The sitter...

You have been spending a lot of time at Ms. Jamie's house with our other sitter on maternity leave and you LOVE it there!   I brought Makenna and dinner over tonight after work so we could all hang out and at one point I caught you walking around holding Joie's hand.  It was the sweetest thing.  You love to chase Rocco around, harass Nala and just hang out.  You love Ms. Jamie and she takes such good care of you - we really are so very lucky to have found her:)

Today, everyone was playing hide n' seek at Jamie's house and she sent me these pictures with these captions....

Would you like to know why he is crying??


We are playing hide n seek and Rocco hid in Nala's kennel....apparently we don't mess with Nala's kennel - it makes us upset....

"Nala, they were hiding in your kennel and it was just awful!"

Ha ha - I love that she sends me these cute pictures all day long with funny little captions....

Goofy kid!!

A lesson in coupons.....

So today Makenna and I went to JC Penney to get a birthday gift for Daddy.  She picked something out super quick (and thankfully not white pants - all week I kept asking her what we should get daddy for his birthday and she kept telling me white pants.  I have NO idea why, but it was the same every time) and headed straight for the Disney section.

Daddy has introduced the idea of an allowance to her and we're trying to teach her that if you save your money you can get something bigger or better.  She gets $2 and this week she was determined to spend it.  I will give her credit - the week before Christmas we were out shopping and she found a little wind up dog that flips over and she really wanted to get it for Alex for Christmas.  It was on clearance for $1.99 and I was proud of her for spending her first week's allowance on her little brother.  Such a big heart, this girl.

Anyway, we proceed to go through EVERY single item in the Disney section, seeing how many "weeks" allowances it will take to buy things.  She was determined to find something for $2.  Sadly the only thing we found was a Mickey Mouse Christmas ornament with 2014 on it that she wanted nothing to do with.  I finally convinced her to head to the jewelry department and she found a cheap bracelet for $2.  She was so proud to hand the cashier her $2 and be on her way with her new bracelet.

Tonight at bed time she reminded me of the things she found today that were on her birthday list.  I took the opportunity to remind her that if she saves her money she can get it before her birthday and that some things are worth waiting for.  She really wants a Periwinkle doll (I think from tinkerbell?) and it's $12.  I tried telling her it would take her 6 weeks to save up that much but she kept rattling off days - "so, mom after Monday, Tuesday, etc - I can buy it?" and I kept telling her - no, Makenna - like in March.  Once she finally realized how far away that was she was all upset.

I proceeded to teach the child about coupons and her response was priceless.  This won't even do it justice but her exact words when I told her that if she had a coupon she wouldn't need to save as much money - "mom, that is AMAZING!!!!!!"  I love this girl - I'm pretty sure she is laying in bed right now trying to figure out just what a coupon is and where she can find one.  And I'm sure everyone she meets in the next week will also learn what a coupon is.......  gotta love this girl!!

My attempt at a Christmas picture....

Task #1 - get this little monkey dressed.... CHECK

Task #2 - get him warmed up for some pictures......CHECK

Task #3 - Have Makenna try on her pretty smile....CHECK

Task #4 - get the 2 to  sit still and smile TOGETHER....

Run sissy, run!!!!

Alex, get back here!!

Hmmmm, maybe next to the Christmas tree isn't much better...

And he's off again...

Maybe if I give him a quick bottle break....

I may or may not have put the IPad on top of my head to get them to smile here.... yup, you can see it in the reflection of the fireplace glass

I think we're getting close...  this Ipad trick is working...

Keep smiling...

Now I've lost them in Ipad world....

Might as well let them have an Ipad break....

Yes, still staring at the Ipad on my head.

Back by the tree with some of mommy's silly antics...

Ready on the count of 3 sissy, 1...2....

3!!!

Hey look who is all ready to go - daddy!!  He peeked his head out from upstairs and these 2 were all smiles..... only took 20 minutes..

With a little help from daddy...

Voila!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Who is ready for a nap?  Phew!  

A day in the life......

Here is a typical day for Alex....

He goes from his toys..

 to the TV so he can push all the buttons and get yelled at,

over to the clock where he gets in more trouble....

to the front window to look out and see if there are any puppies outside, 

to the pantry where he likes to get into everything.

Mommy's K-Cups are usually his favorite, but then

he often plunks down and grabs himself a snack.  

  

Sometimes he'll take his snack with him and carry the bag of cereal from the pantry as he walks around the house...

If he's lucky he'll catch the refrigerator door open and climb right on in.

Then he'll stroll past the oven and jiggle the oven covers just for fun and peek in the oven to see if anything is cooking in there.  

Then he usually ends up checking to see if the closet or laundry doors are open and if they are he tears them up.

Sometimes he gets really lucky and the bathroom door is open.  That means toilet paper fun for sure!

Once that fun is over he'll wander back to the kitchen and get out some toys

Then it's on to the patio doors to see if there are any puppies outside.  

Then it's back in the living room to Sissy's dollhouse

And then back over to the toys by the window where he started...

Hey, it's hard work being such a cute little boy!