LePrell Boys

First Real Snow

2012-02-14T03:25:00.003+09:00

Enid's first winter snow was Dec. 20th, but it wasn't much. Of course the boys were out playing in it regardless of how much of it actually stuck around, even a little bit of snow makes everything more fun. Here's some proof...

Swinging when it's snowing is way more fun because you get to drop your brother over and over trying to get him in his slippery swing.

And the Video below... the snow made the slide worth using again.

Feb 13, 2012 Enid got it's first "real" snow... Coming from Arizona a real snow is anything that sticks and a "real good snow" is enough snow to make a snowman and that's what we got this morning. Michael was out working so hard on his very first snow man. I think he worked 30 minutes just on trying to get the raisins to stick for the eyes and mouth. Job well done!

Adventures by Steve

2012-02-10T03:47:00.001+09:00

So today a friend of mine, who is what you might call a hobby cyclist, asked if I wanted to check out the Tour de Qatar. Today was my day off, so I said "sure."

We got in the van and drove to where the starting line was, this was in a direction neither one of us had ever explored (or had any idea whether or not we were allowed to go this far). I can't say the scenery changed to much, it started off as vast expanses of dirt and rocks, and ended at a vast expanse of dirt and rocks. It was windy, so at least the cyclist had that going for them.

Oddly, or maybe not oddly for Qatar, the starting line also happened to be at a camel racetrack. This was lucky, because the camel racetrack was well marked with signs beginning several miles out. The Tour De Qatar on the other hand, was not well marked - usually it was what appeared to be a notecard with "Tour De Qatar" on it under each one of the camel racetrack signs we saw. I have never seen so many camels in my life. They had miles and miles of camel superhighway between the roads with people riding on and sleeping on camels....usually with about 10-12 additional camels in tow. These people were apparently not used to seeing such normal looking people as myself and my friend hanging out windows taking pictures of them, we got a lot of stares and waves.

We arrived at the designated area and proceeded to the section labeled "TEAM PARKING." We figured we were a team. It was about 1.5 hours prior to the start of the race and there was not a whole lot going on. Let me tell you, in Qatar camel racing = popular.....bicycle racing = not popular. This worked in our favor....despite a large amount of security (I think some important sheik was present or something), nobody bothered to question the white guys walking around the team areas. After all, why the heck else would we be there if we didn't come with Team Garmin or Radio Shack? After sitting with the Garmin team for a while (they seemed to have the people with the different jerseys on their team, so I figured they were the cool ones to hang around) we proceeded to the starting line. We sat about 1 foot away in some grass while all the professional photographers got in front of the cyclist for photo ops. This was funny to me because my friend, with his portable camera, stood with them and snapped away. Again, why the heck else would we be there.

The race started to the sound of "1...2...3....Go" and the waving of a flag by the sheik...I have to say...I thought it was going to be a little more formal than that. Lots more clicking than I expected, my friend said that was the sound of all the shoes clicking in to the pedals. We toyed with the idea of catching a bite at the VIP tent, but decided not to press our luck. I'll send some of the pictures we took, I'd be interested to know if you recognize any of the riders.

Have a good day,

Steve

First tooth

2012-02-05T06:56:00.003+09:00

Michael lost his first tooth yesterday. I think he just realized it was loose the day before and also discovered that his new tooth had already broke through, making his baby teeth, well look like baby teeth. He was excited to tell Steve over FaceTime that he lost it at school, during lunch, taking a big bite of a booger... "I mean burger, Dad, not booger!"

Congratulations Michael!! Finally you're not the only kid in class who hasn't lost a tooth.

Heart Breakers

2012-01-18T12:47:00.004+09:00

At dinner the boys and I are talking about conversation hearts, you know the Valentine's candy. We were reading them, making sentences and laughing at the silly ones. (Matt voted the "Marry me" as the funniest, cute). During this time without raising any suspicion I tired to get the boys to tell me who they liked in class - neither claimed to have a "sweet heart," "sweet pea" or "honey babe," but I did find out who the other boys in class liked. This all lead to a lot of funny talk, when Matt tells me I better not let dad have any of the Spree Gobstoppers I just bought to send him. I was completely confused until I read the package... see image below... Very clever Matt. "If you let dad eat those then you will break his heart, you wouldn't want to do that."

So the story gets better. Just a little back ground. Max is not allowed to eat candy. None. He hasn't had any (well, the exception of Christmas day when Max asked his dad who's been away six months and wasn't saying no to much of anything.) Anyway, Halloween was the last time Max had any candy and it's all because he won't stop sucking his thumb... back to the point of the story. Max really would like to have some candy so he asks me in his most sweet and pathetic voice, "Mom, may I have one of those candies please?" He points to the Gobstopper Heart Breakers.

"No Max, you still suck your thumb."

"But mom, I'm in love with Michael and I don't want to be."

Man he's good.

A fly allergy

2012-01-17T12:39:00.005+09:00

We are in the truck driving to school and Matt is asking me when he gets to eat shrimp again. (We think he may be allergic). I tell him at his next wellness appointment we'll have him tested. Michael then chimes in... "yeah, at my appointment I better get checked for allergies too. What if I am allergic to flies, then mom, we'll really have to keep them out of the house."

Christmas

2011-12-27T10:34:00.001+09:00

Christmas finally got here. So much to wait for - Getting to see dad and discovering what is in all the pretty wrapped boxes under the Christmas tree. It was almost to much to handle... But we managed well.

Max is more then old enough now to get the present idea of Christmas, but this is the first year he's started to understand the true meaning of Christmas. It touched my heart every time he said it, "Christmas is about Baby Jesus not presents." and he said it a lot. Regardless of what was being said by me, the boys, radio or friend. If he heard the words Christmas and presents uttered in the same paragraph he was sure to remind us "Christmas is about Baby Jesus not presents". I loved it every time.

Our big gift this year was seeing Steve. I don't mention it ever, but he's been gone 6 months already and I really have no other words to describe it other then, it sucks. Everything about it sucks. Its sucks for him and it sucks for us. It just sucks. But one of the big blessings it has brought is an extra special Christmas! Thank you Lord that he got to come home on Christmas while others are still in the desert!

Michael put these extra stocking out for Santa and wrote a note for him. He also left Santa milk and cookies. He doesn't care what his brother says, he still believes in the big guy.

Look at Michael's smile... it tells it all.

I played a huge prank on Matt his year. I wrapped a box, in a box, in a box, in a box. The gift looked huge and Matt was so proud to have the biggest gift under the tree. I'd totally forgot that size is more important then cost to these guys. Anyway, for weeks he's thought his huge gift was some awesome Lego set. When he finally got to the last box and found three chapter books he was utterly disappointed. I have to admit I was proud of him when he didn't pout about it and moved right along to grab his brother a gift. The bad part was that I had his real gift, a Lego set, hiding and forgot to give it to him.

Max was overly happy with Michael's gift to him, Hot wheels. He showed his appreciation with a full out tackle and bear hug around the legs.

The game is called something like head bands... you place a card on your head and you ask questions to figure out you have. I just cracked up when Max's first card said, "I"m a Turkey". How true.

All I want for Christmas

2011-12-27T10:25:00.002+09:00

All I want for Christmas is my Husband back!

Thank you United States Air Force for giving my husband two weeks of his year away to visit us. Thanks you, God, that he made it here despite immigration's huge mistake and that his two weeks fell right on Christmas!!

2011-12-07T12:22:00.002+09:00

Happy Birthday Michael!!!
Seven years old and growing tall, dark and handsome. :)

Michael's Birthday Blessing.

At Emmanuel Christian School- The birthday kids are called up during morning Chapel and recognized in front of the whole school. After being called up Michael's teacher also came to the front and shared a couple of Michael's strong qualities, then he was prayed for. Michael's teacher had very nice things to say about him- two strong qualities that I see in Michael are, orderliness, Michael likes do do things neatly and correctly the first time and his desk is always in order and Michael is also very caring, always very kind to others. I wish I could remember word for word what Mrs. Olson said, because it was very sweet and all so true. She really new my Michael.

After his birthday blessing in the morning and then eating a hot lunch with him around noon, Max and I showed up at Michael's class in the afternoon with milk and cookies. The kids were excited and so funny, at one time the whole class was chanting Michael's name, "Michael, Michael, Michael". Mrs. Olson came over and said "If you couldn't tell, the whole class really likes Michael". I wasn't surprised, because Michael really is one likable guy. After the birthday snack the class decorated their Christmas tree and Michael got the privilege of putting on the first ornament. He had a hard time choosing just the right ornament, that is until Mrs. Olson pulled out the one above. Michael's face lit up when he saw it.

Once home we started the family celebration. We woke Steve up for the occasion.

Three gifts and some Angry Birds that topped the cake. Michael was one excited dude.

Not having dad around is tough, but Michael is a real trooper.

Michael @ 7

Sarcasm... he gets it

riding a two wheeler is a piece of cake

candy or cake... he'll choose candy.

white milk is always a good choice

@ school he shines because of reading and handwriting

It takes him no time at all to get acquainted with new friends.

I haven't met anyone who doesn't like him yet.

He asks tough questions. Probably because he's done all his observing before hand.

He doesn't like Crossfit.... I've got plenty of time to change his mind. :)

Swimming is a good sport for him

He's not a procrastinator.

He still loves to cuddle, be read to and tickled.

His laugh is contagiousness... then annoying, b/c he just doesn't stop.

HUGE jokster

consistently thinks of others before himself

A Day To Celebrate Max!

2011-12-01T10:56:00.005+09:00

Happy Birthday Max!!!!

Four years old today, wow is the time flying by fast.

Today was all about Max. Matt, Michael and I woke up early this morning to wrap Max's gifts in secret. Of course this is the one morning he got up early and caught us red handed. Luckily the gifts were already wrapped, but we did have to hide the cake topper toys and shove all the party favors in the closet. After an exciting morning, Max went to school and I showed up later to take part in his "Birthday Celebration".

The Birthday Celebration went like this-

The class sits in a circle and in the middle is a plate with four small candles. I read a small passage that I wrote about Max's actual birthday, while his teacher walked a picture of Max around the circle so everyone could see him as a new born. Then, Max got to stand up and holding a small globe he walked around the circle and everyone said the months of the year out loud, starting with November. When Max got to his spot he sat down, the teacher then lit one of the candles and then everyone said, "Now Max is one year old." We repeated this three more times, with me reading something I wrote about Max for that year, first ,second, third and today's birthday. When we were all done, we sang happy birthday and Max got to blow out his candles. It was very sweet, I got a little teary eyed.

We had our typical family party for him this evening after a dinner - we opened presents and had some cake. Not without dad though, we facetimed him on the iPad the whole time. He got to see it all.

My dad can beat up your dad

2011-11-30T12:38:00.002+09:00

I can't believe I didn't blog this story about Michael. So we are in Page, AZ for Jomomma's big 60th birthday celebration. During the party, my boys ran around with two sons of one of my old high school friends. They were all pretty close in age and all thought games with guns and swords were cool and so got along great. Later, I'm talking to my friend and he retells me the conversation between my son and his. It went like this.

Friend's Son: "Hey, my dad's a cop."

Michael: "My dad's a fighter pilot."

Friend's son: "My dad has handcuffs and can arrest people."

Michael: "My dad tells them where to drop bombs."

My friend said he was there listening to it all unravel and the whole time telling his son. "his dad wins, it's okay, he's cooler then me."

It made for a good laugh.

Now one about Matt I forgot to share... A couple of weeks ago another student's dad, who just returned from his deployment in Iraq was asked to come in and talk to Matt's third grade class. Well, Matt was quick to tell him about his dad, "My dad is deployed too, in Qatar, his job is telling the Generals what they should do."

That too made for a good laugh.

Thanksgiving to ECS

2011-11-29T07:19:00.003+09:00

It was a very busy day...

I got to start off in Matthew's class making homemade pumpkin and apple pies. I was very impressed when I saw that they used a real pumpkin for the filling not canned. I got to work with Matthew and one other classmate making the crust for the pumpkin pies and thank goodness we didn't have to make the crust for the apple pies, because then we would have had to make a crust for the tops too! Our crusts turned out pretty good considering out of the three of us non of us had any crust experience.

The second part of my morning was also spent with Matthew's class. Working on their reading in public, his class put on two Thanksgiving plays. Matt was by far the best speaker out there... not even a bit biased. Seriously, he did awesome- scary to think that I could easily see him doing theater in the future.

All through out the day I was in Michael's class, but the most important part of the day was the last hour of school. His two teachers crammed 7 activities for the kids in that one hour. It was an impressive and organized mad house. Michael enjoyed himself and was very proud to have me and Max in the classroom with him... I have to soak up these days while I can.

Before the party began.

Michael is chatting it up with his friends about his mystery club.

Max's Fall Program @ CMS

2011-11-28T11:28:00.003+09:00

What a busy week. It started off with Max's fall program. He did a wonderful job!! I posted a clip of one of his songs at the end of this, so make sure you take a look. He slept with me the other night and to my luck I got to wake up to him singing one of his holiday songs. He's a very good singer and he knows it... "Mom, I'm a good singer, cuz I can change my voice and make it go up and down and side and side." (Visualize his little hands going all over the place).

On stage and looking very hard for mom.

Max's teachers Mrs. Paula and Mrs. Phyllis

**Sorry about the video, I just couldn't get it to load. Bummer, because Max is supper cute in it!

Hobby Lobby

2011-11-23T07:16:00.001+09:00

This is why when the boys ask to go to Hobby Lobby I'm all for it.

They play, I browse.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-15T07:40:00.001+09:00

If it wasn't for Grandma Donna, our Halloween wishes couldn't have come true. She whipped these awesome Angry Bird costumes up by just looking at some pictures. Very impressive and it made our Halloween extra special.

At the school's fall festival I felt like we were back in Okinawa when the teenage girls lined up to get pictures with the boys. They were a huge hit.

Jomomma's Big 60th

2011-10-22T23:59:00.001+09:00

Grandma Donna turned 60 years old this year. The boys and I packed up, skipped school, picked up Grandma Flo and trekked all the way to Page to help my sisters set up for a big birthday bash. Unfortunately, none brought their camera. Marisa left hers, Chris left hers, I left mine and Jomomma broke hers in Africa. So frustrating... so the only pictures I have are from my phone and I didn't even get that out enough.

Marisa worked really hard planning the party, Chris worked really hard on planning and prepping the menu and dad worked real hard on letting go of his debit card, while I did as I was told. I think we made for a good team.

Awaiting the Home coming parade

The only picture I got of the party...

and it's of the set up, bummer. You'll have to take my word on it that the backyard was transformed.

Ouch!

2011-10-01T02:48:00.001+09:00

Our day didn't end as planned yesterday. Michael had a minor head injury after falling head first while playing at the YMCA. He's sporting a new tougher look these days. He also gets the bragging rights of the first to get stitches of the LePrell boys.

I have to say we were doing pretty good considering we have three boys and this was our first emergency injury visit to the hospital. Not bad...

Trains!!

2011-09-18T10:07:00.008+09:00

Finally, a real train ride.

Enid's Railroad Museum of Oklahoma sponsors a train ride they call the
"The Drummond Belle". I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but I was in for a surprise when I found out that they actually use the museum's collection of cabooses for the rides. I went and bought tickets for the ride last week and had the privilege of walking out on the tracks to choose our caboose. It wasn't a hard choice, "Which ever one has the most windows will work great for us." - That was the Northern Pacific, the oldest of their models. Which I'm sure hasn't been dusted since it was built in the 1920's.

The boys had a great time. We took a 45 minute ride to Drummond (if you were going by car it would have only taken about 15 minutes) and when we got there, we switched directions and went back the way we came. The first half of the trip we spent a lot of time outside on the caboose's platform pushing the steam whistle and then inside playing bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish and rock, paper, scissors. The second half of the trip we spent sitting in the very tall seats located in the middle of caboose looking out the window playing eye spy. It was a good time.

The boys in the window.

The window you see up high is where we got to sit for the trip back to Enid.

The boys were very excited about that.

On a train ride in our area, you see a lot of this.

You also see homes with a lot of broken cars, trucks and tractors in the yards.

Test #2 From the Phone

2011-09-17T10:06:00.001+09:00

Max had his first swim lesson today. We were in the water so much this summer Max was able to get very comfortable and from past experience we knew if he didn't swim over the school year he'd loose it all. So once a week he'll get to swim at the YMCA. He loved it today because he finally got to swim in the big pool and I loved it because he was exhausted afterwards. Swimming 350m is a lot for a little guy.

test test

2011-09-17T09:45:00.001+09:00

Figuring out if I can post from my phone or Ipad. Maybe it would help me to blog on the go, when the fun stuff happens....

2011 and it's already September

2011-09-02T12:14:00.006+09:00

Every time I blog I have to give my excuse as to why I haven't blogged in a few months. This time I think it's been a year... or almost a year, but my sister's blogging has inspired me and my mother-in-law seems to be a real fan of the boy's stories. As long as I have Peggy to read these, I'm going to do it! Well, at least try.

It's September 1st - The boys have been in school for 2 weeks. Steve has been gone for almost two months already (only 10 more to go). The boys and I have been back in Enid, after our awesome summer, for three weeks and the LePrell's are already in the everyday, school day routine and it feels good.

Here's a real quick recap of our summer in pictures. (I picked one picture per place to keep it short and it still ended up being a lot of pictures.)

Summer started with Steve's Fini Flight in the T-38 with the

War Birds.

Took a long road to trip FL along the way we took a tour of the USS Alabama.

The boys loved it.

We were in Florida for about three weeks. While Steve went to work everyday

The boys and I went here everyday. It was awesome.

We said good bye to Steve and hit the road. First stop-

Grandma Flo's. Here we are visiting Grandpa Jim in Roy, NM.

Second Stop-Rio Rancho, NM. Stayed with the Schmidts and

finally got to see Haylie play. She was the MVP of her softball team. Very proud.

Third stop- Page, Az. We had lots of pool time and cousin time.

Took the boys to Lake Powell, specifically to the Chains to intorduce

the boys to cliff jumping. Neither Matt or Michael showed any fear.

Took a hike to Mushroom Canyon in UT.

Hiked to some cliff dwellings in Navajo Moutain National Park.

That was way cool

Third stop - Panguitch Lake, UT. Grandpa and Grandmp took us out

for some camping and fishing. Grandpa

taught Matt all he knew about fishing and Matt learned everything well.

If only they could have caught just one fish....

After being gone all summer we made it back

one week before school started. Here's everyone on their first day, looking so

handsome and clean.

2010-12-07T23:39:00.004+09:00

Happy Birthday Michael!!

He's 6 years old!! What to say about Michael....

He's a goofball and I'm not sure he will grow out of it. What is it they say about a child's disposition? What they are like as children is much what they will be like as teenagers. If that is the case - Michael will be in trouble with his teachers, have lots of girls chasing after him and probably will get into some fights. I think it's kind of funny when I read his character chart from school and it says things like, "Michael was making disgusting noises while on the carpet" or "Michael was making fart sounds while walking in line" or "Michael had to sit out of recess for hitting another boy in the stomach very hard." With all that funny stuff being said (not that punching another boy is funny) Michael is a very sweet boy, maybe a bit rowdy, but still very sweet. He is very generous, loyal and thoughtful for someone his age. He's outspoken and very observant. I feel that one of Michael's hidden talents is his ability to express his his observations by painting a picture with his words. There's nothing much better than hearing a simple concept being described with a child's point of view.

Michael's teacher Mrs. Peters and his kindergarten class... yes they are just as you see them here, a real handful.

Cake!! Decorated the LePrell way, with real toys.

You can see on his face how excited he was to see his Viking helmet, axe and shield. Between those and the bow and arrow he got from Grandma Peggy, he has told me, "I don't know what I want for Christmas mom, I got everything I wanted for my birthday!"

Weapon lessons - Bow and arrow and the blow dart.

Happy Birthday Max!!

2010-12-02T03:34:00.003+09:00

How crazy is it that Max turned three years old yesterday? And since it's been so long since I blogged about him I have tons and tons to tell you, but I'll keep it short or at least try to. Max has been in three homes his three years of life, traveled so much that he continually asks, "I go home now?" even on those days when we are actually home. Wish I knew who's home it was he liked so much. He's figured out how to work the mouse, his Ipod, our phones and is getting pretty good at his knock knock jokes.. sorry Michael, but it is easier to understand the punch line of his jokes then yours. :) When in San Antonio we were worried about his lack of talking, but have found that Max was just storing up everything he heard. He went from saying pretty much nothing to non-stop talking and with all that talking he has been perfecting the art of bulling his brothers. For a three year old he is very good at talking smack. I hear many times a day, "I'm gunna punch you up." When told to do something he doesn't want to do he responds with, "I happy, you sad." That one I blame on Grandma Donna. He continually tells Michael, "I bigger and you is little." At a restaurant once he pointed individually at each of the three surrounding tables and said, "him mad, him mad, him mad. I'm gunna punch em' up." He will also do just about anything to make sure he wins at whatever game is being played, case in point - Yesterday while getting out of the van, he saw I was going to be out and to the front door first so he told me to wait for him, "Wait mom, we same team, we same team now." I waited while he crawled over the seat to get out with me and as soon as I put him down he says, "I beat you mom, we not same team" and runs to the door. So competitive already! Last story - One morning while on vacation he was begging me to get out of bed, but I had no plans of moving. So his solution was genius - he sticks his arm under my shoulder and says "Get up mom, you on my arm." I move just enough for him to get his arm out, but he slides his arm further under me instead saying again, "Mom, get up, you on my arm." We did three more times before I finally ran out of bed and was wide a wake from laughing at him. What a serious monkey we have.

Happy Birthday Max! We Love you very much!

Look how much he grew in just four and half months!

DONE

2010-11-29T23:56:00.003+09:00

No, not done with blogging.... as you may have thought if there are any of you who still occasionally check my blog to see what the boys are up to, but done with traveling. We have been in the States for over a year now and I think we have managed to travel a minimum of 1,000 miles at one time every month. We have officially made up for all the miles we saved on the van for having it in storage that last three years.

You know how some people have kids who learn a skill at an early age - such as Attila the Hun, he was riding a horse and shooting a bow and arrow at the age of five, farmer's children are driving tractors at the age of seven... you get what I'm talking about. Well our children's talent is car travel. Sure, may not seem like much but if you're a parent or even just a dog owner you understand the importance of that statement.

At this moment I'm happiest most about the thought of not going anywhere for the next two months!

Not the normal response

2010-05-22T12:03:00.003+09:00

When I'm out with the boys, I hear the same comment at least three times - "Three boys, you sure have your hands full." Well today I finally heard something different, a comment worth writing down.

"You got yourself three soldiers, huh? Yep, someone to take people out of this world instead of bring them in. Good for you."

Finally!!!

2010-05-09T12:15:00.003+09:00

Holy Cow! This has been such a not normal winter! We are officially in Enid, including Steve. After six months of living in a house the size of a crackerjack box with nothing belonging us, I can't tell you just how nice it feels to be in a real home.

Now we just have to get this house in order.

Let's try this again...

2010-03-20T23:33:00.016+09:00

I didn't realize, until a few days ago, that I added a post titled "Matt had a big week" but I didn't add any content. Apparently I don't have a lot of followers because no one informed me about it - sniff, sniff. Below is what I planned on telling you, but in a very condensed form.

So, over a month ago Matt turned the big 7!! In the same week he broke his first board in Tae Kwon Do and ran his first 5k race, coming in around fifth place in his age category. Not to bad considering the age category he was in went up to 17 years old.

Happy Late Birthday Matthew!!! We love you very much!!!!

For his birthday celebration we had an ice cream cake for breakfast. I personalized the cake myself by putting a Star Wars toy on top for a decoration. Matt thought I was a genius.

For his birthday lunch we ate pizza and played games at Peter Piper Pizza.

Working on those kicks and punches.

It's scary to me that my seven year old has the attitude of a teenager in this picture.

Grandma Peggy got Matt a fishing video game for his birthday this year and now he is hooked. He has yet to catch a real fish, but according to Matt, when he does finally get a bite he'll now just what to do.

Home schooling for a seven year old is done better outside...

The back of the truck works out great.

It was a big week for Matt!

2010-03-02T09:37:00.001+09:00

Six months back already

2010-02-19T04:23:00.005+09:00

Marisa, Darrik and Lucas

Kristian, Christy, Nick, Ethan, Haylie, Graysen

So it's been just about six months since we left the island. The best part of being back is being near family, a 12 hour drive to my Grandparent's home in Carlsbad, 15 hour drive to my sisters' home, to Christy's or Marisa's and then a 20 hour drive to my parent’s house is nothing compared to $8,000 and 7,000 miles.

For Christmas we got together with my side of the family and met up at Christy's new house in Albuquerque. I think the last time we had a family Christmas with everyone was maybe around 1998 - We were missing Darrik, Graysen,Ethen, Steve, Matt, Michael, Max and Lucas, all in that order. "Boy" has the family grown. (I didn't have a picture to post of my mom and dad over Christmas, bummer!)

So here we are six months later -

I occasionally still turn my windshield wipers on for the blinker and if I had finished this blog when I started it a week ago I could say I'm over accidentally driving on the other side of the road, but I can't. I turned the wrong direction while in Enid this last weekend, I'm blaming it on the fact that it was early in the morning and I had no visual reminders. Hopefully that will be my last though.

I had to explain to the boys what commercials are. We watch some TV here unlike when we were in Okinawa. Funny part is how well the commercials work on them. Matt tries to convince me every time we're at the store that we should get Oxyclean, "because mom, it can get the tough stains out." We tried Frosted Flakes for the first time and Matt comes up to me and says "They're right mom, Frosted Flakes aren't just good they're great." Then there's the Touch and Brush... I'm so tired of hearing about the Touch and Brush.

I've bought seven pairs of shoes... and Steve thought that after three years my shoe fetish was over.

Max is talking or at least trying to talk. He loves to tell you knock knock jokes, which we find very funny because all he has correct is the voice fluctuations. He also calls Matt "Guys". He used to call both boys Guys, it was like they were one person, but a couple of weeks ago Max figured out they were two different people and has started calling Michael by his real name, but refuses to call Matt, Matt. I keep telling Matt that Guys is actually a cool sounding nickname.

Steve made Major. Congratulations Steve!!

We just bought a home in Enid or I should say in the process of buying a home. The boys and I will move up end of March beginning of April.

Matt gets on Google now and searches for himself how to build rockets and how to make paper airplanes. I can't get away with saying I don't know how to do anything anymore, because he'll just remind me that we can find everything on the internet.

Both boys are in Tae Kwon Do here. We love Master Payne (yes, that's her real last name and she's a 7 degree black belt). Both are learning a lot but, Michael is such a clown that he gets to, as we like to say, "have a brake" once or twice a session. Matt will test for his yellow belt this weekend, he is pretty excited about it. Although Michael is not progressing as fast as Matthew I'll be honest and say he's got better form and understanding of the different kicks.

Matt turns Seven in a couple of days and we're finally letting him out of his five point harness car seat and giving it to Max. It's a milestone for both boys.

It didn't take long for me to realize we had to drive pretty slow when on Okinawa it's just that I didn't realize how slow we had to drive. The fasted I ever went was 60 miles and hour and that was the rare occasion on the speed way. I mostly drove 40 km/h…. (25 m/h) Now wonder I had such a hard time keeping up when we got here, but I'm finally back up to speed and I can say with confidence that I'm a good driver. :)

Four months here in San Antonio was all it took for me to decide that I really like it. I'm not really looking forward to moving back to Enid. The only thing that keeps my mind from grumbling about it is that fact that we have been living here without anything of our own. I'm tired of living with someone else's stuff, using their dishes, pots, sheets, vacuum, all of it. It was a great test to show me how grateful I should be for the things I have; I just wish my test was over.

The Alamo

Steve's pin on. You can call him Major Steve now.

A mom moment

2010-01-23T14:18:00.002+09:00

The boys are outside playing while I'm in the house sweeping the floor, when I hear the door bell ring. I yell in my drill sergeant voice, "What have I told you boys about playing with the door bell?" There's about a split second of silence before I hear, "Pizza's here."

I was pretty embarrassed.

Look who turned 5 this year!!!

2009-12-10T12:53:00.006+09:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!!

Nothing is more fun than having two birthday parties right in a row... the only person who may feel left out is Matt, but at least he has Christmas to look forward to in just a couple of weeks.

Michael is really five. Man.... he is really five. Michael is my funny kid, because sometimes I feel like he's already been five for some time and then other times I feel like he's just turned four. I think it's his drive to be a clown that makes his maturity pop up all over the charts. Michael just wants to have fun. Whatever it takes, even if it means getting in trouble, as long as he can get a laugh before the punishment is handed out he finds it all worth it. Michael is awesome, he's got such a greatness about him that watching him mature and come into his own person has been a huge delight this year. He's definitely still Matt's sidekick but Matt's older brother powers are starting wear off. Let's see... Michael as a five year old - loves the Power Rangers, he hasn't ever watched them on TV but knows they are way cool. He loves to play "cat and the man" we play this game a lot, but to be honest I haven't really got a clue of what it is we play. I know he's a powerful cat that can turn into dragon and I'm a girl who washes dishes who can turn to a butterfly, where the man part fits in I'm not sure, but never the less he finds it to be endless fun. He loves webkinz, he's got about ten and has named them all accordingly - Cats, Batty, Toadie....

His new love is the Wii. He hates doing school but will unwillingly sit through a history and science lesson with Matt asking every five minutes when we'll be done, complain and get in trouble the whole time, but still has the ability to know the answer of the one question I ask Matthew that he can't answer... it's like he knows just how to get at his brother. My favorite thing that Michael has been telling me lately is , "Mom, I love the smell of the gym." I get to hear it every time we walk in to Gold's Gym here in Live Oak, I smile and nod my head in agreement, it's like a new special bond is created betweem us every time he says it. :) Happy Birthday to you Michael. We love you very much!!!

Power Ranger Cake!!!

Unfortunately Michael didn't get to taste it. He was so excited to play with his presents that he didn't want any when the rest of had some and then I took it over to a friend's house and left it there. I had no idea he didn't get any!

Opening Matt's gift... a paddle ball.

Max was taking a nap and missed out on all the fun and missed out on the brother photo

Look Who's Two!

2009-11-30T10:27:00.008+09:00

Max is turning two! A few words to describe my youngest son would be -

Stubborn, strong willed, aggressive, rude and polite (really nothing in between), a man of few words (very few), cuddly, very coordinated (he's got quite the arm), very social, spirited, a clown, dare devil, loving, very cute and so very handsome.

I know, those are all the same words any mom would use to describe her son, but really he's all that, plus more and to the extreme. All this makes me excited to see what he'll be like next year, there's something very special about this guy.

The birthday boy!!

Max checking out his Thomas, he loves the Choo Choo's.

He got a ball and a remote control car for his gifts.

After presents we had cake! He liked it so much he actually said the word cake. Which meant he must have really liked it, because Max only bothers to learn the words that he finds very important.

Michael trying to help Max figure out how his car works. He started to get the hang of it by the end of the night and thank goodness he did. Anytime the car wouldn't go where Max thought it should he'd throw the remote at it... he's a pretty good shot.

After some play it was time for more cake, or I should say frosting. He's just scooping that buttermilk icing right off.

Every time I turned around Max was helping himself to more cake.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T10:06:00.006+09:00

Thanksgiving at Aunt Ann's house.

Our Hosts

Uncle Ernie and Aunt Ann

The turkey tasted awesome, probably the moistest turkey I'd every had. Uncle Ernie grilled it on his Weber grill.

Steve managed to out eat everyone and was the first one down for a nap.

Games and fun... Matt tried to learn how to play chess, while Michael was running around playing with cousin Levi.

Part 3: Forty Days and 5,000 Miles

2009-11-29T11:21:00.006+09:00

The third part of our adventure started after I picked Steve up at the Airport in PHX. He got about a week to rest in Page before we really started our journey across America. The trip didn't start out very smooth. We left late from Page, stopped in Kayenta to eat, Steve managed to get as sick as a dog before we could even get to Shiprock and ended up in the ER at a Navajo Hospital. I think the hospital would have turned us away if Steve wouldn't have been in such bad shape because there was no getting around the fact that we were not Navajo. Well, after being transfered to Farmington and not having to have the surgery they were sure he needed we were on the road again and we made it to our first planned stop Albuquerque, NM. I wish I would have gotten the camera out while were were hanging out with my sister and her family. We did a lot of geocaching with my nephews and niece.

After Albuquerque we hit the road and did some serious driving. We had the system down. Steve would go to bed early every night. I would stay up, get laundry done and pack the van and set the alarm for 3am. In the dark we would bring Page the cat and the three boys still in the PJ's to the van. They would be back asleep in the next thirty minutes and I would visit with Steve for about an hour. After I was done talking, Steve would turn on his book and I would take a nap until breakfast, usually around 8:30am. Really that's the only way to travel with kids!! After breakfast we had to stop every two to three hours. Anyway, the boys got just as good with the traveling system as we did.

2nd Stop: Dayton, OH. Temporary home for the Settles, our wonderful freinds from Okinawa! The boys loved getting to see their good freinds, Holly and I did some shopping and lots of talking, and we also got our geocaching in.

I wish I would have gotten the camera out more here also, because I didn't get any good pictures of the all the boys together. Michael was so happy to see Wesley! Matt had Braden to play with and Connor to look up to. Here is a picture of me and Holly to prove that we were there.

3rd Stop : Washington D.C. One day walking around the city was just not enough. Steve and I will definitely go back, but with no kids. The boys did great considering how we drug them around for 12 hours. We walked all day long with only two breaks for food. After spending a good part of the day in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History we walked around and saw - the WW1, WW2, Koren and Vietnam Memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the White House and only saw the Capital from a distance.... I sure wish I could have seen it up close.

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

At the Lincoln Memorial.

(what a couple of goof-balls)

They told us the President was a little busy and wouldn't be able to come out and greet us.

4th Stop: Havre De Grace, MD. Here we got to visit with Steve's sister and her three kids. Grandma Peggy came up so she could see all her grandkids at the same time. I'd never been to MD, it was a beautiful little town.

View from a park we took the kids to.

Great picture of Steve with his sister Karen and mom....

A bunch of rugrats. :)

5th Stop: Fayetteville, NC. We got to spend some more time with Grandma Peggy and got to see Grandma Mimi

We also made an unannounced visit to see Steve's childhood best friend and his mom, Jay and Cindy.

Grandma Peggy!!

Grandma Mimi

6th Stop: Jacksonville, FL. WE have a lot of Grandma's and Grandpa's who live here.

We did our typical geocaching along the way to FL, this particular one took us to the smallest church in America, somewhere in GA.

Great Great Grandma Wood

St. Augustine's Fort

The original Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

And you thought Page the cat was fat...

This is Socks and she weighs 28 lbs.!!!!!

There's a lot of LePrell Men in this picture.

Grandpa Don, Steve and the boys, Grandpa LePrell and Uncle Sam

7th Stop: DISNEY WORLD!!!! Because of Steve's love and dedication to his Country we got a steal of a deal at a nice resort and some cheap Disney tickets. We turned Halloween into a long weekend and went to Disney World!!

Trick or treating in the Magic Kingdom

Michael was so excited.

Red Power Ranger is his favorite!!!

7th Stop: Panama City, FL to see the Thor's.

Dave and Heather Magnuson with their way cute boys!

Great friends from Okinawa.

8th Stop..... It was going to be someplace halfway between Panama City and San Antonio, but instead we we drove straight through. We made one long stop to break the day up, Avery Island, LA - home of the all American Tabasco Sauce. We learned its history, how they make it and pack it, and also sampled a lot of tobacco flavored stuff including soda pop, ice cream, chocolate and every kind of condiment you could think of.

We'd made it to San Antonio and in just a couple of days we were were moved into our fully furnished home and had already bought a truck. It's kind of strange to be in house that has nothing in it that belongs to you.... In five or so months we should be moving up to Enid, OK. We will have to find a new place to live and then unpack three times.... first the stuff that we've been traveling with, our stuff from Okinawa and then the stuff that we have had in storage for the last three years. Yeah, I'm so looking forward to that.

The truck!

Part Two - Go West Young Man

2009-11-28T12:53:00.010+09:00

The boys and I left Steve in Okinawa and started our way to the States, final destination the good old town of Page, AZ. To get there we had a 2.5 hour flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo. Max made this part of the trip a nightmare for me. The moment we stepped off the plane to change terminals and go through United's security, Max flipped a switch and became "that kid". The one you see kicking, screaming and running off, the one that makes you glad you don't have any kids or makes the kids you already have look like angles. Picture me holding a 20 month old, a car seat, backpack and purse, with one kid hanging on me and me yelling at the other kid, all the while trying to get our passports and tickets out. Seriously, God put his hand on my shoulder, allowed me to laugh just a little and keep my clam, because I just wanted to quite.

Our layover in Narita was five hours. Luckily, Narita has little play areas spread across the terminal so we would eat, play, hit the restrooms and then start the process all over again. The 9-10 hour flight to Hawaii went over well, the boys were exhausted and slept a good amount of the flight, I didn't sleep, but at least they did. It was after landing in Hawaii and gathering all our bags that we ran into some trouble. We got sniffed by a working dog in customs and then were red flagged. The dog apparently found something in our stuff.... the lady kept asking me if I'd brought over cat food (kind of strange huh?). I was getting a little nervous that we may really be in trouble when she finally let us go. It was at the hotel when I realized I had a bag of squid jerky in the diaper bag, I'm sure that's why the dog was on us, but other than that our 28 hour

layover in Hawaii went smooth. We arrived at the hotel at 7am - just in time for the continental breakfast, so we ate and then hit the pool. We did nothing but eat and swim the rest of the day.

By dinner time the boys could barley keep their eyes open and Michael completely passed out on the restaurant's chair.

The next day of travel went smoothly, we made it to L.A and finally landed in PHX at midnight. What a relief it was to see my father come though the glass doors to meet us. We spent the night at my sister's house, where the boys and I got to meet Lucas, the newest addition to the Henderson family and play with Pepe, a mean little dog. The boys and I were bright and bushy tailed until about 3am, but finally managed to get some rest. All we had left the next day was to make a five hour drive north and my dad did all the driving for us.

Saying goodbye to our closest friends. Michael was already in the van ready to go, he was quite excited.

First leg of the trip, the boys were settling in going over the new travel toys they'd been dying to play with.

Goodbye Okinawa!

Our last stock up of our favorite Japanese convince store foods. Octopus rice balls, dried squid (the stuff that almost got us in trouble), gooey drinks and the best fruit snacks ever made.

Our five hour layover in Narita.

We spent a lot of time in these type of play rooms. The Japanese lady in the picture didn't care for us very much, Max kept trying to push her baby down.

I wish I would have gotten my dad in this picture, but here is our welcoming committee. We are also missing Lucas, he was taking a nap.

We finally made it to Page! But only had four days of down time before we started on the road. In those four days we did our best to get over our jet lag, got Matt started on his homeschooling, went tumble weed hunting in the desert and ate a watermelon everyday.

Page, AZ where I was born and raised and the place we run to between every move!

Every meal was eaten on the patio, the weather was awesome.

After tumble weed hunting we threw sandstones off the side of the cliff and watched them "explode", very fun stuff.

After our four days of down time we drove to Albuquerque to meet up with all the other Hendersons for my Grandpa's 80th birthday party. The boys and I got to catch up with everyone on that side of the family and got to spend some time with the rowdy Schmidt bunch, my oldest sister and her kids.

This is my Lucas!

Between Christy, my mom and I the boy never went without being cuddled! Making this a very rare picture.

Matt being reacquainted with Uncle Kristan.

The boys seeing Aunt Christy for the first time in over three years.

My family.

You can hardly see them, but Grandma and Grandpa Henderson are in the back of the group. Only person missing was Steve.

After Albuquerque we were off to Raton with my mom, Marisa and Lucas. We had a great visit with Grandma Flo and Grandpa Jim.

The boys were very excited because we got to take the AMTrack. Fun, but not really something I would care to do again. :)

Grandpa Jim and Grandma Flo!!

Matt's unlucky grasshopper.

Grandma Flo put him in this giant spider's web.... it was a nice little science lesson, watching the spider do his work.

We did lots of walking in the fields, Michael with his new best friend, Aunty Marisa.

I got to drive this 1930's car!

A trip to Grandma's is not complete without story time after dinner! Uncle Hunker and Aunt Julie always there to entertain us!

It was then back to Page to spend a couple of days getting ready for the camping trip to Bryce Canyon. We were still a bit jet lagged and had to fit Matt's school in with all this but I managed and the boys had a blast.

Both boys were given a lesson on how to drive a four-wheeler.

A little to scary if you ask me.

Bryce Canyon

What a beautiful place.

After the camping trip we finally had some down time. Steve showed up a week and half later.... What was he doing during all this time?? He was eating at Coco's, flying and working in Guam, scuba diving in Guam, scuba diving with whale sharks and scuba diving at the Sea Wall. Well at least that was all the fun stuff he did... he still had tons of work at the squadron and had to out process, along with get the unaccompanied goods and household goods ready to pack, sign the house back over to housing, sell our two vehicles and get Page (our cat) ready for the long trip back.

Steve swimming with the whale sharks

A beautiful view from his hotel room in Guam.

The Seawall

Not something you want to hear....

2009-11-21T09:11:00.003+09:00

We are over at our Aunt Ann's house playing with our cousin Levi, but the TV is on and my boys are glued to the tube, so my Aunt says, "You boys must not get to watch a lot of TV..." Matt replies, " That's not true, we watch TV all day long."

Part One - Quick summer fun

2009-11-19T22:56:00.019+09:00

This is my attempt at a quick recap of the last few months. We have been through a huge transition and now we find ourselves temporarily settled (an appropriate phrase for a military family) in San Antonio, Texas where everything is bigger and better. Working from the past to the present, let me pick up where we left off - in July after the solar eclipse.

Recap Part One:

The rest of our summer days in Okinawa were spent playing. I was supposed to be getting the house ready for the big move. The boys and I would be leaving the Island a month early, leaving Steve with all the stress of getting our things packed up and getting the house checked out. I did nothing in regards to work and the boys and I played all summer

Playing inside was common when the heat was too much, the boys were very good at entertaining themselves.

The neighborhood buddies.... The boys miss their friends a lot.

More unsafe games played in the house during those hot afternoons.

Max's favorite toy when we left. Laurie, our good neighbor, gave it to him because Steve wouldn't let him push around the the cute little baby buggies made for little girls...

We went to the pool a lot, a lot, a lot.

Swimming lessons. I found out that having them in the same class was a bad idea. They do nothing but play with each other, even after being separated.

Steve went to Australia in July for a squadron exercise. He got to see some crocodiles, cool lizards, huge termite mounds. He also ate kangaroo, crocodiles and way too much lamb. He brought the boys home a boomerang... I also think he did some flying. :)

We hit the beach a lot also and both boys got the hang of snorkeling this year. Very exciting.

In August Steve took the boys to Okuma, they had way to much fun without me, I was sick at home... Once I got used to a quiet and still house I eventually enjoyed my time alone.

One of the favorite games this summer, Hide-n-seek. The dryer was always a good place to hide.

Forest Adventure Park. Zip-line Mania!! It was awesome.

CoCo's Curry House

We miss you more then you would ever know! The last two weeks the boys and I were on Island we ate here about three times a week.

The boys also ate as much dried squid as they could, a snack not as easily found here in the States as in Japan.

After years of watching other little Fighting Cocks spray their dads after his last flight for the Squadron we had to set up a "Fake" Fini flight for the boys.

There you have it, a quick look at our last summer in Okinawa. It was a blast and we miss it so much!! Two days after Steve's Fake Fini flight we left the island and our traveling adventures began. See the blog titled "Part 2" for details.

The True Meaning of a Stomach Ache

2009-11-19T08:10:00.004+09:00

Michael comes to me this evening saying his stomache really hurts. After I give all my thoughts of what it could possibly be he says, "no mom, I don't think it is any of those things. I think it's because I never get to do what I want to do."

Solar Eclipse

2009-07-22T14:02:00.003+09:00

On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands (that's us) and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean.

We were in that "much broader path" so we didn't get to experiacne the total eclipse, but it was still awesome.

Vacuuming

2009-07-18T00:59:00.004+09:00

So I asked Matt to vacuum the downstairs rugs for me, when he was done he wanted to do more so I got the vacuum attachment out and asked him to vacuum the bathroom floor where Page's litter is.... I go up stairs to change out of my pajamas and when I come down stairs I see that Matt is sucking up the litter from INSIDE Page's litter box and Michael is yelling at him "Matt get more poop, get more poop!" What is wrong with them? After that we had a talk about common sense.

When it won't stick to your face...

2009-07-14T22:06:00.004+09:00

...try sticking it in your toes.

He'd try getting a piece of popcorn between his toes and if he didn't drop it after tyring for a mintue or so, he'd eat it and move on to the next piece.

He likes toe jam on his raisens too.

Just one way to pass the time during lunch

2009-07-12T08:03:00.003+09:00

Everything we put on Max's tray now and days is face tested before being eaten.

Things you probably don't want to know

2009-07-04T22:10:00.003+09:00

Some things are just better left unknown. One of these things I discovered recently as I broke out the cool science experiment my mom sent the boys as a gift. You see, you swab various places...door handles, toilets, cribs, car seats, insides of mouths, etc and then you allow whatever you gathered to grow for a couple days...sounds harmless enough, but the results were kind of interesting. In the "inside of boys mouths" dish, Michaels "growth" was much more aggressive than Matt's and actually appeared to overtake Matt's side...ok, kind of scary. Max's car seat was much "furrier" and colorful than the toilet growth (which was minimal). The crib...umm, I'm not going to talk about the crib, but the good news is it was much better than the boy's bedroom door knob. Let me say that the things that grew from the boy's bedroom door knob will forever haunt my dreams. I would include pictures, but I don't want to haunt your dreams as well...I had to go wash my face and hands just after looking at the dish because I was scared that the spores jumped out and attacked me. Needless to say I spent quite a bit of time with lysol visiting the various locations I experimented on (except for the boy's mouths...I didn't lysol them, but I did try to get Michael to start brushing better). Whatever organisms existed on the boy's door knob should be eradicated, thanks mom. -Steve

I'm back online... for now at least.

2009-07-04T17:35:00.005+09:00

There's no need for me to open this blog entry with an apology for not blogging more often, it's obvious, I’m not a good blogger, even with tons of stuff to write about - I do have three wild boys and live in a foreign country on a sub tropical island… I have tons to share. I have no excuses, none.

So to catch you up on things. Steve finally has his next assignment, we will be moving back to Enid, Oklahoma. At first Steve and I had some high hopes thinking the city may have grown a lot while we were gone... Maybe they got a Target, maybe they got a Best Buy or even got a Jamba Juice, maybe the base expanded the commissary, but no such luck. From what we hear Enid is about the same from when we left it last, but we aren't going to complain, because it will be a great place for us. I'll be happy for the slow pace, for the time Steve will have with the family and all the kid friendly programs they have to offer, I'm hoping there won't be waiting lists for every activity you'd like to register your kids for like, soccer, swim lessons and the such. And Steve will be happy that I'll still have nowhere to shop, although Enid has about a 100 times the options I have right now. There are way to many things about Okinawa that I'm going to miss. Living here has been the best, it has been WAY to far from family, but other than the fact that we are on the other side of the world and making the simplest phone call is made complicated , I have nothing else I would complain about.

Max won't remember this place, just like Michael doesn't remember the States. Hard to believe that Michael was just 19 months when we moved here and now Max will be around 20 months for his move back…. I don't want to even start thinking about traveling 20+ hours overseas with a toddler… I already know how torturous it can be. There's so much work to be done just to get ready for the move and so many things we still want to do before we leave the island that I'm beginning to realize that we may not have enough time.

I love Okinawa, but I hope to love Okalahoma again too.

Vocabulary Words

2009-05-04T14:43:00.005+09:00

Every morning its the same thing "Boys, put your shoes and socks on, we are going to be late!" Today Michael asked me what the word late meant so I gave him a quick definition - "Late is when you need to be some place at a certain time and you show up past the time you should have been there. I figured I'd explained it well enough because Michael didn't seem to say much about it after that. Well until... later that afternoon when I picked him up from school he asked me the same question. Again, I gave the same definition but tried to add more detail thinking he must not have quite understood from this morning. While I'm in mid-sentence he interrupts me to say "nuh uh mom, that's not what it means." "Oh really" I say "What does it mean then?" To which he replies "Late means its time to put your shoes and socks on so you can go somewhere. "

The boys are sitting at the kitchen table eating their dinner. Matt is all disappointed about the possibility of not having enough time to play at the park before his basketball practice.

Matt - "Mom, I know we're not going to have enough time to play at the park, I just know it."

me - "Matt you'll have plenty of time if you two would eat and quit messing around."

Matt - "No, mom that doesn't even matter, I just know we're not going to make it."

me - "Matt, you need to try to have a more positive attitude."

Matt - "I do mom, I'm positive we're not going to have time!"

Hong Kong 2009

2009-04-26T09:24:00.013+09:00

Over three weeks ago I went to Hong Kong... Yes, me in Hong Kong and it was awesome. No kids, no cleaning, no cooking - a trip dedicated to me and my three friends with one goal in mind... SHOPPING. Oh' what fun!! We did mange to fit some sightseeing in. We looked around while in route to our next market, mall or wherever it was we were going to shop next. I couldn't have taken the trip with three better ladies - Holly, Leanna and Amy (who was 30 weeks prego!)

The four of us at a Chinese restaurant and a night shot of the city from the ferry (not the best picture but you get the idea).

We took the tram to Victoria's peak, took a tour of the city on a double decker bus, rode on a ferry, went to the Peninsula Hotel for noon tea, hit the ladies market, hit Stanley's market, hit some other kind of market, hit the men's market but it wasn't open yet so we went to a mall instead where Holly found the Esprit outlet (just for me). We ate at some awesome restaurants - Vietnamese, Thai, French, Chinese; never did try Cantonese food, but did eat at the Thai place twice because it was so delicious. We even tried out the nightlife (key word tried) in Lan Kuai Fong and Soho (sp?) where there are tons of restaurants and bars to choose from. The competition for the restaurants must be fierce because they send out their recruiters who would probably drag you to their location if it wouldn't get them in trouble. We rode in more taxi's, took the subway, rode the ferry again, but never did take a city bus. We also ventured out and found the Live Market where I was kind of grossed out to see the fresh fruit and vegetable stands standing right next to the freshly butchered pig/cows and the fish stands where the fish were still alive and flopping around.

View from Victoria's Peak and the Ladies Market.

I had to practically beg someone to take a picture with me at the Live Market. This is the entry point of the Stanley Market - it sort of had a European feel to it.

Amy trying to get some space while being bombarded by Restaurant recruiters. Amy and Holly safely out of the Secret Back room with all the good purses.

Random side notes: I left my camera case in one of the taxis and Amy (who I have mentioned was 30 weeks pregnant) was the one who chased the Taxi down for me. I was offended by a cashier at a 7/11 because she yelled at me twice. I found it funny just how much Holly, Leanna and Amy stuck out of the crowd because of their very blonde hair. The noon tea was my favorite, what could be better than drinking hot tea, eating finger sandwiches and talking about your favorite subject... our kids. Bargaining with the merchants at the markets was so much fun, when I wasn't bargaining for something for myself, I was trying to bargain for the other ladies... I probably drove them nuts. The most nervous I was on the trip was when we followed a guy up some scary stairwell to a secret room full of purses where we were then locked in until we bought something.

And the LePrell boys? Apparently they were re-arranging the living room to optimize the surround sound....leave them alone one weekend and you end up with your couch in a new spot and a not so attractive TV stand....my work is never done.

Strawberry Picking with OMS

2009-03-19T13:39:00.002+09:00

I got to take Michael strawberry picking with OMS this year. Matt was in school and I got a babysitter for Max so that Michael and I could have some good one on one time. It turned out to be a great day. What I enjoyed most was watching Michael with his friends. I found that Michael is a very well liked guy at school. My fist clue was how all the kids would yell his name trying to get him to play with them as soon as they saw he had arrived and my second clue was when I had five parents come up and say to me, "So, you're Michael's mom. We hear Michael's name all the time. (Insert their child's name here) talks about him quite a bit." But being able to watch Michael with his friends showed me why they like him so much... he's kind of wild and will do anything for a laugh.

No more training wheels

2009-03-19T12:43:00.003+09:00

Look at Matt!!!

It took a new interest in Hot Wheels, finding some knee pads and having dad around to convince him that riding his bike without training wheels would be cool and not dangerous!!

Just getting started...

Still pretty wobbly but he's got it down!!

This is Max throwing one of his many fits because Dad wouldn't let him ride...

There was some crying involved... but not much.

By the end of the evening two major events had taken place...

1) Matt was riding a two-wheeler.

2) Max finally got a ride.

Catch Up!!

2009-03-19T12:12:00.007+09:00

The time has really flown by and I just haven’t had a chance to keep up the blogging.. .not that I was good at it anyway, so we’ll do my typical quick catch up and then hopefully add some pictures later… (I did update our Picasa though)

Grandma Donna just left yesterday. She got to stay with us for 5 weeks. She was ready to get home to Grandpa and her own bed, but we could have had her stay longer. I had surgery last month so she came out to lend a couple of hands while I recovered.

Matt had a birthday. My oldest son is 6 years old!!! He’s doing great in school and is now part of the Panda Team in his class. To be apart of the Panda Team you have to go a whole month without getting in trouble. Now he would have gotten on the team sooner, but he has a handicap which is his inability to be quite, he CAN NOT stop talking. So you can see why this is such a huge accomplishment for him, we are very proud. Matt has also grown a lot the last month. I bought him a pair of jeans just last month and he has already out grown them (length wise that is... he’s still a really skinny guy).

Michael is also doing great. He’s really made a lot of changes these last couple of months. He can now climb the tree in the front yard just as fast and high as the big kids can, he made a verbal realization a few weeks ago that he figured out that animals don’t really talk like they do on TV. His best friend at school is a little girl name Lauren and she wants to marry him, but he told her that he couldn't. I’m happy to report that he’s not quite ready for marriage. :) Michael is also finally wearing big boy undies to bed… I’ll admit that not having him in underwear at night has been really hard for me, because Matt gave up diapers at night when he turned three, I was beginning to think Michael would be wearing a diaper to bed until he was 18.

Max started walking around 14 months and now is starting to run. He’s favorite time to show off his new skill is when we are near a street with cars zooming by. The biggest challenge we have with Max (other then him refusing to eat) is his drive to do EXACTLY what the other two boys are doing - He wants to ride a skate board (with the one foot on and the other pushing), he demands that he rides their bikes (the bigger the better) , he watched Michael hop around on one of those ball hop things and as soon as he was out of his high chair he drug it out of the closet and preceded to followed me around and throw it at my feet until I helped him ride it. This wouldn't be such a problem except that everything he wants to do is just impossible. He has the third child syndrome but amplified 100 times.

Stinky

2009-02-19T23:38:00.003+09:00

Lots to report on and stuff to write about, but just haven't gotten around to blogging. For instance, Max is walking now, but for this entry I'm writing a Michael story.

I picked him up at school this afternoon and since the weather was awesome today we had the windows down. As we were coming to a large intersection the nice weather was ruined by an amazing gross stench, it stunk like fresh sewage. About a mintue after I said a quick comment about it Michael starts gagging and saying "Mom, I can smell Max, he's got a gross stinky, yucky he's gross, I can smell him from a long way!" He procceded to go on and on about how he could smell Max. A pretty impressive nose considering Max was at home.

Star Wars

2009-01-24T23:24:00.002+09:00

Matthew, like all boys, has started to show interest in Star Wars....Star Wars movies, Star Wars toys, Star Wars clothes...etc. Today he informed his dad that he wanted Star Wars toys for his birthday, next Christmas, and all future holidays that involve him getting toys. When his dad told him that he used to have a lot of Star Wars toys the conversation went like this :

Dad : "Matt, I used to have all those toys....(proceeds to say the names of things I know nothing about)"

Matt : "What happened to them?!" (half expecting Steve to inform him he has been saving them for him)

Dad : "I don't know, I guess my mom got rid of them."

Matt : (disappointed) "Dad, NEXT TIME don't let her get rid of them."

Dad : "OK Matt, NEXT TIME I'll be sure she keeps them for you."

Rules to Fort Building

2009-01-24T23:09:00.002+09:00

The other day I came home and found a list of fort building rules laying on the kitchen table. Can you tell who came up with which rules.... Babysitter VS. LePrell Boys

1. clean up before we make fort

2. need animals as guards

3. need blankets

4. need some pillows

5. build quietly

6. build nicely

7. maybe sheets

8. baby room

9. no toys allowed

10. don't break the fort down

11. go though the bathroom door

12 use emergency door if fort is falling

Steve says it is good to see that fort building rules haven't changed much since he was a kid.

Strange, Gross and still cute

2009-01-04T21:32:00.010+09:00

Strange...

Over Christmas break Matt came in the house one afternoon from playing outside and it was obvious that he was on a mission.

me - "Matt what are you looking for?"

Matt - "I'm looking for that big thing of paper. Here it is I found it."

me - "What are you guys doing with it?"

Matt - "We're going to eat it."
me - "What?? You can't eat paper."
Matt - "Why not? Malik and I really like it." (he pretends to gobble it up)

Dad - "No, Matt you're not going to eat paper, you can take the paper and color, but you're not going to eat it."

Matt - "Okay" (and he puts the paper back and goes back outside)

[Very] Gross...

Michael is sitting on my lap while waiting for his turn at the barber shop. The barber shop is full and very quiet.

Mike - (burp) "I burped mom."

me - "Michael don't be rude"

Mike - (burp) "I burped again, Mommy."

me - "Seriously Michael that's gross and rude, if you feel a burp coming don't let it out."

Mike - "but mom, I have to let it come out because it's a hurty burp" (makes himself burp again, but is quiet for a moment and then looks at me and farts, he's now giggling.)

me - "Michael, you are so gross, stop it!"

Mike - (and after another slight pause he asks) "Mommy, can I pick your nose and eat it?"

Still cute...

Max still can't walk and isn't interested in figuring it out, but he is very interested in climbing. Tonight I watched him attempt to climb just about everything. We started with the stairs, then moved into the bathroom where he stood half way on the the boy's stool and did a pull-up to see over the counter. We then moved into the boy's room where he climbed the ladder- threw a fit when I took him down, but continued to try and climb on the bed by doing pull-ups on Michael's rails. When that didn't work he moved to the dressers, trying both of them, he used the little edge of the drawers to do some more pull-ups. He even tried to climb the closet door. Very cute to watch. At this rate he'll be in the Guinness book of records for the most pull-ups done by a 13 month old baby.

Max and Michael

2008-12-28T22:56:00.009+09:00

Lots of new stuff for Max today - Steve and I put the boy's beds back in bunk bed form this evening and it took Max about three seconds to figure out how to climb the ladder and he's really fast at it. I also watched him try to walk up the stairs instead of climbing them this afternoon. He stood balancing himself at the bottom of the stairs as he lifted his left foot over and over trying to place it on the next stair like he already knew how to walk, it was very entertaining to watch. He also learned how to get on the sit and spin today, watching him spin off over and over again was pretty funny. And early in the evening Steve and I watched him try over and over to put on one of my tennis shoes, it was so cute... I don't remember my other two doing that at this age.

Michael is keeping his Webkinz in the fridge these days, but I'm not real sure why. The other morning Steve opened the fridge and found all the webkinz laying on the bottom shelf... I never know when I'll see them, but I think it's funny when I do find one just "chillin".

24th Naha Marathon

2008-12-18T12:02:00.007+09:00

24th Annual Naha Marathon

You have 6 hours and 15 minutes to complest 26.2 miles

30,324 Entered

26,973 Started (19,851 men, 7,122 women)

18,654 Completed in the given amount of time (14,628 men, 4,026 women)

Fastest Man 2 hours 28 min

Fastest Woman 2 hours 43 min

and Yes we did it!!!

4:25:31 - Finished 4,140th (and 4,141st)

I know it's hard to believe when I say this was a fun race, but we had a great time. The locals lined the streets almost the whole race passing out water, ice, tea, tangerines, bananas, candy, brown sugar and they would freely spray you down with some kind of IcyHot. There was some entertainment with a few Eisa drummers, bands and lots of runners dressed up to stare at as you passed by. The first 6.5 miles of the race Steve and I were distracted with passing people, just trying to establish a position. The second 6.5 miles we were distracted with trying to figure out where the water stations were, what strategy we were going to use to get the water so we wouldn't have to stop and who we were going to get our next tangerine from. The third 6.5 miles we were distracted with our witty humor. The last 6.5 miles we were only good for the first mile, because at mile 21, something happened and after that there was nothing left that could distract us from the pain, it was adrenaline, GU and the thought that we really were about to complete our goal that helped to keep us at our race pace.

For some more pictures of crazy people running, see our family web ablbum.

Look Who Turned Four

2008-12-18T11:21:00.005+09:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!!

Michael turned four this month!! We had a Spiderman Birthday Party. He was so excited to open his presents that he didn't notice we were having just a "family party." He got nothing but super hero gifts and I'm sure he wouldn't have had it any other way. Michael is doing great. He's starting to read and write at school, but tries to hide all the new stuff he's learning this year from us. If you ask him what he did at school he will tell you nothing... "but mom, I did nothing at school, nothing, I just sat on the floor and waited for you to come and get me..." Every once in a while he'll break something out like songs or fun facts or read a simple word to surprise us. What isn't a surprise is his stubbornness - I had a teacher-parent conference with the head teacher of OMS not long ago and we talked 90% of the time of his stubbornness and how we could work with it. She also asked me who he got it from. I told him it couldn't have been from me, so it must be from his dad.

Max Turned One!!!

2008-12-02T01:38:00.012+09:00

My Max….

- - Weighs 19.9 lbs and is 29 inches long.

- Not my best eater, he is way too busy to eat and too smart for me to trick him into eating.

- - He has three teeth, two bottom and one top... not my fastest teether

- - A week after his birthday he figured out how to use the walker.

- - Two weeks after his birthday he figured out how to climb the stairs.

- - Three weeks after his birthday he got his first black eye… as of now I would say he is my bruiser; he always has a bump, scrape or bruise.

- - He figured out how to climb the slide before he figured out how to climb the stairs or us a walker

- - I predict that he’ll be walking around 15 months.

- - He loves grapes and cheese and hates everything else, oh except for cookies. The only way I can get him to eat is to have him play with a toy to keep his hands busy so he can’t block his mouth when the spoon is on the descent. The problem I have now is that all the toys are old news and they only hold his attention for two bites.

- - He still loves Matthew

- - He still a little unsure of Michael, with good reason. Michael takes his toys, pushes him over and pretends his not around when he wants to play.

- - He loves to be outside and is quick out the door when the boys are going in and out of the house.

- - He hasn't played in the toilet water for some time now, thank goodness, but he still likes to eat the cat food.

- - And he’s already trying to drop the two naps a day thing and go to one nap a day, which would actually make things a little easier for me.

- - He’s a big babbler, that’s actually an understatement. He’s a HUGE babbler, it’s like he’s come up with his own language and Matt seems to be the only one who can interpret for us. Words that are recognizable are - cheese, thank you, peekaboo, all done, mama and dada.

- - Favorite toy??? If Steve’s bluetooth mouse we use for the computer hooked up to the TV counts, then yes, he has a favorite toy.

- All the guys/boys notice his mohawk and all the girls notice his long eyelashes

- I think his eyes will be hazel, they are still pretty murky though

There you have it, a few facts about our little guy and how he’s doing… as soon as this is posted I’ll remember plenty of other stuff that I’d want the grandparents to know, but that will do for now. We love and miss you all!!!

Climbing the slide...

Trapped by his brothers...

Gearing up to blow that candle out...

It was a LEGO cake and he loved it for the first five mintues...

Octopus

2008-12-02T01:16:00.002+09:00

Most of us know that Matt will eat a lot of things most five year olds won't, just two examples are blue cheese and raw garlic. I was like 28 years old before I liked that stuff. Anyway, Matt and I have the same favorite restaurant here in Okinawa, Arin Krin or as the Americans call it, The Garlic House. My favorites are the garlic pizza and the radish salad. Matt's favorites are the garlic cheese sauce shrimp and the octopus with garlic and asparagus. What gets me about all this is the way he begs for the octopus. I took the camera this last time so you all could see... I was grossed out just looking at it, but he ate it all.

This is Michael gagging on some fried garlic.

Michael's Songs

2008-12-01T22:50:00.005+09:00

Michael surprised Steve and I the other night when he broke out into song. I got them on film over dinner, sorry about his mouth being full, I wasn't aware of it until he almost choked. I'm going to write the lyrics to his songs below because the second and third songs are pretty cute and you may just decide to memorize them yourself. :)

First song (he was singing this in response to the one I made up about him): "There is a girl his name is Barb, L is his name-o. E R N G O, E R N G O, E R N G O, and Now is his name-o"

Second Song: "Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey. Run away, run away. If you don't run away, you'll be a mouthful, on Thanksgiving day on Thanksgiving day."

Third Song: "A turkey is a funny bird, his head goes wobble wobble. The Turkey only says one word, gobble gobble gobble."

Box Cars

2008-11-15T23:17:00.006+09:00

Welcome to the world of Box Cars. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed the boys up for the AWANA Annual Box Car Grand Prix. For $6 you can purchase one of three box car kits from the church. Two are pre-cut models and the third is just a block of wood and you design your own car. Being a mom who had no clue what these were to begin with and with dad being TDY the boys got the pre-cut designs. It was at a Saturday workshop when I realized that although this is just a fun competition, a lot of people take it pretty serious. I was really impressed with a lot of the cars designs, there was a helicopter, Thomas the train, a pirate ship, a frog... My boys just painted theirs and we called it good, but to add to our story, I forgot to glue the wheel posts in place and I was sure that the wheels were going fly right off... Anyway, I just wanted to share a bunch of pictures, I hope we'll have a chance to do this again, because I know if I had enough time I could figure out how to balance the wheels and really do a sweet paint job...

Matt's car in the middle, notice the wheels... oops, sure wish I would have remembered to glue them in.

Michael's car... we've got silly frog stickers and Spiderman stickers to make it look tough.

When you register your car they ask you if it has a name... Matt was quick to name his "Lightning Fast." He's the red name in the picture, you can't see it very well. Michael cracked me up when he named his... "Michael" Good name for a car too.

This is the race way, at the end where the picture cuts off is a motion sensitive timer.

Girls

2008-11-07T21:32:00.003+09:00

Matt got off the bus yesterday telling me that he was going to have to learn to run really fast when he was older... I'm thinking what a strange first thing to say after getting off the bus, usually we talk about what color light he's gotten and what special activity they did for the day, so I have to ask...

Me - "What do you mean Matt, you have to learn to run fast when you're older?"
Matt - "It's because mom, there's these two girls sitting behind me and Logan and they said they wanted to marry us, so I have to learn to run really fast when I'm older so I can get away from them, because I'm gonna be married to you."

11 MONTHS!

2008-11-05T20:35:00.003+09:00

Max is 11 months and five days old... He's doing well, crawling everywhere, getting into all the boy's stuff and really starting to show more of his personality - which is a clown. Below I put what are currently his five favorite things to do... please notice I didn't put a picture of him in the high chair - he is still not a big eater but at least he's finally eating.

I'd say Max's number 1 favorite thing is crawling around in the yard. He is really into the bikes, but as of late he has taken a big liking to the dirt in the flower garden...

The number 2 favorite is the bath - he loves water. I probably could have put that his number 2 favorite thing is playing in the toilet (I haven't even tried to get a picture of him splashing in the commode because that is just gross). Or, I probably could put that his number 2 favorite thing is Page's water because he loves to play in that too... Okay, bottom line is he loves water.

Number 3 favorite is Page, he is always, I mean ALWAYS, crawling after her. He also loves Page's food - he manages to eat at least one piece a day. What cracks me up is he knows that he is not to touch Page's dishes, so when he gets close enough, he snatches a handfull of her food and tries to shove it in his mouth before I can get to him... it's a game and he finds it hilarious.

Number 4 favorite is The Bobo Brothers. Some of you may be wondering why they aren't higher on Max's list. Playing with the boys is a huge highlight for Max, but over stimulation takes over after about 40 minutes. There is only so much a baby can take when towers of pillows are landing on your head, when you're being dragged around like a rag doll, or when you're constantly being put into traps that after working so hard to escape you find yourself right back in. Max is like a moving toy for the boys.

His number 5 favorite is the stroller. In the last couple of weeks the weather has cooled down enough that I am comfortable with taking Max out for some long runs. He's a great running partner.

Halloween

2008-11-02T22:15:00.004+09:00

I'm not real big on Halloween and I never really try hard to find the boys costumes. I usually end up borrowing costumes at the last minute, but not this year... Matt found his costume at the thrift shop and I was more then happy to get if for him, being that it cost 25 cents. My thoughts were that it would make a nice addition to the costume box, but Matt insisted that it be his Halloween costume... I told him that Grandma Peggy would be so proud of him for wanting to be a football player.... What I didn't tell him is that most would probably laugh a little when they saw him.

Michael had to be Superman... I think he was Superman last year too. I put his costume together off the fly and was impressed with my improvising. We had the cape and red leggings, but added pants from a pair of superman pajamas and the blue rain boots to complete his outfit. Michael thought he was so cool... he's still convinced that he's Superman.

Max didn't dress up or get to stick around for all the fun. I put him to bed as soon as I was done taking the boys trick or treating... which was down the street and back.

We handed out candy and the boys ran around with the glow sticks they got from the MP's. One of our neighbors put up a small haunted house in his front yard and the boys ran through it about a 100 times... If you are wondering, that wasn't a good idea, Michael had nightmares that night and had to sleep with me with a light on. I didn't get much sleep that night. So other than that we had a good time hanging out with the neighbors and eating a lot of candy... yeah, the other thing I did that wasn't so smart. I told the boys they could eat as much candy as they wanted. I learned that Michael has a stopping point of about three candies, while Matt has no stopping point.

A five year olds vote

2008-10-15T22:37:00.000+09:00

I honestly am not sure where this came from, if they are talking politics at school or if Matt listens to the radio news better then I thought he did, but yesterday at dinner Matt asked me who I was going to vote for for president and then proceeded to tell me that he was going to vote for McCain....

So Close

2008-10-06T20:04:00.002+09:00

Matt was so close to admitting that I'm "cooler" then his dad today. On the way home from dropping Michael off to school Matt was asking me a ton of questions about a race I ran this last weekend. He mostly wanted to know if I won a trophy and if I ever do can he have it. Seeing that he's kind of proud of me I say...

"Matt, do you think I'm pretty cool since I ran that race?"

"Yeah mom.... but you're not cooler then dad."

"Oh, I'm not huh, why not?"

"Well, I'm a pretty good judge of human beings and dad's a human being."

hiding spots

2008-10-04T12:08:00.003+09:00

The boys found a great hiding place... the REFRIGERATOR.

Found them this morning taking turns sitting in the fridge and closing the door.

Ten Months!!

2008-10-02T20:01:00.007+09:00

Max has started crawling!!

At about nine and half months old Max finally started rolling over in both directions and two weeks later on the day he turned 10 months old he finally started to crawl!! He's been crawling for about three whole days now and is already starting to test his limits and I love it... OK, I know that I won't be loving it when he's all over the place and crawling up the stairs, but for now it is precious. When Matt saw Max take his first couple of steps he ran out the door to tell all the neighbors and is still telling everyone the big news. It has been a lot of fu n watching Max figure this whole thing out.

Max is also starting to show a little more attitude, throwing little tantrums over baths is becoming the norm. The first time it happened I was completely surprised. My Max is so easy going and never cries that when he started crying and throwing himself after leaving the Bobo Brother's in the tub I was shocked.

You know that the Bobo Brother's have made Max nervous in this picture because he's sucking his thumb.

Now that Max is crawling Matt has taken a new interest in him. He sets toys just out of reach and watches Max crawl to them and just as Max is about to get a hold of it he moves the toy out of reach again and once they've reached the carpets edge he picks Max up and they start all over. It's pretty funny to watch.

I love the way he thinks.

2008-09-26T20:20:00.003+09:00

Tonight I put a movie on the for the Bobo Brothers and headed up stairs to nurse Max and put him down for the night. Below is the quick conversation I had with Matt before leaving him and the other monkey down stairs.

me - "Boys, I'll be up stairs nursing Max if anything happens."
Matt - "Like what mom?"
me - "I don't know, just know I'll be upstairs.
Matt - "What do you mean?"
me - "I don' know, say if Michael were to get hurt or something, you'll know where I am so you can come and get me."
Matt - "Oh, and if a meteor was coming down from the sky? And it is going to crash down on us? I would know were you are and should go and get you? "
me - "ummm, yeah, definitely come and get me."

2008-09-21T15:18:00.002+09:00

NO BABIES WERE INJURED DURING THE FILMING OF THIS VIDEO.

Just stuff

2008-09-21T10:33:00.004+09:00

I know Matt has grown this summer because every time I turn around I knock him in the head with my elbow. He also knocks his head on door knobs a lot... I think we are both adjusting to his new height.

This year for kindergarten we got Matt his first pair of tennis shoe with shoe strings. At OMS you have to have velcro (it's a Japanese thing, easy to get your shoes on and off I guess). I assume he'll be tying his shoes by the end of year, but right now he just ties them in knots and weaves them in and out to make something that resembles a bow. He tells me he likes his knots better because the bows are to girly.

The copy game. I think it's the one line every Mother will hear if you have more than one child-- "Mom, (insert name here) is copying me." Michael is a pro and it drives Matthew crazy, but one evening Matt got smart and changed it up. It went like this; "Michael! Stop copying me!" Michael repeats. "Mom, Michael keeps copying me!" Michael repeats, but is smart and puts Matt's name in for his... not too bad for a three year old. "Fine Michael! Then I'm going to copy you!" Michael repeats. Then it started... Matt says "OK?" Michael repeats and no joke, for like five minutes they went back and forth "OK?" "OK?" "OK?" "OK?" It was enough to make me want to poke my eyes out.

I've learned that just keeping your kids from watching some cartoon will not keep them from it. Michael apparently has a friend at school who loves the Power Rangers and Michael knows all about them now and I can honestly say we have never watched an episode. He tells me he's the Red one, I'm the Pink one and Dad is the Black one, we fight bad guys and are really strong. Lately, he has been getting in trouble for fighting at school, apparently they are pretending to be Power Rangers, but Michael has proved to me and his brother that he doesn't know how to pretend fight. He's full force and his school mate found out the hard way after Michael kicked him in the crotch. What am I going to do with him??

Look who's 33!!

2008-09-15T23:15:00.000+09:00

Steve turned 33 this last weekend. I took the boys to the BX and let them each choose a gift for their dad. As you can see Michael got him Connect Four, a nice choice. While Matt got him a flying moth that unfortunately doesn't fly. Max got him a special cup for his special smoothies. The boys had fun, but were disappointed that we didn't get him a pinata.

That's a fire hazard!!! But some excellent cake decorating done by Matt.

Kindergarten update

2008-09-12T21:59:00.002+09:00

Matt has successfully made it through the first couple weeks of kindergarten. I'm pretty sure he doesn't care for it much and he's asked a few times to go back to OMS with Michael. Ms. Parker hasn't shown any slack towards Matt and he has sat out all but two recesses for the last two weeks - but we did end this week on a high note, so that was nice. As of now I can't really tell you anything about his class. Parents aren't allowed to visit for the first two months and Matt is not one for answering any of my daily questions. I do know that he has a good friend named Luke. The first few days they got in trouble together a lot for talking, I'm guessing this last week Ms. Parker has officially separated them. Luke gained a lot of respect from Matt when he told him that he was Iron Man and that he could fly. Matt told Luke that he was a robot that looks just like him (himself) and that he can bang things. I think the teacher may have her hands full with these two.

The only things I can say Matt has learned these last few weeks are a few Spanish phrases, maybe one or two of the classroom rules and that you don't "have to" eat hot lunch. Week three starts off with class pictures already.

Kindergarten

2008-09-05T12:31:00.005+09:00

Lining up for the bus, looking like a tennis player. He has to wear the visor for the first couple of weeks until he remembers where to go after getting off the bus, it has his teacher's name on it.

Just waiting for the rest of the kids to find their seats, looking like one of the big kids.

My first born started public school this year... wow!! We did it, we took the plunge and took him out of OMS and stuck him in the DoDDs school system. I still wish he was going to OMS, but I don't always get what I want. So the first day for kindergartners was this last Wednesday. They start a week later than the older students, because it gives the teachers time to do home visits. Matt's teacher is Ms. Parker. She's from Oklahoma and has been teaching for over thirty years. She seems nice, but stern... Matt needs stern.

I had planed on taking Matt to school for his first day, but he wanted to ride the bus so badly that I finally gave in. I have to be honest I was really looking forward to walking him to his class, hugging him goodbye and walking away with tears in my eyes. Instead, I walked him to the bus stop, talked with all the veteran moms and dads while he stood in line waiting to for the bus to come. I of course took the camera to document such a big day in Matt's life and was totally called out as "the new mom at the bus stop." I didn't let the jeering stop me though and I took a million pictures.

So, after all the kids were on the bus and we (the parents) had waved to them for the 1,000,000,000 time and the bus finally pulled away, out of nowhere one of the dads yells out, "FREEDOM!" All the other parents started cheering and then they left as if nothing had happened. It was pretty funny, but I was still a little emotional thinking about how my little boy is getting so big and how I didn't even get to take him to his first day of school and I started to tear up, that is until my neighbor looks over and says, "What? You gonna cry?"

Matt has been to school two days, the first day he got a green light. Means he was good all day. The second day he had a red light, no play ground time and he had a note sent home... and it's only the second day!!

Nine months

2008-09-02T21:47:00.011+09:00

Just hanging out with the Bobo Brothers.

I wanted you to see how cute he is when he's mad.

More fun in the sun.

It's official I have become the typical blogger... I started out strong, a blog a week and now it's become a blog a month. This last month has just been a little crazy and blogging has not been a priority, but really I have no excuse. I'm sure I have lost all my loyal lurkers. I know how it feels to frequently check a blog, only to find it not updated for over a month, so I understand, but to all my friends out there who blog, don't be a lame-o like me, just WRITE.

So here we are, Max is nine months old. Only three more months and he'll be a whole year old (also, three more months and we'll be in the Christmas season!!) I honestly think the older you get the faster time goes.... but who am I to make that statement, I'm in my prime 30's... that question is more suitable for the grandparents or my sisters... (let's find out if they read my blog)

But back to Max, he's doing great, still not getting up on all fours and still not rolling around. We are now getting into the realm of, "well, lets just watch and see, he may just be one of those late bloomers..." He's getting pretty behind with his gross motor skills, but as I've read and have been told by the pediatricians, "it's normal, especially for boys." Max is still a lean machine, his figure hasn't filled out much and his appetite hasn't increased since his last well baby check, but I have also been informed that all that is normal too and that I stress to much about it, yeah, thanks Doctor. The other issue discussed today in our well baby appointment was feet. Yes, you read it right, feet. What would be another LePrell boy if we had no orthopedic problems to fix. As of now we are in the clear, but Max's probability of having some "heel, cord" problems are high. The doctor of course said it's too soon to tell, but after I told her about my other two, her tone changed and it seems that she thinks there will be correction needed down the road. So all you prayer warriors out there, pray that nothing needs to be fixed and if there is something to be fixed pray that the Naval Hospital will have a Dr. who is familiar with casting little ones.

OK, other than the eating and the slow gross motor development. Max is doing awesome. He is still jabbering all the time, trying to out talk the Bobo Brothers already. He's so so so nosey. Constantly giving himself whiplash trying to look around and very grabby, if it's near it's in his hands, whatever it may be. Steve and I have discussed that maybe his slow motor skill development is a blessing because otherwise we would be in some big trouble. Max is also giving kisses. It's the all open mouth, stick out the tongue kind of baby kiss. If you can handle baby spit then you'd totally want to receive one of his kisses. He's also starting to wave bye bye and officially has stranger anxiety, no new people or places please...

Anyway, I know I haven't blogged in a month and I can't make up for it with one huge entry, no one but the grandma's (and only when they're not busy) like to read the long blogs.

8 months

2008-08-06T22:39:00.003+09:00

Here he is again, 8 months and counting. Max is doing great. He’s creating a great relationship with Matthew, it mostly consist of Max laughing at Matt’s “in your face” playing techniques and pulling Matt’s hair when he is in reach. Max’s relationship with Michal is just starting to blossom. Michael is still a little on the jealous side, but jumps in to play when Matt is giving Max his attention. Max’s bottom teeth FINALLY popped through. If he is like the other two boys his top two teeth will come in nice and slow and then the next six will come in all at once, Oh’ the fun that always is. Max is sitting up really well and rolling over but still not getting up on all fours. I put him on his belly and he either rolls over or lays there sucking his thumb. I have yet to find a toy that perks his interest when he’s on his belly…. I’ll have to get the remote control or the phone, aren’t those what babies like to play with most anyway?? I have no stats to report this month but I’m sure he hasn’t gained much weight from last month, being he isn’t a big eater. He’s just starting to like nursing again, at least in the mornings and evenings, in the afternoon we are using the straw, but he’s pretty much got the skills to use a cup now, which is good because all he likes to do now with the straw is blow bubbles, yes very cute but annoying. With Matt in swimming lessons Max has had his fair share of pool time this summer. He loves the water and I’ve just started noticing that he’s sporting a little bit of a tan, we love that vitamin D, but we must be in the sun a little too much. As for food, we’re pretty much in the phase where anything goes. He loves his cheerios, cheese and grapes. It’s a challenge for him to get them to his mouth, but one that’s very entertaining to watch. That small piece of food just can’t seem to stay between his thumb and finger, it slips right back into his fist just as he goes to put it in his mouth and he ends up sucking his thumb. Then all efforts are made to suck that little piece of food up and through his thumb. For the rest of his solid experiences, his favorites are applesauce, zucchini and peas, while he still hates avocados and carrots. We only have the rest of this month and then the boys are back to school. We are going on one more trip to Oura Wan Beach and then our summer will be over. I think Max is going to really miss having his brothers around once they’re in school. He loves the nonstop action and entertainment.

What was I thinking??

2008-08-06T20:23:00.003+09:00

These are by far the worst cups ever sold and the stupidest thing I have ever bought!!

So you can understand my pain, I’ve posted a little video. Let me just say that the shaking going on in the video is mild, they tend to shake them up and down, in circles, tip them over…. All to see the little sparkly glitter snow all over spider man. What was I thinking!? I’m sure who ever came up with this cup design is laughing his head off.

Oura Wan Beach

2008-07-14T14:21:00.004+09:00

Oura Wan Beach

Max in his beach tub

Floating around

Steve took a few days off after the 4th of July so we could enjoy some good family time. We went to Oura Wan Beach and stayed in their cottages. Oura Wan Beach is one of my favorite places to go. It's located on a little Marine base just North of us, Camp Schwab, the base is tiny and kind of in the middle of nowhere. There's not much to do for the Marines stationed there but to play beach volleyball and work. The base happens to have nine awesome cottages for little get aways and they are so, so comfortable. The beach is awesome, the seaweed still floats around BUT, it's got real sand, not huge chunks of coral, water shoes or no water shoes... it doesn't matter. The beach is in a little bay so the waves don't get huge, it's probably the closest thing I'll get to a lake around here. We started the day off building our our crab jail/sand castle and ended the day pretending to be jellyfish. The Bobo brothers were out all day while the second half of the day Steve and I took turns with Max up at the cottage, that was genius on our part. Lots of funny things were said while we were up there but the only one I can remember is a comment made by Michael. We were floating in the water, I was a jelly fish, Matt was a shark and Michael was a baby shark. I was tired of being eaten by the sharks so I said "Michael let's play something else, I'm tired of this game," and Michael responds back... "OK, my jelly fish friend, what should we do next?" It really was so cute!!! We also felt a pretty big earth quake while we were in the cottage. We started to hear these loud rattling noises and they kept getting louder and louder. I looked out the window and remember thinking I could see the trees moving and I had a weird dizzy sensation, but that was about it, it was really quite strange. It lasted long enough that we had time to get up, look outside and contemplate, "should we be doing something, like maybe take cover?" It was pretty crazy.

Anyway, our weekend was awesome, the weather was awesome, the water felt awesome, the cottage was awesome and the boys... well, they were so close to being awesome. We hope for a repeat awesome stay when we go back up for Labor Day.

rhyming

2008-07-04T22:39:00.002+09:00

One of the things Matt enjoys doing right now is walking around the house rhyming words. Sometimes he rhymes words properly sometimes he makes them up. Michael's thing is to sing a song and change the last word to something that rhymes, again, sometimes the words are made up. So, the other day Matt is walking around the house rhyming words with duck. Duck, truck, smuck and then *uck... Later that same day Michael is at the table playing singing the Farmer in the dell, again changing the last word dell to a rhyming word, dell became hell in no time at all. I'm just glad this all happened while we were at home and not out.

Okinawa Weather

2008-07-02T20:34:00.004+09:00

That looks like so much fun, you can't help but want to be out there with them!!

The sun was hot, the sky was bright blue and the clouds were scarce. Then, out of nowhere it starts pouring rain and after 20-30 minutes of torrential rain pour, like magic, it stopped. The clouds were gone and the hot sun and blue sky were back.

7 months old

2008-07-02T00:25:00.005+09:00

Seven months already... seriously, the time is just flying by. Max is doing great, starting to show a little of his own personality now and is constantly entertained by the Bobo Brothers. One of Max's favorite things is going down or up the stairs when following the boys. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but he thinks it's absolutely hilarious. We had a doctor's appointment this morning, for a weight check and he is back on course. He weighed in at 17.12, so we're back up to the 50%. I gave up on him ever settling back into nursing, but he wouldn't take a bottle or cup so we tried a straw. Now for the two meals he wanted to always skip, he sips his milk and has some solids. He is now taking in 5-7 more ounces of breast milk a day, I really was starving him!!! He doesn't have any teeth yet and could care less about rolling around, I guess being able to play with toys while sitting up is new enough for now. I forgot to mention, he's still a big thumb sucker, only now he's added his blanket or what ever cloth he can get his hands on into the mix. It is soooo cute!!!!

Summer Blast

2008-06-29T23:04:00.001+09:00

What a way to start the summer off!!
Some parents in the neighborhood planed a summer blast for all the kids a couple of weeks ago. We were out in the sun from 0800 to 2000.... and we were the first family to call it quits! Everyone else ended the day with a movie on the lawn... projected on one of the walls of our conveniently large, white, square homes. The boys had a blast, Matt ate at least seven snow cones and I don't think Michael left the little pool and slide except to eat and dunk me in the water tank...boy was that exciting. I don't believe I've ever seen Michael that excited before, the look on his face as I went into the water was priceless. Steve spent most the morning filling water balloons and Max spent his time in the pool or in his excersaucer under the shade.

The double water slide... this thing was awesome.

Our central location, food drinks, shade....

The water tank

Steve giving a tutorial on how to launch water balloons

Matt has the same dancing skills as his father

2008-06-12T20:31:00.003+09:00

This is Matt during the rehearsal for his school's year end program. My filming is bad but keep your eye on him, because it's pretty funny.

Genetic, learned or both

2008-06-12T14:57:00.004+09:00

Remember my Mean mom post? Well, I have a repeat.

My neighbor brought over another jalapeno pepper for me and Steve. I sat it on the counter and walked away. I'm now standing on the far side of the dinning area, watching and listening to the boys in the kitchen. As the boys are playing Matt sees the pepper, he picks it up and hands it to Michael and says, "Look Michael a pepper, you want it?" Michael grabs the pepper and asks "It is a pepper?" "Yep, Michael, it's a green pepper, your favorite, you should eat it." Michael was convinced and as he's putting it in his mouth I'm running over to him, yelling "NO! NO! DON'T EAT IT, MICHAEL!" I grabbed the pepper and as I'm examining the teeth marks I look up to see Matt grinning from ear to ear and raising his eyebrows.

6 months

2008-06-01T22:10:00.001+09:00

Here he is, 6 months old. There really isn't much to report on. The time is just passing by so quickly that it seems the months goes by in about half the time they should. As you can see from the pictures we've started solids. With Max, we're taking a different route with the baby food and making it our selves this time around. We've started with home made cereal, which consists of brown rice blended into powder form and then steamed, but he hasn't quite gotten down the concept of the spoon, so I'm not sure if he really likes it or not. At the doctor's office for his well baby appointment he weighed in at 15 pounds 4 oz. and was 26.5 inches long. In the 25% for both categories, so far he's turning out to be the smallest of our three boys, the doctor wasn't real pleased with is weight gain. I'm not sure what to blame it on though. Are we too busy and I'm not offering him food often enough? Is it that he's just going to be smaller? Or could it be that fact that he doesn't want anything to do with me when it comes time to eat? The doctor said it most likely is because he has a slight fever and a double ear infection.! Yeah, my poor Max! He sure was a real trouper in handling the pain and discomfort, because I had no clue. We're on an antibiotic now and hopefully once he's feeling better he'll feel like nursing again, because as we all know, nothing is worse then having a baby who isn't that interested in eating. So, other then finally having to deal with him being sick, all is well. His favorites right now are baths, the exersaucer and a number one beaded necklace of Michael's. I've started to let Matt hold him... which is actually a pretty scary site, I'm sure that's not real surprising to you though. Matt and Michael both really enjoy playing the slobber game with him. It's where I pretend Max is tackling the boys and I let his drool dribble onto them, it's actually a lot of fun, until some of Max's drool really touches them. Then they tend to freak out a bit. I'm sure they'll get used to it, because it will only get worse once he's teething.

Mean Mom

2008-05-22T22:16:00.007+09:00

It's been awhile since I last posted anything and I blame it on our Internet. Well, lets blame it on Vonage, but Steve was able to solve half my problems from Alaska. I now have working Internet but no Vonage.

So on to my blog. How mean am I????

I've probably have told most of you about what Matt will eat. He is one of the only five year olds that I know who eats raw onions, raw garlic, blue cheese, green olives (he really likes the garlic stuffed), octopus, bell peppers... I could go on and on, anyway, he's got the taste buds of his father. He likes the spicy stuff too (but not the really spicy stuff). Today my neighbor came over to show off the fruits of her garden, a jalapeno pepper. Matt was standing there and I told him he should try it... he took it, looked it over and then bit off the tip. After I commented on how little the first bite was Matt took a second bite and about a split second later he is spitting out a seed and rubbing his tongue. I think it burned for about 15 more minutes, poor guy. He asked me about ten times, "mom, when is it going to stop burning?"

So let me ask again, how mean was I?

Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-04T22:53:00.002+09:00

Yep, Happy Birthday to ME!!! I’m thirty years old tomorrow or for you in the States, I’ll be thirty on Monday... Anyway, Since this was my last year to belong to the young and charming 20’s group, I took the liberty of giving a pretty hard time to a few of my friends and my two sisters who are already in their thirties. Now I’d like to apologize. I’m sorry I made fun of you all for being SO old, I honestly didn’t mean anything I said and now that I’m officially part of the thirty’s club I hope you’ll accept me with open arms. ;o)

I’m actually relieved to be turning thirty this year. I got tired of hearing comments like, “Really? You’re only 29?... I didn’t know you were still in your twenties.” So now I’m thirty and proud of it!!! Happy Birthday to me!

Black Bush

2008-04-30T22:18:00.004+09:00

When will I learn to keep the camera horizontal when filming??? This is Matthew's interpretation of a black bush.

The other afternoon Matt came running in the house telling me, "Mom, I need to change my cloths right now into something black." Five minutes later he comes down the stairs in this navy blue outfit. I cut the video short, but after he showed me the tree, he continued to stand against the wall completely still and quite for about two minutes. This camouflage stuff is no joke!

Five Months

2008-04-30T21:12:00.004+09:00

Max is doing great and still an easy baby. Let’s see, what has he been up to??? Well, since the last post Steve and I have seen him roll over tons of times. He now does this thing where he tucks his shoulder and pulls his knee in so that when we go to put him on his belly he’ll flip right on to his back, it’s pretty funny. He loves to be tickled under his chin(s) and has figured out that his dad is a pretty funny guy. Max also had his first trip to the flight line and slept through the whole thing. He is starting to enjoy his exerscauser more and stays pretty busy looking at and grabbing at all its toys. He likes to sit at the table with me and the boys in his Bumbo seat during dinner and likes reading bed time stories with us because he is finally close enough to touch the boys, he really likes their ears. He has not gotten sick yet (which Steve and I find amazing), even when Michael got the flu and had a temperature of 105 , but he has had his first case of pink eye. Luckily he was the only one in the house to get it. His eyes are still a dark blue/gray, but Steve and I both know it’s only a matter of time before they turn brown. We just wonder why it’s taking so long. Max has finally made peace with his car seat and will happily hang out in his crib in the mornings so I can get an extra hour of sleep, I look forward to this every Saturday.

Sleeping on the flight line.

Spring Break

2008-04-16T08:43:00.003+09:00

The boys had spring break last week. Here's a quick overview:

I did no house work

I did my best to stay out of the kitchen

I let the boys watch the Magic school bus everyday, until I bought a new Little Einstein's video, then they watched that everyday.

They went to bed late every night.

We had a camp out in the living room.

We got doughnuts...three times.

We had ice cream....ok, I had ice cream.

I bought Candy from the shoppette. (a lot)

We ate a batch of popcorn everyday. Matt got really good at measuring the corn kernels, pouring the oil and starting the microwave, but he is still working on not burning it.

We had a few water fights with all the neighborhood kids.

We set up the slip in slide down our really steep hill.

We spent a couple hours, on two occasions, at BK's playground.

The boys built a tree fort with some friends, complete with painted branches, leaves for beds, a kitchen with real food and a working bathroom... this is when I strongly suggested an outhouse and then turned to Matthew and said "DO NOT EAT THAT FOOD!"

Michael can now climb "really high" in the front yard tree. He's extremely proud of himself.

A whole afternoon was dedicated to making snake warning signs and placing them on every door and on every light post.

Steve and I schooled the neighborhood boys in basketball. Matt was on Steve's team and never really got the concept of "DON'T RUN WITH THE BALL!"

I got a nice lesson on who's who in the transformer world. (No pop-quizzes please.)

And the finale.. drum roll please... Steve and I finally witnessed Max rolling over (but just once).

Four Months

2008-04-01T19:05:00.004+09:00

Here he is, four months old. We had our well baby appointment today and he weighed in at 15.1 lbs. and was 25 inches long, 50% percentile for both. The doctor said he's perfectly healthy... So I can rest easy for the next couple of months. This little guy is still full of smiles and loves to laugh. He is doing this dinosaur shriek when ever he gets excited now, he started blowing little raspberries last week, he's batting and trying to grab things and I actually think he's responding to his name. Although, I'm not sure if my other two really now their names, so this possibly could be false information. :) He is officially a right handed thumb sucker and if he can't get to his right hand he would prefer his middle and pointer finger together on the left. He is also rolling over, only Steve and I have yet to see it, due to the fact that he likes to do it at 3 in the morning (fun times!). At four months, I would say he's laid back and easy. At four months, Steve would say, he is "Captain Insano" (he gives Steve a hard time when I'm not around.)

Close One

2008-03-26T08:18:00.002+09:00

This morning while getting the boys lunches ready for school I managed to knock a steak knife off the counter where it ended up landing sharp point down right between two of my toes. Anyone who might be able to recall my ever so not attractive feet would understand just how amazing this is. My toes look like little sausages squished together. Truly this was a miracle.

Happy Easter!!!

2008-03-24T20:38:00.004+09:00

What a weekend!!! Fun filled with lots of eggs and candy. The highlight for me was Saturday when we dyed eggs and had a night egg hunt "in the deep woods" with about 20 other kids from the neighborhood. We also had a squadron and a OMS egg hunt so we are overloaded with plastic eggs and the candy jar is full of chocolate.

Nice Easter egg basket Matt.

Michael managed to color one egg in the thirty minutes we took dying them... but his egg was the prettiest.

2008-03-14T09:30:00.003+09:00

Ok, I know two videos may seem a bit much, but I'm sure the Grandma's won't mind. With that being said here is our Max, laughing it up with dad.

No Respect

2008-03-13T14:14:00.004+09:00

Ok...dad post again. Can someone please explain this to me.....I've heard of children going to their dads after being told no by their moms and vice versa, but the following events leave me baffled...

Michael : "Dad, can I have a juice box?"
Dad : "Sure Michael, go ahead"
Michael : "I'll ask mom......Mom can I have a juice box?"

approximately 15 minutes later....

Matthew : "Dad, can I go outside and play?"
Dad : "Sure Matt, go ahead"
Matthew: "I'll ask mom to make sure, Mom can I go out and play?"

Now, I know that I just got back from a 5 week TDY, but have I lost all parental authority? What does a parent have to do to get so little respect that a child will go looking for a more authoritative answer even AFTER getting the answer they were hoping for in the first place! All I can say is Barb must run a pretty tight ship.

67th Fighting Cock Pride.

2008-03-11T21:32:00.004+09:00

Here's a picture for my Okinawa scrapbook.... Well, at least it would be if I were to ever scrapbook again. Steve with his two little mini-me's and a mini-trainee.

I'm sure they feel as cool as they look. Thanks to Grandma Donna for down sizing another one of Steve's old flightsuits and for buying them the superhero patches. The patches just crack me up because they pretend to be Superman and Batman all the time!!! What is cooler than a fighter pilot super hero??

(Thanks Kristen for Max's little Cock outfit!)

Max is Three Months!

2008-03-07T09:45:00.007+09:00

Well, he was two weeks ago.... This entry is a little late.

Here he is, my little, lovable, cuddly, cute Maximus.

At three months he's a big talker, already competing with Matt. We could be in trouble in the future, because Michael is no longer quiet and content with Matt doing all the talking. Now we have Max where there are periods throughout the day that he's telling story after story. I'll have to try and get him on film sometime, because it's so sweet to see. At three months he's doing well, still a sweet baby who loves his momma. He is starting to notice the boys more and more. I would say Matt is his favorite only because anytime Michael plays with him he is all up in his face and I think it actually scares Max a bit. I'm sure that will not last too much longer, I can tell that Max is already starting to get used to Michael's high energy. We'll be back in just a couple of weeks with the results of Max's four month well baby's appointment.

Quick one liners

2008-02-22T21:54:00.006+09:00

Michael - "Mom! Mom when I'm five I'm going to have five eyes!"

Matthew - "Dad, you know mom is on TV exercising?"

"Yeah Matt I heard, I'd like to see it."

"She looks fat." (thanks Matt, that's real funny!)

Matt and Michael playing video games. They are always pretending to be someone. Watch out because we have two Darth Vader's at our house.

Matt turned Five!!

2008-02-22T20:58:00.011+09:00

Matt's first birthday. What a cute baby he was!!!

His fifth birthday and an all boy party.

I was almost not invited because I'm a girl.

It's hard for me to believe that Matt is five years old already. We had our first kind of real birthday party this year. I did my best to avoid having to invite his whole class but it was kind of hard. Matt was telling his friends weeks out that he was having a party at Mona Jungle and that everyone was invited. Luckily Matt wasn't to disappointed with just a small BBQ at the house with a mix match theme... Batman costumes, Darth Vader party favors and a Transformer cake. With a short relay race, a pinata and some cake and ice cream he had a wonderful time. I still can't believe that I have a five year old!

Perthes Update

2008-02-08T08:41:00.000+09:00

Matt had another follow up appointment for his perthes. I go into every appointment fired up about something. Poor Dr. Humble, I don't give him much slack and this time I was upset over the brace. Matthew has been in the brace for 8 months now and for the last month he has had constant bruising around his waist. The appointment started off normal, Dr. Humble looked over Matt's movement and flexibility, asked him questions, which is always interesting, because I never know what Matt is going to say, then we went to look over the new x-rays, here is where my negative attitude changed, and I forgot all about being mad at Dr. Humble. The bone is "compounding," (harding) and the best news ever..... WE ARE DONE WITH THE BRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I told Matt the awesome news his face kind of went blank, it took a moment for everything to register, I wish you could have seen the excitement in his face when he figured it all out. I could tell he wanted to jump up and down and yell, but instead he just raised both his hands, gave a little jump and said "Yes!!" then ran over to Dr. Humble and told him thank you. He cracked me up, because the next words out of his mouth were "mom, lets go home so I can give it a try!" So we did, we went home and he gave it a try... running, jumping and playing outside without his brace.

The only thing I'm going to miss about that brace is the handicap pass that came along with it. Having a handicap pass is like gold, we're practically VIPs here. We get to park closer to the BX and Commissary then the Generals. Plus, the pass just didn't apply to on base locations, but we flashed that thing all over the island. We never had a hard time finding a place to park!

My Superbowl Commercials.

2008-02-04T20:22:00.000+09:00

OK, Max and I did manage to watch a good part of the game, mostly the fourth quarter where I stood in front of our computer screen bouncing him where he could watch too. Grandma Peggy, you are not only going to be excited about the Giant’s great win, but also that your grandson got a kick out of watching the game too. I’m sure he was cheering for the Giants, so no need to worry. Well, Steve and I decided not to get cable when we moved here, so I didn’t get to see a single Superbowl commercial. I got to watch the beloved AFN (Armed Force Network) commercials. If you haven’t had the privilege of seeing an AFN commercial you may not completely get the full feel of my list, but regardless here’s a small list of the commercial topics that I sat (well, stood) and painfully had to watch.

**If you wear sandals while mowing the lawn you could trip - Protect your feet while mowing the lawn
**It’s cool to look stylish, so use sun protection – It’s always in style
**Credit cards – just as addictive as crack
**MPS reminder – You must use a really big, thick marker to block out all unnecessary markings on your package before your turn at the window, or a football referee is going to blow his whistle at you and the commentators in your head aren’t going to stop talking.
**Clark got to go on his big adventure with Louise because Clark was a good man, one who always volunteered – Every community needs volunteers
**Review of the academic requirements for graduating HS
**Smokeless tobacco – it can turn the ladies away
**It’s a real ‘drag’ to always find your parents smoking in the bathroom.
**Your athletic performance WILL increase with stretching
**If single and serving in another country, you really should learn your host country’s language, because you’re going to look like a real dork if you ever get a date – Respect your host country
**Don’t send the family your sponsoring a sample of the cultural food through the mail – See your Family Advocacy for help and information

Slumber Party

2008-02-02T20:11:00.000+09:00

Is spending all day, everyday together not enough??