Kenni's 6th Birthday

Yesterday was Kenni's 6th birthday. He had been talking about his birthday since probably November. For the last couple of months it was a daily discussion. For the last couple of weeks it was the only thing Kenni would talk about! It finally came!

I woke him up yesterday morning and he was up no problem at all! Usually it's not that easy! I went in to help out in his class for about an hour yesterday morning also. We aren't allowed to bring in treats but his birthday was announced to the whole school during morning announcements. His class sang him Happy birthday once while I was there and he said they sang it to him even more times during the coarse of the day. In his lunch I packed him two hostess cupcakes for a surprise.

He wanted pizza for dinner so after school we went and picked up some pizzas. And as always the kids get soda on their birthday and he picked coke.

I had decorated a little bit in the dining room yesterday and made his cake while he was at school. Thankfully when we picked the kids up Maddi was sleeping or else she would have told him all about it. When he walked in the door he was very surprised by the decorations and loved his ORANGE cake! He couldn't believe I came up with all the orange m&m's to put on it.

After Daddy got home from work we had pizza, finished homework and then on to presents! He had been asking about presents since we walked through the door! After presents he still had one more surprise. I had some boxes to throw out and I had Kenni come with me through the garage to throw them out. I went out 1st and "forgot" to turn on the light. I had Kenni turn it on for me and I was standing next to his bike with camera in hand. I immediately took his picture and he didn't even realize at first I was standing next to his new orange bike. After he realized it he ran over to it and almost started crying he was so happy. Little Man did start crying because Kenni's bike has a shiny new kick stand now and his doesn't have one at all. Kenni just loved his bike!!!!

After all that we had cake and ice cream. Maddi helped him blow out his candles. After that he had a little bit to play with the new stuff he got and before we knew it it was time for bed. Over all I think he had a pretty good birthday but it is way too hard to have a birthday on a school night!!!

My project of the day

Tomorrow is Kenni's 6th birthday. Since he has learned to ride a 2 wheeler and his bike is getting too small for him we decided we would get him one for his birthday. Of course since it is for Kenni it needed to be orange. We searched every store in Casa Grande and no one had an orange bike. I came home and searched the Internet and found a couple. One was at Kmart and so I called every Kmart around and all they had was blue. I also found one at Toys R Us but I was calling all around and they were all out of stock. I finally found one at a Toys R Us in Mesa and it happened to be that a friend of ours was going up to Mesa and he said he would pick it up for us. I had put it on hold and good thing I did because that was the last one there. Orange bikes must be a hot item! Today I went and picked it up and brought it home to put together to give to Kenni tomorrow. Maddi is quite the tattle tale and I almost got away with putting it all together without her seeing it, then the phone rang and she brought it to me. She even asked if it was Kenni's bike because she even knows everything for Kenni is orange. Hopefully she won't tell him about it and we can still surprise him tomorrow!

This is the before picture. I didn't get an after yet because I wanted to get it put away before Maddi saw where I was hiding it. I did get it all put together except for the pedals I couldn't get tightened and the brakes need to be adjusted but James can handle that when he gets home. I'm going to make sure he checks my work too. I've never put a bike together before and I don't want it to fall apart as Kenni is riding it!!!

Of course the cats were very worried about what was going on!

Laura's Messenger Bag

For christmas the kids got gift cards from Target. Laura bought herself a decorate it yourself messenger bag. We still hadn't done it yet but she reminded me about it yesterday so we did it. I don't expect the decorations to last long because the iron on things were already peeling before we were even done. She loves it and had fun doing it so that is all that matters!

She didn't want to have her picture taken!

Bird House

A while back we received a bag of groceries at the store that wasn't ours. I didn't even notice it until I had gotten all the way home. I know I should have taken it back but the grocery store isn't just a hop skip and jump away from our house. Anyway..in it was a box of cereal and a squash. I was going to try to cook the squash but the only one that would end up eating it would be me so I didn't do anything with it. It had been sitting in our pantry for quite some time and I had the idea to make a bird house out of it. I remember doing that with my Dad when I was little and I thought it might be fun. The kids argued a lot over who was painting where but in the end it got done. Next time we will have to do one for each kid! And don't mind the jammies!!! Maddi and James still are sick so what is the use of getting dressed?

Story Time

Maddi loves and always has loved being read to. The other night she was missing for a while which usually means trouble! This time I found her laying on her bed "reading" herself a book!

X-ray

For the last couple of weeks all of the kids have had a bit of a cough. Nothing terrible just annoying mostly. Everyone else is either getting better or staying the same. I've noticed that Maddi seems to be getting worse though. I had an appt for her today because she needs two vaccinations. When I made the appt she was fine. Since her cough seemed to be getting worse I knew she wouldn't get the shots but I kept the appt to get the cough checked out. Good thing we went because she has bronchitis. He listened to her lungs and on her right side he said he heard something he didn't like. He sent us down the hall for a chest x-ray and she did awesome!!!! She had the same thing done about a year ago and they had to strap her into a chair and it was just awful. Today though she sat up nice and still and did exactly what they told her to do. She had a terrified look on her face the whole time but she did great! After that was done she got a ton of princess stickers and we went back into the dr's office to get the results. He said unfortunately it had already turned into bronchitis and so he gave us antibiotics, and two different lung medications. Thankfully I already have done this with Little Man a ton of times with asthma so I know exactly what we are dealing with. He also gave her some eye drops. When she was born she had plugged tear duct and it gets yucky every once in a while, especially when she gets sick. So after school we will go pick up her meds and I take her back in on Friday for a follow up.

Harley Riders

James' buddy, Moe, at work recently got a new Harley Motorcycle and came over Monday to show him. The boys of course have always loved Harley's because Grandad used to have one. Laura was always terrified of Grandad's Harley though. Moe took the boys both for a ride and Laura decided that she wanted to go too!!! I was shocked but she went and loved it!!!!! Maddi stayed away but wasn't terrified of it like Laura always was.

Handsome Kenni

When we got up Sunday morning to go to church Kenni's hair was really sticking up all over the place. Usually we keep it short enough that neither one of the boys have to do anything to their hair in the morning. Right now both of them really need a haircut! I brushed Kenni's hair for him so it wasn't sticking up and Daddy was teasing him and told him he looked like a nerd. I personally thought he lookd very cute and I told Kenni it only mattered what Mommy thought anyway.

Two Wheels

Last week Kenni decided it was time to ride his bike without training wheels. Since Little Man's bike already had the wheels taken off he practiced on that one. We went next door to the cul-de-sac and had a little session. He was doing great but was starting to get mad that he wasn't getting it totally right away. We stopped and over the next few days he and Laura kept working on it in the back yard. In no time he really got the hang of it! Monday since everyone was home for President's day Daddy and the kids had a bike repair/cleaning day. Daddy took off Kenni's training wheels and Kenni rides that thing now like an old pro!!!!

Missing Gram

Maddi and Gram got to be the best of friends while Gram was here. When Gram left I don't think Maddi quite understood. She keeps asking about Gram and answers herself that Gram is in IL and she always says she's at Misty's house. She still refers to the room Gram stayed in as Gram's room, and she wants to watch Gram's TV. Yesterday we were in the bathroom and Maddi opened up the cabinet Gram's stuff was in and she got really sad and said "Where's Gram brush and her lotion?" I told her Gram had to go home and she puckered up her lip and said "But Why?" It broke my heart! Today when we got home from taking the kids to school Maddi said "Is Gram home Mom?" I guess she was expecting Gram to be waiting in the house for us!

Monster Jam 2010

While Grandad was here on his visit he had a surprise for the kids. Well I think we adults were more excited about it. At least I know I was. I love when the kids get surprised!!! Anyway, Grandad took us all to The Monster Truck Jam at Chase Field.

Grandad is a big fan of the monster trucks and he really likes Blue Thunder. While he was still in IL he had t-shirts made for all the kids with a picture of Blue Thunder and their names. He wanted to keep the show a surprise until it was time to go it but he was also really excited to tell them about it. One of the 1st nights he was here he decided to give them their t-shirts. I thought for sure they would guess right away where we were going. To my surprise they had no clue. They had never seen the show of it on tv because it's on cable and there weren't even any commercials for it on tv. All week they had been guessing where they were going to get to go. Their guesses were the zoo or fishing. A couple of days before there was finally a commercial on tv and Little Man asked if that was the surprise. We didn't tell him that was it and kept him guessing. When we got to Chase Field Grandad told the kids maybe it was a diamondback rattlesnake race!
We got there early because for a little extra you could go down into the pits and meet some of the drivers. I don't know why but the kids were all taking their turns being crabby that day. So until we got to our seats and sat down at least someone was crabbing about something and refuse to be in a picture. Laura did have a headache before we even got there so that was part of her problem but the other I have no idea!

This would be a great picture if it weren't for all the crabs!

3 crabs down and 1 to go!

Laura was still crabby and refused to take a picture!

This is the Monster Mutt Truck. The kids all really liked him. When he would do a lap around the track his tongue would stick in and out and his tail would wag.

A family picture!

The view from our seat. We were the 3rd section up but we were in the 4th row of the 3rd section. The seats actually had a great view but it was just a little scary if we had to walk from our seat. We made sure to hold on to the railings!

Grandad got he kids some cotton candy.


Maddi wasn't quite sure what to do with it! Once she figured it out that was all she was focused on. More and More!

During the intermission there was some different side shows. Some cars raced, some mini trucks with kids drivers raced and then this guy did a stunt. He was driving the station wagon with the trailer behind it and was going to jump all the white cars.

He made it up the ramp but didn't quite make it over the cars! While they were setting up James saw the men putting out the fireworks and told me there was going to be an explosion. Grandad and the kids didn't notice it so they got quite a jolt when the guy crashed and the fireworks exploded!

This was the best race of the night. It was Iron outlaw vs. Grave Digger. Iron Outlaw had a lady driver and boy did she have guts!

Here they are neck and neck coming up to the finish line.

Iron Outlaw saw that Grave Digger was right on her tail so she gunned it real good and ended up flipping her truck! She won Though!

This is her truck getting turned back over.

After all the trucks raced against each other they individually had the track to do stunts. Kenni loved the bat man truck and fire even came out of his back tailpipe thingy but I didn't get a picture of that. In the background is Iron Outlaw. She was the 1st ruck to do stunts and she really gave it her all and at the last jump as she was coming down her front wheel came off!

An awesome shot of Monster Mutt! It was a ton better in person!

And finally this is a video of Monster Mutt and The Bounty Hunter racing. I didn't really catch any of the cool crashes on video and watching this is kind of boring but in person it was really cool!

Grandad's Surprise Visit

Well Grandad called a couple of months ago wanting to come out for a visit the end of January. James and I knew about it but we kept it a secret from the kids. He arrived here the 25th in the evening. Before hand we were trying to think of something to tell the kids where we were going when we picked him up. It ended up I stayed back with the kids and James went up to pick him up from the airport. That worked out well because we got homework done. Originally James was going to come in the house and then have Grandad ring the doorbell and have the kids answer. Plans changed (because we were all starving) and we met at a restaurant in Casa Grande. James and Doug were going to just go in a wait for us at a table but when they got there Grandad saw a park bench in front of the restaurant. He decided to wait for them there. We walked up to the restaurant and there was a man laying on the park bench. James said to the kids "Look at that man laying there!" Then that man stared moaning and groaning and convulsing. Immediately all eyes were staring!!!! Little Man was in the process of pulling the door open and he couldn't even manage to do that he was staring so hard! All of a sudden the man sat straight up and it was Grandad!!!! The kids are ran and screamed and jumped on him in excitement!!!! After that we went inside and enjoyed a delicious dinner.

The next days the kids had school so Grandad was busy helping with homework and he even took over morning duties of getting the kids out of bed and making breakfast. Every morning he would "blow the bugle" and wake the kids up. The kids loved Grandad making breakfast because with me it's cereal or something quick. With Grandad it was sausage, eggs and toast!

During the day while the kids were at school Grandad got to hang out with Me, Gram and Maddi. We just did a lot of running around. One day we had to take Gram to the dentist. Gram and I had been to a restaurant before by the dentist for breakfast called the Original Pancake house. On the menu there was a pancake that sounded absolutely outstanding. It was apples fried up, then pancake batter pored over them, then baked and topped with a ooey gooey cinnamon sugar sauce. The day Gram and I had went they were fresh out and it was going to be a 45 minute wait! We decided we were too hungry to wait and we would come back some other day. The next time was this day with Grandad. He and I both ordered it except for I got the junior and he got the regular size. Well the junior was more than enough for me to eat and the regular size was more than enough for a family of 6 to eat, but boy was it delicious!!!!!!

The weekend came and we were able to spend some more relaxing time with Grandad. Saturday he treated us all to the Monster Jam in Phoenix. That is another post though.... He, James, and the kids also made a marble board and played marbles. Kenni is the reining champion of marbles!!! He hasn't lost a game yet! After the weekend it was back to school and James was also able to take some vacation days to stay home and visit.

Grandad put up a new thermometer for because mine crashed and burned in the storms. Thursday night we had Greg and Laurel over for dinner and since February is the birthday month for Greg, Grandad and Kenni we had a mini surprise birthday celebration.

The time went by fast but we had a great time! Thanks Grandad for everything! We love and Miss you!

Table Top Mountain

Like I had said earlier James and Laura took a day trip to Table Top Mountain. It originally was a hunting trip but they didn't find anything to hunt so they explored the area. They were invited by a buddy from James' work, Tony. Tony had recently got a new 6 person 4x4 and so they got to truck along on that part of the day. There was a lot of places that they had to explore on foot too and boy were they exhausted when they got home. I asked Laura how it went and she just looked at me and said "Can't I tell you tomorrow?" then off to bed she went and she was out like a light! The next day she was ready to talk though. Her and James told me how they had explored some old mines, found some old artifacts and she climbed up some old rickety water cooler stand. She said they found a lot of backpacks because Table Top is a high traffic area for smugglers. James said there was warning sign when they first entered the road to beware of the dangers of trafficking. They made a "grill" out in the desert and Tony treated them to steak and baked potatoes. They boys were real jealous of that more than anything! Tony brought his little .22 and Laura got to even do some shooting. They had a real great day and one of these days we are going to all go as a family and check it out. James did get some pictures on his phone but we can't get them on the computer so sorry no pictures on this post either!

I'm a slacker

I know it's been a month since I have posted anything on the blog but I have good reason. I'm a slacker! No really we have just been busy. The 16th of Jan James and Laura had a day trip to Table Top Mountain and I was supposed to take the boys to a birthday party. Maddi ended up waking up at 5 am that morning throwing up so that axed our b-day party plans. James and Laura were able to go on their adventure though. I will have a separate post about that. Everyday I was just waiting for someone else to come down with Maddi's bug but it wasn't coming. Finally 3 days later it hit...ME! Then 3 days later...James and Laura...The next day both the boys..Then the next day Laura AGAIN! Thankfully Grandma never got it!!!
During that week along with the stomach flu we had the most rain I had ever seen! The night that Laura was up getting sick I had gotten up and went into the kitchen and by the dishwasher and in front of the sink was water. For a second I thought someone had spilled and didn't clean up or the dishwasher had leaked. The closer I got to looking at it though I realized it was come from the ceiling!!! Our roof was leaking! Not only was it coming in through the ceiling but it was leaking out of the kitchen light fixture! Thankfully we know a roofer (Roofing Specialists in Casa Grande in case anyone ever needs one) and he sent a guy out as soon as the sun came up. So that's all fixed now but we jut have a half hanging light fixture in the kitchen!
That brings us to Jan 25th and Grandad came out for a surprise visit. I will have another post about that.
Now here we are at Feb 5th. Doug went home and Grandma went with him. It was doubly hard with Grandma and Grandad leaving at the same time. Gram was here 11 days shy of 4 months!!! It would have been better if she could have stayed a little longer because it is still so cold in IL but it was better for her to have a travel companion. So now it's just back to me and Maddi! Her and Gram were real good buddies while she was here. Her and Gram went for walks and ate baby chocolate together. Today when we got in the car to go get the kids from school Maddi said to me "Who's going to sit by me?" I said "No one!" then she said "Yeah, Gram is!" It was really sad! Kenni was sad when he came home from school. He walked in the door and said "Well now what are we going to do now that Grandad is gone?"
So now that everyone is gone maybe I'll be better at keeping up on the blog!