A FUNNY TWO YEAR OLD!

I have to say it has been a lot of fun with James.  Yes he gets in the other kids stuff and in their way when they are playing but his little two year old mind makes us laugh much of the time making up for our frustration with him.  Just a couple things that come to mind.
   He loves to listen to the radio and Odyssey story's with the other kids when we are in the car.  He annoys the other kids by always repeating the last word of a sentence or any word for that matter that he thinks sounds fun.  What normally happens is he shouts it out and all the kids yell back "QUIET" which he just yells out the word again...and it keeps going back and forth which results in everyone missing a good portion of the story.  Anyway, yesterday he heard the word mountain in some song that was playing, so he started to talk about mountains. "Mountains, Mommy!" I answered "Yes, James...God makes the mountains" He answered right back "Yup, with a hammer."  It made both Andrea and I laugh and I just told him he was right.  Andrea was in the back and yelled, "No mommy, God just said MOUNTAINS and they appeared"  I still like the hammer picture I had in my mind.
    James has been stuck on friends, who his friends are, when he can play with friends.... he routinely goes through the entire family, Andrea my fiend, Bayden my fiend, Anja my friend, Becca my fiend (r's are not his strong suit).  Anyway, I have  to remind him quite a bit lately that friends do not hit each other.  The other day he got up from nap after being in his room for 5min.  I told him that he was going to get a spank if he got up again.  He looked at me with hung tears in his eyes...."but you my fiend, no spanks"  Okay, I just had to lay and snuggle just a bit--too sweet.
   We also dropped off Sandy this morning at the vet to be spayed.  James was along and having lots of fun talking to Sandy in her crate.  All was well until we walked out of the Vet's office without Sandy.  James lost it.  Where's Sandy??  Sandy come home?  I told him she had to stay at the office for a day, to which he cried, "but Sandy my fiend, come to my house"  Somehow he was not comforted that we were going to come back and pick her up.
     One more quick little memory.  James is also obsessed with his spider-man cup, yesterday I gave him iron-man and he once again lost it.  After convincing him iron-man was just as cool as spider-man ..thanks to Becca he chilled out and ate dinner.  After dinner he saw his superman cup up on the shelf and started jumping around the kitchen jamming his hand out and yelling.  He kept doing this and yelling water, I didn't really get what he was doing and then it hit me.  He thought spider-man shot water at people-so funny.  I told him Spider-man shot out web, I don't think he got it.
  James is a lot of fun, very strong willed but once he learns his lesson (which is usually traumatic for everyone) he remembers.  Staying in bed, eating his veggies before more jello...just a couple he has finally given into, and I just have to laugh when he yells...I killed zombie's mommy as we walk out of church (hopefully no one else understands what he says!)

Just A Couple Random Things

Hard to believe another Monday has come and gone.  Even harder to believe that today while reviewing all the kids weekly handouts I was updating our schedule with events for March!  Crazy seeing as we have been finally having our first snow of the year, wet as it was and maybe more to come, still lots of fun.

      This past Friday the girls had a little dinner date with Ron through their American Heritage Girl Troop.  They had to decorate and box and take their own lunch.  The girls had a lot of fun painting and decorating their box.  Turned out to be a pretty quick evening out but still fun.

Somehow  Becca had it in her head that she was going to have a store this weekend.  She spent a good portion of Saturday morning coloring and cutting which seemed to inspire Brayden.  Soon all three kids were full steam ahead mode for making a store...with anything and everything they thought they could sell.  It was actually pretty fun to watch.  They had a sign with a name along with when they would be open, not till 3:30 every day because of school.  Each little trinket section was labeled with a price.  They even decided to have a donation basket for you to give money to their church.  Andrea was in charge of the organizing/taking the money...although Brayden quickly took over when Daddy needed change.

Thanks to grandparents for making it fun and Ron who walked out of the house this morning complete with a yarn bow-tie made by Brayden.  It is fun when these guys actually decided to get along and to hear them being so creative.  Much better than hearing them screaming at each other over what ice-cream to get from two isles over "NO, CHOCOLATE..NO STRAWBERRY...BUT I DON"T LIKE CHOCOLATE!! I  will let you imagine the rest as it was only downhill from there, I couldn't get to that freezer section fast enough ...so embarrassing!

  No picture for this last little update.  I discovered that I will never bike in temperatures lower than 40 degrees.  This Saturday was a beautiful sunny day but cold and with no activities our bikes were calling to us.   Anyway, I should know better and a beautiful day turned out to be quite wicked to both Ron and I.  Deciding to go bike a long ride is one thing but doing it in reality in cold temps in another.  Hitting the wall is never pleasant and from now on I will do anything to never hit it again which means not running longer than 14 miles, not biking in sub 40 temps and not tripling your mileage for the sake of a long ride.

      We did manage to make it to the BassClassic downtown Tulsa later in the day.  Who knew it was going to be such a huge event....I went to see the water dogs jump.  Turned out that the BOK center was so full they were turning people away (including Ron, who was about fainting after his ride... trying to get to us so we could get some dinner). I was stuck five rows from the top of the arena, more worried about James doing a header and ending up five rows down.  What an event.  The bass fishermen role into the arena on their boat and haul our their catch from their on board coolers...complete to loud pumping music.  After weighing their bass then they get to tell about their day.  Funny to sit and listen to fish stories with about 6000 other crazy people-crazy end to our day.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!

Lots of yelling and screaming going on this morning.  How we miss the snow!  Hopefully some will still be around when they get home from school.

 The kids left for school and I was left with James, who was ready to play.  He has been talking about snow for the past month...snowmen, snowball fight....  We bundled up and spent a good portion of the morning outside.  The snow was super heavy and sticky which made for great packing.  Our snowman toppled but James loved throwing snowballs-even getting hit in the face made him laugh.  I pulled him endlessly around the yard in the sled, most fun for him was falling out-the rougher the better.  Such a boy!

Thankfully it didn't all melt before three.  By the time the older kids got home things were pretty wet but that didn't stop them.  Brayden had a pretty good snow fort going before the sun set.  It was amazing how long they played.  Brayden headed out a second time with Ron for a snowball fight and I think I could have rung water out of his gloves they were so wet.

Witchita Mini-Vacation

It has been a while since we have been able to get away as a family and just spent some time hanging out together.  With an extra day off we decided/hoped this weekend would work.  With basketball tournaments and wells drilling it almost didn't but thankfully everything fell into place and we were able to head out Saturday to the Witchita Wildlife preserve in Lauton OK.  To me when the bible talks about a barren and desolate land this is what I picture.  There are lots of boulders, scrub trees and "mountains"  Ron looks at this land and thinks it is beyond beautiful...such a different take on what we see.  Regardless of what we both think everyone enjoyed exploring this land.  We did lots of hiking-might be slow going but everyone stuck with it.  The kids mostly loved finding caves and crevasse to climb in, plenty of huge boulders to climb.  We spend the evening at a hotel and did a lot of swimming, something James was pretty excited about-both swimming and the hotel.  Sunday we hung out a little at the hotel and then headed back to the preserve to explore some more.  The older kids hiked to the top of Mt Lincoln  pretty impressive to see them on top.   James and I stayed at the bottom.  It don't know what is worse, dragging a kid up rocks or sitting with them waiting for an hour...we sang lots of songs, and threw lots of rocks.  By the time we were done hiking the most common phrase the kids were yelling was "cactus alert"   It was a wonderful time spent away from everything.

MORE PICTURES FROM THIS WEEKEND

 

 

 I won't say what Ron did to make the kids crack up.... something kids only think is funny.

 We came back from a hike to find this huge bull buffalo right by our car.

 James never likes being left behind.  Good thing he has an never ending supply of energy.

VALENTINE FUN

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Such a fun holiday.  I love valentines day, just making people smile is so much fun.  It is getting easier and easier as the kids get older.  Making Valentines is still work but not as hard as past years.  They are doing better at writing and I am to the point that mistakes just makes them that much more special.

Andrea had her party yesterday.  James was just as excited as Andrea.  James arrived and jumped right into the games and food...I think he thought the party was for him.  It was crazy for me to watch because he is as big as some of the little boys.  The kids played hot potato and a heart matching game.  They made a heart bird feeder  which Andrea had lots of fun hanging in front of her window at home.  They had a bag of valentines but didn't pass them out to each other ..Andrea could hardly contain her excitement to open her bag of valentines until she got home.

Brayden and Becca had their parties today.  They were all up early.  Becca was so excited to see what special valentines were by her seat in the morning   I think she asked five time the night before if I could make sure to decorate by where she eats breakfast.  We had a yummy breakfast of heart french toast and sausage.  Hot breakfasts taste so good (they don't happen too often!), extra nice to sit and enjoy while Ron took the kids to school.  Becca's class played Bingo and then spent a good amount of time looking through their valentines.  Most of the kids were distracted by some balloons...not Becca.  It was so fun to go through her valentines with her.  Special treats completed her party, although she came home a little sad because she had gotten some red pop which she couldn't drink as we had all decided to give up pop for lent (funny because she doesn't even like pop!)

Brayden's party was a little bit quieter, funny how one year makes a difference.  No endless chanting POP IT, POP IT, POP IT....... Anyway, they all exchanged valentines-fun to watch the kids hand them out.  One friend was concerned he gave Brayden the wrong one and had to dig through his box to make sure he was right.  Braydens class worked on making a Valentine card and gift bags for a local women's shelter.  It was a great project, I am so thankful for such wonderful mother's in his class.  James' eyes were huge when he walked into Brayden's room and saw the valentine treat which was a HUGE box of heart donuts.  Thankfully he remembered this was Brayden's party and happy with his own little stash of valentine hearts we took from home.

 Such a crazy day, I felt like we needed a wagon as we were leaving school.  Over flowing valentine boxes, swim bags, backpacks, coats (which no one wears) and lunch boxes.  We ended the day with a quick family meal at home.  After school sports/activities took over instead of a valentine date but still a nice evening.

Lots of Basketball

I guess you really never know what a day holds.  I thought Friday, and this weekend was going to be a pretty low key...at home couple of days, which I was totally looking forward to.  How fast plans can change.  A got a phone call in the middle of a much enjoyed bike ride-thanks to Ron for holding down the kids at b-ball practice   I don't even know why I answered as usually I ignore more phone when I am out.  Turned out our neighbors had tickets for the Globetrotters that started in one hour!  I was super excited but not sure how we were going to make it, no one had eaten dinner, I was in full warm biking gear, kids were at school with Ron???  It was a fast turn around but we managed to make it and WOW was it fun...it helped that we were given some pretty awesome seats.  James was pretty happy with "funny basketball"

From teasing the ref...a tad overweight, to playing with the crowd, crazy basketball handling skills, and endless silly antics during the game it was a great time.

Today we started the day with Brayden's last basketball game of the regular season.  They played a small team with no subs and finally had a game where they were the ones on top.  They were all pretty excited, fun to see smiles and some crazy shots actually go in.

This afternoon we headed to Buffalo Wings to cheer on our old College basketball teams as they played each other in the yearly rivalry game.  It was a close game, but an upset.  I wouldn't say we were the loudest craziest fans but fun to watch.

Chapel and a Couple Other Activities.

Today was Becca's class turn to help lead the elementary Chapel.  She was assigned to be a door holder.  I don't know who was more excited, her or James to come say hi this morning.  She was all smiles holding the door and did a great job introducing herself in front of everyone.  Although being able to sit by her in chapel was just as special, and having Brayden come give me a hug multiple times is just the best.  The kids were also pretty excited to have our Elementary Childrens leader come talk...Big Jon, I think they will always remember his dance for the beatitudes!

 

Andrea was excited today because it was her field trip day.  We were off to Zio's to make some pizza.  It is a wonderful little outing, the manager is great(even making pizza's for us moms) and has the bar prepared with pizza dough and toppings for all the kids.  Andrea is growing up, able to go ask for pineapple when she didn't see any on the counter...normally she always needs the support of Becca.

 

 

The weather has been beautiful and it feels like spring with the warmth of the sun by the time afternoon rolls around.  The kids are loving the outdoors, but the girls were having a hard time finding things to do.  We decided to change the rules and allow their dolls outside.  It had been quite fun to watch. I think the mail man gets a kick out of coming to our house just to see what the kids are up to these nice days.  They have been on wagon rides, walks in our front yard and to the hospital many times after falling off the tramp.

 Brayden spends most of his time perfecting his flips on the tramp or playing ball tag...resulting in a broken window, which has yet to be fixed.  I think I am getting old when these things don't seem to phase me anymore.  This weekend Ron worked on a Rocket launcher with the kids.  They had a lot of fun getting it to work and making rockets for it.

 

  The kids have finished their reports last week....just in time to start on Valentines (and other book report-autobiography)  Amazing how I feel behind and it is just the first week in Feb.  Brayden had a lot of fun looking at everyone's projects they made to go with their Arctic Animal Reports.

And one more quick note on Ron and I.  This past week we completed an online bike race of sorts.  Trainer Road put together a weeks worth of rides/workouts for riding on a trainer.  You had to complete every ride everyday in order to stay in the "pack" It was called the Tour of Sufferlandria, with a  stage for each day.  I have give credit to all the riders completing the entire ride on their own.  Ron and I split up the rides having to do with our schedules and I was still beat.  Anyway, something different, something fun.

Some days/ mornings/evenings were harder than others.  This day I was unable to get my ride done while cartoons were on so James decided to be my biking buddy....he lasted 15min but was a lot of fun.

 

The Coyboy Boots

 The weekend is over and James and I are left to tackle the house.  Today we found these boots...what memories!  James is just as in love with them as all the other little boys I have known.  He was the hunter this morning.

A Full Life

I  realize I have not been updating during the week.  It seems the days are just flying by and even the evenings seem to be filling up.  This is not a bad thing as most everything has to with family life which I am loving day by day.  School is really the focus these days and I can only imagine what it is going to be like in a couple more years.  This week on top of our normal homework requirements both Brayden and Becca had reports.  Second Grade is the year of book reports, one every month.  Sounded a little overwhelming at the beginning of the year but each report is in a different format and is actually a lot of fun to put together.  This month's was an oral report given on an arctic animal.  The class took a field trip to the public library and all checked out books.  Brayden did his report on the Wolverine.  I wish I could be in the back of the room listening to the kids give their report....I really have no clue how it goes, although he had a smile on his face telling me about it.  This report had a hands on project requirement...thankfully Ron is good and creative for this part.  Brayden made a clay impression of a wolverine paw print-pretty fun.  I was just glad to get it all done and hopefully still conquer spelling for the week.  Brayden is FINALLY loving reading.  He has found his Captain Underpants books and is on a roll.  Not my favorite books but I love not having to hound him to do his 30min of reading every day. He is also loving piano, amazingly he doesn't complain about is daily practice sessions, and I am loving starting to play little duets with him.
   Becca had her first report this week.  Nice thing about having Brayden a little older is that I know what is coming and what to expect.  This is also a bad thing because I tend to not make such a big deal about these things as I know the outcome.  Turns out to be a good combination with Becca being so laid back.  Her report was on a Community Helper.  She had to write a short couple sentences describing her Helper, workplace, what they do and then how they help the community.  I remember pulling my hair out with Brayden with the writing-neatness doesn't run in our family.  I still had to bite my tongue but we got it done.  She picked a teacher....a friend at church who teaches Bible and then swimming during the summer.  Becca was off to school in flip flops, suit and cover-up.  Once again I sure wish I could have seen all the kids give their reports.  After school they were all so excited to show me their props and tell me what they talked about.  I just love this age...you hang around enough they start feeling comfortable and now just talk my ear off after school....so fun, for me and the kids. Becca also had her first episode of forgetting something this week.  Mid morning Thursday I had a sinking feeling that I had never seen her put panties in her swim bag.  Thursday is swimming and they wear their suits to school under their clothes and it is their responsibility with a little reminding to pack their bag.  I stressed over what to do, not wanting her to be so embarrassed but also wanting her to learn to remember what she is told.  I ended up calling the teacher, who never callled me back.  I was braced for an angry and upset little girl at school pick-up (what I would expect from Brayden, along with lots of blame).  Becca showed up with her friends with a smile of her face and not a care in the world.  I finally whispered and asked if she packed her panties...she looked at me and just said, nope....but I won't forget again mom, like no big deal.  I just love that girl.
   This week we were able to go to a rollerskating party.  Such memories for me, learning to skate in our basement around the ping pong table to having my own pair of skates complete with pompoms winning races at the local rink.  Brayden  is getting pretty good, he loves to go fast but is always on the verge of being completely out of control.  Becca has noodle legs but by the end of the party was about to make it slowly around the rink with just a couple falls.  Andrea stuck with a push bar which helped steady her and by the time we left was able to skate pushing it around by herself.  It was just a workout for me but still lots of fun.  Still something about disco balls, lights, music and fast skates...nostalgic.
   The week is full of activites.sports, church.. but I find the most fulfilling are those special moments with each kids.  This week it was spending time with just James....listening to his little voice in the back seat tell me about his friend Oliver, or telling me he loves me (okay, he does tell me he doesn't like me too...forget that!).  I love hearing Becca in the morning taking care of James, getting him underwear, playing and entertaining him...being just a little mother, while mommy sleeps just a little more!    Lots of things pull at our time, good things but I am finding by not sweating the business and taking an attitude of enjoyment in all things proves for a fulfilling week. even if all I learned was that a Wolverine is a scavenger, Zerubbabel helped rebuild the temple,VBS is going to require a whole lot more volunteers than we can get,and that finding time for friendship is worth the effort.