Bits and Pieces

Little bits of what is happening in our house.


ROXY


Roxy is still here, looking as cute as ever. Things are not as dreamy as I would like them to be (cough cough) -but they are looking up. Potty training is still a struggle, but much better since we got the doggie door in. We do seem to have one pee incident a day in the house. No rhyme or reason other than just trying to tick me off. :) She is very nippy -to the point of trying to keep children away from her, but I know it is largely due to the fact of she is living with three crazy little people in our house hold. It is getting better day by day, but it has been hard.




WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?


Here in Las Vegas we are in the season of spring. Along with the pretty spring weather, we have been making more trips out to the parks. The boys are really into baseball lately -not sure how or why- but it is nice we can finally get out all the baseball equipment we have been staring at in our garage for years and years. Even Don and I got into the groove, tossing the ball around at the park and wowing the boys with our "super far" throwing skills.




Although we are at the playground, Wyatt takes his food into consideration first and foremost. He is NOT going to put his pizza down. It is coming with him.




Don has been busy with the boys. He takes them for rides on their bikes. Sometimes to the store for a treat, and sometimes to the railroad track (you can see the Las Vegas strip in the background).


Recently the Touch-A-Truck event was in town and Don took the boys to that one morning.
The boys are debating whether be a driver with UPS like their Uncle Jeremy...






Or just hop in the DeLorean for the afternoon and work on looking cool.



















I LOVE..


When I download the camera card into my computer and see pictures the boys have taken.



PROJECTS

Both Don and I have been up to some projects. Mine are all sewing related -first a quilt for our niece's first birthday, and then some crayon and paper holders for the boys.



Don has been busy with some major projects. First he had to fix our car so it could pass smog. He let the boys help him until one of the kids dropped a bolt into the engine. Luckily Don was able to get it out without any damage done. Second, he has single handled (which is so weird because usually we are a 50/50 team) taken care of the issues we had in our downstairs bathroom. He has had to take the tile up, tear a wall down to the studs, and is now building it all back together.

Last, our always on going project seems to be our garden. We have branched out this year -tearing out a majority of the bushes in our flower bed and planting lots of veggies instead. Both cherry and regular sized tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, lettuce, strawberries, grapes, watermelon, lettuce, onions, carrots and so much more has been planted. Now we are just watching and waiting.




US


We are looking forward to our upcoming summer plans. Don deserves his vacation time and will use some of it doing family stuff like camping in Utah, as well as San Diego and Malibu. He also is hoping to go hunting with some friends this fall.

I have been really working hard to lose weight and it finally seems like I am back on the right track. Two pant sizes down so far, and seeing results like that make it so much easier to keep the momentum. My goal is to be fit enough by the time the boys go to school to sometimes drive them to school, jog home and then jog back to pick them up before school is out. And have enough time at home to be productive in between- not just get home and then have to turn back around to get them.




DID YOU CATCH THAT?


The boys start kindergarten next year. They are registered for half day. The lady in the office was speechless when I requested they be in the same class. Their preschool teachers say the boys are great together, no distractions or disruptive behaviors -so if it is not an issue, I see no reason to split them up their first year in a new school. Keep the posse together!




UNCLE CARL, this is for YOU

The boys love these marshmallow shooters you got them (was it for Christmas?). It makes mom's lawn look all sorts of springy with the pastel mini marshmallows all over the yard. Guinness loves to eat them, so that helps with the clean up (at least in the front yard).

They are finally mastering the scooters, too.







So we have been busy, but how do we balance the kids being busy enough to stay out of trouble at the same time of getting mom and dad some rest? Is it possible?

Probably not.

But we still enjoy it all :)

Going to the Fair!

Every year since the boys have been born, we have gone to the Clark County Fair. The first year we got stuck in horrible traffic once we hit the freeway exit. It took us over an hour to go the 5 miles to the fair. The boys were only 11 months old and we were stuck in the car during their lunch time. As time went by we tried to keep them distracted until they were having no more of it. They started screaming and I had to run to the back of the car to get their water and formulas. I think it was the first time we had feed them while they were still strapped into their car seats. Two good things came from that day. First, now we know not to go to the fair on a Saturday afternoon. Second, feeding the kids on the way to somewhere -what a time saver! Although every year at the fair we have fun, this year it was like no other! Some of our friends came as well, and while we figured sooner or later we would run into them, we actually ended up being with people we knew for about half the day.


First we got there at lunch time -and we all met up and had lunch together under a giant cottonwood tree. There was a beautiful breeze in the air and it was just so peaceful taking everything in. A clown drove by on his giant bike and we could see kids playing at different play stations near by.

Once lunch was over, the group of us walked around for a bit and then our walk came over to the carnival area. Walking up to the ticket booth came our other friends Michele and Greg with their kids! This was the first year we have had the boys ride the rides, and that they were able to do so with so many friends really got them excited.



What seemed like 2 hours later (and it really may have been!) the sun was in full heat mode in the sky and everyone's faces were bright pink. Despite only being half way through the carnival area, we got the kids out of the ride area with promises of snow cones in the shade. Once again we each ended up meeting each other in the grass area. We found Michele, Joselle found us, and then Andi and Jen came last as they were leaving the park. The boys were having so much fun running around, wrestling, jumping, even dancing. They just couldn't stay still! After we left the grass area, we figured we were on our own for the rest of the evening. Two of our friends were calling it a day and we had so much more to see before the Mutton Busting show later in the evening.


On our way out of the second animal pavilion, there was an lady with live animals on a table. She had a monkey, a half raccoon and something or the other, and then an armadillo. The boys caught her eye and she asked them if they wanted to hold it. All three got a chance and surprisingly, none of them freaked out and dropped it!


Off for dinner we went, and then off to watch the Mutton Busting (little kids riding sheeps instead of bulls). We ran into a family friend and sat with them while we got to have our first Mutton busting experience. Jax kept the stand in stitches until the riding began. He declared, "It was the best day in his life, ever!". And then while children's names were being announced, he would get excited every time someone was from Las Vegas. One child's (about 7 yrs old) name was Ethan (same as 2 yr old boy down the street) and Jaxon couldn't believe that Ethan grew that much!


The plan was to go back to the carnival rides and let the boys go through the second half. The boys rode on almost every ride they could with their height restrictions, and even went on a ride or two I was certain they would have backed out of. The ran through fun houses 3 or 4 times in a row, and couldn't get to the next rides fast enough.






Not many of my ride pictures came out clear, but you can easily see the boys just had pure joy radiating on their faces. It was crazy to see them standing in lines by themselves, playing around and wrestling like excited little boys do. To any passerby, I am sure it looked like they were hopped up on so much sugar -but it was all just excitement.






Two full hours later, we finished the last ride and bribed the boys out of the park with cotton candy. It was almost 9:30 and we had been there since noon. Luke was not quite ready -trying to parent us by saying he was choosing two more rides instead of the one we let them have- but with cotton candy in hand and his eyes growing tired, he smartly gave in.



On the drive home, I couldn't get the goofy grin off my face. The day was perfect -just the kind of days you picture in your head when you think about some day having a family. Packed lunches, snow cones, fair corn dogs and cotton candy mixed in with farm animals and carnival rides. I really can't imagine it getting much better than this.

Buckin Broncos

Recently we found a restaurant near us (Cadillac Ranch) that may become a new family favorite. Not only do kids get to ride the mechanical bull for free, kids eat free on Monday!

Surprisingly, all three boys wanted to ride the bull and they did pretty well. No one was ready to go fast on it, but I am thinking once they get more comfortable, they will be ready for next year's rodeo!

Win that belt buckle boys!

Easter 2010

This year Easter snuck up on us. I hadn't had any fun things planned and suddenly it occurred to me that I better think of something -or Easter was going to be done and I would regret being lazy with it all.



Luckily there was another Easter Egg hunt at Leigha's work. They had face painting, balloon twisters, bounce houses and the most fun Easter Bunny I had ever seen.


Joselle and her crew showed up as well and the boys had such a fun time playing with their friends.



On the home front, we did the regular coloring of Easter Eggs and even took it up a notch by getting egg paint for the dyed eggs. A tiny little roller to paint over the dyed eggs brought out little egg artists to a whole new cool level.


Next we made some paper eggs for decorating the house.



Somehow we have managed to wait until this Easter to make sugar cookies in our house. It was a long drawn out process using lots of patience, but luckily it was a good recipe and the cookies were worth it.


Our last Easter project was making candy necklaces. Hundreds of tiny candies laced on a elastic string was a great project to keep them busy and motivated. They couldn't wait to eat their candy necklace.


It turned out to be a very eventful Easter after all!

Energy

These pictures where taken an hour or so after the whole baby powder incident. Apparently the boys had some energy from being cooped up while I was cleaning. Too bad the powder was not lavender scented. Maybe it would have settled them down a bit :)

Wyatt's BIG Mess

In a big celebration-like fashion for my 601st post, I am going to blog about a big ole mess Wyatt recently made. A mess so big, that it took me a over a week to find some humor in it.


The other morning the boys were downstairs while I finished some things upstairs. Showering, making the bed or whatever had occupied my mind while they were playing. My house is pretty small, so the layout allows me to see the boys easily from upstairs. Unfortunately, I was not peeking on them as much as I wish I would have been and took their playing nicely as a blessing.

But it was a trick. A BIG MEAN TRICK.

Just as the sweet smell of baby powder made it up to my nose, Lucas started yelling about something Wyatt was doing.

This is not good.

I ran down the stairs, taking 2 at a time to see what the damage was.

I was not happy.



There were powder footprints across the length of the room, leading over to where I could see foot prints surrounded by powder. Powder -at least a half inch thick- covered our trunk table and all the trains on it. It was in the sub woofer, on the floor, on the couch, the rug, the television. Everywhere. Immediately I figured out what -or rather- why this happened. Wyatt made snow for his trains.



Looking around the mess and getting angrier with every second ticking by -especially after realizing I couldn't have Wyatt help clean the mess he made since he was coughing from all the powder he had breathed in- I sent them all to their bedroom for their own protection.



Once the sub woofer had been completely vacuumed out and I could see past the powder on most of the surfaces that were covered, the boys were called downstairs -one by one. They were able to quietly help finish clean up. Each of the boys got busy with damp rags and dusted the powder off the walls, shelves and any other still white surface until the room sparkled.

I would think that taught them a lesson, but Jax and Luke took the (thought to be empty) same freaking bottle of powder and finished it off on a black cabinet up stairs.

AHHH!


On the bright side, at least the house should smell baby fresh for at least another couple weeks. Whenever it gets low, I can just have the kids jump on the couch and smell the powder that gets plumed into the air.

Worm stew

Look what Luke gifted me with. He loves his mommy! :)