Yes Day!

We have a children's book we love called Yes Day.  Here's the synopsis: "No matter how silly the requests, there is one day a year when kids always receive positive answers: Can I have pizza for breakfast?  Yes!  Can we have a food fight?  Yes!  Can I stay up really late? Yes!  This day is simply called Yes Day and it's the best day of the year."


The kids keep asking me when they will get a Yes Day!  And I keep promising them that we'll have one, the only catch is they won't know it's Yes Day.  Over the weekend we made all the necessary preparations we could for hurricane Sandy, so on Monday all we could do was sit and wait for the storm to get here.  Well, that's not true, I could have cleaned my house, but decided why clean my house if a tree is just going to fall on it.  Instead, I kept Gabe home from school and declared it Yes Day!

Can we stay in our pajamas?

Yes!

Can I wear my Captain America costume?

Yes!

Can you tie our legs together?

Yes!

Can we eat candy and play games on your bed?

Yes!

    

Can we have a ham sandwich, pickles, pretzels, and orange soda in a twisty cup for lunch?

Yes!

Can I dump an entire bag of pretzels on the living room floor?

Okay, so the little demon didn't ask, he just did it, but he didn't get in trouble, since after all it was Yes Day.

However, there are consequences when said demon doesn't clean up the pretzels he dumped on the floor.  A little Yes Day siesta.  Sleep it off buddy.

Can we carve our pumpkins?

Yes!

Can we watch a movie?

Yes!

After the kids had gotten ready for bed, I asked them how there day was.  

It was great, they said.

Did you know today was Yes Day?  

What?!!! 

Then I gave them one last request . . .

Can we sleep in your bed?

Yes! 

Happy Halloween!

I'm sure glad the kids got to dress up and go Trick or Treating last weekend at our ward's Trunk or Treat.  Now I won't feel so bad if they don't get to go around the neighborhood on Halloween night if hurricane Sandy makes a mess of things.  

Here's our cute little monsters!

Harry Potter

Captain America

and our baby Penguin

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Baby Jumperoo

Quentin's first time in the jumperoo.  Notice he doesn't jump much . . . he's too busy watching the circus going on in front of him. 

(I think this was back in August sometime.)

Pine Needles Galore

Do all pine trees do this in the fall?  Or is ours sick?  If this is normal, I had no idea.

We have a BIG pine tree.  It's probably 100 years old.  The thing is massive.  I worry about it falling on our house and crushing us like ants.  I raked these needles on Saturday.  I raked again today.  And I'm pretty sure I'll be raking again in a few more days.  I had no idea pine trees did this.   I'm honestly asking . . . is this normal?

New Driveway!

The Driveway Before

Cracked and crumbling and John had to park on the grass : (  

Nice and new and no more parking in the grass : )

Time for some -isms

PORTERISMS

Porter: What's that?
Me: That's a runway, it's where the planes take off and land.
Porter: No, it's called a flyway.

Porter: Mom!  Gabe's not sharing!
Me: What's he not sharing?
Porter: He's not sharing Quentin!

Porter and Quentin both crying . . . 
Porter: Quentin stop it!  I'm crying!

Porter:  Mommy, come see!  I just put the fire out with my hose!
(He's a boy . . . so just use your imagination . . . )

I have to tell a little story here, because I have boys and well when they stand to pee depending on how big of a hurry they are in it can get kind of messy.  I'm getting really tired of cleaning up or sitting in pee.  So, you can imagine my joy the other day when I walked past the bathroom and saw Porter standing in front of the toilet peeing on THE WALL next to it.  We now have a new rule at our house.  No peeing with your eyes covered . . . that's right he had the hood of his sweatshirt completely covering his face so he couldn't see anything.  Nice.  

GABEISMS

Quentin is crying . . . so Gabe goes to offer him some comfort.
Gabe: You're okay Quentin, you're okay.  I can see you and you're not dead, you're okay.  
(We all use this phrase to soothe Quentin now.)  

Gabe keeps telling me that at school he eats lunch in the dining room.  I try to correct him and tell him it's called a cafeteria, but he keeps calling it the dining room.  Pretty sure he's going to get beat up someday for this. . . 

Gabe: Can I please have some blueberries with my yogurt?
Me: Sure. ( I go and get the blueberries.)
Gabe: Thanks!  This is just like having a servant!

While wrestling with daddy . . . 
Gabe:  Ow, ow, ow, you're hurting me!
John: What hurts?
Gabe: My hand ankle.
John: You mean your wrist?
Gabe: Yes!

Gabe: Can I play Disney on the computer?
Me: No, you can play PBS kids.
Gabe: But, I want to play Pirates of the Caribbean on Disney.  It's so cool there's this guy and blah, blah, blah, and when you kill him guts spray all over his boots.
Me: No, that's exactly the reason I don't want you playing on Disney!
Gabe: Okay, okay, can I play Phineas and Ferb on Disney?   There's NO BOOTS on that one.  

JOHN&RACHISMS

Remember a while back my post about idiot warnings . . . well, I have another idiot warning for you . . . and I won't tell you how I know this, I just know.  
Somewhere on your GPS they should really mention that if you stick the GPS to the drivers window the driver should remove the GPS prior to rolling down the window, because like the window, the GPS too will come down.  They could even include illustrations that show the driver trying to catch the falling GPS while juggling loose change, and a toll ticket, all while operating a moving vehicle and perhaps smacking their face into the sun visor that is also covering the window.  Of course, all this is completely theoretical. . . 

Me: Hun, look at the cute covers I made for our throw pillows today.

John: Yep.

Me: You don't like them?

John: Eh.

Me: Because they don't match or you just don't like the fabric I chose?  

John: None of them match.

Me: I think they call it al dente.  No, that's pasta.  It's called eclectic.

John: No, they call it insane.

My pillows with their cute new covers!

Did I ever tell you what happened to my throw pillows?  The kids were finger painting one day...you know outside so the paint wouldn't get on anything...well, the wind was blowing their papers around, so they came in the house and got my throw pillows to hold the paper down.  

Speaking of insane, Lola is insane. (Lola is our GPS.)  We have a love/hate relationship with her.  She really is crazy and will take us on the most indirect backwood roads she can find, but I think we'd really miss her if we ever replaced her with a GPS that actually worked.  I think our trip to Massachusetts may have been too much for her because at one point John turned to me and said, "Did she just stutter?"  It was hilarious . . . but, maybe you had to be there.

Finally to end this randomness, let's play a guessing game. It's called Who's Hairy Back is This? 

Answer: It's Porter!  The kid's a beast.  I was rinsing him off after his bath the other night and the shower head made this cool pattern in all his back hair.

Massive Phone Dump

Hello, my name is Rachel and I just learned how to download photos from my phone to my computer.  Prepare yourself for photo overload.

Gabe with an ear infection.  He was screaming because of the pain and of course fell asleep in the waiting room just before they finally called us in to see a doctor. 

There's nothing like playing in the front yard in just a t-shirt and undies!

My sweet Gabe would have an entourage of stuffed animals with him all the time if we let him.

Porter LOVES to take pictures with my phone.

Porter found these "stickers" and put them all over the wall.  Those are some pretty expensive stickers buddy!

Costumes from the consignment shop make great dress ups.

It's all fun and games until Superman takes a bite out of your foam sword.

Porter's THIRD dentist appointment, but his FIRST cleaning.  Don't even get me started on dentists!  Grrrrrr....

See what a good mom I am?  I'm reading him a book I hate.  Does anyone else not like The Lorax?

No idea what's going on here . . . 

I'm believe I texted this to my mama one day.  Is she lucky or what?

Love this pic of Porter!

RPI Hockey Game

Lake Superior

Emma and Gabe

My handsome date to the Military Ball.

Flowers John gave me when he was promoted to captain.

Thugs.

Alabama and Rhode Island were the only states we didn't find on our drive to Utah.

The only good thing about driving through Nebraska.

The boys watching a DVD at the laundry mat.  Oh yeah, remember when we moved to NY and had to do our laundry at the laundry mat?  That was fun.

Porter at the Troy Farmer's Market

Emma and I had a girls night out and got pedicures!

Johnny Appleseed

Hey look, it's the abominable snowman!

Good times in Ohio!

Cohoes Falls.  After Niagara falls these are the next biggest falls in the state and they're three minutes from our house!

Pictures from the hospital the day Quentin was born. 

Well, howdy partner!

Gabe getting his Aloha on! 

Albany Duck Tour.  Love this picture of Gabe. 

Look how little Porter is!  That's how long these pics have been sitting on my phone!

Me and my Porter

Porter working on his tan.

I don't think they teach this method in massage school.

For our 10 year wedding anniversary we got a new kitchen table!

Steak and Shake!

I think I might be in love with this baby.  I take lots of pictures of him!

There's nothing a socket wrench can't fix! 

Eating popcorn.  On a gorilla.  While watching cartoons.

Gymnastics class

Batman.  Wearing a cowboy hat.  Carrying a toolbox.  I'd say we're ready for about anything!

Lunch at Los Hermanos! 

 

Gabe's kindergarten class.  Gabe's the one in front holding his arms up like Frankenstein.

That is not a cat, that my friends, is an albino squirrel!  I know it's blurry and it's taken through a screen, but it's real, I promise!  Why do I feel like I have to convince you it's a real albino squirrel, it's not like I said it was a Sasquatch or anything.

That's all folks!  Let me just say that if you made through all of that, I'm impressed.