Sharing a tooth brush

Testing

So I am just playing around with my new blackberry and wanted to show all my new tricks to keep you better updated. Pictures and post straight from my phone! Look at me go.

Trying to escape down stairs

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

That's what little boys our made of. Well, our little boy is made of some kind of indestructible force. We call him tank. NOTHING stops him. He can climb over, crawl through, climb up or under anything he needs to. He is already trying to reach the door handles in the rooms. Yesterday he climbed up onto the coffee table. He can climb out the dog door onto the deck, open half the cupboards in the kitchen despite the child proof locks that stop Makaylee. Just tonight he was trying to climb onto Makaylee's cute little pink play kitchen. He opens the toilet if he has the opportunity and plays with the water. This has happened twice. Having a potty training toddler and a tank who wants nothing more than to play with the water in the toilet is very difficult! Two days ago he pulled a large can of pumpkin puree onto the top of his foot. I was panicked thinking he might have broken his foot, and picked up my phone to call Mike to come home ASAP and as soon as I grabbed the phone he started cooing at it and reaching for the phone. All thoughts of pain forgotten. Every night I find a new bruise or mark on him, and he rarely cries. I am finally starting to feel the pain so many of my friends go through who have boys! Kaiden (aka Tank) reminds me of a post my friend Andi wrote about her little mad man Falco. Check it out here. Kaiden is trying to destroy my home or my sanity. Which will survive??

On the other hand I am learning first hand how totally and completely different girls are vs. boys! I think I have the ideal candidates for a study on nature vs. nurture and development of the sexes. How can two kids who have the same parents, raised in the same home only 21 months apart be sooooooooo different. Boys vs. Girls. Makaylee is gentle, she is content to cuddle up on the couch and read books, or watch TV. If we tell her no, she usually listens, she is not a risk taker in the slightest, and she HATES messes. So, the complete opposite of Kaiden! I guess what they say about opposites attracting must be true. Because Makaylee looks and acts just like me and Kaiden looks and acts just like Mike. So, does this mean they will get along or not? Does the whole opposite attract thing work for siblings? Maybe they will level one another out! A parent can hope right??

Halloween

Just quick pics for those interested. These are not the best pics, just the ones I took with my cell, I just wanted to share my little snow white and dopey. Makaylee made and excellent snow white. I have video of her trick or treating at the mall. She had a BLAST and loved it. These pics were taken at the Halloween party we went to the week before Halloween.



Is everyone impressed with my sewing skills on Dopey? That is right, I could not find a Dopey costume to purchase for kaiden, so I decided that I could make one by myself. I have to say, I was really happy with how it turned out. Mike kept telling me I should send it to his Mom for her to make it. But I was determined. So here is our little Dopey:

Don't forget to VOTE!!!!!

Vote Obama!

Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge

Just wanted to post a link to my baking blog so you guys can see my cupcake creation, check it out Cupcake Delights. Voting starts this weekend on Sunday, so I would LOVE for you guys to vote for me!

video's as promised :)

Last year at the pumpkin patch it started raining and Makaylee and Bailey had a BLAST jumping in the mud puddles. Time for a flash back video:




So when we told Makaylee we were going to the pumpkin patch she kept talking about jumping in the puddles. We have a DVD of video's of Makaylee and she loves to watch it, so she has seen that same video several times. On Saturday she did not seem interested in jumping. But on Sunday she said she wanted to jump in the mud. Well in the past year Makaylee has developed a fear of being dirty. We call her our little ocd girl. Don't get me wrong, she has NO problem with toys being all over the place. But heaven forbid she gets dirt on her hands, or her face or hands are sticky. We have two dogs that shed and if she has dog hair on her feet she freaks out and sits down to brush it off. The only exception to this is Chocolate. If she is helping me bake she gets chocolate all over herself and she has NO problem with this. Back to the point. So this is what happened at the Pumpkin patch when she tried to jump in the mud:








And just to give fair share, here is Kaiden enjoying the hay:

The Pumpkin Patch

We had a great weekend. We went to the pumpkin patch. Makaylee LOVED the pumpking patch, so we ended up going both days. They had a pumpkin patch, corn maze, hay bales to play on, animals and a childrens activity barn. We got some wonderful pictures. Makaylee loved walking around looking at the pumpkins. The activity barn was a ton of fun! They had a bunch of pans and buckets to bang on which was okay fun. But Makaylee LOVED the rubber duck races. They set up some gutters upside down on a platform and had water pumps on one end to "race" the ducks to the other end by pumping. Of course Makaylee kind of enjoyed the pumping, but she loved watching the ducks fall off the edge into the bucket of water. Also playing with the ducks in the water. We walked over and saw some animals and overall had a great day. The next day we asked Makaylee what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to the pumpkin patch. So, we went ahead and went back. I have some video's to share of the pumpkin patch, but youtube is down right now, so I will do that another day. But here are some great pictures:

Look, everyone is looking at the camera and smiling!

Happy boy sitting on a pile of pumpkins
Makaylee and Daddy smiling. This is her new cheese smile when we tell her to look at the camera and smile. Not sincere, but still cute!
Both the kids. Please smile at the same time. Come on kids, please! Well, look at the camera at the same time okay??
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this pic of him.
Hey look, a giant spider!

Smiling with Daddy

Cheese ball fake smile

Look at the tounge ;) He kept trying to get down to crawl

Kaiden likes the hooters girls ;)

We went out to lunch the other day with some friends. Their little boy who was 5 wanted to get his picture taken with the Hooters Girls, so that is where we went. Unfortunatly he was too shy to actually take the picture, but Kaiden was happy to step in. He gave us a big smile. Cute pic! I am sure he will appreciate this later in life:

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!

So I am waaaaaaaaaay behind on updating everyone on the kids. So here is a post of pics. My adorable kids over and over again :)

Happy Girl

Happy Boy:

Look Mom: One hand!
Reading books with Dad
They each can play with their own side:
Building a "Kaylee House" with blocks
Sleeping

Bath time!

Loves his giraffe
Playing on the deck!
Cheese grin
Kisses from Honey


They both smiled together!

Kisses from sister
Still cuddles with the binkie
Look Mom, I can stand! No Hands!
THis tooth hurts mom!



Making a protein shake with Dada

Hi Mom!

Makaylee is an octopus
Makaylee and Falco at the aquarium in Seattle

My First wedding!

I survived my first wedding! I was up until 2am pretty much all week last week, and till 4am on Friday. Then worked Saturday morning and successfully dropped off my cake bites at 3pm. The bride wasn't there. So I set them up and that was it. The table was getting flowers added to it and also to the top of the tier.

So here they are:

Last week was also a busy week because my baby learned how to crawl! I need to get a video on here. I took one, but the size is to large to upload. With his new found skills he is on the go and into everything. He steals poor Makaylee's toys, and tries to grab her snacks. He also went from 3 naps a day to 2. So they no longer nap together. So sad :( Kaiden naps in the morning, then Makaylee's turn to nap in the mid afternoon, then Kaiden in the later afternoon. No break for Mommy. Which is bad for the house and Mom, but good for the kids. Because now they each have their own special Mommy time.

We took the kids to the fair yesterday and Makaylee LOVED it! We were so surprised at how well she did. They both loved all the animals. Which is no surprise. Makaylee has always loved the animals. She even had a conversation with a Llama. Well the Llama was talking and Makaylee was copying the noises right back to him. She thought she was pretty cool. We then went to the rides, and knowing our little chicken we were not expecting much. She did wonderful! She loved the giant slide, went on the air balloons that go up and down, swings, canoe ride, boats, and the slide some more. Oh and the carousel. Makaylee use to be terrified of the carousel and she loved it. We bought tickets to see the doodlebops on Sunday at the fair, and I am sure we will be riding more rides. I promise to post pics soon.

Got Boxes???

Cause I do! I have about over 1000 of these boxes:
Here they are in the garage:
Yup, I better do something with this baking business cause I need to start getting rid of these boxes! Time to set up my Etsy website so I can ship. If you can believe it I got all of these boxes for free from someone on Craigslist. She has a flower/cake business and got a ton of these boxes and did not have room to store them all. So she was giving them away for free. Well, I could not pass up free!!!! They are so perfect for the cake bites! They are in the 1/2 lb size, and a full pound size. Almost all in red, and about 1 box of gold.

Halloween Costumes

Ok, so I am trying to figure out what the kids are going to be for Halloween. We have narrowed it down to three choices I think and I would like opinions! So here are the options:

Makaylee loves Jojo's Circus, and she has a pet Lion named Goliath. So here is what they look like for those who have never heard of the show:

Here is the Jojo Costume
This would be the Lion Costume for Kaiden, they do make it in his size:
Makaylee also loves Ariel So here is a toddler Ariel Costume, though I don't know if we could get her to keep on a wig, Maybe spray her hair red for the night or something instead:

And of course flounder for Kaiden:
Last would be Cinderella and a mouse. I cannot find a brown mouse like the mice in Cinderella, but I think this white mouse is super cute:
And Cinderella for Makaylee even though she is not blong :)

I wish I could get her to watch Snow White because I think having her be Snow White and Kaiden Dopey would be to cute, but she is not a fan of Snow White. That, and I have never seen a baby Dopey costume for Kaiden. But maybe just a green toddler robe and purple hat and i am sure everyone would get the point that he is Dopey. Hmmmmmm. Maybe that as an option as well. She does have the hair for Snow White! I know I was Snow white several times when I was little because I had the hair for Snow White as well :) Please post a comment and let me know what you think!

My Cupcakes are Nation Wide

This is so cool! I always follow up on this blog called Cupcake takes the Cake. They keep the public up on every thing going on with cupcakes around the nation. The authors were on the Martha Stewart Show talking about cupcakes and their blog. I joined their flickr pool, and uploaded some of my cupcakes and they posted them on the blog! Check it out here.

One night is not a pattern :(

So, last night was not a repeat of the night before. Kaiden was up from 11-12 before I gave in and fed him at midnight. Then he was up again at 3:00am until around 4:30 when he finally fell asleep until 6:30. I pulled him into bed at that time and it was restless going from then on. Mike came upstairs around 8 and I slightly remembering asking him if Makaylee was up and he said no, so I pushed Kaiden to him and went back to sleep for another 30 minutes. People, I am not a naturally peppy soul. Despite the illusion created by being captain of the cheer squad my senior year, I do not function well without sleep. If you could see my house at this time you would understand that I needsleep. My daughter takes after me in that area. She loves her sleep. She almost always happily goes to sleep and proceeds to sleep 12 hours at night, and naps about two hours during the day. Although we have started skipping naps one or two days a week, she follows the rare non-nap days with usually 13 hours of sleep. So, my son seems to take after his father. Though I feel the need to point out that his father is the one getting sleep in the guest bedroom at this time. I have been told by Penny that both Dada and Auntie Sarah were terrible sleepers when they were young. The things we do for our kids :)

As most posts have been surrounding Kaidens sleepless nights I feel it is time to give an update on Makaylee. She is growing up. To quickly. She is a non stop talking machine. Her favorite phrases right now are "oh dear" and "oh my." No, I don't talk like that, neither does Mike so I have no idea why when she spilled the markers everywhere yesterday she said "Oh my!" Then sat down and said "oh dear, what will we do now??" She is doing great in the potty training arena. We wear panties during almost all waking time when we are at home and she is great at telling me when she needs to go. Although she has yet to poop in the potty yet, we are working on it. She is great at timing the bowel movements for nap time or after we put her to bed when she has a diaper on. Yesterday was the first time she pooped in her panties. Yuck. She has had three accidents since she figured out the whole potty training thing. Twice on Mike while the cuddle and watch TV in the AM. (HaHa!) And once when we were playing in the basement, and she was just to busy to notice. She has not pee'd out in public yet, but we will get there.

Makaylee has also started to like Disney movies. She is in love with Arial at the moment. Mostly because she was given a pair of Arial panties that she loves, and so the movie followed that. She also loves fish, so it was a natural love. We were out at the grocery store the other day and I reached for the teddy grahams and she said "No! Arial crackers!" Because there was a box of disney princess crackers right next to the teddy grahams. So, it has begun, she wants her princess food. I know that I am way overdue to upload pics and video, so I will work on that soon!

People, I got sleep!

That is right, I got one night reprieve from my two week of exhausted existence. For over two weeks I have been having a sleeping war with Kaiden. We have done pick up/ put down and moved on to cry it out. Kaiden has been successfully putting himself to sleep, but he does not stay asleep. He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 every night and is up to eat at 11. I would feed him at 11 and we would fight from then until 4:30 or 5 because I refused to feed him. So during that time he decided he NEEDED his paci at all times. But Kaiden pretty much stinks at hand to mouth so far, so he was waking me up every 30 min to an hour to replace the binkie. That was not working. I tried to get rid of the paci, but he was screaming and then sucking on anything he could get near his mouth. So I gave him the paci and he passed out. So now I am going in after he is asleep and removing the pacifier.

So needless to say I have not slept for longer than 1-2 hours at a time for two weeks. My husband left me to sleep in the guest bedroom. Some night it is a quick get up, replace binkie and get back in bed. Some nights it is a never ending scream fest for up to two hours. I have been walking around in an exhausted coma for the past two weeks. Lets not forget that he was not sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time before that. It is a sad time when you can look back fondly at your sons days in the NICU because that is the last time in 7 months you have gotten a decent night sleep. Before the NICU stay I was pregnant, so I basically have not slept well since Makaylee's first birthday.

Anyway. last night I took half a unisom and went to bed at 10. Kaiden woke up at 11, and I gave him his paci, then he slept until 3:30! I fed him and put him back in his crib where he slept until 6:45. At that point I pulled him in bed with me and he slept on and off the boob until 8:30 when makaylee woke up. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, sleep. I will take it!

Parenthood

If you are a parent you know exactly what I am talking about. If you are not a parent, then I would try and explain it, but you would not listen. I didn't listen. People try and explain what being a parent is like, but I think the reason so many people go ahead with parenthood is because they have this dream vision of what parenthood is going to be like. Don't get me wrong, being a Mom is the best thing that I have ever done and I love it. It is also the hardest, most humbling thing I have ever done. Everyday I am faced with a new chalenge and a new decision that makes me question decisions I have already made. Every day my kids drive me so crazy I think I am going to loose it. Every day they almost bring me to tears with the amount of neverending love I feel for them and they feel for me. The moment your children are born everything changes. The moment you start wearing that Mama or Dada title everything seems to be so much larger than you thought it was before.

I will tell you one thing, being a Mom makes you respect, love and appreciate your Mom that much more. I love you Mom, and I miss you :)