Budding Baker

Nick and Collin helped me bake cookies tonight. I LOVE the KitchenAid mixer! It makes cookie making so much easier. Nick was really excited to be able to put the flour in the mix all by himself. He used the scoop and put the entire bowl of dry ingredients into the wet ones and let the mixer do all the work. The he got to lick the mixer attachment clean before I washed it. Tomorrow they'll be able to eat some of their cookies. I'm so proud of how independent he was. They're both growing up so very fast.

Myrtle Beach Vacation

We spent the last week visiting Grandmom and Granddad in North Carolina and had a fantastic time. Uncle Chris came up for a visit while we were there and got a real education in life with small children. Collin and Nick LOVED hanging out with Uncle Chris. Everything thing we did, they wanted to make sure Uncle Chris was coming too. We did all kinds of fun stuff like going to the beach, fireworks, a picnic, the Dixie Stampede and a water park too. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the charger for our camera battery so we're kind of short on pictures but here are a few from the week. The video is of Collin doing this cool jumping thing that we were too cheap to let him do last year. This year we paid the $8 and seriously considered spending another $16 so we could each try it because it looked like so much fun! The boys both loved the beach and it took nothing short of an act of God to get them out of the water to go home. Darn it! I just realized that the video loaded sideways. I'm not sure how to change that, but you get the picture. It looked really fun and Collin LOVED it!

My daredevil son wanted to do this again as soon as he finished his first jump!
Here he is running around on the beach.
I think Nick was getting ready to do yoga on the beach. Think Warrior Pose.
Here they are playing nicely together in the water. Far too busy to smile at their mother.
Here's Collin Jumping waves.

My sidways video. He had so much fun doing this!

Shake Your Groove Thing

I don't know why this loaded sideways but tonight was a no tv night and after their bath the boys turned on some tunes and danced. Collin is a HUGE fan of Alvin and the Chipmunks. We have 2 of their CD's.

Our First Foray into Organized Sports

I've been just waiting until Collin was old enough to sign him up for soccer because I thought he'd love it. He has so much fun kicking the ball around in the back yard. So last week we had our first experience with organized sports. I picked the boys up at daycare and headed to soccer. We got there early and I ended up leaving half way through with Nick because he was being horrible. I rescued him from running onto the field during an active game no less than 4 times and actually lost him once. The woman behind the food counter found him for me. I didn't want to bring him this week but Tim had an appointment and my mom wasn't going to be home in time to watch him. My Dad met me at the Soccer dome to help me watch Nick while Collin had practice. Mostly, soccer for 3 years old involves a whole lot of running around and very little actual soccer but the kids love it. Here are a couple of videos of Collin. In one he's supposed to be jumping over the hurdle. In the other he's crawling under it. You can hear Nick whining for Mommy in them. I so hope I don't have to bring him next week. I also hope that Collin does better next week. He spent half of this weeks session laying on the floor saying he was tired. He only listened and followed directions about half the time. The other half he did his own thing. Maybe he is really tired, he has been refusing to go to bed at a reasonable time again. I put him to bed at 7:30 and he's still up at 9. His alarm goes off at 5:35 am so, do the math, that's barely enough sleep for an adult. Its definitely not enough for a small child. I'm working on it, but so far I've been unsuccessful. Tim says he did very well the first week. I wouldn't know because I spent most of the time I was there chasing Nick. All poor Nick wants to do is play soccer with his brother. He doesn't understand why he can't and its very frustrating for him to be pulled off the field all the time. Maybe I'll enjoy soccer more when I'm not so busy chasing Nick and I can enjoy watching Collin have a good time, and when I'm not busy being embarrassed because he's the only kid not listening and paying attention and instead he's on some other part of the field doing his own thing.

Karma

This made me laugh so hard! The guy in the car absolutely deserves what he gets!

Viewer Discretion Advised

If you have objections to sexual humor then don't watch. When Tim found this the other day we laughed our butts off. It's kind of long. Consider yourselves warned....

Another Milestone

Somewhere in the recent past I mention that Nick is beginning to walk. It was kind of slow and unsure at first. He'd only take a step if he was close enough to fall into you as he was doing it. In fact, I wasn't even sure that he was taking steps at first. All of the sudden though he's kicked it up a notch. He's left no doubt about it. My baby is walking. He's certainly not proficient but he takes multiple steps at a time. The other day Collin was tired so he was laying with his head on my lap while Nick played on the floor. I thought he was drifting off but he surprised me when Nick stood up and took a few steps. Collin leaped up, all excited, and yelled "Look Mom! Nick took 4 steps!" He was right, Nick had taken exactly 4 steps before landing on his butt. It was really neat to see how excited Collin was at his brother's milestone. He was very proud. Ever since he began taking noticeable steps I've been trying to get it on film. The still shots aren't coming out too good, but I finally got a decent video tonight. So for your viewing pleasure, here is my baby walking down the hall all by himself.... You'll probably notice as he walks down the hall, his brother pelts him in the chest with a ball. They were playing quite nicely with it before this video was taken, rolling it back and forth. It won't be long before Nick is big enough to pay his brother back for all the crap he takes from him now.