Sam's Crazy day in Preschool

This week Sam learned about the letter C in preschool. The did fun things like cut coupons, color activities and today was the last day which was dress Crazy with a Carnival. Sam got so into the whole dress crazy thing... he kept on coming back with more. I (boring) could only think of crazy socks. Sam said "how about we turn my shirt inside out, how about crazy hair, how about a necklace, how about slippers... that would be crazy..." Then he came out of his room with a tie on too! It didn't last long because as soon as he came home the crazy stuff came off and he wanted his shirt right back on the right way and his hair combed ("Is it awesome now mom"). Funny that he has a personality that wants to do things exactly right most of the time, so it surprised me that he was so willing to be crazy for preschool. Sam loves preschool almost as much as I love that he goes to preschool :)

My last nerve...

So, this week Kate has been a stinker. Sam on more than one occasion has said "Katelyn is going to be on your last nerve... " I know I have posted about her terrible twoness before (as cute as it is). Last Sunday my good friend Carol took our pictures. (On a side note, she does an amazing job! Sadly, I am not photogenic at all. It takes about a million photographs to get one good shot of me. However, Michael is probably the most photogenic person on the planet. It is RARE to see a bad picture of him.) Anyway, here are some pics of her many faces... she had so many different silly, cute, grouchy faces... and these are just a snapshot of the ones where she was looking at the camera. Most of the time she was trying to pick up rocks or pick flowers or play in the water.

A few examples of Kate's shenanigans are:

We were out shopping while Sam was at preschool. This has become our shopping time (it is sooo much easier to shop with one instead of two). We will drop Sam off and she will say, "Go shopping mom." She got some free stickers at one place (really cheap really sticky... the kind that it is a killer to get off) and she was quietly in the back and I was driving along in a world of my own. Relishing in the quiet. When I look around and she has the window plastered with these horrible cheap stickers. I said "Katelyn, NO!" and she said (sarcastically) "Sun's in my eyes mom!" Another is Katelyn pouring herself some cereal in a shoe box, and then bursting in to tears when she gets in trouble because she's hungry (my fault on that one). The other is the usual fighting with Sam. The continual back and forth between the two is driving me crazy! She's become a naughty little hitter and can usually get the best of Sam. If she can't reach him, she's a pretty good shot and can usually hit him with a toy or a shoe. She's not always a stinker, and with such a cute face... it's hard to think she'd ever get in trouble right?!

Katelyn's new pics

Someone said that blogs are just places to brag... and I haven't ever meant to brag on my blog. Just tried to give updates on what we have been doing, etc. But I guess this would be considered a brag post because I'm proud of these pics of Katelyn. I think they turned out so cute.

Thankful...

So this week Sam had a playdate at his friend's house. While he was there his friend's mom made pbjs for their lunch, and asked who wanted to say the prayer. Sam said "My mom doesn't pray for peanut butter sandwiches" (Which is true... I shouldn't admit that, but I don't usually for cereal either.. before you judge, it seems like a snack! Do you pray for snacks? It's not like I say "we're not praying for these" it just happens that I don't usually do it for that particular food, and he happened to notice) I had to admit to her that I am a bad mom and need to change my ways. I'm more embarassed because her little boy's response was "Aren't you thankful?" So, here I am, with my head hanging thinking I have set a bad example for my son, who is so observant and notices everything. That I am thankful. Especially for him. He is such a sweet and sensitive guy. He is very affectionate when he is happy, and will quickly tell me that he loves me. I hope that he always will. I was at my sister's house this weekend and he was downstairs playing with his cousins when he came upstairs. He came up to me and I said "What do you need Sam?" and he said "I just wanted to tell you that I love you" (he was obviously happy and having a good time). I'm not saying Sam doesn't have his moments, what kid doesn't? But he is so sweet and wonderful, and I'm truly THANKFUL for him, and I'll try to be a better example to him and pray over pbjs in the future (but I don't know about cereal).

Home Improvements...

Our Labor Day holidays are usually filled with labor... so this Labor Day I had Michael work on a little "honey do" list. As in hang a couple things on the walls and do some painting. I was pretty impressed with Michael... he trusted me (or so he said) to pick out the paint and I went to the paint store by myself pick up the paint. This is hard for us. We have a hard time making decisions. Maybe this is the way to go. You take one decision, I take the next...

First was Sam's room. We painted this red stripe on the wall. I initially only wanted the stripe on one wall, so I only bought one quart of paint for each room. We BARELY eeked out enough paint for Sam's room when we decided to go ahead and paint three of the walls. I had bought the planes, trains and automobile stackers from my friend (thanks Alison... it's perfect) and then I bought the airplane off of ebay and painted it the colors I wanted. I bought the train at the dollar store and painted it as well. Sam has been dying to have his shelf up on the wall and he's pretty thrilled about his room. After everything is up, I think it still needs a little something. But it's a work in progress, and I like it. Amazing what a little paint will do.

Next was Katelyn's room. We decided not to carry the stripe through the whole room, just on 2 walls. I bought some butterflies at a craft store and painted them the colors I wanted and for some reason this little touch makes the room fun for me. Katelyn loves the butterflies (so does Sam and I feel bad that Sam doesn't have something fun like that in his room, I'll have to keep on looking... mom guilt).

I bought these frames and Jenny helped me make some vinyl lettering (thank you) to say Sugar and Spice (very fitting for Katelyn) and the and everything nice to go over the other thing (I don't know what to call it) that I put Katelyn's name in (clear as mud I'm sure) ANYWAY... I sort of made these... bought and altered... tweaked, I guess is the term. I still need to put some pictures in the frames.

Lastly, (the painting actually took a lot longer than we thought, so this didn't get done on Labor Day... but this week) we got the mirror hung. I bought this mirror at a garage sale. It is really heavy and took a lot to get it hung... and now it's hung. Michael says if we ever move, the mirror may have to stay. So I guess we're never moving.

Katelyn turns 2!

Ok, so she turned 2 almost a week ago... but she's 2 now, I can hardly believe it. I still see her as my baby and she's 2! We had a good day. We waited until Daddy came home to open presents... Sam was about to bust at the seams, and Katelyn didn't know what was going on. We bought both of them a ukelele from Hawaii, which must have been an impulse tourist buy because neither of them has touched them since. I made a chocolate cream pie instead of a cake and the kids loved it. After several sessions of blowing out the candles (Katelyn and Sam) we ate it. Katelyn especially loved the birthday song and sang it to herself while she ate her pie. As you can see from the bottom picture... Katelyn does not like to share. That is daddy trying to steal a bite of her pie.

We had her 2 year appointment today and they said she is in the 90% for height and the 25% for weight. She's growing so fast. Katelyn can be super sweet and super fiesty. Her personality is so funny though. She's really competitive with Sam, and knows exactly how to push his buttons. She misses him a lot now that he's in preschool.