Football

When we were in Minnesota we had the chance to go to one of my brothers football games. We (hubs) was sad that it was an away game. He played for the same team when he was in high school and would have LOVED to go to a home game. Never the less we were thrilled that we got to see one of their senior year games.

Most of Hubs family came too. His little brother L and fiance M, his older brother K, his mom and his dad. It was great to have them all there. They were (especially grandma) all very helpful with the babes so that Hubs and I could try to watch the game undistracted.

M and J are 2 out of 3 (I think three, maybe four) captains of their team. They LOVE football and get extremely pumped about the game. During half time G and I were sitting on the corner of the field and I heard M and J pumping up their team. As much as I laughed because I thought that it was ridiculous I had to think about it in another way. I was so proud of them. Cheering on their team mates, giving them pointers on how to continue with their win. Let's just say I was a proud sissy. :)

The huddle where they called the players names.

J's name was called. #70

J pumping up the players that have already been called out.

M's name was called. #96 Sadly he was the last name to call so the picture isn't that great because the rest of the players (that didn't have names called) game running right after him. So I didn't get a good picture of his 'big entrance'.

M and J running onto the field to get the game started.

I loved that M and J were next to each other basically the whole game. It made for easier watching. :) and fun that I could get them in the same picture.

My boys had a blast at the game. They were walking around like abominable snowmen. It was super cold that night. They had on thermal pjs, jeans, long sleeve shirt, 'fur' lined sweatshirt, and a winter coat. Topped off with mittens and a hat. G would try to play in the dirt and he would face plant because he couldn't bend easily. At least when he face planted he landed on the fuzzy part of his hat.

Here's M with his Uncle L and Daddy. This was (obviously) before the sun went down. Once the sun went down the winter jackets went on.

Drive

We had such a long drive to get to Minnesota. Like I said I was so happy to have the treat bags I made the boys.

We started our drive a few hours later than we had planned. We piled in the car and were on the road by 10:00pm. The boys fell asleep pretty quickly and slept the entire night. A few little sounds from them while they were trying to roll over and realized they couldn't. I felt so bad for them. They both move around a bit in their sleep so I'm sure it wasn't comfortable to be strapped into the car seats for 10 hours.

The boys started waking up around 8:00am. I was in the back seat talking to them and rubbing their heads good morning. Thankfully they woke up happily. I gave them their 'no spill' cups of cheerios while we waited to stop for our first break. They had a blast trying to figure out how to get their cheerios out of the cups.

At around 8:30am we stopped for a break. We all needed to get out and stretch our legs, but most of all we wanted the boys to run around a bit before we made them sit in the car any longer.

We let the boys run around the truck stop a bunch before we decided to gather them up and feed them some breakfast.

M eating his blueberry bagel and drinking his milk. Every time the boys saw a truck they would yell "TRUCK, TRUCK". I thought it would be fun to get a picture in front of all the trucks at the truck stop.

After our first stop we piled back into the car. At this time I 'hid' in the back seat so the boys couldn't see me. I was hoping that if I hid they would fall asleep for their morning nap and give us another 3 hours of straight driving. They did :)

After they woke up we continued to drive for about an hour. I gave them some of their treats from the treat bags.

M playing with his Magna Doodle.G playing with his Magna Doodle.

M playing with his Shake Shake Bottle.

G playing with his Shake Shake Bottle.

A little while later we stopped for lunch. In the back of the stop there was a huge hill. We decided to take the boys for a walk to the top of the hill. They did amazing climbing the hill. When we got to the top we were so excited to see that it was flat. They boys ran around and played for a bit.

On our way back to the car I got a cute picture of Daddy with his boys.

When we got back into the car I thought I would try to 'hide' again. M fell asleep but G was having a hard time because the sun was in his eyes. After some propping of a pillow and caressing of the head G fell fast asleep too.

Honestly I don't remember the rest of the drive. I can't even remember if we stopped for dinner. Hubs so graciously reminded me we did not stop for dinner. We (I) fed the boys snack.

When they woke up from their afternoon nap I gave them the cars from their treat bags. When they were done playing with them I decided to take out the noise making books before it got too dark to look at them. They loved pushing the buttons on the books.

I was so impressed with them. They were happy the entire time they were awake. We were about 20 minutes away and they finally decided they were DONE! They just wanted Mommy to touch them. I was having a hard time touching them both at the same time. It was cute. As long and my hand was on them they were happy.

We got to Grandma and Grandpa's (hubs parents) house at maybe 11:00pm. We let the boys explore their house. More than I wanted at the time. I myself was ready for bed and figured the boys could explore in the morning, but Grandma and Grandpa were having too much fun showing them all the toys that they have.

When we finally got them changed and in bed they cried for about 2 minutes. We shared a room with them so I think they just cried because I was in the room too. Hubs wanted to shower to get the road grime off and I just plopped into bed.

We were thrilled that when we looked at the clock in the morning after the boys woke up it was 9:00am.

Thanks boys for making our drive so pleasant!!! Muah!

Treat Bags for our Trip

Hubs and I had a chance to get out to Minnesota for a long weekend. We were excited to take the boys out to visit with their Grandma, Grandpa, 7 cousins and aunts and uncles.

We had to opportunity to drive out there and fly back. Hubs and I have been able to do the drive in about 19 hours. If one of us is driving and the other is sleeping we would stop and fill the tank run to the bathroom and not wake the other. If we were both awake we would both run in and back out. We would fill a cooler and eat while driving. We never stopped for longer than 10 minutes.

We did the drive when the boys were 9 months old. It wasn't too bad. It took us about 22/24 hours. We left at night so the boys would hopefully sleep through the night (they did). When they woke up in the morning I nursed them in the back of the van, changed diapers, then we went into a rest stop, laid out a blanket, and let them wiggle for about 20 minutes before we got in the car to start driving. They would sleep for about 3 hour intervals and I would do the whole nursing, diaper changing, blanket laying thing again. They cried for maybe a total of an hour during the entire 24 hour period. It was amazing.

I was incredibly nervous about the drive this time. The babes aren't babes anymore. :( They are boys. They don't sleep ALL day anymore (yes they still sleep a good part of the day), but I knew I had to have some incase items for our drive.

I had some good ideas for their treat bags but I wanted to get some ideas from other people who have gone on long car rides with their toddlers. I'm pretty sure to them they think a 2/3 hour drive is long. haha :) I got some great ideas from some friends and this is what our treat bags looked like.

I bought two Babar bags from Target for a dollar each. I knew the boys wouldn't be carrying their bags but I wanted to keep the treats contained and I thought it would be fun to have them separated. It wasn't needed but it's what I wanted.

These are the treats I filled the bag with. A friend recommended getting a noise making book. The boys love cars (in general) so I thought a book that had cars on it would be perfect. The noise book was the most expensive treat in the bag. I got a regular cardb0ard book. The boys LOVE books. I got a fire truck. Again they love cars. A snack cup. We have never used a snack cup before so I thought it would be fun for them. I thought it could keep them occupied just trying to figure out how to get the snack out of the cup. I made a neck pillow with a little critter on it. On Pintrest I found a 'magic wand' tutorial. The boys had SO much fun making them with me. They call it their Shake Shake bottle. Not in the picture is a Magna Doodle. A friend recommended that and I had already thought of it (but completely forgot). G loves the doodle at church. I was happy that I had two doodles in my school supplies from my classroom so I ran up to the attic and grabbed them before we left.

Here are the treats from the other bag. Everything is the same (just a little different). The doodles were different colors. This car is a police car not a fire truck. The contents in the Shake Shake bottle are different and the books are different titles. The snack cup (not pictured is blue not green).

I went with alike/same items that way they could share but not be upset if brother had something because there was something else just like it in his bag. I am glad the treats weren't exactly the same. When M got board with his Shake Shake bottle he and G would trade. The same goes for the cars and the books.

So, how was the drive you ask? How did the treat bags work out? How long did the drive take? Was there more crying than last time?

I will share that in my next post :)

I'm Blessed

It's been a few weeks since I've joined Gretchen's I'm Blessed party over at He Sows, She Sews. Pop over there and join in with sharing your blessings.

There are so many blessings in my life. A lot of the time I don't even notice them. I'm sure you can relate to that. Sometimes I am so frustrated with something that the blessing with in it is hard for me to see.

Lately I have been so frustrated about having no hot water. Of course! Who wouldn't be?! Washing dishes in cold water (we couldn't boil water and fill the sink because the drain in our sink was broken), taking cold showers, boiling water to wash our faces.

As I have driven around town and further, I see houses that are still vacant from flooding.

As annoyed as I am that about 3 weeks later I still have no hot water and there is water still trickling in the basement I am so blessed that's all that happened.

Our house is still standing. Our house hasn't had to be vacated. Our belongings (except furnace) are in perfect condition.

Most importantly our house has loving happy people in it, and for that I am blessed.

OH and I am blessed that hubs finally was able to fix the sink yesterday! Ten minutes after he fixed it I filled it with boiling water and evened it out with some cold so I could take a "shower". It was SO much nicer than carrying 6 boiling pots up and down the stairs.

Hair Cut...

NO the boys did not have their first hair cut. I mean COME ON! They still don't have any hair. Well they have a little, but not enough to cut.

Many of you know or at least know of my first born. I sadly don't care for her as much anymore. I really try to still show her love, but she makes it SO difficult.

Sota....

This big fluff ball really needed a hair cut. We don't often take her to the groomer. It costs SO much money and every time I go they give me a lashing about how she should be there more often, blaa blaa bla. I feel so guilty that I don't take her more often but I just don't want to spend the money.

So normally I cut her myself and then the next time she needs to be cut I bring her to the groomer. Fair trade? Not really, even though I do bring her to the groomer once in awhile, I still wait too long in between hair cuts.

This isn't all of the hair. The clipper was getting really hot so I decided to give my hand and her body a little break. I cleaned this pile up before starting again.

My lil girl is bald now. I can never completely finish her hair cut on my own. I always need Hubs help to cut her nails and cut the fur in between her paws. I did pretty good getting most the hair in between, but I will clean it up a little more when he is home and can hold her butt still.

Well now that I spent the boys 2 hour nap grooming their sister it's time to go get my afternoon hugs.

Rain Rain Go Away...

At 3:30 this morning I woke up to Hubs basically jumping half out of bed whisper shouting CRAP! He woke up to a flash of lightening. No, hubs is not afraid of thunderstorms like you might be thinking. When he was only semiconscious he realized that the power was out.

We have lived in our house for almost 4 and a half years. We love our house! Yes, we are trying to sell it, yes we are out growing it, but we LOVE it. It has never given us too many problems. Sure, it's old, so there are problems right there. We needed a new furnace right after the boys were born, we've done a lot of updating, we've had to have the plumber out here a few times. Nothing too big. Well the furnace was big, but it comes with the territory of being a home owner.

When Hurricane Irene hit, our basement decided to suck up all the water that she brought. Our basement had never ever leaked prior to this. Actually hubs and I had mentioned some time ago, I wonder if the sump pump even works, in the last 4 years it has never kicked on (it never needed to).

Our power went out during the Hurricane. It was only out for about 8 hours. We were so lucky compared to some other friends who didn't have power for over a week. BUT when the power was out the basement swallowed 3 feet of water. Hubs never even thought to go look down there because like I said, the basement has never even been damp before. For some reason (wifey told him to...I don't go down there yuck!) he decided to go take a look and just make sure it was still dry. Dry it WAS NOT. 3 feet! Our brand (basically) brand new furnace was half way under water. Thankfully that's all we have down there. Well, that and my brand new freezer.

Since then every time it rains there has been a little stream of water running in the basement. We really need the water level to go down.

Two weeks (or has it been longer now) later we are still living in a house with no hot water. Hubs has been taking cold showers every other morning before work. I have been boiling water to bring to the bath tub and mix it with the cold water for my self a couple times a week and if I have to look presentable I have just stuck my head in the cold water to wash my hair. Shh, we've only given the babes 1 bath since because it's just a pain to carry the pots up and down the stairs. Yes I know, now you realize how gross my family is :)

The plumber who installed our furnace said that the parts should be here soon. We will hopefully have hot water SOON.

Back to hubs yelling CRAP! After he wiped the crusties from his eyes he ran down to the basement to see what was going on. 6 inches of water.

Our furnace, with the exposed box, waiting for it's new parts. It hadn't gone all the way under water again... yet.

He came back up stairs and said that he was going to haul buckets of water and for me to just sleep. What a guy :)

Of course I got up and helped him. We hauled buckets for about and hour. He carried two 5 gallon buckets and I carried one (maybe) 2 gallon bucket. He stayed steady for the entire hour, me on the other hand had to take a seat once or twice. I know I'm a big wimp. I said to him during our haul that I bet he wished he was married to a big butch chick right now, he laughed and said NO, I wish I was married to a man right now.

Obviously the two in the back were the ones he was hauling and that's my little one up front.
I took this of hubs during one of my breaks.

After hauling for an hour I had a brilliant idea. I asked hubs if we could plug the sump pump into the mini van. The van has a 2 prong outlet. The sump pump is a 3 prong and the extension cord is a three prong. BUT lucky for us we lived in a very old (house) apartment when we first got married and had NO three prong outlets in the house. We have lots of 3 to 2 prong adapters sitting around. Hubs said, you know it's pretty dumb to put a 3 prong into a 2 prong, but people do it all the time. It's worth a shot.

FAIL! The sump pump just tripped the power box in the car.

Back to hauling buckets. After hauling for about another 30 minutes or so hubs was done. (Oh I never really got back into it after the first hour). I've posted before that hubs had knee surgery (3 actually). His knee was starting to really bother him and he was beginning to worry that it might give out while he climbed the stairs hauling the 5 gallon buckets and just didn't see the point anymore. The water was coming in faster than we (he) could haul.

We decided to give up. I mean at least the furnace hadn't been fixed yet.

By the time we gave up this where the water level was at. Not quiet half way up hubs shin. We cleaned up the kitchen a little bit before going to bed. Dried up all the water and blew out the candles that were lighting our path from the basement door to the kitchen door. Just when we were finishing up and about to walk up stairs the power came back on. Praise the Lord! We looked at each other and gave a little giggle. I ran half way down the basement stairs and said, HUBS? Why isn't the pump going. Opps, he never plugged it back in after trying to plug it into the car. Could you imagine...if we went to bed before the power turned on and we forgot to plug the pump back in....AHHHH

Well it's 4:33pm and we still have an inch of moving water in our basement. It keeps pouring in. The sump pump keeps doing it's job. The water level really really needs to go down! I have LOADS and LOADS of laundry to do, that I'm terrified to do. I don't want to add more water to our yard. AND we would both really really like to take a hot shower...some time soon!!!

Balloons

I know I've told you before that the boys LOVE balloons. They can't get enough of them. For the last 2 months I've been telling Hubs that I wanted to do a photo shoot with balloons. We finally around to it.

The boys didn't take their morning nap (which is VERY uncommon) so they took a super long afternoon nap. We almost missed the sun completely!

After getting dress and getting the boys all shnased up we ran to the party store to get balloons. It took us (Hubs) almost 20 minutes in the party shop. When Hubs got the balloons in the car the babes were going NUTS! They were so excited.

The pictures didn't turn out quiet like I wanted them too, but they aren't too bad.