New Blog

New chapter...new blog! All future posts will be here: http://sweetsimplestory.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Congratulations Danny!

My brother Danny and my new sister Jenika are officially wedded as of about an hour ago. It was a beautiful day at the temple, and check out this beautiful bride! Congratulations you two!

My favorite shoe store...

...is the Nearly New shop on Vivion. My sister-in-law Laura mentioned the store the other day, and it put me in the mood to make another pilgrimage. I brought home a great stash of shoes. Five pair of shoes for $12 total.

Goodbye Big Yellow House

As of yesterday, the sale of our house at 417 E Franklin is completed. I spent a little time there Saturday morning gathering a few final items, digging up a few favorite plants from the yard, and saying goodbye. It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, but I thouht I'd document some memories room-by-room.

Entry hall: Ben's "time out" spot on the bottom step (Sam only used it a handful of times), punishment-induced weeping and wailing.

Living room: Christmas tree in the bay window, christmas mornings, pulling out the sofa bed to jump, making tents, visiting with friends, Sam's therapy sessons with Miss Heather and Miss Sheri.

Guest/TV room: movie nights, movie afternoons, movie mornings, lunch or dinner on the picnic table cloth, cowboy campouts.

Dining room: Piano lessons, riding bikes around the table, dance parties.

Kitchen: The big remodel (ugh!), "can I have some juice?", "can I have some Cheezits?", "can I have an apple?", "can I have another apple?", "that's your fourth apple!", piles of shoes by the back door, making cowboy pizzas, "close the fridge!", watching Ben swing on his playset from the back window, Sam hiding in the new empty cabinets.

Nursery (this was the hardest room for me to leave): late night feeding, changing, and rocking in the chair, Ben climbing out of his crib, Ben sleeping on the floor for a year because he could climb out of his crib, reading books at night, singing songs at night, big smiles putting Sam down to bed (he loves his bed!), marking the boys' height on the door frame.

Big boy room: Ben's cool platform bed, playing trains, taking care of Beardie, BIG messes, Ben and his buddy locked themselves in the closet, said a prayer, and were able to break through the cast iron lock!, laying on the floor waiting for Ben to fall asleep, Ben and Sam talking and playing when they should have been sleeping.

Good-bye Big Yellow House!

Ben and Gabe

Since he was less than a year old, Ben has had a great buddy named Gabe. Here are a few pictures through the years as well as one I took a couple of nights ago. Due to our recent move, we now live accross the street from Gabe, so the boys play together more than ever. Every time I see them running around together, I reminisce...

Corn on the Cob

Memorial Day

Ben, Sam, Saige, Addie and I went with Grandma and Grandpa McDavitt to visit some family grave sites today. It was a really nice morning. The kids wrote notes, and we took them to Lincoln...

Then we visited the cemetary in downtown Kansas City (23rd and Jackson) where Grandma (Virginia) McDavitt's older sister Anna Zupka was buried. (Enter cemetary from the West, take the first right, big tree on your left, grave is located east of the tree several rows, and slightly south.) Also buried there is Grandma's father, Andrew Paul Zupka (Enter cemetary from South, circle the roundabout so you take a left (west). go past the next left turn, 4th row, 7th grave to the south). Both are flat stones.

The last stop was at Grandma and Grandpa McDavitt's grave (Dean and Virginia).

Kindergarten T-ball

Ben had his first T-ball game on Saturday. Grandpa McDavitt, Sam and I attended and cheered. It was fun to watch, and they did a great job. No score was kept, but I think our team did a little better job fielding. Ben loves his uniform, and puts the shirt and hat on whenever he can. Here he is in his uniform, crossing home plate for the first time, and in a short video I call "shortstop boredom".

My handsome boys

LOVE little boys in white shirts and ties!

Triathlon

Along with a bunch of friends and family, I completed my second triathlon yesterday in Leavenworth, KS. 200 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run. My time was 1:29:37. I placed 13th out of 29 in the Female 30-34 category. My sister Rebecca and I came in within 5 seconds of each other...pretty amazing! (She was 5 seconds faster, in case you're wondering). It was a great race, and tons of fun! Here are some pics: My finish line shot, me and my training partner and great friend, Kelli, about a third of the group of Liberty folks that participated, and a great action shot of my niece Savannah who competed in the Kids Triathlon.

Fishing with Sister Gallagher

Ben's favorite Primary teacher takes him fishing occaisionally. They don't catch much, but it's one of his favorite things to do.

"Mom and Me in the Fall"

by Ben Mundy

I meant what I said, and I said what I meant...

...an Elephant's faithful 100%!

You may remember that line from "Horton Hears a Who", but did you also know that it's in another Horton book by Dr. Seuss? Sam brought this home from the library at school today:

I had never read it before, but it's my new favorite Dr. Seuss. (Second favorite is Dr. Seuss ABC, and third is Fox in Socks). The poetry is about the funniest I've read by him, but the best part is the message. All of my friends and family who have been touched by adoption or foster care... you will love this book. It's a great message about what it really means to be a parent. It's a must-read for everyone. I wish I could read it to you right now!!

My New Desk

I'm currently in love with the furniture store West Elm (check out westelm.com). They opened a store last fall near Town Center Plaza. If you like things with a little modern twist, you'll be a fan too (Ra-Ra, I'm thinking of you). Here is my new desk. I've been looking forward to this purchase for years. Check out all those compartments!! (I have more fun than I should when it's time to organize my life into a new set of compartments...like when you get a new purse...switching your stuff over is half the fun). Another bonus, my laptop slides out of site when not in use!!

Closed...

Open...

Isn't that cool????

Playing with Food

Sam's "face"...his own idea, created with his own hands, and his own lunch:

Crazy, Silly Sam

A few photos of Sam's "moves"...

Ben's Catch

A friend loaned us an animal trap last year when we were having racoon troubles. Never caught the racoon, but we watched him come up with increasingly inventive ways to get the bait without getting caught. Since then, Ben has successfully caught wildlife twice. The first story is a little gory, but here is the second catch. Warm bunny on a very cold, snowy Sunday morning. I don't think he was really that grateful to be in out of the cold, though.

Swimming break-through!

I finally did it! I figured out how to keep swimming, indefinitely, without choking for air. Been working on this forever, it seems. It's one of my "New Year's" goals. What was I doing wrong before? I think I was trying to get too much "bang" out of each arm stroke. Today I was taking more moderate strokes, and kicking really small. My muscles got tired before my lungs gave up...the way it should be, I think. The two guys swimming in the lanes on either side of me both pooped out before I did, and I like to think they felt upstaged by my amazing skills!

Annie makes me smile

We watched "Annie" last night with the boys. This is a movie my siblings and I watched a LOT as kids. If you haven't seen it lately, it's worth re-watching! I couldn't stop smiling throughout the show...unusual for me, I'm a pretty stoic movie watcher.

Another movie I react to...Elf, I laughed (side-splitting style) at the scene at the dinner table where he chugs a 2-liter of pop, produces a 20-second belch, then says, "Did you hear that?" to his brother. I'm laughing out loud right now typing this.

Oh, and can't forget Twilight...another "smiling" movie for me...for entirely different reasons.

Entrepreneurship?

I came home from a church meeting this morning, and Ben was swinging, enjoying the warm weather, and singing at the top of his lungs ("We will rock you"...I think) ...

Ben: Mom, it's a good day to earn money!
Me: Yes! How do you want to do that?
Ben: My songs.
Me: Who is going to pay you to sing? Do you want to knock on some doors and tell them you'll sing a song for 10 cents?
Ben: No, they'll come here....later today, in the backyard...maybe people, if they're passing by, and they brought money, and they appreciate my music, they'll give me money.

A few of my favorite things...

Power Ranger adorned Brownie Cake (Grandma McDavitt's recipe)
Skippy Natural (I like a little sugar in my healthy peanut butter
Twilight :-)
Baker's Inn Bread (so soft and healthy too!)
Lubriderm "Intense Skin Repair" (Just started using this and LOVE it)
Mineral make up (this is Cover Girl, other's I've tried are too cakey, but I love this one)
Sam
My favorite hot wheels (school bus...so cute, utility truck with drill and basket...awesome, garbage truck...with operable crusher, tow truck with a real hook to tow your other hot wheels
V8 Fusion (a full serving and fruits AND a full serving of vegetables in every serving...and yes, Ben does drink it!

What are your favorite things?????

If you take a dragon to school...

...you'll have one proud dragon keeper! Mrs. Petet invited our Bearded Dragon (Dr. Jones) to visit Ben's Kindergarten class today. I don't have to tell you how proud Ben was to show him off...you can see it on his face. Thank you Mrs. Petet for letting us share!

I LOVE my IPOD

I bought an Ipod on Ebay and it came in the mail yesterday (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Blazin!). This morning I ran 3.33 miles in under 30 minutes...my best time ever I'm sure. All the way from my house to Walgreens at the 291/152 intersection and back. It was awesome. I wanted to keep running, but was out of time. I need bigtime help with my running playlist (Emily and Savannah?? Rebecca? Peter? Anyone?). I loaded these random 11 songs that I struggled to think of last night...some good for running, some not really. I never listened to the Jonas brothers before, read someone's blog post who likes to run to them, and I agree. A couple are from "Another Cinderella Story", a teen dance movie I rented a couple of months ago. Not my usual movie genre, but I loved it, watched it twice, can't really explain why. Can you help me with some more running songs? What are your favorites?

Long Way to Run Peter Breinholt

Queen Ole Peter Breinholt

Express Yourself Madonna

We're All In This Together The Cast of "High School Musical"

Tell Me Something I Don't Know Selena Gomez

New Classic Drew Seeley & Selena Gomez

Free Ride Edgar Winter

Peace Train Cat Stevens

Moonshadow Cat Stevens

S.O.S. Jonas Brothers

Pushin' Me Away Jonas Brothers

Babysitting

We babysat our friend Stacey's two boys for three days last week while she had surgery. Here is a cute picture of baby Kaden. He is three months old. The boys were so fun to have. There was always something to do...diapers, feeding, picking up, playing. Both so calm, and both sleep through the night.

Sam Stands! (1/13/2009)

This actually happened last Tuesday, January 13th (for the baby book), but I haven't had any blogging time this past week. Sam actually is standing independently now. He just sort of did it all of a sudden, which makes me think he probably could have done it sooner if I'd made him try. I'm sure the Botox last month helped make this possible. We are so proud of you Sam!

Daddy’s home!!

This is a belated post. He’s been home for almost two weeks, but I thought these reunion pictures were precious. The boys have been hanging on him non-stop.

CTR

The boys both got CTR rings at church on the first Sunday of the year. (CTR stands for “Choose the Right”). They were both so proud of their rings, especially Sam. He also got an "I am a Child of God" crown, which he proudly wore all day announcing to anyone within earshot: "I'm a king! I have a ring!" He graduated from nursery this Sunday and joined the big kids in Primary. I still can’t believe he’s old enough for that!

Dare Devil

Sam had Botox injections the day after Christmas to help relax some of his tightest muscles. This is a video I took of him a week or so ago doing something he couldn't have done before the injections. He came up with this game on his own and kept at it for quite a while. Within days of the injections, he is more agile, and more confident physically. It's really amazing.

Hulk SMASH!

Love this picture of Ben...

Sam's ABCs

Sam used to sing the ABCs with about seven letters: ABCDXYZ. Very efficient. Now, thanks to the LeapFrog refrigerator alphabet toy, well, watch and see...

Bowling

We took cousin JJ bowling with us last week. The boys had a lots of fun. I the picture below of Ben and JJ, and Ben was upsted because he didn't get to hold the ball. Then we took one of him with the ball and he was happy. Drama!