Ryan's Birthday gift to me?!?!

For the past few months this is how I saw today going:
-taking off work
-lazing around in my pj's
-SCRAPBOOKING!!!

Somehow it isn't turning out that way!! Here's how it is going....
-started out scrapbooking
-got a call that my cousin whom I am VERY close to had to be rushed into surgery for a tubal pregnancy
-then Ryan flushed a bath toy down the toilet

#2 slowed the scrapbooking big time, because I couldn't stay focused
#3 put a full end to it

J.D. discovered Ryan playing in the potty & had to give him a bath. While he was bathing J.D. went ahead & flushed the potty not knowing Ryan had filled a small rubber ball with water then dropped it in the toilet - so it had sank to the bottom & was under the toilet paper Ryan had also added.

After plunging many times & flooding the bathroom I decided to ask Ryan if anything else besides paper was in there. (Keep in mind he is watching this whole stressful process) At which time he lets us know that the ball was in there. - If only we had asked sooner. Of course by this time we've pushed the ball as far as it will go.

Soon I come up with an idea to try using the wet/dry vac to see if we can suck it back out, no such luck & after about 5 minutes J.D. decides to completely remove the toilet.

I never realized how yuck this could be!!

As you can see we did find the ball and WITHOUT a plumber!! Yay us!!

The little ball was very happy to be removed from the potty & after a good bath has recovered from the whole ordeal un-harmed!!

(Can't you tell how happy he is?? See that smile!! Of course I think the plunging caused one of his eyes to sink further into his head & the vac caused one to pop out, I think he'll be okay though)
After we got the ball out J.D. took Ryan in to try to explain why we don't put things in the potty & talk about what the potty is really used for. (I am concerned that this went in one ear jiggled around in his head for 2 seconds & fell out the other side...)

New Car!!! (Trouble!)

Well, so we finally did it. After being teased that it looked like we were getting out of a clown car every time the 5 of us went somewhere - we bought a new vehicle. A 2007 GMC Yukon. JD had bought our Altima NEW in 2001 & ever since said he'd never buy a Brand New car again because they loose their value as soo as you drive them off the lot, so we went used.

On July 25th we drove to OKC & traded our "Clown Car" the seated 5 in on a "Monster" that seats 9. Our new Dark Blue beauty had some hail damage from the storm that went through OKC the week earlier & the dealership was fixing it(for free of course) we just had to bring it back the next week.

We took it back to get the hail fixed & they gave us a loaner Chevy Truck. Tight fit - not comfy at all! Really was a pain in the tush - really it was - my hip hurt all week!!
They were supposed to have the hail fixed in two days, but it took a week which meant we had to drive this thing close to the OK/TX boarder because Dylan & Ryan were going to go spend a few days with Gamma & Gampa before Dylan started back to school - luckily my mom was able to meet us there because we didn't want to take it out of the state.

Finally the day came for us to go back to pick it up & guess what happened?? It started storming!! We worried all the way there that it was going to end up getting hailed on again before we ever got it back home. We were lucky though, we seem to be in the eye of the storm or something because it stayed clear right over us all the way home & started raining literally right after we pulled into the garage.

:)

Well today it broke down! JD was headed off to work after lunch & the check engine light came on, the thing went into safe mode & would only drive 10 MPH. He got it back home & we had to have it towed!

Wow what a interesting 2 months it's been! Needless to say J.D. says we'll never buy used again, the extra money is worth the peace of mind....

Ryan's Little Piggy's are Growing!!!

Well, most kids want to get a new pair of shoes before school starts right? Well last year before Dylan started Pre-K we went shoe shopping. We got him some really cute little Sketchers. Of course Ryan wanted new shoes too! So we got him some too! We went on Tax free weekend Aug. 1-3 2008.

(Ryans Size 5's)

Well, to the point I go!!! Ryan had been wearing these shoes ever since. Then on July 25th when JD was getting ready to take the boys to their first Lowes Build & Grow class I noticed Ryan tripping A LOT, so checked his shoes & sure enough he had Finally Out Grown his size 5's!!!!! I had already gotten him a new pair of shoes over the summer(when I found $59 shoes for $14). They were a bit big, but he started wearing his size 6 1/2 shoes later that day.
(Ryans size 6 1/2's)

So as we were driving out of town Friday night guess what happened???? Yea, Ryan starts crying..."My Toes Hurt!!!" Sure enough his poor little toes are scrunched in the tips of his shoes already!!! Not that I'm complaining, I'm happy to see him growing!!
We just tried hard over the weekend to do things were he didn't have to wear shoes. We had some of Dylans old shoes at home that he could wear for the time being so I can shop around. I hate paying full price if I can get the same thing cheaper by looking around....

(Dylans old size 7's that will work until we have time to shop)

Back to "School"

3, 2, 1...Blast Off!!!
Well, our Daycare "school" year has officially begun! Except 2 kids are home sick, so....things are off to a slow start.
Ryan had fun though. This month our themes are Spiders & Caterpillar to Butterfly - we are also working on A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, Circle, & Yellow. So we started off today working on the letter A & mini unit Astronauts. These are a couple of the little things we did today. We also took a flight on our "Space Shuttle" we had tickets & packed our backpacks. Having our "Moon Walk" was a blast!
We learned about a bunch of things that start with the letter A. Except Ryan keeps letting me know his name DOES NOT start with an A!

Precious Gifts

Yesterday we got home from our trip & the boys went outside to play while we got our laundry done from our trip.

Very quickly Ryan came back in the house with this. He came in yelling "Mommy!" & when I came to him he handed me this pretty little pink/purple flower and saying "I got this for you because I love you very much!"

The sweetest gifts come from the heart!!

Visiting Family

This past weekend we went out of town to visit Grannie. The kids had a great time! They love going to her house because she has cool toys (all from when my bro & I were little) & lots of bug/critters outside!
These were some of the caterpillars we pulled off of Grannies tomato plants. The boys had a wonderful time driving them around. Then taking them far, far away so they can't eat Grannies tomato's!!

As we were getting ready to leave on Sunday Aydan fell asleep sitting on Grannies lap. She was holding him so we could pack the car.

After leaving Grannies house we went to the lake to see my family from my Mom's side. I tried to get a picture of the boys & Aaron all together, but out of 4 pictures this was the best. They weren't really working with me....Ryan kept sticking food in his mouth, Dylan was trying to show me his shells, & Aaron...um I have no clue what he was up to. Aaron is the only other red head in the family besides my kids. He's 2 weeks younger then Ryan - notice the 6 inch height difference??? But Ryan is growing - I'll have a post on that later!!!

Very resourceful!!

Dylan enjoys spending his afternoons drawing, coloring, making things out of paper, playing with tape, & using the stapler. One day last week though he decided to re-do his "playground maps" so he needed to get the staples out - this is what I walked in to find him doing.

He had turned our chipy clip into a staple remover. Maybe this is a sign we need to go shopping.

Shopping List

• Chips
• Staple Remover

Triplets!?!?!

Ok, when we just had two kids everyone said "Oh-they look like they could be twins!" and I don't believe they ever looked the same. So now with 3 - well you get the idea. So here are pictures of all three. Ok - I'll give it to you that Dylan & Aydan favor alot, but still don't see twins or triplets!!
Decide for yourself....

Binoculars!!!!....(????)

I was going through some pictures taken back around Christmas & found these. We went to visit my Grannie in South Eastern OK. My Bro, his wiffy wife & son Andrew also came to visit from TX. One night we went to meet my cousin Amber & her little boy Aaron at Micky D's for some Apple Pies...The kids (and J.D.) decided to "recycle" the pie boxes. They had so much fun!!!!(This is Andrew)

Getting Ready for Pre-K.......early.....

Ryan is wanting to go to school sooooooo bad!!! He asks daily if he gets to go to Pre-K yet. So I told him he'll go next year, but we better make sure he's going to be ready. Normally for daycare we use Funshine Express Curriculum, but this year most of the kids are so young (8 months-23 months) that I decided to create my own this year. For Ryan though we are using Brighter Vision Curriculum just to give him an added boost for next year.

So this week I've been using their beginner books just to see where he is with his learning. I've really been amazed. He's doing great on his colors, shapes, sizes, counting, problem solving, and even adding numbers!! So I think next week we'll start the next stage books - luckily I have TONS of these books already - before I found Funshine these are what I used with Dylan & Kale.

Of course Ryan isn't too accepting of my answer about how quickly he gets to start school. Every morning he gets himself dressed(faster then Dylan), packs his backpack, eats his breakfast then asks for me to pack him a lunch. He wants to go with Daddy & Dylan too. He's not very happy when Dylan gets to go to class & he doesn't though.....But, he is getting dropped off at daycare now instead of waking up there!! LOL

But as you can see he's VERY into finger painting. You'd be amazed at the things I convince him to do by telling him he can finger paint when he's done. (clean his room, put away his laundry, eat his lunch...) It's so great! Hopefully he'll still enjoy finger painting when he's a teenager!! Hey I can hope! :)

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round & Round

Last Saturday was Build & Grow at Lowes again - only this time I got to go too!!! (So of course I took as good of pictures as I could get.

This time the boys got to build a School Bus

They have sooo much fun doing these little projects! Dylan did most of his by himself & for Ryan we would just start the nails for him then he would finish hammering them in.

Both boys were so proud of these little things when they finished. They were really cute each kit came with stickers & 4 little "people" slide in cards so you could choose who was ridding the bus. Dylan Picked Aliens & Ryan picked Robots.

Our friend Zane was even there building a School Bus with his Dad!

He's in Kindergarten!!!! :'(

We went to enrollment verification on the 12th of Aug. and found out that Dylan's teacher from last year had moved up to kindergarten this year & guess what?!?! He's in her class again! This is really good because he was actually scared about going to school this year. So this made him very excited!! On the 17th we got to go to meet the teacher night(well, for Dylan it was see your new classroom night). Then the first day of school was the 20th. Today is his 3rd day & so far he really likes it. Yes, he already has a "girlfriend" Hannah is his new little friend, but we haven't gotten to meet her yet. Asha is in a different class this year....

Here are a few pictures of the events....
Breakfast on the first day of school ~ Dylan's request *Waffle, Banana, Yogurt, & milk!! Yum!
Getting ready to walk out the door...

Being Silly on the Second Day of School (we couldn't get pics the first day, too many people around)

MMMmmm.......Chicken & Dumplings! (w/ carrots)

Last week my mom came to stay a few days. On Friday she made homemade chicken & dumplings.

Every time I would eat Aydan would stare at me, so I decided to give him a few bites of mine. He loved them!! So for super that night I gave him some on a plate with some steamed carrots. He ate them so well, he had no problem feeding himself, in fact I think he liked it better...I was doing it too slow.
He had only fed himself fruit/veggie puffs & cheerios before this. Since he has also had pancakes....yumm!(no syrup-that'll be an adventure for another day!)

Brotherly Playtime

Yesterday we witnessed a rare moment in our house, all three boys playing near each other. This usually ends up with Dylan & Ryan upset that Aydan is chewing on the toys. I guess the paci was taking care of that.

This is the daycare "cage", we use it until the youngsters start walking then off they go with the rest of the kids. I just worry that the older ones will trample the babies...
Of course we don't usually have that many toys in there, but if you are wanting to build a castle you'll need lots of Pop-Onz!

Wow, Kindergarten....I just can't believe it.....

Less then 2 weeks until Dylan starts Kindergarten. I still can't hardly believe he's old enough. Yesterday JD & I were talking about the day we discovered Dylan was on his way....the last 5 years has just flown by!

He's not too excited about it though, I guess last year he heard that kids get put out in the hallway by themselves if they aren't resting at rest time. Not that I think he really has a reason to worry as far as I know he had no problems with this last year, but it still has him very freaked out. He's scared of being out there alone...so maybe I'll have to talk to his teacher about it.

In one week we get to go to "meet the teacher night". We are super excited to find out who his teacher is! Plus we want to get his supply list so we can shop.

This year we didn't really have to do much clothes shopping because some friends gave of a bunch of really really really nice clothes! So we are good to go through fall or until he grows - which ever comes first...

Build and Grow - Power Boats

Last Saturday the boys got to go to Lowes for the Build and Grow class again. This time the got their aprons.

I haven't gotten to go with them to this class yet so I have to do my picture taking after they're done.

I think they look so cute in their goggles & aprons!

...Anyways, these are the power boats they built this time. They have rubber bands in the center, so when you turn their "motors" and put them in water they go pretty fast. We had boat races in the tub yesterday morning, Dylans seem to win the most, but I think it was just because Ryans would get started before it touched the water loosing it's power....

We have quickly discovered they weren't really meant for water though, The bottom of Ryans split as it dried, and both of them have signs of rusting nails.....but oh well, I guess really we can't keep them forever anyways...

So much personality!!!

Aydan has changed so much over the past few months. He's starting to go from baby to little boy. Sometimes the things he laughs at - just shows how much of a boy he really is. The other day I was changing his diaper & he starting peeing everywhere!!! He just starting laughing-I mean a full belly laugh! You would have though someone had in strapped down and was tickling him with a feather, just laughed & laughed.

He also enjoys dress up. Dylan & Ryan love bringing things in the living room for him to wear. Last week this is what he got. He really enjoys it and doesn't like it when you take his costume away.


Of course even dressing up can wear you out.....

He slept like this for about 45 min, then started playing again...

Visiting Grannie

Well, recently we went to visit Grannie. Her brother passed away from cancer, so we went down for the funeral.

It was really nice for us to all get to visit even if it was a sad reason.

Grannie got to feed Aydan his breakfast. Baby Oatmeal & Pears....yumm!
Dylan was enjoying a bowl of Coco Puffs.
Andrew was eating his "corn cereal", and Ryan had Coco Puffs.
The cousins sure do enjoy playing together! (and eating breakfast)

I got in trouble....

..for not having any new pics of Aydan so here he is!!!

He's almost 9 months old already, I can't believe it - time is just going by so fast!!