Brad's 34th

I totally stink.

For Brad's birthday today, I got him absolutely nothing.

No card. No gift. Nothin'.

At least he has us, right?

I guess I was just so out of it last week, still recuperating from being gone the week before. Pair that with the stressful (and darn near impossible) task of trying to buy something that Brad wants/likes/will use...it's just too much.

Solution?

Let the man do his own shopping.

We went out for lunch at the Olive Garden to celebrate, and then came home for quiet time.

Brad got a nap. That's a pretty good gift.

Shopping will occur tomorrow. Call me crazy, but I have a hunch we'll be stopping at Best Buy...

Happy Birthday, Babe. Wishing you all the best for #34!

Picture of the Day, Week 21

The boys and I made the long trek back home today from MN, and eventhough I think we set a seven and a half hour travel time record, it was a very.long.drive. The boys did really well and took good naps in the afternoon. We (meaning I!) was so happy when we finally arrived home!

The first thing I told Brad when I woke up this morning was "I'm not going to do anything all day long." And I didn't. This picture was taken at three in the afternoon. Yep, the boys stayed in their jammies all day long, we lounged, played games, and took long naps. Best "recoop" day ever.

Brad and Luci were neglected in last week's POTDs. So, here's to these two cuties. :)

"Reed, can I have a kiss?"
Mmm...sloppy!

Tonight was Drew's first night of Tot Soccer with the park district. Isn't he so cute?! It was quite a scene with all those toddlers and parents. Drew is on the royal blue team, and Brad's one of the coaches. We wanted to sign Drew up for t-ball as well, but because he'd miss two of the six sessions, we decided it wasn't worth it. He had a pretty good time with this, though. This makes me an official soccer mom!

This is summer!
I got out the pool and sprinkler this afternoon, and the boys were more than willing to break them in for summertime!

Drew's current favorite book. It has been since he got in over two months ago. And don't even try to read just one story...if he ropes you in to reading it, prepare yourself to read all three!

More Minnesota Fun

I included several pictures in last week's POTDs from our week-long stay at my parents house in Minnesota. But that didn't capture all the fun we had.

Take a peek into the rest of our week!

It's a long story as to why I did this, but I ruined my mom's surprise of having Dr. Mater at her house to give to Drew. That's pretty much all he could talk about. It was the only reason he could think of as to why he wanted to go to Grammy and Papa's!

Drew kept Papa, Uncle Justin, and anyone else who was available, busy with games, games, and more games!

During part of our cleaning out process, we came across some of our old toys that mom has been saving for her grandkids. This old Fisher Price (?) workbench was one of them. (FYI: For all our family...this was the workbench that Justin cracked his head open on when he was four years old.)

Helping pot Grammy's Mother's Day flowers.

My mom made these capes for Drew and Avery, but Reed was pretty fond of it, too. "Suuuper boy!"

Another project: cleaning out my papers from high school and college. *Shocker* I kept not a one.

See? More games!

Riding bikes and ringing bells!

Oh Lord. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea.

Helping Uncle Jeremy measure and mark for his new trees.

Working on that whole pedaling thing.

We spent a lot of time in the garage setting up for the sale. Drew found himself pretty satisfied sitting with us, watching movies. (Hey Gushee cousins, recognize that table???)

Walks with Papa.

Sunbathing Barbies and Cabbage Patch Dolls. Part of our cleaning process was airing out what's been stored in the basement for so long and purchasing new storage containers for all of it. Such memories in all of these!

Let's just say they were pretty wet after this!

Yes, yes I did let him play in an old dog kennel...

...and allowed them to play with parking cones. Cheap entertainment, what can I say?

Ready for Mardi Gras.

Oh these two. They never quit.

I realized as I was uploading these, that I have absolutely no pictures from Saturday when Justin, Mindy and Perry were at mom and dad's. Drew had such a blast with Perry that afternoon, drawing and playing games together. We all went out as a family that night for dinner at Culver's and then finished the evening playing at the park. Many, many thanks to them for coming down to see us. It meant the world. And of course, so many thanks to the rest of my family for entertaining us all week.

These are the times we won't soon forget.

Picture of the Day, Weeks 19 & 20

Holy bloggy vacation, Batman!

Sheesh!

The boys and I returned this past Sunday evening from a 10 day excursion away from home. On Friday, the 14th, all four of us headed to Des Moines/Ames for Brad's nephew's graduation party. I had previously made plans to be at my parent's place the following weekend for a family garage sale, so it seemed more sensible to continue on to Minnesota from Ames than to come back home and travel all the way back a couple days later. So Brad returned home while the boys and I made our way to Grammy and Papa's house. It was a long time away from home, but a productive, fun week as well.

That said, my blog and picture of the day posting has been neglected.

But we're back! And catching up.

Enjoy!

Mother's Day. These boys made me a mama. And I'm so so thankful to them for that.

14 months old!

I've hopped on the couponing bandwagon, and am still fine-tuning my organization and shopping process. At the moment, it's time-consuming and occasionally confusing, but I'm finding it to be rewarding and worthwhile.

Brad has introduced Drew to the XBox.

It's pretty intense.

Because sometimes playing on the kitchen floor in your diaper is necessary.

We stayed in Des Moines with Brad's brother's family on Friday night on our way through to Ames for the graduation party. Both boys enjoyed their time with their aunt, uncles and cousins. Here's Drew playing catch with his cousin, Lewis.

Bryce, Brad's nephew and high school graduate.

Uncle Jeremy, Avery, Drew and Papa playing t-ball in the front yard.

We went over to see Jeremy and Ashley's new home, and the boys found themselves "helping" out in the yard. Reed enjoying a ride back up to the house.

Oh to know what these two are laughing at!

Grammy and Papa took the boys to the park after dinner tonight. I think it's safe to say they had a good time.

Yeah, this was a little dangerous.

I absolutely love this picture. Jeremy was eating peanut butter and jelly toast for breakfast, and all of the sudden, all the boys wanted some too. It's such a cute story, but what's great is how candid this picture is. Unfortunately, I have no idea what's captured their attention, but their reactions to it are priceless!

Uncle Justin was so great to come down on the weekends to spend time with us. Drew thinks pretty highly of him...at our house, Uncle Justin either gets the credit or the blame!

Lost & Found

LOST


Favorite snuggly. Been best friends for three years. Well-loved, friendly companion. Last seen first thing this morning.
REWARD OFFERED
Unconditional gratefulness from one very distressed boy.

Truth be told, we "lose" Teddy a lot. He makes his way down the stairs with Drew every morning, and throughout the morning is placed and misplaced throughout the house. He gets cuddled, then dropped, and it's usually anybody's guess as to where he may have ended up. It takes a bit of looking on occasion, but he is always found, and just in time for quiet time.

But this was not the case one day last week.

Teddy was lost.

And couldn't be found.

We looked everywhere. (Well, obviously not everywhere as he would have been found a lot sooner!) I should say we looked in all the usual places. And even in some unusual places. But this time, Teddy was elusive. He was nowhere to be found.

So I tucked Drew in for naptime, promising him that I'd keep looking and as soon as I found him, I'd bring him up. While feeding Reed his lunch, I slowly wandered throughout the house, wondering "where in the heck could he be?!?" Twice I heard coming from upstairs, "Did you find Teddy?" The third time Drew called out, I went upstairs to reassure him that Teddy would be found.

I asked if he wanted to snuggle with Panda instead.

He said no.

And he kicked Bob and Larry out of bed, too. (Apparently if he couldn't sleep with Teddy he didn't want to sleep with anyone!)

He then got teary-eyed, and whimpered, "I don't want to go to sleep without Teddy."

Broke my heart.

Teddy was found 30 seconds later, because when you look in the one place you haven't looked in yet, things are usually found.

Teddy was recovered. Rest assured, he's ok.

And now, so is Drew.

Photo Update

It seems like I share most of my pictures through my "Picture of the Day" posts, but here are a few gems from the past month that didn't make the cut. :)

I had already taken about a gazillion photos of Drew picking out his first baseball glove, I couldn't get him to pose with me and my new glove. This was the best we could do.

"Oh, mom, you're stinkin' hilarious!"

"Daddy, don't go. Don't go!"

"Uh, mama...oops!"

I was trying to get a sweet shot of the boys together, smiling. One out of two isn't bad.

A full day of shopping with mom leads to this. And just prior to this, I heard "but mama, I'm not tired..."

The reason the boys no longer take baths together. Out.of.control!

Hi, Reed!

Just waking from an afternoon snuggle with dad.