Zilla News and a Give Away!

OMG I'm so happy - Zilla has decided that he's over the weird phase of sleeping on the floor beside his bed as opposed to in it. Tonight is the second night that he's actually slept IN his bed in like almost 3 months. I was getting worried that he was going to develop back problems and need a chiropractor or something. He's gone to bed remarkably easy as well - I'm sure due to the undeniable comfort of the bed!

Also I'm almost at my 300 post mark and since that seems to be the first give away bench mark in the blogging world I decided that I'd jump on the band wagon and do one too. So in just a few short posts I will be offering up TWO different gifts. So stay tuned! Okay I'm off to read (yet another) book before bed LOL. Nighty Nite folks!

Done with the Twilight Series

Ok I finished up the last Twilight book this morning. It's called Breaking Dawn and it has a staggering 754 pages. I started it yesterday and I have to say that I super duper liked it. I thought it was funnier than the others and I would venture to say that it was my favorite out of the four books with the original Twilight being a close second. The two books in the middle were very good but there were parts that grated on my nerves because I guess as Anna implies on her blog I'm firmly on 'Team Edward' lol but after reading the last book I see why the two middle books are important.

I actually might try and re-read it because it was SOO long and I was trying to read at the speed of light to see what happened so I'm sure I missed a few points. I said try because I have an uncanny 'ability' (that sounds dumb to say) to recall almost every detail of a book once I've read it. Even after years and years I can open to a random page read a paragraph and remember most of what happened in great detail. It's very annoying because I can't ever reread books - it takes all the fun out of it if you already know all the funny/good parts. It also makes it a pain to read newer books because I hate to spend money on books knowing that I'll never reread them. I do however think that I will at least buy Breaking Dawn so that maybe in a few weeks I can reread it and see what all I missed. Ok I'm gonna stop going on like the book geek that I am LOL!

You'd think I had unlimited time

I might have mentioned that when I do find a book/story that really catches my interest then I just can't manage to stop reading. Well...yesterday I managed to read New Moon (563 pages) and Eclipse (629 pages) from the Twilight series all in one day - yep I said one day. I won't lie and say I got much sleep last night but that was probably due to the fact that I didn't start reading until after 1pm. I'm fairly certain that had I started earlier then I could have finished at a manageable hour. I plan to go over and borrow the fourth book tonight so I'm sure that I'll have it done by sometime tomorrow.

Oh and the books were AWESOME - I just really love her character development although I have to say that I wasn't a fan of ALL the characters but we can't have it all can we LOL. Seriously go read these books you won't be disappointed.

Wow that book was long but good

I just finished reading Twilight. I started it yesterday (Friday) about 1pm and finished up a little after midnight I guess. For those of you who don't know - that book is friggin L-O-N-G like I'm talking 500 or so pages but it was G-O-O-D.

I absolutely relish in finding a great book, let along a book series, that I love. I'm such a picky book reader and I can only read things that totally captivate me and securely hold my interest so when I do find them I tend to tear through them very quickly. Anyway if you haven't read this book - read it - I can tell you that reading 500ish pages in a half a day is no easy thing so you gotta know it's good! Happy Reading!!

Movie Review Time

Ok lately I've seen a few new movies thanks to Netflix. Here is a review of them for you all!
Eagle Eye
Returning home after the shocking death of his overachieving twin brother, an aimless slacker named Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) finds himself inexplicably linked to notorious terrorist cell. Now, with the nation's law enforcement agencies hunting them down, Jerry and single mother Rachel (Michelle Monoghan) -- who's also been framed -- must work around the clock to thwart a political assassination and clear their names in the process.

This movies was awesome! DZ and I thought it was very good in that it wasn't super crazy suspenseful (which is good cause I'm a wuss with that kind of stuff) but yet it had enough twists and turns to keep you enthralled. Shia LaBeouf did a great job - I was kinda worried that I would only see him in his Transformers role but nope he did a good job. We both liked it quite a bit and would totally recommend it.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1 & 2
Bridget (Blake Lively), Lena (Alexis Bledel), Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) and Carmen (America Ferrera) are four friends that find a magical pair of pants that fit all of them so they use the 'power' of the pants to keep their friendship alive when they are separated.

I liked them both - they were good 'fluffy' movies that had a nice message. I couldn't say that they were for everyone but I liked them.

Definitely, Maybe
Interested in knowing how her divorcing parents met, young Maya (Abigail Breslin) listens as her dad, Will (Ryan Reynolds), recounts his romantic past with three different and special women: Emily (Elizabeth Banks), April (Isla Fisher) and Summer (Rachel Weisz) -- leaving Maya to guess which one is her mom. Kevin Kline makes an appearance in writer-director Adam Brooks's tender tale of father-daughter bonding and lost love.

This movie was so warm and endearing and I just loved it. It was funny but still had the whole date night romance thing going on. Not really a guy movie but your girl will like that you watched it with her anyway! Check it out you won't be disappointed!

Twilight
Based on Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel, Twilight follows the saga of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), who moves to a small town to live with her father. At school, she meets Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire. Despite his cautions, Bella falls in love with Edward, which endangers her life when a coven of bloodsuckers arrives to challenge Edward and his family.

Ok I totally LOVED this - not a surprise to those that have seen it I'm sure. I was a little hesitant because I'm not really into the whole vampire thing. Honestly I only put it on our queue because of the craze over the BOOKS - I'm really really really into finding and reading good book series and since this one has gotten so much hype and has spawned some obsession type things I decided to check it out. I'm glad I did cause it was awesome and a nice friend of mine is lending me the books so that I can devour them! I read little bits on the authors website and I just know that I'm going to love the way she writes. I'm actually excited about it! lol If you haven't seen it well you should!

My Son, the odd ball

Zilla has been lately making some odd places to relax. This past week he saw our pack n play sitting in the living room corner (cause I'm lazy and just never carted it out to the garage) and insisted that we open it for him so that he could play in it. He climbed in and out of it to get toys and just play - he must have been in there for about 40 minutes or so before bedtime rolled around and we forced him to get out. See what I mean:


Then just last night he decided that he was going to sleep in our laundry basket! He dragged a queen size fleece blanket over, dumped it in and then put in his pillow -since it obviously wasn't padded enough LOL. He really did want to sleep in it but as it turned out he took the blanket and pillow out before falling asleep on the floor! The picture is from when he did it in the living room but he drug it into his room and insisted that he sleep in it.

Our New Shed

A couple weeks ago we bought a new shed. Well DZ was able to finish it the other day with a little help from me and only minimal carnage. That thing was a pain in the rump it came with about a million pieces. Here is the little beauty:
Still working on it but it's almost done

This thing is huge inside and will certainly clear out some room in our garage!!

Easter Part 2

We got in a Easter Box from my MIL this week and it was filled with all kinds of goodies. Zilla got a nice selection of marshmallow treats, some cool Cars roll on bath soaps, a new Lightning McQueen car and a couple hot wheels. I think I personally made out like a bandit cause I got an awesome Fiesta Serving bowl with a lid in a beautiful blue that matches my other Fiesta!! Here are some pics:

High Five

Yesterday we went for a play date at our FRG leaders house so that Zilla could play and I could talk to someone over the age of 3. We had a super fun time and really enjoyed ourselves. The high light (for me - boy am I easy to please) was at the end when we were getting ready to leave. While I unlocked the car our hostess picked up Zilla to say goodbye -more likely because he was in her flowerbed playing with mulch- but anyway when she said bye she put up her hand for a high five. Well the second before I took pity on her and explained that he just didn't 'do' high fives what does that little turkey do? He put up his hand and said "five" then tentatively touched her hand with it!!! I must have had my mouth hanging to the floor I was that surprised. Leave it to your kid to make you look like a fool in front of people you just met...lol.

So last night I tried my luck and asked for a high five and he did it again! Actually I get a High Ten (both hands - is that still a high five? hmm) and this morning when I told DZ since he worked a double yesterday (and today - the Army is a slave driver!) and when he asked Zilla for one Zilla came running from the living room with a HUGE megawatt smile saying "FIVE!!" and gave him one! It was so cute so the law of children says duh I didn't have my camera! LOL Oh we are SO proud of him!

Slaving over the stove ALL day

That's what I did today. I have been baking for the majority of the day. So one would think that my house should be filled with the intoxicating aroma of cookies, pies,or breads right?

Yeah well you'd be WRONG cause I haven't been baking yummy baked goods - even though those sound really good right now - I have been baking sand. Yep I said sand. Monday morning we had a crazy amount of rain I mean it was like a monsoon outside. Anyway I looked out the window to see that someone, not me, left the sandbox lid off Sunday night and when I ran out there to cover it there was already about 3-4 inches of water sitting in it. So it still had water in it today and the only way besides sitting it in the sun for like a year to dry it was to bake it dry. I'm almost done doing that and we will be much more diligent in making sure the lid is on from this point forward.

Disaster

That's what Zilla leaves in his wake.
This is his Thomas ornament -the SECOND one-


This was Zilla after he decided to try and mess with DZ's old exhaust from his truck that he just replaced:


And this lovely mess was his attempt at bringing the beach indoors - notice how his trains are having a grand old time! What did my Dyson do to deserve this?

Easter Pictures!!

Okay as promised here are the fab Easter pictures:
These are from the Easter BBQ we had with a couple other families - Zilla had a great time splashing in the water even thought it was FREEZING - those kids are nuts.


Easter Morning with his basket:

Easter Was Good

We had an excellent Easter day together as a family. We gave Zilla his basket this morning and he just loved everything in it - a Cars Notebook, socks and magnets as well as some marshmallows (his fav snack), some peeps and an Easter Coloring book. He devoured the peeps and I stashed the marshmallows for later. After all that we had breakfast and then played outside for a while. After nap we blew up the pool and played some more outside. I helped DZ with the shed we are putting up out back and before we knew it dinner time came rolling around. We had ham, yams, green beans and corn pudding. Zilla ate none of that -cause he's picky like that- and bam it was bed time. We read him his normal books along with the Bible story of Jesus Rising and he also heard the Veggie Tales book Easter Carol. I have pictures that I will gladly post tomorrow but well I'm just too darn tired tonight. Hope your day was filled with many blessings and lots of family fun!!

I also have some pictures of an Easter picnic that we went to on Sat that I will post tomorrow as well!!

HAPPY EASTER

May the Lord bring you many Blessings this coming year! I Pray that you all have a wonderful weekend filled with family fun and lots of love!!

Who Would Have Thought...

That going to bed would be so painful. I just put Zilla down to sleep and the poor kid managed to bang the back and front of his head! We read to him three books every night but since he is unable to sit still for even a minute he moves around. Well tonight while I was reading he decided to sit on his toy box but it's not made for that and he sat back too far and fell inside hitting the back of his head in the process! After the crying (even though he really didn't hit it hard he was just soaking up the love LOL) stopped he began to whine cause I turned on his cd player aka the sign that its prayers then bedtime and he managed to trip (on nothing) and smack his forehead on the bed. Once again he didn't really hurt himself but I swear the kid is so uncoordinated sometimes LOL. I did finally manage to get him laid down - on the floor since he is now opposed to sleeping on his super duper cool train bed - and he's drifting off as I type.

An actor waiting to happen

Zilla has discovered that when someone sneezes DZ and I will say "God Bless You" - every time. SO....with that new found knowledge and his craving for attention he has been going "achoo" ALL day with a huge smile on his face! He does it over and over and over and over. Well it's gotten old but we can't exactly not say it because I don't to teach him that you don't have to say it when someone sneezes so we are left indulging our future actor. Fun really!

New Awesome Book!!

Back in 2007 I was forwarded an e-mail with an eBay listing in it from my mom. It was FUNNY AS HECK I mean seriously it had me cracking up! It was a listing for Pokemon Cards and You can read it HERE It was put up by Dawn Meehan who is a mom of 6 -yes I said 6- kids. That eBay listing literally went around the world and has catapulted Dawn into a whole new realm. She blogs but she has also just released her first book entitled Because I Said So.

Because I Said So is totally funny! It was just released last week I think but I got it from Amazon and read it right when it came in. It's very funny and gives you a glimpse (cause lets face it we are all curious how crazy it is with 6 kids right?) into her wild and crazy life. It really hits home that you can get through anything as long as you keep your sense of humor about it! It was great so: Buy it HERE

Thrift Store Finds!

**Hmm this should have posted last night but it saved it as a draft instead - oh well here it is!
Zilla and I had been couped up in the house for WAY to long due to the monsoon we've been experiencing here in Alabama. So it was finally a decent day so we decided to venture out for the day. Since there is little to nothing to do here I decided we'd visit the local thrift stores - I love finding me some bargains! First we went on post to their thrift store and I found a dress to wear when we visit my in-laws this month and some awesome rubber Lightning McQueen shoes for Zilla they are a little big but he loves them and they were only $1!!! Then we headed to Goodwill in the next town over. That goodwill was a bust it pretty much only had clothes but Zilla liked going up and down the stairs - he actually listened to me and didn't try to go up them on his own he waited for me <~~~~~ progress!!! Then we had lunch and I decided to stop by a Ministries Thrift Store here in town. They had lots of stuff and I found a backpack to take on our Vacation (only $1!) and Zilla found a toy to. I probably wouldn't have gotten it but the lady said it was only $0.10 and he seemed to love it! I did tell him on the way out that we would just hide it from Daddy which totally cracked the clerk up! LOL here it is - he really does love it too he drives his cars/trains through the gates!

Keeping the Boy Busy

Zilla LOVES bounce houses so last week I saw one being advertised for sale on our local craigslist for $30. It wasn't huge or anything but big enough for Zilla and maybe another toddler. I went ahead and got it for him and boy does he love it! I'm thinking that I could probably blow it up in the dining room if I really wanted to which might be a good thing if all this stupid Alabama weather keeps up! He was so funny cause after a while he decided that he wanted a pillow in there to. He went inside and drug out a pillow and tried to get inside but he couldn't get it in. He's pretty focused when he decides he wants something so after trying for a little bit he thought and then decided to go around to the side and try his best to throw that pillow up and over the side! It was SOOOOO darn funny to watch - I kept thinking what a smart kid but since he didn't have the strength to heave it over I helped him out. Then he could jump and rest when needed LMAO!!


More mess for me to clean up! I swear all boxes of powder need to be kept locked up - one would think I'd have learned by now but alas I haven't! Here is the latest mess:


Okay I'm not sure if I mentioned on here or not but back around Christmas that Zilla got a cool remote controlled Thomas the Train. Well he for reasons unknown to anyone but him is scared out of his mind by this toy - you'd think it was the Thomas version of Chucky. Well I took it from the cabinet it's been banished to (if I were to even open that cabinet he would run screaming!) and just set it on the floor. Well much to our surprise he adopted it as his new fav toy! He's carried it around and even likes to have it "tucked in" at bedtime. Now I was so happy that he loved it that I (stupidly) thought it was time to turn it on and use the remote - not a good idea. He threw the train down and ran screaming "NOOOOOOOOO" - he wouldn't go near it for several hours! So he likes it just turned off and the remote (alone) will send him crying! So weird. Here he is playing with JUST the train!

The Beach

Since Zilla has such a fascination with the sand aka the beach in our yard I decided to go ahead and get some sand for his sand box. I put it in there and he had a ball!! He was digging and burying every day! He can take the lid off by himself (and he does) and he just goes to town. I showed him how to make a sand castle with one f his castle molds and he just loves that! He will build it (or have me do it) and then he will take his time destroying it! Here are some pictures!