Dates for the boys (01-28-2010)

No, no, no...not girls!  Just dates with Mom and Dad!

Thursday night, Matt took Jace to see the Harlem Globetrotters.  They had a great time...ate hot dogs and nachos, remembered to take a few pictures (thanks, honey!), and fell asleep on the way home...well, just Jace!

Jace and Dad enjoying the show...

Globie...

The Globetrotters and the Generals...

The Globetrotters...

And while Jace and Dad went on their outing, Brett and I got to have a date of our own.  He chose to go pick up Sonic, come home and have movie night.  So, we ate Sonic and watched Star Wars.  We had a good time, too...AND we got to bed on time!  I have no pictures because Jace and Matt had the camera!

Jace a singer?

So, part of growing up is that your mom and dad don't always know what goes on at school.  Let me start at the beginning...Matt comes home one day a few weeks ago wanting us all to watch a couple of youtube videos, one being a Taco Bell folk song sung at a drive through.  The boys loved it so much that they ask to listen to it all the time and quickly memorized it.  Wednesday before scouts, Jace was singing it at the top of his lungs and tells me that the kids at school really love that song.  "What?  You've been singing it at school?" I ask.  "Well, on the play ground, I'll sing it for kids while they play games and jump rope.  And on Monday, I wrote about it in my journal in ALPHA and she asked me about it afterwards so I sang it for the class!"  ???!!!  Now, my Jace is not a singer...Brett yes...Jace never...now he's talking about doing it for the talent show at school if they have one.  HA!  Hilarious!  I don't have a video of Jace singing it yet, but here's the original video from youtube...

Tree House Fun (01-21-2010)

So, the tree house is mostly finished (although as a mother, it is hard for me to watch my babies climb that high up and not worry!).  The kids love it.  The weather was awesome last week and Jace spent a couple of afternoons doing his homework in the tree house.  Notice how he hung his jacket on the tree and how he has Brett sweeping the floor behind him (gotta keep the tree house nice).

Retrieving his backback after finishing his homework...

Brett got tired of Jace doing homework, so he headed next door to the empty lot and started hammering rocks...a favorite pass time.

Special thanks goes out to Grandpa for helping build the tree house and attending the kids' "Boys Club" meetings.  I guess I really need to get on my assignment for the "Boys Club"...I gotta make their flag!

Brett and Savoy (01-18-2010)

Brett went out to the garage Monday and after he was out there for a few minutes we went to check on him.  This is what we found...so sweet!  He'd pulled the cat's bed up on to his lap to get him to come sit on him.

Jace's Pack Meeting (01-13-2010)

Pack meeting is always fun for Jace and Brett.  Jace because it's his thing and Brett because he finally gets to go to scouts with Jace!

Brett with his friend, Jimmy

Skits are always fun...here's Jace's friend Jake and his parents helping with the Candy Shop Skit (his parents were the doors)

Brett got to be part of the candy shop, too...he was the cash register

Jace got to get his Wolf Badge this time.  Now he'll be working for arrowheads and belt loops until he turns 9 this summer.

Congratulations to Jace!

Christmas with Linz and Meeting David (01-09-2010)

Lindsey came down the weekend of the 9th to have belated Christmas with us.  She also brought her boyfriend, David, with her so we got to meet him!  We had a fantastic time and I got loads of good pictures...and of course, I had to blog them all...

Getting ready to open presents...again...

Jace and Brett got some more things to add to their Hot Wheels tracks

And Linz also got them these things called aerocopters...fun for outside...they shoot high!

Here's David watching the opening

Matt's excited about his Home Depot gift card!

And Linz liked her $$$

Matt helping Jace learn how to shoot the aerocopter (not inside!)

David liked his new iPhone cover...

Linz and Jace

And Linz and Brett

With cheesy grins...

David was a good sport to play army men with Brett all morning

And Dad helped Jace set up the Hot Wheels tracks...

I think David had fun with the boys...and they loved him back!

That afternoon, we had a little visitor sneak in the house...Matt went upstairs to find Savoy warming up!  It was cold outside!

Jace enjoyed spending a little time with the cat...we let him stay inside for a few minutes.

We decided we needed a snack so we made s'mores out on the balcony on Matt's little fire table.  Afterwards, David and Matt decided to warm their feet...I brought them a bottle of water in case their socks caught on fire!

You'd think that David's socks really did catch on fire, but no, he's just hard on socks!  I think we know what to get him next year for Christmas!!!

We had a great time all weekend and ended it with a babysitter for the kids and dinner at Rudy's for us before Linz and David had to head back to Houston Saturday night.  Thanks for driving up to see us!  Can't wait until we can do it again!

Brett's Legos (01-04-2010)

Brett got a big box of Lego bricks from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.  He's always complaining that all the good pieces are gone (because they never take their Lego creations apart once they build something), so this was perfect.  He built a castle that turned into a house with a very tall chimney!

January 1! Time for a couch!!! (01-01-2010)

So, we still don't have a couch...we're loving that foosball table, but we still don't have a couch!  We decided to go shopping one more time New Years Day, and we found one...so we went back on Saturday and bought it (of course, I have to wait 6-8 weeks to get it, but who's counting after this long without one!)  The boys, Grandma and I were entertaining ourselves while Matt sealed the deal...too bad I was a slacker and didn't take a picture of the actual couch!  HA!

Checking out the rugs...

Silly art...

I'm certain we were about to get kicked out of the store...but we ordered a COUCH!

End of 2009...Hello 2010!!!

Well, it's definitely been a busy year!  We're so thankful for our families and friends and for our continued health and safety.  We had a great year...here's looking forward to another good one in 2010!

New Years!

On New Years Even, we decided to let the boys have a little fun and make smoke rings out of smoke bombs from the fire works stand.  They had a ball with the girls next door!  We took a trash can, cut a hole in the bottom, stretched a shower curtain over the top of the can with a bungy cord, lit a smoke bomb, put the trash can on top of it so it filled up with smoke and then let the kids beat on the "drum" to make smoke rings come out the bottom.  You can see the smoke ring starting to come out of the bottom of the can here:

Here's a faint ring...

Here's a good one!

And a more defined, yet faint, ring...

And a better shot...

While all that was going on, Grandma came over to spend the night!  Grandpa went to Amarillo for a few days to help Chuck repair his fence, so we got to have Grandma over for a sleep over.  We had sub sandwiches for dinner and fruit fondue for dessert.  Then we put the kids to bed (after playing a LONG round of Trouble...thanks, Grandma!) and watched Julie and Julia (not my favorite...not sure it was worth a Red Box even).  We toasted in the new year with Martinelli's (ching ching!) and went to bed.  Then the next morning, the boys broke out the DDR for Grandma to have a go...luckily I had the camera out, too!

The boys sat in the windows when it was time for Grandma to go...I think they would have kept her longer!

Thanks for humoring us, Mom!  We had so much fun!

Christmas Day (12-25-2009)

Christmas morning!  We've adopted the stockings first tradition from Matt's family.  Here's Brett checking out his new Star Wars magnets.

Jace unloading his stocking, checking things out.

My stocking haul...what?  Trying to fatten me up???  As if there's not enough tempation...

Jace got a new nerf gun from Santa...just what he wanted!

And Brett, who hasn't stopped talking about Super Mario Bros for the Wii, can play it at last!

And the oh-so-sought-after Zhu Zhu Pet.  People will hate me, but I happened to be in Target at the right time and picked it up off the shelf for $8...now he's affectionately known as "Zooey"...

Matt can't wait to see what he got (no rush, honey...it's mostly clothes)!

Trying out Mario

And I finally opened my gifts!  It's so much more fun to see others open theirs that I forget I got stuff too!

We had a great time opening and playing...then we got cleaned up and Grandma and Grandpa came over to play!  Yay!  More presents!  And even more fun than presents, a wrapping paper fight!

Some things never change...Grandma dressed me up in the bows and ribbons...

Matt's eating his treats from Grandma already!

And now it's time for the opening of the Jewell present...of course, we all know what it is...

And they loved the scrapbook!  We had a great day playing, eating and just enjoying each other.  Matt, Grandpa and Jace worked on the tree house all afternoon and Grandma and I just hung out.  It's so great to have them home!