This is the year to travel!

Well starting next Thursday you can add Texas to my list of places I've traveled to this year! Cool thing is, I can check TX off my list of the 50 states I want to visit before I die! I've driven through TX twice but never actually stayed there. I am a New Yorker and quite frankly the country twang, line dancing music, and cowboy hats will probably freak me out! LOL I'll make sure I post pictures!

Anyway, I'm flying to Texas with my best bud for the annual MOPS Convention in Grapevine. I'll be gone for 4 days without my kids! AHHHH! Seriously, I'm ok with that. I miss my kids when I'm gone but it always is a much needed break. I'm just a little worried about leaving my husband to fend for himself on Sunday. If he can handle the chaos Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, why not Sunday you ask? Well, he's the youth pastor and music minister at our church so he's got his hands full on Sundays. I'm still trying to figure out how in the world he'll get the boys to their Sunday School classes and remember to pick them up on time! Plus, he has to find someone to sit with Austin during the service till he gets off the stage! See why I said AHHH?

As my title says This Is The Year To Travel! I've been to New Hampshire (twice), Maine (twice), Hawaii, Maryland-all in the last 9 months! We don't plan to stop anytime soon either cause we have plans to drive across the country (for the third time!) to visit Ben's parents in Arizona in December/January. I wouldn't have it any other way though. If money grew on trees I'd travel even more!

Clean house!

I had a spurt of cleaning engery this morning (which is always a great thing!) so I was a bad mommy and let Andrew watch PBS cartoons for a whole lot longer than usual so I could put my energy to good use. I vacuumed upstairs and downstairs, mopped all the floors, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the countertops, did 2 loads of laundry, and washed the tubs and toilets! Go me! Andrew never once asked what I was doing! God blessed me with kids who LOVE to play by themselves so times like these can happen if I'm not lazy!

Cleaning does have it's downside...I know for a fact that SOMETHING will be spilled on my newly mopped floors or Ben will come home really dirty from work (he's in construction) and my shower will no longer be sparkling. It's inevitable. For instance, I washed Austin's sheets yesterday and decided to take off his mattress protector and wash it as well. I usually don't wash the protector so I thought now would be a good time! Well guess who's diaper leaked over night last night? Yep. Austin's. So, once again his sheets and matress protector are in the wash. I want a maid. that is a masseuse. and a chef. =)

God is bigger than a...

Andrew's favorite book to read is Veggie Tales: Where's God when I'm scared? His favorite part is when I sing the song from the movie:

"God is bigger than the boogey man. He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV. Oh, God is bigger than the boogey man and he watches out for you and me."

As I said in my last post, when Andrew learns something new to say, he's says it all the time. Whenever he wants me to sing the song or read the book he says "I wanna monster mom?"

Just call me "Uncle Ben"

Andrew has a huge vocabulary for his age and it seems to me that's he's learning 2-5 words each day. He's known how to say "mommy" and "daddy" since he was one year old. Well thanks to my niece "A", who calls my husband "Uncle Ben"...that is what Andrew has decided he wants to call everyone.

When Andrew learns a new word, he repeats it all day long. Lately it's been "I'm cold" or "Mom, I'm scared". LOL Well when Andrew learned to say his Uncle Jim's name, everyone became Uncle. It was Uncle daddy, uncle mommy, uncle papa, etc. Then the day came when he realized that "A" calls his daddy Uncle Ben. Cool name right? Surely it must be a cooler name than Daddy! So for the past month or more, Ben is no longer "daddy" but "uncle Ben". Whenever he says "I'm sorry" (to anyone!!) it comes out "I'm sorry Uncle Ben" or even "Thank you Uncle Ben" .

My point? Andrew and I just ate lunch and he was being extra silly. I gave him a kiss on his forehead and said "I love you Andrew" and he gives me this big grin and says "I love you Uncle Ben".

Picasso Andrew

As I've mentioned before, Andrew loves to color. It's his thing. It's the first thing he does when he gets up in the morning and it's nearly the only thing he does all day. A sharp contrast to Austin who hates to color and will throw the crayon clear across the room if you try to make him!



Even when Andrew isn't coloring, he likes to carry his "favorite" blue crayon around the house. He used to be really good at only coloring in his coloring book but recently he's decided he's a little picasso and needs to broaden his horizons. Thank you Jesus for Magic Eraser!








To get a better view, click on the pictures. I left one coloring incident out...he also colored on our wood floors but I was so freaked out, I cleaned it up right away!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I just baked 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies during Andrew's nap.

Did Austin's school/class need them?
Nope.

Was I bored?
Do you remember I have 2 kids? Nap time is a precious commodity...nap time is never boring!

So why so many cookies?

Cause I failed to read the new recipe I was trying! LOL I'm not a good cook but I do enjoying baking so every once in a while I pull a recipe that looks good out of a magazine so I can try it later. Well today was one of those later times!

Our church has a military ministry called Heroes At Home. In honor of September 11th, the group is collecting baked goods to put into 4 baskets to hand out to our local police station, fire station, etc. to thank them for their service to our city. Great time to try my new chocolate chip recipe!

When reading the recipe, I thought it was awful strange that it called for 2 BAGS of chocolate chips. Wow! I didn't see anything at the bottom of the recipe stating how many cookies it made so I figured either they're really chocolatey or it makes A LOT of cookies. Yep. It's the latter one. LOL

Before starting to mix the ingredients, I reread the recipe and sure enough, at the TOP of the recipe in tiny letter it says "Yields 8 dozen cookies". Who in the world needs 8 dozen cookies?!?

Well, they came out really yummy and I plan on giving most of them to Heroes At Home but the rest shall make a home in my belly. =)

Austin's first day of school

Today Austin went back to school...wow was it quiet at home! Austin hums most of the day so when that noise is gone, you can hear a pin drop! Austin adores going to school and this year he didn't have many changes. His teacher (who teaches Kindergarten and 1st grade special needs) is the same since he's in 1st grade now and even his bus driver and bus aid were the same!

Tomorrow will be the same as it is every day he attends school. He waits at the front door anxiously. We head outside and wait on the sidewalk as he yanks my hand back and forth, up and down the sidewalk willing for the bus to come quicker. When the bus arrives, he slowly makes his way up the huge stairs (in comparison to his small frame) and gets to his seat-no looking back.

My little man is growing up.

Zoo pictures!

Well I'm finally sitting down and putting up the pictures from our Labor Day trip to the Zoo. The zoo wasn't as big as I expected but we had a fun time!

Me and Austin
Ben and Andrew checking out the penguins

We ate lunch at the zoo...like how Andrew eats pb&j?