HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Monday was Andrew's 3rd Birthday! He's growing so much. He is only about 1/2 an inch shorter and weighs just 2 pounds less than Nick! Drew has changed a lot recently too... Saying so many smart things and really watching his surroundings. He and Nick will start preschool here in about a week and a half-- *sigh*-- my baby's growin' up!

And in other SPECIAL news, TODAY is Josh's birthday!! He is 33 years old!
In recognition of this FINE man, I thought it would be fun to list 33 facts about him...

1- Josh was born in Germany

2- He is 6'4" tall and still the shortest brother in his family

3- When Josh was younger, he named his dog "Dammit"

4- He LOVE LOVE LOVES powdered doughnuts with raspberry filling

5- Josh makes a wierd noise with his thumb and pointer finger (like a bug), and scares people with the noise all the time

6- Josh plays music mostly by ear and not sight

7- He has a special recipe for his very own oatmeal cookies which he only revealed to me after we were engaged

8- He can make a Tarzan yell better than ANYONE

9- He has NINE (9) pairs of shoes. (hehehe)

10- Josh can't help but correct family when they use improper English so his family nicknamed him "The Professor"

11- He LOVES to use puns. Intentionally. All the time. Seriously. ALL THE TIME. Also, he HATES it when I call him "Funny's cousin, Unfunny." :D

12- Josh thoroughly enjoys learning about history and would watch the History Channel on TV for hours on end if he could- (& if we had cable lol)

13- He also loves watching episodes of The Office-- the practical jokes that Jim plays on Dwight crack him up.

14- Josh has written me, personally, 2 songs-- & both are beautiful!

15- He always sings in the shower-- and not just like the humming soft singing that most people do... he BELTS those songs out.... and when he mows the lawn.... and when he changes the oil.... and ... hmmmmm... about everywhere.

16- He has TONS of hobbies- he plays guitar and sings, writes his own music, fishes, hunts (both bow & arrow and rifle), golfs, plays basketball, pans for gold, uses a metal detector, motorcycles, hikes, and more.

17- Scooby Doo was one of his FAVORITE cartoons as a young'n-- then Johnny Bravo (even as an adult)

18- One of his favorite CD's/ soundtracks is George Frederick Handle's "The Messiah"

19- He gives GREAT shoulder/neck and back massages! And is the BEST Hugger!

20- Josh smells good. :)

21- He loves to travel to new places, and wants to travel the world.

22- Josh always pulls the sheets and blankets off the bed and into tangled knots, and then blames me.

23- Josh built our house and did a dang good job.

24- He bottles the green beans out of our garden each year, all I have to do is help him snap the ends off.

25- As a 24 year old guy, Josh used to get free ice cream cones from a friend we worked with if he gave her a puppy dog face with his lip sticking out. LINDA-- You know what I'm talking about, so don't deny it! :)

26- Josh is a good dancer! (we don't usually get to dance together cause he's ALWAYS playing in the band, but he can bust a move!)

27- Josh is an uncle to 29 nieces and nephews

28- He hates the dollar stores.

29- Josh wants to serve a couples mission with me when we're old and gray.

30- Josh is pretty non-confrontational, but that doesn't mean he wont get you back... he's like a Giant St. Bernard who will pounce up on you with his paws on your chest licking your face and panting while he pees on you. LOL

31- Josh has only shaved his face completely of any goatee or mustache 2 times in the 9 years we have been together-- both times NOT telling me first that he was going to so I was surprised each time!

32- Josh is a romantic. He loves surprises, gifts, giving flowers, smooching, stuff like that. Yes ladies, I know... I AM LUCKY!

33- Josh refuses to own his age until the VERY DAY of his birthday. If you asked him last night at 11:59 how old he was he would still say thirty-two. He hates getting older.


I love you Josh! You make my world. We are so blessed to have the great love that we do in our home! I thank Heaven every day for you! You bless my life in more ways than I could tell you!

Naughty words?

The other night we took the kids out to eat at A&W and were having a nice and cozy little dinner with everyone in good spirits. No one was being naughty. No one was saying anything they shouldn't. Out of the blue and in between bites Nick inquired:

"Mom, why do you always say naughty words? You always say that you won't... but you do." (bite) "You always try not to, but you do." (swallow) ""WHY do you say naughty words all the time?"

Meanwhile, I sat there with my mouth open in shock. Josh leaned back and smirked at me and then laughingly asked "What words are you saying all day while I'm at work?" And the girl at the next table almost choked on her hamburger laughing.

OK. It's not as if I have NEVER said a bad word. I will confess to my imperfections, BUT I DO NOT make it a habit of saying naughty words! Especially around my kids. So I'm thinking of the words he could be referring to and they are: (and prepare yourself for these doozies) stupid, and Duh.

It was funny. But the way he was talking, anyone passing by would've thought that I had the mouth of a sailor!


But it doesn't end there. Life is fair in some aspects. The kids are generally fair in picking on both Josh and I. Soon after Nicks comments, Paul asked if I remembered when he was a "little kid" and used to say that "Daddy toots like a stinky cow!" And as he giggled at his own memory of it, Nick and Andrew began repeating "Daddy toots like a stinky cow!"

Then it was MY turn to look at Josh and smirk. "Yep Paul. I do remember that." I said as I smiled broadly at Josh and in return got a dirty look.

The Bash

Every year, the first weekend in August is the "Barzee Bash". It's Josh's mom's side of the family reunion. They hold it up in Birch Creek where Josh's Grandpa's old homestead and cabin still stands. TONS of people come for it. The Friday night of the Bash is the band/dance night. Everyone heads on down to the Lone Pine Cafe and then Josh, along with his Uncle Bryant, his mom, aunt, and cousins (& pretty much anyone who can play) will play music for several hours and everyone dances and catches up with one another. It's fun. There's usually a lot of smoking and alcohol though, so good natured as folks are, I keep the boys on a pretty short leash while we're up there. There's also alot of motorcycling. This year Josh has a bike again, (thank you Donnie!)so we took it up with us to break it in! Our friend Donnie and his friend Jared came up on Friday to do some biking too. They were great sports to drive up that far for so short a time to play. They even helped Josh set up our tent so that he could have more time to play. The little boys were excited to get to ride with Josh a little bit & Josh was really happy to get to motorbike on his own bike again. He injured his shoulder pretty badly the last time he did much motorbiking. Here are some pics.

No slowing down...

BOYS are EXHAUSTING. They're wonderful, and fun, and silly, and adorable, and sweet, and hilarious, BUT BOYS ARE EXHAUSTING.
Yesterday was a long day. We're still working on the potty training thing at our house and one of my little darlings decided to try the couch out as a possible substitute for the toilet. We've a had a few incidents this week with trying out the carpet, but the couch? Great. I mean, I can understand the reasoning... who in their right toddler mind wants to miss out on even a second of Sesame Street?But it sure doesn't make my day!

And there's the regular sibling quarrels over things like who gets what sippy cup, and who gets to sit where and so on. Those are always pleasant. Except for when they end up with a hit or a name call. We had a little bit of that yesterday too which caused me to turn in to "Mean Mom" and put them in separate rooms while I made dinner.
But the straw on the camels weakened back yesterday was when they finally were all back to being buds and were outside playing just before bed and Paul accidentally pushed my bicycle over and it landed on Nick's head. It gave him a couple of little cuts, and as we all know, big or small-- head wounds are famous for bleeding. So Mr. Nick let out a terrible scream and when I came running I saw a bloody mess all over his blond curls. The cut really wasn't too bad once it was cleaned up, but to see the blood you would think it was worse.
We got through that all OK, and the boy-ness hasn't let up at all. Tonight Andrew came and got me after they had all been put to bed, and squealed on Nick for making a mess.

I came. I saw. Nick had pulled everything from his closet- the hangers, shirts, blankets, pull ups, etc. and spread them around the room. Then he took the metal bar (that you hang the clothes on)down too. It must have taken a lot of effort to create his masterpiece of a mess because of the 3 boys, he was the only one conked out asleep! At least we know his head wound isn't slowing him down, right?
All of these little experiences are funny to look back on.... at least I'm hoping they will be! LOL

Funnies

Today while I was making lunch for the boys, Paul and Nick decided to get on each others nerves. The next thing I know, I hear Nick tattling to me (he was fine by the way) that Paul just punched him in the face.

I said "What?! Paul! Did you punch Nick in the FACE?"

and Paul responds kind of quietly, "Well, it wasn't very hard...."
I had to turn my head to hide my chuckle. BOYS. SHEESH.

Just for the record, it's not like Nick is this innocent bystander. He teases Paul incessantly. For example, this week he has managed to convince him that Josh and I killed Scooby Doo,

and that Woody (from Toy Story) was coming to our house at 2 AM last night while Paul would be asleep.



As Andrew takes all this in, I'm wondering where I'm headed in this house full of boys. Speaking of Andrew,I have another little story:

Josh and I have gotten into the habit of watching M*A*S*H episodes on DVD at night as we try to relax and while we wait for 11:00 to roll around so we can give Nick his medicine. Well, the other night the boys were still awake and sitting with us. In the episode we were watching, Col. Potter steps in some Horse manure and Frank Burns says "That's Disgusting!"
Col Potter grins and says "Son, to me that's a tiptoe through the tulips!"
I had to tell Paul what Col. Potter had stepped in and that he didn't mind because he loves horses so much. At that point, Andrew grins and sweetly says, "I love horses!"
I said "You do?" Andrew answers back, "Yes!" and then turning to Josh finishes with "And Daddy! I love horse poop."

Nice. Thank you.

And now, for what I hope will be the Final excitement for this installment of "My 3 sons", as I have been typing this, Andrew snuck into my bathroom (he was supposed to be having a nap)and decided to try mascara.
Paul ratted him out and so I told Andrew to come here.When I saw this face, I asked him to bring me what he used-- thinking it would only be this:
He returned with these:
SO, I sent him back to bed, only to have him return moments later with a cut on his lower lip from trying to scale up the side of Paul's bunk bed.
Some Days!