Spiderman

So, we finally stayed up and watched Spiderman with Raef wondering if it would dash all of his thoughts that he was really Spiderman. But it actually did the opposite. And to make matters worse, the spider bite that Spiderman gets in the movie is in the exact same spot Raef's freckle is on his hand. Wierd huh? Maybe he really is Spiderman. Then as we're watching the part in the movie when he wakes up and realized that he has gigantic muscles, I look over and Raef is sitting up taller and taller and flexing every muscle in his body. We couldn't help but laugh. Everytime Spiderman went flying through the sky, he would yell, "look, mom its me, Spiderman." We had a costume from a previous Halloween and dug it out and watched as Raef transformed into Spiderman. He was shooting webs at us and crouching down just the movie. We were laughing hystically for an hour as he performed.

Yes, we hit 0 degrees today! Okay, seriously enough is enough! We are dreaming of a tropical vacation that maybe we will get to in oh maybe 5 years! Still though it is a good dream. I am wondering how my boys are so completely opposite and if possibly Ryan was supposed to be twins! There is a lot of energy bundled up in that adorable little boy. He follows me around the house saying, "mama, where are you?". It melts my heart. But recently he has picked up Raef's fabulous question of "huh?" or "what?". That definitely gets me agitated when Raef says it a thousand times a day and now I have two of them saying it. Last week after dinner I sent Raef upstairs to get his pjs on and he didn't return. Of course I noticed right away(well, okay maybe 10 minutes later) and went upstairs to see what kind of trouble he had made. He was in the bathroom hiding behind the door. I realized a second later why he was hiding. His face had been colored with a black permanent marker leaving only a few sparce spots of skin. He looked like he had a black mask on. He said sorry as soon as he saw my reaction which was probably a puzzled look as I was trying to decide what I would use to explain my son's black face at church the next day. Luckily it came off pretty easy, although I think Raef learned his lesson quickly as i had to scrub to get it off. Trent saw it and told Raef no books for bed because of what he had done. Raef was devastated. That is his favorite time of the day. Trent went downstairs too mad to deal with him and I got him ready for bed and calmed him down. We talked about what had happened and I explained why daddy was so mad. Raef very sadly said, "mom, I just wanted to be a superhero like daddy." My heart sank. Trent has a brown spot on the back of his arm that Raef thinks is a spiderbite which makes daddy Spiderman. he really does believe daddy is a superhero. Then he found a freckle on his hand and proudly showed everyone he knew and didn't know explaining how he was a real superhero. That was the day he made himself a mask. what superhero doesn't have a mask? Needless to say, Trent slept with his little superhero that night.

Trent and I escaped for our yearly trip to the Marriot for the Valentines Day special. A night on the town, chocolate covered strawberries, a little bubbly, and then sleep. Quiet, completely uninterrupted sleep. And then a late checkout with breakfast in bed so we could sleep in. Sleep in? Apparhently my body doesn't do that anymore. I have somehow become the same alarm clock my 1 year old is set at......6:00! Nooooooo!!!! Unbelievable. My one day to sleep in and have no guilt doing so and I can't sleep. oh well, it was really fun bugging Trent. Man we need a vacation! one night was so fabulous but we are teetering too close to the edge of insanity here we just might fall. All is well though and we are desperately trying to survive the terrible age of bumps and bruises for Ryan. I swear he has a new gooseegg every day. He just got another one about 5 minutes ago trying to kamikaze off of our bed into a portacrib about 5 feet away. Nice try little one!
Little Raef started collecting change in a jar and Trent told him it was for a mission fund. Well, Raef associated that with Diego's mission to save the animals and thinks now he is going to Africa. Great. We are all very ready for some nice weather and sunshine. Actually, I am just getting annoyed with it now. It's not funny anymore. I need these boys to get out of my house and get some energy out. That damn groundhog!

Tae Kwon Do

Well, Raef began his first activity this last week and loved it! I have never seen him so out of his comfort zone and so in the right place. I was that mom trying to take pictures of the first day and getting a dirty look when my flash disrupted Raef. Woops! So, here is the picture in our house since I didn't get a very good one. Raef is the littlest one but doesn't slow down a bit. The only part we are still working on with him is his "yes sir!" He yells it perfectly and respectfully but we can't get him to stop saluting every time he says it. When Master Kwon said he had great coordination and would love him to stay in his class but wondered about the saluting, all I could say was , "hey, his dad and two uncles are in the Air Force and will be proud to know they have taught him something." I laughed everytime as he ran by saluting and yelling,"yes sir!" The video is not so great as I was trying to hold the camera and the button as far as my arm would reach as I would not be seen in the doorway! Yes, I am that mom! AAAAhhhhh! It's still very cute though.

Big shirts to fill

Trent is definitely feeling the stress of the economy as his line of patients disappears. Dental work just isn't a necessity, even if it's cheap or free(it has to be for the work they get.....jk!) He is making his way through 3rd year and wondering if he may be joining his brother in the class below. Nothing else he can do. So, will we recommend this to our boys someday? Not sure yet.

A little break

We joined two other families and went to a cabin a few hours away and got some good r&r. Raef and Ryan that is. It was a crazy house with seven little ones running around and the oldest one being 4. Yikes! Lots of running, snacking, playing, and fighting. A house full of boys. It was so fun though. The cabin was beautiful and we were just thrilled it was situated on a hill. Yes, we found a hill in Ohio! It was amazing! We went sledding, watched movies, talked, played pool, and dunked in the hot tub.

It was a chilly run to the hot tub but definitely well worth it. The boys loved it! We had to drag them out every time. It was so beautiful to sit there at night with the snow falling from the black sky. A little piece of heaven.

4 years old!!!

Raef insisted on a icecream cake with oreo icecream and elephants on top. We had a mess getting one ordered and ended up making this one an hour before party time. He loved it though and made sure everyone of his new baby elephants stayed close by.

Raef wanted an animal center for Christmas so bad he couldn't stand it. We finally covinced him that Santa really wanted Trent to make it for him for his birthday so he could have lots of presents for Christmas instead of just one(the animal center he wanted was $140). That worked and so Trent was locked in. He still needs to stain it but made it so fun. All of the little kids that come over play with it the whole time. Raef had it filled with animals within minutes and then added trains and cars. There is a roof that velcroes on also with all of the little pieces of wood being moveable to make big and little stalls for the animals. Very cool for a big boy who believes he is Diego, the animal rescuer.

Happy Birthday

Raef turned 4 on Jan. 17th. Everyday for weeks he has asked me how many more days until his birthday. I told him ___ more days until your birthday comes. Each time I told him that he would run to the window and say, "mom, is my birthday coming yet?" I never understood what he was doing until his birthday when I finally told him his birthday was here. He again ran to the window and said,"where, mom, I just don't see it. Where is it?" I told him, "it's here. right now. today. " Still very confused he said, "well, I don't see my birthday. Where did it go?" Too cute!

Life with boys

After asking Raef to get get dressed in the morning, the boys returned looking like this. Raef said it was their underwear helmets and they played for a few hours like that. I couldn't help but laugh. You know I didn't teach them that.

Raef loves playing outside in the snow but Ryan still won't go out. He wants to but refuses to put his boots or coat on. He holds his tennis shoes and cries and cries. Raef got his first goose egg and you can see the lasting effects. This is about 5 days later and still quite the bruise. He cried until I took him up to the bathroom and let him look at himself in the mirror. He started laughing so hard I couldn't believe it. He thought it was so funny. It was huge. Trent is doing well, except he is becoming like every other medical/dental student and thinking he is dying from every disease he learns about or treats on a patient. We'll see if he makes it out alive this time. I am feeling better than I have in a long time. Maybe being down for awhile and healing has its perks. I suddenly feel great and young again. Yahoo!!!

Football season

We have had a lot of fun this year tracking a few teams and Raef has really gotten into it too. He loves to hang out with the boys and watch the games and asks about a million questions and breaks into the touchdown dance every minute or so. One day I came downstairs and Raef and Trent had stuffed pillows into their shirts and were tackling eachother. Raef runs full on and right into Trent all the while making a buzzing noise. We call him the skeeter bug.

Christmas vacation

Well, we left on the 17th for Idaho Falls to spend Christmas with the Buttars'. We wondered if we would have a white Christmas for about a day until it dumped 2 1/2 feet on us. It was beautiful and we loved every second of it. The boys played in the pile while Berk and all the boys shoveled us out of the culdesac. Ryan still stood at the doorway waiting for Trent to carry him. He has always been afraid to walk on the snow and if he touches it or it touches him (aka a snowflake on the nose) he spazs out and screams until we take him inside. It is quite funny actually.

So, my pinched nerve went away on the 24th and Christmas was magical. Trent and I didn't get eachother anything. Well, that's a lie. We each spent 10 dollars. I surprised Trent and gave him what he asks for for every holiday, birthday, or special day......panties. Pink, ruffly, panties. He was so embarrassed. It was perfect. Hey, if that's what he wants! The boys were spoiled of course by family and we filled a suitcase up with cars, macs, walle, and more animals! Raef said we had to get home so his new animals could meet his animals at home because his animals were getting sad he was gone so long. Then, on the 26th I woke up with terrible stomach pain and despite Trents efforts of healing me with a hot shower and mylanta, we went to the emergency room. After all was said and done, I had my gallbladder and appendix removed that night. That was my reward for being right that mylanta wouldn't solve this problem.....surgery. Fabulous! We were fortunate though to be with family so the boys were taken care of and I could rest. My stomach looks like I was involved in a drive by shooting since I did laproscopic surgery I have 5 incisions. Bring on the bikini! Trent says he is almost ready to trade me in for a new model. I am too. We are home now and I am almost fully recovered and very ready to wish 2008 goodbye. What a year!

O Christmas Tree

Even though we aren't going to be here for very long, we still had to do the Christmas tree decorating with the boys. They had so much fun and we actually didn't have to rearrange too much when they were done. We both grew up spending the day finding the perfect Christmas tree, often times settling for one that is not so perfect and going home too tired to even put the tree up and trim it. But the last two years, we loaded the boys up and drove all the way to Lowes and picked out the tree. Yeah, it took about......oh 25 minutes and everyone is very jealous of our hand-picked tree.

Decorating the tree

The Jones family came over and the kids had a great time decorating and getting excited for Christmas to come. They have wall hangings that they are counting down the days until they go to Idaho for Christmas with.

The cute Ugg bugs

Trent absolutely hates my Uggs but I may have convinced him they're not too bad after he saw this pic. Trent is almost done with finals and we are all very happy. It seems like every semester we go through this terrible couple of weeks but this year hit us especially hard. I fell down the stairs a few months ago and apparhently the injury from that manifested itself the last few weeks as a pinched nerve/torn muscle. I have been going to the physician and chiropractor trying to get some relief so I can at least function. It's never easy to be injured and chase two boys around. We have had lots of help though and are surviving. I didn't work for 2 weeks and went back this week to find maybe I shouldn't be back quite yet. Ouch! The boys are getting cabin fever as I haven't taken them out to do the usual exploring. We are all ready for Christmas! We leave for Idaho on Wednesday and will stay there until the new year. We are so excited to hand the boys over and sleep for a few days. Seriously, that's really what we're excited about.

Montana

In September I got to go home to Montana and go on a backpacking trip with just my siblings. It was amazing and an experience I will remember forever. It was like we were little kids again just having fun. We hiked in the Beartooth Mountains and Matt was our "professional guide" making sure to take care of his 4 sisters. Although I think he might have loved it too. We had never done anything like that trip and vowed to do it again.

Gotcha!

I had the perfect spot for fishing and caught a lot of fish. More than even the "professional guide". Although, he might claim that he was moving down the lake from one sister to the next rebaiting, untangling, unhooking fish, and all those other gross things we didn't want to do. Finally, he said "do it yourself" and we managed just fine, although not without a lot of wailing and knashing of teeth! Aaaahhhh! Just looking at this picture makes me want to be back there so bad. I've never had Trent so jealous of me.

best buds

These adorable pictures were taken at the peak of the fall coloring here in Ohio. As much as we miss the mountains and pine trees and water you can actually see 6 inches in, we will never forget the amazing display of colors here in the fall. It is beautiful. We go to this metropark about 1 mile from our home and go "hiking" and exploring. In the summer, we walk through a stream that runs through here. The boys love it.

Ryan

Raef