Our Vacation Video

The other link didnt work for everyone, so try the new one.


So, HERE is the long video of our vacation. It has to be on my video site because it is kind of large. It ended up being a bit (a lot) longer (20 minutes) than I had planned. So, if you wish to watch it, go for it. I do these videos as keepsakes for our famiy, but like to share them with you. Oh, by the way, I have no clue what the artists in the songs are saying. I just downloaded some songs from the Puerto Rican Music section. So, if you know Spanish and you are shocked by my song choices...I apologize. lol.


Oh, my 14 year old niece Alicia is coming to visit me for about 1 1/2 weeks. I am so excited that I will have a girl in this house. Hopefully her hormones plus mine will even out the testosterone that is present in the house now. She has come to visit me every summer and we have a blast when she is here. It was kind of a spontaneous thing and I am meeting my 2 sisters 1/2 way to Michigan tomorrow afternoon. Yeah! Alicia is coming to visit!

Hurdles.

It has only been 2 weeks since my boys have been out of school, and they are already searching for things to do. Today, I think I heard "mom" about 2,000 times. Any other day, it would have been semi-fine, but Aaron and I are still battling this stomach thing and Elliott is requiring more attention than ever. He has a double ear infection, thick snot, and attachment anxiety going on. This makes it for a fun day (week) at our home. Tonight, I was so happy to see that Andrew created hurdles in the front yard. The first set of hurdles consisted of EVERYTHING being taken out of our garage and scattered all over. Can you just picture it? I swear it looked like we were having a tag sale. I rushed out when I saw that they were putting the stroller out and jumping over their bikes. I am happy that they are using their imagination, however, please don't scatter everything all over the yard. I gave them 2 plant stakes and their pool noodles to use. I knew how I would figure this out, but wanted to see if they could figure it out. Well, Andrew did. YEAH! So after he figured it out, he got bored of it real fast. Owen on the other hand loved it. He not only did the jumps but LAPPED the entire house 102 times then jumped them, did 80 push ups and 25 sit ups. No joke people. He was exhausted, but said he wanted to be strong for soccer season in the fall. Here is their attempt at the high jump using noodles and stakes.

Owen never lowered the "bar" but kept going until he could finally jump it.

9 Months...

Ahhh. we got a computer. Let the fun and blogging begin. I think I will be in front of this thing the entire day catching up on edits and such. It kills me because my website is in need of some updating, but I can't update it because all of my sittings....are on the crashed/done for computer.

Anyway, while we were in Puerto Rico, Elliott turned 9 months. Andrew was so very excited to tell everybody that he turned 9 months.

He is my li'l buddy for sure! I have to say, this attachment phase he is going through isn't so flattering. Momma, Momma, Momma! Here is the latest list of milestones of Elliott...
* 6 chompers
* Says Ma ma , da da, ba ba, supercalifragilisticexpealdocious. Just kidding, only 3 "words/sounds"
* still hates the thought of peas. We still try every so often.
* will not eat anything but baby food and bottles. He gags at any other texture.
* cries when he see's the Chinese Dragon on the Baby Bach episode from the Baby Einstein collection...every time! He also cries at the sight of the old man on the Over the Rhine cd cover "Patience".
* smiles super big when he sees the "friendly caterpillar" in the beginning of the Baby Einstein show (moms and dads, you know what I am talking about here)
* is trying really hard to be mobile and we suspect that we will be installing baby gates within the month. lovely.
* Loves his brothers and misses them when they are at school. RU-RU is his name for Andrew and OWES is how he identifies Owen.
* is a very strong willed little boy. "Owen" strong willed type of personality folks.
* has just graduated from the infant car seat to a big boy car seat
* still, no hair.

I can't wait to have his first birthday party...PIRATE THEME!

Still no computer...

We really do plan to share our trip to Puerto Rico with you, however, we still do not have a computer other than the boy's dinosaur computer. I am actually at my friend Heidi's catching up on some blogging and watching her girls for her. The photography projects are piling up for my business. It figures that when business picks up a little, our computer fries. Mico-center was supposed to have our computer ready yesterday, but obviously, they didn't. We will try again today.

Happy Anniversary Honey Buns

No, that is not what I usually call Aaron. I will spare you of our nicknames for one another. Yes, It was our Anniversary yesterday, June 21st. It was also Father's Day and it also was the day my mom passed away. So, we had a busy, emotional day. I tried to get out the fact that My mom passed away on June 20th. I was grumpy, moody and a bit mad. I guess that just comes with grieving.
We celebrated Fathers day kind of through out the day. Aaron got some things for his smoker (his new Hobby) and we had some root beer floats. In the evening, we went over to Aunt Terry and Uncle Karl's for an evening of Olives, Cheese and Wine. We topped off the night with some Creme Brulee. Their home is just amazing. They own a landscaping company and retail store so their gardens are basically a testimony to their hard work and a true showcase of beauty. It is just awesome. Aunt Terry helped me out with the planning of our 12th anniversary by putting a candle, radio and chairs by the pond. Aaron had no clue what we were going to be doing. I am not much of a romantic, but I know that he is and that he would enjoy doing something like that. It brought me out of my box and I really enjoyed spending one on one time with him. It was very peaceful as we talked and listened to the waterfall behind us. The wine we had was pretty amazing too. Happy Anniversary Aaron! I am thankful to have such a wonderful Husband like you who loves me and all of my imperfections. You're pretty darn hot too. Cheers to 12 years! We both can't believe it has been that long.
Here are some pics from the night.

famine

I have not posted for awhile. Our computer is done for. I am hooked online with Andrew and Owen's computer. Oh, I forgot to mention, we went on vacation this week. We went to PUERTO RICO! It was so much fun. It was hard for us to leave. Once we get our computer running again, I will post lots of pictures and bore you with our vacation story. I thought I loved Coconut prior to going on Vacation...now, I am an addict. I brought home lots of coconut treats. All for me. I will share with you only if you in the "addict" status.

why, just why?

so...guess what? Our home computer crashed this morning. I am blogging off of the laptop. This time the (drum roll in the background) HARD DRIVE. What is it with us and hard drives? Aaron took it to best buy and the stupid thing couldnt be recognized on their system. Same story as they gave the last time..."We'll send it in for you, but it could cost up to $1800 dollars. (last time they told us $1200.). I had another hard cry this morning. If you may remember, our external crashed a few months back. Now, for real...everything is gone. It did remind me that the other hard drive that a friend looked at is still there and I need to get over there to pick it up. ugh. That is actually the hard drive I am interested in investing to retrieve information off of, but I still have a ton of things on this other one...including appointments that need editing. I am just sick. So does this mean I turn to a Mac now? What is your experience from going to a pc to a mac?

Happy Birthday old man..

Today was Aaron's 34th birthday. Usually, I hear the term "old lady" for the 18 days prior to his birthday (mine is 18 days before his). This year, I think he decided to lay off the old lady jokes a bit. Maybe because I have been a grump and he didn't feel like being on my bad side?
We celebrated with a picnic theme. He didn't put the fact that we got him a smoker and the whole picnic theme party together until I mentioned something...

smoker for meat
+ BBQ
________________
PICNIC!!!.


I originally planned a dinner to City BBQ for the first part of the surprise. Guess what, Aaron went to City BBQ for lunch. So, we proceeded to the local Pizza joint.
Once home, we didn't have candles (you think I would have purchased some since my birthday cake didn't have candles, right?). Nope. We lit a match and stuck it in the chocolate/raspberry cake. Elliott was very scared by the party blowers the boys had. He cried and they did it more. Poor kid. I think I told them like 7 times not to blow them around him, but obviously, they failed to pay attention until I ripped the sparkly things off the stupid things.

We are not sure which twin this is...I think it is Aaron, my sister in law thinks it is Eric (Aaron's twin). It is one of them obviously. Funny story...Aaron's mom told me years ago it was Aaron, and years ago, she also told Kim it was Eric.


Owen and the trouble making blower thing (prior to me ripping the stupid red sparkly things off).

Another video...

Sorry about all of the videos lately, I am trying to get these on dvd to free up some room on our hard drive. Andrew noticed that there were not very many posts about him this week...So, he specifically asked me to record him playing Guitar Hero. He is my "keeps the tabs" child. He also kicks our bootays at this game.

Owen and Mom: the dialoge of the Haircut

May 31, 2009
Mom: Owen, it is time for your haircut buddy. dialogue
Owen: can I get a Mohawk?
Mom: no
Owen: can I get a buzz?
Mom: No, let's just trim it a little before we go on vacation. It will be good to have a trim before summer.
Owen: ok, can I have a lollipop when you are done.
Mom: Yes Owen...you can have a lollipop but you have to sit REALLY still.
Owen: ok.
(Mom in the process of cutting hair)
Owen: Mom, how short are you going to make it
Mom: Just a trim Owen, chill out.
Owen: I want my curls still mom. Don't cut my curls off. My friends love my curls and my hair.
Mom: Well, your curls are gone Owen. I said I was going to trim and they got cut off.
Owen: (blank stare)"MOM"

Mom: (cutting more hair, the kid has more hair than I thought. Mom thinking that I should have taken him to the salon. Mom takes a break and calls salon, salon is closed...CRAP, mom has to finish and no turning back)

Owen: Mom, can Jawaan (his hairdresser) cut my hair? Maybe you can take me to him tomorrow.
Mom: No, they are closed Owen. It is kind of too late. Mom has to TRY and finish your hair.
Owen: Don't cut too short mom
Mom: Owen, let me do my job, ok?

cut, cut, cut, cut. Hmmm...gotta get the buzzers out. Wasn't expecting to use the buzzers on this job. Mom thinking to herself "HE IS GOING TO BE PISSED".

Mom looking at Owen in the eyes, holding his hand: Owen, it is a little shorter than what I thought. It looks really good, but your curls are gone (Owen feeling hair and starts to freak out..."Let me see mom). Owen looks into the mirror. Cries. Cries more and Cries hard.
Owen: MOM!!! The kids at school love my hair. They aren't going to like me now. Everybody is going to make fun of me. I hate it. (Thankfully, he didn't say "I HATE YOU).
Mom: (teaching moment) Owen, your friends like you because you are Owen, not because of your hair. Do you have friends that you only like because of their hair or what they wear?"
Owen: Yes. (teaching moment gone and not feeling like I need to talk to him about shallow friendships)
Mom: (still trying to convince him that he is special) Owen, it looks really good and it will be so much cooler for summer. You will get use to it.
Owen: (1 hour later still crying)...then nothing. It all turned good.
Mom and Dad: (looking at one another) "Jekyll and Hyde?" hmmm

June 1, 2009
Owen: I don't want to go to school mom.
Mom: you are going to school Owen. I will walk you in.
Owen enters the Kindergarten room and his friend notices the haircut and says in a surprised voice..."Owen, you got your haircut".
Owen: (melts to the ground) "He is making fun of me" (enters Boo Hoo Mode)
Teacher: (pulls Owen aside and has a "talk")
Mom: (feels like crap)

To be continued. (I am sure I will get an earful when he comes home from school). I really like it and did a pretty darn good job. What I don't understand is that he wanted a buzz but thought this haircut was too short.

The new hairdo's...