Visitors

The kids love to watch the squirrels that wander our yard and we occassionally put peanuts out for them. This morning when we were eating our pancake breakfast (Thanks Justin :D) we looked out the window and saw our little friends looking for some goodies on the deck. We threw a few out for them and then look out a few minutes later and this is what we saw:

Let me introduce you.

The one on the Right is Chubbs. The one on the left is Scout.

Scout stays in the tree starring at you. Chubbs is just chubby.

They just sat there waiting....and waiting...and waiting.

They would make quite the book ends, wouldn't you say?

Finally I broke down and gave them a few more cuz they were so cute.

The next time we looked out the window THIS is what we saw:

The word is spreading. :)

Next I'll try to get a picture of the Blue Jays.

There may be fierce competition for those peanuts.

Boots

The other day I came into my Bathroon to this. T decided to try on my boots. It was hilarious! Check it out! I love the monster PJ/boot combo! :)

Funny Story

Yesterday I overhear the kids playing in the TV room. My sister just got married and had to purge alot of her stuff, so we inherited her couch, among other things. It seems to be the cool place to play righ now, so the kids had some little toddler link toys and they were hanging them over the back of the couch. T decided they were going fishing. He kept saying things like "I'll be Uncle Roger and you go fishing and I'll come save you". Bug would "accidentally" drop something over the couch and say "HELP!!! UNCLE ROGER!!!! I DROPPED SOMETHING" and Heroic Uncle Roger would jump in, hold his breathe (puffed cheeks and all), swim around "under water" and find what ever Bug dropped. It was so random and so funny to watch. I got the camera to take a picture of them fishing and said "T, look at me for the picture". He got really annoyed with me and said "MY NAME IS UNCLE WOGER!". They sure love Uncle Roger. :)

IT's 2011!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2011, Here's your Welcoming committee

Happy New Year!

The Last Six Months...So Long 2010

The last six months is a bit blurry, now that I actually have time to look back on it. If I wrote every detail about it, you would be reading a novel, So I'll let the pictures tell most of the store....

We welcomed "Bubba" into the family in June.

We got ALOT of family time through the summer.

Bug got to spend her 5th Birthday with Grandpa Felix.

(They share a birthday, so that was pretty special)

They started the morning by picking fresh raspberries for breakfast

from Grandma and Grandpa's raspberry bushes.

Bug started Kindergarten..*sniff*sniff*

Grandma and Grandpa 'foli' and Aunt Christine came out for our

annual trip to Grand Island for a half marathon/5k

We moved from NE to the West Coast.

*note*at this point, we didn't have a place to live and

were VERY MUCH walking by faith :)

I got to help plan my sister's wedding. She let me do her invitations,

her decorations and her flowers. Here Cynthia and I

are assembling our bouquets. (more pics to come as soon as I get my hands on them!)

All the girls..and a cute baby boy :)

We finally found a place to live and FINALLY got our stuff back.

Watching the delivery from the front door.

Such a cute house! Even cuter family!

The decorated Christmas tree. The kids did a great job!

Bubba is loving solid food. (He just turned six months old )

Bug and Tman helping out with Christmas baking

And we got to spend our first Christmas ever with my parents!

(and their newly remodeled basement was beautiful!!!)

This barely touches all the events of this years. Justin is loving his new job and we are really loving our new home. (despite the leak in the basement, the broken furnace, and the broken water heater. lol) We are so very very blessed. It's a given that we truly miss our friends and family in Omaha! They have all been such a huge comfort and blessing to us. What amazing people we call friends. We hope you have all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year. (YES..I am posting this at 1am on January 1, 2011! I can now say I am caught up on blogging for 2010... :)

The Greatest Show On Earth!!!

After getting back from Kansas, Justin and I found out that The Greatest Show On Earth was going to be in Omaha and we decided to treat the kids and take them. (I've never been to a circus before, so I was a bit excited to have an excuse to go.) The kids were pretty interested in it for the most part, but it was a kinda long for their attention spans. Some of those stunts were beyond my comprehension...but I tend to be a bit of a wimp about heights. We got to the Quest Center early for the pre-show fun and we got to see the performers upclose and personal. The kids loved that part! It was pretty fun and we can all say we've been to the circus now!

Showing off tickets at the entrance

Giant mammoth pregnant lady VS. Itty bitty circus girl.
Who do you think will win?
Not quite sure why I wanted to take this picture anymore. lol

Pre-show entertainment from the lovely lady elephant!
She even painted a picture!

After the show, waiting to go see the animals

Preface To Visiting Roger

I forgot to include these in the last post. When we promised Roger that we would visit, the kids were SO excited and wouldn't stop talking about it! Even though they didn't even really know what fishing was, they were constantly asking me when we were going to go fishing at Rogers. We got them some fishing poles to take down to Kansas and for Family Night the Monday before we went down, we had the kids practice with their poles. We were pleasantly suprised. Even though they weren't really going to be casting their lines, we showed them how and by the end of the practice session they were hitting the back fence with their practice lures. They still ask if they can go out back and practice with their fishing poles. :)

they needed a little boost. :)
It was a bit frustrating at times.

It quickly turned into a game of "Tease Milo" and they thought it was hilarious when he attacked their practice lures and they "caught a cat fish"

Trip to Kansas

In an earlier post, I talked about my Uncle Roger coming up to Omaha. We had promised to come see him as soon as we could, which ended up being right after Justin graduated. Oddly enough, the last time we had gone down to see him when I was 7 months pregnant with Bug. Going down this time, I was 7 months pregnant with baby #3. It had been way too long! He's an outdoorsman, and had three ponds on his beautiful land, the biggest one being less than 100 yards from his house, (hence why I've procrastinated visiting him for so long with little kids, being the paranoid mom that I am). The kids were required to wear life jackets when ever they went outside, so that my nerves wouldn't be completely shot by the end of the two day trip. Lucky for my kids, my cousin's kids were over when we arrived, and they were very happy to have play mates. Our two day visit consisted of chatting, fishing (and sometimes catching), exploring, planting, riding Roger's Gator tractor, playing in sand, relaxing (as much as I could do with my curious children being around a large body of water), and..of course, how could I forget..Justin giving paddle boat rides. It was so great to see my aunt and uncle and my cousin(who I haven't seen in about ten years) and I'm glad they let us come enjoy their company and their gorgeous land.

Justin doing what he did best...give paddle boat rides.

(I handed that one over to him! I wasn't about to go out paddling 7 months pregnant. LOL)
Bug and T-Man playing in the 'sand box'. It was quite the hit!
I may need to invest in one, if I could just keep Milo out of it! :)

Bug wandered away from her fishing pole,

so T-man got to claim her catch with Roger. (notice the pink princess fishing pole. lol)

Justin and T-Man showing off Justin's catch

Roger and Bug out fishing. That's pretty close to what

we looked like through the entire trip! It was great!

JUSTIN GRADUATED!!!!

YEAH!!!! Justin graduated from Creighton with his doctorate in Physical Therapy on May 15th, 2010. What a cool celebration for our family!!! His hooding ceremony was my personal favorite of the whole experience, because that's what set it apart from a 'normal' graduation. It was very personal and special, (compared to the actual graduation, which was held at the Quest Center Omaha. I was a bit shocked to walk in and see that the facility didn't want to waste an opportunity for revenue and had opened their concessions. Nothin' like watchin a graduation with popcorn and a soda, right? lol) Bug and Tman behaved marvelously for both ceremonies, and after the actual graduation ceremony we went out as a family to none other than...Red Robin! The kids LOVED it! I am SO incredibley proud of Justin for all that he's accomplished and for all the hard work he has put in for our family's behalf! I love him more than anything and am so lukcy to have SUCH an amazing husband! Thanks for all you do Justin, and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Justin with the kids following the hooding ceremony
me and my 'almost' physical therapist

Justin and his parents

Entering just after receiving his diploma!!! WOHOOO!!

Our beautiful family after the ceremony

Baby Steps

I've been hounded all summer because I haven't been updating. I have alot! I know! So...instead of spending two hours doing one giant update, I'm going to split them up, since most of the events this summer were fairly large events, and deserve there own posts! :) Will I ever grow out of this "on again, off again" blogging habit? Who knows...