Maldoff Family: First blog of the year

It's been a while. New Years resolution is to write in the blog once a month. And it is now January 30th so I'm doing so well!

This is behind other important and specific goals like "Play less Candy Crush" and "Workout more" and "Eat less crap", so I don't know how well we're going to do.

Bear with me as we are gonna take it back to October 2013! Way back to the archives when we could venture outside and do activities. Please excuse the winter bitterness. I have already told Marc that he needs to bring me home one of those special lamps I saw in Sky Mall for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Because when I don't get sunshine, I get a little loco.

I'm afraid that just this morning I was outside screaming at my garage door for not closing as I'm trying to leave my house for the first time in three days. "There's nothing in the way! Oh my God, CLOSE!!!" Why I am I screaming at an inanimate object? This is what 7 degrees does to people. It makes them angry. Sorry to all my neighbors that witnessed the berating of the garage door. But, I mean, seriously, he is just the worst.

And if I'm honest about it, I feel a little guilty at my poor job on documenting all of their milestones, especially Lily's. The blog went from like 28 posts a year when Henry was her age to my big 2013 tally of 2 posts. But I also need to realize when Henry was her age, FB was not as big of a deal and Instagram did not exist. So, I'm using other avenues to document. Getting up in all kinds of social medias y'all! And when Henry was a baby, I worked so that gave me some time everyday in front of my computer.

That never happens anymore.

NEVER.

And I'm in a new phase of life where if I'm holding anything electronic in my hands, a small child will come somewhere from behind the shadows and try to take it from me. It's come to the point where I hide my phone behind a pillow while I'm sitting on the couch in my vain attempts to disguise myself, but she knows! How does she know at 18 months old? She'll come over to me, paw my jeans, and say "Kee kee". Like any red blooded American, she's obsessed with cat and baby videos on You Tube. I mean, like how is this starting so early? Damn you Steve Jobs.

Here's some pictures from our adventures this past fall.

Our annual trip to Hodges Farm!

Lily playing in her brother's construction site

They're not related at all are they?!

I decided spur of the moment to take both of them to a place called Patterson Farms. Consistent with most of my stay at home mom endeavors, I didn't plan this visit at all and just thought we would drop by. I had already rebuffed a friend's invitation to visit a different farm since the hayride alone would have cost $30 for all of us and we would have to make an appointment and join a school group.

For some reason, I turned into my dad (sorry dad!) and immediately got irate that a simple hayride would cost that much. Rip off! Have I mentioned that I'm cheap too? Can't really blame it all on the dad. And I also think I have an issue with rules. Maybe just a little one.

So, I decided to go it alone and visit this different one. We walk in, minding our own biz, looking at the pumpkins and such and we're told we have to go back to the visitors desk. Here we go! Suddenly, I was paying $25 for a hayride and being forced to join a group.

Thwarted again!

That's my story of that day. Just realized it's not interesting at all.

You're welcome.

Little missy up to no good. She loves playing CD's and dancing.

And this. Both of my kids love taking all the clothes out of dressers.

Playing with our buddy Cooper at our hangout, the Sandbox Park.

By the hammer of Thor!

I bought this outfit on a whim off Amazon to see if he would like it. He is only interested in working man costumes (construction worker, fireman, etc) but thought he would be adorable in a superhero get up. He loved it! Doesn't even know who Thor was but anything with a cape works.
I couldn't decide on Lily's costume. I would spend hours looking online on Etsy looking at all the adorable girls costumes. I ended up dressing her as a little German "Heidi" girl/beer waitress, using some suede lederhosen that Marc wore when he was a baby. My father-in-law came over from Germany when he was eight years old, so I believe these are genuinely authentic German garb. Henry was too fat to wear them when he was a baby at Halloween so I definitely wanted Lily to give them a try.

We joined our buddies from preschool for trick or treating this year.

Geemaw and Aunt Ashie came up to visit and trick or treat with us!

First pair of pigtails....that my mom fixed. I swear I need to go to little girl hair fixing school. I'm hopeless! Can somebody teach me how to braid? Anyone?

Henry and our little buddy James. Isn't he cute?? I'm trying to set up an arranged marriage between him and Lily.

Henry and his buddy Will at Touch A Truck. Lily photo bomb! Touch a Truck is this awesome event for charity where they fill a parking lot with all kinds of trucks (fire trucks, police car, monster truck, ambulance, old-timey cars, tractors, bulldozers..etc). Basically, a little boy's dream. They can not only touch them, but also climb in them and explore. I considered telling him that it was his birthday party since it really can never be topped by anything I could do, but I decided to put in some effort and give him an actual party. Because that's the kind of mom I am.

Some beautiful pictures that Ash took with her PHONE. She's amazing.

Since we were at the beach for his 3rd birthday, I felt the need to give him a birthday party for the big 4. We chose to have it at our neighborhood park and do a costume/Halloween theme, since Marc was going to be in China for work for Halloween and would miss all the trick or treating festivities.

I try to please all people at all times, my friend.

I had flashbacks of our wedding morning rain storm, as I woke up that day to a chilly and rainy weather. But after considering having 10-15 little people running loose in my house and having no kinds of games planned, I decided to press on! Everybody still had a great time and the kids didn't mind getting a little wet.

The fireman and his little Dalmation dog! I'll have you know, that I created Lily's costume myself. You would be amazed what can be accomplished with a hot glue gun and a bought tutu from Old Navy. And a bought turtleneck from Walmart. And a bought pair of Mickey ears.

So, when I said I made it, I meant that I glued on felt circles on the turtleneck and white tulle on the ears.

OMG, so homemade.