My Future's So Bright...

I GOTTA WEAR SHADES!
Tread is like his mom in that he cannot go anywhere without sunglasses! Grace however, just wears them to be stylin'!

Old McDonald Had A Farm...

These animals are Grace's favorite! She carries them everywhere she goes. She packs them in her purse, she takes them from room to room and she invites everyone to play with them. When given baby dolls and bibs and bottles, you'll find Grace will put the baby doll aside and put the bib on her monkey or teddy bear. She is definitely an animal lover!

Mrs. Cleaver

I know you logged on to see the kids, but Audrey snagged the camera to practice her photography and took this picture of me while I was vacuuming. See how happy I am? The smile just comes from knowing I'll be able to see my floor for the next 5 minutes or so...

One for you and Two for Grace...

Grocery shopping can be an adventure all in itself and every trip leads to some kind of embarrasing moment. Either Tread will strike up a conversation with every perfect stranger that walks by or someone will be chasing Grace up and down every aisle. It's not hard to find her because it is usually accompanied by a panic-stricken scream that turns out to be Grace's way of amusing herself! I try to keep them strapped down in the cart, but usually run out of room and they end up having to walk.
I only go when we are down to Tap Ramen noodles and water because I cringe at the thought of trying to get up and down every aisle and still come out of the front doors sane! This last trip was during lunch, so I was able to entertain them both with lunch from McDonald's and the Happy Meal toys. Grace found it comical to make her "Dorothy" doll kiss Tread's Ninja turtle while he tried to fight off Dorothy with his sword. But once again, both of them had to exit the cart and walk beside me. Grace then decided to help load my cart with a few more items than were on my list, but apparantly were on hers! I would successfully sneak the items back on the shelf while she scoped out the next item to grab.
The colored Goldfish crackers were one of the few items that got past me. When I went to check out, I had no choice but to buy some "convenient" foods that I normally wouldn't purchase. We got home and unloaded groceries and when Grace came in from playing she went straight to the pantry and asked for her "fish". Of all the things I purchased, thank goodness this was one of them! I can imagine what melt-down might have been awaiting had I not revealed her purchase from the pantry shelf! She is spoiled and showing it!

Hang Ten!

Chase has been practicing his flips on the trampoline and he is getting pretty good! Audrey was the fancy photographer for these photos. Although she got in trouble when Dad found her using the camera at her leisure. (Oops!) With football coming up, I'm am sure we will be taking out emergency room insurance for him in the near future!

Just Hangin' Out

It was Saturday and Dad was working, but we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and pack a picnic and meet him for lunch. The kids ran off some energy and Ryan and I soaked up some sun!


No matter how you slice it, these are some...
GOOD LOOKIN' KIDS!

Gentlemen...REV' YOUR ENGINES!

Why we don't have a cute picture of the kids at the monster trucks is beyond me.

We do however, have a great story!
Unfortunately, alcohol was allowed into this event where at least 50% of the audience is children. We "lucked out" and had a row of twenty-something idiots sitting in front of us.
The one sitting in front of Chase passed out in his chair and ended up resting his head on Chase's lap! After asking his buddies to take care of him, they started poking him, laughing at him and eventually...taking his picture. (Thanks guys!) After security escorted these no so gentle-men out of the stadium, we had the "alcohol" discussion with the kids.
So, after Tread went back to preschool, "Conner" was telling his teachers that he went to the monster trucks and how they crashed the cars and were loud and breathing fire! Tread on the other hand explained to the teachers and Conner that there was ALCOHOL there. That seemed to be his only focus. The conversation went on from there like this...

Conner: "No there wasn't!"
Tread: "Yes there was...I saw it! It was in cups and it was yellow!"
Conner: "That wasn't alcohol, that was Budweiser!"

Needless to say, Tread's preschool teachers were on the floor and informed me that Conner knew a little too much about a lot of things!

The Party's Over...

Grace decided to claim the top of Tread's birthday cake for her own. Remember when you were younger and kids with dirty faces and dirty clothes really grossed you out? And now...not so much! I guess they have to be your own, but we think she's the cutest thing EVER with or without the ice cream dribble!

Happy 5th Birthday, TREAD!!

Tread's 5th birthday was talked about DAILY as he counted down from February! He was so excited and had everything planned out! Shrek cake, bowling, out to dinner, friends & family and of course...presents! He was SO excited!

We were all stylin' in our bowling shoes. Remember when you thought they were so cool and now you feel like you need laytex gloves and sanitizer to put them on? I'm also lovin' the carpeting in this picture! It's so 80's!


A perfect split! We didn't tell him the bumpers weren't supposed to be there!


With a little help from Dad, Tread managed to rip through his gifts in 5 minutes flat!


Our sweet boy is growing up so fast! :(

On Your Mark, Get Set...

The kids decided to have sack races in my pillowcases.
Tread got a "two-jump" head start.
Then it turned into trying to trip each other before the finish line. Tread somehow lost his pants along the way...
And the winner is...Gracie! She was thrilled! Needless to say, Mom was down a couple of pillowcases by the time the races were over!

Houdini has done it again!

OK...so this is a re-enactment, but after picking up Grace from grandma's house she loaded herself in the car and hit the lock button; not knowing how she did it! Now, if you hadn't heard the story from just a month or so ago, Grace also managed to lock herself in grandma's house after they went out to get the mail together! So, after several phone calls and attempts to get her to push the right buttons, she managed to set off the alarm-which made her cry-which made Tread cry. A neighbor got the spare key from Audrey at the house and delivered it to us...only to find out she was given the WRONG spare key! I was blocking grandma's van in the garage, so she managed to back out over her curbing and onto the front lawn to run home and get the right key. Needless to say, we showed her how to unlock the car and put her back in it to test her knowledge!

Califoregon Coast

We packed our sweaters being prepared for "storm season" and the weather couldn't have been more beautiful! We almost forgot where we were visiting. The kids were crazy about seeing the ocean and playing on the beach.

This was our "attempt" at a family picture on our last morning. Notice - not a hair blowing out of place!