Ridemakerz Giveaway on Aim's blog!

My sister is doing an AWESOME giveaway on her blog. Click here to read all about it and enter!

Sledding!!!

I love that we have 4 seasons but some I enjoy from indoors. I do not like being cold. I haven't been sledding since before Jon and I got married, but yesterday was FUN!!! More fun than I could have imagined. We went with Aimee and Ryan and their kids. And I wasn't cold AT ALL! Well, at the end of the day, my face was kinda frozen (into a permanent smile) and my fingers started to get a bit cold! We had an absolute blast! Here are some pics of our day...

Buzz, Jack and a green frog...

Well...here ya go! One week later. Not bad!

Halloween 2008Talon was the frog that Ben was 2 years ago. Gotta love a costume that was $1.97 and 2 kids WANTED to wear it!

Bennett was Captain Jack Sparrow...and he LOVED every minute of it!

Simon was Buzz Lightyear. His wings even had lights. I tried to get a picture of it but they flashed...so it was nearly impossible.

Ben, my non-picture taking boy, insisted on this one. I couldn't believe it!

Me and my love - thank you Simon!Waiting for more trick-or-treaters...we didn't have many after we got home.This is my favorite picture! I love their faces.

Why I Love Fire Prevention Week

by Melanie J. Stevens

:)

Really, I do. Why, you ask? LOTS of reasons!!! :) One of the main reasons is the Fire House Open House. Our town goes all out and it's just such a fun day! We look forward to this so much. The kids LOVE it!

We get to go for a ride on the antique fire truck with a siren blaring!

The boys get to slide down a real fire pole,

pretend to drive and rush off to a huge fire,

sit in the jump seat and pretend to talk to the other fire fighters, squirt the fire hose,

and watch the real fire fighters use the jaws of life! I think that was Ben's favorite.

"Thanks you fire fighters. We love you!"

(from Elmo Visits the Firehouse, for those of you that don't know!)

It's Not All Baby Rides Anymore!

Yesterday, we went to a carnival in Dyer. We had so much fun! Ben and Simon are now tall enough to go on some of the bigger rides.

Look how excited Ben is. He thought he wasn't tall enough and he was so sad...then he found out he actually WAS tall enough and jumped into his seat - right next to Mom!

Unfortunately, for me, the operator decided that since the boys were so excited, he'd let them have another go. I was so relieved when it started slowing down, then the guy with one tooth said "One more time!" I was pretty queasy after that. :)

Simon's first bumper car ride - all by himself.

You can tell that he's s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g to reach the pedal but he did GREAT and had an absolute blast!
Talon loved this motorcycle ride. It did wheelies! On his second turn we could tell he was making motorcycle sounds. So cute!
Tal was cracking up on the dragon roller coaster. He loved it so much!
Ahhh, the fun slide. I think they went down this thing at least 20 times!
Our last ride. The Super Shot! I've been on the Giant Drop at Great America but this actually scared me more than that. I think because I heard this clicking sound and thought it reached the top but we were already at the top and it was actually dropping us. It was crazy!Simon did NOT like it - at all!

Big Wheel 500

How about that - a post from an event that happened less than 3 days ago!

The Big Wheel 500!

Ben got 2nd place in the 4 year olds division

with a time of 2 minutes and 4 seconds.

He had to go around the track once - a quarter mile.

Simon got 3rd in the 6 year olds division with a time of 4 minutes and 7 seconds. He had to go around the track twice - half a mile. And his crazy mother didn't insist on shoes so his flip-flops kept falling off.

We can't forget Talon. He didn't have a nap so he was EXHAUSTED!

My winning boys - they were so proud! I'm so proud!!

Well Hello There!

Okay, I know I'm a terrible blogger.

But today, I present some new photos for my mommy (who I don't see enough), sister-in-law Tara (who checks my blog often and finds nothing), Mike and Penny (who we miss so much), my sister Leanne (who informed me that she checks my blog EVERY MORNING to see if I've posted anything) and anyone else who still checks in on my blog from time to time! Me and the boys were messing with the timer on my camera.

The boys in their "tent".

Talon at our church's Labor Day picnic.

Love you guys! I'll try to post more often.

Water, Water...EVERYWHERE!

Not in our basement though - thank you Jesus!

Here's the view from our porch.














and from the corner of our block














This is Broadmoor - Target is just past that light.














On the left is Simon's school - a block and a half from our house.














As if the water isn't bad enough, this afternoon there was a garage fire.






















































The fire trucks couldn't even get to it.

So many milestones...so little time to blog it all!

Yes, my friends. Here I am. Trying to post about my crazy, insane life! But we've had so many blog-worthy things going on so I thought I'd share a few. If for no one else but the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins (you get the point!) that haven't seen the boys in ages.

Okay, so I guess I'll start with the fact that my baby turned 2 years old on April 8. WHAT?!?!! I know. I can't believe it either. He talks to me all.day.long and sometimes I just stare at him and wonder where the time has gone.

Here are a few pics from his Elmo birthday party. What a fabulous day! It was so sunny and warm. Perfect when you have 30 people at your house - most of which are kids!!!



Happy Birthday Talon Jonathan Peter. We love you so much! At to all those who know the Jonathan and Peter for whom he was named after, I will just say that we surely named him right! Penny will understand! :) I think I just felt another gray hair pop out on the top of my head just thinking about it!

And now I will move on to my first baby...

Here he is lookin' all cute for Terry and Heather's wedding on April 12. He had the exact tux as the groom and it was just too cute and very pimpin'! :)

And he now rides a two-wheeler - like a mad man, at that!

This is his first time out. He did awesome. Pretty much just decided it was time and he was off!

And he lost his very first tooth. (Well, not including the ones he had to have pulled when he was almost 4, those don't count!) In one week he learned how to ride his bike and lost his first tooth. When he realized it was loose and showed me I started to cry. I couldn't handle it - at least not both in one week!!! What on earth am I going to be like when he starts to drive or goes to Prom? I can't even begin to imagine!

And now some news about Bennett James (as he likes to call himself but it's more like Bennett Dwames). He is becoming quite the gardener. It helps when you have an excellent gardener living right next door who loves your kids like an extra grandpa! Soooo great because our grandpas are far away a lot of the time. :( So, a few weeks ago, Talon and Ben "helped" our neighbor Jim plant a new tree in his yard.

Last week they planted a little garden behind our garage. Jim is the sweetest thing. He prepared the soil and got it all ready for Ben to plant tomatoes and corn. The best part was that he was teaching Ben things along the way.

More coming soon!

Ladies & Gentleman, Boys & Girls...

IT'S A NEW POST!!!

To be honest, I don't feel like posting :) but apparently there are a handful of people that still read my blog. So here we are the last few months...

Contrary to what you may have heard, we have not been sitting at the computer playing Webkinz. Well, that's not ALL we've been doing.

I tried to take a nice picture for Valentine's Day. This is the best one I got. Simon was chewing gum. Talon wiggled the whole time and Ben cried most of the time. I wont post the 274 pictures where at least one is making a funny face or crying or whining. Not fun!

We've gone to Uncle Pete & Auntie Kath's for a visit...

Simon being a bear with their faux fur blanket. So cozy!!

Uncle Peter got these cupcakes especially for our boys. You guys are so much fun for our kids. We all enjoyed our time together so much!

Simon and Ben started having sleep-overs at "Simon's house" (Simon's room) on the weekends. This is their first one. They have had many more since and both of them totally love it. It's so sweet to stand at the door and listen to them. They are truly becoming friends! The best part is that when they wake up they start playing and don't wake everyone else up! Gotta love that!!! One morning I heard Ben say "Come on Simon. Wet's (lets) go watch Tom and Jerry!" :)

Notice Smokey and Harry in the middle. Smokey is Simon's and Harry is Ben's. They were having a sleep-over too! :)

Talon's learned to climb the drawers in the bathroom and get access to the water...

This is where I find him numerous times a day!

Simon has learned to do cartwheels and flips which he practices every single day. I need to get that kid in a gymnastics class.

Spent some time in the 50...which is about to be sold to a US soldier leaving Afghanistan this weekend. :(

Had a nice visit with Grandpa Mike. He's out of the country again now until JULY! :( We'll see Grandma Penny next week and we are all very excited!!!

We went to Quaker Steak and Lube. The kids love that place! The night we went with Grandpa they had a balloon animal lady. As you can see, the were very excited!

Ben made this fort which he called a fire house. I'm not exactly sure what all of my small appliances have to do with a fire house but I'm glad he's got such a great imagination!

Talon decided that he would like to be a police man. The day of this picture anyway! :)

And yes, we still love our Webkinz!

Here's Talon with June.

This is Simba and Harry going for a ride in their new car!

And here we have Scruffy, Smokey and Coal heading out in the dump truck! :)

And for the record...if Blogger didn't take so long to upload images (and Webkinz wasn't so much fun), I'd be a lot more excited about posting. But I will try to do better. It really has been totally crazy lately. We've got 3 more crafts to do with MOPS as well as a TON of invites for various parties we're working on, not to mention taking care of my Webkinz garden. It just all takes away from blog time!