I see YELLOW!!

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I would brag on Mason a little bit. :-) Today Mason earned something that he has worked really hard for and I am SO VERY proud of him.
He earned his....
YELLOW BELT!!! :-)

This is one of the things that he had to do to earn it....



This is just part of what he had to know, but it goes to show that he is definitely a hands on child. I can't tell you how proud I am of him. It was amazing to see the smile on his face when he walked in with a yellow belt around him!! You couldn't wipe the grin off his face for hours...he is so proud of himself. We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to Mike for taking the time to teach these boys!!!

Many of you know, or maybe don't know, that I LOVE the theatre!! I have a huge love for broadway! Seriously...HUGE! Well yesterday I got to share my love with the kids. For a couple years now the boys have listened to the OBCR of Wicked and watched every clip possible on YouTube. I even have video of Mason singing and acting some of it out, but I will save him the embarrasment...that is for now. ;-) Anyway...Wicked is in Indianapolis and will be in town for 3 weeks. The boys have been asking to see it for a couple years now, but the website said no one under the age of 5 was allowed and 8 was recommended. So I told the boys that when they turned 5 they could go. Now mind you every child is different and you really have to judge it based on your child, but I knew the boys would be fine since they knew almost ever word to the OBCR.

So on Thursday afternoon we headed up to Indy to try for lottery tickets. Which by the way is almost impossible to win for Wicked. I figured it wouldn't be crowded because it was a matinee in the middle of the week...wrong. It wasn't as crowded as the night before but still crowded for a middle of day performance in my opinion. I didn't figure that they would let the twins put their names in but I knew that at least we had 3 names in and that would hopefully be enough. To my surprise they said if they can write it then they can enter. WOO HOO!!!

...leave it to the kids to win!! Here they are sportin their buttons that say "I WON the Wicked Lottery!" Isaac was the first name to be drawn! YAY!! :-)

Needless to say we were really excited!! Then came a huge delima...we had 2 seats that were together on one side of the theatre, 2 seats on the complete other side and one in the back. Yikes!! We thought it would be the typical lottery seats that were front row, but it happened that they were partial view up the sides. :-( So after much deliberation we decided to put Mason and Isaac on the side where the seats were together and I set strict ground rules. Weston and I sat on the other side where he was in the row behind me but we both had seat 3 so I was right in front of him...and then we put William in the back so he could get to them (Mason and Isaac) for potty breaks during intermission. Sounds complicated doesn't it?? It was! But I am happy to report that it worked out extremely well!! The boys LOVED the show and are begging to go back and try lotto again. I think I've created monsters. :-) I didn't panic or have an anxiety attack with them being by themselves and we all enjoyed it so much.

They don't look excited or anything...I don't think they could have smiled any bigger!! Haha! And those are "real" smiles...not the fake cheesy ones kids always give you when you tell them to smile. I didn't even have to say those words.

So...my advice...GO SEE THE SHOW!!!! :-)

A week ago....

...this did NOT sound like Amazing Grace. He is so proud of himeslf and this is, by far he says, his favorite song he has had to learn. I will try to get an audio of it when he plays with his piano teacher. It sounds beautiful and he does a fantsatic job keeping his part. But for now this is what ya get. :-)

I couldn't figure out how to rotate it, but you guys get ther point. :-)

I am SO VERY proud of him!

Enjoy!

Not a whole lot here....

So there hasn't really been much going on around here. Nothings really changed job wise and we're just trying to hang in there. So I thought that I would post some pictures. Mason recently had a piano recital and he's really enjoying it. We've went from fighting and throwing books to him just sitting down and playing. :-)



We also took a mini-vacation up to the Dells thanks to last minute deals on travelzoo.com. We have really grown to love that place. We spent a couple days at the Kalahari Resort where the boys tried their hands at flowboarding, which is like body surfing, enjoyed all but 2 waterslides, floated on a lazy lazy river, rode a ferris wheel, drove go-karts, played mini-golf, walked up about 100 flights of stairs total (I lost count) and wore their parents out! It was very kid friendly as you can tell!
On the way home Weston finally got an up close and personal interaction with a red-eyed tree frog! :-)As Weston and Isaac continue to remind me of them turning 5 in a couple weeks, I am amazed at how fast they have grown up. I have something in the works for their big 5 birthday and can't wait to see their faces. Keep on the lookout for pictures! :-) Oh and I also made a trip to the city to hang out with a friend for a couple days. Happy to report I survived the plane ride, all 6 of them, and had the time of my life. I seriously LOVE that city! I spent several hours in Central Park on Saturday and captured some great pictures. So I'll leave you all with some pictures of a place thats so beautiful, relaxing and calm, such a contrast to the city that surrounds it. :-)

Yesterday my sister and I took off to spend the day in Chicago together. She just lost her job recently and doesn't really get out much and I wanted to go see a show one more time so I figured it would be some fun sister bonding time. We have an odd relationship. When she was 15 she came to live with me and I went from being her sister to her parent. When she moved out a couple years ago we kinda lost contact due to some family issues and just recently got back in touch about a year ago. We have done the girl thing and went to lunch and hung out but its been akward. Its very hard to go from being a sister to a parent and then back to being a sister again. So this time for us was greatly needed to kind of reestablish our sister bond and learn how to just be sisters and have fun. And we did! We had loads of fun!! I have been to Chicago before but never downtown and she had never been to Chicago at all. She had never even seen a toll booth before let alone downtown Chicago. So it was great to get to experience that with her. To see her get so excited over a toll booth made my day! :-) I can't express how much fun we had together. Of course we saw the show twice as most of you already know. Yes again! :-) While the show was what intiated this trip it was more than just seeing a show, it was a much needed bonding time between two sisters! And the show didn't disappoint either! They were on top of it at the night show, the emotions were flying and it was fantastic!! We also visited Millenium Park and got to be a little silly with The Bean and took pictures to prove it! :-)

The Bean

Yes we laid on the ground and it was so much fun! :-)

Us taking a picture of us taking a picture! LOL!

Looking up from under The Bean.

Me being silly!

We had so much fun taking pictures with this!

Ashley at her first broadway show...and my favorite show!

We had so much fun, wait...did I already say that! Haha! I have been informed that this will not be the last, that its just the beginning...I can't wait!! :-)

Announcing.....

the newest members of our family....

Dixie (aka Dixie-do, and yes she answers to that, its the cutest thing ever) who is a Holland Lop- Torte. She is extremely friendly and already has one leg under her (which in regular terms means she has already won Grand Champion once!)


Joe... is a Thrianta (which is a new and gorgeous breed). He came from a well known breeder and his mom was a champion, which apparently is a good thing! :-) He is still a little skittish when being held, but sits on the table extremely well. I just remembered that he was shown last week and won best of show!
This really isn't a great picture, but it was the one that showed off his red firey color the best!

So after much fretting and many hours of research we finally walked out of the barn with, in my opinion, the 2 best rabbits in the entire barn. But I'm a little biased! :-)

Mason is 9!!!

So for some reason this birthday year was hard for me. I know that it should be next year with him hitting the double digits and all, but it was this year. I think its because I know he's approaching it and see it in his maturity, conversations and such. The other day while watching tv (a commercial about the new Disney movie coming out) he made the comment "she's pretty". What?! Seriously! Where did that come from? I was in complete shock and was speechless. It would have been the perfect teachable moment and could have probably sparked some great conversations...would have been, had I known what to say and not gone all speechless and all. I am not ready for him to be so grown up, but on the other hand its nice to be able to carry on great conversations with him. If that makes any sense at all. Okay, well enough talk of him growing up. Lets get to the pictures!

The Sonic Cake!

Sonic Movie
Sonic Wii Game
Sonic T-Shirt (yes, another one!)...Do you notice a pattern here? :-)
And here was the big one! I'll explain first. Mason has been asking for this for some time. He brought it up again when asked if there was anything he wanted for his birthday. I kindly told him that they were just too expensive right now and he (surprisingly) said that's okay mom I'll just have something else. I was shocked by his reaction, he is really maturing. I was expecting a huge fit and that's not what happened at all. He would see them on tv and when we were out and just say I wish they weren't so expensive and that was it. No fit, not temper, no whining, nothing. Thats when I realized he was ready for it, to respect it and take care of it. So with the help Mama and Dave, because they are expensive, we were able to suprise him with it. :-)
The happiness was glowing on his face!
...as a little side note, it holds audiobooks too!! And we have the actual book of a couple so I will be using this to my advantage. ;-)
Here he is sporting some of his birthday gifts! The shirt was an awesome gift from his Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky! Thanks guys he loves it!
Now onto embarrassing the twins. I know that they are probably too old for bath pictures and pretty soon they'll be too old to take baths together, but I have to post these. They are hularious and I made sure that I kept it to just their bellys and up.
Weston..."I feel like a flower."