Saturday Lunch Date

This past Saturday Connor and I decided to have our own fun since Daryle and Travis were checking out a spring training game. My mom goes to visit my grandma every Saturday so this week we decided to tag along with her. One thing is for sure, taking little kids to a nursing home type environment sure cheers those people up! Everybody that he walked past had to say hello to him. He had to show them all his little "puppy". (A toy puppy on a cord so the puppy could walk and bark. It was a hit!) Of course then my grandma has to brag a bit to her friends as he just charges past them all! It is pretty cute! We decided to go to Paradise Bakery for lunch. I took some pictures with my iTouch that I got for Christmas. Finally, I got that thing out of the package! Here are a few of the highlights.
Giving Grammy a kiss.

Giving Great-Grandma a smooch.

A cutie pie with his Great-Grandma and Grammy.

Did you know that Great-Grandma's walker makes a really nice seat?

When we got back to my mom and dad's house I decided to put Connor down for a nap. This is how we found him. Clifford seems to be keeping him company! Gosh, Connor is such a sweetheart!! I could just hug him and kiss him all day long!! (Unless he is getting into the Vaseline, then that is another story! LOL!)

Love Notes and Baseball

There has been a lot of paper being used around this house lately. Some has been used for good, other paper has been sort of, well, a disaster! Take this shot for instance...
Sweet, innocent Connor was SUPPOSED to be taking a nap. When taking a nap things are SUPPOSED to be quiet, right?? Well, I went in for a peek and found that he had taken an entire box of Kleenex and thrown it all over the place.

Some even made it over here in the toy area! Who knew that something like that was so entertaining? I will have to remember this when shopping for birthday presents!

Every day I go through Travis' backpack. Most of the time it is just the usual work from school. Papers just like the ones I send home each and every day. Lately Travis has had some surprises in there for me. Take for instance this letter requesting parent volunteers.

This cracked me up! First of all I am not his teacher. Second of all the volunteers name is "Mom". Even funnier!!! The sad part is that I already have to be there anyway! Why didn't he sign up his dad?? That same day I saw this paper in his backpack.

Sentence #1... ahh, how cute! Sentence #2, What???!!! A crook?? I had better go look under his bed right now....

This dinosaur I love! Drawing hasn't been one of Travis' favorite thing to do in the past. However, lately he seems to be doing more of it and he actually does a pretty good job. I had to hang this one up in my kitchen!

The next letter from Travis needs a little bit of explaining. Every Friday he comes home with a binder. The first page is a weekly letter from his teacher. Next is a letter from Travis and then mom and dad are to write a letter back to him. The two letters end up getting shared with his whole class. Recently he has been getting silly with them. For instance, Daryle will sign it "Love, Big Daddy" so then I had to say, "Love Little Big Mommy" and things like that. One day we were instructed to write "Dear Bugaboo". Can you tell that he sort of *enjoys* being a class clown a bit?? He likes to make people laugh so we go along with it because it is harmless fun and we have a good time with it. This week this is the letter he wrote in his binder.

Wow! He declared ME, his MOM the BEST teacher!! LOL!!! That is hysterical! Then his current teacher is #2 and the teacher I guess he wants for next year is #3. (Too bad she is moving and won't be here...) He now prides himself on writing and filling up the WHOLE page! He cracks me up. I have no idea what to write back to him.. I may just let "Big Daddy" take care of that one this week! ha!

Currently our family is making the transition into baseball season. Soccer ended yesterday (and Travis made a goal!) and literally right from the game Daryle went to the Coaches meeting for baseball to get uniforms and equipment. In the afternoon the two of them were off to a spring training game. The D-backs have a new facility here in the valley and OF COURSE they had to go to the first game ever! Here are some pictures from their fun day.

Travis got to play some ball while at the game.

Next time, more pictures of Connor. I am still trying to find him in that pile of Kleenex.....

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.