Our Family

First Day of School

2009-09-05T11:23:00.004-04:00

Adam started school on Thursday with a half day. He was excited to go to school. I didn't get much out of him after school other than he had made a new friend (when I saw them outside...I saw him with his arm around another boy) and he was the table captain...which meant he got to clean the table. I guess I should make him a cleaning captain at home to make him excited about cleaning :-). Here are few pictures. I'm including one with the fake smile so you can see it...it's probably what I'll get in his school picture :-).

As you can see, Andrew was also wearing his backpack. As soon as he saw Adam wearing his new backpack, he had to get his new Toy Story packpack and wear it. Andrew starts school next week. I'll take some pictures...you may or may not get to see them...I'm sure you're in shock that you're seeing these :-).

More Pictures from the Museum

2009-06-05T22:46:00.001-04:00

More Children's Museum Pictures

2009-06-05T22:08:00.003-04:00

Children's Museum

2009-06-05T20:19:00.004-04:00

The boys and I are visiting Sandra, Mike, and Aaron. The boys are having a blast playing together, and today we went to the Children's Museum (since I've seen so many pictures of Aaron having fun there on Sandra's blog). Here are a couple of pictures for daddy at home (who's missing all the fun).

Christmas Pictures

2009-01-08T16:45:00.004-05:00

Here are a few pictures that I took of the kids on Christmas day...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T10:45:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-19T23:35:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-08T23:27:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-08T22:31:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-30T22:29:00.001-04:00

Do You See the Resemblance?

2008-09-28T20:53:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-15T21:40:00.005-04:00

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!

2008-09-12T10:24:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-05T04:49:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-06T10:35:00.002-04:00

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??

2008-08-05T15:32:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-04T21:24:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-31T20:00:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-24T15:48:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-25T16:33:00.007-04:00

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!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-16T16:04:00.003-04:00

Wow...it's been awhile since I last posted. I'm sure I've completely lost my readership of 3 by now!

Anyway, I hope all the fathers had a nice day yesterday! We tried to make it a good one for Dan (and our dads). Normally, we visit Dan's dad for Father's Day, but I was scheduled to work in the toddler class at church (and I didn't think anyone would want to switch with me on Father's Day), so we stayed in town. However, Andrew came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease on Thurs, so Dan was unable to go to church on Sunday. He stayed home with both the boys (we didn't want Adam to potentially pass the virus on too) while I went to Sunday School and worked during the service. We gave him his presents (the second season of "I Love Lucy" on DVD) before church and apparently they were very busy while I was gone. On the way home from church, I surprised Dan and picked him up a pizza. After lunch, it was nap time for daddy (and the boys) and then the boys jumped (I mean, played) on daddy. It was cute, because I'm always talking about how all the boys do is fight, and Adam came running into the kitchen yesterday and said, "Look mommy, we're playing together!". Of course, it was a dad's expense!! :-). Then we topped off the day with some ice cream and the boys went to bed while daddy watched golf and basketball.

Thank you Dan for being the best daddy our boys could ever hope for!

Adam's Last Day of School

2008-05-28T16:00:00.004-04:00

I'll get to Andrew's birthday later, but I wanted to post pictures of Adam's last day of school first.

Last Thursday was Adam's last day of school. We dropped him off at 9 and then Dan, Andrew, and I came back about 10:30. His teachers handed out a "scrapbook" from the year to each of the students and gave them a stuffed graduation dog. The scrapbook is really neat. They had him sign his name in Sept, Jan, and May, so you can see the progression in his writing. He drew a self-portrait the first day of school and then again later in the year. They even had his weight and height from Sept. and May (he gained 2 pounds and grew 2 inches).

After each child had their book, the students got to throw the dogs in the air instead of a graduation cap. Of course, the boys really got into that. They threw them multiple times. Then, we gave the teachers their gifts informally and slowly filed down to another room where they had finger foods (that parents brought in) for all the kids and their families from all three of the 4 year old classes. I was really quite sad that we weren't going to see his teachers anymore (I really like them), so I tried to get Adam to go over and say, "bye" again before we left. He ran over and yelled, "Bye", and then ran off. Each of them grabbed him and made him hug them, though. Anyway, here are some pictures...

Oh, and the first 2 pictures are of his Friday teachers and one of his best friends at

school.

Birthday Cakes...

2008-05-26T18:38:00.005-04:00

Here's a preview of Andrew and Tammy's birthday cakes. For Adam's 2nd birthday, I made him an Elmo cake...but it didn't seem appropriate for Andrew, since he doesn't really watch Sesame Street. However, he LOVES Boz. So, about a month ago, I looked online for some ideas to make a Boz cake. I found a person who had made a cake by free-handing the frosting on the top of the cake. I am by no means artistic, so I knew I couldn't do that, but I remembered that my mom showed my mom's club how to do a buttercream transfer last fall. So, I printed off a coloring book picture of Boz and created it. I thought it turned out really cute...and Andrew loved it. He kept saying, "Boz!". Don't look too close at the picture, though, since I didn't do a great job of keeping the chocolate crumbs out of the frosting :-).

Now, we kind of decided last minute to celebrate Tammy's birthday also, so Julie hadn't really thought about what she was going to do. She asked Tammy on Saturday what kind of cake she wanted, and she said she wanted a turtle cake (since she's going to get a turtle sandbox on her birthday). So, I looked online and found an idea to use a Pyrex bowl for the body and cupcakes for the head and feet. It turned out really cute...I couldn't believe we pulled it off! I freehanded the outline for the turtle's shell using the example on the internet, and two of Julie's daughters did the rest of the decorating...it makes it a lot easier to do cakes when you have daughters to help!

I'm also going to include a picure of Andrew "blowing" out his candles. More pictures later!

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-05-26T18:07:00.002-04:00

I wish everyone a happy Memorial Day today. Most importantly, we thanks those who have served our country!

We had a wonderful day today...we had one of Dan's sisters and her kids and Dan's parents over today for the usual Memorial Day fare...hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips! We had a lot of fun and celebrated Andrew and Tammy's birthdays. I have lots of pictures to share...but I probably won't have them edited today...maybe tomorrow. Also, Adam had his last day of school on Thursday, so I have some pictures from that also.

Our Anniversary Trip, Part II

2008-05-15T20:01:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures from the Little Pioneer Village. Like I said in an earlier post, they had an area where the little kids could play where they didn't have to worry about breaking anything. They had a pioneer house with dishes and food, as well as a barn. You could "milk" the cow and collect the eggs in a basket. They also had a wagon that you could drive or ride in. Adam enjoyed playing in the house. There was a big black pot that he kept putting vegetables in and "cooking" in the fireplace. They had some girls in the house dressed up in costumes who were playing with him. As we were leaving, he was calling one girl his friend and said he wanted to invite her over to his house so they could play house. Luckily, she wasn't within earshot (and she wasn't a little girl). He has a habit of doing this when we are at random places playing...like McDonalds. He'll come up to me and loudly ask if his new "friend" (the one he just met a half hour ago) can come over to his house. Of course, this friend and his mom can usually hear this :-). Or he'll ask if he can go over to their house :-).

Anyway, Andrew was obsessed with the baskets and the eggs. He carried his basket everywhere, including into the house. He set it down for one minute and was very upset with a little girl started playing with it. He also loved to put it in the wheelbarrow and on the wagon. He had a hard time pushing the wheelbarrow at the beginning (it kept tipping over and his eggs would spill everywhere...to his consternation...because he felt that any kids who were helping him pick up eggs were "stealing" them), but he got the hang of it quickly.

Dan and I had fun...because we were able to sit down for a few minutes and watch.

Our Anniversary Trip, Part I

2008-05-14T13:03:00.008-04:00

As I alluded to in my Mother's Day post, we had a great weekend. We left on Friday night and came home on Sunday. A couple of years ago (before Adam), I went on a weekend scrapbook retreat to this hotel. As I sat and enjoyed myself, I thought that Dan would really like it here. It is in a rural area with farm fields all around, and the hotel had a wonderful fireplace in the middle of the lobby (it was the winter). So, I convinced him to visit for our anniversary 4 years ago, and this was our 4th trip there. They now have an addition to the hotel with a pool and a wonderful gameroom with air hockey, ping pong, foosball, and a basketball shooting game. They also have a Village next door with historic houses from the area and a wonderful restaurant that is housed in a big barn that was moved from a nearby farm.

We had wonderful weather on Saturday for our visit to the Village, and the boys had a lot of fun. It was a "Day on the Farm" so they had lots of people in costume and lots of activities going on. They also have a Little Pioneer Village where the boys could play and not worry about ruining anything (I'm going to include pictures from there on a separate post, since there are so many). However, of these things to do, the boys favorite things to do were: for Adam - ride the train, play with the gravel in some of the roads, play in the Jail building (hopefully not a sign of things to come), play in the Little Pioneer Village, eat ice cream, and run ahead to the next activity. Andrew's favorite activities were to play with the gravel in the road, pull the wagon (but NEVER sit in it!), run after his brother, ride the train, play with the eggs in a basket in the wheelbarrow in the Little Pioneer Village, break (I mean play with) my sunglasses, and eat ice cream.

After the Village, since he missed his nap, Andrew had a bit of a meltdown during dinner. But, we did get to eat (me quickly before I took Andrew back to the hotel). Mmmm, the broasted chicken was good. Dan and I also got to watch plenty of old shows like Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy on TVLand (since we don't have cable). Adam took a couple of dips in the pool (Andrew wasn't interested), and we hit the game room a couple of times. All in all, a good trip. OK, here's the million pictures! It looks like Adam wasn't there in most of the pictures...and that's because he wasn't...he was usually running ahead!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T19:31:00.004-04:00

I hope all you moms out there are enjoying your special day! I know I am... We went away for the weekend to celebrate both our anniversary, which was last week and Mother's Day. I'll post pictures of the Village that we visited in another post, but I wanted to post a couple of pictures of my day.

As soon as we woke up this morning, Adam wanted to give me my gift and cards...so since it was before showers, etc. I waited to take a picture of my gift until later. They got me a purse...it's really cute...it's almost as if I had picked it out myself :-). I'll post a picture of me holding my gift. I'm also going to include a picture of me and the boys...since that's the reason that I get to celebrate the holiday :-). Adam's being silly, as usual, and Andrew is trying to escape the picture (although you can't tell it...since he looks like an angel there).

Anyway, we ended up going to get some ice cream sundaes for "dinner" and they were giving out free single scoops to moms. I almost got an extra single scoop for the car-ride home (since Andrew was wearing half my sundae on his coat), but they had a coupon to get it on a return visit...so now we have an excuse to come again...not that we need it. It's usually calling our names after church on Sunday mornings! Anyway, I had a wonderful day...and I hope you did too!

My Little Trashman...

2008-04-30T16:28:00.003-04:00

Oh, and Andrew also thinks it's really fun to crumple up paper that's laying around and then throw it in the trash can! I guess it's either motivation to keep the house spic n span or lose some valuable documents. If I was in school, I could use the excuse, "My son threw away my homework", and it would be true!!

Can you tell it's been a long afternoon?? I had mom's club this morning, which is about a half hour away. Andrew falls asleep in the car for the last 10-15 minutes (every week) and then calls that his nap for the day (not without trying on my part). At least we did a chocolate tasting this morning...so it was worth it! Mmmm, all that dark chocolate :-).

Wow...I'm a blogging machine this week :-).

My Superheroes...

2008-04-30T14:27:00.004-04:00

Adam has been obsessed with superheroes...in fact, when it was career day at school a couple of months ago, he wanted to wear his Batman costume, because he was going to be a superhero when he grew up (I talked him into wearing his fireman costume)! Anyway, last Sunday before church, we were playing in Adam's bedroom, and Andrew wanted me to put the Superman cape on the back of his pajamas. I did, which of course caused Adam to want to put his Batman costume on. So, here are a couple of pictures of the two of them. There's some really strong morning sun in his room, so the picture of Adam is not that great, but I love how you can see Andrew looking at him in the background.

Then later in the afternoon, Andrew put on his favorite hat the way he loves to wear it - backwards. It's so cute, though, because he puts it on and then adjusts it down, so hair is always sticking out through the front. I'm including a picture of that also.

And finally...Andrew is a climbing machine. I've got a couple of pictures that show some of the climbing...he loves to get on the end table in the living room, the kitchen table, and now he's using the drawers to try to climb up and get into the utensil drawer. I guess it won't be long before I find him on the kitchen counter :-). Oh, and I did find him on the smaller counter where my computer is this morning. I accidentally left my "computer chair" set up while I was getting ready. That's the chair you see in it's storage place behind the trash in one of the pictures. I just can't keep this guy down on the floor!! Oh, and unrelated...but Andrew also decided this morning that sippy cups are no longer for him...he has to drink out of a big boy cup.

Oh, and I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago...about 9 inches that I plan on donating to Locks for Love...I just have to actually get to the postoffice to mail it...maybe when I mail my Mother's Day gift to my mom :-). Anyway...I, of course, don't have any pictures...but I'm sure Dan will take a picture of me on Mother's Day, so maybe then. It's still about shoulder length.

Scrapbook Page

2008-04-28T15:27:00.002-04:00

I love the idea of digital scrapbooking...yet, I also love to scrapbook with paper (the old-fashioned way), because to me it's some time with friends and a chance to take a break for a few hours. I have done some digital scrapbooking projects, mostly as gifts, but I found a person online who does templates, where you just insert the digital elements and the pictures...easy! Anyway, I loved this template, so I did a page about the boys that I wanted to share. I know, it's a little overkill on the kit (my blog banner and this), but it's the perfect boy kit. The digital kit is "Bounce" by the Shabby Princess, and the template is by Janet Philips.

Day at the Farm

2008-04-26T22:26:00.006-04:00

Adam's preschool class took a field trip to the farm this week. They got to go on a wagon ride, ride a horse, feed baby goats a bottle, feed adult sheep and goats their food out of their hands, and milk a cow. When Adam heard that he was going to get to ride a horse, he said that he was going to be a cowboy and ride really fast...his dad would have been proud of him (Dan loves westerns, especially John Wayne, for those that don't know him well!). I thought that all the activities were really fun for the kids to do, but Adam's favorite part was picking the straw off the bottom of the barn floor and throwing them up in the air. Not even the kids around him who were annoyed at getting staw bits in their hair and faces could deter him...hey, maybe peer pressure won't be as much of a factor as he gets older :-). Although, he claimed that his favorite part was playing on the playground! All in all, a fun day. Andrew spent the day at a friend's house playing with her kids...which I'm glad...I don't think I could have handled them both throwing straw at the same time :-).

Zoo...

2008-04-26T22:07:00.004-04:00

Our zoo membership expired this week, so we went to the zoo last Saturday for the last time (as members...for now). We have a membership to a different place this year that the kids should also enjoy. It turned out to be a pretty nice day...it was a little cool, but not jacket weather and the sun was shining. There was a chance of rain...but Adam prayed for it to be sunny :-).

It was definitely more of a challenge to visit the zoo this year compared to last year...Andrew wanted to get out of the wagon and walk around, too! Poor boy...he's constantly having to go where Adam wants to go, simply because he doesn't really talk to tell us where he wants to go...and Adam has already run off to what he wants to see. As usual, the hits of the day were the reptile house and the polar bears. We wanted to take the train back, but it hadn't opened for the season yet. Adam was definitely disappointed about that! Anyway, when we were done looking at the animals, we took the boys to the playground (which seemed to be Andrew's favorite part).

For some reason, Adam walked around most of the day with his hands on his hips, which was really cute. I also have a picture of Andrew pulling the wagon, which he really likes to do, and a picture of him as an escapee :-). I also got a picture of him pouting when he didn't want to go back in the wagon...he actually sticks out his bottom lip!

Spring!!

2008-04-17T18:14:00.007-04:00

Spring is finally here! As I'm typing this, it's 73 and Adam's in the backyard playing. I took a bunch of pictures last week (one of the first nice days for playing in the backyard). Adam was busy digging in the yard, so most of my pictures are of Andrew. There's only so many ways you can take a picture of someone digging, whereas Andrew was jumping from activity to activity!

I still have pictures of Dan's birthday to post...I'm way behind! I'll get to them eventually, but I thought the grandparents would appreciate the cute kid pictures first! I've been really busy working the last couple of weeks...so not as much time to edit pictures and post. Hope you enjoy!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

2008-03-28T14:28:00.002-04:00

On the Sat. before Easter, Adam and I dyed Easter eggs. He was really excited to do it! I helped him with the dye and then he put Spiderman stickers all over the eggs. There were also some web cone things to put over the top of some of the eggs with a Spiderman cutout attached...that was his favorite thing. When he was done with decorating, he just sat there and played with those. I thought they turned out cute.

Easter Baskets

2008-03-25T22:54:00.003-04:00

We tried to do pretty simple Easter baskets, but as usual, I went a bit overboard. A couple of years ago, I bought a mold to make a chocolate cross, since I was having a tough time finding a chocolate cross at the store. I wanted to emphasis Christ, instead of the Easter bunny. So, I made both the boys chocolate crosses this year...you'll see in later pictures that they REALLY enjoyed them! The boys also got an assortment of Boz stuff. Andrew got a new Boz DVD and a CD and Adam got the book the Legend of the Three Trees and a Boz activity book and they both got a Boz Easter book. You'll see in one of the later pictures that Andrew is holding a Boz stuffed animal...he is Boz obsessed! He doesn't say much, but he can definitely say Boz! He asks to watch Boz from the morning he wakes up and he sleeps with Boz at night. In case you don't know who Boz is...it's a series that came out a couple of years ago by one of the creators of Barney. It's digital animation, and it teaches Bible values as well as normal learning...for example, the DVD they just got was Thank You God for BOZ's and 123's. It teaches letters and numbers as well as how to share/help, etc. It's great! They also got a little pack of mini m&m's (also their favorite). There will be even more Easter posts to come...as well as some more snow pictures.

Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-25T16:33:00.006-04:00

The week before Easter, the church where Adam goes to preschool had an Easter egg hunt, so we brought the boys. The younger kids found eggs in each of the preschool classrooms...but Adam and Andrew were both more interested in playing in the sandtables in each classroom than picking up eggs! After they each found their 6 eggs, they had a snack bag with a drink and some fruit snacks for the kids to eat before the puppet show. We weren't sure if we should wait for the puppet show, since the boys started to get antsy before it began, but we're glad we did. Would you believe that Andrew sat still better than Adam to watch the puppet show?

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T16:23:00.002-04:00

I'm a bit behind in posting some pictures from the last week or so, but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter! Here are some pictures of the boys before church this morning. The first one is a nice one, and the second one is one where Dan was trying to make faces at them to get them to smile...so they made faces back :-). I'll add some more pictures later...like the snow pictures from yesterday :-(.

Spring??

2008-03-15T22:06:00.002-04:00

Whoohoo!! It was in the low 50's on Thurs. and Fri! The boys and I even left our coats off as we went into McDonalds for lunch on Fri. And...we grilled hamburgers for dinner. I am so ready to be able to grill again! It doesn't matter that it was only in the 40's today...because spring is at least poking her head out.

The last couple of days, the boys have been entertaining themselves by emptying out drawers and throwing the clothes all over the house...fun to clean up, I know...but they can do it in a split second. Anyway, Adam likes to play cave on the couch with all the blankets, pillows, and apparently some of those clothes...that's what he was doing when I took this picture. Luckily, so far, the clothes-throwing phase seems to be over.

Have a great weekend!!

Randomness...

2008-03-10T15:06:00.005-04:00

Life is continuing as normal...we are ready for winter to wind down and for spring to come...is it possible to be excited because we are expecting a "heat wave" this week of temps in the mid-40's? I think we'll be able to throw off the coats :-).

Not to sound depressing...the boys have really been enjoying the snow. Andrew got his first taste of playing in the snow with the pictures from last week, and he now screams every time I put him in his car seat at home, because he wants to play in the snow again instead of getting buckled in. Ah...car seat tantrums...I had heard about them before...but never experienced them with Adam :-).

I'm including some random shots from our days lately. We have become popsicle fanatics around here. We can go through a big box a week...I guess we're dreaming of summer! I'm including a picture of Adam enjoying his favorite color of popsicle...he does claim it's his favorite...which works out perfectly, since it's Dan and my least favorite. The rest of the pictures are from this morning...Andrew in his cuteness...and the boys playing ring-around-the-rosy together. I was a bit nervous when they were playing...since those types of games usually equal someone getting hurt (usually Andrew), but they were having a blast. The last shot is not a very good picture of me (meaning, I don't really look ready for the day), but I had to include it because Adam took it. Isn't he a budding photographer? He was even posing me on the couch and telling me where to put my hand on my leg. I guess maybe I take too many pictures???

More Snow!

2008-03-05T12:53:00.009-05:00

We had another snowstorm on Friday last week, so on Saturday morning, Dan and I took the boys out to play in it. This was really the first time thatAndrew's been out to play in the snow. Usually, Dan will take Adam out while Andrew's napping. He had a great time...he wanted to shovel like his brother, he wanted to ride down the slide like his brother. However, he did not seem to like getting snow on his gloves, etc as much as his brother :-). Adam had a great time, as usual. He has a small shovel that I bought for him last year, and he was all proud of himself that he shoveled a small path down our neighbor's sidewalk. He also spent a lot of time lying down in the snow playing with a small sandbox shovel. Both of the boys protested when we finally had to take them inside!

It's funny, though, because the snow started melting on Sat. afternoon and was completely gone by Sunday night...but we got another 5-6 inches last night. I'm surprised they haven't been hounding me to go out (of course, I've usually made it a "dad" thing, so they're probably waiting until daddy gets home!). And, of course, I've got lots of pictures!

Waterpark...

2008-02-22T21:30:00.005-05:00

Earlier this week, we stayed 2 nights in a hotel that has an indoor waterpark. We went for a night before Thanksgiving last year and absolutely loved it, so we went back during Adam's winter break from preschool. Both the boys (and Dan and I) have so much fun in the waterpark. They have 2 huge waterslides, a lazy river, a toddler pool, and an area where water is dumping everywhere.

I would have loved to take pictures of the boys, but it requires too much supervision of the boys for me to go to the room get my camera and then for me to take pictures for a short period and then walk the camera back to the room all while Dan watches both boys. I thought it was more important that neither of them drowned :-). They rarely wanted to do the same thing at the same time, so Dan and I split up and "played" with each of the boys by themselves. I did, however, go into the waterpark for a few minutes by myself during some down time and took some pictures without the boys, just so we could remember the hotel. It is so neat...it has an elf theme, and there is such attention to details...from the 2 story tree in the lobby, to the mushrooms and elves around the lazy river.

It's funny, the last time we were at the hotel, all Adam could talk about was this huge bucket that would fill up with water and then dump all over. A bell would ring when it was about to dump, and Adam would run as far away as possible...yet it was his favorite thing to talk about afterwards. This time...he got more adventureous and started joining the kids (and adults) who would run to get dumped on when the bell was ringing. He also indulged Dan and I many times by going down the big slides with us. Andrew also grew more adventureous this time...he wanted to go down the slides, too. We didn't take him on the big ones, but there were some slides he could go on by himself and some he could go on with us...he LOVED them!!

Hopefully, sometime, I can take pictures to get the expressions on the boys faces (actually, I met someone the last day...when all our money was packed in the car...who had bought a wateproof disposable camera from the hotel, so I'll try that next time). It's so much fun to see how much fun the boys are having...and Dan and I have fun too! The added bonus was that we had the boys to bed at 7:15 the second night...which is not that much earlier than their normal bedtime...but it was at a hotel! All that playing wore them out!

Brrr...it's cold!

2008-02-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been freezing outside the last couple of days...so the boys and I have not ventured outside for awhile...ok, some of that may be due to the fact that I had a stomach virus yesterday and barely made it out of bed the whole day! Anyway, Adam didn't have preschool today and I didn't have anything going, so we've stayed in today.

I wanted to share a couple of pictures that I've taken over the last couple of days. It seems like every year I take so many pictures for Christmas that I get tired of taking pictures and then have almost no pictures during January (good thing neither of the boys were born in January!). Anyway, I finally pulled out my camera the other day and thought I better get into it again. Adam got an internet connection to the computer in his room for Christmas. It only allows him to go to the websites that he has "keys" for...such as Sesame Street, Thomas the Train, etc. So, he loves to get on the computer and play games. Andrew also loves to get in the chair behind Adam and watch what he's doing on the computer (and when the computer's free, he likes to try to do his own thing...that's the great thing about this internet connection...they can't mess up the computer!). Well, I took some pictures of Andrew on the back of the chair, and he actually was posing and hamming it up for the camera! Then, today, Adam and I were hanging out while Andrew was sleeping, and I thought...he is so cute (an unbiased mother speaking)...I'm going to take some pictures. Of course, since we're having a lazy day, his hair is sticking up everywhere...but that's Adam!

Well, I didn't think had anything to talk about...and I've written a book. Enjoy the pictures!

Sledding Video

2008-02-02T17:04:00.000-05:00

I got an Expresscard with a Firewire port for my laptop on my birthday, so I can now load video onto the computer. Here's some video from a month ago when the kids were sledding on my in-laws hill next to the house. I will load some birthday pictures later.

Prayer and a Cabinet

2008-01-28T19:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Adam was praying before bed. Usually, he likes to give us a laundry list of things to pray for (like Busy Bees and Lovable Lions...his classes at preschool....and the Thomas table that's in one of his classes). Well, tonight, I urged him to talk to Jesus himself and thank him for those things. Anyway, he said he wanted to be a Superhero to keep people safe...like Brooke in Schoolhouse friends. Brooke is a girl that he seems to have taken a fancy to at the Thanksgiving program. He was sitting next to her while we were eating refreshments afterwards. For awhile after that, we would have to stand at the end of the hall when we were leaving preschool waiting for Brooke and her mom to walk by...where Adam would proceed to run off or make noises :-). I think it's cute!

Also, just so I have a picture in this post...I'm going to include one of Andrew at his gramma's house. There is a cabinet in the kitchen that he loves to get into. Adam has always loved it since it has plastic pitchers and a wooden serving tray. He'd like to serve us "pizza". Well, gramma has since learned to empty almost everything out, and Andrew likes to get into the cabinet, say "ByeBye" and close himself in. It's really cute, so I'm glad I got a picture.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T18:46:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! We went to Dan's parent's house again for the long weekend and celebrated with his parents and sister and her family. We had treats on New Year's Eve (sausage balls, chili con queso with chips, and chips and french onion dip) and most of us stayed up to watch the ball drop at midnight (my 2 kids were the only ones that missed it). During the evening and night, it snowed...so we woke up to a winter fairyland. It was a beautiful, wet snow that stuck to the trees. The kids went out sledding on the hill before New Year's dinner, and I got some great pictures. Adam was out for about an hour and a half, and he cried when he had to come inside. Only Kelsey, grampa, and dad were able to stay outside as long as him. Here are some pictures from sledding. I also have video, but I may not have time to add it.

Christmas Day

2007-12-28T08:42:00.000-05:00

Christmas Day at Dan's parent's house is always crazy (in a fun way). All the family came over around 10 "ish" for cinnamon rolls where we read the Christmas story from the Bible. Then we went downstairs for a couple of hours to open gifts...there are 9 kids and 7 adults, so it takes awhile since we take turns. The kids are always asking if it's their turn yet, since us adults get talking and forget to open presents quickly when it's our turn :-). Andrew was awake for Christmas this time, and he "enjoyed" opening gifts. He did actually play with one of the toys...a basketball hoop. After gifts, we all gathered upstairs again for Chistmas dinner (ham, cheesy potatoes...yum!). Then, the kids played with all the toys for awhile before it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and blow out candles. We watched a couple of Christmas movies (Scrooge and the Christmas Card) while the kids played with their toys some more.

The biggest toy hits of the day were Tammy's kitchen (which took Tyler and I a couple of hours to put together) and Adam's Geotrax that he got on Christmas Eve. The kids all had a great time playing together with minimal fighting.

We always try to get pictures of all the kids in front of the Christmas tree...and we got a great picture this year. I am also including a picture of Andrew in his favorite chair at gramma's house as well as a picture of the kids waiting while all the gifts were being passed out (at the beginning).

Christmas Eve

2007-12-27T20:49:00.000-05:00

On Christmas Eve day, we went over to Julie's house and made sugar cookies with the kids. They had a great time cutting the shapes out and then decorating the cookies. I've included a picture of Adam with some of the final results, since I forgot to take my camera over.

Then, in the evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at church...which we didn't get to spend too much time in...due to our rambunctious boys. After church, we planned to open our gifts to each other, as well as the gifts from my parents and sister's family. Adam had a great time...but Andrew was very tired. He only opened a couple of presents and then he was so cranky, we just put him to bed...poor boy. Well, that didn't slow Adam down. He LOVED opening presents this year. He'd open something and want us to set it up, and then he'd start playing with it. But, as soon as we brought out a new round of gifts, he was more than willing to stop to open another present :-). He had so much fun, that we was up until 11 pm.

I'm including some pictures of the boys both before and after the church service. The picture of Andrew in the cream shoes is of him trying on gramma's heels before church :-). Adam got a new Geotrax set, which he loves. He was enjoying himself so much playing with it, that Dan and I actually haven't given him his other big gift from us. I think we're going to do that tomorrow with Andrew's big gift from his grandparents and great-gramma (he got a climbing toy that was too big to bring with us). All of Adam's cousins enjoyed playing with the Geotrax on Christmas day (even the 13 year old).

Adam's a Star (again!)

2007-12-27T20:29:00.000-05:00

Adam was a donkey in the Children's Christmas program at Dan's parents' church on Sunday night (12/23). He had a small line (along with all the other children in his class), which he said perfectly. The last time we had visited was over Thanksgiving weekend...so I'm sure they were surprised that he knew it. But...during Sunday School during Thanksgiving, only Adam and his cousin Ricky were in the class. They were playing (after the lesson, of course) and the teacher was trying to get them to learn their lines. Since there were only 2 kids, she offered them each $1, if they would come over to her and practice. So, almost a week later, Adam was wearing the same pants and pulled a$1 bill out of his pocket (OK...I know...I didn't wash them!). We were of course wondering where he got it, and he said that his teacher gave it to him for learning his verse. I asked him what the verse was, and he repeated it to me correctly. So, all I had to do to prepare him for it was to ask about once a week if he remembered his lines. Incidentally, he calls his $1 bill his $100 bill. I guess Dan and I luck out if we give him money....we just have to give him a dollar for him to consider himself rich :-).

Anyway, Adam did a good job during the program. He said his line...and he didn't knock over a microphone, run off the stage, or say something additional into the microphone that may have been embarrassing (I still remember VBS, where they handed him the microphone...and he ordered chicken nuggets and fries...I guess we took too many trips through the drive-thru at McDonalds :-) ). Here are a couple of pictures....his ears were a little messed up...so they hung in his face.

Santa Pictures!

2007-12-21T15:02:00.000-05:00

Well, we went to visit Santa Claus this morning. I asked Dan to run across the street to the mall this morning to make an appt with Santa (this mall has scheduled times rather than waiting in line). He went about 8 am, and we discovered that you can't pick a time, it's next available. Needless to say, I had to get the boys dressed in about 15 minutes (they were eating breakfast) and rush into the car. We got there just in time, and sat down to figure out the pictures. They allow you to take your own pictures with a $10 donation, so I had brought my camera. Unfortunately, I forgot my compact flash cards at home, so we had to pay for pictures. It was a really good deal, because they took about 7 shots, and then gave you a CD which you took to Ritz Camera for free developing and then you get to keep the CD.

Anyway, when it was our turn, Adam ran right to Santa and jumped on his lap. They took a couple of pictures of Adam with Santa and then I tried to place Andrew on Santa's lap without him seeing Santa. As soon as he took a look at Santa, he started crying. Then...he put his hands over his eyes. I couldn't be sorry that I didn't get great pictures of the boys together with Santa, because that was so cute and so typical of Andrew. When we're out shopping, usually someone will start trying to talk to him when we're in line paying. He always puts his hands over his eyes, because I think he believes if he can't see the person then they can't see him. The person will inevitably think that Andrew is playing peek-a-boo and they'll start talking to him even more (much to his chagrin!). Anyway, that's why I thought the pictures of Andrew with Santa were great...even though they really weren't :-).

This time, Adam said he wanted a big jet. I think he was thinking of the big jet in Little Einsteins, because he started describing what the big jet was doing, and it sounded like a Little Einsteins story. After Santa, the boys and I walked around the mall for a bit waiting for the pictures to develop. Plus, the boys each got 3 coins from Santa which they could exchange for cookies from Mrs. Fields, a water bottle from the North Face, and finger puppets from Pottery Barn kids. There were other things they could have gotten, like stickers, ice cream, and candy, but that's what Adam chose to get.

Here are some more pictures...

Christmas Program

2007-12-20T14:29:00.000-05:00

This morning Adam had a lot of fun at preschool. First, they got to wear a crown that they made earlier in the week and pretend that they were wise men. They followed a big star that the teacher was carrying and walked throughout the church looking for baby Jesus. They had to stop and water their camels :-), and then the teachers turned out the lights and played Silent Night as they looked for Jesus at night. Finally, they found him, and each child was able to say something to baby Jesus. Adam told me that he said, "Happy Birthday and Bye!". They they went back to class and drew what they had seen. Adam drew a star. It was really cute.

Then, the parents got to come early and we watched the classes do a mini-Christmas program. They sang some songs and then acted out the Christmas story during a song. Adam was an angel. Here are some pictures that I took. I was far away, and the room was a litte dark, so the pictures are a little grainy. I put circles around Adam so you can find him :-). He is sitting next to his teacher in one of the pictures, and both of his teachers are standing next to the group of angels. Oh, and he's supposed to be moving his hand in the picture of the class singing (the last picture)...they had hand motions to go with the song. I just realized that no one else seems to be doing them, so Adam looks like he's misbehaving, but he's actually doing the hand motions :-).

Tomorrow, I plan on taking the boys to see Santa Claus...we'll see what kind of pictures we'll get from that. Adam has already talked to Santa, since he insisted on stopping when we were shopping at the mall with gramma and grampa C. He climbed right up on Santa's lap and told him he wanted Chick Hicks from the Cars movie (but he says it really weird "KChix", so I'm sure Santa had no idea of what he wanted). But they talked for a couple of minutes. I didn't have them take pictures, because Adam wasn't dressed for it, and Andrew was asleep in the stroller at that time (the main reason). So, we'll make an attempt tomorrow (if we can get in...and if Andrew will tolerate sitting on his lap).

Christmas Fun!

2007-12-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas (like everyone else, I'm sure), but we've had some time to have some fun. In early December, I bought a gingerbread house kit for Adam and I to work on (I can't pretend that I made it, since the box is in the background of one of the pictures!). He had a lot of fun helping me "build" it, and then putting all the candy on. He was really gung ho about eating it as soon as we were finished, but I don't think he's a big fan of gingerbread (probably especially bought rock hard gingerbread), since most of it is still sitting on the counter.

Also, I thought I should add a picture of Andrew so that everyone doesn't think that we only do things with Adam :-). He loves to put hats on...in fact, hat is one of the few words that he says...so he is contantly coming up to me with one of Adam or his hats on. I've been meaning to take more pictures of that, but I did at least catch him putting the Santa hat on. And, just to prove that Adam is not the only one enjoying the Christmas goodies...I'm adding a picture of Andrew after eating a piece of my fudge...do you think he enjoyed it??

I have a couple more things that I want to add to the blog soon, but in case I don't get around to it before Christmas, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Snow!

2007-12-17T16:28:00.000-05:00

We got 8 and a half inches of snow on Saturday night/Sunday. It was enough to cancel church on Sunday and school here today. Adam had a great time playing in the snow with daddy while Andrew napped. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Family Picture

2007-12-08T18:14:00.000-05:00

We had to take a family picture this morning, so I thought I'd post it, since we don't get too many of those. Amazingly, we got this on the second shot and really only had to take a couple of pictures...which is good, since the boys don't have much patience for pictures. Unfortunately, I already did the Christmas cards, so this isn't going out...but at least you can enjoy it here :-). It's nice that my camera has a beeping sound when the timer is on that seems to keep the boys looking at the camera. Andrew didn't know to smile...but I thought it was a good picture.

Live Nativity

2007-12-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we went to a Live Nativity at the church where Adam goes to preschool. It was really neat...even the baby was real and they had real animals. One poor girl, who was the angel, had to stand on top of the stable. I joked with Dan that they better have told her not to lock her knees while standing up there. They had a separate little stable with a sheep where you could take family pictures or pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, I had already printed out my Christmas cards, so I couldn't use the picture for that...but it turned out cute!

Preschool Thanksgiving Program

2007-11-20T17:23:00.001-05:00

This morning Adam had his first experience performing in front of a crowd...his preschool class (and the other two 4's classes) performed several songs in their Thanksgiving program. He had been practicing songs with his class for the last month or so, and would occasionally sing some of the songs at home (so I had a preview of what was to come). We were excited to see him...Dan took the day off work. Of course, he was so cute and did a wonderful job :-). I could tell he was a bit nervous when they walked in, since he marched right by me with his hands on his hips and didn't seem to even notice we were there. He mentioned later something about the crowd...I guess he wasn't expecting that :-). The classes sang several songs and then the teacher came to everyone with a microphone and asked them what they were thankful for. Adam, of course, had the longest response. He was thankful for his mommy and daddy, his bike, downstairs, and I think he was trying to say something else, but I didn't catch it. After they were done performing, we had popcorn and muffins with the teachers. I videotaped a lot of the program, but I also managed to take a couple of pictures...although they're not the best quality. And yes, he did write his own name on his turkey hat.

More Halloween Pictures!

2007-10-31T21:52:00.000-04:00

Halloween

2007-10-31T21:27:00.000-04:00

I know you'll never believe that I have pictures from Halloween already, but here's a preview of what's to come. The boys had a great time trick-or-treating! We took one trip around the block just going on one side of the street with the intention of going back around on the other side. However, Adam announced that he wanted to go home before we went around the second time, and we couldn't talk him into going farther. I think he just wanted to head home to look at his booty...as soon as we got in, he started organizing his treats. He and Andrew also taste tested a few items. Dan and I were laughing, because we remembered trying to race around to houses to collect as much candy as we could. We'd even go home and drop off candy so we could start fresh again. I'm sure he'll grasp that concept soon. Not to say that he didn't have a great time...he was running around and really got the idea of saying, "Trick-or-Treat" at each house and saying, "Thank You"...although the last one was often said as he was turning away to head to the next house. Before we left, he was singing, "Trick-or-Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat", so I was waiting for him to say that at one of the houses. Andrew also had a good time...he rode in the wagon and then Dan took him up to each of the houses for candy. He tried to eat several pieces of candy through the wrapper, and had great fun waving and saying, "Bye" to people. I think he was ready to keep going when Adam wanted to go home!

Final Camping Trip

2007-10-22T16:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm sure no one is even looking at my blog anymore since it's been over a month since I last updated. I'm sure you think we've disappeared off the face of the earth...but we're still here. Adam is still loving preschool! Every morning, he wakes up and asks if he's going to preschool that day. One day a couple of weeks ago, Andrew was sick and for some reason Adam thought that was the reason he wasn't going to preschool (it wasn't...it just wasn't his day to go). Anyway, he kept asking every couple of minutes if Andrew was better yet :-). My mom, sister, and nephew Aaron came to visit us also for about a week. I'm sure I'll never get around to posting pictures from that, so I'll have to add the link to Sandra's blog so you can see what she posted about it.

Anyway, the weekend after they left (the first weekend of October), we went camping for the last time this year. For the last 2 years, we've gone to a campground about an hour from us for the Halloween festivities. However, we left it to the last minute this year to book our site, since it looked like it was going to rain all weekend, so the campground was full. I had to call several places to find an open spot, and we ended up trying a campground that was only about a half hour away. We were rather leery to camp so close to the city, but it ended up being really nice. We may switch and go there again next year. The weather was also beautiful (actually very warm for October...high 80's and no rain). We were laughing that we needed to use the air conditioning on the camper more in October than June, July, and August combined.

It was a wonderful trip...the boys decorated pumpkins, they went in the lake (in their clothes, since we forgot swimsuits...who thought you could swim in October???), Andrew went on a wagon ride (Adam was too busy swimming), they competed in a costume contest (where Andrew won 2nd in his age category), and they went trick-or-treating. They also had a site decorating contest, so we enjoyed walking around and looking at everyone's sites (we're too busy chasing after our boys to decorate!!). Here are some pictures from that weekend...

Really Busy!

2007-09-18T21:42:00.000-04:00

Since I haven't written anything in about a week and half, it probably looks like we haven't been doing anything, but we've actually been really busy. Adam is loving preschool, and so am I. I was able to go grocery shopping much more smoothly today....I wasn't chasing Adam around the store :-). I also love the fact that he is doing so many different things at school. He keeps telling me that he's not making any friends, but I find that really hard to believe from my Adam. He can usually make friends with anyone! Anyway, we've been busy with AWANA starting at church and birthday parties and going to the zoo. Would you believe I didn't take a single picture when we went to the zoo on Sat. I brought my camera, but I didn't feel like pulling it out. I guess when you have a zoo membership, it's old hat...I do have tons of zoo pictures already this year. I guess you can only scrapbook so many animal pages.

Well, I'm going to add a couple of random pictures from the last couple of weeks. The first picture is a picture of the boys eating raisins. It was funny how I got the picture...they were both sitting on the chair and I pulled out my camera. Of course, Adam then decides to get off. So, I told him that it was fine, because I was going to take pictures of just Andrew (and started doing so). Of course, he then decided to get back up :-). The second picture is of Andrew standing on the coffee table. He has been climbing on EVERYTHING..the couch, the kitchen table, the coffee table. It was so cute when he got up on the coffee table and started dancing. I had to take a picture before I told him, "No" and got him down :-).

1st Day of Preschool

2007-09-06T19:20:00.000-04:00

Today was Adam's first day of preschool. He was soooo excited (and so was I). Today was a shortened day where he and I both went in for just an hour. He'll go again on Tuesday for a shortened hour by himself, and then he's going to start at his regular schedule.

As soon as he woke up (at 7:15), he was asking if it was time to go to school yet. I said we had to wait for John and his mom to come over to watch Andrew, and he kept asking if they were there yet. I really like his teachers and the other parents seem nice. Adam already made friends with a little girl while playing. He was so cute when they lined up to go to the play area. He put his hands behind his back, like they've taught him in his class at church. They asked each of the kids to draw a self-portrait, and Adam drew a little stick figure (even though at home, I have a hard time getting him to draw anything!).

I took some pictures, but because he was excited, he was easily distracted (which means he wouldn't look at me). I blurred some of the details in the pictures for privacy.

More Camping Pictures

2007-09-05T09:54:00.000-04:00

One of the days that we were camping, we visited another state park that had an "Old Growth" forest - that means that it wasn't cut down during the logging in the late 1800's/early 1900's. When we arrived at the visitor center, there was a guided tour going out in a couple of minutes, so we joined the group. The entire path through this section of the forest was paved to allow for wheelchairs, but it was perfect for the stroller, too. It was really neat to see the old forest and the way the state would have looked without all the logging. Plus, some of the trees were several hundred years old...it was neat to imagine that the tree was around before the U.S. became a country.

There was a logging museum back in the woods that was built by the CCC during the Depression that was very interesting. I had never really thought about the effects of logging in the state. Obviously, we need wood, but they didn't consider the effects of cutting down all the trees in an area. To their credit, they did think that the areas where they logged would then be converted to farmland.

Anyway, we loved this state park...we had lunch down by the playground and drove through the campground. We are planning on camping there next year! I have tons of pictures from this day, so I think I'll just add the forest and logging camp pictures and save the playground pictures for later!
A church in the middle of the "Old Growth" forest

The logging museum. This was a wheel that was invented so they could pull the logs year-round.

Camping Trip

2007-08-31T08:25:00.000-04:00

I feel really bad that I've been neglecting the blog for so long. We were gone for about a week camping, and then...I had so many pictures I didn't know where to start in editing them. So, I decided that I would just start with a couple of pictures and post them today and keep adding more pictures as the day/week goes.

We went camping for a week with the boys up north. This is the longest that we've been camping with the boys since Adam was born. We usually go for about 4-5 nights, but this was 7 nights. We had a great time...the area is much different from home, so it really felt like we got away. The boys were wonderful...if not tons of work! Dan and I were exhausted at the end of the day trying to keep up with them! We went on lots of walks to the lake and to see the other campground in the state park. The boys were always a huge dirty mess...but they loved it! We even got a big rainshower one day, and Adam was allowed to run around through the rain and puddles to his hearts content (Andrew was napping or he would have gone also). He's always wanted to do that! I guess I'll have to get him some galoshes :-).

The first set of pictures are just some general play around the campsite pictures. You can see how dusty our site was...and how the boys got so dirty! It rained the second night, so it wasn't so dusty the rest of the week (but it can get muddy awfully quick!). I also included a couple of pictures of the boys doing what Gramma C. has named, "Fish Face". Andrew likes to scream and then go into fish face, and when we try to capture it on camera, Adam has to contribute also. I'm also including a picture of our camper.

Another Birthday Celebration!

2007-08-16T07:51:00.000-04:00

Well, a full month after Adam's birthday, we finally were able to get together with Dan's parents to celebrate Adam's 4th birthday. Since, we first celebrated his birthday in the middle of June when my parents were in town, Adam's had the two month long birthday celebration. I was kind of surprised that he didn't think he was 5 at this birthday, since it had been so long since his real birthday :-). We picked up pizza from Little Caesar's after church and I made him a car cake. I tried to make the car look like Lightning McQueen which went along with the gift theme. He got a large Lightning McQueen that makes noise and a small Doc Hudson and Mater. He really liked it when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him this year (he used to cry when we sang it when he was a baby!) and once he blew out his candles...he announced that it was time to open presents (which it was...since that's the way we do it every birthday at Dan's parents house), which was the first time that he really showed an excitement about opening gifts. Well...of course, here are a few pictures from the celebration.

VBS

2007-08-15T17:05:00.001-04:00

Last week Adam, Andrew and I stayed with Dan's sister, Julie, so that we could help out at their church's VBS. I was supposed to help out in the kindergarten class, but attendance was down, so we had lots of helpers per child. So, I spent a lot of time walking around and taking pictures so I could create a slide show for Sunday morning. Of course, I had to feature a lot of pictures of Adam and his cousin, Tammy (who was in his class). Here are a couple of pictures of the two of them. The theme of the week was Rescue Heroes, so they had a police officer and some fire fighters visit...which Adam loved. Adam also has a new "best friend". He informed me that Bradley was his best friend in the car on the way to church one morning and then when Bradley showed up, he told his cousin, "Here's my best friend". I am including a picture of Adam with his "best friend"...oh and he's 16 :-). I don't have any pictures of Andrew, because if I walked into the nursery to take a picture, he would have cried and wanted to stay with mommy...so I had to stay out! Adam loved staying with his cousins and having someone to play with 24/7. Of course, we had to break up a few fights...but what do you expect with a 5, 4, and 3 year old? Andrew, on the other hand, had fun...but he got a little tired of all the "mothers". Julie's 3 daughters and a friend of the girls loved to follow Andrew around and hold him...but he wanted to walk...and let them know it. If he was older, he would have appreciated the girls fawning all over him better :-).

Luau

2007-08-06T10:50:00.001-04:00

On Saturday evening, we went to a party at John and Sue's house. They have it every year in August, and it's lots of fun and a great opportunity to see some of my parent's (and our's) friends that we don't get to see throughout the year. They have a pool and hot tub, which Adam had a great time playing in. Here are some pictures from the evening...I don't have any limbo pictures to include...but Dan didn't win :-). I'm also including a picture of Sue and Donna that I took at my mom's request...

The Mess!!!

2007-08-02T12:27:00.000-04:00

I've been at a bit of a loss as to what to feed Andrew for lunch these days. At dinner, he eats what we eat, but he's not a big fan (yet!) of peanut butter sandwiches, which seem to be our lunch staple. So, I bought some Gerber Graduates Entrees that you just heat up in the microwave. Today was the first day that I tried giving him one. I picked a pasta first, since he loves my spaghett. It seemed a bit soupy in the sauce, so I thought I would give him a spoon also, thinking he'd have no clue what to do. Apparently...he has been watching us, since he just started feeding himself. Here's the result...I think a little did make it into his mouth :-). I know Mike's going to love these pictures, so you have to show them to him, Sandra...although I'm sure he's lightened up a bit with Aaron :-).

Oh, and Adam had to have his picture taken also :-). You can see one of his new fake smiles that are so lovely... I'm sure I'll have lots more pictures of it.

Sprinkler Time

2007-08-01T10:23:00.000-04:00

OK...I know I'm way behind in updating the blog... I don't really have any excuse other than being really busy this summer. The week after we went camping, I helped out at VBS at our old church, and then I went to visit my sister-in-law for a couple of days. I've finally been home for about a week, but I've been busy working on stuff for MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers). I'm in charge of Publicity this year, so I've been putting together a summer newsletter and the invitations and registration materials for the coming year. OK...enough with the excuses :-).

About a week and a half ago, I went grocery shopping on a Sat. afternoon (haven't done that in a long time...I definitely prefer going on weekday mornings!) and when I got home, Adam was running through the sprinkler in the backyard. I put Andrew down so he could run through also (I brought him shopping with me) and then I grabbed the camera. Who can resist taking pictures of such adorable little boys running through the sprinkler (OK...I may be a bit biased). We were actually having a bit of cooler (beautiful) weather (low 70's), so Adam may look a bit cold in some of the pictures...but they were having a blast. I'm also including a picture of Andrew climbing on the picnic table...the boy has no fear when it comes to climbing! He tries to climb up everything. This week, when we were putting a new door up in Adam's room, Dan had the stepstool out, and Andrew kept climbing up to the top. Anyway...here are the pictures.

Lake Pictures

2007-07-23T07:44:00.000-04:00

Like I said in my earlier post, we went camping last week with a group of people from Dan's family's church. One of the days, while the men went golfing, the women took all the kids to the beach. I braved the sand and brought my telephoto lens for my camera and got some great pictures of the kids.

Last year when we went to the beach while camping, Adam would only go into the water with Dan. This year, Dan wasn't there and I had to watch Andrew also (and take pictures), so I didn't really go out with him. However, he seemed to overcome some of his fear of the water and went out on his own. In fact, I was starting to worry he'd go out too far on his own :-). The kids all loved the water (even thought it was waaaaay too cold for the adults!), and they loved playing in the sand.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring sand toys, but they managed to make do with their hands. Of course, Adam also made friends (and enemies...when he tried to knock down their creations) with other kids who were working on sand castles. There was one older boy who had a really elaborate fort going. He was really nice to Adam and showed him what he was doing and gave Adam "jobs" to "help" him.

Andrew also loved the beach. He loved walking around and looking at everything, although he didn't seem to want to get into the water (probably too cold for him!). He had to sample the taste of the sand (since he has to put everything in his mouth), and he tried to chase a seagull. He was also obsessed with trying to get the Cool Ranch Doritos in our little tent (I brought a little sun tent for him to nap in). We brought them for lunch and he kept wanting to open them. I gave him one, and he started choking on it, so of course, I didn't give him anymore. He is very persistent...he kept trying to get the bag and open it. Finally, I had to throw the Doritos out of the tent for someone to hide :-).

Adam is 4!

2007-07-17T22:11:00.001-04:00

Last Wednesday was Adam's 4th birthday, which we celebrated while we were camping. We had planned a camping trip with a church group for Friday through Monday, and we decided to go early since it was a long drive and what better place for Adam to celebrate his birthday than while camping (which he loves!).

We really didn't do too much besides hang around the campground, but Adam loved playing at the park and in the sandbox. We gave him his present from Aunt Sandra and Uncle Mike (a Matchbox car holder that doubles as a semi)...which he loved and he got his first bike from his mom and dad. He was really excited about that...excited enough that he forgot that he also wanted one of those $200 ride-on tractors (good luck with that one!!). Before his birthday, if you asked him what he wanted, he would say a bike and a tractor. We also bought him a Spiderman bike helmet. Even though Dan and I both rode our bikes all the times as kids without any helmet to speak of...I thought we better go the safe route :-). He still needs some lessons on actually pedaling himself. Right now, he thinks that mom or dad needs to push him on the bike while he sits in comfort...spoiled boy!

We also bought cupcakes at the Super Walmart and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. I will make him a real cake when we celebrate his birthday with Dan's family later. I went the easy route for the camping trip :-). He didn't care...he only seems to like the frosting anyway. I have lots more pictures from our camping trip...especially some really good ones from the beach, but I'll wait until later this week to post those.

Blue Angels

2007-07-10T16:14:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, we went to an air show nearby with Dan's parents featuring the Blue Angels. It was so much fun! Dan was the only one of the group of us that had ever been to an air show, so it was an adventure. Since my sister, Sandra, is an old pro at attending air shows (her husband, my BIL is a pilot), she advised me to buy ear plugs for the boys. Boy, was she right. The F16 and the Blue Angels were really loud.

When we first arrived (we were a bit late and parking was a nightmare), a small plane was doing some acrobatics. For some reason, Adam was really scared of that little plane (and it wasn't loud). He announced that he wanted to go back to the car and go home. Dan had to hold him and try to console him. You wouldn't think that he would grasp the concept that the plane could go down (it made me a bit nervous with its stunts). Then the F16 was next and he really hated that. There was some time between the F16 and the Blue Angels, so we bought lunch and then I ran Adam over to one of the tents that was selling little toy airplanes. They had various models as well as some Blue Angel planes. He insisted on getting a B52 bomber, even though I tried to convince him to get the Blue Angel. He even cried when I tried to put it back. Needless to say, "Andrew" got a plane also, since I didn't think we could see the Blue Angels and not have a Blue Angel plane. Anyway, he was busy playing with his planes during the Blue Angels (and we got his earplugs in), so they didn't bother him. Andrew was a trooper...he mostly played with gramma or a water bottle. The Blue Angels were awesome. At one point the formation of 4 planes were only 18 inches apart from each other...that's the first picture of the planes. It was really amazing some of the maneuvers that they did. It was a great show...we're really glad we went.

Happy 4th of July!

2007-07-05T09:43:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July (or a Happy Birthday party for America, as Adam would say). He thought we were going to America's house yesterday as we were driving to our party. We had a wonderful time yesterday with a group of people from church. I volunteered to bring the dessert, so I spent some time Monday researching on the internet for the "perfect" 4th of July dessert. There were several sites that had a cake with strawberries and blueberries on it in the shape of a flag, but I personally don't like fruit and cake together, so I wanted something else. I found a site with an Uncle Sam hat made out of a 13x9 pan, which I thought would be perfect. I'm including a picture of how it turned out. I thought it was cute.

Before we left for the party, Adam wanted a baseball cap like Beaver (we have cable for 6 months on special, so Adam and I have been watching Leave it to Beaver on TVLand). On the prior day's episode, Beaver was in PE and couldn't hit the baseball, so he moved his hat around and was doing silly things so the kids would laugh at that instead of the fact that he couldn't hit a baseball. Anyway, Adam put the hat on and immediately moved the brim around like Beaver. I thought it was cute...not sure if Beaver should be his role model...but at least there were always consequences to his actions on the show :-).

The boys had a great time at the party (as did Dan and I). There was a tree fort and a rope swing for Adam to play on with all the other kids and Andrew loved walking around everywhere. It was a little more difficult at this party...since this was the first time Dan and I couldn't rotate watching Adam and socializing...since we now had to watch both kids. I don't know how people with more than 2 kids do it!! I'm going to include a few pictures at the party, too.

More Birthdays!

2007-07-02T15:45:00.000-04:00

May, June and July are very birthday intensive months in our families...2 birthdays in May, 4 in June, and 5 in July. So, we have lots of birthday parties! We visited Dan's family this weekend to celebrate his mom and his nephew's birthdays. Since Dan's mom normally makes everyone else's birthday cake, I volunteered to make her cake, so she wouldn't have to have a store-bought cake. I didn't have time to buy roses at the cake decorating store (like I usually do...I really need to learn how to make them myself), so I bought a stencil that allowed me to make some vines around the edge of the cake. I thought it turned out really cute (and so did Dan's mom). The boys had lots of fun, as usual, with their cousins, and Andrew showed off his new walking skill to the family. I'm including a few pictures from the party (as well as the cake).

Andrew is Walking!!

2007-06-28T07:53:00.000-04:00

Andrew has officially entered toddlerhood!! He actually took his first steps about two weeks ago when my parents were in town (what are the odds they'd get to witness that...plus his first tooth..when we only see them a couple of times a year at the most). Well, last weekend, Andrew's cousins were visiting and they loved walking around holding his hand, so he got lots of practice walking. So, he was able to take a couple of steps together. Now, he's walking across the kitchen. He can even take turns and stand up without having to pull up. We're in trouble now...I guess I'll have to figure out what to do when Adam's running one way and Andrew's running the other...because I won't be surprised if Andrew's running next week :-).

Sprayscape

2007-06-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

I'm finally getting to the millions of pictures that we took while my parents were here. On their last day, it was 92, so we decided to go to a park that has a "Sprayscape". Both the boys had a great time...and my dad a good time carrying Andrew through the water. Mom and I were able to sit in the shade under a tree and watch the boys.

It's funny...the first time we came here was last summer with our Homebuilders group (a parenting group at church), and Adam didn't really like to get the water in his eyes (just like in the pool and in the bath), but this time, he didn't care at all...he was soaking wet! Andrew has never minded water in his face, so he thought it was fun, too...although he gave almost no expression while my dad carried him through the water. He's a serious one!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys in action...

Father's Day

2007-06-20T08:58:00.001-04:00

It's been a long time since I've written, but I've been really busy. My parents came to visit for about 5 days, so we had to pack a lot of activities in. I'll post pictures from their visit later, but I wanted to write about Father's Day first. It was really nice to have my dad in town for Father's Day. I don't think I've been able to spend the day with him in a long time. Hopefully, we made the day special for both the dads!! I was really excited about giving Dan and my dad their gifts, so I made them open presents before church (thus the boys are still in their pajamas). The boys got Dan a digital photo frame for his office at work. Dan is always asking me to print off pictures to have newer ones of the boys at work, so I thought this would be perfect. He'd always have lots of pictures, and they'd always be recent. I think Dan is really enjoying his gift...now if he could just get to work and quit staring at pictures of the boys :-). We also found a coffee mug while we were camping that said "Greatest Opa". Since my dad is Dutch, I thought he'd really enjoy that.

Our church's baby dedication happened to coincide with my parent's visit, so they got to see us dedicate Andrew to God. After church was the highlight of the day for the boys...we went to Guernsey's (a really good local ice cream place...they are a dairy and make their own ice cream). We had sundaes inside, and the boys got to play on the rocks outside afterwards. All in all....a good day!

Camping

2007-06-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

We went camping last week with some friends, so I wasn't able to post. We had a great time. Adam absolutely loved camping (he always does!) and Andrew was a trooper. Our friends have older kids, who were willing to play with Adam, so Dan and I were even able to relax a bit also. It's funny, this campground had really old playground equipment (just a big slide and some swings), but that didn't stop Adam and his friends from playing there all the time. Adam also was entertained by the clusters of trees between our site and the playground and an old tree stump. I still haven't really been able to sift through all the pictures I took, but I'll include a few pictures that really say it all about the weekend...

Zoo

2007-06-02T23:00:00.001-04:00

We went to the zoo this afternoon with Dan's sister, Julie, and her family. We had a great time with them, and Adam and Andrew loved spending time with their 5 cousins. We had a great view of the animals...most of them pretty close up. Anyway, I'll include a few pictures so you can see all the fun! As you can see from the first picture, Adam spent a lot of time running from animal exhibit to animal exhibit with his cousin Ricky. Plus, he loved looking at all the animals. Andrew liked it when his cousins played with him in the stroller, and he took a nap. It was a pretty hot day, so the kids loved the fact that they had a misting sprinkler out to stand in and get cool. God was really watching out for us...it was getting darker and darker as it got closer to closing time. It started to sprinkle a little bit as we got close to the parking garage, and as soon as we all made it under the covered parking, it really let loose with a really heavy downpour. Luckily, we missed it!!

Life with Wild and Crazy Boys!

2007-05-31T08:30:00.000-04:00

Life is always interesting with these wild and crazy boys! It's funny, Adam will be 4 in July, and he's pretty much just started being a climber. He was never afraid of doing new things (like he would go up to the top of the McDonalds playgrounds from about 1 and a 1/2 on), but he didn't climb everything, like the furniture, etc. That has all changed... Last night he discovered that he could climb the little bush in our backyard, and he was having a blast climbing in it. Of course, being a boy, he was trying to shave the bark off the tree with his hands. But, it brought back memories of all the time I used to spend climbing the big tree in our backyard. I don't know how old I was when I started doing it, but I can't believe mom let me do it. I guess I'll have to lighten up a bit when Adam gets old enough to climb the big trees :-).

Now Andrew, on the other hand, is a climber from the very beginning. I've caught him climbing up Adam's stepstool to his bed. He tries to climb up everything. I've really got to keep a good eye on him!

He is also very picky when it comes to food. Like I said in yesterday's post, he didn't like his birthday cake. Yesterday I took the boys to Costco, and we got a frozen yogurt. He didn't like that either. However, he LOVES my spaghetti (gramma's recipe). I'm including a picture of him eating it this week. He also liked the Smoked Sausage and potato wedges that we grilled last night.

Andrew's Birthday

2007-05-30T08:28:00.000-04:00

On Monday, we celebrated Andrew's 1st birthday...boy has time flown by! I can't believe it's already been a year since he was born! We spent the weekend with Dan's parent's and had a family birthday party for both Andrew and Tammy (Andrew's cousin) on Memorial Day. I made Andrew's birthday cake. I debated whether I really wanted to take the time to decorate an elaborate cake, but I thought that Andrew might look back on pictures later and wonder why his big brother had a homemade Pooh cake for his first birthday and he had a store bought cake :-). So, I made Andrew a Pooh cake also...and I'm glad I did. I had fun doing it. Julie (Dan's sister) brought over Tammy's cake on Sunday after church and we decorated them together with the kids all watching. Here's how the cake turned out...

Anyway, everyone came over about noon for hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats. The kids all played while we were getting the food ready. After dinner, Andrew and Tammy blew out their candles on their cakes. Of course, Andrew needed some help with that from his big brother, but he looked interested in the candle. Then they opened presents. Andrew got some balls, a walker, a Little People bus, and a Leapfrog steering wheel. He didn't get to play with the toys too much, because his cousins took them over :-). He didn't care. The funniest part was when we gave him a piece of cake. At his cousin Ricky's birthday party two weeks earlier, Dan had fed Andrew some cake and ice cream, and he liked it, so we thought he'd have a blast feeding himself some cake. However, Ricky's cake was white, and I made Pooh chocolate. Apparently Andrew doesn't like chocolate cake!! He was picking at the frosting, so I took a spoon and gave him a taste of the cake part to get him started as to what it was. He spit it out and wouldn't eat anymore! He was more interested in playing with the spoon. I'm sure he'll grow to love my chocolate cakes, though :-). I'm going to include some more birthday pictures below...