Monday, February 27, 2012

Life lessons

The boys have been picking up on a few important life lessons as of late.  First, our mild weather has taught Jake the importance of fresh air and the great outdoors.  He's learning that sunshine makes for a happy mom and worn out older brothers.  Stroller rides are also much more interesting with chirping birds and blue skies overhead.  Spring is going to be awesome.




Sam is learning more about the world of competition and hardwork.  His Saturday mornings have been dedicated to basketball recently and he has loved (almost) every minute of it. 



He's learned that practice actually pays off.  He's learned the difference between defense and offense.  And just fyi, he plays awesome defense, even when the rest of the players are all the way down at the opposite hoop.


He's learned to do push ups and make aggressive faces to scare opponents.  Both are important when you five years old, right?






 He's also learned how it feels to lose.  And you know what, it's not always fun.


 And Max has learned that hanging out at his big brother's basketball practices has its perks...


Saturday, February 18, 2012


Life with boys can be hilarious.  I love it.

This has been something making me chuckle recently...


I have caught Sam flexing in the mirror several times this week.  He had no idea I was taking this photo.  You can't help but grin when you see that, right?

Then, on Valentines Day when we were saying what we loved about each other, Sam reminded us that we should love his 'great body.'  Wish I had his confidence!

Speaking of Valentines Day, the boys were so excited to wake up and find our house had been heart attacked!  They thought that was the coolest thing ever. That night we had a super romantic dinner with the five of us.  Eric walked in the door just in time to join us for Papa Murphy's by candlelight.  Sam and Max were thrilled with our 'fancy' dinner and have requested that we use our candlesticks more often.

I consider myself one lucky woman to have 4 handsome (goofy) Valentines.


Costumes are still a big thing at our house.  The boys dress up almost daily.  They love it and take it very seriously.  Aren't their poses fantastic?


They took the costumes up a notch this week when they had Jacob over to play.  I was downstairs and suddenly heard some rummaging around followed by the sound of our fan turning on. 

"Sam, we don't need the fan on.  It's freezing!"

"But Mom, we're just super hot."

"Turn it off.  It's too cold for that."

"Okay, Mom, we're not really hot, but we're superheroes and superheroes need wind blowing on their hair so they can look brave and strong.  Come and see."




The wind in the hair did add the dramatic effect they were missing.  It was excellent.


 And Jake loves to laugh...mostly at his big brothers.  They can get him giggling like no one else can.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Super Bowl

Did you hear that Super Bowl XLVI is going to be here, in Indy, like tomorrow?

It seems like we've been hearing countdowns for Indy's big Super Bowl debut since we moved here a year and a half ago.  It's kind of a big deal.

A waaaay bigger deal than I ever thought.  The entire downtown has been transformed for this event.  We have zipliners flying over pedestrians.  We have giant stickers and signs of the Lombardi trophy on every building.  We have people decked out in every NFL jersey imagineable cramming the streets.  We have hotel rooms and parking spots going for thousands of dollars. 

It is awesome.

   









We, of course, had to go downtown and experience the Super Bowl energy ourselves.  We bought tickets to the NFL Experience since real Super Bowl tickets were a tad out of our price range...cheapest seats were around $2,100 bucks!! 

We met up with friends and got the chance to test out our own football abilities.
Let's just say I'm not exactly an athlete. 
But it was SUPER fun. 


















Sam and Max got some serious face painting done, which I think was their favorite part.  I was tempted to get my face done, too, but we ran out of time last minute.
  Next time.  Next time.



















And no, we didn't leave Jake at home...he was there, too!!  






I'm officially a Super Bowl fan now.
A big one.


Friday, January 27, 2012

Some January 2012 favorites and funnies...
- Someone celebrated their last birthday in their 20's.  Yikes. 
My 20's have been fabulous.  Definitely the busiest decade of my life thus far.  
Decided I had better make the most of this year before I get too old to remember things. 
The boys spoiled me with flowers, a dinner date downtown, and even posing for pictures.  
29 is good.



 - Preschool, preschool, preschool. 
Our house has been learning central this month.  It's been my month to teach both Sam and Max's preschool groups.  It's been tiring yes, but seriously fun.  The kids are patient with me...I try to be patient with them.  It's a win-win. 
The kids are darling and we've learned lots...and yes, Jake is one patient baby!








- Rice cereal taste testing.
We decided to let Jake give rice cereal a try.  Sam was beyond thrilled to help feed him, which is actually a huge help to me.  And this rice cereal thing has been just the trick to getting Jakey Pants to sleep soundly through the night.  We're talking like 9 or 10 hours straight!  Yes please!








-Agency.
Sam (who suddenly looks like a teenager to me in these pictures) gave a talk in church on agency.  Eric and I were those super proud parents who couldn't stop smiling as he gave his talk without help into the microphone.  Little did we know that his new found agency knowledge would backfire a bit. 

"Mom, what's for dinner?"
"Chicken."
"I don't want chicken.  I just want a quesdilla."
"Sorry, Sam.  I made chicken.  That's what we're having."
"Don't you know I have my own agency?  You can't choose for me.  I can choose what I want to eat, and I want a quesadilla."

Hmmm....we're working on it. 



 - Oh, Max.
It seems like each night just as we tuck Mr. Max into bed he tells us he's hungry.  Okay, if you know Max then you know that he doesn't just tell us...he TELLS us.

"I'm hungry.  No, I'm starving!  Just look at my teeth!  They're starving!"


- Score.
I should get points for safely avoiding this booby-trap on the stairs...


   Life is good.