"Death by PowerPoint"

While my brother was training to head overseas for the military he jokingly commented that he had many, many sessions of "Death by PowerPoint"; where the commanders literally went through PowerPoint slide after PowerPoint slide. Well it turns out this is no joke at all. This New York Times article describes just how deep the issue goes.

Just thought it was really interesting and wanted to share.

Have a great day!

Big Green Tractor

Logan is really getting good at driving his John Deere Tractor around. At first he didn't really steer it and would run into things or end up in the middle of the field...now he's just running into things on purpose. He'll drive super close to you if your sitting/standing in his way or he'll drive within inches of a tree or whatever it is in the yard. He's seriously going to be a better driver than me soon!







Here's a video of him playing with this playdough as well. I'm so happy that technology has advanced to a point where we can take short video clips like this and store them in multiple places very inexpensively! These video will be priceless in the future when we want to look back and remember how little Logan and Cody were someday. We've already looked back at a bunch of videos of Logan when he was learning how to walk or just starting to crawl and it's crazy how fast time flies and how truly valuable those little clips are to me!!

Jacobs Girls

This past weekend Angie Jacobs and her girls came to visit. We hadn't meet Emma yet and they hadn't met Cody yet. It was so great to see them! The girls are so adorable and Elizabeth was just FULL of energy! She was so excited by all the things at the Ranch and would just run when we got outside. Emma is 9 months, so she's a little bit more shy...although she LOVED Brian. Brian watched all 4 kids for us on Saturday morning while Angie, Sherri and I ran in a 5K. The 5K was awesome! A ton of fun! Afterward we went for coffee and to the book sale at the Library. We were joking while we were sitting, relaxing and drinking our coffee that Brian would probably have the house completely clean when we got home, the kids would all be fed and playing nicely together and everything would be great; then he'd leave for the afternoon and come back that night and the house would be a disaster and the kids would all be tired and hungry...little did we know that was exactly what would happen!! When we got home from the race, the house was cleaned, dishes done, clothes in the laundry and the kids were all playing nicely together. Then Brian left to go do some work for Meyer Ranch & PM and didn't return until about 6:30...at which time the house was an explosion of toys everywhere and the kids were tired, crabby and ready for bed. It just makes me laugh and love Brian even more. He is truly amazing!!!

Thanks Angie for a great weekend!!! It was so good to see you and we definitely have to get together more often!!

Elizabeth and Logan sharing a chair and some raisins.



Cody Mouse chillin' outside.


Angie had brought a couple kites with that we tried to fly...tried is the key word there...


Emma and Cody. Cody was trying to teach her how to crawl.


Of course all 4 of them wouldn't lay and look at us all at the same time.


Angie and Emma. Elizabeth took this picture. Thanks Elizabeth.


What a cutie!


Happy Birthday to Angie yesterday as well!!

Crawling Boy

Cody is officially on the move! He hasn't mastered the full-on, up-on-all-fours crawling yet, but is a master at the army crawl! He's getting really fast with it. Although he still cries if you leave the room...he hasn't figured out that now that he's mobile he can just follow you out of the room. He LOVES going out on the porch and playing in the ball pit. It's so funny to see him try to crawl out the door and all the way over to the ball pit. And it's even funnier to watch him try to scoot his butt into the ball pit. I'll try to grab a video of it soon. His little legs are just kickin' in the air, trying to propel himself into the ball pit. He's growing so fast!!

"No Mine Logie Bear"

Lately Logan's really been into doing things himself. If you try to help him with something he'll gently try to push your hands off whatever it is you're trying to help him do and say, "No mine do it." So the other night Brian was sitting in the chair with Cody and Logie and I were on the couch eating our evening ice cream sundae's, watching ESPN's Homecoming with Joe Mauer. And towards the end of the interview the interviewer asked Joe what it was like to stand next to Yogi Berra at the All-Star Game and did Yogi have any words of wisdom for the next great catcher? Both Joe and the Interviewer said Yogi Berra quite a few times and finally Logan looks over at me and using his thumb to point at his chest says, "No Mine Logie Bear". It was the cutest thing ever and Brian and I just started laughing. All I could do was give him a huge hug and say, "That's right Logie, you are and always will be our Logie Bear." :-)

What a crazy week...

This past week has been seriously crazy! It started on Sunday night when Logan started throwing up and soon expanded into Mom, Dad, and Logan throwing up...sometimes at the same time...sorry very graphic...and spiraled into running around with buckets, Kleenex, washing every blanket in the house, Grandma's doing daycare, interviewing for a summer Nanny, dinner with friends, Grad school...well you get the point...

I'm really hoping we're clear of the sickness for a while...and what I wouldn't give for a normal start to a week!

Anyway I'm done complaining, on to fun things! The boys!

Here's a few pictures of the boys in the bath. They really love the bath and have so much fun splashing around!

Cody - 7 Months


Logan loves to fill that empty soup bottle with water and squirt it at Cody. Cody laughs which only makes Logan laugh harder. It's fine as long as Logan doesn't squirt Cody in the face. :-)


WE LOVE BEING OUTSIDE! We've been spending so much time outside lately and we love it. Logan's asks to go outside all the time, and now it's not even enough to go outside on the porch, he wants to be on the ground digging in the dirt or riding his tractor around. (More video of tractor riding to come later this week)

CHEESE!


Sherri got Logan this awesome wagon for his birthday. It has straps and everything so we can strap Cody in and not have to worry he'll fall out. Thanks Shutter!


"Aaahh Mom, not sure, but should I be sucking on this adjustable wrench?"


"Now this hammer is more like it!"



Since we haven't put the garden in yet and we don't have Logan's sandbox in yet either he's been playing in the garden. It's fine now, but I wonder if he'll think he can still dig in it even after we've gotten the plants in the ground?



Little miss-hap with the shovel.


Ok, that's all for now. I've got tons more to post. Preview: Cody's crawling now! So I've got videos of that. Pics from this weekend when Angie, Elizabeth, and Emma Jacobs came to stay, and a video of the bear on this tractor.

The Boys

I received the rest of the family pictures from Michelle today and found this one in the mix. It makes me laugh so hard because it shows exactly how the afternoon went...

Logan was crabby and didn't want to smile for the camera or even be held in one place.

Cody in his normal 'go-with-the-flow' demeanor just smiling for the camera and looking at us like, 'what is wrong with my brother? What is he freaking out about?'.

And me and Brian just trying to be patient yet also stern in our discipline of the boys.

It's just one of those pictures that's not the traditional posed portrait, but it totally captured the essence of the afternoon and really how things at the Ranch work with a 2 year old and a 6 month old.

Happy Easter

The 2nd annual Easter vacation with the Sherman's was a total and complete success! All three kids were wonderfully well behaved the entire time...and so were the adults...for the most part!

Here are a few pictures. You'll probably notice right away that there are no pictures from the water park. Neither one of us brought our cameras with. We debated about it before we left and after last year it was just too much to handle. I did feel horrible after getting there and realizing I wasn't able to capture Cody's first trip to the water park! Also once Logan and Layla really started to get into the water slides it was HILARIOUS!! And I really really wanted my camera at that point because they were having the time of their lives! Logan hated the water slides at first and was miserably cold, but then of course right before we were going to change to leave he learned how to go down the slide without getting a face full of water and didn't want to leave. Even after we changed into our clothes again, he was pointing at the water slide saying, "again, again". :-)

Logan and Layla in their 'running around the cabin' gear.


Cody Mouse and Auntie April


Layla's 'I'm a gangsta don't mess with me' face.


This is the face we love to see!!! Smiles!!



Cody was having a great time this night!! Note: of course the beer bottle was empty.


Logie and Daddy getting ready to go fishing.



Easter egg coloring!




Cody and Jake were hanging out on the couch while we colored the eggs.


Happy Easter!