First day of school...

Chase is back in preschool.  This year I'm sending off to someone else to get him used to being away from me.  He is so excited about it!  His teacher gives them a folder with the whole month's worth of homework at the beginning of the month with a schedule of what to do on what day.  He can't stand letting some of the pages sit unfinished.  I keep telling him to wait until he learns about the stuff at school before doing the homework, but often when I check his folder to make sure he has everything done he should, there are extra pages filled in. 

I hope he is always so excited about school and learning.

Brody misses him when he is gone.  He's starting to take advantage of having me alone, but the first two times he sat on the floor and cried.

I just can't believe my babies are growing up so fast!

"Cycle man"

 The boys in my house are so motorcycle obsessed.  Brody is following right along in Chase and Daddy's footsteps.  When we are out in the yard and Brody goes missing I know right where to find him- in the garage by Daniel's motorcycle.  And before we can leave he has to sit on it and pretend to drive it.  So naturally, this is what we do in some of our free time. 

 Go to the undeveloped land down the street and ride cycles.

  I wanted to get some pictures to put up in the boys rooms so I made them circle in front of me over, and over, and over, again...

Sometimes I even jump on and go for a spin- I think Daniel secretly likes it when I do :)

More science

If you haven't already figured it out, Chase's favorite activity is a science experiment.   I need to get him a book of experiments but for no I find things here and there on pinterest for him to try.

This was a fun one where you use vinegar to dissolve the hard calcium carbonate shell off of the egg, leaving the thin membrane layer.

Just don't try to bounce it like the website told us to- it's not really that strong :)

This is how I know I married a nerd.

"Hey Hun, come quick!" I heard from out in the garage one afternoon.  The urgency of his voice had me a little concerned, so I wiped off my dishwater soaked hands and quickly walked to the garage.  He had been in there all day cleaning it out so we could fit both our cars in.  As I walked in I first noticed that the cars were pulled out into the driveway and there were dirt piles that had been swept up and stacks of stuff everywhere.  Our old broken dishwasher sat near the door in pieces that had been roughly sawed apart.
"What's the matter hun?" I hesitantly asked, hoping I wasn't about to be roped into helping in the garage- the worst job at our house.
"Check this out!"
His enthusiasm poured out and I knew his nerdy side was going to shine through again.  It makes an appearance pretty often in our house and always with great enthusiasm and determination.

He continued, "I pulled the motor out of the old dishwasher and it still works!  Just think of all the things I could use this for!"

"Like what hun?" I asked truly curious as to what could be done with all these wires and things.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure there is something!"

Dear Daniel

Hey Hun!

I wrote you this letter because I wasn't going to get the chance to talk much with you, but decided to put it on the blog for documenting it.  Hope you don't mind :)
I finally was able to get on the computer and finish my report (visiting teaching)- phew!  What a relief.  I don't know why that seems to turn into a fiasco almost every month!

The boys did so good at the doctor.  You would have been proud- I was.  I had do to some breathing exercises with Chase because he was so nervous he was about to hyperventilate!  He told me he didn't think he could be brave enough to talk to the doctor and I told him to just try.  When we got in there he couldn't STOP talking!  He was in the middle of one of his numerous sentences with the nurse and stopped and turned to me and said "see mom, you told me I could be brave to talk to the doctor" and continued one.  She just laughed.

When it came time to do the shots Chase got really nervous but was determined to be brave.  He didn't cry or anything.  Just flinched and a little whimper- just like I do when I have to get shots :)  Brody saw how brave Chase was and did the same.  He didn't cry either just kinda started saying "oh owie mom, owie."  I think I was closer to tears than either of them where.  I took them to Mcdonalds afterwards.   They earned it!

Chase took an eye test and they use pictures instead of letters for kids (I think it's kinda silly because the pictures aren't that clear as to what they are.  I was confused on some.... ) but she pointed to a crescent moon and asked him what it was.  He paused for a few moments and then said "Oh!  It's a peanut!" :)  I couldn't contain my laughter though I tried really hard so I wouldn't make Chase more nervous.  Brody copied everything he said and stood next to him and acted like he was taking the eye test.

Both boys are big and healthy and perfect!  Chase - 75% for weight and 90% for height.  Brody- 75% for weight and 50% for height.  I have just been feeling so happy and proud of these boys lately.  They are just really good kids.  They have a really good dad to look up to and I am so lucky!



Love you!

Roomie get together

Finally after 4 years I was able to see my old Snow roommates.  These girls helped me in the biggest way through one of my lowest points in life.  They will always mean so much to me.

Family picture bloopers

Family pictures can be a lot of work.  Especially when I'm determined to take them and be IN them.  I ended up with a handful that I was happy with, but many, MANY more that didn't make the cut.  Out of hours of pictures taking and hundreds and hundreds of pictures, we got 10-15 good ones.  Here are some of the others.

 Brody HATED having to sit for pictures and was very vocal about it.



 Although there were a few times he would tease me by looking my way, but never smiling.

 Chase is at an age where he likes to goof around and pose in silly ways.  He poses and then runs to see how silly the picture turned out.

Unfortunately this one would be really cute if it didn't look like he had three arms (from Brody right behind him) and my legs in the background.  Maybe someday I'll get enough motivations to try my hand at photo-shopping us out.

I have hundreds like this.  Near the end of the night my remote battery died and we were left trying to use the timer.  We obviously weren't quite ready :)