Lost In Fun/ Not So Fun

Last Tuesday, we went to Lost In Fun with Tasha and her kids and Ashley and her kiddo. I was hoping it would be a fun day for all of us. I was hoping to get in some good girl conversation with Tasha and Ashley and I thought the kids would have a great time together. The kids did have fun together for awhile, but then of course everything went downhill from there. The Lost In Fun staff person came walking up to me with a crying Bryce. There were 2 different stories but what I gathered was that Caleb jumped off the top of the bouncy house slide and landed on Bryce. It is yet to be determined whether it was accidental or on purpose. Poor Bryce was crying really hard and wasn't getting over it like he normally would. So Bryce was sobbing, Caleb was crying and apologizing over and over again and Abby was then crying because she wasn't the center of attention. At this point I was SO DONE. We had to leave. My intention was to just go home but poor Bryce was still crying and sitting all awkward and I got worried about him. I called the Dr and they said to bring him in. We saw the PA and by the time we got there he was doing a little better. She said that he was having muscle spasms and that he would be pretty sore for a couple days. I guess having someone your own weight fall on you probably would hurt pretty bad.

Family Bike Ride

It has taken a while but I think we are finally to the point where we can take family bike rides once in a while. It still makes me pretty nervous having the boys ride across street but it went pretty well having both Robb and I ride. One of us could lead the ride and the other person can bring up the rear. We plan to start doing this more often.

Family Birthday Party

 Caleb and Bryce with their cakes. This year Caleb wanted a golf cake and Bryce wanted a Batman cake again. I always enjoy making their cakes because they have so much fun helping plan them.

 Caleb tearing into the presents.

 Grandma Hansen got Bryce 2 bird feeders and a bird house.

 Caleb got a new driver

Happy Birthday!


We had the family birthday party on the 16th. I was worried it was going to rain but the weather cooperated and it was hot and humid! It was so fun having everyone come down to help us celebrate! The boys loved seeing all their grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncle and cousins. We had a yummy meal, had time to chat and play, opened gifts and had some cake. Thank you everyone for making their birthday so special.
I feel bad that I don't have pictures with everyone but I must have done a bad job getting the camera out.

Happy 6th Birthday Bryce and Caleb

 I can't believe that my boys are 6! If 30 didn't make me feel old enough, having 6 year olds sure does. I can still very vividly remember the day we went in to have them. Wow, how our lives changed that day. We were very blessed to have 2 very wonderful boys. It has been so fun to watch them grow and change over the years.

 Bryce: You are our analytical one. You want to know everything about everything. You question things you don't know or don't understand until you have all the answers you need. Some of the more interesting topics that you have had questions on lately are how radios work, how tvs work, are all pirates bad, where babies come from, everything about birds, and are the bible stories real. Many of your questions involve me having to google the answer. You have your own opinions and get very upset if you think something isn't fair or that you have been wronged. You aren't super cuddly until you are in bed and then you want to cuddle.
This year for your birthday you got binoculars, a book on NE birds (your current obsession), Batman Legos and a nerf gun.

 Caleb: You are our little people pleaser. You try really hard to make everyone happy, especially adults. You are very sensitive and feel terrible when you do something wrong or hurt someone. You are pretty wild and crazy at times and a lot of times your "spaz" moments get you in trouble. You are really nice to Abby and in general you are very helpful. You want to be just like your dad, which is really cute. Your newest obsession is golfing, just like dad. You are cuddly and often will just cuddle up when we are sitting on the couch.
You got a golf practice setup, a golf glove ( you were SO excited about this), and monster trucks.

The last 2 years we have let you plan your birthday day. This year you had quite the list that you came up with  We started the morning with cinnamon rolls, we met Dad at the park for lunch and had your favorite, McDonalds. After lunch we went to the comic book store ( weird place!), we had a pretty relaxing afternoon but that was good because you had a busy evening planned. When Robb got home we opened your gifts, went golfing at the range, grilled out for supper and even managed to squeeze in going to Cherry on Top for icecream. I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Friend Party

 Happy Birthday Boys!

 Eating cake with friends

 Water Balloon Fight!!!

Present time!!!

We had Bryce and Caleb's friend party the weekend before their birthday. They were SO excited to have their friends help them celebrate. In the past we have done a neighborhood BBQ and party but this year we tried to simplify a little and did more of a kid party. I think everyone had a good time. We had the slip n slide out, little pool, squirt guns and of course, WATER BALLOONS at the end. We had 18 kids show up so our backyard was full of flying balloons when Robb pulled out the coolers. It amazes me that we went through 300 some water balloons in less than 10 min and they probably took 4+ hours to fill. Oh well, well worth it to see how much fun they had. They got a lot of really nice gifts and everyone ate a lot of cake. I know my kids each ate 3 cupcakes and I also know Lennon who is less than half the boys size ate 2 so they must have tasted okay.

Turning 30

I must admit I wasn't excited to turn 30, but now that it's all said and done I don't feel any older. I guess I never really was a person that had an exact plan of where I would be in 5 years or when I turned 30 but I think I did OK. Part of the reason I probably didn't have a plan was Robb and I did things pretty young! We got married at 21 bought a house at 22 had twins when we were 24 and our third at 26. So I feel pretty accomplished :)I am very thankful to have a wonderful husband and 3 great kids!
 I haven't pursued my career much in the last 3 years but I wouldn't trade the opportunity to stay home with the kids for anything. My time as a stay at home mom is coming to an end and it makes me kinda sad. Not just for the fact that I will have to start getting up early and wearing something other than the mom uniform, as Robb calls it (yoga pants and a hoodie) but I am worried that I am going to miss out on things. Well enough about that for now. I'm sure that will be one very long post in the not so distant future.
I will share my list of things that do make me feel old when I think about them
1. Our family is never spontaneous. I have become such a planner to make my (our) life go smoother that there is really no deviating from the schedule. Ask Robb! He very quickly learned that if he wanted to do anything it must be on the master schedule or you are out of luck. I have stuff on the schedule already for December! Who does that? The answer is someone that is OLD.

2.The second thing was really something that Robb said made him feel old and I agreed. It started with Robb wearing my pink dish washing gloves one night while he scrubbed and baited our new live trap. Yes, we bought a live trap and we were very excited for it to come in the mail. You might be wondering why? Rabbits! We have rabbits that are eating the flowers off of all our new plants and it is making us crazy. We lay in bed at night plotting on how to get rid of there rabbits that are reeking havoc on our yard. Who worries about stuff like this? Old people.

3.I refer to the people that live across the street from us as the annoying college kids. I get mad when they drive too fast down the street, have too many cars parked on the street, have their music too loud or have too many people over. I'm pretty sure I haven't made friends there by calling them into the cops and convincing Robb to go over in the middle of the night to tell them to turn it down. Crabby Old Lady

4. I now find it much more enjoyable to shop for children's clothing than clothes for me. Even if I go out to the store to buy something specifically for me I usually end up with children's clothing. OLD!

5. I have discovered over the last couple years, and this may be more of a mom thing than an old thing but I am a very suspicious person. Every odd person at the park is a danger in my mind. Living in Lincoln there are plenty of odd people at the park so I am constantly counting to 3 to make sure everyone is accounted for. Even the ice cream man that drives around has been on my radar as probably being a creep. Hmmm Old

I'm sure the list goes on and on but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I probably am old but I like where I'm at and who I'm with, so 30 here I come. At least I'm not ever in bed by 9pm yet.

Professional Pictures

VBS

This last week was Vacation Bible School at our church. The last 2 years I have just been the mom that drops kids off and doesn't stay to help. In my defense I had Abby who was to little to go the last 2 years also. This year since I didn't have any excuses, I figured it was my time to be a helper. I should have went into this experience with a better attitude but I will admit I wasn't very excited to be a teacher for the 3 year old class. I did it out of guilt and so that Abby would go.
Much to my surprise it was pretty enjoyable. We had a great class and I had wonderful teenage helpers! Abby did really well for the most part. She got a little needy and clingy as the week went on but I think 3 hours a day of structure was a bit more than she was used to. It was adorable to see the 3 year olds learn the words and actions to songs and listen to the stories.
Bryce and Caleb also went to VBS this week. They were in the Kindergarten class which from the sounds of it was a lot more wild than my little 3 year olds. Poor Caleb was so nervous to go everyday and most days involved tears for him and much frustration and stress for me. I don't know what happened to my laid back kid. He has turned into a nervous worrier. I have no idea where he gets that from. (ME) Aside from the crying all morning and abandoning him in his class every morning crying he said he had fun??? Silly kid!
It was a fun week but I am excited to sleep in next week.

Ouch!

 Abby and the boys were playing monster and she came running to me, tripped and fell and smashed her nose into the lower part of the couch. The hard, uncushioned part of the couch. I knew it wasn't going to be good right away! She hit REALLY hard. I picked her up and her poor nose was bleeding but what scared me even more was that it looked terrible. The poor girl's nose was all smashed and swollen. I called the pediatrician because I don't know anything about broken noses. They said that they wouldn't be able to do much about it even if it was broken until the swelling went down. However, the next day she didn't seem to be able to breath very well out of that side so she ended up with x rays. Poor girl! No break just a really BAD fall.

Memorial Weekend

 We started our Memorial weekend on Friday with a camel ride at the Lincoln Children's Zoo. I thought I had heard the riding camels were only there this weekend (the camels that live at the Children's zoo are too small to ride so they brought in giant ones) come to find out they will be there all summer. Oh well never a better time to ride a camel. The kids look scared in the picture but they seemed to have fun. Bummed I don't have a picture that includes the camel but I guess that's what I get for begging the camel ride man to take the shot.

 On Saturday, we headed to the big town of Plainview to hang out with grandma and grandpa Mattern. The boys have been really into golfing lately and have been wanting to golf with grandpa and his golf cart. We went to the Plainview golf course which was perfect for us! Not to uppity, didn't care that we had more than 4 people not to mention we were golfing with 3 children. The boys had a great time riding in the golf carts and showing grandma and grandpa how well they can hit. Abby enjoyed chilling on the golf cart eating M&M's with grandma.

 On Sunday, we got to help cousin Brook celebrate her 7th birthday. I can't believe she is getting so old! I still remember being in the delivery room when she was born. Happy Birthday Brook! Love ya!

 We even had time to pick some strawberries at grandma and grandpa Lutz's house. The kids think that it is pretty cool to pick it out of the patch and eat it.