Potluck

Okay, here is my potluck post, which means I tell you about a little of everything going on, and to start it off, I'm supposed to say what I'm eating. Well I'm not eating now, dinner is over, the kitchen is clean, and the baby is asleep on the kitchen counter right in front of me. Tony is outside with Todd doing who knows what. What we did have for dinner was BBQ ribs, (real for the boys, fake for the girls), summer squash, and rice. Really quite delicious and super easy, which is why I am in love with my crock pot lately. I don't know why I never used it much before. I guess because cooking a meal in a crock pot for one seems kind of silly, but since my dad is here staying with us I have 2 people who eat meat to cook for. I cooked dinner in it yesterday too. It's so awesome because I can get it going mid day while the kids are napping, and then by dinner time it's done and all I have to do is make a salad or vegetable. So if you have any good and easy crock pot dinner recipe's send them my way.

The patio is coming along nicely, but still a long way to go. We have a finish date in mind, the last weekend in August. My mom and step dad are coming up and we are hoping to have Bella's baby dedication that weekend, I'm hoping the patio will be done by then so we can use it to have everyone over. My dad says "it'll get done", and then adds "or it wont". So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Bella had her 4 month doctor appointment the other day. She weighs 15 pounds, which isn't surprising at all. What is surprising, is that Anthony weighed 15lb 2oz on his 4 month check up, and he was so skinny and she is so NOT skinny, I guess being an inch and a half longer makes a big difference. She is such a good baby, for me anyway, everyone else thinks she's difficult, but when it's just her and I, there is hardly any fussing. Most of the fussing during the day comes from Anthony, he is very jealous of his little sister, and has no problem letting me know that. I try to give him as much attention as I can when she is napping, but sometimes that just isn't enough for him. Bella is still sleeping through the night thankfully. She usually wakes up around 8 every morning, and by 10 she is ready for a nap again, which sometimes is as long as 4 hours, but usually more like 3. She takes a couple more short 1 hour naps later during the day, and goes to bed around 10pm. She hasn't rolled over or done anything worthy of baby book documentation other than smiling, which I guess is a good thing, cause I still haven't gotten her one.

Anthony is so cute and fun these days.
His favorite thing is to be outside. He has about 5 different transportation type toys he can ride on in the driveway (car, scooter, truck, tractor, and wagon. He likes his car the best, whenever I get the kids out of the real car I always get him out first, and before I can even get Bella out, he is in his car ready to go. He also really likes to play in his sandbox, which is great for him, but I don't like the fact that there is sand all over my house, he is always tracking it inside with him. His toys in the house are collecting dust, cause we hardly ever play inside anymore. Oh well, I guess they will be like new again this winter.

If your wondering how the NO SWEETS thing is working out... it's not.
But he loves pizza.And he really loves cucumbers. You have to listen closely, but at the very end of the first video he says cucumber. On the second video he says it right away, and then again at the end.


Today we went to the beach which was quite challenging I must say. I had way too much to carry. Thankfully my sister Rachael decided to join us and she helped me carry all our stuff. Anthony didn't want to go in the water at all, he only wanted to play in the sand, so I guess we can just stay home and play in the sandbox, it's a whole lot easier that's for sure.
I packed Tony's lunch and brought it to the beach so we wouldn't have to waste time eating at home. That turned out to be a bad idea. Poor kid had sand on all his food, and a sea gull stole his cheese stick. I also discovered it's best to put the sunscreen on at home so it can dry before he gets sand stuck to him.

I know there is more to say, but I'm getting tired, so that's gonna have to be it for now.

Patio Pics

The fire pit is almost done, just need to put the floor in and the top rock.

This is the view from the driveway. Th fire pit is over in that far corner.
This is the clean out box, (big enough for a human head).

Busted....

When my dad came to stay with me 2 weeks ago to build my patio he couldn't do anything on the computer, he had to ask for help with just about everything. I knew if I had to log him onto the Muskogee Newspaper everyday it would get old quick. So I taught him how to do it himself. I know he was annoyed, he just wanted me to do it for him, but he learned, and now he knows how to do it without any help. He has become surprisingly quite proficient on the computer and now I have one more person I have to share with. He can even navigate to and from all of my families blogs AND read the comments.
So word to the wise sisters... he's reading. Which means I am busted for my earlier post today. I guess I have to be careful what I write now. He thought I was mad at him for spilling coffee on the rug. Which of course I was not, I just thought it was kind of funny all the stuff that happened in a short time.

Huge progress was made on the deck today, the fire pit is almost done. It's dark out now or I would go take a quick picture to add to the blog. I will get a picture in the morning and add it on to the post, so check back later.

Monday for sure

This morning my dad says to me, "it's definitely Monday" I asked him why he says that, and he said he spilled his coffee in the bathroom all over my rug (that can't be washed), and the toilet almost overflowed. I said, "oh and you left your credit card on the table and Anthony took it and now I can't find it". Then he locked himself out of the house, and then Anthony decided to help himself to some peanuts!
Yep it's definitely Monday!

Bella's having a good Monday so far. I just discovered that she loves TV. Anthony never did, and still doesn't really that much, so I never even tried to use it to occupy Bella. Francie put her in front of it the other day and she liked it. Yay for me, she watched cartoons for 45 minutes this morning. Wait, does that make me a bad mom?
Yesterday Tony went to a birthday party at a park. They rented a big blow up jumping thing for the kids, but he only wanted to drive around in this the whole time. If I tried to take him out he pushed me away and closed the door again.

And here is what got done on the Patio over the weekend... it's coming right along. My dad says he hopes to be done by Labor Day! Honestly I don't know if he was joking or serious, and I don't think he does either. At least he doesn't seem to mind. He certainly doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get back to OK. I think he prefers working in 70 degree weather rather than the 107 degree heat index they are having in OK.

Patio Progress

A year ago I asked my dad, who is a rock mason by trade, if he would come out and build me a side walk(he lives in Oklahoma). I finally got him out here and the plan has changed just a bit. We are no longer building a sidewalk, but a raised patio with an outdoor kitchen and fire pit. I am so excited for it to be done, but it's only just getting started so I will have to be patient, but when it's all done, it's going to look awesome. Here is the progress he has made so far.

Day One: dig the hole for the foundation. Day 2: Pour the concrete
Kristen came over to play with Tony that day, and Grandpa Tom helped her write her name in the concrete. I decided to write my kids names too. Then when Rachael came to pick up Kristen, her kids were all outside playing, when they left I noticed they had scratched their names in too.
I guess even Francie couldn't resist.
Day 3 was a rest day, cause we had to let the concrete sit. My dad went shopping for the rock and other supplies.
Day 4, they started laying block.
Day 5: Ready to start laying rock! I was so excited I had to get a picture of the first rock going up.
Then I learned a very important lesson on safety. Wear eye protection at all times, even if your just an observer. A rock chip hit my eye when he was trimming the next rock. I think I'll be okay, but I have a bad eye/headache now.

Here is Tony playing in the house with his cowboy boots. Redneck style (with the pant legs in). According to my dad, redneck is the preferred style. Notice his farmer tan?
Tony keeps picking my daisies for me.
I love this picture, Tony was sitting outside on the driveway and Brewster just went and sat next to him. Brewster doesn't even like Tony which is what makes it even sweeter. He may have just been trying to get on my good side, and if he was, it worked. I think I like my dog just a little bit more now.

Weekend at Natalie's

This past week we ended our week long family reunion/vacation at my sister Natalie and her husband Adam's house. They live on a lake on the eastern side of the state. They have a good size house, but for 11 adults and 11 kids, it was a little crowded. We still managed to have a great time, and we decided that my sister Natalie was the perfect sibling to host all of us at her house, because she is the only one that was not bothered by the constant state of messiness in her house. No matter how much you clean up, with that many people there will always be a mess somewhere. We asked Natalie if it was stressing her out having her house such a mess, and she said "not one bit".

I took a ton of pictures, and tried to upload as many of them as I could throughout the day, but we had a little accident this afternoon which put a halt to all of that. Tony dumped water on the laptop so my it no longer works. All my pictures are on it, thankfully I was able to get the laptop to the farms computer specialist and he was able to back up my hard drive so when I get my new computer I will get all my pictures back with it. In the mean time I'll share what I had already uploaded.

My son Tony and my niece Grace had many battles over this little chair. Too bad they are too young for Place Backs. To read about "place backs" go HERE to my sister Rachael's blog.
Bella was the center piece to dinner one night.

My Brother's wife Lisa and her daughter Grace
My niece Hannah (Also my brother's kid)
My niece Katya and nephew Ben playing on the boat together. (Rach's kids)
Tubing on the lake. My brother in Law Adam is merciless when it comes to tubing. We had hand signals for speed up, slow down, even out and stop! He ignored all of them except stop. There were definitely times where we were a little scared.
My step dad Bob on the left, me in the middle in the sumo tube, and my brother Ryan, on the right.
My sister Natalie in the Sumo Tube.
My sister Rachael.
I didn't let Tony go out on the boat, but he had fun playing in the sumo tube on the dock.
My sister Shannon and Bella.
Tony eating a fudge pop. I tried to take it away just so I could hold it for him to not make such a mess, but there was no way he'd let me pry it out of his hand.
My nephew Ben blowing bubbles with Natalie's dog Walter. Ben thought it was rather funny when Walter would try to eat them.
Walter loves the boat, he usually got left on the dock since the boat was too full, but a few times he got to go along. He can't swim, but he hung over the side of the boat trying to eat the waves.
Adam letting Katya drive the boat. He pushed her in the water and she got mad at him, so he let her drive. She went from "I hate Adam" to happily sitting on his lap in about 5 seconds.
Nat was the first brave soul to demonstrate the sumo tube.
My dad with all his 11 grandkids. My two kids are of course both acting up.
My brother Ryan, his son Ryan and my step-dad Bob.
My mom with all her grandkids. I think this must have been take 1, since no one is looking at the camera. Dont worry mom, I'm sure I have a better one than this to send you.
Me and Tony with my dad.
My sister Francie and Bella.
Tony having breakfast on the deck.
My mom and Francie with my two kids.
My nephew Matt (brothers kid) and Kristen (Rach's kid)
Shannon and my nephew Ryan tubing.