Dancin' Simon

Simon discovered that one of our ornaments plays "Happy Holidays." We took turns pushing the button to hear the music while the other one danced. He thought it was hilarious! And for him, the song never gets old. : ) You'll be able to tell which was his favorite line of the song. Enjoy!

Mud Room Makeover

I love that our house has a mud room/laundry room. And that it has a door between it and the kitchen to hide the mess that sometimes accumulates there as shown here:

We come home from work, take off our shoes and coats and just leave them in the mud room. But when it was time for me to go back and forth with laundry, I was always tripping over shoes. So I decided it was time for an inexpensive mud room makeover.

We had a nine-cubby (does anyone else remember calling them a 'cubby hole' when you were in grade school?) shelf in the laundry room closet that was already housing our extra shoes, boots, etc. Mark and I cleaned it out and brought it to the mud room. We moved the bench that his uncle made into the kitchen (more on that another day) and added a $13.99 coat hook board at kid level for Simon's coats. Here is the end result:

No more tripping over shoes and the room feels much larger now! Simon thinks it's cool to put his shoes in their own special place (at least for now!)

I love watching DIY shows/HGTV, etc. and this is just the first of a few ideas that I have. I'll keep posting as I tackle the projects. I just love projects that I can see through from start to finish in a short period of time. Do you have any projects you're working on?

Happy Thanksgiving

Feeling deep gratitude for family and friends, near and far. Just some random photos of some of the people I hold close in my heart ...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you're able to be with those you love this holiday season.

Flashback Friday

Home with Simon this afternoon because day care is closed. We've got two of his little friends with us -- we try to help each other when we can so that we don't all have to take time off from work. I tried putting all three boys down for a nap together in the same room, just like at day care. I made three little beds on the floor. Two little boys fell asleep very quickly and quietly. One did not. Oh my. Reminded me of when Simon first came home with us and I worked very hard to get him to take a nap. I think he was hyper-vigilant, trying to keep himself awake so that he would know what was going on. It eventually got easier but today was tough. I ended up moving him to our bed so that at least Conner and Elliott could sleep peacefully. Anyway, it made me want to look at photos of Simon from when we first met him. Mark had been looking at photos earlier this week and remarked at how much of Simon's personality was already showing when we were just getting to know each other. He's right. This first photo was about 3 hours into us being together as a family in Ethiopia.

And this one was from Thanksgiving week last year. He looks about the same, he's just about 4-5 inches taller!

And this one was taken at a Panera on our way to visit my family in PA for the first time in May 2010.

And this last one from his first haircut in May 2010. Love that chubby little face!

Happy weekend, everyone! Cheers for naps, sunshine in November and a short work week next week!

Superman

Super Simon paid us a visit tonight. Here are just two of the six or so clips that I have. Note the feety pajamas peaking out from under the Superman costume. I love the weekends when we have time to goof around like this!

Simon the Photographer, Part II

One night while Mark was cooking dinner, Simon told me that he wanted to go outside and take some pictures. So we grabbed the camera and I followed him around the yard. It was fun to see what he chose to photograph. We started in the backyard and worked our way around the side of the house to the front and back to the garage.

Please excuse our messy garage. : ) The riding toys have taken over. I love Simon's imagination and encouraging him in the activities that interest him. He has been quite the camera hog lately and it's so fun to see him improve in his skills, like framing us in the photos and not cutting off our heads. He is so proud of himself when he learns something new. And his attention to detail is amazing! OK -- I'll get down from my proud Mama box now. : )

Simon the Photographer, Part I

Simon has really been into using the camera lately. He is especially fond of taking self-portraits and photos of me and Mark. Here are a few recent photo sessions by Simon. And as a side note, if Simon is in the photo, he was serving in the role of 'director' and was telling us what to photograph.

And a photo of his Friday night snack ... some Halloween candy and his cup of milk.

Mr. Dumbo his elephant is also a favorite subject.

Stay tuned for Part II -- our trip around the yard with Simon taking photos as we walked.