November fun

November came and went very quickly with Hunter's birthday, everyone being sick, and Thanksgiving. Here are some highlights from the month...


Jacob had his Thanksgiving play at preschool. He was an Indian Man this year and his line, "big and brave!" was easily memorized. He did want to be a Pilgrim Man so bad only because they got to have guns.

Our ancient DVD player finally kicked the bucket and Ryan thought it would be fun to take it apart and do manly things. Thankfully I was at work while all of this excitement took place. The boys did love the electronic stuff and had tons of questions for Ryan.

Hunter had his first field trip in Kindergarten and got to ride on a school bus for the first time. I think he was more excited about that then the actual trip to the zoo. His teacher had so many parents that it was just Hunter and I traipsing around the zoo. We had a great time just the two of us, which doesn't happen very often.

New puppies! No not ours, but my dad got 2 of my brother's new puppies. They are so stinking cute and fun. Gabi is on the left and Nico is on the right. Hunter loved playing with them and Jacob was scared outta his mind. Ignore the fact that we have a dog twice these puppies' size who is a freak and he's fine with her, but he was scared of these cute little guys.

Happy 6th Birthday Hunter!!

Can you believe that my baby is 6?! That is one year closer to 10...omg. In true fashion Hunter started his day bright and early...5:45 early! He opened some presents, had his birthday pancake and was off to school. (side note--I am not a fan of having to go to school on your birthday.)

After school Hunter got to go to Build-A-Bear and pick out his very first BAB. He chose a dog and dressed him up like a Storm Trooper. In true Star Wars fashion, the dog's name is Rex.

For his party we had the obligatory bounce house and yummy food. This year, I must have been drunk when I suggested it, he got to have a sleepover. The original idea was a camping sleepover with our tent and everything. But then it was too cold and I was too lazy to drag it out. I think the kids had fun anyways. We had 5 kids plus Hunter and Jacob sleep over. It was insane but everyone had a great time.

Trick or Treat!

We had a great Halloween this year. After the many costume changes throughout the month, Hunter decided on a ghost (I love that boy!) and Jacob was going to be Spiderman. Being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't get Hunter's cheap white sheet costume until a few days before the big day. That boy bugged me for DAYS to get it and I finally obliged. I did some hideous cutting and voila! a ghost is born.


On Halloween those little dudes were ready to go at 1 but sadly we had to wait for Daddy to get home and for the Smiths to show up. The boys got to trick or treat at one house to get it out of their system before everyone got there. Hunter quickly realized that the ghost costume just wasn't good for running around like a crazy person. After a quick costume change to Batman he was good to go. His reasoning...he couldn't move his arms with the ghost costume....whatever dude.


Once the Smiths got there we were off. I love how the kids are getting older and we can walk farther. This year we remembered to bring extra beer soda so the adults were happy throughout the walking. The kids pooped out way before the adults and just wanted to hang out and eat candy.

We can call this year a big success!

Who knew these counted as toys?!

The latest favorite toy in our house right now are playing cards. Yup, those 2 just love them! They gone from sorting, to playing War, pretending they're Bakugan cards and making up their own rules (in which I NEVER win...wth?!), and to building houses with Ryan.

This activity took great teamwork and some patience on Hunter's part. That poor boy really wanted to knock it down, but Jacob and Ryan kept telling him to slow down and to be careful.

Jacob was in charge of the walls and Hunter's job was the roof. Amazingly that little house lasted for a good 2 hours!! Then Hunter couldn't contain himself any longer and "accidentally" knocked it over.
This is what Indy thought of the whole project...

Super Hero Sunday

It's too soon!

I just overheard this conversation between the munchkins:

The setting: The boys' room looking at Maxim with the door closed! (Let's all remember that they are 4 and 5 years old!)

H: Jacob kiss the girls!

J: *making kissing noises on the magazine*

H: Go get another magazine with hot girls!

*Jacob runs to get another magazine, like the good little helper monkey that he is*

J: I got another magazine with hot girls Hunter!!

(And for the record he brings back Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue)

H: Kiss the girls Jacob!!

Ugh I'm SO not ready for this...shouldn't they be like 12 or 13 before this starts?! We've had to put up other magazines that are not suitable for them after an incident yesterday....

Get Your Groove On

Welcome to Softland

The boys have had a fort in the workout room, sewing room, craft room front bedroom for a good week and a half. We decided yesterday that it was time for the fort to come down. I'd like all of my chairs back in the kitchen so I can stop sitting on the stool from Ikea.

I started chucking blankets out in the hallway to make sure the make it to the laundry room.

Well Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (what you don't give your kids loving nicknames?!) thought it would be a great idea to pull all of their covers, pillows, stuffed animals out too.

And I now introduce you to Softland.

A place where you can tackle your brother on the tile without getting hurt.

A place where you can run from the opposite end and jump on the pile o' blankets and pray that none slip out and expose tile.

Softland was only open for 3 hours.

Management decided to reclaim the hallway and actually have clean blankets.

A rite of passage: riding with NO training wheels!

Well it's finally time for Hunter to ditch the training wheels. I've appointed Ryan to this task because 1. I apparently don't have the strength (yet!) to do this for more than a minute and 2. My patience has vanished, have NO clue where it went but it's gone.

For their first lesson Hunter did really well. He's totally ready just needs to work on his confidence level and remembering to pedal, a very minor but important task.

I love this picture, Hunter totally has an "oh sh*t" look on his face. He never fell, just had a few lose your balance moments that he caught with his foot.

He was able to ride a good distance on the grass by himself until he realized what he was doing. I think a couple of more lessons and he'll be good to go! We did bribe entice him with a new bike with a handbrake! if he learned to ride a 2-wheeler.

First day of kindergarten!!!!

I cannot believe that we have a kindergartner! It's crazy! We have 2 weeks behind us and it has gone better than I could have ever imagined. He was definitely ready for this milestone and I'm so glad his transition was so smooth.

Hunter seems to really like school and his new friends there. It's hard to get things out of him half the time but when I do, it's all good things.

Some of the things he does at school that I've drug out of him:
*count to 100 everyday
*eats lunch in the cafeteria
*works on the "volcano" with boys (who so far are nameless) so they can live underground

I've figured out that one of his friends at school is named Brian but other than that I have no clue who he plays with and I'm not sure he does either!

Hunter had homework for the first time this past week and there were some struggles, but not as bad as I thought. His first assignments were to write his name 5x, practice tying his shoes, read for 15 minutes, and then draw a picture of your favorite part. Quite a bit everyday but the tv wasn't allowed on until it was all done. That was a great motivator!

We walk to school every morning and we have been bringing Indy with us. Sometimes Jacob goes but right now it's pretty warm and by the walk home he's dripping in sweat and pretty darn slow. I made the mistake on the first day to walk and pick up Hunter--never again! Or at least while it's over 90 degrees. Once winter the cool part of summer comes then we'll walk to get him.



Week 3 starts tomorrow and I hope this great momentum sticks with us for the rest of the year!

A budding photographer

Hunter loves to use his camera (when it has batteries!) and mine to take pictures of anything and everything he can find. He borrowed mine today to take pictures of the Lincoln Log stuff he built, but then he moved on to more interesting subjects: Indy and Jacob.

Here's a little snippet of what I heard as they were going down the hall--
H: Jacob make a funny face!

J: (doing something I'm sure that I'd be proud of)

H: Jacob show everyone your butt!

Me: Clothes stay on!!!

And then I hear their bedroom door shut....oh dear! Thankfully they came out a few minutes later and showed me what pictures they took.

I was fearing little naked butts but I was pleasantly surprised. They had one of Hunter petting our cat and Jacob with his shirt up showing his boobies chest. Let's hope they can keep up the clean pictures. Thank the Lord they don't' know how to delete images!!

Just in case...

You never know when a bad guy is going to sneak up on you when you're taking a nap after a fun playdate.

*"Holy crap she's actually updating the blog!" you say. I know, I know I've been super lax on this lately. I have so many posts to share...trips to the cabin, birthday parties, etc. Slowly but surely I'll start catching you up on our daily lives.

Evan is here!!

Nicole and Don made it up to the cabin yesterday afternoon. All morning Hunter kept asking if Evan was here yet. Once he got here all hell broke loose and the boys went nuts!

Thankfully Ryan was brave and took the 3 boys to go shooting while Nicole and I (and Libby) got to somewhat relax.

It's going to be a week full of shooting and video games!

Our newest toy

This would the newest collection to our growing arsenal: a paintball gun!

The boys love shooting the wall at home and had great fun trying to hit big rocks and trees up here in Pinetop.