Toothless Joe, err Nelson

Nelson lost both top teeth. I ask him questions just to listen to him talk... It sounds so funny.

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend! Travis participated in the Easter service at our church, we had Grandpa and Grandma Nelson here for the entire weekend, and we did lots of family bonding. Coloring eggs was a lot of fun, but there are no great pictures of that, sorry.


Eggs were left in the shoes! We have gotten smarter over the years, when the eggs are put in the shoes, the dogs are put behind a locked door until morning.



All the baskets waiting for the kids to wake up. We didn't have to wait long, they were up and digging though them by 6:15AM.


The best picture I could get of all 4 kids. There were a crazy amount of out-takes.


All six of us! Tallie wanted nothing to do with the camera, she was hiding behind the chair.

Ninjas, rain, and bread pudding.

Maddox found a "friend" in the basement this morning while heading down to get a bat mobile. He's since named the "friend" Ninja-Mouse. I've named the "friend", Dead. I don't want him in the house. Hopefully he loves peanut butter as much as the dogs do (who now have to stay out of the basement because they are getting the trap stuck on their noses trying to eat Ninja-Mouse's peanut butter.



I don't know about you, but when I'm stuck inside because of Spring thunderstorms I always eat conversation hearts, that are leftover from Valentine's Day and pose with my superheroes while watching Super Why.




Since it's a dreary day, I'm going to bake! I haven't done much of that since starting work again in the fall and I miss it. Today's delight is going to be Magpie's Bread Pudding. Thinking about it makes me really excited for the end of today :) I'm also going to try my hand at London Broil, it's been YEARS since I've done that. As a matter of fact, Travis banned it about 6 yrs ago when I started our oven on fire with the last London Broil I attempted. Hopefully tonight's will go better, not be charred beyond recognition and taste as amazing as it does in my head.

New "Faces in the Ferris House.

Recently, we discovered that Maddox had this terrible habbit of never making eye contact, but mostly when he was in trouble. When his teacher noticed it as well, we realized it was always his right eye that was never looking at us, so we made an appointment with the eye doctor. We discovered that Maddox has a lazy/wandering eye, so naturally, we felt like stellar parents for constantly yelling, "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

The doctor was very helpful and thinks that with the correct prescription, his brain will start relying on both eyes for sight, rather than ignoring the one with the bad picture, which was causing his eye to wander. At first, we were concerned that Maddox would not like the idea of glasses until he interrupted us say, "2 things, first I want blue glasses, and I want them to look like Clark Kent."

I suppose when he's older, he'll figure out that Clark Kent's glasses are black, but I figure, I'll buy anything that makes my kid happy about wearing glasses! Maddox was so EXCITED to pick up the glasses, that he even wore his Superman cape to pick them up to make sure they made him look just right.

He looks pretty stinkin' cute in the glasses and I'm happy that he's adjusted well to wearing them; he let's every stranger he meets that he can only take the glasses off for showers, swimming, and sleeping.

The dogs, not wanting Maddox to be the only Ferris with a new look, tried out being heroes for a day. Neither lasted more than 3.7 seconds with the mask on. They have a lot of work to do if they plan to make a career out of going incognito.

Spring Break, part 2.

Thankfully, the weather became more "normal" and we had a day of overcast/rain and a day of almost 80* and sunshine! The kids enjoyed both days.

Cooper and Nelson helped Maddox and Olivia construct forts in their rooms and the hallway between the rooms. I enjoyed the 7.5 minutes of no fighting that came with the forts.

When it was sunny, and breezy, and perfect outside the boys and the neighbors made kites out of plastic grocery bags and spent over 30 minutes running up and down the street playing with them.

Spring Break!!!!

Yep, this is what we woke up to on Cooper and Nelson's first day of Spring Break. They loved the movies and picnics inside, the forts and snowmen outside and the extra dad time! Travis came home at lunch yesterday and took today off to hang with the boys (and help me a bit around the house). Hopefully when Maddox, Olivia, and I have Spring Break next week, there will be sunshine and warmer weather!

Cooper is 9!

Cooper had a birthday just over a week ago, but managed to stretch the celebration to last 8 days! He got the day before his birthday off, so he went to work with me and got to celebrate there with my classroom and Olivia's classroom (they celebrate half birthdays if your birthday is over the summer). Then he got to celebrate on his actual birthday with his choice of activities for the entire day. We began the day with monkey bread and candles, that was an adventure! Red Robin was his choice for lunch (Travis and I were thankful we didn't have to eat pizza). For dinner we went to visit some friends from our old church and he got sung to again and had ice cream and brownies, complete with more candles.
This past Sunday he had 4 friends over and they played dodge ball, war, and made more noise than I thought humanly possible.


Finally, in front of the camera :) Mommy and Liv waiting for our burgers at Red Robin.

The 3 boys excited about lunch.

Roller blades, "Just what I always wanted!" The great part is, Travis and I have pulled ours out and we've found another fun way to spend time outside with the kids as the weather gets warmer. (A wonderful neighbor gave Nelson a pair of blades so he can play with us)

This years cake creation! Seriously, Travis is amazing with designing cakes.

Wow, look at ALL those candles.

A game of "war" in the backyard while the kids were waiting to be picked up by their parents.

Just hanging around the house.

We've been really productive around the house lately. But, when Travis and I are productive, it's usually because we are not spending as much time with the kids as they would like...
Travis sat down to watch something on TV with the boys, when he sat down on the love seat, the boys were all over the floor and on the couch. Within less than 2 minutes, the boys all migrated to the love seat and to Travis.



Olivia is turning into quite the fashionista, she's always accessorizing, primping, and looking for an opportunity to wear her cowboy boots. When we told her it was time to go to bed, she told us she couldn't sleep without her pink sunglasses... (and yes, they are on upside down).



One morning after the boys left for school, Maddox and Olivia put on their superhero capes and went onto the deck to chase away the bad guys. I loved it, they were out there for almost an hour just running around in circles.

What a great weekend!!!

You know how you set out with really good intentions to get lots accomplished, enjoy yourself along the way, and try to have a little fun? That was this past weekend for our family. There was a lot to do after being in the house for over 4 days. We had things planned starting when Travis got off work on Friday afternoon and going through Sunday night. Most of it was for me or Travis out of the house... Most of what needed to be accomplished was in the house.
1. We had GREAT family pictures taken and had a lot of fun doing it! Portrait Innovation is FANTASTIC! We had a great photographer and the price is amazing.





2. Saturday morning we started by cleaning the boys' rooms. Spring Cleaning... moving beds, dressers, emptying closets. It was way overdue and way necessary. Maddox decided he wanted his bed "up high, in the sky" so we lofted it! He has bunk beds, we just never put them together. He is in love! His favorite activity is climbing up and down the ladder. Cooper and Nelson's beds also got bunked again. I needed it done for better management in the room. They had gotten out of control with the clothes, books, toys, and junk! With the beds bunked we can put a bookcase in there for them to display all their "treasures" if it doesn't fit on a shelf, it doesn't go in the room. As of today, Tuesday, they are still working on putting their clean clothes away...

3. Back to the fun, I discovered that McDonald's is running a promotion by us. $1 Big Mac sandwiches daily from 11AM-4PM. I told Travis about this and in less than 7 seconds he decided that's what we were doing for lunch on Saturday. The kids loved it!!!! Cooper declared it "the best burger he's ever eaten" (I know, huge parent FAIL). Maddox called it a "man burger" and asked if he could have one every day (that's a negative). Nelson inhaled his and asked for another (I said no).

4. Saturday afternoon was spent doing laundry and grocery shopping. All in all a productive day.

5. Sunday we went to church and then home for 2+hr family naps, this was my favorite part of the entire weekend!!! That night we went to some friends' house for the football game. The only thing that would have redeemed that half-time show was "The Lift" at the end featuring Fergie and Slash. I'm just sayin'.

This week is shaping up to be "normal", something I haven't been able to call a week since Christmas! I'm very excited.

Snow days

We have had 6 snow days since Christmas. If we reach 10 we don't have to make them up at the end of the year.

When the news started reporting a blizzard people went crazy! They were all nervous about running out of bread, eggs, and milk; I never knew french toast was such a popular snowed-in food! I wasn't worried about those 3 things, I have 3 loaves of bread in the freezer, 2 dozen eggs in the fridge, and 2 gallons of milk (this is normal with 4 kids and me trying to only grocery shop once every 2 weeks). We were out of much more crucial things... ice cream, pop, and wine!!! I did venture out Monday afternoon to make sure we had plenty of the "essentials".






Toby hates cold so much he would rather sit on a person than on the floor. Maddox was nice enough to let Toby sit in his lap for a while (read 30 seconds).




Travis and I decided to do something "fun" for dinner tonight. We roasted hot dogs in the fireplace. We called it an indoor camp out! I made pasta salad and cookies this afternoon so we would have all the makings of a good ole' fashioned camping meal. I love that I'm inside (warm and dry).

Toby and Tallie were fascinated with the snow. Toby hated the cold, so he would go out for 45 seconds, come in, and then go out 30 minutes later. Tallie was very content outside for as long as I would let her be out there.

Spirituality by preschoolers.

"Olivia, God says share!"
"No, Max, no share!"
"God is right next to you, Olivia."
"No he not, can't see him."
"God is invisible, he's a superhero. He's going to give you a swift kick in the pants."
"No swift kick!!"
"Olivia, he's sad, you won't share your princesses with me."


I love sitting back sometimes and just listening to the kids play. It's never a dull moment.

Holidays are over, but the fun isn't!

We've been trying to get the boys to read more at home. Cooper took it upon himself to read to Olivia this past weekend. She brought him almost every book off of her bookshelf and he just sat there and kept reading.



Olivia has embraced the primping time on Sunday mornings. She pushes me out of the way, if I'm trying to get myself ready. Don't send hate-mail. The coffee cup was mine; seconds before this picture was taken I was standing where she is (without a step stool) and finishing my hair and make-up.

Winter fun

Travis had to ge in on the sledding fun with all the kids. He and Maddox pretended to be Superman. I love where we live; there are always kids outside playing (most of the time within view of one of our windows, so we can watch from the warmth of the inside.



Toby loves his new chew toy that Santa brought him; it's a new record, the toy is still in 1 piece after 3 weeks of "love".