Cover Your Ears

Or at least turn down your speakers, because I am a noisy boy!

Ever wonder what it's like to spend three minutes with a 15 month old? Well, you can stop wondering. Here's our gift to you...

Have a great weekend! Jake and I are headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend while Mom and Dad take a little vacation.

Love,
R

There's No Point...

...to this post.

Then again, there's no point to most of the stuff we do around here.

But, we are cute and we make Mom laugh and then she takes pictures of us so that maybe you will think we are cute and laugh, too.

So, I guess there IS a point.

Have a good day!

Love,
J & R

Aquarium with Grampa

Last Friday we went tot he aquarium with grampa Mike. Mom only took pictures with her phone, so they're kinda blurry...

We have some good pictures to share from our little photo shoot yesterday, but we will put those up later. We're off to school now!

Love,
J & R

Almost Done!

Check this out!

See Grampa Mike up there?

Even little guys like me can help.

I checked out the ladders.

I even stacked pieces of wood with Jake.

It's almost done. Which is good, because Grampa Mike leaves tomorrow and this project would surely stall without him.

This afternoon, we're headed out to do something fun. Maybe the aquarium!

Love,
R

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Well, it's raining. Working outside and painting is no fun in the rain.

Maybe we'll take a little break from work today and find something fun to do with Granmpa.

This morning, I showed him my Leapster (the new one I haven't barfed on yet).

Ryan stuffed about 12 strawberries into his mouth right before Mom took this picture.

Mom braved the rain and went out to take a few pictures of the progress they made yesterday. (I helped a TON yesterday... by going to Grandma and Grandpa Holko's house with my brother. )

You can almost picture what it will look like when it's all done...

And you guys are right, it DOES look huge in pictures. It's really not as big as it looks.

Hope you have a great day. We're off to play with Grampa Mike!

Love,
J & R

Workin'

No time for lots of stories today...we're busy working!

Just a few pictures...

Lots more to do! We'll post more pictures later.

Love,
J

It's Not Like This Everywhere?

We had our first fire (the good, contained kind...not the burn down the city kind) the other night. It's been so nice outside all week that Mom said we all had to stay outside and play.

Jake helped to keep me safe and kept telling me the fire was HOT. Not sure what it means, exactly, but it was fun to try to say the word "hot!"

In addition to learning about fire, I've also discovered bikes. I see Jake riding these things around all the time and it looks awesome. It goes something like this...

Oh, nevermind. I'll just wear his helmet and chase him this way!

Jacob and I are very excited. We've got another visitor coming tomorrow...and it's GRAMPA MIKE! Jake has been giving me the countdown all week. One more day!

Have a great weekend!

Love,
R

Monsters

Did you know we have monsters in our house?

Mom thought they were cute when she saw them at the store, so she got two of them for Valentine's Day presents for us. Of course, we saw them as soon as she walked in the door.

So, Monday afternoon we (mostly Mom) thought it would be fun to take some Valentine's Day photos to put in our cards.

All was going well...

...until THIS happened.

Yeah, they looked cute and innocent, with their little heart-shaped antennae and all. See him looking over our shoulders at the candy hearts?

Thanks a lot, Mom.

Watch out for the Valentine Monster.

Love, Ry

Girls

I like girls. I've always liked girls.

But I've gotta tell you, I just don't get girls. I mean, they want to TALK all the time...

I'm a guy. I like guy things. Like playing sports.

But really, all a girl has to do is look at me like this, and I'll do whatever she wants.

Isn't she pretty?

She was able to convince me to sit with her and sing...

Ryan clearly did not approve. He said brothers are supposed to stick together.

Just wait til he gets a little older. He'll know how it is...

Happy Monday!

Love,
J

The Poo Poo Dirt Day

Yep, that's what I said. Poo Poo Dirt Day.

That's what I decided to call Wednesday when we were in the car. Mom and I laughed pretty hard at this because, well, it was kind of a poo poo dirt day.

That doesn't mean we didn't have a good day, however.

Betsy was here and we all decided to make a trek up to see some dinosaurs in Cabazon, just outside of Palm Springs. We loaded up the car and the four of us headed out in the morning.

We'll spare you all of the details, but here's what Mommy posted to Facebook later that day.

I learned a few things today:
1.) Jake gets carsick.
2.) Leapster gaming devices don't work after you barf into the game slot.
3.) Palm Springs might be in the desert, but that doesn't mean it isn't freezing there. And windy.
4.) CHP officers give out coloring books to kids stuck on the freeway with their moms.
5.) AAA is the best investment ever.
6.) When given the choice to laugh about a bad day or cry, it's WAY better to laugh.

Yep, I puked all over my brand new Leapster. And myself. We had to take off my barf clothes on the side of the road. This is when we realized it was 40-some degrees out and very, very windy. Perfect weather for underpants and a t-shirt.

We kept driving and made it up to the Wheel Inn diner. There really were dinosaurs there!

And there really was snow on the mountain right in front of us.

Mom bought me a giant sweatshirt that went down to my ankles so I was at least a little bit covered up and we checked out the dinos. Since it was so very cold and windy, Mom barely took any pictures.

But, we got one that we think is pretty special.

This place is kinda special. We'd guess most people reading this know why it is a special place for Betsy.

(Here's a link to some info about this place...if you're a fan of Pee Wee Herman, chances are you will remember the dinosaur scene at the Wheel Inn diner.)

Mom screwed up and had her camera on the wrong setting and waaay overexposed all the rest of the pictures she snapped. Here are the few that you can at least kinda see...

After a surprisingly good lunch at the diner, Betsy headed off to LA with a wonderful friend of cousin Ken's. We headed home.

About half way, Ryan and I were awakened by an interesting sound. Something loud happened, then Mom pulled off to the side of the freeway. I was still a little groggy, and I heard Mom on the phone. She hung up and said we had good news and bad news.

Bad news: flat tire on the freeway.

Good news: a TOW TRUCK was coming!

I'm four. This far outweighs the bad news.

We sat and waited in the car, throwing fruit snacks at Ryan to keep him laughing. Then, a CHP officer on a motorcycle pulled up and made sure we were all ok, and he gave me a coloring book.

(I wonder if he noticed the car smelled like barf and I was in my underpants?)

The tow truck came and we were changed out in about 7 minutes.

The we had to navigate the remaining 50 miles home on a donut tire. We were THAT car, driving on the freeway with flashers on, going 50.

We finally got off the freeway and took surface streets. No joke, we hit EVERY red light for 30 miles. It was funny, actually.

We were hungry. We'd been in the barf car for lots of hours. We just wanted to get home...and that's when I dubbed it a "Poo Poo Dirt Day."

But you know what? It was actually a pretty great day. Any day spent with people you love counts as a great day.

We had to say goodbye to Betsy yesterday, so we'll be missing her. We're so glad she got to come out and play!

Today we're just hanging out at home. Maybe we'll take some pictures...

Love,
J

Monster Birthday Party

We are on our way out the door to go on a little adventure, but we just wanted to post a few pics from my party last night.

Thank you, one and all, for making it such a great day for me. I got SOOO many wonderful gifts!

Love,
J