T-R-O-U-B-L-E

he is trouble. nothing but trouble. he is still super sweet and as happy as ever, but he is B-A-D!!! i am just not used to it. i swear ellis never acted the way he does...or maybe i just have a bad memory? she is just so easy and he is the total opposite. i know...people just say it's the difference between boys and girls. but i do have friends w/ good little boys. i guess i just got "lucky"! he does everything i don't want him to do and then ignores me when i ask him to stop. ellis gets SO mad at him when he is being bad...telling him, "you are going to get in trouble from mama". she loooves to be the boss of him. she will be great on safety patrol @ school someday.

we had his 15 month check up last week. those are always fun. attempting to keep him busy for the 30 or 45 minutes i have the pleasure of spending with him in an 8 X 8 room w/ nothing to do. to keep myself from beating him, i started taking pictures w/ my phone. here is how he spent his time:

pulling the paper down, ripping it, and then eating it.

of course opening every cabinet. but they are on top of their game @ the pedicatrician's office...all cabinets are empty :)

and the drawers...

let's get outta here before the doctor shows up....

booooooo...

i wonder what this does...

this looks bad...now, if i could just get in here...

next time i think i will bribe ellis and get her to join in the fun...maybe she can entertain him better than i can?? she wouldn't come in this time...she was afraid the doc would get confused and give her a shot too. she and bebe made some new friends out in the waiting room :)

another option

it is so HOT outside. like you haven't noticed right? we basically play in the pool everyday...at least for a little while. it is just too hot to do anything else outdoors. and my kids have to have time out of the house. they (ok...beckett) would go crazy being stuck inside for too long...which, in turn, would make me crazy. but i don't want them to get tired of the pool...we tried going to the park the other day @ like 9 a.m...nope...too hot. we were gone after 5 minutes. but here's the good news...last week i found out about an indoor playground 5 minutes from my house!! totally free (it is @ a church)...anyone can go...and it is air conditioned. so...i can add a new "out of the house" idea to my list :)

that's ellis up there...

my friend ally had to go up and get beckett...he wouldn't come down. no surprise there.

father's day

the above handmade card was brandon's father's day gift.  she has quite a talent, no?  he had circled clothes in the jos. a. bank catalog that he wished for.  when i went to the store to pay for them (he had the lady put them on hold for me...sooo thoughtful), they had a cute little craft table set up for the kids to make a card for their dad.  sweet!  talk about killing 2 birds w/ one stone huh?!?!   and actually, i made one for my dad too!  ha!  so i guess i killed 3 birds w/ one stone??  brandon is a pretty perfect dad...i don't know anyone who would argue that :)  i never have to worry, explain, instruct, remind, etc. when he is going to be with the kids.  it is totally second nature for him...and he never complains for a minute.  i had 2 girls weekends in the last 4 weeks...i can't complain!!!  and over those weekends, he took them both to 2 birthday parties solo.  he earned a gold star for that :)

discovery green

friday we headed out to meet the leaman girls at discovery green...it was our first successful trip there. the first failed attempt ended with a rainstorm that hit downtown right as we drove up. second time was during the swine flu outbreak...we pulled up and saw crowds of germy kids. we left :)

i loved discovery green...i will for sure be back. i was very impressed...they keep it SO clean...lots of fun things to do. and so cool that it is right downtown. i do suggest going early...we met @ 9:30 a.m...beating the crowd and the heat (if that is even possible!)

aren't they cute together?!?! matching swimsuits :) they have an insane amount of fun together...acting so silly...avery has a fresh summer haircut- thanks to big sis :)

they were so not into this picture idea :)

who wants lunch?!?! i do! they were actually playing a game called "milk"....you have never heard of it because they made it up.

just being cute...

did i mention the munckin was there too? he just runs around following them...thinking he is part of the group...

beckett doesn't seem to understand what they are doing...

it was a fun day...we ate @ the lakehouse...right there @ discovery green...great food...kinda pricey. just burgers and stuff but i think it was like $35 for me and the kids...clearly not mcdonalds! next i want to try the grove...probably w/ out kids :)

not sure what i was thinking...

but beckett had his first ice cream today. one would think vanilla would be the best flavor choice, or i guess i should say color choice, for a 15 month old...but NOOOO, ellis chose "crazy color" flavor. not sure if that was the real name or if that was just what the kids named it...either way, it was a crazy mess! he sure loved it though. one person who didn't love it was the "ice cream man"...as ellis called him. he is probably cloroxing the floors as i type. it looked like a crime scene in there. next time- vanilla :)

p.s.- these pics were taken w/ my new only $99 iPhone...love it!

here are michael and ellis w/ theirs...michael is due to become a big brother ANY day now...can't wait to meet little miss j! dress and bracelet from target :)

and here is the little devil...getting every last drop

mmmm...blue bell

i just want to squeeze him...he's so bad but so cute :)

how i spent my weekend

eagle mountain lake...16 girls...0 kids...enough alcohol to kill a horse...ok, more like 10 horses. love bachelorette weekends!!! congrats mrs. ford (almost) :)

fashionista

ellis has serious opinions about clothes these days...all little girls go through this i think. though maybe not to this extreme. she is very specific..."today i want a pink dress with a little bit of other colors...and i want my hair in two pony tails w/ 3 clips and one bow". that is not an exaggeration at all by the way. i am thrilled that we are out of school. i just let her pick out what her heart desires :) she is pretty good about matching and knowing what looks good with what. she is also very opinionated when it comes to my clothes...of course, if it is pink, she immediatley loves it...no matter if the item she sees in my closet is from 2003. sometimes, she will ask if she can have whatever i am wearing for her next birthday!! cute :) ..."mama, can i have your pink shirt you are wearing for my next birthday?" but she is not always nice..."mama...you won't be pretty until you change out of your jammies into something beautiful" she comments on everyone's clothes...and knows what someone had on days or even weeks later...weird. teachers, friends, other mom's, etc...she loves to talk about what they had on. and if i put her in an outfit she isn't feeling, she throws a fit..."i don't want my friends to see me in this"...if she is like this at 3, i can only imagine her as a teenager!!!!!!!!!!

bebe came over the other day to pick me up and she was wearing this:

ellis said, "bebe...you look BEAUTEEFULL...you look like snow white in that dress!"

and you know what? she was right :)

but like i said, she isn't always enthusiastic. bebe had on a denim-ish dress the other day...ellis said "bebe, your dress is not so much...it looks like it is made from jeans"....gotta love it!

love me some target

i just LOVE target. i think every mom does. you can get almost EVERYTHING there...groceries, shoes, clothes, baby gear, toys, etc. i pretty much get all of beckett's clothes there...khaki shorts are khaki shorts...polos are polos...you know what i mean? there isn't a whole lot crewcuts, gap, gymboree, etc. can do to make them fancier than they come @ target. target has the madras plaid...the critters...target has it all!! and then, i came across these cute shirts the other day...they aren't a new idea...but how cool is it that target has them? for 5.99?!?! i got them in all different sizes so he can grow into them. i don't want it to look like he attends a concert every night. i think i spent $50 or more for ellis' pink floyd one from when she was a baby. i happened to buy it @ barney's...maybe that had something to do with it?

speaking of clothes...ellis said today that she wants a little brother and a little sister...because "it's not fair that i don't have a sister and beckett doesn't have a brother"...good point. if only it were that easy :) she said the baby girl will be named sleeping beauty and the little boy will be named noodle. yes...noodle. sleeping beauty will wear only pink and noodle will wear only orange.

how appropriate that he breakdances while wearing this one :)

he looks so guilty here...like "i am so busted"

he is so crazy about brushing his teeth...he screams @ the bathroom door until i let him in to get his toothbrush (or ellis'...as you can see he using a dora one here...but she ditched that one for a little mermaid toothbrush)...what am i going to do about that hair???

she will be a great mother one day...

ellis has a princess ball that she doesn't want beckett playing with...this presents a problem because beckett is crazy for balls (that sounds bad...but you know what i mean). this morning, she had the ball but needed to put it down while i applied a barbie band-aid to her arm. beckett immediatley ran over and picked the ball up...ellis threw a fit...but quickly came up with a little plan...she said, "here beckett, you can play with my band-aid trash"...

you know, the two little white pieces that come off the sticky?? yeah...that is what she handed to him. and he happily put the ball down and walked off. genius.

i have a feeling they will show up in another diaper :)

the little mermaid...pt II

so i have been lazy...still haven't uploaded the video of ellis swimming past day 2...so what you are going to see is ellis on the second day of lessons...she did FAR better this day than the first and then improved everyday after. glendy is so great...this was her first lesson ever, day 2.

the little mermaid

ellis had her first ever swim lessons last week. she went for 5 days straight for 30 minutes a day...one on one. they are intense lessons...there was crying...and she is for sure traumatized for life...BUT...she would now survive a fall into the pool :) the last day of lessons...you literally walk in and glendy tosses your unsuspecting child into the pool...flipping them in the air so they don't have a bearing on where they are (she actually first did this on day 2 i think). if you are in the market for lessons- glendy of glendy's waterbabies is so great. she is on facebook and takes kids as young as 6 months. she thought ellis was hilarious. any chance she got, she would tell glendy she needed to tee tee or poo poo. we weren't buying it :) and when she would come up to the top of the water everytime, after being thrown in the pool, ellis would say, "i don't want a sleeping beauty cupcake maker anymore"...the item i had chosen to bribe her with to get her swimsuit on everyday. i will post a video of her in action soon!

ellis w/ ms. glendy after the last lesson. she told ellis she could go hunting w/ her anyways because ellis had no problem tee teeing in the grass (one day she really did have to go!) swimsuit from...crewcuts...who knew grey, pink and yellow could look so cute together!?