Brad in Iowa

This weekend my brother Brad was able to come and stay with us. He flies into Chicago to work every once in a while, so this time he rented a car and drove out (about 3 hours) to see us!! We were very excited!! We took him to the arsenal museum. Here are some awesome pictures from it.

Brad with an awesome girl hat and manly coat. Emma dressed as a boy and Liam with a "hard" hat.

Liam looking all spiffy.

Emma being Emma

On Sunday we went to a park called Credit Island Park. It's pretty cool because it is a peninsula that stick out into the Mississippi river, so it's pretty much surrounded by water. It was so hot and humid there that you could actually see the water in the air. It looked and felt like when you get out of a hot shower. It was pretty crazy. While we were there we found a giant tank, so we took pictures by it. Awesome, I know. :)

It was so fun having Brad here! We hung out a lot, watched movies, Liam and Emma treated Brad like a jungle gym, went to parks, and just enjoyed each others company. It was way fun! Thanks for coming Brad!! We love/miss you already!

Side note-

I couldn't help but include this picture. It's mostly awesome!

Where else would you keep your sword/stick?

Excellent holster :)

Happy Birthday Grammy!!!

Happy Birthday Grammy!! We love you soooo much! Here are some pictures that the kids colored for you, for your birthday! (Sorry they wanted to color the Happy Joes pictures, but at least one of them is your birthday month and the other is a birthday one :) )

Emma's picture

Liam's picture

Happy Birthday!! (We are in my sewing room, so it looks like a disaster...okay it is a disaster, but pay no attention to the mess behind the children ;) )

The trouble with Emma

So remember this cute, sweet little girl? Well, she has suddenly found her girly attitude and I think I may kill myself before we are done with her (figure of speech everyone, figure of speech). She is driving me crazy!! She gets into everything, and then blames it on one of her brothers. If she does get in trouble she smiles real big with her eye closed like -you can't see me and I look cute so you wouldn't dare put me on time out. Which we do, and then the smile goes away and is replaced by bloody-murder screaming.

On top of all this she has turned into a wussy girl. We went to eat at Wendy's and there was a fly. It landed by her and she started screaming and panicing. Luckily I shoo-ed it away before she really flipped out, but, as flies do, it came around and landed again, followed by more panicing. Us, being the wonderful parents we are, we thought it was funny so we laughed. I showed her how to shoo it away and Tony said, "Just make sure to shoo it away before it bites you." (really, why do I wonder why she acts the way she does?) After a kick or two to Tony from me, I told Emma that the flies wouldn't hurt her. She did okay after that and only had one mild panic attack when she waved her hand briefly at the fly and it didn't fly away.

On Saturday Emma fell and scraped her knee. On Sunday we put tights on Emma for church. After church She went in to go to the bathroom and we heard screaming. Her wound from Saturday fused to the tights. She was flipping out and would not let us touch the tights. She stayed in them all day without letting us near them except to put a washcloth on them. Finally before bed I told her to hold Tony's hand and I was going to look at it. She didn't like that idea but we forced her to do it anyways :). She screamed the whole time. I carefully pulled her tights off (after wetting the wound down). As soon as I got them off she stopped screaming looked down and laughed. Liam asked "Emma, did that hurt?" She smiled and said no in a high girly voice and went off to play.

Lastly, today she walked up to me and said, "Mom, I'm Jesus" (meaning Mom I'm pretending to be Jesus). I said "You are hu?" kind of shocked-like. She then replied "Yep. And Jesus doesn't have his hair done." And then proceeded to take her ponytails out of her hair. Who was I to argue? She right. Jesus didn't have ponytails in his hair, and who could be better for her to pretend to be. But for some reason I think her pretending was to just get her hair out.

I may die while raising her. Hopefully this is just some sort of stage that she will be out of soon! She's driving me CRAZY!!

ON a happier note-

Here are the curtains I've made so far (yes, you can ooo and aaahhh at them)

Curtains in the bathroom

In the living room

and up the stairs

(only one panel is up, the other is on the floor behind me because I can't reach to put it up. Tony says he will "Spiderman" up the wall and put it up for me ;) )

Well thanks for reading my venting. She really is a sweet girl, she just came with more attitude and sneakiness than I thought. I thought Liam would be my wild child...I was wrong. :)

Fox green beans

Carmel Apples

On Friday we decided to do something so exciting, so adventurous, so crazy, so frugal, so delicious- that I HAD to blog about it. That's right, we made delicious homemade carmel apples.

The thought occurred us as we were looking on the internet for something to go and see in Davenport, that didn't cost very much money. We came across a sight for a company that makes carmel apples, but they were charging $10 a piece!! Ridiculous!! So, seeing as we had most of what we needed in our cupboards we decided to make our own.

We took yummy Granny Smith Apples-(okay so some of them don't look so yummy, but they really were...its just a bad picture...and Emma took a bite out of one before I could stop her, so that's why :D )

A hunky looking man making the Oh-SO-good carmel. YUM-twice ;)

And the toppings (we splurged for a cookies'n'cream candy bar and a snickers)

Then, when the carmel was still warm, we rolled our apples in it.

And wa-la! Carmel apples! But wait, there's more!

"Fully Loaded" carmel apples!!

The kids were a wee bit excited...can you tell? :)

Even this kid

but thats because this kid was doing this

but he was really excited anyways

and so was she

except by the time we were done it was 10:00,

so this kid was a little bit tired, and doing this a lot.

But the carmel apples turned out AWESOME!!

Liams

Emma's

Kira's (it was the best :) )

Tony's

I never thought-

I had a strange realization the other day. I knew that when I moved out here that I would miss my family like crazy. I had moved away before and knew how much of a "Mama's girl" I am. But, although I miss my mom and brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and grammy and family-in-law like crazy I never thought I'd miss my Dad the most. But I do.

On mothers day, I got to talk to most of my family and I was just fine. Joking and laughing with all of them, until I got on the phone with my dad-and without invitation or warning, I began tearing up.

My Dad and I don't communicate the same way that my other family member's do. With my other family talking is enough. My Dad and I don't "talk" exactly. I feel like I communicate more with my Dad through looks, and movement. Strange, I know, that's why it was a strange realization, but that's why I miss him the most.

I loved living with my Dad the past couple of months. To come into the room and have him look at me and smile like he was the most proud of me that he ever could be. I don't know why I thought he looked so proud of me, I guess because I'm so cute :), but I loved that. And I miss that.

I miss you Dad. And I love you. Thanks for being my Dad, and making me feel special, like I was the best daughter in the world, by just a smile or a laugh. I love you.

Love, me

random, and slightly offensive

So at our new apartment, my bedroom is on the second floor. On the nights that Fox (STILL!!) wakes up, and all the lights are out, and I sit, bobble-headed, nursing a chunky little boy, while trying to stay awake, one thing is very clear out my window. A giant sign for a hardware store, with bright white shining letters that spell MENARDS. Oooohhhh, you read it right. The store is called Menard's. Seriously!?! Who names their store this? Don't they know the kinds of remarks and jokes they will get from having this name (Tony is one of the worst at telling these jokes. He thinks its so funny)!?! It's probably the founders last name, but seriously, could he have named it after his first name instead? Couldn't it be like Joe's or Frank's or Jose's or something? But no. It' Menard's. And it will sadly be the punch line of many jokes told in my house (by Tony...with the kids not around...don't worry Ma :) ).

Pictures for Grandma

Today we took picture using a new program that came on our computer. It was pretty fun and awesome. :) When we were done we decided to put the photo on so our Grandmas could see them. So with out further ado-

Nice normal smiley picture

silly faces

More silly faces (what can I say we like silly faces?)

"ghost picture," as the kids call it

lots of colors (notice Liam's real scary face)

two headed Liam

Jay Leno Kira, Frankenstein head Liam, and Goonies-hey-you-guys Emma

I just like this one 'cause I'm trying to be like those scary dogs on birthday cards and stuff...I think I succeeded.

Had to get Fox in on the action

He didn't really get the point but I love Liam's face in this one

Yeah for fun pictures!! We love and miss you guys!!

Free stuff? Awesome!!

Hey everybody!
LIsa is giving away free stuff! Awesome!! Check it out!!
www.lisashandmadecards.com

Ridiculous costumes...Or new comic book series?!

They seem like just normal kids, living in a normal Iowa neighborhood. But when evil emerges behind dark, dirty laundry baskets, they swiftly change their attire...

and become--

Lady Panties and Underpants Boy!!

Lady Panties terrifies dirty sock

with her outfit of sock hands and brother back words underwear!

Run, dirty socks, while you still can!!

No dirty laundry can withstand the horrific power of Underpants Boy!

Lady Panties and Underpants Boy...

Saving the world one dirty underpants at a time!!

Up, up, and AWAY!!

dun-nu-nu-nu-nu (heroic music)