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":

What am I going to find tomorrow when I get him from his nap?!

This kid is out of control! He's so quiet and laid-back that everyone thinks he's an innocent little angel. Well, I did too until this (and yesterday's nap!)....

(sorry about the weird angle, but I was trying to be sure he'd be decent)

Please tell me that his diaper fell off and not that he took it off!

Caleb, your Mommy loves you very much, but she will use duct tape!

Good News/Bad News

The Good News:

I had just emptied out my bag

The Bad News:

I left a lipstick in there

The Good News:

It was almost gone (one of those that you hang on to trying to scrape enough out since they discontinued the color and you're forever bitter about it!)

The Bad News:

It didn't have a lid (since the same someone who found it during n

aptime pulled it out of my bag at our last trip to Walmart and procee

ded to fling the lid under a shelf where Mommy had no hope of retrieving it!!!)

We camp in style!

Our vacation this year was to a really nice cottage in the Mountains of WV (Isn't all of WV mountains? I don't know. That's all I saw anyway! Whatever.) It was called Faith Mountain and it's a retreat place for Pastors and Missionaries (with discounted rates - awesome!!)

It was so beautiful and peaceful (oh wait...it wasn't necessarily peaceful since we had a 3 and 1 yr old boys with us, but I can see where for anyone else it would be extremely peaceful!) 

I loathe putting pictures in posts. I'm either incapable of doing it the right way or it's a terrible system and I prefer to think the latter is true! So this is just a smattering of things that we did and saw. You won't be seeing pictures of the wildlife that visited our cottage (wild turkeys, deer, rabbits and the random bald man - oh never mind. That was just my dad!) because I'm too frustrated with putting pictures and they didn't make the cut.

This is the Cedar House where we stayed. It was totally the best way to camp. By day we had a campfire outside and a pond to fish in, trails to walk on and a beautiful view and by night we had an amazingly beautiful house to stay in complete with a full kitchen (even a dishwasher if that gives you an idea to how nice it was!) 4 large bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one with a whirlpool tub!), wood floors - beautiful!! There is seriously no other way to camp in my mind anyway!

This is the earliest stinkin' campfire I've ever seen. This was probably about 6:30pm, but it was fun and delicious (s'mores!!) and the boys were bathed and in bed by 8pm. Doesn't get better than that, sports fans!

Caleb and Pop-pop at the campfire. You'll notice Pop-pop passed him off to me after this picture and when you see the next one you'll know why. Chicken!
Caleb enjoying his first S'more! He was such a sticky, chocolatey mess! And super cute!!

My parents came down the day after us. Dad stayed for 3 nights and Mom stayed the rest of the week with us. It was so fun to have Grammy and Pop-pop with us! We went exploring around the area and discovered there's really nothing to do! 45 minutes away we found Sutton Dam which was super cool. I don't remember ever being to a dam before, but some people are telling me I was at one in high school. I was in my own little silly world doing silly teen things then.  'Nuff said. Anyway, it was impressive and a really fun trip.

This is one of the views from the top of the dam. So pretty! Sammy spotted the playground down there on the left and asked to play for a bit so we drove down there. It's a beautiful park with pavilions for picnics, fishing, etc.

There was a spot for swimming so another day Grammy, Daddy, the boys and I went back. This time we swam with the boys (when I saw "we" I mean "I" because Grammy and Daddy were chicken!) Then we played at the playground and ate a picnic lunch before heading back to the house for naps. It was a great day!

The boys watching a movie. There was no tv, no internet, no phone, not even cell service at the cottage so we came up with things to do!

And here's one of the things Sammy came up with! =)

Daddy and Sammy fishing together. It was the first time for all of us and even though we didn't catch anything it was really fun (and nice to leave Caleb at the house with Grammy since we literally climbed down the mountain and back up again to get to the pond). I don't recommend it with a 1 yr old in your arms! In fact, I just plain old don't recommend it at all!

This was a very cool old, run-down barn we drove by many times. On our way home we finally stopped and took this picture. I think it would make the best postcard or a really cool puzzle. Or maybe I'll just do the boring thing and blow it up to hang on the wall. I don't know what it is, but I just love this old barn!

Caleb being silly and sweet on the ride home. We made it all the way with no traffic at all until we got to the smallest stickin' state (sorry, I can't bring myself to even utter the word - it starts with a "D") and mercy did we ever hit traffic there! We were stuck on 95 for what seemed like an eternity!  

All in all we had a great time and though I don't think we'll ever go back while the kids are young (I'm the kind that enjoys a quiet relaxing vacation every now and then, but really loves a place with stuff to do and see!) I could totally see us going back sometime when it's just the two of us.

Simon, a.k.a. Samuel Says...

After being stung by the bee yesterday I asked him if it was a small or big bee and he said "It was really, really big and it was like a circle (I assume that means round although I've never seen a round bee myself!) and it had crumbs on it" (We figure he meant fuzzy! =))

Please pray with me...

I just linked to a blog of a beautiful family who is in need of lots of prayer. They are pregnant with their fourth child and the baby's heart is failing. Please join me and prayer for this family. You can see their story here. 

Bzzzzzz

Unfortunately, the bee that Sammy encountered today wasn't as friendly as this little guy! He was playing on his water slide and the little buzzer (heehee) was lying in wait in the grass and stung him on the side. The crying didn't last long at all and it's only swollen up a bit around it. We'll watch him very closely though since I'm allergic and this is his first sting so we're not sure if he is as well. They say it isn't a genetic allergy, but who knows! My being allergic has made us vigilant (ok, somewhat psycho) about bee stings and the like.

This'll make you smile!

DISCLAIMER: Please forgive the lack of clothes!=

Relax..I'm back!

I must apologize to everyone (ok, just my impatient sister!) who have asked me to update my blog. We've had some issues with uploading pictures and what with my boys being so adorable I didn't think these posts were worthy without them.

And just to confuse everyone (ok, again, just my impatient sister!) I've changed the dates so the world will never know that my blogging is quite delayed. Tricky! Scroll down to see the good stuff!

We picked blueberries till we were blue in the face...

...not really. We actually picked less than $3 worth since we saw that the already boxed up ones were only $1.50/lb and the pick-your-own were $1.80. Seems so backwards! If it weren't for the boys we would have just bought the boxed ones and called it a day, but we had a good time picking.

We rode on the wagon out to the fields. Caleb was really sweet (what else is new?!) and waited patiently for a taste. Grandmom showed him how to pick them himself and before we knew it he was picking and eating almost as fast as his brother! By the end he was grabbing them off the bushes as we pushed his stroller along the aisles!

Sammy was really funny. I noticed he was eating a lot so I asked him how many he had in his basket. He looked in and then looked back up at me and said "oops!" His basket was empty after about 15 minutes of picking! It's so true that if they were smart they'd weigh the little ones before and after to make more money!

YUM!!

He and I have very different ideas of what saving for winter means!! =)

picking...

...eating...

...grinning because his basket is nearly empty!

Walking back to the wagon (to buy the pre-boxed blueberries!!)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Fruity Fun

About half what we ended up with

This wasn't posed or anything! ;)

Look at that sweet boy!

Today we went to pick strawberries and cherries with Grandmom, Aunt Sarah and "my cousin baby Josie" (as Sammy calls her). You'll notice that there are no pictures of picking strawberries. That could be because Caleb was a crab and Josie wasn't thrilled with the carrier so Grandmom put the two of them in the corner which left Sarah, Sammy and I to pick strawberries. Well, actually it mostly left Sarah since Sammy was running up and down the aisles and I had to stop quite frequently to make sure he wasn't getting too far. Sorry, Sar! It was pretty hot and we didn't get a ton of strawberries, but the fun was to come!

Next we went around to the other side of the farm and picked cherries. I love to pick cherries! It's so fun! We picked from just one tree and ended up with TONS of cherries. We parked the two strollers under the tree in the shade and had a blast picking bunches and bunches of beautiful, delicious cherries. Someone (who will remain unnamed) even climbed the tree to pick. The kids were great and we came home with more cherries than I knew what to do with!

Silly

Sammy and I were doing laundry this morning (which in itself is awesome. He loves doing it so much that I get tons of loads done because he's constantly asking to go put more in!) and he said to me "Mommy, we don't get in the dryer. That wouldn't be very good...because I'll get trapped and someone will cook me!" Huh! How's he know he'll get cooked if he climbs in there? I'm not gonna fight it though! Maybe he'll never try it...wait, he's a boy! Regardless of what he knows about dangerous things he'll still try them won't he?! Oh well! I tried it when I was a kid and didn't "get cooked"!

Ponderings... **EDITED TO ADD MORE "WISDOM"**

1. As soon as you feel you have your house in order and clean - turn around...surely there's another mess happening already somewhere!
2. The calmer Mommy stays the calmer the child stays - the same is true with how upset and frustrated Mommy gets!
3. I take the small things in life - especially with my kids - for granted no fewer than 3,469 times each day! (To my shame!!)
4. The longer you wait for something the harder it gets to wait patiently (ok, so this one is not new to mankind, but waiting for an architect's plans is getting unbearable!)
5. A baby learns very early to whine and cry so his older brother will get yelled at!
6. The more i want to loose weight the more depressed it makes me and the more I eat! (absurd I say!!)
7. Regardless of the number of times you go to the grocery store there will always be days when you can't find anything to make for dinner!
8. Hammer pants are one thing that I pray daily will never come back into style! (that was random!)
9. When you're not looking toys breed!

**EDIT** (PLEASE DISREGARD IF YOU ARE PREGNANT (I KNOW WHAT THE "PREGGIE QUEASIES" CAN DO TO A GIRL!), JUST PLAIN HAVE A WEAK STOMACH OR HAVE NO CHILDREN (OR YOU MAY DECIDE TO NEVER HAVE ANY!!)
10. When your child is sick try to stay far, far away and do yourself and other children a favor and keep them far away too or they will have a much closer encounter with said sick child than anyone ever wants to experience (ie vomit in their mouth!!) and you may loose your lunch in the process!! Not to mention you now have multiple children to console, bathe and wash their mouths out with soap (just kidding! i remember what that was like and vow never to subject my kids to that!!)
11. When vomit is present in your house, no amount of scrubbing, bathing, laundry, etc will totally remove the smell. I swear it's not that it's still in my house, but in either my nose or brain and I can't escape it! I now have the cleanest floors on the block since they have been scrubbed more times in the last 24 hours than in the past month. Although maybe that's just saying something about my housework or lack thereof! =)
12. Life is full of essential decisions. One of them being, when you have sick children you need to take a moral stand on how to dress their beds (and yours too if they're the sharing type and allow you the joy of vomit in your sheets as well!) The question is whether to put a mattress pad on in hopes of sparing your mattress or leave it off in hopes of having less laundry which in some cases will be pointless since after a night full of puke you'll have multiple loads to do anyway!!

Oh, and lest I appear to be a totally heartless friend I must offer the following....
13. Take a good grammar class so as not to have run-on sentences like me in #'s 10 and 12!!