So as I walked into the kitchen today I saw this......
Ty wrote his name for the first time today. It was more than just scribbles. I didn't touch the pen thing at all. I just told him, "one big line down, one big line across," etc. he was so proud of himself and I was too! Way to go Ty!!!! :-)
Jack gives Kindergarten a big thumbs up!! He was the most excited about a raspberry muffin he had for breakfast and recess. They read books, sang songs, had rest time and he loved riding the bus! He had an awesome day and when he ran of the bus to give me a hug, I let out a huge sigh of relief! He liked it and he wants to go back tomorrow, so I'm good now too! :-) I can't believe we have a kindergartener! Jack, you're destined to do big things!!! Love ya buddy!!!
This is what I got to see at the end of his day...
We miss you Tom!!!!!
Today is Jack's first day of Kindergarten. I can't even believe he's in school right now. :-)
He's been so excited about going to school and meeting friends, having recess, packing his lunch, and of course riding the bus. This morning we woke up at 6 to be ready for the bus at 6:40. While we were getting ready we got to Skype with Tom and it felt like he was here! It was great! We packed his lunch, had breakfast, took a few pictures and made our way to the bus stop. The bus was running a little late which was no surprise so we got to hang out for a while. When the bus came, he went right on. He was cool, calm and relaxed which helped me! I got a little choked up but fought the water works! I hope he's having an amazing day and I can't wait to hear all about his new adventure! My baby's not a baby any more!! Jack...your dad and I are so proud of you!! You can do anything! Love you kiddo!
Bo is picking things up like crazy. Plus he knows he has an audience since we're in PA with family. He's definitely putting on a show. Here's his latest trick...
Today I got to spend the day with my amazing friends at Knoebels! Jack and Ty were off with Tom's parents at The Great Wolf Lodge. So Bo and I met Karen, Christy and Carisa, plus their kiddos and Nana Free at the park. I love Knoebels. This place is an old school, home town, mom and pop kind of amusement park. It's nestled in the mountains, it's a camp site and picnic grove, totally affordable and so much fun!!! The parking is even free! You can bring all your own food if you want to grill and you can pay per ride. There's no admission price, it's all per ride or you can get an all day arm band. I think that's cool that you have the option. Bo and I only spent $8 on rides and we had lots of fun! :-)
Anyway, the most important part was that I got to hang out with my girls, see their kids and have lots of laughs! It's amazing to me that we live hundreds of miles away but we can all get together once or twice a year and it's effortless to pick right back up where we left off! Ladies, you're awesome and I cherish our friendship! I miss you guys terribly! Thanks for the great day!!
I was a little lost today. Jack and Ty went to the Great Wolf Lodge with Tom's parents and I got to spend the day chasing around only 1 crazy mini Murtie. Bo and I spent the day swimming at my Aunt's and hanging out with family. It only could have been better if my mom made more pierogies!! :-) J/K Mom!!! It was a fun day, but I missed the older boys. Bodie definitely enjoyed not having to share his audience! After we got chased from my Aunt's by the rain, we ventured home. Bo had a bath, got all cozy in his jammies then had a little snack. He was playing the game of pretending to give me a bite then take it away and this is what ensued.........(He laughs exactly like Ty. So funny!! He totally made me tear up with the ending....Tom, we miss you so much!!! LY!!)
Here's Bo rocking his first pair of kicks. Since he's been walking every where and totally mobile, and since we really haven't been indoors at all, the poor boy needed some shoes. The first time he wore them he walked around like he was wearing scuba flippers. Hahahah!! I wish I had the video rolling then! But here he is putting on a show. And of course Jack and Ty can't help but photo bomb Bo's video moment! :-)
The dirty D word has been flying around our house a lot lately. I don't like talking about it, want to stay in my little bubble of denial! All of my fellow military friends know what I'm talking about....deployment.
It's kind of hard to not talk about it. Especially since I want to start blogging daily again and don't think I can do that without talking about Tom and where he is. I was reluctant to put it out there. I have no desire to put it on Facebook because I'm not very good at unfriending or denying friend requests to people I wouldn't normally keep in touch with. I'm sure we all have those friends on there. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Anyway, My blog is way more personal and I figured if you read my blog, then you're close to me an my family in someway. So here it is...Tom's deployed. :-( he left on June 22nd, spent a week at Fort Benning in Ga. Then left from there and made his way to Afghanistan. He'll be spending the next 6 months at Camp Eggers in Kabul. We're very spoiled with how often we've gotten to talk to him and I'm not sure what we'd do without Skype and my iPhone! :-) (there's an app for that!) Tom's doing well, getting adjusted and settled in with his job. The people he's working with seem to be great so I'm pretty relieved in that regard.
The boys are doing well too. I'm not sure how much they totally understand but we talk about it and I'm keeping them busy and distracted with lots of fun stuff that I'll be blogging about. We spent a week at the beach with my family and now we're in Pa for a few weeks. I'm not sure if it's better to keep them distracted or me. :-) but so far it's working.
We miss Tom terribly! I know we've been lucky with the lack of our deployments! Its part of being in the Army. Im not complaining! But I am pretty happy it's only 6 months!
Get ready for more blogs from me and lots of pictures! Tom will appreciate being able to check the blog instead of me crashing his email with pictures and videos of the kids. Hahaha!
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Who needs one of those fancy walker toys when you have an empty garbage can already in your house?? Bodie has been trying to walk, he pushes around anything that will go and help him get from one place to another. He got a hold of the garbage can when I was taking out the trash.
Bo actually took his first steps yesterday but I had to post this before I wrote about that big milestone. :-) I'm not sure what's funnier, Bodie pushing around the garbage can, Ty's laugh, or Jack talking in the back ground. My three entertainers!
Today was Bodie's first birthday! I can't even believe our little man is 1 year old already. This year has flown by. Bodie has definitely kept us entertained every day. He's little but has a big personality. He looks and laughs exactly like Ty. He eats better than his 2 older brothers, but won't touch lunch meat. He's close to walking, but not just yet. He loves Sadie and Lola, all their dog toys, playing with all the garbage trucks we own, riding on his Dad's shoulders, fake sneezing and clapping for himself. Of course bath time is his MOST Favorite time, other than any time we eat. :-) He looks like Hulk Hogan with his bleach blonde hair that's a little longer in the back. (Thanks for pointing that out Uncle Tim). He started dancing and saying "achoo". He really does love attention and is a total ham! He has about 10 solid nicknames. Jack gave him a new one the other day...."Kubota", which I think is perfect with this family's love of all things machines and Umpa's collection of Kubotas. Very fitting. Bodie is usually a really happy baby. He definitely has my Dad's Davis temper. He's already very determined and let's you know how pissed he is when he can't get what he wants. His energy level is crazy and is non stop every minute he's awake. He has 2 amazing big brothers that love playing with him and fight over who gets to open his door when he wakes up from nap. And 2 parents that love him more than he'll ever know. I really don't know how we got so lucky! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BODIE!!!!! We love you Bubba!
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| This was taken at midnight on May 6th. So sweet! Lying so still! :-) |
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| About to have his Birthday Choco-chip pancakes! |
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| The owl cake came out a little taller and skinnier than planned, but it wasn't an epic fail! And Thanks Aunt Lisi and crew for his cool birthday plate!! |
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| More than meets the eye! |
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| All 3 boys loved Scout. |
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| You want me to dig into this? But it's an owl! |
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| Oh, it's chocolate icing???...Ok, then, I'm game! |
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| SUGAR!!!!!!!!!! |
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| CHEESE! |
I know tattoos are not for everyone. I, however, am a huge fan of tattoos. I love the art and design of them, the meaning, the boldness, the over all look. I think tattoos can make a huge statement. I love that all kinds of people have tattoos. It's not just your typical stereotype of biker gangs anymore! I also think tattoos have to mean something. After all, if you're going to commit to a piece of art permanently becoming a part of you, it better mean something now, and still mean something to you 20 years from now.
I never thought Tom would get a tattoo, but he surprised me on my 30th birthday, blogged about here. It was the most amazing birthday surprise ever! It meant so much to me, super sentimental! :-) Since then we've been itching to get more done.
We finally found a shop that we like, an artist that we trusted, and a design we love and got our tattoos last week. Our artist, Steph, was awesome! She was recommended to us by our neighbor and was amazing! She was great at keeping us distracted too. It took her about 3 .5 hours for mine and 3 hours for Tom's. Sitting still that long was helped with her great conversations! She made the time go a little faster! We took her our design ideas and she came up with the final versions. Tom wanted to get his interpretation of a tree of life with the boys initials incorporated somehow. I loved the idea, especially for what the tree of life represents (at least what it represents for me) so I stole his idea. :-) We didn't get the exact same thing. Our designs are different yet similar enough, so you know that they mean the same thing to each of us. Instead of the boys initials, I added 4 birds flying in the breeze, representing Tom and the 3 boys. And just to touch on what the tree of life means to me.....It symbolizes our family. As the boys grow older and go their separate ways, like the branches of the tree, and do their own things in life, they will always be connected to each other and to Tom and I. Just like the branches get their start at the trunk of the tree and everything is connected to the roots. No matter what happens, where ever life takes them, we all have the same roots. Anyway....Here are our tattoos.
Jack has a very unique fashion sense. He is obsessed with this one button down shirt that his Uncle Pat sent him. And he also loves wearing his "fancy schmansy" shorts. (plaid shorts with pockets, not mesh gym shorts.) He really does love dressing up whether it's in his fancy clothes or costumes like the cowboy hat and snow boots. He's been a sheriff of an apparently very snowy western town since he got cap guns for Easter. (I know, I'm a bad mom for getting him guns for Easter, but he loves them) Jack also has this habit of bringing something with us everywhere we go. Sometimes it's his gigantic stuffed dog, sometimes his handcuffs (what's a sheriff w/o handcuffs?) most of the time it's a smaller stuffed animal hand cuffed to him. This means every time I look in the rear view mirror I see a stuffed animal hanging by handcuffs from the "oh shit bar". All these accessories can come along but they have to stay in the car! And Ty is Jack's shadow with some things. Including his fashion sense. He prefers boxer briefs over tidy whities, loves the fancy schmansy shorts and brings totally random things with him where ever we go. Ty usually brings a matchbox garbage truck with him or a plane or this loud beeping cherry picker truck. So both of the older boys love to make a fashion statement with a very random accessory in tow. So I wasn't surprised to see this when I told the boys to get out of their jammies and get dressed this morning so we could head out grocery shopping.....
This was all them. :-) Jack is rocking his favorite shirt with black sweat pants, snow boots, Tom's Rutgers hat, and his holster with guns. Ty went more traditional with the clothes opting for jeans and a tee, he also chose a hat and his accessory is.... Wait for it....take another look at the picture to make sure..... Yep, that's what you thought it was..... A plunger. (please know that it is brand new and never been used!!! **gag**) this plunger was found by the boys in the garage over the weekend and has become the new favorite toy and way to gross me out! Tom even helped the boys create a game involving the plunger, a golf club and a ball. Who knows! :-) Anyway, after some deliberation I did talk Ty out of bringing the plunger with him this morning. I'll taken victories when I can get them! As for their fashion sense......they get that from Tom! Hahahaah!!!! :-)
Ty would not cooperate for the picture. Almost like he knew I'd post a picture of him with a plunger all over the world wide web!! Ha!
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Seems like time has gotten away from me once again, it's been a month since my last blog. We've been staying busy with all the regular stuff life comes with and even threw in a trip to PA for Easter. But before I dive into all the catching up I have to share Bodie's latest accomplishment. He started giving kisses and clapping a few weeks ago, around Easter. Being in PA with family lead to lots of kisses, and he just caught right on. Of course they're open mouth and sloppy, the best baby kisses ever!!! Clapping took a few weeks but he's got it down now. Here he is pushing Jack around on the zebra walker thing we have then celebrating his magnificence on his own! :-) Go Bodie Go!!!
Our little town of Rineyville has it's own youth soccer league. At the age of 4, there's not a lot of things out there for him. So when I found out they had a U6 (under 6 years old) team, we signed him up. Jack was so excited to pick out spikes and shin guards. I was excited because it's another way for him to meet a few kids that would probably be in kindergarten with him this fall. Plus all the other good stuff that sports bring. Well, a few Tuesdays ago, he had his first practice. It was right after we had a parent meeting for the whole league. This is when I found out they even had a U4 age group. I was surprised that Jack was old enough to play soccer in this league, but Ty could play too?!?!?! This was great news because Ty was pretty sad when Jack got to go play soccer with the other kids and he had to hang out with me and Bodie. So I contacted the soccer league and Ty's age group still had openings so we got to sign Ty up for soccer as well. He was one happy kid!
Our weekends for the next 6 weeks will be fully consumed by soccer. Jack has a game every Saturday AND Sunday. Plus we even have away games for Jack, which cracks me up. Then Ty has a game every Saturday afternoon. Jack's on the Wildcats and Ty's on the Sugar Babies. :-) Their first games were this past weekend. Since our families weren't here to to help cheer on Jack and Ty, our amazing neighbor Tonya came out to help us be loud! (We are so amazingly lucky to have her and her family in our lives!!!)
It was a long Saturday! There was an opening ceremony at 9, Jack had his first game at 10, then we were back at the field at 2 for Ty's game. Jack's game went as one would think a group of 4 and 5 year olds playing soccer for the first time would go. Hahahah! But they had fun!!! Jack seemed to play with the string on his shorts more than the soccer ball, but he had his moments of greatness. We played a team that had played together for 3 seasons, and knew a lot more about what they were doing. Our team....not so much. We had one practice on a field that didn't have any lines painted on it. Our coach was a little frazzled at the end, but Jack had fun and that's all that matters. It was pretty entertaining. For Jack's second game on Sunday....there was a big improvement! The Wildcats seemed to understand a little bit more about where they should be and what they should be doing. At one point I turned into "That mom" and had to yell to snap Jack back into the game since he was standing IN the goal with his face pushed through one of the holes in the net. HAHAHAHH!!! I must have yelled his name 6 times before he heard me, he was in his own world. :-) After the game we told him that he can't stand in the goal and squish his face through the holes like that, and asked him why he was doing it. His repsonse....I was making silly faces. Well, OK then. I should have known! He did score a goal in Sunday's game, it was for the other team, but it was still him kicking the ball in a goal! :-) We were so proud of him!! He did great! (other than the squishy goal face episode)
As for Ty, he did great too. The Sugar Babies didn't have a practice or anything. We just show up 20 minutes before the game and they practice then. So Ty's first game was his first time meeting his teammates and coach. His coach is really sweet, and in this age group, the coaches are on the field helping direct the kids on where to go and what to do. (Personally I think that's how it should be for Jack's age group too) It took Ty a minute, but then he warmed right up and had so much fun! The smile on his face was HUGE! He did so well too. I actually got to capture my favorite moment from Ty's game on video...it sums it all up..... (Ty's the blondie in the orange tshirt)
The boys are loving soccer, and it gets us out of the house with something new to do on the weekends. Fun for all! :-)
My soccer boys
I LOVE this picture because Jack is the only one running away from the ball! :-)
Jack in action.
Prom date pose.
Ty's team
Multitasking. Soccer and thumb sucking.
Ty's action shot
Bodie supporting his brothers
I know it's just natural instinct for kids to climb stuff. Bo gives me anxiety though. Here he is doing his best impression of a monkey at the gate on the stairs. The funny thing is he's mastered his dismount and gets down from there with no issues! Impressive.
Ty is a great big brother! He loves Bodie and is trying to mold him into a mini Titus. The other night while I was making dinner I had Bo in his high chair having a snack and Ty took his garbage truck over to him. Ty played in the table next to Bodie for almost 30 minutes. The whole time Ty was examining how the garbage truck worked and what the workers do, and where everyone would sit if our family went for a ride in this garbage truck and how it dumps out the load at the landfill. I regret not videoing this because it was so sweet and hilarious! :-) I wonder if Bo will have a natural, not at all weird, borderline obsessive, love for all things garbage like his brothers????
Bodie is just rushing through his infantdom. I guess having 2 older brothers, that he watches like a hawk, give him these ideas that he's a big kid too. I noticed it with Ty at this age too. It seems like Jack was able to be a baby much longer than Ty and Bo. He had to figure it out in his own, Ty and Bo follow the motto, "see one do one".
The other day we were out front playing and Bo wanted nothing to do with his toys, he was all about the rocks, and trying to knock Ty off his bike. Jack was drawing a family picture with chalk and Bodie was all over that too. He's pretty quick, and was all over the place. Not sure how I'm going to wrangle 3 of them when we're out somewhere and Bo can walk. :-)
