Where does he get this stuff?

Get ready, I have to talk about Paden again. This kid cracks me up. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff but he is so funny. At least that's what I think. I have a few little stories about this boy. Back to Christmas. One of our decorations is a fiber optic Santa in a truck with a few reindeer and a Christmas tree. Well last year Paden broke a couple of the antlers off the reindeer. So this year the rule was that only Mommy and Daddy could touch the Santa truck. One night after bath Paden was getting his jammies on. They happened to be his Batman jammies. As soon as we were finished zipping them up he walked over and started to play with the Santa truck. I asked him if he was supposed to play with the truck and this was his reply, "But I'm Batman". I then told him it didn't matter who he was he still couldn't play with the truck. Then I promptly turned around so I could start laughing.

A few weeks later we had some spaghetti for dinner. Paden finished his pretty quick and walked over to ask Daddy for a bite.

Paden: I have a bite please.

Daddy: Sorry Buddy. Daddy is a little sick and I don't want you to get sick too.

Paden: But I already coughing. (Fake cough, cough)

Daddy: (laughing)

I don't know how he comes back with stuff so fast. He never misses a beat.


One day Paden came into our room pretty early. I had gone walking that morning but got back while everyone was still sleeping so I curled up on the couch with a blanket. Anyway, Kirk turned on some cartoons for Paden. A few minutes later he told Paden he was going to go take a shower and asked if Paden wanted to come too. Paden's response? "I can't take a shower because I am just a small boy. Small boys just take baths." He's just a small boy. Not a little boy, a small boy. I thought that was so funny.

The kids love to sit on the heater with a blanket. It's a Tracy family tradition. Kirk has passed that on so faithfully. The other day during quiet time the heater turned on. I didn't even notice. I did however notice Paden trying to open his door. Kirk let him know that it was quiet time and he needed to play in his room. Right away Paden's response was, "But the heater's on". We started laughing and then Kirk went and showed Paden that he has his own heater in his room. Ever since then I walk into Paden's room after quiet time and find his little blanket and pillow laying on the floor in front of the heater.

I don't know if I am the only one that finds this funny or not but I think the kid is a hoot. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us. Sometimes it makes me a little scared to think that he is only 2 1/2 and can have a comeback in no time flat. It makes me wonder if I want to know what he has in store. I am so grateful to have my little monkeys. And I am extra grateful for all the laughs.

2 years in the making!!!

As many of you know Kirk and I bought a house almost 3 years ago. We took 7 months remodeling the house and moved in 3 days before Christmas 2006. The remodel was of course bigger and more expensive than we had originally planned and we ended up running out of money. We were able to get the house into a livable condition and continued to do the little jobs that were left. Well there are still little jobs to be done but the biggest thing of all was recently completed. Yes we ran out of money prior to our kitchen being done. For 2 years we lived with what I liked to call a high class camp kitchen. It worked and I was very grateful that we had what we did. But let me tell you this, it in no way compares to a real kitchen. First I will take you down memory lane before showing you the final result.

Here is the cooking area and the pots and pans "cabinet". Nice, huh? We didn't have a full size stove and oven. We had the toaster oven and the single burner. It's hard to see but it's there right in front of the tea kettle.

This is our sink and where we stored the canned food and such.

Here is the computer area and the door to the basement.

Well now that you've been reminded of where we came from allow me to introduce you to NOW!!!

Here is our new cooking area and our real cabinets for pots and pans and all sorts of other things!! It's totally awesome!

Our new sink!! And yes that is a DISHWASHER!!!! It's awesome!

And here is our pantry. I love it. It is so nice to have so much space.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the desk area. We have 2 large cabinets above the desk and a new desk that isn't falling apart. It is so fantastic and truly a dream come true. I still find myself going and standing in the kitchen just to look at it. I also open and close the cupboards just because they are there. I love coming home from the grocery store and being able to put the things away and not just on the counter. Before on the counter was put away. I am so grateful that we finally saved up enough money to make this dream come true.

Pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Okay, we finally got our camera program back on the computer so here are the last few months of our lives. I am not going to write a ton. Just a few explanations. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The kids helped Kirk rake the front yard. As you can tell by their faces they were having a BLAST!! I love these pictures. I had such a hard time narrowing them down. That's why there are so many.

Paden was almost a pirate instead of Batman for Halloween. The whole thing was so cute on him. He still wears it now.

We FINALLY got our kitchen!! This is a teaser. I am not actually going to show any kitchen pictures yet because this is going to be my next posting. Sorry Lindsey.

During the kitchen install the kids had many a picnic in the living room. They loved it, my carpet suffered.

Ellie and Daddy started having dates at Home Depot. This was their first project. These activities are the first Saturday of the month and they are free. Kids ages 5 to 12. They let Ellie sneak in a little early.

We went to see Santa at Mall 205. He is a great Santa. We actually got in trouble for taking this picture because we didn't pay for them to take a picture. You can only take your own pictures if you pay them to take a picture too. Personally I wasn't going to pay 20 dollars for a picture of both our kids staring off into the distance. I'd rather take my own for free.

We too were hit by the "Winter Blast 2008". Here is Paden all ready to head outdoors.

This was just the first day so things really hadn't started yet.

Here was after a couple of days. Apparently our ducks a really stupid. They forgot to fly south!

Here are the kids sledding in our yard. It is hard to see but our patio actually has steps up to it. It is not level with the ground. Just to give a little idea of how deep things were.

Ellie's snow angel.

Paden's

You can see a little easier how deep things were. My car was completely snowed in. We couldn't get it out for a week or so.

Just some of the pile up on our water jugs.

Here are some Christmas pictures. I won't talk about every one.

The kids had so much fun with the snow. Unfortunately they both had pretty good cold through most of it so they didn't get to play in it as much as I would have liked to. They both ended up getting ear infections.

Paden was unfortunately allergic to the antibiotic. He was covered head to toe in horrible hives. The Dr told us to use Zyrtec because it was the best antihistamine. Although Paden looked horrible he didn't itch. He would just start to get itchy when it was time to give the medicine again. He cleared up in 3 days. I was so grateful!! The pictures don't do them justice.

He stayed in good spirits the whole time. I was so happy that he wasn't miserable.

And last but not least here is a picture of the belly. This is 24 weeks!! I don't know what the face is that I am making. Oh well.

There you have it. I am hoping that our computer doesn't crash on us again. Not that this very long post wasn't fun and all but I like the fast ones better!!

What?

Today I was putting Paden down for nap and the following conversation took place.

Me: Paden get your finger out of your nose.

Paden: I have to get the bees out.

Me: You don't have any bees in your nose.

Paden: They are trying to get the honey.

Me: What honey?

Paden: The honey they put in my nose. They want it back.

Me: You don't have honey in your nose. Please get your finger out.

Paden: They put the honey in there. They are buzzing.

Me: Just go to sleep. We'll get the bees out later.

Paden: There is honey in my mouth too.


What? Where did that whole thing come from? I know he talks about bees all the time but I have no clue what gave him the idea that he has honey in his nose and bees that are after it. He is so weird. Where did he come from? I blame Kirk.

On a side note we finally have our camera program back on the computer. Get ready for a very long and picture filled post. I have pictures from November that are still on the camera. I can't wait to get everything downloaded onto the computer. Maybe I can do it tonight after the kids are in bed. Check in again tomorrow!!