Feels like summer

Is it really almost October? It was 90 degrees here in Portland today! It is after midnight and is still 70 outside. Pretty crazy. In a few days it will be back down in the 60s and wet... gotta love Oregon!

Another weekend gone...and we're tired.

We had a good weekend and it just flew by. Yesterday we played at the park, cleaned the house, went to a friend's housewarming (love your house Laura), and had family dinner.

Here are a few pix from today... banana waffles (or waffle makers as Ben calls them), went to church, played outside, played inside, napped, Brian worked, played softball... thank you Papa and Mimi for watching the kids tonight. Did dad find his "big shooter marble?"

Weee tunnels...

Born in Arizona Mac still loves the sun...

Juice! Brian loving my new bat. So does everyone else! Nice legs #9

Much needed and off to bed.

Mr. Cranky Pants

I just woke up from a nap and I am still tired... My mom put me down which really annoys me. I take after my dad and my brother and am a slowwwww waker-upper.

Here is the best stink eye I can give ya.

TGIF

It has been a really busy week around the Adams house... YAHOO the weekend is finally here! Brian took the afternoon off to golf with JD and Colin. I think his head is still spinning with everything going on in the financial world.

This weekend we have a few things planned and are hoping to have time to relax and hang out as a family...play games, ride bikes, go to the park etc.

I am going out of town next week with 5 girlfriends so will be busy getting Brian prepped on taking care of the boys for 4 days - yikes! I will miss them like crazy but am really looking forward to it. :-)

Big one Little one

Ben follows Sam everywhere. If Sam is playing with cars, so is Ben... If Sam is wearing socks, Ben wants socks. If Sam has milk, Ben wants milk. It is pretty funny to watch them in action. This morning Brian got out of the shower and found them in Ben's room. They were all hunkered down behind the bed in their little hiding spot...Sam reading stories to Ben.

Of course they have their moments of not wanting to share, or not wanting to be tackled by the other one etc. But for the most part they are pretty good buddies. Yesterday I heard Sam telling his brother "We can't turn on those lights because we don't want to waste energy!" and today "Here, let me take your shoes off for you... We can't jump on the bed with our shoes because we'll get it alllllll dirrrty." Quite the little helper.

Yep, I let my kids jump on the bed. Bad mom.

Professor update: Brian was interviewed again this week on KPAM (talk radio). He was locked out of his office that morning but was able to get in and do the interview a bit late... they opened the segment with Bryan Adams "Please forgive me..." It was too funny. KOIN showed up at UP yesterday and filmed his class and interviewed Brian and one of his students for the 5:30 news. He will be on KGW again tonight after another interview in his office this am. I am married to quite the celebrity although he says he is ready for it to end...

Close your mouth will ya!

Sam had swimming lessons tonight - he is loving it and is crazy about his teacher - John. If he could stop smiling long enough to close his mouth when he goes under water it would greatly reduce the amount of sputtering and choking!

He especially loves seeing Lizzie every week. Tonight Papa and Mimi took them out for ice cream after class. Sam had to get green ice cream (choc chip mint) because that's what Lizzie ordered.

Ben was happy to stay home with Brian tonight. Trains, cars, bath, animal crackers - what more could a kid want?

The Professor - Part II

Here is Brian's news clip. He was on KGW last week talking about Lehman Brothers and other ecomonic news. He will be interviewed tomorrow morning on KPAM, a local talk radio station at 7am.

Sam: Let's watch it again.
Ben: I wanna watch Thomas.

Where did the day go?

*birthday party with bouncy houses, bouncy slides and kids just bouncing off the walls (below is a picture of Sam with a ring pop he received as a party favor. He has no idea what it really is (candy) and carried it around all day telling me it was really sticky!)
*brian golfed with friends
*the boys got haircuts...thank goodness as Sam was starting to look like David Letterman
*the kids got to play with friends at Jennah's tonight
*lots of snuggling, giggling and stories at bedtime (see above)

Ben is starting to carry around treasures like his older brother... if you look closely you can see a race car, 2 trains, a blue marble and Percy. He would carry more if he could.

SCRUMBLE

Sam pulled Scrabble out of the closet last night. He loves to play games...and usually makes up the rules as he goes. His version of Scrabble is picking letters out of the box and spelling names and random words...SAM, BEN, DIEGO, MOMMY, LIZZIE etc.

We play a lot of Scrabble in Sunriver. It usually starts with Ellen saying "Can we spell swear words?" and ends with Dad saying "It's a Scrumble!" If you don't know what a scrumble is, well we don't really know either. It started one night after a few beers and stuck.

I Heart my Mini

We finally have our van back - yahoo! This is the second time someone has hit me in a parking lot and hasn't left a note...

BAD karma people!

I have been driving Brian's 4Runner all week and am so happy to have my spacious, kid friendly mini back!

Five things that made me smile today...

1. Was I dreaming? I can hardly believe this myself, but a miracle happened last night ~ Ben slept through the night! I know this sounds crazy considering he is almost two… but he has never been a sleeper. CRAZY but wonderful!

2. Sam LOVES preschool (and jumping on my bed)!

3. Sam’s little green pumpkin is now orange. The kids have been watering it for months. It should be ripe and ready for picking in October!

4. Finding a bag of Dove dark chocolates in one of the kitchen drawers. Yum!

5. It is a beautiful, sunny day.

The Professor...

The boys think it is just hilarious to play hide and seek in our bed. They hide under the comforter and giggle while we count to 10.

Brian was asked to do a live interview on the news tonight about issues surrounding the Lehman Brothers' Bankrupcy. Here he is trying to get out the door for his TV debut!

He didn't realize it was going to be a one on one interview and was hoping just to be financial eye candy in the background...

Cannon Beach

Brian and I took the kids to Cannon Beach this morning after breakfast. It was a beautiful day...not a cloud in the sky. Sam found a perfect spot to start digging and building sand castles. He made me a special pile of sand spaghetti topped with meat sauce, chocolate and pink ice cream on top!

Ben's feet hit the sand and he headed straight for the ocean. It was freeeeezzzzing!

Before we left Sam decided he was ready to go play in the waves.

Sam took this photo of Brian and me... Not bad! We had such a good day today. Watching the kids play and get so excited about the beach was great. I want more days like this. The sand between my toes, the sun on my back and my sweet family to enjoy it with.

Yay for Stickers

The people that work at Trader Joe's (at least the one by our house) are so great! I have never once received a stare or an unkind word regarding my children running wild through the store. This afternoon we made it all the way to the produce section (about 10 feet from the front door) before Ben decided he was NOT going to sit in the cart another second. He climbed out and and started touching the bell peppers, strawberries, bags of salad etc... we made our way around the corner and he tried lifting 2 gallons of milk out of the cooler. My kids love playing with the meat. It must feel funny all cold and squshy in the packages... and they just can't seem to keep their hands off of it. I must have told them 10 times to keep their hands off of the meat. Sam ALWAYS asks why. He knows the answers to these things... I honestly think he just enjoys asking! I turned my head for 2 seconds and heard B calling... "Mommy, I found something!" I looked over and he was massaging a chunk of Brie. Sam must have read my mind..."B, don't touch that. People are going to buy it and don't want your hands all over it." Hmmm, is that what I just said over in the meat area? We found the monkey and finished shopping. I finally had to pick Ben up and throw him over my shoulder after he refused to get out of the seat of one of those motorized carts. One of the employees came running over and offered the kids some stickers. Yay for stickers! I love that place - they understand kids - at least my kids!

A Twist on Breakfast

Yep, that would be a Thomas train in Ben's Kashi. He was having trouble eating his cereal this morning since he insisted on holding Thomas and Percy in one hand... and the spoon in the other. He usually uses both hands to eat cereal. Strange - yes, but gets the job done! I was getting the kitchen cleaned up and heard "Thomas in my milk!" And there he was...

Bedtime

I must admit that Ben is one snuggly kid.

I think he gets it from his daddy. :-)
His giggles, hugs, wet kisses and sweet smiles make up for his almost two-ness...

the feet stomping, NO, mine phase that we seem to be stuck in.

Two of my favorite, handsome, squeezy boys!

xoxo

At the zoo...

We decided to meet some friends at the zoo this morning so we started the usual routine… breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth etc. Then I started getting organized for the zoo… Two snacks, two lunches, sippy cups, stroller, diapers etc.

We finally made it out to the car; although that was a minor production as Sam decided he had to bring all of his treasures. Today these included two yellow marbles, two Lightening McQueen cars, two rubber dinosaurs he calls Gogie and Babe, and a car remote control (not the car however).

We finally made into the zoo, met up with our friends, and were in line to see the new baby elephant. I guess I expected a little more excitement.

Sam: Where is it?
Me: Right there next to his Mommy.
Sam: Oh.
Ben: He’s wheely cute!

Me: Let’s go find some more other animals ok?
Ben: I wanna go home.
Sam: I’m hungry.

Family Rules

So I have discovered that Sam is listening to me more than I thought. Lately I have heard him repeating quite a few things to his brother that I tend to say.

Today I was making breakfast while they were playing in the other room. It got quiet, and Sam led Ben into the kitchen and pointed to our list of Family Rules (which Sam helped come up with).

“You see Ben? Number 2… what does that one say? It says ‘SHARE’. Yep, that’s it. Share. You have to Share Ben! So do you want to share that train with me?”

Ben thought about that one for about .2 seconds and ran out of the room… “NO!”.

That didn’t make Sam to happy…… “Mommmmmy! He doesn’t wannnnntttt tooo sharrrrre!”

Hmmm, I guess Sam needs help with #5.

I Popped it!

It was a mellow weekend around our house. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing outside. Sam remembered that we had a package of water balloons left over from his birthday party in May. For some reason he remembered this now – in September. Sunday morning the kids were up extremely early, and by 7am Sam ran through the kitchen and said “Let’s do more water balloons!” Too early, too cold and too early went through my mind – did I already mention too early? Both kids think it is just the greatest thing to fill up a water balloon and throw it in the grass to pop it… over and over and over and over. After a blister from tying about 100 water balloons I heard Brian say several times “This is the last one – maybe mommy can help you.” I am hiding them until next year!
Not as exciting as water balloons, but they are pretty good at getting water pretty much everywhere in the bathroom!

End of Summer...Back to School!

Sam went back to preschool today. He was excited to see his friends and teachers again. Ben has been looking for his big brother all morning. They are playing really well together these days (most of the time)... so we'll have to find some fun stuff for the little guy to do a few days a week.

Ben loves anything to do with trains - especially Thomas! He carries Thomas, Percy and the rest of the gang all over the house. He even sleeps with them!

The kids were super excited when Brian returned from running Hood to Coast. Sam wore Daddy's medal everywhere for about 3 days... so of course Ben had to do the same.