New blog...

I've started a new blog at http://ourwyolife.wordpress.com. Come check out our new adventures there.

Magma thoughts is moving!

Literally and figuratively we are moving. My husband has accepted a new job out of state (things have been very crazy here lately, hence the blog fading). Anyway I want to start a new blog so that our family can be up to date on our new adventures. I don't want to do it on this blog as I've done my fair share of complaining here about people that I hope will read my blog. Anyway, I also need a new name for my new blog and am having a mind block about possible names for it. The town we are moving to is Torrington, WY. Any suggestions? Leave them below.

I'll be sure to post a link to my new blog when it is up. Hopefully in time to include the link in our Christmas letter, which I haven't even started.

Oh that funny little boy

Today's pick up at daycare was a regular laugh fest for me. I went to Bodie's room first. Lately Bodie and I have been working on his manners. He is a shy boy who takes a bit to warm up to people. When we are at school I will ask him to say hi and bye to people that speak to him first. Usually he still won't say anything. I've been reminding him that it is good manners to speak to people when they speak to you. He has really been getting better, but still needs some reminders. So tonight we were at school and as I was putting his coat on he told me that G was his friend today (and G is standing right next to Bodie). I said that was great. And then Bodie told me he was going to say goodbye to G when we left (right in front of him - I was already laughing). So Bodie turned to G and said bye and G said bye to him as well. And then hugged him! And then a kiss! Oh it was so funny. Ok, I don't think Curt thought it was as funny as I did when I told him later. Anyway, Bodie and I left and I ran right into a vacuum that was outside of his door. He told me I needed to look out for the vacuum and that I should watch where I am walking (wonder where he has heard that before). We went to Barrett's room and Bodie said bye to Barrett's teacher. As we walked out of Barrett's room Bodie told me that he'd said bye to her and I asked him if he would say bye to D who sits at the front desk at the school. She says bye to him every night and he refuses to respond. I think part of it is a little bit of a game with Bodie. He turns and looks at her and gave her a very enthusiastic wave and a bye. She was floored and said Bodie had just made her night. As we left he also said hi to G's mom who was on her way in. Hopefully he is gaining more confidence and a little less shyness.

Swimming Lessons part deux

Bodie just finished up his second swimming lesson experience. (I thought I blogged about our 1st swimming lesson experience, but I can only find a few short updates. I'll just say it was 30 minutes of frustration and crying for a month and a half). We've been to the pool a few times and Bodie usually has fun, so I was hopeful this go round of lessons would be more successful. Well things did start out promising. The first few lessons Bodie would try the tasks the teacher asked. He still wasn't too fond of trying to float, but he would blow bubbles, walk away from me, pick things up off the pool floor, etc. One weekend Curt and I were out of town and my mom took Bodie to his lesson. She said he did pretty well but the following week when I took him back his behavior was horrible. He wouldn't do ANYTHING. He stood there or clung to me the entire lesson. The following week was more of the same. I thought that week was the last lesson but the teacher told me there was one left. As fate would have it we were going out of town again, this time with the boys. I felt relieved that I wouldn't have to take him to anymore lessons. I also felt relieved not to be at the last lesson. You know, the one where the teacher tells you if your child passed or failed (and I'd guess we were in the latter category). Well imagine my surprise later that week when Bodie's report card came in the mail.

He PASSED! WTF! The teacher marked that he could do everything (including calling 911 for help...um doubtful, but ok). Actually I am glad that he passed. Part of me thinks he'd be better off in a class that parent's weren't involved in. The last week we were there a substitute teacher was running the class. She asked if he was in preschool yet. I think because of his behavior he didn't seem like he ever spent time away from me. That is the one thing that would make me nervous to have him in a class without me. He would either be very well behaved, or withdrawn and uninvolved. At least we have another year before we have to cross that bridge.

15 months

Barrett turned 15 months on Halloween. He has also had quite a growth spurt. I knew he seemed much bigger, but I just pulled out Bodie's 15 month sheet and they are the same size - except Bodie has a 1/4" bigger head.
Barrett is also growing in other ways. He loves calling out the dogs by name. Tells them "kennels" in the morning before school, and says "school" as we pull in the parking lot. He says mama and dada, but doesn't seem to have any word for Bodie. He says more and one morning told me "more nana". He loves backing up. He'll back up into anyone or anything so he can sit on your lap (or the dog's lap). He also likes to stand on his head (think inverted V). I have no idea why he does this but he never stays long enough for me to grab my camera. He loves to run away when he knows he shouldn't. We feel like he'll be a bigger trouble maker than his older brother.

Mission Deconstruction

I know of been MIA for a looong time. So much stuff going on with us right now that will provide much bloggy material in the future. In the mean time....

A month or so ago I took a week off work to get some things done around the house. Unfortunately I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but one thing I did get done was Barrett's bedroom. When Barrett was 6 months old we moved him out of our room. We had intended on moving him into Bodie's room, but we've decided Bodie isn't mature enough to share a room just yet. So in a rush to get a good night's sleep we put Barrett into our spare bedroom. And we moved just enough stuff in the room to get the crib in. The room still housed the extra bed and all of our extra stuff. Over the past 6 months since then the room really went down hill. I kept opening rubber.maid containers of clothes to switch in and out as Barrett grew and the seasons changed. Oh it did get ugly...

I couldn't move the crib out of the room so I was pretty limited in how I could move the furniture around to rearrange things. And I really didn't have any idea what I was going to do.

It got pretty messy. But then things started finding their place.

And it got to be as good as it would get:

DipTacular

I was so excited to see that BooMama is hosting a DipTacular today. I love dips! And I made a new dip last weekend that was a hit with all the male folk at Curt's fantasy football draft. Curt tried it first and then raved to all of his friends who then tried it for themselves. It was actually kind of funny - Curt doesn't usually rave over my cooking to that extent. One guy there told me it didn't taste like he expected it to. I told him I didn't know how to take that, but he just meant that by the looks of the dip, he didn't expect it to be what it was. Anyway, here is the recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip:

Buffalo Chicken Dip
20 oz chicken, cooked and shredded
2 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup blue cheese dressing
3/4 cup wing sauce
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat chicken and wing sauce in skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Add cream cheese and blue cheese dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese. Transfer to 8x8 pan, top with remaining cheese, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted. Serve with chips, crackers, celery, or whatever else you enjoy dipping.

And apparently I'm not smart enought to grab the button, so go here for more dip recipes!