Being a mom to boys

As I reached for a cool drink on this hot 104 degree day, I found...

Yes, a Transformer in my refrigerator. Nice.

Not much to talk about

This has been a very looong and trying week. Mike was away on a business trip Tuesday-Friday and unfortunately the boys and I got sick with a stomach bug. One of the worst stomach bugs I've ever encountered. Talk about cruel timing. We are so lucky to have a caring and loving family though. My sis Shelley and my parents came to our rescue and helped us out - THANK YOU so much guys! I was pretty incapacitated Friday morning and could not have taken care of the boys without you guys. Aunt Mandy-you are so lucky that you got to miss out on this fun! ;)

Mike is home now and the boys and I are slowly recovering from the virus. So, like I said, not much to talk about over here! Hopefully this week will be much better.

Building the Playground set

A month or so ago we were given an old wooden playground set that the previous owner's kids had outgrown. It was about 6-7 years old, so it was really weathered and needed some TLC. So my dad (Grandpa Rich) and Mike decided that they would start the project to rebuild it. Grandpa Rich took the base of the fort portion back to his house to start. He has been working really hard on it, and actually had to end up replacing and rebuilding most of the entire base of the fort. He wanted to make sure that it was nice and steady for the grandkids!! Mike is working on sanding and staining the other pieces that didn't need replaced. Today Grandpa Rich and Grandma Penny came over to deliver the base or "fort" part of the playset. They brought it over in pieces so that it would fit through our gate.

Here is a picture of them putting it together:

And here is the final product, well not really final, but the base at least. Once Mike gets the other parts sanded and stained we'll put the rest of it together.

Here are all the pieces that Mike is working on. It will have a slide, rock wall and 3 swings.


It looks great and makes me eager to get the rest of it put together. I know that the boys will have endless hours of playtime on it!

What were the boys doing while everyone else was busy? Swimming of course!


Dad & Mom (Grandpa Rich & Grandma Penny) - thanks again for all of your hard work rebuilding this playset!!! We really appreciate it and can't wait to use it!

Fourth of July weekend

We had a great Fourth of July weekend. Nothing too exciting, but relaxing nonetheless. On Friday we picked out and bought new tile for all of our bathrooms. The boys even helped and they choose the same tile we liked! Mike and his dad will be installing soon hopefully!
Saturday Mike played with the boys while I worked. Then when I got home Mike filled up their little baby pool and we took them swimming. Collin absolutely loved it and hasn't stopped talking about "swim" since! Brendan wasn't too thrilled about it on Saturday but he warmed up to the idea by Sunday. Now they are both little fish. We let them swim for about an hour or so on Sunday and then they took a 3 hour nap...which is history-making for us. So I think I may have to take them swimming every morning to get a good nap out of them! :D

Here are a few pics of them enjoying the pool.


Collin drying off

And here is a video of the boys when they first got in the pool. The water was still a little cold so they were just jumping around and not sitting/swimming much. (I don't know how to turn this video around, so I guess you have to watch it sideways!!)

Babies and Birthdays!

Whew, it's been a busy few weeks! Add to the fact we had some interruption of our internet service (switched to Verizon FiOS) and it's been nearly two weeks since I've posted!

First, on Friday June 20th my best friend Amie welcomed her sweet little baby girl, Lyla into the world. They are both doing wonderfully and big brother Sam is in love with his little sister! She is so small and cuddly. I forgot how tiny a newborn is!! Doesn't Amie just look too good here for just having given birth??!

This is Sam meeting Lyla for the first time, it was a really touching moment.


Last week was full of birthdays. Mike's birthday was on Friday. He was able to leave work a couple of hours early and we took the boys to "Going Bonkers" (www.goingbonkers.com)
They *love* that place! They had so much fun climbing up high and going down huge slides. I even climbed up there with them! Although it was a little too warm for my taste! :D We put the boys to bed and my sister Shelley "babysat" for us so that we could go out to a dinner alone! We went for sushi and it was delicious and nice to have a quiet dinner!!
Here is Mike with the boys on his birthday. Brendan didn't want to cooperate with getting his picture taken.


My dad's birthday was the next day, Saturday. My sisters and I took him to breakfast on Sunday and we had a nice time. It's always good to get together with the family! But of course I forgot my camera. Dad is coming over tomorrow to work on our playground project so I'll try to snap some then!

Lastly, just some cute random shots of the boys!
This is Brendan...look at that full mouth of teeth. And, um yes, he is wearing rings as bracelets!

Here is Collin also showing his pearly whites!