Severe Storms...

We had a major storm on Monday this week. We were under a tornado watch and then all of a sudden I heard the sirens. I looked online and we were under a tornado warning. I called Desiree and she didn't know anything about it. It was raining pretty hard. We saw these clouds and it looked like they were touching the ground - but not spiraling. It was pretty scary.

Then the wind stopped, the rain stopped and I got nervous. I was like 'I'm not taking cover until I SEE this thing!'. Luckily after that the sky got blue and the sun came out. I was all nervous that we were in the eye of the storm! I'm so glad that one blew over and we didn't get any bad weather!

See the clouds in the back that look like they are touching ground?

Spending the Sunday...

Sunday we mostly spent the day relaxing.

I totally look like a dork, but I was comfortable so give me a break. I had my trusty dust buster out and was probably going to go tackle the van.

Joe was sooo impressed with Justin. He was hitting really well off the Tee.

Justin again hitting the ball.

Joey's turn!

More baseball photos

Check out this swing!! Pretty good for 19 months old!

Joe was a happy dad today after watching Justin!

Dude - remember Otter pops from when we were kids? They are BACK! We got ours at Costco and the kids and us have been eating them like crazy.

Joey loves Otter Pops!

Yee haw - the BUGS!

Joe was like - check out this spider!! I looked it up - it's a wolf spider. It was the SAME spider we had in our HOUSE in Midland, Michigan! This one was pretty big. I tried to kill it but it ran. Oh well. I guess they bite but are harmless.

At least this one was outside!

Our train layouts

Saturday was a nice day. We woke up and decided to take the kids to the drop in daycare so Joe and I could go and shop in peace in quiet. I swear it was the best thing we ever decided to do. We shopped at Costco and our grocery store called Market Street (it's a great store) and then picked the kids up. We weren't stressed, the kids had fun and we got all our shopping done. It was well worth the money!

Joey's favorite thing to do lately is to watch videos of trains on www.youtube.com. We decided that we wanted to make this HUGE geotrax layout with all his trains. We weren't able to use everything but made a really huge Geotrax layout. We'll eventually upload the video on youtube to share.

It took Joe a few hours to build everything.

The right side.

Joey was so excited!

Another angle.

The daunting stairs...

We have a LOT of stairs. Try taking the stairs at 3am when Justin is crying to find out what he wants. Yeah, it's quite a climb in the middle of the night. Justin thought it would be fun to throw his ball down the stairs. You can see it on the left side in the middle where it stopped. We usually discourage the kids throwing stuff over the stairs or down it (though we throw stuff over it all the time - like parent's have to follow the rules!)

Justin looking at the ball he threw down the stairs.

Setting up to create a master layout

Joe and the kids decided to get out ALL the Geotrax stuff and make a huge layout. This is the before when all the buckets were dumped out.

Joe snapped this photo of Alex in the chair. Silly cat.

My kids love to clean...

My kids love to clean. I am so not kidding. I THINK it's because I clean all the time. I was on a conference call and Joey told me he made a mess. I walk in and he shows me that he took the soap and helped wash the floor and the counter. How could I get mad? I had to get out the mop and clean it up but it WAS nice to have a clean, disinfected floor! See - who knew there was another use for dial foam soap!?

My foamy kitchen floor.

Joey washed the counter too.

He was very proud of his cleaning job.

Joe's birthday celebration!

I'm sorry but you can't forget when someone is turning 30 - like Joe did on the 25th. Joey helped me make Joe a nice confetti cake. Isn't it beautiful? Joey is quite the helper in the kitchen!

Getting ready to sing happy birthday!

Love this photo.

Another nice one.

Joey helping dad blow out the candles.

Joe's 30th birthday cake celebration

I did a double layer with frosting around and in between.

Justin was stripped down. No way was he eating with a shirt on!

Joey only likes the frosting.

Oh jeez - what a mess!

A rare occurrance - cats....

It is VERY rare you see all the cats nearby and NOT fighting. I walked by our living room and this was the scene - all four cats in a small proximity. They LOVE to sleep on the cushions of our new couches.

All four cats.

TyTy and Sasha.

Even more rare - Kali and Alex - they hate each other. Alex always hisses at her and she charges him.

More goodies from Grandma Norma and Grandma Char

They sent a box of food goodies for us, including these yummy cookies!!

Justin enjoying his cookie.

Joey enjoying his cookie.

Happy Easter Y'all - Our Easter Egg Hunt

When we were kids the Easter bunny left our basket on the table. For our kids the Easter bunny hides eggs in the living room and afterwards they have to find their Easter baskets.

Both boys woke up at 7am. Joe was not happy about this and would NOT wake up out of bed.

Joey and Justin both watched Diego. It was really funny because there were eggs hidden all over the living room, including right next to the TV. It took about 10 minutes before anyone even saw one and Justin was the first one to see it.

He walks over to the tv, says ball, knocks the egg off the tv stand and it cracks open on the floor and a cadbury egg rolls out. He walks it to me, I open it and he starts to eat it at the table. Joey is oblivious. He finally notices Justin has candy and wonders where he got it (keep in mind Justin did all of this right in front of him and he didn't even notice it because Diego was on tv).

Joey says, I KNOW where to get the candy, and starts to push the chair to the counter where we keep the candy. I say, "No No, go over by the tv and let me know what you see".

He walks over to the TV and he doesn't even see the huge egg next to the tv. He sees the small one on the ground. He picks it up and runs to the table. He was so happy - jelly beans were in this one.

Joe was finally up but he was in the shower. He said later that if he was getting up this early, then at least he was taking a shower.

Finally Joe gets done with his shower and we help the boys find the rest of the Easter eggs. Then off they ran to find their Easter basket. Joey is checking under the bed. He looks in the bathroom, runs right past the counter where they were sitting out in plain view to the bathroom closet (like the Easter bunny was going to hide their baskets in the bathroom toilet area!!), and then when he came out, he saw them on the counter. (next post)

Justin found the egg first.

See the orange egg dropped on the floor. Joey never even noticed and the tv is behind Justin.

See the eggs around the living room? Hahaha!

Justin was the first one to find an egg - with a Cadbury egg inside. Our favorite!

Joey found some jelly beans in his eggs.

Their Easter Baskets and loot

The kids got a lot of loot from the Easter bunny this year. Joey got paints, paint brushes and a Diego coloring book. He got a Rosie Thomas Train. He got Flarp - it's noisy putty....It does exactly what it sounds like it does!

Justin got a bubble gun that blows hundreds of bubbles, some balls to throw, and a matchbox car.

Both boys were very excited and loved eating all the candy.

After their Easter egg hunt they had to find their Easter basket. Joey saw it here as you can see by him running and mouth wide open!

Joey got Rosie the Thomas train!

Joey ate the ears off first.

Justin ate the ears first too :)

Using our Easter gifts...

Easter day was very cold for us - it was low 50's. We all didn't last long outside but got out long enough to test out our bubble wands and Justin's bubble blowing gun.

Joey liked the bubble blower more than Justin!

It was quite windy outside and the bubbles blew back in Joey's face.

Those bubble wands made huge bubbles!

Who can resist making bubbles?

Justin was even able to make his own bubbles. It was so windy all you had to do was put the wand in the air and the wind blew the bubbles for you!

Easter Dinner and Joe's Birthday Dinner

We don't often go here because it's like $50/plate. BUT we love it. We discovered Texas de Brazil when we were house hunting here in Texas.

What it is - you get to your table and you can go to your buffet or skip it. You have these round circle cards on the table. When you turn it green, you get a plate and these men with huge spears of meat come to your table and ask if you'd like a slice. They had pork, chicken, fillet mignon, sausage, ribs, and more. OMG it's sooooo yummy.

We all dressed up for the event. This was our Easter dinner! We made reservations and arrived at 5pm. The boys were so good. They ate really well. Joey didn't burp out loud (no I'm not kidding, we actually primed him for this), and everyone was well behaved. I was so proud of our boys!

Justin is not much of a meat eater so he loved the buffet food.

Justin and I.

Joey ate like 4 helpings. He LOVED the filet (we all did!).

Joe loves this restaurant. He was so happy. He wanted to keep eating but was so full.

Texas de Brazil.... YUM....