Week of Fun

Ok, I know I've been remiss at writing for the past week. Truth is, nothing super exciting has gone on, and I'm sure you don't want to hear about how much I worked out or how many calories I've burned, or what I ate this week.

So here are a few highlights this week.

Caleb has been even more adamant about standing up. He will climb up on anything he can...couches and chairs...

His big sister...ESPECIALLY his big sister, who stands there and takes it and giggles that her baby brother is climbing up her..



Of course, it would be terrible if I didn't post pictures of his face when he contentrated super hard...

Also he's been doing this thing with his head, where he tilts it to the side for a few seconds, and if you copy it, he'll start laughing and do it again and again.

Of course, he's beginning to make messes everywhere too. How can one little boy make such a big mess?

And lastly, he found some kennel corn today. Oooh boy oh boy boy boy.

I know it seems like it's all about Caleb this week, but he's sooooo curious and exploring EVERYTHING right now. Poor Celeste is always having to clean up the letter magnets and having baby brother climb up her, she is such a good sport about it. I feel so blessed to have two amazing babies!!!

OF COURSE.............this week was GREGS BIRTHDAY!!!! HAPPY (3 years before you turn) 30!!!! YAAAY!!! haha I got him a creepy stool thing (he wanted it, trust me) and Celeste got him a shop vac, and my mom got him an amazon gift card, so I've been seeing things like ammo cans and pull up bars on amazon left on my computer for the past few days. His dessert of choice? Apple pie. Happy birthday daddy, your family LOVES you!!

Good Things this Weekend

Instead of going through the slightly boring noneventful weekend, I'll just write a few highlights.

*"Celeste, we're going to Costco." "COSTCO?! With the cart with TWO SEATS?!?!" I swear that little girl almost peed her pants with excitement at sharing a cart seat with her baby brother.

*I was making funny noises and faces at Caleb, who was laughing and giggling at me. The instant I decided to start singing Stacy's Mom, his face got super serious and he shook his head vigorously NO.

*I found the Maxx Cat INSIDE the toilet TWICE this weekend. The 2nd time, I quickly closed the toilet seat and....yes.....flushed. Hopefully that traumatized him enough to stay our of our toilets.

*Caleb was laying on a rocking ottoman with his legs bent and feet against me. He discovered when he straightedned his legs he would bounce all over the place. Baby heaven.

Cheers!

Morning at the Beach

Yesterday was very frustrating. After calling tons of people about getting childcare in their homes, and figuring out that no one wants to waste an infant spot on a drop in care baby when they can hold out and get a full time baby for $200/week, Greg and I came to the conclusion that there is no way I can actually return to work and make any money. In fact, I would end up having to PAY to go back to work. Then I spent the rest of the day scrubbing the bathrooms and vacuuming and mopping. But the good thing? I got to take my kiddos to the BEACH finally. The cloudy cold weather has let up enough to take the lil ones on a fun date.

Caleb discovered sand!

Celeste built a sandcastle!

AAAAAAAGGGGGG WHAT IS IT MOMMY?!?!

MUST SEE MOOOOORE!!!

Poor tired baby!

The end.

I YAM WAT I YAM.

That is all. Goodnight.

Great Days, Fun Nights

Our first week of having our 'things' has been absolutely a great time. I'm still unpacking a box or two here and there, but I have finally come to the point where the only way I can unpack the rest of the boxes is to get a large bookcase to hold the boxes of books we have (which is the reason Greg was nice enough to get me a Kindle for my birthday a year ago). Anyways, Greg and Celeste are really into arcade game places. They looved Vegas because of the Fun DUngeon in Excalibur, and now they are having the time of their lives a few times a week at a local gaming place called Boomers. After dinner, Greg took Celeste to play ski ball while I cleaned up the table. I went to the ski ball area and found my four year old daughter, perfectly alone, playing ski ball.

What the what?! Where are this kid's parents?! A few seconds later, when she ran out of tokens, she started running away. Startled, I followed her and found Daddy just hidden around a corner.

Well, okie dokie then. Caleb was busy eating a ketchup packet through the whole thing. Don't believe me?

Speaking of that little Waleb monster, look at his new trick!

That's not all folks...he cruises too. Yaaaaay!

Now on to what I've been busy with. Five slender windows (including kitchen window above sink). One sliding glass door. Two window scarves and two curtain panels. Hmmmmm. The math is just NOT adding up. Solution? REUSE REDUCE RECYCLE!! Or in this case...make valances for all the windows out of our old curtains!! All I had to get was some cheap brown fabric and a few spools of ribbon.

Then I got so happy I was creating my first craft on my new craft desk (as opposed to the kitchen table and making a huge mess) that I had to take a picture.

I did one to test out my plans since I've never done anything like this before.

Oooh, pretty! But here's how the living room turned out, with the blinds open and closed.

And in the next room, I put one of the scarves above the sliding door and called it a day.

I still need to get a smaller one for the kitchen done, but more pressing matters await....finding childcare for when i go back to a very part time job and making cookies.....ahh the life of a housewife.....
cheers!!

Productivity Increase of About 15%

I may have slept in, but I tell you, I was super busy all day long!!

After a brisk 45min workout that included a step class and arm toning, I got the kids ready and went to the Commissary for FOOD. I FINALLY got the kitchen stocked with food (I wanted to wait for a few days after pay day so all the crazy people wouldn't be there)...I eventually got to cook for the first time EVER in this house, but that's later. Caleb is such a great baby, always so happy..even getting groceries.

Ooh yea, I don't remember if I already wrote this, but Caleb got himself a Marine Corps hair cut, and it made his hair even poofier, if possible.

By the time we got home, it was already 11:30am, and I had only gotten two things on my list done. I put the Waleb to bed for a nap, and cleaned up the downstairs big time, installed the shower caddies in the bathrooms, and sorted out the living room (which it seems will always be the trash room, there's so much trash in this house). Greg came home for lunch at around 2pm, and by then the only thing in the house I had to do was vacuum and mop the downstairs.

I took the kiddos to Target and got a nice area rug for our tiled downstairs, along with a nice little handheld vacuum for the stairs and a welcome mat. When we were browsing the rugs, Celeste kept yelling, "ooh Mommy, they're so POOPY!!" over and over. I asked her if she meant poofy (of course that's what she meant!) and then explained what poopy actually meant. Then trying to shove a 5ft rug into the back of a small car doesn't usually work out so well. I tried several variations includingputting the passenger seat as far back as possible before deciding it still wasn't safe to drive that way. I decided to call Greg to bring his truck to the rescue, but realized I also forgot my phone. Perfect. I ended up figuring out I can push one seat of the back seat forward, and put it in the trunk. I love how my car can do that...two car seats and one seat down for optimal storage capacity in my trunk. WIN.

Then we went to Michaels for a picture frame and somehow ended up with a bag full of flowers too.

When we got home, Gregs friend Bill was over looking at Gregs ammo. After he left, Greg and I mused over the fact that our good friend stopped by on his way home from work and how nice it was to have visitors. I missed Bill so so much, and I miss Akiko too, haven't seen her in a long long time.

As stated earlier, I got to cook in my kitchen for the first time!! YAAY! I mean something other than macncheese or hamburger helper. First thing cooked? Parmesean chicken with rice and broccoli..my signature dinner. I also got to hang up all the pictures in the staircase. The first set is our collection of wild west pictures, with the earliest on the bottom, and the one from Tombstone  last month on the top.

The picture on the landing is actually an old band picture that's ten years old, someday I'll get a nice family picture and change it, but I just wanted to see how it would look there, and I really like it a lot. The second set of pictures is basically our story as a family. It will start with our wedding picture, and then Celeste pictures, and ending with Caleb and Celeste pictures.

There are a few frames with no pictures because our printer ran out of ink. I know which pictures I want to print, and that's what matters.

And just when I thought my day was done and sit down to write this story, Greg somes up and starts peeling my sunburnt skin. Who should appear curious about the world, but Celeste herself, who asked why Daddy was taking off my skin. After explaining about sunburns and peeling skin, she joins in on the peeling fun. So now my husband and daughter are peeling my neck and back. Good times.

It's been a very nice, and busy day...I think I'll hang out at the beach tomorrow...



Happy Home!

I know...it's been a few days. Has it ONLY been a FEW days?! Yikes. Feels like a month. In any case, right after I signed off my last entry, the laptop decided it had had enough and the broken-taped-together cord finally gave out on us. WHAT? NO INTERNET?? NO NETFLIX?? NO MOVIES?! AAAAA!!! LUCKILY....the movers came the very next day. They said they would come at 8am, so we were up and ready at 8am. at 11am, we decided it would be fun to go to the park since our things were still MIA. Celeste made a new friend.

They played Mario for a long time, he pushed her on the swing, she played coy and always needed to be rescued (which the boy was more than happy to do). I can already see my daughters future.

At around 12:30pm, our things decided to make their grand entrance back into our lives. This house was a complete MESS. It has taken three full days of me working and telling Greg what needs to get done...but it is about 99% FINISHED. I vacuumed the whole upstairs because it's all unpacked and organized. I'll get some pictures tomorrow, I'm sooo tired and the kiddos are in bed. I get to give my home a facelift, but I'm pacing myself at one room per paycheck. This paycheck I get to get a super shaggy rug for the tiled family room, and recycle our old curtain and make them into valances for all the windows downstairs. I think I also need a runner for the sliding glass door, and some nice flowers for the kitchen table. Next paycheck, look out, cause I'm getting some things for the kitchen!!

On a side note...Celeste calls vacuum lines "monster teeth".