5 sheep!

It is so hard sometimes to explain certian concepts to kids. Such as when I tell them yes, we will do that tonight. They tell me that they want to do it today. Telling them that tonight and today are pretty much the same thing just a different time of day does not help any.
Also, tonight we were driving out to my in-laws and I point to the sheep and say " Look boys, Look at all those sheep". Andrew says "oh look at all those sheep there is a lot of them!" and Seth says " yeah, there is a lot of them.....there is 5 of them" ( which he learned from Andrew...and there was more like 50 or 60 sheep) 5 apparently is a lot to them so when they see something that has a lot, they say there are 5. Again, to try and explain number concepts to them just gets them more confused. Although, I did tell them that there were a lot more than just five sheep.....not that it changed anything. I am sure it takes time but can be so frustrating sometimes. It does make me laugh though at their thought processes.

Spanish Toads.

Having boys at the age of 3 and 5 (or soon to be) has it's challenges but the things I hope to look back on are the good times and funny times. At this age they say the funniest things. I don't even think I could post them all. At the time I think...Oh I will remember this and put it on fb, but then I end up forgetting. I am going to try and post some on here when I get a chance and when I remember.
Today Andrew was playing out in the backyard while I was mowing (again). I found only two toads this time but he had fun making a little "cage" for them to hop around in. After I was finished I went over to talk to him and see his "cage" and he told me he named them and proceeded to tell me their names. Something that sounded like doze and traze. I didn't quite understand what he was saying and so he said "mom, it is doze and traze...ya know like Spanish. "Ohhhhh...Dos and Tres" I say. " yep. they are Spanish toads. I like Spanish, I can say Spanish uno, dos, tres...." and proceeded to count in Spanish for me. Totally made me laugh!

Splash Pad

Last week we were at my parents house. The boys really wanted to go to the pool but it was closed so the Splash Pad was as close as we could get. They had fun getting wet and just running around.

Wedding day.

On Saturday the boys and I attended my cousin Tami's wedding. It was beautiful! The pictures are kind of out of order but it is late and I didn't want to do to much thinking. :) It was a LONG day and after a couple melt downs we were ready for bed! I did enjoy being there and helping as much as I could with two boys.

My cuties at the reception.

They had a dance at the reception. It was the cutest thing every, Seth went up to Great Grandma and Said " Great Grandma will you dance with me?" As some of you may know, my Grandma doesn't dance but since he asked so sweetly how could she say no??? It was adorable!

Seth was a dancing machine! Seth and Michalea dancing the night away. Andrew ( like his father) not so much into dancing. He would just jump and do kick moves. Crazy kid.

The reception was at such a neat place. It is called Music Man Square. If you haven't seen the musical the Music Man....YOU SHOULD! It was based from Mason City Iowa. Anyway...This is in doors and it had cute old time stores such as the Ice cream parlor as you see above. I meant to take more pictures of just the store fronts but it is sooo neat! The dance was on the street and the reception took place in one of the larger rooms.

My dad and Mom helped with the popcorn. They had a few snacks before the meal started.

Bride and Groom. Tami and Brent. Not even kidding I don't think I have ever seen Tami happier! She was brusting with happiness...so was Brent. It was so sweet!

Beautiful Dress!

Wedding party.

They went and took some pictures at a golf course, which turned out beautiful. They even let them borrow a few golf carts. Joy and Kim (my other two cousins) had fun carting around. They looked beautiful in their dresses!

He wanted to drive but that was not going to happen. :)

Seth is totally attached to Cayla. She took candids for the wedding and I thought this picture was so cute.

Iowa State Fair

So today we went to the Fair. The weather did not cooperate with us today. Pretty much all morning and early afternoon it rained. Although we did decided that rain was better than squeltering heat. All in all we had a good time. Spent most of the day doing inside things, but after lunch and a nap time we got to do a few outside things when the rain let up. The sun even came out a bit. Here are a few pictures of our day.

Sorry this picture is sideways ( haven't learned how to fix that yet). Andrew and Seth doing "little Helpers". Got all their vegtables in their baskets! ( my batteries died in the middle of this so didn't get more like I wanted)

I love horses! They are so pretty.

Andrew and Seth checking our the biggest Boar. Seth would not touch it but instead he kept throwing sand on it. Poor thing. He is so huge and can't move to get away from the kids who throw sand on them.

Seth with the baby calf. Cute.

Yay, for Clifford.

Boys in the fire Truck.

checkin' out the wolf. It was kinda freaking out so after Andrew pet it once he seems a little nervous. It was pretty though.

Just for fun

We are at my parents house this week/weekend. We went to Adventureland on Saturday and are going to the State Fair tomorrow. I didn't take many pictures at Adventureland because we were having to much fun, but am hoping I remember to take some tomorrow. Tonight Andrew wanted to take some pictures (of course not the first one) of the family so here they are.


Andrew.

Seth.

Aunt Holly.

Uncle Ben Funkhouser.

Invasion of Toads

Tonight after a nice evening at the pool I decided to use the last of the light and mow our backyard. While I was mowing I saw atleast 4 toads in the first 10min. of mowing. After showing the boys the first one they decided to look for some more. After I got done mowing they showed me how many toads they caught....I was amazed!!! There were so many in our yard, not to mention the ones they didn't find.

10 in all.

Getting Organized!

Lately my house has been driving me nuts, because I feel like it could be better organized. I don't like clutter and so I knew I had to do something to fix the places that were driving me nuts. I am very excited about what I accomplished the last few days. I still have more to do but I just has to share.


It is so nice not to have to dig around in my make-up bag to find the thing I need to use! This makes me happy every morning.:)

This is the boy's closet. It was full of tubs (that are now in the basement..in the picture below) of clothes that the boys have out grown. I bought the 3 draw stackable for the boy's winter clothes. Now I can switch out their winter and summer clothes easily. I love making things simpler!!

Tubs that use to be in the boy's closet. Labeled and in order by age.

This is my hall closet. I had it somewhat organized but I needed to get rid of a few things and switched shelves. Things are now easier to get to.

Snakes

As most of you know my boys ( all three of them) love reptiles of any kind. Snakes happen to be very common at our house. These are a few pictures of Zach's recent find. A Western Fox Snake.

Yep. I held it too.

Andrew is very proud.

Seth normally doesn't like to hold them but he was very brave and did it this time. He actually liked holding him.

Andrew says "Lets put it in around my neck"...um sure.

Seth's turn, with Andrew's help.

Seth turns three!!!

Seth's Birthday was on Friday. We celebrated with the Shepherd side on Saturday. We haven't gotten together for a while so it was nice to have most of the family there to celebrate with us.


Big Smiles for the Birthday boy.

Aunt Amy made him a froggy cake! He loved it. Not only is it a cute cake but it was so yummy! I am more of a vanilla person but WOW! She made this cake layered with chocolate oreo filling. It was amazing! Thanks Amy!

So excited for this present