happy halloween

 

ben's plan for the future

kid nation has become a show that we really enjoy watching with the boys. they look SO forward to it each week. as soon as it's over they get so excited for the next week! it's made for some good discussions about being "a brat", helping others, caring for others, etc. and it's been fun to hear their answers to my "if that was you, what would you have done?" questions.

well... today, out of the blue, ben says

"mom, when you and daddy die we are going to kid nation. then, i will not miss you or be sad. i will be too busy."

of course i hope that plan of ben's doesn't ever have to get put to use. however, if it should, i know they'd make mighty fine citizens.

AH HA!

a few days ago i posted about my family picture struggles.
well ... if it wasn't tough enough to get my 3 boys all looking - this weekend we went to wausau and i decided to try to get aiden in a picture with my 3.

here is a little taste of our attempts --

and finally ... after realizing the pumpkin was just not going to work .. we moved to the leaves and got ONE, yes ... ONE picture where they are all looking!

and the funny thing is that i have a feeling the only reason that we got this picture is because the older 2 have masks on :)

maybe this is the solution for family pictures -- we need to start wearing masks!

earplugs anyone?

i never thought i would say this. but drew and ben were very quiet toddlers.

it's official.

alex is a screamer.

it doesn't matter where. it doesn't matter when. when he isn't happy, or sometimes just when he feels like it - he screams.

any suggestions?

until then i am looking into the cost of soundproof glass between the front and back halves of the car.

all i have to say today is ...

thank God for dum dum suckers.

 

heads up!

according to drew - his muscles are shrinking!

why, you ask??

because his phy ed teacher makes them put their hands on their hips for certain exercises. so if while exercising you put your hands on your hips for any reason - be warned! your muscles may be shrinking!

BEEP!

now why in the world would a builder put a smoke alarm in the middle of the ceiling of a vaulted area.
it could've been moved 3 feet to make it easier to change the batteries ... but ... NOPE! smack dab in the middle of it all.
i know - you probably couldn't care less about our smoke alarm placement.
well, the other night at midnight that horribly placed smoke alarm started beeping because the backup battery was running low. the way our smoke alarms work - if you don't change the battery ... the beep gets more frequent, and more frequent, and more frequent. so, if we didn't do something about it at midnight it would've driven us absolutely crazy by about 3 am.
naturally, we decided we needed to change the battery.
HOWEVER ... we don't have a ladder that reaches that high. AND neither stacey, nor i, is blessed with height.
SO we had to get creative.

 

this made me quite nervous. but apparently, my grandparent's old table is stronger than i thought!
AND ... the beeping was put to rest for another year or so :)
WHEW!

now that's style

while getting ready for church, i sent ben in to pick out an outfit and get dressed.
now, sometimes his outfits are ok. sometimes they need a little work - but that's ok because that's how they learn.
this outfit, however, deserved it's own blog entry. it is definitely in a class of it's own :)
not only does he have a very random pairing - notice what a nice job of buttoning his shirt he did - notice part of the front of the shirt is actually behind his head :)
together we decided that maybe a different outfit would work better.
BUT it doesn't end there. i went to help him pick something that I THOUGHT might look a little better.
and it took us 4 shirts to get to one that wasn't "SO NOT COOL".
apparently i need some work when it comes to 4 year old fashion and style.

 

 

a day at the orchard

while at the orchard today i was reminded of a few things - and i happened to catch them with the camera --

*when you have no teeth in the front it is really hard to eat an apple whole
*one year olds can be happy one minute and sad the next
*going to the orchard after it rains for a week can result in a corn maze that is a bit muddy - and very appealing to a one year old

and finally ... the most important ...
*i have given up all hope on ever getting a picture (that i am satisfied with) where stacey and i AND all 3 kids are looking (and not crying) - with all eyes open :)

who needs toys ...

... when you have a pair of your brother's underwear to keep you busy :)
i should add ... CLEAN underwear :)

a day off

the weekend started today for drew. SO since it was his first REAL vacation from school this year i decided i wanted to do something really fun for him. it's been hard on him hearing about all of the fun things ben gets to do, while he has to be in school. so today was his turn!! we decided to meet his friend kayla, her mom, and sister, Ashley at the mall of america for some ride fun! they had a blast!!

AND ...on a side note ... alex even went on the truck ride for the first time!!

cupcakes for a cause

because i love cupcakes ...

and because i like to help people out ...

go create a cupcake and send it to a friend on Cupcakes for a Cause.

for each cupcake that is decorated and sent, $1 will be donated to CancerCare for Kids :)

send me the links to your cupcakes too so that i can see your incredible artistic abilities :) te he he :)

AND ... if you feel an incredible desire to make the real thing ... i can give you my address :)

changing of the bunks??

for the past 3 years drew and ben have been sleeping on these bunk beds.
although there have been a few nights where they have both ended up on top - or both on bottom -
MOST nights have been the same - drew on top and ben on the bottom.

WELL ... that may be changing. for the second night in a row, they decided to swap :)

now we have ben on top. and, drew is on the bottom.

ben was wanting something different.

and drew, being 6 and all, well ... his body has been having a hard time sleeping. well ... actually ... his body sleeps. but his brain isn't getting enough sleep. and his hand bones aren't getting enough sleep. (that's why his writing is sloppy sometimes .. te he he). so we thought maybe if he tried sleeping on the bottom bunk ... his WHOLE body would sleep (*wink wink*)

so far so good.

stay tuned.

a day in the life of a first grader

just in case you don't have a first grader - and are unaware of how some days it is SO ROUGH and HORRIBLE to be 6 -- i would like to give you a glimpse into drew's day today.

"mom, do you want to know why today was SO bad?"

"why drew"

"because when i was walking down the hall we saw mrs. lewis's class. and there are so many kids in there that know me. and they all said hi to me. and i had to say hi back. and it just made my voice so stretched out and tired."

THAT, my friends, is why it is so hard to be 6.

happy anniversary!

stacey ...

3 kids and 7 years later i can honestly say ... wow, what a ride.

a ride that i can't imagine being on with anyone else.

you keep me going on days when having 3 kids seems like a really crazy idea.

you are my best friend.

i love you.

happy anniversary.

thirsty?

thanks to our friends over at feel fun kids, alex has fallen in love with these nalgene "sippy" cups.

HOWEVER ... this is not your ordinary sippy cup.

tonight while cleaning up from dinner i turned on the garbage disposal. immediately i heard that familiar "something fell down here that shouldn't have" noise. i thought nothing of it and let it go, figuring it was just a piece of chicken. after a minute or so, the noise was not getting any better so stacey came to the rescue. (he's willing to sink dive - and i'm not :))

lo and behold ... he pulled out the little rubber piece that makes these cups spill proof. AND GET THIS ... after almost a minute in our garbage disposal that little piece was not even knicked!!

i've always heard that nalgene cups are indestructable - that you can run them over with a car and they won't crack. tonight i am certain this is true! i have ruined metal spoons ... plastic kiddy spoons ... you name it ... down that garbage disposal. but alex's beloved sippy cup valve held strong.

this cup gets 5 stars from this crazy's house - it is worth every penny!!!
(AND ... LUCKY FOR YOU ... if you head over to FFK to find them, elizabeth says to enter the code SALE10 to get 10% off ... and remember ... they come in pink too :))

BOOM

no time to blog tonight -

i'm too busy playing a very highly addictive game that you HAVE to try

BOOMSHINE

leave your scores in comments :) let's get a little competition going :)

winner gets .... 5 high school musical bandaids ;)

ha ha :)

bugaboo love

over the past 7 years my knowledge when it comes to strollers has grown exponentially.
throughout these years we have bought 6 different strollers - everything from your 15 dollar travel stroller to the massive limo sized double stroller.
by doing this i have come to realize a few things:

*there are MANY different strollers out there.
*not every stroller performs the same.
*weight and size of the stroller DO matter.
*i don't really care if it has a cupholder "built in"
*if you hit a bump and your stroller has little wheels - your child can fall out :)
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
*it's worth it to spend the extra dime.

had i known (and believed) this last point 7 years ago i may not have the collection of strollers that i do:)
AND ...i could have used the money that we spent on our previously mentioned collection of strollers to buy the stroller that today i really wish i had!
7 years ago, spending $700-900 on a stroller seemed absolutely absurd! yes, i pushed the stroller around and it was very cool - but coolness still did not warrant dropping $800.
however, as time has passed, i have spent more money, we have added to our collection, and the bugaboo strollers have grown increasingly desireable.
a few weeks ago i finally came to the realization that i really wish that i had a bugaboo stroller to call my own :)
while in NYC, elizabeth and i noticed that EVERYONE in NYC seemed to have these strollers. EVERYWHERE you looked you saw a bugaboo coming at you. so many colors. so many variations. all bugaboos.
it really made me wish that i had spent our money on one to begin with!
(it also made me wish that alex was going to be needing a stroller for a while longer so that i could justify it!)
not only are they so cute! they are SO functional! they collapse small. they weigh absolutely nothing. they manuever easily. and they have some of the coolest attachments -a bassinet for when your baby is teeny and a boogie board for a toddler to hop on and ride along!

it's pretty sad when ... every other aspect of life tells me i am SO content with having 3 kids and not wanting more.
but ... when i look at a bugaboo stroller i think ...
hmmm...
maybe we should have 1 more ... JUST so i have a reason to buy a new stroller :)

in a perfect world ...

... the waist of my pants is the same size as my head too :)

soccer boys

tonight instead of drew's soccer practice they played a game of parents against kids.

and .. you guessed it ..

THE KIDS WON!!!

ben was super excited because they let him play. AND he scored 2 goals :) drew was so proud of him and is sure that without ben the kids team would have lost :) te he he :)

how quickly i forget!

drew can read. EVERYTHING!
AND
drew asks questions. about EVERYTHING.
so tonight he was looking at the halloween costume catalog that came with the newspaper.
it never even crossed my mind that some of the costume names were a bit "over the top" :)
drew, on the other hand, was utilizing his excellent first grade reading skills and caught right on.

"mom, do you know who naughty and nice girl is?"

challenge to love

ok .. i know i'm not typically the "preachy" type :) in fact i rarely get too deep on here :) but today at church we started a new series and i thought it was really good. so bear with me for 2 seconds :)

the message was about sterotypes and christianity and breaking those stereotypes down.

bob talked about how it's important to be just ... BUT that love trumps justice. and how we need to remember that God will even the score - that's not our job. not that we need to agree with everybody that we see. but that we need to be tolerant of them. we need to make judgements without being judgmental.

he showed a clip of some interviews done on the UCSC campus. when asked what people thought of Jesus and Christianity - over and over again people responded that Jesus's teachings were great and that he was a very noble man. but that christianity is no longer what it used to be. they quoted ghandi saying - "i like your christ. i do not like your christians. your christians are so unlike your christ"

he also shared that only 16% of non-christians in the 17-30 age category have a favorable view of Christianity.

it's sad to think that there are things that i do and things that i say that could turn people off in that way!

i left feeling challenged to try to change that. to be someone that doesn't just jump to judge - but that stops and shows love first. (or at least tries)

that's my goal :)

if you have a second - go listen to the message from this weekend on eaglebrooks site. it was a good reminder of how the little things we do in a day can make a really big difference!

another GOALLLLL!

 

well.. it's drew's turn. today he got a goal :) WOO HOO!!

i thought it would be fun to show a picture of him when he was first starting soccer.

yep, he's be the one shoving the ball up his shirt :)

he's always been the one taking the game too serious :)

ANYWAY ... NICE GAME DREW!!

more disney happiness

i didn't take this -- it's off of youtube. but i think it's hilarious so i had to share :)

it makes me miss disney even more :)

it also reminds me how obnoxious some people get around the characters. they forget they are just people in a costume. although it doesn't show what happened - i have a feeling this kid deserved more than just getting chased by pluto. AND .. i wish pluto could've gotten up and just knocked that mom out!

GO PLUTO!

almost there

well ... he almost has the feeding himself thing down :) ha ha.

goodbye summer nights

summer is quickly coming to an end.

of course there are the obvious signs -
the sun sets sooner.
it's a bit cooler at night.
the grass is overgrown because mowing grew old about a month ago.

but the number one way i can tell?? my backyard empties out about two hours earlier than it did a month ago! :)

tonight there were 8 kids over playing for a while. star wars was the game of choice and even our littlest jedi grabbed a light saber and did his best at fighting in true jedi form:) as i watched them i just sat back and smiled. when i watch how gentle the older boys are with him, i am so thankful that my kids have each other. i'm thankful that every day they are faced with relationship challenges that they can learn from and apply to other parts of their lives :)

as i sat longer and watched the light saber fights that were going on, i also realized that as crazy as they all get sometimes (ok often) - there is something very special about the relationship between 3 boys. and as outnumbered as i may be i am SO in love with each one of them and the way that they love each other that i cannot imagine life any other way!

noises and the english language

lately, drew and ben have been waking up in the middle of the night complaining of different noises that they hear.
storms .... the wind .... motorcycles driving around our backyard (????) :)
so ... i decided that maybe a white noise generator like we have for alex would help them sleep better.
i mentioned to drew that i would get him a white noise machine like alex's.
i forgot to get one today at target so i thought i'd just stick this little blue fan that we have in there for tonight.
before bed stacey went to go get it for them.
drew asked why we were using a fan in there.
stacey told him that it was a white noise maker.
drew looked so confused and said "no it's not. it's a blue noise maker."

who came up with the term "white noise."
seriously.

wishes

this is the time of year that we typically head down to disney.
but, because of our upcoming hawaii trip we decided to hold off on this fall's trip.
from a financial standpoint it makes sense.
and ... well ... we don't want disney to lose it's magic with our kids.

but for today ... i'm wishing we were there :)

i'm needing the walk down main street late at night.
i'm needing to feel that cool air blast that you feel when stepping back into the beach club after a long day in the sun.
i'm needing the sounds and smells of the monorail.
i'm needing a ride on buzz lightyear!!
i'm needing the relaxed, yet invigorated feeling that i feel the minute we arrive on disney property.

suddenly i'm thinking that training for the disney marathon is sounding like a good idea just so i have an excuse to get back there sooner rather than later :)