Better title for my blog?

Brian told me that I don't complain enough about the kids to have the title of my blog be about how crazy they drive me...

And I think he's right.

Although, I'm sure there will be plenty of complaints.

So, any ideas for a new name? Don't be shy.. send them my way!

What does this say about me?

Here was our 1st course this evening.

No worries. The second course wasn't shaped into anything.. and the third course... (who am I kidding??) there was no third course!

The little guy didn't eat anything.

How can you not enjoy shaped veggies? I think he'll survive though.

So, we get balloons tonight after dinner.

We get home and all of the kids are letting them go. This was how it went when David sent his off:

"OK, I'm going to let this go when I count to three... three"

And then off it went. I love that guy's sense of humor.

More pics...

One of the other outtings we had recently was to a very cool event. It's called the "Special Day for Special Kids" it's hosted every year by a local Kiwanas group. They hold it for foster children, children with special needs, and low income children. They have all sorts of games, tons of food, bounce houses and this year they had all of the local sports mascots. Daniel won his new teeth during one of the games & wore them to frighten his horse into submission. Vinny and Bethany loved the petting zoo and it was hard to get them to leave after they entered. Unfortunately, Brian was working this weekend so he missed out, but hopefully we'll attend this event in the future. It's always a fun family day.

Here are my crafty guys making cars for the Easter bunny. Aren't they all cuties? I have to say that these tasted as good, if not better, than they looked. Brian made a video of Bethy with hers, but I think he's still working on editing it.

Oh, and this one was classic... I have to give credit to Daddy, he's the one that suggested that we take a photo before we cleaned her up...

At least the mini-diva knows where mascara goes... Now we just have to teach her how to apply.

More photos to follow still!

Photo Time!

OK, I'm new at this and already have become lax at posting stuff. Sigh. Such is the life of poor, poor me. Ha!

But, we have had a couple bumps in the road this week. Bethany has stayed home two days this week with a stomach bug. She seems to be back to normal, but we'll see over the next couple days.

Since I haven't been keeping up my end of the bargain with updates. I figured it was time to just put a few of my favorite recent photos here to share. I am a little sad as I do this, however, because I can't share a lot of my favorites. My little guy is such a cutie and I wish I could paste his little mug all over the place. I keep telling myself that this will be the year for his adoption, but only time will tell. I will assure you that when that day comes--I will fill pages with his cute face.

Anyhow, this first photo is from when my parents visited last month. And the color job is what happens when you have five ours in the ER with your camera. I had no idea it could do that!

Next we have Daddy pushing the little Bean on the swings. She *loves* swinging. So much so that generally getting her off of the swing involves a minor temper tantrum--minor meaning that generally nobody gets hurt and a fair amount of crying. She also has no fear. Typically when she's swinging her big complaint with whomever is doing the pushing is that he or she is not pushing her either high enough or fast enough.

When she's not on the swing, she's busy trying to figure out how she's going to follow in Brian's footsteps and get into the radio business. Those headphones aren't plugged in, but they look good on her and that's all that matters.

I am having a hard time getting all of this to work out. For some reason my blogging mojo is failing me, but I think that these photos should be enough to tide all of the Grandparents over for a few days while I figure out how to get another few posted. Take Care!

Happy Easter!

Well, the children have found their baskets, and *hopefully* all of the eggs. And they then ate as much candy as they could before we issued the "last call". Now they are out enjoying a beautiful day & playing keep away from the dog.

Hope that all of our friends and family are having a great day as well.

I'm planning on a big lunch this afternoon, but after the last couple days I hope I have the energy.

Yesterday I took the children to the local Spring Fling where we rode all sorts of rides and they bounced in the bounce houses until they were out of steam. After that, we had lunch and went to an open house at "My Gym" a gym for kids where they loved the ball pit. And, of course, we dyed eggs and made bunnies out of eggs after dinner.

And the day before, we went to the youth museum.

Brian is now able to walk without much of a limp, but he has been down and out with a cold.

I swear, we are the epicenter for all diseases... if there is a cold or flu or anything contagious, it makes its way through this family. I only hope this means that our children will have super immune systems as adults.

Well, off to enjoy the famiy.. I will have pictures and videos to share soon.

Goals are good...

When we ask our youngest son what he wants to be when he grows up he tells us, "A T-Rex".

And people look at me funny when I say he's a bit on the odd side.

New Math

Daniel & David were fighting this morning about something and this is how Daniel proved that he's superior, "Oh, yea.. What's 200 + 200 + 200? 300."

What's it called? The thinking man's game?

Brian has started teaching the boys how to play Chess or "Chest" as little D calls it.

He found a really cool set that basically makes Chess into a game of chance rather than skill, but it is still teaching the boys how each piece and move and, hopefully, is also teaching them how to think a few steps ahead (http://www.toywiz.com/nostresschess.html).

The timing of this lesson couldn't be better as Brian broke a toe yesterday. At least, we think it's broken. He can't put any pressure on it and it's as colorful as a box of crayons right now. But, the boys loved the one on one attention of an immobile Dad.

I, on the other hand, was trying to be Super-Mom yesterday... You can guess how that worked out :) I thought it would be a good day to potty train the Bean. Brian was going to take the boys to a baseball game (before he lost that kicking match with the vacuum) so we'd be home alone for most of the day. I started pushing liquids as soon as she woke up and we started teaching her baby how to use the potty.

Well, it's not a good idea to try to potty train with an upset stomach. Let's just leave it at that.

The messes are all clean now and I will most likely keep her home from school one day this week to keep working on it.

Oh, and just as a side note, if you are wondering why I haven't included any photos or videos of our other son yet, it's because he's still a foster kiddo. We'd love nothing more than to plaster his cute face all over the place, but for his protection and privacy, you'll just have to wait until, hopefully (knock on some wood or something), he's adopted.

Today was another busy day at the house. Brian was at a charity golf event all day for KFNN. And Daniel had a friend over to play tonight.



The boys were outside and ready to play with water just seconds after we came home. But, by the time I got outside with my camera, Daniel had already decided it was too cold. So, here's a shot of David's best trick.

And this next clip I'm putting on here purely for my own sanity. As anyone who's ever been around a two year old knows, they love repetition. Which is fine. We love singing songs and watching the same videos over and over again. And we love reading... BUT, I think Brian and I would both love to "lose" this book. Too bad our little Bethany sleeps with the darn thing.

However, with it uploaded, I'm sure I can talk her into just replaying the video over and over. Right?

Even if she won't just watch this, it was a very cute Daddy/Daughter moment that I'm glad I caught!

Hehehe... I'm a virgin blogger

So, I just received a new toy in the mail and am anxious to get it to do stuff. I bought a little flip video camera that seems really easy to use and I'm *hoping* that I can figure out how to share videos on a blog for my family.



I'm about five years behind as far as my technical skills so this could take me awhile to figure out.



So far I have succeeded in making the video and getting it on m computer. But that does seem like the easy stuff.

Wow! Oh, my goodness! I just might have figured it out! If I did, there should be a video of our little Bean singing the Barney song. She's quite the ham and was very willing to let me test out the new toy with her. She'll also love seeing herself on the computer.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll have more to share soon.

I took the younger two to the zoo today and a good time was had by all. We did stay a bit too long because they were getting tired and cranky at the end and both of them slept on the way home. We bought a membership this year so we will definately be going often.

Have a great day!