A Monday in the Life of Owen and Jack

After we got Owen off to school Monday morning, Jack and I spent a few minutes watching some Looney Toons in his room.On Mondays, Jack and I run errands with Nick for the campus meal. About 60 college students come to the campus house for lunch on Mondays. We go the grocery store and the restaurants to pick up food and supplies, and then we eat lunch with the college students. Jack loves playing with Austin and Ashley (a college couple). They are really good sports and build tents for him out of blankets. They also don't mind when Joey (Jack's stuffed dog) bites them and calls them "stupid" (a very bad word).

This Monday we had wings (awesome). Jack licked ranch off of vegetables and ate some chips. He is going through a picky phase with food. He's pretty much on a constant carb load.

After naptime, Jack and I picked up Owen from school. The boys played for a while before it was time for soccer practice.Owen loves spending time on the computer. He is really getting good at it.Jack is ready for soccer!Owen is finishing off a bag of apple slices for his afternoon snack.Jack's soccer practice is really cute because Nick does it with him. He didn't like soccer practice at first, but that all changed when we started bribing them with suckers!

Owen's practices are going better too due to an increase in his efforts as well. Again, he is bribed with suckers.

Jack loves to run during Owen's practice. Sometimes he runs a little too far though. The little white dot just to the right of the girl in the pink shirt is Jack. The tall parent is Nick using gestures to tell him to come back. Bribery.Dinner was peach pancakes and scrambled eggs. Owen requested a hard boiled egg. This was a very special night because we finished off that bottle of syrup. The boys have been looking forward to this for a long time because they wanted that Mrs. Butterworths bottle. The boys took baths after dinner, and we did the whole bedtime routine. Mondays are fun but exhausting!

A Sunday in the Life of Owen and Jack

This week I'm going to attempt to document our daily lives. We'll see how this goes! The first thing we did today was go to church. Here are the boys showing the toys they chose to bring in the van. Jack picked his glowing orb thingy that he bought with his allowance, but Owen couldn't bring what he bought (Sea Monkeys) so he brought a truck. Moments later, the boys were hypnotized by Curious George on the DVD player.Here is Jack not wanting to go to Sunday School.Owen was happy to go to his class today.During church, the boys drew pictures, colored, and read books that Sophie brought. Jack likes to drive his cars on the map that we drew a while back. He keeps it in his backpack along with crayons, cars and trucks. old bulletins that I shoved in there, and random books from Chick-fil-A.

After church, alot of kids play in the auditorium. The college kids are particularly sweet to our kids. Owen loves them so much that if you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he'll say "college student."

We ate lunch at home today which is different because we usually eat out on Sunday. Today we had fish sticks, baked beans, corn, and shortbread cookies. While Jack took his nap, Owen and I flew kites and picked up acorns. Jack gets to do stuff like that with me when Owen is at school during the week, so it was really nice to spend some time with Owen by ourselves.Nick was a sweet sweet husband and let me take a nap while he hung out with Owen (who usually refuses to nap now that he is a big kid). Soon it was time to get up from our naps and get ready for evening church. Jack was silly and decided to act like he was still sleeping......but Owen had fallen asleep! He was so grumpy when he woke up.

Here is Jack not wanting to go to Bible Hour. Nick had to physically place him in the classroom. Owen's teacher described him as "weepy" tonight...didn't get that nap out.

After evening church, we drove to the Copelands' for a cookout. Here is Jack, looking at the fire station on our way there.

Here are Owen, Jack, and Conner playing soccer at the Copelands'.

Dinnertime!

Babies!

After dinner, everyone went outside and bundled up with quilts for an impromptu singing. It was great to have cool weather finally! Soon, it was time to go home. The boys spent a few minutes snuggling with us on the couch. Then it was time for bed. Our routine is that we read one regular story and one Bible story, and then we make up a story. Then we say our prayer, get tucked in, and the parent who didn't read stories that night comes in and gives the last kisses. Tonight we read What Are Bugs Good For? and the story of Baby Moses. We made up a story about Perry the Prairie Dog, Baby Joey, and Bunny deciding to call Joey stupid. Joey ends up saving Baby Joey's life, so they become friends. Perry and Bunny are still rude though. I was unable to tidy up the ending because the boys were delirious with a bad word like "Stupid" being said. They couldn't stop giggling. Owen said our prayer; the thanked God for everyone...then broke out into more giggling. I'm sure God understands and fully intended for children to do that.

"Take a picture of me fake-sleeping."

"Ready for bed, Mom!"

In the meantime...

My computer is not cooperating with my camera lately, so in the meantime, go here: hookedonhouses.net

I often find myself watching the same movies over and over just to look at the houses. A lady named Julia has a blog where she looks at a house from a movie every Monday (when you go to her site, click on TV/Movie houses). She has taken pictures of some of my favorite houses from movies like Bewitched, Must Love Dogs, Father of the Bride (1 and 2), You've Got Mail (not really a house, but you get it), Something's Gotta Give, Gilmore Girls, and The Holiday.

Oh, and she also has some wonderfully awful MLS pictures! Always fun!
Enjoy!

How You Doin'?

Since my last post...

...Jack called you on his banana phone...

...and Owen said that he could smell you all the way from Colorado.

Nick and I sold our house...

...and spent many weekends at Leah and Jeremy's looking for a new house. (We found one, but more on that later.)Owen trimmed his grass-caterpiller's fro...

...and Jovie got a haircut too!

MagnaDoodle Insights

Owen has been drawing on his MagnaDoodle alot lately. I have started taking pictures of his creations because I am rebelling against the temporary nature of the MagnaDoodle, whose essence it is to erase and create anew. Blah Blah Blah.

Here is how Owen describes each of his works.

"This is a superhero. See his cape?"

"This is a cat. A guy on Yo Gabba Gabba showed me how to draw a cat like this."

(Apparently, that show really is whack. I mean, I always suspected it, but now we have proof in the form of a seven-legged cat.)

"This is me in a car going to Harry's house to see Nana."

Enough said.

SNOW!

Jack laughed gleefully the entire time we were outside!

Owen and I ate lots and lots of snow.

My brothers Jake and Michael provided a demonstration for my kids on the proper way to execute a snowball fight.

See, we thought Mike was making a snowman, but it turned out to be a really big snowball. This one was made for Jake, but we all ended up with snow down our backs eventually!

The biggest kid of all! My Valentine! Both our boys have fever, and he had to go out of town today anyway, so we will be celebrating next weekend. I did get a present today though from here: www.Starfish-Project.com an amazing cause, that happens to result in really cute jewelry!

If you try to make silhouettes of your kids and your dog...

...your dog will not cooperate.

She'll pose pretty, alright...just not in profile.
Then she'll roll over so you can scratch her belly......and so will your son.
So you'll try again...

...and again...

...and you'll end up scratching bellies again.
So you'll give up on the dog silhouette. You'll use a random scrap of cardboard as a cutting mat. Then your oldest son will ask, "Why is Jack wearing a girl belt?"

And you'll say, "Oh! Good eye, Owen!"

When you're finished, you'll step back and think, "Who are these little boys, and where did my babies go?"