Justin's newest trophy

Justin has earned many trophies over the last few years. Mostly from bowling. He's been bowling in a league since he was four-years old. He been bowling without bumpers for almost three years now.

He and one of his team mates bowled in a doubles tournament back in January and won 2nd place in their division. They received their trophies today. Good job Justin and Alex!!!

Happy birthday, Tony!!!

Today is my little brother's birthday. He's 32. He'll be celebrating with his fiance tonight by having dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant. He's got to load up on carbs for his marathon in St. Louis next week. (I think this is like his 10th marathon.) Then we'll be celebrating as a family tomorrow night at our parents' house.

Happy birthday, Tony!!!!!!

Good news!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope the Easter bunny visited you. He came to our house. He brought the boys a couple things and had an egg hunt waiting for them.

The good news is that I have a new family member! I mentioned in my March birthdays post that my cousin Rob and his wife Sue were expecting their first baby this month. Well, she was born last night, happy and healthy! Sadie Estelle Rhoads (our Grandma's name is Estelle) was 7#7oz and born around 8:20 last night. I'm very excited for them and can't wait to meet my new little cousin!

Congratulations Rob and Sue!!!!!!

Happy Easter, almost!

Tomorrow is Easter, and we have eggs. I found a Star Wars Easter egg coloring kit at Target, of course. It was really just the usual colors with Star Wars stickers and egg stands. Except for the C3PO one. It has a stand and kind of an egg mask. It's very shiny so it looks a little blurry in the picture. On Thursday when I was at work, Justin and Kyle colored and decorated the eggs with my mom. Now Jason and I will eat them.

My little leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I just picked Kyle up from school and all the kids were wearing these hats that they made. It's pretty windy today so all the streamers were blowing around. I don't think Justin will come home with a hat, but if he does, I'll try to get a picture.

Kyle with Justin's 9 balloon

If you saw the pictures from Justin's birthday (2 weeks ago), you saw the big balloon I bought him in the shape of a 9. When I brought it home, Kyle grabbed it and turned it upside down, because he is 6. Yes, he was born 6 years ago, but I'm pretty sure there's a 40-year old inside of him.

Art projects

These are the latest projects brought home by my talented children (I should really brag more about my sons!). Since Justin is in 3rd grade, he doesn't bring much home unless it's something he actually did in art class. Kyle brings home silly little things all the time. That's one of the reasons kindergarten is so great! So here we are: We have Kyle's shamrock that he colored (currently hanging on our kitchen cabinet), Justin's name written in hieroglyphics (hanging on the fridge), and Kyle's George Washington project. Pretty creative and cute.

March birthdays

I was thinking about it and I know a lot of people that were born in March. Starting with my cousin Jenn on the 2nd, then Justin on the 4th. Jason's mom's birthday was the 8th. Today was our good friend Jim' birthday along with my Auntie Marge (her husband's birthday is later this month). My little cousin Claire will be turning two this month. My brother, Tony, was born on the 28th of March. And in about a week a new member of the family will be born. My cousin Rob and his wife Sue are expecting their first baby. If I forgot anyone, I apologize.
Happy birthday to all you March babies!!!

Kyle's bumper tournament

Kyle participated in a bowling tournament today. It was for kids in leagues that use bumpers, so there aren't any high scores, but fun to watch. The tournament took place in downtown Lockport at an ancient bowling alley that is in a basement. There are a total of 10 lanes and NO automatic scoring machines!!! It was a cute and clean, but it felt we went back in time. The kids didn't know how the score would be kept since they only know the automatic way. My dad kept score for Kyle and the kids he was bowling with because their coach didn't know how. It wasn't a team tournament, but Kyle was bowling with the kids that he bowls with in his Saturday league, including his cousin Joel. Kyle bowled in the same tournament last year and won a 5th place trophy. I don't think he did as well this year.
That's Kyle's coach in the 2nd picture which shows all 10 lanes. The third picture is Kyle sitting next to my dad while writing down the scores.

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY, JUSTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Justin is 9 years old today!!! I'm not sure how that happened. It feels like he was just born. We've been through a lot in the last nine years, but I still can't believe that much time has gone by! And while I don't want my sons to grow up as quickly as they are, at the same time it's kind of nice. Not only do we have a flexibility with them that you don't have with babies or toddlers, like leaving the house without a diaper bag or having to be home for nap times, but Jason and I can see that our sons are turning out to be terrific people. Justin is always getting comments from his teachers about what a great role model he is, and he's used for examples in the classroom. That may sound geeky, but he also has a lot of friends and is very helpful at the same time. He is very genuine. He came home one day in the fall and told me that he got to choose a game for the class to play during free time as a reward for his teacher catching him being helpful. He told me that he wasn't sure what he did, but Miss Conklin said he was helpful. While I was proud, I wasn't surprised. I explained to him that he is often helpful and doesn't know it, what's important is that his teacher witnessed it. As parents, Jason and I sometimes pat ourselves on the back for these things, but Justin is at the age where he makes his own choices, especially while at school. And he chooses to be an excellent human being. I could sit here and go on ALL day about my kids (with these tears in my eyes), but I should move on.

Anyway, happy 9th birthday, Justin! Mom-mom loves you!!!!

A tribute to Justin

Here are some pictures of Justin from the past. The pictures are ages newborn, 2, 3, & 4 years old. How time flies!

The most radical empire

Today was the trip the Lego store at Woodfield Mall. It went as well as Jason and I expected. I mentioned in my last post that Justin and Kyle didn't know that we were going there. They didn't know until we were in the mall and Kyle spotted it. They were shocked! They look at the Legos at Target a lot and there's a pretty good selection there. But at the Lego store, there were some special edition things that they've only seen in the magazine or online. Unfortunately, these were the sets that cost about $500! And since the boys already have such a huge collection, they found a couple smaller sets that they wanted. We walked around the mall for awhile and enjoyed Cinnabon before leaving. Yum!

Let the building and playing begin

The building began last night, but it will continue for awhile today. Justin does enjoy putting his Lego sets together, but some of these sets are pretty big and that means he has to wait to play with it. Two of the sets he got as presents consist of about 400 pieces!!! Those are the ones Jason has to be involved in.
Jason is on vacation this week. It's become kind of a tradition for him to take the week of Justin's birthday off. The boys also have the day off school tomorrow. So we're taking them to the Lego store at Woodfield Mall! THEY DON'T KNOW YET!!! They only know there's going to be a surprise tomorrow. The two of them don't even know that there's a Lego store in Illinois! They've seen pictures of it on lego.com and in Lego magazine (they're obsessed!), but they think it's only in California. I cannot wait to see their reactions!

Justin's birthday party

Justin's party took place yesterday at our house. It was a party full of Legos, Star Wars, and more Legos! Needless to say, he was a happy boy. And so was Kyle since he enjoys the same things his big brother does. Jason always takes action photos of the candles being blown out. I thought Kyle looked hilarious in this picture.