We made it!!

We arrived back to California on Saturday. We are happy to spend the holidays close to our friends and family. The boys were great on the long trip. We found a hotel with an indoor heated pool almost every night and they loved it. They are becoming quite the little tadpoles. I will have some new pictures next post but to tired to post them tonight. Happy Holiday to everyone!!

Moving

Packing, cleaning, raw fingers, sleep deprivation, lifting, 56 dumpster runs, driving to Target everyday for more bubble wrap, no food in the house, no toys, bored kids......I think I officially hate moving!! We are mostly packed and hope to head off tomorrow. Hoping for good weather and happy boys! Should take us about 7 days so I won't be blogging for a while. Wish us luck!!!

The above picture is from Thanksgiving. Food was amazing and time with my husband and the boys even better! Josh was kind enough to point out the gigantic plate of food I had made myself when he saw this photo. Seriously, what was I thinking?For some reason I think turkey is only available once a year and feel the need to eat a triple portion!!

"Have you seen my kid"? and other random thoughts

I still chuckle when I hear the following:

"Mom, I can't find my kid"!

"Where's my kid"?

close up of the kid

"Kid" refers to an Astro Boy McDonald's happy meal toy. Seriously, that happy meal toy entertained my two boys for an entire afternoon and then some. Unfortunately, the "kid" gets misplaced from time to time. That is when I hear Ralph or Blake say "Have you seen my kid"?

The boys with their kids

Well our house was in a chaotic state for a while. First Josh had the flu. That horrible fever, cough and body ache flu. He had a day to stay home and then was forced to work out of town with it for the rest of the week. He was home for a day and then I came down with it. He had to go to work so I curled up on the couch and let my boys watch a ridiculous amount of TV until I could function later in the day. The boys seem to be OK. They both had the two flu (reg & swine) mists so I'm hoping they never get it.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving!!! This is the first year I'm going to cook. I made Easter once (5+ years ago) and my rolls turned out like hockey pucks. I never used to really cook until the boys started eating solids. Now I'm really into it! I make dinner every night. I have a couple of standard recipes and then I always try to find some new ones too (Food Network rocks!). I'm not a gourmet cook by any means but I can follow a recipe pretty well. So... I have printed my recipes, bought the food and now I just need to cook it all. We will still be in NY so it will just be Josh, the boys and I. Can't wait!!!!

Trick or Treat

Too bad Halloween only comes once a year! I always ask the boys want they want to do for the day in the morning as I'm getting them dressed. The answers are usually park, bounce house, zoo......But not anymore. The new answer is "Trick or Treating"!! I then have to explain it only comes once a year and we won't be able to go for a really long time. This is followed by sad looks, "Oh No", and the occasional "I am so sad". Hope we can last the 300+ days until next Halloween!

Josh and I took them to a little housing development not far from our house. We only walked to around 6 houses but that was plenty of candy and cold for us. Blake decided one house was "too spooky" but eventually rang the door bell with Josh's reassurance. They loved looking at all the decorations and carved pumpkins. They mastered saying "Trick or Treat" at the end but Ralph was asking "Can I have some stuff" at the beginning. They were both dragons in case your wondering. I had a limited choice of warm costumes.

This years pumpkins. Mine is the haunted house, Blake's is the frown, Ralph's has the giant teeth, and Josh's is in the back. He tried to use these light up pegs you poke into the pumpkin. Didn't really work so well.

Time to bundle up, fall is here!!

It's fall!!! We are spending our afternoons running through huge piles of leaves at the park. The fall season out here is simply gorgeous! Orange, Crimson, Yellow, Green, it's like waking up to a postcard every morning. I took the boys to Letchworth State Park to check out the waterfalls and trees. They were mildly interested until they spotted.......

A Water Fountain!!

I think every mom on the planet hates water fountains. Why has no one invented a plastic flip top cover for them yet? My boys instantly run over and try to put their little hands in the fountain basin to splash in the water that has been SPIT out of someones mouth!! Disgusting!! I try to them them it's not working but they are too smart for that now. I could have a nice cold bottled water for them but the water fountain always wins. I'm hoping it will become less interesting as they near 3. Ha ha, I know I'm dreaming!! Oh well, they are only little once.

Punkin Patch

Two weekends ago we ventured out in the cold to hand pick our pumpkins for Halloween. The little boys had been sooo excited and asking us for days if we could go to the "punkin patch". It was a nice 45 degree day but that didn't stop us. We went to a farm complete with pumpkins, chickens, apple picking, hay ride, mini train, and bounce pillow. The boys had a blast. After chasing chickens for a while we took a hay ride. I think they are slightly over rated (mud, endless rows of dead corn) but the boys had to ride on the trailer. Ralph was bossing around the other passengers telling them to sit down. After the hay ride it was off to jump on the giant bounce pillow. They love to jump on the inflatable bounce houses so this was right up their ally. Next they rode a mini train. They are finally getting old enough to go by themselves. Good thing because Josh and I get motion sick whipping around a little track 10 times! After that it was off to pick out our pumpkins. Josh and I scoured the rows picking out our perfectly round pumpkins. The boys could care a less about the pumpkins and instead fought over who's turn it was to pull the wagon.

We finally took control of the wagon and forced them to pick out a pumpkin. And yep, they grabbed the first lopsided, ugly, deformed pumpkin in front of them just to satisfy our request. Then back to yelling "my turn" with the wagon. Overall we had a blast! I will show you how the carving turned out soon.

Tapa, Big Water, and Canada

Tapa and Grandma with the boys

Well the boys dream came true in the beginning of September.....Tapa came back to visit!! He brought Gawma (Josh's mom Cathy) and Aunt Waragh (Aunt Laura). The arrived on Friday and stayed until Tuesday. They came bearing lots of gifts the little boys loved!! It's sort of like a vacation (for Josh and I) when Tapa comes to visit. He immediately becomes the "go to person" and Josh and I get a break. Of course grandma is right up there too. She always sends little care packages full of treasures for the boys. They love opening their "own" mail. Plus, she seems to have an endless supply of breath mint which are equivalent to candy in our house. This was Aunt Laura's first trip to visit us in on the east coast. She is a delight to have and we wish she lived closer. She took over our living room and got woken up every morning by two boys jumping on her bed. So thanks Laura for being a trooper!!

Aunt Laura and us



Saturday we just hung out at home. We left early Sunday for Niagara falls. It was truly magnificent. We drove over to the Canadian side and were not disappointed. The amount of water going over the falls per second is mind boggling. They have the whole perimeter fenced and I was still nervous standing near the top of the falls. The boys kept saying "WOW, look at that big water".


The falls with a "Maid of the Mist" boat



After Niagara is was off to Toronto. Art had lived there for awhile so we had our own tour guide. We stayed downtown for the night and then headed to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) the next day. We walked the grounds and checked out all the amazing exhibits and animals. By mid afternoon we were getting pretty tired and decided to head home. They had blocked off some on ramps to control traffic so getting on the freeway was a bit of a challenge. The Toronto traffic was the only downside of our weekend adventure. The city it self was really hip and vibrant. Looks like a really cool place to live. Monday we just recovered from our busy weekend and then it was goodbyes on Tuesday. Long weekend but we had sooooo much fun. Hopefully we didn't exhaust our guests on their vacation :)

Zoo and NY State Fair

We decided to venture out to Buffalo to check out the zoo. There is a great zoo here but were lured by the expectation of bigger, more ferocious animals. It didn't disappoint! They had at least 3 varieties of bears, lions, apes (as big as me), a cool children's petting zoo, vampire bats, and the list goes on and on. It took us a couple hours to walk the whole thing. Blake has recently decided he's afraid of elephants (his favorite animal). He cried if we got too close to the exhibit but that was the worst of the day. I think Blake liked the baby giraffe the best. Ralph was too busy dancing around that day so I'm not sure what his favorites were.

The next weekend it was off the the NY state fair. It was in Syracuse which is about a one hour drive from Rochester. It was HUGE comapre to our local fair. We hit up the food court first. Once we loaded up on chicken strips and fries it was off to the train exhibit. We walked through an old train with passenger cars from different eras. We let the boys ride a mini train after that and then headed to check out the animals. Upstate NY is known for it's dairy farms so there was a huge barn just full of dairy cows. They were the biggest cows I had ever seen!! We watched a milking demonstration and then off to check out the bunnies and chickens in a separate barn. The boys loved the bunnies!! They walked slowly past every bunny cage and couldn't stop smiling. I have a feeling they will be asking for rabbits when they get older. The chickens and ducks were a hit too. After that we checked out some horses and then headed home. There is so much to do for young families here. We are really enjoying our stay.

Crazy Busy!!!

I just saw my last post was Aug. 25th, so I will start there. That was my 31st birthday!! I don't feel too old to mention how old I am but I'm noticing wrinkles and gray hair. Ugh! I'm going to blame it on the boys (all 3)! Aside from that....I had a wonderful birthday. The boys are obsessed with singing the "Happy Birthday" song and ask to blow out candles at least twice a week. They were beyond excited!! Josh had to relight my candles several times because the boys blew them out before the singing was over. We had take out that night (delicious and no dishes) followed by ice cream cake.

The best part of the day was just hearing my boys tell me "Happy Birthday Mommy". The little voices..... Oh how they make me laugh... Here's the latest funny sayings.

I decided to turn up my music in the car today and sing a song along with the radio. Here's what Ralph said: "Mommy, I don't like it. That's too noisy!"

Blake: "That's my mom".

He tells this to everyone he meets. Starbucks staff, other moms at the park, and homeless people. He usually says "Hi" followed by "That's my mom".

So my blog was titled "Crazy Busy". Here's what we have been up too. I will try to cover it all on my next couple of blogs.

-Buffalo Zoo

-NY State fair

-Toronto

-Niagara Falls

-Tapa, Gawma and Aunt Waruh (Laura)

Stay tuned......

"Little Pool"

What do you do when the pool is shut down on the hottest day Rochester has seen this whole summer?? Go to the "little pool" of course. The little pool is an empty storage bin located on on patio. Ralph and Blake couldn't quite process the fact the pool was shut down so.... I had to get creative. We got all dressed for a day of swimming only to find out the lifeguard had to leave due to a family emergency and the pool had been locked. After some tears on the way home they ended up having just as much fun in the storage bin. Now I get lots of requests for the "little pool" as they call it.

It's Potty Time!!

So for months now we have been going over using the potty. They sit on, sing on it, swing their legs on it........then get off. That was up until yesterday. Last night little Blake peed on the potty!! Not who you expected? Me either. Ralph has hit every milestone before Blake up until this point. Blake is more than happy to hang back and let his brother take the lead.

I was gone at Sam's club and Josh was giving the boys a bath. He said Blake kept saying "potty, potty". So he put him on it and he peed. Josh gave him a hug and said what a big boy he was. He then said "I have a treat for you". He ran to the cabinet where luckily, grandma had just sent us some Pez dispensers. I guess Blake got the biggest smile when daddy handed him his new Big Rig Pez dispenser. He got in the bath washed his hair and wanted to get right out to admire his new candy filled toy. Ralph on the other hand wasn't so happy for his little brother. He started slamming his fists in the bathtub water yelling "Own truck, I need own truck". Several meltdowns followed after that. Blake being the sweet little boy that he is, was more than happy to share so eventually Ralph's jealously subsided. I don't expect that they will be potty trained for awhile but it's great to know they get it. Or at least one of them does!!

PS: Got my camera charger so I will post new pics soon :)

Pictureless Post

You will notice my last two postings are lacking pictures of the boys. That would be because I lost my camera charger. Well, maybe I didn't lose it. It could be cleverly stowed away in one of my many boxes of stuff :) Josh ordered a new one so we should have pictures up next week.

Last week Josh and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! Yeah!! It's been a pretty crazy last couple of years. Two kids, two candy stores and a cross country move. We are planning a little anniversary celebration when our babysitter returns from vacation. We are looking forward to the next big milestone, 10years!

Bug update....The ant farm is still going strong. We've had a couple of casualties but the colony is still building tunnels. Josh continues to check on them about 5 times a day. They get food and water on a regular basis. We had 4 butterflies hatch on Friday. I say "had" because I had Josh and the boys set them free today. They only live for about 2-4 weeks so I figured they needed to experience some real flowers and sunshine.

Water park! Took the boys to a water park this past weekend. They both loved it!! We've determined that it has to be over about 85 degrees in order for Blake to really enjoy himself. He tends to get cold and and shiver like he has hypothermia if not. We had a couple of shivering episodes and "I need my towel" requests but overall it went well. Ralph was an animal. He was jumping in all the sprinklers and going down the kiddie slides with no fear. We took them on our laps down a couple of large slides too. Blake was having fun until his daddy capsized the raft they were riding on (accidentally). Oops! No more slides after that. The worst part is everyone at the bottom of the slide was saying "Oh how cute" referring to Blake riding on Josh's lap. Then everyone gasp in horror as the raft suddenly flips and they both go under. Blake held his breath like a big boy but erupted in tears once he exited the pool at the bottom of the slide. I just ducked and pretended I didn't know them!

Funny quotes:

Ralph: "Are you kidding me".

Blake: "I need my OWN milk". (refuses to share with Ralph these days)

Ralph: "I need eat McDonald's". I jog past it everyday. He asks me everyday if we can eat there.

Creepy, Crawling BUGS!!

First off let me say that I have spent the last 30 years of my life keeping bugs OUT of my house. I try not to kill them and usually catch them in a cup and put them outside. They can flourish outside while I enjoy my clean bug free house! Well today, we have a small ant colony on my breakfast bar and 5 caterpillars on top my kitchen cabinets. The really sad part is I paid money for them. Yes, my boys love bugs!! In order to support their interests we recently got a butterfly house and an ant farm. The bugs we ordered for them finally arrived. The caterpillars arrived in the beginning of the week and they have already made themselves into cocoons. They are Painted Lady butterfly larvae. Josh and I are pretty convinced they are actually clothes moths by the pictures that accompanied them. They came in self contained habitat. We put them in a safe spot and they hung themselves from the top of the cup. We will transfer them to their "house" tomorrow. The "house" is basically a small enclosure made out of netting and currently hanging in the boys room. In case your wondering the boys can't get to them. They were swinging swords as we were hanging it, so it's nice and high!!

The ants, ugh, I hate ants. They arrived today. Not the small black ones I usually find roaming outside. These are big red ants with jaws of steel. Josh had a couple escape while transferring them to their farm and I almost had a seizure. Well, they happily made it in their new home and are excavating as we speak. Josh loves them!! He was ever so careful when transferring them making sure none got injured. He has even given them their first "dinner" of cookie crumbs.


So....here's to our new house guests. May they have a long and fulfilling life living in MY house!!

Favorites

Ralph's anwsers in Red

Blake's in Blue

Favorite Book The "Hot" Book 100 Trucks

Favorite TV Show Wonder Pets Wonder Pets

Favorite Food Strawberries Avocado

Favorite Toy Plastic Tool Set Train Set

Favorite Person Mom Dad

Favorite Sport Basketball Soccer

Favorite Animal Rhino Elephant

Favorite Treat "Pop" aka lollipop "Pop"

Favorite saying Mommy pick up Lili* Not nice bubby

Favorite Game Wrestling Chase (us chasing him)

So here's a look at RJ and Blake's favorite things. They share a couple similarities but are pretty different for the most part. In spite of their differences, they are the best of friends. They play well and share a passion of exploring and discovering. They can count to 10 and know their colors. ABC's are still a work in progress. I'm loving this age. They communicate so much better and I love to see them learn. I wouldn't consider us at the terrible two's yet. We do have meltdowns but nothing out of the ordinary. Josh and I love being parents and feel so blessed we have 2 little guys!!



*Lili is Ralph's nickname. It stemmed from Lion (he used to have a crazy hair that looked like a lions mane)

Ralph (Left) and Blake (Right) 11 months. Check out that crazy hair!!!

The 4th

We had a blast this past forth of July. We went to a local festival called the Chil-E (pronounced chili) that was within walking distance from the house. This allowed us to come home for meals, naps, and avoid the horrific traffic usually present on holidays. The boys and I went early in the morning for farmers market and to play at the park. We came home had lunch, a nap and headed back down with Josh. We walked through the vendor area and then to the kids play area. They had lots of bounce houses and activities for the kids. Ralph and Blake each took a turn at "putting out a fire" and driving the fire truck. The much anticipated parade was suppose to start at 5pm but really started at 5:30pm. It was a cute little community parade. Much to our delight there were some kids throwing....can you guess...?.?.? Yes, more shiny necklaces!!!! Not as fancy as our Chumash ones, but they got 2 each which was really cool to them. The boys enjoyed the firetrucks, tractors, and animals the best. After the parade we headed home for dinner and a bath. Fireworks didn't start until 10pm (it gets dark late here). Ralph passed out cold in the middle of the fireworks display. We joked we should get his ears checked since we were really close to where the fireworks were being launched. Blake watched them half awake with his blanket over one eye. This was the first fireworks display they were old enough to really watch. They were not scared at all so let's hope next year is a success too!!

Just some memories from our first 4th of July.... Can't believe it's been 2 years!!

Rain, Rain, and more Rain

Did I mention flash floods?? Are we in Washington State? So I'm not sure if all the rain we have been receiving is typical for this time of year but I can say that we have had more flash flood warnings here in 2 months than my 30 years in California. Last week it rained for about 4 days straight. This week we are on day 2 of rain with more to come. The rain typically comes with lighting and thunder. If the storm is close, the thunder will wake you up at night. The lightning is so bright you can usually see it during the day. I saw on the news last week that ping pong size hail were spotted near by. All the while it's a nice 74 degrees out! Here are some pictures on what happens when the little boys open the slider on a rainy day....

As you can see from the picture, no pants or shorts. Just a diaper and a shirt. On this day I appreciated being in a town where no one knows us!! So here's to more rain...........and all the puddles it will leave behind. Puddles, for boys, equal an uncontrollable urge to jump in them no matter how many times your mom says "Your going to soak your shoes and pants".

Almost Two

Yes, I can't believe it. The boys turned 2!!!! Up until a week ago (yes, after his B-Day) Ralph was telling everyone he was "Almost Two". Now he finally says "I two, not almost two". The boys had a great birthday. Tapa and Grandma (pronounced Ga-ma) were here to celebrate with us. We took the boys to the Strong Museum and then to dinner. We did cupcakes and ice cream when we got home. The boys thought the candles were sooooo cool!! We dimmed the lights and sang Happy B-Day to them. Their little faces lit up with excitement! We had opened up presents earlier that morning and they made out like bandits. The hit was Chumash Casino necklaces that Josh's mom got for free while at the casino one night. They look like Marti Gras beads. The boys try to wear them everywhere. In stores, in their carseats, running around the house buck naked, in their high chairs, to the pool. They got more presents than normal since we just moved here and had to part or store with their toys from home. We are enjoying the new milestone. We love watching their independence and hearing their vocabulary grow everyday. We are singing the ABC's (missing quite a few letters still) and counting now. Grandma stayed for about 5 days so the boys enjoyed having someone to play with. So here are some other things we have been up to:
-Took the boys to an airshow. They love airplanes and helicopters! I had never experienced fighter jets flying low and will be prepared with earplugs next time!
-Parks!! Our favorite is one with a trout hatchery. The park has several large concrete pools with different types of trout in different stages of growth. You can buy fish food and feed them. Ralph tried to jump in while yelling "I swim, I swim".
-Josh's cousin's wife June (got that) was here and we met for lunch. June and her husband Nick don't have kids and probably never will after lunch. It has been almost 3 years since we have saw her and had lots to catch up on.
-Swimming in our apartment complex pool. We got almost every day and the boys are obsessed! They love to swim and play with the other toddlers there.

So that's the latest.. I promise I won't let another month go by with out an update!

Choo-choo and Tapa

We have been very busy with weekend activities so be prepared for some power blogging!! I have already been slacking off and this is only my 3rd post. Here's what we have been up to the past couple of weeks.











Weekend #1-Choo-choo: Thomas came to Medina, NY!! For those of you without boys, Thomas and friends are a bunch of engines that live on the island of Sodor and steam around the island trying to be helpful. It's quite a quirky little show (on PBS and DVDs) but the boys seem to love it. We got a chance to ride on Thomas for a 20 min train ride. It was a full size train with some "Thomas" cut out placed on the front engine. The boys thought it was so cool to ride on the train.




Weekend #2-Tapa: Josh's step dad, Art, is currently working here near the Washington DC area. He decided to brave the "7 hour" drive to visit us for the weekend. I put 7 hours in quotes because I think it was closer to 10. It was Memorial Day weekend and google maps sent him through small towns, dark scary countrysides, and gave him incorrect turn offs. He arrived safely Friday night and we had quite the weekend. I had been telling the boys for a couple days prior to his arrival that "grandpa" was coming. Ralph some how came up with "Tapa" instead of grandpa and the nickname was born. We took Tapa to Letchworth State Park on Saturday. It is known as "The Grand Canyon of the East Coast" here. It was truly beautiful and lived up to it's name! Lush green landscape, breathtaking waterfalls, and we stumbled on a hot air balloon festival there as well. We spent the afternoon hiking along the falls and sight seeing. Around 6pm we headed to the field where the hot air balloon launch was taking place. I should thank Josh and Art for indulging me and sitting in a bug infested field waiting the hot air balloon launch to start. I thought it was really cool and the boys liked watching the "fire" as the balloons were inflated. On Sunday Art watched the boys while Josh and I went to a movie. Ah, so nice and relaxing!! We were sad to see Tapa leave but he will be returning soon.




Side note: It's currently 10:30 pm and Ralph just went to sleep. Here's a quick evening recap. Blake to bed at 9:30pm.
9:45 pm
I hear "mama" from the nursery. Open the door.
Ralph: "Hi mama, I stuck". Puts his arms up for me to pick him up out of his crib.
Me: "Ralph, your not stuck. It's called bedtime".
10 pm
Ralph: "Daddy". Josh opens the door.
Ralph: "Help, daddy. Fix."
He's pulled the cable jack behind his crib out of the wall.
10:15 pm
Ralph: "Daddy, daddy".
Josh opens the door again and talks to him for a while.
10:30pm
Finally asleep. Yippee!!! Josh and I both exhausted.

Apartment Life

We are no longer homeless!! We moved in on Saturday to our cozy 2 bedroom apartment. It is slightly bigger than our Atascadero house and has an extra bathroom. It's an older apartment but has new carpet and paint. The kitchen and bathrooms are a bit dated but clean and functional. We have been filling it with basic furniture we bought from Craigslist and Walmart for dirt cheap (a will write a whole other blog on that)! We didn't want to haul our stuff cross country and don't want to spend a fortune on new furniture. It's a first floor apartment in a pretty large complex. We can hear the person above us walking sometimes but it's pretty quiet other than that. The boys are back on schedule and Josh and I have been staying up late unpacking and organizing. I made it to Strong National Museum of Play with the boys. It's the most amazing children's museum I have ever seen. You can check it out at http://www.strongmuseum.org/. The boys loved the little "ride on" train the best. I managed to shove my large body in a little kid's car and rode with them. They refused to get off and Ralph bolted in through the exit several times in an attempt to ride again. Yes, I was "that" mother with the out of control kids that day!! We had a nice Mother's Day in our new place. Josh went and got breakfast with the boys while I "slept in". OK, I might have already been woken up by the boys jumping on my air mattress to say good morning. I took advantage of the quiet time by staying in bed and reading an US Weekly magazine. Just as relaxing in my opinion! We unpacked and then went furniture shopping. The day was too short but I enjoyed spending the time with my husband and cute little boys.

My blog is born!

I created this blog to keep everyone up to date with all our family's news and share stories with everyone far away. For those who may not know, we are currently living in Rochester, NY. We got here about a week ago and will be staying for about 6 months while Josh is working with a company out here. We drove cross country with the boys. It took about 5 full days but we made it (sanity intact)! The boys were sooooo good. We watched lots of DVD's (thanks M&J), took long meal breaks, and ran through lots of parking lots. We have been living in a hotel for the past week and I'm SOOOO glad we finally found a place. No more trying to entertain and keep 2 two year old boys quiet. I haven't been too sucessful at it I must admit. Strangely, the hotel rooms next to us have been vacant since we arrived. We start moving in our apartment tomorrow so I will keep you posted.