Molly's Songs

Here are some more of Molly's songs she has learned in school. Isn't she amazingly cute and smart? Yes, I'm bragging. I'm allowed to do that a little bit, right??? :)
She can really point out all of those South American countries on a map and tell you all about the Andies Mountains, the Amazon River, and the rainforest, too!

Can YOU name all of the countries in South America?

More Merry Christmas!!!

We tried getting a family photo on Cory's side too. It could be better, but at least we have a photo together. :)


Lee, come on... I KNOW you can smile. :) Please???

This one is better except Cory is covering up Alex and Molly is screaming or something.

Alex found Grandpa's grabber arm thing (similar to the toy one Alex loves). I'm not sure if Alex was trying to grab Grandpa's glasses here or what was going on...

Here he is trying to grab the camera.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We went to SD to spend Christmas with our families. Here are some photos from my side:


family Christmas photo

Our family: Cory, Emily, Molly, and Alex

Alex and Molly in their new pajamas and slippers they got for Christmas. Molly had just helped Grandma make gingerbread men, and Molly and Alex were about to eat their first cookies. Aren't the PJ's cute? Molly and Alex loved them and wanted to wear them all week (not just at night, either)!

Alex with Grandma and Grandpa's puppy Fancy. He LOVES her. Fancy is still too much into jumping around and playing to love sitting in his lap, but Alex was determined to try!

Church Christmas Program

Molly and Alex were in the Children's Christmas program at our Church on the 21st. This was Alex's first program. His class just sang one song, but it was really cute to see them up on stage. Molly was one of the wise men. The program focused on the Christmas star and how it showed where baby Jesus was.


Molly is 2nd from the left.

Alex singing "This Little Light of Mine". He is wearing the red and black sweater in the front middle.

It was cute. The kids all did a great job! :)

Isn't this how you sleep?

One morning, when we Alex woke up, we found that instead of having his random assortment of stuffed animals and things IN bed with him (as he had been doing), he had lined them up on the front of his bed. The only "comfort item" left in his bed was his grabber toy. Yes, this is one of those robot arm grabber toys where you squeeze the yellow handle and the red claw closes on the item needing to be grabbed. It is one of Alex's favorite things. He MUST have it IN bed with him UNDER his covers inorder to sleep.

The items on his bed: 2 Cars slippers, 2 stuffed puppies, 1 stuffed tiger, 1 sippy cup of water, and for some unknown reason.... 1 gray sock.
He has now had these things lined up while he sleeps for about a week. He wears his slippers sometimes, but they always have to be balanced carefully up on his bed before he can go to sleep.

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Alex loves to be funny. Tonight we were in the middle of dinner (which is why his face is all messy in the photo), when Alex got up from the table and ran to get something. He came back seconds later and sat down as if nothing strange had happened and waited for a reaction. Yes, that is a nerf suction cup foam target stuck to his forehead. :) Silly guy.

O Christmas Tree

We decorated our tree a while ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting the photos. Here they are. Molly and Alex loved helping.

The finished tree. We keep it simple with lights, gold beads, and colored balls. We have a few special ornaments on there too, like ones we have gotten on vacation. I think the tree itself is probably one of the prettiest live trees we've ever had. Sadly, it might be our last for a while. Live trees seem to be getting more and more expensive, and since we're never able to actually be here for Christmas... maybe we should just go artificial. The practical side of me thinks artificial makes sense, but I really do like real Christmas trees.

Here it is with the room lights dimmed.
Merry Christmas!!!

Old Spaghetti Factory... and more

Cory's birthday was on Saturday, and we went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Cory and I love that restaurant, but we haven't gone there much at all since Molly was born. It was a busy night at the restaurant, and we almost didn't stay because of the parking issues and the 45 minute wait, but I'm very glad we did. Molly and Alex really loved it! Better yet, because they loved it, Cory and I were able to really enjoy our meal. Usually the kids eat 2 bites at a restaurant and then get squirmy and want to go. This time, they were actually still eating when Cory and I decided we really should go so bedtime didn't get too late.

Another amazing thing happened. Molly declared it one of her new favorite restaurants AND asked if we could go there on her birthday. This is a big deal because until the Old Spaghetti Factory, the only place Molly ever requested was McDonalds. We live 4 blocks from a McDonalds and Molly and Alex STILL act excited every time we drive by (daily) and ask if we can go there. They usually start chanting MC-DON-ALDS! MC-DON-ALDS! MC-DON-ALDS! and beg to go there even if we have JUST eaten a meal at our own house. I really don't understand the obsession, and I am VERY thankful to get a normal, nice, non-fast-food restaurant on Molly's list of favorites.

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Peanut butter blossoms are Cory's favorite cookie, and we made dozens of them on Saturday (for us and for a cookie exchange). I bought 3 bags of Hershey's kisses on Thursday in preparation for our cookie making time.

Alex was with me when we bought them, and begged to have one. I told him no, and told him we had to save them for the cookies we were going to make. Later that day, I didn't see where Alex had gone, so I called his name. He peered out from the office and told me to go back downstairs. I love that at this age it is always really obvious when someone is doing something someone should not be doing.

I walked to him and found him standing with his hands inside the center front pocket of his sweatshirt. He told me I should leave him alone and go back downstairs.
I asked him what he had in his pocket. He just stared at me, trying to muster his best innocent look. I told him he had to show me what he had in his pocket, and reluctantly he pulled out one hand after another. Each held a chocolate kiss.

I saw a scissors behind him and the corner of the bag on the floor. I asked him where the bag was, and he showed me. He had stashed it into a desk drawer!!! Oh, so close yet so far away! :) He thought he'd have his own private chocolate stash. LOL! Too bad Mommy ruined that idea!

More kid weirdness

I just bought Molly this cute thermos hot food container for her school lunches.

Cory picked it up and noticed there was something inside. He opened it to find... THIS: A toy wheel, some green play doh (still soft), and half of a clementine. ?????

Nice collection of stuff, huh? Of course, Alex is the one who did it.

Today Cory went upstairs to find Alex in the bathroom. Alex was wetting wads of new toilet paper, squeezing them, and then putting the wet paper balls into a bag. I think I'm pretty close to needing to lock up the baggies! I feel like we find a new thing stuffed into them nearly every day!
This is the type of thing Alex enjoys doing, and this is what he does when he plays by himself. This is why it is so hard for me to figure out what toys to get him for his birthday or Christmas. He'd rather play with water, toilet paper, and baggies than his toys! Silly kid! :)

Fun times up north

Last weekend we went up north with friends to hang out at a cabin on the north shore of Lake Superior. It was a really fun weekend, and we are so thankful we were invited to go!


We didn't spend much time outside because it was so cold, but since the cabin was just a few feet from Lake Superior, we got some photos of Molly and Alex on the rocks.

Alex's birthday party

Alex decided he wanted a Diego-themed party to celebrate turning 3. He had a great time with his friends and loved his party.


Here the kids were playing "Lion, Lion, Elephant" (like Duck, Duck, Goose) because Alex said elephants and lions were his favorite animals. They also played "Diego Says" and an animal rescue game.

Alex's fun Diego cake that I made and decorated.

Mmm. Pizza!

Alex behind the jungle vines. Happy Birthday Alex!

Happy Birthday Alex!

It's Alex's 3rd Birthday Today!

Happy Birthday Alex! You are such a great little guy. You are funny, sweet, loving, silly, creative, and have more energy than anybody else I know. I'm so lucky you're my little boy!

Here's a little look back:


Here's Alex at 1 day old.

4 months

18 months

Today! Age 3!

Apparently we are all pigs... :)

I think Alex must be feeling like all the good food runs out before he gets his fill. Lately he has been really possessive about some things.

One evening, I finished a carton of cottage cheese. The next morning, Alex saw the carton on the counter and asked accusingly, "Is that gone? Did you eat all of it?!?" Yes I did. He was mad.

On Thursday last week, we stopped at a grocery store, and Alex picked out pretzel sticks to have for a snack. He couldn't wait to eat them, so I opened them when we got back to the van. We were driving, and Alex was eating the pretzels. I asked if I could have some, and he said, "No. You will eat them all. You can have two." He handed me two tiny pretzel sticks. Thanks.

Yesterday, Alex told Cory that the chocolate milk in the fridge was not for Daddies. Cory asked, "What about Mommies?" Alex said, "No. Chocolate milk is only for Alexes." Cory asked, "Just for Alex?" Alex then said that Molly could have the chocolate milk too. Lucky Molly.

Just now at dinner, I was eating carrot sticks. I grabbed a couple more from a large container FULL of them, and Alex said, "Don't eat all of the carrot sticks!!!!" He sounded quite alarmed. Yikes! Plus, he had not even touched the two on his plate! Seriously!!! LOL!

These are the countries in North America...

Here is my first attempt at adding VIDEO to the blog. Let me know if it works well for you all or if I should tweak the size or anything next time. Thanks!

Molly has been studying North America in kindergarten. Her teacher taught her class a great song that lists all of the countries in North America. Molly can even point them all out on a map!

Funny Stories

Last night, Alex had trouble falling asleep. He called for us, and when Cory went up to check what he needed, Alex said he was hungry and requested a cheese stick. Cory gave him one, and we didn't hear another peep from Alex.
When we were going to bed, Cory checked on Alex, and he saw the cheese stick still in the wrapper laying on Alex's pillow. He put it back in the fridge so it wouldn't go bad.
Then at 5:30am, we woke up to Alex yelling for "DADDDDDDDDYYYYY DAAAAADDDDY DADDY!" Guess what Alex wanted? His cheese stick. Apparently it had become a comfort item and not just a source of nourishment. Cory got Alex's cheese stick, and Alex fell back asleep (Praise God for that! I don't deal well with early mornings!).
When Alex woke up for the day, I went in his room to find him laying in bed still holding his precious cheese stick. How funny is that?
I grabbed the camera, and Alex was not happy about it. He promptly covered his face, but you can still see his cheese stick. :)
This photo also shows Alex's deep love for stripes. LOL!



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We were all in the car last night, and Molly and Alex were excited to see the moon. Molly has a thing for crescent moons for some reason, and she was very excited to see that last night's moon was a crescent moon.
Molly asked why the moon is sometimes a crescent and sometimes not. I went in to a simplified explanation of how it all depends on the position of the sun, moon, and earth. She thought that the moon's shape changed, and I told her the moon is always a sphere, but the amount that is lit up by the sun changes, etc. After we were done talking about it, she said, "Well, I still think the moon just lets out some of it's air."
I looked at Cory and said, "And THAT is why I do not homeschool." :)

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Cory and I are often amazed at the funny things Molly and Alex do, and how they can be so alike. They do have differences of course, but Alex does so many things just like Molly did at his age.
Do you remember how Molly went through a stage where she was obsessed with toothbrushes and would wash them in the bathroom sink? That ended quite a while ago. Now guess who can be found washing toothbrushes in the bathroom sink? Alex.
Molly went through a phase where she went through SOOOOO much paper, just putting a little scribble on each page. Molly also used to ball up paper and do odd things with it.
Guess what Alex is into now? See the photo below. He is going through pads of paper, writing a little scribble or drawing on it. Then he balls it up and gets nice, new ziplock baggies out and fills them with paper. Then he'll say, "I'm making this for Gideon" or something random. Ok, whatever. I think he made 4 or 5 of these bags of crumpled paper drawings today.
So... do all kids do these weird things? Or are my kids just weird and weirdly alike in their weirdness?

Happy Halloween II

Molly and Alex were very proud of their pumpkins. Here they are this afternoon right after Molly got home from school.
She made that cute bat hat at school today.

Remember how I wrote about my struggle with getting her white tights clean? THIS is how she comes home from school. See those pretty green knees? Any suggestions (other than no more white tights)?
Maybe I'll have to do some googling... Someone has to know of something that works!