Pal'n Around

We had our great friends over for dinner. It is so wonderful that we have such great friends that all have kids the exact same age. We are all in the same place and going through the same things. It is really nice to sit down and know that we are not the only ones in the same boat. The boys were playing so well together following the leader all over the yard. It was funny because Zackary kept getting high centered with his little bike and the others would get hung up on something, so they would all get off their toy and help eachother out.

I was able to capture a few cute shots of the kids. Of course the older ones are really bad with the camera. They like to look away when it comes out.

Henry

Katelyn

Rainy Day Schedule

So today was another rainy day weekend. So of course we needed to find some indoor entertainment. We started off with some Bendaroos. These are a blast. They are sticky wax strips that you can do anything with. Zackary made the rainbow by himself, I attempted the crab, it turned out pretty good. I think Aaron chose not to participate in the contest after seeing the crab, heehee. We tried to play duck-duck-goose. However Monkey and Lane weren't very good participants, and Zackary just kept running in circles. Aaron and I really enjoyed some good old-fashioned kid games.

Then we decided it was time to maybe get some to-do's done.

Does anyone else have this horrendous sippy cup catastrophe? We can't seem to get it under control.

We also have an issue with all the little plugs.

We found matches, cups, lids, and plugs, with only 1 bag misfits as I like to call them.

We had a nice clean drawer for about 2 days. Then it was all over. Someday we will solve this mystery of organizing the 'kid stuff.'

Zoo Fun

Red Light Green Light the entire time. Zackary and his friends Ryan and Henry spent a good part of the zoo trip running and playing red light green light. Zackary would yell out Green Light and they would all take off. Then Red Light and they would of course all stop. If we could have only some how had control of what Zackary chose to say, because sometimes they got just a bit too far for our comfort. Funny story...here it goes.

Zackary and Henry took off, running, around the corner over the bridge and into the Wallaby exhibit. Here comes Andi and I running, pushing massive strollers after them yelling, making guesses of who's kid is going into the lake first. I'm sure it will be mine someday. Needless to say they got in some trouble for running away and not listening.

Here is the conversation Zackary and I had.
Me: Zackary you can't run away from mommy
Z: Why?
Me: You could get lost or hurt, mommy was worried and couldn't see you,
Z: Why?
Me: Do you know what could happen to you?
Z: Yes the Kangawoos (this is how he pronounced it) will eat me
Me: Yes they could (going for the scare tactic) so don't run away from mommy and be a good listener
I couldn't help but to laugh because the way he said it was so serious and cute, we will see how the next trip goes.

Zackary was being a great big brother looking out for Lane and holding on tight to him so he wouldn't fall in the lake.

Mice are Nice

I was sorting though clothes to get the next size out and came across this treasure. This outfit was one of Aaron's favorites when he was little. He wore it in one of their family photos. I'm going to try to get a copy of the picture and scan it in. Strait from the 80's with mice are nice written all over it. We had to dress Lane up and take sweet photos of him.

Difference?

Uploaded normally

Adjusted in blogger.

Worth it or Not?

Okay so this one took me 30 minutes. Usually my posts are fairly quick, choosing the photos takes the most time then the story to go with the photo. Uploading, editing (if you want to call it that), resizing, copy, paste, uploading again, then posting to blogger. What...that took a lot of uploading time? What does everyone think? Are the larger images that different?
Another beautiful boy!

Testing

I'm trying to increase the size of my images on the blog. I'm pretty sure that the 45 minutes to figure it out is not worth it? Any thoughts? Maybe I'm not doing it correctly. I'm not always the best at teaching myself things but there must be an easier way to do this. Any help out there?

Isn't he beautiful.

Its On

It's officially wrestle mania at our house. Any time Lane sees anyone on the ground or any one wrestling he is headed that way at full speed. As we say "Zackary, do you know what paybacks are?" Lane is already headed that way to get him.

As you can see, he has figured out what 'gets' Zackary. Monkey! He always knows the best time to get paybacks, when Monkey shows up and the thumb goes in. It's ON! I think it is so funny that at such a young age both of them have figured out when it's just the right time to pick on each other.

Brownies

Does anybody love licking the brownie bowl as much as we do? Sometimes I think we crave brownies just to eat the batter. Now we have passed this on to our children. Of course Zackary loves assisting in the kitchen so he gets to help lick the bowl. Now that Lane has realized how great it is, he must also have is own spoon. I'm not sure you should give little kids raw eggs, but I think it might be worth the risk because it is so tasty!
We were always fine as children eating raw dough, right? I just couldn't resist posting such cute chocolate faces. I spared you the one of Aaron...JK!

Tea Party

Today we had the sweetest little tea party. The boys got a little sock monkey tin tea set from Oma and Opa for Valentines Day. Let me tell you they had a ball having their incredibly wet tea party. I'm pretty sure we drank a gallon of water out of little tiny tea cups and spilt about a gallon of water trying to drink out of the little tiny tea cups. You would have thought they both jumped in the bath tub, they were soaked.

Valentine Love

We don't do much for Valentines Day at our house. Aaron and I got some sushi take out, shared a bottle of wine, and were just going to relax and watch a movie. We enjoyed our dinner, knowing that upstairs Zackary is awake and playing but was being quiet. We frequently go through this in the evening. We try to put him to bed but he takes several trips downstairs to visit us, plays, sings, switches beds from his to ours, and back and forth. Since Aaron had bought two boxes of chocolate covered strawberries and forgot to give Zackary's to him, we decided to break down and let him join us for some yumminess. As you can see he was thrilled and enjoyed a couple of strawberries while giving us plenty of entertainment.

Official Hair Cut

We had to do it. As you might know, Lane had a bit of a comb over 70's style going on. It was so dang cute, but it was time to ditch it. He was beginning to sport a sweet mullet and that is where I have to draw the line. I tried a couple of times to have his hair cut/styled so it was still long and it just wasn't working out. It was time so we headed to Gilbert Barber Shop for Felipe to take control. He has cut Zackary's hair several times and does a great job. It turned out so cute. I can't believe how BIG he looks with an official little boy haircut.

Lane you're so handsome!

Puddles

So it has been raining a bit more than usual this year. Which is wonderful, except when you have 2 little boys that are thrilled to play, stomp, and get totally filthy...then proceed to track it through the entire house, some how. Lane watched Zackary jump in the puddles in the back yard then took action himself and really figured out how to make a huge mess.

Zackary digging some serious holes in the backyard with all his tractors. Notice the rain boots. Funny story... we were shoe shopping and he continued to choose any shoe that was bright pink...we told him he could pick out any color of crocks (this is the only shoe that is easy and fits his 'brick' feet). Of course he choose the bright pink ones. Aaron drew the line there. Zackary kept going back to the rain boots and wearing them all over the store. He had the choice of boots or crocks, obviously he choose the boots. He actually wears them all of the time. They are easy and have come in quite handy this year!

Lane finding any puddle of water he can to jump and stomp in. Needless to say he was soaked by the end!

Lane

I just had to post some super cute pics of my little Laner. Just relaxing outside having a little drink. I think he is mean muggin' me for taking too many pictures? But I love these pics.

Memories of a dream

Memories, that is all I will have. Today it's officially over, done, gone. Our business that we had such great dreams of. Sleepless nights, money, worries, fun, the American Dream, pride...I'm not sure how I really feel, there are so many emotions running through my head. What we created, thousands of hours, thousands of dollars, thousands of ideas...its all over. Why I'm saying this tonight is because we spent several hours moving our last few things out of the office. We no longer have access, we finally found someone to lease the space. I guess it still didn't feel 100% real because we still had an office with some of the equipment. The first picture is the start, the dream, the energy to make it work.

We expanded, it was great, we were doing it. Still not making much, but enough to move forward. We had the most wonderful, loyal clients. We became friends with them, we enjoyed every part of it. Even the late nights. We had employees and renters. What happened? What changed? I'm still not sure. I do know that we gave it our all. We put everything into it that we had and that we knew. I can say that in the last 5 years I have become a new person. The learning experience was amazing. Something that I would never trade and would never have learned anywhere else. I became insanely close to the most wonderful woman. Mary. We have shared so many ups and downs and our families have become one. I would never want to take on this venture with anyone else. This has changed me as a person and opened my eyes to so many different things. It has helped my learn what really matters, what to worry about and what not to. I have so much respect for business owners, no one knows what really goes into owning a small business except for those who have tried. This brings tears to my eyes, tears of joy and tears of sadness. No more sleepless nights worrying about what the next promotion might be, what will work, what is our competition doing, but then again there won't be any proud moments of having a successful event, a great sales day, the... WOW you did this! I guess life throws you curves and someday I will know the real reason why everything happened the way it did.