How I love Legos... oh and the kids do to!

No, I don't like to play Legos, although I can build a pretty nice Lego House, with doors and window's, but this week I've grown to love Legos because my kids have been playing together with them constantly and not fighting.  We've got Legos in the bedrooms, Legos in the kitchen, Legos in the bathrooms, Legos everywhere.  But you know what...  I don't care because my kids have been playing with them constantly and not fighting (did I already mention that).  They build, they pretend, they make them talk, they go on little Lego vacations, just about anything that can be done with a Lego they do.  I love to watch their expressions as they are building something, or the excitement when the car they just built drives straight.  It really is what being a kid is all about and Legos allow them to use their imaginations in ways other toys can't.

Randomness...

is randomness even a real word?  I am not sure, but there seem to be a lot of random moments in our everyday lives and if they are not captured in a photograph, video, or writing they are forever forgotten.  I've been trying to capture more of those moments so we can always have those memories.

Juliana got a gift card from my Grandmother for Christmas and she's been having a hard time spending it.  Tyler will get a penny and want to run to the store and can always find something he wants, but Juliana is more meticulous.  She never wants to waste her money on something she doesn't really, really want.  On our first trip to spend the gift card she walked up and down the aisles.  We looked at toys, clothes, crafts, and finally office supplies.  It was in the office supply aisle that we finally had success.  She bought a bunch of post it notes!  She was very happy with her purchase and didn't feel the need to continue looking at anything else, even though she wouldn't be spending her entire gift card amount.  We went back the following week and she knew exactly what she wanted, MORE POST IT NOTES!  Now she has stacks and stacks of them and they make her so happy.

Having a house with three cats and a dog never leaves you without something to take care of.  Fortunately they can also be very entertaining and are fabulous companions.  Juliana loves her kitten (although he certainly isn't small anymore) Summer.  She always wants to hold him and cuddle with him.

Miles our very old cat (he's 14) has a very close relationship with our dog Lucy, I caught him whispering sweet nothings in her ear the other day.

And finally I found Lucy rolling around the other day on the floor.  She spends so much time sleeping it's always exciting to see her up and moving around.

And lastly, for Christmas Steve got me a little TV for the kitchen.  I am constantly finding myself in there cooking or cleaning and thinking how much more enjoyable it would all be if I could watch a bit of TV while doing it.  It was hooked up this weekend and of all the tvs in the house, the kids both wanted to spend their time watching this one.

Big Top Cupcake!

That was the number one gift on Tyler's list, a Big Top Cupcake baking dish.  I tell you, those marketing people know what they are doing.  They run the infomercial types of commercials on Nickelodeon during shows like Sponge Bob and ICarly and the kids just sit mesmerized.  These commercials make you want whatever it is that they are selling.  I must say, I've fallen into the trap once or twice of having to have what is on the screen at the very moment.  I once bought this brownie pan that makes the brownies in individual sizes, it looked to fascinating on the tv, imagine, 20 little brownies at once.  Then I got the pan and $26 dollars later realized the pan really isn't that magical, I could just take out a knife and cut my own brownies and it would take all of 30 seconds.  But anyway, Tyler was dying for this cupcake pan and lucky for him Santa delivered (I love that guy).

A couple of days after Christmas we baked our first cupcake.  The kids were bored with the actual making of the cake and left me to do it so they could play wii.  But once it was time to decorate they were full of ideas.  We spent about 15 minutes coloring frosting, trying to get it to stick to the side of the giant cupcake and then sprinkling it with red hot candies.  I actually used it a second time to make a carrot cake with a cheesecake filling for New Years Eve.  Who knows, this Big Top Cupcake may become our family staple of desserts.