32

Erik turned 32 this year.  It's amazing how that number just keeps rising.  Funny how that works.  We spent the day getting free food for lunch,  getting free food for dinner (score!), hanging out with family and friends, and spoiling this man that we love.  And also eating a super easy way-to-much-chocolate-it-can't-even-remotely-be-good-for-you chocolate cake...with chocolate glaze.  The strawberries made it healthy and that's what we all keep telling ourselves.

   

 Happy Birthday Erik!

The Artist

Bryce had a piece of artwork selected to be part of the district art show.  Yay Bryce!  So we went to the art/award show and looked at all the art. 

Here is Bryce next to his art.  He told me it was a bowl of fruit he did in chalk. 

Here's a close-up of his work.  Now I'm not the most artistic person in the world and I don't understand art most of the time and since my son did make this I may be a bit biased....but isn't it good? I mean, he's a five year old.  And even though he didn't win a blue ribbon (he was really disappointed) I believe this is the best picture I have ever seen.  You won the blue ribbon with me buddy!  Way to go Bryce!

Don't Bother Me....

I'm reading.  With my new baby.  My Kindle.  And I'm loving it.  :)

Our Easter Picture

Our first attempt.  The shadows drive me crazy. Note to self: never take pictures outside in the middle of the day no matter what.

 Second attempt. Why can't Makayla smile?  Why can't Bryce smile...normally?  What is up with my white legs?

 The final attempt.  Still super white legs and Makayla won't smile but I still think we're awesome!

Happy Easter!

Shoulda Put A Ring On It

Here is a glimpse of what Makayla and I do during the day.  I can't for the life of me figure out why nothing gets done.


Untitled from Rachel Witbeck on Vimeo.

Soccer

We signed Preston and Bryce up for soccer through their school. They didn't really do games so much but focused a lot on technical skills. At least I think that's what they were trying to teach them but here is what we learned during our time at soccer practice:

How to play in the dirt.

How to balance on a soccer ball. They seemed to perfect this maneuver.

How to stretch out a shirt and irritate the coach. Also perfected.

Victory dances.

And how impersonate the coach.

We had to keep telling ourselves that this was just for fun and to not worry about how the coach could only remember our kids' names and not for the good reasons. But by the end Preston was the only one who could run fast and pass the ball and Bryce was only lifting his shirt over his head twice in the entire hour. Yay!

Blood And Bryce Don't Mix

Bryce had a loose tooth. He was really excited about the prospect of losing this tooth and getting some moolah. Or he wanted a video game but the tooth fairy thought that one measly tooth wasn't worth a 20 dollar game. Inflation hasn't hit that hard.

So he worked on that tooth for awhile. He told us he wanted to lose his tooth at school because some other kid took out a tooth and got a treasure chest to put it in. More power to you buddy. You go get you a treasure chest. Unfortunately, he found that if he pulled/pushed/tugged on his tooth it hurt. So he let it be. And one night, we found the tooth just hanging there. We told him we would help him take out the tooth and it would only hurt for a second. The dream of the treasure chest was replaced by just getting the dang thing out since he hadn't been able to eat right in a couple days.

Out came the floss and Erik worked on it and worked on it and worked on it. That little bugger didn't want to come out even though it was hardly attached at all. As this was going on, I noticed that Bryce was getting paler and a little less enthusiastic about this tooth coming out. He looked sick to his stomach and at one point told us he didn't need to eat...just leave the tooth!

Finally it came out. Preston was standing by with tissue to staunch the blood flow. Bryce accepted the tissue and applied it to where he now had a gaping hole in the middle of his mouth. He took the tissue out and swayed and got even paler (and that's sayin something because this boy is pale already). I thought he's either going to pass out or throw up looking at this blood soaked tissue. And then he looked at his tooth that used to be in his mouth. Not good. I asked him if he was alright but he just looked up at me with this glassy, not coherent stare.

He sat down next to me until his breathing became more regular and he got color back in his lips and face. Once he settled down all was well and his tooth was placed under his pillow. He didn't get his video game but he did get 2 bucks which he turned around and used to by school lunch the next day since that is the coolest thing in the world.

Not the best picture in the world of his lost tooth but the best he would let me do.

He's also decided that no more teeth shall come out of his mouth. This is going to be a sad reality check.

My Parents

I've been extremely lame in blogging lately. Not for lack of anything to blog about but just my lack of motivation to actually blog. So in my attempt to get back in the saddle again, here are a few pictures of my parents' trip to "warm" Arizona. Now I use the term warm very loosely mostly because we had about one day of warm weather before the weather gods frowned upon us and made it bitterly cold. It seems that whenever people come to visit it is either unusually, frigidly cold or sweltering, blistering hot. Why don't people come on days like today? Sunny, 80, pleasant. But noooooooo.

Oh well. It was still sunny and although we couldn't do much we still loved having my parents here.

With the boys in school all day, Makayla got all the attention which she wasn't going to complain about.

This is just to give you an idea of how cold it was. We had the heat on but the downstairs still stayed pretty cold. We had to use lots of blankets and body heat to keep us warm.


Don't let the sunshine fool you. It was freezing but some people just couldn't sit inside any longer.


Even with the nasty weather, we loved having my parents here. I had one year out of 8 years of marriage that I got to live close to my parents. Now that we live away again, I miss them terribly so it was so awesome to be around them again. I'm hoping that our erratic weather doesn't deter them from coming again so I'll be nice so the weather gods will smile upon us next time! Love and miss you mom and dad!

And FYI: If you come to visit, we might ask you to pose in front of our orange/grapefruit tree. You have been warned.

I'm A Big Kid Now

Makayla has never had a real haircut. She was hair challenged for awhile with her mullet and I trimmed her hair for a time. But I am definitely not someone you want hacking away at any person's hair be they grown up humans or tiny humans. So while my parents were here, I bit the bullet and took her to get a haircut.

Here she is showin some moves the night before her cut.



Here are a couple pics taken with my phone. She sat there so nicely and didn't complain at all. I have trained her well.


And here is the final product:

I swear she skipped 3 years old and went straight to 4! And she loves it. Tells everyone she got a haircut just like a Princess. I didn't want to tell her a princess usually has long hair but it was either that or she said it was like a boy. And to go along with the new "Big kid/Princess" haircut, and despite her best efforts, I got the girl potty trained! We now have no diapers in the house. This is a new and strange territory for us but somehow I think we'll survive. :)

Firemen

The other day we drove into our neighborhood after school and noticed a firetruck in front of our neighbors house. The kids were excited at the possibility that our neighbors house might be burning to the ground (it's always nice to realize that you've taught your children compassion and sympathy). But they were sorely disappointed when they were told it was just a two year old locked in the car. What rotten luck! (Again with the worry, compassion, sympathy. And the little girl was just fine for those who care which apparently aren't people living in my home.)

Although we had to deal with such disappointment, the day was saved when the firemen saw 2 boys standing there staring at the truck in awe. They let them put on some hats and sit there for awhile til the firemen had to leave on another call.

Here are a few pictures taken from my phone.



It is now Bryce's life-long dream, as of a week ago, to become a fireman. We shall see buddy. We shall see.