Tow-Mater

Our boys aren't spoiled one little bit.  On a short trip to Jefferson City earlier this month, Grandmother and Papa surprised the boys with their own lawn chairs and new riding toys to have when they come visit.
Max took a liking to the battery operated Tomater truck.  One button operation, Max figured it out in no time and laughed and laughed at how it would go!

Will wouldn’t get off the new tricycle.  He absolutely refuses to use the pedals, so just pushes with his feet and has a blast.  Their driveway has just a slight decline to the garage, perfect for getting a little “speed”.


Vroom, vroom!

Happy 37th Birthday Dada!

 

We had a small celebration at home.  Just us and some close friends for a Luau.  Dada is the best and we sure do love him bunches!

Memorial Day Weekend

 

Grandma & Granddad Crisp, Uncle Lane, Trenton and Jenna all came up to spend the long weekend with us for Memorial Day.  It was a fun filled weekend.

We started at Purina Farms.  What another great FREE place for kiddos in St Louis.  We hadn’t been yet, and were pleasantly surprised at all the fun stuff to do there.  We’ll definitely be going back lots!

It took some coercion to get the boys out of the ‘corn tables’.  I think they could have played there forever.

There’s a barn loft area just right for pedal tractors.  Of course, neither of our boys can pedal yet, but they tried all the different models on for size!

Cows, horses and pigs filled the barn.

Will even got to milk a cow, for real!  He didn’t have a clue what he was doing, or I don’t think he would have gotten near it.  He just stumbled into the area where other kids were waiting in line to milk the cow.  The gentleman in charge just swooped him up and put him right in there.  Thankfully none of the waiting kids were too annoyed.

Trenton and Jenna enjoyed showing Will how to catch those little piggies, they were pretty cute.

I tried to get Will to stand right next to the tractor wheel, but no go!

Before we left, we rode the tractor wagon ride, it was a good way to see the entire farm.  We also watched a dog show and saw lots of dogs and cats. 

The Zoo was on the agenda the next day, but Dada was on his own there, as Mama had to go teach Sunday School, so not many good pics from there.

On Sunday evening we headed to the pool.  Max just loves to sit and splash.

Will was timid at first but soon got the hang of the water slide…by the end of the summer, he’ll be a pro!

New Do and Graduation

From May 20, 2012

Mama finally caved and prepared for the boys to have short hair for the summer.  They both look so grown up now!  We learned that when Will’s hair isn’t long, it sticks strait up, so we are going with the gelled spikey look.  He loves to put the gel in every day and “make it spikey Mama”!

As hard as it is to believe, my niece Courtney graduated from high school this year.  Whew…I’m getting old.  I was still in high school when she was born.  She graduated from Jeff City HS, my own alma mater!

We were lucky this year that the weather cooperated so that the ceremony would be held outside at the football stadium.  The weather was warm, but bearable.  There were over 600 kids in the graduating class, only a little over 500 walked.  We anticipated being there for several hours, but were pleasantly surprised when the caps were thrown at just over 1.5 hours.  The boys did great and we are SOOOOO proud of KiKi!  She’s off in the fall to begin college at U of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Max’s First Steps

From May 10, 2012
Max tries his best to keep up with big brother, but still hasn’t mastered walking yet.  On May 10th he took his first steps outside on the patio.  Two hours later he came down with a fever of 103.   He hasn’t tried since, little stinker.  I think that he is perfectly capable, but just stubborn.  One of these days, I’ll have to put my foot down and stop carrying the little booger, cause lugging 30 lbs is getting old.  He can climb the stairs, ladders, get on top of any table – and back down again.  He just would rather crawl to go places I guess!

Funny Stuff

From May 5, 2012

 

Like mother like son!  Will discovered that sidewalk chalk is not just for the driveway…he drew little pictures for Mama on the bumper of our van!  I thought it was too cute and reminded me of when I was little and carved my name into the back of my parents car with a stick…I’ll never live it down!  Glad for me it was only chalk!

It’s summer time and watermelon season.  My boys are as crazy about it as Mama is!

Will has never cared for corn at all, but we gave Max a little corn on the cob and he went to town…sucked that thing dry!  Now Will is warming up to the idea too, having his own too.

Suson Park and Animal Farm

From April 2012

If I typed it one thousand times, it wouldn’t be enough.  We live in a GREAT city!  There are so many wonderful things to see and do for kiddos of all ages, an much of it is FREE!

We ventured over into South County to explore one of the famed county parks there.  The boys loved it.  We saw horses, peacocks, cows, a bull, pigs, turkeys and goats.

The Fence

From April 2012

Max is still only crawling, but can climb ladders and on top of about anything.  We’ve already taken down the gates, since he does really well on the stairs.  Can’t wait for those first steps.

Anticipating 2 boys running around outside, we decided the safest thing for us was to install a fence in our backyard.  On one hand, we hated to put one between our wonderful neighbors, but on the other, we wanted to make sure our boys were safe.  Will has a tendency to wander…ending up in the front yard, or even down the sidewalk aways sometimes.  With Max still needing much of my attention, we felt it best to put in a fence.  Our backyard was quite the “mess” for a month or so, but the boys enjoyed having lots of unusual and new things to explore and play with.

Will, the king of dirt, filled and refilled his wagon!

Here’s a glimpse of the progress.

We are so lucky to have such great friends to help us with the installation.  Mark bought all the fencing online and saved money by installing it himself.  Thanks guys for all the help!

A Powdered Sugar Event

From April, 2012

Pinterest will be the death of me!!!  I tell you, that site will suck you in and you’ll be oblivious to all that surrounds you!  I learned my lesson.  You’ll notice in the photos, how close the kitchen table is in the background.  Yep, that’s where Mama was when the mayhem began!  This is what I have put together, from my 3 minutes of “absence”. 

1. Max discovered a scoop inside the kitchen drawer I keep things for them to play with.
2. Will found the powdered sugar bag in the pantry, with only a close pin keeping the bag closed (what was Mama thinking?).
3. Will put 2 and 2 together to take the scoop from Max, dip it in the sugar bag and bring some back for his baby brother.

After a few scoops, Mama “awoke” from her Pinterest trance and about freaked out!  This is what I found:

Dada was on his way home from work, and I knew that I couldn’t cleaned up while the boys were still present, so I just laughed with them and took lots of pictures!

It took several minutes before they realized that it tasted GOOD!  Then they laughed and laughed together while liking their hands.  All while grinding it more and more into the floors!

Aren’t these the cutest little foot prints EVER!  Will was headed to the back door to let in Dada!

Needless to say, it took vacuuming and mopping the floor about 5 times to get it all up.  What adventure awaits me next?

Happy Easter!

 

What a great Easter.  The first year that Will kinda get’s it, a little anyway.  He understands that we love Jesus and He loves us.  Won’t be long till he gets the rest of it.  He really enjoyed dyeing the eggs, but wasn’t too much into the hunt…he’d find one egg, eat the candy, then just play.  He still talks about hunting eggs every once in a while.

This year we spent the holiday with Mark’s family in Ozark, Mo.  Will LOVES to play with cousins Trenton and Jenna!

Max enjoyed eating the candy and playing of course.  He’s just so darn sweet!

The Easter Bunny left quite a bit for all the kiddos!