Picture Update and Halloween cookies!

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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...