A Great Day.....

What a great day! The weather was beautiful and the boys were so well behaved. Life doesn't get much better.

We intended to walk to the park, but Colton's bike had a flat tire. By the time we tried to fix it (unsuccessfully) it was lunch time. We grabbed some sandwiches and decided to have a picnic. It was a blast. We were the only people at the park. We enjoyed lunch and then got busy - the boys on the playground equipment and me with the camera.

What better way to continue the day then eating multiple popsicles on the deck.

I just had to share this picture of my little daredevil. He was trying to do tricks on the skateboard - hilarious!

I just tucked in the boys after their movie and am soaking in the perfectness of today.

Mother's Day....

What a great day it's been! The boys let me sleep in until 8:00!! That. Was. Fan. Tastic.

Brett made me some french toast sticks with special dip in his play kitchen for breakfast. He walked out to the table with plastic french fries (the french toast sticks) and a big bowl of plastic fruit (the special sauce) and told me "Happy Mudder's day...you don't have to do anything today cause you're the pretty in the whole world." It's almost like somebody told him about my previous post!
After Sunday School, we ran a few errands and then I went on a 6.5 mile training walk to break in my new shoes while the boys stayed home and napped.
The boys had homemade gifts for me...so sweet! Coasters with their pictures on them and marigolds grown at school. Perhaps the best gift of all? Somebody wanting to clean my car:
Just to be sure the suction still worked....Happy Mother's day to all you wonderful moms!

Supper Nanny...Are You Out There?

See this kid? Looks pretty innocent doesn't he?! For the past week and a half, this child has challenged my patience and parenting skills more than I could have imagined.

Where do I even start? He and I went up to the Outlet Mall to pick out some clothes for my niece's birthday. I was at the front of the store flipping through tank tops and I look over and see Brett standing right by the front door with a look on his face. You know, the one where you can tell they are thinking, yep, I'm going to run...try to stop me. Sure enough, the kid blots out the door and runs down the sidewalk at full speed. The little bugger is quick. I caught him five stores down and he starts laughing. It's all I can do to keep my composure - I was so mad!

His other issue? Not listening. I know he hears me and understands me, but quite frankly, he doesn't give a crap what I've got to say. So, he's been spending a lot of time in his room. When he doesn't listen, he loses a toy (or 8) and then has to go to his room. This worked the first couple times but now do you want to what happens now? You put him in his room, take his books and walk out of his room and shut the door behind him. He then walks out of his room (without permission) and laughs. So, I grit my teeth, walk him back to his room and he says, "what are you going to take next?" I respond and then he says, "what about next time, what are you going to take then." OMG!!
What. A. Challenge.

Thank God it seems to be making a turn for the better. Today, he's been a sweetheart. Starting the day telling me "Mom, you're the pretty in the whole world."

Still Kickin'......

I'm still here. Not very often, but still here.
Life has been very busy the last few weeks. A good busy though.

I'll share some of the things that have kept me off the blog as well as some random thoughts...

• Prepping for a garage sale fundraiser. I went through every room in our house, our storage areas and the garage to find things we could get rid of. It's just amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over the years. I had 12 big bins full of goodies and much more.
• The sale was very successful despite the somewhat crappy weather. Between the 2 of us, we raised over $1100!!
• I made a few observations during the sale. The things that we laughed at were some of the first to sell. The good stuff like the Pottery Barn bedding and shelves were never purchased. We had baked goods there as well. They were bought my the older men and the women with kids. No surprises there.
• We had a successful beer bust as well. Lots of friends and family helping us raise money for the 3-day event.
• Baseball has started and Mike is assistant coach. That's twice a week, but very fun.
• Mike's softball league has started. That's on Wednesday nights. That's usually when I let the kids eat breakfast for dinner and they think I'm cool for letting them do that. The coolness wears off by bedtime though.
• We attended the wedding of one of my college friends. It was great to have a nice date night with my husband and catch up with people that we don't see all the often.
• We attended a benefit for the wife of Mike's old boss. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer last September. They did a CAT scan before starting radiation and found the cancer had spread to her liver. Attending the event helps you get your priorities straight. They were raising money so that she could take her kids and grandchildren to Disney. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Cancer can suck it.
• I'm into week 2 of my online photography class. I love it!
• We are starting to come up with some fun things to do this summer with our kids. I want to start a tradition with them, but what, I'm not sure. Any suggestions or fun things that you do?
• I was on a 4 mile training walk tonight with the dog. We got to about mile 3 and it started hailing. That's right. Hailing. On us. It hurt and the dog freaked out. I had to carry her. Luckily I brought my cell phone and Mike came and picked us up.

Birthday Weekend....

What a fun, action packed weekend we had. Friday night was the family birthday party. Colton picked burgers and a cake made with oreos, mint ice cream, fudge and cool-whip - yum! Here's the birthday boy waiting for Mike to light all the candles.

His grandparents surprised him with the Joe Mauer quick swing for his gift. We couldn't even get it off the deck before he was hitting balls.

The next morning he was out swinging the bat right away!

For his kid party, he opted for a dirt bike birthday cake - complete with doughnut holes for large boulders and coca puffs for rocks.

Sunday afternoon was spent at the pool. I had no clue how much energy eight 8-year old boys have!

After two hours of swimming, these boys devoured the cake!

Happy 8th Birthday

Today you turn eight. Where does the time go?

*You are a really good kid - most of the time.
*You excel at math and reading
*You love to learn
*You are witty
*You love to play baseball and football
*You love to tease your brother, but you stick up for him if anybody else does
*You have a sweet tooth
*You have a great memory
*You know more about computers than your dad
*You get frustrated when things don't come easy for you
*I love that you still let me hold your hand in public
*I love that you are mine

Happy birthday buddy!

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter! We spent the morning going through the loot that the bunny brought and just enjoying each other's company.

Stella might have enjoyed her goodies the most!

Then we headed over to the kid's great-grandparents house for Easter dinner and a huge Easter prize hunt.

Here's Mike's parents with their 4 grandchildren.

My sister-in-law and I decided last year that instead of getting each other's kids gifts, we would just supply the prizes for the Easter hunt. This year we assigned each child a color and those were the only prizes they could find. If they found a prize that didn't have their color on it, they had to move on and not tell the other kids. They had a blast!