So I wake up yesterday morning

To this child fully dressed walking around the house. It was 6am my normal time to get up, not Luke's normal time. Usually I have to go in and wake both boys up around 7.

So I ask "how long have you been up"

"oh I don't know a few hours"

OK mildly concerning but I figure kids have a weird view of time maybe half hour max.

We proceed with the morning routine getting everyone ready and fed. As we are walking out the door I pick up his backpack and notice its heavy. From past experience I know the temptation to sneak toys to school is almost unbearable so heavy in a backpack is not good. As I'm unzipping and asking whats inside he says "oh I made my own lunch". For the record before he started school and we talked about staying at school all day and getting to eat lunch he decided he wanted to buy his lunch from the lunch room. (this being the easier option for me woopee) So I pull out his John Deer lunch box and open it. As I was expecting anything from dirty socks to Lego's I was shocked to see a ham and cheese sandwich, apple and little bag filled with frankinberry crunch. (don't judge I don't let them eat it for breakfast its more like a desert treat....mostly for me. Hard marshmallows and blue milk, come on people...yum) Shocking as it was to see a full lunch made was the fact that there was NO mess in the kitchen. Everything neatly put away, nothing to alert me that a lunch had even been made. Um ok ,well good job lets throw in a drink and your ready to go.

Still a little in shock from the morning, when we got home I noticed something strange in their playroom. We have a stash of "rainy day" things to do, this being one of them.

On their table was a measuring cup and stirring spoon, the little containers with liquid and rocks in them. So I call Luke in to tell me about his experiment. He shows me the instructions that came with the kit. There are little pictures with instructions for each step. He said "I just followed along with the pictures, see this first one says to pour coffee into a measuring cup, then mix in the crystals and pour over the rocks". Coffee? I look close and it says pour boiling water (pretty happy he didn't sound out the words and try that) and the picture shows a tea kettle. To him a coffee pot.

So to sum up, he likely was up for at least an hour, he might be a mad scientist, and he is far more self sufficient in the kitchen then we knew.

I am weighing the pros and cons of buying a chemistry set for him for Christmas....things might get blown up, but great to help his learning. Hum... what to do :)

Goodbye Summer

Another summer has come and gone (when what how did that happen?) so.........

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL!

Last weekend we drove to St. George to pick up a new dryer. That's right we are back to being a family with a washer and a dryer. Oh soft towels and pants how I missed you.

Since St George is still in the 90's temp wise we took the boys swim suits and surprised them with a trip to the water park.

Excited much?

I'll say again that whoever thought of this park... brilliant. Fun for kids of all ages and those not so young kids such as myself.

The boys did not pose for any of these pics I just followed them around snapping away. My favorite kind.

Pure joy and happiness in the moment

I thought these were the perfect pics to say goodbye to summer.

This weekend will be spent taking down.. sob the summer mantel and digging out the Halloween decorations. I know I know I probably should have had fall/back to school stuff in between the two but it just never seems to happen. Maybe next year ;)

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Full Soccer mode

Both boys have now played a few games. Its safe to say they both LOVE soccer.

They even talked Grandpa and Grandma into playing a game with them.

The majority of the game was 2 on 2 and very action packed :)
How cute is this picture?

This is my favorite soccer pic I have taken so far. It was right in the middle of a game, Kolby is just happy as can be. And I love the looks on the other boys faces so much expression.
Kolby literally smiles the whole game.

Last weeks game the coach didn't show so Dew subbed in.

I'm not sure that I have seen many cuter things then 4 year old's playing soccer. Dew had his work set out for him.

But I guarantee he loved every minute and so did Kolby.

Kolby is really pretty good.

But more importantly he is having a blast and loving every minute.

And I'm getting the swing of packing along a blanket and drinks. Luke's last practice they had a game between parents and kids. I came prepared with proper shoes and attire ready to play. 10 minutes in it started POURING rain, not little misty drops but big fat heavy rain drops. The kids all looked at us thinking we would run for cover. We the parents just laughed and kept playing. Luke thought it was the funniest thing ever to see me dripping wet. I did forget one practice.... for shame I know. The soccer moms rushed me at the next game to ask if something had come up. "Um yes, life came up, I forgot". Pretty sure I will not make it into the soccer mom hall of fame this year.

But all in all I think we are into the swing of things :)

Odds and ends

Do you ever have weeks where 101 things go wrong? The past few weeks have been like that for us, we are ready for the little black cloud to move away from our house. On the bright side since our dryer went out and I'm hanging out our clothes to dry it has brought back fond memories of our months in Kazakhstan doing laundry by hand. And our air conditioner did make it through the summer when we really needed it before it going out. Unfortunately there is no bright side to the large dental bills we are soon to have for three members of our family :(

But new day, new week, new hope of better things to come.

Something we do have to be happy about......... FOOTBALL SEASON woot-woot

We have a small university in town, Go T-Birds. We like to support them (even if they rarely win, grrrrr) they are our local team. They had a kick off the season/meet the team geared towards kids a few weeks ago. The boys were so excited, this is them showing off their football faces. (Luke forgot to look mean in the first one)

We got there as soon as they opened (read neurotic mom) so the boys got a lot of attention. By far the highlight for them was meeting Thor, the Thunderbirds mascot.

He even helped them on some of the games.

They had a table set up to meet some of the players and have them sign a poster. As we went around getting signatures on our two posters the boys said not one word. The players would say "hi" or "hey buddy are you gonna play football when you get older?" Both Luke and Kolby would just stare, their little eyes huge as saucers not uttering a sound. Which left me to smile say thanks and shuffle them around the table, to funny. They love their posters and insisted on hanging them in their playroom on the football wall. (99% Dews Dallas Cowboys stuff 1% my 49er's which only made it because its a picture of me and Steve Young)

It was also county fair time. Our county has a whopping population of 46,000 so picture small and quaint, we love it! And a first for me, being that we have a 4 and 6 year old we could not miss the demolition derby. I was not sure what to expect having never seen one and I'm not sure the small one we saw qualifies but the boys liked it and are still talking about it.
There are not many things that will hold the boys attention for two hours.

Apparently cars crashing into each other does it.

We had one last splash in the pool before putting it away (throwing in the garbage) for the summer

I just can't imagine why our pools only make it one season....

When life gets crazy and busy don't forget to take time to stop and catch some raindrops on your tongue

And enjoy the simple joy of running in the rain.

Life.....lets try to enjoy the ride. (even if some weeks it harder then others)

Yankee Fishing

We have not managed to fish much this summer but we did go the weekend before last. We went to one of our favorite lakes Yankee Meadows. Its one of our favorites not because of the loads of fish we catch but because I think its BEAUTIFUL.

The boys are getting pretty good with the worms and the hooks (g...r...o...s....s)

I don't have a fishing license and since I would hate to break the law its up to Dewey to get the boys poles and his own ready, as I lounge on a blanket reading and taking pictures :)



LOVE this one

Its all about the memories

We brought the dogs with us this time, Skip didn't sit still the whole time and had a blast running along the trail and through the mud.

A slightly different story for my little princess bailey. Can you just tell from this picture how much fun she is having being out in nature in the dirt?

The boys are getting a tiny bit better about sitting with (or at least somewhat watching) their poles.

We can really only be near water for so long before we just have to jump in. And lets just say play king or Queen of the mountain or stump in the lake.

Once I did it of course it became the funnest thing ever

This next picture has Luke and the shark on his shirt with the exact same expression

Kolby stranded himself, so Luke to the rescue

I just love these pictures, They are so protective of each other.

They made it almost all the way back before kolby "fell" in the water. After that any hope of staying dry was lost.

Now I am not by any means a fishing expert but I have to think the above playing and this type of fun does not help the fishing cause....

Poor Dewey not a nibble or bite of his very nice carefully tended pole. However both Luke and Kolby caught a fish on their Transformers and Cars kids poles. (catch and release of course) You would think I would take pictures of that but I took a video of each instead. It just occurred to me the other day that I'm always so busy taking pictures we have almost no videos of the boys. Opps.......

We also had a first bee sting. Literally about two minutes after we had hiked around the lake carrying fishing stuff, chairs, and lunch to our spot. Luke got stung by a bee on his neck. Luckily Dewey just happened to bring the new snake/insect bit kit we got. It worked great to suck the venom (is that what bees leave?) out. We slapped a little mud on and talked the boys out of leaving and going home inside the house where there are no bees. (which was what they were begging) And enjoyed the rest of the day.

Add soccer mom to my resume.

Because our days are just not jammed packed enough we are throwing soccer into the mix :)

Last weekend was the boys very first games. As fate would have it they were at the very same time in two different towns. Since we were not sure how Kolby would do (look back at the wrestling posts) we decided Dewey should go to his game to give him that extra "get out and play" that dads are so good at. Lukes game was in a small town to the north of us so grandpa came to help me cheer him on.

Luke and Kolby right before we left.

Unfortunately with everyone scrambling to get out the door one of us forgot their camera. (it wasn't ME) So we just have pics of Lukes game.
Luke did so well. I was really proud of him, he got right out there and ran after the ball and always made sure he was in the middle of things.

This was a pretty big deal since he is the smallest player on his team.

At his first practice he noticed right away. He ran back to me and said "mom I'm the smallest one here". I said "its ok it just means you will be fast and dart in and out around people, get out there". Now my mom heart wanted to cry and hold him tight. But I know that this is something he will always have to deal with, its part of who he is. My job as a parent is to raise a strong confident son who will not see size as an obstacle. We talk alot about how God made everyone perfect, just as they are supposed to be. We come in all different shapes and sizes and colors and everyone is perfect just as they are.
So its not important that hes not the tallest or fastest player its important that he is out there playing his little heart out.

When we all got back to the house I was happy to hear that Kolby did just great. At his age the games are a little more laid back and set up for the kids to just run and have fun. Next weekends games are not at the same time so we will all be able to go to both. I'll take lots of Kolby pics then :)
The proud players! (you might notice Kolby is in a different uniform then the first pic, I guess traded before he even had his first game, we like to think drafted :)

This pic cracks me up, Lukes team is the Blue Thunder and Kolbys is the Lions, this is him Roaring.

Let the fun begin!