The spirit of Pippy lives on...

Growing up we had a little silky terrier named Pippy. From the get go, we all had a love/hate relationship with her. We loved her until she yapped, stole our underwear, or asked to go out at an inconvenient time and then we resented her.

One Christmas Eve we came home from the evening church service to find that Pippy had pooped and wiped her butt (bottom if Mom's reading this) all over the living room carpet. To say my dad was livid was an understatement. We all sat on the couches waiting to open our one present of the night while my dad crawled around on his hands and knees scrubbing at the racing stripes everywhere. We may have stifled giggles until my dad shot us the look of death.

This year Pippy died at the ripe age of 16. Cole only knew her for 4 months but apparently Pippy shared some age old wisdom with her.

    Our house has been the house of death this week with Fin being sick for the last 4 days and now Cole has it. This morning, hungover with sleep deprivation, I stripped Cole naked to hopefully cool down his fever and went in the other room for a second to make a phone call. I'm sure you can all see where this is going. A few minutes later Cole crawled in my room with a smile on his face...covered in poo.

Horrified I followed his tracks back to the living room and saw poop stripes all over our off white carpet. Shoot me. One hour later of scrubbing both baby and carpet, all is clean...but mama needs a vacation.

I tried to lecture Cole on what he did but he just laughed at me.

So then I had Mickey lecture him for me. Cole tends to listen to him better.

Mickey knocked some sense into him and Cole apologized. And then we ate Nutter Butters together to make ourselves feel better. Or maybe that was just me.

lazy summer mornings

  With Fin being sick since Sunday we've been stuck at home driving each other crazy. There's only so many times you can color Pooh pictures or watch Special Agent Oso without going a little batty. Since Fin's fever is gone now, we made a break for it and met Sarah, Will and my mom for breakfast at Ihop.

Sarah made have decorated Fin a little bit

                                            My three "special" family members

Then Cole and I played "scrunchy face off". It's a lot like a stare down....baby style. Cole always wins.

                                   Ready to get our nap on. Yes I said "our".

Keeper

Pat and Fin went on their first man date this weekend to see Cars 2. I was not invited. Fin was so excited and made sure to tell Pat that they needed popcorn, candy and drinks. He's definitely my son. Too bad I was not invited to partake of said refreshments. Pat said he was so cute and looked like such a big boy sitting there taking it all in. Did I mention I was not invited? :o)

Cole and I amused ourselves by shopping for ant poison and beach towels. We know how to partaaay. 

Can I just brag about Pat for a minute? He is the most amazing dad. He takes being the leader of our family seriously but has a great balance of being the disciplinarian yet fun dad at the same time. The second he walks in the door from work he throws his stuff down and starts wrestling with Fin. He also cracks me up daily.

I've been trying to get Cole to go to sleep on his own lately. Pat fully supports that...until Cole starts to cry. The other day Cole started fussing for maybe 2 minutes and Pat said he was going in to comfort him. "Ok, but DON"T pick him up!", I yelled skeptically after him. A few moments later I see Cole's little head peering around the corner six feet high as a little squeaky voice says, "Mama, we don't want to sleep". Thanks Pat for the support! He also went in his room last night as Cole was fussing. When it became silent I figured he got him to sleep...until I heard a Xylophone. Yes you heard me right. I walked down the hall to see Cole's light on. When I opened the door I saw the two of them banging away on Cole's alligator xylophone. Pat had unplugged the monitor so I wouldn't know they were playing. They both looked so guilty when I peeked in, I couldn't get mad,

When I married Pat, I married him for his sense of humor, his faith, and for the genuine good man that he is. Everyone loves him. I saw a glimmer of the type of father he would be and that excited me. He has far exceeded my expectations and I thank God for him daily. I don't know why I'm so blessed but at least I don't take it for granted!

End of sappy post :o)

Week in review

Well we had another great summer week. I'll let the photos do the talking.

Cole tasted freedom from his highchair in a restaurant. There's no looking back.

If it's possible, Cole got cuter.

Pat wowed us  with his wakeboarding skills

And scared me to death swinging out on a rope swing at Jordan Lake.

                                                                    

                                                    Grandma went yard saling

                                           Fin became cooler than me (not hard).

         Cole learned to wrinkle his nose and possibly roll his eyes

                                                        And got even cuter...

Aaaaaand then he turned 16 years old.

The stuff nightmares are made of

Last night at 4am I woke up to hear a child wailing. Having already been up a couple of times with Cole I assumed it was him until I realized it was Fin crying. I hurried/stumbled into his room and this is how our conversation went...
Me: Bud what's wrong? Did you fall out of bed or have a nightmare?
Fin between sobs: Do you remember when we were at the restaurant and there were two brownies on the table and you ATE them all and Daddy and I had none?
Me: WHAT? That never happened Fin.
Fin, still sobbing: YES IT DID! And that's why I'm crying. Don't do that Mom. Next time share and let Daddy and I have a brownie. Don't eat them all.
Me (slightly irritated, slightly amused): Ok bud, fine. I'm sorry for eating all the brownies. Now go to sleep.

It must be noted that this even never happened. For honesty's sake though it must also be noted that sadly, I'm not above doing this. I'm a pretty good sharer but not when it comes to chocolate. It cracked me up that most children have nightmares about monsters or snakes and my child has nightmares about me stealing his chocolate. I'm either doing something right or something very wrong :o) Time will tell...

Fin-isms

This post will be boring to anyone that's not Fin's parent. But I did want to record some of his cute quotes lately.

-While Fin was peeing tonight he looked at me and said," I'm like a watering can. I can water your flowers for you Mom". ummmmm that's a negative.
-Fin was sitting on the potty one night (a lot of our convos take place in the bathroom) and I was tired of waiting for him to be done and asked if I could wipe him yet. He said "Nope, I'm just chillin like a villain mom". Apparently he's gangsta.
-Since Cole is mobile now, Fin's discovering that Cole can grab his toys. He's a great sharer but if he gets frustrated he only calls Cole "Little brother". Like Cole has lost the privilage of a name. This morning Cole grabbed his Elmo and Fin yelled, "UGH Little brother stoooooop".
-When we went to camp Fin kept saying the whole way, "I"m so excited for camp. This is going to be so much fun". He fell asleep on the way, woke up for 1 second and yelled, "I'm SO excited for camp" and the flopped back in his carseat dead asleep. Pat and I laughed so hard.
- Walking into the Y one morning Fin grabbed my hand and said sweetly," You look so pretty mommy". I was on cloud nine that my son thought I was pretty in work out clothes and no make up until Fin continued talking and said, "But after you work out you're not going to be pretty. You'll be freddy (sweaty)." Crash and burn.
-Embarrassing quote: We were at IHOP and Fin went number 2 there. He was so excited and ran out yelling to Pat, "Dad I made a mountain of poop and my butt-butt just stacked it all up like 1-2-3".
Seriously, do little girls say these things?!?!
-Fin has been so appreciative lately. He thanks Pat and I all the time for random things like accidentally picking out his favorite pj's or offering to read him a book. Also, if he's enjoying doing something he always says, "I had the BEST day", even if it's still 7 am that day. He's been such a sweetie.
-Me: "Fin when you turn 3 at the end of the summer you'll get to move up into the three year old Sunday school class at church".
  Fin: "Then will I be a Daddy and have like a baby-kid of my own?"
  Me: "Um no. Lets just work on not crying when you get dropped off, k?".

The camp experiance in 6 hours or less

Have I mentioned that I am NOT a camper? Like I went to camp when I was in 6th grade, lasted a day and a half and my sweet poor mother had to drive 4 hours back into the mountains to pick me up at camp. But seriously, if she hadn't I would have walked home, I hated it that much.

So anyways, all of my sisters have worked at Camp Willow Run. It's a beautiful Christian camp on Lake Gaston where the campers stay in box cars. Pat and I loaded up the boys today and drove 2 hours to visit my sisters Anna and Kiersten who are working there this summer. Fin was in HEAVEN. We swam in the lake, jumped off of life guard stands, canoed, and did a high ropes course.

Pat and I had never done high ropes before. Kiersten and Anna set it up for us and we climbed through the tree tops while Fin and Cole sat in the stroller and watched. It was a little terrifying. The scariest part was the end where you have to jump backwards from a platform thirty feet up in the air and free fall until the slack on your rope kicks in. I was so scared. I tried to get Kier to send Cole up in a pulley basket so I could nurse him one last time before I died but she vetoed that.  Anna said a quick, sweet prayer for me before I jumped and then PUSHED.ME.OFF. If looks could kill, Anna would no longer be with us.

She says its because she knew I would have a hard time jumping on my own. I say it's because I made fun of her when she was eight b/c she still refused to cut her own meat.

It was such a fun day and just another day that reminds me of how grateful I am for 5 best friends in my sisters. Well...four now. Anna did push me.

Flava Faves

Ok so I always love to see other peoples favorite things on their blogs so I thought I'd put up a few of my own.
This lotion I love.love.love. We all use it. I slather it on the babies after their baths, Pat uses it in the winter when he's outside a lot and I use it daily. It is the best moisterizer that I've ever found and has a nice light clean scent to it. It kind of reminds me of the Oil of Olay that my mom used growing up which always brings back nice memories!

This perfume scent my mother in law gifted me with a few Christmas's ago and I LOVE it. It has such a sweet feminine scent to it that's not too overpowering. The only down side is it's a leeetle pricey and I've only found it at Ulta to buy, but luckily my sweet mother in law has given me the perfume or bubble bath as a Christmas or birthday gift on a regular basis which I love her for.


I'm a huge Trader Joe's fan. I'm also a huge guacamole fan. Enter my new best friend. I LOVE this guacamole dip. It's my favorite that I've ever tasted, including any I've had in restaurants. I could eat the whole package if it wasn't for those pesky little serving sizes on the side of the box. Curse you.

This is another Trader Joe's favorite of mine. I've never been a big pre-popped popcorn fan but I love this popcorn. It's sweet, salty and super low calorie. I love it. Unfortunately so do Pat and Fin so I tend to hide it. For most women this would be someplace up high. Seeing as my husband is 6'7" I go for the down low places. I like to roll with the punches :o)

Alright I'm about to make your day. So I never really ate at Sonic before we moved to one within walking distance. I stilll rarely eat there but their drinks...O my. My favorites are their diet vanilla coke and their raspberry sweet tea. So there are a couple things you should know...1) Every day from 2-4pm is Happy Hour there where all drinks are half off. 2) When you buy something, look at the bottom of your receipt. 90% of the time it will say your get a free 64 ounce drink if you take a quick survey. The survey takes like 2 minutes and then you get to cash in your free drink. The clincher is that when you get your free drink they give you another receipt for $0.00 with ANOTHER free drink offer at the bottom. And the cyle continues. I go to Sonic all the time and rarely ever have to buy a drink. I also ask for a spare cup to pour some of my free drink into so that Fin or Pat or both have a drink of their own. I like to exploit the system as much as possible. This may or may not embarass Pat but I tell him not to bite the hand that hydrates him. And then I laugh at my own wittiness.

So "these are a few of my favorite things". And now I must go watch Sound of Music and sew myself a dress out of curtains.

Just call me crafty

While some people may think that one success does not an expert make, I beg to differ. I reupholstered an old beat up ottoman and I now consider myself a craft genius, a guru if you will. I can tackle anything now, as long as Sarah helps me, the craft involves one step, and I can go over to my neighbors house for him to reload the staple gun for me three different times.
Here's a before pic of the ottoman...














Here's the after...














I love it and so do they. Cole even practiced his standing skillz.


















It was a fun project to do and now I wish I had something else to tackle. Probably a good thing I don't though. Better to end on a high note.
I'm loving this weather. It's such a treat to not be suffocating in heat at this time of year. We let Fin stay up tonight as we all sat on the back porch and talked about our day. Pat and Fin may or may not have done a "man date" to Happy Holly's tonight WITHOUT bringing me back any icecream. Don't you worry, it is a mistake that I'm sure will never be made again judging from my reaction. I was giving them (somewhat) pretend grief about it until Fin said to me, "I"m sorry it's all my fault mom". I had to agree with him until Pat gave me the stink eye. Just kidding, he was so sweet to apologize and I just made him promise to never let it happen again :o)
Pat enjoying his pipe on the porch. He likes to act the part and wiggle his eyebrows and act profound.


















Fin likes to pretend to smoke Pat's pipe too. No joke, somedays he sits on the front porch waiting for Pat to get home pretending to smoke his pipe. What a goober.

Lake day

Today Pat's company had a lake day and we got to take Fin for some sweet one on one time. My mom watched Cole (love her) and we took Fin out on the boats. He.loved.it. He was so happy and so excited the whole time and it was really neat for me to be able to love on him for a little bit with undivided attention. That being said I did think about Cole the whole time and called to check on him twice in 3 hours :o) I love that Coley Bear. A rare pic of the two of us. He's not mad, just cold :o) They loved swimming in the lake. I did it for them but did not love it b/c I hate being in water where I can't see around me. I have never seen Anaconda or Jaws but I did see the previews and that was enough for this girl. If ANYTHING had bumped me in that water I would shot out of there like a rocket.

Homeboy has NO body fat to him and gets cold so easily. If only we all had that problem.

We rode on a boat with another 2 year old boy. The boys loved playing together and looked so big sitting by themselves while the boat was moving.

We had an awesome time. I love boat rides and it was extra special seeing the joy through Fin.

This is how we do it.

This is how we've been doing summer this week... We tried out the coloring kids menu at a new restaurant. Fin gives the crayons an A+. Cole gives the graham crackers a thumbs up. All in all success. Fin and Annie jumped till their hearts content on our bed during a playdate. We introduced Cole to bubbles. He was a little sketched out, which when I look at things from his perspective, I would be too. Seriously, it's like little UFO's flying at this face and then popping.

Uncle Will came to play. Wherever Uncle Will is, is basically Disney World to Fin.

I found my summer bathing suit. I view this buy as the most important purchase of my year each year. LOVE IT. It's learning to love me, but I already love it.

After going to the pool everyday before naps, Fin is worn out. Here he fell asleep 1 minute after the car started. With his hand in a bowl of cantalope. With cantalope in his mouth that I had to fish out so he wouldn't choke on it in his sleep.

Houston, we have mobility

That's right, he's a crawler. Goodbye sticking baby on a beach towel at the pool and knowing he can't go anywhere. Goodbye baby sitting for a half hour in the same spot playing blocks. Essentially, goodbye world. Seriously Mom, why won't you just get that toy for me?

O wait! I forgot I can do it myself.

You are no longer needed Mother. Kindly let yourself out.

I wear many hats in this family, go ahead and throw this new skill on my resume.

Man-boy

Whelp it's finally happened...Fin is officially a man. That's right, last night we changed his crib into a big boy bed. To say his is thrilled is an understatement. I've been dreading doing this for the longest time. Mainly b/c Fin is a late-night, early morning kinda kid and I didn't want to give him an ounce more freedom than necessary. But since we're leaving for the beach in a month (holla!) and Fin will be sharing a room with Uncle Will and sleeping in a big boy bed then, it was time. He actually did great! He giggled himself to sleep out of excitement, rolled out of bed once but went right back to sleep, and slept in till 6:15! Yes, that's sleeping in for him. Cole wanted in on the action when he woke up. An added bonus is it's a great new thing to play in during the days. I'm all about free entertainment :o)