joy joy joy

After a night out with my sisters for appetizers and a late movie...I was dragging a little this morning to say the least! Although I had so much fun out, there is a reason most moms don't stay up until 1:30 in the morning - their kids wake up at 6:45. 3 cups of coffee later and Saturday with our little family was starting to look up!

I spent most of the day cooking and baking - Shepard's pie and lemon pound cake with glaze. I decided that since I was already making comfort food for our family that I would make some for my fellow party animals so Elizabeth and Amy picked up their dinner and dessert to take home with them. I hope they enjoyed as much as I did...good thing I ran on the treadmill today after polishing off half of the pound cake!! Flo worked on organizing our garage and his work products on some new shelves that we got from Costco. Its starting to look so much better already. Over all just a pretty relaxing family day.

I wanted to post this little treat of a video of Jack signing Joy Joy yesterday. I think we might have to get him in lessons in a couple of years, he loves music so much!

Jack's Birthday Party

We had Jack's birthday party at the Y today and the boys CRASHED when we got home after a few hours of cake, pizza and lots of swimming. They had a blast with all their cousins, aunts and uncles. I can't belive he is 3 already!

Cooper ate just a few bread sticks along with digging into the chocolate cake that he liked just a little...ANYTHING chocolate is great in his book!

Flo taking Jack down the slide twice - Jack braved his fears and it was really funny!

Loving on his gifts when we got home. He was really excited about his party!Cooper playing with Auntie Roxanne in the pool.

He was beaming while we sang Happy Birthday it was adorable. For a kid who begged for a Mack Truck cake, he only ate 1 bite. Next year maybe I'll just put a candle in a cracker with cheese and sausage!Posing with his new prized bike. He spent over an hour in the back yard and it was coooold out.

4 hours of my life spent, about 2 loads of dishes and lots of little bits of flour and sugar all over my counters, sink and floor.... happiness for one 3 year old.

His Toy from Santa was my model, which he let me borrow for 2 days - sweet boy.

Night Out

My sister and I were given tickets to the women's US skating championships tonight and we had so much fun! It was such a cool experience to watch in person after growing up watching them in the Olympics, and although we were by no means experts like a few that surrounded us we had a blast! It was just what the doctor ordered after Flo being out of town and a few long weeks of being indoors so much. Watching them at the Olympics this year will that much cooler now :)

Although in our personal opinion, the girl that got 2nd was completely robbed... maybe she will get her due in the Olympics!

We had really good seats and it was super nice to just visit and spend some time with my sister without having to juggle the kids for a change.

Sasha Cohen, my sister's favorite.

So Flo did Nascar racing downtown with his company this week and I went out for $6 hotdogs at the Arena - for us, we were movers and shakers this week!

Ready for Spring already!

Long nights at the Florence house this past week...we are definitely in the dead of winter with it getting dark so early, we are having to come up with creative ways to entertain trouble #1 and #2... any ideas? On a side note... Jack turns 3 tomorrow and it is sort of blowing our minds. After they went to bed, Flo sat and looked at the album of when he was first born. How did the time go quickly? My little man.


We saved a few gifts from Christmas and put them in the laundry room. Today was the PERFECT night to bust out Aunt Amy's super cool tool bench gift to the boys. They played for hours, sawing and drilling. HUGE HIT!

Not politically correct but Flo was calling them our little diaper heads. It was funny. Daddy is definitely back!

Cooper being funny....doing his little strut down the roller coaster ramp and being funny. The kid is a crack up and STUBBORN. We had all of our chairs in the entire upstairs in our bedroom today because he wanted to climb on top of tables, couches, bunk beds...anything. And after one fat lip and a bump on the head I took the obstacle out of the equation. Maybe stunt man in his future?

After the Y today (in which they came and found me to get me because my little one was trying to climb the slide and fell and got hurt surprised?) I decided to get them out of the house and go for a walk because it was sunny out. Sunny yes. Warm no. With the wind whipping at my face on the way back of our 2.5 mile walk and the kids winning....I was rethinking my bright idea. Maybe I'll wait until its above 50 next time!

This video is what we do when we have 1 hour till bedtime and have exhausted all toy resources...laser pointer. They were hilarious!

Mouse Fear

I faced my fear of Chuck E Cheeses today and went there with my sister and the kids for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised and I think it was because it was a weekday and not a popular hour but the kids had a blast and pretty much had the run of the place. They had so much fun riding all the moving cars, doing dance dance revolution, and taking funny pictures of themselves - all while polishing off a whole LARGE pizza!

Only one more day until Flo comes home and we are excited...Jack has colored a special picture for him, Cooper has been looking out the front window saying Da Da non stop and I have a treat waiting (just as long as his flight isn't delayed from 11pm until 1 am again...) :)

mmmm, chocolate mouse, fresh berries, yummy whipped cream...all surrounded by a chocolate shell bowl? Hurry home!

The girls were doing Dance Dance Revolution and even Coops got in on the action...

The Mouse gang (although when he visited our table Cooper let out a shreik that you would hear from me at a horror movie). I guess we can add Chuck E Cheese to THE list, along with Santa of who he is afraid of!

Post bubble bath time this morning after our last batch of pancakes and MESSSSSSSY syrup. This is my most favorite picture of them in a long time! They decided it was a good time to have a tickle fest.

Bubble Boy.

My little rock star doing his air guitar impressions for me. Where does he get this?

Half Way Point...

We all miss Daddy around this house... but we are at the half way point of his 6 day trip to Dallas and things are going pretty smoothly. Kids have been in great spirits and have been really patient with me interviewing people to try to find just the right match for someone to watch them when I start coaching at U-High next month part time.

Uncle John, David and Aubrey came over today to play and for lunch and the kids had a blast. They played so hard that I had to wake Jack up from his 3+ hour nap at 5 just so that he would fall asleep before 9 tonight! It was also go good to have a little grown up time with John and visit - or so we thought. And then we hear some splashing noise and discovered all 4 kids had broken into the bathroom and were playing games in the toilet water. SICK. Reality check - there was no grown up time, just visiting over lunch!

I must admit as well....I have discovered life's most perfect food this past week too. Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Pancakes from Williams-Sonoma. Seriously good! Flo will attest to my obsession with pancakes in general but these take the cake. We have had them for at least 1 (usually 2) meals since Flo left Sunday morning. They make not being able to eat all the other good foods I'm missing out on a distant memory and the fact that the kids love them too is icing on the cake!

We miss you daddy!


The boys were clowing around tonight, running around laughing and hugging. It made me laugh and Jack declared "My mommy is so happy today." I was.

Our Motley Crew from today. Funny funny kids.

Jack posing with his new toy from Auntie Connie "just because we ran into her at wal-mart"

If you have seen Cooper in the past month then chances are he looked like this pose... one hand down his pants. He pretty much assumes the position every minute he isn't eating or sleeping. I have to break this habit!!

Rocky Start to the New Year...

We've had a little bit of a rocky start to the new year around our house with me getting my wisdom teeth taken out on the 28Th of December. What should have only been a couple days of pain or discomfort has turned into almost 2 weeks of pretty intense pain and filled with lots of meds and pudding and jello. 2 dry sockets later and 2 impacted wisdom teeth which had one that had roots going right through my nerve caused a little bit of trouble for the surgeons and I have had the pleasure of dealing with major nerve pain on the right side of my face along with numbness that won't seem to go away...super swell when I am trying to take care of these two little balls of energy! Flo has been AMAZING with helping out and being patient with me but I think I am wearing thin on eating only soup, pudding and jello and slowly killing my kidneys with Advil! On the upside, this whole experience has allowed me to discover the differences between chicken soup brands, practice a little on mario cart and not totally over indulge in all the amazing Christmas treats! I am just hoping that every morning I wake up it will be a little better so that we can enjoy this new year we are blessed with and the adventures that await!

Since I have been such a slacker with blogging, I thought I would post some pictures from the past 2 weeks - note: please ignore the dishes, laundry or mess in the back drop - with Flo having to still work all the time, our priorities were more along the lines of having them fed and happy!


Cooper enjoying one of his favorite Christmas presents...

Side profile of Jack's POOF, after Flo blew dry it one night....

Front view (that thing has bounce!!)

Naked bed jumping time - all rules were out this past week!

Cooper enjoying his kalua cream pie...just a little...

Thats a happy boy!

Testing out their new table set from Grandma and Grandpa - its a hit!

First time leaving the house after 6 days in - costco run, what else?

Post cereal sale... Jack is so proud of our loot!
Watching Daddy leave for work

Cooper testing out his pound a ball toy...he is sort of good seeing as he is freakishly strong for a 13 month old!

Aaaah the men in my life!