Various Pictures with Various Stories since August

I have a variety of pictures since August time frame that I decided to just put together in this one hodge podge post.

My mother in law often watches the kids when needed. One day when Thomas and I went to pick them up we found them half naked with green fake hair. Diann had bought these headbands for St. Patricks day and the kids decided to use them as a grass skirt and crazy hair. They had a good time dancing around and acting crazy.

Tanner had some money to spend and he was super excited about getting a Nerf shotgun. We had told him to put it on his desk for nighttime, but when I later went in to check on him I found that he decided to sleep with it!

This is the craziest find of the year. I had gotten in the freezer to get some dinner out when I was surprised. Inside the freezer I found a perfectly preserved grasshopper! This was during the late summer when we had quite a few and one of them must have jumped in!

Tapanga got a hold of my socks and shoes one day and decided to put them on herself...to funny!

Thomas has enjoyed his woodworking and so one day he took a block of wood and made it a square. Then he cut it into various pieces for a wooden puzzle.

In checking on the garden in early August, Tanner and Thomas saw a very interesting bug. Not sure what kind of bug it was, but interesting!

Tapanga got a princess lip balm set for her birthday from our friends the Nelsons. After coming home from school she saw this set and asked to open it up. Not only did Tapanga try it out, but Tyler did also!

The boys wanted their picture taken, Tylers didn't come out well, but this is a cute one of Tanner.

In October, we went to Hooters for dinner one night. Tapanga saw this shot glass with a Hooter girl on it and said (in an excited voice), "Mommy thats a princess glass!!" No, I did not get her one!

The boys had a career day at school in November. Tanner wanted to dress as a teacher and we were going to put one of Thomas' ties on him, but he ended up being sick and missing school this day. Tyler wanted to be a sheriff/cowboy so I had this cow material that I did a quick cut and hand sew on to make a vest for him. I don't think it turned out that bad?

The weather was nice all throughout the fall. In mid-November the kids were sent outside to play. They were having a great time and were out there for awhile. I would stick my head out and check on them, but did I miss what they were into! We had about 10 plastic pails/buckets and one of the kids must have dropped it and it broke so they decided to break all of them...Oh was I not happy!

Tyler and Tapanga were the culprits and they had to pick up every piece of plastic...we were not happy!

The kids had a school carnival and while we were there some of the boys school work was posted on the walls. Its always neat to see what they do at school.

For my Bunco I wanted to make my chocolate cake dessert. I used the wrong dish to bake the cake though and thought it was funny when I checked on it...almost spilling out into the oven!

The kids had there Christmas Party/Polar Express day on the last full day before the Christmas holiday. They got to wear their pajamas and I went and bought them some new pajamas just for this. They looked so cute!

We have a standing dinner night with my parents on Wednesday nights, usually its at their house and mom cooks. Many times we play cards also. We have gotten into the habit of playing lots of cards, but we all enjoy it. This night we ate dinner at our house and played cards on the card table in front of the fire.

Being lazy after Christmas, Tanner was worn out and fell asleep on me. Don't mind my looks, I was being lazy with everyone else! How sweet my almost 6 year old cuddled up with mommy.

This picture was taken on the same day Tanner took a nap on me. He woke up in somewhat grumpy mood and went to sit on the other couch, where Tapanga had fallen asleep. Tapanga cuddled up next to him and continued to sleep.

Baking brownies...whats the best part? Licking the spoon and Tyler was sure enjoying this on the 29th of December!

Sometimes, I will take a picture or two that doesn't have much to do with anything, but it shows what is going on in our lives and is important in the story of us.

Legos

Tanner has always been very creative. He likes to draw fun pictures and create things out of Legos. I had saved my box of Legos from when I was a child and had taken them out for the boys to play with back in the summer time.

In September Tanner started building some very intricate planes and figures. I was pretty impressed, so for Christmas I knew I wanted to get the boys some Lego sets.Between Tanner and Tyler they received 8 different Lego sets from various people for Christmas and with varying degree difficulties. My mom got them Toy Story themed sets. Thomas worked with Tanner on a couple of the sets on Christmas day and then on the 26th, Tanner wanted to put one of them together, but I was doing other stuff. So I let him work on it on his own. The Buzz Lightyear Spaceship has 257 pieces and Tanner put it together on his own! I could hardly believe it. He did such a great job and was very focused on his project!The Lego sets sure didn't last long! I have saved all the plans and instructions, because I am sure they will get destroyed at some point but the boys may want to put them together again!

Tylers Tooth

The kids had to go to daycare on Tuesday because I had a few appointments. Thomas picked the kids up on his way home and when Tyler comes in he comes running to me, "My tooth is loose!"

Oh wow, lets check this out. This tooth was LOOSE! How did he not notice? We were going to go ahead and pull it out, but we called the tooth fairy and she didn't have a $5. Guess we will wait a day or so!

During dinner, Tyler starts to cry..."My mouth is bleeding!" Thomas looks in, grabs a napkin and pulls the tooth...just like that!

Poor Tyler was freaked out about loosing his tooth. He sat in shocked silence until I asked him if he wanted a mommy hug and of course he did. He was done...done with dinner, done with everything! Until, I asked him if he wanted some ice cream. This seemed to perk him up a little!

Now we have two toothless boys! Oh and it was the same tooth for both of them...how crazy!

My New Kitchen

One of the things I really wanted when we built the house was was a back splash in the kitchen. During the building process we looked all over for the right back splash, until I decided on this one online. When it came in I debated for days on whether I liked it...this is the hard thing about buying some stuff online. I finally decided I didn't really like it and didn't think it would look good in the kitchen.

Well, money ran out and I didn't get my back splash...which I was really disappointed about, but what can you do?

Recently, we had gone to Lowes looking at the tiles that they had and picked up a sample and brought it home with us to see if it fit. Giving it some thought, I decided I didn't like it either, but wanted to re look at the one we already purchased. After much consideration I thought it would look great...plus we already had it!

We looked into hiring someone to install the tiles, but it would cost around $400. I had heard that it was an easy project and my sister Liz knows how to do it so I called her to come and do it for us. Unfortunately, she couldn't fit me in when I needed but offered suggestions for us. Thomas felt confident that he could do the project. This project would get completed over the Thanksgiving holiday. Time to put Thomas to work...and KG too!

The process would be a multi-day process. First, we would have to prep the area. The guys would need to lay out the sheets of tiles and cut out the unneeded pieces for the outlets and such (this was the hardest thing according to Thomas). Second, we would need to use the mastic tile adhesive in the area. This is the glue that will hold the tiles to the wall. This was a little grueling to get into the tight areas. After putting the mastic on the wall the guys had to carefully place the sheets on the wall, making sure the lines lined up and all. This would have to dry for about 8 hours.

The guys were back to work early the next morning where. Today would be grouting day. This was a delicate process, you cover the tiles in the grout and have to shove it in the cracks between each little tile. After doing this you use sponges and wipe off the excess grout off the tiles...this has to be done numerous times. At some point the majority of excess grout is off but there is still a film on the tile so we took a dry paper towel to get this off.

In all, the process wasn't all that difficult. I helped a little, but the guys did a majority of the work and they did a great job for being their first time! Wow, my husband and KG did awesome!