Our Dino Life

Can I blog from my phone?

2009-11-22T16:16:00.004-05:00

So, I feel really guilty that I haven't really blogged in awhile. I have been posting the things that I would normally blog about on Facebook. I thought that I would see how easy it would be to post things on my blog via my phone. So, here I go... :)

Here are some cute pictures I took of the boys and our friend's kids in their jerseys today at church. I thought they turned out cute, even if it was taken with the camera on my phone.

Ok....so as you can tell, there are no cute pictures of 4 kids in their jerseys. Needless to say, the picture part of Blogger didn't work. :( I have the same philosophy as my friend Beth, every post should have a picture. Well, hopefully Blogger will get their act together and make an app. Everyone else has an app! :)

I'll keep ya posted. :)

The Line Up

2009-07-10T11:59:00.002-04:00

I don't know if it is a boy thing or just a young child thing, but my boys have always liked putting things in lines. Today, they put their "soldiers" all in a line. I'm not sure what war they were getting ready to fight, but they were lined up and ready! :) They kept on counting their lines.
Alex - "1,2,3,4,...11, 12, 14, 17, 16, 18, 17, 18, 11teen..."
Brannon - "...14, 16, .... 25, 26, 26, 26...what's next mom?"

Here's some pictures of the line up. :)

More to come!

2009-07-08T14:54:00.003-04:00

Ok, so it has been a LONG time since I have blogged, and it actually makes me sad! I really love to blog, but since school has been out, things have been a little crazy. I hope that this next week I will get on the ball and blog about what we have been doing this summer. Until then, here are some fun pictures of the boys.

Flood

2009-04-29T18:15:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-12T23:24:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-12T23:15:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-12T23:14:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-07T21:41:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-03T15:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-02T16:15:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-02T14:21:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-02T13:53:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-02T13:30:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-02T12:36:00.005-04:00

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.

Dino Finger

2009-03-28T19:40:00.002-04:00

One morning when Brannon was brushing his teeth, he looked down at his finger and saw this. Can you tell what it is? If you know our boys at all you will not be surprised that Brannon saw a dinosaur in the toothpaste on his finger! A t-rex dinosaur to be specific!

Cookie Islands

2009-03-28T19:38:00.002-04:00

About a month ago, my class was studying landforms. I brought in all kinds of candy, icing, and cookies so that the kids could make a cookie island that had some of the landforms on it that we had studied. It was a lot of fun, so I told the boys that they could also make cookie islands. So, on Friday of that week we turned off the TV, spread out all of our "materials" and had island making family time. It was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from that evening.

Alex and his sword

2009-03-28T19:13:00.003-04:00

For Valentine's Day, Nana and PaPaw got the boys swords. You know, what says love like stabbing someone with a sword! :) The boys LOVE their swords! And of course, they HAVE to have a sheath to pull their mighty swords out of! Alex chooses to stick his sword down his pants and quickly pull it back out again like a real knight! It's pretty funny to see him try and get his sword down the leg of his pants, and then see the end of the sword sticking out of the bottom of his pants. :)

Here are some pictures of my strong, mighty, and silly knight!

What a cutie!

The Bonnie Hunt Show

2009-03-10T20:37:00.004-04:00

As many of you know, I have been really obsessed with The Bachelor this season. Yesterday on The Bonnie Hunt Show, she had Jason and Molly on it and REALLY grilled him. She definitely didn't take it easy on him, and she made a lot of subtle points that got her point across without being rude. On part 2 of the interview, she lets the cat out of the bag about who was suppose to be The Bachelorette. Watch Jason's face. Very interesting!

Monster Pillow

2009-02-03T22:41:00.002-05:00

For the last week Alex has refused to sleep on his pillow because he says that there are monsters in it. Ya, I know, where does he come up with this stuff? Until last night, he was sleeping without a pillow, and whenever his pillow would come anywhere close to him, he would say, "Hey...dat pillow gots monsters in it". Well, yesterday he had a horrible cough all day and couldn't even take a nap because he was coughing so much (Alex without a nap is a really bad thing...he talks NONSTOP - even more than normally and that is bad - and he is clueless about what's going on around him because he is so sleepy). Last night I was able to trick him into sleeping on a big pillow from our room so that he is propped up a little so he doesn't cough so much. Notice his pillow tucked under the big one. Sneaky mommy! ;)

Snow Days Part 1

2009-02-03T22:37:00.003-05:00

Last week in Indy we had a lot of snow! It was one of those winter weather systems that all the weather people were saying, "There is going to be significant snow coming", but initially they never really said what significant really meant (maybe they just didn't want to be wrong if it ended up being nothing more than an inch or two - this has happened many times before...very annoying to teachers and students hoping for at least a 2 hour delay!) On Monday into Tuesday they started making their predictions...6 - 8 inches, 4 - 6 inches, 8 - 12 inches...no one still seemed to know. Well, once it started snowing Tuesday evening, it didn't stop until it had significantly laid down 12+ inches of snow! Needless to say, the rural school district that I teach in closed down for 3 days straight. In those 3 days, the Crull's didn't do a lot, but they did go outside for some pretty fun and exciting wintry fun!

Here are some pictures from the many days we were home bound. :)

On Thursday my friend Jennifer and her son Jacob came over to play for awhile. They were all really into eating the snow this day. It wasn't like I didn't feed the darlings!

Snow Days Part 2

2009-02-03T22:36:00.003-05:00

No, we didn't shovel our driveway by hand. One of the first winters after we moved into our house, we went in with 5 or 6 neighbors to buy a snow blower. We all use it through out the winter. A lot of times the same person just goes around to each house and blows their driveways off for them. Thanks Tom! We have such great neighbors!

When you play in the snow you have to have a snowball fight! I think the bottom picture is the coolest of Shawn throwing a snowball at me.

Snow Days Part 3

2009-02-03T22:35:00.004-05:00

No, Shawn is not hurting the kids (obviously from the giddy grins on their faces they are having a blast!). The boys (including one of Brannon's friends from down the street named Logan) took turns letting Shawn throw them into the 12 inches of powdery soft snow. They look like they are being thrown a lot higher than they really are. Yes mom...I am really putting these pictures on the blog! ;)

Brannon has such long eyelashes that the snow is clumped and frozen on his lashes in the bottom right picture.

I don't know if anyone else's kids are like this, but our boys LOVE to be dragged around by their arms and lets. They always have since they were little. Maybe it could be because their crazy mom started doing it to them when they were little for fun and they just think it's normal? Who knows? :)

Crazy Weather Day!

2009-02-03T20:31:00.002-05:00

These are some pictures from our day. As many of you know, the weather man said this morning that we could have 1 - 2 inches of snow. Boy were they wrong! We had about 4 inches of snow that then blew and drifted all over the place! It was the weirdest weather, because when I dropped Brannon off at school this morning it was fine. Then within the 5 - 10 minutes I was in the building, it began to snow like crazy, almost a complete "white out"! It did this ALL DAY LONG! Then this afternoon after I left my school, and before I got to Washington Street, all of a sudden the clouds blew away, the sun came out, and there was a beautiful blue sky for as far as I could see.

So weird!

Here are some pictures of the snow on the way home from school. The picture of Shawn is of him at school dressed as Batman. They are having spirit week this week, and today was superhero day. Alex dressed himself in his own personal superhero creation..."Pirate Robin". And Brannon is just dressed in his Spiderman PJ's posing for me.

Can't wait to see what kind of weather we will have tomorrow! :)

Multiple Blessings

2009-01-31T13:17:00.005-05:00

Most of you probably know that I love the show Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC. I think I like it so much because their little ones are close to the same age/stage as Alex, and I see Alex doing a lot of the same things they do. There are also times when Shawn and I both see ourselves in the conversations, "discussions" (not arguments, just sometime heated discussions :-), and predicaments as Jon and Kate. And I'm sure that is why they have such a huge following.

ANYWAY I have just finished their book, Multiple Blessings. Shawn got it for me for Christmas. I read almost all of it on our trip home from Alabama, and didn't get to finish the last little bit until today. If you get a chance, it is a great book. I knew that they were believers, so it was really cool to read about how God has abundantly met all their needs. It is a great testament to the power of prayer and the way God can do great things in your life if you will just have faith in Him and his plan for you. He truly knows what's best. I hope she writes a follow-up book to this one, because it stops when the sextuplets are 3.

BTY Kate is going to be at the Home Show on Wednesday here in Indy, and I am itching to find a way to go during the day!

This is the next book that is coming out in April. It looks cool, and I will probably own it (I'm that crazy about this show), but it doesn't sound like it is going to be like Multiple Blessings. It sounds like it is going to be kinda "coffee table bookish", with lots of pictures, scripture and tips.

More to come...

2009-01-30T23:24:00.004-05:00

With 3 days off from school because of snow, I have actually started catching up on my blog. YEA!!!! I hope to be caught up soon! It is SO overwhelming when you have so much stuff you want to blog about, but not enough time to do it! I probably sound crazy, but someone has to know what I mean! :)

Bass Pro Shop

2009-01-30T22:55:00.005-05:00

Every year we either spend Christmas in Alabama with my family, or where ever Shawn's family is having Christmas. This year we were able to be in Alabama for Christmas. And since Christmas was on a Thursday, we spent a lot of time in Alabama for Christmas. We love visiting my grandparents and extended family, but there is only so much a 3 and 5 year can do for 5 days. Thank goodness it was so nice out, because they were able to play outside some. We also took the boys to the Bass Pro Shop that was about 45 minutes away. They had a blast! It was like they were at a museum or a zoo (except most of the animals were dead and stuffed instead of frolicking around).

Here are some pictures from our exciting outing over Christmas!

They were able to sit on Santa's lap (which neither one of them were too happy about...and neither was Santa...not a lot of personality from the man in red...no ho ho ho or anything). In true Bass Pro Shop fashion, they had play guns and bow and arrows to shoot. Brannon was actually really good at shooting. Poor city kids didn't get any help from their city slicker parents. It was actually pretty comical because all these camouflage clad kids would just go right up to the different rifle games and shot things left and right. Our kids (especially Alex) had no clue how to hold, let alone shoot, a rifle. Evidence of this is below. :( Poor Alex!

They also could write a letter to Santa and got Bass Pro Shop tattoos! Yahoo! I had the boys pose for me on the ATV's that we will never own (look at the price of that fun toy!). And of course, Alex chose the pink one! For those of you that don't know, Alex's favorite colors are pink and brown. It was also really funny (if you know Alex you will appreciate this :-) because Alex was completely amazed by the animal tracks through out the store. We would be walking and Alex would just belly flop on the floor next to some tracks and say, "Wook at dis Mommy! Twacks!" Oh how nice it would be to be three again and be god smacked by fake animal tracks. ;)

Craft Time

2009-01-30T22:40:00.004-05:00

Right before Christmas, I had the "brilliant idea" to have the boys paint some things for my family to give to them as a present. In true Rebecca fashion, I waited until right before we had to leave, about 8:00 at night, to start. :\ Well, lets just say that in the end the boys had a great time and we got one ornament out of the endeavor.

Here are some picture from out late night craft time.

This was the funniest thing! Alex was working so hard on his ornament. Shawn was helping out by holding it in the air for him to smear handfuls of glitter glue on, when all of a sudden the metal piece that was holding the string pulled out of the ornament. CRASH! The priceless piece of smeared glitter glue and marker art fell to the floor. Oh well! It is the thought that counts right?

I should have known better, but I gave each boy a paper plate with a huge puddle of glitter glue on it. My thought was that they would use their fingers to apply it gently to the porcelain ornament. No...not even close...they chose to literally pick it all up in one big handful and try and smear or pat it onto the ornament. As you can imagine, it didn't work out too great for them.

Fogo De Chao

2009-01-30T22:26:00.004-05:00

Again, awhile back, some of the couples in our small group went out for an evening on the town, sans kids! Dustin Sapp, one of our good friends, turned 30...ya, he's a young one. So his lovely wife arranged for a limo to pick us all up at their house and take us to Fogo De Chao downtown. If you have never heard of Fogo De Chao, it is a really cool restaurant where they have an all you can eat salad bar (I didn't partake in...except for the olives, bread and cheese :-) and meat. They have people that come around to your table with skewers of meat and they cut it right there for you. It was DELICIOUS! The funniest picture of the night was the picture on bottom of Kelly and Tony. Kelly, the non meat eater, and Tony, the "bring it on" meat eater.

We all had a great time!

Snow and Pockets

2009-01-30T22:15:00.004-05:00

There are so many funny and sweet things the boys say all the time. Like this afternoon Brannon said this, "Mom. If God made the snow, does it go back in his hands when it goes away?". Brannon is the thinker of the two. Alex on the other hand is the wild hare/hair (I can see it both ways...sometimes there is no controlling him). He is sweet and extremely loving, but I don't think he is going to be pondering the meaning of life anytime soon. :) A while back, he said the sweetest thing. It was really cold out, and Alex shoved his hands in his pockets and exclaimed, "Thank you God for pockets!"

Boots

2009-01-30T15:30:00.012-05:00

In the fall, I went to a kid's used clothing sale. I have gone quite a few times because I always get really good buys on cloths and other kid stuff. This last time I went I bought both boys a pair of snow boots. This is the best place to buy less used items like snow boots because they can be so expensive, and they don't wear them for very long. Brannon's boots were about $3 and are awesome! I got a really good deal on them. Alex's boots, at the time, were ok. They were only $1 or $2, and they looked fine for the occasional snow outing. I have let the boys wear their boots some when there was even the slightest amount of snow or ice. Unfortunately, Alex's boots almost immediately lost the top layer of plastic, and eventually tore off the tops of both boots. On Tuesday evening when they got home from school, they couldn't wait to play in the few inches of snow that we had at the time, so I bundled them up and we went outside for some snowy fun. Poor Alex, his boots would not stay on his feet, and they kept getting filled with snow. The next day, Wednesday, after we had our whopping 12 inches of snow, we all went out to play in the snow again, but this time we decided to duck tape Alex's shoe's to his feet. After having to do this a couple more times, I thought it was time to bite the bullet and actually buy him some more boots. Here are the pictures of the new and old boots.

The new and the old boots.

Shawn duck taping Alex's boots to his feet.

Our snow bunny with his dino face mask hat and duck taped boots. What a cool looking kid!

Daddy and Alex getting ready to go outside and play in the snow.

When I picked Alex up from school, I had his new boots in his seat. He was very excited, and we put them on right there in the parking lot. :)

This is what I see in the rear view mirror, on the way to pick up Brannon from school. What a sweet boy!

Proud boy and his new Boots!

Snow Day 2

2009-01-29T14:36:00.005-05:00

This afternoon I was trying to get two little boys to lay down and rest instead of taking a nap. They wanted to watch Narnia. The first 10 minutes of "rest time" looked like this. How nice and peaceful. :)

Then the rest of the time looked like this. Oh well...I tried! :\

2 boys - 2 naps = 0 patience when they are whiny tonight

Two little boys are going to be going to bed early tonight! :)

John 3:16

2009-01-29T14:23:00.006-05:00

At Brannon's school, they work on bible verse memorization. On day, a few weeks ago, he came home really excited to tell me his bible verse. This was really cool for 2 reasons, 1.) he never tells us the verses he has memorized (even though he has a sticker on his chart for it), and 2.) he had memorized John 3:16, the one verse every christian, young or old, knows and the verse that explains our faith.

We actually got him to do it for us so that we could get it on tape. He made a few mistakes, but it is priceless!

Smashed Potatoes

2009-01-10T21:31:00.004-05:00

Tonight Alex was excited because we had mashed potatoes, one of his favorite foods (next to chicken nuggets). Alex, being Alex, doesn't call them mashed potatoes, he calls them "smashed potatoes". I was thinking about that, and had a funny thought. Not only does he call mashed potatoes smashed potatoes, but they are instead potatoes and not the real thing anyway! :)

Brannon yesterday also said something funny about food. I asked him what he wanted for dinner, and he said, "Could you fix me the bread that is burn with the cheese in the middle?" Yep, that's my boy...and that is how I cook grilled cheese a lot of times. :)

Alex's Tongue

2008-12-28T10:12:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-12-28T10:00:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-11-13T20:59:00.007-05:00

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...

2008-11-05T19:53:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-01T19:36:00.004-04:00

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

2008-11-01T19:27:00.004-04:00

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

2008-11-01T18:20:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-27T18:59:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-26T23:20:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-25T22:58:00.006-04:00

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

2008-10-25T22:57:00.006-04:00

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

2008-10-25T22:57:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-25T22:56:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-25T22:52:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-01T14:24:00.007-04:00

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!

Air Show Pictures

2008-09-27T17:48:00.001-04:00

I stayed at my parent's house with the boys last night because Shawn and my dad went to a men's retreat together. Since I am here, I am able to post a lot of pictures that I hadn't been able to yet because they were taken by my mom on her camera. These are some of the really good pictures my mom took at the squelchering air show about a month ago. I believe it was in the 90's and we were all a sweaty mess! Can you tell? :)

Alex's Birthday Party Part 1

2008-09-27T16:01:00.002-04:00

Alright, so it is about a month and a half since Alex's birthday party, and I am just now getting around to posting pictures. I figured I probably should post them soon since it is almost Brannon's birthday! :) For Alex's 3rd birthday he had a Wall-e birthday party. He loves Wall-e...and Eve! We all had a fun time at his birthday, and we had a beautiful day too! It was a little on the warm side, but nice! All the kids got Wall-e masks to wear, and Alex also had a "Birthday Bot" pin.

Ok, so usually my ideas for the boys birthday party's go really well (no matter how crazy they are). This year, I guess I was off my game. If you have seen Wall-e, you know that he is left on Earth to clean up all the waste left behind by people. He rolls around, scoops trash, presses it together and then deposits a cube of trash. My idea for Alex's party was to have lots of boxes for them to stack and topple over. My boys did it a little before people starting coming, but no one else really seemed to be into it. They preferred to just play on the swing set. Oh well!

Our next activity was to make "space globes". I had put water, oil and food coloring in little Pepsi bottles and then let them put glittery confetti and stars into the bottle. Then I gave each child a sheet of Wall-e stickers to put on the outside of the bottle. SCORE! This activity was a real success! :)

Alex's Birthday Party Part 2

2008-09-27T15:46:00.003-04:00

Here are our adventures in food. I always like to find creative food things for the kids to do, but as always, they like making the stuff but don't really want to eat it when their done. :) That's ok, as long as they had fun!

At this station (doesn't that sound like a teacher) they were making faces. I gave each child a caramel rice cake with peanut butter on top (which I think is really yummy!), and they were to use the m&m's, raisins and peal and pull Twizzlers to make a face. They turned out really cute, but no one really ate them. Maybe they just didn't want to each someone's face?

They also made fruit kabobs using strawberries, bananas, grapes and apples. They really liked trying to skewer/stab the fruit. :) And Alex didn't even skewer his hand or poke himself, or anyone else, in the eye! ;)

This is Alex opening up his first present. It was from his big brother Brannon. With a little help from mom ;), Brannon got Alex a Backyardigains DVD. As you can tell, Alex was VERY proud of his new movie! Actually, for most of the summer Alex said that he wanted a Backyardigains birthday party. Brannon was never into the Backyardigains, but Alex LOVES them. His favorite character is Pablo. He has a Pablo Beanie Baby that he sleeps with at night. It is SO cute to listen to him talk about the Backyardigains. He is very quick to point out who everyone is!

Alex got 2 musical cards for his birthday. The cards are like gifts to him! :) Nana and PaPaw got him a really funny one with those silly bunnies chanting and cheering about ice cream and cake. We got him one with Kung Fu Panda on it that played, "Everybody was kung fu fighting". He has already broken the Kung Fu Panda one because he kept opening and closing it really fast and hard. It was SO funny this year with Alex and his cards. He was really good at getting them out and opening them before he opened the present. He would open then and "read", "Happy Birthday Alex", and then shut them really fast and put them to the side. :)

Alex's Birthday Party Part 3

2008-09-27T15:18:00.002-04:00

Here are all the kids lined up for a picture. Yes...it was crazy trying to get them all in the same place and looking the same direction!

"Happy Birthday to YOU..." This is Alex's favorite song to sing! :)

Alex's Birthday Party Part 4

2008-09-27T15:15:00.003-04:00

Here are our darlings diving into some seriously sweet cupcakes! :) Shawn and Alex went together to pick out his cake for the party. I was thinking of a Wall-e cake or cupcakes, but Alex looked through all the cakes in the big cake book and chose a smiley face cupcake cake. It's his party, but the controlling person in me wanted to say, "No...that doesn't go along with our theme!!!!". But I was good, and didn't say anything at all. Looking back, I love that he was able to pick whatever his little heart desired! ;)

Alex is trying to eat his ice cream with the fruit kabob skewers! Crazy Kid! :)

Alex's Birthday Party Part 5

2008-09-27T15:12:00.007-04:00

At the end of the party everyone sat around and did Alex's favorite thing...watch TV. :\ Actually, they weren't just watching anything, they were watching Alex's new Backyardigains DVD called The Mighty Knight. It has a dragon in it, which is right up both Alex and Brannon's alley.

I hope you don't mind Jill, but these pictures are SO cute! Alex has always loved Anna. Well really any little girl, even if they are strangers, Alex loves them. We tell him all the time that he needs to kiss on the cheek, not the lips. But God love him, he just can't help himself! He is really cute when he kiss, because he usually puts his little hands on the sides of your face and kisses you very gently. He LOVES to give kisses! We are going to really need to watch him when he gets older! ;) This is the picture of Alex and Anna at his party last year. He had style even then! ;)

Paleontologist

2008-09-20T15:03:00.003-04:00

This is a conversation Brannon had with me last Sunday. :)

What did he say?

2008-09-20T14:55:00.003-04:00

Last night Alex found a postcard with Sleeping Beauty on it. He wouldn't believe us that it was Sleeping Beauty. What do you expect, he's a boy. To him all princesses are the same. Now if it were a dinosaur, you better get the name right! :)

Can you tell what princess he thought it was?

Brannon's Drawings

2008-09-20T14:51:00.001-04:00

Here are two pictures that Brannon drew recently. The one on the left he said is Jesus. I love his drawings! He is finally adding bodies to the heads he has been drawing for the last couple of years...yes years. I was so impressed when he started drawing these really good heads and faces when he was 3, but he hadn't really gotten passed drawing heads since then. Now, all of a sudden he is drawing bodies and hands and toes and legs and arm! The picture on the right is the very first whole body picture he drew. Now, they have evolved into bodies with really big belly buttons. :)

Joseph and his coat of many colors

2008-09-20T14:24:00.000-04:00

Can you tell what Alex's bible story was this week? :) They talked about Joseph and his coat of many colors and made a cool coat for themselves. This is Alex and his humongous coat! Isn't he so proud!

Laptop

2008-09-20T14:07:00.003-04:00

I am so EXCITED! We have had a laptop for a couple of years. It never has been our main computer, but it was nice to have around. We both called it our mistress because we would get engrossed in something on the internet on the laptop when we should have been doing something with the boys...you know how it is. It had one of those external internet cards that sticks out the side, and about a year and a half ago Alex knocked it off the table and broke the internet card in half. I know, big surprise that Alex ran into something! ;) Well, about a year ago Shawn bought a new internet card for the laptop, but he never could get it to work. Well, last night I was messing around with the laptop and decided that I was going to try and get the card to work. I don't know what I did, but I got it working!!! I am SO excited, because now I can use Picasa!!! Since we have a Mac, we can't use Picasa because they don't have a Mac version yet (they are suppose to be coming out with a Mac version at the end of the year...I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!). On the Mac, you have to use IPhoto, and I think that there is no comparisons between Picasa and IPhoto. Picasa is much better and much much easier! So anyways...Yeah for me!!! :)

Alex's First Day of School

2008-09-20T14:06:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of Alex's first day of school. Alex is still going to the mom's day out program at Oaklandon Christian. This is the same church that Brannon goes to school at, but it is a completely different program. Alex goes to school on Wed. and Fri. It is so weird, because he is in the same class that Branon was in last year. He is the youngest in his 3's class, and Brannon was the oldest in his 3's class. Alex seems to really like his new class and teachers. I am ready for him to get in the "friends" stage where he talks about his friends at school. I remember that Brannon was about 3 when he started talking about his school friends. Alex talks about Nate, Jacob and Anna, but that's about it. These are his "pinds", as he says it. ;)

Brannon's Class

2008-09-08T14:37:00.005-04:00

Today I stayed home with Alex because my mom had surgery on her eyes. Alex and I decided to surprise Brannon and eat lunch with him at his school. :) He was so excited to see us. It was neat to be able to meet some of the kids in his class. Big surprise...there are about 8 boys and 6 girls in his class. Brannon's teacher's name is Mrs. Cory. She is wonderful! I can't believe all that he has learned in the couple of weeks he has been there!

Brannon has his arm around one of his best buddies in class, Peyton Stinger (that is what he calls him when he talks about him). The other boy next to Peyton Stinger is Geoffrey. That is his other buddy in class.

Mrs. Cory and Brannon
He said that he wanted me to take a picture of him hugging her. :)

Shawn's Birthday Surprise

2008-09-06T16:36:00.008-04:00

I am SO behind on so many events in the lives of the Crull family. I haven't posted Alex's birthday party or Shawn's 40th birthday party or the boys first day of school! Hopefully this week I could get caught up.

The day of Alex's birthday party, Aug. 16th, I took Shawn out for a surprise date. :) The week before, I was able to get tickets to the public open house and tour of Lucus Oil Stadium. With those tickets, I planned a whole evening of fun for Shawn and I for his fortieth birthday. Shawn drove, and I told him to head downtown and park in the Circle Center parking garage. While we were driving around, Shawn saw a ton of Colt's clad people and said, "Do the colts play today or something?". I just said, "I don't know what's going on". ;) Then when we were in the parking garage he could see the stadium and said, "oh...I just remembered something...and I hope that it is what we are doing." For those of you who know Shawn, you know that he is a HUGE sports fan. And you probably also know that he is a huge Bears fan too. So I wasn't sure if he would think the open house of the Colt's new stadium was as cool as I did. To my delight, he was very excited and impressed! :) We walked in and were VERY impressed with the stadium. We got to walk around and saw the locker room, suites and even got to walk on the field. After we finished, we started walking towards Circle Center mall. When we got to Weber Grill I said, "Here we are." I had gotten reservations at the Weber Grill. We hadn't ever been there before, so I thought that it would be a good place try. To be honest, we thought that it was OK. We are Outback and Texas Roadhouse people. They did have delicious onion straw things! After dinner I had planned on taking him to see the movie Tropic Thunder, but since we got finished with everything a ton earlier than I had planned, we had to change our plans because of movie times. We went to the Circle Center mall theater and Shawn decided that he wanted to see The Dark Knight, so that is what we saw. The whole evening was a lot of fun, and Shawn really enjoyed himself. :)

Here are some pictures of us at Lucas Oil. We made sure to take a lot of pictures of us together because we don't usually get pictures of us together! :)

The boys really like monster trucks, so we took these pictures for them. :)

Brannon's First Upward Soccer Game

2008-09-06T14:51:00.011-04:00

Brannon had his first Upward soccer game today at our church. As Brannon would say...The good new was that he was able to see and play with all his friends from church...The bad news was that he just wasn't that into it (Brannon likes to talk about any experience by telling you the good and bad news). A few of my friends there said that their kids who played last year were the same way, so maybe it will get better. :\ Brannon looked like he was on the verge of tears most of the game. I'm not sure why. It could have been his ears (he and Alex both have ear infections right now) or he was too hot or maybe he was bummed because 3 of his buddies were on the other team (we saw him a couple of times pulling up his shirt like he was trying to change it to the gray side like the other team) or maybe I'm just trying to analyze it too much (that would be what Shawn would say). There were a few moments where he did trot a little, and he did kick the ball a couple of times, but overall, he just stood there. Let's hope that things get better, and most importantly that he has fun. :)

Here is his team. All but one of the kids Brannon has know as long as he has been alive. :)

Jaxon, Mary Elizabeth, Brannon, Simon and Brandon

In this picture Mark looks like he is really giving them an ear full! :)

One of the coolest things is that two of Brannon's coaches (Chad - Jaxon's dad and Mark - Simon's dad) have known him longer than he has been alive, and were there right after he was born. I think that kind of stuff is really cool! These guys love our crazy kid, and we love theirs! :)

The other team - a cute little girl, Evan, Carlos, Braydon, Tyler, and Ethan?

Brannon's team (the Wildcats...High School Musical anyone?) and the other team are the only teams in this age group, so they will be playing each other every week. :)

Before they started, they warmed up by stretching and doing jumping jacks. Brannon loves doing jumping jacks. :) He is next to his other coach, Bobby (Mary Elizabeth's daddy). He is a really cool guy. He has such a great cheery "kid" personality, and he loves playing with them and makes them feel special. :)

I caught Mary Elizabeth in midair. It makes her look really tall! :)

Saturdays are going to be a blast! All of our friends have kids playing Upward this year (at the same time), so we all just stand around talking and having fun watching our kiddos! :)

This is Bryce, all decked out in his soccer gear to watch his big brother Braydon play soccer. His mommy was decked out too in her "Soccer Mom" t-shirt! :) I love ya Kelly...you crack me up!!!

Here are the two teams praying before the game.

Brandon and Brannon...yes, it is confusing on the field. :)

Brannon and his buddy Simon...I'm so glad that they are on the same team!

Daddy encouraging Brannon and talking to him about playing soccer. :)

This was a cool shot of Simon throwing in the ball.

During most of the game Alex and Nate sat on my lap looking at a dinosaur book (big surprise!).

I also let them take a couple of pictures too. These are two of the pictures they took. I think the top one was taken by Nate, and the bottom one was taken by Alex. I think the picture of Nate is cute! :)

Here are the two teams giving high fives after the game.

Mary Elizabeth, Brannon, Simon, Jaxon and Brandon

Chad passing out stars at the end of the game. We were proud of Brannon because he got the "white" star. It is for being the most Christ-like. :)

WILDCATS!

Tyler, Evan, Braydon, Brannon and Will

Here's Brannon and his buddies from the other team. Notice his face. That's the face he had most of the day.

Here they are being silly. Kelly, I know you will be reading this, check out Braydon. You know those preacher's kids...;)

Here's our van. I am proudly showing my soccer mom spirit! :)

Friday Night Football...Lucas Oil Style

2008-08-24T22:00:00.006-04:00

This Friday (8-22) we went as a family downtown to the new Lucas Oil Stadium and watched the Fishers vs. Noblesville football game, and a little bit of the New Palestine vs. Whiteland game. The boys had a blast! I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did. I did bring a bag of things to keep them occupied, and they did get up and go potty a lot (Shawn took them most of the time and subsequently missed all but one of the big plays that Fishers made...sorry honey!). For the boys, the highlight of the game was seeing the Fishers' tiger mascot. Alex was constantly asking, "Whaiws the tigu?". He would come up with all kinds of answers for his own question like, "Oh...he mus be seeping" or "He's hiding". It was like "Where's Waldo?" all night.

Here are some pictures of our fun night out with the boys. :)

Yes, Peyton Manning was there too. :) He was a whole lot skinnier than I had pictured him being. Shawn kept saying, "Kick him in the knee!" (but not too loud and often...thank goodness!). He would also occasionally say, "Go Bears!"

This is one of the many Lucas Oil vehicles that are around the stadium. The boys got to get up in the tractor that these wheels are attached to. I thought it would make a cute picture with the boys inside the huge wheels. :) As Alex found out, the insides of the wheels were very shiny and reflective. :)

Notice how high we are. Brannon and I came up here earlier. On the way up the escalators to get there, I realized that the clear sides of the escalator were the only thing keeping us from falling down to the bottom of the stadium. Not too big of a deal, except I realized it half way up while Brannon was sitting on my shoulders!!!! I was SO glad it was Brannon and not squirmy Alex on my shoulders! So next time you go to the stadium, look up at the long escalator that goes to the top, and remember me and my story. Don't be like me! ;\

I know that this is disgusting, but when we got home and were getting the boys ready for bed, I looked at Brannon's feet and saw this. GROSS!!! I guess with all the walking and sandal wearing, he collected a pretty impressive amount of what we like to call, toe jam. :P

This is what my tired baby looked like before we turned off the lights at 11:00 that night!!!! It took them about 5 minutes to fall asleep. This is pretty impressive, because they have been taking almost 2 hours to fall asleep the last couple of weeks. :(

You would think...

2008-08-24T21:56:00.003-04:00

Ok, so you would think that by now that I would get this blogging thing. Nope! If you are looking at the things we did this weekend...the air show..., you probably will notice that I did the posts in reverse order. Sorry! One of these days I will think about that before I start...maybe. ;)

Air Show - Sat. 8-23 (videos of planes)

2008-08-24T18:52:00.009-04:00

Here are some videos of the planes we saw. The videos are a little shaky, because I was holding my little digital camera with one hand, and Alex (covering his ear) with the other. We were really close, so I was able to get a lot of cool video.

This is video of a "trick/stunt" plane and pilot. The joke was that this "redneck" guy from Alabama (which was funny because my parents are from Alabama and all our family lives there) stole a plane and was flying it and didn't know what he was doing. It was really cool because he did some neat things, like flying into the corn fields and then back up again. The final stunt he did was to land the plane on a truck.

This video is of one of the jets that comes very close to breaking the sound barrier. It was completely silent, until the plane was right in front of us!

Air Show - Sat. 8-23 (Brannon jumping)

2008-08-24T18:41:00.005-04:00

Brannon got to do this really cool jumping thing. He got to jump on this inflatable trampoline, while being attached to this thing that raised him up into the air. That was a really good explanation, huh! ;) Just check out the video and it will be clear. :) Unfortunately, he wasn't quite strong enough to flip in the air like the bigger kids, but he had fun. I think he was still tired from the night before (post and pictures to come).

Air Show - Sat. 8-23

2008-08-24T17:36:00.009-04:00

This Saturday we went to the air show with my parents. It was really cool (not literally, because we just about spontaneously combusted in the heat!). We have been hearing it and watching it from a far for as long as we have lived in this house. We live only about a mile from the Mount Comfort airport where it all takes place. When we got there, the boys played in some of the inflatable things, and Brannon did this really cool jumping thing (pictures and video to follow). Then we made our way to the tent to eat and watched the show from the front row. At first, the boys were terrified of the loud fighter jets and cried to go home. Thank goodness the fighter jet part didn't last too long, and they enjoyed the rest of the planes. The day was blistering hot, but thank goodness there was an occasional breeze. When the day was over, we came home and collapsed!

This is how Brannon and Alex "watched" the fighter jet part of the show. Notice the look on Brannon's face and the sweat on Alex. And no, Shawn is not about to pass out. ;)

After we watched the air show for about an hour, and all the really cool stuff was over, we walked around and looked at all the cool planes and helicopters. We were allowed to sit in a lot of them too. :) It was so funny to look at all of these huge planes, and see people sitting under every part of them that created a little bit of shade.

After we walked around, we went back to the inflatable jumping things. It struck me, as I was watching the boys wait in line, that they have finally gotten old enough (and patient enough) to wait in a line without loosing their minds. What a wonderful milestone to reach!!! It was also so cute to watch them stand in line hugging on each other. :)

And now we are on our way home! It was so weird how they had us leave the airport area. We had to drive down this one lane dirt "road" through the corn field. It was kind of "Children of the Cornish". When we got home, our faces were all SO blistered from looking straight into the sun at the planes. And of course, none of us thought to wear any sunscreen. :\

Sprinkle Park

2008-08-24T16:43:00.009-04:00

This summer we have really enjoyed going to the sprinkle park in Noblesville/Westfield. It is so much fun for the boys to play in the water and climb, jump and spin on the playground equipment. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the sprinkle park this summer.

The boys "bestest pinds" (as Alex would say), Evan and Nate.

Brannon and Evan pondering the football field. ;)

Boy do Brannon and Alex love each other! :)

I love both Brannon and Alex's expressions in this picture.

What did he say? ANSWERS

2008-08-20T20:37:00.003-04:00

Well, needless to say, things around here have been pretty crazy. Between Shawn and Alex's birthdays, Alex's party, school starting, parent night,...I haven't had time to update the blog. Hopefully this weekend I can update things.

So, here are the answers to my little speech quiz. :)

Number 1
Jellyfish

Number 2
triceratops

Number 3
stegosaurus

Number 4
go to the beach

Number 5
Jacob Presser

Number 6
Leapster

So? How did you do?

Strep

2008-08-10T12:26:00.002-04:00

As many of you know, we have been dealing with the joys of strep throat over the past 2+ weeks. I got it first, over 2 weeks ago (Brannon went with me to the doctor and was excited to watch Mommy get a shot in her..."hip"). Then Alex got it the following week, along with Shawn last weekend. And then this past Thursday, Alex started complaining about his "mouth hurting", so we took him back into the doctor. Apparently he, or his strep, was antibiotic resistant, and he still had strep! Therefore, Mommy (who tends to kiss all over little boys faces) got it for the second time! And, the amazing thing is, Brannon has never gotten it! Even after he has repeatedly drank after Alex and kissed him over and over again! Let's hope that I haven't just jenksed (sp?) him! ;)

What did he say?

2008-08-10T11:42:00.011-04:00

Ok, so most of you know that Alex can be kinda hard to understand at times. I thought that it would be fun if I taped him saying different things, and see how many people could guess what he is saying. The first couple look like I was forcing him to do something he didn't want to do. Actually he would lay on the bed looking pitiful, say the word, jump down, and say, "Let me see it! Let me see it!", and then jump back on the bed, look pitiful again and say he next word. He is SO dramatic! ;) I will post the answers in a coupe of days.

Good Luck!!!

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Change is good? :\

2008-08-03T23:56:00.015-04:00

I do not like a lot of change. I like for my world and my surroundings to pretty much stay the same. I'm fine with moving around the furniture in rooms, but a lot at once can become overwhelming, especially if their is any emotional attachment to the change. Well, the past 2 weeks have been a...growing...experience for me. :\

The boys got bunk beds! This was a VERY exciting event in the Crull household this week! We/I wasn't planning on having then share a room, because there was no reason to since they both have their own cribs that converted into full size beds. But Shawn really wanted then to share a room (a guy/brother thing) and a set of bunk beds became available, and vwala...bunk bed boys (thank you mom and dad!)! I am perfectly fine with all of this now, but 2 weeks ago when this idea all started to come together, I was VERY upset. I was upset because I would be loosing my last bit of "baby" in Alex. Alex was still sleeping in his crib toddler bed in his train room, and now I was going to be putting him in another room in a big boy bed. I wasn't ready to do that. But now, as I watch Alex with so much excitement and pride running into his new room that he shares with his big brother, I can't help but smile out of happiness for him! ;) It was so cute, their second night sleeping in the bunkbeds, I went in to check on them and they were both sleeping on the bottom bunk. A couple of hours later I checked them again, and Brannon was back up top again.

I am trying to change Brannon's sports room into the boy's dinosaur room (big surprise huh!) without having to change or buy too much. I bid on and won an ebay auction for a Pottery Barn dinosaur duvet cover, and I hope to win the auction on a second identical one tomorrow (this is very stressful!). I think that it will tie the two blues and hunter green in nicely. For now, here are some pictures of their new room. It is a hodge podge of things until we get everything together. We let the boys pick out new sheets for their beds. Brannon picked out Batman sheets and Alex picked out Wall-e sheets. The cool thing is, that both sets of sheets have the same colors in them.

This is the plastic drawers I bought the boys for their underwear and socks. I let them put stickers on their drawer so they know whose is whose. Alex is so proud of his Kung Fu Panda drawer, that we find him just sitting in front of it all the time looking at all the stickers. Needless to say, it takes him a long time to choose underwear in the morning! :)

We made Alex's room into a guest room. We took down his bed and stored it, and put Brannon's full size bed in there. I think it good. Shawn says that he wants to take down the trains and make a "man cave" out of my baby's room. I told him it is staying a train room for a long time! He can have the loft when the boys are older and their toys aren't everywhere.

We inherited a queen size sleeper sofa. My mom and dad are getting new leather couches this week, so got their old sofa. I am very excited about this! This means that when people come and visit, we have multiple areas for them to sleep! So, here are some pictres of this new change in our upstairs. Thank you Dave for helping us move things!!!

So, what's next...The rest of this month is going to be CRAZY!!!!! Shawn starts school on Thurs. (8/7), I start on Mon. (8/11), Brannon starts full day preschool on Mon. (8/11 - he is SO excited about this!!!), I will be totally changing the way I teach and do things in the classroom this year because of the kids that I will be having, I need to set up and get everything ready for school to start, Alex's birthday party is coming up, Shawn turns 40 (8/15), I need to plan Shawn's party, ... I am stressed just thinking about it all (no wonder I haven't been able to sleep the last couple of nights...it's 1:12 AM right now)!!! August is definiately the craziest time of the year!!!

Headphones

2008-08-03T23:52:00.002-04:00

All week the boys were bugging me to play with playdough. Finally, I gave in and got it all out. This is was they came up with...headphones. :) I LOVE it!!! Brannon made them, and of course Alex had to be just like his big brother. I love these pictures! Brannon is SO proud of himself!!!

Boy's Playdate

2008-08-03T23:42:00.004-04:00

Thursday was a very exciting day for the boys. They got to have 3 of their best friends (or as Alex says, "best pends") over to play. They played inside, they played outside, but in the end (when they were starting to get tired), they watched a movie (Shark Tale). Everyone had a great time! :)

Ben, Brannon, Evan, Alex and Nate

Where has the time gone?

2008-08-03T22:52:00.008-04:00

Well, I got to thinking about Evan and Brannon, and all our boys that are growing up into little men way too quickly in front of their mommy's misty eyes, and I thought that in honor of Evan turning 5, I would post some pictures of him and Brannon from when they were babies. Enjoy! I have always especially loved the pictures of the two of them in the chair in the nursery (that is just 5 out of about 15 pictures I took of that "event"). It was in January 2004, so Brannon would have been about 3 months, and Evan was about 6 months.

Evan's Party

2008-08-03T22:15:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, Evan Sapp had his birthday party at Bounce Planet. I can't believe Evan, and in a couple of months Brannon, is 5 years old!!! Where has the time gone? These are some of the pictures that I took at the party.

Alex looks like such a BIG BOY! I can't hardly believe that he is going to be 3 years old in just a few short weeks!!! :(

This is Alex and Nate. They are so funny!

This is just moments before Shawn had his finger jammed. Poor baby! ;) I love Brannon and Bryce's expressions!

"Do You Trust Me?" Shawn is cutting Bryce's bracelet off. Bryce is such a cutie! I could just eat him up! :)

Moody!

2008-07-26T15:28:00.005-04:00

On Friday, I went over to Shelley's house to let the boys play and to help her with Evan's snake cake. For some reason, Wed., Thurs. and Fri. of last week, I was in probably the worse mood that I have ever been in, and for no real reason. I am wondering if it had to do with the medicine and the steroid shot they gave me (my throat was REALLY swollen because of the strep - Brannon got to be in the room and watch mommy get a shot in her "hip"). I don't know, but I was not a fun person to be around last week! Sorry Shawn! Luckly, by the time I chilled out, let the boys play and iced a snake, I felt better. I also took some cute pictures of the Sapp and Crull boys playing.

Out of the Mouths of Babes - Brannon

2008-07-26T14:58:00.005-04:00

One thing that I am trying to get better at is writing down the funny (and sometimes insightful) things that the boys say. My goal was to write them down in a journal. Well, I started doing that, and then it just has turned into a lot of post-it notes and scrapes of paper. I figured that I would also post them, but I haven't been very good at that either. Oh well! :)

But this week....Brannon gave me two gems that I had to pass along. :)

While we were eating breakfast one morning this week, my creative and imaginative son made a plane out of his Poptart. Then he said, "Look mom, I made a plane! And a tiny little Jesus could sit in it!" Ok...I don't know where he came up with that one? :)

Many of you know, I had strep throat this week. :P Yuck! Well, we were going to have our friend Dave (who's living in a hotel until they find a house and sell theirs) come over for dinner this week, but since I was sick, we decided to wait until next week. The boys LOVE to play with Mr. Dave, so they were disappointed when we told them that we would have to have him over another time when I wasn't sick. And this is what Brannon said, "Well Mom, just don't kiss him!"

Mr. Dave and the boys playing ball.

Proud Brannon

2008-07-26T14:46:00.005-04:00

This is old... but about a month ago, Brannon's best buddy from school, Ben, had his birthday party. My thing for birthday presents right now is to have the boys help decorate the bag with drawings and stickers, and have Brannon write the names on it. They have really turned out cute, and they seem to have a fun time doing it too. This is also a good way to get Brannon to practice his writing and letter skills, because he DOES NOT have ANY patience or desire to have me teach him anything in this area. Anyway, this is Ben's birthday bag. I thought that he did a great job writing, and it was his idea to make the o in his name a smiley face. :) The back side of the bag he said he drew T-Rex claws.;) He and Ben are HUGE dinosaur fans...big surprise! I just love the picture of him showing off his handy work! I love that kid!

New Reading Spot

2008-07-26T14:24:00.003-04:00

As many of you may know, I like to change things around a bit for the boys and do some crazy and off the wall things just for fun. :) Not that this is one of them, but I got rid of (until the winter) their two old boxes that they had played in a lot a few months ago (they haven't played in them at all this summer) and rearranged some things in their toy closet and made a cool cushion filled reading/playing area inside the closet. For those of you who have never been to our house, we have a large walk-in finished storage area under the stairs. For now, this is where we keep some of the boys toys and books. They have always had fun going in there and closing the door and playing or "reading" their books. When they get a lot older, I would like to put a desk and computer in there for a mini "office". Shawn thinks this is crazy, but I would like it. :)

Super Heros?

2008-07-19T15:17:00.004-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, Jacob came to our house to play while Dave and Jennifer went out to look at houses. The boys had a great time playing together. They got out the Super Hero costumes and decided that they wanted to dress up. They got a little creative in their Super Hero costume attire. :)

For Jacob's birthday, we got him a Nerf foam dart gun set. They have had a blast playing with it. This is Alex with all the dart gun garb on. Doesn't he look menacing? ;)

Bounce Planet

2008-07-19T15:00:00.005-04:00

Thursday was the boy's good friend Jacob's birthday! We left VBS early and met Jacob and his Mom at Chick-fil-a for lunch, and then we went to Bounce Planet. They had SO much fun. Unfortunately, Alex wasn't feeling too good. When we got home I took his temperature, and it was 103. Poor guy! He tried to have fun playing with the boys, but he kept coming to me to be held. He's better now though. :)

We are SO excited, because Jacob and his Mom and Dad are moving here! Jacob's Dad, Dave, is Shawn's best friend from Illinois. Shawn and Dave also were roommates here in Indy for about 10 years before Shawn and I were married. They have been friends since elementary school. :) It has been fun showing them around this side of town.

VBS 2008 - Brannon

2008-07-19T14:32:00.007-04:00

The last day of VBS when we were in the gym with the babies, Brannon's class came in for recreation. It was fun watching Brannon and his friends play tag. He had so much fun at VBS this year. I was SO glad that he got the teachers he did. They were old friends of ours that knew me as a teenager and young adult, but had not been around my offspring. ;) They had so much fun with Brannon. Brannon's only complaint was that he thought they sang too much. ;) The funny thing was, that he would come home singing the same songs around the house.

Here they are waiting for snack time. They decided to sing while they waited. :)

During snack time, Cora Mae said the prayer. She is such a precious little girl. We are SO sad that her and her family will be moving to Toledo, OH. :( We havn't told Brannon yet. They have been best buddies in Sunday School and at Mom's Day Out preschool the past 2 years!

Here are the Three Amigos. These are two of Brannon's best buddies, Brayden and Evan. Shelley (Evan's Mommy) and I wanted to get a picture of the three boys together. She has the cutest picture of them when they were about 2, and we wanted an updated version. Shelley, can you please send me that picture?

The end of Vacation Bible School! This is how we felt at the end of this fun filled week.

VBS 2008 - Shirts and Frames

2008-07-19T10:47:00.005-04:00

As I wrote in an earlier blog, we made shirts and a matte for a picture frame with the babies footprints. Below is the finished products. I think they turned out REALLY good! Shelley did an excellent job finishing off the mattes by adding stickers and using her Cricket to write out the babies names for the matte. All the babies pictures turned out good, but I think Jeremiah's smile on his picture is the best. :)

VBS 2008 - Babies and Hoolahoops

2008-07-19T10:34:00.004-04:00

On this last day of VBS, Shelley and I decided to take our little ones to the gym to play with the Little Tyke toys they had set up for the nursery kids. And, of course, our little ones didn't want anything to do with being closed up in another room (the racquetball courts in our CLC), so as soon as we would put them in there, they would run right out again before we could close the door. :) We decided to just let them run around in the wide open space of the gym...free range kids. ;) They really liked the hoolahoops the recreation team had out for their first group of kids (Brannon's class).

Jeremiah

Micah

Sam

Micah and Lizzy...I love Micah's shirt :)

VBS 2008

2008-07-16T21:53:00.005-04:00

This week has been VBS week at Northside. The boys have really enjoyed going to their class, and I have enjoyed working in the baby room with my good friend Shelley. I have had so much fun playing and loving on our 5 babies! :) Here are some pictures of our little ones having fun. It was really hard getting pictures of them all looking the same way and not moving...big surprise!

This is Lizzy and Sam playing with the very popular mailbox.

Sam, Micah and Jeremiah

Sam giving Lizzy a little pat, with Micah looking on.

Jeremiah playing on the drum.

The Three Amigos

Shelley's sweet baby girl, Lizzy, the lone girl of the group. :)

This is a shirt I made to wear for VBS, and the trial run on what we are going to make for our VBS babies to wear. This year's VBS theme is Outrigger Island (an overall island/beach theme). Shelley and I like to make something for our babies to have at the end of VBS. Last year we made onesies with their name on the back and their footprints on the front. This year, because of the "beach" theme, we thought (my mom actually came up with the idea...thanks mom!) we could make palm trees out of their feet and hands. Brannon and Alex helped me make my shirt, and I thought it turned out pretty good. :)

Yes, Alex actually did kinda write his own name for the first time. :) I had him do it in pencil, and then I traced over it in paint pen. I really don't think he knew what he was doing. You can't see it, but there are a lot of other lines all over the place. I just chose the ones that most closely resembled a letter in this name, but the A and the x are what he wrote. :) That's 50%! :)

Brannon really did write his name on his own. :) He's getting SO much better! I'm so proud of him! He said the face next to his name is me with a square head.

Children's Museum

2008-07-16T21:35:00.006-04:00

One of the best gifts that we have received is our membership to the Children's Museum from my mom and dad! We use it a lot in the summer! And, since we are there quite often, we have a lot of pictures from our visits. Here are some of my favorites from our last couple of visits. :)

Shaving Cream Therapy

2008-07-16T21:15:00.005-04:00

Most of you know that Alex receives speech and OT services through First Steps. His OT Katrina does lots of different things with him. A couple of weeks ago she brought shaving cream and let them (she includes Brannon most of the time in what they are doing) play in it. First they did this at the table, and then we moved it outside. They had a ball...as you can tell! The first picture is of the boys nice and clean in their new dino swimsuits. For those of you who remember the first couple Ultimate Youth Camps and the shaving cream fights from back then...this will bring back burning menthol memories!

Cool Toy

2008-07-15T06:08:00.008-04:00

I found the coolest toy at the Children's Museum recently. It is called Zoomorphs. What it is is animal "pieces" like legs, heads, tails, bodies, etc. that you can click together in countless combinations. Brannon LOVES them! They weren't terribly expensive at the museum, but they are cheaper online. He has always been VERY creative and imaginative, and you know how he LOVES animals, so this toy was right up his alley! We bought the dinosaur set...go figure...but there are all kids of sets. Here is the link to their website http://www.zoomorphs.com/index.php. Below are some of the pictures of Brannon and his creations. :)

I LOVE my silly boys! :)

WALLE

2008-07-15T05:48:00.003-04:00

The week after WALLE came out we went to see it. Shawn had told the boys that we would go see it when he got back from YoungLife camp. They were SO excited! We have been watching the previews (and anything else video related to this movie) for months! Here are some pictures and video of our excursion. :) Alex has now decided that he wants a WALLE birthday party...big surprise huh? :)

Even though Brannon will not be allowed to see The Dark Knight movie for a VERY long time, he still was SO excited about seeing the Batman movie poster! And yes, there is a dinosaur tattoo on his forehead. :)

The Bachelorette

2008-07-09T23:27:00.004-04:00

For those of you who watch The Bachelorette (I know there are a lot of you out there!), below is a link to a really good article about Jason. I couldn't believe she didn't choose Jason! But, as I told Shawn..."It's not my heart". And, Jesse is a great guy too! But, did you notice how personable Jason was with Deanna's family? Especially with her grandmother...holding her hand while they talked. I think Jason had that minister type quality about him. He seemed to be totally focused on the person he was talking to or with. I hope he finds long lasting love!!!!

I had to just get that off my chest! :)

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/the-bachelorette-runner-up-jason-mesnick-talks-about-his-experience-7392.php

More Chicago Trip - July 4th Weekend

2008-07-09T15:27:00.009-04:00

I forgot to put this collage with the others. This was SO cute...Matthew (Valerie's youngest) was suppose to be eating his hot dog. I looked over and watched him in all his different positions and "moods". I thought that it would make cool collage. :) He is SO cute! I don't think he ever did eat any more hot dog.

This is simply the best of Alex being Alex. He has on his new Spiderman boxer briefs over his pj's. He is one crazy kid! :)