Freeze Bumps & Fruit Loops

Have I mentioned how much I love it when the kids say something wrong and it sticks?  The teacher in me doesn't even try to come out to correct them.  We just change the name of whatever it is they're talking about...

Freeze Bumps = goose bumps
Stunk = skunk
Chicken Lake = Chick fil a
Candy Smarts = Smarties
Smellows = marshmallows
Fruit Loops = belt loops

My babies will officially not be babies anymore when they stop telling me they have freeze bumps when it's chilly in the morning.

Some days I can't wait for them to grow up so they can get dressed and make their own beds.  But some days I want them to stay little forever!

Scoot Over Girl

I usually go check on the kids before I go to bed... just to make sure everyone's snuggled in tight so their little toes don't get cold in the middle of the night. 
I wasn't at all surprised when I found this tonight...

Tucker usually gets in big trouble when he gets out of his bed.  But how can you get mad when he shows you how much he loves his sister?  Sometimes its simply not enough to just be in the same room with her. 

Free at Last

Tucker has been in a toddler bed for probably a year now... remember how that monkey used to climb out of his crib??  Reese, being our tentative, cautious child has never even thought about scaling the walls of her wooden cage.  So... she's almost 3 and still sleeping in her baby bed.  She doesn't mind though and believe me, neither do we.  That's just one less kid that's able to come tip-toeing into my room at three in the morning. 

Well... everything changed today.  The kids called for us at their normal Sunday morning time today but what we found when we got to their room was far from normal...

Seriously?  We don't have to worry about Reese climbing out, but we do have to worry about Tucker climbing in??  They were having a party and Tucker was so excited to tell us that he climbed in all by himself. 

It happened again at nap time this afternoon, so Reese officially moved into her big girl bed tonight. 

Hopefully she won't follow in her brother's footsteps (literally) and come calling on me at three o'clock like he used to.  It's official... they aren't babies anymore.  Guess this needed to happen to get read for chicken nugget to arrive.

Conversations with the Kids

Now that the kids are talking more than 6th grade girls, I want to document everything they say.  Well, at least the funny things they say.   These posts won't always come with pictures and I realize things aren't nearly as funny when you read about them as when you hear them in person, but hopefully you'll get a little laugh out of some of our Conversations with the Kids...

Here's a conversation that happened at dinner when Reese leaned back like she was full as a tick (as Grandpa would say).

      Chris: "Are you comfortable?"
      Reese:  "No, I'm Reese Taylor Tims."

Tucker and I have this same conversation at least once a week...
      Tucker:  "I want cheese mommy."
      Me:  "Okay, in a few minutes."
      Tucker: "I want to cut the cheese."

Lots more fun conversations to come.  Gotta write them down before I forget them! 

Reese Taylor Tims

Tonight at dinner Reese said, "Yummy, Mom.  Thank you Angela."  She had us rolling.  She's learned all of our full names and has moved on to the extended family.  How crazy smart is this girl??

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Wait till you hear her say "Dabid Alex Doyoyoyyoyle".  Grandpa's real name is David Alan Doyle... and she thinks it's hilarious. Especially the Doyoyoyoyle part.  Funny girl.

Where's the Floss?

I was trying to get the kids in the bath the other night and Reese escaped.  This is how I found her a couple minutes later...

What can I do people?  Really?  I'm just glad she has good hygiene.  At least I'm teaching her something, right?

Weirdness

It's been a weird couple days. Crazy, random things keep happening in the Tims' house.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any of them on camera but they're definitely worth writing down...

These things have all happened within the last few days...

1.  Tucker went to the bathroom in the potty like a big boy. 
2.  Reese got stung by a bee. And hardly even cried. 
3. Tucker got up in the wee hours of the morning and covered himself and his bedroom in Vaseline.  This event is really worth a whole post... but I don't have the energy b/c it took me 3 hours to clean up the mess.  Not to mention that he did this to me on the first day of school.  He's turning rotten and I obviously hadn't child-proofed his room enough. 
4. Chris went grocery shopping, started the atkins' diet and sent me flowers at school.  Who is this guy? 
5. I got a ticket in the mail for running a red light.  It wasn't me... despite what the picture showed. 
6. Tucker threw up in his car seat.  Do you realize how hard it is to get those covers off to wash them?

All that and I still made it through my first day as a principal.  It's gonna be a crazy week!

The Bars Came Off

Tucker is a climber and always has been.  He likes to climb up on the arm of the sofa and jump off. He likes to climb on his rocking horse, stand up really tall, and say "TaDah".  He likes to climb on the changing table and look at himself in the mirror.  I really can't believe we haven't had to make a trip to the ER yet.  He climbed out of his crib a couple times when he was 18 months old, but we were able to convince him to stop.  At least for a while.  This weekend he started climbing out again and there was no stopping him this time.  So, the bars came off. His crib converts to a toddler bed and now he thinks he can get up at crazy hours in the night and come wake us up.  It's like having a newborn all over again.  Help us.  He's great about going to bed... he doesn't get up and try to fight us about bedtime.  But he's torturing us by getting up at 3:00 in the morning just to say "Hi Mommy".  He's the happiest person I've ever seen at 3 in the morning.  We're trying to things to keep him from getting up. No, we're not tying him up... at least not yet. 

He and Reese had a blast playing on his new bed.  Poor Reese was sad that she had to get back in her regular old bed.  There is no way I'm letting that girl out until I absolutely have to. 

Pray that this boy lets us sleep all night tonight.

Weekly Funnies

The kids are constantly saying and doing things that make me laugh out loud.  And if I don't start writing them down, it will only be a matter of time before I forget the funny, adorable things they did when they were 2. Since this blog is meant to be a journal of our lives, I'm going to try to start recording these weekly funnies.
Here are a few of the top funnies this week:

1.  Reese learned my name this week and she thinks it's so funny to call me Angi instead of mommy.  She looked at me while playing with her blocks said out of no where, "I love you Angi".  Then she cracked up at herself.

2.  Tucker is such a good eater.  He'll devour just about anything which makes life at the dinner table pretty enjoyable.  Reese is usually pretty easy too, but every once in a while she boycotts what I make and doesn't want to eat.  We had hamburgers this week and Miss Priss refused to eat.  Tucker inhaled his so he got some chips (which Reese loves by the way).  I thought this would motivate the girl to eat but it just caused her brother to turn into a little sneak and pass her chips under the table.  Every time I looked up she was eating one.  They conspire against us, I'm tellin' you. 

3.  Reese is playing mommy these days.  To Tucker. To her dolls.  To whoever will let her boss and nurture them.  She was feeding her baby the other day and told me she was crynin (crying). I suggested that she sing to her to make her feel better.  Reese looked at me, looked down at her baby ever so sweetly and began singing her ABCs.  So stinkin' funny. 

And if this doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what will. 

The funnies make up for all the times they make me want to pull my hair out.   

5 Things That Made Me Laugh Today

It rained pretty much all day today... which ruined our swimming plans.  It would have been easy for it to have been a frustrating day all locked up inside, but several things happened that made me laugh out loud...

1. Hearing Reese say,  "Daddy, your seellee (silly)" as he danced around the house singing an old hymn in his Elvis impersonator voice.  This is her new thing... and she says it unprompted and always at the appropriate time.

2. Noticing that someone thought the baby needed her shades for nap time. 

3. Hearing Reese say, "I take a piture" as she held her flip flop up to her eye and pretended to photograph Tucker on his horse.  Then they switched places and Tucker took one of her.  Oh how I love to see them play together.

4. Hearing Tucker say, "No Daddy, No Daddy" when Chris grabbed and kissed me today. He's so protective.  Anytime Chris is playful or teases me, Tucker steps in and tells him "No, Daddy" in his mean voice.  At least I know my boy will always be there to protect me.

5.  And finally, the condition of my living room after a whole day at home.  And yes... those are Chris' boots and jeans in the middle of the room. He's as bad as the kids sometimes.  This may be one of the reasons I'm not a stay-at-home mom.  OCD Angi couldn't handle this all the time.

I hope you found things to laugh about today.

High Maintenance but Hilarious

Having two kids the same age makes it next to impossible not to compare. Tucker is agreeable, laid back and pretty easy. Reese, on the other hand, has been labeled the difficult one. She’s temperamental, moody, stubborn… just plain high maintenance sometimes. She is all those things… but stinkin’ hilarious too. When she’s happy… she is really happy. When she’s silly… she’s really silly. She’s constantly making me laugh.

Most of the time, it’s just minutes after making me want to scream.

Couple funny stories:

She’s way into playing mommy right now. She’s bossy (like me) and must be in charge (again, like me) so she makes a great mommy. The other day she was putting her baby to bed in her playpen so she hugged her, gave her kisses, and said, “love you”. She laid her down, looked at me, looked at the baby and yelled “NO” and then spanked her. Then she picked her up, spanked her again, looked at me and said, “Spankin”. Okay, so we may need to reevaluate our discipline methods.

She also must have kisses when she hurts herself right now. She totally milks all her injuries. If she falls down, bumps her head, etc… she comes running, yelling “Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.” It’s amazing how magical a kiss can be. She’s always healed instantly. Anyway, last night she pinched her finger while playing with the faucet in the bathtub. She looked at me with pouty eyes and said “Kiss. Kiss.” Then she smiled and said, “I kiss it” and she kissed her finger. Instantly, she was healed. One less thing she needs me for now. (Sniff Sniff).
Little Miss Personality is constantly keeping us on our toes… we’re either laughing or crying when it comes to this girl. She looks so sweet doesn’t she?

Don’t let her fool you… she’s a mess.

He's as Crazy as He Looks

Okay, so this picture has nothing to do with this post... but it is pretty stinkin' funny, isn't it? We have Aunt Amber to thank for this one.

So... I went to get the kids up this morning and I heard Tucker yelling "Mommy... Daddy" as I approached their room. As I got closer, I realized that someone was banging on the door trying to get out. Of course, I was totally confused because they still sleep in cribs and I couldn't imagine who might be trying to get out of their room. Yep, it was him... our little monkey, Tucker. Books were thrown about, Reese's hair bows everywhere, and he was just standing there smiling... like he'd really accomplished something. Please, oh please, let this be a one-time event. I'm totally not ready for toddler beds.

Don't Do This at Home

I have to preface this with "I do the dishes, keep a pretty clean house, and don't generally hide things in the oven." But desperate times, call for desperate measures...

I preheated the oven for what I wish I could say was this gourmet meal or something. But unfortunately, it was for bagel bites. What can I say? I'm a junk food junkie.

Anyway, after about 5 minutes, smoke started billowing out of the kitchen. I immediately knew what happened. You see, yesterday we had someone call and want to come look at the house unexpectedly. In true mom fashion, I stashed the cake pan and plastic lid (that housed some cupcakes that I finished off earlier), the muffin pan from breakfast, and an empty Tupperware container that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher into the oven. I knew the home buyers wouldn't look there.

Yep, you guessed it. I totally forgot they were in there when I pre-heated the oven. The Tupperware container and the cake-pan lid totally melted all over my oven. We had to evacuate the house due to the horrible nostril-burning fumes created by the melting plastic.

Here are my poor air bake pans... ruined by the 40 year old melted Tupperware....



Okay, this totally reminds me of another embarrassing story. I'm not sure why I feel so compelled to share tonight. I guess I need some sympathy "don't feel bad, I've done that before too" comments.

Anyway, when I was a new mom and worried about sterilizing everything, I put two nasal aspirators in the microwave sterilizer that I had for the babies' bottles. I thought, "hey... their bottles are plastic too, so no problem, right? " Yea, I learned the hard way. They came out completely melted and stuck together. Wish I had a picture of that to share with new moms.

Note to self... just do the dishes already. And don't stash things in the oven, it's a fire hazard.

Frizzy Hair and Mosquito Bites

The two things I can usually count on when we go to Houston are frizzy hair and mosquito bites. I got really lucky last weekend though and didn't have to deal with either one. I was really excited. It's the little things in life, right? Anyway... the kids love to play and swing in Grammy and Grandpa's backyard and this time we didn't have to bust out the mosquito repellent.

They love this swing... they'd twirl around for hours if we'd let them. I don't know what's happened to me, but I get horrible motion sickness now. I used to love roller coasters and now I get sick to my stomach just looking at a swing. What in the world??

Reese is wearing my first attempt at a dress. Not too shabby for my first semi-major sewing project.

Look at Tucker with his arm around his sister. Sometimes he's pushing her down in the dirt and other times he's lovin' on her. You just never know.

Tucker's diggin' for the treats that Grandpa hid in his pocket.

"More puffs please." We were bribing them with food. It didn't quite work out the way I planned. Instead of them being content and happy to take a few pictures, they were restless and just wanted more. I think they were reaching for more food in just about every picture we took!

The kids would rather be outside right now than anywhere else. So, it was good that we didn't need a mosquito net last weekend. Thanks for a fun weekend Grammy and Grandpa!

Emmy's First Birthday

I'm not sure who had more fun at Emerson's party. The birthday girl, herself, who got to have cake and ice cream for the first time...





Or Uncle Chris, the psycho princess...

As you can see by the bald head at the bottom of the picture... Reese was staring up at Daddy thinking "Who is that crazy man?!"

Bucket Head

Reese and Tucker are obsessed with Rubbermaid tubs. They are definitely their mother's children. After all, I'm pretty sure I'm single-handedly keeping Rubbermaid in business. I hate boxes like I hate wire hangers. In an effort to improve my frugality, I have recently begun using the millions of diaper boxes we have for storage though. What can I say, I'm all about personal growth.

Anyway, the kids have some blocks and stuff that we keep in Rubbermaid tubs... they love to dump the toys out and fight over who gets to run around with the bucket on their head. I guess Reese won this round...


Aunt Jen took this picture of our little bucket head... too cute.

Secret Rendezvous

Last weekend, I met Chris in Georgetown on his way back from his conference in San Antonio. Since it was Valentine's Day weekend, we thought it was a perfect opportunity for a fun little getaway. So, I dropped the kids at Brian and Jen's and headed to Georgetown. When I got there, I went ahead and checked in to the hotel. Long story short... the hotel clerk was convinced that I was having a secret rendezvous with a married man.

Note to self: don't forget to wear your wedding ring when you're meeting your husband at a hotel for the weekend.

You think forgetting my wedding ring was bad? How about forgetting my suitcase? Yep... forgot that too. I'm really not a dingbat... I actually have a pretty good explanation. Again, long story short... my suitcase ended up in Brian and Jen's house along with the kids' stuff. So, when Chris and I got back to the hotel late Saturday night, I opened the trunk and thought, "Hmm, where's my suitcase?"

Despite all that, we had a really fun weekend. We laughed a lot (mostly at me, as you can imagine) and just enjoyed being together. In Georgetown, We ate out, caught a movie, did some shopping and then went to Inner Space Caverns. I enjoyed the caverns more than I thought I would...

On our way home on Sunday, we stopped and spent the afternoon in Salado. We ate at the Stage Coach Inn (Yum) and checked out the shops around town. It's a cute, quaint little town and totally not Chris' thing... but he was a great sport.
Thanks Brian and Jen for watching the kids so we could enjoy a fun weekend alone. It was a great Valentine's Day weekend!

Really... Afraid of a Snowman?

Is it weird that we have just as much snow here in Fort Worth, TEXAS as my Granny does in MICHIGAN?? After living in Texas for twenty-something years, you'd think I'd be used to the crazy, unpredictable weather. But I guess not... I didn't realize I was gonna need snow suits for the kids this year. Next year, I guess I'll get their hats and mittens from R.E.I instead of the Target dollar bin. You live and learn, right?

I've been single-mommin' it for the past 4 days so I wasn't sure if we'd make it outside again today or not. After all, it is an insane amount of work to get the kids (and myself) all bundled up and ready to go out. I decided it was worth it to see them running and falling in the snow though. Not to mention the fact that I've been couped up with two 19 month olds for the past few days... talk about cabin fever.

So... we bundled up and went out to make a snowman. Okay, now lets be real... my kids are amazingly advanced for their age, but I won't pretend that they actually contributed much to the making of this masterpiece...



It was pretty funny... Reese was curious and willing to help until the minute the 3 balls of snow got a face. Once he was finished, she totally freaked out and refused to stand anywhere near him. Just add this to the list of things she hates... finger paints, diaper changes, carrots, and now snowmen.



Tucker, being his friendly self, just walked right up and started jabbering.

I've said this over and over... he's a typical boy: fearless, laid back, messy, gross (have I mentioned that he's walking around with his hand in his pants all the time now?) Anyway... he loved playing in the snow with his new friend.

The snow has started to melt now and will probably be gone before tomorrow afternoon. It was fun while it lasted. And who knows... crazy Texas weather might hit again before Winter is over.

Fingerpaint Frenzy

In an effort to find fun things to do indoors this winter, I bought the kids fingerpaints. Why didn't someone stop me? Seriously. I knew it would be a lot of work and really messy, but I thought the kids would love it so I put my OCDness aside for one afternoon. Well... one of them loved it. Can you guess which one?


Yep, you're right. It wasn't her. She HATED it. I thought she was over her "I don't like to get dirty" phase, but I guess not. She humored me for about 2 seconds and then freaked out about the paint on her hands. So... no pictures of Reese painting. I'll be sure to offer Miss Priss a paintbrush next time.

Tucker loved it of course. After all, he eats dirt, rubs food in his hair, and likes to suck on his big toe. He's all boy and thoroughly enjoys getting dirty.

Yes... he has it on his head, in his hair, all over his mouth, etc., etc., etc.

Here's his masterpiece. Who knows... he could be the next Picasso.

No... I love you!

Just an early Valentine's Day present from Reese...

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The other night, we went to eat with Brian and Jen and Reese went around and told everyone at the table she loved them. Melt your heart!
Tucker doesn't say "I love you" yet but I'm really hoping he doesn't start. He says "Yeah, yeah" everytime we tell him we love him and I totally adore it. I guess that's how the cool guys say "I love you". At least we'll have a code for when he's in middle school and too embarassed to tell me he loves me.