This Child Amazes Me!

Even though Logan made a bad decision this morning.  He still amazes me all the time.  I was sorting laundry and I came into the living room to this.

 Logan is good at puzzles, but I've never seen him do a jigsaw without my help.  Interested to see how far he could get without my help.  I grabbed my camera, snapped some shots, and sat there giving nothing but encouragement to him when he got a little frustrated.

"Where does this piece go?"

Thinking hard.  (I love this photo!)

I did it!

Very proud of his work.

He did it all by himself.  I didn't show him where a piece went, I didn't give verbal hints.  I just sat there and cheered him on. 
This was a proud Mommy moment for me!

Where Did We Go Wrong?!?

Dinosaur pops...Yum!

Jeff and I really try hard to teach Logan right from wrong.  I think he learns most of the time, but apparently not all of the time.  Our biggest issue we are having with Logan right now is destruction of property.  For whatever reason, Logan thinks it is awesome to destroy any item that comes in his path.  Train tracks set up on the train table...Swoosh...knocked to the floor.  Puzzle put together...Tip...on the floor.  Clothing sorted into piles on the laundry floor...Roll, roll, roll...clothes all over the floor.  Done with food or drink...Toss...food and drinks flying.
It's horrible.  We have taken his toys away, locked his playroom, put him in timeout, taken TV away, etc. etc. etc.  He knows these things are wrong, but he does them anyways. 
Our biggest problem currently is the throwing.  He has a "Throw Box" in his room.  If I see anything get thrown, it gets put in the "Throw Box".  I do not empty the throw box for at least a week most of the time, so those items are gone for a long time.  It seemed to be working.  His throwing had decreased and the "Throw Box" is pretty empty.
Should have known it wouldn't be that easy...
A few months back we put a super nice, super expensive after market stereo into my car mainly to allow me to be hands free with playing music, DVDs, GPS, or phone calls.  It is a wonderful thing!
Today, Logan threw his water bottle in the car.
Yep-the stereo screen is smashed.
It still works, but since the screen is shattered the touch screen doesn't work properly.  I've already been to the stereo store and they are calling the manufacturer to see what can be done.  I'm hoping this isn't too pricey a fix.  Of course, every electronic we own has a "no matter what happens, we'll replace it." warranty. 
Except this stereo. Ugh.
Needless to say, Logan will not be watching TV today, has been in timeout and lots of toys have been taken away. 
Will he every learn?  And where are Jeff and I going wrong in teaching him the value of things?
I'm feeling like a BIG parenting failure today.

At least he's cute...

Memory Monday- Bowling

Man...Mondays are hard.  And I bet you are all shocked I am managing two Memory Mondays in a row!  I only have 24 minutes left to get this post done (click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about).  So far, I'm sticking to my 1 hour limit, but today is hard.  After working 24 hours in the past two days, all I want to do is surf the Internet...
Anyhow...onto bowling.
I first bowled when I was probably around 9 years old or so.  My parents are pretty good bowlers and my brother is pretty good too.  Am I good, you ask?  Nope.  Ask anyone who went to high school with me and had to endure bowling with me during our bowling lessons in P.E.  I'm REALLY bad.  REALLY BAD.  Like that first time I bowled, I bowled a 7.  Yes.  7.  No numbers missing there.  I had gutter balls until the last frame where I knocked 7 pins down at once.  It is sad.
I think in all the times I've bowled, which is not too often.  I've scored over 100 a handful of times.  I'm really bad, but bowling is still fun and I get that occasional strike or spare in there.
The last time I bowled was about 3 years ago (oddly enough now that I've uploaded these photos, it was apparently 3 years to the date if my photos are dated correctly.  Huh.  I didn't plan it that way...).  It was with my friends from work for a breast cancer benefit.  We had a blast.  I think I might have bowled closed to 150 that night! (Ok, maybe that is just hopeful thinking...)

Ha!Ha!  This was a really fun night!

Pretty sure Kim busts out the splits at every get together!

I think Rachel got a strike?

Amanda is getting ready....

Who's really pregnant here?

It was crazy bowl...

Yep-I was the pregnant one although I look less pregnant than all the girls with the bowling balls in their shirts!  Going through these pictures made me laugh so I thought it was a good way to start my Monday. 
Now, when should I take Logan bowling and show off my mad skills?

Some thoughts on Lent

I'm Methodist and we observe Lent.  I would say not to the extent that the Catholics do, but we do the whole Ash Wednesday service and "give up" something for Lent.  This is not a post about what Lent is or anything like that.   You can Google it if you want to know more. 
I remember as a young child, my Mom and Dad would do a Lent activity (or at least I think it was for Lent...correct me if I'm wrong Mom and Dad!) where we had a calendar that had different tasks for each day.  "Give a nickel for every light bulb in your house", "Give a dime for each meal you ate today", etc.  At the end of Lent, we would take the money and use it as an offering/donation.  It was fun and although we were "giving up" money, we were actually "giving" so much more. 
As I got older, Lent became more about giving up something you wanted to give up.  I've given up soda, caffeine, boys, chocolate, etc...  It was the thing to do.  I never felt as good about it as I did giving that money up when I was younger.
Several years ago, I decided that things needed to change.  I wanted to use Lent to not just "give up" but to "give".  The first few years, I "gave up" so many minutes a day to read a devotional.  This may seem like a somewhat selfish thing as I was working on my walk with Christ, but I also taught a high school Sunday School class at the time and much of my devotionals were geared toward improving what I was sharing with them on Sunday. 
In the past few years, I have continued with giving up time to do devotionals and it is really nice, but I do not teach Sunday School anymore, so I am not feeling that "giving" joy.
This year, I have decided to be a bit more specific with what I am giving up and less so with what I am gong to do.  I think everyone knows that I am an Internet junkie.  I check email, Facebook, Pinterest, and read blogs at least once an hour "thanks to" my laptop and smartphone on many days.  It is never for one large chunk of time, but the total time sure adds up!  I have recently started wondering what all I could do with that time...
So....for Lent this year I am giving up Internet time.  I am deleting Facebook, Pinterest, and Google Reader from my phone.  I have a timer set up on my phone that is labeled "Rachel's Internet Timer" that is set to ONE hour.  I will start this timer any time I get onto the web with the exception of the bill paying that I do online twice a month.  The timer gets reset at the end of the day.  I mean business here.
I know.  I know.  You are thinking "Well, that seems like a selfish give up".  It is.  Sort of.  But here's the thing.  With all the extra time I am going to have on my hands, I plan on spending more time "being" with my family.  I'm talking devotionals, park outings, crafts, tickle sessions, singing, hugging, cuddling, cooking dinners, dates, cleaning the house and so much more.  I want to be a better wife to my husband and an amazing mother to my son.
If you observe Lent (or even if you don't), take some time to think about what you can "give up" that results in "giving".  You'll thank yourself later.

"What do you have to lose?"  Ha!Ha!

Memory Monday- Not so Much the Good Luck Charm

Yep-it's back (again...)  Memory Monday!  And I promise to try to be more consistent with it...

Now you may all not believe this, but I wasn't always the hard care Cardinal fan that I am today.  I was a Cub fan. 

Haha...Just kidding- I set my standards a little higher than that!  No, but really, I have always been a Cards fan, but didn't go to nearly as many games as I do now.  Here's the reason.

Growing up, we went to about one Cards game a year.  I have seen games where the Cards hit home runs, grand slams, and had awesome games to watch, but the Cards always lost.  Always.  Really.  Once I was in college, I gave up.  I was pretty sure that my being at a St. Louis Cardinal game resulted in a loss for the Cardinals.  So for their sake, I stopped going to the games.  I don't do sports on TV (my attention span just doesn't allow for it) so I kinda lost touch with the Cards for the most part until J and I started dating. 

J did not believe me about my poor luck, so we got tickets to go to a game together with our friends.  It was the top of the 9th inning and the Cards were down 4 or 5 runs.  We had plans to go on a float trip early the next morning, so we decided to leave the game early.  Now, I am not exaggerating when I say as soon as my body went out of the stadium, we heard massive cheering.  By the time we made it to the Metro station across the street, the Cards had scored a run.  By the time we made it back to our car, the Cards had tied the game.  By the time we were five minutes down the road, the Cards had won the game in extra innings.  Really.  I'm bad luck.  See.   J decided I should never go to a Cards game again.

Flash forward a few years, a friend had tickets to watch the Cards in Milwaukee, so we decided to go.  My friend nearly caught a foul ball, but the Cards still lost. 

The next year, J and I decided we really liked seeing the Cards play in other stadiums and bad luck be darned, we were going to watch the Cards play in all the MLB stadiums before we died.

Our first stadium of the year was Wrigley!  I was about 6 months pregnant with L at the time. 

L's first Cards game:)

It was an intense game, the game just went back and forth.

7th inning, Cards up...is it too early to be hopeful?

The Cards won! 

Final score.  I took a pic to prove I was there when the Cards won!

Yep, I was there and they WON!!!  At this point we are about 50/50 for win/losses at away Card games.  Hopefully, the bad luck is gone.  (Notice that we didn't go to any of the playoff or World Series games this year though...)

J will never let me live down my astonishment and pure joy of seeing Fred Bird run out waving the Cardinal flag on the field at Busch Stadium when I saw my first home win two seasons ago.

It was awesome.

Mom & Me Book Club Fun: The Mitten

Today was our first get together for our new Mom & Me Book Club!  L and I were the hosts and had a lot of fun preparing for our fun morning. 

Our book choice for this month

I am a lover of Jan Brett thanks to my Mom.  She was a 2nd grade teacher and I'm pretty sure she owns all of Jan Brett's books (including an autographed one if I remember properly).  When choosing a book for February, I wanted to go with a winter theme and this book was perfect. 
Now, the kiddos were only so interested in listening to the story this morning and since I was doing the reading, I did not get any cute pictures of the kids reading or listening along.

I was most excited about picking the craft and snack for the day!  I wanted to do something that required no silverware and was not messy for a snack.  I finally decided on Jello Jigglers and mini-sandwiches.  I wanted to make them really fun and to go along with the theme, I decided to hunt down cookie cutters to go along with the book.
Multiple hours of internet surfing and a few shipping charges later and I was the proud owner of about sixty new cookie cutters (yes-sixty).  I was able to locate an owl and bunny in a tub of 50 cookie cutters, a hedgehog, fox, and bear in a set of 6, and a mitten set with 3 different sized mittens.  I was unsuccessful in my attempt to find a mole, badger, or mouse cookie cutter.  (Actually, I did find a mouse, but $6 seemed a bit steep for one cookie cutter...)  L loves cookie cutting anything, so these babies will not go to waste.
For two days (off and on), I boiled water, stirred gelatin, and waited for it to gel so I could cut my jigglers out.  Then this morning, I made my little meat and cheese and peanut butter sandwiches and cut them into mittens!

The finished product

These sandwiches were almost too cute to eat!

Snack Time!

L demonstrating proper technique when eating a mitten sandwich...

I also spent many hours on Pinterest and surfing the web to find an art activity to go along with the book.  I settled on mitten suncatchers made with tissue paper and contact paper.  This was easy, clean, and safe for the young kids.  They did need a little help from us Mommies though!

G (the mom) said she may have had even more fun than A (her daughter) doing this project!

Everyone hard at work

L showing off half of his mitten set

I think we all had a great time and L and I cannot wait until the next book club in March!  I have to say I was quite pleased with how well all the children (including my son!) behaved.  They all played so well together and shared too. 

"Showing off our new mittens"
Take 1- This photo cracks me up!!

Much better (other than L holding his mittens over his face...)

A and L having a good time!

When I Grow Up...

Maybe I'll be...

A movie set designer

"Dinosaurs vs. Trains" Summer 2040 Blockbuster

A stay at home Daddy/homemaker

A photographer

The possibilities are endless.  I watch Logan and wonder what will he do with his life?  Every Mom has big goals and dreams for their little ones, but I just want him to be as happy as I am right now.

Logan had a lot of fun today even with croup.  His new digital camera is a hit.  It was supposed to be a Valentine's gift, but he got ahold of it early.  Expect a post with his photos if I can ever figure out how to transfer them off the camera.

Happy Valentine's Day

We don't do much around our house for Valentine's Day, but L did have fun today!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Helping Mommy make jello

I turn around for one second...

L is much better with his money this year.  It went in the piggy bank instead of the trash...

What a cutie!!

I LOVE these two guys!

L was putting his heart stickers on everything...

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

Bark! Bark! Cough! Cough!

Our home is sounding a bit like Sea World today.   Logan has croup.  That wonderfully distinctive seal bark of a cough.  The cough that brought both Jeff and I running to Logan's room early this morning.  Logan is doing much better and after a visit to the doctor (our second in two weeks...), he is taking this croup like a champ!  I worry what tonight will be like, but the pediatrician gave him a steroid and said it should kick in around 6-8 hours and he should hopefully rest well tonight.  Fingers crossed.  One good thing is that if we get any of the snow they are calling for, it would be a great thing for him to go play in it for a few minutes since the cool air is good for croup.
Sadly, he had to miss another day of school (although this is probably where he is getting all the germs, so maybe that is a good thing...) and now his Valentine's will not get delivered in time for the party tomorrow.  They are so cute too!

Card stock folded and stapled over individual goldfish bags.  (I was shooting for swedish fish, but couldn't find individual packets.)

Pink for the girls

Aren't they just the cutest!

Logan did a little autographing!

These of course were of Pinterest inspiration.  I love Pinterest, I may just dedicate a post to it soon.

Where's the brick?

Remember this little baby...

And this little bear...

And this little boy...

He just keeps growing up!

iPhone Sunday Funday!

Well, it's been a while since I posted (like almost a whole week!), so I am trying to get a quick post off and I realized that I haven't loaded any iPhone pics recently.  Let me tell you.  iPhone pics are awesome.  I'm pretty sure you could chronicle the last year of our life just with my iPhone pics.

Logan enjoying a Popsicle (almost as big as him) a few weeks ago while he was sick

A sure sign of potty training-Cars underwear in my purse...(The best part is that Logan slipped these suckers in there before we left the house)

Gymnastics with Addy

"Cheese"

And he's off...

So now you know what we've done in the past week or so.  Got over illness, started potty training, went to a gymnastics play date.  See you didn't miss much at all!