Batter Up

So here is the thing...

Soccer just wasn't really Thomas' thing. I know you are probably thinking that he is way to young to know if it was his thing or not. And normally I would say you are right...

But he showed almost zero interest in playing again and trust me I asked him quite a few times.

On the other hand when I mentioned T-Ball

His eyes lit up.

I mean REALLY lit up.

His exact words went something like this...

"Mom, I am going to be good at Baseball, huh?"

Of course my response was, "Yea, buddy! You will be great!"

Well it turns out he can really hit the ball.

Tom went out and did what any dad would do and bought him a bat, a T and "official" T-Balls. It was a good thing dad did too because mom would have choked when she saw how much these much needed things cost.

Anyway...

We have one month until the season starts, but we are getting a jump start on our practices. The park by our house has the perfect field for said practices.

Dollar Tree Tuesday...IS BACK!!

Of course there really does not have to be a specific reason for me to take a trip to the Dollar Tree...

But today I did have something in mind. I was on the hunt for a friend in need of Star Wars stuff. Unfortunately I struck out...on the Star Wars stuff that is.

Like all trips to the Dollar Tree I walked away with some goodies and thought I would share.



Each of the kids got something today, unlike most trips...hehe...yea right.

Thomas picked out a coloring book after much deliberation and asking me five hundred times what I thought he should get. Taylor picked a microphone (not pictured because I couldn't pry it out of her hands).

And mommy got two rolls of grosgrain ribbon, some decorative rocks and a package of wooden cutouts for crafting!

The ribbon is one of THE BEST deals I have found at Dollar Tree, 5 yards for $1. 5 yards of ribbon will make quite a few hair bows, which is just what we need around here.

I needed some decorative rocks for a vase I have and one can never have too many crafting items.

I know I have said it a 100 times, but if you do not shop at the Dollar store and could...well you should!!!

A Day in Our {New} Life

Now that I am a SAHM full-time, having Saturdays free is a whole new ballgame for the Moore's.

Tom and I have talked about taking time with the kids individually from time to time. It is amazing how having one kid verse two makes outings SOOO much easier.

Saturday morning Tom took Thomas and I got was stuck with the Devil...

Kidding, Kidding!!

I was lucky enough to get to hang out with my darling daughter. Actually to be fair she really was an angel the whole day, which is SOOO not like her. She is usually only good for a hour or two and then the meltdowns start.

I digress

After we met back up Tom decided to take both kids to the park. My first instinct was to enjoy the peace and quiet at home by myself. I even got a little excited anticipating an hours worth of such peace.

But then...

The mammarazzi in me started to think what a great opportunity to take some pics.

Drum roll please...

{Gold and Green} or {Black and Gold}

Superbowl Sunday is a great day.

It is an even better day when the team you LOVE is actually playing.

OK...No Seahawks in the Superbowl, but it was still a great day.

With lots of GOOD food. Oh and if you ask my hubby...some pretty good drinks also. I have a sneaky suspicion he will have a little headache tomorrow, but that is a whole other story.

Anyway...I had high hopes for lots of pics of our day, but the camera got parked on table after people started to arrive. I did however, take some pics of our yummy food.





Our menu for the game...

Wings

Lil Smokies

Deviled Eggs

Guacamole

Pineapple Mango Pico de Gallo

Fried Mozzarella

Shrimp Cocktail

Fried Crab Wantons

An appetizer my friend Jen brought (my fav of the night), but I am not sure its name. All I know is it had a piece of roast beef, tomato and some sort of mayo spread on a piece of baguette. It would just be easier if she took pics and put the recipe on her blog. THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!

Oh and RIBS!!

And as if that wasn't enough food (It totally was by the way), my ever-so-talented mom made cookies to show true Superbowl spirit.





Good food and Good friends and family made for a GREAT DAY (even if the Steelers didn't win) Yes, I said it. Thomas and Mommy were the only two in the house cheering on the Steelers, but no dice...they lost! Oh well!

Two of my Valentine's

I have entered a photo of my munchkins in a contest to win a photography shoot!!



In order to win though...

I need your help!!!

Stop over at Shannon Worley Photography and check out the beautiful pictures she takes.

And...

Become a follower of her blog and I can receive 5 more comments to help me win. All you have to do is leave a comment that you have become a follower of her blog and you would like your 5 comments to go to Melissa Moore!!

And if you are on facebook and would like to help me even more then head over to Shannon's facebook page. If you "Like" her page you can then go to my picture and leave a comment and like my picture.

OMG...did you get all that??

I just might have confused myself with all of that!!

We-Haul

Well for the first time since I started this little blog I have a REALLY good excuse for being MIA.




I wanted to be 100% moved and 95% moved-in by now, and although I am not quite there...I am pretty darn close.

Thanks to our friend Steve, Tom and I got ALL of the furniture moved in one day and only two trips in that big ol' U-HAUL we rented.

I would have loved to have better documentation of the day, but it didn't quite fit into my plan.

And the one time I did pull out my camera this was the response I got.



Now to be fair this was the third attempt at getting the refrigerator in the truck.

So I probably deserved that

I told him that nothing was off limits when blogging, so the finger he was giving me wasn't making me mad.

I told him it was fitting for telling the story.

Anyway...

All in all it was a very productive day. Actually he only gave me the finger that one time and we didn't get in one single argument. Not bad for the two of us. I tend to be a little bossy when it comes to things like this. Oh who am I kidding...I am bossy when it comes to just about everything. Well anyway, we are well on our way to being completely moved into the new house.

Next up...

GARAGE SALE!!

Yes...I said garage sale.

Busy Weekend...

Well, if you had asked me on Friday what my plans were for the weekend I would have told you I was fully booked with toddler birthday parties.

Three to be exact!!

Taylor woke up not feeling well on Friday, so I had pretty much already counted her out for the parties. As it turned out though...Thomas woke up in the middle of the night Friday sick as well.

Although three birthday parties involving lots of sugar, tons of bouncing and no doubt two very cranky kids in the end...did not sound like my fantasy weekend.

Neither did being stuck at home with two sick kids.

I don't know about other kids...but when my kids get sick (you can add my hubby to the list also) they are completely out of control. They are extra winy and listen even less than they normally do.

But...

It ended up being a VERY productive weekend. We made four trips to the new house (four more than I thought would get done) and even managed to unpack most of the boxes already.

I fear it is going to be a long week, but by next Monday my plan is too be fully moved and 3/4 done unpacking. Pretty big goal, but my motivation hasn't worn off yet.

Breakfast of Champions

So, I decided to let the kids have a treat for breakfast this morning.

OK fine...I feel you judging so I will confess...I woke up in lazy mom mode this morning. Just my luck there is a Dunkin Donuts on just about every corner and one of those corners happens to be pretty darn close to me.













Can you tell my kids didn't protest my breakfast suggestion this morning??

House {CHECK} Progress Report {CHECK}

Now that we know exactly where we are moving too...

It was time for me to get moving on these...





I have a plan of attack and with any luck it will go off without a hitch!!

So far I am on target and turned what you just saw into this...



Not bad for one nights worth of work...ALL BY MYSELF!! However, I must confess something... I may have bit off more than I can chew. Packing this whole house while trying to deal with two toddlers and purge my life at the same time is not as easy as it seemed in my head.

Oh well...

I am only admitting this to you, my readers, but never to my husband. He is waiting for the moment I crack and start screaming and barking orders at him. Oh and lets not forget he is completely convinced I am going to go into panic mode any minute. So lets just keep this secret between us.

The Superbowl of College Football...

Because I chose to spend my 5 minutes of college at the highly acclaimed Bellevue Community College...I can pretty much jump on the band wagon of whatever team I choose at whatever time.

Today...

I am choosing to be an Oregon Duck fan. I mean I am from Oregon, so it really isn't much of a stretch.

Anyway, for those of you that do not know the Oregon Ducks are in the BCS Championship game tonight. And it just so happens that the game is here in sunny Arizona. My cousin Chris is the Drum Major for the Oregon band and last night we went to watch them perform a gig at the Phoenix Zoo.

I apologize for the pics being dark...I am not good with taking pics at night.


Chris doing his thing...So cool!!


It was awesome!!

Now I am a huge NFL football fan, but let me tell you a few things I realized last night.

1. College bands are very talented

2. To my surprise they play really good, current music

3. I really wish I were going to the game tonight

And

4. I think I need to reevaluate my interest in college football.

I would like to give a HUGE shout out to my cousin Chris...You are very talented and we had a lot of fun last night. Thomas is still talking about getting to walk out into the band and actually play the drums for a few seconds.

Here are more pics from our night.


Getting ready for another song!



All of the Cheerleaders and band doing their thing!!

GO DUCKS!!


Just a little side note...

The Seahawks won!!! Woot Woot!!

Seahawk Saturday!!

Thanks to the fun new toy I got for Christmas from my mom, I took a family pic today. Because what else would we be wearing on this day...Wild Card Weekend...Saturday edition!!

First up...

New Orleans at SEATTLE!!!

Some (OK most) will say it is a long shot, but in this house we disagree.

Ready...Set...Pack

Well, now that the holidays are in the rear view mirror I am forced to focus straight ahead.

On what you might ask?? OK you might not be asking at all, but because this is MY blog I am going to tell you anyway. We will be moving this month.

Oh don't get too crazy with your questions...it will only be a few miles in one direction or the other. No state lines will be crossed, no need to throw us some sort of going away party and no need to start consoling my kids about missing their dearest friends, we will only be changing zip codes.

Anyway, I decided that because I am the one that will be doing the work...and by work I mean packing...I will share my adventure with you. My hope is that if I tell you all I have to do this, you will hold me to it.

See the last time we moved this is how it went...

We had a brief conversation about moving to AZ and that brief conversation turned into a fast interview involving plane rides and a nervous husband.

We get a phone call that went something like..."You need to be here in three weeks, we'll take care of the rest"

My hubby gets on a plane and leaves me and our 6 month old baby to fend for ourselves

I fly said baby to AZ and leave him with my parents and hubby

I fly back to Seattle and sit back while three very nice gentlemen pack my house and load it on a truck (a very big truck, I didn't realize how much $%it I had) and a nice truck driver heads south.

Fast forward a few months and two very nice gentlemen unload truck the same truck at our new house. And that was that!!

If you have never had anyone do the moving for you then you may not see why this would be such a big deal for me. I would compare it to flying first class...once you go to the front you never want to go back to that place they call coach.

I guess I could hire someone to do the work for me, but now that I am unemployed my excuses are limited as to why I can't take on this project and my budget doesn't really allow for movers (insert VERY sad face).

I am determined to make this move FUN!! And I am taking you along for the ride.

Diva in training or Trained Diva

Remember when....

I often wonder how I ever survived without a computer, a cell phone and DVR.

Remember the days when you had to find a blank VHS tape or something that you did not mind recording over, set the day/time and press record?

I leave the house and without fail, check my purse to make sure I did not forget my cell phone. I panic and will almost always turn around if I forgot it. What did I do when I did not have it?

And this stupid computer...

I have become quite attached to it.

Since I became a mom it has become my outlet. It is, what some days, keeps me sane. It keeps me from jumping off the deep end and for that I am grateful. He He!!

But when something goes wrong...

It really irritates me.

And today it is this...





For some unknown reason I have been locked out of my account. And to make a very long story short...I am (to put it nicely) annoyed.

Please "Facebook Operations Team" help me. I am feeling a bit cut-off from the world.

A Very Long Post

I see no point in giving this post any other title. I have been gone a VERY long time...a little vacation and a whole lot of hectic holiday chaos that took me everywhere, but the computer. Anyway, I have lots of pics to share and rather than giving you a play by play I will just let the pictures tell the story.























Another wonderful Christmas in the books and on to a new year.