C'S 4-WHEELER

I may have mentioned before that for his 4th birthday, C got his very own gas powered 4-wheeler. No more Power-Wheels for him! (IJ has inherited C's old 4-wheeler and enjoys running into things. :) )

So far C's been just riding it around in a big circle in our yard until he gets used to controling it, and he's getting pretty good at it. He's only had one incident where he rode too close to nana and papa's truck and scraped some paint off the truck's front bumper. That freaked him out a bit (he did not want to tell nana and papa what he did when R made him go and talk to them) and he's been paying more attention since.

Since C's been getting better R has taken him out on a couple of short rides down the trail near our house (R on his 4-wheeler and C following behind on his). The last time they went out R took the camera and got some video clips:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When they got back to the house R was telling me how well he did on the ride, and then I watched the videos. "You didn't tell me he hit a tree!" "Oh, it was just a sapling." Yeah, these guys are gonna make my hair go gray very early in life... :)

R'S NEW TOY

Just to let you all know, we're all still alive out here! ;) I know it's been a while since I posted on here, I've been bad. :) Lots of stuff has been going on around here since I last posted, like C turning 4, and our weeklong vacation to see family in Minnesota and St. Louis and the "Go, Diego, Go!" live show. Plus I got Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 and discovered digital scrapbooking, so now every time I'm on the computer I'm either on scrapbooking sites or playing on Photoshop. :) I know, excuses, excuses. ;)

Anyway, R wanted me to post photos of his new toy, a Yamaha motorcycle. We are just collecting the boy toys around here, with the trucks and the 4 wheelers and the snowmobile (plus C got his own kid sized gas powered real 4 wheeler for his birthday!). When R came home with it in the back of his truck the other night, I sent the boys down to look out the door's window. I said, "Do you guys see daddy's new toy in the back of his truck?" And C exclaims, "It's a new...neeew...um, snowmovile?" He he he. :) R's pretty proud of it, and excited about all the gas he's going to save this summer. :)

Here's the photos of the new motorcycle taken by R, and some photos of R on it, taken by nana:

And here's a short video nana took of R out for a ride:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

More blogging to come soon...maybe...we'll have a newborn next month so we'll see! :)

STRAWBERRIES

The other night C, IJ, and I planted some strawberry seeds in a pot. The boys decided that these seeds needed some music to get them growing faster (a la an episode of Jack's Big Music Show).

Here's C on guitar and IJ on drums, singing "Grow, Strawberries!"

Make video montages at onetruemedia.com

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We'll be pretty busy tomorrow, so I figured I would give you all a little Thanksgiving treat tonight. Here's two videos of C singing some Thanksgiving songs he learned at preschool (the sound and the video never match up, I don't know why, do any of you out there?) :

C's handprint turkey

IJ's handprint turkey

My little Indian

IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT...

On Sunday the 12th, C's preschool class was invited to sing at the church service (his school is in the church). This was the first time I'd been to church in a long while, and really the first time I'd been to a real full church service. When I was a kid I lived in a much smaller town with a very small church that only had folding chairs and was very informal. So this was a little different. Not bad, since I do believe in God and all that; I just felt a little out of place in such a formal church setting after having not been in church on a Sunday in years. I think IJ was a little intimidated too. We sat down in the pew, and he looked all around with huge eyes. Then he started making sad faces and insisted that I put my arm around him. He got used to it though and really calmed down after he discovered the pencil and the little cards that you fill out. :)

C was playing in his classroom with the other kids until it was time for them to come out and sing. When the time came, C's teaher came walking down the aisle with all the little preschoolers in a line behind her. Except for C. He was sort of in line, but he was lagging behind, taking his own sweet time. He had his hands around the straps of his overalls, and was just looking all around as he slowly walked up to the front. He eventually made it up there. :)

C's class sang three songs, and I tried to get some video of all of them. I had a little hole where I could see C perfectly (I ended up having to sit in the middle of everybody), and I would have had good video of all three songs if the lady sitting in front of me hadn't of been whipping her head around every two seconds. Back and forth, back and forth. It was so annoying! (Is it bad to say I was annoyed with somebody in church? :) So here's the video where you can see C the best, with minimal head whipping. They're singing "If You're Happy and You Know It", and C is the one in the tan overalls and the green shirt.



After C was done singing, he came to sit with IJ and I, and the boys kept themselves busy filling out those cards. We almost made it through the whole service, until IJ started stinking up the place and announced that he had to go potty. Which was good timing since they had just started passing around the collection plate and I didn't have any cash with me. By the time we got done in the bathroom, people were filing out, so I think we did a pretty good job. :)

HARVEST PARADE

Here's the video I promised of C's preschool "Harvest Parade" (their version of a Halloween parade, I assume, since he goes to a church preschool). They dressed up as spiders and sang spider songs. R taped this since I had to miss it due to the hospital thing, but I think he did a pretty good job capturing the cuteness, don't you think? :) (C is the one in the blue camo)



C's been doing really well in preschool. When he first started going, he would cry every time I dropped him off. The first day I cried too after I left the room; it was hard leaving him in someone else's care for the first time ever. His tears didn't help at all, either. But over the past couple of months he's gotten more used to mommy leaving, and for the past few weeks there have been no tears at all. It's hug, kiss, I love you, and off he goes to play. It's great. C now says that all his friends are at preschool, and that he has fun.

C has learned so many new things, too. Yesterday he said, "Mommy, it's November!", and he always wants to know what day of the week it is (they do a calender time first thing in the morning where they talk about the month, the day of the week, and the weather). He's also learned a ton of new songs; I'm constantly catching him singing to himself (when I get around to taping him singing I'll post it here). They had a fire truck and firemen visit on the day C got to be the leader (he chose pretzels and watermelon Juicy Juice for the snack), and came home telling me all about smoke detectors and "stop, drop, and roll". He's even learned some new words. A couple of weeks ago we pulled into our driveway after a morning of school and he said, "That tree doesn't have any leaves. That's a predicament!" He said he learned that word at preschool that day.

I'd have to say the only bad thing so far about preschool is that it seems that C has been sick ever since he started, but that's pretty much to be expected with 16 three year olds running around.

IJ has even gotten in on this and I started him in a playgroup on Thursday mornings while C is in class (in the same church). But C is very adamant that only he goes to preschool: "Only I go to preschool. You're not old enough. You go to playgroup." But IJ loves his playgroup. He wanted a backpack like C had, so I found him a toddler sized Buzz Lightyear one that has wheels. He rolls it right into the school and into his room, and he'll put his art project in when it's time to leave and then he'll roll it right out. He never asks me to carry it for him. They even get to sit on little mats just like the preschoolers during song and story time, and I think he likes that. IJ doesn't quite sing the songs yet, but he gets all excited at the end, yelling yay! and clapping his hands. They also get to have gym time like the preschoolers; there's cars to ride in, bikes, a slide, balls, and a balance beam. But my favorite thing has to be during snack time. IJ always inhales his juice first, holds out his cup and says "More juice, pease!". Every time. It's so cute. He probably drinks the most juice out of all the kids there. :)

So, yeah, can you tell how much I love this whole preschool thing? :D

(I'll have our Halloween pics up as soon as I get them on Flickr. I'm a little behind in the picture uploading department, but, you know, I was gone for a week. :)

SASHA, SASHA, SASHA

Well, I was just a little annoyed with Sasha today since I found chew marks on another one of my shoes, so I thought I'd share a video of Sasha being funny. Because she was not very funny today.

Anyways, nana was brushing her fur, but when she tried to brush her belly Sasha would kick her back legs like crazy. I got a kick out of it. (hehehe ;)

PEE PEES AND WOOD AND OTHER FUN STUFF

First off, as you can probably tell from my lack of posting lately, I am really behind on my blogging. I blame all those fun summer activities: fireworks and parades and nice warm weather (although lately its been pretty hot, even up here-yesterday it was in the 90's). And today I've been cleaning the upstairs, because my kitchen is finally progressing again!! Yippee! :) And I have even heard the glorious hum of my dishwasher today. Oh, how I've missed my dishwasher! I'll have a kitchen update soon with pics.

Today I wanted to share a few of the things that have been going on here lately. Or, more like some of the weird things you could have heard us saying the past few days. Like this one, said by me: "Get mommy's phone off your pee pee!"

That's probably one of the strangest things I've ever said as a parent. :) But wait, I've got more for you.

The other day, R came home from work with some cedar planks. He came walking in the door with one of the planks in his hands. C looked up and exclaimed, "Daddy, that's a big wood!" :D

And, lastly, C actually asked for a wedgie. He walked up to R and said "Pull the underwear up the butt crack." (Both boys like to say butt crack. They think it's just hilarious.)

***

In other news, C has started trying to write the alphabet. The first time he tried it, R wrote all the letters on a piece of paper, then held C's hand as they wrote the first line of letters together. Then R let C try to write the rest of the letters himself. Some he did fairly well, others he had a lot of trouble with, but for a first try, he did pretty well. So now I've been showing him how to spell his name, and we've been printing out letter writing pages off the internet. He made an alphabet train where he traced out all the letters and then cut out and glued the train together (I will try and remember to take a pic of it). And today I found nifty Leap Frog Alphabet Cards that come with dry erase markers. C's been enjoying tracing out the letters and then erasing them.

Here's the photo of his first try at the alphabet:

***

Finally, here's a video I've been wanting to share for a while and haven't gotten to posting it. The week after the 4th of July, we went to Negaunee's Pioneer Day fireworks. It was the first fireworks show for both of the boys. The video is just of the fireworks, but in the background you can hear C yelling "Wow! Woah!" He was pretty excited. :) (The flickr set with our 4th of July and fireworks pics is here. )

IS IJ CUTE?

Right before I took this video, IJ was sitting on the arm chair next to me. He turned to me and asked "Mama?"

"What, IJ?"

"I'm cute!" he exclaims with a huge dimply smile.

So I get the camera and try to capture it. But, not only does he shake his head "no" to being cute, he's more interested in hitting the camera with his toothbrush (he seemed to enjoy the noise it made). The little snot. :) But at least I get that smile when he shakes his head...

PUPPIES AND POOLS

I've had just a lovely day today. Sasha (our black lab puppy) has been really driving me insane lately. Today was really bad though. She not only chewed one of my new sandals in half, but she totally mutilated one of the kids' library books. Then she stuck her face in the diaper bag that was on the floor and got out IJ's old binkie, and then chewed the nipple part off and chewed in half the pacifier attatcher (that clips it to the baby's clothes). She had to dig down all the way to the bottom of the bag to get it. Now, IJ doesn't use a binkie anymore of course, but we do plan to have one more child. I would have liked to use the attatcher again. :( And I get to visit the library on Monday with checkbook in hand. Lovely. What happened to my cute little puppy that was so calm and I had to carry up and down the stairs because she was scared to do it? Who would sleep in a little warm lump in my lap? Now it's "NO!" every two minutes. Yesterday she was running around full force outside and slammed right into IJ, sending him flying onto the ground where he scraped up his leg. Aaaaarrrrrrgh!! :( All is good now though, since I'm watching the nascar race at Daytona. Superspeedways are awesome. :)

Anyways, Sasha's not really what I was gonna write about today. A couple of days ago, R brought home a ten foot pool for the boys. He got it at Menards where he works, and because of his discount and that it was on sale, he got it for $40 when it was normally $60. Pretty nifty. :) C and IJ were pretty excited about it, and were ready to play in the pool before it was even filled up all the way.

A couple of days later when the pool water had warmed up some, we finally let the boys get in and play. It was still pretty cold, so they didn't last very long, but they didn't want to wait any longer.

Yesterday, the pool was nice and warm (it was sunny and 80 outside), so nana and papa got in with the boys. I was not planning on getting in, and was standing fully clothed next to the pool watching. Somehow I ended up getting soaked, because someone had to throw water at me (I do believe I have nana to thank for that). Of course, I had to retaliate, so I jumped right in and me and nana went at it. We both ended up pretty soaked. :) Then I tried to jump on the snow tube we were using as a boat for the boys. I landed on the tube, but the force sent me right over the edge and onto the ground! Nana and papa just stood there and watched it happen, laughing. They will pay. :) It was funny, at one point when all of us adults were having a ball in the pool, the boys had gotten out and were sitting in the van eating some cookies they had found. Hmm, I wonder who we bought this pool for? ;)

Here's a little clip of the boys splashing in the icy pool water on the first day:

Also, here's the flickr set with all our new pool pics. :)

WANT TO SEE MORE NASCAR?

Oh, don't lie. You know you do (especially you, Maria...hehehe). I've uploaded two videos to YouTube that we took at the Michigan Race. Just remember when you watch them to "crank it up"! ;)

Here's the video clips: number 1 and number 2. Enjoy!

(Alright. For those of you who I guess are sick of nascar, I promise my next post will have lots of little boy pictures in it. I'll have it up soon. :)

AND NOW I PRESENT TO YOU...

...C singing the ABC's with tape all over his face. (I was gonna write about Mother's Day but then I got all distracted with this so I'll do it later. :) ) He gets cut off before he can sing "next time won't you sing with me" because the camera ran out of space. :(




Does anyone know why the picture and the sound don't match up? This is my first time playing with posting videos. :)