Baby Wonder

Ethan had a lovely 6pm nap, so I'm up with him at 9:30, wishing he was sleeping. Devin just found our photo CD from our wedding, so I was sitting at the computer with Ethan looking at the pictures. His head was down on me and I thought he wasn't paying attention when he suddenly sat up quickly and said, Mom! You're a Prince! I was confused and when we went to the next picture he said, Look! Daddy is a Prince, too! I realized that he thought I was a princess in my wedding dress, which I thought was hilarious. I don't know about being a prince, but I think we look pretty dang young in these pictures! :)

I went to the next picture, and Ethan said, Look! Two Daddy's! It's actually Devin and his brother, Murray, but they're apparently the same to Ethan. :)

What good memories! :)

Our Furry Visitor

The other day Devin woke me up and told me that there was a tarantula on our porch. Apparently he discovered it when he went outside to get the newspaper. Yuck! Our boys were quite happy with the discovery and if I was half the mom that my mama is, I would have caught it in a jar for my boys. I'm just not quite there, yet. :) Our poor visitor must have had some trauma in its life before cause it only had 7 legs. It stayed on our front porch, scaring our visitors, all day and then left sometime in the middle of the next night. Oh the joys of living in the desert! :)

Success

Well, we went to the baseball game last Monday and had a great time! It was surprisingly a lot better on the right day. :) Here are a few pics from the night:

The "real" beginning-of-the-game picture
The boys had a great time!

This pic was taken right before the game started. You might think that we still went on the wrong day cause there's nobody else around. That's the beauty of a minor league game! :) It did fill in a little as the game went on.

The boys all brought baseball hats, cause that's just what you do at baseball games. :)

I was going to take a picture of me and Ethan and he randomly kissed my cheek right was I was taking it. I thought it was so funny and cute!


The boys were beyond excited to get a picture with the "Tucson Toro."

There was a few big blow-up things for the kids to play on, which they loved. I thought Kevin was funny on this cause he just layed completely on his back the whole time. I let Dallin take Ethan on it, against my better judgment. I got really nervous because they climbed up....

and then Ethan looked down...

and then did this...
I was so afraid I was going to have to climb up there and get him down, but he finally just turned around and went down on his belly. :) Whew!

We had a great time and can't wait till next year when we can go again!

The Baseball Game that Wasn't

A little over a week ago, I bought baseball tickets to the "last game of the season" for the minor league here in Tucson. We hadn't been to a baseball game this year and I really love minor league games (less people, cheap tickets, you can see the players better, etc.). The tickets were for Monday, and I thought it would be a great Family Night activity.

Devin and I planned our whole Monday around this game. Devin went into work a little early, I took the kids to the school's ice cream fundraiser at the beginning so we'd have time for dinner, and then we planned on Papa John's $6 Monday Pepperoni Special for a quick, fun dinner.

The game started at 7, so we left the house at 6 so we'd be a little early to get great seats. We drove to the stadium and as we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed it was quite empty. We knew it was minor league, but come on!

We got out of the car and started walking toward the stadium. The boys were super excited. We pass the VIP Parking... with no cars in it...


...and saw the gates were closed and the ticket offices were all closed. hen Devin asked if we were at the right place. I took out the tickets and read the name of the field, which was where we were. I was like, It says it's here, at 7:00 on Monday, August 31--- As I said it, I realized that we were a WEEK early. Devin was like, "Are you kidding me??" The boys were too busy watching ants to notice our conversation.
Devin and I had a good laugh about my mistake and then we quickly decided to go to a nearby park. When we told the boys that there wasn't a baseball game that night, Dallin looked as if we had just stolen Christmas. I felt so bad! They were at least glad that we would go to the baseball game, we just had to wait a week.

We ended up having a fabulous time at the park. Dallin honed his monkey bar skills
and then we had a mad game of family freeze tag culminating with the Great Takedown of 2009.
All in all, it was a fantastic night, even if it didn't go as planned. :)

Bus Trauma Part II

The other day I picked up Kevin from school and he was ticked off at his teacher because she wouldn't let him get on the bus. I had to explain to him that she couldn't let him on unless I gave her permission (which, for the record, I had no intention of doing). So, the next step was him asking me if he could ride the bus forever.

I was a little hesitant to commit to riding forever, but I decided to let him ride the kindergarten bus home (cause it's half day so it's only kindergartners riding it) for a few days. The first day I got to the bus stop about 15 minutes early, and Ethan and I waited on the street corner with cups of water, the camera, and Ethan's snack. Ethan had fun playing on the sidewalk and in the rocks while we waited. Finally, I saw a bus coming into the neighborhood, so I snapped a quick pic.
And the bus kept coming....
....and then proceeded to pass us. It didn't even slow down. I KNEW it! Some drug dealer was driving the bus and was going to kidnap my kid! I grabbed Ethan and threw him in the stroller with the camera and my cup (at least I had my wits about me to quickly dump out my water) and I totally took off running down the street after the bus. I'm not really sure what I thought I would accomplish by doing this, but it just was instinct, I guess. Right before my little scene started, a man from a nearby house came out to wait for his son off the bus. He watched my spaz episode and then as I was running down the street, he decided to yell out and tell me that that was the bus picking up the afternoon kindergartners and that the bus dropping off would be by shortly. Oh, right. I knew that, I just decided to practice my sprints. Without my water.

I really don't think I was made to be the bus-riding-child's mother.

A little while later, Kevin's bus actually did show up, and he got off without a hitch. He actually really likes riding the bus and I think we'll continue it at least for a little while. It's probably psychologically healthy for me to get over this phobia. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

Goals, Sweat, and Cheerleaders

Back in High school, in my "skinnier days," my hometown had "Toadsuck Days" every year. Now, before you stop reading my blog and hate me for life for offending you, Toadsuck is actually a park in my hometown (Don't be that surprised, I AM from Arkansas...). Toadsuck Days is a little carnival/craft fair thing that they have downtown the first weekend in May. They also have a 5K race with it and when I was a teenager - again back in my skinnier days- my Mom and my sisters would run in the 5k. I never ran with them because I just didn't think I could ever run farther than one block without needed CPR and possibly a Defibrillator. I secretly wanted to, but I had lots of phobias (sweating, failing, etc. etc.)

Anyway, fast forward more than a few years (and pounds) later, and for some strange reason I decide that I really want to set a goal to be able to run a 5K. I use the term "run" very loosely. It's probably more like a jog, but really what I mean is just something different (hopefully faster) than walking. Sometimes my run/jog is about as fast as a one-year old toddling a long, but at least it's not walking. So, I set my goal to be able to run/jog an entire 5k. I started mid-April and I decided to use a program called "Couch-to-5k, which is a 9-week (3 times per week) program." I had read a lot about it online and decided it would be a perfect program for me cause I was so out of shape it wasn't even funny and the program slowly works you into running. I armed myself with a Couch 2 5k app for my iPod (which I LOVED), a lot of Nickelback songs, and set out.

The first day of the program you alternate jogging 60 seconds and then walking 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. I totally thought it would be a piece of cake cause EVERYONE can jog 60 seconds, right?? Well, I thought it was going to die. I was SO determined not to quit though, because I wanted to tell Devin that I ran every time I was supposed to, so I finished the first day, but my chest was burning and I felt light-headed. Not a good sign.

The second day, I ended up having to walk the second half because I just felt like I couldn't do it. I was totally ready to quit, thinking that I just couldn't do it. My parents happened to be coming into town that weekend, so my mom suggested that she go with me on the third day of the program. I still didn't think I could do it, but my mom helped teach me about pacing myself (Hello! Who knew that you weren't supposed to run as fast as you could the whole time?? Apparently I wasn't ever paying attention in PE), and relaxing while I was running. When we were running uphill, she would say "right, left, right, left" for me to keep me on pace. We were able to finish that day together and she helped me feel more confident about finishing the program.

We ended up deciding to run "together" for the program eventhough we live 1,500 miles apart. We'd both put on our bluetooth headsets, then I'd call her and we'd talk on the headsets while I'd listen to the iPod in the other ear. I'd tell her when it was beeping at us to run or walk, and then we were able to talk together the whole time we were running. I'm sure half my neighborhood thinks I'm schizophrenic because I was quite a sight talking to myself (I also always ran with my pepper spray), but it was awesome to do it with my mom!

About week 5, I started running sometimes with my friend Ashlie, which was great because that was my first time running 20-minutes straight. I was really nervous about it, but it really helped having someone there. She and I would run in the early (for me) mornings, and I realized that my body really doesn't like mornings. But it was really good to do because our race was in the morning.

My mom and I ran in Hawaii together and then finished the last day of the program at my house when she came out to visit. A little over a week later, we ran a 5k in Little Rock together (actually together, not just on the headsets!) on July 4th. We didn't get the most impressive time (32:52), but we ran/jogged the whole way!

Here's a pic of us the night in AZ that we finished the program (and did the whole 3.1 miles)

Yes, we're wearing matching shirts (we got these super duper lightweight shirts for AR humidity-- they were awesome). Yes, they're freakishly bright. Yes, I was sweaty. I have sort of gotten over that phobia. Yes, this is a crappy picture. It was taken with a camera that I owned for 2 weeks and then took it back cause it was horrible.

Here are a few interesting tidbits:
Total time running: 17 hours 8 minutes 45 seconds
Total distance: 85.38 miles
Overall Pace: 12 minute 2 second miles
My shortest time: (3.1 miles) 31 minutes 45 seconds
My longest time: (3.1 miles) 36 minutes 22 seconds
Pounds of sweat I loose for one run in the AZ heat: 1.5

The most curious dinner plans

I'm not really sure what came over me yesterday when I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. Considering it's about 103 outside, you'd think I'd make a cool summer salad or something. Apparently the heat has done something to my decision making skills cause I decided on stew. So, we all enjoyed a nice hot bowl of stew after church today. It was a little weird, but yummy so I thought it was OK.

After dinner, I found some hot chocolate mix that I bought when we came home from Germany but we never tried. I still had a few points for the day, so I made a pot of hot chocolate, which we all enjoyed.

Later, I was looking through one of my Lion house recipe books (seriously we've never tried a recipe out of there that we didn't LOVE) and I decided that I wanted to try a new recipe this week. After looking around, I surprisingly chose chili. It made me think of a story about my Papa getting upset at my Nana for making chili in the middle of summer, so I told that story to Devin, who pointed out that we had just had stew and hot chocolate for dinner. Oops.

Ethan, waiting for his hot chocolate to cool off...

No Babies!

Our "baby" turned 3 today! I guess that pretty much means he's not a baby anymore, but I don't know if I'm ready for that just yet. :)

Ethan's been SO excited for his birthday for weeks now (since Kevin's birthday) so he's been really enjoying his day. He's been having fun singing Happy Birthday to himself sporadically throughout the day, and answering people's "Happy Birthday" wishes with an equally energetic "Happy Birthday" right back. He's been carrying around a set of good guys from Grandma & Grandpa and a train from Nana and Papa all day. He'll open the rest of his presents after dinner when Daddy's home.

We're so lucky to have such a joyful little boy in our family. We just love the little guy!


p.s. Thanks to Ashlie for these amazing birthday pictures!!

Happy Birthday, dear Kevin

Today our sweet boy Kevin turned 5! I just can't believe it. When I picked him up from kindergarten, he was wearing a birthday crown that his teacher made for him, and he said a girl at his table said that he's cute and he'll still be cute when he's grown up. :) He seemed a little confused as to why she would say such a weird thing, but he just shrugged it off. We went bowling this afternoon with two friends to celebrate. They had fun, but I think it was a little hard for their age. Oops. Then we came home and had sprinkle cupcakes, which are pretty much the best thing in the world to a 5-yr old. It was a great day and I'm so thankful to have such a cute, spunky, sweet boy in our family!

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school for Dallin and Kevin! *sniff* I love being on a schedule and having our regular routine back after a crazy summer, but I miss my boys!

Kevin is in kindergarten now and he seemed to have a good first day. His teacher is really sweet and said that Kevin was "affectionate." It's really funny that Kevin has a tendency to fall in love with his teachers. Not in a freaky way, he just loves them and wants to hug them. Just ask his Primary teacher. :)

Dallin's in second grade, which I still can't believe. He wants to start bringing his lunch to school instead of buying it, so he was pretty thrilled about taking his Star Wars lunchbox with him to school today. I can't wait to pick him up this afternoon and see how his day went!

I thought Ethan would be sad about not going to school, but he seemed OK. After we dropped off the boys in their classrooms, Ethan said he wanted to go to school, but that was it. We went home and he had his 14th breakfast and then we went to the gym. Since kindergarten is only half day, we picked Kevin up right after that, so it didn't seem too long.

Here are a few pics from this morning: (I don't know how they matched.... Devin must have dressed them...) :)

Relaxation

Devin and I just got back from a childless week in Hawaii together. I keep wanting to say that sentence cause it makes me very relaxed. :) We left the boys with Devin's parents in CA and they had a blast there. I think they were sad to come home! We're so grateful to Devin's parents (and the other family that helped!)

My parents have a timeshare in Hawaii, so we met them there and had a wonderful week. Here are a couple pictures, but it's late, so I'm going to post more about it tomorrow. (hopefully....)

Roley Moleys

While we were packing up the car in CA, Dallin found some "Roley Moleys" in Grandma's front yard. He was SO excited! He even made me call Nana to see what they ate. She thought maybe strawberries. :) He wanted to take them home so bad, but finally agreed that we should keep them in Grandma's yard. I thought it was so cute how they were calling them Roley moleys! :)

Update on our Farming Life

Here's a little update on our Farming Life. Well, Kevin's favorite time of life has finally come: tomato season. He goes "tomato hunting" every day and finds all the red tomatoes. He usually eats most or all of them before coming inside the house, but I've managed to sneak a few inside before he got to them. I put some in a bowl yesterday and was taking a picture of them....
when I saw this....
...and then a few short minutes later, I saw this....

Hummm, sorry Devin, you may not get any tomatoes this season. :)

Here's Kevin, in full hunting mode:
Here are his favorite friends right now:

We also planted some melons, which are probably going to take over our yard soon. I planned for them to spill over the side of the garden, but I may have underestimated a little...

We also got our first cucumber this weekend. It's in the back of the garden, so I haven't looked too closely at it lately cause I wasn't expecting any just yet. I peeked yesterday and I saw a big cucumber! Please disregard the huge weed next to it.....
Yay! We'll eat it in a salad tomorrow. Yum! :)

Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to go visit Devin's family over Memorial Day weekend because Devin had Friday & Monday off. We had a great time! The kids just love being at Grandma & Grandpa's house! Devin's mom saved a lot of their toys growing up, and with 7 kids (5 boys), there's lots of toys! She has bags of "good guys" that Kevin loves playing with, and tons of other fun things that the kids love.
The boys also got to spend time with their baby cousin, Parker. Dallin calls him "my best baby friend." :) Parker loved taking his little finger and leading him all around. I realized that I need to teach Dallin to be more gentle with little ones because he kept being too rough. He loved little Parker, though!
On Monday, we went to Devin's sister's house for a BBQ. It was really fun. She had a water table for the kids that they loved and the BBQ was really yummy. After dinner, Gail made everyone little bags of milk, sugar, & vanilla and we shook the bags for 10 minutes with ice & salt and it made ice cream! At first, Dallin was super excited to shake his own bag, but after about 30 seconds, I looked outside and Devin was shaking 3 bags for the boys. :)

After eating, we went swimming at their pool. I didn't get in, but the boys had a great time. Dallin loves swimming and Kevin was a lot more brave this time, too. Ethan mostly wanted to stay in the kiddie pool... he was a little ticked at Devin when he brought him in the big pool. He was enjoying playing a game by himself: he would put his head down like in the picture and then pop up and yell lots of things, then quickly go back down. Crazy baby! :)

We also visited Devin's Grandpa's Grave that morning. We went with Devin's family and Grandma, and then we met two of Gail's brothers. It looks like a lot of people in this photo, but there are 4 more siblings with all their kids and grandkids missing from the picture! I thought it was really great to hear the things that people remembered about Devin's Grandpa.
We all really enjoyed our trip to CA! :)
On our way home, the boys needed to go potty when we were in the middle of nowhere, so we just pulled off to the side of the road and all the boys just "peed in the rocks" as Ethan says. It's times like that that I just love being a boy's mama! :)