not napping. Christopher went down so easy last night b/c he was exhausted from the day.

After Sophie woke up from her nap yesterday they made trails through the house with crushed crackers and I wasn't having that so we spent the next few hours outside. I grabbed a huge bin of clothes Sophie had outgrown, took them outside and folded them, sorted them and put them in a bigger bin. It was kind of fun to see what she's been wearing over the last year. Sad too. I did find a few things that she had to wear last year (b/c she was so chubby) that are the size she's wearing now and that was exciting! She has a *new* skirt, 2 dresses and a few tops.

They played with their rolling backpacks and poor Sophie just couldn't keep up with her big brother, but she tried her hardest. We had to go buy Sophie one b/c she kept dragging Christopher's around the house and he "needed" it for his trucks. It's the cutest thing watching them try to open them and put stuff in them and zip them back up and laugh as they walk all over the place so proud of themselves.

We went inside and took baths and then had supper. Watched some tv, but played more than watched. Sophie got restless so I put her down and Christopher followed not too much later. We read books and talked about Little Christopher (short stories Brandon started where you talk about things Christopher did when he was little, it's pretty fun!) and I told him I had to go do something really quick and I'd be right back. He said ok and I left to finally put my supper in the oven at 8:15 and I never heard a sound from him again. SO, my delima now is, do we just give up naps completely? I'm not quite ready for that yet and when I make him nap he usually sleeps 2-3 hours, even though he claims to not be tired. We'll see. You can be sure I'll keep you posted.

Anyone interested? Christopher can be so cute and make you want to lose your mind all in one breath. Sophie is adorable, but screams really loud. Brandon is on call today and it's only 2:45 and I'm wondering if anyone would notice if I left the kids home alone and I went to go relief some frustration, alone. Is it too early to start drinking? I'm kidding, I'd never do that.

We went to the beach again this morning with our friends and the kids fell asleep on the way home. Sophie slept for an hour and a half, but Christopher woke up when I put him in his bed and never went back down. He did just about everything but spit in my face while we were at the beach. How do you put a kid in time out while on a beautiful beach? It doesn't happen. I tried. Four times! Sophie kept trying to pull everything out of the cooler, throw it in the sand and put it back in the cooler. Thankfully this didn't happen until before we headed home and it was the reason we went home. She screamed so loud that an old couple a very good distance away started staring. Melissa and I just laughed b/c it was pretty funny.

Christopher pretty much refuses to sleep. Oh, he finally crashes, but not without putting up a fight. The fights aren't terrible, if you lay on the bed with him until he's out, but if you don't, you're in for more company. I'm praying that I will have this situation nipped in the bud by the time my parents come a the end of the month to watch the kids so Brandon and I can go away for our anniversary. The tough girl is coming out tonight and since Brandon isn't home I figure it's a good time to start trying it. If I'm alone I can get myself psyched up and be tough, but if he's home it's hard b/c he needs to get his sleep and Christopher won't let him do that. I'm hoping that no nap today will help me win.

We've also started the potty training again b/c he asks to go potty quite often. We have decided this is something he has to do when he's ready, we can't make him. Been doing great, but this afternoon, within 3 minutes he pees on the carpet twice. He's telling me while he's doing it too which kills me!!!! He just stares at it while he's going informing me of what's happening.

Actually, come to think of it, I think I'll keep Sophie. She's pretty good now and likes to put things away. She goes to bed without any trouble and thinks that I hung the sun, moon and stars. Maybe I'll just put Christopher on loan until he's potty trained and sleeping again. Maybe a dog trainer is the way to go. Sounds more like house breaking than anything. He is really cute and I know I'd miss him once I caught up on my sleep.

So I decided not to redo the new furniture we got and we just put it in the room anyway. We were desperate for the extra space! It actually looks pretty good and if I could just find some new pulls and knobs I may not have to paint it at all! Problem, the centers of the pulls are 5 1/4" apart! Huge!!! I tried looking online, but these were very difficult to find. Anyone have any suggestions?

Do any of you remember this song from when you were a kid? "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry..." I sing this to my kids all the time and right now I'm singing it to myself for several reasons:

First, I bought a camera and I look like a child who needs to go potty while his/her mom is in the checkout line. You know, dancing around trying to hold it? I decided on a Canon ELPH and found it online at Walmart for only $199, about $50 cheaper than everywhere else I'd checked. It seems to do everything I want, with the ratings that I demand (had bad experiences with other digital cameras) and the price I could afford. If I used the site to store shipping method it's free, so I went with that. Unfortunately it takes longer than if I had it sent to my house, but the important part is, it's free. It should be here this weekend and I'm about to die to get my hands on it!

Second, rain, raIN, RAIN!!!!!!!! Has anyone heard about how much rain we've been getting in the southern region? Of course you have! Who hasn't??? My kids are dying to go outside and play and as you may have seen in my last post, we just let Christopher go play in the puddles b/c it's cleaner than letting him dig in the mud. We have been to as many friends' houses and fast food playgrounds to get more than our fill of indoor playing. I have actually fixed a meal every night this week b/c I don't lose track of time outside with the kids. To me, that's sad! (But it has been yummier around here.) It's supposed to rain again today and then tomorrow they say it will be sunny. Our friend Melissa is taking her kids to the beach and I think we just might join them. They deserve a fun reward for surviving the storm(s).

Third, Christopher. Though we don't mention the pacifier anymore we are still having a bit of trouble getting Christopher to go to sleep. He doesn't want to take naps anymore. I still have to get him to fall asleep on the couch with me, but sometimes we can just lie in his bed, but he throws a fit doing that. At night he has started talking about monsters in his room and I'm not sure if this is a stalling method or truly a fear. He now knows we are falling for any of the other attempts at staying up late, so this is the newest. He still says he doesn't like his new bed, but it's very comfy, so we don't think that's it. He also has a word that he likes to say and it just grates on my nerves. It's usually said with emphasis, "NO!" I know they say it when they are little, he just didn't say it all that much until now and he usually yells it very firmly and with a little bit of anger behind it. I'm starting to think he gets it from me, but I say it just as he's about to whack or knock over Sophie or get into or onto something that isn't safe. He says this for just about everything I tell him and it's past getting old. Thankfully Brandon is cracking down on him b/c my words just go in one ear and out the other these days. I feel like we are more two these days than ever before, and he's 3. Wouldn't it be nice if the day they turned 3 the rumors of terrible 2s just vanished?

Fourth, poor Sophie is cutting teeth again. Unlike her brother we have had a very nice long break from the last time we cut teeth. Christopher just gave us about a week off before more would come in and that lasted for over a year. Sophie been great, but the last week or two she's been more fussy and last week she would wake up in the middle of the night and had a yucky nose. These two things usually only happen when she's cutting teeth. I couldn't see anything so the other night I held her upside down, the only time she opens her mouth really wide and Brandon saw a molar coming in. Praise the Lord! Hopefully 3 more will follow very quickly.

Last, Brandon is on call Saturday so that means we don't really have a weekend. For anyone who has a husband in residency knows what this feels like. You don't like weekend calls, but if you have to pick, Sunday is the day to do it. You get Saturday to spend together, Sunday to work and they rest on Monday. But Saturday call means they are gone all day/night and then rest on Sunday to be back at work Monday. I just pray that things go smoothly while he's there and will be able to get some rest. His last night on call was awful and it took him almost a whole week to recover, no help to the storms waking Christopher and teeth waking Sophie.

I'm off to go practice what I try very hard to preach. I'm not so sure how well I'm doing, but I'm going to do my very best! After all, we can't expect that from our kids and not do it ourselves, right?

Here are some photos taken recently. Sorry that it's been so long since I've put any on here, but Brandon's computer downloads them much, much faster than mine does and his has been acting up lately. I thought I'd give it a good rest before overloading it!


Our next door neighbors are moving this summer and needed to get rid of bedroom furniture. We really wanted a double bed for Christopher's room so our company doesn't have to sleep on the floor or the air mattress. Which really, they are great to have, but how comfortable are they for 3 nights? We bought all of this, including a head/foot board for the bed, the mirror that goes on top of this piece is behind it and the mattress/boxspring for $200!!! I laughed when Brandon asked me if that was a good deal. My poor sweet husband! He doesn't get out much. (I love him!)

I'm excited b/c I now have a new project. I'm going to paint them that wonderful creamy white that I used on the china cabinet (b/c I have most of a gallon left, why buy more?) and we'll put it in our room. My MIL gave us some antique furniture, but it's missing handles and we can't open the drawers so they have got to go. You can only stand piles of clothes on the floor for so long before you start to go crazy. I'm not sure when I'll tackle this, but hopefully soon.

Here is Christopher in front of his new big, big boy bed. I got the same sheets he had before, but the cover that actually went with it this time. He loves it! Of course now he thinks he doesn't need to sleep, ever, thanks to giving up the pacifier, so the excitement is gone. Friday night he wanted to sleep in our bed and we told him that we'd sleep in his bed b/c "it was so great and so comfy." Backfired b/c he said ok. So we swapped pillows and Brandon and I slept in his bed. It was kind of fun to have glowing stars on the ceiling and crazy sheets! Yesterday we were cleaning out the storage rooms to figure out where to put the head/foot board we'd bought and the maintenance guy came by to fix something, thought we were selling stuff and he bought the bed and the side table! We didn't have room for them in the shed, so off it went!

Here's Sophie hiding behind a curtain on one of the 3 rainy days we had. I wish terribly the video camera was charged b/c I didn't know she'd gone back here until I heard her laughing. I was so tickled I started asking where Sophie went, she'd laugh, I crept closer to her, she's laugh harder. It was adorable!!!! She's a really funny kid and it's so refreshing!

While Sophie was napping and it was pouring I pulled out the Moon Sand that Christopher got at his b'day party and let him go for it. He loved it! I came back in at one point and saw he had run and grabbed several of his trucks to make it more fun. He had a blast!

After naps on one of the rainy days, they all run together, we had movie time. The twin mattress was on the floor in the den for days and the kids loved it. They curled up together and enjoyed popcorn while watching a movie. We watched way too much tv those days, but we ran out of things to do. Thank goodness the sun finally came out!

One afternoon when the rain stopped Christopher had to run jump in the puddle in our driveway. Brandon is always willing to do this b/c he enjoys it almost as much as his son!

Then we tried riding our bike through it. Even went around the block to find puddles to ride in.

Then we decided to jump some more. He thinks this is why it rains. What 3 year old wouldn't?

While cleaning out the shed on Sunday I finally gathered the rest of the baby items I needed to get rid of. The three bags are baby boy clothes I don't need anymore. Now that we know Aunt Jenny is having a girl I got rid of them. It was really, REALLY hard to pack these up, but I pulled up my favorite things I just couldn't get rid of.

Brandon and I got our tax refund and have been trying to figure out what to do with the money. Obviously most of it will go to pay bills, loans and into savings, but we got enough that we could have a little "play money" for each of us. I've been going over and over (and over) in my mind what I would do with that money. New drapes for the house, something new for our bedroom, new clothes, new shoes (ahhh!!!!) or stuff for the kids. I finally decided that I want my own little "pocket" camera. We have a SLR, but it's not something I can just toss in my purse and take with me. I feel like I miss so many moments b/c I can't carry 2 kids, a purse/diaper bag and the huge sling/backpack camera bag we have. Sooo, this is where you come in, please give me suggestions on cameras. I want to hear the good and the bad. If you have one you hate I want to know those as much as the ones you love. The only requirements I have are that I can fit it in my purse without me feeling it and that it doesn't have a delay. You know the kind where once it finally takes a photo and the moment is way over? That's how our old little camera was and it drove me crazy! We don't get Consumer Reports (my fav!) anymore and so I can't just go there. If you can and happen to come across what they recommend, let me know! I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Yesterday Brandon and our friend Adam were on-call, so Melissa and I decided we'd spend the day together. Well, the plan started out that we'd spend the morning together, but after having lunch we realized we didn't want to spend more time at home than we had to and thought we'd meet up after naps and go to Destin to shop and have dinner. That morning we took the kids to the fair grounds to something called Construction Junction. It was free and going have lots of big trucks and "diggers" (for those of you who don't know what a "digger" is, I've been asked a few times, it's anything used in construction. Just easier to say that then to name each one and have to explain what that is.) It could not have been a more perfect day! The sky was blue and it was about 64 degrees with a little wind (also very bright which is why the photos have a nice glow to them). They had a covered area with a Home Depot kids workshop set up giving the kids about 8 different options of things to build. We picked the firetruck, but Christopher was too excited about the cup of candy he got when we walked in to build it, so we brought it home to do later. They had a raffle with all kinds of diggers that would be given away later on. Christopher thought they were free to take, but I had to explain to him they were just to look at. We walked all around and saw everything from firetrucks to garbage trucks to sewer trucks to dump trucks to mixer trucks to backhoes to baby excavators to bulldozers to front loaders and finally a scraper. That was the only one I had to ask about b/c they look similar to pavers and hay balers. (Ok, so maybe they don't, but you don't see them as often as the others so I get them confused sometimes.) They also had a big sand pile with all kinds of shovels and molds the kids could play with. When we left there we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and then home for naps. When my kids woke up we went to pick up Melissa and her kids to head to Destin. We forgot it was spring break and the traffic was backing up due to a wreck. Thankfully I've figured out a few back roads so we saved about 45 minutes by doing that. We shopped a little and then grabbed dinner and had promised the kids we'd let them play on the playground, which they loved! Next thing we knew it was 8:30 and we were still playing. We quickly gathered the kids and headed home. By the time we got to our house it was after 9:30 and I put Sophie to bed, picked up a few things in case Brandon got home earlier than expected in the morning and Christopher and I went to bed. It was a lot of fun, but we were all really tired this morning! I'm sorry Brandon and Adam missed it, but I know that the patients appreciated their help. One of them (a full bird colonel!!) actually called him later to tell him what a good job he did helping his son out. I'm proud of him!

Christopher and Sophie in front of one of the dump trucks. He was so overwhelmed he would hardly talk and wouldn't go up in most of the trucks. It's so funny b/c he's so obssessed with these things.

The kids sitting on the steps of what I think is the sewer cleaner. They have one of these on Christopher latest truck movie and it's used to help keep the sewers clear, works like a vacuum from my understanding. Gross job if you ask me! Don't worry all the trucks were very clean!

Christopher sitting in the garbage truck. It's the only one he'd climb inside of. I had to go up there and honk the horn b/c he was frozen. The other kids didn't have a problem though.

Sophie sitting on the claw of a material handler. If you aren't sure, it's like a dump truck with an excavator arm/claw. They use them to clean up demolition sites. (They have several on base down the street from our house. That's how I know.)

Christopher and Landon behind the dump truck. There was a nice man sitting in the cab and when kids climbed up there he'd show them how you make it dump. The boys got so excited and started jumping up and down. Once it started getting higher they backed up b/c they didn't want to get the dirt dumped on them. (There was no dirt and the back was chained shut.)

Christopher in front of a tire on the scraper. Sophie wouldn't stand there with him. She wanted to go to the sand pile.

The kids on top of the scraper. Christopher loved climbing on this and did it twice. Not sure why this was better than the others, but whatever!

Christopher by himself up on the scraper. He tried to figure out how to go higher, but I made him come down. One of the dad's said I looked like I was having as much fun as he was. (I did!)

Sophie walked all over pointing to the different trucks. It was really cute! It's so obvious she has a big brother b/c all she knows is trucks too. I'm not sure if she loves them as much as he does or just likes to see him get excited.

The kids playing in the sand. It was a great day!!! You should check and see if your city has one of these. It's free and the kids have a blast!!!

Sophie does some really funny things these days. Usually she's the first one to laugh at herself, which makes it even funnier. Last week we were out enjoying the warmer weather and I decided to sweep the carport and let the kids have room to play in the shade. She tried desperately to put on Christopher's helmet and get on this:

Which after some terrible screaming I saw it all unfortunately lead to this:

You can't really see it but there's a nice little bump on her forhead. She hit her head on both sides later that night while trying to hold onto my pant leg in the kitchen, slipped and somehow twisted slowly around and falling into the corner of the cabinets (inside "corner", not outside edge if that makes sense) hitting one cabinet and then the other. Maybe we should just let her wear the helmet all the time?