Thanksgiving and Carter's Bday celebration(s)

The night before Thanksgiving I was busy in the kitchen peeling potatos and what-not. The kids wanted to watch a movie, but we have a rule that they can't watch cartoons if their rooms aren't clean (well... pretty clean). Carter asked me what he needs to do in his room. Well, since I don't have photographic memory of the mess in there, I trusted him with my camera to go upstairs and take a picture of their room so I could then give out their cleaning assignments. (Plus, I knew giving him this responsibility would keep him busy for another 5 minutes!) So... here's what he came back with:


And, he even was thoughtful enough to take one of the mess in their closet, that HE says Lylah made. lol


My mom spoiling Reno. (Which by the way.... gave him HORRIBLE skunk-like gas!)










Zach attempting to put together Optimus Prime masks! (They all got thrown away!) side-note- this is the fakest smile I've ever seen him have! LOVE YOU BABY!


This cheap track! What a waste of $50! It's already broken! I have to try to get out my handy-dandy superglue and fix it. At least he had fun with it while it lasted.


He loves his bug-farm thing and having his own radio!










He also loves reading - his GIJoe's, and Transformers! (it's funny because these are the toys Zach played with as a little boy too!)




Lylah was being a drama-queen because she didn't have any presents!


So, we threw a couple of her dolls in a bag with some tissue paper and let her open those! It made her happy!











Carter's 'Day before his birthday Birthday Pie'. I love his little smile when he's getting embarassed!










Reno drueling - just waiting for a crumb to drop! See the bubble!

My flower-pumpkin centerpiece. Who knew it was going to take $15 in flowers to fill it up!


Later that night...

Zach worked Wed. from 4am-7:30pm and then Thurs morning fm 5:30am-10. He was a tired Daddy!


Happy Birthday Carter! (his real birthday!)

Again with his embarassed smile while we sang Happy Birthday!











Needless to say- he was the only one that ate this cake! lol

Children's Museum

These are from the Children's Museum on November 14th. Zach got off work early, so we finally all got to go together!





This area was so fun! It was all about animations and how they work. Zach and I had just as much fun playing around with everything!





My picture was better, but of course Zach didn't take a picture of it! ;)


The Batmobile! This was actually one of the ones used in Dark Knight. Pretty cool.


SuperGirl with her sidekick, SuperMom!


Nathan loves racecars!


- Some pics from Thanksgiving and Carter's Birthday party next! I'm catching up!

Halloween pics- better late than never!

I know I know...

Pictures from Zoo-Boo:






Lylah loved jumping in this- and was actually talking about it a few nights ago...almost two months afterward!


BUMBLEBEE

I mean... Nathan!


OPTIMUS PRIME

Or is it... Carter!



POOH

Lylah-Bear


Pictures from Trunk-Or-Treat at Church!



Yes... my shoes are off- I used Lylah as my excuse to get in there and play too!!

Zoo and Pumpkin Patch pictures

With the beautiful weather we've been having- I took the kids to the Zoo a couple times in October.
The first few pictures are from the second week in Oct. The walrus pup LOVED Mya! He played with her for a good 5 minutes- following her around the glass!
She even gave him a kiss!





Here's one of Carter, Nathan, and Mya. This day Nathan kept trying to smile like Carter usually does, even though I told him how much I love HIS own smile... (even if he does look confused sometimes...lol!)

We had fun at the pumpkin patch. We went with my bro-in-law and nephews.


This picture was totally staged after Zach threw an already selected pumpkin back into the patch so the boys and I could hunt it back out and he could get a picture that included me hunting for pumpkins too! lol

...and wouldn't you know it, Zach actually takes good pictures when he has the camera!

Okay, so that's all for now! I'll try to get my Halloween pictures posted soon.

spiders, spiders, and spiders... oh my

I know it's been almost a complete month since I've posted anything- sorry about that- things get kind of busy sometimes- I get a little lazy- but I'm getting back on track. =)
Anyway- so it being said that I know it's been a while since I've posted- it seems silly to start off November with such a silly post about spiders! But- I do have to say I was very curious with the arachnids I've discovered in my house over the past few weeks. (not to mention I need to remember to spray around the outside of the house before more make it in!)

So- the first picture is of a spider I discovered one afternoon while I was sitting at the computer. If you know me, you know that I DO NOT kill things (besides mosquitos and fleas), so the first thought that came to my mind when I saw him was to grab my camera! I got a few pretty good pics- (ignore the dirty floor... lol) but as I was blowing on him to get him to turn around- he ran off behind the fridge.

He was missing for a few days before he re-appeared and I caught him then set him free outside. After doing some researching, I found he is a member of the Lycosa Tarantula family. Awesome right?! (okay- yes... I'm weird!)


Then... later that night I found a common wolf spider. Carter and I caught him and set him free too. (He was much faster!)


After reading up on wolf spiders, I learned where there is one, there is usually another. The males go out in search of the females. So, the males are usually the ones seen. And... sure enough, I found the female... with my hand... under the kitchen sink a few days later. She too was caught and set free outside, where I got some awesome pictures of her pooping! lol (I bet you never thought about a spider pooping before huh?!)

In the following picture is where you can see her defecation. Just above and a bit behind her right hind leg there is a little round white speck with black spots- looking to float in her web. Yep... now you've seen spider poop. =) You're welcome.




Note: No spiders were harmed in documentation of Dana's curiosity.
hehe

I promise a blog with updates of the kids is coming next!

Nathan's trip to the ER

Don't worry... he's okay! Here's the story:

Last night after putting the boys down for bed I stayed upstairs for a bit because I had some laundry to do. While I was doing laundry the boys were winding down in bed. Before I went downstairs, there was hardly any more chatter from their room. Not more than 5 minutes after coming down, I heard the scariest crash and scream in my life! As my heart fell to my stomach, I knew what had just happened and got upstairs in record speed!

There was Nathan laying on top of a toy tool bench that sits at the foot of their bunk beds. Carter was sitting on his top bunk with a look on his face like a deer in headlights. I guess Nathan had been sitting on the top bunk on a couple of pillows that were stacked up at the foot of the bed... right before he fell off.

He had a great landing... on his head and face- right on the tool bench. It wasn't put together- just sitting on the floor, but I'm sure his pain level wouldn't have been any less had the bench been put together.

As with many parents, my first instinct was to snap at him, "WHAT WERE YOU DOING UP THERE?! THIS IS WHY YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED UP THERE!!" Then I scooped him up and did a thorough check on what was hurt! The most obvious was the huge bruise and swelling developing on the side of his face. He also had a small cut on his ear (which too was swelling and already bruising), and a few large bumps on his head. I immediately called our pediatrician. She recommended taking him to the ER for a cat-scan.

Carter heard my conversation with the doctor and was upset I had to take Nathan to the hospital. I told him it was just to make sure he didn't hurt his head. -Now... this part it cute: Carter asked if the hospital was going to check that Nathan's brain didn't get hurt too. I told him yes. So, then he held up 3 fingers and asked Nathan "how many fingers am I holding up Nathan?" Nathan told him. Then, Carter held up 5 fingers and asked again. After Nathan told him, Carter informed me, "Yup, he's okay." LOL!

Luckily, my best friend Christy was able to come over to stay with Carter and Lylah, because Zach was at work. And, after a couple hours, the cat-scan (which, by the way, Nathan said sounded like a race-car), and 5 stickers for the brave patient, the doc came in to tell me everything was okay. Whew!

The bumps on his head have gone down a tone, and his face looks much better today. I took a few pics as a reminder to him of why not to be on the top bunk!


It was a good example to him that I'm not just trying to be mean with rules- they're
to keep him from getting hurt!