Tooth Spotted...for real this time!

Gavin finally has a tooth! His bottom right tooth poked through sometime within the last 24 hours and we didn't even know! When we got home from school today, I was playing with Gavin. I put my finger in his mouth so he could chew on it and I felt a tooth. I looked and sure enough there was a little tooth! He had a few fussy moments, but nothing major. Hopefully, the rest of the teeth will come in just as easily!

Mitchell Family Updates

Race For the Cure: Today I walked in the Race for the Cure with a group from Holy Spirit. We walked in memory of Paula Slow. Her son graduated from Holy Spirit last year. I love walking in big events like that. I find that it is so moving and makes me look at life differently. I tend to treasure each and every moment more when I get home. I didn't bring my camera, but I know that Jamie and Renee both took a group picture with their camera. I may steal one from their blog when they post.

Love and Logic: A few weeks back, I attended a Love and Logic training that was focused on its uses at school, but I was able to find several new strategies I could take home. Basically, it is a way to remove the angry emotions when disciplining. Instead, when a child does something you don't like, you say, "I'm so sad that you threw your food on the floor, now I have to take your tray away", or something like that. We've been using it with Macie and I've noticed a big difference. I have to admit it is hard to always say the right thing and Brian is struggling at times. Tonight, it was so funny because I just gave Macie a look when she was acting up and she said, "I so sad". How funny!!!

Wind: Macie loves to lay her head on the air conditioner vents when they are blowing. She also loves to put the pin wheel over it and watch it go. We had the air turned off a few weekends ago, when it was much cooler, and she was upset because they weren't blowing. She said, "Wind Mommy, help wind!" She was so excited when we turned the air back on a few days later!

First Table Food: Gavin had his first table food last week. He had some french vanilla pudding. He loved it! I'm sure that we will be slowly introducing him to many more foods soon!

Big Changes Ahead: Next weekend we are going to be swapping the kids room and office. That is a BIG job! I know that the kids will have a lot more space and more toys will be able to fit in their room. I also know that I will feel so relieved to have everything cleaned out and organized. Right now we have a lot of clutter and I can't stand clutter! It seems like every time I get things organized, something else happens and I have to start all over! I'll post pics once everything is done!

Birthday Banners: A few weeks ago, I borrowed Jamie's cricut machine to cut out letters and pieces to make birthday banners for the kids. She made an adorable banner for Hannah's birthday and I wanted to steal the idea. I finished Gavin's banner, but ran out of glue before I did Macie's I bought more glue, but I'll have to finish hers this week. Her birthday party is only two weeks away...eek!

"Take A Picture"

As I've mentioned before, Macie has a new obsession with clothes...putting them on and taking them off. Tonight, she found one of Brian's socks and insisted on putting it on. He helped her find two of them. She came running in the kitchen and said, "take a picture" plain as day. Brian and I started cracking up. I guess I am always taking a picture of something. She ran in the living room and kept picking different locations to say "cheese". What a ham!

Big Boy Car Seat!

My mom, Allie, Annie, and I went to Brown County today to do some shopping. We try to make the trip once a year in October. This year October is packed so we had to go this weekend. We had great weather, did a little shopping, and enjoyed a day just the four of us. Brian stayed home with the kids. Grandpa came over to play and visit when we were gone.
Tonight, we got out Gavin's new car seat. He is getting so big and hard to carry. We decided to move him to his new seat. What a sad and exciting day. My little guy is growing up before my very eyes!

He loved the seat so far! Let's see how he does tomorrow!

Macie had fun playing in the box!

500th Post...and it's a doozy!!!

This is my 500th post and boy-oh-boy do I have a something to blog about! Last night, Brian told me that he caught Macie trying to climb out of her crib. We had a long talk about how we will have to put her in her toddler bed soon. Well we didn't do it soon enough! After the birthday party, I laid Macie down for her afternoon nap. She went right to sleep. Gavin was taking a nap in his swing so I sat down to blog and relax. After about an hour, I heard Macie, but she wasn't crying so I didn't worry about it. About half an hour later, I heard a loud thud. I took off running because I knew the crying would start and it did. When I walked in her room, she was standing with her toothbrush and toothpaste balling. After I calmed her down and realized that she was ok, I began to look around the room and I think my jaw hit the floor. I wish I had a video camera on her to see what all she did because she was all over the place. Somehow, she climbed onto the dresser and drug the diaper changing basket into her crib. EVERYTHING was dumped out of the basket and in the crib. Then, she must have crossed over the dresser to get into Gavin's crib. He had the changing pad and humidifier (which were on the floor when she went to sleep) in his crib along with all of her pony tail holders. There were probably hundreds of them. I honestly didn't know what to do. Laugh? Cry? Scream? So, I called my mom! She came over because she had to see it in person. Because it was so late (it was around 5 when I discovered all of this) and Brian wasn't home, I decided to set up the pack-n-play in the office for her to sleep in temporarily. I cleaned up Gavin's crib. Thank goodness he wasn't sleeping in there or who knows what would have happened! I did take some pictures, but I didn't want her to see me do it because I didn't want her to think it was a good thing! Honestly, they don't even do it justice!!! There will be some big changes happening in the Mitchell household coming very soon...

Macie's Crib
Gavin's Crib

"Ready Party!"

Today we helped Olivia celebrate her 2nd birthday! Macie kept saying, "Ready Party". She was so excited. When Brian asked her what she would do at the party, she said, "Cake!" We've been to enough parties that she knows the drill! Brian went with us to the party, but he had to leave early so he could bartend. Macie and Gavin were both very well behaved considering it was during nap time! Even the birthday girl napped for half of the party. After the party, we came home and both kids crashed out!

Macie had fun in the bouncy house!
When I started taking pictures, she came up and put her face against the netting and said, "Cheese!"

How funny!

We got the birthday girl some play dough and Disney Princess book

Gavin started getting so sleepy at the party!

Macie was "babysitting" Olivia's new doll while she was eating cake.

New Dress Up Clothes

Macie has gotten some new dress up clothes lately! A few weeks ago, Brian's Aunt Monica gave Macie a tutu and the the other day, my Aunt Alice brought her a Sleeping Beauty costume. We originally thought about using the tutu for pictures, but this morning we decided to give her both to play with. She is very into dress up right now. She was so excited about everything! The dress was a bit too long, but she didn't want to take it off! She also kept wearing the tutu around her neck. She even got upset when we tried to put it on the right way for a picture. What a mess!

She likes to be naked just as much as she likes to play dress up!

Scratching her belly just like Grandpa!

He's on the move!

Since the weather was beautiful yesterday, we decided to eat outside at the picnic table. Brian took the kids outside as soon as he got home so that I could finish getting everything ready. We were also waiting for Allie to get there. After dinner, we laid Gavin on a blanket and he started rolling all over the place. He has rolled over before, but not this much! We could hardly keep him on the blanket! It's official....we have two mobile children! Right now, we can catch up with Gavin pretty easily, but it won't be long and we will be chasing two kids all over the place!

Can you believe it?? Brian is multitasking!!!

Who needs toys....

...when you have a box!

First Day Success

I am happy to report that Macie and Gavin had a great first day at the new daycare! Brian dropped off the kids and Macie didn't shed a single tear! She went right off to play and waved "bye bye" to daddy. Both kids did well....napped, ate, played and were in great moods when Brian picked them up. This may be the honeymoon stage, but so far we are beyond pleased with our new situation. Pray that we've finally found a long term daycare solution!

Random funniness: Macie has a new obsession with clothes. She has been wanting to put on everything she finds. In fact, today she insisted on wearing her jacket to Miss Julie's (the high for the day was in the 90's). She didn't want to take it off all morning. She has also starting undressing her dolls. Well, yesterday, Grammie found her in her crib buck naked and she had peeed everwhere. She hasn't ever been able to take her clothes off before! Brian and I are scared to put her to bed in a night gown now! Playing dress up is all fine and good, but taking off the diaper is a no go!

Freaking out!!!

I've had several things causing me to FREAK OUT lately!

1. 6:30 pm Sunday night, my daycare lady called me to let me know that she could no longer watch our children. She said that her landlord wouldn't let her run a business so she had to stop. OMG??? What in the world were we going to do? Macie has been to 5 different places (counting grandparents) and she isn't even 2 yet! I cried of course and did the "why me" stuff. Then, we pulled it together enough to call Brian's mom to see if she would keep them on Monday and Tuesday so that we could figure something out. Sunday night and Monday, Brian and I scrambled to get references and find daycares. We went to 3 last night and were blessed to find Miss Julie. Brian's best friend, Jesse, sends his little boy there and they love it. We tried to look into her before, but she was always full. When Brian and I walked in, we both had this sense of relief. Not only is it everything we have been looking for, but it also within our budget. Talk about an answered prayer! We took Macie and Gavin to visit tonight and it seemed to go well. Tomorrow will be their first day. They will be going there full time. It is the first time we have had full time care at any one place. It will be nice to have them home every night, but I'm sure they will still spend the night at Grammie's from time to time!

2. Sunday night....during all of this daycare mess...our computer said it was being attacked by a virus. Are you kidding me?? Without us knowing what our daycare costs would be, I didn't even want to think about buying a new computer! Luckily...after 2 nights and a lot of effort, Brian was able to get the computer up and running again!

3. Monday, Macie turned 23 months. In one month, my baby girl will be 2! I don't know where the time has gone!!! She is such a busy, fun loving little girl and I am blessed to be her mommy!

Go Colts!!

Today is the first Colt's game of the season. Brian had a Knights of Columbus ceremony so we had to dvr the game. We are watching it as I type. Gavin got an adorable Colt's onesie at my sprinkle last January and it fits perfectly! The last game that Gavin watched, he was only 6 days old and it didn't turn out how we wanted it too. Let's hope today's game has a better result!

When Daddy was at his meeting, Macie wanted to play dress up. She even had to dress up Gavin!

Sleeping Bags and Snow Boots

Macie came home from Grammie and Pops' house with a new princess sleeping bag and Dora snow boots. She wanted to wear the snow boots, but we had a hard time putting them on her bare feet. Her toes kept getting caught. It was so funny because she would say, "toes, hrt". Then, I guess we were taking too long because she was trying to push them on herself! They are still a little big and she had a hard time walking around in them, but I'm sure they will be perfect this winter!
Macie's sleeping bag is so cute! She loves to lay on it and play on it, but isn't too fond of the idea of being in it! I'm sure we will have a lot of fun with the sleeping bag. Now we just have to find one for Gavin!

Snow boots and leis?

Trying to put them on herself

Gavin loved laying on the sleeping bag too!

"Not supposed to do that"

On the way to Sturgis this morning, Macie kept throwing down her book. Brian said, "Macie, it makes me so sad that you threw down your book". She said, "Not supposed to do that" (in her speak of course). Brian started cracking up and called me. I guess she's heard that a time or two! After Brian laughed, she said it over and over. At least she knows she not supposed to, now we just have to get her to do it!

Presents

Because the kids didn't come to Emmy's birthday party last night, we brought home their treats. Each child got a box of cereal, rice krispy treat, and a wrapped gift. We opened the presents tonight. Macie got a new coloring book and Gavin got a set of stacking cups. Macie loves to color, but she was a little jealous of Gavin's gift. She is having a hard time accepting the fact that Gavin can now play with toys and that the whole world doesn't revolve around her. Gavin dove right in and started playing with the stacking cups. We actually don't have any toys like that, so it was a nice change!

First French Braid

Grammie French Braided Macie's hair yesterday and sent me this adorable picture....

Happy Birthday Emmy Jane!

Miss Emmy Jane is almost 1! Renee and Drew's littlest girl will turn 1 on September 18th. We celebrated with her tonight at Archie and Clyde's in Newburgh. We had yummy salad, pizza, and cake. Emmy loved her cake and dove right in. She made us all laugh because at the end she started throwing cake off both sides of her tray. It took both Renee and Drew to stop her! Brian and I were able to enjoy ourselves because we didn't have our kids with us. They spent the night with Grammie and Pops. They will have presents to open tomorrow night when we pick them up!

We got Emmy an adorable jean jacket!