A few days ago, the boys and I went to Em's house after the gym for the afternoon. While Dylan was sleeping, I helped Em watch the girls and Joshie while she gardened. Here are a few pictures from that day. And yes, Joshua is in the front lawn wearing only a diaper like a true redneck baby. Good thing the neighbors already think Em is a bit crazy. :)

So I didn't post about our flat tire yesterday when we were leaving the Motocross thing because I just called AAA and out came the tow truck, on went the donut and today after the beach clean up we were just going to head over to Discount Tire to cash in on our $9 free fix or replacement warranty thing that we've used more times than I care to admit. Our tires have bad luck I guess. So there we go to the tire place in the blazing heat, which made for a beautiful early morning beach clean up trip but not so fun for waiting for the car to get fixed. So here's what happened with the tires. We get there and the guy takes one look at the tire and sees that our alignment was so bad, the inside part of the tread on the tire is practically gone, while the rest is still there, looking like we've got lots of use still on them. He can't cash in the warranty but checks the other tires too. The insides of all the tires are just the same so we need to replace them all and get an alignment too. So pretty much, if God hadn't blessed us with a flat tire, we would have continued to drive on extremely dangerous, about to be the tire bits in the middle of the freeway and the family on the side of the road tires without even KNOWING it because I just looked at the tires maybe a week or two ago because I had this nagging idea that we needed new tires. They looked TOTALLY fine because all the wear from the alignment was on the inner part of the tire that isn't evident unless the tire is turned so you can see it. So PRAISE JESUS for flat tires, AAA and warranties. And credit cards since there is no way we had $600 to shell out for new tires.

I will get those pictures up from the boy's parties soon, I promise! I'm waiting for Emily to email me the pictures but Ava and Mad are sick and none of them slept last night so I'm going to give her a few more days before I harass her about it. :)

For me, the new year starts between the end of March and the middle of April. I guess that's the stay at home mom in me that I don't have to be concerned with what the outside world and my husband considers the new year. Nope, our new year starts with Dylan's birthday and finishes with Joshua's. Needless to say, it's a new year in our house.

This past year has been a tough one for us. Between Joshua's illness, broken collar bone and misc other ailments; Dylan's "terrible" twos and potty training; my 8 months of kidney stones before I gave up the fight and got the surgery; Colin's additional work responsibilities; and the daily hubbub that comes from having two wonderfully wild little boys, we've been full of stress and changes.

Here's to our new year.

Dylan and I, though we still have conflict between us, have been getting along much better of late. All of a sudden, he's all snuggles and kisses and wanting to snuggle before bed. Today, Colin got free tickets to a motocross event at his work for me to take Dylan. I don't know if I've ever seen him so excited. He was in AWE of those guys and I have to say that I was too. I don't understand the desire to do stunts like that but I guess that's just part of the difference between men and women. Dylan has also calmed down a lot. Very rarely does he play race cars and run around my house like a wild banshee.

Joshua is just a little love but he's got a temper on him... I wonder where he gets that from? He's finally starting to gain weight or at least look a bit more filled out. That was a big worry for us. Joshua loves to play with his brother and, in fact, Dylan was one of his first words. His favorite word is "again." I always think it's so funny that he never misses me when I'm gone until I get back. Joshua's favorite game is helping mommy sweep or mop the floor. He's also got the Skidmore musicality. Let's face it, that didn't come from my side of the family.

The Lord has blessed us so much in the past year. After Joshua's birth, Colin gave his life to Christ. When Joshua got sick in October, we both became a bit backslidden but in the past few months both of us have been blessed with the thirst for the Lord again. Since we moved it's been hard to go to church on Sundays with Colin's schedule and the fact that we only have one car but my inlaws have been so loving as to agree to pick Colin up from work on Wednesday nights so I can go to church again.

That's all for now, as I have to get the boys into the car so we can go pick Colin up from work. Tomorrow we are doing an early morning beach cleanup with Harrah's and then will probably head over to Em's for lunch so we don't stop at McDonald's and spend money on empty calories. Yesterday was the boy's family birthday party. I'll be uploading pictures from that and from Dylan's birthday with his friends as soon as I upload them.

I sure do love my boys. I LOVE this picture, even though it's such a simple picture. It lifts my heart.

Another visit to the Wild Animal Park. It was a super fun trip!

Recently the boys and I went back to Arkansas to visit my dad who had open heart surgery to replace a valve. We saw my sister Tara and my brother Joey and his family. It was an overdue visit since I haven't seen Joey and Joy since their wedding, Tara since before Colin and I got married and neither of my siblings had ever met the boys. And I'd never met my nieces, both of whom are the same age, within days, as Dylan and Joshie. I also got to visit with my Grandma Sylvia who has breast cancer and Grandpa Paul and several other members of the family who I haven't seen since I was about 4. Overall, it was a really good trip other than the fact that Dylan got the flu and ended up in the ER for one of the nights. Here are some pictures from the trip.


Joshua and Riley Kate playing with the balls at the park.




Dylan and Kierra


The babies and Auntie Tara's dog, Pixie


Riley and Tara


The big kids and Auntie Joy feeding the ducks and geese at the Fish Pond


Me with Grandma Sylvia holding Riley


Tara and Grandpa Paul


Tara and me at Eureka Springs Park coming down from the bluff above


The giant Jesus statue at the Passion Play in Eureka Springs

This picture is so flipping cute! They look all grown up!

Sometimes I think the children are so funny. Like Joshua spinning in circles and falling over just to see me laugh at him. Or when the boys use the Bumbo as a dinosaur egg from which to hatch. Tonight, Colin and I got a kick out of something that we probably should not have thought was funny at all but was hilarious! At least we contained the laughter until after Dylan left the room again. For dinner tonight, I made zucchini which Joshua thinks is like manna from heaven or something and Dylan would rather lick the bottom of a shoe than eat. So the usual bribing the 3 year old to eat at least one tiny bite of anything remotely resembling something that is green from chlorophyll as opposed to some scary food coloring experiment. Dylan takes his plate to the sink and is told to go potty. A few minutes later he casually, oh so casually, comes back into the kitchen and opens the trash compacter. As we wonder what on earth the boy is doing, he starts spitting something into the trash... zucchini. Then he runs away laughing like a crazy person. Needless to say, after we wrestled him into eating another zucchini and did a body cavity check to make sure it was swallowed, we gently encouraged him to spend some time playing in his room so we could have a laugh about it. Crazy kid. What was he thinking not spitting it in the toilet? That was the perfect out!