Announcing...

My Book!

If someone had told me a year ago how much work it was to write a little ol children' book I would have...well done it anyway! Although my expectations would have been a little more realistic.
It goes something like this...Find publisher-submit manuscript-rewrite manuscript-repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat (seriously I am not even exaggerating!) detail illustrations to illustrator- post edit and repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat...(again!) then move to final production and...well...you get the idea...but now we are weeks away from the release and let me tell ya, it was so much fun!

If you would like to pre-order a signed copy (or not signed...I shouldn't be so presumptuous...) go to my facebook page to get the link to the book website (I don't post personal information on this website or our last name) Jon designed the website...he is so talented...and cute...

Just Wondering...

So I have this feeling that there is a little girl who will one day belong to our family. I don't know when, but I feel like we will have some pink in our home one day.
Oh I don't even have to say that I love boys to bits. I would have 100 of those stinking little muddy boys who smooch their Mommy and leave slobber on her cheeks.
But one day we will have a little princess too...I just know it.

So I kind of buy clothes for her... sometimes. Only when I see something so fabulous I can't resist and when that fabulous something is on sale...I buy it. You know, for our "one day girl".

I went to a mom to mom sale last weekend (these are my addiction...they are like a big indoor garage sale of childrens items and clothes) and there was a woman who must have had the best dressed little girl in the entire city selling her clothes...more like giving them away...and I couldn't resist. I came home with a whole darn bag.

While I going through them to wash before I tuck wistfully in the "one day girl's" bin of fabulousness I wondered what she may look like...which was the time that her future big brother came wondering in...and...yes I did...

Something to Clear Up....

When we saw our home before we purchased it the previous owners had already moved out. We saw it completely empty and assumed the obvious nature of the rooms. There were two spaces that bothered me. On the open concept main floor there is a looooong living room. On one side it is open to the island and bar, the other end is a half wall separating the entry way and the other end has a window. It was difficult to organize our living room furniture in but I thought we made it work. The other problem area was the dinette, the open area of the kitchen for the dining table. It is not a huge area so the table took up the whole space and blocked the patio door to the deck.

When our house was for sale our agent asked if there was any way we could stage the living/dining area with a table to define area's more clearly...huh? Living room/DINING room? We have a dining room???? I couldn't imagine the space that way after using the long room only as a living room. We bought a small table for the dinette this weekend and moved the dining set into the "dining area" sure enough the whole space made sense...finally! After four years of living in our house, we found our dining room! (Yes. We feel dumb.)

Mini Kung Fu Master

Jacob LOVES Daddy's kung fu weapons. Whenever he sees Jon's bag he toddles over as fast as he can to get his fat little hands on them. I am sure in 5 short years he will be already well rehearsed before he gets his white belt!

Play

At three and a half Ben's play has evolved from banging blocks and throwing balls around to intricate scenes and story lines. He will immerse himself in a forest village for the morning, pause for a picnic lunch with his monkey and rabbit and then fight fires (notice the high heeled foot peddles on his fire engine...)build a car wash from a kitchen chair and fly to the moon in his cardboard rocket ship and bucket helmet for the afternoon.
I am in awe of that little boy with the great big imagination. Truly he has inspired me... and yes, that is a hint of an announcement...

Not a Surprise...

It is not a surprise that Jacob's favorite activity when he is not eating, is to be pretending to do so...while he awaits the sympathy of someone who believes he is as starving as he pretends to be and feeds him his 16th meal of the morning.

Facepaint!

Oh the Joys of face paint... we learned the hard way that if you let your three year old monster sleep with it on his face because he acted like washing it off at the end of the day was near torture it won't come off for 2 more full days...