It Looks Like Somebody's Ready For A Big Boy Bed

Many, many months ago, Caden was trying to get out of his crib and kind of hurled himself over the side, resulting in a bit of a violent crash-landing onto the floor. Well, the fear and the pain caused by the failed crib dismount sufficiently discouraged him from trying this again. So imagine my surprise this morning when he casually strolled out of his room; like getting himself out of bed is something that he does every day. He was grinning from ear to ear, and it was clear that he was very, very pleased with himself for this achievement.

I asked him to show me how he got out of his crib, and he was very eager and happy to demonstrate his new skill. The reenactment was just so cute that I thought I'd video it, so I grabbed my camera, and I asked him to do it AGAIN. Well, trying to upload the video into Blogger taught me that videos that are too large can't be uploaded. So I had him do it SEVERAL MORE times until I finally got a video that was small enough to upload. Guess what? After 17 times, now he's REALLY proficient at the crib dismount. Maybe this wasn't my best, shiniest moment as a mom, but sometimes we make choices for the cause of a super cute blog post.

Here is Caden's crib dismount. Clearly, it's time for a big boy bed! (Could this also be a sign that someone might need to reassess the importance of their blog over their child's personal safety? Priorities, people!)

We Felt Like Oprah

Last Saturday Shanna and I got to enjoy the grand finale of her birthday celebration with lunch at PF Changs (my favorite place in the continental U.S), and pedicures at Gene Juarez.   During our pedicures, we were both totally thinking about how this is what it's like to be Oprah;  to have people rub your feet and trim your toenails (or 'grave diggers', as Chad would call them), while playing lovely music in your ears and covering your eyes gently with a mask that feels soft like babies hands and putting some kind of delicious smelly things in front of your nostrils and covering you in warm blankets.  Except Oprah gets to do it every day.  I totally want to be Oprah.

Thank you to Chris and Shanna for including me in such an extravagant birthday celebration.  This must be what it feels like to be Gayle. Love you, Shanna Justine!

Isn't She Lovely

Happy 18th Birthday to my lovely niece, Hayley!  We love you!

Thank you Scrapping Sisters for the cute embellishments!

Angst (His and Mine)

Chase Ryan had a particularly rough day today.  And by 'particularly rough', I mean truly extraordinary on the scale of a rough day for my Chase.  Naturally, when Chase has a rough day, so does yours truly.  He brought me to new levels of ANGST today that I had not experienced before.  But I wasn't suffering so badly that I couldn't take pictures of him snarling at me during one of his many time-outs of the day.  As you can see by his face, he was NOT amused by my antics.  But my mom was over at the time, and we were both VERY amused. 

I'd like to blame this angst-ridden day (both his and mine) on the low grade fever he was suffering from, but I think we all know the truth. He can be a cranky fellow.  It's a good thing that he can also be just as loving.  And lets face it, he's super cute too.

Caden's Electrified!

This is what Caden's hair looked like after what was evidently a wondrous night of sleep. He looked like he stuck his finger in a light socket. 

I downloaded this frame from my current favorite place to find freebies, Scrapping Sisters.  Have I also mentioned that I love Photoshop?

Flowers

Cole picked out these flowers for me today to "make our house smell nice".   It worked!  And it added some cheer to this gray day.   Thank you, Coco Puff!  Er, I mean Cody Maverick.

I FIGURED IT OUT!

I feel like a champion!  And now this is my promise to you, my beloved readers, I will NOT bore you with 23,934 pictures of my Photoshop adventures.  I promise. . .

P.S. (and this is mostly for your benefit, Chad), I HAVE done other things today besides play on the computer.  Really, I have.

The Photoshop Frenzy Continues

Christmas jammies in April.  Because that's how we roll.

I think it's clear that my Photoshop frenzy continues.  I got these cute little embellishments from Scrapping Sisters.  I haven't quite figured out exactly how to edit these things to look perfect (thus the white rectangle around the Christmas tag on Cole's picture) but I'm having fun trying (sort-of, it's also a bit maddening).  I will say that I'm beginning to doubt the old adage that 'practice makes perfect.'  Only time (and future blog posts with perfect embellishments...hope, hope) will tell.  Until then, I bid you adieu so that I may return to my Photoshop mania.

I'm going Photoshop CRAZY!

Okay, I'll admit it.  I am going a little Photoshop crazy.  (Staying up until 2:30 in the morning to play around on Photoshop is a little bit nutty.  But hey, at least I'm not talking about Twilight, right?) 

So Cole's school picture arrived yesterday.  Now normally I'd just upload the plain old picture into plain old Blogger, write my little post about how much I love him, and call it good.  BUT WAIT!  First I uploaded this picture into Photoshop and then added some decorative photo corners!  Now isn't it snazzy! Look at me go!   (Oh, and I love Cole, and his kindergarten class picture...especially with the photo corners...made in Photoshop.  I also really love Photoshop.  And Twilight.)

A Post To Poppy (and my first attempt at digital scrapbooking!)

Have A Good Sit-Down

When I put Caden down today for his nap, he said the cutest, most blog-worthy thing.  He was laying in his crib, I was stroking his little head, and I said, "Good night, Baby. Have a good sleep." And he said in his sleepy little voice, "Good night, Mama. Have a good sit-down."  Oh Baby Caden, you are so cute and sweet.  How about candy for dinner?

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny was here!

And he left treats!

After we pilfered through the treats, we got ready to go celebrate the REAL meaning of Easter at church.  Chad had to teach Sunday school at 8:00 that morning, so our wonderful Gramma came over to help me get the boys ready. 

Here's Gramma's family photo before church...somebody's missing...

After church my parents came over for lunch and the Easter egg hunt.

Here's a COMPLETE family photo. 

And the hunt begins!

After all the eggs were gathered, we came inside to check out our loot!

Grampa and Gramma came over later in the day with even MORE Easter treats.

Look at these faces. . .

Something that I really love about my boys and that I'm aware might change at some point in the future is that my boys are deliriously delighted with even the tiniest of treats.  I love that they don't need expensive stuff; they're grateful for anything.  I revel in their excitement over the smallest things...namely the Zhu Zhu pets, which were the "big" gifts from the Easter bunny this year.  You would've thought they got Nintendo DS's with how excited they were.  (Which Cole should totally get for his 7th birthday, but Chad disagrees.  How many of my friends out there have given their kids the DS?  Give me a shout-out, ladies; and get on board, Chad!  But I digress; and kind of refute my original point to this long-winded paragraph.)   I just love my little boys so much, and I'm pretty sure I feel just as excited as they do during these big events. 

Happy Easter 2010 from the Boyd Family!

March P365

Dearest Readers,
My P365 pictures for March have been uploaded to my P365 bloggy-blog.  Browse at your leisure, friends!

Yours,
Holly

Egg-stravaganza!

We colored Easter eggs yesterday with Gammy and Poppy.  Here are some action shots of the egg-stravaganza!

It should be noted that my raccoon of a baby found his easter basket today, and then shared the magnificent contents with Cole.  (I'm truly delighted to announce that this occurred while Chase was at preschool, so he is completely innocent in this incident!)   I know what you must be thinking; what was she doing while this raccoon of a baby was uncovering the secret location of his easter basket, and why was her hiding place so lame? In response to that, I have two things to say.  First, if you know Caden, you know that he has a certain way about him that even locked doors can't keep at bay...their baskets were hiding behind a LOCKED door.  And secondly, I wasn't even ignoring my kids for Facebook (which is admittedly known to happen from time to time), I was upstairs for maybe 2 minutes looking for a book for Cole to read.  What does this tell us?  That in TWO minutes he unlocked the door and dug through a pile of stuff to uncover his easter basket.  Mind you, the boys believe that the Easter Bunny delivers their baskets Easter morning, (at least they did before this), so he didn't intentionally go looking for the best discovery he's ever made...he was just unlocking doors and digging through stuff because he. is. a. rascal.

It should also be noted that out of sheer spite, I ate two of their colored easter eggs for lunch today.  Take that, Raccoon Baby!

Snow Angel

I found it absolutely hysterical yesterday when Caden laid himself out on the kitchen floor and started making "snow angels".  I'm pretty sure the "snow" could've been more accurately labeled as crumbs. . .but I like his imagination!  Can't you just hear his cute little voice singing, "I making snow angel!  I making snow angel!"  Really, could this little guy be any sweeter!  I just love him!