Go D-Backs!

This past Wednesday we went with Nana and Papa to the last regular season Diamondback's baseball game. The entire evening was a lot of fun.  From standing outside the stadium before the game started, to watching the game and even the surprise on the way out.  Here's a quick recap of the fun evening that was had...

Before the game started we arrived a few minutes early and decided to wait outside and watch the festivities taking place.  Somehow Michael and Gabriel were drawn to this robot-like creature that was promoting some movie.  I think Gabriel was a little worried the robot might bend down and grab them at any moment.

And then of course there was Michael, who makes any situation fun.  With music blaring over loud speakers, he decided it was the perfect situation for a little impromptu dance performance...

 At which point Gabriel just shrugged his shoulders and giggled at his silly brother.

 And then there was the game itself.  Here's a few shots of the boys with Nana and Papa.  We had so much fun talking with them, I actually didn't take a single picture of the game. 

 And then on the way out Jarrett and I split up each taking a boy to the bathroom before the drive home.  It just happened that Mark Grace, the bobble-head that is, was walking by.  Immediately Michael started chasing after him and demanded a picture.  Turns out the picture was great bragging rights to his Dad and brother who happen to like Mark Grace.  Turns out before seeing the bobble-head Michael had no idea who Mark Grace was.  But ask him now baby and he knows...

We are excited to see the D-backs continue on into the post-season and we wish them well.
Nana and Papa thanks for taking us out to the ballgame.  It was a lot of fun!
Until next time,
Angie

Cookers...

The boys seem very interested in helping me in the kitchen.  Lately they've been taking turns each night being my special helper "cooker"  I think it is great and being that they eat almost everything, I enjoy having the extra help.

Here's a few shots of Michael helping me the other night make vegetables  and get our raspberries ready for dinner. 

Until next time,
Angie

Moving on up....but not to the east side...

Jarrett and I continue to be amazed at the amount of "stuff" that comes along with having children.  When we looked at homes more than 5 years ago, we always planned for extra space for children.  Now looking back, we had no idea what we were doing when we planned for "extra" space for them.  Turns out, now that we have two boys and all that comes with having kids, somedays it seems we need almost a whole another home just to store stuff.

Turns out we've already run out of room.  If you come to our house, I warn you to never open up a closet, a drawer or heaven forbid... our office doors.  It seems we have everything full to the brim and I won't even bring up the topic of the attaic again.  Jarrett and I have been brainstorming what we can get rid of and how we can clean out our clutter, but after hours of debate, when I suggest we cut down the number of books in his "library" and he suggests I get rid of all of my scrapbook stuff, we throw up the white flag and just settle with the fact that the stuff will have to stay. 

Being that we, along with millions of other American's purchased our home in the middle of a real estate bubble/disaster/nightmare/"the list could go on" we are stuck in our home for at least the next 26 years (but whose counting). So we began to brainstorm different ways to better use our limited space.  One solution we came up with was changing the boy's bedroom and bunking up their beds.  When we asked the boys about what they thought of the idea, they loved it!

Two weeks ago  Jarrett and I tackeled the project of bunking their beds (yes, I am writing this correctly).  It seemed originally like a simple project.  We learned quickly, nothing with us, is that simple.  Turns out that after we paid extra to have the beds assembled on site (literally after the boys had already moved in with us back in May 2010), we carefully placed the extra bolts, screws and pieces in a careful place as to make sure we would remember where we were storing them until the day came when we decided to bunk their beds.  Turns out, we put all of the necessary pieces in such a careful place, we can't remember, let alone find where we stored them.  So back to the furniture store Jarrett went to reorder all of the pieces for the entire bed assembly.  On the bright side, if the boys ever break a nut or bolt holding the bed together, we now have a spare (that is unless we can't remember where we store our second back up set). :-)

Finally this past Friday, the pieces arrived and we started the project of assembling the extra pieces to put one bed ontop of the other.  An hour and a half into the project, and after several discussions about why the pieces weren't matching up correctly, we discovered our expert bed assembly folks, yes the ones we paid extra to assemble, weren't exactly experts on installation.  Turns out they assembled the beds incorrectly and so Jarrett and I had to take both beds complete apart and then begin to put them back together, this time the correct way. 

And now finally, after what seems like a marathon project, we are happy to announce that the boy's room is now holding more of their "stuff" and our living room is back to resembling something that should look like a place to live rather than a storage room for toys.  Yay! We finally got the beds together...

And the boys are excited beyond belief.  Gabriel feels like he's on the top of the world and Michael has his own cave-like bed. 

Here's hoping boys don't accumulate more stuff the older they get or were going to run out of options to move on up... with a single story home, there's only so far you can move up.

Until next time,
Angie

Dad, you're 32? That's old....

Today is Dad's birthday and we are happy to celebrate with him.

A few days ago we started working on a craft project for dad.  We decided to make something out of clay.  Being that is was 107 degrees outside the boys decided to each make a snowman for dad. 

Here are a few shots of the boys hard at work molding their clay into a snowman masterpiece...

The clay was quite hard so the boys really had to use their muscles to make it work.

Frosty has to have a hat right?

We love messes!

I think he's practicing up the surprised look his dad will have when he opened up their gifts.

Today we finished painting the snowmen and they are drying as I type this.  We hope dad will like his homemade snowmen and know just how much we love him as he looks at them on his desk at work.

Happy Birthday Dad!  You're the best!
Until next time,
Angie

Super Star...

This week in kindergarten Gabriel is the Super Star. In case you're wondering what that is, here's Gabriel's big reveal of his news last Friday after school...

Each week, one child in his Kindergarten class will get the honor of being the super star.  In addition to getting to "do the calendar, and pennies and the weather", the class celebrates all that makes the "Super Star" special.  The take away lesson is to teach children self-esteem and confidence.  I'm very excited for Gabriel.

One of the "homework" items the students (or parents) have to do to get ready to be the super star is make a poster.with some pictures of Gabriel and his family.  After mulling over the project for a couple of days, and having the boys help, here are a few photos that show the finished product.

As we walked into school today I asked Gabriel if he was excited to be the Super Star for the week.  His response, "Mom, I'm just happy to have a nice poster." 

Until next time,

Angie

The Bieber boys are back...

Jarrett is now begging me to never mention the B word again, but the boys love him and so we continue to listen to the "Baby" song over and over.

Here is the latest performance by the Flower Band covering their favorite artist.... Mr. Justin Bieber.

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Angie

His unique talent...

One of Michael's many talents is that he can balance several objects on his nose.  We first learned of his ability one time when we were out to dinner.  While trying to entertain him until the food arrived, we asked him if he could balance a spoon on his nose.  Thinking it would be an activity that would keep him some what quiet and preoccupied, we were shocked to see that unlike almost every other person I know, balancing a spoon on the end of his nose, was as simple as saying hello.  While we struggled to demonstrate what we were talking about.  He easily picked up his spoon, placed it one the edge of his nose and let go.  "See Mom, like this right?"  We were speechless.

From there he moved onto trying to balance objects with other parts of his body and turns out his ear is also the perfect shape to balance silverware.  Spoons, forks, plastic or silver... you name it, he can balance it.  Who knew.

Just this week I was working on folding the laundry and I asked Michael if he would bring me the hangers from Dad's closet so I could hang up his work shirts. Being the creative little guy that he is, he couldn't just bring the hangers to me in his hands. Instead he brought them to me like this...

And it wasn't just this way that he could balance the hangers....

You name it, he turned the hanger and from every angel, it would sit perfectly balanced on the end of his nose.

Then he started to get brave and tried to make silly faces while he balanced the hanger.

There's never a dull day when our talented Mr. Michael is around.

Until next time,
Angie

Dress Up....

The boys love to play dress up.  Before having kids I assumed it was only little girls that liked to play dress up.  But I've since learned that the game of playing dress up is fun for every little girl and boy!

It truly amazes me all the diferent things the boys pretend to be when they play dress up.  Here are few shots of their most recent dress up adventures...

Although Captain Gabriel looks like he got into the rum punch, we promise it was only punch.

The dynamic dueo..

Introducing Red Ninja Pirate Michael

And from dress up, the game turned into an action film, Swiss Haskovec Family Robinson (we recently watched the Disney classic Swiss Family Robinson) where the boys (all of them) turned our living room into a scene from the movie....

What a fun time the boys (including Dad) had playing dress up and pretend.
And although the fimiling, acting and directing wasn't quite up to Disney's standards, it was fun to watch.
And now roll the credits...

Until next time,
Angie

School Projects...

The other day the boys came home with the best school projects to date.  Can you guess why we like them so much?

Here's what Gabriel created with finger paints in art class...

I Love my Dad!

I Love Mom!

 And then there was Michael's project...

Michael and Mom

Michael has been focusing on writing his name and never before had we worked with him on writing another word.  Out of the blue he came home with the word "Mom" written on his paper.  I guess he must have seen Gabriel write Mom so many times, he decided he wanted to try writing it too.  I was so happy I almost started crying on the way home from his school.  He said "Mom, I wrote your name so you know I love you"

My heart overflows with love.

Until next time,
Angie

So similar and yet so different

School has been in full swing for the last month now and the boys are working and learning a lot.  It is amazing to me how differently each of them approach school.

Gabriel is very serious and tries hard to make sure he remembers all of the things he's suppose to bring and work on for school.  Every school morning he shouts out all the things he has to make sure he has...

homework... check
folder... check
backpack... check
water bottle... check
lunch bag... check
snack...check

Seriously there are so many things to remember, it is amazing I remember to go to work after checking off all the things he needs just for kindergarten.

And then there is Michael.  He takes a, well, completely different approach to getting ready for school.  He's our more carefree child.  He doesn't care if he's on time for school or not.  In fact, he'd probably prefer to arrive fashionable late, if I'd let him.  The one saying he hears about 50 times every morning is "Michael Hurry Up!" or when we feel like changing it up we say, "Hurry Up Michael!"  He causally gets up walks around the house for about 10 minutes, doing, well were not quite sure what he does for 10 minutes.  By that point Gabriel is up, has his bed made, changed clothes, gotten his school stuff all ready and it at the table eating a bowl of cereal all by himself. 

After helping Michael get things in order, we are racing out the door and hurrying to get on the road as we are usually about 10 minutes behind schedule.  It is usually at that point Michael remembers he has something else he needs to do, or that it is "show and tell" day and insists on stopping so he can get a toy to share. 

The same things happen I understand at school.  Gabriel takes the subjects he is learning about very seriously and recites the lessons learned on the car ride home.  Michael on the other hand approaches school more like social hour(s).  And it is almost as if everything he has experienced in the 9 hours he's been at school, miraculously vanishes from his memory the moment we walk out of the school door.  I pick him up first and on our way to get Gabriel I ask him the same questions and I always get the same answers". 

MOM: "Michael, how was school today?" 
MICHAEL: "I don't know."
MOM: Michael what letter did you learn about today?
MICHAEL: "Letter B Mom  (Seriously they've been learning about the letter B for the last 43 weeks.  Either his class is having some difficulty learning the letter or it is the easiest letter to remember)
MOM: "What did you have for lunch?"
MICHAEL: I dont' know"

I tell ya, the school must have a magical door that erases memory.  :-)

After we have the same conversation day after day Michael then interjects and says "Mom, look what I made at school and I learned the kids how to make them too." 

It is then that he reveals his prized masterpiece...

Yep that is right.. Michael has mastered the art of making paper airplanes.  He's so talented at making them that he turns all of his school art projects into airplanes.  And not only does he turn all of his projects into airplanes but the teachers have so kindly informed that he is teaching the other kids (boys) in the class how to make them.  I guess his talent must be in very high demand because his "clients" want him to practice making them during quiet reading time, circle time, centers and even during nap time.  

When I ask Michael about it he says, "Mom, the kids want me to show them how to make it.  It is okay though mom because the kids say please."   What is a parent to say after that?

We've now implements a no paper airplane policy at school.  We'll see tomorrow what he brings home. 

It is amazing to me how so similar and yet so different the boys can be. 

Until next time,
Angie

Gabriel- and Michael- isms pt3

Their words continue to make me laugh and although I might be the only one who finds it funny, I choose to record them here so that someday, when the boys are big, we can look back and remember how they were at this age.

So here I go again with some words to decipher...

sobsable.................
Skelatope...............
fitty...............
floated...............

Did you guess?  Do you think you have them right?

Here's their translation....

Pobsable.......... also known as a popsicle, what Gabriel was treated with the other day at school for being the quietest one in the bathroom.

Skelatope...........also known as a telescope.......... what Michael puts up to his eye when he's playing pirate and to his mouth when he's pretending to sing like Justin Beaber.

Fitty............. not as in the rapper "Fitty Cent" but as in filthy, dirty, messy.  I guess I must use the word frequently to describe our house when I think it is messy.  The other day we were driving and we went by a house that has a lot of garbage in the front yard.  Gabriel said, "Mom that house is really fitty."

Flotated..........not as in, we floated around in the pool, but rather flooded, that yard is floated (as Michael described a yard here that has been flooded to water the plants.)

So there you go.  Stay tuned for future versions of Gabriel and Michael-isms.

Until next time,
Angie

They formed a band...

The boys decided to start a band.  Gabriel is the drummer and Michael is the lead singer and sometimes guitar player.

Although their album isn't scheduled for release until the Summer of 2020, you are the first to see their first two music videos.

Watch out MTV... here's comes the group  "Flower Band"  (the name the boys call themselves)...

With their first video single... "You Say"

And don't be concerned if they sounds a little too hard rockish... they also play christian rock...

Here's their second video, "He Reigns"

  So please watch for their CD to be released sometime in the next 9 years.  Oh and please buy it, we're banking on their bands success to help fund their college education. :-)

Until next time,
angie

Surprises...

Flashback Friday:  This is a post I wrote back in 2010 (yikes) and never published it.  Guess it is one of those many stories I hoped to share and didn't get it done.  I share now a story that happened back when the boys were 3 and 4.  Hard to believe they are now 6 and 7.  Where has the time gone....

Now back to the story...


Last Friday after picking the boys up from school, I was excited to share with them what our plans were for the long holiday weekend.  I said "Boys, Dad and I have a lot of surprises for you this weekend."

Immediately they started trying to guess what the surprises were and what we had planned. Gabriel said, "Were going to go camping right?"  "No, but good guess."  "Mom, are we going to go to Iowa?"  "Not this weekend Gabriel"
Then it was Michael's turn to guess.In between sneezing and wiping his runny nose, Michael did his best to guess... "Mom, you are taking us to Disneyland right?"  "Um, no."  "I know, you are going to take us to Makutus"  "No but good guesses."

Getting tired of guessing and frustrated with wiping his nose and not being able to figure out the surprise, Michael stopped, looked over at Gabriel in frustration and said, "Guess what Gabriel, this is not a surprise....

"you gave me your cold and I do not like that surprise."

Gabriel looked shocked, turned to me to see what his reaction was suppose to be and I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Until next time,
Angie

College Football!!!!

We are very excited for fall to arrive and it it ever decides to cool off here, we will truly believe it is the start of college football season.  Even if the temperature was 112 on Saturday, we warmly (ha ha) welcomed the start of our favorite football team's season. 

It was the first time, I believe in the history of my marriage that Jarrett was excited to wake up before 6 in the morning and only because he wanted to watch college game day.  The boys (all of them) proudly put on their Hawkeye t-shirts and caps and became glued to the TV for most of the day.

For us though, the conversation about college football started the night prior when we were sitting down at the table eating dinner.  Jarrett had ESPN on in the background and they were discussing the games and who was playing who.  It was then that I asked him about the new divisions within the Big 10 and other conferences.  That is when we started talking about Penn State and I asked Jarrett, "What side is Penn State on?  For some reason this must have caught the boy's attention because a few minutes later Gabriel asked, "Who is playing again?"  And that's when Michael chimed in to answer, "Gabriel, Dad just said the pen's are playing the pencils"

Jarrett looked at me, I looked back and we just smiled.

Until next time,
angie

Calling God...

On Sunday at church the priest was talking about how God calls us at people to do good things for others.  To love, care for and help those most in need. 

Moments later, in the middle of church, Gabriel turned to me and out of the blue asked, "Mom, does God have a cell phone?'  Looking puzzled, I answered "No." and that is when he whispered, "But Mom how does God call us?  Father Gary said God calls people, how does he call if he doesn't have a cell phone?"

Until next time,
Angie

My bow tie

The other day at school Michael made a bow tie and he's so proud of it, he insists on wearing it out in public.  It doesn't matter if we are going to church, to eat at a restaurant, to a swimming pool or to the store.  He wants to wear his bow tie because, and I quote, "It makes me look handsome."

The other day, before letting him go out in public modeling his bow tie, I asked him to strut his stuff and model it for me.

Here are few of his poses...

Yeah I can puff out my chest, just watch me!

Oh yeah, here's some muscles for you to look at.

Just relaxing

This is my dazed and confused look.

And this is the one all the ladies can't resist... Handsome 100%

Until next time,
Angie