Laughing Lewis

A Kindergartener, A Preschooler and A Baby

My First Flowbee

Our boys do not get haircuts, they get Flowbee cuts. Corey is the Flowbee guy in our house (there are many things I will do for my kids, but cutting their hair is not one of them.) He just hooks the thing up to the vaccuum cleaner and walah! a quick haircut with no mess. We could probably give a customer testimonial in one of their infommercials! Lewis was pretty unsure of the whole thing, but he'll get used to it.

Smores Anyone?

It got up to 25 degrees today! Warm enough to sleep outside in a tent if your name is Corey Harms. Yes, I'm married to a wonderfully strange man. This is not the first time he has set up camp outside in the middle of winter, and I'm sure it won't be the last. He is gone on an overnight retreat with the youth, and he and at least two of the guys (who had to get parental permission) are sleeping outside. They tried to dig a big enough place to sleep out of a snow bank, but didn't have the time to get it done, so they are settling for a tent.

He is all about adventure (which often masks itself as insanity), and I long ago came to grips with the fact that, to him, these strange expeditions are a necessity. I have decided to just smile and believe that, as a boy, he is wired to find enjoyment in far different things than I. I could talk about the time he and his buddies camped out in their homemade teepee, (Our sleeping bags smelled like smoke for two years even after being washed!) but most of you who read this blog don't need me to convince you that Corey is... well, Corey.

E-I-E-I-O

I dug out this Little People barn a couple days ago, and Lewis is having a ball with it. (Though he had to wait until his brothers had their fun with it first.) I think it entertained Carter and Owen for at least a half hour! Above, he is smiling because he just pushed the button that turns the song on. He was pretty proud of himself.

In Search of BumbleBee

Owen loves Transformers. He especially loves Bumblebee. He really wants a Bumblebee Transformer. His birthday is March 21. Loving mother that I am, I have been looking for BumbleBee.

Target does not have Bumblebee.

Wal-Mart does not have Bumblebee.

Toys-R-Us does not have BumbleBee.

Walmart online does not have Bumblebee.

Toys-R-Us online does not have Bumblebee.

I did get the coveted piece of plastic ordered from Target online, but the approximate arrival date is March 18 - April 3, cutting it close for his big day. I'm thinking that Owen is only one of thousands of little boys out there in love with the transforming yellow camaro!

Showing Off Those Pearly Whites

Tooth number 3 arrived this week! Here is Lewis showing off the bottom two.

Long and Lean?

Hard to believe with those chubby cheeks, but my baby who has always been between the 75th and 90th % in length and 75% in weight had his 9 month appointment this week, and he is now 29 3/4 in and 20 lbs 11 oz, which puts him at 90% in length and 50% in weight. This may be attributed to the fact that he is stretching out, or the fact that he hardly ate anything for 4 days before his appointment because he was sick. I think his chubbiness is so cute, I'm not ready for him to stretch out and turn into a little boy yet!

Thoughts on Valentine's Day

1. Valentine's Day happens to be the day that Corey officially becomes my age again, and I have 10 months free of "old" jokes. The boys have a hard time believing that Corey could possibly be younger than me, because I'm "little" and he's "big."

2. Corey is off the hook for flowers on Valentine's Day. I think it is absurd to spend $50 on a bouquet that will cost $20 on the 15th. Call me frugal or cheap - either one is pretty accurate!

3. Boxes of chocolates. I usually love half the chocolates in the box and am not so fond of the rest. So if you are offered a piece of chocolate from a box at my house, you should probably check to make sure there is not a bite out of it first. I am known to put it back in the box if I don't like it. My friend Cinnamon offered me a chocolate today and let me put the yucky coconut-filled thing back in exchange for a caramel-filled one. Now that is true friendship!

4. Valentine greetings. The boys had a good time getting their cards ready for classmates, and we even made some homemade ones. Owen made one for Corey that had a bunch of foam hearts and said TRANSFORMERS. Carter made me a Valentine package with a paper boat, a piece of paper on which he wrote "is a cat fat" and some conversation hearts. I even made one for Corey while we had the craft stuff out, complete with construction paper, glue and foam craft shapes. I stole my "phraseology" from a Reliant K song, but it's the thought that counts, right?

My Valentines

TRANSFORMERS

We are transformer crazy at our house! It's mostly Owen who is Transformer crazy and it is making me crazy. Some days it seems like the only conversation I have all day is about Transformers. When Owen gets into something it becomes an obsession. Notice the Optimus Prime Costume he made in the above picture. (Grandma Nelson came yesterday with a real Optimus Prime costume that she found on clearance). Below is one of the millions (slight exaggeration) of pictures we have found online and printed for him to color. For those of you who are not as Transformer savvy as I, it is a picture of BumbleBee and Barricade. Bumblebee is Owen's favorite. Barricade is Carter's. There are so many to choose from, I'm not sure which one is the best Optimus, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ratchet, Megatron, Blackout...

Man, that's a good-looking guy on electric guitar!

Corey, our youth pastor Gabe, and a few of our very gifted high school students had the opportunity to lead worship for 300+ Jr. High students at a retreat this past weekend. It meant a lot of practice beforehand, and another weekend away from home, (which I wasn't excited about), but it was really a good thing.

Corey's folks came to help me keep my sanity while he was gone (his dad even did a few projects around the house for me. Bonus!) and we were all able to drive to Hidden Acres to see the band do worship on Saturday evening. It's always fun seeing Corey do something he loves. He is so musically talented. The whole band was great. It's kind of hard to believe that the majority of them are only about 16-years-old (give or take a year).

I was very happy to have him back home on Sunday, and don't look forward to the next time he goes, but when he's gone, it sure reminds me how much I appreciate having him here.

Separating FACT from FICTION

This morning before school Carter told me that yesterday and today they are learning about planets and astronauts in his kindergarten class. I asked him if he could remember the names of any of the planets, "Umm, Krypton...."

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What can I say, the line between the comic book world and the real world is a pretty fine one at our house!! (He did come home with some actual planet names today. )

Casanova

Tonight the boys and I were listening to Reliant K's "Sadie Hawkins Dance." I then explained to them what a Sadie Hawkins Dance is and what a date is. After I was done, Carter said, "I could go on a date right now. I just need to choose one of my 4 girlfriends." I didn't realize my son was such a Casanova.

A Perfect Snow Day

NO SCHOOL! Carter was very happy when school was cancelled yesterday, and we took advantage of the day by having some neighbor boys over to play in the morning. In the afternoon they headed outside to enjoy the newly fallen snow. Lucas and Carter are in the "forest" (that's what the boys call it) in our backyard. Logan and Owen are making tracks in the yard.
SNOW FORT! The highlight of the day was the snow fort that Corey built for the boys. He spent most of the evening outside, digging out the inside of this hill he made. Carter and Owen are loving it. They have been asking for a snow fort all winter, but this was the first time we've had a big enough snow. Owen can almost stand up in it.

It was back to school this morning, much to Carter's dismay. The first full day of school they've had all week. It has been quite the winter!

And so it begins

Lewis rolled from his back to his tummy at 4 months. Now, 5 months later, my 9-month-old finally decided to give rolling the other direction a try. He was successful, and made the trip across the living room a couple times this evening. He even managed to destroy Carter and Owen's Lego bridge...the first of many destructive moves I'm sure. The big boys have no idea what they are in for.

Dells Vacation

The element of surprise: We successfully kept our destination a secret until we pulled into the Chula Vista drive and the boys could see the waterslides. We didn't think we would be able to pull it off. Carter's response to seeing the resort, "Oh, I knew we were going here." Owen's response "But we're not staying here right? We're going to McDonalds." (We were looking for a McDonalds with a playland, but never found one.) Lewis was a dream as usual. If I had to use one word to describe him, it would be happy. He had a great time watching his big brothers and all of the other commotion going on around him, and he even played in the pool and took a few trips around the lazy river.

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One of the Carter and Owen's favorite things was the roller coaster (they are standing in line for it in the picture). According to the rules, they didn't weigh enough to go without an adult, but they let them anyway, and I bet they rode it at least 20 times over the weekend. The bonus of going during the off season is most of the time they didn't have to wait in line, they could just get off and hop right back on. We enjoyed the rollercoaster too.

Enjoying the small slides in the kiddie pool.

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The boys also had a ball in the arcade, where Grandma and Grandpa dropped more than a few quarters.

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All the swimming and playing wiped these guys out. We had a wonderful condo to stay in. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 fireplaces, kitchen, living room and jacuzzi tub, which the boys soaked in more than once to get the chlorine rinsed off. Another benefit of going in the off season - we got this condo for the same price as we would have paid for two regular hotel rooms.

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Corey and I took a dip in the outdoor hottub when it was in the single digits outside. BRRRR! The water felt so wonderful, but I was not excited about getting out and running back to the building in my swimsuit.

Vacation Footage

This is the boys in the "kiddie pool." Last year they spent a good chunk of their time in this pool. This year they were more interested in the big stuff.