new house?

No, we're not moving. Our latest paint project in the family room is finished (we really like the way it turned out), and that got me to thinking about all the things we've done to this house since we moved in 10 years ago. Here's a list:

• removed wallpaper from EVERY room in the house
• painted all the walls we stripped wallpaper off of
• repainted a couple of rooms
• replaced chair railing in baby's room
• replaced the sliding door in the family room
• installed new windows throughout the house
• installed blinds in the basement bedrooms
• installed A/C
• remodeled kitchen
• remodeled master bathroom
• installed tile in all the entries
• installed new front door
• installed sump pump
• installed new carpet everywhere except the basement
• replaced sink, countertop, and fixtures in boys bathroom
• installed new lighting fixtures in several rooms
• installed new front storm door
• installed new half of automatic sprinkler system to connect to secondary water

That's probably a pretty good listing of the major differences between then and now. With all that, our house should feel "new", right?!

birthday boy

Just count those candles -- 5! Our Jacob is growing up so quickly! He was so excited for his birthday that he started a count down about two weeks ago and starting crossing out each day on the calendar till his birthday. We celebrated his birthday by going to Lagoon for the day with Grandma V., Sarah, David, and Eric. Jacob rode tons of rides and loved everything. When we got home we had pizza, lemonade, watermelon and chocolate cake with ice cream. Grandpa V. and Alan & Heidi's family joined us all for dinner and present opening, so Jacob really knew he was having a party. Here are a few other snapshots of Jacob's celebration: Mark & I always think of Jacob as our miracle boy, for more reasons than I will share here on the blog, but he spent some time in the NICU when he was born because he got fluid in his lungs and had a hard time breathing and getting enough oxygen. I was also very sick after he was born and wasn't allowed in the NICU to see him -- that was hard. He was also a "rainbow" baby, because he was born after Cole died. I believe that ALL babies are miracles, but it just seemed there were some special circumstances surrounding Jacob's birth into our family. He is a good natured fun little person that we are very grateful to have in our family! Happy Birthday Jacob!!

zoo

Last week I took the kids to the zoo. We had a great time! As many of you know, Hogle Zoo isn't very big and there's not tons of animals there -- its very basic -- so our 2 1/2 hour visit was perfect! Long enough to see everything and short enough to keep everyone's attention and good moods! This was Jacob's first visit to the zoo -- I felt really bad when I realized that he'd never been to the zoo and he's almost in kindergarten -- but now we've been, so all is well, and I can feel like a good mom again!

The tiger was fun! He paced around his pen for awhile and then decided to swim in his pool and play with his ball. He made a HUGE splash right in front of Jared & Jacob -- they loved it. We actually had a hard time pulling ourselves away from watching this guy play.
Ryan & Jacob take a break on a coupla tigers!
The giraffe was another favorite because he was so close. He just stood there enjoying his leafy greens while we munched on some snacks too.

How can we not take a picture of our Ryan-o-cerous by the rhinocerous? He (the rhino) was too lazy to even move. He's the big lump back by the wood fence in the picture.
The kids were looking forward to seeing the elephants. There were two elephants out and about that day. Apparently they do some sort of elephant show a couple of times a day, but we had other animals to see, so we didn't stay to check it out.
The zoo has lots of monkeys and apes. I can't remember what kind of monkey this black and white guy is, but since he was outside instead of behind glass walls, it was easier to take his picture. We all loved the monkeys -- especially Matthew -- because they are always climbing, swinging, and eating and having lots of fun.
You always have to get a drink from the lion's mouth at the zoo!

no more training wheel

That's not a typo in the title -- I really do mean, no more training wheel! Just a couple weeks ago, we took this little bike down from the garage so Jacob could learn to ride. We looked all over for the training wheels and only came up with one --oh well, one will just have to do. Since then he's been riding around with that one training wheel and on Sunday announced that it was time to take it off. Ryan helped him take it off and off he went riding around the driveway happy and proud as could be! Way to go Jacob!

fishing

The kids got to try their hand at fishing for the first time on Friday. We went to a little pond that is stocked with fish that is near Alan & Heidi's house. Grandpa V. & Eric brought the poles and worms and provided the lessons -- a big THANK YOU to you both! I think the kids were fascinated by the worms getting put on the hooks -- check out Jacob in this picture below. After some patient waiting, Jared felt the tug and started to reel in his first fish.
Ta-da! There it is! He was so excited! Since we were doing catch & release, Jared & Grandpa extracted the hook and tossed the fish back in the pond.
A minute later, Ryan came up with a fish too! This was actually his second catch of the day, since I missed the first one.
Matthew had no patience for fishing, so he spent some time by the waterfall picking up rocks.
Thanks, Heidi, for getting us all together!

the cost of shopping with kids

I usually do not take all four kids grocery shopping with me, although I normally have Matthew with me and Jacob too about half the time. I can usually get away with buying a small bag of goldfish to keep Matthew entertained and a donut for Jacob and then stick to my list. Those two small treats cost about $2. Yesterday, I took all four kids with me to the store. Here's what we bought that I would not have purchased if they had all stayed home:

• box of chocolate donut holes
• cheez-it crackers
• 3 bottles of lemonade
• cantaloupe
• bacon
• Pringles --sour cream 'n onion
• goldfish crackers

Total cost: about $17. Good grief!! It's definitely easier on the budget to leave the kids at home.

this weeks happenings

This is the last week of swimming lessons for the boys (swimming lessons are everyday for two weeks). They have had good teachers this session and small classes. Jacob is happily becoming a little fish. We think Ryan finally passed level 3 (we'll know tomorrow for sure), and unfortunately Jared came up short on the swimming merit badge -- diving and flip turns being the root of all evil there, but its been good practice anyway.

We are trying to re-paint our family room, so we had to take the wallpaper strip down that went around the ceiling. I hate wallpaper. Mostly because it is so dang hard to take off. I don't know why we put this border up in the first place 10 years ago, the room looks tons better just having it off. Now we are having a hard time getting the right color of paint. Grrrr. The next challenge will be the actual painting and keeping all the little hands and bodies out of the wet paint. I hope it all turns out well. If we can't move, we might as well try to fix up, right?

Mark is STILL fighting a sore throat -- we are both sick of him being sick. Since we've still had a few cool days, the boys have had plenty of game time, but have also had some great afternoon fun outside with friends -- Ryan fried himself while using the slip n slide at a friends house earlier this week and his shoulders are still pink. I think he'll remember the sunscreen next time. Dentist and ortho appointments have been taken care of for the week and I've done a TON of laundry and half the ironing that has been piling up. I've done the weekly Costco run and now I'm headed to the grocery store for the things I can't get at Costco or don't want to buy in mass quantity. I managed a quick trip to the mall yesterday simply because I was having withdrawals and needed an "out" -- although I had 3 kids with me (not exactly bliss!) Tomorrow Ryan is heading to Cub Scout Day Camp and then we'll all be heading out to Heidi's for dinner and fishing.

scenes from idaho

This weekend we went to Idaho to spend some time with my Dad on his birthday -- he's 80 years old! (Dad seems way too young to be 80!) We're going to have much bigger celebration for him in a few weeks when Kathleen's family comes up for a visit. Here's a picture of him with his birthday cake -- banana nut with cream cheese frosting!This spring has been wet and cool and so all the surrounding farmland and mountains are very green and beautiful. This is the view from my parents living room window -- Oxford Peak. Wouldn't you just love to have that view everyday? I never realized how spoiled I was growing up.
This is looking just to the southwest at another range of peaks. As you can see, a rainstorm was in the process over those mountains.
These are a few of the lilacs in my parents yard. They are gorgeous.
This is Smith Peak, to the east. I love the tractor in the foreground and the bird flying by.
We were only there overnight, but we enjoyed the quiet and fresh air and spending time with family.

all about teeth

This is a happy tooth, but not all of our teeth are happy. Matthew finally had a new front tooth pop through while we were in New York, and now the other one is trying hard to break through as well. Jared got 2 spacers put in a few days ago which has made his teeth tender for a couple of days. Today Jacob and Jared get to go to the dentist for fillings. Poor little Jacob has 2 cavities, but I don't think they're very bad, so that's good. We are wishing that Ryan could lose a couple of front teeth, but they aren't even loose yet! I still have to make a dentist appointment, somthing I am putting off because I just know I'm going to have to go back for followup work -- yuck -- and I'm going to try out a new dentist. Jared goes back in to the ortho this week for impressions and band fittings, and back again the following week to get the expander. I'll be glad when we can go a week or two without a dentist or ortho appointment for someone in the family!

school's out!

Hurrah! School's out! I can hardly believe that I will have 3 kids in elementary school next year. My kids are really growing up fast. On the last day of school, they all found out who their teachers will be for next year. Jared was thrilled that he gets to be in the only classroom with air conditioning, we are thrilled that Ryan has the same 4th grade teacher that Jared had because she is great, and Jacob has a new teacher (at least new to the school), but the main thing was that he got the time of day I requested! Things seem to be looking good for Fall.

Summer is well on its way -- the kids are in swimming lessons, Ryan is signed up for basketball camp, scout camps are calendared, a few family activities have been planned, and the kids have job charts and assignments so they can start earning money for shoes, socks, and entertainment. The only thing we're missing is the hot weather -- and I don't really miss it at all!

home movies-- blog style

If you made it through all my posts about NYC, give yourself a high five! If you skipped over them, I understand. I view this blog as my journal, so I wanted to write a lot about our vacation and what we'll remember in the years to come. We really had a great time exploring new places and visiting family. I hope we'll be able to do it again someday -- Jacob already has his heart set on visiting in New Jersey!

our NYC adventure -- day 6

This morning we headed down to see the Little Red Lighthouse that sits on the Hudson River underneath the George Washington Bridge. Unfortunately, you can't go inside anymore -- I guess it is only open at a couple of select days a year. There's a nice park here along the river and there was a good place for climbing on rocks and throwing rocks into the river too, which the boys certainly enjoyed.

The day was very humid and a little hot (the only day like this the whole time we were here) so we were melted by the time we hiked back up to the apartment. We had some leftover pizza for lunch and got ourselves packed up and ready to head to the airport and home. Alicia got us a cab -- not a yellow NYC taxi this time, but a "gypsy cab" -- black sedan with leather interior. The driver was hispanic and Mark talked to him a bit in Spanish on the way to airport. He was not a scary driver at all and delivered us perfectly at the airport. We breezed through security and check in and waited about an hour to board the plane. (You never know how much time you'll need to get through traffic and security and find your way around the airport) We boarded the plane on time and then were told we'd be sitting for 1/2 an hour while they fixed a mechanical problem with the plane. 45 minutes to an hour later, we pushed off from the gate, and then had to wait another 30 minutes on the runway for our turn to takeoff. GRRRRR!!! We were an hour and a half late getting home -- thank goodness we had a non-stop flight! We were all happy to be home and be together as a family again.

our NYC adventure -- day 5

Mark & David started the day with a run across the George Washington Bridge. New Jersey is on the other side of the river and David showed Mark around the neighborhood that they'll be moving to later this summer. After breakfast, Mark, David, Jared & Ryan headed downtown to see the UN. They were dissapointed that the UN didn't have the flags flying that day and they wouldn't be able to get on a tour until afternoon, AND the looks of the tour didn't seem to be quite as interesting as they had hoped, SO they moved on to other things. They decided to check out Grand Central Station. Mark says it is huge and really fun to see, with lots of comings and goings of trains and transportation. The guys also stopped by the New York City Public Library -- which was closed. Bummer. But they were able to check out the awesome architecture and the big lions out front.
Jared & Ryan got to choose fast food for lunch and snow cones later in the afternoon, so they were happy campers. They also spent some time playing the XBOX at David's.

Alicia, Sarah, Zach & I headed out to do some shopping. Alicia took us down to Harlem to H&M -- a clothing store. We tried on a few things and picked up a couple things for the kids too. Then we headed toward Columbia University. On the way, I noticed a bunch of tall brick apartment buildings and asked if they were part of the university, or something else -- they were "the projects". Duh! Really they were pretty typical with chain link fences around them and lots of apartment buildings close together. However, I didn't notice any graffiti, or people just hanging out, but maybe that's because we were on the other side of the street. In my mind I kept saying, "Wow--here I am walking by THE PROJECTS in HARLEM! A coupla white girls with kids. Shouldn't I be nervous about this?" I wasn't, and I'm chalking that up to the fact that there weren't people just hanging around with nothing to do, it was the middle of the day, AND Alicia knew where we were headed. Just past the projects, is Columbia University. We walked through the center of campus where they were finishing taking down the graduation chairs and bleachers. The campus was beautiful, well kept, and the buildings looked stately. The campus is spread out, so I didn't see everything, but that part was impressive. Not far from the main campus is Tom's Diner (from Seinfeld), but we opted for lunch at Chipotle instead. Then we made our way over to the top of Central Park to check out the fishing pond and playground with water spouts, then it was back to the subway and home for a nap before heading to the Mets vs. Marlins game. Here's a picture of Shea stadium, where the Mets play. We stayed for about 5 innings and the Mets were losing -- darn! It is way better to be in the stadium watching baseball rather than home on the couch watching -- it's actually fun in person!! We had a good time cheering and groaning with the crowd and watching the game.