We made it!

We made it back home to Wisconsin! Our trip started out a little bit 'off' schedule...however, within a delay of a day, we made it! Our 4-wheeled silver minivan headed north one day later than we expected. Sam decided to regurgitate his dinner on Thursday night. Brad and I were uncertain if he honestly just ate too much, or if he really was sick and had the stomach flu. So we decided to hold off our travels a day to wait it out and see. Sam definitely acted 'sick' as he was scared to eat anything, laid on the floor next to a bucket, but he never actually threw up again, just went through all the motions...GO FIGURE!

Friday afternoon, Sam was totally fine, just refusing to eat. He said his throat hurt and he was scared to eat. So, we packed up the van with great enthusiasm. The boys helped up tie the stroller to the roof, dragged the luggage out of the house and picked out important items to take with us.

At 4:50 p.m. Friday evening, we were on the road. We drove through the night and arrived in one piece, with the kids in tow around 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning! The boys, honestly, shocked us. They had their moments, however, they did FANTASTIC. Sam refused to eat anything the entire ride. Matthew insisted on eating everything Sam didn't want. We stopped a total of 5 times, 3 of which we let the kids out of the car. They slept great and mommy and daddy plowed into the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say, WE MADE IT!!!!

Some memories worth noting of the trip:
1. 5 minutes into the drive Matthew speaks, "I want home"
2. Matthew refusing to take off his flip flops while in the car
3. Sam asking every other minute: "Are we there yet?"
4. Driving through the rest area in Kentucky at 3:00 a.m. seeing all the cars and vans in the parking lot with feet hanging out the windows or on the dash, but not seeing any heads
5. Loosing our big magnet "W" while driving. Brad swore it was a huge bird that flew up from the hood!
6. Sam refusing to eat anything the ENTIRE ride
7. Matthew insisting to eat EVERYTHING Sam didn't want.

Stay tuned for pictures of the weeks!
Kisses to all our little Oakleaf buddies! We miss you guys already.

I smell trouble

sure enough, I was right. The step ladder was unravled from the laundry room. The tools were in hands. The two boys needed to fix the window because it was broken. Yes, I love them...well until brother pushes brother off the ladder and brother falls down and screams and throws the hammer at brother. Guess which one was which brother???

Swim lessons cont'd

Well, we're now in week 2 of lessons and Sam is continuing to do fantastic! His fear of the 'deep end' is slowing coming to a halt. He is going under water, floating on his own, and learning to jump in the deep end w/o assistance! BIG improvements! We are so proud of him. His last day of lessons is on Thursday. Today on our walk home from the pool he said, "mommy, I'm going to miss Ms. Lindsay when we leave for WI!" I was so proud because last week, well, Ms. Lindsay was viewed as a demanding mean lady. His class is perfect for him.

I have to share a story that just makes me laugh. Last week Wednesday Sam and I had a HUGE discussion about the pool and being safe etc. He went to class on Tuesday and basically wined and cried the entire class. When Ms. Lindsay would ask him to do something, he would do it, but with great force and a HUGE amount of fear. So, all night Tuesday we pretended to be lifeguards, jump into the pool etc. I told him that if he did not wine and cry on Wednesday, I would take him to McDonald's for lunch. However, he HAD to listen to Ms. Lindsay and no wining crying, etc. We made this agreement on our walk to the pool, it was fresh in his head. McDonald's in this pool is SUCH a GREAT bribe in this house.

So, per our conversation the day before and all morning before class, he was a perfect swim student. Didn't even think about crying, smiled the entire class and did EVERYTHING Ms. Lindsay asked him to do, still with fear, but not as much. When class was about 1/3 of the way done, Sam turned around to find me with a HUGE smile on his face. Gave me the 'thumbs' up and continued on listening. All of a sudden, I overheard this conversation;

Sam: Ms. Lindsay, do you know what?
Ms. L: What Sam?
Sam: My mommy is taking me to McDonald's, because, see, no tears!
Ms. L: Good Job Sam...
Another boy: McDonald's, MOM...DID YOU HEAR THAT? Sam is going to McDonald's...
Another boy's mom: Turn around and pay attention....
Sam: YES!!! I Get a Happy Meal
Another different boy: I love the race cars.....vrrrrrrrroooooooommmmmmmmmmmm
A girl: I like the pink slipper. See, this is what I get when I go to McDonald's
Sam: A pink slipper???
Another different boy: I LOVE french fries
Sam: Me too
Ms. L: Okay guys, let's think about swimming!
Sam: Okay, but I get to go there after swimming because no tears!
Ms. L: I'm so proud Sam, great!
Another girl: MOMMY...CAN I GO TO MCDONALD'S too?
Ms. L: Okay class, all look at me.
Another girl: MOMMY...YOU CAN'T Hear me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to go to McDonald's too.
Sam: It's okay, you can come with my mommy. She'll get you a fry.
Ms. L: ALL RIGHT Kids, ENOUGH McDonald's TALK . Now, look at me.
Sam: okay.. but di.........
Ms. L: Enough Sam.

It was the cutest little people conversation I have ever heard and my son, the talker (imagine that) got the entire class wound up, upset and excited about McDonald's! Oh little people!

Enjoy the photos below of our afternoon swim lesson show-off to daddy!!!! This first picture Sam was showing off to the Lifeguard!


Here is precious Matthew. He will NOT take his flip flops off and insists on wearing them to the pool. It is a huge fight to get him to take them off. We go through this EVERY morning when we go. Oh precious one! You warm my heart.

Sam's first Swimming Lesson

And he did GREAT! He was a little timid at first, but did wonderful! She even as able to dunk him. He is still a little frightened with the 'deep' water, but I'm confident his fears will diminish by the end of next week. He did so well, we're so proud of him. He has so many cute friends in his class, I'm sooooooo glad we're in the class. It has been hot and sticky here in Florida. With that said, it is a perfect week for swim lessons! We'll keep you posted on swimming progress throughout the week! Ms. Lexi has her hands full of tricks these next few lessons.

Matthew was a little unsure of leaving his brother in the pool by himself, and this was about the best stare I got from him until Sam returned after his lessons.....poor guy is going to be completely out of whack once Sam starts school! I love that they are in love with each other.

Beach Bums

Another weekend goes by, and another beach we visited! Our family is in love with the beach. It is so simple to make a great day turn greater by visiting the ocean. The boys are in love with all the variety the beach brings. We used to take bags of sand toys, towels, shovels etc. Now our load consists of: Sunscreen, a towel, and a favorite toy. The toy of the weekend was a new beach rake the daddy found at the good ole' dollar store. Not only was it a dollar, it also was a piece of junk (sorry daddy). Within about 10 minutes of being there, Matthew had smashed his and bent the bottom. However, it didn't stop our fun morning out in St. Augustine and Anastasia Beach!

Friends

That's just what the three of these little people are. Friends! What more could we ask for on a hot summer day here in Florida. Friends, pool, water and Popsicles! Hooray for fun.

Bed Bath & Beyond

It was last weekend that we went! I love this store. I love this store because they send sooo many coupons it saves me so much money. I not only love this store, but so does Brad and SO DO THE CHILDREN! And sometimes, when you hit it right, they have fantastic deals in the clearance sections....and that is exactly what happened.

Brad and I were walking towards the bedding section. Sam screamed at the top of his lungs, "Beds, beds, beds, come on Matthew let's go." I honestly never knew they loved beds so much. As Brad and I were walking frantically behind them, we passed the CLEARANCE table. Under the table laid 5 beautiful oriental rugs. We've been searching for the 'perfect' rug for some time to go under our new kitchen table. And there it was, under the CLEARANCE table for $25 dollars. It was beautiful. Brad and I rolled the rug out, stepped on it, looked it over and just drooled over the price. It was beautiful, and we rolled it back up, and noticed there were smaller rugs underneath and did the roll out etc. CRAP....my kids were NO where in sight.

Brad and I were so involved in the clearance table, now we lost our children. We swoop the rugs in our hands, mind you they are heavy and roughly 7 feet in length. We come to find out children snugly wrapped up underneath all the covers in one of the display beds playing 'sleep'. Within the course of about 4 unattended minutes they had managed to hop for every single display bed completely destroy it and continue on. It was a mess. They were as QUIET and as HAPPY as could be all snug as bugs in the display bed.

Matthew's first Haircut....

BEFORE SHOT:

Matthew needs a haircut soooo bad. SO, it was time. We made him an appointment with Ms. Kris! Sam went first, Matthew sat on the side lines. Sam, of course, LOVES getting his hair cut. Sam did great. Matthew looked at Sam in this big black cape and kept saying, "me do it, me do it. UP. UP UP." Brad and I were anxiously getting sooo super excited because maybe, just maybe Matthew was going to do this for us. See pictures below to find out ending:


AFTER SHOT:

Sam was done, and now it was big talker Matthew! Matthew slowly climbed up the chair...looked at Ms. Kris and said, "um, no. All done. No. No. No." Ms. Kris tried soooo hard to get him back up in the chair....but no luck whatsoever. We'll try again....maybe we'll have Mary strap him down while we're back home for summer!

Fashionable?

Now this is what we call fashion at it's best! Going through clothes bins....on a hot, humid day brings lots and lots of fashion fun in this house! The boys were so funny because they wanted to try on everything they saw. At one point, Sam had 5 different layers of stuff on, and not to mention the 6-12 month Packer attire. This is about the closest I'm going to get to having a little girl!

SHOES SHOES and more SHOES!!!! Matthew LOVES shoes and socks. This ensemble didn't come from a bin, it came straight out of daddy's closet.

And then there was Mimi!

Mimi came down to spend the week with us!!!! We did so much this visit, it was soooo much fun! We greeted her at the Jacksonville International Airport with lots of hugs and kisses. Mimi listened well to her instructions to "ignore Matthew" and within seconds, Matthew was BEGGING for hugs and kisses from her. (See mom, I TOLD you it would work). From the airport we bribed the children to keep their eyes open until we could hit the next local McDonald's! We hit the drive Thru and headed back home to eat. The boys had a great time showing off their new home and had a better time eating their chicken and fries at the table. We painted pottery at a new little pottery place close by...went to the pool...we went to the zoo....we bought out Target...we ate out a bunch and we shopped and shopped and shopped!

Daddy was able to take a few days off from work to join us in the week.

Matthew just wanted to be kissed!!

Painting Pottery was fun. It was a great place to be, however, the boys lost interest after about an hour of painting...which as very very long to begin with. They got messy, but not too bad. Sam painted a firetruck with Mimi and I painted a school bus for Matthew. We finally got to pick up the pottery and it looks great! I happen to love all the little imperfections that the pieces have. Matthew had fun with the brown paint on the school bus roof and Sam had fun on the back of his firetruck. THANK YOU MIMI for taking us there.






And then we hit the Jacksonville Zoo

Matthew LOVED the 'ISH'!!!

Found himself wanting to jump in the fountain!
Love this picture! This is sooo Florida.
Sam on the 'staged' horse

pretending to be a monkey, full with sounds as well.
the shy shy gorilla

The boys LOVED the zoo! They were so happy to be there.

Mimi supplied us with a new pool as the boys had destroyed their previous one with a garden tool.
Needless to say, her stay went too fast and we were back at the airport again. The boys went through Mimi denial the following day as they held their heads low. However, it didn't take long for the brotherly fighting to begin again. We can't wait to visit home in only a few short more weeks!!!!