Fire in the hole!!

My parents took us to branson and silver dollar city as part of my birthday present and to see all the amazing Christmas decorations! Overall we had a good time and got in the Christmas mood, but brody was h-o-r horrible!! I'm not sure if he was getting sick or just almost 2, but wow! I have worked with many children over the years but he threw one of the longest fits I have seen to date. Now I am new to all this fit throwing as a mother. Yes Landon was crazy curious and had his own difficulties at times, but he was never a fit thrower. Brody is making up for it :). Now it was cold the day we went, so I just wanted the boys to wear a coat, hat, and gloves. No biggie. Oh so I thought...Brody did not want to. Nope no hat. Okay gloves. Nope. And I'll spare you the details but long story short 45 minutes later he was still screaming and had no gloves or hat after countless attempts. Fine. I'm done. Embarrassed and frustrated. Really they are gloves. I am pretty sure people thought I was beating my child from the ridiculous screams he was making and stares I was getting. I assured the gawking strangers - just trying to put gloves on don't want his hands to freeze. (Insert nervous laughter). I usually pick my battles with the boys and only win if I feel it's important. I was torn he needed to wear gloves, but sheesh I have been trying forever! If I had a rubber band or super glue to keep em on I might have tried, but it was futile so I gave up. 30 seconds later he had red cold hands laughing on a ride. Awesome - toddlers are a trip.
This was the first hour. The rest of the day went better and thank you God for sparing my angry, stubborn little man from frostbite. On a more positive note both boys loved the ride fire in the hole and randomly scream it every now and then.
Here's some pics of the better memories of our trip....the light up tree show, froggy and shooting ride, light parade, and frosty show.

Landon's first trophy

Every since Josh and I had our super mature discussion about who had more trophies and let Landon play and pretend with them all - I mean what else do you do with old trophies?? He has really wanted one of his own.
Well his dream came true thanks to coach Jeff and $8, despite the fact they lost err I mean tied several games. He really did have a great first season though and ended up with 10 goals.
The ceremony was conducted at culvers and Landon was so excited!
The trophy has found a nice home on his dresser. Well until he has too many and they go in a bin to get dusty and have his kids play with someday :)

Muffin Mania

I have been loving Pinterest and have been finding some fantastic, inspiring ideas.  It's kind of ridiculous how creative people are.  God has made some talented people!!  The lastest endeavor is making non-traditional muffins.  I made scrambled egg muffins with veggies mixed in for a quick convenient breakfast (can cook and store in fridge & pop in the microwave in the morning) and tonight Landon helped me make some meatloaf muffins with a squirt of ketchup icing.  The boys loved them and bonus they cook much faster than a traditional meatloaf.

The year of the 30!

It seems like this is the year to turn 30!  I will be starting my third decade in a couple weeks and several of our small group friends are also turning 30 this year as well.  We recently celebrated our friend Katie's 30th birthday.  Her husband Jason is a great guy and surprised her with an amazing party complete with food, music, and creative kid favors for the little ones.  He even brought a dress in her favorite color pink for her to wear for the event.  Way to go Jason!

Someone's camera flashed right when I was taking this pic...Happy Birthday Katie!

Landon sporting his cool new tiger hat he got from Mr. Jason

Brody sports his new pink pig hat.  Never thought I would see Brody wearing a pink hat and

grooving to Ice Ice Baby, but yeah it happened here. 

Happy Birthday Katie!  It was great to see you :)

Fall Festival

We recently had our Fall Festival at school.  All the kids dressed up and we had lots of games, activities, and prizes.  The day consisted of a cake walk, pumpkin bowling, pumpkin ring toss, fishing for prizes, duck pond, a fire pit smore station, as well as a bounce house and tractor ride.  Josh came to help out since I was in charge of my class and the boys had a great day!!

Spiderman and his "biting" spider are excited about the day

Bounce house full of superheroes...of the 16 kids in the Pre-K classes,

12 of them were superheroes this year!

Hay ride!  Mr. Rich is the janitor at the church and is an awesome guy.  All the kids love him and he is so helpful.  He took us on his tractor for a 30 minute hay ride all around the fields behind the church.  Didn't get too many pictures since I was busy and Josh's camera ran out of batteries, but everyone had a great time!!

Those are some fine motor skills....

It was feeling like a super long Saturday at home with the boys so we played with some playdough and worked on stacking cheerios. I planned this for Brody, but think Landon liked it even more. Just take a glob of playdough and stick in a spaghetti noodle, skewer, or anything long and skinny and stack on the cheerios. Count how many you can stack on and then eat when you're done :)

Smoothielicious

I made this smoothie for breakfast and felt guilty because it seemed more like I was eating dessert, but it's healthy!! It's was soooo good :)

1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup milk
2 frozen bananas

Blend up the oats first until powdery - otherwise you'll get a weird consistency. Then add remaining ingredients and blend until completely incorporated together. Doesn't look like a huge amount but very rich so enough for two people.

Or if you don't like pb or bananas add powdered oatmeal to your favorite smoothie.

Baby Daddy Jealousy

Well I'm glad that's over! For the last couple weeks I've had some jealousy issues. And no the source was not a hot chica, but my hubby. The boys lately have been ALL about daddy. And of course I am glad they love him, but in the process you would have thought I was chopped liver! We have gone through Daddy stages around here before, but usually just one kid at a time and usually they just prefer him but still like me. But noooo, this time was different. This time both boys were are all about dad and wanted nothing to do with me. Landon would pretty much tell me to get out of his room nightly so daddy could put him to bed. Okay that's fine more time for me. But the culmination had to be Wednesday morning when I went to get Brody out of bed. Now mind you it was a little after six, I was super tired, and crawled out of my nice warm bed that still contained the "preferred parent" to get this loving response from Brody... Me: Good morning buddy :). B: No! No! Whiny voice- daaaadddy! Tears - daddy!! Daddy!!!! Daddy!! I go to pick him up and he hits me! No daddy!!! Wow! Okay. No hitting and You can wait for daddy to wake up and get you then. Which means you will have to wait to eat. Oh but wait dad gave you a cookie yesterday for breakfast because you "wanted" it. No wonder I am losing here :). But Friday I decided time to win back the boys!! Trip to the zoo and a fun day all about them. And it worked! Got to stay for bedtime and heard the much missed I love you too mommy!! Awww thank god. Wasn't prepared to feel this disliked and unloved until puberty hit. And with Josh gone for a guys camping trip more time to win the boys back :). And I don't blame them. I love him too just think the person who feeds you, cleans you, and meets all your needs could get some hugs too!!! So thanks boys for loving both your parents today, and don't worry this mommy will always love you even if those feelings aren't always mutual :)

2 easy

I made a super easy 2 ingredient pumpkin recipe this afternoon. All you need is a can of pumpkin and yellow cake mix. Stir together thoroughly and plop on a pan like you were making large cookies. Cook about 15-20 minutes until fork comes out clean. Super easy, low fat/low cal treat. Only about 100 calories per pumpkin cake cookie, but still really yummy. We added a little bit of whip cream on top. All the boys liked em at our house :).

Crave Halloween Party

We had our annual Crave Halloween Party tonight at church and it was a blast as usual.  Some super creative and fun costumes.

Josh and I went as Nerds.  Homemade costumes turned out well and only cost about 10 bucks to make.  Took forever to do the painting though.  Had the nutrition facts/label on the back that read....Ingredients: A smoking hot husband and wife who love God and love Crave!  We took 3rd place :)

Loofah ladies - McKenzie, Kelsey, and Kendall

Katie was a baked potato complete with butter on her head

The whole Scooby Doo gang showed up

Apparently I didn't take enough pictures - but there was also Wayne's World characters, a jellyfish, gypsies, M C Hammer and groupie (Ryan and Lori's costume), homecoming queen, cheerleaders, space girl? and a group of six students dressed as old people - freakin hilarious!! (Took home top honors)  They were so realistic in their costume, presentation, and old people chatter.  I actually had a couple students ask what was up with the senior citizens and told them they were costumes. Ha!  That's how good they were.  I didn't even know what students they were until I asked!

We also did a pumpkin decorating contest and top honors went to a pig, with a lion runner up and a Marilyn Monroe look-alike taking a close third. 

A great night :)

My poor Brody!

Guilt is never a fun feeling, but I must say mommy guilt has to be the worst! I always miss Brody and hate having to leave him at school, but today made that feeling increase exponentially(Josh's favorite big word by the way). At about 1:15 I hear on the radio that I need to go to Brody's room because he fell and has a laceration on his head. As I get to his room my poor baby just holds me as I look at a gushing cut on his eyebrow. Numb with emotion I attempt to call Josh but he doesn't answer. I carry him in my arms and tell my class I have to go and drop them off in the 4 year old room. I decided to go to the highland hospital since I was only 3 minutes away. I was very apprehensive but everyone was wonderful!
The cut was too large to put on glue or strips so we had to do the traditional stitches. They didn't want to put him under, so they strapped him down in an indian like papoose to attempt to immobilize him. Ha! Brody is a fighter. Still took 5 people to hold him down/still and oh my was he screaming. So upset and mad and so hard for me. Kept looking at me with big sad blue eyes screaming mommy, mommy! He cried the whole time and I was good and only cried 75 percent of the time :). They asked me if I wanted to leave but wanted to be with him. At least Josh got there right after they strapped him down and I called a mere 16 times.  Apparently lawnmowers are loud and hard to hear a phone ring ;)  Thankfully Josh didn't cry. 5 stitches or so later, not sure couldn't bear to watch anymore, and he was done. Then Brods downed a smoothie from full to empty in 5.2 seconds and the world was good again. Now praying for a quick recovery, no scars, and no stitch pulling curiosity.

All patched up with the numbing medicine

Glad it's over!!

Obsession?

I'm not sure if Brody will ever need glasses - hopefully not, but if so don't think he'll mind.  He is obsessed with them and loves to put them on.  Proof is in the pics..............

My Sweet Geek!!

Crazy fam joins him in the joy of wearing glasses

So happy in his shades!

Organize, organize, organize...

Feel like the last couple weeks have been all about organizing and more organizing.  We have had a yard sale, made 2 trips to goodwill, and cleaned out all the closets.  I love to be organized, but hate the process of getting there. 
One huge help in the process was getting Mema Busch's old kitchen cabinets (She is doing some major renovation and is totally redoing her living room and kitchen) and putting them in the garage.  So much great space!  We are on our way to being as organized as we were pre-kid, well almost..not sure this is really possible.  Toys and having kids kind of mess up that hope :)

New cabinets = Great garage organization

Silverware drawer makes a great holder for all the craft/school supplies

Still figuring out what to use all the cabinets for...but the possibilities are endless!!

It's a bird, it's a plane....

It's Landon's shark kite!  It was super windy and Landon flew his kite for the first time all by himself.  It kept him occupied for over 30 minutes!  I am loving the age of 4 and the independence that it brings! :)

Parker's Party

Landon's friend Parker just turned 5 and had a superhero party at the Game - now called the Sports Academy.  The two have only really known each other a couple months, but have really hit it off.  They were best buds from the start walking arm in arm at Wal-Mart and Landon even gave his offering money to him at church because he was singing so good.  He told me they didn't pass around the basket, so he should do something nice with it and gave it to Parker.  Too funny!!

Birthday Boy

Superheroes in their decorated capes

 Lining up to run in and rescue all the bombs.

The best part of the party was when the boys received super powers from a glowing bracelet and had to capture bombs (balloons) from all over the play structure.  Parker's dad Jeff is an awesome DJ and started blaring the Mission Impossible Theme Music as the superheroes were running capturing all the "bombs" to diffuse.  This sweet little girl started bawling when the music turned on and all these crazy masked guys came charging in.  Pretty funny and pathetic!!  Landon of course had a blast.  Happy Birthday Parker!!

Apple Picking

We recently went apple picking at Mills Apple Farm with all the grandparents.  It was an absolutely perfect Fall day and we had a great time!

Landon and Max have a swingin' good time!

Brody loved the "hen" play pen

"Old Man" Papa relaxing on the bench

Mema and the Brodman

Daddy and Pops

Mema Maggos and Max

Landon picking apples

Brody is the master of the "cheese" right now

"APPLES!!!" yells Brody all day.

Love how the shadows show three generations of boys :)