My Birthday

My wonderful, amazing, gorgeous, unbelievable wife gave me an awesome surprise gift for my birthday. We had been looking at outdoor patio sets for dining out back. I really wanted something that could comfortably allow 6 adults to dine together (because we frequently dine with her family), and I prefer chairs with a little spring and back-lean to them rather than fixed leg chairs that can't recline. We'd looked and looked and just couldn't find anything affordable, so we'd given up. Well, when I was at work, she went all over town with her mom and all our kids to find us the perfect set, and sure enough she found it and bought it without telling me. I got home later to help get ready for the birthday party for me and Declan. I offered to take the balloons to the nearby store to air them up with helium. Lo and behold, a perfect patio set for a great price caught my eye when I pulled up to the store, and sure enough the chairs were perfect. I was so, so close to just buying it and taking it home but decided I better get Charli's opinion. So I went back home with the filled balloons and asked where I should start tying them up. Charlene indicated I should tie them to the chairs outside, and I was like "why?", we're just gonna be in here, but she told me we'd be dining outside, and I'm like "how?" So I looked out the back door and sure enough, the very patio set I had eyed and almost bought just 15 minutes before was sitting on my patio, decorated with special new place settings and candles. Talk about a wife who knows me. I was totally blown away. I love it, I love it, I love it. I didn't get a picture while it was decorated, but here's a pic of my favorite birthday present. (She also got me an awesome Fossil watch which I also LOVE.)

Declan

We were cleaning house the other day and found some incriminating evidence under Declan's bed: an empty bag of chocolate chips. Hilarious.

I also came across this picture of Declan from about a month ago where the poor guy's eye swelled shut. Not sure where it came from, but we think it was a bite. Of course, he's fine now, but I had to share this shot.

Father's Day

I've been sick most of the week (since I went to bed on my birthday last Monday), so today we just relaxed and watched guy movies. After watching Master & Commander, there wasn't really anything else exciting on TV, so in honor of my amazing Dad we watched one of our joint favorites, Hunt for Red October. My kids never even made fun of my bed head.
After that, we had pizza!!!

The kids have all been doing and saying cute things lately.
– Gabe's new favorite phrase to Declan is "I don't know what you're talking about."
– Declan saw a junebug the other day and was scared, insisting it has teeth and would bite him. We tried to explain to him that junebugs and beetles don't have teeth and won't bite him, but apparently he saw one open its wings to fly and told us matter of factly that he saw its big teeth and it was jumping up to bite him! Poor guy. We've actually been having more than our fair share of brown recluse (translated "poisonous") spiders, so we pay close attention when they let us know of bugs.
– Now that Gabe is in a booster seat, he has a tendency to lean forward a little to see out the window better, so we're constantly reminding him to sit back in his seat. Well today, Annabelle noticed him leaning forward and decided to loudly instruct him to sit back in his seat!
- Declan's also been feeling pretty big lately now that he's 3. The other day he wanted to go somewhere but I had the car, so he just told Mommy that he'd drive Papa's truck and take them all out (because he knows Mommy doesn't like driving Papa's huge truck, but he can handle it because he's big now).
– All the kids like to pretend that baby Graysen is in their tummy, too.

Declan's 3rd Birthday

Declan made out pretty well for his 3rd birthday. He got to:

• talk with his Grandma Murray on the phone
  
  
• party and open lots of presents–including a Spider-Man bicycle and a Radio Flyer scooter
  
  
  
  
  
• and go to Chuck E. Cheese's!
  To see any of the videos full screen, just hit the four-arrow button on the bottom right of each video. Enjoy!

Graysen 3D Ultrasound

We went to BabyWaves and attempted to catch Graysen's face in 3D. None of our kids have cooperated well with such an effort in the past, so we did not expect this chica to be any different. Sure enough, her arm was in front of her face the entire time, but she's still a cutie.

Sleeping Angels

So Annabelle came to bed with Mommy and Daddy at some point last night. When I woke up to get ready for work, I couldn't resist taking her picture. Then of course I had to sneak a peek at the boys, too. What a great way to start the day. Thank you, Jesus.

EZPC

You may not have known that I’ve developed a website to help average people get the most out of their PC experience. You can check it out at ezpc.weebly.com.

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Tanganyika Wildlife Park

So later that same day (Thursday) I took the kids to this fairly new wildlife park. The company I work for (IMA) sponsored the event and catered in some awesome BBQ. The kids had a really good time because it's a little more interactive than your typical zoo.

There were monkeys everywhere...

Lazy cats...And giraffes... And Declan had a talk with the kangaroos cuz they're good buddies...
This kangaroo had a baby in its pouch...all the kids got to pet the mommy kangaroo.And there was plenty of other wildlife...
Including rhinos!!!! (no children were harmed in the making of this blog)

They had the most fun, though, feeding the bunnies and turtles. They were uber-friendly because they knew we had the lettuce. The turtles wouldn't stop chasing us, which made Gabe feel safer feeding them from the bench.

We wrapped up the day playing at the park's awesome playground. Gabe was big stuff. Declan loved the slide. But Bella wouldn't do much. I'd try to get her slide, but she'd just sit.

Day with the kids

Charli has been under the weather for a couple of days, so I stayed home from work and took the kids out for the day. We started by heading to Saturn to get our keyless remotes programmed. They said it will take at least a half hour, and there were a few other folks ahead of us, so I loaded up the kids in our double jogging stroller and we trekked just over a mile to Burger King (the kids love the playplace there). Gabe was a trooper but didn't make it a half mile before he wanted a ride on the stroller...pushing 3 kids in 80 degree weather was not easy! And of course BK was keeping the air conditioning on low to save money (and make customers want to buy ice cream, I'm sure).

After enjoying our burger shots and having fun in the playplace, it was time to hike back to get our car. As we began to head out I noticed the stroller tires were completely flat...no wonder I'd had such trouble pushing them earlier! There was a gas station across the street which thankfully had free air, so we took care of that and headed out again. We didn't get half a mile and then the stroller came to an abrupt stop. Gabe had been sitting on the handle bar, so he almost landed in Bella and Declan's lap, poor guy! Turned out the front wheel had come completely off the stroller, so I had to get that fixed and all was well again.

Once home, we played outside for a bit and then let Annabelle take a nap. A nice relaxing afternoon. We really love living with Charli's parents in the country. The kids play outside every day now and can't imagine life any other way!

Next post I'll tell you how the rest of our afternoon went at a new zoo in Wichita called Tanganyika Park!

Hope you'll like this!

With my family living so darn far away from me and the kids growing up so fast, I figured it's about time I get a blog going. I hope this blog blesses you and helps you feel like we're staying in better touch! I'll be posting cute (and not so cute) stuff the kids are doing, pictures, thoughts or quotes which have moved me, movies and music that rock, you name it! Enjoy!!