Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Daddy's Little Helpers

This is just the best picture of Anthony! We were making silly faces for the camera.

Rob was doing some yard work on Sun, and the boys thought they would help. I am not sure that Rob saw it that way, but he was a good sport about having to re-rake the leaf piles 3 times.

Today, Rob left for the field. This is a rare occurrence for him since he is driving a desk right now. he was so excited...like a kid at Christmas as he packed up all his little gadgets and toys. The boys thought they would help with this too. As he got ready to leave, the boys asked if they could go to the field too and ride the tractors and sleep in a tent. How can you not love that? This is Gabe playing Army...I think he might still have a little bit of growing to do.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

What did you do today?

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.

The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog.

Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall.In the front room the TV was on loudly with the cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.

In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.

As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day? ''Yes,' was his incredulous reply. She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.'

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Fruit

Gabe has never really been a fruit kid. He'll eat applesauce or any thing like that, but not just a piece of fruit. We always put it on his plate...then he promptly says no and moves it off his plate. But yesterday he ate 2 bananas, and a piece of watermelon. He called them Popsicles, but who cares. I didn't take a picture for fear he would stop.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Big Back log...sorry

I love this picture of Rob and Anthony! They both almost have a smile :-)

I am swamped with school work. I have two papers due plus my regular work. I am a little stressed...and up at 5a every morning right now. My mom left about a week ago...I am still very sad. I told Anthony once that I wish she would come back, and now he says it all the time. Even Gabe is saying Grama back when he is sad.
Rob is travelling...again. This time he is in Reno...poor thing. But we do have a 4 day weekend this weekend for Veterans day. I am hoping to finish my bathroom completely! We are also going to take the boys to see Madagascar 2. This will be there first movie that is not a free movie. We will do real popcorn and everything.

Here are some pics. Before my mom left, we went to the pumpkin patch. Rob and the kids also carved a pumpkin and we even toasted the pumpkin seeds. Anthony did not like the pumpkin seed texture...but at least he tried it. And we did go trick or treating.




Oh, and I put the boys in the same room. Works great for night time, not so good for naps :-)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Yeah! My mom is here

My mom is in town and we are busy, busy, busy.
The kids could not be more excited. They get to do all sorts of new activities with Grandma. She brought two new DVDs and two new books. She also bought Anthony his Christmas gift...a V-Tech computer. He loves it. He will often tell me that he now needs do his 'puter work. The keyboard is wireless so he carries it around like a brief case, kisses everyone, then goes to work.

The boy also got to help us sand cabinets.
Yesterday was super nice (sunny and about 65) so we went to the park in the afternoon. The highlight was throwing big rocks into the water.

Since it was Grandma's turn to make dinner, we went to Shari's (a local diner) for dinner. The boys had chicken fingers and french fries. Then Grandma got them desert...ice cream with chocolate sauce. Can anyone else see how only a Grandma would pick this while out to dinner :-) Anthony was only a mild mess, but Gabe was a disaster. The funniest part was how careful Gabe was trying to be. he was very intent on using his spoon and actually putting the food in his mouth.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Just for Jennifer


So, I got tagged by Jennifer. This is the sixth pic from my sixth folder in my picture archives. This is the first real photo of Gabe and my mom. She had come to visit in Alaska. It was really nice to have her visit...she always takes such good care of me. BTW, she arrive tonight at 9p. Yeah!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Disappointment

Wow! I thought Rob had Tuesday off. I had plans, not big, but never-the-less important. I was really looking forward to having a little time to myself. And then the bomb dropped...Rob does not have Tuesday off. Bummer. All my plans are for nought. It will all be ok...but I still morn the loss of my 'me' time.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Ready for Rob

The boys...ok mostly me...are ready for Rob to come home. It has been a long week. Gabe is seeing monsters, so I am only getting a little sleep. I am thinking of moving him into Anthony's room to see if that settles him to have his brother there. But this too could go terribly wrong!







On Sat we went to Children's day at a local park. The boys got their faces painted and got to jump in a bounce house. Again, Gabe proved he had no fear. Anthony also got to participate in a martial arts demo. he loved it. They taught him to break a board...he is begging to go back. This is the first activity that he has really shown an interest in so we may need to make the effort.



They have however had their moments. After nap today I really needed to go to the store. Before leaving, Anthony announced that it was halloween and he needed his elephant costume. So, we went to the store in our halloween costumes...why not?!?

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Post 101

Yeah!
Here are two more pages that I did. One is the caramel apples we made the other day, the other is pics from our florida vacation.




Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I love you

Everyone loves to hear their children say "I love you" and know that they really mean what they are saying. I know that it will not be long before they learn the dreaded "I hate you" followed by a slamming door.

Anthony never said "I love you" when he was little. Don't get me wrong, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loved me. But Rob wasn't there when he was little, so he never heard "I love you" as a conversation. Instead, I love you was what I said to him. In fact, it is only recently that he says it with great regularity. It is almost his security blanket. If he is sad, tired, lonely, he will come find me to say "I love you."

But for Gabe the world is totally different. He hears "I love you" conversations all the time. Now he has begun initiating with his toddler "wuv u." I love that I have this memory of him. He is the first to give me this sweet, toddler speak that only one person really understands.

Most importantly, I love that I have a completely different experience with him. Not just because of his personality, but because the situation is so dramatically different. Not all second kids get that sort of memory. It is usually reserved for the first child. I have worked really hard to make sure he is more than Anthony's little brother...maybe I don't need to work so hard, he will find his own way to be unique.

Look What I Did

Most of the site is a brag about the kids. However, this is my digital scrapbook page that I did. I have always loved the idea of a scrapbook...pretty pictures all neatly embellished. I am not however very gifted at cutting in a straight like or any of that. So, I have now found digital scrapbooking. With the help of some websites and my tutorial books, I can use Photoshop to create lovely pages of my kids activities.

This is the first. Anthony went to the pumpkin patch today with his school. It was his first school field trip. He was so excited to have me come back to see him. I took Gabe to a friend's, so Anthony could have me all to himself. He loved it. He wouldn't feed the lambs, but loved the chickens and the big tom turkey.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

A Day at the Farm

We went to Lattin's Cider Mill this afternoon. Of course it was raining, but that should never stop one from a good day. It is Applefest time here and the pumpkins are getting quite big...almost ready for picking. Lattin's offers a wide variety of activities...you can feed the animals, pick a pumpkin, ride a tactor, run through a maze, sling shot apples at cows (not a joke), and eat lots of yummy food.



So we fed the goats. Gabe got his hand bit because he tried to feed the with a closed fist. Anthony wanted no part of those goats.


We watched the cows get hit by apples.

We rode the tractors.
We saw the Chickens.
We saw the bunnies.


We ate yummy food. Here are the kids with chocolate doughnuts...Anthony picked the treat. But I can't complain since he also ate an entire apple after the doughnut.


Saturday, October 4, 2008

Where did the week go...

My kids are the coolest and dorkiest kids I know!




We are busy at our house. Fall is in full swing. The leaves are changing and the weather is definitely cool and rainy. But we did get some very nice Indian Summer weather at the beginning of the week. Of course, the kids played outside all day.
Anthony picked me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. My friend Jennifer talked about having dreamed of the day her little girl would wear a tutu for ballet. Well, I have always dreamed about my little boys bringing me wild flowers. And it was as sweet as I imagined it.


My neighbor has a small apple tree and he and the boys picked apples. They worship our neighbors. Their daughters babysit for us. Terri makes me dinner sometimes. And the boys think Brian is just the neatest man around. We are super lucky to have them.
We also went to the park...a few times actually. And played in the back yard. The boys love outside. They now run up and down our little hill with footballs yelling TOUCHDOWN and BOOMER SOONER!
The funniest moment this week was when we put Anthony's raincoat on him for school. Gabe and Anthony have matching raincoats and Gabe thought for sure we were letting Anthony take his raincoat to school. Gabe broke down. The only thing that would calm him was to let him wear his own raincoat over his PJs. He was truly beside himself.
Right now, Rob is steam cleaning my floors. He is such a good husband :-). He leaves for Michigan on Mon, so I will be solo for at least a week.