No more Diapers!

Yeah!!!! I am a happy mommy today!! Caleb pooped in the potty yesterday and today! NO more diapers! Yippee!!! He has peed in the potty for several months now. Mike and I have been trying hard to get him to poop in the potty. One of the things we said was that we would buy him new jets if he did it. He loves toy jets and cars. So of course, I had to take him to the store. Here he is sleeping with his new jets. We painted our pumpkins, as we usually do every year, and put them outside. Well I learned an important lesson. Phoenix is DRY, Florida is HUMID. Mikes and the kids pumpkins are close to the door, and look OK, (first 2 pics) however my pumpkin was left out a little further, and when we got back from our vacation this is what we came home too... EEWWWW!!!!! GROSS!!!! Its all soggy! Yuck! I had to get the big flat shovel out just to scrap it off my porch! I wont do that again! Tomorrow is Halloween, and the weather predicts rain. Lots of it. BOOO. I cant remember it raining in Phx, prohibiting us from trick or treating. I hope we get lucky. Maybe if it rains we can trick or treat at the mall. I wonder if they do that here. I'll have to ask around. We sure miss Mikey when he is gone. He is going to try and get home in time for trick or treating. He is in CA. The opposite side of the country from us! :( But at least he gets to see Leonard, Michelle and Elektra. Christina and I are jealous! Since he is gone, I am going to take this time to write about what a great hubby he is. Just before we left for Pensacola, the toilet in the kids bathroom wouldn't stop running. He was on the phone with a client, so I was trying to stop it and get it cleaned up. The moment he realized what was wrong, he told me "Honey, stop, let me do that. I know how much you hate touching things like this." Then he cleaned up the whole mess! What a great guy!! Any time I don't feel well, he never hesitates to go to the store for chicken soup, and deals with all kid issues, cleans the house, all with out me ever asking. Is he a sweetie or what?! Just had to get that shout out about my wonderful hubby! Thank you for raising such a great kid Mom2 and Dad2! Have a great and Spooky Halloween!!

Navarre Beach

We got back yesterday about 6:30pm from Navarre Beach. Its about 24 miles east of Pensacola. We had a great condo. 2 bed 2 baths, so the girls (Christina brought a friend, Katie) had their very own, and weren't disturbed by us or the boys. Well, they were disturbed a little bit! We arrived there Wed evening about 9:30. It is a 6 1/2 hour drive from Orlando. Yuck. Thank goodness for DVD players! I brought some magazines, (thanks mom!) to read to Mike for as long as it was light out. Then we just had to settle for some chit chat. We couldn't see anything that night, so the next morning we enjoyed the sights! Navarre Beach is on the gulf. The north end of the condo there is a sound that runs along the edge of the state. Our room looked right out onto the ocean. Apparently a hurricane destroyed alot of Navarre Beach last year. Which is why the condo was completely redecorated and updated this year. While the ocean view was spectacular, the sound view wasn't so pretty. We spent Thursday playing at the beach. Christina noticed that her (my) cell phone's time was different from what time the truck said. It was an hour ahead. I guess we crossed time zones. Good thing she noticed, or Mike would of been late for work on Friday! Friday Mikey had to work, and the girls were bored, so he dropped them off at the mall, (which was damaged by the tornado they had there last week.) This is a beautiful place to visit, but with the hurricane and tornadoes, I don't want to live there. The boys and I just hung out at the beach most of the day. The weather was a beautiful 75 degrees. Saturday the tide had gone out quite a bit, and we discovered an island or spit as Mike calls it. It was filled with fishes that didn't get off in time. We collected a bunch of bait fish, but never got around to trying to use them to fish. In one picture, you will see what to us looks like a small sword fish. The boys also found bird skulls. For some crazy reason, Mike decided that he wanted to take them home, but since they were germy, he brought them up to the room and boiled them. The place stunk SOOOO bad! We didn't bring them home with us. I don't think he will do that again! Sunday we had to be out by 10 am. Long drive home. We drove a total of 1010 miles! My poor truck! Here are pictures of the condo's kitchen and dining. You can see the girls room. This is the master bed. I forgot to get pictures of the living area. It also had its own balcony to walk out on.

The white sandy beach is so pretty! Here's that "Sword fish" Zachary decorating his castle with seashells Christina on the bridge Mike and the boys swimming. The pool was heated! The view from our room It was a nice weekend.

Caleb, Mike and I got to see the Space Shuttle take off. About 4 seconds after it leaves the base, we can see it from our house. Its great with binoculars. I wish I could rememeber in time to set up the telescope. 3 of our neighbors came out side to look at it as well. It really is quite a sight to see. Zachary started a 'Boys Club'. Its only for him, Caleb, Daddy, and any of his friends. NO GIRLS allowed!

At his school they are having ANOTHER fund raiser. This is the 5th one! I have been suckered to buy one item at 4 of them. This one is for cookies. If any of you want to log on to buy a tub of cookies, here is the web site. http://www.sallyfoster.com/ Just go to the Icon "give credit to" The schools ID no is 626082. It is called Evans Elementary. The city is Oviedo, Florida. I will log on and create an account when I am done with this blog, if you'd like to buy some. The tubs are $12 each. The school gets 40% profit. They kids have already picked out 3 different cookies. I guess my homemade whole wheat oatmeal raisin cookies just arent as yummy as premade tub M&M cookies. *sigh* Speaking of homemade, I better be off to get dinner ready. Tonight is chinese food night. I know my goal was a different meal every night of the year, but sometimes you just have to go with a staple. Our 3 are, stirfry vegies with a meat, tacos, and spaghetti. I try and change at least one ingredient, but since these 3 are our favorites, there are only so many changes to make to them! I dont write down every meal, so I am sure I have made several repeats, but at least the kids are getting a good variety. One thing I have discovered, if they wont eat it one way, they might eat it another. For example, salmon. We had poached salmon a few weeks ago, and Zachary didnt like it. So the other night I cooked it up, and mixed it with spices and breadcrumbs, to make "Krabby Patties" With hamburger bun, Zachary ate the entire thing and said he loved it and I should make it again. I still havent told him it was salmon! lol The kids eat most everything I make. Caleb really has a broad palette. He loves red, yellow, green and orange bell peppers, tomatoes, olives, pickles, onions, lettuce, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, you name it. Zachary likes things simplier. No dipping sauces, no ketchup, mustard, mayo, no vegies raw. He likes them cooked and soft. If he had his way, every night would be Mac n Cheese. But he will eat most of it if its on his plate without complaining to much. Christina of course has always been a good eater, and for how skinny she is, that kid can eat!! She comes home from school and fixes left overs, or a sandwich, or soup or bowl of cereal, and sometimes she eats two helpings, then she always finishes her dinner, usually getting seconds, and then she eats dessert!! Plus she eats breakfast and lunch! Of course, she does have aerobics and sports. So she burns it all off. Tomorrow we are off! Hope the weather is good.

Here are pics of the Train set Caleb and I built. He loves watching the trains go.

We had a nice week. Nothing too exciting. Wed Caleb and I had a playdate with a friend named JoAnna and her 2 yr old son Christian. We met at a McDonalds so the kids could play. Caleb had fun, he loves going down the slides. We are going to try and get together once a week. They live about 20 min north of us. Mike had to work in Tallahassee Thursday and Friday. Saturday we looked at a few new home builds, didn't find anything we liked. We have decided that when our lease is up, to buy a house. No point in throwing money down the toilet to rent. Maybe we will look at a resale. Central Florida's real estate is just as horrible as Phx, with hundreds of homes being sold at auctions due to foreclosers. We may look into that. I'd like to stay in this general neighborhood as it is "One of the most sought after addresses in Central Florida, a prestigious gated community" according to the paper. lol. I'd buy this house if they'd sell it. Especially since the kids friends live within easy walking distance. We also bought the boys Halloween costumes. Christina didn't want to get one, until she knew if she was going to do anything. They picked them out by themselves. We were surprised at Calebs choice, since he really hasn't watched Toy Story at all. (Zachary used to love it and watch it daily). They have 2 Woody dolls, and as soon as we got home Caleb ran in, got the dolls, and asked to wear his costume. He wore it for hours! Zachary's surprised us because he doesn't watch Nemo, and never plays anything Nemo, yet, this was what he wanted. (Caleb loves to watch Nemo) Isn't that funny? We are leaving on Wed for Pensacola. Mike has to work there on Friday, but its a 6 hour drive, so we decided to leave Wed when the kids get out early, and head up. We will come back on Sunday. (There is no school on Thur and Fri) We were looking at hotels, and then looked at Condos. They are a much better deal than a hotel. Especially for 4 days. We got a 2 bedroom, 2 bath full kitchen, laundry room, 2 balconies, right on the beach. (In the pics it looks like the one we had while in Florida last year) A full kitchen will be great with the kids. Christina is bringing a friend. It will eliminate eating out 3 meals a day! The weather is supposed to finally cool down a bit. I cant believe Phx is cooler than we are. Yesterday you had 79 degrees! We were 87, but with the humidity it felt 99. Pensacola is much cooler, today's paper says a forecast of 65 - 46 there! BRRR! I better pack some jackets. If I can find them. I had better look! If anybody wants to buy the boys clothes for Christmas please get them these sizes: Zachary a size 6, Caleb a size 5. Caleb is 41 inches tall and weighs 35 lbs, Zachary is 43 inches and weighs 40 lbs. I really hope that Caleb doesn't get taller than Zachary anytime soon. People already think they are twins. I don't want people thinking Caleb is the BIG brother. When it comes to shorts they both fit in 4's or 5's or an adjustable waistband. They really don't need any pants. Christina will send you her Christmas List. I know she is working on it. Or rather, she is working on a list of what NOT to get her. *sigh* Here is a picture of our 'bright' house. It doesnt look so bright in the picture, taken at 6 am, but considering noone else has lights on, it stands out. Especially with normal lightbulbs on the garage instead of Halloween ones. lol

I hope everyone has a good week. I'll let you know how Pensacola is. Lets hope there are no more tornadoes like the one that ripped thru there last week.

The Bright House

In our cul de sac we are probably known as "The Bright House". We have 8 houses in our cul de sac, and we are the only ones that turn on all our outside lights at night. We have 2 garage lights, 1 front porch light, and 2 lights on each side of our house that shine down the sides. Plus our back patio light. Now that it is Halloween time, we have bright orange and green lights strung all around the sidewalk, front bushes, and tree. Plus we have a street lamp at the end of our driveway. And since Mike and the boys wont sleep in the dark, the bathroom light, hallway light, den light, and a kitchen light are always on. Every morning Christina and I leave about 6:40. It is still dark outside. All the other houses are dark, even down the street. I counted 10 houses before someone else had their garage lights on. Our house stands out, brightly! I wonder if it is annoying? Oh well I feel safer this way! Someone would have to be fool to come to our house to rob it with all these lights on. I wonder why people dont turn their lights on? At our house in Surprise we had a timer on our lights. As soon as the sensor got dark, all the lights would come on. I liked that alot. Here I forget that all the outside lights are on half the time, so they stay on day and night. Probably wastes alot of electricity, but that is a price I will pay to have a slightly better peace of mind at night.

Zacharys Speech

Hello! Well we had the meeting with Zachary's Teacher and Speech Therapist to see if he qualifies for speech therapy provided free by the school district, he needed to get 85% or lower. He scored 65%. He will go twice a week, Tues and Fri. Its during school. His problem areas are: ISH, CH, J, R, S, Z, TH and BLENDS. She is pretty confident that Zachary will do fine. When you correct him and he slowly repeats it, he says it correctly. So its just a matter of training his brain to remember those sounds. He is at a 3 yr 1 mo old level. That's younger than Caleb! Caleb does sound older than Zachary a lot of the times. She expects it to take about a year. Here's what Zachary's teacher wrote in his parent teacher report: Zachary has adjusted to our class procedures and routines. He is making satisfactory progress at this time with first grade skill and benchmarks. He can read words in List A and is working on List B. He is reading on level for this time of year. He is working on reading fluently and decoding unknown words. When saying some of his sounds he puts in extra sounds. ( instead of saying "D" he says "DUH" so DONUT comes out like "DU-O-NUT".) On Dibels (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), he scored 'low risk'. (no risk is what you want, low risk is he might need extra help, high risk is definitely needs help) We will be working on these skills in class. Zachary is working hard to improve his letter formation and placement. When writing, he writes one or two simple sentences. He needs encouragement to add details and extend his story. In math, he sometimes seems to understand quickly. Other times, he needs small group or individual help to understand the new concept and complete his work. Zachary listens and participates in all our learning activities. He tries his best on all he does. He is very proud of his progress in letter formation. She said she wished all the kids in her class was as well behaved as Zachary is. She said he never talks out loud, always raises his hand, is very polite. He has made quite a few friends, and is enjoyable to have in her class. Once the speech teacher has Zachary in her class, she will retest him for the language part. When she told us what he did bad on we were shocked. We think he just didn't know her, and you all KNOW how he is around adults until he gets to know you. She showed him 30 pictures of everyday things and he was to tell her what they were. He knew 9. yes 9. Come on, your telling me that he couldn't identify all 30 things? No way. I think once he knows her and she retests him that he will pass. So I am in the process of turning the play room into a school room as well. As we speak, I am printing out some things from a web site the teacher suggested. (Kevin and Kim, this would be great for Rivers as well) (Urs, for Will too!) http://www.starfall.com/ . I've been trying to teach Caleb his letters and numbers. He's a little more difficult than the other two. He just doesn't care to learn them. So I am starting one letter a day. I think trying to learn all 26 at the same time is too hard for him, so maybe one letter at a time will be better. I really want him to go to Preschool the beginning of the year, but I just found out he needs to be potty trained. He is when it comes to peeing, but he still wont poop in the potty. He only wears a diaper during that time. But they wont take him that way. I was pushing hard, but now I'm giving him more time. When he's ready, he'll go. Next week there is no school on Thurs or Fri, and Mike has to work in Pensacola Fl so we are going with him for a 4 day weekend. Its about 7 hours north on the Panhandle. So that's whats going on over here. Hope all is well, Love you

Weve been in Florida now for just over 2 months. Sometimes it feels longer, other times it feels like yesterday. At least the temp here is very similar to Phx. I couldnt stand to live in a cold atmosphere. I need warm weather and sunshine. Im staying at home right now with my 3 yr old. Eventually I want to go back to work for a few days a week. I will wait till after the holidays since we will be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. Im enjoying staying home. Im trying to work with my 3 yr old, getting him to learn his letters and numbers etc. Most times its fun. We are working on Calendars right now. And the letters in his name, and Zacharys. Well this is my first blog, and I am looking forward to writing how and what is going on in our life, as we adjust to living away from my family. My hubby has been away from his family (Washington) since he was 18. Which was 19 years ago. So he has been gone for longer than he lived there. The move was much easier for him. Where as me, I had never been away from my family, and we are very close. I see my parents and brother* at least once every 2 weeks. *I Have another brother, but he is in the Navy, and he and his wife, Michelle, along with their 9 month old daughter just moved to San Jose. He has 3 more years, then they are looking to move back home, near our parents, and hers. My other brother is going to be attending culinary school, and is wanting to move out here afterwards to work as a chef in one of Disneys restaurants! Im really hoping that if he moves out here, that my other brother and family will move out here, so thier daughters skin is improved, like my 6 yr olds. (more on that later). Then after my grandparents are passed on, I hope my parents move out here. That is my plan for my family. lol. Think they'll do it? If they did, that would be the best ever. I miss them so much. Ok, gotta go, the family wants me to watch Heroes with them.