The Day After

The day after Christmas, we went up and visited Ray's Grandma's in Cottonwood. We had a wonderful visit as we haven't seen them in probably over a year. We then headed to Papa's for sled-riding. Nicholas learned how to snowboard & did pretty good. He then had to give Ray & I demenstrations on how to fall safely. Sean didn't really think to much of sled-riding. He got cold & tired and only wanted to go back to Papa's house. Ray took him back on the 4-wheeler and he fell asleep. We had a good time!

Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas. We were blessed this year and stayed home both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We went to Christmas Eve mass and then headed over to Ray's mom's in Clarkston afterwards to celebrate Christmas with her and Randy. The kids had so much fun hanging out with Grandma, Papa Randy, Aunt Anna, Aunt Natalie, Mas (Natalie's boyfriend), and Rudy (Randy's dad). They opened their Christmas jammies first thing and Sean immediatley started stripping right there in the living room. Sean thought it was really cool that Grandma had munchies out on the table (complete with "picy chips") that he could eat whenever he wanted something. He took complete advantage of that & only left the table to open presents. We got home around 10:30 that night and woke up the next morning to find that Santa had left the boys a GeoTrax Terminal, outfits for their Build-A-Bears, and books with their names in them. Sean was pretty funny, he really didn't care about the stockings, he only wanted breakfast. Christmas day was spent at home. We always celebrate this day with Ray's dad and whichever of his siblings are up for the holidays. This year it was just the four of us, Natalie, Mas & David. It was a very relaxing day with yummy food. Ray & David introduced Mas to deep fried turkey (which was a hit with everybody) and we enjoyed a great meal. The boys had a blast opening all of their gifts. Aunt Tracie spoiled them with new dress-up clothes, Aunt Natalie, Uncle Bret & Mas put them over the top with light sabers made in Disneyland & new back packs (R2-D2 & Yoda). Grandma Judy & Papa Ray blessed them with Lincoln Logs (complete in a drum tin) & Papa David gave them some much needed new clothes. Ray got all sorts of new video games and movies. Ray gifted me this year was a night of scrapbooking at the Holiday Inn Express with Tonia. It was a wonderful holiday, however we did miss Bret & Heather and spending time with my family.

December Life

Well, December has been a busy month for us Remacle's! I had my first appointment for the baby and had a couple of surprises during the visit. The first surprise was that I had an ultrasound done. I have never had an ultrasound done during the first visit so, this was really a fun surprise. Dr. Shearer said we have a very photogenic baby since Soda really didn't want to move. We did see the heartbeat and finally got the baby to move towards the end of the ultrasound. We even got mooned during the ultrasound! (See the first picture that looks like a U). According to the ultrasound, so far everything looks good & my due date got moved forward to the 25th of June!


We have also spent a lot of time playing in the snow. Ray & the boys went out and played a couple of different times. Sean thought it was really cool to eat icecicles off of daddy's pick-up. He would take a bite and then throw it in the sled "for later". Nicholas brought in a huge block of ice and asked me to put it in the freezer so it wouldn't melt. They buried toys and made snow angels. They had a blast!

We also spent a couple of days making cookies. The boys had fun adding the sprinkles on the first round of candy coated pretzals, until Sean decided to chug the sprinkles. His sprinkle privliges got revoked for the rest of that cookie sprinkling time. The next weekend, Ray made some sugar cookies and let the boys help him frost them. They had a blast! Sean was covered in red frosting (thank goodness for Bleach Pens!) and Nicholas just wanted to cover his frosting in sprinkles. They had fun and the cookies tasted pretty good!




Overall, December has been a pretty busy month. Between Nicholas's events at school (Advent Concert, Book Fair, Christmas Party), we also put some volunteer hours in selling Christmas Trees (during a monsoon) at the school tree lot with Tom & Tonia and all of the kids, we've been to a few birthday parties, and on Sunday's we "attmepted" to watch some football. It will be nice to get to January to have some down time!

Pink Eye- Eww-WA

Last Monday, Seanie woke up with Pink Eye...we improvised and gave him some of Nicholas's old prescriptions since we had a stash. Well, he cleared up enough to have a great weekend, get off the antibiotics & then woke up with it again this morning! YUCK! I am definately sick of Pink Eye, washing all of the bedding, hands a thousand times a day, & trying to keep Nicholas from getting it. Today, I took him into the Eye Dr. down at Shopko to see if it was just an irritant in his eye since he wasn't ozzing green goop from it & it was only pink on the outer portion of his eye. He fought the Doc, wouldn't really let him look to close, and cried. However, I did manage to hold his hands & head long enough for the Dr. to get a fairly good look. Yep, another week of pinning the kid to the floor to wrestle the eye drops into him. I am definately ready for sicknesses all the way around to be done!

It's a Girl!

Nope-not ours! We just got the official phone call from Tracie & Jeff & they are having a girl! Yeah! Tracie sounded pretty excited, I didn't get to talk to her too much, they had lots of phone calls to make. So, we will have a new little girl in the family in April...the name picked out right now is Brenna Jean. As you can tell, I am very excited!

Our Christmas Village

The year Ray & I got engaged, we decided to begin a Christmas village. Every year, we add something new to it. It's a fun tradition that has been ongoing since 2002. We always try and find some way to incorporate an event that happened throughout the year so we have a fun way to remember it. For instance, the year we got engaged it was a bridal shop, the year we got married was a church, and the year we had Nicholas it was a toy store, and the year Nicholas started school, it was a school. Every year, we go down to Shopko after Thanksgiving and pick out our newest addition to our village & some accessories to go with it. This year, Nicholas picked out the newest piece for our village, The Conover Estate. Sean picked out some cool looking trees, I picked out some newspaper stands, & Ray picked out a scene with bears around an old cabin (which was perfect since he has spent so much time working on the basement and it's going to be a outdoors theme.) The boys had a blast watching Ray & I put up the village & then we let them add the trees. As you can tell from the pictures, we had to do a little rearranging with the trees...straight lines just don't work to hide the cords! This is our special family tradition that we do & it just seems like the Christmas season is here when our village is up.

Thanksgiving

We had wonderful Thanksgiving. We celebrated the day with Ray's mom & her boyfriend and his family. There were lots of kids for the boys to play with and they had fun making new friends. Sally made a wonderful dinner complete with all of the trimmings. She is an excellent cook and we all ate way too much. After dinner, Sean decided that he wanted to help clean the dishes. Grandma pulled the step-stool over for him and he had a blast "helping" do the dishes. He even made soup! It was pretty cute, he started the dishes off with a plastic cup that he used to scoop up the water and then dump back in the dish water. He got a little crazy and dumped it all over himself & me. Then, he decided he was too wet, got off the stool & started stripping. Ray, Sally & I all had to stop him at the underwear, he was highly disappointed because they were wet too. So, we had a streaker at Thanksgiving! Anyway, he then decided he wanted to make soup in the dishwater and got Sally's hand soap and squirted that in there, grabbed a spoon & started "stirring the soup." He made quite the mess but, had a good time. It's a good thing Grandma loves him because her counters were soaked! We came home fairly early, we were all pooped! That night we went to bed very early & then I got up at 4:00 for the annual day after Thanksgiving sales! Yep, I'm one of those crazy people you hear about on tv. Tonia, her sister Amy, & I all hit the stores and stand in line in crazy degree weather to get those great deals. We have a blast! The only rule is that we don't go to Walmart. Holy cow! The line this year was clear across the parking lot & then some! We always have a great time & always end up with some crazy story from our adventure.

Baby Soda Names

Sunday night we were sitting around doing nothing, when the subject of names for the baby came up. I ran downstairs and grabbed the baby name book and the four of us started playing with names. Poor Soda...his/her Daddy came up with some real out of this world names (he was only teasing to get a reaction) :-) Although, Soda's big brother Sean has decided that if we have a boy (which is what he wants) we are going to name him Yoda...yes as in the StarWars Yoda. I quickly vetoed that one! Then of course, Nicholas had to throw out Princess Leia for the little sister he wants...I also quickly vetoed that one. I refuse to have a baby named after a StarWars character! However, in all of this joking around, Nicholas did throw a name out that has kind of stuck with us and is on the keeper list....Elle for a girl. We also came up with Noah for a boy. However, considering we still have 31 weeks to go I know that these will probably change. It's still fun to have a list started and letting the boys help keeps them in the loop and lets them feel included. Nicholas was pretty cute yesterday when I was talking to one of his teachers about it. He just stood there and rubbed my tummy and told Mrs. Durham that if we have a girl he picked out the name Elle.

Feeding the Ducks

This past couple of weeks, I've been working on farm crafts and projects with Sean & Graham. One of the suggestions on the disk my friend, Nicole, sent down was to feed ducks. I wasn't for sure if there would still be ducks down at the duck pond however, I decided that it would be fun to check it out. We have about 45 minutes between picking Nicholas up from school and picking Emma up from school that we usually go to the park and play. Yesterday, I decided to take the boys down to the duck pond and feed the ducks. The ducks were very friendly (compared to usual) and didn't try and maul us. Each of the boys had a bag of bread and had a blast seeing how far they could throw their bread. Graham had so much fun just chasing the ducks that he really didn't take to much interest in feeding them. Sean was so cute, he would throw out some bread and then say "Transform, Ducks!" and do this little transformer move. It was pretty comical. Nicholas just wandered around and did his own thing with his bread and his area of ducks. All three of the boys had so much fun and it was cute to just watch them do their thing. This is definately another trip that will have to be made. The ducks were very friendly and kind of just did their thing, while enjoying some bread that may have been thrown their way.

6th Annual Spokane Trip

This past weekend we traveled to Spokane for our Annual Spokane Trip. This is another of our many yearly traditions & is an absolute blast! This year it was Ray & I, Tom & Tonia Jones, Jeremy & Sarah Wimer, Eric & Alea Wassmuth, and Amy Schumacher that made the journey out of town. We always start the weekend off by saying good-bye to the kids. They get to have a wonderful night staying with grandparents while us parents go Christmas shopping. Nicholas & Sean stayed with Grandma Judy & Papa Ray. They had a blast playing StarWars with Chris, jumping on the trampoline, and helping Papa hang Christmas lights. Anyway, after we drop kids off, we head to Spokane where we all meet up at the Oxford Suites at the Valley Mall. Lunch is the first item on the agenda and we have found that Hooters is a great place to go. It's close to the mall & there is entertainment for the hubby's. After lunch is done, the girls say good-by to the husbands, leaving them at Hooters to drink beer, watch football, and gamble. Ray worked hard this year and made $85 on the black jack tables. Us girls head to the mall and get started on that Christmas shopping. It's a blast! No kids or husbands, just us girls checking out stores without the rush. The guys usually meet us at the Azteca in the mall, where they munch on Chips & Salsa & hold our bags while us girls finish up. That evening we head back to the motel where we enjoy appetizers & a couple of drinks (free for staying at the Oxford Suites) and get ready for dinner. This year, we drove out to Olive Garden in CDA and had a great time laughing and enjoying a meal where the parents got to be waited on instead of the parents waiting on the kids. We also got to eat an actual meal without interruptions or nagging on the kids to eat more dinner, sit up in the chair, use your fork, etc. It was wonderful. Sunday morning we head downstairs to the complimentary breakfast where we enjoy fresh fruit, pancakes, sausage, potatoes and more. After breakfast we headed over to Toys R' Us. This year, we finished the boys over the weekend. We have one thing left to get Sean however, other than that they are done! It's a wonderful feeling! I always look forward to our November weekend in Spokane. There is so much laughter, relaxation & just having fun with great friends. We are so blessed to have this tradition in our lives that we can share with such great friends. It's such a blessing also to have our wonderful family who supports us in helping with the boys so that we may do things like this. Overall, it was a great weekend. Ray & I had a great time with our friends & the boys had a great time with Grandma & Papa. Everybody was so pooped when we got home that it took us a couple of days to get caught up.

Big News!

Whelp, we have officially "spilled the beans." As you check out the counter off to the side, you're probably wondering..."Who (or What) is Baby Soda?" Little Remacle #3 is due to join our family on June 29th. Soda is the nickname we have given this baby. (For those of you Sinfield fans...Ray has informed me that this is where the name comes from). Sean is hoping for a boy & Nicholas is hoping for a girl. The boys got in a fight the other morning over this issue, complete with jumping up and down and yelling at each other. I finally told them that they both needed to pray really hard for what they wanted because they were only getting one or the other, they weren't getting one of each. They walked off in a huff. Anyway, I'm about 8 1/2 weeks along right now and thus far feeling okay. The boys did a really good job of keeping the secret and we let them tell there grandparents a couple of weeks ago. Everybody is really excited and it's fun being pregnant with Tracie. That's our big news!

Sister Time

Well, this week Ray is at hunting camp & Nicholas didn't have school today (or tomorrow) so the boys & I headed to Dayton last night for some much needed sister time. Ok, and some much needed adult conversation...Tracie stated that I was getting to the point where I was going to begin talking to walls. I had to agree. It gets kinda lonely around this here house when the longest conversation I've had with an adult in 3 days was the lady standing in line with me at Joann Fabric's on Sunday! Anyway, I loaded up the car, picked up some pizza and made the 2 hour journey to Tracie's house. It was wonderful! The boys traveled great & watched Scooby-Doo on the way down (and the way home). They were so excited to have a "sleep-over" at Aunt Tracie & Uncle Jeff's and couldn't wait to get there. Tracie & I stayed up until 11:30 talking. Today, we just hung out with the kids, I didn't shower or comb my hair (yes I brushed my teeth!) and just veged and chated with Tracie. The boys had a blast playing with their friends they made during the "love week" with Tracie and all 5 of the boys were excited to see each other again. Yep, 5 little boys all under the age of 4 sounds kinda scary. (Tracie is babysitting 3 little boys.) Both Tracie & I had a super day. The kids were great, not a lot of temper tantrums, and they all took a 2+ hour nap. We got home around 6:00 tonight, took baths, munched on some leftover pizza, and are just vegging tonight. I missed Tracie & it was fun to see how much "Baby Button" has grown in the last couple of months.

The Crocigator vs. Obe One Kedobi

Halloween was great! Sean was a "Crocigator" (aka an alligator) and Nicholas was Obe One Kedobi (aka Obi Wan Kenobi). We have a tradition of trick or treating family before we trick or treat with friends here in the neighborhood. It was so muuch fun. The boys had a great time trick or treating with their friends Emma, Graham, Cameron, & Rylee. Then it was back to the Wimer's for pizza & playing. The next morning the boys had to examine all of their loot.

Storytime

Lately, Sean has been really into ready stories to everybody. It's so cute! Here's a little clip of him reading "Froggy Loves Books" to Nicholas.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last Thursday Nicholas had a field trip out to Wilson's Banner Ranch to learn about apples and pick a pumpkin. The preschool does this every year with the kids and it's a blast. I went with Nicholas last year & was able to go again this year. The kids have so much fun picking out there very own pumpkin...with a few rules. You must be able to carry it yourself...no teacher, mommy or daddy is going to carry it for you. I added a rule to Nicholas's...it must not take the entire time we are there to pick out a pumpkin! Last year it took him forever to find that perfect pumpkin, this year it took all of about 3 minutes! They also got to have an apple, fresh apple cider, and get a tour of the apple storage facilities. If you have never been out to Wilson's Banner Ranch, it's a ball! The kids can run through the hay fort and play in the pumpkin patch. It's also a very inexpensive way to get your pumpkin, I bought one for Sean and it only cost 85 cents! I'm trying to talk Ray into going out again some weekend so that we can find an actual Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin!

Up For Auction!

Up for Auction to the highest bidder is two highly energized little "Rugrats". One answers to the name of Spud, the other Runt. Spud comes housebroken and has a Star Wars obsession (perfect for you Star Wars fans!). Runt comes partially housebroken and loves Chicken Nuggets. They are pretty cheap to feed unless you feed them something other than Chicken Nuggets & noodles. You will find they will sit crying for hours at the table if you try to feed them mashed potatos. Seller will throw in Geotrax train set, books, coloring books, crayons, & markers. Warning: Geotrax take lots of room & require some monitoring as the trains tend to crash, causing fights & throwing of trains & accessories. The "Rugrats" tend to rip pages out of library books. Markers & crayons tend to spread among rooms. Bonus: markers are washable which will help when washing smiley faces off of doors, and marks on dressers, walls, furniture, etc. They are both highly motivated to cause naughties when at the grocery store & anything else they know they aren't supposed to do that will cause you to get mad. Additional bonus: school tuition for Spud will continue so you will get a few hour break each day there is school.

(Can you tell Mommy is about ready to pull her hair out? I know that they are supposed to be these beautiful little blessings (& they are) however...geez! Do the naughties ever end?)

A Revelation

Well, something hit me this morning pretty hard...I realized that my baby is no longer really a baby. While he may be a baby in my heart, he is quickly growing up on me. We dropped Nicholas off at school this morning & then Sean & I headed to the park for a MOPS Registration Day. We got there early and played for a while, just the two of us. As he's wheeeing down the big slides, climbing on ladders, and telling me that you don't just climb through the tubes, you can also climb on them...it hit me that he is offically a little boy now. He had on his Cars jacket and his Cars hat and WHAM! there it was, right in front of me...Sean is trying very hard to be like his big brother, and doing a mighty fine job of it. His facial expressions are becoming more a part of his personality then ever before and the things he says are no longer little boyish but, actual sentences and conversations. He's playing big boy games like pirates and superheros and building castles, instead of trying to destroy Nicholas's castles. He's now attempting the standing up when he goes to the bathroom (that is when we make it in time...sometimes playing gets in the way of going to the bathroom) and prefers to use my feet to stand on instead of his stepstool. It's hard to believe my baby is almost 3 and it just hit me that he is really not a baby anymore. I guess just seeing him play on the big structure at the park, by himself, really made it more real. While there are still those moments where he's still my baby, I know that they will not last much longer. The day he stops using the magic fringy on his blanket and doesn't need every animal he owns tucked around him at night is a day that I don't want to even begin to imagine.

A Secret Revealed!!!

Now that I know the word has spread through the family, I can finally share the memory of a birthday to remember! For months I have been praying (very hard) for my baby sister to get pregnant. The night before my birthday, I laid in bed and said another prayer...the only thing that I wanted for my birthday was for my baby sister to become pregnant. Then I pictured her making this big announcement at the birthday dinner she planned. Well, my birthday rolls around and the boys were being their typical selfs, Ray was out of town, and I was treating myself & the boys to Old McDonalds for dinner, it was being kind of a bummer birthday...well, Tracie called as we were parking in the McDonalds/Hastings parking lot to wish me a Happy Birthday. She could tell it wasn't going great and so decided to surprise me with the greatest birthday present ever...I was going to be an Auntie!!! The other great part is that she is due on Nicholas's birthday! Talk about a whopper! She said she was going to surprise us all at the birthday dinner but, felt bad that my birthday wasn't turning out so great so decided to tell me early. Talk about prayers coming true! I sat in the parking lot, in the car and cried. I was so excited for Tracie & Jeff. She is almost 9 weeks along. She's not feeling all that great so, hopefully that will turn around soon. She's already starting the clothing not fitting right...Seester, I hate to tell you this but, it only gets worse from here! As all of us girls who have been pregnant can attest to...It really sucks when you are in the ninth month, you've tried on six shirts and your belly hangs out of all of them, you're already emotional and you are ready for that baby to GET OUT..That's when it really sucks! However, they have already had an ultrasound and baby is healthy with a great heartbeat. Please keep them in your prayers for a healthy baby and a good pregnancy. CONGRATS Tracie & Jeff!

First Day of School

Nicholas had his first day of Preschool today. He was so excited and couldn't wait to get to Mrs. Fry's school this morning. He had asked me to stay for just a little bit before we left for school so, Sean & I went and hung out for 15 minutes or so. Nicholas & I traced our hands and got our picture taken together for their class book. While I was cutting out handprints, Nicholas & Sean played with puzzles. Sean was having so much fun playing puzzles with Nicholas & his friends that he really didn't want to leave. After the handprints were cut out, Nicholas informed me that I could leave. I gave him a huge hug & told him to have fun...Sean was so cute, he gave Nicholas a hug & said "have fun Nicklas". Sean looked a little lost in the car without Nicholas there beside him & was very excited to see him after school. He's going for 3 hours Monday through Friday this year. It will be good for him to have all 5 mornings, compared to last years 3 mornings a week. He loves school and his friends, so I have no trouble getting him out the door for school in the morning.

Labor Day

What a wonderful weekend. Perfect weather in the great outdoors! Ray has been working 40 miles into the Floodwoods, outside of Clarkia, for the past week (he's up there again this week) so, we decided to take the boys up to their campsite for the night. When I was little I used to spend many summers camping up behind Clarkia on my Great Uncle's Land, it's probably been 20+ years since I've last been there but, it's still in the family and we found it! Talk about tears threatening to fall when I walked along the banks of the creek and crossed the wooden bridge. It was so much fun to tell Ray & the boys about all of my memories from camping there and watching the boys throw rocks in the water. We are hoping to talk to my cousins next summer and try to spend a weekend up there. The boys loved it just as much as I did and were excited to stop both Sunday & Monday. When we made it to camp, Ray's boss had his boat up there, so Ray hiked us a mile into Dworshak where they had the boat "parked." It was a good thing we went in, the boat was pretty much beached, and half under water, due to the lowering of the water. The boys had a good time fishing despite not catching any fish & Sean throwing his new fishing pole overboard. We hiked back to camp where the boys mountain climbed and created a fire ring for Daddy's camp out of rocks. Ray took us up the rock pit they are working in and of course there was rock climbing! The boys were pretty pooped when we got back early Monday afternoon (and pretty dirty, too)! I think Ray & I were more tired than them! The boys slept pretty good & each of them only woke up once, Ray started a fire and they fell right back to sleep. Needless to say, we all went to bed VERY early Monday night!

Our Little Klepto

It's truly amazing the things that children will do and say. You think that you've tried to teach them right from wrong and then they go and do something that truly just stuns you, disappoints you, and makes you wonder where you failed as a parent. Today, we stopped in a bookstore down on main street to see if they had a book I've been looking for, as we were walking out, Sean started throwing a fit over the suckers that were on the counter (our boys have a weird sucker fetish). As I retrieved Sean's hand from the sucker container, I noticed Nicholas was walking funny & he had his hands behind his back. He was doing this sideways walk with his back facing away from me. I asked him what was behind his back, and he replied "nothing". I knew something was up & checked his hands, sure enough, there was a sucker in them. The little turd was trying to steal a sucker! I couldn't believe it! I grabbed the sucker, threw it back in the container & dragged my children out of the store. As soon as we got outside, I stopped him & we had a little chat. I asked him if he knew what happens when people steal things from stores, he didn't. Thus, I then proceeded to inform him that the policeman comes and takes you to jail. He kinda freaked out a little bit & said he didn't want to go to jail. I told him if I ever caught him stealing, I would personally call the policeman. Tonight as we were getting ready for bed, we talked more about it. I asked him if he thought his choice was good, his reply was no. I asked him if he thought Jesus would be happy with him if he stole, he gave a very said little no. Hopefully, this will be the last time we have to have this talk.

Singing In The Rain

The rain has been so much fun! I love these types of days, where the rain comes down, sometimes in down pours & sometimes in drizzles. There's something about the coziness of it that just makes you want to stay in your sweats, curl up with a good book, or just hang out. Today, we made the most of the rain. The boys put on their galoshes & we went walking in the rain with Emma, Graham, & Tonia. The kids had so much fun & were totally soaked by the time we made it home. They found so many mud puddles (and of course hit every one of them!) It was fun to see them giggle & see how high they could make their splashes. Before the boys & I left to meet Tonia & the kids, they played in the driveway puddles. Nicholas was so cute jumping around, it almost looked like he was dancing. Sean was a little more hesitant however, he liked walking through them. They all were so cute & it was fun to watch them giggle and splash.

A Backyard Campout

Ok, so I've been promising the boys that we could sleep in their Winnie the Pooh tent at least one night this summer. Last night I got brave, and for lack of anything better to do, we pitched the tent. They had so much fun taking all of their blankets and pillows, and sleeping bags, and stuffed animals, and books into the tent. I think they had every animal that is normally on their beds in the tent and at least a dozen books. I asked them if there was going to be room for me in there and Nicholas informed me that I was sleeping in my bed inside. After much discussion on this topic, Sean informed me "I make woom for you, Mommy!!!" When it was close to bedtime, we cleaned out the tent and added more blankets and a pillow and sleeping bag for me. Despite being kicked all night and not a whole lot of sleep, we had fun. The boys were so excited and thought it was really cool to be in the backyard, in a tent, with Daddy's light. Needless to say, when we woke up I was very surprised to find that it was hardly 6:00!

The Love Week

To prepare the boys for the week away from Mom & Dad, we told them we were going on a big, big boat and they got to have a "Love Week" (a.k.a. a week of being spoiled :-) and well loved!) with their Grandma's and a couple of their Aunties. They had a blast! Ray & I took them down to Tracie & Jeff's in Dayton on Sunday night. Tracie's friend, Lisa, brought her boys down on Monday and they made lots of new friends. Uncle Jeff took them down to throw rocks in the river and Aunt Tracie camped out with them in the tent. They headed to Grandma Judy and Papa Ray's for Tuesday and Wednesday night where they got to play in the motorhome, visit Great Grandma & Great Grandpa, and play at the aquatic center. Thursday and Friday they got to hang out with Aunt Anna, Grandma Sally, and Papa Randy. Anna took them to see Kung Fu Panda and to Old McDonalds for lunch and they got to have ice cream cake to celebrate Anna's birthday. Sean is walking around going "YA-YA-YA Kung Fu Panda" and making these Kung Fu arm moves and singing happy birthday to Anna. Between all of our wonderful family, Sean is getting pretty close to being potty trained. It was so fun to call back home and hear Sean in the background going potty and saying "I did it!" with pride and excitement in his voice. We could definately tell they were having fun when we talked to Nicholas Friday morning before we got off the boat, I asked him if we could come and get them tomorrow (Saturday) morning and he got very upset and said "NOOOOO, I don't miss you." He was very disappointed that his love week was over. However, despite all of the "I don't miss you's" he was pretty cuddly on Sunday! They had a great time and it made our vacation a lot more enjoyable and relaxing to know that the boys were having a great time and were well loved. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family support and help. Thank You Everybody!!!

The Big, Big Boat!

What an experience! Ray & I just got back from a wonderful week long cruise with my best friend, Tonia, and her husband, Tom. We had a blast! Our boat was beautiful, the food excellant, and the service amazing. We left from L.A. on Monday evening and sailed to San Diego. Tonia & I enjoyed the shows at Sea World while Ray & Tom joined the Navy on the U.S.S. Midway. They came back with all sorts of statistics and really had a great time. Tonia & I came back very wet after having the great idea to sit in the front row during the dolphin show. After San Diego, we sailed on to Catalina Island where we rented a golf cart and "cruised" the island. Then of course we had to check out all the little shops along main street! We spent the afternoon hanging by the pool on the boat and relaxing. From Catalina Island we sailed onto Ensanada, Mexico where we toured the wine country on broken down ATV's. Ray had to push his up the last hill, mine had no left hand brake and I had a defected helment and goggles, Tonia hit a fence, and Tom made it through 3 ATV's in the 2 hour tour. However, we had a good time and lots of laughs. After the ATV tour we headed to the shopping district in Ensanada where we were "greeted" by military in full fatigue and machine guns. It's definately a whole new world down there and a little intimidating. From Ensanada we sailed back to L.A. where we killed some time by taking a bus tour of Malibu, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills. We stopped at the Santa Monica Pier and Rodeo Drive before heading to the airport. This is definately a cruise worth taking! We couldn't believe the organization and personalization that went into every aspect of this cruise. Our waiter, Rodante, knew all of our names the second night, our room attendant introduced himself the first night and cleaned our room twice a day, and the waitress from the first night at the bar remembered us the second noight and what we had drank! It was an amazing experience and we're already talking about saving for the next cruise!

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Whelp, we have a new addition to our family. Sean has an imaginary ladybug...the name he has choosen for his ladybug...Abcdefg. He is so cute with him. The ladybug sits in his cupped hands and has snacks, sleeps and reads stories. The other day it was a ladybug theme at the library storytime, as we were walking in I asked Sean if he remembered his ladybug, his reply was "yep, he eating snacky" and showed me his cupped hands. We have no idea how this friend came to be in our world however, he travels with us quite frequently on errand running, to the park, and anywhere else we venture too. He sleeps on our shoulders and gets into "naughties" (according to Sean). In these pictures they were just watching cartoons and having snacky's.