Captions

It's been a while, things were crazy getting ready for the trip, plus the camera was broken so I've been taking it easy. I did get the old camera working in time for our trip. It is definitely still not fully functioning but I was able to get the old pictures off, so yay!! Here's what happened since the last photos and a few recent ones.

June 15th- Our last day of swim class! We went to the park afterwards, overall a fab day.

June 17th- We went to the Lake!!! Loaded up for an afternoon of tiring fun after naps.

Harper and Miss Penny, cuddling. Harps liked her dress too, it was all she could look at!

Coops playing in Harding lake. A bit after this he slipped in the lake but was okay because of the life jacket. That kid is so mischievous.

Mr. Cautious.

June 21st- Grandma was able to squeeze the boys in for a pre-vacation haircut, so the fellas could break some of the Reno ladies' hearts :)

June 23rd- Jonathan needed some help moving dirt around and Sam came to the rescue! The skidsteer is way better than a shovel and a wheelbarrow according to both Jonathan and Thatch.

Trouble being wrangled in while the big machines did their work.

June 25th- Last soccer game of the summer! The coach said that every player on the sidelines was bonding over their hatred of soccer. Yeah, they didn't win, not that they ever have.

Action shot!

June 27th- I forgot to take pictures on the airplane, probably because of my extreme exhaustion and fatigue. Our first flight was delayed 2 hours. Our next flight was on time but left at 1:40am so that was just super fun keeping the kids up all night (sarcasm font, seriously someone start working on this). When we got to Seattle the kids had gotten 3 hours of sleep, Jonathan and I, probably less. We rode the train in the airport and this was the happiest shot I could get of them.

Coop drinking his hot chocolate, the best in the world! They make it with molten chocolate and it it amazing! He felt a little better but still not up to par. On a side note, Cooper dressed himself for the trip.

We finally made it to Reno and when Grammy got off work the first thing she did was demand to hold her girl :) Cooper decided to document this and snapped these photos himself!

Grandma from Cooper's point of view.

So we are in Reno, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the gang. Good thing too, the boys slept 12+ hours last night and Harper is still asleep, going on 15 hours asleep with only a brief feeding at 8am. Love that girl! I picked up my new camera and it's charging so that's exciting, can't wait to post more photos for all of your viewing pleasure!

Love,
S

GOAL!!!!

It's finally happened, something clicked! Thatcher scored a goal :D  Honestly, he looked even more space cadetish and zoned out than he usually is making this event quite unexpected. At one point during the game he had a break away and was racing towards the goal, dribbling the ball like a pro, but tripped at mid-field because he is his Mother's son and those gangly legs just got in the way. I had stepped away onto another field with the Coopster, who needed a little private time to drop a #2, when Thatch scored (I just asked Jonathan if there's a catch phrase or some sort of funny euphemism if someone scores and he said "In soccer we just refer to it as scoring." What a turd, so much for his ESPN announcing career.) Anyhoo, Thatch started yelling "I scored!! I got a goal!!" I could see that he scored but I couldn't see how or what occurred. Apparently Jonathan was watching and said this is what happened: He kicked the ball in and was a bit sheepish about it at first and then started talking about it, going play by play, with all his teammates. Around this time I made it back to the sidelines, he then ran by, winked at us and gave a thumbs up. I imagine that will be our thing when he's running by after he scores the winning goal in the 2026 World Cup. Hmmm, I may be getting ahead of myself, it was a goal in a 5 year old soccer game after all. So the whistle blew shortly after and it was snack time, the reason the kids show up for soccer anyways. It was my week so I brought capri suns and the expensive fruit rolls from the produce department, because I'm crazy like that. Thatch recapped the goal and gave us a play by play. He's pretty much told everybody about this goal, including the coffee stand girl. It's epic.

Sadly, there is no photographic evidence, but alas there is hope! I found a camera online that I had owned previously which was good enough for government work and the good news is that it was $100 off!! So Jonathan said "buy it" and I clicked that button faster than you could say "cheese!" I'll pick it up in Reno next Tuesday because I doubt they'd have it here in time for our departure in 5 days (woohoo!!!!!!!!). Awesome photos will soon follow :)

Hope you enjoyed.
Love,
S

The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY.

It was a quick week and I can not believe we are heading into another. Monday was a busy day but as prescribed by Jonathan I took it easy the rest of the week. Here we go:

Monday:
Yeah, I honestly can not remember why it was so busy. Hmmm, there was swimming at 11am the whole week. This day had OT at 1pm, oh yes, there was soccer.

Here was Harps helping me garden. She is completely covered by a mosquito net because we do not associate with bugs, us being ladies and all.

Thatch did good at soccer this week! There were a couple of hiccups but otherwise he did fantastic :)

My love in her sunhat. I think it makes her look like Paddington Bear, do you remember him?

Sometimes when you need help, it comes in truckloads! This week I had Jonathan with me AND Miss Penny! For those of you who do not know, Penny was Thatcher's daycare lady when he was one and I went back to work but now she is a close friend who we consider family. She just loves our kiddos and they love her!

Trouble, taking a break during half time. Jonathan kept him busy running around while the game was going on but he did take a break occasionally.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:
I have no idea what we did. Probably laundry and swimming. I think it was rainy? Meh.

Friday:
We rode bikes from swimming to the park where we had pizza and capri suns with our good friends Barrett, Merrick, and our new friend Rev! This session of swimming is over and we aren't signing up again until we get back from vacation.  It was fun and  then it was rainy so we rushed back into the car and came home to do...laundry. GRRR.

Here's where it gets ugly, yesterday we ran some errands and went to a BBQ. Today, we went to the lake and it happened: my camera died. Not just faded into oblivion, like straight up jumped off a bridge and killed itself. I hope I can get the bike ride pictures off the camera from Friday but the real problem is that we're leaving on vacation in 8 days! One can not fly on a plane or, GOD FORBID, go to Disneyland with out a camera!! I'm pretty sure Jonathan will be flexible with this problem but until then I'm going to have to take pictures with my cell phone, gross!

Anyhoo, I don't see much on the schedule for the week but the good news is that Saturday is the Midnight Sun Run Party and that will be fun :)  I'll write more and try to be better with posting this week...wish me luck on the camera negotiations 2012!

Busy Busy but nothing accomplished...status quo.

Jonathan is on nights this week which means I need to try to keep the boys out of the house in order to maintain some semblance of serenity in our family unit. Quiet sleep time=amiable Dad. Here's a brief look into what we done lately.

Monday:
Thatch has swim lessons every weekday at 11AM. After that we came home and hung out, Jonathan wasn't quite switched over so he stayed home with Coop while I took Thatch to his OT in town. I just so happened to lose my ID, which I do often, so I took Thatch with me and he got his first state ID. He did NOT enjoy the wait time at the DMV, to put it mildly.

It is an adorable id, he even signed it! :)

 After we got home and Coop napped Jonathan rode off into the sunset (he's been riding his bike to work) and I drove off into a dark, stormy night. Soccer was YUCKY this week. There was thunder, lightening and rain (Oh My) and they would not call the game. I mean, seriously, it's 5 year olds playing soccer, not the World Cup. I would have gladly paid the ref the $15 she was making that game to call it but, alas we muddled through it. At half time I had to go to the car with H and C because it was so rainy and she was crying and he was being 2. I think in the future I will start recruiting some help for myself. I felt awful sitting afar watching my little guy and I could see him looking for us so I said "eff it" and we went back out. Luckily the rain finally let up a bit. They played, Thatch ran around and it ended. We came home and called the day a wrap.

The kids names' were put on their jerseys but they messed Thatcher's up. It says "THATCHES". The coach asked if I wanted to get a new one but I didn't, I think it's funny and cute. Possibly a new nickname too!

Mary Poppins would have a field day with this kid.

On our way back to the fields from the car. Coop is a runner, that should be really fun at Disneyland.

Action shot- at least he was near the ball!

Lady Harper watching a riveting game of Football and ready for a starring roll in My Fair Lady.

Tuesday:
We had nothing on agenda for this day besides swimming. It was pretty fab.

Harper is currently attempting to put both of her hands in her mouth at the same time. I keep telling her that it isn't going to make the Guinness World Records book but she's still attempting it none the less.

Wednesday:
I don't know why but this was a long day. Oh wait, yes I do know, because I kept throwing crap in to do that day. Me and my stupid spontaneity. It started with swimming at 11 after that we had some time to kill. OT was pushed back until 2pm. Oh, back story: Cooper slept HORRIBLY the night before, he went to bed at 8 as usual but I finally heard him calm down around 9:15. He woke up crying terribly at 10 and I took him out of the room so he wouldn't wake Thatch. He finally fell asleep in my bed with me at 11:30 and woke up at 7:30. To say this kid was a pill on Wednesday is an understatement. He would have made Hitler, Stalin, and Napoleon quiver in their boots. Back to the day now- after swimming went to pay a little visit to the big man in red. That's right, a mid year check in with Santa! We live in North Pole for heaven's sake, I might as well use it to my advantage!

Santa actually remembered us and asked which class Thatcher was going to be in next year. He apparently knows all the kindergarten teachers at his school and Thatch was in awe. When Santa asked what they wanted for Christmas Thatch said "An Airplane". I was shocked. Cooper said "Candy" and I was not shocked.

Afterwards we had some hot chocolate and took a little look around but having Coop with me was literally a bull in a china shop.

My love had hot chocolate envy. None for her yet!

Thatch informed Cooper and I that this was Rudolph. His nose is only red in the winter, duh.

 From one extreme to another, off to the green house we went to pick some lovely flowers.

When Coop gets tired he starts to stare off into space. This was my cue to go home. He sure is cute though.

A quick lunch before naptime. He thoroughly enjoyed dipping his carrots into ketchup. Yuck.

 Thatch and I went to OT while Jonathan and Cooper slumbered. We came, we saw, we conquered.

Thursday:
Our busiest day but not so much. Coop had another terrible night and I just let him cry it out this time. Thatcher didn't wake up at all while he was in there so that was a plus knowing that he's able to make it through that chaos. Swimming at 11am as usual and then home. Coop tormented and fed the mosquitos while we planted our flowers outside. Then he went in for his nap after lunch at 1:45. Thatch and I left to go to the chiropractor. I'll type up more about the chiro on a different post but pretty much she is awesome and has helped him immensely!

Us driving. I had the back loaded up with recycling stuff and Harper so he had to sit in the front. Clearly a sacrifice he was wiling to make.

Getting adjusted :)

Here's a quick video of him getting adjusted. She calls the pops in his back popcorn, so when he gets home he tells Jonathan that he had a lot of popcorn and Jonathan just looks confused.

Thatch's Adjustment

When we got home Cooper was still asleep! He finally woke up at 5pm. I'm hoping he's going through a growth spurt and that would explain the heinous behavior but I doubt it. Anyhoo, when we got home I forgot that he had practice at 6pm so we missed it. Whoops.

Friday:

Another day we had nothing but did too much, again. We rode bikes with our good friends to swimming. Thatch needs to work on his pedaling, he kept going backwards which is the break. It drove me nuts but he was much better on the ride back. After that we ran a couple of errands in town and headed home for naps. Coop fell asleep in the car for about10 minutes and that was all he would take for sleeping. UGH.

Westcott Pool Biker Gang. Watch out Hell's Angels.

When we got home Jonathan woke up and had an attack of the grumpies. Cooper has lost one of his new shoes and we had to search high and low for it. He mandated that I not sign Thatch or Coop up for anymore activities until next summer and give myself a break. I'm thinking that is not going to happen but I'll let him get off night shifts before we broach that subject again! What would I put in the blog?

Anyhoo, Thatcher is beyond excited for our trip to see Grammy and Grandpa in Reno! He keeps asking that we fly to Mexico to see them. I'm not sure where he got this, as they live in Nevada. As of today he has packed his bag 3 times and then I have unpacked it. I made this countdown on the closet door so he can see how many days are left rather than assuming that today is the day everyday!

Frequent Flyer Mugshots.

17 days until vacation!!

 Anyhoo, that was our week. Thank God today is windy and rainy so I can clean up and do some laundry. I need a maid, or maybe not to do so many activities. Shoot, I hope Jonathan isn't right because I hate when that happens!

Love,

S

Marathon Wednesday

Wednesday was a lllllloooooooonnnnnnnngggggggg day, to say the least. It started for me at 5:15AM when Jonathan finally stopped hitting the snooze button and got ready for work. I heard him leave, heard the garage door close and then heard Harps wake up hungry. I fed her, and laid back down to try to go back to sleep. At 6:15 I gave up and decided to wake up and work out (ha, if I had a nickle for every time I said that), the dogs being excited woke up too and shook, their little dog tags banging together like an alarm signalling Cooper that it was time to wake up also. UGH. He was grumpy, miserable and a downright pill. But he did perk up a bit after some cuddling time. Thatch joined us at 7am and we were off on another whirlwind day.

I had a Dr. appointment with the podiatrist at 10 so we went there after running by Jonathan's work to drop some stuff off. I have Plantar Fasciitis, basically my right arch feels like it is going to rip in half, which it kind of is. It's extremely painful and I need to get it better before our vacation! They were great there, everyone felt the need to take their shoes off and to be examined. I hope we don't get charged 3 times!

After that I gave Thatch the option to decide whether we went to Barnes and Noble or to get Coopie's hair cut and he picked the hair cut! I guess he doesn't like his brother to look like he's in the Beatles either.

Coopie with Chom, the boys barber (is that the right word? I don't know boy lingo.) She's great with them, and quick which is most important when unfurring a squirmy fella.

After that was a quick lunch at McDonald's which they loved. McD's has Madagascar 3 toys right now and they got a train with the penguins on it. I guess we are going to be seeing that soon too! Then off to OT and a straight shot home for a nap. It was 2:30 by this time and Coop had been up for 8 hours. He was surprisingly not so bad like but still in dire need of a nap. We all were! And then the most miraculous event occurred. Everyone slept at the same time! Thatch said he wasn't tired but there is evidence to the contrary.

H was just relaxing on the couch, paging through his train magazine when he finally hit the hay. He did not wake up this well though.

Now for the busy part: Thatch's first soccer game outside! I was ill prepared for this. I got the stroller out for Harps, the rain gear because it looked kind of shady out, Thatch's soccer gear and what have you. It was a lot of crap in my car!

Harps is a Soccer Hooligan.

I asked Thatch to stand there so I could take a picture for his Grandma's and this was his pose. Then he told me that they were really going to like this.

After a lot of running around after him and just general kid shenanigans I put him in the stroller and held Harper. Having a caged Cooper worked out much better.

Thatcher said he scored a goal but I'm not so sure about that. It's hard to tell because it is herd ball but I didn't actually see that happen. We'll let it roll though.

Intense action shot.

You can't see it in any of the pictures but the sponsor of the team is Sani-Can. Hehe :) After the intense game of running around in circles we packed up and went to pick up some dinner. Bamboo Panda!! YUMMY, we love it! The boys especially love sweet and sour chicken, which we call chineese chicken nuggets and white rice, which Thatch calls "white food". Okay, we'll let that slide for now.

If you know how picky of an eater Thatch is you'd be amazed and how much he ate! If you knew how unpicky of an eater Cooper is you'd laugh at how much he ate too.

Afterwards I made Thatch take a shower and Cooper joined him. This was Coopie's first shower :)

After he was oiled up he ran to his dresser and pulled out undies like his big brother. He's never worn a pair before and was quite enthralled with the characters on them! He finally settled on Cars and couldn't stop looking at his man parts long enough for a picture. He slept in his diaper though :) When we get home we will start the potty training hard core!

Well poop, it won't let me finish in the normal blog so I'll finish it here. So that ended our marathon of a day and all the kiddos were asleep by 9pm. Today we rest and tomorrow, we grocery shop. That should be fun. Or not. Until later,
S

A couple quickies

Sorry I've been off the grid. You know the drill: busy, 3 kids, holiday weekend. Blah, blah, blah. So here we go!

1.The sleeping arrangements are going well! Cooper and Thatch are still bunking, no one has been kicked out of their beds (Well, except Cooper in the original bed moving). I've cleared the room out and it's almost time for Operation: Fancy Nancy. We're converting a little boy room into a little girl room, and by we I mean me. Jonathan can not grasp my vision for Harpie's room so I'm on my own. No bigs. I obviously will post the big reveal on here at a later date :)

I took this of the boys asleep the other night. They always sleep together now, even if I start them off in the same bed. They love each other :)

 Jonathan was off this weekend for the first time in 17 days. The boys missed their Daddy terribly, at night time especially. Here's a few pics of them and two videos of Jonathan and them.

I can not wait for one of those teeth to fall out! Especially the chipped one from when he was 9 months old.

http://youtu.be/8uU32WCv4IM

http://youtu.be/A1JDLdwRBK0

 2. We had a garage sale here on Saturday, in with new out with the old. Our house is so small and adding another little body with so many accessories has pushed our cabinets and closets to the brink. I find it's easier to just have a garage sale once a year and keep the clutter down. 

Thatcher was NOT happy about selling his stuff. He has the potential to be a serious horder. Most of the time I can slowly clean out his room when he is at school and he wont notice stuff is gone but on this particular day it was VERY clear what was missing!

He was allowed to pick 1 item and take it inside. This is him and Jonathan negotiating. I'm fairly sure he actually saved 3 things. The kid should be a lawyer when he grows up.

Cooper, the cannon ball, took a good fall on our driveway during the garage sale, which is made of rocks. This was the ensuing injury. My poor little, clumsy guy. He gets it from his Mommy.

3. We've had a mix of beautiful weather to down right rainy doldrums (which you know I love actually) but today it was beautiful so I went out with Harps and soaked in the Vitamin D. We planted my flower boxes and some perennials in the front. When it's all done I will snap a picture and show you all the resulting opulence. Well, it will be opulent in August, right now it's just kind of sad.

My little pale baby needs to soak up some sun before we head down to vacation! I also need to get her a cute little sun bonnet, and maybe some cat eyed sunglasses. Maybe that's pushing it.

4. Remember this 4 months ago?

January 29th, 2012- Yes, that's correct. It's COLDER than -60*.

May 28th, 2012- Yes, that's right it said 92*F on my deck...That's above zero! I actually do not enjoy hot weather but today felt wonderful. After snapping this we moseyed inside for an otter pop, it's officially SUMMER!!