The Pierce Family Blog

My Sproutlets!

I had to share my sproutlets (aka Luke and Caroline) little web page!  Sprout TV is so neat for kids!  They have all kinds of fun things for kids on-line and you can submit your artwork to be on TV and you can even star in your own little show!  These are the links for Luke and Caroline's pages....click on the video tab to see their little shows!  They've had a ball watching them over and over on the computer today! 

http://www.sproutonline.com/sprout/picme/visitor.aspx?data=838883a3d67802338b1a64455b106134

http://www.sproutonline.com/sprout/picme/visitor.aspx?data=b298c03ea94eafe1ff6f080049b9cbe5

Eugene's been home with us today, he has a nasty little cold which he got from Luke.  Also today the kids both woke up with crud in their eyes.  Eugene and I took them to the doctor this morning and they both have pink eye and Luke has an ear infection.  Of course in typical kid fashion it hasn't slowed them down one bit. 

 

 

Mid week update!

Not much new to report, we've had a great start to the week around here.  Everything's been running smoothly, last week I dusted off my old Franklin Covey planner and ordered some new refill pages!  I used to never go anywhere without that thing!  (Back when I had a real job years ago).  Well I realized awhile back that I needed that kind of order back in my life, to stay on top of things.  It's been very helpful in just organizing my thoughts and planning out my day.  Now adays my pages are filled with much different things than they used to be but it's still helpful to have a plan!

The last two days around here we've just been staying at home hanging out except for a few quick trips in town.  Let's see.....we went down to the pond today and yesterday!  We really love our neighborhood, we have great neighbors!  Another great thing about our neighborhood is our little pond!  It's a nice little walk for us, there's a cute little gazebo (with a fan!), and a little bridge to walk over to an island!  Luke loves it!  The boy would live outside if he could so a walk to the pond is a good activity for him. 

Another thing we enjoy around here is breakfast.  Caroline always eats like a champ, but Luke is a little more picky but he will eat a good breakfast.  Plus I have to live up to Mimi's breakfast's.  When the kids were going to her house everyday they always got a hot meal so I guess they've grown to expect it.  Here are a few pics of Caroline from this morning, notice the grits all over her face!  Luke was being a little camera shy and didn't want his pic taken.

 

This one cracks me up.....she was trying to attack the camera!

 

Also this morning after breakfast we finally put together one of the puzzles Nana bought Luke awhile back! 

The rest of the day was pretty laid back.  Luke's got a little bit of a cold so we are trying to just hang low this week so he'll be all better and ready for school next week! 

Nothing else to do....

I wasn't going to blog tonight because I still haven't uploaded any recent pictures and I didn't want to post again without sharing pictures....but I'm bored so I decided to blog.  Eugene's watching a movie in the den that doesn't interest me at all.....I should be reading or doing something more constructive but instead I've sat myself in front of the computer and have been figuring out face book.  It's been kind of fun piddling around on it, I told Eugene what I was doing earlier and he said "Mindy....really?"  He thinks it's silly but what does he know.....he's such an old man sometimes! 

We've had a good couple of days around here.....some highlights....

- Me and the kiddos enjoyed a lunch with my good friend Andrea yesterday!  The kids did pretty good actually.  We were able to talk and catch up, it was alot of fun! 

- Caroline has started giving us kisses!!!  She's so sweet and lovable!   Oh, and Mimi taught her to pat her mouth and make noises like a little Indian.....I'm not sure if that's a very politically correct thing to teach kids these days??? 

- Caroline has also slept through the night 3 times this week....yes, I need to say it again 3 TIMES!!!  Finally, almost a year old and just learning to sleep through the night!!! 

- Eugene and I enjoyed a date night last night.  We went to Olive Garden to eat....or as insiders say OG (right Liza?) It was so good!  We kept cracking up during dinner because this guy at the table next to us was talking so loud and he had one of the most annoying personalities ever!  We really kept trying not to listen to him but he was so loud we couldn't help it!  After we ate we went to see Batman.  We had a great time.  My parents kept the kids for us.   I can't say it enough how fortunate we are that our kids have such wonderful Grandparents.  I think both of our parents would take permanent custody of our kids if we let them!

- Today we went swimming with the kiddos, and hung out at Mimi and Pop Pop's house for awhile.  We had a very laid back day which has been nice.

I think that's about it....Eugene's done with his movie now so I guess it's time I got off the computer! 

Nothing new Wednesday!

I just sat down at the computer to look for Luke a book bag for school!!!  I'm so excited for him!  Granted it's just preschool, but I'm still excited.  He starts in two weeks, he'll be going to school just three half days a week but he'll need a new book bag right?  Since I love bags so much I'm going with yes, he'll need a book bag!  We're not really a family that's big on brand names, goodness most of what's in our house is either equate, great value, faded glory.....if you're not picking up on those names, they just mean Wal-mart stuff!  Anyway, one thing that Eugene and I both love are L.L Bean book bags, really just because you can't get any better!  They are so durable and worth the money, Eugene and I still use our old bags from college...maybe even high school.   They have some adorable little bags on their website and of course I'm going to have to get his initials monogrammed on it!  I'm really liking the lime green color, but I'm thinking Eugene's going to make me go with a more safe boy color like blue! 

I know I just posted a Luke conversation yesterday but I felt this one needed to be mentioned as well!  ......I promise pictures from this past weekend soon!

Today at lunch Luke was asking me when the dryer was going to be fixed...it's kirplunked on me, why it's a concern of his, I don't know...anyway I told him the repair guy was coming tomorrow......

Luke:  How do you know it's a guy coming?

Me:  Well, it could be a repair girl....but I think it's a guy.

Luke:  Well....I hope it's a girl.....I like girls Mommy because I'm a boy!

Tuesday

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days......things have been....well, rather disgusting around here!  But I think we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We've all taken turns with a nasty little stomach bug.  Someone in our family has thrown up everyday since Friday!  I thought we were almost in the clear today, but around 6pm, right after supper Caroline had a little spell.  We've washed each of the kids sheets twice I think....Caroline actually slept on a towel in her crib the last two nights!  Lets see...both car seats have had to be completely taken apart, washed and scrubbed.....we've had "in case you get sick" buckets in every room!  Okay....enough of that, I know some of you have weak stomachs so I'll stop there....just know that it's been rough!

But today for the most part was actually a great day!  I had the worst of my bug yesterday and today all that was still lingering was a headache, but nothing I couldn't "mind over matter", that is one of my favorite sayings, just had to throw it in there!  We finally made it back onto a regular routine today!!!!  Yeah!!!  I really enjoyed my time with Luke today, he was just extra sweet and we had alot of great conversations!  Luke is really into the Berenstein Bears lately, we've been checking the books out of the library and he loves them!  The Berenstein Bears is one series of books that Eugene and I both loved growing up.  My favorite book in the series growing up was Messy Room.  The last page of the book shows brother and sister bear in their room playing and in the background you see their organized closest they've been working hard to sort through....it's a bunch of shoe boxes stacked and labeled......even as a child I loved nicely stacked and labeled things!!!  Anyway, I stumbled upon the Berenstein Bears on TV!!  It comes on the Sprout channel everyday!  Luke and I watched it together today, that is really a cool channel, it's TV for preschoolers 24/7!  Tonight after Caroline had gone to sleep Luke and I flipped the TV on Sprout again.  Eugene was gone tonight so I figured Luke and I would chill in the recliner for a little bit before his bedtime.  Well, there is a whole 3 hour Goodnight show on in the evenings for kids!!  It's from 6-9pm.  I really hope there aren't kids out there that watch the whole show....that's kind of a crazy amount of TV for a preschooler....but it was pretty cool.  We only watched til Luke's bedtime.....come on....9pm, isn't that a little late for a preschooler show to be on TV?

I don't usually do bedtime routine with Luke, Eugene's usually the one to read him a book, say prayers and all but tonight since it was just me at home with the kids and since I like Berenstein Bears so much I read him two books!  We try to get books from the library that are things he's interested in at the moment....or things we need to work on.....for example the two Berenstein Bear books I got him this week are "Bad Habit" and "Get in a fight".....he's really into arguing lately, we're trying to nip that in the bud!  Anyway, this is a conversation we had tonight when we were reading "Bad Habit"

Me:  Luke, do you have any bad habits like sister bear? (she bites her nails)

Luke:  (thinks for a minute).....I don't know mommy?

Me:  Well, you are always putting things in your mouth, chewing on things you're not suppose to.

Luke: (he realizes the bad habit as he takes a toy candy cane he's been chewing on out his mouth)  Do you have any bad habits mommy?

Me:  ah......yes, I do.....(in my head I'm flying through the list).....Mommy stays up too late sometimes, that's a bad habit.

Luke:  I like to stay up late too....but Daddy says "Mommy and Luke, Go to Bed!"  (Eugene really doesn't say that....at least not to both of us at the same time).   Why does he say that Mommy?

Me:  Because he loves us and he wants us to get plenty of rest.

Later we're reading the "get in a fight" book......

Me:  You see, brother and sister bear are arguing, that's not nice is it?  Do you arguing?

Luke:  Yes, I do....it's a bad habit!

Speaking of....I better head to bed, sorry for the long post!

Home Sweet Home!

We've made it home to Thomasville!  We just got in about 30 minutes ago.  Around 5pm today when I picked Eugene up from the plant (in Tennessee) where he's been working and he told me he wanted to drive all the way home tonight I was less than thrilled.  I'd really wanted to stay and drive back in the morning....but right now I'm very excited that I'm about to go crawl in my own bed tonight, so thanks Eugene!  Somehow it ends up you're always right! 

The kids did pretty good on the way home, Caroline cried quite a bit the last hour of the trip but Luke slept right through it and in some way the crying probably helped keep us awake and alert....something about a screeching loud sound that makes it kind of hard to sleep!  Of course Caroline fell asleep the last 15 minutes before we got home but both kids transitioned from sleeping in the car to sleeping in their beds!  THANK GOODNESS!

We'll have a pretty easy day around here tomorrow, I'm so glad I cleaned up the house good before we left, I love to come home to a clean house!  Except for the playroom.....you literally can't step foot in there without hurting yourself so we'll have to tackle that tomorrow, but hey, that's why it's the playroom! 

Happy Friday!

On the road again.....

The Pierce family is on the road again this week!  Eugene had to come up to Tennessee for work so me and the kiddos tagged along (another great benefit of me not working)!!!!  Eugene and I are in Crossville, TN for two days, where are Luke and Caroline?  Well they're staying in Chatt town with Nana and Papa!!!  Yep, that's right, we stopped through monday night, spent the night at their house, then left the kids mid day Tuesday.  We'll only be away from them two nights, but I've NEVER left Caroline for that long, but I'm doing okay with it.  I know that Luke and Caroline are being well taken care of and they are having a great time so I've been just enjoying extra time with Eugene!  We've just been hanging out together, going out to eat....oh and Eugene's had to work of course so I've had lots of extra time to piddle around town and coupon shop!  Yes, I am still way into CVSing!  I've also added a few more stores to the mix.  I haven't talked much on the blog about this but it has just been unreal to me what you can get for free out there!  I literally do not spend a dime on baby supplies or toiletries for us!!!!  At home we have probably a year supply of most everyday essentials, not to mention all the packs of diapers and wipes!   It really does sound too good to be true, but it's for real!  For example....this is my loot from last week

I actually got 6 packs of Walgreen brand diapers for $4;20, but I earned $10 in Walgreens $$$!!!  So it's almost like I made money buying them!  Anyway....it was on my mind so I thought I'd share!  I've been able to do alot of "deal searching" today, it's been alot of fun! 

Tonight we're back at the hotel, Eugene had to do a little work so I decided to blog!  My mom lent me her laptop, Thanks mom!  I've been using it to research my deals and print out coupons! 

Tomorrow evening we'll head back to pick up the kids, then head on back to T'ville!  Maybe next week we'll get back to normal....whatever that is! 

Part 2

Okay...it's working again now..just not letting me post any more pictures....the beach was just so nice and relaxing, just sitting there, the place to ourselves listening to the water....then it started raining, but just for a few minutes.....when it stopped a double rainbow appeared in the sky then two dolphins swam by.....it was like a few minutes of pure bliss! 

After the beach we headed back to the motel to get cleaned up and headed back toward home.  We made a little stop at a state park to have a picnic.  That was really nice, the kids had fun, Luke loves to go anywhere he can roam freely....after we ate our lunch we went "exploring", at least that's what Luke said we were doing....really we just walked around some!

We were going to head to Wakulla Springs next but the kids fell asleep in the car and it looked like a storm was coming up so we decided to by pass that and headed to Sam's in Tallahassee.  We love to go in there and just browse, they have the neatest stuff and the free samples just make the shopping experience just oh so much more exciting!  After that we headed to Fresh Market to browse and hit up the new Shoe Station Superstore!  I needed some new tennis shoes since I literally ruined mine last week working outside.  I found a pair I liked and they were on sale...well actually, I found the shoes that were on sale, then found one I liked!  I swear, I don't know when I became so cheap!  I'd spotted a pair of cool new crocs I liked but talked myself out of buying them.  I left Eugene and Luke inside to pay for the shoes and headed to the car to change Caroline's diaper.  When the guys got to the car Eugene surprised me and bought me the crocs!  I was so excited I put them on right then!  After that we headed to Momo's for a pizza, then finally came home!  It was a nice little getaway but our vacation didn't stop there......

Today we headed to Wild Adventures!  We had a good time but really didn't stay too long, it was so hot!  We saw a couple of shows, rode the train...ate some dipping dots and Eugene rode go karts, but that was about it.  We got home and then went to Waffle House for supper!  Tomorrow all the fun ends and Eugene heads back to work!  We've had a great week together though, it's just been so nice to hang out with each other and just be....(deep sigh).....well I better get headed onto bed!  Have a great week!

What a fun weekend! Part 1

Since we worked so hard Monday thru Thursday of Eugene's vacation I really wanted the last few days to just be fun filled and relaxing for us.  Friday morning two great things happened before we even left the house for our little mini getaway!  First of all, I woke up to this.....

isn't that sweet?  Caroline goes to sleep in her bed every night but somehow makes it to our room somewhere between 2 and 5 am!  Eugene is always the one to go and get her when she cries out, of course he hears her first since when I do sleep I'm pretty dead to the world, and second he can't stand to hear his little girl cry for too long so he's the one that jumps up first anyways!  Friday morning they were both laying in the bed looking so sweet I just left them there and let them sleep in for awhile....

the second wonderful thing that happened Friday morning was they came to take our dumpster away!  It was nice to have that thing gone, I had to take a picture to document all our hard work this past week!

We had a lazy morning then packed up and headed down to the coast.  We just wanted to go somewhere to just get away for a night with the kids so we went down to Carrabelle and stayed in a quaint little motel.  We love to go to the "forgotten coast" area of Florida, it's so pretty and natural, plus there are never any crowds to have to deal with!  It's also nice because it's really close, in less than 2 hours you can be there.  On the way down I think Luke sang "take me out to the ballgame" at least 100 times!  We finally had to tell him we were having quiet time!  Of course it didn't take long and both the kids looked liked this......so finally a little peace and quiet!

We got there...checked in and hung out for a little bit, then ventured out to find some supper!  Of course there isn't much to offer but seafood and since Eugene is now allergic we thought we'd head to Apalachicola for a little Mexican food!  The food was good, and of course we walked around the downtown area some, went into a few shops and walked down to see the shrimp boats....Luke was rather impressed with this wood statue and told me he wanted his picture taken with it...

and Caroline...she's been into ordering us around lately.  She points and jabbers.....she's a very demanding little girl....but oh so cute!

 

and I handed the camera over to Eugene to get him to actually document that I was there....I really need to work on getting in front of the camera more, but being behind the camera is so much more fun!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the beach.  We wanted to get there early to avoid the really hot time of the day...well the clock in the motel was a little fast, we were thinking it was around 8:15 or so when we were leaving but after we got in the car and on our way we realized it was only 7:40am!  But hey, we had the beach to ourselves!  We played in the sand, picked up sea shells and had a great time.  Caroline and I spent most of our time sitting in the surf, and Eugene and Luke skipped shells and rocks into the water..... having blog issues....i'll have to finish in a second post. 

MIA

Eugene and I have been a little MIA this week....where have we been?  Well Eugene's on vacation this week so we decided to spend some quality time, just the two of us....in the yard!  Yes, we have done yard work for 4 days straight....it is safe to say that almost every muscle in my body is sore right now!  But the yard and the outside of the house look awesome!  We hacked down and raked out so much stuff that when I close my eyes at night all I see are leaves and branches and weeds!  We actually even rented a dumpster...sounds a little crazy but it saved us countess trips to the dump which would have eaten up alot of time and gas!  Even though it has been alot ALOT of work it's so worth it now!  We cleaned out all the flower beds, trimmed back everything, pressure washed the house, porches, patios, sidewalks....everything!  I can barely squeeze my hand in a fist because it's so sore from holding the pressure washer gun....but it's oh so worth it! 

I know it sounds corny but just being together just the two of us, working on a project has been so much fun.  I know I have it so good that my mom (and dad) are always so more than willing to keep our kids for us!  Luke and Caroline have gone to Mimi's and Pop Pop's everyday this week, and they even spent the night last night....that was almost too much for me, I was really starting to miss them!  But they're home now and tomorrow we're getting ready to have a little family R & R.....we really wanted to "unplug" from the world this week....it's been so nice!  It hasn't been all work this week though.....yesterday morning Luke and Eugene went to Waffle House for breakfast for a little daddy and son time, and last night Eugene and I went to see The Incredible Hulk!  We went to the 9:55 movie and we were the only two in the theater!

Well I better go now....if I sit here too long my muscles will get all tensed up and I will have a hard time making it to the bed!  I've loaded myself up tonight with Ibuprofen and benedryl so I should be good to go tomorrow! 

If this post is a little rambly....sorry the bendryl might have already started kicking in!