Where Have We BEEN??

Where haven't we been this summer is a better question??  So I realize that there has been some serious silence on the blog front, but we have been quite the movers and shakers this summer.  That coupled with a 2 month long cold and a cracked rib for me and a broken computer for Zack (which meant he was using mine for all his work stuff making it less available for me) made it a low posting summer.  It's not that things weren't going on, because they were, trust me they were.

 We have spent A LOT of time in the car this summer.  I mean A LOT.  A-LOT!  I'm talking like 65+ hours road tripping it in about 6 weeks time.  Whew.  We have had to take a serious break from the car just to get our land legs back!!

But the mini van ran like a champ, and the kids did pretty darn good all things considered.  Thank heavens for portable DVD players and redbox is all I can say.  

We stared out driving from Oklahoma to Utah to visit family which is always fun.  That's for another post.

 Then we came home 6 weeks later from Utah to Oklahoma, only this time we picked up an extra passenger.  Grammie!!  I'm pretty sure she enjoyed the back seat with Oliver (and she took in a few kiddy movies to boot.)

 The kids had fun going to the pool at the hotel on the way home.  We almost couldn't get them to get out!

 (I'm pretty sure this is a yawn not a surprise! ha, ha  It was pretty late, but what do you do when you've been cooped up in a car all day?)

Boo, bed time.

A lot of this happened.  Pretty sure the hotels don't like you doing this but hey....

Much ice cream was eaten in the car and out.  

And then Grandpa joined us in OK to make our next road trip a mere 5 days later to Michigan!  So of course more swimming was had.a

 And of course you have to stop at a Cracker Barrel on a road trip.  It's tradition.  Well at least when moving.  Which we tend to do often.  Ahem.

More car, more car, and more car.

Until at long last we got to our new home in MICHIGAN!!!  

Yep, if you didn't know already, this family has moved once again.  We are now new residents of Walker, MI.  (Outside of Grand Rapids.)  May we stay put for a little while.

So as you can see we were too busy riding in the boring old car to be posting on the blog, but hopefully we are back in business here!

Brothers

Oliver never wanted a sister.  Too bad kid.  Well I shouldn't say never, if Ruby had been a boy, he probably wouldn't have wanted a brother either.   Child #2 was destined to be disliked by him just for the mere fact that he was no longer getting all of our attention.  Poor Ruby, she never stood a chance.  Sadly she has always LOVED Oliver but the feelings were not returned.  They are on better terms now that Oliver sees that she can play with him sometimes and it's "kind of" fun.  ha, ha.  I'm sure in a few years they will be closer when Ruby is able to follow rules and the like.
But when we found out that child #3 was going to be a boy, Oliver was over joyed!!  Yes, a brother!!  And from then on it's been a whole different story.  Sure August has his moments when Oliver has been annoyed because he is taking up precious parent time, or he is destroying something that has been worked on with determination, but overall Oliver loves him and thinks he is funny.  So I'm a confident that someday, they are going to be the best of friends.  Let's just hope they don't unite in tormenting their sister, that's all we ask!  ha, ha.
Zack captured this moment with the two brothers.  It's pretty cute.

  Seriously, how cute is that?  Pretty sweet.

Tornado Alley

I'm sure most everyone has seen on the news about the tornados that have been hitting here in Oklahoma the last 2 days.  It's been kind of scary hearing the sirens go off and watching the news and running to the shelter, but luckily our town hasn't been hit so far.  But yesterday they hit very close to us on roads we drive daily.  It's pretty scary.  But I just thought I would put it out there that we are okay and untouched besides hail at this point.  Just in case any one is worried about us out there, which I know you all are!  ha, ha.  Hopefully us newbies make it through our first tornado season without ulcers in our stomachs, it's a little nerve racking!  How do people live here their whole lives???  Crazy!

A Party, A Museum, and a Happy Mother's Day!

 A few weeks ago we got invited to a birthday party for a girl in our ward that is in between ages for Oliver and Ruby.  And of course we all know how our kids love a birthday party!!  So they were super excited.  Sadly it had rained the whole day before so the yard was kind of squishy, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  August loved this riding horse.  He spent most of the time petting it's nose and wanting someone to help him on it.

 I just thought this photo was hilarious!!  I mean what a moment to capture!  ha, ha.  It's like someone slipped them both a lemon or something!  Next to Ruby is her little BF here in OK, Kaila.

 Oliver enjoying his gigantic piece of cake!

We have finally been enjoying a little bit of nice weather here in OK.  So the kids have been taking advantage of that and have eaten their dinners outside a few times. 

Hmmmm.....all these pictures seem to involve eating.  We must like to eat around here!  ha, ha

We also went to a museum in OKC a few weekends ago that was pretty fun.  They had a Chihuly exhibit that is permanent.  It was SUPER cool.  I love him.   Not only does he do such beautiful glass work, but he  holds a special place in our hearts because Zack and I went on our first date to see one of his exhibits in SLC during the Olympics. 

Anyway, it was pretty cool, if anyone comes to visit us, we would be happy to take you there to see it! 

 ;)   They were also having a kid craft time, so the kids got to make kites.  You can't really see it much here, but they were pretty fun.

But sadly August got banned from the craft room since there were many MANY things for him to get into.  Beads, glue, scissors, ribbons, buttons, hot glue guns.......you get the picture.  But he did get to run around in the halls a lot while Zack  watched him.  I'm sure the museum people loved that!

 Okay, so I ran across this video.  It is from our trip moving last summer to Oklahoma.  It just sort of sums up their relationship.  Cute and then whap, not so cute.  I just thought it was funny.  I'm sure no one can relate to this at all.  ha, ha, ha

And then these next to videos are for our Moms for Mother's Day. ( I know, this post is getting long, but....) I tried and tried to get them downloaded on the blog on Mother's Day and every day since and it just wouldn't do it.  Then I did the one above and it worked so I thought hey, I'm going to try and get these 2 on as well AND it WORKED!!!  YAY!
So.....
Mom and Candyce, these are 2 Mother's Day songs for you, rather late, but it's the thought that counts as they say!!  (Don't mind the goofiness, that's part of the charm of getting kids to sing to you right?!)

This week....

Here are some of the happenings of this week here at the homestead.  August has learned to climb up on chairs.  YIKES!!  This isn't such a bad thing, but he hasn't figured out how to get down yet, so there is a lot of climbing up and then yelling so that someone can come and get him down.  It also means that he has discovered a whole other world of things that he can get into.  Double Yikes!  He has already been reaching up and swiping things off the countertop and table, but when the other kids leave a chair by the cupboards  August is right there ready to climb up and then things just got a lot more interesting in HIS mind!  So nothing is safe now.  At least he hasn't figured out how to drag the chair over to the kitchen-- YET.  Yesterday when I was making banana bread (which was delicious by the way) he happily played the whole time on his chair getting into all the dishes in the sink, so I guess it does have it's plus side.   

Yesterday Oliver's 1st grade class got to go on a field trip!  Always a highlight as a kid.  He had been talking about it all week and was super excited.  They went to see the play Miss Neilson is Missing in Oklahoma City.  (It's a children's book if you haven't ever heard of it.)  I asked Oliver how it was when I picked him up from school and he said it was funny and good, but that he fell asleep on the bus ride home.  I asked him if his teacher had to wake him up and he said yes.  But he wasn't alone in his afternoon siesta, the 2 boys sitting by him had also fallen asleep.  I would have loved to see that, 3 little boys snoozing on the bus together.  Anyway, Oliver thought that was quite funny that they all fell asleep, I think he was probably so tired since he had been so excited the night before and stayed up too late.  Anticipation is a powerful thing! 

 He has also been reading his homework stories to me in different voices lately which has been pretty entertaining.  Apparently he has a flare for the dramatic!  ha, ha. 

This week I made some strawberry freezer jam!  Ain't it perdy?!  The strawberry's were on sale, so I decided to replenish our year supply in the old deep freeze, so now we are "all set" as they say in MA.  I really didn't take long, but it felt like it did because August was NOT happy and wanted attention and would not be distracted.  But I plowed through, tears or no tears and finished it all up.  (Don't worry, he got ample love once I was finished.)

I have also been trying to work in our yard a little bit this week with the help of the kids.  Well kid.  Oliver actually was some help, the other two?  not so much.  But I decided that I wanted to dig up and make a few flower beds next to the porch since our front yard is just weeds basically.  I thought maybe it would help our house look a little less rental house and a little more homey.  So we pulled weeds, and we pulled weeds, and we pulled some more.  It just wasn't working, it was covered, so in the end I just decided to dig down a few layers.  Then I will put some good soil on top and plant some flowers.  Fingers crossed that it works!  Oliver asked me if he was going to get paid for helping him.  Ha, ha, ha.....I said, "yeah- you get paid in satisfaction for helping your mom!"  

 

As for little Miss Ruby, she has been mastering the art of girliness!  Every time I go in to her room lately after her "quiet time" is over (naptime minus the nap) she has been either stark naked or wearing about 20 layers of clothing!  What?!  She's been especially partial to her swimsuit this week!  Not that it's been too warm, but something about it she just loves.  Anyway, she is definitely perfecting the wardrobe change.  Well, that's all that's been going on around our house this week.  Well that and apparently a lot of ice cream eating!  

We're still here!

Alright, this post will have no pictures, therefore the cute factor is going to be lowered significantly, but it's been so long since I have posted anything that I figured I needed to do it anyway.  The reason for no pictures is that I got a new computer, not really by choice, but since the kids slowly killed my old one.  Boo.  First the screen sort of broke after taking a tumble off the countertop thanks to August.  Then a week or so later Ruby slammed it on something ans so the whole screen was disconnected at that point, but I could still use it but I had to prop it up against something so the screen wouldn't lay flat.  Then it just sort of fizzled out.  The wires popped and sparks flew and then it was dead.  So it won't come on at this point and of course I had just downloaded like 300 pictures onto it and then deleted them from the camera.  SIGH.  UGH.  (Banging head on wall....)  But I'm hoping that we can get some of the things off the hard drive somehow because besides the pictures I had some patterns that want.  Anyway, there is my story.  So my internet use has been sketchy at best lately.  But now I have a new computer, so I should be back in business!!  Yay!
Now I just have to figure out all my new computer jive.

Otherwise, I'm sure like everyone else we are enjoying crazy weather.  It's hot, it's cold, it's hot, it's cold.  I'm getting whiplash.  And we did survive our first Oklahoma tornado watch.  It's was a little scary, but in the end nothing came close to us.  So I'm now in the process of digging a storm shelter in our back yard so we can be safe!!!  ha, ha, ha.  I wish!

Well more soon but I just wanted to post and make myself get back in the blogging game......

He WALKS!!!

He has been up and about for the last couple of months, but in the last 3 weeks he's really been taking off the training wheels.

It's so fun to see him cruising around like a little Frankenstein with his stiff legs and arms waving.  And he gets such a kick out of the fact that he can get around himself that he just giggles and giggles.  I love this stage of babies, they are so fun.

He has also in the last week started saying "Ball" which is super cute.  He loves balls and goes around throwing them and staying, "ball, ball, ball."  Really fun.  He even manages to get in on the sibling fun while they are being crazy, he gets right in the mix of it all and screams and tackles with the best of them.

So here is August walking at an Art Museum that we went to on Saturday.  (I know, aren't we cultured?) It's not the best video, but every time I get out the camera to catch him, he doesn't want to walk anymore.  UGH...So I finally caught him at the museum a little.

Like I say in this video, I'm pretty sure the security guards were having a heart attack with us there at the museum.  Three little kids walking around giggling and such plus one of them not so stable on his feet!  Let's just say we were definitely being followed (like hawks.)

And this last video is of Oliver after He and Zack went to a Thunder basketball game in OKC this week.  Oliver thought that was a real big treat to go out with dad on a special night.  He had so much fun.  The only way Zack was able to peel him away so they wouldn't get home too late for bedtime was an ice cream bribe!  And apparently he was holding the program book the whole night.  What a cutie.