Klompen Classic

For those of you who don't know, Cody took up running in the spring.  He did a "Couch to 5K" program that started him off slowly, alternately running and walking, until he got to the point where he could comfortably run 5K.  I am proud to say that he has now participated in four 5K races and he is loving it!  His second race was the Klompen Classic during Tulip Time this year.  Owen also participated in the kids fun run.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the settings correct on my fancy new camera I got for my birthday, so I have no photos of Owen actually running!

Owen and Cameron had a ball playing around while we waited for the kids race to start!

Owen is stretching and preparing for his big race!

A little more stretching!

3 blocks is a long way to run!  It can really wear a guy out.

This is the group of people from Pella Corp. who participated in a weight loss challenge and also ran in the race.  I am proud to say that my awesome hubby won the challenge!  He lost almost 30 lbs. (I think, I can't remember the exact number because it was too long ago!) and he looks awesome!  He looks and feels better than he has in years!

Daddy after he just crossed the finish line!

Owen was so excited to hug his daddy after the race!

Congrats on a job well done, Dad!  We are so proud of you!

Monster Trucks and Nachos

A while ago (I think it was January but I'm not exactly sure), Cody and Owen went to see Monster Trucks with our good friends, Andy and Ben.  This is the second year they've gone and all the boys seem to enjoy going.  Owen loves it, though I'm pretty sure his favorite part is the concessions.  He takes after his mama in that respect.  My mom still talks about the times Dad would ask me if I wanted to go to different games with him and my brother.  I would quickly ask, "Is there going to be a concession stand?"  If Dad said no, I replied with, "I think I'll just stay home with Mom."  What can I say?  I like a good concession stand.

I'm getting off-topic here so I'll just get on with the photos.

The sound of the trucks is so loud that the boys have to wear noise-reducing headphones.  I'm slightly shocked that Owen has no problem leaving them on the entire time.

Nacho Heaven

Have you ever seen a cuter nacho face?

Thanks to Andy and Ben for a great afternoon!

Thanksgiving and a Little Father/Son Bonding

It just occurred to me that I never posted Thanksgiving pictures!  Although, there aren't too many photos to speak of.  I guess I was too busy either cooking, eating, or sleeping to take any pictures!  Making an entire Thanksgiving meal by yourself can really wear a girl out!  In any case, here are the few that we got...

On Saturday, Cody and his dad made their way up to Minnesota for their Annual Bears/Vikings game.  Cody has been organizing this for the last couple of years and had a crowd of over 30 go this year.  They had a great time, but, unfortunately, the Bears suffered a loss.

This canopy was Cody's early Christmas present.  He was thrilled to get it and I was thrilled I didn't have to find a way to haul it to Murphysboro!

When you go to a game with both Vikings and Bears fans, the one thing you can agree on is that you all hate the Packers.

Father and son sporting their Bears attire

My apologies to Cameron and Grandma for not getting any photos of them!  Here's to next year!

It's Sleddin' Time!

A few weeks ago Owen and Cody went out for their first sled of the season.  I have been trying since then to upload the videos that went along with these pictures, but for some reason it's not working.  So, you'll have to settle for a couple of pictures.

They went to a great hill in town that is popular for sledding, as is evident by the statue in the above picture.  They were gone the entire afternoon and Owen had a ball.  You wouldn't believe the hill he went down all by himself!  He even met a couple of girls who were about 13 and were quite smitten with him.  Now every time we see a hill he says, "That would be a great hill for sledding!"


*Lots of posts to come soon.  I have so many Christmas photos to go through!  And I've been sick ever since we got home on Sunday. :(  Stay tuned!

Bears Bonding

A few weeks ago, the Bears had a night game and, of course, Daddy was watching.  Right before he went to bed, Owen crawled up on the couch and watched with him.  I walked into the living room and saw the cuteness and couldn't resist taking a photo...

It won't be long before all 3 of my boys are snuggled on the couch watching the Bears!  And I'm sure it won't be too long after that, the snuggling will subside and the yelling at the TV will commence.

Big Day in the Muhs Household!

Today started off with a bang in our house.  Not only is it Daddy's birthday, Owen had his first day of preschool this morning!  Daddy decided since it was such a big day for us he would take the whole day off.  We are so glad that we get to spend this special day with him!

We woke Owen up around 7:30am, an early morning in our house.  He ate his breakfast, got dressed and stopped to pose for a few pictures showcasing his backpack before we headed outside.

Creating a Monster

One of Matt and Susie's favorite family activities is Geocaching. What is geocaching, you ask? Well, basically, you log on to geocaching.com, set up a username, search for caches hidden in your area (or any area you please), and you go out and find them using clues and latitude/longitude coordinates given to you by the person who hid the cache. What's the cache, you ask? Sometimes they are just logs, where you sign your name and the date you found it. Others have fun little toys inside that you can take, as well as leave something behind. We asked them if they would show us the ropes and take us on a few cache hunts with them. So, armed with their trusty new hand-held GPS, lots of sunblock, a little water, a few snacks, and a load of kids, we set out to see what this was all about!

Our first cache took us out to a State Park close to Newton, where we had to navigate through some woods to find it. Well, ok, the kids and the Dads did the navigating, while Susie and I hung back and did the Mom thing--took pictures.

You can see Gianna carrying this one, which was an ammo box full of goodies. Some are as small as a large screw and have tiny pieces of paper rolled up inside them to log your name. The smaller ones are usually magnetic.

Once they got out of the woods, Susie and I once again did the Mom thing and made them all pose for a picture. Four kids excited about seeing what's in the box and this is the best you get:

The kids couldn't wait to open it and see what was inside...


And what did Cameron do while all this madness ensued? He stayed close to his phone, just in case he got any important calls.

Owen was the first to actually spot the box in the woods so Matt and Susie said that, being his first find, he should get to choose the goodie to take. He chose a star watch that came out of a Happy Meal.

I'm still holding out for the cache that holds diamonds in it but I'm told not to lose any sleep over it.

We had a great time and discovered a great family activity that's free and easily accessible. Well, if you don't count the cost of a GPS. However, Matt and Susie graciously left us their old one until we can find the funds for a new one with a Geocaching feature.

Cody is now obsessed with this and has spent nights on the computer trying to decide which is the best system to buy. He sometimes finds caches in the morning before he goes into work, on his lunch hour, and he and Owen go out a lot together. Cam is still kind of little for it so he and I don't go as much. Although we all went out last weekend for a bit and I found my first one. Ok, so it was in plain sight and I saw it before I even got out of the car but I'm still counting it.

Thanks to Matt and Susie for showing us a great time!

The (Not So) Big One

As you may recall, Cody and Owen have been fishing a few times this summer. I can't remember exactly how many times they've been out, but they have been pretty unsuccessful in their attempts at actually hooking a fish. Leave it to my husband to research something in order to improve his chances. He asked friends with fishing experience and even went online and did some researching. In this week of research, he discovered that he had been using the wrong kind of bait. (And maybe even some other tips as well that went in one ear and out the other when he told me about them. Bait is the only one I can remember right now because, you know, I've got bigger fish to fry. Pun intended.) So, armed with his new bait and other tips as well as a bit of determination and just plain excitement, they set out once again to catch a fish. And lo and behold:



Owen caught one on his first try! It's the only one they've caught all summer and was about the size of my big toe, but they caught one!



I really wish I could have been there to see Cody take it off the hook but someone had to stay home and make good use of the air conditioning we pay so much money for. And I figure, might as well be me!

Before heading out, they went on a little nature hike, another one of their favorite things to do this summer. We've tried it as a family but it's just not really Cameron's thing just yet.



So hopefully next summer there'll be another cutie on the bench next to Owen! But for now, you'll just have to settle for pics of the big guys.



He's a little more hairy than the cutie I was referring to above, but he's still cute nonetheless. ;)

Gone Fishin'

Cody got the bright idea to take Owen fishing over Memorial Day Weekend. He found a lake fairly close by, bought a pole for himself (Owen had one from our trip to the Ozarks last year), and off they went. They spent a couple of hours both Saturday and Monday and never did catch anything. Being a rural girl and having a brother who used to live to fish, I have gotten such a kick out of watching this "city boy" try to learn how to fish. He was so frustrated after 2 days of not catching anything and has now made it his goal to catch one before Owen decides fishing isn't fun anymore. And, of course, like everything my Engineer husband does, he has been researching and asking different people what he can do to increase his chances of catching a fish. In the meantime, I'm trying to be encouraging and not laugh at him.

All that fishing can really wear a guy out, so Owen decided he should just take a little rest:


Hopefully I'll be posting a picture of them each holding up a fish before summer's end!

Geppetto's Workshop

If you know my husband well, you know that he is quite handy to have around. He can do almost any type of home project you want done and if he doesn't know how to do it, he will read and research it so that he can do it. He has saved us loads of money doing so much work on our house himself. He built our deck, put in new doors for us, put in a stone patio, built our garage with help, put in a new bathroom, and finished the basement all by himself. This is on top of all the other odd jobs he's done around the house that are far too numerous to mention. While he loves doing all of these things, what he would really like to spend his time on is woodworking. He hasn't had much time to really hone his skills between work, kids, and working on the house. Now that things are (sort of) dying down in house projects he decided he'd fire up the table saw and make something for his mom for Mother's Day. He found a set of plans online and made every inch of these beautiful planters all by himself:

They even have a moveable bottom in them. You can raise and lower it, depending on what size of plant you would like to put in it.

I think they turned out great and Lynn was so surprised when we gave them to her a few weekends ago! I'm not sure what's next on the agenda. Maybe a puppet? ;)

He Don't Need No Stinking Wife!

Throughout our nearly 8 years of marriage I have on many an occassion asked Cody how he ever managed to live without a wife to take care of him. Of course, he says that he does not need me to take care of him and could get along perfectly fine without me (though he would never want to, of course). Maybe we'll let the masses (or at least the 12 people who still read this blog) decide....

Upon returning home from a nearly 2-week visit in Murphysboro, Cody and I had this conversation:

"Cody, where are all your underwear?"

"You know, I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Me? You were going to ask me where your underwear are? I don't wear your underwear, as I have my own, so why would I know where they are?"

"Well, you do the laundry."

"Yes, dear, but I have been gone for almost 2 weeks and have not done any in that time."

He walks off, underwear still somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, as I contemplate a call to a PI to locate said underwear.

A few hours later, "Seriously!!!! WHERE ARE MY UNDERWEAR?!?!"

Apparently, he felt that the only logical reason behind the missing underwear would be that I was hiding them from him. Nevermind the fact that he WEARS THEM EVERYDAY and might know where they are. No, it's way more believeable that I went around collecting them all just to torture him.

So, maybe he doesn't need a wife, but his underwear does stay out of the Bermuda Triangle when he has one around.

**In case you're wondering, the drawers were located. By the wife, of course.

Boys Will Be Boys

A few weeks ago after Daddy came home from work he was playing on the floor with the boys. They both decided it would be fun to use him as their own personal jungle gym. They had a pretty enjoyable time but Daddy took quite a beating!

In other news, we are taking Cameron in early Monday morning to have a couple of small procedures done. He's getting tubes put it his ears as well as another procedure. I'm terrified since our track record with him isn't that great, but I'm trying to stay positive and tell myself that everything will turn out great. Please keep us all in your prayers!