For The Guys out there.....

Dave loves to fish and goes as often as he can. He goes everywhere but this weekend he went to the Tennessee River. It was flooded but the fishing wasn't bad. I love that he has something to do after a long week of work. A barge.

This is most often the end result of fishing for Dave also. He never wears sunscreen. He looked super awesome from the stand in his suit the next day, I made fun of him.

CASSIDY

   Back in February Dave went to Japan for 3 weeks. He goes once a year and this year the trip included a short trip to China. One day while talking to Cassidy on the phone, she told me that Bo was starting his ICU rotation and would be gone pretty much all the time. Since we live closer together now, she hoped in the car and came on down for a long weekend. I love Cassidy and her kids. I love that we are related now and can hang out anytime we want without worrying about over staying our welcome, because with family there is no time limit. I love it! I think we only got out of our pj's 1 day, to go to the Zoo. Other that that we watched movies, played games and just hung out. The kids had a blast, we let them run wild. It was a great break to have her here while Dave was gone.  

   They are opening a Dinosaur exhibit and we saw this dinosaur that was roped off down this path, and we had to check it out. Then we had to climb on it, and then we had to take pictures. We are great examples for our kids. Remember, I'm pregnant not just chubby.

  Sam, Logan. Carter, and Megan.

   A Zookeeper was holding an Elephant's tusk so they could touch it.

   I don't know what it is about Buddha, but my kids LOVE him. Logan is always touching him and rubbing him. It's kinda funny.

   Sam loves Megan, a LOT.

   Derrick, had a blast. Cass, kept lifting his stroller up so that he could see without having to hold him all day. He was so excited.

    Sam and I think this is a giant frog he had to have a picture of.

 Logan, Sam and Carter.

Logan's Valentines Party

  Logan's preschool had it's Valentine party.

   Logan and Emma. She loves him, she follows him around and doesn't let him sit by anyone but her.

    They played Valentine's Bingo.

   They made place mats.

How cute is he?

My sickly...

   Logan got sick, which isn't shocking anymore but now that we have been doing this for 4 years it's so cute. He will tell us that he needs his penguin medicine. His Nebulizer looks like a penguin. It's so sad when he wakes us up at night to tell us he needs it again but he is getting so big and he realizes the medicine is what helps him. Now that he can do it himself, I don't have to watch so closely, but since all the meds have to be several times a day and can't be mixed he is sitting there for a good amount of time. We always start a show for him to help pass the time and more times than not he falls asleep before he is done. When he was a baby we would wait until he fell asleep and then give him his last treatment of the day, it was just easier. Turns out it's still easier when he is asleep. He is such a good sport about his medicine. One day we hope Logan will grow out of this so he can do all the things he wants to do. He does seem to go farther between episodes and is able to come out of it faster, which is amazing.   

   Sometimes he dresses up to take it. Well, most of the time at our house those 2 are dressed as pirates, We have Pirate booty everywhere. I am always getting attacked, and stolen from. I don't mind when they are as cute as my boys are.

Service Project

    Sticking with the theme of me being sick for months..........Pregnancy is not a friend to me or anyone in our family for that matter. I can't go in the kitchen for the first 5 months. I just can't.  Even if it's clean, the smell makes me sick. I can't even deal with the smell of boiling water, really it's that bad. Sam and Logan are old enough to understand that I can't do a lot for them during this time.  Dave will come home from work and make dinner, and lunch for the next day. He then will get the boys ready and in bed before he cleans the kitchen and makes it so I can go in there the next day to help Logan get lunch.  He gets up early and makes himself and the boys breakfast, cleans that up and is gone for work by 6:30 am. Well he had to go out of town for a few days on business, he had been postponing it for months probably he was scared what the boys would eat while he was gone. He couldn't get out of it so he went and left us for 3 days. Sam was such a big help he would make sandwiches for dinner and get Logan Pop tarts for breakfast every morning. Both boys were so helpful to me. One evening Sam came to me on the couch and told me he had a surprise for me. I knew he was in the kitchen, but I wasn't exactly sure what was going on in there. I came into the kitchen and the whole thing was clean in a 7 yr olds way. All the dishes were gone, the table and counter tops had been washed, I mean he really had cleaned. Side Bar: Sam's job is to unload the dishwasher, it has been for a few years now and he's got it down pretty good. When I opened the dishwasher, this is what I found.   

   Aren't they the best boys ever!?! I cried.

Dave's VW Van

    One Sunday after church Dave wanted to build his VW van. The boys had been wanting to help him and since he wanted to do it all alone he was putting it off. Well this Sunday I had a really bad migraine so I was in bed (on the living room floor...remember Dave still isn't finished with the storm shelter.) Dave decided that building the van would be a good way to keep them quiet for me so they got started right after lunch. I think there were 14 different bags of Lego's and they were not in order so he had to open all of them to get the parts he needed. Kinda funny when normally they have all the pieces for one part in this bag and the next in this one, but not today. It was fun for me to not be involved but to hear Dave saying, 'Sam please whisper, your mom is sick.'  'Logan, I told you not to take my pieces; yours are right there.'  Logan, STOP please you are going to make it so I can't build it.'  ' NO, you can't take that apart,I need that just the way it is.'  He is such a good Dad and has so much patience.

   This is hour 1. Organizing the bags.

   This is hour 3, just getting the hang of it.

   Hour 5 people, HOUR 5!!  He sat there for 5 hours with both boys crawling all over him to build a pretend van. That is determination that there. This Van is on display in our bedroom, the boys are not allowed to touch it. Logan breaks it everyday, putting Batman or Robin or Two-Face or Joker in there. Dave always finds a new man or thing hiding in there when he comes home from work. It's like a prize everyday for him. Seriously, such a good Dad and a true engineer for spending 5 hours to build Lego's.

 

Storm Shelter

    We have lived in Tennessee for 6 years now and still didn't have a storm shelter. I have been telling Dave for years that I want one and if he wants to keep traveling for work he had to get me one. So in true Dave style he decided he would make his own and save a few thousand dollars. The day after Christmas he got started. He thought since he had a week off of work he could get it knocked out. He moved our bed into the living room, since that's where I had been spending most of my time, it worked out great. He pulled back the carpet and started a welding shop in our room. He was so excited to get to use his welder. He did a great job building it and we/ I feel safer having a place to go when the weather gets bad instead of my closet. The boys love getting to sleep in there, they love watching movies mostly. Dave was able to finish it in a few weeks. After 2 weeks he had to go out of town for the week so we were left with a half finished room for a while but he was able to finish it and get our room back together soon after. He did such a good job. I really love having it. 

     Getting ready to weld the frame in place.

   Dave and Chad Ross making sure it is level.

   This is how our room looked for weeks. Dave put the wood there so the welding splatter wouldn't get on our carpet or my treadmill.

    The frame. It's steel tubing.

   Half way framed in.

   Dave put 1/4 steel plating around the frame. We decided not to use 3/4 because I'm really not concerned about it being bullet proof...I don't think.

       All welded and put in place.

    It's big. It it 5 ft by 6 ft.

   Framing it in. As much as we want a metal box in our room, it needs to be covered.

   The door.

     Putting the sheet rock up.

   Dave and Sam hiding. Logan was to scared to get up there and check it out.

    Almost done....2 weeks later.

   Dave anchored it down with 10 epoxy anchors. These are the screws he put in with the epoxy.

   All ready for paint.

All painted. Dave really did such a job. He is so handy, I'm so glad I get him forever.

Christmas

     CHRISTMAS!!! We all love Christmas. Sam and Logan are getting old enough that they love to give almost as much as get. I had taken them at different times to get each other presents and they  were so excited for the other to open them. I had to hide them and didn't even let them wrap them until a few days before because they would carry it around the house and make the other guess what was in there. We had a great Christmas and as always I went way over board.

    Christmas Eve's present. It's always Aunt Brittany's present. She always gets all the grand kids matching jammies. We love it and she picks out great ones that the boys always love.

   Modeling them.

 

    After Santa came. These boys cleaned up!

     The Christmas tree already for the boys to wake up.

     Every year we have the boys write a note to Santa so he knows that they appreciate all the hard work he does to make sure they have a great Christmas. This year in their note they wrote about how next year we will have another baby and not to forget about him. They are so sweet, they have been wanting a baby for so long and they want to make sure everything is ready for him.

     Christmas morning. We ended up having to wake them up. That has NEVER happened. Because it was Sunday we had to wake them up so they could at least see their stocking before church.

    The boys get olives in their stockings and they love it!

    Scooters!

   Aunt Brittany and Uncle Dee got the boys remote control trucks.


Look at that face!



    The boys got Dave a few welding books, since he would be using his welder a lot in the next few weeks.

       We always have to help each other open the presents.

   The boys got me some new pot holders. They were very excited for me to open them.

    Logan has been wanting LEGO Airport for over a year. I found one on clearance last year right after Christmas and saved it all year for him. I'm glad I did, he loved it.

    Sam got the Fireman Ship.

    I got a Bosch mixer. I have been wanting one and Dave surprised me.

   I couldn't not get Dave some LEGO's.

   He has been wanting a VW camper bus for years but they are really expensive and the garage is so full of his other cars that there is no room. When the boys and I were in Seattle in October I found this one and had to get it for him.

   The day after Christmas we spent the entire day building Lego's. That's hard on your back. We got most of them done and had to take pictures quick because Logan's favorite part is breaking them up and making something new.

All of them together.