Leslie's House of Snot

Just sitting here thinking about how much I hate snot.

I have a profession in which 90% of the time ALL or some of the children in my care have some sort of snotty nose.

The amount of tissues I go through in this place could stuff a living room of couches.

It shoots out in rockets, it drips, it runs, it hangs. It comes in clear, yellow, green and sometimes orange.
They lick it, they blow it, they touch it, they smear it from ear to ear. Sometimes it even stretches an arms length.
Ever heard of a nasal aspirator? Its a fun little gadget you can use to SUCK it from their face and then squirt it into a kleenex. Really?!?! Suction snot out of a 12 month olds unwilling face. This is my job.
And despite its complete and utter grossness, they HATE it when you try to wipe it off of them. So there is screaming and crying and squirming and it just gets all over everywhere, including my clothing, my furniture and my hair. Yea, snot in your hair is awesome.
Thinking of renaming the place "Leslie's House of Snot"

Our holiday photo shoot

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and hoping it is filled with as much fun as we are having over here this year.

My babies are growing up so fast. Braeden is such a great, loving and helpful big brother. He just turned 8 and Liesl just had her 1st birthday last month.

Awww. Aren't they just the most adorable angels! Sweet little pink cheeks and pearly white toothy smiles. Those beautiful blue eyes...

Ok so there was a whole lot of this before we got that.

Gimme that hat!

Mom I can hold her...

tackling, wrestling, giggling....

Here brother let me just push this button right here....

What would Chritsmas be without just a little bit of naughty.

Merry Christmas!!

Can you fell the Merry??

Braeden decided he was to big to sit on Santa's lap this year. He took one for the team to help Liesl. You can see how much it helped. :) Someday the stressful hour we spent waiting in line for this wonderful memory will be forgotten.

Just figuring out some new stuff on Picasa web albums. Havent posted any pics from Liesl's birthday yet. Here she is, not shy with the cake!!

Things I say a million times a day...

I find myself repeating a few key phrases a million times a day...

~Are you poopy?

~Do you need a nap?

~Is that the way you are supposed to play with that toy?

~Do you stand on the furniture at home?

~Less talking... More eating

~Does somebody need a time out?

~Thank You, but put that back in your mouth. *or* Get that out of your mouth!!!

~That's not YOUR cup.

~ No Hitting! * and other variations of We don't hit. Be gentle. Soft touches....

~Be careful!

~did you brush your teeth??


`

I"m still a good mom even though...

I know that I am a good mom.
I am not perfect, theres always room for improvement, but still I am a good mom.
Everyday someone says something, or I read something, or I do something that makes me feel, well..... less than perfect. And so my new mantra has become

"I'm still a good mom even though":

I sometimes raise my voice.
(ok I yell, but this is how they know I am mad. The louder the voice the angrier I am. DUH?) I read an article recently that said I should whisper at them. My son whispered back "great speech mom")

I feed my kids white bread.
(though apparently I "might as well give them cupcakes")

I sometimes microwave food in plastic containers.
(but believe it or not I am smart enough not to microwave plastic wrap)

I let my toddler play with cough medicine bottles while I get dressed.
(thats what the child proof caps are for, right?)

my kids still eat hot dogs, fish sticks, and Easy Mac.
I won't eat a turkey dog, I wont make my kids eat a turkey dog. They like fish sticks...and gosh darn it, Easy Mac is ....EASY!

sometimes they go to bed without reading a book.
because sometimes Mommy is just plain tired.

I dont always fight with them to brush their teeth.
I already fight with them about a million different things all day, baby teeth fall out. They can have this one.

I haven't decided which preschool I will be sending my 11 month old to yet.
I know people with 8 month old kids who have already chosen a preschool. I think this is rediculous.

My 7 year old plays video games and watches "the Suite Life of Zach and Cody" ALOT.
Maybe this is age appropriate, maybe not so much... it could be worse. He's not watching soap operas, or Maury Povich.

i think dinner time is for eating not playing games.
I just read an article about playing games at the dinner table to encourage good behavior, social skills and just to keep the kids seated. I have to say "start eating" and "less talking, more eating" about 300 times during a meal. If we played games at the dinner table there would be zero eating. Zero.


My kids are healthy, happy, smart and funny, clean and well dressed.
I'm still a good Mom. :)

September!!

Us at the Johnny Appleseed Festival. Liesl's 1st hayride.

Braeden and I at the Canfield Fair. He loved sitting on all the tractors and military equipment.

Liesl is walking up a storm now!! At 10 1/2 months she has about 10 or so words and can sign "all done" and "milk". She walks all over the place. We like to call her "Grabby" because thats pretty much the name of her game these days. She wants to touch everything. She enjoyed her first Canfield Fair, Johnny Appleseed Festival and hayride, and Octoberfest.

Braeden tried out and MADE THE NORTH ROYALTON TRAVEL BASEBALL 8U TEAM!!! This is an even bigger deal than we had ever thought. they only picked 10 kids. It is going to be a huge time commitment and a decent financial one. ugh. He will get professional hitting and pitching lessons and will get to play 20 games, plus one or two tournaments. Uniforms alone for this team cost 200$. We are very proud of him and are looking forward to getting started. (in January) I signed up to be the teams treasurer, It will be fun to get to play in the money again. :) We need to fundraise about $ 7,000.

Scott and I are looking forward to a short trip to Vegas the first week of October. His company is pretty much footing the bill because its for a continuing education experience. Called VisionExpo. "The Situation" from Jersey Shore is going to be there, as well as Ari from Entourage. Mostly, I'm just excited to have some adult time in the sun by the pool. (Ceasars Palace pool to boot :o)

This year is just flying by. I can't believe its October already.

Gluten Free Diet on NBC Today Show

Gluten Free Diet on NBC Today Show

I thought this was interesting since most of the people I know have tried and failed at a gluten free diet. Its not as easy as it looks.

First day of 3rd grade

Braeden started 3rd grade last week! He was pretty nervous about it this year. He got a new lunch box because we decided he had grown out of CARS. :) Of course he woke up way too early.


This year he decided he was too big to have his picture taken getting on the bus, but thankfully his bus driver didn't agree and he made him turn around and give me a smile.

I wanted him to stand in front of the front door for a picture, but the farthest he would go was in front of the tree. I think he was afraid to lose sight of the corner in case the bus came... or maybe he was just super annoyed that I was making a big deal. :)

His new teachers name is Miss Day. I swear she is barely 12. She has already sent me home homework 3 days now. Braeden hasnt had any. :) And Apparently we have to sign his day planner every night. I can't wait to see how that works out. (sarcasm font)

Thje classroom theme is "team" and she gave them a list as long as my arm of all the "fouls" they can get with bad behavior or not turning in homework. I had to tape it up on the cabinet for reference.

We are looking forward to a great year though. He has lots of different kids in his class this year and seems to be making friends. Also the "mean boys" from the bus last year are gone this year so thats one less thing I'll be stressing about.

Braeden is also looking forward to trying out for a travel baseball team this year. I told myself I would never let him do that, but he did sooooo well last season and a few of the other parents even emailed me and told me he should. We'll see if he makes it though.

Verizon Droid 2 Commercial

This commercial made me think of Scott. This is exactly how he is on his phone. I swear he can text THAT fast!!! He had the first version of this phone and sent it back because the keyboard wasnt fast enough.

Valued Moment 3-24 - The Middle

Sometimes I think we all feel like this. Like we're "just" moms. But being a mom is the best thing that ever happened to me. I've never tried harder at anything, or cared more about anything. I think my children are absolutely a reflection of me and they make me proud everyday. Being a mom is hard work and sometimes I think most people don't realize just how much thought, energy, planning, blood, sweat and tears go into it.

I loves this episode becuase I do a million invisible things (like find the missing care keys in the lego tower) everyday and sometimes its really great when somebody notices.

I am a mom, I can do ANYTHING!!!

ELLIE_DJ.wmv

When this episode aired I rewound it and watched this part about 6 times. I wish I was quick enough to record things Scotty says. I just love being right and being able to say so. HAHA. :)

New GEICO Commercial - Piggy

I laugh so hard every time I see this commercial. Scott hates it, and that I laugh so hard. :)

More vacation pics

We had so much fun on our Florida vacation, honestly the pictures don't even do it justice.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

We went to Epcot. It was sooo much cooler than I remembered it. Braeden had a lot of fun. This is us being silly in England.

On our last night we went to Margaritaville at Universal Studios. It was like being a a big party.

The Epcot ball is still something to see, and the ride inside was awesome. At the end you get a video with your pictures integrated into it in your car, I havent figured out how to save it to my computer yet tho.

If I lived in Florida I would wear my ears EVERY day.

I Heart Cinderella. At the Magic Kingdom they have little boutiques where they dress up the little girls in princess dresses and style their hair in up dos with tiaras and glitter. I am going to start saving my money now because when Liesl is old enough she is gong to get to be a different princess every day. It was soo cute to see all the little girls walking around.

This is Liesl and I in our matching suits. :)

Scott was even taller than Goofy.

My favorite character is Donald. Braeden couldn't figure out how I could talk like him.

Isn't this the cutest picture of me and Minnie?

Grandpa Eye decided at the last minute to go to the character breakfast with us. Doesn't Liesl look just like him?

While we were waiting for our table all in our hats we must have looked like a bunch of tourists because a very nice man and his daughter came up to us and gave us a handful of park tickets. Turns out they were park jumpers and we got into Epcot for FREE!! Thank you very nice man at Beaches!!!


This is Cinderella in the electric light parade. Did I say I heart her?

One of my favorite memories of being in Disney as a child was getting the Mickey shaped balloon. (mine was blue) I couldn't wait to buy this for my kids... It is still inflated BTW.

Braeden and I watched every episode of the Swiss Family Robinson show just so he would know what this was when we got here. This is him in front of the Swiss Family treehouse. He liked it, but I think it has seen its day and they should tear it out. We were the only ones on it.

This is us waiting in line at the "Its a small World ride" I just love this ride, I could go on it over and over. I was sooo happy to see my kids on it. My next favorite ride is Peter Pans flight.

I have an ear hat from my trip to Disneyland when I was 8. It has my name on the back in yellow. Both my kids have ear hats with their names on them now, and I loved watching B in this all day. How cute!!!!

Mom and Braeden had a blast on the tea cups. Braeden had the BIGGEST smile the whole ride.

see how much fun we had!!!!!!!

a whole bunch of firsts!

I had a VERY exciting month of July. I turned 8 months old. I learned how to crawl and pull myself up on anything and everything I can. I've tried lots and LOTS of new foods but I think cheerios are my favorite.

I had my first car trip all the way to Florida and got to go to Disney World. I met Minnie, Donald Duck and Goofy and I was not really sure why they had such BIG heads. I told them to stay on the other side of the table and we would get along just fine.

This is Minnie, she likes big hair bows too! At our resort they had lots of different pools for me to try out. I liked this fountain but it was really splashy and I had to keep wiping my eyes. I also tried the lazy river in my cool Mickey float. It was so much fun I fell asleep right in the water.
Everyone but Dad had these cool ears. I really liked mine and so did Mom. We are going to go have professional shots taken in them. Disney world was lots of fun. I especially loved the Electric light parade and fireworks show.

Here's me in my float.

It was a very long car trip and I was all tired out. I liked having my Mema and Brother in the back seat to play with me though.

When we got home I showed mom how I could stand up in my bed and shake the rails until she came to get me. Its fun!

I also enjoy playing on the computer. It makes this funny chinging sound everytime I bang on it. Sometimes voices come out of it and sometimes music. I sent some pictures to facebook.

My family and I went to a baseball game. My dad ate 8 hotdogs and we threw peanut shells on the floor. I had to stay in the carrier and didn't like that much.

Last weekend we went to Rock A Hula. There was a pig head on the table and I got to try out the swing. I sure liked it and the little girl who was swinging next to me.

I also got a new Johnny jumper that I love to jump up and down in. Its really fun and makes everybody laugh. Mom also got me a walker and once I ran in it all the way down to the road!!! Mom didn't think I knew how, but I showed her that I can also crawl all the way up the steps by myself. (she didnt seem to like that too much).

AND...

I got a new tooth!!!

Its hard and I like to click it on spoons and rub it with my tongue. Mom says there is another one in there ready to come out too.

My unofficial weight is about 16.5 lbs. I go see a new doctor next week so we will find out for sure.

Baseball Season

Braeden played baseball this season. His team was the Microsoft Windows/ Cubs and he was number 8. In this league its still coach pitch and there is a 2 base per hit rule. Also only 6 runs per inning. Braeden is very serious about baseball. He watches it on TV all the time, plays it on the wii and uses his pitchback and batting ball to practice ALOT.

He had a perfect season and NEVER struck out. In one or two games he had more than 3 of the outs and he is a great fielder. The kids have to play every position, and he changes his mind everyday which one he likes the best.

Liesl and I have really enjoyed going to all the games to see him play. He invites anyone and everyone to come and watch him. I'm going to be sad when the season is over and I can't go anymore. We're thinking of letting him try out for the traveling team this fall. With one more game to go, his team is tied for 2nd place.