Welcome to the World, Alexander!

It's official - I have another nephew! My brother and sister-in-law welcomed their second child into the world yesterday morning at 7:30am. Alexander Theodore was a healthy 8 lbs 3.9 oz. I don't know his length yet. He surprised everyone with his early presence! He wasn't due until Oct 31st. Guess he wanted to make sure he could partake in Halloween activities versus being the treat!

Congrats Five & Kathie! Sending lots of California love to my sweet new nephew and his family in Seattle! Can't wait to meet him in person.

Our Little Diva

Last Wednesday we managed to get Boopy's bed up and put together in her room. We still need to paint and take down her crib/toddler bed but her room is becoming hers and she is loving it. I'm so thrilled at how well the kids have handled the room separation. I personally am loving the space it is opening up for the kids toys and purging stuff we don't need. Boopy's bed has a pull out desk (we hadn't taken off the tape in this picture), drawers in the steps and wonderful cubbies for storage. We are thrilled with the beds we picked for the kids.

They love being able to see out the little window to the front yard.

No problems - she went to sleep wonderfully in her new big girl bed.

We have our own "Fancy Nancy" suddenly living in this house.

She tried nearly every hat she has, along with her dress up shoes. Oh, my we've got quite the little Diva.

Conversations with Boopy

Boopy is a wise and spunky, almost 2 1/2 year old. The things that she says lately, seriously crack me up. Where this girl comes up with these things, I do not know!

So last night after I got home from bible study I ushered the kids to bath time. Boopy had apparently been trying to keep up with the boys while they all played a bit of neighborhood flag football. Papa was home last night from work and watched our kiddos, plus my neighbor's 7 year old while she joined me at the neighborhood bible study. Anyway, Boopy now has a scrapped up elbow and toe. She's fine, but the bath stung a bit too much for her so I threw her in a shower with me to get her all cleaned up. While in the shower she talked to her scrapes on her toe.

"Owie, you okay?"
"We get you nice and clean."
"Owie, you nice and warm now."

After getting out and drying her off, she proceeded to bend herself over and kissed her toe.

"Yay! Owie, you clean!"
"I love you, Owie." (Oh my...)

Then while brushing her teeth we had the usual conversation about her first 2 year top molar that is finally coming in. I tell her to open big so I can see all her pretty teeth.

"My new tooth coming out!!"
"It coming out to give me some more food!" (I've explained that more teeth means she'll be able to eat more food. Not sure how she thinks her tooth will actually give her food)
"Tooth not go away?" (she says this with a concerned quizzically expression as she shakes her head no. I assure her it is here to stay dreading her first loose tooth!)

Then to add to the silliness of the evening, I have to hug and kiss every stuffed animal or toy she has elected to bring with her to bed. So at least Snoopy, Lincoln Log Cowboy figure and a plethora of fake food all know they are loved, just like our crazy little Boopy.

Carnival Time!!!

So you can tell by my quick succession of posts that I've finally taken a little bit of time to upload some of my personal pictures. I'm still a bit behind on client pictures but honestly I needed a break and figured my kids needed some attention. :) So, here are some of the latest pictures from this past weekend. Friday night the school by the house held their annual carnival. Papa Vaughn had to work so just the kids and I ventured over to enjoy their pirate party! Big Boy was in heaven, there was pirate stuff everyone as well as people dressed as pirates! Had I thought about it I should have pulled out his pirate costume from last year and let him wear it. The kids had a blast! They got to got in a couple of bounce houses, eat pizza, climb in a fire truck, ambulance & police car, eat cotton candy, see their friends, Rocky & Gabby, and get home just in time for Papa to get home and help tuck them in bed. All in all a fun, fun night.

Big Boy got to hop in a go-kart that he thought was REALLY cool.

Cute sibling love!

Getting the chance to get out and have fun with my kiddos, I felt the need to indulge them a bit. I didn't expect this however, Big Boy decided he didn't like cotton candy so Boopy claimed the entire thing (which was to be shared) to herself. I tried to eat as much as I could but oh I could only handle so much. Thankfully she shared with our friends Rocky & Gabby once we met back up with them.

When we met back up with friends, Rocky & Gaby, the kids enjoyed some end of the night giant ship bouncing fun. Boopy took a liking to the giant penguin.

Yes, my children are part monkey.

*Stay tuned this week as I hope to continue playing picture catch up and share pics from Grandma Vaughn's company picnic a couple of weekends ago.

His very own Pirate Ship!

This weekend we got out and bought the needed top stair gate so that Big Boy could finally sleep in his new bed. He was seriously, SOOOOO excited. Even more so than when we set the bed up the prior weekend. He hasn't been a hard kid to get to go to bed since he was a toddler and Saturday night proved to be no exception. He climbed right up, snuggled down in his sheets and told me good night. Being his first night in the bunk bed and sleeping so high, I was a bit nervous. I was even more nervous when we discovered that the mattress we have for him almost made the rails nonexistent. I stressed to him that he needs to be very careful to not fall off. I dread that kind of emergency room visit.

Before going to bed I wend in to check on Big Boy to make sure he wasn't going to fall out of bed. He was all snuggled in the covers still, helping ease my fear. Oh and don't worry about the ceiling fan. It does hang over the top bunk a bit, but we are keeping it off for now and Papa will be taking it down soon. If you know of any good small blade fans, let me know!

Since Saturday night, Big Boy has slept in his bed with no issues. The change to a new room hasn't phased him one bit. Boopy handled it well too. She went to bed just fine all by herself in her room. Although this past Sunday, I gutted the toys out of Boopy's room, moved Big Boy's toys to his room and got Boopy's room ready for her bed to be put up. I didn't quite get it all done in time to get her bed up all the way, so Papa will help finish it this coming weekend after our Saturday morning yard sale. We do still need to paint, but I'm waiting to get the comforter I want for her bed first. Anyway, in the meantime, Boopy is sleeping in the trundle part of Big Boy's bed. It's a good thing our kids handle change easily!

Oh and as for the pirate ship comment in the title, well, Big Boy has declared his bed a pirate ship. He and Boopy run around saying that the water is coming in and they better climb up to the ship. They've even gone as far as hanging blankets over the side and telling me to pull the rope to hurry and climb up! Too cute. I guess it's a good thing we decided that decorating the walls with pirate pictures would be a good idea! Which by the way I am on the look out for, so if you come across any cute kid type pirate pictures let me know.

I'm A Superstar!

I'm apparently a super star! The other morning I hopped in the shower as usual in the morning to get ready for work. Big Boy followed me in the bathroom as he had decided he needed to play near me. Boopy, who couldn't be left out and didn't want me out of sight, decided that I must be watched at all times, I suppose in fear that I would magically disappear while taking a shower. And not to be forgotten, Mather, our sweet old cat, had to join in with the kids. Mather seldom goes downstairs in the morning for her breakfast without me. So, as you can see I was quite the super star that morning. Makes me feel so good to be loved, but really, will there be a day that I can actually take a shower without an audience?

Setting Up Big Boy's Bed

Two weekends ago when we finally got the chance to put up Big Boy's bed in the process of the "Operation Room Change", he was SOOO excited. Unfortunately for him, the excitement could only be for looking at the bed but not sleeping in it quite yet. If you look through the doorway, you can see part of the banisters leading downstairs. We hadn't gotten a stair gate yet so neither Papa or I were comfortable letting Big Boy sleep in his new room until we could get that taken care of. And if you wondering why we didn't already have a gate, it's because we do have a gate, just not one that works for the banister/wall connection. We have a wall tension gate that we put up each night in the hallway keeping the kids barricaded to only our room and theirs. The excitement of getting his room ready, however, was good enough for Big Boy!

Behind the desk area of the bed is a storage area that has doors that open at both ends. Papa is thinking about building a bookshelf at one end and adding a hanging bar for clothes at the opposite side. For now though, the kids love using it to run through and be a hideout.

Before the backing to the desk area was up and while Papa and Big Boy's godfather, Darren were finishing up tightening screws the kids found that the bed made for a great ice cream store. They both insisted that I order ALOT of ice cream. At least it was reasonably priced. They started out charging me $2.00 a scoop but like everything else in the world today, the price quickly increased to $3.00! Let's just say I got quite full and became very broke on imaginary ice cream!

Big Boy checking out the top bunk with no mattress yet for sleeping on.

Boopy just being cute.

Later that night, Papa was showing the kids the bottom trundle space. He convinced the kids to climb in so that he could shut them inside. Big Boy chickened out, but Boopy was determined that she wanted to be "closed inside" the bed. Alas, Papa didn't really close her inside as she chickened out too when he started to close the drawer.