Happy Birthday!

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

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!

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!