I'm on a roll :-)

How cool is this? I regularly read Nichol Magouirk's blog for scrapbooking inspiration and tips. She teaches a monthly Celebrate the Seasons class at Two Peas and I've really been motivated by her gallery of layouts. A few days ago she had a giveaway for some scrapping goodies. Honestly I see these giveaways all the time, but rarely enter. I just really like her work and left a comment and today I got an email letting me know that this fun stash above is mine. I'm getting my stuff ready for my weekend scrapbook retreat and I'm sure they'll be put to good use.

Unhandy Manny

This is Handy Manny.

He is a character on one of Jack's most favorite tv shows on the Disney Channel.

He's...well, handy. He's also resourceful, patient, inventive, skilled and speaks with a thick Spanish accent. His motto is "you break it, we fix it".

And this is Chris (also known as husband and father).

And he's not. His motto is "you break it, we call someone to fix it".

It's taken a few years to take this stance, but after years of attempting to fix things around the house we've learned

1. It's cheaper to call a professional in the long run.
2. The outcome is always better.
3. It's just not worth the time. He works way too many hours and he'd much rather spend them doing other things he enjoys.

So for Mother's Day this year I told him the only thing I wanted is for the house to be better child proofed because a certain little person has been reeking havoc in our home. So on the Saturday before Mother's Day he came home with a bag full of promising gadgets. He gathered up a few tools and asked where he should get started. I pointed to a drawer under the oven that Jack has been jumping in. About 5 minutes into the process, he stands up and proclaims he can't do it from that angle. So I pick another cabinet. I point to the one full of wine glasses which is now short of the original set of 8. He heads out to the garage, comes back with a bigger tool and proceeds to install the safety latch. I peek around the corner and I see the sweat starting to bead. I know this is my cue to be nowhere in sight and keep the kids out of the way. In a few minute, I hear a few choice curse words and he emerges, red in the face, to proclaim that it's impossible to install on our cabinets. He heads over to the computer, googles and a few minutes later, gives me a phone number to Home Safety Services and tells me to call them and get whatever I want.
So Handy John arrived this week. Handy John arrived with a well stocked tool box.

He spent an hour assessing our home and then another half hour going over the results along with his recommendations. The good news, our house was "not bad". The bad news:

In case you can't read that, how about a close up:

Luckily Handy John was not of the pushy variety and left it completely up to me which hazards I chose to live with. In the end, Handy John had to leave for another appointment and I ended up having only 2o latches installed. Unfortunately a few of my problems have no solutions on the market so I'm still having to deal with that. But here's something that I absolutely love.

It's a cleat on a tri-door closet. Half of that closet is filled with my scrapping supplies and Jack has yet to show an interest, but I'm sure it was only a matter of time.

In the end my Unhandy Manny choked a bit at the bill, but this weekend we had some great family time together, much more fun than watching latches being installed.

Look Who's Talking....

I've been wanting to do a layout like this for awhile now, but 2 months ago, the list of words would have been much shorter. If I would have waited any longer, this would have become a 2 page layout, the language acquisition is on full speed. Absolutely amazing to hear new words daily.
I opened up a word document a couple days ago with intention of trying to add to it as I remembered words in his vocabulary and I found myself running and adding to this list all day long. I couldn't believe how many more words Jack has than what I thought.
I organized his words by subject more as a prompt for me, but it's interesting to see where the bulk of words are falling.

Here's a closer look at the journaling I did.
Sports related words: soccer, kick, goal, soccer ball, golf, tee, ball, golf ball, putt, jump, dizzy, swing, whee, soccer game

Family related words: Mama, Daddy, work (in reference to daddy), Mo Mo, Garrett (though it sounds like "rare"), hug, Jack (Dat)

Body Parts & Clothes: head, hair, nose, eyes, teeth, ears, pants, shoes, socks, hat, hand, pants

Animal related words: doggie, fish, froggie, neigh, birdie, goat, moo, duck, quack

Phrases-“There’s the ____”, night-night, side to side, round and round (from The Wheels on the Bus), he at work, hi momma

Food related words: Eat, ice cream, cookie, juice, water, cracker, baba (cup), banana, cheese

Interests: car, vroom, plane, fly, Roary, Barney, Elmo, read, book, Gymbo, baby, balloon, bubbles, phone, truck

Still more: sit, off, help, hi, bye, go, up, please, teacher, no, more, blankee, paci, cup, hot, this, moon. poo poo, potty, rock, owie, uh-oh, outside, flower, sand, turn, bath, mess

I'm sure I'm missing a few, but overall I'm so glad I took the time to do this. I sure wish I had a list to compare to words Garrett and Morgan were using.

12 on the 12th

1. Lunches...NOBODY likes making them!

2. Garrett getting in some early morning practice.

3. Monkey boy

4. Nap time messed up by falling asleep in the car.

5. Trip to the park...putting climbing skills to good use.

6. Loves the swings.

7. A little fun time in between school and gymnastics.

8. Afternoons, living by the clock. 3:30-Garrett to golf, 5:00 Morgan to gymnastics, 5:30 pick up Garrett from golf, 6:00-8:00 parent soccer meeting, 9:00 pick up Morgan~phew!

9. Golf practice

10. Birthday present....very excited to use.

11. Gymnastics practice.

12. Practicing her front tuck.

Changing Course

What's the saying? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Well let me give you a little visual of my own personal insanity and how I've resolved it.
My "sweet" little boy has turned into a bit of a monkey.

This isn't really the best picture, but composition wasn't exactly a priority. He loves to make the lighting fixture swing.

Now usually when he gets up there, my eyes pop open and I yell and get him down. A little something like this:

And Jack's reaction to it is this:

And he gets right back up and continues this throughout the day.
Insanity, right?
So last week, a little fed up, I decided to try something different.

No reaction. Just look up and say, "oh, you want to climb, let's go climb on the slide (or insert whatever). And guess what, not getting a reaction from me is really boring.
He is still climbing up, but only once a day and that is a piece of cake to deal with. And that makes me

Clever Idea

This morning while picking up kids for carpool, look what I found on their lawn. Their brother is turning 16 today and this what their mom did. If you can't tell, those are those cheap pool floats (noodles) and then she added gold mylar for the flame. Need to file this away for future use.

Still at it

Finally getting around to putting this up. Garrett edited the video for us and sped it up, kind of a fun effect. Also, if you listen carefully you can hear Jack saying "putting" (puh-eee) and "putt". Right now his sports vocabulary also includes "golf", "golfing", "tee", "kick", "jump", and "soccer ball" (sah-errrr ball). Going outside to golf is a must do activity around here still. Needless to say, there isn't a bush in our yard that doesn't have a few balls hidden inside of them.