A Boy & His Dog

Here's an update of the boys with Champ. He's an interesting little fellow that has inherited the name "Chicken Little". He will go up the steps but stands at the top of the steps and barks at the steps or anyone standing at the bottom. Even with a few treats and coaxing, the steps are far to much for "Chicken Little".  House Breaking is interesting as well....I swear if he could laugh out loud he would.  Jacob likes to take him out when he gets home from school, Alex on the other hand is looking forward to being through the puppy stage. As much as he wanted a puppy, I think he would have enjoyed a pound rescue a little more. But all is well and we'll make it through. 

Wrestling

Well....it's here! Wrestling season and it's in full swing. I'm trying to get some videos posted and once I catch up, I'll try and post their weekly matches. I'm not sure how techie I can actually be, but we'll fake it for now. I'm also not going to promise any award winning footage from my video taking, I spend more time not looking at the camera and then whoops....I'm video taping the guys head in front of me. What can I say. I try. Once I process this weeks, I'll give some details. Alex's match is from the Fall Brawl, Jacob's match was from their first season match against  Pen Argyl. Enjoy

Early Christmas Present

Well....The boys received an early Christmas present yesterday. I'm really thinking I had a temporary loss of sanity when the thought crossed my mind that a puppy would be a good idea. But the time has come and the puppy is here. Just to give you a little background on "CHAMP", he's a "love puppy". His mother is a yellow lab and Papa is presumed to be a Golden Retriever. Mom got loose when she was in heat, dug under the fence and had a little fling with the neighborhood dog. The owner couldn't track down the dog's owners, so we got a great mix for a great price. That's the part I like the most. He has a nice disposition it seems at this point. He's a lot like the boys when they were three. The more tired he gets the more crazy out of control he becomes. I have to say...he knows who the "Alpha Dog" is. And it isn't me.  : )

Champ comes from a litter of 7 and was named "Pudge" before we brought him home. The owners took a liking to him, and he earned that name because he is the biggest of the bunch. He was 15.4 lbs. at his first vet visit. He tackles the bowl like its going to run away from him. Kinda like Jacob & Alex tackled the brownies I just made. No weigh-ins tomorrow. : )

We'll keep you posted on "Champ" short for Champion Montes. 

October Snow

It got crazy cold here the other day and about a half an hour north of us ended up with a  foot of snow! YIKES...It's only October.

Carlos works with a guy who has ducks. He claims that the ducks can predict whether it will be a bad winter or not. Apparently if it's going to be bad, they molt their feathers really early and store a lot of food. According to the ducks.... it's going to be a bad one. 

I missed the picture the day before with Jacob & Alex riding bikes. Sunglasses, Scarfs, Gloves and rain. Boys are totally crazy. Jacob was catching snowflakes/hail in his mouth with his sunglasses on.(They keep the rain out of your eyes while riding)

Stay Warm!

Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat was Friday night and has become a family event. Trick or Treat is one of those things, when the kids are really little it becomes more of an excuse for the parents to go around and collect the "loot". At least it was for us, since the little guys can't eat half of what is in their bag. But this year....they all seemed to get it. Hannah Montana (a.k.a Kira) was on a mission. She led the way to every house, leaving Jacob, Alex, Sammy & Zack in the dust. (Although Zack was the youngest, he lasted longer than either of our boys did when they were 2)

The picture is missing Thomas the Train (a.k.a Zack), he was afraid of the Goofy Ghost (a.k.a. Sammy), Nan held him for a picture, but it didn't come through when I copied everything over. As you can see the "Gorilla Gangsta's" became "Goofy Gangsta's" because their cousins didn't really care for the masks. : (

They also traded in the guns for a goody bag, thinking it was much safer to carry around on a dark Halloween night. Not to mentioned that Carlos and I watched a show the night before where a kid carrying a toy gun was accidentally shot by a cop on Halloween Night. 

Gangsta' Gorillas

Every year the Karate school has a big Halloween Party at the school. The kids have grown to enjoy it. The Sensei has the higher ranked kids participate in a demonstration during the party. So over the past few years they have been taking part in that. There is always a costume contest at the end of the evening. 

It all started 4 years ago. Alex has a hard time sticking with his costume decisions and at the last minute decided to become a "NERD". We had some of those goofy dollar store teeth and glasses, a toddler tie and pants that were to short. TADA....NERD. Of course he acted the part and won "Funniest Costume". Then it became a goal each year to win.

The following year...Alex won again as "Elvis".

Last year Jacob was on a mission to win. His brother couldn't beat him again. They both won different categories. Thank God.

This year, after years of persuasion they went together. We didn't think they were going to win, but the last possible category. "Best Overall" they won. They accomplished their goal. We'll see what next year brings.

American Fur Trade Era Encampment

Jacob's teacher sent an email letting us know about this event that was happening locally. We took sometime last Sunday (since we were game free) and spent it outside at this Encampment. The boys had a good time looking around checking things out. They threw some tomahawks, which was extremely disorganized. So the Officer came out in Carlos and he led the show, so our boys would stay safe. But we at least captured a few good shots of them.

I must say that there are some interesting people who partake in these encampments. Last Saturday poured around here and these people were camping out in the mess. I believe they didn't get a whole lot of visitors on Saturday and I'm pretty sure the pumpkin is a good indication of how they felt on Sunday. They looked like that was a good representation of their previous Saturday night. 

It was a fun time. Although we have two very different kids. Carlos & Jacob enjoy the details and the educational part of it. Alex and I have a shorter attention span. I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree. ; )

Pizza Bites

We've decided to tighten the purse strings, along with the rest of the country, during this crazy economic state of the world. But in doing so, it's allowing for some more "FAMILY FUN" (as my sister in-law says). In all seriousness the boys really do enjoy making a friday night supper. We have one child who hates to go out and the other who loves to go out to dinner. It usually involves a huge debate on where to go and what to do. Well, we've eliminated that as well, when we make something. 

The first friday we made homemade pizzas and then the following friday pizza bites. Very Easy. I like easy, especially when I'm just supervising, then it's even more tasty.

This Friday, we went out. (some habits are hard to break). Stay tuned for the next Friday Fun Night. We are always open to some easy to make Friday Night Food ideas. Send your suggestions. And then we'll post our creations!

Take another look at the pictures. Notice how many Alex has done in comparison to Jacob. Yes, Jacob will probably live an extremely long live. NO WORRIES! : )

Carving Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins has become one of our family tradition. It's something that I have fond memories of and wanted to keep the tradition going. I remember mentioning the idea to Carlos of carving our Jack-O-Lantern early on in our time together. I believe he thought I was joking, but once he saw it wasn't a joke, he embraced it. I have to say that he probably enjoyed it the most this year, since outside of cutting the top off of the pumpkin. Jacob and Alex carved the pumpkin themselves. Yes we have a two sided pumpkin. It sits on the front steps and each day I turn it so each face gets equal display time. We still believe that you need to come up with the face yourself and then carve away. I know they have some really cool patterns to follow, but where's the fun in that. Happy Carving!

PS. For those that didn't notice those are our pumpkins in the banner!

It's Been Crazy!

Work has been busy, and then life on top of that has kept blog land quiet for awhile. So this will be our catch-up post. And hopefully I can stay on top of it weekly again.

Two weeks ago we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a great time. This year they added a corn maze that I think would have been more enjoyable had I brought a chair along to sit in the middle and watch my kids run in circles. It was unseasonable hot.

Normally the trip consists of Nan & Pop Pop, Titi, Uncle Mark, Kira & Zack. But this year Jose, Tara & Sammy happened to be up for the weekend, and came along.  They showed up to our door dressed in their festive holiday attire. So we decided to take a pitstop at the local Wal-Mart to buy the same festive shirts. Check out the picture. Jacob was hoping that he wouldn't see any friends. (we saw his football coach and family) Needless to say he survived the torture and embarrassment his parents put him through).

Jacob & Alex like the Haunted Barn that they have, you have the option of how scary you would like it. You tell them from 1-5 with 5 being the scariest. Sammy wanted to go with them, unfortunately there was a difference in levels of scary. Jacob & Alex wanted 5. Sammy wanted 1. They gave Sammy a piggy back ride the entire Haunted Barn trip and took the "5". Every time someone jumped out at them, Sammy asked if they were going to help them. Jacob & Alex were laughing so hard, but poor Sammy was a little traumatized. Hopefully he's recovered.

I think overall it was a day full of memories!

Race Day

Today was race day for Alex.  At the beginning of every school year they start with cross country running during gym. They explain the scoring system and have the kids run a short distance, record their scores, and encourage them to improve on their personal score each time they run. During third & fourth grade they actually pick the fastest 5 kids in each class and do an overall race. Alex was very excited about the race. We were actually uncertain on whether he would actually get to race or not. Initially when he got his cast on, the school would not allow him to participate until the doctor faxed a note. Thank God, the doctor gave him permission, because he was more disappointed about the possibility of missing this race than missing football.

He was disappointed that he didn't get in the top 3 (they receive medals), but he did get 7th place. They also gave a team score for each class, his class came in 2nd place out of 7 classes. They were 7 points behind first place.

Vote You Must

As I'm sitting here watching the Presidential Debate, all I'm hearing is BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! But enough on my small attention span when it comes to the presidential debate. Vote You Must....For Trout and Tuna. Some of you may wonder why the title is somewhat Yoda like. I write headlines, read headlines and find humor in headlines on a daily basis. If you take notice of all the Presidential signs that are promoting change, Obama's sign that usually falls underneath his podium reads.

CHANGE

We Must

I immediately thought of Yoda and decided that Trout & Tuna's sign should read.

VOTE YOU MUST!

The Best Part Of The Game!

So who says the best part of the game is winning. If you ask my kids they'll say the best part is the cupcakes they get after the game. Take a look at the pictures. Both boys receive the cupcakes at the same point, but for some reason by the time Alex makes it to us, his cupcake has disappeared. Jacob on the other hand has to change before he devours it. 

I'm behind on blogging, so here is a short update for today. 

It was a busy weekend. Saturday was filled with Football, Karate, Birthday party and a trip to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Alex got his cast off a week ago today and played his first game on Sunday. He was glad to be back in the game. They won 12-0. Two more games to go, but who's counting.

Football! Football! Football!

It's Football Season, and as many of you know this is our first season with kids playing. I have to say that with each sport the kids have played its brought a diverse set of parents along with it. But out of all the sports I think football brings the CRAZIEST parents yet. (Of course we are perfectly normal, its just the rest of them that are insane). Apparently there is a big rivalry between our team and another township team. Not another district, just another township. These are kids that in two more years will be playing for the same team on a middle school level. Call me crazy but should we be building a rivalry here? I think we were among a few of the parents who didn't where our GREEN. They actually sent home a flyer with the kids, for the parents to where their GREEN. I personally didn't care since it was pouring and my only concern was trying to keep my socks and underwear dry. Carlos told me if they stayed dry, I was good to go. (Must be an army trick). He was smart he wore flip flops, so he only needed to be concerned with his underwear. 

The cheerleaders are each assigned a football player and are responsible for decorating the door/house whatever they feel like. We had two girls visit our house with balloons and signs in hand. They did a nice job for the boys, but I sure am glad I have boys!!!! 

I'm posting a really poor picture of the game, it is pouring but the picture didn't capture the "liquid sunshine" (as the announcer said) that dumped on top of us. I should have taken a picture of how happy I was!

I also posted our pre-game weeny roast. It was more of a smoke fest since it was drizzling the majority of the time. I think today is the first day that my hair doesn't smell like smoke. But we promised a weeny roast and I think that was probably the last. ; )

-Enjoy

His Masterpiece

I screwed up my blog and this should be after the other post. But anyway. Here it is. 

I think they are supposed to be crosses on the tree and the rock is happy to see you. I'm all about children expressing their creativity but I would have preferred a different canvas. I love being a parent!

Idle Time

If this tree could talk it would have many stories to tell about children's idle time. We planted this tree as a seedling when we moved into the house. At the time we had two little boys that lived next door. One day they decided that it made a good target for swords, splitting the little seedling in half. But it was strong and ended up growing into the tree you see here. Over the course of landscaping the yard we ended up with a lot of rocks which we placed around the tree. This tree now has another story to tell of a little boy and a spray paint can. He wanted to spray paint a piece of wood because he was BORED. We gave him the piece of wood, a can and told him where to go. We said stay away from the pool, the shed, because we don't want you to get paint on them. Well....he did a good job not spraying the pool and the shed, but this is what we have now. : )

Trout For President

We are in the heat of the presidential campaign and many of you may be looking for an alternative to your choices. So let me introduce TROUT.

For those of you who don't know. Jacob and a group of friends developed two characters during their 3rd grade class. It was a story of two penguins named TROUT & TUNA. They had many adventures over the course of third grade. Thanks to a good friend and co-worker (Scott). Trout & Tuna became a real illustration that was then created into t-shirts for the whole class. 

We thought we'd continue TROUT's journey, maybe TUNA can be his running mate in the course of the next couple of weeks. He hasn't announced his running mate yet. But for now you can start getting your TROUT for PRESIDENT apparel at cafepress.com/troutandtuna

I figured Sarah Palin is only 5 years older than me, maybe if I run for school board this year, mayor next year, I could be governor by the time I'm 42 and then I'll be ready to go as TROUT's vice presidential candidate in 2012. (Just in case things don't work out with TUNA).

HAPPY VOTING!

He's So Cute!

When we were cleaning out the garage we had a fun time finding some old photos. The wrestling pictures we found are the best, but I had to promise not to post them online. 

The fireman picture is great! No...the caption next to the little girl was added by me, but I couldn't resist. I'm not so sure Carlos was having a good time in the line there, but we got a good laugh out of it when we stumbled upon it.

I love the haircut in the kindergarten picture. WOW!

Saturday Night SMORES!

We finally bought a fire pit. We've been saying that we were going to do it for a few years now, but tonight was the night. Carlos and I spent a good portion of the day tackling the garage and realized that we had bags of papers that either needed to be shredded or burned. We thought it would be more fun to burn them.....Until we didn't even make it through one bag tonight. But it was still fun. We made SMORES!!!  The boys thought it was fun and we've already made plans for Friday Night WEINERS next week. If you are around, come over.

We also found some fun goodies to blog about...they're coming tomorrow.

Official Mommy Mobile

Most of you reading, understand my resistance to buying our van in the first place. Although I love being a mom, I would rather not announce it as I drive down the street. It's been a "Mommy Mobile" for the past 5 years... but for whatever reason I thought if I avoided putting the magnet on, people wouldn't consider it a "Mommy Mobile".  Jacob & Alex felt that our vehicle was incomplete without this embellishment. They are already making plans for the wrestling magnet come wrestling season. I personally think one is more than enough. 

The panther's won today. 12-7....so far they are undefeated. (we haven't played the good teams yet!)

Playing on their turf!

The Panthers played East Stroudsburg and they actually got to play on the university's field. The kids thought it was great playing on a turf field. Alex was a little disappointed he actually didn't get to play but he was in the circle when they were warming up. Jacob is playing in the other picture he's the green guy all the way on the left of the picture. He carried the ball twice, but unfortunately he doesn't have the best guys on his line, clearing the way for him. But he played well. ThePanther's won 26-12

It's Broken!

Well what started out as conflicting opinions has now been confirmed as a break! Gotta love football. We spent Thursday night at the ER and the doctor felt there was a hairline fracture, the next day we received the "official" reading from the radiologist "No Break". So the splint stayed on for the weekend and off to the orthopedist on Monday.

The orthopedist says its officially a break. 3 weeks with a cast and they'll reevaluate it. Most likely another cast. Alex already decided it will be blue the next time. He picked lime green and if you look close you can see the lime green sticking out the top. The nurse thought she could make stripes with the black, but obviously that didn't work out. So now we'll be off to by a silver marker, so everyone can sign away.

But for now "NO FOOTBALL"! 

Meet Joe!

Jacob came home the first day of school and informed us that there is another Jacob in his class, also with a last name starting with "M". So he told the teacher to call him "JOE". I thought he was joking, he told me he seriously said he wanted to be called JOE. We didn't think much about it, since we haven't heard anything about it....until last night. 

Jacob had Open House at his school last night and we did the rounds of meeting his teachers. When we got to his math class the teacher said "Hi Joe", (in total seriousness, there was no joking there). We had a small conversation and after she seemed somewhat confused by the fact that Jacob has chosen to be called "JOE" or maybe she was embarrased, I'm not sure. He considers it a nick-name, and the whole Math class calls him "JOE". (I can see JAKE, but JOE) I'm not sure which side of the family would like to take credit for his sense of humor. But hopefully his teacher will grow to appreciate it  as much as we do. 

I finally did it!

FINALLY! A blogspot for our family and friends to see what's happening in our fun-filled lives! Enjoy. I will do my best to update often. 

Happy Birthday!

It was Jacob's 11th birthday! I'm highlighting the cake because according to the boys "It was the best cake ever". Both decorations and taste. Caroline made the cake and didn't have a picture of Jacob so she substituted a picture of a monkey. How fitting! She put an extra one on there for Alex. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!

First Game

Well we've entered the world of Football. It's a big deal around here. The kids run through this blowup Football helmet. The whole team runs to the center of the helmet, do their pump-up ritual whooraa and then run out through the cheerleaders. The only problem is when one kid trips, they all "dogpile" on top of him. Yes it happened on opening day! But they won. 12-6. It was a close one it went into overtime. 

First Day Of School

School is starting earlier each year! August 25th. YIKES! Normally I take a picture of them together on the steps, but this year they are at different schools, so we took separate pictures and of course when their friends weren't looking. And its not cool for "Mom" to be walking us to the bus stop. So I peek from the window. 

Gotta have the plaid pants for the first day!