Happy Mother's Day to ME!

Okay, so I know Mother's day was a while ago and now it is closer to Father's Day. But considering I still haven't bought my wheat grinder from last years Mother's Day, I think we are doing pretty well. For Mother's Day this year, Randy made me a garden box using the railroad ties that were in the yard when we bought the house. Yesterday we finally got some plants planted in it. We bought 3 tomato plants, 3 different pepper plants, watermelon, some peas and some marigold flowers to help keep some of the pesty bugs away. Why no squash or cucumbers? Because they are nasty! here are some Pics of our new garden:Don't you just love our gorgeous lawn around it?

yes, I know it is only half full, we will plant some more later this week.

the boys also picked out plants to grow. they picked the 'Veggie Tales' watermelon grower. They are each holding their watermelon planters. We will see how they do after we transplant them into the garden.

Tyler says...(With a little Jakey)

Tyler was playing with something and I asked "Tyler, what do you have?" He got a big grin on his face like he was about to share a very important secret and said "You know when I had a sleepover at Grandmas for a long time?" (When I was in DC). "Well, I just pulled this string out from my Star Wars underwear and it is sooo soft! It feels really good on my tummy and on my face!"

That's great. I have a kid rubbing an old ball of underwear string all over himself. That boy never ceases to surprise me. I did throw it away when he wasn't looking though. I know, mean mama!

Anyway, Lately Ty refuses to wear anything that isn't "Army" and by that I mean camouflage. It has to be both the shirt and the pants/shorts if possible. He is now saying everyday that when he grows up he wants to be "an Army guy." I will be very proud of him if he does choose to serve our country. Here are some pics.Ty and Jake today. They are pretending to hold shotguns if you couldn't tell.

When I asked Ty to smile for a picture, he said that "Army guys don't smile"

But I made a joke and got this out of him anyway.

Jakey says for today:
We were watching the garbage truck from our front window and Jacob shouts "Tank you darbage man fo taking dis stinky darbage! now he go to Micadonalds!" I guess he feels that the garbage man deserves McDonalds after dealing with our stinky garbage. I agree.

Washington DC on my PC

Lily, Randy and I got back from Washington DC on Saturday. It was such a fun/interesting/exhausting trip. We flew out on Tuesday and stayed in Manassas the first two nights Randy had to work Wednesday, but he got back to the hotel in the mid-afternoon, so we got to see some of DC that night. we pretty much toured the rest of the time we were there (until Saturday). Lily was a trooper. She slept on all three flights and was full of smiles for the majority of the time. She slept a lot; either that or she was passed out from heat exhaustion. Either way, she was a great baby to haul along. I won't bore you with details of every single day, if you want that, you can call me. here are a few anecdotes from our trip. as well as a slide show. (I made sure you could speed it up in case you get bored. aren't I nice!)

Ratings:
Lincoln memorial-our favorite
WWII monument-Awesome!
Iwo Jima- Amazing and a lot bigger than I thought it would be (TWSS)
Korean Memorial-Eerily awesome at night
Jefferson Memorial-Very cool (loved how much he talks about God)
Roosevelt memorial- pretty, but why did they make him sitting everywhere when he didn't want to be thought of as "Handicapped"?
Washington Monument-It's OK you don't have to be right next to it to appreciate it.
Manassas National Battlefield- Interesting
National Archives- Randy liked it a lot more than I did
I loved the Museum of art (while Randy was bored)
Randy loved the Air and Space Museum (while I was bored)

Funny Stuff:
Lily pooping really loud on the flight to Virginia.

While crossing the street to the museum of Art, Randy was hit by a biker. (the kind that pull a cart with people in it.) Very funny to me, not so funny to Randy and Lily.

My super duper frizzy hair as high as the sky!

We ran into four LDS missionaries at the Manassas Battlefield Park. You can't get away from those Mormon missionaries!

The security guy at the Smithsonian looking at our map and saying to us "You are parked at the tidal basin?" with disbelief that we had walked that far. Yeah, my back and thighs couldn't believe it either; and we still had to walk BACK to the car!

Things I don't understand:
Really old men wearing REALLY short shorts.
The senators having GIANT office suites and sharing a whole floor of the building with just two other senators.
Most of the parents walked around holding a baby while the other one pushed an empty stroller
The roads in DC go one direction in the morning and another direction later in the day
The Cincinnati airport is not in Ohio but Kentucky
DC is completely dead by 4:30 in the afternoon
You can be stuck in traffic at from 8-10 at night when everyone got off work at 4:30
You order a water with your food and they give you a teeny tiny cup (yeah, I know that is everywhere, but come on! I am thirsty and I don't want a giant soda, I just want a big thing of water. It can't cost them that much to give me a normal sized cup full of water.)
how Randy's "Speed walk" can be twice as fast as mine.
How anyone can live in that humidity



So to sum up, we had a really fun time. If we were to do it again, we would do it a little differently; so if you are going soon, give us a call and we will give you some advice.

Who's here to see who? at the zoo?

We went to the zoo today with two of our friends and their families and had a really good time. It was Lily's first trip to the zoo and she loved it, well, OK she had no idea what was going on, but the boys loved it and so did I. It was super crowded though because one of the monkeys had twin babies on mother's day; everyone wanted to see them. No, we could not spot the twin monkeys in the exhibit. oh well. here are some pics of our fun day.

Jakey and Randy

Rachelle, Brinley, Whitney, Tyler and Autumn

FYI: Lily is 2 months old now and we had her checkup on Wednesday. She is in the 75% for her weight and 95% for her height. She is starting out just like her brothers in that she is very big for her age. she also,obviously, doesn't like the sun in her eyes

Whitney, Brinley, Jacob, Brighten, Autumn and Tyler

and I thought Ty was big.

Tyler and Whitney. So cute together.

This is how Jake fell asleep on the way home. Ty is watching "Kung Fu Panda" with his tongue out

But my favorite pictures of the day? These:

I was laughing so hard. it reminded me of the "fail blog".
We have a zoo pass, so if anyone wants to go with me, let me know.

Tyler Says...(With Randy)

Ty: "I saw the ice-cream man today and he saw my sad face."
Randy:"did it work?"
Ty: "nope, it didn't work!"
(He came up with the "sad face scam" all on his own)

Ty:"Is kissing noodles choosing the right?"
Randy:"I think that is choosing the weird."

Hair Don't

Lily's latest hair don't. it reminds me of "Barf" from Spaceballs. What do you think?

Hair Do's

I have had quite the fun doing Lily's hair since she was born whether it be sticking up in the middle, bows, headbands,flowers, ponytails

or pigtails it is so fun!

I also think it is funny how different she looks in these pictures taken in only 2 months! the hairstyles change, but not as much as her little face has.

Say it to my face!

Yes, look at this picture and tell me I don't need a double stroller! I think I will order one this month sometime. Have any suggestions? b/c I am thinking of getting the "Kolcraft Contours option tandem stroller" my neighbor has it and she loves it and you can actually steer it! crazy I know.We still love to go to the park, even when I have Lily in the front pack, Jacob in the seat of the stroller and Tyler laying in the bottom of the stroller where all the "stuff" should go. We had fun the other night for family night. It was a nice temperature and it seemed like a good day for a pb&J dinner at the park.

Why I hate "Early out Wednesdays"

Yesterday I was pretty sick with the stomach flu. And Today I am feeling a lot better, but I am still feeling a little lethargic. The day was going pretty well, we had breakfast, did some laundry, watched TV, cleaned up the house and had lunch. I put Jake to bed for his nap around 12:45 (a little early for him, but he should probably sleep till just before 3:00) I hung out with Ty while I tried to get Lily asleep for her nap as well. She went down about 1:00 or so. I let Ty watch TV and went to take a nap myself. Going pretty well right?

I fell asleep pretty fast and at 1:25 the doorbell rings and it is our neighbor girl who loves to play with Ty (she is 3 years older than him, but pretty much on the same intellectual level; sad for her). I know better than to ignore her because that is followed by a lot more doorbell rings and pounding knocks on the door. I tell Ty he can get the door. I can hear her from my bed and she says: "Ty, is Heather here? I really need to talk to her." Tyler tells her I am sleeping. "But I really need to ask her a question if she can babysit me right now so my mom can go to the scrapbook store; please I will be your very best friend and I will give you some candy." (Luckily she has learned not to come into the house uninvited and into my bedroom. THAT really upset me last time.) Ty comes into my room and asks me yadda yadda yadda. I say no, I am still not feeling great and I am sleeping. He comes back 2 more annoying times with questions from Morgan. I tell Ty HE can go outside and play in our yard with her if he would like to, but no more questions. So he leaves, tells her he will meet her outside while he gets his shoes on. So I think, ohhh, good now we can continue to have "nap time." I hear Tyler leave the house and not two seconds later Jacob is crying for me on the stairs. Apparently instead of just putting on his sandals, Ty thought he should go into their bedroom where Jake is sleeping, grab his socks for his shoes and wake him up before he leaves. Ahhhh! I look at the clock in the kitchen 1:30. So much for "nap time" till 3:00 like a normal day! I hate that our school has early out Wednesdays!

we have our very own Kimmy Gilbbler. yikes.

Rough night?

gotta love the hair.

Lily's Blessing

We had Lily's blessing yesterday and it was wonderful. Randy did a really good job and I am so thankful that he is able to do that for our children. Here are some pics of our sweet girl. Unfortunately though she was pretty tired when we were taking pictures. We didn't get a really good one, but here you are. Maybe I will try another photo shoot today when she is a happy girl.

Thanks Eileen (my mother-in-law) for making her gorgeous dress and bonnet. We love you!

Yikes! Bikes!

we finally got the boys some bikes! Yes, I know Tyler is 5. We told him almost two years ago that if he stopped sucking his thumb, he could have a bike and now here we are.Jake got a "trike"

Having fun on the bikes

apparently, Randy likes it too
we need to teach Jake how to have fun going forward!Lily so cute in the outfit my brother's wife Amber made. Go Cougs! Thanks again Amber!