Movie Night

Wes & Grandpa were out of town fishing so I invited Grandma over for movie night with the boys. It was Sam's turn to pick so we all snuggled up to wach MegaMind with yummies. Popcorn for Sam, Max & Grandma and ice cream for Bo. Fun night.

Golden Days Parade 2011

Bo, Max & Sam with GrandmaTighe, Sam, Grandma, Max, Bo & Devon
Sam
Tighe, Sam, Max, Bo & Devon

Petting Pedro's donkey

Devon, Arron, Sam, Tighe & Bo

May...The Cliff's Note Version

May was a great month. The weather finally warmed up, the shorts and short sleeve shirts were dug out, and we played hard. Played really hard. Here are some (ok, a lot) of pics from our adventures.

First picnic of 2011 - dinner on Dad's truck at Grandma & Grandpas.
Mac-n-cheese never tasted so good:

The first of many many playground visits.

Exploring the trails at Grandma & Grandpas for the first time since the snow melted. These pics really remind me of the old "Joe, Jerry & George" stories my dad used to tell me, minus the sound effects. Love it!
Fairbanks city wide clean up day. Sam was my big helper this year.
Alaska Rail Road open house with free train rides and trains to explore.
The boys (and Grandma) had a blast.


When the weather is too nice to stay inside and build forts, what do you do?
Build a fort outside, of course.
Not wasting the warm hot tub water as we syphoned in out for the summer.
Smart boys.
Samsquatch

Waiting for Daddy to get home from work is always more fun when you hide
A few of the days we actually spent at home



Apparently, when you see this face . . .Run!!!!

Wes took Bo & Sam out on the boat one night after work and to say they had a good time is an understatement. They didn't get home until almost midnight and it was worth every minute of the cranky next day.

Memorial Day Weekend - Camping at 45 mile CHSR with our new friends Amy, Jason, Lola & Reece.

How The Girl Scouts Saved Christmas

We took the boys to see Santa today. They even had lists to give him and were so beyond excited. Well, Bo and Sam were at least. Max, not so much.

But when we got to Santa's House, we found out that Santa was not there because he rests on Mondays and Tuesdays. WTF? Santa doesn't rest in December. There are toys to be made and lists to be checked and then checked again. I know 'pa in his kerchief' but not 'good ole St Nick in his underoos'.

I have never seen Bo so disappointed. Bubble bursting. Sail drooping. Dog dying. I felt horrible. I almost cried. Probably would have if it weren't for the wall to wall holly jolly Christmas explosion I was standing in.

But then in happened. Frowns no longer. Cloud nine approaching. Looking like larks. Santa was in the building!! SANTA WAS IN THE BUILDING!

Thank you wonderful Girl Scout troop for dragging Santa from his day of rest. Now we love you AND your cookies.


*Side Note - Anyone else find it strange that Santa's mouth is always open?! Kind of creepy.

Back To Life as Usual

Grandma and Grandpa left last night after 3 great months of living with us. It's hard to believe it was 3 months because it flew by . . . but it was.

When they got here, Max was a month old and still all pink and wrinkly. Now he has beautiful olive color skin, rosy cheeks, arched eyebrows, and full-body wrinkles that have 'botoxed' into fat rolls. He is definitely a looker. And oh how he had Grandma wrapped around his little finger.
And Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam was all smiles when they got here and was all smiles when they left. A bit more mischievous and reckless (ie: loves to stand on kitchen table and swing chandelier) but still a happy kid. He was Grandpa's little buddy and loved the endless number of big people to read books to him. I bet Grandma & Grandpa read him over 100 books while they were here. Many never got finished, but they all sure got started.

Bo was of course ultra excited about having the extra live-in playmates. He and Grandma played hard and played long. Some of their favorite games were Monster Hunt (crawl around the dark basement floor with flashlights and look for monsters or bears), box camping, box forting, or pretty much any other game associated with a big cardboard box (first our tv box and then our dishwasher box). But regardless of what they played, they always had fun (minus Bo slapping Grandma across the cheek in about week 3 in above mentioned box for supposedly not playing right ???) and they always laughed hard.

The extra help was not just with the kids, though, but with housework as well. Karl had a honey-do list a mile long that he knocked out for us (finish shed interior, paint garage floor, tear down old shed, repair boiler, replace dryer light bulb, install heater fan in bathroom, repair hole in guest bath ceiling, paint bathroom . . .) and Marcia was a cleaning fool: laundry, dishes, vacuuming; you name it, she cleaned it. They were a ginormous help. I can not thank them enough.

But now they are gone, the guest room empty, and laundry is drowning us all.

Our New Roommates

I have had a few roommates in the past . . .

Kelly from Lodgepole-Freshman year with the Chip and Dales and verbatim Days of Our Lives recaps in between the meticulous dorm room cleanings in place of test preparation

Nicole from Ontario-Sophomore & Junior year in Melrose Place with hot tea and creamer, bagels, lots of gymnastics, annoying loud light switch, and endless boyfriends with babies sleeping on the couch

Rachael, Mindy & Gina-Senior year home hell with stolen toilet paper, fights over food, caddy bitchiness and lots of lies

. . . but never any as great as the ones we have now.

Wes' parents moved in with us about a month ago and it is absolutely wonderful having them here. They decided they wanted to be near their grandkids and finally gave up on us moving back there so they packed up their car and drove all the way from Iowa (most of it in snow, poor guys) to come live with us.

Their plan is to try it out until Spring and then decide if this is where they really want to hang their hat (and coat, and gloves, and scarves, and . . . Ok, you get the picture).

Assuming the winter isn't too overly annoying, they will head back home, pack up all their things, sell their house and move up here for good.

But in the mean time, they are settling in and remembering all too well what a house full of screaming kids is like with mountains of laundry, endless cleaning, neglected home projects, early kid wakings and horribly stinky dirty diapers while the rest of us (ahem, me) are loving the extra help around the house, the ability to hand a kid off when needed, and the chance to go to the gym alone. (Oh the gym. How I have missed you so.)

So goodbye roommate weirdness of the past. Hello roommate luxury of now.

Catching Up (it's a longy)

1. TREASURE - We had our first ever garage sale on Saturday and despite all the crap we still have left, we managed to make over $700. Not too shabby. But it still amazes me the things that sold vs the things that didn't:

Cool snow sled - no, 4 opened cartons of antifreeze - yes

Plastic flower pots - no, ancient dinosaur laptop from college - yes

Columbia parka with removable fleece lining - no, Army issue arctic parka with fake fur - yes

Picture frames and vases - no, old man grabber thing - yes

and the list goes on and on. We even had 2 people offer to buy Chena (weird) and a few people who came by for specific items which when they found out we didn't have any, turned around and left: guns, gardening tools, fishing poles, and big kid toys.

All in all an odd day but I'm just glad that woman from Barrow was able to stock up on so many baby socks.


2. FAMILY - Grandma & Uncle John left this morning. We had a great visit with them but like all family visits, it flew by way too fast.

Every morning they were here, Bo would run downstairs to get Grandma as soon as he woke up. It was super cute until this morning when he popped out of bed to do the same and I had to intervene and tell him that Grandma wasn't here. She left for the airport before he got up. His body slumped. He was crushed. But after we read the note she left about 4 times and he got to talk to her on the phone, he perked right back up. He sure loves his Grandma.

3. SLEEP - We are all still ultra sleep deprived in this house and am running out of ideas for Bo. Sam on the other hand just needs to be broken of milk in the middle of the night (AGAIN) which can be done; I've just been too tired and too paranoid about waking Bo up to even deal with it but tonight is the night. I hereby proclaim this the beginning of sleep (re)training take 3. Ugh, I am so not looking forward to it but it has to be done.

Bo is a whole different story. The Melatonin is making a huge difference in getting him to settle down and fall asleep (takes 20-40 minutes now instead of the 2-3 hours it was) but we are still having terrible problems with night wakings and night terrors. On any given night, Bo is up 2-5 times; each time leaving his room and crying in either the kitchen or living room all while staring at our bedroom door. Then the nights he has a night terror, everything is exaggerated and prolonged with it taking anywhere from 1-2 hours to get him calmed down enough to fall back asleep.

A few nights ago I was at wits end and decided that if neither boy was going to sleep then they could cry all night together. I dragged Bo's bed in to Sam's room and figured, hell, misery loves company, right? Wrong! Misery apparently just loves more misery when doubled and then spills over causing extreme misery on the parents. Let's just say it sucked, was a horrible HORRIBLE idea, totally back fired and I will never do it again. Damn it!

However, after last night's horrendously freaky night terror, Bo is now scared of his own room which, after the Sam room fiasco, leaves only our room to try. (Not cool, but we will do anything at this point) And so, with his mattress on our floor wedged between my night stand and Wes' dresser (where I am sure to trip over it and possibly break my little toe while listening to Sam cry his head off tonight), we once again attempt to break the vicious no-sleep cycle of Bo-Bo & his sidekick Sam.

Outdoor Fun With Grandma

The boys are absolutely loving having Grandma here. Between all the spoiling with toys (I think Bo got more toys this past week than he did for all of Christmas) and playing outside, they are in kid heaven.

Bo taking the hose up to the top of the slide

Sam trying to get in Bo's waterfall

Grandma & Sam doing 1 of 3 trillion laps around the back yard in the cozy coupe
Bo joining in on the fun

(and yes, he's only wearing underwear, which by the way he peed in about 20 minutes prior while turning on the hose, but that's a whole different story)