The Adventures of Team Daniels

Friday, July 12, 2013

Fam 4th Fun

Another great holiday with the fam!

Here are the cliff notes:

playground time

lots of playing with Grandma

daytime fireworks

picture time

nighttime fireworks were lit compliments of Zekers

~and the really BIG fireworks were a surprise from my brother (such a surprise I didn't even get a picture)

and great lake time with the extended fam.

Great way to spend the Fourth!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Free Slurpees Are The Best Slurpees!

7-11 Free slurpee day! We ran down the road, got our free slurpees and were back home in our backyard slurping away in under 10 minutes today.

7-11-2012 was a much different experience.

It was an adventure.

We were in Palmdale, CA. Daddy was working and the 4 of us kids were hanging out at the hotel, mostly swimming. Palmdale is a nice enough town, but there really is not much to do to entertain 3 young children in the dead heat of summer. So I thought a free slurpee would not only be a good treat, but a good errand to run.

Wellll, no one could tell us exactly where the nearest 7-11 was. I 'Yelped' it, and it wasn't too far. In the swag wag went. Easy enough, right? We were like the Israelites wandering out in the California desert. What should have been a quick trip ended up taking an hour or more. Finally found the 7-11 in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood. Would have just kept on driving, but since we had been driving entirely too long to get there I was not going to let a few dodgy characters deter me. No siree. There were free slurpees to be had, darn it.

Upon entering the quaint little 7-11 we queued into something rivaling a Six Flags line, snaking up, down and around the aisles, everyone just waiting for that sweet free slurpee to touch our lips. I'm thinking this must be a cruel and unusual joke. This line must be fast moving. All these people would not really be standing here in this ridonky-donk long line for a slurpee, would they?? So we stood. And we stood. And we stood. Yes, me and my 18-month old squirming in my arms, along with my 4 and 6 year old. Waiting for a free slurpee.

But by now we were at the point of no return. How could I turn around and go back to the hotel, empty handed? I could not! Machines were running out, sticky juices were exploding through the air, and we waited it out. That's right. We got a tiny little sample cup full of the one flavor they had left, but we got it. We walked out of that 7-11 with our little bitty sample cups held high! Our heads, not so much.

If I remember, all 3 kids fell asleep on the long ride back, albeit a much shorter ride than the one there. And I passed a 7-11 about 10 minutes from the hotel. Oh, the memories.

Long live 7-11 free slurpee day!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Sand+Sun=Smiles

Ahh. The beach. That about says it all.

Here the pathetic little things are, waiting for Daddy to get us checked in.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Time In A Bottle

I am not a baby person. Put me in a room with a baby and a puppy and I'll pick the puppy every time. I was actually a little worried when I was first pregnant that I wouldn't even like my own babies. I envisioned me standing on the front step as Abe returned to work after his maternity leave, the baby and I both in tears. "Don't leave me with this all day!" I would cry out.

Thankfully I love my own babies. I am so thankful and blessed that I have been able to stay home with them. I actually enjoy spending all our time together, including when I'm in the potty and the bath and all other waking hours of the day.

I was so grateful that I didn't hate my first baby that I didn't even notice how hard it was. The more babies I had, the more I started realizing how much work they are. However, Elijah is in that sweet spot right now. That magical place where he is both a little boy and a baby at the same time. I just want to capture this moment in time and bottle it up. It's so fun to listen to him as he is finally using his large vocabulary to string together sentences, begin to sing, and begin to use rational thought processes. Last night when I said it was time to brush teeth he ran in there, got his toothbrush and toothpaste and cleaned them all by himself.

Those moments like when he grabbed a piece of ice and said, "Rock cold." And when he sees letters he calls them 'ABCBs.' And when Daddy had a big ole manly achoo and Eli's tiny little voice followed it with, "Bless you." "Fly broken," he said when he saw a dead fly. "Belly butt big," he graciously pointed out to me; both of which those are big, but at that moment his little bitty finger was deep inside my bellybutton. One of my favorites is when he told his father, "Night-night, Old Man." It's the cutest thing when he refers to himself in third person. "No Daisy's cup. Lijee's cup."

I wish I could put this time in a bottle and cherish it forever.

Isn't he precious?

Monday, June 10, 2013

{clap clap} You Rock!

God blessed our Zekers with a good brain. Our Zekers uses that brain to make good choices. He took on first grade like a boss!

I'm very proud of my new second grader.

Bye bye school. Helloooo, summer!

Thursday, June 06, 2013

1,2,3…fires and flies

Pardon me while I take this moment to brag on my baby boy who uses his words so sparingly. Today he was playing and I very distinctly heard him say, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9." Way to go, Little Bigs.

As we were leaving school today from dropping Zekers off, one of the teachers who usually stands out front in the morning told me that Daisy is the most popular non-student at school. "Everybody knows Daisy," the teacher told me.

After spending the morning at school for field day and experiencing the excitement of a fire drill, later in the day I asked Daisy what all of her babies were doing in the hall. Her response? We're having a fire drill.

As we were swatting flies one evening I told Zeke that flies only live 2 days. My empathetic boy sadly asked, "Well why do we have to kill them, then?"