Sh*t My Boys Say...

Here's a small sample of what my day was like today:

- I was in the living room, sitting on the ottoman, cleaning the boys shoes with baby wipes before school. Curtis nonchalantly walks by and says, "Mom, you should really think about getting a job at the airport." I looked up at him confused, and he said, "AS A SHOE SHINER!"

-Andy came downstairs holding a tampon in a wrapper. He asked me what it was. I told him it was something for girls. Then he said, "Nuts, I thought it was a Popsicle!" (Not sure when I have ever been known to keep those under the bathroom sink?)

- Tonight I was making dinner and Johnny asked what we were having. I told him General Tsao's Chicken...homemade by me! He responded, "YES....I LOVE BIG MAMMA'S WOK!"

Gotta LOVE my boys!

First Sleepover

This past Saturday night, Curtis had his birthday party. He invited five of his closest friends over for a night of fun! This was the first sleepover for most of them. The weather has been beautiful...until Saturday. First time this much rain was forecasted since September. I had won the "Birthday Party Bonanza" package in a silent auction at the kids school. It included a bounce house. I cancelled the bounce house...but after waking up and feeling 60 degree temps, and watching the radar, I thought it would be a decent of enough day for the boys. So we called the Bounce House Man, and he came and set it up for an evening of fun!

With the drizzle, this was more like a water slide! The boys went crazy over it!

Inside I threw some gertie balls, for heated basketball games!

Buddies!

The Birthday Boy!

Johnny invited his best friend to sleepover too!

(They weren't kidding when they told me Johnny was "Off the Charts" in height..eh?)

LOVE that Bubba is in the middle of this!

They loved it when I brought out "Glow in the Dark" silly string!

The Birthday Boy was their target!

He LOVED every minute of it!

Curtis picked out this cake with the gift certificate we won in the auction bundle!

HOW COOL!

Snow cones were a HUGE hit!

Especially with this little guy!

Next up was a movie and popcorn!

Lefty was loving it!

I LOVE this pic because Bubba is front and center. Every time something funny happened in the movie, he would turn around and repeat it to Curtis' friends and wait for them to laugh at him! Typical Bubba!

When we bought this house, this is EXACTLY what we envisioned our third floor to look like on a Saturday night...boys, friends, sleeping bags, and movies!
My sister Megan made everyone a pillow case with their name on it for their "take-home" gift. This little guy loved his, as it matched the pillow he sleeps with every night! The pillow cases were a HUGE hit!

During breakfast I asked the kids to pose in their "signature" shot.

Here's Curt-Dog's!

There were some heated battles on the nerf court Sunday morning.

And some story telling by Bubba. Here he is telling the kids that he has a "wobbly" tooth. When they got close to look at it he yelled....JUST KIDDING! He even did it to his teacher at school two weeks ago! STINKER!

As you can tell we had a GREAT time. Really was the best party we've had. Only one bad thing happened, and it happened to me....Thank God! While the boys were out on the deck eating pizza, my friend and I were inside trying to keep our "Mother of the Year" streaks going. I was cracking and shaking glow sticks and she was putting them in yellow and white ballons and blowing them up. We were going to take garbage bags of them out to the bounce house and just release them for the kids to play in.

I went to crack one of the glow sticks and all of a sudden the liquid squirted out of the stick and right into my face and both eyes! I was in EXCRUCIATING pain! I started screaming and flailing around like an idiot. Erik grabbed the hose from the kitchen sink and was spraying it at me. I was yelling at him that I was going to throw up b/c he kept spraying my nose and mouth at the same time and was missing my eyes. He was yelling to stay in the water and keep flushing my eyes. The boys were all on the deck, with NO clue as to what was going on inside. All they could hear was me screaming and going nuts. All of a sudden, I can hear them all mimicking me. Not sure I've ever been more annoyed in my LIFE!

My friend who was standing next to me, was SO calm and was still getting everything ready. She calmly said to me, "Don't worry, you are NOT going to die. I read the back of the package. It's non-toxic." She sure knows me well. If she wasn't there...I would have gone in to the ER to have my eyes washed out, as I was CERTAIN I was going to die!

At this point, I am SOAKING wet from my hair to my waist. I went upstairs and filled the tub and just dunked my head in and opened my eyes under water for what felt like hours. I had to change my clothes and then head back downstairs to join the party. Another parent was coming late with their kid, and when she saw me she looked REALLY nervous to leave her kid. We reassured her that I was OK, and just looked horrible, but felt fine. I had no whites to my eyes anymore...but thank goodness the pain was gone.

There was one good thing that came from this: I was a HUGE hit in the bounce house after that. Everyone was crowded around me to see if my eyes would glow! (: How freaky would that have been?

Can't believe my oldest is eight years old. I'm loving this age, and all the running around and activities they are in! So far I'm thinking eight is going to be GREAT!

Monster Jam

If this post doesn't get me the "Mother of the Year" award, or a kick butt Mother's Day present, I don't know what will. We did something Friday night that was NEVER on my bucket list...Monster Jam 2012!
Andy is WAY into cars and monster trucks. This was probably #2 on his bucket list, behind a NASCAR race of course. He was all serious in the arena, and every time I tried to talk to him, he put his hand in my face as if to say, "Talk to the HAND!"
I wanted to get a picture of him...a good one...but he was SO nervous about missing the show, that he was not having it!
I personally have never been so grateful for the invention of smart phones, and the ability to surf the internet, facebook, and read newspaper articles from the comfort of my seat. My boys on the other hand really enjoyed the show and were very into it! The next time you see them, if they have on a muscle shirt and are sporting a mullet, you know who to blame! (:

Old?

This week Curtis asked me, "Mom, when you were born, had pumpkins even been developed or invented yet?"

Seriously?!?!?!

Happy New Year and More!

Our January has been off to a good start. The weather down here, just like in most places in the US, is unseasonably warm. You won't find us complaining! The boys are outside all the time, taking advantage of this weather...because we know what lies ahead for us in June/July/August!

Andy LOVES his new football from his Godfather!

New Years Eve was WILD and CRAZY at our house!

We made omelette's in a bag and even added some CHEESE to it to really get rowdy!

Then we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows!

The night ended with glow sticks in the bath tub with all the lights out!

I told you it was wild and crazy!

I spent a good portion of the weekend going through boxes I found in the garage of old photos and letters from high school and college. What a walk down memory lane! (I am on the far right side of the picture!) The boys got a good chuckle out of this and many other photos!

Johnny's room parent sent this picture of his class at school.

I'm sharing it because I want to have it in his book for when he's older!

Bubba has been playing a LOT of basketball!

Besides playing with cars, this is the other love in his life.

(Next to his Mama, of course!)

We got all geared up for the LSU game...

Wish it would have been a better game!

Thanks to Lynne for "gearing" up our family!

Andy had his first basketball game at the YMCA. As you can tell from the photo above, he is REALLY into what the coach is talking about! (Kid in the middle with yellow shirt on under uni).
He was so proud to be playing in his OWN game! The league is for 3-5 year olds. The coach asked him if he was four, and he responded, "No, I'm three, but I can still crush all of them!" I just about fell off my chair! He comes up with the FUNNIEST things!
Speaking of funny things...here is what Curtis and Johnny looked like while WATCHING Andy's basketball game. Like they are THAT much better than him! Johnny went to the bathroom three times in 45 minutes. I thought he was going to wet himself laughing!

Ever since our trip to WI/MN Andy's been BEGGING me to feed the birds like Erik's Dad and his step-mom do. (They have the most amazing bird display you've ever seen!) Well, we started feeding the birds, but nothing has come. (And here I thought all the birds from the north flew south for the winter!)

Finally, a friend gave us this fun airplane for our backyard. As you can see, the boys love it, as do the neighbor kids! It makes for a GREAT "Home Base" when they are playing spy and get caught by the adults!

All in all, the past few weeks have flown by. I have been terrible at updating my blog. As the kids get older, we are not at home as much as we were when they were babies. It's been hard to find time to sit down and actually post. I'm going to try to be better about it, as I really love having this "journal" for my kids.

HOLY COW...

Am I far behind in blogging or WHAT? I got an email from an aunt of mine that said she missed hearing our stories. I went to my blog and realized it's been since before Thanksgiving that I wrote! I'll try to recap all the exciting stuff!

Let's see, December started off with a bang...Bubba was riding his scooter and fell and broke his leg. He couldn't walk for a few days, and was very crabby. We weren't sure what road they would take, and all I could envision was a cast to his hip on the airplane for Christmas. (Seriously, God had a plan when he gave me three boys and a Granny who is an orthopedic surgeon!) We got good news after going to Children's Hospital. It was a small break, that was clean cut, and not displaced. So, we didn't need a cast. The doctor told me just to limit Andy's activity and have him lay low for a week. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this doctor was a MALE doctor. Much easier said than done!

Fast forward eight days. Bubba goes to school one last time before Christmas for his class party. I had a hair cut, and color appointment to go to. Mothers intuition told me that something wasn't going to go quite right. I asked my hair dresser not to color my hair, and just to cut it, in case something happened to Bubba at school. Sure enough, 10 minutes after I walked out of the hair salon, I got a call from school saying he fell on the playground and hurt his leg again. I went to school, saw he wouldn't bare weight on it, and called Children's. They said to bring him right up. I had to call the elementary school, and have them send the older two boys to the office so I could pick them up early and get up to Children's. We went up there, and you'll never believe it. It was a "MIRACLE!" Bubba, who could not walk and cried the WHOLE way to the hospital, jumped out of his car seat and walked into the hospital himself. Seriously, you can imagine how stupid I felt!

Again, the doctor told me to lay low for a few days. When we got home, I was busy taking off Bubba's coat and washing his hands. I heard an awful scream. Johnny had taken his stocking off the fire place and the stocking holder came crashing down and sliced open his head. Blood was squirting EVERYWHERE! I may or may not have said something like, "Are you kidding me....You've got to be freaking kidding me!?" Once we had it cleaned up, and put pressure on it, it didn't look bad enough to need stitches. THANK GOODNESS!

On to Christmas. I was SO excited to go back to WI/MN for the Holidays. We all were. Couldn't wait for the snow, family, and friends. We flew out on Saturday the 16th and it all went well. Only one thing was missing....SNOW! We landed and the temps were in the 30's-40's the whole time we were home! On a good note, I saved a lot of money, and didn't have to buy all the winter gear for my boys for just 2 weeks.

While on our trip, I stayed with my sister Megan in New Prague for a few nights. My sister Ann Marie, cousin Kennedy, and Mom were waiting for us when we flew in. On Sunday, all the girls of the family went to the Mall of America bright and early. We made a trip to the American Girl Store, and the godmothers bought bitty babies for our goddaughters, and had lunch in the bistro! What a fun day!

We headed to La Crosse on Tuesday of that week. Wednesday and Thursday Curtis went to school with my mom and was loving it. Johnny helped my dad and worked a lot with him. They may have been spotted at Kwik Trip and Menards a few times as well. I got stuck with the "boobie" prize and we ran last minute errands, and wrapped presents. My cousin Callan came down to visit and we bonded as well. Right Cal?!?!?!?

Friday, December 23rd. My cousin Brigit called me while I was out at the mall trying to track down a certain Packer sweatshirt I was buying, wrapping, and putting under the tree from Erik to me. (Yes, this is how low I've sank). While talking to Brigit, she said, "We all are taking bets on which Curtis family member will get the stomach flu this year!" I chuckled and said, "Well, everyone's healthy...so not anyone in my family." (I forgot to knock on wood!)

I went back to the house, gathered up the kids, and went out to my in-laws house for our first Christmas celebration of the year. Erik left work early, and was on his way down. We were going to have a nice dinner, open presents, etc. That was until Curtis said, "My tummy hurts!" And it hit the fan...he was up all night and the whole next day with the stomach flu. Erik's Dad and Deb had to call his sister and tell her not to come for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I went to my parents house, with Andy and Johnny. On Christmas Day, Erik went to his Mom and Tim's house with the other two boys as well. We took shifts, and cleaned a LOT! I was SO sad that this happened to Curtis AGAIN, and on such a fun year of his life! The same thing happened two years ago to Curtis and last year to his cousin Cullen.

Christmas ended up being good, but in a much different way. For the first time in my life, I didn't spend Christmas Eve with my parents and sisters. We stayed at Dan and Deb's house and had a nice, quiet Christmas morning. I was bummed to be missing out on all the celebrations, but enjoyed having a lazy day with just Curtis. I can't remember the last time I was able to relax, watch TV, read a book, and take a bath without ME being sick! So, Christmas might not have ended up how I wanted or envisioned it to...but it ended up working out OK. Only bummer is we missed out on spending time with a lot of different family members.

One more story... On our way home from MN today, we were all boarding the airplane and the Delta worker looked at me with my four boys and said, "Ma'am, you are out numbered, aren't you?" I told her I sure was. She shared with me that she had 3 girls and no boys. Then she said if I wanted to move to first class, she would up-grade me. I laughed and told her that was my "dream." She said she was serious. I politely said that's OK, I'm fine where I was at. As I walked away, she said, "Come back here if you change your mind." We walked towards the plane, and Erik turned to me and said, "Give me your bag, and go back up there and get your seat changed...you deserve it. Don't worry about us!"

That was all she wrote...I sat in First Class the whole way to Charlotte. Didn't hear a peep from anyone in my family. I had a nice big lunch with salad, chicken, fruit, and drinks. I read a paper, and a magazine. I even had time for a little nap. It was AMAZING! If this is any indication of how my 2012 is going to go...then I say BRING IT ON!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Thanksgiving Celebration

Johnny was the main character in his classes Thanksgiving celebration play. I taped it, but it won't upload to this site good...so I'll just post pics instead.

I LOVE that his boots are on the wrong feet! Typical Kindergartner!