CONGRATS, LEE!

I think that it was about last year at this time, that I put a post on the blog to congratulate Lee on a new job position.  Well, he has now got himself another new position, which has also been a promotion!  He has really moved himself up with the company and I am so very proud of him! 
He now, for the first time in 6 years, is home with me until 7:00 a.m. on the weekdays!  This part of the job has been fantastic!  Since Tyler was born, over 4 years ago, I have always been home alone in the mornings to get the kids ready and off to daycare and myself ready for work.  Lee has always been out of the house by 6:00 a.m., if not earlier.  So, this new morning time has really been quite a treat and I have really enjoyed our new routine in the mornings!  However, he used to be home from work, on a typical day, by 4:30 p.m.  This was always wonderful, as I was able to finish dinner while he played with the boys and then we would all be able to sit down at the table and enjoy dinner and conversation together.  That 4:30 time, has unfortunately, gotten later.  We don't expect Lee home now until at least 6:00.  This means that it's just the kids and I for dinner.  I have been finding myself feeding the kids at the table and then, while I clean up the kitchen and do the dishes, I'm also eating my dinner.  I really miss our family dinner time!  The kids are always so hungry by 5:00 or 5:30 that pushing back dinner to wait for Lee isn't in our near future. 

BUT, I do know that I am very happy that he has gotten this promotion!  Lee has worked really hard to get the position.  As I am writing this, at 6:20 on a Friday night, he is not home yet.  But, when he does get home, he will have finished his first full week at his new position without his "trainer!"  Good Job, Lee! 

CONGRATULATIONS!  WE LOVE YOU!  DARCEY, TYLER, BRADY, & CALI     

SOME PICTURES WITH THE NEW CAMERA!

Lee and I chose to buy a new camera with our Christmas money.  We got a really nice one, that we are still learning how to use, but are very excited about it!  Here's some random pictures that we have taken recently that show the great quality of the camera.  We love it!

 

 This is Brady's "Roar" face.  In this picture he is saying "ROOOOAAAAR!" 

 My little cuddle bug!

 Tyler, listening to music on his headphones and making a silly face.

 Our little Cali Grace.

 

 

Brady in his carseat and ready to go to Grandma Marys.

"Peek-a-Boo!"

Tyler crawling around and also doing the "ROOOAAAR!"

 The boys making their own dinner--Pizza Turnovers.

They are such wonderful help in the kitchen!  :)

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

 

 We went to my mom's house this past weekend to celebrate her 60th and my brother's 33rd birthdays.  We had a good time celebrating, hanging out, and playing a new game that my mom had bought.

 This is a pretty blurry picture, but it shows the boys blowing out the candles for their Grandma and Uncle Josh.  I made the birthday crew an awesome cheesecake!

 Me with my little boy, Brady.

 Grandma brought a new game home called 'Climb the Mountain.'  The point of the game was to get the ball all the way to Everest by moving the silver bars back and forth and up the 'incline.'  It made for a competitive afternoon and evening!

 He looks just like his Uncle Josh!

 

 Grandma and the boys playing 'Climb the Mountain.'

That is quite the Josh Freese look.

BEDTIME CONVERSATIONS

Tyler loves to talk after we read stories at bedtime.  I usually have to cut him off and tell him that he needs to start resting.  However, these conversations at bedtime are great, smart, and one of my favorite parts of the day.  A little background for tonight's conversation.  Tyler can't stop thinking about the Monster Trucks from yesterday's event.  During the event there were two "transformer" trucks that came out and put on a little show.  One was the "good guy" and the other the "bad."  They came 'apart' like transformers do and ended up being really tall, with one looking somewhat like a person and the other like a dog.  They both talked with robot like voices, made loud noises, and shot fire.  Both Tyler and Brady thought these trucks were really cool!  So, tonight's conversation went a little like this...

Tyler: What are you going to dream about mom?  (A question we ask each other every night.)
Mom: Well, I'm pretty tired tonight, Tyler, so I probably won't dream much.
Tyler:  You have to dream, Mom.  What are you going to dream about?
Mom:  Kisses.  (Refering to a book that we read at night that tells us to dream of "kisses times ten."
Tyler: I'm going to dream about all of the Monster Trucks and the Transformer Trucks.
Mom: Those will be good dreams, Tyler.
Tyler: Mom, where do you think those Transformer Trucks are from?
Mom: I don't know, Tyler.
Tyler:  Maybe from...Mercury, or Earth, or Saturn?
Mom: Yeah, maybe!
Tyler:  Where do you think they're from, Mom?
Mom: Probably Earth.
Tyler:  I think that the red one is from Mercury, because it's hot and that one is red.....and the white one is from where it's cold.
Mom: Yep, that's probably right, Bud.  Maybe the white one is from Neptune.  That's where it's cold.
Tyler:  Neptune.

I'm sure after I left the room he continued to think of those Transformer Trucks, Monster Trucks, and will have dreams about them tonight!  He is such a smart little kid!  And I absolutely love that I get to have conversations like these with him every single night at bedtime!  I love you so much, Tyler!

Did he really just turn only 4? 

MONSTER TRUCKS!

We took the kids to Wells Fargo Arena yesterday to see the Monster Jam 2012!  We had a great time at the show!  The boys were entertained for every second that we were in the arena and Lee and I thought that it was pretty awesome as well!  This was the first that any of us had ever been to a Monster Jam so we didn't really know what to expect, but assumed the boys would think that it was pretty cool.  And we were right, the boys were amazed and loved it!  I am very thankful that we had ear plugs during this event, as it was extremely loud!  We had great seats and even had chunks of dirt thrown up at us once from a trucks tires.

After the show, we headed down to Court Ave. Brewery for some delicious pizza.  It was a great Saturday and one that the boys will be thinking and talking about for awhile! 

Tyler and Brady sitting on the stairs before the show began.

A couple of the Monster Trucks.  The orange one is El Toro Loco and the black and green is Grave Digger.  Tyler's favorite was this orange one, because it had horns.

This was Brady's favorite.  It was a Hot Wheels truck. 

Lee and Tyler.  Tyler had this grin on his face for the entire 2-hour event.  Brady, on the other hand, spent just the first couple of minutes wondering if he should cry or laugh about the loud noise and extremely large trucks.  Luckily he chose the laughter and continued to laugh every time that a monster truck flew up into the air. 

 Brady was just amazed by these trucks.

And Tyler was as happy as could be!

RECORD BREAKING WEATHER!

JANUARY 5TH, 2012

65 DEGREES!

This is one for the books.  It got up to a beautiful 65 degrees on Thursday, January 5th, 2012.  The boys were outside all afternoon at daycare and I was able to enjoy a run after work in just short sleeves and running pants.  We got home and Tyler and I spent more time outside with him riding his bike.  Brady was ready to relax inside on the couch watching TV--doing what Brady does best.

It has been a very strange January so far, with no snow and decent temperatures.  It feels like spring and is a little weird, but we'll take it.  I'm sure in a couple weeks we will have snow and will finally be able to use our sleds and make some snowmen! 

 Here's Tyler on his bike on Jan. 5th.

And another picture from January 5th, 2012.  Cali, Brady, Tyler and I all on the couch watching a show before bath time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! WELCOME 2012!

Well, we enjoyed our New Year's Eve weekend, however, it didn't go as expected...never does!  We were planning on the McCabes coming into town Saturday afternoon.  However, Friday afternoon, right as I was about to leave with the boys to a friends party, I realized that Brady's cheeks were rosey and he felt warm.  I took his temp. and of course, he had a fever.  I laid him in my bed to watch a cartoon, while I finished up getting ready, and gave him some medicine.  About 15 minutes after giving him medicine, he threw up...in our bed, in my spot!  Lee was at work dealing with inventory during all of this.  Since my bed was now ruined for a bit, I took the boys downstairs and put Brady on the couch after getting him all cleaned up.  After about 30 minutes of laying on the couch, he got sick again onto the couch cusion.  I carried him to the kitchen counter next to the sink.  And through all of this, the poor little guy continued to hang onto his fever.  After getting him cleaned up again, he went to the other couch to lay.  Lee came home and Tyler and I headed out to the party that we were supposed to leave for earlier, and left Lee and Brady home.  After a full night of sleep, but with a full night of a fever, we had to call the McCabe's Saturday morning to let them know that Brady was sick with a fever and had thrown up a few times (throwing up again on Saturday morning.)  Lee and I were sure that Brady would be fine by Saturday afternoon, because it seems that any time our kids have gotten the "flu" that it's only lasted 24 hours.  However, the McCabes needed to make the decision on whether they should come or not and take the chance of getting one of their little kiddos sick, with one their little ones being almost 4 months old.  They decided not to risk it and stayed home for the weekend.  Brady, of course, snapped out of it all by Saturday afternoon and returned to his normal self.  We ended up staying home to celebrate New Year's Eve so that Brady could keep recovering and then get another good night of sleep fever free.  We danced on the "stage", shown below, and had a pretty normal night at home.  After putting the kids to bed, Lee and I watched a movie, and then actually did wait up to see midnight.

 Here's a picture of the boys and I singing and dancing on the "stage" on New Year's Eve.  They love to put on a show and then jump down dramatically.

 My sweet little princess, Cali.  What a great dog!  Love her!

 Brady's been spending a lot of time on the potty.  He's actually getting the hang of it.  We MAY be close???  It didn't help that he got sick for 24 hours, which we didn't focus at all on potty training, but to getting him healthy and rested.

On New Year's Day we took the kids to an indoor waterpark.  It was so much fun and we all had a blast.  The water heater was not working, which made the water pretty chilly, but we still had a great time and really enjoyed our time in the water.  Both boys enjoyed going down the "yellow slide," Tyler got to go down the "big green slide," and Lee and I went down both the "red slide and green slide."  Brady absolutely loved going down the yellow slide with either Lee or I, wanting to do it "again," "again."  Tyler loved both the yellow and the green slide.  Lee really liked both the big red and the big green.  I, on the other hand, should have just stuck to the yellow slide.  The red slide was the fastest water slide I had ever been down and actually made my stomach and head feel not so great.  And then I went down the green slide, which was much better than the red, but still too much for me!  WOW--I'm getting old!  I can't believe that Tyler really wanted to do the green one over and over again, but he was having a blast!  My mom and a couple of her friends ended up meeting us there to watch the boys play for awhile.  They really liked watching Tyler and Brady having so much fun in the water.  It was a great New Year's Day at the waterpark!

 My boys and I at the waterpark on New Year's Day.

Lee and Brady just coming down the yellow slide.

Tyler and I coming down the yellow slide.

   Brady and Lee getting ready to go down the yellow slide.  I think that Lee was looking above at the big bucket that fills with water and waiting for it to get almost filled so that it would dump on them when they got to the bottom.

 Again, on the "stage."  I promise that we do dress these kids in a complete outfit at the beginning of the day.  It turns out that they would much rather run around the house in fewer items of clothing than what I put on them in the morning. 

 And now we go back to work tomorrow.  On our last night at home on Christmas Break, our boys decided to cuddle together on the couch to watch their show before going to bed--this rarely happens!  Of course, Brady cannot take his eyes off of the TV.  The kid could probably watch TV all day long!

What a great Christmas Break and New Year's celebration we had!  A rough 24 hours in there, with Brady being sick, but overall it was such a nice break from the hustle and bustle that tomorrow will bring.  I'm not ready!!!

And...we are hoping that, McCabe's, you will get here sometime soon to visit!