The Past Few Weeks.....

It has been so long since I've posted...but of course I've been taking pictures and thinking of what I would say when I post...but it feels like these past few weeks have gotten away from me! I've gone back to work about 24-32 hours a week, helping Longs turn into CVS/Pharmacy. My boss has been really cool letting me work around home projects (like the fence and kids) so it's been working out well. But I have been running behind on a few things. So I have a seriously long list of pictures here.....


We finally got a dining room table! We've been using a 4 person folding card table since we moved. We've been checking sales, auctions and Craigs List, but haven't had any luck. We found one on CL but they never contacted us back....Nancy found a listing in our local paper this morning during her break at work so we called them, John went and looked at it, got them to lower the price by $40 and now for the bargain price of $260 we have an oak table with 6 armed chairs and 2 leaves. One chair is pretty scratched up (in the seat) and there are some scratches on the top, but it looks GREAT. We will likely have a table cloth or place mats on it anyway. We SCORED!

We have geese (not to mention other ducks, birds and white pelicans) out on the pond and in the meadow behind our house. The geese have babies now and so we have been walking around the pond a few nights a week feeding the geese. Justin was even able to pet them! They were eating bread of his shoes and from his hands!

Awwww!!

The big ones were hissing, saying "Give me bread NOW!".

Hiss!

Soft!

My boys chillin'.

Jacob should be walking anytime now...at least it sure seems like it! All he wants to do is this...walk holding your hands. He will have a serious fit if you are busy and can't walk with him that instant! Luckily he has a great big brother to cruise with!

Hey Mom! I'm on the deck!

Chilling on the weekend with a Ba Ba.

Look...I am going to open the gate! We've put a clip on the "clasp" so that you can't open it without taking the clip off. That way Jacob can't accidentally get it open and take a tumble down the stairs.

You can see the fence posts in the back...the beginning of our fence!

It's going to be an "open" fence, with wide square wire in the middle. It will keep animals out and kids in, but you can see through it and it won't really look like we have a fence!

Justin was in desperate need of a hair cut. He finally let me cut the hair over his ears a few weeks ago, and trim a bit off the back, but that was it. The poor guy was drowning in hair! John finally just gave Jus a buzz. He always asks for one when we go to have Sonja cut our hair!

Going....going......

On the floor....Look at all that! There was the same amount, or more, on the floor!

Speaking of wild hair......

Daddy had to take some pictures of Jacob "rockin'" the bed head!!!

Looks like someone had a balloon rubbed on their head.....

Oh my....

John's birthday was on May 19. He wanted to grill steaks and have dinner at home. It was a nice evening!

Mom and David got John some great snacks (cheeses, chocolates and crackers) along with this wonderful bottle of Twomey Syrah (with matching glasses!) It was delicious and we opened it on his birthday!

The Helmet is returned, complete, from Impact Racing....

Justin's helmet is finished!!! After John finished painting the shell he sent it out to Impact Racing, where they finish it off with the foam, vents and visor. It just arrived back today...it looks SO cool!!!

Jacob attempts the door.....

Justin had some friends over yesterday and they were playing in his room. They had the door closed and of course Jacob wanted in. John was in the hallway watching him when he called me down to see what Jacob was *almost* doing....he is going to have that door handle any second now!!

Mother's Day at Donner Lake!!!

Mother's Day was a beautufil, fun day! Our friend, Teri, came over the day before and aksed us if we wanted to join her at Donner Lake! She wanted to get a bunch of "mom" friends together for fun, sun and a BBQ. It was so much fun! The weather was great...the wind didn't kick up until the end of the day, and we met a bunch of new people and everyone, including the kids of course, had a BLAST!

Jacob getting his feet wet....He wasn't too sure about this....

The Canadian Geese getting in on the action!

Justin having fun in the sand.

John and Jacob at the shore!

Justin's friend Nick brought a surf board and showed him how to paddle and stand up on it!

Here is Nick out on his board.

John ended up travelling back home (the sweet man) to get us things...the weather was SO nice we didn't bring things like thongs, tank tops, football....John went back and got those things, and among other things, Justin's spring suit! The water is quite cold, so he was very thrilled to wear it!

My little surfer boy!

Teri, Roz and Rob brought kayaks, so the boys went out, after the ladies and men, and had a blast! I was afraid to try it....but I did at the end of the day and loved it!

Here are Teri and Roz getting Nick and Justin (on the left) into the kayaks.

Justin brought his snorkel and had a great time playing with it in the water.

Here are us Moms.....Me, Roz, Teri, Molly and...I suck....I can't remember the other two women's names.....they were all very nice and we were lucky enough to have Teri and Roz (and their hubby's and kids) come over to the house for some wine and conversation afterwards!

Brian had an awesomely large kite, and once the wind picked up John and he tried to get it in the air while the Q was going. Yummy chicken!

This was when I decided to go out in the kayak. I didn't have a swim suit on and I was worried about falling into the super cold water, but I really wanted to try it. Justin came out with me in case anything happened; he is just so sweet! We had a great time!

John snapped thiese while we kayaked!

Here is Justin having fun on the surfboard! That "fish" in the background is Mykayla!

Here I am kayaking!! I would love to get a couple so we could do this during the summer months and not only enjoy the great outdoors, but get some exercise too! Woop!

Mothers Day Gifts from Justin

For Mothers Day Justin decorated a pot for me and planted a beautiful flower! He also made me a lucky, 3-legged pig! I love them!

Candy Sushi!

Justin picked out a recipe from his kid's Rachael Ray cookbook, "Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids), and wanted to try some candy sushi! It is really easy....


Candy "Sushi"
Makes 4 servings

1 T butter, cut into pieces
12 marshmallows
2 cups puffed rice cereal, such as Kellogg's Rice Krispies
6 fruit roll-ups (6-inches wide) any brand, any flavor
6 strips licorice, such as Twizzler's brand, cut in half

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. Stir marshmallows until completely melted. Remove mixture from heat and add cereal. Stir to coat evenly in melted marshmallows.

Roll out the fruit roll-ups. Place a few spoonfuls of the coated cereal onto each fruil roll-up and gather thward the back edge of the roll-up. Press 2 cut licorice twists onto cereal mix. Wrap and roll the candy and fruil roll-up so that the finished product resembles a sushi roll, shimmying the licorice into the center of the Rice Krispies.

Place a sharp knife into a bowl of very warm water. Cut candy sushi with warm knife and arrange pieces on a plate to serve. The candy sushi looks like a big platter of California sushi rolls!

They sure were tasty! We had a group over on Mothers Day evening, and the kids LOVED this!

Helmet in Progress

John has been airbrushing a helmet for Justin for his go-kart racing. It's really intense and intricite....you must have patience for this job! John and Bob have watched tons of videos on the subject and it's looking awesome! John is doing a great job! Here are some pictures of the helmet in progress!

Here is the flame part....

John spent over two hours taping over the flames. In order to paint the rest of the helmet he had to tape over the flames and use an exacto knife to slice around the tips and edges of the flamers and then pull off the tape around it....geez!

Here are the flames all covered up and ready for the next stage.....the solid colors on the back!

Here is John at Bob's house, in the back garage, painting in the paint booth!

Supplies!

A masterpiece in progress!

Here it is with the solid colors painted on the back. Now we're ready for the checkerboard pattern! Checkered flag style :-)

There is the checkerboard pattern! You can still see the blue tape around the flames, and the indentations of it under the silver part. Once the back is painted they will take all the tape off.

The helmet looks funny....it's literally just the shell. After you have painted your helmet, you send it back and they finish it up; put the foam in and the visor, vents etc!

Here is the green diamond pattern in the back. Originally there was another designed planned, but it just wouldn't work out (even though John tried VERY hard to get it to work!) so Justin chose this pattern and at the top part sticking up there he is putting Justin's name!!!

Here it is with the tape off and you can see the flames. Looking AWESOME!!!