They got IT!

Like I mentioned in the last post it was a rainy, dreary Memorial Day weekend. On Monday we had all had enough of the weather and decided to give the boys their birthday present. It was only a few days early since we had planned to do it today before their "Kids" party tonight. Jesse did kind of call me out by asking if it was really because the kids were bored or because I was bored. Definitely! Definitely! Definitely, THE KIDS!!! (Yah, right!)

We waited until Chrissi was down for her nap to give it to the kids. The shrieks and screams were so worth it. I don't think that they could have been any more excited. We quickly hooked it up and spent the rest of the day playing Wii.

The boys are really into CUPS for some reason, especially Bren. So I also picked up new squirt bottle type cups. And since St. Louis has turned into the new Seattle lately I also picked up Spongebob umbrellas. Even though that was a "practical" gift, they certainly were excited to have 1) umbrellas and 2) anything with Spongebob on it!!!

Waiting to open their BIG present. Definite excitement in the room.

Not the clearest picture ever taken, but their enthusiasm was contagious. Ian kept coming up to Jesse and I giving us hugs and kisses and tons of thank you's!

They still can't believe they really have a Wii!!

Pictures obviously not really in order, but they were/are pretty psyched about their cool cups and umbrellas as well!

Can we please, please open now???











Edited to add: We bought the Wii Play because it was only $10.00 more than a remote by itself, so we got the remote and 9 games. We also bought Mario Party and Mario Olympics. Oh yah, did I forget to mention that yesterday I bought a Wii Fit. Super cool. Love it!!! And the boys REALLY like it as well. As weird as it sounds, I think you can get a decent workout from it.

Park pictures!

This Memorial Day weekend consisted of lots of rain and thunderstorms. But Saturday morning, the kids and I were able to go to a park for about one hour before the rain came. Jesse did not have a fun weekend at all. He had surgery on his knee last Friday and was laid up the whole weekend, still is as a matter of fact.

We had a great time at the park. Chrissi thinks that she is just one of the boys, as well as she thinks she is as big as they are!

Big news for Ian. He was able to cross the monkey bars!!!! He was so excited. He probably crossed the bars 10 times. I thought for sure he would have blisters and calluses, but no, he's tough.

Enjoy the pictures!

Meet some of the great women in my life!

These pictures were from Mother's Day at my Aunt Linda's house. We had a wonderful day. It was way too cold to go swimming so we were inside all day, but with a family like mine it doesn't matter what we are doing , it is always an absolute blast!

I am so lucky to have such great role models in my life!!!


In order - Aunt Linda, Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Robin, aka AbFab Geek.
Mom, what in the world are you doing? It kind of looks like your singing some type of irish bar song.

Stop shaking Grandma!!!!

Love this picture. It is a fantastic picture of all of them.

Told you it's always fun!

Sisterly love!

What is the cheapest.....????

.....place online to order pictures from? I have a LOT of pics from our vacation and want to get them developed, but also do not want to go broke doing so. Leave me a comment and let me know who you go through. Thanks!

I got it! I got it! I got it!!

Ian and I were at Target yesterday morning getting birthday presents for parties they were going to a bit later in the day. (Yep, that's me, shopping for the presents at the very last minute.) Right across from the toy ailse is where electronics are located. Most importantly, the Wii's!!!!! To my sheer and utter delight they had Wii's in stock. I went over and was talking to the older guy that was stocking and asked him a bunch of questions.

Me: So do you always have Wii's in stock now.

Him: Nope, they just came in this morning. I have 6 out here right now and about 6 more in the back.

Me: Cool so they'll be here for a little bit!?

Him: Nope, they will be gone by 4:00 today.

Hmmmmmm!!! I had to get one. Especially since they are still hard to find.....apparently. So we bought our birthday presents and I rushed Ian home. On my way out the door to go BACK to Target he asked me if I was going to buy a Wii. Of course I said no, but kids are perceptive, especially when you are talking about it right in front of them. Even though I kept saying no, he kept asking.

Long story short (because Chrissi is throwing a fit right now, her newest thing) I GOT IT!!!!!!! I'm so excited and can't wait to play it. We are going to have a party for the boys with their friends on the 28th of May. I don't think I'm going to give it to them at the party, but I am going to give it to them when we get home. Who am I kidding, I don't know if I can even hold out that long. I am so anxious and know that they are going to be sooooooo thrilled. (Besides that new Wii Fit thing comes out on Wednesday and I'm getting it!)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Jesse and I made the decision last night that we are going to get the boys a Wii for their birthday. Yes, that may seem a bit extravagant, but the way we are looking at it is that it is kind of for all of us. So here is where you come in, what all do we HAVE to buy? We are so super excited and know the boys will be elated. Leave me a comment if you are Wii saavy.

Next Wii party is at my house, Aunt Robin and Uncle Kevin

"I don't like to cook, just read cookbooks!"

All week Brennan and I had been talking about making the enchilada's out of the Kraft book that we just received in the mail. He even went so far as to bring me the book into my bedroom while I was still sleeping and put it on my pillow. I guess that was a subtle reminder yesterday morning. But par for the course, when he came home from school yesterday he didn't want to cook. "I'm tired!" That's always his excuse and he says it in his best lil' southern drawl, mind you NONE of us have an even remote southern accent, we are from the midwest for goodness sake. But that's what Bren ALWAYS says when it comes time to cook. (Never too tired to play Playstation.)
Never fear.....Ian is here!!!! Ian was such a big helper yesterday. He got to use the chopper and chop up the onions. He helped me use the garlic press. And added all of the ingredients into the pan. His fortay was stirring. E tends to be my picky eater, but I think letting him help cook just might be the way around it. He chowed on the enchilada's and that normally would NOT happen. (I'm such a baby "mommy blogger", I forgot to take pictures. Sorry, E, I promise to capture you helping me next time.)
Brennan's final quote of the day is the title of this post, again in a Southern drawl, "I don't like to cook, just read cookbooks!" So I guess my idea for him being a chef is out the window. Guess I'm back to the food critic idea............. or maaaaaaybe a cookbook editor!!!
Thanks for dinner last night, E, it was absolutely DELICIOUS!

Side note: If you have the Kraft magazine you have to try the chicken enchilada's. I'm horrible at following recipes to the T, so of course they were definitely doctored up and extra stuff was added.

A boy and his....COOKBOOKS??

Brennan has an obsession with cookbooks. EVERYWHERE we go a cookbook is brought along in the car. He shares them with my mom, asks to keep them when we go to my Grandma's and Jesse's Aunt Millies, looks at Aunt Sue's everytime we are there, and jumps up and down when the Kraft magazine comes in the mail (as it did yesterday). He LOVES to look at my Pampered Chef cookbooks, but those I won't let him keep, those can only be looked at at the kitchen table, not to be dragged all over the house. He keeps them in either a plastic grocery bag or a backpack. What you see in the pictures is not the complete collections. I know there are more in his room and wherever else he found to stash them. I wonder if this means that he is going to become a famous chef? My guess would probably be a world renown food critic. The boy loves to eat!!! If you know of anywhere else that sends free cookbooks, like Kraft please let me know. I LOVE to see his excitement when one comes in the mail.

End of vacation

Saddly vacation came to an end. We arrived home around 6:30pm on Saturday after a rather long car ride. The kids were not bad by any means, but anyone that has ever been on a family vacation understands that at that point we were all just ready to be home, maybe slightly on each other's nerves, and a bit stir crazy. I'm not going to lie, there were definitely moment's when "Hush!!! Lay your head on your pillow, close your eyes, and take a nap," may have been oh so sweetly :sarcasm: mentioned to the boys, Chrissi too for that matter. But I don't think the ride was anything out of the ordinary for most families.

We had such a great vacation. I think this is one of the best vacations of my life. At least during my adult life, I had some pretty awesome vacations as a kid as well.

I will post pictures from our last few days later, I left my camera at my Aunt Linda's, so my mom will bring it to me later.

On Thursday we gave the kids a complete break from sunscreen. We went to Dewey Destin again for lunch and then we went souvenier shopping. We didn't buy anything major, sharks and t-shirts for the boys, t-shirt for Chrissi, I got a hat that matches my swimsuit that I'll wear at the Lake this summer, Jesse got a sweatshirt, windchimes for my mom for Mother's Day, and a pretty picture frame for the picture we bought after our "pirate cruise". We didn't buy souveniers for anyone else, for real, how many shot glasses and t-shirts do people really need.

After that we walked down on the docks along the harbour. We saw some of the fish that had been caught that day, looked at all the cool boats, and then the kids had balloon swords made by an old fashioned looking captain. The man made Chrissi a sea turtle that went on her wrist. They thought that was totally cool. We also stopped for ice cream at a Hershey's Ice Cream shop. I don't know if they have them all over the place, but we had never been to one before. WOW!!! That ice cream rocked. The kids loved it!! The rest of the evening we relaxed and played games. Another perfect day!

Friday we spent the day on the beach. Chrissi was playing in the sand almost the entire time. We have come a long way in a week! The boys had so much fun playing in the ocean. They were using their imaginations and had to keep going to the ocean for "keys". I just love to see the kids using their imaginations, completely makes me want to be a kid again. Unfortunately a lot of the rest of the day was spent packing. Blah! Kind of depressing.

We did go to Fudpuckers for dinner, yah, I accidentally screwed up that name once or twice........have a feeling I'm not the first, nor will I be the last. If you haven't ever been there, it's really cool. They have live alligators that you can try to "fish" for. The boys even got to pet one. Not to fear, the alligator's mouth was bound shut. I did not touch the alligator. In fact I jumped about 5 feet backwards when he brought it out. Big scaredy cat......that's me!!!

Ian saved the day Saturday morning when we were leaving. We locked up, put the key in the lock box and were heading towards the elevators when Ian realized that we had forgotten Chrissi's blanket and bunny (baby). We would have been so upset to have left that, probably even more so than Chrissi since they were special presents for her.

This trip will always be held near and dear to my heart, so many great memories!!!

More fun in the sun.

Yesterday we spent several hours at the beach. Brennan and Ian have developed rashes all over their bodies, Bren's being the worst, he even had hives on his ears. All we can think that it is from is the sunscreen. That made for yesterday to be the "crabby vacation day". Every family has at least one while on vacation. Bren was really whiney, Chrissi was fussy, and well, Ian, was actually very good. We got the beach around 9:45am. Jesse brought Bren and Chrissi back to the condo around 12:30 and Ian and I stayed and played in the waves and built more sand castles. All and all, it was another fun day!

Can you believe it? Chrissi is almost in the sand!!!!


Ian LOVES to play in the sand. His favorite thing is to take the buckets down to the ocean and bring us up water to add to the sand. He and I had such a good time building together. He is my one and only child that can keep himself entertained. He is such an easygoing and sweet boy!


If you double click on Brennan you might be able to see all the bumps on him. My poor baby. I felt so bad for him. He looked/still looks awful!

Oh my!!! She is actually playing in the sand and having a GREAT time. She is such a Daddy's Girl. She was having a terrific time putting sand on Jesse's legs. I thought it looked like fun and decided to join in. I would shovel some sand up and she would quickly brush is off and say, "no, no, no, MOMMY"! I guess she told me!!!

Pirate Cruise

Last night we went on a three hour "Pirate Cruise", well not really, it was basically just a sailboat, but the boys thought we were pirates. Actually, we have seen pirate looking boats and thought that is what we were going to do, but didn't turn out that way. Regardless, we had a lot of fun. In hind sight though, we will remember a few things. Two hours would be plenty. Tape Chrissi's hat to her head. And be prepared because Ian is going to throw up!!!

While we were looking for the boat we asked two guys where we would find it at. They were actually shooting a "come to Destin" type show/documentary/infromercial. We still aren't quite sure what it is, but nonetheless they wanted to talk to us about our vacation. The boys were so cute, they announced that "you can even go on a pirate ship here". It only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, tops, but we said where we were from and what we'd been doing since we had arrived. Have NO idea what channel it will be on, but if you see a scared looking family on a dock with two animated little boys and a little girl in a St. Louis Cardinals hat, it's probably us!!!





The boys got to help raise the sails. That was just beyond cool to them, well until they got to drive the boat anyway!





Chrissi with a hat!

What is that red thing in the water? (Click the picture for a better view)

Ohhhhhhhhhh, that's what it is. Chrissi's hat flew off her head in the middle of the ocean. Captain Rex and Tony were insistant that they could get it for us. So they turned the sailboat around and we spent the next 15 minutes or so looking for her hat. I was impressed that it didn't sink. Every few seconds we would see it bob up on a wave which helped.

It did take several tried, but in the end Tony got her hat!!! Anything for the Princess!!



Brennan was first to drive the boat.

While Brennan was driving, Ian and I had moved to the very front of the boat so Ian could stick his head over the side. Poor little guy was SO seasick. (He gets carsick too so we should have known. He did finally get sick.


And felt so much better. Thankfully he did so he could also have a turn driving.

Another AWESOME day in Destin!

We are having a blast!

I started this post around 5:00am today because I was having trouble sleeping. Stupid me managed to get a nice sunburn on Sunday. Jesse is pretty red as well. I don't know if it's a compliment when your boys give you a hug and say, "ohhhhhh, you are really hot, Mommy". That is why the pictures start at the end of our day and work backwards.

Aren't they sweet laying in bed together? Not hitting or screaming or anything. (At least that is how it appears. Chrissi monster loves to attack her brothers. She really does think that she is one of the boys, she loves to wrestle her brothers.


After we went swimming I took the boys to play shuffleboard, while Jesse stayed with a napping Chrissi. We had so much fun. I think that Ian liked it better than Brennan because he was the first to quit. We didn't really play by the rules I'm sure, but we had a great time. The boys came up with quite a unique scoring system. If they landed on 8, they received either 30 or sometimes 60 points, if I landed on 8 they would give me about 14 points. Yah, that's fair! Guess what? I lost every game. I got a kick out of it!





As I mentioned Jesse and I were pretty sunburned so we decided not to go to the beach but to hang out at the pool. The boys were able to play with their water toys and spider man "surf boards". Notice that the boys are in life jackets. Well, they are not the best swimmers and the pool was 4 feet deep. Hmmmm........why isn't Chrissi in one? We think we may have left it at the beach on Sunday. We have searched EVERYWHERE in the condo and can not find it. We are going to search again today and if we can't find it, I guess we are buying a new one today before we go on our "pirate cruise" tonight.





We had such an awesome lunch yesterday. Sunday night we tried to go to this place, but it was packed. The boys were really disappointed, especially Brennan, so we promised the we would go for lunch on Monday. We got there early to avoid a long wait. Dewey Destin Seafood and Grill may not look like much, but OMG was the food and atmosphere awesome!!!! Jesse and I each had a grilled Mahi-Mahi sandwich and it was out of this world. The kids had normal kid food, chicken strips and fries, their favorite. (Really Brennan's favorite is a cheeseburger, but chicken strips will do.)
The menu is written on a chalkboard and you order at a window. They give you your drinks and take your name. When your food is ready they bring it out and shout your name. Since it wasn't crazy busy it wasn't hard to find us. You sit on picnic benches overlooking the water. Actually it's a dock that the restaurant is located on. It was just really cool. We are going to try to make it back there before we leave, it was that good!!







Since we took the boys out of school for the week, they do have a little bit of homework to complete. Chrissi did not want to be left out so we gave her crayons and scrap paper and she was tickled!!!