Joey's Hair pictures

Joey's Hair!!!

Yes, I cut it yesterday! I knew I had too many people holding me to my promise! I was going to take Joey in to someone to cut it but I was cutting off some of his ringlets to save and decided to just cut it myself with our Flowbie! Those things are the greatest for cutting little kids' hair, no matter how much they move, it always cuts the same length! So I put on a baby einstein movie, gave Joey some fishie crackers and did the haircut! He looks so cute and so much older! We've decided he is the missing link between Johnny and Rodney, he looks so much like each of them! Joey keeps feeling his hair to see where it all went, it's really funny! I made a slide show of before and after pictures so enjoy!

Field Trip Pictures

The Wheels on the Bus go 'round and 'round"....

Hi! Today Julia had a field trip and I got to go as a chaperone! We had so much fun! We took the bus into Washington D.C. to go to the Air and Space Museum, they are starting the astronomy section in third grade so this is a good intro to the subject! We watched the IMAX movie Black Holes on the planetarium ceiling screen! It was amazing! The whole domed ceiling was the screen and it was a really neat movie. We took the kids around to see the Wright Brothers airplane, we saw how they live in the space station--everyone has to know how astronauts go to the bathroom and eat! Very important information for third graders! We saw real rockets, touched a moon rock, saw the pod for the first manned orbit around the earth (it was very small and no room to go to the bathroom!) We looked through telescopes and played with crystals and the light spectrum, saw our heat signature on camera and saw Sputnik. I had 5 kids in my group and we had a wonderful time! Julia has some nice friends and a great teacher, Mr. Tanzi. After we loaded the bus up, we were driving on Pennsylvania Ave by the Capitol and President Bush's motorcade came through! The guy sitting next to us saw Pres. Bush in the limo and everyone was really excited to see all the flashing lights, sirens, and police vehicles! So it was a great day and Julia said her school day went by really fast, that happens when you're gone from school playing! :)

Joey's Hair

Okay, so I know I need to cut Joey's hair! I just wanted to let everyone know it will be sometime this week!--There, I committed to it! (I"m so proud of myself) I"m going to wash it one more time and cut off the really long cute ringlets for me to save and then I"ll take him somewhere so someone else can cut it! I have no idea how to cut his hair? I cut John, Johnny's, and Rodney's but I think Joey's first haircut will be by someone else! Sooo... when it happens I will post pictures of our new little boy!

Bucket List?

Copy this list to your own blog and highlight those things you've done. I didn't make this up, I got it from NaDell's blog! Have fun!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill--school
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language-Baby Talk?
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's The David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling--both
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating--spearfishing
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life-Baby
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous--Pres. Hinckley, Pres. Monson
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee--on the eye!
100. Totally copied a post from someone elses' blog to your own--this one!

Clean Clothes Hamper?

This is another laundry blog! This morning I was having the kids bring down their clothes hampers so I could start washing everything. I noticed the other day that the boys' clothes hamper was half full of clean clothes. That happens when I tell them to clean their room-- Most of what is on the floor goes in the hamper, clean and dirty clothes! So I have told them that I'm going to charge them a quarter a piece of clothing for whatever I find in their hamper that is clean! It's really sad when I find shorts (it's winter and no one has worn shorts for a while) and folded clothes in there! I told the boys to get the clean clothes out of their hamper before they brought it down so they didn't lose their money, I'm nice so I give them chances! Rodney really didn't want to do it but the money thing is a pretty big motivator for him! So I was helping him decide how to tell if things are really dirty, (lint doesn't count as dirt) and when he was done he had two piles, one clean and one dirty and they were the same size! I told him the lesson he needed to learn was that when you put clothes in the hamper make sure they are dirty and if they aren't, don't put them in there! His solution was this "Well, we should have a clean clothes hamper and a dirty clothes hamper" My reply to that was " the clean clothes hamper is called your dresser drawers!" It sure would be nice if those dresser drawers got used! :)

Empire State Building pics

The Empire State Building

When my Mom and sister were here we did so many things it might take me a while to record them! When we were in New York City we were able to go to the top of the Empire State Building! It was amazing and so fun! The day was supposed to be kind of rainy but the rain hadn't come yet, my mom said she had been praying for good weather while we were there and it worked! :) We had beautiful weather for going to the top of the building and as soon as we got down, the top was enclosed in fog and you couldn't see anything! You can see in some of the pictures that the weather is changing. I have a picture at the end of the slideshow showing the fog. So we felt really blessed that we were able to see from the top. The view was incredible of the city and we could even see the Statue of Liberty out in the distance! The wind picked up pretty good while we were up there and the kids loved that-- we could also feel the fog rolling in, our hands started getting sticky and it got colder so that was kind of cool to be up so high and feel the change in weather so fast. We rode one elevator up to the 80th floor and then got on another elevator to go up to the 86th floor. It was kind of scary looking down at first but there are so many bars that it would be hard to be un-safe up there! The kids got to look through those binoculars--luckily I had brought my quarters--and they got some good views with that. The taxi cabs looked like little toy cars and one of the streets we could see was completely packed with taxi cabs! Crazy traffic and drivers there! We got some pictures of the very top spire of the building and John and I even remembered to get our "romantic" kiss at the top! (he had one kid on his back, one was hanging onto my leg and we were about to be blown away by the wind!) The romance from Sleepless in Seattle had to have taken some work up there! :) We loved it and had a fabulous time!!!

ps I have noticed that the captions on the slide show are showing up one picture early and I can't change it, so that is why they don't match all the time! :)

Holiday Shopping Help!!!

Okay, so I'll tell you what I"ve done! This is a very brave thing I have done for myself (and our bank account!) I have put all of my store emails into the "junk" folder for the rest of the season! yeah me! I think I get an emai from like 10 stores everyday and I just delete, delete, delete, BUT sometimes I see the good sales they are having and I"m tempted! I THOUGHT I was done shopping for christmas and I"ve done most of it online to avoid stores and to get good sales. But two days ago I received another list: the kids informed of the toy drive at school, John told me had to have a gift for a party at work, I remembered a cousins birthday on Dec 20th that I needed a gift for and when we went to sign up at the gym, if we brought in a toy, they waived the $80 sign up fee! (pretty valuable toy!) So I ventured over to walmart again yesterday and got all the presents and sent them off with everyone this morning. Then I saw the toysrus add today and they are having such a great sale that I had to go over there and check it out because they had something that was on the list I needed and it was on sale half off. So I went there and of course found a couple more things. Sooo I am really truly officially done with everything that involves a toy I think! I still have neighbor gifts and christmas cards if I end up being that organized this year. For all of you that didn't get our christmas card last year, I'm sorry! I actually had them, they were nice family picture cards from Costco and I still have them! They were in that infamous kitchen cupboard pile I have, I just never got all the address on them! So, back to shopping, since I am done I no longer need to see what everyone has for sale and then I won't know what good sales I am missing! Now it's time for us to put up our tree (a fake one that doesn't need water and can't be eaten) put up lights outside and enjoy the holiday season! Have a geat day and weekend!!! :)

The "After" of Thanksgiving

Well, I did my report on Thanksgiving and now I'm just trying to figure out how to get life back to "normal"! I don't actually know if we are "normal" hmm, I 'll have to think about that one! The house had NO food in it, just ask my kids, so I had to go grocery shopping yesterday and consequently I was shopping from 8:30 to 1:30! How does that happen? I"ll tell you...I drove a 1/2 hour to walmart to do my shopping because they have the best food prices, food is so expensive here! I had the cart loaded full and Joey kept throwing things out of the cart, like every 30 seconds I was bending down picking things up off the floor! About 10 times other people picked things up off the floor for me too! So that took a while to go shopping, plus we needed so much that I ended up having two shopping carts to haul out to the car! That is actually kind of hard to do, pushing one loaded shopping cart with one hand and dragging the other (with Joey in it) behind me, it goes well until you have to turn, then it gets interesting! (I have actually run over myself with a shopping cart! I hit the back of my own foot and it hurt) I rarely have that much stuff to get but this week I did! Then I needed to drive almost an hour the other way into Bethesda to go to the Scout headquarters to get Johnny a scout shirt! He is an 11 year old scout now, so fun! John is also the 11 year old Scout leader, so convenient! :) So I had to go get Johnny a shirt and patches and book and get John new patches and a book. I took Joey in with me and let me tell you, Scout shops have TONS of little things everywhere for a 2 year old to put his hands in and throw everywhere! We only lasted a few minutes before I realized I had a stroller in the car that we were going to go get and use! Silly me for thinking I could go into a store and hold Joey and get anything done! So we got the stroller and came back in and then continued our process of sizing shirts for Johnny, getting like 20 patches, books, stuff to put the patches on with (I don't sew, I use the sticky stuff!)and info on where to put the patches! So that was our scouting adventure! Our area is called The National Capitol Area Council and the patch is really neat, it is the Jefferson Memorial with the Cherry Blossoms in front of it! So at least the patches were pretty, oh, and we bought so much stuff that we got a free basketball! We love scouts and John and Johnny are going to have so much fun! I hear they have a winter campout coming in January, that's when I'm glad I get to stay home! :) After the scout office I was close by our church bookstore that I had never been to so I ventured over there and that was fun. (Joey was sleeping by then) Then we got home and it took me a while to put the groceries away, then the kids came home hungry---but I had food! Then it was homework time, John came home, dinner time, and scout time! So, that was my day yesterday! This morning was breakfast, lunches, book orders, permission slips, find the homework, backpacks, coats, shoes, socks, and run to the car! Today is laundry like crazy and putting those scout patches on! Oh, and dinner would be helpful! Have a great wednesday!!!! :)

The Thanksgiving Weekend!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I didn't really get pictures of the actual Thanksgiving, too busy making and eating the food and watching all the kids! We went up to John's house in NY for Thanksgiving and that is always fun to see everyone! The kids love to play with their cousins and everyone gets along well. Thanksgiving dinner was yummy, delicious ham and turkey, good potatoes and pies! Of course I ate way too mucy but that's normal right?! :) On Saturday our big excursion was to go out and get a Christmas tree for John's parents. It's a tradition they've been doing for about 25 years I think. They go to the same tree farm and pick out the best tree! We had nine kids and 12 adults in various degress of snow clothing (or lack therof) tromping through knee deep snow! People were wondering when the kids would start complaining that "I can't feel my knees!" But the walk was pretty short, a few snowball fights broke out and everyone had fun! John got to lay down in the snow and do the actual cutting of the tree and then they all drug the tree out and got it on top of the car. Then everyone went inside and had hot chocolate and cookies and got warm in the little house there. Very fun and memorable! The kids found icicicles as big as they were and of course those make good swords--and no body got their eye poked out! The next part of the process was decorating the tree that night! This is always accompanied by homemade fudge eaten hot with bananas, soo yummy! My kids always look forward to eating Grandma Hardy's homemade fudge with bananas! Two huge pots were made and one turned out perfect, the other, it's a mystery what happened to it?! It looked different and ended up making a great cake-pan shaped candy bar because it got so hard! (There is a picture of that) But we all still ate most of it and then the decorating started! Lots of little kids decorating the tree and some of them (Joey) even worked on Un-decorating the tree at the same time! This was the first time Joey has been allowed to touch a christmas tree, last year he wasn't walking and it was easy to keep him away from it. This year though, he is in full force of wanting to experience all the Christmas tree things, feeling it, eating it, decorating it, undecorating it and so on.... Several glass ornaments got broken in the process and then we collected all glass ornaments and put them away, things went much better after that! Rodney put all the cardinals in one spot to make a bird family and he was very proud of that! Julia got to put the Angel on top of the tree and John's mom also found a porcelain doll ornament that was a Great Grandmas' and Julia got to put that on too, she loved it! Johnny is getting tall enough to reach the upper branches so he put most of the top ornaments on! John got to put on an ornament he had made when he was a little boy and John's parents did the traditional checking of the lights and putting them on! It was awesome to be together as a family and enjoy family traditions! Our trip home took us 9 hours of driving instead of 6 because when you try to get back into the Wash DC area after a holiday we have discovered that everyone is coming home the same time and the traffic was pretty bad! But we survived! We will always survive!!! ( I don't know about the kids though...) :)