Jonas Kenobi

Jonas found a light saber on our wall the other day!

Coolest Park EVER

Some people randomly told me about this cool castle park when I was at a museum a couple months ago. We finally made our way over to check it out in between the rain one day last week. You can tell it has been there for a long time but it has a few safety updates like the comfy rubber padding on the ground and a few railings to prevent falling. There are also tunnels going underground all through it. It really is the coolest park! I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can stay for more than 10 minutes.

Liam Blank - Mountain Climber

Black Mountain

Liam and Nate climbed Black Mountain a couple weeks ago. Now every time he sees the mountain (which is every time we leave the house since you can see it from everywhere you go) he calls out "Hey, there's Black Mountain, I climbed that."

The good, the bad and the ugly

That would be new clothes, shopping with small children and mom when she is flustered and about to lose it.


I dropped Nate off at school today and since I was in the area went to the Civic Mall. I just have to say that this mall drives me crazy. It is huge and confusing, there are too many people and I can never remember how to get back to my car because there are a few parking garages. It is way too much for me. I figured this time would be fine because I was only going to Target and I was parking right next to it. All I would have to do is get in the elevator, go down and it practically opens at Target's entrance.

I was determined to buy a new sweater no matter how many I had to try on but was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. I knew the exact sweater I wanted to buy but when I tried it on it was weird. Liam kept walking in front of the stroller and therefore getting bumped by it and complaining about how boring the store was. Jonas was kicking and grabbing everything we walked by. In the fitting rooms they were screaming and fighting and playing which echoed through the whole store I'm sure. Eventually I made my purchases and it was time to leave.

The parking garage is paid parking so you get a ticket when you come in and when you leave you put it in the machine, pay and then take your ticket back to stick in the other machine on your way out (you know how it works...). The whole process is a bit more of a hassle when you are trying to keep your 4 year old out of the road and your two year old from touching the dirty soda machine. After paying I made my way to the car, got the boys strapped in and started looking through my purse for the ticket. After a few minutes of looking I realized that I had forgotten to take my ticket back!! I rushed the boys out of the car (without grabbing the stroller) to try and get back to the ticket machine to see if my ticket was still there. Not surprisingly it wasn't. Who can resist an already paid for parking ticket. (But I have to believe that if someone saw it was me who left it they would have kindly returned it to me.)

I remembered seeing a parking office somewhere in the mall one of the times I was there so I rode the elevators up and down about 6 times (while the boys begged to press the buttons) and walked around a little bit (while Jonas jumped instead of walked because he gets a little wacky when you let him out of the stroller...which is why I NEVER do) until I found it. Almost in tears I explained to the lady that I forgot to grab my ticket and she said "no worries" just drive up to the gate, press the help button and I'll let you through. I was expecting them to say I would have to pay the daily rate of $25 or something insane like that!

This is why I don't like Civic! Even a simple trip to Target is a big flustery mess for me. BUT on the good side I did get two cute new sweaters. I'm not sure this is the right way to wear it though...

reminiscing

I was going through our pictures this morning (looking for a picture of a quilt I did a couple years ago) and ended up looking through old pictures of my little boys. I found myself ooing, aahing and laughing out loud at some of them. Thought you might like to reminisce with me...

January 2006

October 2006

February 2007

February 2007

June 2007

June 2007

June 2007

October 2007

August 2007

February 2008

Nappy Test

Jonas has been doing well with his potty training (the only accidents he has had in the last month or so have been when we were camping a few weeks ago). We have already gotten rid of the nappies at nap time but haven't felt brave enough to do the same for bed time (one set of sheets and not enough time in the day to wash and dry them will do that to you). But his nappy always seems to be dry in the morning and we are down to about the last 10 nappies in the pack so last night we let him wear his big boy underwear at night. In the morning he was completely dry! We are so proud of our little Jonas!!

Cheese factory

On the way home we went to the Bega Cheese Factory. We got to taste a bunch of their cheese and learn about the cheese making process. We also bought some mint/chocolate fudge. We timed it so we could eat lunch there but they didn't have the lunch selection we were hoping for so we moved on into the (totally ghetto) city of Bega where we found a KFC.

If you are looking at this picture below thinking "man, the Blanks are looking rough" you are absolutely right! This was following the night we all slept in the back of our station wagon.

Liam was not happy when he found out his face was in the girl's side!

So we made Jonas be the girl in the next one.