Helper

My laundry area is in our garage.  While that's nice that I don't ever have to look at the mess, I don't particularly like standing in a 30 degree garage pretreating and washing clothes.  So the other day, I decided to set up a little processing station in the bathroom with my shout stain remover and bleach pen. 

 You see with three MESSY boys, nearly every single article of clothing they wear needs some help coming clean - lots of food and dirt. 

 And You see, this guy is into everything and loves to spray. 

 And so, he took over the pretreating station. 

He actually did a pretty fantastic job that I think we will try it again.  

However, I'll continue to leave the bleach pen to M.E. 

Dominoes

Buddy has been pretty obsessed with dominoes lately. So much so, that I went out and purchased 150 of them for him to build and create.  All the boys have had so much fun.

Captured

Caught this little scene the other day.  

Babe needed a hand to hold and LG was right there to lend it. 

Just too sweet. 

SNOW

It finally snowed in our corner of Oklahoma on Wednesday.  I say finally because I believe this is the first measurable snowfall since the blizzard of 11.   

The forecast was about right, just the timing was off for us.  It didn't even start snowing until 7:30 AM. Just in time for the drive to school. 

By 9:30, I was coming down and when I took Babe to school the roads were covered but drivable. 

Babe was so excited. He just stood in it letting pelt him.  Then I realized that even though he has seen snow on the ground and played in it. He doesn't remember it ever really snowing from the sky.  He kept saying, it's not rain. 

 2 hours later at 11:30 AM we had major accumulation. 

 It was really pretty. 

Official measurement by M.E. was 2 and a quarter inches. 

By 3 PM, it was a little warmer and the precip had changed to a mix of ice, snow and rain.  So it was all beginning to melt. But there was enough for the boys to play in after school. 

As much as I would have loved for the boys to stay inside warm & dry, I had to help them get bundled up and head out in it.   Here Buddy's digging snow off of his pants. LG got him good with a big wet snowball. 

I think of all the boys, LG was the most excited.  He was so happy to have something different. I don't blame him.  He is also wearing his snow bibs that are size 4T, don't ask M.E. how that's possible, but he has them on and zipped - check out how short they are.  

Happy, Happy, Happy 

Buddy worked a long time getting this little guy made.  He's about 2 feet tall has real button buttons, blue button eyes and a carrot for a nose plus an army hat.  Pretty cool little snowman.  

As much as this Babe wanted to play in the snow, it was cold. And he was so bundled up he couldn't move very easily, so he mostly just walked around making footprints in the snow. 

Happy Winter Day for the boys!  

PS.  We had late start on Thursday due to some ice, but all's back to normal. 

The Party

All the birthday boys had a Laser Tag party over the weekend and it the weather couldn't have been better and the setting was awesome.  So fun.

 LG was in heaven playing with the big 4th graders.  

It was a pretty simple thing - this mobile laser tag company.  They wore headgear with sensors and had a gun that shot an invisible laser.  If you were hit, the lights blinks and you were dead for 10 seconds. There were many different rounds, with different scenarios, coming back to life, staying dead, playing capture the flag. etc. 

 The camo gang.  They had so much fun, I can't even tell you. 

Here's Buddy and his team getting ready to battle the opposing kiddos. 

And if you think the Man was just gonna sit and watch you were wrong.  Most of the dads got in on the action. 

 LG was funny.  He had little strategy other than run and shoot. 

 Buddy and C looking for their target.  Buddy was so into it and really thought he was something out there. 

 Tell M.E., the Man doesn't look a little like Phil Robertson in this picture. Its the glasses I think. 

All the kiddos took on the dads and the kiddos won 38-35.  Awesome. 

Happy Birthday Buddy

Its hard to believe that our first born is now 10.  Double digits. the big one-zero. 

 He had a friend over all weekend to help celebrate.  PS. He loves double sleep overs. That's two nights in a row. 

 We had donuts for breakfast and Red Robin for supper - where they sang HB to him and he was embarrassed, but got free ice cream. PS. He loves food! 

 We got him some really cool board games and the cards and gifts are still coming in.  He is very blessed to have such a wonderful family. PS. Double Shutter is the best game ever. More info to come. 

We ended the night with cake and candles.  I think he had a really good birthday. PS. TEN. Its still hard to believe. He is so much like the Man and so much like M.E. its crazy. 

We love you Buddy so much and just can't believe that you are already so big and half grown.  

We are very proud of you. Happy Birthday! PS. I did an interview with Buddy for his birthday. I'll be posting that once I type it up. 

Project Life

Some of you may remember that back in April of last year, I won a Project Life kit from one of my favorite blogs. Cathy Zielske.  Love her!
Project Life was invented by Becky Higgins and there's a really cool video on her blog at beckyhiggins.com, that stated simply what PL is.  Its a binder, its pocketed-page protector, pictures and words.  No scissors, no adhesive required.  Granted, I take it a bit further.

I quickly jumped in, because I loved the concept.  After about 4 weeks, I was done.  I just didn't have the system, the drive, time, etc, etc. to keep up. So like 2011, I'll be doing monthly spreads well after the fact.  (actually I'll complete it this summer while in KY) because I've printed all the pictures, kept the little bits and pieces.

However with all that said, I am bound and determined to make it happen this year.  There's so many bloggers, scrapbookers, etc doing this project, that I had to be a part of it weekly.  We've got so much going on that I'm forgetting things as fast as its happening and these are are the moments I'll miss so much when the boys are grown.

So when Studio Calico (one of my favorite scrapping company, which is actually located in BG, KY) offered a project life monthly kit. I signed up. yep.  No more trips to hobby lobby or michael's to just browse.  My scrapping budget is coming directly out of my account monthly for this wonderful kit.

Unfortunately, the demand for the kits were overwhelming for SC and many people didn't recieve a January kit, M.E. included.  BUT I GOT FEBRUARY'S.  woohoo!

Getting to my point... I'm keeping up. I'm two pictures away from getting week 6 completed. YES!
So, I decided to go ahead and share the January weeks with you here.  I know a lot of the photo are blog photo repeats, but its what's going on.  
I've also blurred the text because I wrote about us, our names, our location, friends, etc. that I'm just not cool with floating out there in digital-sphere.

 Week 1

This is the back side of the cover page, so the 5 is thus backwards for this page, but I like the cool see-thru items.  This is pretty basic.  Trying to be simple with a cute week one title card with the dates stamped on, a new year's pic, a couple of stories, a calendar, another picture from the airplane on the flight home and then a clipping from a planning meeting we had at church.  And that's it. 

 Because week one was a short week and a travel week, I really didn't have many photos worth using, so instead of trying to use filler, I simply used a pretty piece of 12x12 cardstock and cut it to slip into the pockets on the facing page. This way week two could be a spread, keeping everything in order.  I'm trying to not to worry about that big blank page, but to love the paper and move on. 

 Week 2

Still not really into the mode of taking a lot of photos throughout the week, so lots of random stuff.  The big post holiday grocery run and receipt. I think it'll be funny to look back years from now to see what milk cost, etc.  Some story cards and a picture of Babe with the kitchen.  The Man and I had to get caught up on watching our show, so I downloaded the logo for the show and added it as well.  

 Week 2 (right page)

Here I managed a couple more photos toward the end of the week and a couple more stories. I wound up living that top slot blank with just the patterned paper, because its just cool. The top is LG at cub scouts. In the middle and bottom a picture of Buddy and his friend Z who was over for a sleepover and the details of their adventure. The bottom also has a pic of the ornament storage. 

Week 3

The top is a title card and a clipping from Buddy's homework on the top.  He has such wonderful handwriting. I use my iphone for pictures a lot and because I have a first generation phone the pictures are NOT high quality, so I typically keep them small and print them two to a 4x6 photo sheet.  There's the Man in his seahawk jersey ready for the playoffs and a snapshot of our winter weather advisory.  We got nothing. On the bottom I have a "hello 2013" card from Studio Calico and a picture of Babe on a lawnmower at Lowes.  Just because.  

 (Right Page)

On top we have a picture of Babe playing in the sink, he had actually gotten so wet, he took 'everything' off and was happily playing. And there's also a clipping from LG's spelling word list. In the middle I have a tweet card, a patterned-transparency, a clipping of artwork from Babe's class and then a caption about the picture below. On the bottom, a picture of our post-holiday mantel and Buddy's grade card. Just random stuff form our everyday.

I tried to get a shot of the patterned-transparency, but I don't know if you can see it very well.  Its just a piece of plastic with that cool pattern on it. Another see-thru element. 

 Week 4

This was the week we all had the flu, so laying on the couch for 3 straight days didn't lead to a lot of photo taking or documentation. But that's life and I'm moving on.  There's a cute title card, a picture of the boys all in the same chair at the computer on top. In the middle a picture of LG with his cool rocks from the rock tumbler, a drawing by Babe (can you believe he drew that?), the backside of the transparency and a clipping from a note to LG telling him I about after school plans. On the bottom, Buddy makes homemade lemonade and a blurb about the Flu. 

Week 4 (right page)

Like I said, there's wasn't much to document, so another cool piece of card stock fills in the pockets on the facing page. done and done. 

So there's January, all finished.  I'm really glad I'm doing this and can't wait to use my February kit goodies from Studio Calico.  Yay!  I'll post all of February, in early March. Stay Tuned! 

captured

Babe is really into his farm set again.  He'll play days and days with all the animals and people then move onto something else and back again.  I personally love watching him play with it and talk.  The little conversation his animals and farmers have make no sense to M.E. but they do to him.

so when he asked for my phone to take some pictures, I got the Man's attention to take a picture of him taking a picture.  Here's the results.

13" lighter

I finally had enough and I went to the hair salon.  It had been over 18 months since I'd even sat in Dana's chair, so she was thrilled to get her hands on the scissors and cut, cut, cut.  13 inches worth.

I'm loving it of course. Its so easy and cute.  

Before I know it'll be way long again thus the cycle continues. 

Getting Outside

The weekend wasn't a total bust.  I convinced the Man to clean the gutters.  And of course, he found himself a distraction - playing basketball with Buddy.  I'm not complaining, playing with the kiddos is high on my priority list too. 

And Buddy who hasn't touch a basketball in nearly 2 years decided about a month ago, that he wanted to pick it back up, so he's been shooting a lot of hoops.  

 Buddy's actually not too bad. 

 I think the Man will probably be sore after all they did.  They played for nearly an hour.

 Granted they had the goal pretty low, so LG could play too.  

 SWISH!

 Isn't he so handsome! 

Of course, this little guys was outside too. Splashing in puddles in his pajamas.  Somedays, we just don't get dressed until necessary. 

And a nice little shadow pic of Babe and M.E. 

It was so nice to be outside. 

Birthday Bust

 Saturday, Buddy was schedule to have a big birthday bash with 4 other birthday boys and their fellow boy classmates.  It was schedule for outside at our friends house.  The forecast 50 degrees with 30% chance of rain.

Well, of course, as anything I try to plan, it didn't work out.

It wound up pouring rain about an hour prior to the party and then during most of the party, so needless to say, there was no party.

The boys wound up inside in front of the xbox.  It was a bummer and who knows if we will get to reschedule, but hopefully we can make it happen.  I just can't believe he is almost 10. yikes.

The boys were ready to play in the woods hence the camo. 

In the meantime, Babe was being wild (imagine that) and he fell off the back of the couch and busted his lip on the concert floor.  Busted it pretty good too.  It bleed a lot and he settled down to watch a movie really quick.  Thanks to Lauren and D for helping out with him.  He loves you girls. 

Reading Time

Babe decided to read to M.E.
He wound up half singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and his ABCs.  Its super cute and of course LG jumps around, jumps through and makes noise, but that's life.
Enjoy!

New Routine

A couple of weeks ago, well it was shortly after re-starting school in January, we realized our morning routine was not working.
Letting the boys sleep until the last minute, them podding them to hurry and eat, hurry and brush teeth, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, wasn't working.  Especially for LG. While getting up is easy for him, he doesn't move very fast.  Whereas, getting Buddy on his feet is the biggest battle, but once he is up, he's up.

Currently we are trying to get up much earlier so that they have time to just wake up.  This actually involves letting them watch tv.  UGH.  But we are watching sprout (PBS) and they get to see a little Thomas the Train, Bob the Builder and the Wiggles. Yes, I realize these are all geared for Babe, but LG and Buddy seem to enjoy them too.

So now, most morning LG will jump up and make his way to the couch.  Babe is usually close behind him at about 6:45. (this hasn't been easy on M.E. either, but I'm loving it)

 And yes that's purple marker on Babe's belly from the previous day where he colored himself, Buddy's sheets, Buddy's wall and homework.  But that's another story. 

 Buddy is always last up, just as I'm plating breakfast 'cause he doesn't like cold eggs. So he gets up to eat and get going.

I love how all three of them pile up on one spot to wake up. 

The Man is also getting up early and taking the boys to school.  This little routine of him taking the boys to school has been life changing.  He was passing school anyway and now not having to be at work at 7:30 really helps and the boys are getting to school earlier and are more settled. Its a good thing, even if it hard getting up a few minutes earlier everyday.