Monster Trucks

Monster Jam Tickets: $50

Hot Dogs & Soda: $15

The look on my kid's faces: Priceless

St. Patty's Day Breakfast

Funny conversations with Gabe

Trying to get Gabe to take a nap . . .

Me: Gabe close your eyes.

Gabe: I can't.

Me: Why?

Gabe: Because I'm a pirate and pirate's sleep with one eye open.

I was watching a movie and Gabe came into the room and became concerned about the woman who was kneeling on the bed screaming because she was in labor.

Gabe: Mommy what is she doing?

Me: Uh . . . she's exercising.

Gabe: I don't think she wants to exercise any more.

Me: Nope, I don't think she wants to either.

This happened a while ago, but it was so funny it has to be documented. Gabe was in the bathroom when John got out of the shower and noticed that daddy has hair in places that he doesn't.

Gabe: Why don't I have hair there?

John: You will when you get older.

Gabe: Because mine hasn't fallen off my head yet?

(And just for your information, according to Gabe that's how you get bushy eyebrows too. The hair falls off your head and ta-da eyebrows or hairy other places : )

Me: Gabe, when are you going to learn to wipe your own butt?

Gabe: Probably when I'm 18.

Me: Oh. Lucky me.

While wrestling with Daddy. (Gabe's in a headlock.)

John: Say the magic word and I'll let you go.

Gabe: Grandfather.

John: No, say the magic word.

Gabe: Grandfather! Grandfather! Grandfather!

Me: John, I think he means uncle.

John: Oh, did you mean uncle?

Gabe: Yes! Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!

Gabe: My brother, whose name is Satan, who lives in Utah makes my favorite kind of popcorn.

Me: Really, what's your favorite kind of popcorn?

Gabe: Shoe fly, vanilla, and the secret ingredient . . . chocolate chip!

Gabe: Can we get a baby sister?

Me: Why?

Gabe: Because we don't have one. Oh, and I also want a pet shark.

Me: Thank you for putting that in perspective for me.

Gabe: Your welcome.

More Gabe funnies:

When I grow up I want to be a librarian. No, I want to be half librarian and half construction worker.

I've seen all the episodes of Caillou, except for the one when he grows up to be a jedi knight.

I think Porter has monkey powers.

Why don't the bad guys on ninja turtles just repent so they can get out of jail?

Sing with me! "Geneology, I am doing it . . ."

Saturday's adventure took us about an hour and a half north to a beautiful part of rural Ohio. We were in search of John's great great great great great grandparent's grave. Yep, that's 5 greats!

Here's John showing the kids Peter and Betty Spraklen's grave.

While there we also saw Rev. Alfred & Abigail Spracklen's grave - John's great(x 4) uncle. We also found their son, George & his wife Rachel Spracklen, as well as their kids, one of which we had no knowledge about, so John will have fun trying to find out more about her.

See the Amish horse and buggy? I told you we were in rural Ohio. So rural in fact that two of us resorted to peeing in Sonic cups on this trip. It felt wrong to squat behind a tree in the cemetery, plus the 50 mph wind wouldn't have made it easy. Who said family history wouldn't be exciting?!

What's dinner like at your house?

Mississippi

(em-eye-es-es-eye-es-es-eye-pee-pee-eye)

Shersti and I loaded our kids in the car last week and took a little (10. 5 hour) road trip to Mississippi to visit Josh and Dana. (Josh is stationed at Columbus Air Force Base for pilot training.) We chose to visit now since it was Zach's birthday and a good chance for us to meet Molly, the newest addition to their family. Mississippi isn't anything to write home about, but my friends who live there are! Thanks Josh and Dana for a great week!

Here's some pictures from our trip:

Playing in the leaves

Gabe holding Molly Jayne

Riding the carousel at the mall in Tupelo.

Zach's 2nd Birthday Party!

The Birthday Boy!

All of the Kids

(all looking at the camera!)

Porter, Gabe, Molly, Connor, & Zachary

More of Gabe and Miss Molly

Josh with all the kids

Me with Porter and Molly

And finally, the three of us girls.

Beer Baby

You know were Mormon so Porter is actually drinking cherry soda (not beer), but you have to admit the pictures are still pretty funny.

My cousin Matt was at Wright-Patt for some training in February. The boys loved playing with him and I love this picture of them all playing on their gaming devices.

Yard Work!

Today was absolutely beautiful! The sun was shining and it was warm out. We are so excited (and ready) for spring to be here! The kids and I spent quite a bit of time outside today. When John got home from work we came inside for dinner, but it was so nice out that we ventured back outside again to enjoy the nice weather. We decided to get a little bit of yard work done and we had Gabe put his Tonka truck to work!

Loading the truck

Taking it to the backyard

Dumping on the compost pile

Exhausted after all the hard work!

Randomness

Some random pictures from the past few weeks.

Gabe always has a sword, light saber, or dagger in his hand.

(Even on Sunday.)

Gabe and Connor model the latest fashions in safety goggles - a must have when sword fighting!

Giddy up Daddy!

This headband is associated with Gabe's Ninja Turtle phase.

Thankfully, it didn't last long and we've moved on for the most part.

Cute little spaghetti face!

This train track was sa-weet! It took up our entire front room.

Monster Hat

Gabe and I saw this hat in Family Fun Magazine and he's been begging me to make him one ever since. So if you're looking for something to do while trapped inside this winter these are super easy and cute! Click here to see more cute monster hat ideas.

Ice Storm

We got hit by a nasty ice storm yesterday. Thankfully we never lost power and John made a grocery run for me before the storm hit, so we've been able to stay safe and warm at home for the past two days since the base and schools have been closed. Everything is covered in about a quarter inch of ice including the trees and power lines. This made for an interesting bedtime show of transformers lighting up the sky like fireworks accompanied by tree limbs snapping and crashing to the ground. Poor squirrels.
And since we have to find humor in a situation like this last night I watched the interview of a woman on the news who had lost power at home, so she'd had to stay home from work since she couldn't get her car out of the garage since she had "one of those automated door openers." This had me laughing pretty hard. Someone should really tell her about the manual pull release. Hope she enjoyed her day off!

Question

What do you get when your little brother gets a hold of a pair of scissors?

Answer: 3 hours in the Emergency Room and 2 stitches.

Here's the story:

Let me just say we had quite the eventful Sunday. I woke up with a stomach bug (no I'm not pregnant) and decided to stay home from church. The kids ran wild making one mess after another around the house while I spent my time in the bathroom and on the couch. By four o'clock when John and Gabe got home from church the house looked like a bomb had gone off in it. I was finally starting to figure out that I could function as long as I didn't eat or drink anything. John was at the kitchen table setting up a board game with the kids and I was putting a pot of soup on the stove for dinner when Gabe started screaming - he cut me, he cut me! John and I turned around and sure enough Gabe's hand is bleeding and Porter is holding a pair of scissors. As I was inspecting the cut on his hand Gabe thought he was going to die because of the amount of blood coming out of his hand. I assured him he was not dying, but I did think he needed to see a doctor. I couldn't handle the thought of my baby getting stitches without me holding him, and I didn't dare take him by myself in case I got sick again, so we dropped Porter off at a neighbor's house and both John and I accompanied Gabe to the ER. Three hours and two stitches later we were finally home.

The irony of the whole thing is the kids were pretty much neglected all day since I was sick and the accident happened the one time John and I were actually paying attention to them - go figure.

As you can see 24 hours later Gabe is doing great! He continues to insist that it wasn't an accident - Porter meant to cut him! He's also doing a great job at using his left hand for everything. We love you Gabe. Here's to a speedy recovery!