memorial day

Oh my goodness. Yesterday was one of the absolute funnest days I've EVER had. Seriously It was awesome. This was the first time since Mike has started school that he had a day off from both school and work that wasn't a sunday. So we took advantage. And since we got our stimulus check. We decided to say yes to a lot of things today that normally we wouldn't.

First off, the night before, Mike got to stay up playing his games. Cause we didn't have to be anywhere in the morning. Then in the morning. I was so excited to get going that I woke up at like 6 and everyone including the kids were still asleep. So i decided to go see what we should do for breakfast. When the kids woke up I stuck them in the tub. Daddy just kept snoozing. After the boys bath we ate breakfast rice, and then I brought a bowl into daddy. It was about 9:30 or 10ish. It was so great! He NEVER gets to sleep in. Then we had just bought some new hair clippers so we cut his hair last night too.

While daddy was showering to get the hair off...I was getting the boys ready. Today we were going to get mike some glasses. And we'd found a store that gives you 2 pair of glasses for 69.99 AND your eye exam is FREE. STINKIN AWESOME! Once everyone was ready, away we went. The boys, just being fed, were totally happy. It was WONDERFUL! Well until daddy had to go in for the exam. We had to sit in the waiting room. And you know how 2 year olds get. That wasn't exactly fun for the boys, but when all was said and done...and we got them some pizza...they were once again happy.

We went to America's Best here in KC. All in all we ended up spending about $270. but thats cause we bought a years supply of contacts...which was $99 and Mike joined their eyecare club for $99. The eyecare club you get 10% off glasses and contacts, and you get 2 exams free for 3 years. Stinkin AWESOME! Then we also bought him some glasses. But they weren't going to be done for 2 weeks...hence he needed contacts. Apparently...my husband is legally blind...and he's been driving without contacts OR glasses ALL YEAR! Yeah...not such a comforting thought.

Anyhow then we went to Subway and got the boys a pizza, and we got whatever sub we wanted. Then we went to Sonic and got ice cream. Yeah I got one of their bannana splits...only I exchanged the fruit they usually put on it..for oreo's on one side, and reces on the other!! YUM! Then we headed to the D.A.V. thrift store. If you have one close...totally go to it. It's one of the most organized thrift stores I've ever been in, and there is no sales tax. AWESOME! It is slightly more expensive than other thrift stores...but it's VERY easy to navigate. Thats part of the reason why I like it so much. And saying it's more expensive...is not really saying much. You don't usually pay more than $4 for a pair of pants.

Now we get to the REALLY fun part of our day. We had a cook out with some of our friends up here. We made Hamburgers & Kabobs & Pink stuff & salad & sherbet. Oh my gosh it was THE BEST meal I've had in a LONG time. The guys were being really funny and everytime they'd cook something on the grill...it was MAN kabobs, or MAN Burgers, or they had to go be MEN and get some MAN-ly Charcoal. I brought my camera...but alas didn't take any picture. But I'll be sure to post them when I get them from Michelle. I love that family. Yesterday will be a day to remember.

Intersting Article

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/09/transportation-tuesday-boeing-flies-first-fuel-cell-plane/

I thought it was intriguing so I looked more up on wikipedia. Here's what I found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell

The Man Corner

Well I finally gave in. Mike got his TV. He actually called from work and asked me to post a picture of it on the blog so he could show his buddies at work. And he had to be man and hook up his computer. Thats right. To the left is his computer...yes he does use the TV for a monitor....hence "The Man Corner"

Bike Trailer!!!!!

How cool is that! So I found this on craigslist for $75. I'm thinkin...this is a BARGIN. But I had to drive out to Olathe to get it (thats about 20-25 min from my house), they knocked off $10. This is like a $200 trailer! It rides really well. It's an aluminum frame so it's light. Going up hills you can totally feel the burn though. But when you're riding on flat ground you can't even tell it's behind you. It cut my trip to target down to 1/4 the time it used to take walking. And the boys liked it better. While we were riding on a flat surface mikey said, "Faster Faster FASTER!!" So I started peddling as fast as I could. Those boys couldn't stop giggling. But I did realize I needed a new bike seat. My rump was starting to "feel the burn" only it was from a crappy seat. So I found a good seat on sale at target. This is the BEST investment I could have ever made this summer!

Time Together

Well yesterday for my birthday we went to my parents house. Mostly cause we wanted to say bye to Marshall before he left on his mission. He leaves tomorrow. Anyhow We got to the stake center right before he was set apart as a missionary...it was really wonderful. Then we get home and everyone changes and we head out to Grandpa Adams' house. While my dad was watching the babies, me and mike went on a walk. I didn't want to go to far, so we just went down to the tire swing in the woods. Mike offered to push me and I accepted.

He got to where I was getting so high he had to jump just to push me. It was so much fun. Then we traded places for a little bit and I pushed him. I didn't get him nearly even half as high as he got me, but it was still a lot of fun. Then we just sat together on the swing in the fresh air outside. It was so nice to be alone. Anytime you have time with your spouse, take it. It was so nice. I only wish we could have stayed out longer. Mike kept looking at the lake and said, "the only thing that could make this better, is if we could go fishing on the lake together" But it was a Sunday so we stayed on the ground. But it was so nice just to be outside. If you haven't been to my grandparents house yet, you're missing out. It's the most serene, beautiful, peaceful place ever. Yesterday was one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. Just getting to be with my husband. The weather was perfect, and the only thing more I could have asked for was time.

Hommade Creamsicles

Oh man this was SSSOOO good and it only takes about 4 hours for it to freeze if you have it in a skinny container. You've GOT to try this.

1c. strawberries
1box cream cheese
1/4-1/2c powdered sugar
1 scoop ice cream (optional)
1 tub cool whip

Blend your strawberries, cream cheese, powdered sugar, & ice cream. Once blended fold in cool whip. Put in skinny cups and freeze for 4 hours. If you want to make creamsicles, line a popsicle maker with plastic wrap or wax paper then fill with mixture and freeze.

I can't tell you how good this is with fresh fruit. Next I'm going to try orange!

HeMan and the Kids

Mike says he looks gross in this picture but it was so funny I had to post it. This is what Daddy did to the boys when he first got home. And they just sat in the air and giggled. What fun.

Happy Mothers Day!

Well yesterday was a WONDERFUL Mothers Day. It was so great to be with everyone! And if anyone else got some pictures, post them so we can all see them. I know mom got some pictures on her camera too. Here are some of the ones that I got. These pictures are not in any particular order and it's mostly of Justin, Mason, & Mikey.

That's Mikey in Mid throw. They started throwing that little green ball at each other.

This cracks me up. It took Mikey a little while to get started, but he was definatly having fun.

Nice Face Justin.

Xander loves puzzles.

Well he loves to chew on them anyway.

The Great escape....attempt.

This is one of my favorites. Justin...beware...one of these days you wont be able to fight them off.

My hubby loves me!

Yesterday after mike got home from work I told him we needed to go get some milk. Normally I would just take the car and go, but I really didn't feel like it yesterday so I had Mike do it. He put up a bit of a stink at first...but then he relented cause we really needed the milk.

While he was gone I decided to clean up our bedroom floor. While I was putting shoes away I hear the front door open and Mike was home. He said "Wifey I have something for you!" I was pretty excited. He was just suposed to get milk. Then I walk out and he's got some Mike & Ike's for me. Which was an in joke with us while we were engaged. I thought it was really sweet. And it was candy! Which you can EAT! Yum. Then he said, hey can you clean out a glass? I need some watter. So I go to the sink and when I turn around he's got roses in his hand, "actually they need some water" and he grins. "The Mike and Ike's were just a dummy gift." He said he was just passing by the register at the grocery store and decided wife needed flowers.

HE DID IT! He got me flowers without me knowing! And it wasn't Salami!! I love my husband!

Strange Fishy Dreams

OK so while I was at a friends house, she offered to give me her little fish. It made me think of when my sister, Sarah, had that same type of fish, and it jumped out of the bowl. We found it later dried crispy to one of her tables. ICK!

Last night while I was sleeping I was hoping for good dreams...well...I got something. It was a STRANGE dream. Apparently something had happened outside and there were three fish flailing on the pavement. I couldn't just leave them there so I got a bowl of water for each fish. 2 were beta fish (like the one pictured, and the one I was offered), and the other one looked like Nemo only 2 ft long. We couldn't find a bowl for "nemo" so my little sister, Nancyann, sat and held id forcing water down it's throat. Then the water started spilling out it's gills onto Nanc, and she freaked out. So we just stuck it head first into a bowl so it could breath. The water only came up just past it's gills. Then finally we found a large pot to stick the fish in. It had just enough room to be in the water...nothing else. Then I took all the fish home to my apartment.

(Michelle...I attribute this dream to you.)

Woes of being 2nd

Well today has been interesting. We decided to go out for breakfast for my birthday and mothers day. It was a lot of fun. Till Xander got a hold of some bacon. He took it off of Daddy's plate and it was a full piece. He was gagging all over the place. When we pulled it out of his mouth, it was a HUGE piece stuck all the way down his throat. No wonder he was gagging. The whole restruant was watching us. Then a little while later as I reached across the table to wipe his mouth...I knocked over my water...all over myself. fun fun fun.

But poor Xander. He's had a hard day. He keeps falling off of stuff. And when I went to check my E-mail today I hear him crying. Nothing new. Only then I'd hear him cry and get cut off...and mikey laughing. Anytime that child is laughing...it's a bad sign. I run into the living room and poor Xander is laying on his tummy with mikey sitting on his back holding him hostage by the neck of Xander's shirt. Every time he'd bounce, it would interrupt Xanders crying. And he thought that was funny. But the moment I stepped into the room he bolted. Poor Xander was just in tears. Mikey is now in his room in time out...and Xander is "recovering." Mostly I think he's just glad mikey can't sit on him anymore. Shesh.

2 year old woes

So I'm sitting on the couch folding laundry and all the sudden I hear Mikey sniff and then he just starts bawling. I'm thinkin...what the heck? So I look over and he's got a bloody nose. How it happened....I have no idea. It could be that he's just like his daddy and gets bloody noses. This is like the 3rd he's ever had...but he is only 2.

He wouldn't sit still so I had to hold him down the whole time his nose was bleeding. Luckily it only took a few minutes. But still I hope he doesn't make a habit of it. Poor boy was miserable...and now I'm afraid to touch his nose cause it may start up again. I'll just wait till before he goes to bed. Then we'll see what happens.

Dinosaur Room

Well I got tired of having a Jungle theme in the boys room...so I moved that stuff to the bathroom and now their room is going to be Dinosaurs. Today my project was a book shelf. We've been using the wagon as their toy box...but no.1 decided he'd rather use it as a wagon. When I put them in bed I constantly hear Mikey pushing the wagon around the room. I'm taking it out of there so he'll actually go to bed now....but I do need a place for the books.

All I did was take a thin box and drew a dinosaur on the front and cut it out...then I put fabric over the back & cut out fabric for the dinosaur & his book. Then I hot glued it all together complete with buttons for eyes. It was a lot of fun...and It looks really cute. It is a little high for no. 2, but Mikey loves it.

Video

Yeah so I told Mike to take some pictures of his field trip...but really what I wanted was some pictures of HIM on the field trip. This is about as close as I'm going to get. It was an accidental video...and you get the slightest gilmps of Mikes face at the end. Silly man. He had the camera in his pocket so the dial with the settings on it kept getting changed.

Field Trip

These are some of Mike's school friends.

The cockpit.

Stuff to tell you where you are at in the sky.

Lots of dials.

This is that little middle part of the cockpit just a closer view.

The whole enchilada.

I think this is inside one of the jets? (Don't quote me on this)

Inside the actual airplane

Looking into one of the jets. (Kinda scary if you ask me...I wouldn't want to be looking at it when they turned it on)

uh..I don't remember what he told me this was. Man he's going to be so disappointed.

Looking at the rear wheel from inside the airplane.

I'll have Mike come back through and edit this tonight. It's INSANE how much work goes into flying. I'm glad mike is smart...I don't think I could retain everything you need to know....I can't even remember half the stuff he told me yesterday. (sad Ris...very sad)

Do you think you can do it?

Well I'm officially disappointed in myself. Remember when you were in elementry and you'd sing the 50 states song? Well I wanted to see if I could still label all of the states. I gave myself 3 min...Tell you what I was seccond guessing myself all over the place...but I didn't "study" before hand. I just looked up "blank state map" and printed it off to see if I could do it.

The results....I got 26 out of 50 ew.
So I failed...miserably. See if you can do any better. let me know what your score is. Remember just do it without "studying" Try it within three minutes then look up your answers online.

(And Dawn...just cause you're a teacher doesn't make you exempt...but I do expect you to get a better score than I did.)
;)

My hubby is Full of Bologna

Well I'm always on the blog posting things that my boys do. Today however, it was the older boy who was being silly. At the moment I have 4 boys. Mikey (or no.1 as daddy calls him), Xander (no. 2), Gavin...tentatively (no. 3), and Mike (or Hubby/Daddy as he is so often called). And today...Daddy was being the silly one.

Today I decided I was going to clean my kitchen before Mike got home from school. Usually I save the majority of the cleaning for when the boys go to bed so I have something to do until Mike gets home. When he got home in the middle of the day and the kitchen was almost done he was just happy. And boy was he in a good mood. (but compared to yesterday...anything is a good mood). He came in and kissed me and he just started acting goofy.

I got out the sandwich stuff so he could make him a sandwich...and he just stared at it for a while. So I roll my eyes and start making his sandwich. He starts laughing and proceeds to put some bologna on his sandwich. When he squirts the mustard on his sandwich he makes it into a face. (he actually had two sandwiches) One sandwich was a squiggly mouth and the other was just a sad face. "are you making the drama masks?" I asked him.
He told me, "No they're just scared."
"Of what"
A big grin crosses his face, "of being smushed!" And he places the bread on top of the face. He pulls the bread back off to show me the "damage." Then he tries to make the same face that the mustard has made after being mushed into bologna. I almost wet my pants from laughing so much. What a fun hubbie I have.

Well well well....what can I say about this morning...Hum. I made sure my children had breakfast, I incubated, I didn't stop breathing. I cleaned the little boys room. I got a load of dishes done....No wait...2 loads. One in the dishwasher, and one by hand. That was good. And I didn't yell at my children. Let me tell you...that has been one of the HARDEST things to do today.

When I started to do my dishes. I hear Michael on my piano. No big deal right? wrong. He found my little scissors on my piano. He opens them up and starts to "play the piano with them" I think he's just pounding...when I go in there to see what he's playing...there are scratch marks all over the front of my piano!!?!!?!?!

ARG! Do you know how awful it is to find wood shavings at the foot of your piano! But I repeat when I said at the beginning of this post. I didn't yell. Crying on the other hand...that I almost did. But I held it together and showed him it was wrong...then put him in the corner for 5 min. He didn't scratch it too awful. It defiantly could have been worse. Next time I wont set my scissors anywhere near the piano. shesh.

Streak Free Kitchen

Today while I was chatting with my brother Keith via facebook, my son had other things on his mind. Yeah Mikey...the same one who is always getting into trouble. (Xander gets into trouble too...but it's mostly just taking my pots out of the cupboard and climbing on things. I'm constantly finding him on their little table just sitting there. And to get down he always just falls. Silly boy.)

Anyhow. I hear Mikey giggling in the kitchen and I know thats a bad sign. So I get up, and he had taken 1/2 a bottle of window cleaner...and, standing on my kitchen chair, from the middle of the kitchen Sprayed it EVERYWHERE. It looked like someone had dumped a bucket of liquid in my kitchen. He was spinning in circles on a chair in the middle of my kitchen making sure to spray EVERYTHING. Luckily I had just put all the food away so nothing go wasted but the spray cleaner. Tonight was early bedtime. Now if you'll excuse me...I need to go finish cleaning up the mess.

One pair of pants is never enough.

Well...Mikey really likes his clothes. Hats, shoes, PANTS. Now you expect a kid to like to wear his daddy's shoes (or his mom's high heals...they make fun noises when you walk), or like to wear hats, but I think my eldest son has taken it a little far. Today I guess he just had a strong desire to put on his own clothes....only he was already dressed. And the clothes his little heart desired to put on....were already on his little brother. Thus I watch the seen unfold.

Xander is standing up on the rocker. He's such a skinny little dude that all of his pants sag. Mikey decides, Eh what the heck, they're already half way down his rear...we'll just finish the job. Xander of course falls over in the process. Once the pants are off. He proudly declares, "Pants!" and proceeds to put them on himself. Well he was already wearing jeans so he could only get Xander's up to his ankles. And that is how my son walked around the house. Wearing 2 pairs of jeans. One correctly...and the other a stolen article around his feet. And poor no.2 was now in just a diaper and a shirt. But he was a real good sport about it, he'd rather be completely undressed anyway.