Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day was great this year. I got completely spoiled. I have been wanting new make up forever, and Kris pulled a sneaky trick and got a friend of mine to ask me to go to the mall. He had given her money to go with me to buy make up and to cut my hair (she does that sort of stuff professionally)! Cra-zy! I would have never spent the money to do this, and had I known about it-I would have refused. I feel really guilty spending lots of money on such things for myself, but what was done, was done. It was really sweet. The boys got me my favorite flowers and a crown to wear because I am the princess. So all day they called me princess-it was so sweet.

At the end of the school year (I guess they did it for Mother's Day) Abram brought this home.

It made me pretty emotional. I think it looks just like me. The details are amazing, the hair is red, orange, and yellow mixed up-which is exactly what it is. I could tell he put a lot of thought and effort into it. it makes me teary eyed just typing it. I love how kind the picture looks, the eyes, the smile. I feel so grateful he sees me like that. I sure do love that boy.

O "Me" of Little Faith

I was reminded of a great lesson by my 6 year old yesterday. We were swimming in the pool, and playing with dive sticks. The deep end of our community pool has a 5ft to 10ft slope and Abram threw one of the dive sticks on the slope, and it rolled into deeper waters. He was having a hard time trying to get the dive stick and he tried over and over again. I asked if he needed help, and he said he could do it. After 10 tries or so, I asked if he needed me to get it. He was catching his breath and holding to the side of the pool and looked at me and asked, "Mom, can I pray about it?" I hadn't even thought about it. I said, "Of course." and he put both hands on the edge of the pool, rested his head on his hands and I could see his lips moving but couldn't hear what he was saying. I also said a silent prayer to please help him with this. Abram looked at me, took a deep breath and went under. From where I was in the water he looked like he just missed it. When he came up, I said, "You were so close!" Abram just smiled and lifted his other hand out of the water holding the diving stick. "It worked Mom! It really worked!"

Of course it worked. Because Heavenly Father hears our prayers. And He knows how important things are to us. He knows how important it was to Abram to get that diving stick. I felt humbled, and told Abram to say a prayer of thanks, and he did, and so did I. I was so grateful for him to have that experience. To learn that if Heavenly Father would help him find a diving stick, how many other things would He help him with.

Quarter Marathon in May

A quarter marathon is 6.55 miles. I just wanted to clarify because I didn't know how long it was when I was convinced to sign up. In fact, I had run twice since Ragnar and had a month to train because I was being a slacker. I ran with two of my cousins, and just as an FYI-super awesome to train in Tennessee and race in Ohio-just sayin. There are no hills, in fact the "hill" of the race-I only knew it was a hill because the heads of the racers in front of me elevated slightly. My cousin Lisa said, "I think that was the hill." I told her not to jinx it because surely we would turn the corner and there it would be-nope. Ohio doesn't have many hills-I was grateful for this. It was a great race. Too bad I haven't run since, because it was pretty fun. Best part was running with my family.

At the end, I didn't realize how tired I was until I stopped and the vendors had bagels, fruit, water, etc. and we were walking like zombie mumbling things like, "Fooooood......waaaaater.....leeegggs soooore.....can't bend down.....afraid can't get up..." (No, that part isn't pictured)

Richie ran the half marathon-he was flying past "Rich Street" and I had to get a pic...

Reese Turns 4

My baby turned FOUR on April 22nd. He was so excited we counted down the days for weeks. he was so indecisive about what kind of party he wanted. First it was Space Angry Birds, then Dinosaurs, then Space Angry Birds Dinosaurs, then Star Wars Angry Birds, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the week before. Reese's birthday has been on Easter break for the past couple of years, so the Ridleys (minus Matt) were able to come and celebrate. Reese wanted just a family party this year and he wanted to have it at home. I was more than okay with that, less stressful for me. I bought his cake this year-which I never do-I got all ridiculously emotional about it. I don't know why, I have always made their cakes so I felt like I was cheating them. It's so funny, because looking back now, or any advice I would give to a friend would be, "Seriously, stressing over a cake?" But at the time, it was such a big deal to me. So instead of making his cake, I bought one and put a couple of toys he has been wanting on top. Did he glare at me and tell me I ruined his birthday? Did he say thanks for all of the therapy he was going to endure for traumatizing him not making his cake for his 4th birthday? Of course not. he licked the icing off the feet of his toys after he blew out his candle and everything was great. I made ninja masks for the kiddos and Reese wore his, until the party started. He would only supervise in the "ninja moves" part of the party-and that was fine-it was his birthday afterall. In fact, he was pretty low key.....

 ....until we busted out the piñata.

Then the real ninja came out....

Little kids trying to whack a piñata is probably one of the most entertaining things ever....

He loaded up on awesome toys and legos. It was a great day.

At Four years old...
-He loves Ninja Turtles, Superheroes, Dinosaurs, most days his brother
-He loves making burp noises....a lot
-He loves building things, loves legos
-He loves all things Star Wars
-He likes scary things and being the bad guy
-His favorite colors these days are green and pink
-He loves Elephant and Piggie books, and pretty much anything Abram reads to him
-Gives the best hugs and will scream "BOA CONSTRICTOR!" and squeeze you really tight
-Loves the reptiles at the zoo
-Loves talking about grose things (boogers, stinky arm pits, etc)
-He is 100% at all times, whatever the direction
-You never have to wonder where you stand with this one, he will tell you-although that opinion will change in 2 minutes.
-He still calls me Mama, or Mommy

He pretty much drives me crazy and melts my heart simultaneously. I am grateful to be his Mom.

Stinky Feet

Time has been passing too quickly. There are so many things my kids are "growing out of". In fact Abram asked the other day if we could quit saying "potty" and start saying "bathroom". He doesn't hold my hand as much, and says he is too old for shows he once loved. I am forgetting to write things down, and this makes me sad. I am trying to catch up my blog and be more diligent. I want to remember as much as I can. I want to remember things like a couple days ago I painted my toenails (I very rarely do this) and Reese said, "Um, Mama-what did you do to your toenails?" I replied, "I painted them." Reese said, "They're kinda beautiful." and took his fingers in a pinching pose and spread them apart an inch and said, "Like, this much beautiful." Or when I was ready for church this morning and Reese said, "Woo woo! That dress is beautiful!" Or a game we play on the swings that makes him laugh so hard he can barely breathe. I don't know what started it-I started pushing him in the swings, and was trying to teach him how to pump his legs. So I got in front of him and got him and told him to try and touch my hands with his feet. When his feet got to my hands I pretended to smell them and yelled "STINKY FEET!!" in a weird voice and started acting like I was going to be sick (I know, I am a boy Mom, what can I say?) Loving all things grose, he started belly laughing so hard and quickly made it a tradition. Here's when it started (please note, I do know he is way too big for this swing, but the bigger ones were taken)...even watching the video (that will only load sideways-otherwise I would post it) just now, he was dying laughing.

Color Me Rad 2013

Woo hoo! I'm in April! I will have this blog up to date in no time (famous last words)! The next adventure after Spring Break was the Color Me Rad run. A couple differences since the one in October-we were missing Lisa and Susan, BUT Abram ran with me and Natalie!! I didn't think about helping him train for a run, and maybe I should have because halfway through he said he was done! Nat and I took turns with piggy back rides for a little while and he ran the rest. I was really proud of him. His first 5k!

Spring Break 2013 continued....

We did something fun everyday. When I asked the boys what was there favorite part of the trip, they both said bowling. And who could blame them? Loud 90's music blasting, knocking down pins, eating some pizza....

Afterwards we went to the fire station for a tour. We got the royal treatment because two of my cousins are Firefighters and EMTs. The boys LOVED it!

The next day we headed to COSI, a kids science museum. After waiting for-e-ver in traffic, we did a lot of exploring, including going in a kid sized submarine, playing with water...

and even got to see how astronauts use the toilet!