July seems to be going quick and Facebook

July seems to come and go each year so quickly. I guess b/c we get into our summer routine by then and also fill our days with family visiting and friends for playdates at the pool and parks. We were so lucky to have my brother home for almost 2 weeks. The boys love their Uncle Brian. They wouldn't leave him alone every time he was around. We had a cookout with my parents and Brian at our place and then went to see fireworks too. Last year the boys loved them so we thought this year we'd get closer and actually go down to where they let them off instead of just staying in our neighborhood. Not exactly the best idea. They were scared at the first one. We had to turn it into a game calling them rockets shooting up into the sky. Still I think Tad and I did more talking to the boys to calm them down than actually watching the fireworks but it was still fun to be with family. We are leaving for the beach in a couple weeks and Tad's work schedule freed up a bit that he can go along now too. We'll be meeting my sister and her family there. The cousins are going to have so much fun in the sand. Connor and Peyton would live outside if you let them. They love the sandbox, the parks, and playgrounds. I hope we have good weather and can take lots of pictures. That is about all that is going on here. Just playing and swimming these days.

One more thing. Tad and I joined facebook this past weekend. We love it. We have both found so many people from the past on it. We actually fired up the laptop so we both could get on the computers at the same time. I know we're nerds but that's ok. We're having fun.

June 26 - Four years ago

We were blessed with the most beautiful day for an outside wedding and reception July 26, 2004. The following two years brought about changes - selling a condo, buying a house, having twin boys, selling an SUV, buying an Odyssey. Now we are enjoying blessings of being a healthy family of four, living close to family, and experiencing life with toddlers. Our vehicle/entertainment/vacation/dining out schedule has changed dramatically to the "kid friendly" options but we wouldn't change it for anything. Tad did surprise me though with a fun night out. He arranged for my mom to come stay with the boys and we went for a night around town. We had a lovely dinner in a "real restaurant", saw a movie, went to grab dessert on a patio, and stayed at the new Hilton for the night. The next morning we went out for breakfast before returning to our reality waiting on us. Thanks Tad for being a great husband. Happy Anniversary!

Branson Fashion Show

Check out these hottest trends modeled by Connor, Peyton, Jacob & Austin. Special guest appearance by Vern & Clark. Threads supplied by Fashion Designer Aunt Stephanie.

Little Lamb Peyton


Viking Connor

Superhero Batman/Superman Austin

Darth Jacob

Puff the Magic Peyton

Zorro

Peyton as Mickey Cowboy Style

Austin the Dancing Dragon

Buzz Lightyear

Buzz befriends Sitting Bull


It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Peyton's flashy goggles

BRAVO team leader Connor



Special appearances on the runway

Wild Wild West

Bigger Lamb

Branson Family Vacation

The whole Morris Family


We just got home from a week with Tad's family in Branson MO. Tad's parents got everyone condos for the week through their timeshare. The boys did great on the long haul there and back but we ran into other problems on the drive....flooding. On our way part of interstate 70 was shut down so we detoured over an hour out of the way and ended up taking back roads through parts of Indiana and Illinois we never planned to visit. We laughed about it through. In Paris Illinois we stopped for a picnic at a community park and the grounds were so muddy we had out picnic in the parking lot. I'm sure other cars were laughing as they drove by us. Tad said we'll always have Paris..but we are thankful we were able to make it to Missouri. Then on the way home we dodged severe weather and now to hear of all the flooding still going on we're glad to be home and through Illinois.

We had several great days in Branson. It was great to see everyone and let the cousins play together. They keep talking about all of them now that we are home. We shared a condo with Clark's family (Tad's brother). Every morning our boys woke up asking for Jacob & Austin (their cousins). Aunt Stephanie brought this amazing bag of dress up clothes. We had quite a fashion show on the balcony of our condo. I wish we had done this again for video once the other cousins arrived. Check out the runway models on the next post. Jacob did a great job reading the boys their bedtime stories.


They also liked to watch him play video games


One evening we went to the Dixie Stampede show. The boys enjoyed watching the horses.
(Cousins before the show)


We spent a couple days at Silver Dollar City with part of the family. We found out that our boys aren't ready for rides. They waited in a long ride to go on this kiddie rollar coaster and Peyton was even yelling at the ride attendant "lady open the gate" and to the people on the ride "Hey get off MY train" but when it was their turn, after one time around Peyton and Connor wanted off. It was to go 3 times around but wouldn't you know they let us go 4 laps. After that we tried the tea cup ride...not so hot either. Peyton got off that ride saying "Mama dizzy dizzy". We gave them a break, watched the cousins ride some more rides and then tried our boys on the Dumbo ride. Who doesn't like the elephants right? We'll Connor loved it but Peyton didn't want his to go off the ground and he was done for the day. Connor rode more rides with Austin instead.


We all rode the train together (Peyton, Austin, Connor)

On a rainy day we went to a nearby Fish Hatchery. The boys loved feeding the fish. They kept calling the fish food peanuts and telling the fish to "come here". (Caden & Peyton)

While we were there Uncle Clark turned 40. Stephanie pulled off a surprise breakfast for everyone with Tad's help to send them out on a morning run.

When Aunt Laura arrived with her family she brought with her garage sale treasures the boys loved. They got a carebears tent, a whac-a-mole game, a sit n spin, and several books. Thanks Aunt Laura!

Connor

Peyton

We went to the Landings to watch the water and light show one evening. Connor made friends with a 2 yr. old girl Madison Sue. For over 10 minutes they just kept talking to each other, following one another around, and holding hands. It was really cute. Peyton kept following both of them saying "hey guys, wait".

On the way home we were able to have lunch with our dear friends the Wrights. Here are all the kids having a great time at Panera. It was the perfect spot for us all.
Austin, Jacob, Conrad, Peyton, Caden, Michaela, Connor



Thanks Vern & Colleen for a fun week of memories!!

New Pictures

We have been busy this spring. My dad and I took the boys to a Truck Event held by the community. They loved it. They got inside several trucks but we only took a few pictures.
Peyton (left) Connor (right)

Inside the firetruck

Peyton inside a Bobcat - We waited in this long line and by the time we got our turn Connor wanted nothing to do with it.


The boys are so funny these days. They are all about pretend play. They lay their blankets on the floor and pretend they are swimming pools and jump in the water. They pretend to be the characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Peyton usually is Mickey, Connor is Donald and they make Tad be Pete and myself Daisy. It is hilarious b/c when we get them up in the morning they say "Goodmorning Pete or Daisy" and at night they say "Mickey is tired". They love the park and playing outside. They wake up asking to go outside. They slide down the slide on their bellys and think they are hilarious. They both LOVE fruit. It is great we are almost to in season prices. They are finally slimming down a bit. To my surprise they can still wear last years shorts and haven't changed sizes hardly at all.

Memorial Day weekend all my boys were sick. They had horrible chest coughs and Peyton had an ear infection. We made our frist trip to the Urgent Care for amoxicillan. The boys were feeling better Monday morning so my mom and I took the boys to the local parade. My mom taught them to put their hands on their heart as the Veterans passed. A reporter snapped our picture and it turned out we were on the front page of the community paper. A little embarrassing to make the news but it will be a great item for their scrapbooks.


Everyone is much better now. Tad and I were able to spend Saturday at the PGA Memorial Tournament. Each year we are lucky to get clubhouse passes from Tad's work and really enjoy the relaxing time on the greens. Even though Tiger Woods wasn't there this year, it was still extra fun b/c a friend of mine from highschool, Travis Perkins, is now a PGA golfer and was playing in the tournament. Now we are getting ready for vacation w/ Tad's family at the end of the week. I'm sure we'll be spending many morning getting last minute things from Wal-mart & Target.

Catch Up

We've stayed busy this past month. Since warm weather has finally arrived we've been outdoors most days and evenings. We've already made use of our zoo pass. We go sometimes as much as 3 times in one week. The boys love it and it is a great place to spend the mornings walking. Plus we can get there in 5 min. stay for a while, have a picnic lunch, and it takes us to naptime. Tad spent last weekend planting new grass in the back corner of our yard so that has hindered time on the swingset but the boys love to go to the neighborhood park.

The boys are getting to be so funny. They are into "pretend" play lately and they run around the house pretending to be "Diego'. They also hide behind chairs or drapes and yell for help or for someone to "save Diego (them)". Peyton said yesterday that he was Diego and Connor was "Dora".. I changed that to Boots to be more gender appropriate. They also love to color. Yesterday Peyton had a piece of paper and crayons...I was busy fixing dinner...he had colored every single color in their own section (not over lapping) and then handed it to me calling it a rainbow. I was so surprised he did that and also called it a rainbow that I had a proud "mommy" moment and put it on our fridge. He had no help and usually they just scribble all over the paper and call it 'a mess'. They both know all their colors, love to hear books, they help read books (repetitive text) their favorites this week are 5 Little Monkeys... Jumping on the Bed...Wash the Car, & Sitting in the Trees, and enjoy singing songs. We are sad the library story hour is taking a break for May. They also would stay outside and run around as long as you let them. Lately all I hear them say is "sandbox". Looks like we'll be purchasing that soon b/c they love to dig in the dirt.

We are loving this week. My brother came home last Sunday for a week's stay. Although he stays w/ my parents we still get to see him plenty and the boys LOVE having him around. My mom's birthday was Monday so we had dinner & cake here.(Even got to have our first meal of the season on the screened porch). We haven't taken too many pictures with Brian home but he's coming for dinner tomorrow night so we'll try and get more before he leaves town this weekend. When he or my sister come home it sure makes their leaving hard. It seems they both never can stay long enough. We sure are enjoying spring. We look forward to June when we'll vacation w/ Tad's side of the family. More later.... here is one picture I have the rest are on Tad's camera so I'll have to get those uploaded later.
Connor,Tad,Peyton,Brian

More DC Pictures

After a week of illness between 3 of us, I was finally able to pull some of our pictures together and share on a slide show.
We had a great trip and thank our dear friend Jane for sharing her tickets with our family. Our boys are still talking about the characters they saw and rolling the eggs. We are enjoying a slow saturday around the house today catching up on the little things. Hope you enjoy the pictures. There are a lot of them but we took over 200 while we were there.

Easter 2008 at The White House

We are still trying to unpack from a quick but memorable trip to Washington DC. Peyton came down with the stomach virus an hour before we were to leave for the weekend so that delayed us getting to DC. Fortunately he was better by the time we got there and no one else got it. Now that we're home, I thought I'd spend most of today doing laundry from the trip. However, both boys came down with a second round of stomach sickness most of the afternoon so I've been actually laundering todays clothes instead. Hoping tomorrow I can spend some time on posting pictures and putting things away. We had a fantastic trip. We stayed in an awesome hotel, saw close friends, and had a lifetime opportunity to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll tradition. We took so many photos I'll have to sort through for the best ones and figure out how to put them in a slide show instead of just posting. I also made the boys outfits - with help from Julie, Leslie, & my mom, but still need to take a close up picture of just the outfit. They turned out really cute. Hope you all had a good Easter too. More pictures soon.

Record Snowfall

Last weekend we had a record snowfall. We got 20.5 inches in 2 days. Needless to say we didn't go anywhere for the weekend. Since we live on a cul de sac we are the last ones in the neighborhood to see a snowplow. On Sunday we finally were able to clear enough at the end of the driveway to get our car out and go up the street. We took the boys out to play but the snow was so deep they were more frustrated than having fun b/c they couldn't move.

They liked walking on the cleared sidewalk and driveway much better


Tad & Connor trying to make snowballs

We took them to the backyard because they kept asking for their playhouse. It is much deeper than it looks in the pictures. We had to carry the boys and once our boots broke down the snow they could move a little better.