Guess who he's immitating.  PMS is hitting hard this time.  TMI?

Grandpa and Grandma's House is the BEST!

Last night, Josh and I went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Grandma and Grandpa just have more to do over there and it's so much more fun.  (I don't know if he likes it more because there's more things to do or he gets to 'break the rules' at Grandma's.)  EX: he had chocolate milk for dinner. 

But his favorite thing is Grandpa Ray.  Josh will usually drop whatever it is he's playing with and play with Grandpa Ray when he gets home from work.  Here he is helping Grandpa fix the car.

Grandpa was kind enough to give his tools to Josh to put in the hood of his car. 

Then Josh really enjoyed being pushed around.  But that wasn't good enough. 

Grandpa got the idea to push him down the driveway.  Grandpa and Grandma's drive way is really steep.  (Makes for an interesting time getting up in in icy conditions!)

But that wasn't good enough either!  The neighbor across the street has an even steeper driveway. 

Grandpa and Josh did this for a good ten minutes. 

Going up the hill.

Enjoying the ride down.

And of course, Josh got a small boo-boo from hitting the steering wheel on this car on the way down.  Nothing serious, just needed some 'boo-boo kissing'.  Here are the grandparents oogling over his owie.

We had such a great time!

Josh got some sexy cowboy boots from Cousin Riley.  Aunt Charlene gave them to us a long time ago, and Josh's feet are finally big enough to go in them!

He liked them for a while, but then they had to come off.  I think they were crampin' his style.  (I.E. slowing him down.) 

Isn't he the cutest, pantless cowboy you ever did see?

Did Ya Know?

Did you know it takes exactly .329 seconds for a 18 month old to abuse a crayon?

Did you know crayons color on linoleum better than paper?

Did you know that the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (even the generic) takes crayon off linoleum in a jiffy?

I DID!!!!

Josh, oh my dear Josh

Josh has this new fetish of walking in adult shoes.  It doesn't matter what kind of shoes: slippers, high heels, tennis shoes, clogs, etc.  Here he is after church on Sunday in my shoes. 

And amazingly enough, he can actually walk in them pretty good!

Here he is trying to be sneaky and hide behind the love seat and the curtains. 

And here he is helping me cook dinner.  Actually, I was letting him entertain himself even if that meant he was pulling the crock pot around and making it 'fart' on the floor.  He loves body function sounds!!!  (What man doesn't?!)



And here he is in his 'hidey hole' getting into my stuff.  (He's between the bed and the wall.)  He loves to get into the linen spray and take off the lid and the spray cap and giggle.  He knows he's not supposed to be back there!

Busy Saturday

This past Saturday, Josh and I decided to wash my car.  It's accomplishing two things: Josh gets to do lots of things he loves (being outside, helping, playing in water) and I get a clean car.  And Daddy got something he wanted too!  He got to put in linoleum in his bathroom without distractions or 'helpers'!

And not only did my car get washed, but Chad's did too.  It was a 'thank you' for letting me have a girls night the night before with my mom, grandma, and grandma's neighbor.  (I didn't get home until 10:30.  I felt like a teenager again!)

After washing two cars for an hour or so, Josh was thru with it.  But...thank goodness for the wonderful invention of hoses!

He loves to play with water, in water, sprinkle water, drink out of the hose, etc.


Then we came inside for a break and showered, etc.  Chad had to bring the air hose in the house to nail the trim back down, so Josh took advantage of a new toy.

Here I think he's trying to vacuum out the track in the sliding glass door.  Silly boy.

And here he's trying to teach Josh all about air hoses and how the air nailer (or whatever it's called) works. 

Here's the new linoleum in his bathroom.  Doesn't it look nice?!

And after that we got an emergency call that there were intruders in the house. 

Those flies have to be taught a lesson.  This is his new favorite thing to do.  He has a green bubble wand that he uses as a fly swatter.  Here he's using Mommy's. 

We had a GREAT Saturday!

Babyproofing will NEVER end!!!

So I'm trying to get ready.  Chad's at work and I'm flying solo.  We pretty much have everything in the living room and the kitchen baby proofed as long as the dog dish is up and all the doors are closed to the bedrooms.  So we let Josh watch TV (or at least I do) while getting ready. 

Well, not any more.  He went out of the bathroom, which I thought he went to go watch Mickey Mouse, but then he comes in the bathroom with a pen.  I take it away, he leaves again.  He comes back with a highlighter.  I take that away and then go to the kitchen to take out the drawer where he's getting them. 

I think "Well, surely he'll stop."  I go back to the bathroom to try and hurry and finish getting ready.  When all of the sudden I hear a drawer in the kitchen slam.  I rush to the kitchen and see a flash run behind the curtains in the living room and this is what I find:

Yeah, that's a cell phone charger he's trying to plug in.  Thank goodness for the outlet plugs! 

After that I go to the kitchen to take out that drawer and set it on top of the stove.

I rush to the bathroom, throw a few curls in my hair, but before I could even start, I hear the silver ware in the drawer clanging.  I sprint to the kitchen, take out that drawer, scold Josh, and think "Well surely he'll leave the last drawer alone."  (And yes, I can read your mind.  This blog isn't titled "How stupid is Mommy.")

And this is what it ended up looking like:

All 4 drawers out and on the stove.  I said screw the hair, threw on some clothes and sped to BabiesRUS to get some babyproofing stuff....except.....they only had stuff that you had to drill into the wood to use!  We have cheaper/thinner wood and can't do that, so I had to order some adhesive/no drill ones off the Internet.  And yes, it takes 7 days to ship.  If it wouldn't have cost double, I would have overnighted them.  I'm waiting and looking out the window every day waiting for that darn FedEx man to pull up. 

I'll try not to maul him when he brings my package.

Sunday in Okeene

Then on Sunday we went to church.  But since the Duerksen clan was ready and looked fabulous, I decided we should try and get a family picture.  Yeah, right.  Here are some that we took:

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Making funny faces.

Yeah, picture time was over.  Someone had had enough. 

Still trying to get one good picture.  (Can you tell it was windy?)

Can you tell how desperate I was to get a good picture?

This is the picture of the 'nursery'.  There's not a nursery where you can drop your kids off at the Okeene Mennonite church.  It's a small room in the back of the sanctuary with a crib, crayons, and a few toys.  (I think the 1960s called and want everything back.)

Thank goodness Kendell and Maddie decided to help me out and entertain Josh.  They all sat at the table and colored nicely.  (Even Josh!)  Well, for about 15 minutes anyway.  But he was good too!

Then Josh, Chad, Kendell and I walked home.  (The church is only 2 blocks from Granny Heffel's house.)

Then, I HAD to stop and take a picture of this.  Mom-did you notice this?  Two or three houses down from Granny Heffels is this house:

Yep.  That's right.  The PMS Ranch.  It's a large expensive wood fence with concrete pillars that surrounds 2 houses.  I saw a person going inside, and it looked like she might have a girlfriend, if you catch my drift.  Oh well, it's just what I needed.  Think there's room for one more?

Then after eating a fabulous lunch made mostly by Grandma Evie, we hopped in Grandma Jodi's awesome ride (it has a DVD player that plays all Snoopy all the time) and headed for home.  We even stopped to get ice cream at Sonic in Enid!

Yeah, everything had to be hosed off when we got home.  But it was good!





Fun at the Farm

We took advantage of the nice weather and spent most of our time Saturday in Okeene on the farm.  The kids had a blast!

Josh tried to ride this cool swing.  It's a horse made out of tires!

Josh found a new buddy.  It's like he just discovered Maddie.  He probably would have married her, but hey, but we're not from Arkansas!

Josh tried to ride a 'big boy' bike.  Daddy tried to help him, but he wanted to do it himself.  He kept squealing when someone would touch the handlebars. 

And it's great when cousins share a Popsicle, more like, commandeer it and make you get another one.

And it's so much fun when you get to hang on the gate like a big boy and look at the moo cows.

"Hey cows!  Come Back!!!"

We even found a caterpillar hanging on the gate and decided to see if it wanted to eat a leaf.  That poor caterpillar was tossed about like it was in a tornado.  I think it died of shock.

But overall, we had a WONDERFUL time.  It was hard not to worry about the stains, the mess, the stickiness, etc.  But this face made it all worth it.

Yes, we all had a wonderful time.

When the Mommy's Away...

I'm sure this is what goes on when I'm not there.....

My New Favorite Saying

Crappy Day

Threw myself another pitty party this evening.  (I had a crappy day at work-so busy, the dog puked on the floor, and Josh has a runny nose and doesn't feel good.)  Just me, the pitty pot, and a Diet Pepsi.  Had 'grown-up' chores to do (didn't get done until 9).  Then in the middle of my pitty party, Josh made me laugh out loud.  (Hey, that's not supposed to happen!)

He just flat DIDN'T want to get out of the bathtub! 

Then he flipped the other way and tried to act like he was hiding. 

(BTW-isn't that the cutest hiney you've ever seen?!)

Then when I finally pried him out of the tub and wrapped him like a burrito, I got the BEST picture:

Josh sure knows how to make me smile.