Iowa Rocks!

In case you didn't know, Iowa Rocks! The guy in the upper right hand corner is saying, "Na na na boo boo, you can't catch me!" Notice the guy in the upper left is giving the "thumbs up." The guy below him is saying, "What's Iowa?" The television is saying, "and the Iowas win again!" And then of course there's the piece of furniture every true Hawkeye fan wished they owned: the Iowa couch. This picture is what Will evidently did during Sunday school, inspired by sitting next to his friend Jake, who was drawing a similar picture, and whose entire family are HUGE Hawkeye fans.

Sign Surprise

This morning Will had us stay out of the living room this morning until this special surprise was complete. It says "Thank you for being great parents." I told you he was into making signs! Of course I didn't have the heart to remind him that all that scotch tape is not good for my walls. Everytime I walk past it the obsessive compulsive part of myself cringes, but then the mom part of me smiles and melts.

The Big Concert

I sure do wish that I had a video to share with you all. But Will insisted I not tape him, so I honored his wishes. I sure did want to though, I even thought of trying to secretly video him, but I didn't. He announced last night when we got home from dinner that there was going to be a concert. He made a sign (he's big into making signs right now) that said, "Will Brown will be having a concert tonight on the 19 day of January." Then he drew arrows pointing the way to the next sign. The next sign was a sign up sheet for who was coming. So we all wrote our names down. We waited on the couch, and started chanting his name and getting restless. Finally the "star" appeared, and got up on his "stage" - the lounger. He started off by taking attendance from his sign up sheet - something I don't think I've ever seen done at a concert before! Once we were all "here," he said, "I'm going to start by telling you a little about my life." (Where does he get this stuff?!) He said, "I'm Will Brown. I have a mom named Jill, and a dad named Damon. I have a little brother named Sam. (To which Sam said, "That's me!") I go to Lemme School. My teacher's name is Mrs. Hackbarth." He proceeded to tell us all of his friends names, and ended with "I've had a pretty good life." (My goodness!) We all clapped and hooted and hollered. Then he sang us a song - one that they do at AWANAS that he'd heard on the radio on the way home earlier. After the song he announced the show was over and left the room. We all hooted and hollered some more, yelling that we wanted an encore. He came back out and said there'd be no encore, but that he would be signing autographs in his room after the show. So we all knocked on his "dressing room door" and acted really nervous to see him "up close and personal" - Damon even "fainted!" Damon asked him to write something like "to the most handsome dad" or something like that. It was so much fun to be all silly together. Although I long ago realized that Will is not lacking in self-esteem, last night pretty much confirmed it for me!

Cute Samness

Tonight we went to El Ranchero for dinner. (Yum!) Sam was being quite cute. He was busily eating his chicken nuggets and french fries (yes, I know, not your typical mexican food) when out of the blue he held up his hand like a stop sign, and said this, "Stop doing wrong, and be good." Then he said to himself, "Let's do it altogether for God." (which I'm guessing is what his teacher says!) and then he repeated, "Stop doing wrong, and be good." I asked him where he'd learned that, and he said at church. Not sure if that was a Sunday school thing, or a Wednesday morning thing while I'm at Hearts in Touch. But let me tell you it was pretty darn cute. THEN..... we saw Will's teacher at the restaurant. She came up to our table and Sam just snuggled right up to her and gave her a big hug! It was very cute. I think she was surprised and pleased that he did that. THEN....we were using the whole reverse psychology thing on Sam to get him to take his clothes off by himself for his bath. I said "oh no, he can't do it, he's just little, he's my little baby." To which of course he wants to prove me wrong. Works every time..........for now! He was all like, "No, I'm a big boy, I'm going to be a big Daddy." I said I liked it when my boys stayed little and I could hug them and rock them and change their diapers and give them their bottles, to which Sam said, "You can go to Lily's house and kiss Lily." So, ok then, maybe I will!

AWANAS

Will is having a great time at AWANAS again this year. They learn bible verses, play games, sing songs, have snacks, and do craft projects at our church. He earns badges and "jewels" to put in a little crown pin for his vest, for every so many verses that he learns. He is great at it. Damon helps him out a lot in learning and also participates as a group leader. Sometimes they make up little songs or rhythms for the verses. It's neat to see scripture being tucked away in his heart, and along the way we are all learning.

Falling Asleep in Strange Places

Can you tell which picture is real and which picture is fake?! Take a close look, it's pretty obvious!




The first picture is real: Sam was sick and really did fall asleep while eating dinner. You can even see the Tylenol in the picture that I kept trying to get him to take. He had a sore throat and fever. The second picture is fake: Sam trying not to smile gives it away! We were just messing around being silly, so I took his picture.

Sneak Attack

It didn't take long for Damon to go and purchase his own Nerf dart gun. The other day I came home from the store and came up the stairs with my arms full of groceries. I got up to the top of the stairs, and my family was waiting around the corner, ready to ambush me! They let fire, and I screamed. (This picture is a re-enactment.) I may have to break down and get myself a gun. It's too bad they don't make a pink one.

E-I-E-I-O

Sam loves to sing. The noise you hear in the background, halfway through is NOT coming from me. It is Will making a raspberry noise trying to rile his brother.

Ride Em' Cowboy!

Will would love it if Lucy would let him ride on her back, so he waits until she's sleeping, and tries to sneak onto her back. It never seems to work out.

Mouse Hunt

Last night at 1:30 am, we had a mouse in our bedroom! It was the scariest thing ever. I would dare say this rivals seeing an oppossum in front of your apartment, because this critter is right there in your BEDROOM - where you SLEEP! After the second time of wondering if I was seeing something scurrying back and forth between our bed and the closet out of the corner of my eye, I woke up Damon. We knew there probably was something there and it wasn't my imagination, because two nights earlier we'd lain awake listening to something scurring in the walls. He got an old shoe and a small trash can and stuffed clothes under the cracks in our doors so it couldn't escape our room. We knew it was in our closet, but it was an agonizing game of hide and seek since there's so much stuff in our closet. Damon painstakingly pulled out dirty clothes from the floor of our closet, one at a time, shaking them to see if the mouse was in them, while I huddled on the bed. Once one side of the closet floor was empty, he started in on the other side, where all of my shoes are piled together. Halfway through taking one shoe out at a time, the mouse jumped out and the chase was on! Damon jumped so high that the shoe that he was using as a weapon flew out of his hand and he tried to catch it by the strings, so the shoe was flailing around, while I sat on the bed and screamed and laughed and bit into my knuckles to keep from screaming and waking up the boys! The mouse went further back into the shoe pile, so more shoes were taken out until only a few were left. We knew the mouse had to be cornered. So Damon very bravely began poking the pile with his weapon shoe which would send the mouse scurring around the inside of the closet, over to the empty side where the doors were shut. I could hear lots of bang, bang, bangs, as Damon attempted to hit it with his shoe, but that mouse was so fast, it would end up back in the shoe pile! A few times the chase sent the mouse out into our bedroom, where it had lots of hiding places from all the stuff Damon had brought out of our closet. Finally, after chasing it around the bedroom floor, he whacked the mouse a good one, and then he just left the shoe on top of the mouse and pressed down repeatedly with all of his weight! It was one flat and dead mouse! All you could see was its little tail sticking out from under the shoe! SO GROSS!!!!!!! I was so glad it was dead, I didn't even mind cleaning up the blood stains on the carpet! Damon scooped it up in the trash can and took it down to the garage trash. We laid in bed afterwards giggling and replaying moments, and agreed that we both have the image of that nasty tail sticking out from underneath Damon's shoe etched into our minds forever. We had so much adrenaline running through our systems and we were so freaked out, that we couldn't get back to sleep for the longest time. Questions are still running through my brain: Can mice climb up beds? Are there more? How did it get in? How did it get all the way to our bedroom? We are going to be investing in some traps or poision or something today. Even now as I'm typing this I can't put my feet on the floor, because who knows what's under the desk?!

Funky Purse

This is my new purse. Isn't it great?! It was a present from my sister, Laura. Will isn't too sure about it. First he thought that it was his Grandma Connie's. When I told him it was mine and asked him if he liked it he said, "Uh....heh, heh." Then he told me if I go on a safari I'd better not take it to the jungle with me, or I might lose it. So the next time I go on safari, I guess I'd better leave this baby at home.