another one bites the dust

this time burrito managed to pull the tooth (#2) out himself.  i told him that if he did, i would yell and scream and act like a crazy person outside (which i did) and that i would buy him a big ice cream cone (which i will do tomorrow).

the things mothers do for their children! :)

happy (belated) birthday to my sweet hubby

though i am a week late, we do love and treasure our september birthday boy john.  we have celebrated multiple times with friends and family.  we love him so much and are so thankful to God for his humble leadership and shepherding of our family.

john and i celebrated his birthday first with a date to chuy's and starbucks.  and our super sweet and awesome babysitter did not charge us as a birthday present to him.  isn't that awesome!?!?

we celebrated with friends last sunday night by meeting for MORE mexican food and then coming back to eat dessert at our house.

we celebrated with family last night at my parents' house after eating at chuy's (do you see a trend here?  we love our mexican food!) by eating more dessert and spending some relaxing time together.

the boys bought john a bicycle helmet and then made him a coupon to pick out a new bike.  we didn't want to do that without john's input and who can wrap a bike!?!?  the boys love going on bike rides with him and he's always had to jog along, so this really is a good present, ha ha!

john modeling the new helmet and holding the coupon for one free bike!

happy birthday to the best dad and husband ever!  we love you!

labor day john deere races

after seventy 100+ degree days here in texas, labor day was a refreshing 85 degrees.  so how did we celebrate?  we headed to mimi's and poppy's house for lunch and to sit out back and enjoy the beautiful weather!

you might remember me mentioning the best toy we've ever purchased:  the peg perego john deere gator.  it's still alive and kicking after 4+ years and 2 rambunctious boys, but we don't get the opportunity to ride it as much, and now that the boys are older they prefer their bikes.  because we have sweet porkchop (my almost 2yo nephew) now, i knew this would be a great toy for all 3 boys at my parents' house.  so we haphazardly loaded up this thing in the back of our pilot and off to grandmother's house we went.

and i was right.  burrito and noodle LOVED riding the dog out of this thing down there.  it's a good thing we have 2 batteries!  and even porkchop warmed up to the idea of the bigger cousins driving him around.  it didn't take too long for the boys to remember that poppy has a john deere of his own.

and 2 john deeres + 2 boys + one poppy =  john deere races!

it was hysterical to watch them and impossible to decide who was having the most fun.  i took over 200 pictures that day but these are a few of my favorites:

this one is my favorite i think because they are all smiling.  don't miss those kool-aid mustaches!

poppy letting burrito drive.  watch out world!

burrito is LOVING this!

noodle running, or driving rather, for his life!

check out burrito's hair flying in the breeze

porkchop showing me what he found on the patio

sweetness

i love this picture despite the shadow!

noodle's turn to drive!

porkchop keeping himself entertained with his football

noodle and poppy love

this picture would have been awesome if you could see ALL their heads.

it was so fun to relax and spend time as a family...a perfect day off of work!

texas rangers

a few weekends ago we received a call from a sweet friend offering us their tickets to the rangers game.  in one hour!  we love this type of last minute surprise so off we went and had such a great time!  the seats were awesome!  and to sweeten the deal, the rangers were playing the angels, vernon wells' (one of our school dads) team.  it was so funny to watch the boys be so conflicted over who to cheer for....do we want the rangers to win or do we want vernon to win???

this is vernon wells at bat

in 100+ degree heat, a lemon chill never tasted so good!

not a great picture taken with my phone but i just couldn't resist putting it here

well, vernon ended up winning but it was a great game and we had a great time, even though we were sweating to death!

soccer season is coming

the boys are super excited for their first soccer game of the season coming up this saturday.  we've been practicing since the first of august and the season officially started 2 weeks ago but we had a weekend with no game and then labor day weekend so it feels like it will never start!

the association we play with had a little team parade on opening day that our team participated in, even though we weren't officially playing that day.  the  boys are playing on the same team this season, the monsters, and proudly marched around the soccer field.

burrito is the "O" and noodle is the "N"

i am so excited to watch them play together this season.  they are playing on a much larger field in this age group, and i think that will play to their advantage.  we love our coach who is really great with the boys and is a Christian.  we like to give him something at the end of the season to say thanks for all his hard work and i am thinking this season that i will try and take a great action shot of each boy on the team and make a photo book to give him.  don't you think that would be fun?  i even thought that if i can get it made early enough, i could have each boy autograph their picture.  we will see how that goes....i'll have to remind myself to stop cheering them on and take some pictures.  i get so wrapped up in the game!

boosterthon fun run 2011

our school does a fundraiser at the beginning of the school year called the boosterthon fun run.  the kids get pledges from those who would like to support our school and then run up to 35 laps at the fun run.   supporters can pledge money per lap or pledge a flat amount.  this year, our school is raising money to build a playground for our grammar school (grades 1-4).  my thanks to those who supported our boys this year!

i'm not a fan of fundraisers, especially when the kids get all worked up about getting prizes for the amount of pledges they get, but my boys do have fun running.  and they ran fast and hard and always exceed the 35 lap limit.  they are so cute.  i spent the morning with noodle's class this year and was able to take some fun pictures of his kindergarten friends.   here are some of my favorites.

noodle before the race

class picture minus 2 girls

the girls (minus one).  aren't they cute and sweet?

the boys.  cute and tough!

look at that hair fly, he is running so fast!

noodle in action, with the ever-present tongue hanging out. :)

i love the way the sun was in my lens in this one and it looks like noodle is checking out his competition!

and even though i was the unofficial race photographer for noodle's class, i did manage to sneak over and cheer on burrito as well!

my other adorable athlete!

he looks so intense!

i love this one...like he is checking out his competition and wanting to edge out the lead over his friend!

i think they this was a lap where the kids could walk but not my fierce burrito...he just ran past them!

i tried to get a shot of the whole field.  there were two racetracks set up, one for grades PreK and K, and one for grades 1 &2.

we were all glad it was over!  this is noodle's class celebrating their victory with their senior.

now, if i can just remember next year to NOT send them in good clothes or shoes.  for some reason, every year this is more of a mud run than a fun run.  the kids don't seem to care, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the moms do!

congratulations little runners!

a rutherford update

i am sad to say that this picture was taken about 3 weeks ago because 3 weeks ago we were not in school, and we had time to do fun things like bake!

it has been quite the adjustment having a second grader and kindergartener around here.  i think we've settled into a good routine though, and i am grateful for that.  for my own posterity's sake, i thought it would be fun to document our schedule so that years from now when we are really busy, i can look back at my busyness now and just laugh!

so both boys are in school 5 days a week this year.  i work on monday, wednesday and friday, giving me tuesday and thursday to do all the housework types of duties that i still enjoy doing (i know, i'm weird!).  burrito has homework on mondays, tuesdays and thursdays, and we fill in the other days with extra reading or math flash cards.  we practice sight words and reading with noodle on a daily basis.

i've found what works best for us is to come home, the boys take a shower, change into comfy clothes (we wear uniforms), and grab a snack.  then we head to our reading room.  we converted our front guest bedroom into a living space that we thought we would use more often.  our house is small and so every square foot needs to be smartly utilized.  we are so glad we made the change!  it gives us a perfect spot to do homework, lounge around and read, or play.

most of our books all in one place.  we love it!

this is a little lounger to sit on and read.  a craigslist find.  and don't miss my volkswagon van art above.  i am still trying to convince john we need one of these!

this is where we sit and do homework, art projects, puzzles, you name it!  we love having a dedicated table for these types of activities.  we made the display above so that the boys can hang up their art.

here's a closer picture of the art wall.

and here's one more seating option near the windows.  don't you just love those curtains?  they are ikea!  i adore them!

i help guide burrito through his assignments, teaching him to follow directions and be a little more responsible for keeping his homework and folders in order.  while i am working with him, noodle practices writing his name or copying words from the books he is learning to read on a dry erase board.  we can usually finish the work in an hours time, and then we have the remainder of the evening to eat dinner, go to soccer practice, or do something together as a family.

the boys have been doing great!  noodle is so motivated to learn how to read that he is plowing through books by dr. seuss.  we are currently reading go dog go.  i love that he is wanting to read like his big brother.  burrito is reading chapter books and is enjoying the magic tree house series.  they both have a bible verse they must memorize and recite to the teacher each week.  burrito has 20 spelling words a week with a quiz on friday.  he also has math and phonics worksheets he must complete 3 days a week.  all this work keeps us busy, but it's a good busy and they are learning so much!  john and i still toy with the idea of me homeschooling the boys next year, but it's a take it year-by-year evaluation so we will see.

john's school year has started off well, and he is loving being goofy with middle-schoolers.  i love that he is doing what he loves and hearing about how he is shepherding his students, not just teaching them latin.  the stories of how so many kids struggle with identity and acceptance at this age can be heartbreaking, and i am so thankful he is able to come alongside these kids and encourage their little hearts with the Truth.

i am learning to appreciate this new season of life.  it's very strange on tuesdays and thursdays being home without any children.  i love, love, love being a mom, and it just feels a little empty without them here with me all of the time.  i am trying to dive into my own personal passions on these days, when i'm not buying groceries, doing laundry or cleaning the house.  my current project is a coffee table.  let's just say if this were round 1, the coffee table definitely won.  but i'm not a quitter!

i love house projects and doing research on the best products and companies so i joined angie's list.  if you've ever contemplated doing so, let me encourage you to do it!  it's not that expensive (i think it was $23 for a year's membership) and we've already used it several times.  it's better than free sites because the reviews are from actual people, and they verify the reports so you can be assured that those bad reviews are not coming from the company's competitor.  i have found that i just can't fully trust any of the other free sites.  i've had good results twice now in the last 2 weeks so i feel like the membership has already paid for itself!

our latest big house project is the replacement of our original 1987 aluminum windows.  we've wanted to replace them from the second we moved in, but they are not cheap so it's taken some time to save up the money and bite the bullet to do it.  we can't wait for their installation (some time in mid-september) and to reap the benefits this winter.  we chose some super energy-efficient ones, so we are hoping to notice a difference on our utility bill and comfort level!

the boys are still playing soccer with one major development this season:  noodle is playing on burrito's outdoor rec team!  we are so excited, not only because they love playing together, but also because that just means one practice and one game a week instead of two!  hooray!  now if the weather would just cooperate and cool down.  we had practice in the 106 degree heat last week!

so that's the latest in the rutherford casa.  maybe thursdays can be my blogging day.  it's so hard to keep up with our ever-changing schedule!