70 degrees on Jan. 31st! Love it!

What a beautiful day! The weatherman said we hit 70 but since the winds were gusting to 50mph you wouldn't have guessed it. It was a fun day! We even got a game of washers in... Jim won, of course!

I LOVE his expression here:

Watch out below!
Jake likes the clubhouse too!
Such a pretty dog... he even got a bath today!
Sliding dog! He went down a few times.. LOL

 Perfect day for Batting/Fielding practice:

Taking a break:

We are on the official countdown for Florida! 7 more sleeps! JP is SO excited.

Random questions

JP always amazes me with some of his questions and knowledge about things... and then he tells me where he learned these things!  His Tag Reader, Noggin dot com, school... 

"Mom... is my house my "habitat?"

"Mom... where is Africa? Is Africa a continent? What about Europe?"

"Kangaroos live in Australia, right? That's a country!"

Every day is something new... I'm always amazed!

That doesn't match!

On most mornings I grab some clothes from JP's room and bring them downstairs so he can get dressed but this weekend when we weren't rushing out the door we just sent him upstairs to pick out some clothes and put them on. We loved seeing the outfits he would come downstairs in. Yesterday he decided his brown/cream longsleeved football shirt would be the perfect thing to wear under his light blue Wall*E tshirt and then he wore his navy blue athletic pants with them.  Too funny!!! Hey... he liked it! :)

I picked his clothes for school today. 

Farkel!!!

OK... who here has heard of Farkel?? It's a fun dice game that can be played with 2-6 players or even teams or you can even have Farkel parties similar to Bunco parties. It's totally different than Bunco though. It's a game of guts AND luck!  I went to the Merchandise Mart today to look for new products to carry and we know this will be a  hit. The game below that JP is holding is the Mini-Farkel and it's about the same size as the old 35mm film containers. Inside are 6 smaller dice and instructions. We ordered "themed" Farkel games as well as the original colored games. We also ordered the regular sized dice games that come in a colored flip top box. It's a lower price point but it's super fun and will surely be a hit for any game lover! It says ages 8 and up but JP picked right up on it and even figured out the ideal strategy after a few rounds. I just helped him add his score as you count in the 100's and the first to 10,000 wins! NO... it doesn't take forever to play. LOL

Anyway... here are some pics from our friendly game tonight. JP won BOTH times!!!!

Checking out his roll... any 1's or 5's JP???
Rolling the Dice!!
Pulling the dice he will use as points.. and getting ready for another roll!
I can't believe Jake slept through our screams, shouts and giggles but here he is... snug on the couch. WITH a pillow of course!  Silly dog.

So... we are fans of Farkel and I recommend it to everyone! Fun for the whole family! If you need a game I can hook you up!!! :) What's your favorite color?

Cute Boy

It's not very often when you can play outside in mid-January without a coat, gloves and hat! JP took full advantage of the beautiful 2 days!!!

He's pretty cute, isn't he?

You know what? It's snowing today! Crazy.

#$#(*&@!$^ Girl Scout Cookies!! #&()%@%&

It's Girl Scout time!!! Of course I had ordered some from my niece back in November, not knowing that Jim ordered some from someone at work. OK then! We have received my order and the boxes have been opened. *sigh* I wish I could eat THESE cookies instead of my diet cookies! LOL

JP tried the Thin Mints first and was just "eh" about them. Then he tried one of the Lemonades.  He giggled as he ate it. Alot. Yes.. my kid giggles when he REALLY likes something. He LOVES the Lemonades.  Good thing because I wouldn't want to have to eat all of them!!! I wonder what kind Jim ordered?

What's your favorite Girl Scout Cookie???

New Puppy!!!

JP got a new puppy!!!!!

Meet the newest member of our family:

HA! Had ya going, didn't I???

This puppy even came with his own bone! JP got him at Red Robin last night.

January 20, 2009... A New Hope

Congratulations to our new President, Barack Obama.  Let's work together everyone... for a better today and a better tomorrow!

10? Balls tonight?  Wow... our new President likes to party! :)

Snow, snow go away...

We had Tball registration on Saturday and JP is signed up and ready to go! He is SO excited... we turned in his paperwork and when we left as we drove away he said, "Snow, snow go away... so I can play baseball today!"

My kid is so cute.

"J.P.'s Mom"

We went to dinner at our friends/neighbors house last night and had a great time. JP is so lucky to have 2 four-year old friends to play with right on our street! They are all going to be on the same Tball team too!

Can I just tell you how much I love being called, "JP's Mom"???? Ben and Chris kept saying that last night and it makes my heart smile.

"JP's Mom... can I have a napkin?"

"JP's Mom... can JP come up to see my room?"

Too cute.

Fashion Statement

What do you think of JP's fashion statement? Think he's onto something here??? LOL!

Oh... BOY!

This morning when JP got up he was walking out of his room, looked down and said, "My pee-pee is sticking up!!!"

Step 2

JP loves books and he loves to read books. Now he loves to read books to me and I love that! Today he was reading me a Step 1 book (ready to read), Wall-E, and he pretty much breezed through it although he needed help with the words EVERYTHING and ALARM.  He had no trouble reading GOODY, GOODIES and TREADS. Huh.  I guess I should explain that this is a book I read to him 1 time about 6 months ago as he "found" it in his playroom today under the bed.

So when he was finished reading me the book he proudly told me that he was now ready for Step 2 books (reading with help).  Or maybe Step 3?? :)

Oh... and have I mentioned how much he loves to read street signs as we are driving around town? Too funny!

*** I have no idea why that first paragraph is underlined... I was backspacing and it just appeared and now I can't get rid of it! LOL!!!

Use it!

                                                                              HUH??

1. That little stick-type thing in your automobile that protrudes from the steering column  on the left side... It's a TURN SIGNAL!!!  USE IT!

2. Those big metal enclosed areas that are scattered around grocery store parking lots are called CART CORRALS!!! USE THEM!

3. That space that is within arms reach around every human body is called your PERSONAL SPACE!! KEEP OUT!!! Unless you are invited in.

4. The handles that are on large trashcans double for LOCKS. LOCK your lids down on windy trash-pickup days! USE THEM!!!

5. The magic words that you should speak when someone does something nice for you are THANK YOU. USE THEM!

Organization!

As promised! Photos of our somewhat organized workshop. I didn't get a true "before" photo but the first one is close... 1 cabinet in place!  We had our red corvette parked right there along the wall but that has been moved back into my garage. Jim will park his truck in the shop in the middle and the boat/mower are on the other side. All of that is still unorganized. :)

Family Project

OK... so if you know Jim you know he has alot of "stuff." Tools, saws, equipment, yard stuff, welding stuff... yeah, you get the idea! We built our "shop" to hold all of his stuff as well as the zero-turn mower and the boat and his truck. Well... it hasn't been the most organized place as we've never installed any shelves and/or cabinets. Guess what we are doing? Assembling some great cabinet units we bought at Lowe's to help de-clutter the garage. I'm even helping as we got 2 wall units for free with the purchase of the largest upright cabinet so now JP has a "toy cabinet" and the other will go over Jim's utility sink.  Basically the whole south wall between the windows will be the units.

We have been working most of the day on the assembly of the cabinets... a great family project!

Stay tuned for pictures... it's looking good!

Taking advantage...

We had to take advantage of a mild January day! Riding bikes + the gator + the playground = FUN!!!!

We followed that up with a trip to the pool at Blue Valley Rec. JP was ready for bed last night and then he slept until 8:30. Did I mention he slept until 10am the other morning? And yes, he's growing. He's grown 1/2 inch in a month!!!

JP's Dictionary

I can't believe the things that JP tells us. Here are some new words and their definitions according to my 4 year old son.

1. Engrossed:  to focus on one thing and nothing else.

2. Experiment: to try different things until you find a thing that works.

3. Hideous:  really yucky. blah.

Yes.. these are his words exactly! Stay tuned for more!!!

OH... and WHERE does he come up with this stuff? School? No. When asked we were told, "noggin dot com!"   HA!!!!  That's not so bad then, is it?

Fun times!

JP had a super busy day today... He had a swimming lesson at 9:15 this morning and then Clayton came over for a playdate for a few hours. They get along so well so it's always fun to watch them play. I'm thinking another sleepover is in our future! Here are some pics of the boys hard at play:

Air Hockey!

Geotrax fun:
Wii Boxing... too funny!
View from behind:
Playing with the Batcave:
They always have fun and no one got hurt today! LOL After lunch they played outside for a bit before Clayton went home. After that Jim, JP and I went bowling (at a real bowling alley) and then went to Applebee's for dinner. I think JP is about ready for bed!

Tomorrow: Skating! And Jim gets to go and watch too. Fun!

OMG...

OMG! How cute is this???

JP just had to call Jim on the phone. So he called him and when Jim answered JP said, " HI Daddy!! *burp* Oh! Excuse me! I just burped. Uh, Daddy... I'm SO excited!!! My friend Clayton who is in Lance's class is coming to visit me tomorrow! Isn't that GREAT?"

How stinking sweet is that????

I see you...

I see you reading... how about a comment!?! Every once in awhile? What if I say "Please?" I thought for sure the kitty post would stimulate some clever replies.

Either my posts are getting boring or everyone is too busy to say HEY! :)

Ouch.

Anyone who knows JP knows that he loves to wrestle and rough-house. He went to swimming today and as we were waiting out in the waiting area the kids like to run around a bit. There was another boy there, George, who wasn't real happy about being there at all as he's afraid of the water. Well, he was sitting on one of the benches with his feet tucked up under his body and JP decided to run up to him and just push him off the bench. NOT COOL! I know he was just trying to play... get a wrestling match going, but George's mother did not know that and was horrified. (AS WAS I!)  Of course I made JP apologize right away and I did the same but I still felt awful. :(  I still feel bad just thinking about it. One of the other moms said, "Boys will be boys!" and blew it off but now I think JP will be "the mean kid who pushed George". *sigh*  What can you do? It doesn't help that he's a good 6 inches taller than the rest of the kids, either.

In other news... we got the Wii Fit hooked up today and love it! I got a good hour on it doing yoga, strength (planks! yikes), aerobic and balance exercises.  JP decided to try it so we got his profile all set up and he enjoyed some of the aerobic and balance games. He was running the race and kept saying, "Hey! Wait for me!" to the guy that he's supposed to follow in the race. Too funny!

Frannie, if you read this I was thinking of you during my race as the girl I was following could have been your Mii!(the Wii character that looks like you)   You and your marathons were inspiring me to run fast! LOL!!!

Busy Boy

Busy Times ahead! Now that Christmas break is over JP's winter schedule will set in. Here is a look at his weekly activities:

Mon: Swimming

Tues: School - 8:45-2:30

Wed: Swimming

Thurs: Skating

Fri: School - 8:45-11:15

Not to mention the playdates and birthday parties added to the mix.

*Phew!*

Back to watching football.....

Here kitty, kitty!

We got home today from our New Year's getaway. We had a great time but when we got home and opened up the workshop (free standing garage) we smelled something awful. Really awful. Somehow before we left one of the wild/homeless/skanky cats had snuck into Jim's shop.(there are quite a few on our street because old lady Alice leaves food out for them. Not cool! They have worms and are filthy!!!)   So... 4 days being trapped in there equals a smelly mess. The cat was all over the corvette cover (peeing/pooping) and also all over Jim's truck. I can't even describe how bad it smelled in there. So... we were on the hunt to find this kitty. It took us awhile but we finally took care of business.  Ugh. 

On a lighter note... anyone ever heard of Lambert's? It's a restaurant just south of Springfield, MO and it's ALWAYS busy. No matter what time you drive by there are people waiting outside and it's huge! Today on the way home we were filling up with gas right next door and decided to finally try it and see what all the fuss was about. We walked right into Hillbilly Hell. Seriously! Talk about being out of your element but I think half of these people sit at their tables all day to get the "freebies" that they bring around to the tables. Think country home cooking... and whatever you order is all you can eat! Plus it's "Home of the throwed rolls" so we got rolls tossed at us.  It was... uh... interesting.  I don't think we'll go back. I'll say one thing... I felt skinny in there! :)

OK... I think I've said enough tonight. Cats and hillbillies... what a post!

You caught a WHAT?

We had a great time fishing today... the most exciting thing that happened was when JP actually HOOKED and reeled in his very own trout! Usually we hook them and let him reel them in. Not today! He was so excited!

Reeling in his big catch!

Jim helped him unhook it, of course...
Mr. Smiley with HIS fish!
A nice mean-mouth bass:
A very LARGE small-mouth bass:

So I caught alot of trout as well but at one point I was hung up. I thought my jig was caught under a rock but then it came free and I reeled it in and realized it was hung up on someone's old line. So I got untangled and pulled on the old line (I had the hook end) and was wondering what was on the other end. After a few tugs I pulled in a FISHING POLE!!!! It was pretty funny. Too bad it's a POS fishing pole but hey... a catch is a catch!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Ringing in 2009.... on the playground!

Daddy trying to steal some ice cream. Yeah, good luck!
Watching America's Funniest Videos... JP was up later than Daddy!
Photo op by the fish hatchery outlet:
I hope everyone else is having a fun 2009 like we are!

Tomorrow: 55 and sunny.... time to fish!