Just some pictures

How lucky am I to be treated to these monkeys every morning? It doesn't get much better than this.

Can you believe this!!!

I finally got on the blog to post something. The stars must be lined up in the right order. Mr. Jim and I have not done anything too exciting. We do enjoy watching leaves turn color, grass grow and the DOW do funny things. We have our Stealth Cam up and running so I'll post a few of the wildlife we've seen lately.

Here's Mr. Racoon eating corn A doe and her fawn

Mr. Bear and a spike buck. He's one of two.

Now I also received a few pictures from Junal so as long as I am on the blog I'll post them, too. Looks like she has a houseful with all her pets.

BOOKENDS???? I'm going to come back as a cat or a dog. What a life!!

Looks like Zelda is well loved. I wonder who caught all the fish. I bet it was Gianni.

This post should fill up the whole page so I'd better stop.

Love to all, MOM/Aunt Janis

Cathy, you'll have to fix this page because I can't make the spaces between paragraphs smaller.

Hi

Just hanging out in the highchair.

Enjoying a treat from Dad. They walked down to Dairy Queen the other day.

How is everyone? Mason posted on his blog and I posted some on mine too. I put quite a few pictures on there if anyone is in the mood to see a couple of cute boys :)

Are these pictures a little fuzzy when you see them? they don't look that clear on our computer, but I don't know if it has something to do with the pictures or our computer. I take pictures with the highest setting on our camera...could that be the problem? Does anyone know?

I swear I saw a mouse in the boys bedroom the other night, but we haven't caught anything. I am hoping I was just delirious and overly tired. It was at around 2 in the am, so it's hard to say. I cannot STAND those things. gross.

Sleep is alluding us again. I am beginning to doubt we will ever sleep again. I think Maddox is now getting an eye tooth, so that could be it. It does seem like something is bothering him because he has been very clingy during the day..unusual for him and he is content to sleep in our arms...also unusual.

I hope everyone is well.

my own blog

i am starting my own blog. nothing fancy or spectacular, just something to do. the address is: www.mudpuddlesmischiefandlove.blogspot.com

There really isn't much on it right now, but hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to add a lot to it and get the pictures going.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!!

We are being taken over...

our little detective
could he get any cuter?

by a 9 month old!! Maddox offically tore this apart tonight and it is going to take a bit of work to get it back together.

I cannot get this picture to move around.

I can't believe Maddox is over 9 months old. He is such a sweetie! Today I was lying on the floor next to him while he was playing, and he turned to me, with the biggest smile and scooted over as fast as he could to me and laid his head on my shoulder and then rolled over into my arms and snuggled up. My heart just melted!

He is babbling all the time now. When you say "bye-bye" he waves and whenever he sees a door he waves at it. Sometimes he says "bye-bye" while waving. He is saying "A Dah" for all done...and lots of other things too, but he will copy it. And he'll point to some things we name for him. He wants to know what everything is and points to everything for us to name. He laughs at himself all the time and loves "rough" play.

The crusties on his head look a little better today. All he ate was cereal and avocado. i hope we can figure this out.

Today Mason said "Mom, i wish Maddox never had allergies", to which I replied "Me too. We can pray about it and see what God says". Mason's reply "Well, what if He says 'I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. He is just going to have them forever?" I didn't really know what to say to that.

He is going to Nana's tomorrow to spend the night with Gianni. Then Sat morning they are selling popcorn in front of my dad's office during "East End Days". He has been dying to go all week. Tomorrow will be a long day for him until he gets there.

Get All of Your Affairs in Order

After writing a comment to Jolee's post below, I turned to see this:

Princess (the cat) seems to be getting bolder, as she has been terrified of Ginger since Day 1. On a few occasions, I have found them within several feet of eachother....but the camera has never been closeby. This time, it was right next to me.

The spell was broken shortly after this picture was taken when Ginger got up to get a drink of water (notice the water dish to the right of Princess), turned her head to the left, and drenched Princess with all of the water that wasn't contained by Gingie's big mouth (dogs don't have lips, you know).

I wish that I would have gotten some video of that. It was quite entertaining.

AHHHHH....

Mason's first day of Kindergarten. That is when we started making the volcano. I can't believe he is almost 6 years old and that every day I love him even MORE!! Many mornings when he wakes up before Maddox, he will crawl into bed with me and snuggle right up. I know the day will come when he won't want much to do with me, but I hope I always remember moments like those. I do wish they didn't have to grow up...but everything keeps getting better and better as they do...expect for the having to let go part. Just watching Mason, I can see how much he has grown up. His sayings, the way he relates to the world and how he moves. it all seems so grown up at times (and then he will burp and laugh or make up a rhyme about poop).
Mason and I completed 2 thousand piece puzzles over the last few weeks. They were both Santa ones, and he did most of the work.

The deer love the neighbors apple trees. One day a doe, buck and fawn were all doing this to get at the apples. Crazy!
Maddox found Mason's stick and you would have thought he found the Holy Grail!! He was in Heaven!!

How do you move these pix around?

I am getting sleep. For about 5 nights in a row now. Maddox has been going at least 6 hours before needing to be fed at night. It is amazing!!! I love sleep!!! Hopefully soon this will turn into 10 hours, but I will definitely take 6-8 hours instead of getting up every 3-4. Hallelujiah!!!!!( I think I messed up the spelling).

Not a whole lot going on around here. It is nice having a schedule again with the Homeschool. I really need some kind of schedule...nothing too rigid, but more of a schedule of events and Mason REALLY needs a schedule. He is loving it as well.

As he approaches 6 years, I wonder if we are in for a storm with him. Noticing a lot of perfectionism and mood swings. I have heard that 6 years can be hard for children, so we will see. He is still a sweetie though and I do love him dearly!!! He picked flowers for the neighbor yesterday because last week she gave him one of her sunflowers. He's still cracking me up, but my brain just went blank with all his funny stuff and sayings. He still says "Mayonnaise!! Mayonnaise!!" when he pretends his plane is crashing. I'll need to tell him it is "Mayday" soon. Kids will be making fun of him.

We think Maddox may have developed an allergy to bananas. He was playing with mashed bananas yesterday and his arms broke out in hives. Noticing some not so nice stuff in his diapers too and a few crusty spots on his head have returned. Man, he loves bananas! I hope he isn't. I'll need to call the allergist to make an appt to have him tested to be sure. I just don't want to make another appt. It has been nice having a break from Dr.'s. I thought he was maybe allergic to carrots or peaches, but now I think it's bananas. I hope that is all it is, but then I wonder if he will just develop more allergies as he eats more foods? I keep letting him play in the dirt so his immune system will have something else to fight in the hopes it will leave the food alone.

Well, that's about it here. Just enjoying the wonderful weather and taking the kids to the park everyday that we can go before the "you know what" comes and we need to stay in for the next 8 months :)

Rain Rain Go Away

one of my favorite pix
this is how Mason set up our yard. To the left a rope is tied from the bushes to a garbage can and a quilt is hanging on it. We look like the Hill Billy's of Duluth :)

Well, we have had a lot of rain. I hope it stops tonight.

Tonight Maddox somehow reached up and tore off a piece of the wrap around a stack of copy paper and tried to eat it. I was napping, but according to Craig and Mason, he was almost choking and then threw it up. Right before I fell asleep, I just wanted to go get him and protect him, so I said a prayer for him and then fell asleep. This little guy is definitely going to be keeping us on our toes!!! Just like when I was pregnant with him.

Mason bought a new transformer tonight named "Snarl". It is a rhino that transforms into a robot. HE has decorated his room with cutouts of Transformers.

I'll try to post a couple of pix everyother day. That way I won't overwhelm everyone with a million at once. IT still takes a while to post them though...still trying to get this thing working right.

hello

This is Maddox's 1st day in the baby pool. He LOVED it!! he loves water and he would just wail when he saw the pool until I put him in.

Well, the DSL isn't always running right, but we are getting closer.

Things are going pretty well here. Still not much sleep, but one of these nights I just need to get tough and let Maddox cry a bit. We have a had a pretty good summer and fall is looking good too.

Maddox has been doing great with the solids and hasn't had any serious reactions in quite a while. Just some occasional hives here and there treated with hydrocortisone. He is scooting all over the place now, exploring the house and getting into all sorts of things. Today he ate part of a flashcard. Good thing he isn't allergic to paper. We have also found out he isn't allergic to mud, grass or dandelion leaves. He is 9 months already. That is crazy!!! He started waving "bye-bye" on Monday and on Wed started saying "bah bah" while waving "bye-bye".

Mason is doing well. He set up our yard like a campsite with bags and objects hanging from the hedges and "rooms" set up for him to sleep in. His imagination continues to grow. He is loving school and this week has gone well.

Mason just posted on his blog. We are going to try and post on there once a week now.

So, this is what I've been up to....

besides homework, of course...

I decorated my room. Scrapbook paper was on sale at Michaels. I also went to Walmart where tulle was on sale and made a bed canopy.
The picture above is something I sewed in my costume construction course!!! It's a really fun class and I've met a lot of people there. We get to make the costumes for three of the plays, one being the musical, which is Seusical the Musical. So the costumes are going to be really crazy. We got some of the fabric in. Some of it is really fluffy and it's going to be difficult to work with. My other classes are going well. I'm taking differential equations and intro to statistics. All of my professors are great. My stats course is much easier than I had anticipated.

If anyone needs a babysitter, I'm done with class at noon on Thursdays, 11 on Tuesdays, and 3 Monday, Wednesday, Friday. :)

-Alyssa

here are the 2 monkeys!!

this is Maddox eating a piece of rice chex for the 1st time ever. He is eating tiny chunks of banana as well.

OK, we are still having a little trouble. The tech was just here and helped out, but they need to figure out some stuff still. I probably won't be able to post as much as I want yet, but here are some pics anyway.

Things are going pretty well. Maddox is doing well and eating some solids.
Just trying to get him to sleep through the night now. Hopefully soon!! He is scooting everywhere and has already taken a vent out of the wall, and almost took apart the bottom portion of our dishwasher.

Mason is doing well too. We started Kindergarten yesterday and he has been very excited. We are doing the creation story , so we are making a paper mache volcano. Tomorrow we hope to make it erupt!! He is still imaginative and has set up some pretty elaborate things.

Well, Maddox is under the buffet and found a microphone attatched to a keyboard and is yelling in it, but is shoving it in his mouth.

I hope all is well with everyone.. Hopefully in the next week I'll be back and maybe even have my own blog. oooooo

We have DSL!!!!!

We have been trying to get DSL for about a month now, but we were having all sorts of troubles. Thankfully the company we are going through didn't relent and worked VERY hard and got us our DSL...today!!!!

So I am going to attempt to download some pictures!!!! HOORAY!!!

All I've Got To Say Is....

Where is everyone?