What scares you most?

   If you would ask Connor that question, his answer would be cheese. Dead serious, here. Cheese. Not a cold slice of cheese. That's fine and perfectly edible in his eyes. But when the cheese is melted, like in a casserole that is fresh out of the oven, it's his worst nightmare come to life. I'm not exactly sure what it is. Maybe the stringiness of it. Or how a strand of stringy, melted cheese seems to have life of it's own as it dangles off of the fork. When he spots cheese, the look of horror on his face is (while hilarious) undeniable. My poor baby! Yesterday, he literally ran crying from the table because the cheese was going to get him! Rob and I were too busy being doubled over in laughter to comfort him right away. Even though we tried to explain that cheese is not alive, that it's delicious, and completely harmless, there's no convincing him.
    Cheese. What scares him most.
  

Inspiration

 Mom and I have been a little addicted to hgtv.com the last few days. We especially like Sarah Richardson. She's a designer in Canada who buys herself a home and re-imagines and remodels the entire thing. Her style is country/modern and we LOVE it! I've been watching episode after episode and now I'm wishing I'd watched it before we started on this house. I would have been a little more prepared, I think, and things would have been a little more complete instead of a little here, a little there. But now I'm inspired! My dear husband might have to put up with me buying even more paint and redoing a few things. Even though that might have to wait a little while. I'm pumped up all over again though! Thanks Sarah! Props to your decorating genius. I'm going to copy you. Specifically your kitchen:

  

Love those yellows.

We plan on remodelling the kitchen in a few years. At least I know what I want!

Remember the gift bag I found on the counter before Valentine's Day? Well it was meant for something. Rob got a laugh out of his little joke. He gave me an even bigger bag on Tuesday! When I looked inside it held a very large box of cherry cordials. I hate cherry cordials. With a passion. And I thought he knew that, but evidence suggested otherwise. So I very sweetly thanked him and pretended to be happy with my 'gift'. He said, "Those are the ones you like, right?" Well, I couldn't lie. So I told him the truth. And he apologized over and over before giggling a little and handing me another bag. (The one I had found on the counter.) The chocolates were his gift to himself, knowing I hated them. :) Boy was he pleased that he 'got' me! So was I, really! At least now I didn't have to force myself to chew one of those things. In the other bag was a nicer gift. But I'm pretty sure it was also for himself. It's some technical gadget that I'd never know how to run in a million years. But it's something he was really excited about. And he's the one using it. But that's ok with me too. I was happy with the flowers and the sweet card. Plus, I couldn't think of anything to get him anyway, so it worked out! This is pretty much how gifting goes with him. One year for my birthday, he presented me with a big radio to put in the kitchen. Even though I had told him plenty of times that I didn't want one. But he did! Well at least he remembers my birthdays. :)

 

Words

    As-yet-un-named Baby Girl (I will refer to her as BG) is a very active little thing. I'm pretty much guaranteed a kick every few minutes. She's started having hiccups. (My favorite thing with all my babies!) I've experienced a lot of false contractions in the last couple of days, whatever those are called. Probably because my sweet twin cousins took me out to the Bombay House the other night. Rob refuses to eat Indian food because the color of every meal on the menu is usually something that reminds him of a baby's diaper. So they took me on a date instead! Even though I ordered my meal 'medium', my first bite informed me they got it wrong. It was SPICY! But it was delicious! I ate a lot. And I had heartburn a lot. And my belly tightened up a lot. So the tale I've heard of spicy food starting labor in your last days might actually be true!

   Connor has been making me laugh quite a bit lately. The sentences that form in his brain make me stand in wonder! The other day in the van he started laughing out of the blue. When my cousin asked him what was so funny, he responded with "Max's butt!!" And when asked why THAT was so funny, he said "Because it's gone!" The funniest thing about that is that Max really doesn't have much of a butt. When playing with balloons, one popped in my cousin's face, while Con was watching her blow it up. We laughed so hard at his reaction! After the laughter evolved into silent shaking, he thought we were all crying. So he patted my cousin's knee and said over and over, "It's ok. It's just a party. It's just a party." Which of course made us heave and cry even more!
   He asked Kacee (my cousin) to draw him a train. Kacee struggled with it a bit, but finally showed him her train. He stared at it for about 15 seconds, then sadly shook his head and said, "No. You can't draw a train."
   And of course, my favorite line is when he walks proudly into a room and announces, "I'm beautiful!"
   As if we didn't know it.
  
   Max says Thank You constantly! When you pick him up. When you hold his toys for him. When you give his toys back. When you kiss an owie. When Connor shares a toy. I love to hear that! "Tay-too, Mommy!" His first words in the morning are, "Where's Tonnow?" They are best friends. Everything they do, they do together. He's always looking out for Connor's comfort. I often hear, "You otay, Tonnow?" They are both sweet, loving boys. I got pretty lucky.

   Today is one of those days when everything is going right. Pandora is getting every song right. The boys are playing happily together, creating trains with blocks and cars and naming every one of them Thomas. The sky is just gray enough to be cozy. And we're all spending the morning in our pajamas.
  
  Rob and I have found ourselves repeatedly talking about Minnesota. About all the people and the things that we miss. The conversation comes around more and more frequently lately. Things like the get togethers that everyone enjoyed. And the places we would go. The green that surrounds everything. The dates and the restaurants and the friendliness of people. We don't talk about moving back. But it usually feels like we both wish we hadn't moved away. We certainly realize what we left behind!
   
   Valentine's Day is tomorrow! Rob brought home flowers yesterday. Today I found a gift bag on the counter, but nothing in it... Wondering if he hid something somewhere? But what do you do for a man on Valentines Day?? I'm open for suggestions!

Some house stuff

First of all, this is our house:

 We have a lot of outdoor fixes to do this spring/summer! First of all, I hate the shrubs in front of the house. They are going away. Someday down the road I'd like a little front porch built (somehow) where they are/were. There are some obvious cosmetic updates needed, like the lights on the garage. The lawn. And hopefully this summer we can paint the stucco. (The backside of the house is sided.) The far left window is Baby Girl's room. The one to the right of that is the boys'. This was the photo used for the realtor, so obviously the nasty looking shades in the windows have been replaced. The neighbors took it upon themselves in the few years of vacancy to mow the front lawn. The backyard was sadly ignored.

 Next is a pretty gruesome picture of how ALL of the trim inside the house looked.

That's the laundry room that I have yet to tackle. Also, this is how the window sills were when we bought the house:

 I'm still working on some of them too. One thing at a time! We are missing a couple of cupboards in the kitchen...

(Above the microwave)

 But we're working! I'd like to wait for some pictures, like the bedrooms, until they are decorated better. Right now they are barebones. But here are some after/still in need of decor pictures.

                                                     Entry way. I want to replace the light.

                   Entry/Living Rm/Stairwell to basement. Hallway on the right leads to bedrooms.

             Living Rm from the kitchen. I'm currently on the lookout for some wall stuff and curtains.

                            Guest bathroom in the basement. The vanity was bare, no stain or paint. It's VERY cheaply made, and we'll be replacing it someday.

Guest bedroom #1/Mom's room. Lots of work to be done yet.

That's all the pictures I have so far! I'm waiting for the kitchen cabinet doors to be painted and re-hung before I take pictures of the kitchen and dining room. And I still have 2 bathrooms, laundry room, family room and guest room #2 to paint. We recently discovered our kitchen sink pipes were leaking into the basement. Rob had to cut out a portion of the wall down there to fix it. Once it's repaired we can paint the family room. And hopefully we can organize all our extra stuff that's piled up down there!! That's not going to be an easy task.

More to come someday!

Thomas!

  Saturday was a fun day for the boys! We surprised them with a trip the the hobby show at the local expo center. Trains!!! They were thrilled! We got to watch a LOT of model trains in action around the tracks. Some were tiny, some were big. The best of all was Thomas the Train! They got to take a ride on him. It was the highlight of their month! My camera was dying, so it refused to flash. Therefore, some poopy pictures.
                               They boys are in the very back, craning their heads around to see Thomas.

  
                               Watching one of the bigger models go round and round.

  
  They slept pretty good that night!!! In fact, they've slept through the night ever since the second night they've shared a room! Unfortunately, staying up late playing does not mean they sleep in late too. They've been getting up even earlier now. And Mom is NOT a morning person!!
   Max has gotten very good at potty training! We all cheer for him every time he squeezes out a drop. Connor cheers the loudest, and I think that's the biggest motivator for Max. :) He has yet to do #2, but we'll get there eventually.
   Today they snuck in my room when I wasn't paying attention and ate half a bottle of extra strength Tums between the two of them! I didn't panic, since Tums are basically just calcium. But I did call poison control just to know what to look out for, if anything. They've been fine all evening. But I have a feeling they're going to be a little constipated for a bit!! Bring on the homemade bread!
    Max doesn't understand the concept of sitting quietly on the couch when he's in trouble. He's a big chatterbox. So I've been teaching him to close his mouth. Ha! He couldn't figure out what I meant by that either, so he'd sit there with his mouth wide open and tongue hanging out... But I finally got him to work on it. I couldn't help snapping a picture of his idea of a closed mouth though.

   At least I feel like he's blowing me kisses instead of being mad at me. :)

It's my own fault.

  After two days of Max rebelling against his crib, (climbing over the top and crashing to the floor over and over again, just to be free of it) I've decided we are moving to the big boy bed. Not so bad, since he's slept in it a few times on and off before. But I had a stroke of genius and decided to take it one step further. I put both boys in the same room. We've been pondering leaving Max in the room with the baby when she's born. But he is such a light sleeper! And we put baby in the crib after a few weeks, no sharing with mommy and daddy. Which means every time she wakes up, so will Max. I figured it would be easier to have the boys together instead. And I figured I'd start last night, so they are familiar with it by the time babes comes along. I also figured it wouldn't be too bad.
   Well I figured wrong.
 It started out alright... they played a bit, but when they got too rambunctious I had to lay down the law. And I ended up standing at the door for about 15-30 minutes until they fell asleep. Success!!! I was so excited that it worked! Without too much of a fight anyway.
   And then 2:15 am. Max was crying, banging on the door. I rocked him, got him back in bed, got me back in bed, juuuuussssttt nodded off... *giggle* *heehee!* *Jump, Max!* Sigh. I was up til 4 am fighting them to get to sleep.
     It's my own fault.
   But I'm not giving up!!!