The Secret to T-Ball - Capri-Sun and Hot-Dogs!

Tyler had to help coach Wayne's team, I was tired and still getting over a bad cold, so....  One 3 minute stop at the good 'ol WFC and we had CORN DOGS to occupy them.  2 cases of Capri Sun for the team meant there was PLENTY of extras, and Wyatt and Weston were entertained for just under an hour.  At 3 juices each...  they were THIRSTY boys!

{Weston's last day of preschool}

Fall 2011

May 2012

(and yes, apparently I dressed him in the SAME outfit for the first and LAST day of school! - A "shout out" to Grandma for the cute sweatshirt!)

 Waiting on the porch for the bus, two BIG brothers.

 No tears today! (and no, I am not talking about Weston, I am talking about ME!)

 After working for a few hours, I went to school for the end of year program - Weston got to say his name in the microphone, and did a great job!

 The "Whale" song.

 Weston's scrapbook - very cute if you are over and want to check it out!

 And that is it!  We took one last picture outside of school, and it was time to head home FOR THE SUMMER!

Woo-hooo!  HOME DAYS here we come!

Happy Mother's Day - to me!

Mother's Day is such a catch 22 - it's a day to celebrate ME but also our Mom's, and our Grandma's and.... how can we do it all?  This year was definitely a year where I felt pretty overwhelmed.  And tired!  I just didn't know if I could "power through" and do it all, and so....  I didn't!  I told Tyler I didn't want to have any plans, I just wanted to do what we wanted to, and see how the boys were (sleep issues lately... Wyatt and Wayne are sharing a room.)  Tyler had been working a bunch of days straight, so it was nice just to be together.  We went and saw his mom before church in the morning, and had a lovely visit and the boys were excited to bring her a hanging basket.  Then we decided to go to church -not because we "had" to but because we WANTED to.  We then came home to a rocky few hours of very big crabbiness, and decided we couldn't do the fishing trip to Silver Lake that we had planned - everyone needed a NAP instead.  It was a good thing!  After that we finally headed outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather and hung out in the backyard.  The boys shot hoops (Weston made 3 in a row!) and eventually talked us into the first sprinkler run of the year.  Now THAT'S a good Mother's Day!

 The boys pulled out their gift for me - an ice cream machine!

 At 5, we packed them up and headed up to Cedar Hill.  It was a gorgeous night - and we didn't even need the sweatshirts that I brought!  Tyler had charged up the tractors, so the kids were tearing up Grandma's backyard.  Wayne practiced riding his bike WITHOUT training wheels, and was really whipping around before the end of the night.  Crazy!  The idea was to keep it simple and have hot dogs and smores, but Dad wanted steak so...  we also roasted steak on a stick.  DELISH!  What a fabulous day.

Christmas in May - O Christmas Tree!

Weston decided it was time to spruse up the backyard by decorating one of the Hinoke trees for Christmas.  Complete with garland, and gifts, he was SO PROUD of his accomplishment!  I think he spent more than an hour creating his work of art, and couldn't wait for me to take his picture with it.  Ta-da!

 

Old McDonald's Farm (Hovander Field Trip)

Weston had his year end field trip last week to Hovander Park - but all of his preschool friends kept calling it Old McDonald's farm, no matter how many times their teacher's tried to explain that it wasn't!  Ever tried convincing a group of 3 and 4 year olds that they were WRONG?  Ha!  Ethan, Wayne, and Wyatt all came along too, and it was quite the adventurous morning.  You know how much I'd rather stay caged up in our backyard, so the wide open spaces of Hovander and my ever growing belly that slows me down were not quite an ideal combination, but the boys were good and we survived AND had fun!  

Weston was GLOWING the entire time - so happy and excited to have his family and his friends all together.  For once I was glad accuweather.com was wrong - cloudy and raining turned into sunny and warm.  DELIGHTFUL!  We checked out all the animals, played games in the field, and had a picnic lunch before making it back to the car with some TIRED and DIRTY boys.  The best kind!

A walk to the park

Grandma has been in OVERDRIVE lately.  I tell you

Hawaii 2012 - Kona Coast

For one blissful week, we were in 80 degree + weather, with nothing to do but work on our sun burns/tans.  it.was.lovely.

April 20-27 were the dates on the calendar for over one year.  As it got closer, it didn't get more real for me.  There was too much else going on - Tyler working on the shutdown, tax season, kids, school, church activities, sports...  The list goes on and on.  And then, it was Thursday, and time to bring them over to the Scheib's for the weekend, finish packing, double checking the list left behind with their schedule and....   Then WE WERE OFF!  The moment I pulled up to Tyson and Breanne's was surreal.  This was it.  I was going to Hawaii and leaving Tyler and the kids behind.  I resolved that "this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it" regardless of the circumstance.  

It was SO GOOD to get off that plane and see my parents (including Aloha Dad in his Hawaii shirt) standing there!  It was a shock though.  We left grey stormy weather, and we arrived in sunny, no sweatshirt-needed weather.  It took us all a good 3 days to finally ditch our sweatshirts in our condo rooms when we left.  After a Costco and Safeway run, we pit-stopped at the condo and then went out to dinner... Humpy's! 

See how tan Mom is?  How pale I am?  Yeah, I take after my Dad! 

This was the trail we *TRIED* to take to Makalawena beach.  We made it 20 feet off the main road before deciding that our uber cool Chevy Traverse was not going to make it.  The landscape of the Big Island is not lush - it's more lava!

Our pool.  Yes, OUR pool.  No one else used it but us.

First beach - Hapuna!  Picturesque and even a swimming turtle. 

The Boogie Boarding QUEEN!

Bikini Bre, as she was known on our trip. 

The view of the Kona coastline where we shopped and walked and dined each evening. 

Tyson with his LOBSTER dinner.  They brought him veggies and rice, which he never even touched.  It was all about the lobster for him!

After dinner every night, we ordered 1 dessert with 7 forks.  Ryan was helping Tyson get his fair share. 

Pretty fish I saw while snorkeling (yes, you can snorkel when you are 7 months pregnant, it just looks a little awkward, I'm sure!)

Ryan, being funny. 

The kids, waiting for Dad and the Traverse to pick us up to head to the beach for the day.

Yeesh.  I am cropping this next picture before putting it in my scrapbook.  Doesn't everyone else look cute??? 

Run, Ryan, run!!!!

Outside of our rooms, ready to hit the beach - AGAIN!

Two-step - the ancient burial grounds of the Hawaiian chiefs (or something like that.)

This was part of a 45 minute hike in to Makalawena beach, the beach that we couldn't drive to.  It was LONG, but worth it.

Party of the trail was closed because of this fallen tree, but the park rangers told us it was fine to go "at our own risk."

Totally worth the hike!  It's a good thing too.

The last hill, before reaching the beach....

Just a few of the fun times we had - thanks to everyone who helped out on the homefront!!!