We're back

...for a temporary "lay over" before heading out again to Florida, where Jeff is in a wedding.

We have had a very busy but fun week spending time with family and celebrating Christmas in New York! At my parents' house there was the typical 14-people-under-one-roof chaos which also included lots of fun game-playing and too many cookies.

Here are Steph, Joe & Mike opening presents. They are the oldest three of my parents' six grandkids:



And me and Mickae (my sis-in-law) having fun:



At Jeff's parents we played more games, ate more goodies, and laughed through several episodes of "The Office". We also got to meet the newest member of the family, Claudio. Claudio is Jeff's new cousin. He is SO precious and I am sure he's one of the cutest babies you'll ever see.

Here is Claudio:




And the Rivera/Brackman men:

Christmas!

Because of some extensive travel plans we're celebrating our family Christmas here with the boys tomorrow. It's nearly midnight and I just finished getting everything ready. Funny thing is, up until about a week ago I thought I was doing great getting everything ready ahead of time - cookies, gifts, wrapping the gifts, cookies, Christmas cards, more cookies... but now that we're down to the wire I'm exhausted and still swamped with an ever-growing to-do list! You know, kids (and husbands) don't have any idea what goes into planning and preparing for big events and travels for a whole family!

Anyway, back to tomorrow's Christmas celebration... I'm SO excited about it! I'm giddy. (Despite the backache and to-do list.) I can't wait to see the boys' eyes get huge when they see their stockings are full and their excitement at seeing their names on presents. It's going to be SO fun! I'm sure I'll be taking tons of pictures and you can be sure I'll post some, so check back soon!

Merry Christmas!

Funny face

Trey and Roman will do just about anything to make me and Jeff laugh, so tonight at the table they put on a show of their "funny faces". Here's Roman's funniest one. In the middle, if you can't understand him, he's saying "See my funny face?".

Mohawk!

I love pictures, especially if my kids are in them. :)

This was from the other night in the tub, we were cracking up with bubbles and shampoo and mohawks!

Birthday Boy!

Happy birthday to Trey! I can't believe he is four years old already. It really does go so fast.

Trey spent most of Thursday telling everyone "this is my last day being three years old". It was too cute.

He knew it was his birthday the moment he woke up. He was grinning and so excited. He told us to "see how big I am!". He also knew what special treat he would get to have for breakfast... ice cream!

Later in the evening we had a few people over for pizza and cake and more ice cream. It was a blast!

Here are a few pics -
1. birthday ice cream for breakfast
2. he couldn't have a birthday without Davis!
3. with his friends after opening gifts

Big Snow!

We woke up to our first snow-on-the-ground two days before Trey's birthday. The boys (and dogs) were SO excited! We weren't fully prepared though, we had to go out for a new pair of boots before we could go play in it.

I was surprised how much Marley liked it reconsidering he does not like cold.

We had a blast!

Catchin' up

I haven't been on in a while, guess I got caught up in life. I can't believe it's December 1st already. And this coming week Trey turns four. It's going so fast. This morning he was excited to be going somewhere with Daddy and kept asking when it would be time to leave. Jeff finally told him to stop asking, so Trey came and asked me (I hadn't heard Jeff tell him to stop). I told him it would be soon and he said "okay, but don't tell Daddy cause he said if I kept asking I would have to go by myself and I don't know how to get there"! Too cute!

Check out our Christmas elves if you haven't already seen them:http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1116316124

Saturday

Another fun day watching the BUCKEYES WIN!

I saw my neighbor the other day and she gave me a copy of this adorable picture she took of her daughter Lily trick-or-treating with Trey. So cute I have to share! :)

Too much!

I had too much to do today. I did it, but I'm exhausted. Errands (with two "animals", as Jeff called them) took up a lot of the day. Doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it was a lot. Then tonight after the boys went to bed I started cooking and baking. Tomorrow is the BIG GAME and there was much to be done. I think I'm done for tonight though now, phew! Go BUCKS!

Here's an amusing anecdote from traveling with the boys last week:

I got pulled over for speeding in Cleveland (that's not the amusing part). I warned the boys to be quiet while I talked to the officer, and they were. It wasn't until he walked away that Trey, having seen his gun, asked: "Mommy, why didn't he shoot you?"

Long day!

Jeff and I had the weekend "off", the kids went to NY to visit grandparents. We had a great time - dinner with friends Friday, tailgating and the game with friends on Saturday, then Sunday after church all to ourselves!

I left home Monday morning to meet Jeff's mom in Erie - about half way. It takes about 3.5 hours for me to get there. I was almost to Erie when Barb called and said her ball joint on the car snapped and her wheel fell off! They were in Buffalo when it happened, but, thank God, they were stopped at a toll booth when it happened and nobody was hurt. I don't doubt that was a miracle!

A tow truck came to get them and I had to drive to Buffalo and meet them at a car shop. Meanwhile, Trey was sick as a dog, puking and diarrhea. I considered going back to our parents' to stay the night, or asking family in Jamestown if I could stay so that Trey could rest, but it seemed better to just get home. We did make it home, but I ended up being on the road for almost 12 hours.

Rough day!

Trick-or-Treat!

We had so much fun last night! We left our bowl of candy outside the door so that we could all go together. We walked around our court, then headed through the community to our close friends' house. There were a LOT of people out, we saw tons of fun costumes, and collected a lot of candy. Along the way we ran into our neighbors and we all walked together - Trey and their daughter Lily are friends, so they loved trick-or-treating together. Roman liked it, but he got tired quick and stayed in the wagon about half the time. We made it all the way to Kim & Andrew's, then headed home on the opposite side. By the time we got home we were ALL tired... just not too tired to sample a few candies before bed!

Check out our adorable SpiderMEN:

Pumpkins

We had a blast taking the boys to pick pumpkins the other day. Of course, Trey went right for the biggest one. Roman didn't care as much about the pumpkins as he did the candy nearby...

We carved them the next day, which was a lot of fun. Neither Jeff or I are very good at it, but it was fun anyway. These pics show Roman "helping" Jeff carve, Roman's face after touching the "guts", and both the boys with the finished pumpkins. Every time Roman sees any carved jack-o-lantern he says "ah-h-ween (halloween), Mommy, ah-h-ween!", which makes me laugh every time.

I went shopping...

Jeff is not very happy about it, but I stumbled upon the cutest little t-shirt... for Marley! Jeff doesn't think dogs should wear clothes, and usually I would agree, but tell me this isn't one of the cutest things you've ever seen!

2 and 3

Yesterday Jeff said to me "can you believe we have a two year old and a three year old?". Crazy. Roman turned two on Thursday, it was such a fun day. He loved all the fun and excitement, but I don't know that he really GOT it all. Whenever someone said "happy birthday" to him he'd grin and say it back to them!

Here is our beautiful birthday boy --

Scrapbook page

I haven't posted any pages I've done lately. Partly because I haven't gotten many done. I did one this weekend that I'm excited about though, so here it is. It's pictures from Jan 2006. I need to give credit where credit is due though, I scraplifted (copied or borrowed the design of a page) the layout from Digital Scrapbooking magazine.

Fort Addition/Renovation

Jeff came home last night with another install box to expand our fort. He had told the boys that when he could get another one he would so that the fort could have an upstairs. You could imagine Trey's excitement when Jeff came home with the second box. Roman was excited (and you'll see from the pics, even played a bit), but still pretty sick, so not his normal self.

Jeff went to work with the renovations. It was quite a project as these boxes are so heavy-duty that each box comes in three parts! The completed fort is impressive. Trey calls it his castle. Inside the "downstairs" there's a hole in the ceiling that Trey can boost himself through (Roman needs help) to get to the "upstairs", which has a window with a door. On the outside of the fort there's a ladder that Trey can use to climb to the top, it even includes hand-holds on the top to help him get all the way up. Roman isn't able to climb this ladder yet, and I'm kind of glad as it is pretty tall. (Although you'll see in the pictures that Jeff boosted him up there so he could check it out.) I tested the whole thing myself, even climbing the ladder and sitting on the roof. It didn't even wobble. Jeff was quite the architect with this project!

Here we go...

It finally actually got kind of cold this week, really for the first time. So of course, we also got sick. Jeff's fine, I'm okay except for a never-ending headache, Trey just has a cold, but Roman has an ear infection and croup.

I've never dealt with croup before, but I've heard about it. So when Roman woke up from his nap on Wednesday with a horrible barking cough I had a feeling that's what was going on. Sure enough, he progressed with raspy breathing, the awful cough and a fever. We were up in the night every couple of hours checking on his breathing. I took him to the doc yesterday who confirmed croup as well as an ear infection. Last night he made us nervous when his fever got up to 105. His fever did come down and he slept okay. This is day three, maybe there'll be improvement soon...?

Fort

Trey and Roman love forts. I'm guessing most little boys do. So when Jeff had a new machine install a couple of weeks ago he brought home an industrial size (and strength) box to make into a fort. The boys are thrilled! It's in their room and they love playing in and even on it. (It really is strong!) One rainy day last week we took markers and crayons and stickers in their room and decorated it inside and out. It's been a blast. A couple of days ago we told Trey he could "camp" in his fort overnight, which he loved. He had so much fun and slept so well that we've let him sleep there for three nights now! Marley also really likes the fort and has started going to be with Trey at night. We don't let him stay there all night, but he sleeps with him for a couple of hours. They are adorable!

Adventures in Bed Buying

Actually, I wasn't even buying the bed, I was helping Amber. She bought a new bed frame and headboard and matching dresser, but didn't have a vehicle to transport them in. So we went together on Saturday to get them. We got them back to her apartment without too much trouble, then started taking down her old bed frame. I hadn't even thought about what size frame she had gotten, but when we were taking down the old frame I asked her, "this is a double, right?". She stopped and looked at me... "a double is the same as a queen... right?" UH-OH. Her mattress set is a double bed, but the new frame only came in queen! She had remembered buying her comforter sized double/queen, so she assumed they were the same!

It has worked out for her though, she got a great sale for a new mattress set, since she wanted one anyway, and her bedroom looks great! Her only problem is that I think it's a very funny story, so I keep telling people!

Hiking

What a fun day I've had today! This morning Jeff and I decided to take the boys and go hiking. The weather was perfect, so we drove down to Hocking Hills, about an hour south. We took the dogs with us too and spent about two hours there, hiking and exploring. Trey LOVED it. Roman did his best to keep up, and did really well. It was so beautiful and relaxing.

Tailgating!

Our friends Masten & Angie had tickets to Saturday's football game, so we agreed to tailgate with them before they went in. Jeff and Masten went down to campus at 6 AM to get a good spot (which they did!), then came home to eat breakfast and such. Around 11 all four of us headed back down, broke out some chips and dip, grilled some burgers and just had a great time! We were there until about 3 when Masten & Angie headed into the stadium and we came home to watch the game. What a great day!

Go Bucks!

Little Scholar

I knew my kids were smart, but I didn't realize I had a genius on my hands until today, when I found Roman casually reading "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe"!

Catching Up

Life just keeps going, and we try to keep up. Last week, after my last post, poor little Marley got sick. Then he got sicker. We were at the vet three times in two days. Marley wouldn't eat or drink anything, but he kept throwing up. He got skinnier and skinner, he looked starved. We were giving him water from an eye dropper to keep his fluids up, but we didn't think he was going to make it. He proved us all wrong though! He has improved SO much and it seems like he's going to be fine.

We took him with us this weekend when we went to NY. Jeff's parents were hosting a pig roast and wanted our help... or maybe they just wanted the boys to be there. :) It was a fun weekend, but very busy. We all came home fighting a cold and needing some sleep.

Here are Trey and Grandma:


Me and the boys on the trampoline:


And Marley catching some Zzz's:

Marley

So far Marley has been a great addition to our family! I am so excited at his progress in potty training. He hasn't gone in the house at all since Sunday evening, not even over night! I'm bragging like a proud momma. :)

I can't believe the summer is ending already. This morning I had to wear a sweater over my shorts and tee. It was a surprise to me, I was hoping summer was going to last right into spring. I shouldn't complain though, I do like fall. Trey asked me the other day if we would be able to make a pile of leaves to jump in - that should be fun.

Off to keep that never-ending pile of laundry cycling through...

New addition

Despite the chaos in our life recently, Jeff and I went ahead and did something this weekend that we've been talking about for months. We added a puppy to our family. Marley is a 7 week old sweetheart. He was easy to fall in love with and has been non-stop entertainment. He is pretty well behaved for his age... we'll see if that lasts. He even seems to being showing signs of understanding potty training - or is that just wishful thinking? I'll have to let you know. In the meantime, here's Marley:

September already

It doesn't seem possible that it's September already. Tomorrow one of our nieces turns 12, that doesn't seem possible either. Happy birthday Sweetie!

We haven't been around much lately. We lost a friend, Kelly, last Wednesday the 29th. Kelly's sister and brother-in-law are two of our close friends, so we've been with them a lot since then, trying to help them through this time. Please keep their family in your prayers.

Happy Camper

I forgot to post Trey's exciting event this past weekend -- he went on his first overnight camping trip! (Not counting the cabin.) Jeff's good friend Mike camps out with his kids most Saturday nights in the summer and he invited Jeff and Trey to join him. Trey was SO excited and as soon as his backpack was packed he put it on and wore it until it was time to go. The night was a big success - except for sleep that is - and the next day Trey told me all about it. He talked about the other kids (very nice), the marshmallows (he didn't like the first one - it got burned) and the tent (he got to sleep in it!). He couldn't have been happier. Here's our little camper ready to go... (the face paint is from an event we were at earlier in the day).

Puddle Jumping

I haven't been on in a while, we haven't had too much excitement. It was really hot here for a while, then Sunday it started raining and has been gray and rainy ever since. So today we broke free of our cabin fever with some puddle jumping! The boys love to go out in the court after rain to enjoy the puddles. I just have to be prepared with dry clothes, as they are sure to get soaked. Today Roman actually decided to lay down in the puddle... no hope of staying dry!


And here is a new favorite picture of Roman before the puddles:

Top Bunk!

Kids really do grow so fast. Last night Trey slept on his top bunk for the first time. He was so excited to be sleeping up there. This morning he told me "and I didn't even fall out!"

It won't be long and we'll move Roman out of the crib and we'll have two big boys!

Foxy

So if I told you we met a fox today would you believe me? It's true. I've always loved foxes, but never expected to meet one like this. I was working in the front flower garden this evening when I looked up at the girl (my age) walking by and did a double take. She was walking a fox on a leash! I called for the boys to come see and she stopped to talk to us. "Vixey" is a sweet little domesticated fox. She's 4 months old and her family has been domesticated for a few generations. She was adorable and her owner was very nice, letting us play with her and answering our MANY questions. Vixey was playful and gentle, playing with the kids and Nala. I couldn't believe it! What a cool experience! I only wish I'd gotten a picture...

BUSY!

It has been busy around here! I only had a couple of days after we got back from NY to prep for the next activities. On Saturday Jeff's cousin Lacey, sister Misha and her two kids Fanisha and Zanayah all drove down from NY to visit, then we were taking Fanisha to Indiana to meet her dad there. Jeff & Misha's brother Mike was also in Cincinnati visiting his girlfriend Jill, so they drove up too to see everyone. But, Mike and Misha hadn't seen each other in two years, so we didn't tell Misha he was coming. What a surprise that was! I laughed so hard!

We had lots of fun, sweating out back while the kids played on the Slip-n-Slide, shopping, eating, drinking and playing cards late into the night. We laughed and laughed. It was a riot.

Here are the cousins, Jeff, Misha, Mike & Lacey (if Lacey's sister Tasha was here that would've been all the Brackman first cousins.)


Here we're trying to get a picture of the siblings, they couldn't stop goofing off though! Jeff, Misha and Mike.


Here's Uncle Mike with Fanisha (above) and Zanayah. They hadn't seen him in two years either.


Here's the next generation of Brackman cousins: Zanayah, Roman & Trey. Fanisha is missing from this pic.



Once everyone had left on Sunday we went to church, then came home and quickly packed up to meet Fanisha's dad in Indiana then drive south to Cincinnati to spend a few days. Jeff was working just over the border in Kentucky so the boys and I went with him to enjoy a family trip and a free hotel room! We had a blast swimming and playing at the hotel and visiting downtown Cincinnati and the riverfront Monday evening. We walked across the Purple People Bridge from Cincinnati into Newport, Kentucky. It's the longest pedestrian bridge crossing two states, or something like that. It was a lot of fun and there were tons of things to see. It's just too bad it was over 100 out and we thought we might die of the heat! Notice that Roman is bright red in the pictures, that's from heat, not sunburn!

Here are a couple of Jeff and the boys at the Riverfront:




Here are two shots of the Purple People Bridge:


And here am I with the boys on the bridge about to start the long walk across!

Trip to NY

Wow, one week without a post and I'm already getting harassed. Good to know I have loyal readers!

There was a little excitement last week... my neighbors are great people, but they have this excitable young Doberman I'm not very fond of. Apparently he's not very fond of me either. Late morning on Wednesday he unexpectedly bit me. He bit and let go very quickly, we're still not sure exactly why. He put two puncture wounds on my forearm. I went to the doctor to get it checked. They don't stitch dog bites generally because of the high risk of infection, but I did get a tetanus shot (ouch) and prescription for antibiotics. I'm going to be fine, my poor neighbors are so upset though. They've apologized over and over... I'm just thankful it was me and not a child!

On to a more fun note...

Trey, Roman and I took a trip to NY this weekend, Saturday to Tuesday (today). A couple of girlfriends I grew up with were in town and I wanted to see them. Amy, Alenna, Alvana and I have known each other pretty much forever and were inseparable as girls. We're all married now and live in four different states. This weekend was the first time we've all been together since Alenna's wedding three years ago. That's way too long! We didn't have a lot of time together as we were all traveling different places at different times, but it was amazing to be together anyway. The three of them are beautiful, Godly women and I cherish them... even when we don't see each other for long periods of time!

I also spent a bunch of time with Jeff's parents, my brother and his wife, and my parents. My parents took us to the fire hall (they are volunteer EMTs) so the boys could climb on the firetrucks. At Jeff's parents' we did a lot of four-wheeling and just playing outside. We also ate ice cream EVERY NIGHT! I love ice cream. :)

Here are a few pictures of my weekend. At the top left are Alvana, Amy, myself and Alenna. Below them is a shot of Main Street in the tiny town I grew up in. Next to and below that are pictures of the boys at the fire hall, and the bottom right is just some beautiful country.

At the Dam

We keep going to the dam lately, it's just a fun place to go as a family. We can walk forever on top of the dam, in the grass with water on one side and open land on the other, or there's a field for Nala to run in with a giant rock the boys like to climb on, or there's a great playground, or we can go down to the water... it's a great place to hang out as a family. Here are a couple of pictures I like from the other day.

Jeff and the boys -


Me and Roman -


Trey by the water below the dam -


By the way, unless Jeff is obsessively reading my blog a dozen times a day, I know people are out there reading it. So leave me a comment or two letting me know who you are and what you think of our oh-so-exciting life! :)

Poppies!

I was excited to have poppies in my flower garden this year, they remind me of California, where the grow wild along the roads. I took some pictures the other day, the poppies are bright yellow, but there is one pale yellow one blooming with them.

Friday's Drama

Yesterday morning my good friend Ann-Morgan and I met at a local library to take our kids to an event there. We had my two boys and her two girls (roughly the same ages as mine) and also Kevin, the son of a mutual friend of ours was with Ann-Morgan (AMK). He's close in age to Trey and AMK's oldest, Katie, who turns four next week. The kids were excited to go in and we helped them form a chain between us, holding hands to keep them all together. They were happy and running together. We went through the outer doors and as we approached the inner doors Katie fell. Since the boys were holding her hands she couldn't break her fall, so her head hit. We're not sure exactly what it hit, both Ann-Morgan and I were right behind them and thought she probably just had a little bump. Unfortunately that was not the case. I took Paige, AMK's younger daughter, so she could tend to Katie. A moment later I looked at Katie to see how she looked and both she and AMK had blood running all over them. I couldn't believe it, I did NOT expect to see blood, especially that much. Ann-Morgan was (understandably) a little flustered and not sure what to do, except to call her husband Justin, who is a pediatrician. But Katie's bangs were plastered to her forehead with blood, so we couldn't even see how bad it was and decide was to do. I reached up to lift her hair away and instantly my stomach turned. There was a nasty open gash on her forehead. I knew immediately that she needed stitches for it. Ann-Morgan decided to take her to their doctor's office, which was right down the street. I kept the other four and went in to the program while they left, but they were back soon. AMK said the doctor took one look at it and said it was too big to handle there, she would have to go to Childrens' hospital ER for stitches. By God's detailed plan Ann-Morgan and Cheryl, Kevin's mom, arrived back at the library at the same time - a good thing since I didn't have room in my car for all those kids! Cheryl ended up taking Paige home with her since AMK would be going past her house on the way home from the hospital and it would be easy to pick her up. It all ended well, Katie is feeling much better nine stitches later and even had her birthday party this afternoon. I must say though that I NEVER expected someone to need stitches after a trip to the library!

Picture

Not a lot going on here, we went to the dam tonight with the boys and Nala to walk, that was fun. There was a boat race or something going on in the water, Roman was really excited about all the boats.

I've been working on learning some new things in Photoshop, here's a picture I took a couple of months ago in NY and worked with this week in Photoshop.

Sick kids and 4th of July pics

The rest of this week ended up kind of crazy, Roman spiked a high fever Wednesday night keeping us up a lot of the night worrying about him. We saw the doc on Thursday to find out it was an ear infection, then Saturday morning Trey started complaining that he wasn't feeling good. By Saturday afternoon we were in urgent care to get him checked because we couldn't get his fever below 103 and he was crying about his head hurting. They couldn't find anything obvious to diagnose, so once they got the fever below 102 they sent us home, figuring it must be a virus. He had us up the majority of last night with his fever nearing 105. We managed to keep it below 102 today, but he was still out of sorts. We do think it's just a virus though and hopefully he'll be improving more by tomorrow. Of course, they always seem to get worse during the night, so we'll see how tonight goes.

On a lighter note, I wrote last week about the fun we had with Masten and Angie at their Fourth of July party and mentioned Jeff and Masten playing on the slip-n-slide. Tonight I got an email with pictures from the party and couldn't wait to post them on here, they make me laugh so hard! Enjoy!

(click picture to see a larger version)

Bye-bye Lizard

Maybe I'm the biggest dork ever, but I didn't know what to do with the lizard. I didn't want to just put it outside if it was going to die. So the next morning I called Ohio Wildlife and asked them. They said we do have lizards here in Ohio, we just don't see them very often. They said we could just let him go outside. So we let him loose and he posed just long enough for me to get two clear pics before he took off into the flower bed.

No Way!

I've often heard people say about situations I'm in "that would only happen to you, Carla". Tonight was one of those nights. I was sitting here at the desk while I was chatting on the phone when something ran across the desk. I was stunned when it stopped moving in front of me and I realized it was a little tiny lizard! I didn't even know lizards were native to Ohio! I called for Jeff, who caught the little guy. We're going to hang on to him at least until morning because Trey will be amazed by it! I'll let you know what we end up doing...

Mohawk

Trey got a haircut yesterday and loves it... check out the new style!

Blue Hall

This weekend Jeff and I got some paint and yesterday my friend Amber and I decided to paint the hallway. We started around nine last night, after the kids were in bed. It was tricky with both of us working in the narrow hall, but painting is so much better when you do it with someone. We got it done pretty quickly, despite the fact that Jeff and I each stepped in a paint tray at different times! Yikes!

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July, we went to our friends Masten & Angie's house for a cookout. There were a bunch of people there from church and from their families. There was a ton of good food, I think we ate all day long. When the sun broke through after the rain we all went outside where the kids all found the puddles and got soaked. Then Masten and Jeff took over the kids' slip-n-slide and started racing down it. We were laughing so hard! I didn't have my camera, but I'm hoping to get some pictures from someone else who did have one there. Regardless, it was a great day!

Hello!

I'm sure all you loyal readers out there have been wondering where I've been! Sorry to have left you all hanging. Actually, not a whole lot of exciting things have happened this week. We've been enjoying some great weather here in beautiful Columbus (and no, that's not sarcastic!) and spending some time doing family stuff - lots of parks, walks, fires in the backyard and playing in the sandbox.

I did find some time this past week to do a little scrapbooking, here are two of the pages I finished. They are both from early 2006 - I don't always scrapbook pictures in order. :)

Scrapbook Page

I haven't gotten much scrapbooking done the last several weeks - too much going on. But, I did this one over the weekend. The pictures are from February 2006.