Goggles Galore. . . a hint of summer

Can ya tell our boys are SUPER anxious for warmer weather? What that actually means is that they are ready to go swimming - they LOVE swimming! :-) They've been running around the house for the past couple of weeks donning their goggles and putting on their swimming trunks and having diving competitions (read: jumping off the edge of the couch in their playroom into a sea of water. . . err, uhhh, I mean pile of beanbags and cushions!). Summer, oh summer, where are you?!

Make A Wish

DS1 & 3 taking their turn with the wishbone

I've never see this before, but they are literally both equal halves!
Yep, the wishbone is a big deal in this house. . .just like in my house when I was a little girl. They don't have to wait too long for their turns as I generally cook up a whole chicken at least 1x/wk, but the excitement it brings it hillarious and sweet to watch. It's also interesting to see what's pondering in their minds at the time, sooo the question is. . . is it more fun for them or more fun for Mom??? :-)

Pizza Night. . . a la chef de son!

S1 rec'd a chef's apron and hat for Christmas from his Pappa & Nana P and he had it on 1st thing Christmas morning and helped bake up Jesus' birthday cake. . . he was biting at the bit to put them to good work! It was so cute watching him, he did an awesome job and pretty much did 90% of the baking on his own. . . and the results were d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! Everyone had their own little individual cake (sorry no pic, we scarfed them down!) and he was quite proud of himself, it was incredibly sweet. Anyways, Daddy & I got him a Wolfgang Puck cookbook (Pizza, Pasta & More) and this was the 1st creation he made out of it - it was scrumptious! We had family visiting and Saturday is our Pizza & Movie Night and he wanted to make up the pizza utilizing a new recipe from his cookbook. Daddy & he worked in the kitchen while I kicked up my feet and enjoyed a nice game of Blokus with my sis! :-) Boy I tell ya, this gift just keeps on giving and giving! ;-D

Letterboxing

This is our newest find this fall (Letterboxing) and we are still going strong with enjoyment and challenges! Quite honestly. . . we LOVE Letterboxing. It combines several of our VERY favorite things to do. . . hike and seek! ;-D Seriously though, we love to hike, it's part of our regular routine, and we love to still engage in anything that is treasure hunting'esque (don't bother looking it up, I just made it up!). If you want to learn more about Letterboxing and/or find some boxes to go hunting for in your area, go to www.letterboxing.org. There are like 593 boxes in our state - incredible! Sometimes we decide to go hunt a certain area so we just log online and print off the directions or sometimes if we have a field trip we check to see what's in that area that we can hunt for while we're there - SUCH fabulous fun and so adventurous! Daddy and the boys are working on creating our own family stamp to use for logging when we find a box and for our personal logbook - I'll be sure to post a pic of it when it's all done. Some of you may be familiar with geo-caching and that is pretty much the same thing just with a GPS system, rather than a compass. Since we hike on a regular basis we really wanted the boys to be able to fully understand and utilize their compasses, plus they were a gift from their Grandma & Grandpa L for their birthdays, so we're putting them to good use! Boy are we racking up the miles on those babies! ;-D Anyways, check out the link and plan your own family adventures.

Family Photos

We took advantage of the extra hands and had them snap a pic of our family! :-)


My Dad and P, Daddy & I and the boys, my baby brother and his wife and daughter.

Vacation

This is my baby brother, D, and his adorable little daughter, C. He was home for leave from Iraq for a few weeks and we were able to spend time with him and his family at my Dad & P's.


You can see how much the big boys love Uncle D - they think he's "it"! :-)


Littlest man is a fish - who has no fear! We have an eagle-eye on him!


Just having fun!


They would stay in the water ALL day and night, if we'd let them!

Georgia's Surgery

Our big girl had surgery to get fixed and get her do-claws removed, all 4 of them. She has to wear this lovely contraption for about a week so her sutures will have a chance to heal and hopefully be removed then. Poor baby, but she still looks so cute! Our girl proudly weighed in at 78lbs - she's 6mo old! :-)