Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! We opened gifts last night. I have lots of pictures, but I haven't loaded them onto my computer yet. But, I did get a new Flip video camera, so here's some video to enjoy. Note Andrew stealing the gift under the tree in the beginning :-).

Anatomy of a Christmas Card Picture

I am a firm believer in the benefits of a digital camera and Photoshop...and now you have proof! I was taking pictures of the boys the other day for Christmas cards (so I could send my pictures away for free shipping at Snapfish on Tues). I got some good pictures...but not THE great one that I always aim for. Enter...Photoshop. I took Andrew's head from one picture and inserted it into another picture where Adam looked really cute. No one knows the difference (well...except those of you who are reading this). I am not showing the Christmas card part of the picture, so I won't totally spoil the surprise of our Christmas cards :-). Usually, I don't have to be so extreme with my Photoshop skills (like swapping out heads). I've taken eyes from another picture if one person in a group has their eyes closed and everyone else looks good. It's a great way to get a good picture when you have more than one child.

Yes, I know, Sandra....Aaron wore that vest when he wasn't even a year and a half!!

Halloween

We took the boys out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood on Halloween night. Adam dressed up as Batman (same costume as last year), and Andrew was Superman. He actually had his choice of a cowboy costume that Adam wore when he was 2 or a Tigger costume that Adam wore when he was 3. However, he wanted to be a superhero like his big brother, and no one would have been able to talk him into either of the 2 other costumes. So, Andrew wore Adam's Superman pajama top with the cape on the back. I have a feeling that it was probably a good thing I didn't make it out to the store for clearanced costumes for next year, since Andrew is very particular about what he wears :-).

We actually walked around with our neighbor and her son, who is Adam's age. Adam and his friend ran from house to house, so I walked with him, and Andrew walked a little more slowly with Dan. Everyone thought he was so cute and gave him extra candy. One lady even gave him a little pumpkin pail for him to hold. He wouldn't let it go all night.

They've been enjoying their candy since then, but I think it will soon start to disappear a little more quickly into the trash can :-). They also usually tire of it fairly quickly (well...Adam always did...but I don't know about Andrew...he seems to be a junk food junkie if I'd let him!).

Fun in the Leaves

It's that time of year again, when we get to rake all the leaves. I don't really mind doing it, since the boys have so much fun playing in the leaves. They love to run through the piles, throw them in the air, and bury themselves in them.

I thought I would try to possibly get a Christmas card picture out in the leaves, but it was just an impulsive thought. They weren't too interested in getting their pictures taken when they had other things to do :-). I did get them to say "cheese" for me, which is why their smiles are a bit cheesy :-).

Great Video on Salvation with Kirk Cameron and John Mcarthur

Do You See the Resemblance?

About a week or so ago, Dan accidentally put Andrew in a pair of pajama shorts that were skin tight. As soon as I saw Andrew, I started laughing and said that he looked like my dad when he goes cycling. Anyway...we took some pictures...now you tell me...do you see a resemblance :-) ?

Adam's First Day of School

Better late than never :-). Adam started school about 2 weeks ago. He was really excited to start (and so was his momma!). He is doing Young 5's this year to give him an extra year to "practice" sitting during circle time and listening to his teacher. The first day (parent/child day) confirmed my decision to do Young 5's...since about halfway through circle time, Adam decided that he really needed to play with the train table. Now, there were some siblings playing, so it was very tempting, but... The teacher did mention the second day of school that "Adam really does like trains, doesn't he", so he must have made it obvious on the second day, too :-). You really have to be a special person to be a Young 5's teacher...since aren't most of the kids the rambunctious boys? Or they're really shy...

He is going to the same school that he went to last year, since we really liked it. The curriculum is really interesting to me...he's already gotten to see a real-life garter snake, go for a nature walk in the woods, and he's going to make apple cider on a field trip in a week or so. He is also going 4 afternoons a week, which makes it interesting for nap time with Andrew. We've not been so great about napping since school started. It is cute, though, because Andrew just started saying Adam's name...and he asks for Adam several times during the afternoon. They love to fight, but I guess they miss each other when they're apart.

As you can tell from the pictures...Adam didn't get his glasses until the second day of school. Speaking of glasses...the wonderful mom that I am...I forgot to make him put them on this morning and didn't remember until we were already at school :-). Whoops...the teacher did notice that he couldn't see. Some of the pictures are of the sandbox outside, inside the class doing a project, the infamous train table, and the sign outside the school.

Rude Woman!

Yesterday I was grocery shopping with Andrew while Adam was in school. Andrew was yelling a bit...like he sometimes does when he likes to hear how his voice is echoing. I didn't think it was too bad...I barely heard it, because I was concentrating on shopping...plus, it was just in fun...not like he was throwing a temper tantrum (like I've heard other kids doing before).

Anyway, this older lady came up to me and told me that I needed to make my baby stop yelling. He was being rude, and it was bothering the other shoppers. I looked at her for a second, waiting for her to smile...because I was sure she was kidding. But, she kept talking. Finally, I said, "Well, I'm the mom." It made me really mad that she could be so rude.

As a Christian, I struggled between letting my temper get control of me and doing the Christian thing. Finally, I just went back by her and said, "Excuse me" when I passed by her and gave her husband a big smile. I felt much better then! I did think about getting a $10 store gift card and hunting her down and giving it to her...because she must have been in such a bad mood because social security was tight for paying for her groceries :-).

Adam has New Glasses

Last year, Adam failed his vision screening at preschool. Thankfully, we were blessed because I had added the boys to our vision insurance just this year. I took Adam to an optometrist, who then referred him to a pediatric opthamologist. We went last week, and she prescribed some glasses for him. We went back to the optometrists office and picked out glasses. Boy, the frames are sure a lot cuter than when I got glasses as a kid! However, they did have lots of colors, and Adam really liked the blue ones. I was hesitant about getting them, because I thought the dark gray ones looked better on him, but the woman reminded me that if he liked them, then he'd be more likely to wear them....so blue it was. Actually, you can't even tell in the pictures that they are blue. I thought that he'd immediately tell me how much better he could see (one eye is REALLY bad), but his astigmatism is bad enough that the doctor said that it would take some time for him to adjust....so we'll slowly get used to them.

I can already tell it's going to be a nightmare to keep these things safe. He kept putting the case up to the lenses, and I was worried about them scratching. He keeps touching the lenses, so they have lots of fingerprints on them, and he was playing downstairs and took them off. Who knows where he put them down, but I made him go back down and get them. I was smart and purchased frames that shouldn't break :-).

New Blog

I just wanted to let you know that I'm starting a new blog called "Cents"able Momma where I share frugal tips and deals that can be found. I'm by no means perfect at this...but I can share a few things that I'm learning along the way.

I'll try to update it more often than I update my family blog :-). But, I do plan on still posting here, too.

Guess where we were today??

Dan got some free tickets to the practice round at the PGA Tour Championship, so we took the boys today and watched some golf. We paid an arm and a leg for parking, but they had an American Express tent there where you show that you have an American Express card and they give you a complimentary beverage and snack in their air-conditioned tent. They were kind and gave us 4 tickets for all of us...so we were really grateful for that. Then, and lady came up to us while were eating and asked us some survey questions for about 3 minutes. Then she gave us 4 more coupons for more drinks and snacks, which we came back and got before we left. I told Dan that it was worth it to do surverys!!

We saw Phil Mickelson on the putting practice green when we first walked in (which Dan was really excited about since he's his favorite...and it's a good thing we saw him, because I don't think he ever played a round of golf). Then we sawKenny Perry at the driving range. We also saw Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Stuart Cink, Zach Johnson, Davis Love III, Brandt Snedecker, and one other one that I couldn't remember his name at the time and still can't now. It was hard for me to tell who everyone is, since they look so different than on TV and plus they're farther away. Dan took Adam to go to the bathroom at one time. When they were coming back, one of the players gave Adam one of his practice balls. We think it was Kevin Sutherland.

Anyway, we had fun, and I'll share some pictures...

Random Moments

I admit I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately. I go in phases where I take lots of pictures and then I stop for awhile. I took a lot when mom and dad were here and then I took a LOT during VBS, so I haven't been in the mood for awhile. However, I do have two cute pictures of the boys that I wanted to share. The first picture is of the boys at bed time. We bought a new bunk bed for Adam's room a couple of weeks ago, and I was reading the boys their book on the top bunk. It's funny...because Adam was all excited to sleep on the top bunk at first, but he's now sleeping on the bottom. We've got some time...since we're trying to keep Andrew in his crib as long as possible.

The second picture was taken last week. For a couple of days, Andrew was getting up at 6:45, while Adam was sleeping in until 7:45 or so. Andrew and I would come into the kitchen and have breakfast, and then he would ask, "Boz?". He wanted me to put Boz in for him. I would try to wait as long as possible, because Adam usually gets up as soon as he hears anything on the TV. One morning they were watching Boz together, and I was in the kitchen checking my e-mail. Adam yells, "Mom, get my blanket for me!". I yelled back, "Get it yourself.". He was closer to his bedroom than I was, and technically, we were both "busy". I felt bad for saying it, so I got up to more reasonably ask him to get it himself, when what did I see but Andrew coming around the corner dragging Adam's blanket to the living room for him...aww, how cute!! Then they both sat on the couch and cuddled under the blanket together while watching Boz :-).

Adam's 5th Birthday Party

We decided to let Adam have a friend birthday party this year and invite some of his friends from church and preschool. We had originally decided to have the party the week after Adam's birthday, because I didn't think my parents would be interested in being near a bunch of 5 year olds, but they said they wanted to be there. So, I mentioned it to someone at church that her son was invited to the party, and she said that they might be out of town that weekend. So, I started wondering whether people would be out of town due to it being the summer. I decided to increase the number of boys we invited from about 5 to 7 to allow for some to not show up (I didn't want to have a party with only 2 kids there). Of course, all 7 were able to come!!

Adam had a great time with his friends. We had borrowed a bounce house from some friends, but it had rained that morning and was supposed to thunderstorm in the afternoon with strong winds and hail, so we didn't set it up. I was of course running around trying to figure out what the kids could do...since we had the bounce house and a water balloon game (which obviously needed to be done outside). Once his friends started showing up, they went downstairs to play (which is a toy paradise for kids) and it did not rain at all the rest of the day...so we set up the bounce house and were able to play our "Blast the Villain" water balloon game (it was a Batman party). The kids had cake and ice cream and I made bat Jello jigglers. I think that all the kids had fun, and we retained our sanity :-). Of course, I have plenty of pictures....

Adam's Family Birthday Party

It's funny how at the beginning of the summer, I always wonder what am I going to do with all my free time...with my usual activities like mom's clubs done during the summer and this year preschool...it looks like we'll have so much time on our hands. This can be a good or bad thing with 2 energetic little boys :-). Anyway, I somehow manage to fill all that time up, and it becomes a busy summer. I know...not really an excuse for not blogging, but enough people have yelled at me about the lack of pictures that I'm finally attempting to update. I'm way behind, especially on birthdays, so I'll try to catch up slowly. At the beginning of the summer, we met my sister and her family and went camping, then at the end of June, Adam had VBS at his preschool church. My mom and dad visited in early July and we celebrated Adam's birthday (with a party and 8 five year old boys!!). Then Adam had VBS again at our old church, where I also had a part in helping out. So, now I finally have a few minutes to catch up and I"ll try to catch you up also.

Over the 4th of July weekend, we celebrated Adam's birthday at my in-laws house with all the family. We tried to keep it low key, but we did end up ordering Little Caesar's and I bought cupcakes from Costco (they had a coupon for that week...and I was trying to keep it low key, since I would be making a cake for Adam's birthday party...I know, I can't believe I bought a cake!!). He had a lot of fun with his cousins (as you can see by the pictures of him and Ricky) and got some Batman toys/puzzles, some more Geotrax accessories, and an outdoor toy. Andrew doesn't look too enthused in the picture (because he's pinned in the high chair), but he did enjoy the cake, and he loves playing with his brother's toys. Oh, and as usual, Adam only ate the frosting off the cake...for some reason he never eats the cake,

Well, that's it for now...I'll try to update more later!

Fire Station Open House

Our city had an open house at the fire station about a week and a half ago. I knew that the boys would love it, but I was a little bit wary of going. Last year, we went, but my mom was with me and Andrew sat in a stroller the whole time. Adam has a hard time staying with me when he's excited...and I knew he would be at the fire station. Well...I thought we could at least try to go.

I knew there was no way that Andrew would sit in a stroller...so I let him walk. I prepped both of them before we got out of the car. They had to stay with me, and if they (namely Adam) got too far away, the code word was, "freeze". That worked when we first got there, because the instructions were fresh in Adam's mind, we were early so there weren't huge crowds yet, and Andrew is always a bit timid when there are a large crowds, so he wanted me to carry him and was clingy.

The boys both got to shoot a fire hose and put out a fire, sit in some fire engines (good thing they check them out before they're used again...who knows what Andrew's breaking in the picture of him in the driver's seat), Adam threw a ball to knock down a girl in a water tank, they dressed in fireman costumes, and Adam crawled under the "smoke" in a fire. And...Adam was pretty good...he only escaped me a couple of times :-). Andrew really did have fun...although he looks so serious in his pictures. It was funny...Adam was getting dressed up like a firefighter. Of course, Andrew had to do it also...although he only wanted to put on the boots. He was quite mad when I took the boots off of him. Needless to say, the boys were both wearing snow boots later in the day... I got some strange looks from people in public (since it was a warm day). Speaking of warm days...it was pretty hot, but you can see that Andrew was wearing long sleeves. I had dressed him in some normal summer clothes, but then he decided that he just HAD to wear this long sleeve shirt. I thought, why not...he'll get hot and then we'll take it off. No, he wore it the entire time were there :-). Two year olds!!

I am way behind in my posting...I still have camping pictures to do...and I guess I never really did much for Andrew's birthday, but I thought I would start with the most recent pictures first. My blog really helps me with my journaling for scrapbooking...now I can actually remember the details when I get to scrapbooking events about a year later! I hope everyone is having a great summer!