Sunday, December 25, 2011

Santa Came!

Merry Christmas all! We are in Kansas City celebrating with my family. This year has been exciting witnessing Christmas through a four year old. Wesley has embraced the concept of Santa and the North Pole entirely and his excitement grew with every passing day. He got to meet Santa when he came to his preschool a couple of weeks ago, even sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted (Angry Bird toys, puzzles and a sand digger). Last night, after all the presents had been placed under the tree, my sister took a pair of shoes outside and collected dirt....making dirty footprints from the chimney to the tree. It was great. The kids woke up this morning, came out and just stared, wide eyed, at Santas footprints and half eaten cookies. The kids all made out like bandits, it was a good Christmas. I hope everyone had a nice relaxing day and remembered the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!

Pictures at JC Pennys the day before Christmas.

Blake and Baby Bennett.


Greta and I.

The boys (one being thrown in the air).
Wesley with his new hat. We all laughed so hard, thank you Granny Randi for knitting it.

The expression made me laugh. He wears his beard well.

Betsy and Bennett. Little dude is getting so big!

Love the "Ohhh!" expression on Emery. Robot was a hit.

Playing finger puppets with Papa.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

ABC Girl

Greta has been dazzling us with her ABC's for a couple of months now. I thought I'd share it with you. Disregard her lack of pants, they are optional in our household.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas Program

Wesley had his Christmas program last night and it was very cute. It was pretty much a repeat of last years songs but the four year olds got to do a few special things that he was too young for last year. He had to memorize his line of The Little Drummer Boy and preform it on stage. He did wonderfully! I sometimes wonder how he's my child, as I'd be petrified to be onstage. Here are some pictures of the evening and a video clip of the little darlings singing. Hope you enjoy!

Aren't they all just adorable? Wesley is back row, third from the right.

Little intermission. They look like they are having quite the conversation.

Classic Greta smile. She thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Group picture.



Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Weekly Winners

My dad brought over his new iPhone, the kid is in love!

Princess shoes and a Remington Gun hat. Makes a Dad proud.

Silly kids taking one of many "fake" naps during the day.

Killing zombies on the iPhone, it's a family affair. 

The kid loves Angry Birds, pretty good at it too!



Friday, December 2, 2011

A Sticky Situation

I'm starting to wonder if strange rodent related problems only happen to me, or if people just don't talk about it. Yesterday morning I'm awoken to the sound of tiny thumping. Immediately I think of the glue trap under the bed. Yes, I bought a pack of glue traps to try and catch some of the brown recluse spiders we have in the house. For some reason we have quite the problem with them in our bedroom in the summer. I never thought we had mice in our bedroom. So anyways, I peek under the bed to find this mouse dragging the glue trap around by its tail. Only its tail was stuck. I jumped out of bed and ran into the kitchen to get a container so I could catch him and get his tail out of the glue before he got his whole body stuck. Sadly by the time I got back to the bedroom he had firmly planted all four feet in the glue. I felt awful. Poor little thing was freaked out trying to get out. Darn glue traps, what was I thinking? I actually thought about donning oven mitts and trying to use rubbing alcohol to get his little feet unstuck. Yeah, that idea flew out the window when I saw how freaked out he was. So I did the only humane thing I could think of at the moment. I used tongs and picked up the trap, slid it into a empty Teddy Grahams box and popped it all in the freezer. I know, I know.....horrible. But I figured he would just go to sleep instead of sitting on that trap for days starving to death. This will haunt me for months I'm sure.

Ironically, after I'd put him in the freezer, I Googled "Mouse on a sticky trap" to find that there are several ways to remove a mouse from a glue trap. The most popular method is to place the trap with mouse in a lidded container and drizzle some vegetable oil on the trap. Apparently in a matter of minutes the mouse will be able to work itself free. The problem? You then have an oil covered mouse in a box. I couldn't exactly dump it outside in the 29 degree weather. Poor thing would have just turned into a popsicle anyways. I suppose I could have given him a nice bubble bath and blow dry before sending him on his way, but somehow I don't think that would have worked. So please learn from my mistakes, don't use glue traps. Oh and I'm never going to look at a box of Teddy Grahams the same again.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Fall Update

So my ability to blog on any regular basis has flown out the window. Instead I plan to do one rambling blog post a week to catch you up with our family happenings. Last weekend we joined Wesley's preschool class on a trip to a local Christmas tree farm. Ironically it was the same Christmas tree farm that my parents used to take my sister and I to every year to cut down a tree. It was a blast from the past. We learned all about how a tree farm is run, the parents getting more out of it than the kids. It was nice and it made me want to trade in our fake tree for that of a real tree and all the Holiday traditions that come with it.




We had a lovely Thanksgiving. It was just the four of us this year, the first time as just a family. We truly missed having family around for Thanksgiving this year. But after last year I think we needed a year off from traveling. I made way too much food and we all gained way too many pounds. Darn you strawberry cheesecake you call my name as I write this.

On the subject of food. The kids and I were out in the back yard running around and we meandered back to the big dead garden. I, unlike most good gardeners, leave my dead ugly garden to decay all winter because I just don't care enough to go back and clean up all the dead corn stalks and black vines. I do all that in the spring when the gardening bug bites me again. Anyways, we were back there wandering around when we saw green leaves. At the end of November after we've had many many freezes there was signs of life! Strangely enough there was a whole row of green onions stalks and big bunches of carrot tops. I planted this special mix of carrots I bought from Burpee called the Kaleidoscope Mix based purely on the fact that the carrots are all different colors. They mixed a variety of different kinds of carrot seeds, some that were white, red, purple, orange and yellow. Cool huh. Well they didn't grow all summer, nada. I thought I got a bum package or it could have been because it was the hottest summer in 20 some years. Who knows. But here it is November (darn near December) and I have carrots! Really cool, colorful ones at that!


For four years now I've been a bit of a Twilight fan. You know, that gay vampire movie? Well I was a fan of the book, books I should say. I started reading the first book right after Wesley was born and quickly devoured the other three books not long after. That book came along at a time in my life when I was doing nothing but sitting in a recliner with a newborn stuck to me 24/7. I will always be appreciative to Stephanie Meyer for conjuring up that story line that allowed me to fall so easily into a book, and then going on to write me three more. Ever since that first movie came out, Jessica (another fan of the books) and I would go to the opening weekend. We'd sit there amongst the teenage girls and feel just as excited to see the movie. I have to say, the movies are not good. The books are fun, the movies suck. But any chance to get out of the house and I'm on it! So last weekend we headed out for opening weekend of the last movie. Donning Twilight t-shirts no less. Ah fun times. Oh and this latest movie? Didn't even suck too bad.


Boy, this post is long winded! This is why I'm supposed to break these up into individual posts throughout the week. Doh. Well, last but not least is Wesley. He's having fun in preschool. They are learning to write their names. He tries so hard but is having a rough time. We sit down daily and work on writing letters, he's getting better by the week. He loves to lay on the floor with Greta by his side and trace letters in his workbook. I love looking down and seeing those two concentrating so hard. Thick as thieves those two.


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Weekly Winners

Sorry for the picture overload. I need to post more often! These were two weeks ago while visiting my sister.

Emery loving the leaves. Happy Birthday little man!

Betsy and Baby Bennett....and his light saber.

Such a cute picture of a happy Wesley.

Father and daughter at the pumpkin patch.

Betsy, myself and the boys on a hay rack ride.
Look at the happy face on Greta! She had a blast.

My cute parents.

Greta loved the sandbox.

My Dad and Wesley spent a lot of time at the duck races.

Wesley working the water pumps, he had a blast.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Conversations with a Four Year Old

This one was too much of a gem not to share. We are in the car on our way to preschool.

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Wesley: "Mom, do you remember when Greta was in your belly?"

Me: "Sure do."

Wesley: "How did she get out of your belly?"

Me: "Uh, very carefully."

Wesley: "Did you poop her out?"

Me: "Uh.....something like that? Aren't you a little young to be asking these questions?"

Wesley: "Did you know that some people eat animals?"

Me: "Boy, your little brain is on overdrive today isn't. Yes, some people eat animals. We eat animals."

Wesley: "........"

Me: "Dude, what do you think a chicken nugget is made out of?"

Wesley: flustered "Mom, you are silly!!"

Me: "That turkey sandwich you had for lunch, made of a real turkey....gobble gobble."

Wesley: clearly shocked and trying to digest it all. "Mom, you are super silly!!!"

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Perhaps that was a little too much information for a four year old to digest in a course of  three minutes.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Monster Dash

I ran in my very first 5K this past weekend. My sister invited me up to Kansas City to run with her and Blake in the Monster Dash on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun! I've been running nearly daily for the past couple of months and felt it was time to try out a road race. What I wasn't prepared for was how long 3 miles felt! I run 3 miles all the time but I know where the end is when I run on the dirt roads. This race was through town and around every turn I was expecting the finish line. It was a lesson in patience. What also made it fun was that you were able to dress up in costume for the race. I spent a large portion of the race just chuckling at the characters running along side me. We had the clan of zombie cheerleaders, the gal in the massacred bunny suit, the guy in the tequila suit with this partner in a lime suit and we can't forget the woman in the Jane Fonda workout suit (I don't think I can erase that image even if I tried). Betsy, Blake and I all donned wigs and capes and I had some witch tights (which helped keep me warm but still froze since it was 39 degrees). I wanted to bust my butt and do a 9 minute mile (which is fast for me) but ended up with a 9.2 mile which I'm still really happy with. It will make a good challenge to try and beat my time of 28 minutes in the next 5K. I plan to find another one around home soon. Thanks for inviting me Sis!

My sis, brother-in-law and I before the race....so early it's still dark out.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween

From our crazy clan to yours, hope you had an enjoyable and safe Halloween!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Leaf Pile

We had a great time spending the weekend with my sister. They have a massive amount of leaves in their backyard which made for some awesome piles to jump into. Take a gander at Sean diving in.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Holy Cow


After attempting to clean the basement I've decided we have way too many toys. I can't even clean the basement, where to put them all? I find this embarrassing.....so what better to do then post it on the internet? Me thinks it's time to have a garage sale. 

Monday, October 17, 2011

Fall Activities

Fall is my most favorite time if the year. I just love it. One reason is the traditions our family has. Fall means parades and pumpkin patches. So I'm squeezing the recent activities into one post. We do most of these activities with Jessica and her kids, so therefore there are a lot of kids in the pictures. Enjoy!


Parade time = large amount of candy.

Cute Greta really enjoyed herself this year.

Pumpkin patch kids with their chosen pumpkins.

Wesley and his preschool class.

In addition to a corn maze, they had a Milo maze.

The clan.

Lovin the barrel train!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Weekly Winners

The Tighty Whitey Avenger and his trusty sidekick.

My Dad rocking out to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance while showing off his dance moves he learned online for the song. He's a riot. Love you Dad. 


The new Nerf gun is getting some serious action......from Sean.

Morning cartoon time

Cute kid (if I do say so myself).

Swing girl

Rest in Peace Lady. Kitty passed away two weekends ago. We miss her a lot.