A week in the life of....

Now that I finally have a few minutes to upload some pictures I can let you all know what's been going on with us! Mother's Day was great! We ended up having dinner at our house and it was so fun to have a place that we could have a bunch of people over and not feel cramped. My parents, Jessi & Jeremiah (Chachi & Myre to the boys), Grandma & Grandpa Scherer, Grandma P., Bret & Ashlee and their girls were all over. It was quite a bit of work but still a ton of fun. My mom was bringing most of the food down so I decided to try my hand at home made rolls. I've always wanted to do it because I love eating them but I've been too nervous to try it myself. I have to say, though, they turned out wonderful! They don't look like much, but shortly after dinner these were the last two left, and they didn't last much longer. I'm totally excited to make them again.

Nick surprised me with a vacuum for Mother's Day! You should see how clean my carpets finally are, we've been needing a new vacuum for quite a while now. We got one from my parents a couple Christmas' ago but the last few months of its life we'd have to unclog it every time we used it, yuck. Thanks sweetie!

I think the best present of all was my parents taking the boys home for the night. You'd think I'd want to spend time with my kids while celebrating being a mother but they have seriously been trying our patience lately, moreso than ever before. It was such a great relief to have a night to ourselves, plus the boys absolutely love going to my parents house. Thanks mom and dad!

We have a corner in our backyard that the previous owners used as a garden but I don't think we'll do such a large garden, especially since we've never planted anything before and have no ideas what we're doing, so I bought some flower seeds to take up some of the room. The boys and I went to Walmart to get some little shovels and they were thrilled to put them to use! They are such boys! They like being dirty, playing with rocks, climbing up everything, and riding their bikes- I am so glad it's finally warm enough to do all those things outside of my house! Well, the flowers haven't quite been planted yet but I've got my fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Question for all you grandma's (and probably some moms out there, too)-

WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU FIND CUTE ABOUT THESE?!?

We met my mom shopping the other day and while I was shopping with my sister my mom said she was going to take the boys for a walk....and then they came back wearing these! Not only are they "crocs" which I despise but they're bright red cars! And it's not like I could have taken them back, you should have seen the huge grins on those boys' faces, they were in love! My mom loves things like this, or maybe not specifically these items but maybe just how much the boys love them. I didn't think much about it until later at dinner. We went out with my parents and a few of their friends and the two other ladies just raved about these shoes saying how they were so excited to go byu them for their own grandkids! I couldn't believe it, it's got to be a grandma thing, I guess. Oh well, easy clean and they don't make marks on my floors.

Another Project

I was going to type out the entire process for completing this project, then thought that would be pretty boring. I'll summarize. It's a touch-screen computer built into the boys' wall. We intend for it to serve a few purposes. First, they play a game on sesamestreet.com where they help Elmo design a hat. They love it. They've also played with Paint and done some online coloring pages. Last night they were being whiny at bedtime and so we turned on a youtube video of a guy playing classical music on the piano. And when it's idle, it uses the standard Windows XP slideshow screensaver so they get to look at family pictures. I was concerned about the brightness, but that's adjustable; also because it's got an overlay for the touchscreen feature, the monitor is dimmer than most. So it glows... but barely. In a lighted room you'd have a hard time telling it apart from a standard picture frame. The shelf above the screen has the speakers on it. Not wireless-- I just punched a small hole in the wall at the base of the shelf and ran the wires back behind the wall before mounting the screen in.

But the possibilities are endless. Intercom, webcam, teaching/training videos (sign language, Discovery Channel, etc.), movies at naptime... all just a few thoughts.

Nick's Yellowstone Pictures

More Yellowstone Pictures

Quick Trip to Yellowstone

Last Sunday we took a drive with my parents to Yellowstone to spend the day. Even with all the snow they still have it was a beautiful day, as you can see the boys enjoyed their first day wearing shorts! And with shorts comes scratched up knees...like Owens, OUCH! We drove up to Old Faithful Geiser, it's the only road open right now, and got to see quite a few animals out enjoying the day, as well. It was a great day and we can't wait for summer to fully get here for more fun outside...finally!