Happy New Year!

One last post to close out 2009 ... what a decade!

The best from our family to yours in 2010!

Here Comes Santa Claus

We made our 5th annual trip to Santa's Wonderland last night to see the Christmas lights and visit Santa Claus. Our friend Ryan and his daughter Madeleine came with us, which was a nice treat.

We had a homemade pizza dinner and Crave Cupcakes (phenomenal!!) before leaving our house after 8 pm. The drive to the North Pole, err, Santa's Wonderland takes over an hour, so it was already past bed time when we got there, but the boys did great. I napped on the way there and home and the boys didn't, go figure!

There is always a long line to see the lights -- some years we have waited over an hour -- so we decided to do that first and then go see Santa. Turns out it was a good decision, we saved 20% on our admission fee to Santa's Wonderland by purchasing our entrance tickets and our tickets to see the lights at the same time. I just love a bargain!

We waited less than 30 minutes and then drove through the light displays. The boys enjoyed it as usual. Andrew remembered that last year he got to sit in the front seat while we drove through the lights and he asked if he and Tyler could sit up front again. I swear that child has the memory of an elephant!

After the lights, we went to Santa's Workshop inside Santa's Wonderland to visit with Santa and take a photo. Andrew asked for Monsters vs Aliens and a gun and Tyler asked for Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and a gun. I think Santa was surprised the boys asked for guns ... but heck, they were asking for Nerf guns or Marshmallow shooters not AK47s!

Here is our 2009 Photo:

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, here is our photo from 2008 and our photos from 2004 - 2007.

I'll Dear You Again Tomorrow

For anyone still out there - I am back from my month long hiatus!

With my birthday, our vacation to Florida, the Ironman and Thanksgiving, I have been one busy mommy. Plus, I have been blogging about my Ironman journey on Iron Dreams.

Stay tuned for lots of new photos, stories and Moore happenings.

Now, your reward for still checking the blog, despite my long hiatus, a sweet story about Andrew and a photo ...

Every night before bed Andrew says his prayers starting with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. After that we ask Andrew who specifically he wants to pray for that evening. He mostly asks to pray for our family and extended family, his classmates, and for for people who are sick. We had been putting the prayers into words for Andrew, but last night he said the most beautiful prayer all on his own.

As usual, he started with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and then rather than telling us who he wanted to pray for, he just said the prayer himself. It went something like this:

"Dear God, thank you for this beautiful day today and my family. Please help Baby Dylan wake up and feel better soon so he can play with his Mommy and Daddy. I'll dear you again tomorrow, God. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen."

It melted our hearts to hear Andrew verbalize this prayer on his own -- our little boy is growing up so fast!

Here is a photo of me with the boys. They are wearing their Ironman Florida shirts and I have on my finisher's medal!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today marks the beginning of my 30s, and I have to say that life is good. The last decade has been amazing and life changing ... becoming a wife, graduating from college, starting a career, buying a home, having 2 incredible children, among a million other big and small things. Here is to hoping that my 30s are full of as much love, joy, laughter, success and fun as my 20s!

30 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Marble Slab Ice Cream
2. A pedicure and a good book
3. Sleeping in and/or taking a nap
4. Listening to my children laugh
5. Watching sinful TV that I am (gasp!) too old to be watching … Gossip Girl, 90210, Vampire Diaries
6. Getting comments on blog entries
7. Fun mail
8. A long shower after a hard workout
9. Cuddling on the couch with Indy
10. Taking pictures
11. Racing
12. Watching funny movies with Douglas
13. Shopping with my mom
14. Weekly catch up phone calls with Allie
15. Playing games like Catch Phrase with the Englands
16. A good meal
17. Hearing my children say, “I love you, Mommy!”
18. Good surprises
19. A frozen margarita with salt
20. Slipping into a perfect pair of blue jeans
21. Weekends where we have nothing on the schedule
22. Road trips
23. Planning for something (vacation, a goal, etc)
24. Hearing good news from friends
25. Doug’s Special Birthday Cake - yellow cake with chocolate icing
26. A good sale
27. A clean house
28. Vacations
29. Gossip magazines
30. My friends and family – all of you who are reading this blog entry!

Happy Halloween!

Here are our photos from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We met our friends Mikey and Paige there with their son William and then we all went out for dinner and then ice cream -- it was a great night!

**Blogger made me upload these ONE AT A TIME! Ugh! **

Peter Pan and Captain Hook


Best Friends


Giddy Up!


Ahoy Matey!


Having Fun


Arggh Scurvy Dog!


Look, Wendy, I am all smiles!


Do you think this Captain Hook needs a mustache for Halloween?


Leader of the Lost Boys


Isn't he the cutest Captain Hook Ever?


My Sweet Boys


Wondering about the cute monkey? That handsome fellow is William, Paige and Mikey's son.


Mischievous Little Man


All that is missing is Mr. Smee ...


He can fly, he can fly!


Innocence in a child's face

Busy Days

I admit it. I have become a delinquent blogger. Oh, I have lots of excuses (busy mom, training for IMFL, too many photos to go through …) but let’s face it, you don’t want to hear those excuses, you want updates and photos!

Stay tuned, more posts are forthcoming!

So without further ado …

Andrew Update

Andrew is playing soccer through the Church league this fall and Doug is the Assistant Coach. This is the most laid back team, which is great when life is crazy busy. No practices during the week. The teams practice for 15 minutes before the game and then play four, five minute quarters. Andrew seems to enjoy it and has some natural talent, but he will definitely need to practice more if he wants to hone those skills! For now, it is a fun activity for Saturday mornings and he gets to play with his friends from school, which is a great bonus.







Poor Andrew was sick most of last weekend and through the weekend. He has an ear infection, cough and even tossed his cookies on Sunday. The doctor said that an ear infection can often present as upset stomach, so I was not surprised by the last symptom. Thankfully, Andrew is getting to be quite the big boy and managed to lose it in the toilet and not all over the rug! Did I mention, I was not home when this happened? Doug wins major brownie points for being Father of the Year! Thankfully, he seems to be doing much better now!

Tyler Knows How To Get My Attention ...

Tyler is home sick today because he has had a fever since Saturday night, although (crossing fingers), it seems to have broken now. I have been doing my best to stay on top of my work by giving Tyler various activities to keep him busy. He watched Mickey Mouse this morning and then did quite a bit of coloring while I was on a conference call.

Needless to say, I have been multi-tasking all day. Tyler, on the other hand, does not appreciate the fact that I am *working* from home and when he calls for me with his ever so sweet, "Moooommmmm", he expects me to reply right away, and a "hold on one second, sweetheart" is not sufficient.

This was the conversation this morning:

Tyler: Mom!
Me: What do you need sweetie?
Tyler: Mom, come here please.
Me: Hold on just a second, buddy, I will be right there.
Tyler: Mom
Tyler: Mom
Tyler: Mom

(pause)

Tyler: Anne!
Me: Ok, buddy, I am coming!

Just so you don't think that I was neglecting my sweet angel, he was calling me over for critical items like dropping a marker (that he didn't want to pick up himself!).

Hearing my children call me by my first name is just bizarre!

Oklahoma City

Doug and I snuck off to the fun and exciting destination of ... Oklahoma City!

We left last Friday and came back on Sunday so that I could compete in a training race for Ironman Florida, which is now 6 short weeks away. These weekend trips are hectic, but I always come home thankful for the quality time that I have gotten to spend with Douglas. We jam to music in the car, chat about the most random things, explore new cities, eat lots of good food and he spends hours (literally!) watching me compete and being my biggest fan.

Set aside your preconceived notions about OKC, it was actually a great town! It had scenic drives, easy access to Route 66, fun food, and an AMAZING memorial. The only thing I didn't like was all of the OU red people were wearing given OKC's proximity to Norman.

The boys got to spend the weekend with Mom Mom and Peepaw and had a blast, as usual

Here are some photo highlights from our trip:

National Memorial








Part of the original construction fence where visitors left momentos


Get your kicks on Route 66


Pops on Route 66 -- they sell 500+ varieties of soda pop

Proud as Punch

I am so proud of Andrew! We get a daily folder from school that holds a calendar and each day his teacher marks the calendar with a face that corresponds with his behavior for the day. This is similar to last year when we got a green / yellow / red report each day. Let's just say that the green days were few and far between ...

Anyhow, Andrew got smiley faces (green equivalent) 3 (THREE!) days in a row this week. As a reward, I let him pick his dinner and dessert (and a special treat!) and he picked what most children would pick … you guessed it … macaroni and cheese!

Once I knew what Andrew wanted for dinner, I asked Tyler whether he would eat macaroni and cheese too (knowing full well that he would not because he won’t touch the stuff), but I thought his response was too precious not to share.

Conversation with Tyler:

Me: What do you want for dinner? Andrew is having macaroni and cheese, would you like that?
Tyler: No, chicken nuggets, please.
Me: What vegetable would you like with your dinner?
Tyler: No, thank you, Mommy.

So polite ...

Second Child Syndrome

Being the second child has its advantages and its downsides -- and I should know, because I am one!

Advantages -- parents worry less, child gets away with more and gets to do more sooner because he is chasing his older brother … and he has a built in best friend! (Just to name a few)

Disadvantages -- hand me down clothes and split focus from parents (as compared to being an only child).

I refer to this phenomenon as second child syndrome. I firmly believe there are more advantages than disadvantages to having siblings, but I do feel guilty sometimes that Tyler doesn't get the undivided attention that Andrew did at this age.

To counter balance this we try to have some one on one time with each of the boys and I really cherish these moments. We let Andrew stay up later than Tyler on the weekends for special cuddle time and on weekend mornings/nap time Tyler will often get up before Andrew (because Andrew goes to bed/nap later), giving us some good one on one time. Also, on occasion during the weekends Doug and I will each take one of the boys to run errands, go to birthday parties, etc. so we get special time with them that way too.

The best part though, for me at least, is that after a bit of one and one time with us, both boys start looking for and asking about the whereabouts of his brother. Cue the built in best friend!

Tyler Story
This weekend while I was at a birthday party with Andrew, Doug and Tyler went to get my car inspected. They were playing with 4 Lightning McQueen cars at the shop, rolling them back and forth to each other. At one point, Tyler counted the cars, -- "one, two, three" -- and then said, "oh, oh, one is missing!"

Today after Tyler's nap I brought him downstairs and he counted each step on the way down. I was floored. I knew he was starting to count at school and we have been counting at home, but these examples from this weekend were the first times that he applied the skill on his own and in context. My little smarty pants was talking in his crib before bed too ... what was he talking about? He was counting :)

Andrew Story
Andrew sometimes wakes up early on the weekends and he will play quietly in his room until he is ready to come downstairs. When he is ready to come down, he will call out for Mommy or Daddy and that is our cue to go and get him (we keep a gate up for safety so that the boys will not try to come downstairs during the night. This is wonderful because it usually means that we get an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour of sleep while he plays quietly in his room. This morning however, instead of calling out for us by name, when he woke up he started saying, "Mommy, Daddy, I am hungry. I'm hungry. I'm very hungry." It made us laugh and definitely got our attention. It was not like he didn’t have a good dinner the night before but he happily ate his waffles, yogurt and strawberries for breakfast!

What is a Boy?

I meant to share this back around Mother's Day and came across it this evening as I was going through photos. Click on photo to enlarge.

Andrew's 5 Year Old Photos

Eeny Meany Miney Mo

Sunday Picture Share

We went to a pre-k picnic last week and one of the mom's got these photos with my and my little men. I love them, so I had to share!

Sharing is Caring

My boys are entering that competitive phase. What Tyler has Andrew wants. What Andrew has Tyler wants. They are also good little negotiators, well Andrew negotiates and Tyler manipulates with his puffed out lower lip. They both make me laugh and smile every single day.

This morning as we were getting ready for school Tyler went pee pee on the potty (yeah!). For this rare feat, Tyler got a treat (no rhyme intended) ... two M Ms. As I was getting the M&Ms out for Tyler, Andrew declared that sharing is caring and so he too should get a treat. Ladies and gentlemen, that is my little negotiator!

The competitive streak has its advantages too -- for the first time in years Andrew asked for milk. Andrew had a milk allergy (supposedly anyway) as a baby so he drank soy milk from age 1 to 2.5 or so when he started refusing it entirely. He has always loved cheese, yogurt, and all other things dairy, so I never worried too much that he wasn't drinking milk (and because he eats so much dairy, I pretty much discount his former allergy). Tyler, on the other hand, loves milk. So one night earlier this week when Tyler asked for milk, Andrew (being competitive) decided he wanted some too. He drank it all and said he loved it. Go figure!

An Apple for the Teacher

It seems unfathomable to me, but a year (a YEAR!) has passed and Andrew is starting his second year at SCS. He completed Early Pre-K last year and had a wonderful time and made lots of new friends, so he was really excited to go back to school for Pre-K on Tuesday. The transition back has been seamless and much less stressful compared to last year since we all know the ropes!

Check out photos of my big boy on his first day:





(not my best self portrait ...)

My Boys Are Mama's Boys

Would love to know which one(s) are your favorites -- leave a comment to let me know! Thanks to my honey for helping show the boys how to make muscles ... Tyler kept saying, "Mommy, I strong, I got muscles!"