Mommy's Day

Just a relaxing day with the family. Nothing exotic but a perfect mother's day spent with the boys and Flo. We had such a blast this past weekend with a college friend of Flo's and his family that were visiting. Jake, Mica and their little girl Ryan were here for a few days and I think everyone including the boys had a blast. John hosted a little mother's day bbq at his house and the boys played lots of t-ball with the tail end of the bbq ending in choo choo rides for the kids - adults running around the yard pulling a wagon with up to 130 pounds while making choo choo sounds. who needs a gym??

Happy mother's day to Grandma (barb), little grandma, big grandma, Grammie, Aunt Bissy, Aunt Crystal, Aunt Amy and all the other Mommies who deserve even just a little bit of special treatment for being such great moms!!

Jack on his new swing set loving life!

Jack and Ryan - his new buddy! 3 days of amazing naps after playing so hard!

Cute huh? Notice all the pedals on the ground...

I made frosted sugar cookies for the team, cooper was my taste tester.

After spending $40 on shoes he is still barefoot outside!

My little monkey who isn't afraid of anything can already climb the rock wall!

Pre - swing set - king of the hill and a loooong day of yard work!

Bloomsday

hmmmm...so I've taken a minor vacation from the blog during softball season. I guess its not alone, along with my laundry, any closet in my house and any sort of small social life that I might have once had! I pledge to do better from here on out...to let you know about the 10 rounds of flu we have beaten, the massive swing set we (Flo) tackled and won and all the fun / drama of coaching 16 pubescent teenage girls! I had to start with blooms day, which was yesterday. Flo and my sister and I did it together and I just wanted to share a few of things that we saw or did the day of the race:

1) man walking the race barefoot (we thought he lost a bet but his explanation wasn't as good as that - loony).
2) i walked in on a lady in the port-a-potty before the race began flashed her to the massive crowd (not the last time I ran to get away from embarrassment that day!)
3) Flo's Nemesis the old lady with 2 walking sticks - his only goal was to beat her. I am sorry to report he did not achieve his goal.
4) in an attempt to display how fun it was to chuck a cup on the ground during bloomsday I ended up chucking an entire cup of water on the lady in front of me. (never seen two people disown me so fast) - we ran a little after this.
5) a man wearing only stuffed animals - creepy.
6) kids in lower grade school running past us.
7) the knowledge at mile 4 that a breakfast of a latte and banana bread does not a champion make
8) scary vulture dude at the top of doomsday hill, Mickey, chicken, tella-tubbies, a banana, hot dog and prom queen.
9) lots of bands - but definitely a clear difference in quality (think American idol's 1st couple episodes and you have it).
10) realized that the course goes through felony flats (probably the worst part of town) and had some embarrassment for all the people who come from near and far to run the race ...not the best foot to put forward Spokane.
11) started the race when they said go and then got YELLED at by a Nazi-volunteer lady who said we were cheating. Elizabeth was already pumping her fists to chariots of glory ( think the women's and men's champions had already finished at this point)
12) a lime green shirt as reward
Brief break on doomsday hill (I think this is where the lady with the sticks made her move and passed us up)

Sandwiched between 55,000 people and right next to 3 port-a-potties.nice.

Probably all have warrants out for them... we had to pose

Bums must love this day after the race is over.

And then two seconds later I opened the door to the port-a-potty - but seriously folks - lock the door. When it says vacant its fair game!

Jack's trip to the Dentist

Yesterday was Jack's first dentist appointment. I had been prepping him for a while now but I wasn't prepared for how well he did. SUPER BRAVE little boy! They even tried to get x-rays of him for about 10 minutes but his mouth was just a tad too small for this year. He got the full cleaning and even did the 1 minute fluoride treatment and when it was all said and done and the dentist asked for a high five Jack ran up and gave him a huge hug. I can't ask for more than that! I think the highlight was getting a tooth brush with lightning mcqueen on it and then he asked for one for his brother as well so he left armed with a good bag for both himself and his brother skipping out the door!

This week has been exhausting for all of us because Softball started full time on Monday and Flo has been in servicing (a.k.a going up the hospital to teach on a new product several times a day starting at 6 am and usually coming home at 10 at night). I think the kids were the lucky ones with our incredible sitter - who they now ask if she can come over and cry when they wake up and she was relieved during their naps! I am finally on the homestretch of being so incredibly sore that it hurt to breath. Seriously, I hadn't been that sore since preseason in College (that's Division 1 people - so either I am working incredibly hard as a coach or I am feeling the effects of sports and getting old!). In my defence, during the first 3 days of try outs I had to pitch to each girl - each got 10 swings (meaning 20 pitches) and there were 54 girls!! You do the math, my back and arm sure did!

I am having a great time though and aside from loving being back around the game, the team is really great too. Jack, Coops and Flo came out today for the last hour of practice and ran around throwing balls and having a good time today.

Fluoride treatment... He didn't want to give up that sucker - they let him play with it and he sucked his cheeks, nose, chin, teeth (you name it) for about 20 minutes while waiting for the dentist to do the final exam.

Sporting his cool shades during his cleaning. And he got an great report card on his teeth - great strong clean teeth. No cavities or bad spots, no bad bite. Couldn't ask for anything more!

date night

Two words we don't use a lot in our house: date night. But last night was an exception! (picture HUGE smile on my face as I type this!) Flo wanted to leave the kids with a sitter and take to the town just the two of us (what? you say? novel thought I know!) and the anticipation of the day was almost like we were dating.... I considered 4 outfits (seriously people, I wear work out clothes or sweat shirts with cracker crumbs and boogies on them every day) and even used my smelly lotion.

Just the thought of "grown up" conversation at dinner got me through the fact that our kids flushed a bath toy down the toilet in their bathroom causing 2 inches of poo poo water to careen all over the floor. Even as I spent 2 hours cleaning up and disinfecting everything in site, I had the date in the back of my mind - good thing too because I have witnessed a lot of gross things that made me lose my cookies.

We went out to Cedars in Coeur D Alene and had an AMAZING dinner. The sick bite was taken (you know after you are totally full and content but the food is so good you just have to take one more? And it makes you feel sick? Well I took about 10 of those). It was fun to just escape dirty diapers and folding clothes and our cell phones for a few hours and enjoy each others company and remember how we fell in love when we were dating. Its nice to know when we pause like this from the chaos and kids and commotion that we are still the same two people (I'll be it a little ragged at times with a few more wrinkles), but that we've supported each other and been there for each other through everything.

A movie wrapped up the night and proved the only thing disappointing about date night was that going to bed after 1 am means that you still have 2 wiggle worms who wake up at 7 am climbing all over you. And then you only need one word: Coffee.

Goofing around today. We had a good family day, minus the hellish trip to Nordy's for shoes for Cooper's giant feet.

This was a game and upper body work out for Flo -lifting 30 and 40 pounds respectively.

Just sitting back enjoying the moment when everyone wanted to sit by me for a kodak moment. There is no sitting back I've discovered...

I must have smelled like bacon...Lucy couldn't get close enough!

pictures from this past week

Coops in his cowboy gear. We made it a family affair and all donned our western wear to David's 3rd birthday bash even though it was a super hero party!

Posing for a picture - our little buckaroos!

Maddie and Jack - two peas in a pod

Sheriff Woody and his favorite deputy. Jack insisted Woody was a super hero so thats what he went as!

cooper vs. the red vines. I think the red vines won this battle.

Taking his meds with his sad face on.

We made it through the week alive...barely!

Week from hell might be a little strong...but I think this past week is what separates the week moms from the freakishly strong willed ones. I would like to personally place myself in the latter category after what I've experienced this past week.

After having our plan to attend church foiled again by Jack with flu symptoms - not to miss that ever present projectile vomit and middle of the night diarrhea, the start of our week was off to a rocky start. Personally, after hardly attending church all winter I think the church might think they have a new family attending once we kick all these bugs we've been fighting!

Jack then proceeded to contract the dreaded croup virus and then pass along to Cooper - who with his illness induced asthma was put on the ventilator and that was a whole other story for a boy who doesn't sit still for anything but food!

After 1 round of the flu and 2 rounds of croup...Jack was rewarded with a smoothie for being a good shopper for me while I hurriedly threw in goods into our Costco cart since we were running low....and then just a few hours later was knocked down with food poisoning in the Trading Company parking lot.

After having Flo come home early to help with him, so that I could go run conditioning practice for Softball I realized then that I forgot my wallet at the trading company during all the craziness... in the end, my wallet was returned minus the cash but everything else intact. Only 2 weeks worth of grocery and diaper money lost - I hope that person needed it more than us right?

All in all.... I was ready for Christine's surprise baby shower and David's 3rd birthday which was superhero themed this weekend. Ready for spring might be an understatement in this house! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know Valentine's Day is typically a romantic Day filled with red roses for some, Hallmark Cards and Chocolates but we spent our day together as a family...just me and the three boys I am in love with!

It obliviously wasn't all roses.... Jack has a pretty bad case of croup and has been really sick for past 3 days, which comes with lots of tears that accompany the coughs, runny noses and sleepless nights. Cooper went with me to my nieces 3rd birthday party today at McDonald's and had a blast eating nuggets and playing with the 'big' kids. It was a really fun party! And then...later on in the evening, decided to surprise us with a treat by playing in his poopy diaper and almost eating it. My mom screamed and Flo almost barfed. Bubble bath check.

And my SUPER attentive husband gave me a gift that I have been wanting for a LOOOOONG time now.... a dutch oven. No, not the smelly silent but deadly kind under the sheets but a cast-iron and enamel one that I can now make even more amazing stew, chili and other recipes in. Nerdy I know, but I am in love with it and am not quite ready to take it off my counter and put it the cupboard where I can't look at its pretty red shine every time I come in the room.

Happy Valentine's day all! I wouldn't trade my day this year for anything! I hope you all had a good day spent with loved ones as well.