Books! Books! Books! And a Baby

A few days ago the boys got letters from Uncle Tom which included gift cards to one of my all time favorite places. The bookstore! In typical fashion, the gift cards were burning holes in their pockets so we had to spend them immediately. We have been driving a lot lately doing some pet sitting errands and decided to stop off at Borders on the way.

James doesn't understand how much I like bookstores yet. I prefer to get lost in the aisles reading endless book backs. Instead I had to chase after this monster who insisted on pushing his stroller that he refuses to sit in. When a one year old refuses something like sitting in a stroller it sounds a lot like he is being tortured. So much so that I caved in and let the beast roam. He didn't hit any pedestrians but he did collide with a lot of displays and walls. He took the old hit and run approach, as soon as he saw me coming near he would take of running.


He ran to this little circle couch thing and climbed up. As I was closing in he took a bad step and did a swan dive into the O of the circle couch. He was okay but his pride was a little bruised up. After the fall he was fine with sitting in the stroller the rest of the time. Go figure.

The boys had a great time browsing the books. And if I tell you what they picked I bet you could guess which kid got what. One of them picked an action/adventure chapter book, someone else picked a little stuffed animal (a duck) and a dinosaur book, and the other picked a book of useless facts.

I couldn't go to the bookstore and leave empty handed. I got the last two books of the series I have been reading, The Southern Vampire series. And a book called The Hunger Games. That should last me at least a week.

Age Progression

If you are ever wondering what your child will look like in fifty or sixty years just have your husband give them this haircut.





Only if you have a son though. It probably won't be as accurate on your daughter. He kind of reminds me of that guy from the Jeffersons


Maybe just a little.

The Dead Tree

Today we went on a very short hike to the dead tree. Before we even moved into our house we saw the dead tree from one of the bedroom windows and thought it was cool. It's one of those trees you imagine in a scary story because it is all snarled and ominous looking.


I say it was a short hike because the tree is almost directly behind our house and today's temperature is 114. An hour hiking around in the wash, no thanks. James loves to be outside so when he is fussy I always know how to cheer him up.

My little sidekick. Marcus would follow me to the moon and back.


On the complete opposite end, James wouldn't follow me anywhere. In fact he runs as fast as he can in the opposite direction. I had to send in the cavalry to catch him before he got too far ahead.

Busy day planned for tomorrow. We are going school supply shopping. I have my fingers crossed that no one is picky about their backpack preference this year. We are also going to go see my aunt's new house for the first time. Tis the season for home buying!

Mommy's toes

Are good at tickling.

Daddy, J, and an Impulse Buy

We are not normally the impulse buy type. This weekend was a freak occurence. My mom had Jason, Nathan, and Marcus (the three musketeers) spend the night at her house so it was just Mike and James....and me (the third wheel) for the night. Instead of doing something like finding a sitter for James and going on a date we decided to act like old married couples and do something boring like school clothes shopping. Not that I am excited about school starting or anything.

That is when we saw this inflatable bouncy thing and a pack of 100 balls clearanced and we just knew we had to have it. This is also when I became the third wheel.

Daddy and J had so much fun and I was not included. Daddy swirled James around on the balls and made him laugh hysterically.

They threw and kicked the plastic balls all over the house and jumped until someone's little chubby legs were too tired.


They had a fun night together.

Just Daddy and James.

Not much to report

I waited for the rain to start all yesterday afternoon. I sat outside reading my book and waited for the heavy clouds to unload but it didn't happen. I was sad. Then I woke up this morning and it was raining. I had to go to work and couldn't enjoy it. I wanted nothing more than to grab my book and go sit on the patio to read. I was more sad that time. Darn work.

There hasn't been a whole lot to blog about lately. Just been doing our normal routine and getting ready for back to school. The boys are getting sick of each other and have taken up arguing as a prime pastime. Only 16 more days, not that I am counting.

Last Friday I had my niece and nephew over for a sleepover. It was a rowdy night with six kids running around but I have nerves of steel and was prepared with some activities at least.

As soon as Angel and Ryan walked through the door they were ready to go swimming so when Mike went to work we all got in the pool (which now feels more like a hot tub). I was bombarded by five children yelling at me to watch them do this trick and do that trick. Then we had a splash contest to see who could make the biggest splash.

Angel was scared to jump off the top step of the ladder but a little coaxing from the boys got her to do it.


Ryan would only jump if Jason was within a couple inches from him.


They tried to replicate the wave pool at Sunsplash. James loved the waves. Ryan hated them.

Jason was such a good helper with the little kids.


After swimming the kids played board games and I made cupcakes. After dinner they got to frost and decorate them. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Do you notice James trying to steal Ryan's cupcake?


I learned that cupcakes are only enhanced by sprinkles. I also learned that there is no such thing as too much sprinkles. At least according the the kids.


In fact, decoration is only finished when the cupcake can no longer hold anymore sprinkles and the cupcake has a crunchy mountain on the top. Yum.

Jedi Warriors

In about five years, they are going to hate me for posting about this.

But I swear, I did get their permission to put the pictures on here. Scout's honor.

*snickering*

And really I can't resist.

It all started this afternoon when we were all in Jason's room having a discussion on how the wrestling has gotten a little out of control. We had our talk and after I was admiring all the posters on Jason's wall. Namely, this one in particular.


I don't know anything about Star Wars. In fact, I can honestly say I am not sure if this is Star Wars or Star Trek. I am just guessing Star Wars because I think I remember that on Star Trek the people have those pointy ears. Jason told me the people with armor were called clones and the others were Jedis. I asked them why the clones wore armor while the Jedis got to wear dresses. The boys thought it was funny at first but then had to agree that the Jedi outfits do closely resemble dresses. That is when I mentioned that if they were bored they were welcome to borrow my Jedi costumes to play Star Wars/Star Trek.

You know what is coming next.

Ready?


They took me up on my offer. I still can't stop laughing as I look at the pictures. Doesn't the green of Marcus' Jedi costume bring out the richness of his skin? And it matches his sword perfectly. Nathan really wanted the pink flower ensemble but Jason called it first. Really I think it suits Jason better anyway.


They were so much more into the Star Wars swashbuckling when they had the right costumes on.


I officially have the funniest, crazy boys on the planet.

I love these Jedis.

I know

I know it's wrong.

For so many reasons.

But I just don't care.

Every baby should get to lick the brownie batter spoon at least once.

I Feel Better

Last night was a rough one. I felt so sick I pretty much just laid on the couch and didn't move all night. If I made one false move I was sure I was going to throw up. And we all know throwing up is the worst thing ever.

This weekend was an awesome one. My mom and Stan came over on Saturday and we made philly cheesesteaks. They were so delicious. The kids played so good together. We like visitors at our house.

Then on Sunday Mike and Stan took Nathan and Marcus to the Diamondbacks game. Jason didn't go because he spent the night at my mom's house. Rick had given Mike and Stan the tickets and they were awesome seats. I hear you could even see the numbers on the players uniforms without binoculars. The boys got free fitted Diamondback hats and after the game they got to go out on the field and run the bases. They had a great time.

While they were at the game, me and James hung out at my mom's house. We spent most of our time sewing ourselves pajama pants. I have never sewn anything before so it took quite a while. Four hours, three yards of fabric, and lots of seam ripping later I had a pair of comfy pajama shorts! I was very proud of myself for making them and even wore them to bed that night.

The next morning, Nathan and Marcus were trying to build a fort. They had seen the cool fort that Jason and Brianna had made and were trying to make themselves a cool one too. I felt bad for their two foot tall fort so I enlisted the help of Mike and made them an awesome fort of their own.

See me in my fancy pajama shorts? We built their fort around the dining room table and included the tv. How cool is that? A tv in your fort?


We even filled them up a refrigerator (an ice chest) for inside. James found the pretzels and looks very comfortable.


They loved the fort so much they spent the entire day in there. They even slept in it. Well, until 3am when they all went upstairs and got into their real beds.

This is officially my 200th post! I didn't think the blog would last that long and I am glad I was wrong. Hopefully I will be celebrating again after I have bored you all with another 200.

If Dad were home

He would not approve of this.

Shhhhh.

Another Normal Friday

Sleeping,

swimming,

cooking,

lounging,

teething,

reading,

gaming,


CapriSunning,

dancing,

pillow fighting,

tattling,

laughing,


hugging,

and just savoring every day left of summer.

Today is tomorrow?

I am almost embarrassed to say that I had no clue what day it was today. It wasn't until 8pm tonight that I was informed by my 10 year old that it wasn't Tuesday. I didn't believe him that it was actually Wednesday and checked the date on my phone for confirmation. He was right. What happened to Tuesday? I felt horrified that I didn't know what day it was and I also couldn't help feeling pleased that I only have one more day to go before my weekend starts.

It's Wednesday? I'm not being April fooled or something am I?

I have been in total veg out mode for the past twenty four hours. Sharon and my dad decided to take the older boys to the lake for some more fishing (at the right lake this time), and Sharon even had the boys over to spend the night yesterday. She is a goddess. I don't remember the last time our house has been so quiet. It was just me and James. When he went down for a nap I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Should I read? Should I watch some TV? Should I blog? Should I clean? I was kidding about that last one. I decided to mostly do the first two but also found some time to get a few pictures hung up on the bare walls. As I was hanging up some pictures I realized that I don't have a single picture of James to put on the wall. Not a one. I can't put up pictures of everyone and exclude James, I would feel so guilty. I will have to fix this issue asap. For now, all the family picture frames are stacked up on the dining room table until James can be included.

I missed the boys when they were gone. It's funny how the stuff that is annoying when they are here is the same stuff I miss when they are gone. I guess I kind of like the wild loudness and the fighting. It's part of them. I wasn't the only one who missed them. Both of the cats slept ON me last night which was really annoying. Normally they bunk up with one of the kids, since they were gone I guess I was the next best option. When James woke up from his nap this afternoon and we were done doing our rock in the glider for ten minutes until he really wakes up routine, James ran from room to room looking for his brothers. He was lonely without them here. I can just imagine what it will be like when they go back to school and he no longer has them here to chase after all day long. He was squealing and running in circles when they finally did come back today.

They are tired but they had a great time. Except for the part where Marcus got stung by a bee. Nathan even caught a trout. My dad sent the ugly thing home with him. Now I have a dead trout sitting in a freezer bag with blood in my fridge. I hate seafood. I hope it is gone by the time I get done with work tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Thursday right?

Just checking.

He Likes Accessories

Hats when he swims

Socks when he plays

Oscar on his feet makes him happy.

During breakfast


At the lake

Clothing is always optional, but accessories are always welcome.

And when there are no available accessories to wear,


There's always mud.

Happy Fourth

Hope everyone had a great holiday. Don't they all look so cute in their little button up shirts? They wore these for approximately six minutes after we arrived at my mom's house. As soon as they crossed the threshold they were disrobing out of their clothes ready to ride the bull.


There's something about that bull. If you master it you become a legend in the pool. Marcus is close to mastering it. He is only 42lbs soaking wet so when he jumps on there isn't a whole lot of water displacement to knock him off. It's like a bird landing on a telephone line.


Here is my feeble attempt at a patriotic dessert. Very one of a kind I know. Really my dessert was overshadowed by my mom's cinnamon rolls that tasted just like the ones from Cinnabon. They were spot on and gut wrenchingly good. I think I could have eaten three of them even though they were each the size of a small cantaloupe.

For dinner, Mike grilled up his delicious steaks and I got to eat my mom's special mashed potatoes. We also had salad and watermelon but someone "forgot" to get those out of the fridge so we had the cinnamon rolls instead.


We love poker. We played again last night while James was taking a nap.

This summer has been so great so far. I have spent far more time with my family (my mom, my dad, and my aunts and uncles) than I have in a long time, and that makes me happy.

The highlight of the night was when everyone got to shoot off party poppers and confetti sticks. The confetti sticks were my favorite and made it look just like Times Square on New year's. James was fine with the loud noise but he was terrified of all the confetti raining down. He would scream the most blood curdling scream if we set him down. Go figure, confetti is scary.

Sadly, this is Mike and I's last day of vacation. It always goes by so fast. It was a lot of fun though and we got to do some fun stuff with the kids. Today we plan on just relaxing and hanging out together. It will be the first non planned day of vacation we have.