Week 18 - One of the best!!!!!!

OMG where do I begin???  What a jammed packed week of excitement.  One good thing after another happened!!!  I hope it continues like this until we are in the 40 weeks :)  One could hope, and one will try because I love this kind of excitement. 

As the week began I was pretty much told by Jacob's teacher that I would be going to Austin for the field trip. And I am so glad she talked me into it and made it happen.  We had such a great time.  First was the visit to the Capital visitor center, then to the Capital building, a quick lunch on the bus and then off to a museum about Texas and a 4-D movie.  It was a pretty busy day, exhausting to be honest.  But here are the pictures of the field trip. 

First getting off the bus.

 Jacob and his good friend Norman in the parks in front of the capital.

 Jacob and Hayden (the two I had to watch)  looking through the visitor center.

 Doing some computer activities with some other friends in the visitor center.

 The dome in the middle of the Captial.  It says TEXAS just in case you could not see it.  I think they said 288 feet hight, from point to point across is 8 feet. 

 Hey look the Webelos insigna is on the floor of the Captial :)

 This is the door door hinges.  Arent they special?

 Jacobs class in the atrium of the museum.  Can you find him, he is wearing a black shirt :)

Through the rest of the week so many good things happend.

1) Jacob was selected to try out of the patrol at school, so that means I have to get him to school at 650am the last week of school. 
2) Jacob got commended on all 3 parts of the TAKS test.  Which was such great news considering he had tutoring in all subjects since January. 
3) Jacob got straight A's on this term. 
4) Jacob was selected as a camera man for the school news team.  WHOE

5) Greysen excelled and passed another level of swimming!!!!! YES you heard me right!!!!  Another level.  I knew he had it in him, he just had to come out of his shell!!!  (sounds familiar!!!)

Here are some pictures of Greysen at swimming.  He has so much fun now, im so proud of him.  If only you knew what he was like at the beginning, on my MIL knows what I mean!!!!

Greysen with his head in and kicking :)

 His teacher is on the left, he is on the right, you can hardly see him but she was showing him to put his arms up and lean forwards and swim to the edge, he took off without her knowing,  funny, he didnt make it as far as she did.  But he tried!!!!

 Here she is showing him technique.  Can you believe he is learning "technique"

 Here he is using his "technique" to swim through a hoop.  Doesnt he look like the next Michael Phelps :)

 See on the podium again!!!!   Im so proud of him.  He rocks!!!!

Oh my goodness. This week has proven one thing to me.  Back in March I made the decision to stop coaching gymnastics.  A very hard decision to make.  I loved the girls I was with 12 hours a week.  Teaching kids is such a joy to me and I love it very much.  But I had to put my own kids first, and this week has proven to me that it was the right decision.  Im so proud of my boys.  Words just dont do my happiness any justice.  I feel it deep down inside my heart and I love the feeling!!!

After swimming we met the neighbors for a play date and lunch.  It was fun, and quite interesting taking 3 boys and a girl out to lunch.  ha ha.  Those poor people :)  here are some pics from the play place we went too, but sorry non from lunch.  You can use your imagination (it was in a Subway by the way)


Greysen and Ty climbing the wall. however when they got up they couldnt get down :)

 G going down a slide thing.  He loves those :)

 G and Ty playing air hockey.  Ty kindly taught G how to keep score by using the counters on the side. 

Next would be Jacobs last soccer game with the Neons.  They did such a great job, all of them!!!!  They won 6 to 0.  They were so happy.  And to top it off they got to have a pizza party and receive trophies and medals. 

 J's team at the park.

 J with Coach Lalon and Ben who was the assistant coach.  Lalon said he was the looks behind the operation and Ben was the brains :)

 Team picture.

Well Sunday was going to be a catch up day.  Catch up on laundry, cleaning, chores, etc.   But Julie, my friend, called and asked if the boys and I would like to go with her kids and her to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  Ya she didnt have to twist my arm.  They boys im sure would not have minded.  So off we went.  G fell asleep 1/3 of the way through.  But he was all excited at first.  happy with his fanta and m&m's. 

So that was about it.  Oh ya freak, I forgot to mention my tomato's.  Yes im sure you are thinking "big deal" but it is!!!  Im a farmer you know.  My second profession right now.  Hey it saves us money by not buying them at the store!!!  I have huge huge plants, and in fact i have tomatos ready to be picked but im not sure how to reach them.  I took some pictures of that.  Then I also added my green thumb when it comes to flowers, segos, and the yard.  I have to have proof before everything dies because its freakin hot here and no rain in sight.   So sit back and enjoy and just picture yourself sitting with me on the deck enjoying the surroundings. Oh maybe not the chiggars, but the flowers. 

I guess that is about it.  Im not going to go into the whole chiggar thing.  that was the sucky part of the week and i will not dwell on it.  It was too good of a week!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the weekly update.  I know there were lots of pictures, lots of good news, and I can say it was made with lots of love.  Enjoy your week.  We love you and are so proud of you!!!!

Week 17 - "Where a Kid Can be a Kid!!!!"

Another week full of fun, ending with an exciting activity for Greysen.  Not only has nothing really bad happend this week, but Ive got tomatos growing and turning red!!!!!  Im going to be eating tomatos till I turn into ketchup.  :)  So things are looking up, im very happy to say!!! 

As normal not many activities happend during the week until Friday.  Greysen had swimming again and passed half of the next level in one day.  He is going to be on swim team soon, im sure of it!!!  Now if he could not look like a dog jumping into the pool :)  here are some pictures of the highlights of the day.

This is G and his teacher is estatic because he bobbed up and down into the water 5 times.  Taking a deep breath when he came up and then holding his breath as he went under water.  Guess its a new skill he passed!!!!

 This is G touching the bottom of the pool.  Yet another skill passed!!!!!

 Going down the little slide, his  new favorite thing to do :)

 OH and another skill yet perfected, the BIG leap into the water.  Yes he does look like a dog jumping into the water and maybe one day he will jump like a little boy.  Ha ha, he cracks me up :)

Ok and before I go on much farther I must introduce the new pet of the household.  Probably not quite what Blu had in mind as a playmate, but G LOVES!!!!!  these little pets.  Here is his very first one!!!

This one promptly died, could have been the cheese, or maybe the salsa accidently dropped into the cup, or maybe it could have been the near death experience falling off the table at dinner time.  Either way, he kept it under his light all night, took it to school to share the next day and then added to the family by collecting about 10 more.  They soon died as well but as he says "shhhhhh they are sleeping!!!!"  Oh lordy what have I gotten on my hands now??  A rolly polly farm???  The funny thing is, is that he will talk about them non stop.  All evening long, all day, every word out of his mouth has to do with rolly pollies.  He was even nice enough to share his new family members with spectators at the soccer game.  Some not so excited about the whole experience and some who let him put them on their legs, arms and hands.  The rolly pollies go everywhere with us!!!!!!!  Poor Blu might feel a bit neglected :(

Ok now onto the rest of the week.  I guess its time again for the weekly soccer game.  The boys did fabulous!!!  They played hard and it paid off, they tied with the other team which is a good feat.  Here are some highlights of the game.

Oh and before I forget again.  G has found a new sport as well. It may not be soccer, tball, basketball, karate, or anything like that.  ITS BETTER!!!!  I mean he is truely the athletic person in the family.  I mean check this out!!!!  He may win medals and trophies someday with this one :)

It is now time for our monthly date night.  G goes to school for his "movie party" and J and I go and have some fun together.  This time we went to Chuy's for dinner, it was soooooo good and also sooooooo filling.  But we worked it off with a serious game of miniture golf!!!!  It was on!!!!!  Here are a few pics of things and us around the course.  Oh did I mention it only took about 1 1/2 hours to get through the whole course.  Ya it was a little busy.  But soooo much fun.

Before the battle.  He has his game face on!!!

 Just wanted to take a pic of a palm tree :)  It was a beautiful evening.  Perfect for mini golfing!!!

 In the gold mine.  From here on out the course gets harder and harder.  We are now entering the "hill country"

 J took a pic of me :)  working on his photographer skills

 We became friends with the people we had to wait in the long lines with so we asked one to take a picture of us.  So here we almost to the top of the huge hill!!!

So anyways, I won!!!!  I rock!!!!  So then J decided we needed to test our skills at a water balloon fight.  The golf course has these launchers and each person stands in this cage like thing which also includes a slingshot.  We had 12 huge balloons each.  I can honestly say J won.  I left soaked!!!!!  So then it was time to get some ice cream, yummm Marble Slab Creamery :)  I had smores ice cream and Jacob a birthday cake milkshake. 

The evening was so much fun and I really enjoyed every minute of it :)   Looking for one day spending special time like this with Bill.

Ok then Sunday I had to make crepes.  I decided to try some with yogurt this time instead of nutella.  I really liked it, however I felt a little odd eating while video chatting with Bill.  I was also trying to make Jacob one more but I totally forgot about it.  This is what happens when you video chat with someone for about 30 min while making crepes :)

Ya not so appetizing.  Luckily it was time to go to Chuck E Cheese.  G was invited to a bday party there.  His first time ever going, he had so much fun!!!  It was so cute watching him play all these games.  You want to know what his favorite things were.  Can you guess.  Here is a little hint.  One has to do with a locomotive, the other a bowling ball.  HMMMMMM well here are the pics.  The train and the bowling machine were his ultimate favorite :)

OH and he liked kicking my butt at air hockey, and throwing the baseball.  Funny thing is, when the baseball game was over you still had balls to throw, he would throw them exactly into the holes after the game was over.   It was a big hit and I promised him if he can sleep without pullups on and not have any accidents we would go back to celebrate.  As im writing this (Monday evening) he is sleeping without a pull up on.  He promised to go in the toilet if he needed to during the night.  We will see how that goes.  :)

After CEC we headed to the base to buy some new shoes for J.  G had to buy some too as he wanted to have fast feet.  So now he runs everywhere!!!!  Not that new shoes really changes much, he runs everywhere anyways, but now he wants you to watch him run fast :)

Ok thats it!!!!!  PHHHEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW that was one long week!!!!  But full of fun.  Im so thankful for the boys, they fill my days with unexpected happiness.  Without them these 11 months would go by so slow.  I hope by reading these it makes your days go by faster just because you can go back and read over and over what the boys are doing. 

Well I dont know much more I can add to this, its already full of stuff for you.   You know we love you more then anything.  G still likes you better most of the time.  And J still says he misses you a lot!!!!  I cant wait till we can surprise them :)

Ok love, till next week :)