Happy Birthday Carter!

Our man is 5 today and we celebrated a little yesterday with bikes, scooters, race tracks and Sun Mountain Fun Center YAY! Everything was blue, his favorite color.....blue bike, blue on his scooter, blue cup cakes, blue notebooks and magic markers, he's quite a little artist right now!...blue blue blue!
Here is Papa and all the boys watching Jim in the batting cage at Sun Mountain, they are like stair steps all in order by size :)
Grandma had fun playing with markers one afternoon! Yes, I said "Grandma" had fun, HA!

Rub-a-dub-dub.

You smiled, didn't you?

In Loving Memory of Jeffry, 02/06/89 - 05/30/09

The photo above was taken the weekend before he went into the hospital, the photo below was at his Celebration of Life.I think his friends (and Uncle Brandon) have been keeping the local tattoo parlors pretty busy :)
This picture of Jeff and his Mom was one of the last taken of them together, such a handsome guy with his mamma. My hope is to be able to collect recent photos of Jeff with his Dad and Step Mom Denette...Jeff had an amazing family every which way he looked :)Lisa holding her son at his Celebration of Life...


We love you and miss you tremendously Jeff, but we know you are now in the best hands of all. Much Love, and Big Jeff Hugs right back atcha nephew. Love, Us

Indoor MMA

It was so wonderful having everyone stay at our house over the last few weeks, we feel so lucky to have such a fabulous family for all of us to go through this hard time together. As difficult as these last few weeks have been, we did manage to have a little fun and games :) Here is Drayson with Uncle Brandon in a head lock or triangle hold or whatever the heck this move is called:

Jim and Brandon during the Brotherly Bonding Battle:

And OF COURSE we held a pee-wee-super-lighter-than-a-feather-weight MMA event too:

For Jeff

These kids are all amazing, these are some of Jeff's friends who all came together last night for him. Being there with all of them really lifted our spirits, and I have to thank them for that.They had all these candles formed in a heart, all of them had been lit and when we all stood in a circle for a moment of silence, prayers and good thought....all of them blew out except this one. It stayed lit until we were done. Its Jeff's candle. And its in his hospital room with him right now....

.....Lisa has been telling Jeff that he is the light of her heart. These guys didn't know how fitting this was. Thank you girls, for getting everybody involved to help support each other right now, and for the time you spent with me, it really meant so much to me and I would love to be able to keep in touch with you and include Jeff with us next time...plus I want my own Jeff Nelson shirt someday :)

With Love to you, Jeff's Aunt Jessica

Jeffry

Here are some of our favorite pictures of Jeffry having good times with us :)Who else do you know that can do back flips off of any stable object?Everyone needs an older cousin to give them super-wedgies...dang, those poor boys were hurting after that! It was sooooo worth it to Jeff though.....

And I know what you're thinking - everyone has a picture of Jeff sleeping on thier couch. But I bet they aren't this cute. This was about 5 years ago or so, I think Dillon was around 2 and just loved Jeff....but thats probably because Jeff never gave him any wedgies.

And later that night.....it was all about Jeff and his baby.

Hi. I'm 3......

****** 04/29/09, Birthday Day! I had to add this funny story to this post: The other day I was shopping in Fred Meyer with Carter and Brayden and Brady was hanging off the side of the cart singing the Queen song..."Got mud on your face...Big disgrace...We will, We will ROCK YOU" over and over again and I looked up to see a super nice family smiling and being entertained by my son's singing. They looked familiar and I realized that it was the Beaties, the pregnant man, his wife and thier cutie pie daughter (he is pregnant again, due in June) What super nice people! Its just funny...first it was the Extreme Home Makeover right next door to my old house in Corvallis, then it was Meet Your New (pirate episode) Mommy down the street from my mom's house in Albany, and NOW leave it to our Brayden to entertain the Beatie Family! Hee-hee, Oh Brady...Happy Birthday! ********

....well, at least on the 29th I will be! (how cute is this photo?!) Thank you Aunties and Uncles and Cousins and Grandparents for filling our home with fun and good times for Brady's birthday :)I would never have thought that he would end up being shy about everyone singing Happy Birthday to him (he buried his face in his hands through the whole song!), but the rest of the boys didn't mind taking care of those candles...I think we alllllll got a piece with just a little spit on it :)I wish I could figure out how to add music to this video - it would be the song by Foghat: Slow Ride.....Take it ea-say....


We had so much fun!

Snow, Sun, and Undies

Central Oregon has no idea what season it is. We went from snowing on April 15th to.......Walking around on the Pilot Butte Trail in 80 degree weather and intense sunshine on April 18th.

We ditched Brady's diapers about a month ago, and he has been an amazing big boy about it. The first couple of days he sobbed averytime we sat him on the toilet and then all of a sudden it wasn't an issue and now he like to get himself dressed and says "I love undies" We love that he is becoming such a big kid....even if most of his clothes are on backward and inside out most of the time :)Hi Bob The Builder! We see you peeking out of those sweat pants!

Next up: Brayden's 3rd Birthday!

No Training Wheels!

Jim and Carter had some special one on one time together on Saturday and they spent some time learning to ride without training wheels! Carter was so excited to be alone with Daddy and he did great without the training wheels :) His little eyes were all lit up and sparkley about it - we are so proud!

Nice Catches

Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! They are like the seagulls from Finding Nemo.....Mine! Mine! Mine!

They are always so impressed when Brady catches the ball too :)

Carter spelled out his name with blocks, I want to print this picture and hang it in his room!

Grandma with the boys.....a few of them at least. Jimmy, Dillon, Carter and Cousin Drayson.

On To New Projects....

I did this fun little planting project with Carter and Brayden, you are supposed to use shamrock seeds and after they sprout you will have shamrocks growing at the end of the rainbow - the little beads below the 'clouds' is the gold at the end of the rainbow! I couldn't find shamrock seeds so we just planted what ever flowers I want to eventually transplant into the yard. Fun project for us.....but Dillon had another project in mind:

He made his own football gameboard with playing pieces, dice and written, drawn-out plays! This guy is so into football lately - it started out with the Steelers being his favorite team, then they played in the super bowl and won it. Dillon sat and watched the entire game with Jim and Jim's dad, his Papa. It is amazing how much he knows about football now. He definitely knows way more than I do....way, way more. I should be embarrassed, but I'm not. Jim and Dillon plan out plays throughout the house and they all throw the football around every day...they don't miss a day, and yes - we are allowed to throw balls in our house! If you have ever been to my house, this is the reason why we don't have a single picture/painting/photo or anything else hanging on our walls....anywhere, except a single clock. He is in 'Daddy Heaven' with all the boys head over heels for football!

This brings me to Jim's latest project (well, ok - at least one of his latest projects) SO LONG MOUSE CAM (the frog he brought home escaped, thank goodness.) HELLO.......KID CAM!

It is still in it's preliminary stages getting the bugs worked out - but here is Dillon testing it out. The camera is at the front of the helmet, with the red, yellow and white connectors at the back of the helmet. All the wires go right into the backpack which holds the battery, etc. Haven't you always wanted to see life through a child's eyes?

Now, how do we get him to wear it all day long at school? Hmmmmmm......

Update on 'Operation Mouse'

Ok...well. Here is an update on our mouse situation. We ordered mouse traps that you can catch mice in and let them go. They are little green plastic boxes that the mice can get into but not out of and one of them is labeled in the photo below. But this wasn't interesting (or entertaining) enough for Jim, so what does he do? He drills a hole in the mouse trap. Yep, makes perfect sense.

He is so creative that he came up with this plan to catch the mice. He drilled a hole in the clear plastic cover that replaced our heating vent cover under the sink cabinets. Then he ran PVC piping (elbow joint and all) from the heating vent, THROUGH the actual mouse trap, and INTO a regular shoebox sized storage bin (aka Modified Mouse Trap) with a lid and weights on top of it.....so the mice won't get out should they be lured by the smell of peanut butter coming from the light at the end of the tunnel. Now the cameras are pointed into the Modified Mouse Trap and the night light has been moved to a more strategic position.

And yes, this little project was also done after I had gone to bed one night :)

Needless to say, all these homemade tunnels and the commotion have scared the mice too much to make a showing or even attempt to venture out into the unknown.....so I'm left to ask the question: Was all of Jim's effort a total failure? Yeah, I think not.


We haven't seen a dang mouse since all of this junk has been sitting in my kitchen. YES, I've been living with all this crap on the floor of my kitchen. I have to take the "weights" off the modified mouse trap JUST so I can open the dishwasher! AND as a bonus, Jim is FINALLY BORED of the whole 'mouse cam' project now and just this minute he brought home a frog for the boys to set up in an aquarium because its too cold and snowy to let it go outside right now. Apparently, the frog is now our pet that we are providing shelter for until spring.

Really, I'm not kidding.

Does anyone know what frogs eat? You know we'll have to feed IT now too....

Mousey Cam

Well, you can't say that our two indoor cats have a boring life...us either for that matter! Lets start from the beginning though. A number of months ago, the boys and I were visiting Grandma in Albany and Jim found a little white mouse in our cabinet below the sink (where we have our garbage can) He caught the mouse and released it, but we figured that since it was white, it must have been somebody's pet that escaped. Story over, right? NO. Lately, we started noticing that Milo & Missy had been spending alot of time looking into the heating vent under the cabinet. So what does a security guy like Jim do? Install a "mouse cam" of course.

What did you expect? ....Nana, you HAVE to come over and see what your son has done now.

My kitchen has wires and extension cords running all across the floor and counters so all of us *and the cats* can see the mouse better. Not only has Jim installed a tiny little camera under the cabinet so we can record the mouse (and see how many there are), but it is hooked up to our TV and we can watch it all on TV, like a show. The vent cover has been taken off and replaced with a clear plastic see-thru cover securely screwed in and complete with air holes so the cats can smell and hear the mousey but the mouse can't get out. There is a permanent night light running off an extension cord so it can shine light into the space under the cabinet for better lighting . This is what we, and the cats, see from the outside:

Jim has constructed a little "toy" for the mousey. It is a plastic dome hot glued to a piece of wood for the bottom, and has a little hole no wider than the size of his pinky finger that the mousey can crawl into and out of to lick up all the peanut butter that is inside. All this busy work Jim does is done AFTER I've gone to bed, mind you.

Here is what the "Mousey Cam" sees: Remember, this is all under the cabinet. You can see the mouse's head squeezing out of the little hole in the plastic dome and the two cat faces in the background.

These cats have no idea how lucky they are. Look at Milo just sitting there watching the little mousey as it comes right up to him on the other side of the plastic barrier. Its like the mouse is in a zoo. Brave little thing...either that or he is a smart little thing, since he's figured out that the cats have no chance at getting him. What a tease!

I told Jim this morning that I feel like we are all so lucky to have him. Jim, that is, not the mouse. Our lives would be so boring without him and all of his little ideas and projects. He said to me that "Oh, we would just find other things to entertain ourselves with..." True, but they would be regular, normal, boring entertaining things. Nothing like we're used to having!


While this has all been SO MUCH FUN watching the mouse cam, we discovered that there are TWO little mouseys and have ordered little "no-kill" traps to catch them in and let them go. We are not allowed to kill animals in our house (click HERE for the "no-kill" spider story), but Jim did say that if we had a ton of them he would have no problem killing them to get rid of the FILTHY little things. Thank the Lord for that.

Busy, busy, busy.

We've done quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. I spent three weekends in a row away from home, the first weekend was snowmobiling with the boys. The next weekend just Brayden and I stayed at Grandma's in Albany and helped her paint and pack. We visited a bunch of nostalgic places in Corvallis before moving my mom to Bend the next weekend. Brayden was very happy to have me all to himself and was a super angel spending all that time in the car that weekend. We ate breakfast in a bar, HA! What bar allows minors until 2pm and has crayons?

Then Jim had the boys run more wires under the house. These guys have run wires for tv's, computers, the security alarm, outdoor cameras, you name it....and Jim has yet to crawl under our house - the boys have done it all for him!

My third weekend away from home, we helped my mom move and I think it was the easiest move ever. Jim backed the truck right up to the front door and out we went. Couldn't have done it without Jim's brother Brandon, my mom feels so loved and lucky to have these "two sons" she never had.

See- right up to the front door, perfect. I can't tell you how nice it is to have both my mammas in the same town finally :)

Then everyone in our entire family got sick with a terrible cold. Poor Brayden was basically asleep for three days, I spent my first weekend home in three weeks in bed the whole time and I still don't feel good..........

Can You Raed Tihs?

My Aunt and Uncle sent this email to me today (Hi There!) I have gotten a similar email to this a long time ago and have thought about it quite often. The way the brain makes it's right and left hemispheres work is very curious and intriguing to me. Probably because I am kind of ambidextrous, kind of. I am left handed, but only write and hold silverware with my left hand. I throw right handed, and dribble, golf, bat, play tennis, heck I even do kartwheels right handed. I have a really hard time deciding which leg should go first if I were to do something slolomn like snowboarding, even thinking about it right now -I think I'm leaning towards the right foot forward but its a really hard decision for me to make!

So why only two tasks left handed? Well, now wait, make that four tasks. I change diapers left handed, the boys (and anyone else doing the changing of their diapers at my house) were always confused about which way they were supposed to lay on the changing table. And even though I am comfortable using the computer mouse with my right hand, I am even more comfortable using it on the left side of the keyboard, which means I use the opposite fingers to click than right-handers use. This is also something people get confused about when using the computer at my house.

Here is the email:
Only great minds can read this. This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearhcer at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are,the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit apboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!