Happy Birthday to you, dear Quintin!

Today, March 9th, is my baby brother's 29th birthday :) I use to say "little brother", but he isn't so little anymore, and in fact probably hasn't been "littler" than me for MANY MANY years :) Anyway, focus Lori focus, today is his birthday and we spent this past Saturday afternoon celebrating his oldness at my mom's house in Jefferson City. I forgot my camera, can you believe it that sucker is usually attached to me when it comes to family events, so all of the pictures here were taken with mom's camera...she was kind enough to share :) Quintin's all time favorite meal is Hawaiian meatballs...and I admit they are very yummy! So we gathered for family, food, presents, cake, and fun. Here are some pictures from the day.

He still reminds me of a little kid opening up his presents, his little face lights up, so cute :)

Quintin and my soon-to-be sister-in-law, aren't they sweet :)

Mom, Quintin, and I - the best looking picture taken that day - ha!

Wouldn't be a family gathering without some video game and Nintendo DS time, I think our boys are addicted!!!!

Ham Visit

I do not recall what the occasion was, or even if there was one, but we had a visit from the Ham clan here last week sometime and I snapped some pictures of the kiddos. Here are a couple of pictures of our cuties! :) Braden is so cute when he finds out that the kids are coming over to play. The last couple of times he has overheard me saying that Terri was coming over he asks me "Just Aunt Terri?" Once I responded with "Yes, just Aunt Terri." And he seemed so bummed...but tonight when he asked the same question, the Ham Clan came over for dinner tonight, I responded with "Olivia and Ethan are coming too." Then he did the cutest little dance in the kitchen because he was so excited for the kiddos to be coming too, I just love how excited he is to see Olivia and Ethan :)

SpeedRacer, Spongbob, and Kit Cars, OH MY!

Weekend before last was the World of Wheels Car Show at Bartle Hall here in the city. I happened to be watching t.v. and a commercial for the car show came ..once I heard that Speedracer's car was going to be there, I knew we HAD to go. It snowed 7 inches that day, but we made it nonetheless :) I am not sure what the best part of the car show was, but I do know that Braden had a blast and ran all over the place with both him and Josh pointing to cars and trucks and motorcycles saying look at this dad/Braden. It was cute, and we all enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures of our fabulous Saturday visit.

The Infamous Speed Racer! You should have seen his face light up when he spotted the car!

Kit Car - then and now. We walked ALL over the place to look for the "talking cars". I had given up, but luckily the cars were spotted before we left the show :)

Who could resist a picture with Patrick and Spongebob -ha!

There was a "favorite kids" category in the judging of the cars there on show. Braden voted for the hot wheels car for his vote, I have no idea what car won, but I imagine that the hot wheel car was a popular pic...

...as was the Pirates of the Caribbean van.

Spring Soccer - It Begins!

Doesn't look like spring does it!?! Braden had his first spring season soccer practice on Thursday, February 19th, and it was only 34 degrees outside. It was FREEZING cold! Josh generally takes the wheel when it comes to soccer practice, but that was the week he was in Florida (butthead) and so I was in charge of getting the little man to soccer practice. I had my fingers crossed all day long that the coach would call or e-mail and cancel practice - NO SUCH LUCK! So, we suited up and off we went to practice. Braden had a great time even if it was cold outside. As a side note, it would figure that it was 72 degrees out for the practice Josh returned home for - ha! Here are some pics of the cold practice! :)

What a Butthead!!!

As some of you know, Josh is in Florida this week on a "business trip". He left early Monday morning and is scheduled to come home tomorrow evening. He has been traveling between Orlando, Daytona, and Miami. Poor guy, right - WRONG! So I am working away this morning and afternoon and then I get an e-mail from him, the subject line is "It's a Hard Day at Work" and then there is just THIS picture attached to it. He is such an a@@! HA! I cannot post the picture of my middle finger, which I sent back to him in response to his photo - that wouldn't have been very "family friendly" now would it have?!? I think I would be more ticked about his beach time if we weren't going to Florida on our family vacation in a few short weeks :)

Spring Photo's - ALREADY

It is that time again, school pictures. When I was in grade school, we only had pictures taken once a year, and you got them whether you liked them or not -ha! Now-a-days the school takes pictures twice a year, the fall pics and the spring pics, to rope the parents into buying two sets a year now. Well, we did -ha! The only thing I don't really care for is that you have to pay for them when the kiddo gets their picture taken without seeing how they turned out first. Below is Braden's Spring 2008-2009 photo for his Kindergarten year...and even with his goofy little smile he is still as handsome as ever!

Is it Time Yet!!!!

Okay so I get into work this morning, and Nick has sent me pictures of the Weber Family Vacation they just got back from. Where did the go you ask...as if you couldn't tell by the picture posted above...FLORIDA, DISNEY WORLD! So, I look through all of the cute pictures of little Ms. Kaylea having fun with all of the princesses and other characters and I open this picture last of all. I LOVE IT! I am so excited and cannot wait to get out of this cold weather and into the sunny days of Florida! Anyway, I am so jealous that they have already gone, and I am really counting down the days until we leave...it is only like what 24 days :)

Okay, so I couldn't resist in adding this picture to the post. I just love how girly Kaylea is wearing her princess dress to Disney World, and then with Cinderella's castle behind her and Tinkerbell in her hands, it is just the perfect picture of the All American Girly-Girl :)

The Stokes' Visit

We had visitors at the house this past weekend: Beth, Jim, and Gavin joined the Allee's at our house Friday night and we started off with a dinner at Zio's...the dinner was good, the service was HORRIBLE...but all in all it was an uneventful evening. Well, uneventful that is until we got back home. Braden had decided that he wanted to show Beth and I this dance he knows, so he ran to his room got his little CD player and started up his song of choice. When "Cha Cha Slide" came out of the speakers Beth and I got a chuckle right away...then the dancing started and OH MY GOSH, it was so cute (and hilarious!). I did not have my video camera out for the first performance, which was by far the best one, but I was able to capture it on video a little later in the evening. I have not laughed that long in a LONG time. His "cha cha" is so funny, as are the "hands on your knees" and him takin' it down to the floor! The clip is long, and there is a little bit Gavin bouncing his booty as well, but mostly it is Braden dancing his heart out for us.

Saturday morning we got up and I made fried potatoes and biscuits and gravy for breakfast. While Beth and I were still sitting at the table Braden comes up to me and says "Mom, don't worry, I will clean it up, all of it, all by myslef!" and he is just as serious as he can be when he tells me this, using hand gestures and all to convince me that he will clean his room spic and span all by himself and not to stress over it when I see it. I just blow it off thinking "how bad can it be", I mean my kiddo knows the rules and doesn't trash his room, so I am thinking he has a few toys strung here and there and didn't make his bed for the day. WRONG, take a look at this photo, I about had a heart attack when I went past his door to my room after cleaning up the dishes. After I was able to get over the shock, Beth and I got a good laugh out of that one too. Take a look for yourself, it is something to see!

Beth and I had decided to go to Babies-R-Us and do a bit of shopping and the guys decided to go to the Bass Pro Shoppes. Braden has finally gotten to the age where hanging out with mom and her friends is nowhere near as cool as hanging out with dad and his friends, needless to say he joined Jim and Josh at Bass Pro. Before walking out the door I came down the stairs and saw this sight...all four of our boys sitting on the couch with their heads in the tv. I just had to snap a picture of it. Just before snapping the shot Gavin turned to look at me, but the picture is still cute.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids playing, I thought they were cute :)

And here is my favorite picutre of Gavin that I took during their visit :)

Patch's Early Valentine

Okay, so Braden thought it was important to give Patch a Valentine's Day present, so we went to Wal-Mart this past Sunday afternoon and he picked up a new toy for our canine family member. He isn't very patient and instead of waiting until actual Valentine's Day, he gave it to him as soon as we got home. I don't have to tell you by the picture below that it was a BIG hit! Patch even went to bed with it that night. It was just too cute not to snap a picture of :)

Guys Game Night

This past weekend Josh and some friends had a game night. To my surprise, there were no computers involved in this particular game night. I was so proud of them...plus it seemed like alot less work for them to just pull out a deck of cards and play poker and a game out of its box rather than unloading computers and monitors...plus it took up alot less room too. Here are a couple of pictures of the guys enjoying their "man" time.

They are really concentrating on this game!

Johnny was into telling them how to play the game :)