Catching up

Posted by Lissa in Uncategorized on Feb 18th, 2013 | 0 comments

I’m really working on getting this blog up to date.  Some day I want to print this in a book to be the boys’ picture books, so if you’d like to see the old posts that I posted (for some reason Wordbooker stopped working and the RSS feed isn’t updating in my google reader) here they are.  Otherwise, please ignore

http://www.joshandlissafamily.com/2012/04/19/easter-2012-catching-up/

http://www.joshandlissafamily.com/2012/04/19/not-so-sick-days/

http://www.joshandlissafamily.com/2012/05/18/all-about-alex-springsummer-2012/

http://www.joshandlissafamily.com/2012/05/23/brotherly-love/

http://www.joshandlissafamily.com/2012/06/20/all-about-williamspringsummer-2012/

Getting Ready For Santa

Posted by Lissa in 3 Yrs, 5 Yrs, Alex, Christmas, Will on Jan 6th, 2013 | 0 comments

Although we saw Santa earlier in November, we had their “official” visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus at a brunch.  When we take our kids out to eat, they typically eat about 2 bites.  At our Christmas brunch, we were scheduled at 10:30, and I think the kids only at a Nutrigrain bar in the morning.  We got there and the kids were HUNGRY.  In fact, they wanted to eat before seeing Santa.  It was so nice to see them eat a full plate and ask for more lol

Cute boys waiting for Santa..

Alex quickly got on Santa’s lap, but Will played shy for a while, getting close and then running away.  Finally, he was convinced to sit on Santa’s lap, but wanted nothing to do with Mrs. Claus.

After that, they got to decorate cookies and get their faces painted.

They both chose the Grinch!

Will’s final picture is a little blurry, but I like his face, because that is his crazy personality.  (*Resolution #2435134: get a new lens and learn how to shoot better pictures that aren’t blurry)

The next day, we tackled Christmas cut-out cookies.  Too bad we ended up ditching them all after we all had a stomach bug.  Oh well, we’ll try again with Valentine’s Day.  The kids are getting really good at learning how to measure things and how to pour things in the mixer carefully and slowly.  I may let Alex make a mix of brownies or something by himself.  Just need to teach him how to break eggs

Merry Christmas To All!

Posted by Lissa in 3 Yrs, 5 Yrs, Alex, Christmas, Will on Dec 25th, 2012 | 0 comments

Merry Christmas everyone!  It’s a Christmas miracle that I have some time to update the blog  

We celebrated the Shaver family Christmas on Christmas Eve this year.  This was the first Christmas party we’ve gone to this year, so the kids were beyond excited.  Look how cousin Aaron arrived to the party, picked out by himself!

Before we got to opening presents, we attempted the kids annual picture with reindeer ears.  Let me know if one of these works for you mom!  The kids were not cooperating that good.

Then present time – let the fun begin:

This is William getting his Bucky ship. He is obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  He loves this ship already.

This was Alex’s big gift from grandma, a huge castle.  He was VERY excited over this!

Alex also got some transformers, but he’s not quite ready for them, and frankly, neither am I!  The instructions are terrible and the pieces kept popping off.  For now, he much preferred Will’s Rescue Bot that he got.

We drove home and got stuck in light snow, but bad, bad roads.  Luckily, we made it home in time for the kids to test out their new toys. 

In the morning, we heard the kids wake up and go downstairs.  We both were ready to jump out of bed at the slightest sound of ripping wrapping paper, but William came to us a couple of times to tell us Santa came, and I heard Alex telling him to let mommy and daddy rest   They were keeping busy playing with their toys from the day before.  But we finally got up and got the coffee going.

This next set of pictures is funny to me.  Notice what William is opening up.  Next, notice what Alex is holding up.  Then, notice his excitement when I tell him that I saw what he did..

William is starting to open his favorite book from school, but check Alex’s reaction to HIS gift. Haha!  He cracks me up!

BUT apparently, he wanted a WHITE racetrack (where he comes up with specifying a color is beyond me).  Seems like the non-white one was just fine!

Then they got their “big” presents, although they had no idea for a long time, what it was that they were opening.  We got them Kindles.  Not planned, but there was a good deal, and good kids package they have now.  The kids love them, and I’m a little excited to play with it at night! lol

The kids definitely had a good Christmas.  There’s some jealousy between them, but hopefully they’ll get over it and learn to share (dream on, right?).

Even the kitty likes his present from grandma.

Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas too!

Christmas Wishes

Posted by Lissa in 5 Yrs, Alex, Christmas, new things on Nov 29th, 2012 | 0 comments

With Alex starting Kindergarten this year, he is learning how to read.  They’ve practiced individual letters since the beginning of the year, and then around Thanksgiving, they started some sight words and have started sounding out words.  Alex got a little notepad from a very early visit to Santa at the mall and immediately started writing out his Christmas wish list.  He did pretty good, but forgot vowels for the most part.  We lost his notepad for a long time, so then, once our Elf on a Shelf appeared, he wanted to draw pictures of everything he wanted to show the elf.  His pictures are awesome we think!

First, a painting set (Ptdn).  Next, a castle (Csl)

Then a train (trn) and stickers (wasn’t in his notepad)

Also, a racetrack (rs trac), and dinosaur, although this is also the picture for transformers since he didn’t know how to draw transformers (Dnosr  and Trsfrz)

Finally, he wants a Dot-to-dot coloring book (dtot Clring Bc)

Once William saw all of Alex’s pictures, he wanted his wish list in pictures too.  So Alex gladly drew them.

First is a game (like Alex’s Leapster Explorer), and then people – to play in Alex’s castle.  (Sidenote here: When we had Alex’s parent/teacher conference in November, everything was great, except his teacher was confused about one thing.  Whenever Alex draws people, they always have a big black (always black) dot on their crotch!  lol  That was a funny funny conversation!  After we asked Alex about it (innocent questions that wouldn’t make him feel bad), he was like “duh, they’re the buttons on the pants!”  So haha, here’s a wonderful picture of a person with the lovely button on his pants.)

Next, William wants cars and a pair of scissors (Alex traced his, and NO William is not getting scissors yet!)

Lastly, William also wants stickers.

These pictures were so helpful to us this year, and I’m going to love to be able to look back on them.

Trick Or Treat 2012

Posted by Lissa in 3 Yrs, 5 Yrs, Alex, Fall, Friends, Halloween, Will on Nov 1st, 2012 | 0 comments

The boys had such a fun time with Halloween this year.  While looking through costumes online in September, Alex quickly decided he wanted to be the Blue Batman with muscles, and didn’t budge (a first for him).  William had a few options that he was waffling on, but once he tried on the dragon costume we had from Alex, he was SO excited about being a dragon!  I was a bit surprised that Alex didn’t mind Will being a dragon since he’s been a little obsessed with “How to train your dragon,” so it all worked out great!

We started our celebration by heading to the Great Wolf Lodge again.  The kids loved it.  I’m pretty sure William doesn’t remember it from last year, but wasn’t intimidated AT ALL.  I walked him back to get a life jacket while Josh and Alex started on a slide.  I put it on him and went to put my sandals back at our table.  I turned around, and he wasn’t at the playscape area that he was supposed to be staying at (it took me 20 seconds to do this).  I started running up and through all the sprinkling and water pouring everywhere, and got to the top – he wasn’t there.  I looked down and there he was getting off of the water slide that he rode from the top. OMG.  He didn’t even wait or have any second thoughts apparently.  As we have done the last 2 years, we did a quick GWL trick or treating in the evening and finished out a fun trip the next afternoon.

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I didn’t get pictures of pumpkin carving this year, but they both helped a little.  My boys are still not so fond of the pumpkin guts and tried to get it out with spoons, so Josh and I had to dig in, which is why there’s no pictures!  We tried to get Alex to draw what he wanted for a face, but he has high expectations and was not happy with what he could do.

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Sadly, Alex didn’t get to have a Halloween party at his school (they have a carnival that they consider their party), but William did get to have one, and he kept wondering whose birthday it was   He also kept laughing and telling everyone he was bleeding!  Silly dude.

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When it was time to go trick or treating, it was pretty cold and sprinkling a bit, so we had to get all bundled up.  Of course, they didn’t mind!  The boys went trick or treating with our neighbors Chris and Ben again.  How cute are they all? 

Before going out, we had the talk with Will that there would be a lot of candy that he wouldn’t be able to eat, and that we had safe candy at home to trade when he was done.  Apparently, one woman gave him a pack of Peanut M&Ms, and he yelled from her porch, “Hey dad, do these have peanuts in them?”  LOL The lady heard him and started apologizing and gave him something else (she said her son also had a peanut allergy). 

William didn’t last too long, so Josh dropped him off so that Alex and Chris could take the long block.  Will was so excited to help pass out candy and took his job seriously.  He had to go to the bathroom so bad, and after I finally convinced him to go, he told me, “do NOT pass out any candy when I’m in the bathroom.”  Luckily, we had a lighter night, so nobody came in that time   After I showed him what some safe candy and ‘bad’ candy looked like from his bucket, he then started asking the trick or treaters who came to our door if peanuts were safe for them.  So far, he seems to not be concerned with what he can’t have, so that is good!

When Alex got back, he had a half of pumpkin-full of candy PLUS a grocery bag filled.  That’ll last us through Easter I think (not kidding either).  We separated the boys candies, and Alex traded William for all of his peanut candies.  Will happily chose lot of suckers, tootsie rolls and gummies. 

Now the countdown to Christmas (and Thanksgiving) begins!

Happy Halloween!

The Happiest Place On Earth (Part 2)

Posted by Lissa in 3 Yrs, 5 Yrs, Alex, Vacation, Will on Oct 28th, 2012 | 0 comments

We planned our rest day after Magic Kingdom, figuring that would be our longest day.  Originally we thought it would be a good day to head to the beach, but since Will was iffy (but on the mend), we decided to stay “home” instead.  While we were hanging out in the morning, William was digging through our breakfast cookie selection (AKA Nutrigrain bars).  He said we only had a few pink “breasah cookies” but that there was more at our “OTHER house…the one with the toys and bikes and stuff.”  So funny – I wouldn’t mind a second house in Florida though    We had breakfast down at one of the hotel restaurants, and came back to get ready for…you guessed it – swimming. 

It was a fun low-key day swimming. 

We had early dinner reservations at Fulton’s Crab House, but Will fell asleep for his nap late, and since he was sick, we wanted to let him sleep.  So, Alex and I had a little date night.  This big white bird was visiting us while we ate.

For our 3rd park day, we were going to go to Animal Kingdom, but there was still so much more to do (and re-do) at Magic Kingdom, that we decided to skip AK this time.  It was definitely a good decision for us!  William was definitely feeling better, and we got to capture Zurg again!

The boys loved Pluto for some reason.  Alex started this trend beginning with Pluto, of trying to put his new Goofy hat on the characters.

Hey Alex!  Remember, you’re supposed to be happy!  We think someone got a little overtired on this trip  

Once we got back, naptime began (er… continued from the bus ride)  and Alex and I went to the pool and met with a couple of my friends from high school.  It was fun to see them, and see Alex with them.  He was a little shy, but cute

Our last day at the park was at Hollywood Studios.  We knew that there wasn’t going to be a whole lot for us do there since William doesn’t sit still all that long, so we decided to swim in the morning and head there for lunch and stay through the parade.  We went to the 50’s primetime café .  It was a fun atmosphere, but the kids didn’t get it too much.  Alex thought the 50’s styled TVs were super fake and didn’t believe that that’s what TVs used to look like.  When the server yelled at the kids to eat and did a little airplane of food on fork to Will’s mouth, he just looked at him like “who are you?!”  Haha pretty funny though.  Right before lunch Josh tried to get a fast pass for the one ride we wanted to go on with the kids, but it was for a time that was already too late (like 7:30).  So, we ended up watching the Little Mermaid show and then went and saw all the characters that the kids would love.  There were a lot there for them: Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Handy Manny, an army man, Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc…

Then we saw Lightning McQueen and Mater and back to see Sully with Mike!  It’s funny that yet again, William was afraid of one of his most favorite characters – Sully.  He was being silly when it was just Mike, but once we went back with Sully, he went and hid in the corner!  So I had to pick him up to get a group picture, but Sully is one of my favorites, so I didn’t mind

The last characters we saw were Phineas and Ferb – one of the longest lines, but it’s Alex’s favorite cartoon right now, so we waited it out (and even found a Michigan alum behind us).  Alex of course, started trying to put his hat on Ferb.  So, William had to try too.

When that didn’t work and we tried to get the kids to move on from that, William got mad..

But then Phineas picked up Will’s Goofy hat, and put it on Ferb’s head!  Will loved it!

The really big attraction for us to go to Hollywood studios was the parade – a Pixar parade with all of their favorite characters.  They were both enjoying pointing out everyone they recognized and dancing to the music.  It was so easy to get a great spot too, right along the front line.

 

On our way out, we grabbed some cold treats – Will was cracking me up

2 seconds after we got on the bus Will was no longer moving, so I checked to see if he was awake..

That would be a NO!

We definitely enjoyed the last few hours that we could.  I told Will he could swim again that day.  So, after he woke up from his nap, we ate and went down to the pool and did some more night swimming.

The morning before we left was more of the same.  The kids loved the trip, loved the pool, loved the Florida weather, and loved Disney.  They were already asking when we could go again, although truthfully, I think they’d be just as happy with a regular hotel and a pool (without any Disney).  I can’t wait to go again when they’re a little taller and can ride on more rides.

 

 

 

Our drive back was long and boring.  Lots of pretty colors though, and tired, not-so-well-behaved kids.  The second we walked in the door, the kids were pretending to pack their things to take a trip to Disney again!