Apparently, I Have Another Celebrity Look Alike

Okay, I promised I wouldn't do any more celebrity look-alike posts, but this was just too funny!

The other morning, Aiden came up to me and asked, "Mommy...you have a doggy?"

I replied, "No...I don't have a doggy."

Aiden insisted, "Yes Mommy! You have a doggy...at you work!"

"What?" I replied, "No...mommy does not have a doggy at her work."

Aiden AGAIN insisted, "Yes, you DO have a doggy at you work! I show you!"

He then took me by the hand and led me to the cereal box that was sitting on the table. "See!" He said, "You have a doggy at you work!"

I looked at the back of the cereal box & saw an advertisement for getting a free DVD with 5 UPC symbols. This was the DVD:

So, apparently, I look like Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde" (at least according to an almost 3-year-old)! I DO have a suit almost identical to the one she's wearing (minus the funky flight attendant hat) and her hair and mine are fairly similar...so I guess, in Aiden's eyes, that means it MUST be a picture of me. I could just see the wheels turning in his head..."That's my mommy in that picture...she's wearing her work clothes...and she has a doggy...therefore, my mommy MUST have a doggy at her work!" And, so far, I haven't been able to convince him otherwise! --Lindsay

Girls Night Happenings

Okay, so I haven't talked about Girls Night in quite a while. In fact, I don't think I've talked about it since April. I do have good excuses though...

May: I wasn't able to go because I was in Florida. The girls had a "project & movie" night. They each brought a project that they haven't been able to get to in awhile & worked on it while watching a movie.

June: I wasn't able to go AGAIN. This time because I was being a workaholic & had to get up at 1:30 the next morning. The girls went and got scalp treatments & then went to dinner at Pizza Factory. (I was QUITE bitter that I missed this one!)

July: I did actually go in July, but I didn't get a chance to write about it because of a little thing called...having a baby 2 days later! It was a BLAST though! We hung out at Audra's house & stuffed our faces with chocolate fondue. It was AWESOME!

August: And, this month was great too! We stuffed our faces again...but this time it was at Chili's. I had the Quesadilla Explosion Salad. It was delish! I totally recommend it! Although I'm sure it's PACKED with calories! Oh well! We had a great time just sitting around & chatting. And, yes, you guessed it...I forgot to take a picture. I even had the camera in my purse, but didn't remember to get it out! Oh well! One of these days, I'll remember...I promise!

Next month, we're going to get manicures & pedicures! I'm looking forward to it. The only question is...will I remember to take a picture??? Place your bets now! --Lindsay

One-Month-Old Already!!!

Holy Guacamole! Cohen turned one-month-old yesterday! Are you kidding me?!? Where did the last 31 days go? It seems like I just barely gave birth to him like 2 days ago! Crazy!!! Anyway, the past month has been a blast! We just absolutely love this little guy to pieces! He is such a sweetheart! He rarely cries & is just happy to be here! He's already a pretty good sleeper at night too. He usually goes to sleep around 10 or 11, then wakes up around 3 am or so to eat & then he goes right back to sleep until about 7 am. Can't complain about that, right? And, I think that yesterday I got a REAL smile! This wasn't gas...it was a totally different smile than I've ever seen before. I was holding him when he looked right at me for a second & smiled! It was the cutest thing EVER! All of this has added up to a GREAT first month. I love you like crazy Cohen & I'm so happy to have you as part of our family! --Mommy

p.s. Here's some of my favorite pictures from the last month...

Uncle Dan meeting Cohen...he held him forever! It was so cute!

Uncle Dan & Aunt Ta-Ta with Cohen. They are SOOOOOOOOOO going to have a mistake baby!

Cohen & Big Brother Aiden

Cohen & Connor

Sweet baby!

The boys love, love, LOVE their new brother

Grandpa & Cohen

His shirt says, "I rule the kingdom". Isn't that the truth?

Aiden laying down by Cohen

Being a big brother is HARD work!

Connor LOVES to hold Cohen any chance he can get

The kid has HUGE eyes!

Apparently REALLY hard work...

Hey mom!

Just chillin'

So cute!

I just thought the look on his face was super funny! He was drifting in and out of sleep & kept making silly faces while doing it

Bright eyes!

" What you talkin' about Willis?" That's what this picture reminds me of

Such a good big brother!

Watch Out Kindergarten World...Here He Comes!!!

My Connor...my little Baby Connor...went off to Kindergarten today! I can't believe how fast the years have gone! It seems like just yesterday I was holding him, as a tiny 5 lb. 15 oz. little baby, in my arms...and now he's a kindergartner! Holy guacamole!!! It's amazing how fast life flies by! I thought that today would be a hard day for me, but it really wasn't. I think the reason it was so easy was because Connor was so flippin' excited! He was so excited in fact that I couldn't help but be anything BUT excited too! As Mike & I drove him to school today, we heard him say from the backseat, "I've been dreaming about this day FOREVER!" Haha! While he hasn't really been dreaming about it FOREVER, he has been dreaming about it for at least the past year. See, Connor's birthday is in October...and therefore, he joins the club of kids who barely missed the cutoff (this club has lots of cool members...such as both Mike & I). Connor was so sad last year when most of his friends went off to Kindergarten & he was left behind to do another year of preschool. So, yes, he was BEYOND thrilled today to FINALLY be going to Kindergarten! So far, Kindergarten has lived up to his extremely high expectations. When I picked him up today, I said, "Hey bud! How was it? Pretty great?" He replied with, "No...it was SUPER great!" I had to laugh! So, here we go...off on our quest through the public education system for the next 13 years...and I'd say we're off to a pretty great start! --Lindsay

p.s. Here's some more pics of the "day he's been dreaming about FOREVER!"

A big thanks to our neighbors, the Martz's, for the pretty backdrop! See, our front yard was in full sun this morning so Connor's eyes were closed in every shot. So, we decided to head across the street & use their lovely shaded front yard! :)

Connor in front of his classroom...#155 Mrs. Brimley

There he goes...

Soccer Season Starts

Here we go again! Another month & a half of Saturday morning games...this time around it's soccer! Connor was super excited for his first game this morning. He did great...except when the coach took him out of the game for a few minutes (Connor wasn't too cool with that). Unfortunately, in great Lindsay-fashion, I forgot the camera AGAIN. Oh well...I've got lots of upcoming games to make up for it! Mike is Connor's assistant coach this year. I was hoping he wouldn't have to coach at all (more for my sake than for his...with the new baby and all), but the girl that is in charge of the program called and BEGGED him to at least be an assistant coach. (Apparently there aren't many people around these parts who know soccer very well!) Anyway, the game was fun. If you ever need to find us on a Saturday morning for the next six weeks, you know where to find us! --Lindsay

Coming to a Mailbox Near You...

This is what my life has revolved around for the past two weeks (well, this and feeding a baby every 2 1/2 to 3 hours). When you get yours, promise me you will TREASURE it...each one is a little piece of my life! :) Why do I always do this to myself??? --Lindsay

Aiden's First Day of School...Sort Of

Today was my little Aiden's first day of preschool! Now, I know you're all saying,
"What? He's not even 3 yet!" (Although, if you ask him, he'll tell you he's 3! Just a few more weeks Aiden, just a few more weeks!) Well, a few of the mom's in our neighborhood decided to put together a little in-home preschool group for some of the kids that were barely too small to go to real preschool. It will be held twice a week & will rotate houses. There are 5 moms doing it, so one week out of every five, the group will meet at my house. The other four weeks out of the month, Aiden will go to someone else's house. He was so flippin' excited this morning! In fact, he was so excited that he only let me take one picture of him...then he was saying, "Okay...let's go to school now Mom!" He had a great first day, although he DID decide to show his defiant side to his teacher. She gave them all Chex trail mix & asked them to pick out the circles to lace onto a necklace. She told them not to eat them, so what does Aiden do? He says, "Here's a circle! I'm going to eat it!!" What a kid! I think this little preschool will be so good for him. He LOVES to play with all the other kids & (maybe) by the end of the year, he might be able to sit still for more than 3 minutes! We'll see...maybe it's just wishful thinking! --Lindsay

p.s. Connor starts Kindergarten next Monday!!!

Gettin' Out of the House

Last night, we were FINALLY able to get out of the house...and not to go to a doctor's office or some medical test...we got out just to have some fun! For Fathers Day, we gave my dad tickets to see the U2 Laser Light show at the Clark Planetarium with us. He hadn't used them yet, so when he called and asked if we were interested in going, we (a.k.a. I) were ecstatic to go and get out of the house. We met them up at Gateway & started out the evening with dinner at Costa Vida. I love that place...it's delicious! Their salads & burritos are HUGE...you can not leave without being stuffed. And, by the way, you can get really good coupons for it online too, so it can actually end up being pretty cheap!

After dinner, we headed to the Planetarium. We let the kids play with all their favorite exhibits for a little while and then we headed into the theatre to watch the show. The show was actually pretty cool...a little trippy at times...but very cool. The show is in the dome theater at the Planetarium, so the screen takes up your entire field of vision... it's very much a virtual reality experience. At times, you feel like you are flying...either through outer space or a battle field or with some freaky dolphin/bird thing...again, it was fairly trippy at times. It definitely lived up to one of U2's songs as you really DO feel like you're "at a place called vertigo"! :) Anyway, it was fun. If you're a U2 fan, I think you'll like it...an hours worth of great music!!! I don't know if I'd take the kids again though...Aiden & Cohen fell asleep (how this was possible with the EXTREMELY loud music, I don't know) & Connor kept saying he was bored! Haha!

After the show, my parents treated us to dessert at Dairy Queen. You would think that ice cream & the month of August would go hand-in-hand with one another...but not so much last night! It was freezing!!! Okay well maybe it wasn't FREEZING, maybe it was in the 70s...but after the hot summer, it FELT really chilly & we were all eating ICE CREAM! We were all shivering!!! We got in the car afterwards & actually turned the HEAT on for a few minutes...and then laughed about what wusses we had become over the past few months! Anyway, it was a really fun night & it was AWESOME to get out of the house for a little while! Thanks for the fun night Nana & Poppy! --Lindsay

An Unusual Sleeping Space

On Sunday afternoon, we FORCED Aiden to take a nap. He has NOT been taking naps very well lately (much to my dismay), but he still needs one desperately! If he doesn't get one, he's extremely grumpy by about 5:00 pm. On Sunday, the grumpiness began to appear around 2:00 pm so Mike made him go to his room & told him that he needed to at least lay down for awhile. He cried & cried & CRIED about it, but eventually the crying stopped...so we assumed that he had fallen asleep.

Later that afternoon, my parents came over for dinner. My mom asked where Aiden was. I told her that surprisingly he was asleep. She asked me if she could peek in on him, so we both tiptoed into his room to sneak a peek. We looked on the bottom bunk...he wasn't there. Well, he probably just decided to sleep on the top bunk, so we checked there...but he wasn't there either. My mom suggested that maybe he had decided to sleep in Mike's & my bed, so we headed in there...nope, not there either. At this point, I started to get worried. I KNEW he had to be SOMEWHERE in the house, but I couldn't find him ANYWHERE! Stories like Elizabeth Smart's started creeping into my head. After searching every room in our house, I headed back into the boys' room & that's when my eyes caught a glimpse of something. This is what I saw...

The boys have a desk attached to their bunkbed. Apparently, Aiden felt it was a good place for him (and Optimus Prime) to take a Sunday afternoon nap! Silly kid! --Lindsay

Better Late Than Never

Well, Cohen's nursery is done...and only 2 weeks AFTER he was born! Oh well... The poor boy has spent the past few weeks sleeping in a construction zone, but now he gets to sleep here:

I think it turned out sooooo cute! The pictures don't do it justice...which means you have to come visit me and see it in person (Hint, hint...I'm DYING of cabin fever here!) Anyway, Mike did a great job...especially on the shelf & accent wall...which was quite the mathematical feat! Mike spent many hours with the calculator figuring out exactly how big the squares needed to be in order to fit perfectly on the wall (he didn't want to end the wall with a partial square...he only wanted full squares). He always does such an awesome job! There ARE perks to being married to an engineer...who knew?!?

Here's what the room looked like before when it was Aiden's room:

Yes, I know...the room was already darling! I've had MANY people mad at me for changing this room, so let me explain why I decided to redecorate it. Aiden was ADDICTED to his bed...and I'm talking SERIOUS addiction here! He loved, loved, LOVED it!!! I was worried that if I just turned it over to the new baby, he would flip out! I read in a magazine once that kids have an easier time turning their beloved crib over to a new sibling if the parents take it apart for awhile & then set it back up with new bedding. That way, the child doesn't really make the connection that it is THEIR crib. So far, it seems to have worked with Aiden. Anyway, that's my reason...plus, it's just fun to make a change every once in awhile.

Here are some other pics of the room. You'll notice that I DID reuse a lot of the same decorations from Aiden's old room. Aiden's room was a fish/ocean theme...Cohen's is a sailboat theme, so I was able to keep a lot of my favorite things...like the swim club plaque & the fisherman's lamps.

So, there you go. What do you think??? --Lindsay

Life is Good