sooze news.

Easter. Twenty-ten.

2010-04-05T19:24:00.005-04:00

Easter weekend, in a nutshell....

Headed up to Carson City on Saturday for the first of 3 egg hunts. The first one is at Kevin's parents church, the second one is at the park in Carson and the third is at the Mayes homestead.

Ben at the first egg hunt.

(Did you notice he was all ready for the big game that was going to be played that day?
His favorite outfit in the world is this....MSU basketball shorts that go down to his ankles, his MSU basketball jersey and usually he has his MSU long sleeve under armor shirt on, but it was too warm, so he opted for short sleeve)

Allie, Annie and Ashley all ready to hunt for eggs at the egg hunt in the park.

Trever and Ben.
Even though they don't cheer for the same team, they can at least still be friends/cousins.

Minutes after this egg hunt ended, the rain came down.
Luckily our last egg hunt was indoors...PHEW....wouldn't want the kids to miss out on one ;)

Alex. Ben. Gabe. Justin. Allie.
Trever. Fisher. Annie. Aiden. Ashley.

Easter Morning.....

All dressed up in their "fancies" as Ben calls it.

We don't dress up much in this household, so when I told the boys we were "dressing up" they freaked. I didn't even make them wear khaki's...just jeans. Gabe actually had to go from wearing athletic pants to jeans [and threw a major fit,] but he did survive.

The weird thing is, I didn't really plan their outfits to match. I just threw together whatever they had in their closet that wasn't stained and/or a basketball shirt and, voila, it came together perfectly.

The cousins.
Some of them look like Easter eggs (well, their clothes do.)

This picture cracks me up!! I told the kids to do silly stuff and Ben did bunny ears on himself. Probably the funniest thing I have ever seen!! I love that kid!

Ashley and Allie.

Aren't we cute!?

The Stulie's.

Us.

Oh yeah...how could I forget?!

One of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen!! Okay, honestly, one of the few I seriously have ever seen....I am NOT a morning person!

On the way to sunrise service....

Thank you Jesus for defeating death so that I can have HOPE in this crazy world full of uncertainty!!

"In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand"

My little ragamuffins.

2010-04-02T20:01:00.003-04:00

We haven't had our kids haircut in 4.5 months....and it definitely showed.

Here is my little ragamuffin group before....

And here is my little gang, after....

Okay, you probably can't even tell with Gabe, but Allie and Ben are definitely a HUGE improvement!!

Here is an up close picture of Ben, since you can't see it very well in the picture above.
He technically has a faux-hawk, but it fell down while he was playing.

(Don't mind the mustard/ketchup/whatever he had for dinner on his face.)

Sledding at Granger Meadows.

2010-02-15T18:31:00.001-05:00

Sledding at Granger Meadows with the Bowman's and Wilk's.
Friday. 2.12.10.

Watching Olympics.

2010-02-15T10:40:00.000-05:00

We were all peacefully watching the Olympics for about an hour, when I realized, "Hey, we're all watching the Olympics peacefully for about an hour. Maybe I should get a picture."

So I did.

And they make me smile....

Daddy Daughter Dance.

2010-02-15T09:49:00.000-05:00

Kevin and Allie went to their first Daddy/Daughter Dance last Thursday.

The day before, Allie and I practiced doing her hair. I had put totally cute curls in her hair....she looked adorable. And of course, she hated it!! She told me, "Um Mom? Can we have someone who knows how to DO hair, do it tomorrow??" Lovely.

So the next day, I did her hair totally not what I wanted, but she loved it. (Of course!)

Kevin surprised her with a bunch of flowers. Check out her reaction.....

...could it get any better?!?!

When they both got home, they both said they had a great time! Kevin said that Allie's face is probably going to hurt the next day because we was smiling so much, the entire night.

He also said (courtesy of his facebook profile):

"After the Daddy Daughter dance I realized a couple of things. Some men won't even dance with their daughter. Most men can't dance. Some men shouldn't dance with their daughter to Lady Gaga. I officially HATE the song Butterfly Kisses. My baby isn't a baby anymore."

Sport -n- the Snow.

2010-02-15T09:48:00.003-05:00

Sport loved the 10ish inches of snow we got last week!! It made his "dog-rodeo" even more fun to watch!!! It was so funny to see how deep the snow was....it almost covered his legs!

Most greyhound "parents" would have a coat on their dog, if they were outside like this. We don't. We're bad.

Bushnell Christmas. 2009.

2009-12-30T09:42:00.011-05:00

Christmas Number 3!!!
The Bushnell Christmas.
Getting to the point where it is going to be all pictures and not much writing!!

Recently I was looking through Grandma Bushnell's scrapbooks and was reminded how they used to take pictures of each family in front of her tree. They have only done it only 2 times since I was a part of the family (they've had me around for 11 years!), so I kind of begged everyone to humor me so we could do it again!!!

Uncle Terry and Aunt Ellen

Jason and Savannah

Sandy and Ken
(aka Mom and Dad Mayes)

Stulie
Alex, Trever, Ashley and Justin

My cute family!

Elicia, Matt and Aiden

Greg, Aaron, Fisher and Annie

Aunt Patsy, Uncle Trent
Kelsey, Corey,
Cristi, Ryan and Cohen

Cristi, Ryan and Cohen

Aunt Pam, Uncle Brian
Tracee and Randee

Grandma and her kids!

Grandma and all (technically, minus 2) of her GREAT-Grandkids!

The little girls with the big girls!!

Randee attacking Bender!

The 2nd newest member of the Bushnell family....Cohen!

Grandma and Cohen getting a little snuggle-y rock in!!

Go State!
Ben's little thug attitude goes perfectly with his little gangster tooth (crown) that he has in his mouth!

Bender and Uncle Trent catching up on a little work!

Big Mayes Christmas. 2009.

2009-12-30T09:42:00.010-05:00

Merry Christmas!!!
From all the Mayes Grandchildren.....
Annie, Fisher, Allie, Ashley, Trever, Ben, Aiden
Gabe, Alex and Justin

Aaron decided to get really dressed up for the Mayes Christmas....she wore her new sweater and her East Lansing Volleyball sweatpants!

Ashley, Annie and Aunt Aaron!

Aunt Sooze and Fisher.
Check out his new Spartan hat!

Fisher's first Christmas!!

Ben loved his new gun from Aunt Aaron and Uncle Greg!

I made Kevin's mom a little tiny scrapbook of all her grandkids!
And Kevin's dad got a mug with the grandkids pictures on it!

Matt and Elicia took all of the slides (from 1970's-ish to 1981) that were upstairs and scanned them and gave Kevin's parents the CD's and DVD's that they made! It was soooo cool!!!

For dinner, we like to throw the kids into an entirely different room, so we can eat peacefully-ish.

Aunt Julie showing Allie how to use her latch hook kit!
Allie loves it!!!

So that was my last lame Christmas posting. Maybe I will be better at updating now that I have this out of the way. We'll see.....

Kurt Christmas. 2009.

2009-12-30T09:41:00.013-05:00

Only one Christmas post done and 3 more to go. They are going to get lamer and lamer as I go. So.....Kurt Family Christmas, here we go!!!

First off.... Family pictures. A tradition we do every year. Used to hate it. Love it now. The little kids are getting easier and easier to weasel into smiling and not acting like fools.

Dan, Kris, Matthew, Stephen and Andrew

Dave, Cathie, Maddie, Emily and Nate

Cowboy Jelly-Roll, Bethie, Libby, Reagan

Me, Kevin, Allie, Gabe and Bender

Grandma Bosscher (Judy's mom), my dad and Judy

Random outtakes.....

Dan and Beth look bored to death (or drugged).....you pick!

Random assortment of people from different families.

And another random grouping.

Apparently we forgot to tell Gabe and Allie that this was suppose to be a "fun" picture.

We celebrated Christmas with the Kurt family on Christmas Eve. We had a great dinner...the kids opened presents from my dad and Judy and then we went to my dad's church for the Christmas Eve Service.

The adults hanging out and watching the kids open their presents.
And no...Beth did not get puked on by lots of pink princesses....

...her and Libby actually both did.

Beth was kind enough to model her 2 year old's new Snuggie.
Which, by the way, she wore the entire night and the next day (except when we were at church.)

Dad sportin' his favorite new Spartan hat, from his favorite child!

Ben actually had no idea what this thing was, but you would have no idea by the look on his face!

This was my favorite gift that any of the kids got! Its the Biggby poster that Allie is on!! My dad made (yes, I said MADE!) the frame for it!!! (He cut it down to make it a touch smaller.)
(Thanks Mindi for getting that poster for us!!)
How cool is that?! It now hangs above her bed!!

Cow-girl Reggie!!

Libby was learning about how important (and fun!) it is to give other people gifts (rather then just getting them.) Libby wrapped up a very special present for Allie. It was a little monkey eraser. Libby was sooo excited to give it to her big cousin! Allie said it was her favorite present! It was so cute to watch the excitement on Libby's face as Allie was opening the gift!!

After dinner, presents and church, all the Kurt siblings headed to Dave and Cathie's house in South Lyon, for the second part of the Kurt Christmas. This is where the little kids open presents from each other (well, actually, from the aunts and uncles.) This is when it turns to total and utter chaos!....

....as you can tell by this picture!!!

Allie was THRILLED to get this 5 pounds of gummi bears from Uncle Jon and Aunt Bethie!!! Pretty sure our dentist is going to be loving this!!!

Ben let Matthew play Nerf guns with him.

Pretty much the entire time, these boys were glued to the video games.

Libby-Lou and Uncle Ditty hanging out!!

This year was a little odd. Dan and Kris didn't spend the night with us at Dave and Cathie's. We were sad that they decided to break tradition. But, I guess we all knew it was coming one of these days. Who knows, maybe next year they will decided to stay again!!!

Okay...here are my two favorite pictures from all of Christmas Eve.....

Number one.....

...this was Dave's version of Cathie's delicious french toast casserole.
(Cathie was not feeling well, so Dave decided to try and follow her directions. Didn't turn out quite the same as Cathie's!!)
Note the different heights of the pieces of bread and the awful spacing.
At one point, there was so much room in one of the pans, that he shoved a couple bagels in to fill in the spaces.
It. Was. Awesome. To look at. Seriously. I didn't eat any of it because it was just too funny.

Number two.....
...the cat, Rascal, has no legs. He has to roll everywhere he wants to get.
That makes me laugh too.
(Okay. He really does have legs. But it doesn't look like it.)
It still makes me laugh.

Kurt Christmas.
It's a wrap!

Little Mayes Christmas. 2009.

2009-12-30T09:35:00.006-05:00

Am I overwhelmed with the thought of blogging about all of the Christmas we just had?
Yup. Sure am.

Am I completely neglecting my kid(s) to get this done?
Yup. Sure am.

Am I totally cheating and changing the date on this post, so I will be able to find it?
Yup. Sure am.

Alright. Here I go.....

We celebrated our little Mayes Family Christmas on the morning of December 23. We figured it would be nice for the kids to be able to spend the whole day playing with their things, rather than doing it on the 24th and having to rush out of the house, onto the next Christmas (phew! that was a long sentence.)

Well, technically, the night before the 23rd, we let the kids open one present from us (slippers) and the gifts that they got each other.

Allie loved the new Webkinz (named Lillian) and the Bakagon (can you tell she has 2 brother's??) she got!! Gabe got [stupid] Pokemon cards and a Bakagon.

Ben got about a gazillion more little Star War Galactic Heroes from Gabe and Allie.
I think his collection is almost complete!

The next morning.....

So, Santa doesn't get a lot of credit around our house. He gets the kids a (count it....one) book each and the rest of the fun treasures are from Kevin and I (....we so want the credit of getting the kids the cool gifts.)

One of the cool things that Santa does do, is every year he reminds us about the true meaning of Christmas. (And its not about him.) There is always a version of the Christmas Story for us to read to remind the kids why we celebrate Christmas and why they are getting/giving gifts.

(The answer is Jesus, in case you didn't know!)

Kevin reading the Christmas Story.

It was a very Wii Christmas around here.
The kids got the Disney Dance Dance Revolution.
(You may remember a few years ago they got the original one for PS2. After realizing what awful songs the kids were memorizing, we got rid of it. This one is much more kid friendly. My 4 year old isn't going around singing "Angel in the Centerfold" anymore.)

Due to poor picture taking by me, Kevin didn't get any pictures with his gifts.
(Not sure how exciting it is to get your picture taken with an MSU sweatshirt and polo shirt, anyways.)

For myself, on the other hand, Kevin did a great job picking out my gifts (and even taking pictures of me with them.) However, since I am in control of this blog, I am not posting any pictures. Sorry. I got a new Dell Netbook and new pots and pans!

One of the things my kids have been saying they wanted were the Zhu Zhu Pets. I couldn't find them anywhere and quite frankly, I wasn't going to get in any fights at the store to get them. Or so I thought....when I found out that they were in at our local Meijer, I pretty much took down anyone who got in my way. I even drove (way too fast) over to the other Meijer because I heard they had different things that went with them.

The kids were thrilled with them. However, their favorite thing to do with them, is not to play with them, but rather have the cat (mind you, he is a boy) pretend to nurse them......

HA! It makes me laugh every time I see it!!!

We had a great day hanging out and playing with all the next treasures we got!!

Next up...Kurt Family Christmas!!

Bender.

2009-12-14T16:09:00.002-05:00

This is what happens when you are the only boy, stuck playing with two girls.....

...Mom gets awesome black-mail pictures!!

Our special Christmas tree.

2009-12-03T10:53:00.006-05:00

We went and got our Christmas tree last night.

I'm not sure if it was because it was getting dark, or if it was because we knew that it was going to rain soon or if it was just the fact that we were all super hungry or the fact that Kevin still had his nice work clothes on...but whatever the reason, we did an "AWESOME" job picking out our Christmas tree.

A verbal description doesn't even do it justice...so maybe pictures will help!

This picture shows you how tall it is.....

...almost as tall as my 9 year old, 6.5 year old and 4.5 year old.

This picture show's how huge and robust it is [not].....

.....it fits on the back of our "Little Red Rocket" (Toyota Tercel)

This picture show's how "big" our Little Red Rocket is.....

....3 kids squeezed into the backseat, with the tree in the back window!

I will admit, I took this picture at a funny angle to show how short the tree is.....

...it is just over 5 foot 7 inches
(cuz that's how tall I am....and it comes right up to the top of my head!)

And this picture shows the crooked-ness of the silly thing.....

....oh and did I mention that we don't have colored lights on it because Kevin and the kids decorated the kids rooms with them?
Yeah, so instead Kevin put icicle lights on half the tree (apparently we ran out of the normal white kind.)

That's cool though....it just adds to the tree's awesome-ness!!!

And this picture show's why its not as crooked as it should be....

...because there is a bungee cord holding it somewhat straight!!!

HA! I LOVE IT!!!
This could be my favorite tree ever!!!!!

Hunter -n- Sport.

2009-12-03T10:46:00.002-05:00

Progress has been made......

They *love* each other!

Hunting.

2009-12-03T10:42:00.004-05:00

Kevin, being the awesome dad that he is, decided to take his 4 year old hunting last week.

Really? A 4 year old hunting? That's just like asking to not to see anything at all. Or if you do, to have it scared off by a non-stop chattering little guy.

But he did it.

And Ben LOVED it!!!

Thanksgiving.

2009-11-30T10:05:00.000-05:00

(Side note: I'm really out of the routine of blogging about every little thing, so I'm trying to get back in the habit...which means I need to go back and catch up on some of the things that I have missed.

So, instead of going in depth about every little thing....I'm pretty much just going to post some of my favorite pictures.)

.....Oh yah...so I was looking through the pictures that I took at Thanksgiving at my dad's house and realized that I had my camera on the wrong setting....I had the focus wrong and so all my pictures are weird and blurry. Definitely proves that just because you have a cool camera, doesn't mean you can take good pictures. So, I stole some of these ones from my brother.

Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving, we also celebrated my dad, brother, sister-n-law and nephew's birthday.

I got the award for getting my dad the best gift ever. (He even told me so.)
I'm sure the game of "bean bag toss" was a close runner up.

This picture was suppose to be a picture of my dad and his favorite child (me), but Dave got in the way.

I decided to step out of the box (Jell-o box, that is) and go for something a little fancier then my normal Jell-o beans that I make every year. I made this lovely 10 layered Jell-o ring. It only took me 6 hours to make. Seriously. 6 hours to make a stinkin' Jell-o dish. (It was well worth it
though....although I will never make it again!)

Ben was so thrilled to get a little Matthew time!

Reagan.

Most of the girls....(minus Emily)
Lola (the dog). Maddie. Libby. Allie. Reagan.

After we hung out with the Kurt family, we headed over to Grandma Bushnell's for a little while. I didn't take any pictures, so just imagine all the fun we had.

We then headed to GR to hang out at Jon and Beth's house for the night. My original plan was to go with Kevin's sister to Meijer at 10pm to stand in line for the Wii (that we couldn't get until 5am!!) Then I decided that sounded awful and stayed at Jon and Bethie's and hung out with my family.

The girls and I were strategically planning our early morning outing. (Well, Cathie was just playing with her phone the whole time, but she was at least sitting at the same table we were at.) Jon kept coming in and running the atmosphere. Literally.......

...he smelled awful!

So the next morning, Jon, Bethie, Cathie and I got up at 4:15am! We had to wait for a while, because someone (Tiffany) was late! So because of that, we missed out on all the good deals. I ended up only getting shampoo and conditioner at Meijer. Really? I got up that early just to get shampoo and conditioner? Yup. I did.

Tiffany managed to make Beth dry heave out the car window and the rest of lose our appetite for the rest of our lives. All because of her stinky....sweaty.....egg mcmuffin from McDonald's. It was so awful, I can't even explain.

So we got home around 9:30am and all of us promptly fell asleep while Dave and Kevin watched the kids.

Dave said this was a opossum.
I beg to differ.

I had to add this picture all because of Cathie.
See what she is doing? That is what she did the entire time we were hanging out.
Texting....facebooking....texting....facebooking.

(Thanksgiving post. Done. Check.)

Silver Bells.

2009-11-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

Silver Bells this year was a much more pleasant experience compared to last year. I seriously can say, that last year was the coldest I ever have been.

So this year, I was prepared. A little too much, I suppose.

I made the kids all wear snow pants, sweatshirts, coats, hats, gloves, snow boots....the whole 9 yards. (For me personally, I wore two pair of long underwear, jeans, snow boots, 2 pair of socks, a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, two coats...etc) Within 10 minutes of getting outside, the kids were shedding their layers. By the time the parade actually started, the kids had their snow pants pulled down to their ankles and just had their sweatshirts on. Hats and gloves were all in my purse.

This year we actually got to the parade early. Really early. As in, 40 minutes early. We did get good seats (or shall I say, stands...since we really didn't sit once the parade started)

Matt, Elicia and Aiden met up with us!
And awkwardly enough, Elicia and I had the EXACT same coat on (and we didn't even realize the other one owned it) so we made sure we stood right next to each other the whole time, in hopes that people would think we were twins!

My dad, Judy and Gavin found us too!
(Just to clarify: Gavin is sitting on the ground....Ben is in Papa's arms.)

Lo and behold, it looks like I was there too!!
(Within seconds of this picture being taken, all the coats, hats and gloves were off!!)

Aaron, Kristen and Fisher came too!!
Fisher was less then enthused about the whole light parade thing.
He slept the whole time!!

This is as close as we got to Capitol and the tree.
We couldn't really see the fireworks....(which was all a part of my evil plan!!) We saw the fireworks in the reflection of one the buildings.

Apparently my driving record isn't so good.....

2009-11-20T15:02:00.005-05:00

5 years ago, I was pregnant with Ben and had two little kids.....4 years old and 18 months.

Our "reliable" vehicle was my ugly aquamarine Saturn.

I hated it. But I couldn't complain. It had super low miles. It was safe. It fit our entire family. But I still hated it.

So, because we were going to have a new baby, we knew that we had to get a bigger vehicle because it was impossible to fit a infant car seat, a toddler car seat and a booster seat, all in the back of the Saturn. (We also knew that it was illegal to put one of the kids in the trunk.)

So I started praying that God would provide something for us. He has been so faithful to us so many times, that I knew that this wasn't a big thing for Him. It pretty much would have been impossible for us to sell our Saturn and get anything for it, let alone try to buy a van with little to no money saved up.

In December of 2004, I was heading to a Teen Parent's meeting (no, it wasn't for me....I was a volunteer with Youth for Christ's Teen Parent's group.) I was driving on the expressway, where the normal speed limit is 70 mph. Apparently there was a traffic jam, so everyone was driving super slowly. The guy in front of me, slammed on his brakes. Lucky for me, I was able to stop within an inch (literally) his car. The guy behind me wasn't so lucky. He couldn't stop in time, so he slammed into me. (Oh did, I mention that we were all going 10 mph!!!! Cuz yeah, we were! 10 mph in a 70 mph zone!!!)

I was fine...Baby in the belly was fine. No one in either car was hurt. (How could they be? We were going 10 mph. Did I mention that yet?? :)

So I drove the car home. Super mad at myself for getting into an accident. The car didn't look "that bad" when I got home. I just kind of figured that it just needed to have a little couple dents fixed and we would be as good as new! Yeah nope.....

Any chance of selling that car was gone. That was kind of frustrating.

Little did I know that God had other plans.....

The body shop called and said that there was too much damage. (Really? I was only going 10 mph!) And they said they were going to total it rather then fix it.

We had kind of figured out how much the insurance company was going to give us....and it wasn't going to be much. Oh well....we would do our best with what we got!

What a surprise it was when the insurance company called to tell us that we were getting more then twice what we thought!!!!!

In a time when we knew we couldn't afford a new (to us) vehicle, God totally stepped in and provided exactly what we needed!!! I'm not sure why this surprised me, because He has done it sooo many times!!

So we bought our 2001 Toyota Sienna. Which I have looooved!!!

Until, I hit a deer with it on Monday night.

We just found out that there was almost $5,500 worth of damage done to it, so it is totaled also! (Great driving record I have, huh??) So now we are waiting on the insurance company....but mostly God....to see what He is going to provide this time!!!

Stupid Deer.

Stupid Deer.

2009-11-16T19:19:00.003-05:00

This is why Kevin hunts.......

....so he can kill the stupid deer, so they don't run into me while driving 70 mph.

School Pictures.

2009-11-04T19:21:00.001-05:00

Gabe.

3rd grade.

Allie.
1st grade.

The kids got their school pictures back!

Can you tell whose kids are going through the awkward teeth phase?! Mine are!!

But I love it! I know that some day, after thousands and thousands of dollars in orthodontic bills, we will have straight gap-less teeth! But for now, we are enjoying the "crazy-missing-tooth-here, crazy-missing-tooth-there, big-huge-awkward-tooth-here, big-huge-awkward-tooth-there" phase.

Halloween.

2009-10-31T20:34:00.009-04:00

We've have had a couple busy days filled with Halloween stuff....parties....trick or treating...and getting Ben in and out of his costume about 14 times.

Yesterday was Gabe and Allie's Halloween parties at school. Luckily Kevin had the day off so he was able to go to Gabe's parade and party (and take pictures) and I was able to go to Allie's and do the same. (Have I mentioned how much I hate our school districts lay out of the schools? Every two years the kids switch schools, so I will never have two kids in the same building at the same time until high school. Very annoying!!)

Gabe decided at the last minute that he didn't want to be Harry Potter, so I told him he had to come up with something else on his own (meaning that I wasn't going to buy him anything.) So even though he looks very similar to last year, he isn't the same thing. This year he is a "spy." (So basically its the exact same outfit as last year, minus the Superman shirt and the dark hair.)

Ben looks like he is a tiny action figure (or Gabe's wee puppet)

Ben was sooo excited to finally be able to wear his Optimus Prime costume. I bought it last year (90% off baby!!) and told him he wouldn't be able to wear it until Halloween. He has been pretty much counting the days until Halloween. (I would catch him going downstairs to where I keep the costumes and getting his "fix" with the mask. He would put it on for a minute or two (then I would say something and freak him out) and then he would put it away again. It was so funny how many times that happened.) Ben was also excited to go with Kevin to Gabe's school for the parade and party.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the school district, I was at Allie's school...at her parade and party.

Allie's class!

After school, we headed over to Grandma Bushnell's to practice our trick-or-treating....

....she, of course, was ready with her camera (and candy!)

This morning, Kevin left for Grand Rapids to work on Jon's deck (*gasp* can you believe it?) He took Allie and Gabe with him, so Ben and I entertained ourselves. We first went trick-or-treating at Meijer. Then we headed over to see our newest cousin (that-we-have-never-seen-because-his-parents-never-bring-him-to-Michigan-so-we-can-meet-him)....Cohen (Ryan and Cristi Bushnell's little guy.)

Optimus Prime wanted to hold him.

Then mean Susan decided Cohen needed to wear the mask.

How ironical is this?
Ben and Aunt Patsy were both Transformers!

After we got home it was time for naps and then we were off trick-or-treating.....(well, pictures came first, I guess.)

A couple years ago, Kevin's sister, Julie, picked up this Optimus Prime costume for him (75% off baby!!) This was the first year he wore it. Ben was thrilled that he and his daddy were the same thing!

While we were at Kevin's Aunt Patsy's today, I mentioned that Allie was going to be SuperGirl. Patsy just happened to have the same outfit in an adult size! So Allie and I got to be SuperGirl and SuperOldGirl.
(oh yeah...see the Underarmor I have on? It's Gabe's. I'm wearing a 9 years old shirt!)

Check out Allie, when she was 2 years old......

Seriously...how stinkin' cute is she!?

So this was the first year the whole family dressed up and went trick-or-treating. Seriously....we have never gone before. We usually go trunk-or-treating or half the family goes and the other half stays home. And we were all dressed up (which was kind of weird. Oh well.)

Finally....time for trick-or-treating!
We went to my dad's neighborhood, since ours has about 7 houses that actually participate. We were done in an hour and all ready to go home. It was CHILLY!

I think the kids get disappointed every year when they realize that the big bag of candy that they worked so hard to collect, really isn't theirs to hoard all to themselves. They tend to forget that we make them combine all the candy. Well, technically we separate it into two bowls....Gabe-safe candy and Not Gabe-safe candy. I guess they really do miss out on the swapping/trading thing...oh well. I tend to eat all the good stuff when they are in bed anyways.

Kid are in bed now....I can safely dive into their candy!!!

Carving Pumpkins.

2009-10-22T07:48:00.010-04:00

A couple nights ago, we actually took the time to carve our pumpkins. Last year, we just used our pumpkin for its seeds, but never actually carved a face. (We had promised the kids over and over again that we would eventually get to it, but it got all moldy on the inside before we could do it. Good planning on my part!)

One of the kids favorite part (well, except for Gabe) is pulling out the guts of the pumpkin. They love squishing the slimy seeds and innards through their fingers. Their actual favorite part is eating the seeds...cuz Kevin makes the best pumpkin seeds ever. Italian. Spicy. Garlic. Regular. Yummy!!

Ben. Gabe. Allie.
(Allie's looks just like the Kool-Aid guy!)

As I was looking through pictures, I came across ones from previous years. It was so fun seeing how much the kids have grown (and how much hair Kevin has lost.)

Gabe 9. Kevin 32.
2009.

Gabe 8.
2008.

Gabe 7.
2007.

Gabe 6.
2006.

Gabe 4.
2004.

Allie 6.
2009.

Allie 5.
2008.

Allie 4.
2007.

Allie 3.
2006.

Kevin 27. Allie 1.
2004.

Ben 4.
2009.

Ben 3.
2008.

Ben 2.
2007.

Ben 1.
2006.

2009.

My dad and Judy have bought my kids their pumpkins the past couple years. What I have noticed is that both this year and the year before, the pumpkins were gigantic. The years that I bought them, they are so teeny tiny that you can barely carve a face on them. Either they love my kids more then I do, or they are more willing to part with their money.

2006.
I love the fact that Ben is looking inside his pumpkin.
I think he is looking for a face (since we were apparently to lazy to carve one on his)

Ben verifying that Allie's indeed has a face and his does not.

2004.
Obviously 5 years ago, I was too cheap to buy both of my kids a pumpkin....they had to share one.

Family Pictures.

2009-10-16T12:58:00.005-04:00

For the past 5 years or so, I have wanted to take a family picture with sweatshirt "hoodies" on. I don't know why this has been such a dream of mine, but it has. I guess its because that is who we are....comfortable people....in jeans and a hoody.

I always giggle when I see pictures of my kids wearing a dress (Allie) and dressy-ish shirts (Gabe and Ben)...because those are not my kids. (They are still cute....but look sort of 'stuffy.') My kids are the kids with holes in their jeans, a dirty t-shirt with a zipped up sweatshirt (covering the stains on their shirts) on....because its comfortable (and easy to wash!!)

Finally, this was the year we did it! We got my 'dream' picture. Everyone has different colored sweatshirts on, but I don't care.

Kevin's sister, Julie, took these pictures!! Thanks Julie! They turned out awesome!!

Yup.
That about sums us up.

Gabe.
9 years old.

Allie.
6.5 years old.

Bender.
4.5 years old.

Leaves. 2009 edition.

2009-10-13T18:13:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again.....

....time for the annual get-a-picture-of-the-kids-in-the-leaves.

It's amazing how much easier it gets every year. I mentioned to the kids that I wanted to do this today and they were super excited. WEIRD! (Ben's actual response was, "YES! I love this!!")

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2009

2008

2007

2006

(I was trying to figure out why I didn't have a picture of the the 3 kids sitting up in the leaves in 2005...then I realized that Ben was only 5 months old and couldn't sit up yet. Guess that makes sense.)

Fisher Alan Mayes.

2009-10-09T17:34:00.002-04:00

Congrats to Greg, Aaron and Annie.....

Fisher Alan Mayes has joined their family!!!
October 6th 2009.

8 pounds 1 ounce.
20 inches long.

Annie is thrilled to be a big sister!!!
Now she's got some she can boss around....for real!!!

The biggest and the littlest cousins!!

Allie and Fisher.

Ben can't get enough of "Aiden....I mean Fisher!"

You can see more pictures here.

10.6.09.

2009-10-06T23:56:00.003-04:00

3 years ago today, was perhaps one of the worst days of my life. It was the day my mom lost her fight with cancer (good for her....not so good for us.) I remember being absolutely overcome with grief, I didn't even know how to function.

With 3 years under my belt, of not having my mom to call every 36 minutes just to say hi, not being able to ask her if any of her kids did the naughty things mine do, and not having a Wednesday morning shopping buddy, I think I am functioning a million times better then I ever thought possible.

Every year that goes by seems like a million years since I have seen my mom and yet, it also seems like it has only been days since she was fighting that stupid cancer. There is always the same sadness and void in my life, but my mom-less wound is healing...slowly.

Well, this year....on the exact day that my mom died, one of the coolest thing happened....

....his name is Fisher Alan Mayes.
And he is my sweet little nephew!!

As I was watching this little guy being born (literally....more to come on that later), all I could think of was the song, "Blessed be Your name".....and the line that says, "You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Blessed be Your name."

While I was in the delvery room, tears were flowing because of the sadness of losing my mom 3 years ago to the day, but also because of the joy that was entering the world!! What an incredible gift!!

Gabe's haircut.

2009-09-25T22:51:00.001-04:00

Gabe finally decided it was time to cut the mop.....

.....he looks totally different.....

I'm a little sad because I actually really liked his long hair.

Allie keeps telling him how much smaller his head looks.
(Note: she did NOT say his head looked SMALL. Just small-ER)

Hunter. Q. Mayes.

2009-09-15T18:47:00.004-04:00

So....much like the story about us getting a dog was a rather long story....as is the story about us getting a cat.

But we have one. (For now.)

His (or perhaps, her) name is Hunter.

S/he is roughly 4 months old.

S/he is from Kevin's parents outdoor cat, Midnight.

S/he has been pretty much raised by my kids (and nieces and nephews)....whenever we are up at Kevin's parents house, they play with all the kittens for HOURS and HOURS....so, she is SUPER friendly!!!

And cute......

Due to Gabe's allergies to cats, Hunter is technically on a trial basis with our family. Gabe seems to be doing just fine with him (it has only been a couple days, however)

So, if it gets bad, this cute little kitten may be looking for a home!!!

Sport and Hunter are working on their differences.
No blood has been shed.
Yet.

First Day of School. 2009-2010.

2009-09-08T15:30:00.002-04:00

First Day of School.
2009-2010.

Allie 1st Grade. Gabe 3rd Grade.

.......HA! Check out Bender in this picture!

Whoa. They have changed ALOT since last year.

Camp Living Waters.

2009-09-08T12:57:00.011-04:00

This was our 6th year of going to Camp Living Waters for Labor Day weekend. That being said, I'm not sure if I have anything left to say, after blogging about it for the last 3 years. (2008. 2007. 2006.)

We'll see what I can do.

We had a medium size group this year.
I felt like there were a ga-gillion kids, however.
Lets see...I think we had 18 kids ranging from 13 to 1.

This year, the Friday projects we worked on were picking up a hugely awesome playset (and attempting to put it together), staining the porch to the lodge and the observation deck, building a GaGa Pit, and cutting down trees. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it was. We actually didn't even finish one of them. That was kind of frustrating.

Painting the deck was a little tricky....since the one side was next to the water.
We did get creative though....Julie used her gymnastic skills that we didn't even know about. Charlie used his balancing skills to stand up in a boat the whole time!

This playset was quite the find! Julie found it on craigslist and got an AWESOME deal on it!
The guys drove down to Grand Rapids to pick it up. On the way home, they made a small detour to Muskegon. (Whoops...did Sherry give them directions?!)

So while we were working, the kids pretty much had free reign of the campground. We would check it on them every hour or so. Or they would come find us to report who was being mean to who...and who was being left out. (All the mom's replied the same way to the kids complaining about feeling left out......"Go find someone else to play with then. There are 15 other kids to play with...I think you can find someone.")

After getting yelled at many times for wandering too far away, the kids got creative and built this teepee.

After all the work was done....the fun began.

The new director, Chad and his wife, Michella, took us on a hay ride. It might have been classified as the scariest hay ride ever in my life. (It was a wagon with hay/straw that was hooked up to the back of a pick up truck....and we went REALLY fast....up and down hills!!!) But the kids had a blast!!!

Nothing like a couple dozen kids rolling around in the back of a wagon.
Luckily no one fell off!

Nate. Jacob. Caleb. Alex. Gabe.

(5 boys + pretty much the same age = LOTS of trouble!!!)

Allie (6). Annie (6.5). Abigail (4.5).

Elijah (6). Bender (4). Trever (5).

Silly Cousins.

This year we had access to the fun water stuff.....the Iceberg, the big yellow slide and the water trampoline plus all the kayaks, canoes, water bugs and peddle boats. Since the weather was beautiful, we played in the water ALOT!

This iceberg was pretty sweet.
It was a little intimidating to the kids however. Eventually all the kids did go up and down it at least once. They were more interested in watching the adults climb up and dive down.

The water trampoline was a huge hit!!

This is how all the kids got out to the water trampoline and the ice berg.....

they were chauffeured by some nice adult.
At one point, I was peddling 7 kids by myself. Pretty sure that isn't safe.

Kevin...diving.

When the kids weren't in the water, they were patiently waiting their turns on the little kids quads. It was so fun having 3 quads that the kids could ride themselves. They would go around the soccer field a bunch of times and then have to switch off with another kid who was waiting.

Once in a while, Kevin would take 3 kids out and go on the trails around the camp.

Kevin and Ben leading Alex, Caleb and Gabe.

Nate. Justin. Jacob.
On the trail out to the teepees.

We had such a blast this year....just like we do every year. We feel so blessed to be able to go up and work for a day and then just be able to play the rest of the time! I looove being able to hang out with Kevin's family....chatting....eating....playing games! Can't wait for next year!!!

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Oh....how can I forget this? So just before we leave Sunday night (as in 9:30pm) we had our first major-ish accident of the weekend. Gabe was running and crashed into a metal sign. (Did I mention that he had his shirt over his head? Yeah. He did.) He got a pretty good looking goose egg on his melon. (Although he calls it his goose bump.)

When we asked his cousin Alex what happened he said, "We were running with our shirts over our head. When we got to the sign, I pulled my shirt down and ducked. Gabe didn't." That pretty much sums it up, I guess.

Ben and Allie.

2009-08-28T22:49:00.003-04:00

The screen saver on my computer are all the pictures that I take (....which are ALOT!) I just sat down and came across a picture that I don't ever think I have seen. It was from December 2006.

This picture just makes me laugh.....

I find many things funny with this picture......

One of them being that Ben is holding Allie. He is 17 months old and Allie is 3.5 years old.
The second one being that Allie's eyes are about to pop out of her head.
The third being that Ben is licking her. With his eyes closed.
The fourth being that the baby doll that is kind of covered up with the blanket is actually Ben's. (Allie gave it to him when he was born because he liked holding things in his hand...so he would hold the baby doll's hand)

The B-I-B-L-E!

2009-08-21T22:36:00.004-04:00

Ben has been walking around the past couple days singing the B-I-B-L-E song. You know, the one that goes like this....

The B-I-B-L-E
Yes, that's the book for me!
I stand alone on the Word of God
The B-I-B-L-E!

Instead, he sings it like this....

The E-I-B-I-E (or whatever letters come out of his mouth at the time)
Yes, that's the book for me!
I stand all over it!
The B-I-E-L-E!

He's rendition of it, is so funny to me! Every time he sings it, I laugh. So now he knows that its wrong and tries so hard to correct himself, but he can't. Which makes me laugh even harder!

The Walk.

2009-08-20T22:57:00.003-04:00

We spent the last day and a half at Jon and Bethie's. Kevin and Jon have been working on this wonderful deck project all summer. It's not their fault that it is taking so long (so I'm told), it's the landscape guys problem.

Anyways....after sitting around and watching tv for about 10 hours, I decided it would probably be a good idea to take the kids and Sport out to stretch their legs. Of course, leaving the house with only 5 kids and 1 dog, wasn't enough. We had to include Jon and Bethie's wiener dogs, Stretchie and Zoe. The more, the merrier, I guess.

We must have been quite the sight to see.....

An 8 year old, walking a super-hyper-teeny-tiny-weiner-dog.

A 6 year old, walking a slow-chubbyish-little-weiner-dog.

A 4 year old, holding the hand of a 2 year old, so she wouldn't wander into the street.

A long-legged 31 year old, walking a long-legged greyhound who had to pee on every shrub he saw, because he has never been walked on a sidewalk before.

And leading this parade, was a 3.5 year old on a little bike, wearing a helmet, honking her horn so the dogs knew which way to go!

Kind of wish you had a picture to go with this description, don't you?

Well good thing I had my camera in my pocket....cuz I got a couple....

It wasn't too bad until it came time to crossing the street. Luckily, no one got killed. There was a lot of screaming because Reagan didn't want to hold anyone's hand. And then when we came to the sprinklers, Reagan freaked out and started screaming! So then I got to carry her all the way back to their house....while dragging Sport and yelling at him to quit peeing on everything he just peed on 3 minutes before.

Phew!

So, I've decided to be okay with Ben being "that kid" when it comes to taking pictures. I really wanted to get a cute picture of him patiently walking super duper slowly with Reagan, but once again...he didn't cooperate.

...oh well.

Kids on Dock.

2009-08-17T00:33:00.003-04:00

All I wanted was a picture of the kids on the dock and the cool sunset behind them.

Instead, this is what I got.......

I LOVE IT!

.....it couldn't get any better!!!

Cottage for the day.

2009-08-16T23:54:00.009-04:00

We hung out with Kevin's uncles and aunts and a bunch of other random(ish) people today at Trent and Patsy's cottage. Its only about 30 minutes away, so it makes for a perfect all day event. (I say that like its something we do often...this is technically the 2nd time in 6 years that we have actually been out there...but, in theory, its a great all day event!)

We had a great summer day....HOT and HUMID! The water at Lake Morrison is pretty disgusting, but it does the job when you want to be cooled off! It was actually hot enough that I got in......and by "in" I mean I floated on a raft and only once accidentally touched the bottom (when I tipped off when someone moved the raft too quickly....Gabe.)

Patsy. Pam. Jody. Me. (All the old married women).
And Tyler (on the dock).

Pam. Randee. Jody.

Grandma B. Pam. Tyler.
(What is it with Tyler hanging out with the women?)

Jody. Brian. Randee.

Chillin' out in the boat.....

Kevin. Allie. Ben. Gabe. Brian.
Tyler. Kelsey. Randee.

Daddy and Ben watching Gabe and Allie tube and knee board!!

Randee. Allie.

Gabe. Allie.

The kids were so excited about going tubing. They went last year at Higgins Lake and loved it!! So this was definitely the highlight for them!!

We pretty much knew when the boys were done with tubing.....
It was all in their face.....

....loving it!!!

.....not so much any more.
....ready to be done!

...loving it!!!

....ready to be done!!!

Of course, Allie was a different story......

......loving it!!!

......STILL loving it!
.....NOT wanting to be done!!

The kids also tried something new.....knee boarding!

Even though it doesn't look like it, Gabe loved it!
He was just very focused!
(and chilly!)

This was Allie's 2nd attempt at knee boarding. The first time, we forgot to tell her that if she fell off the board, she had to let go of the rope. Whoops!!

After the board popped out from underneath her, she held tight to the rope and was dragged for about 8 seconds (which doesn't seem like a long time, but it is...especially when you are watching your daughter swallowing a gallon of water a second!)

Oh course, Allie got right back on and tried again!! The second time was the charm......

She was all smiles in the water!!!

Kevin tried wake-boarding for the first time!! After a couple tries, he got the hang of it!!

Kevin was reminiscing with his Uncle Brian about this knee board.....

.....it was the same one that Kevin learned how to knee board on when he was the same age as Gabe.
Awe. How cute!

Once again, birds almost ruined my fun. There were these 3 creepy swans (a mom and dad with their creepy baby) that really liked our area of the lake. I think it might have something to do with the fact that Patsy feeds them as often as possible so they keep coming back to either kill her or get more food from her.

Creepy Swan 1. Creepy Swan 2. Creepy Swan 3.
Gabe.

Awe. How cute.
He didn't even push her in or anything.

Sunsets.

2009-08-16T23:49:00.002-04:00

I don't normally care for sunsets (not that I don't like them...I do appreciate them, I just don't think a big deal needs to be made every time the sun sets...since it does happen every night, like clockwork.)

I will say, I thought the sunset was pretty sweet tonight........(at the cottage we were at today)

Scavenger Hunt.

2009-08-15T01:24:00.008-04:00

We just got back from a scavenger hunt (yes, it is 1:24 in the morning!) with Youth for Christ!! One of the Campus Life clubs was doing a fundraiser, so we joined in on the fun!

Our team for the scavenger hunt consisted of Kate, Ethan (a friend of ours), Kevin and I!.....Team Awesome to be exact (yeah, I know, we took the name from the dodgeball team a few months ago!)

Not only were the people on our team awesome....we even had awesome shirts......

The reason we have random names on the back of our shirts is because we didn't really have a full set of letters, so we used what we could. (The only name that actually makes sense, is mine.)

We had a list of about 100ish things we had to either get or have our picture taken with or videotape of us doing something. We had about 5 hours to get this list done. Most of them could be done in the Lansing area...others, not so much. They involved traveling to the west side of the state, the east side of the state or even going into Indiana. (Needless to say, we chose to stay in the Lansing area.)

Here are some of the things we did do.....

......got our picture taken with Dr. West.

.....got our team picture at a McDonald's playland.

...got our teams picture in a tree.

(This wasn't part of the scavenger hunt, but it was really funny.....
this is Kate trying to get into the wrong vehicle.)

.....our team laying in a hammock
(note: it is laying on the ground.....not hanging on a tree)

Oh yeah, for 500 points a member of our team had to get a body piercing.
Kevin was willing to sacrifice for the team.

....our team picture....under a rainbow.

Although it does look like Ethan might be trying to poop on me, this is really a team picture "underwater" (thats a hose hanging up and spraying down on us)

.....our team picture with laser tag stuff on.
(Notice Kevin tenderly embracing me, just to shoot my face off with the gun.)

.....our team dressed in clothing of the opposite sex.

The piercing places really got a lot of business tonight. I'm pretty sure every team had some one get a piercing. Isn't that cute, Kevin and his cousin got their ears pierced on the same night. How cute!!

Some of the other things we had to get were a Marshall Field's shopping bag, a book that ends with _27, a Squirmle, a 1999 penny, a 1989 nickel, a 1979 dime and a 1969 quarter (which is apparently very rare....NO ONE could find one!)

We did a bunch of the videos, which included, the whole team doing the Cupid Shuffle on Floating Heart, the whole team playing in the water park at Hawk Island, the whole team doing "The Jerk" dance with a Laingsburg staff member. And of course, Kevin, once again volunteered, to have his head bald....not just his normal look, but the "take-the-guard-off-the-razor-and-look-really-really-bald!!"

So after they added all the scores up and told us we got 7th place, we recalculated and saw that they had missed some points, which bumped us up to 2nd!! We had an awesome time and would do it again in a heartbeat!!

Go TEAM AWESOME!!!

Triathlon. Number 3.

2009-08-09T19:56:00.013-04:00

Kevin raced in his 3rd Triathlon on Sunday!

The weather was kind of iffy at the beginning. The huge storm the night before passed by quickly enough so there was no delay in the race. Thanks to that wonderful storm, the temperature soared to a whopping 91 degrees. Which did not work out so well for most of the Michiganders who trained in the wonderful 80 degree weather we have been having all summer. Nothing like 100 degree heat index to get everyone dehydrated and on the verge of heat exhaustion.

I was so excited to use my new camera for this event! I felt like the paparazzi with my snip-snip-snip of the camera! Here are some of the pictures......

YIPPEE!!! Kevin actually got a pair of triathlon shorts!!! No more of the teeny-tiny-underwear garbage that he wore two years ago!

Kevin running his bike out of the transition area to start his 20k (12.5 miles) bike ride!

Almost done with the ride......

....running his bike back to the transition area to get ready for his run!!!

The last leg of the race....a 5k (3.1 miles) run!!

I waited around to watch Matt and Frank finish the bike ride, therefore, I missed Kevin finishing the race. I was kind of bummed because I wanted to get some pictures of him at the finish line. Lo and behold, when I took the pictures off the camera that Allie was using, I found these.......

.....Allie got these two awesome shots of Kevin finishing the triathlon!!!
Yeah Allie!!!

Kevin did such an awesome job! I was so proud of him and all the hard work he put into this! Never in a million years would you ever find me doing something like this! My favorite place to be is on the sidelines cheering him on!!

Although he didn't beat his time from last year (which I will blame on the awful weather) he placed better then the previous year. Last year he was 87th out of 192. This year he was 81st out of 193!!! (His time last year was 1 hour 25 minutes. This year it was 1 hour 28 minutes.)

I was like a crazy woman out there taking pictures. (I took a total of 260ish pictures!!) There were 5 people that we knew participating in this race......Kevin's brother, Matt and his wife, Elicia. Our friends, Justin and Frank. I was running from one place to another trying to get pictures of everyone swimming, biking and riding!

Pre-Race.
Justin. Elicia. Matt. Kevin.

Post-Race.

Gabe. Kevin. Justin. Elicia.

Elicia.
At the very end of the race!!!

Frank.
Finishing up his ride!

Matt.
Done with the bike...onto the running!

Justin.
Just beginning his strongest event....running!

The coolest part of the triathlon was when our neighbor, Frank, was finishing up the swim part of the race. He probably isn't the strongest swimmer out there (he is, by far, the best cyclist we know!!) and as got out of the water with only a couple people behind him, he ran past his son and said, "Billy, don't EVER quit!!!" and kept right on running up to the transition area to get ready for his bike ride. Frank didn't come in first...or second....but he kept on going. Giving it all he had! It was so cool to watch (and the race to the finish was the best part......)

Kevin is already planning on doing this again next year (and starting training earlier), so if any of you want to join him, I'm sure he would love it!!

Ben and Abrianna.

Dog pile on Nate!!!
Joey. Ben. Gabe. Allie. Ryan.

A girl and her Sport.

2009-08-07T18:49:00.000-04:00

Allie. 6.5
Sport. 2

Air Sport.

2009-08-07T18:42:00.002-04:00

Sport accidentally discovered his new favorite toy when he raided the recycle bin one day. We looked in the backyard and saw him throwing an empty milk jug around. He would throw it in the air and try to catch it or kick it with his feet. It kept him entertained for minutes!! (Which for him, is a very long time!!)

Check out his paws...all 4 of them are off the ground!!

Coffee anyone?!

2009-07-30T21:37:00.004-04:00

What's cuter than kids having a lemonade stand at a garage sale?

Having a coffee stand at a garage sale!

Bender.

2009-07-28T23:28:00.003-04:00

Today was one of those special days for the kids....a random, have-some-pop-with-your-lunch-day.

I poured two cups of pop, one for Allie and one for Ben (Gabe wasn't home yet.)

I thought I did a pretty good job at making sure they were even.

But, of course, Bender had to double check.

He didn't realize I was watching (and listening) to him.

I heard him talking to himself, "Hm. Wonder which one has the most."

Then I saw him take a swig out of the green cup.

Then he said, "There! Now it's even!"

And walked out the door with the yellow cup.

Pool Day.

2009-07-23T19:37:00.003-04:00

Today we headed over to Grandma Bushnell's house! We were so excited the rain stopped and the sun came out. All of the Mayes cousins were there!!! The kids spent HOURS swimming in the pool! They were even kind enough to cooperate for a fun picture or too.....

Ready....Set......

....JUMP!!!!

Ben. Trever. Allie. Annie. Justin. Alex. Gabe.
Whoops, we forgot Ashley!!

So, we tried again.

Ready....SET.....

....JUMP!!!!

However, one child in particular was being difficult....
You will never guess who that was......

Ben. Ashley. Tever. Allie. Annie. Justin. Alex. Pain in the Butt.

Allie's famous-ish.

2009-07-07T16:55:00.003-04:00

Will just sent me a picture of Allie on the Biggby poster.....

He said I sold my daughter to Biggby. I don't remember getting paid for it, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.

Ben the Bear. Round 2.

2009-07-06T09:36:00.002-04:00

The cutest part of Scott and Amanda's Wedding (in my opinion).....

Breakdancing Bender.

2009-06-28T13:43:00.001-04:00

Kevin's cousin got married last night.

Bender was the ring-bear.

Here he is bustin' a move...with no shirt on...just a vest.

What can I say...it was a Carson City wedding.

Sport. E. Mayes.

2009-06-27T21:20:00.002-04:00

This is one of the funniest things that Sport does......

....sticks his tongue out....and just leaves it that way.

Other then that, he doesn't do much......

...except lay around ALOT.....

....and follow me every where I go.

Crazy Dog Lady.

2009-06-06T19:26:00.004-04:00

So I'm kind of afraid that I am becoming that crazy dog person.....you know the one who can only talk about their dog and nothing else? Well apparently all I do is take pictures of him now too (at least my kids are in them also.)

Oh well.....

Gabe asked if he could read a book while Sport laid his head on his lap. I told him that since Sport is kind of like a cat (he only does what he wants, when he wants) that I wasn't sure if he would really do it. Well after reading for a while, Gabe fell asleep....

...but instead of his head on his lap, Sport put his feet on his stomach and his elbows on Gabe's elbows. (Close enough)

One of the bonuses of having this dog is that whenever Ben wakes up from his nap, he is always in a pleasant mood because Sport is always there to greet him. (1/2 the time Ben wakes up he is AWFUL!!! The other 1/2 of the time, he is tolerable.)

Ben, post nap.
Happy as a clam to have the dogs face on his lap.
(Shh, don't tell Gabe)

My favorite part of this picture is Gabe in the background....sound asleep on the ground...all in hopes that the dog will cuddle with him, but instead Ben intercepted the cuddling!

Kindergarten Celebration.

2009-06-06T09:37:00.003-04:00

Thursday was Allie's Kindergarten Celebration. (It seems like it was just yesterday that we were at Gabe's.) All the kids had written stories and read them to the parents.

Allie's story was about the MSU Championship game she went to, with Kevin, Gabe and Mike.

Papa Kurt came along too!!
Even though it looks like he was sleeping, he managed to stay awake for most of it.

After the kids read to the parents, we went into the gym where Allie's teacher and principal presented the kids with their 'award.' While they pass out the award, they also announced what each child wanted to be when they grow up.

Much to my relief, Allie did not say pet shop owner (like her brother), but rather a teacher!! (I would have to give credit to Kevin, my mother-n-law, Aaron and Elicia for being her inspiration, but a large part of her wanting to be that, would have to because of her awesome teacher, Ms. Robbins!)

Allie and Ms. Robbins!!

Allie had a great first year of school! She loved learning and was excited to go to school every single day! I'm sure her teacher laughed quietly to her self on days when Allie came looking like she just rolled out of bed or with completely mis-matched clothes (see picture above!) Oh well, that's Allie!

Well now, I'm officially old. I have a 1st grader and a 3rd grader! Aye de mi!

Ben's new best friend.

2009-06-04T10:23:00.003-04:00

I'm afraid Allie might have been replaced.....

...or at least until she gets home from school.

Sport.

2009-06-02T20:18:00.002-04:00

So to make a really long story short....WE GOT A DOG!!

Technically we "adopted" a retired greyhound. Surprisingly, he is not grey. He is in fact a red fawn greyhound.

He's really cute......

.....and he runs really really really fast.
(apparently not fast enough though....thats why he is retired)

I didn't want to crop this picture because I wanted to show his 'speed'

Oh yeah....and we named him SPORT!

Opening Day of Pool Season.

2009-05-29T09:37:00.007-04:00

Last weekend we went over to Grandma Bushnell's to do a little cleaning. One of the major jobs was to open the pool. (The kids have been asking for about a month if we can go swimming yet.)

Gabe always likes to be the first one in, so he can have bragging rights for the rest of the summer. Well this year, the pool was quite a bit dirtier then it usually is. The previous years, after lunch time, the pool is pretty clean (at least clean enough to see through) so the kids go for a quick dip.

This year, Gabe definitely gets bragging rights. He jumped in the most disgusting, smelly, dirty water EVER........

Here's a better view of the water......

Yeah. Gross.

Don't worry, after a few hours it starting turning to a normal color. We're hoping the next time we come over it will be less 'tea' colored and more clear-ish.

So the worst part about cleaning was this creepy thing.....

....this baby bird was on the window sill, right by the pool. Not a big deal normally, except the mama bird wanted to feed him, so she kept swooping down to either attack me or try to feed her baby. It was awful.

I was video taping it and Gabe was in the background pretending to be the bird singing. It was pretty stinkin' funny I have to say.

Oh yeah....some ducks decided it would be fun to make this dirty 'pond' their home....

.....Ben made them feel right at home.
He fed them bread. So now they are guaranteed to come back every time we are there.
Great. Thanks Ben.

Ben can jump.

2009-05-22T20:10:00.006-04:00

Yup. Pretty sure Ben is definitely going to be the first of our kids to break a bone.

It's pretty amazing to me that less then a year ago Ben was just learning to ride without training wheels. He just turned 4 last week and I think he rides and jumps better then most 10 year olds. Not only does he ride over his plastic jump, he has discovered that he can either jump over a 2 by 4 or he can ride on it like a balance beam (I'm sure they have a more technical term for it, but I don't know it. Yet.)

He definitely has been working on his starting ankle.

Ben's look-a-likes.

2009-05-19T15:05:00.004-04:00

I was looking through some of Kevin's moms pictures and came across some of Kevin and his brother Greg. I couldn't believe how much Ben looked like Greg.

And then I found some of Kevin and couldn't believe how much he looked like Ben.

Hm. I can't seem to find any of my pictures of Ben that look like Kevin, so I guess you are just going to have to take my word for it.

Ben's 4!!

2009-05-19T14:39:00.004-04:00

Ben turned 4 on Sunday!!

Happy Birthday Bender!!

Ben's Birthday!

2009-05-19T13:46:00.001-04:00

We spent part of the weekend at Kevin's parents. Since Sunday was Ben's birthday, we had to be prepared to decorate appropriately.....so we brought along all the balloons, streamers and the banner. The first thing Ben said when he woke up was, "Hm...lets go check to see if the balloons are here!!" Guess this whole decorating thing is no longer a surprise for the kids. (Maybe next year we will surprise them by not decorating....)

Ben is 4!!!!

Ben was excited to open more of his Star Wars Galactic Heroes. I think he ended up getting about 20 different figurines for his birthday!

After church, the rest of the Mayes family came up to celebrate Allie, Trever, Ashley and Ben's birthdays. Aunt Julie made the most illegal cake in the world...one that could probably kill Gabe in about 14 seconds......

...a peanut butter frosting cake.
But, boy, was it good!!!

Allie got a new swimsuit!

Trever got his first webkinz!!!

So did Ashley!!

Bender wasn't sure what he was most excited about....the chainsaw from Aunt Julie and Co. or the gun he has wanted his whole life from Uncle Greggie, Aunt Aaron and Annie.

When he fell asleep on the way home, he had a tight grip on both of them. So I'm pretty sure he loves them both equally!!!

Allie. Ashley. Annie.

Mother's Day.

2009-05-13T14:29:00.006-04:00

This is probably the first Mother's Day that I can say that I didn't sleep in (well, besides the one 6 years ago, when Allie was born...I was still in the hospital and the nurse came in really early in the morning to tell us that Allie was in the NICU....what a great way to start Mother's Day that year!!) Good thing Allie's birthday doesn't always fall on Mother's Day, I would hate to have to change her birthday so I could continue the tradition of sleeping in.

Anyways....after we celebrated Allie's birthday and went to church, we headed over to Kevin's Grandma's. I was pleasantly surprised to receive my Mother's Day (and birthday and Arbor Day and Easter and Flag Day and Memorial Day and Thanksgiving and Christmas and Labor Day and St. Patrick's Day) gift from Kevin and the kids.......

....a NEW CAMERA!!!!
(Mind you, I was thrilled with the fact that the kids had made me homemade cards and each one of them had given me a candy bar and a rose!!)
So this camera was a bit of a shock. All I could do was smile.....ALOT!!

Here are some of the first pictures taken with it.....

Grandma B and Mom Mayes

The matriarch and her girls

The matriarch and her girls again (oops...and one little boy...Aiden!)
Elicia and Aiden, Julie and Ashley, Mom, Me and Allie, Aaron and Annie

Mother's Day is not my favorite holiday. I technically wouldn't mind deleting it, but I don't think that is possible (too many people to try and convince.) I try to remember the blessings of all the mom's I have in my life, that are so important to me, but its still hard because I don't have the best mom in the whole world with me anymore. So I guess I will just deal with it. I just don't like it. At all. Ever.

Allie's 72nd month Birthday.

2009-05-13T14:16:00.004-04:00

Allie turned 6 on Sunday!

.....which meant I had to share Mother's Day with her. Which was fine-ish.... (the real issue was that I wasn't able to sleep in...instead I got up at 7:22am like a good mom should on her daughter's birthday....which just about killed me)

Anyways....Allie has been counting down the days until her birthday since she turned 5. Seriously. You could have asked her any day how many days left until her birthday and she could have given you the exact right number. Crazy!!!

Within 67 seconds of being awake, she was opening her presents. She probably doesn't care that we got her soccer stuff....the most important thing was she got another Webkinz. A creepy bird to be exact. I'm not sure how I allowed that thing to come into my house, but I did. (I'm sure I will regret it when it comes alive and pecks my head into a nub.)

After presents, we headed to church and then over to Grandma Bushnell's to celebrate Mother's Day and Allie, Trever, Ashley and Bender's Birthday's!

Allie (6) Trever (5) Ashley (5)
All 3 of them have the same birthday!!!

Ben turns 4 next Sunday!!

Soccer. In the rain.

2009-05-11T22:57:00.004-04:00

So I'm discovering a few reasons why I think I like basketball more than soccer. Last Saturday was one of those reasons.....it was raining....ALOT.

But apparently rain doesn't stop 5 and 6 year olds from playing soccer. Or moms, dads and kids from sitting in the rain watching their kids play. It was really quite miserable (for us on the sidelines) but not so much for those in the middle of the action. Kevin kept asking the kids if they wanted to keep playing and they all said they did. By the end, we all looked like drowned rats (even those of us with umbrellas....for some reason those lovely spiderman/hulk/superman umbrellas don't really keep you dry.)

Allie is still my favorite player on the team....therefore, I still think that she is the best one!! She still amazes me at how fast she is and how not scared of the ball she is (she definitely does not get that from me.) It is so much fun to watch her play!!!

Ben pretty much sums up how we were feeling by the end of the game.....

I realized once we got in the van that the poor kid only had a little basketball jersey on and this rain coat...so pretty much he was a frozen ice cube by the time it was over. Whoops....

Run Matthew!!

2009-05-11T22:47:00.002-04:00

Matthew ran in a cross country race meet here in the Lansing-ish area. (Why they drove 1 hour 45 minutes to run for 10 minutes, I don't know.)

Anyways, we were excited to be able to watch him run and cheer him on!!

If you are interested in seeing more pics...they are right here.

Party at the Mayes's.

2009-05-10T19:59:00.008-04:00

Last Sunday we celebrated Dave, Andrew, Emily, Allie and Bender's birthdays. It wasn't planned until Thursday evening, but some how, everyone was able to make it on Sunday!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day!! Warm...sunny....perfect!! We all had a great time sitting around chatting while the kids ran a muck. We were so excited that Wilaca and Bill and Sherry were able to make it too!!

Allie was so confused as to who this creepy guy was that kept picking her up and saying, "Wh-uts my name?" (We kept telling her it was her Uncle Dave...but she apparently didn't believe us.)

Bender loved his new storm trooper helmet from Uncle Dan and Aunt Kris. This was probably the only helmet that was actually too big for Ben (and Kevin's) head!

Uncle Jon and Aunt Bethie got him a storm trooper gun to go with this helmet. That night when he was praying with Kevin, he said, "I have a prayer request...its thank you for Uncle Jon getting me that storm trooper gun." So I'm not sure if that is his way of saying he likes the gun the best or what.

This was one of my highlights of the get together......

It may look like Reggie is just sitting in the grass calmly looking at the bugs. BUT, she's not.....

....she is screaming her lungs off (as Gabe used to say)

Sherry and Bill TOTALLY made Ben's year by bringing a pinata to the party!!! He has been BEGGING me to get one for his birthday for almost an entire year! When Sherry and Bill showed up with this, they firmly placed themselves in his little heart forever.

Another highlight for Ben was this odd looking dog, Lola. He loved holding her on his lap. So much so that he was firmly holding on to her collar the entire time, just in case she tried to get away. (He was also so excited that she brought some of her dog treats to share with him...."I like these, they're cheesey!!)

Vet-a-Visit.

2009-04-18T20:54:00.006-04:00

This was the first year in many years that we did not go to Small Animal Day at MSU. Allie's soccer game kind of threw us off...it was right smack dab in the middle of SAD. So instead we went to Vet-A-Visit at MSU.

My dad, Judy, Nate, Maddie, Emily (Dave and Cathie are in Key West), my kids and I all headed out to MSU (after a great brunch at my dad and Judy's.) It was nice not to have to keep hopping on the bus to go from one place to the other, like you have to with Small Animal Day (however, that IS my kids favorite part.)

There were some different things to see and do here. Milking a cow is one of the highlights....

All of the kids jumped right in to do it (except Nate.) While Ben was just about to milk the cow, she started to pee. ALOT. Ben had to jump out of the way so he wouldn't get splashed. That, of course, was the highlight of the trip for him. He would randomly say, "Remember when the cow pooped?" Then I would have to correct him and remind him it was just pee. And then two seconds later he would say, "Remember when the cow pooped on me?" Then I would remind him that #1, it was pee and #2, it wasn't ON him, it was NEAR him.

One of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in my life was this.......

YUP! My dad and Maddie have their arms inside of a cow!!! A real live cow!!! I almost couldn't take the picture because I wanted to throw up so badly! All the kids did it (except Gabe and Nate.) My dad just loved telling me over and over again how it felt and all the treasures he felt inside (the ribs, etc.) GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you would probably guess, Emily was in heaven with all these animals!! Everything they would let you hold or pet, Emily held or pet. Every time we would pass a dog (a DOG, for crying out loud!! Hello!! She has two living in her own home!!!) she would have to stop and pet it!

Even though Gabe and Nate complained through pretty much the entire thing, I know they at least thought parts of it were cool. They definitely liked the snakes!!! (and the dog at the agility thing that kept sniffing the horses poop and then pooped right next to it in the middle of its performance and then got caught in the tunnel thing!)

If nothing else, the kids had fun hanging out with each other! They all get along so great!! (Even when Gabe is being a touch annoying, Nate does a great job dealing with him! Thanks Nate!!) After this we headed to the park to play and then over to the MSU Union to do a little bowling!!

Madeline (10.5) Allie (5.5) Emily (7.5)

Gabe (8.5) Nate (12) Ben (3.5)

Soccer. Game 1.

2009-04-18T20:39:00.005-04:00

Allie had her first soccer game today. It was an absolutely beautiful day to sit and watch a game!

I wasn't sure how Allie was going to do. She has never officially played soccer before (besides in the backyard with her dad and brothers.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that my daughter is quite the little scrapper.

Every chance she got, she was kicking the ball. She "almost" scored about 11 goals (no exaggeration). The problem was, when she would get close enough to the net, she would back off and not give the ball its final boot to actually get it in the net, so the goalie would just catch it and throw it back in...then Allie would get it and lightly kick it again....and then the goalie would catch it....(you get it.)

FINALLY after her 100th try (or so it seemed)....Allie scored! The first goal for either team!!!

It was so much fun to watch her play!! I guess it really pays off to be sandwiched in between an older brother and a younger brother because Allie was by far the toughest kid on the team. It was so funny to hear the other parents on our team and the other team talk about her. "That girl is going to be the next Mia Hamm." "What is that little girls name? She is so good!!!" "See that girl with the short bobbed hair? Look at her!!" I have to say, I was quite proud!!!!

High Heels.

2009-04-17T22:49:00.003-04:00

Ben: "Mom, will you put my high heels on me?"

I look at him for a second. "What?"

Ben: "Um. I mean my basketball high heels." (As if saying the word "basketball" would make the words "high heels" oh so much more masculine.)

Me: "Um, they are called high tops (well, they used to be, at least) and your dad is definitely not going to like you calling them high heels."

Ben: "Oh."

Does he not remember this conversation? Apparently not.

Playing at the Park.

2009-04-15T23:16:00.000-04:00

1st Soccer Practice.

2009-04-15T23:09:00.002-04:00

Allie had her first soccer practice this week. She's never played before. So it should be interesting!

I'm pretty sure she is the cutest kid on her team.

And I'm pretty sure she has the cutest coach!!! (I heard he's pretty hot!!! and bald!!)

Oh how they grow!

2009-04-15T23:01:00.003-04:00

I was looking back at the pictures of my kids from the previous Easters. It's amazing how much the change.....

2007
Gabe (5.5) Allie (3.5) Ben (1.5)

2008
Gabe (7.5) Allie (4.5) Ben (2.5)

2009
Gabe (8.5) Allie (5.5) Ben (3.5)

Allie and her cousin, Ashley.....
(they are exactly one year apart....born on the exact same day!!!)

2007
Ashley (2.5) Allie (3.5)

2008
Allie (4.5) Ashley (3.5)

2009

Allie (5.5) Ashley (4.5)

Easter.

2009-04-15T21:52:00.010-04:00

We spent the weekend at Kevin's parents. Easter weekend means lots of egg hunts for our kids. 3 to be exact.

The first one was at Kevin's parent's church. Even though the church is fairly small, I am always amazed at the amount of kids involved, how well organized it always is, all the hard work that is put into pulling something like this off and all the awesome prizes that the kids get after their work of "hunting" eggs is done!

Egg Hunt #2 is at the park in Carson City.....

This one is a huge free for all. They throw hundreds of eggs on the ground and the kids just run and run and run. Last year there was a couple inches of snow on the ground, which made it kind of tricky to pick up the eggs. This year, half the kids (ok, well only mine) didn't wear coats. It was sunny and beautiful (and chilly!)

Two years ago, they had a drawing for bikes....Ben won a Radio Flyer Tricycle and my nephew, Alex, won a brand new mountain bike. Well, this year, Ben found the lucky shiny egg and won this squirt gun (which is just as good as a tricycle to him)!

Ben was so excited to see that the bunny and lion that he "loved" from last year were back again!

Mom Mayes, Kevin Julie and Bender (trying to rip into the squirt gun)

The guys, checking out Gabe's loot!

Egg Hunt #3....

Ashley, Trever, Ben
Justin, Allie
Gabe and Alex
getting ready to find the eggs!

Since it was so nice out, we did the final egg hunt outside at Kevin's parents house. It was much more fun (and challenging) hiding them outside. Aunt Julie was much nicer then I was...she hid them in plain sight...on the grass and the porch. I hid them in trees, prickly bushes and in small un-known animal holes.

All the kids got goggles in their baskets!
Ben couldn't wait to put them on! He loved his camo hat too!! (and all the candy that is evident on his face too!!)

After 3 egg hunts, hours and hours riding the quads, and playing baseball, the kids were sort of tired and ready to come in to color eggs.

Apparently the older the kids get, the less exciting coloring eggs becomes. Towards the end, the kids started fizzling out, so I took over and finished coloring the eggs that were left.

......Correction, Trever and I colored the eggs that were left.

I guess Ben still thinks its exciting!!!

Our beautiful 4 dozen eggs!!! It was amazing....the kids could pick out exactly which ones were theirs. I thought they all looked the same...apparently not.

The next morning we got up bright and early for the sunrise service and had a great breakfast afterwards. Then we headed back to church for the real service. Thankfully, we only sang this song one time, therefore I only had to sob my eyeballs out once.

Our little stud muffins, all ready for church!!!
Gabe, Alex, Justin
Trever and Bender.

The princesses....Allie and Ashley.

Gabe, Allie and Ben Ben

The egg hunts, dressing up and yummy food are all fun, but the true meaning of Easter is the foundation of my faith. I'm constantly blown away that God loves me so much that He did the unthinkable to have me with Him forever. He allowed His Son to take my place...Jesus died for me and all the stupid things I do. And not only that....(anyone can die).....but Jesus did the unbelievable....He rose again!!!

He has risen!!!

HE HAS RISEN, INDEED!!

NCAA Championship Game.

2009-04-08T21:18:00.004-04:00

As if 4 hours in the van wasn't enough for my kids, as soon as we pulled in the drive way, Kevin, Gabe and Allie were heading back out for another hour-ish drive.....down to Ford Field for the NCAA Championship game!!

After spending hours and hours on the phone, calling everyone he knew and everyone he didn't know, Kevin still did not have any tickets for the game, when he left our house. Thanks to a nice man selling tickets in front of the stadium, Kevin, Gabe, Allie and Mike (Kevin's cousin) managed to get some pretty sweet seats!!

Kevin bought this 'sweet' MSU shirt from a homeless man for $8!

Allie and Gabe were just as excited as Kevin!!!

Allie, Mike and Gabe!!

Go State!!!

Allie...just before she dozes off for the most expensive nap she has ever had! She fell asleep just before the 1st half was over and woke up half way through the 2nd half!

And....she's OUT!

Gabe's expression after the game pretty much sums it up!!

Although the game didn't turn out the way we had hoped, Kevin said he wouldn't have traded this experience for anything!

Spring Break....Chicago Style

2009-04-07T20:42:00.020-04:00

For the first time in 3 or 4 years, we didn't head to Memphis to visit Jon and Bethie for Spring Break. Even though we had so many great memories of going down to visit, we were so grateful that they decided to move up here so we didn't have to take a 12 hour trip to see them. (Because you know, they were NEVER un-eventful.)

So this year we decided to head over to Chicago. Kevin and I went a couple years ago sans kids. So we thought it would be fun to take them now. (Apparently I forgot about all the walking that takes place in Chicago...which makes it very tricky for a 3.5 and 5.5 year old.) The main reason we wanted to go, however, was to visit Sarah and Mike. (You know, Mike Koch.)

We headed out Friday afternoon (note: there was NO snow on the ground when we left.) Minimal traffic....kids were great....yeah for DVD players....and snacks...quick trip over there. No problems! Got there in a little over 4 hours.

After checking into our hotel we called our tour guides (Mike and Sarah) to find out the best pizza place in the area. Apparently this place is it!! Giorando's is the BEST pizza I have ever had in my life. EVER. Ever!

After stuffing our face we went over to Sarah's former place of employment....Sur La Table. What a fun place! However, not good for 3.5 years old...too many things to touch....too many things to break!

Saturday morning we headed over to Sarah and Mike's house to take the train into downtown Chicago.

This was one of the highlights of the trip for the kids....riding on the train!

One of the highlights for me was when Mike put this nictoine patch, I mean bandaid over his shaving wound....nearly nicked his carotid artery.
(Can you even see it? It blends in so well....its hardly noticeable Mike, I swear.)

We weren't really prepared for what 50 degrees meant in the Windy City. Kevin had a sweatshirt on and Mike had a long sleeve flannel...clearly not enough to keep a human being warm. Shoot, I had a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt and a coat on and I was still FREEZING!!! We some how managed to stay alive the entire day. We ducked into a few stores here and there and took cabs when we really needed to.

Our first stop was to Millennium Park. We saw the Cloud Gate (known to my kids as the big Bean) and also the spitting face fountain things (known to my kids as the spitting face fountain things.) It was so fun to show the kids all the things that Kevin and I had seen when we were there last time. I'm pretty sure, however, that the kids (and Mike and Sarah) were soooo tired of hearing Kevin and I say, "Last time we were here....."

Ben discovered that Mike has really nice shoulders, made especially for carrying him around on, ALL DAY LONG! From the time we walked around Millennium Park, headed to Navy Pier, went to lunch, shopped a little, I'm pretty sure Mike's shoulders were going to fall off.

Mike bought each of the kids a flat penny at one of the stores at Navy Pier.

Ring around the Rosie
(not sure which one Rosie is....)

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating at the Grand Lux, going to the LEGO store, American Girl Doll Store and a few other random stores here and there. We were really on a time crunch due to the MSU Basketball game, so we (read: I) didn't get to see everything we [I] wanted to.

Lunch at the Grand Lux!!

Allie spent only about 15 minutes looking around the American Girl Doll Store. (I was quite surprised.) After finding her little bag to carry Lizzy around in, she was done.

Ironically enough, I only took Ben and Allie's pictures at the Lego Store. Gabe was too busy racing around the store checking everything out. I think he was a bit overwhelmed!!

We got back to Sarah and Mike's a little late. The game had already started (*gasp*) but no worries, we were able to get right into and figure out exactly what was happening.

I have to say, the best part about Sarah and Mike's house is the toilet in their basement. (You read that right, I said toilet....not bathroom.)

Ben loooved this toilet....it was his own personal throne. Any chance he got, he used it. At one point when he was p**ping, he yelled over to us, "Hey, I can still see the TV!!" The only downside (besides the complete lack of privacy) is the smell kind of floats around the entire basement.

After watching the Spartans victory, we headed back to the hotel (it was only about 15 minutes from Sarah and Mike's...depending on if we went the right way or not)

The next morning, we drove into downtown Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium. Learning a lesson from the day before, I made sure I had mittens and hats for the kids. After questioning Kevin about not wearing a sweatshirt or coat (his reply being, "I don't want to carry it around inside") we walked about 1/3rd of a mile in the FREEZING cold. When we got there, we discovered a line. I mean a L-I-N-E wrapped around the outside of the building. After questioning a lot of people we determined that this indeed was the line for the stupid aquarium. We waited outside in the bitter cold and awful wind for over an hour. Did I mention that Kevin only had a t-shirt on?

On the way to the aquarium we found a Chicago hotdog stand! YUM! I have never had a Chicago Style Hotdog! YUMMY!!!

Ben loved it!!!

After we walked around the aquarium for a few hours we headed to a mystery spot. I really REALLY really wanted to take Gabe to the LegoLand Discovery Center in Schaumberg. I wanted it to be a surprise so we didn't tell any of them where we were going.

Post-Aquarium
Pre-LegoLand

Gabe was pleasantly surprised when he woke up and found himself here.....

This mini Chicago replica was so cool! The kids loved seeing where they had just been the day before. I was completely fascinated by it too!!

Sarah and her friends.

This dragon ride brought back a lot of memories of "It's a small world" in Disneyworld.
Very slow....and a little (read: ALOT) boring.

LegoLand was interesting....the kids liked it. I thought it was kind of cool, but I couldn't get over how much they charge to get in. They normally charge $19.99 per adult and $15.99 per kid. Thank goodness I had a coupon to get the kids in for free. DEFINITELY not worth it!! But I was glad that the kids were able to experience it...especially since Gabe is such a Lego Freak!!

They had a "tour" of a Lego factory (can you say CHEESY!!!??)....
And each kid got to take a block home. (For what we paid we should have been able to take anything we wanted)

They also had a discovery area where the kids could build just about anything. They could make cars and race them down the ramp.

The kids got their picture taken with the President
(or Javon Ringer, as Allie likes to call him sometimes)

This was the highlight of LegoLand for me.....

...the signs outside the bathroom doors.
(this is the one for the family bathroom)

After we left LegoLand we ate at Big Bowl (YUMMY) and then headed back to Sarah and Mike's to find tickets for Kevin for the MSU game on Monday. We finally left poor Sarah and Mike alone and headed back to our hotel. We didn't realize that a snow storm was heading towards us, or shall I say, already hit us!! We drove back to the hotel in awful conditions.

By the time we woke up there was at least 2.5 inches of snow on the ground! We let the kids swim in the pool while Kevin continued to look for the tickets for the MSU game. On our way out of town we stopped at Trader Joe's (another highlight for me!!)

We had a great time in Chicago! It was a blast hanging out with Sarah and Mike....they were the best tour guides!!

We were back in Lansing by late afternoon on Monday. Now we still have the rest of the week to enjoy our Spring Break at home!!

Oh yeah, here are a few other pictures that I loved.....

Every where we went, we had our MSU apparel on.
Everyone knew who we were cheering for!!
GO STATE!

Poor Allie. She was not feeling well on this trip. She had a fever the entire time, along with a stuffy nose and a runny nose and an AWFUL cough.

Apparently the runny nose was quite annoying....she shoved toilet paper in her nose at night to keep the snot from running out!!

Oh the things you see in a big city.....

....don't worry.....

You can see more pictures here.

Dodgeball!

2009-03-28T17:55:00.009-04:00

Yesterday Kevin competed in his first ever dodgeball tournament! Bath Middle School was doing a fundraiser to send their 7th and 8th graders to Disney for a week (nice field trip!)

Kevin's team consisted of.......

......Pat (Kevin's friend from work), Kevin, Greg (Kevin's brother), Ryan (Mike's friend), Mike (Kevin's cousin) and Matt (Kevin's other brother)

Kevin's outfit consisted of.......

....me wanting to throw up all over the place.

He is wearing a cut off beater, his short short short running shorts, hunting socks and a pink headband.

Oh, the comments people made!! At least 4 times I overheard people talking about him (which is just what Kevin wanted, of course.) At one point he was called, "That-old-guy-wearing-a-sports-bra-and-pink-sweatband." (I turned around and nicely explained to them that it was clearly not a sports bra, but rather a beater that was cut off. When they asked what the difference was, I told them that a sports bra keeps his b**bs from jiggling and this one doesn't....they bounce all over the place." They laughed.) I never admitted that I knew that "creepy old guy wearing a sports bra."

Someone else called him "gross" (oh wait, that was me!)

Praise the Lord!! He finally put his shirt back on!!!

The guys did really well. They placed 4th out of 35ish.

The tournament started at 5pm. We though for sure it would be done by 8:00 (plenty of time to get home for the State game)...nope. We didn't walk out of there until 10:30 (and it still wasn't over by then!) It was so much fun to watch! It didn't seem like we sat for over 5 1/2 hours (although my butt was a little sore by the time we left)

Oh yeah, by the way, the team name was TEAM AWESOME!!

Aiden was there to cheer his daddy on!!! He even got to wear his daddy's nasty sweaty sweat band!!

GO TEAM AWESOME!!!

Balloons!!

2009-03-25T15:06:00.003-04:00

I'm easily amused.

EASILY!

Throw some googly eyes on anything and I will laugh forEVER!

Apparently I think balloon animals (or anything made with balloons for that matter) are the 2nd greatest things in the world.

My friend Coleen came over today and made hours of amusement for me! It all started with a balloon hat for Ben and slowly turned into 5 swords, a bouquet of flowers and then into a bunch of zoo animals!!

I was amazed (and a little nervous! Balloons kind of scare me...ALOT.) But it was so cool to watch her transform a regular looking balloon into something real(ish.)

An elephant, zebra, giraffe, tiger, ladybug and turtle!

my favorite...a monkey on a palm tree!

March Madness.

2009-03-21T16:26:00.002-04:00

Last year, the kids and I had so much fun filling out the brackets, that we did it again this year. Kevin helped Gabe and Ben fill out theirs. Gabe picked his based on their ranking. Ben picked his based on the name he could remember after Kevin gave him his choices.

Allie and I worked together on hers. Since I didn't have a clue, I would just read the names off in order and whatever name she liked, she picked. I didn't realize Kevin was strategically helping the other two, so they had a chance of getting some right. Whoops.

Kevin had the day off today. This is what he's doing.....

.....it may look like he is watching basketball with Allie.
He's not.
He's sleeping.
So is she!!

They looked so comfy, that Ben decided to join them......

Looks very similar to 2 years ago.

Allie's Haircut.

2009-03-12T08:51:00.003-04:00

Allie got her haircut!!

Thanks to her cousin, Annie, Allie decided that she wanted to get her haircut really short! I was so relieved!! Her long straggly hair was driving me crazy!

Basketball. Again.

2009-03-06T21:41:00.005-05:00

Seems like lately, all I have updated about is basketball.

Hm. Maybe because basketball is our life right now. Or should I say, was our life. Kevin's season is officially over. His last game was last night! This was Kevin's best season yet (besides girls JV 7 years ago)!!

His final record was 15-4!!

We were reminiscing about previous years and cringed when we came across his first couple years. One year he was 4-15 (for those of you who are sports challenged...that means they only won 4 games and lost 15!!) The next year was a touch better....5-14.

When he has an awesome winning season, I always say that its because of the coach. When it's a losing season, its because of the players.

Here are a couple more of my favorite pictures from the season.....

Coach Mayes and Coach Mayes

Allie's favorite player from the girls Varsity team...Hannah

One of the privileges of being the coaches wife is washing the teams uniforms and warm-ups (gee! lucky me!!) This year we had some fun after they were washed. We played dress up. It was so funny to hear the kids say, "I wanna be Hayden!!" "Now I want to be Derion!" They knew exactly what numbers all of Kevin's players are.

Here they are dressed up as Derion, Spencer and Scott......

Ben singing to the dollhouse.

2009-03-03T13:24:00.002-05:00

At least he makes up for playing with the dollhouse by having his football outfit on (and his helmet nearby.) FYI....He is combining whatever song he is singing with "Hi Ho the Derry-o"

Stapler.

2009-02-24T14:07:00.010-05:00

Kevin and I have just (as in, the last 6 months or so) discovered the show, The Office. I have to admit, it took me about 3 months to actually find the show funny. Now I think its one of the funniest shows EVER.

We borrowed the first 4 seasons from Kevin's cousins, to catch up on things that we might have missed. We're into season 2 right now.

After watching one of the episodes (the one where Jim puts Dwight's stapler in the jello) Kevin says, "I am so doing that to Jeff!!"

Real quick....Jeff and Kevin work at the same school. Last year they were right down the hall from each other. Apparently they had too much fun, so they were separated to opposite ends of the building this year.

Jeff had been the subject of another one of Kevin's "funnies" last year. It was twin day so Kevin told Jeff that him and a bunch of the other guys were going to wear a white t-shirt and jeans. He told all the other guys to dress up wearing a white dress shirt, tie and khaki pants (what Jeff wears EVERY day of the week.)

So when Jeff got to school they all were dressed like this......

......and poor Jeff was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. He eventually found it funny.

So, its been about a year, so it was about time to pull another one on him.

Here's Jeff and his orange Jell-o stapler.

After a few choice words, Jeff found it funny!

I keep telling Kevin between these two things and this other one, he really has it comin' for him.

Such Odd Children.

2009-02-19T10:48:00.001-05:00

Toothless.

2009-02-19T10:47:00.003-05:00

Gabe lost his other top front tooth. Yippee!! No more crazy snaggle tooth!

Little Coach Mayes.

2009-02-19T08:15:00.005-05:00

At the game Tuesday night, after they announced the starting line-up, they announced the coaches. Which, is nothing new. Except this time what we all heard was, ".....and the Trojans, coached by Kevin Mayes, Drew *******, Julius ******* and Gabriel Mayes!!!"

HILARIOUS!!! The guy who announces for the team, threw in Gabe's name! It was so cute to watch the reaction on Gabe's face!

Gabe takes his job very seriously. He has evolved from being an average water boy to actually being helpful. He takes care of all the warm-ups. Picks up the cups that are thrown under the chair and actually getting the guys their water in a timely (and not messy) manner.

Gabe having a little chat with one of the players.

(He is near the top of the picture)

Sitting with the rest of the coaches on the bench. Kevin doesn't count.
He NEVER sits during a game.
EVER.

After the game the kids always run on the court to slap hands with the other team. Ben is the only one who isn't allowed to. I'm afraid he will get so excited that he might miss the guys hands and accidentally swat them somewhere else.

I hate to say that Gabe is more stylish then Kevin. But I'm pretty sure he is!
One of the players dad's gave Gabe a bunch of his son's old ties. I think he thought Gabe looked a little silly with ties that only reach to his belly button.

Kevin's Game.

2009-02-13T09:27:00.003-05:00

Last night at Kevin's game, when they asked us to stand to sing the National Anthem, Ben looks at me and says (rather loudly) "Are we going to PRAY??"

(Hm. I'm realizing this was a lot cuter and funnier in person. Oh well.)

Kevin's Basketball Team.

2009-02-11T18:31:00.002-05:00

Check out Kevin's cute manager/water boy, who is holding the basketball.

Allie's 100th day of school.

2009-02-11T18:27:00.002-05:00

HAPPY 100th Day of School!!!

A bit more refreshing.

2009-02-10T23:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry...I had to put up another picture, because I didn't want to scare off anyone who might be new to reading my blog, with the picture from the previous entry.

So here's a cute picture of Kevin watching tv with Allie, while Bender is sleeping.

Enjoy......

Gabe's Thumbprint.

2009-02-10T20:34:00.006-05:00

Gabe came home with a new sculpture today. They had an orthodontist come into his class. He told me he had made a thumb print. I guess I was expecting, more or less, something along the lines of this. When I unwrapped it this is what I found.....

....WHOA!

Not what I was expecting. AT ALL.

I started laughing because I thought after not seeing it for a while, he would look at it and realize what it really looked like. He laughed too, but just because I was smiling (read: laughing.)

When he went to bed he said, "Make sure you show dad when he gets home!" I thought, "No problem. I CANNOT wait to show him and the rest of the world!"

Reminds me of when he brought this home!

sooze news.

Easter. Twenty-ten.

My little ragamuffins.

Sledding at Granger Meadows.

Watching Olympics.

Daddy Daughter Dance.

Sport -n- the Snow.

Bushnell Christmas. 2009.

Big Mayes Christmas. 2009.

Kurt Christmas. 2009.

Little Mayes Christmas. 2009.

Bender.

Our *special* Christmas tree.

Hunter -n- Sport.

Hunting.

Thanksgiving.

Silver Bells.

Apparently my driving record isn't so good.....

Stupid Deer.

School Pictures.

Halloween.

Carving Pumpkins.

Family Pictures.

Leaves. 2009 edition.

Fisher Alan Mayes.

10.6.09.

Gabe's haircut.

Hunter. Q. Mayes.

First Day of School. 2009-2010.

Camp Living Waters.

Ben and Allie.

The B-I-B-L-E!

The Walk.

Kids on Dock.

Cottage for the day.

Sunsets.

Scavenger Hunt.

Triathlon. Number 3.

A girl and her Sport.

Air Sport.

Coffee anyone?!

Bender.

Pool Day.

Allie's famous-ish.

Ben the Bear. Round 2.

Breakdancing Bender.

Sport. E. Mayes.

Crazy Dog Lady.

Kindergarten Celebration.

Ben's new best friend.

Sport.

Opening Day of Pool Season.

Ben can jump.

Ben's look-a-likes.

Ben's 4!!

Ben's Birthday!

Mother's Day.

Allie's 72nd month Birthday.

Soccer. In the rain.

Run Matthew!!

Party at the Mayes's.

Vet-a-Visit.

Soccer. Game 1.

High Heels.

Playing at the Park.

1st Soccer Practice.

Oh how they grow!

Easter.

NCAA Championship Game.

Spring Break....Chicago Style

Dodgeball!

Balloons!!

March Madness.

Allie's Haircut.

Basketball. Again.

Ben singing to the dollhouse.

Stapler.

Such Odd Children.

Toothless.

Little Coach Mayes.

Our special Christmas tree.