Sleeping anywhere

I love how babies can sleep anywhere. It never ceases to amaze me how if you let them go too long all of a sudden they are out. As adults we seem to be able to conquer it most of the time although if I'm reading then I might be out pretty quick. The one way to always get me to sleep. Either way I thought these were cute. They are from a while ago but I had to post them.

I love how Sam is usually sleeping in the same position and Marie sleeps in just about any position possible or not.

Maybe these sleeping posts are just my inner desire to get more rest coming through. Either way I hope I'm rested enough for this weekend so I don't sleep through it. :) I was hoping that this post would solve the funny white problem it seemed to be having. (no I don't have a better way of describing it) I don't know if anyone noticed it but it is kindof annoying. Any suggestions?

En Garde

Boys will be boys right? Well, Sam loves hitting things with his sword. He also likes to use it as a walking stick and a few other things. He's so funny though because he loves to go around saying, "En Garde!" I'm not sure he really knows what it means but he knows Daddy says it so it's got to be cool right? :)

Oh, and yes, I'm a girl. Can you tell? Not so into the running around hitting things with a stick or styrofoam thing. Oh, wait, sorry about that...styrofoam sword. But Sam was having fun. Why do I feel like I look like a pirate in this picture?

Marie has her priorities right. :) Does it taste good? I love the raised eyebrow. It may not taste good, it's definitely not chocolate, but it's great for teething! Maybe the eyebrow says differently.

Friends

My little Marie already has a friend. Sam seems to be content to do whatever whenever with just about whoever, although he does prefer family. Marie definitely prefers family but she seems to have a little friend. They both come to YW almost every week so you can guess how much the girls get out of the lesson when Marie is awake. (I try to make sure she sleeps through most of it) Either way it's fun to see them interact a bit. Yea for girl friends! :) They are so cute together!

Maybe someday she'll get that much hair ;) Oh, and they are only 3 months apart.

Sleepy babies

It always amazes me how they go, go, go, go, go... yea, you get the picture. And then all of a sudden, CRASH! Well, I guess the crashing part doesn't surprise me so much as the constant non stop GO.

So this is one of my favorite parts of the day, when they start to look like this...

...and then do this.
Marie must be related to me or something. She's always wanting to put her feet up around her ears all the time. Even when she's sleeping. Infact, sometimes she won't settle down and squwirms like crazy until she gets the right position. Gotta have that leg up to sleep comfortably right? And this was after I had let it slide down a bit because she was finally asleep and I was getting ready to put her down.

Fun in the sun

We had a really warm summer last year and hoped to go to the pool a ton this summer. However it wasn't nearly as warm so we didn't go as much as planned. Some days were just a bit crazy for it even if it was warm so this is what we did instead.They both loved it and had a blast. I wish we had pictures of the local pool (because it's pretty cool) but we don't. Both Sam and Marie loved the water even though it was, as Arnold calls it, "Refreshing". I call it COLD! I guess that's what happens when you grow up in Texas. :)

2 cents...

Ok, so I need all those who are willing or interested to donate their 2 cents to my blog. I can't decide what to put after Mandimunchkin instead of the previous, escapades of an angel, line that use to be there. (and yes it's all still a work in progress) So here are some of my ideas. Let me know which is your favorite via comments or email. If you happen to have any better ideas I'd love those 2 cents too. (I could get rich off of this! ;)

Mandimunchkin:
-and My Monkeys
-Monkeying Around
-and Our little Monkeys
-Going Bananas

Or... a little different but could work, would replace all of the title.
-Mandi and the Munchkins

And just because I can't do any kind of a post without a picture of the two cutest kids in the world, hehe...

Work in progress...

Just so you know I'm changing the background on this so it's going to look different on and off till we get it right. I like the monkeys but the white in the background is a bit busy for me and kinda drives me crazy so we are trying to make that disappear. I'm also going to change the title a bit. Arnold loves me and thinks I'm an angel (he started this for me) but I'm more related to the little guys holding the bananas than the angel at the top. My children are closely related to both although I'm not sure how that works but it does. So enjoy the changes while they happen... or something. :)


Pictures of my angel monkeys for your enjoyment to go with the long explanation just given.

Family photos...

Or something. :)

The tree house complete almost...

Sam has loved this tree house. There are a few things that have been added since the full shot of it but for the most part this is what it looks like.

You can't really see all the detail from here but it's pretty cool. There are 3 sections that surround the tree and Sam has lots of climbing space. Sometimes a little too much.
He kept trying to do things that didn't really seem all that safe. So this next picture is of him pretending like he wasn't going to climb on top of the roof next to him. Gotta love the grin that says, "Huh? I wasn't going to do that. I was just standing here." Right...
And finally this is Sam working. His favorite thing at this point is to work on the tree house. He found an extra screw here and was playing with that till I took it away, but he has a little hammer and work set that stays in the tree house. He's always out there pounding on something and if you ask him what he's doing he'll say, "Working!".

Oh, and yes, that is a full Thomas the tank engine outfit. He wears it as frequently as possible.

9 months!

Yea! Congrats to Marie for surviving 9 months with a big brother that loves her to death, almost literally sometimes. Actually I just needed a good reason to post this picture instead of doing the planned blog about Sam and the tree house being finished. And then I realized that she's 9 months old today and it was perfect! So here's to Marie in all her cuteness. She actually has enough hair to pull this off and it was so fun to do! :)

Just a few of the new things she does are:
-Walk with a push toy
-Stand on her own as long as she doesn't realize it
-Get into everything (oh, wait that's an old one)
-Loves to wave at everyone
-Says "Hi"

Hair cut

I guess it's time to do a post about me since I've had a birthday and all that... just kidding. I did have a birthday and we had our 5th wedding anniversary(I had ideas for a big post about how amazing Arnold is but since I'm not that amazing it never happened) but basically I'm to slow to keep up with everything. However, I know my family will be very upset if I don't show pictures of this so here we go...

Before

Yea, that's a really cheesy grin. I'm good at those when Arnold is pointing the camera at me.

and...

After


It's not terribly amazing but it will cut at least 5 minutes off my shower time and I think I'll like it after a few days to adjust.

Working on the tree house

This summer we had quite the exciting time. We built a ground tree house for Sam and Marie. Pretty much everyone was involved including me with the hardest job of keeping curious little fingers out of the way and out of the tools. The worst was trying to entertain while something much more interesting was going on outside.
But everyone had some fun. This is just some of the many steps in the process and yes the drill is unplugged.
The painting proved to be very exciting and luckily I ended up with some help in the entertainment area that day. Sam even learned a new sound during the whole process.

He still has the saddest face in the world

If this isn't enough to convince you then I'm warning you... this is just the start.

I mean really what's up with this? He did it as a baby and still does it now. I have to give him credit in that he was REALLY tired at this point but still. How can anyone make a face that sad? (and that's without being able to get the really good ones on camera)

Yes, he did get to sleep and he is his happy normal self 99% of the time but boy does it get you when he pulls this one out.

*Oh and for anyone who might be wondering, the quote was from Muppet Treasure Island.

Tired?

Yup, that's what I am right about now. Unfortunately I can't pull this off so cutely and I'd probably wake up with a few kinks in my neck. How does she do that? (can anyone name the movie?)

Curls

So much for posting frequently. In order to get going again I thought I'd post this...


Yup, something I always wanted and never got. At least she seems to be lucky enough to get curls! :) Or wait... maybe it's the those absolutely gorgeous eyes. Probably both. :)