Ketchup

"three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. baby tomato starts lagging behind. poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, catch up!" - Mia Wallace [Uma Thurman] em Pulp Fiction

Noah loves this joke.  One day when he's much older I'll sit him down and we'll watch Pulp Fiction together.  I bring it up here because I feel I can't catch up. We had a whirlwind December with family coming to town and a lot of milestones.  Noah got his black belt.  Cam had her first recital. Then the holidays and our typical 4 Christmas'. I feel so far behind now I don't even know what to post first and how. 

I asked Noah to write the post for achieving his black belt.  Still waiting.  I don't want to post Cam's recital because it feels like I'm skipping Noah's black belt. Don't want to post Christmas because it feels like the rest of December didn't happen. Ugh.

So I'm breaking the ice with this.  I will post them all soon and if they are out of order then so be it. To come full circle, I'll finish with one of Campbell's favorite jokes.

Know how to get Lady Gaga's attention?............Poker Face

Cam turns 5!

Campbell Christine celebrated her fifth birthday with a Fancy Soiree on a rainy day in November.  Her fancy ensemble include ballet slippers tied to the knee, zebra striped tutu accented with pink trim and a crown pin given by Aunt Sarah, and a hot pink leotard emblazoned in silver glitter with Fancy Campbell.  Her hair was lovely curled tight by her mother and adorned with colored butterflies and a tiara.  Her ensemble was decorated by shiny, family costume jewelry.  Tres belle!

Campbell’s fancy entourage arrived and were greeted by handsome, well dressed butlers.  One butler took her coat while the other placed a paper flower corsage on her wrist. (Corsages courtesy of mom and Annie). As the girls entered, they were announced and walked into the soiree through velvet rope.  Guests were then adorned with borrowed fancy jewels and picked out other lovely accessories to complete their own ensembles.  

The fancy fashion show commenced.   The girls walked the runway to tunes included in selections from Kids Bop iTunes radio.  They balanced bananas on their heads to learn the art of runway walking. Within moments, all were superior and walked the catwalk many times.  

After the fashion show, the girls enjoyed peanut butter and jelly swirls, sugared strawberries, and grapes.  Campbell blew out her five curly Q birthday candles atop a birthday parfait with sprinkles and a cherry.  She opened gifts including Elsa pajamas, jewelry, books, and fancy make-up.  Fun was had by all!  

Joyeux Anniversaire

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!! 

Settling into spoiled

There are moments when a puppy is about the last thing you want to deal with at the end of a long day.  Then there are these moments.

Sullivan's Oliver Duke

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.  Helen Keller

This weekend was pretty great.  We have been shopping for a new puppy for awhile.  We've talked about it as a family.  We've talked names and we've talked breeds. Jenna and I were finally set on either a Brittany or an Aussie.  Looking for local breeders we found a good Brittany breeder not too far away, Valley M Gundogs. I contacted the owner and got a good feel about him and his pups. At this time he had a litter just born so it would be awhile before they were ready. 

We really wanted it to be a surprise for the kids at Christmas but the breeder sent us a picture at 4 weeks old that melted our hearts.  To sum up an epic negotiation, we went to visit last week, just Jenna and I.  He had two from the litter left to choose from and we fell in love with both.

We took pictures while we were there and that night we played a game with the kids looking at pictures of dogs on the internet. "Do you like this one or this one?"  We snuck in the a picture of the two puppies and they both chose the same one. 

So Saturday afternoon, the kids were told we were going spelunking at at private cave south of Fayetteville.  We drove up to Valley M and told them they needed something extra for this adventure. 

via YouTube Capture

Obviously they were crazy beside themselves. It's funny how the name came to be. We have talked for a long time about a dog and we've had the conversations with them. We were all agreed we like the names Rex, Ollie, and Duke. Jenna wasn't crazy about Ollie but she liked Oliver with Ollie as a nickname. So Rex, Oliver, and Duke were all on the table without any real resolution. Then BAM, it's time to get a puppy and the only word that comes out of their mouths was Oliver. Go figure.

So we drive up to the house and this follows.

via YouTube Capture

How timid they were in the beginning was pretty comical but they warmed up quick.  The ride home was crazy. He was everywhere but there was no way he wasn't going to be in the back seat with them. Finally Jenna had to get back there to bring some calm to the madness. 

via YouTube Capture

We took him to PetSmart and lavished him with everything a puppy could need or want. Noah read to us that night from his new Brittany book. It was a pretty awesome day.  

Oliver settled in easy. He has zero fear of his crate and mastered the doggy door on his second day. I've been nominated as full time night watchman but that's okay because Jenna wakes up an hour before me so she has to deal with hyper-Ollie :)

The kids? Well the kids are in love. We all are.


End of fall baseball-2014

We wrapped up fall baseball last weekend in Bentonville.  Noah played well which has him fired up for the Spring.  I think he catches the bug at the end of every season ;) 

The team really meshed well the past few weeks.  The boys made it to the championship game which was awesome.  Noah had to face one of his best friends, Jack in the final game.  He was really nervous batting against his buddy, but had a couple of quality at bats and hit the ball hard. The  highlight of the tournament was Noah making a diving catch and doubling a kid off of first base.  The opposing team had the video.  You can't see it perfect but Noah is the third baseman. 

The end of the season is always bittersweet. Baseball just takes a lot of time, the boys could use a break.  At the same time, our Titans family has really gelled and you hate to not see them for awhile.  Very proud of all the Titans; the players, the moms, the siblings, and don't forgot those handsome coaches.

10/25/14

Fall Baseball 2014

I know fall is supposed to the a time for football and hunting.  For us though it's just time for baseball.  The boys made a huge jump this weekend to their very first kid pitch tournament. The boys played so well and I couldn't be more proud of all the boys.  It's also the first time since the state tournament in June all the families were about to see each other. As much as the boys and dads have bonded, we are crazy lucky the moms and siblings mesh together also. We have one more tournament this fall and then we have a long break.  Excited for more good times. 

Bikes, blues, and the Buffalo?

After 10 years we are kind of over Bikes, Blues, and BBQ.  About the only aspect of the whole festival I've always enjoyed is the BBQ anyways but my days on a cooking team were over years ago.  We don't have a motorcycle and my days of listening to blues in a beer garden we over about a decade and half ago.  I love the festival mainly because of all the money it brings to our area.  Day to day though all I can think about is the TRAFFIC. Yes I went all caps there.  I can turn my radio up enough to not have to deal with the constant need for bikers to rev their engines at stop lights (what's up with that really?). But starting on Tuesday the traffic was noticable and within 24 hours you couldn't get anywhere. Campbell missed ballet on Wednesday because it took Jenna 50 minutes instead of the usual 20 to get to pick her up from school.  So Friday afternoon, I had to get away.  Noah had an ATA workout Friday night and a baseball camp on Sunday afternoon so it would be a quick getaway but it would be quiet nonetheless.  First thing I did was call the BOC (Buffalo Outdoor Center) to see if the campgrounds were overrun by motorcycles.  He reported a lot of motorcycle traffic through Ponca and Jasper and a few were at Steel Creek.  So down the dirt road (or trail is more accurate) to Kyle's Landing we went.  Of course, we got off to a late start and it was lunchtime before we got on the trail.  The campfire was worth it though. It was rushed and way too much work for such a brief trip but it was nice to just be the 4 of us for awhile. 

The bikes got there revenge on Sunday though.  We stopped in Kingston for a quick bite. We were on schedule to have Noah back on time, when we got bombarded by....TRAFFIC. Foot and road. The poor King's River One Stop was overrun. While we were there they both called for extra help and it arrived before our food was ready.

It will be one of those weekends where the romance of the memory will be greater than the actual fun we had but I'll take it anyways.

Full Gallery

One big hot mess

Jenna went to work the other day only to discover Campbell had her phone and was taking some self portraits.  Then she opened the video...

ALS Bucket Challenge

ALS is the most devasting disease I've ever dealt with. It is one of the things I'm truly scared that myself or a loved one will ever have. Please accept the challenge if you are asked and spread the awareness. If you aren't going to accept please give to your local ALS charities. We have no idea what causes it and it is 100% fatal. 

I accepted Mika McFadden's challenge. I challenged Sue Carey, Holly Jordan, Melissa Powell, Jeff Lyons, Nicholas Lyons, and Noah Sullivan.

Noah accepted my challenge. He challenged Lea Earp, Jackson Lanning, Banks Dyer, and Parker Morris.

Spread the word!

Farewell #2

The problem with having 2 phones and a camera on a trip is its hard to gather all the photos together for an album.  Okay, it's not "technically" hard but it's all about finding the time. So until I  can find the time I'll just let you know we had a great weekend.  An unexpected highlight of the trip was dinner at the T-Rex Cafe.  How awesome is that place? The game was great.  Jeter got a hit and scored a run.  The Royals prevailed though on the backs of two huge home runs so there was drama and there was some offense. Noah was crazy into the game to the point he wouldn't let me take his picture when the Royals went ahead.  It rained during the day so we didn't get much pool time. The kids were up late two nights in a row but spirits were good and they were troopers.  Here's a pic until I can get it all compiled.

Muffins with Mom-2014

Magga came up for one night but she got her money's worth.  Noah's birthday dinner and muffins with mom for Campbell.  I wish she'd been able to stay through mother's day but our house tonight is going to be crazy with sugared up little boys so I can't blame her. I hate that Jenna has to share Mother's Day with Noah's birthday but hopefully we'll manage to make it special for both of them.