Storms

It has been mighty stormy here in Wichita. My backyard has turned into a lake with at least 6 inches of standing water in one corner a couple of time. Lots of thunder and lightning. Lots of wind and rain and flash flooding. The weather here is freakin’ scary! Last weekend, we had the scariest storm yet since we moved here. I thought for sure we were going down! Well turns out we survived just fine, but our neighbors across the street had a little incident.

You see, they have a big wooden play structure in their backyard, not unlike the one Kaylee’s kids have. A big slide, some swings, a climbing wall, a big fort up on top. It’s awesome. Well, let me clarify, it used to be awesome. The big storm this past weekend ripped it apart. The top was ripped right off it’s base and this is what it looks like now.



And if that wasn’t sad enough. The wind took the top of that play structure and flung it 2 houses down, right through a bay window. Oops!



Since it’s been so stormy, we’ve been stuck inside. Stuck inside staring at our sweet sandbox out the window that we really wish we could go play in. Oh well, I’m sure the sun will come back soon enough and when it does it’ll probably be way too hot and I’ll just have something else to complain about. :)

Jayden’s found something new to do. He’s been loving getting himself wedged between the end of our mattress and our footboard. He’s not to happy I chose to take his picture instead of pulling him out.



We’ve been spending lots of time downstairs and Willow has been working on her sitting up by herself skills.





We haven’t been able to work out much the past couple of weeks. Royal’s family was here for a week, and then this week, Jayden and I managed to come down with swine flu, I mean, a really bad cold that has kept us laid up for awhile. And one of my biggest pet peeves is parents who take their sick, snot dripping kids to places where they don’t really have to go and then let them chew on toys and play with other kids and pass their germs on. So, since there is no way I can keep Jayden away from this friends at StrollerFit, I’ve just been keeping him here until his green nose stops drippin’ so much. That however hasn’t stopped Jayden from getting his workouts in. Here he is doing his squats


I, however, can’t really keep Jayden away from passing his germs onto Willow. It seems though, that Willow has Royal’s immune system - she just doesn’t get sick like Jayden does - or at least she hasn’t seemed to come down with Jayden’s colds in the whole 5 months of her life so far.



This morning, Jayden wanted a snack, so I gave him a little bowl of pretzels. Obviously, they weren’t cooked good enough because I found him in the pantry like this, cookin’ ‘em up on the the grill.

Jayden's Birthday :: Part 2

PARTY TIME!
I flew in my own cake maker from Washington. :) Grandma made Jayden the strawberry cake he wanted!


Jayden wanted his friend Zach to sit right next to him in the same chair to blow out his candles.





We had a bunch of fun with Silly String in the backyard. Luckily the boys were good about not shooting each other in the face with it. Jayden did manage to spray himself in the face a couple times though :)





And of course we had to test out the next sandbox toys!



Once everyone was gone, Grandpa got to reading Jayden his new dinosaur book.



And here is a picture of Grandpa, the kiddos, and Gabe, and via telephone Aunt Brynn who was calling to wish Jayden a Happy Birthday.

Jayden's Birthday :: Part 1

Jayden’s birthday party with a couple of his friends is tomorrow, but that didn’t stop us from having fun today!
Royal and I bought Jayden a Coaster Car for his birthday. It’s just the knock-off of the Plasma Car, exactly the same (as far as we can tell) but oh so much cheaper. His cousins got ones for Christmas and when we were there visiting in January, he loved riding around on them. So, we decided we’d give it to him on his birthday and give him a whole day to play with it before he had to share it with his friends coming over tomorrow. We put it together last night and put it in our bedroom. Then this morning I hear Jayden out in the living room, “Mom, I just don’t want it”
Me(from my bed): “You don’t want what?”
J: “I DON’T want it”
Me: “Ok. I’m sure it’s fine” I just wanted to go back to sleep.
J: “MOM, I said I don’t want it”
Me: “Hey, Jayden. Come into mom and dad’s room. We have a present for you in here.”
J: (much happier): “Oh? Ok, Mom!”
Me: “Look Jayden, you got your very own coaster car!”
J: (exasperated): “I DON’T WANT IT”
Well, happy freaking birthday then! :) I didn’t really say that, but I think I may have flung myself back on my pillows and rolled my eyes at Royal. Are you kidding me????

Luckily, Jayden’s attitude changed when I found out all he really wanted to do was go downstairs and wake up Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Gabe. Once they were awake, he was real excited to ride around the kitchen. I swear I told Royal this was an outside toy.







Next, Jayden got in on some painting. Did I happen to mention we decided to paint our garage? Well we did and it looks freaking awesome! But that’s a whole ‘nother post.
“Am I suppose to be doing this?”


Gabe, our foreman, inspecting the work





The boys also finished up Jayden’s sandbox today. It is huge! We are going to have so much fun in there!!




Then we went out to dinner and finished up the evening eating some gelato. Yummy!


Sorry there were no pics of Willow. Maybe tomorrow. :) It was Jayden’s special day after all.

Happy Birthday, Jayden!

Today, Jayden is 3 years old! My little guy who showed up 3 weeks early, tried to come out face up, and took 19 hours to get out. I can’t really say things have gotten much easier. :)

The Lovingfoss' Have Landed!

Royal’s parents and his brother, Gabe, have come to visit for the week to celebrate Jayden’s 3rd birthday and to help with projects around the house. That is one thing about Lovingfoss’ - they are hard workers. Norma told me tonight to go out and get stuff to paint the walls with because she likes to have something to do. Sweet!!

Today was sunny and 88 degrees, so what do we do? We go to the zoo!!! I lubed up the kids with sunscreen, but our white Washington visitors didn’t put any on, so needless to say they got a little bit sunburned. Ooops. Break out the aloe. :)

First things first, we had to go pet the baby goats.



Then the big goats discovered Fireball (Royal’s dad) had food in his pocket and started crowding in. Jayden’s not so fond of the big goats. Good thing Uncle Gabe was around to get him up out of the action.











Gabe, Fireball, and Royal have been working out in the garage to finish insulating and sheetrocking it. And then Gabe is also gonna build Jayden a sandbox, which Fireball is staining in the picture.





And it was just so hot out that we had to turn the sprinklers on!

Happy Birthday, Kaylee!

Happy Birthday to my OLDER sista! Love and miss you lots and lots and lots!

I know you told me you’d kill me if I posted this picture. But I’ve not only posted it once, but twice now!!! :) I do it because you can’t punch me in the arm, living way over there on the far side of the country.





Look, even Willow can’t believe how old you are. :) just kidding dude, but really for 2 months and 2 days, you are a whole 2 years older than me. that’s a lot. :)

Trial by Fire

Finally! A post that should give you a chuckle at someone else’s expense! :)

Like I have mentioned before, I leave Thursday evenings to go to a Restore the Core class, which leaves Royal home alone with the kidletts to get them to bed. There is sometimes trouble with Jayden because he likes me to put him to bed and Willow, well, Willow isn’t too fond of Royal when she’s tired or hungry, so there is usually trouble with Willow. But, it’s usually the only time of the week where I get to leave the house without the kids and do something for myself, so while I feel bad that I know Royal has tough hour or so ahead of him, I know he’s completely capable, and it’s bound to get easier, right?

Yesterday, Willow hadn’t been having a very good day. She didn’t feel very good, I think she’s coming down with Jayden’s cold, and she took 2 very short (like 30 mins) naps. So, I knew she was going to be trouble for Royal. But, I fed her, gave her some tylenol, and put her in her jammies before I left and told Royal when I thought she’d probably be ready for bed. There’s always a small little window of time with her that if you can catch it, she’ll go to sleep for you in like 5 minutes. But with 2 kids, you just cant always hit that window. So, I left, and Royal finished up dinner. (from this point on is the best I can remember from what Royal told me when I came home. hopefully I get most of it right, it’s a good one!) Royal starts getting Jayden ready for bed around 6:30, gets pjs on, brushes his teeth, and then he tells him to go pick out a couple of books. Jayden can’t find his dinosaur book. He starts crying, ‘I want my mom, I want my dinosaur book, I want my mom, I want my dinosaur book’. Royal keeps trying to suggest other books, but Jayden won’t have any of it. Willow, who’d been getting fussy for Royal, decides since Jayden is crying, she will too. So, she starts crying (and just so you know, Royal always says that ‘Willow doesn’t cry, she screams’). Royal finally finds the dinosaur book downstairs, gets it, and reads it with Jayden. He puts Jayden to bed, a whiny Jayden who keeps crying that he wants his mom (Royal cannot handle whining at all, it pretty much makes him want to hulk-out), all the while Willow is crying and crying and crying. Royal goes into Willow’s room and starts rocking her, ready for the battle between the two of them that is her bedtime. He’s in there for about 5 mins, when he sees Willow’s door open and Jayden comes in and says, ‘Hey, Dad?’ and then he proceeds to throw up all over the floor. According to Royal, it was the most puke he’d ever see come out of a little kid. So, Royal flips the lights on, puts a crying Willow in her crib, turns her mobile on, and tries to strip down Jayden, who is covered from head to toe in puke, and now really crying that he wants his mom. He tries to get Jayden to take a shower so he can rinse him off, but Jayden won’t have any of it, so he just puts him in a bath. Jayden’s crying in the bathtub, Willow is crying in her crib. Royal gets some towels to clean up the puke, dumps our entire bottle of Bac Out on the floor and scrubs. Then goes and gets the vacuum to clean up the chunks and then gets hot soapy water and scrubs the floor some more. Kids still crying. Once the floor is clean, he grabs Jayden out of the bath, puts new jammies on him and goes to put him in his bed when he discovers Jayden had thrown up all over his pillow before he went into Willow’s room. So, he finds a new pillow and a new pillowcase and finally gets Jayden in bed with a promise that his mom will come check on him as soon as she gets home. Then back to Willow, the poor child still crying in her room. He finally rocks her to sleep and gets her in her crib. It is now 5 mins to 8:00. I walk in the door 10 mins later, the house is completely quiet, but I smell the cleaner in the air and see the vacuum out and I look at Royal and say, ‘What happened?’ He had just got off the phone with his mom, telling her what had happened, and from what I hear she could hardly talk she was laughing so hard, and then he gives me a look that says I am never allowed to leave the house again and says, ‘You’re gonna need to sit down for this one. Let me just tell you what happened.’ :) I was telling Kaylee the story this morning and she had a good point, she said, ‘Well, it can’t really get much worse than that!’. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next Thursday!