Family Fun

Over this past weekend the weather was gorgeous so we took the opportunity to be outside.  La Crosse was having an outdoor family fun day along the river so we figured we would check it out.  It was only .25 cents for rides and food so we couldn't go wrong.  Here are a few pictures of what the boys got to do while we were there.

The boys loved being able to look inside the fire trucks and ambulance.  They also enjoyed "driving" them as well.

The race cars were also pretty cool, Drew wanted to climb in one and drive it. Reed had to have his picture taken in front of the Miller car.

How cute is this~

Reed wouldn't leave until he was able to do this. He wanted to do it with Jay, but Jay said he was too big. So instead we sent Drew into the ring.  Is that fair?

This was hilarious! Drew tried so hard to get Reed, but he was just too far away from him that every time he tried to hit him he would just fall off.  But he still had a really good time. What a great way to let out brotherly aggression. Maybe we should rent one of these.

Husband Tag

I was tagged by one of my girlfriends to share information about Jay.  So here I go.

What is his name?  Jay, Daddy, Honey, Jaybird

How long have you been married?   4 years in July

How long did you date?   about 18 months before we got married

How old is he?  He just turned 31 on May 13th!

Who tends to eat more?   Do I really have to answer that?  Jay definitely does.  I can hold my own though.

Who said I love you first?   I think it was me, but I am going to have to ask him on that one.

Who is taller?   Jay is but not by too much.

Who sings better?  Neither of us really have a good voice, but I would have to say that Jay is better then me.

Whose temper is worse?  Jay's temper is worse, but he has been working on it and is getting a lot better. I think he has rubbed a little off on me though, because I think my temper has gotten worse since being home with the kids.

Who does the laundry?  Me, but he does help put it away every once in awhile.

Who does the cooking? Me, unless I want meat loaf, homemade pizza or eggs.  

Who does the dishes?  The majority of the time me, but he does help out with it.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  Right now it is me, but once the baby is born we will be switching so I can be closer to the bassinet.

Who pays the bills?  Me

Who mows the lawn?  Neither of us, we have our own personal maintenance guys.  The advantage to still be renting.  Once we have a lawn I am sure we will take turns or have the boys do it.

Who tends to drive more?  Before residency it was definitely Jay, but I tend to drive a lot more now.  He likes to sleep in the car now whenever we go anywhere.  

Who has more friends?  We are about even (I think).

Who has more siblings?  We are even.  Jay has 1 brother and I have 1 sister.

Who wears the pants in the family?  It depends on the issue. I think we are about even.  If you asked him though, I think he would say me.  

I now tag Ashley. You won't have an excuse now that you had nothing to blog about!

Rainy days

         
These photos are from a little bit ago. We have had a lot of rainy days around here lately, which has been hard on all of us. Just when  we think summer is just around the corner it is cold and rainy again.  Drew had been kept in the house for a week or so, because Jay and I decided that we were going to potty train him. Since the forecast was cold and rain we thought this would be a great chance to take advantage of having to keep him in. I never thought he was going to do it since he hated getting his diaper changed and he would go all day with a soaking wet diaper if I would let him. But I was very determined to not have two kids in diapers at the same time. Well he did it!  He has been going on the "big boy potty" for about two weeks now and doing great.  He has had a couple of accidents but I can handle that versus diapers.  

Since the boys had been inside so much they were climbing the walls and needed to burn off some energy, so we sent them outside and told them to play and just run around.

They thought it was great! They could jump in puddles and get all wet and not get into trouble.  It is amazing how the simple things in life are what entertain them the most.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I woke up this morning to the best surprise from my boys. Not only was it 7:30 and they had slept in, but they had made me breakfast and brought it up to bed. I was served a bowl of cereal and fresh fruit on their Dora the Explorer TV tray.  Jay had already left for work at 5 this morning so they did this all on their own.

Drew had made me a card at our Bible Study group on Wednesday so he has been telling me Happy Mother's Day since then, which is so cute! 

  

Reed made me a card, notepad and his own wrapping paper for Mother's Day.   Just when you thought you wanted to ship them off they do something so sweet!  

I originally thought this was going to be a crummy Mother's Day since Jay was working all day and he had told me that he had no time to go and get anything. The boys had also been pretty testy on Saturday. I think this turned into one of my favorite Mother's Day!  I will take anything homemade from the boys any day over something they can buy at the store.

Great job boys!  Mommy loves you guys a lot!

 

 

Pick your battles!

The other day Drew was in one of his moods that he wanted to do what he wanted to do.  We needed to go to the grocery store that day and he wanted to be a Power Ranger while shopping.  I thought about arguing with him and trying to convince him to change his clothes but then I realized it just wasn't worth it.  So here is his outfit for that day. I never thought I would be "that mom" that would allow my kids to go to the store in a Halloween costume in the middle of April. But Jay and I have learned that there are just some battles that aren't worth it.

Relaxing vacation or was it????

Jay was asked to represent Gundersen Lutheran at a Residency Fair in Omaha, NE this week, so we took the opportunity to take some time off and spend some time with the kids not in La Crosse.  We headed out Wednesday morning all excited for the next two days. The boys were excited because they were going to swim at the Hotel and then we were going to the zoo.  

About an hour and a half into our trip Drew started to get really antsy and was asking to go home. Jay and I looked at each other and thought this is going to be a long trip.  So we put a movie into the DVD player and 5 mins into the movie all the strawberries that Drew had just ate were now in his lap.  Great, what a way to start the trip.   We originally pulled over on the side of the road to get Drew somewhat cleaned up, but it was so windy that is was not safe at all.  We drove up to the next gas station and got him all cleaned up.  Jay took him in while I got the seat as clean as I could.  I asked Jay if he was feeling alright and Jay said, he wouldn't stop talking the whole time while they were in the bathroom.  So we knew that he had too many strawberries.  On the road we were again.  

We arrive into Omaha and we think we are in the clear.  We start looking for our exit when Jay says something doesn't feel right about the car.  We start to slow down a little bit since we are on the interstate and going 75 or so.  As soon as Jay slows down we felt the car drop to the left and the smell of burning rubber.  YUK!  Jay the great man that he is got us over to the median safely.  He got out of the car to see what it was and our tire had blown out.

We were only five exits from our hotel exit and right in front of the zoo and the College World Series Stadium.  What torture for the kids!  We got out our AAA card and called the number to have someone come help us change the tire.  Jay calls and they told us we were no longer members, because we hadn't renewed our membership.  OK, so now what do we do.  Our car has Onstar, but he had never registered the car.  We hit the button and a way we went to signing up for Onstar.  It took 45 minutes to sign up for Onstar.  Once everything was registered we just had to wait for "Mr. Repair" to come help us.  While we were sitting on the side of the road Drew kept asking, " why are the semis pushing us? That is not very nice." We tried to explain to him that it was just the wind from the trucks that was making the car move. He was not very convinced.  The things that go through their little minds.  Once our tire was changed we were off to the hotel.  The kids were so excited to be out of the car after being in the car an extra 2 hrs then needed.  Pool here we come!

The hotel that we stayed at had one of the best indoor pools for a reasonable price.  The pool only got 3ft deep and had two slides and a waterfall.  The boys swam for 2 1/2 hrs the first night while Jay was at the Residency fair and then 3 hrs the next morning while I was running around trying to get the car fixed and a new tire. Drew loved it because he could float around and touch in the majority of the pool.

Once we got the car situation somewhat under control we headed off to the zoo.  It was a bit cold and rainy so we didn't get to see all of the animals, but the Omaha Zoo is still amazing!  We could definitely tell that "Spring was in the air."  Reed started asking a couple questions as we got towards the end of the zoo trip, but we were able to change the subject.  I don't think we need the "birds and the bees" talk quit yet.  Out of all the animals at the zoo Drew's favorite animals were the ducks at whatever exhibit we were at. 

Reed's favorite exhibit was the tunnel aquarium, it is amazing to have sharks, fish and turtles swimming all around you.

After all the extra excitement and unplanned expenses we had a great time!  The boys loved being able to hang out with daddy for so long and not having him go into work.  I think Drew did ask Jay if he had to work today almost everyday.

We did it!

As some of you know we have been battling with Drew every night to keep him out of Reed's bed at night.  If you are wondering why it was such a big deal to keep him down, well here we go;  Drew spills Reed's water all over the top of the dresser and his books, he opens and closes the blinds, once he is up in Reed's bed he can't get down and the most important one Drew kept Reed up at night so Reed was then not getting a good night sleep. Therefor Reed was extremely crabby the next day.  Before the bed climbing Drew would open the door and come downstairs, so we put a child safety knob on so Drew couldn't get out but Reed still could.  He then started turning the light on and off so instead of turing the light off by the switch, we unscrew the light bulb just enough to turn it off. Crazy I know!  All the little things that we had to do to put the boys to bed. Jay and I used to be so proud of how easily Drew would go to bed and these last couple of months have been awful.  It was taking at least 45 mins for him to finally give up on trying to get up into Reed's bed.  We would have to go up to their room numerous times to take him down and explain to him why he couldn't sleep in Reed's bed.  We had tried everything to keep him from climbing up to the top bunk.  We put a dresser in front of the side, but he used that to his advantage and it made it easier to get up. We then put a tall dresser and video game chairs stacked upside down next to them and he still seemed to figure out a way to get up into Reed's bed. We even put Drew up in the top bunk and Reed down in the bottom one. You would think this would work right?  Oh no, he didn't want to just be on the top, but he wanted to be with Reed.  He threw an absolute fit. Jay and I have never seen him like that.  He was crying so hard that he was shaking. I had to take him out of the room to get him calmed down.  So much for that idea. This week Jay and I were at our wits end about ideas on how to keep him down, so we decided that we were going to try and build something.  We spent an hour and a half at Home Depot wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out what would be the best solution and safest solution.  Anyone that had an orange smock on, we asked what they thought.  One guy was no help at all, another girl had a couple of ideas, but weren't sold on any of them. We then found Bob.  He was incredible!  He made our visions come to reality. We left Home Depot $25 later and our building project began. 

Drew loved helping Jay, if Drew only knew what he was building with this board. Once Jay got it all put together we all headed upstairs to attach it to the bed.  Drew still thinking this device was pretty cool....until we put it on.  At first he thought he could still get up and then he quickly realized it was not going to happen.  He kept saying I want up in Reedo's bed.  The poor thing.

We still put the dresser up against the end of the bed, because we didn't want Drew to pinch his fingers by trying to move the board so he could still climb up. 

Jay and I put the boys to bed and crossed our fingers that this was going to work.  We heard a couple of bangs, which we assume Drew was trying to kick the board out of the way.  We then turned the monitor on downstairs so we could listen to what was going on just to make sure he wasn't getting hurt.  At one point he must have climbed on the side like in the picture above and was asking Reed to pull up him.  He is very creative when it comes to his ideas to get to the top.  He cried for maybe 5 minutes about not being able to get into Reed's bed, and then it was silent.  Utter silence after 5 minutes of the boys being in bed.  We hadn't had that in months. It was a success!! Jay was so proud of what he built! I was very proud as well.

OOPS!

OK, so you are thinking why are these posts back up on top of the blog when this was awhile ago? I changed the background on my blog and some of the blogs that I had done were deleted, because I had them in the wrong spot. I had to redo them and unfortunately you can't change the order of your blogs.  I learned more about the "blog world" today by making an error.

I will take this opportunity to update on some of the older blogs that are now on top.

+Our dinner time problem has been fixed!  Drew is now eating off of his own plate and sitting in his own chair. YEAH!  

Now we are trying to stop him at night from climbing up into Reed's bed (they have bunk

bed's). If anyone has any suggestions please pass them along.  Jay is going to try and build something this weekend to block the end of it.  

+I am now 26 weeks pregnant. I can't believe that we are going to have another baby in 3 months...YIKES!  Drew keeps asking if the baby can come out now.  I think he is getting excited about the baby, or he is just getting annoyed because I can't pick him up as easily and sitting on my lap has become a little more difficult. My doctor rescheduled my c-section for July 14th instead of July 7th because he will be out of town the week of the 7th.  If this Bennett Baby is anything like Drew we will not make it to that date since my due date is the 15th. Hopefully everything goes as planned this time since Drew decided to come a week earlier then my scheduled c-section date. Luckily family is only 2 hrs away this time instead of 9. We also have a lot of people in La Crosse who are willing to take the boys if needed.  

Dinner Time!

As you can see Reed and Drew have gotten really close lately.  Drew wants to do anything that Reed is doing, including eating off of Reed's dinner plate.  We tried to stop him, but he insisted that he shared with Reed. He started to eat a lot more at dinner time once allowed.  I think I might just stop setting a place setting for Drew.

Oh My Gosh another BOY!

Can you believe it, we are going to have another boy in this family?  I am still in shock, but I am going to love it!  I love having my boys and making Jay jealous because I have mama's boys.  He is hoping that he could have a daddy's little girl. Maybe someday that will happen.  Reed and Drew are very excited to be having another brother in the house.  When we told Drew that he was going to be a big brother he said, " then I am going to be Reedo Speedo Diddo!"  We quickly had to explain to him that he will still be Drew but has to act like Reed does.  Drew has been playing with a baby doll around the house and taking care of her.  It is so cute. I am hoping to have him potty trained by the time #3 arrives, but he is not showing any interest in it right now.  

Some of you may not know that my sister is also expecting another baby, and he is will be having a girl!  I am so excited to be having a niece so I can spoil her.  My parents are going to be very busy in the first part of July since Heather is due July 1st and as of right now my c-section is scheduled for July 7th....we will have to see if this baby wants to come early just like Drew.  If he was smart he would stay in the "safe house" as long as he can.

My First Blog!

I am sitting at my computer listening to Reed and his friend Hayden racing monster trucks and thought to myself why don't I start a blog.  It is a cold wintery day outside with tons of snow coming down and the wind blowing.  What else am I going to do? Then I think to myself why do we live here again?  Oh yeah because my husband hates the extreme hot weather where the rest of my family is.  Too bad they just got snow as well in Green Valley, Az just the other day.  It is probably going to take me a while to get used to this blog thing, but everyone keeps telling me how easy it is to do. So here we go.

Dress up time

Drew's latest thing that he likes to do is dress up in old Halloween costumes. He usually just puts on the Power Ranger costumes and pretends to be a P.R., but lately he has been wearing other costumes. The picture of him in the Sulley costume he wanted me to take so daddy could see him since he was at work. Jay is on a pretty easy rotation this month so we have been able to see him a lot more and the boys are loving every minute of it. When Jay is still home after dinner Drew asks, "Do you need to go to work?" Jay replies, "No" and then Drew says, "Oh, the hospital is locked." Drew thinks anytime we can't go somewhere or don't need to go somewhere the place is locked. He wanted to go to the Children's Museum on Monday, but they are not open so he asked me to call the ladies so they could unlock it for us.

Drew and I went to Caleb and Jackson's new house yesterday and of course Caleb and Drew wanted to play Buzz. It was Caleb's birthday and he got a blue buzz lightyear just like Drew. Caleb was so excited. Now Jesse and I don't have worry about them fighting over Drew's buzz anymore. The boys were pretty happy to be dressed up as Buzz and have the same blue buzz to play with. The boys also thought it would be fun to go scuba diving while dressed up as "super heros." Drew didn't want to take his buzz costume off for anything.

When we finally took off the costume and told Drew it was time to go, Drew was not a happy little boy. Jesse couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the picture of Drew crying.

Nonni and Pap-Pap's New House

We all went to Jack and Sue's again this weekend to help them get a little more organized or at least be able to get the cars in the garage. Anytime you ask Drew about the house it is not just Nonni and Pap-Pap's house, it is their new house and not their old house. It is so cute! The boys had a blast all weekend with the nice weather and being able to be outside pretty much the whole time we were there. The house is on a cul-de-sac and as of now they are the last ones on the street. The boys had a whole system set up for moving dirt and sticks. Drew would sit in one wagon while holding onto another one so they could bring all of the "supplies" they needed to work. They both had to take two baths a day because they were so dirty. It was nice to not have to worry about cars flying by the house or worrying about the water like we did at the old house. We asked both the boys which house they liked better and they both said the new house. Next time we go hopefully Sue will let me take some pics of the inside as well for everyone.

The Big Move!

This past weekend we helped Jay's parents move into their new home.  They decided that it was time to downsize.  All of us really enjoyed spending time at their old house and Jay and I thought we would make a list of some or our favorite things or memories about the house. As you can see from the photo they still have a lot of snow in Point. This picture was taken this last weekend.

So here we go in no particular order:

*Nick and Jay in their bat catching costumes and the only thing you could see were their eyes. Nick was screaming, "I'll whack'em," with a badminton racquet. They definitely would have won American Gladiators.

*Nick using Jack and Sue's absence in Europe and having a month long party.

*Jay rolling around on the floor after eating too much of Ma's homemade spaghetti and thinking he was going to literally explode.

*Jay and Nick having the weed whacker fight.

*Jack almost riding the lawn mower into the pond.

*Sarah running over the mailbox with Jay's car and Jack thinking it was Jay.  

*Reed took some of his first couple of steps in their kitchen.

*Reed getting his first bee stings (8 of them), when Sue was watching him for the first time and the neighbors sitting on the porch and watching the whole thing while Reed and Sue were screaming.

*The infamous Taboo game!

*Jay and Nick having to swim in the McDill Pond to save the dock from floating away.

*Biffy the cat passing away...not a good memory, but a memory.

*Sue thinking she could fly down the stairs and breaking an arm and chipping her front teeth.

*Adrian, Jay's dog passed away peacefully taking a nap in Jay's old room. 

*Jay and I got engaged on their dock, once again while the neighbors were watching

*All of the fun times on the paddle boat, even the last time when Jay and I thought it was going to sink.

*Pap-Pap (Jack) and Drew watching for the Hawk in the backyard and Pap-Pap teaching Drew that a hawk sounds like a crow.

*The basement becoming Becky's house while Nick was at Marquette. (according to Drew)

*The boys playing catch in the family room with Pap-Pap...just one more please!

*The huge yard for the boys to play in.

*Reed and Drew riding on the lawn mower with Pap-Pap.

*Sue getting knocked out with a Champagne bottle while packing.

*All of the space!

How cute is this?

We have all been battling a cold this week and are sick of the cold weather.  It was somewhat nice outside a so I let the boys go play outside to get some fresh air and run off some energy. Drew went outside to play for a little bit and then decided he wanted some lunch and that it was very cold outside when you start turning on the water and playing in the puddles.  Once he was done eating he realized dad was sleeping on the couch, (who is home sick as well) and wanted to nap with him.  It is very unusual for Drew to fall asleep very quickly when not in his bed.  He was only lying down for about 2 minutes and fell sound asleep.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this picture.  

Jackson and Caleb came to visit!

Jackson and Caleb used to live in Resident housing and became good friends with both of our kids. Their dad was done in January with his residency, and moved onto bigger and better things, or what we like to say, "a real doctor now." We hadn't seen them since they left in January, so it was great to see them. Reed and Jackson are still wishing for snow. Well they must of wished pretty hard because as I am writing this it is snowing outside and we are supposed to get 6 inches today!

Drew and Caleb are a funny pair together. They can either get along great or be fighting the whole time they are together. Luckily they were willing to get along today and have fun. As long as Caleb had Drew's Buzz Lightyear and Drew had Caleb's Buzz Lightyear. They were so cute pretending they were Buzz and flying around outside.

Uncle Nick braved the cold!

The boys were so excited on Thursday night to be able to see Uncle Nick.  We have not seen him since July when he got married. Drew looks at a picture of Uncle Nick and Aunt Becky and says I love them, but they are too far away.  It is so cute.  All day on Thursday he kept asking when he was going to see his Uncle Nick and Pap-Pap.  Nick was in the area because his team, FGCU, played Marquette.  He then spent some time at the boys' state tournament before heading to La Crosse. The boys didn't get to see Nick for all that long, but they enjoyed every minute of it.  Of course Uncle Nick taught the boys some new tricks that we hope they will not repeat. Hopefully it won't be as long this time in between visits and that we get to see Aunt Becky as well.

I tried to get some pictures of the actual show but it was pretty hard.  This was the only one that somewhat turned out.  The tire that Drew is sitting in is one of Havoc's tire.  All the boys thought it was cool that Drew could get all the way in the tire.  But he must of weighed a little too much, because during the freestyle part of the show that tire popped.  They said that one of the tires cost at least $1000. WOW! 

I know laugh out loud at this one!  For those of you that know how large my feet are and that Nickmy brother-in-law loves to call me "Big Foot" Jay could not pass up the opportunity to have me take a picture with Big Foot.  I am sure I will never hear the end of it.  Unfortunately there were not any trucks that fit any of Jay's nicknames.  You can also see how much my belly has grown.  I am at 20 weeks now, I am half way done! 

The Monster Truck's

Before the show we were all able to go down into the pits and look at the trucks up close.  The boys thought it was pretty cool.  They couldn't believe how big they were in real life.  Drew was so overwhelmed that he didn't know what one to look at. You could tell that he was a bit scared as well because he would not leave the "big boys" sides.  He loves to be with the "big boys"  Reed had his best friend come along with us.  Reed and Hayden are in separable. Unfortunately Hayden and his family will be moving this summer as his dad is done with his residency.  We are hoping that someone else Reed's age with be moving into the duplexes.  

Getting ready for the Monster Truck Show

Last night the whole family went to the Monster Truck show at the La Crosse Center.  Reed has been excited for it all week and couldn't wait until Friday to get here.  We didn't tell Drew about it until Thursday night at dinner time. As soon as we told him he wanted to go see the Monster Trucks.  Once we were done eating he went over and got his jacket and shoes and tried to convince us that we needed to leave right now.  It took a lot of convincing that we had to wait one more night but he did it. I might of used it a couple of times for bribes during the day on Friday...but who wouldn't. You can tell the boys were excited to get there since they were already wearing the protective ear muffs in the car.  Drew didn't want to take them off at all last night.  Which was great because it was pretty loud.