Trip to Tucson- Relatives

So this last week my mom and sister went on choir tour with the community college choir and so we decided to venture to Tucson. We stayed with my Aunt Sheri and Uncle Brent. It was a special treat because my cousin from Tennessee was visiting and had his five year old daughter with him. We also hung out with my sister (although I don't have any pictures of us with her, oops!) while we were there. We also got to go visit my Grandma. It would have been nice to see more of my aunts, uncles and cousins but I dropped the ball.

Me and my Grammy.
This is my mother's mom and at ninety something
looks amazing and is still so full of energy!
Love her!

Vance, me, and Grammy.
Vance was named after her husband, Vance.

The boys and I with Grammy.

This is my cousin Jason's little girl, Evy.
She's about a year older than Joel and they
had a fun time playing, torturing the dog, etc.

The kids cheesing it up.

Real Life Cowboys!

So the boys were getting tired of playing just at Monie's house so we thought we would brave the cold and go to the park. Well after about 2 minutes we decided we were too cold (come to find out it was like 42 degrees that morning, oops!) so I started thinking about what we could do. I wanted to get the boys a souvenir from Arizona and I thought what would be better than cowboy hats?! So we headed to the local cowboy outfitters. We walked in and the boys were in heaven! They showed us where the kids hats were and the boys each got to pick out their own hats (of course they picked the same hat). Then they have this REALLY old mechanical horse and so each of the boys rode that. Joel thought the bear head on the wall was great. It was really fun. They were so excited to go show PaPa their hats at work!

Vance riding the horse with his new hat.

Joel looks good in his hat.

Real life cowboys.

Snow, Mountain and Arizona

So Saturday my daddy took us up to the mountain. Both of my parents, the boys, my sister Jaron and I drove up near our cabin. For those of you surprised, yes Arizona does have snow. We built a snowman, wrecked a snowman, made snowballs, ate (non-yellow) snow and just enjoyed playing in the snow.

Us in front of our (teeny tiny) snowman.

The boys wrecking our (teeny tiny) snowman.

Vance making a snow angel.

Joel's turn for a snow angel.

Snow!

Vance liked eating the snow.

And you've gotta love those snow boots. lol

The boys with Auntie Jay Jay.
It had started raining/hailing so the boys
were anxious to get out of the snow/rain/hail.

Joel had a fun time!

A day on the ranch.

The boys and I went up to my daddy's ranch with him today. He had to do a few things and so we tagged along. Then he saddled up the horses and we went for a short ride on his horses. The boys had a fun time although the short ride was enough for them (and me too). :)

Joel and Vance with the cows PaPa was feeding.

Joel holding Salmon still.
(Can you see how excited he is?! LOVE it!)

Vance on top of Three Star.
He had such a fun time.

Joel atop Salmon.
He had such a fun time riding with PaPa.

Vance and I on our ride.
He's a good cowboy!

PaPa and Joel on our ride.

It was a beautiful day and a fun time.

A Backyard!

We've made it safely to Arizona. The boys were champs on the airplane. We've been staying with my parents. I don't know if any of you have ever had the chance to watch your kids play where you grew up. It's been so fun!

The weather here has been BEAUTIFUL! It's been mid-40's in the morning and then it warms up to the mid 70's. Lovely! Joel found the backyard the first day and has spent the majority of the week in there. The only way it could get any better was the day he found the trampoline. He's had a blast and Vance of course is never far behind.

Joel scaling and exploring the terrain.

Vance taking a break from the exploring.

This one is a bit blurry but you can see how
much fun they're having running around.

Hanging out in the grass.
They LOVE playing in a backyard.

The boys love jumping on the trampoline.
I'm surprised at how high Joel can jump.

This is the boys sleeping in the bunk bed-which is one of their
favorite things about Monie & PaPa's.
The cat on the end of the bed is Sobe. She doesn't like people
and spends most of the day running away from the boys-
but we found her on the end of the bed one night. lol

Have I ever told you?

I am a really good packer. It's silly I know but I'm really proud of this talent. So this suite case is packed for me and the boys for a month. Are you impressed?! I'm always really proud of myself when I get things all packed and under 50 pounds. :)



Of course when I take the camera out Vance decided that he wanted his picture taken. So here's Vance helping me pack:
And what Vance does Joel needs to do to (and vice versa) so here's Joel modeling our plane pillows:
And then come to find out plane pillows can turn little boys into moose. So here they are being moose:

We are so excited to be heading to Arizona! Keep a look out for lots of new posts from our trip. :)

Sometimes life just isn't what you expected it to be.

Wow, that's quite the title of this blog post. But after quite the whirlwind of a weekend and some funny things the boys have done lately that's just what came to mind.

So what is up with this weather?! (That sounds like a really bad start to a stand up routine, huh?!) So it's been really cold here in FL the last month or so-setting record breaking low temperatures. Crazy! And then the DC area gets hit with an all time historic snow storm. I wasn't too worried because really any snow storm could be cleared in a week, right?! But the snow kept coming and by this last weekend it had snowed in all 50 stinkin' states! Booo!!!!! Tj had been planning on coming home this last weekend to spend the long weekend with us but due to the crappy weather was stuck in DC. I was bummed, Tj was disappointed and the boys were disinterested (the joys of being 2 and 3 is they have no concept of time and would have loved to see him but didn't really "get" it). Then as if that weren't bad enough Saturday night I get hit with the flu. Yuck! Luckily Tj's Grandma was in town and was able to come and watch the boys on Sunday while I laid in bed, and the boys hung out with my dear friend and neighbor until Pa came and got them to spend the day on Monday (while I again laid in bed) with him and Nama and the great- grandparents. Not exactly the weekend I had expected. But in hindsight I'm glad Tj wasn't here when I had the flu (because he would have gotten it too and then would be sick and at work and that would not be fun), I'm glad that he didn't get stuck here (because flights returning to DC were delayed and/or canceled), and I'm glad that I had people I could count on to watch the kids so I could lay in bed and feel sorry for myself (because I know I'm extremely lucky to have that!!!). In other unexpected news I'm going to get to go to DC (for the first time in my ENTIRE life) this weekend and HOPEFULLY get to spend some time with Tj. It won't be the family reunion that I had hoped for last weekend but it will still be nice and honestly will be a nice break for me. I'm grateful for my friends and my in-laws who will be watching the kids and making this trip possible. :)

Now for the good part. The kids! I don't know if all parents feel this way or if it's just a generational thing or what (meaning a Manda psychosis thing). But sometimes I feel so bad that my kids won't always have "the good stuff". I mean lets be honest between the recession and what we know about childhood obesity and spoiling children in general I think most parents are trying to be responsible. But there is a part of me that feels like I should be spending the money to send my boys to "the best" preschool I can (even though they are 2 and 3). Or that pull when they ask for "just one thing" at the store even though our budget is pretty strict. Or feeling a little guilty buying the knock off cereal or pasta or whatever it is. I know it's dumb and that it's more about me than it is about them. And so it's nice when you have a moment where you feel validated in your "cheapskate tendencies".

In The Republic (which I actually did read parts of for my college philosophy class at the UofA) Plato stated, "Necessity, who is the mother of invention" or as we commonly say "Necessity is the mother of invention". This is why we don't run out and buy our children every new toy that is asked for, every new whim fulfilled because in doing so we'd stifle the very creativity we love to see in our children.

Exhibit A:

Joel wearing one "cowboy boot" aka rain boot.
Said rain boot was purchased last year by Nama
no less than one size too large. Has been a favorite
footwear accessory for the last year.
(PS. Love the face Joel is making in the picture!)

Exhibit B:

Vance wearing similar "cowboy boots" purchased
under the same circumstances as Joel's except
about 2-3 sizes too large as they were the closest
to his size and if Joel had rain boots Vance needed them too.

Now for anyone who knows Joel and Vance or has read this blog very often these boys LOVE 2 things (well a lot more than that but you get the idea). They love their Pa and they love Jim and Jessica (aka Man from Snowy River). Ever since Pa introduced them to Jim and Jessica they have loved watching the same 3 scenes with him over and over and over and over........ And when they are not watching Jim and Jessica they are playing Jim and Jessica (although why they call it that I have no idea because one is always Jim and the other is Curly the bad guy). Many times the last year I have eyed little cowboy hats and cowboy costumes. I've looked at little cowboy boots and thought how much the boys would love these things when they play Jim and Jessica. But as the boys put on their rain boots and asked if they could go outside to play Jim and Jessica I realized that they are just fine without the frivolous cowboys boots, hats and costumes, because regardless of what they're wearing; in their minds they're decked out and playing just like Jim and Curly on the movie. And sometimes it takes a little reminder from my two and three year old to remember that sometimes life just isn't what you expect it to be- it's better!

Survival of the fittest

Do you ever have one of those days where you think that if your kids make it to bedtime they should count their blessings that they made it through one more day?! That has been my day today since about 11:30. Mostly it's been Vance. I think the terrible twos get worse with each kid. Joel had some trying moments but Vance has just taken the terrible twos and made it into an art form.

Today it started with the back talk. Well I don't know if it really counts as back talk but here's a sample "conversation":

Me: Vance please get out of mommy's room.
Vance: You get out of my room.
Me: Vance that's not funny.
Vance: That's not funny.
Me: Vance please go to time out for back talking mommy.
Vance: You go to time out for back talking.

And so on and so forth. And really part of me thinks it's funny. But part of me is just like: Dude, you're two can you quit it?!

Then as I'm getting ready to make lunch I notice that one entire wall in our dining room has been drawn on with purple permanent marker- did I mention it was THE ENTIRE WALL?! I look at the boys and Vance has the tell tell signs of marker on his hands. I have no idea when he did it. I had been in and out of that area (which is in the WIDE open) half a dozen times this morning. But thought that explained his soaking shirt after he decided he needed to wash his hands. So I learned that rubbing alcohol will take permanent marker off the wall. Now I'm hoping my friend who lives across the street in the duplicate of our townhouse still has the paint they used in the houses.

But then right before naps Vance found stickers and shared them with Joel (Joel was smart enough to ask permission) and so after reiterating that stickers only go on themselves and paper they were off to play with the stickers. And this is what they came back with:

Here's Joel and I wish you could see the rest of his amazing outfit. He's so good at getting dressed all by himself but sometimes the combination is quite interesting. He paired this shirt (which happens to be on backwards) with his amazing navy blue and lime green plaid shorts. He's also gotten to that weird stage where getting a good picture of him is really hard because he either is straining to say "Cheese" or looks terrified of the camera. This was truly the best of all the pictures I tried to take and half his head is cut off.

And here's Vance. Man I love this kid! He is definitively giving us a run for our money but he just has such a fun personality and constantly makes me laugh. I see so much of Tj in him.

What's New

So one of the reasons I finally decided to go private is that we have had a lot of changes going on around our house. Fortunately they're all good. As many of you know we had round two of unemployment last February and with the economy being in the state it was finding a job proved to be quite a difficult task. So much so that Tj began looking outside the aviation field. And so after quite the year we're excited to announce that Tj is now working for the government in the Department of Justice. We're really hoping that this will bring more stability to our lives even as it tips our lives into more chaos. He started training at the beginning of January and so far really likes it. But his training will take him away from us for periods of time which is kind of a bummer. We're really feeling fortunate that we've gotten to spend so much time with him this last year now that we don't get to see him very much lately.

The kids in Key Largo- silly faces and all.

In the meantime the boys and I are trying to stay busy. Over the Martin Luther King holiday we tagged along on a day trip with our good friends The Schrieners down to Key Largo and the Everglades. It was a bit anticlimatic but the kids had a good time and it was fun to hang out together. I was really surprised (and honestly a bit terrified) by how many alligators we saw in the Everglades and how close they were to the path- as in they were right on the path! I didn't take any pictures of it but it was pretty surreal. I know Josh thought I was being a bit dramatic but until we were safely back in the car I didn't breath easy. Have you ever seen how quick an alligator moves?!

Joel learned the hard way not to take Vance on
when Vance has a wand. Joel got poked near the
eye and now has a pretty good shiner
(and peanut butter all over his face).
What goes around comes around, right?!

Joel continues to go to preschool one day a week. He has a friend named Luke there and they love playing "Star Wars" while they wait to be picked up from school. As far as I can tell this involves pretending to fight with light sabers and falling to the floor. Joel also became a "Sunbeam" at church. This is the age where they can go into the big Primary. He loves singing and answering questions. His teachers have their hands full with about 9 three year olds. I don't know how they keep their sanity. But Joel loves it. I get to do the music in Primary and I love watching him sitting in the front row singing his heart out! He is so funny and constantly amazes me at the things he remembers and makes me laugh at the things he says. One of my favorites is when he doesn't know something he says "I can't know". I LOVE that. One thing I don't love so much is how he picks up on EVERYTHING I say. The other day he was sad and Vance went up to him and asked what was wrong and he said: "I don't want to talk about it right now. I just don't want to talk." Bless his little heart! One of my friend's little girl learned the 13 Articles of Faith last year at 3. I figure with everything Joel remembers maybe I should put that memory to good use. So the last couple of days we've been working on them one at a time. He already has the first one down and is now learning the second one.

This is a typical Vance picture.
Man, that kids loves his blanky!

Vance is still quite the character. Man, that kid keeps me on my toes. I think the worst part about it is that he's so funny but it's usually when he's being naughty. It's really hard to discipline him when I'm trying not to smile. He's still my little cuddler though and I have to admit that I LOVE that he still snuggles me and always wants me to come sit with him. He still LOVES books. Man that kid is a bookworm. I do love it though and try to take the time to read to him whenever he brings me a book. On the downside he has figured out how to climb in and out of his crib. I know that I'm SO lucky that I made it past 2 years old before he learned how but now there's no keeping him in. So I almost always find books in his crib in the morning. He also is ALWAYS picking things up. His two newest phrases come from Nama and Pa: "Holy Moly!" As in, "Look there's a tree, HOLY MOLY!" So random. I'll have to get video of him saying it. It makes me smile just thinking about it. The other one is "Seeya, wouldn't beya!" As in "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!"

Anyhow. That's life for us right now. Tj's grandparents fly in tonight and are staying with his parents for a couple of weeks so it will be nice to see them. And the boys and I are going to AZ at the end of this month for an extended stay so we're excited about that. Lots of changes going on right now. But life is good.

To Be or Not To Be

So the time has come to answer the question of to go private or not to go private. And the answer has come down to it's time to go private. Please email me with your email or leave it here (I'll erase them as I add you to the list). I'm going to give until the end of the month.

Family Pictures

So you know those people who get their kids pictures taken at every interval and get family pictures done every year? Well I'm not one of them! In fact I think the last "professional" pictures we had done were when we were in ID and got the boys 5 generation pictures done. Yeah, Vance was 3 months old then (he's now 2). I'm awesome- I know! My sister did some really great ones 2 months later at Christmas. Anyhow, for the last 7 years we've lived in Florida and have always said we needed to get pictures on the beach because (heaven willing) we won't live here forever. Well we FINALLY got them done. My friend Cordie did these and I can't wait to get them printed up and framed on our family wall. Enjoy!

The Family Pics:








Vance:


Joel:






Brothers!:

Tj and I:


Okay I'm including this last picture because I'm vain and I want to show off. I have been working my butt off at the gym and if you notice in the background here you can see my really great legs. I'm pretty proud of them because of all the blood sweat and tears shed in spin class three days a week. And really if you can't be vain on your blog where can you be?! lol