Late Nights and Fun Times

What a fun night for us! Tonight was Wipeout night first of all. We all snuggle up on our very family sized couch and laugh hysterically over Wipeout, but tonight was even better. After Wipeout we all jumped in the truck, jammies and all, and headed to free rootbeer float night at Sonic. What a surprise!! I had told Mark about it but never expected for him to say "let's go". He's not usually like that. He's all about bedtime and no snacks after dinner. But tonight, tonight we decided to live a little. The boys had never even been to Sonic before so to see the girls all skating around on roller skates delivering food and floats was awesome enough but being out after dark too was just the coolest thing for them! We opened the back of the truck up and they sat there with their floats taking it all in. Before heading home we drove past a driving range we had just heard about that is minutes from our door. They even have wing night there on Tues. or maybe it's Thursdays anyway it looks cool and we can't wait to go. We drove home with ALL the windows down! Something else we rarely get to do. The boys mouths were going a mile a minute and I thought they would never be able to sleep. Much to my surprise, when we got home they all brushed their teeth and went to bed without one single complaint and fell right to sleep - with big smiles on their faces. This was one of the best family nights we have had in far too long. I hope it's the start of many, many more. :-)

Do You Remember???

Do you remember friendship bracelets? Oh my word! Those were such the thing when I was in school. Those and those safety pins that you would put little beads on and wore on your shoes. Remember those things?? Anyone???
Last evening the boys came in to dinner and started talking all about friendship bracelets. Seems they are back in style. The girls down the street are making them and now so are my boys! They were so excited that I could show them how to make some and begged to stay up past bedtime to make more. Today they been out delivering them. How funny!
Let's see, what else?? This weekend we did some much needed clothes shopping for the boys. We found some really great deals too on organic cotton T's, we found the cutest golf shirts with UV protection and some shorts that actually fit and do not hang to their ankles nor expose their rears. We hit Old Navy for extra style as well. ;-) I love that place. Oh, a little shopping side note....it is not always a good idea to take 3 young boys with you into Victoria's Secret.
We also went over to some new friends of ours Sat. evening. It was fun, really fun. Just sitting around talking. We never do that kind of thing so it was a real treat for us. They showed us their yard and it is just amazing. My boys would LOVE a yard like that. True mountain living with parts of Signal Mt. jutting out here and there in the yard, bridges to run across, a little pond, a place to sit around a fire, and lots and lots of trees and rocks to climb on. Just beautiful.
Other than that we got our garage to look like a garage again instead of a bike, scooter, skateboard, roller blade, soccer junk parking lot! It so nice out there right now. I actually just went out and sat in the garage today just because I could.
Well, Zacy is calling me to "build a fire" with him so that sounds like something he might need help with!

Fun Day!

I just love our mountain sunsets.
Not much to say except the boys and I had so much fun yesterday. Nothing special just good old family time. After schoolwork was finished we set up the slip-n-slide. Can you ever not have fun on a slip-n-slide??? The boys were on that thing ALL afternoon. SO not good for the water bill. I did move all my plants and potted veggies and placed them all around the slip-n-slide so they got watered too. See??? I wasn't just WASTING water for fun. ;-) That evening we all went to the driving range which is always fun with my guys. After that we came back home and the boys and I jumped on the trampoline until after the sun went down! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. They had me screaming like a little 10 year old girl on that trampoline. They LOVE to jump right next to me which then shoots me about 15 feet in the air. So fun and so scary! I loved it too. The boys went to bed way too late and got up much too early but sometimes you just gotta live a little! :-)
Zac turned 4 on Monday which I admit left me a little bummed but happy at the same time. Weird, huh? Alex also had his second band concert that evening and he did just great! Soccer is over (for a bit) and so it band for the summer. Now it's guitar lessons and summer soccer, vacations, visits with friends and hopefully many more "late" nights like the boys and I had last night.

Alex and his "catfro" Nibbles. She is such a sweetie! Is he silly or what!?
Can you tell sunset is my favorite time of the day?
Just beautiful.
Alex looking all cool before he had to play at his concert.

Home-school band.
Me and my favorite guys!
Mark and his boys.
Happy Birthday Zac! Look - big boy Legos.
Kid loves to read - what can I say?
Cheesin' for the camera.

My baby is 4!!!

Doing the donkey ears to his brothers.

Zac's FAVORITE present!!!
How cool is he????

Puppy Love

Maizy

Since Licorice, our big old lab has been gone, the house just hasn't been the same. I miss hearing his nails clicking on the tiled kitchen floor, I miss knowing he'll keep us safe when Mark is gone. I miss his company, his love of fetch and his adoring eyes no matter what. I knew we wanted another dog someday and I really thought it would be another black lab. However, when we are around black labs we still get too teary eyed. I've search dozen of shelters through petfinder.com and visited PetSmart adoptions weekly hoping to find the right dog for us. Strange as it turned out, Mark was the one who found our newest family member.....Maizy. She is not and never will be Licorice which is not entirely a bad thing at all. She is Maizy. She is a rescue puppy. She was abused in her first few months of life and then a wonderful lady took her in to foster her until she could find her the right home. I truly hope we're it. Maizy is a 6 month old boxer/lab mix. I was SO worried that Maizy might bite the boys or be afraid of us but she is doing wonderful! She lets us pet all over her, she LOVES to play and she is all over us when we get on the floor to play. She is a bit cautious of people she doesn't know but we'll work on that. We've been taking her everywhere with us and it seems that as long as she is with us she does fine. People don't seem to scare her much then. She is just SO very loving. I cannot believe someone could have ever abused her! The boys have been just great with her too. Extra gentle and slow with her. She adores them! I am so happy. I really hope we can give her the life she deserves. I hope in the future all her fears will go away and she forgets that there are mean people in this world. We hope to take her camping with us - she has all ready started coming to the boys soccer games and doing really well.
Here are a few pictures of her first day with us. I have more on facebook which most of you have probably seen.

Me and my Maizy.

She loves being outside too.
LOVES her ball.
Bonding with Ethie.
First day here and she thinks she owns the place! :-)
Sleeping through the soccer game.
She really enjoys riding in the van.
Ethan and Maizy.
Zac and Maizy. Yes, Zac has a black eye...that's another story....
Zac and Alex getting kisses.

This Week

Alex and Ethan had their first soccer game last Sat. and did FANTASTIC! It was Alex's first game ever and he did wonderful. I was a bit worried about how he would do but he really surprised me. :-) Ethan was a true soccer player as usual and I think it may be time to move him up to a more... aggressive soccer organization. He is kind and sweet after the whistle blows but during the game, it's all about the game. Ethan eats, sleeps and breathes soccer. Alex had a good time and his teammates are really great kids. Monday night at practice Alex got hit right in the mouth AND braces with the ball. His coach was a bit worried but Alex just wiped the blood on his shirt and went on....hey, he may be able to handle sports after all! Oh, Mark is coaching Ethan's team this year. He is so funny. I don't think I have ever seen him so nervous! I can already tell how much it is helping him though. I can really see that it is giving him more patience with his own children now and he is interacting so much better with them.
Mark has been gone this week so as much as we miss him, it's also kind of fun. No time schedules to follow. I let the boys stay up as late as 9 o'clock (Alex and Ethan) and we watch Star Wars the Clone Wars. How fun is that! Last night after supper, we all split a Blizzard from DQ. YUM!!!
Today is band for us and after lunch when Jacob (our neighbor) gets out of preschool he will be here while his mommy is having her 6th little blessing. She has 3 girls and 2 boys this little one is a girl too. They are so excited. So am I! I would LOVE another little one but I guess I'll just have to hold hers a lot!
Well, I better get the boys back on track with their school work. They are starting to bicker a bit too much.


Here they come! Mark with his team. Ehan is in front of him and Zac is in his arms. Zac on the way home. (I just had to add this!)

Alex out in front. This is so funny! It looks like they're dancing in this picture!!
Brothers at half time.
Ethan with a corner kick.
Zac - REALLY into the game...NOT!
Ethan (the tall one with long pants) and Coach Daddy... I mean Coach Mark. :-)

Catching Up!

We're back home. Boys are still not feeling the best. Ethan has yet another ear infection and Alex and Zac still have a cough and I have had the worlds worse stiff neck and spine pain for over a week now! We had a nice time up in Illinois but not a fun as it could have been if we had all felt well and had gotten any sleep. We did get to visit with my friend Mindy and her kiddos. We went rollerskating with them and of course that was the day Alex had to start feeling bad so he didn't enjoy it much. We went to visit Mark's mom, aunts, uncles and cousins in Peoria and that was a FUN day. The boys felt great that day too. The next day we visited some friends of ours that we hadn't seen in about 8 or 9 years! Alex and Ethan were just little guys last time they saw them. Anyway Chris and Jenny (our long lost friends) are expecting there very first child in June! It's going to be a boy so we took lots of baby clothes to them and I've found lots of other items to take up next time. We spent the night with Grandpa George and Grammy Beckie before heading back home. It was a nice visit too. Grandpa George has a marble game that the boys LOVE to play with. Very LONG drive home but the boys were great so that helps a ton. Since we've been home we've had a lot of spring rain which is great except that the boy's soccer practice keeps getting canceled. They finally had their first practice last night and as usual loved it! Mark is coaching Ethan's team this year so that is new for him. He was so nervous..it was kind of cute. :-) Despite the rain we've still been playing outside quite a bit and thankful for the warm temps here. It's so beautiful with all the trees blooming everywhere. For some reason I've not taken very many pictures as of late but I'm going to get back to that since I really enjoy it. Here are the few that I do have.
Look what Alex did!! The cut!

Beautiful rainy day.
Blooming trees.
Our side yard.
Cousins!!
Very cute cousins!
The boys with Mark's mom.
Sick Alex skating.
Zac, Me and Ethan "skating".
Ethan and Brock. Those two are a hoot!
Zac....skating???
Sleepy boys at grandma's.
Zac and cousin Dylan.