Spring!

It was a gorgeous day today and we were finally able to get out and do some yard work.  I could definitely tell that my poor flower beds had been ignored last summer.  The weeds were a MESS!  I lost a few flowers in the clean out process because they were just too overrun with weeds.  Here are some before and after pictures. 

 Before

After

Before

After

 Before

After (not quite the same shot but you can get the idea.)

The job isn't complete but it was a great start!  I think I may need to go and get some more flowers now to fill in the gaps.  Now to get the rest of the yard into shape...

Seven!

Our little Griffen turned seven on Sunday!  We had his party Sunday afternoon with six little boys playing in our basement.  The theme was Star Wars and the boys played Lego Star Wars on the Wii and also built ships from Legos.  The biggest excitement of the afternoon...Griffen finally pulled out his loose tooth all by himself!!!  Well, I actually did the finishing touch...literally...all it took was one gentle touch and it fell out.  He had a lot of fun with his friends and spent most of the day using his status as "birthday boy" to its fullest.  I heard him many times throughout the day telling his brothers, "But I'm the birthday boy!"  Anyway, here are a few pictures from his day!

Griffen is such a funny little guy.  He can make his mom and dad laugh a lot.  He is also still a very snuggly little guy and loves to curl up in my lap whenever he can.  I will take all that I can get now because I know that at some point he won't want to snuggle anymore. 

Happy Birthday Griffen!  We Love You!!!!

Working Hard

A couple of nights ago, we were watching tv all together and I had my little man sitting next to me.  For the last week or so he had been giving us updates on his loose tooth and this night he was working hard to try to get the tooth out.  He was wiggling and wiggling it.  He would even tug on it with a scrunched up face to show just how hard he was tugging.  As of today....

 

...the tooth is still in there.

Building Towers

We've had a pretty quiet weekend.  The only thing really accomplished was buying new clothes for Jake.  Middle school boys grow fast!  Griffen spent a good portion of the weekend playing with the Jenga blocks.  We have a bin full of building blocks but the boys always seems to go straight for the Jenga game.  Anyway, I thought I would show of his favorite creation of the weekend.  It was the tallest one!

Thankfully we took this picture when we did because about thirty seconds after it was taken the tower came crashing down.  Oh well, on to the next creation!

Lost Teeth, Sleepovers, and the Honor Roll

We have had a busy week!  It started off on last Thursday when the boys all had to return to the dentist for different reasons.  Jake and Austin both needed new sealants but our little Griff man had to get a filling and two teeth pulled.  One of his baby teeth was holding down the permanent tooth that should've come up already and to balance things out they took the "matching tooth" on the other side.  He was a trooper with his silly gas that made him a little goofy and then feeling the numbness for the first time ever.  When they pulled out the offending tooth, the root broke off so they had to go back and get it out.  It was around the permanent tooth so it took a little work to get it out.  He was rewarded with a ticket to stay home for the day and daddy even took him to the store to get some ice cream.

Griff's new smile (with some spaghetti sauce added)

Friday was a no school day for all school kiddos.  Austin got invited to a sleepover at his friend's house.  The next day they decided that they were having so much fun they continued the sleepover at our house for a second night.  Griffen got in on the fun and invited his best buddy over to spend the night too.  It was his very first time having a friend for the night.  Poor Jake was feeeling a bit left out as he couldn't get in touch with his friends.  Finally one of them came over on Sunday and then decided to stay overnight and they got ahold of their third friend who also joined in.  Thankfuly there was no need to get up early on Monday because the older boys stayed up until 1am.

Then tonight we got to go to Jake's school for the Honor Roll Ceremony.  We are proud of the hard work that he has done this first semester to get on the honor roll.  It was a short but crowded ceremony where kids from each of the grades were recognized.  We celebrated with ice cream, M&Ms and whipped cream at home!  Good job Jake!  We are proud of you!

Now we're waiting to see if we will get the promised snow.

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines day is usually pretty low key around here.  This year I thought I would change things up a tad and actually bought cards for my four valentines (pure craziness I know!).  Last night I wrote in the cards and then put Dean's in front of the coffee maker and then put the boys' cards in their lunch boxes.  (Just a fun little surprise for them).  The biggest to-do though was my first attempt at chocolate covered strawberries.  I LOVE chocolate covered strawberries and I have to say that it was easier than I thought it would be.  They don't all look too pretty but with more practice, you never know.

Ta Da!

And even better?  They were yummy!  I guess you can't go too wrong with chocolate and strawberries.  Anyway, Happy Valentines Day!!!

 

Finally Wrapping Up 2010

I know...FINALLY!  I had so many plans to do quite a few posts during November and December but next thing I know it's January and now it's almost February!  So, I am going to condense it down to one (possibly very long) post. 

Our kitty Boo

The weekend of July 4th we lost our cat Boo.  He disappeared and never came back.  Our theory is that since he would pick a fight with most any critter in our neighborhood, he finally picked the wrong one.  So, at the end of October we decided it was time to get another kitty.  We took the boys down to the Humane Society and we picked out a cute little kitty with the name Logan.  We had to wait a week to bring her home since their vet was on vacation but a couple of days later we decided that she was going to need a friend so we went to visit her and ended up picking out a little orange tabby named Zack.  (We changed their names to Ben and Gwen.)  Unfortunately, the day after we got Ben home (a few days after Gwen came home) he developed a nasty eye infection. We took him to the vet a couple of times but he wasn't getting any better.  We finally made the decision to return him to the Humane Society since his poor eyes were completely shut and I had even taken the day off of work to take care of him.  The Humane Society let us choose a different kitty, so a few days later we came home with Maurice.  Both of our kitties are cuddly (Mo a little more than Gwen) and are a lot of fun to watch.  We actually think that Mo thinks he is a dog.  He likes to sniff new people and things, he follows us around like a dog, and he even looks at you better if you call him like a dog (whistle) instead of calling "kitty kitty."

This is poor little Ben just before we took him back

This is Maurice and Gwen. Mo is the one with the stripes.

November was busy with Jacob and Austin's birthdays.  Both boys had sleep overs with  a few of their friends and once again I was reminded about how thankful I am for the friends that they have.  They are all really great kids!  One of the big presents for them was a rearrangement of bedrooms.  Once our two little houseguests left we started the big room move.  Griffen and Austin moved upstairs to the bigger room and Jake now has his own space.  They are all really liking this new set up too.  To make room for future foster kiddos, we moved the office.  We took the doors off of our big coat closet in the hallway (there are still three other closets in the hall for storage) and Dean built a really nice desk and shelves in there for our office.  The office will once again be a babies room but we still need to get it fully cleaned out and organized.

Griff & Aus's Room

Jake's Room

 Our new office

We had a great December with lots of traditions.  We started out with the annual Christmas Tree hunt and for the second year in a row we found our tree in less than 10 minutes!  This is a HUGE deal as we used to drag the boys around trying to find a tree we could agree on.  The boys had a great time helping me decorate it that night.  They love to hang all of the ornaments that they have gotten over the years.  We spent Christmas day at our house.  It was a nice quiet morning and a fun afternoon and evening as Dean's sister and her family and a couple of friends came over for dinner.  It was really fun to see the grown up guys having lots of fun playing Lego Rock Band on the Wii.  Dean and I wanted to try some recipes that we had seen on The Biggest Loser but I bought the wrong kind of turkey breast (it was a turkey without legs instead of a turkey breast loin - oops) so I was a little worried about how it would turn out.  It was actually pretty good if I do say so myself.  

Successful (and fast) tree hunt

Decorating the tree

The boys and their new airguns Christmas morning

We spent New Years in Longview having Christmas with my parents and then with Dean's grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousin.  It was great to see family though we missed Dean's parents.  We let the boys stay up until midnight but then all headed to bed at 12:05.  The one thing we mentioned though was that this is the year we get a teenager.  I can't believe that Jake is going to be 13 this year!  Our new year has been busy but good so far.  We hope your 2011 is too.