Gotta love daycare...

And I truly do...but we have only been back to daycare for 3 weeks and already have two down with strep throat. Nick started feeling bad on Sunday morning...picture vomit all over the kitchen floor and then Jack woke up this morning feeling "yucky!" He ended up spending the day at Daddy's office (thank goodness Jack LOVES to play on the computer!) but ended up sleeping most of the day away! We got some meds for him so hopefully he'll be able to rejoin his first grade class tomorrow. He especially wants to get back to school because tomorrow is his very first spelling test, and he is TOTALLY prepared...we SO have a little nerd in the making!!!

No pics to share on this post. I just wanted to let everyone know why I had been missing in action lately. I'm hoping we can get to the zoo once again before the Dinoraurus exhibit ends or maybe even the botanical gardens. Pictures to come though, either way!!!

A relaxing evening...

The race is on...to the park, that is! As usual, Luke is bringing up the rear (and a cute rear it is!) but I have a feeling that it won't be too long before he'll be catching up to and passing his big brothers!!!

There is no better way to spend an unseasonably cool August evening then at the park! Luke absolutely LOVES it there (what does he not love, really?) He thought he was so cool that he could sit on this without Daddy holding onto him (you can't see Daddy, just barely standing out of the picture in case he has to make a quick Buka catch!)
Where Luke likes to rock (he is our family "rockstar"), Jack loves to swing and climb. He is such a monkey! He is truly amazing on these monkey bars! He has been able to swing across them since he was 4!
Good ole Nick is our character, that's for sure. Ever since he was little he would make the craziest faces. Here he is calling my name so I could take his picture going down the slide!
And here they are...all three. In pictures like this one, I sometimes have to sit back and just smile and stare in astonishment at what Dan and I have. I can't believe that these three happy, healthy, lovable (yet very active!) boys are ours! I thank God every day for them!

And of course, after we left the park, we headed to McDonald's for a bit of dinner...gotta love chicken nuggets and my three crazy little dudes!!!

My baby...the FIRST GRADER!!!

Here are my three boys...hanging out this a.m. around 7, waiting to be swept off to daycare and "the big school" as we call Jack's elementary school!

And here he is....the man of the day, Jack, posing with the 1 finger up (for 1st grade!!!). I know people always say that they can't believe how fast children grow up, but I kid you not, I seriously remember the day he was born like it was yesterday! I can't believe my baby is a first grader!!!
After Daddy dropped off Luke and Nick at daycare he surprised Jack by taking him to McDonald's for a hashbrown and an OJ! Jack was so excited he got to spend some alone time with Daddy! (Thanks to Daddy for taking pictures in McDonald's for the blog!) :)
Again, kudos to Daddy for snapping this picture of Jack, walking into school, looking a bit well, NERVOUS!!!
But, the nerves quickly subsided and Jack's smile was plastered back on his face! I love you, Jack! Enjoy your first grade year!!!

A day spent with ducks and a mouse!

Aunt Jackie and I have wanted to take the boys to this cool park close to her house all summer in order to feed the ducks! Amazingly the summer has FLOWN by so we figured we better get to it. We got 3 loaves of bread (1 for each boy) but as soon as we started we figured that we should have bought 6 loaves!!! There seemed to be hundreds of ducks!

Jack, Nick, Luke and Aunt Jackie all had fun feeding them and the ducks loved the bread. They came right up to us and weren't scared at all. I, on the other hand, was petrified (I have a bit of a bird fear and in my world, ducks are birds!)
There were two swans that enjoyed the bread as well!
The park also has a small petting zoo full of peacocks, cows, goats, a rabbit, donkeys (below) and even a llama! The boys loved it!
After feeding all the animals at the park we headed to Chuck E. Cheese to snag a bit of lunch for ourselves! The boys like playing all the games, but my two youngest despise good 'ole Chuck himself! They completely freak out when he comes near! Jack, on the other hand, always is ready to greet any character with a smile and a hi-5!

Nick enjoying a game!
As shown in my Holiday World post, the boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE skee ball (our newest Wii game even has skee ball on it!) Skee ball at Chuck E. Cheese's is no different!
Luke wants to be just like his big brother's and wanted to get playing. Here Aunt Jackie helps him play "whack a mole!"
After just one game with Aunt Jackie though, he was ready to play on his own. Great job, Luke!
Right before we left Jack played this game and ended up getting the bonus and winning 62 tickets! He looks so proud!
All in all another great summer day...too bad I start seeing kids on Monday! UGH!

Better late than never!

Our town's homecoming/picinc was the first weekend in August (I know what your thinking, I'm just about 2 weeks late!) but as my taglag above says, "Better late than never" eh? Here is the crew walking into the park, Dan, Nick, Maddie (a lovely daughter of a friend of mine who we were watching!), Nana, Alyssa and Aunt Jackie (I think that is Jack in the background!) Papa Jack had money counting duty with his bank so he was there already and Uncle Steve was busy snapping a picture too (I think!)

Jack on the dragon rollercoaster, his first ride of the night!
Aunt Jackie and I pose amidst the fun. I'm shocked we look at good as we do....we were sweating like MAD!!! It was one hot and sticky night!
We went back on Saturday afternoon for more and Jack decided he would try some "big kid" rides with Maddie. This one was a bit too much of a big kid ride for me as I seriously thought he was going to fly out of it. I kept thinking the entire time that these rides travel of semis from state to state with some "interesting" folks moving and operating them. Of course Jack was fine, but I swayed him to steer clear of this ride! (I hope with a mom like me he doesn't wind up like a sissy!)

Maddie somehow convinced Aunt Jackie to get on this crazy hammerhead ride. What's sad is that when I was younger, I distinctly remember LOVING this ride, now, after the Holiday World experience I was not going to try even the swings!
The entire time all we heard was Jackie screaming, "Oh my gosh!" It was quite comical (see, I can say that because I was on the ground and able to take this picture!) She did survive though and even was gracious enough to let me get her picture with Maddie in front of the ride.
Alyssa was a bit nervous at first, but ended up going on the slide with Jackie (here) and Nana! Yeah, Alyssa!Maddie and Jack also enjoyed the slide!
We ended the day with a delicious funnel cake and some smaller slides (much more Nick's speed!!!)

The boys and I took a bit of a road trip down to Sikeston, MO. (Dan had to work, poor guy and then had the whole house to himself....I bet the quiet killed him!!!) No trip to Sikeston would be complete without a meal at Lambert's Cafe, home of the throwed rolls, really they throw you these huge, add about 5 pounds to my thighs, rolls! Then, they pass around some southern favorites: fried okra, macaroni and tomotoes, fried 'taters and sorghum for the rolls! Nice and healthy!

Anyhow, we headed down south to meet my brother and sister-in-law and to get my niece, Alyssa, for the weekend! Sikeston is pretty much the halfway mark between us and Bryan and Allie in Tennessee! Instead of just eating and grabbing Alyssa, we spent the night down there, so to the boys, this was definitely a "vacation!" It felt very "vacationesque" as we swam and got to hit the outlet mall!

Aunt Jackie and Jack smile for the camera, while Nick must have been pooped from the long drive! The cowboy hat is definitely NOT out of place down there, neither are the thick southern draws our waitress and waiters had!
Aunt Allie and Nana smile in between bites! Notice the white shiny rectangles behind them...yep, those are license plates hung up all over the walls there!
Luke's favorite food lately has been ice! Thankfully any restaurant we travel to has it, so he is easy to please!
Uncle Bryan and Alyssa chillin' in the hotel room. Thankfully Bryan came along so he could watch the little ones while the girls shopped! Thanks, bro!
More monkeys jumping on the bed! Jack and Nick always take the opportunity to bounce a bit whenever we stay at a hotel! Is Uncle Bryan calling the Doctor???
Here is one of the few pictures taken in the pool. Luckily it was an indoor/outdoor pool so Aunt Jackie didn't have to slather on tons of sunscreen. Unfortunately this is the only picture that really turned out as all the other ones were too dark!
I was even able to run a bit in the hotels gym! Overall a great little break from our everyday life!

Magic House Memories

Okay, so my friend Angie warned me that this blogging would become addicting and she sure was right! I was dumping my pictures from earlier in the summer and I came upon these taken from a July trip to the Magic House. Above, Aunt Jackie, Uncle Steve, Jack, Nick, and Luke pose in front of the awesome sand castle. We did avoid the sand area like the plague as I didn't want 3 sandy kids traipsing around (or in my car!)
Uncle Steve was in charge of the camera on this trip and thought of this cute pic idea of each boy holding the number of his age. Jack and Nick were down with the idea, but Luke had some other thoughts! Notice Aunt Jackie fixing the number "1" for Luke and there I am replacing the cochlear implant magnet (something we do probably 100 times a day...no joke!)
Here is one of my favorite pictures of Luke that has ever been taken. We exited the "hall of mirrors" and Luke immediately turned to his right - when he heard someone playing the bells. I honestly almost broke down. For a Deaf child to turn to sound in a loud environment...amazing! We are so blessed! Once Luke got over to the bells, he LOVED playing them...especially since he got to bang them with a stick! What is it with boys and hitting things???
No trip to the Magic House would be complete without a visit to the metal ball. Aunt Jackie was obviously our only candidate as Uncle Steve, Jack, Nick and I all have short hair and Luke has strict doctor's orders not to go near one of these things as it could totally wipe out his implant, resulting in another surgery! No thank you!
This is probably one of the boys' favorite things at the Magic House (besides the fishing pond). They will stand here and put the balls on the air holes which shoots the balls into the air. Such a simple concept, but they would stay here for hours!
Uncle Steve looks a bit shady here (looking out the corner of his eyes!) but this is a perfect example of how we are currently living our lives with Luke. We simply narrate our lives, we do something, we talk about! Makes for some odd pictures, but some awesome language learning for our Luka Buka!

Bowling anyone?

As part of the boys' birthday presents, my parents gave Jack and Nick money to go bowling. 2 1/2 months after their birthday we finally put that money to use and hit the lanes! First things first though, we had to get our shoes. Jack, Nick and Daddy suited up while Luke and I enjoyed our job as cheerleaders!
Well, Luke enjoyed his very own Sprite and watching for the balls to come back after the boys threw them! He was seriously amazed that they would just pop up from the ground! Daddy was really worried about hurt fingers, especially because Luke kept trying to grab the balls, but I'm happy to say that we all left with our fingers intact. Unfortunately, we did have one small casualty as I ended up with a smashed big toe, as Jack accidentally dropped his 8 pound ball on it! Who knew that would be so painful?
Jack and Nick absolutely LOVED bowling and believe it or not, at one time they were both actually beating Daddy! Jack was proud to tell all that he had 2 strikes (throughout the 2 games) and Nick boasted of his 1 strike, while Daddy kept pretty close lipped about his 3 strikes (I think he was hoping for more, especially since we had the bumpers up on the gutters!) Thanks Nana and Papa! We really did have a great time!

Meet Kate

Today, the boys and I had the opportunity to visit one of my oldest friends (from freshman year in college), Jennifer, to meet the newest addition to her family...her beautiful daughter, Kate! She was born on July 23 with this full head of hair - something my boys' NEVER had - and was the perfect excuse for me to actually buy something PINK! You never realize how big your "baby" is until you hold a newborn. Kate just curled up in my arms! I so miss that, but definitely got my baby fix! We were there from around 12 to 4 and she pretty much slept almost the entire time. What a good baby!
New mom for the second time around, Jennifer, poses for a picture (pretty much against her will) but looking great nonetheless! Thanks for humoring me, Jenn!
The boys LOVE hanging out with their buddy, "big" Luke, Jennifer's 3 year old son! Here they were enjoying their chocolate iced brownies after they finished their chicken nugget Happy Meals! Too bad Dan and Jennifer's husband, Robb, weren't able to join in all the fun! We'll have to meet up at a Card's game, guys!