One unique Halloween bag!

Look what we found at Home Depot last week.....


Isn't that Duct Tape AWESOME! Of course, Dane had to have it and it was hard to say no to our little firefighter. :)

After admiring it for a day or two, Dane and I got to crafting. I knew that you could make all sorts of cool things with Duct Tape thanks to my savvy niece Eliana (she made a very cool duct tape wallet for Dan several years ago that he loves.) So, we did a search online for all things super cool made with Duct tape and we found this tutorial for a candy bag.

Once we had the how-to we got busy. Here's Dane laying out the tape.


After we finished, we had to play a few rounds of Trick or Treat. Here he his digging down deep for his lollypop.

And here's the finished product.

Movie Monday

We introduced Dane and Jaeger to the world of Mary Poppins and they absolutely loved it!

And they're still thinking about it several days later!

The boys and I were reading books tonight and Jaeger suddenly jumped off the couch and started dancing. I had no idea what he was doing and then I realized that the page we had come to in the book we were looking at had a penguin on it.

With all the choices of movies out there, I'm so glad that our boys can be entertained with the classics. Of course, Music Man is on our list of classics to watch - any other ideas out there?

Hollywood to H.O.G.!

Anyone remember the Hollywood stage Dane went through?


Well, Jaeger Ray has found his own stage. Perhaps, we should start calling him HOG BOY!

A day in the life

It's been awhile since my last post and a super long time since my last video. So, I thought I'd share a recent video of the boys playing together. It's been so fun watching the boys learn to play together. Some days we definitely have a lot of tears and taking of toys, but then there are those days when they are so sweet and play so nicely together. It just melts my heart on those sweet days.

Jaeger's vocabulary has just exploded and it's so fun to hear how he says words. If we didn't know better, we'd think he was growing up in France. Listen carefully to how he says garbage. :)

Impressive...

**Disclaimer: This is one of those My Kid is so Brilliant posts. I try not to post too many of these, but I was truly impressed with what Dane did the other day.

First of all, Dane wanted to write his friend Kellen a thank you note for letting him come to his birthday party. How cute is that?

Secondly, he did the below ALL BY HIMSELF! All I did was give him the paper and pen.

If you're having trouble reading his inventive spelling it says From Dane - To Kellen.

Here's the final product. He stamped all the other images.


I was pretty impressed with my sweet 4 year old, but then again, I am his Mommy and that's my job. ;)

Happy Birthday to my sweet Auntie Jenna!

I hit the jackpot 22 years ago in the friend department! Jen and I had just pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma and we both felt a little out of place for the first few weeks as we were one of the few "older" girls to pledge. We were sophomores while nearly every one else were freshman. It was this simple similarity that connected us and I am so glad it did!

I was so blessed to have met this sweet girl all those years ago! (This picture was taken right after we met.)

I knew almost immediately after meeting Jen that we were destined to be best friends. She is without a doubt the most loving and caring person I know. She'd drop anything for you and come to your rescue. She is an amazing listener and always knows what to say when I'm blue. She's a blast to hang out with and from the instant I met her I could always be myself 100%.

We've been through so much together and she's always been there for me. My life is so much more complete by having her friendship. And even though we don't live next door to each other like we said we would in college, our friendship has not suffered in the least. In fact, it's even stronger. We have such a wonderful sisterly bond that no matter how many miles separate us we're only a phone call away. And despite the craziness of our lives, we still manage to talk at least once or twice a week.

So in honor of Auntie Jenna's 40th birthday, here's a little walk down memory lane.

One of many formals together in college.

Halloween 1993?

A classic picture from one of many college socials.

River rafting down the American River after college.

Jen and I went to Telluride, Colorado after college for a summer trip and we wound up living there for 4 years! It was an amazing experience and one that deeply solidified our life long friendship.

Camping in Telluride.

I'm sure our parents were relieved when we finally decided to move back from Telluride and decided it was time to get serious. Jen got her nursing degree and I got my teaching certificate.

We each finally met "the one" and stood up for each other in our weddings. I had to include this picture because Jen gave the most memorable speech for our wedding. She was so nervous and then blew the crowd away with her wit and amazing speaking skills.

Babies came next. Here Jenna is pregnant with her first baby, Ella.

And here's Jen 7 months pregnant with her second baby, Eli, holding Dane. She traveled all the way up to Alaska to meet Dane and help out with my new journey of Mommyhood.

Here she is with Jaeger Ray. Again, leaving her own family to come help me with mine. And she was such an amazing help! She actually slept with Jaeger an entire night so I could get some sleep. I mean really, who does that except for your mom?


And here are all of our munchkins together. :)

I have so many amazing memories with Jen. We lived together for over 10 years, went on countless road trips, attended a zillion concerts (Shawn Colvin being our top favorite and most times attended!), ran marathons together, hosted lots of game nights and awesome New Year's Eve bashes in our awesome beach apartment in Carlsbad, played cards until the wee hours of the night instead of writing papers or doing homework, drank endless Mochas at the Steaming Bean and Vinaka Cafe, and shared endless stories, tears and laughter throughout the years.

I'm slightly saddened that blogging and digital cameras weren't around in my twenties as it would have been a great to preserve all we've actually done together, but the most important thing is that my heart is filled with happiness when I think of my dear friend Jen.

Jen, you are true best friend and I'm proud to call you mine.

Happy 40th birthday Auntie Jenna. I love you more than 1,000,000 naked biscuits running down the hallway. :)

Busted!

The boys have recently begun actually playing together and it's so sweet to watch them become friends. I love hearing their sweet giggles when they're having fun together (as opposed to the screeches over a stolen toy!)

The other night the boys were a little too quiet in their room and this is what I found when I went in to check on them!

Yep, they took every last diaper out of a huge Costco size box of diapers. If you look closely you can see the plastic bag that the diapers came in behind Dane and the box thrown into Jaeger's crib. What you can't see are the other 3 plastic bags that were torn into as well. They managed to somehow open 4 bags of diapers that came in that box.


Things went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. *Note to self - Don't leave a roll of paper towels in their bedroom anymore!


Clean up was extra time consuming that night, but fun was had by all! It's hard to get too mad, when they're having a blast. :)