Guess where we just got back from...

Yup, the beach! We had a brief, but amazing trip to Hatteras, North Carolina a little while ago and I think the kids are still tired from all the fun that they had. This was the kids first truly long car ride and they did absolutely amazing. Despite running into some traffic issues and detours around Washington DC on the ride down (which added about 45 minutes to our already 7 hour drive), they were awesome. Of course I had this grand plan of leaving about 9:00 in the morning, which would give us three hours of driving before stopping for a picnic lunch, letting the kids run around in a grassy rest stop, then having them sleep for a good part of the remainder of the drive (since it would be nap time). #notsomuch.

After about almost two hours into the drive, three stops and the fact that we were still not passed Washington should have been my first clue things weren't going to go according to plan. We finally got ourselves re-routed (one of the benefits of being the last to arrive, is that everyone else ahead of you keeps you updated on traffic) and were on our way. Jack slept for about an hour (before nap time) and Emma never slept at all. Good thing Mommy packed lunch because it allowed us to make up some time and keep driving while we ate. We had one last stop about 30 minutes out because Jack was eating some apple and of course shoved WAY too much in his mouth so he threw up all over himself. Luckily, it was just apple and Daddy caught most of it in his hand. Ick. After getting him all cleaned up, we finally arrived about 9 hours later to our awesome beach house.  

One of my favorite things about going on vacation with the kids at this age is how excited they get just to see the house. They run in like it's Christmas morning. Just seeing their crazy little smiles seeing the house made the entire drive worth it.

We arrived around dinner time on Saturday, but ended up doing a little swimming in the pool out back first. The kids were LOVING life. They have always been fans of the swimming pool, at least Emma, but this was the first time they had one in their backyard. Emma blew us away. Last year, even with her floaty-thing-a-ma-jiggy on she wouldn't want us to let go. Within 30 seconds of hoping in the pool and seeing her big cousins swim around, she didn't want us touching her. It was bittersweet.

Jack was loving swimming too and even kicked around "all by self" a couple times too (of course we were right there the whole time though).

After the first day of hanging out and resting we headed to the beach and it was amazing. They are both old enough now that we could last about three hours (which was pretty good). Emma wouldn't go NEAR the water (she got brave a handful of times) but I was okay with that since I didn't have to worry too much about her getting swept away. Jack was pretty much the same. They had so much fun with their big cousins, they slept for days afterwards. :)

On our next to last day, we hit up some ice cream and kite shops and had a great morning! The kids got to fly kites for the first time. It was actually one of those surreal moments, at the beach, with you little ones who thought this was the coolest thing in the world, flying kites in the warm breeze....then Emma woke up from her nap with a whopper of a fever and was super miserable. We went back and forth with what to do, especially since UTIs are always on our mind and ended up deciding to pack up and come home a day early. It actually worked out great, we only had two really quick stops on the way home, and got back in about 7.5 hours which was pretty good. The kids then had a day to rest at home before heading back to school for a few days before the holiday weekend.

All in all, an amazing, quick, but awesome break and it was just what I needed.

What We've Been Up To...

Rather then making one post about everything that we have been up to over the past two months, I decided to combine them all into one so it didn't take me until 2017 to finish! As you can see, we have been pretty busy, had a rough couple of weeks in the middle there, but we also had a lot of fun!

There were several strokes of Mommy genius which ultimately turned out to not-so-Mommy genius, like the time I tried to be the chef in the house and cooked my chicken upside down (yup, that's why Daddy's the chef). There was also the time where I tried to be all super-mom and cut out an elephant shape in the kids toast, and attempted to cook an elephant shaped egg inside the toast. Yet another chef-ing FAIL. Both kids proceeded to eat the cut out elephant bread and didn't touch the majority of it.

We had spring pictures at school, work training for Mommy, a weekend at home with just Mommy and the babies as Daddy visited a friend (that's where the roller skates come into play), some promises of snow that never turned out so we made a cardboard fort, and some new attempts to be creative (and cheap with some DIY home projects). We were desperate for an updated spring wreath so I dismantled an old red/white one and hot glued on some pink and white flowers I had laying around the house. Not bad for spending $0! Does that make up for my lack of ability to cook?

We then got struck with the dreaded stomach virus where the kids got it the worst. Luckily, they were better in time for Jack's 2nd Birthday party complete with homemade Oreo cookie pops! But don't get too excited, that was about the only homemade thing at the party. #simplify.

It was then on to big kid gymnastics registration, parent teacher conferences at school, trips to home depot and more stomach viruses. Poor sissy got it the worst for sure. Somewhere in there we had Jack's 2 year checkup and found out he most likely has allergies and is probably allergic to dust. Ouch.

Then it was off to more gymnastics, birthday parties, and some more tiny home projects where Mommy got a little spray paint happy (our registers and mailbox look like new!!). Oh, and then some more stomach viruses.

::: head desk :::

Throw in lots of overtime for Mommy at work and there's our March in a nutshell!

Things started to calm down a bit in April and finally the weather started to warm up, so once all the stomach bugs were officially kicked, we spent a lot of time outside and got the kids their first 2013 snowballs. Of course being outside threw Jack into full blown allergy mode so it was back to the doctors for some nasal spray.

BTW: Have you ever tried to give a two year old nasal spray and have him inhale through his nose at the same time? Yeah, it's about as easy as it sounds.

Daddy and I did manage to squeak in a date night as a little early birthday celebration as well as a day off for a special trip to the zoo with the babies. Before we knew it, it was May and we were whipping up S'more teacher appreciation gifts, a mother's day celebration and a freshly painted dining room (more info to come on that one)!

Shew! I think that's about it! At least when it comes to the non-normal daily life stuff of cleaning, laundry, ironing, having full time jobs, etc. 

I have to say though, although it was a busy two months and we sure had our rough times with the stomach bug, I am LOVING life right now and soaking up every minute I can get with these crazy people that are my family.

Life is good.

Snowballs!

Clearly, life has not settled down much given my whopping one post in March and whopping zero posts in April. Pretty much the entire month of March and half of April was spent attempting to disinfect the entire house and each person in it since the stomach virus got a hold of pretty much everyone, and hit the little ones way harder then Mommy and Daddy. On top of the stomach virus, there were colds, sinus infections and a little boy who shall remain nameless ::: cough ::: ::: cough ::: ::: the squishy ::: ::: cough ::: who is now most likely allergic to dust, among other things. Until I can get a post out of what we have been up to over the past two months, here's a couple of updated pictures of the hurricanes babies.
I don't know why I love these pictures so much. You have probably already seen them on Facebook but I couldn't resist posting them here as well. This was the first time the kids got a hold of a snowball this spring. Emma had been begging for one for weeks, but the chill in the air and the clouds left most of the local snowball stands closed. Until now....

It's hard to pinpoint my favorite part of this picture. Its either the sunshine bouncing off of The Squishy's overgrown blond hair, the Kayne West sunglasses, the T-Rex racing jammies (despite this being at 3:00 in the afternoon) or the hard core look on his blueberry snowball stained face. It has to be the look on his face and the holding of the snowball that just screams "sup Mom".

I seriously can't get enough of this stinky little man.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, Emma Kathryn was three-quarters done her snowball. I suppose technically The Squishy was too, but mostly because he spilled over half of it before his first bite.

#snowballsstayoutside.

Emma was totally digging her grape snowball. I finally got her to try the marshmallow in Mommy & Daddy's snowball and boy was that a hit. This girl is so crazy. She took a bite of a s'more last weekend and cried. But not the oh-my-gosh-this-is-delicious-cry. It was the oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-I-tried-three-things-I-love-but-they-were-mixed-together-which-is-so-scary-I-might-die-cry. She promptly spit it out.

Luckily, the snowball/marshmallow combo was much better received and she has been begging for one on a daily basis since then. Such a diva.

As soon as I turned my attention back to The Squishy (who is now nicknamed The Hurricane in school), I saw him reaching his grubby little hands over into Mommy & Daddy's snowball sneaking bites while Mommy wasn't looking.

If he wasn't so darn cute he would have been grounded for life. I then realized where he got his "snowballs are no funny business" personality from. Yup, the Mama.

Whooo Loves Ya Baby...

I know a lot of folks aren't into Valentine's Day, and for a while, I didn't really think too much of it myself. It was always nice to take a quick break from life to have a special dinner, and Wes and I always exchanged cards, but not much outside of that. Like every other holiday though after the kids come, it tends to be more about the kids (which is okay with me). So this year, I did a little Valentine's Day decorating!

I went back to one of my favorite websites Cocoa Mint (even though I've only ever bought anything there once before) and purchased some Valentine's Day graphics. For $5, you can't really go wrong. I then whipped up some quick little designs with PowerPoint, printed them on regular computer paper and threw them into some $5 frames that we already had. Voila! That is my kind of craft.  

 

I then whipped up four smaller graphics using the background paper and pictures I got from Cocoa Mint, printed two copies of each on regular printer paper, glued them onto some red cardstock, threw some red polka-dot ribbon through them and voila! A Valentine's Day banner for our mantel!

  

I actually don't have a picture of the whole thing together but you get the idea. The kids loved it, and for the whopping thirty minutes and $5 it took me, it was worth it.

Another little Valentine's Day treat was equally as cheap and as quick! I found this idea on Pinterest I think and eventually found my way back to the original website it came from, Cute Food for Kids. All you need is some pretzels (salted are the best), some chocolate to melt and sprinkles. This is where it gets very complicated here so pay close attention. Melt the chocolate. Dip the pretzel in the melted chocolate. Dip the chocolate covered pretzel into sprinkles. Take a sip of your wine while you hold it for a second to cool. Put the pretzel down. Shew. I'm exhausted. Check out the website for some tips on how to not burn the chocolate, and a couple other little helpful things. Enjoy! These things are delicious!! Oh, side note. When allowing two children to help, be aware that more chocolate and sprinkles end up being consumed then actually on the pretzels. Then allow for a good three hours of spinning, dancing, running in circles, yelling, screaming and literally bouncing off the walls.

One of these days...

I'm going to get a decent picture of the two crazies together. Unfortunately, that day is not yet upon us.

We decided to take advantage of some of the nice weather the other day and head out for some playtime in the backyard. It was pretty chilly, but warm enough to let the babies get out and burn off some steam. I've been back to dreaming in La La Land where I can actually afford to buy the new camera that I would love, but it at least inspired me to break out the one I have now since it's been a while.

One of the games that the babies like to play outside is chase. Where Emma takes off sprinting and The Squishy isn't far behind. At least for the first three or four feet when he then starts tripping and falling all over the place. God love that little man! He just eats some dirt and goes on about his business like it didn't even slow him down. Eventually, The Squishy decides to go off on his own and falls sprints his way to the fence in the back. Emma gets wind of this and then follows. Mommy then gets wind of it, and then proceeds to try to bribe the little ones to stand still for just ten seconds to snap a picture. Below is the little monsters version of "standing still".

Disclaimer: These aren't the best quality pictures but they sure do make me laugh when I look at them. :)

This is what happens when Mommy tries to take a picture one handed, while raising her other hand above her head and snapping and making a fool out of herself to get the kids to look towards the camera. Yeah. They raise their hands, make a fool out of themselves and refuse to look towards the camera. Guess I have to change my technique.

There must be something really important behind Mommy! I actually love this picture of The Squishy. Blown up, its crisp and clear and his eyes are amazing. I'm not sure what Emma is doing here though and how her glove got stuck to the side of her coat. :)

This is what happens when Mommy tells the babies to say "Cheese!" One of them usually does a great job, which causes the other one to stop looking at the camera and look at the crazy person next to them yelling about dairy products. Maybe I should clarify to the kids, that when I tell them to "say cheese", I also don't mean "stop looking at the camera like you were a half of a second ago and look somewhere else."

One of these days it's going to work. And work while they are awake. What are the chances it will magically happen just in time for Christmas cards this year?

Yeah, I don't think so either.

Shiver Me Timbers! Me Babies Be Paintin'

These pictures are from probably about three months ago but I wanted to share them anyway. This was after one of many trips to a craft store for a fun weekend activity. Emma picked out a wooden pirate ship and The Squishy picked out a bird house.

Some days, you just have to let things slide and let the babies get mad covered in paint. Just make sure the water is running before you drag the half naked, paint covered babies upstairs and make them walk the plank into the bath.

This is Emma's typical face that she makes when Mommy breaks out the camera and makes a fool out of herself trying to get her to smile. I like to refer to it as the "Ugh. Put the camera away Mommy" face.

Although looking at her, you wouldn't think she was related to me (she is ALL Daddy's side of the family), there is one way that I know she is part mine. It's the tongue-sticks-out-of-the-mouth-when-concentrating thing. That and the whole OMG giving birth to you was mad painful thing. :)

Now, onto the Foofy. Despite Sissy being 99% Daddy, the Foofy is 99% Mommy. We like to call him our "OCD Baby" because he is very meticulous and has his own way of doing things. Painting is no different. He will paint one spot for 15 minutes, until it's just right. He very strategically picks the areas that he wants to paint and he gets very serious. I tried my hardest to get that little stinker to smile for a picture but not while he is in "the zone". He then gets very concerned if he gets paint on his hand. Despite the fact that he tried to eat the paint and has it all over his face. ::: headdesk :::

"MOMMY! FOOFY'S EATING MY PAINT!!!!"

The black pearl.

Painting done! Jack's finally outta the zone! Back to happy babies!!!

Last Season on "Life with The Odom's"...

So, you know how they re-run the entire last season of a show and then play the 30 second recap just before the season premier comes on that night? Yeah, well, we are going to skip over that re-rum of the last season and jump right to that 30 second recap before we move on to the season premier. Where the premier is me most likely talking about how I am going to blog more, but then getting side tracked and not actually doing it. Dang. I think I just gave away way too much of the plot. #seasonpremierfail.

Here's a little bit about what we have been up to over the past three months since Emma's third Birthday...

Wes's best friend's wedding, date night, beach vacation with the babies...

Braving restaurants for dinners out with the babies, tumbles, tumbles and more tumbles...

Little men with big smiles, and also big fevers that send you to the Emergency Room...

Special shopping trips with my baby girl, her first trip to Friendly's, home improvements, failed transmissions, you know, the usual....

Did I mention tumbles? We also had some big changes and went from the kids being at home with a Nanny to full time daycare for the Foofy and full time preschool for Sissy. They have thrived. Oh, and I have dark hair now too....

What do you do two weeks into putting your kids in school?

Well, you rip them right back out for a week to go visit their Gigi and Pap on the other side of the country. Babies were amazing on the airplanes. Outside of the 35 minutes Jack screamed because he was tired. He eventually fell asleep, drooling on my foot on the floor of the plane....

Disney and big cousins. That is all.

The babies...

Then we flew back into Fall, trips to the farm and the occasional special treat before school because my babies are awesome.

Not pictured: Jackson with croup, Emma with croup, Jackson with walking pneumonia prior to hoping on the airplane, Mommy working until 2:00AM, school pictures, Jack's 18 month appointment, play dates, trip for Mommy and Daddy back to college and probably a lot more.

When its too warm to play in the snow...

... you just have to play pretend snow inside.

And sometimes, you just have to look past the mess, and have some fun.

Valentine's Day Booty!

No, it's not what you think. Get your mind out of the gutters people! I'm talking about Emma and Jackson's Booty that they got at the end of their Valentine's Day Treasure Hunt!

Success!

This was the first time we have ever done anything like this and it was mostly  so we could give the kids (aka Emma because Squishy is so little) something fun to do on "Balentine's Day" which also wasn't going to break the bank.

The whole treasure hunt took a whopping two minutes, so my first lesson learned was to make it a little bit harder because Ms. Smarty Pants blew right through the clues. I wasn't sure if she was going to "get it" or not, so they were pretty simple.

And of course we had to have a little pirate booty waiting for the babies at the end. I don't know what it is about that monkey, but its slightly creepy. :) I think its the button eyes. It's like he follows you wherever you go.

::: shudder :::

I had all of the clues spread out and ready to go the night before, with the exception of one or two that needed to be strategically placed (by pink bear) the next morning. Lesson Learned #2: Expect the unexpected. Normally when Emma wakes up, she runs into our room and watching some cartoons while mommy and daddy attempt to wake up, get The Squishy and bring him and his bottle into our room. Nine times out of ten, Emma chills out in our bed with her milk and blanket while we go get Squishy. Of course, on treasure hunt day, she decided to come with Mommy and saw one of her clues that I had put in Jackson's room the night before. Doh!

After almost destroying the clue, I convinced her to put it back because we had to start at the beginning. After Squishy inhaled his bottle, we were off!

I tried to take some pictures as we went along, but she was moving too fast, so I eventually threw in the towel and broke out the Flip Video.

And yes, my bedroom is THAT messy.

And you know how to tell if your room is too messy? When you give your toddler a clue that says "Don’t forget to look where Mommy keeps her shoes, to hopefully find, your next clues!" and she looks all over your bedroom floor, and everywhere else, except in Mommy's closet. ::: sigh :::

As Emma was sprinting around the house, Squishy was hanging out probably causing destruction somewhere. But once Emma found their Valentine's treasure, he got to reap the rewards.

At least The Squishy wasn't creeped out by rainbow monkey.

God love that giant, rainbow monkey lovin', nose scrunching, crazy haired baby.

Of course the video camera stopped itself because I hadn't downloaded any videos and its memory was full. Doh. What you didn't see, was Emma run over the table with her box of chocolates, open it up and begin her breakfast of chocolate candy, before Mommy and Daddy could intervene.

If you can't beat em', join em right!

Oh, and you know how I said we weren't the flower and candy kind of Valentine's Day couple. Yeah...I got flowers at work that day. Love.

My Funny Valentines...

Wes and I have never been really big Valentine's Day people. We don't do the whole flowers and candy thing, but we will usually make a good dinner, have some wine, and call it a night. This year though, I decided to do a little Valentine's Day Treasure Hunt for Emma! Since its on a Tuesday, and Mommy and Daddy will be at work, our special activities will be limited to bright and early in the morning, and dinner time to bedtime.

Emma is really into holidays at this age. She is always asking where the Easter Bunny is (and apparently he is at the "North Hole" with Santa) and she has been asking about Valentine's Day for about two weeks now.

So to start our day off right, I created a little Treasure Hunt that Emma can start in the morning. It's not long, and it's not complicated, but I tried to pick some of her favorite places and things, so hopefully she will have fun and find her prize that will be awaiting her at the end!!