A Terrible Experience

Please don't read if you are a huge animal lover...

I probably had one of the worst experiences I've ever had. Last night, I hit a cat and it died. I couldn't believe it! I have never hit anything in the road, but for some reason, last night was the night. I didn't even get a chance to hit the brakes and when I looked back in the review mirror, it said it all. On top of that I had all the kids with me, anyway, I turned around to go back and without getting into all the details I got everything worked out.

But, I felt just horrible all night. Its something that I don't ever want to happen again. I hope the older boys are ok. The little ones didn't get what had happened. The whole thing just makes me sad.

Sorry, to be such a downer. We are headed off to a little boys birthday party for a bit and it is supposed to be a scorcher (at least here in Washington).

Last day of swimming and miscellaneous updates

Life is progressing along just fine with our nephew Jordan here. He has been a great help with taking the kids to swimming. I make him get up every morning and as long as he gets his donut(s) then he is happy as a clam. He and Hunter seem to get along for the most part until they pester each other to a boiling point. That can get really annoying.
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Here's something else I've noticed the last week or so. Nate is obsessed with blue shirts. Every day he ask me to put on a blue shirt. We walk to his closet and I let him pick out the shirt - often times there is no blue shirt, but he seems ok as long as he's picking what he wants.
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And finally, Will is doing something interesting. He has gotten into saying "I scared" or "____ scares me". I don't know where that is coming from either. He'll even say that he's too scared to go to his room by himself. Just shaking my head here.
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Phewww... we made it through two weeks of lessons. Hunter was a shoe in - no problems there and the twins did very well. I had to cajole them throughout the process but once they were in the water they did awesome. I'm excited because we are headed to my sister's house and they have a pool where all the boys can practice and be free in the water. We are taking a break for the rest of the summer and then they will do 1 week of lessons at the end.

Fridays are always fun days at the pool where the kids get to go down blow up slides and jump off the diving board if they want to. I wish I had had Kevin's camera because it takes super fast pictures, but mine will have to do.

Here is Hunter going down to slide:

And heading off the diving board. I missed him actually going into the water.
Here is Will going down the little slide
And a picture of Nate sliding down.
Here is Nate on the diving board.
And finally, here is a picture of Nate and Will sitting together at the edge of the pool. I can't get enough of seeing them side by side like that.

A house full - but all GOOD!!!

Here is a picture of all the kids at the house yesterday. I have freind who has twin girls who are 14 and they of course love the twins. They came over yesterday and played with the twins, Hunter, and Jordan. It was very nice to have all those extra hands around.

Both boys in the pool at the same time...

So today is the 4th day of swimming lessons. I went to my Copics Certification class yesterday and Kevin stayed home with the boys and took them. He sent me a text message yesterday saying that the boys "jumped" into the pool. Whaaaat! I thought it was great, but neither one of them did that for me. So, today came and I was excited to see what they would do. I'm sure you can guess... not for Mommy.... Will got in the water just fine, but not Nate. And of course, Nate was the one that I tried first so I ended up having to put him back and Will then went in no problem. I walked around a bit with him and then for whatever reason after we visited Hunter in the water, he was fine and went in no problem.

I think I have a sign on my forehead that says "Yes, please fuss for me - I love it!!" Will is on the right and Nate is on the left.
And here is a picture of Nate today drinking the pool water. He seemed obsessed with it today.
Tootles for now :)

My skateboarder boys

These pictures were taken over the weekend. We were visiting with our neighbor behind us and the boys immediately found their way into her garage of all places :) Well, they managed to find these two little skateboards and Cheryl was nice enough to let the boys have them. Her boys are just graduated and 16 so they were ok with seeing them go.

The one rule is that they HAVE to wear their helmets. They both really like them, but Nate seems especially inclined to playing with them. Will played, but at one point got all worked up because he wanted the one that Nate had. The only difference between the two skateboards is that one has red wheels and the other has white ones. Whatever...

Here are pictures of Nate.

Here is Will
And here is Will and Nate fighting. Unfortunately, this is something that I have seen before; just once or twice :)

First day of swimming lessons

So today was the first day of swimming lessons for all the boys. Hunter is a pro of course (at the lesson thing not the swimming thing) this is his 3rd year. All I have to say is thank goodness for our nephew Jordan. He is able to come with me to the lessons. I already decided that I'm skipping the session in the middle and will have the boys do the last week swimming instead. I admit - I can't/ won't cart them all to do lessons by myself.

Here are a couple of pictures of Hunter in the pool. No goggles though - which means I have to go out tonight at get some. He says he's a much better "swimmer" with them on.

Here is Nate. He went in just fine and enjoyed himself for the most part - no fussing!
Here are pictures of Will. I did put him in the water and the teacher did her best but to no avail. Let's hope that he goes in tomorrow.
And here is a picture of Jordy - doesn't he look thrilled!

Mariner's Game

Here are some pictures of the Mariner's game that we went to last Friday. We had a good time and managed to stick it out the entire game. The M's lost AGAIN, although it was close. The field is so pretty and for this time around it worked great being up so high. To be honest, the stadium is very nice no matter where you sit.
Here is a picture of Hunter holding our Beltre bobble heads. The guy didn't want to give Kevin one for one of the twins either. He had to duke it out with him - not really, but come one... The short kid cost just as much as one of us adults and he is entitled to a stupid bobble head!!! Geez!!!

The boys just had to get into those bobble heads.

Is 3 a Crowd??

I guess its all a matter of perspective huh? This picture was taken last night. Nate and Will love to sit on all of us, but sometimes its a nice way to get a few z's in (shhh... don't tell)

So which one is Will or which one is Nate??? (hint - remember Nate is the one that has "Babies" or "Bear Bears")

More sleeping babies

Ok, if you check out this blog, you might have realized that I can't get enough of sleeping baby photos. I could probably do an entire album of just sleeping twins - ok, maybe a mini album. I just can't help myself.

The other view :) Nate is the one that has his feet on Will

The boys

Good morning! Today's picture is of ALL the boys :) This is THE favorite spot for Nate and Will. They like to eat their snacks here and sometimes their lunch. They also like to play in this spot too, which is what they were doing last night - banging their cars into each other.

(Will, Hunter, Nate)

Nature

I don't like posting without pictures and there really hasn't been much to take pictures of I guess, but I wanted to post anyway.

Things here in the Pacific Northwest have been very wet of late. Summer hasn't even been peeking its head in our direction yet. I hope it warms a bit since the boys start swimming lessons outside this coming Monday. The nice thing about this particular pool though is that its warm. I'll have lots of pictures to share of swimming though.

So today, I have no pictures of people just nature. This first one is a picture of our hops, yes one of the main ingredients in beer. These hops come up every spring and grow like crazy. They look especially nice now, but they will get much fuller throughout the summer. Kevin used to brew his own beer and he did make some with our very own hops. Right now, all you are seeing are the leaves and of course I will take pictures of the actual hops when they come in. They look like small green pine cones. But besides the brewing aspect of hops, they make a wonderful climbing bush.This next picture is of our one and only clump of calla lilies. I love calla lilies and they come up every single year without any care. Those are the types of plants I like.
This last picture is what you'll get if you don't stake your peonies early and then have rainy, rainy weather. The white ones are transplants from our neighbor and the pink ones are ones that I ordered from somewhere.

I'd have a picture of the boys napping (can't get enough of sleeping baby pictures), but at the moment they are opening their door, crying, shutting their door, then opening their door, crying, and I'm sure you can see/hear the pattern.

Hunter's 2nd Grade Performance

Well, I didn't get to the pictures yesterday, but I am here today. Its still gray outside, but at the moment dry. Hunter's school usually does a Laua lunch and its usually outside, but this year because it has been so rainy this week, the school decided to be safe than sorry and plan for a special lunch in the classrooms. I had forgotten about it and saw the note this morning and decided that I wasn't going to because to be honest, it is a pain trying to coral two 2 1/2 year olds in a classroom with lots of people. Plus, its only for 1/2 an hour. But then, the more I thought about it, I decided I should just buck up and go. I know that Hunter would love to see me there and it will be a nice surprise. I will just get a friend to pick up Hunter after school and the boys can take a late nap.

So, without further ado, here are some photos from yesterday's presentation. My pictures a bit dark - the lighting at the school just isn't conducive to good close up photos. It was a very nice turnout, which is always great to see.

Here's a picture of the whole group on stage - Hunter is in the center holding the microphone next to the little girl in the white dress.

Here is Hunter doing his solo.

And a picture of Grandpa (Kevin's Dad) holding Nate. The boys were really very good. Their only downfall was wanting to jump around stomping.

Now, I'm off the dress the boys and get going to lunch :)

Blah

Today is another day of rain. It rained ALL day and last night - yuck! So I am going to do a little whining today. Here is a picture of the rain - I guess its just drizzle right now.
Then another night sharing the bed with the boys. I gotta get one of those door knob dealy bobs so they have to stay in their room. Nate always comes to my side and Will always goes to Kevin's side and then they both end up in the middle. Here is a picture of Will - just imagine one more kid next to him.
Then, I want to know why I can't ever keep up on the laundry and why boys/men always take their socks off inside out. I don't take any of my clothes off inside out. Its so gross having to put those socks right side out again. And for some reason, Hunter takes off his pants the same way every time. Its kind of funny how he has already gotten into a pattern. He leaves one pant leg inside out and one leg right side out every single time!!!

Alrighty, enough whining for now.

30:00
2.50
271.7

Sick Twins

Oh yuck, both boys are now officially sick. Will had a runny nose and a cough that seemed to be getting better yesterday, but he is still all runny and coughy this morning. Nate woke us up last night with this horrible sounding cough that was clearly hurting his throat. We had to fight with him to get some medicine down his throat. Today is no better and both boys have that "smell" about them. It just smells all snotty and infected. Sorry - so gross.

Otherwise, we are doing just fabulous. I'd share a picture, but you probably don't want to see :)

Some time with Mom for her birthday

Today was Mom's birthday and we went down to visit - it was a surprise. My younger sister also came down from Seattle and picked up one of my brothers as well. We had a good time while visiting and Kevin made a lovely shrimp fettuccine dinner for all of us. Here are some pictures of our day.

Here's a picture of Mom helping Nate slide down the staircase. By the end of our time, the boys were sliding down no problem.

Me, Will, my brother Miles and Kevin (doing the cooking of course)

Will spent quite a bit of time playing "blocks" with the cans of dog food.

Another time occupier was the new doggy door and in this case the "twins" door.

And I just like this picture. Its Will and me. He has started this thing where he "tickles" my face. Works well until the "tickling" gets a little rough.

And in the end, I didn't get any pictures of my sister... of course :)