::this made me smile::

A couple of things I thought I'd share...

A lot of times when we're in the car, we'll practice counting or our letter sounds or something like that. We were doing "let's think of a word that starts with..." They pick the letter, and it was "A." So Chloe and I are saying things like "alligator, apple, always, around..." Then Portie pipes up and says "avacado!!" Every once in a while I'll throw something weird out there like "Adirondak" just to make them laugh-but this time I hadn't said anything like that. I guess Portie beat me to it :)

Today, we went to the store to get a few things. I was pushing a "boat cart" (those huge ones) with all three babies on it. This older man (probably late 70's early 80's) says "are all these children yours??" I said "they sure are" and then he says "How beautiful! What beautiful children!" It made me happy, and I almost told him I wanted one more ;)

::the princess & the frog::

It's finally here!!

We've waited months for this movie to come out on DVD, and today was the day!! We were SO excited to go to the store and get it, Portie brought his own pennies to pay for it (sweet boy)-we even used one of them.

So after Bubb went down for a nap, the big kids and I made some popcorn...

...and cozied up to watch the movie.

We laughed, danced, cuddled 'cause we were scared, and I even got a little teary (Weird, I know, but that's me.)

And what a great movie!! We love it!!

(even Port! He likes the shadow man 'cause he likes "scae-wy sings.")

::what's in a name::

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet"

We're big on nicknames around here. I was working on my next blog book, and came across a post where I called Cooper "googie." I completely forgot we ever called him that. So, I decided I'd better do a post devoted to our nicknames since we have so many.

Chloe

aka

Moogie, Baby Girl, Gogie (she called herself that when she first started talking), Googie-Moogie, Moo, Missy Moo, Tootie-Bootie, Tootie, Toot-Boot, Chloe-Bowie, Nowie (Porter's), Giggoo (Porter's), Sweets (Matt's)

Porter

aka

Porter-Torter, Port-Tort, Portie-Nortie, Tatey-Ratey, Tate-a-moe (his own when he tried to say tomato), Porter-Potater-Rater, Tater-Rater, Tater, Tates, Port, Port-Port, Poten-Taten, Portie,

Cooper

aka

Coopins, Coopenhagen, Coopinstock, Coopie-Noopie, Coopie-Roopie (Matt's), Coopie, Googie, Noogie, Googie-Noogie, Noo-Noo, Nuggie, Nee-nah-noo-nah, Bubba, Bubb-Nubb, Bubb-Nubb-Nubb, Bubb, Bubbs, Bee-bah-boo-bah, Bubbie-Nubbie

::matt's basketball tournament (part 1)::

Matt had his annual ATK basketball tournament this weekend. He played with one of his brothers (Adam) and a few other guys from work. Jared doesn't work there anymore, so we missed him and Sarah down there this year. I love watching him play ball. He's pretty good, and just fun to watch. The games started at 8 in the morning, so we all got up and, of course, had a McDonalds breakfast :) The kids love going to these games too because the gym's really big and there's lots of room to run around up above the bleachers.

I got a couple of action shots

(he's in the black and blue shorts and a black jersey-#24 of course)

I can't remember if that one went in...

He always thanks the refs afterwards. He's just that way :)

They won both games, and they play again next weekend. I'll try to get some more "action" shots for him. It's always good to see yourself on film-that's what the pros do, right? :)

In other news...

Cooper has a few new words. My favorite one is "eeew." He says it all the time. Everything is "eeew."

::"po-uh liddow Coopeh"::

Sorry, Bubb, but you are too liddow and it is too cold.

...But I bet you're glad Portie came in to make you feel better :)

(Porter 3 1/2 Cooper 16 months)

In other news...

Chloe hyperextended her knee in tumbling yesterday. She was doing some back handspring drills and another kid hopped on the trampoline and bounced her, and she landed on it weird. She cried. A lot. She seems to be ok now though. She just says she can't "push her knee back" which basically means she can't lock her left knee. Papa Guitar says maybe a couple of weeks, and she'll be good as new :) (I bet a little sooner though, cause she's already back on the tramp)

After it happened, I told her ya gotta be tough to tumble!! She giggle-cried. I told her it's only going to get tougher and about how her cousin (Keely) broke her foot doing tumbling. Was that a good idea? Probably not, but now she kinda feels cool 'cause she got hurt doing tumbling just like Kee :)

::all in a day's work::

We cleaned out the garage on Saturday. It was SO messy! We had all kinds of stuff in there we didn't really even need, plus it was really unorganized.

The kids just thought it was fun. They ran around, drove the Barbie Jeep, colored with sidewalk chalk, rode bikes, rode scooters, pushed lawnmowers, fell and scraped faces (poor Bubb), and were just so excited to be outside. They didn't even notice that it was COOOOLD and windy.

Matt built some shelves (which we desperately needed!!)

They look pretty good, don't you think??

And here's the finished product. It might not look a whole lot better to the naked eye, but it really is. There's a HUGE trampoline in there that will be leaving as soon as it warms up some more, so that'll free up even more space.

After we (and by we, I mostly mean Matt) cleaned it out, we went for a little ride to return things we found in there that didn't belong to us (tools, battery chargers, etc). Someday I hope to have at least a 3 car garage, but until then, we'll just have to try to be more organized in our little one. Next step...painting the garage (maaaah!).

And that was our Saturday.

::smarty pants::

These are some of Chloe's "no homework" passes. Her teacher sends one home, along with a little "congratulations" letter any time she gets a perfect score on a test. She's gotten 8 so far (she's used a couple of 'em). She's doing well with her reading too, and we're really proud of her! But...she's SO bored in school! It's SO hard to get her up for in the morning. She tells me "we always do the same things" and I don't really blame her for not being excited to go. She likes her friends and her teacher, but she just gets bored with the work. We got her a workbook for her to do at home so she can be challenged a little more, and she loves it! I have her do her school homework first, and then she's on to the workbook! She and Matt were working on counting money yesterday.

I tell her all the time that she's just too smart for kindergarten :) I guess we'll just see what happens as the year goes on. I don't know what to do! I just keep telling her that doing the same things over and over again is how you learn. Hopefully she can tough it out a few more months, and hopefully she'll like 1st grade better. Hopefully.

In other news...

Chloe lost her other front tooth. She feels like she looks funny. She only has a single gap though (because she lost the other one a while ago, and the permanent tooth has already filled that gap). She got some money from the tooth fairy and she thinks she has enough to buy a light up Princess Tiana doll (almost). Cooper said "cookie" tonight. I was so excited! But then I kinda thought..."is that a fat joke" haha Because we've been eating lots of cookies lately! They're so good! We particularly love the Oreo Fudgees, and I'm sure they're good for you ;) And Port-Port got Buzz "undeweh" and he's so excited about 'em. I gave him an airplane ride and he had to wear his Buzz wings. Undeweh and Buzz wings, how much more Buzzish can he get??

::the cat in the hat::

Today was Dr. Suess Day at Chloe's school. When I took her in, there were all kinds of crazy get-ups and crazy hair! Chloe was the Cat in the Hat...sort of. We (I) realized afterwards that the real Cat in the Hat actually wears a red and white striped hat, and is a black cat. Whoops!

She looked cute anyway, I thought.

They made a little book about Cat in the Hat (with a song that goes like the Addams Family one).

She "discovered" Dr. Suess in the Fall last year (thanks to Uncle Billy), and she just loves all the books! Every library day, she comes home with a new Dr. Suess book-most of the ones she brings home I remember from when I was little. When we were down at Billy's new apartment last year, he read Fox in Sox to all the kids, and a few memories came back to me. The next day, I wrote this email to my Gramma Ruckman:

Hi, Gramma!

I just wanted to drop ya a quick little line to say hi and tell ya about yesterday. We went down to lunch for mom's birthday (we couldn't get together on her birthday cause of the hospital thing). It was fun. Matt and Kevin went to the football game, and the rest of us all went over to see Billy and Suzie's new apartment. It's pretty nice. It'll be nice when they get settled and all unpacked. The kids played a lot together-like cousins do. It was getting time to go, and Chloe brought a book out to us (it was Hop on Pop-Dr Seuss). So she read a few pages. Then Billy read the kids Fox In Sox. And Oh the memories that flooded my brain! I could hear him reading, but my mind wandered back to when Billy and I were little and sitting on your lap in your old brown chair in your living room. We were under your light one on each of your legs looking at that book, the table to our right, your glasses on, us in our jammies. You were reading. I could hear your voice. Each word so clear. Us sitting so comfy, so cozy, so safe, so sweet. With our Gramma. These kids were listening to Billy giggling at the silly words, and then we all heard "Fox in Sox our game is done sir," and I came back to the present day.

I just wanted to take you down memory lane with me for a minute :)

Hope you know I love you!

~Amy

So I guess you could say that Dr. Seuss hold a special place in my heart :)

::cookie face::

Because what childhood can ever be complete without at

least one oreo-all-over-your-face picture??

(Coopie sitting with his Auntie Sarah)

He dipped in Chloe's milk...mmmmm!

And this is from today. I thought it was especially good because

he got the cookie in his eyebrow and eyelashes.

::jessica's wedding::

Matt's cousin, Jessica, got married on Saturday. We all went down to see it...

(We almost didn't make it because Matt didn't have matching pants. He brought navy blue instead of black. Then at the last minute, he decided it didn't matter, so we went. On the way out of Mom & Kevin's apt., we locked their key in a storage closet for them, and Matt says "did you get Coop's binky and blanket?" I was in charge of the other 2 kids and the 3 bags, so i said "NO!?!!!" Now what?? We called mom, Kevin called the apt. office, told them the whole story, the mgr. gave us a spare key, we got in, and just barely made it to the wedding on time. I gave him a hard time about it pretty much the rest of the day. Oh, and he lost Coop's other binky at the hair salon that morning, but we won't mention that-haha)

She looked just beautiful!

The little boys played on the stairs for a bit after it was over...

Chloe got in a quick cuddle

with her Aunt Alaine (Grandma Snowman's sister)...

Then we (us and J & Sae) had some lunch at Chilis and then

eaded over to IKEA, since we were in that neck of the woods already...

We got a couple of bookshleves. Matt put them together that night, with a little help from the kids (see Portie's tools?? He went and got 'em so he could help Dadduh)...

...and that was our Saturday.

:)