Sunday, October 25, 2009

Uh,oh!

Well, I have a little problem and I am hoping and praying it will be resolved by next weekend. For some reason I am not able to upload any pictures from my camera..... AAAHHHHH!!! With Halloween being next weekend I had better figure out what in the world has happened. I have shut down and restarted my computer several times today and it still isn't working. Did Connor push something on the computer? Is there a problem with my USB cable? Is there a problem with my brand new computer? Is it my camera? In camera years I guess it is getting old. Don't worry, I will figure something out. I will figure it out in between working, planning fun activities for the week at school, carving pumpkins, memorizing a story for my "storytelling assignment" for class, reading 5 more novels, writing up reviews for 20 more children's books, grading papers, yelling at the dog, keeping my husband in line, cleaning the house, chasing after my own children and doing homework. Don't worry, I will figure this camera thing out!!!

How many more days until another two weeks off from school????

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Fun Times

Just as things finally seem to be settling down, we have to go back to "reality". Sometimes I look at going back to work as a "break". LOL Taking care of these two sweet boys can really wear a mom out! We have had a fabulous two weeks off, tomorrow we go back to alarm clocks, baby sitters, teachers and students. Last night the boys were wearing their matching pj's. I finally got a cute picture of them together in their matching clothes. Connor is already starting to look so grown up! They have been having fun making forts with blankets, finally they are finding some things they can do together.
Last Sunday was my Mom's 60th birthday. We were in Santa Rosa, so we missed being here in person. Daryle's dad and my mom have the same birthday, so this year we were with Grandpa for a change. My mom and dad were dog sitting for us while we were away. Rock is normally a very well-behaved dog, but every once in awhile he keeps us on our toes. Well, last Sunday he ate the little cake my parent's had bought to celebrate her birthday! He tried to hide it, but they found him out pretty quickly! To make up for it, Travis and I made Grammy a new cake, we lit candles and sang and celebrated together. Happy Birthday Mom/Grammy! (OK, I had a cute picture of my mom with the boys, it got deleted and I can't move it back here. Sorry mom!! Here is her cake anyway.)
Connor has discovered my beaters and was trying to stir something up in this big cup. He is so funny!
Last week we finally got a baby swing for the swing set in the backyard. Connor just loves it, both boys are enjoying the nice weather since they can spend more time outdoors without risking heat exhaustion!
Connor just loves his swing, he is such a happy guy. We are all so blessed!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Playing Catch-Up

Boy have we been busy over the last week or so. (Warning, this post is long with a lot of pictures!) Just as I finished up conferences and all the craziness associated with that, my brother came to town for a visit. He doesn't get down here much, so we are pretty excited when he decides to leave rainy Seattle for our dry climate. My mom and dad had a family get-together on Sunday, it was so much fun to see my aunts, uncles and multitude of cousins. I will start off with a few pictures from Rob's visit.
Here are Travis and Clara playing hide-and-seek with all of their cousins. Boy was it a house full! They played so well together, Travis enjoyed sort of "being in charge" of the 2 and 3 year old crowd! LOL
Here are Travis and Lilly, she is the older one of the bunch, Travis can't push her around. He adores her!
Here are my boys and I with Uncle Rob before we left for our trip to California to visit even more friends and family.
Ahh, we arrived in Santa Rosa!! Here is Travis with Grandma and of course Charles. It was amazing how Charles finally befriended Travis (we think it was due to old age and senility!). He let Travis take pictures of him and he actually came downstairs while my children were awake from time to time.
The boys in Oakland waiting for our rental car to take us in Santa Rosa.
We had a nice picnic lunch at the park. We had to eat fast, the yellow jackets were after us!
Connor loves to swing!
Even though Grandma bought all kinds of toys, what did Connor prefer to play with?? V8 juice cans and any other thing he could find in Grandma's cupboards. (Soup cans, boxes of pasta, cat food, coffee creamer, plastic containers, you get the picture!)
The following pictures are some of the funniest! Travis decided to play photographer and take some pictures of Charles. In the past years, Charles hides to keep away from Travis. This year I guess he gave up. Not only did Travis get about 20 pictures of Charles on this bed, as I looked closer I saw how Travis started arranging toys around poor Charles! Here are some of my favorite.
You never know when Charles will need a golf club!
Travis told us that Charles took this picture of Travis...we were rolling with laughter!! I am sure this is all Charles sees when Travis tramples into Grandma's house. All I can think of is the scene in Finding Nemo where the little girl is shaking up the poor fishy in the baggie...I am certain that is how most animals feel when my boys storm into a room!
Here is charles with a cat toy on his head, Travis was so proud of his work!
The weather was beautiful while we were there. This day we went to another park while Connor took a nap. We found lots of leaves and started our collection.Another day Daddy and Uncle Billy took Travis to his first trip to Scandia! Word is that Travis scored 3 hole in ones... and yes, they were all legitamate!!
Connor loves being outside, but we have to keep a very close eye on him at all times. He is FAST! Here is Uncle Billy helping Connor out while he explores the yard.
We had to snap a quick family shot because on Monday I got a call from our agency that we need to do our post placement on Wednesday (now that is TODAY!) and I need to supply 2 pictures of all four of us together. Hmmm, not sure how many of those we have! Here is one, "just in case". I didn't think we would need to meet with her until November, well, I guess the agency merged with another agency so things are changing again. Thank goodness our little guy is home!
Grandpa with his two favorite grandsons.
Last Sunday was Grandpa's birthday (also my mom's birthday...hers was a milestone, we won't say which one though! I think it is around 40... lol) We put in a candle and sang, Grandpa was embarrassed.... I told him, when you have kids around it is all about the cake and candles! We had these cupcakes left over from the party the day before, they workd out pretty well.
Here is "Messy Marvin" aka Connor, eating some chocolate cake. He sure loves it!
My cheerful baby riding in the car on the way to the airport. HOME here we come!
Travis making himself comfy in the car on the way to the airport, it was a lovely rainy and stormy day. That made for some adventures returning the rental car and making it all in one piece inside the actual airport. By the time we made it there, we were soaked!
Daddy driving us cheerfully to the airport, if he had to drive in this daily I don't think he would be so cheerful!
This is how we all felt once we got home ... TIRED!
We had a great time. I fogot to get out my camera on Saturday, we had a nice party with lots of friends and family. I am so sad that I didn't get any pictures. That is so unlike me! Several people drove quite a ways to come visit with us. That sure made us feel special! Thanks so much to all who came, it was great seeing you and Connor loved meeting you too. Although we had fun and LOVED the weather, we were all so glad to be home in our own beds last night.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Busy, Busy Week

I am so glad we made it through this week, all of us alive and well. The week of conferences is always hectic for me, throw in Spirit Week, late night conferences, report cards, three early release days, an awards assembly (with three of four grandparents represented along with Mom, Dad and Connor) and a dr appointment on Friday afternoon (nobody was sick, just a check up for Connor) and you can see why I am happy we all made it through with flying colors. Plus, this afternoon my brother flew in from Seattle. Phew... I am tired just writing about it all! Thank goodness Grandpa aka "The Nanny" came in from CA to help me out. He watched Connor for two days (he changed poopy diapers and all!). Then he watched Travis for two afternoons since school got out early yet I had to stay for conferences. Daryle took off on Friday because...drum roll please... Travis got the Student of the Month Award for September!!! Yes, you read that right! We are just so proud of him. If ever a student truly earned an award like that it was Travis. His behavior at school has been stellar to say the least. I really do think we have turned a corner, at least where school is concerned. Really, we are SOOO proud of him. It helps that he LOVES his teacher...and I really mean that. He even tells her he loves her and calls her "Sweet Pea" (gee, wonder where he gets these things!). I had to tell him that wasn't exactly appropriate, we will continue to work on that one.
Here he is waiting to go up to get his award. Our cafeteria does not have the best lighting, this was the best one!

This afternoon we had an appointment for Connor, just a check up with his eye doctor. Things are going well, we just have to monitor him for glaucoma due to the location of his birthmark. However, the next check up in December we will have to put him under anesthesia because they can't get a valid assessment of his eyes when he is awake. He is TOUGH and STUBBORN and EXTREMELY STRONG! I kid you not, he squeezes his eyes so tight it is nearly impossible for them to check the pressure. So, just to make sure we are not missing anything they will put him under for a few minutes, do a thorough examination and hopefully everything will be ok. As the dr says, it is important to be very paranoid right now, to cross all the "t's" and dot all the "i's" because if there is a problem it can be treated. However, if we miss something we run the risk of Connor becoming blind at some point. Well, you won't hear me complaining about that! Sometimes being paranoid for just a little bit can be ok. I am just glad we were able to schedule the appointment before the end of the year since we have already met his deductible for this year.

I will leave with some pictures of our week. Hopefully I will have pictures of our visit with Uncle Rob before we leave for California on Tuesday. We are so ready for our two weeks off. We are looking forward to spending a week in Santa Rosa with family and friends.
Here we are on Crazy Hair Day.

This is Travis on Career Day. He dressed up like an Oakland Raider. He later told me, "Mom, I don't really want to be a football player when I grow up, I just want to dress like one today!" He is so funny sometimes.

I kept looking at the date today and thinking it was special for some reason. Well, tonight it hit me that exactly 6 years ago today we got our first picture of Travis. This was the day we first head about him and we have never looked back since. Amazing how time flies, isn't it?

That's all for now...look out Santa Rosa, the Hawes Family is about to descend! (Those of you in the neighborhood may want to lock up your cats, my boys are on the loose! LOL)