a BIG announcement

we are moving to a new blog.
www.therutherfordquiver.blogspot.com
but that's not the BIG announcement.

you'll have to visit the new blog for that:

www.therutherfordquiver.blogspot.com

and while you're there, start following me on the new blog.  i will no longer be writing here.

thanks!  and let me know what you think of our announcement! :)

a burrito-ism

burrito has been saying some really funny things lately and i've neglected to jot them down here before they escape my feeble mind.

so here are two!

friday night was homecoming at our school and we celebrate at a basketball game.  john was asked to lead the prayer before one of the games so he had walked over to get the microphone.  when burrito saw what he was doing he turned to me and asked, "is dad going to sing the national anthem?"  it was so funny to us, especially if you know that john would never volunteer to sing anything!

on sunday afternoon, the boys and i watched beauty and the beast.  i had recorded it on the dvr and thought it would be fun to watch together.  the boys really enjoyed it, and at the end of the movie burrito asked, "can you live in a castle and still worship God?"  puzzled at why he would ask this question i replied, "yes, you can live in a castle and still worship God.  why?"  to which he responded, "i think i would like to live in a castle but He would still be THE king (pointing to heaven as he says this very seriously).  i wouldn't even wear a crown.  but i would like to live in a castle."

it was so super sweet to me to hear him say this so sincerely.  it redeemed an otherwise hard and difficult week.  i love it when Jesus does that!

thank you Jesus for my burrito and his sensitive heart!

spring break 2011

spring break 2011 has been a different animal this year, if you will.  i realized just how spoiled we've been the past few years, me being home (like always) and john being home on break.  we've managed to pack in a little work and a lot of fun during the past few spring breaks.

this year was a little different now that i am a part-time working mom.  i worked all day monday and tuesday, so the boys called those days "daddy days" and had lots of fun, male-bonding experiences.  i chose not to ask a lot of questions.  i probably don't want to know what all they did (or didn't do!).

on wednesday though, it was my turn as john went golfing with some friends.  the boys and i headed south to mimi's for some shopping, eating and outdoor playtime with cousin porkchop.

thursday finally brought us together as a family, and we had fun hitting some good "treasure hunting" jaunts.  friday was a work in the yard day.  the boys love to jump in and help some, and then when they get bored, they move on to digging in the dirt or other outdoor boy activities.

so when saturday rolled around, john and i felt like we wanted to do something unusual that would make lasting memories for the boys.  after putting our heads together, we decided to head out to grapevine mills and eat lunch at the rainforest cafe.  we'd never been there before, and the boys have always been fascinated with the alligator out front.  well, they haven't always been fascinated....burrito once was scared to death to get near him!  what a difference a few years make!

now it is a little pricey, but we knew that going into it, and we felt like we could splurge a bit.  in its defense, the food was yummy and the atmosphere just can't be beat.  we sat in a booth near two gorillas who would awaken every few minutes to growl and shake the trees.

 you can barely see the gorilla's hand behind noodle in this picture.

 the below picture is complements of burrito.

 noodle was loving the fried mozzarella cheese sticks!

we even splurged and let the boys eat "lava mud."  it was a concoction of chocolate pudding, ground oreos, and gummy worms!

it was really fun but nothing compared to the fun we had in store for the two of them that evening!

now before i tell you what the surprise was, i must first take a moment and congratulate myself.  you see, i am not the world's best secret keeper, especially when it comes to gifts or surprises for the ones i love.  i just get so excited and i want to tell, tell, tell!

but i managed to keep this secret for over 2 months!  and what was the secret????

tickets to see THIRD DAY in concert!!!!  the boys have never been to a concert before, and john had never seen Third Day in concert so you can imagine my excitement for them!  i had seen Third Day several times before but many, many years ago so it was super fun for all of us!

trevor morgan and tenth avenue north opened for them.  they were both very enjoyable and talented but i can't tell you how many times noodle asked me, "is it time for Third Day yet?"

the boys love listening to their music and know a lot of their songs.  and of course, Third Day opened with our current favorite, Lift Up Your Face.  the boys were crooning it, noodle was playing his air guitar and jumping all around, and burrito said, "i can feel the music in my body!"

music is very powerful to me.  i get the most passionate and most emotional when i am singing to the Lord.  and to get to share that with my family, my 6 and 5 year old boys, wow, it was just priceless!!!

it was just the perfect night and the perfect ending to another great spring break with my family!

soccer

it seems i have found myself in the throes of soccer once again.  this second time around has been much easier.  less of a shock to my naturally-inclined unscheduled self.  do i dare say that i've actually enjoyed it?  well, i didn't enjoy the 30 degree wind chill at yesterday's 9:00 game, but for the most part, it's been fun.  it could be because john and i have taken a "divide and conquer" gameplan this season.  we don't both have to attend every single practice.  every game, yes, but not every practice.  and with both boys playing and practicing every week, just this little break seems to maintain the crazies.

here are some fun shots from last weekend's games.  it was the first game of the spring season and both boys did super!  we can see so much improvement, even after having played just one season.  and i think they like it even more now!

burrito's team is the little monsters.  they have glow-in-the-dark green jerseys.  they don't really glow in the dark, but they should, they are "that" color!  burrito is #4.   here they are warming up.

 an action shot.  burrito scored a goal in this game and scored another goal in his second game, along with an assist.  we try not to make a big deal out of making goals (or not) or winning (or not) but no one can stop me from bragging here! :)

 i love, love, love this shot.  he's so serious, watching his team while he takes a break on the sideline.

 post game smiles from burrito.

 noodle's team is the tigers and they have orange jerseys.  he is #5.  this is noodle with the ball below.

 here's noodle making a break-away run.  he scored several goals in this game and in his game yesterday.   i think he and one other boy on the team are the only ones who "get it." 

here are the tigers, minus one player who didn't make this game.  it's just a 3 on 3 game so with only 4 players, noodle played almost the entire game.  we were so happy that he seemed to have more fun and not freak out when he got tired (like he did last season).  his coaches are two 16 year old girls (they are cousins) supervised by their dad/uncle.

 and just for fun, here are two shots i've taken recently of them playing outside.  i'm still trying to figure out my fancy camera.  i haven't yet but despite that, i thought these two pictures were cute.

superbowl

i know i'm way behind but better late than never, right?

we had our own little superbowl party despite days of ice and snow and sick kids.  we went to sprouts and picked out a bunch of good snacky foods and we told the boys they could stay up late and watch the entire game if they would take a nap.  they happily obliged.

 we had lots of good food....burritos, pizza, guacamole, 5 layer dip, homemade salsa, chips and margaritas.  well, john and i had the margaritas.  the boys had milk and water.  can you guess who had what???  we spread out a blanket to have our own little picnic in the living room floor.

we had lots of fun cheering on the teams.  the boys were rooting for the packers so i decided to cheer for the steelers.  bad choice on my part, ha! we played a few games of uno.  and we ate and ate and ate.  we had a great time as a family!

kids say the funniest things

last week when we were iced/snowed in for four days, i took the opportunity (finally!) to do a little organization on the ol' blog.  in doing that, i took the time to read some old entries and was laughing out loud at some of the funny things the boys have said.

this one and this one and this one were some of my favorites!  and this may be my favorite of all time!

after laughing my head off, i was feeling a little sad because i was thinking we've sort of outgrown this stage of life.  well, i was wrong!

the other night when we were having our own little superbowl party (pictures to follow soon), we were playing several games of uno.  both noodle and burrito are pretty good game players and i don't have to prompt them very often to play the right number or color in the uno game.  we were enjoying playing all the draw 2, draw 4 and skip a turn cards on each other so when it came to noodle's turn, he played a skip card to skip john, though it was the wrong color.  when we explained he couldn't play that one, he said "why can't i play the nnntttt (insert a buzzer noise here, i'm not sure how to type that kind of sound!) card????"  we just died laughing!

here's what the new skip card looks like:

it sort of looks like a symbol that would indicate a "sorry that would be incorrect" sound of buzzer.

and then today at lunch, noodle had some yogurt on his shirt sleeve and john was instructing him to clean it up.  burrito chimes in and says, "noodle, just lick it off!"  i give him a stern look and explain that using a napkin would be a much better choice.  his reply:  "well, in the burrito club, you would just lick it off!"

the burrito club....ughhh.  i am definitely NOT a member!

slowing down

one of the best things about the past 4 days of being iced in has been being able to slow down.  we're already not overly scheduled people by nature, but to slow down even more was a real gift.

the boys and i already loved to watch the birds who frequent our backyard feeder for a snack, but to be able to do so with snow falling down while we were in our jammies was a real treat.  we had a challenge over those few days to try and catch a cardinal out on our feeder and snap a few pics.  we saw several but by the time i had retrieved the camera, they had flown on.

until yesterday.  i finally got smart enough to leave the camera out by our backyard windows so we would be ready.  and first thing in the morning, we spotted a female cardinal, along with a host of bluejays, doves and squirrels!

one of the many bluejays

 the bluejay is still here but the female cardinal is at the top of the pic

 the bluejay gets spooked off by the dove and the cardinal joins him

 and this gluttonous squirrel was around all day too

 lo and behold, the long-awaited male cardinal

 the female and male together

 just love these guys!

we love our birds!

i'm so behind....

alternatively titled:  porkchop's first birthday, my boys and fall, cafe brazil and other random stuff

school, work and soccer are really kicking my booty right now, so much so that i have not found the time to blog, or even take pictures of events i want to blog.  oh well, nobody's perfect, right?

so this post is a catch-up post that will be totally random and unrelated at times. 

we had a very busy weekend last weekend, partly because the boys had a 5 day weekend off from school.  we celebrated noodle's birthday a little early with friends this year because we wanted to take advantage of being able to celebrate at chuck e. cheese's on a friday.  you know, on a day when there aren't 5000 people crammed inside of there!  it ended up being really nice and fun but i think i am going to save the details and pictures from that celebration and include them next weekend on noodle's actual birthday.

on top of a small birthday celebration, we also attended the school football game, played 2 soccer games, made a late night visit to dallas to see friends and their new baby, went to church, and celebrated another birthday sunday night.  it was a full weekend!  i had to work on monday (as did john, but the boys did not have school), so the boys had a sleepover at mimi's and spent all day monday there getting spoiled!  tuesday was our chance for haircuts and dentist appointments without missing school.  i felt like i needed another 5 day weekend to recover from our 5 day weekend!

i did manage to remember to take a few pictures from our late night trip to dallas.  we fed the boys a larger snack because we knew we would be eating dinner later that night than normal.  burrito couldn't get over the fact that we were eating dinner at 8pm!  we're such party animals!  and because we were in dallas, we couldn't resist the temptation to eat at our favorite late-night place, cafe brazil!

after eating a late night dinner, we headed over to the big half-price books there and didn't leave dallas till around 11pm.  the boys were so pumped to stay up that late!  oh, the simple pleasures of life!

this past thursday brought a significant event...my nephew porkchop's 1st birthday (and no, porkchop is not his real name!).  we met up for dinner and a little family celebration.  it was so fun watching him eat a cookie and open presents.  he's growing up so fast!

and then yesterday we celebrated his birthday with a big party at my parents' house, complete with bounce house and hay ride!  my boys had so much fun.  happy birthday porkchop!

and some other random stuff...i just love listening to the funny things my boys say and lately it's been noodle making me laugh.

he was showing me a book in the bookstore one day and explaining how his teacher at school reads these big books aloud to them.  when he came to the second page, he explained to me that "this is the table of continents."  it cracked me up because burrito has learned the names of the seven continents complete with a song and so instead of saying table of contents, it is now the table of continents!  ha, ha!

also, one night at dinner, john was reading a bible story to the boys and when john asked noodle if he understood what he had just read, noodle had this puzzled look on his face.  recognizing this, john asked him to repeat what he had heard.  noodle sat there for a few seconds and then said, "i know the answer...it's in my head, above my tongue."  he was trying to say that he knew what to say just not how to say it.  it was so funny and cute!

and finally, thanks to the busyness of soccer season, we may not make our annual trip to the pumpkin patch but we did manage to stop at our local farmer's market and get a few shots with the pumpkins.

i love this time of year and it's flying by!!!

keep your camera handy

so you can capture random moments such as these...

wearing dad's white shirts

running across the new football field

testing out the new umbrellas.  we bought these just before the 10 inches of rain we got from tropical depression hermine.  we should have bought some rain boots too!

we dug out the halloween costumes for fun this week.  here's the nice version:

and the scary version!

and we caught this sunrise on our way to school one morning.  doesn't this make you praise the Lord of creation!?!?!

so today's lesson is....carry your camera at all times! :)

changes!

we've had a few changes around here this week. 

the first change is one that we've been anticipating for 3 years!  thanks to the Lord's provision, we were able to replace our super gross (gross not from us but from the previous owners of this home) carpet this week.  we knew from the minute we moved in that we wanted to change the carpets. there were paint spots and stains that did not come out when we had the carpet cleaned before moving in, not to mention the previous owners had a large dog that was allowed inside.  fortunately we only have carpet in our 3 bedrooms, but carpet can be expensive, and required a chunk of change we just didn't have when we first moved in.  we started saving then but all those dang surprise expenses that crop up kept eating away at our savings, particularly my surprise surgery back in january.

nonetheless, through the Lord's provision, we were able to order carpet a couple of weeks ago.  i won't bore you with the details, but the ordering and installation came with it's own drama and headaches, which eventually led to (after many, many phone calls and lots of patience) the company upgrading our carpet at no further expense to us!  it was installed on tuesday and i'm not sure who was more excited, the boys or us!

here's burrito with the big reveal (and it wasn't even done yet!):

and i know the next 3 pictures will be totally boring but i know our family wants to see what the new carpet looks like in each room, so these pics are for them!

and here's a close up of the carpet.  i'm hoping you don't think it looks like 70's yellow shag carpet!

and for the other big change of the week....drum roll please....

haircuts!

and who doesn't love a before and after shot!  so here's the before (front view and back view):

i'm a little embarrassed to share these because their hair is SO long but we were waiting until the very end of summer so that the haircuts would be fresh for school.  makes sense, right?  just shake your head yes!

and here's the after!  we love the haircuts and can't believe the difference on noodle!  they both look so handsome and so grown up. 

right now that song "time is slipping away" is playing in my head.  i'm so emotional about this growing up thing!