{Mr. Spy}

James trying out his big brother's new spy goggles

{tantrums...}

Oh my goodness there are so many these days! James started throwing full on tantrums before he was 1 but oh my how they've become horrible lately! I'm sure it may have something to do with the fact that all 4 k9 teeth are trying to cut through at the same time, one of which has broke skin and is coming through the side of his gums rather than straight up but really? I mean whatever happened to terrible two's? What will they look like for a toddler who started at 10 months? I know I know you're all think "WHAT?!?! James is horrible? You must be crazy?!" right? Well I'm not crazy! I'm NOT!! He's just very good at waiting until no one is around to witness such horrors other than those who live in the same house has him! Oh heavens what am I gonna do with him?! He is so persistent, stubborn, bossy, extremely intelligent, funny, full of personality, smiley, loving and a royal pain in the bum! Oh how I love him so!

His new thing is to cry with his head in a corner, against a wall, on the floor...where ever he can hide it. Does he think he'll get more sympathy that way? Crazy kid!

{he got caught}

Uh Oh I better put them all back before i get caught!

{cool cousins}

As they say...

Opposites attract

Daniel has been at our house for the last two days. He came to spend part of Christmas break with Wyatt. These two have been the best of cousin since they were born. They are only about 3 weeks apart so it's nice that they have been able to have each other to go through life's experiences together! It's been fun to watch how they've gone from playing hot wheels to video games to skateboarding. It's great that they have such a great friendship. 13 year old boys need someone to be themselves around away from the pressures of the world today! I'm glad that they have each other for that!

They were having so much fun I don't think they realized they had voluntarily done chores!

{End of the day}

{HO HO HO...}

We had a visitor tonight!

HA HA HA!!!!

{thanksgiving FHE}

Last Monday night we had an FHE lesson about being grateful and learning to count our many blessings. A friend of mine had the idea to let her little ones, mom and dad too, make turkey's and write the things they are grateful for on the feathers. We decided to do the same! After they were done we decided it would be a good reminder to hang them up for the Thanksgiving holiday. (mom's turkey is awaiting another sheet of paper) Aside from the obvious gratitude for family, friends & blessings some of the fun things we were grateful for were Dad: Milk & Oreos, Mom: her truck, Wyatt: racing games, James: Mickey Mouse!

It was a fun family activity that not only reminded us of the many blessing in our lives such as the gospel, scriptures, work, and family but also taught us to be grateful for the temporal things we have that others may not. Each of us are blessed in many ways, it's remembering those blessings on a regular basis that makes them valuable to us!

For those friends and family that don't know about FHE, it is a night set aside in our church for parents to sit down with their children to teach them valuable lessons that will help them to grow spiritually and to build strength and unity as a family!

{tyler's birthday}

"In everything you do celebrate you!!
{the birthday boy! 11-2-10}

Last year with a new baby and all parental birthdays were kind of set aside so when Tyler's birthday popped up on the calendar this year I wanted to do something special! Thanks to an old friend that is like family to Micky Mouse I was able to arrange a mom and dad only day at Disneyland! I got the kids all packed the night before for the babysitter and made sure everything was ready. It was a complete surprise from getting him the day off work all the way to a blind folded drive! I even got the lady where you pay for parking in on it. As I was driving up I held my finger to my mouth as to mimic telling her Sssshhh and pointed at Tyler laying back with a blind fold on. When I reached her it was all I could do not to laugh at what she said, "Welcome to Del Taco may i take you're order" haha I'm sure Tyler was thinking we didn't really take this long of a drive just for Del Taco but he was good about it! Finally we parked I opened the door stood him up and took of the blind fold! He was completely surprised! I wish I had a picture of the look on his face! He was a kid in a candy store who just spotted a brand new chocolate bar! It was too perfect! I hate to toot my own horn but I think I more than made up for the lack of birthday last year =)

{a new trick}

In the words of the great and famous Starship
"Nothings gonna stop us now!"

{Noddy}

When I was younger my wonderful Auntie in Canada would sen me all kinds of fun interesting things. One of the things i treasure most was the collection of Noddy books she sent. I have never seen them in a book store so I don't know that any of you have heard of them but they are wonderful little stories! I have happy memories of finishing a book and just waiting for the next one to come! This morning while I was picking up the house I walked into the living room and saw this:
It warmed my heart brought back happy thoughts and started my day off just perfectly!! I hope someday they look back and smile with cherished childhood memories of their Noddy experience.

Thank you Aunt Cory for being a part of so many happy memories!

{Service yeilds smiles}

This year Disney hosted an awesome program called Give A Day Get A Day! You sign up for a service project with your family, complete that project then everyone who participated got a free pass into Disneyland! This last summer our little family participated by gathering baby supplies for a program that gives pregnant women and new mothers things they might not otherwise have in exchange for taking a parenting class! We asked around friends and family, let people at church know and in the end we dropped off 2 trucks FULL of stuff including a crib, baby swings, clothes and so much more!! I even had a stranger at a thrift store donate $10 dollars when he over heard that I was there trying to buy a few things for cheap to add to the truck full!

It was so amazing to see my oldest son willingly help carry in not only the stuff we brought but to help a few others who were there donating as well! All in all, it was a very satisfying experience! I think that even with out the incentive of a free day at Disneyland, it is a service we hope to do fir that woman's program once a year by continuing to donate a truck full every summer! I do hope all of you will keep us in mind as you have children that grow out of toys, clothes or anything else!

With that being said here's a few pictures of our "Get A Day" at Disneyland! It was James first trip and I must say...he is certainly as big of a Disney fan as his mother!! Go Mickey!!

The typical Disneyland Family picture!

Minnie was the first to greet us as we walked in!

We tried to get a family picture but James was such a gentleman, he kept pulling on Minnie to kiss her nose!!

James was overly excited to see Mickey! He ran right up there! Of course when the camera snaps the picture he's not smiling but you can imagine his contagious grin from ear to ear!

We brought Grandma along with us so she could see Mickey before she moved to Texas

This is what a 14 month old looks like after having been so startled the whole boat heard him make a woooooah noise! After the initial shock he LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean!

Oh and the second we turned him loose he was on the run! "Mom I think I see Mickey!! Run!!"

Wyatt and I had fun spinning the Tea cups round and round! Grandma and Dad sat this one out.

Wyatt at Toontown

This kid could hardly contain the excitement of all the animals we found on the Jungle Cruise!

Wyatt and Grandma trying not to get too sticky under Pooh's honey pots!

And one last special hug just for dad! I had to yell across the street to tell Pluto "I have a big kid that wants just one more picture please!!" He giggled and gladly came right over! It made Tyler's day!

Well that's the end of our super fun day! These boys were not ready to say goodbye to Mickey Mouse and his friends at all but we packed up, waved goodbye and said...
"See ya real soon!"

Oh and I must share that James, my 1 year old son, was this wide eyed awake at 12 midnight when the park finally kicked us out and had been all day long with nothing more than a quick half hour cat nap! Talk about a true Disney fan!!

{another 1st}

James first fat lip. He somehow ran into the very padded recliner and managed to bust his lip open so bad we had to throw away daddy's shirt. Only to dive head first off said recliner in attempt to run away from daddy 5 minutes later. Luckily there was no bleeding involved in that fall just a lot of crying!

{hot chocolate}

My excuse to eat a can of whip cream!

{a good start}

How can you have a bad day after eating breakfast with a monkey?

{one of those days}

from unfinished homework
to ants, ants and more ants....
to a very late dinner for mom...
and let's not forget the 1 yo screaming while i tried to clean up the very late dinner I was attempting to sneak in (heaven forbid a mom gets to eat)

i gave up. went to bed. hoped for a better morning....

awoke feeling very refreshed only to find I was about 2 hours behind schedule already!!
Seriously?!?!!!!
Can't a girl get a break here?

{something person}

Setting: (5 minutes ago) Tyler and James were leaving for the store. I started to ask him to get something but he asked me something first then I couldn't remember what I wanted. Tyler and James are gone. I'm sitting at my sewing machine on the kitchen table and he's sitting on the other side.

Mom: "I really can't remember what I was going to ask Tyler to get me"

Wyatt: "Well tell me a list. Ramble stuff and see if you can remember."

Mom: "That doesn't work for me"

Wyatt: "Milk!" (pause to see if that was it) "Jelly! We are out of jelly." (pause) "cheese" (pause)

Mom: "No Wyatt it was something just for me personally"

Wyatt: in a loud excited voice thinking he had for sure he figured it out yells, "Tampons!!!"

I laughed so hard I had tears!!

Wyatt: (laughing) "Well when you say personal things that's the first thing I think of"

That was so not what I meant by "something just for me". I was thinking that there was a treat I was craving or something I wanted for after the kids go to bed kind of thing that I can't remember. Can you tell he was raised by a single mom? He will make an awesome boyfriend someday!!

{yummy}

We love Mexican food in our house. One of my childhood favorites is deep fried burritos. I make them a lot now in my own home. Wyatt has always loved Mexican food! We introduced the deep fried burritos to Tyler a few years ago. He loved them. And now James...It's a hit!! Deep fried burritos are unanimously, a family favorite!

{snack time}

I am so blessed to have such loving boys! Coming around the corner and witnessing these kind of moments is what makes every poopy diaper or stinky sock totally worth while!

{Aaaa chooo!}

Excuse me! You might want to wipe that off your screen! Those are sicky germs! Poor James and I have both been sick for what seems like ages but actually about a week. I'm so over Kleenex, Orange Juice, NyQuil and humidifiers! Somebody please make these germies go away!!

{Update...}

This morning I reading a blog that I just love to death. She is so super funny that I look forward to her stories every morning! Well today I decided to share with her my funny (in hind sight that is) story about the bug in my pants! (read here) After rereading it I wanted to post a small update.

I am here to testify that prays are truly answered! Whatever they may be for! If you are sincere and heartfelt the Lord will answer you! I also know that sometimes it's not always the answer you want so I am very grateful to report that he let me have this one! I have been virtually roach free (aside from an occasional dead body discovered here and there) since Jan 2009! I did it! I really did it! With my faith and my hubby's sincere desire to "calm me down" we were able to Pray Away The Bugs!!

{funfilled days}

We have been doing some fun things in our house! About a week and a half ago we took a Friday and went to Disneyland! As a family we participated in the Disney Give A Day Get A Day program and got our free tickets to the park! It was James first visit! He had so much fun, the little 1 year old went from 10am to midnight with only a 30 minute nap and wasn't cranky at all!! Then This past Friday I got a call from a friend asking if we wanted free tickets to a private party the next day at Knott's! Of course we had to go, I mean a private party...free?? Who wouldn't go? So we ventured our way out to Buena Park for the day. Wyatt got on his first roller coaster (an incredible milestone) and James thoroughly loved riding the race cars with his big brother!!

It's been eventful and exciting...we have no more free tickets in the forecast at our house but with these boys everyday is an adventure!! I sure being a mother to boys! I'll post pictures soon!

{let's get crafty}

So after much thought and effort I finally have a "just me" blog up and running that I am proud of. It's to share all about Keriann, the crafty and not so crafty things I do, from quilting to Automotive Mondays! I am super excited about it and hope it brings me new friends and customers to my upcoming craft shop on etsy. I'd love for all my family readers to go check it out! Click the button, follow along and tell me what you think!

{love}

"there's no love like grandma's love"
my mother & son @ Devils Postpile Mammoth, CA

I entered this in a "love" themed photography link up at