Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I introduced the boys to one of my favorite cereals: Lucky Charms! I made Sam promise me he'd be good at school today before I gave him sugar-coated cereal with marshmallows in it. At least it's made from whole grain, right?

With Easter coming up this Sunday, I started thinking about fun stuff the boys and I could do this week to celebrate. After 5 seconds of thinking, the obvious came to mind: an Easter egg hunt!

I haven't dyed hard-boiled eggs in years...so that might be something fun for Sam and me to do together one day this week. I also want to buy some brightly-colored plastic eggs and put candy inside. I think we'll plan our Easter egg hunt for Thursday or Friday afternoon!

What special activities are you doing with your kids this week?

Brothers

Sam and Toby have been doing so many cute things lately! Toby is finally old enough to play and interact with Sam...and it makes for some really sweet moments on a daily basis.

• Toby insists on holding Sam's hand in the car. Right after I buckle them both into their car seats, I look back to see their hands clasped. It's so sweet!
• The boys have lots of toys that play music. I sneak up on them sometimes just so I can watch them dance and squeal their little hearts out.
• Sometimes Sam and Toby just walk around the house holding hands. They don't want to play with toys. They just want to hold hands and "asplore" (that's 'explore' for those of you who need to brush up on your kid words).
• When the boys wake up in the morning, Toby usually starts crying because he wants someone to get him out of his crib. As soon as Toby starts crying, I hear Sam (through the baby monitor) trying to calm him. Sometimes Sam will play his piano horn for Toby. Sometimes he'll do a silly dance in front of Toby's crib. This morning Sam was doing a puppet show with his stuffed animals.
• As we were driving home from the park today, Sam started singing the "Patty Cake" song. Toby grinned from ear to ear and did the hand motions with Sam.

Sam and Toby are such great brothers. Sam doesn't seem to mind that Toby wants everything Sam is playing with. Sam is great at sharing toys with Toby. Toby is sad when Sam is sad. Sam watches out for Toby. Toby wants to do everything Sam does.

It's wonderful to be a nanny for children who don't fight all the time (like my brother and I did when we were little). I know they're only 1 and 4, but I'm enjoying the love for now.

Hurry Home, Liz!

It's been a rough week for the boys and me...and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Liz being out of town since Saturday. She's away at a conference in Florida learning about eyes and stuff (she's a Neuro-Ophthalmologist) and Sam is here in Charlotte using her as his every excuse as to why he can't possibly seem to be good.

Liz called this afternoon and this is how the conversation went:

Sam: Hi Mommy!
Liz: Hi Sam. I hear you haven't been a very good boy while I've been away.
Sam: Yeah. I'm watching the Backyardigans! The "Quest for the Flying Rock" one! (I pause the TV in an attempt to get him to focus on what she's saying)
Liz: Why weren't you a good boy at school today?
Sam: (squirming all over the place) Ummmmmmm...I don't know. I just wasn't...
Liz: I don't like to hear that you're causing trouble for everyone. I'll be home tomorrow but I need you to be good...
Sam: Ok. Bye bye Mommy. (He hands the phone back to Mike)
Liz: Sam, I love you very much and I really need you to be good...
Sam: I love you, Mommy. Bye bye.

In one ear and out the other, I'm sure.

Then, it was Toby's turn to "talk":

Liz: Hi Tober Dober!
Toby: (grinning from ear to ear) Mmmmmwah! (He blows her a kiss)
Liz: Oh! Thank you! Have you been a good boy?
Toby: Uh-huh!
Liz: Oh, good. I'll see you tomorrow! Bye bye!
Toby: (waving and blowing kisses at the same time)

That was one of the cutest things I've seen in a long time.

Hurry home, Liz! We all miss you very much! There's no love like Mommy's love...and no matter how hard I try to fill your shoes for a few days, you're still a bazillion times better than me :)

Three-Boy Tuesday

That title would sound better if it was "Three-Boy Thursday"...but it's not. It's Three-Boy Tuesday.

Cooper is with hanging out with Sam, Toby, and me all day. Tonia planned a trip to Blowing Rock, North Carolina for Sean's birthday and asked if I would keep watch over Cooper and Ciara while they're gone (they took Asher along on their little adventure). I stayed with the kids at their house last night and brought Cooper with me to work this morning. Hopefully Ciara caught the bus to school.

The boys are having so much fun playing together. I'm curious to see if they'll get tired of each other by 5:30 this afternoon...

I'm looking forward to American Idol tonight! Hopefully I can convince Aaron to hold off on playing his new Mario Smash Brothers game long enough for me to watch it.

Aaron and I successfully finished painting ALL of the trim by Saturday before the guys arrived to get ready for the wedding! I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to look up and see finished paint on the walls. It's Tuesday and the entire downstairs area is still spotless (and empty)! We're officially ready for you, furniture :) I never want to paint anything ever again for as long as I live. I don't care if we have to hire someone to paint the remaining 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1 complicated hallway in our house. I'm not doing it.

Benjamin and Jessica's wedding was beautiful this past Saturday! Jess was an absolutely gorgeous bride and Ben was an ecstatic groom. Congratulations again, Ben and Jess!

Saturday marked exactly 6 months that Aaron and I have been married and I can't think of a better way to have celebrated than going to our best friends' wedding :) I can't believe Aaron and I have been married for half a year already! I guess time flies when you're having fun, right? I love you, Baby! I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my life with you :)

Oh...and check out this cute video made by a few of my favorite Elevators. It's a spoof on the new Mac commercial. Look out, world! We're takin' over...

The Mystery Bonsai Tree

When I walked through the front door of my home last Wednesday evening, the first thing I saw was a small bonsai tree in the middle of our empty living room floor. Evidently it had come in the mail and Aaron had opened it on his lunch break.

I inspected the papers that had come in the box with the bonsai tree:

• A gift invoice for one bonsai tree from a company called "Red Envelope".
• A red envelope with a card enclosed. The card read: "Welcome Home". And that's it. No name. No clue as to who could have sent us the cute little tree.
• A list of 73 instructions on how to care for the finicky bonsai tree. OK, maybe the list only had 8 instructions on it, but it might as well have been 73. Am I caring for a tree or a child?

I don't know much about trees and plants, but I do know that bonsai trees are some of the hardest trees to keep alive. I hope we don't kill it.

When I started thinking about who could have sent us the tree, the stylish, thoughtful, and trendy Tonia Bendickson was the first to pop into my mind. Surely she had sent it to us as our first housewarming gift. When I asked her about it, she said she wished that she could take credit for the idea...but, no, she hadn't sent it to us.

So who is the mystery bonsai tree from? I've been racking my brain all weekend. Any clues (or revelations) would be warmly welcomed :)

Lots To Do...

It's been a busy week for Aaron and me!

Our friends Ben and Jessica are getting married this Saturday! Yay! Aaron is Ben's best man and he's very excited to help Ben in the same way Ben helped him on our wedding day. Ben and his groomsmen are coming to our house to get ready for the wedding on Saturday and we want to make sure our place is organized for the big day. I made Aaron a "honey-do" list (I even made a to-do list for myself!) and we've gotten a lot done around the house after work this week:

• We finished painting our bedroom! Aaron and I moved our bed out of the bonus room and into our beautiful blue bedroom on Tuesday night. The only thing that could make it more perfect is the furniture we have coming in a week!
• While watching American Idol on the past 2 nights, I managed to unpack a lot of boxes and put stuff in its proper place. Unpacking boxes is almost like Christmas for me because I never know what I'll find. Last night I found Aaron's cologne, my perfume, and some gift cards from Christmas.
• I cleaned all of our bathrooms last night. Can someone please tell me how so much dust manages to accumulate in just a few weeks?
• I bought new hanging file folders and put away all of the bills and other important paperwork from the past few months.
• Aaron washed the funky smell out of our stainless steel trashcan yesterday. Thanks, Baby!

We still have lots to do before this weekend.

In addition to everything else I have going on right now, I'm dealing with a Cold that Toby seems to have shared with me. Perfect timing, huh?

Blah

I've started 9 blog entries in the past 2 days but have erased all of them. If only my fingers and brain could work together to put my thoughts into cyberspace...

We'll try again tomorrow. Blah.

P.S. - Toby has a cold. He ate breakfast at 8am, went back to sleep at 9am, and is still sleeping. That's right, he's been sleeping for 4-and-a-half-hours.