A "Slow" Week...

Ha.  That doesn't happen around here.  I just didn't take many pictures...

Took the kids to the Aquarium.  Also known as Hiawatha Wal-Mart.....

This was an experience.  Was sitting on the couch with Connor after her nap.  Jace was gone (he got to spend the night with Jay and Morgan and was still with Jay I think...).  I'm a little sleepy myself, but I look towards the entertainment center...and see something that looks like a small snake.  As I'm staring at it, trying to convince myself it's just trash...it moves.  It was a salamander!  It crawls over to where the kids' toy box is and hides in there.  I freak out.  (No surprise there...)  

I end up chasing it with a broom, towards an open door, Connor standing on the chair in the dining room.  She tells me it went outside, and I couldn't find it, so I was hoping she was right.  Later that night I had some people up for pictures, and as we are standing in the living room I see it go from under one couch to another.  EEEEEK! 

In his infinite wisdom, Jed tells me to set out a sticky trap.  Jace is home by then and assures me he will hunt it in the morning.  I was SO excited to see the next morning that he was sunk down in the glue on the sticky trap.  WOOHOO!!  

I tell Jace, and tell him we will have to leave it until Dad comes home, and he proceeds to call me a scaredy cat, gets his pliers, and takes care of it for me.

Middle of this week marked 9 years with this handsome fella.  Sounds like a long time, but it has flown by!  Fun fact:  We have been dating 15 years ago.  That's almost half of my life! 

Thursday was an exciting day for Jace.  His friend Cooper Albers got to come over for the day.  They had SO much fun.  The day started with the boys finding a cow out in our driveway...

Played some Mario...

And a little finger painting.  Aunt Debi was there that day too, so we had all sorts of fun going on!  So much fun that 5 minutes after Cooper leaves his mom sends me a picture of him asleep on the way home, and I find Jace crying on the couch.  "I didn't want Cooper to leave!"

She reminds me of the dog on 101 Dalmations...

Friday night we went to the RODEO!  These kids LOVE their popcorn.  LOVE IT.  And turns out Connor LOVES the rodeo.  Horses, cows, it was so exciting!  We tried to get Jace to Mutton bust...but he wasn't interested.  He was very excited for the boot scramble though!  He was the first kid to get his boot....but they took both boots off (usually it's just one), and he only got back with one boot!  He had to go back, and actually yanked his boot off another kid that was trying to put it on!

And a little Saturday morning cleaning...everyone gets a vacuum!  Seriously, these kids can be a lot of help sometimes!  Better enjoy it while they don't complain!