Lots of Pictures

This is Corban at the Pirates game that we went to while Kim was visiting. I don't know where he learned to stick out his tongue and I don't know how his hats always get turned sideways, but it makes me smile.

I know it's kind of hard to see, but this is the boys running the bases after the game. I don't have any pictures of the rest of us at the game, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Most of you saw Kim's pictures on FB and you know that it rained on us. Twice. It was actually a pretty decent day for a game, and the boys behaved pretty decently, so it was a good day all the way around. After the game we ate dinner at a local restaurant downtown and sat outside. Caden was sitting on my lap and I thought he had spilled some water because I felt dome splash on my leg. I looked up and he hadn't and Kim and Johnny started laughing because they realized a bird had pooped and it had landed directly in my water glass and that's why the water splashed out on me. I was so thankful that it hadn't landed on me or the boys!

Me and Johnny on Mt. Washington while we were sightseeing with Kim. I only have one picture of her from the whole time she was here and I'm not gonna post it because it honestly just came out weird. I am a HORRIBLE picture taker and never really think to do it much, unless it's of the boys. And all of them are on my phone. We had fun with Kim while she was here and the boys asked about her for weeks after she left. We drug her around and did some touristy things and she came with us to an amusement park that is really geared toward smaller kids. We hadn't gone before. The boys had a great time, but Johnny and I are both feeling our age because the first ride we rode made us both sick to our stomachs for the rest of the day!

We went camping and I got the boys a plastic bow and arrows from the dollar store. Corban LOVED it. This is him "hunting" squirrel. Our camping trip was OK, but it rained some and it was pretty cold. It had been 95 over the weekend and we went on Sunday, by Monday it was 65. Both of our camping trips were pretty cool and rainy. After last year's travesty of a vacation where it rained and was horrible weather the whole time we were at the beach I think I'm giving up on vacationing for a while.

Found this picture in a drawer and it just made me giggle a little bit.

This was Caden's first day of pre-school. Ge a load of that bookbag, it's almost as big as him! I got those at Wal-Mart for $3 and had their names embroidered on them. Can't beat that!

Corban's first day of pre-school this year. He's gotten so big and grown up! He turned 4 1/2 in September and it's like a switch was flipped on his behavior. He has been so good lately! His teacher has nothing but good things to say and he's just doing great for us. Makes me think that there's hope for Caden! I can't believe Corban is going to be going to kindergarten next year. It already makes me sick to my stomach. I didn't think I would be one of "those" mothers who didn't want their kids to go to school, but I totally am.

Me and my baby. These pictures got out of order. No, I wouldn't normally wear a sleeveless shirt to pre-school, but it was red day and it was the only red shirt I had. Didn't notice until seeing this picture on here how big my arms look. Well, have a wonderful weekend!

Where has the summer gone?

OK, I still don't have pictures and I know that's beyond boring, but that's just how I'm rollin' these days. We've been busy and I feel like the summer has just slipped by. I'm crazy excited about this weekend and next week though, because Kim is coming to visit! We've got big plans for her visit. A Pirates (or Reds) game, depends on how you're looking at it! Then we're planning to do an amusement park around here and a few other fun things in Pittsburgh. This is the first time that the boys are old enough to do stuff that we've had company, so we're all looking forward to entertaining Kim for a while! Then Mom and Dad are coming up the day after Kim leaves, they haven't been here since March. After that we've got a camping trip planned and then the boys start school the Monday after Labor Day. We've got Caden signed up for pre-school, but I'm not sure if he's going to stay with it or now. I think he's just a little too young, he just turned 3 the end of July and it's a 3 year old program. We'll see how he does, but I have a feeling that we'll even be holding him out of Kindergarten for a year anyway.

I'll try to post after Kim's visit... maybe I'll even actually take some pictures!

I know I should update

I know I should update this, and I've tried a few times from my iphone, but can't get it to work. Any ideas Sherry? Anyway, we've been busy. I don't even remember all of the stuff that's going on. This week though, Johnny just took the boys to his parent's house today. He's going to leave them there and go back to pick them up on Saturday. I have big plans for this week. I'm going to clean my house from top to bottom, go through all of Caden's clothes, and get stuff ready for a yard sale. THEN, I'm going to relax! I don't have big plans for that portion of my time, but I'll see what I can do! Johnny and I are also planning to go out to dinner a few times and watch a couple of movies. I love my boys, but I'm looking forward to this week!

Mother's Day Suprise

So I was going to upload the video of me surprising Mom at Salem's Mother/Daughter Banquet, but my computer isn't working and I'm using the church's and I don't want to hook my iphone up to their computer. And let me be honest here, the cord if upstairs and I'm no about ready to get up, walk up the stairs, unplug the cord, and come back down here. Especially when of the five you you who read this blog, two were at the banquet (actually taking the video), and the other three of you saw it on Facebook, I'm not too worried about it.

Anyway, I had a great trip to Kentucky! Friday I drove down to Lexington and Kerry hosted me and the boys! She cooked us a yummy dinner and Sherry came over with Carter and Max. All four boys had a great time playing. This was the first time I had really been around Max and all, and he is such a cutie!

Saturday morning we (Kerry and I) dropped the boys off with my Dad and headed out to Salem. It was a whole ordeal, but the surprise came off really well. In fact, Mom was just saying to Lynn that she thought I might come down and surprise her, but that wasn't going to happen. Then she walked up front and talked to Angela (who I was sitting right beside) for a few minutes before she even noticed that it was me sitting there.

We had a good visit with everyone. We got to go out and see Mammaw, dinner with Tim, Laura, and the kids. Mom and I had Grace and Holden on Tuesday AND I got to have lunch with Sherry! I even got to go out to Cato, even though I didn't get anything. The boys both traveled really well and we even stopped to see Alicia on our way home!

Corban's last day of school (preschool) was today. I can't believe I'm already saying that about my firstborn! Next year they will both be in preschool at the Y, so I'll be going every day. I'm not really looking forward to that, but I honestly probably get out about every day anyway and maybe this way I'll be a little more dedicated to working out. I want to say that this means it's summer, but that's just a joke right now. I am so tired of the cold and rain. I'm even more tired of the boys being stuck inside all day every day. They NEED to get out and play, I need to only have to dress them in shorts, t-shirt, and sandals.

I have no way to wrap this up other than to say I was going to try to get my house put back together today since I have Tanner tomorrow and no clean clothes in the house and a Thirty One show tomorrow night, and Tanner four days next week (that's going to be rough on me, I'm not gonna lie). That being said, I'm going to clean and do laundry until I need to go pick Nina up.

Easter and Birthday

So this is the the only picture I got of the boys on Easter. We snapped it as soon as we came home from church. I took video of them with their Easter baskets, but the camera was dead, so no stills. I was kind of in the same shape as Sherry, I should take pictures before church, but Johnny's always already AT church, so that's hard to do. Anyway, if you wonder what we looked like, find a picture of us last Easter because we all 4 wore the same thing! If I'm really good, Caden can wear Corban's vest another two years and I just need to get Corban a new coordinating one!

Seriously, we had a wonderful Easter. Johnny's sermon was great, the boys sat with me during sunrise service. That alone thrilled me! The fact that they can actually sit through a sermon and behave halfway decent just made my day! Of course, they were tired, but it still counts! We didn't go anywhere for dinner, we cooked a nice lunch here with just the four of us and then took the boys to see "African Cats" at the theater after naptime. It was just a wonderful day! This is what inevitably happens when the boys have are anywhere near each other! Notice Caden's wet pants. He had been helping Johnny clean the baptistry the day before and got away from us at church and was in the baptistry again... only this time it was full!

This was Caden's dessert plate. He literally licked it clean... he's his Mama's boy!

No pictures, but today is mine and Johnny's birthday. We didn't have plans, just church and home. I was going to fix shrimp alfredo, but Luke and Nadine invited us over for dinner, so we accepted! This weekend we're going to see "Phantom of the Opera" at the local high school and we're going to a new mexican restaurant we've not been to. Then next week we're going to a Japanese restuarant downtown and out to see the movie "Thor"

Our birthday is exactly between Easter and Mother's Day. Weird.

Random

If I don't beat my kids or have a nervous breakdown today, it will be a miracle! They're driving me crazy! And since Corban has given up the nap and is doing quite time, he's woken Caden up A LOT in the last few days, so by 5 or 6 they're both completely miserable to be around!

Tomorrow's agenda: keep Tanner, try to color Easter eggs, not go nuts on my kids.

A few times now Corban has said, "Daddy, you sing me lulla-goodbye?" as he's going to bed. Too cute! Of course he just said, "Mommy, I've got some snot and a boogie." Great.

Funny Things the Boys Have Said

OK, this is the third time I've tried to write this, and it's nothing but a list! A short one at that! * Corban has been eating really well lately and we've had coleslaw a few times in the last weeks. He loves it, and always calls it clo saw. * Caden always calls band-aids, dandaids. * Johnny to Caden: "You're welcome son." Caden to Johnny: "Me not son. Me Aiden!" * Corban to me: "Mommy, Caden said stupid!" Me: "I don't think he said that." Caden: "Oh yeah, me said stupid!" We had a bit of a rough day today, hoping for a better night's sleep and a better day tomorrow! Oh, and better weather would be nice too!

Can I just say that if the weather doesn't straighten up, I'm going to fall into a deep dark depression of which I will never be able to return? The days it's actually a little warmer, it's raining... or snowing... or hailing. The rest of the time it's just dang cold. I'm tired of it. Anybody got a house in Florida? Other than the weather, things are pretty much the same around here. The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy. Today Corban has school and I'm keeping Joshua for Craig and Di. He'll be here at 10, not sure when he's leaving. Then we have prayer group at church tonight. Tomorrow Johnny is going fishing and I've got Tanner, the 7 month old, all day long. Saturday I'm doing a trade show until early afternoon. Busy busy! Corban has pretty much given up the nap now. I know that he's 4 years old and it's time, but oh, it makes life hard. We've had to really work with him to stay in quiet time in his room while Caden is napping. I've got to have at least an hour in the day without kids! We bought him a little nerf dart gun that he can't have until he gets 10 stickers, one for each day he's a good boy in quiet time. That's helped, and so have the legos. He got a box of legos for his birthday and he's been LOVING them. I let him take them up into his bed and that keeps him pretty occupied. In fact, I went up to let him out of quiet time yesterday and played with him for a bit. When I had to come back down to get dinner in the oven he stayed up there for another 20 minutes or so! I can't believe how much of a big boy he is! Caden is as wild as ever. He's defiant and obstinant, but he's so sweet at cute at the same time! Potty training is NOT going well with him. He goes on the pott a lot, he just won't tell me when he needs to go. I guess I'm waiting until it gets warmer to do the naked training. He's got to be trained before fall or he can't go to school. I was just telling Corban to sit still and Caden says, "Mommy, you don't talk to my friend brudda nasty." Can you tell this boy has attitude?

Things That Bother Me

1. People who bring strollers, especially double strollers, into the Mr. Roger's Play area in the mall. There's a sign right there that says not to bring them in! It doesn't bother me so much if there's an infant in the stroller, in fact, I think I've done that when Caden was little. But when you just don't want to leave your stroller outside of the area (where you can see it the whole time), I get annoyed. When 5 or 6 people bring them in, there's no room for the kids to run around and play, which is you know, the whole point of a PLAY area. 2. Women who wear pajama pants as if they're real pants. They're not. 3. The kid who was hissing at all of the kids at the play area today. He's been there before when we were. 4. The father of the kid who was hissing. He sat in the corner on his phone the whole time, not paying attention to the fact that his kid was hissing at all the other kids. 5. Taxes. We've got to get ours done tomorrow, I'm worried.

Birthday Week

OK. These pictures got totally out of order, so I'll just talk about them in the order they appear. This is out new van. I know, I KNOW, I said I would never drive a van. That was before we were a one income family, hoping to have three kids, and realized how expensive an SUV would be that could deal with us all! I'm not in love with the body style of this thing, but I LOVE the inside and the extras we got!

This is just Caden being silly after he woke up from his nap. He's got such a temper, but he can also be so silly! My favorite thing that he's saying now is "Oh yeah you do!" He says it whenever things are going quite his way. Like the other day he asked for fruity snacks in the van, and I told him we didn't have any. He said, "Oh yeah you do have fruitys!" The inflection is just the most hilarious thing! Last Sunday we drove to Williamsport to surprise Johnny's parents for their 40th anniversary. They knew we were coming, but we dropped the kids off at Libby and Cameron's with babysitters and took his parents out to eat, just the six of us. We thought we had reservations someplace, but that fell through and we ended up going to Red Lobster. We had a great time and I think that they were really surprised and appreciated it.

Corban blowing out his candles at the party we had for him at Johnny's parents. He was such a good boy. He said "Thank You" after he opened each present, and when he was all done, he stood up, said thank you to everyone again, and then said, "I really appreciate everything. Now let's have cake!" Caden blew his candles out the first time, so we had to relight them and let him blow them out!

Corban got this get-up from PawPaw and Grammy. He's such a goof!

We just had a party for him here at our house last night. It was just my parents, Diana and Joshua, Nadine and baby Levi. I got a few videos, but my still camera's battery was dead and I just didn't get out my phone. He had a great time, and it was really low key and enjoyable for me (except for the pizza issue). He got several toys, but it is really surprising me how he's getting into the "playscape" toys. He got a spaceship Imaginext toy that he and Caden both played with for quite a while. He also got a "cramra" from Poppy and Nana that he's really enjoying. We've got a BUSY week ahead of us, and I don't know how I feel about it. I'm keeping Tanner two days this week, which I don't usually do. And I have to admit, keeping another baby is NOT as easy as I thought it would be. It's just dang hard.

Oh, the pizza issue. There's a place here that we really like to order from, it has more "gourmet" type pizzas and sandwiches. One time I was here with Christiana and Diana and the three boys and we ordered from there and it took them over an hour to deliver... and we had three screaming kids by that time. They didn't want to do anything to make it right, but I think that they finally comped the meal, or at least part of it. Last night we ordered from the same place and did it online. We called 20 minutes after it was supposed to be here and they said they had never gotten the order. They were taking our order over the phone I asked what they were going to do to make it right. After the guy got an attitude about it, and said something about the comped meal the other time, he said "You're killing me here," and offered to take a whopping $2.28 off our total. Seriously dude? When I said we weren't going to place our order there unless they made it right, he said, "You would have to pay full price if you got it someplace else." First of all, Maribeth would have died before she spoke to a customer like that. Secondly, what happened to the whole "pleasing people" idea in the service industry? Cracker Barrel managers would get upset with me when I didn't give the customer something free when they complained. So, I hung up the phone and we ordered from someplace else. I'm thinking about writing a letter.

Well, I think that's enough rambling for the day. Oh, except to say that our temps are going back down into the 30's this week and I am NOT happy about it!

Today has been crap. I've been reminded all day though that I praise Him and say that He is good when things are going my way and the outlook is bright and promising, but He is just as good when things are gray and it feels like everything is caving in around me. God is good. Period.

Oh, but it's gonna snow 3-5 (some forcasts are saying more) inches tonight and tomorrow. I wouldn't mind if He would take that goodness someplace else for a while!

I had a Thirty-One party at the house today. It's nice because I am sitting in a clean house, we got take out for dinner, and I've got company planned this week, so I'm a little ahead for that! Johnny took the boys to the zoo while I had the party, they were EXHAUSTED! Caden fell asleep on my lap before 8, and Corban went to bed not long after. In fact, Caden fell out of the bed a little while ago and I don't think he even really woke up - just whimpered a bit and went back to sleep! Johnny and I have watched a bit of TV, I got Sunday School and Church Nursery lessons together, and we're watching "The Karate Kid", the original.

I did take pictures the other day, but I'll spare you the details. Caden is potty training and I sent Johnny a picture as proof of his achievements! It's not going quite as easy as it did with Corban, but it's winter and that just makes it harder. He's improving though, and if I can keep him from getting confused with having to wear a diaper some, we'll be in good shape!

Corban is being such a big boy lately. We've been swimming a few times at the Y and he's not even using a "bubble" anymore. I can't believe that he's going to be 4 in just a few weeks! Well, I had better get to bed before too long, we've got a big day ahead of us... it's Super Bowl Sunday! Goooooo Steelers!

Groundhogs and sleep

I never knew how much I hated the snow until I had kids! I've never been a fan of the cold, but once we had kids it just makes things so much harder! The time it takes to get them out the door, and since we don't have a garage, the times I have to get after them just to get to the car is incredible! I long for summer days when we can throw on shorts, t-shirts, sandals, and head out the door! It's coming though, if Old Phil has anything to say about it!

On a better note, we're all sleeping better these days! The boys are going to bed with hardly a fuss at all. Best thing is, they've been sleeping all night too! They go down at about 9 and sleep until almost 7:30 every morning. I am so thankful for the sleep I've been getting lately.

I don't have any pictures, but hopefully I can take a few and get them posted soon! Oh, and it's SuperBowl Sunday coming up! I'm sure you're all cheering for the Steelers!

Christmas (Things I left out of the first post)

I just couldn't pass these pictures up. This one is after we had done Christmas presents here at our house with Mom and Dad on Wednesday. Both boys got pillow pets from Nana and Poppy and little magnadoodles from Nanny. They loved both! I don't know why Caden wanted to wear the ski cap to open presents, but it was cute!

This was their big gift from Santa. Corban came out, picked up the ball, and made a basket. Of course I don't have pictures of that!

Christmas and 2011

I had this long post about all of the things that we did over Christmas vacation, but I lost it. Honestly, it was boring anyway. We got to spend a few days in Williamsport with family before and after Christmas. We got together with both sides, and had lots of good alone family time too. This is Grammy and PawPaw with all the kids. I think that they were watching, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." Grammy had it and Corban LOVED it! The boys really enjoyed Christmas this year. Corban is really getting into it and Caden is just excited if Corban is! This is Corban with the foam sword and shield he got from Santa. Both boys got them and they are a favorite.

This is Caden with Santa, who made an appearance on Christmas Eve. He did fine with him, but you can tell he's a little confused.

Corban did GREAT with Santa. If I can figure out how to edit and upload the video, I will do that because it was just hilarious.

This picture just cracks me up because Corban took it all by himself. He was sitting on my lap taking pictures with my camera and a few of them came out pretty good, so I let him walk around with the camera for a bit and I found this one of Kenan later.

We stayed home for New Year's Eve and really enjoyed it. We watched "The Lion King" and went to bed before midnight. I woke up when the fireworks started going off though! I'm with Kim in that I don't care much for resolutions, but there are a few things I want to work on this year. 1) I want to be more deliberate about doing the things I do with excellence, even the things I don't like to do. 2) I want to be a more patient Mommy. It kills me when I lose it with them and while I know that I can't expect to not lose my patience with them at all, I can at least work on not coming completely unglued. 3) I know I had a third one, just can't think of it!