These Kids

They like some action...

...anything a little crazy...



...or daring...

...they are all about it...



...even the little one...


...good thing she's tough.

what we did this weekend

"No, he's changin' mine..."

His Smile

The other day I caught a glimpse of "the smile" that is going to get Kobe out of LOTS of trouble as he gets older. It is this sheepish smile that shows his teeth but not his dimples as he shakes his head slightly. I don't know if I will ever catch it on film (no, it is not the smile in this picture) but we'll see :)

The Carnival

more pictures and blog over here

He's here!

Congrats you guys! He looks gorgeous!

I don't know who is getting "trained" around here...

...but something is working a little better.

I think S may be what you would call "almost potty trained". She has very few accidents and I can't remember the last time I changed a poopy diaper (which has been WONDERFUL) but, she still very rarely asks to go potty. It is more of a schedule we have going than anything. I feel like I am the one that has been trained. If I remember to tell her to go potty every so often or after meals she goes. No problem. She even takes off her pull ups and pants all by herself, gets up on the potty all by herself, wipes when she only pees all by herself, and can put her pull ups & pants back on almost all by herself. But the asking or telling me or anyone else potty, well, that is rare. For the past week she actually was more consistent with pooping on the potty than peeing.

She is a conundrum that girl. I just keep at it and in a day or two I will be putting her in big girl underwear again while we are at home, but pull ups still in public.

Kobe has had the last 2 days off from school which is nice. It would be even nicer if we could all sleep in, but now that we are on the new school schedule none of us can sleep past 8 am so we are still up early.

Kobe is my bike riding boy right now. Ever since he got determined to ride a 2 wheeler this summer he has been on it all the time. He is now extremely good at it and one of the kids favorite things to do is ride their bikes in the driveway. It is fun to watch Kobe because he is always flying around trying out tricks and all sorts of craziness and S right now has a bike that is just like the one Kobe had at her age so she plays with that and does funny stuff too.

I never thought we would let the kids play in the driveway because it is right on a semi busy road but they stay close enough to the house that they don't scare me. Kobe know where to stop and S doesn't venture out too far. They both listen well so that helps A TON.

This weekend my sister is moving in down the street from me. I don't know how many houses it is away from ours but it is literally a 2 minute drive. They are closing on it today I believe. I am excited to have my nephews so close. Kobe and S love when David and Noah come over to play. Kobe obviously enjoys David the most, but he holds Noah once in a while and S likes David and always asks about "baby Noah". The kids play very well together so it will be fun to have playmates so close. All of our actual neighbors are old people :)

So, anyway, that is what is going on in our house. Tonight we are going to hit the Grand Blanc carnival that rolls into town in September every year and then our weekend will be busy as usual.

Have a great weekend guys! We can't wait to here Caden is on his way Lindsay & Matt!

over here

Friday Night

Friday nights are apparently very exciting around our house :) Ben was out watching 2 men pummel each other so the kids and I decided to make Christmas ornaments. I have been cleaning the basement and organizing it and I can across this craft I had prepared for Kobe's 1st grade Christmas party that didn't happen do to TONS of snow and no school right before Christmas break. So, since Christmas will be here before we know it, we broke it out and let the kids go nuts:
And I'll tell you how easy it was to make these yourself.

1. I went out and bought a bunch of popsicle sticks and hot glued 4 of them together in the shape of a snow flake.
2. Then I took wire and cut it and twisted it into a loop and then hot glued that onto the top of the snow flake.
For the kids I decided to do this on paper plates.
3. We took liquid glue and drew lines down all the sides of the snow flake.
Kobe could do this himself, Savannah could not, well, maybe she could have but I didn't let her.

4. I did let her take the Q-tip and smear the glue around so it covered the entire front of the sticks. I helped and did this to the entire front of the ornament.

5. Then I had the kids drop sequin sparkles onto the glue.
6. Then they took white sparkles in a shaker and shook them all over the front of the ornament.


The finished product looks nice and sparkly in person and was easy enough to make with the kids, even a two year old.

One day last week...

...Kobe was looking so cute before school that I had to take his picture. This is a big deal - for me to get the camera out before 8 am - because I usually have just enough time to do everything that needs to be done and rush the kids out to the car. I am not a planner. I do not go to bed at a certain time. I do not pre plan what kobe wears to school. I do not pack his lunch the night before. So, a picture, before school, is a big thing.

I think I thought he looked so cute because of his hair. He asked me if I could make him a mohawk, more accurately a faux hawk, and I did, but then I wondered "Are you even allowed to have a faux hawk at your school" (darn private school dress code) but I figured "Whatever, I'm leaving it." Because like I had time to change it anyway.

Besides, he looked really cute. And he's going up to fast. And I didn't have time to change it. :)

over here...

Ben's 30th Birthday

Wednesday Ben turned 30. Wow, so old yet before I know it I will be 30 and then I will not think it is old at all! he he he...I have been teasing him about turning 30 probably since January of this year. The past 8 years have flown by so quickly that seeing my husband hit 30 really is making it sink in!

Anyway, I had to make a bigger than normal deal out of this birthday so I decided to surprise Ben as many times as I could that day. After I got home from dropping Kobe off I arranged for flowers and a balloon to be delivered to his work. (You will see it in the pictures below). That was funny because Ben told me, when he got home, that they were really a surprise because when they called him over the loud speaker to come get the delivery he was wracking his brain to think who would send him flowers on his birthday and my name didn't pop into his head! When he saw they were from me he was surprised :)

Then S & I got working on a poster for Ben and decorated the dining room for him. S loved putting sparkles all over the poster and got a HUGE kick out of the decorations and practiced saying "Happy Birthday Daddy" a lot. She said it when he got home and it was really cute.

Ben got off work early and we ended up running around until it was time to pick up Kobe. We went out to dinner (I planned on making dinner but when Ben came home early our plans changed). You should ask Ben how he liked his birthday dinner. I warned him that he wouldn't like it but he got it anyway. He did not like it. I told Shelly today that it reminded me of how much Jason & Grandma liked the Chop Suey we had on Sunday! Ha!

After that we played with the kids and took all these pictures and lots of other funny ones to that might make it onto the blog sometime. Ben appreciated all the phone calls from friends & family and had an ice cream cake at work and got a free lunch for his birthday that day too. I think he really had a great day!

HAPPY Birthday Shelly!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Ben!!!!!!

Here is a shot of Kobe with Ben's Birthday (Anniversary & Christmas!) present. It is such a nice watch and looks great on him!

Happy Birthday gorgeous! I love you!

Ben & Shelly's Birthday Party!

I decided to make them each their own cake...well, at least half a cake!

Click here to see more (they will be up on the 16th)

Tiger's Game

Kobe and (I assume) S's first Tiger's game turned out to be a lot of fun (minus the baseball part anyway :) )!

Cotton candy! First thing we had to buy!
It is beautiful there



I was so grateful that there was stuff for the kids to do, like the carousal and ferris wheel. There is also tons to look at. I just didn't want to be trapped in our seat the whole time with a 2 year old!









The fireworks at the end were awesome, I was shocked they did such nice ones! Here are the shots the professional took of us right before we went on the ferris wheel. They are available for $18 on Tigers.com if anyone is interested. I am sure you want an $18 picture of us as much as I did. :P

To see more shots of S you will have to go here