Merry Christmas!

Oh my gosh, this season I have had the Christmas Spirit SOOOOO bad! I swear I was more excited about Christmas than Alex was! And it paid off, I was not disappointed. My boys were excited and grateful and constantly surprised at all the loot they got (Ok, mostly just Alex....) and that made it amazing.
  Last night we went to my mom's house for Christmas Eve, the whole family was there (Except Cyrus & Fam of course) where we had a simple stew dinner and my dad read the story of the first Christmas from the Bible. It's a tradition us kids require of him since we remember our Grandpa Price reading us the story every Christmas eve when we were kids. Since he died while we were all pretty young we cherish it. Thus, we make my dad do the same now. We had stew to remind us of what they ate back when Jesus was born (sort of...) and Jill had a little demonstration for the kids with flat bread, goat cheese and dates. Our small effort to remind little kids that Christmas is more than just presents.
  So then there was Christmas morning. And then there was the inevitable "Uh.... we forgot to charge the battery on the camera." Yup, it's true. We did, forget that is. And since we forgot I must ask your forgiveness for the quality of ALL of the Christmas morning pictures as they were all taken on my phone. Which could be worse, my phone camera is not that bad. And for those of you that have an Iphone, ICloud rules. Anyway, on with the show.

Thank you to Nellie, The Worthams, Grandma and Grandpa Koch, Grandma and Grandpa Price, Grandpa Mayers and everyone else for EVERYTHING! It was all loved and appreciated. Merry Christmas!

Jeff Graduates!!

So it finally happened, and we couldn't be more pleased. Well, I should say I couldn't be more please. Jeff is still positive it's not real, that he's just on Christmas break and he's going to have to go back in January. Poor guy has school PTSD. To help him get over it we went and picked out his new TV last week. For those of you that don't know, I got his family and my family to combine the funds for his graduation present and Christmas present so he could get the big screen he has been wanting forever. It worked out perfectly since about 3 weeks before he graduated ours broke. Anyway, he went and picked one out last.... hmmm.... friday? For those of you that care this is what he got:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod5400031&navAction=push

It's a considerable upgrade in size and picture quality from our old one (oh yeah, and it actually turns on when you press the button) so we are both ridiculously pleased with it. Thanks so much to those of you that contributed! We love you all!

Oh Holy December!

So.... it's possible that the last blog post was in May. Hmmm... sorry about that! I promise I'll try harder, be better, all those things. Anyway.. so it's the Christmas season. One of my daily goals is to create the Christmas spirit a little every day with my boys. Every morning this month we have my homemade advent calendar.

This hangs in the doorway between the living room and dining room and every day Alex gets a bag w/ a small prize inside, ending Christmas Eve. He loves it and I was hoping it would help him begin to comprehend lengths of time. It actually seems to be helping, when he asks if it's Christmas yet we look to see how many bags are left.
  Every year my family rotates names for the brother/sister's family that we buy presents for that year. This year Nellie has us, and she decided to do the 12 days of Christmas. So also every morning Alex gets to open that days gift from Nellie. Today it was a small cast iron cookie kit. I'm pretty stoked about that one, I've been wanting one!
  Today's Spirit of Christmas activity was decorating an Gingerbread Train. Yup, if you've met Alex you know how awesome the existence of a Gingerbread Train is.

Luke's contribution you ask? Making sure we finished off all the frosting of course.

And the finished product:

By the way Grandma Koch, we received your box today, Thanks! Merry Christmas!

Folded Star Fabrics

Alright everyone, my store is up and running!! There isn't much in it yet, but give me time and I'll get more stuff listed and just get more stuff period. So, go check it out and tell me what you think. Browse around it (it won't take long!) and check out my policies and stuff and tell me what I should change or any suggestions you have. Plus, if you go look at it it shows as views on all my reports!! Please and thank you!

www.foldedstarfabrics.etsy.com

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The Weather actually cooperated on Easter and we were able to spend some time outside! I don't think Luke knew where he was since he's been locked up inside the darkness of winter so far but nevertheless, we got to pretend spring was around for a day. You can see our new grass coming in here, yay!

Luke got to participate when we colored eggs, sort of. He almost doesn't fit in that little chair anymore. Alex was pretty proud of his colored eggs though.

With the weather cooperating, we brought the new (and rapidly growing) chicks out to check out their future habitat. They weren't really sure what to do so they just stayed by our feet most of the time. Alex helped them run (away) a little.

The easter bunny brought Alex a baseball glove which he was pretty excited about. As you can see he has a way to go before he figures out he has to move his arm towards the ball in order to catch it but I think he'll get it. . . eventually.

That's all for now. Hopefully the weather stays this nice for a while but from the looks of it we'll be seeing more rain/maybe snow pretty soon.

Us Country Folk...

So, we got some chickens. Why, you ask? Earwigs. Lots and lots of earwigs. My redneck ranching sisters says "You got bugs? Gotta get some chickens!" So we some chickens to eat them. Let me just say, I assumed that there would be a point where Alex didn't perk up and have to announce every time he heard a chirp. So far I have been proven wrong. You hear a tiny chirp in the back ground, and inevitably, a "mama! I hear da baby chicks! I wanna hold my baby chicks! Mama! There's anudder baby chick!" I just keep telling myself that that is the very reason I got chicks instead of stealing a few chickens from the Romriell Ranch. I wanted them as chicks so they would grow up accustomed to being poked and prodded by a 2 year old, and also so we could train Cami to not eat them. The second part is going to be the hard part. So, up above: Goldie is the gold one (we like obvious) the one with the distinct black lines is Grill (Jeff named him, and because the lines on his head look like a grill, not because of Grilled Chicken) and last but not least we have Baby. Which is funny because if you look at the pic someone definitely put Baby in a corner! Ha... get it?!?! Moving on.... The pic below is Alex sneaking off to poke at the chicks. He has no idea I'm watching him. He pulls the chair over and climbs up and sits there watching them. Cracks me up.
Please please please let me explain this face. You can barely see it, on Alex's leg right behind the chick. Right about where the chicks behind is, yup. Chicken poop. Face explained.
This was right as we got home and were taking them out of the box. He would NOT touch them for a little while as he was completely unsure of what they were all about. But, of course, he got over that REAL fast.
Ahhhh.... my bird dog Cami. She wants to eat 'em. She wants to eat 'em real bad. She'll sit down in the kitchen and just watch their bin, just waiting for one to slip up and escape. She's a good dog so I have faith that by the time they are old enough to put them outside she'll understand they are not dinner.
Oh, important fact! The chickens we got actually lay green, pink and blue eggs! We paid big bucks for the fancy chicks... $3.50 a bird! But apparently this breed of bird started the colored Easter egg trend. As soon as they are old enough to start laying we'll verify and post pics.

Historical Day!!

We got to see the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile!! Let me tell you how awesome that was. We only wished that they gave hot dogs out of it still, but alas they do not. So after we were done we had to go to Hot Diggity Dog and get a 99% grease hot dog with which to satisfy our cravings. Alex thought it was pretty much the greatest thing ever, and at the same time, was a little bit scared of it.
Alex looooooves him some baby Lucas. The only thing he likes more than crawling all over him and kissing his face off is when I take Luke upstairs to 'play' with Alex in his room. My large and in charge baby doesn't seem to realize that he is only 2 months old, thus he sits in a chair like a big boy, and Alex can't keep his grubby little paws off him. He says, over and over, "look mama! Baby Wookus is sitting in in in my, in in my, my chair!"
Jeff thought this pic was awesome. Apparently right before he took it Luke also had his bum in the air and it was adorable. But of course, babies are not good at posing for the camera, so he flopped down right as Jeff took the pic. I still like it because it is an incredibly accurate portrayal of where Alex can be found most times during the day, which is no more than 3 inches away from Luke.
This one is for you Grandma Koch. After we opened the quilt, Alex thought it was the coolest thing ever and had to be wrapped up in it. I told him to smile for the pic and this is what we got, which he thought was hilarious when I showed him the pic.
That's about all I have for now. Life is pretty boring around here, it's just homework, projects and little boys. Jeff is busy putting my basement together this weekend (we decided not to finish it, but just clean it up and make it usable) which is pretty exciting. I can finally get the huge pile of sewing stuff out of the corner by my dinner table! How awesome is that?? Also I decided that I am going to take the summer off from school so I am pretty stoked about that. Jeff does not. That's what he gets for deciding to be a career student.
Side note: there is a little run down house across the street from us that has been for sale for a while now, for about $50K if that gives you any idea how run down it is. Well, it finally sold and since they took down the for sale sign, at least a couple times a day someone drives by, gets out and walks around and looks in the windows, hang out for a little bit then drives away. We are not exactly sure what is going on, or who bought it. However, I would like to describe for you the very first person to perform this act, and he actually went in the house and then took pics outside so we are worried he is the new owner... the house is right across from the big picture window in our living room if you are thinking to yourself that we are crazy neighbors peeping out our blinds at this point. We don't mean to snoop, we just can't help it... anyway... let me describe this guy for you... Who has seen The Wedding Singer? Remember the side kick limo driver? That is pretty much the guy. He is probably 50-ish, polyester suit, Don Johnson hair-do, and (I'm not making this up) was driving an 80's, silver window tint, sparkly purple limo with a big pimpin wing on the back. Where do you even find a car like that?? I'm pretty excited to find out who my new neighbor is. I'll keep you posted.

Happy 2 months Old!!

Today my darling little... i mean HUGE boy is 2 months old. Seriously? 2 months already, it's true. The funny thing is, since I went back to school when he was two weeks old and he is the size of a small toddler I forget that he is that young. For those of you that don't already know, he weighed in at his 2 month checkup at 15 lbs 7.5 oz and 24 1/2 inches long. Holy CRAP! He has grown 3.5 inches and nearly doubled his birth weight. He also weighs almost HALF of what his almost 3 year old brother weighs (who is no string bean I might add...) Talk about a chunk! He held his head up for the first time when he was about 2 hours old, and has just been getting stronger and stronger since. His favorite position is sitting upright or dangling, and he was being fussy one night so we decided to try the jumper. He LOVED it, but I had to keep bouncing it for his because (since it's not made for a 2 month old) he couldn't reach the ground to kick off of. Seriously, I don't think he knows how young he is either.
Now, of course since there are two little kids we needed a double stroller. My darling mother purchased one for us as a baby gift (she's the greatest!) but up until now we haven't needed it. However, the other day I was going to hit up the mall to do some shopping, so my thoughtful husband put the stroller together for me before he left for class. It was pretty early in the A.M. so I just left it there while I got ready for the day. I got out of the shower and found that it had been turned into home theater seating. Alex sat right there and watched TV all morning until it was his turn to get ready. It made me laugh so hard I couldn't say no! Sorry about the stupid face he is making, he was real annoyed that I had the audacity to try and interrupt the Wonder Pets.

One of the best parts about a new baby, in my opinion, is when they start to respond. Luke has started smiling over the last few weeks, though mostly only at his dad. And since it is mostly only at his dad I am hard pressed to get a picture of it. But I tried, and I kind of succeeded. You can see the beginning of the smile, but that was the best of many attempts to get it. I'll tell you what, that smile just melts your heart! He's gunna be a cutie. Also, you can't really tell but so far his hair has a definite red color to it.

That's about all I have to report for now. Oh wait! Let me brag on behalf of Jeff since he won't do it for himself. Jeff was a little (understatement of the year) worried about getting into his program at school because he GPA wasn't high enough, so he went in to talk to his counselor to see what could be done. He then got special permission from the dean to waive his GPA as a requirement due to his DRAMATIC grade improvement over the last 3 years. If this were an after school special, what would the message be here kids?? Anyway, I'm pretty proud of him, and I guess I'll keep him for a little while longer.

You asked for it....

Alright, I finally got around to posting some pics. Hope everyone loves them! This one up above is for you Rozzy. You know why.... Below was a pic I just took about 5 minutes ago so you could get an acurate idea of how big he is. you can see his chipmunk cheeks, but unfortunatly due to the angle he is sitting you can't play our favorite game "Count the chins..."

This one was also taken 5 minutes ago. It's Luke's blackmail pic and, I feel, a fairly accurate representation of the brother-brother relationship.

Alex and his OCD 'garage.' What else can I say?

Soooo cute!! And you can see the double chin in this one. Love it!

Alex is pretty sure the best part about Luke is all his gear. He will sit in there and watch TV. Yet no matter how many times he does it he always forgets that it tips over backwards pretty easy.

Um.... I have no excuse, that's my boy.

Every time I leave Luke unattended for longer than 1/16th of a second I come back to a situation like this. Alex LOVES his brother.

2 out of 3 of my cute boys.

Baby Lucas

Welp, he's finally here! Lucas Cole Mayers joined our family tuesday 1/11/11 (awesome birthday right!) at 1:53 pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 12 ozs and 21" long. He's a pretty mild mannered baby so far, and really only cries when he's hungry. He had a hard time breathing for the first little while so he was poked and prodded a lot while they monitored him, but it resolved itself in the first couple days and now he's good to go. Alex ADORES him and wants to hold/poke/lay on 24 hours a day. He calls him bebe yukas and we all think it is pretty much the cutest thing ever. Sorry about the lack of Luke's face in these pics, most of the good ones were taken with my mom's camera. I'll get those and post some better ones later, but here you go for now!