Busy weekend

So we went to see The Avengers at the drive-ins with Alan.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Ethan decided to poop for the 3rd time in the same day, and wouldn't you know, I didn't bring a diaper or a wipe.  I had to take him and clean up all up in the bathroom, and let him go without a diaper (which was actually totally fine, but jeesh).  All the kids fell asleep at some point.  Liv peed the blankets/blow up bed (guess she should have made the trip to the bathroom with Ethan and I).  Everyone spilled the popcorn, including me.  The kids are all super upset they fell asleep.  They probably never want to go back to the drive-ins.  The weather was beautiful though, and the picture of them is super-cute, so maybe they'll have a distorted memory of it if we force them to look at the picture and say "remember the drive-ins??!" in a nostalgic kind of way every so often.

See?  Totally cute, right?

Today, Ethan and I went shopping and bought some new running shoes for me, and a smoke detector for the house.  Ethan was a super cutie at Runner's Den.  He just watched and watched as I tried on the multitudes.  Put your sunglasses on real quick before you look at these because they are bright:

Sunglasses on!

But they are super comfy.  

We stopped by my mom's house and dropped some gatorade off for my sister who drank too much with Mike, last night.  We came home and installed said smoke detector and ate lunch.  Ethan did not nap today.  He just wouldn't.  So I knew I had to keep him up to 7:30 or so.  I told him he needed a haircut, fed him candy and cookies during, and chopped his hair off.  He sat pretty good for about 2 minutes.  Then he was impatient - I think mostly because he was so tired.  So I hurried up and stuck him in the bath.  Then he didn't want to go to sleep, and stayed up until 8:30.  Nerd.

Cutie Man!

You know how he won't stay still for a picture and you have to take it three million times to get a good one? Yah, this was only number three.  Not bad, eh?

So I made popcorn and we watched Newsies.  Mia is spending the night tonight and she and Jenna are still awake at 10:30.  I need to go to sleep too or I am never going to get up at 4:30am to work out.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.  Love you and miss you more.

Coffee, it's my favorite.

So, I'm walking down the hall with a fresh, steaming cup of coffee.  I reach into the hall closet for a few diapers because we're getting ready for a birthday party.  Ethan decides to push the door closed just as I'm grabbing diapers, and since he doesn't do anything gently, the door slams into my coffee-holding hand and throws steaming hot coffee all down the front of me.  Of course, I just got dressed.  Not only did it burn, my clothes are now soaked, down to the skivvies, in coffee.  Luckily, we really have two hours before we even need to leave (we were going to deliver leftover Ethan-birthday-cake to family) - so now all my clothes are in the washer.  I will be adult, and not tell you how mad I was at Ethan.  I literally had just gotten dressed, walked out, poured coffee, and walked back with it to start packing for the party.  Dressed.  Coffee.  Coffee on me.  Mad some?  Yes, but just don't tell anyone that I am immature, and angry at my two-year-old for being a two-year-old.  I told him he had to stop being a burden.  Livea said "what does that mean?"  I told her, and then she said "what happens if he doesn't know how to stop being a burden?"  Uhh, then maybe I'll learn patience?  tee hee.

just some stuff

We're mostly settled in Phoenix now.  There are still boxes to unpack, mostly in the master bedroom, decor to put up, and kids rooms to organize.  I feel so lazy about getting it all done, I think because I feel like it'll be just a few more blinks, and I'll be packing it all back up again.  I need to just suck it up and get everything finished though.

Today is Ethan's 2nd birthday.  We're all sad you're not here with us to celebrate.  He misses you tons.  Every time I get on my computer or laptop and he sees the picture of you he says "Daddy! There's Daddy!  There's Jenna.  There's Lukas....," and names everyone off.  But you're his favorite of course, and he always says "There's Daddy!" five or six more times, or he'll just keep going until I cover the picture up with a browser or program.  I blew up the balloons last night but waited til this morning to do the streamers.  Ethan actually slept in and the kids helped me put the streamers on the doorway.  Ethan decided it would be fun to pop most of his balloons with a pencil, much to every other kids' chagrin.  They were horrified that he would want to break his balloons.  I made some cupcakes this morning and we're going to take them and his presents (books: all used that I got at bookmans, spent less than $20 on: animal babies; goodnight moon; skippyjon jones color crazy; if i were a firefighter; my very first book of numbers by eric carle; and the three bears) over to my moms later this afternoon to sing happy birthday.  We'll probably go swimming sometime today too (getting HOT!) - hey, do you know where his red trunks are?? We haven't found them since we've been home from Kansas!  Did we even bring them to KS?  I can't remember if we had them there!

Saturday I'll have family over for hotdogs and swimming and cake.  It's your mom's birthday on Saturday, so it'll be nice to have her here too.  I will hopefully post some pictures for you, if I can remember to charge my camera (if I can find the right charger).

I thought I could slip away for a minute because the kids are doing schoolwork, but now Ethan, Livea and Adam are screaming - literally screaming, at each other.  I think one of them screamed loud and another was annoyed about it, and so now they're having a screaming contest, but not in a good way.

We hope you're getting settled in Afghanistan, as settled anyone could get under the circumstances anyhow.