Happy 7th Birthday Nick

 Look how much Nick has changed in 7 years!  How has 7 years gone by so quickly?  Nick is the  entertainer in our house.  He makes us all laugh on a daily basis.  And certainly some of the conversations I have with him are let's just say "interesting."  Last night he asked me what kind of music I wanted him to play at my funeral.

                                           Nick's breakfast birthday request - monkey bread!

 Jay took this picture of us.  It's actually pretty good minus the shadow.  Poor Nick, he really is my mini me.

 Don't you dig Nick's T-shirt?  Jay got him the shirt for his birthday.  Nick proudly wore it all day and apparently Jay decided to take a day off from torturing his brother.  Jay was nothing was nice to him today and Nick was thrilled.  I made Nick's bed for him this morning (since it was his birthday and all) and Jay was so ridiculously nice to Nick that Nick surprised Jay and made his bed for him while Jay was showering this morning.  Wonders never cease.

 Since retiring my sweet mom makes her grand kids their birthday cake.  Nick choose a penguin.  Isn't it cute?  And it was good and moist too.  Thanks mom.

 My sister and the kiddos.  Luke is petrified of Copper.  Notice Copper's head off to the left and notice Luke doesn't take his eyes off her!  

Happy Birthday sweet Nick!  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for you!

The weekend......

Last night I went out to dinner with Jenny and Sarah - love those girls.  Sarah has 3 boys and we both said how much we look forward to getting out with girls.  It is nice for me to get away from all the mud, four wheels, farting, pooping and burping - sorry but it's true.  It has been a terribly wet spring.  It was pouring last night when we went for dinner.  We are winding down the school year and Jay is involved (which means I'm heavily involved) in a big 12 paragraph essay about Alaska.  He has no motivation to do it and it's proving to be quite a challenge.

 Here is part of the problem with finishing the Alaska essay.  Jay just wants to live in his waders catching bull frogs!

 And he has a little brother who entices him to do so.  In all seriousness I am so thankful the boys love to do these things together.  Their personalities are so different that getting dirty is what they both have in common.

Even dad got some laughs with the bull frog!  As I'm blogging now the boys are fishing - something they do frequently these days.  It is overcast and rainy today - not that you need an excuse to go fishing!

Fun times at Froggie island..........

We have this place in our subdivision which is affectionately referred to as Froggie island.  Hence the big frog one of the neighbor boys is holding.  All of the boys congregate at this island.  There is mud to be played in, water to swim in and frogs to be caught.......all a little piece of heaven to every little boy.  Notice my older son.....the biggest redneck in the group!

15 years..........

Today Mike and I celebrate being married (relatively happy I might add) for 15 years.  When I look at the above picture I think we sure looked young.  Mike was 25 and I was almost 24.  Of course Nick had to comment that we both look bigger now than we did then.  That's what a mortgage, full time jobs and two very active boys will do to you......gain weight and in Mike's case hair loss.  Our first year of marriage we lived in the same apartment building as Mike and Jenny and boy did we have a good time.  It was a great first year of marriage.  Since that time we bought our first house, remodeled it from top to bottom, built our current house.......and yes we're still finishing that too.  I have changed jobs and of course we've had two very adventurous little boys.  Mike likes to say we were both just plain stupid until we turned about 30 and had two kids and then we all of the sudden got wiser.  Ha!  I do think there is some truth to that though.  Mike and I are different in many ways but where it counts we stand shoulder to shoulder.  My mom has always said we bring out the best in each other (thanks mom).  Life with Mike is never boring.  He can make me laugh like no other.  We've had some stretches when married life wasn't so jolly but even during those times I always knew his love was steadfast and solid.  And as we parent together I am in awe of the father that he is.  So here's to another 15 (plus) years..........

Fishing Derby & other things.......

Whew.....it's been awhile since I've blogged.  We are busy, busy, busy.  I knew April would be super busy but then I've finally realized this season in my life will be busy for the next 15 years.  The boys are 11 and almost 7 and things are HOPPING!  Nick is tutoring at least once a week (after school) with our dear friend, Leslie.  Neither of the boys are involved with sports right now so I thought things would slow down - not so much.  This past week Mike had another clear colonoscopy - Praise the Lord!  We attended a spring fling at school.  And as the school year wraps up we are trying to stay on top of homework and projects.  Next week we have Jay's middle school orientation.......be still my beating heart.  Yesterday we had the fishing derby, hence the pictures above and today Mike and Jay have a class they are attending together.  We are also attending a new church with the Ausili's and it's been a really good fit for us.  It's about a 30 minute drive for us one way but it's worth it.  Mike and I joke we have full time jobs we are trying to maintain on top of two very FULL TIME boys!
Shifting back to Jay.  A few things about him this week.  Mike had to report nice and early for his procedure last Monday so the boys spent the night with his parents.  That night Jay called us and in this little voice he asks, "Mom, how is dad doing?"  I could tell he was worried.  Then the next morning he was up at 4:00 and calling me by 6:45 to check on his dad again.  Meanwhile in the background I could hear Nick yelling....."Hey Mom, has dad had that camera stuck up his butt yet?"  And there folks is the big difference between my two boys.  Then Jay lost his Kindle all week due to some grades he had that were not acceptable.  I so enjoyed him this week.  He crawled in bed with me every night and we watched Downton Abbey together.  By Friday he got his grades back up so he earned his Kindle back but it was nice to see him "unplugged" all week and he still watched Downton Abbey with me last night.  Ha!
As far as the fishing derby goes it was fun and low key this year.  Only eight boys fished.  I love the picture of Mike and Jay.  Nick was off fishing elsewhere so I didn't get him in the pic.......Nick takes his fishing very seriously (notice his boonie/fishing hat he wears).  The Lord sure knew what he was doing when he gave Mike two boys!
This week Mike and I will celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary.........seriously has it been 15 years already?  I'll say this it's been a good and solid 15 years and I am so very thankful.  Next week we celebrate Nick's 7th birthday!!!  Then we go right into my birthday!  I love April and May.

Jay's "new" room

 Jay is headed into middle school in the fall.  He wanted to re-do his room and Mike and I knew it was important we get him a desk, where he can work quietly on his school work.  Jay played a huge part in redecorating his room.  It's been about a year in the making.  All that is left his his log bed.  Mike has actual logs in his shop which Jay has shaved all the bark off.  Next project on Mike's never ending to do list is Jay's log bed so stay tuned for pictures of that.  It should turn out really cool.  Anyway, Jay really went with an outdoor/hunting theme.  In my opinion the room fits Jay's personality perfectly.

His lamp by his bed is in the shape of a boat motor.  We found it at Bass Pro Shop.

Mud, Mud, Mud

 I bet if I looked through my blog I would find I have used the word MUD in my title more than any other word!  Ha.  I know a muddy four wheeler is quite boring.  I blog about this stuff so I don't forget it, although I find it hard to believe I will ever forget about how much mud my boys could find and get into.  All of these pictures is just to prove just how muddy Jay can get.  Nick is no angel in the mud department either but his four wheeler has been broken for months.  Mike and Jay had to take the four wheeler to the car wash to get it clean.  The amusing part of this is the fact that the four wheeler sits in Mike's garage.  One has to really know (and love) Mike to truly appreciate this.  He is a neat freak but kids have settled him down (somewhat) in the neat department.  Actually Mike says they haven't "settled him" down, rather he's given up.  However, after Jay's four wheeler ended up looking like this, Mike decided it's time to invest in a shed all for the boys!  No more parking this hot, muddy mess in daddy's garage.