Dreamy...

This house is being built near us.  It is quite the house. What is super awesome is that room on the top of the house...that is going to be the CRAFT ROOM!! Can you imagine?? That entire area used for crafting...not a mancave, but a craft cave!! I am definitely going to make a new friend, just so I can check out this room!

Seeing a Pattern...

After the boys get haircuts, it's a bit of a ritual to stop at our favorite Noodle Cafe, Z'Mariks. They had haircuts on Monday and so for dinner, noodles on!!  

Monday at Z'Mariks is Mac Monday, which means big bowls of mac and cheese for cheap...we all win!!
 

We are super excited because there is a Z'Mariks coming to our town!! What's even better (or bad) is that it being built across from where I work!  Yea!!!
 

Jack loves his mac and cheese so much that he won't share bites with anyone!  He needed to get a refill on his drink, but was worried that Jason would eat his mac.  Here he is giving Jason the "stink eye" which meant...don't touch my cheese!

And then I remembered Sam had recently left a note for Jason...

Sam brought home a cookie, wrote a note and stuck it on the cookie for all to see...
(Do Not EAT. If you eat it I shall know. THIS IS SAM"S COOKIE!!)

(That means you too DAD!!)

(And Moose too! Don't even THINK about blaming it on HER!! Love, Sam)

Jason is guilty of eating cookies (and other snacks) that have already been "claimed" and also has the habit of putting blame on the dog. (Seriously!?)  What cracks me up is that this note is so serious...and then he writes "Love, Sam."  Which, is so Sam.

Go State!

Last night, Sam and Jason headed up to the Iowa State game for some "Guy Time" and to cheer on the Clones!  They both had a blast because the house was rockin'!!

(Love this picture because they both look so happy!)

What a Slow Month...

There just isn't much going on in February...

Basketball is over for both boys.  Jack spent A LOT of time watching Sam play ball.

We went to the dreaded Zombie Burger for lunch.  Jack hates going there...the zombies creep him out!

Finally got Jack to smile for a picture while at the dreaded Zombie burger.  He didn't eat anything while there...which was good, because this was the night he got the flu! 

Made kits for classes at Memory Bound.

Boys watched, ParaNorman, which they thought was going to be super scary (hence why they are together.) Which ended up NOT being scary!

Moose started bringing me huge slices of pizza...seriously...I think she is working for Pizza Hut! I can't figure out why she didn't eat this piece...I figure that she had eaten the entire pizza and this was leftovers.  She did get sick again.  Went on the three hour tour of the woods, ate something and had diarrhea again.  That was awesome, especially after the boys just got done with the flu.

So February is slow...and full of stuff that should stay in your body. Need it to be spring.

We Mustache You a Question...

We mustache you a question...how do you like our mustaches?

Jason usually sports a goatee, but decided to shave it to fit the Valentine theme of mustaches (actually it was for work.) When I first saw it I said, "Ewww...that looks very "adult" movie like."  Sam looked at him, frowned and stated, "I don't like that on your face."  When Jack saw it, he stared at it, touched it and asked, "Is that real?"

It didn't take long for everyone to get into the mustache look!

and I mean everyone!

Round Two...

Just when I thought we were safe...

Sam woke me up at 2:30 am on Wednesday morning.  "Mom, I don't feel good." And away we went.  Thank goodness he didn't get sick as often or as long as Jack, but Sam is like his mother and HATES to throw up! Unlike Jack, Sam felt cruddy all day on Tuesday.  He didn't get sick, but his stomach was upset for most of the day.  he was just so sick. Poor kid!

Jack was such a sweetie.  "He had been there," he told Sam.  He made a "Hope you get better" heart and put it on Sam's pillow.

Before Sam went to bed, Jack tucked in a favorite "get well" gorilla for Sam to sleep with. (Puppy and teddy are already there...if you know what I mean :)

 

My legs, toes fingers and eyes are all crosses in hopes that I won't get this horrible thing! 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!!
(Sorry this didn't post on time, we have had another round of the flu!)

This year, "we" decided to make homemade valentines!

These are Jack's. His "inspiration" was the small bags he spotted one day at Memory Bound. To "Valentine" them up, we printed the valentines on the computer and added a die cut mustache. Do you get what they say? (I mustache you a question!)  He included a little box of VD jelly beans.

Sam's inspiration where Jack's Valentine's. He changed them up with adding a sucker!

We had a little issue with Sam's. His sucker would pull out the inside piece, so we added a little heart sticker!  Problem solved. He wondered if it was too girly...I said it's Valentine's Day!!

Then it was time to create the Valentine Boxes.  Jack has a "thing" with mustaches and so he wanted a mustache for his VD box.  His box turned out awesome! You can never fail with fur and cardstock!

 

At one point, jack wondered how he was going to get out his valentines.  No problem. Cut a hole in the back! 

Sam REALLY wanted an green Alien or monster.  We couldn't find ANYTHING ANYWHERE that was already round.  I almost bought a baseball pinata to to paint.  We then came across this green Easter egg.  Sam was in love! It actually was a paintable and carvable egg, so Jason carved a mouth for Sam's creature...reminds me of Halloween! We painted the teeth white and added some google eyes.  Done.  He too was wondering how he was going to get out his Valentines...I told him he could thrown them up...little did I know how appropriate that would be!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

A Very Sick Jack...

The flu hit our house...and hit Jack hard.  It all started Sunday evening.  He kept telling us his stomach hurt and we told him he probably needed to use the restroom.  The reason we thought that was because his tummy would hurt and then it would be fine...then it would hurt and then it would be fine...so we assumed it was a bathroom issue. Long story short...it wasn't a bathroom issue...it was the flu.

This is jack laying on his "floor bed" on Sunday night (Moose stayed close by!)  We made him a comfy bed beside ours so we would be right there if he got sick...and oh boy did he get sick!!  He first got sick at 10:30pm and then continued to get sick approximately every 20 minutes until 5:30  the next morning. Poor kiddo!! Obviously jas and i weren't getting any sleep that night, so we decided, around 2:00 am, since neither of us had slept a wink, to take sleep turns...just like when you have a newborn!  I slept for two hours and then Jason slept for two hours...then it was morning!

On Monday, Jack laid in bed all day. He told me his body was very lazy (as was mine!)!  He woke up around 9:30 am, crawled into our bed and fell back to sleep around 11:30 for a three hour nap. After that, he was able to drink a little, but then the fever came on. Luckily, he felt better so i could get him to take some ibuprofen, which helped his spirits and kept the fever in control.

On Tuesday, he woke up feeling "normal"...until he tried to work on his valentine box.  We went to the basement (that is where my "studio" is...heehee i really don't have a studio...just my desk) and he was pooped!! So, he headed back to the couch to watch some more TV. Through the day, he worked in little bits on his valentine box and we did get if completed (will show it to all tomorrow!).  I love this picture, because it shows his messy hair!

 Jack is feeling better little by little.  After watching what he went through, we all have chapped hands from constantly washing our hands and our noses burn from the amount of Lysol I have sprayed!  I even opened the windows for some fresh air and made everyone wear good luck charms and knock on wood. I hate the flu.

Oh My Eyes....

Oh, mom...,my eyes have been bothering my so much today!

Do you think there's anything wrong with them?

Celebrating a Bark- Day...

Moose's friend, Esther turned eleven! Unfortunately, her bark-day party was on the day same day we had a "mini" blizzard and Moose was unable to attend. Esther, being such the sweetie, sent leftover cake to Moose.

Moose carried around the container that had the cake in it!!! Such a goofy girl!

After she ate the cake, she did a happy cake dance!
"That cake was so good I am doing a bark-day happy dance for you , Esther!"

"Oh Moose...thanks.  I'm a little hung over from the party. Wish you could have been there!"

Being a Brother...

 

My "New" Project Life...

The last two years, I have been attempting to do Becky Higgin's Project Life. You can find more about Project Life here: Becky's Blog. I would start out strong, excited and keep up with my recording, but then I would become overwhelmed and fizzled out. Being overwhelmed came from having to fill eight 4x6 pockets and eight 4x3 pockets in one week...that is 16 items in a week! I would spend more time collecting memories then recording the memories. Some of the memories I was collecting were pretty irrelevant, but still collected them just to fill up space! Over the last couple of years, Becky Higgins has created a variety of different photo page protectors, which I am using in another project, but just didn't help with my daily recordings.

  So this year, I am trying something new. I am using the Simple Stories collection, which comes in 8x6 and also has a variety of refill pockets, but in a much more manageable size for me and my recording of memories!

My opening page for January is a album insert from Studio Calico.I did have to re-punch them to fit into my simple stories album..no biggie!

 

I used the 4x3 pocket refills to include books that I have read in January. I printed them in the 4x3 size right off the computer!  EASY!!

On the back of the previous page, I included movies that Jason and I went to this month, again in the 4x3 size! The next page has two 4x3 pockets and a 4x6 pocket.  Jack has been reading Captain Underpants and books from the series "Who Was.." I have a picture of Jack reading that I need to add in the 4x6 pocket. I did the same recording, for Sam, on the back of this page.

At school, Sam is on the newspaper committee and this month wrote a movie review for The Hobbit.  I printed it off in smaller size so it would fit on the 8x6 paper.

I ran an 8x6 page, from the Simple Stories collection, through the computer to tell the story about how sick Moose was on the week she went out on an adventure.  I also included the vet bill!

This page refill was perfect to show how sick jack was one day!

These pockets include random things that happened during the month.

I can still "scrap" pages, but just in the 8x6 size.  This shows Jack making a basket at his basketball game! It is one of my favorite photos from that particular game. Instead of including ALL my pictures (and I have a lot of pictures) I choose one to three favorites that really tell the story I want to share.

This is a page that is scrapped for Sam.  It also includes the story about the basketball team he is playing with and the friends he has made on the team.

In one section, I included the "big" news stories of the month. I chose ones that were in the news more than one day!  There are probably more "highlights" or ones you thought may have been "big news" but these are the ones for our family

Jason and I went to see "The Book of Mormon" at the civic center. HILARIOUS!!!  So in this 8x6 pocket, I put the cover of the play bill and the article from the paper. When you turn the page...

...you see the rest of the article, the cast list for the night and our tickets.  I am going to leave as is...which is a big relief for me! I love the idea that I don't have to go back and try to scrap an entire 12x12 page.

So, I am proud to say, that I have kept up with January and recorded the stories that I want the boys to look back on in future years. Now on to February!