Welcome the new year!

Well the Christmas season is over, and the new year is officially here.  For most people the day after Christmas means shopping all day for discounted wrapping paper, Christmas ornaments, and holiday decorations.  But here at the Seymour house the day after Christmas means party planning! Brody's birthday is the last weekend of January, so that means only a month to plan a fantastic party! This year I started way WAY early (yeah for being organized!) I started back in November.  I originally wanted to do a LEGO party, or a Batman party because Brody loves both.  But as I started searching on line for cute party ideas, I ran across this really cute party idea from Bliss Bloom Blog I immediately fell in love with this party idea, mostly because Brody always says he's a man not a little boy, and because he loves wearing ties (he has to even wear one to the grocery store).  So the party planning began! I used her templates for the super cute glasses, mustaches, and lips. I made my own tie template for the tie banner, and found a cute font online and printed out my Happy Birthday Brody letters, then traced them and cut them out of card stock.  I also searched online for more cute party ideas and found these cute websites Event Lucky I loved this site....the little boy with the hat is so adorable, and I loved the tie cookies, 'stache suckers, and the hanging frame for taking pictures.  All such great ideas!! Courtney at Pizzazzerie posted this really cute version of the lil' man theme from Cakes like a Party, I love the houndstooth theme, the ties for invitations, and Annika's cute tie skirt all so cute! Our party will be pretty big, we have a huge family and Brody has quite a few friends.  Our normal party turn out is 40, 18 of which are kids! So back in November I bought the tie and 'stache cookie cutters, 'stache & lips chocolate sucker molds, and even some fake stick on mustaches from Amazon.  Then went to Hobby Lobby and found some very cute tie and dress shirt looking paper for the invitations, tie banner, ties on the goodie bags, cupcake wrappers, and food tags.  So now I have been a very busy lady crafting my invitations and other party decorations.  As I get finished with my projects I'll post some pics and maybe even a few tutorials!

Potty Training

We have hit a milestone here at the Seymour house. Our oldest little boy has begun an adventure of a life time, well at least his biggest adventure so far....Potty training. I was not so sure what to expect going into it, or really the do's or don'ts of training someone to potty. And since I stay home with them, and Wes is working a lot, I knew it would be mostly up to me to get him trained. My biggest fear of the potty training was what to do when we go in public?? Since 75% of the time it would just be me with the boys, and Marak is SO hard to keep still or even to get him to listen. Marak is what I like to call a runner, as soon as he gets the chance to be out of the shopping basket or stroller, he runs for dear life to get away and explore. So after several weeks of pottying at home and having him be able to tell me when he needs to go, and not having any accidents, I decided to test it out in public. I decided my best shot of this would be late morning when everyone is at work. So we went to walmart.....as soon as we got there I asked Brody if he had to go and he said yes. So off to the bathroom we went! And as I guessed, as soon as Marak was down and in the bathroom he tried to make a run for it. But after a stern talking to and giving him the stink eye he complied and watched his big brother go potty! It was a success!! So now going out in public with a potty trainer isn't so bad. Brody has really done very well, and we have had only 1 accident in 2 weeks! He is even taking naps in underwear. I am so proud of my little pottier!

Staying Home

It is official....I am now a stay at home mom!!! I finally made the leap to leave the corporate world for the potty training world. Monday was my first official day at home, and we celebrated with a trip to the zoo! We had so much fun. My grandmother, mom and little brother came with us. The boys were so good, they hardly made a peep! They were so excited about seeing all of the animals. It was such a wonderful way to celebrate being a stay at home mom. The rest of the week has been pretty busy, much more than I thought it would be. It is so relaxing to not have to plan anything and not worry about the silly things like, pricing hose kits and planning productions schedules. My days used to filled with such stress, if I couldn't make things happen then a major oil company would have a unit down and be out tons of money. Now may days are filled with potty training, the wonder pets, baking cakes, and two precious little boys. SO MUCH BETTER!

The cakes have picked up so much. Next week I have a baby shower cake, wedding cake, grooms cake, and a birthday cake...oops make that two birthday cakes. So it will be busy and the little boys will be excited to taste test the cake batter and the frosting. And I will get to anxiously await hearing Brody say... "Mom this is really good birthday party!" As he is licking cake batter off of the whippers. He says it every time I make cake, and I just love hearing it! I have started a website for the cake business, if you would like to check it out you can go to http://www.katycakes.org/. I am also thinking about opening an account on etsy.com and selling fondant cupcake toppers. Does any of you use etsy to sell anything on it? Or have even heard of etsy?

Well now that I am staying home be looking forward to much more smelly boy stories, and some baking too!!

A funny thing happened

It has been awhile since my last post. We have been so busy lately. Any free time I have had, I have been studying, trying to hurry up with my class so I can start staying home with the kiddo's. Wes has been working out of town a lot too lately, he just got back from Washington. Then came Memorial weekend...which was SO busy for us. Wesley's dad came down to visit, and we had our niece's birthday party. She turned 13, I remember when I turned 13 seems like forever ago!

I just have to share a funny story about the kids.....Last night we had to do our grocery shopping, and I didn't want to wait on Wes so the boys and I went after work. We stopped off at Mc Donalds for a treat for the boys (which was the first time ever to take them there.....I am not a fan of McDonalds and hate for the kids to eat it) but Brody saw the big M in the sky and asked for french fries. Then it was off to Sams, then to Target. While at Target the boys were starting to get tired and we were just about threw with our shopping when we had to get the bread. So I hand Brody the loaf and tell him to hold on to it, and DON"T squish it! So he says, "okay momma" in his super cute little voice. We ran into the nicest man in the bread aisle who commented on the boys and how it looked like I have my hands full with them (they were going bonkers by this point) so then we finished our shopping and headed off to the check out lanes. We saw the man again at the check out lane, he ended up behind us in line. So we chit chatted some more as I unloaded the groceries out of the cart with the help of Brody who was standing in the basket. That is when I saw our loaf of bread.... I guess Brody had gotten tired of sitting on the hard cart bottom, and decided to use the loaf of bread as a cushion! When I saw it I started laughing so hard, that poor man looked at me like I was crazy! So I lifted up the bread so he could see that it was flatter than a pancake. The nice man sprinted back to the bread aisle and exchanged it for us... but I could not stop laughing.... I laughed, and laughed all the way home. And even when I think about how flat that bread was today, I can't stop chuckling!!!

Family Night!!

Tonight we did one of my favorite things...Family Night. Now that the boys are a bit older I like to do something together as a family. Usually Family night occurs right before Wes has to work out of town. It's a good way to send him off, and it gives the boys something fun to do with their dad. So tonight we decided to take the boys out for pizza. It is hard to go out to eat with the boys, there are limited places we can go because Brody is such a picky eater. So we usually have to go somewhere where we can get pizza (and that has to look just so so or he won't eat it) or somewhere where he can get chicky fries (chicken & french fries). We have LOTS of issues with Brody and food so you never know if or what he will eat. So he normally determines where we go.

This is Wes and Brody before we ate.

This is Wes helping Brody eat, his pizza was too hot so he made Wes hold it for him while he ate. Even after it cooled down, he still made Wes hold it. I was cracking up, it was too cute!

Brody saw his dad putting the "fake" Parmesan cheese on his pizza, and he had to do it too. He liked it so much that he had to sprinkle it on every time he went to take a bite. He even started to pour it on his hand and lick it off. Which really surprised me because the kid likes his food very bland, or it has to have sugar poured all over it before he will eat it. I am afraid he gets the sugar thing from me. He was just born to be that way, while I was pregnant with him, I kid you not the only things I wanted to eat were chocolate, sugar, french fries, and cheeseburgers. I had to have chocolate every day!!

This is what Marak was doing while we were eating. Don't let this picture fool you, he scarfed down his pizza. But while he was doing so he was turned around in his chair watching football on the big screen. Which is really funny because we can't get him to sit down and watch anything at home. I guess he really likes football, he should, he is built like a line backer.

After we got done eating we had to do some grocery shopping. Out of everything in the store Marak latched onto this bottle of coke and wouldn't let it down. He even had to have it with him in the car, and play with it before he went to bed. Nothing like cheap entertainment :) It was a great night, great way to spend it before Wes is out of town. Now the kids are passed out and Wes is packing...that's right I said packing. He is even doing some last minute laundry so that he can pack it too!!! Men! When will they ever be prepared??

Bad Bad Boy!

For the fist time ever, but certainly not the last time...my little boy broke my heart. As I have come to find out parenting is not always rainbows and kittens. The other night we decided to have a family movie night with the boys, Wes was about to leave on a golf trip. So we thought we had better do something fun with the boys before he left and they wouldn't see him for awhile. We popped our popcorn and put in a new movie we bought just for the occasion. My little boys love animals (they must get that from their dad) so we thought we would get them Brother Bear. Our thinking was bear movie + their love of animals = great movie night. Which it did turn out to be fun, the boys liked it, and it was a good way to send their dad off. However, after watching the movie my 2 yr. old picked up on a new word....SHUT UP! A couple of the characters in the movie get into a play fight and start telling each other to SHUT UP. My son thought it was funny. Well he decided to start using the word.

Here he is looking all sweet and innocent in his favorite tie.

Don't let the picture fool you, on this night he was no angel. He got in trouble for pushing his brother down for the millionth time. So I took away his toy (buzz light year), which made him start to scream and cry like a crazy man. So I told him to go lay down on the couch until he could contain himself. So he decided to march himself to the couch, lay down and yell SHUT UP!! SHUT UP!!.

Did you hear that, that sound was my heart breaking. So I very calmly went over to him and marched him to his room where he had to lay down in bed for about 10 min (when he stopped crying), then had a long, very LONG talk with him on why we can't say mean things like shut up. So in my long speech, I told him that he hurt mommy's feelings. His response was " I kiss, it!! Sorry momma!!"

So needless to say I am very irritated with kids movies, why do they put material in it that isn't appropriate for children to say or do?? If they are going to put adult material in it, then they need to say that it is for adults and not for children.

My Little Helpers

This past week I had to make a cake for a lady at work. So on the evening I had to bake my cake, my little helpers heard me in the kitchen pulling out the mixer. They know what that sound means. When they hear the mixer being pulled out on the counter they know that good things are to follow! Brody my oldest LOVES to help me cook, it doesn't matter if it is something sweet and delicious or something he hates like meatballs. Either way he is in the kitchen with me watching and helping. His favorite thing to do is to stir the mixing bowl or anything else as long as he can stir something.

This is a photo of my little helpers in action. Marak is to small still to sit on the counter, and if he wasn't able to see what was going on he would stand at my feet holding onto my legs and cry until he was held up so he could see. And since he weighs a TON, he gets in the high chair.

And in case you were wondering this is what happens when your 2 year old loves helping and decides to help crack an egg! It was funny we all smiled and laughed. After that Brody didn't want to crack anymore eggs, the slimy egg creeped him out!

This morning

This morning like most week day mornings started off with a bang! My oh so sweet little angels decided it would be a good idea to reset our alarm clock, so I ended up waking up an hour late!! I guess last night while my husband was putting up laundry they were conspiring against us. So as I wake up in a panic I frantically hop in the shower and get around. As I was finishing up Marak woke up crying, saying "momma, momma, mommma, mommma!" So I take Marak from Wes, just as Brody wakes up too! So Wes helps me take the kiddo's to the couch so that they can watch t.v. while I start on breakfast and making our lunches. When I tell Wes the time, his panic sets in and he too starts frantically getting ready too! In the mean time, I am starting breakfast, and starting our lunches. Marak finds the remote and turns off Dora, which make Brody mad. So I turn it back on, but instead of Dora I put on Diego (they are all the same, and I couldn't remember in my panic state which one he was watching) So as I am going back to the kitchen, I hear in a whine "NO, I not want it, I not want diego!!!!" So we compromised with a movie...UP" So as I once again try to get lunches made and some breakfast ate. Marak starts crying and wants to be held. So I ended up holding him all morning as I ran around frantically getting ready. Brody decided he wanted to eat my breakfast, then after I gave it to him he spit it all out back in my bowl with a "YUCK! Gross mommma, this is YUCKIE!!!) he didn't care for the nuts in my oatmeal, go figure! So then our neighbor came over and grinded us some coffee beans, and we made coffee....then she took the kids next door for daycare. Phew we made it I thought to myself! The kids left with kisses for momma, and some LUV U's too. Then I ran to the back of the house threw on some clothes (I have a rule to NEVER get dressed until you are walking out the door....too many mis-haps with the kids) ran to the kitchen, started looking for my ear ring in the fridge (ment to open up the junk drawer in the kitchen, but my panicked state made me open the fridge) couldn't find it. So I made my coffee in my to go cup, grabbed my lunch. Then got a kiss, hug, slap on the rear, and an I LOVE YOU from my hubby. And I was off to work, which by the way when I got here I found some oatmeal in my hair! Guess Brody felt bad for eating mine then spitting it back out in my bowl so he left me some for later! Couldn't imagine a better way to start off the day!