Product endorsement

Friends of our gave us a bible for Eliot for Christmas. This is not abnormal, we probably have 5 different childrens Bibles around the house. Some are pretty cheesy, to be honest and have made their way the the back of the shelf.

However, this bible is different. It captivates me. Russ and I have both come away from reading a story to Eliot and been moved. It tells the story (The story, not stories) so simply and so profoundly that Eliot is as in love with it as we are. Russ and I were both raised in christian homes and have heard these stories countless times but for whatever reason, this author tells them in a new way. In a way that makes me understand the Bible like I never have before.

Anyway,before I get carried away like Ziploc endorsements on The Biggest Loser, I'll just provide a link and you can go order it yourself. Since Angie wrote about it on her blog, they may be running low on stock!

Tex...mex?

There's a reason this was taken from the back.

Have a great Tuesday, blogees.

Spots. Ewww.

I promised to post the new stuff from Arbonne and last week got away from me. Big surprise. They didn't do the huge production like in years past because they're going to start spreading the new stuff out throughout the year. Woo-hoo! That means more new stuff coming in just a few months!

Couple new things:
1. They have a whole new line for AGE SPOTS AND SUN SPOTS! It will also work for other discolorations from acne scarring, etc. How great is that!!

2. They reformulated the acne line and it's amazing! I haven't struggled with acne but I might start using it anyway, just because it's so great. One product I will be using out of this line is a spot treatment.

They also added black liquid eye liner! That's right. I know, my life is changed, too.

So, anyone want to try any of the new stuff? Email me with your order and I"ll give ya 50% any new products until the end of April (which is only a few days, peeps.)

And lastly, but most importantly, I'm looking to add a couple new people to my team that are looking for extra income. My upline gave out a challenge to help 3 new people start making money w/ Arbonne by the end of the summer. Maybe an extra $200-$500 a month could make a world of difference? Maybe you want to be a stay at home mom and spend more time w/ your kids? Maybe you don't like your job but are scared of the job market? One of the speakers in Vegas said the following:

"Arbonne gave my husband a wife, my kids a mother and my family a future."

If that resonates with you at all, give me a call or email and I can fill you in on what this would look like for you.

Happy Monday everyone!

Survey

VERY IMPORTANT SURVEY! Please vote off to the right on the blog! The Poll ends in one week! GoogleReaderSmarties need to actually go to my blog. It'll be worth it, I promise.

I heart Love and Logic!

Overall, Eliot's pretty compliant with how we want him to behave. However, that being said, he's still a 2/3 year old. They have their moments, no matter how angelic they are. **Disclaimer** There's still times I want to pull my hair out with parenting, it's not all butterflies and hugs!

So, L & L. When I taught in the city, our staff was trained using the Love and Logic for Classrooms series. Once I got home w/ Eliot, a friend let me borrow her L&L parenting book, and I love it. I need to reread it now that the words "you turkey" come out of my mouth more than they should. I'm pretty sure that's not on their list of recommendations. While I don't agree 100% with every idea they have, this stage it's been rather helpful.

Here's some before and after L&L conversations we have EVERY DAY.

Before:
M: Eliot, will you go potty? (also insert: I need you to go potty, shouldn't you go potty, etc.)
E: no (also insert: child ignoring mother)

After:
M: Eliot, do you want to use the big potty or the little potty?
E: THE BIG POTTY! (and he runs into the bathroom)
******************************************************************
Before:
M: Eliot, can you go play in your room?
E: no (noticing a theme?)

After:
M:Do you want to play with your trains or Mr. Potato Head?
******************************************************************
Before:
M: You have to hold my hand in the parking lot!
E: (squirm and go the other way)

After:
M: Do you want to hold this hand or this hand in the parking lot?
E: That one.
******************************************************************
You get it. Eliot responds to it like a charm. We have always used their suggestions with time out, too. They recommend using a trigger phrase so he knows what's coming and we've always said, "Oh, how sad!" when he does something he's not supposed to that would warrant a T/O for him. This way he associates the phrase with T/O instead of the particular chair and we can take that cute little phrase w/ us wherever we go. So handy since some of his toddler antics also follow us wherever we go. Turkey.

I got to see the power of this on our trip to Michigan last month when we were in the car. After he finished his snack he dumped the bag over, spilling all the crumbs, smiling rather big at his mess. (Which is a behavior we've corrected before, fyi) Seeing this and not wanting to pull over or yell at him, I said, "oh, how sad!" He immediately started crying and said, "Sorry, Mom!" To which I promptly did a fist pump and cheered.

(not really)

(But I wanted to.)

(Instead I made him listen to Salt-n-Pepa)

Goal for tonight:

Post a blog entry.

I think I love you, So what am I so afraid of?

First of all, how cute are my boys? Besides being super-dad while I blew our savings in Vegas on penny slots THAT DON'T ACTUALLY TAKE PENNIES, I came home to a clean house including empty laundry baskets. Not only that, but my husband clearly knows my love language in that the bane of my cleaning-existence, the stairs, were swept and cleaned. To top it off, he clearly showed his servant leadership in leaving all space on the DVR for my very important shows. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to celebrate Donna's return, people!!


I have much to post on my Arbonne trip but need to focus my Tuesday morning. Back soon!

(anyone get the title reference?)

What Happens (When Mom's) in Vegas...

It's guys week.

Mom's out of town - which means lots of playing in the dirt outside, playing rough around the house, eating great "dude food" while watching baseball or action-packed Pixar movies, breaking some stuff and even spilling a little blood. Don't worry, nobody's hurt. Except maybe Daisy.

Today we had plans to go hit the St. Louis Science Center and maybe Turtle Park. Joe called because he and Elle wanted to come kick it, so we broke the rules and let a girl join us for our day of fun. The Science Center, it turns out, is really geared towards older kids, but he loved the dinosaurs and rocket ships and the outdoor play area, so it wasn't a total strikeout. The picnic lunch at Turtle Park on a beautiful spring day like today was really the deal-maker. So while mom is hanging out with David Cook in Vegas, we had a little fun of our own. Check it out...















And now for the inappropriate moment of the day (all guys' days have some inappropriate moments). While I was taking some pics Eliot wanted to show me and Joe that he hurt his finger....



The inapprorpiate moment we didn't capture on camera: Elle lifting her shirt and saying, "Eliot, I have a surprise for you!" Turns out she just brought string cheese to the picnic.



...and a hug goodbye after a fun date.

It was a great day, but hurry home, mom. We miss you!

Arbonne Snow

Who said having a home-based business isn't fun for everyone??


Does he look busted or what? This was my incentive for him to help me shred Arbonne documents/old paperwork. Once he filled up the container we got to have "snowball" fights.

Easter Recap!

Thursday: Aunt Minda (amanda) arrives!
Friday: Easter Egg hunt at my friend Sara's house, where I forgot the camera.
Saturday morning: Easter Egg hunt at local park, see below

Waiting...


Saturday night: Dying easter eggs! Eliot was way more excited/involved than last year. He was really into drawing on them once they were one color and then putting them into a different color.


Sunday morning: Easter basket! Then off to our VERY FIRST CHURCH SERVICE FOR CITY CHURCH! My pics aren't so great from the morning but there's better ones on my friend Erin's blog (link). We had over 150 people there!



Sunday Night: Easter dinner (and egg hunt #3) at Seibels w/ Degroots, Amundsons and Werks where Jake made us play this obscure game where we each volunteer to sit and let the man of the house smash an egg on our head. The egg may or may not be hardboiled. The lucky person who's egg is still raw gets a surprise! Worth it? Hmmm. I don't think Dana thought so...

Happy Easter!

No tears, but definite fears...

More later, off to git me some ham and potaters...(not sure why I'm talking this way)

(and, no, that's not a family picture) =)

Parents say the darndest things

I've seen other bloggers do segments like this and I couldn't pass up sharing a moment with you that came about yesterday. Parenting, obviously, cause phrases to come out of your mouth that you may not have said before. Or ever heard anyone say before. Or should be said by anyone. Ever. With that introduction, please know that yesterday, I casually said the following phrase:

"I'll hold the pancake, you go potty."

Didn't see that one coming.

Happy Birthday, Old Man.

Some hot guy in my house has a birthday today. I know an average day includes me lavishing him with love and encouragement (ahem...) but I wanted to proclaim from the highest heights today, and this is as high as I get.

I should probably apologize, ladies. I got him. I got him early and without working for it. I woke up one morning and God said, "Look past the creepy long hair, Kate, I found you a man."

And Whatta man he is! I don't even know where to begin. I'm really proud of him and humbled by the fact that he's actually MY husband. I wish you guys could see how hard he works, not only on the band or his design stuff but on our family. The man can serve like nobody's bid-nass. I'm embarrassed to tell you how often I get to sleep in while he gets up with E-beast. I wish I could capture the devotion he has to raising Eliot and display it for all the world to see! And even though in 6 months I'll be complaining about this, I really do love how much he loves baseball. I love how he talks about his friends, about his family. I love how he makes me feel like the hottest woman on the planet. He makes better coffee than I do and I won't even try to explain the man and his pancakes.

Speaking of pancakes and sleeping in, I need to go.

Happy Birthday, esposo. You're my favorite.

So...funny story...

Sunday afternoon we got a call from a friend of the family. They had extra tickets to the game on Tuesday! How great is that! This happens a lot here, we rarely have to pay for Card's tickets in a town like this. Reason #764 I love this place.

We were careful not to say anything to Eliot until this afternoon. He tends to focus on something and isn't so good at delayed gratification. When I tried to tell him about our Michigan trip coming he would talk about G'ma and Papa coming over that day and if Daisy barked, that surely meant they were here! Keeping that in mind, we kept it on the DL that we were having a fun night out until we thought he could handle it.

I knew several other families already going and got their seat info in case we ended up near them. We needed this! A fun night out, though a little chilly, but a night out nonetheless. Russ talked to the ticket-giver, L, several times. He asked if they had prepared for the cold since they were from out of town. She laughed and talked about buying gloves. They talked about meeting up at the Clark Street entrance, etc.

After Eliot's nap, he talked about Baseball nonstop as I dressed him in his Cardinal red. I jumped in the shower and followed up with my red T-shirt.

L called once more to finalize a couple things and asked if we'd gotten a sitter or if Eliot was coming along. Russ explained that he was still young enough to be free, so he was indeed coming. As they finished the conversation, she casually mentioned something about the Scott Trade Center. Russ assumed she was confused on her St. Louis sports arenas.

Then the wheels started turning.

Tuesday night game. Clark street. Wait a minute. L did mention something about other games last Sunday. The Cards didn't play last Sunday.

Our "free tickets to the ball game" were for the Womens NCAA championship basketball game. At the Scott Trade Center.

It's like expecting to drink Mountain Dew when you put that straw to your lips only to find there's been an awful mistake and Dr. Pepper is in your cup. Ack.

Poor guy. He was so excited to go to the game. Eliot was, too.

Since we only had the two tickets and Scott Trade Center has dumb rules, I sent Russ and Eliot for a guys night.

As they left Eliot turned around, played me some air guitar and wrote a song right there on the spot that included the words "I'll misssssss you, bye bye, Mamaaaaa!"

I might have peed my pants a little.

Fast forward several hours. The boys come home and as I kiss my sweet child goodnight, he whispers the greatest four words ever. The Final Four words I ever need to hear:

"Mommy, you're my favorite."

Reason #463 I heart STL

Besides random George sightings, I love our new neighborhood for lots of other reasons. Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful weather and nothing on the planner. How great is that? We walked a few blocks to the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Not surprising, we ran into friends. Whether we're at the zoo, Card's game or just at the mall, we always seem to see people we know. St. Louis is the smallest big city. We love it. I digress.

In the entry way we saw our friends/neighbors/bandmates, the Burggraafs. Within about ten minutes, we ran into the Higgins. Eliot's fun-o-meter was off the charts. That's right, fun-o-meter. I said it. And I'm not even going to delete it.

You can't really tell from the pics that we were at a Botanical Garden because we spend the majority of our time in the children's section. We're go back again soon though and pose E in front of lots of pretty flowers if that's what you're looking for.










This is how E sat for close to ten minutes. He was zapped but he held onto that eggplant.

Stellan

Several weeks ago I started seeing this little guy's name all over the blog world. Being the responsible, nosy blogger that I am, I checked over here to see what the story was. I will let you read up on it for yourself but I will say that it's definitely worth your time. While you're there, you HAVE TO look at the link off their page called Stellan's Name Gallery. (I made this a link directly to it). It will inspire you! It will remind you to pray for this little fighter. It will explain why Eliot and I did this yesterday:

Skiing in 60 degree weather?

While making breakfast this morning, I heard, "Mama! Ski's!" and this is what I saw.

Golf clubs, swimming goggles and creatively placed potholders. Nice. Guess he's trying to be like his very cool friend, Jett.

Crushed.

Apparently the George was in my neighborhood filming yesterday morning/afternoon.

Literally two blocks away.

It was raining so I took a nap.

There's a really good life lesson to be learned here. It hurts too much to figure out what that is.

We could have watched the final ER episode together. Like a family.

Opportunity wasted. OpporClunity wasted, more like.

Delightful

I totally forgot to post about this last week but we have a new development that is 100% delightful to me.

I think Eliot is a sleep walker/talker.

One day before our MI trip, I heard him calling my name around 5am. When I got up to see what was wrong he walked right past me and into the dining room. Then (my favorite part) he walked a lap around the dining room table and went straight back into his room and into bed. By the time I followed him to his bed, he was asleep again. AHHHH, LOVE IT!

Then in MI, he and I were sharing a room. Several times during the trip, he would wake me in the middle of the night and tell me something obscure and then be asleep again before I could figure out what was going on. My favorite time included him telling me about the butterflies in the box.

Just when I thought he couldn't get any cuter...