Chuck E. Cheese

Another day of spoiling for the kids! Today we took them to Chuck E. Cheese with Grandpa Gray. Since Zach had Monster Trucks on his mind....he immediately remember the Monster Truck ride at Chuck E. Cheese. This kid has a great memory because it has been almost a year since we have last been to Chuck E. Cheese, yet he still remembers this truck.

The kids were glued to the show characters....I couldn't even get them to smile at the camera.

We should have learned our lesson by now to just go to Chuck E. Cheese to play the games....the kids won't sit still long enough to eat the pizza. They are drawn into the game room with all the loud noises, other kids, and tickets coming out of the machine. Grandpa decided to teach Logan how to play skee-ball....

Logan figured out an easier way to get the balls up the ramp....

This seemed to be the theme for the rest of the Chuck E. Cheese trip....how creative Logan was getting on finding the easiest was to win the games!


We let the kids go wild until it was WAY PAST nap time and they got cranky and whiny. I think they both passed out in the car drive home. Later tonight both Dustin and Grandpa Gray took full advantage of the kids and tickled them until they said 'uncle'.

Monster Truck Day

Not only did the kids enjoy the surprise from yesterday - we had another surprise in store for Zach today. We were able to get three of the Energy Solutions Center suite tickets from our work for the "Monster Jam" show. Dustin, Glen and Zach were going to the 2pm show. When Zach woke up we told him what the plans were for the day. He was bouncing off the walls ALL MORNING because he was so excited to go to a monster truck show. He wanted to get in the car at 8am and go to the show.

Grandpa Gray had brought another treat for the boys...he brought them each a monster truck! These monster trucks made noise and also moved on their own. While Jen made breakfast the boys were playing monster truck races on the table with Grandpa.

It wasn't much longer and Zach was again chomping at the bit to drive to the Monster Truck show. Dustin finally caved and they left so they could arrive at the location about one hour before the show started (when they opened the doors)....when they got there Zach was RUNNING to the door!

Look how in heaven this four year old was......going to a Monster Truck show with his dad and his Grandpa!

Now what is NOT to love about this?


Gravedigger was Zach's favorite.....

All three boys survived the show and came back with their hearing intact. Zach did inform us though that we needed to upgrade daddy's truck (the 4 runner) so it looked like a Monster Truck. Dustin got a sparkle in his eye hearing that!

Grandpa Gray rolls into town...

Today we had a surprise in store for the kids! Glen was coming to town for a few weeks (ThunderPig was getting prepped for a car show) and we didn't tell the kids. After work today we needed to take Zach to the hospital to have some blood drawn (allergy testing to see if that may be the cause of his ear infections). He obviously wasn't thrilled to be at the hospital - or get his blood drawn. We told him that we had a surprise for him when it was over. He kept asking over and over and over again what the surprise was. We finally told him he had a visitor and they were waiting for us at Del Taco. As soon as we pulled into the Del Taco parking lot Zach spotted Grandpa Gray's silver Accord and started screaming, "Grandpa Gray, Grandpa Gray!"

The kids both ran inside Del Taco as fast as they could. Glen was waiting for them inside with a gift - he had brought Zach and Logan their own matchbox car. We ordered our dinner and the kids both had to sit next to Grandpa Gray. I had a hard time getting the kids to sit still for a picture...and as a result - I got one with no smiles.


Even after we left Del Taco and headed home - the boys were both still glued to Grandpa Gray's side....



We will enjoy having Glen stay with us a few weeks....the boys have another person in the house to wrestle with!

Professional Pictures

It was time! Time for the kids yearly portraits. We needed to have Zach's 4 year old pictures and Logan's 2 year old pictures done. We loved how the Santa pictures turned out from the studio 'FotoFly' - so we decided to give them a try for this full session. Little did we know they have a one month wait for an appointment! So this appointment was booked back at the middle of January. Today was Presidents day...daycare was closed....so we took full advantage of our family time...which started with professional pictures.

Jen got smart and booked the first session of the day at 9am - we didn't want to have kids melt down this time because they were tired for a nap or hungry for lunch. The kids really liked how the studio was set up and cooperated VERY well for the whole session. We actually now have TOO MANY great pictures to choose from! Here were some of our favorites...if you want to see all of them - click here.

First up - Family shots

Next up...the boys!

He is at it again

Another case and point as to why Logan needs to be watched like a HAWK....

Snow Day

It is FINALLY here! It snowed last night.....and it stuck....and we had some serious drifts (from a single storm) in our backyard...up to 18 inches in some spots! The kids were excited to get on their snow year - first time this season - and check it all out. They even tried sledding in the house before we hit up outside.

The front looked a bit sparse.....

But the back looked good!

Dustin and the boys did a quick run in the sled out front....before hitting the sledding hill in our backyard.

After the boys wore themselves out with that...there was plenty of fresh snow powder to explore in the backyard.

Dustin tried to teach Logan how to do a snow angel...he didn't quite get it.

Zach thought they were just doing dog-pile.

Then the snow ball throwing started to commence. My camera doesn't remember much past this picture.

I think we played outside for over an hour in the snow. Everyone had a blast...too bad it will be gone in just a day or two!

Chicken

Dustin was cutting up some chicken today...Logan jumped right in and started helping!

Check him out handling the chicken! He was so proud.