The Circus

I was just looking through all the pictures I have recently uploaded to my computer and realized how much has happened in the last few weeks that I haven’t shared on here or on facebook.  Hopefully I can get caught up and take some time to blog about some of the stuff that we have been up to lately!  It feels like we go, go, go in the summer time, and blogging tends to take a back seat to all of the other stuff we do.

A few weeks ago I heard that the circus was going to be in Kearney.  I saw it advertised on tv and realized it was the next day.  It never fails that Lee has to work on the days that stuff like that is going on, so I started thinking of who I could call to go with us.  My mom had just had surgery for a detached retina, so her and my dad who always go to stuff like that with us, were out of the question.  I called several people, but since it was pretty short notice, everyone was busy.  I decided I was going to take the kids by myself.  I’m perfectly capable of taking my kids places by myself, it’s just easier to have a second set of hands. 

My mother in-law came to my rescue, called back and said that she could go with us.  Well, thank goodness she did since the kids freaked out before we even got inside the building!  We walked up to the door where 3 or 4 clowns were standing to take tickets.  Oh my goodness!  The kids completely freaked out!  I was holding two of them and Sue had two of them.  I’m not even really sure how I managed to get money out of my pocket since they had death grips on me.  Poor Cooper was squeezing my neck so hard I could hardly breath.  I don’t even want to think about how hard it would have been to get them inside by myself!  Thank God for Grandma Sue!

After we got inside, we found seats and they were still pretty nervous about the clowns.  Grandma came to the rescue and bought them all flashing butterfly lights.  I think Sue and I were both seeing spots by the time the circus was over, but it was totally worth it since they cheered up and started enjoying themselves after that. 

Parker showing me her butterfly.

Silly Kaden and his butterfly

Brett mesmerized by the flashing lights

Cooper

Kaden enjoying the show

Cooper and Brett

Cooper, Brett, Parker, Grandma, and Kaden

Such a big girl!

I don’t normally take pictures of the animals at the circus, but the kids wanted to show daddy what they saw.  This elephant was the best part of the show!  She danced and it was just plain awesome!  The kids kept saying, “It’s so big!  That elephant so big!”  They don’t remember seeing the elephants at the zoo last year and even though we look at pictures of elephants all the time, they didn’t realize just how big they are.

We had a great time at the circus!  Thank you so much, Grandma, for going with us!  Having you there made the clowns seem a little less scary and definitely made all those trips to the bathroom a lot easier! 

Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to the most wonderful Daddy ever!  You are such a good daddy to our four little people.  I can’t imagine traveling down this crazy road with anyone else but you.   I am so lucky to have you as my husband, my best friend and the father to my children.  Even though you will be at work, I hope you still have a fabulous day.  I love you and so do your babies!

Just a few of the reasons why we love our daddy so much…….

You give us horsy rides.

 

You snuggle with us and watch silly cartoons with us.

 

You show us how to use the slip n slide.  We know this was a big sacrifice for you. 

 

You help us learn how to slide on the slip n slide.

 

You keep us warm.

 

You give all of us rides at the same time so we don’t have to wait.

 

You keep watch over us so we don’t fall into the water while feeding the fish.

 

You laugh at us when we do naughty things like put butter in our hair.

 

You tell us how beautiful we are.

 

You give us lots of hugs.

 

You show us how to have a good time at a party.

 

You go down the big slide with us so we won’t be scared.

 

We love you so much Daddy and hope that you have a great Father’s Day!

 

 

 

A sweet story….

I am the first person to admit that I am a bit of a klutz.  I can seriously trip over air.  Yesterday I had one of my klutzy moments, and all of my sweet little people came to my rescue. 

It started when I sent Lee to Subway to get us some supper.  We had been outside swimming and Brett decided he wanted to go with Lee.  Since he was in just his underwear (yes, they swim in their underwear in the backyard) he ran inside, found some random clothes, and got dressed as fast as he could.  Lee had already left at this point, and the look on Brett’s face when I told him daddy was already gone broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. 

He took off running for the back door with only one flip flop on yelling “Daddy! Daddy!  Wait for me!”.  Since Brett is just as much of a klutz as I am, I was afraid he would fall down the steps so I took off to catch him.  I saved him from falling, but in the process I snagged my toe on the door frame and thought I ripped my toenail off.

Brett’s tears immediately stopped when he realized I was hurt and he became very concerned about me.  I made it outside and sat on the steps trying not to cry (hey, it hurt really bad) and trying really hard not to say any bad words.  By this time, all four of my kids were crowded around me asking if I was ok.  I told them I was, but Parker kept saying, “You show Daddy you owie, Mommy?”  I assured her that we would show it to daddy as soon as he got back. 

I’ve always thought that my kids have some strange ESP thing with eachother.  Occasionally they will all look at each other and with out saying a word, they walk off together to do something like they just had a conversation about what they were going to do.  Well, they had another one of these moments where it was like they looked at each other and decided ok, Brett, you stay with Mommy and make sure she is ok.  The rest of us will get on our jungle gym and watch for Daddy to come home.  Brett stayed my my side and rubbed my back, patted my shoulder, and asked me repeatedly if I was ok.  The other three stood on their jungle gym and yelled, “Daddy!  Daddy?  Where are you? Mommy have owie!!!”  If anyone would have heard them, they probably would have thought I was seriously hurt!

They were so sweet to take such good care of me!  I love that they are so nurturing and always went to take care of me if I’m sick, tired or hurt.  Once again, I am reminded of how lucky I am to have these four beautiful little people in my life! 

 

 

 

Look at these sweet little faces!  Ignore the large pile of laundry on the dining room table, please! It’s never ending! 

What’s For Dinner?

My kids are obsessed with The Wiggles.  Totally obsessed!  We watch The Wiggles everyday, talk about The Wiggles constantly and we all have the dream of seeing The Wiggles Live someday. 

                              

Cooper is famous for relating EVERYTHING to The Wiggles.  It does matter what we are talking about or doing, Cooper thinks of a way that it is similar to The Wiggles, whether it’s a color, a song, a dance or just something that they say.  It’s really pretty impressive that he has that good of a memory.  They all love to dance and sing with The Wiggles and will occasionally just start singing and dancing even if The Wiggles aren’t on TV. 

Whenever I ask the kids what they want to eat for any given meal or snack, Cooper and Brett answer with “Wiggles!”  I’m not really sure what they mean when they say this, maybe they are wanting to eat with The Wiggles or watch them while they eat.  I don’t know for sure.  When I make pancakes I usually color them different colors and they always tell me which Wiggle color I have used.  I’ve been trying to think of a meal I could make that would include all four of the Wiggle colors, red, blue, yellow and purple.  I finally decided today to make cornbread into little mini muffins and make each of them a different color.  The colors didn’t turn out that great, but the kids were thrilled with their Wiggles cornbread!

Aren’t these pretty?

Kaden showing me his “Anthony” muffin.  It’s supposed to be blue, but looks green in the picture.

Cooper and his “Murray” cornbread which is supposed to be red, but came out more pink.  They didn’t seem to care!

Brett being goofy and eating his “Sam” cornbread.

These are the best pictures of Parker I could get.  She was too busy eating to smile.  She ate six mini muffins! 

Someday I hope to get to take them all to see The Wiggles for real.  They get so excited every time they come on TV, I can only imagine their reaction if they saw them in person!  They have a US tour this summer, but the closest they will be to here is in Chicago, about a 10 hour drive from here.  Unless I win the lottery sometime soon, I’m pretty sure we won’t be going!