Back to Normal

The last couple of months were crazy in the Phillips household.  With a lot of help from our parents we got through Brian going to Europe, and then to California and having tech when he was in Ohio and through cutover and go-live for my ELM project.  The kids spent a lot of time with their grandparents and Isaac now thinks that he gets to go hang out with Grandpa Butch whenever I go to the grocery store.  Mackenzie also thinks she gets to spend the night at her grandparents' houses regularly.  The kids got to go to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike's for a long weekend without Mom and Dad.  We told them that we are going to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike's this weekend and Isaac assumed they were going without Brian and I.  After we told him that we were going as well he said "That's good, I missed you when we went without you."  Yay, he missed me.

Last weekend Brian had to go to work for a short meeting and he told the kids they could go to his work.  Grandma Linda told Mackenze that she and Lauren could have a sleepover at Grandma's house and, not surprisingly, Mackenzie thought that would be more fun.  So Isaac and I went to Ohio Northern with Brian and Isaac played on the PBS website with Mom while Brian was working.  We haven't let him play on the computer much so it took him a while to get used to the mouse, and the fact that the monitor isn't a touchscreen like the iPad, but by the end of the hour he was doing pretty well on his own.  He made two Super Dogs on the Super Why website and was very proud of Jake and Cubbie (yes, he is still obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

I managed to get Thomas and Nicholas' bean bags done in time for their birthday as well.  They turned out very cute:

Issac is quite fond of the robots on the boys' beanbags.  I thought the sock monkeys were pretty cool.  Both the kids had fun "trying them out".

We are scheduling our vacation for the week after Memorial Day.  We are going to visit some West Virginia state parks and spend sometime in North Carolina.  We are all ready for some time off!

First Lost Tooth

Mackenzie lost her first tooth this week.  She has been wiggling it for a while and it came out first thing in the morning.  No blood (thank goodness).  I am sure that when she is older and I am looking through pictures I will be confused as to when she lost her first tooth, since she is wearing a halloween shirt, but it goes along with our year of crazy holiday scheduling.

She received a gold coin (dollar) from the tooth fairy and of course she wants to use it to buy candy.  I am sure the dentist would approve.

The kids spent a long weekend with my parents last weekend.  They had a blast.  Mackenzie is really into spending the night away from home now, she was only back a day before she was asking to spend the night somewhere else again.  I swear they aged at least a year in the 4 days they were gone.  Isaac is becoming quite the little man and when I talked on the phone with Mackenzie I could have sworn she was at least ten.  Only a few more months until (gulp) kindergarten.

Update:  Mackenzie got a gold dollar from the tooth fairy, as predicted.  When I asked her what she wanted to spend the gold dollar on, she said "Candy".  I am sure that is just what the tooth fairy would have wanted her to spend it on.  When I took her to the candy store, she didn't want to actually spend the gold dollar, so we took two dollars worth of quarters out of her bank (which most likely came from her dad's coin jar) and went to the candy store in Maumee.  Mackenzie picked out some Princess ring pops for herself.  When we were at the counter, I mentioned to her that there were candy sticks that Issac can have for twenty cents and she decided to get one for Issac (cherry).  In the car on the way home, I mentioned to her that I thought it was very nice of her to get her brother a piece of candy.  Her response: "I knew it was the right thing to do."  Once again, I am a proud mom.

Easter and Birthdays!

Last weekend was a crazy time but all around a good time.  Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike came for the weekend as did Tammy.  We had Isaac's birthday party on Saturday in absolutely perfect weather.  He got a lot of great new toys including his first super hero toys that did not come from McDonald's.  He is totally into superheroes lately.  He got a Batman figure from Mackenzie and Spiderman from the Easter Bunny.  He got Brian a Captain America for his birthday.  He also got Little People superheroes from Thomas and Nicholas.  He also had a Batman cake, a Batman balloon and a Spiderman balloon.  So although his birthday party didn't have a "theme" I think he officially had a Super Hero party.

We went to church on Easter.  Sadly, we have not been going to church since we moved, but hopefully Easter was our start, isn't that what Easter is all about after all?  Anyway, Tammy and Mom and Dad went to church with us.  It was packed, but we got great seats in the back and the kids behaved very well.  After church Mom, Dad and Tammy headed home and we headed to Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch's for another round of Easter baskets and egg hunting.

Then we were off for Easter Brunch.  Once again the kids did excellent, we had a great time hanging out with everyone in the Phillips/Rogers clan, and we got to see the Easter bunny and fish!

Brian missed the picture since he was in the bathroom, so since I am on a picture kick today, here is a shot of my hubby:

So, a great weekend with family.



Happy Third Birthday, Isaac!

Isaac is 37 inches tall, 36.2 pounds and 3 years old!  In true 3 year old style, his original cake that actually said Happy Birthday Isaac on it landed upside down on the floor in the kitchen.  It was not his fault at all, but it was a bit devistating for him, but nothing that an episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates couldn't fix.  Luckily we had a second cake (for Brian's birthday tomorrow) so we quickly frosted it and put all of the extra candy letters on added candles and voila, Happy Birthday Isaac!

Raising a Horder

I am raising a horder.  I will admit that I watched "My Extreme Affliction" recently about horders and they mentioned children of horders.  They showed a child having a meltdowm because his parents were trying to get rid of a broken down play house that he was too big for.  Mackenzie has always had a hard time giving things up.  We seem to finally have her convinced to donate clothes that don't fit her.  However, a couple of weeks ago she had a total meltdown when I threw out a toothbrush after giving her a replacement that was nearly identical.  She fished it out of the trash can and tried to use it.  Last week she broke a yo-yo and when I told her to throw it out, that we had other yo-yos, she had a complete breakdown and refused to throw it away.  I have no idea whether this is normal or not, but I actually looked up therapists this week.

On a lighter note, I took the kids fishing on Sunday with some co-workers and their kids.  Everyone had a ball (except maybe a couple of the fathers) despite that fact that we didn't catch a single fish.  Mackenzie and Isaac wore out their fishing poles practicing their casting.  I lost two bobbers and hooks in bushes/logs.  We all got a bit of a sunburn. 

Escorted out by Security with the Kids

So, the User Acceptance Test for my latest project starts tomorrow and I had some work to do this weekend to get ready for it.  My parents came down to help with the kids yesterday and they brought Lexie, which was fantastic!  The kids loved having both their grandparents and their cousin here.  So, I went to work yesterday morning and the kids were here with Grandma and Grandpa.  Today my parents had to leave in the morning and Brian went into work, so it was me and the kids.  I wanted to go into work and get the room set up for the testing and work with the system a bit, so I packed up some snacks and the kids pick a couple of activities and we went to the office.  I knew that the building that has the plant in it did not allow children, but we moved to a new building in October and the plant is not connected to our building, so I thought it might be okay.

So the kids and I get there and we get into the room and Isaac tells me that he has to go potty.  As we head out of the room we ran into a security guard.  He quickly informed me that kids were not allowed in the building.  He was very nice though and let Isaac go potty (he escorted us there) and then escorted us back to the room and waited as we packed everything up and then escorted us to the car. 

The kids were super good and we got into the car with no issues, and I think a lesson was learned by us all : )  Hopefully I won't hear anything more about it at work.

We have a Purple and Pink Bathroom

Okay, so I used to be totally anti-pink.  I never wanted to be a girly girl, I never liked wearing dresses, I didn't own nail polish or nail polish remover for a very long time.  Then I had a daughter.  She wears a dress nearly every day.  She loves pink and purple.  I now own nail polish because she loves to have her nails painted.  And now I have a pink and purple bathroom, and I chose the color.

To be totally honest, I chose a darker plum color, but in their adds, Lowe's lies about being able to "match anything".  Evidently they can only match things if there are of a particular size and the purple that I wanted on the tissue box (which you can see in the picture) was not big enough for them to match.  Anyway, I like the bathroom and Mackenzie loves it.  The wall space is small enough that if I get sick of it in a few years, I can repaint it pretty easily.

Mackenzie made a new friend this week.  Aubry lives across the street and is number 4 of 5 kids.  She is actually Isaac's age and has a younger brother, James.  They have a swingset, a trampoline and a sand table, which Mackenzie and Isaac both throught were great.  While we were in their yard, Aubry called her older sister over to "meet my new friend, Mackenzie", which was super cute and tonight Mackenzie asked if she could go outside to play with her new friend (although she couldn't remember her new friend's name).  Proof yet again that sex trumps age, but I am really glad that the kids are making friends in the neighborhood.