Happy Scary Halloween

Jay's art work from school and below Jay's halloween costume - Pretty scary stuff this year.  I'll post more pictures this week.  Nick was a Navy Seal and took his role very seriously.

Parenting 101

I was going to post pumpkin carving pictures tonight but decided against it.  Stay tuned for those later this week.  Tonight, I just have to vent.  It's been a day!!!  My children have been stinkers all day and every time I turned around they were demanding my attention, fighting with each other or getting into something they shouldn't.  It did occur to me that they are transitioning into a new season and my children but especially Jay has a terrible time with transition.  Nick usually doesn't so I can only guess he's just being a pill just because.  Ugh!  The boys didn't get to play outside today because it was cold and rainy and after they couldn't agree on a movie to watch and started wrestling around the living room for about the 8th time and it was only noon, Mike and I put them to work around the house which actually helped.  I remember back when the boys were 2 & 6 and I would put them to bed at night and be utterly exhausted, tired of all the demands of parenting.  Now that the boys are 9 & 5 I don't have those days as often but today was a good flashback!  Parenting is hands down the toughest job on the planet.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the boys and I love being a mom, especially their mom but wow, there are some days when 8:00pm can't come fast enough - Hello bedtime! 

Fall family fun

Last night I had my family out for a wienie roast.  We had a lot of fun and of course the kids loved it.  Notice how great my mom and sister are looking.  My mom has lost 35 lbs and still going and Kim has lost 20 lbs.!  Way to go you two, you both look so good but most important you have beautiful hearts! 

Lauren loves to get four wheeling rides with her cousin, Jay.  Jay is so good with both Lauren and Luke but he's usually game for giving Lauren a ride and he's always safe with her.  Notice her big smile! 

                                                                                       The three stoogies!

Pass it on

Last year I hesitated about buying my adult size giraffe costume because of the cost and my mom gave me the best advice.  She told me to buy it - after all when would I have another opportunity to dress like my 4 year old?  And that costume provided so much entertainment not only for Nick and I but Jay and Mike also.  This year I got to pass on the same advice to my sister.  She debated whether or not to buy Luke and Lauren's costumes as Little Bo Peep and her sheep and I told her to go for it.  Life is too short and your children grow way too fast.  And all of you will see when I post Halloween pictures next week that I had such a small window of opportunity of the cute Halloween costumes based on what both my children picked this year.  Let's just say gone are the cute, cuddly giraffe and the year I dressed them as a farmer and cow.  Aren't Lauren and Luke so cute as Little Bo Peep and her sheep. 

The last nice weeked.....car washing style

Last Sunday was probably our last nice, warm weekend.  This weekend has been nice but cold.  Mike power washed the house and the boys decided to take advantage of it and wash my car.  Bonus for me. 

This is Jay pointing out all the dirt on my car - so something his dad would do. 

Opposites attract

Every parent who has more than one child is often amazed that the same parents can produce such different children but in my household it was makes me laugh more than anything.  I love the differences between my boys.  Recently we had Jay and Nick's parent teacher conferences which were good.  I was telling my mom a few of the details and as she was laughing hysterically she told me I really needed to document Jay and Nick's little quirks because not only are they amusing (to me at least) but they are complete opposite.  

*Nick gets up in the morning and is POKEY!  Jay jumps out of bed, wasting no time!
*Jay is first in the car.  Nick is last and usually Jay is yelling at Nick to hurry it up. 
*Nick is the clown at school.  His kindergarten teacher told me she really enjoys Nick, he just needs to work at staying on task (once again POKEY) and limit the socializing.  Jay's teacher reported he is one of the quietest kids and rarely raises his hand to ask questions. 
*When I pull up at school to drop the boys off, Nick is usually frantically beating on the window, telling one of his friends to wait for him so he can walk in with them.  Meanwhile, Jay has already jumped out of the car and like a bolt of lightening dashes into the school. 
*The lunch issue is another story.  Nick spends his lunch time talking.  Jay eats if it's something good.  When I pick the boys up from school Nick is usually eating his sandwich on the drive home - talking in between bites. 

Opposites - it's what makes the world go around and I'm sure glad the Lord blessed me with my opposite boys.  What is so cool is even though the boys are so different they are thick as thieves.  Jay would never admit it but he doesn't know what to do with himself when Nick is gone. 

Kindergarten Bliss

Recently, I've had the the opportunity to spend a little time in Nick's classroom.  I see things a little differently since Nick is my 2nd - and last - child.  Kindergarteners are such innocent, adorable children.  They aren't into making the next up and coming clique.  They think the smallest things are the biggest and their faces are filled with amusement and wonder.  Kindergarten children love to learn!  Nick's teacher asked me to cut a template from a retired kindergarten teacher (Jay's former kindergarten teacher).  As I was cutting I realized the project I was holding and using as a template was dated Oct. 2007 and as I scanned the project I realized it was from Jay's kindergarten class - all the way back in 2007!  Suddenly I could vividly remember Jay's Kindergarten year and it brought a smile to my face.  As I was taking a walk down memory lane I could hear Nick.  He was sitting on the carpet putting his ABC's together and singing the alphabet song as he was doing it.  It was so cute and I thought to myself this year would be my last experience of having a child in kindergarten.  It was bittersweet but also pure Kindergarten bliss. 

Luke's Dedication

Little Lukie was dedicated at church today.  After church we went to my sister's for lunch and she had quite a spread.  Thanks Kim!  Luke is getting to be such a big boy!  My boys but especially Jay is enamored with him. 

                              And miracles really do happen - a decent (perhaps not great but decent) picture of all 4 kids! 

See what I mean

I literally hit publish post on my prior blog when I turned around and saw that Jay had gotten his snow board from his room and was gliding down the furniture and the stairs!!  See what I mean when I say I needed to find a winter sport to help with his increasing energy? 

Busy but thankful

Jay has this week and next week left of football practices and tonight he starts basketball practice.  What does this mean?  It means that for the next two weeks he has either football or basketball practice every week night except for Friday.  And tonight after basketball practice he has Cub Scouts.  After football is over he'll only have basketball practice two nights a week - much more manageable.  I am not a parent who over schedules my kids.  When basketball sign up came around I encouraged Jay to sign up because it was something for him to do this winter - something to help his increasing energy level.  Ha.  But I don't like all the running lately.  I am thankful though that I work from home and the boys have some down time after school before heading to the next activity and most nights Nick doesn't have to go anywhere.  He hangs with either Mike or I - it all depends on who is taking Jay to practice.  But even before I worked from home Mike picked the boys up from school and they still had their down time.  The other day I was listening to a mother of 5 who works full time (her kids at 19, 8, 7, 5, and 8 months)  and I was amazed at all the balls she had to keep in the air.  All parents have to keep several balls in the air and it can get challenging.  I'm just thankful that for my own personal situation we seem to make it work for us.  It certainly isn't perfect but as my mom and I always say........Good enough!

This & that

Our weekend was really nice.  It was busy but nice.  We headed to Pontiac for Jay's game on Saturday.  We froze and Jay's team got beat but we always enjoy Saturday footbal games!  For once I thought the three of us took a good picture - all decked out in our Olympia gear. 

On Sunday I went shopping with my mom and we had a lovely day.  While I was gone Mike took the boys to Bass Pro Shop and for some reason both boys got these crazy fishes!  Mike said they had passed them and it was all the boys could talk about!  Go figure.  I must admit they are quite comfortable as a pillow.  It's like a giant fish pillow pet - bass pro style.

Of course Nick had to name his swordfish.  He named him "Slappy."  Apparently he gets kind of "slappish" with his big sword!  The funny thing is Nick treats his new friendly fish like he does his penguins and giraffes.  He wraps that fish up at night in his bed and actually gets him tucked into his covers.  That fish never had it so good - all those nights he was propped up on a display case in a busy Bass Pro Shop.  Now that fish is living large with Nick!  I can hear Nick talking to Slappy after he goes to bed.  What he has to conversate about with a fish is beyond me but it sure makes me smile.

The best thing about having a 9 & 5 year old (one of them anyway)

You finally get to sleep and I mean really sleep!  Before I get going too much on this blog because my sister and my mother would be quick to point this out, my kids are good sleepers - period!  They thankfully always have been.  When they were both three months old it was like a light bulb went off in their heads and they both started sleeping through the night and I never heard from them in the middle of the night again, unless they were sick.  Now before you start thinking I'm so lucky and Yes, I know as far as sleep habits go, I am but trust me......I always joke that the Lord knew how much I could handle and having kids not sleep was not one of them because my boys run me RAGGED during the day, all day.  But let me get to the whole point of my blog.  I can finally sleep in on the weekends.  Sleeping in to me is past 7:00 - pathetic I know but honestly if I sleep until 7:00 I'm good to go.  And get this..........if my kids are hungry and I'm not out of bed yet they can pour themselves a bowl of cereal!!!!  It's perfection.  But as my children age there are some things that remain the same and I hope will never change.  I got out of bed this morning about 7:15 and found both the boys sitting in the living room watching T.V.  (Jay is usually up at the crack of dawn, crazy boy).  Nick immediately asked where his dad was.  I told him he was still sleeping.  Mike gets up for work at 3:45 a.m. so on Saturdays if we have nothing going on and he wants to lay in bed until 9:00, I say go for it.  I went to make my coffee and when I turned around Nick was gone.  I knew right where to look.  I found him in our bed, cuddled up with his dad!  It's a great way to start my Saturday........a great night of sleep, quiet boys in the morning and cuddles between my husband and son.  Love it.

My husband is a genius

I have this issue - Yes. another one.  I get really uneasy when my children get out of my eye sight.  I know there are lots of parents who feel the same way but I've gotten a little ridiculous about it and it's driving my almost 10 year old crazy.  But there is another flip side to this story.  We live in a subdivision with neighbors but we also live in the country in a heavily wooded area.  We have neighbors who live across the street from us but I can't see the neighbors house due to where it sits and how wooded it is.  Honestly I don't have an issue when my boys go to the neighbors house - what I do have an issue with is when I go to call them home they never hear me so I have to go looking for them and this is how it goes.  Jay is riding his four wheeler in our neighbors trails and about the time I think I hear him on the 4 wheeler, I'm wrong and he's headed in the other direction.  Meanwhile, Nick insists he can help me find him so about the time I get Jay tracked down I'm usually missing Nick.  When I finally get both the boys together and instruct them to get their hinie's home (because dinner is ready) my dinner is usually burnt and I'm really cranky!!  My husband came up with a genius idea.  He bought two-way radios.  He put a device in each of their ears and off they went tonight.  It was great because when dinner was ready we just "radioed" them home.  Plus it was nice because even though I couldn't see them (heaven forbid) I radioed them both a few times while they were at the neighbors house to make sure they were both doing okay.  What a peace of mind! 

The Weekend - Part II

Yesterday we went to my Uncle Mike's farm.  It's about a 2 hour drive but it was worth every second we spent in the car.  Jay rode his four wheeler for hours around Mike's farm and we enjoyed the beautiful weather and time with family.  The picture above is my 82 year old grandparents.  My grandpa just recently bought this scooter.  It just cracks me up to think of my grandpa riding around town on his scooter. 

Wa-la a picture with me in it. 

Jay was all smiles yesterday.  It was the perfect day in Jay's world: having his family together, beautiful weather and a big, wide open space to ride his four wheeler.  The picture above is of my Uncle Mike and grandpa with Jay.

I just love these two.  This is Nick and Kaylee.  Kaylee is my cousin Amber's little girl.  Her and Nick are exactly same the age.  Kaylee is a February birthday and Nick is an April birthday so they are about 6 weeks apart in age.  They had a lot of fun together riding their bikes around. 

There is nothing like family!  Here's my mom and my grandpa taking a cruise on the Gator.

The Weekend - Part I

Everyone has experienced the perfect weekend.  In our family we don't always have perfect weeknds from start to finish.  Hey, I'm just being honest.  Overall, we have good weekends but this past weekend was perfect from beginning to end in every aspect.  The weather was AMAZING!  It's been 80 degrees and beautiful for the past 8 days!!!  We started the weekend with Nick's final soccer game.  Then we proceeded to Jay's football game - the Oly boys got beat but boy did they play a hard game.  I got to spend time with my sister and Lukie - always an added bonus!  I'll post more pictures from our big event today.  Right now I'm too tired to keep blogging and I need to go to bed. 

Nick with his new giraffe from Aunt Mimi!  Nick thinks his Aunt Mimi is the best ever! 

The soccer boy with his soccer medal!  As painful as it was to watch a group of 5 year olds play soccer, Nick really enjoyed himself and it was fun seeing him play in an organized sport! 

My three favorite boys

Lukie - 8 months
Nick - 5 yrs
Jay - 9 yrs
Giraffe - unknown age (LOL)

The bed making "issue"

You know how everyone has their weird, over the top, "thing?"  Well my weird over the top "thing" is bed making.  All the beds in my house must be made everyday.  If there ever was a day where I didn't make my bed I would most certainly make it before I got into bed that evening.  Because I'm weird about this it carries over to my boys.  Jay's effort at bed making is medicore at best.  Many days I either do it for him or I help him.  Pathetic, I know.  There is no one who can mess up a bed like Jay can.  Most mornings his bed looks like a bomb exploded!  I can hardly stand the sight of it.  This week my co-worker, Vanessa, told me straight up to stop making Jay's bed and to stop helping him.......that his future wife would thank me someday.  Considering she's raising girls her words really got through to me.  Thank you, Thank you, Vanessa because it was just the reality I needed to hear.  I told Jay this week he absolutly had to make his own bed.  He asked me for help but I stayed strong and firm - the answer was NO.  I told him I had confidence in him, that he could make a great bed and turns out he could!  Check out the picture above.  Granted his bed spread is on wrong but it's neat and that's all that matters to me.  So please, please future daughter in law, don't hate me because I enabled Jay in his bed making abilities for 9 years, I promise I'll have that boy making beds in no time! 
 

Play Maker

Recently Jay's football coaches came up with an idea: They give out a team jersey to a different player once a week.  This boy gets the jersey every Monday and can wear it for the week.  How do they earn the jersey?  By playing an excellent football game in their Saturday game.  Jay got picked on Monday night because of the way he played the game.  He was an excellent play maker - in other words he helped make the plays happen.  Jay was grinning ear to ear when he came home from practice last night.  Sometimes Jay gets discouraged because he doesn't carry the ball as often as he'd like but Mike and I are constantly reminding him that if he didn't do his job then the other boys - his team - couldn't do their jobs - score touchdowns.

The innocence of age 5

I love age 5!  I remember I loved age 5 with Jay too.  Nick is such a "glass is half full" kind of kid.  He sees the joy in everything and has a great imagination.  Nick got a small bottle of  bubbles at a party the other night.  He couldn't wait to take them outside and start blowing.  That's the thing with Nick, he loves spending time with his brother but he's also fairly content playing by himself.  Tonight I looked out in our backyard and Nick was happily playing by himself with his trucks building a "fort of weeds."  He's also spent a lot of time in the sand box lately. 

Pictures of the Salamander

Here are the boys checking out the salamander.  Of course Nick's Slithers had to be a part of it. 

Here's the salamander up close.  Personally I find him kind of gross looking but it was a good learning experience for the boys.  We learned where they live, how they hibernate and what they eat. 

This picture has nothing to do with salamanders but I had to include it because Slithers is finally well.  Nick has had Slithers since April and he loves him.  My mom purchased him for Nick and although Nick loves Slithers, Slithers is always sick.  He spends much of his time wrapped up in a coil in Nick's bed.  Nick always has some excuse as to why Slithers never gets out of bed: he has an infection, he's cold, he's molting, you name it, Slithers has had it.  But yesterday morning he emerged from Nick's bed and Nick announced he was well enough to go to his soccer game so he went.  However, Mike drew the line at taking Slithers to the soccer field.  I don't know why Mike didn't want a stuffed snake wrapped around him at the soccer game - Slithers would have made a nice scarf on a chilly morning - but anyway, Slithers stayed in Mike's truck and watched the game from the back window.  It's good to have you back in the land of the living Slithers.

The Salamander

Let me start my blog by saying I'm so glad it's October!  I love October and although it means (for us Illinoisians) we're that much closer to winter, I don't care, I'm going to suck up all the joy I can out of October.  I love Jay's football games, Nick's soccer games (painful as they may be to watch), cook-outs, the cool, crisp air, pumpkin patchs and with all these events comes my most favorite, spending time with family and friends.
On Friday night Jay discovered something odd in our yard.  Jay and I inspected it and came to the conclusion it was not a snake.  Jay is a huge animal lover and figured out it was a salamander.  A salamander near death I might add.  Jay put the salamander in bucket with rocks so the little guy could get up on the rocks and out of the water if he wanted to.  I told Jay he probably saved the little guys life because the salamander was in such bad shape when he found him that surely a raccoon or fox would have eaten him as soon as night fell.  Mike researched salamanders and although they can be found in Illinois, it's rare.  We plan on taking the little guy to our beach today and letting him go.  Apparently they bury themselves in the ground and this salamander probably wants to do that before it gets too cold.  Of course when I mentioned to Jay that he probably saved the salamander's life his response to me was, "Why don't you blog about it?"  You have to know Jay this was said with a little bit of sarcasm.  Well Gee Jay, I think I will, thank you.