Its FALL up in here!

Well, it will be next week. But school has started and its not sunny today - yay! - so in my mind, its Fall! My favorite season!!

The boys went back to school last week. Public school. Both of them. In my last post I mentioned that Dax was homeschooling and that I really didn't see him going back to regular school. Ha ha ha. You'd think by now I'd have learned to not say things like that. He got so bored after a few months of homeschooling. Dax is VERY extroverted and being home with me all day was like torture for him. I however LOVE being home all day but it was not fun trying to keep a bored 2nd grader entertained once his schoolwork was done.

So, they are back to school. Xander started middle school this year! Middle school!! I still can't believe it. We went to curriculum night last night and all his teachers are RAD. He is going to have a great year. And Dax got a wonderful, seasoned, mellow teacher for 3rd grade. So we are looking forward to seeing what this school year brings for our sweet boys.

So now that I have two kids in school and still don't "have to" work, I signed up to regular auxiliary pioneer (for you non-JW's, that means I am voluntarily spending 50 hours a month in our door-to-door ministry). I figure I need to be giving God my best and since I don't have to work right now, I can easily give Him 50 hours a month.

And that still leaves me time to do all my housewife stuff which includes puttering around the house! I love this time of year because all the Fall home tours are up in blogland and I love nothing more than sitting down in the morning with my coffee and looking at all the prettily decorated homes. Its so inspiring. I have big plans for our house over the next few months and thought hey, I should snap some photos of what it looks like right now, for posterity. I am constantly changing stuff up around here and considering what I've got planned for this fall & winter I thought it would be nice to document what things look like right now. Please bear in mind these are unedited, unstaged, unwatermarked photos. ;)

This ^ was the daily text one Saturday and it inspired me.

Current mantel. This is getting ready to be changed for fall.

And yeah that is a bunch of ugly folding chairs. We have the meeting for service here on Thursdays and Saturdays so we need ugly folding chairs.

And there is nowhere to store them right now. So they just lean against the fireplace.

I hate it, but I love having the service meeting here. So its OK. At least they're neutral.

The gumball machine was a thrift store find

(which I am sure I will regret filling next time the boys see their dentist).

I found these hideous curtains at Value Village a few weeks back and my mom bought them for me.

I love them!!! They are just the blast of WEIRD that the living room needed. For now anyway. ;)

I can't decide if they were from a Fabulous Old Lady's living room or 80s Teen Debutante's bedroom, but either way they are custom & fully lined and somebody spent a lot of money on them a long time ago.

I hopped on the Fiddle Leaf Fig bandwagon. Let's see if I can keep it alive.

Have you ever said "Fiddle Leaf Fig" to someone who's never heard of one? The reaction is usually hilarious. "What did you say? Fiddly fig? What the heck is that?"

I tried to be like all the other cool people and do white walls. I'm not sure about it.

I would hate to admit that I am more of a beige person but I think that is truly the case.

White walls + boys = more maintenance than I'd like. Blah.

Dax drew this pumpkin (well, traced) last fall and I immediately put it in that frame and hung it up for the season. I'm going to hang it up somewhere again once I start decorating for fall.

Xander's room is an absolute hodge podge right now. We sold the bunk beds and were planning on a room re-do but now we've decided to move both boys to the basement bedrooms in the near future so this is how his room will be until we do that. Juston has a broken rib and foot right now (long story .. don't worry, he's OK) so no furniture is getting moved at present.

I love the collections boys come up with.

This brown cabinet monstrosity has been around for a thousand years. Seriously.

There are photos of it in the house Poodie grew up in. Apparently it must be kept.

It will either go in the garage for extra storage or I will paint it and put it in the living room.

Don't tell Poodie I'm still thinking about that, I mentioned it once and he was less than excited about that idea.

Dax has two frogs in his room now. They were Xander's science classroom pets last year and we took them home for the summer. Then the teacher emailed and said hey, I got married and we are moving to Germany, do you want to keep the frogs? So we have frogs now.

They're ADORABLE. Their names are Frog and Toad but we are thinking of renaming them.

Clouseau and Kato?

Jake and Finn?

The boys want to stick with our Adventure Time pet names, but I prefer Clouseau and Kato.

Dax is really excited about getting a big boy room in the basement.

He is incredibly artistic and knows exactly what he wants, and this current room is NOT it.

More boy collections. Its so fun to look back and see how they arranged their stuff.

The boys' bathroom is red. I love the color red, but forgot that I don't love red walls.

So I have BIG plans for this bathroom!!

I actually made our bed today. I really wanted to take a nap the moment I got up so decided if I made the bed that would prevent any laziness on my part.

Although duh .. as shown by the blankie on the couch, I have other options for places to nap.

And remember that pillow? I think I hate it. But its replacing a red one that was there. I got tired of red in our bedroom.

I have a dear friend who, the first time she came to our house and saw all the kid stuff in the yard, thought to herself "aww, this looks like a fun house!" She told me that later and I decided there was no greater compliment. I can get really persnickety and down on myself because our house doesn't look the way I *think* it should. When really, all I truly want is a fun, comfortable house, where people can make a mess and put their feet on the coffee table and not use a coaster or worry about spilling. And if bikes and crap all over the porch give that vibe before anyone even comes in, then I'm glad. I want to have the fun house!

Oh, Bmo! I'm surrounded by gross boys!

I don't understand why the purple mum doesn't need nearly as much water as the others.

So, that's our house right now. I can't wait to do all the updates we have planned and I will share the progress here. Now I think I'd better put on a bra and brush my teeth, its almost 1:00 for goodness sake.

The latest.

Once again I come back to this blog. Once again feeling like I need to preface a post with "wow its been a while" etc.

Obviously it HAS been a while. But this time I won't state intentions. I'll just jump right in.

Last time I posted, I was still greatly grieving over my dad's death. I realize now that the empty feeling will never go away. Losing a parent is like learning to live with a giant hole in your Self. You get used to it after a while but you always feel the hole.

Where did I leave off before that? I don't even know, so I'll just create a bulleted list and catch you up to speed:

• Xander is 10 1/2 and in 5th grade. This is his last year of elementary school. The other day I looked back and read through this blog and just wanted to bawl my eyes out. I am so glad I documented the things I did.
• Dax is 7 and in second grade. Same thing ..... I see the posts of him being a momma's boy, my clingy, blonde haired little babe and it kills me. I obviously had been told how fast the the years would go, I typed it often! But like any mother of littles ones, I really had no clue.
• The boys are the same people they've always been, but they get more awesome and fun and smart every day. Xander is the typical firstborn who aims to please and Dax is the noisy maniac. They are my whole world and I thank God every day that they exist and are OURS.
• I reached a longtime goal in September of 2014. Both boys were in school all day for the first time so I signed up to regular pioneer. I can honestly say it was the most wonderful, fulfilling year of my entire life.
• But after first grade turned out to be a total nightmare for Dax, we decided I would homeschool him. It is not a 100% parent-taught thing. I am not motivated or organized enough for that (yet .. I am learning to never say never!). This is the program we are doing. I highly recommend it.
• I struggle every day with missing pioneering while at the same time seeing the perks of homeschooling. It really was the best decision at the time for Dax and I am so grateful for this time to spend with him. We are going to play this whole school thing by ear. If Dax wants to go back to normal school next year, he will. Honestly I don't really see that happening but again, never say never. Xander will be homeschooling next year and if they both do this program I will have them home alternating days which will be nice.
• My personal goal is to pioneer again as soon as humanly possible. But my boys come first. They are my most important "bible students" and I do not want to fail them.
• This past summer we were privileged to spend a week in Utah serving in seldom-worked territory. (For you non-JW's, click here to see the importance of our ministry, especially reaching those who don't hear the word often.) It was THE BEST vacation ever.
• Juston quit his job in April. It was fairly stressful, but I can honestly say that him quitting was the best decision for our family. We all feel much more happy and content. We were able to do our seldom-worked territory trip, and before that Juston gave his first public talk. We have SO MUCH more time as a family and we definitely feel like our most important needs are being met. Juston is working on getting another business off the ground but he is determined that work will never reach the level it did before.
• As far as the rest of life goes, you can keep up with our nonsense on Instagram. Find us at @ mrs.poodie. We have a new kitten, and the same old bearded dragon (we love Beans!!) that has been around for a few years now. And we are getting ready to undertake some house projects  .. obviously they will happen as money starts coming in, ha! We constantly talk about how our home and this life IS TEMPORARY and no matter what our reasons are for wanting to remodel and/or move (hospitality being the number one), our house suits its purpose just fine and we need to keep in focus what is truly important. Being content is a constant struggle.
• Since going off the pioneer list I have struggled daily with zeal, joy, and motivation. But its all gonna be OK. This is the first time in my 36 years of life that I have related to the Widow's Mite. I realize it now ... we all go through ups and downs in our service to God. And He doesn't judge us for what we do. We do our best and He knows it.

I have always wanted to blog as a job. Honestly, in the past nearly 11 years of being a stay at home mom, I have started and deleted (or at least let flounder) many different blogs. I keep feeling like I need to fit into a certain genre. I think I realize now that I don't. I just like documenting our life. And if people happen to read it, that's great. And if not, at least I have an online scrapbook of what we did and what our life was like raising these two, beautiful, special boys.

If I get my way, someday this blog will be a place to document our travels and ministry as we go and expend ourselves outside of this country. Only time will tell! Pray for us! :)

Its been a while.

Well. As usual I come back again with very good intentions of blogging regularly. And then I never write again for months. Or years. Such is life.

Things have been busy and crazy and good and bad here. But mostly bad. My dad died February 22nd. It was sad and horrible and the worst experience of my life.

I have been in such a weird place ever since. I can only describe it as crazy. I have been happy and sad, angry and grateful, frustrated, and lazy. All I want to do is lie in bed all day and sleep. Which is usually how I feel regardless of emotional distress, but now knowing I actually have a right to feel that way makes it really hard for me to avoid letting myself do it!! I am so grateful for Juston and our boys keeping me distracted, busy, and happy. But then I'm also frustrated when I don't get the quiet, alone time I need to grieve because I am wearing my Mom and Wife hats all day. Then after everyone is asleep, I stay up way too late for the alone time (usually reading in the bath) and then wind up being way too tired in the morning. On repeat, every day. Almost everyone makes me mad, and I'm tired of saying "oh, I'm fine" when people ask how I am. And when I truly share how I feel with my closest friends, I feel this terrible bubble of something bad welling up inside me and I don't want to talk about it anymore in case that bad bubble comes out. In the rare moments I'm alone at home I have been distracting myself with either stupid things (namely, decorating or reading blogs) or napping, both of which keep me from thinking about the hole inside myself.

In my dream life I would take our trailer out to my favorite camping spot and stay for a week by myself in the woods, to really flip out the way I want to. No, in my dream life my dad would still be here.

Honestly, I don't want to let myself flip out. I feel like it will change me forever and I'm scared of it. Just simply typing this has made that bad bubble come up inside me and I don't like it.

So, moving on. Because that's what I do when things get yucky!

The boys are gigantic and crazy and wonderful. Xander is in third grade and Dax is in half-day Kindergarten. Time is flying by now that they both are in school. My life revolves around what time it is and when everyone is coming and going. I look back sometimes and read old entries on this blog and I just want to sob when I realize how quickly they are growing up. There is no way they were ever those little boys I wrote about and photographed! They are full-on kids now, with backpacks! School-bus-riders, with smelly feet and stinky pits! The only good thing about them growing up is they get more and more fun every single day. I cannot imagine what our life would be if it had turned out the way we 'planned' - double income, no kids, traveling, buying stupidly expensive handbags (me, not Juston, haha) ...... how frivolous it would have been. Well, the traveling would be nice .. but doing stuff with kids is so much more fulfilling.

Speaking of that, we leave for Cabo next week. In my strange state of grief, I am not as excited as I would normally be for a sunny vacation, but I know when we get there I will breath a gigantic sigh of relief and relax the way I need to. It will be so healing to get away from here and spend time with my three favorite guys; swimming, laughing, playing, eating, and having fun.

Its time for me to take a shower and head to school - Thursdays I help out in Xander's class. Hopefully I'll be back again before a year has gone by.

A lovely way to waste an afternoon

I've had a post in 'draft' mode since the beginning of the month. It consists of a mile-long "May Makeover" list of all the things I wanted to get done around the house this month, including but not limited to: painting many walls, revamping the kitchen, rearranging rooms, moving & painting massive pieces of furniture, and lots of other ambitious things. I even posted about it on Facebook as a teaser. High hopes here, people.

Life being what it is, I've managed to accomplish laundry, cooking, working out, worship, photography stuff, and other everyday tasks. But I'm bummed that nothing that I've wanted to do this month has happened yet. So much for 'making over' this house in May.

However, I did tackle the garage yesterday (which interestingly enough was not on the to-do list; I simply went crazy), and the other day I DIY'd the daylights out of a pillow ... which is what I'm going to write about today, since I haven't done any of the other big, awesome projects I'd intended this month!

DIY Anniversary Date Pillow

I found this super cute pillow on Pinterest:

source

I can never resist anything with text or numbers on it, meaningful or not. I knew I could make something similar, but the likelihood of me actually sewing a new pillow is not good (for one, my sewing machine isn't working, and considering all the other things I "should" be doing around here, getting the machine fixed and then purchasing all needed supplies to make a pillow is out of the question). So I pinned it to my craft board for a Someday project.

But, the other day, I was shopping my house to "style" our bed (always a work in progress) and came across this pillow:

(These photos are all tagged with my other blog title, Momthentic, because I posted it there first and was too lazy to change all the photos!) This pillow has been many places all over the house, and finally shoved into the reject pile currently unused pillow stash. Its not really my style anymore, but the biggest downfall is, its totally impractical to have around, because the cover doesn't come off, so how is one supposed to wash away the inevitable kid splatters?

Remind me to tell you about the time I found poop on my white fur throw pillow. *gag*

Anyway, I turned the pillow over and looked at the back .. contemplating ..

Blank canvas! This could be the perfect anniversary date pillow! Or it could be a giant fail, in which case I'll trash it. Nothing to lose, other than time I could have spent mopping. {yeah, right.}

I pulled up Word on the computer and typed out our anniversary, changing the font until I found one I liked that would fit the space. I wound up choosing Book Antiqua. Printed out the numbers as big as I could (high quality copies here, only the best for me!) ...

.. and cut around them to make stencils.

Laid them on the pillow, got most of it positioned to my liking (eyeballed it) ..

After positioning most of the numbers, I moved the dash and the 2 to the next spots, since we have two of those in our anniversary. I guess I could have printed duplicates, but I was in a hurry. Mom mode, you know.

 

And started tracing!

Ta-da!

Then, grabbed my black fabric paint and a little brush (borrowed from the boys' watercolors!).

And started painting!

I had to take about 64 breaks to do mom/housewife stuff, take Dax to swim lessons, etc. (thus the reason there are no more 'in progress' photos), but by the end of the afternoon, my pillow was done!

There were a few accidental paint dribbles which I just smeared around, hoping it would look "antiqued." Overall, I'm happy with the result! Looking back, I wish I'd not used so much paint and let the numbers look more stamped/worn. But I like it.

 

Ah, if only that's how my bed looked all the time. Here's how the new pillow really looks in the bedroom:

At least its not thrown face down on the floor! Real life, peeps. Bottom line, all that matters about our bedroom is that the boys find it comfy and welcoming enough to hunker down on the floor with Angry Birds and a bag of chips. The truly important stuff, right?

So, at least I've gotten one crafty/décor-ish thing done around here. Maybe I'll manage to squeeze in a few more projects before the month is out! I'll be sure to share them here if I do! I have an absolutely insane idea for the laundry room ....... {evil laugh} ...

Butternut Squash Casserole

I don't like to cook. But for some reason, I really enjoy following recipes, prepping and chopping and mixing, and taking pictures of food. I think I just like to play with food. Maybe when I grow up, I'll be a sous chef or food stylist. But as my kids love to remind me, I AM grown up, and I'm just a mom. So on this blog I will indulge myself by sharing recipes and food photos (nothing fancy - I'm usually in a giant rush and have small people bothering me and honestly couldn't care less about the right camera setting). I know you're SUPER excited now.

Anyway. A couple months ago I was asked to bring squash casserole to a gathering. It honestly sounded super gross to me. Why is it called squash? Isn't squash such an unappetizing word? And I'd never made any kind of squash before. I found a recipe that seemed easy on my favorite ol' standby recipe site, allrecipes.com. The squash casserole wound up getting rave reviews. Success! So I made it again this past weekend. This time I was bringing it to a dinner for about half our congregation at my inlaws' house. Yikes!! I'm always nervous bringing ANYTHING to my inlaws', since my mother in law is an amazing cook, and its always nerveracking serving something to a ton of people. So I was a bit mental on Saturday. But thankfully it turned out and everyone loved it, even bringing it up again at meeting the next day and requesting I bring two next time so everyone can have thirds! I decided to share the recipe here so you can try it too - its always nice to have well-loved, much-requested recipes in your collection, and I am not a smug "oh that is an old family secret" person who doesn't share yummy recipes. So, here you go.

This recipe is not healthy. It is not Paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, or anything-else-you-can't-have-free. But it could easily be tweaked for whatever your dietary needs are. As is, its delicious, sweet, gooey, crunchy, and almost too good to have with dinner. It should be dessert.

 

You know something will be delicious if it requires these bad boys: flour, butter, and sugar!

Butternut Squash Casserole
(here is a link to the recipe - go there if you want a nice tidy printable. I thought about creating one myself, but the laundry is calling.)

Casserole:
1 butternut squash
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
2 tbs flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted

Topping:
9 oz. package vanilla wafers, crushed
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar

Of course I had trouble right off the bat, both times I've made this recipe. The first time I halved, peeled, and de-seeded the squash, diced it up, placed it in a large glass measuring cup, microwaved it til it was tender, then mashed it up. On Saturday I followed the directions on the squash's sticker, which said to slice in half, de-seed, bake in a dish with 1/4" water for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature. The squash was not nearly ready to cut and mash, so I then had to peel, cube, and microwave it like I did the first time. Lame. So, prep your squash however works for you!!

In a 9x13 baking dish, mix up the sugar, milk, eggs, flour, vanilla, and pinch of salt. This is where I like to have fun and make things look pretty. But milk and sugar don't make for a pretty photo, and when you have a 4 year old helper, things just don't go as perfectly as one would like, food-stylist-and-photography-wise.

Then add in the squash and combine everything really well. At this point I was quite frazzled and running late, so stopped taking photos. If you are eating this at home, now is the time to pop it in a 425-degree oven for about 45 minutes. If you are taking this dish to someone else's house, put a lid or plastic wrap on really, really tightly. I doubled the recipe, so my dish was filled to the very, very top, which meant it sloshed all over during our drive, and made a giant mess. (Sidenote: I received this awesome thing as a wedding present and it is absolutely great for transporting hot dishes, or dishes ready to be baked. But don't expect the lid to keep everything in, if you are filling the dish to the brim. Beecause it doesn't. My carrying case is currently in the wash. Better to wash the case, though, instead of the entire trunk.)

Oh, and at some point you'll need to mix up the topping. Smashing up the cookies is a really fun thing to have your kids help with:

Once the cookies are thoroughly smashed, mix in the brown sugar, and then drizzle in the melted butter and stir it all up really well. You could just eat this by itself, if you wanted to make yourself ill, that is. After the casserole has baked about 45 minutes and looks 'set,' take it out of the oven and crumble the topping on. Put back in the oven and bake another 15 minutes or so. You want the topping to be brown, crusty, and gooey (sounds appetizing, right?).

I am sorry I didn't get any photos of the casserole once it was finished, but we were at a hectic dinner party and I wasn't about to get my camera out and find a spot with good natural light and hold up a loooong line of hungry people. Just trust me that it is AMAZING and you will be the hit of the party when you bring this dish. People will be blissing out. You can thank me later! Although my mother in law is not thanking me. Apparently the bottom of her oven is covered in crusted butter which oozed over the side as the overflowing casserole baked. I told her now that I'm a grown-up I need large, JW-potluck-sized cookware, so maybe I'll score some for Family Day this year!

PS: Every time I hear "butternut squash," I think of a certain episode of Friends. If you have 2 minutes and 38 seconds to waste (which I'm guessing you do, if you are reading this), watch this little clip. Squatternut bosh!! Hilarious. Happy Monday!

A Xander Funny, and Lego creations

One of the many priceless things about being a mommy is getting to hear (and laugh at) the hilarious things your kids say as they grow. 99% of the time these things are only funny to the parents, so usually its pointless to share them with anyone (although most of the time when Juston gets home at night and I tell him a Funny from the day, he doesn't see the humor in it either; guess its that "you had to be there" kind of thing). But I am going to record Funnies here, because I know I will look back someday and laugh as hard as I did when the Funny was spoken. Even if nobody else laughs.

Tonight the boys were bathed, adorable & clean in their jammies; finishing eating dinner and clearing their plates from the table. I asked them if they wanted to cozy up in Mommy & Daddy's room and watch a nature show before they went to bed. They shrieked YES! and as they walked down the hallway I followed them with my arms outstretched (zombie-style), making a scary face and weird noises. They screamed, started running, and in fits of hysterical laughter threw themselves onto the bedroom floor; I pounced on them and tickled mercilessly. They both laughed and laughed, and then out of nowhere Xander sat up, got very serious and said "normal moms don't do this kind of stuff." ...... I laughed so hard! But then I tried to compose myself and be serious, in case he truly was freaked out (I've noticed he has really Grown Up this summer), and asked him "do you wish I was a normal mom?" I was fully prepared to work on improving my behavior if he said YES. Thankfully he replied "NO!" with no hesitation whatsoever, and asked to be tickled some more. Goodness, I love that kid so much. But it was a perfect reminder of how odd I am by Normal Mom Standards, which I honestly forget most of the time. I'm assuming most moms don't chase their kids down the hallway acting like a zombie? Well, why not; its perfectly normal to me! Seriously, as long as my kids are having fun and not embarrassed, I'm cool with being not-normal. *Sort of like the time when Xander's class was on a field trip at the park, and all the kids were screaming for "Mrs. Martin" to push them on the swing or merry go round - I did honestly worry about how I looked in my neon green Cherry Valley Elementary T-shirt, muffin top jiggling everywhere, totally sweaty and immature, with the teacher and other classroom moms looking on .. but it was just so fun to be the mom that 24 first graders wanted to play with!! Later that night as I was tucking him in Xander said "howcome you're the only mom who plays? None of the other moms at the park today were playing, they all just stood there." I was very pleased that he noticed, but mostly felt sorry for all the other kids whose moms don't play.*

Moving on. Lately Dax really likes to make things for me out of Legos, as a present. He gets up in the morning (around 6:30 these days .. ugh) and runs down the hallway into our room, intent on hopping in bed with us. But for months the Lego bin has been on our bedroom floor, so he gets sidetracked and sits down and starts swishing around in the Legos, building things before he wakes me up. When he's made a satisfying creation he trots to my side of the bed, holding his creation oh-so-carefully in his sweet little hands. "Look Mommy, I made you a pie." [Square flat Lego piece with side pieces built up around it.]   "Look Mommy, I made you a jet." [Very symmetrical creation indeed resembling aircraft.] So anyway, tonight both the boys are up way too late, building with Legos. And Dax has something very exciting he's made. "OK Mommy, you are going to be IMPRESSED!!" he announces as he walks into the kitchen. "Wait, don't look, I'm not done" - does a 180 and goes back down the hallway. A few seconds later he comes back and sets his creation on the counter; fiddles with it a bit more. "OK, now you can look." Right as I look, he decides there is more work to be done. Thankfully he didn't object to me taking some photos of his delicious little hands putting on the finishing touches. [His hands are not going to be 4 years old forever, with his cute little nails all bitten up! I had to record it for posterity!] If Lego creations are going to be gifts to me, I simply must take photos, since they only last a day or so before they are taken apart to become something else, or sadly after a week or two Mommy loses patience with a nightstand covered in 'gifts' and gently places them in the Lego bin, where someone takes joy in destroying them to make something new. Again, reason to take photos....



 



I'm so glad I got a few photos, because before he could finish to his satisfaction, he accidentally dropped it on the floor and it shattered into a million pieces, half of which went under the stove, never to be seen again. Xander heard the crash (the sound of Lego pieces clattering all over a non-carpeted floor is unmistakeable) from their bedroom, where he was hard at work building something, and immediately hollered out "whoops, that's OK Dax, you can build it again." Such a sweet big brother! He knows how upsetting it is to drop a Lego creation you've worked on for half an hour!     Dax and I picked up all the pieces we could. He wasn't too heartbroken. Then Xander came in, apparently having lost his pajama shirt in the previous ten minutes. "Mommy, OK .. well, Mommy, this is probably one of the cooler trucks I've built, its super tall, but the tires are really weird." [I always try to remind them that I am a girl and therefore I don't know how things are Supposed To Look when it comes to trucks, airplanes, cars, and anything else with a motor, so if they don't tell me something is weird, I'll never know the difference!]



Oh, how I do love these funny, smart, awesome boys! They never cease to entertain me. In the time its taken me to write & proof this post and upload the photos, Dax has fallen asleep and Xander is still up, alternating between building with Legos, watching a Walking With Dinosaurs program, hanging out with Juston who is downstairs in his office, and scouring the fridge for snacks. I think I'll follow his lead and go do all those same things.