Quick funny...

Okay, I know I need to update on Christmas and so many other things...but I just have one quick little funny story. This morning Jerome was heating up something for himself in the microwave. Well...who would have known that if you put a small hotwheels paperplate with shiny areas on it in the microwave that it will literally explode, and you will have a little fire in your kitchen. So as Jerome and I are frantically trying to put it out on the kitchen floor and finally scoop up the flaming plate and throw it out in the snow...I notice Eli running past me in a flash screaming "escape, escape, escape!!!". He was at the garage door with Millie in his arms (and BIG tears in his eyes) within 5 seconds. Poor guy went into "EMERGENCY PLAN" mode so fast. It was so cute and so sad at the same time, but also I was stinkin' proud of that little guy!

The Rad Moves

Oh my, it's been so long again. Here is just one quick funny video to share. I am amazed how different each one of our goofy kids are. Eli has no lack of confidence, and even though he can get on a person's nerves A LOT, he also cracks me up every day. The boys got video cameras from Grandma Everett at Thanksgiving. I found them upstairs making movies of each other dancing, burping, jumping, etc (just about anything you can imagine that 6 & 7 year old boys would think is funny...yes, as you can imagine, there were a lot of deleted videos once mom downloaded). Anyway, I helped them make this video of Eli because he was just cracking me up...Enjoy Eli's "Rad Moves"

It's about time...

I wanted a baby girl so long, but now that I have one, I barely even treat her like a girl. She's such a roughneck with her brothers, and at this point prefers to play with trucks over baby dolls. So this morning I decided it was time to do something girlie and paint her toenails for the first time. To my surprise she sat very still and even helped to blow them dry!

Caden was home so of course his big head is in most the pictures, and I spent the majority of the time explaining reasons why he couldn't paint his toes. I finally told him that Max, Cole & Eli would make fun of him for having pink toes. His response, well I can beat up Max & Cole, so I don't care about them, and Eli's my brother so he doesn't matter either. So I gave in and painted one pinky toe, which he thought was hilarious, UNTIL...he wanted it off, and I told him I didn't have any remover. Then it was tears & sceaming that I was so mean because now he was going to have to wear socks and tennis shoes his entire life. Seriously??

1st day of school

I think when you go from "welcome summer" to "1st day of school" on your blog posts, that may mean I am slacking! Well anyway, I can't believe but my boys started school today. Eli is starting kindergarten and Caden is going into 1st grade. Oh my. They were VERY excited this morning and I am praying it will last. As we waited for the big bus to roll up, Eli whispered to me "I'm even more excited than I thought I would be". So cute! I held back all the tears, but will be watching the clock all day...can't believe they are away from me until 3:50pm! Not sure what the princess and I are going to be ALL DAY by ourselves. She already has asked me several times "KK at? YiYi at" which is how she says there names.

Getting on the bus...and still smiling! Please God let this last!

Caden and our neighbor Elle, both big 1st graders now!




Eli has to try to look "cool" for every picture

Just one of little Millie :)

Cheers...it's summer!!

We are really enjoying summer and we are trying hard to SLOW DOWN our days (which is hard when you are married to busy body Jerome)! At least once a week now, we start our day toasting each other with fruit smoothies on the deck. So hope you are are having a great summer and Cheers!

Little Sister

This is what happens to sweet little girls when they have 2 older brothers to teach them things...

Hair!

I am starting to realize that I am going to have YEARS of screaming, crying and fighting while dealing with Millie's hair. It's getting a lot longer, and wow when it is not "contained" somehow, it gets quite fluffy. I tried to put it into 2 little pigtails today, and boy was it a challenge. I strapped her down into the highchair and applied 2 different detangler hair products and pulled and stretched every little curl until they made it into the hairband. She screamed and wiggled the ENTIRE time. I honestly do not know how the moms of the little girls have have like 10 ponytails and barrettes all over their heads do it! I do think she looks darn cute though with them! They are not even, but I think it's pretty good for the first attempt!

School Pictures!

It's that time of the year again...time for the awkwardly posed school pictures! Actually, Eli's preschool always does a really good job, but poor Caden. He showed me "the pose" they had him do when he got home that day, and I was afraid to see the final pictures! Also, I included Eli's soccer picture, this year he was Team Japan. :)

Catch up...

I finally downloaded pictures from our camera and I have much to catch up on (as usual). The first sequence of pictures are of the boys. This is the perfect "story" of why I can never get a good picture of the kids together. This was actually outside of a photographers studio. We were on our way inside to have professional pictures done with their cousins...I am sure you can imagine how those turned out. ha!

This was Millie's Easter Dress, she would not sit still for even 2 seconds so that I could take a good picture of her. But it really was adorable, trust me!

Finally, yesterday was a gorgeous day here and Jerome was off of work, so we decided to take the kids to the zoo. It was a great time, and I think Millie had the best time of all! I feel bad, because I think I just think of her as a "baby" and don't really even consider that she might enjoy these things yet. She ran & squeeled from exhibit to exhibit...trying to climb into every single tank or cage she could get close too! The funniest part of the day was Caden though. He is really into taking his own pictures of EVERYTHING when we go anywhere. So I just let him have the camera and go for it. Well at some point he asked me to put it "movie mode" and he began filming the animals. I heard him talking a little bit, but what I didn't realize until I downloaded them all was that he was acting like a TV show or something...he was adding commentary to each film about the animal. There were too many share here, but each one CRACKED me up with the things that he came up to say about the animals. The snake area was the funniest, but it was really dark, so I didn't include it. He went from tank to tank though saying things like "notice this one really blends in with the rocks, and oh my, now that would be scary to see in your yard, and he would say "I am not sure what this is called, but then you would hear Jerome in the background telling Eli the name, and all of sudden, Caden would say "oh yes, I just remembered now, this one is called the rainbow viper" lol

Quick Picture...

It's SO RARE, that I actually get a picture of the three of them together, so I have to share! We went to Chicago for Spring Break (Tropical, huh?)...had a ton of fun though. Science & Industry museum, Aquarium, swimming at the hotel, lego store, and eating waayyy too much. I have figured out that all my boys need need for a "perfect vacation" is to sleep in a hotel and swim in a pool.

Yard Sale...

Today Eli decided he was going to have a yard sale...he made a sign and hung it in a tree, brought out several of old toys to sell and started to advertise. I think he mixed up our address with our phone number though...he rode up and down our street screaming "Yard Sale...335-1121" for at least 20 minutes. Poor guy was so upset that no one wanted to buy anything.

Even Millie wanted to try to help for awhile...and please don't judge me (or poor Millie) for the state of her hair. She just woke up from her nap, and we had not put her pony tail back in yet. :(

Funny Conversations...

A recent conversation I overheard from the boys...


The boys and I had just been discussing the fact that some day we would probably need all three parking spots in our garage because they will have a car someday. I told them that they would probably share a car since they will go to the same school, have the same friends, blah, blah, blah...so this is what I hear next:


Caden: "That's fine we can share a car Eli....BUT if I have like a science contest to go to then I need the car"


Eli: What's a science contest?


Caden: That's where they give trophies for doing science


Eli: Oh, okay, I guess that's okay


I heart my little science nerd! :) And thank you for my friend Dianna for telling Caden that he shouldn't be jealous about Eli's sports trophies, because some day he will be winning Science Fairs and getting a lot of his own trophies.

Spring Fever

It has been close to 70 here the last couple days and boy do we have spring fever! Yesterday, the boys had every single toy out of the garage...anything with wheels was being used! Even Millie loved the fresh air! We know it's not going to last long, so we are enjoying while we can...

Here are the boys ready to go on their bikes...

Millie says "wait for me" !!

Completely on her own, Millie goes over and picks out sidewalk chalk and starts drawing...

Meanwhile, the boys are ramming their 4 wheelers into the remainder of the snow drift in our driveway and almost flipping over backwards. Notice Eli's "too cool" facial expression, you might have to zoom in on the picture to see it.

M

Millie

Here is a recent picture of little Millie. She has been sick for awhile and I think she is teething too, so this smile is a rare sighting these days. She is running all over now and her words are limited to Mom, Da-da, Hi, and woof. These four words don't really help you too much with day to day needs, but she has mastered the point and grunt/scream method very well. She also has figured out that when she has something that the boys want, she has to hold on very tight and scream VERY loud in their face. The whole "here's another toy to play with, and then snatch it away" does not work with her anymore. She knows now if somebody else wants it, then it must be something good and you have to fight for it. Despite all this the boys still adore her and Eli's new name for her is "Mills". I don't know if I say it too, but it's just so darn cute to hear him saying...come on Mills, here it is Mills, etc.

Funny Eli...

Just a few funny things that Eli has said this week that I want to remember somewhere...

1) He is really into drinking Sunny D right now. Eli loves anything and everything they sell on TV and he told me I had to get Sunny D because it will make him play sports a lot better. So anyway, yesterday I let him have a small bottle of Sunny D on the way to preschool. While walking in, I told him to make sure he doesn't have any potty accidents at school since he just drank a bunch of juice, his response: "Mom, I'm not gonna have an potty accidents today...I got the power of the sun"

2) The poor guy is getting a cold/cough that our entire has. Not sure HOW we have this since we didn't even LEAVE our house for like 6 days, but we do. ugh. Anyway, he is just not used to have a stuffy nose and his voice sounds all congested. So I just asked him if he was hungry for dinner, and he said "I don't know, I just feel strange". I said "well is your belly hungry or not?" he got all upset and said "I don't know, my belly is just freaking out in there!!"

That boy just cracks me up some time...

Snowed in...

Wow, it's been a long week. We were hit with a huge weird ice storm this year and it has caused school to be cancelled for THREE days now. Three days really does not sound that long, but being inside with a 6, 5 & 1 year old for 72 hours straight starts to get a little nutty. I have learned many things about ourselves during inside retreat though...here are a few of my observations:


1) The house gets MUCH messier when the kids (and me) are home all day long.


2) You have much less laundry when you have "pajama day" for 3 days in a row (for the record, we did change into clean pajamas once a day).


3) Playing on an ice covered backyard is much less messy than snow. The boys are completely dry when they come inside...no wet gloves, hats, etc. That is one nice thing actually! Now the risk of injury is much higher since they are falling down about every 2 seconds, but they needed fresh air, dang it!!


4) I have learned that the boys can finally watch and enjoy real movies (not cartoons)...we watched the new Karate Kid, Home Alone 1, 2 & 3, Nanny Mcfee, etc. I have to sit with them and kind of explain as we go, but I don't mind since they are actual movies and not cartoons!!


5) Being stuck in the house is not good for a diet. We have been baking sweets and eating snacks for the last three days. :( Also, I feel like I am on a 72 hour rotation of coffee & wine...I am starting to lose sense of time, so I am craving coffee at 7pm and wine at 9am.


6) It takes about 3 days at home before even Caden, so NOT my school lover, said that he really hopes Mr Andy the bus driver can make it to our house tomorrow. He even said if he can't, he is just going walk over to school, and knock on the door. Didn't tell him, but I've had the same thought!

7) Are biggest fear was the loss of power...of course that would mean no heat, but even scarier is no wii, no way to charge the Ds, no TV, no computer....ahhhh!!!!!! Thank goodness, we never lost power...but we have "unplugged" for a few hours each day and have read many books, done puzzles, played play do, etc. It's really quite amazing how much you can get done in three days inside!

Anyway, here are a few videos of the kids having fun in the backyard...I will post some pictures soon too!

Too big...TOO fast!

Millie is getting too big way too fast...this is her newest "trick". The icing on the cake is when she hits Caden on accident and when he says "ow" she laughs at him. Oh my...this girl

Caden Reading..l.

I taped this for Grandma Ringger...but it was too big to email, so I guess you all get to see it! lol Anyway, here is Caden sharing his reading skills!