7 am dance party

The boys love when we play music so they can dance.  Adam has the funniest dance moves and Owen does very serious Ninja moves.  They always end up with their shirts off for some reason.  This video was taken the other weekend at 7am.  I posted it on FB, but wanted to make sure I had it on here too. 

Sweet Ollie

My sweet Ollie passed away peacefully last Sunday morning after many years of Alzheimer's.  I wrote this post back in 2009.  I said that she was in the end stages of the disease.  I don't think at that point I ever imagined her living four more years.  It's such a horrible disease.  If only her mind could have stayed as healthy as her body.

There are some things I hope to always remember about Ollie.  First is her laugh.  She had a beautiful smile and a contagious laugh.  She was always smiling and laughing. 

Her smell and the smell of her house.  It was the best smell in the world.  I can't describe it as anything, but Ollie smell.  We would purposefully take our blankies over to her house so that when we left they smelled like Ollie.  I hope I never forget that smell. 

She always bought us back to school sneakers... usually Tretorns from Kinney's Shoes.  She bought us pretty dresses too from Kids Point of View.  She didn't like the fact that we rarely wore undershirts.  She would always ask us if we were cold and tell us we should have an undershirt on.  I like Owen and Adam to have an undershirt on when it's chilly outside.

Her soup and applesauce.  She made THE BEST homemade applesauce and chicken noodle soup.  My dad comes pretty close to making the same soup, but I don't think any chicken noodle soup will ever top Ollie's.  We went to her house every Thursday and she would always have chicken noodle soup and applesauce ready for us to eat.

She was a homebody and worrier.  I tell Mike that I get those qualities from Ollie.  She also loved babies.  The very first place we went when we finally left the house after bringing Owen home from the hospital was to Ollie and Doc's house so Ollie could hold him.  Owen had a special bond with Ollie and I'm so glad he and Adam had the chance to know her.

I'll never forget taking the boys to see her at the nursing home.  Her face would light up and she'd smile and laugh and I know she was trying to say how cute they were.  She especially loved their noses.

She was a wonderful grandmother and I treasure all the memories I have of her.

Mr. Crafty

Adam has really been into painting and coloring and cutting lately.  I've noticed his attention span is increasing and he's able to stay interested in something for a longer period of time than he used to.  He will spend a good amount of time coloring or painting a picture and then cut it into a million tiny pieces.  He assures me that I should relax and that he won't cut his fingers, but it still scares me.  So far, so good.  I'm just waiting for him to snip off some hair (or a finger) when I'm not looking.

We're still working on proper hand positioning:)

Oh this boy!  I think he may be a little "advanced" in the sense-of-humor area.  I'm pretty sure he's mocking me and acting like he can't cut which is why he is making a goof-ball face.  He cracks us up mostly because he doesn't know he's funny.  Once he starts to realize he's funny, he may not be as funny anymore... if you know what I mean.

And Mr. Owen has been creating some super adorable self-portraits lately.

 I am going to start framing some of them to hang on our walls.

We got a few inches of fluffy, glittery snow last night.  The boys went on a walk on the rail trail with Elsie and Aunt Judy and Uncle Boo.  They had a great time.  I had to take a picture of them all bundled up.

This morning we went to the Bologna Fest.  Our little town is famous for it's baloney and we look forward to the Bologna Fest every year.  It's not every day you can get your picture taken with a Baloney Man.

I'm looking forward to our date night tonight and playing games with friends!

Brothers

Best Friends

Book Buddies

Bundles of JOY


 the outtakes...

Happy Friday!

Buddies and Books

Saturday afternoon the boys went to Griffin's second birthday party.  He had a construction theme and it was really cute!

I think all but one of the little guests were friends from Linda's house.  They all played in the basement together for the longest time without any problems while the adults were upstairs.  They are all very close since they've grown up together and spend so much time together.  They really are like family.  The older ones look after the younger ones.  My boys had a blast at the party!

I don't particularly like Sunday nights, but tonight was a nice one.  Owen and Adam played together for hours without fighting (which is rare).  I had a lot of work to do for report cards so I hid up in our room, but I could hear them the entire time and it was really cute to listen to.  Mike was watching football while they played and played using their imagination.  Then they played some more together in the bathtub and when it was time to get out Owen said, "Adam, you are the best brother I ever had."  :))))

And tonight, Owen blew me away with his reading.  It's amazing to watch the transformation.  He has a great teacher and is learning so much in school.  After reading a book all by himself, he could tell me the characters, setting (I can't even get some of my 2nd graders to know setting), problem/ solution, and whether the story was realistic or fantasy and why.  I couldn't believe it.

He's also started enjoying writing and making his own books.  Here's a book he recently made...

My Nature Book

That's me in pink with the big belly button :)

I had to take a picture of it because I FINALLY made it into his writing.  I wasn't in ONE journal entry at school from the first marking period.  Eric was in a bunch of them and Mike made some too, but not me.  Every now and then after we do something fun I'll tell him he should write about it in his journal at school:)

love.

Papa Doc went into a nursing home this week.  It's never easy.  Getting old is no fun at all. 

One of the positive things is that he's just two floors down from Ollie. It was getting more and more difficult to get him in to visit her and now he can see her whenever he pleases. 

Today my mom and I went in to visit them and this is what we saw when we got off the elevator on Ollie's floor...

 Both asleep in the warm sunshine.  Him holding her hand. 

 I thought Papa Doc looked so nice and I love his Adidas visor. 

 

It doesn't get much sweeter than that.  True love:)

Shiny Apple

When I picked Owen up today after work he told me he earned his third Shiny Apple Award at school!  I love that his elementary school still uses the same awards they used when Mike and I went there almost 30 years ago.  They look the exact same too which is really special to me.  In fact, I think somewhere I still have my Shiny Apple Awards.  Owen earned his Shiny Apple for working hard and we are very proud of him. 

I decided it would be fun to celebrate Owen's third Shiny Apple.  I have to admit, part of me was looking for any excuse to get out of the house and not have to cook.  Mike is home with the horrible stomach bug that's going around and I thought it would be best to get out for a bit.  So, we went to Friendly's to celebrate!

Owen got to pick a movie to watch in the van on the way to dinner.  He chose The Grinch. He also got to have an icecream sundae after dinner. 

Adam benefited from Owen's success too :)

After dinner Owen asked if he could do "the claw" arcade game they have at Friendly's.  If you know me, you know I NEVER let my kids play those cheap games.  I don't even let them ride the dumb rides at the mall that barely move and last 45 seconds.   I think they are a rip off.  Aunt Beth blew my cover when she was home visiting and put money in one of those things and showed the boys that they actually move.  They had no idea up until fairly recently.

Anyway, in keeping up with the "celebrate Owen theme" I decided to let him try.  He missed on his first try since he didn't know how to work the claw.  Then, I had to let Adam have a try so I helped him and he WON!  He won a stupid pink stuffed animal that says "Cutie Patootie".  I thought that was fitting since I call him that a lot:)  He has carried it around all night and says, "I wuv it so much."  I guess it was worth it.  Owen tried twice more and didn't win anything so I had to explain to him that they are rigged and they stuff the animals down really hard to no one wins and they make money.  Adam got lucky.

 

After that we went to the grocery store to get daddy Gatorade.  Owen got to pick which truck he wanted to ride.  He thought that was great. 

 

Even though we didn't do anything that extraordinary, Owen felt really special and knew that we were proud of him.  He's such a great kid.  Love him!

No pics post

I don't have any fun pictures from our weekend, but it was still a pretty good one!

We kept Owen home from school on Friday because Thursday evening he had a fever, headache, cough, and snotty nose.  He bounced back quickly and probably could have handled a half day of Kindergarten, but I thought we'd be good and obey the 24 hour fever free rule.

Saturday morning I went for a run.  I think it's been about 6 months since the last time I ran.  Pathetic!!  I only did about 2.5 miles, but it had 3 or 4 pretty big hills (one of which I had to walk up).  Then today I ran 3 miles with a new mom's running group.  My legs are super sore since they haven't experienced that kind of exercise in quite a while!

I thought today was supposed to be sunny and 60 degrees.  I told Owen and Adam we'd get out their new bounce house that my parents got them for Christmas.  Owen was excited to run as many laps around the outside of the house as he possibly could.  We kept waiting and waiting for the cold drizzly yuckiness to go away and it never did :(  I wouldn't mind one big snowstorm, but after that, I'm ready for spring.

We went to church this morning.  I should take a video of Adam going to church.  He gets out of the car and we have to hold him back from running into church and remind him not to push people out of the way.  The entire time he's saying "I go see my teacher, I go see my teacher, I go to school" and he's jumping up and down and telling every single person that makes eye contact with him that he's going to see his teacher (Ms. Candy) and he's going to "school".  It's a riot!  That boy loves Sunday school.  Mike went with him again today so I could go to church.  It was all about seizing the day...so good.  Did you know there are only 86, 400 seconds in a day?  I didn't know that until today.

A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook yesterday and it was so eye opening that I have to share it on here too.  I had been making a conscious effort to not spend much time on my computer or phone, but after reading that article, I realized I need to be even better. 

All 3 boys are sleeping and I'm about to join them!

Good night!

First Post of 2013!

We've had such a nice weekend!  Saturday morning we were going to take the boys to the science museum in Lancaster, but our friends called and asked if we wanted to go bowling with them.  The boys were MUCH more excited about bowling with friends than going to a museum.  I should have taken pictures, but I forgot my phone.  It was pretty funny.  Adam didn't want to use the metal ramp they have for young kids.  He wanted to roll the ball himself which meant the ball traveled less than 1 mile per hour down the lane.  The adults were able to bowl two games in the time it took the kids to bowl one.  I did MUCH better this time.  Meaning, I didn't get beat by my 2 year old :)

After bowling, Jenny and I went out to lunch by ourselves and then did a little shopping.  Such a special treat!

Saturday night Owen and I finished building his Lego pirate ship.  Owen did this 90% by himself.  I am just the search-for-pieces person. 

This morning we went to church, but not before a quick stop at Sheetz so the boys could split a donut.  I'm sure their teachers appreciate us sugaring them up before dropping them off at Sunday School:)

And just a few other pictures from our weekend...

Adam going outside to help daddy wash the cars

While I was getting ready for church I walked in to see Adam sitting in his chair reading.  We read every night before bed, but he doesn't sit by himself too often to read so it made me happy to see.