Flood

I don't know about you, but I was woken up about 4:00 this morning by rain that sounded like it was going to come through the ceiling! You know, the kind of rain that falls so hard that it sounds like it's going to break through your roof and rain on your face, or when it's raining on your window you wonder if it's going to break because of all the pounding! Usually it rains like this for maybe a minute straight, and then subsides. Well, last night it started raining like this and it lasted 30 - 45 min. straight without letting up! I knew with that much rain, our street was probably going to flood, and sure enough, when we got up it was! We haven't had flooding like this in a long time.

Here are some pictures of our street and Brannon looking at the water.

For those of you who may remember Labor Day 2003 (when I was VERY pregnant with Brannon) there was terrible flooding here and around the Geist / 96th Street area. That night, I remember it pouring nonstop ALL NIGHT. The next morning we woke up to water more than knee deep on our street. Thank the Lord, the water didn't make it all the way up to any one's house, but it was quite a sight! The neighbor kids went "swimming" in the street.

I'll have to find the pictures from then and post them. It was pretty crazy.

Easter Egg Hunt

Before we ate our DELICIOUS steaks that my dad grilled for us (I think that there are very few things that taste better at home than they do at a restaurant, and my dad's hamburgers, steaks and BBQ pork chops, hands down, are better than ANY you can get at ANY restaurant!!!) the boys have an Easter egg hunt. They had a fun time.

Notice the first and third pictures on the bottom row of pictures above. After the boys counted all their eggs, we realized that there was one more out in the yard to find. So Brannon and Alex went searching for it, with the understanding that no matter who found it, Alex gets it because Brannon had a lot more eggs than Alex. Well, as you can see from the pictures, Brannon found the last egg (first picture), and Alex was sad that he didn't find it first (third picture). I like the agony and ecstasy depicted in the boys faces in the third picture.

Here they are counting their eggs. Alex really isn't mad/sad in the picture of the boys by the tree. He was just doing his sad face for some bizarre reason...only Alex knows! It's a funny picture none - the - less!

Pictures at Nana and PaPaw's House

Here are some cute pictures of the boys before they changed into more comfortable attire! :)


I love the way Alex is looking at Brannon! He LOVES his big brother!
I'm not sure why Brannon is doing the "Captain Morgan" stance, but he sure was into posing today. He even was doing the, "one hand in the pocket and lean against the wall" pose.
What a poser! :)

I thought the pictures of all of us turn out really good!
We tried to pose Alex like Brannon, with his hand in his pocket and leaning on the wall, but he just couldn't quite get it!

Again, this is our Alex! He made this bunny hat at school on Friday, and he has been wearing it around, so we had to get a picture of him in it! To make him laugh, and not give us the creepy smile he has been doing for pictures lately, I was jumping up and down and "shaking my booty". And of course, Alex couldn't resist and started shaking his booty too, while singing "Shake your boooooty, Shake your booooty!" What a crazy kid! I love him!

After pictures, the boys got Easter gifts from Nana and PaPaw. They got the coolest dragon/knight/horse set. They LOVED them! Then the boys gave me the sweetest card with them saying, "Happy Easter! I love you!" and a cool new MercyMe CD. The boys gave Nana and PaPaw an Easter craft that we started over spring break (more pictures to come on that). Notice the white bag. Brannon did a really good job writing on it and then drew a picture of Nana and PaPaw. I love the way he drew PaPaw's hair!

Easter Morning

Here are the boys Easter morning.


Notice how Brannon nice and neatly lines his chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies (which are my favorite...next to the hallow Easter bunny you can bite his head and tail off of :-) and Alex just kind of throws them out. I am always amazed how they can be SO different!

We let them choose one Easter candy they could eat this morning. Brannon chose a big marshmallow bunny covered in sugar (kinda like a big squished peep). When we got to breakfast he said, "My tummies not feeling so good!" I wonder why? Alex on the other hand chose a small bag of Skittles. And what does my crazy little boy do? He puts them inside his breakfast that's what!

Both boys also got a superhero toy for Easter, because what says Easter more than superheros!

Brannon's working on the bag for Nana and PaPaw's gift. What sweet boys!

When we got to church, we dropped off Alex and saw one of his friends (Lucas) wearing the same outfit! It was so cute that I had to get my camera and take a picture of them. And of course we couldn't leave out the other cuties in his class! And of course Alex had to do that creepy smile again! This too will pass!

Shawn and I keep the 1 year olds during Sunday school, and since I had my camera, I had to take some pictures of our kiddos! The first little boy is SO cute. His name is Walker, and he has a mohawk! The next sweetheart is Micah, which we affectionatey call "smiley", because he is always smiling! The last cutie is Sam. I thought this was such a good picture of Sam in his cool sport's coat! I have taken care of most of the babes since their first day at church. This summer most of them will be turning 2!

AFV

OK...so we really like watching America's Funniest Videos (AFV). We don't watch it all that much, but when we do, we laugh so hard. So, I got to thinking about what videos we might have of the boys that could be good entries for AFV. Well, I came across 3 videos that I thought were cute and funny (Shawn didn't think they were that funny) and I uploaded them onto the site. I'm sure nothing will come of it, but I thought I would give it a shot. The 3 I uploaded are Disgruntled Duck, Kitty want to swim?, and Water Surprise. They are videos I already have on the blog, so you can check them out if you want. :)

While I was checking out the AFV site, I came across these 3 videos that I thought were really cute. Check them out!

Jam and Butter
Cat Bath
A VERY talkative 12 month old
Spaghetti in the Nose

Spring Break - Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Museum with some good friends. Needless to say, it was packed! The whole time we were there, the line to get tickets was out the door and halfway down the side of the building! It was CRAZY! Thank you Nana and PaPaw for our Children's Museum membership! The boys had fun, but I think our "on the go" week has caught up with Alex. He was a dazed and confused, winy mess most of the time. Poor Guy!

Here are some pictures from today's excursion!

Spring Break - Trip to the Zoo

On Wednesday, we went to the zoo with my friend Jennifer and her son Jacob. The boys had a great time seeing all the animals. Brannon LOVES sharks, and could have stayed and pet the sharks all day. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day, and most of the animals were out and about.

The boys LOVE lions! They were SO excited to see the "Mommy" lion up close! The rhino also came up close and personal as well!

The boys enjoyed the goats, and actually spent quite a while looking at the ravens, vultures and bald eagle. For some reason they are really into picking things that are "them". Like they would look at the birds and yell out, "That one's me!" and "You are that one!" And of course this always leads to an argument if someone picks the same animal as someone else has picked as "them". That's what Brannon and Jacob are pointing at...which bird they are.

Our mighty little men!

Alex couldn't wait to see the elephants. I just wish he would have smiled for the picture. :)

After we life the zoo, we all went over to the Extreme Home Makeup site again. I was smart this time, and brought their Leapsters. They lasted all of 5 mins., and then they went back to running around and getting dirt and grass stains all over their pants! Oh well...I tried, and they looked cute sitting for a while.

Shawn got the chance to volunteer on Wednesday. He was so excited! He went to Brownsburg with a group to pick up all the trim for the house and library. The trim is in the Mayflower truck, and he is in the car driving behind it. He then got to walk on the street in front of the spectator area, where we were. The boys thought it was so cool to see their Daddy! Later in the evening he helped paint some of the houses they are cleaning up in the neighborhood.

After going to the zoo, visiting the building site, and staying up late the night before (we had a movie night and camped out downstairs), the boys were DONE! Brannon completely lost his mind on the way home, so they were both washed, fed, and in bed by 7:45!

Spring Break - Extreme Monday

On Monday, (after I switched our dish service so that we can now use our HD TV...it is SO awesome! :) the boys and I went to the Children's Museum for a couple of hours and then to the Extreme Home Makeover site. For those of you who are not from around here, Extreme Home Makeover is building a house here this week, and it is going to be their season finale. They have teamed up with Estridge Homes and they are building a house, a library and totally revitalizing a whole neighborhood in the "not so good" part of Indy. Another cool thing is that one of our friends, Scott, is a prominent person at Estridge and has been one of the main people spear heading the whole Extreme Makeover thing. Scott has been working SO hard on all of this since last summer / fall. Shawn also knows Paul Estridge, the owner, from YoungLife in Westfield, where he and his wife are apart of the support team. Estridge is lead by some awesome christian men and women, and I know Scott has really been hoping and praying that through this experience, the Lord will be glorified and that the message of Christ and his love will be spread.

We had to park and ride a school bus to the building site. The boys were SO excited to be able to ride in a school bus. Brannon said, "Mom...I feel like a big kindergartner!...No, a TEENAGER!" This was also the first time they had ridden in a vehicle and not had to be strapped down. So, needless to say, they were all over the place in their seats!

Here we are walking to the building site. Alex is a man on a mission! His mission at this particular moment was to find baby dino eggs...which also go by the name of...rocks. Unfortunately, every time he would find, or drop, a dino egg, he would abruptly stop and bend over to examine it before he picked it up. This was quite frustrating for me and probably all the people walking behind us on the narrow sidewalk!

Here are the boys "trying" to stay out of trouble while Mommy watches in awe of the building being built right in front of her eyes! By the end of the time we were there, the boys were covered in dirt and grass stains! I was kicking myself for leaving their Leapsters in the car!

Here are some of the "famous" people I saw. The top two pictures are of Ed with Paul Estridge. The middle two pictures are of Michael (filming a scene for the show over and over again) and Greg Ballard (the mayor of Indianapolis). The bottom two pictures are of Paige. It was pretty cool!

Here are some pictures of the building and the Comer's. Scott Comer is our friend who works for Estridge.

Belated Valentine's Day Funnies

Here are some funny pictures of the boys and their Valentine's Day swords. They were so funny posing with their swords and trying to look all big and tough! :) The boys also got a box of chocolates from Nana and PaPaw. On Sunday after Valentine's Day, we picked up Long John Silvers after church. After the boys had eaten lunch and had gone down for their naps, I found Alex's box of chocolates covered in the "crunchies" from Long John Silvers. When he got up I asked him why he did it, and he said because it is yummy! I think it is a recipe for a heart attack!

First Day of Spring Break

Our spring break started last Friday, so we had two of our good friends over to play, Ben and Jacob. All the boys had a great time playing dinosaurs, superheros, and whatever else they could think up that required acting like a crazed animal. :) For lunch, I decided to fix a bunch of random things and put them on a platter. I stuck toothpicks in some of the food, so they had fun stabbing their food and eating it.

Sleepy Boys

For a couple of weeks, we let the boys sleep on the pull out couch in the loft on Friday night. This was fun for them, but bad for us because they woke each other up really early on Saturday morning. These are some cute pictures of them sleeping together.