Monday, Monday..............

Here are just a few pics from yesterday. The boys and I headed to the zoo and then out to 317. Papa got Blake his first motorcycle, a Yamaha PW 50!! He got to take a test drive with Papa holding on. Once he gets his boots, padded pants, and helmet he will be on his own.

I left my camera at home, so here are a few pics from last year's zoo trip. The wild bird walkabout is Ethan's favorite. Blake enjoys the penguins and the reptiles. This year, they opened a new Ribbit Exhibit, so that was a lot of fun for my little frog lovers.

Random Pics from January

OK, so I am slowly getting all of the pics off of my camera for your viewing enjoyment!! Most of these are from our ice skating adventure for Grampa's birthday. This first few are of the boys watching one of those remote control helicopters while we waited for the rest of the fam to arrive. I don't get all three of them sitting still long enough for a picture very often.

Fun on the mini-excavator. (notice the shovel hanging!! this gives you an idea of just how sticky this soil is here!! YUCK!!)

This is Blake's ice skating debut. He, of course, thought "it was a race and he stayed to the inside and was lapping everyone!!" He was calling it an ice track instead of an ice rink. We like to call it "NASCAR on Ice"

This is Ethan's debut on ice. It is hilarious!! We like to call it, "Bambi on Ice"

Ethan and Kindle

Ethan's best friend, Kindle, got to spend the day with us. Here are some pics I got of the kids this morning when Ethan was at Excel. Ms Denise was so sweet to let Kindle stay with Ethan since they don't get to spend the day together very often. They had the best time together!! Kindle and Ethan on the spin board.

Ethan's best Buzz Lightyear imitation.

Ethan and Kindle on the platform swing.

Kindle jumping off the "mountain."

more platform swing...

Our Day Out With Thomas

Here are a few pictures we took on our "Day out with Thomas." Thomas the Tank Engine left the Island of Sodor and headed to the Grapevine Railroad and we got to take a nice Sunday afternoon ride in one of his coaches. The boys had a blast!!!

Waiting in line to board (Ethan looks happy dosen't he?)

Chase and Daddy

L-R: Thomas's driver, Ethan, Chase, and Blake

There's that happy face!!

Ethan and Blake meet Sir Topham Hatt

Pictures, Pictures...and more Pictures

Chase and Chi-Chi!! (This one is for you Aunt Amy!!) Chi-Chi was a get well gift for Blake when he was a baby. All of the boys have really enjoyed him over the years, but Chase has become especially fond of Chi-Chi the Monkey.

Blake reading books to Ethan.

Zoe with her head STUCK in the fence. Bigirl had been digging right outside our bedroom window and I heard her one night as I got into bed. Tony was still up, so I had him go and put her in the garage. No sooner did I get back in bed and someone else was scratching on the fence. Thinking it was HIS dog, I sent him out to get onto Zac. He quickly came back inside, flopped on the couch and said, "you might want to go check on your dog....she's gotton herself in a pickle!" I had to take a picture!! She apparently tried to stick her head out of the hole that Bigger had chewed not realizing, of course, that she is 60 pounds heavier and there is no way she is getting out that hole. Tony ended up having to tear down part of the fence to get her out. Keep in mind that it is midnight and he is wearing flip flops and shorts and it is near freezing!! The funniest part is that after he got her out, I heard him knocking on the front door. I am thinking to myself, did he intentionally lock himself out of the house? As I went to open the door, it just spun in my hand. Apparently the lock box that the realtor hung on the doorknob was too heavy and it broke the knob completely off. So there Tony is, standing on the front porch at midnight, in flip flops and shorts with a doorknob and lockbox in his hand and half the fence torn down!! There is honestly NEVER a dull moment around here!!

Chase and Zoe watching a little TV.

I have 3 months worth of pics that I will try to get posted soon. I am noticing that I have a ton of pictures of Chase and not as many of the other boys. Blake and Ethan aren't really big on having their picture taken right now. They move too fast for me to capture all of their funny moments!!

I have finally started a blog for our family!!

Since I have nothing else going on, (HA HA HA) I have decided to start a blog for our family and friends to keep up with us!! The boys are growing up so fast and I am horrible about emailing pictures and sending updates so I am hoping this will be easier for everyone!!

We are still recovering from our big NASCAR adventure. What a week! Tony headed out Tuesday night and waited for the gates to open Wednesday morning. He and his dad spent the day getting everything backed in, hooked up, unloaded and anchored down for the big weekend. Tony headed back out to the track Friday afternoon with Blake and Ethan to watch time trials and qualifying. The plan was for them to come back to Rockwall for Blake's soccer game and to pick up me and Chase, but all of the inbound Nationwide traffic made that impossible. After sitting in traffic for several hours and being diverted to Ft. Worth, it became obvious that they weren't going to make it by game time. They headed back to TMS and Chase and I packed up and headed that way. We took our sweet time getting there and ended up arriving with 10 laps to go in the race, so we too had the pleasure of sitting in all of the traffic that had kept Tony and the boys from getting out. You would think that by now we would have the timing worked out a little better. As soon as I got to the track, Ethan started running a fever. We figured he would be fine since the boys are famous for running a temp for a few hours and waking up fine the next day. My sweet mother in law headed to Wal-Mart that evening to get a thermometer and some Tylenol, just in case. It's a good thing because by noon on Sunday little Ethan's temp was 106.1. We got it down some, but it stayed around 104.5-105.5 most of the day. I think Blake is the only one that got to watch the race. Chase and I watched the first 5 laps and Tony watched the last 31 laps!! We got the 5th wheel packed up and headed out around 9:45. We got home around 11:30 and got everyone tucked in bed for the night. Ethan was up most of the night so I took him to the doctor Monday morning and he has strep and the flu. Funny thing is he never really acted sick. He has slowed down some, but he is still our happy little Ethan. He has now been fever free for 24 hours, but still looks sick in his eyes. Hopefully he will sleep well tonight. Each day is better.

I will post some pictures as soon as I can figure out how!!