Can I Have One? Please!!!

A sixteen year old willing to help with my children, that is.

My niece, Alex, came home with me Sunday before last after our weekend at the cabin and stayed with us until Wednesday afternoon. I just have one word to describe having her here with me: bliss.

I can't believe how much easier it is to have someone else around during the day to help with kids. I got so much done!!!

I was able to go grocery shopping, BY MYSELF!

For all you who don't have little babies anymore, grocery shopping by myself is a big deal. Really.

Even going to the park, which isn't too stressful of a thing to do, was way more fun as Alex helped corral NIk and even tried teaching him to pump on the swing.

Nikolas climbing up everything, this boy has no fear.
Just slipping in a cute Lukas shot:)

Nikolas absolutely loves having Alex around, whom he calls Alec.
Alex tolerates him very well, much better than mama does.

It was sad to see her go, Nik will still, a week later, look at me and ask, "Alec here?"
Awww, sorry Nik, not right now. She'll be back sometime though.

Pleeeeeeaaaaase come back sometime soon, Alex:)

Why, Mama?

Why?

That is a question I haven't been expecting to hear quite yet from my child, but it has started becoming common. The first time Nikolas asked me, "Why Mama?", I was a little shocked and unsure of what to say. I think the question was referring to my command of, "Don't climb the bookcase!" To which Nik said, "Why Mama?". My reply: "Um, because it will fall on top of you and squish you like a bug, remember daddy's dresser?"
I thought the question was just a fluke. Two year old boys aren't actually interested in why they shouldn't do something, are they? Surprisingly I have continued to hear the question over and over and over again.

Yesterdays whys were to these statements:
"Don't touch the stove buttons" Why mama?
"Stop dragging your brother" Why mama?
"Stay out of the street " Why mama?

Todays whys :

"let's put your underwear on" Why mama?
"Baby is crying" Why mama?
"time to get into the car" Why mama?

Really? Am I really going to have to start explaining every detail of our lives to him? Maybe he is just wanting me to talk to him more......I don't know, but now I actually need to think about why I do things and why I tell him to do things, 'cause he is going to ask.

Weekend at the Cabin

Last weekend I left Nikolas with Tone', picked up my friend Sheri, and headed to my dad's cabin in White Salmon, Washington for a scrapbooking weekend with my sister and niece.

This was the view when we woke up the next morning. It was beautiful with the fog drifting across the lake and the sun shining down.

Here is my very special friend, Sheri, who started out as my high school leader in our church youth group and has become one of those friends you can call at 4 am after puking your brains out and ask them to come over to take care of your babies when they wake up. Yep, that happened, and she came over and even brought me this disgusting vinegar concoction to help my stomache. Thanks Sheri:)

And here is my wonderful sister, Kellie, who stepped into the good type of motherly role after our mom died. I always thought that my mom would come and stay with me for a couple of weeks after I had babies, but she passed away 11 months before Nikolas was born. Thankfully Kellie stepped in and she stayed with me and cooked, cleaned, shopped and generally took great care of me. Thanks sis! I would be lost without you.

And here is my niece Alexandra, who is becoming more and more of an adult and friend. She is a selfless servant who rarely complains (at least not around me). She came and took care of Lukas the whole weekend so I could get some scrapbooking done. Bless you Alex!
And this is the project that I actually completed while I was there!!! It's a recipe box to hold all the many crockpot recipes I have begun to accumulate lately. Are you impressed? I sure am:) I would like to say I came up with this on my own, but that would be lying. It was a kit.

Sunday morning Kellie and I took turns taking the kayak out for spin on the lake. It is so incredibly quiet there with only the ducks and geese making their little slurping noise while looking for bugs.
Here is Kellie in the kayak. I have the same picture of me, but since most people ask us if we are twins, I figured it would be redundant to post it too.
Did you know my amazingly talented husband, Tone', made this kayak??!! He did, and I have no idea how. I just know that he spent countless hours in the garage one year building it. I'd love for him to build another one, but then I would be a garage widow, so I'm good with just taking turns with the one we have.
I love this picture. The lone kayak, the early morning fog, the rays of sun shining down.....
it all makes me think of what it would have looked like a couple hundred years ago when the Native Americans lived here.
Except that this lake is here because of 20th century dam building, so it wouldn't have looked like this at all...... but let's just pretend.

Thomas and Friends

Nikolas is currently fascinated with trains of all sorts, but especially Thomas the Tank Engine. So on Saturday morning we all went to the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Show in NE Portland where not only were there many different model trains, but there was also a Thomas the Tank Engine train!

It was perfect for a little train enthusiast and the rest of us had fun too. There was a basketball court size model train track with about 20 people sitting in their engineer booths making sure all the trains didn't crash into each other.
They had put countless hours into the whole thing and half of it replicated the Columbia Gorge, complete with Crown Point, and the other half looked like downtown Portland in the 1950's or so. There was even a little tiny drive- in movie screen that was playing "I Love Lucy"!

This guy kept popping out of the woodwork to fix stuck trains.
Isn't he great?!

Nik tried his hand at engineering his own train,
notice all the other Thomas fans.
(Jodi, I am so sorry, I totally should have called you guys!)

Someone wasn't very pleased with leaving Thomas behind. In fact, he was a wreck pretty much the whole rest of the day, saying, "Go see Thomas Train, go see Thomas Train!" in a very sad voice.
Was it worth it? Hmm, well, I suppose it's debatable, but I will say, "yes". My little boy had a memorable time with his daddy looking at trains and even though he probably won't remember this day in the future, daddy and mama will, and we will forget about the problems it caused the rest of the day and remember the excitement and the little voice yelling, "THOMAS!" whenever he saw the Thomas train go by.

Mama's Outa Shape

Oh I know, some of you are probably thinking, "Whatever, you are so skinny you can't possibly be out of shape.". Well let me assure you, I may have been blessed with skinny genes from my mother, but I am in no way, shape or form, fit. In fact, I tested my theory out today and went for my first bike ride in a year and a half. It was totally impromptu as Tone' and I and the boys were outside working around the house in this gorgeous fall weather when I looked at my bike and said, "Oh how I would love to go for a bike ride....". To which my wonderful husband said, "Well, what are you waiting for, GO." Normally I would have replied something like, "No, I need to go to the store if I am going to do anything." or "No, the house needs to be cleaned" or any other number of excuses. This time, though, I surprised myself and said, "okay, here's Lukas." and off I went. (After I put my helmet on of course) The further I rode the more I realized how incredibly long it has been since I peddled my mountain bike. Here's why:

1) within a mile my quads and calves were burning

2) I remembered too late why one shouldn't open their mouth wide while biking, (bugs make me gag)

3) within a mile and a half I realized my back side is much larger than my bike seat (my seat must have shrunk since I last used it)

4) I biked the two miles in the same time as I used to RUN two miles in college, how sad is that?! In my defense: I was having to figure out all my gears again as I kept getting the hard and easy gears mixed up. (just another excuse)

So, it is blaringly obvious that I need to actually start working out, in some way. My friend Jodi
and her sister are planning on doing a triathalon sprint in April, I believe, and I opened my mouth upon hearing this and said, "Oh, I want to do it too!". Well Jodi, I think it is time we started using that elyptical of yours. And SOON!

Baby, It's Cold Inside

As in, 48 degrees cold. Inside our house! Thursday evening we were getting everyone ready for bed when we noticed the house was beginning to become very chilly, which was weird since the furnace was running. We checked the temperature and even though it was set at 70 the actual temperature was dropping down below 60.

UhOh.

Not only would that stink normally, but Lukas had a cold and Nikolas was just coming down with one. So we bundled them in fleece feetie pajamas and tucked them into bed knowing there were probably going to be two extra little bodies in bed with us at some point during the night.

There were. Nikolas woke up at midnight screaming that his leg itched and he wanted lotion, yes, lotion, he's weird. I think it is just a ploy to get me out of bed and then to get to come into our bed. Well then, Nik's screaming woke up Luke and by then the house was freezing cold and so I brought him into bed as well. Unfortunately our bed is a full. Four people, regardless of their sizes, do not fit into a full size bed. Let me tell you. So Tone' got the boot. He went and slept in Nik's bed and the little boys slept fitfully with mama. Yeah, all you who felt sorry for Tone'. He got to burrow into the covers all night while I was dealing with two crying, kicking, turning, stuffed up little boys, one of which wanted to nurse during the night. Have you ever nursed in the middle of the night in 48 degree weather? Not fun.

Good news now though, we have heat once again! I promptly called the furnace repair man and was given the, "he'll be there between 12 and 5" line. Thanks. So I waited, and waited, and waited and at promptly 5 o'clock he arrived. Thanks again. Well, apparently our furnace was overworked and shut itself down. Did you know that you are supposed to clean your furnace filters periodically? Yeah, you are.

We have never cleaned them. Oops. That could be why my nose is always stuffed up at night when the furnace is on. Hmmm, coincidence? I don't think so. Tone' came home and cleaned them, so I am hoping that will help the situation, and hopefully our furnace will keep working now.

Typical Day

Thought I would let you all in on a typical day in our household during the day. Today I looked out the window and decided we needed to rake some leaves. So I put Lukas on my back in the Ergo Carrier and started raking. Nikolas immediately jumped on his trike and started riding through my pile of leaves and spreading them everywhere. I didn't mind though as I love being outside so the more leaf raking the better.
Awwww, the finished product. I'm sure tomorrow it will look just like the before picture though.
We also went to Albertsons where they paid me $7.28 to shop there. You can read more about this score here.

Then it was on to home where I needed to start dinner but little Lukas just wouldn't let me put him down without him screaming and trying to climb up my leg. So for sanity and safety's sake i put him in the Ergo and he promptly fell asleep. He was there sleeping for half an hour until Tone' came home and was able to help me get him into his crib. The poor little man is having a rough time of teething right now as he has 4 teeth coming in on top and he only just got two more on bottom. Needless to say he hasn't been sleeping much, which means mama hasn't either. After 2 1/2 years of having babies, though, I have gotten used to it and can function on little sleep. Though I don't think my brain operates at full capacity most of the time.

Baby Needs A Bath

According to my friend Sheri who was over the other day and while she was holding Lukas said, "I think Luke is due for a bath, he's smelling rather sour." I tried to think of the last time I bathed the poor boy.....I can't actually pinpoint it. It's been a while.

I know what you are thinking, "Ewwww, gross, why don't you bath your children?"
Well, I have a few reasons, okay they may be excuses, but some of them are really good excuses.
1) Our home has no bathtubs - this alone is my main reason. Without a bathtub we have two options; bath them in the sink, or bath them in the Rubbermaid container in the shower. We used to bath Nik in the sink until he was almost 2, but it became increasingly difficult as he kept growing so we had to go with the Rubbermaid for him. I used to bath Lukas in the kitchen sink but then Nik wanted in too so we had to just start bathing them both in the container in the shower. Last night when I bathed Luke in the sink I realized why else we had stopped bathing him there, he splashes like crazy and sends water everywhere which has caused the backsplash on the counter to rip away from the wall. Lovely.

2) I'm lazy. Since bathing isn't easy, I just really don't want to deal with it. It is such a pain to set the container up and then deal with it all in our micro bathroom and then I end up getting soaked so I just would rather have stinky kids then give them baths.


So now you know another of my dirty little secrets, with this one actually involving dirt.

I Have A Little Secret

Nope, not pregnant. Haha! I got your attention though, didn't I? Actually, my secret is that I have been moonlighting on another blog that my uber amazing friend, Angela, and I have started called Frugallivingonline . It is all about saving money on groceries, household goods and various other deals we find. We are way too excited about it and have been posting like crazy, let me rephrase that, Angela has been posting like crazy while I have been posting like a normal person (not that normal is good in blogging as what people want are lots of posts, that is why when the idea to do a blog on deals in the NW popped into my head I immediately called Angela, cause, well, she's kind of crazy like that) ((Love you Angela!! I mean that all in a good way!)). Anyway, if you are interested in saving money in any amount at all then check our blog out. Even if you don't want to do the whole coupon thing, there are tons of other cool stuff we post about that you are bound to be interested in. I was even able to teach an old dog new tricks tonight when I mentioned to my dad that he could get extremely inexpensive printer cartridge refills done at Walgreens. (Not that I am calling my dad old, however, he is going to be 70 this year!!!) We also do giveaways that may or may not interest you every time but surely sometime they will so you won't want to miss those.

I could go on about all the cool things you will run across, but I will let you go discover them all for yourself.

Bad Mama

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I drove all the way from home to church, a 14 minute drive, and realized when I got there that Nik was completely unbuckled. I had a little conversation with Nik that if Mama ever starting driving when he wasn't buckled in then he was to yell, "Mama, no buckle!". Well, I never really know what makes it into that noggin of his as he doesn't really acknowledge things I say very well, so I wasn't sure if he would actually think to say that if the opportunity arose again.
Guess what, it did. I left Ama and Ampa's house and the whole way home Nik was FREAKING out saying, " No drive, no drive!!!". I kept asking him, "do you want to go back to Ampa's house?" Nik: "NO, no drive!" I started getting frustrated with him and ignored him the rest of the way home, a 5 minute drive, and only realized when we pulled in what he had been hollering about. I went to unbuckle him and although he was buckled, his arm was on top of the chest harness rather than under it. Probably not a life threatening issue, but I really felt bad about not listening to him. He had been telling me just like I told him to, it just wasn't exactly what I had told him to say. Apparently I am pretty black and white about things and that doesn't always work so well with a two year old. Hopefully next time I will consider all the options when he is hollering something I just don't get.

Election High

I am having an "election high" today. It isn't from getting my vote in, though I did vote. No, the high is from all the freebies going on today at local businesses as a way to get people excited to vote. For lunch I went to Krispie Kreme and had a free chocolate covered doughnut with red, white and blue sprinkles. Then I headed over to Starbucks for a free cup of coffee with cream and sugar. Needless to say I was feeling a bit shaky not long after and decided to have some leftover chicken and noodles from last nights dinner. Unfortunately, since Lukas is still nursing for most of his sustenance he was a bit wired from all my sugar consumption and would not nap.

I think it was still worth it:)

Batman & JayJay the JetPlane

Here is our little Batman looking Oh So Cute. He even has a little cape. He had a fun time riding in the stroller as Nik and all the big kids trick or treated.
And here is Nik in his Jay Jay the Jet Plane costume. He loves airplanes so when I saw this outfit at a consignment store I figured it would be perfect.

This was the 4th Annual Halloween Bash at the Davis', though this is only our third. Four years ago there were only five munchkins and now there are 13! There have been four new babes in the past year alone. We seem to have hit a dry spell now, though, as no one is expecting, however I'm sure there will be an announcement in the near future, but not from me!

Daddy and Nikolas hitting the neighborhood. Nik was so funny this year as at first he didn't know what was going on. Once he realized that he was given candy at the first house he became super excited and sprinted to the next house yelling, "TREAT! More TREAT!!!". He also started getting tricky and after the owner would shut the door Nik would wait a second and then ring the doorbell again. He did very well at saying "kank you" to everyone who gave him candy, so that made up for his apparent greediness.
Finally at home counting his loot. He thought he had hit the jackpot as he has never owned so much candy. He had to go to sleep with it which meant that mama had to sneak into his bedroom at night to snag his candy bag so she could sample some of it herself. I have no problem taking his candy, I gave birth to him, he owes me candy for life just for the excruciating pain I endured. Not to mention the toddler years..... Love you Nik:)