Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Lately I've been so busy that I keep forgetting to blog. With Katy home, now Hope coming home... its just been crazy. In a good way. But... as I promised to Kelsey before she left for North Carolina, I WILL BLOG. As will she. :)

This might be a little random, but I have so many precious black and white pictures on my phone, and I had to post some.

Brody and Cam in their hats. For some reason Brody LOVES the infant sized bear hat. He brings it to me everyday wanting me to put it on him. And if I don't snap the bottom part, he gets mad. So his not-infant-sized face gets squished into that hat almost daily around here [unless I remember to hide it...]. And Cam, well he doesn't keep hats on. At all. This picture took about 14 tries before I got one with the hat still on him. :)

Ah the top of our tree. I love it. I had a picture on my camera of the full tree, in color, lights on and everything.... but.... it was blurry. Oh well. We have a TON of pretty vintage Christmas ornaments that were my grandma's. They are super colorful and super breakable. We learned that when our tree fell over one year... bummer. But there are still a lot left. :)


Lastly, two of my very favorite kids, Claire and Miles. I was their chauffeur on Monday, and while we waited at the dance studio for Alex to be done with hip hop, Claire and Miles wanted to pretend to be asleep. Miles is really convincing, huh?

Enjoying a pomegranate.

To eat a pomegranate, you have to A. Be very determined and B. Have a lot of time on your hands.

Today, while watching the boys, I decided to eat a pomegranate. Thankfully the boys were entertaining themselves.

First, you have to cut it open. Which usually results in cutting a bunch of the seeds open. And then you get pomegranate juice all over your hands/the counter/the floor. Be prepared for that.

Then you take the pieces and put them into a bowl of water. Then all the yellow skin part floats to the top and the seeds go to the bottom. You still have to kind of break them apart, but CAREFULLY. Otherwise the juice thing happens from the previous step.

Number three, remove as much of the skin as you can.


4. Rinse the seeds in a colander. I usually have to return them to a bowl of water a few times to get all the yellow parts off.


Lastly, pour into an empty bowl and enjoy!

PS- Brody just woke up from a nap and is permanently attached to my side, making it hard to write a blog post.

Almost too much cuteness for one post.

How cute is this little boy? I've been teaching Brotato Chip to play on his own lately. Not ALL the time, but for a while. So he isn't spoiled. Ha.

[I think its too late.]

Anyway, today little man sat in the corner for 30 minutes. I kept looking at him, wondering what on earth was keeping him entertained so long. And welp, here it is.

He was lining up his blocks against the wall, messing them up, and lining them up again.

This is what he did when I told him to look at me, of course.

You can't tell which blocks are which, but I think he was putting them in order of his favorites. He always carries around the blue block with a V and a van on it. So much so that the picture is wearing off. After that, its a J with a jar of jelly. And so on. Well, the V block is first in the line, followed by the J... and other favorites. Once you get to the end of the line, the blocks aren't even straight anymore.

He is so strange, but so smart!

Thankfulness: Day 3-6. :)

Once upon a time, I was a terrible blogger. And that time was the past 3 days.
So much for thankfulness, right? WRONG.
I have been writing down and photographing the things I've been thankful for in the past few days, even though I haven't been blogging about it. Sometimes I just don't have time, you know?

[Sidenote: I don't know how moms of small children can be so up to date with Facebook and blogger and such. When I am nanny-ing, I literally have to be with them every second or the crazies dump my purse on the floor and eat my necklaces! Haha. My only internet time is the small time where their naps overlap. Maybe it will be different with my own kids?]

Anyway, thankfulness.
First, I am so thankful for fall in Washington.
I love the rain. The cold. The storms. The leaves.
Its so beautiful. It makes my life more enjoyable.

I am also thankful for the vast array of coffee shops in Washington. Today I visited one I had never been to before, Satellite Coffee in Tacoma. I was looking at a couple apartments, saw this place, and had to try it.
I got an americano with a little bit of vanilla in it. Mmmmmmm.
Perfection.

I am always thankful for these precious prizes. I am especially thankful for their parents' old cell phones. The boys constantly want mine. They know I keep it in my purse [hence the purse dumping]. But since they are only babies, they don't quite realize that these phones don't really work anymore. :)

[Sidenote: Note Cam's little face. He is ALWAYS looking to Brody to see what Brody will do next. Dangerous of course, because Brody is daring and defiant, but so cute!]

More coffee? No. This picture is about these boys. The two on the right have been my favorite family to babysit for since the Isbells left Washington. They love me and I can't figure out why. [Seriously these kids call me, on their own and ask me to babysit. Miles once offered to give me his room is I would live with them.] Anyway, I just always take them to Forza and read to them a lot? I guess we have similar interests? :)
Usually I have all three Omans [Alex, Claire and Miles] but tonight I just had the boys, plus their cousin. They were so excited to make all the decisions without the input of their sister. I am so thankful for these boys. For the joy they bring when I watch them. And for their parents, who have become my friends, not just my employers. Love love love the Oman family!

Fall Days

The Pumpkin Patch. Quite possibly my favorite place in the world.
In Puyallup, everyone [mostly] goes to Spooner Farms. There are millions of pumpkins, a corn maze, homemade caramel corn, hot apple cider, pumpkin slingshots, animals... basically everything fall that you can think of!
This past week, Kelsey and I went down to Spooner's, braved the mud and picked out a couple BEAUTIFUL pumpkins.

I just had a feeling that wheelbarrow number 12 was lucky. I was right.

Are white pumpkins supposed to be green inside? You can't quite tell from this picture, but it was definitely a Halloween-y shade of green. Very creepy. Kelsey and I both gasped when the top came off!

It took a long time, but the pumpkins turned out incredible! I am so happy with them, I love them!

On a totally unrelated but still dear to my heart subject, Brody has learned to eat all by himself! Under my supervision of course. He ate a whole sandwich and half a banana all on his own! Without it being cut into pieces or anything. He had such good self control, eating small bites and chewing it all. Ha, he's such a cute kid. I love him!

Where have I been? Let me tell you!

So what have I been up to besides not blogging?
First off let me say that I am so excited for the day I can get a new computer. While I am so extremely thankful for the one I have [Thank you Sara! :)], I will be so happy when my camera will once again connect to my computer.
Maybe its because Apple here is so old, I don't know, but she absolutely WILL NOT recognize my camera as anything. Just won't show up when I plug it in. Sad day.
So until that day I must upload from my phone, which is not as cool or as pretty, oh well. :)

So I bought these letters from JoAnn Fabrics [LOVE THAT PLACE]. They were each $1 off, so it was about $5 for both of them. M & M... Meagan Maki. Or Meagan Marie. Or Marvelous Mastermind, I don't know. Whatever you want MM to be... that's what it is.

I then spray painted them white, and have them sitting on my desk for decoration. I plan to put them on my shelf, when I get a new one. :) Mine right now is way too full!

I also made these cool cupcakes. Homemade fondant Mario cupcakes. Delicious if I do say so myself. [You can ask Savanah or Andy or my Mom or Jarvis... they would all agree! :)] It took me a while but it was fun and I had the spare time.

Lastly, but actually firstly because I did this before I made the letters or the cupcakes, I taught/am still teaching Brody how to eat with a fork. Yup, little man is growing up! And the best part about him eating with a fork? HE LOVES IT, and he eats ALL his food.
The boy has always been a picky eater. Ever since I've known him, he's just like his nanny. :)
Anyway, when I cooked his lunch and helped him eat with a fork last week, he ate every bite! I was so happy and he was happy/confused at why I was happy. But it was a good moment. Ha! :)

Sunshine and Bro-ito.

Say hello to Brody. He is my job. And I love him.

I especially love his age right now: one and a half.

He LOVES exploring. A little too much, almost. He also loves to be outdoors, as do I. So we have fun together.

:)

Excuse me, Miss Meagan? Its bright. Can I have your sunglasses?

(He can't quite talk yet, but I can read him pretty well.)

Thanks Meg. These are so much fun!

I'm really sorry I broke your sunglasses.

I'll just walk away now.

Okay that was boring. What else do ya have for me to break--err... play with?

Please?? I love you.

Typical conversation with the little man.

And I love it.

This is why I love my job.

Brody. Bro. Brojo. Brosicle. Bubba. Piglet.

I spend 8 hours a day with this kid. He is hilarious. And he has style.

And he naps for 2-3 hours. He's a growing boy for sure.