The Bowden Family Blog

DIY Headboard - Special Edition Blog Post!

2011-10-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

Photos taken of this project: 39

I have always been a big fan of HGTV and DIY projects. Besides being inexpensive, they are fun and bring a lot of personal pride. At some point many years ago, while watching HGTV, I saw someone make a headboard and I immediately added that project to the TO DO LIST in my head. My entire adult life, I had never had a headboard, so this is the story of how I made my very first headboard.

During the end of August, while helping me put the sheets on the bed, Scott's side ripped. I was sad and glad all at the same time, because even tho I loved my beautiful ivy-print sheets, they were 11 years old and thread-barren. After much searching, I found some gorgeous green toile print and knew right away that the map prints I had been thinking of purchasing weren't even close to what I really wanted. After shopping around for the best price on this green toile bedroom set, I realized the sheets were not included, so then there was a ton more research on sheets and thread counts and shams and etc. Finally, I found some beautiful 400tc creme sheets in the same ticking stripe as the backside of the green toile quilt. I ordered everything (including an extra set of curtains) and waited for it to arrive.

Of course, everything arrived piecemeal, the rug was back ordered, the sheets were a separate order and coming from India, so I waited FOREVER (until Oct 12) to have the entire bedroom set all together. This gave me time to do some research on the exact steps to making my own headboard as well as purchase all the supplies I would need. When all the bedding had finally arrived, I washed it all and got ready for my first big DIY project since before Eric was born.

We had an extra closet door (since we got that beautiful full length mirrored closet door shortly after we moved in) and that's what I wanted to use as the main part of my headboard. I measured twice and had Scott cut once, lol. Then I made a bunch of measurements so I would know where I wanted the buttons to go (and so that they would be straight).

I laid the door down and sprayed it with adhesive, then put down a layer of foam.

Then another coat of adhesive and another layer of foam. This is going to be a diamond-tufted headboard, so I needed the extra layer of cushion to get a deep set button hole (more on this later).

After the foam was adhered, I drilled holes based on the pencil marks and measurements I had made earlier.

The I flipped the door over so I could see where I had drilled, and started to make the drill holes larger just in the foam portion.

In order to do this, my dad invented and forged a special tool for me which worked like an absolute charm (thank you!!!). If it wasn't such a chore to sharpen the inside of the tiny steel pipe, I would suggest making these by the truck-load and selling them! You can see how perfectly it cut thru both layers of foam. I can't even imagine trying to do this any other way.

Next came two layers of batting and that extra set of curtains I bought. How else could I match the headboard to the rest of the bedroom set -- yes, with the matching curtains used as my fabric! I also used part of the same curtain to cover the self-covering buttons I bought. This was a chore and required an extra trip to the store to buy more buttons as well as enlisting the help of both my parents (thank you!!!) -- you wouldn't think covering buttons would require so much expertise, but its definitely one of the more difficult arts, lol!

And if I thought covering the buttons was difficult, attaching them to the door proved even harder. This was another time in my life that I would have been happy to have at least 2 more arms, but 4 more would have been preferred, lol! First you string the back of the button with some heavy duty upholstery cording, then you pull the cording thru the fabric, two layers of batting, and two layers of foam and push the button down into the hole in the foam while you knot and staple the cording to the back of the door. I had 17 buttons and had to do them in two different days because my hands were so sore from holding the door up while trying to push the button down into the foam and knot and staple the rope to the back of the door, lol! This is what the rope looks like on the back of the door, its stapled and knotted three times to keep it secure forever.

This is what it looks like on the front -- worth the effort, right? :) The diamond tufting is super deep and makes for a really luxurious look.

Once I got all 17 buttons in place, it was time to staple down the batting and fabric, being sure to get it all flat so it could sit flush against the wall. I purchased a special leveling hanger so the door would remain in the wall even with over 200 pounds of pressure and/or an earthquake, and so that it would be straight.

I had Scott help me get this special leveling hanger screwed into the back of the door and he also helped me hang the whole thing on the wall. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out! Here it is with the matching shams, pillow cases, comforter, quilt, sheets, and throw pillow.

Here are the matching curtains and curtain rods (thanks to Heather for helping me pick out the curtain rods!) This was an extra trip to the store because the ones i bought initially didn't look quite right. The curtains look so nice with our new blinds!

With the extra set of curtains I bought I only used one panel for the headboard, so i cut the other panel in half and used them on our night tables.

The coordinating rug sits in front of my hope chest at the base of our bed, and completes our awesome new look! I smile every time I walk into our bedroom!

Evie is 1 year, 6 months and 3 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-10-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 34

I love digital scrapbooking, but I still have a pretty big place in my heart for paper crafts, here are some autumn cards I made.

Eric started a new school this week. He is attending a private preschool academy for higher learning in early education. He is attending half days, twice a week. The first day we took it slow in order to get him acclimated to the school, teachers, and students. And from being away from me and left in a strange place, which we had never done before. Apparently, this was much more scary for me than him, lol!

The school is amazing, they have three separate learning environments to provide the most comprehensive learning experience possible for young learners. There is the Blue Room for Reading/Writing/Speaking, the Green Room for Math/Science/History, and the Red Room for Visual Arts/Theatre/Music & Dance. This picture of Eric is in the upstairs reading nook! He is very excited about it, lol!

I also love their fusion curriculum which incorporates Kindergarden-level state requirements, Montessori concepts, and other theories of education (they post the curriculum online so i can see what he is learning and incorporate it at home). I was very pleased to see Eric interested in participating in circle time, this is something he has not been interested in previously.

While Eric is at school, Evie and I do girl stuff (read: shopping) lol!

Then we go and pick Eric up from school. Here he is playing in the outside playground, in the sand box.

He brought the soccer ball over to share with his new friends. The school has a lot of fun play structures, picnic tables, drinking fountain, and tether ball.

The next day we watched Joseph and Viviana while their dad went to pick up big sister from school. Vivi and Eric played trains! :)

Eric is such a good helper!

My gorgeous girl, so pretty in purple!!!

and she loves loves loves puppy dogs!

Evie is 1 year, 6 months and 2 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 56

The boys signed up for the Yosemite Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventure! It's a two-day AMA Sanctioned dual sport event held at the gateway to Yosemite National Park, Buck Meadows California. And is all about getting into the back-country and enjoying the trails. It's two days of adventure including scenic & historic destinations in and around Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest with approximately 100 miles of riding each day! All routes are approximately 85% dirt and they had to sign up early because only 100 tickets were available! There was also a BBQ and raffle (the BBQ funds benefit the Sports Club of San Joaquin County which helps those with special needs enjoy the outdoors, and the raffle funds are donated to Blue Ribbon Coalition).

I took a few pictures through the window but they didn't turn out well, here's one of David's motorcycle as he leaves our house Monday morning. It sounds like a busy weekend, and they didn't really have time to take pictures, but they had lots of fun! And lots of 'adventure' lol, here's a direct quote from David, "It was an all GO event. We never really slowed down from the time we left your house, to the time the motorcycles fell off the trailer and we had to navigate a road that even the locals hate."

They got some really cool shirts too!

We wanted to get Eric a computer for Christmas, and Gramma Linda & Grampa Bill indulged us early!!! :) :) :)

There's nothing more relaxing than your favorite magazine and a cup of green tea

Ahhhh...

My GORGEOUS boy! (this is my new fav pic of him)

with flowers for his Mama!

This girl LOVES shoes, and look at those curls!!!

Grandpa Jim's lap just isn't quite big enough, lol!

Climbing the rock wall...

...deep in thought. (love love love this pic)

Evie, its time to leave the park. What do you mean 'bye'? Please come home with us, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?

Hey, where are you going? That's the wrong way!

My favorite shirt (and several others) are destroyed when Scott threw his running shoes into a load of my light colored clothes. :( You know its bad when it comes out of the completed wash cycle looking like this.

Uh oh, she just couldn't wait for nap time! (yes, she has THREE blankies, the blue one is Eric's from when he was a baby, but he discarded it and Evie happily acquired it, lol! she really loves the satin feel of these double-sided blankets.)

McDonald's play land -- Evie's driving!

Tunnel time!

Sliding down the slide!

Eric jumping down ALL the stairs at once! WOW!

Eric helping me make a dinosaur scrapbook all about him and his dinos. He colored several dinosaur pix and helped me to glue down the embellishments! :)

Evie is 1 year, 6 months and 1 week old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 65

Evie likes dinos too! I ADORE this outfit -- so super cute!

Eric writes his name in sand, without any help!!! GREAT WORK!

Eric's latest masterpiece! It's hanging on the door to his room.

Eric got down all the puzzles at school and took each one apart and put them all back together without any help!

Evie makes an 'M' with macaroni and LOTS of glue, lol!

It's almost time for Halloween! Pretty purple hats for good little witches...

and scary black spider hats for good little warlocks!

Eric, what's your favorite food?

Playing the 'drums' in the garage, while Evie helps Daddy with the motorcycle.

Is it bedtime? Nah, let's have a tickle war!!!

Evie is 1 year, 5 months and 4 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-09-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 36

Today Eric said to me, “I love peanut butter, Mama.” This is the first time I have heard him refer to himself in the first person instead of the third person!!!

Live Oak has a festival which includes a little bit of everything from cars to craft booths to food to circus rides. This car was Daddy's favorite!

This one was pretty cool too!

There was a playground with dinosaurs! But the dinos were too hot to sit on (that's why he is making that face)

There was a jeep for Evie to drive, I tried to take her picture several times, but the sun was in her eyes and she couldn't look up at me.

Eric made fast friends on the playground. :)

There was this cool metal sculpture of a dragon that breathed actual fire -- amazing! This is up-cycling at its best!

"I will show you how to do it, Grandpa. First, you hold these, then..."

Evie is such a girl, look how happy she is to have a new purse, lol!

Eric had a lot of fun with these!

But nothing beats a horsey-back ride!

Evie is daddy's little girl, she looks like him, acts like him, and loves on him a ton!

Eric is an amazing upside down attention grabber!!!

Evie is 1 year, 5 months and 3 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-09-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 94

When I put Evie in her crib for nap time or bed time, I blow her a kiss and tell her I love her, and she waves goodbye to me and says something in her cute little baby gibberish. Ooo, I just love that girl so much! :)

I fell in love with this perfect shot of Evie, so I extracted her from the background and made the following layout from my digital scrapbooking kit "Mystical Journey."

This was our neighbor's daughter's baptism celebration. This is a horrible picture, but they were too busy having fun to have their pictures taken, lol!

Oftentimes, our neighbor goes to pick up the eldest daughter from school, so I watch the two younger children. Eric and Evie love Joseph and Viviana!

Evie follows Vivi around and watches everything she does very carefully so she can learn how to do it too.

It's dino bathtime!

Now that's a look of determination!

Evie wants to help too, lol!

Every night, only certain dinos make the cut to sleep in bed with Eric, this week the fossils are in it to win it, lol!

Evie is 1 year, 5 months and 2 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-09-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 21

Evie knows where I keep my camera, she likes to go into that drawer and get it, all the while exclaiming over and over again, “CHEESE! CHEESE! CHEESE!”

Have I mentioned the boy likes dinosaurs? LOL!

Bailey lounging on Mook's bed with his stuffed raccoon.

Eric using Evie's car to run over dinosaurs, who then take revenge on the car, lol! Where do kids learn this stuff?

Getting ready to go to my new monthly Scrapbook Crop Party - woo hoo!

Ashley came all the way from Sacramento to come to the crop party - she is a rock star!!! (and a great picture taker, lol!)

Evie is 1 year, 5 months and 1 week old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-08-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 33 (this doesn't count all the museum photos which was also this same week)

The purpley-mauve thing is a pacifier sanitizer. I've always used it for sanitizing toothbrushes, since neither kid ever used a pacifier. Eric, however, has decided its the coolest spaceship he has ever seen! His army guys like to go for rides, and Eric makes the best spaceship noises!

i heart evie

I took the kids to a children's health fair and we entered to win a raffle prize. Guess what? We won! LOL! It's an amazing wagon with cupholders and seatbelts and seats that have backrests! Eric was such a good helper getting it put together!

Here's the wagon all put together. Time for the evening walk. Daddy has his hands full because I stay home and get dinner ready.

Daddy thought this was the cutest thing ever, lol!

Eric thinks Bailey would look great in a firefighter's hat, Bailey isn't too sure, lol!

Playing in the backyard

Evie found a rock to put into the water table.

love that little grin, lol!

Eric doesn't nap, he hasn't since he was barely two years old, but today while I was changing Evie and getting her ready for nap time, Eric fell asleep! He must have played really hard in the backyard!

I was worried that if i picked him up to put him in bed, he would wake up and not go back to sleep, so I let him sleep where he was, but he wiggled around and found a more comfy position, lol!

Grand Opening of the Sacramento Children's Museum!

2011-08-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Photos taken at the Museum: 54

This is a special edition blog post of pix we took at the grand opening of the Sacramento Children's Museum. We are founding partners which means we donated money to the museum to help them get going. Some of this money was given to Eric as his birthday presents and we donated the rest. Founding partners get a permanent art display in the museum, you can see ours below...

Waiting to get in was hard, there were so many people that the building's limit of people allowed in at one time was reached. Evie's patience was also reached :(

To pass the time, Eric and Daddy checked out the fire engine.

Eric got a hat and fire fighter badge sticker!

Once inside, there was much happiness for all!

We got to take a picture with one of the mascots

The museum took this picture and posted it on their website!!! Even though this is very cool, I have to admit I was a little weirded-out that no one asked permission to take pix of my child or post them on the internet.

Eric really liked this one, he watched the ball go up and down the hills, until it dropped into the bin at the bottom of the hill. This section with the balls was called "Raceways" and taught about velocity, gravity, motion, friction, and acceleration.

Evie liked the puff balls, they were meant to go into a clear vacuum tube which taught about the vacuum of space and travel and air pressure and air currents, but Evie preferred collecting them, I think she was able to hold about 6 at one time!

There were some amazing water features, just the right height for Evie!

She especially like the ping pong balls and put them into the water features.

Eric had a blast splashing water everywhere! This area is called "Waterways" and teaches children to experiment with the flow of water, race boats, and create whirlpools.

Both kids were completely soaked and then...

we went over to the painting wall! This is the before and after shots of Eric making his own hand print on the clear plastic wall - very cool!

soon, they were both covered in paint too, lol! I drew the "E" for Evie and she painted a lovely backdrop for it! :)

good thing i dressed them in 'play clothes' and had a change of clothes in the car!

The painting wall and this craft room were the "Studio of the Arts" section of the museum, where children explore hands-on art projects. Eric made a dino mask!

ROAR!!!

Evie didn't want to make the craft, she wanted to police the entire museum instead :) This part of the museum was called "My Neighborhood" and encourages children to role play, and celebrate unique family traditions and cultural awareness.

There was a special baby room called "Baby Bloomers" for children under 3 to enjoy safe exploration. Evie decided she was at the age where she could play in both areas, and she had a lot of fun going down this little foam block slide. You can see Kathleen Palley's back in this photo, she is the owner/operator of the museum.

Here we are in front of our permanent art display, it was located inside the play house (I did not get to choose the spot, and it took me almost our entire time at the museum to find it, lol!) I added the blue arrow digitally, so you could see which one is our art. I was kind of upset that our art was framed with two other people's art, for the amount of money we ended up paying for that spot, you'd think we'd at least get our own frame! And I guess there were too many cool things to look at because when I showed Eric his artwork on the wall he was less than impressed and refused to stand for the picture. Evie doesn't look too impressed either, lol!
All in all it was a fun day, and on the way out there was a small tent with reptiles you could pet, Eric really liked the albino snake, but my camera battery died, so I wasn't able to get a picture of that, maybe next time.

Evie is 1 year, 4 months and 4 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-08-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 121

Today eric asked me for ‘jooz or milk, ma, pleeeee?’ I said ‘ok’ and got his cup and started to pour milk in the cup. ‘no! wait, ma, jooz! jooz! pleeeeee?’ so I put the milk away and get the juice (jooz). He says, ‘good girl ma!’ LOL!!!

This was my outfit when I was little!

I took the kids to the library and the pre-school reading area had dinosaurs!

It also had this fun wooden bead game (yes, we have 2 of these at home that neither of them are at all interested in.)

Eric discovered the computer area! Each computer had several games for pre-schoolers and Eric had a blast!

Evie also wanted to try out the computer, so she put on the headphones and got up in the chair and started moving the mouse around!

While helping me put the sheets on the bed, Scott ripped our last set of sheets, so I ordered this new bedroom set and everyone really seems to like it, lol!

and when I say 'everybody,' i mean EVERYBODY, lol!

Evie's lunch is so delicious, she is offering to share!

Evie likes kitty cats!

Instead of "Dances with Wolves" he is "Sleeps with Dinosaurs"

I think we might need dinos-anonymous, lol!

Scott calls this her Marilyn Monroe dress.

Eric's imagination is growing by leaps and bounds. He plays with toys in sets of two now and the toys interact, there is usually a momma and a baby, but in this case it's a momma and dadda.

DIVA!

Super Diva!

"Hey, why did the car stop moving?"

How scary is it when you realize your 3 year old knows how to put keys into the ignition of a vehicle in order to make it go?

Another tractor for Evie :)

How cute is this?

Evie learns about the final frontier!

Evie points here toes as I pick her up out of her crib each morning.

Evie is 1 year, 4 months and 3 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-08-15T23:40:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 132

Eric just told me his dinosaur was sad. i told him to help the dinosaur feel better and he told me the only thing that would help was a 3rd glass of milk!!!

Evie said "kitty" and "purple" this week!

Tractors are for girls too!

Eric's new fav place!

We went to the splash park in Yuba City!

They had everything there, just look at this huge playground!

And this is another part of the park with another huge playground (you can just barely see Eric running out of the pic on the bottom left)

Eric made fast friends with this little girl and they played together until she had to go home.

Evie really liked the water!

Evie as a pirate and Eric as a pirate, lol! I thought these were so funny, they were just part of the playground!

What a cool shot, it looks like the water is just falling right into his tiny little bucket!

Evie practices eating with a fork, lol!

Meanwhile, Eric practices prank calling, then making his dino take the rap for it!

My little cuddlebug just came over to hug me and fell asleep. I had a heck of a time getting Scott's attention so he could take a pic cuz Eric's ear was right on my face, lol!

Miss Super Star with sunglasses!

Miss Super Star with pink light up flipflips! (you can see her left shoe is lighting up the carpet!)

Dinosaurs get thristy with all their roaring!

Sleeping with his rocketship

More birthday celebration for Scott!

Eric was laughing hysterically!

Zzz built this house and then knocked it right down, lol! (you can see Zzz walking thru the door to the house in the last pic)

Evie is 1 year, 4 months and 2 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-08-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this week: 123
I would have taken a lot more, but the camera battery died while we were at the new park and I didn't get one single picture of the new park :( :( :(
Also this week, Evie woke up from her nap, took her diaper off and used her crib instead. Then, she sorta painted with it. After I bathed her twice, I spent the next 4 hours cleaning every single part of her crib: all the wood, the sheets and bedskirt, the carpet, the walls, the dolls, the stuffed animals and etc. This is why I laugh when a manufacturer says their stuffed animal can't be washed but that I can wipe it clean with a wet cloth - obviously these people never had children!!!

Thanks Mom for the scrapbook album, I finally got around to re-covering it, this is the BEFORE and AFTER pix :)

Scott was teaching Eric how to fish -- not too many fish to catch down the hallway, lol!

We went to the park and our neighbors were there, Eric had a lot of fun playing with them.

Evie is doing so well with her sign language, this is how she says 'more.'

Eric is telling Viviana to "come on!"

Evie takes a break at the park to sit.

Eric is finally tall enough to see out of this nifty kalidoscope thing!

Evie found some pretty yellow flowers!

This is my camera timer pic of the week, lol. I love my new purple Dyson!

Jumping for joy - both feet are completely off the ground!

Scott had a great birthday week!

He took his birthday off from work and went riding!

He brought back some snow!

Eric and Evie were so happy Dada was finally home!

Heather even came to help celebrate!

Red Velvet cake!

I don't think that's all going to fit...

Then we went shopping at Walmart and there was a pony there!!!

Scott asked for a profile pic of Evie. Just look at those gorgeous eye lashes! And perfect button nose! And her skin!!! I didn't photoshop this pic at all except to crop it - what an amazing little girl!!!

Eric is lining up all his dinosaurs! ROAR!!!

Father-daughter moment.

Evie really likes this toy!

Eric is doing so well at playing catch!

Auntie Heather gave Eric a seal, it's the one she had at her house that he just loved when we were there last. He gave it a big hug!

Auntie Heather says, "Put down that car, put on these sunglasses and next we will discuss shoes and purses..."

Apparently, there is a Diva walk as well...

Watch out, there are dinosaurs in the arcade!

Evie is there too and she will kick your butt on the driving game! As you can see, she is the High Scorer on Track 7!

Dinosaurs get hungry too!

More birthday cake for Dada means more birthday cake for Eric! YUMMY!

Evie is 1 year, 4 months and 1 week old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-08-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Ali Edwards (she's a well-known and published scrapbooker) and I recently discovered she has been doing a WITL (Week In The Life) blog just like mine! She had a great idea about using the camera timer so you can be in the pix more often (it’s a hugely discussed scrapbook topic that we are never in our family albums because we are always the ones taking the pix). Ali also counts the number of pix she takes each week and I thought that sounded like fun, so this week I have taken 50 pix, here are some of them:

Here's the camera on timer as they jump on my bed and I try to get a photo, lol! I'll definately be needing some more practice using the timer idea with these two, lol!

This is Eric's special friend, "Zzzz" (imagine a sock puppet without the sock). Zzzz seems to be Eric's scape goat in case something naughty happens and Eric needs someone to blame other than Evie. For instance, Zzzz is the one who throws the toys across the room, not Eric. And Zzzz is the one who took Evie's snack and gave it to Eric to eat. Eric is innocent in the matter, all he did was eat some snack that was given to him. Zzzz on the other hand might have to go sit in time out and will look sad as he begrudgingly goes towards the time-out area. However, if something big happens and Evie is hurt, Eric will take himself and Zzzz to timeout without being told.

Dada makes that face!

I just realized this week that all buildings are "house" except for our house which is called "home." :) Big rigs and other large trucks are called "big brrroooom brrrooooms"

MY Momma loves ME!

I can hold legos in my toes!

Eric 'helped' me put the groceries away (not all of these are groceries, some are from our garden too!) He asked me the name of each one and then put it too his mouth, then took it away from his mouth and said, "noooo..." Apparently they weren't as appetizing as they looked, lol! Later Scott grabbed a nectarine to eat it and said, "Hey, there are little teeth marks in this!" HAHAHA!

The girl loves her some sunglasses!

I made mini pineapple upside down cakes. The dark spots around the edges is all brown sugar!!! YUM!

On the way home from the splash park last week, Kellie and I stopped at McDonalds and I got Eric the toy of the week. It was a light saber from the movie Star Wars and he can't put it down! (A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." To learn more click HERE.) In the movie, the main character can't reach his light saber and has to use the magical 'force' to draw the light saber to his hand without ever touching it!

Evie is 1 year, 4 months old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-07-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm now selling my digital scrapbooking products in 9 stores, plus I am on the admin team for two of those stores and teaching classes in one of them, this is in addition to the work I have been taking on fiverr.com, so the blog has been a bit behind, but I am caught up now and I have a ton of pix and even another video... this one with sound!!!

When Evie does something really cute, I pat her little bottom and tell her she is cute. Today, after I patted it, she patted it too, lol!

Kellie invited us to go to the Splash Park near her house, so we prepared by practicing in the backyard. Eric and Dada ran thru once and then Eric decided he was no longer was interested. And here I am thinking, what happened to the boy who was running thru the sprinklers naked just a few weeks ago?

I figured once we got to the Splash Park, Eric would be fine. I was hoping Evie would be fine too.

She LOVED it and had a great time right from the get go!

Besides her hat and shoes she was slathered in sunscreen and so was Eric. Even tho it was a super hot day and the top of my head got burned, both of them remained a creamy white!

Look at her cute little swimsuit! I brought watering cans to play with in the water, they were a big hit with all the kids at the splash park!

The water would turn on and off and Evie was fascinated!

She stood on the water too!

Eric found a new friend (Aiden) by the sand diggers. Aiden was much more interesting than the water portion of the park.

This park was huge and Eric was so excited to play in a new park with a new friend!

They held hands and ran to each portion of the playground talking and laughing and helping each other climb and explore.

Eventually Aiden got hot and tired and went to find his Momma to get a drink. Eric tried relentlessly to get Aiden to stand up and play. Finally, I had to pursuade Eric with some juice of his own and once he got done with his juice he decided the water looked like fun after all!

Here's a video of when Eric finally decided to join us in the water! It has sound and everything!!! (click on it and you will be taken to a new page which will play the video) then come back here for more pix.

Happy Birthday, Grampa Bill!

Your cake looks delicious... Yup, it is!

Silly faces were exchanged at the dinner table!

"a green roar-roar and a blue roar-roar and..."

...lots of other good stuff too!

She is so smart!

Birthday parties are so much fun!

At some point I started to wonder if the thought it was HIS birthday, lol!

So many fun new toys!

And don't forget the delicious cake!

Evie is 1 year, 3 months, and 3 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-07-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Eric has started saying, "Come on!" when he wants to show you something. The last time he told me to 'come on' I told him to wait just a minute and he said, 'why?' That's the first time he has ever asked me 'why' about something!

A fine howdy do to you!

Evie loves her Mook.

We went out for pizza with Gran and Papa Steve, Scott had lots of fun showing Eric how to play video games. Hey, where is Eric anyway?

Well, Evie seems interested!

She even understands you have to drive the game with the steering wheel!

Here's Eric, but he is too busy for video games! Papa Steve bought him Dinosaur Train toys at the train convention! Thank you Papa Steve!!!

Hey, who needs a video game, when you can climb on a chair and play with the salt and pepper?! She was laughing and having such a good time! She even tasted the salt and pepper - yuck!

Ok, play time is over and it's time to get serious! Don't bother me, I'm eating!

He loves these toys! And what boy wouldn't? You just can't go wrong with dinosaurs AND trains! Plus it's a tv show on PBS with lessons and morals!!!

Eric learned how to play hide and go seek on the 14th. We played in the kitchen for over an hour and then in the livingroom too. We would take turns counting to 5 and then looking for the other person. Evie happily sat in her high chair watching us as she ate and giving hints if we needed it. How I wish I had this on video – his very first game of hide and go seek!!

He's the one who originally picked up the picture frame, so I decided to try to get him to put his hands on both sides of it and his head in the middle, but it just wasn't going to happen.

I just bought a new bedroom set (it's green toile), now I'm thinking maybe that wasn't such a good idea, lol!

Here's a video of Evie jumping in Eric's bed - I'm starting to sense a trend! (there's no sound) Click the video to be taken to a new page where the video will play.

Evie is 1 year, 3 months, and 2 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-07-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Diva in her Fila outfit with Guess glasses, such haute couture! (please ignore the snack crumbs, lol!)

There's a WHAT on my WHAT?

Evie likes to use the Doodle-Pro, she is very good at drawing with the magnetic pencil.

What a cute little outfit! Thanks for the hat Gramma Linda!

YeeHaw!!! Evie rides and Eric pushes the sound button - what a great team!

Snack time!

Cowgirl Up!

Evie is helping Mama work on digital scrapbooking!

Evie feeds herself yogurt like a big girl!

Eric and I had a lot of fun with these little blocks today, we pretended the roundy ones were cake and the square ones were sandwiches and we stacked them on top of each other; we talked all about shapes and colors and eating right.

There are some days when its just too hot to go outside, so we try to find fun indoor activities. Today we did painting!

Evie is 1 year, 3 months, and 1 week old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-07-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!!!

Dada builds legos in the shape of ducks, alligators, and birds!

They were all soaking wet in a surprising short amount of time, lol!

Eric is getting better and better with his balance.

Eric decided running thru the sprinkers in the backyard might be fun. Apparently, it seemed similar to his bath experiences, as he was rather quick to strip his clothes off, lol!

When Uncle David and Cousin Ashley came to visit, we went to McDonald's play place and the kids had a blast!

Evie was able to get up the stairs to the play place too!

She had lots of fun!

Ashley was so sweet about taking pix with the kids! Thank you Ashley!

Gran is telling secrets! shhh!

Family Photo!!!

Ashley wanted to see big city fireworks so she and David and Steve and Scott and Eric went to CalExpo! Scott bought Eric this battery operated fireworks toy that makes lights that look like fireworks.

This was Eric's first fireworks show and he loved it!

Scott got some great pictures.

Evie and I stayed home because I was afraid it would be too loud for her, not to mention way passed her bedtime.

Ride 'em Cowboy!

Hey, look at me, I can ride a ~~horse~~ zebra too!

I made peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips on top as a special treat for the kids...

Needless to say, they were a big success, lol!

It took me longer to clean her than she took to eat the cookie, lol!

I entered the kids in a summer reading program. This program was especially for todders who can't read but whose parents read to them. After being read 10 different books each and turning in their book forms, they got special certificates, bookmarks, pencils, stickers, and t-shirts! Reading is rewarding!

If the sprinklers were sorta like bathtime, then the pool was exactly like bathtime and off went the clothes again!

I love it when she puts the end of the sunglasses in her mouth, its SO cute!

Eric is in the backyard and Evie is in the house, she screeches at him thru the screen and he comes running over waving and says Hi!

Evie got Sleeping Beauty sunglasses!

I remember when Eric first climbed up the couch and looked at me over the breakfast bar, now Evie's doing it, lol! (check out those gorgeous blue eyes!)

Evie is 1 year, 3 months old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-06-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

I started out just wanting a pic of them sitting at the table together, but after he fed her and then she wanted to feed him back, I took 100 pix, lol! It was so sweet and cute! (see Mook in the window?)

Evie realized her shoes from Gran almost fit and BONUS - they light up!!! She carried them all over the house, walked around in them, and stomped her feet so they would light up! What fun!

Evie is so good about trying new foods, this was her first nectarine and needless to say, Dada didn't get much of it at all, lol!

She loves this chair in Eric's room. Apparently its the most comfy spot in the house, lol!

What a pretty girl. She lost her first set of earings inside the sofa from climbing up it using the side of her head, lol. So, she is wearing my very first pair of earings until we can get her a new pair of the pretty pink flower ones.

Eric got new shoes, they have Lightning McQueen on them - super cool!

Perhaps this is hugely esoteric of me, but in the 1993 movie "Demolition Man" all restaurants are Taco Bells (they won the franchise wars and evolved into fine-dining establishments.) This is hilarious to me, because i love taco bell, but its even more hilarious because the only 'restaurant' we visit with any frequency is taco bell, so when we get in the car to leave the house, i ask Eric if he wants "to go to the restaurant?" at some point i realized he must think all restaurants are taco bell, hence the joke!

"So, Gramma, how do you get these things outta there?"

This is the kids' masterpiece that will go on the wall in the Sac Children's Museum's permanent gallery. I can't wait for the grand opening!

We got a harness for Evie too, her's is a unicorn! Eric calls it "Nuni" and is very excited that his harness now has a friend, lol!

Evie is 1 year, 2 months, and 3 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-06-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

This week Eric said, 'baby.'
Evie walked over to me, lifted up my shirt and said, "tickle, tickle" and started tickling me!

Happy Father's Day!

Gramma Linda always has awesome new toys to play with!

And she cuts sandwiches into dinosaurs!

Evie doesn't care what her sandwich is cut into, lol!

I just love the look on Evie's face, lol!

Eric seems to be able to catch the beach ball without any trouble!

I'll show you how it works, Grandpa Jim!

A Dad at Eric's preschool is letting us borrow his daughter's bike since she has outgrown it. It's just like the bike he played with in the park and loved, except this one is red.

He is peeking thru the structure in the middle picture, lol!

Box O Kid, lol!

This is the tree we planted when Evie was born, now she's one and the tree is blooming!

The pic was so meaningful and cute that I made a scrapbook page.

How cute is she? I love this dress too!

They were playing hide and seek in the closet with each other, it was hilarious!

Evie's very first ponytail!

Hey, that's mine!!!

Someone's getting sleepy!

This is outfit is so cute, but its getting too small :(

Evie is 1 year, 2 months, and 2 weeks old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-06-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

Evie has been walking around the house saying, "D'oh, d'oh, d'oh!" Dada has taught her how to be Homer Simpson!

When she smiles now, she is wrinkling up her nose -- super cute!

Brother's tent is the perfect spot for a super secret tea party!

Cuddling with Dada

"What's out there, Mook? I wanna see!"

love Love LOVE this cupcake shirt!

I tell Eric we have to go down 'his' aisle, lol! (notice how both mouths are full of goldfish crackers, lol!)

WOO WOO!

I wish I had taken this pic for Mother's Day!

Here's the Father's Day version!

Fly Boy!

The mama duck is kissing the baby duck!

JUMP!

Eric flew this kite 300 feet in the air, at one point he turned around to show us and smile and he let go with one hand, we all jumped for the string thinking he was about to either loose the kite forever or become air borne!

Evie wants to fly kites too.

She also thinks kites are cool!

Evie is 1 year, 2 months, and 1 week old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-06-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

I updated the blog header with new pix of the kids, see above.
School's out for the Summer!

Evie making an art project at school.

Eric works on the project too (the completed art is shown.) There are beans inside for that great sound when shaken!

Eric and Evie play with Nathan at school. Nathan is only 2 weeks older than Eric and also has no older siblings. He is the only other child in school without older siblings besides Eric.

Little Miss likes to climb under my desk while I'm working.

Edith-Ann (AKA Lily Tomlin) anyone? LOL!

These jammies are SO cute!!! I love the outfits with cupcakes on them, lol!

Watching the rain...

Watching Mama take pix, lol!

On the last day of school, the whole class got together at the park!

Eric had lots of fun!

He made some new friends -- here he is wrestling with Lorenzo.

Here's another friend...

we never got his name, lol!

Eric's teacher (Miss Kelly) brought punching balloons for everyone!

Evie climbed up the play structure all by herself!

It got chilly at the park, so we went and got Evie's sweater. She didn't want me to button it, but she let the lady named Evelyn who brings her grandaughter named Eva-Lynn to school button it!

A little boy at the park brought his bike. It's a special toddler bike with no pedals or chain. The philosophy behind this is to teach toddler's balance so they never need training wheels. Eric had so much fun on the bike I couldn't get him to give it back! I had to have the little boy's dad help me pry Eric off the bike, lol!

Auburn Trails 50k - Special Edition Blog Post

2011-06-04T22:44:00.001-07:00

Today, our very own ultra runner, Scott, ran 31.07 miles (or 50k) at the Auburn Trails Run! It was a cold and rainy morning that began at 4am and didn't end until 7 and a half hours of running was complete up some of the steepest trails in California! Thanks to Bill and Jim for the pix. Congratulations Scott, we are so proud of you!!! Scott came in first in his age division!

Watch Scott make his way to the finish line, click the image above! (this will take you to another page and you will need to click the BACK button on your browser to finish seeing the rest of the pix) To watch the video over again, click the REFRESH button on your browser.

Evie is 1 year, 2 months old; Eric is 3 years old!

2011-05-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day!

I can't believe my baby is THREE!

It's getting to be water table time again! WOO HOO!

How CUTE is this?!?

Sticking your tongue out helps you do stuff better.

I think this is the tallest slide I have ever seen!

What a great photo Dada captured!

Dada is quite the photographer, another great shot!

Although, I think this one is my favorite...

or maybe this one.

Grammpa and Eric help Dada scope out the new marathon in Cool/Auburn.

What a long day, time for a power nap!

This is a panoramic shot of a portion of our garden. Scott decided the fenced in area wasn't big enuf and went around planting random stuff all over the backyard, lol!

Little Miss Naughty standing on books and touching the forbidden fireplace glass! (Roger Hargreaves would be horrified... or blissfully happy, lol!)

"Fresh Strawberries"

Brother has the matching shirt.

Night-night Princess *kiss*

Princess Evelyn, ruler of the backyard castle!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Eric!

2011-05-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

Mook turned 7 on May 18th! Party treats for the birthday boy!

Eric turned 3 on May 19th! On his birthday we opened presents and had cake!
Eric has been wanting this "Ele-fun" game for a while.

My OCD has rubbed off on him as you can see he has put all the red butterflies into the red net, the yellow butterflies into the yellow net, and the green butterflies into the green net, lol!

This wooden block set is really cool!

The aqua-doodle pen only colors on the aqua-doodle pad!

Pirates are also very cool right now, Eric will say he wants to play or watch the "Arrrg!"

Here they are in their matching outfits! This toy is really neat, its a little refridgerator and the pieces that fit into the fridge are all healthy foods and the fridge tells you the name of the food, the color, and what letter the food starts with.

This is a great montessori toy and Eric just loves it! take a look at the next picture to see what it can do...

There are a bunch of pictures missing shapes, and he does really well at getting the right shapes into each picture.

Scott was so excited to get this for Eric! It's a top that spins along a wire handle.

Scott also got Eric a little birthday cake!

Eric really liked the cake!

On Sat, we had Eric's party at McBean Park. The theme was Pocoyo!

The Pocoyo balloons were a big hit!

Eric didn't have to blow out his candle because it was so windy, but it did get lit thanks to Grandpa Bill and his blow torch.

Water squirties!

It was warm, so here is Grandpa and Evie relaxing in the shade and having a little something to whet their whistle, lol!

Cheese stick anyone?

Look at that smile!

Eric and Dada playing with the water squirties.

Evie is 1 year, 1 month old, and 3 weeks old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-05-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like we need to work on sharing!

Such a cute dress!

Eric is getting so good at pedaling!

Eric waving to his teacher, Miss Fabi.

"You gotta teach 'em young" says Dada. I guess the lego duck is learning too?

Pretty flowers on a pretty girl!

Evie at school in her pretty polka-dot dress

Eric loves trains, but his new shirt has made him realize that robots and spaceships are pretty cool too! He will now count down from 3 and make a spaceship blasting off sound!

Scott ran 160 laps (40 miles) for Relay for Life from 9pm all thru the night until 9am!!! Check out the cool lumineries that spell out HOPE.

Eric ran some too!

Evie is 1 year, 1 month old, and 2 weeks old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-05-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Snuggling with Dada!

Dada is SO proud of how well Eric is flying his kite at the park!

If you ask Eric what is on his shirt he will tell you its a 'yum yum' (the giraffe eating) and a 'bobo' (a bonobo monkey).

Water squirties are fun, I'll take Sister's too!

I got taken to Mother's Day Brunch! It was super yummy! This is the first time we have all gone to a restaurant together, just the 4 of us - a little scary, but we made it thru! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!!

Evie is 1 year, 1 month old, and 1 week old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-05-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot of pix this week, we have all been sick with the stomach flu.
This week, Eric said "Mickey Mouse" and "Nite Nite Mama."

See that look on her face?

That's the, "I'm gonna climb this thing" look!

Fun in the backyard!

This little scooter is so great, she rides it backwards and forwards!

Brother has lots of fun in the backyard too!

Eric has a special shoe routine, each day when he gets home from school, he takes his shoes and socks off, puts his socks inside his shoes and puts his shoes on the chair in his room! What a precious boy!

Evie is 1 year and 1 month old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-04-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Our whole Easter spread!

First, Eric explored his basket and treats!

This easter chick popping out of an egg was a huge hit, he played with this all day long!

There was a dinosaur hidden in this egg!!!

Eric really liked that!

Goldfish for breakfast? WOO HOO!!!

Evie also likes the dinosaur!

I love when Eric is so blissfully happy!!!

Bunnys, chickies, and lambs, oh my!

Next, Eric had to check out Evie's basket.

Evie got goldfish and yogurt-melts and dinosaurs too!

Eric helps Evie open her eggs and sort them.

Evie also likes goldfish for breakfast, lol!

Eric really liked this hopping Easter bunny too!

As part of their baskets, they each got a big gift, I made Eric dinosaur shoes to go with his dinosaur hat!

ROAR!

Evie is a dinosaur too!

And Evie got a baby Aurora doll.

Evie likes her little Aurora dolly!

Evie and Mama play dolls!

Evie seems overwhelmed with such a fabulous Easter! This is sorta like her first Easter because she wasn't even a month old when Easter came last year!

After Easter morning, we all worked in the garden!

Evie helped in the garden too

We had lots of fun!

Just look at that smile!

Eric's Easter pic

Eric's Easter pic in sepia tone

Eric's Easter pic as a hand painted portrait

Evie's Easter pic

Evie's Easter pic in sepia tone

Evie's Easter pic as a hand painted portrait

Evie is 1 year and three weeks old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-04-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

This week, Evie has started saying uh oh, its super cute!

I loved these photos from McBean Park so much I put them together into one 4x6 image.

Eric loves elephants! Here he is at school making an elephant sound - check out that face!

Eric and Dada on a walk, Eric has really gotten the hang of pedeling his bike!

Eric took Bailey's bed and blanket outside and laid down and covered himself up, lol!

My good little helper, I should get him a real one!

Eric is having a lot of fun with his Vtech V.Smile TV Learning System. It was a Christmas gift that came with a bunch of learning games and he is really getting into it lately!

McDonald's Play Place is super fun and while we were there our neighbors dropped by - fun!

Evie had fun too!

She liked the big blue things.

Dada got to play too.

Dada keeps saying this is Eric's motorcycle... *sigh*

Eric's school put on a little faire and Eric got to play on the kindergarden playground - WOO HOO!

Eric has been wanting to play on that playground that for ages but is not allowed to. This time he was allowed to and LOVED it!

Check out the big kid slide, it's huge!

Evie had fun on the playground too!

Most of the playground was too big for her, but not this part!

Also at the faire, they had a school bus and fire engine that the kids were allowed to check out!

Eric really enjoyed this! He wanted to push all the buttons and got to sit in the driver's seat, it was amazing!

Going on a walk with Dada and Bailey

Got water?

Snuggle time with Dada

How cute is this?

It's the flapper look, lol!

Classic black, white, and red - so cute!

Evie is 1 year and two weeks old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-04-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to McBean Park - what fun!!!

Evie is 1 year and one week old; Eric is 2 and three-quarters years old!

2011-04-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

The butterfly and the caterpillar -- classic!

It's almost Easter - look at all the cute pink stuff!!!

WOO HOO Pancakes!!!

Shhhhh, don't tell: sometimes, I sneak baby food veggies and meat into whole wheat pancakes, once some organic syrup goes on top, Eric will eat 3 or 4 of them!!!

I have never been happier that someone wasn't allergic to something, lol! This boy LOVES peanut butter!!!

Evie's new big girl carseat is actually Eric's car seat, so he got a new one. It's a difficult adjustment because he now has to sit on the other side of the car (Evie's seat went out and the new seat when in its place) so after almost 3 years of sitting on one side of the car, he gets to try out the other side now.

While at the store, Eric took a shine to the red M&M, I thought it was a cute photo op cuz eric was all in red too, lol.

The boys (Dada, Eric & Bailey) go on a walk each night. On the walk this evening, Eric picked some flowers for me!

Evie is 1 year old; Eric is 2 and three-quaters years old!

2011-03-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some pix of the hail storm we had last week:

This is the roof.

This is the ground.

This is the concrete patio.

This is the patio table.

Evie had a wonderful Sleeping Beauty birthday party! Thank you all for coming, for sharing in our celebration, and for all the wonderful gifts! Click HERE to see Eric's first birthday party pic.

We went to Toys R Us to pick out a toy for Evie after her one year old doctor visit where she got 2 shots! :( She now weighs 20.8 pounds and is 28.5 inches tall. This means she is in the 50th percentile, which means she is perfect -- but we already knew that!!! :) Evie picked the sleeping beauty doll as her present! She has good taste!!!! Following are more Toys R Us pix...

Now that Evie is one and over 20 pounds, she gets a big girl carseat! We are on our way to Toys R Us!

Apparently she doesn't like my choice in teddy bears, lol!

She picked out the thermos with her name on it -- I may have helped just a little bit, lol!

peek-a-boo!

I like to growl into cups, cuz it makes a fun echo-ing noise! Notice how I can stand on my tippy toes!

i ADORE this look, it is the cutest face she makes! It's the "hey, mom, i'm about to do something sorta naughty, are you gonna come chase me and tickle me? cuz i'm waiting!" look.

There's a REALLY good toy back here...

HERE IT IS!!! (a love of computers... hmm, i wonder where she gets that?)

Eric also had a blast at Toys R Us, he found the Dora luggage and wheeled it all around, lol!

love this pic!

This toy seems to be stuck in some sort of cardboard packaging, help!

Eric liked the same computer Evie liked, or was that the other way around?

Guitars are cool!

This Mickey Mouse sang and danced while encouraging the kids to exercise! It's amazing what toys do now-a-days!

Thank you Toy Story 3 for making dinosaurs popular for Eric's age group, he LOVES dinosaurs!!!

He has the triceratops version at home and thought it was so cool that there were other flashlight dinosaurs!

Just a little hesitant with the big foot monster toy and i can't blame him!

He has a horse like this at home, but the stick broke, so this was lots of fun!

First, he got them off the shelf, then he made the appropriate noise for each animal, next he hugged and kissed each one, then he put them back on the shelf in the exact spot he found them and left. :)

Then Eric found the Pocoyo toys and I didn't think we would be able to leave the store without each and every one of them!

Somehow we managed to escape relatively unscathed, lol!

Evie is 11 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 and three quarters years old!

2011-03-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

Evie will officially be one year old on Thursday!!! She has started dancing, she bends her knees and then straightens them and does this 3 or 4 times in a row - super cute!!!

Cool!

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails! (hey, were'd the snail go?)

It's an indoor picnic!

My gorgeous girl!

This is the first bath together (of many to come) Eric has been wanting Evie to play in the bath with him for a while now, so he was quite pleased to hop in the bathtub after she was already in.

Evie is 11 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 and three quarters years old!

2011-03-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

Eric is counting and uses his fingers to tell me numbers all the way to 10. When he gets to 3, he holds down his pinkie and ring finger with his other hand, its pretty cute, lol!

Eric has started saying, "ow" when someone on tv falls down.

Evie has discovered Eric doesn't eat much and she prefers his food over her own. Yesterday she walked over and stole his peanut butter and honey sandwich and walked away eating it. Eric didn't seem to care!!!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

Eric has decided frogs are pretty cool afterall. He observes closely and when the frog hops away, Eric calls, "HERE, rib-rib!" (short for 'ribbit') and points repeatedly where he would like the frog to return, lol!

On rainy days I try to do something extra fun, this day we did painting. Dada helped a little bit with the first painting.

New Spiderman slippers!!!

Every night, Scott and I tuck Eric into bed. Last night, Eric decided he would tuck his kitty into bed. :) After he fell asleep I snuck in and took a pic -- just too cute!!!

MOM, I found my JUICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty pink flowers

Here is a much better pic of the new chompers! This girls says she doesn't care about the front teeth, she wants some molars for chewing!!!

Someone insists she is not ready for bed, but something tells me otherwise... Her jammies are so cute with hearts and elephants.

On March 5, Scott ran the Bidwell Classic half marathon! That's 13.1 miles (about 2 hours) of non-stop running!!!!! I couldn't be there to take a pic, so I have to make do with the pic from the people at supersports.

Evie is 11 months and one week old; Eric is 2 and three quarters years old!

2011-03-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eric has started calling Dinosaurs "roar roars" but it sounds more like "rahrah" when he says it.

Kim's kiddos outgrew their riding gear, so Eric got some really cool hand-me-downs this week! Thanks Kim!

His lips are making "brrrooooom brrroooom" noises!

I just couldn't get enuf pix of him in his new riding gear (that looks just like Dada's riding gear) on his toy motorcycle! What a cutie!!!

Eric and Bailey playing in the backyard.

Eric has recently decided bath time is a must and not just once a day, in the last 24 hours he has had 4 baths. I don't know why, but he takes my hand, leads me into the bathroom and points at the tub and starts taking his clothes off. Of course I oblige - how can you not when a kid WANTS to take a bath? LOL!

Here is a horrible picture of the new teeth. They are the first molars and she has them on the top (both sides) and the bottom right (her right). It's impossible to get a good pix of molars!!!

Evie got on the scooter today at school in the outside play area and scooted! We have been practicing at home as you can see.

Blue Jean Baby! This little shirt came with matching jeans that say "Baby Girl" and had the prettiest embroidery on them!

Her little cherry outfit was so cute and Dada brought home lemons from someone at work and Evie was fascinated by them, lol, what a perfect photo opp for Mama!

Evie is 11 months old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-02-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eric has decided to start calling Mook "meow meow" but it sounds more like "nay nay" when he says it, lol!

Evie is walking better and better everyday! She is even turning corners without falling down now! And today while I was feeding her I noticed she is making some molar-type teeth!!!

Evie and I went outside for a sweet spring photoshoot.

We had to show off the blooming narcissus flowers.

It was a pretend tea party with flowers.

And in the end, the flowers sort of become potpourri, lol.

While helping daddy get the garden ready...

Eric remembered how much fun it is to play outside in the backyard!

I help him make the letter "E" with water on the patio cement.

I'm so glad he remembered! And he is too!

I got him a couple of those punching bag balloons and he really likes them! he does real well punching it as you can see. Then near the end of the video when he stops, I ask him to smile at the camera and he does, lol! What a ham! Click the image to watch the video.

Evie is 10 months and four weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-02-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eric is now calling Bailey "ruff ruff" but it sounds more like "woo woo." Evie walked 21 steps without falling down on Feb 25!

Now that the weather is getting nicer again, we are trying to take Eric to the park more often, he loves it!

Eric never used to like swinging, but recently it has become lots of fun!

Evie also likes to swing!

Swings are one of Momma's favorites too!

Eric goes down the biggest slide all by himself!

There he goes! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

I helped Evie go down the little red slide.

Dada helps her go down the big slide!

I was shocked to watch Eric climb up this ladder thing like it was no big deal!

How cute are these Minnie Mouse overalls?!?!

Little Miss will never be left out of anything, if you stop paying attention to her even for a second she knows just how to get your attention, "Mommmaaaa, I pulled all your books down, now I'm heading over to poke Dada's guitar..."

My girl LOVES cheese! I was shocked while watching an episode of Martha when Martha asked her panel of discussion folks what food they couldn't live without and not one of them said cheese!!!

She's about to be naughty, lol!

Click to watch this video of Evie walking and then crashing into me.

Click to watch this video of Evie walking while using her pink car to balance.

Evie is 10 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-02-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Evie took 5 steps and then held on to the table (didn't fall down!) on Feb 10th!

Our Princess takes a step!

Here's another step! Her shirt says, "50% Mommy, 50% Daddy, 100% CUTE!" and look at the sweet silver flower detailing on her khakis!

Daddy and Evie build a Mega-Blocks city, then have a goldfish cracker break!

Eric made a Valentine craft at school. The 4 circles in each corner are dinosaur stickers.

Eric and Evie at school with all their Valentine Day loot! Eric is smiling because he knows brownies are on the way, lol!

You can't buy dinosaur Valentines around here anywhere, so I made 45 valentines for each child in Eric's class.

Eric received 9 and Evie received 1! :(

Thank you Lisa for the cute (and delicious looking) outfits!!!

Overall, we had a very nice Valentine's Day. Scott got pizza and I rented a movie and made a new 'blondie' recipe for dessert (think brownies without the cocoa). It took us almost 4 hours to watch this 2 hour movie (the kids kept needing something), but it was a really good movie. I wouldn't call "Centurian" a romantic Valentine movie, lol, but we both enjoyed it.

Evie is 10 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-02-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eric's new thing is turning on every light in the house just because he can, lol. Evie is learning how to communicate with Eric via various screetching, I'm sure the neighbors just love us, lol!

The breakfast of champions: shredded mini wheats, no milk, and apple juice infused with a flintstones vitamin!

I was trying to get Evie to smile for a picture, I kept asking her to smile over and over again, finally Eric sat down in front of me and smiled. I'm not sure if he was sick of hearing me ask or figured if Evie wasn't going to do it, somebody should, lol!

Even tho its way before his time, Eric knows who Fonzi is and will stick his thumb up and say, "Aaaaaaa!" His new sunglasses make him extra cool just like Fonzi! Thanks for the cool glasses Papa Steve and Gran!

Scott heads out to the trails with his buddy Steve (notice that he is sporting his brand new hydration pack - its the thing that looks like a backpack but is full of water and snacks and tools etc!)

Here are the trails - YIKES! Yes that is Steve's bike way up there!

Here is Scott on the trails - thanks for the pix Steve!

Evie sits in a restaurant high chair for the first time on Feb 1. She liked being part of the eating action!

A special treat from Papa Steve and Gran!

Eric is ready for the big game! He's got on his Blue's Clues Super Bowl Shirt and his Super Bowl Balloon in hand!

Our team didn't win, but we had fun tossing the old pigskin around the livingroom!

From 10 months old Jan 25 to Feb 24

"Come on, Eeee!" he tells her and they race down the hallway! Click the image and you will be taken to the video.

Evie is 10 months and one week old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-01-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

Evie took one step on Jan 27. Then she took one step in the morning of the 28 and another step in the evening. On February 3 she took 2 steps! And on Feb 4 she started drinking out of a sippy cup without any help!

Eric loves McDonald's play place! I got into the actual structure to take this picture, it was really worth the sore knees and elbows, this is such a perfect shot!

At school there is a dental van. Eric's teacher encouraged everyone to visit, so we did. Eric got to look all around and sit in the big reclining dental chair. We didn't have the dentist look at his teeth. This was just a visit to sort of understand what the dentist is all about. The dentist gave Eric a sticker and I bought him a new toothbrush. Then we came home and had a healthy snack!

Little miss is definately a brownie, lol!

Thank you Gert and Martin for this super cute outfit!!! It matches her cupcake shoes!

Here's our happy girl crawling along, she is a speed demon!

Thank you Pat for this super darling outfit!

Evie got to sit in the big girl bathtub to have her bath! Usually she is in the baby bathtub, but Dada said she was ready to be a big girl. Eric can't wait until he can splash around with Evie in the bathtub!

Evie is 10 months old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Evie is 10 months old already!!!!!

Evie is standing without holding on, for longer and longer periods of time. She even tries to take a step but hasn't been able to just yet - VERY soon she will be walking all over the place and giving Eric a run for his money, lol!

This isn't the best picture, but you can clearly see her standing on her own!

Another not-so-great pic, but I thought her little babooska was so cute, lol!

Through the tunnel!

Time to take Bailey for a walk! Is that the cutest coat or what?

Thank you for the super cute Robeez Gramma Linda! Evie loves shoes!

I had a wonderful birthday! Scott took the week off from work and we had quality family bonding time and ate a lot of yummy food! Evie is wearing a cupcake on her shirt to celebrate, lol!

Here's just one of the delicious treats I got for my birthday!

Kellie took me out for a super yummy lunch!

Scott came to school! Eric and Evie had a lot of fun showing Dada all around!

We even got a pic of me with the kids at school!!! :)

Evie is 9 months and four weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-01-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

My friend Kellie bought Eric a DVD on learning the alphabet (a LeapFrog DVD her kids watched and loved and learned a lot from). Eric has watched it 3 times and can already say each letter sound!!!

Evie has been pulling up on toys and furniture for about 4 weeks and has been standing on her own for about 2 weeks for very short periods of time. I keep trying to get a picture, but perhaps I will be able to when she can keep her balance for a bit longer. :)

Eric has stopped calling Evie "L'il Ma" and has started calling her "Eeee." If I prompt him several times in a row he will try to say "Evie" but it sounds more like "Eee Eee"

Scott was awarded Employee Of The Year!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!

We are working hard on the alphabet these days. "E" is for ERIC!!!

and "M" is for MOOK!

This is Eric's "smile" when I tell him I am taking his pic and want him to smile, lol! (you can see it in the above pic of the elephants too)

A lady at school gave us her double stroller, she said she didn't need it anymore. Scott spent 2 days cleaning it up (cuz it was pretty gross) and now it looks awesome! When I first put Evie in it, she did her little happy dance, lol!

She is on her way, check out that smile as she is in mid-crawl!

I got this sippy cup for Evie before she was born, she is finally old enough to use it now! :)

A metallic pink butterfly in her hair, metallic pink flowers on her leggings and a super cute pink dress! This girl is stylin'!

Evie is 9 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-01-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eric and Dada the day after xmas playing at the park next to our house.

I gave Evie my doll, Maiandra. However, Eric seems much more interested. He takes such good care of her, strokes her hair, reads her stories, feeds her, cleans her face, reads her a good night story, and tucks her in.

We went to this park near Dada's work, Eric just can't get enuf of parks!

swinging is now fun (it used to be very boring)

Dada likes the park too, lol!

going up

going down

There's just not enough Dada to go around, lol!

Thank you Susie for the beautiful hand made blanket for Evie, she loves it!!!

"There's a what on my shirt?"

Her crawling is getting SO fast!

Another vid of Evie crawling - she is doing so well!!!

A vid of Evie's happy dance. There is no sound, but I am asking her repeatedly if she is a happy girl and her reply is her happy head-shaking dance, lol! too cute!

Evie is 9 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2011-01-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eric has started singing. He has been doing his own rendition of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' which goes something like,
"ma da, ma da, ma da, ma;
ma da, ma da, ma da, ma;
ma da ma da mumble mumble"
i think he can't remember the rest of the song, lol!

Silly Dada put this bandana on her head. I'm not sure if he was going for 'biker babe' or 'house cleaning hair,' LOL!

Look at her cute little Disney Aristocats shirt with kitty Marie and her jeans with all the embroidery and sparkles - they help cut down on the rug-burned knees too from all the crawling Miss Evie is doing these days! :)

Evie got her 9 month shots :( her bandaid had dinosaurs riding skateboards, Eric thought it was pretty cool, lol. Evie's 9 month stats are 18.10 pounds, 47 cm head, 27.75 inches tall.

Evie says, "OMG, that's the cutest baby girl I've ever seen, I'm going to kiss her!"

She was right, that IS the cutest baby girl EVER!!!

With the money I have made selling my digital scrapbooking supplies, I bought Evie this disney princess toy organizer. She really seems to like it!

Look at how cute they are, playing peek-a-boo together!!!

My friend Lori came to visit from Arizona. We haven't seen each other since high school! We both married high school boys and have children now and we are friends on facebook so we can chat all the time. :)

When Lori visited, we went to McDonald's because they have an indoor play place. This was Evie and Eric's first time at McDonalds. Evie was too little to play in the indoor play place, so she sat with me and watched.

Eric was not too little and he had a BLAST!

This play place was 3 stories tall and Eric went all the way to the top floor! Then he went over to the slide and do you think he slid down? of course not, he RAN down! My heart jumped into my throat, lol!

I got Eric a sleep number toddler pillow for Christmas. He really seems to like it. This is the first time he has ever shown interest in wanting to sleep in bed like a grown up, with his head on a pillow at the head of the bed and his feet at the foot of the bed and the blanket covering him. Why is it SO cute when little kids do stuff like grown ups?

Evie is 9 months and one week old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-12-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas together!

We decorated the tree with projects from pre-school!

These are all the December crafts from school.

Evie had more fun with the wrapping than anything else, lol! She got dolls and stuffed animals and books, but the tissue paper the gifts came in was the best gift ever (until she decided to taste it).

Eric got so many nice things, but I think his favorite is the V-Tech Learning System (its like a video game).

And of course, anything to do with dinosaurs is always a big hit, lol!

Besides the banner in the photo before this one, I also put together a Dinosaur Field Guide kit for Eric and I to put together.

Eric also go this organization shelf, a race track rug, a farmhouse, puzzles, books, and his very own Sleep Number brand toddler-sized pillow.

Mook had a good Christmas too!

And so did Bailey!

Evie is 9 months old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-12-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

We went to see Santa!!! There were lots of fun games and toys and activites (not to mention cookies) to keep everyone busy before Santa arrived.

Here's the before...

and here is the after, lol!

Christmas with Gran and Papa

Evie LOVES her Sleeping Beauty outfit, but she is sad that she has to wait to wear it until it is washed.

Eric LOVES the tent - the dinosaur flashlight inside was an even bigger hit!

Bailey also likes the tent, lol!

Christmas with Gramma and Grammpa

Eric LOVES the workbench!

Evie loves it too, lol! Plastic wrenches and fake wood are quite tasty!

Evie LOVES her Baby Gymnastics Activity Wall and her Baby's First Christmas bib!

Eric sneeks a peek outside with "Bernard." They are spying on the kitty cats who are eating dinner.

Eric noticed that Evie is crawling and he is enthralled! He is crawling all over the place following her and trying to get her to follow him. Then she will stop and try to pick up a toy and he will take it away and put it down and say something to her which is probably encouragement to continue crawling not stop and play, lol! Below is a short video of her first long-ish crawl.

***I'm having technical difficulties, so I have posted the same video 3 times using 3 different services, hopefully everyone can see at least one of the videos - let me know which one you can see so i will know for next time!

From Evie

Evie is 8 months and four weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-12-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

Evie pulled herself up from a sitting position to a standing position, using the toy piano on Dec 9, 2010!!!

Eric used the restroom and made #1 and #2 on Dec 11, 2010!!!

I saw this hairbow online, complete with instructions, isn't it the cutest thing? (or should i say lack-of-hair bow, lol!)

This hairbow was part of the same tutorial online and there are a ton more, this lady is creative with her ribbon!!!

So handsome in his little moose sweater!

Christmas with Grandpa Jim

Thanks for the dinosaurs Grandpa Jim!

Evie is 8 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-12-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

Evie sat up by herself on Tuesday Dec 7th! She is getting so close to crawling (she is creeping along now using her head and rolling).

What a cute look!

That look is the look Eric gives me when he is about to get into something he's not supposed to get into! And look who has it already at just 8 months old!!!

School party photo

School art featuring Evie's hands

School art featuring Eric's hands

School Holiday Party photo together

Eric is in Bailey's crate, lol!!!

Eric got an early Christmas present, a TV for his room! He is very excited (literally on the edge of his seat) and has T-Rex join him in watching a Baby Einstein Video.

Having a TV in your room is so awesome, Eric is sure to share it with his other dinosaur friends! I walked into his room and saw how he had carefully placed his apatosaurus upright in the chair and facing the TV, lol!!!

Scott ran a 26 mile marathon called The North Face Endurance Challenge on Dec 4, 2010. He did a great job in the rain and slippery mud! WOO HOO Scott, great job, we are so proud of you!!! ‎♥♥‎♥

Evie is 8 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-11-29T22:58:00.001-08:00

Her shirt says, "I'm a princess everyday!"

It's almost nap time, so Evie is in bed and has her blankies

Her shirt says, "Princess in Training"

Ready for a winter wonderland!

Evie at school playing with the big doll house

Sleeping Beauty shows that Evie is 8 months old

Evie is building her leg muscles so she can crawl and walk

This outfit is so cute, look at the ruffles and buttons on the pants and all the gorgeous embroidery on the shirt!

Eric's preschool art

Eric's at home art, lol! Our fingers inter-twine to say LOVE YOU!

Thanksgiving paper chain!

Drawing at Gran's house

It's the Thanksgiving Train! Wooo Wooo!

Gran made a secret fort for Eric - WHAT FUN!!!

Evie is 8 months old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-11-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Eric's artwork for this week - yummy!

I love that Eric eats bananas and granola bars like corn on the cob, lol, it just cracks me up!

Glasses are fun to wear so why not goggles?

Papa Steve and Eric say, "Cheers!" and clink their glasses before they drink! Super Cute!

"E" is for Eric!

It's very important to keep your dinosaurs properly groomed.

Eric is doing really well sitting in his big boy chair. It was hard to give up his high chair so sister could have it. Check out his cool Diego shirt complete with a train!!!

I found something Eric will eat on a regular basis... chocolate! I tried putting it on chicken nuggets, but it didn't work, he just licked the chocolate off and wouldn't eat any of the nugget :(

I found this dinosaur shirt in the bottom of one of his drawers, I had forgotten all about it!!!

Eric loves this 'Cera' (short for Triceratops)

Cera is hungry!

Then she needs a nap, so Eric waves and says goodbye.

But then he decides waving just isn't enough, lol!

Brothers are good teachers.

And brothers are good helpers.

They are also lots of fun!!!

Someone else likes dinosaurs too!

The look on her face seems to say, "I gotta get a picture of this, no one will ever believe it!"

Guess who made her top teeth?!?

Thanks to Lisa for the cute little lamb!

This is an outfit I picked out for Evie before she was born. She looks SO cute in it! I just love it!

Evie is pre-crawling. She makes a lot of the motions, but doesn't actually crawl yet.

Here is a video of the pre-crawling:

And here is her super cute wave:

Evie is 7 months and 4 weeks old; Eric is 2 and a half years old!

2010-11-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

My little tiny baby boy is going to be two and a half years old on the 19th!!!

Someone donated an animatronic, life-size baby triceratops dinosaur to Eric's school! It's about 3 feet tall and comes to "life" with realistic sounds and motion! It responds to voices and touch with roaring and laughing sounds, and expressive tail, head, eye, mouth and horn movements.
It also "sings" 4 different adventure-themed tunes. Eric LOVES it!!!

Eric LOVES dinosaurs!

Eric's new favorite show is called Dino Dan

Thank you Gramma Linda & Grampa Bill for the dinosaurs! ROAR!

Thank you Gramma Linda & Grampa Bill for the T-Rex, I gotta show him the coloring pages I made of him!

Which cup is better, Eric? Oh right, duh, the DINOSAUR!!! LOL!

My Princess!

She is so proud of herself when she does "big" girl things like stand up and play with toys (even if Dada is helping)

This one she can do all by herself!

Her outfit is Winny the Pooh and Piglet, so we had to break out Tigger and Eeyore. :)

This is a cute little cheerleader outfit she got. I liked it so much I made pom poms...

Along with her cheerleader outfit and pom poms, she's got a letter sweater, a school emblem (the big 'E'), and a megaphone (which she is crushing in her hand and also decided to taste, lol!)

And here is her cheerleader clap - VERY enthusiastic, lol!

Evie is 7 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-11-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

Here's Little Miss, sleeping with her tushy in the air, lol!

Evie is tasting her first veggie puff!

These little 'sweet pea' outfits (as Scott calls them since the baby in Popeye always wore them and was named sweet pea) are cute and warm!

This really isn't a good pic, but Evie LOVES it when Dada takes her outside in the backyard to look around!

After her bath today, I took a pic of Evie's hair. :)

Here is a vid of Evie playing with the door stop. Be thankful there is no sound, lol!

Gran & Papa brought up a cookie icing and decorating kit!

It was super fun and Eric loved pouring the sprinkles on EVERYTHING, lol! ***Beware, the next picture is GRAPHIC in nature!***

Eric fell at school on the gravel black top and cut his chin open (there was actually a rock of gravel embedded in his chin which I picked out after I ran over to help him). One of the dads at school is an EMT and he took a good look at the wound and said it might take 1 stitch or we could let it heal on its own. Getting one stitch would involve Eric having to get a shot in the wound, waiting for it to take effect, then getting another needle stuck in the wound to have it stitched up. So, I opted to not have the stitch. I just thought it would be too much trauma on top of everything else. He slid funny as he fell and his whole body hurt, he also bit his tongue and his cheek and knocked a few teeth loose. I just didn't think holding him down so he could get poked with needles seemed like the best thing for him. I put a gob of neosporin on it and a bandaid as soon as he fell asleep (since he wouldn't let me touch it all day long) and the next morning as Eric was picking off the bandaid I could see how much better it looked. Now its almost fully healed. But I was so scared when it just wouldn't stop bleeding. There is dried blood all over his clothes and mine, so much blood that it soaked thru to my bra and stained that too. That boy is going to give me gray hair, lol. It was just earlier this year (in Jan) that he fell and hit his head so hard he couldn't stop throwing up, remember?

There aren't many pix of me with the kiddos, so here ya go! :)

Evie is 7 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-11-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

We had a great halloween!

I made bear-claw pastry for breakfast and pumpkin pie for our after dinner dessert!

Eric had his Halloween Party at school and had lots of fun, everybody got a pumpkin balloon!

Evie was excited to carve her first pumpkin!

Dada helped her

Since Evie is too little to carve, Dada made her a mini pumpkin while he worked on her pumpkin.

Eric was excited too!

I helped him carve his.

Eric had forgotten how much fun it was!

Evie's pumpkin turned out fabulous - Scott was able to carve it and encorporate the words "Evie's 1st" into his design!!!

Eric was most excited about blowing out the candle inside his pumpkin, lol!

At first Eric wasn't too sure about going up and knocking on doors.

Then all he wanted to do was ring the door bells but he wasn't quite tall enough. (Daddy was super excited about the glow stick)

Then all he wanted to do was to pet people's dogs, lol!

Then all he wanted to do was go inside people's houses and visit with them, lol!

He went into one house to watch football on a huge big screen TV. At another house, he walked in and started playing with random toys, lol!

Eric was fascinated with the scary stuff. One scary thing made noise and scared him, but other than that he did really well.

Scott and I were impressed by all the candy Eric got even tho we only went to a few houses. The neighbors we visited were all people Scott and Eric and Bailey see each night on their walks. They were all happy to see Evie since she and I stay at home and make dinner while the boys walk.

Eric's first candy!

I made a special treat bag for Eric (since he was only interested in eating 1 piece of candy) with 100% fruit juice, goldfish crackers, and pretzels in it. It was a big hit! (Eric decorated the bag at school)

After we got home, Eric was excited about the trick-or-treaters coming to the door. Each time the doorbell rang, he was say, "Uh-oh!" and run to the front door, knock on the door, then open the door. He would watch me pass out the candy and then say goodbye to all the kids as well as to the witch we had hanging on the door, lol!

Then we cooked the pumpkin seeds - yummy!!!

And here is our lil black halloween cat!

Evie is 7 months old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-10-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Eric is getting ready for Halloween, I think he is going to really enjoy it this year!

Eric the Warlock

I guess he won't be wearing the chicken costume for halloween! He loves chickens so much but apparently he isn't too fond of being one.

How cute is this?

This is what Eric is wearing to school for the halloween party! Mr. Incredible says, "It's Showtime!"

A few of Eric's festive coloring pages.

Evie is a banana split!

A skeleton with heart (and hair!)

A not-so-happy Tinkerbelle (this costume made glitter EVERYWHERE!)

The cutest bunny on the face of the earth!!!

Evie is 6 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-10-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Eric's school went to the pumpkin patch! Dada took the day off from work to join us! The pumpkin patch was at a local high school and was put on by the FFA kids. They did a great job! Along with all the animals, there were several activity stations where kids could make projects or play games!

First we decorated goodie bags!

Then Eric's favorite part of the day was petting the animals!

He would get right up in the sheep's face and say, "Baa Baa!" It was SOOOO cute!

But most of all Eric loved the chickens. He would look them in the eye and say, "Bok Bok!"

Just look at the pure joy on his face!

That boy LOVES chickens! On the way home, Scott jokingly suggested we get Eric a pet chicken, HAHAHA!

They had a cookie decorating station. The girl gave Eric a cookie and when she went to get him some frosting he started to eat the cookie, lol! Then she gave him the frosting and he licked it off the stick, haha! Finally, with a little help from Dada, Eric got his cookie frosted and as the girl put sprinkles on, Eric's classmate wandered over to decorate his own cookie.

Evie made a walnut necklace, it wasn't supposed to be for eating...

Eric made a 'feather' headdress

Eric kept throwing the pumpkins, I think he thought they were balls, so we went over to the ball throwing station and what does he do with the ball? He walks over and stands it on top of the milk bottles instead of throwing it and knocking the milk bottles down, lol!

The object of this game was to throw a ball into a jar, it was REALLY hard. Eric ended up walking super close to the table and placing the ball into a jar, lol!

There was a dart game where the object was to hit a balloon with a dart, but giving a 2-year old a handful of darts... well, let's just say I asked the girl for a balloon "to go" instead.

Evie liked the pumpkin patch too! Her skeleton costume glows in the dark!

We ended the day by picking out the perfect pumpkins!

I had to make a digital scrapbook layout for this awesome pic, then I made an entire digital scrapbook kit and am currently selling it in my store, check it out HERE. (if you are interested in owning the kit, I know someone who can get you a really deep discount, lol!)

Evie is 6 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-10-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

We took this on October 10, 2010 at 10:10am!

Happy Columbus Day!

pretty purple jammies with flowers and check out those blondy hairs!

Making more teeth...

I'm so flexible!

Pretty in pink with my ellie! This is a great shot of the teeth too!

"OM!" My yoga move!

I have good 'taste' in shawls, lol!

Brother helps me smile big for my pic!

Eric teaches me lots of new stuff everyday!

Look at how cute I am...

My train matches my shirt!

Hey, Eric, what does a train say and do?

ROAR!!! Eric is really into dinosaurs suddenly so he stomps around the house growling!

Step 1, paint the bowl...

Step 2, hand it over to Mama until it resembles a halloween toy - yeah!

Evie is 6 months and one week old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-10-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

The kids got their school ID cards on Friday. I've opted not to post the pix online for security reasons.

Jan (from Scott's work) saw the blog post about Mook stealing Bailey's bed and MADE a new bed for Bailey... Mook likes the new bed too!

If you know the song, "I'm too sexy" by Right Said Fred, then you know that Eric is too sexy for his carseat, lol!

My grandfather's last name was Shuttleworth - obviously Eric has embraced the British side of his heritage!

Some little girl is done laying down for picture time, look at how proudly she sits there like a 'bigger' girl (NOT a BIG girl cuz she is still my tiny little baby!!!)

New fav pic time!!! What a CUTIE!!!

Here she is with the babooshka and stuffed piggy...

and here she is without them! Her dress says, "Someday, I'll be a fairy princess"

On Oct 3 her left bottom tooth popped through and on Oct 4 her right bottom tooth popped through!!! New teeth are kinda painful. (you can click on this pic to enlarge it, then click to enlarge it again)

Evie is 6 months old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-09-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

Evie is 6 months old!!! Time sure does fly when you don't sleep! Evie is teething and gets up every 45 minutes all night long. Several of those times, her crying wakes up Eric so either Scott or I have to help him get back to sleep as well. Then suddenly, yesterday, Eric got a low-grade fever, so he might be teething too!!!

Our little Princess is 6 months old!!!

"I just can't do a thing with my hair!"

Pink Posies

It's hard to tell from his pic, but Evie is enamoured with Mook. Everytime he walks into the room she stretches towards him with all her might. And then watches his every movement very carefully.

Her shirt says, "I love my Daddy"

Our big boy painted with a paintbrush for the first time! He LOVED it! He is so artistically inclined.

He painted with blue, then red, then purple. Eric made at least 10 paintings, pictured here are just a few of them.

Evie is 5 months and four weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-09-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone at school said this was the cutest dress! Thank you Gran and Papa!

Super cute blossoms everywhere!

It's hard to tell almost everything on this short and the shorts are embroidered - so pretty.

This is my new favorite dress, she wore it for picture day at school. When we got home we took this pic since picture day was a crying disaster area for both children.

This little mini skirt cracked me up! Scott walked in and saw her wearing it and tried to pull it down so it wouldn't be so short and pulled it right off of her, lol! He came in to bring her the little flower that is in her headband. :)

We are all about the cupcakes!!!

Is there anything that says 'little girl' more than pink gingham? Thank you Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bill!

Here is Evie at school in front of the big doll house!!!

Everybody loves the new toy! Thank you Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bill!

This is what Eric wore to picture day at school. We came home and took this picture since after his picture was taken at school he ran over to the photographer and grabbed her equipment and deleted his own photo. You'd never know that just 30 minutes before this photo he was screaming and crying and deleting professional photos, lol!

School is having some positive effects, today Eric sat at the kitchen table like a big boy to have his snack! :) Just look at those BLUE eyes!!!

Eric picked this outfit to wear to school, it seemed he knew he would be riding the tractor and that I would have my camera, lol! What a great photo!

Eric really likes the push toys too!

Evie is 5 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-09-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

It's getting harder and harder to get good pix of the littlest wiggle-worm, lol!

Her outfit says, "Little Lady" on her shoulder and at her hip there is a cute little lady bug!

Little Miss prefers to eat pumpkin, she even takes the spoon from me!

I think the rule is NEVER ride your dog like a little pony, not ALWAYS ride your dog like a little pony, lol! Silly Dada!

They are starting to play together! It's so wonderful to watch!

Eric loves to make Evie laugh!

Eric's mega blocks are mega fun!

He can even build them taller than himself!

Water table weather is growing short, we might have to bring it in the house - he LOVES this thing!!!

I'm not sure which is more fun, this or bathtime - the boy is a FISH!

At school this week, we drew an outline of our body and got to color it in. Eric's second favorite thing (after water play) is coloring!

He also got to play with playdough this week for the first time. He kept wanting to taste it - yuck!

Evie is 5 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-09-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

Evie is starting to wish to see where she is going when I carry her around. She twists around so she can see where we are headed! :)

Bailey had a happy 3rd birthday!

After playing outside for a super long time with the boy and enjoying treats from Patty and Lucy (thank you!) It was naptime!

I took this picture from Evie's bedroom window, so its kinda grainy, but the boys were having some serious fun at the park! Eric really seems to enjoy basketball!

This was so funny to me, he has this huge toddler bed and he sleeps on less than a quarter of it, lol!

My gorgeous family!!! And Eric sends kisses, lol!

Kellie came to visit!!! :)

There is a little fairy princess mouse on her jammies, she held her arm just right so you could see how cute it is!

These pants are so cute and she is holding her shirt straight so you can see the pretty bow at her neckline! :)

Miss Hollywood!

Flower Power!

A lady at school gave this to us, I love the matching kickpants!

Evie is 5 months and one week old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-08-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week Evie is really using those stomach muscles to try to sit up, she has amazing strength!

Eric loves going to school, this last Friday he giggled from the moment we entered the parking lot until I parked the car!

Our little cupcake!!!

This cute little oufit is from Krystil and family, it says "Bee Happy" and there's a picture of a bee on it, lol! Thank you Krystil!!! (look at those cute little toes!)

Under the little flowers on her gown it says, "Watch Me Grow!"

Fashionista Diva!

What a CUTIE!!!

Her stylish Tommy Hilfiger dress!

'Uncle' Tony came to visit.

Or as he was calling himself, Uncle Mr. Tony, lol!!!

Eric adores school but big surprise, he is already sick. He has been in school one week and he is already sick, I am so mad! :( poor little guy!!!

This was cool for all the cars and trucks they have at school.

This is the same BBQ he liked when he attended school when he was 8 months old!

Evie is 5 months old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-08-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Evie is 5 months old this week! Where does the time go??? She is still getting up 3-5 times a night to nurse but she is sleeping on her tummy now, it is ever so comfy! :) She has also started really holding onto objects - what a big girl!!!

Eric started pre-school on the 20th! Also this week he has started saying "uh-oh," he knows the sound of the toaster and wants whatever comes out of the toaster (not that he will eat it, but he wants it just in case it might be something delicious, lol!), and he has also started sleeping with his blanket on top of his face, I remember doing this when I was little - what a strange phase!

"Are you looking at my ruffles?"

Pink with frogs? I don't get it... but she makes it work!

Pretty in pink, wearing the new shoes from Gran & Papa - Thank you!!!

The neighbor gave this to us, Evie is almost big enuf to use it, her feet don't quite touch the ground yet. (It's hard to see, but this outfit has little castles and princesses on it!)

Look at that grip!

It looks like she is ready for a big hug!

Evie is on the prayer shawl Gran knitted when I was pregnant with Eric.

Love that pink and brown - it looks good with other colors too (i guess.. lol!) Her hand is covering it up, but her outfit says, "I Love Hugs!"

Sleeping on your tummy is the bee's knees!

Here's a great headshot of my handsome little man!

Eric's favorite part of going to play at the park is drinking from the drinking fountain, lol! (the fountain of deliciously warm tap water - ew!)

Eric was so excited to go to school. As you know, he LOVES to color, and this toy lets him color and erase and color and erase; and the best part is, the pen that goes to this toy doesn't make marks on anything but the pad - so, no cleaning pen off the table!!! :)

It is absolutly ridiculous how excited I am that Eric gets his very own cubby!!!

So many new trucks, so little time, lol!

Evie is 4 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-08-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

Eric's imagination is really blossoming, I see him playing with two different stuffed animals and having them interact with one another and then with him - very cool!

Evie has finally figured out how to taste those tootsie snacks!

Eric is really into coloring this week, he has created 10 masterpieces in just 3 days!

Here are his masterpieces

Eric is so cute, anytime we drive somewhere in the car, he says goodbye to Mook and Bailey and waves at the house!

Dada is very proud that Eric is interested in hockey!!!

My little Strawberry Shortcake!

Look at that cute little pony with all the glitter - what little girl doesn't want a pony?

The embroidered clothes line is just darling! I almost bought a very similar wall hanging recently!

It's hard to see the little bunny, underneath it says, "'B' is for baby bunny"

This outfit is just darling, look at all the bows and embroidery and pink and lace and and and!!!

I adore this little wrap dress. The heart kick pants just 'make' the outfit!

This onesie was so funny to me, I couldn't resist playing it up a little (ok, a lot, lol!) The only things she is actually wearing are the hat and pink outfit. Everything else I added digitally - the make-up, jewelry, accessories, etc.

I've been meaning to have a family photo taken, but I've sorta been putting it off because I knew it was going to be a rather adventurous undertaking. Boy was that the understatment of the year!!!

You can click on this one for a bigger sized view.

Evie is 4 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-08-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

This week Eric said, "Hi Sister" and waved to Evie!

Here he is kissing her!

Happy Birthday!!!

On his birthday, Scott ran another race! He is wearing the shirt he got, great job Scott!!!

In addendum to his curriculum this month, I had added shapes. This toy from PARENTS is amazing (their philosophy is, "the less the toy does, the more your child does"). Not only does Eric absolutely adore it, but it makes no noise at all what-so-ever and teaches him: shapes, colors, animals, opposites, and fine motor skills (opening, closing, locking, and blocks thru proper holes).

This is such a cute little summer dress!

Pretty flowers.

Pink Flamingo outfit!

Eric plays with Evie by pushing the glow-doll for her so it lights up and sings. What a good big brother!!!

Are these little pants the cutest or what?!?

Little Purple Riding Hood!

All you need is love, and a big fancy bow!!!

Purple and green is my 2nd fav color combo! And I adore the polka dots!

The above is a video of our princess rolling over! She has been doing this for a while, but this is the first time I was able to get it on video!

Here she is after she has rolled over!

Evie is 4 months and one week old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-08-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

Evie had her 4-month-old physical this week, she weighs 15.4 pounds and is 25.5 inches long/tall; she is in the 90th percentile for both weight and height! (in comparison, Eric was in the 7th percentile for weight at 4 months old)
Evie had shots in both legs and one she had to drink! :(
I measured Eric, he is about 36 inches tall and weighs about 31 pounds. He is currently in the 55th percentile for both weight and height.

Here's Evie with her pediatrician. He is super nice and very helpful. (he is not the one who gives the shots, he let's the tech do that, lol!)

Shots make Evie sleepy... apparently they make Dada sleepy too, lol!

Evie has more swings and outfits than she knows what to do with, lol! I had to include a large image of the super cute detailing on this outfit because you can't really see it in the photo.

I just love the pink and brown together - too cute! Thank you for the blanket, Karen!

Pink toile - what could be more perfect? I love these jammies!

Her outfit says "Precious" and this is the perfect precious photo to match her outfit! Just look at those eyes, definately windows into the soul!

Is this darling or what (i know, i know, but i just can't get enuf of the pink and brown!)? It says Bear Hug and the bear's arms wrap all the way around the outfit! I couldn't resist making the little honey bee headband to go with the bear :) Thank you, Gran & Papa!

Happy Birthday, Grammpa Bill!

Since his curriculum this month is 'Move & Play: Exercise Your Body and Mind' and we live in hick-ville, this was his exercise today. (you can click on this image to see it larger)

Evie is 4 months old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-07-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Evie is now 4 months old!!! She has rolled over a few times, but none that I have been able to get on tape :( She is doing great with tummy time and can hold her own head up pretty well now. She can lock her knees and 'stand' if you hold the top portion of her steady. She is laughing at me now when I play with her. She watches EVERYTHING Eric does and is very interested in his every movement. She loves the ceiling fan; anytime we are in the livingroom she will move her head around until she can see it, even if it isn't turned on, lol!

Evie ate her first big girl food on July 25th! She had rice cereal mixed with breast milk and really seemed to enjoy it! Now my question is, how do I feed both kiddos at the same time?!?

I love it when dresses come with the matching kick pants/bloomers, its just so cute!

This dress has the kick pants too. The dress says, "Mommy's Sunshine"

I love the little topiaries on this outfit! It's hard to see, but there are 3 topiaries, the first one has just one hedge, the second has 2 and the third has 3, so under each topiary it says One, Two, Three. Really adorable!!!

Pink flowers everywhere and another cute hat!

Little blue flowers are cute too!

Everytime I put a blanket down for Evie, Eric has to run over and lay down on it, he needs to make sure he isn't missing out on anything! He lies down next to Evie and pets her hair and sometimes talks to her. She very much prefers this. :)

Look at the little tiny bite marks in his quesadilla, SO CUTE!!!

Eric has been showing a lot of interest in coloring lately, so we did a triptych of sorts. The first paper shows that yellow (on the left side) and red (on the right side) make orange (in the middle). I won't bore you by explaining them all, but Eric is standing there waving to me as I take the pic, he was super excited to have his artwork displayed so prominantly and just at his height!

How cute is this???

Dada turned the sprinklers on in the backyard and Eric had a blast running thru them, lol!

After the sprinklers it was time to get to work!

Dada was so happy Eric's hair is long enuf for the bathtub mohawk, lol! (you can click on this pic to see a bigger size)

The boy loves trains! (you can click on this pic to see a bigger size)

Evie is 3 months and three weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-07-19T08:30:00.001-07:00

This week Eric said Moma and actually meant ME!!! He knows my name is Moma, if you ask him where Moma is he will point to me and say, "there she is" but he has never called me Moma until this week! I am so excited!!!

Eric always looks thru Dada's pockets, but now he has pockets of his own to look thru! (yesterday Scott said he saw Eric just standing in the livingroom with his hand in his pocket exactly the way Dada does it!)

Eric got his first helicopter!

We all know how much Eric loves his water table, so Scott bought him some water toys that are tiny little circles which 'grow' in the water to become sponge animals, what fun! Here you can see the red monkey and the green emu.

And besides the water table, bath time is the next most fun activity! This boy is a fish!

This is colored hair gel. It smells wonderful, teaches Eric about colors and textures, lets Eric practice fine and gross motor skills, and is super fun all at the same time!

Show me the colors on your hand! ooooooh!

Let's see what interesting art you have created! what a beautiful masterpiece!

Eric is my little helper. Here, he is helping with the groceries. He is able to pick up this entire pack of soda and take it from the living room all the way to the kitchen! (keep in mind, he only weighs 30 pounds and this soda is probably upwards of 15!) I like the final picture where he looks as tho he has beaten the soda and put one foot on it to show victory!

We have been very fortunate to have people buying or giving us clothes for Evie. This is one of the very few outfits I was able to pick out for her. I adore the pink and brown with swirls and glitter, and a few little hearts here and there, and a little leopard print!

Someone has discovered her toes!

Our littlest Love Bug

It's hard to see, but these jammies have a baby giraff and a moma giraff on the side, so cute!

Amongst the flowers and butterflies, you can find the words "pretty, pretty." Evie has started also discovered her fingers.

Pink with polka dots and flowers - super cute!

Our little Princess

Evie is 3 months and two weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-07-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

One last 4th of July pic, her outfit says, "Baby's First Fourth"

Dada's girl

Pink satin ribbon and diamonds, can you say, "BLING!"

Evie naped in her big girl crib for the first time on Saturday!

Mook has taken over Bailey's bed!!! Poor Bailey!

Eric fingerpainted for the first time on the 8th! He painted with each finger on his left hand, switching to a clean finger periodically. Then when all the left-handed fingers were dirty, he switched over to his right hand and used all those fingers, and when those were dirty you can see in the video below, he just jumped right in and used both hands!

He's not wearing a shirt so he can get right into the bath without getting paint on anything else!

Eric's finished masterpiece now hangs on his bedroom door!

Evie is 3 months and one week old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-07-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!!!

On June 30, Evie rolled all the way over to the right from back to tummy! She is now grabbing her feet too; and has even started working on rolling to the left!

Eric is getting really good at taking his pants and diaper off, but not so good at putting them back on, lol. Needless to say, his wardrobe now mostly consists of overalls!

Happy Fourth!

Eric just wasn't into having his picture taken.

Evie, on the other hand, was much more agreeable.

Bear-Footed Jams! (not 'bare' footed, lol! ok, ok, English Major humor is not funny to anyone but English Majors, I get it... sorry!)

Fresh from the bath in her stylin' robe!

Pretty in Pink

Red hearts, white hearts, pink hearts... sweet heart!

The boy loves his dog!

Sorry I took it sideways and that there is no sound :(

Evie is 3 months old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-06-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Evie is 3 months old already!!!

Eric is so sweet with his baby sister.

Tickle Tickle!!!

Eric's curriculum this month is "Explore The Shore" he really seems to be enjoying it and I just couldn't resist taking a picture of him wearing this oh-so-appropriate outfit while studying his curriculum! (His shirt has pictures of dogs surfing!)

This was little miss sleeping on the 22nd...

Just 4 days later she has taught herself to kick the other leg over! It won't be long now until she rolls completely over and is crawling all over the place!

These little ducky jammies are so cute!

This is an outfit Gran bought for Eric, but Evie makes it look super feminine and cute!

Evie is 2 months and 4 weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-06-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!!!

Eric got his 2 year old shots. He did very good - he actually cried harder when I told him to stop playing with the door knob, than he did when he got the shot, lol!

On June 17th Eric said "tickle tickle" and on June 20th he said "goat!" He is also getting the hang of taking his clothes and diaper off without any help, lol!

Earlier this week, Eric locked me in the garage. I went to get his stroller and he fiddled with the deadbolt just enuf so I couldn't get the door back open. Thankfully I was able to get to the extra key - phew!

Happy Flag Day on June 14th!

Happy Father's Day!!! Her shirt says, "Daddy loves me!"

Happy Father's Day!!!

Eric loves the playground!

There is so much space to run and play!

Auntie came to visit!

She brought Eric a new red truck!

This is the first time Evie has met her Auntie!

Auntie brought this cute kitty outfit for Evie!

Evie is learning all kinds of things from her brother!

Evie loves her new pink swing! Her outfit even matches her swing!

Our pretty princess in purple!

Tiny baby tea roses, for our tiny baby - so elegant!

Evie is 2 months and 3 weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-06-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

On June 2, 2010, Eric said, "night-night" to Scott! On June 4, 2010, Eric said, "what" :) He is also really into learning what noises animals make. He and Scott will sit on the sofa and look at a book about animals and take turns making various animal noises.

Eric has become quite good at putting things back where they belong without being told. He is also gaining a better sense of size, quantity, and other spatial relationships, so you can tell him things like, "there," "where," "inside," "outside," "near," "far," "way up in the sky," "over," "under," and he gets it!

Summertime Diva! "Where is that cabana boy with my milk?!?!"

I think this is the cabana boy, lol!

Evie's first trip to the park. She didn't like the wind blowing on her and wasn't a very happy camper. Eric, on the other hand, had a great time. He met a little 2.5 year old girl named Makayla who tried to kiss him! He ran away from her, lol!

At ease, soldier!

Bathtime for Little-ist!

You can never have too much Suzy's Zoo!

Texture Boy eats oatmeal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And LIKES it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her footed jammies have a reindeer, polar bear, and penguin on them!

They grow up SO fast!

Evie is 2 months and 2 weeks old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-06-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

Eric is getting really good at shaking his head 'yes' and 'no' and actually have it mean something.

Eric will also now put his index finger on his cheek and say, "hmmmmm..."

Today he was super excited to share his phone with Evie. It was the first time I saw him actually dial numbers on the phone before he began talking/gibbering.

We are amazed daily by Evie's ability to communicate with a growing repertory of coos, smiles, and unique cries to express her different feelings and needs.

Her very first shopping trip and she shopped til she dropped!

2-month old shots are no fun! :(

Little Witzy's everywhere!

I love the look on her face!

yellow and brown are a super cute color combo!

Gotta love those polka dots!

Teddy bears!

Lovely Lavender

She is slowly drifting off to sleep as I try to get in one last picture, lol!

During this "photo shoot" Brother decides Evie might need to take a snack break and have some goldfish crackers, lol!

Check out my All Star Chucks!!! Super Cool!

I'd love to know the 'why' behind this one, lol!

This is my new fav pic. As soon as I am busy nursing or changing Evie, Eric will go in his closet and be real quiet. When I realize it's way too quiet, I go looking for him and say outloud, "Where's Eric?" This is what I find, lol! Then I open the closet doors and together we both say, "THERE HE IS!!!"

Just the Grandparents

2010-06-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Grandparent Pix
Starring...
The Grandparents (in alphabetical order)

Gramma Linda

Grampa Bill

Gran

Grandpa Jim

Papa Steve

Evie is 2 months and one week old; Eric is 2 years old!

2010-05-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

Eric's pre-potty training is going well. He walks into the bathroom, flushes the toilet and says good-bye to the water as it spins down the drain. He is working on being able to put his pants on and off too. And while we are working on the pants, we are working on the socks and shirt too (may as well, right?) :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Pretty embroidered flowers

Footed jammies are so much fun!

Her shirt says, "Grow"

Her two month old foot!

I just love her in polka dots!

What says "little girl" more than tiny pink hearts everywhere and tiny pink shoes laced with sheer ribbon?

Super cute dress (take 1)

Super cute dress (take 2)

Super cute dress (take 3)

Everyone loves Dada!

Evie is 2 months old and Eric is 2 years old!

2010-05-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Evie is laughing in her sleep all the time now! She has also started grabbing my hair when I pick her up!

Check out these eyelashes (take 1)

Check out these eyelashes (take 2)

Check out these eyelashes (take 3)

My socks are super cute!

Brother reads a bedtime story!

He even shares his wolfy!!!

She's so cute, even when she is crying.

Mommy's little ballerina

Deep in thought...

I put Eric in bed for his nap and after he got settled down, he grabbed Good Bailey, made little kiss noises and put Good Bailey's nose up to his mouth to kiss him, then hugged him real tight and fell asleep hugging him!

Eric turns TWO!!!

2010-05-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Eric!!!

13 to 24 months

Eric's two year old birthday party invitation (contact info blurred for internet privacy)

Eric is wearing the Wolverine shirt and mask I made him for his birthday! COOL!

Eric's gorgeous cake!

We got Eric a dump truck, he knew just what to do with it!

Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful gifts and sharing Eric's special day with us!

Eric is 1 year, 11 months, and 3 weeks old; and Evie is 1 month and 3 weeks old!

2010-05-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

Evie is rolling over onto her side from her back! She is so strong!

She is saying, "Go Avalanche!!!"

War Eagle!

These are Evie's 1 month old foot and hand! :)

Eric has on his new Curious George fire truck shirt as he plays with trucks and blocks - what could be better? oh, yes, putting the trucks on top of the blocks and knocking everything down while squealing with joy! LOL!

So many outfits, so little time, lol!

OH MY GOD! I AM THE CUTEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

Eric is 1 year, 11 months, and 2 weeks old; and Evie is 1 month and 2 weeks old!

2010-05-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

Evie is responding to the sound of my voice above everyone else's, I noticed when the neighbor came over to visit with her husband and children - even tho it was loud, Evie turned her head towards the sound of my voice.

Evie is doing great with her tummy time! She can pick her head up sooooooo far, its amazing!

Thank you Gran and Papa for the cute dress!

These jammies have all the cute girly things on them: hearts, flowers, bunnies, cupcakes, birdies, butterlies, etc. My fav are the cupcakes!

I thought the embroidery on this outfit was so cute, but Evie was not liking her headband and didn't want to smile. Once she started to fall asleep I was able to get a picture.

It's hard to see the brown embroidery detail on this outfit, but its just darling, there is even a pink and brown butterfly on her sleeve! I am really loving the brown and pink combo!!!

Evie is getting lots of presents, but everyone is super nice to include toys for Eric too and he REALLY appreciates it! :) These are from Great Aunt Chris - Thank you!!!

My Mother's Day photo with Evie

The flowers Eric got me! :)

Scott got me pie from my favorite pie place, made my fav cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip walnut), and did a special project with the kiddos. I am going to have fun scrapbooking with this!

Eric is 1 year, 11 months, and 1 week old; and Evie is 1 month and 1 week old!

2010-05-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Evie is laughing in her sleep, it's super cute! When she cries we get a two-breath warning, she says, "ahhh, ahhh, WAAA!!!!" She is also holding my gaze now! Scott has been helping her practice her eye-to-object tracking as well.

Scott and his buddy, Steve, took their dirt bikes and had some "fun." It was a 12-hour day and he came back caked with mud, a sprained ankle, and holes in his shirt...

but there was some nice scenery!

Our little Sweet Pea

Beautiful in Blue

Feelin' just ducky!

Playing in Brother's room!

Eric is 1 year and 11 months old, and Evie is 1 month old!

2010-04-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Evie's Timeline:
* On March 24, 2010, Evie was born at 11:56pm
* On March 27, we were released from the hospital
* On April 6th, Evie's umbillical cord fell off
* On April 6th, Evie had her first big girl bath in the baby tub in the sink (no more sponge baths now that the umbillical cord is off!)
* On April 7, Evie had her first doctor's appointment
* On April 11th, Evie started using size 1 diapers (she just couldn't fit into the newborn diapers anymore!) And Eric is now in size 6 diapers!
* On April 12th, Evie started holding her head up a little bit
* On April 21st, Evie could no longer squeeze into newborn onesies!
* On April 24th, Evie was exactly 1 month old!

This was so cute, Scott was making kissing noises at Evie and she picked her head up towards the noise, it looked like she was kissing her Daddy!!!

Cutest tushy EVER!

Check out Eric's Iron Hawk shirt! Adding daddy's hat to the ensemble makes it complete! (I didn't photoshop this picture except to crop it, just look at his eyes!)

1... 2... 3... Fly like a helicopter!!!

Eric is 1 year, 10 months, and 3 weeks old and Evie is 3 weeks old!

2010-04-19T16:36:00.001-07:00

A week in pictures...

It's sorta like skiing, lol!

The boy loves trains... (i love that his tushy says CABOOSE)

but doesn't love having his picture taken, lol!

Eric's gorgeous blue eyes got him a free doughnut and a free balloon!

Sister gets lots of presents and since she is too small to open them, Brother gets to have all the fun!

Her shirt says, "Eric's little sister"

His shirt says, "Evie's big brother"

When Evie cries, I say to her (in a sing-song voice) "Evie Angel, you're okay." Eric has started mimicing the tone of my sing-song phrase, this picture is of him telling her she is ok :)

He loves his sister and he pets her head very gently and nice - it takes all of his concentration!

Her cheeks are SO kissable!!!

Baby in a basket!

She really didn't mind having her picture taken!

She is Daddy's little girl. He barely has to touch her and she smiles!

She is sleeping right next to Daddy, can you tell by her smile?

Eric is 1 year, 10 months, and 2 weeks old and Evie is 2 weeks old!

2010-04-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

A week in review - with pix...

Evie's 2 week old pic #1

Evie's 2 week old pic #2

Evie's 2 week old pic #3

Eric's Easter Basket

Evie's Easter Pic

Easter with Gran and Papa

Easter with Gramma and Grandpa

Easter cake with peeps!

Scott has been taking Eric to the park and Eric just loves it!

He goes down the big green curly slide all by himself!

Then he waits at the bottom of the slide for Scott :)

The park has lots of fun little gadgets to play with!

Eric likes having a new sister...

Even if it means having to share his Mama. :)

Our Princess Has Arrived! (at exactly 10 months pregnant)

2010-04-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

On March 24, 2010, around 3pm I started having some pain. I called my midwife to ask her advice since the pain I was experiencing was nothing like when I went into labor with Eric. She told me to keep track of the pain by timing it and seeing if I could walk or talk thru the pain. By the time Scott got home from work at 5:30pm, I was pretty certain I was having contractions about 2.5 minutes apart. We packed up the car and went to the hospital.

Mom came to the hospital to get Eric, I got admitted, and got my IV of antibiotics. My OBGYN was not on-call so Dr. Tolley was assigned to me as my delivery doctor. He said Evie would probably arrive around midnight. I got my epidural from the same incompetant doctor as last time. It only worked on the left side of my body, so I was in a huge amount of pain during labor, the birth, and the stitching up afterwards. Evie was born at 11:56pm, so I was only in labor for about 9 hours (I was in labor for 13 hours with Eric). Evie weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 21 inches long. (Eric was 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and 20.5 inches long). Evie's APGAR scores were 6 and 9 (Eric's were 8 and 9) more about APGAR at http://kidshealth.org/parent/newborn/first_days/apgar.html
Evie's first score was a bit lower than Eric's because she came out stubborn about not wanting to breathe air (imagine that, a stubborn Bowden???) She didn't have the umbillical cord wrapped around her neck twice like Eric, she just didn't want to breathe. Labor & Delivery Nurse Colleen suctioned her lungs and she was fine.

We moved to the recovery room and were in the hospital from Wednesday until Saturday. It was a really long stay and we were so glad to finally be able to get home and see our Eric - we missed him SO much!!! (he did get to visit us in the hospital twice and meet his new sister)

This is right after I was admitted.

Here she is, just a few seconds old!

This is her birth announcement. The photo was taken on the 27th in my hospital bed.

Here she is with my OBGYN who visited the day after she was born.

Here she is with Mama.

Here she is with Dada.

Here she is with Gramma Linda.

Here she is with Grampa Bill.

Here she is with Gran.

Here she is with Papa.

Here she is with Grandpa Jim.

WOW! You got me a sister?!?! COOL!

Here is our first family photo!

Look at all the pretty gifts she and I got in the hospital!

Eric is 1 year, 10 months old, and 1 week old!

2010-03-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week at my dr appt, I got to see my midwife, Laurie. She said Evie's heart beat was jumping around from 130 to 150bpm (which is normal at this point), and that I was 3.5cm dialated and 80% effaced. She made an appt for me for next week, but said she didn't think I'd make it that far.

As of March 24th I am officially 10 months pregnant!

Eric's curriculum this month is Transportation. I made him this tissue box train and he really seems to be having fun with it!

It's hard to see, but I put a picture of him in the conductor's seat!

One of the train cars carries wood, the other coal.

We take turns "driving" it around the house, lol!

Eric is 1 year and 10 months old! (22 months!)

2010-03-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week at the dr appt, I got to see the midwife (Laurie). She said Evie's heart beat was 150bpm, and that I was 3cm dialated and 80% effaced. She made an appt for me for next week, I'm hoping Evie comes before then!

This is my 9 month pregnancy pic. I'm so lucky to have a husband who is such an awesome photographer!!! (and who was able to find the most gorgeous varigated rose I have ever seen!)

Eric got a new toothbrush this week. I picked out a Diego & Dora toothbrush for 2 year olds. When I showed it to him last night, he said, "wow!" then hugged the toothbrush!!! I told him it was Diego and Dora and he tried to say "Diego and Dora" it was so cute! He then brushed his teeth all by himself! :) YEAH!!!

A lady at Scott's work gave us this desk for Eric, he is in love with it, lol! (Thank you, Lisa!) He is coloring with utter delight in this pic. I took some video footage too... (hopefully one day I will be able to take video footage that has sound but for now, this is what we get, sorry)

* I just found this online: http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/HospitalResults.aspx?sid=2272 I don't know why no one told me about this when Eric was born, or maybe they didn't have it yet. But it looks like you can look up the date and they will show you pix of the babies born on that date! So if you are wondering if we have had Evie yet, go to the above website and try a few different dates and see if you can see her picture! :)

Eric is 1 year, 9 months, and 4 weeks old!

2010-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to you all for the sweet anniversary wishes!

10 years of marriage is a happy milestone for us! We are so blessed to have each other and our families and have happiness and health. (Yes, that is sparking apple cider in those glasses!)

Here is a close up of the ring Scott got me since it is so hard to see in the first photo. It's engraved with the names of our miracles and has their birthstones plus some pretty sparkly little diamonds.

Here we are at our anniversary dinner. We went to Taste of China and it was super happy lucky awesome, lol! Then we went for ice cream, yummy!!!

Grandpa Jim came to visit - look at those cute matching shirts!

And Uncle Tony came to visit too!

They also had coordinating ensembles representing Superman and Clark Kent!

And last, but certainly not least, a video!!! As you know, we try very hard to be "green" in our home. Our lawn mower is a push mower to help reduce our carbon footprint. One of the many advantages is that it doesn't make a bunch of loud scary noises, so Eric can help Dada mow the lawn!

Eric is 1 year, 9 months, and 3 weeks old!

2010-03-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

Today was my weekly Dr. visit. Evie's heartbeat was 158 beats per minute. Evie is very active and she gets the hiccups at least once a day now. Thought of the week: "Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside."

Look at this cute shirt I saw online for Evie! LOL! I wonder if they have these shirts in Eric's size too...

Scott ran The Bidwell Classic Marathon on March 6 (13 miles of non-stop running - that's almost 2 hours!!!), he did an excellent job, got this cool keepsake hat, and then rewarded himself with this cool hoodie!

Guess who got his first hair cut? OMG, I cried so hard I couldn't see where I was cutting! Here is the "before..."

And here is the "after..."

This scrapbook layout I made all the papers and embellishments for because I just couldn't find the right colors and shapes to go with these super cute pix! Eric is great inspiration for making digital scrapbooking supplies, I made $30 in my brand new store during the month of February even tho my store didn't open until the 8th! Woo hoo!

You can really see how long his hair was getting in these pix too. Happy Birthday Gramma Linda!

And here is my short-haired little man, helping Papa celebrate. Happy Birthday Papa Steve!

Eric is 1 year, 9 months, and 2 weeks old!

2010-03-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

My Dr appt was Friday, I am 36 weeks pregnant (about 25 days to go)! Evie's heartbeat was 150 beats per minute (I think she must have been sleeping). She is definately getting bigger and gaining about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. The Dr said her head is in the proper position, and that I am 1.5cm dialated and 60% effaced. I'm hoping that since I wasn't even 1cm dialated with Eric until Week 38 that Evie will come a bit early. The Dr did say that this labor should be a bit faster than Eric's (which would be great since his was 13 hours!!!)

Fun Fact: A pregnant woman produces as many horomones in 9 months as a non-pregnant woman would in over 150 years of life!

On Sunday the 28th, Evie got the hiccups and I could feel them, so I ran over to Scott and he could feel them too!!! This is a good sign, it means her lungs are growing! :)

Eric fell asleep on me with his little tongue hanging out!

Eric is able to get up onto his horse all by himself now!

He is having so much fun with rocking now that he feels comfortable getting on and off all by himself! :)

Gee, do you think they are related? LOL!

At Togo's with Grandma Linda. Look at his cute little flight shirt! He has on camo pants too (you can see them in the next pic)

Here are the cute pants! We were at JoAnne's and he found this little flamingo that he just loved! He drug it all around the store, lol!

Of course he also loved the one that looked like Bailey!

Then he came home and slept with his dog :)

Eric is 1 year, 9 months, and 1 week old!

2010-02-22T06:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Presidents Day (the 15th), Mardi Gras (the 16th), Ash Wednesday (the 17th), Temporary Insanity Day (the 19th), Banana Bread Day (the 23rd), Cuddle Day (the 25th), and Polar Bear Day (the 27th)! And we have 2 special birthdays on the 27th!!!

Over the weekend the boys worked on getting the fence repaired. Our lousy neighbor who backed into the fence with a small bulldozer while landscaping his backyard refused to help or pay to fix the fence! So rude!!!

These pictures of Eric were so cute, they inspired me to make a whole digital scrapbooking kit that is now on sale in my store! This page and the one below are meant to be seen side by side as a 2-page spread.

I set up a mirror and put hats and sunglasses in bins next to the mirror. Eric had a blast trying everything on and checking his look in the mirror, lol!

Eric is 1 year, 9 months! (21 months old!)

2010-02-15T05:49:00.000-08:00

Eric's favorite new sound is the way Bailey's empty dog dish sounds when pounded onto the sliding glass door. If Eric can't get to the dog dish and the sliding glass door, he has discovered a way to still get the sound by making it himself. It sounds like "D'Gng!!!" and he will make the sound anytime he drops/throws something on the floor/ground.

Happy Valentine's Day! We went to Mimi's Cafe and got "to-go" brunch, yummy!!!

Eric got a new blue jeep from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Bill for Valentine's Day; he has been driving it all over the house!!!

Thank you to everyone for all the sweet cards and gifts, what a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Eric is 1 year, 8 months, and 3 weeks old!

2010-02-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

At the bottom of each blog post, I have set up a rating system. There are 3 choices, just click the box to try it out (feel free to still leave comments as well!) :)

This week was another check-up for Evie - she measured 35cm. Her heartbeat was 167bpm but while the doctor was using the heart monitor she was kicking it and had the hiccups, so there were all kinds of funny sounds coming from the monitor, lol!

I am now 8 months pregnant with our little princess.

We all know how much Eric loves tools and boy did he have fun with Grandpa Bill at Sears, lol!

Superbowl Sunday!

Eric and Bailey playing together on Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl kisses from Bailey!

Eric is 1 year, 8 months, and 2 weeks old!

2010-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

February first already? That means about 53 days until Evie is born! Are we ready? Well, I am so tired and achy all the time, so on that end, I'm ready, but don't ask me if her room is done, lol!!!

Eric said "Truck" this week! He loves vehicles of all kinds!

This is a scrapbook page for Great Aunt Wendy, we gathered up all our Disney paraphernalia and had a little photo shoot! Unfortunately, Eric didn't feel much like smiling, but he is still the cutest boy EVER!!!

Eric is 1 year, 8 months, and 1 week old!

2010-01-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

I had my Dr appt today, Evie is about 3.5 pounds and kicking up a storm! Her heartbeat was 162 beats per minute and she (along with her 'compartment' as Grandpa Bill calls it) measured 32cm (which is right within the normal range).

Eric said "Bullbozer!" All this week he kept bringing me this book called "Billy the Bulldozer" and I read it to him and then he wanted me to read it again while he turned the pages and pointed to random objects. Each page has a bulldozer on it and he kept pointing to it so I kept telling him it was a bulldozer and then he said, "bulldozer!" (he said it just the one time and hasn't said it again since, as is his normal routine, lol!)

Scott convinced me to let Eric play in the rain for a few minutes, he had a blast!

These PJs are from Auntie Heather, aren't they just the cutest!?!

Happy Birthday, Gran!!!

Eric is 1 year and 8 months old! (20 months!)

2010-01-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

Props and thanks to Scott Doyle, the Tech who came out and was finally able to figure out what was wrong with our internet connection after 23 days of beating our heads against the wall (and we got a full refund!) I called his boss to tell her how awesome he is!

Scott is feeling better. Eric is still being really careful about what he eats, but he is eating again - hooray!

Today is my birthday!

I really love these 7 month photos of Eric feeling the new baby kick, so I did a digital scrapbook layout with a kit I am creating for my store.

This week in Eric's curriculum is Winter Animals - we traced Eric's hands and his foot to make this fun little reindeer! :)

Eric's latest trick is standing all his trucks up on end, lol!

Eric is 1 year, 7 months and 3 weeks old!

2010-01-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

Eric is doing better, he has started to eat yogurt melts which is the first dairy he has had since his head trauma. I'm glad to see improvement, but still worried about him.

Scott is sick with some kind of "cold" he got at work, so Eric and I quarantined him to the bedroom so we don't get whatever it is. This is the first time in a VERY LONG time that Scott has come home from work because he felt so horrible. (good thing he got that flu shot!)

The boy loves tools! He flipped over his cart and started working on it with some of the tools he got for Christmas.

I'm 7 months pregnant with Evie. Eric felt her kicking for the first time this week. He patted my tummy where he felt her kicking. Super adorable!

Another extra blog post for this week!

2010-01-09T11:20:00.000-08:00

OMG, we have internet again!!! We have not had a connection since Dec 17, the AT&T tech finally came out and said our redback portal had become corrupt and that usually when this happens, it rebuilds itself, but in our case that didn't happen due to some sort of AT&T glitch. Apparently he is going to contact the AT&T Regional Manager about our situation and see if we can get some of our money returned to us, since we are out about $200 now due to their error (not to mention the wear and tear (and gas) on the car and computer driving all the way to Gridley to use the WiFi and all our time and energy wasted calling AT&T who repeatedly told us it was our fault and everything looked fine on their end, having a 3rd party tech come to our house to look at things, driving an hour and a half to Fry's several times buying 4 different modems/routers, new phone cords, and new cables and returning them all, calling each modem/router company for tech support, Scott taking time off from work to come home and talk to techs, dismanteling our entire satelite television connection because someone at AT&T said that was the problem, and don't get me started on not being able to pay my bills or check my email or update my digital scrapbooking store, etc)!

On a different subject - thank you for all the concern about Eric, he is feeling much better - he has not thrown up since the day he hit his head and has not taken any more mediction since the ER dr gave him the zofran. He still isn't finding much he wants to eat, but I'm hoping that will come with a bit more time. Talk to you all soon!

Here are the xmas cookies I decorated, in the shuffle of no internet, this pic got lost along the way.

Here is another xmas pic that no one ever got to see! This was right after Santa visited!

Extra Blog Post

2010-01-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

Well, the blog post is late again this week, as is becoming the norm. AT&T was supposed to send a tech out yesterday but the tech never showed. We got an AT&T modem so they supposedly have to fix it, but still nothing is working on their end. Our neighbor said she was having problems with AT&T too and after 2 months finally had her service disconnected because AT&T couldn’t fix it. All the while, AT&T continues to charge us and send us bills for the service we cannot use.

Then last night we had the scare of our lives when at about 5:45pm Eric slipped on his pj bottoms and hit his head on the kitchen floor and proceeded to throw up 6 times (thankfully he never lost consciousness). We rushed to the emergency room where we waited for hours and hours (Eric ran around the waiting room like a kid in a candy store, you would never have known he had head trauma) and finally Eric had 2 CT scans (he had to have 2 because he refused to be still – he doesn’t like being restrained). After another hour of waiting for the results, the scans came back normal and we were told he didn’t have any bleeding inside his head or brain and that his skull was not damaged, but that he had a concussion and would be much better in the morning. He was given Zofran/Ondansetron to help settle his stomach and we finally made it home at about 2:30am. I was scared to let him fall asleep because I was afraid he might not wake up again. At 7:30am this morning he woke up and was super thirsty, he had 4 glasses of juice/water (usually he has one!). He won’t eat anything he has eaten in the last two days, I’m sure he is trying to keep from throwing up again. So I am struggling with what to feed him. Just looking at certain foods makes him gag.

We are all beyond exhausted. Somehow, Scott got up and went to work this morning. I have done at least 11 loads of laundry since yesterday because besides Eric throwing up 6 times (on me, his high chair, the couch, the carpet, the counter, his toys, etc), the dog peed on the floor and I stepped in it, and the cat threw up which Eric proceeded to drive his cars threw, and then Eric’s diaper leaked. I used bleach in the laundry and ended up getting bleach spots on the few maternity clothes I have that still fit. The entire house smells like vomit and urine – Mom, I need to borrow your carpet steam cleaner please.

I’m trying to remember the positive things during and after this rather rough and expensive adventure. I am so thankful that Eric is healthy and that Scott was here to help me through this.

Our emergency room "memorabilia"

Happier times just relaxing

Eric has so much fun pouring!

The neighbor boy turned 4 and this is his little sister with Eric. Eric seemed to take a liking to her and even hugged her twice during the party! Hooray for little sisters!!!

Eric is 1 year, 7 months and 2 weeks old!

2010-01-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

Eric has started whispering, its just babble-talk but its so funny to hear him using his "inside voice" at times he deems appropriate.

Scott and I did a lot of organizing over the weekend. We finally were able to put all the xmas stuff away and start getting things organized a bit for when Evie arrives. It was super hard for me to go through all of Eric's newborn clothes and realize how much he has grown in just a year and a half!

I had my Dr appt today, Evie's heartbeat is 160bpm, and my uterus measures 31cm. My sciatic nerve is pinched in my pelvic bone and my OBGYN says all I can do is use a heating pad and take some tylenol. It’s excruciatingly painful so much so that there are times I can’t move my legs at all. Other than that, the Dr says everything is going well.

Christmas with Grandpa Jim

This is AWESOME!