Limburger Cheese

The past few times Annie has been in town, there has been some talk between her and Don about trying Limburger cheese. For one reason or another, it never came to fruition, so this time Annie packed some on her carry on as a "present" to Don.

Don opened his beer, took a swig and started unwrapping the cheese. Annie gagged as she caught a whiff across the room -even before Don had the package completely opened. I thought she was nuts since I have super smelling abilities and still couldn't smell it, so I walked up and took a whiff close up. BIG MISTAKE! The cheese smells like dirty sweaty socks. Blech.

Despite mine and Annie's reactions, Don did the happy dance you see above and cut himself a slice. Luke woke up crying in his room and I was up to my elbows in washing dishes at the sink, so I asked Don to run and get him. Well, after all that build up about taking a bite, Don wasn't going to let it go, so he took a bite and ran up the stairs.

He didn't even make it up half the stairs before turning around and running back to the sink. Noisily, he spit the cheese out and began gagging. Being the gentleman he is, he had the decency to run the water and garbage disposal so we wouldn't get grossed out hearing him get sick. No chance of that though, because at that point we were laughing so loud I doubt we would have heard him anyhow. Annie went up to save Lucas while I dried my hands to follow her.

For a good hour afterwards, you could hear giggles from Annie, having flash backs to the incident. Don took the cheese to work the next day, wanting to be sure it was disposed properly and never to be seen (or smelt) again.

Go Climb that Mountain!

Recently my cousin Annie came out to visit us. She is a single, hip girl, so it surprises us when she chooses to spend her hard earned vacation time with us, but it definitely thrills us as well.

This is Annie's 3rd visit in the past year to see us. Once was with her sister Katie last year, but somehow Jaxon gets her name mixed up and calls her "Katie". When we tell him her name is Annie, he looks at us as if to say like why are you trying to pull one over on me? .

While Annie was here, we decided we had a great kid to adult ratio and it was time to tackle mountain climbing. It was a nice cool day with a little breeze, so everything seemed perfect. It stayed that way until 15 minutes into it, we were at the half way point and the breeze had turned into something strong enough that we didn't want to let go of the kids hands while we were close to the mountains edge. Once we got to the top, the kids had frozen snot coming out of their nose and their hands were definitely chilled to the touch.

After they played around at the top and we read all the neat signs about the mountains around us, Jax cuddled up to me and said he wanted to go home. So back down we went, baby step by baby step down the steep hillside. The boys were so tuckered out, they didn't even ask to play at the playground we passed on the way to the car.

It was hard work, but the reward of getting them to go to bed on time was worth the pain our legs had the next day.

Playground Fun

The boys are big kids now. It is to the point of where I have to remind them to watch out for little babies when we go to the playground. I used to hold my breath and wait for other moms to remind their kids about our babies.

When Don makes it to the playground with us, there is not much rest for him. Cries of "Daddy, come get me!" come from every corner of the playground structure.


When Lucas saw Jaxon climbing up on the side of the slide, he exclaimed, "Ho-ey mo-yee Jax!" And then when Jaxon saw me download this picture, he said "Lukey say hoey-a-mowee at me".


Wyatt is finally braving the red rope climber. He freaks out when anyone shakes it, but one step at a time.


Here is Lucas with a bog smile on his face. He is so proud of himself for climbing up the curvy slide before anyone else got in line to go down.

Oreo

Don just got home from the grocery store and had a box of Oreos. The boys were dancing around, asking for cookies. After denying he had cookies, Lucas pointed to the Oreo box.

Don: "How do you know those are cookies?"

Lucas: "It say so right there!
O-R-E-O... cookies!"

My Little Lucas

There are so many things that make you uniquely you.

Your voice makes me laugh. It is so big and deep for a little boy and it has so many inflections when you talk. Your new favorite phrase seems to be, "ho-ey mo-yee!" (holy moley) and you make it sound like it has 8 syllables. Everything you say makes me laugh, just from the sheer ridiculousness that it is a 3 year old talking in 6 year old personality.

You are the little mommy of the group. If someone spills their water and gets distressed, you tell them it is okay. If they are hurt- you run up and tell them to let you see. You love telling us, "I have idea" when there is a certain way you want things to happen. You are the best behaved child ever. There is no straight defiance from you, but you make sure everyone is on a level playing field. If you want yogurt and I tell you there is none, you ask to see for yourself. You are a smart cookie.


Recently you have been brave enough to slide down the fireman pole at the playground. You won't do it yourself yet, but oh- how I wish I had a camera to capture your smile the first time you decided to give it a try. You love to jump from the high snake head at the sand pit area, and laugh at the shocked faces of people worried you will get hurt.

You are such a hard-to-pin-down boy. You resist lovins', but when I finally wrangle you over, you giggle the sweetest giggle once my lips touch your neck. On the rare occasion you want to cuddle, it is always with your Momma. If you are sick, to Mommy you run. But if you see your Daddy in a position you even think is compromising, you are attracted to him like a magnet. You like to sneak up on him and jump on his back and then giggle so loud when he plays along with you. He makes your eyes light up like no one else can.

Your little hands and feet are not so little. We call them your paws because they show us what a big man you will be when you grow up. They are always so warm, too. I can't think of a time I have touched your hands and they felt cold to me.

You are sometimes afraid of trying new things, but when you decide to tackle them, you do it with full intent to conquer. I know how hard it is for you to put yourself out there and try; and sometimes I try to push you a bit out of your comfort zone, but you always amaze me with how well you do things that you think you can't yet do.

You are so kind to everyone. Just the other night you guys picked out your clothes for the next day and Wyatt wanted the shirt you already had chosen. So you switched with him -without being asked to. You do things like that all the time. You give people room around you and never assume everything for yourself like most everyone does at that age, and even much older.

Your sense of humor is so off. We never know what will make you laugh, and so we are delighted to hear laughter explode out of your mouth at the silliest things.

Lately you have not been feeling so well. I am thinking it is the three rounds of antibiotics you had from your ear infection. It has been over a couple months, but you are just not yourself yet and it is beginning to worry us.

We love you so much and are so proud of you, little Lukey. You are the unexpected rainbow in our lives and I am so proud to be your Momma.

He's not afraid

Jaxon is a brave little guy. Beside bugs and car washes -he has little in this world to be afraid of. Driving through the airport tunnel? He yells with glee about "ghosts in the tunnel guys!". Climbing to the top of the red rope pyramid at the playground? He has been doing that for over a year! When he spots a big dog, he just asks to pet it.

So why was I surprised tonight at bed time when he told me he is not afraid of something new?

He is so very brave after all. Except for gnats, right Annie?

As I was rushing them to go potty one last time before getting under the covers tonight, Jax came around the corner into their room and looked at me. "I not 'fraid of you" he announced. Not quite sure of what he had just said, he had to repeat it a few times until I repeated it and asked him if that is what he said.

He said it once again and then raising his eyebrows a little and shaking his head to the side, he looked me right in the eye and matter-of-factly added, "I not 'fraid!".

Yeah. We'll see how that goes tomorrow when I get my game face on.

Valentines Day Wreath

Around Christmas time I began to notice all these cute crafts people in blog land were creating. Loving what I saw, a plan was made. After what seemed like forever, the boys finally had school again and allowed me to visit Joann's in peace.

Wednesday night I took my new fabric and rotary cutter and chopped my fabric into 2 inch squares. Luke wanted to help, but eventually he was happy that I was just allowing him in the room. Until he quickly ran out the door once the ice cream truck's tinkling song faintly was heard all the way upstairs.

After a few hours of gluing and stabbing a foam heart, my wreath was like-able. Add to it a ribbon bow and a suction cup to attach it to my door, and I was beginning to feeling the love.

Here is the link to the tutorial.

True Love

A New Project

As if we didn't have enough on our plates with family drama, the kids in town and Wyatt's surgeries, Don and I decided to tackle our entertainment center. It has been on the "to do" list for years, but it was livable painted brown and just fading into the wall. When Christmas rolled by with new toys to store, it just seemed like a better solution to build up the entertainment center from the drawers he and my dad built when we first moved in.

Before:


Notice the ingenious plexiglass frame to keep little hands off the tv and away from the dvd and stereo buttons. All the electronics were just stacked on top of each other.


During:















After:
We have shelves to put all the electronics up. Don's game shelf holds his Wii and PlayStation as well as a basket for all the controllers and other pieces. Even the Wii fit board slides all the way back in it! I organized all the discs into separate organizers for movies and games. No more big, bulky, plastic games or dvd movie cases.

The tv is secured with a black ratchet strap around the top, so it is impossible for the boys to move or tip it. The bottom area holds more of the kids' books and a basket for some of their new games. We originally were going to put a door there, but have decided it would just get in the way. However, I would like to embellish the baskets -but am working on ideas for it.



I think my favorite part is the light Don has going around the top. He did most of this in just a matter of days, rarely having to recut any pieces. I think all the wires took the bulk of the time up, but everything works wonderfully. To quote Jax, "It looks be-u-tiful!".
Good job, honey!

Digi Scrapping

I decided to post the layouts I do. Enjoy!

December 25, 2008

On Christmas morning the boys and I woke up a bit later and after eating breakfast and playing a bit with their new toys, we went over to Nana's.

At my parent's house, we have a card giving tradition. Probably 10 years back my Dad put Christmas cards in the tree for us- my sister, myself and my mom. We would receive these beautiful Christmas cards that he picked out -they meant much to us- knowing he chose just the right one. The tradition has evolved and Leigha and I now also give the cards to my parents, as well as each other. We all put our cards on the tree as we fill them out and they sit on the tree until Christmas morning, where -in probably the only silent moment of the whole day -we all sit and soak in the words written in the cards.

This year the boys got their first cards. Too young to understand, of course. But wow, how wonderful that this is a meaningful tradition we can pass down the line.


Then it was time for opening gifts! A big hit was the Doctor set Auntie Leigha got the boys. All three wanted to be Drs, not a patient in sight. So, Pops was a good sport and acted as the patient for them. Shots to be given, band aids to be applied, and blood pressure had to be checked -all at the same time!





After the presents were opened and loved on, we decided to kill time while waiting for Don to get off of work. Play doh was the obvious answer. The kids loved all the colors of dough and the new toys that cut it up and sliced it out. Me, on the other hand, I am not a big fan. It was not so much the annoyance of all the swirled colors, but the mess! Goodness, the mess. The boys loved it all though and even helped clean it up in the end- just in time for Daddy to come join us!

For the rest of the night we just had great family time. Grandma and Poppa (Don's parents) were here in town to have a family Christmas and the boys had such a fun night playing with them on the activity center Aunt Leigha had given them for Christmas.

We can also thank Aunt Leigha for this picture. Without all of us sitting and playing foosball at once, we would have passed through an entire Christmas holiday without a single picture of the five of us.


Finally the night had settled down as we all sat in the living room and took turns playing Dad's new game of Ms Pac-Man. A memorable Christmas for all, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Wii have been busy

Besides Wyatt's tonsil/adenoid/ear tubes surgery, why has it taken me weeks to get Christmas posted? One of a few reasons -blame it on the Wii! Even though we have had the Wii for a while, we got a couple new games that all five of us have been enjoying.

First off, the boys (ahem) got Outdoor Adventure for Christmas. It comes with a mat that can be walked or run on, -even jumped on. The boys like to play the log game where they can run up to then jump over the log. They are all pretty good at it, but it is pretty funny to see them do it.

As if we weren't having enough fun on the Wii, Don went and got us the Wii Fit! The boys love doing all the balance games and we can even talk them into doing yoga exercises. My personal favorite is one I just discovered the other day. It is the running exercise. You just run in place, holding the Wii remote and it takes your Mii through the trail. Or in our house, I give Jax the remote and watch all three of them run themselves silly. They love it, it gets out their energy, and I get to sit back and watch.


See, it is a win-win for all!

Christmas Eve 2008 part 2

On Christmas Eve, I awoke to Wyatt lying in bed next to me. He whispered, "Mama, Santa was here!". Still tired from the late night before, I told him it was still sleepy time and we both went back to sleep. Soon the three of us were joined by the other two and we all got ready to go downstairs and open our stockings. The boys were a bit unsure of what they would find at the bottom of the stairs, but went right for the stockings to see what Santa had left for them.

The boys were thrilled to get the particular Thomas trains they asked for. They also got a huge string of licorice, crazy straws, doodle pads, play dough, and a few other items inside. The big gift Santa left the kids, was their workbench. It has a working drill, lots of screws and nails, and a little car that they can screw the wheels on. Plenty for all three to do at the same time, thank goodness!



We stopped opening presents long enough for the seven of us to go out for breakfast. Once we got back home, it was time to get back to the presents! They had fun opening even more Thomas trains and Hungry Hippos was a huge hit, too. Puzzles, a doctor kit and a few fun computer like games rounded out their new stash.

After a few hours of playing, we all went to my parents house to have a big family get together. The boys ran around the house with little Reagan and there was lots of yummy food and Don's famous homemade oreo cheesecake. The night was rounded out with a (not so) serious poker game in the dining room.

The day was wonderful and full of lots of fun. It was really nice having so much family around -both sets of parents, lots of cousins, aunts and uncles. Lucky for the kids, they would do Christmas again the next day at Nana and Pops house. What more could a kid ask for?

Christmas Eve Eve 08

Don's work runs 6 days a week. Sundays are sacred and no trucks run that day, but any and all holidays that don't fall on Sunday, are still work days. Last year Don worked Christmas (the tips are plentiful at Christmas time) and even though I was thankful for the money, the holiday just didn't seem the same without him. This year he decided he would rather miss his Wednesday route than his Thursday route and we celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve. We figure the kids are little and they won't know the difference, and it still gave us a family day to celebrate on.


So on December 23rd, we opened a few presents mailed from family out of state and then hung the boys Christmas stockings up on our toy cabinet since we are without a fireplace. The boys were excited and ready for Santa to come, so we quickly brought the boys upstairs to go to bed. Don told his Mom to jingle a big bunch of bells when he gave her a signal and told the boys that when they hear the bells ring, it is Santa here with his sleigh. Well Vicky gave the bells a good jingle and all the boys got super still and silent -as if they were sleeping. They Wyatt popped up his head and started crying out, "no thank you, no, thank you!" He was scared, I think from a talking to he got earlier in the day regarding opening the door without Mom or Dad around. I told him that some people were not safe, and we needed to keep the door closed. Well, I think he put the scary people in the same category as Santa and got really scared of the ides of Santa in our house.

Here is a video of their before bed excitement.


Soon we got him settled down and all three went right to sleep. I started putting their tool workshop together and Don went with his Mom to do some last minute shopping. They were on the hunt for all things Thomas. After a few hours of wrapping presents, we all went to bed and got ready for the boys reactions in the morning.

Time Warp

Back track to 2008
Some how time has flown by me the past month and I have fallen way behind on my blog. I downloaded all my pictures (took me a half hour!) and can’t believe all this has passed me by, so I am going to dedicate the next few entries to catching back up. Bear with me please :)

Wyatt- Post Op

After Wyatt had surgery on Wednesday, he slept a majority of the day away. He would wake for a few minutes here and there, but the anaesthesia really knocked him out for the most part. At about 7pm he started to come around, only to fall back asleep for the night around 10:30pm.

Then yesterday he started the day out with a whole cup of yogurt, followed by some scrambled eggs for lunch. We were surprised he ate so much, but thrilled he seemed to be do better than expected. Slowly during the day he started to decline. It became obvious he was very uncomfortable and he just looked so sad.

Last night was hellish. Wyatt (he is sleeping in our room while he recovers) woke at least once an hour all night long. He now wants nothing to do with his medicine, telling us it is "yucky". When I tried to get him to eat some food to put in his belly before he got his medicine, he gagged it up and ended up spitting it out on me, which in turn made him cry.

About 3am, I decided to try some tylenol instead of the "yucky" heavy duty liquid Lortab. Wyatt took it after a bit of coaxing, but it did little to relieve his pain,as he has been waking at least every 20 ins since then crying for water.

I woke up about 7:30 to a quiet house, jumped in the shower and when I came out, Wyatt was sleeping on the floor outside of the master bathroom door. He has been sleeping since (it is 9:15 now) and I am so thankful he can get some uninterrupted sleep. I know this surgery was the best thing for him, but it has been so hard to watch him be in so much pain for such a long stretch of time.

Hopefully, today will go better and he will not fight the pain medication so much. This is not easy for any of us.