My first purchase

Check out my official first "girl" purchase. I dragged Mark to the mall immediately after our ultrasound appointment. Can you tell I'm a little excited? I also bought a big bag of stuff at Old Navy the other day. I assured Mark that I'm officially satisfied......for now anyway :).

I'm not asleep!

Why is it that men can never admit when they are asleep? Is it less "manly" or something? If a man falls asleep when he doesn't intend to does it signify some kind of weakness to himself? I don't get it. I frequently give Mark a hard time because you know...he's getting older and therefore tires more easily these days. He'll usually sit in his chair and quickly close his eyes. After I call his name a few times with no response he'll say "I wasn't sleeping...I'm just resting my eyes". Of course it could just be a case of ...we've been married for a while now and he's just gotten good at tuning out the sound of my voice I guess. But...he could be literally snoring, dead to the world... and then wake up and say "I wasn't asleep!" I try to assure him that it's okay if he was..I mean he works hard, we have 3 crazy rambunctious boys so he has every right to be tired... but he's stubborn and refuses to admit it.

So....I figured I'd just take a picture

But even while snoozing... what a good Dad! I think he had gotten home from work, let the kids climb all over him and then....simply shut his eyes while in the middle of reading "train song" for Tryg.

Note: For the record..he'll tell you he saw me take the picture and he wasn't sleeping!

Derby time

Somehow we missed the whole Derby hype and realized that Dylan had his annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby in like 3 days! And to top it off....poor Dad has to help make 3 cars because there is no way that Luke and Tryg will be okay not having their own race car.

They got right to work cutting, sanding, and painting...

Of course Mark had to read up quickly on all the time tested race secrets and tips regarding how to make your car the fastest on the track. Grandpa Cox emailed his personal race tactics and strategies as well.

Mark managed to get all three cars in working order just in time. Yeah DAD!! Luke and Tryg's cars got the standard 4 wheels and a painted wood body but Dylan's car received a little special attention implementing at least some of those racing tips. Luke enjoyed showing off his version of a "Lightening McQueen" pinewood derby car. It was a madhouse as usual but the boys had a great time.

The night before the race Dylan said his goal was to do better than last year and he ended up with 7th that year (it was his first). I'm always worried about the possible tears that inevitably come to some little cub scout that doesn't win. I just didn't want it to be Dylan.

At first it looked like Dylan was going to take home 4th but apparently two other boys were also in the running for the same place. We had to do somewhat of "race off" and in the end he ended up with a 6th place finish. Bright side...Goal accomplished!

The funny thing is after the official races were over, the little ones got to put their race cars on the track. Mark put a little graphite on Tryg's wheels of his simple wedge shaped car and he ended up beating most of the other cub scouts. How great!! Our little 2 year old probably would have placed 2nd or 3rd with his very simple and un-enhanced car.

Of course he didn't really care...the ice cream was the best part for him.

The boys had a great night and even more fun hanging out with Dad in the days before the race. Hey...at this rate Dylan may end up with a 1st place by the end of his cub scout career :)

Still only 29

Sunday we celebrated Great Grandma Olson's birthday. As you can see she looks great for 29! :). I got the pleasure of making her cake...which you can see I took full advantage of making it very "girly" since most of my cakes are themed around things like batman, race cars, and space aliens. I actually got to break out the pink!

Allie did a superb job with the decorations as always.

Most of the family (minus Scott, Scotty, Dylan, and Amanda's family) Grandma and Grandpa with 2 of their children (Tom and Dawn)

Happy 29th Birthday Grandma Olson...

We Love You!

A Harry Potter Cake???

Last month was Dylan's 9th birthday (yeah..I'm a little behind). We actually had a small get together with just family for some cake and presents a few days before his big bash. Here's cake #1 that I made for him...

So...a while back I guess I told Dylan he could have a slumber party for his birthday and invite a few friends. He immediately decided that it should be a Harry Potter theme party. Dylan has read all 7 books (which is not very normal for an 8 year old) and I had to remind him that most kids at his party would not yet be familiar with Harry Potter but...that did not deter him. He had 5 friends over plus his 2 brothers. So that would be 7 little boys running amuck in my house!!!! For those of you that have been to our house you know that it is very conducive to running laps and that's exactly what they wanted to do the whole time! We had to continually try to break up the madness with games and activities. A few parties back I discovered the best "quiet" activity....I printed some Harry Potter worksheets, word searches, mazes, etc..and they all just sit there like they're in school. It's awesome! (As you can see Dylan's cousin Jake was not too into the worksheet thing) We also had a "pin the glasses on Harry" game, some crafts, and movies in between the running around playing tag, wrestling, etc.. They took a break to open presents... So when Dylan decided he wanted a Harry Potter birthday I thought to myself...how in the world am I going to make a Harry Potter cake??? Dylan offered many suggestions of what I could put on the cake quoting all kinds of foreign words to me that only a Harry Potter fan would know (which I am not!!). I finally just took one of the covers from his books to copy and free handed it. When I was finished I was pretty proud of my creation... Happy 9 years!!! After cake it was time to "STAY IN BED and watch your movie!!!" time. Not an easy task with 7 little boys. I think Jake came into the living room at least half a dozen times after 1o:30pm begging aunt Jo for some more cake.

Well after Mark and I having to get out of bed to tell the boys to be quiet and go to bed at least half a dozen times I think they finally fell asleep about 12:30ish. We finished off the morning with some donuts and of course more running around in circles at high speeds. Thankfully we only ended up with one injury which was Tryg getting knocked down in one of the chase sessions....and he's pretty used to that stuff living with 2 older brothers.

So...I think Mark and I are done with the whole slumber party thing. Don't get me wrong...they were as good as 7 little boys could realistically be...we're just getting too old for this stuff!!!

Just a few things about our little 9 year old...

• He reads huge novels in about the time it takes me to read a few chapters and often gets in trouble at school for reading when he's not supposed to
• He's a total perfectionist (wonder where he gets that one? :))
• He enjoys writing his own comic books and has written some very creative stories
• He's a great big brother...always wrestling, reading to them and putting up with the crazies
• I never have to help him with his homework
• He likes camping, golf, baseball and is becoming a natural at the piano.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!!