Making Friends

Olivia celebrated her birthday party at Build-A-Bear.

The kids love that place!

The boys ended up with a Gunner, Clancey, and Lily--clearly they got to play with Gretchen's pups just before going!

Tent Time with the Dogs

There could not be a more appropriate outing for my boys then the Read to Rover program at the Humane Society!

Henry took his favorite book, Diggers.  It's a pretty "predictable" read, but it  gives him a lot of confidence.     

He's not the strongest reader just yet, but he's coming along!

The Missing Flowers

We are adamant about following three rules when it comes to my grandpa's headstone.

1. He only gets the highest quality flowers in his vase. (They hold up so much better than the cheapies.)
2. Any flower that is put in the vase must be either be a favorite of his, a favorite of mine or Amy's, or a flower that reminds us of him. (Typically it is snapdragons and peonies.)
3. He must never, ever have an empty vase.

We try to keep him the envy of the cemetery--which I'm certain he is!

His headstone always looks great, however, when we went up there for his birthday we were horrified to find an empty vase.

The flowers, the foam, everything was gone. Who does that? They could even replace any of it?!

On top of that, when we rushed out the door we left behind the new foam and his special flowers.

The whole thing was a shame.

Luckily we had the flowers that Gigi brought for the other graves. They didn't fit rule #1 or #2, and with no foam to hold them up high they looked even sadder, but at least he had something in his vase.

We decided it would have to be good enough until we could make it back up there with good flowers, so we finished our rounds and put the flowers on the rest of the graves. (I can't even believe how much digging we had to do to get some of them unburied.)

As we were getting ready to leave, Henry and I decided that we couldn't leave his grave without at least a little bit of fancy, so we quickly built him a little snowman.

If we would have had gloves and a little more time, he would have REALLY been the envy of the cemetery! (Although someone would have probably knocked it down as soon as we left because they were, you know, jealous!)
Aside from all of the bitterness on my part, today is his birthday!

He would have been 78.

I had to double check that a couple of times, because it's really hard for me to believe. He was only 62 when he died.

I'm betting at 78 he would still be ornery as hell!

I miss him...........a lot.

Elvis and the Tinman

The boys discovered their old Halloween costumes the other day.

They're a bit on the small size, but who wouldn't love seeing Elvis and the Tinman performing together!

Better Luck Next Year

I made the boys a special breakfast on Valentine's morning.

Sadly it didn't go over as well as I thought it would.

Josh Oliver told me the paper hearts I sprinkled all over the counter were stupid. He gives me the best constructive criticism!

Henry was heartbroken because he apparently had big plans of surprising the rest of us with breakfast in bed. He refused to even come out of his room until breakfast was over. It was sad. He would have loved all of the hearts.

Ben had a nervous stomach and probably would have totally skipped breakfast had I not already had a smiling face and a plate all ready dished up for him. He didn't eat much, but I love him for at least eating some!

Lucas, on the other hand, was super excited about waking up to the smell of waffles. He even noticed all the little details! I was glad I went with waffles--his absolute favorite!

I guess having one of the four boys love my breakfast was better than nothing. I'm still going to try again next year--maybe with Henry's help, though!

Rewards for a Job Well Done!

Yesterday the boys and I worked really hard.

I mean really hard.

It took 3 solid hours of shoveling, but we managed to get our driveway and walkway totally cleaned up, Great Grandma Judy's done, and a "good enough to get to your car" shovel on three other houses.

We talked a lot about good deeds as we moved the snow.

The boys were so eager to help. I love that!

After we got all of our work done and I was dead, dead, dead tired, we passed by the Indian Center.

That big hill, with all it's lovely white snow, called to us.

How could we not treat ourselves to sledding after all our hard work? We ran home real quick, grabbed our sleds, and headed back to the hill.

By the way Luke and Henry ran up that hill, you would never know they worked so hard all morning long. Josh, on the other hand, started really hating the snow about half way up.

I was determined to go down at least once so I kept dragging him up. I sort of regretted it a minute later when the two of us landed at the bottom of the hill and I had all sorts of snow down my pants because I didn't think to tuck my shirt in before heading down. I'll know next time!

After a couple of times down the hill, we headed inside for some Indian Tacos. Oh how I love Indian Tacos!!

While we were eating it became obvious that Josh Oliver didn't feel good. I think the cold was just too much for him. This is a pretty accurate picture of him:

After we ate the other boys went back to sledding and I took Josh to the car, where he quickly fell asleep.

The boys kept sledding over a ramp that someone had made. They thought that was the greatest! It was hilarious to watch them fly over it!

I am super sore now, but it was such a great day!

Our Own Hill

We had a big snow a couple of days ago.

Today, I noticed that where I piled the snow up, along with the slope on the side of our driveway, made an awesome sledding hill!

It was a win-win.  The boys got to sled and I got stuff done around my house.  Plus, as soon as they got cold they just came inside!

They loved it!

I'm going to have to remember this next time it snows.  All of our hard work might as well lead to some fun!

Card Shark

Henry is a card shark!

Ever since we taught the kids how to play "31" on New Years Eve, we have been playing every chance we get.

Henry always wins.

He's takes him awhile to do the math, so generally he just goes with a gut feeling about whether his hand is  good enough to win.  

It usually it is!

The rest of us need to step it up.  We are tired of him taking all of our money!