Hee Haw Overall Modeling Session

Building on yesterday's overall success.. I decided to try again today. These "Hee Haw" overalls are some that I bought on ebay when Ben was an infant -- they're just like those that I wore as a kid. Ben always hated them, even though he liked overalls. The bright pattern was just not for him. Anyway, when I put them on Owen today, he actually seemed entertained by them.

I lined him up in front of the "new" bathroom door and took this photo.

Then asked him to turn around...
Then he turned back again and said "cheese"... Then he said "back" (and turned around again)...
And so it went, over and over... him modeling and me shooting pics.

This actually isn't ALL of them. He was having a really good time.
And I was just so impressed that he was LISTENING that I kept right up with him!

Weekend Bday Parties!

Last night we trekked across the road for Hannah's 16th bday party. It was a hog roast and bonfire... complete with "mattress surfing" in the field behind the house. Apparently this activity is something seen on the "Redneck Wedding" show (whatever it is called) on CMT. The neighbors rigged up a twin mattress with some rope for a handle and another rope tied to the back of the 4-wheeler... and pulled crazy riders around the field. Ben and Owen got a turn with Brad driving at a pretty safe/slow speed around the lot. I wish I had taken my camera, but I didn't. Both boys had a great time at the party and enjoyed the attention they got from the 16-yr-olds!

Today after church... another bday party! This one was for Justin - his 4th. It was a "Pony Party" so both boys were decked out in their western wear. Owen wore some horse overalls inherited from Ben... he usually will not wear overalls. As I was trying to put them on him this morning he kept saying "wet! wet!" I said "they are not.." Him: "yes they IS!!" I finally got them on him -- despite the arguing -- and then went to add the cowboy boots (also a hand-me-down from Ben!). This time "stuck! stuck!" He did not like how they went on - but after they were on he was pretty impressed with himself. He walked around half-bent-over checking them out.

Ben wanted to wear his cowboy vest that looked like Woody's (from Toy Story). They made a cute pair. Too bad you have to look at two pictures to see them both!

Finally, the last pics are a few from the attempt to get all of the kids at the party in one picture. Justin, the bday boy, was not present in most of them! My boys were the ones throwing straw, of course. Mark Evans paid for bringing the straw in for photos... lots of vacuuming in the afternoon hours!

A Soccer First!

Of course I didn't take my camera today... there was rain as we drove over to the field AND I had both boys w/o Jason (he did get to stop by, but he wasn't headed there with us). So anyway, didn't take my camera!

The first today WASN'T that Ben fell down. Within the first 5 mins on the field he had fallen/faked falling FIVE times. I think I mentioned before that the coach has pointed out to him - "Ben, you're much faster ON your feet!" Anyway, the first was that a little later when he was KNOCKED DOWN, he actually got up, and then went BACK IN! It was a good fall. His nose and cheeks were muddy. I cleaned him up and held him for a moment, and he went back in. This is definitely proof that FOUR is a better age for us for soccer than THREE is!

A couple of other cool/cute things... he was very into his running today. He pumped his arms and looked toward us on the sidelines with a big smile as he ran. In fact, a couple of times he wasn't even watching the ball .. instead watching us.

He did follow the ball MOST of the time though. Last year the coach would say "come here little Ben, come here Little Ben... nevermind... just stay down there little Ben!" There were actually a couple of times today when Coach Weltz had to practically chase Ben down because after an out-of-bounds he was STILL running for the goal with the ball!

Oh and the last, cool/cute thing... he got his first goal. He was very proud ... and so were we! He called both sets of grandparents as soon as we got to the van! He's still wearing most of his soccer outfit as of 5PM today. It was a good day for him!

ALMOST on the ABCs!

Owen ALMOST knows his ABCs! I didn't even realize this until tonight! He's got a "leapfrog" frog and it does the ABCs. Mom and Dad got it for him when he was born. He's apparently been listening to it and right now he's still in the other room singing "Q-R-S"!

He had a couple of other really cute moments this past weekend. Okay more than a couple... but here are a few highlights...

Friday night Jason was trying to fix a basketball goal that won't stay up right anymore. He went out and got 4 screws and his drill. Why 4 for the plastic goal - who knows.. but that is another story...

So anyway, Owen's got a ball in hand and wanted to play. He kept tilting his head sideways to look at Jason and say "done?" "Done, daddy?" "Done" Jason kept saying NO - not yet!! Over and over and over again... esp when Jason dropped the screw. "Done?" "Done?" "Done?" I found it rather humorous. Jason - less so...

Saturday we were getting ready to go to Avon and I said "where's Owen?" I was trying to get coats on to get them out the door. A minute later he came into the room and proclaimed "here I is!"

And then in Avon, we went to Menards. There was an assembled play set that both boys loved. Owen went fast on the slides and landed on his bottom repeatedly. He was fine. Later as we left the play area a man that worked at Menards asked how old Ben was. Ben answered and then Owen said "1 - 1!" The guy laughed at him and said something about Owen being one. Owen in turn smiled at me and said "him talked to me!"

Owen's favorite sayings right now... "what's this?" "look daddy look!" "go mommy go" and "who was that?" (when you're on the phone and have hung up). At the moment he has lost his bouncy ball and is looking all over saying "where go? where go?"

Soccer last night...

It was a beautiful night to go out to the soccer field last night. Unlike last week -- it was freezing. Ben plays at the field just north of our house and the wind there is incredible. Not unlike the wind tunnel at Purdue, I think. Ben did well... has the running/kicking (dribbling?) thing down pretty well now and makes his goal when they do the drills. He's also listening much better than he did last year (could it have gotten any worse really?). He has two problems though... and I share this because it's just funny. He CANNOT do jumping jacks. The other kids are getting the hang of them. Ben just stands there and grins. We practiced at home last night and he does okay in slow motion... but clearly this is something that we'll have to continue to work on. I guess he really did get my coordination issues! Secondly, he falls down. ALOT. See previous comment about what he inherited from me! Last night as we were leaving the coach said "great job Ben. We just need to try to stay UP a little more... you're much faster when you're up!" Ben just smiled. He gets all shy when the coach tells him something!

Owen took a ball w/him again last night and started kicking around with some bigger boys that were calling him a "baby" (they were probably all of 2 1/2 or 3!). Anyway, they kind of took his ball off and started kicking it between them... so he went to some BIGGER boys (like 8, probably) and took theirs. One of the boys was laying on the ball and Owen walked up and started saying "kick, kick" and trying to kick the ball while it was under the boy. It's a good thing he's cute. I anticipate that won't work for him in a couple of years and he'll be in big trouble for kicking the ball out from under a kid that is 5 or 6 yrs older than him!

1 More Post Today... More of Our Outdoor Fun

I got behind last week due to "technical difficulties" (the post did something odd with the photos ... ) so now I'm still catching up. I have a few more pics from the weekend to post real quick on my lunch hour...

I don't know if I should say "Mom was feeling better yesterday DESPITE the fact that she had three little boys running around" or "due in part TO THE FACT that she had three little boys running around!" In any case, she looked good and I think she felt good. Though she's probably paying for all of her extra efforts today. Here's a pic from yesterday that I thought was a good one.

Here's another interesting pic from the day at their house... that's a cow skull in the background. Uncle Chris distributed cow teeth to the boys. I think Ben's made it home somewhere. I'm SOOO glad that we have a cow tooth. Ben was very distraught that I refused to touch the cow tooth.

I asked the boys to sit down together and pose. Here are some of the notable shots. You'll see that Jonah sat, then Ben joined him... then Owen also sat but in a different place entirely. The last shot is of Owen inspecting his cow tooth! What a day!

Outdoor Fun - Visiting Grandpa and Grandma

We went to Bruceville again yesterday. This time my boys went AND Cousin Jonah was there. It was a wild afternoon outside! All of the boys enjoyed the playset and the gator in particular... and Uncle Chris found some cow teeth for the boys, which really made Ben's day.

Owen is way over the baby swings. He thinks he should be able to swing just like Ben... Unfortunately as you'll see in the second photo, his arms just don't keep him upright the same way. He thought it was super-funny to hang there w/his bottom dropped off the swing.

Ben and Owen rode all over the yard together in the gator. Ben was talking a mile a minute and so was Owen. Ben kept pointing things out to him. Very cute. Not sure where Jonah was at that time... maybe picking up nuts. He was very into looking for acorns.. Oh and yes, that IS a barrette in Owen's hair. It was a little windy and I couldn't keep it out of his eyes. Jason thinks it's time for a haircut! We just had one in January... I don't know what the rush is!

Grandpa and Callie got some afternoon action as well... Callie is a favorite of Owen's now. He loves dogs and cats.

I wanted a picture w/all three boys in it. Not a huge request, but certainly a logistical nightmare. I got them all while in the gator... but I couldn't get them to look at me at the same time. I was in front of them and the gator kept lurching toward me and then I'd tell Ben to stop trying to hit me. As it turns out it was OWEN pushing the pedal... and me griping at Ben caused Ben to yell at Owen and then this...

BOTH BOYS smacking each other! I love Jonah's reaction from the back...

Finally some success!

Random stuff from last week...

Cute pic that I wanted to share... we've got our $12.50 worth of fun out of this car already!

Thursday night Jason got concrete in the rest of the pole barn. Some guys were over working on that and Heather and Cooper Grable joined us for dinner. Heather bravely put Cooper (3 mos) down on the floor and walked away. Owen was actually very sweet. He started "petting" Cooper on the head, prompting Cooper to raise his head and look at Owen.

One other funny pic - okay two funny pics... Ben and Owen cleaning up the kitchen floor. This would seem to be very helpful BUT here's the story. Owen took Jason's half-eaten bag of cheese corn and started eating it. Then he proceeded to dump the rest of the bag in the floor somehow getting a lot in his hair. I got the broom and dustpan out, then got distracted. Ben and Owen took them up and decided to clean the floor!

First Soccer Practice

Ben had his first soccer practice Wednesday night. We were excited because he has a really good coach this year - and someone that goes to our church. He played some fun games with the kids like "body parts" where he yells out something like "ELBOW" and all of the kids have to stop and put their elbow on the ball. When everyone has listened, he lets them up to start dribbling again. Contrastly, last year's coach was usually late and had NO plan when he got there anyway!We didn't play Fall soccer - in fact we didn't mention Fall soccer to Ben! Last Spring was quite an experience as he didn't listen very well to the coach and frequently (okay MOST of the time) refused to go out on the field! We said that we wouldn't do soccer at 3 yrs old again... but then there's Owen kicking around on our ball while Ben was practicing and he is pretty GOOD. He won't be old enough NEXT Spring so we'll either be looking at Fall or the following Spring. We'll have to see how the listening part goes for him... he may be able to run and kick pretty well but I have a feeling the listening part will be a problem!

Ben's first game is April 12. They play for 7 weeks. His team is the MUSKETEERS and they are already doing a fundraiser! Ugh! Anyone need Papa John's pizza cards?

A FULL Weekend - Mar 29-30 LATE!!

Saturday the boys and I went to the Children's Museum in Indy. We hadn't been since January so we were due... and with busy weekends and then warmer weather coming, it seemed like a good idea. WRONG! It was the first day of Spring Break for the Indy schools so the place was a zoo. I usually let Ben roam around on his own as he knows the boundaries and I can usually see him from a distance... this time there were so many people that I couldn't do that. So after 3 hours, we left...

Because I still have some good (50% off) coupons from Value Village, I took the boys with me to the 38th St location... where we

found JUST what we needed, another Little Tykes car! As you'll see in the pics it was a big hit with the boys for $12.50! They call it a "super hero car" and they climb in as illustrated in the pics... up the front and thru the sunroof. The GET OUT the doors... but for some reason can't use them to enter the vehicle...

This weekend we also un-bunked the bunk beds. The two boys sleeping in one twin bed just wasn't working... one was ALWAYS up in the night. We weren't ready to put Ben on the top... so we moved most of the toys out of their bedroom and switched the beds around. Ben likes playing his leapster in bed before he goes to sleep.

Owen thought the new bed configuration was created to give him jumping places. He jumped and jumped on the bed. Then he settled in, surrounded himself with puppies, and worked on the Magnadoodle!

Saturday night we had another scare as Dad had to go to the ER for some chest pains and pain in his lungs when he was breathing. Turned out to be a bronchial infection... but worrisome nonetheless.

Jason, the boys and I ALL travelled back to Bruceville on Sunday to visit and help out with some food prep for the week. Mom won't like this, but these are some photos I took on Sunday of the patients and their caretaker...

The last photo is of Tammie. She's behind the pants. She's been helping out with BOTH Mom and Dad and has been doing laundry, cleaning, food... everything. We really appreciate all of her help. Especially with the two boys... I haven't been able to do much!

We're looking forward to a doctor visit for Mom in Indy next Tuesday. I'm sure he'll tell us that she's doing even better than expected. She is anxious to get "back to work" ... cleaning, the usual stuff. I'm working on finding enough projects to keep her busy during her downtime!