Taking It Cheesy ... Crazy Tales of Alex & Spencer
We closed on the new house towards the end of April! We enjoyed the almost 3.5 years in our rental, but we are so happy to have our own house again!
 The boys are ready to go in the moving truck! |
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 Our new home-sweet-home! |
 This yard looks so different now (I’m writing this in October!) We’ve cut down the cedar trees, encouraged the grass, built a tree house, and improved the deck. |
 We have the same fun boys, though! |
We visited my mom and dad for a night before Easter weekend. We celebrated several birthdays (Grandma’s, Unk’s, and mine), checked on the tree house, hunted Easter eggs, drove the tractor, and explored the creek. It was a busy 24 hours! Both boys were fast asleep before we even hit the interstate to come home.
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This is our third summer in Charlotte and we finally made it to the annual Back to School Monster Truck Bash at the Charlotte Motor Speedway’s dirt track. We had so much fun and will definitely be going again next year! There were 8 monster trucks. They started with the qualifier, then they raced, and they ended with the free style run. The boys were enthralled and had a blast! Tim and I enjoyed the show, too! We ended up with great seats and high schoolers in front of us that showed up late and left often for snacks, so they boys were easily able to see everything. We even managed to miss most of the dust clouds!
 The first qualifier of the night. |
 Saying cheese! |
 Spencer was amazed by everything - the trucks, the crowds, the birds, the airplanes, the lights … |
 Ready for a race! |
 Alex loved watching the two monster trucks crossing paths this way. |
 We even got to see three trucks roll over. |
 Crazy boys, waiting for the crowd to thin out. |
*This post was written last Tuesday, May 26th, but due to technical difficulties, it wasn’t posted until today.*
After today’s puppy party, we went with Ethan to a nearby park. While at the park, Alex somehow slipped and smacked the side of his head on some metal steps. He cried and cried, then felt okay and played some more. Tim and I debated taking him to the doctor, but he seemed okay. Then, on the way home, Alex started getting really nauseous. Once we were home, he seemed a bit better and ate some lunch. When he started to feel sick again, we decided I should take him to urgent care. Turns out urgent care will just tell you to go to the hospital, so I got Alex back in the car and went to the ER. Poor boy threw up on the way and was really sleepy. That was the only time I was really scared for him. The hospital staff was amazing and took us straight back to a room and started checking him out. After a ride on a stretcher and a CT scan, the doctor gave him a clean bill of health – no concussion – just take it easy for a day or two. When we left the hospital, Alex told me, “That doctor’s office was fun!” I just hope we don’t have to go back any time soon! We mostly laid on the couch the rest of the day and relaxed. I think he had a dull headache when he went to bed, but he seemed okay otherwise. We definitely started our summer off with a “bang”! *Update - he was fine all week! No more upset tummies and no bruising!
 2 handsome boys on the playground |
 A mid-stretch picture of the goose egg. |
 Alex was pretty entertained. All the nurses were oohing and ahhing over him. |
 The technician told Alex he’d need to hold his head still and silly boy put his hand on his head to hold it still. He was so brave! |
Most kids have K’NEX and Erector Sets. Not my boys … they have PVC pipes and fittings to build huge towers. These pipes are actually Tim’s solution for Alex always begging us to build him a tent. Tim’s thought was that we could easily fit a few pipes together, throw some sheets over it, and bam … a tent. Who knew the boys would actually enjoy building with the pipes as well?
 The original purpose for the PVC pipes. |
 Turns out building with the pipes is fun too! |
 The pipes are also great for our Hot Wheels track. |
We’ve spent the last few weekends getting our yard ready for our garden projects. We moved more stone around to fix some flooding/mud issues, put down new mulch, and planted new plants in our old garden area. Last year’s gardens didn’t get enough sun and/or blocked my view of the yard from the kitchen window. We also had a bit of a delay in garden planning last year (remember the month of hand-foot-mouth … yuck), so we didn’t quite accomplish what we had set out to do. So, to make up for it, we decided to start all our plants from seed and to make use of our huge backyard. My parents brought up their tiller and we tilled almost 200 ft where the playground used to be. The boys had a blast helping and were actually useful helpers! Now we just need the rain to stop, our yard to dry out, and maybe we can start planting!
 Alex helped me plant our tomato and pepper seeds in this mini-greenhouse. |
 Alex and Papa jumping over the freshly tilled rows. |
 Alex was a big helper and raked the new soil in with the old. |
 I found Spencer’s sand rake and he jumped right in to help as well. |
 He’s always looking for an opportunity to be like his big brother! |
Just a hodge-podge of photos to show how crazy life can be with these two fun-loving, super creative, adventurous, never-sitting-still boys!
 Rockin’ out on the fire truck. |
 A favorite game these days – dump out the laundry (dirty or clean) and wear the basket. |
 These baskets are also great hug snatchers! |
 Water cannons can’t get you wet with a bucket on your head. |
 This happened while I was folding clothes in my room. Guess there are worse things they could have been up to… |
 Alex was supposed to be in time-out. Spencer thinks time-outs are the best things ever, so he joined in. |
 Hugs! |
 Not a very productive afternoon on the see-saw. |
**Woo Hoo!! I just realized this is my 400th blog post!**
My boys LOVE playing with blocks of all kinds. We have the original Legos, we have Lego Duplos, we have Mega Bloks, we have foam blocks, and we have an odd assortment of random blocks as well. I have so much fun seeing them create and play for hours. I don’t even mind picking them up since Spencer loves to help throw them in the box.
 Flying Bulldozer |
 Hover Craft Fan Boat |
 Spencer was so proud of his choo-choo-choo! He’s been working hard on hooking them together. |
 He actually searched the pile for this particular block to build a tower. Great sorting! |
 A house with a patterned foundation and “room for air” at the top. |
It all started last week with a box from UPS. Our property manager sent us a new dishwasher rack (the old one had rusted out for a second time). While I was happily loading the dishwasher, the boys started crawling in and playing with the box. The next day at work, Tim found some HUGE boxes and brought them home for a fort. They ended up making a submarine the first night, then modifying it into a rocket the second night. Now, I think, it’s a house. Whatever it is, is has created tons of fun for the boys! They have been coloring and stickering the inside and out … it is quite the masterpiece! They’d even been really good with the crayons until Spencer drew on the tile in front of the fireplace and the pantry door while we were cooking dinner tonight! Oops!
 Alex peeking out of the submarine at Spencer. |
 Spencer applying stickers and Alex planning some artwork. |
 4 days later, the inside of the house is very “prettyful”. |
This video will not show in the email, so you’ll need to click here. |
 The crazies started playing with diaper boxes, too! |
 Spencer was saying, “stuck, stuck” and Alex was just laughing. |
