The cute factor

We get our new puppy - Copper - in about 4 weeks.  We are so excited or least Jay and I are.  Mike is doing this whole dog thing because he loves his son and Nick is tolerating the puppy.  Nick's biggest conern is that Copper may eat his gerbil, Minnie.  Mike will be a great trainer, Jay will be Copper's best friend and vice versa and Nick.........well Nick will just be Nick with the dog.  I plan on talking to Copper all day long (since I work from home).  I have visions of Copper sleeping comfortably around my feet while I'm working during the day.  Anyway we went to see the puppies yesterday and they are adorable to say the least!  Mike even said they were cute and Jay can't quite believe it.  You have to know Mike to really appreciate this story.  Mike doesn't make cute comments about anything or anyone - ever!  On our first date I mentioned that his little Geo Tracker was cute and his response was, "Cute, really?"  He then grinned his cute grin that hooked me immediately and replied he was good with cute because he was secure in his masculinity.  Apparently he's still good with cute since he admitted those Viszla puppies were cute.  Jay has mentioned at least 5 times that he can't believe his dad thinks the puppies are cute.  Today he said and I quote......."I still can't believe dad admitted he thought the puppies were cute, the only person he ever thinks is cute is me!"  So true, Jay, so true! 

Weekend fun

My sister came up with an idea to take Lauren and Nick to children's museum in Decatur - about 50 miles from where we live.  The good news is we have a really good, childhood friend who lives there so my mom went along and we hooked up with Tracy and her mom, Kathy and Tracy's kids.  We had a really good time. 

Lauren and Nick playing trains.

Nick and Tracy's son.  The kids were ages 6, 5 and two 4's! 

Air traffic controller, Kim - giving orders to her nephew, Nick (below)

             Kim, me and Tracy!  We love Tracy and wish we lived closer.  Kim and I would hang out with her constantly!

Glory Be!

I have spent a lot of time on my knees lately praying for Jay - for a variety of reasons.  Most days I have no idea what I'm doing with him and feel like I'm doing nothing right..........hence all I can do is get on my knees and pray.  My most recent concern has been Jay's reading or lack there of.  When he reads to me I almost start to hyperventilate from worry.  I worry he'll always be behind in reading.  I worry he'll be a terrible speller.  I worry, I worry, I worry.  Don't all parents?  It's part of our jobs.  But when I read to him, he's engaged.  The comprehension is there which is a very good thing but the love of reading and reading well is not.  But this morning I had a Glory Be moment.  We were walking out the door for school and suddenly Jay's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Mom, I'm reading the best book right now!"  I stopped in my tracks and Jay went on to tell me he was reading a book about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  He was so excited about it.  Now there is a word I don't use very often when I'm telling a Jay story - excited.  But he really was.  He went on to tell me details of the book.  It was music to my ears to hear him so excited about reading.  Jay does enjoy reading non fiction - especially history books where bombs are involved.  Suddenly my worries subsided.  I took it as God's gentle reminder that Jay is chugging along just fine and to keep having faith in Him.

The basement project

We've lived in our house for 7 years now.  I love our house but......isn't there always a but?  But it's all open which is great but we are always together - always!  Now this is not a bad thing but we do have growing boys and only 1 T.V. in our entire house.  This winter after a hard Saturday of the boys wrestling all over the living room floor I suggested to Mike that we "finish" the basement or at least set it up so I could use the same line my mom did when I was little........"I've had enough, you two go to the basement!"  So Mike put up can lighting, we bought some games, a futon (thanks Cousin Michelle) and set up a T.V. for the Wii & DVD's.   There is no carpet and it's cold but the boys love it and the project produced the desired outcome - getting the boys out of the living room!  Ha.  Plus it helps because when Jay has friends over, we're all hanging out in the living room.  It gives Jay and his friends some privacy and fun. 

The futon with the Wii.  I put a huge blanket on the futon so the boys can wrap up and keep warm while they watch a movie or play Wii.

The basketball & football games and the kick boxing!  I mean really.....could this basement scream any louder that it belongs to boys?

The hockey table.

                                                                Thanks Mom!!  We love our new boy cave!

The 100th day of school

Check out Nick's 100 glasses from the 100th day of school and by-golly he's still in Kindergarten.  Imagine that?

Thoughts on first grade saga continues

It's rare that I blog twice in one day and it's rare I continue the same story but this was worth it to me.  As the day continued I noticed Nick could not let the first grade thing go.  Tonight at dinner he asked if I would be walking him to his classroom in first grade.  Huh?  I told Nick that when the time came of course I would walk him to his first grade class.  I'm pretty obilivious to things but I must admit by the time he asked me that question I was thinking what is it with this boy and first grade?  Finally tonight as I was putting him to bed he told me he thought he was going to first grade tomorrow because tomorrow is the 100th day of school.  Nick just assumed that with the 100th day of school he would graduate to first grade.  My sweet, innocent Nick!  I told him he didn't need to worry he still has many more months of kindergarten left and he won't go into first grade until August.  He seemed so relieved! 

Thoughts about first grade

Out of the blue this morning Nick asked me several questions about first grade.  His first question was whether or not first grade was hard?  I responded by telling him it was harder than kindergarten.  He pondered that answer for awhile and then asked me if he'll have to do math in first grade.  Then his final question was if he was tall enough for first grade?  I love how Nick thinks.........although what goes on in Nick's brain is often a topic of conversation in our home.  His imagination provides a lot of entertainment for us.  Nick has been my cuddler lately and I love it!  On cold winter nights he loves to jump up on my lap and wrap a blanket around us.  The flip side of Nick's personality is he's a stinker!  It is not unusual for me to get notes home from the teacher or calls.  But I try to keep it all in perspective.  His shannigans are normal kids stuff but it can get exhausting! The thing is he's quite hysterical but Mike and I are trying to channel that funny personality so that he doesn't become the class clown and trust me, it's a challenge! 

We finally got snow!

Tidbits from my boys

The boys have said some cute things lately - even Jay and his 10 year old self - and I wanted to blog about it, imagine that?  The other day as I was putting Nick to bed he asked me, "Mom, you know how Jesus lives in your heart, how does he do that?"  Too cute.  I had my own answer and Mike had his own answer.  Everyone has their own answer in their own words but the bottom line is I was glad Nick was thinking about it.  He then proceeded to ask me what a spirit is?  My mom had the perfect answer for that.  She said our bodies are simply our shell and our spirits are what is within us. 
This morning I woke Jay up and I was almost down the steps to prepare breakfast when I heard him say, "I need a hug.'  I nearly tripped over myself running back to Jay's room to scoop him into a morning hug.  He smiled and said, "I knew you would come back for that."  Ahhh Yeah!  Hugs from my almost pre-teen age son are few and far between so I take them whenever I can get them.

An Ode to Jay on his 10th Birthday

It was a cold and bold day 10 years ago when our baby boy Jay made his parents day.  He made us giggle and he sure liked to be tickled.  Through the years we've watched him grow.  He loves running the ball and riding his four wheeler.  His brother Nick can sure make him fuss but never causes him to cuss.  His schoolwork is steady and he's always ready to face a day's challenge.  His humor is dry but never sly.  His jokes may be gross but they always make us laugh with glee and sometimes even pee!

Jay, I am so proud of the young man you are turning into.  I love being your mom and I love that you are my son. 

Happy 10th Birthday!

Rock climbing birthday

Jay choose to have a rock climbing birthday party this year.  He invited 3 of his good friends and with Nick it made 5 boys!  We had the party this afternoon.  It started at 2:45 and ended at 7:30 and I am giving myself Kudos tonight because not only did I plan it well but the timing of it was perfect.  We drove the boys to the rock climbing facility and they climbed for 1.5 hours.  Then we headed home for a steak dinner, cake and ice cream and in between that the boys played Laser Tag and they loved it.  The picture above is of Jay climbing 65 feet up the silo! 

Little brother, Nick, attempting to climb the 65 feet.  I think he made it 8 feet but the poor little guy has short legs. 

The boys sitting down to eat dinner.  My mom picked Nick up from rock climbing and he went home with her so it was just the bigger boys in the evening which worked out well.  Jay and his friends are really good to and with Nick when he's around but sometimes it's nice for Jay to just be with his friends.  At one point during the evening Mike heard Jay say, "I just love these kind of days!"  In Jay's world it was a perfect day.  He played in the snow in the morning with his brother, went rock climbing with his best buddies, ate a steak dinner, played laser tag and then had his dessert of choice, a chocolate chip cookie cake.

                                                                                      The Laser Tag Crew

Let the birthday festivities begin

Jay's birthday festivities began on Jan. 13 and will go all weekend long.  Crazy, I know but that's the way it worked out this year.  Jay opted for a friend birthday party so that is tomorrow and on Monday, his actual birthday he'll be hanging out with me at home while I'm working.  Last night I made a red velvet cake and we had our family over to celebrate.  Happy 10th birthday, Jay. 

The four kiddos.  Lukie was a walking fool last night!

Our LONG boy!  He's come a long way from the day we took him home from the hospital, weighing a whopping 5 lbs!

The hat girls.  I love this picture of Lauren and my sister.  They both make me laugh with their silliness!

Good times with Lukie

My sweet nephew, Lukie, came for a visit the other night and spent the night!  He is all boy and fit in perfectly with my two boys.  Like Mike said.....once I added 3 boys to the mix it was like living in a locker room. 

Jay loves Luke and is so good with him.  It was so nice to know I could run and do something and know Luke was safe with his cousin.  That being said I'm sure the "newness" of having a baby around would wear off quickly if we had Luke full time.  Jay would drop him like yesterdays news if he had to "help" on a full time basis.  But no worries, Lukie, Jay sure loves you!

The boys got the basketballs out and Jay showed Luke how to bounce and roll! 

Look Mom, we no longer eat from the kids menu

Okay so my title is kind of dumb but I posted this picture of the boys (and I think they look so grown up) and I thought it would be a good tie into my topic..........Yes, my kids no longer eat from the kids menu.  They cost us a fortune when we go out and going out to dinner is something we love and do frequently.  This happened about 8 months ago.  Even Nick no longer orders from the kids menu.  Mike likes to call them his carnivores.  They are both big meat eaters.  Recently on a trip to Outback Steakhouse Nick ordered an 8 oz. prime rib and Jay ordered a 10 oz ribeye and they demolished their entire meal!  What's more amusing is sometimes they will bring left overs home and Nick is a big lobster fan.  Just this week Nick had left over lobster and prime rib for lunch.  I just laugh to myself when I think of my 5 year old sitting down for lunch at school and breaking out his prime rib and lobster! 

And as a side note.......my snack drawer is working beautifully!

Mild weather indeed

Today it was 50 degrees in central Illinois!  This is unheard of in January.  The weather today was like "teasing" day in March - the kind where it gets just warm enough to remind us that spring is around the corner.  Since it's early January I'm well aware we still have a good 8 weeks of cold winter weather.  Jay went over to a friends house after school with his bike.  Again something neither of my kids get to do in January.  Nick and I took a 45 minute walk around our subdivision and Nick wore a sweatshirt!  Crazy but I'm loving it.  The irony of all this is the fact I now work from home.  I was so looking forward to the first day where the weather was HORRIBLE and I would get up, gaze out the window, smile and make myself another cup of coffee in my cozy home, knowing I would no longer have to battle the weather.  I'm sure that day will come eventually but for now I'm loving the weather and so are my boys!

Red neck new year

Mike came up with the creative title of my blog today.  We got just a wee bit of snow today but it was enough for the boys to break out the four wheeler, tie the sled to the back of it and have some good times.  I liked my title but I gotta tell you, "Brotherly Joy" came in a distant second.  My boys can fight and carry on and send me over the edge but as much as they fight they equally play together as best friends.  I don't know what they would do without each other.  They are each other's best play mates and partners in crime.  Jay has had a hard time socially in 4th grade this year - nothing major, just normal kid stuff but he always comes home to his brother who accepts him for who he is and is always willing to play with him.  On the flip side Jay is always up for showing Nick a good time and where else could Nick hitch a ride on a sled on the back of a four wheeler? 

Let the fun begin.  The boys had a ball but it ended badly.  Jay took a turn too tightly and fast and Nick flipped off, hit the log stack and scraped up his back.  As I'm writing this there is a lot of complaining coming from the couch and Nick just barked at me...."Mom, shouldn't you be making dinner right now?"  I guess I better get to it.  My boys are hungry from an active day in the snow and some minor injuries. 

My top 11 for 2011

I made a brief recap list of 11 events that happened to my family in 2011.  It's more or less a reminder of eveything that happened. 
*Jay got a staph infection in his finger and had surgery in January.  Very scary but he recovered nicely and has a very small "battle wound" scar.
*In February we had the worst blizzard I've ever encountered in my adult life.  We lost power for 24 hours. 
*My nephew, Luke, was born shortly after the big blizzard.  He'll be a year old next month.
*We went to St. Louis for Nick's 5th birthday!
*I accepted my new job at the very end of April and started working from my home in June.  One of the best decisions I've ever made.
*My mom retired in late May!  She loves being retired.
*Nick started playing soccer in August, his firs organized sport.
*Jay played his 2nd year of tackle football. 
*Nick entered Kindergarten.  It seems like yesterday that I took Jay for his first day of Kindergarten.  It's really bittersweet.  Jay entered 4th grade. 
*This October, November and December is the most I've seen Mike work in 5 years - no kidding.  It's good job security but I will be ready for things to slow down for him.  
*We have had an easy winter....so far.  We haven't had any snow and although the boys were sad they didn't have a white Christmas, I gotta tell ya, I was not.  I am not missing the snow!  I'm sure we'll get some eventually but if we don't, I won't be disappointed. 

As far as 2012 goes I have a few things I want to change.  I have the usual....lose 15 lbs PRONTO, I would REALLY like to get involved in a small group for bible study but I'm not sure how I want to form this or even if I want to be the one to form it.  But I'd really like to form some new friendships and keep up with my old friendships.  But the big, major thing I really want to accomplish is to make my children more self sufficient.  Right before Christmas I kind of had an ah-ha moment.  My friend, Amy, who has 3 boys told me if she thinks her boys are capable of doing something then she makes sure they do them.  I think I have a tendency to do too much for the boys.  I'm not that bad or that enabling but I do recognize it's something I need to work on.  I would really like my future daughter in laws to like me.  Ha.  My boys are 5 and almost 10 and most days they need something every second of the day and it's exhausting for heaven sakes!  Yesterday I washed Jay's bedding.  First off let me say the boys do make their own beds every day but when I wash their bedding, I put their clean sheets back on.  But yesterday I put all of Jay's sheets in his room and told him to make his bed because when I asked mself if he was capable of doing that my answer was Yes.  And sure enough he made his bed.  Granted it was not how I would have done it but it got done.  I also designated a snack drawer.  The snack drawer has healthy snacks.  My goal is to eliminiate me finding them a snack.  When they ask for a snack now I can direct them to the snack drawer.  I can't believe it took me almost 10 years to come up it - I mean really!  So with every task I give them I'll continue to ask myself....are they capable of doing that and if my answer is Yes then they are doing it.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Happy New Year's everyone.