Any place for sale in Portland?

Remember, I hate winter!!

This is our backyard on Saturday, cold, muddy, but little snow.

This is today with 8+ inches that fell.

Ryan snow blowing the driveway again, mind you it is 9pm and it is really heavy wet snow and he is not happy. If you think you're sick of hearing about it, imagine how it sucks to live here! I am so ready to move. Will you make me a house Uncle Todd?

Parenthood

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen (sorry no pictures for you Amy) and I ran across the most delicious bottle of wine. No, I didn't drink it on the spot, just remembering how wonderful that winery was etc. So, I decided we needed a nice dinner so we could enjoy the bottle of wine. During the day I made homemade bread (in a bread machine of course), potatoes and veggies. I cleared a spot in the snow so Ryan could grill steaks.I didn't realize he was sleeping at the grill at the time.

We were just putting our lovely dinner on the table and Liam starts screaming because he has a stomach ache. We told him he could start eating without us, maybe he was just hungry. That didn't help so we sent him to the bathroom to try there. After we dig into our meal I hear a cry of MOMMY from the bathroom. He confirms that he does in fact need to go potty, but it won't come out of his "poop hole". You think you are taken aback by this language while working at your computer, try being there enjoying a nice meal downstairs of this action. I handed him a book and told him to come down when he feels better.

Then we had part two by Lance. He doesn't really like steak, he has trouble chewing it. This is due to the fact that Lance shovels in all foods and does not chew anything and you have to chew steak. Liam is still in the bathroom and Lance begins to get upset because he can't chew the meat and needs to get rid of it. We direct him to the garbage can. Instead of discreetly spitting it out, he lobs if from two feet away with a strange sound. Ryan snaps at him and tells him to be more presentable. Lance starts crying uncontrollably. I decided to leave the table until everyone calms down so we can enjoy the meal. Liam comes back from the bathroom with a full report. Lance runs to his room. Ryan goes to Lance's room and tells him to calm down and come back to dinner. We are all at the table again, trying to enjoy our cold meal.

I kept waiting for the wine to kick in, but Ryan said that I was doing that wrong. He said the right approach would have been to just drink the whole bottle by myself from the bottle and then dinner would have been agreeable.

The funny thing is that the boys are usually really good at dinner time. We had our years of unpleasantry, but now they are both old enough that we have a good conversation and enjoy dinners together. Next time I decide to have wine with dinner, I will wait until the other whines are in bed.

Wordless Wednesday-Spring Break Activities

Built a Fort
Watched a Movie about the Amazon here

Went to a Birthday party here

Played Survior card game (and watched last week's episode)

Sorted Star Wars cards to play a game when Daddy comes home

With all of this fun going on, mom got to clean for spring break! (let me tell you the fun, sorry no pictures available)

More Easter gifts

Grandma Becky sent a card the other day and a gift of STICKERS! How fun. Liam removed all of the stickers from the page and made a design in my favorite place, on his clothing! There is a design here...There is a large egg with a flower inside. Two green eggs fighting with grass with the red egg as the divider line. And two yellow eggs playing tag.
At the end of the night the stickers were then removed from the shirt and put on the stool he uses to get in bed in a new design. This was done at the suggestion of mommy because she has seen TOO many stickers in the wash. However, today I have found a sticker on the bottom of my sock and I see that 4 of the stickers have made it back on a new shirt that is being worn today. Thank you Grandma! It has been hours of fun for everyone!

Something to Ponder

Tonight Liam was all tucked in and falling asleep when he heard us upstairs putting Lance to sleep. He called Ryan into his room and asked this question:

Liam: What if Daisy eats the Easter Bunny?
Ryan: Don't worry the Easter Bunny is too smart and fast for Daisy.

HAPPY EASTER!

Snow Day

Today we got up to got ready to go to school. We drove through the 4 inches of snow on the ground for 20+ minutes and then we got to the school. We drove up to park and saw a sign that said "No School, snow day". We were already there and I was supposed to sub, so I wasn't the happiest camper. Plus it was the last day of the quarter and parties were planned, Lance worked really hard to earn the privillege to go to a special party today. Lance was upset and we had a horrific drive home in front of us, so I decided that I would call one of his friend's mom. They live close to the school so we went over and picked up his friend to spend the night. His friend has a little brother, so he came over also to play with Liam. This is what I decided to do with 4 boys stuck in a snow storm...I made them help me shovel the driveway. Sorry it was snowing so much you can't see their faces, but they are smiling. (Liam, Elliot, Oliver and Lance) They did a really good job and we were done in a half hour. It is really warm out so they stayed out and played in the backyard. The boys are staying until tomorrow morning, so it's off to find other things for them to do. (Not really, they are currently playing video games and they will do that all day if I let them and I just might).

Fun Gifts!

Yesterday the Easter Bunny came (okay it was really the mail lady). She gave me this. It was such a fun surprise. I left it unopened until the boys came home and let them open it. The boys quickly picked out what they were going to eat first. (They chose the bunny cookies). Thank you Grandpa and Karma!!