Things I Love About North Carolina

So I have YET AGAIN gotten behind on blogging. To be honest, I have dreaded going back and back logging all that we have done, and it makes me miss my friends in North Carolina.  I use this blog as a type of journal for my kids and I need to post about our move and what is going on currently-however-there are some gaps I need to fill because we crammed in as much fun as we could before the move with dear friends who I am SO grateful for.  In fact, they may never know just how grateful I am.  That being said, there was a park near our apartment that I had heard about, it was called crowder Park, but a lot of people referred to it as "The Turtle Park" so one beautiful day, we decided to meet up there with our friends and check it out.

Looking for turtles/fish/ducks-Reese spotted this duck. Which was funny because we had "met him" a few minutes before. I would have taken pictures, but the duck got really close to the kids, so I felt like I should-you know, be ready in case of a duck attack or something.  He lost interest when he realize we had no food for him. However, later on I realized I had goldfish, and wouldn't you know it-that duck could put down some goldfish.

Some of the turtles, we went in early Spring and our friends said there are usually a ton in the Summer.  The kids were still impressed.

The two pictures above are my favorite.  Just the kids being kids. The moms got to hang out and chat while the kids climbed and had adventures on this tree. Some of my favorite memories as a child are when I went camping with my Grandparents and we did stuff like this all of the time.

The above is a engagement photo er, I mean picture of Abram and Ensley.  They're totally BFF, and Lisa (her Mom) and I, may have an arranged marriage planned for them, just sayin'.

Reese and Jonah checking out more turtles.



It was such a great day.

New Beginnings

I know, again-I have gone a while without blogging. And unfortunately, but fortunately, it will be another week and a half for an explanation and update.  We are moving again, and it's different this time. We are settling down for a while, no more moving every 6 months-a year. It's the end of an era for us, full of mixed emotions. Totally bittersweet.  We are heading home to Knoxville.  It's been a whirlwind of craziness over the past couple of weeks finding a place to live, etc. And now there is the art of moving, which you'd think I would have perfected by now, however......anyways-I will be buried in boxes, and trying to sneak in playdates, girls nights, and a trip to the temple before we leave on Friday.  I have loved being here in North Carolina. More to come.....in a week and a half.

Cookies With Granny's Icing

I had this awesome Valentine's Day party planned for the family. There were going to be decorations, there was going to be a fancy pants dinner and dessert, there were cookies to be made.......and instead we decided to do movie marathons and snuggle on the couch coughing on each other and having a "Who has the highest fever" contest.  But alas, you cannot let Valentine themed sprinkles go to waste-so we made big heart shaped cookies after our FHE "Love One Another" lesson.  The cookies were okay, the icing was the best.

There was a lot more of this going on..

When something is good Reese makes this face and says "Mmmm, mmm, mmm" and shakes is head from side to side.

Friday Night at the Raisor House

We have been taking a break. Not really, we have actually been taking turns being sick. It started Valentine's weekend-Reese got RSV and an ear infection, he passed the cold to Abram, who passed it to me.  FO almost 3 weeks-we were miserable.  Things finally started to get better, ad one Friday night Kris brought home a sonetube (sp?) from work, that's when the fun began....

I love the expression on Reese's face in the last picture. We propped it on the couch, the bed, took turns rolling around in it-the videos are classic, I will have to show you.

The Circus

First of all, a "thank you" to the anonymous lady who gave me a free admission ticket while I was waiting in line to buy tickets-you rock.  I should have hugged you-thanks. Now, more about the show.  We were a little nervous about how the Reese-miester would do-and he needed to go for a couple of walks around the stadium-but due to the fact it was bedtime, we sat there 30 minutes before it started, and we forgot his paci (bedtime)-other than that he did awesome. And the boy was lovin' the elephants.  Elephants and cows=his favorite animals.

Our seats were great, this is the before show.

Unfortunately, Kris started the bribes early-he doesn't get that if you start the bribes early a couple things happen. One, you fill up his tummy where bribes don't work when you are at a point where you need them. And two, you run out of bribes. I am thinking Kris just wanted M&M's. We went with some awesome friends which made it even better. As you can tell Abram was a "little" excited.

 Abram saw the M&M's hence the blueish/greenish teeth.

You too can have a stylish hat if you take out a second mortgage to buy some cotton candy!

"Eh-funts!"

I didn't get a lot of pictures due to the whole sticky cotton candy fingers, and enjoying the show.  Abram's favorites were the tigers, clown superheroes, and cotton candy.  Reese's favorites were the elephants and horses. Our favorite, was seeing the kids' faces.  We were there opening night and the "catcher" acrobat dropped two people (there was a net) but talk about anxiety! It was so scary! We ended up leaving 10 minutes early (Reese was done) but had no traffic in the parking lot or on the way home-which you can't beat.  It was such a great night.  I just kept looking at the kids and Kris during the show and feeling so grateful and happy.  I love my family!

It's All Fun and Games.........

Untitled from Beth Raisor on Vimeo.

.....until the head butting starts.

Please Stay Little

Just for a little while longer, please have more moments like these

to help me forget about how we can never show our face at the library story time again after the tantrum the youngest had because he didn't want to sit and listen and how I had to take him to the other end of the library and cover his mouth (which I don't like to do, but nothing was working and that was a last resort) and he was still screaming loud enough for everyone to hear because he is teething, and grumpy.  So I can forget about how the oldest just this past week has started lying to me, yelling "NO!" when I ask him to do things, and hitting me on the way to time out.

Please help me remember while I am thinking about parents who have less patience than I do and what they would do in that very moment as I continue to pray for patience and dread you being a teenager, that it will be as if the incident had never happened ten minutes or so later and I will be smothered with sloppy kisses and told that I am your best friend, or just followed around the house while you sing "Mama! Mama!" to me.  That the hard and frustrating times of parenting are always outweighed by the laughing, new discoveries, big bear hugs, wet kisses, fort building, dinosaur playing, tying capes, and story telling that goes on.

Just for a little while longer I want to be the one you tell all your secrets to, the one who can magically kiss your boo boos and make them all better, the one that can make you laugh so hard you can't breathe, the one who tells you everything will be okay and you believe it, just a little while longer.