A cropped story.

I took this sweet picture of Jack and Mara this morning.

And then I realized that I had cropped out the rest of the story.

The sweetest moments in life can be found 

even when there's a lot of poo.

POLLLLLLLLLLLLE!!!

 

First soccer game of the season.. Charlie was going for a goal but instead ran into the POLLLLLLLLE!!! He's okay. Just a headache and a sweet shiner.  I actually missed the incident because I was playing with the macro button on my camera (see below).

Summer was different this year with the arrival of Mara and having Greg home every day. It went by too fast but it's nice to get back into a routine with school and extra curricular activities.

"I wish I had lizard eyes...

...so I could make one look up and one look down at the same time." ~Jack

Fun Run.. you know, for kids!

Last Saturday we participated in our second annual Novell's Fun Run for kids. Apparently I didn't blog about it last year. Shocker.  I sat out of this one due to the fact that I'm having a baby next week. Greg ran the 5K though!


Isaac's pre-race jitters

Isaac was awesome. He was so excited to run but I snapped this shot just before his 100 meter race.  After the race, he kept begging to run again and again.  Even at bed time he said, "I want to race!"  He had a great time and came in first place for boys ages 0-2.  He was terrified of being on the podium on top of the platform but pulled it together for a classic shot. I love his enormous t-shirt.

I apologize for my extremely loud, high pitch voice while filming.. I was into it (seriously - you'll want to turn the volume down before viewing).

The progression of these photos make me laugh. Greg was not loving looking into the sun and suggested I take it at an angle:

Jack's run was a 1/2 mile total, up quite a steep hill, twice. The poor kid got tripped up by another kid who was confused that he had to run the track twice. I was proud that Jack kept going and finished his race.

Charlie came in first for boys in his age group too. (There's always a long legged girl he can't ever seem to pass.)

It was, indeed, a fun run. Way to go, men!

Jack's preschool parade

A perfect day for Jack

Nothing is more exciting for Jack than to hear, "Jack! Come quick! There are snakes all over our back yard!!!" Indeed. I decided on Wednesday that four days was a sufficient amount of time for the tent to dry after Father's and sons. As I reached to pick it up a quick little garter snake zipped out and under the fence. Just the day before we'd been talking about how we hadn't seen any snakes this year. Last summer Jack caught five. I was so sad that I'd missed this guy (but not sad enough to actually consider grabbing it before it got away). As the adrenalin settled, I proceeded to lift the tent only to find four more little guys curled up on the cold cement under the tent at which point I called in my in-house snake catcher.

Jack spent the day with his snakes. One got away during snake races. One was let go after it "threw up". Jack said, "I'm not a real expert on snakes, but it was time for that one to go." The final two where released at dinner time after a day of begging and pleading for us to keep them forever and ever. (Did we not just get a dog? And we already need snakes? Then, if we keep snakes, what's next? Well, I asked Jack and he said, "A bird and then a turtle and then a king cobra and a baby tiger and then a baby mountain goat, a bearded dragon, and then I'll have a horse. A baby horse. A baby. Small." Oh, okay. As long as it is small. "And then a cheetah and a kitten." Well, at least I know what the ultimate plan is.)

First fish of the season

The boys had a successful night "land fishing" at Salem Pond. So much so that on their way home Jack said, "Dad, you really need to bring Brandon land fishing here for shore. Get it, Dad? FOR SHORE???"

May 17, 2010

Escargot anyone???

Found

some e-mails to dad

Happy Sunday

10.4.09 Reading the Sunday Funnies to the boys' is a new tradition not to be missed. It's good times.

Charlie was on TV!

Watch for him in the orange shirt.
It's brief, but he was thrilled.
Poor Jack though... once again... didn't make it in the shot.
Jack watched the clip over and over and over looking for himself... he thinks he found his sleve though.

WAIT! WE FOUND JACK! 30 SECONDS FROM THE END OF THE CLIP RIGHT ATER CHARLIE it shows a group of kids. The girl on the bottom with the flower in our hair is our friend, Grace, and Jack's face is all the way over on the left edge of the screen.

Thank you, Tom & Leslie for the tickets! We LOVED it!!! And we'd be happy to return your Redbox movies ANYTIME!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Speaking of hair...

Who falls asleep while getting their haircut (Well, besides me.... I.... must... keep... moving...):

Jack's new style?

Most days - I don't really care how the boys do their hair. After all, it's just hair and they do a pretty good job with spikies anyway.

However, I'm not sure about this latest doo...
It's called, "The Power Ranger"

A little water all over the bathroom never hurt anyone.

Charlie and Jack love watching themselves in this clip.

I should almost video them, watching it.. then blog it.. for added interest.

Random things that we do

We've been playing a lot of slap-jack lately.. you know, the card game. Although, admittedly there has been some playful slapping of the Jack during these games as well.


Also, playing restaraunt has been very popular.



Charlie is featuring one of his sandwich creations - The Fesky Wesky.

Jack and his big boy bed

We bought bunk beds earlier this summer excited for Jack to transition into his new big boy bed in plenty of time before the baby arrived. However, we discovered Jack had ZERO interest in leaving his crib. He tried his bunk bed out for about 5 minutes the first night and was done. Since then he's been gracious enough to offer to let the baby sleep with him in the crib when he arrives.

Then, inspiration hit. I told Jack that if he wanted he could take his crib apart with Daddy's drill. Then, in it's place we'd put the extra twin bed that we have. Well, mention power tools to the boy and he's all for it! The first night he only slipped out of his bed 4 times. The second night 2 times. Then last night - he slept perfectly all night! This photo was taken after his 3 hour Sunday-nap. He's was feeling extremely well rested.

Now if I can only figure out how to incorporate power tools into potty training...

Jack's 3rd birthday

I'm usually not one to back-blog. But seriously, I found the cutest pictures from Jack's birthday. How could I resist?

All Jack wanted for his 3rd birthday was Mike and Ike cupcakes and a pet baby alligator. While our current living situation (and my SANITY) doesn't allow for a pet alligator we opted for a surprise trip to the zoo instead where Jack had a photo opp with an admittedly adorable baby alligator. Jack pointed out that the alligator is even smiling!

After the zoo we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for swimming, dinner, and cupcakes with cousins.

Here are pictures of Jack and his new sock monkey that my mom made him for his birthday. He loves it so much, we had to do some repair on Frank's tail already. That monkey loves flying through the air and being dragged through the house by his tail.