What's going on here?!

Woah, this has got to be some kind of non-blogging record for me! I guess I just haven't been feeling it lately. Usually, I do my blogging in the evening after the kids are in bed, but what with all the nintendo I've been playing, I just haven't had the time! Just kidding, I haven't been playing that much nintendo. I do have some fun things to blog about, I promise. I just have to look through my pictures to figure out what we've been doing for the past 2 weeks! I'd do it now, but I can't find my memory card. Maybe tomorrow will be your lucky day, and I'll blog again.

Let the games begin!!!

OK, so here it is. Hope this isn't a let down for anyone... but just in case, we tried to take some entertaining pictures so that all this guesswork and waiting would be worth your while. Craig told me I needed to pose like Charlie's Angels with my duck hunt gun. "How do I do that?" I asked. He proceeded to direct me (like Deb on Napoleon Dynamite) into said Charlie's Angels pose. How embarrassing.

I'm impressed that yall figured it out! Shelly got it all by herself. Rosemarie got it too (I thought you were saying you wanted one, but not actually guessing it for me. We did have an Atari and GameBoys), and Leslie got pretty darn close with the Atari (that's what we had, and I would still choose Frogger over Tetris any day)

So, the story behind the gift... Craig said he'd been wanting to get it for me (us) for a while, but that when I told him I had (yet another) dream that I was playing Tetris, that sealed the deal. So, Nintendo, you can keep your little Wii, thankyouverymuch, cuz you just don't make em like you used to. I'm going to put the Super Mario smack-down on Craig just as soon as we get it hooked up. Tetris just came in the mail too. He went all out, I tell you. Spared no expense. I'm so spoiled :) Let the games begin!

(for the record, the hubby got a kiss too)

It is bigger than a breadbox?

OK, I know everyone loves a good guessing game so I'll try to actually give you a few hints. No, it's not bigger than a breadbox (is it just me or is that the obligatory 20 questions opener?) Rosemarie told me my hints were no good but, HELLO, I didn't actually give yall any hints. I'll recap:

1) I've always wanted one but never had one.
2) Craig wanted to get one now also, but that does not mean that he never had one.
3) I looked for one on eBay, and it's OLD. Old like me cuz, Hello, I got it for my 3rd 29th Bday. O.L.D.

Some new clues...
4) It is OLD, and therefore cannot be found in your local SAHM'sR'Us (aka Target) toy department.
5) His hint to me was that Joshua & Zoe would play with it when they got older.
6) Like mine was in it's time, the new version is still an obsession among many.
7) While this could indicate a puppy, it is not a puppy :( It is an inanimate object.
8) When it arrived, Craig said "so, are you ready to geek it up?" Not sure what he meant by that but maybe it'll help you guess. I tried not to take it personally, him calling me a geek and all, since HE was the one who actually had one. We did have a portable ones (we each had one, this is not something you share without World War 3). We also had the older version of a different brand.
9) Rosemarie, I had a cabbage patch kid. You're right about the tomboy thing though, since mine had a little camo outfit. I do not lie. That wasn't a hint though.
10) Craig finally decided to get this for me when I said "I had a dream I was playing ______." I think everyone who plays with this for any extended period of time subsequently has dreams that they were playing with it. Or should I get help??

OK, that's enough clues! If #8 and #10 don't give it away, nothing will! So gimmie your final guesses, as many as you want, and I'll tell you all tonight.

Rosemarie, you should definitely get this.
Shelly, that was a dirty trick, you trying to get Craig to tell you... but YAY!, he called and told me you figured it out (and without all my great hints!)
Leslie, I totally wanted an easy bake oven! I had forgotten all about those! I also wanted one of those snoopy snowcone makers. My friend Lori had one and I thought it was the coolest. If you can't get it, ask Chris - it's something closer to his area of EECS-pertise
Emily, you definitely need to guess. Especially after clue #2.
Amanda, HI!! We had a puppy, but when Joshua and Zoe get older, that will definitely be back on the top of my bday list! (Well, I'm sure it will be at the top of their lists!)

And the winner is...

gotcha! I'm waiting to hear Rosemarie & Leslie's guesses... since they're the other 2 people who read my blog :) I showed it off to J&Z's babysitter today, she was almost as excited as I am. Keep guessing. (Not you, Lauren. Cheater.)

And I guess what I really wanted to know is what everyone else has wanted since you were a kid but maybe never got... if yours is the same as mine, I'll even share :)

Just what I've always wanted!

There's this thing that I've always wanted. Wanted and wanted and wanted when I was a kid but for whatever reason, never got. There's some silly thing that I've wanted for as long as it has existed. I always got to play with my friends' so I guess I wasn't heartbroken about not having one, but I couldn't play with it whenever I wanted cuz, well, it wasn't mine. Over the years, I've had fond memories of this item, accompanied by fleeting thoughts of "I should get one someday." Obviously, I must have mentioned this item a time or two over the course of our three + year marriage. Obviously, I must have checked it out on eBay once or twice, letting my to do list get the best of my nostalgia and never following through on getting one. It just seemed too silly. What would I do with it?! Would it be the same as in my memories?

Well, my loving, wonderful, thoughtful, resourceful and oh so humorous husband has thusly purchased said item for my (eh hem) 29th B-day. I think he was trying to help me feel young again... it worked :) And, just for the record, he wanted one too.

Any guesses? I'm so tempted to tell you what it is, but I want to see what yall come up with! (oh, and if Craig has told you what he got me for my bday (I've been looking for every excuse to say "B-day" since we watched Nick & Norah's Infinite playlist - thx Lauren) you're disqualified from guessing, obvs., since it wouldn't really be a guess, now would it?!)

And now for the real Easter post!

If I could photoshop heads, we'd have a picture in which we all look good. Instead, you can just look at all three

Zoe in the wheelbarrow. Daddy's idea. Shocking, I know.

he came home from church and went straight for the wheelbarrow

she was excited about standing up
she liked clapping this egg together

Joshua was sharing very well

We had such a fun Easter today! Joshua got his first Easter basket, which was actually a wheelbarrow filled with goodies, hunted eggs, learned about Jesus, and had an Easter party! Zoe was her usual sweet self and had fun watching all the activity. Even though he doesn't understand it yet, our greatest joy today was getting to tell Joshua about Christ's resurrection (we used smaller words than that :) and explaining that we have Easter to celebrate that He is risen! He may not have understood, but I know he knew we were telling him something exciting because he kept shouting "yes sir!"

Zoe and Lilly entertained each other for a while, passing this ball back and forth (and taking turns chewing on it)
Kristin, Cassidy & Joshua dividing up the spoils.

Cassidy, Joshua, Chloe and Kristin, all a bit ambivalent about posing for a picture.

blurry Joshua and his wheelbarrow full of eggs.

Cole pushed the wheelbarrow for Joshua and helped him hunt eggs

The egg hunters in action:

continued from yesterday...

sugar snap peas

Joshua waving next to his new tree
And helping out in the yard

some strawberries

aaaaand our saplings. aren't they cute?

to be continued...

Hold your breath no longer... here are the pictures!!

First, we have Zoe. Potty training? No. She just likes a comfy seat for watching the news. Sometimes, she likes to sit on the floor with her hand on her booty. She does this all the time and it looks so funny... just sits or lays there and pats herself on the booty, or sits or rolls around with her hand thereHere, at long last, is a picture of the deck. I love it. Craig & all his helpers, especially my dad, did such a great job! We still have to finish 1 set of stairs, putting latice up, the railings to the upper deck, a bench, a planter, building the flower borders around it, planting stuff, and a few other things I'm sure. Mmmm... like staining the whole thing. Here's how the front of our house is looking these days. Notice the non straight lines on the lawn. Wonder who did that. Most of my tulips survived the frost, as did the annuals under the shrub on the right. The big tree there is the one we just adopted.

I was going to post a few more but the hamsters powering our computer are getting tired and I just don't have patience for a slow computer at the moment. Sooo...

The End.

Happy (early) Arbor Day

Oh, I think it's April 24th or something, but I know that Arbor Day is this month. Plus, with all the deck building we've been doing, I suppose we should replenish some lumber 'round here. Also, I don't want Al Gore to blame me for global warming and charge us some carbon offsets, (since he invented the intraweb and therefore must be reading my blog)!!! But I digress... I haven't gotten around to taking pictures since, with all this global warming, it's been unseasonably cold (funny how that works) and this girl don't go outdoors to take blog pics when it's that cold. Anyway, in celebration of Arbor Day (and really just because it coincidentally happened to be Arbor Day when we wanted to plant trees) we've recently planted 12 (count'em 12) trees!

Here's the part where, had I been taking pictures, I'd show you a picture of our dectuplets (um, Webster?) OK, dectomom, our ten baby trees (yes, you saw em in a bag a couple posts ago). Actually, they're 5 sets of twins (5 kinds of flowering trees, 2 of each) but who's counting. The other day while Craig was building the deck, I followed the explicit instructions of the Arbor Day Foundation to plant our 10 baby trees. Sure, it was a pain in the badonkadonk, but I felt like I was saving the world, one sapling at a time.

Today, we adopted two October glory maples from a nursery somewhere in Ohio. Joshua had fun watching the guys dig the holes (there is a REASON that you are supposed to call before you dig, folks! A REASON, I tell you!!!) and plant the trees. We now have 2 beautiful 20' tall trees in our yard - one in front, one in back. Yep, saving the world 2 trees at a time (all in the name of increased resale value).

I'll get some pictures eventually. Until then, I'm sure you know what a tree looks like so you can use your imagination and superimpose that mental image on the mental image you have of our backyard from previous posts. Thanks.

what not to wear

Here are all my tulips (there are still a few left to come up... just in time for the SNOW tonight. In Tennessee. In April.)

Here's Joshua in Zoe's hat. We saw him put it on this morning and go running into our room to check himself out in the mirror.

Craig: "were you checking yourself out?"

Joshua: "Yessir"

Craig: "How do you look?"

Joshua: "Gooood!"

Stacey and Clinton might disagree, but I think Joshua was right. Too cute & funny, he keeps us laughing, even when he's sick, up all night, and cranky.

a tisket a tasket....

Zoe in her basket!
Although we have plenty of furniture in the garage just waiting for a good re-do, I thought I'd start small with this basket. I have a before picture somewhere (it was the normal wood color with an off white lining) but you'll just have to use your imagination. I have more of this striped fabric, which I was/am planning on using for a crib skirt and/or part of a quilt for Zoe. 'Cause I've got all this extra time on my hands, you know.

Even pretty when she's not smiling... I got them both to look at the camera!

I still can't believe how blonde her hair is!!Joshua wanted to get in too, but I told him he was too big. I realize he's been wearing Elmo a lot lately. There are many reasons for this, into which I won't delve at the moment. Just wanted you to know that I know.

decktacular

The deck is getting closer to being finished! I finally did something to contribute yesterday (other than keeping kids entertained and out of the way) and screwed down all the decking (well, about 90% of it). I have to admit, it was quite therapeutic. Here are the latest photos of the deck along with one of Zoe's hair blowing in the breeze, and a picture of our new 'babies'Also, a funny video of Joshua saying something we couldn't figure out and Craig trying not to be on camera... oh, and the deck.