Weekend Away

Carl and I ventured to Sioux City this past weekend for a friend from high schools wedding. Carl was a groomsman so we left Friday around noon. My parents graciously watched the boys so they I wouldn't have to try and corral them on my own for the rehearsal and wedding, we figured they would have more fun at Grandma and Grandpas anyway. We arrived Friday evening in time to get Carl's tux and get to the rehearsal at 5, we then enjoyed dinner at Famous Daves(best cornbread ever) and then did a little shopping at the nearby outdoor mall we found. Saturday we slept until a little after 8:00(very late for us) and enjoyed a late breakfast at IHOP, it is always so much fun to eat out when you don't have the kids:) Josh and Marti arrived shortly after(Josh works with Carl at JCorp and is also the grooms cousin) and the boys had to be at the church early for pictures so Marti and I made a Target and Gap Outlet run(I love Gap Outlet for the boys clothes, such great deals!) She was kind enough to let me sit with them at the wedding and reception since Carl had his wedding party duties. We also had her take a few pictures of us since we were both dressed up and had no kids to look the opposite direction and cry while we took a few pictures. Sunday we slept in again and then took the tux back and did a little more shopping and then drove back to pick up our alarm clocks from my parents:) We were glad to see them even though they were not as happy to see us. Yesterday since the weather was so nice we headed out to Andrea and Alan's to weed the garden. When we went in for lunch Baby Grant was awake and after he ate both boys wanted to hold him. Ty especially LOVES babies and is all smiles when he gets to hold one. We finished weeding last night for the most part but our night was cut short when Ty decided to touch the mower muffler, he got a blister on his hand and cried for a LONG time. He finally settled down when we got home and slept great and today you'd never know he got hurt, he still has the blister but it doesn't seem to bother him at all. I need to try and get our garden blog updated with a few new pictures, everything is getting so big!

One Hot Birthday!

I apologize for the delay in getting this post done. We have had one chaotic week around here. Bear with me this is going to get loooooong. Friday night we discovered our AC was not working properly again(it had been running not quite right so we had a friend of a friend come and look at it, it seemed to be working fine but by Friday night we knew it was still not right) So Saturday we decided to take advantage of my parents AC and cable TV as we didn't want to spend the extra money for the HVAC guys to come out on a Saturday. Gabe and I ran errands for his party in the afternoon while Ty napped under Daddy's watchful supervision. We took my Dad's truck as the kids and I are driving the Flyin Ford Fairmont(you can read the story behind that if you click on Flying Ford Fairmont) in which the air conditioning does not really work because we are trying to keep the mess out of our Jeep which we are trying to sell(so if you know of anyone who would like to buy a 2002 Jeep Liberty...) Gabe had lots of fun helping me pick out the stuff for his party, especially the chips and pop:) He also loved riding in the front seat of Grandpa's pick-up. Saturday night we headed to church as I had nursery and Carl and the boys went to church then we went back to my mom and dads to sleep as it was extremely hot in our house and they were gone for a wedding that night anyway. Sunday we woke up and started all of the party preparations(after we wished Daddy a Happy Fathers Day!) We got all the food, balloons, and party supplies loaded and made our way to the garden to set up. It was so nice to have it there especially since we didn't have air! Andrea and Alan arrived with this cake and cupcakes that Gabe absolutely loved and we got everything set up in time for all of our guests to arrive. We had lunch and then Gabe blew out his candles. The kids came swarming when it was time for cake and everyone enjoyed the T-rex cake and dinosaur egg cupcakes. We let Gabe open presents shortly after cake and ice cream and he loved everything! After presents everyone was free to go check out the dinosaurs and the garden. Some friends graciously took Gabe with them to look at everything while some of us stayed back to start cleaning up the room. Grandpa and Bone took Ty outside as we had been making him stay in most of the time since he can't be trusted not to jump in the fountain next to the building quite yet. After we got everything cleaned up and loaded back into the vehicles we dropped things off at our very hot house and took the leftover food back to my parents house. We got to spend a little extra time with my grandparents and Carl's Aunt Sara. That night after supper we went to Aunt Sara's motel and took advantage of the pool. Gabe and Ty both were somewhat apprehensive about it. We hadn't been to the big pool in awhile so I think it was a little intimidating but once they got in they had a good time. We stayed the night at my parents again in hopes our air would be fixed on Monday, no such luck! Monday between 1 and 4 turned into Monday at 7 and then they came and thought it was fixed but unfortunatly it wasn't. So Tuesday morning the day of Gabe's birthday we woke up at my mom and dads and had to do a makeshift birthday breakfast. Normally we do pancakes and little smokies but we had to imporvise and do birthday cinnamon rolls this year instead(with scrambled eggs, as Gabe requested) He didn't seem to mind too much. After the brief rain storm we packed up and headed down to Huxley to pick up Brady, Bree and Heather and then headed to Big Creek to play at the beach and swim. Gabe and Ty both loved the beach and the water. Gabe was my little fish and sometimes got a little too brave for my liking in the water. He was floating and trying to swim and going under all the time. Ty loved the water too and I shudder to think about how much of it he probably swallowed(along with sand...yuck) We had a picnic on the beach and then played a little more in the water. Brady and Bree loved the water too and they all did such a great job! We went back to mom and dads for naps and then when everyone woke up we headed to Hickory Park for the annual birthday sundae. After dinner we took Gabe to Perfect Games for some bowling. We then let him open a few presents we had saved from us and from Aunt Em. He loved the space shuttle Em brought him and has not let it out of his sight since Tuesday night. In the meantime the air conditioning still has not been fixed they called Carl Tuesday afternoon and said it would not be done until Wednesday so we stayed another night at Grandma and Grandpas. Wednesday morning they finally called and said they were on there way and our air was fixed by late morning Wednesday! We finally got to sleep at home last night and get the important 4 year old picture in our big chair, I still can't believe he is 4, he looks so much bigger then here, here, here, and especially here. It amazes me to see how much he has grown and learned in the past 4 years. He is truly a blessing from God and we are so thankful for his goofy grin, his funny phrases, his contagious laugh, his outgoing and friendly personality, his love for us, his brother, his family and most importantly God. We love you Gabe! Happy 4th Birthday!

Dough Boys

Today since once again it was rather cool and rainy we decided to make cookies. I have two wonderful....mmm well meaning helpers when I make cookies and thanks to them I have found a slight flaw with Kitchen Aid mixers, they only have 1 beater:( One beater and two boys equals creative solutions, this creative solution was a spoon for the little one who doesn't quite know that he is getting ripped off not getting to lick the beater yet:) Gabe is getting quite good at helping me measure out the ingredients and put it in the mixing bowl. He also tried his hand at rolling the dough into balls today and putting them on the pan, he did a good job! Ty was content to just sit there and eat the dough once it was ready. I'm sure they will both enjoy the cookies when they get up from nap today.

On a completely different note we made our first trip to the ER this past Sunday. Carl had both boys after church as I was finishing up in the nursery and he was outside talking to a friend, holding Ty and holding Gabe's hand. Gabe decided he did not want to hold Daddy's hand anymore so started trying to pull away from him and dropped his feet out from under him. Carl heard a pop and then Gabe started crying. They quickly went to the car where Gabe continued to cry and would not move his arm at all. I made it to the car to find this lovely predicament and called urgent care only to be told they don't do that stuff there we had to go to the ER. By this time Gabe had calmed down somewhat and we drove home to drop Carl and Ty off since I'm quite positive Ty would not have tolerated an ER wait. Gabe and I drove to the hospital and got checked in and waited in the waiting room for awhile. Gabe still would not move his arm and I distracted him from thinking about it by talking all about Star Wars(his favorite movie for the moment) We actually didn't have to wait that long and they called us back where they decided it was most likely nursemaids elbow(basically the muscle moved away from where it should be, like a dislocated elbow) but they wanted to x-ray it just to make sure. We made our way back to radiology and waited a few minutes until they got us, I couldn't go in with Gabe since I am pregnant and can't be exposed to the radiation. I felt so bad I could hear him crying and screaming because they had to maneuver his arm in different positions to get all the x-rays they needed. I'm pretty sure I was quite a sight sitting in the hallway with tears in my eyes listening to my baby scream! One kind of funny thing I heard through the tears was...Gabe we need to move your arm one more time for this shot okay? Gabe says no no I don't want a shot and cried a little harder, the x-ray tech quickly rephrased and said no you aren't getting a shot I mean another picture. Poor kid:) When they brought him out we walked back to the room and when we got situated Gabe was suddenly moving his arm around and jabbering up a storm. I asked him if his arm felt better and he said it did. The Dr. then came in and said yeah a lot of time when they maneuver it for the x-rays it will pop back into place and that is what happened with him. So after all that the dr. didn't even have to do anything for him. Oh-well it was like someone put a quarter in him once his arm was back in place, he was jabbering away and was back to his old self. I just hope trips to the ER don't become a habit around here, with our boys anything is possible.

A Berry Good Morning

This morning we visited the Berry Patch Farm near Nevada to pick our own strawberries with Heather and the kids. I have been wanting to take Gabe out there since he was tiny and finally worked up the motivation to do it today. I was beginning to question my choice when we arrived and the nice but stern older lady at the front berry weigh station said..."those kids can't just run around through the rows" well nice stern older lady I wasn't intending to let them run all over the rows I was intending to let them pick strawberries(I didn't say that) I just said okay well we've never been here before what do we need to do, so she gave us a few buckets and told us where to drive and told us who to find to get further instructions. Once we found the picking spot we found the lady she was referring to who once again told us that the kids needed to stay to the outside rows and couldn't run through the rows, I guess our kids look like runners or something:) So we found a spot and showed the boys and Bree what kind of strawberries to pick(not too yellow, all red) and let them start. The big boys did a good job of finding mostly all red ones to add to their buckets, Ty loved picking berries but really lets face it, does not know his colors so we ended up with a few yellow berries and some dandelions in the bucket as well. Once we had walked the outside rows and gotten our buckets relatively full I tried to get the little ones and the boys to pose with their stash but alas 2 almost 4 year olds and 2 almost 2 year olds(one actually is two now, hard to believe) did not accommodate my request very well. Bree did want to smile for the camera at all but I thought this shot was still pretty darn cute, pouty face and all. When we got home I did manage to get the boys with all their berries for a few minutes before they completely lost intrest in having their picture taken. We are looking forward to strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight(which we purchased the stuff for at the grocery store when we were there today with grandma who also purchased these for the boys....thanks a lot Grandma)

Tuesday Tidbits

Not a whole lot new going on around here. The weather and my health has not been cooperating very well to get much more paining done, I got a nasty sinus infection/sore throat/ear ache with fever last Thursday and I am finally starting to feel better today so here are some random pictures from the last week or so.

Here is my dirt/chalk/dandelion/mud/sand/anything he probably shouldn't put in him mouth eating boy! Look at that disgustingly cute face! Here's Gabe at "work" he has started calling the loft of the tree house his work where he goes just like Daddy!
The boys love the neighbors hammock, the little neighbor girl even gives them pushed in it!




My Orange boys

and you just have to capture the moments of brotherly love around here!

Perfect Games

Last night I finally had a chance to go check out the building that Carl so diligently worked on for so long! Carl and the boys had already been there but since I had to work on contractors night we went last night! My mom and dad joined us for some bowling and pizza. Gabe loves bowling and with the help of the bumpers does pretty well. I thought this picture of him in his bowling shoes was so cute! Here is Daddy and Gabe at "Daddy's bowling alley" which is what Gabe calls it:) After bowling we checked out the bounce house and the arcade area. Both boys love to play the games and were thrilled with their cheap little toys they got for their tickets. We finished off the night at Coldstone for some ice cream. It doesn't get much better then this!