No fear

Don't forget to pause the music!

This boy of mine (Tanner) seriously does not have any fear. Do you remember those NO FEAR shirts that were popular a few years back (am i dating myself?)? Yeah, this boy so could have worn one! We were @ a party on Friday night & Tanner said "Hey Mom, watch me do a back flip/dive". I didn't even know he could do a back dive. I love that he can do anything he puts his mind to!

Walking school bus

Our family joined in on the fun this morning & took the walking school bus to school this morning. This is an event put on by the city in efforts to get more people to walk to school, to carpool, to get out and exercise, & to just remind us to save gas when we can. You find the closest stop to your house (a map was provided by the school) & wait for the walking school bus to hit your stop. It was quite a sight to see all of the children & their parents walking to school. I think the entire (or almost) school participated this morning. Once the kids arrived @ school, there were cheerleaders (parents) holding signs that read "You can do it" & "You are almost there". They had bottles of water, cinnamon rolls, banana's, & granola bars waiting for the kids. They had Mac Gruff the crime dog & a juggler there too. They had fun music playing & just really went out of their way to make it a fun morning for the students.

Today was the day! Garrett headed back to preschool with a new outfit on & his bucket in tow. He wore the new orange basketball shirt that he picked out earlier this week. Dad saved him & had a new pair of shoes for him to wear today. John found these pair of Nike's in a sale bin a few weeks back @ a local sports store. Take a good, long hard look @ them.. they won't EVER be this clean again - HA! This is our yearly foot shot. There is just something about a new pair of shoes.

John worked from home this morning so he could see Garrett off to school on his first day. We got there & Garrett went right in. I think he is happy to be back in the swing of things. He does well with schedules & routines. There are never any tears. He is happy to do his own thing. He needs school & I need him to be there. It is a nice break for the both of us. It is just long enough (ok, maybe not long enough on some days) that I miss him. I am happy that he loves school. He loves his friends & his wonderful teachers, Miss Jenn & Miss Christi.

We have been with this preschool for 6 years now. Brody is even on the wait list. We put him on as soon as we knew he existed (3 months in the womb). Garrett came home with all sorts of papers that he had worked on & even had a cute Garrett poster. They had worked on his name with foam letters, beans & other fun materials.We asked him what his favorite part of the day was & he said "playing with my friends". He has really missed all of them. He constantly talked about them all summer. YAY for a new school year. I am so thankful for a wonderful school environment for Garrett. You can just see & feel all of the fun the children have while attending this preschool. Have a wonderful year Garrett!

randomness

We have had a busy couple of days, hence the lack of blog posts. I thought I would post a few random things from our week, the things we are digging & enjoying.

1. Carter's basketball team won their first playoff game last night. I missed it because I am the Make & Take girl @ Green Tangerines on Monday nights. I had no idea if they would make it to the playoffs or not(so I did not request the time off). Carter came running into Green Tangerines last night, all sweaty & stinky to tell me ALL about it. He was so excited & so cute. It MADE my night. He had asked John to swing by the store so he could give me the news. They won their game tonight & play on Friday. Way to GO!

2. I bought Brody's Halloween costume yesterday. Yes, you read that right. It is still August & my baby has his costume. I also found his Halloween t-shirt today @ Gymboree, it is so stinkin' cute! I love Halloween & I can't wait for him to wear it! I even bought him the matching socks :)!

3.Garrett starts preschool on tomorrow! Can you hear the angels singing??? I can sure can! He is all giddy about his new bucket & new shoes. Ummm yeah...his shoes used to be new. He got them when Tanner & Carter went back to school two weeks ago. He has worn them everyday. Yeah, those Vans don't look so new anymore.

4. I am loving the Katie Herzig, Weightless CD that I purchased off Amazon this month. I really like the sound of her voice.

5. I am not enjoying the new start time for school this year. The boys start @ 8:55 (20 minutes later than last year). It just makes our mornings drag. My boys are early risers & we have the NO TV, NO video game policy in the mornings @ our house.

6. John & I went out on a much needed date on Saturday night. We went to Costa Vida for dinner & then hit Wal*Mart to do our grocery shopping. What a night out on the town! Sounds exciting doesn't it?? Hey, I take what I can get. We were going to see a movie but our sitter was 45 minutes late. Oh well! It was still fun to have an adult conversation for 3 hours! Thanks sweetie!

7. I turned in my October class sample for my soccer album class & the LO's I was in charge of for the 12 weeks of Christmas @ the store. All of the calendar pages look great. It is going to be an awesome 12 weeks at Green Tangerines.


8. I want to paint my scrapbook room! I am down to two color choices. I just need to move all of the crap, (ugh)I mean stuff that i love out of there so I, (ugh)I mean John can paint for me. I have little hands that like to touch all of the things they are not supposed to. I am not even sure where I can store it all while we paint.


9. The price of gas is going down (a little). It only cost me $85.oo to fill my tank this morning. Isn't that sad that that makes me happy?! I am just happy that it didn't hit the $100 mark this week.

10. It took me an hour & a half to clean Tanner & Carter's room tonight. I was not a happy camper. I just don't know where all of the stuff comes from. I cleaned out the closet & even under the beds. It looks great & it better stay that way-LOL! They try to blame it all on Garrett. Garrett likes to sneak in there while they are @ school & play with their things. Trust me, it was not all Garrett.


11. I got to chat on the phone with one of my dear friends from the Bay Area this weekend. It was so GREAT to hear her voice. She is one amazing lady. I just want her to know that I miss her & that I think she is incredible. Love you F!

I hope your week has gotten off to a great start! I am so ready for Fall & cooler weather.

Chocolate Crackles

These are some of our family's favorite cookies. I made them as an after school snack for the boys yesterday. BTW-I did not have a single one :). These have got to be the easiest cookies to make. They remind me of when John & I were dating. We used to spend Sunday nights with our friends, playing games @ the Tate's. Chris' Mom, Pat would make these by the dozens for all of us! Great memories.


Chocolate Crackles
*preheat oven to 375 degrees

1 box of Devils Food Cake mix
1/2 cup of oil
2 Tbs. of water
2 eggs, slightly beaten
powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, mix the cake mix, oil, water, & eggs with a fork. Roll dough into balls (walnut sized). Pour powdered sugar in to a separate bowl. Roll each cookie in powdered sugar & place on cookie sheet(un-greased). Bake for 9-10 minutes. Leave on cookies sheet to cool & then transfer to a cooling rack. I will then sprinkle a little more powdered sugar on top of each cookie.


These are so yummy! Enjoy!

I'm on a roll...

I have been scrapbooking-YAY! I haven't created very many layouts for our own personal scrapbooks lately. Not only did I make a layout similar to the one above...I made three more of these exact layouts. I figured since I already had the stuff out, I could just keep creating till my product ran out. I made a layout for each my (older three) boy's albums. Their books are 8 1/2 X 11's & Brody's album is a 12 x 12. I still need to make one for Brody. I thought it would be fun to include my favorite family photo in each of their books from each year(this is 2007's Christmas card photo). I know their books will never be caught up (in my head) but if I did more LO's like this, I guess I could highlight the year better.

I created a layout just like this one(with a different title/journaling) for our good friends, The Torgersens. They are moving to Utah this week! We sure are going to miss their cute family. We wish them so much happiness as they begin this new journey & phase in life. I just want Stephanie to know that I am going to miss her. I appreciate her & her friendship. She is so down to earth & just a great friend. It has been fun to hang out on the basketball courts & baseball fields with their sweet family. Please keep in touch!

I am off to work on some class samples & 12 weeks of Christmas stuff while my younger two are napping! What are you up to?

Have a wonderful day!

What's for dinner?

Another yummy recipe! This one is from my friend Jan. She is ALWAYS trying out new recipes & is wonderful about sharing them with me! We had these for dinner tonight. They are yummy & very easy to make. The best part is that you can feed an army with this recipe or just have yummy left overs for a few days.

Chicken and rice grilled burritos

1 lb. chicken (boiled & shredded)
1 cup mild salsa
1 pkg. Taco seasoning mix
1 1/2 cups rice
Flour Tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese

In sauce pan, combine 4 cups water,salsa and seasoning mix. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice. Cook on low heat for 25 minutes stirring occasionally or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in chicken. Heat griddle. Spoon 1/3 cup mixture and some cheese into flour tortillas-roll like a burrito. Grill on both sides until brown.
Our family likes to add sour cream, more salsa & guacamole on top!
Enjoy

Progress

Many of you know our little Garrett. For those of you that don't, he is such a busy body & constantly on the move. One thing you need to know about this boy is that he is smart & is such a happy boy. He does everything (okay, most everything) with a smile on his face. He is just happy to be & has a great sense of humor. So last October, we were finally able to get him into speech program through the school district. It was very hard to understand him & he struggled with some of the letter sounds. With the help of some amazing teachers, he has made tremendous progress. I took him to see Miss Lori yesterday for an evaluation. He walked in & as clear as day said "Hi Miss Lori! I have had a fun summer". She asked him what kind of things he had done over the summer & he began to list our outings, Lake Tahoe, the water park, having our cousins visit, etc.... Miss Lori just looked up to me & said " WOW, he has come a long way just over the summer break". So as part of his evaluation yesterday, she would show him pictures of things & he needed to tell her what those things were used for or how HE might use them. She showed him a picture of a pair of shoes & said "Where do you put these"? Garrett looked @ her & said "In the garage". She started to laugh & so did I. She said "Lets try this again. Where else do you put these". Garrett looked @ her & said "on the rack". I was cracking up @ this point. That is exactly where we put our shoes. We have a rack in the garage & that is where you can find our shoes. She finally got him to tell her that you put shoes on your feet -lol!

Garrett will now attend one speech class, once a week. Last year he had speech class 3 times a week. She said, with this new class, he will be ready for kindergarten or may be ready even before that. I am just so proud of him & the progress he has made. John & I just laugh... now we can't get him to be quiet :).

and the winners are...

Let me start off by saying, you are all winners in my book. Thanks for playing along. I enjoyed reading your answers. I asked Tanner to draw the winners tonight & he insisted that I take a turn drawing the names & he would take the pictures. Please ignore the lack of makeup & the messy hair. I guess you can't see my hair in the photos & that means Tanner's pictures are perfect -lol! We attended Carter's basketball game tonight in a HOT gym. Then we watched Tanner's select soccer tournament in the 100 (plus) degree weather.
So... without further ado, our winners are:

Congrats ladies. Tami, you won the Teresa Collins Halloween collection & HolleAnn, you will receive the Christmas collection. Tami, I will hand deliver yours to you. HolleAnn, please email your home address @ doeraimi@gmail.com.

I hope every ones weekend has gotten off to a fabulous start.

Tag! You're it!!!!

I have been tagged by Brandi. Here we go (some might be repeats for you faithful, long time blog readers -sorry).

1. As a child, my nick name was Hooverina. I loved to clean & vacuum... so my Mom lovingly referred to me as Hooverina.

2. I wash my hands about 50 times a day. Can you say "hello" lotion! I can't stand the thought of my hands being dirty. Just thinking about it makes me want to run & wash my hands - lol. I am aware that there is a term for this :).

3. I was a gymnast in my younger years. During my very 1st meet, I took 1st place in each event & won 1st place all around! I still have those ribbons.

4. I was SO anti country music in high school. Now days, half of my music collection is country music. I still don't like the twangy stuff , but I sure do enjoy a good love song. Heck, I love all kinds of music!

5. I don't ever go to bed before midnight. You know something (it usually means I am sick) is wrong with me if I am in bed before then. I am working on this. I am finding as I get older, I need more sleep.

6. There is a Marie Osmond doll named after me (The Raimi doll). I own two of them & they sit in my garage. I bought one for myself & another for the daughter I never had :). I am praying for lots of grand girls someday :).

7. I can watch the Movies: A Walk to Remember, Top Gun, & the Goonies over & over again!

Okay, I am tagging the following friends:

Amy

Camie

Annie M.

Jacque

HolleAnn

15 months old

Brody is 15 months old today. I was in the grocery store this morning & I realized it was the 14th. I couldn't figure out why today was so special. Then it dawned on me, Brody is 15 months old & today is my cousin, Lizzie's birthday. Happy Birthday dear Lizzie, Happy birthday to you! We hope your day is fabulous!

This is what Brody is up to @ 15 months:

-he is still wearing a size 4 diaper.

-he wears 2T (& bigger) when it comes to clothes.

-he is still crawling up on the table any chance he gets.

-he can climb up onto our bed, nothing is safe now!

-he has learned how to get in the bathtub & turn the water on - so not good!

-loves to take baths.

-he can show you where his belly button is & can even say belly button.

-he can point to his nose.

-he says Ma-Ma, Da-Da, what's that?, belly button, ba-ba, hi

-he still had two bottles a day; on in the morning, & one before bed.

-he crinkles his nose when he laughs, not giggles. It has to be the full on belly laugh. I love this!

-he loves to give hugs. He hugs me many times through out the day. He will come stand at my leg & put his little arms up. Melts my heart every time.

-he likes to brush his teeth with his Elmo toothbrush before bed.

-he loves diced pears & peaches,watermelon, rice, pasta, Mac n Cheese, yogurt, pancakes

-he is so loud. It is a happy loud...but it is still loud.

-he loved Tahoe. Loved the water & even loved the sand so much that he ate it!

-he is a blankie boy. he loves the blankie that Grandma Sandy made for him.

-he is very hard to take picture of right now. He is all over the place, constantly on the go.

-he loves to jump on the bed & then tries to jump when he is on the carpet/hardwood. Not quite the same effect but he still tries & giggles while doing so.

-he can run & it is so cute!

-he still likes to boogie when he hears music.

-ha can go to nursery 3 months from today, but who's counting - LOL!

The baby months are quickly escaping us. He is such a BIG boy now. On one hand, it makes me very sad. I love the baby stage. There is just something about having a baby in the house that makes everything right. On the other hand, his new found freedoms are so much fun for him & a joy for us to witness. I love how excited he gets when John gets home from work each day. The older boys will all run to John & give him hugs to welcome him home. Brody is right there, waiting for his turn. I love his full, chubby little face. I just want to smooch on his cheeks all day long. He doesn't sit still long enough to allow me to do so. A few of his current nick names are bubbies, bug, & bubba's. We sure do love this little guy.

What's new?

Look what I picked up @ Green Tangerines this week. The new Teresa Collins, Halloween & Christmas lines have arrived. I LOVED {with a BIG ole' RED puffy heart} her booth @ CHA(Craft, Hobby Association) in Chicago. She had a huge wall that was totally covered from top to bottom with layouts & card ideas that were designed using her new collections. I am always drawn to Halloween & Christmas lines & hers totally ROCKED. Heaven knows, I have a ton of pictures to scrap from each of those holidays each year.

Brandi & I were able to chit chat with her for a bit while we were in her booth. She was super nice & so personable. We got to hear all about the American Idol festivities in the city where she is from. David A. went to high school with her daughter, so cool! She was one of my favorite "scrapbook celebs" that we were able to meet @ CHA! So...guess what? I purchased her new collection in multiple quantities. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite paper lines from CHA with one of our blog readers! You guessed it, it's time for another give away! Anyone can play, link your friends up to my blog & share the fun. All you have to do to be entered in the drawing is to leave a comment. How about a set of Teresa's new papers & even some of the punch outs (not pictured). If you are scrapbooker, tell me which scrapbook company you could not live/scrap without. If you don't scrapbook, tell me why you don't -LOL! My boys will draw the lucky winner on Friday! Good luck!

P.S. The root canal went well! I am pain free this evening, with a little help from the good old bottle of Advil. Dr. S did a fabulous job! Looking forward to functioning again!

All About them

Tanner & Carter both have "ALL ABOUT ME" projects due @ the end of this week. With soccer practices(for both boys) & basketball practice (Carter) we decided to sit down & complete them in one afternoon. This year, Tanner's teacher has asked each student to create a mystery wheel. When it is their turn to be student of the week, their wheel will go up on the board & the class will try to guess who it is. He came home with a piece of paper that had been folded in a way to create many triangles, kind of like an extra large pizza. Garrett kept calling it a hat - go figure. Tanner had to fill each triangle with something that represents him, the things he likes. Ms. W. wants them colorful & fun. A piece of the "pizza" will be revealed each day till they guess who it is. We had a great time pulling out the scrapbook/craft supplies. See John ...purchasing & hoarding them all, really does come in handy -LOL! My friend Free, had sent Tanner some Harry Potter paper piecings last summer. She made them by hand. We color copied the Harry one & cut it our for his wheel. Thank You Free!!! You totally saved me some time creating that one. He put that he has blue eyes, he loves soccer, he loves pizza, he likes to watch the Olympic games, he loves penguins, etc... He said, "I can't write that I have 3 brothers or that would totally give me away". He is probally right on that one. Tanner used circle punches, Stickles, markers, Google eyes, & many other fun crafting supplies.

Carter had to turn in his ALL ABOUT ME poster too. We used photos & he then drew some of the pictures. One of the fill in the blanks was about a wish...if you could have any wish granted, what would it be? His wish is to have his own room. He didn't wish for all the video games in the world or a big sack of candy, or to stay up past bedtime every night. All he wants is HIS own room. The only time I ever had my own room, in my entire life was when I nannied for Marie & family. Sorry Carter, you will just have to suck it up & continue to share with Tanner -LOL! It is not even like they fight a ton & that is why he would want his own room. Maybe just for the experience??? I shared a room with my 2 sisters for my entire childhood & teenage years. I just thought it was funny, out of all the wishes, that is @ the top of his list.

I am off to have a root canal. It is with a different dentist, One that I trust & feel confident with. Wish me luck. It has been a miserable two weeks dealing with the pain & the "OTHER" dental office. Have a wonderful afternoon!

Back to school

Can you believe it? The boys went back to school this morning. Today is Tanner's first day of 4th grade & Carter's first day of 2nd grade. They could have not been more excited to start school. They love school & that makes me so happy. They had their new outfits & shoes all laid out last night. We shopped on Friday & they both got to pick out a new outfit & a new pair of shoes. Carter cracks me up! He had his underwear laid out on top of his shorts again. He did this last year & must have remembered that I take pictures & that I blog. When I got up this morning, the underwear had been placed on the inside of the shorts-lol! Their outfits say a lot about who they are. Tanner loves anything that has to do with sports, hence the shirt with baseballs. His choice for shoes is always a pair of Nike or Vans. They did not have the VANS he wanted in his size so he settled for the Nike's. Carter loves all things sports too. But this year he picked out this shirt & is so him. Ever since he was a little guy, people would ask what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would always reply "A ROCK STAR". You should have seen the ladies faces @ the dentists office when he answered that question when one of the nurses asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He was all of three years old & knew exactly what he wanted to be... A ROCK STAR.They were all cracking up.

I have been thinking about them all morning... wondering how their day is going & if they are enjoying their new teachers, new classrooms, & new friends. I am grateful for my boys & am so proud of who they are/who they have become. I wrote them little notes last night that they will find in their lunch boxes today. I was teary eyed just writing those notes. They make me proud & I hope this year brings them lots of growth, smiles, & new experiences.

Two kids down & one to go. Garrett doesn't start school for another two weeks. He was just so proud to be walking his big brothers to their classrooms this morning. Hope you are having a great Monday!

Picnic in the park

I am a few days behind in my blogging & recording our adventures. I am back down to four children, my own. I met up with Amber & returned her children to her yesterday afternoon. Thank you so much for letting us have them for a few days. Everyone played so well together, we really did have a great time. Yesterday morning, (before meeting up with Amber) I took the boys to the cement slide park & we had a picnic lunch. All of the boys, even Brody had an excellent time racing down the slides. The boys would take turns holding him on their laps. He loved it. We had the slides all to ourselves for about 20 minutes & then a daycare with about 10 children showed up. That was our cue to head out.

I was so mad when we arrived @ the slides. There is now graffiti & a disgusting picture drawn on

the slides. Some kids had the nerve to tag up the slides. Where in the world are their parents & why didn't they teach them to color on paper? Thinking about it today still chaps my hide. Come on, really??? Why do they feel the need to draw on public property??? One of the tags (in pink) looked like a girls handwriting, she had misspelled something & then took the time to scratch it out-making it look 100 times worse. I am amazed that our cities still create new parks (I am grateful they do) for our children to play at when the ones we have can't be used/taken care of properly. Sorry for the vent, I left there feeling so frustrated & disgusted. Okay, I am getting off my soap box right now.

I hope you all have a happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend. I am off to watch the fashion show that is happening in my family room right now. The boys are trying on their new school shoes/clothes. They are so excited for school on Monday & I am too-LOL We get to head over to the school @ 5 pm & see who their teachers are.

Out on the lake

We have had a fun week. We have really enjoyed having Kai, Kannon, & Jace here. We loved playing @ the local water parks, Sun Splash, seeing a movie, & just some serious cousin time. These boys have gone non-stop from the time they wake up, till the moment they hit their pillows @ the end of the day. Today was spent @ Lake Tahoe. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was refreshing, the sand provided endless hours of digging time, the weather was a cool 85 degrees, the company could not have been better, & the boys loved the boat rides that Uncle John took them on (via the inflatable rubber boats). I think @ one point, they had 3 boats tied together with a Boogie Board trailing behind. Mr. Brody loved the sand & water this time. When we were there a month ago, he cried when we took him in the water. Today was a totally different story. We could not get him out of the water, even when his entire little body was shaking & shivering. When we finally managed to get him out of the water, he would then lay in the sand. He was covered in sand from his head to his toes.

I am not going to lie, I am T-I-R-E-D & worn out. We have played hard everyday, all day long. I love my boys & my nephews so much...but boy, oh boy!!! This week has reminded that 4 is a REALLY good # for us :). I am heading to bed to delve into my Breaking Dawn book. I am not even half way through it-eeekkks! That really shows you how tired I have been. My head hits the pillow & I am out. I'll leave you with some photos from our day!

The cousins are here...

the cousins are here. My boys have been counting down the days. We met up with my sister Amber tonight. We have borrowed her kids for a few days. She has three boys, & then you add my four boys... I have 7 boys under the age of 11 in my house right now. I haven't decided if I will win the "fun Aunt" award or the "crazy Aunt" award yet. I'll let you know the verdict on Thursday evening. We are going to have so much fun during the next 4 days. We will be hitting the local parks, the cement slides, the water park, playing with the water balloon launcher, Sun Splash, the movies, the dollar store (tradition) & Lake Tahoe.

Here are a few photos from this evening.

The crazy car ride home. The noise level was off the charts as you can only imagine. . Every seat belt in a car was being used. I am not sure that has ever happened before. I took the car photos while pointing my camera to the back of the car while holding it above my head, not the best shots, but fun!

Once we got home, the boys enjoyed playing the Wii, jumping on the trampoline, eating warm chocolate chip cookies with milk, laughing & talking when they were supposed to be sleeping. That picture of Garrett cracks me up. He just wanted to carry Jace's bag around all night. He kept telling us that Jace was sleeping over. He is so stinkin' excited about the whole staying the night concept. It is going to be a great week!