Saturday, June 26, 2010

Dirt and Water

Boys think that dirt and water are a good combination.  My boys think they are an excellent combination and will gladly indulge whenever they get the chance.  It was in the upper 90s when we were in Texas so the boys were loving the sprinklers.  They also loved when a couple of holes in the ground filled with water so the could get sufficiently dirty.
It was getting a little crowded with two boys and one sprinkler...

so the boys decided to branch out on their own.

A hole with dirt in it!!

Then they found large amounts of dirt.  It was nice of grandpa to take a break from building the shed so they could have a nice play place.

John got to play in the sprinklers in the front yard.

Gus didn't think it was fair that he couldn't play.

It was very cute when they worked together.

Mud, lots of mud.

This is the life.



Thursday, June 24, 2010

TOT Camp

The Sunday we were in Texas we were able to go to the ordination of a dear friend, Tab Ottmers.  I've know Tab and his wife Emily for several years.  It was a wonderful occasion and we were able to see even more of our Texas friends.  My friend Tab is now Pastor Ottmers...a little weird.  I told John to go say 'hi' to Pastor Ottmers and he said, "Where is he?"  When I pointed to Tab, John just looked at me and smiled and said, "No, that's just Tab."

On Monday, John started his TOTS basketball camp.  John was so excited to do the camp and had been talking about it for weeks.  He jumped right into the class and even tried to take over a few times.  His teacher Angie was wonderful and patient.  I had to leave the room a few times so I wouldn't yell at John for not following directions.  He had a great time all week and asked when he would be able to do it again.
John started off distracting his friend Eli.  These two boys spent a lot of time following each other around.

All the kids were standing in a circle, of sorts, with these colored ribbons.  A song told them what to do with their ribbons such as waving them in the air or making circles with them.  At one point the song went through all the colors and when it called your color you were supposed to run into the middle of the circle.  John and his friend, Eli, had the only blue ribbons and they were talking to each other when the color blue was called, so no blue ribbons ever reached the middle of the circle.


So, we are starting John early with coordination activities.  Maybe he will play sports better than his dad.



Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Road Trip

We took the first part of our vacation last week.  The time went by so fast, as always, that I wonder where our vacation actually went.  We had planned to leave very early on a Thursday morning and make the 12 hour trip to Texas in one fell swoop.  But, plans changed and we left a couple of days earlier since Hans was going to have to fly home early to do a funeral.  So, I packed up the kids, the car and mowed the lawn in about 2 hours and we left for what was supposed to be a 6 hour day.  That 6 hour day ended up being more like 9 hours.  It was rough.  Since I didn't know were going to be leaving that day, I had already given Gus his nap,  so he wasn't thrilled to wake up from a nap and be put directly in his car seat.  I also managed to get a speeding ticket about 30 miles into Texas.  Just so you know, don't speed in Texas.  Texas tickets are wicked expensive and the small towns are even worse. I know the saying, 'Don't Mess with Texas' refers to littering, but I think it applies to most things.

The second day of the trip went much smoother, aside from Hans feeling like he had to die.  Hans developed a bad case of acid reflux.  Some people gain lots of weight when under stress, others lose lots of weight, develop acne like a teenager and get acid reflux.  I could see with my own eyes how bad Hans was hurting, but I think I would choose acid reflux over the weight gain any day.  Hans couldn't eat anything with out feeling like he was going to die, so he went to the urgent care center when we arrived at my parents.  The second he left the house I started eating everything I could get my hands on.  I had felt so bad for him the whole day that I didn't eat very much and I was VERY hungry.  After a couple of days on his new medication, just in time to fly home, he was feeling pretty good.

We were able to see a lot of our friends when we had a cookout at my parents.  The kids seemed to have a great time.
I'm not sure how Olivia was conned into pulling the boys, but the boys were taking full advantage of the ride and even screaming, "faster, faster."


At one point it got a little crazy and Olivia got hit in the head by a bat...a plastic one.  I have to say that, throughout all of this, the men were sitting on the back porch talking and NOT watching the kids.  It's probably a good thing the littler ones were inside.

Don't worry, I still have tons of pictures from the week in Texas.  I'll post more soon.




Friday, June 18, 2010

The Tales of John

My three year old is acting more and more like a teenager.  I'm hoping that year four will bring a quieter, mild mannered John...but I don't think so.  John didn't get something he wanted the other day...surprise, surprise, and he started to throw a fit.  I started to tell him he needed to calm down when he put his hand up and said, "I just can't talk about this right now, you are making me nuts."  I had to leave the room to keep from laughing.  I wish I could blame this on someone else, but I'm pretty sure I've said this to him more than once.

I did not, however teach John about holding his hand up and saying 'whatever'.  I was not really ready for that.  I told John he needed to pick up the books in his room and that he couldn't leave his room until it was done.  Without acknowledging me he turned and walked towards his room.  I asked him if he heard me and he just said, "Whatever, Mom." 

It is amazing how much kids pick up from TV.  Now, John hasn't been able to watch TV for about 2 weeks since he doesn't want to clean up the playroom.  But, he is in the room when I watch some HGTV shows and, while he isn't watching, he is absorbing.  The other day he saw some babies in a magazine and asked if they were part of the Gerber Generation.  I didn't even know where he got it until I saw the Gerber commercial a few days later.  He also came up to Hans the other day, flashed a big smile and said, "Daddy, my teeth just aren't white enough."  This then makes me cringe when I see commercials that I don't want to have to explain to my son.  I think I'm just going to give our TV away.
 John decided to cover himself in stickers.

Oh- I posted several things in just a few days, so if you missed the Adventures of August, here it is.



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Just Some Videos

We don't video our kids enough.  I take pictures, but I always forget to get out the video camera.  Here are a couple of videos from the past month.

Gus likes to talk now and he is learning where various body parts are.


John is learning a new hymn, "Awake My Heart with Gladness".  He is a little fuzzy on the last two lines, but I love how he just makes up his own words when he doesn't know the real ones.



Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Zoo

A couple weeks ago, we went to the zoo with a few of our friends and their kiddos.  The boys had a great time until nap time came a-calling and then we left the zoo with two screaming boys.  It is so nice to have everyone looking at you as you quickly make your way to the exit with overly tired, screaming kids in a stroller.  I just smile and ask if they can tell it's nap time.

John doesn't really want to be in the stroller anymore.  This works for me since I was going to have to kick the poor kid out come October anyways.

This was our crew.  The adults got so excited to see the other adults that we stay at the same exhibit for WAY longer than the kids liked.

John loves penguins, or "pah-gees" as he used to call them.  It wasn't too hot the day we went so they were actually out playing.

Gus loves a little freedom to run.  But, once you give him freedom, don't expect him to get back into his stroller willingly.

The calm before the storm.

The storm during the storm.  We decided to call it quits right after this.  Both boys can get each other going and their strong wills refuse to be the first to stop.




Sunday, June 13, 2010

Casa Bonita

Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant here in Denver.  People don't go for the food, but rather the experience as you can watch a western type cop and robber play and cave divers.  The restaurant also has a gift shop, arcade, a man dressed up as a gorillla, puppet shows and a tour through a dark cave.  We went to Casa Bonita when we first moved here two years ago but haven't been back since.  The preschool where I work part-time was having their end of school field trip at Casa Bonita, so I took John and he had a wonderful time.  All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.
John enjoyed watching the show so much I had a hard time getting him to eat his food.

Look how nicely he is sitting there.  I think I need to bring Miss Renee and Miss Charla home with me.

It was a great class trip.  John even took a nice long nap when we got home.


Denver the Desert

I never really thought of Denver as a desert, but we don't get much rain.  All the ladies at our church remind me we live in a desert when it comes to plants and how everything has to be watered everyday.  You have to water things everyday in Texas too, but that is just because it is insanely hot.  It is as if you can see the water evaporating from the hose before it even hits the plants.  It isn't that hot here, but it is very dry and dusty.  As if I needed more proof we lived in a desert, here is our lawn mower after its first use.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Adventures of August

Nothing is safe anymore.  Since Gus started walking at 9 months we've had to make adjustments as to where we place things so he can't reach them.  Phones, wallets, keys, and remotes have been placed farther and farther back on dressers and tables so the little man can't reach them when on his tippy toes.  About a month ago Gus mastered the stairs, so he can now go up and down on his own.  He is feeling so confident in fact, that, instead of going down the stairs backwards, he is walking down forwards.  I can't watch him do this as I get to be a nervous wreck.  To add to his freedom and my prison, Gus can now crawl up on a chair and then onto the table.  I didn't know he could do this until I heard him playing with something I knew I had set far enough back on the kitchen table that he shouldn't have been able to reach it.  I go into the kitchen to discover him sitting in the chair.  He smiled at me, that sneaky, proud smile, and then crawled up on the table to get something else he wasn't supposed to have.  Oh- AND this kid can unlock the dishwasher and open it to get his hands on all sorts of fun toys.

Things like phones and remotes are just baby magnets.  Somehow they always manage to get their hands on them.  And no kid likes these things to be taken away from them.  Hans actually had a great way of dealing with this by taking the remote or phone and saying, "Thank you."  This seemed to work for a while and even became a game as Gus would find something he wasn't supposed to have, hand it over and he himself would then say, "Thank you".  Now it has become another sort of game.  Gus has decided to change the rules and I don't like the way he plays.  He will now seek out a remote or phone, taunt you with it, run away (and those chunky legs can run fast) then when you are getting close enough to grab the item, he will throw it.  Such a punk!

You would think I don't watch my kids.  But, I'm pretty sure they tag team me.  I know there has to be some sort of conversation going on between my two boys.  One does something that demands my attention and, as soon as my back is turned, the other kid runs in the other direction to do something else.  I think they do these things because they enjoy watching their pregnant mom run around all day.  They have a sick sense of humor...they take after their father.





Tuesday, June 1, 2010

August's New Do

I have to say right up front that I won the argument.  Not only did I win, but Hans claims that I've never been more right and he has never been more wrong about any one thing.  This is not to say that I've never been right before.  I'm often times right, but I guess just not this right.  Hans finally caved in and let me take August to get his hair cut.  I've been trimming his hair for a few months now, but it just got out of control.  Hans wanted to keep his hair the length it was.  He was afraid if it was shorter it would look like he was bald or sickly. - No offense to all the bald men out there.  My handsome father in-law is bald by choice and as he says, he is "super-natural". -  When Gus started sporting the Justin Bieber hairdo, Hans knew we had to get it cut.

Before...
He is a cutie, but that hair is just out of control.  It looked especially spectacular when he would run his yogurt filled hands through his luxurious locks.  As you can tell, he is fussing to me about something while showing me his big muscles....boys.

After...
MUCH better!  He looks handsome and well-behaved...don't let him fool you.

And, here is John's new summer do.  John thinks he looks more like his daddy like this.