Dr. and Mrs. Thomas

Preschool Program

2011-12-22T15:24:00.004-05:00

So Tuesday was the boys' last day of school for a few weeks. The class had a little 'program' for the families and the kids sang some songs and gave us some gifts they made for us. So cute! check out some great action shots of the kids =)

And this video is my favorite song they did....the other videos were really quiet and I only got part of the song so this is definitely the best one. enjoy!

3 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!! WOOOOO!!!

Enough is enough.

2011-12-15T21:35:00.007-05:00

OK PEOPLE. I've heard enough of this 'not posting' business. Here it is, read it and weep. or laugh, whatever.

Birthday Bash! Well, the birthday tornado has passed thru the Thomas household once again....I think it's aged us all. Starting line-up.....

SYDNEY!

We celebrated her bday with cousin Renae while we were in Florida....both a whoppin TWO years old!! count em, 2. only usually she says either one or eight. we're working on that. =)
Then was me....let's see if I have a picture.... sure don't. well, good thing we all know what I look like. Turned 29, next year is a doozy, better live it up- last year in my 20's! YIKES!
Then a few days later, Ry's bday...also didn't document that one. we had a hot date to celebrate us, dinner out without the kiddies. It was fantastic- will take any time aloooone with him that I can get. =)
And then brining up the rear, the big boys in the house turned 4 on Tuesday. Boy oh boy was there a celebration....might be putting more of those up on fb cause there's a million. Just a small little party, made the boys feel pretty special too, they each had their own bday 'helper' day at preschool and got to bring the class snacks.

Basically we've been opening presents for about 3 weeks straight, with one week off until Christmas extravaganza.....WHEW!! What fun, what fun. We are SO blessed, thank you all for jumping on the Thomas Birthday train and sending us so many birthday wishes. Until next year!

Halloween party

2011-10-28T16:23:00.005-04:00

Well, the boys are well into their first year of school, so far they are really enjoying it. I'm also enjoying it. But back to them, I think 2 days a week is great for now....after all, they will be in school for....ever pretty much. I still have yet to figure out what they do each day, I have some idea from what the teacher tells me and because of the occasional newsletter she sends home, but if it were up to the boys to fill us in, noooo way. Haha. I think it's a combo or memory loss and a limited vocabulary. They can remember quite a few names of the kids and can kind of recall how they made the craft/project they came home with. Yesterday was their halloween party and they got to wear their costumes to school and the parents could go in to hear them do a little show the last 30 min of their time there. Check out this action!

and this video is so cute.

Their teacher is SO GREAT, we're really happy with where they are this year and are very thankful to live where we do. Many more school programs in our future!! =)

Last few months....

2011-10-22T14:48:00.009-04:00

So here we have our last few months....
First

Next

then

then

and

and finally

WOW! LOOOOVE having company. =) Love livin life with some great friends and family even though we're far away. As of right now, we have week long plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if there's any time in between, why not make a stop in Purrre Michigan. =)

First REAL Day of Preschool

2011-09-13T15:35:00.010-04:00

SO, boys were off to a great start! here they all are walkin in....

And then they just get busy with new fun toys and friends!! they look like they're in the zone already. =)

Sydney had a hard time leaving them....she's pointing back to the room saying "G??" (which is what she calls both of them) and "Nooooo..." really sad-like cause she didn't get that they were staying and we were leaving. Poor lil pinky wanted to stay and play too!

Say BYE Sydney!!

SO we went off with our 2.5 hours of free time. Took our time getting groceries with one kid (amazing) and headed home for a bit. We had just enough time to tackle a minor project- our center cabinet in the island was a DISASTER, stuff was piled waaaay up and was totally unorganized- been drivin me crazy for a long time....so I was waiting for the right day to do THIS:

WOO! Built a shelf out of some scraps that were used on the fort downstairs! I love scraps. =) Anyhoo, looks SOOO much better and it was fun! Sydney was awesome without the boys...no one to bother (usually she's the one that starts the arguments) no one to take her toys, she doesn't care that the tv was off, she just played so well and came to check on me every once in a while. SO fun to just have me and her time. Then it was time to go pick the boys up....They are hilarious.

Check out how they're holding their bags. HAHAHA. WOW. anyhoo, I was asking them questions about their morning and I was getting opposite answers with little information. But they said it was fun! so whatever!! HA. On the way up I told the boys Sydney and I were going to get some groceries at the Martins, Garrett says 'that's REALLY far away! You could just stay and talk to the other mommies!" bahahaaa. YES, I could- (except for they all leave too) So then I start talking about how I can make friends with all the other mommies and Ethan says 'that's a lot of mommies!" started laughing again. OOOOH man they are hilarious. All in all it was a great day...Can't wait to see what else is in store for us Tuesdays and Thursdays!!

Labor Day Fun

2011-09-06T17:51:00.003-04:00

So here's what I've been doing this long weekend......a little fun in Sydney's room!

so fun! I saw this online and thought it was super cute, but i had to reverse the image for the space and I added waaaay more flowers to make it more colorful! woop!! Thanks to mom for encouraging me to do it...I wasn't sure if it would be too much, but now it's on the wall so OH WELL! haha. Pretty soon we'll be changing her to her big girl bed cause I DESPISE the crib...just gotta paint it white and get some other cute stuff goin and she'll have a transformed room! If only I had ideas for the boys....they need some help in there. (I'm open to suggestions- hint hint)

UGH! I have mom's visit, preschool coming, Ethan's circumcision, steph and brad will be here in 2 days- soo many things to blog about- I'm gettin backed up. BUT! Emily gave us our CD of family pictures and I'm putting an album up on FB of them- so check there!! OK gotta go make supper!

Lasik days...

2011-08-20T16:04:00.016-04:00

So after my surgery, I wasn't supposed to go to the beach, swim, wear make up for a week.... going out and about didn't really seem like that great of an idea(I look like I'm 12)...so I thought it was time to work on my latest idea...a HEADBOARD for our bed!!! Since we moved in 2.5 years ago, our 2 mattresses have been on the floor, so it was time. =) I don't even have a before just cause there was nothin to see. HA! i will show you step by step...(found my inspiration from hours of DIY headboard watching, google images, and reading articles and tips on different methods. here we go.

FIRST, cut my 1/4 plywood into the right size squares, then framed them with 2x2s all the way around. Don't worry I was wearing saftey goggles to use my new saw from dad to protect my new expensive eyes. =)

With the "help" of someone special, next I cut out the 2" foam. I ordered this online for pretty cheap instead of gettin it at Joanns for a lot.

next we cut out the batting...

Next important step, attach the wall mount pieces- totally sweet. I screwed those little square like blocks into a stud in the wall so the headboard just hangs on it like a picture.

cover with the brown material...aaannnd notice the brown walls in the background...bla

Now time to assemble! Screw top and bottom squares together using my handy dandy clamps, then attach it to the ones next to it...

Thank you Garrett and Ethan for your photography....and sydney handing me screws one at a time. HA! Stand er up and see what it looks like!

and then since the walls were brown, it was time to lighten up the room to match it all...so Susie helped me paint and Joe watched the kids and we knocked out the painting in 2 days! (we painted syd's room purple just for fun too- it was painted the hallway color when we moved in cause we weren't even pregnant with a girl so how would we know!?!)

Don't really know what's happening with her furniture in there...pay no attention. haha. ANYHOO, check out the finished product!!

Now if we had matching nightstands.....maybe we'll find some nice ones in 2.5 years. haha!

LASIK!

2011-08-15T14:10:00.006-04:00

Here we are, two weeks later, reporting on the events of my lasik surgery. Conveniently, Heather and I were scheduled on the same day!...which makes for more fun on the car rides there (Elkhart, IN- hour drive) and all our follow up appointments. SERIOUSLY what a fabulous experience. MINUTES of a procedure, and I'm talking from the second you lay on the chair to when you sit up and they tell you to read the clock across the room. MINUTES. Sooooo great! And after that, they sent us home with lovely eye shields to wear overnight the first 5 days, and eye drops a few times a day for the following weeks. At my one week check I could already see 20/15. AND, she told me that she couldn't even SEE the spots on my eye that he worked on! totally healed!! Amazing I tell ya. And I would do it all over again because it was so easy- (but i don't have to cause I see perfectly now-hehe) I have two $500 off coupons for the next person who wants to go see Dr. Boling!! Here's what I have to document the experience.

Hands down the best part of course is being able to see my alarm clock in the middle of the night....I pretty much wore my contacts from the second I woke up to the second I went to bed. So it was the loooongest 3 glasses-wearing weeks ever before the surgery, but totally worth it! Ok gotta go, kids wakin up!!

In recent news

2011-07-29T23:35:00.011-04:00

Well, since the summer seems to be flying by, I suppose I could find the time this evening to give my few readers an update. when it's not raining, you could usually find us here:

This really has been an usual summer...waaaayy too much rain ALL of May pretty much, June's temp wasn't quite there for us beach-goers, and July has been hit or miss with schedules and temps, but we still find the time when it works out. I'm pretty good at packin up for it in the morning, snacks, toys, towels, chair, drinks......and then we get there and stay for a few hours, pack everything back up, rinsing off toys and kids, brush sand before getting into car, come home, go straight to the back yard, the kids strip down and get hosed off, back inside, clothes then nap time, then I shower and get everything cleaned out and laundry started and then they wake up. haha. BUT it's totally worth it! seriously I love where we live. Have I said that before!?

Also, been workin on a few house projects....was reading Ryan's (schoonvelds) handyman magazine at the beach and came across a little do-it-yourselfer thing about making sawhorses out of some scraps of wood you have at home. So of course, I went home and looked around and decided that's just what we needed, so I spent one nap time cutting all the pieces, and another putting them together. check it!

Dad gave me a circular saw when i was home in June so I had to have something to break it out for. gotta test my skilz on something that doesn't really matter ya know...cause I have bigger projects comin up...hehe stay tuned for that!

Also, I'm getting Lasik on Monday. Couldn't be more pumped about it. I have TERRIBLE eyes, have been in my glasses for almost 3 weeks now due to the surgery and getting the most accurate measurements. I want to CHUCK THEM out the window on the way home from the doc on Monday. So annoying, SO SO annoying. I have lost them more times than I can count in the last 3 weeks, take them off to do something and can't see to the counter to find them again. Lame. or like tonight, I was upstairs washing my face in the bathroom and put them on my head. OOOh, lost! Cause I couldn't see far enough into the mirror to see them on my head. sheeesh. Dr. Boling in Elkhart, IN is doing the surgery. Ryan and his bro went there 10 years ago for theirs and have loved it ever since. They both see 20/15. He's a great guy and has a great practice. REEEAAALLY looking forward to it....it will be like going from regular tv to high def! cant' even wait (HEATHER AND RICHARD- you're next!!)

Update on the kids....
Ethan-

Ethan is hilarious. He loves sword fights, action figures, cars and trucks, digging in the sand, and using his manners. He will sometimes remind me to say thank you to him. haha. What a stud. He is going to tear up preschool this fall. Loves being around kids but also seems to be ok with his own imaginative play by himself. He loves playing with Hunter- probably because Hunter loves sword fights and action figures too. Still workin on putting the pants and undies on BEFORE exiting the bathroom...hope to have that nailed down before school starts. yikes! Love his brother and sister, gives them both hugs and kisses often. =)

Garrett:

Oh man...G doesn't. stop. talking......ever. And when he's not talking, he's singing some song with nonsense words, or trying to talk to Sydney with his own jiberish. He is totally Mr. Social. I'd say he doesn't' really have any favorite activities, he just wants to do whatever you're doing. Ethan says 'I love Buzz.' Garrett says 'I love Woody!' Ethan says 'I love Lightning McQueen.' Garrett says ' I love Mader!' but ethan's serious and G doesn't' really care. haha. He's growing like a weed, he's probably at least an inch taller than Ethan and a few pounds heavier. Loves to talk to random workers in the stores and tell them the most random things...usually starting with 'Excuse me, Sir.....' When he doesn't get his way he slumps his arms and shoulders way down and snuffs out his nose a few times...and then looks up to see if you saw him do it. hahahaa.. NICE TRY BUDDY. He knows all his letters, upper and lower case, numbers too, he loves reading, and it just KILLS him when we ask Ethan questions that he wants to answer soooo bad (which of course we do on purpose cause Ethan needs to learn the stuff and G needs to learn to SHUTTY) haha. He will love preschool too because we think he is like a little sponge right now, always asking what we're doing, at home and in the car while we're out. Smart lil guy.

AND the Syd:

Ok why is it that i have a MILLION pictures of just sydney. dangit. Anyhoo, she might be the end of me. I can't take the shrill screams. Talk about drama! this kid....WHEW. one minute she's happy as can be, makin my heart melt cause she's soo dang cute and funny, and then the next I want to put her in a sound proof room for an hour. MAN she can scream. And she doesn't seem to like the car right now. unfortunate. She loves babies, eating, saying new words, shoes, strollers, snacks, and following the boys around. Can't really sit still, she is so BUSY! but she is stinkin cute, and Ryan taught her this: "who's a cute baby!?" and she says "MEE!!" and points to herself. now is that a good thing!??! we might be seeing some long term effects on that one. haa. I LOVE that she's learning to talk, I'd say she's like a whole YEAR ahead of the boys with her vocabulary. She says lots of things very clearly, and the other stuff you can figure out by asking her questions. she understands so much. I'm really looking forward to having time with just her this year when the boys are gone...hopefully we'll get some potty training in here soon too. Then we'll be rid of diapers- been buyin those for almost 4 years!!! It's time.

anyways, we love our kids, they are all very different and are each a blessing. Parenting has stretched me so much and definitely makes my weaknesses known. I have a long way to go. Hopefully we can communicate that to our kids and they will see as they grow up that we are on the same journey of being Christ followers in need of the same grace. Just tryin to enjoy every stage because it really does go quickly! The weather looks great for the weekend, we might try to hit up the beach while Ry's home. Lookin forward to some great family time. =)

hilarious

2011-07-27T16:14:00.001-04:00

Venetian!

2011-07-17T22:52:00.003-04:00

Seriously....I've been off the blog scene for a month. The time flies!

Anyhoo, in recent activity....the Venetian Festival was here again, a yearly event in St. Joseph. Like a carnival I'd say, crappy (but oh so delicious) food around every corner, lemonade stands, LOOOTTTS of people, and the fairgrounds down by the pier, topped off of course with amazing fireworks Saturday night- usually better than 4th of July. Let me tell you- we've lived here for 4+ years now and I have YET to walk down and be IN with the Venentians- don't even know what that means. But we were there! Joe and Susie went along on Friday night and the kids rode some of the rides. We ate a funnel cake and an elephant ear. Verdict= funnel cake won the first night, and the elephant ear was better than the FunCake the second night. Probably just depends on who's making it- since there were about 15 funnel cake vendors.

As for the rides! the boys loved them...which was to be expected. And I was actually expecting more of a melt down when the tickets ran out, but maybe they were over-stimulated enough and ready to go home. HA! I know I was!!

And after going back Saturday evening without the kids- I am SO thankful that we went Friday night, way less people and no lines for the rides...and 1/10th the teenyboppers roaming around without their parents. haa. We've been busy with lots of things the last few weeks...August is just around the corner, then after Labor day the boys will start preschool! OH MAN! We better live it up the next 6 weeks- it's gonna go fast!

New game

2011-06-21T21:40:00.001-04:00

Garrett says "Hey Ethan, let's do that thing with our eyes"...and this is what they were talking about. ?? HA! notice how everything ends with wrestling. boys.... =)

I'm still here!

2011-06-15T22:29:00.009-04:00

Hello long lost readers....

Well, since I've returned home from Georgia a week ago already (wow)....I've basically been tryin to get caught up on life from being gone for 6 days. All of life has consumed my every free minute and I feel like the days are flying by and there are still many things left on my list. Last weekend was our yearly Twins Club Garage Sale, and since I'm the treasurer, that brings along lots of behind the scenes work for the club, but it's all pretty fun cause I like that sort of stuff...so I'm just now getting to the end of my duties for the sale. I feel like just typing a huge ****SIGH****, and I don't really think you guys want to read a detailed list of events of my week, so I'll just highlight with a few pictures and stories of my last few days. =)

We had ONE great day for the swimming pool last week when I got home, but then it was SALE SALE SALE, 70's and RAIN RAIN RAIN. BOO. So here are the kiddies from last week livin the dream in the back yard. They've asked everyday if they can swim again. Think it's time for some lessons in a REAL pool!

Then there was a trip out to Sister Lakes Elementary school for Rachel's last day of teaching these 1st graders....so fun. We brought them suckers to celebrate. The day also included a private lesson on the smart board after the kids went out to recess. =) Preschool HERE WE COME!

Then yesterday a trip to the "purple park" with Grandpa. This is one of his favorites to take them to- tucked back into a nice neighborhood and never anyone there. =) Plus, it has this sweet backhoe thing so he can teach them his mad engineering skillz. So fun.

And last but not least, I got to do some hair again today on the beautiful Ashley. She was pretty pumped about it, and for good reason. She looks awesome! just in time for her to tear up DC with her 8th grade class....who are leaving in about 3 hours (2:30am) for a fast and furious weekend getaway! Can't wait to hear how it goes. She's a freshman in the fall already. And as tall as me. what is the world coming to. SIGH, what a great girl, she's one of my favorites. =)

Birthday Wish from the Mich

2011-05-29T09:43:00.001-04:00

Meant to get this up yesterday.....so we're a day late---SORRY! =)

Love you dad, miss you tons.

PHOTO SHOOT

2011-05-27T23:23:00.003-04:00

Sydney's new favorite thing...'Jumping' (aka me lifting her) off the fireplace!

Boys being goofy.....watching Toy Story 3. It's been in the 'Thomas vault' for about 2 months, so it was like watching it for the first time again today! HA!

Destination: Grand Rapids!

2011-05-14T21:24:00.008-04:00

So our surprise date was A-MAZING. So much fun...and it all started with THIS:

So FUN! They went all out for us, a gift card, some chocolate bars, sparkling raspberry bubbly from Tabor Hill (my fav) with glasses, brownies, muffins and fruit for the morning, and some other fun stuff ;). Ry took some great pictures of our room. HAHAHA

HA! hilarious. WOOOWWW. AND, turns out, it was the same weekend as the 5/3 Bank River Run....and the start line was RIGHT in front of the hotel. Our friend Breanne Vugteveen ran the 10K, so we popped out of bed and walked down the block just in time to see her finish the race! It was sprinkling the whole time (why does that always seem to happen when there's a race). She didn't even look tired! I would have needed a wheel chair...or maybe a ride in the stroller with Parks. hehe.

All in all we had a blast, and the staff had a pretty fun time it sounds like in their 'DAY IN THE LIFE OF MARTHA'. Let's just say, lots of 'accidents' and laundry and no nap. oh my. Good thing the kids love all of them, they were spoiled for the weekend. =) And I'm just now noticing that we didn't get any pictures of the two of us besides this one.....

HA! We had a de-lish dinner at Kobe Steakhouse, hot tub after breakfast, lunch at Panera, some shopping...the day went by pretty fast. THANK YOU THANK YOU!! A weekend to remember for sure!

WOW it's already May!

2011-05-04T15:47:00.005-04:00

Go figure as I sit down to write this I can hear Sydney start to wake up. I'll just make it quick.

Some bedtime fun(ny) pictures...I have a few of Ry reading to the boys when they were shorter and chubby...it's fun to have some to compare to a year later =)

Sydney is ALL OVER THE PLACE when we're getting ready for bed. She is so wound up, climbing, running, 'talking', bringing you books...too busy to read them of course. haa. I don't really remember the boys ever being that way. it will be interesting to see if she mellows out over time. HA!

Also, little Beckett and Elle were over here yesterday. Are you kidding me, Syd looks like a monster next to him! Doesn't help that she just woke up from her nap and her hair is a nest...He's such a little cutie! Check out some sweet pictures of the Whites on EMILY'S BLOG. What a muffin! smiles and laughs all the time....awww

OK gotta go...she's getting louder.....

Stitches!!

2011-04-24T22:24:00.010-04:00

Garrett gets the award for the first kid with stitches!! I'm sure most of you have seen the pictures on facebook that I put up....if not, go check em out. He seems to be fully recovered (which only took about 30 minutes) and has moved on to the tell-everyone-you-see stage. HA. Here he is after we took the bandaid off that first night....

We will go in tomorrow morning to get the 3 stitches out, i guess they don't leave them in long for the face. This kid needs a helmet. Cale said he got his first stitches at 24 and Garrett wasn't off to a good start. HAHAHAHAA. So true, so true.

In other news= HAPPY EASTER!!! Great start to the weekend, the staff gave us a mystery gift- SO FUN.....have no clue other than the date! wooo!! We're pumped, and super blessed to have so many people that love us. VERY VERY MUCH appreciated. Thanks ladies!!!

Yesterday the kids opened a box of fun from Grandma Rita

then that afternoon we colored eggs

Ryan and I had a hot date with Rachel and Dustin...

We had great weather for Easter today, had a delish breakfast, headed off to church, GREAT service, put the kids down early and headed to Joe and Susie's for dinner...

...and an egg hunt in their backyard. Fun day, got some good pics of the kids and their goodies...I will put more on fb. It seems to be a theme to put up the video of them finding eggs, as I have done that the last 2 years (check out the posts from Easters past if you're bored) Here you have it! Look out eggs- here come the Thomas's!!

Sydney was all over it. If you look back at the boys when they were one, it took them a lot longer to catch on...HA. Syd has two big/fast bros she's gotta keep up with or else!! You saw how G totally ran over and shoved Ethan out of the way!! DANG what a bully. hahaaa. We're working on that. ;) At any rate, favorite shot to end the post....

good ol' DEMOLITION

2011-04-17T23:39:00.003-04:00

Our friends Schoonvelds have officially started into their addition! Actually, they've been tearin out the insides of their house for a few weeks...but Saturday they had their big DEMO day and down it came! We stopped by there tonight to peek at the final work Ryan and Heather's dad did today...HOLY SMOKES! And we wanted to see what the boys would say when they saw it...

There were some gasps, they said "it's broken!", and told uncle ryan "you better pick up this mess!" hahaaaaa. Yes, get to work man! You tell em G!

Lansing here we come!

2011-04-15T21:11:00.011-04:00

Change of plans today....Ryan had a CE course in Grand Rapids, it's been on the schedule for a while now and I was planning on meeting my girlfriend Kara and her two kids up there for a good chunk of the day to hangout and catch up. As the day came closer though, weather and teething children and the risk of being somewhere with no where to retreat all caused our change of plans. We decided to just drive to Lansing to see them and hangout at her house with snacks and toys and movies and a park down the road. Just a better idea all around. Only got a few pictures in though, as usual....dang.

here we are all ready for the park!!

Look at this little muffin. Kyler turned 1 in Feb!! what a little mini!!

tearin up the park......

a trip to their delicious restaurant....only eating picture- obviously meal time is busy. ha. AHHH he's so cute!!

and then a quick hangout back at their house before getting back on the road

And for the ride home, this teething beauty had a heck of a time falling asleep. We left a bit after nap time, but she slept almost the whole way there in the morning. She's been eating practically nothing the last few days, had nothing for lunch....poor lil lady. And while I was driving I put the camera over my shoulder and took these next few of her misery.

Can you tell its her teeth!?! HA! not that it's funny, but the pictures are kinda funny. It must be painful, good thing we all go thru this when we're little and don't remember it. =) Then she finds her blanky and paci....

and OUT COLD. these pictures were all in like a 4 minute time span. hahaa

only she didn't sleep very well cause she kept waking up to cough....then she cried for the last like 45 minutes. SO, I put her to bed at 5 when we got home and she's still sleeping!! Guess she's not gonna eat dinner either today!! we shall see if I wake up tonight at 2 with a wide awake baby. =) I do like all the hugs she's in the mood for now though. And last night she fell asleep during dinner on Ryan's chest, so we're tryin to save up those moments for when she's better and running away from us again. haa! Anyhoo, aside from teeth, it's always great seeing Kara and her boys...we were dreaming of the day when we can actually go to the park and sit on a bench and talk...and parent from the bench. hahahaa!! soon enough im sure!

Hhahaa

2011-04-12T11:07:00.001-04:00

one more project!

2011-04-06T14:58:00.004-04:00

So here you have our stairs down to the basement.... BEFORE = empty and white and boring. AFTER: behold!

Stole this idea from Jenny conklin's house, they have a sweet more decrative version in their kitchen and totally fun. Erin suggested putting it down here...genious. I have been wanting a place besides our side of the fridge to hang up their ..."artwork" cause they always ask for it to be put up, so this is perfect. $3.50 package of green plastic coated wire and a couple of extra screws we had here at home....WHHHAAAAAA-LA! They got really excited when I showed them this morning. obviously it will be ever-changing, which is the beauty of it. Let the art begin!

Some Weekend Fun

2011-04-04T07:47:00.009-04:00

So here's what we've been working on this weekend....

First, in our basement we're trying to get a little work out corner goin so we can maybe get to it with our P90 again. Before we came back to NE, I was searching for different ideas on how to put up a pull up bar since we dont' have any door frames down there. Found a couple good ones, ran them by my dad and he put together the frame part for us and I brought it back home from NE a few weeks back. Then Erin and I put em up one night, but we still had the problem with the bar rotating thru the hole, so last night ryan put some construction adhesive in all the holes and taped up the bar so it's easier to hold on to. Check out the results....

And a couple weeks ago we found a super cheap set of dumbbells online so now i think we're set! Now pray that we have enough energy after the kids go to bed for a workout..... hahaaaa Thanks dad! Looks great!

Secondly....The fort has been making us nervous with those big windows. We have had many a friend with little kids come over, and with Sydney being so small....even the boys. I admit, we have climbers, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they think they can just be-bop their way out the window and scale down to the ground. NOT GOOD. And it's not really that safe to have kids over and then just let them go downstairs with out us. freak me out! SOOOO, we did a little doctoring last night and......

...made a jail!!! Hahaha, just kiddin. but at least they can't fall out now. They can still shoot nerf guns through those windows. =) And you might have noticed the drywall mud, one sand away from being ready to paint! WOOP! I'm ready to be done working on it, so better get a move on and get it done.

And lastly, probably the most work, on Saturday afternoon we rented a thatch machine for $40...TOTALLY WORTH IT. Last year we just raked....and raked, and raked, and raked, and didn't even TOUCH the amount of dead grass we came up with using this hog. We had it for 4 hours and it was on the whole time. Joe helped us too, here's what they were doing....

HA! Apparently g kept getting mad at him cause he was falling asleep while he was reading. soooo funny. But soon after this it was nap time for the kids and then he was outside helping us. =) Now feast your eyes on THIS yard!!

Look at the heaps of dead grass. unbelievable. And pretty nasty. we couldn't rake it up fast enough....then Ry would go back over it again and rake up some more piles. Seriously....SO WORTH $40! that would have taken us WEEKS of raking to get that much out (3 packed dumpsters full) and probably sore arms for a month. haa ANNNDDD notice the color of our yard compared to everyone elses. oh ya, totally brown! one might think it's because of the dead grass laying on top, buuuuttt it's really that color underneath. not embarassing at all. Hurry up spring!! Altogether great weekend and the weather is gradually getting warmer. can't wait to spend some more time outside (even though it's raining today) doing yard work and getting the garden ready! Woop!

WOOWWWW. March 6th is a looonng time ago...

2011-03-31T21:57:00.006-04:00

Well people, sitting here with my book (not reading obviously) and a spinach/fruit smoothie thinking about what to write..... actually I've been thinking about what to write for a few days now since we did a TON of stuff in the last 3 weeks. Ry went in to work to finish up some stuff from today so I will try to knock this one down in the time he's gone. GO

Can I just say that I love this song on Pandora right now. Sara bareilles, Many the Miles. awesome.

Back to the story, first of all we had our lovely friends Todd and Liz here visiting from Kansas City. We have been living in this house for a little over 2 years and they still hadn't been here....but they FINALLY made it! Too bad they didn't come in the summer as their cool getaway to the beach since it's in the 100s and humid most days there. BLEH The time went really fast, that was the weekend of the time change, so all the kids needed some adjusting, especially Olivia (2 years old) since that made us a 2 hour time difference from what they were used to. She went to bed at 3 the first night. WOWZA. hahaaaaaa AAAND Liz is 1/2 pregnant with their #2- so there was lots of talk about kids and such which is always fun. They actually just found out that it's another girl-woooooooo!!!!!!! But we did the ring test while they were here so we weren't surprised. So this post doesn't get ridiculously long, I will highlight in list form:

In no particular order.........
1. Dinner out at Silver Beach Pizza
2. Olivia enjoying EVERY BITE of food that went into her mouth...EVERY
3. Watching Ryan and Todd get excited about NCAA...laughing like school kids. And Liz and I laughing at them...a lot. This was so good for ryan cause obviously my sports brain didn't make it out of the womb with me. He needs time with people who think like him.
4. Bounceland in Holland! Too bad ry couldn't come with us, we all loved it, the kids had a blast and it was fun to get out for a day. We will totally be going back there sometime soon.
5. Dairy Queen indoor play area for lunch one day, we were there for 2 hours. haa
6. Watching the movie 'The Fighter'. Thought it was great, could have used a few less F's, but whatev
7. Some long overdue time with great friends after the kids went to bed catching up on life and hanging out. SOOO SOO glad they came. =)

On to the next.....Dallas and Caleb get married!!
So we had about a day and a half in between when Arasmiths left and we took off for NEB, so I had some crazy running around last minute snack shopping and packing to get done before Friday when Ry came home from work. but we finally got on the road and headed out for the plains. (haaaa. just kiddin NE people.) We stayed at Steph and Brad's house, which worked out great since it was opening weekend of March Madness =). Anyhoo, got in late Friday night, were jam packed with things to do and people to see as usual. Dal's wedding was Sunday night, so Ryan flew home after the wedding to avoid missing work Monday morning. Josh flew out Monday afternoon, then Erin and I stayed together for our trip back to MI, and she and Renae and BoyBarricklow hung out here in Mich with us until Sunday....but I'll get to that later. Back to the highlights, here's how much fun we had:

Order of events:
1. Coffee with the sisters, such a great time together since we all live so far apart.
2. ZOOOOOO!!! That was a first timer for the boys! They loved it!
3. Dinner with long lost friends Brian and Jenny Conklin. Haven't seen them....maybe since I was pregnant with the boys....waaay too long! Didn't miss a beat though, it was a blast!
4. ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF doing wedding hair. Dall looked like a million bucks. not to toot my own horn, buuuuttt....
5. Havin someone to borrow a smokin outfit from- top to bottom = Steph Plouzek. Too bad we don't live closer maybe I would be more stylin. hehe
6. Deb and Bill to hang out with kids during ceremony = PRICELESS.
7. Speaking of ceremony= I HAVE A NEW BROTHER!!!!!!!!!! It really was great seeing their own personal touches thoughout the evening, which is the same to going to any wedding...but I feel like their style really was shown in the decorations and the atmosphere....so much fun. Two VERY creative people. =)
8. Ryan went to airport (boooooo)
9. Dinner out with the fam and got to sit with Grandpa Schweitz. I love him.
10. Reception of the Year!!! BOO YAAAAAAA but we had to leave early for bedtimes.... dang
11. FINALLY got to go see Briana's house after the kids went to bed. Deb stayed with them and Steph and I ran over there quick before B had to get to bed, you know, school night. Her house is super cute!
*BREATHE*
12. breakfast at Deb's, totally thrown on her last minute which she of course acquiesced (yessss good word) because that's what Deb does, she hosts and cooks for small villages like it's nothin. GREAT food and GREAT time with Cale and Meg, Ev and K, Josh and Erin, and dad and beth stopped by too....before we all headed our seperate ways.
13. Erin and I head to Lincoln with the boys, girls stay with Deb. Hair cut appoint for me with Courtney at Envy salon (or used to be 'A Formal Affair') on 48th and Normal, totally recommend her for anyone in the area...that was great to see her again and catch up.
14. meeting LUCY
15. holding LUCY
16. boys holding LUCY. loved every minute with her. too bad there werent' that many minutes we could stay....she. is. beautiful.
17. LUCY's mom. =) there is so much I could say here about Heather and her sweet babe, that I can't come up with anything. They mean the world to me. What I would give to live next door to the Eigsti's and do life with them.
18. SIIIIGHHH, moving on.....back to Omaha to pick up the girls and hang out at dad's for the evening (first time since we got there on Friday-didn't even see them until the wedding!)
19. Pack up the van-digity for another road trip, this time with 4 kids....head out to the Children's Museum with Dad and Beth for a last attempt to wipe out the kids before nap time in the car. What a great place! Everyone should go there....and pretty sure everyone was there, cause it was crowded. but so fun! Good thing the adult to kid ratio was 1:1. hahaa
and lastly....20. saying goodbye to bedtimes and consistent naps for 5 days and NOT looking forward to our 'recovery time' here at home again...... haaa. but it was worth it. =)
(bonus #21. Rufus didn't eat my kids!) hahaaaa

Reason for the visit and the thing that was the greatest of all= watching Dall and Caleb get married and thinking thru the vows they said to each other and that Ryan and I said to one another 4.5 years ago....I'm hoping every wedding that we go to will always make me remember our own special day and seeing the happy couple and thinking back to how special ours was to us. What a neat thing to do with your spouse!! ...Caleb and Dal, God has blessed you SO MUCH! I love you guys!!

OKKKK, and on to the last 5 days of the trip, back in the MICH! So good to be home and the kids sleeping in their own beds! One last list, but much shorter:

1. Preschool enrollment!! woop! (find out next week if they're in-more on that later)
2. Erin's sis-in-law and mother-in-law came for a visit for a few hours
3. Catie came to hang out for a while, we've known each other since birth, all the way back to Oakland! NICE. she and her hus live in Detroit. Don't get to see them often enough!
4. Ashley's variety show, which she was the emcee, wore my junior year purple prom dress and looked better in it than I did! Did her hair for it, she looked amazing. But besides the way she looked, she was fabulous and I would encourage everyone to consider her for your next event.
5. GREAT 2 hours in the car Sunday night, allllll byyyyyyy myyyyyyselffff after dropping Erin and Big R off at the airport. Totally great time to regroup and not listen to any noise. Just what I needed.

ANNNNNND if you're still reading this you get bonus points cause this was longer than the Twilight series. Ry just walked in from the office, so we are going to bed!

G goes under

2011-03-06T22:18:00.008-05:00

So I better finally write about this before I forget what happened. HA!

SOOOOO, on tuesday this last week we scheduled Garrett for his surgery to fix his circumcision. He wasn't in any pain from it before, part of it had just healed back in a weird way and we finally decided to have them check into it. They agreed that if we were going to have the urologist fix it then earlier was better than later, so he was less likely to remember the process.

Had to be at the hospital at 6 in the morning, left our house at 5:30. Ry carried him down to the car in his pj's and with his blanky. I was so anxious (just about getting up in time-haa) the night before and (still) sick that I got probably like 3 hours of sleep, looked like I got hit by a truck, and G's talking on the way there about how dark it is, 'where is the sun mommy?' and 'i still have my jammies!' and acting like it's no big deal we're up at THE CRACK.

Check him in, he's telling stories to another older couple also in the admissions room. We go up to the surgery room, changes into his 'tiger jammies' and wait....for like 45 minutes. Nurses were coming in and out messin with stuff asking him questions....here's a few pictures of our waiting. =)

So when it got to be closer to the time of his surgery, they came and gave him versed, liquid stuff that he just drank, then explained some few things to me. I asked to take him potty before they took him back and they told me I had to carry him cause he could fall over from that stuff. OH YA, he was already loopy after like 5 minutes. Had to hold him the whole time in the bathroom, couldn't even lift his leg to get his foot out of his undies. HAHA! he kept sayin 'what's dat noise?'....uhhhh I dont' hear anything G, we're in the bathroom. HA! and he kept sayin he had to go poopy, but wasn't even making an effort to do so, sooooo bathroom time was ended and I carried him back pretty much dead weight to the room. They had the bed all ready to be wheeled away for the operating room, so I quick got another picture before they took him away. he was making everyone laugh and they all thought he was cute. He could tell that there was something 'funny' about him, like his body was heavy...he had this little smirk on his face and his eyes were looking EVERYWHERE without his head moving. hahahahahahaaaaa. so funny.

Then I went out to the car to get the balloons, got myself a yummy coffee and waited....and waited...in the waiting room....ugh. Took forever. And I was texting Ry to keep him up dated. Brought my bible study stuff but my brain can't concentrate on anything if there's noise. The doc came out half way to give me an update, which was nice. and then again when they were done and said I could go back to the room to wait for him, they would bring him back in as soon as he opened his eyes.

Actually I should back up....for anyone who's wondering, after they took him to the operating room, he was already pretty loopy, they give him an oxygen mask to put him under and then do the iv after he's already out, so he wouldn't be awake for the needle part. AWESOME!!!! SO, I really wasn't worried about any of that, so while I was waiting I was just wanting to see him getting really antsy, you know. Susie came up there too for the last 15 minutes of waiting so that made it go a little faster having someone to talk to.

We came back into the room and the bed was obviously still gone (the one they wheeled him away on) and there was a recliner and a folding chair along the wall. We set down all our crap and I heard him crying from down the hall. They were bringing him back! looked out the door and it was one of the nurses just carrying him to me and his little iv pack. what? so she sets him in my lap in the chair, he's naked, crying getting more hysterical as time goes by, Susie and I try to calm him down, he's flailing his arms and legs, didn't want to sit, stand, look this way, that way, hold onto that, pulling on his iv, pulled off his finger monitor, he was beside himself, which I was warned would happen after he comes out of anesthesia.... really we ended up sitting on the floor together, since there was no bed in the room. I was not impressed. I actually felt pretty much helpless....I couldn't 'help' him, but he seemed like he wanted my help, but he also made it seem like I was doing it wrong. hahaaaa. WHAT THE HECK!!!?! Anyhoo, we weren't there very long, long enough for him to chug 3 glasses of juice and water....and then throw it all up on the floor, take out his iv, and finally get settled for a few minutes watching Dora while I got some take-home instructions and his prescription. He sat on Susie's lap on the wheel chair while I carried all our loot and then ran to pull up the van. GOING HOME!!!

So we get back, Heather stayed with Ethan and Syd for the few hours that Ry was at work. Syd had pigtails!! so cute! Anyhoo-back to the story...we picked up some movies from the library, G got settled into his little spot on the couch...still hasn't had anything to eat or drink since the night before, it's like 11am. get him some more drink, and he throws up again....ugh. Thought this might be a really long day, but that was the last time! After about an hour he kept asking for more food....he had crackers, jello, and a popsicle. Here he is just takin it easy.

about an hour later he asked me if he could go back to the doctor again. He was ok. HAHAHA! Good thing cause we have a checkup on Wednesday. HA! Recovery has really been hard for ....ME, cause he forgets he has an owie. Keeping him settled was the hardest part tuesday, wednesday and thursday. He and Ethan are always wrestling and climbing and jumping....AHHH sit still dude!! he's been telling everyone this week about it too, that he can and can't do certain things cause it hurts his....like jump out of the van, do the crotch buckle on his carseat, climb into his bed over the guard rail, wear jeans, put on his medicine, take a bath, eat his vegetables...hahaha no just kidding. He's pretty much back to normal spirits though, that came back quickly. you can tell he's still a little sensitive, but that's to be expected. ALL in ALL, still glad we got that behind us now and were really happy with Dr. Terhune. Thanks everyone who was praying, it was a pretty long day. So glad God was watching over little Garrett!

doodle

2011-02-26T21:52:00.001-05:00

Alyssa + Paintbrush = masterpiece

OH YA.

2011-02-25T22:52:00.002-05:00

I am so weird, even when I'm sick. HA

Click here to view these pictures larger

Roller Skating

2011-02-21T15:17:00.006-05:00

This afternoon I took the kids for their first adventure with wheels on their shoes! it was hilarious. Rachel and Dustin's daughter (friends thru twins club and church) is in school with a kid who was doing this fund raiser for his health issues, so I thought, why not!? Went to a little rink that I've passed a million times in these 4 years and had NO CLUE it was there. oops (wonder what else I'm missing) Here are the action shots...ok these show mostly shots without action...but they're cute!

Rachel's genious idea. one at a time. they let me just rent one pair and then swap kids after a few laps around. hilarious. they were terrible. but that was expected...good thing we quit when we did, pretty sure my arms and lower back were going to be sore!!

they snacked on some delicious cupcakes...ethan is taking after his uncle Nate (obsession with frosting) he just licked all of it off and gave the cake part to G. hahaa

lovin the arcade games. pretty sure they both thought they were the ones driving those cars. =)

Now I of course haven't been on skates in.......dont' remember. so I had to take a few laps around to see if I still had it. HA. I discovered that with my previous weekend of skiing, I was trying to manuver around kids/turns similar to the short little cuts and stops I can make on skis. NOT the same. I couldn't remember how to stop, so I just had to slam into the wall. not with the kids of course, but they were going turtle pace so stopping wasn't an issue. Still had a blast, I forsee lots of those times on skis/skates/ice skates over the next few years! so fun to do things with kids! Thanks Rachel for the invite! She had to put up with a screaming sydney pretty much 90% of the time I was going around the loop. YIKES! Got home just in time for a loooooong nap...hopefully!!

V-Day

2011-02-15T08:48:00.004-05:00

pretty low key here yesterday.....Sunday night we got back from a lovely weekend away doing some Michigan skiing, you can check out fb for some sweet pictures. SOOOO yesterday was a catch up day, trying to get the kids back to normal from a weekend with the grandparents! (I'm sure the kids would like if we were gone more often!) I did get to see my man for a bit though, had to go in to the office in the morning to get my teeth cleaned. =) And Ry came home early from work so that was another bonus! The kids ate a little slice of love too =)

And this little lady had a pony in her hair all day for the first time!! I haven't tried to put one in for a few months, she screamed bloody murder when i did it the last time! she's so cute. one step closer to keeping little bows in her hair for longer than about 30 seconds! she's so cute!

three things.....

2011-02-08T21:50:00.005-05:00

NUMBER 1
OK. This is hilarious. Not really sure we have someone to follow in daddy's footsteps quite yet... They do both enjoy 'pwaying bax-it-ball' with Ry and going to watch his games, but i'm thinking it's going to be a little while before we see any improvement. hehe

NUMBER 2
This last weekend Dustin and Breanne came down from GR so we could meet their newest addition, Piper Jae! She is adorable. Parks turned 2 today!! so the boys got him a little somethin fun to open. He was a little shy at first, but all 3 of our kids are totally loud, so that's understandable. haha. He warmed up after a while! We had some excellent grillin by my man and they ran down to see Ry's office before heading home. Thanks for coming guys, always great to see you!

NUMBER 3
Scott Blasko came over tonight before heading to bible study with Ry, and he brought with him 2 eggs (since he has his own chickens). One normal sized, I'd say like medium, and the other was HUMUNGO. Chicken just laid (layed?) it today. kiiiinda gross. anyhoo, the boys REALLY wanted to hold them, so they did, VERY CAREFULLY, and then it was all in slow motion... G started to bobble it and before you know it it was on the floor and he was really sad. so much for that breakfast tomorrow G! haha. BUT, they were both super excited to see that the egg was indeed TWINS! and then they proceeded to name the yolkes Ethan and Garrett. HAHHAHAA so funny. Mr. Blasko told G he would bring him another egg and that made everything better. If only life could always be this simple. =)

SNOW DAY!!

2011-02-02T13:12:00.003-05:00

WOOP! First time.....EVER since we've been here and Ry called off the day. Called his patients for the day and the ladies and told them to stay home! Awesome! I personally feel like they were calling for more damage then was done, but we'll take it! Over night the wind blew the drifts pretty high in places, like it's half way up our fence in the back yard, but in other spots there's hardly anything. Ry's been shoveling for about 2 hours now....WOW, and only about 3/4 done with the driveway. The sun has been peeking out a few times too, so parts that are already shoveled were melting down to the pavement. We bundled up the kiddies and headed out for a bit....Syd didn't make the cut at first and we were going to stay inside, but she was practically BEGGING by the front door and window watching the boys and went and put on her boots! haha. SO, I found some pants for her and we went out too! so cute!! She was hilarious. Here are some photos of our fun. =)

G has a doc appt today and I've checked in a few times, they're open and said we can come anytime til about 3....still waiting to see if we'll make it. Leo, our neighbor across the street, tried to get out and got stuck in his pickup at the bottom of our driveway. HA! so...right now he and Ryan are using his snowblower and shovel to dig him out. YESSSSS. Does that stop me!? NO! Should it....probably.... =) Adventure! But really, we're just outside Stevensville city limits so our little neighborhood doesn't get plowed for a few days after a snow. So I'm guessing the roads everywhere else have been taken care of and we're just stuck in our garage until someone blazes a trail!!! Looks like it's gonna be the WHITE MINI!! woop!

sae;obiqh1o`

2011-01-31T22:24:00.009-05:00

I hate coming up with a title. HA!

This weekend we smoked the fort....got a lot done on it.... since the previous post's pictures, I decided to go ahead and drywall it to aid in the kid-friendliness, so I did some work on that a few days ago and then finished it up Saturday. Also, picked up some indoor/outdoor cheapo carpet from lowe's and cut it down to do the stairs. Joe came over and helped me glue that down. That took a while, BUT NOW it's so much nicer for Sydney's tumtum. =) AAAAND, went to a carpet place this morning and scored some sweet remnants for cheap, got home and cut those to fit this afternoon...here are the results

So exciting!!! now what else to put in there.....couple of pillows/bean bags/table and chairs maybe/crafty stuff.....any ideas??

THEN yesterday, we all tagged along to Ry's sunday afternoon bball game with our church team. The kids were great, big gym, schoony's kids and snacks make for a great hour of entertainment! I'd like to say that I got some good pictures, but when I got home and put them on the computer, they weren't as great as I was hoping...oh well. You people were movin too fast for my slow-pokey camera. sheesh.

look at the boys back there watchin. haha

Check out the score back there.....

WOWZA!!! final score was something like 92 to 45ish. that's crazy!!! uhhhhh YA, we're good. (and by 'we' I mean 'they' because I could barely pass the ball back to them if it came my way. I had nothing to do with the victory) ha! HEY Garrett, what do you think of the game so far (after telling him that daddy was winning) "GOOOOOOO DAADDDYYYYY!!!!" hehehe so cute

and one more sweaty picture of their favorite player =) LOVE

Forty-fort

2011-01-24T23:45:00.002-05:00

So here we have the finished product:

OR SO WE THOUGHT....then I decided to drywall the inside....it was just too splinter-y all over and I thought I could either sand for 2 months, or cover it up! HA! I worked on it over the weekend and finished the inside of the top-which looks SaWEET and two of the 4 walls on the bottom. SIGH, so much fun. I have lots of scraps from the whole thing, so we'll see what else I can come up with to jazz it up in there. Also, since Syd has to be in on ALL THE ACTION, she's always going up and down the steps....which are just OSB, talk about TERRIBLE on her tummy when she goes to slide down. YIKES. So we're going to look into some of that super thin carpet that wears like iron to put on the steps and we have other carpet scraps for the upstairs. Still looking for more crafty fun things to do or have in there....and am up for suggestions!

Splish Splash!

2011-01-19T17:11:00.006-05:00

So for part of Ellington's birthday weekend fun, we're going to a little indoor water park this saturday....so it was necessary to get Sydney a new suit...as you can see we were already having trouble fitting into this one last year...

After a trip to target this morning, we came home with this 3T beauty...

Fits like a glove!! However, I'm afraid because of the style, once it was was used a few times that it wouldn't be appropriate on the top, if you know what i'm sayin, so i might have to switch it for a 2T just to make sure it's snug enough. HA! Look out Elle, her come the Thomas's!!!

The finishing steps...

2011-01-18T15:21:00.004-05:00

hahaha get it....cause that's what he's working on right now... =) WOW. here's some more progress on the Fort-digity

Thanks Scott for all your hard work and putting up with bossy ol me. =) Feel free to suggest any ideas for painting it fun for kids or color options.....I feel like I'm currently out of vision.........more to come, it's almost done!

Day one COMPLETE

2011-01-14T15:36:00.003-05:00

and three hours later.....WAAAA LAAAAAA!!!!!

This is amazing. Scott has some mad skilz. the boys thought it was awesome, this is very close to the beginning of when they saw it for the first time....but they were scared of the tools and the noises they made, so after he started working again they were lightning speed up the stairs and hiding under a blanket on the couch. hahaaaaa. He'll come back tomorrow morning. AWESOME!! HOURS of fun in this thing to come for the Thomas kids. =)

Part 1

2011-01-14T13:47:00.004-05:00

THE PLACE:

THE MATERIALS:

THE TOOLS:

THE MAN:

THE REASON:

Stay tuned for more.............. !!!

bunch of sickies!

2011-01-11T22:11:00.008-05:00

Well, the weekend started out great, date night to the Lakeshore game with my man (we lost-not so great)...saturday got some things done around here, shoveled some snow, was in the mood to get things done. Put the kiddies to bed and started down in the basement. Right before Christmas we painted about 85% of the basement walls white to make it seem more finished and brighter and cleaner, which was accomplished I think....but still had to finish up the last part. So we got to it, finishing a little later then I wanted to, but it looks AWESOME. Got everything cleaned up and headed to bed around 1am. terrible, but can't get a thing done when the kids are awake....no..really just sydney.... For some reason I felt a little queezy when i was getting ready for bed but I thought maybe if I just could fall asleep it would go away. Finally asleep by 1:30.... 2:10 rolls around and Ethan is in our room screaming/crying covered in barf. SOOO, Ry puts him in our shower and I got to clean up his bedding/walls/floor/trail into our room, and start all that laundry, all while dry-heaving about 50 times.... the smell about put me over the top (since I already wasn't feeling the best). Finally get him all settled and back to sleep, lay down to go to bed and here comes my turn! Barf. (except I make it to the toilet, which means clean-up only involves brushing teeth and mouthwash). we decide Ry should go sleep in the guest room so he doesn't get the bug. An hour later G comes in and wants to sleep in our bed. I'm too tired to care at that point... so we fall asleep. 5:00 wake up to him screaming and barfing in OUR BED. try to grab him fast and run him to the toilet, but some still got in our bed. I go get ry, he puts him thru a shower. (Ethan comes in too cause G was so loud and I'm sure he was concerned for his bro.) put G back in his clean bed, change our sheets, gather more soiled nasty clothing and go start some more laundry. 5:30 try to go back to bed. can't sleep for a long time...keep getting a wif. 30 min later E comes in and has to go potty. Pick him up to take him back to his bed....mistake...too much pressure on my stomach. I basically had to set him down and say good night as I'm running out the door to make it to the bathroom. barf #2 for me. then 7:30 comes and both boys are awake (and crabby) in our room and want to go downstairs. we go down, sit on the couch with their waters, 30 min later G barfs again mostly in his blanket but some got on the couch. moved Ethan over to the other couch- and he didn't move for like 4 hours...falling asleep off and on, same with Garrett. check out how miserable they were together.

Meanwhile, Syd the last 5 days now has had major blowouts of liquid poop, changed her sheets and blankets pry twice a day, clothes pry 3 times a day....which is still happening and I'm TOTALLY ready for that to stop. However, she's still her normal cheery self, with the exception of today...

Ry woke up with some bowel issues Sunday morning too (not as bad as syd's- ha). I can tell you that the combination of the five of us made our house smelled RANCID for a long time there, and I've been trying to get caught up on laundry for 2 days now. I went from being totally productive to feeling like I was 5 days behind in things piled up to get done. No one really ate anything Sunday at all, appetites were pretty much all gone- except for Syd, which is normal. I think yesterday and today were great recovery days, we stayed home and just tried to get back into our normal routine. I took the boys out for some snowy fun while Sydney was taking her morning nap...that was pretty cute.

AAAANNND I cut off Syd's little mullet, first hair trimmy....WOOP! wasn't really that big of a deal, it took like 30 seconds.

and found a new way for the boys to burn off some energy during the day

Good workout!!! since she only weighs like 5 pounds less than them!! haha So anyway, just reporting into the WWW so that you all know we're still alive even though I didn't have enough energy to open the blinds the last two days. haa. THANKFULLY, this all happened on the weekend so that Ry wasn't totally drained for a work day, and that he didn't pick up any major stomach problems thru it all. This took me entirely too long to type soooo I'm not even going to spell check.

ANNNDDDD while I was cleaning up barf that early in the morning, Amber was kickin BUTT in the Disney marathon! So proud of her, she ran more miles in a row than I have probably run in my life. HA! Love you Bama!

Bringin in the New Year!

2011-01-05T16:21:00.003-05:00

SO, last week and today we got the kids thru their doc appts so I thought I'd update you all on the latest stats.

BOYS!!
Ethan weighed in at a whoppin 32.5 pounds and Garrett 34.5 pounds
Height- Ethan 36.5 inches and Garrett 37.5 inches

They both got shots too last week which went as expected, and I said this morning "Sydney gets to go to the doctor today" and they both said "I want to go too!!" HAHAHA!! YESSS they forgot about the shots. =) only took a week! which is fine, they don't go til their next birthday so I'm sure they would have forgotten by then.

And for the lil lady, here she is smokin hot on the scale. =)

You cant' really read the numbers cause of the glare, but it says (drum roll....) 27.8 pounds!!! DAAAAAAAAAAANG! and she is 32.5 inches! sheeesh! She's totally going to be taller than me. oh well. Anyhoo, she's a trooper with the shots, the nurse was super fast and we were out gettin groceries before we knew it. Time goes so fast, can't believe how big they are...SIGH. but they are hilarious and all very different...which is what keeps us on our toes I guess!

HAPPPPPYYY New Year!!!!!

2011-01-01T13:53:00.005-05:00

This is Sydney's new-found noise. Maybe she's saying something important and we have no clue. Someone translate if you can understand it. =)

Also, these bad boys were amungst the MANY wonderful gifts the boys were showered with from friends/family....opened them Christmas evening, and by lunch time the next day they were flyin around the kitchen and diningroom with them. So fun!!! Can't wait til warmer weather so we can take these bad boys out around the block!

more pictures to come!

Awesome =)

2010-12-16T15:04:00.001-05:00

Birthday Bash!

2010-12-13T22:19:00.003-05:00

What a fun day to celebrate the boys. They turned 3 today, and of course wanted a BUZZZZZZ party, and a WOODY one. Easy peasy. Seriously how much toy story stuff is in the stores right now. ha! SO, enjoy some great pictures of our evening. Schoony's and Whites came over for a lil celebration and the boys got lots of neat new things for older kids! bring on the games!!!!! =) There were a few attempts in here at getting a decent picture....uuuhhhh NICE TRY. HA! oh well, hopefully the evening was captured well enough to remember for down the road. And you'll see the picture of syd with the bday hat on too and the elastic stretched waaaaay out, which was moments before she snapped her face and screamed for a while. awww....lil lady. Beckett gets points too for partying til he fell asleep. either that or we were really boring. =)

Garrett- you are so much fun to watch as you learn new things and interact with others. Way to go on your alphabet and learning and singing christmas carols! You're enjoying your independence now and wanting to do things by yourself! Thanks for picking up your toys, playing with Ethan, and taking care of you little sister. what a fun year this has been with you! We love you SO MUCH little son! -Daddy and Mommy

Ethan- You are full of energy and imagination! You are so silly and love to dance and play with your toys. Lightning McQueen is giving Buzz a run for his money, but Buzz is still your favorite. you make us laugh with your cute little sayings and comments out of the blue. Thanks for lovin sydney and sharing your toys with G. You are a great big brother, a true leader! Love you always, Daddy and Mommy

take a listen. =)

2010-12-12T23:39:00.000-05:00

Preschool!!

2010-12-07T23:12:00.005-05:00

SOOOO, birthday month for the boys, they turn three on the 13th so they graduate from the nursery to the preschool class at church!!! WOOP! AAAANNNND, just so happens that December is the month that Emily and I are teaching (correction: Emily teaches, I do what Emily tell me to do) haha. SO, I get to be in there this month and watch em do all the things with the big kids. =) SO CUTE!!! So i took pictures. I was still 'working' I promise. =)

So Emily's brilliant plan to have the kids sing a few Christmas songs in a few weeks in big church....we're on our way down the hallway with our 'buddy' to go practice singing our Christmas carols. hehe

They did great. And we made a little star ornament that they colored and got to bring home to put on the tree. They had a blast, other than Olivia getting them confused since they were dressed the same. oops (note to self on the first day of real preschool - no matching outfits!) they've been ready to move up I think for a while now...gettin sick of the nursery toys and wanting to do things with the big kids.

Speaking of their matching outfits, Sunday all three of em wore their Christmas outfits from Cale and Megan. We didn't get to see them for Thanksmas, but they mailed some cute lil numbers for the kids to wear around. SO AWESOME! The boys' shirts have little guitars on them - totally appropriate from Cale - and Megs passed on her style to the SYD with a sweet girly sweater and pants with a flower belt! She looked so stinkin cute in it too cause her legs are so chubby. they looked like skinny pants!...you know that are like spandexy and tight to the ankles. HAHAHAA

Thanks Cale and Meg! LOVE the outfits!! Got some great compliments at church too. =)

heheheheee

2010-12-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

QUACK

2010-11-19T23:52:00.005-05:00

Check out these saWEET pants!

Ash MADE THEM in her sewing class for Sydney, with the extras from the pants she made for herself out of the same material...so they would have matching jams. How sweet is that?!!! So cute..and so fuzzy wuzzy! So here's Sydney, fresh out of the bath, sportin her new jams, if only Ashley had her's on too. =) We'll have to get a matchy picture before she out grows them!

Happy Birthday Sydney in 5 days!!! she's practically in kindergarten. yikes

St. Joe Aquatics!!!

2010-11-14T23:10:00.008-05:00

This is just too funny not to post. Oh my, the kids had some fun trying on Alyssa's swim cap tonight. Hilarious. They even tried it on Sydney and her chub on her head and eyebrows got squished down so her eyes couldn't even open. HHAAAA. but didn't stay on long enough to get a picture - dang it, so you'll just have to imagine. Anyhoo, Alyssa had a practice swim meet yesterday that we came to for a few hours in the morning, so here's what it looks like on the professional. =) Sorry the pictures are so dark, we were pretty far away....

She was awesome!! This is her first year swimming and she did great! the boys were cheering her on with ashley and hunter...so who knows if that's in our future here at the Thomas household, cause we all know that the three of them LOOOOOOVE the water. Anyhoo, check out these next few pictures and try not to laugh out loud. Cause ryan and I did. soooo funny

And Garrett's last picture wins the award for the most hideous. BAHAHAAAHAAAAaaaaa

Alyssa looks SOOO much better in this. =) Go SJA!!

70 and sunny!

2010-11-11T22:56:00.008-05:00

St. Joe didn't have school today, so Ash and Alyssa came to watch the kids so I could go to bible study kid-free! They had fun, I had some much needed women time, it was a great morning. Alyssa stayed with us for the afternoon and played with the kids outside cause the weather was AWESOME!!

This would be the perfect time to make a joke about this being a BAD place for G to take a dump. haha

We had our community group movie night tonight - Toy Story 3 in the "MAN CAVE" at Whites! It, of course, was SOO GOOD....the boys actually did WAY better in the theater then this time, weird. Anyhoo, we got the boys that movie for Christmas, so I'm sure we'll be watching a lot of it in a few weeks!! Figured that was kind of a no-brainer gift for them, just fueling the obsession. =)

In other news, I haven't posted pictures yet of when the boys actually MET Beckett! I know, he's already a month old and I'm totally behind. But I was looking thru my pictures and it just came to me. So here you go...

They lasted long enough for the picture and then they were done. Especially cause Beckett wasn't really up for all the passing around. haha. The boys though haven't quite figured out how to say his name. They call him 'Bucket.' dangit. so close, but totally wrong! I try to get them to say it the right way, and I'm pretty sure in their mind they are saying it right. so funny. 'my baby bucket, mommy.' hahaaaa. Just love his lil mini face and squeaks. =)

AND I will leave you with this one last story in honor of Veterans day and our awesome BIL (brother in law) THE PANTS Barricklow.

So we (the kids and I) were walking thru target last week, headed down one of the little walkways. Off to the side between the men's and shoes depts are the men's undies and socks and undershirts...you know, like when they're all in packages hanging in a giant display on the wall. Well, every package has the model guy telling you that you'd look like him if you wore this pair of briefs...or whatever. So we're walking along and I hear 'Lookit, momma, Uncle Josh!' Pointing to the undies guy that's bald. BHAHAHAAAAAAhAAA oh my. Of course there are people around and the boys are pointing to and telling each other about all the many uncle josh's on the display and I just keep walking faster. haaaa. Which is funny- cause they've said that before in a different store and I must have said something dumb like 'ya he doesn't have hair either...' Pretty much everything you say after that is going to be dumb though. So there I am having this conversation with them IN PUBLIC about that almost naked guy looks like their uncle. What the heck kind of family is that?!?! hahaaaa. They love their Uncle Josh!! see you in two weeks BIL

trick or treat!

2010-11-07T14:36:00.007-05:00

OK, my friend called me out this morning at church and said I needed to update the blog. haha. Thanks Melanie! =)

Halloween in a nutshell. WELL, started off with church in the morning, got to be there to watch lil Beckett get dedicated. Josh and Emily's family was all in town so it was good to see them again. I'm a big fan of the pot luck Sundays, so many good things to eat! The boys handed out little sheets of ghost and pumpkin stickers that Grandma Rita sent them, everyone loved them! That was cute... Pretty much CAN'T WAIT til we can all just sit at the table and eat a meal without someone screaming or trying to run away. SIGH.

Skip ahead to the party at Schoonvelds. People's costumes were so hilarious! Ryan and Heather were old people, canes and all, Josh and Emily were salt and pepper shakers, Steve-o was a very realistic cop, even had the car! (he stopped by in the middle of his shift-haha), Eric and Amy were Jack and Jill, we had a rubix cube, a karate kid, hippie, Cleopatra, ballerina, princess, batman, bunny, an elf and a few more, can't remember....(maybe that's why I should have written this right away) =) Last year Josh White had the kids play a game from his own childhood, which I think we've all adapted as a new tradition -- Powdered Donut game!!! here's a picture of the starting lineup!

You hang powered donuts from a string at the appropriate heights of the players. They then have to EAT the donut without using their hands, as it's dangling from the string and bouncing all over their faces leaving white powder everywhere. The first one done wins!!! Oh my gosh it's so funny. Everyone should play this game at a party it's THAT GOOD.

The kids love it, and they just keep playing until the donuts are gone. =) Obviously the boys didn't quite understand the rules. haaa

Anyhoo, we opted out of trick or treating on Forres because we didn't want a bunch of candy around the house anyway, the boys aren't going to eat it (I would- which is NOT good) and Sydney was a CRAB-OOOOOO. So we headed to Joe and Susie's house for the trick or treating. he insisted on us walking over to his neighbor's house to show off the costumes, so we did that for a few minutes and decided Sydney HAD to take a nap. So we put her down and Joe took G out again, Ethan stayed and helped Susie hand candy out to the kids that came to the door. that was pretty cute. he was saying thank-you everytime he gave away a candy. haaa. Joe snapped these photos of us before all the action started...

About half way thru the afternoon it dawned on me...why in the world would I make a costume for Ryan to wear that he CAN'T hold Sydney in?! Terrible! On top of being super tired and crabby, she wanted to go upstairs, over here over there, get into a million things, get in everyone's way...man! That was dumb. Here's what I saw when i came to this conclusion:

seriously terrible. But looking back, it was fun, the kids loved it. I'm already trying to come up with ideas for next year's family costumes....but I'm sure that will just depend on what they kids are into then, you know. I'm open for ideas!!! =)

A Sneak Preview....

2010-10-31T12:45:00.002-04:00

4 little teeth, goin on 6!

2010-10-21T21:57:00.002-04:00

Ry brought THIS home from work for his sweet little daughter.

HAHAHAAHAHAAAAAaaaaa. her first tooth brush. He is so funny. =) *SIGH*

Love this!!!!

2010-10-18T10:27:00.001-04:00

This is our community group thru church that we've enjoyed for the last year and a half! Thanks Ryan Schoonveld for putting this together. Awesome!

WOWZA

2010-10-15T14:39:00.008-04:00

Can I just say that I'm REALLY excited that I figured out how to put that picture up there with writing on it, using 2 different websites, multiple attempts at sizing, but I did it!!! haaa. I'm not too techy if you didn't know that. BUT AT LAST - Sydney is officially part of the blog!! HA....it only took 10.5 months....

In other news, visited lil Beckett this morning, well and Josh and Emily. He is stinkin CUTE! What a little mini! Can't even believe that Sydney was that size when she was born....(for about a week.) I told her what I loved the most is that he wasn't trying to get away from me! seriously though, the boys went thru this stage too of not being able to sit still (wonder who they get that from) and Sydney is a MO-VEERRR. She doesn't even want to be rocked to sleep, she starts reaching for her crib when you walk into her room. OOKKKAY good night to you too!! So anyways, I just loved to hold him and not stop looking at his cute lil head. Pretty sure he doesn't look like either one of them yet....but it's only been a day. =)

And let me just brag about my friend here for a minute. Look how good she looks!!! She stayed up ALL night to have a baby 26 hours ago. Smokin. seriously, she looks great..and she was her cheerful, pleasant self. Talkin to the doctors about going home this afternoon too. That's awesome. Way to go guys!

After I left the hospital, picked up the kiddos from Auntie Heather's, we headed out to our fav place to get pumpkins and some mums for the porch. I was trying to hold off buying them, but I couldn't stand it anymore. LOVE FALL STUFF!!! Here we are picking out our pumpkins, Sydney watched from her car seat a few feet away. The boys loved it! they went straight for the lil guys. And the nice man gave them each a baby punkin for free!! He's the best!

So we took all that home and did THIS with it!!

not sure why this one keeps going sideways. hmmm

YES! The boys were great helpers with that. And of course we had to have a photo shoot after that. I was laughing out loud - they are so funny, enjoy!

And tonight, Ry and I will go cheer on the Lancers at the Lakeshore VS St. Joe fb game!! Thankful for such a great day with beautiful weather! Fall is the BEST!

Introoducccciiinngggggg........

2010-10-14T21:30:00.004-04:00

Beckett Warren White!!!!

born at 8:00 AM this morning
8 lbs 1 oz
20 inches

He was having a little trouble with some fast breathing so got some extra lovin from the nurses in the nursery for a while today. Check out the pics on facebook, here are a few Emily sent me earlier! She looks like she didn't even have a kid. Amazing! Can't wait to go see him tomorrow!!

more pictures on her facebook, check em out!!

A new BIL!

2010-10-13T21:33:00.006-04:00

Brother - in - law. We abrev in this fam. =)

DALLAS IS ENGAGED to this fine fellow: (ok Levi is in the blue shirt - NOT HIM haha)

Here are the stats:
Name: Caleb Nachtigall (knock-tih-gall)
Age: old enough
Hair: blondish brown and short
Loves: Jesus, Dally, computers, art, fixing ANYTHING, making ANYTHING
Fun fact: He made Dally's ring. That's right, you read that correctly...he MADE, as in started from nothing and ended with a ring to put on her finger. HOLY CRAP
Proposal date: 10-10-10....don't really think that was on purpose cause it just happened to be when he finished the ring...it took a whoppin 5 weeks.

Anyhoo, I got permission from the owners to post this even though it hasn't been released on the world wide web yet. As luck would have it, Caleb thought enough to make a video of the whole creation process so the rest of us can have a craft...month. haha SO...stay tuned for all the pictures/videos/information/stories/wedding plans to come. Check Dallas's fb or Caleb's...I've been told it will be up for the viewing soon! But for now - here's a preview. Note that it looks even MORE amazing and sparkly in person and there's a whole history behind the diamonds...and if you knew Caleb at all, that would not come as a surprise.

We are SO excited to have such a great new addition to the family! Welcome!!

Start of Year 5!

2010-10-09T21:28:00.010-04:00

We've almost been married for 5 years!! hahaha. just kiddin. Thursday was our 4th anniversary and yesterday morning Ry was leaving for work, he made some joke about it almost being 5 years now. haha. Trust me, it was pretty funny.

SOOOOOO, now that we're officially in the 5th year of marriage, here are some fun adventures we've taken in the last 2 days. =)

FIRST OF ALL, Friday was our last day with lil Ellington. So we packed up in the morning and headed off to visit Emily at school for her last day of teaching! The kids in the class thought it was so awesome to have visitors for a few minutes. It's like Where's Waldo trying to find the boys in this picture! haha....they loved going to the school cause it was like a whole room full of Hunter's!! I told Emily that in those 5ish minutes we were in there before the kids went to art I was completely overwhelmed. I would take 4 kids under 3 years old ANY DAY over a class room of 3rd graders!! haha

And then a great shot of Em and the big sister!

Seriously....any day now baby W's (pronounced = Dubs...maybe it should just be BDubs! HA!) Well, she's due on Wednesday, so I guess we might just have a wait a bit longer....

And then yesterday evening Deb and Rich came over. We haven't' hung out with them in forever it seems, so it was great to have them here. Deb and Ry went to pick up some DELISH food from a restaurant that one of his patients owns and after we ate we headed off to the park to burn off some of the boys' energy - not like they need any help burnin energy with Uncle Rich here... he gets em all sorts of riled up! How do you spell that. Anyways, check out these action shots!!

HA! And then of course we had to have dessert. Dilly Bars from DQ! That was a first time experience with ice-cream on a stick. It went over quite well actually. =)

Just noticed I don't' have any pictures of Deb. terrible! but she was here!! haha. Anyways, we're glad to have such great friends here, we had a blast today with Whites and Gpa Joe at the Harvest Festival on the bluff, followed by pizza for lunch, naps, some football watching of course, the park, Sydney shopping, supper at Joe and Susies, and the lovely quiet moments after bedtime. =) SIIIGHHH. Life feels so busy when all you do is chase people for a living. hahaha! Deep down I'm still thankful for these days because they go by just as fast as they came. =)

Tick Tock...

2010-10-01T22:42:00.004-04:00

Any day now.......... !!!!!!

I've been workin on Elle when she's here to tell me her brother's name. The first time she said 'tsi-tsi' and the second time was very clear - 'NEEN'. And she seemed to know exactly what she was saying to me. hmmm......Does this look like a face that would lie?! I think not!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of another sweet lil boy!

What a reader!

2010-09-25T22:29:00.004-04:00

So Garrett's not really reading, this book has just been read to him so many times he knows it. HA. This was about the 5th time thru the book tonight so this time wasn't as good as the times before, but it's still pretty cute. =)

Movin Movin Movin

2010-09-20T20:43:00.003-04:00

I should have posted this milestone up quite some time ago, but I'm just now getting to it....she's been WALKING! for a few weeks now, totally unbalanced still, but definitely getting better. As you're watching this below, note that Grammy and Grandpa Joe (sometimes Garrett just calls him 'Joseph' cause that's what Susie says -hahah) are over and doing what they do best - helping them burn off some energy! And this is exactly why God blessed us with a large lil lady...just watch and know that the tackling happens multiple times a day, and rarely ends in crying. What a TANK!!! Just tryin to toughen her up, you know! haha! Enjoy!

Another Great Weekend!

2010-09-12T21:46:00.008-04:00

SIGH. Sunday night already. I'd like to say that weekends go really fast and during the week it slows down a bit, but in two months Sydney will be 1 so I guess time general just flies right on by.

Friday Dustin and Breanne texted and asked us if we wanted to go to the Michigan Notre Dame game in Southbend on Saturday....we were free so we said SURE! Joe and Susie came and we headed out. Turns out, Dustin is an expert in purchasing tickets AT the game, or any event he goes to. He said he can't remember the last time he went to a game or event or concert and had tickets in advance for it...or paid face value. WELL OK! He just left the three of us in the dust to go check out his market to find the best deal. We ended up sitting across the stadium from them and their tickets were in the donor's section RIGHT under the press box, which was great for Breanne cause she's 7 months pregnant with their second and that could have been pretty uncomfortable had she not had a back rest. Anyhoo, the guy that was sitting by them really enjoyed his time with D & B, ended up saying he was super glad they got to sit together and told them to go buy something for the baby and handed ALL HIS MONEY BACK for the tickets!!! WOAH! They paid $70 for each!! Of course they didn't realize it was all the money until they were out of the stadium and that guy was long gone...WOW. How awesome to be so nice to a complete stranger. Well, we all thought that was super neat. We then headed to Chili's to celebrate the victory - Breanne went to Michigan so they were silent in the donor/ND section but secretly cheering on the inside for MI, and we were cheering for ND in our section of great fans and also secretly cheering for MI on the inside. haha. Well, I just cheer for whoever ry is cheering for...who are we kidding. But it was a GREAT game to the end, the weather was awesome, people we sat with were really friendly and were so much fun. Brought back some GRRRRREEEEEEEATTT memories we both have of going to Nebraska games and really made us excited for next season when they start playing games so close to us!!!

OK. These pictures are showing up a lot smaller on the blog then i was expecting....so click on em to make em bigger. Check out everybody's face in this picture in the background. hahahaaa

Breanne is sitting at the 50 yard line, back against the press box wearing a yellow coat. And Dustin is in blue on her left. Same with this one, have to zoom in to see em. You could easily see them in real life but the camera makes it seem like we were really far away and that everyone looks like an ant. I thought we had GREAT seats!

This picture is SO funny to me cause it looks like Breanne's arm is linked with Ry's. hahahaaaa. But really Ry is just holding his rain coat. so funny!

Thanks for a great gameday/hangout closin Chili's down! haha. We had a full day today too, but that will be in the next post... holllllaaaa!

Labor Day Weekend!

2010-09-08T22:45:00.004-04:00

Well, it was a hoppin weekend here once again. Since Deb couldn't come visit with Briana this past July, she cashed in her tickets for last weekend and was able to stay a few extra days due to the holiday and her mother-in-law passing away the week before. Would have loved to have been at Rose's service, but thanks to technology, We watched the taped version that was available online. Beautiful!

Of course we tried to jam as much in as possible, and had intentions of doing much more than we actually did. =) From the pictures I ended up with it seemed like we just spend all our time inside. NOT the case. The weather was beautiful...we sat outside and drew some pictures with chalk, carousel with the boys and grammy and grandpa, walked around downtown St. Joe, enjoyed some fine dining at Silver Beach Pizza, the grill a few times, waffles, and delicious stir fry. mmmm. also, the weather was great and we had the windows open and breeze flowin thru the house.....ahhhh FALL HAS BEGUN. =)

Here's the picture reel......

Now amongst these here photos you might have seen a couple of florescent orange sticks, I will tell you that for Hunter's birthday this year, which was Monday, the Thomas's gifted his first EVER pair of stilts!!! He didn't even know what they were at first. hahahaaa. But 24 hours later he had the hang of it and was taking like 10 steps at a time! I tell ya...age 9 is the perfect year for stilting. I was laying awake one night when i couldn't sleep trying to figure out how old we were on the farm when dad made ours for us - and came to the conclusion that I didn't know but it had to be somewhere around then. We had 2 or 3 sets i think, all started with our crazy days with the Magnusson kids, but we would race each other across the front yard and set up obstacle courses for ourselves. Oh the days of cheap entertainment! Couldn't tell ya when the last time I stilted was, but of course I had to try them out and sure enough, it's like riding a bike!...maybe I should try skipping with them...haha.

Anyhoo, school started yesterday here for the kids. Had to get Ash's highlight appointment in before she went back - the after shot is in there too. It looked great. Elle is here now for a few weeks while Emily finishes out teaching the rest of her pregnancy. Can't imagine another little one in the mix! 5 more weeks and he'll be here!!! I'm just glad Syd has a friend to play with....all these boys around here =) They are definitely both excited to see each other in the mornings and after naps and such. so cute! They read like this for like 10 minutes this afternoon. haa

SIGH...just tryin to get into the swing of fall...gotta get the decorations out here pretty soon. YES!! my favorite season is just beginning and I have a ton of new recipes to try. Stay tuned for more adventures!

A Shout out to my hub - the best dad =)

2010-08-30T14:08:00.000-04:00

Fullllll Week!

2010-08-28T21:45:00.006-04:00

had a blast with some friends this week that we don't get to hang out with very often....

First, Kara came over from Lansing with her two little babes, Zayne and Kyler. she stayed over wednesday night cause her hubby was working late at the restraunt. We definately missed Micah... The kids all (for the most part) loved playing together. Zayne just turned 2 and just a cute lil mini who loves to follow his momma around. Kyler is a 6 month old STUD. Sooo cute. Sydney could eat him for lunch though. She weighs like 8 pounds more then him. haha. But Zayne looovvved her! He kept getting REALLY excited when she was around and wanted to hug her and lay in her lap and all sorts of stuff. it was hilarious. anyhoo, time always goes too fast when we get together and I hope we have many, many more times together while our kids are growing up. She's a great listener and encourager and I always leave our times feeling mentally and emotionally ready for the next thing, you know.... We did manage to get a shot of all of them together, even though one is screaming. Funny that they only scream RIGHT when the picture is being taken. maybe it's because somebody is wrapping him up with legs!! haa

And of course there were trucks, chalk, park time, more trucks, and plenty of eating. =) Fun time had by all!!! besides Kyler not feeling the best..poor guy. Thanks for coming Kara!

AND THENNNN........
Dustin and Breanne came this afternoon and brought their son Parks to play with the boys. We just don't see them enough these days, and now that #2 is on the way for them...scheduled to be here mid november, I'm sure our time together will only get more busy...and louder. ha! But we had fun just sitting out in the back yard while our kids took naps, then Ry grilled some delicious chicken and veggies, and then we headed up to silver beach for some desserts and a beautiful sunset. I love our town. =) thanks for visiting guys!

Here we are again!

2010-08-19T21:58:00.006-04:00

I think we're smooth sailin now! the boys are doing great, still sleeping in the pullups though, just cause I'm lazy and don't want to change sheets every day while they 'learn'. SOOOO, things are going great! We went to the beach today so they could pee whenever they wanted...and i'm sure they did. haha I am finding good and bad things that come along with being potty trained...well, not bad, just a whole different routine to get into that I'm not used to. Like for the next 10 years or so everyone will take a trip to the bathroom before we get in the car to go somewhere. ha. Anyhoo, check the progress...

to THIS!!

NICE! And Elle came over to hang out for a while yesterday and I snatched up some of these lovely photos!

She is so stinkin cute and the boys love her. =) Can't wait til sydney's hair is that long so she can rock the pony's like Elle! instead this is what I have to work with. like 10 one inch long clear hairs. hahaha

Pretty sure I'll take it though. shes cute when she's not screaming. =)

Off to watch a movie with my man! Woop!

Day #2

2010-08-17T22:26:00.005-04:00

I'll have to admit. My attitude was less than great this morning, and it was a good thing Alyssa was here otherwise I might have been even LESS patient with the accidents. cause there were MANY. Oh man. Anyways...here's a quick recap.

New snacks, activities, and new stickers today, which kept it fun.
No leaving the two rooms. I'm totally ready for that to be over with!!!
Felt like this morning they were out to get me.
Naps for them and a shower for me changed the picture. amazing how that works!
So after naps they were MUCH better and I think the light bulb turned on....
Hopefully just a day or two more and we'll be smooth sailin!!

It's kinda exciting to see all the diapers we have left for Sydney...I've never had to stock diapers for one kid! We won't have to buy any til Thanksgiving!! haha...ok maybe sooner than that, but woo hoo to one kid in diaps!!!

Potty Training!!

2010-08-16T23:12:00.005-04:00

Man O Man! Well, one day down, many to go I'm sure. =) Just decided enough was enough with the MILLION diapers we have to stock in our house for all three kids. The boys have been using the potty for a loong time now, just not consistantly, so they've definately shown signs of readiness. Here I am waiting thru the summer for the perfect 3-day weekend (so ry could be home to help)....with no luck cause we always find stuff to do....which means I was stuck with during the week if I really wanted it to happen. Thankfully I have Alyssa here to help. =)

Now it's still too early in the game to tell if my tactics are working, but so far here's what I have going:

Diapers GONE cold turkey.
Constant praise.
Constant 'tell mommy when you have to go potty.'
Maybe 80% of the time they start peeing on my floor and then we run to the potty to finish. (not nearly as bad as it sounds) (I've read that this will help them associate the 'feeling' of having to go pee with 'hurry, hurry, you have to go potty, run to the potty!!'
Reward with a sticker on their own sheet of paper in the bathroom. M&M for poops. =)
Don't leave the kitchen/living room area the hole 3 days.
Lots of salty snacks, and juice boxes - which i never buy. bonus.
Really fun new undies!!
Laundry and sanitizing EVERYTHING at the end of the day. hahaa

Now I did cheat the system with training pants for naps and bedtime. That was against the lady's advice in the 3-day potty training guide I read...she said to quit liquids 2ish hours before naps and 3 hours before bedtime just during the training days until it 'clicks'....which I did. G woke up from his nap dry...Ethan no. we'll see what the morning brings. =)

I can see that they already get it, it's just a matter of making it to the toilet EVERY time. they're just lazy. =) But soon...maybe tomorrow it will click, but def by wednesday, and we'll be golden! I will say that the amount of accidents increased DRAMATICALLY after Ry got home from work. They were excited and too busy playing. That will take some time I'm sure. Still a little nervous about putting them in the car seats....or even on my lap. not that I haven't been peed on before... haha. Anyhoo, stay tuned for the results!

Camping!!!

2010-08-06T07:31:00.002-04:00

Well, our first camping experience we decided to just add to the fun with three babes in a tent with us. haha. It was a BLAST and the kids loved it...a little hard to get them to sleep when it was light out, but we did alright. Fun had by all. I've been busy getting things ready for that camping trip, and now the Nebraska family is here for our reunion this weekend, so I was busy planning for that! SHEESH. But since I get up early with Sydney and everyone's sleeping I thought I'd take a minute to update. =)

Well, I have the oven preheating for some breakfast casserole so I better get back to the activities! Enjoy the pictures!

Our Favorite. mmmmm

2010-08-04T14:47:00.001-04:00

A few random shots....

2010-07-23T15:37:00.005-04:00

Well, I've tried a few times now to load pictures of when mom was here...and then I go to view blog after I'm done and it's completely the wrong pictures. Why would it do that. No idea. Anyhoo, I'm sick of trying- I just get mad, so I'll just have to get em on facebook soon cause there were some cute ones and we had a really good time. =)

Last night Ry and I headed to the windy city to enjoy the night life for a change. hahhaaa. JUST KIDDING. Richard and Heather were in town for their anniversary and a wedding later this weekend so we hopped on over and hit up some Giordono's Pizza and some ice cream and a walk around a park/fountain thing between Mich Ave and the lake. It was a blast. They're the kind of friends you can go for a long time without seeing and then jump right back into it like you didn't even miss a day. SIGH ... So great. Heather took a few shots, but guess who forgot her camera. Dang it. If you know ryan and I at all, you would know that the city doesn't really call our names all that often, but it is still fun to get there a couple times a year just to see and do things that we can't here. Amber and I always joke about this difference between us, but I'm happy being me and happy that she's who she is too. God has made us uniquely different and we can both appreciate that. =) All that to say, THANKS Clabaughs for including us on your anniversary get-away...always great to see you!

Meanwhile back in lovely SW Mich, here is what you get when you leave your child for a few seconds too long after almost all the food is gone on his plate. sick dude....what were you thinking?!?! haha

And then there's the beauty queen. If she's half as funny as her brothers, we're in for a LOT of laughs!!

Funniest Picture Ever

2010-07-18T23:57:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday again!!!

2010-07-14T11:12:00.001-04:00

This time it's Cale's turn! only I'm a day late. sorry brother!

Love you! See you in a few weeks!

Garden!!

2010-07-12T10:13:00.003-04:00

Well, this is really for erin cause she's been asking to see pictures of the garden. Here she blows in all her glory!!

I will say this. I have NO CLUE what I'm doing. =) Heather and I split a bunch of seed packets, so I have onions, lettuce, carrots, yellow and zucchini squash, cucumbers, cilantro, and basil. The tomatoes are from starter plants... garlic and regular chives and rhubarb come back every year. Awesome. We've already enjoyed some grilled zucchini the other night (ryan grilled THE BEST chicken he's ever made- holy cow) and pretty sure we'll have waaaay more then we can eat of all the other stuff....mostly the yellow squash. Sydney's bout to get some great veggies for her meals. mmmm! But seeing how much room things take up and how much they produce, I'll be able to adjust the set-up MUCH better next year....so things don't get swallowed up by the squash plants. hahaa

It's so much fun to have a garden and it smells GREAT out there!! Hope you all have some good food growin in your back yards too!

Love you Brother!

2010-06-30T17:29:00.001-04:00

Happy Milestone!

2010-06-25T09:10:00.006-04:00

Well, the little lady is 7 months old TODAY!!! Sheeesh that goes fast! But I think it's even more weird to think I was pregnant 7 months ago. haha. Anyway, I say happy milestone because it's not her (half)birthday...and I don't know what else to call it. So here today we will dedicate this entire post to the Queen of the Hour!

Erin informed me that I didn't put up stats from her 6 month check. she would be correct. SO...a few weeks ago, Syd weighed in at 20 lbs 4 oz - which is what the boys weighed on their first birthday. hahaha! AHH that's funny. Seriously though, her legs are HUUUUUGGE! Let's hope she grows out of that. Ryan says she has Schweitz legs. I can't be mad if it's true I guess!! haa. Here's a few good ones...take note of the legs.

Now with the Bumbo, we have to SNAP her legs in and out. and when you lift her up the chair comes with her body. hahaaaaa.

Besides being the drool queen and 'talking' EXTREMELY loud, the girl -for the most part- is so happy, smiling and laughing a lot...

And she has two big brothers that love her a LOT. =) They are so sweet with her, giving her toys when she's crying, talking to her, saying she's in time-out (hahah), going up with me to get her out of the crib after a nap, giving her hugs and kisses, tickling her, entertaining her and trying to make her smile.

And here's the latest...she's been pulling herself up on things and LOOOOVES to be standing up. I'd say it's been about 2-3 weeks now, and she's getting pretty good at it too. The landing, though, needs a little work. =) E was walking at 10 months, G was 11 months, I bet Sydney beats em both. She will take really wobbly steps if you're holding her hands, and she forgets that she can't walk when she's standing against the couch and reaching for toys or the ottoman...that's when she topples. haha.

it's only a matter of time.....Happy Day little girl! We love you so much!

Happy Father's Day Ry!

2010-06-21T09:40:00.007-04:00

well...yesterday. =) It was a great day overall, even though Garrett wasn't feeling 100%. We started out with some yummy breakfast at Schoonveld's, headed off to church for a great service, followed by lunch at Joe and Susie's, back to our house for early naps for the boys, took Sydney to Deb and Rich's house, went back home and worked on the yard until they woke up, then headed out to watch Toy Story 3!!! Ahhh it was awesome. The movie was funny and the boys did GREAT! There were a couple times when Ethan randomly yelled out 'STOP IT!'....he was talking to the movie. haha. and then there's always the 'GO BUZZ!' and 'UH OHH WOODY!'. they did such a good job. Check out the pics from our first theatre experience!!

Grammy and Grandpa Joe brought new Buzz shirts to the movie for the boys and of course we still have them on today. =)

It's so fun to do things with them that they enjoy. We are blessed to have such great kids. =)

Bring on the water!!

2010-06-11T14:43:00.003-04:00

Ryan brought this beauty home from work the other day, and since it said 95 on my thermometer, time to bust out the water works!! The boys couldn't wait for swim suits, so they first drenched their jammies. Then after they realized that having that wet heavy outfit on wasn't really that great, they came to me trying to peel it off themselves and we switched outfits. ha so cute!

If you ever come to my house this summer, you'll know why it's IMPOSSIBLE to keep my back door clean for more than 24 hours! but I love the little bodies that make the prints. =)

First time for Everything. =)

2010-06-02T22:35:00.006-04:00

Well, we made it 2 and a half years before our first trip for stitches. =) G took a spill in the bath tub and smashed his chin on the side. SLICE. There actually wasn't alot of bleeding, and he only cried for a little bit. Good thing Nurse Amber was here, she advised me to go the the walk-in clinic ("convenient care" as Scipp calls it) cause it was border-line questionable. So off we went, filled up our snacks and drinks and left. We had Buzz and Woody band aids to keep us company. The one on his hand is cause he couldn't see the pictures on his chin.

The wait time was minimal and we went back to the room right away. We waited for the doctor and practiced counting and had some fun looking at the tiger poster on the ceiling.

He had to be strapped down in the little papoose, which the doctor said was sometimes harder for mom then the kid - I told him they were great and I needed to take one home with me. haha. But G was a trooper and was excited/proud to be done cause he felt like a big boy. Here's us when it was all done waiting for the paper work. He's so handsome. =)

And of course Ethan was totally concerned with G when he got home and wanted to make sure he was ok. Garrett was over it by then and ready to watch his newly checked out veggies from the library today. hahaa. They are so funny together. =)

Bye Bye Evan and Kristy!

2010-06-02T08:40:00.003-04:00

It was SOO much fun having them here for a short weekend. They are a great pair of newlywed aunt and uncle and the kids loved them. We got to go out to eat to Silver Beach Pizza and walk down on the Pier the first night WITHOUT KIDS (thanks Joe and Susie)! Then Saturday was filled with just some good hangout time, a transforming haircut, garage sale prep (M), deck building (R), a tour of Magrane's new house, delicious lettuce wraps and Asian food, half of the Andy Stanley DVD series and a late night talking. Sunday was our church picnic, Evan helped adjust the sprinklers in the back yard (cause of the fence addition things had to be moved a bit), mowing, dance creating, Ryan's expert burger grillin, some water fun in the fountain downtown, the other half of the Stanley series and another REALLY late night up talking. Monday morning Ev and K and I took off for Chicago to meet Amber for a late breakfast downtown and had fun just chillin at a coffee shop enjoying the cool weather and great company. We parted ways and said good bye to the Schweitz's until August, it started to DOWNPOUR, and pretty much rained the whole way back to Mich. We had beautiful weather while Ev and Kristy were here, and now that Amber is here for a few days it's rainy. dangit. haha. Good thing she's been here enough to know it's not always like this. =) SO, it was GREAT FUN, and the boys have been asking where they went now even on the second day after they left. The video below of course was staged and they were only slightly distracted by veggie tails...haha. I will put up some pictures of our adventures here soon.

Last night we had a friend, Luke Magnusson, come from Lansing to take some family pictures for us...I'm sure he got some great action shots of the boys, but an actual 'family picture' would probably be a fluke. Gosh the boys will not sit still for anything...Ryan would say that it didn't help that we were by the water - cause they're OBSESSED, but pretty sure even if we were in our back yard it would be the same story. (ask Carissa - ha!) Just too much energy. haha. Of course we had a melt down when it was time to go, but that was kind of expected - It was our first time in the sand for the season. At any rate, Amber was here to help patrol, the boys were only an hour and a half past bedtime after getting home and taking a bath, that's not too bad right?! =) So those pictures will come along soon! Thanks Luke again for coming, it was great to catch up again and hear how life is as a college student at Moody!

um...this is soo funny.

2010-05-25T15:19:00.001-04:00

Bringin it back!

2010-05-23T22:41:00.007-04:00

So, earlier on this HOT and sticky day, the fabulous Ashley let me have some fun with her hair and some highlights! I'll have to say it's been a loooooooong time since I've done that....at least a year...anyhoo. Hunt and Lou thought she looked a little strange - and some of you may think so too...

...but I think it's beauty in the making. =) And my after picture of her didn't really turn out cause it was too dark, dang it. Let's just say she looks 'sun kissed'. =) Slightly blonded on the top half of her head. Perfect for the summer. When I was blow drying her hair I got SOOOOO HOT and then never recovered the rest of the night. but it was a muggy 87ish degrees out...check out the sweaty boys on the swing. hahahaa

Nothin like holdin a sweaty kid in the summer. =) blaaee. At any rate, I had fun doin hair, just like ridin a bike. i was sailin by the time I was done.

ANNNDDD to end on a SWEET BABE PICTURE....here's the little diva. =)

so freakin cute. =)

The Lampshade

2010-05-18T21:58:00.006-04:00

hahahaaaa, if only they still sold the lampshade dress (lovingly named by my brothers) so Sydney could REALLY look just like me. HA! Thanks for sending me the pic mom!

Let's do a comparison...just for fun.
It looks like I'm a bit older in this snapshot since I am sitting, and Sydney can't quite do that yet without folding in half.
I am seeing some size similarities here, but it's hard to tell how huge my thighs are since they're covered, but if you can see those canks peekin thru, Sydney's weight can now be explained!
Hairline = same. my hair looks kinda red though. I def dont have ANY red in my hair now, nor did I in most other baby photos i've seen, Sydney's is clear. She's doomed to be a paste.
Thankfully I wasn't covered in drool in this photo. Sydney's mouth is always open, thus, she is usually drenched.

heheee. Pretty sure she's cuter than me. I'm ok with that. =)

Rain Rain Rain

2010-05-07T09:06:00.002-04:00

Nothing like a good fort on a rainy day. =) Now, I will say that I am slightly out of experience with my fort-building. This one was only a two-sheeter, single room...multi-level inside, but I'd say it's still beginner status. Cale, Ev, Erin and I used to build monstrosities. We would pull our 'building material' out of the woodwork....stack books on the sheets and towels cause they were stretched to the max...hahahaaa. Mom can attest I'm sure. Actually now that I think about it, they were probably not as big as I remember cause everything seems huge when you're a kid. Hmm... Anyhoo, the boys liked it, we brought our morning snack into the fort, and I'm already planning out how to make it bigger and better next time. =)

In the meantime, Sydney keeps doing what she's good at...you should see her legs. haa

other fun discoveries....

2010-05-05T10:50:00.002-04:00

oh boy....

Hip Hip Horrrrrrraaaaaayyyy!

2010-05-01T21:24:00.005-04:00

Last night Ryan and I had the privilege of going to Heather's pinning ceremony at Lake Mich College and watch her celebrate with her classmates in receiving her RN. She was pretty stressed the last couple weeks since her last class was a doozy, but years of school are now behind her and she has accomplished something GREAT! As her friend, I shall say that we are VERY proud of her for all her hard work. The weather was great yesterday and the rain held off long enough for friends and fam to get together this afternoon to celebrate at their house. I, of course, love taking pictures, so I was all over it...but mostly with their camera. So here she is, in all her glory!....and her twin, Sarah. haha beautiful ladies!

And Ryan did an excellent job delegating the food...and thanks to my creative cook, she gave me this SWEET idea for the fruit bowl!

This of course was after all the food was eaten and we were cleaning things up. But it looked pretty cool full of good fruit and the little notch for the spoon handle. ha. Love it! Anyhoo, the boys stayed with Joe and Susie for the afternoon so our stress level was lowered quite a bit - AWESOME. Sydney is lil miss social, talkin it up and lovin being held as usual. so cute!

speaking of cute, check out this vid we took when we got home. hahaaaa

All that to say that we are so excited for Heather to be back to her normal self and text book FREE for a change! Just in time for summer!!! One grad party down and one to go...two more weeks and it's Uncle Whitey's turn!! Woop!

Current Events!

2010-04-20T10:11:00.007-04:00

Remember that class?! That was terrible. Sorry for any of my friends that teach that class...or for those of you who enjoyed it as a student... AT ANY RATE... to keep you updated, here's the latest! Again with the food. At almost 5 months old I guess there's just not more you're into, sleeping and eating. She laughs alot now, and has kinda let go of her crying-when-its-not-mom-holding-me stage, which is nice. But she can sure pound the food (just ask her thighs!!)

And I think since the boys are constantly running circles around her, she is trying to quickly learn how to keep up! She is way faster then this video shows now, cause this was last week... Baby girl growin up!

Joe Thomas

2010-04-19T13:21:00.005-04:00

Now that is one funny guy. If you dont know, that's Ryan's dad, and somehow in his crazy busy days he finds time to send me some forwards....inspirational, political, humerous are usually the topics... today he sends me this, and I laughed out loud in a few parts. I don't think I've ever shared any of them with you all, so here it goes. Know that Ryan and I or our marriage are NOTHING like this. ? haha Enjoy some Joe humor!

MEN ARE JUST HAPPIER PEOPLE

NICKNAMES

If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other
Laura, Kate and Sarah.
If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to
each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.

EATING OUT

When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20,
even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything
smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on
sale.

BATHROOMS

A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste,
shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel .
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337.
A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS

A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can
spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP

A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the
trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL

Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING

Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows
about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite
foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

The Barricklows......

2010-04-14T23:24:00.004-04:00

Josh, Erin and Renae went home yesterday. It was sad...but I'm pretty sure they were ready to get back to their quiet home with only one kid....especially Josh. hahaa. Anyhoo, we had LOADS of fun while they were here, pretty much tried to jam as much as possible in 11 days. Here's a quick recap of our time together:

-small group 2x
-dinners with friends
-Easter Sunday with our respective families
-awesome Easter basket gifts for the kids!
-Josh's grandpa's funeral in Ohio
-Park trips
-Clue, book it, and 3 puzzles
-reformatting our computer (YES - thank you JOSH!! and Nate E)
-LOTS of desserts
-more Barricklow family visits
-eating some GREAT food
-time with our fam who lives far away
-NCAA basketball games - Josh won the bracket in our group! (pretty sure I was last)

For the most part the kids did ok and the girls got to share a room since they're both sleeping thru the night. Which was nice cause then we didn't have to have a babe in our room or theirs. At times it was hard to tell which one was crying when they were taking naps, but we figured it out. I also have NEVER mixed up the boys' names as many times as I have Sydney's and Renae's. TERRIBLE!!! Got to be kinda a joke though, cause all of us were doing it. ha

SO. below for your viewing pleasure is just a snipit of our fun, as we took well over 600 pictures/videos of the action. (many have since been deleted by Ry) Maybe we were a bit crazy with the cam, but when your kids are cute.... =) This slideshow is looooooong, enjoy!

Easter Eggs!

2010-04-05T16:26:00.003-04:00

Here's a little egg hunt fun from a few days ago. Grandpa Joe does a pretty dang good job hiding things, and I'm sure he's ready to bring on more challenging hiding spots as the boys get older... I thought it would be fun to watch a little big of last year's action to see how much they've grown in 12 months. They were a LOT slower (funny I didn't think so at the time), but they still totally have the same mannerisms...like Ethan swinging his arm like that when he runs. Funny! Anyhoo, CLICK HERE if you'd like to preview Easter's Past, and then grab your popcorn for Easter Part 2 below!

Ok so I just watched it and decided I had to add a few comments since I haden't watched it before just now. Pretty much it's windy and you can't really hear them talking. Darn it! And both of the video's are kinda boring, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say it was pretty fun! haha. And Susie put an m&m in each of the eggs so they made noise, and once Garrett discovered that, all he wanted to do is just open ALL his eggs to get the candy. And then Ethan continued to give his eggs to G, so G pretty much ate all the candy and Ethan ran around. hahahaaaa. All in all it was a great easter once again. Great family fun, but more importantly it's a great chance to remember what Christ did for each of us on the cross. As the kids get older we look forward to time when we can teach them the true meaning of that day. =)

The reunion. =)

2010-04-01T15:11:00.001-04:00

Hello world!!

2010-03-31T12:03:00.006-04:00

I know all of you have missed me SO MUCH...hahahaa... our Internet has been down for a few days and I was starting to GO CRAZY! Maybe it forced me to get more things done around the house and spend more time with the kids... hmm...?

ANYHOO, here's what we've been up to. The kids had their friend Elle over last friday and I took some cute pics. Just disregard what the boys are wearing (especially Ethan- what's with the shoes and mismatched jammies?) hahaha. But Elle's cute!!! She's like a little girl now and can pretty much keep up with the boys. Em brought over lunch (which has proved to be an eventful time EVERY TIME) haha, and we just had fun hanging out for a few hours. Can't wait for summer and we can hang out more often!

Also, we're still waiting on the finishing touches of the fence to be done....as shown below, the cows can still get out, if you know what i'm sayin.

They came the other day to finish it, but had cut a piece at the shop and got here and it was too short. AHH! oh well, until today the weather has been pretty chilly so we weren't missin much, as a lot of our back yard is shaded this time of year from the house. But hopefully soon it will be done. After ry got home last night we mowed our front yard super short and got most of the thatch up (next time we'll remember to mow it short BEFORE the winter, which would have made it an easier task last night.) But the mower is running ship-shape (which is good cause we just got it last year) and it made me excited to be outside again and working on the yard. !!

MEANWHILE, in Sydney's world, she got her 4 month shots on Monday - it was sad, and I woke her up early from her nap so she was a disaster. But I guess they're used to it. Our friend, Rachel's mom works at our Ped office, and she got to be her nurse! She's so helpful when we come with the boys, and when we were still hauling them around in their carseats she would hold the door for me (which is nice cause surprisingly not a lot of people do it - it's more like 'wow, that looks hard' - they would say that TO ME and still not help...but that's a whole diff blog) Anyhoo, I felt bad cause Syd was just screaming her head off...pretty much the whole time. I promise she's not usually like that Mrs. Shirley! haha. Ok, who am I kiddin, she pretty much is a mama's girl. But anyways, she weighed in at a whoppin 15 lbs 10 oz! NICE. Since she's been rollin over, the play yard thingy that dangles fun bugs to swat at, hasn't really been too successful, and she's slowly getting bored with the swing. dangit. SO, it's time to bust out the jumper! SO CUTE! she loves it! Plus, I can cook in the kitchen with her right there cause she can see me!

The boys like to 'help' her bounce. ha. Once upon a time they were both that small too...maybe I should dig up those pictures just for fun...that's another blog too. But my time is running short here, the boys are eating lunch and we're getting to the time when they're full and start putting food where it shouldn't go. =) Thanks for checkin in!

So interrested!

2010-03-24T13:03:00.001-04:00

Things are comin right along!!!

little sickies

2010-03-23T09:38:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I think we had a 24 bug. Between the three kids, I was holding someone ALL DAY. For the most part though it was only one at a time that needed some lovin. =) But I got absolutely NOTHING done. haha. Oh well, that's what after bedtime is for, right?! The boys were sooooo quiet, and ate about 3 crackers, maybe 5 bites of jello, and a couple sips of water all day. dang! They were taking little short naps on the couch from about 10:30am to 5. but thankfully, they were still ready to go to bed, slept well, and woke up back to normal! Here's some pics of the sleeping beauties.

Ryan had a break in his schedule around lunch time so he was able to come home for 2 hours and hold boys...and then we went on a walk after he got home which seemed to help, even though it was a bit chilly.

On another note, there are 2 guys here working on installing our fence!! They have to be sooo sore...digging all those holes, hauling bags of cement, shoveling, carrying all those heavy things. yikes. but I think it's fun to see how they do it, and they are FAST! Should hopefully be done today they said, which would be 2 days! here are some action shots of the progress...

Awesome!

Is this sick or what?!

2010-03-17T21:59:00.003-04:00

would be cute if Syd wasn't trying to eat his mouth! hahaaa

Plimptons!

2010-03-14T22:24:00.003-04:00

My good friend Kara brought her hubby, Micah, and two sons, Zayne and Kyler for an overnight visit this weekend and we had a BLAST! She's one of those friends you can just pick up where you left off with...our parents were friends before all of us kids were born...so we're practically cousins. ha! anyhoo, it's especially fun now that our kids are the same age. Zayne is 8 months younger than the boys, and Erin, Kara and I were all pregnant at the same time, Sydney, then seven weeks later Renae was due, then seven weeks later Kyler was due! So much fun. Anyhoo, the boys were pretty good at wearing each other out and I'd say that even though the parents were outnumbered it was a pretty successful visit which even included some adult hang out time after bed! NICE! We got a lot of pretty good shots, but can't believe we didn't get one of Kara and I! Good thing they only live 2 hours away...better get some more good hang outs in - just in case they decide to move back to Florida sometime soon! thanks for coming guys!

Should we be worried?!?

2010-03-03T23:14:00.001-05:00

A popular song in our house is when Uncle Pants calls Ryan's phone....

So funny...

Sad to see her go.......

2010-02-26T23:32:00.004-05:00

Bama has been here since Monday and we've had a pretty good time. The boys love her and we've all had fun doing this and that and going a bunch of different places. SIGH, what a fast week! Check out some pics!

Tomorrow morning we're having waffles and taking off for the airport. (maybe I'll get lost on the way so she misses her flight. haha)

strange....

2010-02-19T11:50:00.003-05:00

so this is crazy. Last night we were getting ready for bed and I hear some noise coming thru on the baby monitor in Sydney's room. it was about midnight, and I usually don't check on her or anything then, and she wasn't crying, it was more like just talking, but totally didn't sound like her. Sydney's noises are full of snorts and sucking on the pacifier... Thought it was strange but told Ry that I would go check on her if she started crying, which she didn't, so we went to bed.

3:00am rolls around and I wake up to the same noise in the monitor - also unusual for her, since she's been sleeping thru the night for weeks now...but SOOO crazy is that I thought it sounded like Ethan or something, like 'talking' for a baby. So, in my half-sleep logic, I freaked myself out and assume that something is happening that's totally bad, so I throw the covers off like the house was on fire and get to her room as quick as I can, and she's OUT COLD. Not even twitching or anything. Again, it's 3 in the morning, so the OBVIOUS next thing to do would be to look for someone in her room that could be making those noises. No ones there. (duh) Go back to our bedroom and the monitor by my bed is LOUDER than before, like it was the middle of the day. WHAT THE CRAP. Then it came to me, I peeked thru the shades in our bathroom to our backyard neighbor and their child's bedroom light was on. This house is like a stone's throw away, and they just had their first baby (a boy) last summer. WOW. it was TOTALLY him! Thanks for FREAKIN ME OUT!! Sheeesh. So I turned it off and went back to bed. HA!

I remember waking up in the night when I was pregnant and that bedroom light was ALWAYS ON, no matter what time I woke up. That totally stinks that she - or he I guess - has to keep waking up for how old their baby is by now...man! Two words - BABY WISE!!! Read it. Do it. And then get some SLEEP people!

Valentine Fun!

2010-02-12T09:36:00.006-05:00

Brown School was closed yesterday and today, so we had a slumber party with Hunter and Alyssa! Yesterday we went to bible study, did some painting during nap time, played Twister, ate some food, bounced a LOT, hung out with the dads during ladies night out! Whew it was a full day!! And this morning, the boys got to see their valentine present from Deb and Bill, some Buzz and Woody Valentines, candies, and flashlights!!! They were SO excited it was hilarious. We were all laughing! the flashlights are especially cool cause they have little clear caps that pop on the end of the light and display toy story images on the walls! the boys loved it!! check out this video....and then picture this same thing for about 30 minutes straight!!

So cute. After that was fun, then we went to the Valentine work station, since Hunter and Alyssa and Ashley brought over some different toy story ones to send, we REALLY had some fun! So the kids all worked together to make a list of the boys' friends and helped stuff envelopes to send em out. =) And now we're out playing in the snow! All while Sydney is taking her morning nap. SIGH. It's great to have the kids here to entertain the boys. =)

and here's one of Sydney cause she's so cute. =)

more to come on the snow pictures!

mmmm frosting!

2010-02-06T22:44:00.004-05:00

This evening we had the pleasure of decorating some Valentine cookies, everyone was involved...frosting and sprinkles everywhere! it was awesome!!! The boys, of course, were totally practiced up from when Eidams were here a few weeks ago. Garrett spent most his time eating, and Ethan was sprinkling. hahaa. Thanks for coming over guys, it was a blast!

Here is the fruits of our labor! yummo!! (don't know why the picture keeps loading sideways...sorry)

Pictures!

2010-02-05T11:55:00.002-05:00

Just added a bunch of pictures on facebook, so check em out by clicking HERE!