Rub A Dub Dub...

BOTH KIDS IN THE TUB!

I decided to be brave and bathe both kids at the same time since Jus wasn't home from work yet. It wasn't too bad. In fact, it totally saved time (and water). I'll definitely have to try it again.

Happy "Nother's" (Mother's) Day!

I am (mostly) loving the fact that my sweet two-year-old girl can pretty much say anything she wants. And, she's pretty understandable for just turning two. But, what I love the most is when she says something that's almost-but-not-exactly right. Some of my favorite Goosie-isms are "cow-cow-der" for catepillar, "Ingle Mush-ins" for English Muffins (mom's breakfast of choice) and my new favorite, "Par-ma-mon" Cheese (I told her she couldn't have Parmesan cheese on her yogurt-eeeew).
So, I was thrilled when (after some prompting from daddy) I heard "Happy NOTHER'S day" come out of my sweet girl's mouth as she crawled into bed with us on Sunday. It was so cute, and it made my day.


I love my girl. I love her sweetness. I love that she's so funny. I love that she is so smart. I love that she's loves to entertain. I love her determination. I love her curiosity. I tell her all the time that I love her like crazy... I do.

I love my little man. I am in love with his dimples. I love that he is so charming. I love that he loves to be held. I love that his smile melts my heart. I love that I'm still figuring out who he is. I love him, I love him, I love him...I do.


I'm so thankful that these two beautiful babes made me a mother. I'm so thankful for my own mom who has been such a beautiful example to me of how to be a good mom. Happy "Nother's" Day!

Sunny Days

"Sunny days, sweepin' the clouds away". Dang, that song is stuck in my head again. I told you we watch a lot of Sesame Street (No, we really don't watch it all day. I promise. 1 episode a day...maybe). Anyway, I figured it was such a nice day we had to take advantage of going outside. Goosie loves her water table and when I say loves, I mean LOVES. She asked for it almost every day during winter, and at the time I was relieved to tell her that she could use it when it got a little warmer outside. So, this week I was out of excuses, as we were roasting like marshmallows inside our little house. Plus I was getting cabin fever since the kids were sick and couldn't have the playdates we had planned for the week.

It still takes me way too long to get out of the house with these two. I don't really know why, but we finally made it out all sunscreened and hats on and into the front yard for some fun. Goosie loves to use her watering cans to water the big palm tree in front of our house.
And, Doobie even got to splash around in the water table a little bit. He's doing really well sitting on his own, too. It's like all of a sudden he's becoming a big boy. Have I told you how much I love my kids?

La la la la Elmo's World

Sesame street is Goosie's absolute favorite show right now, and, well, it's the only show she's watching right now. She really is only interested in the Elmo's World segment of the show. In fact, she whines, "wanna watch Elmo show" when any other part of Sesame Street is on. So, I thought it would only be fitting that her second birthday party would be an Elmo Party. (Confused? The other birthday photos I posted were from her actual birthday, which was also Easter this year. We figured our friends were gonna be busy with their families that day, so we decided to have her 'friends' party on a different weekend.)

When we were talking with Goosie, before she turned two, about what she would like for her birthday party she told us, cake and a jumper. What else would a two year old want? So, a planning I did go...

With the help of one of my closest friends, Rachel, I tried my hand at cake making. I had seen a few cupcake cakes of Elmo's face on the internet; and got it in my head that that's what I had to do. You really don't want to know how much red food coloring gel I put into the frosting to get it this red, but it still tasted good.
I had a few cupcakes left over so we made some 'Dorothy's' with goldfish crackers too.

For decorations, I tried to replicate some of the drawings that are on Elmo's walls on the show, and we got a bouquet of Elmo balloons. I also filled fish bowls with goldfish crackers and put them outside on the tables for snacks.

I decorated our tv to look like it was Elmo's tv featuring our sweet girl

I spent more hours than I'm willing to admit on these magnets that I made for kids (and adults) to assemble and take home for their fridge.And this was Goosie's that she made at the party...
We also rented an Elmo jumper. I love the company we rented it from-Party on Rentals. They even cleaned the inside after they set it up.
Needless to say, she enjoyed the jumper. And made almost everyone at the party go in too. I even heard grandma got in there with her, the good sport that she is. I wish I had a picture of that.

We took a break from the bouncing to have some cake and open gifts.

Where was Doobie? He was in his full glory; in the loving arms of all the women at the party, of course. Here he is with Auntie Dee.
It was such a wonderful day. And though I know that she won't remember it at all, I'm glad she'll have these photos to look back on one day.

Nicknames

Even though I'm sure most of you who will read our blog know our kids' real names, we decided to give them nicknames in order to keep them safe since it's a public site. We picked 'Goosie' for our sweet girl - it's one of her nicknames and I think it started as Silly goose, but got shortened to Goosie. We'll call our little man 'Doobie' which is one of his nicknames that evolved from his middle name.

A Two Year old on Easter Sunday

This year Goosie's birthday fell on Easter Sunday, so we had two special things to celebrate. It was a jam packed day, but my heart was so full seeing her open her gifts and go on her very first Easter Egg hunt at the Duckie House. I have such fond memories of doing my own Easter egg hunts there every year and I'm so glad to see the tradition carry on for my kids.
We decided to give Goosie her new play kitchen in the morning before church. It was too big to wrap so we cut one of those large plastic decorated gift bags and draped it over the top and taped it to the back. When she came out in the morning, she peeked underneath and we asked "what is it?". She replied "It's a tent!". We laughed so hard.

Yes, she's in her Christmas jammies in April, but they still fit so she still wears them :)

Before too long, we were off to church. Easter Sunday is Jus' very favorite holiday, and for a few years in a row now, we've listened to his favorite Easter worship CD in the morning at home or in the car on the way to church. It is quickly becoming a treasured Easter tradition. Every year our church service is held on the front lawn of one of our friend's homes overlooking the Pacific ocean. It is also where Jus and I got married, so it's got extra sentimental value to us. It was a beautiful day, and my friend Rebecca took a few photos of the birthday girl for me...

We were then off to the Duckie House to spend the rest of the day with Grammy Great, Grandma, Grandpa and Matt and Auntie Siso. These are a few of my favorite photos that were taken shortly after arriving...

Daddy and Doobie looking cute in their matching orange Polos!


My new favorite picture of me and Goosie

Doobie and Grammy Great

And then the Easter egg hunt began. It was so fun to see Goosie walking around in her own unhurried style picking up Easter eggs. She loved it! She even found a small basket full of stickers and Teddy Grahams from Grammy Great at the end of her hunt!



And, she picked up a cute little duck and a few eggs for her little brother. I think he liked it!

Next came the Easter Baskets from us and from Grandma and Grandpa. Our tradition every year is to give them each a new bathing suit and sandals for summer in addition to their toys and candy.


After dinner, Goosie got to open her gifts; including a new tricycle from Grammy Great!

And we all had princess cake to finish off the night. What a wonderful day :D

Here's one last photo I couldn't resist of Doobie and Uncle Matt.