What a Weekend!

We had such a fun three day weekend (teacher conference week, no school on Friday!!). Jerry was headed up to my mom's on Friday to install her Comcast equipment and earned some major Husband Points by taking BOTH kids with him! They love Grammy's house and I'm pretty sure Grammy likes seeing them, even though she already watches them three days a week. Our house was a little messy, nothing too crazy but Jerry left me strict instructions that I was to just relax all day and not clean! Sweet! I did clean out Abby's rooms and dust/vacuum the upstairs. Then I did some laundry while catching up on all my DVR'd shows for the week. They left before 11 am and then met me at volleyball that night...so I had an entire day to myself.

Abby reading her new book from the school's book fair, princess book, big surprise

She still lets buddy sit by her sometimes. Harder to get away from him now that he can get up on the couch by himself!

Saturday we puttered around the house and then in the late afternoon headed over to the Corey house for our monthly get-together with the gang. It's 4 couples + 7 kids and a new puppy, quite a fun group! We got tired of saying that we never get together as a group very often so we started a monthly gathering, rotating houses. Tony and Shauna brought there 6-week-old pup (name to be determined...I voted on Copper), and he was a huge hit with all the kiddos. Anicia's room was super clean when we got there and 3 hours later the kids had utterly destroyed it! It took three adults about 15 minutes to get everything put back in it's home....a sign of a truly fun night! We love hanging out with everyone and hope that the tradition continues!

Abby and Anicia in their princess get-ups

Sunday was the day Abby has been looking forward to for quite some time....Disney on Ice!! She did wear her Cinderella costume and she loved that a lot of the other little girls there had princess dresses on too!

Ready to go!

There were a number of princess gowns on display which Abby was delighted to see. She was pretty amazed by Snow White and Belle's gowns

There was a real princess waving to the kids while we were looking at dresses but as we got to her stage she went behind the curtain. Abby was disappointed as she thought we'd missed seeing a real princess but then...CINDERELLA came out. Oh my word she was so excited to see the real Cindy. She got up on Daddy's shoulders and waved like there was no tomorrow!

And Cinderella waved back!

Two pretty gals!

We had to sit for about 20 minutes before the show started and Abby kept saying, "It's going to start any minute guys!" Finally the announcer came on when there were only 5 minutes before showtime....and the excitement built! We were a little disappointed to find out that you could take pictures there, just no flash once the show started. On the tickets it said no cameras allowed so we ended up with just cell phone pics.

Abby and Jer before the show

Me and my Abby

So excited! We were in the 6th row, perfect spot!

I asked for a "Princess Kiss" picture

The show started with Mickey and the gang, then it was Cars, Little Mermaid, Lion King and an intermission. Abby sang along (loudly) with all the songs she knew, clapped very enthusiastically and as soon as the lights came on for the break she had to go potty...NOW! I hustled her up the stairs and how great, the bathroom was right across the hall! We were the sixth mom/child duo in line so we got in fairly fast...and holy cow did she pee a lot, it even made her laugh 'cause it just didn't stop! I think if the show had kept going we might have had a problem. When we left the bathroom the line was about 40 moms long...yikes! After intermission it was Tinkerbell. It was a pretty long part compared to the other movie parts but it's one of Abby's favorite movies and she didn't move a muscle the entire time!

Mickey and the gang!

Mater (Daddy's favorite according to Abby)

Flo, Mater and Sally!

We have a few pictures of the other parts but they're a little blurry for a blog post, just don't quite do the show justice! I'm hoping that they'll come back again next year so we can take Trey, I think he'd love it too. And if the Princess one ever comes to town we are definitely taking the little lady to that one!

It was so fun to take just Abby and not have the distraction of Trey. She was so well-behaved and sweet and funny and cute! Jerry and I were both wondering where she hides this sweet little girl at and why she can't make an appearance more often! It was great to see her so excited about something. We took her to dinner afterward and she continued the great behavior, asked to go to sleep right when we got home....and then woke up her usual mildly cranky self. neat.

The good, the bad and the....dirty??

Good news: The kids are finally starting to do some actual playing together. They have made up a couple games on their own...usually involving running, rolling on the floor and/or scaring each other. Nice to see some interaction. I think once Trey's language really gets going that they'll start playing a lot more together, can't wait!

Bad news: I'm still Velcro Mom. I had a birthday dinner to go to Sunday night and I came downstairs after getting ready and they were waiting for me with arms up saying "mama, mama". And then I forgot my coat upstairs and when I came back down they came running back over arms up saying "mama" again. Jerry said it looked like feeding time at the fish store. And how true, the kids looked like starving fish waiting for their food. I think Jerry should start gluing candy to himself so that the kids will stay near him! Abby was not happy about me leaving and tried to put me in time-out. When that didn't work she threw herself in front of the door and yelled "Mom! Don't leave me here!! Take me with you!! Don't go!!" in a VERY LOUD, VERY SAD way. Yikes. I left anyway and went and had myself a margarita and came home after they were asleep :)

And for the dirty: Trey is still working on his Perfect Husband-ness and is learning how to do laundry. Every time I open the laundry room door he finds an article of clothing and tries to put it in the wash. Now I just throw a pile of clothes in front of the washer and let him load it. Such a good helper!

"Laundry is AWESOME!!!"

Halloween 2009

For Halloween we went to downtown Mt. Vernon again. They close down the main street and all the businesses hand out candy. The kids did great this year, Trey made it about 8 blocks before he needed to be carried, longer than I thought he'd make it. Once he found out what people were putting in his basket he forgot that he hated his fireman hat and left it on for the trip, giving the mamarazzi plenty of opportunities to get pics! Abby was Cinderella...a very sparkly Cinderella. Her carseat had to be vacuumed out when we got home and everywhere she sat she left a sparkly mess, but my word she was c.u.t.e.!!

"Candy is that way guys"

Cutest little fireman!

My two favorite firemen!

No glass slipper was left behind

Abby and her best bud Anicia (little mermaid!) holding hands

I asked for a nice smile and this is what I got

Gardner Family!

Abby and I got to hand out candy for a few minutes while the Per Dona girls and their kids got some pics together. Abby LOVED handing out candy, I think she may have liked it more than trick-or-treating herself.

Trick-or-Treating at Bumpa and Grammy Cece's house

and at Grammy Sue's house

"Check it out...more candy!"

A little piano concert to top off a great evening!

PS. This "fall back" business on the clock...not fun! Abby was up at 4am instead of her usual 5. Darn internal clocks! Took a few days but we're back to 5 am now.

Helping Hands

I decided to shampoo the carpets Saturday morning since we were going to be gone for most of the day giving the carpets time to dry so Jerry took the kids outside with him to clean up the outside. Since it was pretty wet and dirty out, we dressed them in their Carhartt's and hickory shirts. Matching kids is always and excuse for pictures!! The kids helped Jerry clean off the deck and put all the outdoor furniture away and then Trey came in for a nap. Abby stayed out to help cut up the tree that had fallen down and from what I hear she was a great helper. She loaded up her kitty wheelbarrow with lots of leaves and helped carry off some branches to the yard-waste container.

Sibling love!

Cookies and Pumpkins

Fall is fun. It's cookies and pumpkins, costumes and candy. I love it. I'm a baker at heart and one of my favorite holiday things to do (for any holiday) is make cookies for the kids and I to decorate. It's a cheap, easy and tasty project. I let Abby help with the cookie making, yes it's very messy and takes 8 times as long but she gets so excited about helping.

Abby helping mix the dough, Trey washing dishes (keeps him out of the way!)

Sprinkling flour

You can never have enough flour on your board

or on your face

Working hard. It was so cute, she'd roll out dough for a bit then put the recipe down in front of her and "read" it, while making comments. She's just like her mama!

Pre-frosting

Decorating time. I got smart this year and we used paint brushes to paint the frosting on. So much easier for little hands to do.

I even let Trey decorate his own

Taste-testing

Black frosting...

makes a purple tongue!!

They got to do more cookies when they had friends over!

Pumpkin Patch!

Farmer Trey

Feeding the chicken

Trey chased that poor chicken all over

I don't think the chickens were too excited about being fed one little kernel at a time.

In the balloon pumpkin

a smile??

perfect size

yum-yum. he kept calling them apples

so happy!

I got not one picture of the kids looking at the camera together...except this one! I guess if you're only going to get one it should be the family one :)

Real men don't wear shirts to clean pumpkins

2 jack-o-lanterns and a princess castle (looks more like a haunted house)

At least it's in order...

I haven't been blogging as much but that doesn't mean I haven't had stuff to write about. So here's a rundown of some of the latest Gardner happenings + oodles of pics.

Waiting for Dad to come in. He hears the garage door open and if he's upstairs he runs to the window to watch Jerry back the truck in. And yes, it's 5 pm and he's still in his jammies. Some days (lots of days) we don't get dressed.

It was Bumpa's birthday this month and Abby was very proud of the card she made and the envelope that she put together herself.

Grammies make the best listeners at story time.

Trey has become a little monkey, there's not much he can't climb on, including the coffee table

A lot of rain + a lot of wind = no more tree. I was pretty happy about it as I have wanted them to be cut down for awhile. They're pretty lilac trees but too big for where they are and we don't need privacy in the front. I hadn't told Jerry my plan to get rid of them since I figured he wouldn't have time to do it until spring but nature took care of it for me. Now I'm just waiting for the other one to bite it!

What to do on a rainy day?? Get out the toy stroller and let the kids push each other!

Trey has developed a love for his blankie now. He's about the same age Abby was when she got attached to one. This one was originally a gift for Abby when she was born but it's one of my faves so it was passed down to Trey.

Yep, he still likes washing dishes. Would do it all day, every day if I let him. Jerry's coffee mug has been VERY clean since that's the one thing I let him play with in the sink

I quit trying to keep him off the couch. I figure if he falls off and hurts himself it might be more effective than me telling him not to jump on it.

Playing cars in the kitchen. Abby takes the bucket of cars and sits on the carpet zooming the cars into Trey who tries his hardest to send them back to her. Once the bucket is emptied they collect all the cars and do it again.

Abby has been on a roll with funny comments lately. She is really into the word "disgusting" and uses it frequently for anything. She gets the tone right and the word but has no idea what it really means. I put Trey's big-boy bed together in his room and she went to see it and said "Oh Mommy, that is disgusting", even though she was excited about it. And the other day we were putting one of her puzzles together and here's our conversation:

Me: Abby, could you go turn the light on so I can see better?
Ab: Okay, that's a good idea. I have tiny eye galashes (i think she meant eye glasses) so I need the light on to see the pieces better.
Me: Uh-huh (holding in my giggles.) You have tiny eye-galashes?
Ab: Yeah. Maybe when I'm a grown-up I'll have bigger eye galashes. But right now I'm small so I have little eye-galashes. It's hard to see the pieces with little eye-galashes but I'll have big eye-galashes when I'm older.

Eye-galashes??? Where does she get this stuff from?! I was biting my cheek so hard to keep from laughing at her. She was so serious about her eye-galashes. I'm not sure what she was even talking about but it was darn funny. And speaking of puzzles, she is amazing at doing them. We have two 300 piece puzzles that have two sizes of pieces. Regular size ones for adults and a bit larger ones for kids that go together in the same puzzle. She and I can do each one in well under an hour and I don't give her any help with her pieces and she's usually done with hers before I get all mine done. I'm hoping she'll turn out to be an engineer or an architect or something one day. She has great spatial awareness.

Husky House

Abby's new shirt...just like Daddy's!

still working on the smiling-while-looking-at-the-camera thing

a true Gardner

Picking boogers is funny!

Cuties

Trying out sister's shirt

Sweet boy!

my boys!

I think we should send this to the admissions office...get an early start