Safety First!

Hello everyone. I have been getting a lot of heat from Natalie about posting to the blog, so here goes.

Owen received two nerf Tommy Guns for his birthday, and Rion has really wanted to play with them. Owen decided that he was ready to open them, with a lot of prodding from Rion. I helped them load the darts and install the batteries. Owen started to shoot the gun in in the kitchen. I knew that we were in trouble. I had to lay down the ground rules. No shooting at each other, no shooting at Mommy or Daddy, and no shooting at the dog.

I thought it might be a good idea to shoot at the window in the back, but realized that some additional safety precautions were needed. Darts were flying all over the place, and the last place I wanted to be was at the hospital answering questions on why there was a dart stuck on one of my children's eye!

Well, that's it for my first post. Sorry if you were expecting something a little more enlightening.

Mike

Happy Birthday Parker!

Can you believe she’s 9 years old?

New Glasses

i got new glasses. me and rion were playing with are toys!!!-owen stufflebeam

Home Sick

I’m sick and I stayed home. I have a fever and I don’t feel good that much. What else? I took my inhaler today. Yesterday Daddy stayed home with me. Today Mommy stayed home with me, and, tomorrow Daddy’s coming home. That’s it. And, you know what? Mommy’s playing with her computer what I’m saying. I’m sick bad and I’m coughing and sneezing. I need to take water. Owen needs to take milk. That’s it. Do you know what that vacuum is called? Sneeze. I wish it was Christmas a day ago and I was not sick. We got to keep our Christmas trees up for a long time. That’s it. Done. – Rion - Another thing – I already had a fever and I still have a fever. And, you know what? Mommy needs to do the letters that I’m saying. Daddy has a vacuum. Done – Orion Stufflebeam   

Translation: Rion’s been home sick the past two days with a cold or sinus infection. He’s now on meds and feeling much better, but if you ask him, he’s still sick because he wants to stay home longer to watch morning cartoons. One of the cartoons he watched was Handy Manny, who has a new vacuum named Sneeze. When the boys have coughs, we don't make them drink milk. Rather they get water. Also, Mike’s out of town today and tomorrow for work. If you watch the Bradley game tonight, maybe you will see him. Finally, we took the Xmas trees out of their rooms, which is why he was talking about Xmas. I hope everyone reading this is healthy! - N   

Q&A with Owen and Rion

Driving to Peoria, I had the boys cornered and thought I'd try to write a posting via my phone. That was a bad idea. They can talk much faster than I can type with my thumbs. Anyway, rather than writing about their week, Owen and Rion decided to ask each other questions. Following is their conversation.

Owen: Rion, what's your favorite number?
Rion: 100. It's a one and two zeroes. Owen, what's your favorite number?
Owen: 25. I just like 25. When I'm 25 I won't need to be with you guys anymore.
Rion: Owen, what's your favorite zoo animal?
Owen: My favorite zoo animal is a jaguar. Rion, what's your favorite food?
Rion: Mac and cheese. Owen, what's your favorite animal pet?
Owen: That's easy. (Pause) Actually it's not easy. Bird. Rion, what's your favorite drink?
Rion: Juice. Owen, what's your favorite plant?
Owen: I'm not saying poison ivy. It's my last favorite. It's trees. Trees help you survive.
Rion: No, they make paper towels.
Owen: Rion, what's your favorite kind of car? (And, in case you are wondering, yes, they really said each other's name each time they would ask a question. They are always saying each other's names.)
Rion: Minivan
Owen: What kind?
Rion: Color first. All different kinds of colors. Red.
Owen: What kind? Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Ford?
Rion: Ford! Ford is my favorite one.
Bud: Why do you want a minivan?
Rion: We want people and a tv in a minivan. We want to watch tv.
Owen: On the way to daycare...

The conversation went downhill from there. They lost focus on the questions and just wanted to talk about the shows they could watch in the minivan and the far away places they could drive to watch all of those shows. -N

Chuggington

I love the Chuggington movie. Chuggington has only trains. I watched it with Mommy. It was like Thomas the Train Engine movie. I love it because all of the trains are on it. Blue trains and red trains and that’s it. Done.

- Rion

For those of you who don’t watch Disney channel, Chuggington is a new Disney channel cartoon. It’s their version of Thomas (with lots of marketing potential). I can just see them making all of the Train characters into little die cast models for Mike to collect.

-N

Just a typical Sunday

Rion found a water ball and said he wanted to go dress up for swimming. He returned wearing a pirate’s hat, his Republican elephant tie, binoculars, and a Cubs necklace. Who knows what goes through his head!

Which is worse?

I can’t decide which is worse, the big toys that take up half of the floor…

… or the little legos that are never completely picked up.

-N

Swim Lessons

i lrnd how to swim under the weater and on top of weater!

Question: Where did you learn to swim?
Answer: at the swiming pool.

Question: Who taught you how to swim?
Answer: my techer

Question: Was it fun?
Answer: yes

after the swiming pool i eat lunch!
- owen

I swimmed. I had new teachers. I jumped in the pool and went under water. Done. I went under water lots of times. I love swimming lessons. Done.
- Rion

Winter Gala

Kindercare held a winter gala on Friday night, where each class performed a show to entertain the parents and families. Rion's class sang three songs and said a poem, including throwing paper snow balls at the audience. Owen's class performed a fashion show where each child wore two outfits. Daycare was packed, but the kids and staff did a great job!
- N

I sang songs by myself. Ms. Jennifer and Ms. Dayna (Rion's teachers) were there. Everybody were there. Everybody sang. I liked watching Owen. I liked the cookies. And I ate chocolate chip and blueberries and raisins (he laughs!). Done Mommy I'm done.
- Rion

I really like my Winter Gala because I got to where my Cubs jersey and a suit with a tie. So, I might be done with all of the Winter Gala's because I'm not going to be at daycare next winter. I saw Rion in the front of the seats and then I gave Rion a high five! Then, Daddy and my best friend named Sam C and Mommy.


- Owen

Rion's Trip to the Movies

I loved the movies! I liked the whole Thomas movie. I never got up at the movie theatre. I want to go back and see "Runaway Kite" again. Done.
- Rion

Rion and I went to see the Thomas movie. He enjoyed the movie, but really loves the popcorn, lemonade, and fruit snacks.
- N

Snow

Snowballs from Daddy.

Rion loves to shovel, even if there isn't any snow.

One more thought

One more thought - We've been at this for 10 days, and the boys are really starting to enjoy it. Owen asked to write something tonight about his birthday party and he really enjoyed typing his own post yesterday. Does anyone know how we're supposed to teach him to type? We're letting him type with two fingers just to learn the keyboard, but I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do or not. And, Rion wants to do anything that Owen does. But, he wants every post to say, "I love Owen" or "I love my brother". Nothing yet from Mike. If I were to bet, I'd say that I'll badger him into one post for the year and that's it. We'll see! :)
- N

Owen's 6th Birthday Party #2

Today I had a birthday party because I wanted to play with my friends. I went bowling for my birthday. I had like the coolest gift bags. I liked all my presents.
- Owen

I love Owen. I went to Owen's birthday party. I was trying to find Billy my friend and I went bowling with Billy. I want to play with Mater the Greater (Owen's gift that he won't let him play with yet). I loved the cake! I loved the icing! I'm done. I love my brother.
- Rion

Owen had 20+ kids help him celebrate his birthday at the local bowling alley. The kids were friends of ours, from daycare, and from school. We had a great time catching up with the parents, and the kids had fun bowling and chasing each other. As always, we had tons of food left over, but Mike's already started making a dent in it.

I'm amazed. First, I should say our kids have way too much! We are very grateful to everyone who's contributed, just not sure where it's all going to go. I'm amazed though that even though they've probably gotten 20-30 lego sets in the past month, we only had one duplicate. In total, I think there are only 2 things we have to return. Anyway, thanks to everyone that attended and I'm sorry we couldn't talk to you more! I'll post pictures later.
- Natalie

Owen Typed This All By Himself!

i like to be with my family. i am going to woch speed raceer today. are mommy is not going to eat dinner with us today! we have the moive bolt! when i got my shot it tock three pepal to hold me down an rion was the strogist one! becsus he wantid a suker. cald a pop. dun owen

Owen's Birthday

I had a Hot Wheels birthday. And, I had Hot Wheels balloons. I sure had fun with my family at my house when I played with my friends. I love when my family and friends come to my house. We celebrated Christmas the same day. Thank you for coming to my birthday party! I watched the movie McQueen on Blu Ray.
- Owen

We played upstairs in Owen's room. We runned out of it.
- Rion

Parent - Teacher Conference

Tonight was our parent - teacher conference with Rion's daycare teacher. She says that he's doing great, is very bright, listens, sits still, is a good sleeper, and uses words to express his feelings. I have to wonder if she was really talking about our Rion? : )

Since they have both had such good reports, we celebrated by having Portillo's and a chocolate cake shake. Yum!

The Toughest Boy

I didn't cry while doing my shot. I was good at the shot. We got to watch tv and ate a sucker. And, I didn't need a band aid for my shot. Done.
- Rion

Last night all 3 boys got their H1N1 shots. Rion did great and hardly cried. He did have a sucker in his hand and was eyeing an Iron Man sticker. That definitely helped. Owen was a different story. It took three people to hold him down.
- Natalie

Four Days Off!

We hope you had a great xmas and were able to spend time with family and friends! We spent some time in Florida, enjoying the time with Grandpa and Nick. Everyone got home on Wednesday and we're now enjoying four days off. The boys are playing with all of their xmas presents and Owen's birthday presents. Owen spends all of his time with Nintendo DSi and legos. Rion loves Grand Central Station for Geo Trax and legos. Parker is happy to be home from the kennel. Mike is working on some house projects and I have lots of laundry to do.

I thought the boys would be happy to be home, but they keep asking me when they get to go back to Florida.
- Natalie

Owen's New Year's Message

I hope you have a nice new year. I love playing Team GeoTrax. When I was in Florida, I turned six. Parker has a birthday next.
- Owen

Question: Owen what is your new year's resolution?
Answer: I want to ride a bike with two wheels. I want to know how to swim with no kickboard.

Rion's New Year's Day Mesage

Hi. I like you. I love you. Today I am fixing the couch and drilling stuff and I'm making a shop and I'm making a Handy Manny shop. It's right by the couch. Done.
- Rion

Question: Rion what is your new year's resolution?
Answer: Be a good eater and eat more peeps. And, learn to swim with a kickboard with my swim lesson teachers. Done.

Happy New Years 2010!

Welcome to our new blog! I read in some magazine that this is a great way to share what's going on in your life and to document history for your kids, so we're going to try it this year. Mike (we'll see), I, and the kids will try to post something at least once a week. And, please leave us lots of comments. It will help the boys learn that people really do read this thing.

Happy 2010! We hope you have a wonderful, peaceful year.
-Natalie