Phone pics
18 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
I took Molly shopping and she picked out this bright, happy shirt.
Facebook Status
16 Feb 2012 2 Comments
I’ve been mulling over my stance on Facebook lately. When I first started using it, I was sooo hooked on it. I loved it! I found it to be super fun and loved commenting and getting comments from people. After awhile though, I realized way too much of my free time was spent zoning out there, so I took a facebook hiatus. I realized how much I wasn’t missing by not being on there, and how much more time I had for other things.
Lately I haven’t been posting status updates, and now I honestly can’t think of much to share. I think at this point in my life I’m valuing quality of friendships over quantity. Before kids I had time and energy to really reach out to lots of people and felt passionate about meeting new people at church especially and helping them plug in. The past few years I’ve struggled to really keep hold of a few close friendships. Facebook gave me the illusion of keeping up friendships without the substance. I would either get the factual highlights of big events, pictures of cute kids, or just randomness. None of these are bad, but they actually made my relationships more shallow instead of making them deeper. Instead of picking up the phone to check on a friend, I would just check their status update. If they are struggling I could just leave a comforting comment or make an offer of “let me know if you need anything” instead of taking action where I could. And lots of my friendships have gotten much more shallow as a result.
I’m not giving up Facebook, but I have cut back. Mainly I’ve decided that for me, I need to have phone chats or real face time (not the Apple kind) to feel like I have a true deep friendship, someone I can call on a bad day or invite over on the spur of the moment. I know it’s hard to talk on the phone with little kids, but for me it’s what I need.
I’m not here to rant on how you should change your habits. Facebook isn’t a bad thing in itself, just wasn’t doing good things for me the way I was using it. If you’re a close friend of mine and you have something important you want me to know, please call/text/email/stop by. I check Facebook infrequently so that’s not a reliable way for me to know about you, and I’d like to be a better friend than I have been. Thanks for understanding =)
Ahh…the beach!
09 Feb 2012 1 Comment
Ocean lover
Beach Beauty
This post is probably my favorite part of the trip. I loved all the date time with Joe and wouldn’t have traded it for anything, but we all were so happy at the beach in Cozumel. I took a chance and just asked the tourist info guy at the cab place where the best place to go with the family was to swim, and Paradise Beach was above and beyond what we expected! Beautiful beach, lots of shady palm trees, beach chairs, waiters, nice bathrooms, and even an awesome warm swimming pool all right there. I seriously didn’t want to go back to the ship. I had a blast swimming with my family and especially Ryan. This was his first time at the ocean, and he loved it. Molly liked it ok, but was a little intimidated by it. Ryan was fearless though. Love that kid! I loved Cozumel on our honeymoon, and loved it again with my parents and family. Wonder what it will be like next time? I definitely hope to go back again one day!
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Chichen Itza
03 Feb 2012 1 Comment
Our first port on our short cruise was Progreso, Mexico. It’s not a big port but you can go visit the huge Mayan pyramid of Chichen Itza from there, so Joe and I took a date excursion there while my parents so graciously stayed on the ship with the kids. The ruins are pretty far inland so it took over 2 hours by bus each way to get there and back. Of course 2 hours on a bus without kids is easy 
I enjoyed driving through non-tourist Mexico and seeing a glimpse of where people live. The grounds of the ruins is HUGE! We could easily have spent all day there. Everything was very beautiful, and hot, even in January. We enjoyed both the informative tour and just roaming around the 2 of us. We made it back to the bus with 1 minute to spare and back to the ship on time. The kids did great for the grandparents and we made it back in time to grab lunch before the kids woke from nap. I’m really glad Joe asked me to go with him
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I’m cruisin’, I’m cruisin…
02 Feb 2012 1 Comment
Yes, the travel madness continued with our family in January. My parents LOVE to go on cruises and I finally felt like we were at a place to go on a cruise with the kiddos, so we booked a nice little 5 day cruise out of Galveston with my parents near the end of January. We had such a great time! Of course Joe taught the kids a new song to go with it, “I’m cruisin, I’m cruisin, I’m cruisin for a bruisin!” They loved it, and stayed up super late at bedtime singing that song to each other, Joe included. The ship was late getting in and leaving due to fog so we spent most of the first day traveling to Galveston and waiting to get on the ship, but we made up for it that night and the next day. The highlight of the trip for Ryan was getting to sleep on a bunk bed and eat chocolate icecream, chocolate muffins, and chocolate candies every day. Molly says her favorite part was eating pizza and swimming with Ryan with the rocketships. Joe loved the chocolate melting cake he had for dessert every night. I loved being with my whole family and my parents and just having time to relax and enjoy each other instead of cooking and cleaning up. And the food was awesome, as you can tell by all the pictures!
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Birthday Madness
16 Jan 2012 1 Comment
Here’s pictures of all the birthday celebrations, and we had alot! 2 family birthday celebrations, 1 big friend party, and 1 school party makes for lots of sugar and lots of pictures. These two kiddos are definitely worth celebrating =) By the end though we were singing Happy Birthday to a gingersnap cookie. There’s only so much cake you can have in one week! I
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Happy 2nd Birthday Molly!
16 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
Dear Molly,
What can I saw but you are the FUNNIEST little girl I’ve ever met who experiences life so fully and intensely! You’ve transformed this past year from a baby to a full-blown little girl with your own personality, but through it all you are just so funny and imaginative. I laugh and laugh with you every day. You love to make people smile and laugh but you are pretty shy about it, too, with other people. You’ll do silly things like put Minnie Mouse on top of my head and announce, “You have a Minnie on your head”. You have made up voices for Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Mickey, and Daisy, and they’re all different. You often play by yourself in your own world you are creating in your mind, and you’re so happy there. You lined up your little people a few days ago and said, “They’re dancing” and also put a washcloth out on your little chair and said, “It’s a couch”. I honestly thing your imagination is already much better than your mom’s! I can’t wait to see what you do with that gift in the future.
You are a great communicator, and not only can talk in sentences but you can tell stories and talk about your day or tell about your trip to Disney World several months ago. You love music and can sing all of Jesus Loves Me to your baby Minnie Mouse. You have even started composing your own songs.
One of my favorite things to do is hear you on the monitor when you wake up in the morning or are trying to go to sleep. You go to sleep talking about different things during your day or just playing with your friends in your bed (Minnie Mouse and Froggie are the current favorites). You are happy to stay in there for a very long time and I love how you greet the day with pure joy and contentment.
You are definitely a girl that loves to snuggle and have lots of hugs. I love our snuggle time reading or playing. You are still very attached to Mom and Dad and don’t like having a babysitter or going to the church nursery unless it’s your favorite, Miss Sarah. You can be pretty dramatic when things aren’t going your way, but overall you are such a happy, delightful girl to be around.
Happy 2nd birthday Molly! You are a joy and delight to this mom and family. I’m so thankful to have a wonderful daughter in you.
Love,
Mom
She loves to jump!
Molly REALLY wanted to wear Ryan's rain boots to church. Silly girl!
And here’s a video of all her Mickey Mouse & friend voices.
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/35077700″>Molly’s Mickey Mouse impressions</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user1242570″>Kim Pollard</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>Lego Birthday Party
15 Jan 2012 2 Comments
This was my first birthday party for the kids where I went all out and made alot of stuff. I found pretty much everything here from Pinterest, but I thought I’d do a post with links on my blog to show my version of these things. My pictures aren’t great quality, but you get the idea. This was a combined party for my 2 year old daughter and 4 year old son. Here’s the homemade invitation. I took what my son had made that day and just lined it up for a fun picture, then my husband did some photo editing. The captions are his. Then we glued the picture to some fun paper and added some lego minifig stickers, and were done! My 4 year-old son helped me make these and had fun doing it.
Homemade Lego crayons
I bought silicon molds through etsy to make the crayons and the chocolate Lego minifigurines. Here’s the shop. I used new Crayola crayons, 2 per brick. The hardest part was getting the labels off. I used an exacto knife to cut the label then peel off. Some colors were very easy, and others were a pain. But they turned out really cute! I also did a few of my broken crayons into mixed colors, which was fun.
- Lego minifig coloring book
I used the template from another blog here to print these out at home. I let the kids pick out 2-3 crayons and a coloring book to put in a treat bag to take home. This wasn’t too hard, but my husband had to adjust the images for one of the pages because it was out of alignment. My kids were super excited about these and really enjoyed coloring all the “samples”.
I chose not to send lego sets home as treat bags because of the various ages of attendees. Less than 2 year olds do not need little bitty legos to swallow, but I figured all the ages and both boys and girls could enjoy coloring.
Chocolate minifigs
These were pretty easy to make and very yummy. I just used the other mold I had ordered from etsy, melted some milk chocolate chips, and smooshed it into the mold using a scraper. Then I froze them until they were set, popped them out, and stored them in a container in the refrigerator. I tried to put the chocolate chips in the mold and melt them in the oven like I did with the crayons, but I ended up burning the chocolate. I might just have had it set too high, but this other method worked well. The kids LOVED these guys and they were gone in a flash. This wasn’t hard but took awhile overall because the mold only makes 8 at a time. I will definitely make these again for the kids just for fun.
Lego cakes!
I mostly followed the recipe here to make the cakes. This is my first ever attempt at a homemade and decorated cake like this. I did use store-bought frosting because it was one less thing to worry about. I used cream cheese frosting and it was pretty good. My oven is not level so we had to cut off quite a bit to get it even, so it’s a bit on the thin side, but the kids didn’t notice. Also, they were out of big marshmallows at the store so I made cupcakes and cut them to use on the top. We have one cake for my son who turned 4 (“R”) and one for my daughter who turned 2 (“M”) I did put the cake in the fridge before I frosted it, which make it much easier to do. I would have liked to do some sort of stacked cake but that was beyond my ability for my first time at this kind of thing.
My mother-in-law bought the fun lego head storage container to help decorate the table. Here’s the full set-up.
And as cute as the cake was, the cupcakes were the definite hit of the party! I decided to decorate these at the last minute because I had made them for the cake, but the young crowd was pretty excited for them. They just wanted the chocolate!
The main activity of the party besides consuming lots of sugar was the lego building area and racing ramp. We put out my sons lego wheels and lego so the kids could build their own car and race it down a homemade ramp, somewhat like you do at the big Lego store in Orlando. We also had Duplo’s out for the little ones to build with and race. We did not do any formal races but just let the kids play. Fun party all around!
Happy 4th Birthday Ryan!
14 Jan 2012 2 Comments
Dear Ryan,
I can’t believe it’s here! 4 years ago you were just a little bitty baby that we were sooo thankful to meet, and now you’re a big 4 year old kid! I am so proud of you and so thankful God created you and sent you to be a part of our family. You made me a mom, which is such an awesome thing! One of my favorite things about you right now is that I love how you have such a kind heart. You give me hugs and kisses every night “to make you special” and ask for a hug and kiss from me to make you feel special. Your dad has taught you to say nice things to me like, “Mom you look beautiful”. And you ALWAYS look for flowers to pick for me when we’re outside. You’re starting to draw pictures on your own and asked me to show you how to draw a flower, and then immediately drew me a flower. You also recently had dad buy flowers at Lowe’s to plant at home, and you helped me put them in flower pots. I smile every day when I see them. You are also a great big brother to Molly and are really starting to play and have your own games with her. I also love seeing you do nice things for her like wear your Mickey Mouse pj’s because “Molly will be so excited!” You are very in-tune to the emotions of those around you.
You have a kind heart but you are definitely all boy! You love to just run and climb trees. If we’re outside, you’re running, climbing, chasing and defeating skeletons, or flying as Superman. You have an amazing sense of balance and can climb rocks and just about anything else that’s able to be climbed. You love to just fall down for no reason to be silly. You are super tough in wrestling with Dad, and you still love all things car-related. You have a great imagination and can sit and play with your lego dudes for almost an hour straight. You try really hard to do things right and definitely like to know and follow the rules.
You are wanting to read more and more every day, and you can tell a really good story! You also love to listen to music and sing often. Hakuna Matata is your favorite song, and you made up the verse, “it means no smelling eyes all the rest of your days” and now you and Molly sing it that way every time and just laugh and laugh.
You still like to know what to expect and like to talk all the time, either with me or with your toys. You are such a great communicator, and I love having great conversations with you.
I am so proud of you Ryan and the boy you are becoming. You have a wonderful heart, and I’m so glad to be your mom. Happy Birthday!
Love,
Mom
Just sitting in a tree
Ryan's crazy face he gives when we ask him to smile for the camera
Christmas
05 Jan 2012 1 Comment
Christmas Day was alot of fun this year. Santa has a tradition of leaving something under the kids pillow at night, so that way they know when it’s time to wake up and go find their stockings. Ryan was the first one up around 6:15 and so excited to have a candy cane under his pillow. Molly was dead asleep and Ryan had to really work to wake her up, but once he did she was so excited about her candy cane too. They loved their stockings, and then we opened presents with my sister and her family. Both kids really got it this year and were so excited. I took video of the morning and not pictures, but here’s some of them playing with their gifts afterwards once Grandma and PawPaw arrived. We had an awesome Christmas dinner and just played all day, including the adults. This was the board game Christmas for Joe, so he always had a board game going if possible. Fun day overall. We stayed in Houston until Tuesday then Joe’s sister Mary and brother-in-law Nate came into town to stay with us. The kids really enjoyed having them and their two dogs, Jax and Domino here. Molly even let Nate hold her and sit by her! Overall a very fun holiday filled with lots of family.
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This is one of my favorite gifts. Ryan picked this giraffe coffee mug out all by himself at World Market, “because Giraffe’s are beautiful and you like coffee”. Such a sweetie! I got lots of other fun things too, but this one is pretty awesome =)
We decided to take the kids bowling for the first time with my parents the day after Christmas. I was suprised at how much fun it was! This is kind of a long video, but I had fun taking them all. Also, it shows off Molly’s “excited” dance she does very frequently these days when she is excited or just having alot of fun. All in all a great Christmas!
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/34676617″>Molly & Ryan bowling for first time</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user1242570″>Kim Pollard</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
