'twas a merry christmas

I'm blogging from my TV...WHA?!?! Santa brought me the family google TV, which allows me to access the internet from the comfort of my living room (we were strictly desktop prior to this). I'm be-yond excited and overwhelmed at this point...it's just been a lot of playing around so far.

I can blog, access our regular tv, play games (addicted!), read children's books, access local radio and pandora, picassa, youtube, and who knows what else...I'm pretty sure I can even upload pictures via usb through this fancy new gadget so running downstairs to hop on the old computer will be virtually void (save for my photoshop). Now Jim can keep up with his fantasy sports while watching the games live...OH and my tv remote is out now because I can access every function though the keyboard!!! Amazeballs.

Thank you, Santa. And sorry I was so crabby during the setup function...I was close to throwing the whole thing out the window...but I can see now I'm becoming addicted...

Jack and Lila had a wonderfully exciting Christmas as well and I can't wait to share all about it. Until then, I'm back to drowning in information overload...and loving every minute of it!

Merry 3rd Birthday, Jack!

Jack, you’re 3 years old. Wasn’t it just yesterday that you were my little baby who came into the world on Christmas morning and made me a Mommy? After 2 hours of pushing, my little cone-headed boy joined my Christmas party and the whole world changed...


Always stay just as sweet and loving and honest.

Thank you for always being so excited to see me and never minding if I cover your face with kisses...

...and for being an amazing big brother and grandson and nephew and friend.

Keep saying please and thank you and sorry, because your manners (along with your intelligence) will get you places in life.

You make me prouder everyday. I don’t know how I got to be so lucky as to call you mine, but I cherish that fact everyday, because being your Mom is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Merry Birthday, baby boy. Slow down on the whole “growin’ up” thing…

conversations with Jack (cont.)

Me: You have sweet dreams, baby.
Jack: Mommy, will you be dreaming of me?
M: I most certainly will buddy. Will you dream of me?
J: Yeahhhh…
M: What will you dream?
J: That you’re a princess and I’m a prince.

And then I melted into a puddle. The End.

Lila's First Christmas...

Happy first Christmas, baby girl.

Thank you for being such a wonderful baby girl. You’re happiest first thing in the morning, and there’s no better way to start my day than listening to you coo and giggle…

This Christmas, I will stop stressing and obsessing and worrying, and enjoy this very special first of yours.

My baby girl...almost 5 months old...Merry merry...

snow day!

Last weekend we got our first real snow of the season! When I woke up to feed Lila at 3:45 am, I looked out the window and was so excited I could hardly fall back to sleep!

Jack was just as excited, but to tide over his excitement I scooped him a bowl of snow to nibble on (gross?) until we could get all geared up for the frigid temps!

We had a blast: we made snow angels, threw snowballs at Daddy while shoveled the driveway, pushed our dump truck through the snow, used the trash can lid as a makeshift sled :), and took the occasional break in the garage to get some relief from the wind!

I love this weather in short spurts, but I can't handle it for long periods of time...I'm just about ready for spring...

(more) conversations with Jack

Setup: Jack and I were discussing the movie Tangled, in which the main character has long, blonde hair…

Me: ...and what color hair did the princess have?
Jack: Hair like Nani’s color…
M: and like Mommy’s color, too?
J: Ummmm, kind of but yours is a little black…

I love that he’s honest…I love that he’ll always tell me the truth, even when it hurts, because sometimes, you need to hear the truth! On that note, I’ve made an appointment to get my hair done…OBVIOUSLY I need it and no one else has the guts to tell me! Thanks Jack!

lila excer-saucer's!!!

Lila did very well on her first go 'round in the excersaucer! She was able to stand (with a little help from a blanket propped under her feet) and she was very content for quite some time. I think at first she was a bit overwhelmed by all of the "stuff", but I'm jazzed about her fun new toy!

She's so excited, she can taste it!

A boy after my own heart

Preface: when Jack eats, if he says he’s done I tell him to show me his belly so I can see if it’s big enough to be full: “Oh, that’s a nice big tummy!” I tell him when he’s eaten his food all gone.

Last night after I was done eating dinner Jack said, “Mommy, let me see your tummy” so I obliged and he said, “You’re tummy’s not big, Mommy! You’re not done.” Best compliment I’ve received in as long as I can remember...especially coming from a little boy who truly, honestly tells it like it is…one night we went out to eat and the waiter had curly, reddish hair and he said, “Mommy, look: a clown!"

On an unrelated note, I love these pictures...

Especially this one, which makes me laugh out loud! It looks like Lila is yelling at Jack and he's happily oblivious to her! (Must be a thing with boys in this family ignoring us girls when we're talking!!!) :-)

Oh, Christmas Tree (and Jesus action figures)

We put our tree up this weekend! It was so much fun because Jack was my super helper. It makes it much more fun to have a partner who's as into decorating the tree as you are...

I unwrapped all of the ornaments and handed them to Jack to place on the tree. As I unwrapped each one, I'd say, "Be very careful with this one, it's from when I was a baby." or "This one is very fragile..." Jack began saying things like, "Ohhh this one is so special, I played with this when I was a baby!" (melt)

Jack grouped every ornament in little clusters...hooking 5+ ornaments on one branch. It was very adorable. But I told him to make sure he hung some on the other side too. When I inspected the other side, this is what I saw:

...no ornaments on the tree, but on the power cord...

No matter...he had so much fun and I had the best time decorating with him...

After the tree was setup, I put our nativity scene out...and Jack was all-about-it! He thought they were some sort of action figures and let me tell you, baby Jesus, Mary, "Ho-sef", and the 3 wise men had quite the adventure at the hands of little Jack!

I wish I would have recorded his conversations, "Ohhh no baby Jesus, I will save you!"... it was hilarious...

Christmas Picture

I realized that I had been slacking on our family Christmas cards this year. December came too quickly, and in a rush I started last-minute planning for our cards.

I had an impromptu photo shoot with the kids. Good idea since Lila was on the fussy side and Jack was only smiling so he could get an M&M, and so I snapped 45 pictures in about 2 minutes before everyone had a near meltdown.

And when reviewing, I realized that I did not have a single picture of both of the kids looking happy at the camera in the entire bunch! Blerg! Here was Jack's best:

...and Lila's:

Well, I took matters into my own hands and attempted to Photoshop each of their best pictures together…fully realizing that I am the furthest thing from a Photoshop guru. But, in the time crunch, I have to say I was pretty happy with the result. Decent for a super novice.

But then, I emailed my work to my girlfriend (who is ridiculously talented and hilarious) to ask if it was indeed a contender for Photoshop failures, and she sent my back this amazing picture…

Beyond talented! I told her I need her to learn how to "osmosis her talent" onto me…no word yet on whether this idea will pan out. But in the meantime, I love this picture of my babies…love, love, love it.

Note: unfortunately, I ordered my cards before I sent the picture to her...damn. Lesson learned: always send any picture I ever take to Laura for editing...or learn how to osmosis her talents! ;-)

Lila eats cereal & I catch-up (kinda)

It's not Frosted Flakes, (even though Jack thinks it is) but she's 4 months now and moving on to big girl foods after we got the okay from her Dr! I'm surprised how well she's doing with the whole "spoon/food" concept so early. We've been feeding her rice cereal once a day for a week and she's already starting to attack the spoon! Check her out...
In other Lila news, she had her 4 month checkup. She's 14.6 pounds (75th percentile for weight) and 90th percentile for height! He projects she'll be about 5'8"! My growing little girl! I guess that's why she's been in 6 month sleepers since she was 3 months old! My little girl with long legs!

On the Jack front, he's really getting vamped up for Christmas and his 3rd birthday this year! I think I'm getting even more excited for Santa to visit my little guy 'cause I have an inkling that he's going to have a super day! He came along on a visit to the dentist (to prepare for his first visit so he's not scared of the good ole teeth Dr) and he loved it! He even got to "take pictures of my teeth" as they let him push the button for my x-rays (Jack, keep wanting to learn...learn all you can...whether you become a dentist or a fireman or a mail man or whatever you want...learn it all!) Now he wants to brush his like 5 times a day, which we're happy to oblige.

I got a pocket video recorder so hopefully it will make capturing special, impromptu moments easier without having to whip out our handheld. I tested it out with Jack last night, and as you can tell, he was pretty tired and not in the mood. He kept saying, "It's too early", meaning he was tired, but I'm a mean mom and made him attempt to perform just so I could test out my new gadget...sorry Jack buddy!

I've been a terrible blogger lately...I blame the time of year...but I'll post a ton of pictures soon. Whew!