4 Things on a Thursday

1. Audio books.  Are you all listening to those?  I fell in love with listening to Serial in my car and now I might be ready to dabble in the audio book world.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?

2. Why Being a Mom is Enough.  My sweet mom sent this to me and I love it.

3. Tuesday I took the boys to the museum where we met our friends.  All was fun until the power went out and we had to leave early.  Paul cried that it was the best day until the lights went out and he had to leave Nolan and the museum.  Anyway, the museum is about 40 minutes from our house and I was REAL nervous that Charlie would fall asleep on the way home and ruin nap time for himself, but more importantly for me.  So I told Paul he could have a donut if he was able to keep Charlie awake. Worked like a charm.

4. My big confession is that I hate bath time.  I don't hate it while they are in the actual bath because I can just read a book or a magazine, but getting them dressed and then dried and dressed again seems like a lot of work.  However, Tuesday night Charlie ate a yogurt, got it everywhere (the biggest hot spot was his hair) and I had to break my maximum once a week bath time.  At least he was cute! 

It is almost the weekend... A long weekend! 

Tuesday Fashion!

Yesterday my friend Jenn gave me the genius idea of talking Golden Globe Fashion.  I love an awards show just for the dresses.  Obviously I love Tina and Amy too, but the dresses!  Anyway, here are my favorites, my not so favorites, and I can't decide! 

FAVORITES (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) 

#1 Sienna Miller.  I couldn't find a good picture of her on the red carpet, but I thought she looked so pretty when she was presenting! 

#2 Reese Witherspoon.  I'm just so much in love with her after Wild and thought she rocked her dress!  

#3 Amal Alamuddin.  I thought one of Tina and Amy's best jokes was about all of Amal's accomplishments and yet George Clooney was receiving the lifetime achievement award.  Hilarious.  And she is beautiful. 

#4 Jenna Dewan.  Not many people can pull off yellow, but Jenna can! 

#5- Emma Stone.  I just love Emma Stone.  I think she is cool and funny and I love that she wore pants and looked incredible! 

#6- Julianne Moore.  When I grow up I want to be Julianne.  She is beautiful and classy and I love her! 

#7- J-LO.  Lets face it.  Jennifer Lopez has a bangin body!  And she looked amazing Sunday night!  How do you get those legs?

Not Sure- I don't hate these but I am not in love with these: 

#1 Kate Hudson.  Now don't get me wrong.  I love me some Kate Hudson.  And her body is amazing.  I can't exactly figure out what it is about this dress, but I just can't give it my all! :)  

#2- Jennifer Aniston.  Again, I love sweet Jen, but it is a little "safe."  She looks gorgeous but I'm not 100% satisfied! 

Not my favorites- something about the following just missed the mark a bit! 

#1- Kerry Washington.  KERRY!!  What are you doing to me?  I love you in Scandal.  LOVE.  In fact if you wore something from your Scandal inspired line from the Limited it would be great.  

#2- Claire Danes.  Claire, you are prettier than this.  I don't hate the dress but I think it is too big.  Jenn also reported about the eye shadow issue, but I couldn't get a good picture.  

#3- Lena.  Oh Lena.  Although this is probably less offensive than some other things you have worn to an awards show, it looks like a lot of fabric.  A lot.  

What were your favorites??

Things I Did Over Fall Break

I think most moms feel like they don't have enough time.  The things on my never ending list are items such as painting, which you need a good chunk of time to complete AND you do not need (or want) little hands helping you with this chore.  

We use breaks from school to really cram in a bunch of stuff.  I always try to balance the fun with the no so fun and still try to carve out some hours to sit on the couch and watch DVR.  

Here is what we were able to accomplish over fall break: 

1. Went to California. 

2. Touched up my baseboards.  My children LOVE to run their trucks, bikes, cars, who knows what else, into the wall.  It was looking trashy.  Then 30 seconds after I cleaned everything up, Charlie rammed a toy directly into the baseboard.  Someday we will have nice things again. 

3. Cleaned the playroom.  I got rid of SO MUCH stuff.  And yet we still have so much stuff?  Paul and I have different breaks, so I did this little task while he was at school.  Winning.  He of course came home and didn't notice one thing was gone.  

4.  Took Paul to the dentist to fill the 2nd cavity.  Actually Ryan did this because I could not handle it.  And it went just as bad the 2nd time as the first.  And the next day the dentist called and said Paul had somehow won the raffle from the waiting room for a big stuffed lion.  Obviously this win was rigged because they probably felt bad for us and Paul that he screamed his head off for 30 minutes. But he was excited about the lion so maybe he won't hate the dentist for the rest of his life??

5. Carved pumpkins.  I thought this would be a fun activity.  It was for Ryan and I.  Charlie lost interested in about 23 seconds and Paul thought the seeds and guts were disgusting.  

6. Celebrated Halloween.  Lots of candy around here.  Even Charlie tries to sneak some when I'm not looking! 

7. Went to the museum of Nature and Science.  We met up with other friends to get the wiggles of fall break out.  There is so much to to see and the boys LOVE it, I even asked for a membership for Christmas! 

8. Binged watched Madam Secretary.  After the first episode I wasn't so sure, but after I watched 4 in a row I really like it! Thank you DVR.  

9. Had dinner with a friend.  Fall break is great opportunity to go OUT to dinner, catch up with friends, have a beer and enjoy the fact you don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn the next day.  Even though your children won't get the message. 

10. Enjoyed my boys.  I love the snuggles on the couch, the building of towers, listening to Paul's 45 minute stories,  the slower mornings and just being with my family.  

Painting bathroom is on my list for Winter Break (yes, Ryan I am serious).  Anything on your house list?

Halloween Recap

Part of my October goals was to get the Halloween costume situation figured out.  I knew Charlie could be the dragon that Paul was at his age, and the fact that he loves to "ROAR" at everyone was a bonus.  I asked Paul several times what he wanted to be and he always came back to Buzz Light year from the previous year.  The costume was too small, but no one cared!  

For the past few years we have had our friends over for Halloween.  We've been through 3 different pregnancies and added a lot of kids to the mix, but it is always fun!  The main goal is for the kids to get a lot of candy and for the moms to drink a lot of wine.  Done and done.  The dads drink a lot of beer too (don't want to leave them out).  But when they came back from trick-or-treating they said many houses offered them a refill on their drinks.  Now that is neighborly.  

Everyone came early for some chili and pictures.  

This is really the best we could get.  Paul is Buzz LightYear (second year in a row) and no, the gun is not part of the costume.  In fact, he looks terrifying with that weapon.  It is actually part of the police officer's costume but you can imagine that it was VERY popular throughout the night.  

A little better (at least at the gun standpoint) but can only see those sweet mouse ears! 

These dudes.  All in their designated stance.  

These sweeties probably won best dressed and obviously won the most easy to photograph.  

I don't love dressing up personally, but I love answering the door and seeing all the kid's outfits!  A great night! 

Summer 2014

Well one week done with work.  My schedule is the most complicated thing on the face of the Earth (I don't even think I am being that dramatic) but it allows me to only work three days a week.  And although sometimes it is hard as I feel like I am doing nothing well instead of one thing really well, I know I would regret not spending times with these boys of mine if I went full time.  

So in celebration of week one in the books here are some memories from summer.  We had such a fun break: California, Mexico, a crazy amount of pool time, playing outside, catching up friends, and most importantly spending many days and nights together as a family!  How many days until the next summer again??

Boys getting their suntans

Spontaneous chips and salsa and margarita Tuesday. 

We cleaned the garage.  Can I offer you a scooter, bike, something to ride?

Charlie and his buddy Jed looking for planes.  I think they look like twins. 

Paul and Delilah deep in summer love conversation.  

Went to Paul's friend Charlie's house (not to be confused with his brother Charlie) and washed a car.  Entertainment for at least an hour.  A genius idea by Charlie's mom.  

Family pool time.  Paul was real stressed with the sun in his eyes.  

I love taking pictures of Charlie because when you say "cheese" he gives you this grin.  And he thinks Popsicles are pretty awesome too.  

We tried a night swim party, brought beer and ordered pizza, thinking we were real fun.  Of course it started to rain right as the kids jumped in.  They swam for a bit anyway, but were FREEZING when it was time to get out.

A lot of baseball.  The neighbor boy just started playing and has asked Ryan to play catch many, many times.  Luckily, Ryan LOVES this.  Then our boys want to join the fun.  As you can see, I just sit back and take pictures and drink a beer.  I'm really good at summer.