Oh hail!

Like everyone else in the area we got hailed on...it's that time of the year again! We went to bed early last night so we were asleep when it hit and it woke me up in a panic..I don't know why the hail freaked me out, but for some reason it did. I think it was just the loudness and longness (real word or not?) of it hitting our house...either way my husband made fun of me and teased me which is just not nice when I am freaked out and tired...but this morning I did see the humor in it!

When Bradley remembered that his car was outside..I beat him home last night and got the garage spot :)..he wanted to get up and check things out. Our first sign that it was not good was that his car alarm was going off..In hindsight, we should have gone out there and looked at the car, but it's not like we could have done much anyway..I was not giving up my garage spot!!

When I woke up this morning I found Bradley still at home..what a treat! Not a treat for him since his car looks like this...

you can see the "hail" holes on the lower left side..nice.. Also, it rained a bit after the hail..nice..

So, Bradley took the day off and we took care of his car and then while we waited for the rental car to be ready we killed time at the zoo! Our yuck day turned out to be a great, fun, family day!

I only grabbed a few pictures today at the zoo, but I loved the one of him on the carousal..he rode one in Disney, but I am pretty sure he slept thru it..so this was his first official ride. To say he loved it and thought it was the greatest thing at the zoo, would be a large understatement!!

every time we went by Bradley was greeted by this..

Stellan..

I am sure that most of you have all heard of/read MckMama's blog..she is not someone that I know, just some random person that I stalk!! I usually read because she cracks me up, but she wrote a post yesterday that I just...cannot find the right word... I just loved it. Her baby is in the hospital right now and I know they would appreciate your prayers. If you have never read her blog I encourage you to read up on it or at least read here to hear about her son Stellan and his start to this world and then read her post from yesterday.

I know my husband teases me about all the blogs I read and that I don't know half of these people, but I have found myself praying to God for many of these people and I just don't think there is anything better that I could do with my free time then go before God with request of those that love him..and for those that don't know him..and I stick to computer time during nap time so no one is getting neglected while I blog..or blog stalk!

deer lease fun

We headed out to the Deer lease for a long weekend and we had tons of fun! I was a bit worried cause Charlie had a fever again, but we figured he could have a fever here or there..I called the Dr's before I left and they wouldn't want to see him until Sunday anyway..so off we went! The beginning of the ride was not a treat with his fever, but once the Motrin kicked in, life was good! How did I not know until now that Motrin is better for a fever???? I have always used Tylenol and it was not working so the nurse told me to use Motrin cause " It works much better for a fever"??????? How have I gone this long without knowing that small piece of VALUABLE information..have to admit I was a little bitter at this lack of information, but oh well!! After about 1 hour after he was given Motrin and a 30 min nap we were back to normal and good to go....until 3 days later when out of nowhere he threw up all over Bradley's lap. I quickly grabbed him and as I am talking to him he proceeds to projectile vomit all over my entire body...literally there was not a part of me not covered in it!!! No more fever and no more throw up since...guess he just had to get it out of his system!
Chillin at DQ with their ice cream!

Addison and Katie were such great helpers this weekend!

This was how we all stayed entertained this whole weekend...there were lots of trips on the 4 wheelers!! Charlie was constantly asking to "ride" and to "see cows". We saw all the usual animals and also got up close and personal with an armadillo and lizard and there was never a lack of hawks around!!

I hope she is not getting old enough to get mad at me when I put these funny photos of her up! We all "relaxed" on the trailer while Adam pulled us around the deer lease on the 4 wheeler..and by relaxed I mean.."check out my bruised back"..

So sweet...I am sure this was promptly followed by someone trying to gouge out the others eye, but at this moment they were sweet!!!

Trying to eat the corn that we feed the deer..

Watching the big boys fill feeders..and secretly salivating for some corn!

Getting some work done with their tools..

Only once did I see someone put a wrench around someones neck..lucky those things lock!

Overall it was another great weekend..now if we can just get back to normal with our sleeping, then we'd all be great!!

Haircut

"My mommy did what to my hair?" "Oh no..this is not good!"

My sweet boy was in need of a haircut...he has cowlicks all over the place so it has to stay super short...Well, I mentioned to Bradley we needed to cut it again and he told me "later" twice, so I just took it upon myself to cut it!! I have shaved it before, but he got a new razor thing so I called him to see which guard I needed. I could not get him at work so I just guessed...good planning huh! I knew that I would more then likely buzz it to short, but I just didn't care! His hair grows soooo fast, I am betting I will need to trim it again in 2 weeks. You cannot really see his hair in this picture, I just love this picture!

This was a week or 2 ago..whenever he woke up from a nap he was having some wild hair..hard to see, but trust me! Getting it wet and slicking it down was not an option, only the bath or full dunking of the head would fix it!

Kinda can see one of his wild patches!

These are all some that I grabbed after the haircut..

He loves to "shave" his head and he will often find the trimmers and carry them around and make the noise that it makes when you turn it on. I am waiting for the day when he turns it on and scalps his hair!

Aquakids!

We put Charlie in swim lessons starting last week and they will take us thru the end of May..right up to pool time! Our only goal was for him to hopefully be able to get out if he falls in and to float. I don't figure he will be a great swimmer when this is all done, we just did it now for safety reasons. No matter what the reason, he is loving it!! And I am loving the long naps after swim class! Last week he slept 3 1/2 hours and he is out now...which is the only reason I am getting to blog! Theses are all from the first week when Allene came and took pictures. My mom came today since she's out of school for Spring Break and she was kind enough to take videos for me and Bradley... and I am vain enough to not put them up!! He loved getting the balls and was grabbing 2 every time..this week there was more kids and he was not impressed that he could only get one at a time. They "swim" to get them and "simw" to put them in the basket.
He was more timid last week cause it was his first time..he was way more relaxed and ..outspoken..today. Make me kinda nervous for next week!

Jumping in is by far the best thing to him...I can barley count to 3 before he jumps in!

Just swimming around!!

I chose a guy for his teacher and was super happy that his skin looks very similar to Charlie's. I have been reading up on mixed adopted families and I am trying to incorporate more people who look like him into his life..choosing Dr's and such..not like I am out shopping for friends! Anyway I was happy that he got a guy teacher and it was an added bonus that he looks similar to Charlie!

Our green meal!

So, you know I love to cook in color and St.Patricks day was no exception!! We headed over to the Brooms house with my brother and Christy and had a green meal!! I made chicken fried steak to go with this and after much thought I decided it was best to leave it alone and not try to color it green! I love coloring my food, but even I had a little bit of a hard time with the deviled eggs!! I managed to get pictures of the food, but no one else..priority's right!

Mashed potato's, deviled eggs, green beans, and broccoli!

(I used this picture just for you Kendra)
I made a jello poke cake..I have made 2 now and I did like the one that I made with cherry jello better, but this one was..okay. It looked better then it tasted, but I don't know why I was surprised..I made it with lime jello and I don't like lime jello, but it was green!! I added coconut extract to the cool whip and it was awesome!! It is actually the perfect cake to keep around, cause it is not really unhealthy and since it just taste okay, then your not that tempted by it! It you want the recipe you can click here to go to Amber's blog and get it!

Mexico!

We left out last Thurs for a 4 day 3 night trip to Cancun. We wanted to go on a trip together and decided on Cancun after a lot of debating..I had been burned before by cold, not blue water and getting to a location and it not being the beach idea that I had in my head..Bermuda rained a lot and was cold, Cabo was cold and the waters were to rough to get in and were not that beachy blue..etc. Not that I am complaining about past vacations..I just learned from them what I wanted this time around. And that was turquoise blue water, nice sandy beaches and water that was warm enough to get into! We may not have had all three of those things each day, but we did most days! We had booked our trip before all the warnings came out saying not to go to Mexico..so we just stayed on the resort at almost all times, but especially at night. We came home fine so I guess our plan worked well!!

I thought this was a fun picture and I was appreciative that the boys participated without complaining!

We attempted to layout when we got there but there was a slight problem with cloud cover and wind..making it a little cold!

This cracks me up!

After giving it a good effort we gave up and went in for dinner..if all else fails then kill time by eating..good planning huh!!

We were a little worried day 2 when we came out and saw these red flags out..on our honeymoon our beach had the red flags out at all times and next to them were guards with guns..nice! This trip they had the red flags out a lot, but did pull out the yellow flag occasionally. As soon as they did we headed in..well, maybe we headed in with a red flag, but everyone else was doing it!

Tylene was nice enough to take pictures while we were in..she actually took most of the pictures, so for that I am super appreciative!! I could go on and on and tell you how ginormous these waves were, but I don't think I can fully describe the bigness of them. Since we got in with a red flag we did ask the life guard if that was okay. He said it was , but we needed to say in a certain area. As we were getting in, a man was getting out and he looked exhausted and warned us of the really bad undertow..sucked all the fun out of it for me!! I was then super paranoid and would barely get in! The guard changed the flag to yellow about 10 min later and then I relaxed a little, but we still did not go far cause you could really feel the undertow.

That's us..yes, that wave is huge!! So, Bradley kept telling me to watch out for my $25 sunglasses that I had to buy at the airport 12 hours prior..not a lot of money, but more then I spend on sunglasses. A huge wave hit me and as I am tumbling head over heals under water..for real.. I am going over a game plan in my head on how to survive and find which way is up. Holding on to my sunglasses NEVER crossed my mind. As I finally find which way is up I find Bradley..thankful to be alive!! His first words.."You did not manage to hold onto your sunglasses?"..."No dear, but I am glad your happy I am alive"

This picture is the only one I have of the "sunglasses" and since they were so important I felt the need to include a picture..

This is how Bradley and I are different..I feel that I am getting sunburned so I put my SPF 70 on for the third time..he adds no more sunscreen and instead just chooses to cover the parts of him that "feel" like they are getting burned..it worked out real well for him..about as well as my SPF 210.

This is James..James can play tennis..very well...very, very well. Bless his heart for putting up with us!! I had so much fun playing, even if it was a very, very poor performance! His ability to save our out of control balls almost made it seem like we were really playing!

I have no pictures of Tylene and I playing....that's probably a good thing, at least for me, Tylene could hold her own!! This was Bradley attempting to return one of James "real" serves..not the nice ones he hit for us. I think on the 2nd or 3rd attempt he returned one..or at least hit it!!

This is what SPF 70 x 3 will get you..so frustrating.. Notice the patches..niceDinner that night...we all managed to get a pretty good burn..I think James may take home the award though..

What night is complete without entertainment after dinner!! This hotel reminded me a lot of a cruise..the way the meals are set up, the theater for shows, the entertainment director in the afternoons...We hit a show one night..I guess we can call it a show. It was so awful that I took video so others could share in it's awfulness!! It was so bad that we stepped out once I had filmed a bit and went to the gift shop and got some cards. We entertained ourselves with spades and a few other games. Forgot what the game is called, but whatever we were playing in the above picture managed to entertain us for a awhile!!

They did not find it nearly as funny as we did!

We spent the last day shopping around town..our goal was to take a bus to the mall..there were some communication issues along with language barriers..so we ended up right where you are warned not to go..nice! We promptly grabbed a cab and headed to safety..nice

Tylene was so great about taking pictures..even when I was not paying attention! On the next trip I swear I will do better and carry my camera more!

Tylene and James..who by the way, are WAY more photogenic then we are!! We had such a great time vacationing with them..nice, relaxing and restful! Just what we said we wanted...only it could have been one day longer!!

Tylene and me...we had just come back in from our trip around town and in hindsight I should have changed to look a little more beachy..who wears black on the beach???

I love the way the water looks in the background!

On our way home from town we took the bus..it had gone for what felt like forever and at the last stop..so we thought, everyone got off and their bands looked like all of ours did. So as we get up to the Hotel some girls ask us to take a picture for them and then they grabbed one for us..it was after they walked off and we headed towards the hotel we realized this was not our hotel...ours was about 1/2 a mile down the road..nice!!

Only if you want to be punished then watch this video..I cannot believe this was our entertainment!! You can catch Tylene's laugh in it..that may be the only bonus..she has one of the greatest laughs ever!!