the boys are back in town

Well, we're back from vacation and real life is in full swing. On our 14 hour drive home I thought of all sorts of interesting things to blog about. But now, I'm tired and I just don't have it in me. I will post beach pictures soon. My friend Emily and I have a craft fair this weekend and friday is my birthday :)...so I may not get to it until next week... Until then. . . Pin It

Wish You Were Here

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Tired but Happy

I'm feelin' good. We're packed & ready to go. The house is clean. The cat is at the vet. The dishwasher is running. And we're about to watch "The Office" to reward ourselves for all our hard work. :) Praise Jesus for the Yukon b/c the back is packed with all our stuff and there's still room to spare. That just makes me happy. This would never have worked with the Camry. I believe this is a sign that I need to do A LOT of shopping on our vacation to fill up the space.

Hopefully I will get a chance to post some pics while we're gone, if not, wait expectantly until I return. Until then....peace out peeps! Pin It

My son thinks I'm a midget

Well, I am in a chatty mood...so here goes...

First, I want to address McDonald's new iced coffees. In a word, YUM. Okay, so it's not Starbucks, but really close. And it is big (notice the picture) and it's $1.88 with tax! That just makes me happy. This is so much better than their hot, "premium coffee" they came up with before. That was just crappy coffee in a nicer to-go cup. Now, I've never actually licked an ash tray, but if I did, that is what their "premium coffee" tastes like. Therefore, I have been very skeptical of this new iced coffee idea. I was just sure it was another attempt to appear trendy. But, after hearing several people rave over their iced coffees, I decided to give in. I ordered a hazelnut iced coffee. They put some milk in it and 5 squirts of syrup. I guess that could make any coffee taste good. So now I am happy and also somewhat jittery from all the caffeine on an empty stomach. So save your $4 and don't go to Starbucks this time, head on into the Golden Arches....
Next, I want to address the fact that my son, Avery thinks that I'm a midget. Yep. So, a couple of months ago we were watching "Little People, Big World." Avery said to me, "Look mommy, that lady is little just like you." Thanks Avery. He also often says, "You're my good, little mommy." Which is sweet and endearing. But I realize today that he really does think that I'm a midget. Our conversation in the car today:

avery: mommy, do you like that show, "Little People" ?

me: yes, honey

avery: that mommy & daddy on that show are really little

me: yes, honey

avery: just like you, you're little just like them

Super. Pin It

4 days and counting . . .

Why does summer always fly by SO FAST!!?? Of course it doesn't totally feel like summer is completely over around here because we are leaving for vacation on Friday. And also, it's bloody hot. Seriously, it was unseasonably cool during July...high's in the 80's. Now it's 100 degrees with absolutely no breeze to speak of. However, I do love summertime. Even if it does feel like an oven out there, it's such a great time of year. About our "vaca," we are leaving for Florida this Friday. This is our first "real" vacation since our honeymoon. By "real" vacation, I mean not visiting family or friends. Also AJ and I's first time to go to the beach together. I am really excited. Okay,I am a little nervous about the 14 hour road trip we are embarking on with the kids, but the beach will be worth it. You better believe I will be drugging my kids up with Dramamine before we go. We will also be bringing about 15 movies and the travel dvd player---don't judge me. Also a little nervous about what kind of motel we're going to stay in on the way down. We are going to do the drive in two days. But once we get there, it will be nice. AJ planned the whole trip himself. :) We are staying in a condo right on the beach. It's really kid friendly . . . has a playground and pool, etc. The condo has 2 bedrooms, living room, & kitchen. So that will be nice. I'm planning on making some snack foods, muffins, etc. ahead of time. That of course would require I actually quit blogging and do something around here. So hopefully I will get some great beach pictures to blog when I return. Say a little prayer for us! :) Pin It

Sunday Morning Ritual

Well, this has been a great weekend! I absolutely love weekends with my 3 boys. AJ took Friday off and we had fun spending the day together. We went to Lewis and Clark which is one of our favorite stores. Avery loves to climb the climbing wall. AJ found a pair of Patagonia shoes which we had to special order for his size 13 feet. :) We also went to the mall to get the boys sunglasses for the beach. We actually let them pick them out themselves. Avery got spider man and Finley got some blue ones with a teddy bear paw print...weird. I am usually a mean mommy and don't let them pick out anything b/c I want them to look "cool." This time, I had a gift card from Payless that I had never used so we went and there were 3 pairs of kid sunglasses left, so they had their pick from 3....so not really much of a choice after all. Oh well, they'll probably lose them by the end of the week anyway.
Then Friday, late afternoon, we went swimming with our friends, Dave, Mel, Nick, Emily,Chris, and all our kids. It was really fun. The "men" (and I use the word men loosely) had a splash contest off the diving board. Okay, I will admit that eventually Mel & I joined in jumping off the diving board. It looked like too much fun to resist. We had dinner by the pool and swam until the kids could take no more.
Saturday we took our weekly trip to the Farmer's Market. It's really great. This week there was a juggling show, so that was really fun for the boys. I love picking up some fresh vegetables. There's always a ton of people there with their kids and dogs. It's very lively and fun. Then last night my dad & step mom & little sister came over and watched the boys and we went on a date with our friends, Zach & Erin. We saw Bourne Ultimatum...it was SOOO good. I was actually really surprised b/c I didn't love the 2nd one.
Now we are attending a church that doesn't start until 10:45, so we have started a Sunday morning tradition of taking a family bike ride. I LOVE it. We go early in the morning so it is still cool. Of course, by the end of the ride it starts getting hot, as you can tell by the sweat in the following pictures. :) We ride through different neighborhoods surrounding ours. We often stop & walk through houses that are being built to get ideas if we end of building someday. The boys are happy because they get a free ride....okay after a while they start fussing at each other and we have to head back home. Here are some pictures from our bike ride....pardon the sweat.

Here is a picture to document that I am actually in this family (most of our pictures are of everybody else b/c I'm usually the one with the camera).

The boys are ready to go!

AJ has the hard work of pulling the boys . . .

Peace Out (AJ told me to write that)

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Woo Hoo!!! The hoodlums are fenced in!

Our big excitement this week is getting a new fence! Oh, how I love it already. We have lived in this house for 2 years and have gone back & forth about getting a fence. We wanted one for the obvious reasons of safety, privacy, etc. On the other hand, our house backs up to a beautiful field with horses and has a pretty row of trees. I think AJ might argue about the "pretty" part, those trees were more of a nuisance to him. There's poison ivy in there, stickers, vines, etc. So, really not the best place for children to play, but still pretty to look at. Our neighbor was fencing in her yard and when the guy came over to give her an estimate, I had him give me an estimate as well. So, we just decided to go for it, knowing it would definitely help our property value as well. So, I will miss the view of the horses, but that's really being overshadowed by the fact that I don't have to worry about the kids running around the house and going into the street. I was always worried some psycho would come by & steal my kids right out of the back yard. Let me tell you, it is so nice to be able to work in the kitchen (I can see them from the window) while they are playing. Of course, I don't have to tell you that I put padlocks on all the gates. Not so much to keep the boogie man out as to keep my curious 4 year old in. :)

So here are the boys playing during our 1st day with the new fence . . .

Avery being Avery . . .

Finley climbing like a "big boy" . . .

One last view of the glorious fence!!

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Swim Lessons '07

This past week the boys had swim lessons. They go to a place called Swim Ranch, which we LOVE. We have been taking lessons there since Avery was 1. Finley is in the water babies class. A parent goes in the water with them in water babies and Mrs. Virginia teaches the lesson. I love her, she is just a sweet, sweet grandma. Last summer was Finley's first summer and he hated it. He was "that kid." He cried and fought the entire week. He was not a fan of water in general. I knew this summer was going to be better because he has slowly warmed up to water over the year. He really enjoyed it this year and had a ball splashing, kicking & blowing bubbles.

Here we are in Finley's class . . .

AJ got to come one day and do water babies with Finley . . .

Finley resting after his class. He got to eat his lunch while Avery did his "big kid" class.This year was Avery's first year to be in the afternoon lane class. Each lane has 4 children and 2 teachers. It is great because there's not a lot of waiting around time. Avery LOVED it. He loves the water and always has. When he was in water babies, he wouldn't even let me hold on to him, (whereas Finley, had a death grip on me the whole time). Avery learned a lot and grew even more confident in swimming and holding his breath under water.

Here is Avery in his class (he's in the middle with his awesome TYR goggles on) Avery swimming under water . . . Avery jumping off the "jumping board" . . .All in all, it was a great time, exhausting, but great.

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