yoga

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is. Allen, Scott (brother in law) and Conan (Scott's twin brother) doing yoga. But it is not just yoga, it is P90X yoga. It is an hour and a half long, and it is hard. Can you see the sweat?

aka happiness

This is Jared's last week of school agenda. Looks like a pretty good week to me. I love what he put for Thursday and Friday: Summer aka happiness. I agree.

one on one

I tagged along last week when Allen took his staff to a work convention in Chicago. The kids had their own vacation staying at their grandparents houses. We were just in time to enjoy the tulips on Michigan Avenue.
We went to the Field Museum and saw Sue-the largest, most intact tyrannosaurus rex. Across the street was Soldier Field.

One night we went down to Navy Pier and watched the opening night of a small musical, "Murder for Two". It was a who-done-it comedy with only two actors. It was hilarious.

And of course, we ate. A lot. Chicago pizza was good (we sent this picture to our kids, they were impressed) but our favorite meal was at a place called Girl and the Goat. The "girl" recently won "Top Chef" on the Food Network and this is the restaurant she opened. Can you say YUMMY? It was amazing. My taste buds are still talking about it.

The best part of the trip was having some one on one time with Allen. He is the best. If I was sent to a deserted island, the one thing I would bring would be Allen.

the next cake boss

Jared decided that for Mother's Day he wanted to make me a cake. And not just any cake. A cake boss style cake. With his assistant, Allen, he spent several hours making this for me.
They brain stormed to figure out what items to make out of rice crispy treats (just like the cake boss). They listed things I liked. They came up with several ideas. Claire was quite random with hers...oatmeal? (I have never liked it and we don't even have any in our house right now).

The winners were, flowers, books, and looking at houses.

Jared impressed us with all his decorating skills.

Thank you Jared!

message board

After a long wait, our "info center" is complete. We have the message board done. And boy are we enjoying it. OK, I am probably enjoying it the most. It feeds my organizational need. It just makes me happy. The big family calendar is there for everyone to see. Coupons, school papers, reminders, to do lists-we have room for it all.
The kids even have there own space to write their own reminders (Science test Tuesday, report due Friday). And I am happy to share that they also use it to leave love notes to each other.

measuring up

Here is my way of documenting my boys passing me up in height. I plan on taking more, every six months or so. It will be fun to see them grow. And a little sad. I am already sad that when we hug, they can no longer lay their head on my chest. I liked tucking them in and leaning my head down on theirs. Just a reminder, they are not twins, Jared is a full two years younger than Carter.
Please ignore the attire. Jared is in his PJ's, I am in my comfey clothes and well, Carter wears that shirt A LOT and we are all tired of it. Just focus on the tops of our heads. Thanks.

"this is not safe!"

April 26, 2011 we had tornado warning after tornado warning. I remember quite a few watches, but very few warnings and not 6 or 7 in a single day. When one of the storms came directly toward us, we were in the basement theater room, watching the show from the door. Allen kept going to the window and even going out on our deck to video (too dark to really see). I stood at the room door watching, and the kids stayed behind me, peeking around to look now and then. During the ordeal, Jared was the most animated. He collected all pillows, blankets and even couch cushions into the room. When I went over to the window a few times and ventured onto the deck once he said, "mom, I expected that of dad, but not you!". When we called the kids to run over quick to the window to take a better look, he was the one that came with couch cushion in hand. When the storm was over and we were all out side checking out the hail, we heard this rushing water sound-it sounded like a river. We told the kids to come with us to check it out and started leaving our yard, Jared came, but giggled in a nervous way, "this is not safe!"

We had planted our first ever garden just a week before. We will see what survives.

One interesting thing was the steam that came off the hail and the strong smell of pine that night. It made more sense the next day when we saw all the foliage on the ground.

Our damage was minimal: garden, all the bushes and trees got a good trimming. Down spouts are dinged up. One front light glass is broken. All in all we feel pretty lucky. Our hearts go out to those that were not so lucky. The boys are headed to Chattanooga with our church this Saturday to help out with the clean up.