Alex's Tongue

For most of you out there, this should be no big surprise, but Alex just about bit a chunk out of his tongue last night. Shawn and Alex were rough housing last night on the floor and Alex ran into Shawn's knee. He screamed and cried a bit, but we couldn't find anything wrong. Later on in the evening he stuck out his tongue and we saw that he had bitten a big chunk out of his tongue! OUCH! So, here it is. Gross! Poor guy...there really isn't much you can do about it. Shawn is going to pick up some Oral gel today and that hopefully should help.

Can't Wait to Blog!

Well, here I am! I have been gone for way too long! It sounds crazy, but I really miss blogging. It's a great way to express yourself and process / remember the things that happen on a daily basis. Before I can really dive back into my happy blogging world, I need to unpack from our big trip and clean up for Shawn's family to come this week. The picture below is of just part of the mess I need to clean up and put up. I really need to get it done by tomorrow before the carpet cleaning people come to clean our disgusting carpets.

Wish me luck! :)

Thursday Night Fun!

Well it's Thursday night, and in the Crull household, that means Mommy and boys' time! :) On Thursday's Shawn stays at school to work and then goes to Young Life in Westfield. It is nice to have a night with just the boys. Tonight we went Shopping for a birthday present and then came home and ate dinner. Alex was being silly and dancing to our new HSM3 CD (yes, it's for the "boys" ;) and I was videoing him. Check it out on my Facebook page. :) Alex is also my little budding photographer. He loves to take pictures with our digital camera. If we could just get him to keep his fingers out from in front of the lens, his pictures would be really good! :) Here's some cute pictures from tonight.Doesn't it look like my head has been superimposed onto someone else's body? :)

This struck me as funny...

Tonight as the boys were taking a shower (and I was trying to clean up / messing around on the computer :-), I heard this loud banging noise coming from the bathroom. I went into the bathroom and the boys were throwing their plastic alligator up against the wall of the shower. I very loudly asked them, "What do you think you are doing?" And they replied, "We are trying to get our dinosaur out of the alligator's tummy!" So, I looked inside its hollow mouth and body and saw the dino wedged inside the alligator. It actually was kinda cool, because you could feel the dino body inside the alligator body. It took some banging and eventually some tweezers, and Super Mommy was able to dislodge the poor dino out of the pit of the alligator's tummy!

If you know Alex, you know he is a little absent minded. This is a picture I took of him on morning after he had gone potty. He did remember to wash his hands, but he didn't think to pull up his underwear and jammies! He has just now started constantly coming out of the potty with his cloths on. In the past, he would just run out without anything on bottom, and continue going about his business like nothing was wrong!

This lovely project is what Alex brought home from school today. In case you can't tell, it is a squirrel. I don't know what kind of "fur" is on the thing, but it looks a lot like a bunch of Brillo pads or someone shaved their cat and brought in the fur for this project. None the less, he was proud of his handy work! :)

Notice the lovely bangs and eyebrows! Maybe it's just me, but I think Alex had some help on this masterpiece.

The boys and their loot!

Brannon

This week Brannon and I had another interesting conversation. The older he gets, the more interesting our conversations are. I was getting ready for school and I wasn't finished getting dressed yet. Here's how our conversation went:

Brannon: What are those spots on your tummy?
Me: There called stretch marks.
Brannon: How did they get there?
Me: Well, when you were in my tummy, you were so big that the skin on my tummy had to stretch.
Brannon: I wish you didn't have those spots.
Me: Well, they don't bother me.
Brannon: I wish God would take those spots off your tummy.
Me: Well, a lot of mommies have spots like this.
Brannon: I wish God would take away all the spots on all the mommies tummies.
...long silence...
Brannon: Miss Jill doesn't have those spots.

Don't know where that came from...;)

Alex

My mom told me something really funny that Alex did this week. She said that he came up to her and said, "Look Nana! Look what I can do!" He had one of his hands up turning it around (like when you're turning a doorknob). Then he said, "Look at this! I can do it with this hand too!" And he started doing the same turning motion with his other hand. Then...this is the kicker...he looked at his hands and then to Nana and says, "I am SOOO SMART!" :) I love my sweet boy!

Halloween 2008

Just like all kids, our boys have been looking forward to Halloween for awhile. I think this week was probably one of the longest weeks for Brannon (next to the week of Christmas and his birthday!). Brannon kept changing his mind again and again about what he wanted to be for Halloween. But he finally settles on Optimus Prime (from transformers). Alex wanted to be Spiderman, but we (Nana and PaPaw) couldn't find one with muscles, so he was Ironman...the next best thing. :)

Friday dawned with so much antisipation and excitement! And boy did God bless us with a beautiful day (which I guess is weird to say since I'm talking about Halloween)! Brannon had silly sock day at school on Friday since it was S week, and both boys brought special Hallween snacks to their classes. My mom picked both boys up and brought them to my school for the festivities. You have to understand the school I teach at. Every holiday is a BIG deal, ESPECIALLY Halloween! We start at 2:15 with a Halloween parade. All the kids bring their costumes to school, change into them, and then "parade" around the parking lot in them while all the parents stand around taking lots of pictures and video. Then we come in and have class parties until we leave at 3:30. It's great fun, and the boys always enjoy it. Once school was out, we made our way to my dad's office for their Halloween festivities. At his office different departments had decorated their office areas and the kids could walk around and get candy. After dad's office, we went back home and met our friend's Dave and Jennifer, and their son Jacob, and went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Then we made our way to my parent's house and tried to go trick-or-treating there, but the boys were done and we only made it to one house! :) Brannon said that he thought that the mom and dad's should go up to the house to get candy and let the kids stand and wait for them. We told him that's not how it works. :)

What a great day! Needless to say the boys, and mommy and daddy, were all tired! And this morning, we woke up and took fall pictures...the new candy came in handy to bribe little boys to smile...more on this when I get the pictures from my mom. :)

Here are the boys in my classroom.

My grade level dressed up in sports related things. I dressed up as a "fanatic fan". I had a lot to choose from in Shawn's closet! :) Most of the day I dressed in my crazy Halloween outfit. Halloween is my favorite day to dress crazy. Every year I add something to perfect my crazy Halloween outfit. This year I got some cool striped socks and a little witch's hat that clipped into my hair. My kids in my class kept calling me a little witch.

Here the boys are at my dad's office. Big surprise, the boys fell asleep in the car. Brannon's sleeping pose is especially funny!

It was amazing how many people called Brannon a Power Ranger. People with boys our's age called him Optimus Prime.

Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

Brannon, Alex and Jacob (aka Tony Stewart)

The Crull's and the Presser's
:)

Bad Names

Tonight Brannon told me something funny. It went like this:

Brannon: Mom, Jackson called me a bad name today!
Me: Really? What did he say?
Brannon: He called me a food!
Me: A food? What do you mean?
Brannon: He called me chicken!

My mom was in the same room and we just busted up laughing! :)

Spitting Image

My mom and dad just got back from Gatlinburg tonight and stopped by so that we could see them. They also brought back goodies for the boy (those poor boys are so unloved!;). Here is a picture of two of the things they brought back for them; a cool blowup spider decoration and PaPaw shirts. They were so proud of the shirts that they had to put them on tonight after they got them. I don't know which picture goes better with the saying on the shirt, the first picture or the second? ;)

We love you Dad/PaPaw!!!

Bat's at the Children's Museum

On Thursday, Shawn, the boys and our friend Jennifer and her son Jacob went to the Children's Museum. Despite the crowds, we had a really good time. The highlight for me personally was a bat program we were able to see. I had read about it in the museum magazine this summer, and I wanted to make sure and go and see it. No, I'm not a complete weirdo, but I do a big bat unit with my class every year, and I thought that it would be really cool to see real bats up close! I also thought that the boys would think it was cool too. I couldn't believe how close we were able to get to the bats! They brought 2 small bats (a dog face bat and I believe a little brown bat...yes that is their real names...and yes the latter can be found in Indiana) and 2 big bats. For those of you who know and love the book Stellaluna, they brought a fruit bat that is just like the one from the book (it is the bat in the last picture...isn't it SO cute!!!...ok, maybe I am a bit odd ;). The other bat they brought is the largest kind of bat that I believe is called a Malaysian fruit bat. If you are interested in seeing pictures of this bat, check out my class blog. I didn't want to gross people out. :)



As always, we also spent awhile in the superhero exhibit. This time it was really cool, because a real cartoonist was there drawing pictures of Superheros for the kids. Brannon thought it was cool because he drew a Spiderman for him and he was able to color it there with their special oil crayons. Brannon really watched and listened to him as he drew the pictures and tried to go back to the table and draw a picture using his techniques. We think that he is going to be our artist. :)

Upward Soccer Awards Night

Well, a couple of weeks ago Upward Soccer ended. I can't say that I miss it. Brannon really wasn't into it at all, and it has been so nice to be able to sleep in on Saturdays! Here are some pictures from the awards night. Brannon did have fun at practice, but for some reason he just didn't like the games. He did get a really cool duffel bag!

Brannon's Drawings

Here are some more of Brannon's drawings. I am always so impressed by what he comes up with. The one on the top left he drew for Simon. He said that it was Simon, Anna, his mom and dad, and him. For some reason he is into drawing belly buttons. :) I'm sure that has some meaning behind it. The top right picture is of him and Alex. :) On the bottom left, he drew Cookie Monster. I later had him go back and put arms on poor Cookie Monster...how could he eat his cookies without arms! ;) The picture on the bottom right corner is of Batman. :)

Alex and the Firefighters

A few weekends ago, the big fire station in New Palestine had a big community open house day. We were all suppose to go, but Brannon got really whiney and had to stay at home with Shawn. So I got to have a nice little outing with just Alex. We were able to get into the fire trucks, play "firefighter", see a helicopter, pet some rescue dogs, eat some popcorn and candy, and do a lot of other kiddie things. We had a nice time, but we decided that we would have rather done it all with Brannon and Daddy. Alex just kinda wondered from one place to the another, and was really lost without his big brother. This happens a lot with Alex. He really needs his big brother to direct him and help him know what to do a lot of times.

It was a beautiful day, and he let me take some cute pictures! :)

Brannon's Field Trip to Tuttles

Brannon's birthday week was a big week for him. Monday was picture day and parent's open house, Tuesday was his field trip to Tuttle's, and Thursday was his birthday, show and tell AND Bookmobile (this was a big deal to him) day! As a kid, when you have your birthday, it makes it all the more special and exciting when there is a lot going on the week of your birthday! It's like it was all planned just because it was your birthday week! :)

Well, I am finally getting the pictures I took from Brannon's field trip on the blog. Hopefully his birthday party pictures (and Shawn's...from August) will make their way onto the blog soon too! ;)

Here are some group pictures of the kids in his class. The boy in the blue jacket is Peyton that he talks about a lot.

These are his buddies in class. I think the little girl in the red coat is SO cute! They were all sweet kids! I'm not sure what the big deal was about sticking their tongues out...must be a 4/5 year old thing! ;)

Here's Brannon picking his apples and pumpkin. After going to Tuttle's twice with 2 different classes, we have lots of apples and pumpkins around our house! Tis the season!

What would a trip to Tuttle's be without jumping in the hay?!

Brannon is our little gymnast / monkey! He has perfected the monkey bars, and loves to flip, climb and swing on anything!

Here are some pictures of me and my big 5 year old! I can't believe he is already 5!!! I realy had a nice time with Brannon. I always enjoy watching him interact with the other kids. He was so sweet, because a couple of times he called me over to different places so that just the two of us could play together. I love my big boy! I hope and pray that we always stay close. We have always spent time in bed right before he goes to sleep just talking about any and everything. I hope that never changes, and that the time I spend with him now will build a foundation of trust that will continue on through the teenage years (that I am terrified of!) and adulthood.

And they're off...
This is Brannon and his friend Nate on the bus waiting to leave to go back to school. Big surprise...they are sticking their tongues out! :P

Alex's Field Trip to Tuttles

Today I went on a field trip with Alex and his Mom's Day Out class. They went to Tuttle's to pick a pumpkin and apples. The weather was wonderful and we had a great time! Here are some pictures from today.

Here's Alex picking his pumpkin. He took a long time to pick his pumpkin because he said that he needed a small one. When he found his treasured small pumpkin he raised his hand and waited for someone to come and cut it off for him. He was so proud of himself!

After we picked our pumpkin, we got to pick apples. We both got to pick 3 apples.

They told us that at the end of May when we had the tornados in the area, the hail destroyed / damaged over 90% of Tuttle's apple crop. Almost all of the apples had what looked like insect or worm "damage", but it was actually from the hail in the spring. This is a picture of some of the apples.

Alex was so cute carrying his little sack of apples!

After all the pumpkin and apple picking, it was time for a nice picnic lunch.

After lunch Alex had a ball playing in the big hay stack. He would climb to the top and jump into the pile of hay. Unfortunately he began to cough a lot while he was playing in the hay, so I am thinking he may be allergic to it.

Here we are at the end of our fun trip. Alex was so good to let me take pictures of him. The last picture is of Alex looking at a girl in his class named Ella. She is so cute, and a really sweet little girl. He talked about her a couple of times during the day. When we were picking apples he said, "I need to pick an apple for Ella." What a sweet boy!

I get to do this all over again next week with Brannon and his class!