I present to you....

... the little boy who melts my heart!

Sammy Says Part 3.....

....yes, it's because he talks a lot!

Sammy: "Mommy, when I grow up to be a grown-up you can't hold me anymore."

Me: "Nope, because you'll be too big. But I'll always hug you like th

is" (proceed to hug adorable little sweet boy) "What do you want to do when you're a grown-up?" (hoping for another cute answer)

Sammy: "I don't know, Mommy. We can think about that later." (ha! got another cute answer!)

Sammy: "Mommy, Daddy's at the boys' soccer game?"

Me: "Yes"

Sammy: "Mommy, you help the girls soccer team"

Me: "No, buddy. I don't play soccer" (do not explain that it's due to being fat and out of shape largely [no pun intended] because of giving birth to you, my 11 pound wonder!!)

Sammy: "Mommy, you do play soccer a little bit. But I can teach you to play soccer! Tomorrow I can teach you to play soccer outside. You have to start the ball and then 

kick it into the goal!"

He's a sweet boy! 

He drives me insane when he talks so much, 

but the benefit is the cute things we get out of the constant chatter!

Sammy Says Part 2

In the car on the way home from church last night:

Sammy: "Mommy, it hurts me!"

Mommy: "What hurts you?"

"There's a mosquito in there!"

"In where?"

"In my sock, Mommy. It's biting me!"

"Can you reach it and get it out?"

"No, he's stuck in there! He doesn't know how to get out!!"

This morning:

"Mommy, can I have one pooshoo kiss?"

TRANSLATION: Hershey kiss

Sammy Says

"Mommy, what am I going to do when I grow up?"

"I don't know, buddy. What do you want to do when you grow up?"

"I'm gonna drink coffee and eat hot peppers just like you and Daddy!"

"Oh really? Ok! What else do you want to do? Are you going to work? Maybe be a doctor or a baseball player?" (we have this all figured out for our boys. one will be a doctor and the other will play baseball so they have enough money to buy us a nice house and take care of us!)

"I'm gonna play baseball and get lots of strikes"

"You want to be a pitcher?"

"Yeah.......and a batter too and get lots of home runs!"

They can put a man on the moon....

I was watching Brian Regan the other day {hysterical!} and he was saying how people blame things on the men who walked on the moon by saying stuff like "they can put a man on the moon, but they can't...you fill in the blank..."

So, I got to thinking what kind of things I blame on the poor innocent astronauts. And, by the way, I'm obviously no scientist, but why is so much money spent on going to the moon anyway? Is there really much benefit to it??

They can put a man on the moon, but they can't....

... make a quiet lawn mower (because, seriously, they always run them during toddler nap time!)

... make a re-sealable package for bacon (that really bothers me!!)

... provide our country with alternate energy sources for homes, cars, etc (ok, so they've made progress on this, but it's taken forever and it hasn't helped enough people yet so I'm still blaming the astronauts!)

... find Osama!

I'm sure there's more, but I gave myself a vacation day today and that involved any type of thinking! My family has gotten fed all day and that's about the extent of what I've accomplished. 

Whatcha think??

Ok, here goes. I found things to put on the shelf. It occurred to me that maybe a collection of some sort would look good on there and then I thought of my teapots. I don't have many, but I think I like them there. I think it's the first time I've ever been happy with what I have on there. It looks full and not crowded (in my opinion if that means anything!). Is it overdone? Look weird with teapots on there?

I had a slight hint of creativity come over me and I took a small mason jar and put those glass bead things in it and a satin ribbon around the top. Then I took some flowers and leaves out of the pumpkin arrangement and popped them in there. It adds a little fall flair to the shelf. I like it! The other little mason jar is some of my beach glass. 

Here's a close-up of just the shelf.

The frame and shelf there were gifts when we got married. I really like them, but they needed something. They were a light oak color which I'm not crazy about so I painted them black. I like it! I keep looking around the house to see what else I can paint and I have a few things in mind, but I'm gonna take it slow so the hubby doesn't get too scared! ;) The four frames are things I'd like to paint black, but I'm not sure he would agree! The pictures are really pretty shots he took when we were studying in Argentina.

Here's a shot of the whole wall together. I'm likin' it!

Fall Decorations and A Severe Lack of Creativity

I've always wanted my house to be a welcoming and "homey" place for my family. I dream of being super resourceful and making great decorations and solutions in my home with little to no money. The sad truth is that I'm not good at it! I've been checking out some really cool blogs lately (theinspiredroom.net and shabbynest.blogspot.com are 2 of my favorites). I've been inspired to at least try to come up with some new ideas. 

Here's my extremely lame attempt at decorating for fall. Please bear in mind that we are on a missionary's budget so there is seriously no money for buying absolutely anything!

I wanted to find some sticks in the yard for placing around the hurricane that you'll see in another picture and came back with this totally cool branch (oops! a bit too big for the dining room table!) So, my trusty little pea-sized brain got to working and here's what it came up with:

I hung it over the (hand-me-down ugly) sofa next to the (hand-me-down ugly dorm room looking) lamp. My thought is to find some cute thin ribbon and hang a few small pictures of our family on it. Like a "naturely" (like that new word?!) family tree. Seriously, tell me if it's totally lame! I'm new at this and don't want to begin creating horrid excuses for decorations if I can be stopped now!!

Here's that hurricane. I'm totally in love with it. I got it last year after the season was over on a super clearance. I payed something like $3 for it. It's glass with mosaic type glass tiles on it. I put it on the dining room table and you can see the sticks that needed to be trimmed from the family tree branch I threw around it. It seriously needs help and I've got no ideas!

Here's a pretty little pumpkin pot with fall flowers and leaves that someone gave me last year. (Oh and please don't miss those super sweet boys in the photo!) I put it on the (hand-me-down 70's scratched up) side table next to the (wejustgotmarriedliveinadarkapartmentneedsomecheaplighting) lamp. 

And thus ends my fall decoration repertoire! 

This next one is a real conundrum. We have this really neat shelf between the living room and the front porch. I really like it, but in the 5 years we've lived here I haven't known what to do with it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Can you guess what all of these things have in common?

I assure you they do have something in common. Give me your guess and the winner will get a prize! =)

In case you can't quite see them here's what you've got:

Infant's sock

Mascara

Coaster

Nail polish remover

Children's Tylenol

Hand lotion

Foam tiger visor

**The 3 yr old's legs in the background are not included!**

Happy guessing! I'm off to decide on a fabulous prize....

++++++

Please kindly take a seat and then scroll down since I've posted an unprecedented 3 posts today! And you can thank the very large cup of iced coffee I just drank after being off caffeine for 2 weeks for that! Good night and may God grant me a few undeserved hours of sleep after that little bit of foolishness on my part!

Disastrous cabinet turns Delightful!

I've been inspired to organize things around here a little better. I still have a long way to go, but things are progressing. Last night I organized 2 cabinets and one big drawer in the kitchen. 

I present to you the before and after photos.

BEFORE: (shameful, I know. Please don't judge me! But, please do notice that I had made an attempt a while back with the bins on the top shelf. They helped a lot, don't you think!)

Here's the top shelf before picture once the bottom junk was removed so you could see it better.

AFTER: (Top bins are still a bit overcrowded, but they're organized according to what they are - mostly baking things - so they're much better! Same goes for the bins on the bottom. The large one in the back has oil, sugar, flour, etc. The one in front has various kinds of rice, soup mixes, etc. Notice there's even some free space in front!! Unheard of in my cabinets since I have very few!!

Finally back to uneventful naps!

For those of you who have waited on the edge of your seats I apologize for delaying in sharing the good report on Caleb's nap activities. I went in to get him Saturday from his nap and he was standing there sweet as can be waiting for me to come. When he saw me he did the sign for "eat" to tell me he was hungry. Such a smart, sweet little man! Allow me to brag for a minute. Caleb knows 7 signs (eat, drink, more, please, thank you, all done, and work). I think he's pretty cool! =)

Here he is signing "eat":