Andrew left to his own devices!

Earlier in the day, a couple of days ago, Andrew was in his room...he was SUPPOSED to be taking a nap. Pretty soon he comes out and wants to paint. I told him no...he needs to be resting for swim lessons. So he goes back to his room and I don't hear from him again for awhile. So I go into his room and find him sitting on the floor "painting." No water, no brush, just fingers, walls and carpet...not to mention the paint book he was trying to hit. Needless to say, mom was unhappy.

Later that night I go to put him to bed and much to my astonishment I find this:

Supposedly it is a map to Grandma K's! At first I was upset because he KNOWS better than this and like any other parent I question as to what I am doing wrong and why he is OBVIOUSLY screaming for attention lately. I put him to bed, on top of his road map, because I wasn't washing sheets at 9:30 at night. So I pulled them off the next morning.

Now, after I walk out of the room with my big eyes, I look at Jason and say: You won't believe what I just found on Andrew's bed! I preceded to tell him the story and after I am all done, he's laughing and I had to admit I was quite impressed by the artistry of the whole picture! I swore I could have picked out a cow and a couple other things.

I also put in what it looked like after I soaked it with stain remover, which did get it out by the way...it's miracle stuff, let me tell you!

Reality TV

I know...horrible, HORRIBLE mother for not sharing all my fantastic moments about my amazing boys, but they keep me going in circles, that it's hard to keep up!

Matthew is a busy body and has found his voice, although he still doesn't say much, he's hilarious. Tonight we had a choir performance of us going back and forth yelling for dad! He was giggling by the time it was done!

I have decided that he is the world's CUTEST kid. Pardon my unfair judgement, but this has been a process by looking at other people's kids too ya know. I think it's the big brown eyes. I have decided to propose to a television station about strapping a camera to the back of him and just video taping him all the time. He's so funny and loveable, but yet he doesn't like kisses...only when he has to. I just know he's going to reach amazing things in his life. He's so quiet, but man, if you tick him off...WATCH OUT! He's so much like his dad!

Catch up!

I know it has almost been a month since I last blogged so I thought I would catch everyone up with pictures! A LOT has happened.

My ABSOLUTE favorite picture of Matthew Robert...taken by fluke!

Andrew started playing baseball and this is him trying to work with his dad and Jason about ready to kick his butt for lack of concentration! I had a lot of fun laughing at him anyway! :)

Rose and Sophia came to celebrate Andrew's birthday with us! Isn't she the cutest EVER! Next to my kids anyway! :)

Luke helping us put together the garage sale. I don't care how much he pays me...I will ALWAYS know where this picture is! :)

Matthew Robert got his first haircut. He was working on the Roy comb-over, so we had to take action.

Papa and his boys spending the afternoon fishing...unfortunately they got rained out. Andrew did catch a fish though...Matt however, got shut in the car with me! :)

Great-Grandma and her boys...Andrew, Matthew, Nathan and Connor. An EXTREMELY cute bunch don't ya think?

Ryan and Matt became fast buddies while Ryan was visiting from Idaho.

Locked Up

Last night I was in the kitchen painting I believe when Andrew walks in the house and shuts the back door like he has finished his work for the day. I quickly asked him where Matt was and he quickly responded with..."In the shed." and kept on going.

I look out the back window and much to my amazement the shed doors were shut and I could faintly hear a kid SCREAMING from outside. So I run out the back door while threatening Andrew's life...not really, but I was yelling at him...and run to the shed where Matt is in full blown break down...which I would be too.

MEANWHILE, people are walking the track behind our house and hearing this screaming kid and looking at me like..."what kind of mother are you? Is that your child abuse chamber?" I wanted to tell them it wasn't me...it was Andrew, but who would they believe...Me or the cute 4 year old! Needless to say Andrew was in bed around 7 p.m. last night.

Mom is always right!

Jason's mom tells about when Jason was little he would come in from outside and he would get a bath and she would scrub and scrub and scrub to get him clean until she realized that he had tanned. I always thought it was a cute, funny story, but other than that I didn't think much of it, until tonight...

I brought Matt in tonight to give him a bath and his face looked filthy dirty so I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed before I realized that the kid needed his forehead for protection! Like father like son I guess.

Deceit!

Is it bad to admit that Andrew is smarter than his mother? Today I got home from work and I was exhausted because of course I couldn't fall asleep last night until 1 a.m. and had to be up for work at 445 this a.m. So I crawl into bed to take a quick nap and Andrew lays down next to me and closes his eyes so I drift off to sleep! Come to find out...HE DIDN'T SLEEP! This little deceitful kid...just kicked his mom's butt in the intelligience department! :)

Easy Access

This is what I found this morning when I opened up my front window curtains...

After searching out...turning around...who did this, Andrew fessed up to it! I just about blew my top! I asked him why he did this and his response was..."I wanted to stick my hand outside." Like a kid who hasn't spent every day for the last WEEK outside!! I could have shipped him to CHINA! I was upset to understate it quite a bit. Needless to say, Andrew spent much of the morning in his room.

So, I was going to patch it up with duct tape...I know...CLASSY! However, I couldn't find any. So then I called my dad and ask him to come help me over his lunch hour, but I canceled that because a nap sounded better. So finally at 9 p.m. this evening, I decided to fix the screen because it had been annoying me ALL DAY! I just switched out the broken storm windows...I know SO white trash...but WHATEVER! I need new windows HORRIBLY bad!

Magical moment.

A couple of years ago when we were cleaning out my grandma and grandpa's house I spared my grandpa's shoes from the garbage. Each spring I plant flowers in them and by July...they're dead...but that's besides the point. Tonight it was kind of surreal because Matthew Robert helped plant flowers in Great-grandpa Robert's shoes. I know that he'll never quite understand but to me it was a moment.

Runaway

Okay...so I think by sharing this story I am sharing my fabulous parenting skills with everyone, but what can I say...it was kind of funny.

This evening, Jason was mowing the backyard and I was cleaning out my flower beds so I could plant lots of flowers tomorrow. I thought Matthew was with Jason in the backyard when I look down the street and Matthew is walking down the street pushing his lawn mower. The only thing that was stalling him was that the neighbor boy...who is 5...was asking him where he was going. I took off on a dead sprint...for me anyway...and went after him. I couldn't believe that he would do something like that. It was one of the worst moments in my parenting life! I can't believe that it happened.

Neglect

Oh my goodness! I knew I hadn't blogged in SO LONG, but I didn't realize it had been almost a month! What kind of person am I? It's not that I don't have any stories, cuz I do, but time is the issue in this situation!

Andrew is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds and spent much of last night and tonight helping Grandma paint her bedroom! He got $2 for it so he thinks he's a rich man now. Last Tuesday he woke up and said:

"Mom, I need a haircut today!"
I told him I would try and see what I could do.
His reply: "Mom, I need a haircut, TODAY!"

He was pretty shaggy, but looks very handsome now as I was able to get him a haircut! Thank goodness! He will be doing preschool two days a week next year and it is hard to believe that we are getting ready to celebrate his 4th birthday in a few weeks! His "birthday list" is a mile long already! He's way to smart for his age! He continually refers to Matt as "Buddy" or "Little Matt."

Matthew continues to be my mute. At the rate he is going, our third child...which is FAR FAR AWAY from now...is going to be talking before he is. He will randomly pull a word out of his head every once in awhile, but it's nothing too spectacular. He says hi and bye and that's about it. People tell me it will come, but I worry. Although Andrew doesn't stop talking long enough to let him say anything! The other day their great-aunt and her class stopped by our back yard (there is a walking trail behind out house) and yelled...HI ANDREW! Matt got up to the window and yelled...MATT!!!!! I don't question that he doesn't know things...I just don't think he has to...make sense?

Classes are over for me and finals are on Monday and Tuesday. We are pinned next Friday. My mom is pinning me this year. I figured that my dad handed me my high school diploma so my mom could pin me for the first time. Jason and the boys will pin me next year most likely. I'm looking forward to a break. I am taking a history class this summer, though. It's my prereqs for my BSN, but it's online, so that won't be too bad.

I promise, I will keep this more updated as the summer goes on. I will have more time to write things....okay I SHOULD have more time to write things. I would hate to jinx myself! :)

Supper Time Wisdom

This weekend we were sitting at the dinner table eating at Jason's parents when out of no where Andrew goes...

"Dad, let me tell you something!"
(This being in the same context we have all heard it from our parents!)

I can't remember what he decided to tell Jason, because I was laughing too hard...but man was it hilarious!

Never safe

We spent this Easter with Jason's parents. I thought I was being sneaky by getting Easter gifts down to their house without Andrew getting a peak at them. On Saturday though, I sent him out to the car to get his Quiet Book that his Great-grandma had made for him and in he comes with a Wal-Mart sack.

"Mom, what's this?!"

I just about had to change my drawers. Luckily, he got ahold of Matt's gift and I made up some story about how the Easter bunny must have dropped it off early and that since Andrew was in the house he was going to drop Andrew's off that night while he was sleeping. Talk about quick thinking. Whoo! He was satisfied until Matt got up from his nap and he wanted to show Matt his presents...Thankfully dad had hid them!

Busy Bee

Matt woke up bright and early this morning and when I finally rolled out of bed around 8:15 to tell Jason good-bye, he was in his crib grinning ear to ear at us. After downing TWO bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, he has been busy going from one thing to the next getting things done, putting things together and tearing things apart since he had the run of the house, because Andrew slept in until 10 a.m. (They really need to coincide their wake up times!)

Anyway, I am sitting here at the computer getting things ready for our Sienna Francis trip this weekend and Matt comes to me with a Mason jar and a pair of socks in it. I look down at his feet and just as I suspected...the socks were the ones I put on him this morning. When I told him that the socks were supposed to be on his feet, he just cocked his head to the side and gave me that little mischevious grin!

Needless to say we are 150 times better than we were last weekend when we landed in the hospital with dehydration.

Big

The other night Andrew and I were popping popcorn in the microwave and out of no where he goes.

"Mom, can I have a TV in my room?"
I said: "No, bud, maybe when you're older."
He replied: "But mom, I'm big for my age!"

Andrew on the ball!

The other day I was standing in the kitchen and Andrew was at the window doing something and I said something to him...I heard him sigh, followed by...mom, you're a nut!

Then tonight we were in the basement and Andrew goes...Mom, what's in your wallet? He never ceases to amaze me, including the fact he slept to 11 a.m. this morning. That's a world record for him.

Yet another one for him is to say...Mom, we're not fighting!...as soon as Matt starts screaming!

What am I going to do with him? He's always five steps ahead of me!

Another day...another milestone!

Today was absolutely GORGEOUS! After the boys had their naps we all went outside in our shorts! Andrew received a bike for Christmas so he has been practicing pedaling and has gotten very good. So tonight mom offers to take him around the trail behind our house. It was about halfway around the trail when I realized that my oldest sone is not supposed to be old enough to ride a bike, OR be starting pre-school in the fall! He's such a little man! I don't know where the time has gone.

THE KING!

Andrew has figured out how to take the tray off of Matt's high chair and he crawls up in it and says..."I'm the king." The other night I gave him things to set the table with and he looked at me and said..."Mom, I'm the king, I don't do that!" Needless to say...he eventually set the table!

Fun in the SNOW!

The boys were able to get out on Saturday and Sunday and have some fun in the sun and snow. The top picture is Matt trying to hide from Mom and Dad so he could play in the snow. The bottom one I was just trying to compare the snow drift to the size of Matt!

Magical Moments

On our way home from Omaha on Friday, Andrew was meditating in the back seat. I have NO idea where he picked this up from!

We were feeding the boys snacks until we could get home. This is Matt going after either a piece of chocolate or a cheeto!

This is Curly Sue after waking up from his nap! Jason tried so HARD to get that to lay down. I don't think he ever was successful.

The Snowman's back and he's causing lots of trouble!

I just thought I would update everyone on our uneventful, but busy week. Last Wednesday we were going to sneak down to Omaha to take Matt to the doctor for a check-up when I woke up the next morning in the hotel room to scream..."You are freaking kidding me!" Omaha had a bunch of snow dropped on it overnight much to my surprise. Needless to say the doctor's appointment got canceled and we were stuck in a hotel room with two little kids, no food and only one change of clothes (refer to the sneak comment previously!). Se we ventured out (yes, very stupid) to target to get more clothes, food and other necesscities (this included a new toy for each boy to entertain himself with....Andrew was happy!). We were just too far away to make it to Jason's parents, safely...we felt anyway.

So Thursday was spent in a 15x10 ft. room with two small boys who I would once in awhile let out of the room to run screaming down the hall. It was well worth the 2 minutes it lasted for all of our sanities. We quickly learned why kids that age should have space to run. We were able to get to the doctor of Friday though and Matt checked out perfectly fine. He's stinkin' 33 inches tall! Dr. K was very pleased with all his progress eventhough he still remains just a smidge behind, but he wasn't worried about it at all!

Then as soon as we were done with the doctor we filled up the boys' bellies and headed home. Up until about West Point, I think, is when I finally stopped saying...we should turn around. I just kept thinking...okay, if we can just get to this town...i know someone there we can call! Needless to say 6 hours after leaving Omaha...normally a 3 hour trip...we landed safely at home. I will not sign up to do that anytime soon. Below are a few of the pictures from what we ended up with at our house on Saturday morning.

This is our house heading east!

This is our house heading west! All the ones below are from our backyard. Our fence is about 5 ft. tall I believe. Not as impressive as last year...but close!