Manners

The last few days we have been noticing that our boys have pretty darn good manners. I thought I would share some examples.

Connor at Wendy's yesterday BELCHED~not burped. "Excuse me!" Some construction workers behind us got a real kick out of that one. Pretty good for a two year old.

At the Mall, we got into an elevator with a lady and her two small boys. Joseph walked right up to them and said, "Hi, my name is Joseph, what's your name?" And then he showed them his toy cat.

Connor got a coughing spell. Joseph asked, "Are you alright Connor?" and Connor replied, "Yes, I'm fine thank you."

Spencer was trying to tell Joseph a story while Joseph was drawing. Joseph said, "Spencer, please stop distracting me, I'm trying to draw." then Spencer responded with "I'm sorry Joseph."

I fixed grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch today. Spencer finished his and said,"Thank you Mommy for making me a delicious cheese sandwich. You are a really nice Mommy to make me a cheese sandwich that I love."

Yesterday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Nelsons to play. After we were there for a little while Joseph said, "Grandma sure is a great friend to let us come play at her house. I better tell her thank you!" Then a little later he came to me and said, "Thank you for bringing us here. You're the best mom I ever had!" (o:

And our last one~we went to the library the other day. There were several girls about 10-12 years old standing in the door way. We needed to get by. Joseph said "excuse me" and they totally ignored him. I said "excuse us" and they shot me a dirty look like how dare I ask them to move out of the area that people exit from. We walked around and as we did Joseph said, "Why are those girls so rude and not using their manners?!" I know they heard him say it. Why indeed! It's not hard to teach kids good manners. Why are there so many kids out there who are so good at disrespect? I'm glad that we are trying to teach our kids to be kind and polite. (they are also rambunctious boys, but they really do try) (o: We are by no means claiming perfection, but I like to think that by teaching our boys they can lead by example and help make the world a better place! (o: (yes, I know, corny!)

Super Awesome Day!

Personally, I think that the title of the blog and this first picture says it all about our day yesterday, but it would probably be good to add a little explanation. Travis suggested that we take the boys to Discovery Park~a huge park with a 4 mile hiking loop. Here's a link if you want to see where we were. http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/Environment/discovparkindex.htm

We hiked through the forest and then spent 20 minutes going down a billion steps and bridges to get down to the ocean water. We stayed there for a bit and then hiked back up. The boys did a really great job keeping up and had a great time!

While hiking Travis gave the boys a lesson on aphids and why they are called "spit bugs". There is a picture of Travis showing it to the boys and then, a picture of the spit bug's eggs. Very educational. They also played under a really cool tree that if it rained would have given great coverage! I especially loved the picture of Travis walking with the boys. They wanted to walk with Daddy, not with me. They love his days off! Can you blame them?

The picture of Travis and Connor is so precious. Connor's favorite thing in the whole world is to go to Seattle with his Daddy and throw rocks and see the "baba-booey" (buoy) (it's a Howard Stern thing that will have to be a blog all on it's own cause it's so cute).

Oh, and the bottom picture was of a VW bug painted like an alien that we saw up on Capital Hill. That place has an extremely eclectic bunch of people with several umm, alternative bars...Well, the picture below kind of explains the whole town, but we thought it was a pretty funny car. Last weekend there was a gay pride parade in the area. The kids got a kick out of seeing a new part of town and liked all the rainbow flags that were hung on all the buildings.

Needless to say, it was a truly awesome day! We are so lucky to have each other and be a family that just likes to be together. Joseph was upset when I said we were going home. He said Travis and I were boring at home! Imagine that! (o:

Books

Today I took the boys over to the library and we picked up all the information and charts we need for the summer reading program. This years theme is "Get a Clue" and it has a cute little dog dressed as a detective. Some of the books that they are promoting are the I Spy books which totally thrilled Spencer because he loves those books. Each boy got their own little booklet thing (even Connor) and their names have been entered into the computer. We got a schedule of events for our library as well. There are some really cool things going on this summer, but a lot of them have age restrictions, so we will have to chose dates when Travis can watch Connor.

It's so great that there are programs like this to help get kids excited about reading and also to keep kids interested in books during summertime. We aren't really having an "official" summer with schooling, because we have been so informal this year. We will have a "formal" beginning in the fall, but we are just kind of continuing on throughout the summer with what we have been doing all year. Joseph actually learns better when he doesn't know he is learning. As soon as we sit down to do formal learning, he begins the yawning and the whining...The older he gets the more structured we will be, but for Kindergarten, we've just had fun!

Anyway, in the booklet, they get to color in a square for every 20 minutes that they read or are read to. They get a prize from the library at the half way mark, which is 500 minutes, and then another prize when they complete 1,000 minutes. Tonight we settled on my bed like we do every night and read stories, only Joseph was much more determined to do the reading himself and then when we were all finished, we had to color in that square. It was all very exciting!

Tomorrow we are going to bake cookies and take them to Kohl's for all of Travis's co-workers. I made a small batch and sent them with him the other day and got in trouble for not sending enough, so tomorrow we are going to do a seriously large batch and take them over. The boys love baking cookies and visiting their dad, so tomorrow looks like a very promising day!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to all the super great dad's out there. Today Travis's folks joined us at church to hear Joseph speak and ate dinner at our house. Here is a picture of three generations of Nelson men!

Where did the week go?

I can't believe that the week is already gone. What did we do? What made it go by so fast? Let's see. Tuesday was a slightly stressful day for Travis. His boss...um...left Kohl's. He just wasn't quite cut out for Store Manager. He was a really nice guy, but his job didn't quite fit him. So, since Travis is in the top 8 people in the store, losing his boss, plus one other who is on maternity leave, that leaves it to 6 people. Then, two are on vacation this week...It's pretty much been whittled down to bare minimum this week. So, it's been a tad stressful for Travis. The cool thing is he has really risen to the occasion. He likes this kind of stress because it means he's working-he has a job-he's being productive. I love his attitude. Plus, we are hoping that him stepping up right now will help improve his chances for the Executive promotion next month.

Wednesday we spent the day with Grandma Deone. We went to Super Wal-Mart and Joseph got to spend his tooth fairy money (he lost one of his lower teeth). He got a Grave Digger that the top comes off. He has several Grave Digger monster trucks, but they are each different. Here is a picture of him with it. He made a ramp and can really make the thing fly.

Thursday we went for a little drive with Daddy because it was his day off. As soon as Connor sees that his dad is home he starts on us. "Go Seattle, throw rocks in water, see Space Needle..." and on and on. We didn't do any of that, but we did take him for a drive and I think he enjoyed himself. When we got home I started getting a migraine. That's what we did all day Friday. I laid on the bed and couch and tried not to move my head too much while watching the boys watch tv. Nice, eh?

But, now it is Saturday. Headache is gone, Travis is off to work, and the boys and I are getting ready to go make cupcakes and cards for their dear old dad for tomorrow. Plus, Joseph has to practice his talk that he is giving tomorrow in Primary. (I know the date says Friday, cause I started this yesterday and can't figure out how to change the date~but I wrote 90% of this today) (o:

That is our super exciting week.

OH! And a slightly belated Happy Birthday to Nate, my baby brother. Yesterday he turned 26!!!!! We are so proud of him. He is married to a lovely young woman. Has 1 1/2 kids (Braelinn and baby unknown). He works for the Cobb County Sheriff's department at the courthouse and his is S.W.A.T.!!!! We love you Nate!

Friends!

Today we had friends over. My friend Katie Bird came to hang out and chat with me, and she brought her nephew, Anthony. Now, I had the brilliant idea of taking a picture of the boys playing together right about the time that Joseph threw a nerf football at Anthony's face and gave him a bloody nose. (my angel!) Katie said he gets bloody noses very easily. Joseph apologized and all was well, but I just didn't think that Anthony would like a picture taken of him with a big old piece of tissue hanging out of his nose, so we'll have to take one next time.

Katie used to be our favorite baby sitter of all times and she was my walking buddy, but alas, she grew up on us and got a job up in Redmond, so we don't get to see her very often. Her dad is our home teacher and her mom is Connor's nursery teacher, but we don't get to see much of Katie, so I always enjoy time chatting with her. Joseph and Spencer get to see Anthony at church every Sunday, and I do believe that Anthony is a huge reason why Joseph likes church, but they can't really play in church, so it was nice for them to run like crazy people all through the place today. We baked cookies this morning, so after a couple of hours they stopped long enough to gulp down some cookies and then were off playing again. Joseph is right now sitting in the living room acting all dramatic because he already misses his friend. I told him that if he would like, I could enroll him in regular school next year and he could be in the same school with Anthony, but the idea of regular school away from home and all the cool stuff we do here...well, he can wait for Anthony's next visit. (o:

So a big thank you to Anthony for coming and playing with my boys and to Katie for helping me keep my sanity by talking to another grown up girl. (o: We love you!

Joseph's Fashion Statement

Have you ever seen "The Big Comfy Couch"? There's a clown named Major Bedhead in it. He wears a bike helmet and his hair's always sticking out of it. OR even better and more in our minds...have you ever seen the movie "Benchwarmers"? You know Jon Heder's character~the one that always wears the bike helmet and he's not quite all there in the head? (here's a picture of him) (If you haven't seen Benchwarmers-yes, he is Napoleon Dynamite)

Well, check this out! Yesterday we went for a drive over to Ballard (by Seattle) to drive across the Ballard bridge for our bridge boy-Spencer (and also so I could see if any of the boats from my favorite show were there~Deadliest Catch on the Discovery channel~). Joseph insisted on wearing his helmet...all day. Why you ask? Great question! We asked him the same thing. He said to keep his head protected. Protected from what? Anything that might hit it. GREAT! Here he is...

Now, we think he's pretty cute and if he wants to wear a bike helmet everywhere that's fine with us. Give him his fashion freedoms. But while we were in Ballard, we got stuck in traffic. Joseph had his window rolled down and was sticking his head out the window. We had people waving, honking, and getting a good chuckle out of our crazy little kid. He of course hammed it up perfectly. He waved back and yelled "AFLAC!" to anyone who laughed.

One day in the far future, he is going to see this and hate my guts for it, but for now, we think it's pretty funny!

The Joys of Summer-sorta

Here are a couple of cute pictures of the first popsicles of the season. The boys really enjoyed them and I really enjoyed them cause they are these new slow melt popsicles. So much better! Luckily we got these popsicles and enjoyed them for a couple of days cause the last couple of days it has been true Seattle weather. Cool and rainy. I love the rain and you will never find me complaining about it, but the boys are not too hip on it when they could be out eating popsicles.

A Fun Weekend

I've gotten many requests for more pictures! Mostly from family because I am so bad at snail mailing pictures to anyone. I don't even print them for myself. So, here are lots of pictures of this weekend. It was such a beautiful day Saturday we went to Alki (as usual) and that's where we took the family picture located to the right------>
Then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's and tried out their new sprinkler. We hadn't planned on trying out the sprinkler, but it was hot and we figured what the hay. This is why Spencer is in his underwear in the very last picture. Didn't bring swimming trunks and his jean shorts got too heavy, so he took them off. Travis and I had a nice time just talking with his folks.

Needless to say we had a lot of fun and the boys slept very well Saturday night. Actually almost too well, cause it was a bit of a battle getting them up Sunday morning for church.