Friday, December 18, 2009

The Christmas Destroyer

Apparently, Hudson decided at some point during the day yesterday that Christmas should be over and that the giant Christmas tree we brought home was really intruding on his ability to press his giant beak up against the front window all day long. Jake came home to a very frightened dog last night and a gigantic mess... This picture doesn't do it justice. There was water from the tree stand everywhere, needles all over the damn place, ornaments from here to Texas and a toddler that kept saying, "Hudson naughty!"

Thank goodness for shop vacs.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Sherman Family Christmas Tree Hunt

A couple weeks ago, Jake, Layla, Hudson and I took a trip to a sweet Christmas tree farm across from Pike Lake. It was super cool -- "sleigh rides" (well, a big tractor trailer being pulled behind a giant tractor), hot cocoa, dogs could come, and even Santa was there!! We rode out to the tree farm and hiked through the woods to find the perfect tree. Layla and I ended up making the final decision on the tree (it's huge). I'll post pics of it once I have my new camera. We all know how great the pics will be w/ our existing camera.

This year started a new tradition for us. It was so much fun to go out with the whole fam and pick our own tree and celebrate the coming holiday. I think Hudson was SUPER pumped to have been included... Although, he was slightly wigged when the trailer we were in started moving. It took him a while, but eventually, he chilled out and just rode with us.

Whoah. Hey... what the?? Jesus, is this thing supposed to be moving? Everyone! Get low!

Layla, Hudson (see him there, right in front of Jake?), and daddy dragging our prize tree out of the woods.
Check this sucker out.
Whoo hooo!! Tractor trailer rides are fun!
Mommy and Layla. Merry Christmas to all!!!





This video cracks me up. Layla is daddy's little helper. He yells for Hudson, Layla yells for Hudson. He says "good boy", Layla says "good boy". Precious.

Monday, December 14, 2009

I'm back!

Alright Layla girl... here's a quick update for you and your followers. The first few pics are just some snaps of you from last week... your visit to Santa, you modeling your new Christmas dress for your Great Uncle Joel and Great Aunt Tammy's Christmas party next weekend, and you just hanging out.

These past few weeks with you have been hilarious. You're learning about a billion things a day and every day you talk more. You had me laughing so hard I was crying last night because you were making your silly faces and then laughing at yourself. You reminded me so much of me!! Daddy's going to love the fact that you think you're so funny... just like I think I'm funny!!

I hear Santa has a lot of your wishes crossed off his list. Once again, this year you will be a very spoiled little girl. But, I think you deserve it. It's your sibling that will be added to the family in years to come that will probably suffer and get far less than you did!

And, to those of you who are as fully aware that our camera sucks as we are, my mom got us a new camera for Christmas so come the end of the month, the Sherman pics will no longer look like a glob of snot was covering our lens when we took the picture. Hats off to Olympus though. This camera made it through a deployment in Kuwait and some serious slams on the ground and floor since then.

Bean modeling her 2009 Christmas dress. She's pretty pumped about it, especially because it's not scratchy.

Chillin with her best bud.

Bundled up to go play in the snow with Daddy.

Showing me the Nemo fish Santa gave her at the annual Rau Xmas party. Daddy went to get her fish from Santa while we hid from him. Then she made me take her downstairs away from Santa to play with it.

And, earlier in the day, this is the death grip Layla had on me when we went to lunch with Santa. It was no wonder she wanted nothing to do with him later that night at Rau's party!

This was last night. Layla and I made cupcakes while daddy was away hunting. She loved sitting on the island and stirring the batter, but wouldn't taste it!!
Not sure what was going on in her head here. She was just really into stirring.

Ahhhhh!!! Chocolate!

I love frosting!


Ta da!!!!!!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Santa's going to bring me coal!

Oye. Santa is going to bring me a big boat load of coal this year for my terrible blogging (or, shall I say, lack there-of). I promised two people yesterday that I'd have an update on the blog last night with pictures and all, and look. Nothing... we got preoccupied last night decorating our Christmas tree and after it was said and done Jake and I were both cross-eyed tired from playing defense with Layla and Hudson.

I brought my camera in today, but of course forgot the USB cord. My darn memory card doesn't fit into the card reader that's installed on my work computer, so, ya'll are gonna have to wait another day. I promise to get my tail into the basement tomorrow a.m. with pictures of our trip to the Christmas tree farm from last weekend and our trip to G'ma and G'pa's for Thanksgiving.

This weekend, we're taking Layla to lunch with Santa, then to a friend's Christmas party where Santa will also be making an appearance (he's one busy man this time of year). Then Grandpa Rog will be popping in for a visit w/ us on Sunday. Lot's of fun!

Stay tuned, and please don't send hate mail.

Friday, November 13, 2009

This was a year ago!?!

So I was just yapping with a coworker about her little one, who'll be walking soon. She asked me if I remember when Layla started walking and I had to take a look back at the trusty Sherman blog.

Layla took her first steps on October 22, 2008, but here's a glimpse of how well she was moving around on November 13, 2008.

She is soooo grown up now compared to this. She runs so fast I can hardly keep up with her! How did she grow up so fast in just one year!?!?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Stupid Blogger - scroll down

I'm not sure why blogger does this, but if I draft a post and don't post it until after another post, it lists the older post below the newer one.

Anyway, scroll down for pics of Bean from Halloween!

Monday, November 9, 2009

32 and lovin' it

Happy Birthday to me, today! I'm the big 3-2 today and lovin' it (or so I keep trying to tell myself). Each year, my birthday gets more uneventful and less of a "to-do" than the last. Probably because I'm starting to understand what it feels like to get old and I don't want to celebrate that, and probably because the really important thing in my life is my little girl and hubby - who take up all my spare time and energy (in good and bad ways). ;)

Here are some things I've learned this year:

1. It's not selfish to think about yourself before others every once in a great while.
2. Coloring your own hair is easy and cheap. I am not above it!
3. It took me 31.75 years to grow up the courage to have someone besides my mom wax my eyebrows. They did not fall off and they look just fine.
4. I've learned to accept the things I cannot change and change the things I can (although, I don't always know the difference).
5. People who ask for advice over and over and don't take it, don't really want your advice. So, when those people continue to ask me for advice, I am going to start talking in gibberish to see what they say.
6. Glee is the best show to hit t.v. in like 32 years.
7. When it comes to kids - nothing is permanent - good or bad.
8. When it comes to kids - each day with them is better than the day before.
9. Friends who are far away and busy with lives of their own are always near and dear to my heart.
10. Family is the root of all happiness. And Zen, well, Zen is when I look into Layla's big baby blue's see all that she's learning and all that she'll learn from us.

Happy Flippin Bday to meeee!


Saturday, November 7, 2009

Halloween n' Stuff

Awe... our little bumble bee. Er, Whinny the Pooh dressed as a bumble bee, that is.

Layla and her buddy Buzz Lightyear, I mean Ryan (the bee costume was his when he was little).
Proud whinny the pooh bee.
Hey, you like my punkin?

Really daddy? Really?


A little late, and out of sequence, but you know what they say about that... Better late than, well, you know how it goes. ;) Halloween at the Sherman house went off without a hitch. Layla dressed up as Whinny the Pooh, dressed up as a bumble bee. The costume was courtesy of the Roemer's (Ryan wore it when he was younger). Layla was very proud of her costume and wore it almost all night. The only time she wanted to take it off was towards the end of the Roemer party when she had been playing for some time and was getting "too ott" (too hot).

A few nights before the party, we carved the pumpkin that came from Grandma D and Grandpa Ice's house. Layla made all the decisions on the face and daddy did the carving according to her requests. Don't mind the beads in her mouth in the shots. Daddy gave her Packer beads and now she's obsessed w/them. Hence them hanging out of her mouth in some of these.

Halloween was Layla's first real exposure to candy. Wow. Now I know why parents are so over the top when people try to give their kids candy. It was like someone fed Layla cocaine with a spoon. We really tried to regulate her intake, but geeze, it was Halloween and there was candy flying at her from everywhere!! We paid for the candy intake starting at about 2:00 a.m. on Nov 1. She was up from 2:00 a.m. on and it was not pretty for mommy and daddy, who stayed up until almost 1:00 a.m. Nice move mom and dad!!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday was a gorgeous day, so we hit up the pumpkin patch (on the 5 yr anniversary of the weekend that Jake proposed to me - by carving it in a GIANT pumpkin after we hit up Apple Hollar pumpkin patch). It was pretty fun, and Layla was in heaven. Her favorite thing these days is pumpkins, so to walk into a field of them was probably like if one of us were to walk into a field of money that was up for grabs. Or wine, whatever.


As you'll see by the pics, I think the biggest event was Layla's run in with the llama. The pics will tell the story, but let's just say llamas are now on Layla's shit list.


Awe... fam shot. We were looking directly into the sun... so I think all three of us were gritting our teeth through the pain.




Layla, observing all the pumpkins while eating popcorn.

Man, this is a lot of pumpkins!




Jake shooting the pumpkin blaster. In his words, it was, "Awesome."Pumpkin blaster target.

After he shot. What a dork. ;)




Layla thought this old broke down wagon was the bee's knees. I was a little nervous that the wheel was going to fall off.


Layla on the choo choo train ride. She loved it!!! We had to go twice.


Mother of God... you want me to do what? You want me to reach my hand over and pet that giant thing that's staring me in the face? Whaaaat? Getting close...



Closer...
Chomp! Here's where the llama decided to tug on Bean's jacket a bit. She was NOT a happy camper after this. She screamed, "AAAAhhhhh!!!!! Lllllaaaammmmaaa!!!" She was the only one at the pumpkin patch having a fit at this time.




Feeding the goat. Gross.




Oddly enough, these goats were picky. After this pig scarfed all the food Layla had in her hand, Layla bent down to pick some up off the ground and feed it to the goat. He wasn't having any of that.

Weekend w/ Bean

The weekend was a good one... a little weird without 2,340 things to do, but relaxing all the same. Saturday, daddy took Layla to run errands with him (aka, dink around at Fleet Farm, Cabella's, some other hunting store, Kmart - for a pumpkin bucket and a giant stuffed fish, etc). While they were gone, I cleaned. Niiice. Sunday was awesome weather day, so we took Bean to a pumpkin patch (those pics are saved for another post this week. No really, I already did the post and have it on reserve).

Pictures below are just some randoms of the weekend. I'm seeing more and more each day how badly we need a new camera. Dear Santa, please send new camera.

New potty, drinkin' chocolate milk. She was mad that this potty didn't have a "flusher", but we're trying to tackle this potty training things from all angles!
She's gonna kill me for this pic someday... Daddy and Layla were watching baseball. And, well, this is how daddy watches baseball, so this is Layla's impression of daddy.

Making popcorn!


Ohhhh! Pop, pop, pop! Bean, when you were in my belly, we called you "Popcorn" cuz it felt like there was popcorn popping in my belly when you'd kick!

Eating popcorn out of her "punkin toy".


Here's Bean singing the intro of "Single Ladies" and a little of "Zippity do da". Then she says hi to almost everyone in the fam and then some. Too funny. She was sitting on the counter playing w/ play dough (from Auntie Megan and Uncle Hot Hair).

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Terrible Two's



Well, we're there. The terrible two's. They are upon us in full fury and we're loving it (please note sarcasm). You can see the "Devil" in her eyes in this picture, can't you?? Can't you?? Here, we were doing some artwork at the kitchen table and I so rudely interrupted her by asking her to please smile for the camera. Yikes! ;)
Layla's latest: waking up at 4:30 a.m. to talk, yell, play, have a tantrum, then when it's finally time to leave the house 3 hours later she says she's tired. Lately, I've felt like a terrible mommy because all I want to do is yell, "Pleeeeease!!! For the love of God child, BE QUIET!!!!!! Stop wining!!! Stop crying!!! Stop throwing things!!!" Not long ago, I taught Layla what "patience" means. Now, whenever I say, "Do you know what it means to be patient?" she says, "Wait?" and I say yes. BUT, that has backfired because I'm trying to teach her all kinds of words now like "manners", "do not whine", "be polite", etc. Whenever I say things like, "Do you know what it means to be polite?" she'll say, "Wait?" Pretty funny but frustrating at the same time.


Jake's been really busy lately with school so Layla and I are often left to "fend for ourselves" and / or amuse ourselves. This weekend I chased her around for a bit with the camera to try to capture some of her sassy and chatty moments. Here's what I got... Nothing spectacular but stay tuned. There's never a shortage of sass in our house, that's for sure.


In this video, you'll probably sense the exhaustion in my voice when she walks away from her book and tries to take the camera from me. Then you'll note that I've fallen off my rocker by teaching Layla to "shake her booty". Great values, mom.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Real Photo Shoot

Whoa. It's been a while since our last post. Where did September go? Oh, that's right - bow hunting started. Which means when we're not working, Jake's off in the woods somewhere (mostly out of town) and mommy is chasing Layla or off gallivanting with friends. So, the last thing I've wanted to do in my "down" time is log on to the computer - even if it is for a good cause (as I sit here logged on to two computers at once, trying to blog and get work done for a project deadline that crept up on me, and, I'm sitting on the phone with our useless IT group, trying to get logged on remotely. Yes, I said it - USELESS. They're useless and I cannot wait until we can this horrific VPN provider that calls themselves iPass. Yep. I said it. Go ahead, sue me).

So, I suppose that sums up the past few weeks in a nut shell. We've been moving at warp speed and we're pooped. Work's killing us both, Layla is in "never stops talking" phase and the "ShermBurger" wedding is coming up on us at an alarming rate!

Jake's fall softball team is doing "so-so"... I dunno, I think maybe they're at 2-1 right now?? I stopped listening before summer ball ended. ;) Absolutely notta going on with me. Just trying to enjoy the time I have with Layla at night and on the weekends. I swear, ever day she blasts at us with more energy than the day before! She's really starting to come in to her own, that's for sure.

Today, we had our annual family photo shoot - Jake, Layla, Mommy and Hudson (of course). It went really well and we managed to get all the outside shots in before the rain started (I see now that the sun is coming out but oh well, I think we got some pretty sweet shots in). Layla got some by herself in the studio as well. I think they're all going to turn out great, as our photographer shared a few of the pictures with us straight off her camera. Even Hudson had a self portrait done!! :) Amy (photographer) was impressed with how well Layla did and said that she's not used to 2 year olds doing that well for photo shoots (hmmm... imagine that, Layla enjoying her moment in the spotlight). She recommended that I send some of Layla's pics (ones that we had taken today or ones we take ourselves) to Kohl's for their ads. I guess they do all the photo shoots for their catalogues / circulars in Milwaukee - wouldn't that be fun!?

As soon as we have some of the shots from today's shoot, I'll post them for you. No seriously, I will. For now, I'm signing off... I have a crick in my neck from typing and waiting on hold with the world's LOUDEST, most ANNOYING hold music ever. Grrrrr.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Photo Shoot

My sis took these pics back on Bean's bday, after her party. We were all just goofing around and taking fun pictures. It was then that we discovered what a total ham bone Layla is for the camera! You'll notice that she was pretty much digging being the center of attention for these pics. They turned out great... I think I'll have the one below framed (sorry it's not facing the right way). Yeah, I'm cute. I know.
This one just makes me laugh really hard. Linds told her to smile really big and that's just what she did - as well as lean into the camera lens super close and look a little scary!

Autie Linds, Layla and Mummy.


Nonnie, Layla and Mummy. Layla looks like she's about to play the remote like it's a clarinet!



Cheeeeeeeese!!!