new words

Caroline has finally decided that she wants to talk. For quite a while now you can tell her something and she will do it, she understands everything you say perfectly. She just didn't want to talk. In the last week she has really started talking a lot. Granted sometimes what she is trying to say sounds nothing like what she is really saying. But after she says it a couple times I get it. Here is what she has started saying in the last week or two.
ank yoo (thank you, while nodding her head)

fooba (football)

down (she puts her hands in the air and yells "down". She is trying to say touchdown. Guess that's from all the football that Chad, Anthony, & Caroline play in the evenings before bed)

li (light)

sit down (she started saying this after spending the weekend with Nanny and her having to tell Caroline to sit down while on the couch. She now says it all the time while pointing her finger)

dog (she has a stuffed dog that she carries around the house petting and kissing all the time)

eba (zebra)

bi bi (bite bite because that child loves to eat. She had 3 bowls of spaghetti tonight plus dessert)

She also has learned where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, & belly are.

She will also repeat anything you say now. I have a feeling once she starts talking a lot she won't stop. I don't know what we will do when she starts talking a lot because we already have one child that never hushes. Anthony talks and talks and talks. He is in the question stage. Everything he sees he has to ask you a question about it and "I don't know" is not a good enough answer for him. You have to have detailed answers for everything. We went to dinner in Hendersonville on Sunday and he never even caught his breath the whole way there and the whole way home and Caroline just repeated Mama and Daddy the whole way there and the whole way home. I don't know why but everytime we get in the car she just says Mama over and over and over. Car rides are not quite as peaceful as they used to be but its a lot of fun!

The weather has finally been nice the last several days and we are spending a lot of time outside now. The kids love it and Caroline now cries to go outside everyday. It makes the days so much easier when we can get outside because they get so bored being in the house all day. Spring can't come soon enough for me!

a fun filled weekend

I had to work this weekend so the kids stayed with Mom and Dad. They had a wonderful weekend and Anthony is still talking about all the fun things they did. Here are some pictures.

On Friday Chad and all his "boys" (Anthony calls all of Chad's employees "the boys") cut down several pine trees around the house. Well of course they couldn't be outside without Anthony "helping". Here he is taking a break with Andrew and Mauricio.
The kids gathered up pine cones at Nanny & Papa's house this weekend to make bird feeders. They never got the feeders made because Anthony and Papa had so many other "jobs" to do. But they had fun finding the pine cones.

Chad forgot Anthony's jacket on Saturday so he wore one of Nanny's shirts as a jacket.

I'm not exactly sure what Anthony thought he was doing here, he just told me that he was "doing jobs"

While Papa was working on the house Anthony was working on hammering in a bunch of nails on a piece of wood. Kept him occupied for quite a long time. (I used to love doing the same thing when I was out helping daddy. I would make pictures by hammering nails in wood)

The finished product.

Anthony and Papa taking a break. When it was lunch time Anthony took Papa out to lunch at Twin Dragons. He had told me on Friday that he wanted to take Papa out to lunch. So I sent money with Anthony on Saturday for him to take Papa out. They had a great "just boys" lunch.

Caroline liked to stand in the chair on the porch watching all the cars go by.

Anthony told me that after him and Papa did all of their hard jobs then they had to get in the hot tub to "lax" (relax). He thinks that the hot tub is the greatest thing ever made. He even told Chad on Sunday that he needed to buy one. When Chad told him that they needed a track hoe first, Anthony told him that a hot tub is much better than a track hoe. Coming from Anthony that is saying a lot. He loves everything about a track hoe. I'm suprised that they had any water left in the hot tub by the time that he finished swimming.

Caroline decided on Sunday that she didn't want to take a nap so she tried to escape the pack-n-play. She is really clumsy anyway and it's not a good idea for her to try and climb out of anything. She fell on her head on Nanny and Papa's wood floor. See the big red spot on her forehead?

Work was slow on Sunday so I got off at 1pm. I went to Nanny and Papa's to pick up the kids and Anthony insisted that I "swim" in the hot tub with him. He jumped and splashed and played forever. He told me that he may just have to go live with Nanny and Papa now that they have a hot tub! LOL.

more snow, a sick boy, and a dirty girl

Well I guess winter isn't over yet! We got another 7-8 inches of snow today. I hope winter will be over soon but it doesn't look like it. Anthony is upset because he can't go out in play because he has strep throat. Had to take him to the doctor today in the snow and he loved riding in the snow. He looked out the window and watched it snow for a while today asking if he could go out and play "for just a minute". Thank goodness mom kept Caroline today so I could just deal with Anthony. He layed in the bed and watched TV and played with my hair for 4 hours! Suprised I have any hair left. Every time I would get up to try to get something accomplished in the house he would just cry for me to come back. So, yes I let him watch excess amounts of TV but it was the only thing that was making him happy and he totally didn't feel like being up and playing. Hopefully by tomorrow the antibiotics will help and things will be better.

Caroline after she finished eating supper tonight. She insists on feeding herself everything now. She is so independent, so every night after dinner I have a huge mess to clean up. The worse mess is when she tries to feed herself yogurt. I'll have to get a picture of that soon. I took her shirt off before dinner so that would be one less thing I had to try to get clean.

Don't you just love those HUGE brown eyes?!

pizza & fudge popsicles

Conversation with Anthony on Friday morning:

Anthony: Mommy, what's today?
Me: What do you mean?
Anthony: What day is it today?
Me: Oh, it Friday
Anthony: Oh good! We can order pizza today!
Me: Anthony, we don't have to order pizza today. I know it's Friday and we eat out on Fridays but we can order something else.
Anthony: Nope, I want pizza and I know Daddy will to.

Guess what we had for dinner on Friday?! Pizza!

Caroline ate 2 pieces of pizza, 1 breadstick, and 1/2 Skinny Cow Fudge Popsicle (which was mine but she stole it) Here is what she looked like while eating it. It was just too cute to not let her do it. So we just had quite the mess to clean up after dinner.

By the time she finished she had popsicle up her nose!

What happened when I tried to take it away, needless to say, she got it back!

!

Jonah's EB auction

I have had a button on my sidebar for quite a while for little Jonah. He is a child that suffers from Epidermolysis Bullosa or EB. His mom and a friend are holding an auction February 23-February 27 in honor of his 1st birthday. This is a huge accomplishment because there are many EB babies that never live to see their 1st birthday. All proceeds go to dEBra.org. Please stop by and bid on items to help raise money and find a cure for EB. Also, please tell all your friends!! Here is the link for the auction. They currently have around 100 items going up for auction.

one of those days

Friday was "one of those days" at our house. You know, a day where you just want to give your kids away. I think that we have all been stuck in the house for a little too long due to all the nasty weather that we have had lately. I felt like a terrible mother because I let Anthony watch too much TV but it was the only thing that would keep him happy and quiet. I just couldn't take him running through the house as fast as he could with his shopping cart and knocking Caroline over. Caroline has figured out how to climb on the couches so it is a constant battle of trying to keep her off the couch or off of the fireplace. No matter how many times you tell her no, she just keeps climbing. So to say the least Friday was not the best day we have ever had but we survived then I had a girls night with several girls from work. Come to find out, it wasn't just my kids that had been terrible that day. I think everyone's kids just need to get out of the house for a while. Anyway, we had a great time at dinner and bowling. I think it is just what we all needed and I can't wait to do it again.
I had to work on Saturday and the kids went to stay with mom. Sunday was Charlie's birthday so Anthony made Charlie a cake for her birthday and since he hadn't made me a cake yet he also made one for me (with the help of Nanny of course). He is so proud of the cakes he made. But earlier that morning he was watching TV and saw an infomercial about the cake pans that make the cake into a big cupcake. Well he told Nanny and Papa that he just had to have that cake pan because it would make the best birthday cake in the whole world. So Papa had to go all over town looking for the cake pan and finally found one at Walgreens. Then Anthony and Nanny baked the cake and Nanny put the icing on the cake and Anthony did all the decorating. There was a few fingerprints in my cake icing where he thought Nanny had gotten too much icing and he just had to eat it off to make it better. LOL. I'm sure he had a nice sugar high! Anyway, when Charlie came to pick up her cake Anthony told her "Cha Cha I made you the best birthday cake ever. I'm the best birthday cake maker in the whole world." He was so proud of the cakes he made and had a great time doing it. By the end of the day when Chad went to pick up the kids Mom said she was exhausted and just needed to have a nap. But Anthony had the best time and still talks about him making the best birthday cake ever. Here is a picture of the cake Anthony made me. I think it is the best birthday cake I have ever had!

Doesn't he just look so proud of himself?!

mortified at mcdonalds

Yesterday Charlie gave the kids some money to go to McDonalds. This is not somewhere that Anthony has been in quite a while (at least while he has been with me, who knows when he is with his grandparents. lol) So I didn't feel like getting the kids out of the care so we went through the drive-thru. I ordered their happy meals and proceeded to the window to pay. While I was handing the man our money Anthony starts talking in the back seat. At first I really wasn't paying attention to what he was saying but he kept getting louder and louder. I then realized he is saying "Mommy, why is that guy so ugly? Mommy,why is that man ugly? Moooommmmmyyyyy,I said why is that man so ugly? I kept trying to get him to be quiet at least until we pulled away from the window but he wouldn't do it. So I'm sure that the poor guy at McDonalds yesterday had his feelings hurt. I did talk to Anthony about how it is not nice to tell people that they're ugly, it hurts their feelings. His response to me was "Well mommy he was ugly, I was just telling the truth." Guess we won't be going back to McDonalds anytime soon! Or at least through the drive-thru. Kids, they are so brutally honest!