Rain? Rain!!

I can't tell you the last time we had rain here. It has been weeks. Perhaps a couple of months even? There may have been "rain" in the valley but sometimes it seems like it misses our town (or our neighborhood) a lot. Or, it might rain but it happens in the middle of the night. Usually we have a few sprinkles and by the time you try to get excited the rain is over. However, this afternoon we finally got some steady rain that lasted several hours. Daryle took the boys outside for about 10 minutes because Connor wanted "to see the water coming from the sky!" You would have thought they had never seen rain before. Especially the little guy! No need for umbrellas, just sweatshirts with the hoods up. (Can you tell that Dad took them out?!)
Let me have a little taste...

Whatever my Big Brother does I must do too!

I think this is my new favorite picture of the boys!

It is supposed to rain again tomorrow. We can only hope. I am so happy, my plants and trees really needed a drink!

Flashback

Oops! I meant to put this in the previous post. This is a picture from when Daryle and I first started dating. That was the summer of 1990. Boy, a lot has changed in the past 20+ years! And I am not just referring to how YOUNG we were! We look like little kids... I was 18 and he was 19. We didn't think we were so young at the time. Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day Daryle! Here's to many, many more!

Love,

Lisa

Valentine's Day

I know that lots of people feel that Valentine's Day is just a commercialized holiday which causes people to spend way too much money on candy and flowers, among other things. However, I really enjoy the little holiday. We don't go over board.... I have the grandma's to thank for that! I bought the boys some strawberry milk (because it is pink!) and some donuts for breakfast. Thanks to two doting grandmas the kids also got some candy and presents. Here are just a few pictures to show some of the fun they had yesterday.
Here is Connor enjoying his yummy sugar filled breakfast.

Can you believe that both of his grandmas got him the same exact valentine card?? They know Mr. Connor, he LOVES dump trucks that's for sure!

Here is Travis showing off all of his "loot" from his grandmas. Do you think these boys are loved at all?? By the way, that doggy is so cute! As it sings the ears flop up and down and then the tail wags... and the tail has a bell attached so it jingles when it shakes! I thought it was cute the first five times I heard it.... not so sure after 100++++ times now! haha!

Since Monday mornings are hurried around here we saved our valentine pancakes for dinner. Travis helped out in the kitchen. I had big plans to make heart shaped pancakes. I even bought some cookie cutters just for the occasion. Well, they didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped. I guess I need to do some practice so that next year we can have some perfect heart shaped pancakes on Valentines Day. I don't think the kids minded one bit, everybody left a clean plate! I think the pink, red, and white sprinkles made up for it.

This past Saturday we went to Chase Field for Fan Appreciation day for the Diamondbacks. We had a lot of fun. Here are the kids with Baxter.

Who knew that Mickey was a D-backs fan?? As you can see Travis had to hold Connor back. He doesn't like to stand still for pictures. Sometimes we just have to click away and just hope for the best! Well, this is the best for now! Happy Valentine's Day! XOXO

"The Box"

When I woke up this morning it was... MY BIRTHDAY!! Birthdays are always fun to me. There have been some exciting years and some so-so years. However, since Travis came around and now that Connor is here, birthdays are better just because the kids get so excited. All my kids need are a cake, some candles, a present to unwrap and to sing the "Happy Birthday To You" song and they are set. In my previous post I showed a box that arrived earlier in the week for my birthday. Well, tonight Travis gave me permission to open it up. (Just FYI, these pictures are extra extra goofy and I can't believe I let Daryle take them. But since he did, I will share them. We can't let them go to waste! haha!) Here I am with the box cutter, getting ready to open the mystery box.
What?? Bubble wrap?? My favorite, who knew???

It doesn't stop there... we also have the extra cushy tissue paper packed in for good measure.

Ah-ha! We have a wrapped present! (Actually there were three, I will spare you the goofiness!)

How cute, a daily calendar. And it is even on today's date, my birthday.

Just what this teacher needs. A cool, jeweled, blue pen and a pad of paper. Look out parents, notes will be coming home now! (That wink should have a star by it and make the noise "bing"!)

By the way, thanks to Sharon, my mother in law, for that box-o-gifts. It sure was fun opening and look, now I have a post with a bunch of really silly pictures of myself to show just how much fun we all had opening it up! The other big present of the day was that special present Travis made for me at Home Depot last weekend. Boy was it cute. You can't see it very well, but the Home Depot sticker right in the middle really adds class!

I love the front, although it is the back part that I will cherish the most over the years.

The real challenge is to find a "good" place to hang it. Travis has his ideas. I have mine. I am sure I know who will win. I think I know the perfect spot.... in my bedroom. That way I can see it every morning when I wake up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Another topic of conversation around here has been about my birthday cake. Usually I am the one who makes all of the cakes around here (and Travis always helps decorate them). One night this week I asked Travis who was going to bake my cake. He had a very puzzled look on his face and then said, "Mommy, you had better make it. I don't think Daddy knows how. {looking to Daryle} Do you dad?" Daryle shot me a look so I quickly intervened and said I was sure that Grammy would pull through for me. Thank goodness she did! (By the way, thanks mom, the cake was delicious!! It was extra special because you and Travis made it too.) In order for Travis to put his cake decorating skills to work Grandpa picked him up from school, brought him over to their house, and Grammy and Travis decorated the most beautiful, delicious cake I have ever seen or eaten.

The picture doesn't do it justice. As you can see, it has cupcake candies (truffles) all around it. It also has M&M's all around the edges. It was so, so, so cute! (And did I mention delicious too??)

Here I am with my boys, getting ready to light the candles and sing. Thank you to everybody who made my day so special. It was a wonderful day!

Suspense

Today Travis had an early release day from school so my dad picked him up for me. (Lucky me I got to go to a lecture on Bullying. Fortunately it was pretty good, but still.) When I got home I saw this package sitting on the counter. That fresh scent of magic marker still hung in the air.
One side was just not enough.

Neither was three sides.

Yep. All four sides. That should keep mommy from opening up her birthday present before Friday!

According to my dad he wanted to hide it from me. My dad talked him out of that so he decided to write me a message instead. DO NOT OPEN. Yep. I think I got the message buddy!

I'll close with this funny picture of the boys "helping" me out with the laundry.

Now, if only I could get them to sort, fold, and iron we will be on to something.

Saturday Fun

A few months ago Travis found out about the *free* workshop for kids on Saturday mornings at Home Depot. Yesterday was his third time and they finally had the cute little aprons for the kids in stock. The first time he made a spice rack. The second time was supposed to be a picture frame but by the time they got there all of the frames were gone. Instead he made a football stand. This time I am not sure what he made. Travis and Daddy decided to keep it a secret from me. Since my birthday is this week I am sure it has something to do with that! Daryle sent me this picture on my phone. I am impressed that I figured out how to email these to myself, download it to my computer and then was able to find it to put on here. I know to some of you this is second nature. For me these things are a bit more challenging! Once I tried it the whole thing was pretty easy. I had just never thought of doing that before! Here is Travis in his new apron from Home Depot.
After that we all went out on a family outing. We dropped the boys off at Grammy and Grandpa's so we could go to this neat meat store that was having their annual 99 cent per pound on bratwurst sale. Daryle just had to go. I am glad we left the kids at home because we had to wait in line for an hour! That store was pretty neat, I want to go back when it's not such a mad house. After the meat store we went back to the grandparent's house. We decided to grab a quick lunch before heading back home. The car ride home all of a sudden got pretty quiet. I looked back and this is what I saw.

If only that would happen more often! LOL

Sick Day

On Monday I decided to let Travis stay home from school and get some much needed rest. That meant that Connor and I got to stay home as well. I am so glad we did, Travis slept in until 9:00. That is unheard of in our house! We stayed home all day, we didn't go anywhere and Travis stayed in his pajamas until 3:00. He really felt like he was cool stuff for doing that. Yes Travis gets sick a lot, but he never really stays home from school for it. It always seems like I take him in to the doctor after school or on a weekend so by the time school rolls around again he is on his meds and feeling better. Plus, 99% of the time it is a sinus infection which aggravates his asthma. It's nothing contagious and is just something we live with. The bad part is that he has basically had this one since August. Now we are thinking of getting another CT scan and discussing possible surgery. Again. He had it done 3 years ago and it didn't really give him much relief. He had 9 months of no infection. I don't call that a great success story. So we have to decide again. Be on antibiotics all the time or try surgery again and hope that since he is older that it goes better. His ENT and I go around and around about it all the time. Hopefully we can figure something out. Soon. We are all getting tired of this vicious circle. Anyway, since I let Travis stay home this time he didn't know what to do with himself. It was then that I realized he has never really had a sick day to stay home when he actually didn't feel well. He usually strives for perfect attendance! I think we had a pretty good time. Here is a little bit of what we were up to.
Santa brought a box of 24 containers of playdough and some pretty cool accessories. Finally we had a chance to break it all out. I really like playdough, I know lots of people who cringe at the thought of it. We only have to worry about the dog. He likes to eat it. Other than that I just get out the vacuum when we are done and we call it a day.

Travis wasn't feeling too well so he just took out all of the new containers, examined them and then put them back into the box. Connor was the one who was busy mixing away. He created black from his red and green containers that he mixed. It's a good thing playdough is pretty cheap. Oh, I mean, that Santa can make it at a low cost!

We also broke out the trains this week. Travis had a serious Thomas addiction when he was younger. Those things are expensive and since he had a pretty extensive collection I saved all of it. It's a good thing I did because now Connor is at the age of loving trains. Travis has been enjoying putting tracks together for Connor. Connor has enjoyed messing them up. Here are some shots of Connor enjoying the trains. I didn't even mean to get this hair shot!

We also have GeoTracks. Santa brought an extender pack and the boys finally had a chance to check that out as well. Travis is pretty skilled at making some cool arrangements. Here he is hard at work. You can tell this was after 3, he is dressed!

A view from above. Future engineer???

By this time they figured aw heck with the tracks. Making really, really long trains and running them on the tile can be lots of fun too.

I think it is safe to say that the sick day included lots and lots of rest. Travis is feeling much better now. I like the staying home part, not the sick part. Otherwise I would say we should do this more often!