Anson at work...

Anson has always loved to work. He is a worker at heart.
He reminds me of this everyday when he does things like,
take apart doors and doorknobs, begs to mop the floor or clean
windows, asks to go work in the yard... there are so many ways.
Well, last week Tanner had decided to take off the training wheels
(he's the more cautious of the two...) and so we took them off.
After trying it out and leaving his bike for some other adventure,
within seconds Anson had the training wheels back on and
was riding up and down the sidewalk. It took me at least 5-10 min
to get those off the bike, but Anson, this smart little boy had
those back on... correctly might I add, in mere seconds.

After he was done riding his brother's bike around
he got to work on his tricycle... always at work!

some would say I'm crazy...

but I am not a chocolate fan. Although I can eat more chocolate than I used to with out keeling over, it is not my drug of choice, or even second choice... I usually just don't like it, with the exception of a nice big mug of christmas cocoa (minty, chocolatey heaven as I like to call it), or the occasional twix bar (I like those for the cookie... and yes I do eat the cookie part last, eating all chocolate that comes in my way first) I could go on about chocolate and my history of it not being my favorite (it used to even make me sick... literally)

That being said as I sit here and reflect back on all my loved ones, friends and family, I am certain that I am the only one that has this "curse" as most say. I am not a chocoholic. Now if you put a bowl of sugary sour candy or just about any other candy but chocolate, I am sure to devour, almost until sugar coma state... I do love candy, especially the sour variety.

So to my surprise, yesterday I had the overwhelming urge to make this amazing creation... I most really love my husband! Yes I really do, for there is no other reason I would make this chocolatey, chocolate creation. Please, as you scroll to this picture, do not try licking the screen, it won't taste nearly as good as the real thing. Want a taste? Come and get a piece, there is no way that
Devin can finish off this cake by himself!Thank you, thank you bakerella for the wonderful idea... she was also the inspiration for the oreo truffles... remember those? some of you might, if not I will make those again soon. This cake was so much fun to make. My husband LOVED it... with a big glass of milk!

S2N 2008

The Shu Crew aka Team Shumate

the start of the 2k junior shuffle... go team Shumate!

Reagan, Kelsey, Tanner & Anson
Ella taking a few cool down laps after the big race

The sound to narrows was so much fun this year. The weather was perfect... not too hot, not too cold, just a slight head wind on the last hill... what a difference than last years rain, rain and more rain. We were even able to stick around for the diaper dash! What a relief, especially since Ella and Gwyn had trained so hard this year :)

Matt & I ran the 12K (no, not together... although I wish I could say that I could keep up with him... maybe someday... maybe someday - so watch out! j/k) Gina had to opt out this year :( but there's always next year, right? Trav and Jaqui (also known as travilyn - the combo of their two names) ran the 5k, Alan & Stella the 5k walk. The kiddos ran the 2k with their dads, good job Devin and Matt! Then the babes ran the diaper dash.

It was a fun year and we all did great. I definitely love this family tradition and hope that we keep it up for years to come. Go Team Shumate! Yeah!

hmm, If I were a loaf of bread, I would be....

a hot, freshly baked loaf of cinnamon sugar swirl bread. if I was from great harvest... cinnamon chip. yumm.

It's not that I don't have anything to do these days. If you have talked to me recently you know I have anything but time on my hands... but I just couldn't start summer vacation right without spending the day baking bread with Anson, watching Tanner perform magic tricks, watching the boys paint and dancing around the living room with Ella, and the boys. Life is good... I wish all my moments could be spent like this.

While I look at this picture the smell of the bread is wafting in from the kitchen... it's calling my name... mmm... gotta go!

The Shu Crew in the news...

So if you don't get the paper this was on the back page of the front section of the Tribune today... pretty neat, huh?! I will be uploading more pictures soon of this years race... and possibly a glance back in time. It was perfect weather and I even knocked a bit more than 6 minutes off my time. Good times... good times.

things mothers do...

So, not moments ago Anson, my 4 year old said, "I put wipes in the furnace." He stated this quite matter of factly, no fear of getting in trouble or what else may come of his statement. (this surprised me a little, especially since we have had long discussions about NEVER putting anything down the furnace vents.)

Now lets flash back at least a week ago, when I came into my front room to find at a million wipes pulled out and strewn across the floor... someone had some fun, and I know who, Ella, my one year old. Her favorite pass time? Wipe distribution.

I quickly picked them up and shoved them in a ziploc bag for later use... I'm not going to throw out a million perfectly good wipes! The next day I was searching EVERYWHERE for those wipes, any wipes with no luck, so I trucked down to the basement to recover some wipes from the costco supply...

Now flash back to present...
Anson, "I put wipes in the furnace."
Dacia, "why?! you need to get those out"
Anson, "But I can't reach, mom"
Dacia, "You need to try"

Alas he couldn't get them, so I am now on the floor reaching my hand into the cavernous vent that leads to our heat source... oh, I found the wipes... yea that bag of wipes that had vanished... umm, something rattles... I reach around blindly to grab whatever toy has accompanied the wipes. I pull out a cheerio, a lego... who knows what else... then my hand brushes against something soft. I quickly retract my hand and shake my head. Grimacing I grab one of the million ziploc baggie wipes... I briefly think about ignoring the fact that there is another foreign substance/object in my vent and going about my day... but I know that I can't. I am a mother and that is one of my long list of responsibilities... cleaning up gunk. Well I cover my hand with a wipe (as if it could fully protect me from whatever I might encounter) and I reach back into the abyss. I search relentlessly for whatever it was, when all of a sudden it is rediscovered. I envelop it in the protective wipe and pull it out of the vent...

I look down to see that I have caught a....

melted chocolate bar... with peanuts to be exact. Eew gross. Gross, but definitely not the worst thing I could have found. My 4 year old says "what's that... poop?" Luckily it wasn't... or a diaper or a rodent... or many other things that I would have been completely disgusted and sickened by.

Oh the things mothers do...

pigtails anyone?

who says you have to have a lot of hair to have pigtails? well, Ella is proof that even if you are practically bald... if you are cute you can pull off just about anything... especially if you are 1.