!

Nothing says summer like the first dip in the kiddy pool! I cleaned out the kids pool toward the end of May and then tossed the kids in. Jax crawled around in it and loved to splash with Freyja, he dunked himself a couple of times but if anything it has just fueled his love for the pool even more! We have made several trips to the in laws to swim and even a couple of trips to the city pool (it has fun slides and water gauntlets) this summer and I see MANY more in both of the kids future! 

June 5th David turned 30! He said he didn't want to do anything for his birthday and we'd just have a quiet family sit down for it. Well, I convinced him to let DJ, John and the kids to come over for the afternoon the day before his birthday "so the kids could play". While he had Freyja at her Saturday gymnastics class I snuck a handful of his close friends in to the house and when they got home he was floored! I baked three cakes for him, one for each decade. Chocolate flan, chocolate pike and a strawberry dream. His parents bought him a grill for his birthday and the next day he and his friend Connor built the grill and we all had grilled chicken kabobs! I have a feeling we'll be grill quite often this summer :)

There's somebody sleeping in MY bed and she's STILL there!!! Big Bugg must be going through another one of those infamous growth spurts, they always seem to leave her a little insecure. We're working with her again on "big girls...big beds"...you know the drill. It was so cute to come in though and find that she had snuck into our room while we were watching tv and fell asleep on my side of the bed (the rail is there to keep Jax from rolling off in the night). I carefully transplanted my sweet girl back to her bed and she hasn't been back since...I miss her in my bed but at least I get cuddle time with her before she goes to bed in her bed. We still snuggle til she falls asleep :)

HELLOOOOOO heartbreaker!! Tell me, do these jean diapers make my butt look cute? He had his 9month check up at the beginning of June, he's 17.11lbs and 28 3/4in tall!! At 9months Freyja was 18.8lbs and 28 1/2in tall. So they are running neck and neck so far! Freyja had a mini check up too and has shot up TWO inches since November!!

My big girl got to meet her idol last week! Strawberry Shortcake was at the pier (and splashpad) meeting all of her fans and Freyja got a chance (several actually) to go up and say hi and get hugs. Our evening ended with her first official trip to Krispy Kreme Donuts for some hot donut holes and an oreo milkshake!

Here's bugg's latest project. We were at Wal Mart this week looking for pots for another project and found this neat little greenhouse on clearance. She's still at a loss as to why the plants didn't just shoot right up the moment we planted them but it did come with a growth chart so that she and I can track them and keep a log. After they get to a certain size we get to transplant them into the yard...I just hope daddys squirrels will leave them alone! They might have to move to Grandmama's garden!

Yeah...I'm in trouble! He's learned to climb the dog stairs and how to boost himself up on the bed! Yes, this is great for when the aliens fail to abduct him too and drop him off the side of the bed and he can just get himself back up but of course it doesn't stop at stairs! In the last three days I've had to shake him off bookcases, dvd shelves, the dog stairs, cabinet and drawer knobs...I keep checking his hands for "spiderman" hairs that let him climb walls and stuff, so far he's clean but that doesn't mean he's not part tree frog or gecko instead!

So thats the last month in a nutshell. We've also had the inlaws dog for the last two months as they've been off visiting our new niece (China) and nephew (Washington). They make it home today and I know Skotty will be VERY pleased to be back in his own home with his own parents!

In other good news, Davids work contract was extended out to October. Though starting as early as Monday, he'll be working from home. This should be interesting! Might have to run an extension cord to the storage shed and make him a little office in there!

Thats all the news for this month! More to come in July as my bigg bugg turns FOUR!!! Love to you all!

Busy lil bee's

Baby Bugg's first trip to the beach! A year ago mothers day I remember sitting on the beach looking out at the water praying that the recent oil spill wouldn't reach us so that my children could grow up enjoying the beach as they rightly should. This year on mothers day I was blessed by being able to take my son to the beach for his first time and actually let him play in the water because our beaches were spared the major blow. We might not have the beautiful white sand anymore but at least we have an almost spotless Gulf to still enjoy. Needless to say, Jax LOVED the water and getting to play in a float. Freyja, of course, is a beach bugg from birth! Plus having her friends out there to play with made the trip perfect for her.

My birthday present this year :) I can't even tell you when the last time was that I actually celebrated my birthday with my father! This was dad's first visit that he was able to stay more than 3-4days. Surprisingly after 10days we were still going strong and hadn't had one of our famous father/daughter brawls and having to call mommy for help. Freyja loved having Papa here! On his last night here, she got to stay up waaaaaay past her bedtime and help him work on his final project in the garage. Every morning since...when's Papa coming back?? As for Jax, he's found his favorite grandparent! The only other person he fawns over that much is me, so apparently the kid liked him "just a little"!

I managed to squeeze in a little "me" time this month as well. My friend LaTatious came home this month for her annual visit and the four of us that have been friends (forever) for almost 20yrs now got together and sealed our friendship with an ever lasting mark. We each got a tattoo of 5 music notes in the shape of a star with a burst of color on four sides, each color representing one of us. L-R, Wendy/wrist/red, Me/shoulder/orange, LaTatious/foot/blue, DJ/hip/green. Now, no matter what happens in life, good or bad, we can just look at our tattoo and remember that besides family, we have three other people that love us unconditionally and will back us no matter what! Mom always told me "you NEED girlfriends", I now understand what she meant by that and yes, I NEED these girls in my life!

My lil tumbler started back to class this past week. Papa was here for her first class of the semester. She is now taking it twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Its nice because now she has two teachers she has to learn to mind. This will help when she starts Pre-K this year and has to listen to her teacher. David attended his first class with her this past Saturday, you could see pride just pouring out of him over the fact HIS little girl was out there doing all these neat tumbles and behaving so well!! I look forward to the day Jax can join her out on the mat!

Is there anything this kid won't eat?!?! I look through the pictures dad took while he was here and most of them are of Jax eating something! Pizza...jerky...beignets...fudge cicles...graham crackers...you name it, the kid has learned he enjoys eating and there's nothing he won't try! Though nothing says love like the look of pure bliss as he's devouring my fudge cicle!

The return trip to New Orleans to take dad back to the airport an adventure! It broke my mama heart to leave my big bugg home with her daddy and take just my baby bugg with me but a good time was had by all!! While we were pounding the pavement of the French Quarter, Freyja and daddy had a blast playing in the yard, going out to Arby's for dinner and building a lego house! It appears Jax has the travel gene in him as well. He took to the road like a pro, napped most of the drive or just played quietly. He dawned his hat, pitched foward in his stroller and took in all the sites of New Orleans. Stretched his legs at the famous Cafe Dumonde and ate his first beignet (French donut). When he got tired he laid back and napped in the cool breeze. He cruised circles around Papa and I that night in the motel room...Jaxon 500!!He slept between his Papa and me in the motel and then sawed logs all the way home the next morning. I've had many mama/big bugg adventures that I treasure, now I have a mama/baby bugg adventure to add to my memories as well :)

So, sorry for the delay in blogging this month. I think you can tell I've had another full month of fun and adventure with my Buggs! Now its time to head off to the airport, collect the in laws and rid myself of my extra dog (for a couple of weeks anyway...)! Love to you all!

THE Easter Egg

A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, movie, book or crossword.  It draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt observed in many Western nations as well as the last Russian imperial family's tradition of giving elaborately jeweled egg-shaped creations by Carl Fabergé which contained hidden surprises.^[2]

Most of the time we think of Easter baskets in the sense of prize giving. That one time a year we give our child gifts and not have to wrap them. Ones we can hide in the yard, dye funny colors, give permission to bite the heads off of rabbits and people not look at you odd because its obviously the chocolate variety. Well, I can guarentee you I will be watching much more closely the items I pick for my kids baskets in the future! Toy guns...nope, cause violent thoughts/actions, candy...not much, makes the kids go crazy (and mom too!), jump ropes...oops, yeah not to a 3yr old apparently! Ah, but a Disney movie, thats safe right??? WRONG!!! Disney planted an "easter egg" on me! It came in the form of scissors in the wrong characters hands and off came my daughters hair!

Here's the damage done!

Here's damage control.

The look was more over the fact she got blow-dried, which means noise and thats a no-go with this chick! She's happy to have short hair, though when daddy sees it he might cry! The stylist said not much could be done to "fix" it since she butchered it in places to the point of almost bald. So the "fix" of the day was a trim, shape up and a comb over. Looks like lil miss mess will now have a side part.

Otherwise, Jax's first Easter was a great one! The e.b brought Freyja a strawberry shorcake toy, an egg that grew a turtle, a strawberry shirt, rapunzel toy and movie , a minnie mouse doll and few other small candies and cutsie things. Jax received Puffs (baby crack), a onesie, some pacis, a bunny, a sheep and a mickey doll. We had a wonderful lunch with the in laws and all around wonderful family day :)

A Hoppy Weekend

Its not quite Bunny Day yet but this past weekend we spent some family time with the kids going to several bunny events with them. We started off our morning with a city sponsored egg hunt over by the airport, David took Freyja to her side of the field and I kept Jaxon on the crawler/new walker side. Freyja scored about 10eggs all by herself, daddy waited on the sidelines cheering her on as she raced through the mad house of 3/4 year olds to score eggs. Jaxon and I took the more laid back approach, found a couple of eggs close together and once his little hands were full we trekked through the egg crazed parents to the crazy 3/4 year olds to find daddy and sister. When we got home Freyja got the contents of ALL the eggs but Jaxon got the eggs to play with.

After being refueled with a quick lunch we raced off to Silverhill, Alabama (our side of Mobile, Loxley exit for those of you familiar with the area) to Wales West RV Park to check out the "Cottontail Express". They have a VERY nice garden rail system set up that takes the kids on a two mile trek around their grounds. On the other side of their "swimmin hole" is a workshop set up for the Easter Bunny (or Santa or whoever else might be visiting) and they get to make a seasonal craft (bunny ears) and see the surprise guest and get pictures taken. They also had a small egg hunt set up in the back of the workshop, kids could hunt all the eggs they wanted but were only allowed to take home five each. Yay for little brothers because that meant Freyja got ten! At the end of the ride the kids were invited to come up and blow the whistle, of course Freyja grabbed daddy's hand and hauled butt to the front to blow it while Jax and I ran from the front since he really didn't care for the loud noise. And as customary, we did pick up one souvenier, Freyja got a pink conductors cap :)

And then Sunday we headed up to the park with some of our friends (of which Freyja and Jaxon are the youngest) and spent a fun filled cool morning hunting eggs, picnicing, feeding squirrels, chatting and of course playing! It was the kids job to find all the eggs then the parents divied them up evenly as to be fair. Though honestly Freyja holds her own quite nicely! She can race and collect as good as the big kids!

Over all I think the kids had a great pre-bunny day weekend. I'm gonna be hard pressed to find anything quite this fun for next weekend for the big day! I just hope an Easter basket full of prizes will suffice! We wish you all a happy Easter next weekend, may yours be as fun as the weekend we've just had!!

Cuddle Buggs

How I lucked into this picture, I will never know!! To get both of them to sit still, smile and LOOK at me at the same time is miracle! I just had to share this one first because they are just too precious in this one not to revisit it. You can see that sisterly love for her lil brother too. Not once in almost 8months has she ever been jealous. He's HER boy, HER lil man, HER baby....you name it, he's 100% hers! 

Ahhh....the crawling stage has begun! So long to days of not worrying whats on the floor, goodbye to Star's safety of laying in her bed uneaten (he LOVES to chew Star's ears). Yesterday he hoovered a piece of plastic wrap from the den floor and gagged for about 15minutes til I was able to locate it and get it out. I had to make him throw up twice before we found it and got it out. Last night for almost two hours he explored the living room floor while David and I watched tv. He likes getting under the coffee table and pulling up or going and trying to retrieve his toys from under the couches. He put too much weight on one of his toys and landed face first on the table at one point but never even cried, just looked back at me, laughed and cruised on around the table. David and I were commenting on how this lil guy is NOTHING like his sister at this age. Freyja would pull up and cruise around on things but she never did learn to crawl or scoot til after she learned to walk. Its fascinating watching him crawl around and explore things!!

While awesome things come in chocolate packages, I highly advise AGAINST letting little ones devour half a chocolate fudge pop before their first birthday! Talking about tummy issues! Poor lil guy like to have died after having his first taste of pure bliss! Lesson learned...SMALL BITES!!! But man, this picture says it all...."What do you mean its all gone?!?!"

My big bugg is making more strides to becoming Miss Independent! The Easter Bunny delivered an early bunny gift to Miss Bugg on April fools day, we found an awesome deal on a bike just her size! Since she already had the protective gear, as soon as daddy got home from work she dragged him straight outside and on to her bike! With parental supervision she can cruise the cul de sac now with minimal assistance, though we did learn we are slightly up hill from the entrance of the cul de sac so making her way home is a tad more difficult on her own. She's only had one wipe out and thankfully the shin guards did their job!! By end of summer she should be doing laps in the driveway while David and I chase the little man!

In other news on the big bugg, she is still loving her tumbling class! We plan on enrolling her again this summer, I'm hoping to do a twice a week class for her but will see what the coach says when I get to meet with her to discuss Freyja's future in gymnastics. I would like to give her the opportunity to go as far as she can, as long as she enjoys it. 

Another big boy moment for the little man! We went to the grocery store yesterday and I decided to try strapping him into a "car cart" instead of carrying him. He LOVED it!! Sister taught him how to "steer", though he often reached over and wrecked her driving. Then at check out I got her the usual container of M&m's not thinking about the fact that he LOVES the empty containers, I gave Freyja hers and he almost jumped her for it! So had to grab a second one, which he loved even more because it rattled vs his usual empty ones. Another lesson learned, they are now to the age where I have to buy two of all the fun stuff!

In other news, the Easter Bunny brought me an early gift this year too. I just got a new digital camera!!! So I apologize in advance for any blurry or less than perfect pictures I may post in the near future but I am learning a new camera. This one is a HUGE step up from my last, I've gone from a 6mp to a 14.1mp so quality of the pix should be a bit better as well. That's all the news for now, I'm off to take the buggs to a bouncy place and hopefully wear some more energy out of them! So look forward to LOTS of pix this month as I play with my new camera and take my buggs on lots of new adventures! Love to you all!