Visits with Tataa

We are so blessed to have Hubs parents and my mom so close by.  The boys love seeing their grandparents as often as they can.  

Tuesday the boys and I took the 45 minute drive to spend the day at my moms aka Tataa's.  I'm not sure how to spell this.. I think my mom and I have two different opinions on the spelling, but anyway it's Grandma in Arabic.  

L & G in the foreground 

She has this great driveway that the boys love to drive their monster trucks on.

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I fall down ....

but I get up again.

Weekend Visitors

One of my best friends back home came out to visit this weekend.  No, I'm not that cool.  She didn't come for me or my family... we were just an added perk... I'll take it!!!  She came out because her baby brother graduated from high school yesterday.  Congrats buddy!!  So proud of you!

On Thursday she and her adorable family came out to our house for the afternoon.  The boys had SO much fun showing "their girls" (that's what they call the girls) all their toys.  The 5 of them played so nicely together.  They enjoyed their peanut butter and jelly picnic.  

After the girls left the boys were pooped.  It was too late to put them down for a nap so I made a 'bed' on the living room floor for them.  They got to watch a movie and eat a cookie that my girlfriend brought them.  

On Friday we went to them.  We spent the bulk of the day in the pool at their hotel.  The boys had a blast.  Hubs did a great job teaching G how to stay above the water with only his swimmies.  M enjoyed the hot tub with his mama.  Poor kid seems to hate cold water as much as I do.  L made a new friend.  One of my girlfriends little sisters came along.  Saying little sister probably gives you the wrong impression, she's all grown up now too... married, getting her masters and starting an internship soon.  L fell in love!  She walked him around the pool area, snuggled him and was my extra hands the entire afternoon.  Later that night we had their brothers graduation party to go to.  While there I was holding L and he reached away from me to her and called out Mama.  YUP!!  Love I tell you!  

On Saturday we invited them over to Hubs parents house.  (We live 45 minutes away from where they were staying, Hubs parents live 10 minutes away.)  We had a little barbecue.  

Afterwards we went to Hubs brothers house to check out his chicks.  

This is their oldest K.  She is such a sweet caring girl.  For her birthday this year she asked for NO presents.  A 7 year old asking for no presents... almost unheard of.  She wanted the money that people would spend on her to be spent on children that don't have the luxuries that she does.  She asked to receive children's shoes for those that need them.  She has been collecting shoes since February.   

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Here's L's new love.  This weekend I found out that not only family reads my blog.  SHE does too :)  It makes me so happy!

This is my girlfriends hubby.  Such a sweet sweet man.  My boys all love him to pieces!!  

So glad she had her camera with her all weekend.  I can't wait to see her pictures.  All of mine turned out blurry or smooshy.  Little Man grabbed my lens out of my camera bag and the cover popped off.  His grubby little finger prints were all over it and I had no idea.  After downloading the pictures and looking through them I realized something was wrong with my camera.  Lesson learned... either don't leave the camera bag on the floor for 6 grubby hands to get at and/or clean the lens' more often.

These two became super sweet fast friends.  My niece (S) and K hit it off right away.  S is two years older than K but they meshed so well.  S did a great job showing us the chickens and showing K how to hold them.  After they were done swooning over the chicks they went to play on the swing set.  By the time we all had to go they already came up with their own best friend handshake.

It was so nice having my friend and her family here.  It felt so natural having them.  Hubs asked me if I missed NJ after their visit.  I said nope... just my friends and family.

Living Off The Land.... Maybe

I've been talking about wanting a garden forever.  When we bought our house in New Jersey I knew exactly where I was going to put it.  I was so excited to start one.  I never did.  We lived in that house for 5 years and never started it.  To be honest I am TERRIFIED OF BUGS!  Anything that is creepy and crawly I can't handle.  Hubs laughs every time I mention wanting a garden.

When we talked about moving to the mid-west I said I was absolutely going to start one.   Of course Hubs laughed again. 

The rental house we moved into has a gorgeous yard.   The owner must have spent hours every day keeping up with it.  There are gorgeous flower beds, beautiful ivy and a decent sized garden.  Now that everything is laid out for me and it's not our house I feel like I HAVE to do it.  I am trying to be brave and not get too creeped out.  I have already raked the flower beds and pulled a few weeds (I think they were weeds) and already let out a number of screams and or shrills, but who's counting.  Since the garden rectangle is also already 'prepped' for me I figured it was the perfect year to start one.  

I have NO idea how to garden and to be honest it really isn't something I am interested in researching.  Maybe one day but right now I kinda just want to snap my fingers and it be done.  So I called my mother in law  :)  

A couple of weeks ago my mother in law took me seed shopping.  She happily laughed at me while I was getting in everyones way at the seed store and stood like a dork.  I pretty much just stood in one spot and circled around. If you've ever shopped with me (mom) you know exactly what I looked like, I am a HORRIBLE shopper!  

After seed shopping I asked her if she would ever be interested in coming over sometime the next week to help me start the garden.  

Grandma and M

I am so blessed that she was more than happy to come spend the day with us and help start our garden. She brought her Claw with to turn up the ground.  No she and the boys did not Claw the entire garden. My handsome husband ripped through it in what seemed like only 20 minutes and then the boys just wanted to try it out.  

 

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The boys had fun sitting on the edge of the garden playing in the dirt while Grandma and I decided where we were going to plant.

We started off with some cucumbers on the back corner.

Then we did a row of potatoes along the back line.

Then I stopped taking pictures of what we were doing because the boys decided to play in the buckets of water that I brought back to the garden.  I took a couple of pictures before my hands got too muddy and then Hubs came out to take some more pictures of M & G.

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The boys had so much fun 'planting'.  HAHA  They spent the entire time making mud and taking a mud bath.  They were adorable.  

I am so thankful that my mother in law allowed me to play dumb and walked me through this process.  I told her that now she needs to come and show me how to weed.  I'm hoping she will :)  haha.  She did say that she was going to have to come back to show me what is a weed and what is a plant.  I agreed 100% !!  Maybe she will even come back when it's time to pick :)  

Sorry that my garden post turned into a mud post.  I was excited to get pictures of the whole process... guess not.  I will have to post some pictures when something starts to poke through.  

Mother's Day...A Week Late

We had a nice laid back Mother's Day.  Hubs got up early to go to church and handle his 'duties' there.   We were going to meet him there like we do every Sunday but M & G were 'sick'.  They were having some breathing issues which normally come along with a low grade fever.  There was no way I could keep all 3 boys quiet enough and calm enough during the service (Hubs had to be up front and contribute and they couldn't go to the nursery because of the fevers) so we stayed home.  We did some snuggle time on the couch and ate breakfast together.  

Right before Hubs left to go to church he brought the boys into the garage to get my presents.  The boys made me a beautiful flower pot (ok I made it with them) while they made one for their Grandmothers.  I should take a picture and show you.  They used their foot prints to make butterflies.  Hubs picked up some petunias and tulips so I could choose what I wanted to put in my pot and the front window box.

After church Hubs let me nap while the boys and he napped.  HAHA  He got up when L got up instead of me.  It was SO nice!!  I was OUT COLD!!

When everyone woke up we ventured to the park.

There's a great park somewhat close to our house.  We packed the Bigs in the wagon for Hubs to pull and the Little Man in his new bike from his Grandpa for his 1st b-day for me to push.

I can't believe how grown up these two are.  G on top and M on bottom.

Little Man loves his bike.  He was eating and driving.

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I can't believe I was blessed with the 4 most gorgeous boys in the world!!!

G yelling (ok eating) the microphone at the park.

M getting ready to cross the inclined bridge.

G ready for his turn.

M asking for a little assistance from his Dad and little bro who was still nursing the same cracker from our walk to the park.

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We were surprised with M the first time we went to the park this spring.  Not sure if you remember me talking about how M wouldn't do any of the slides at the indoor play places.  He did the slide at the park right away.  That day he only did one of the slides.  It was a tall slide but open and it was slow.  The next time we went to the park he did ALL the slides except the enclosed slides.  Now he does ALL the slides... even the tunnel ones.  So proud of this boy.  I wonder what would happen if we went to an indoor play place...

This is the first time we've done swings I think in 2 years.  I don't remember doing them at all last year. It's a new favorite.  G LOVES it.  He would have been happy on them ALL DAY LONG.

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M climbing the tunnel

I LOVE L's face in this picture.  It's so great when you capture goofy faces with the camera.

I love my boys so much.   They made Mother's Day so special for me, even if it was going to the park and watching them play.  Daddy made sure they gave me lots of extra kisses and hugs through out the day so how could I ask for any more.