New Stylist in Town

One day last week I was talking on the phone in Jacob's room and both of the kids were in there with me. Since I was talking and Anna is really good about staying out of trouble, I didn't think anything of it when she walked out the room. Not even a minute later I hang up the phone and I hear this "snip, snip, snip..." and I think, "Is she trying to cut her nails?" because that is what it sounded like! So I tell her to come here and I ask her what she is doing. She smiles at me and says, "I was cutting my hair mom; it really needed it!" I didn't really believe her at first because she has never even been interested about cutting her hair before and it takes me about 1/2 hour every morning just to talk her into letting ME comb her hair. As I'm looking at her I notice that barely hanging from her shoulder is a chunk of hair and it isn't attached!!! She had gone in the bathroom and grabbed a handful on TOP of her head and started chopping away. She thought it was pretty funny. As I was combing her hair through to get rid of the loose hairs, it just kept coming and coming! But when I look at her head, I cannot tell for the live of me where it is she cut it off. The next morning I wet her hair down with the spray bottle and start combing and low and behold, the little stubs start sprouting up from nowhere. As you can see, it isn't too bad and it is hidden pretty well, so we had a laugh at it.

Valentine Cupcakes

We made our Valentines cupcakes this morning and we had so much fun!!! Anna loved helping in every way she could, which mostly meant licking her fingers after they "accidently" got frosting on them (don't worry, we did wash her hands everytime she did this!) They didn't quite turn out in the perfect X's and O's like Martha's but we had a lot of fun making them. Anna would cover the whole cupcake with the heart candies if I let her, I finally had to put a limit of 5 candies for each cupcake so we'd have enough for all of them. Jake just sat there and watched and loved playing with the cupcake liners, since I was mean and didn't let him eat any frosting. But I think the liners were more exciting to him anyway. They make noise and he can rip them and you can't do that with frosting! As you can see though Anna had to have one of the cupcakes she decorated when she got done, even though hers had NO heart candies, just the frosting! Happy Valentines Day everyone, we hope it was fun for you!

21st century Snow White

This is the best shot of Anna - #1 because she loves wearing her princess dresses day and night(today she is wearing Snow White) and #2 because she loves wearing her dad's sunglasses. But when you put both of those together, well, lets just say I wish I could pull that off! Of course little brother has to be right there being her admirer, and she actually let him instead of running away screaming, "No Jake! Don't touch me!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Hello Jake! He has also learned how to open and close doors (not by the doorknob, you know what I mean) and he was peaking through his door trying to see what was going on.

I can stand!

During this last week, Jake has learned how to pull himself up to stand. We first saw him doing it in his crib (while he was supposed to be sleeping - its really hard to get him back to sleep when all he does is giggle at himself while he is standing up, and then just grins at us when we go in to lay him back down) then...

One day while Cody and I were doing some tax stuff on the computer I look over and see Jacob doing this!!!! Where did he learn that??!!?!?
He will crawl up the first step and then pull himself up and then balance himself on the bottom and just stand there. He loves to sit there and hit the step in front of him with his little fist.
He does pretty good for awhile because Anna is always there to do the EXACT SAME THING and that entertains him until...
He realizes that he can't go any further up so he gets mad! He will get so mad because he tries so hard and he can't go up!
Ahh, the toddler stage, isn't it great?

My Collection

In response the Angie's challenge, this was the only thing I could come up with. When I was in high school and college, I loved to buy children's books! It was really nice when I got in college and needed to write lesson plans based on certain books that I already had. I still would almost rather buy children's books than books for me because I think it is so much fun. But at least now I have kids so I have more of an excuse when I buy them. I had to condense this list WAY, WAY, WAY, WAAAAYYYYYY down, but here just a "few" of my favorites...

This is an adorable Valentine's Day book about really making someone feel special

by Eileen Spinelli

Kind of a sequence book like "There was an old lady..." by Audrey Wood and her husband Don illustrates it.

This book makes Anna laugh everytime we read it; so simple and cute by Bill Martin Jr.

This is a book for all the moms; if you haven't read it tell me and I'll send you my copy because this totally describes how we feel every day! Jill Murphy wrote 5 or 6 books about this elephant family and they are all hilarious.

Way cute story about making friends with the unexpected by Michael Bedard

These two books are really cute for rhyming by Sheena Knowles

Jamie Lee Curtis (yes the celebrity) wrote the next three, and I love them! She writes just like how a child thinks. Anna loves "When I was little" and I love reading it to her because it so much fun.




I think this book is the first one I ever bought out of my "collection". No words, just pictures but you still laugh and smile just as much.


All time classic

Okay, this one might have been the one I first bought (can't remember!) but I love this story.
Just a sweet story when you're in the mood.

This is THE cutest story about kids and school. Poor little Rodney Rat can't pronounce his r's and he ends up being the hero in his class! You will laugh so much!
Another very sweet book.

Like everyone, Eric Carle is one of my favorites. The Grouchy Ladybug is Anna's favorite right now; we've read it every night for a least two weeks. We'll see how long it lasts before she wants a new book.

These two are very funny! Animals taking over control!

Another all time classic - I love this book!

Kevin Henkes wrote the next 4 books and he is one of my favorite authors. I have these too if anyone wants to read them. They are adorable stories, all about kids and the challenges they face from security blankets from being made fun of at school.

The next 4 are written by Mem Fox and she is awesome! My favorite one of hers is "Whoever you are" which I need to replace because its very worn.

Okay I can't pick a favorite author because I think Patricia Polacco is one of the best. Each one of her books have a very deep meaning and are very well-written. They are really long, but they each have touched me in some way or another.