Lately

These are the only pictures I've taken all weeek but they give you a glimpse into our life. The boys love to brush their teeth and as soon as we go upstairs for baths they start shouting "bubbles!" and "teeth!" I swear, bubbles have completely changed bathtime in the O'Malley household. They're no longer dreaded affairs, they're now eagerly anticipated because it means they'll get to play with bubbles! Why didn't I think of this before????

Anyways, there are still usually tears when it comes time to actually rinse the soap out of their hair because they hate having water poured on their heads but the rest of bathtime is super fun! Here are some pictures of my big boys brushing their teeth:

(Note: I always brush their teeth first and then hand the toothbrush over to them to "finish" and the toothpaste tube was empty so I gave it to them to play with, they're not downing the entire tube during bathtime)

Jackson

Cullen

Of course, within a few minutes, a fight ensued over who got to hold the toothpaste

So Mommy took it away and that was devastating, naturally.

Get me out of here Mom!

Some other things that have been happening this week:

*We're busy getting ready for our trip to California on Thursday. I'm so excited to see my family and especially my sweet little Violet! I haven't started packing yet, but I've been doing lots of laundry and organizing, I think I'll pack during naptime today. I also borrowed a portable DVD player from a family at our church and I'm desperately hoping that will make for a better flight with the boys!

*The toddler beds are going much better! We went ahead and switched Jack over because we did not want to go through this again in a month or whenever he started escaping from the crib. I'm glad we did, both boys are doing really well. They still get out of bed a lot during naptime but I just go in there a few times and tell them to get back in bed (and discipline as necessary) and they have been taking great naps the past few days. At night, they rarely get out of bed, probably because it's pitch black in there and they have nothing to do but wander around in the dark. The only problem is that their room looks like a tornado blew through it after every naptime and every morning. I make them stay in there and clean up the clothes and miscellaneous items they've tossed onto the floor but so far it hasn't deterred them. They also finally figured out how to turn the doorknobs and open the doors but I remembered that I had a few of those childproof doorknob covers so I put those on and it's stopped them.

*Have you all heard of something called Freecycle? If not, you have to sign up for it! I have been getting so much stuff for free lately! Just in the past month, I've gotten a wireless router, houseplants, a cat scratching post, 2 snowsuits for the boys, and a pair of snow boots! I've also been able to give away a lot of things we no longer need that were just cluttering up the house. I LOVE it! I think it's in most major cities in the country and it's kind of like a listserv, I get a summary of posts emailed to me every day. There are mostly random household items and clothing offered, but somebody's always giving away furniture on there and if we had a larger car to transport it, I'd be all over that! Sure, some people offer junk, but for the most part, it's all gently used things that are just taking up space in somebody's home and they want to pass it along to somebody else who needs it. Brilliant!

*Brandon and I have really been enjoying having a fireplace! We've had fires every night this week! Combine that with a cup of hot tea and some Christmas music and we've got a great evening!

*And I've got to go because the boys just unraveled my plastic wrap and pulled out about a thousand Ziploc baggies and scattered them all over the kitchen floor. I knew it was too quiet over there...