Just for laughs...

Friday night, Stephen and I decided to take the girls out to dinner and to do a little grocery shopping. We had a less than relaxing dinner (lets just say Jovie couldn't hold still) but it was still enjoyable and then we headed over to Costco to pick up a few things. As we were standing in line checking out, Stephen began laughing. He then pulled out three coasters from the hood of my sweatshirt. Pear must have decided I needed a laugh and pulled a little prank on me. These coasters were from home. They have cute elephants on them and are brightly colored. They had been in my hoodie all night. Everyone needs some accessorizing, right?

Jovie's new trick...

Silence = Mischief

In my home, when there is silence in the house it means one of two things: either Pear is into mischief or Pear is sleeping. Today it meant mischief. Watch the video, you'll see.

She obviously thought she did a much better job applying the lipstick than the job that appeared in the mirror. I don't even wear lipstick, (it's too hard to constantly kiss babies while wearing lipstick,) but lately Pear has been into anything and everything girly. She got her fingernails painted for the first time the other day and is constantly holding her hands out and saying "prinkles!" (She is meaning to say "sparkly".) She also wants me to apply blush to her cheeks any time I put it on mine and she loves to get her hand on the brush and apply it to her baby dolls as well. Little girls are so much fun!

Brian Reagan

Having a dad that is a UPS driver and an owner of a shipping company, (United Package Express,) I found this clip humorous.

How to be fashionable with children...

It's not easy to be as fashionable as I am with children. Not just anyone can walk around in pointed toe heels with a chicken nugget pierced through the heel! Yup. That's what I did on Saturday. Stephen let me get out for a little while and on my outing without the children, I managed to step on a chicken nugget that was on our car floor. I went to Capital Mall, Target and Joann's all the while with the nugget stuck on my shoe. I didn't realize it until I arrived home, kicked off my shoes and Stephen started laughing.

These are the joys of motherhood!

Wasn't Me!

While shaping out my pizza dough the other day, Pear decided to do something different with her dough. I turned my back for a moment and this is what I found!

And this is why I love The Office:

About a year ago...

It was a rainy day. Pear was mobile, crawling, and into everything! I managed to squeeze in a shower while she was napping. I then moved onto doing my household chores with Pear crawling alongside me, pulling things out of the cupboard as I put things in. I did the dishes, swept the floors and then took the garbage out. Now, taking the garbage out meant that I had to go outside and close the door, leaving Pear in. So, I explained to Pear, "Mommy is going to take the garbage out, you keep playing and I'll be right back! Okay? I'll be right back." I made sure the door wasn't locked and took the garbage out. Upon returning, I opened the door saying, "Boo! Here I am. I came right back!" Pear burst into laughter. I came in, closed the door and said, "That was pretty funny, huh?" I had a great idea, I went back outside to play peek-a-boo again. Only this time, I couldn't get the door open. What happened between the 5 seconds that I came inside to the time I went back out? I locked the door of course! Who doesn't lock the door the moment they come in the house?! (Note to reader: growing up in the little town of Montesano, we never locked the doors. We sometimes left the house with our front door wide open. The garage door remained open almost all of the time. I never carried a house key until I got married and found out that the majority of people lock doors and my husband never wanted me to leave the door unlocked. I forced myself into the habit of locking doors.) So, here I was outside on my front porch on a freezing cold day, in the pouring rain with a towel on my head and wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops. No key, no phone and no idea what to do. I quickly thought I better check on Pear and make sure she was okay. So I turned the recycle bins over and peeked through the window. I saw she was playing, content on the floor. Great! This is when I had the bright idea to knock on the window and say "peek-a-boo" as to make it into a game that I was stuck outside and she was in. Not a great idea. After doing this a couple of times, my 10 month old got the idea that for some reason I wasn't coming inside the house. She didn't like the idea and began crying. I then figured I must think of another plan. I'll go use the neighbors phone and get Stephen to come unlock the door. I ran to the neighbors house- shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops, wet head, in the rain and in the cold! I explained the situation in about 10 seconds, called Stephen, ran out of their door with a "thank you!" and stood on the recycle bin watching Pear play while waiting for Stephen to come unlock the door. He arrived within 15 minutes. He speedily unlocked the door and we all lived happily ever after!

a tale of a mouse...

As you read this, keep in mind that mice are my one BIG weak spot. As I've posted before, I can handle spiders, bugs, snakes, worms etc. Mice on the other hand, make me scream like a little girl and run for protection.

This story begins in the middle of July. Stephen told me he spotted a mouse or should I say a shrew in the garage. He was out there and it ran right in front of Pear. A week or so passed and I opened the door to go into the garage and sure enough, I spotted this mouse! I slammed the door and ran inside and told Stephen that I wasn't going anywhere until he got rid of that mouse. My hero ventured into the garage to find the mouse crawling along as if partially ran over by a car. Whoops. He scooped it up and threw it outside, where we hoped a cat might come and eat him up. A couple of weeks later, we began noticing a smell in the garage; a sort of rotting rodent smell. We assumed that he must have came back in the garage, died and started decaying. Once again, my hero went out to search but found nothing this time. We either became accustomed to the smell or it began to fade as the months lingered.

This last weekend Stephen, Pear and I set out to do some yard work. It was beautiful outside and we needed to get some final pruning, cutting and cleaning done. I got Pear all bundled up in play clothes and sent her out with daddy. I then got ready myself to go out. As you can imagine, being 37 weeks pregnant doesn't exactly make putting shoes, socks, or even pants on an easy task. So it took me a few minutes. I went out to the garage to get my grubby tennis shoes. I brought them in the house, plopped myself on the ground and held my breath for a second while trying to slip the shoe onto my foot only to be shocked by a little, dead, decaying mouse sliding out onto the floor in front of me. I jumped up faster than I imagined I could and ran out the door in a panicked state. I was so grossed out and scared that it was almost like one of those bad dreams that you try to scream but you can't...you know what I mean, right? I told Stephen of my discovery and that I needed him to go in the house and do something with that mouse as quickly as he possibly could. He laughed, went inside, got the mouse and told me to put my shoes on and come out. Can you believe that he expected me to wear the shoes again? There is no possible way I could ever put those shoes on again! I almost gag just thinking about it. I dug out some other shoes to wear and went outside to work.

And that is the tale of a mouse. The stench in the garage has dissipated and I will never keep anything outside or in the garage that I have to touch with bare hands or put on my feet again.

Laughing

Very seldom do I have a day that lacks a good laugh as I have a baby that thinks the most minuscule things that I do are hysterical. There's just something about hearing a baby laugh that brightens a day and their joy is contagious. Even if you are as lucky as I am to have a baby in the house to make you smile, this clip is sure to bring you another.