Fun pictures

It's always fun for parents to check on sleeping kids and find funny things. Our Jacob baby learns in his sleep and Jackson strikes a Diva pose :)

Our family loves Twizzlers. Especially me! We found Extra Long Twizzlers at Walmart! 16 inches! They were fun but the regular ones are better.

Silvia sent us a box of clothes for Jax and Jake, but a few suits for Jake's birthday and this handmade sweater. When I realized there were no tags on it I asked Luis if his Mom made it. He said probably because he grew up with her making clothes for him. Sure enough, she made it! Jake loves it. He wore it for hours, inside... with the hood up :) Thanks Grandma Weger!

Emergency Preparedness

Luis and I have been very interested in Emergency preparedness lately. A few months ago we had some extra cash and decided to invest in some emergency supplies. It was really fun. We now have what I consider 72-hour kits on steroids :) It has all the normal stuff like clothes and food, but also stuff like knives, fire starters, water filters, mini-shovel, foil blankets, etc. Cool, huh!? Luis had a great idea to buy hiking backpacks as our 72-hr kits... because if there was ever an emergency and we had no transportation it would be easier to have these packs on to walk... especially if we need our arms to carry kids or something. So I am really happy with how they have turned out. We have filled them out and tested them... I am strong enough surprisingly!

We also bought a weeks supply of packaged, just add water food from the Wise Company. It all fits in that one little bucket. We also bought blue containers and we have 21 gallons of water stored. Plus I am filling up empty juice and soda bottles with water... it can be purified later or used for flushing toilets.

All this happened months ago, but we are hoping we can devote some of our tax return to emergency preparedness also. We have a few things we've been waiting on. So, I was wondering just how much food is really needed for a years supply. (If we don't do the prepackaged way... cuz that's really expensive to buy at once!) I found a neat calculator at this website. http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm and I was shocked at what it told me! For 2 adults and 2 kids, here are a few of the MANY items it recommends for 1 year and the quantities! Flour: 74 lbs. Rice: 150 lbs. Oats: 74 lbs. Dry Beans: 90 lbs. Wheat: 450 lbs. Sugar: 120 lbs. Honey: 8 lbs. Water: 56 gallons. CRAZY! RIGHT??? It's kind of intimidating... but I am going to have some fun Sam's club shopping! The only problem now is SPACE to store it! I welcome suggestions! Under my bed is the most likely option once my small laundry room fills up! Anyways, it's been fun getting this together and honestly I feel much more at ease even with the little bit of preparation we have done! I can't imagine what it feels like to actually have a years supply of food. Wish me luck.

My Cleaners

Yesterday was a serious cleaning day for me. I had been sick all week and didn't do much of anything. So I decided on Friday that I would turn up some music and do EVERYTHING! Swept, swiffered, vacuumed, dishes, bathroom, organized random junk, the works! The house looked great all day. This morning the boys trashed their clean room, of course. Luis and I noticed he was missing this peice of equipment for his bike and I thought I had seen it in the boys' room. So I told the boys they had to pick up all their toys until they found his missing "thing". They found it pretty quick and Luis and I went on our way doing something else. After a while Jackson came in to get me, grabbed my hand and pulled me to his room saying "Mom, come and see!" They had completely cleaned their room! Spotless! They don't even do it that well when I am there helping them! I have to remind them every 5 seconds to pick something up. I was stunned and called Luis to come and see! What a wonderful surprise! I was so proud of my boys!

Nana's Quilt

I thought I had lost these pictures but I finally found them! I made this lap quilt pretty last minute before Christmas. It was really fun. I did everything on my home machine. I had this fabric with Nana, Luis' step-grandma, in mind... Mom gave it to me before she moved. I came up with the design for this quilt based on one I liked online, just simplified it so it wouldn't take as long. Luis helped me choose the direction of the triangles. Quilting it was pretty fun. It took a while to do the triangles. Each triangle has 2 triangles quilted inside it. The lines in the white fabric aren't perfectly spaced. Oh well! It was fun and I was happy how it turned out. And Nana loved it.

Luis/Rachelle Funny

We finally have a coat rack... after months of throwing our coats on the back of chairs, over the couch, etc. Luis surprised me with this coat rack while I was in VA. I love it. I thought it was funny that Luis called the coat rack Gerald- like a butler. This week I decided I don't like Gerald. I am going to call the coat rack Mr. Carson... a tribute to my wonderful Downton Abbey! But then Luis, who is not a fan of Downton Abbey, said if we are changing the name, it should be Alfred... from Batman. So we compromised and now our coat rack/butler is named Mr. Alfred Carson! (Say it with a British accent... it sounds so much better) :)

Learning to ride... with training wheels

I didn't think you had to teach a child to ride a bike until they got training wheels off. Apparantly you do. My kids don't pedal! So we have to go along with them saying "Pedal! Push! Pedal harder!" It's funny but exhausting! It is harder for them because we live on a road that has a slight incline... so going uphill is tough. Next Saturday I want to take them to the park and let them ride the cement path. They are so grown up on their bikes!

Cute pics of G and G Weger.

Happy Bday Jacob!

My Jacob baby is 3!!! Time flies! We had cupcakes the night before we left Mom and Dave's. They got him some toy animals and new shoes for his bday and sent me home with his very own quiet book for him to open! He also got a bike for his bday! We didn't have time to set it up so Jake got to "help" daddy put it together! I showed Jake the pictures on the back of the cake box and asked him to choose cupcakes, a regular cake, or a bundt cake. He thought bundt was a really funny word and chose a bundt cake. We called it a wheel cake. Oh, and he got leftover Christmas wrapping paper, poor kid :)

Day full of dentists!

Jackson, Luis and I all had dentist appts on Monday. Luis took the day off. He went to the dentist with Jackson and apparently Jackson did great. He was still nervous of course, but was still enough for the dentist to do a temporary fix on his cavity. So he has another appt in 6 months to do a more permanent fix. Luis will go to that one too... I think I am done with the dentist appts with kids. I think that can be daddy's job! :) They were back in half an hour and when they walked in the door I really thought that Jax had been freaking out so bad he was kicked out again! I was pleasantly surprised to hear it was taken care of! But... Jackson got to pick a sticker and asked them to put it on his head. Bad idea! He tried to take it off and cried a little. So it stayed there for a while! Eventually I noticed it wasn't there, so maybe Luis helped him get it off. I thought it was pretty funny!

The Wolves

Silvia embroidered 12 wolves for Luis' quilt. Here are a few of my favorites. Aren't they beautiful!

Jackson and Jacob Funnies

Jackson was watching TV and came over to me and said "Please may I have a word." After a few seconds I realized he was asking me to fast forward... a commercial. Earlier in the day I had explained the concept of fast forwarding. At least he got the please part right :)

Mom remembers this Jacob funny from last year... apparently he wasn't eating his dinner and I threatened him with "Don't make me take your vegetables away!" After which he promptly ate his food! Gotta love my healthy boy!

Marine Corps Museum

On Friday we visited the Marine Corps Museum which is right down the street from Mom and Dave's house. It was pretty cool. The boys behaved about 50% of the time... I kinda wish I was there without them... it would have been a bit more touching. But it was still cool... I am pretty sensitive to war images so I made sure to stay out of the exhibits that seemed graphic... especially the one that specifically said "not appropriate for children" or something like that. Not for them... then not for me either! I was touched by several things, which I took pictures of. Having grown up in a military family most of my life I have always been grateful for those who serve. Seeing museums like this though really freshen the gratitude! I don't think I could do it! The boys loved seeing the planes and tanks. Jackson sure wished he could climb on all the displays... museums are a hard place for him to be! I kept thinking of how much Danny would love this museum if her were here!

I loved the 9/11 exhibit. Very powerful. They have a post where everyone who comes through can hang up little cards where they write what they were doing on that day. I put my little card up. I was in Art History class in Burke, VA. Some kids came back from a bathroom trip freaking out and talking about what other classes were watching on TV. The teacher didn't know what was going on so continued class as normal. When the bell rang it was absolute chaos! SO many of the students had parents working in the pentagon... Dave was! Everyone was crying and saying what they heard on TV. I found Isabel and she was a mess... I remember just trying to calm her down. I don't remember how the rest of the day went. I remember getting home and finding my mom watching it on the news... crying. We were all crying but she said Dave was ok. I couldn't believe it was happening! I wrote in my journal that night. So many friends and family called and emailed wanting to know that we were all ok. It's interesting to me that besides all the footage on TV, the most vivid memories I have are of Isabel's face when I found her in the hall and of my Mom crying on the couch. I don't remember my own reaction as much as I remember other peoples. I didn't write all that on the card... just a few sentences. I don't really think about all those details of that day very much... except of course on 9/11... but it's good to remember in a way. It makes me so thankful for my country! This museaum made me thankful for my country!

Stone from the Pentagon.

They had a wall of everyone who had ever received the Medal of Honor in the Marines. It was amazing how many their were... probably a hundred... but only 2 since 1976. Maybe that's because there hasn't been as great a war as WWI or WWII or Vietnam... but I guess I just feel their should be more since for most of my teenage/adult life we have been fighting wars in the middle east... the fighting has just changed a lot I guess.

Had to take a pic... german shepherds!!!

Solitary confinement. How terrifying to think of being in that box for a year or more like some prisoners!

We all had fun trying on the uniforms... they had an activity center for kids... they colored dog tags :)

Ah yes, the boot camp exhibit. Great picture right? You can tell I really worked hard to get that ONE pull up. :)

They had a wall of pictures of marines and they wrote why they joined the marines. There were a lot of great reasons but I think this was my favorite of all. It says "Someone's gotta do it." Amen. And I am thankful to those who do... because it's easy for us to say bad things about how our country is run, but these guys make it possible for us to be free!

After the museum we went to the library and got some fun books and hung out the rest of the day! A great but exhausting day. Who knows what we will do this week!

Christmas with G&G Gibson

We got to Triangle, VA on New years eve around 8pm... after some very frustrating traffic! But we made it! The boys were great on the drive and I am so thankful for portable dvd players. We ended up taking a lunch break at chick-fil-a in Durham, NC... took way longer than planned... not cool! When we got to Grandma and Grandpop's we had Christmas! The boys opened their gifts first. They got some new books and a super cool play tent. I think it's partly a gift for me... so I can banish them to their tent when they are driving me crazy! But the boys really like it too!

Megan photoshopped an awesome picture of all the grandkids for Mom and Dave. Meg, you should post it on your blog! They both loved it!

Ethan was at a New Years Eve dance when we got there so in the morning I opened his gift to our family. Ice Age 3... pretty cute movie. The boys can't wait to watch it with Daddy! We are having lots of adventures and just enjoying some downtime here in VA. They have a beautiful new house and my boys love sliding around on the hardwood floors! At some point I am going to meet up with my friend, June, from high school. Mom and I may even venture up to Burke and have a "reality tour" as Mom calls it... visiting where we used to live!