Adi's Anecdotes

So proud of my boys today

2011-10-04T14:08:00.001-07:00

Jordan has HSP. It's a really rare immune system reaction that he got in response to a cold he had. It'll last 3-4 weeks, but it has no permanent side effects. Anyway, it gives him little welts all over his body, and where the welts are, his body swells. Occasionally it's really painful and he can't walk. :( He'll be fine, but right now he's so pitiful!

Well, a few minutes ago I was standing in the kitchen talking to my sister. I turned to see my big office chair emerging through the doorway. At first I was annoyed and started to ask, "What the heck...?", but then Matthew's little head peeked around and he said, "I'm sorry, but I was just giving my brother a ride because he can't walk." My heart melted and I got a little teary-eyed at the pure sweetness of the act. My boys are so good to each other. It must be so wonderful to walk through life with a best friend!

Still Alive and Well...

2011-08-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, 3 months since I last posted - that's a new record for me! We have been busy, busy. Here are a few of the things we've been up to since I last posted: a trip to Disney World, 1st soccer season, I quit my job and applied to grad school, half-birthday celebration, Girls Camp, a trip to Hawaii, a girls weekend to Saugatuck, MI, a trip to Holiday World, triathlons, numerous visits to Kings Island, parks, farms, museums, the zoo, the pool, etc., etc...

Disney World - of course I can't post just one or two pictures from D-World (my favorite place on Earth). I'll do a separate post to recap Disney.

My two little soccer cuties - I'm officially a soccer mom (no van, though). The boys loved it. Jordan would go out in the yard for 3 or 4 hours and dribble the ball back and forth. I'm amazed at his dedication and focus (he definitely didn't get the focus from me - I'm more what you would call ADD). Matthew was so funny. The ball would roll right up to him and he'd just stare at it. The funny part is that he thinks he is a soccer MVP. At dinner one night, Jeremy told Jordan that if he keeps practicing like he does then he's going to be really good some day. Then Matthew piped up, "Yeah, like me!" Ha! Don't have to worry about that one's self-esteem.

I hate that the boys' birthday is so close to Christmas. I've decided to give them another special day mid-year by celebrating their 1/2 birthday. I wanted to throw them a party, but when Jeremy looked at me like I was insane, I decided to go the simpler route. We went to the zoo where I treated them to special things like all the rides, face paint, ice cream, etc. After the zoo we went to the store to pick out a present and then we had half-birthday cake with Dad when he got home from work (I made half of a cake). This will definitely be a new tradition. The boys loved it!

Girls Camp - as you can see, I haven't grown up much.

Hawaii - like D-World, I'll need to post separately about this trip because there are too many fabulous details and photos to share. 9 days of relaxing, sunshiny, childless glorious fun.

My mom, Lindsey and I went on a trip to Saugatuck, MI. It's a beautiful little artsy town on Lake Michigan. We had TONS of fun shopping, eating, bike riding and sight-seeing. Also, Oval Beach on Lake Michigan was in Conde Nast Traveler's top 25 beaches of the world. If any of you in the mid-west are looking for a quick weekend trip, then you should consider Saugatuck. It's super cute!

We, along with my parents and Lindsey, visit Holiday World every summer. We love this place!! The boys were so cute when they got to see Santa. Santa was trying to read a story to the kids, but Jordan kept interrupting him with questions and questions (the thing he does best) - "Where are your reindeer?", "How do your reindeer fly?", "Where are your elves?" When Santa finally got through the story, the boys got to sit on his lap. Fun to see the big guy in mid-July! Other than Santa, the boys' favorite part of Holiday World was the water park (of course).

Kings Island

Zoo with the Bergesons

Grandma's house - we had so much fun swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool this summer! One day we found a big frog in the skimmer. Matthew and Jordan thought the frog was hilarious. I couldn't believe how they were carrying the poor thing around like it was a stuffed animal. They let him go in the creek behind my parents' house and I'm sure the poor guy was probably super relieved to get away from them.

Children's Museum with Kinsley

Indiana State Fair with Grandma, Grandpa and Lindsey - we were actually there the night that the Sugarland stage collapsed! We weren't in the Grandstand, but we were across the street in the pig barn, and we heard all the chaos. What an awful tragedy. :( Before that and the storm happened, we did have fun, though. Jordan especially fell in love with all the animals. For days afterward he drew pictures of goats - big goats, small goats, goats with beards, goats with floppy ears, goats with tiny ears and families of goats.

Other random pictures of the fun we've been having:

#19...Check!

2011-05-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

#19 Build a bigger pantry in my kitchen
- completed 2/28/11

OK, so maybe I should have called this goal, "Convince my husband to build me a bigger pantry in my kitchen." :-) It was funny how I tried to convince Jeremy to do this. I said, "You know what would be awesome? If we made the pantry bigger. All we would have to do is seal up the door here, put up a wall here and there, and...voila! A big, beautiful pantry." Well, obviously the project wasn't as easy as I had envisioned, but anyhow, the job is done and it looks fantastic. I'm sad that I didn't get 'before' pictures, though. You'll just have to use your imagination...

The finished product (beautiful, isn't it?!):

Just imagine that the wall used to be flush with the wall that the oven sits against, and there was a door there that led into the spare bedroom/office.

My pantry used to be the small, dark cave that's way back in there:

Thank you to my sweetheart and my dad who put SO many hours into completing this project. I love you!!

My 101 in 1001

Hearing the Prophet's Voice

2011-04-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

I always come away from General Conference weekend with a desire to do more and to be a better person. However, since the boys have joined our family, the experience has been somewhat lacking because it's difficult for two little boys to sit and pay attention for 8 hours (which in turn makes it impossible for a certain mommy to pay attention). This time I decided that things needed to change. Although my boys are only 4 years old, I had to somehow teach them how important it is to enjoy General Conference as a family - to listen to the Prophet. I did some research on the internet and, inspired by the ideas of others, I came up with a brilliant plan...

Just before Conference, Jeremy and I sat down with the boys and told them about the story of King Benjamin. We told them about how the people of all the land came from everywhere to hear what he had to say to them. They pitched their tents around the temple and King Benjamin stood upon a tower so all could hear him. We then explained that we were going to pitch our own tent at the feet of the Prophet (in our living room at the base of the TV) so that we could sit together and listen to him. They got SO excited at the prospect of camping out in the living room together. I then also presented each of them with a "Reverence Bag" filled with some quiet activities that I got from the dollar store (crayons, coloring books, books, play dough, puzzles, etc.), treats and conference activity pages that I printed from online. Before each session, I refilled their reverence bags with new things. They would get excited for the next session because of the anticipation of seeing what was in their bags.

I seriously thought this would last a whole ten minutes before they would get bored of the whole tent thing. My boys are obedient, but they're 4 years old and very active. I didn't have much faith that I could get them to sit still very long. I was so surprised though! During the breaks between sessions they would actually ask us when we could sit and listen to the prophet again! If Jeremy and I spoke to each other during the talks, then one of them would say something like, "Shhh! This is important!" Ha! :) I think a couple reasons why it worked so well is because the boys were inside the tent and couldn't get distracted by their toys and other fun things. The other reason is that they genuinely loved the fact that we snuggled up together for hours on end. They got mom's and dad's attention for a full 8 hours and they were in heaven! My butt was sore from sitting on a tent floor for 8 hours, but the reward was so sweet to see Matthew and Jordan happily sitting in there with us, doing their quiet activities and occasionally listening to the words being said. I'm telling you, this was genius! I got more out of General Conference than I have in 4 years. :-)

Our Reverence Tent

Reverent Bags

I love General Conference. I love spring and this Easter time of year when I take special time to reflect on the gift of our Savior. I'm so grateful that God has blessed us with a living Prophet to receive modern revelation and guide us on Earth today. I know that God lives and that I can speak to him daily through prayer. He is aware of my needs and the desires of my heart. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I know that He sacrificed and died for me. I know that He was resurrected and that He lives; and I know that I will live with Him again someday, eternally with my family.

Indy Children's Museum

2011-04-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

We LOVE the Indianapolis Children's Museum. My parents have a grandparents pass there, so we go quite often. I haven't posted any museum pictures for a while because it's always the same pictures, but this time they had a super cool exhibit, so I thought I'd show it off. The exhibit is "Incredible Costumes from Film & TV". They had all kinds of costumes that were used in Hollywood. We're somewhat of movie buffs, so it was really fun. The best one was a 2-story tall Bumblebee the Transformer that was used in a few scenes of the Transformer movies. My boys were in awe! Another fun thing about the exhibit was that they had lots of costumes to dress up in. Matthew and Jordan had a blast trying on superhero costumes. :)

(Sorry for the blurry picture phone pics)

Sickies

2011-04-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I felt so glamorous cleaning up puke from the boys' bedroom floor. I must say that the clean-up was not at all fun, but taking care of your sick children can be quite rewarding. Poor Jordi was SO pitiful. For a couple days, all he wanted to do was snuggle, and I didn't mind that at all. ;) My sweet little boy needed me and I expended all of my efforts just to make him feel better. At the end of the day, I felt like I had actually accomplished something. It's nice to feel needed. :)
Just to show how pitiful this poor kid was - this is a picture of Jordan lying on the kitchen floor. I had told him that I needed to go fix dinner and asked him to just stay in bed. He refused to let me leave his side though, so he followed me into the kitchen. Eventually he ended up like this:

And then like this (completely konked out):

Matthew and I both caught the bug by the time Jordan recovered (which took him a week!), and we were kind enough to share our germs with a couple of the boys' friends (sorry, friends!). Needless to say, I'm so glad to be back to normal around here!

Rockin' Out

2011-04-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

I have no clue why, but for some reason my boys have really been into being rock stars lately. They dress like rock stars and then totally "rock out" on their little toy guitars. You should hear their rock star singing voices - it's not pretty.
It's not like I watch MTV or anything. In fact, I mostly listen to country music... Well anyway, I'd be remiss if I didn't post this adorable picture. This is what a rock star looks like, according to Jordan:
Side-ways hat...check
Cool rock star shoes...check
Awesome rock star shades...check
Guitar slung over shoulder...check

They kill me!

#57...Check!

2011-04-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

#57 Visit Emily S. & Siobhan in L.A.
- completed 5/21/11

Woohoo! Another one checked off the list. While we were in California, I made sure to make time to visit with a couple of good friends.

Not only has Siobhan been my boss for years, but she also has been my friend and mentor. She is seriously amazing, and I could go on and on about how cool, funny and sweet this lady is. :) Siobhan and her husband live in L.A. with their two cuties, Eoin (3) and Orla (2). Eoin and Matthew really hit it off in the few hours we spent together. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take any pictures. :( Suffice it to say that we had a great time visiting with them.

We also visited with Jared and Emily Scott, who used to live in Ohio until they deserted us for the sunny beaches of Southern California (I'm not jealous or anything). Emily is one of the funniest girls I know and I miss her dearly! I wish we could have stayed longer, but at least we got to have a few good laughs together. So glad we got to see you guys!

I didn't know anyone could make pregnancy look so good. You suck, Emily. ;)

My 101 in 1001

Escaping the Winter Blues

2011-04-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we took Jeremy's brother's wedding as an excuse to go on a little California vacation. :) Daniel and Jessica were married in the San Diego temple for all eternity. If you'd like to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our temples, please visit mormon.org.

The wedding was beautiful and so was the bride! We're so excited that Jessica has joined our family. She's the sweetest girl. It was also tons of fun speaking Spanish with her family, who are from El Salvador. Here are some pictures of the wedding fun (including some super fun wrestling times with the Uncles and Aunt Katherine):

Aren't these two the cutest?! (I mean the two in the tux and the dress, not my boys)

While in San Diego, we took the opportunity to tour the town. We had such a nice time walking around Seaport Village, checking out the USS Midway and playing at Sea World!

Total studs

Thanks for the fun times, Grandma Vickie, Grandpa "Mac" and the rest of the fam that could be there. We love and miss you!

After the wedding festivities were over and everyone went home, Jeremy, the boys and I headed up to L.A. to see some sights and visit with friends. We went to a science museum and visited the La Brea tar pits - a super cool archeological digging site where they have discovered hundreds of fossils from the Ice Age. The coolest was a display of wolf skulls. They've uncovered over 1,600 wolf skulls in these tar pits, and they had 400 of them displayed in rows on a single wall. It was crazy. Here are a couple pics of us at the dig sites/tar pits:

By afternoon, the rain cleared and it turned into a gorgeous day, so we headed to the Pacific Coast Highway. We had a blast playing on the beach together:

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving

2011-04-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

Thirty? It's true. Flirty? Well, some things never change. Thriving? Uh, I suppose it depends on who's judging.

I love the movie 13 Going On 30. Although 30 may not be as glamorous as depicted in the movie (somehow I didn't quite feel glamorous last week while I was scrubbing puke off the boys' mattress and bedroom floor), I must say I've enjoyed the small boost of confidence turning thirty has given me. I'm still young, yet I have 30 years of incredibly fulfilling experiences under my belt. I'm better looking (so says Jeremy), definitely more stylish, smarter and more spiritual than I was in my young twenty-somethings. While I still sometimes long for the care-free days of my 21-year-old self, in many ways 30 is better.

I also love the opening scenes of the 13 Going On 30 movie which are set in the 80s (because, let's face it, the 80s were the awesomest) - which brings me to my next point: the party. I threw myself an 80s-themed birthday party and it was awesome. Yes, I threw myself my own party - not because I'm pathetic and don't have any friends to throw me a party, but because I LOVE throwing parties (and no one throws a party better than yours truly). ;-) I had a Best Dressed contest, 80s Trivia and a Wall of Shame (adorned with the most shameful pictures of my guests from the 1980s). Plus, one of my good friends was kind enough to burn me 5 CDs FULL of the best 1980s hits. Here are a few pictures of the blessed event:

Jeremy made his signature 4-layer German Chocolate Cake with Coconut whipped cream. To. Die. For.

One of the highlights was the candy. I found all kinds of 80s retro candy for the party, including Zots, Rock Candy, Razzles, Orange Heads and Fruit Stripe Gum. So fun!

I had good intentions of dressing up my boys, but it didn't happen (Jordan decided on his own to be a sword-wielding cowboy). However, our friends did manage to dress up their little baby. He came as Richard Simmons (see baby below in headband and wristbands). Haha, it was the most adorable thing.

Notice my 80s make-over. It was totally unintentional that I ended up looking slightly like a 1980s hooker; and this made Jordan's comment even funnier... I was in the bathroom putting on the final touches of my look when Jordan walked in. He gasped and said, "Oh Mommy! You look like a real lady!" Ha! I have no idea what ladies he is referring to.

The party was a blast and I was so happy to spend the time with friends. My parents were able to stay over the Friday night before. We took the boys to the aquarium early in the day and went out to lunch. My mom and I did a little shopping. Then we all ordered in pizza and hung out at home together in the evening. All in all, it was a great 30th birthday.

I'm totally offended...

2011-03-31T16:06:00.000-07:00

We were sitting at the dinner table and the following conversation took place:

Jordan: I'm the bestest pilot ever!
Jeremy and I: Oh really?! That's cool.
Jordan: Yeah...I'm a pilot and daddy's a pilot and Matt-matt's a pilot...but Mommy's just an old lady.

(sigh) Isn't it the best when your children innocently insult you? :)

And Kori - I read Leni's equally offensive quote on your blog. It's also hilarious. ;)

Chirping

2011-03-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

For the love. What reason does a bird have for being up at 3am? We have a tall bush outside our bedroom window with birds living inside. Every morning at 6:30am I get my wake-up call to notify me that the sun is rising. It's not so bad because I'm starting to wake up by that point in the morning anyway, and it's fairly easy to drown the noise out a little with a pillow over my head. I must say, I've contemplated cutting the stupid bush down, but then I can't bear the thought of bringing down tiny baby birds with it.

Well this morning the chirping starts at 3am. What the heck? So I lay in bed, toying with the idea of buying the boys some bee-bee guns and allowing them to practice on the hideous bush. At 3am I hate birds. Thank goodness for earplugs. Although, the problem with earplugs is that you can hear every sound inside your own head. I hate that.

That's all.

Easy Chocolate Truffles

2011-03-27T18:54:00.001-07:00

For a friend's baby shower I made some yummy chocolate truffles that are super easy to make. I thought I'd share the secret...

Ingredients:
Large bag of Hershey Kisses (or you could use chocolate chips)
Bag of Caramel Hershey Kisses
Half & Half
1/2 large bag of Pecans

Unwrap plain Hershey Kisses and put them in a microwavable bowl. Add half & half. I don't know how much to add, but it's pretty easy to just eye it in this recipe. I add it until Kisses are about 1/3 or 1/2 way covered.

Microwave in 15-second increments (removing to stir each time) until chocolate is smooth. Put melted chocolate in refrigerator for at least 4 hours. It's best if you can let it sit in there overnight. When you remove it from the fridge, it should look like this:

Take a spoonful of chocolate, insert a caramel Kiss in the middle and roll into a ball. Repeat until all of the chocolate is gone.

Chop pecans finely and then roll each truffle in the pecan bits.

They should look like this:

And like this on the inside:

Yum!!

There's a similar recipe on the Hershey's website here: http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/8613/Double-KISSES-Truffles.aspx

Safari Baby Shower

2011-03-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm way overdue in posting about the super cute safari baby shower I did for a friend, Melissa Dalton - I threw the shower in November and her baby is now 2 months old. Oops! :) Oh well, I had to share, even if late, because it's too cute to miss.

Melissa is one of the sweetest girls I know. She was the boys' nanny for almost a year, and they adore her. I adore her too! I wanted to do something really special for her shower. I chose the Safari theme because Melissa mentioned to me that she loves Safari decorations. Plus Melissa herself has had some experiences in Africa, so I thought the theme was fitting. I went with pale green, baby-blue and chocolate brown, with lots of animal print accents.

Invitations:
I designed the invitations to go with the theme - I love the baby and momma elephants. :)

Dessert table:
One of my favorite parts of throwing a party is putting together the dessert table. I made the cute banner out of solid and animal print scrapbook paper. Melissa's sister, Angie, helped me with the adorable zebra print cake (using my Cricut Cake). Everything looked amazing and tasted yummy.

Favors: I found some animal print fans on Oriental Trading Company and we wrapped them up with some Oreo pops that Angie made.

Decor: I didn't manage to get pictures of all the decor. We had animal print paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I draped the door with some mosquito netting and tied it off with some palm fronds to give the room a safari feel. I also draped mosquito netting around the chair that Melissa sat in. Finally, I turned one of my lamps into a palm tree. It turned out cute, but took FOREVER to make. :) I found the fun little baby animals at IKEA for $0.49 a piece!

Duckpin Bowling

2011-03-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Duckpin Bowling? I hadn't either. Apparently it was quite popular with the "in" crowd of the early 1900s around the Eastern U.S.
Well, my mom found the coolest little Duckpin Bowling place in Fountain Square in Indianapolis. The building is very old and the atmosphere is totally retro. Too fun!

Duckpin Bowling is much like regular bowling, but the pins are smaller and squatter, and the balls are only about 5 in. in diameter (and have no finger holes). Matthew and Jordan LOVED it because the balls were just their size and very easy to manage with their little hands.

Coming to a city near you...

2011-03-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

We are! - in Jeremy's new toy that we recently acquired. ;-) Fulfilling his life-long dream (of owning an airplane), Jeremy is now the proud owner of a 1965 Mooney.

Picking her up in Florida

First family flight

So, as the title of this post suggests, we may be coming to a city near you!

One of my favorite things...

2011-02-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

A steal of a deal - like this super cute $150 navy dress that I got for 30 bucks. Sweet! I needed a navy dress for my bro-in-law's wedding next month. Gotta love the sale rack at Von Maur!

Killer Dogs

2011-02-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

My dad is at our house about 3 - 4 days during the week. Jeremy and I often take advantage of the free babysitting. :) While we're out, things usually go about like this:

The boys make up crazy games with their grandpa, and their favorite is "Killer Dogs". Every time Mom and Dad go on a date and they are left alone with Grandpa, the first thing they ask is to play Killer Dogs. The boys are so lucky to have a grandpa who is as silly as they are. ;-)

I'm in love...

2011-01-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

I'm so in love with these little boys.

This is how I found my sweet boys sleeping the other night - they had fallen asleep holding hands. Their little fingers were even interlaced. How precious are they?!

I love Matthew and Jordan with all my heart. I'm so proud of the big boys that they're becoming, and I feel so blessed and honored that Heavenly Father sent two of his choicest little spirits to me.

And now a word to my little men...

Dear Matthew and Jordan,

Before the doctor even told me that I was carrying you both, I knew in my heart that I would be bringing home two little bundles in a few months' time. The ultrasound confirmed my feelings when we saw two tiny little beans there on the screen. I was pretty sure your daddy was going to pass out. I wasn't surprised at all though - I had already felt your strong little spirits.

Not very many people get to come to Earth with their best friend, you know. Whenever anyone asks you who your best friend is, your reply is always the same - "Matt-matt" or "Jordan". You boys are so blessed to have each other and I hope you never forget that. Lately your days are filled with constant imaginative play. Hardly a moment goes by that you're not pretending to be a superhero rescuing a puppy or a princess in distress, racing your "super fast" race cars around Lightning McQueen's race track, or flying high on a fire-breathing dragon destroying every monkey-in-a-barrel that crosses your path. You're certainly constant entertainment.

Matthew, you are a giver and freely give of yourself when you see that someone else is lacking. You are the biggest sweetheart, and you are in love with your mommy. You tell me at least five times a day that you love me. The other night, Daddy and I came home from a date. I went into your room to kiss you goodnight but you were still awake (waiting for me, I guess). When I walked into your room, you gasped and said, "Oh Mommy, you look beautiful!" Then you sat up and gave me a big wet kiss on the lips. Haha...like I said - you're such a little sweetheart. At the same time, you are fiercely independent (although some would call you stubborn). You're an obedient little boy, but you sure won't let anyone tell you what to do, say or think. You act like you're invincible, but at the same time, you think carefully through everything. You have such an inquisitive, analytical little mind. I love that about you. That, paired with your desire to be the class clown, turns into a lot of crazy antics and really makes for some good laughs. You constantly keep us rolling, Matthew.

Jordan, you are my little ball of sunshine. You get excited about everything. I guess you get that from your mother. :) It doesn't matter what it is - every prize and present you ever receive is "all that you always wanted", and you never forget to express immense gratitude to the giver. You are silly, energetic, creative and everything that is "fun" in the world. You still talk incessantly. Jordi, you're also a pleaser. It doesn't take much to make you cry because you hate getting in trouble or hurting someone else's feelings. Quite often you ask Mathew how much he loves you ("Matt-matt, do you love me just a little bit, or do you love me lots and lots?"), because it's ever so important to you that you know your brother adores you. You are very much in tune to the feelings of others and you're quick to lend a helping hand. Oh, and one more thing... although you have great balance on your bike and roller skates, you're also incredibly clumsy. I guess you get that from your mother too. ;)

Boys, it amazes me, the things you say and do every day. I'm so proud of the big boys you're becoming and I thank Heavenly Father every day that He chose me to be your mommy. You're growing up too quickly though, and you're always sure to remind me of that if I forget. People always told me that you would grow up fast, but I'm not sure that I believed them. Well...it's true. But, you'll always be my babies. I love you, my little sweeties.

Love,
Mommy

Oh the things they say...

2011-01-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

These are old quotes and I actually can't remember if I've posted them before or not. I just found them written on a post-it note while clearing off my desk. Anyway, hopefully I'm not repeating myself...

The boys were playing with a set of my animal stamps. Matthew was stamping alligators and penguins while telling the story:
"The alligators are eating the penguins! But wait, then the princess saved the penguins....And then the princess got married to the prophet!"

Ha, lucky princess!

************************************************
The boys were studying the letter "M". Melissa took them to the Mall and they watched all of the Mommies.
Melissa asked the boys: "What do mommies do?"
Jordan's response, "They use knives and scissors."
Melissa (chuckling): "Oh, and what else do they do?"
Jordan: "They can watch big movies with bad guys in them"

Haha, this made me laugh so hard. I just know he was trying to think of the things that I recently had told him he couldn't do until he was grown up a little more - like use knives and watch Iron Man. :-)

A Splash-tastic 4th Birthday

2011-01-09T16:26:00.000-08:00

Heehee, sorry, I know the title is a little cheesy. :) We had SO much fun at Great Wolf Lodge for the boys' 4th birthday! As mentioned in a previous post, Matthew and especially Jordan were insanely proud to be 4 years old. It's been a month since their birthday and still, if you talk with Jordan, the fact that he is 4 will somehow be worked into the conversation. They're so funny.

Anyway, we packed up after church on Sunday and headed down to The Great Wolf Lodge in Mason. There was a crazy snow storm on the way down there and it was the coldest two December days I can remember since I lived in Rexburg, ID. It was kind of strange to put my body in a swim suit when it was 10 degrees outside. :) We checked into our hotel and the boys were ecstatic to see this in our room:

They got their own little wolf den with a bunk bed and their own T.V.

Monday was their birthday. We went to see "Rapunzel" (LOVE that movie!!), ate lunch, went back to the hotel to swim at the waterpark and then we did the cake and presents thing.

Their favorite presents were an aircraft carrier they got from Mom and Dad, Viking helmets/axes/shields (which are "totally the real thing") from Grandma and Grandpa, and Mr. & Mrs. Potato head from Uncle Luke & Aunt Sissy.

Mommy made her boys a Lightning McQueen birthday cake. It was a labor of love, but it turned out awesome. I was so proud of myself! By the way, on the way to the hotel, the cake fell from the seat of my car to the floor. :( I'm such a dork. McQueen's face got pretty banged up, but the cake survived OK. I was just happy that I got a picture of it pre-accident!

Jordan forgot to blow out the candles (like mother, like son) so we had to do it over again. :)

As messy as he was on his 1st birthday. What is he going to do in kindergarten when I'm not there to clean off his face?? He STILL wears all is food.

Daddy and his little men

Total cuteness.

Later I'll post some pics of our fun at the waterpark...

Catching Up

2011-01-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

So I can finally get caught up, I'm just going to do a super quick update on November and beginning of December.

Our 8th Anniversary

Sad that this crazy picture is the only one I got! Oh well. The week before our anniversary I had to go on a business trip to Seattle. I took it as the perfect opportunity to surprise Jeremy. I left on Sunday and he thought I was coming home the following weekend. I was doing just that, but what he didn't know was that I bought him a plane ticket to come out and spend the weekend with me! :) I'm a terrible secret keeper (not on purpose - I just always accidentally spoil the surprise), so I was so proud of myself for holding this secret in. He was totally surprised! He flew out on Friday morning. We hung out with our good buddies (Clint and Kacey), took in dinner and a movie, did a little shopping and drove around to some of our favorite parts of the city. It was a perfectly relaxing weekend with my sweetie-pea. Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

Thanksgiving

Usually we have almost the entire crouch clan over for Thanksgiving, but this year only 2 of Jeremy's brothers and their families could make it. We still had a blast with all 5 grandkids (ages 6 and under) together - my boys, Lucas (2), Rachel (6) and Spencer (4). Fun times!

A visit with Rosanne and Hannah

I was so excited to have one of my best friends, Rosanne, and her little girl, Hannah, here to visit. As mentioned in previous posts, Hannah is the boys' little girlfriend. Well, during this visit Hannah and Jordan were inseparable. Hannah would get pretty annoyed that Matthew wouldn't obey her little commands, but Jordan bowed to her every whim. At one point I was in the kitchen and I heard Hannah say, "Oh priiiiiiince!", and then around the corner ran little Jordan - hot on her heels. I was a little worried that Jordan had stolen Matt-matt's girlfriend, but when Jeremy asked Matthew the following Sunday if the little girl sitting in the pew in front of us at church was his girlfriend, Matthew replied, "No, I just love my shy little girlfriend, Hannah." So sweet. :)
Anyway, we had tons of fun playing with our friends. I felt like it was the old days again before they deserted us to Utah. ;)

The Circus

The four of us went to the circus with my parents and Lindsey & Luke. Jordan's favorite part was the elephants. Matthew was pretty certain that the tigers were going to eat him. They also loved playing with the clown noses.

Simplification

2011-01-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- Leonardo da Vinici

I love the holidays. Thanksgiving through New Years should be the most joyous time of the year, but unfortunately for me (and likely for most us), it's usually the most stressful time of year. At the end of each holiday season, I look back and find it such a shame that I had rushed, rushed, rushed to "get things done" and I had filled my schedule to the point that I couldn't even remember why those seemingly critical things had been so vital. In the end I always come away with some really happy memories, but they are sprinkled with the regret that I didn't slow down just a bit in order to relish the elements of the season that are truly meaningful.

So this year I decided to simplify. Some might call it lazy-ify, but I call it prioritization. :-) I decided that some things needed to be postponed, some simply had to be taken down a notch, and others had to go (like an outrageous birthday party for my boys which, let's face it, was more for me than it was for them). I decided that my Christmas present to me was that I was going to allow myself to be stress-free.

And. It. Was. Amazing.

I didn't go overboard with Thanksgiving. I didn't make my usual hand-made menus and table place cards, and my decorations weren't quite as snazzy. It was still a perfectly lovely dinner with family members that we love.

I didn't throw the boys a huge birthday bash. Instead, Jeremy and I took a day off work, we stayed an extra night at Great Wolf Lodge and we spent some real quality time together as a family - time that we wouldn't have had together otherwise. And (you guessed it) the boys didn't even realize that they had missed out on a party. ;)

I decided not to have any Christmas parties this year, but we carried on our usual Christmas traditions. My Christmas treats didn't get delivered until the day after Christmas and my homemade Christmas cards weren't mailed out until 12/29; but it didn't matter. What mattered in the end was that we spent almost every December evening together - decorating gingerbread men, playing games, watching Christmas movies, serving others, and talking about Christ (and, I'm sure, dreaming about Santa).

What did I come away with? A handful of treasures that will never be forgotten or taken away from me - a truer understanding of myself, increased gratitude for my multitude of blessings, an even closer relationship with Jeremy and my boys, a stronger desire to serve others, and a deeper testimony of Jesus Christ (the true reason for the season).

This was the best holiday season ever.

Quote of the day

2010-12-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

If you know Matthew, then you know that his favorite thing to eat (and practically the only thing that he eats) is crackers with peanut butter and jelly. Well, Jeremy and I have been trying our hardest to convince him to try other foods, so the new rule is, "You eat whatever Mom and Dad are eating" (I wish I would have done that a couple years ago and maybe I wouldn't have such a problem now!). Anyway, I was cooking dinner yesterday and Matthew was going on and on about how gross it was. I told him, "Matthew, I think it's time to grow up a little bit and start eating like a big boy."

His response, "Mommy, growing up is a bad idea. Matt-matt boys just eat crackers."

Ha! Poor guy. We've turned his world upside-down by forcing him to try foods other than peanut butter crackers. He longs for the good ol' days when he could just wake up, play, eat his crackers, take a nap, wake up, play, eat his crackers, and go to bed. My dear Matt-matt, growing up is sometimes such a hard thing to do. :)

Halloween 2010

2010-12-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

OK so we way over-did Halloween this year, but we sure had fun. We went to the Trunk-or-Treat at our church on Friday, trick-or-treating at the Columbus Zoo "Zoo Boo" on Saturday morning, trick-or-treating for Beggar's night on Saturday night with our friends, and trick-or-treating once again on Sunday (Halloween) in my parents' neighboorhood. Next year, we'll definitely do a little less trick-or-treating. ;) Anyway, here are some cute pics of the fun...

I also made my costume and Jeremy's costume. He was a green army man and I was Jessie (of course!).

"Trick-or-Treat!"

#90...Check!

2010-12-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

#90 Make the boys' Halloween costumes -
completed 10/29/10

The hours of costume-making paid off - the boys looked SO cute!

For Matthew's costume, I dyed a white shirt bright yellow, drew red lines with a fabric marker and sewed on big cartoon-ish buttons. I bought a yard of cow-print fabric for a couple bucks and cut out a vest. The belt buckle and gold star were cut out of cardboard and spray-painted gold. He was the darn cutest Sheriff Woody in the Wild West.

Jordan's costume was made mostly of cardboard and duct tape. I used foam for the detail pieces, and the arm bands were made out of yogurt containers and sippy cups. The whole thing was spray-painted white and then painted in detail with craft paint. I wish I had video taped Jordan's reaction when he saw the finished product. He was totally amazed at his real Buzz Lightyear costume.

My 101 in 1001

Brown County

2010-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

For the past few years, we've made a trip down to Brown County State Park in Southern Indiana with my family. The fall is the perfect time to go there - the colors are gorgeous! We stayed in the park's lodge which has a little waterpark, so we did plenty of splashing around. We also rode the ponies at the stables, visited Nashville (the cutest little town lined with fun stores) and drove around to see the leaves.

I'm only including this picture because I think the horse's crazy eyes are hilarious.

Intense focus

Proud to be 4

2010-12-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Matthew and Jordan's 4th birthday this week! We partied at Great Wolf Lodge (one of my favorite places ever) for a couple nights. Anyway more details about the big day will be posted later. What I really wanted to quickly share (before I forget) were some of the funny things Jordan has said about being 4. Matthew thinks it's really cool that he's 4 now, but Jordan thinks he's suddenly an adult...

*********************************
We were at the waterpark on Sunday (when the boys were still 3), and they weren't big enough to ride some of the slides. Well, Monday was their birthday and they were officially 4. When we got to the waterpark on Monday morning, Jordan said, "Am I big enough to ride the roller coaster slide now?" As if he had grown a foot overnight. :)

*********************************
On Monday my mom and Jordi were walking down the hallway and he told my mom, "Well, my clothes are going to be too little for me now. I guess I'm going to need to wear Daddy's clothes, or buy some new ones." Ha!

*********************************

The hotel had a breakfast buffet that served kids 3 & under for free. My parents were going to take them down to the buffet and my first thought was, "Oh geez, Jordan is going to immediately tell the lady that it's his birthday because he's so proud." So, before they went down there I said:

"OK Jordi, when you go to the restaurant, don't tell the lady it's your birthday. And, if she asks you how old you are, tell her you're 3." (nice, I know, teaching my 4 yr-old to lie)

"But Mommy, I'm 4."

"I know you're 4, Honey, but just pretend that you're 3."

"Ooookayyy..."

So, the boys go down to the restaurant with my parents, and what's the first thing to come out of Jordan's mouth?:

Jordan: "It's my birthday!"

Hostess: "Oh, Happy Birthday! How old are you?"

Jordan: "Well...my Mommy told me to tell you that..."

And then my mom clapped her hand over his mouth and said, "He's 4."

Ugh! That's what I get for trying to teach my chatty 4 yr-old to tell fibs. :)

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On Tuesday the boys and I were having breakfast, and I could tell the wheels in Jordan's head were spinning. He asks, "Mommy, am I big enough to drive now?" Ha! I thought he was joking, but when I told him "no", he goes, "Ah man! But I'm 4!" According to Jordan, 4 is the new 20.

A Bride Again

2010-12-10T05:16:00.001-08:00

The other day Jordan told me that he wants to marry Hannah in the temple. Matthew immediately told me that he can't marry Hannah in the temple because he wants to marry me in the temple. (aw, I love these boys)

I just had to post this quickly before I forget because I've always wanted a little boy who wants to marry his mommy. ;-)

Halloween Hayride

2010-12-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

There is a place here called Windmill Farm that does the BEST hayride ever. It's a wild 25-min ride that bounces up and down hills and trudges through mud so deep that it completely covers the tractor tires. The destination is a cute pumpkin patch in the middle of a cornfield where the kiddos get to choose their own pumpkins.

Carving Pumpkins

2010-12-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

In this picture Matthew is saying "That's groooooss." Both boys absolutely refused to stick their hands in. :)

A Sleepover w/Brighton

2010-12-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

In October, I surprised my best friend here in Dayton with a weekend getaway with her hubby. We babysat their little boy, Brighton, so they could go out. Brighton also happens to be Matthew and Jordan's best little buddy, so the boys had their first sleepover. Alone these boys act like typical 3 yr-old boys, but when the three of them get together their energy level increases about 100 times. :) They were wild and crazy as usual and had so much fun. Some pj pics (I'm in love with the boys' Buzz and Woody pajamas):

At first we tried putting all three of them in the boys' room, but when they still weren't remotely settled down by 11pm (actually poor Matthew was trying so hard to fall asleep, but Jordi and Brighton were being crazy), we decided to bring Brighton into our room and he slept in the pack-n-play. When he got home he told his mom, "I slept in the little bed. I liked it." He's too cute.

By the way, this allows me to check another one off my list of 101 in 1001: #73 Watch Brighton for a weekend so Brian and Collette can have a getaway.

A Knight of Murder - Murder Mystery Party 2010

2010-12-06T18:44:00.001-08:00

This year our annual murder mystery dinner was renaissance-themed, and it was the biggest (and best) one yet. Usually the murder mystery parties we have include 8 - 10 people, but this year we had 17 people! Everyone really got into their roles and all the costumes were amazing (Jeremy was voted best costume!). I decorated our family room to look like a castle by taping up stonewall paper from floor to ceiling - it looked awesome. The table and other decorations were also beautiful. Unfortunately, when everyone left and I cleaned everything up, I realized that I took zero pictures of the room. :( Bummer! Luckily I did get a couple shots of the lovely subjects of Fernwood Manor:

Jeremy and I were the Lord and Lady of the manor. I'm so proud because I made our costumes myself! I owe so many HUGE thanks to my mother-in-law who helped me out a ton with figuring out the pattern, how to sew on some sleeves, and do some other fancy footwork that I really have no clue about, and I think the finished products turned out so great. I would never claim to be a seamstress, but I do like to tackle the sewing machine once a year for costume making. ;-)

If you're looking for a murder mystery party to throw, I totally recommend Night of Mystery. We've tried 3 or 4 other murder mystery companies, but these guys are by far the best.

Visit @ Grandma Vickie's & Grandpa Mac's

2010-12-01T17:43:00.000-08:00

Jeremy's brother, Andrew, came home from his mission in September. He served for 2 years in Santiago, Chile for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All of us flew out to see him and the rest of the fam (well, those that are living out there) just after Andrew got home. We had a blast. The boys had the best time playing with their uncles!

We hiked to Mt. Timpanogos Cave. Jeremy and I both had forgotten how long of a hike it is - a little more than 1 mile each way! That's a long way for little 3 yr-old legs, but the boys did awesome. It wasn't until we had almost reached the bottom that they even asked for any help. I'm so proud of my little mountain men!

Grandpa Mac, Daddy and the boys close to the top

While in Utah we also visited with some of our best friends. Rosanne, Dayne and Hannah moved to Utah from Dayton more than a year ago and we miss them so much! We had SO much fun playing with them. These are pics of us at Silver Lake (isn't it beautiful?!). As we were leaving their house one day, Matthew said (speaking about Hannah), "Mommy, I love my shy little girlfriend." Awww...I'm telling you, it's love, and Rosanne and I will be in-laws one day. ;-)

We took a little hike to the Grotto with more of the fam. Like I said, the boys LOVE their aunts, uncles, Grandma and Grandpa!

Family Pictures 2010

2010-11-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

I love how Jordi is looking at Matthew in this picture. He loves his brother.

LOVE that smile.

Kind of a goofy one, but I love it.

Inseparable

Ha! This one makes me laugh. At this point the boys were getting tired of pictures and my dad was trying so hard to get Jordan to smile.

My cute sister, Lindsey, and her husband, Luke. Aren't they adorable?!

The whole clan

Annual Fall Trip to Young's Dairy

2010-11-28T17:20:00.000-08:00

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Young's Dairy Farm. We did the usual - rode the movers-n-shakers barrel ride, fed the goats and took a tractor ride over to the pumpkin patch to chop a pumpkin off the vine.

Isn't this the coolest gourd?

Joe Cool in their sunglasses ;-)

I can't explain it, but I love goats. They're such nice animals and are so cute - love them. In fact, I've told Jeremy more than once that I'm going to have a goat some day. He thinks I'm crazy...

Love my boys

Good Old-fashioned Leaf-jumping

2010-11-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it from the pumpkins and apple cider to the technicolor leaves and hayrides. This fall did not disappoint. :)

Here some pics of raking leaves with Daddy (well, Daddy raking and boys jumping)...

Some of my favorite childhood memories are from our visits to my grandparents' house in the fall. My grandparents lived in the country surrounded by woods. My grandpa would spend hours helping us rake huge piles of leaves while we jumped in them. As a kid, there's no better way to spend a fall afternoon and I'm grateful that I get to do the same thing with my boys! :)

Singin' in the Rain

2010-10-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

After a hot, dry summer, the first day of fall was ushered in with a big rain storm. The boys and I put on our galoshes and played in the rain together. I was trying to show the boys how silly they could be by spinning, jumping and dancing around. Jordan had a blast and copied my every move. Matthew just looked at me and said, "Can we go inside now?" Haha, that's my Matt-matt for ya. Jeremy let Matt wear his floppy rain hat, so then he felt a little better and joined us for some puddle jumping. Some super cute pics of our fun...

Quote of the week...

2010-09-27T10:59:00.001-07:00

It's so crazy that kids pick up on everything. Matthew has said a couple things in the past few days that had me rolling - especially since he probably didn't even know what he was saying.

We were in the car and the boys were just chatting with each other. They weren't arguing or anything at all, so this comment came totally out of the blue. Matthew simply said, "Jordan. You wanna piece of me?"

Then the boys were on a hike with Jeremy and my dad this weekend. Again, the boys were just chatting and Jordan asked Matthew a question. In response, Matthew said, "I can tell you, but I'd have to kill you."

Ha! Where does he get this? Pretty much the only T.V. shows the boys watch are on PBS, and I'm pretty sure I've never said those phrases to either of them. Actually, I think Mr. Potato Head says, "You wanna piece of me?" in Toy Story 2 (sad that I know that). Anyway, like I said, it's amazing how kids pick up on everything. :)

Good-bye Summer

2010-09-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Summer,

We'll sure miss your lazy days catching crawdads in the creek, and warm evenings chasing lightning bugs in the park. We can't wait to see you again next year!

Love,
Matthew and Jordan

Flying

2010-09-20T17:50:00.001-07:00

Of course a summer wouldn't be complete without a little flying....

Jeremy's been taking aerobatic lessons and he's gotten quite good at it. Here are some pictures of him flying a Steerman. Cool!

We also had an opportunity to take a family flight over to Indy. No pictures, though. The boys talk about airplanes all day long, so you can imagine what a treat it was for them to go up in one with Daddy. When we landed, Matthew said, "Daddy, you aforgot to do hoop-a-loops!" Next time, Matt-matt. ;-)

#42....Check!

2010-09-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

#42 Run a 1/2 marathon - completed 09/18/10

Wow, this is a huge one for me as it has been a goal of mine for a LONG time. I will never claim to be a great runner. I'm more of a wannabe runner. :) I'm not fast at all, but I like to run and I've stuck with it for a long time - even though I'm not that good. Well finally, I reached my ultimate goal of running a half marathon. I finished in 2 hours and 27 minutes - a time which I'm pretty proud of. I can't wait to do my next one!

I ran with my friend, Alice. Well, we crossed the start line together anyway - Alice is amazingly speedy and finished about 35min before I did!

I found out the day before that my friends, Kori and Downi, were running the race too! We were able to meet up on race day. It was so fun!

My 101 in 1001

Crawdads and Mud Puppies

2010-09-20T10:10:00.001-07:00

Last week for family night we went to Magee Park. We had a picnic and then spent the rest of the evening catching crawdads and mud puppies in the creek. It was such a perfect evening together.

The Boys' First Fish

2010-09-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

My cousin and her husband bought an old farmhouse which is situated on the most serene, beautiful piece of land. They have a cute pond in their backyard that's stocked with fish. The boys loved fishing and were so excited to reel this beauty in!

Heaven's Corner - Zoo & Animal Sanctuary

2010-09-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is an activity we did at the very beginning of the summer, but I forgot to blog about it. There is the most amazing place just 25 min west of Dayton in West Alexandria, OH. These people have put together a home grown animal sanctuary on their land in the middle of nowhere called Heaven's Corner. When you drive up to it, it looks like nothing - just some homely farm. But beyond the front gate is something amazing - there are monkeys, lemurs, wallabies, tigers, bears, wolves, Russian wild boars, panthers, alligators and tons more. The craziest thing is that there is only a small chain-link fence between you and the animals. They're so close! Anyway, it's the coolest little place, and if you live close by, then I recommend you go there. :)

How cute is this little guy?! He was only a few weeks old. The zookeeper brought him out so we could play and pet him. Amazing!

Feeding the wallabies

I was slightly scared for my life at this point - I was pretty sure this guy was going to jump through the fence and eat me!

The cutest baby goats! I told Jeremy that I may want to buy a house that has a little land so I can get a goat. Don't know why, but I just love them. :)

A goat trying to eat Jordan's shirt. Ha!

Columbus Zoo...again...and again

2010-09-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Every summer it seems that half of my photo collection are pictures of us at the zoo. :) We love going to the zoo and our favorite is the Columbus Zoo. On the Friday before Labor Day, the boys, my parents and I spent more than FIVE hours there.

All these pictures of us feeding the birds are perfect, so I couldn't just pick a few. Every time we go to the zoo we feed the lorikeets, and Matthew is always itching get one of them to land on his arm. I think these birds are pretty smart because they always seem to avoid landing on the children's arms - can't blame them. ;-) On this day, however, the birdies were so hungry that they weren't shy at all. Matthew was SO proud to be holding a lorikeet on his arm. Jordan liked it too.

At one point I think my dad had almost 10 birds land on him. It was hilarious!

The boys in deep conversation with a little birdie:

Grandpa and his two best buds

Dude, it's Crush from Nemo!

This is from a previous zoo trip, and it's not the best picture, but I wanted to show how close the kangaroos are. I love this zoo because you can get so close to the animals.

Holiday World

2010-09-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

We LOVE Holiday World! If you live in the Midwest and have never been to Holiday World, then shame on you! ;-) Holiday World, located in Santa Claus, Indiana, is the best amusement park. It's clean, family friendly and they have tons of rides for even the youngest (for some rides, the only height requirement is that they can sit up on their own). Since they promote healthy living, Holiday World offers free sunscreen stations (so you don't get sun burned) and free drink stations (so you don't dehydrate) throughout the park. My favorite thing is the waterpark (which happens to be the 2nd biggest waterpark in the world). It's amazing.

We return to Holiday World every summer with my parents and Lindsey & Luke, and here are a few pics of our 2010 Holiday World trip...

Sitting on Santa's lap

My parents were with us both days, and we spent the first day with our friends, Mike & Marenda and their (cutest) little 15-month old guy, Oscar, as well. The boys call him "Baby Oscar". It's hilarious because they refer to Mike (Oscar's dad) as "Daddy Oscar." Ha!
The three boys rode this little canoe ride together. Matthew and Jordan got in first, and then the ride attendant turned to Jordan and said, "OK little man, you have a really big job to do. You've gotta sit behind this little guy and make sure he doesn't try to get out of the boat. Are up for that?" Jordan nodded his head vigorously and then took the instructions very seriously (as you can see below). :) He didn't take his hands off Oscar's shoulders the whole time. It was so cute.

Uncle Luke and Aunt Lindsey joined us on the second day. Here we are driving the old-fashioned cars. I thought it was hilarious that the boys actually thought they were really driving them.

The tilt-a-whirl. Thanks to my sister for taking my place on this one. I wanted to vomit just watching them...

I love these raft rides. Matthew is saying, "Yeah! Let's go!"

And the waterpark. The boys' absolute favorite was the wave pool. Near the end of the summer, Jordan got brave enough to put his head under the water, so I was so excited to get a picture of him with his head under the water. I'm so proud of him! Matthew has always been a fish and has been swimming with his head under the water since before he could walk. ;-)

Aw, just looking at these pictures makes me want to go back. See you next year, Holiday World!

Wegerzyn Gardens

2010-09-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

As tomorrow is the official last day of summer, I'd really like to wrap up my summer blog posts before then. There's TONS to cover, so here goes! ...

Wegerzyn Discovery Gardens

One of my favorite places in Dayton (and possibly anywhere) is Wegerzyn Discovery Gardens. It's the cutest little place where kids can just let their imaginations run wild while wading in the creek, watering the plants, playing in the playhouse and planting flowers in the sandbox. We love it! We were able to make it to Wegerzyn twice this summer - once with Uncle Alex and again with the boys' best buddy, Brighton.

Watering plants w/Uncle Alex

The boys loved playing with this little caterpillar. When they were done, Matthew put him on a tree so he could, "go home to his mommy." Sweet.

Matthew, Jordan and Brighton are 3 peas in a pod. I swear these boys were best buds in Heaven before they came down to Earth, because they seriously have such a connection. It's SO cute.

#45...Check!

2010-09-20T08:50:00.001-07:00

#45 Learn how to make fondant icing - completed 08/09/10

Gorgeous, aren't they?! As my first post-residency purchase, I bought myself a new Cricut Cake. So, I decided it was time for me to learn how to make fondant icing. :-) I used this recipe: http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm (thanks, Charity!) and it turned out beautifully. I covered the cakes in marshmallow fondant and then cut out gum paste decorations. I also made some Lightning McQueen sugar cookies with gum paste Lightning McQueen cutouts (sorry, no pictures). Now I'm quite obsessed with making this stuff and I'm pretty sure we're all going to get fat because of it. So please, give me a reason to make a cake so I stop making them "just because". ;-)

My 101 in 1001

Families Are Forever

2010-09-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe that the family is central to God's plan for us here on Earth, and one of the greatest blessings that God gives us is the ability to return to live with Him in Heaven with our families. As part of God's plan, He has blessed us with temples. When Jeremy and I were married in the temple, we were sealed together for all eternity. When Matthew and Jordan were born to us, they became a part of this heavenly promise - sealed to us forever. I'm so grateful for this blessing and for the knowledge I have that I will be together with my family forever. If you would like to learn more about temples or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please click here.

As mentioned in a previous post, I had the amazing opportunity to witness the sealing of my best friend's adopted baby boy to his new eternal family. When a child is born to parents who are sealed in the temple, that child is automatically sealed to them; however, when a child is adopted, the parents must return to the temple so the adopted child may be sealed to them and join their eternal family. What a wonderful experience this was! I was deeply touched as I watched little baby S, all dressed in white, lay his tiny hand on his mommy and daddy's hands and be united with them for all eternity. Trust me - there was an over-abundance of happy tears. :-)

The coolest thing about this situation: My friends had tried for years to have a baby when they finally decided that adoption was the right path for them. Months into the adoption waiting game, my friend ended up getting pregnant. When my friend was just a couple weeks along, a sweet girl contacted her to ask if she would adopt her baby! Baby Boy S joined their family through adoption this past winter, and just a few months later, my friend gave birth to a perfect baby girl. How amazing is that?! As you're well aware, I have twins myself and I know that my boys were sent down to Earth together for a reason. They were meant to come to our family at the same time. In the same respect, even though it was through some unusual circumstances, I know that cute Baby S and Baby K were meant to join this sweet family at the times that they did. It never ceases to amaze me how aware God is of us and how much He blesses us!

And now for some pictures. Aren't these babies beautiful?!

Camping with Dad again

2010-09-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

My Mountain Men

DIY: Mason Jar Penny Banks

2010-09-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Aren't they cute? A few weeks ago I decided that my boys had a bad case of the greedy gimmees, so I decided to teach them a little bit about responsibility. Now they get an allowance and have a totally cute penny bank to keep it in. They keep talking about saving up for their "very own fast jet!" Keep saving, boys, keep saving.

What you need:
a Mason jar
scrapbook paper
cardboard
ribbon
hot glue

Remove center of Mason jar lid and use as a template to cut a circle out of scrapbook paper.
Cut a sliver big enough to stick a quarter through in the center of scrapbook paper center.
Replace Mason jar lid center with the paper circle.
Tie ribbon around lid and secure onto lid with hot glue.
Cut out an image from the patterned scrapbook paper and glue it to a piece of cardboard (I used a piece of cereal box). Cut cardboard around image.
Make a tag w/child's name out of scrapbook paper and punch a hole in the top. Secure tag to back of scrapbook cut-out with glue (or you could string the ribbon through it).
Hot glue scrapbook paper image to center of ribbon bow (like my airplane above).

If I had little girls I'd embellish these with some cute flowers or something. :-) Have fun!

Hollywood Glam Bridal Sprinkle

2010-09-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

This summer I threw a bridal sprinkle (I called it a sprinkle instead of a shower because it was a smallish gathering) for Chole, a friend of mine here in Dayton. Chole doesn't strike me as a "cutesy" person, so I knew I had to do something different. I decided on a Hollywood Glam theme. It turned out fantastic! The colors I worked with were red, black and gold, and of course I introduced as much shimmery bling as possible.

The invitations Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the invitations, but they turned out way cute. To set the stage for my Hollywood theme, the invitations were made to look like movie tickets and they said:

You're cordially invited to the Hollywood premier of
A Love Story
Starring Chole Baran and Tom Hilsdorf

Guests were encouraged to come "dressed for the red carpet" (and yes, I did have a red carpet).

The Food

The dessert table looked gorgeous and coordinated with my color scheme. The foods each had marriage-themed labels, like "Hey, Cupcake" and "Honey-do, Honey-don't Ginger Honey Crunch". My favorites (and the best tasting) were the "Makin' Whoopie Pies." They were red velvet whoopie pies and you can find the recipe at bakerella.com.

The Details

Like I said, I tried to include as much bling as possible, so you'll see the candles, vases and some food containers are all adorned with little crystals. I sprinkled the extra crystals all over the room. For the pillar candles, I used a similar idea as HWTM. I printed off images of classic Hollywood stars (again, to bring in some Hollywood glam) and wrapped them around white pillar candles. I then wrapped some red ribbon around the candles and put cute studded labels on them (found at any scrapbooking or craft store) that said "XOXOXO", "you & me" and "mr. & mrs.". I was so happy with the way they turned out. Cute! When combined with vases filled with red roses (bought for $2/dozen in the clearance floral section at Kroger!), you get a totally glamorous look.

Another favorite is the "Love Note Tree". I bought a couple fake branches at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them gold. I also spray painted a vase gold and then hot glued some red roses to the branches. In a bowl, I left some note cards for guests to write pieces of advice to Chole. The note cards had loops of ribbon secured to them so they could be hung on the tree branches. At the bottom of the tree, I put a sign "Leave a Love Note for the Bride-to-Be." It made for a great keepsake for the bride to take home.

I also made a banner to hang over the dessert table. It said "Chole & Tom".

After some mingling and games, a few of us stayed up late to watch a chick flick (ever seen License o Wed? I love that movie.).

And finally, a shot of the glamour girls. It was such a fun night of celebrating and we had tons of fun with the bride-to-be!

One of my favorite things...

2010-08-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Kacey, this post is for you... ;-)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is on my list of top 5 favorite things in the world! I LOVE Rita's. I make a trip to Rita's at least once a week. If you've never been, I would suggest you find the nearest location on your GPS and go. (Kacey, I guess that means you've got to come back to Ohio. I'm saving a Fudge Brownie just for you. ;-) ) SO yummy! My favorite flavor is either Island Fusion or a mixture of Fudge Brownie & Smores. It's a toss-up. Rita's specializes in Italian Ice, though if you're more in the mood for creamy ice cream, then you can't go wrong with their yummy custard. If you're feeling adventurous, then indulge yourself with a Gelati - a parfait which has custard on the bottom, Ice in the middle and custard on top. The possibilities are endless. OK, now I'm craving it and need to go get some. ;-)

My boys have enjoyed Rita's since they were just young babes:

Yay for Rita's!

Don't mess with Friday the 13th

2010-08-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I'm somewhat superstitious. Historically, Friday the 13th has never been a good day for me. Friday, August 13th of this year was no exception. Generally, I'm known to be a lucky person. After what I experienced two weekends ago, and the affects thereafter, I'm convinced that the misfortune that Friday the 13th brings indeed hits the lucky the hardest.

For months I had planned a trip down to Dallas to witness the sealing of a friend to her adopted baby (a post on that later). The big day was scheduled for 8/14, so I was set to fly down on Friday, 8/13. On Friday I made it to the airport without a hitch. We boarded the plane, taxied toward the runway and then stopped. There was a problem with the right engine, so we had to turn back to the gate. Bummer. I hate airlines. We sat on the plane for a good 20 min when the pilot announced that it would be at least 2 hours before the plane was fixed, so everyone was then deboarded from the aircraft. My flight was eventually canceled and I got in line as soon as I could so I could try to hop on a different flight. My flight was the last flight down to Dallas (of course), and by the time it was my turn to talk to the agent, the earliest morning flight was completely booked up and the soonest they could get me to Dallas was 10:30, which would be too late to make it to the sealing. Did I mention I hate airlines? Since my parents are in Indy and my boys were staying with them anyway, I asked to be booked on the earliest flight out of Indy. That was a success, so to the road I returned.

I must segway for just a minute to mention that earlier that week, I came down with Hand, Foot & Mouth - a terrible virus that almost everyone is exposed to when they're children. Well apparently, I was lucky enough to escape it when I was a child, but then caught the virus 25 years later from my own children. Ugh. I had a fever, sores all over my mouth and sores on the bottom of my feet. Not. Fun. OK, back to the weekend...

On the way to Indy, I started to feel a little puny, and by the time I reached the half-way point, I was feeling downright awful. I barely survived the 2 hour drive and immediately crawled into bed when I got to my parents' house. I took my temperature = 103 degrees. Lovely. I prayed and prayed that I would be well by the morning so I could make the trip to Dallas. By morning, my fever had broken and I pretty much felt better, so I went ahead with my travel plans.

Thank goodness, the stars were aligned and I made it to the temple with 5 minutes to spare! Everything was perfect and I was a happy traveler...until the afternoon. I started feeling sick again and my throat hurt. I asked Liz's mom to take a look at my throat. With one look, she said, "Oh wow, Honey. You have strep throat. White blisters everywhere." Bummer. Again. I eventually was able to get an antibiotic (sometimes it's lovely being married to a doctor), and I immediately headed to bed afterward. I slept for like 13 hours. Boy, was I a fun house guest! The next day I headed home (without kissing those sweet babies at the risk of infecting them). :-(

By Monday evening, I finally felt like I was getting over my strep throat. Tuesday was fine, and then Wednesday I started feeling crappy again. What the heck?! Wednesday night was awful - I had a 103 fever all night and no medicine would break it. I woke up (well, really I never fell asleep) with a back ache and a massive headache. I was so sick that I took the day off work (something I've done only twice in 6 years!). To add insult to injury, Jordan climbed into bed with me while I was sick, pointed his stubby finger at a giant zit protruding from my forehead and said, "Oh Mommy...I see your headache." ...Gee, thanks. I went to the doctor that afternoon, and it turns out that I'm just a walking virus - "Something bad is going around. I've had patients with 103 fevers that have lasted 3 to 5 days." Bummer. Again.

Hand-Foot-&-Mouth, Strep and some bad virus within the span of 1.5 weeks? Oh yeah, not to mention the travel craziness. Well, as you can see, I survived my Friday the 13th week from Hell. I think next time I'll just stay in bed. :-)

One of my favorite things...

2010-08-12T19:20:00.001-07:00

There really is no need for words here, but one of my favorite things is going in the boys' room at night to tuck them in and finding them like this - in bed together, usually head-to-toe, but sometimes spooning each other. ;-) Melt my heart...

Quote of the Week

2010-08-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well, actually this quote is from the week of our vacation, but I'm just now getting around to blogging it. It was too cute to ignore. :)

First of all, Matthew is super girl crazy (I think I've mentioned that in previous posts). He's going to bring me so much trouble when he's older... ;-)

So, we were swimming in the kiddie pool in OBX when this cute little girl walked through the gate. Matthew saw her and immediately started jumping and splashing all around her. He was flouncing around like one of those male birds on Discovery Channel, trying to get the attention of the female. So. Funny. Anyway, later that afternoon, we were in the car on the way to dinner, and Jeremy and I listened to the following conversation:

Matthew (sighing blissfully): I love that girl.
Jordan: But Matt-matt, she doesn't love you ... She just loves her mommy!
Matthew (after a long pause): But...she can love her mommy too...

All I gotta say is, "Bros before hoes, Dudes."

OBX Vacation - Days 6 & 7

2010-08-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Day 6: Cape Hatteras National Seashore & Currituck Beach Lighthouse
- 10am - 2pm: Beach day at Cape Hatteras National Seashore
- 2 - 4pm: Naps
- 5pm: Swim in the pool
- 6:30pm: Visit Currituck Beach Lighthouse
- 7pm: Dinner in Corolla

Day 7: Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Pack up to go home
- 10am: Climb Currituck Beach Lighthouse
- 11am: Head home - We'll miss you, Outer Banks!

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

For our last full day in OBX, we drove down to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. This was the most amazing beach ever. There was just us and the beach for as far as you could see. We walked all along the beach looking for "sheshells", played in the waves, built sandcastles and skim boarded. Unfortunately, it started to rain pretty hard, so we had to leave a little earlier than we wanted to, but it was a fantastic day.
I love some of these photos of the boys because you can tell that we were totally by ourselves on this gorgeous seashore. In this first picture of Jordan, he's standing at the water's edge just contemplating the wonders of the universe. :-)

Swimming in the Pool
I'm pretty sure Matthew's favorite part of the whole vacation was diving to the bottom of the pool. Seriously, he can't even swim, but he'll dive to the bottom of the pool and push off the ground with his little feet to rocket himself back to the surface. It was so hilarious. I've included a video this time too. I'm recording him under the water, and as he's diving, he looks at the camera as if to say, "You're getting this, right? How awesome am I?!" No joke - this kid is going to be the next Michael Phelps.
Jordan also loved the pool, but he preferred to stay in the kiddie pool. :-)

Currituck Beach Lighthouse
What is it about lighthouses that are so romantic? I adore them. The Outer Banks is home to 4 or 5 lighthouses, but we were only able to make it to one. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse (just about 1 mile from our house) was built in 1875. All of the lighthouses were painted with different designs (some stripes, checkers, etc.) so sailors could tell where they were along the coast. The Currituck Lighthouse was kept the original red brick, though. Anyway, there's your history lesson for today, and here are some pictures. :)

The lighthouse was closed when we went on Friday, so we just got some pictures with everyone at the bottom that day. Jeremy and I returned with the boys on Saturday so we could climb the 214-step spiral staircase to the top.

(this picture taken earlier in the week when my dad and Max climbed to the top)

OBX Vacation - Days 4 & 5

2010-08-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Another Beach Day :) & Search for Corolla Wild Horses
- 10am: Head to the beach
- 2pm: Quick swim in the pool
- 2:30 - 4:30pm: Naps
- 5pm: Pick up some fresh seafood at the market
- 6pm: Enjoy a yummy seafood dinner at our beach house (cooked by amazing chef, Jeremy Crouch)
- 7pm: Drive to the top of the island to look for Corolla Wild Horses

More of the Beach

Corolla Wild Horses

Because the top of the island is a reserve for the Corolla Wild Horses, the road ends and the only way to go further by car is with 4-wheel drive. On Wednesday evening, we saddled up in our Trailblazer and took on the beach in search of the wild mustangs. It was a crazy ride (I was terrified, actually), but SO worth it. We didn't see a dozen wild horses frolicking in the ocean like I expected, but we did get to see this beautiful guy. He was so serene and amazing. This was Jordan's favorite part of the whole vacation.

Day 5: Wright Bros. Memorial and Hang Gliding @ Jockey's Ridge
- 11am: Wright Bros. National Memorial
- 12:30pm: Lunch at Kill Devil's - such YUMMY burgers & frozen custard
- 2pm: Hang Gliding lesson @ Jockey's Ridge State Park
- 9pm: Crab chasing on the beach

Wright Bros. National Memorial

Since the boys are obsessed with two things - sharks and airplanes - they had a good time at Wright Bros. National Memorial, which is the location of the first flight. We browsed through the museum, saw a replica of the Wright Brothers' workshop and walked the path of the first four flights. It was cool to stand in the very places where the Wright Brothers took off and landed.

The Memorial (on top of the hill)

The Wright Brother's airplane hangar

The Wright Brothers' workshop

The take-off spot and the first 3 landing spots

A replica of the Wright Flyer

Hang Gliding @ Jockey's Ridge State Park

Jockey's Ridge State Park is home to the tallest sand dunes of the Eastern United States. It is from the top of those sand dunes that Jeremy, Daniel and I took a hang gliding lesson! It was super hot and windy up there, but we had a blast. By the end of the lesson, all three of us were landing on our feet like pros (well, kind of). ;-)

Crab chasing on the beach
Once the sun goes down, all of the crabs come out of their little holes in the sand. You'll see them if you're out walking the beach at night, and if you shine a flashlight on the ground then you'll see crabs scatter everywhere. It's no exaggeration when I say that there are 100's of them! Aren't they cute?

OBX Vacation - Day 3

2010-08-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Explore Roanoke Island
- 8am: Head out early so we can hit Roanoke Island Festival Park before it gets too hot. :)
- 9am - 12pm: Roanoke Island Festival Park
- 12pm: Picnic lunch at Roanoke Island Festival Park
- 1pm - 4pm: Roanoke NC Aquarium
- 4:30: Swing by Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (the actual site of the lost colony)
- 7pm: Dinner in Duck (in my opinion, the cutest little town in OBX)

Roanoke Island Festival Park
For anyone who is not exactly brushed up on their American history, Roanoke Island is the site of the Lost Colony - Fort Raleigh, the first English settlement in the United States. Roanoke Island Festival Park is a tribute to the Lost Colony, and takes you back to the 16th century with their American Indian Town, English Settlement Site and a replica of the Elizabeth II which brought English settlers to Roanoke Island. The boys had fun pretending to be Indians, and Jeremy & Daniel had a good time hoisting the sails on the ship. There was also a children's museum which walked through the history of Roanoke Island from the 16th century to present day. Matt and Jordi loved the pirate costumes! :-)

Roanoke NC Aquarium
The aquarium is just a couple miles from the Island Festival Park. There were all kinds of animals and fish to see, but of course the boys' favorite were the sharks (they're obsessed with sharks!). We also loved the sting ray tank where you could pet the sting rays.

Ft. Raleigh National Historic Site
Crazy to think that 75 men lived in this little fort.

OBX Vacation - Day 2

2010-08-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Day 2: Another Beach Day :)
- 10am: Crabbing at the pier
- 11am: Head to the Beach (with a packed lunch)
- 2:30pm: Quick swim in the pool
- 3 - 5pm: Naps
- 5pm: Pick up some fresh seafood at the market
- 6pm until Lights out: Enjoy a yummy seafood dinner at our beach house (cooked by amazing chef, Jeremy Crouch), relax and watch a movie

Crabbing at the pier
It was so cool to go crabbing at our neighborhood pier! We learned how to hunt for blue softshell crabs. You hang some raw chicken on the end of a line, drop it down to the bottom and wait for a little pincher to start tugging. :-) We caught quite a few little guys, although none of them were quite big enough for eating. The boys were totally enamored by this activity.

The Beach
We spent the majority of the rest of the day playing at the beach. :)

OBX Vacation - Day 1

2010-08-01T19:19:00.001-07:00

Day 1: Beach day
- 10am: Head to the beach
- 1pm: Quick swim in the pool
- 1:30pm: a late lunch and then clean up for naps
- 2pm - 4pm: Naps
- 7pm: Ride bikes to Corolla Heritage Park for the Corolla 4th of July festival and fireworks

The Beach

Jordan LOVED playing in the sand and spent most of the day out of the water. Although he did enjoy playing in the "baby" waves, he wouldn't set foot in ocean water deeper than his ankles. Guess he's seen too many shark documentaries on Discovery Channel. ;-)

Matthew, on the other hand, is my water baby. He was completely fearless in those waves. The surf was quite strong, yet every time he would get trashed by a wave, he'd just come back up screaming for more. His exact words: "That was totally cool! Let's do it again!!" He'd go out with someone and, as soon as that person decided it was time to go back to shore, Matthew would grab someone else by the hand and drag them back to the surf.

4th of July Festival
What a gorgeous place to sit and watch fireworks. We rode our bikes over to the Corolla Heritage Park for the 4th of July festival and fireworks show. The park is set against the sound and it is absolutely beautiful at sunset! After the sun went down, the fireworks were set off over the sound. I felt so blessed to be in such a beautiful place with my family, celebrating the birth of our country. I thank God for the sound principles that this country was built upon and for the freedoms that we all share. Happy Birthday, America!

Outer Banks - July 2010

2010-08-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

After Chicago, we headed to Outer Banks, North Carolina for a family vacation. What an amazing trip! We shared a house with my parents, Jeremy's parents and Jeremy's brother, Daniel. The idea was to have quite a few of our family come, but it didn't work out, so we had tons of extra room in this huge house:

SO fun! The Outer Banks is not a typical touristy, boardwalk-along-the-beach hot spot. It's way more laid back and is a nature lover's paradise. We stayed in the northern part of Outer Banks in Corolla. Our house was on the sound side (the calm side of the water in between the islands and the main land), and the ocean side was just a short walk from our door. :-) It was also great that our house was part of a community, so we had access to the community pool, gym and tennis courts which were just across the street.

Since I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, I'm going to break these posts up into parts by day. Stay tuned for more Outer Banks details! :-)

A visit with Grandma & Grandpa Crouch

2010-08-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

We had tons of fun with Jeremy's parents when they came out for his graduation. It was a short visit that was mostly filled with graduation stuff, but we made time to visit the zoo and a couple parks.

Columbus Zoo

Hills & Dales Metropark

Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma Vickie and Grandpa Mac! :-)

Jeremy's Graduation Party

2010-07-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

When I asked Jeremy what kind of residency graduation party he wanted me to throw for him, he said he wanted to invite just a handful of friends (he's not as much of a party animal as I am). If I had it my way, I would have invited everyone we know it Dayton :-), but we ended up just having a little gathering with a few fellow residents. Still, I do even small parties big, so there were lots of fun details and way too much food.

The theme of the party was "Old School - Celebrating the End of 28 Years of Schooling" (although I was a little wrong there - it was only 26 years of schooling. I forgot that he was on a mission for 2 years).

For the food, I only did dessert, and I decided to do a Milk & Cookies bar since it's Jeremy's absolute favorite (plus, it went well with the theme). We had all kinds of cookies, from my famous chocolate chip-toffee cookies to snickerdoodle cupcakes (recipe on marthastewart.com):

To go with the cookies, we served school lunch cartons of milk, strawberry milk and chocolate milk. My favorite thing was the striped paper straws that I found on modernlola.com.

I made the banner out of varieties of green scrapbook paper and gold ribbon (Wright State school colors). It says "Congrats Dr. Crouch".

The centerpieces were simple - just 1 sunflower and 1 white gerber daisy, bundled with a pencil. I put white paper down on the tables and set out crayons - great accents for a school theme, but also entertainment for the kids. :-) I also laid out some cute old school pictures of Jeremy.

As for the the activity, we truly partied old school style and played a little kickball. It was so fun! I love acting like a kid.

Finally, how about some pictures of the cute kiddos enjoying the treats..

A break from the kiddos

2010-07-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

Following Jeremy's graduation, Jeremy and I got to have a weekend getaway to Chicago. The coolest thing: we stayed in a $400 hotel room for free! (Long story short, I have a hotels.com account and since I've stayed 10 nights through hotels.com, I got a free night. It was good for any hotel up to $400, so I hopped online, searched for one of the most expensive hotel rooms in Chicago I could find and booked it.)

I should have taken a picture of our beautiful suite. Suffice it to say that we experienced a (free) weekend of luxury and it was fabulous. Actually, I don't have much at all by way of pictures, but oh well...

My favorite place in Chicago: the boardwalk along the lake & the marinas

Stuffing our faces with the most amazing Chicago Deep Dish from Lou Malnati's Pizzeria.

Quote of the week

2010-07-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

My friend, Melissa, was over here this morning. I told the boys that Melissa is pregnant. They looked at me funny, so I then clarified that Melissa has a baby in her tummy. So, later this afternoon, Melissa and the boys went out for a walk. Jordan looked up at her and started talking, and this is how their conversation went:

Jordan: So...You have a baby in your tummy?
Melissa: Yeah, I do! I have a baby in my tummy.
Jordan (with a really confused look on his face): Hm...Why did you eat a baby?

Hahahahaha! Isn't it hilarious how a toddler mind works? :-)

OK, now you've had your laugh for the day. You're welcome.

Jeremy's Graduation

2010-07-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, has it been an eventful month! I have tons to catch up on, but let's start with the most important event of the month - Jeremy's graduation! Yippeee!!! I can't believe we're done. And even more so, I can't believe we've finished it all with our marriage, family and sanity in tact! Unbelievable.

Jeremy's parents flew out and my family drove over for the blessed event. On June 19, 2010, we all got dudded up and headed to graduation which was held at a banquet hall in Carillon Park. When I put my dress on, Jordan asked, "Are you going to be a princess today, Mommy?" And then Matthew asked if he could spin me. So cute!

Jeremy won two awards.He won the CREOG award, which is an award for scoring the highest on the annual national OB/GYN competency exam, and he also won the William Nahaas Surgical Excellence award for being the best surgeon in his class (in fact many of the staff have commented through the years that Jeremy is one of the best surgeons to go through the program there). Can't tell that I'm proud of him, can you? heehee. OK, less bragging and more pictures...

This is Brian Jewell, one of Jeremy's residency buddies and his fellow "P90X graduate"

Graduating Residents: Jeremy, Phil Jones, Kelly McCluskey, Anna Schissel, Adrienne Perfilio, Alicia Thompson

OK, this is SO cute. This is our friends' little girl, Madeline. During dinner, Matthew whispered to me, "Mommy, I want to spin that girl." (by the way, he is SO girl crazy). I said, "OK, go ask her." So, he did, and Madeline got up, curtsied (!) and then asked Matthew, "Would you like to dance?" Ohmigosh, they were such a crack-up! Don't you love how he's just staring dreamily at her? haha

Jordan also developed a little crush that night. If the boys were 13, I think a fist fight might have ensued over Madeline. Ha!

And now, Jeremy is the sidekick of this guy - Dr. Steve Guy (his new partner). Yay! :-) Go fight some OB/GYN crime, you two!

Jeremy, I'm so proud of you, Sweetie-pea! Now we'll see if the 8 years of schooling and 4 years of slave labor were worth it. ;-)

Camping

2010-07-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

More than a month ago, I bragged that Jeremy took the boys camping, leaving me with a beautifully empty house. Well, finally here are some photos to document the boys' first campout.

Mapping out the trail

Being silly with Grandpa

More silliness

Jeremy said that it POURED buckets of rain on their hike. The boys were troopers on the way there, but on the way back, they were pitiful. Matthew kept talking about getting his Marley, his bed and taking a nap. Sad!

By far, the boys' favorite part of the whole campout was throwing rocks into the river:

And what's up with that anyway? Give a boy some rocks and a body of water, and he'll keep himself busy for hours!

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

2010-06-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

OK, this is a Jordan quote from quite some time ago (like maybe a month ago?), but I had to post it anyway just so I can remember how sweet my children are (that last statement is dripping with sarcasm, by the way).

Admittedly, most days are good. The boys are sweet and obedient and fun for the most part, and we usually don't have many problems. Having said that, I had made it just two weeks into night float without having a complete meltdown (I still can't decide whether that's pretty good or pathetic). Anyway, just dream up the worst day imaginable, and that's the day I was having. It was around 4:30 and Jeremy had just left me (with two cranky, fighting, whining, crying 3 year olds) to go to work (lucky for him that he got to escape). I decided to get out a craft to do with the boys because, "Just maybe that'll do the trick and they'll cheer up." Bad. Idea. It was awful - the boys just fought more, whined more, cried more. And then, I completely broke down sobbing. I mean really blubbering. The boys just stared at me as if I was a lunatic and said nothing (I guess that's what it takes to get them to stop fighting and whining sometimes). I'm pretty sure that may have been the first time they had ever seen me cry (in fact they talked about it for 2 weeks), and I think they were fairly traumatized.

Anyway, fast-forward a few days...My boys were staying at Grandma and Grandpa's because my parents offered to take them for a few days (before I blew my brains out). Lindsey (my sis) was babysitting that first afternoon and Jordan started telling her all about Mommy crying "real bad".
Lindsey says: "Was Mommy crying because you guys were being bad boys?"
Jordan replies: "No. She was just whining."

Nice. I'm so glad my sweet boys are genuinely concerned for my well-being. :-)

Alone

2010-06-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure most women desire to have a daughter. In fact, I think I would like to have a daughter some day (sometime in the distant future). Well, today I realized an awesome advantage to having only boys - when the boys go on a camping trip with Daddy, then I am left completely alone. In a quiet. Empty. House. (Can I get a hallelujah, y'all?!)

Yes, this afternoon, Matthew, Jordan, Jeremy and my dad packed up the car and headed out for a testosterone-infused weekend of camping; leaving me behind to bask in the glory of being alone. Ahhhhh.... What will I do with myself this weekend?! What does a mother do when given the opportunity to be alone?

Whatever she wants...

Root, root, root for the home team!

2010-06-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

We donned our baseball caps, grabbed our mitts and headed out to the Dayton Dragons baseball game. Interesting fact: last year, the Dayton Dragons sold out more games than any professional team in the country - including NFL, NBA, etc., etc (random, I know). Anywho... On that evening, the stands were packed and the weather was beautiful - we had so much taking the boys to their first baseball game!

One of the attendings at Jeremy's hospital has season passes to the Dayton Dragons and oftentimes he can't fill all 6 of his seats, so he'll give them away to the residents. The seats are on the very front row on the first baseline. In the picture below, Matthew is resting his hands on the dugout. So fun. :-)

Both of the boys were TOTALLY into it. I love Matt's expression of concentration here - so cute. Matthew was hilarious. He kept begging us to allow him to go on out on the field. About a million times, he said, "Is it my turn now?! Is it my turn now?!" or "I need my bat!" He was too adorable.

The catcher from the other team threw a ball over to the boys, and later, the umpire gave them another one. You can imagine how thrilled they were about that! My boys were in Heaven. :-)

Throughout the game, Matt and Jordi were shown on the "big screen" about five times (one of the times they were flexing their little muscles because the announcer was playing the song "Macho Man"). The crowd couldn't get enough of them. At the end of the game, they were voted "Fans of the Game!" Ha!

Columbus Zoo trip

2010-06-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

Back in April (wow, is it already June?) Jeremy and I had some vacation time. Rather than going away, this time we had a stay-cation. It really was the best! We mostly just relaxed and tinkered around the house. I can't believe all that I was able to get done in the house and around the yard! As for outings, among other things, we took a trip to the Columbus Zoo:

My, were the gorillas active that day! In particular, these two juvenile gorillas were SO funny. They were wrestling like crazy - bodyslams, putting each other into headlocks...

This gorilla was making faces and sticking his tongue out. The boys were not so sure what to think of him. :-)

The boy with the cutest smile on the planet:

Wish it would last forever...

2010-06-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today (Saturday), Jeremy took Matthew to the grocery store with him for about 15 minutes. On the way home Matthew asked, "Now I get to see my brother?"

Jordan was waiting at the window for them to get home. When he saw the car pull in the drive, Jordan ran out into the driveway. Jeremy opened Matthew's door and the first thing Matt said was, "Jordan, I missed you. So. Bad!"
Then they immediately embraced each other as if they hadn't seen one another for days.
Matthew asked Jordan, "Did you miss me so bad too?"
Jordan answered, nodding, "M-hm, I was waiting for you."

How sweet are these boys?? They have their moments when they seem to be enemies, but they are best buds, and I hope they stay that way forever...

#58...Check!

2010-06-04T11:46:00.001-07:00

#58 Make a photobook of my blog - completed 06/04/10

Look at what the FedEx Man dropped off at my door yesterday. :-) Isn't it beautiful?!

I'm so excited to have turned my 2009 blog into a beautiful hard-bound book. It was even easier than I thought it would be too! I used a free application from Blurb to create it. First, the application "slurps" your blog into the editor and then you customize it to your liking. Once you have your pages set up the way you like them, you order your book online through Blurb and FedEx ships it a week later. In all, I think I probably spent 10 - 12 hours putting everything together. It's 96 pages long, and if I consider how much time and money I would have spent scrapbooking 96 pages of pictures, the cost of this blog book was SO worth it! I'll definitely still scrapbook many of my 2009 pictures, but the journaling included in my blog book is priceless.

My 101 in 1001

In case you're wondering...

2010-06-04T04:53:00.001-07:00

Jeremy has only 2 more weeks left of residency!! YAY!!!!

Me and My Boys

2010-05-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day 2010

I'm so blessed to be Matthew and Jordan's mommy! They are the cutest, most fun, sweetest, silliest little boys. They're so kind, obedient (for the most part ;-)) and they love to make their mommy happy. Because of them, I have fresh wildflowers (or dandelions) to wear in my hair every day, and a smile on my face as I lie down to bed at night. I love you, Matt-matt and Jordi! You make me a happy momma. :-)

(Isn't this picture SO cute?! Ha!)

We were also lucky enough to visit my mom on Mother's Day. I feel blessed to have such an amazing woman as a mother. My mom has taught me what true motherly love is all about. There aren't words to describe how grateful I am for the constant care, love and selfless service she has to our family for the past 29 years. And let me tell you, there aren't two luckier little boys in the world because my mom is the greatest grandma. She lives for those boys and gives them so much love. I couldn't ask for more.

Mother's Day Garden Party

2010-05-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Mother's Day, I wanted to do something special for some of the ladies here in Dayton who have touched my life in the past four years. So, I hosted a Mother's Day Garden Party. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of all of us girls that were there, but oh well. I did capture some of the details...

The Invitations - so simple, but so cute. Made with scrapbook
paper, silk flowers and a packet of flower seeds.

The table settings/decorations - The color scheme was light pink,
dark pink and yellow. The bouquets turned out so cute, and adding
lemons to the vases was the perfect touch to bring in some of the
yellow. I incorporated the garden theme into the place settings by
adding silk flowers to the napkin rings and using silk flowers as
holders for the place cards. I also had some big tissue paper
pom-pom flowers (I found the idea on Martha Stewart)
hanging from the ceiling and they seriously looked so pretty
(unfortunately I don't have a pic of those).

The food - Jeremy was sweet enough to do the cooking (since it
was Mother's Day after all :-)). My sister helped me out with the
desserts. Everything turned out amazing! My favorite were the
adorable flower marshmallow pops - so cute! The cake was also
awesome. We used yellow Peeps to create an adorable sunflower cake.

It was such a fun time just relaxing and enjoying some girl talk. All of these girls are such an example to me and I look up to each of them in different ways. Happy Mother's Day!

In Bloom

2010-05-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back. :-) I have no excuses for not visiting for more than a month - I just haven't really felt like blogging lately. Anyway, it's been a beautiful, exciting spring so far and I have much to catch up on...

By early summer my yard is a mess and I hate it (it's just too much to take care of), but it's an amazing place in the spring. :) All of my trees (except for one) bloom in the spring, and then I have an exquisite garden of daffodils. Some pics of my yard in full bloom:

I'm actually not sure what kind of tree this is, but it's probably my favorite in bloom. This tree has tons and tons of little pink buds and then they bloom into tiny white flowers. It's an explosion of pink and white gorgeousness. :-)

Ah, my lilac tree. Smells so sweet...

To think we almost cut this tree down during our first summer here... When we first moved in, it was more of a huge bush in the middle of the yard rather than a tree. I'm so glad we decided to trim it up rather than chop it down, because we realized the following spring that it was beautiful Red Bud tree - not a big ugly bush. Isn't it amazing?!

I'm sad that the blooms only last a few weeks! Now green leaves have replaced the flowers and we've already had a couple weeks of 80-degree weather. Summer, here we come!

Shenanigans

2010-04-22T19:03:00.001-07:00

A recent quote from Jeremy that made me laugh was, "Why are kids so retarded sometimes?" Well, allow me to share a couple scenarios that would bring him to say such a thing...

"Doggies poop outside in the grass. Little boys should poop inside on a potty." - Said I to Matthew

A couple weeks ago, my dad and I walked the boys to a park that's just around the corner from my house. My dad and I brought our dinner with us and we ate while the boys played. Being a bit distracted by my meal, I didn't notice that Matthew went exploring on his own (he tends to wander). From where I was sitting, there was the playground to my right, a baseball diamond straight ahead and, to my left, there was a Port-a-Potty shelter that usually houses a Port-a-Potty during tee-ball season but that only has dirt/grass right now. I looked around for little Matt until I noticed a tiny pair of feet sticking out at the bottom of the Port-a-Potty shelter. I walked over to find Matthew with his pants at his ankles. I asked, "Matt-matt, whatcha doing?" Matthew said, "Um...just pooping." And there it was. On the ground. At the park. A little Matthew poop. At least he found a little privacy to do his business...

About a week before that happened, my friend (and babysitter) took the boys to the park. Just after they got there, Matthew announces, "I need to poop!" So Melissa starts gathering the boys and tells them that they have to go home now so Matthew can poop. Matthew kneels down, starts frantically digging at the ground and says, "No wait! I dig a hole so I can poop in it!" Ha! Exercising his instinctive survival skills at just 3 years old. The next Survivorman, perhaps?

Finally, the other day, Matthew came in from the backyard and was adjusting his pants. He told me that he went outside to poop in the yard because Jordi was already using the potty... Oh my land, what is with this kid?!

So, my mantra lately has been, "Doggies poop outside in the grass. Little boys should poop inside on a potty."

*****************************************************

"You can color on paper - not on furniture, not on walls and certainly not your brother." - Said I to Jordan

A couple weeks ago, my mom was watching the boys while Jeremy, my dad and I went to a movie. When we got home, my says, "Ohmigosh, they were wild. They didn't go to bed until 10:30...." The story...

They went to bed at 8pm - their usual bedtime. At 9pm, my mom hears Jordan crying, so she runs upstairs to check on them. Matthew took Jordi's pacifier. She makes him give it back to him, tucks them back in, goes downstairs.
At 9:30pm, my mom hears Matthew crying, so she runs upstairs to check on them. Jordan had thrown Matt's pacifier across the room. So, she finds it, gives it back to him, tucks them back in, goes downstairs.
At 10pm, my mom hears Matthew crying again. So, once again she runs upstairs to check on them and finds Jordi half-naked. He had pooped in the potty. She walks to the bathroom to clean out the potty and when she comes back, she notices that Jordan is not only naked having pooped in the potty, but he also has a pen in his hand - which brings us to the reason why Matthew is crying. Well, Matt had lain (laid? I don't know) in his bed and allowed his brother to color ALL over him. I'm not talking a little here and a little there. Jordan had drawn "snakes" all over Matthew's feet, legs, back, tummy, hands, arms, neck, ears - even his eyelids. Ha! Poor little guy. So, Matthew was crying because he was asking Grandma, "Take it off? Pweese take it off?!"

Oh, and I hear from some of the Primary teachers that there's been more break-dancing in Primary.

YAY!

2010-03-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

My daffodils will soon be here!

Every year it seems that one day there is snow on the ground and then the next day I wake up and the whole world is in full bloom already. I always forget to take time to notice the little signs of the coming of spring - tiny buds on the trees, the first honey bee, green sprouts breaking through the dirt. So this year I've made it a point to give my full attention to my surroundings as we come out of the deep slumber of winter and rise to the sweetness that is spring. So far in the past weeks, I've noticed 2 lady bugs, a few flies and 1 bee. As I type, I'm looking at the brown buds on my favorite tree that will soon give way to beautiful purple flowers and eventually lush green leaves. I can hardly wait for the full bloom of spring, but for now I'm really enjoying all the small indications that spring is just around the corner. Yippee!

Yesterday was the perfect day to be the first official day of spring - warm and sunny. We bought a couple kites and headed to the park...

From a boy's point of view...

2010-03-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

I will admit - when I found out I was having 2 boys, I cried for a full day. But that's because I didn't know how special and fun it is to raise little boys. Plop my boys in the middle of the woods with some rocks, trees, dirt and maybe a little pond and they will keep themselves happy and busy for hours. The way they awe and wonder at the world never ceases to amaze me.

Looking for bugs in a tree stump.

I love catching Matt and Jordi in the middle of a deep conversation like this. So sweet. :-)

They were so proud of themselves for crossing this log - grinning from ear to ear at the end.

A treasure to a little boy does not consist of money, gems or jewelry. He will find far greater pleasure in the wonder of a rock, pebble, stick or beetle.
-- Author Unknown

Happy 29th to me!

2010-03-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my 29th birthday on March 5th (and for the entire week following :-D). As usual, Jeremy spoiled me this year. Among other sweet things he did for me, he spent a couple hours making me a giant German Chocolate cake from scratch. Seriously, it's THE BEST cake that will ever have the pleasure of meeting your taste buds. No. Joke. Unfortunately I don't have a picture. Just trust me that it was fabulous.

This is not THE cake (yes I had 2 birthday cakes - I just couldn't decide!)

I took the day off work on Friday the 5th. My mom, dad and I took the boys to the Cinci Museum Center. In the evening, my mom and I did a little shopping, and then Luke and Lindsey met all of us at Red Robin for dinner. Luke and Lindsey stayed over Friday night and then on Saturday, we went to 2nd St. Market, fed the ducks at Lincoln Park and went bowling. We finished off the evening with a fantabulous fondue dinner.

Some pics of the blessed event...

How precious is this little girl?! My sister's new puppy, Ginger. The boys LOVE her.

A Budding Picasso

2010-03-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

OK so I'm invoking my maternal right to brag on my children. :-D

My just barely 3 year-old Jordi drew these two rockets - fire coming out of them and everything. He explained that he also drew a ladder going up them so the people could climb up and get inside. So impressive!

He signed his life away...

2010-03-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Jeremy and I celebrated a momentous occasion last week - Jeremy finally signed his contract to join an OB/GYN practice here in Dayton! We are SO excited. :-D The practice consists of two OB/GYN's (Jeremy and another guy) and 3 midwives. The midwives take care of all the routine OB work, including all regular deliveries; while Jeremy and his partner manage only the high-risk OB patients and C-sections, so then they get to focus most of their time on surgery. This is the perfect setup for Jeremy because his favorite part of his job is surgery and he is really talented at it.
His office time will be split between 2 offices - one in Vandalia which is about 25-30 min from home and the other here in Centerville which is no more than a 5 minute drive (most of the time he'll be at that Centerville one). On days that he is in the office, he'll be working either 9am - 5pm or 7am - 3pm (sweet!).
Jeremy will take call 1 weekend a month and during the week he'll be on call every other evening, although he'll only be called in if there is a C-section or forceps delivery, so it'll be pretty cushy. I'm SO excited to finally have a husband who is home on the weekends!
As for the contract, our favorite part is that they are paying off 3/4 of our student loans. What a huge blessing! Another cool thing is that Jeremy graduates in the middle of June but he doesn't start his new job until August 2. That means we'll have a whole 6 weeks to just chill together and play. Have I mentioned yet that I'm so excited about all of this?!
So here we are for another 4 years, or who knows how long. If this job is as perfect as we think it is, then we may be here for a while, which is fine by us! We feel so blessed to have been given such an awesome opportunity and really look forward to years ahead. It has been such a long haul and we're so grateful to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Signing that contract has finally made us feel that there really is an end in sight - I just want to fast-forward through the next 3 1/2 months!

Sledding and Snowmen

2010-03-09T18:41:00.000-08:00

I really don't like winter, I'm not a fan of snow and I hate being cold (why do I live in Ohio rather than Florida? A mystery...). You can imagine how thrilled I was when I suggested to Jeremy that we take the boys sledding and he enthusiastically agreed that it was a great idea. Boo-hoo.

To my pleasant surprise, it was actually a total blast. We had so much fun taking the boys sledding for the first time.

I might add that it was ridiculously difficult to find sledding essentials in mid-February. We went to three different stores looking for sleds, gloves and boots. One might logically think that you could find those items in the dead of winter in the midwest, but rather we found sunscreen, flip-flops and bikinis. Of course. Silly me... Eventually we found some items on clearance at a mountain-man store (the boys' gloves were 5 sizes too big, but they worked) and we borrowed some sleds from my cousin. In the end, fun was had by all!

Another snowy first was the boys' first snowman. Matthew lasted out in the snow for about 5 min before saying, "Mommy, should we have hot chocolate?" I'm pretty sure the only reason he dares to venture into the cold is because he knows he'll get some hot chocolate afterwards (he's definitely my son). Jordan was in it for the long haul and helped Daddy finish building Frosty. The snowman's name is Frosty, but the boys kept calling him Crusty. Oh, and the next day, the boys were freaking out because the birds were out there eating Frosty's eyes. "Mommy, stop those birds! They're eating Crusty's eyes out!" It was hilarious.

#48...Check!

2010-03-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

#48 Learn to make Vickie's homemade bread - completed 03/01/10

Last week Jeremy's mom was in town and, while she was here, she taught me how to make her homemade bread. And mm, mm, mm...boy, is it delicious. Growing up, Jeremy had homemade bread weekly. I advised him that this won't be a regular occurence (I don't really like to cook all that much, although I do enjoy baking somewhat), but I do love the smell of fresh bread emanating my home. Anyway, it'll be a fun treat to make every once in a while. :-) So, it's another item to knock off my list, yay!

Thanks, Vickie, for sharing your secret and thanks for a fun time while you were here!

My 101 in 1001