Happy New Year!

We decided to have a small family party for the New Year. We bought balloons, made headbands and ate cookies.

Now Ken and I are going to spend the beginning of the night doing something we hardly ever do together....clean!!!!

A clean house and well rested kids...what more could you ask for on the first day of 2009?!?!?!

Up Close and Personal

Only one picture to share from Christmas!!! My parents took pictures of Christmas and I didn't even think to grab any of the pictures from their camera....until I sat down to write a blog! The boys had a great time and of course received more presents then necessary. Here is the one and only picture I have.

We ended our visit with a trip to the zoo. It was a very cloudy day but warm. The animals were more active then I have seen them in the past at this zoo.

Chris really liked this snake. The entire time Chris was watching him he was crawling up the glass. Chris asked if we could get one just like it as a pet.

He also watched this turtle for a while. It kept swimming by him. I didn't alter this picture at all! If it wasn't for the reflection of the flash I think it would be the perfect picture!

This gorilla came right up to the glass and Ryan ran over to look at him. The little girl next to Ryan wanted to see the gorilla too and Ryan pushed her and stated "mine."

As the boys were feeding the ducks some pigeons showed up. One ate a piece of duck kibble right out of Tracey's hand.

Finally, the lions were relaxing and cuddling. I had to take a picture.

Flyers Game

We went to the Flyers game on the 23rd.

What a great game.

The Flyers won 5-4!

It is always great to go to a game and watch your team win.

20 Questions

Chris was getting hyper in the car today, as he usually does. Sometimes we play an alphabet game where we have to find something that begins with each letter. Today I decided to be different and teach him how to play 20 questions. I went first and picked a tree. He got it after a few questions. I tell him it is his turn.

Me: Is the object alive.
Chris: No
Me: Can I see the object?
Chris: No
Me: Is the object in the air?
Chris: No
Me: Is the object on the ground?
Chris: No, it's dead people.

It's my turn and I pick a car. Chris gets it.

Chris's turn...
Me: Is the object alive?
Chris: Yes
Me: Is it an animal?
Chris: No
Me: Can I see it?
Chris: No, it is invisible
Me: Is it God?
Chris: No
Me: Is it heaven? (Sometimes you have to forget previous questions with Chris)
Chris: No, it is God visiting the earth and you can't see him.

Lesson learned...don't play 20 questions with a 5 year old.

The Magic of Santa

I have been trying to get the boys to clean the better half of the day. They are dragging their feet and Chris keeps telling me cleaning is boring. Finally, I left them to clean (I knew that was never going to happen) to make dinner. Chris came upstairs and started playing in the family room.

I said "Chris, I didn't want to tell you this but Santa won't come to our house if it is dirty. That is why I have been trying so hard to get it clean. He will see how dirty our house is and he won't visit us at MomMom and PopPop's house because of it."

I didn't say another word and Chris got up, went downstairs and started cleaning his toys!

Too bad Santa only comes once a year.

Christmas Photo

We finally got to the mall and let the boys take a picture with Santa. Since I had already sent out my Christmas cards I just got the cheapest package with was two 5 X 7" pictures. If someone wants the second one let me know. First come, first serve basis! haha

The picture did not scan well because Chris looks long and skinny in this picture. I don't know why it came out so goofy but he looks like himself (besides the fake smile) in the picture.

Anyhow, when it was our turn to see Santa Ryan ran up to him with his arms wide open. So opposite of Chris at the same age. However, this was not the first time we saw Santa. Ryan got to meet him at the mall just after Thanksgiving, then he met him at the Tree Lighting Ceremony and again after Chris's holiday program. No wonder he ran to Santa because every other time he got a candy cane! This time Santa had a coloring book.

This picture still remains my favorite and therefore will remain in our Christmas frame for another year.

Christmas Party

Ken had his work Christmas party today. We missed the social hour (meaning we did not get to sit with Ken's friends.) We actually wound up sitting with Ken's boss. Ken was not thrilled.

Well, they had daycare set up for the kids in the room next door. We walked in and it was crazy. Ken and I looked for an adult, but didn't find one. Finally a YOUNG teenage girl came up to us and asked our kids names. We asked her if there was a sign in sheet or anything and the reply was "no, just drop your kids off." She then informed us that the kids could color if they wanted. There was not a single activity set up for the kids. The adult who set this up had to have been one of the girls parents and wanted the child to experience complete chaos. They succeeded because that is what daycare turned into.

So about an hour and a half after we got there Ken went to check on the boys. Chris was crying because he wanted to go home. He said that kids were running around choking other kids. Great. Well, the wonderful parents we are, we bribed him to go back to the room with a piece of cake. Ryan cried when he had to return to the room. I guess it was pretty bad because my boy who causes trouble the minute I look away had a couple hours to cause havoc and he did not want to!

We had cake and were ready to leave. After picking up the boys we were walking out and Chris said "Mom, there were no teachers in that daycare and it was a disaster."

On the way home Chris kept talking about all the older kids (the 13 year old babysitters) who had babies. I guess each one of the babysitters had a baby on her hip the entire time! I had to explain to them that those kids did not have babies they were watching other people's babies. It was pretty funny. He then informed us that he was never returning to that day care again.

Next year we will have to find a babysitter instead of bringing them to the party. I am surprised that it turned out the way it did. Most of the other Christmas parties had a kids party next door with tons of different activities.

Artwork

A few weeks ago I threw all the markers in the house away after the boy who even has Santa fooled (according to this site) colored on our carpet.

Well, with Chris out of school he has suddenly been excited about art projects I went out and bought more markers. They love using markers. This morning we colored and here they are proudly displaying there artwork.

I wanted a picture of Ryan to explain why he was dressed at 7:30 in the morning but he wanted to display his artwork. (He was completely naked when I walked into his room to get him out of his crib!)

Little does he know that I know how to put diapers on backwards!!!!

School Picture

While the computer was on vacation we received Chris's school pictures. The scanner is hooked up to the computer so I never scanned the picture. Here it is. I really think it came out good.

Holiday Program

Chris had his holiday program today. The kids did well.

 

This was the best song his age group sang. Unfortunately, they turned the lights out so the kids could hold the candles.

This though was what most of the program was like. Chris is the 5th kid from the left. I think we chose a good sweater this year since he is easy to pick out!

The kindergarden kids sang It's beinging to Look A Lot Like Christmas. Chris informed me that he sang along with them from his seat! He is so funny.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

I should try and get Chris singing the song for this blog. This is one of the songs he sang for the City of Dover Tree Lighting ceremony. His principal took pictures of him that came out and said she would give them to me but hasn't yet.

For now this will have to do. I was not able to get any pictures of the boys by the tree that were not blurry. This was the best.

I then bribed Chris with TV time to take another set of pictures. This time I set the timer and got in with them. They still came out blurry unfortunately.

Ken came home tonight. An unexpected surprise after a change of plans twice. Hopefully, he will be able to borrow a ladder and put the wreath back up in the center window. Also add a light. Even with the window missing a wreath and light I love the way our house looks.

Here is a picture of what the wreath on our front door basically looks like. After having the picture taken I added a couple more balls to the bare spots.

Who is Your Favorite Hockey Player?

As you all know we train the boys early in our house. The training continues!

100

For the last couple weeks Chris has been asking us to count to 100, 200, 1000. I have counted with him up to 200 but that is my limit. So yesterday we were off to the tree lighting ceremony. (I didn't get any good pictures because the lights were so bright and then when the kids were singing I couldn't even see Chris.) Anyhow he asked me how high he would need to count before we got to City Hall. I told him 400. He started getting a little mixed up with his numbers around 230 but I helped him out. Finally he got to 300 and said "Mom, does 300 repeat itself just like 200." When I told him yes he was very disappointed. However, I don't think I am going to have to disappoint him anymore when he asks me to count to 1000! What a smart boy.

Funny Picture

I just found a funny picture from Chris's Halloween parade. I knew he was having a hard time walking out of the school but I didn't know why. This is the reason.
http://www.thelittleschool.us/2008_Halloween.html#51

I guess for security reasons the site won't let me save the picture and it won't let me link to it. So you are going to have to copy and paste the website!

Interesting

Back in September I woke up and our PC didn't work. It wouldn't turn on no matter what I did. I realized that over night we had a power surge and the computer must have gotten fried. We kept putting off taking it in since we still had the laptop. Well, lately the laptop wasn't working correctly. I decided it must be the wireless connection and decided to move it to the desk the PC was on. I just plugged the laptop on and turned the surge protector on. The PC turned on!!!!!

The weird thing is that Ken just tried to turn the PC on a little while ago and it was still dead. It has since turned off twice but is on now so I am quickly burning all my digital pictures to disk. I have one disk done and the second is burning right now.

Some day I am going to have to go through all my pictures on disk and try to pick out all the good ones and just put them on one disk. Who honestly wants to look through 18 disks of pictures.

My dad was right. I have more pictures in the last 5 years then my parents have of my entire life.

Play-Doh

Chris has been asking for a couple days to get the big play-doh set out. I kept putting it off but today I decided it would be the day. I figured I would sit them down at the table and let them have fun while I cleaned. About 30 seconds into cleaning I was sitting right next to them playing along. We played for a little over an hour. Daddy came home and I had him sit with the boys while I made dinner. Chris then got up but Ryan and Dad played right until dinner. Dad made Ryan play-doh mittens and he thought they were the greatest thing in the world!

 

Cuddling

Last night Ryan and I were sitting together watching the hockey game. It was close to bedtime and the boys were not hyper. Imagine that!?!?!?! So I said "I want to cuddle with both of the boys. Once I said that this is what they did.

 

They started getting hyper with Daddy so he said that it was bedtime. They didn't like hearing that too much so this is what they did.

 

Silly boys. They still had to go to bed.

Happy Birthday Scott!

I don't have many pictures since our laptop died. So these will have to do.

Hope you had a wonderful day, Scott!

Look Who's Two!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan started his day by waking up at 6:00am. As I continue to hold the title of "Mom of the Year" I ignored Ryan's 6:00am wake up and stuck by my rule....you don't get out of bed until 7:00am. At 7:00am I got Ryan out of his crib and heard Chris awake. Since Chris sprained his ankle yesterday I opened his door to see how he felt. The first words out of his mouth were "Happy birthday, Ryan. You're a big boy now." We proceeded with the morning as usual since Chris had school.

After Ryan and I dropped Chris off we made cupcakes. Ryan's cupcakes actually came out better then mine. I put way too much batter in mine. Ryan's came out perfect. Who says a 2 year old can't teach you?

We planned to go to Bombay Hook but the rain put our plans on delay. After Ryan's nap we iced cupcakes and enjoyed them.

I guess today officially ends Ryan's birthday. Tracey and Veronica came a week ago to give Ryan a gift. My parents came yesterday to give Ryan his gifts. Then throughout the week we received presents from Karen, Amy and Louise. Here is Ryan with all his new gifts. Is this Christmas or his birthday? What a lucky boy!

Thank you everyone. Ryan had a wonderful week.

Veterans Day

This past Veterans Day was great. I am completely amazed at what a wonderful country we live in! Around 11:50am Ryan and I were getting ready to leave to pick up Chris from school. As we were walking out the door our doorbell rang. It was our neighbor's brother. He works for a man that owns a landscaping business. He wanted to know if we wanted our lawn cut for FREE! Wow! That was really awesome for us because our lawnmower broke and we haven't bought a new one yet.

Our day went on as normal. Then about 7:00pm another neighbor showed up at our house and handed us a card. I had no idea what this was about so I took the card and said bye. Upon opening the card it basically said thank you and your family for serving our country. WOW! What great neighbors!

This Veterans Day really proves what a great country we live in.

Thank you to all who have served for our nation!

November 4, 2008

Our morning started out pretty great. Chris and Ryan started playing together and wound up going upstairs. When I didn't hear anything for a while I went to see who was getting into trouble. Imagine my surprise when I saw this!!!!

Chris was reading a book to Ryan.

I figured I had a few minutes so I jumped on the computer. Kati posted a funny blog about Evan stating he voted for Alabama for president at school. I didn't mention the election to Chris but I am sure he has overheard us talking about it. I decided to ask him who he wanted to win the election. He stated "Obama." Then when I asked him why he stated "Because I like him. Plus it's a state." I couldn't believe he said the same thing as Evan.

Next Chris asked to do his flashcards. Karen sent us site word flashcards for Halloween. Well, we sat down and he has a few of the words memorized. But I almost fell out of my seat when we got finished and he knew 21 of the 34 cards. He even sounded some of them out. YeahWho...maybe he is going to be a reader soon.

We then headed rollerskating. The boys had a great time despite tears from Chris when he hurt his finger and later got a bump on his head. He continued to get back up and keep trying.

Well, I figured after rollerskating I would quick stop at the polls to vote. When I voted in the primaries we walked in, voted and left. It took all of 5 minutes. In Washington I always had an absentee ballot so I was pretty surprised today when the parking lot was completely full!

We got in line waited 45 minutes to find out I was in the wrong polling place. The school I needed to be at was right next door. So I headed over to the correct polling place and proceeded to wait another 45 minutes to vote. This time we got to the machine and both boys came in with me. Not paying attention to Ryan I was marking who I wanted to vote for and after I picked 3 people Ryan conveniently hit the vote button for me. I have no idea if my three votes are going to count since I did not have anything marked for more then half the positions.

All I can do now is hope at the end of the night Delaware turns the color I voted for.

Memories

Chris was watching TV this morning under our table.

I had to take a picture because it brought back memories for me. I remember being the same age lying under my parents table, eating a grilled cheese, watching Price is Right while waiting for my bus to come and pick me up for Kindergarten.

I don't know what it is about being under a table but it must be comforting in some way. I know I wasn't the only one to lay under my parents table because when my sister and I decided to turn my parents old table into an ottoman we turned the table over and in a big heart it said Tracey Costello is gay.

I wonder if I will find Ryan or Chris Allen is gay 20 years in the future!

Happy Halloween

I don't remember Halloween being a week long event when I was younger. Chris had a parade at his school yesterday. It was very cute watching all the kids walk by dressed up. Here is some of the kids in his class.

After dinner we headed to Walmart's parking lot where the State Police held a trick or treating festival. They had police cars, fire trucks, and helicopters.

The boys enjoyed the helicopter so much that the paramedic asked us to come one weekend for a personal tour.

Since we went to the police shindig the boys were not able to help carve pumpkins. Chris was fine with this idea as he has never enjoyed carving pumpkins in the past.

I have to say the pumpkin carving tools and a pattern make all the difference. It is so much easier. I carved the cat and Ken carved the ghost. I think they look amazing.

Rollerskating

I took Ryan rollerskating yesterday. He had a blast.

Chris was jealous so I took both boys back today.

It didn't turn out to be as much success as yesterday. The boys were tired and wanted to take breaks every few minutes. I was surprised though. Both boys did great on the skates. Chris did the best he has ever done.

Of course snack time was their favorite time.

Performing on Demand

We went Trick or Treating at the mall yesterday. At the very last store the women said Happy Halloween to Ryan. Ryan looked at her and said Happy Halloween back. We had been telling him to get candy he needed to say Trick or Treat or Happy Halloween. He wouldn't say either. So Ken and I were pretty surprised to hear him say it.

I had my friend say Happy Halloween to Ryan and he replied again. So I thought it would be cute if I got him on camera saying it to post in a few days. This is what I got instead. Typical Ryan.

Halloween Preview

Today there are a few Halloween parties. Unfortunately it is raining so I think we might just go Trick or Treating at the mall. I think it will be perfect for Ryan because on Halloween night he is probably going to spend most of his time in the stroller.

I tried to talk Chris into being something different from last year. He informed me that he was a green skeleton last year not a white one. I tried suggesting he be Charlie Brown and Ryan could be Snoopy. He was set on the skeleton.

Take Three

Chris was playing the Wii when Ryan climbed up behind him and hugged him. It was so cute. I told the boys to stay like that and got my camera.

I then told them to both look at the camera.

Then I realized I had the camera on the wrong setting.

The joys of a digital camera. I remember the days before digital cameras. You were lucky to get three good pictures from an entire roll.

Next task: Getting the boys to smile nice.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch last week. It has been a big pain to find a slide show site to post the pictures.

Anyhow, they had a 5 acre corn maze. We grabbed a wagon and loaded the boys in. We finished the maze in 28 minutes. The women working the pumpkin patch said that was the best time she seen thus far. Pretty cool.

Enjoy the pictures.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Out With the Old

We finally got a new couch, coffee and end tables!

Next step...some paint, curtains and pictures on the walls. Finally, our first room will be complete!

Ken threw the horrible coffee table we had in the dumpster. He didn't even invite me to cheer. If I had a say we would have had a bonfire this evening with that table.

I really like this picture of our family. I think everyone truly looks happy. Too bad for the sun behind us.

Go Flyers

The boys were able to stay up a little later then normal to watch the Flyers play the Phantoms today.

Their routine was changed. Usually they get a bath then books and then to bed. Today they got a bath a little early so they were excited and tired at the same time. Every parent knows that is just not a good combination.

This is what we did until the game started.

Lopex

My mom said that we were crazy, but we did it anyway. Our new pet. The kids love her and she loves all of us.

Lopex and Chase don't get along all that well, but are getting better. Anytime Chase goes near Lopex she hisses at him. However I see her following him around and sitting there watching him. I think at this time the hissing is for show because she knows Chase is not going to hurt her.