The Casper Family

Andie & Brady Quotes: Aug - Sept 2011

2011-09-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

Naturally, as the kids are getting older the conversations are definitely getting to be more interesting. Sometimes one of them will say something and Cameron and I will just look at each other and start laughing.Everyday is a new adventure with these two!

B: "Mommy, why did Daddy marry you?"
Me: "because he loves me."
B: "That's why I married Andie."

Brady bonked me in the face-
Me: "Ow, I think you just broke my nose."
B: "Oh let me see, (he wiggles my nose). Welp, it doesn't come off, I don't think it's broken."

B: "Mommy kiss my eyeball."

B: "Mom I want to get on your bed and do a trick."
Me: "No, that's dangerous."
B: "Mom, make a choice."

B: "What do bad guys look like?"
A: "They were a black and white striped shirt, a mask, and a hat."

A: "We need a milkman. Do you know what a milkman is? They always wear a bill hat and a white suit."

Andie fell and hurt her knee pretty bad, she hobbled to me crying: "I need a doctor. I broke my leg and I can't walk." After a few minutes of waiting for our Dr friend to finish up dinner, she looks up at me worried, "does this mean I am going to be in bed for a few days?"

A: "What kind of cereal is the toasted tiny little bread?"
Me: "Cinnamon Toast Crunch?"
A: "Yeah, that's what I want for breakfast!"

The kids talking in bed many hours past bedtime-
A: "Brady, we are going to stay up all night."
B: "why?"
A: "because, we are nocturnal, like bats."

Karen to Andie-
K: "You sure are nice to share a sucker with your brother Andie."
A: "How come old people call lollipops suckers?"

A: "My favorite exercise is running.
B: "My favorite exercise is football"
A: "Football is great exercise Brady!"

Brady to Cameron: "You are a really cranky man!"

Brady to me (said with a lisp): "You said it girl!"

Andie to Cam: "Who's playing football?"
C: "The Buffalo's."
Brady running from the other room: "The Buffalo's are playing? Oh goody!"

I was in the middle of doing my nails when Brady comes into me crying-
Me: "What's the matter Brady?"
B: "My nails don't look cute. I need them painted."

Brady's phrase of choice: "Oh brat feathers!"
I was doing lots of de-cluttering and deep cleaning and I asked Andie to put her shoes away-
A: "Ugh, why do I always have to do chores?"
Me: "Why do I always have to clean every one's messes? I didn't make them."
A: "Because you are nice mom."

Andie & Brady Quotes: July 2011

2011-07-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

B: "Mom, you always call my name Braid."
Me: "Yeah, Braid. You don't like it?"
B: "No I don't."
Me: "Then what would you like me to call you?"
B: "Call me Bread. Bread."

Andie was in the room while I was changing: "Oh mommy, your tummy is getting small just like grandpa's!"

A: "Only Jaden's dad shoots bad guys."
Cam: "Yes because he is a police officer."
A: "...and he has a really nice car!"

Me: "Andie, how was the movie? Tell me about it."
A: "all the action and stuff was so cool! It was action the whole way!"

B: "If we have a baby boy one day, can we name him Buttpirate?"

A: "hey Brady, happy 4th of July!"
B: "Thanks, am I free now?"

Cam: "well you are a water balloon!"
A: "No I'm not! Do I look all blowed up? NO!"

A: "I can't sleep. I'm trying to but my body keeps telling me it's time to play!"

B: "Why do people have hair?"
Me: "I don't know."
B: "It's to keep their head warm...from the air."

B: "what is his name? (talking about a toy guy)"
Me: "I don't know."
B: "Ok, I will name him....Joey. That's a good name for a kid!"

B: "what's this song called?"
Me: "Crocodile Rock."
B: "Oh I looooooooove crocodiles!"

B is in his room yelling/ panicking/ crying calling for his binky. "Binky....binky....biiiiinky!"
Cam: "quit calling it, it's not going to come to you. You have to find it."

B: "Where do the bums live?"
A: "They live in different places, like the bathroom or the trash cans..." (Long story as to why they are talking about the homeless, but I will tell you, they are now experts!")

B: "oh, you know what? all of us here came from some tummys!" (it just dawned on him while we were all hanging out)

B: (looks down at his shorts in surprise and points) "Oh my wiener is in there!"
Cam: "Oh it is?"
B: "yeah cause it just growed up. It just growed up...on my body!"

Andie & Brady Quotes

2011-06-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

I don't have too many this time around since I have been kind of slacking when it comes to writing things down...

B: "Dad wont help me put on my shoes cause he's being a stinker bum!" (it was 8:15pm)

B: "I can't get this stinkin' shoe on!"

B: (to a boy at the park) "You can play with me, I'm very nice. I'm a nice kid!"

A: "Brady is obsessed with farts huh?"
Me: "yeah he is"
A: "why is this happening to him?"
Me: "because he's a boy and boys are gross."
A: "Ugh, they are so disgusting!"
Me: "Yes, yes they are."

Brady got drilled in the throat with a football, he came to me crying and I said: "Oh, you're a man, you can handle it. That's what happens to me football players."
B: "I don't wanna be a man, I a kid!"

Cameron and I were talking about pink eye and Brady said: "last time, I ran into a wall I got blue eye."

Andie took off her goggles and said: "mom, you've GOT to see me eyes."
Me: "Oh cool."
A: "Do you get it? they're goggle shaped!"

Me talking on the phone to Andie while I was out of town: "What can I bring you back from my trip?"
A: "Um, we want a pet."
Me: "What kind?"
A: "A monkey for me and a giraffe for Brady...real ones."
Me: "I can't bring you back real ones but I will bring back stuffed ones."
A: "Well don't they have a pet store there?!"

B: "mom how about this outfit?"
Me: "no, it doesn't match."
B: "but it IS appropriate."

B: "I really liked that movie, it gave me a laughy head!"

B: "I'm gonna fart my toots out."

A: "what's a haircut?"
Grandma: "what's a haircut Andie?"
A: "Ummm, I don't know."
Me: "Uh you should know, you just gave yourself one remember?!"

Andie is learning how to tie her shoes. She uses this little ditty to remember: "one little loop what do you do, wrap the lace around and pull it through. Now you have a bow and you tied your shoe." It's really helping.

The Haircut Saga

2011-06-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Did you hear, Andie decided to CUT HER HAIR, when I was OUT OF TOWN, because it was GETTING IN HER EYES!

I was in San Francisco with my sisters + having a great time and Daddy stayed home and took care of the kids (more on this later). Cameron made it almost 5 whole days accident free, almost. The night before I was to return home Cameron called me laughing, "you are never going to believe what Andie just did." I was standing there thinking, "oh how bad can it be?" A minute later I would come to regret that thought. Cameron continued, "she cut her hair!" "Shut up," I said. "You are totally joking right? Tell me you are joking." "Nope, get on Skype and take a look for yourself." OMG! It was so bad!

Cameron gave me a run down on what happened: "Andie was in our bathroom using it. She was in there a while (which, for certain 'chores' she tends to take her time). She came out of the bathroom, dressed as a boy and with a Mr. Potatohead mustache on her face, bowed down saying 'you may call me Sir.' I stared at her thinking she parted her hair weird and it took me a sec to realize she cut it. I started dying with laughter and finally said, your mom is gonna kill you!"

While on Skype the first thing I said to her was, "Andie, what were you thinking?!?" to which she replied through tears, "that it will grow back." Thank goodness we were going to see her tomorrow and Whitney can cut hair! Just by looking at it I knew immediately it was going to become a very short pixie.

It's been 9 days and I am starting to get the hang of styling this short of hair. It is still very short up front which makes it harder. Of course, Andie loves the new cut, she said it's because she doesn't get tangles. But she doesn't like when strangers refer to her as a boy (this did happen at Costco, a man said, "two boys?" "Nope, a boy and a girl who cut her own hair" I said back) or when it comes time to get her hair done, because we have to blow dry it, her least favorite thing. Every time she gets upset about one of these things I always remind her that that's what happens when you cut your own hair.

The damage

Once it came time for the real cut, I explained to her that she would have Peter Pan hair...she wasn't thrilled with that reality.

The after

Another after. We had to cut a little more after this picture to blend it on the sides.

After Mommy styled it a few days later. I am getting a little better.

Like Andie said, it will grow back...eventually!

Couponing to the Extreme...

2011-04-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

I am ALL for saving money. I, as do many others, consider myself to to be a very thrifty shopper. I am by no means a full price girl, and like anyone I can appreciate a great deal. I watched that show Extreme Couponing last night for the first time and it was fascinating to say the least. However, I was also rubbed the wrong way by how these people stockpile stuff that some of them admit they will never use. Just because it's free doesn't mean you have to grab it. I have done enough deal grabbing to know that some items you have to buy a certain amount to get the deal, but 1,000's of boxes of toothpaste that you couldn't use in one lifetime let alone before they expire is just ridiculous, as is enough diapers to last a baby until they are potty trained when you don't even have a child. It's silly not to mention a waste of space. I do believe that the man with the toothpaste was putting some of them into care packages for the military which is great, but the woman with the diapers, she said she was holding onto them for when she does have a baby. How about stopping by a women's shelter and donating them to people who know they will use them. It's not like it's a loss in money for her, she didn't pay for them. If you do grab the freebie and don't plan on using it, at least give it away to someone who can. Maybe it's the little voice in my head that loves to tell me to chuck all things that aren't being used and creating clutter in my life, it's the sense in me.
I do think it's amazing that these people have the patience and time to save their families so much money, I admire it. I've tried the couponing thing, I had big dreams of getting up to the cash register and the checker giving ME money back because I was so amazing at couponing, but alas that was not my calling in life, not yet. I don't have the time or the patience to become "extreme" and I'm okay with that. Who knows, maybe one day I will get the itch to try it out again. We'll see!

Are we normal?

2011-04-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

Am I the only person who has ever had a child throw a fit in public? I know that I'm not, but yet, when my child does it, it's all eyes on me. Do the shoppers in the store think I can't hear their comments as I walk past them? I am not deaf, I just have a child screaming because he has not gotten what he asked for.

Yesterday, Brady went into Target with the idea that he was getting a baseball helmet. I did not tell him that we would buy one, he wanted it because he had seen another boy with one earlier in the day. As we walked through the store to get the few items I had on my list, Brady continued to ask for the helmet. I reminded him that we came in to get a few things that we needed and the helmet was not one of them. I avoided the isle that has the baseball gear like the plague. We made it through most of the store and as we were finishing up I said we were going to check out. All hell broke lose. Brady once again asked about the helmet and I responded with a firm "no". He went into full tantrum mode.

I quickly made my way to the front of the store. I could see the older snobby women sneering at me, the younger mom's smiling with a sympathetic and understanding look on their face, the men shaking their heads, and the young children staring. As we were checking out, the checker was looking at Brady then to me then back to Brady waiting to see what I was going to do about him. My child was letting out the most awful blood curdling scream like he had just broken all him limbs and a customer in isle next to me was looking at Brady and then to me in horror. Oh the horror! Gasp! a child is screaming, his mother must have beaten the crap out of him for someone to scream like that. It must be child abuse. Why else would a child scream like that? Certainly one doesn't throw such a fit after being told no! Despite all the dirty looks and staring, I managed to keep a smile on my face while making my way out of the store.

I have never experienced such a shocked reaction to a child throwing a fit in public. When we lived in Utah, no one even gave the screaming child a second look, they could care less. I am pretty sure their first reaction wasn't that the child was beaten either. Here, everyone seems to assume the worst. They look at you with horror, shock, and disgust. I have seen countless times, mothers buying their child whatever it is they asked for after they told them "no" once the child started screaming. If I did that I would be broke.

This is only the second huge outburst I've had with Brady in public, and I am sure it wont be our last. People need to learn that small children, especially in the 2-4 range, throw tantrums in public occasionally and they do it for the attention. Quit giving it to them, ignore it and keep your obviously unappreciated comments to yourselves. Yes, I'm talking to you middle aged women dressed for the ball and dripping in diamonds, I heard you say, "just give him what he wants," I hope your children are the worlds biggest brats. And you, apparently single and without children sir, asking your friend, "what did she do to him?" He was a overly tired 2 year old who just got told "no", a fit fueled by the attention of strangers is just what the doctor ordered.

Peace

2011-04-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Currently my kids are outside measuring their toys to see how tall they have grown. They are so cute. They both need a bath in the worst way from their afternoon of playing in the dirt yesterday, but after a week of constant fighting they are finally playing together and I am enjoying the peace for a moment. We'll see how long it lasts and then it will be nap time.

Easter!

2011-04-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter holiday, filled with lots of family, friends, food, and love. Hope you had a beautiful day and remembered the reason we celebrate this day.

Happy Easter to you and yours!

Kid Quotes

2011-04-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling very uninspired as of late,
so the silly things my kids say will have to do for now...enjoy!

B: (praying) "bless Daddy and Grandpa at work. Please bless Darth Vader in his fight with Yoda, Amen!"

B: (holding a baby doll) "this is my baby brother. Ouch! he just bit me."

B: (seeing a commercial) "What movie is this?"
Me: "I don't know"
B: "It's called, 1-800-224- DISNEYLAND!!!"

B: (waving a wand over Cameron) "abra cadabra I turn you into a butthead!"
*not very nice but we are still working on the potty talk.

A: "you put the sticks at the end of your ears" (explaining to B how to put sunglasses on)

A: "When am I going to be 99?"
Me: "well most people don't live to be 99, that's really old"
A: "well Grandma and Grandpa are really old."

B: (poking my chest and counting...) "1, 2, 3!"
Me: "Hey don't touch Mommies boobies"
B: "I was just counting them!"

B: (found a feather in the parking lot) "Hello little feather, my name's Brady, do you want to go into Costco with me?"

A: "When I grow up my husband's name is going to be Baseballbat and our son will be Traintrack!"

A: (to me a few days later) "I wanna have another baby."
B: "yeah, let's name him Baseballbat!"
A: "no that's my husband's name!"
A: "I like cotton candy but it's a little hairy and sticky."

A: "grandma what is a bird?"
G: "you tell me, what is a bird?"
A: "I think it's a little baby chicken who can fly!"

Lauren: "boys are tougher than girls are"
A: "that's not true"
L: "yes it is andie"
A: "my mom can punch my dad really really hard, and my dad used to wrestle tuna!"
*FYI I have never punched Cameron but I am sure Andie would be right!

A: "look mom I got a spork!"
Me: "how do you know what that is?"
A: "it's a fork AND a spoon. (flips it over) and it's made in China!"

A: "mom, remember this morning when we were playing dogs and my name was sunblock?"

Cowboy cookies are in the oven, A turns on the light to take a peek and says, "if those are cowboy cookies where are the hats?!"

A: "mom can I have your ring?"
Me: "no, why?"
A: "cause I am the ring bearer at a pretend wedding. So, can I have it?"
Me: "no."
A: "that's fine, I can still pretend can't I?!"

Imagination

2011-01-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

For anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Andie, may or may not know what a huge imagination the child possesses. Just yesterday as we were driving home Andie was telling Cameron and me all about the pet tiger she had. The wha? She told us all about how she got him, when she was one, and about the time when he bumped his nose on a log. Apparently they are best friends and have had so many great times together. In the middle of her babbling on Cameron turned to me and said, "I think we should write a children's book using Andie's stories." At first I laughed and said how funny that would be but then I started thinking and I could picture this fun little story about a little girl and her adventures with her pet tiger. What an idea! My husband is a genius. I am not really one to go out and do something that seems so impossible as to get a book written and published, but this is something I think could actually get done. We have several family members who have written books and suddenly the idea doesn't seem so impossible. I plan on sitting down with Andie today and hearing and recording more about her adventures with her pet tiger.

Mommy's Thoughts

2011-01-22T01:18:00.000-08:00

When I was nine my mom died from leukemia. It was sad and hard but we were young and seemed to make it through alright. As I have gotten older and especially since becoming a mom to my own little sweeties I often wonder what my mom would have done in certain situations or just to know what her thoughts might have been during a normal day with me and my siblings. Did we drive her insane, did she lose her temper like I all too often do, did she let the little things go or was she to anal to do that? Since I was so young I sadly don't remember a lot of details. I wish there was more video more still shots, but she had 5 kids, and for a while was very sick, pulling out a camera is not the first thing one might have thought to do. I am grateful for smells, sights, pictures, and voices that can suddenly bring back a memory that was long ago tucked away.
Since I have lost a parent and now experience these feelings, I have made a solid effort to take more pictures, let the little things go, allow my children to occasionally crawl in our bed during the early morning hours and most importantly, write things down. I feel most comfortable writing these thoughts in letter form to my children, sometimes individually and sometimes together. I write about things we did that day, how the kids reacted to a new situation, a new milestone they may have reached or a funny conversation we had together. I also make sure to include private thoughts, stories from my childhood, lessons learned, and my feelings of love towards my children and my husband. These thoughts are often disorganized, I tend to just write on whatever piece of paper I can find before the thought goes away. Already I have gone through and read old notes and I am always surprised at how much has been forgotten in such a short amount of time. I wish my mom could have known what the future held for her, for us, but she didn't, no one could have. I don't know what the future holds for me and my family but I hope that if something should, heaven forbid, happen to me, my children will have a few of these future curiosities answered. This is how I keep a journal, by writing letters, and blogging of course.
I know that every day here on Earth is a gift from our Heavenly Father. I am working on being a better wife, mother and person and leaving my children memories that they can one day enjoy in my absence, whether it's tomorrow or 60 years from now. I want to make today count.

Back in the Saddle

2011-01-21T11:55:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in a while, obviously. I haven't really been "feelin' it" but this morning I decided to update the look of the blog and it got me excited again. I just have to get some more recent pictures put up and I'll be set.
Now to do a quick catch up:
We had a great Christmas full of family, love, food, gifts, and laughter. I am sad that one day, not to far from now, my kids won't believe in Santa and Christmas just wont be the same. I have nothing but wonderful memories of Christmas as a child, my parents did an amazing job at keeping Santa around and the true meaning of Christmas in our home. I will still insist that that one Christmas when I was maybe 5 or 6, we were driving home from a party and I saw Santa and his reindeer fly across the moon! Call me crazy, but my sister Whitney remembers the same thing. Believe or don't believe, but keep away from my kids at Christmas time, they believe and it's magical for all involved.
The New Year has brought with it new challenges but many more blessings. Our family is healthy and continues to grow. We have 2 new cousins joining us (one actually came early this morning, congratulations Chris, Emily and Eva!) which means more family gatherings and more cousin play time.
The business continues to grow and provide new and exciting opportunities to come in the next year for the Casper family. We are researching where would be ideal to live in Arizona and making a list of all the things we want in a home and all that needs to be done to get there. No, we aren't moving today, tomorrow or even next month, we are just starting the process and working on making it happen in the next year or so. The kids have been begging for a dog that they can name Goofy. We bought ourselves some time in telling them we would revisit the idea when we buy a house and they seem to be content with that, for now.
Andie and Brady are still a handful but both have mellowed out a bit which makes Mommy and Daddy nicer. Andie is getting so big and is really excited to start Kindergarten come Fall. She is working hard to be prepared and is surprising us everyday with her talents. She has been carrying around her "handy dandy notebook" and it is so awesome to see how her drawing has evolved. I was so excited yesterday to flip through it and see her first drawing that actually resembled a person! She is really good with her shapes, calling them by name and telling you how many sides they all have and what the difference is between similar ones. I am impressed cause this is not something I have thought to teach her. Yay for kids TV that actually teaches!!! She is also working on adding numbers together on her fingers and starting to really get the hang of it. Oh, I almost forgot the best new thing about Andie, SHE LOVES TO DO THE DISHES, and she is actually really good at it!
Brady is still a handful, of course. He is wanting to be more like Andie everyday. He has lost all signs of baby features and it makes me a little sad. Brady has started waking up in the middle of the night and most nights it's more than once which is killing me. I forgot how a disruption in sleep can really throw you off and make you exhausted. When I'm in the kitchen Brady loves to say, "show me how to cook like a mommy," as he climbs up on the counter to learn/"help". It's so cute, and he is getting the hang of cracking eggs. He has also become an excellent diver, jumping from inside a laundry to the floor and swimming along the ocean bottom. His imagination is impressive and endless and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Andie & Brady Quotes Oct-Dec 2010

2010-12-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

Driving in the car for a sleepover at Gma's house-
A: Where's the moon?
Me: Well it's really cloudy tonight so I don't think you'll be able to see it.
A: Well that's just great! It's my first time to have a sleepover and now it's ruined!

Giving me her order for the Mexican food place- A: I want a cheese taco with blackamole

A: Sanasauresrex, he's a carnivore. (during dinosaur talk)

A: Hey mom, where did you get this peanut butter pizza? (referring to the peanut brittle)

A: Mom, I can hear my nails growing.

Thinking that she can read the receipt-
A: This says baaaaaad news.
Me: Oh really? what does bad news mean?
A: Well it's not good news!

Saying the family prayer before bed-
B: Thank your for my pirate room. Thank you for pirate beds...Amen!

A few days after I decided we would go to a real pumpkin patch as opposed to the fake carnie one by our house. We were driving home and passed by the fake patch-
A: Boy, sure does look like those kids are having a fun time at the pumpkin patch tonight!
Me: Yeah. It's cause they have cool parents!

His answer to, "does aunt Lindsay have a boy baby or a girl baby in her tummy-
B: A boy baby, a boy baby went up the water spout...

Talking about his whale tattoo on his arm that had sparkles on it-
B: Oh no, where did the sprinkles go on my whale?
He pauses a minute to ponder this
B: I guess they blewed away, sometimes that happens.

Talking to himself in the car-
B: Sorry monkeys, you can't go in my ears!

A: I am going to tell Santa that I want a hang glider for Christmas!

B: What are those? (pointing to my hair)
Me: My bangs.
B: Oh. Bang, bang, bang.

Andie and Brady talking in the backseat of the car-
B: Hey Andie are you a pirate?
A: No
B: Oh, well I am a pirate. This is our pirate car and it says arr Brady Jack Sparrow!

A: I'm hungry
Me: you had breakfast, you had a snack and a cup of juice, what more could you possibly need?
A: I need a pomegranate!

Andie put a xbox headphone on-
A: Hello this is your captain speaking
JJ does the same thing a few minutes later: welcome to McDonald's can I take your order?

A: Brady guns aren't heavy...well maybe to ants.

B: I want to go home and see a superhero
Cam: Oh really, who's a superhero?
B leans in and whispers: Choppy, he is superhero Choppy.

Me: Whoever cleans the most in your room gets a brownie. (Brady runs to his room to clean)
A: Ummm, I'm fine. Who made the brownies?
Me: I did
A jumps up: I'm going to clean the most!!!

Mean Mom

2010-10-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today Cameron and I took little Brady to get his hair cut. We have been growing it out for a year now and I thought it would be a good idea to cut it off and start over again. I wanted to see him all cleaned up for a while and for the fast approaching holidays. He wasn't happy at the barber to see his "football" hair falling to the ground in a mess all around him. He was silent during the entire process. I just thought it was because he was tired and confused because it is so unlike him to have nothing to say. After his nap it was very clear that he wasn't silent because he was tired, it was because he was very upset.

Pictures taken last week of Brady with his "Tom Brady" hair

Picture today of the, not so found of, "Batman" hair

Maybe I cut it because I miss this little guy?!

Over the course of the last year he has become very attached to his hair, in fact he has been calling himself Tom Brady ever since he saw that they had the same name AND haircut, thus the evolved term "football" hair. Everywhere we would go people would comment about his hair, nothing ever bad, thank goodness because I am pretty sure Brady would have tackled them. "Oh my, he has the most beautiful hair coloring!" "oh how cute, he looks like a little surfer boy," "the long hair is adorable on him," you know, stuff like that. Brady loved to look at his silly hair in the mirror after his morning showers and with a big cheesy grin would say, "oooooh, look at Tom Brady's hair! HAHAHA!" To say he liked his hair would be a gross understatement, he adored it, he appreciated it, he enjoyed it, he was found of it...the kid LOVED his hair. Now, I have to admit, none of this occurred to me until this afternoon. When we got home I laid him down for his nap. Brady slept for several hours which was heaven for mommy, but when he woke up he was in panic. I went to his room to get him and he was laying on the floor touching his hair crying, "I want Brady hair, I want Brady hair back. I don't like batman hair anymore..." Oh yeah the reason I took him to get the haircut in the first place was because a few nights ago he had asked for a batman haircut. We continued to talk about it over the next several days before I finally took him in this morning. BAD IDEA. I picked him up and calmed him down and we went into the other room to change his diaper. Once he stood up, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and he once again touched his hair and started to cry. I FELT HORRIBLE. I put him down and explained that it would grow back and I was sorry, he ran over to Andie, gently and loathingly grabbed her hair and cried, "I want Andie's hair..." I thought my little heart was gonna break. I sat on the floor and held him while he cried. I hadn't realized what an attachment this child had made to his hair, it had become a part of him and his little personality, and I took it away from him. He is that tomato plant that's in shock right now because we cut too much too fast. He has gotten better throughout the day, later he touched his hair and said, "what's this?" to which I replied, "it's your new haircut!" he said, "oh yeah." and I reminded him that soon it would all grow back to Tom Brady hair.
SO YEAH, I AM PRETTY MUCH THE WORST MOM EVER!!!

Andie & Brady Quotes Sept. 2010

2010-09-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

A: "Mom, did you get me a drink
Me: "I did."
A: "Good, I was counting on ya!"

"When I was a Disney character I put on a Woody costume and ate the hay cause that's what cowboys do." -A

"I was a little bit angry that I didn't get to see the tigers but it's ok, I'm only upset about it now." -A after we left the zoo early do to the extreme heat.

A: "When I go back to Madagascar with Clayton can I bring my dog?"
Cam: "I think they might eat your dog hun."
A: "This cute guy? Noooooooooo!"

A: "I'm gonna stay this tall forever."
Jaden: "Why?"
A: "cause my mom wants me to"
Jaden: "but why?"
A: "my mom says I can't grow up."

"Daddy, when Andie was a little boy did she's pays football?" -B

Brady spotted Jessie and Woody at Disneyland, "there are my cousins!!!"

A: "Hey mom, what letter starts with Popsicle?" she runs to me out of breath
Me: "P"
A: "ok, p p p p...." and runs back

Little girl at church talking and having a brain fart: "want.....want....want..."
B: "Want what?! Gosh!"

A: "Brady let's go in our room, close the door so you can scream in the dark and I'll laugh"

Brady watching Sunday football: "wow, there's me and daddy....oh, he tackled me!"

B: "I am a baby football player, not a big guy one."

B: "Crunch, crunch, did you hear mom? that's what the apple chips say."

A: "I want a snack. I want the slippery cheese. You know the cheese that's on top of the Brie cheese? I want it. In my tummy."

"My balls, they came. They are my friends!" -Brady when the balls he was playing with rolled back to him
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Probably the funniest comment from Andie to date:
"Do you remember when my tiger was dying and we had to take him back to the zoo?"
Wha?!? That came out of nowhere and Cam and I erupted in laughter.

I'm a Slacker

2010-09-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

I do realize that I am have been quite a slacker at blogging lately, but all that is about to change. I don't ever post because we don't have Internet in our new house...yet. I scheduled an appointment this afternoon to get everything all hooked up on Monday so after that I will have no more excuses not to post. Who knows, after that you might even get some pictures!!!

Growing Girl

2010-08-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how big my Andie is getting! She's not even 4 and already has almost outgrown her car seat. Last week we were at the store checking out the boosters. I noticed while at Target that they are getting smart, they have a place to measure your child and then have all the seats categorized for you. What a time saver!
I couldn't help but look at the new infant seats they have out. Andie had the kind that has the base, hers was identical to the cosco car seat base. Someone gave us a different brand car seat but with this base you can use ANY designer brand infant seat. Whoever thought of the base was a genius and deserves to be a millionaire! I loved it, and it made my life so much easier especially the second time around!
When she outgrew the infant seat, I went out and got her yet another Cosco brand seat. I got the convertible Alpha Omega Elite because it can be used all the way through the booster stage and it was the highest rated with Consumer Reports that year. Yay, money saved...or so I thought. Turns out I have tall kids, really tall. My little Andie is just about too tall for the convertible car seat hence the booster shopping. Once we get the new booster purchased all that'll be left will be to add a DVD player with two screens to the back seats!

I Wanna Be a Food Blogger Too!

2010-08-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

I love to cook. I love to think that I am good at cooking, and my husband and family are nice enough to agree. I get great joy in researching and recreating some of my restaurant favorites. On more than one occasion, I have done better than the famous dish. I could watch the Food Network all day long if I didn't have other responsibilities like, taking care of kids, cleaning, making meals, and being a devoted wife. When we lived in Utah I was able to cook A LOT. We made (almost)every single meal from scratch. I am not a huge fan of premade food and I try very hard to avoid it, in fact, on lazy days I often kick myself for not having a frozen dinner that I can just throw in the oven. When I was cooking all the time I got good at it, really good. We would have friends come over several times a week to share meals with us, because seriously, who can cook for just 2 people? They loved the food too.
If I am being honest my fist love is baking, but in the last year or two, cooking has become almost as fun. Since moving to San Diego I haven't been cooking nearly as much as I would like. You know as well as I do that cooking meals from scratch gets pretty pricey pretty quick. I love when I am watching someone chef on tv and they say something along the lines of, "a home cooked meal doesn't have to cost a fortune," I want to smack them. Unless the meal is made up of the bare essentials, it is going to cost a good $20-$40 and that times 7 is between $140-$280 a week, just for dinner! If you are anything like me, your bare essentials includes but isn't limited to, some meat or chicken in the freezer, several boxes of almost gone cereal, 20 gallons of milk in the fridge, an onion that I never got to, 15 cans of assorted foods/veggies, 10 pounds of flour and sugar, 3 bags of white rice, pasta, a few sauces, vanilla, dried basil, seasoning salt, pepper, soy sauce, 1 too many bottles of ketchup, 13 packages of hotdogs, some bread in the freezer, shredded cheese, and a half dozen eggs. I am sure you are looking at my list going, "what the?!?" I have kids, cereal is the meal of choice hot dogs are a close runner up and milk/crystal light is all they drink. I don't think that I actually know how to shop and keep my kitchen stocked with essentials. One day I will master this too.
As of late, I have become totally enthralled with food blogs. Oh my gosh, these self taught, stay at home Mommy and Daddy chefs are amazing. Where do they find the time, energy and money to make these elaborate dinners? Not only that, the chefs and their families are always rail thin! The dishes that some of these people come up with are ridiculously imaginative but what is even more impressive to me are their pictures of their dishes! Are these people closet professional photographers too? I mean, really! I try, I want to be creative, where is my gene? I guess the people who are born chefs are also born food photographers.
The day I figure out how to photograph my food creations is the day I will start a food blog. Not necessarily of recipes I have come up with, but recipes I researched, tried and succeeded with.

Confession Time

2010-08-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Not me, YOU!!!

I just came across this comment from a post in June. I have no idea who it is, pretty sure that's the point, but I would LOVE to find out. Come on "Vinnie", who are you? I want to say thank you for the good laugh!
-Amber

"Vinnie said...
Yo Amber, dis here is Vinnie. You prolly no some1 named Vinnie so its like we no each other alreddy. I saw your plee for help and I hope Im not to late. I would be happe to watch your little kidlins for youse. I have been gainfully employed by the State of Utah for what was expected to be 15 years, but was only 12 for good behavyur. I was such a dedicated workur that I lived where I worked. I learned how to make many things out of things that you wouldnt expect to be able to make things out of, so Im kinda like Macguyver. I lived and worked near Thanksgivin Point, which all da kidlins love, so I really no how to entertain da kids. I learned a lot while working for the State of Utah, like its just plane wrong wrong wrong to sell or traid your kids for drugs. And its even wrong to lone your kids for drugs, altho I gotta admit that I dont really understand why becuz your gonna come back for them as soon as you get your money outta da ATM. Anyway I no these things now so do not worry, I wont do any of these things no mor. Trust me. Lemme no if you still need help. Vinnie"

Andie and Brady Quotes

2010-08-07T17:48:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since I posted quotes from Andie. Since Brady is talking up a storm he gets quite a few good ones out too. I don't always remember to write them down, but I finally realized that I could put them on my phone, which I always have with me, and now I finally have enough that I can make a full post of them.
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In the car driving to Disneyland around nap time and Brady was falling asleep, "Brady you are not tired, we are going to Disneyland mister!" -Andie

Talking about when Kate, Lauren and Molly were in town, "Yeah, we played sleeping bag roller coaster. It was really really funny and I was laughin' like crazy!" -Andie

Andie: "Mom, you have have big boobies?"
Me: "Yes."
Andie: "Well Daddy has short ones."

"Well that could be an idea mom, I'm glad you're thinkin' again!"-Andie

Andie was holding Brady in a chock hold and telling me what happened, "Brady's slerber camed out his mouth all by itself!" -Andie trying to say slobber

"Mom, Brady just squeezed my bone." -Andie talking about her arm

Andie was playing with a laundry basket and came limping in the room, "Ow ow, I was sailing the boat and I hurt my toe! Can you believe that boat?!"

While I was brushing A's hair she grabbed my necklace and in the exact voice as Capt. Jack Sparrow said, "Where did you get this?"

"Help me put on my swimmin' soup Momma." -Brady talking about his suit

"Mom, I need to go find wild animals outside!" I laughed hard at the urgency in her voice. "No no no, there's craaaaazy animals out there!" -Andie

Brady: "Can I have some gum please?"
Whitney: "What'd you say Brady?"
Brady: "My name is PRINCE CHARMING!!!"
(he's obsessed with Shrek 3)

I was fixing my skirt and Brady said to me, "Put your wiener down mom!"

"Girls have a crotch AND a butt, boys, they have a wieners."-Brady
(what can I say, he's a boy and loves potty talk, don't judge me!)

Yay, Pictures!

2010-07-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

My cute boy!

Me and Brady at Cameron's cousins wedding.

Being cute

Brady was playing baseball with a flower pot on his head, he cracks me up!

Eating his birthday cupcake.

They were playing so well this day, and cracking each other up!

Andie enjoying Brady's birthday cupcakes!

Grandma and Grandpa got her a gun and holster too!

Brady running around being a cowboy with his new gun and holster.

He got a gun! That's the only thing he asked for. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy 2nd birthday Brady! Grandpa holding Brady up so he could see his cake. I asked him the week before what kind of cake he wanted, he saw a picture of a golf course made out of cupcakes and told me that was it. This is the first time I have ever been creative in decorating cupcakes. He was so happy with it, which of course made me happy! It was fun and I just might have to try it again.

This is the only picture I have from my birthday, happy 25th to me! (that's Andie hugging me)

I can't even stand how cute he is in this picture! Don't you just wanna squeeze those cheeks??

My sweet little perfect child got into my bronzer and got it EVERYWHERE, here she is smiling through the tears. Not pictured is the the brand new, not even been worn for a hour, white shirt that she had on and ruined. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can't stand stains on clothes, much less, a ruined brand new shirt! She was in serious trouble that day.

Andie dressed herself this day, and struck a pose. She wears these rain boots all the time. So cute!

As you can see we have been keeping busy lately. The kids, of course, have been keeping my plenty busy with messes. Andie and Brady have started to play really well together, right this minute they are playing pogs, remember those?! Me and Brady celebrated our birthday's last week. We are all doing really well, and enjoying the summer together as a family. I promise to write a real post soon...until then, these pictures will have to do!

Toy Story 3

2010-06-28T20:21:00.001-07:00

Anyone who knows my children or has spent any amount of time with them knows that they are obsessed with Toy Story. Anything Toy Story is sacred according to them and all toy story stuffed toys must be accounted for before bed at night. Myself and Cameron also enjoy Toy Story so we don't mind the obsession, it has expanded their imaginations beyond anything I could have ever thought up. Andie was Jessie for Halloween, she also had the Toy Story theme for her 3rd birthday party. She wears Toy Story underwear (which are boys), she has a boys Toy Story shirt that is only to be worn for bedtime. They both have matching Toy Story pj's which they request to wear almost nightly. Andie doesn't go anywhere without Jessie and Woody and Brady usually brings up the rear with Buzz Lightyear in tow. We have just about every kind of toy with the Toy Story characters on it including a scooter with the matching helmet. It's actually all very ridiculous now that I put it in print!
While we were in Utah, we were able to go see Toy Story 3 with some cousins and aunts. I was really worried because the last time I attempted a movie with Andie was Madagascar and she wouldn't even walk into the theater because she didn't like the dark mixed with the loud sounds. I had to take her back to the ticket booth and get my money back with a $6 bucket of popcorn as a souvenir in hand. Brady doesn't like to sit still for any amount of time even for his favorite movie, so it was going to be a very new experience for them both.
The movie started and the familiar characters graced the screen and my kids were hooked. They shared a seat (the theater was packed) and ate popcorn until it came out of their ears. They laughed their heads off when appropriate and freaked when Buzz, Jessie, or Woody wasn't on screen.
To say they loved it would be an understatement. Cameron and I even loved it. It was every bit as good as the first two and in my opinion even better. The movie was funny, very funny. I laughed out loud! I would totally recommend it to anyone who wanted to see it no matter what your age is. They both ask all the time to go back to the movies and see Jessie and Woody again (Buzz is implied), and I am just as excited as them to add it to our movie collection.

Help!

2010-06-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Hello my following peeps! I DO realize that this is somewhat ghetto of me, but I need a small favor. If anyone that I actually know on a first name basis (not just some random reader, although I do love you too), is able to watch my kids this Friday from about 9:30 to noon I would LOVE you forever! We are going to a wedding at the Salt Lake temple and I didn't think about the fact that they can't go with us until today, DUH! If anyone is able to help us out please email me at ambercasper@gmail.com, leave a comment on here, or call me if you have my number.
I am so lame!
Thanks a bunch, Amber

FIRE!!!

2010-06-11T14:25:00.001-07:00

Cameron's sister Lindsay is in town, and as always, we are having a great time together. This week we went to Disneyland, of course, and the kids had so much fun being all together. Molly, Lindsay's youngest, is obsessed with Princess Aurora. Grandma and Grandpa promised that this visit we would find her for Molly and she could meet her and get her picture with her. The only way to ensure we would find that sinking princess was to go and have lunch at Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure. Surprisingly the food was good, it better be for how much it costs, and the kids got to see the princesses. Andie confirmed that yes, indeed, she is a tomboy. She DOES NOT like Disney princesses! She cried when they came out because she was worried they were going to come and see her. I promised that we would not have to go and meet them, but even then Andie held onto me for dear life. The whole time we were eating she just wanted to go see her "pals" Buzz and Woody. I have been asked if I am worried that she seems to like boys things more than girls. The child wears boy Toy Story underwear for crying out loud. My response to it is, no, I am not worried. The way I see it, I don't have to buy different things for Brady and to me that's smart spending. She also enjoys doing her make up with me and wearing dresses so she has some girl in her.

We stayed in a hotel that night in anticipation for a second day at Disney. I know I have mentioned this before, but Andie LOVES to stay in hotels, I mean LOVES! She asks a few times a week if we are going to stay in a hotel somewhere or another. The kids, especially Brady, ran between the two hotel rooms as if they had just been let out of their cage for the first time in a week. Around 10 o'clock, half the kids were sleeping and the adults were winding down getting ready to go to sleep as well. Everyone was in their rooms and I decided to go and get some ice before going to bed. The ice machine was directly across from our room so I closed the door on Andie and Brady, my key in my pocket, and filled up the bucket. In the 30 seconds it took to fill that bucket up, Andie and Brady had gotten out of the room, ran to where I was and before I could even realize they were out in the hall with me, Brady lowered from being on his tiptoes and the fire alarm sounded!

OH MY FREAKING HELL, THE CHILD JUST PULLED THE FIRE ALARM, IN OUR HOTEL!!! The lights were rolling and the calm voice coming through the loud speaker..."There has been report of a fire, please locate the nearest stairwell calmly, do not use the elevator..." over and over again. I could have crawled in a hole and died. I ran back into the room, Andie and Brady in tow, yelled to Cameron to call the front desk and let them know it was a false alarm. As I walked into Lindsay's room I see her on the phone and she was asking the front desk, "hi, the fire alarm is going off, is there...?" Apparently before she could even finish the girl at the front desk said, "the fire alarm is going off? are you freaking kidding me?!?" and hung up on her. As I threw my now scared and crying children into bed and threatened them with their lives if they moved, there was a knock on the door. Bill and Karen all dressed to go outside asked what they could do to help us with the kids. I had to tell them it was nothing just Brady and at this point we could hear the firetrucks blaring down the street out of our window! Talk about embarrassment! I could have died! That's Brady for you, into everything and doing exactly what he shouldn't do. He sure keeps me on my toes.

I am looking forward to more adventures this week. With all these kids something else very exciting is bound to happen.

Catch Up!

2010-06-07T19:35:00.001-07:00

Andie with a "Braves" Mickey

Brady in his new alien shirt. I tried to get a blend in picture, but he was too tired.

Waiting in line with Grandpa Bill for Buzz Lightyear

Andie and Mary Poppins. Brady was so smitten he couldn't pose for a picture with her.

Andie holding and putting to sleep her newest cousin Parker Lively.

Man, I am really getting bad at blogging. I have missed it. We have been keeping busy down here and having lots of fun. The week of May 24th Cameron drove me and the kids up to Bakersfield where my sister Whitney lives. Her and I took a road trip with all our kids up to Nevada City where my parents and the most of our other siblings were camping. We spent 4 days camping in the freezing cold rain, in tents! After the second night of rain, our tent was dripping so bad it was starting to flood. Our sweet dad was able to rent us a camper for the next two nights, what a great dad! Besides the rain, we had a lot of fun. There were games, naps, into town adventures, and lots of food...what else is there to do while camping and it's raining but eat?! I don't know either. We were finally able to meet my newest nephew Parker. He is such a doll and holding him made me want another baby, until my kids starting screaming and fighting, then I was 100% over it. For Andie, it was love at first sight. She just couldn't get enough of that baby. Every time he would come into the room Andie would sit on the couch and put her arms out for him, she learned how to burp him and even got him to fall asleep! It was so nice to see everyone and spend long overdue time together.
When we got home Cameron's family was in town for their semi annual Disneyland trip. We went up for a day and half and had a great time. The kids got to see lots of characters and do all their favorite rides, Andie even got to sleep at a hotel, which is her favorite Disney thing to do cause it means there is another day in store.
Tomorrow is Colin's high school graduation and Lindsay and her girls are coming into town for it. Of course we will be doing another Disney run before summer crowds kick into full gear. She'll be here for a while and we are all going to take a road trip up to Utah for Cameron's cousin Asher's wedding in the Salt Lake Temple. We are so excited to get back up to Utah. Andie has a small list of places we have to visit while there which includes, going to the waterfalls, a trip to Cabella's, and visiting the petting zoo in Thanksgiving Point. We are looking forward to seeing the whole family and visiting with all our friends we left behind.
I will try to keep up better with my posting, and I am working on taking more pictures so I can put them up when I do post.

I've Got Pirates, Do You?

2010-05-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

We have 2 pirates in our house these days, occasionally 3 when I play along. The kids have taken a serious liking to the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (PC). They are obsessed, and watch it 2 sometimes 3 times a day. I know I know, some of you are saying, "but that's too scary for them!" I thought the same thing at first but they watched it and loved it and they haven't stopped watching it since.

A few weeks ago Cameron and I were brainstorming what other movies have pirates in them, and surprisingly there aren't too many. I saw Swiss Family Robinson (SFR) at Costco last week for $7 and snagged it. Andie is in love. She thinks that's the greatest movie these days. Interesting thing is when Cameron was little he watch the SFR all day long. I am so sick of Pirates of the Caribbean that Swiss Family Robinson has been a welcome change, I am sure Cameron would agree.

When we aren't watching one of the two Pirate movies, we are sword fighting with scarves tied around our heads, making pirate hats out of newspaper, or speaking like pirates and placing "arr" and "matey" into every sentence. Andie and I have been discussing, at great length, Brady's pirate birthday party. She is so excited and is positive this is going to be for her, what a sad day it will be when she realizes we are celebrating the birth of, gasps, BRADY. He is more obsessed than Andie which is pretty hard to believe, but he makes such a cute pirate.

Tears

2010-03-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday I cried. I was getting dressed and had my outfit planned right down to the jewelry. I had thought the night before how I could still wear my broken necklace, which is my favorite. I was so excited because I went to Target last week and found two dresses that were originally $50 and I got them for $9 a piece and the necklace was going to give it that extra amount of ump to make me look great. Brady started freaking out and asked for help, when I went to help him I saw that he had my favorite necklace and he broke it to the point where it couldn't be saved.

Now I have to tell you, I had a small meltdown when he broke it the first time, but I took a minute to breath and realized it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be. But this time, I was so upset. I stared at myself in the mirror as I finished up my make-up and the more I thought about it, the more upset I became. You see, that was the necklace I got for Brady's blessing day. We didn't have much money so when I found it, it was exactly what I was looking for and at a great price, I was so thrilled. On the day of his blessing, I wore a red dress, brown patent leather heels and the perfectly matching brown beaded necklace. I got a million compliments on it.

Every time I wear that necklace I get asked where I bought it, and every time I wear that necklace I remember Brady's blessing day. I remember the family members who were able to be there for it. Lindsay's last minute flight to make it, Seth driving from the Bay area to be there, and Karen's early morning flight. I remember all my family and friends from childhood coming from all over the Sacramento area to be there to hear my little brother Clayton speak before he left on his 2 year mission to Madagascar. I remember that was the day my sweet niece Eva was blessed as well. I remember we sat in the overflow because the chapel was so packed with people (thanks to Clayton speaking), and Andie was putting up a terrible fight because she didn't want to sit still. I remember during Brady's blessing, feeling the sweet spirit so strong. I remember after the blessing and during Clayton's talk, Andie took Brady's bottle of breast milk I had pumped that morning and swigged it down. We sat in that overflow trying desperately to suppress our laughter as she announced how yummy brother's bottle was. When I wear that necklace I remember everything about that wonderful day as if it were yesterday.

As I stared at myself in the mirror and thought about the real reason I was upset by this broken necklace, tears began to flow freely. How could I be crying over something so silly? I admit, Brady has broken quite a few of my things in that last week and it was probably the straw that broke the camels back, but there I was, a cryer by no means, crying over a $10 necklace. I will miss that necklace, but I still have a reminder of that special day. I see that reminder first thing in the morning when I wake up and is the last person I see before going to bed at night. The little reminder is begging for itsy bitsy spider ten times a day, and wondering where his softy (blanket) went, and asks a million times an hour if I have seen his binky. That reminder kisses me so sweetly when pronouncing "love you mama". No necklace could replace my little reminder, my sweet little Brady. How I love my baby boy. He makes me laugh all day long. He loves his sister, she is his best friend. His favorite thing is to snuggle on the couch with Daddy. I am grateful for my little reminder, I LOVE YOU BRADY!

Shaving Cream

2010-02-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

Every morning when I am in the bathroom trying to get ready there is Brady, falling at my feet throwing a tantrum because he has lost my undivided attention. I used to get so frustrated and stop to hold him. Sometimes I would sit him up on the counter and give him a toothbrush with the water on so he could "brush" his teeth. A few weeks ago I realized that I need that 15 minutes of alone time and Brady gets my attention all day long, it's not going to kill him. I usually leave the door open and sometimes the kids just leave me alone and go play but the other 80% of the time when the tantrums happen, I gently usher him (and occasionally Andie) out the door close it behind him, and lock it. Of course he continues his fit out in the hallway which is fine, I have my space and I know he isn't going anywhere until that door opens. Today was like most, he was having an absolute cow that I would not stop doing my hair to hold him. Out the door he went, in the most loving way possible, and the fit continued in the hall. When the door finally opened there he was, a tube of shaving cream in hand, and cream running down his pudgy little arms. I picked him up and he squealed with delight, I washed him up in the sink and sent him on his way. I walked into my room and there it was...THE MESS OF THE DAY! He had taken that very expensive tube of shaving cream and squeezed it all over the carpet. I just shook my head and repeated "why, why, why??? It's not even 10 in the morning and I have a major mess to clean up!" The mess was relatively minor, but I know the day is still young and there are more messes to be had.

**While typing this, Andie has spilled water on the floor and dropped chips. She is dancing all over the wet chips, oh joy!

Shampoo

2010-02-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start a new daily topic on my blog, "Mess of the Day". What do you think? I can't begin to tell you about the outrageous messes my children make on a daily basis that I get to clean up! For the most part, I tend to get the major messes up for all to read but that is just because I need to vent. So for your entertainment and so you can see that your children really could do worse things, I will post ALL of our daily adventures in mess making. I must say that most of the time I end up laughing after the fact but there are a few that haven't YET made it to the "now that I think about it, it's pretty funny" list. Since these things didn't happen in your house, I am sure you will, even on just a small scale, find it humorous.

HAS YET TO MAKE IT TO THE HA HA FUNNY LIST:
1. Industrial sized bottle of shampoo emptied onto the carpet and all over furniture
2. Elmer's school glue smeared and dried onto Grandpa's vizio flat screen and TV stand
3. Andie's "poo fest" in the family room and all over the flat screen
4. The Jello packets sprinkled all over the freshly cleaned "poo fest" spots in the family room
5. Every. single. key. lovingly ripped from Cameron's brand new work laptop
6. Almost an entire 5 gallon jug of Sparklets water drained onto the kitchen floor

I would LOVE to tell you that I "sometimes fabricate" my stories so they are more entertaining for blogging purposes, but unfortunately, my children are really THAT destructive!
It would be a terrible understatement to say that my children keep me busy, they actually keep me exhausted! I am so grateful that I have been given the opportunity to be their mom and all the adventures they create. To have them here with us makes all the frustration and cleaning worth it! Until the next mess...

To My Kids

2010-01-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Andie and Brady,
Why must you continually drive your Mommy crazy? Brady, everyday you seem to be more busy than the last, I can't keep up with you, please give me a break soon. Andie, what in the world is up with the new high pitched scream for no reason at all? It hurts my ears. The water that comes in giant jugs and is PAID for every month is not for your entertainment. How many more times do I have to talk to you about it before you no longer play in it? I am getting really tired of mopping the kitchen floor, soaking up the water from the carpet, and then washing the towels just so I can clean up a new mess 3 hours later. Seriously, the watering hole game is getting old. Brady, I just bought new toothpaste yesterday, today you squeezed the entire tube out all over the bathroom. If you weren't so cute I would have beat you. Children please understand that I can not afford to buy you Jamba Juice everyday, Brady quit throwing a fit for it, it will not fix the situation. Andie, everything does not belong to you, please let your brother have a toy every once in a while I am tired of the screaming. Andie, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop embarrassing me in public restrooms! Yes I know they stink sometimes, so does everyone else in there, you don't need to announce it (although, you wouldn't have to use them if you would just pee before we left the house). And no, a few weeks ago my panties didn't get an owie or need a bandaid they just needed for you to shut your mouth and not go on about it for 5 minutes! Brady, thank you for emptying A SECOND tube of toothpaste today...maybe now Daddy knows why I ask him to keep the bathroom doors shut and maybe he will even practice it.
Brady thank you for being a cuddle bug, I love holding you early in the morning, kissing your chubby hands and smelling your hair. Promise me you will always look up at me with those big green eyes and say, "momma, love you!" it's the best. Andie thank you for being my best girlfriend and always up for a shopping trip. The conversations we have in the car are priceless and I love spending time with you. You promised you would always stay 3 and I am going to hold you to it. You guys are the funniest two kids and you keep us laughing constantly. Thank you for loving eachother so much, I hope you grow up to be best friends.
Thank you for being my kids, I love you two so very much. You certainly keep me on my toes, and eventhough you drive me absolutly nuts I cherish every moment I have with you! I love you Andie and Brady!
Love Always, Mommy

Cake Box Cookies

2010-01-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to a friends house and we did some baking. She found a cookie mix for funfetti cookies that taste exactly like the cake and they were so delish! I brought some home and everyone asked that I make them again. I could not find the cookie mix so I decided to try it with the actually funfetti cake mix instead and they turned out beautifully! I am so excited to try it with other kinds of cake mixes.

Here is the recipe:

Cake Box Cookies

1 Cake mix of your choice

1 Stick of butter; slightly melted

1 Egg

Pre heat oven to 350.

Mix well together, I found it works best to mix it together with your hands. Scoop out the dough on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 mins or until the bottoms are slightly brown. The packaging suggested frosting but the cookies are rich and delicious by themselves. Prep time: about 5 minutes.

New Year

2010-01-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

Every New Years I make the same number one goal, TO LOSE WEIGHT, and every year I don't follow through. This year as I was pondering my goals before Christmas I decided that my excuse of being overweight because I had kids is no longer acceptable, I mean c'mon, Brady is 18 months! I started dieting and exercising the week before the new year and it was so much better than waiting to start. I have lost 2 lbs this week and I am looking forward to losing lots more. I am really committed this time and it feels great! I hope to make 2010 the best year yet!

Some of My 2010 Goals

1. Lose weight

2. Get out of the house and take the kids to do more activities.

3. Enjoy and look forward to going to church.

4. Have more date nights with my husband.

5. Take a family trip somewhere that isn't visiting other family (sorry guys).

6. Be more understanding of others.

7. Read more

8. Learn how to make greeting cards (something I have been wanting to do forever).

9. Go to the temple more often

10. Potty train Brady

Andie started Primary today, oh my gosh, she was so good and she loved it. She is already talking about going back next week. Brady went into Nursery today for the first time. He doesn't officially start until next week but I brought him in to get a feel for it. When I took him out he cried, "my kids, my kids!" I am really looking forward to enjoying church next week for the first time in 3 years!

Family Pictures 11/2009

2009-12-15T21:46:00.001-08:00

Over Thanksgiving we took Casper family pictures down by the docks. We feel that the fishing in San Diego is such a huge part of the family that it would be crazy to not use the boats in a family picture. The girls (Andie and Lauren) were super crabby, and Brady and Molly were both quite sick. So between the 4 of them, we did the best we could with what we had to work with. I hope to have more pics by the end of the week of my two kids together. Thanks to much to our great friend Tony Corbell for always willing to take our crazy bunch on. One day we'll all come happy and ready to photograph!

Word of the Day

2009-12-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Snow Milk: Andie's 3 year old way of saying eggnog. It's quite festive don't you think?! Well the name has caught on in our house, used in a sentence one might say, "hey, while you're up, would you please get me a small glass of snow milk?"

Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2009-12-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else just LOVE Christmas time?! I am sure I am not the only one. Some people say it is full of stress because of the traveling, seeing family, gift buying, Christmas programs, parties etc. but I love all those things. I am a huge fan of shopping, and call me crazy, but I don't even mind the crowds. I find it refreshing to see the crowds of people out shopping, I like to think that they too, still value the holidays with their families. During a time when everyone is so divided it seems that the holidays are something most still agree on.
The decorations! Oh, the decorations, they are the best. To see beautiful, tasteful decorations brings me such joy! It's nice to see that Christmas is still pure, meaning it hasn't been all sexed up like some holidays (ahem, *cough* Halloween). I love Christmas music more than any other kind of music. If you noticed, I even put up a Christmas playlist. One of our family's favorite things to do is to get the kids ready for bed, put them in the car and drive around to see the decorated houses. Last year Andie would exclaim, "Wow! Looks like a birthday cake!"
I have had a hard time here in San Diego trying to get into the Christmas spirit. I blame it on the lack of seasons. Coming from a white Christmas last year in Utah, to a sunny, warm one here, it's been difficult. Yesterday it was pouring rain all day AND it was cold, that was just what I needed to get me full of the Christmas spirit. I hope you are full of the spirit this holiday season and amid the stress and chaos you are remembering the true meaning of Christmas in your home.

From San Diego to where ever you may be, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

THANK YOU!

2009-12-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

I was just online checking out the usual websites, you know, the same 5 that you check all the time hoping that something new has happened on at least one of them?! Or am I the only one who has no life and actually does that? Wow, I really should find something more exciting to do with my time. I have to say it is the ipone's fault. Before it came into my life, I would check my emails and networking sites once, maybe twice a day, but that wonderful phone has turned me into an obsessed Twitter/Facebooker! Speaking of which, did you know there is a site called Tweetdeck.com where the two (along with myspace) are together on one site. I used it for about two days, but then decided that I feel like I have a little more of a life if I can check two different sites as opposed to just one.
Ok, ok, ok, this is not what I jumped on the computer to blog about. So, as I was saying...I was checking out other people's blogs when I decided to check my Clustermap for the first time in months. I was so excited to see that my blog is now being viewed ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!
I just wanted to say a BIG HUGE "HELLO" to you there in:
Finland
Japan
France
Pakistan
Mexico
Brazil
India
Australia

I hope that you are finding something interesting and/or relateable to read here on my blog! I would love to hear from you, maybe how you came across my blog or just to say hello.

Wow, I have to admit I now feel huge pressure to actually blog about something interesting for once!

Fish

2009-11-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

Cameron: "Andie, where does Tuna live?"
Andie: "Tuna lives in salt water!"
Cameron: "and where do trout live?"
Andie: (thinks for a second) "umm, they live in the pepper water!"

She is so funny, what a smart answer!

Andie Said What?

2009-11-18T10:07:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a REALLY long time since I have posted Andie comments. It isn't that she is no longer funny, but more because I am kind of embarrassed with what comes out of her mouth! Cameron has a really bad habit is saying things are just aren't suitable for an almost 3 year old vocabulary and yet Andie lets typical Cameron phrases fly right and left. Of course I think it's funny but I have to hold back because I don't want her to think that it is ok to say things like Daddy does. In Cameron's defense, he is really working on it. I too am guilty of the potty mouth from time to time, yes you read right dear readers, I HAVE A POTTY MOUTH! I couldn't place all the blame on Cam.

Ok fine, I'll post some phrases because I know after the previous paragraph you are all dying to know what she has picked up!

--------------------------

*"Daddy, are you on GLUUUUE?"

*Cam: "Andie I asked you to pick up your cup and bring it to the sink."

Andie: "Cameron, would you quit breaking my balls!"

*Amber: (I was very frustrated and needed some help), "Andie, please go up and tell your Dad to get his ass out of bed."

Andie: "Cameron. Get. Your. Ass. Out. Of. Bed.!"

(we had a little chat about that one and agreed that neither one of us is allowed to say it anymore.)

*Grandma: "Here Andie, if you want to help clean, take this wipe and go wipe the counter in the bathroom."

Andie: "Well, I will just go clean the potty instead!"

* (We turned on Survivor last night )Andie: "Oh, it's the camping show!"

*Andie: (with the remote control in her hand) "hey let's change this football and watch Scooby!"

Colin: "No Andie, Scooby has gone to bed."

Andie: "No football has gone to bed and you should too!"

I come and sit by Andie on the couch

Andie: "Hey Mom, you wanna change this football or what?"

*"Goofy, why are you so small? Do you see me, I am tall, what happened to you?"

*"I'm sorry Mommy, I didn't mean to spill things out of my butt and make a mess!" (this was her apology after the poop incident)

*"Mommy, don't bump into any cars, I don't want to have to buy new ones." (this is what she tells me when we get in the car)

*"Remember when I was a little spider? I used to just on leaves!"

*"We're going down, weeee! This is awesome, it's just like a water slide!" (we were going down a small hill in the car)

Of course there are TONS more, but I don't always write them down...I hope you don't think too much less of me!

Brady is All Boy!

2009-11-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

Brady has found a sudden fascination with my chest. I'm not sure what brought it on because he hasn't been close to them since he was 6 months old, but one day he started screaming "boobies" every time I would put a shirt on. Now he has the reaction everytime any amount of skin is showing, or when I pick him up he reaches down my shirt to take a peek! What the heck? Are boys just born knowing all about the woman's chest? Of course Cameron and everyone else around cracks up at him which causes him to do it even more, but wouldn't you?! Yesterday in a dressing room he was MOUTHING "boobies" and then once the shirt was on he ran full force at me squealing with delight and reaching up to me! I have had all worries laid to rest that one day he might come and tell me "mom, I don't like girls." maybe it was Gods way of letting me know " Amber, this kid is all boy, worry no more!"

Seriously?!?

2009-11-13T19:41:00.001-08:00

I just came across this gem of a website and had to share! Is this for real, it has to be a joke!

But alas, people are really just this stupid!

http://www.babybangshairband.com/index2.php

ENJOY!

3 and a Terror!!!

2009-11-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

Andie turned 3 last week, I don't know exactly what happened, but something inside of her little self said, "I am 3 now it's time to pull out the big guns!!! Let's show 'em what I'm really capable of." She has turned into a terror. Now let me be clear, as far as listening and doing what she is told and playing nicely with Brady, she is doing really great. It is when she is alone, like oh I don't know, supposedly in bed, or downstairs watching her morning TV so I can get things done, she turns into the spawn of Satan. Now we have had issues before with her getting into things and making messes, it actually seems like Andie isn't a fan of doing anything half-assed (pardon my language), if she is going to make a mess, then by golly, it will be a good one!

The other night when she was "in bed" I came upstairs to find pen EVERYWHERE. Every wall in the hallway had been scribbled on at eye level and higher than I would have thought she could reach. So Cameron and I got out the Mr Clean Magic Eraser, which is like a freakin wonder pad, and scrubbed until that thing fell apart. I was mad, but I didn't freak out because the wonder pad got it taken care of without much trouble at all.

The next night, it was a brand new tube of aspercream all over the bathroom. The walls, carpet, floor and counters. Cleaned that up, thought it was a little worse than the pen. But still a manageable mess.

At some point she got into my shampoo and conditioner and made yet another mess in the bathroom which was worse. Mixed with water it makes a bigger mess. Needless to say I was getting quite frustrated with her and the punishments obviously weren't working.

All of this leads up to TODAY! I was upstairs and Andie was watching her shows downstairs. She came up and used the bathroom and I could hear the water running. You know when you just know something isn't right? Well I asked Andie to come and see me because I was going to question her about what she was doing. She came into my room, butt naked with crap all over her hands. I asked her what was all over her and she said, "it's poop!" She was so proud of herself and I was trying to not barf! I went into the bathroom to evaluate the mess and came to the conclusion that she had gone to the bathroom downstairs, there was no toilet paper so she came upstairs and was looking in the cabinets for some. She did try to wash her hands but obviously was failing at that. She didn't get into trouble because I assumed that she was just trying to find T.P. I put her in the tub and went downstairs to see if there was a mess in the other bathroom. No mess, good. Came back upstairs got Andie washed and heard Bill calling me to come downstairs. With every "Amber" his voice got more anxious. So I hurried down to see what was going on.

Now imagine what a poop fight might look like, and times it by ten, and throw a TV on an entertainment center in there...it still doesn't even come close to what I laid my eyes on next! Andie had apparently pooped on the floor while watching her shows. I don't know what possessed her to POOP ON THE FLOOR much less play in it, and then rub it all over the TV and entertainment center, but she did. Fellow internet friends, I can't even describe to you in words the sight! I saw it and there was a look of horror on my face and then tears, I didn't even know how to go about cleaning such a mess! Well Bill helped me start the clean up and then Cameron came home after the big chunks, no really, there were huge chunks, were cleaned up. He just saw the 8 other piles on the floor. I got out the carpet cleaner and began to spot treat, and eventually got to a point that I could call it "good for now, gotta jump in the shower cause everything smells like poop."

Why did she do this when I had decided a few days ago that I am going to try not to yell every time my kids do something terribly horrid, I am going to be patient and take care of it in a calm manner and not freak out! I did an amazing job at keeping my cool by the way, even Bill said I handled it better than they ever would have! So Andie got her punishment, we made lunch, the kids wanted to make jello afterwards and the adults were upstairs for a few short minutes while they ate.

Bill once again goes downstairs and begins yelling at Andie, "what are you doing? didn't you just get into BIG trouble for being naughty?!" Well that was all I needed to hear before I flew down the stairs once again. She got smart and got Brady involved this time to soften the blow of whatever repercussions might come out of the newest adventure. Andie went into the pantry got down the boxes of jello and opened them in the FAMILY ROOM!!! There was white dust everywhere and Brady was chewing on an opened package and Andie was drawing in the dust. I could hardly believe my eyes, how could it possibly get worse than the poop! Well it did, here's some advice, don't ever ask how a situation could possibly become worse...it will! Remember how I said I had spot treated 8+ spots of poop on the carpet earlier? Yeah well, the wet carpet, plus several packages of gelatin equaled a big fat nasty mess. Andie is pretty much banned from ever breathing again. I honestly don't have a punishment good enough for the amount of trouble she is in without beating her senseless! But once again I kept my cool, and told her she no longer has a scooter (she got it for her birthday last week), and I was going to come up with a physical punishment as well. I don't want her to think that she can do something terrible and just get a toy taken away, I will be calling my Dad and getting his advice, since he is the master mind behind great punishments for small children. Cameron wants to ground her to her room for the day but I can't trust her to be alone. I was thinking about having her be within 3 feet of me at all times but I think she might enjoy that too much. Any suggestions? You guys think on that and let me know, in the mean time, I am off to Costco to buy a spot remover!

Hope your day is going better than mine!

Happy Birthday!

2009-11-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Andie Bear!!!

I can't believe that Andie is already 3 years old!!! Wow, time flies. Andie requested that she have a Toy Story party which did not prove to be so easy, but in the end we were able to find quite a few Toy Story items and it proved to be a great theme! Today we had a little birthday party for the Andie where a few friends and family came and it was lots of fun! Thanks everyone who came, we love you guys!

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, Andie said, "ok guys, time to sing Happy Birthday to me!" When the song was over she exclaimed, "thanks for the great song!" and then blew out the candle. While eating cake she was singing the song to herself over and over again. She was cracking us up!

Brady LOVED the cake, in fact he cried when it was gone! HA!

Here is the famous Buzz Lightyear that took an entire week to find, cost way too much and tasted all too great!

New Haircut

2009-10-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hair cut, not the best pic of it though.

Better picture of hair cut and the new necklace we made!

Andie wanted to take a picture of Goofy too!

Today me and Andie had a girls day. She was dying to get her haircut just like her cousin Laurens so we went and had it done. She was PERFECT and didn't move the entire time. I was quite impressed. Afterwards we went to Michaels and bought ribbon to make Halloween hair bows and kit to make a necklace. Andie was not ready to go home so I took her to Claires, Fruitti Tutti frozen yogurt and Barnes and Noble. After dinner and baths we made the necklace that we had bought earlier, it turned out pretty cute! She was such a good girl and I always love spending good one on one time with her.

Picture Update and Halloween cookies!

2009-10-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Brady in his very stylish carseat!

Andie and Grandma Karen snuggling before bed.

Andie playing hard in the back yard.

Brady discovered the mud in the back yard, it was quite the mess!

Andie on the train at the mall!

Brady on the train at the mall. They had a blast!

Andie and her new "hat". She actually wore this to the post office which was hilarious!

Andie and her cookie that you can't really see. I know, my child looks a little trashy in this pic!

Yummy frosting!

Last night the kids and I decorated cookies for Halloween. Well it was more like I decorated, the kids just ate A TON of frosting! Brady had one cookie that he scrapped the frosting off over and over. Andie was over it after the first one, she just wanted to eat them.

Here is a video of Brady and the frosting. Don't mind the football game in the background, although it is pretty funny when Brady also gets in on the game.

Sunday's

2009-09-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

Am I the only person who really does not enjoy going to church, ever?! I always knew that going to church with small children wasn't easy but my gosh, it is the WORST! It feels like it takes me an entire week to recover from the last Sunday and then it starts all over again. Don't get me wrong, every few weeks I really crave going to church to have some spiritual time, but that is usually on a Wednesday or Thursday and by the time Sunday comes again, I am sick of yelling at my kids and cleaning up their messes and the last thing I want to do is drag them to church and wrestle them for 3 hours. Andie is getting better, she sits mostly through the first hour because she knows the time to "play with the kids" is coming right after, but Brady, he is another story. He climbs all over the place, across everyone on the pew, and throws his crackers on the floor. He hates to sit still and I am the only one he will allow to wrestle him. Every once in a while the people behind us will catch his attention and he will play peek-a-boo with them but even then, he is SO LOUD. We always end up in the hall, where there is no place to sit, and I am stuck holding him because I don't want him to think that he can be a brat only to go out and play. Once nursery time comes it is great because I can take Andie and only am left to wrestle Brady. Luckily, Andie loves to be anywhere there are kids and it's ok for Mommy to leave. At this point Brady becomes even more of a handful because it is past morning nap time and Mommy is the only person he wants. We attempt to go to Sunday School class and last about 10 minutes because Brady just can't sit still and resorts to going limp so I can't hold onto him. We manage to make it thought the 10 o'clock hour and by the end my arm is about to fall off because I have been holding this GIANT child for 2 hours straight. I am spent and the kids are way past naps so we get everyone and skip out on the last hour, EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK.
Am I going to Hell for this? I know it is terrible that I don't want to go to church, in fact, most weeks I despise going but I also feel that the Lord understands and the fact that I do go every week counts for something. I have decided that I need to go to show my children how important it is to go to church even though I personally don't get anything out of it. Like every thing with children, this phase too shall pass. I look forward to the day when I can go, listen, and take home the things that are being taught at church, until then, I will continue to instill the importance of going in my children. Bottom line is, if I didn't believe the Gospel, then I wouldn't make such an effort to try and rise my children with it.

Biting Babies

2009-09-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

Seriously, what causes a child to bite? Just in the last few days, BOTH of my children have began biting each other. It stated with Brady biting Andie, and then this morning she bit him. It is so upsetting to see one cry because their "best buddie" gave them a temporary mold of their chompers!

Brady was mad the other day at Andie because she wouldn't give him his toy, so he ran over to her and bit the crap out of her foot, she screamed of course, and I disciplined Brady (which doesn't ever have to happen). I then asked Andie to hold still at which point I was able to actually count how many teeth Brady has (that child wont hold still for anything)!

This morning I was working on the computer while the kids played and Brady let out the "I'm hurt" cry and Andie stood there saying, "he's ok, your ok buddy, he's ok, he's ok, he's ok." Brady was grabbing his shoulder trying to rub the spot and I asked her, "did you bite him or pinch him?" She bit him and got the same punishment as Brady did two days earlier.

So my question to you is, have you had to deal with this problem? Have you ever had two biters at once? What did you do to get rid of the problem? Brady does it because he can't communicate his frustration in words and Andie does it because she knows it hurts.

How does one teach their children that biting is not ok in terms a 1 year old will understand?

Not Yet!

2009-09-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Is it already that time of year again? Football season, you always come too soon! It will be another 6 months before I can watch my few shows uninterrupted again. Football season lovers enjoy, everyone else, start the countdown until the TV is once again free! Of course, in true Casper fashion, we will be rooting for the San Diego Chargers, hoping they can make it to the playoffs AGAIN...and possibly, just maybe, they wont choke AGAIN!
GO BOLTS!

Mommy Daughter Date

2009-09-09T23:07:00.001-07:00

Andie with her Pooh Bear

Andie and her buddy Tigger

With Donald Duck. We don't usually get to see him cause the line is always really long.

She was dubbed the Sea Princess of the ride, it was cool for her!

Got to see Woody and Jessie, another character set we don't ever get to see cause of the line. Andie didn't want anything to do with Jessie but she was a good sport and made us laugh about it.

Waiting for a ride.

Brady eating yogurt and being adorable, just had to throw this one in!

Took Andie to Disneyland on Tuesday for a girls day. It was fun to leave the boys behind and do all the fun things that Brady doesn't have patience for. Of course Andie would pick Disneyland given the option to do whatever she wanted! It was so much fun. There were no fits, she was patient while waiting for rides and characters, and she didn't even want a stroller. It's always nice to spend one on one time with the kids. I can't wait for Brady to be old enough for a date day, or maybe I can!

Disneyland Love

2009-08-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

We had yet another fun Disneyland adventure this weekend. We stayed at the greatest hotel, Marriott Suites, my favorite one thus far and it was only $44 for the night! It was a 2 bedroom suite and Brady was actually able to sleep in his own space, his favorite thing, mine too! Oh and did I mention it was $44 for the night?
Cameron was excited because this was the first time he has been with us to Disneyland in about a year. He had such a great time. Andie couldn't wait to show him all of her favorite rides and the little Mickey heads hidden around the park. He finally was able to see how magical Disneyland is for Andie. I just can't explain how sweet it is to see her reactions when she sees one of her "rockstars". While we waited for Cameron to upgrade his pass, all the characters were out so we took advantage of the short lines and got the camera out for a few photo ops. Before we go to Disneyland every time, Andie has a character that she is absolutely set on seeing during the trip. A lot of the time we do indeed see that one special character, but when we have to go home without the sweet sighting it is a sad car ride home. Now that we have pictures with just about all the favorites I think we are good for a while.
It was so cute watching Andie drag Cameron all over the park and telling him all about "her" rides. We went from one end of the park to the other, ran over to California Adventure did a few favorites and had to call it a day about 3 o'clock . The heat was out of control! When we planned the weekend adventure it was only supposed to be 88 degrees, but it ended up being more like 100 with the humidity. We figure we would much rather come back later in the month as opposed being miserable.
And now, a few pictures with the characters...

They were so excited they couldn't even take their eyes off him!

Brady was fascinated and Andie thought Brady was being funny so again no picture of them looking.

Finally a picture with Andie looking!

One of Andie's favorites, Pluto!

And We're Back!

2009-08-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Brady on the carousel with Grandpa!

Brady happy in the car (rare treat)

Andie on the carousel

Brady at the beach!

Cameron, Andie and Amber at the La Brea Tar Pits

After a much needed trip to Sacramento this past week I realized that a) a lot of people actually DO read my blog and b) several of you were sad that I haven't posted a new one in ONE MONTH!!!
So here it goes, I hope I can remember everything that has happened in the ONE MONTH that I have been gone.
We moved back to San Diego the first of August so that Cameron could come and work for his dad. They are selling insurance, securities and annuities, Cameron is LOVING working for his dad and Bill loves having someone else to spend his days with! (I am only assuming the last part is true). Andie is so excited to be in San Diego because she has convinced herself that we can got to Disneyland EVERY DAY! She's had a bit of a reality check and has learned to settle with going to the beach instead. Brady turned ONE YEAR OLD and I still can't believe that my baby isn't much of a baby anymore. In light of all the birthdays in July and August, Andie has taken it upon herself to divvy out what she is expecting for HER Birthday and even Christmas. Top of the list, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD (grandma), a stuffed Pinocchio doll (mommy), and a real Buzz Lightyear (daddy). Easy enough right? Well you should see the Christmas list, she is saving all the big stuff for the most wonderful time of the year. The child is almost too smart for her own good.
After 2 weeks of settling in after the move, the kids and I took a trip up to Sacramento for 10 days. My brother in-law Justin was on leave from Iraq and it was my Dad's 50th (Sorry Dad, secrets out. Don't worry you can be 50 for the next ten years!) It was a great visit and the kids had a great time with all their cousins. Andie and Grandpa did quite a bit of bonding which was good even if it did take a certain obnoxious guitar to get the job done! We already miss everyone and can't wait to spend Christmas with them.
Wow, I guess a whole lot really didn't happen. It seemed like a like more in my head!
On to Andie then. She has recently taken on praying and in fact she is the only one who gets to bless the food anymore. It goes a little something like this: "Dear Heavenly Father, grateful for this day and the blessings. Bless we can go to the museum in Grandpa's truck and see the squirrels and he wont hurt me. Bless the gospel. Bless Jesus Christ, Amen. And bless the food." Every time is about the same with a little variation, but this one is my favorite. Just when I think it isn't possible, she gets funnier. The things this child says are out of control. Yesterday she ran into me and said, "oh Mommy, you ok? I'm so sorry Mommy. I didn't mean to hurt you. You ok? You didn't mean to spank me the other day. You're so sorry. Oh Mommy." I think she was expecting an apology from me and this was her way of getting it. Even as I write this, I am cracking up just replaying the conversation in my head.
Brady loves to dance! The boy can not keep himself still if there is any sort of music playing. It is the funniest thing, because he doesn't just dance, he suddenly develops a bobble head and it looks like it will just roll off his neck. He is starting to pick up little habits from his big sister which I am not totally loving, like oh, TANTRUMS! It's only happened 2 or 3 times and it isn't even close to the degree at which Andie has them, but she has planted a little tantrum seed in him and we all know what happens to seeds, THEY GROW. He is a very good child and takes direction well so I am pretty confident we can rid him of this bad habit before it becomes bigger.
I am sure you are wondering what ever happened with the running since the attack of the mosquitoes. Well I HAVEN'T RUN SINCE!!! Sorry to let you all down, but I have taken up walking, 2 miles almost every night with Karen. It's been great. It's nice to go with someone, get away from the kids and have adult conversation.
Boy it's good to be back! Until next time...

That's What I Get!

2009-07-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

I've been re motivated to exercise and have decided to start running, funny right! I have attempted this ridiculous feat several times since moving to Utah but it always ends up in shin splints and a chest that feels like it will explode if I take in one more struggled breath. So for my birthday, oh yeah, I turned 24 on the 11th, Cameron bought me some new running shoes (thank you thoughtful husband) and I decided to reattempt the running! I got a running program from my mom and thought about it for a few days, to stall, I mean mentally prepare and finally took the leap on Sunday night. I decided in the morning that in the evening I would go because it would be cooler than 100 degrees out. I even told Cameron to remind me that I was to go running tonight because I didn't trust myself to remember on my own. It was 8:30 at night, still light out but only about 80 degrees, I got dressed, grabbed my ipod, and told Cameron I would be back in 30 mins (don't want to get too ahead of ourselves here). I did a few stretches on the front porch cranked up the ipod and began my run. It was going great, the weather was perfect I was really enjoying myself and thought for the first time in almost a year, "this isn't that bad, I actually might be able to do this running thing!" With the program, which works you up to a long run, you walk for the first 5 mins, then run 60 secs and walk 90 secs on and off 8 times. I was doing great, getting parched, but feeling like I could finish. I was on the 4th interval when I realized I was running/hoping trying to itch my shoulder, then my ankle and my thigh, then my arm, oh the cheek. Ahhh, just thinking about it makes me itch all over again! What the heck?!? I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos! I HATE mosquitos! I kept on running, but the more sweaty I got the more I was feasted upon. I had to stop, but I couldn't possibly quit now, I was so close I could taste it. I sat down for a minute just to itch and try to convince myself that I could go on. I got up and attempted another drill of walk/run and 30 seconds into the run my legs were on on FIRE! I had concentrated so much on the nasty creatures feasting on my sweet sweaty flesh, that I forgot to convince myself that this was indeed as easy as it sounds. What was I doing?! If the bugs didn't kill me the running surly would. Finally I was done, I walked home and realized
THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR RUNNING!
Now it has been two days, I am supposed to go again and I am thinking, do I dare chance the pesky insects having another Thanksgiving feast on my sweet flesh?

......to be continued

Brady!

2009-07-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Night before surgery having his "last meal" look at the sweet face!

Right after he coded, still trying to figure out what just happened.

Mommy holding Brady, him holding his oxygen mask with his IV hand.

Right after they woke him up, gave him fentenyl and he passed out again.

Playing in the pre-op room with no idea of what is about to happen.

This post is long overdue! Brady finally had his surgery to repair a hernia on June 30 at SLC Children's Hospital. We went in early in the morning and were home by 3:30pm. The surgery went well, when they got in there, Dr. Matlack said that the hernia was as big as one in an adult male! So he has an incision that is an inch long as opposed to a cm, no biggie! He had a hard time coming out of sedation and was in a lot of pain so they gave him fentanyl, which he liked...naturally! We sat in recovery, for an hour and Brady seemed to be doing well he still wasn't himself but his vitals were great so they discharged him to go home. I got him dressed, they took all the tubes out of him and the last one was the IV. He was NOT a fan of that! There I was holding him, he was crying, then making no sound, turning BLUE and the nurse looked as scared as I did!!! I was quietly freaking out, made eye contact with the head nurse, looked at Brady at the same time she did and she immediatly ran in. She looked at the other nurse and said, "hello! would you call a code blue?!!" She told me not to worry and bring him over to the bed, all the while I was holding onto the gauze that was keeping him from bleeding all over the floor because the taking out of the IV is what caused this all. Probably 15 people ran into the room, he still wasn't breathing and was completely blue. They bagged him, he still wasn't breathing. They couldn't give him anything cause we just took the IV out! So they starting doing CPR and I had to stop watching. They all calmed down a bit and thought "oh good, he is breathing again"....uhhhh no! It wasn't until maybe a minute after I thought he was ok that the Dr. said, "finally, a breath big boy!" I looked back at Brady and saw that he was still blue but the color was coming back and he had a look of panic on his face. He just stared at everyone like, "what just happened?" They asked me to come over, I did, he looked at me then at everyone and smiled. It was very cute! He was out for a few minutes and they said it was because of the fentanyl they gave him, the medication just caused his body to forget how to breath when he was crying. So we had to stay in recovery for 2 1/2 more hours until the fentenyl was completely out of his system and his oxygen couldn't fall even once. About an hour after the scare he was back to his normal self but he still had to stay to be monitored. We finally were able to go home mid afternoon only after we pissed him off and made him cry hard again and they were confident that he wouldn't do it again. Just in case though, they told us what to do if he did turn blue again and we were instructed to keep a close eye on him and try to keep him from getting too upset (riiiight, Andie isn't his sister or anything!). Thanks to Grandma Karen, Andie was taken care of and it was one less thing on my mind. It has been a week and a half and I still freak out when he cries really hard, it's dumb I know, but I do. He has had a great recovery from what I can tell and he is up and around driving Andie more crazy than ever! I am so grateful that all went well with the surgery I was a little worried about it but I am glad it's over. Of course I have pictures to post!!!

4th of July

2009-07-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

The Casper Family cousins: Lauren, Molly, Kate, Brady and Andie

Can you find them? Cameron and Andie at Bridal Vail Falls

Waiting for everyone to hike down from the falls Brady was a little pooped!

Andie and her "best buddy" Kate!

Andie all ready for the 4th. You can't see how cute her hair was, but it was!

We had a really nice 4th this year. Grandma Karen was in town for Brady's surgery earlier in the week, so Lindsay and her family came up to join in the fun. On Friday we took the kids to the animal farm at Thanksgiving Point (which is one of our family favorites) and the kids had a blast! That night everyone came over for dessert, haircuts (thanks again Lindsay, you are the best!), and craft time. Yes, I said crafts. We made shirts for the girls for the 4th (see top picture) they came out really cute, I was impressed with myself! On Saturday we had every intention of going to the parade in Provo but when the street was PACKED with people at 8 o'clock on Friday night we decided that it was only going to be more packed on Saturday morning and maybe not that much fun with all the little kids. So Saturday the 4th we went to Bridal Vail Falls, Aspen Grove, and Bob and Kel's. At Bridal Vail, everyone hiked up to the top of the waterfalls except me, Karen, and the two smallest kids. Andie had SO much fun going to the top! She found Mommy and Grandma and waved until her little arm got tired. She sang "Following the Leader" (from Peter Pan) during the whole hike up and liked being dangerously close to the edge! After the Falls we drove up to Aspen Grove, which I had never done, and it was seriously gorgeous! What a beautiful place. I got lots of pictures which I am sure I will never do anything with, but it was satisfying to take them. We took the kids home to take much needed naps in preparation for the evening festivities. Bob and Kelly had a great BBQ spread for everyone to enjoy. We had fun laughing, eating, eating and eating! The kids played until they were exhausted and then went to the Ladybug park. Cousin Kate spent the night and the girls did fireworks with Cameron, they had so much fun giggling and playing with sparklers and didn't go to bed until about 11:30pm! What a great 4th, thank you so much for all the family we got to see and spend much needed time with. Now a post wouldn't be complete without some pictures so here they are!

Bountiful Temple

2009-07-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

This is the Draper Temple I believe

Andie in front of the Bountiful Temple

The family in front of the Bountiful Temple

Today we went to the Bountiful Temple and took a family picture. I don't even know the last time we took a family picture but it is nice to have a current one. Andie loves to go around to the different temples, go in and get a schedule card with that temple's picture on it, and take her own picture out front. She is in awe at each and every different one she gets to see. She always comments on how beautiful they are and likes to look for the Angel Moroni on top "playing the trumpet just like Quincy!" (Quincy is a kid on Disney's Little Einsteins and he plays the trumpet a lot). I am so glad that at 2 years old she has a such a love and excitement for the temple. She knows that when she goes inside she has to be very quiet and likes to remind us to do the same.

Kids at the Animal Farm

2009-06-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

Animal Farm

2009-06-06T17:20:00.001-07:00

Andie was so excited to see the animals

Brady squealing with delight at getting to touch the baby cow (who tried to eat the bink)

Andie was so proud of herself for actually petting it

Today, we took the kids to the animal farm at Thanksgiving Point. In the last few weeks we have noticed that Brady absolutely loves any kind of animal and can't keep his hands off them while Andie likes to look at them from afar but isn't a fan of getting near them. They had cows, horses, chickens, goats, pigs, ducks, turkeys, and lots of other fun animals. Every one's favorite part was the sweet baby cow who loved Brady (and he it). He let us feed him and pet him all we wanted. Andie also got to go on a pony ride! She actually got on, to our surprise, and LOVED the entire thing. After the animals we had a picnic outside. It was such a great day trip, one we go back again and do very soon.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

Andie and her first "catch"

Brady in the car

The man of the hour: Thomas the Tank Engine!

The new back pack

"Mommy, I need this Thomas hat!"

My little conductor

On Saturday we went up to SLC to the Planetarium, which was really cool. Andie got some stars that glow in the dark for her bedroom and Brady, well he got nothing! We went to a restaurant that we saw on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives called 'Moochies and had Philly sandwiches, they were so delish! We did some shopping around, ended up buying NOTHING then headed out to dinner with my friend Kelly and her husband at Chili's.

Sunday we had a relaxing day. We had a delicious steak dinner and brownie sundae's with Cam's family and had a great time being with everyone.

Monday morning Cameron took Andie fishing for the first time. She has been itching to use the Scooby-Doo fishing rod that she got for Christmas and she finally got to give it a whirl. She caught a little rainbow trout but wasn't patient enough to reel it in. After a few turns she yanked the rod and dragged the fish to shore. Cameron had her pose for a picture but the fish was flopping around and Andie kept bouncing the rod up and down hoping to get the fish to settle down, it did quite the opposite and ended up taking a good 3 mins for the picture to get taken. They both had a blast and Andie already is talking about when she gets to go fishing again.

In the afternoon we drove up the Canyon to Bridal Vail Falls, which was beautiful. The kids were sleeping so Cameron and I just sat and watched and took a drive through Vivian Park. We had never been there before, we had a great drive and are looking forward to going back through soon. Then we drove up to Heber Valley Railroad for "A Day Out with Thomas." Andie is very into trains (especially Thomas) right now and she had no idea where we were going. When we pulled up and she saw him it was pure BLISS! She was waving and yelling "I love you Thomas" over and over again. She kept saying, "Thomas is the best train EVER!" We walked around and enjoyed looking at the trains and the very overpriced toys. Andie ended up getting a Thomas backpack and Brady, well he got NOTHING!

don't ask

2009-05-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Seriously, what the crap is up with the 97 degree heat?!?

I love to the GAP and it's amazing sales for kids clothes.

Why does Andie have to be sick and throwing up?

Is it just me or do the people of Utah try to screw you in everything???

When will Brady start talking so I know what he wants?

Can everyone just leave Jon and Kate Gosselin alone...?

Dooce.com, so funny, thanks for making me laugh!

I hope a 15 hour train ride with 2 kids will be as fun as it sounds.

What about Memorial Day weekend? What fun thing can I plan for my family?

Why did I return 'Taken' already? I want to watch it again!

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"Random!" you say?

Just a few things I have been pondering today...thought I would share.

Let me know what you are thinking.

Catch Up

2009-04-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

I would love to tell you that I haven't been posting lately because things have been so busy, but we all know that would be a BIG...FAT...LIE! I just haven't found the time or energy to sit down and tell you all about things that are of no interest to you but you read and comment in support of me and the pictures I take time to post.

Doctors Appointment

Brady had his 9 month check up last Friday. Overall his health is great and he DOES NOT have the swine flu, phew! He has low iron so he gets to go back to eating a bowl of the baby rice cereal everyday (which he doesn't particularly like, he prefers human food). However, the Dr. did give me a prescription for Brady and Andie for fluoride tablets...what in the world??? Since there isn't fluoride in the water here they want me to give them tablets every...single...day. I asked him if I could just let them suck on a tube of toothpaste for 5 seconds in the morning instead because, let's be honest, they do this anyways, no matter how much I watch and tell Andie how TOXIC it is, he didn't find that funny or appropriate (a word Andie has been learning the meaning of). We didn't have to do shots this time which I was so glad about but next time we will.

Here are Brady's 9 month stats:

Weight- 21 lbs (66%)

Height- 30 in (90%)

Head- 18 in (57%)

In English, for an average child of 9 months, Brady is long and skinny with a small head!

*By the way, I would love to avoid taking Andie to Brady's appointment from now on so if anyone wants to watch her for an hour every few months, just let me know!

Car Update

Almost 2 months ago we were driving up to Salt Lake for one of Cameron's football games when the engine in our car died. Thanks to all his football buddies who wanted Cameron to play so badly that they picked us up and brought us to the field to endure several hours of freezing cold and watching bad plays. The car sat in Salt Lake until AAA towed the car back to our house in Springville, where it sat until we decided what we were going to do. We looked for a new car but when they found out our engine was shot it was a "no way, but your car is in great condition on the inside." After weeks of looking for the perfect car and me getting crazy excited to get a new/bigger one we decided it best to just fix ours and maybe trade it in later. We got the entire engine replace so even though the car only has 40,000 miles on it the inside says differently. The nice thing is the trade in value is a lot higher and runs like a champ. It was a LONG 2 months of being in the house so me and the kids are thrilled to have a working car back. Thanks to everyone who gave us rides and especially Ashton and Lacey for letting us borrow their car!

Football

Cameron and his friend decided that their football team was not where they wanted to be so when they got the offer to go somewhere else, they jumped on it. We went from being Outlawz to Desperados. They have to sit out for three weeks before they can play again but they have assured me it is totally worth it.

Andie

When Cameron comes home at night he tends to get frustrated by the small things the kids do so I am usually telling him to "calm down" because it isn't really a big deal. Andie has caught on to this phrase and uses it whenever the situation will allow.

Sample:

Amber: "Andie, what are you doing? we don't squish our food in our hands!"

Andie: "Mommy, just calm down!"

Andie is becoming such a big help around the house. She loves to help clean up her room, fold laundry and load the dishes. As a reward for her hard work she has been able to spend a lot of time at the park and in the front yard playing with the neighbors.

Brady

He is starting to walk! He can take about 4 steps before falling down but is getting better every day. I bought him some cute new shoes and he is learning how to walk in them as well. When asked to give a kiss Brady will come towards you with the huge open mouth it is so sweet. You can ask him a question and I am almost positive he answers "yes". Brady is going to get his haircut tomorrow so we will be posting pictures of that, I can't wait to get rid of the mullet that is starting to appear!

Disneyland

Unfortunately, Andie doesn't ever forget a promise. A few weeks ago she reminded me that she is a "big girl now and goes pees and poops in the potty and not in my pants, so now I get to go to Disneyland!!!" Well Lindsay (Cam's sister) and I have season passes and want to use them before the summer. Since is it Karen's (Cam's mom) birthday next week we are driving down to San Diego and planning on a few days at the big "D". Andie is so excited that we are going to Disneyland that every morning she wakes up and begins packing.

*Don't worry my family, I haven't forgotten about you. We are going to spend a few weeks with you next month!

So there it is the last month or so in a nutshell. I have to go through my camera but I will post pictures before I leave.

Random Pictures

2009-04-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here are random pictures that I have been meaning to post. Enjoy!

The other day Andie kept asking me to make McDonalds. I had no idea what she was talking about so she took me to the fridge and pulled out a roll of Orange Rolls. Since they needed to be used I agreed to make them for her, I put them on a pan and set the oven to preheat. When I came into the kitchen to put them in the oven this is what I found...two RAW Orange Rolls missing! I asked Andie what happened to them to which she pointed to her tummy and said, "oh, they are just in my skomich!" SICK!

Brady is a freakin' garbage disposal, when there is food he is waiting impatiently to get some. I was cleaning out the pantry last night and threw away a loaf of bread that was a little stale. A few minutes later this is how I found Brady...the boy was in HEAVEN especially since I let him go to town on it!

Since being potty trained (which there have been NO accidents) Andie is coming up with new ways to reiterate that she is STILL the baby. Whenever she asks for a drink she requests it be in "Brady's blue bottle" or insists that we call her "Princess Baby". Yesterday morning I was looking everywhere for Andie after I noticed it was suspiciously quiet and found her passed out in Brady's crib!

Grandpa came to visit for the day and brought Andie a new movie, "Mickey and the Beanstalk". They cuddled up together in the chair to watch it and within minutes were both asleep. Isn't that so sweet?!

Easter

2009-04-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today started out with Andie wearing rollers so she would have perfect Easter hair...needless to say, she was not a happy girl but the result was sooooo worth it! I took the kids out back for some pictures cause it was such a beautiful day, finally, and got some good ones. Brady wasn't too smiley for me, which I was sad about, but I managed to get quite a few good pictures of Andie who was being very cute.

The only picture of Brady looking directly at the camera and smiling.

This was earlier in the morning but I thought it was so cute!

They were both looking at me at the same time, too bad it was so dark.

I LOVE this face that Andie is making...she was being so funny!

What a cute girl!

Baby...no more!

2009-04-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

Proud as can be with himself!

There he is in all his glory!

Just checkin' things out from a different perspective

This evening Brady just popped right up! In the middle of the floor, without the help of anything near by, my little baby just stood up like he'd been doing it forever! He was so proud of himself, grinning from ear to ear. For the past few weeks he has been pulling himself up on things and then letting go, but now, he just does it. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. It wont be long before he starts walking. Here are some pictures of the little guy in action.

The Joys of Peeing on the Potty!

2009-03-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

It only took 3 days to get Andie completely potty trained! WooHoo. How did I accomplish this impossible feat you ask? Well, it was quite simple, I refused to let her wear a diaper! The first day there were 2 accidents and I was constantly sitting her on the toilet, by the end of the day she was begging for a diaper. I didn't cave in because I know that she wakes up dry every morning and peeing in the bed was not a concern of mine. The second day, she was getting the hang of it and would run as fast as her little legs could carry her when she felt the urge to GO. The only accidents to be had that day were right in front of the toilet and it was just a little bit. The third day was cake. She would get herself on there and occasionally ask for some help. We are officially accident free and I feel so liberated!

I still freak out when we go out in public that she is going to have an accident so I make sure and take every time we see a bathroom. When we were car shopping the other day she had a small accident but we were close enough to the bathroom to where it wasn't a huge deal. Last night we went out to dinner, as I was trying to decide what to order I looked over and Andie is standing in the middle of the restaurant with her pants down to her ankles holding herself exclaiming, "I HAVE to go potty!" My eyes widened in horror as I went right over to her, yanked her pants up, scooped her in my arms and ran her to the bathroom! I saw the entire restaurant silently cracking up and giving me and Cameron that, "I am so embarrassed for you right now but I have kids and know what it's like" kind of look. That was my true 'newly potty trained' moment!

Brady!

2009-03-28T16:52:00.001-07:00

Finally...some pictures of Brady!

He is such a sweet boy. He is getting to be so much fun and loves his sister more than anything. I love that he is so easily entertained and always happy (except when there is a tiny top tooth coming in). I am so grateful that he LOVES sleep time, it has been a great change for us. It makes me sad that he is growing up so fast. He can crawl, climb the stairs, eat the same foods as we do, stand up unassisted and mimic your sounds. It is absolutely amazing what 8 short months will do for a baby. We are so grateful to have him apart of our family. I love him more everyday (if it's even possible)!

This is the face Brady makes when there's food to be had and it's not right in front of him!

Brady found a green balloon and was thrilled!

Have you ever seen a cuter boy?!

Here he is again with his balloon, I love this little guy!

A Day With Andie

2009-03-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here are some pictures I snapped of Andie while she was playing in the back yard this afternoon. I know it looks like she is posing for me in some of these, but I just caught her actually looking. I know you are probably wondering where Brady is in these pictures, he was sleeping. He is a child who LOVES his naps and I think that mostly has to do with the peace and quiet aspect of it. I don't blame the kid. I will try and take some pictures of Brady tomorrow and post them.

I am sure that you are all pretty much over the things Andie says during the day, but I have to write them down so I don't forget. So here are some more...

Earlier in the day I called Andie "my princess" to which she replied, "no, I am a baby" so I said, "fine, you are my princess baby." This evening she came up to me and said, "mommy, do you want to hold your princess baby?" How could I refuse?!

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Cameron had on a shirt with a tuna fish on the front:

Andie: "Oh Daddy, that is a tuna!!!!"

Cameron: "Yeah, that's a tuna on my shirt."

Andie: "Tuna is my favorite to eat."

Cameron: "Me too."

Andie: "Daddy you are going to take me fishing on the boat to catch a big tuna."

Cameron: "I would love to take you fishing."

Andie: "Grandpa will take me fishing for tuna too but first we have to go to the temple."

Amber: "OK, we can go to the temple first."

Andie: "We need to get the door for the temple too."

?!?!?!?!?!? I still don't know what she means by that

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We were out in the front this afternoon when the school buses were dropping the kids off, Andie was so thrilled about the bus that she started to run towards it.

Amber: "Andie, where are you going?"

Andie: "Look at the school bus, I am going to get on it!"

Amber: "You can't go on it yet, you have to be 5 to go on the school bus."

She stops and thinks about this for a second.

Andie: "Well...I'm 2 so I am gonna get on that school bus!"

Andie Quotes: Part II

2009-03-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

I found another paper with more of Andie's Quotes on it:

Cameron came downstairs dressed for work and Andie said:
"Oh Daddy, that's a cute outfit you got on."
-------------------------
Andie was sitting on my lap before bed and I was playing with the pigtails in her hair.
Andie: "I'm sooooo pretty!"
Amber: "You're always so pretty to me."
Andie: "Yep, I am!"
This child does not have any esteem issues!
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Talking about chocolate milk:
"I don't like the brown milk...I ONLY like the white milk!"
My daughter might be a little racist...towards milk.

Andie Quotes

2009-03-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some more long overdue Andie quotes. I write them down so I don't forget, but I don't always write down the context in which it was said.
-----------------------------------------
Andie: "That was awesome!"
Amber: "No, you're awesome!"
Andie: "I know!"
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I asked Andie to come into the kitchen so I could cut her bangs, so she walked in with her hand over them and said, "No, no mommy, only Lindsay cuts mymy hair."
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Andie had a wipe over her face and I took a picture then I went to take one of Brady and Andie warned him, "NO Brady...dough not smile."
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While eating an egg and sausage breakfast Andie crawled across the table, grabbed my sausage, and said, "ha ha I stole your meat!" and shoved it in her mouth.
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Driving in the car Andie looks out the window and exclaims, "well this just sucks!"

Exercise?!?

2009-03-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

I decided a few weeks ago to run a 10k (which is 6.2 miles) at the end of May. What the crap was I thinking?!? I was doing so great for the first 3 days...then I got sick and have been for over a week. I am starting to feel better so I am trying to get back into a routine but I freakin hate to exercise. I was hoping that running would be my new found love, I had big plans of becoming obsessed. I could envision myself running out all my frustrations and dropping everything to fuel my craving of the wind in my hair and the sweat running down my face. I wanted to be the one soaking in the tub because my legs had such a great workout the day before. I am starting to wonder if I set my hopes too high this time. It is too much to ask that I be overly excited about staying fit? Why can't I be that person? I don't have disillusions that I will become a gym rat and weight 112 pounds and do nothing but workout, come on now, I have kids and I don't intend to neglect them for my own vain reasons. I just want the desire to escape my daily routine and turn to working out as opposed to hmmmm dare I say...SHOPPING! Man, that sounds like a great deal of fun, a mall run! NO! I wont give in, I am dressed and ready to go on a walk with the kids. I'll let you know how the cardio goes.

O Happy Day!

2009-03-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

After only 2 short months, Cameron has a job! He is now gainfully employed by the good people at Orange Soda! "Huh? what's that?" you might ask... it is an online marketing company with a fizz. Sounds fancy huh? For all you inquiring minds you can click here to find out more. For the first time in our marriage Cameron is working an 8-5 job with weekends off. The fact that he comes home at night...it just tickles me pink! I love, love, love it! We only have one car at the moment, since that's all we have ever needed, and I'm not a fan of getting myself and the kids up early to take him to work. This is day three and it's already getting old...that is a situation that will need some remedying sooner rather than later. Cameron has already made some really great friends at this job, they're not just work friends but people you'd want to hang out with in your spare time.
Thank you Orange Soda for your employment, you are tip top in my book!

Sick Kids

2009-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

OK, I have A LOT to catch up on but I am going to start with most recent events for this post. We were in San Diego last week and had a great time but Brady came home sick. I could see a tooth starting to break through on the top so that was enough to explain his runny nose. A few days later he got a nasty cough, I mean NASTY. Poor boy was coughing so hard I was sure his insides were being disrupted. Oh, and since the evolution of his cough, he's had a fever to accompany it. On Monday he slept and slept and slept, I thought, "great I have a chance to get lots done!" Well I felt a little bad when he woke up with a fever of 103.9!!! I have to take him to the Dr. and of course we just switched insurance and our old Dr. doesn't take the new stuff. So I called Cam's cousin, she works for a pediatrician who does take our insurance, and pulled some strings for a same day appointment (any mom knows if you are a first time patient they will not see you the same day you called!). We had an appointment for 5:40, yep folks, they saw us after hours! The Dr. said due to his nasty cough he had a terribly sore throat which was bright red and raw ("oh" frown)...left ear has a bad ear infection (eyebrows up, frown)...right ear is almost a full blown ear infection (mouth open, frown, tear). Poor little guy. We got him some amoxicillin to get rid of the ear infections and the Dr. said if he still had a fever by Wednesday to bring him in for blood work.

Well Monday night the house was quiet and I woke up at 3 am to Andie laying in bed with me crying that her ear hurts. Half asleep I managed to get out, "Oh sh**!" So I get up, take her temperature 101.9 (great!), pump her full of meds so I can get back to sleep, and get her some milk to help with the sore throat. She sleeps the rest of the night and wakes up happy as a clam but still with a fever. I ask about her ear "mine ear all better mom, thank you for mymy medicine!" Good, dodged that bullet. Well as the day progresses she gets more and more cranky and starts tugging on her ear again. Tuesday night was a repeat of Monday night. Here is Wednesday, Brady woke up happier than he has been for almost a week but still pretty sickly. They both feel warm so I take their temps. Yep, Brady still has a fever, Andie has a fever and is complaining that her ear hurts. Perfect! I call the Dr. to make both appointments (again I had to pull some strings for Andie to be seen the same day since she is a new patient.) the only available times they have are 2:50 and 3:20, "great I'll take those!" I get off the phone. "Oh sh**!" Cameron has a job interview at 2:30 and then has to go to an appointment at 4:00, we only have one car cause it's all we have needed while Cameron was working on the boat. Oh well, we will be very early to the Dr's this afternoon!

Temple Square

2009-02-15T16:21:00.000-08:00

This afternoon we went up to Temple Square to walk around and have a picnic lunch. Andie was fascinated with the whole thing and loved walking around looking at all the beautiful things. She even got to take home a picture of her beautiful castle! Brady was just happy to be included in the adventure as always. We had a great time and hope to go back again soon.

Here are a few lines Andie used while there:

"Ohhhh, look at the castle!" Referring to the Salt Lake Temple.

"I don't want to touch the castle Daddy." For some reason she thought we had to go up and touch the temple.

"Hey, that's where Peter Pan flies!" Pointing to the wall in the room with the Christis. It is night skies, stars and clouds. Maybe a little too many Disney movies for her!

"Jesus, he lives upstairs." After visiting the Christis in the Visitors Center

Valentines Curls

2009-02-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, while Andie sat on my lap and watched TV I did her hair. She was being very good and didn't move so I decided to take it to the next level. When she finally got up, she looked next to me on the table and saw sponge curlers. She pointed to them and said, "Mommy I don't want those things today." With a sneaky smirk I said, "Oh, too late!" She reached up and felt her head full of curlers! You would have thought her entire world just collapsed around her. She started sobbing and held her hands up to her face with the most dramatic effort possible. She couldn't believe that I could have done something so terrible without her having the slightest clue. She ended up falling asleep with them in but when she woke up from her nap not a single curler remained in her hair. What a turd! Oh well, I guess you can say she got me back.

Pictures? you ask... Why of course!

Funny Andie

2009-02-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Andie's Quotes of the Day: 2/14/2009
Just catching up on some of Andie's funny quotes...I know I am way behind.

Andie touches Brady's cheek and very sweetly says, "Now look at me. We don't hit me on mymy head," as she touches her head. He wasn't even touching her!
--------------
At church the baby in front of us had a plush Cars toy and Andie said to him, "Oh that's a cute toy buddy!"
--------------
"Hey Daddy, what cha eating? Yogurt. Oh that's good!"

Ok so now that I am reading these, they wouldn't be that funny to you if you can't hear the inflection in her voice. Sorry!

Baby Baby Baby

2009-02-13T08:09:00.000-08:00

Last night we went out to dinner. My gosh, it's been forever since we've gone out. We went to a Chinese restaurant called T-Bone...I know, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but the food was GREAT. Once we drove up to the house Andie was so upset because she didn't want to go home so we drove over to Dairy Queen and got a blizzard, it only seemed fitting with the weather and all. We got home just in time for me to watch my shows and Andie snuggled with me the entire two hours. She was falling in and out of sleep but then got up to have an easier time fighting it. She played with her baby and wrapped it up in Brady's blanket and then tried to wrap herself. I helped her out and swaddled her just like I used to, then I picked her up and rocked her and sang her songs and sure enough she fell asleep! I really miss her being my little baby. I can't believe that she is 2 already. I love that she is such a snuggle bug and will let me hold her all the time, I miss it. But she is so stinkin' cute at this age and that makes it all worth it.

Hey Buddy!

2009-02-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

Andie went to greet Brady when he woke up from his nap yesterday. They played for a good 20 minutes before I went see what was going on. This is all I could catch.

Potty Talk

2009-02-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

Funny Andie!

2009-02-04T21:19:00.001-08:00

(Sorry I attempted 3 times to get this picture the right direction but it just isn't working right now.)

Andie was trying to go potty the other day and decided it was going to be while so she grabbed some chips to snack on during the wait!

We went to Bob and Kel's for the Superbowl (thanks guys for having us). Andie was so excited because she got to play with Cold (Cole) and Per-rison (Harrison)! That is Perrison in the background, he showed Andie how to tie the bandanna around her face. She loves her buddy!

A Few of My Favorite Things

2009-01-29T16:17:00.000-08:00

1. My favorite new movie is Peter Pan. I can't get enough of it. We watch it way too much. Daddy knows probably every line in the whole thing. I love to watch Peter Pan with Daddy and Brady!

2. I love to play in the SNOW! I beg Mommy or Daddy to take me outside just so I can walk through it and then eat it off the bottom of my shoes, yummy!

3. My favorite stuffed doll is my baby Mickey. I take him everywhere with me. He is my tiny baby and I like to rock him and sing him songs.

4. Every morning when I wake up I go straight into Mommy and Daddy's room while they are still asleep and turn on Playhouse Disney. I would watch it all day long if I could. I go to bed most nights only because I know when I wake up I can watch my favorite shows!

5. I love my new green Crocs so much that I get very upset with Mommy tries to take them off. I have been wearing them since Monday night and only will take them off to take a bath. I love to sleep with them because I know exactly where they are when I wake up!

Of course there are lots of other things that I absolutely love but I thought you only really needed the top 5.

Love, Andie

Busy Week

2009-01-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

The last 5 days have been busy and exhausting, to say the least. We got a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa Casper on Friday and had a great time with them. Friday, Saturday and Sunday was time with the extended family and of course lots and lots of stuffing our feelings with food (Casper traditions). Monday we finally got to sleep in and all went up to Cabella's which Grandpa and Andie both loved! Grandpa bought Andie a new pair of crocs because he thinks they are the greatest things ever invented and Andie would probably agree, they are bright green and Andie hasn't taken them off since Monday, yes, she even sleeps in them! Karen and I went to Rod Works (as always) and Karen got me a very cute Valentines wreath, thanks Grandma! Monday night we went over to Bob and Kel's for an amazing dinner and a viewing of this week's 24. They are so sweet and always have the BEST food. Thanks guys! Tuesday morning Grandma and Grandpa left us and went back home to San Diego :( We can't wait to see them again and hopefully go there to get to Disneyland because Andie and I are having with drawls!
Other than Cameron and I both being sick on and off since Sunday with some stomach issues we are all doing great. The kids are amazing and learning how to play great with one another. I will put up pictures tomorrow since I am almost too tired to function. Sorry if this post is terrible and makes no sense, I am trying to stay caught up.

Big Day

2009-01-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

This morning Cameron got a phone call for another job interview, hallelujah! He applied for the job back in October, called about it yesterday, was told no chance, then they called him this morning to come in for an interview. He would be working for Sundance Resort with the concierge service. It is a bigger deal than it sounds because he would be working as the stars, mostly Robert Redford, personal assistant (ie finding activities for them, places to eat, driving them into town, picking them up to take them to the slopes, running errands and crap like that for them). This job pays quite well and has great tip opportunities. He is waiting a call for the next interview, they told him he was advanced to the next round so to speak.
Brady is getting his first tooth in! Wow, I can't believe that it has taken this long but I am sad because this just means that he is growing that much more! Andie had her first tooth at I think 3 months and Brady is almost 6 1/2, I am thrilled that he isn't growing as fast. He loves being the baby and will still snuggle with me, which I absolutely adore! Brady is about as sweet as they come. Poor little guy has been sick for a while and I hope he gets over this nasty cold very soon.
Andie, where do I begin...She (we) had a very rough night last night. She was put to bed at 8:30 and was very quiet. I went to check on her at 11 before I went to bed to find her playing! I put her back to bed, told her to go to sleep and went to bed myself. 12:30am she starts crying and comes into my room. I woke up with her in my bed at 1:30am (I don't remember her getting into bed with me). Cameron takes her to her room and she screams bloody murder. After 15 mins of complete frustration, we finally get out of her that she got scared when she was sleeping (bad dream). The girl must have been terrified because no one went to bed until 3am! She woke up at 8:30am crying because she was so exhausted but wouldn't go back to bed. All day she was a dream child, I don't know how a night like that would make her so pleasant but it did. It was great. I put her to bed at 8:30 once again and she is fast asleep as I type this at 10:45. Hope tomorrow is just as great!
Amber. Nothing new with me. I am sick of being so fat. Considering doing something about it very soon. My house is a mess from my trip, still, and I don't feel like cleaning it since it just turns into a mess 30 mins later. Am I the only one with this problem?! How do kids do it? Why do they do it? I think it is time to go through the toys and get rid of some more. That is my solution, if the mess seems too big it's because we own too many toys! Now I have a huge urge to clean.

Wingers

2009-01-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

Cameron's uncle Bob called this afternoon and told him about a wing eating contest that was going on for his radio station at Winger's. If you win this round you go onto the finals February 7th and compete for a cruise. Since we weren't doing anything and I am all for a free cruise, we grabbed the kids and went to Provo so Cameron could eat his heart out. We figured, if anything, it would be a free meal. Cameron went on to win this round and is supposed to compete in the finals. We are not so sure that he will win the next time since Cameron ate 48 and the person to beat from the previous competition has 95 under his belt! How anyone could be capable of pounding that many wings in 13:20 is beyond me. If anything it was fun to get out and do something that we never in a million years would ever dream of doing.

Since you all may have forgotten how our kids look here are some pictures from today.

Brady in his PJ's downing a bottle before going to bed.
Andie found my nylons and thought it would be funny to try them on...it was hilarious!
(Ignore the absolutely scary hair!)

She has been doing really well with the potty training today so she got to wear big girl panties for the day!

Let's Go To Church!

2009-01-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

Boy was it a blast trying to get ready for church today! I must say, the end result was pretty dang cute though. We now have church at 1:00pm. What a terrible time with small children. You play all morning, then lay them down for naps just to have to wake them up to get dressed. We didn't' stay all three hours (shocker) because the kids have been really sick for the last few days and I didn't' want them to either get something new, or give what they have to someone else. Here are some pictures of the kids ready for church while we were waiting for Daddy to get his act together.

Andie looking cute in her leopard print dress.
Brady, handsome as could be. He also has penny loafers on and a tie that we couldn't find.
This was the best I could do as far as getting them both to smile at the same time.

Poor Sick Andie

2009-01-17T17:05:00.000-08:00

Last night Andie was very happy. She found Cameron's old BYU football helmet and was running around with it. She played and was her crazy normal self. She came into bed with me in the middle of the night and at 4 in the morning she woke up crying because her "ear hurts so bad!" Well crap! of course she would have an ear infection on a Saturday morning when I can't take her to the Dr.'s. I took both the kids in for their shots in Wednesday and thought, "Andie's had a nasty cold, I should have him check her ears just in case." But she just got her shot and no exam and honestly I didn't remember about it when the time came. I feel so bad, I could have nipped this in the bud before it got bad and saved myself the $20 co-pay that I can't afford on account of, CAMERON IS OUT OF WORK! So all we could do was call the Dr. and ask what we should do until Monday morning. I've been giving her lots of drugs and she seems to be doing well but still has a good fever of 102.7. Poor baby. I got up with Andie at 4 am watched TV and kept her happy. Cameron was so sweet and let me take two naps today to make up for the lack of sleep. Thanks honey! I can't wait for cold season to be over I am sick of the runny noses! Good luck to you all and your sick kids. Hope there are no ear infections. I have great sympathy for kids who have ear infections because when I was pregnant with Brady I got one and then got on a plane which made it 10 times worse. That pain was honestly worse than labor to me. I cried the entire plane ride with Andie on my lap. My ear wouldn't pop for a whole week. Have a great weekend I know I will!

Andie discovered the football helmet.

"Hi mom, take a picture!"

Poor sick girl. Passed out on the couch.

California Trip

2009-01-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

All is well with the Casper's. We have been out of town since the end of December. Went to San Diego to pick Cameron up from the boat and then drove up to Sacramento to spend time with my side of the family. We had a great time visiting with everyone and are sad to be back to reality. Cameron is diligently looking for work here in Utah since all the boat trips are cancelled until May. Things are going to be tough for a few months (again) but we know this is a blessing. We are so glad to have Cameron living with us again. I know he is looking forward to watching the kids grow up every day and getting to know us all again.

Brady just had his 6 month check up and he is progressing very well. He has an issue that we are trying to get straightened out and a nasty cold but other than that, we are grateful that he is an all around healthy happy boy. Here are his 6 month stats:

Weight: 19 pounds

Height: 30 inches

Yes he is a very tall boy!

Andie is improving her vocabulary every day which never ceases to amaze us and keeps us laughing at all times. Her new phrase with Cameron while pointing her finger at him: "no Daddy, you listen to me!" She loves to use the word "disgusting" and continues to love Brady. She has a fascination with Scooby Doo and loves to talk to him and give him commands. She gathers all her stuffed dogs and tells them to be nice to Scooby and no fighting. Then she walks out of the room and runs back in and scolds them saying, "I told you guys no fighting. Stop it or your getting a time out. One. Two. Three. That's it, go sit on the step!"

Andie's Quote of the Day January 16, 2009:

Andie was eating very sticky Scooby fruit snacks and one in particular wouldn't come off her left index finger. She tried to shake it off but once she realized it wasn't going any where she took her right index finger and tapped the Scooby snack saying: "Wake up Scooby snack, wake up! I told you, no sleeping!"

Here are a few pictures from our trip to California:

Brady enjoying the sun and his stroller!

Me and the kids on the beach at the Hotel Del.

Me and Andie in front of the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego.

Brady and Grandma Karen, he loves her!

Andie all dressed and so excited to go get Daddy from the boat!

Baby Peyton found a new way to take the toy to a new destination. What a sweet girl she is!

Andie with fun hair during bath time with the cousins.

JJ loving the bath tub. Such a funny little guy!

This is how Brady fell asleep today. I set him down and he leaned forward and crashed.

Brady is Crawling

2008-12-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

This was after our ward party on Thursday night. Cameron thinks that their outfits are gay, how could you think that they look bad?! Again I forgot to rotate the pic before I posted it. Oh well, you will have to learn to deal.

Brady keeps trying to sneak a peek at the gifts. I thought that it would be Andie who I couldn't keep away from the gifts but she actually doesn't even touch them!

Brady trying to use the baby doll's bink to fall asleep. He was almost there a few times but it was too small for his giant mouth!

He found one of Andie's thousand binky's and rather enjoyed it.

Yep, you read that right, our little Brady now ranks crawler. It has been so funny to see him become mobile and take things from Andie and giving her a hard time for a change. Yesterday I found him with her pink Binky in his mouth just minding his own business. He was playing with her baby doll and discovered that it had a Binky. He took the bink and tried falling asleep with it but couldn't keep it in his mouth!

On a side note: This morning Andie grabbed a pen and pad of paper wanting to draw. She said, "Mommy, I am going to draw a Nemo and a Dori!" She puts the pen to paper and is talking out loud as she draws, "there's his fin....there's his tail...here are his armpits...!"

Understanding Christmas

2008-12-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

In light of the up and coming holiday Andie has been learning all about Christmas and is starting to really put it all together. We read a book about snowmen and now when the snow is coming down she knows it is called snow but once it's on the ground she thinks it becomes a snowman. When we go to the store and she wants a toy she knows that she is going to have to ask Santa Clause for it instead. Before going to bed we read stories about the birth of Jesus and use props for visual aid (thanks grandma Karen), and now counts the wisemen one...two...three... She knows that we don't touch the gifts under the tree until Christmas day. She understands that the stocking with her name on it will stay empty until Santa comes to fill it up. She seems to pretty much get it all, or so we thought. Tonight as we were driving home from our ward Christmas party (yes, we really went), Andie was talking about how she saw Santa and said, "I don't want Santa to come to Andie's house and take her TV." Cameron and I looked at each other puzzled and asked her to repeat herself. "Andie don't want Santa Clause to come and take her TV!" Cameron is pretty sure that somewhere along the way Andie started thinking that Santa is a robber because he is going to come into the house while she is sleeping and touch our things. Every time Santa is brought up, she waves her hand and says, "don't want to give Santa Clause a kiss." Whoever said she had to kiss him?! I video taped Andie talking about Santa and a bunch of other random things. She also says hi to her cousins in California and Washington at the end. So cute! Adam, she really misses you!

Snow Cold!

2008-12-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's because we are from California, maybe it's because it is cold here, but the Casper's are FREEZING in Utah! We are having our first winter storm and I don't know how many more I can handle. Andie, who is never cold, is always cold. She wakes up in the middle of the night crying and when I go to check on her, it's cold in her room and she has no covers on. We do sleep with the heater at 71(any warmer and I could die) and the kids have warm footed PJ's on. What more can I do?

This morning Andie went with Cameron up to his grandparents to do some work and it was cold and the wind was blowing hard. I bundled Andie up nice and warm and she thought it was the greatest thing. She kept showing me her gloves in the first picture and then she was just showing me how cute she looked. Andie always has lots of fun with Daddy. They fixed Nana's toilets and then ate White Castle burgers dipped in ketchup which Andie thought were great because they are "small just like Andie!"

Brady: Already 5 Months Old

2008-12-13T22:25:00.000-08:00

I never do posts for Brady, poor second child! What they say about the second is true, you don't get the camera every time they have their first of something. However, I would like to say that I did grab the camera today when he sat by himself for the first time! He is such a great baby. Unbelievably happy all the time, loves to roll around on the floor for long periods of time, laughs at Andie when she does something funny, and always wakes up smiling ready for a new day. After a week of practice he has finally mastered the art of blowing raspberries and does it constantly. We think that it is the funniest thing because it is something Andie never did. We started him on solid foods about a month ago because he was ALWAYS hungry, go figure, with a last name like Casper whey wouldn't he want to eat a lot! He now thinks that he should be eating whatever we are eating and yells at me when I don't share. Sorry buddy.

He is a big time cuddler and finally learned how to fall asleep on his own, yeah! Andie has felt the need recently to go and sit with Brady while he is sleeping in his crib. That's right folks, she climbs up and gets in the crib with him just to 'hang out'! Brady does not like this, because like his momma he likes his sleep. He gets so upset by her sitting in there with him that it takes almost an hour for him to calm down enough to get back to sleep. The boy just can't get a break from his over baring sister!

We are so glad to have Brady as part of our family! We love you buddy!

The Kids Playing Catch

2008-12-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Brady LOVED playing catch with Andie. He thought it was so funny and kept cracking up. Of course once we got the camera out he was kind of over it. Figures!

He's Home!!!

2008-12-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Finally! Cameron is home! I am so excited to have him around for all the Christmas craziness I don't know how I would have done it by myself with the two kids. Andie couldn't be more excited to have her Daddy here. Whenever she gets in trouble by me she automatically yells for her dad like he is going to come and save her, which for the first day he did, boy did we have to cut that right out! I am glad that she misses him so much and loves when he is home. She wasn't always this way, in fact, a few months ago she was not happy when he would come home. She would get very jealous every time he would come near me, not anymore, she can't get enough of him. I am thrilled that she loves her daddy, nothing is more sweet than seeing the two of them together. I love having the extra set of hands. I love that when Brady wakes up I can say, "honey, can you go up and get him?" I love that Cameron takes on diaper duty with a smile on his face (after Andie's most recent poop incidences I couldn't be more relieved), I love that I can leave the kids at home and run errands by myself, I love that he takes out the garbage, I love that he does the dishes, I love that he cleans the toilets, I love love love that I get to sleep in a few times a week! I love that he can see when I am frustrated with the kids and takes Andie to the park to get her out of my hair. I love that he does all the things I can't stand to do (clean the old food out of the fridge). Cameron I love having you home. Thank you for all the hard work you do when you are home and away. We love and appreciate you! We can't wait for you to find a job closer to home so we can see you more. Until then, we will just anxiously await your arrivals and cherish the time we do get with you.

R.I.P. Croc Pooh

2008-12-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ok so I know this sounds really strange, so let me explain. Last time we were in San Diego with Cameron's sister, Grandpa Bill bought all the girls new crocs (because he is obsessed) and they each got two new charms, or whatever they are, to put on the crocs. Andie picked out the Pooh bear and Nemo and we put one on each shoe. Everytime she can't find a croc she refers to it as her "pooh croc" or "nemo croc". She loves these little charms and often looks down at them in the car and converses with them. She is very polite and waits for them to speak before she answers back. The dialogue goes something like this:

"Hey pooh. Hi buddy."

I guess he says hello back

"Hi there Nemo."

He says hi

"How you guys doing down there? You ok Pooh? You ok Nemo?"

They must be doing great

"Good. We going to go to the store? You want to go to Target?"

They are clearly thrilled!

"Me too. "

(She also talks to family on her fake phone like this).

Today Andie came to me clearly upset. When I asked what was wrong she said pooh was hurt and handed me his head. Poor Pooh! I told her we would have to throw him away and get a new one next time we were out. She requested we take a picture, which I thought was thoughtful. I don't know if it is for her or Nemo on the other shoe! Well I am sure Nemo will be joining Pooh in 'Croc charm heaven' soon since he now gets extra TLC!

Andie's Quote of the Day: Sunday, 12/07/2008

2008-12-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

Every night for the last week we drive around once it's dark out and look for Christmas lights. Andie looks forward to this and it helps calm her down and ready for bed. She has her favorite houses and gets so excited each night like it is the first time ever seeing Christmas lights.

Amber: "Oh look at that one Andie! Look how pretty."
Andie: "Oh so bud-i-ful!"
Amber: "Oh that house has lots of colors."
Andie: "That one looks like a bir-day-cake mommy!"

Andie's Football

2008-12-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, my 2 year old daughter has a huge obsession with watching football! She knows that on Sunday after church there will be a good game on. She gets undressed, turns on the TV, plays with the remote until she finds a game, gets comfy on the couch, and yells at the game like she is her Daddy. Today she asked, "mom who's that?" "the Steelers" I say. "Gooooooo Steeeeewers!" as she goes wild. During a play she yells, "run. run. run." when the play is over, "that was a BIG run!" She usually is picking her toes by this point as if she is bored by the game, looks up from what she's doing, and yells, "Come on guys. Get a touchdown!" Finally when the crowd goes wild, she stands on the couch, hands over her head and yells, "TOUCHDOWN!!!"
Let me just say, I am thrilled that she and her dad share the same passion for football, but even when Cam isn't home I can't get away from it. I can't stand how long the games are, how loud the crowd is in the background, how short the plays are, how much waiting around happens while everyone gets back in position so they can play for another 3 seconds before someone has to be carried off the field because they sustained a TOE injury and might be out the rest of the season! Not only that, I can't figure the game out so that I might be able to enjoy it just a little more. I am glad that football season is almost over so that I don't have to hear about it anymore from Cameron or Andie and then it starts all over again come August. Oh joy!

Casper Elves

2008-12-06T08:00:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Tales of the Stinky Poop!

2008-12-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

So Cameron is gone again, (shocking!) and Andie has had poop gross outs 3 times this week! The first time I was getting Brady dressed and she pooped in the tub! She decided it was too yucky to sit with so she threw it out of the tub onto the floor. I was so grossed out! We picked up the poop, flushed it down the potty, and scrubbed the tub out with "toxic" chemicals. That very same day she took her poopy diaper off, and was running around with poop bum for who knows how long before I discovered her. We found the diaper and luckily nothing fell out, I told her the next time she does it she will have her diaper duct tapped on her! This morning Andie was up before me and running around being quiet, I was so pleased that she was letting me sleep! She kept saying she had no diaper on, I asked her to bring me one...no diaper. I asked again, no diaper. Finally, she brought me one of Brady's and wanted me to put it on. I told her it wasn't going to fit and this upset her so she went to wipe the tears from her eyes and then I saw them...poopy hands! I popped out of bed and demanded to know where the diaper had been left, no answer. So I threw her in the tub and ran downstairs, there it was, sitting in the living room open in all its brown glory! Next to it was a giant spot of smeared poop! I wrapped up the diaper and went to clean her up in the tub because she was going to help clean up this nasty mess. With the shower curtain open I hosed her off (because she hates the shower) and we had some words. I reminded her that she would now have to have her diapers taped shut for a while and this devastated her. I don't think she knew what it meant but she could tell I was pissed. I grabbed her clothes, a fresh diaper, and a roll of packing tape (unfortunately I don't have duct tape, but I will!). I put the diaper on and taped it shut, this didn't bother her, in fact when I changed her again she reminded me "don't forget my big sticker!" She also told Brady "I have a sticker on my pants!"
I am sure you are asking, "it seems like she it ready to potty train, why don't you just put her on the toilet?" I do, several times a day in fact. She was doing really well for a while, I blogged about it, and now she has quit...again! It upsets me that Cameron gets to be gone for all this crap, literally, and when he's home Andie doesn't do anything that even comes close. I can't help but wonder, "Am I the only person who's child does such gross things when it comes to their diaper?" Please, do share you tales of horror with me, make me feel better!

3rd Day of Black Eye

2008-11-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

The eye looks even worse than before. It is starting to go down into her face. Poor girl, she is being so good about it though.

It is spreading to her left eye as well.

Brady was just being so cute I couldn't resist!

I ended up taking Andie to the Dr. on Friday cause she was looking really swollen and I wanted to make sure her eye was not damaged. The Dr. said her whole right side of her face looked very swollen, more than it should, and he was worried that she may have hurt the back of her head as well since that is the only thing she complains hurts. So he sent us to get some x-rays done and we have to have a follow up with an eye specialist. Go figure. This is her second major injury where we have had several Dr. appointments and x-rays. The first was when she was 15 months, she fell off the piano bench while sitting with my dad. She cried and cried and was very cautious with her arm, the next morning I knew something must be wrong cause she wouldn't move it. Turns out she broke both bones in her arm and was in a cast for 4 weeks. I am glad she is ok but when the bills start coming...oh boy, what an expensive child she has been!

Black Eye!

2008-11-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

This morning.

This is this morning.

This is from last night.

My poor baby has a terrible black eye. Last night we ran to Wal-Mart to get a few items and Andie saw some wrapping paper that was of interest. I told her to leave it alone and sit down, well she put it back and as she was sitting down she lost her footing and fell out of the cart straight on her head! I picked her up to see that she just got a bump on her forehead and was so relieved that she didn't break her neck. She cried and cried, which who could blame her, and as we were walking out of the store I noticed that her right eye was a little swollen, she must have hit that too. We got home within 5 minutes and she could no longer open her eye. I tried to put some ice on it to keep it from swelling shut but that was not going to happen. We also tried just a cold rag, no way! She settled for Motrin and went to bed once we determined she didn't have a concussion. Now this morning her eye is the color of red wine. Poor thing. She is being so good and is acting like her normal self. She likes to look at herself in the mirror and try to force her eye open. So here are some pics of the damage:

MMM Yummy!

2008-11-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

I have this new recipe for Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes that are so yummy and would make a great Thanksgiving breakfast. I made them last night to see if I could master it, and I did!

Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes
1 C flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 T sugar
**Mix together in a bowl

1 egg
1 C milk
1/4 C sour cream
1/4 C pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
1 T melted butter
1 T vanilla
1/2 -3/4 C chopped pecans
**Mix together and slowly whisk in the dry ingredients

Spray pan, heat until water drops sizzle. You can either place 1 t of nuts on grill and spoon 1/4 C of batter over them, mix the nuts in the batter (but they sink to the bottom), or just put the chopped nuts over top of the finished pancake.

Vanilla Sauce:
1/2 C sugar
1 T corn starch
1 C water
1 t pumpkin pie spice
**Mix in a saucepan. Cook, stirring often, over medium heat until thick and bubbling. Remove from heat
2 T butter
1 T vanilla
**Stir in butter and vanilla until butter melts.

I think these would be so yummy as dessert, maybe even with ice cream on top!

Girls Day Out!

2008-11-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

My sweet little Andie has been trying to talk me into getting rid of Brady for the past week and half and when she was gung ho on going to see Madagascar 2 I sent him to the babysitters. I was so excited to have a girls day with her and have some one on one time. We got to the theatre and Andie was so excited she could hardly stand it! We got our tickets and then she saw the popcorn, so I spoiled her with a $5.25 tub of popcorn and we were on our way. We were walking down the hall and before we could get to the theatre our movie was playing in, tears welled up in her eyes and she said, "no ma-agascar, no ma-agascar!" and when I asked her what was wrong she said, "Andie soooo scared!" I tried to tell her that it would be fun once we got in there and she would like the movie and could eat all the popcorn she wanted but she didn't budge. Eventually we went back to the ticket counter and got a refund, yes they really do do it! So naturally, we spent the day shopping! Mostly putting together an "Andie's craft box" for snowy days. She is so excited to use the construction paper especially the red one!

Dr. Appointments

2008-11-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

Today was Andie's 2 year check up and Brady's 4 month. The kids were good for the most part. Andie didn't want to do anything until after Brady had done it, funny I thought. The kids are all around very healthy. Brady has some eczema but the Dr. said that we were doing the perfect thing with rubbing him down with petroleum jelly after his baths. He said Brady is long and skinny (woohoo, lucky him) and Andie is all around a big girl (not fat, she is very proportionate), she looks more like a 3 year old than a 2 year old (sorry sweetie). Andie speaks better than she should and has nice teeth. The tantrums (which have started up again) are going to come and go so we need to continue to ignore them and discipline when they occur. Brady has started to wake up in the middle of the night because he is growing so fast that just milk isn't keeping him full anymore, so I can start giving him baby food. They both got shots, Andie is a little behind on hers so she still gets them, poor baby. I have decided that they are worse when they can talk. I had to help hold her down and she said, "mommy hurt Andie!" She cried for a second but has complained a few times that her leggies hurts. Sorry Andie! Brady takes the shots like a champ, he cried when they were going in but stops the second they are done, what a man!

Andie's 2 year stats:
Length: 37 in. (off the charts, or well above the 97th percentile)
Weight: 31.6 lbs (90th percentile)
Head: 50 cm (just plain BIG)

Brady's 4 month stats:
Lenght: 27 in. (95th percentile)
Weight: 15 lbs (60th percentile)
Head: 42.5 cm (pretty big)

Andie's potty update:
Andie no longer is a fan of wearing clothes period! She has informed me that she doesn't like to wear a diaper and wants panties. In order to prepare for her panties, she has been running around naked for a few hours every day with the promise to sit on the potty every 20 mins and try to go. We have had great success over the last 3 days with a few peed diapers and NO POOPS in the diaper! I can't tell you how wonderful this has all been for me. I hate changing her dirty diapers. Yesterday while running naked, Andie wore just her snow boots, hilarious! Of course I took pictures but opted to not post them on my blog since it is public.