I forgot!

And do not think I am neglecting Lipstick jungle because I love that one too!

My Guilty Pleasures

Seriously, how old am I? Is there anything wrong with the fact that I love watching shows that my 14 year old niece would enjoy watching? Of course I'm still a huge fan of Grey's and I'm wondering what is going on at Dunder Mifflin but lately I've been hooked on shows like Gossip Girl, The Hills and the new 90210! It's almost as good as Christmas morning when I look at my DVR recordings and see unwatched episodes. Maybe it's my way of regressing... who knows! But I have to say I am definitely hooked! Anyone else out there agree with me? I have got to remember to set my DVR to record One Tree Hill too, I hear it's a good one. :)

Silly Jackson

I'm going to apologize right now ladies and gents because our camera is broke! I'm taking it in this week to get repaired. I'm not sure what exactly happened to it, I just know that when I turn it on a message comes on the screen telling me to try again. Maybe some little hands got a hold of it, wouldn't surprise me!

So with the shortage of a camera I have to say I'm glad I have my camera phone. I probably have it with me more often then I carry our regular camera so this may be a good thing.

I've mentioned before that Jackson can be a little bit of a comedian sometimes. He used to just hang out but the older he has got he knows that sometimes he may have to compete for some attention. I think I have also mentioned that he loves to put things on his head. He walks around so proud... it's actually really cute. Here is Jac with one of his favorite new toys. A Lego bucket... yes, he does love the Legos too. Always carries 2 around with him, but now he is finding that the bucket helps him get some serious attention.





Of course I don't have a picture of him walking around with the bucket, but that's what he does - he will parade around the downstairs laughing with it on his head. Silly Jackson!

Book Report

If any one is looking for a good book to read, I just finished sTORI TELLING by none other then Tori Spelling. It was actually pretty good and I would recommend it to any of you that like to read. Another book that I found absolutely hilarious is a book by my favorite comedian Chelsea Handler. This woman is pee your pants funny. I found myself laughing out loud over and over again.

Here are some of the books I have read in the past few months and think you guys should give them a try if you enjoy reading a good chic book as much as I do.

Thank You!

I just opened my e-mail and saw that I had an e-mail from a dear friend that was wondering where my daily post was. I didn't think anyone was reading this thing! I know I've been slacking the last few days, but I promise to do a much better job starting tomorrow! xo

Thank Goodness For Washable Markers

For Ryder's Birthday we got him this little Lightening McQueen art set. It has markers, colored pencils, stickers, paper... you name it, it has it. Well I put it where I hide all the art supplies - up high so he can't get to it with out me around. We were all hanging out down stairs and the boys were playing nicely so I went into the laundry room to get some clothes folded. When I came out this is what I saw.



Notice that Ryder is not the only bad guy in this photo. If you pay attention to the bottom of the picture, you will see that there are Tupperware containers all over the place. That means sweet little one' Jac saw big brother Ry getting into some stuff and thought he that he would join in.

Now let's all take a look at Ry Guys artwork. He found a page of mailing labels that I had printed out and decided to use that as his template.



And last but not least we have the art project that took over our kitchen counter



No worries, it came out just fine. I'm smart enough to make sure all the markers we have are washable. Buy I made sure to hide the markers in a different spot since he's clearly on to me.

Sweet Little Jackson

Jackson is the comedian of the family. He does things all the time to get the attention of Mommy and Daddy since his brother is the one that is usually causing trouble and gets it all. One thing about Jac is that he loves putting things on his head and face to get attention.

Here he is this morning with daddy's sunglasses.



Soon after daddy left for the day the trouble began. We have this standing lamp in the living room that Jackson like to bang against the wall. What he doesn't realize is that he can really hurt himself if it were to fall on him. After me saying no in every way possible I had to give him a time out. Giving a 1 year old a time out is not very easy, especially because they have no idea what is going on. I put him in our time out spot and I can't resist how cute he looks sitting there in the big ole' chair.

It's like he's thinking... what did I do?



After the time out he did what you would expect, he ran right over to the lamp. This time pulling it down to the ground. Luckily he is fine... didn't come near him but smashed right on top of me. If I were smarter I would have taken the lamp right out of the room. A learning lesson for me!

Breakfast with Lou

Ryder is in love with his new fish. He has insisted that at every meal time Lou joins us at the table. Here are Lou, Jackson and Ryder enjoying waffles together.

I can't help but worry that Ryder will soon try and offer Lou some of his waffle!

The days festivities have finally ended. Ryder is fast asleep, he wore himself out -I guess to much parting does that to you! Here is a recap of our day.

I make the boys wear this hat for at least one picture on their B-day, my plan is to do this all the way until they turn 21



Ryder & Daddy at breakfast



Ryder acting silly at breakfast



The party set up - cupcakes, party favors and cups



Enjoying pizza



Opening presents



Looking at his new fish Lou



Happy Birthday to Ryder!




We love you buddy! xoxo

Happy Birthday Ryder!

My baby is 3 - I can hardly believe it! Actually he turned 3 on Saturday, but since his daddy was out of town we were holding off the celebration until today. We didn't want to confuse him by telling him his birthday was Saturday and then not having the party until today so we just waited. Believe me, I felt so strange pretending it was an ordinary day.

Today's events include a special breakfast with daddy and Gunko G (Uncle Jeremy). Then we are heading to the doctor for his 3 year old appointment (I'm crossing my fingers no shots), then off to Lifetime where he has managed to get the people there to fall in love with him too. He has Birthday presents coming from the manager (Mr. Mike) and his baby sitter, a girl that works at the front desk (Miss. Kelly). After that, he is having a special lunch with me and Jac followed by his 5:30p Birthday party! It's a Monkey party! I know it sounds funny, but you will see how cute it really is. Throwing kids parties is one of my favortie things to do. One of these days I will get around to posting pics of all the fun cakes I have baked and parties I have hosted.

David has the camera with him right now so I can't upload any of the Birthday pics just yet, but I will do it when I can.

Happy Birthday Ryder!

20 down, 6 to go!

I finished! I feel like I did great. I felt strong and still had enough energy left to have a dance party on my car ride home. However, after laying down for awhile it was a whole other story. I swear my legs were not going to move, I had to force myself to sit up and walk on them. I guess not really my legs, more my hip flexers which is so hard to stretch out! I took a HOT shower and then went to the gym for a half hour to flush out all the lactic aid that was building up. A nice slow walk and lots of stretching. I feel way better! Now lots of ice and stretching to get me through until tomorrow before I do another 20. RELAX! I'm only kidding. This was my last long run before 26.2 on 10/12. Now we scale down and focus on rest and relaxation! Thanks for everyones words of encouragement... it's you guys that gets me through!

20 miles...

Well I just checked my e-mail and I have received my Chicago Marathon Bib number today - 32955.

I knew that race day was approaching fast - 22:11:47 days to go, but who's counting! It's going to be here before I know it. Now my nerves are going a little haywire.

Tomorrow morning I'm waking up at 5am & heading to the lake front for a 20 mile run. 20 miles is the farthest you go before the actual race day. In the next few weeks I will be cutting back my training schedule and really focusing on getting my rest. Heck, I'll need it after I finish the 20 miles tomorrow! Actually this is going to sound a little strange but I am excited to run the 20... I think it's a complete mental thing and I just want to know that I can. I already think I'm going to do it again next year, this year is just my warm up.

I'll keep everyone posted on how I do tomorrow, say a few prayers to help me finish strong!

Such Good Helpers!

This morning as I was folding laundry I saw the boys go into the closet where I keep our broom, mop, vacuum cleaner etc. I walk into the kitchen to see them hard at work scrubbing away! Thanks for all your help boys :)

Elevators

Today we were at the mall buying a gift for my nieces birthday. While riding the elevator I thought about a posting my friend a Jen had made about elevators. To read it click here.

Anyways I usually have both boys in the stroller, but since it was a quick run in I decided Ryder could walk. His favorite thing to do is push the buttons. And who can blame him, they light up so nicely! While standing there I had a flash back to about a year prior. We were on the very same elevator, I wasn't paying much attention and Ry had pushed the emergency button. A voice came over the speaker and said, "9-1-1, what's your emergency?" I was not quite sure how to respond so I apologized and explained that my 2 year old had accidentally pushed the button. There was another Mom in the elevator with us and told me not to worry, that her child had done it before too.

Now that Ryder was roaming free in th elevator I had to stand guard of the big red button. Why on earth do they make it the easiest one for kids to reach? It's at the perfect height for them... wouldn't you think they would move it towards the top?

Decisions

A few days ago I wrote about going to a paint store with the boys to grab some paint samples. I grabbed a bunch in the hues I usually like - red, brown, yellow, green (and blue for our upstairs bathroom)but now I am stuck! Our painter stopped by yesterday afternoon to see what I wanted to repaint. He said he would call David in a few days and figure out when he can get started. In our painters world that means he could call David tonight and say he will be here tomorrow, or he may not call for a week and then spring it on us that he is coming th next day. So I have got to decide on a color! Now I have asked some close friends their opinions since they have seen our kitchen, but I thought I would open it up to the gallery. Suggestion/comments are welcome and appreciated!

Here is our kitchen now



Right now it is painted the Benjamin Moore color Home Sweet Home. It turned out a little more peachy then I was hoping for.

Now here are some colors that I am liking...

Cherokee Brick
2082-30

Earthly Russet
2173-10

Sweet Rosy Brown
1302

Coyote Trail
1224



You can click on the link to Benjamin Moore and look up the colors I have mentioned or find some others that you would like to suggest, I am open to anything :)

Fall At Last

The weather has been pretty cool here in the Chicago area. Not cold by any means, but definitely cool. Cool enough for fall clothes - which are my favorite to dress myself and the boys in.

I was getting Ryder dressed the other morning and put on a pair of pants the fit him perfectly in the spring. I pulled them up and to my surprise total floods! Time to get him some new stuff.

If there is one thing I'm good at, for sure it is shopping. I figured if the boys have out grown their clothes then they probably need new shoes too. Now my boys are just about obsessed with shoes as I am. Ryder always wants people to have their shoes on and he always wants them on himself. He is very opinionated when it comes to what shoes he is wearing. There are days where he tries to wear his rain boots when there is absolutely no sign of rain. Those are the days where I have to plan ahead and hide the rain boot or any other shoe that he may want to wear that isn't suitable for the weather or his outfit. Ry even likes my shoes! He puts them on when ever he has a chance and stomps around in them.

Here he is in his favorite pair of mine. Maybe he likes them because of the kitten heel or maybe it's the patent leather buckle - relax, I'm kidding!





Here are the boys in some of their new fall clothes. I picked up their shirts at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and love them! They look like little men!



Just wait until I get them dresses in their letterman cardigans... so cute!

Fashion Fix It

After a workout I always find myself freezing cold. Must be because they blast the air conditioning to keep everyone cool while working out. But when you are done, man is it chilly!

Anywho, I was putting on my trusty gray hoodie after my cardio session and I couldn't get the dang zipper to work. Now only if I had my purse handy this wouldn't have been a problem.

For those of you that don't know how to fix a stuck zipper here is the secret. Rub a lead pencil on both sides of the zipper and wahla! You are fixed! A bar of soap works too, but I find it easier to toss a pencil in my purse over a bar of soap.

So there you have it, if you ever find yourself with a stuck zipper you know how to fix it!

Busy, busy!

Where has today gone? I can't believe it is 8:00p already! Today was a full day. We had plenty to take care of since we had spent the last few days inside hiding from the rain.

We started our day off as normal... breakfast and Lifetime Fitness. The boys absolutly love going there, which is great because I absolutly need to get my workout in! Ryder instantly took off for the basketball court and Jackson hit the tubes. He's really not "big" enough to be back there yet, but the girls know how how much he loves it so they watch him as he climbs all over the place. It was one of the days that they didn't want to leave but we had to because Ryder had a hair appointment at 11:20.

Our salon of choice is Cool Cuts 4 Kids. they have it set up just they way kids like. Ry walked in and picked the red truck to sit in. He said it was Lightning McQueen (which he loves) he also chose to watch the movie Cars while he was getting his hair done. They have a whole assortment of movies for your child to watch while getting their hair cut. Ryder used to pick Thomas, and then for awhile it was Mickey, but I guess for now it's Cars. When he was all done he got to pick a sucker out of the basket. He picked around for awhile, but finally decided on a blue one.

After the hair cut I decided to take the boys over to Panera for lunch. It was such a nice afternoon I figured why rush home. They boys got their usual Cinnamon Crunch bagel. I couldn't decide between soup or salad but Ryder made up my mind for me and said "Mommy salad" I guess he knows me well.

Here are the boys enjoying their bagels.





After lunch we stopped in a paint store to grab some paint samples and then made it home just in time for naps. They were so worn out from the busy morning we had that they were both fast asleep instantly. :)

After naps we made a quick run to Target for some hangers (I decided it was time to take on the task of reorganizing our closet) and I treated myself to a Pumpkin Spice Latte - which I have to add it one of my favorite things about the fall, I'm so glad they are back! Ryder got a vanilla milk. Of course at one point Jackson managed to steal the milk away from Ryder and this caused him to scream at the top of his lungs "MMMMIIIINNNNEEEE!"

I should probably have it figured out by now that when Jac sees Ryder with something he wants it too. So we went back to the Starbucks inside Target to get another vanilla milk. Both boys were now happy and I was able to get my hangers!

Men Just Don't Get It!

Wow, 3 posts today alone and I thought this was going to be hard. What an eventful day!

So the boys and I just return from a quick trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond. We walk into our house and the boys start playing in the family room. I walk into the foyer and there he is. A mouse! Now this isn't just any old mouse. This mouse and I actually did the quickstep together before I did the next logical thing, which I will get to in a second. Both the mouse and I really didn't know what to do. I hopped one way, he hopped the other, I moved back he moved forward - all while maintaining a 5 foot distance from each other. Being a women I do the most logical thing and scream as I'm grabbing both boys and jumping on top of the couch. David is gone but close to home so I call him and say "come home now!" He has no idea why I'm saying this and screaming into the phone. I quickly add "there's a mouse!" so he doesn't think someone is hurt. What does he do? He laughs at me and tells me to relax. Well we have already learned that relaxing is something I do not do well, especially since there is a mouse involved. He tells me to go into the foyer and open the front door to let him out. I think about it, I really do but I can't seem to get the nerve up to do it. He's just sitting there staring at me! I thought that most mice tend to stay along the perimeter of the room. Oh no, they do not! This guy was hanging out where ever he felt... keeping one on on me at all times. David is still on the phone trying to coax me off the couch and to let the mouse out. Then the mouse decided he is going to run right at us. I explain to David that the mouse is HUGE and that I can't stay there any longer. I grab the boys and shove them into the minivan. David is close, only a few minutes away and he arrives to me in the boys sitting in the mini van watching cars. He laughs and says that he can't believe I'm such a baby. He grabs a broom and gets to work. Lucky for me I've been a good little blogger and have kept my camera close by so I am able to catch the escapade.

Here we have David pretending the mouse is a hockey puck because his goal is to shoot him out the front door.



Here are the boys looking at the mouse... (never mind Ry's paci - we are working on that too!)



Please excuse the blurriness, but this is the mouse that I described as being HUGE.



This is David looking at the little mouse through the front window saying telling me the mouse is still laying there.



I quietly reply "Maybe we should give him some cheese", hey- he's kinda cute now that he's out of my house!

Mmmm... This is Good!

I know I haven't written much about Jackson. I've been working on having our camera ready so it is available to catch all the right moments. So here we go, Jac in the act!

Jackson spots his brothers juice box on the table...



Not quite tall enough, but if I keep stretching I will get it...




I got it!



And boy, is it good :)




This lasted for about 5 seconds until Ryder spotted Jackson with his juice box and I had to jump in to stop juice from being squirted everywhere.

Ryder's First Day of Sunday School

So we snuck him in. Technically he does not turn 3 until Saturday, but I figured. What the heck. This is my 3rd year teaching Sunday school, I teach Kindergarten so luckily we are in the same room as the 3 & 4 year olds. Here is a picture of him before we left for church, he kept asking for the school bus, but we explained to him that he was not going on a school bus just yet.



Sunday School went OK. He loved the singing but when it came time for him to sit down and listen to the story he didn't do so great. He was a squirmy wormy for sure! When it came time for him to do his craft he was more then ready to do so. He was on his own because I was across the gym helping my class do their craft. Here is his finished product. He is so proud of it! He got to paint, color and put stickers on it which are his absolute favorite. I did hear him scream out "NO!" at one point, but that's because he spilled his paint water and was not very happy.



We will see how next Sunday goes!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

So much rain today! At first it was nice... I thought "hmmm, I'm gonna take it easy today. I'm gonna skip my run and do it after church on Sunday and I'm going to relax all day long" Well as many of you now that does not usually last too long for me. By 9:30a I was antsy and was ready to get out. So I put on my running shoes and hit the gym. After a 1.5 hour run and some weights I stopped and got a cup of coffee at the Life Cafe and said to myself "I feel better, now I'm going to go home and try to relax again" Ha! I tried, I really tried but again it didn't last. My hubby tends to get a little cranky when I start complaining that I'm tired of relaxing. He just doesn't get it! So I decided to put the boys in their rain gear and hit the mall. Nothing like a new pair of jeans to perk a girl up! The boys are pretty good shoppers... I've convinced Ryder that when mommy is trying on clothes that it is a fashion show and that he should chant "Fashion show! Fashion show!" Sometimes it works, some times it doesn't... sometimes it turns into a "Noooooo fashion show Mommy!" but today it ended in my favor and I found a new pair of jeans. :) Before we left I had the boys give me a little fashion show themselves. Here they are, all decked out in their rain gear. Jackson has the boots too, but he doesn't walk so well in them. Maybe by the next rainfall he will have it down, well maybe the one after that because it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow too and I don't think he will have it figured out quite by then!

My Baby Boy is Growing Up

OK OK, so you all can thank Mandy for making me do this. Now lets see if I keep it up. I'm gonna try, but I am not promising anything.

Anywho, I was looking through some old photos and came across this one. Wowsies, has time flown by! I can not believe Ryder is turning 3 in 8 days! 3 means preschool, being potty trained and a big boy bed. Lucky for me he misses the preschool cut off date and gets to stay home with me his mommy for another year :) As for the potty training we are still working on it.

We have his Birthday party all planned... he had 3 choices, sutible since he is turning 3! Cubbies, Monkeys or Cars. He picked monkeys and has been working on his "Oo Oo, Ah Ah" all week.

He was so tiny....