Nick's Pictures of Mommy

Yesterday, Nick walked into the living room with the camera (not sure how he got it...) and wanted to take pictures of me to put on the 'puter...and you can imagine how excited I was to do this.. So I let him take the pictures in hopes that he would just forget about the computer part. Not a chance! He insisted that I put them on. Well there were several more, but these were the only two where you could make out a person.

Trey's Flashback

I've always thought this was such a sweet picture of Trey. I look back through all of these old pictures, and wish we had a blog back then to share with everyone! Have a great weekend!

Swim Update

The boys had their last night of swimming lessons tonight. They had quite an audience! All 4 grandparents were there, great grandma Betty, Uncle Steve...and of course Mommy & Daddy. They both graduated from Pike to Eel! Afterwards we all went to Bob Evans for supper. Sadly, forgotten camera = no pictures.

Grandma & Grandpa's House

One of my Christmas gifts from Bill was an automatic starter for my vehicle. I just had to call and make the appointment to have it installed. Ironically, I had it done yesterday, on the warmest day of the year :) The boys and I spent the day at my parents house while they were doing this. Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

Nick loves to help with anything, so he was sweeping the floor. I don't think my Mom minded this at all! Some brotherly love

Uncle Steve was hanging out with us too!

And finally a picture of Grandpa Jim, Nick, Grandma Cathy, and Trey

Elmo is Exhausting!

This picture is a couple months old, but I realized I didn't post it. Trey fell asleep "reading" his Elmo book

Sunday Morning Breakfast

I took this picture at the Rambler's Roost this morning during breakfast. How perfect that there is a rooster right beside Bill's head in the background! Of course there are roosters everywhere in this place - it might freak you out if you think about it too much. Trey hit his head on the edge of the table, and they made an icepack for him. We're VIP's...don't be jealous! haha!

Flashback...uhhh..Saturday?

Ok, so I can't get the picture to enlarge without looking distorted...so this is what you get! You'll never guess who that guy in the middle of a sweet backflip is!! My DAD!! This was taken last summer at a pool party with their friends, and I'm guessing there was some alcohol involved prior to the flip! You still got it Dad! :)

Book Swap

I came across this awesome website, that I just had to share! It's called PaperBackSwap. The link to the website is below my Book List in the right-hand column. Basically you can get books from other people, and they can get books from you. You start by posting at least 10 books that you have that you are ready to part with. Once you do this, they give you 2 credits. You can order books from others at 1 credit per book. The books are mailed to you by the previous owner at no cost - they pay the shipping. Now when someone orders one of your books, you mail it to them and pay for the shipping. (You also get a credit when someone orders from you). Well anyway, check it out if you're interested!

Waldorf's Astoria Cake

Aka Red Velvet cake...a couple weeks ago at my parents house for Sunday night dinner we were discussing red velvet cake. I didn't know what flavor it was, or really anything about it. Unless you count the part from "Steel Magnolias" when they are eating the armadillo-shaped, iced red velvet cake (which is hilarious I might add!)

Anyway - so between my parents and Grandma Betty I learned that it was "invented" years ago by a chef at the Waldorf Hotel in New York (He also "invented" Waldorf Salad). So yesterday I made my first Waldorf's Astoria/Red Velvet cake, and took it to Sunday night dinner. And as weird as it was to eat it, it actually tastes just like chocolate cake! Picture below - aren't you glad you checked my blog today! haha

We're off to the Rodeo...

Last night we met up with the Figley's, and some other friends at Hat Creek Arena to watch some Bull Riding. This was the boys first trip there, and they had a lot of fun! I think they were pretty amazed to see those big bulls bucking around ("Mommy, that guy is riding the bull!!!" as quoted by Nick when the first one came out!). At the 'intermission' they have a stickhorse race for the kids...

Trey did pretty good keeping up with all the kids.

Next up was the Sheep riding...HILARIOUS!!!! Nick had a fiesty little sheep, so he was bucked off about 1/2 way down... He walked away and said "Stupid sheep!"

Both boys thought they were big stuff when they were wearing the helmets for sheep riding.

Below is Trey riding his sheep. He held on all the way down!

A self portrait of Julie and Jackie at the Rodeo

Tackle Buddy

Santa brought the boys an Ohio State Tackle Buddy. It kind of reminds me of a Weeble. (You can sing it, no one's listening..."weebles wobble, but they won't fall down!")

Anyway - so we get a kick out of them when they are playing with it. I took a video of Trey last night, however it usually doesn't sound like a training video when he's playing with it.... The theory is that someday it will be a real college football player they are roughing up!

Happy Valentine's Day

As every year goes, it's just Trey, Nick, and me for Valentine's Day. Bill goes to the farm show in Louisville, KY, and it happens to always fall over VDay. He does win some points for sending me these pretty flowers (below) and chocolates though!

Flashback Friday

A lot of bloggers are doing this "Flashback Friday" thing, so I thought I'd give it a shot! In honor of today being Friday 13th, these pictures go back to Halloween 2000.
Ryanne, Tricia, and I dressed up in all of Tricia's clothes...that's right, every article that we have on came from Tricia's closet! We all had descriptive names that I'm pretty sure Ryanne still remembers!

Storytime with Daddy...

I thought this was a cute picture. The boys were all reading a book about dinosaurs.

Superbowl Party

The Figleys had us over to their house for the Superbowl sunday night. Trey started to run a fever, and Nick threw-up about 1/2 way through the 2nd quarter...so needless to say we didn't stay long. The only picture I got was of Avery, rocking out to Guitar Hero before the game started.

Happy Birthday Aunt Pat!

We went to Bill's Aunt Pat's surprise 80th Birthday Party yesterday afternoon. Jill was being goofy, and entertaining the boys.

Bill & his Dad

The Great Wolf Lodge

We took the boys to the Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark last night. They LOVED it!! There was so much for them to do there! Trey and Bill were at the water slides most of the time, and I stayed with Nick in the "Soak N Oak" area so he could play.
Every 5 minutes or so this great big bucket of water dumps over everything! I caught a picture of it...
Below is the Soak N Oak area. Off the top of my head, I would say Nick went down this little slide about 100 times! He even got daring, and started going down head first (the water is only 1 foot deep here) until he got "yelled" at by the lifeguard...they are supposed to sit on their rear ends... Trey having some fun! There are all kinds of things to pull and make water dump, or squirt.

Bill & Nick getting splashed!

They also had a HUGE area that reminded me of Chuck E Cheese. You even got tickets for playing the games. They ended up turning theirs in for a wolf puzzle, and some candy.

I thought this was really neat. Every night at 8pm they have a "show" at the Clocktower in the lobby. All the kids come down in their PJ's and watch the show before bedtime. This is a picture of the show right before it started. It was kind of corny, but the kids really liked it.

All my boys watching the show.

The boys were pooped! But they managed to watch a little bit of Spongebob in bed, before crashing!

3 Year Checkup

"Moose" as Bill likes to call him...had his check up today. He's off the charts in weight (45 lbs) and in the 90th percentile for height. He talked Dr. Easley's ear off the whole time! Quite a switch from the piercing screams he used to make a year or two ago at the Dr's office.

More Swimming...

Another week of swimming lessons down! Nick can hardly contain his excitement...he wouldn't stop bouncing up and down so I could get a decent picture.
I was so relieved last week to see that Karen Mengerink is their teacher. I think she does a great job - and more importantly, doesn't take any crap from the kids! So any chance he gets, Trey tries to show off his "professional" swimming skills!!

Bill & I laughed for almost the entire 1/2 hour! I don't think they realize we can see them through the window, up above.

Silly Face

Nick wanted to make "silly faces" and put the pictures on the 'puter...so here they are!