Fun Family Fotos

A couple of weeks ago, when it was 75 degrees on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we went to one of our favorite spots to take pictures and just walk around. It's such a versatile area. There is a small stream with a trail next to it in the woods, then there is a huge grass area, picnic tables, and more trails through another forest. I know there are a lot of them, but here are some pictures we took.

Mason throwing rocks into the stream. He was so proud of himself when he finally threw it far enough that it hit the water!

Ike looking up at Mason. Just watching...

...and learning!

Mason was also proud of the "fish" he caught! Everywhere we go and there is water, Mason has to go fishing.

After playing in the water, we took some pics of the kids in a tree.

Mason was super cooperative for me. He posed like crazy, and he smiled like crazy...so I took full advantage!

As you can see, Vance was behind the tree holding on to each of their shirts as it was their turn for pictures. I love the look on each of their faces in this picture!!

Mason found himself a walking stick, or should I say a cane!

This is one of Isaac's favorite things to do.

Vance's Birthday

Ever since Vance got diagnosed with Celiac's Disease last fall, food has been pretty important to the both of us. It is extremely exciting when we find something he can eat. Something that is "Gluten-Free."  I finally got online and ordered a couple books from amazon that have helped us tremendously. One of them was a gluten-free cookbook and it is now my favorite book ever! I look through it at least once a day. I have gone and spent countless amounts of money on ingredients so I can start making these recipes so Vance will have a larger variety of food to eat. But not just food.  Good food. There are some really good recipes in there and so far I have only cooked a couple of them. One of them I did for Vance for breakfast on his birthday. It had to be made the night before, so it wasn't much of a surprise like I wanted it to be. It was a Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake. I took that opportunity to use it as his birthday cake too since I was making a separate bithday cake for our party with my family the very next day.

The rest of the day Vance had no idea what I had planned. The day before his birthday, I found out that Pier 49 Pizza serves gluten-free pizza! I was soooooo excited! If Vance missed one thing with his new food restrictions, it was PIZZA. So I surprised him with going to eat his very first pizza in 8 months. I was going to attempt making him a pizza from scratch (which I tried before but I used a crust mix and it was not very good at all, so it did not work out. It is VERY hard to find a bread of any kind that is any good when it is gluten-free.) but this idea worked a lot better with other plans I had and it was a lot more dependable as far as taste goes too!

On the way, I had Vance open his gifts. I got him a diving set, a book on CD that he wanted, and a movie (there is one more thing I got him, but I can't give it to him yet). When we pulled up to Pier 49, Vance was way confused and had no idea what was going on. Needless to say, he was quite excited when we walked in and I enthusiastically announced to him that he could eat pizza here.

After eating pizza, I took him to the Man's Expo. Vance had been talking about going to it for weeks and weeks, and it just so happend to be going on on his b-day. The Man Expo was fun but it was definitly for men! The best part was riding on the Segways! They are so much fun. We are going to rent some for a date sometime!

Vance and a Ford GT

Mason LOVED this helicopter so the owner asked him if he wanted to get inside. But Mason has this fear of getting in or on things that are big or loud (like diesel trucks or horses), so he refused to get in. Well, I wanted him to get inside so badly for picture purposes and to help him get over this phobia so I hurried and bribbed him BIG TIME that I would get him a new "Big Toy" if he got inside. This kid will do anything for a new toy, especially a big one. So, he got in!  And he reminded me over and over again throughout the night that he was going to get a NEW, BIG TOY!

Vance got volunteered to be in a workout competition with some other guys there. They used excercise bands and Vance was the only one that was given the hardest band, so near the end he was getting pretty tired!

Yes...he still uses a binky every once in a while. Mostly it's just when he sleeps and when I need him to be extra good!

After the Man's Expo, we randomly decided to go to Hollywood Connection to play around. We were trying to come up with something that would entertain the kids a little, but there wasn't much there for them to do and it got a little boring, so we ended up at Murray Park. Anyways, it turned out to be a pretty good day!

HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY BABE!!

The Day Of

I had never had flowers "delivered" to me before so I was thrilled when I opened my door to welcome these into my home! 

I was also flooded by text messages from Vance all day long saying 'happy birthday' over and over again!

When he got home from work, he grilled chicken for dinner and got me treats and a drink so I could relax and watch a movie while he studied.

It was a great day and apparently it is continuing on with an activity on Saturday. I have no idea what he has planned, but I am quite excited!!! (and sooooo spoiled!!)

Tricky, Tricky Boy!

Vance got to the point where he was a day behind and was trying to play catch-up so he thought he would give me an extra clue (I hadn't received the last two words yet). Well the clue he gave made the answer way obvious and completely gave it away. Within seconds of hearing the clue, I knew exactly what the gift was and what the last two words "started with." This was the clue:

The definitions of the word have

nothing to do with the gift.

Hesitantly (because I felt bad I guessed it so quick!), I gave him my answer and that night I received my gift! The only reason I knew what it was is because we had been talking about getting this for me for a long time now and we were both way excited about it. He also gave me my last two words.

Scintillation:
  1. the act of twinkling; glittering; sparkling
  2. a brilliant display

Soigne
  1. showing sophisticated eligance; fashionable
  2. well-groomed; polished


The answer is a......

Halcyon

Alacrity

Recherche

Nuctilucous

Effervescence

Scintillation

Soigne

HARNESS!!!

Isn't it cute!  It comes with a chalk bag, a ball of chalk, a carabiner, and a belay device. We love to go rock climbing, but every time I have just used a male harness that was a little too big for it to fit properly. I always felt like it was going to fall off me, so now I won't have to worry about that! I can't wait to use it!!!




Sidenote:  I have felt very akward and weird putting these entries on my blog because I'm not sure what to think about some of the definitions! I just have a very sweet and amazing husband whom I love very much and just wanted to brag about a bit!

Clue # 5

I went around turning on lights until I turned on the right one.

Effervescence:

   1.  to show enthusiasm, excitement, liveliness, etc.

Clue # 4

After getting the spoon that was taped to the mirror, I went looking for things you use a spoon for...FOOD!

When I looked in the fridge, I found the word burried in a jar of  green jello!

Nuctilucous:

   1.  shining in the night

Clue # 3

Friday morning, I woke up to Mason saying. "Mom I want to eat this. Can I eat it?"  It was a Peanut Butter Twix, my FAVORITE!  I knew it was part of the next clue so I went into the bathroom and found this:

I opened it up and found the next word.

Recherche:

  1. sought out with care

  2. very rare, exotic, or choice; arcane; obscure
  3. of studied refinement or elegance; precious;
      affected; pretentious

Clue # 2

I love waking up to this. It is such a good way to start my day. It took me a second, but once I read it a second time, I ran straight for the book and found this:

Alacrity:

   1. cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness

   2. liveliness, briskness

 synonyms: eagerness, keenness; fervor, zeal

I currently have no idea what this is leading to. The only other thing he has said is that it is a gift, not an activity.  Any ideas??

My Sweet Boys

Today turned out to be a wonderful day after all! It had just been one of those days that you just don't care to think about ever again. Vance had come home from work and was in a pretty good mood and so were both of the boys. The only problem was ME. As I was making dinner (a new recipe I was excited to try that turned out awesome!), Mason kept begging me to let him go outside and play. I finally told him that he could but he had to stay right by the window so I could watch him. A few minutes later I looked out the window and noticed a yellow flower laying there that I knew he must have picked from our attempted flower bed. I asked him in an angry voice if he picked the flower. His reply with much excitement was, "Yes I did and it's for you Sweetie! See, I will come and give it to you right now!" He ran as fast as he could to the top of the stairwell and with a huge grin on his face, handed me the flower and puckered up his lips for a nice, juicy kiss! It was the cutest thing ever! How could I possibly be grumpy after that?!

Then this evening as Vance and I were getting ready for bed, Vance came up to me and told me I had something on my face and to go look in the mirror. I walked in to find this on the mirror:

I got on the computer and looked up the word on dictionary.com.

Halcyon:
   1.  calm; peaceful; tranquil
   2.  rich; wealthy; prosperous
   3.  happy; joyful; carefree
synonyms:  serene, placid, pacific, untroubled

This is what I love about Vance. He ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS sees the good in me. I'm not saying any of these apply to me, (especially #2!) but no matter what the situation, Vance NEVER sees bad in me. Even if the bad is sincerely the truth and everyone knows it. Vance just simply doesn't see it. He's just to perfect. Perfectly in love with the luckiest woman in the world!

These are definitly attributes I would love to be known to have all the time. In my opinion, these are things I need to work on. :)  This is what he does to me. He makes me better. He makes me want to be better.

Thank you so much Vance! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Vance's birthday is this Saturday. I have a lot of planning to do!

It's Over

I am in a volleyball league.

We play on Thursdays and I LOVE it!

We were the favorite team and went undefeated... 

...until the championship game.

A brand new volleyball was on the line...

...and we lost it.

MAYBE NEXT SEASON

Little Moments

One of Ike's favorite things is to be outside when it is snowing. He loves to reach for the snow as it falls on his face. Vance had never seen his reaction to it, so when it was snowing when Vance got home from work, he took Ike outside and saw something that I feel like I take for granted. Sometimes I forget that Vance doesn't get to see everything that I do as a lucky stay-at-home mom. His reaction to what some people would call "the little things" is a good reminder to me of just how special these little moments are.

His First Shower...

...was exactly what I thought it would be like. Quite hilarious!  My kids have always taken baths. But this particular time, Vance was about to hop in the shower and Mason had just rubbed a ton of soap in his hair, so we had him get in the shower with Vance. Not as a punishment, but it was just convenient. And quite frankly, I was excited to see his reaction. The whole time, he just kept laughing and saying "Turn off the rain!" I think we will give him showers every once in a while just for kicks!

(Incase you are noticing his right eye, he was running outside and tripped and landed right on his eye. Ouch!)

Eagles

As you probably know, Vance and I love to take pictures of the Eagles every winter. This year, we did not get out to the bird refuge as many times and we missed out on opportunities for great photos, so we settled for the trees on Pages Lane instead! It's closer to home and you are able to get much closer to the Eagles. Vance was never able to go with me, due to work and school, but the kids and I went on "Eagle Outings" a few times and got some pretty cool pics. We parked the car right below them and I mostly just took pics out the window. In all my years of living in this city and seeing the Eagles there each year, I had never seen what I saw this year. Every time I went, there were tons of people lined up on the road with their cameras and their amazing lenses getting far better pictures than I could ever get with the lense we have. I actually had to fight my way in sometimes to get a descent shot at the amazing birds. Finally one time I went, I was in no rush and it was 3 in the afternoon, instead of 5 or 6 pm when everyone was off work. I got the perfect spot and got some cool shots of them.

This guy was probably a new hatchling this year or last since his head is not white. He was still big though!

Here he is flying. I love this pic! Their wing span is so huge!

These two kept flying off and then landing back in the trees.

This is the eagle that was flying with the dark headed Eagle in the picture above. They were squealing and squawking back and forth like crazy. It was way cool!

How would you like to scratch your itch with those claws?!?! 

By the look on his face, it must feel pretty good!

We Are Still Alive....Barely!

   It makes me sick to even pull up my blog anymore because it has been SOOOOOO long since I have posted anything and I am greatly ashamed of it. I wish so badly I had been keeping up with everything that has been going on in our lives because it has been a lot. My kids have changed dramatically and I hate that the only thing I have to show that is j-pegs somewhere on my external hard drive. I could literally list excuse after excuse as to why I have not been blogging, and truthfully it would sure make me feel better. But just to save time and boredom, the only excuse I will mention is that up until now, we have had only our lap top to depend on for Vance to get through school, and now start studying with for his new job, which I will tell in more detail later on. This lap top now has lines running through the screen, the mouse only works if you're really lucky that day, and when you click on ANYTHING, it takes it 3 minutes or more, just to decide what to do. With Vance's new job opportunity it has been a MUST to have a computer that is reliable, so we took a plunge and got a new desk top. It was just in the nick of time too. The lap top is worse than ever. It has no room for anymore pictures so we have had all these SD cards piled up with pictures on them and no where to put them, therefore, how would I blog?? Anyways, things are definitely looking up in that area so we'll see what happens from here on out.


   As for Vance's job, to make a long story short, he GRADUATED from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor in Science of Business Finance on February 17th. That was an amazing thing for us! I stayed up with him night after night until well after 2 am working on homework. I would edit his papers when he was done so he could turn them in that night. I am proud to say that he graduated with 16 A's, 5 B's, and 1 crazy C+!! His final GPA was 3.59! (which doesn't make sense to me with all those A's, but none the less, I am as proud as a wife could possibly be!!!)!!! So the night after he graduated, he started applying and looking for jobs on Monster.com. While he took a break, I uploaded his Resume with the option of making it very easy for possible employers to see. We randomly applied for a job in New York, (just for kicks!) and went to bed. The next day, he called me on his lunch break and said that someone called about a job opportunity and he thought it was the company from New York since that was the only one we applied for. His phone kept cutting out so he couldn't hear the whole message, so I called his voicemail. It turns out it was Farm Bureau. They had seen his resume on Monster.com and were very interested in him. He had an interview the next day and it was something he was very interested in. A couple weeks later he took personality tests to see if he was a match for the company or not. The next day, he got a phone call for a second interview. He was told that his tests showed that he was a perfect fit and that they had interviewed over 300 people, and he was the one they wanted! After much contemplation, many prayers, and getting advice from everyone possible, he decided that he would be crazy not to accept this opportunity. His boss wanted to meet me and take us out to dinner, so the following week, we met at his office where he went over a few things with us. He also showed me Vance's test scores and it was amazing to see how perfect he is for this position! He then took us out to dinner at an AMAZING restaurant called Corbin’s. It was soooooo delicious. And I have to say, I was treated like a queen and I loved it! Vance was absolutely amazing to me, and so was Mackae (his boss). They were such gentlemen! The waitress kept calling me "My Dear" which normally I would have been like, "I'm not your dear!" but this was so formal and awesome, that I LOVED it! I did not want the night to end. Oh and by the way, just in case you are wondering, the food is literally to die for! Yes it was expensive ($25 + per plate) but it was sooooo worth it. Ok, we really ate for free (thanks to Mackae!), but I would of happily paid for it. Word of advice, if you go there, dress real nice and sit by the waterfall. And if anyone tries their dessert, let me know how it tastes because I was dying to try it. Apparently it takes 20 minutes to make!

   Anyways, I know this is a long post so if you are bored...stop reading because I'm not done yet! So for Vance's new job, he will be an Insurance Agent. He starts training in May, and has to have 4 tests done in order to sell insurance so he can get his licenses (2 of which have to be done before he starts training). He passed his first test this last Saturday and is scheduled to take the second one on April 10th. The tests are 3 hours long and he has to get a 70% or better. (originally we thought he had to get 90%, so we were EXTREMELY excited to find out that its only 70%)

   As for the kids, Isaac is now 14 months old. He is still learning to walk and I love it!! It is my favorite stage ever! He has been trying to walk for 5-6 weeks now, and he is still choosing crawling over walking, but as far as I'm concerned, he can drag it on as long as he'd like because it is way too cute to watch him try and walk! I love watching him almost fall and then get control of his balance, and just keep on going. It's adorable! Mason will be 3 in May and he is one big boy! He calls me sweetie all the time and I absolutely LOVE it! "Come play cars with me sweetie!" "Sweetie, I need to go to the bathroom!" "Get me a drink please sweetie!" Anyways, its way cute and it makes me smile every time. My heart aches when I think of the day he stops calling me sweetie.

   Well, that is all I will bore you with for right now, but hopefully there will be more to come soon. I am WAY behind and it bugs me to my core, so don't be surprised if you start seeing postings clear from last summer. I want so badly to record every fun event in our lives, and right now blogging is my only option. Scrapbooking is put on the backburner yet again. I keep saying that as soon certain things happen, I will get more time to do things I want to do, but the truth is, I don't know when that will happen. Right now, Vance is busy on the computer studying every night and I am with the kids all day, who are quite demanding! I will attempt to make blogging a bigger priority as best as I can. Until next time, Carpe Diem!