Happy Easter

St. Patty's Day Food

Breakfast Dinner

This is one of those fun things about silly holidays to me... I could care less about St. Patricks Day but coming up with lots of green food was fun! Brody wasnt to sure about the green eggs and neither of my kids liked green jello but they both thought green rice was pretty cool (you can make any color rice by adding food coloring to the water before you cook it... who would have known=) On the dinner plate is grapes, green apples, kiwi, celery cucumbers, ranch dressing with green food coloring,avacado, green goldfish (I bought a colored bag of goldfish and picked out the green ones), green jello, green rice and sprite with green food coloring and a lime on the side of the glass (Brody said it was spicy- meaning the carbonation).

I started blogging for many reasons. One being that I have completely failed at scrapbooking any memories of my childrens lives... in fact, the very thought of it now is just overwhelming. Another was so that people that dont live close to us can see what goes on in our day to day lives... except that these days, my blogging is not so day to day as it is week to week or even month to month...

I also wanted a way to document fun things we do, so that when my kids get older and think all I ever do is make them clean their rooms and do homework, I can show them all the fun things we really do.

But one of the main reasons I started blogging was for myself.... because I happen to know that most of the things I write on this blog, are for me, for my memories, and for all the things I want to hold onto in my kids lives... the things I never want to forget... the precious moments that only happen once in a lifetime.

We just came home from an amazing week long vacation to Florida. Yes, there will be several posts about it and yes, I took a rediculous amount of pictures... but this trip was not about the BIG things for me. It wasnt about watching Reagan be transformed into a princess at the Bippity Boppity Boutique or watching Brody meet his all time hero- Buzz Lightyear... it was about my kids, and the overwhelming feeling of being their mom.

It was about watching them play together and see that they are truly becoming the best of friends. It was about looking at them and wondering where the time has gone... where my babies went but being excited about the future of continuing to watch them grow and develope. It was the moment of sheer emotion when Reagan described her favorite part of the trip as "just being with you" while hugging Stephen and I, and Brody's sweet voice at the dinner table the night we got home saying "your the best mommy ever" even though the only edible thing in our house was ramen noodles and pickles. It was about holding them close to me at night and smelling them, and being completely in awe of the little people that they are becoming. Their are no words to describe the love I have for my kids, but I cant imagine ever forgetting that feeling!

Dear Mr. Dobson-

I have read your book... twice. I feel the need to tell you that you have no idea what your talking about. I read your examples of "extreme cases" of strong willed children and... well... can I just say... why don't you come to my house for a few days... then you will really know what an "extreme case" is. Actually, I don't even know if my Reagan fits into the category of "extreme cases"... she breaks the mold and stands in a world all her own when it comes to strong-willed children. Come to my house and you will truly see what a strong-willed child is... and then maybe you can write a book that I will read and find the least bit useful.

Sincerely-

Reagan's exhausted mommy!

*I feel the need to add here that I can appreciate the fact that Reagan is strong willed - she comes by it honestly and I know one day it will be to her advantage... I just wish I knew how to better deal with it right now =)

Soccer Mom

Well I am officially a "Soccer Mom" minus the mini-van... I will never own a mini-van (there... its written in stone, someone show me this if I ever mention owning a mini-van). I actually hate that term... what does it even mean? Does it mean you have a mini-van and go to soccer all the time, or just any sporting practice all the time, while shuffling around kids and grabbing fast food for dinner because your so busy going from one thing to the next? Does it mean you have all sorts of stuff falling from your car as the doors open up because your car has become your new home ( I have had crap falling out of my car as the doors opened ling before I even had children so maybe thats not accurate).
Anyway, last week Reagan started soccer. It took some convincing once she realized she couldnt wear a tu-tu to play in but I got her a soccer shirt with some bling and pink shin-guards and that seemed to satisfy her. Her team only has 6 kids on it and only 3 play on the field per team at a time. She had fun, which at 4 years old, is all I really expect from this. I think its good to let them try lots of things in the beginning to figure out what they really like.
She turns cartwheels on the field, she celebrates like a crazy woman anytime she kicks it in the goal (which isnt to hard to do since they dont even play with a goalie at this age) and she already thinks she is the best soccer player ever (I would say that mentality come from her daddy) but she is having fun, getting exercise and getting some experience.

I would say that makes being labeled a "soccer-mom" pretty worth it.

Oh and to make it even more exciting (insert sarcastic voice here) I got nominated to be team mom because... well... I stay at home with my kids and dont have real job to go to during the daytime. Yes, that actually came out of Reagans coaches mouth... her coach that happens to be a WOMAN! Seriously? I wanted to take Reagans soccer ball and .... well you get the idea.

A Battle of the Wills

This is Brody- trying to outlast his mama... little did he know, I wold have sat there all night!

I am not a big fan of making your kids eat EVERYTHING on their plate. I think that teaches them an unhealthy habit of eating just because there is food in front of them. I am however a huge believer in making my kids at least "try" everything on their plate.... that is until I had Brody unload the entire contents of his stomach into his dinner plate after forcing him to try a bite of a green bean. After that I cooled it with making him try things... He has proven, on several occasions, that he has an easy gag reflex. He gags if he cries to hard or coughs to hard so making him eat something I know he wont like (mainly green vegetables) will only result in me cleaning up vomit at the dinner table.

Tonight I made tilapia. Stephen hates fish (actually I am pretty sure he has never tried it) but my kids love it... and so do I. It was a pretty standard dinner... Tilapia, wild rice, fresh green beans, and fruit salad. I wasn't going to make the mistake of making Brody eat a green bean again so he only got fish, rice and fruit salad on his plate. He devoured the fish... I mean he literally ate it in record time and asked for more. He had a few bites of rice and then went on to proclaim his utter disgust for the fruit salad on his plate. (I mean seriously?... this kid just got done eating almost 2 entire fillets of fish and he is going to fight me on fruit salad which consisted of pineapple, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, and strawberries all cut up really small kind of like a chunky salsa...please!) So I dug my heels in and told him he had to try one bite before he could get down. I knew he liked the fruit that was in it and that he wouldn't gag it up but he was just being stubborn ( hey- he comes by that stubbornness honestly).

45 minutes later he finally took a bite. Let me just say here that Brody is pretty even tempered... Reagan is a different story, but Brody is pretty mellow most of the time but when this kid throws a tantrum its like a different child overtakes his body and he goes crazy! He fought me tooth and nail tonight, only to take a bite after 45 minutes and say "mmmmm this is yummy" and take 3 more bites. The best comment of the night was when he looked at me and said, with big crocodile tears running down his cheeks, "Mommy I don't want to have Hulk muscles!" (sometimes when I am trying to get him to eat something I will tell him it will make him strong like hulk muscles since he really likes The Hulk right now).

I also need to say here that I am not a big fan of fighting my kids to the death about things... I don't do it often. I believe in choosing my battles and letting go of the rest of it... but I also believe you "Say what you mean and mean what you say". Maybe next time he will remember that.

I'm back... and on track (maybe)

I always see people updating their facebook status with "Updating the family blog" or "I am starting a new blog"... hell my mother has even started a blog (who would have ever thought). It always makes me a little sad when I see that because I know I have been such a slacker the past year with ours.... and I really wish i hadn't, but alas, life is getting more and more hectic and I don't forsee that ever stopping, in fact I am sure it will only become crazier as my kids get into more things.

So I have two options:

1) I can tediously try and update you on everything that has happened in the past year : Brody turned 2 Reagan turned 4 (even though they are about to turn 3 and 5 soon) Christmas, vacations, football season etc.... you get the idea. The problem with this is that I fear I will spend the next 3 months trying to catch you up which will only put me more behind... see people, this is why you should keep up with your blogs.

2) Just start fresh... start with whats going on now and if I want to highlight something of the past then so be it (it is my blog right?)

I have to say the second option is sounding good. So here we go... The Wootens World Take 2 (or 556 million... however long it takes, I will eventually get it right... or die trying.)

Angels Among Us

It has been a crazy week... I have been packing for a trip for the past few days, Stephen has been working a lot, which leaves me taking care of both kids all day and night by myself... on top of that Brody is on his 3rd round of antibiotics for an ear infection that wont go away, meaning we are preparing to have tubes put back in his ears when we get back in town... so needless to say I have been a bit frazzled today.

Tonight I was getting the kids ready for bed, which is always tricky by myself because they never want to read the same books and both have their own bedtime routine that is usually fine if there is one parent to each child. Tonight Reagan made it very easy for me because she was very busy "writing" in this blank journal that she had found. After I got Brody to bed and went and found her she proceeded to show me the book that she had just written. Every white page had been scribbled on with green marker. I asked her if she would read it to me and that is where the story starts.

As I am sitting there listening to the book it was like one of those cartoons when there is a little angel and devil on each shoulder. (I feel the need to intreject and say that I dont know that really one was an angel and devil but there were definitely two different sides of me present for this book reading). One side of me was a little annoyed that I had to sit there and listen to every single page of this 150 page journal because I had so much to do, the other side of me was saying to stop and enjoy this moment... it wont be long before she doesnt want me to put her to bed anymore. I am so glad that I made the "annoyed me" poof away because what I experienced with Reagan for the next 20 minutes was pure magic.

She had written an entire book about God and Jesus. A few excerts from the book include:
* We love God from everything to everything.
* God is so special and we love him so much
* God made the whole world and all the trees and the sun and he messed up a little when he made bugs but we still love him.
* Jesus is Gods son
* God is so beautiful to us
* We love Jesus so so much
* God is in our hearts forever

You get the idea. It was sweet and innocent and precious but the best was yet to come. About halfway through the book she stopped and looked at me and said,
"I see God."
"You do?" I said
"He talks to me." she goes on to tell me.
"What does he say?" I asked.
And without missing a beat she looked up at me and said, "You are my angel."

And suddenly everything else in the world didn't matter because that moment was perfect.

I believe God talks to Reagan... and I believe he thinks she is his angel, but I also know that she is mine.

***I realize it has been forever since I posted last and I dont know when I will post again but this was one of those moments that I didnt want to forget... so I had to jot it down!

Game Over

A few years ago Stephen bought this shirt:

He wears it around the house and to sleep in and I think it's pretty funny but it is really funny when Reagan gives her interpretation on it.

Reagan: "That shirt is when mommy and daddy got married."
Me: "Why does daddy have a sad face?"
Reagan: "Because he isn't the boss anymore because he married mommy."
Me: "Why is mommy smiling?"
Reagan: "Because she is the boss and she tricked daddy into marrying her."

If she only knew....

Big Boy Room

Here are some pictures of Brody's big boy room. It turned out great and he loves his big boy bed. I built and covered the cornace boards over the windows and my grandma sewed me the black pillow shams and the "G" pillow to match his bed spread. Stephen loves it and so does Brody so thats all that matters!

Snot Shirts

One of the things I gave up when I became a mommy was "looking cute." My tight low rise jeans were replaced with looser higher wasted ones, and my shirts that barely graced the top of my pants had to be thrown out to make room for the longer ones that didnt show my stomach or back everytime I bent over to pick a screaming child off the floor.

Dont get me wrong... I dont look like a slob all the time but with two small kids at home it seems like the amount of time I have to spend on myself is far less than it used to be. I am lucky to take a shower most days, much less dry my hair, put on makeup and god-forbid put on a pair of pants that dont have an elastic waist. I usually look nice for the appropriate things: church, date-night, and school functions of Reagans, but other than that I find that I dot really care what I look like if we are just playing around the house all day.

Every once in a while though, Stephen and I get away for a few days and I remind myself, and more importantly, my husband, that I dont always look like a bum. (Although Stephen swears he likes me best with my hair up, my sweats on, and no make-up on). We went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago for Stephens birthday. It was a much needed trip for both of us and we had so much fun with eachother. Just me and him, doing whatever we wanted, on whatever time table we wanted. We layed out at the pool, walked the strip, shopped, went to a few shows,took as long as we wanted to get ready, and took hours, yes I said HOURS, to eat our meals. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

It's little trips like this that make me realize just how in love I am with Stephen. How pefect we are for eachother and how I cant wait to spend the rest of my life with him, traveling, laughing, and growing together. He is a great father, but he is also an amazing husband. We love our kids beyond measure, but every once in a while, its nice to just get away fom it all and remember the days when every shirt I put on didn't have snot on it.

Not really a dress I could take care of kids in... barely a dress I could move in =)

Because we were by ourselves we didnt really take very many pictures... so here are a few of the ones we did take.

Brody Jammin' Out

Reagans Wedding Dress

Today THIS came in the mail:

To some of you this may not seem like a big deal... but to those of you who know Reagan, you know that this is the dress she is getting married in (or at least that is what she thinks).

See, a few months back, my sister Megan got engaged and she asked Reagan to be her flower girl. That meant nothing to Reagan until I showed her the dress she would be wearing when Megan got married. That is when Reagan decided that, and I quote "When Meggie gets married, I will get married!"

Sometimes it is to Damian, sometimes Brody, sometimes Daddy but by gosh, when Megan gets married she gets to wear the "most beautiful white dress and get married too" Now if only I can figure out how to convince her that this day will be about Megan and not her.

More importantly... how in the world am I going to keep her out of this dress until August. She has already requested to wear it 3 times and it just arrived an hour ago...we are in for a long few months.

Only time will tell...

Time is a funny thing. It always seems to do the exact opposite of what you want it to. When you want it to go by quickly, it takes forever. When you want it to slow down, it flies by. But I guarantee that if you ask any mom, on any given birthday, of any given child, they will all say the same thing.... "it has gone by so fast."

Thats because for the most part, while we spend so much of our"time" worrying about and planning for other "time" the time we have right in font of us slowly slips away, and right in front of our eyes.... it's gone. And we cant get it back. No matter how hard we try. Events pass, people grow up, lives change and at the end of all of it, you wonder when it all happened.

Today... I am one of those parents. Today, Brody turned 2. And while I can remember his birth like it was yesterday, I have to wonder how this happened so quickly. How in what seems like such a short amount of time, he has grown up. (I realize 2 is not exactly grown up) but nonetheless.... here I am, wondering where all the time has gone.

I cant go back, I cant slow down, or speed up the clock, but what I can do is cherish every moment, every second. Hold on to, take it in, and try as hard as I can to remember it. I am excited to see what the next year will bring with Brody. He is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. I am blessed and humbled everyday that he is mine, part of me, part of Stephen, part of something bigger... and only time will tell what that will be.

I love you Brody! Happy Birthday

We are still alive... just really behind... Happy Belated Easter!

My good friend, and photographer, Heidi had a special easter session with real bunnies and chicks and since the kids never want to smile for pictures as we are rushing out the door for church on Easter sunday I decided to have this done. So here are a few shots from the session.

I know I have been MIA lately and I do plan to catch you all up on whats been going on but for now... Happy Belated Easter.... here are my cuties in their Easter clothes.

The bunnies just sat in the basket... the didnt jump out or anything... Reagan thought they were pretty neat.

The chicks made me a little nervous. They were so tiny and fragile I kept thinking one of them would either end up stepped on or dead by the end of the session.

Here is Reagan working the camera... dont as me where she gets this stuff from =)

This was the best shot we got of the two of them... Brody is not really into taking pictures with Reagan... maybe thats because she is either meaner than spit to him or so sweet to him that she about hugs his head off... either way seems to annoy him.

Such a hndsome little guys dont you think?

Not so sure about the bunnies....

Congrats are in order!

Megan, my little sister, just got engaged last weekend! He is a great guy and I am so excited for them. Now it's time to plan a wedding =)

Magic Kingdom

Well I kept thinking that I would get around to uploading a lot more pictures from Magic Kingdom but every time I turn around something else comes up and I am busy with a million things. It doesnt appear that it's letting up any time soon but I will try and blog as much as I can. Here are a few pictures from Magic Kingdom. It was a little colder than I had hoped in the morning but it warmed up as the day went on. We had lunch with the princesses and I will post pictures of that another time. We had a fun time, although I think we were a little bit spoiled by our first trip because the first time we went the kids were so well behaved that it made it seem like they were a little more cranky this time. Neither of them wanted to ride in the stroller so we ended up pushing around our snack-bag all day. The kids lasted longer this time but it was till only until about 4:00. All in all it was a fun day but I think we will wait a while before we go back.

Reagan and Daddy on Dumbo

Brody on Dumbo (well actually it's the the one they have sitting out specifically for pictures but same difference)


This kind of sums up how they felt that day =)

Reagan LOVED Minnie's house. We had to walk through it 3 times. Do you think it could have been all the pink?

All of us with Mickey and Minnie (the lines to see character were so much shorter this time around so it was really nice. We didnt even see Mickey and Minnie at Magic Kingdom this past summe because it was like a 2 hour wait)

Brody on a random play area for kids.

Leaving the park (Reagan was passed out in the stroller)

St. Augustine / Alligator Farm

Stephens grandparents live close to St. Augustine so while we were in Florida we decided to go meet them for lunch one day. After lunch (my kids were being kind of wild so I didn't manage to take any pictures) we stopped at an Alligator Farm. I wasn't really sure what to expect but the kids had a fun time and we practically had the whole park to ourselves. There were mostly alligators, crocodiles and exotic birds and stuff. We got there just in time for a feeding (which was totally disgusting). We stayed for a few hours and then got home just in time for dinner and bedtime. It was great to see Stephens grandparents and cousin and eat at the yummy Colombian restaurant.

When Reagan rounded the corner and saw this sitting there she jumped back pretty far. She thought it was real at first. =)

Brody thought the alligator was pretty cool and we had a hard time getting him away from it.

Stephen, Brody, Paw Paw Ray and Reagan after lunch in St. Augustine. We were going to take a ride on a horse drawn carriage around the town until we realized that Brody wanted to ride the horse and not in the carriage. It was pretty cold that day but Reagan insisted on wearing a dress. I made her change before we went into the gator farm.

T-Rex

At Downtown Disney there is this really great restraunt called T-Rex. It has all these huge dinosaurs all over it and they move and growl. The whole thing is decorated with like big rocks and caves. If you have ever been to The Rainforest Cafe its a lot like that except for dinosaur oriented. The kids really liked it. Brody was especially enamered with the HUGE dinosaurs.

They had this little area for kids that had big dinosaur bone hidden in this rocky sand and the kids could use a paint brush and pretend to be archeologist's and brush away the sand to find different parts of the bones.

I think this was the kids faorite part... that and they had a Build-A-Dinosaur (its like Build-A-Bear) except with dinosaurs and both the kids built a dinosaur and thought it was pretty cool!

Reagan and Brody outside in the kids play area.

Me and Reagan

Brody and Stephen- Brody wasn't so sure about when the dinosaurs started moving and growling. He really liked touching them as long as they weren't moving.

One of the dinosaurs near our table

Another dinosaur near our table.