Gavin's Preschool Graduation

It took a while for the videos to load, but here they are finally!

Busy, busy, busy

So I've been pretty bad about keeping this thing updated. We've been super busy around here. This last weekend we had a garage sale that Anita and my mom both helped out with. And poor Brian was recruited to help too because of his being off work due to surgery. He couldn't do a lot, but it sure helped having him here to price stuff and keep a watchful eye on all the kiddos.

Chase is getting big, he's now 7 months old! He's now sitting up on his own, eating baby food, and trying to crawl. Yesterday he was trying to pull himself up while holding onto my leg. I'm so not ready for him to be mobile yet! I have a feeling he's going to be my wiry-into everything-can't keep me in one spot even if you chained me-kid. Something I am so not ready for! But I guess the upside to that is I'll get my exercise!

Dylan is still my big helper and loves the babies (Chase and my sister's baby Addison), even though most the time they would rather be left alone than bombarded with hugs from him. He's loving the summer weather and being able to play outside. Oh yes, I can't forget the most important update on him... he can now (drum roll please) stand up to go potty!!! Yay! He actually grew a tiny bit over the winter, which is surprising, but he's still wearing most the clothes he wore last summer. We're hoping he grows a bit taller over the summer too. The poor kid is a little vertically challenged.

Gavin "graduated" from Preschool. But not really. He's actually going back in the fall because his birthday being in October he misses the cut off. But he is happy that he gets to go back and see Mrs. Daigle again. He's still trying to convince me that school is not over and that when it's Tuesday he still has to go to school! I explained it all to him, but he's still adamant that he's missing it. Ah, the days of loving to go to school! I'll be sure and remind him of this when he's fighting and crying because he doesn't want to go in a few years.

Well, for me the summer is going to be pretty full. I am going to be watching 10 kids, so that should be interesting! I'll have my three (of course), my neighbor's two Isabelle and Gabe, twice a week, Jordan and Nick, 2-4 times a week, and Anita's three a few times a week. Most of the days they all be here at once, but I'm sure there will be a few times that will happen this summer. So if you think I'm bad about updating this blog now, just wait! lol

I'll have a nice break in the fall though, because I'm pretty sure most of them will be going to preschool/school on most of the days. So I won't be busy until after 3 those days.

Things for Chris are busy, busy too. Right now is the busy time for the irrigation business. He's not been working to extremely late though which is nice. He normally gets home about 7 or a little after, but he's up and at work by 6:30am so he's still working 12 hour days. He's also playing softball again this year. His games are on Mondays and Wednesdays and I think they might have a pretty good team this year, and win some games :)

So that's the scoop on what's been going on over in our neck of the woods the past few weeks. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything that's really important. I guess if I'd actually update it when things happen I wouldn't have to worry about forgetting anything! Oh well, such is life with a billion and one kids... lol

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful mother's day. We got up and got ready for church and the boys brought in a card for me that had a gift card for 150 minutes of tanning! So now I won't shine like a light bulb when I wear my shorts. lol

After church we went over to Curtis and Shara's house to eat lunch and celebrate Kevin and Bradon's birthdays as well as mother's day. Then we went home and I got to take almost an hour long nap!

After naps we went over to see my mom and give her her gift. Then we went to Marble slab and had ice cream with our life group.

All in all it was a great day.

Unkel Look-alike Meter

I stole this from Mel's blog because I thought it was really neat :)

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family pictures - Free genealogy websites

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Ancestors - Black and white photographs

Hmmm. I always thought Gavin looked more like his daddy!

What's that Stink?

As Dylan would say.

Well, that stink would be the smell of freshly applied paint! It was finally time to refresh our plain 'ol white walls and add a little something more to them than fingerprints, crayons, dents, and dirt.

I convinced Chris to go to Lowes with me last Friday and get the paint in the colors that I had picked out, and I started painting on Saturday.

I Chose a Sage greenish color for the living room, around the from door and the window on the stairs. And the rest of the walls are a creamy white color.

I know I'm probably insane for trying to do it by myself, but I also know that Chris really doesn't like to paint, plus he really has no time to even try to do it and I really don't mind doing it. In fact I actually find it relaxing at times. So I thought "hey, it won't be that bad"! Famous last words.... It wasn't horrible, but by the middle of the week came we were all tired of the house being a total wreck and eating easy meals such as Ramen, Mac-N-Cheese and frozen pizza. And we were just ready for it to be over and done with!

So this Saturday Chris had a golf tournament with the church, so he took the boys to his mom's house so I could have the whole day to get it all finished up. (I think he knew if he had gone golfing without arranging for the kids to be watched he would not have lived to go golfing. And my next post here would have been, I now understand why black widows kill their male companions! lol)

I didn't do it all without help though. My dad came over and helped paint the stairway, (because that required ladders, and well, me and ladders just don't get along.) my mom came over and helped for a bit, and my sister came over with lunch and helped too. I couldn't have done it without them! So a huge (in the words of Ellen) HOLLA to them and Grandma Alana (Chris' mom) for keeping the boys so it could get done!

It took about 5 days longer than it should have, but it's finally done, and I think it looks nice! I finally have some color and warmth to my walls that wasn't put there by a 2 and 4 year old!

Front door and Stairway:

The wall around the window still need a little touch up, hence the blue tape around the window!

The living room, and dining room:

Kitchen:

Dining Room:

Living room:

I also did the boys' bathroom, but didn't take a picture because it was in use at the time I was taking them. I thought I'd spare you from that scene!

So there it is, all new and shiny, at least for the moment.

My Brother the Marine!

One Crazy Trip!

Okie dokie, I finally have some time to sit and let y'all know about our trip! It was such a great trip and I am so glad that Anita and I decided to go. I think I would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I hadn't gone. Although we almost didn't make it to San Diego!

Our flight was supposed to leave at 1:20, but it was delayed until 2:30 due to snow in CO, and tornadoes in OK. Okay, fine, whatever. But the plane didn't even get in until close to 4, and then it had a mechanical failure! The landing gear light didn't come on when they landed so they had to come inspect the landing gear, and after almost an hour realized that the only problem was that a light bulb had burnt out.

So they come in and tell us what had happened, and that we have probably already missed our connecting flight going out of Denver, and if that was the case they couldn't guarantee us a flight out of Denver until Monday.

Anita and I just looked at each other clueless, and didn't know whether to go, stay or just sit and cry. So what did we do? We called MOM!! When Anita told her what was going on, she didn't know what to tell us, then they called for boarding, and mom said "Just get on the plane!", so we did! And we figured if worse came to worse we'd at least get to Colorado! :lol:

So we ended up getting out of Wichita at 5-something and to Denver around 6. Of course our connecting flight had already left, so we headed for Customer service. And it was there that we became extremely grateful that we'd had a burnt out light bulb on our plane. Because if that had not happened, all of our delays would've been due to weather, and they can't change flights, or anything for free if it's caused by weather. But because it was a mechanical failure we got food vouchers, a $100.00 flight voucher good for a year and our flight switched all for free! We were all thanking Jesus for that one!

We ended up having to fly into Orange County instead f San Diego because all the flights to San Diego were full. But the flight didn't leave Denver until 9:30. So we got something to eat and hung out at the airport. We ended up arriving in OC about 12 and had to go to baggage claim to see if our luggage made it. It didn't! But the good news was that it had made it to San Diego's Airport! We then rented a car and car seats and ended up driving 1-1/2 hours to the San Diego airport.

My parents were there to pick us up from the airport and take us to the hotel. All in all it was quite an adventure, but we made it, and we got to see my baby brother graduate into a Marine!! The babies were so great, and they didn't ever get extremely cranky. God really looked out for us.