Monkey See, Monkey Do

Lately Jace has really been wanting to be a big boy. Not only does he want to do things all by himself, but he wants to do the same things Trevor and I are doing. Sometimes it can be a little annoying, but I love watching him grow up into a big boy.

Every morning when I go to the bathroom to get ready, Jace RUNS to the drawers and pulls out my deodorant.

Whenever we're cooking at the stove, Jace has to run and get his own spatula and drags a chair over to help. Here he's helping Daddy make some tortillas!

One day I was cleaning up the kitchen and Jace ran and grabbed a spatula from the drawer. He grabbed my hand and took me to where our bread is on the counter and kept saying "Bed, bed". I gave him a piece (the kid loves bread) and this is what I found him doing. He found the grill in our cabinet and wanted to make French Toast just like his dad. What a cutie!

It's so fun watching this little guy grow up, and it's interesting to see all of the things that he learns from us just by watching. I guess we've got to be careful now!

Scrapbooking Expo

This past weekend I went to the semi-annual Scrapbooking Expo with the girls and it was SO much fun!! They have the expo two times a year, and every time we go spend all day Friday and Saturday and the expo center and stay overnight at a hotel. There are a lot of different vendors set up with really good deals on scrapbooking shizzle...and I usually do WAY too much shopping, WAY too much spending, and not enough scrapbooking.

This year, I decided I was going to have Tara mentor me in digital scrapbooking. She has done SO many cute pages that I have decided that I want to learn so I can get caught up with my kid's scrapbooks. She was very patient and helpful, and I ended up with some super cute pages!

Here's a layout with pictures of Jace playing at "gampga"'s house.

Here's a layout of Brooklyn playing at the splash pad.

I was pretty impressed with myself! Tara did give me some input, but I did most of these pages all by myself! Now I just need a new computer (I want a Mac after using Tara's all weekend) and a zip drive and I'll be a scrapbooking machine!

Thank you girls for such a fun weekend! I love spending time with you and eating at Spaghetti Mama's! Unfortunately, I left my camera at home (surprise, surprise) but Julie took some pictures so I'll steal some off of her blog when she posts them.

Thank you to Trevor also for taking Friday off of work so I could go and playing with the babes all weekend and acting like it was no big deal. I love you SO much!!!

Yard Work

This weekend we had my niece and nephew Kylee and Rylan over because it was their parents anniversary, and because we haven't had a sleepover with them in a really long time. So what did we do while they were here? Yard work. We've got curbing and a sidewalk coming on Tuesday so we really didn't have too much time to spare. So while the babies slept, Ry and Ky helped Trev and I with the yard. They were such troopers! I told them they could stay inside and watch a movie/TV but they insisted on helping! Even when the babes woke up, we all spent a little time in the yard finishing things up.

Here's a picture of Ky girl helping to pick up weeds. She's in her soccer uniform because she had a soccer game earlier in the day where she score TWO goals! Way to go, Kylee!

Here's Rylan raking. The kids took turns shoveling, raking, and collecting weeds. How fun.

More yard work...

Even Brooklyn decided to make her presence. She was quite content on my back, although it made it a little difficult to bend over a lot. She is such a sweet little girl.

Jace had a ball outside in the dirt. He wanted to be right by dad helping him with whatever he was doing.

He loved his little shovel and rake, but preferred the bigger tools...

Anytime we'd set the tool we were using down, Jace would run over and pick it up and try to help. He would pick up handfuls of dirt and put it in the shovel so he'd have something to dump in the wheelbarrow.

We had such a fun weekend with Rylan and Kylee. Even when we're working in the yard, we still have fun. Brooklyn and Jace love to play with their cousins and Ry and Ky are so good with the kids.

As a side note, we did have some fun while Rylan and Kylee were over. We went to the park and had a picnic in the park and played for hours. We also had a movie night with lots of treats. Of course, I didn't take pictures of the fun stuff!

Hot Dog Juice

Jace has been a little grump this week. He was sick Monday, and I'm not sure if he's had something lingering the rest of the week, or what, but he's sure been moody! On one particular day I couldn't get anything right, everything I did made him cry or scream so by the time lunch time rolled around, I was ready to pull my hair out. I just wanted to get through lunch so he could take a nice long nap (which he did, thankfully!). I was so sick of hearing him whine that by the this time I basically gave him whatever he wanted. At this particular moment he wanted my water bottle and two bottles that go to my pump (yes, they were clean of course). Anyway, I gave him the bottles and gave him some hot dogs for lunch. Next thing he started whining for was a straw. Sure, Kid. If it'll keep you quiet, here's a straw. By this time I was in a bad mood too. That is, until I looked over and saw Jace.

Now take a closer look...

Yes, those are hot dogs in the water he's drinking. YUCK! What a goof! I had to laugh at him. Even though he can be a little bug sometimes I sure love that kid!

Monkey

The other day I was going through some stuff in the garage that we haven't unpacked yet. There's a LOT of toys out there we haven't unpacked or don't want to bring in to create more clutter in the house. Well, I decided Brooklyn needed a walker (which she LOVES, and walks all over the house with) and I thought she might like Jace's Pooh Car. Well, "like" is an understatement, the girl LOVES it! The only thing that worries me about it is that she likes to climb up and sit on the seat. She balances well enough, I just worry she'll tip over or something.

Well, the other day, the Pooh Car was parked in front of the TV. Brooklyn decided she'd go on over and climb up on the seat as usual. Since this was a frequent thing for her I didn't worry too much. But then I glanced over and saw this.

The little monkey decided she'd climb up on the steering wheel to reach the TV. Now I'm really going to have to start watching her. (Luckily my sister was at my house and was able to be at an arms reach while I took these pictures, otherwise, I would have been too nervous to take them.)

Hair Care

For whatever reason Jace thinks everything is hair gel and puts anything pastey all over his head. The past week for dinner Jace has had a little too much fun with his sauces.









Jace LOVES ketchup and wants "etchup" on everything. He usually doesn't have a problem with it so we let him have it and usually he'll eat his dinner better. Well, this particular day he decided instead of eating it, he'd smear it all over his hair. Lovely.































You would think that we would learn from the whole ketchup fiasco, but no. A couple nights later we were eating quesadias. Jace loves guacamole. Again, he usually eats more of his dinner if he can dip it in some sauce. And, once again, he used it as hair gel.




If I was a good mom and always had my camera with me, we would also have pictures of Jace with sunscreen, balmex, peanut butter, and frosting in his hair.