We had so much fun!
Reese couldn't keep his balance, but was very content to sit there and be bounced.
There was a cannon that shot pumpkins...
And animals, little did that teenager know he was about to encounter a budding animal expert....
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Pumpkin Patch 2011
This weekend we had big plans to go to a cabin with some good friends. But then Kris decided to be responsible and get some work done in the Math lab this weekend. We had made plans to be at church and teach lessons, etc-and then as Kris drove out to school on Saturday....and it was closed for Fall break. We thought about going ahead and meeting up with our friends, but hadn't done anything to prepare (laundry, packing, etc) so we decided to go to the pumpkin patch instead. This had been in our plans eventually this month, but I was going to have to take the boys by myself-so it actually worked out perfectly.
We had so much fun!
There was a cannon that shot pumpkins...
And animals, little did that teenager know he was about to encounter a budding animal expert....
who would ask such questions as, "Why does that guinea pig have eyes like berries?"
There were tractor races...
And rat races, that started off well enough.....
but may have ended up a little differently...
a corn maze, that we may or may not have decided to go the 1.3 miles due to the fact 2 boys were well overdue for a nap...
some sweet brotherly help for another trip down the slide...
A hayride to the pumpkin patch....
a sweet treat....
and a self induced cotton candy coma (please note the blue bubbles coming out of Reese's mouth)...
It was a perfect day.
We had so much fun!
There was a cannon that shot pumpkins...
And animals, little did that teenager know he was about to encounter a budding animal expert....
Thursday, October 13, 2011
It's Been A While...and I Am 34
So I haven't been motivated to blog, or take pictures. Life has been so busy lately, and most days I find myself struggling to keep my head above water. When I started this blog, I made some decisions-I wanted to be honest, when life is hard-it's hard, and people can relate to it. I didn't want to be one of those blogs where it looks like their life is perfect, and makes you feel like you are a mess, and you have no talent. I also didn't want to be a whiner. Don't get me wrong, I have most likely whined more than a few times on this blog-however, I don't feel like I have been a total downer.
So there you have it-we have been mucho busy. This is an important time in our lives. Kris is working full time and going to school 4 days a week + lab time, Abram is in preschool and soccer, Reese is going through some "wild banshee" stage that I don't fully understand where he melts my heart some of the time and makes me want to cry/pull my hair out some of the time. I have said this over and over and over again-I believe with all my heart Reese has born at this time for a reason-when things are getting harder, and pressures are getting more difficult, his stubborness will protect him and keep him safe-if I can figure out how to channel it for good. He is so like me in so many ways. And whenever I am at my wits end with either of my children, I feel a silent assurance that I am meant to be their mother and that I can do this, sometimes it's just hard-and that's okay. I only learn, grow, and remember when things are hard-I forget things that come easily. That being said here is an update on all of us:
Kris-working 50+ hours a week, and going to school 12+ hours a week. Way stressed, but doing well and working really hard. I am so proud of him. He just got a new (to him-thank you craigslist) mountain bike that he hopes to use in the near future, when he can make the time to use it.
Abram-about to turn 5 YEARS OLD NEXT WEEK!! He is still loving dinosaurs and superheroes with a passion and has decided in the past few months, that maybe the whole paleontologist thing might not work out, and to be an "animal expert" instead, so that he can hold poisonous animals. He can retain a ridiculous amount of information about all of these subjects and just the other days was explaining to a friend of mine how "We humans call things like that pollen which bees use to make honey." Seriously? "We humans"? He LOVES preschool and his teachers. He has also loved going on playdates with his buddies. Abram has also taken a huge liking to the monkey bars. He likes coming up with inventions, playing hypothetical questions, rhyming, and playing a game where we spell small words and sound them out.
Reese- full of life and energy!! Talking up a storm, you cannot get him to be quiet. He is HILARIOUS which makes discipline hard to keep a straight face. His timing is perfect and he doesn't realize how funny he is. A bit on the dramtic side when he wants/doesn't want something. He wants to go to preschool so badly, but also likes having time with Mommy all to himself. He has taken to stripping down naked in his crib almost every night and throwing his diaper in the trash. We'll go in to check on him and he is buck naked curled up with his blanket asleep. I think he is kind of ready for potty training-we shall see. He also has been waking up between 3 and 5am most mornings this past week and will only go back to sleep when curled around his Mommy. He loves animals, superheroes, trains, dinosaurs, and is getting really good at climbing things. He loves the playground and doesn't know it yet, but he is about to move into a big boy bed in the next couple of weeks.
Me- I have been busy trying to keep everyone else in line. I have started working with the youth at my church, awesome and exhausting. I turned 34 last Friday, it was the worst. day. ever. I won't go into details (that would be a whining blog), but I just wanted to go to sleep and start over. I did, however, get contacts. That is really exciting and something I have been wanting to do for a while. My sister and my Mom took me out for a birthday do-over on Saturday. We had SO much fun. Got manicures/pedicures (which is something I NEVER do) then when to a nice restaurant-there was no one there because the game was on. There was a band at the restaurant that played 70's and 80's covers. They played every request we had (since there were maybe 20 people there at one time). My sister tried to pressure the waitress to sing to me and she was obviously uncomfortable with the idea, but the lead singer of the band did. And told me I needed to sing with the band because it was my birthday. Before we left, I grabbed some random stranger and asked her to sing -"I Will Survive" with me. We sang, and it was hilarious-I forgot one of the verses because I was so nervous and then made them keep going when I remembered it. The lady I grabbed was really excited and sang over me-and not on all the right notes. I cracked up every time I looked over at her breaking it down. Before she and her friends left she grabbed me and thanked me saying it was the most fun she had had in a long time. When I got home Kris and the boys had got me a cake pop maker and an ice cream cake-made me forget all about the night before. I am in my mid-thirties now-kinda bizarre to think about. It always sounded so old and now I am here and so far so good.
So there you have it-we have been mucho busy. This is an important time in our lives. Kris is working full time and going to school 4 days a week + lab time, Abram is in preschool and soccer, Reese is going through some "wild banshee" stage that I don't fully understand where he melts my heart some of the time and makes me want to cry/pull my hair out some of the time. I have said this over and over and over again-I believe with all my heart Reese has born at this time for a reason-when things are getting harder, and pressures are getting more difficult, his stubborness will protect him and keep him safe-if I can figure out how to channel it for good. He is so like me in so many ways. And whenever I am at my wits end with either of my children, I feel a silent assurance that I am meant to be their mother and that I can do this, sometimes it's just hard-and that's okay. I only learn, grow, and remember when things are hard-I forget things that come easily. That being said here is an update on all of us:
Kris-working 50+ hours a week, and going to school 12+ hours a week. Way stressed, but doing well and working really hard. I am so proud of him. He just got a new (to him-thank you craigslist) mountain bike that he hopes to use in the near future, when he can make the time to use it.
Abram-about to turn 5 YEARS OLD NEXT WEEK!! He is still loving dinosaurs and superheroes with a passion and has decided in the past few months, that maybe the whole paleontologist thing might not work out, and to be an "animal expert" instead, so that he can hold poisonous animals. He can retain a ridiculous amount of information about all of these subjects and just the other days was explaining to a friend of mine how "We humans call things like that pollen which bees use to make honey." Seriously? "We humans"? He LOVES preschool and his teachers. He has also loved going on playdates with his buddies. Abram has also taken a huge liking to the monkey bars. He likes coming up with inventions, playing hypothetical questions, rhyming, and playing a game where we spell small words and sound them out.
Reese- full of life and energy!! Talking up a storm, you cannot get him to be quiet. He is HILARIOUS which makes discipline hard to keep a straight face. His timing is perfect and he doesn't realize how funny he is. A bit on the dramtic side when he wants/doesn't want something. He wants to go to preschool so badly, but also likes having time with Mommy all to himself. He has taken to stripping down naked in his crib almost every night and throwing his diaper in the trash. We'll go in to check on him and he is buck naked curled up with his blanket asleep. I think he is kind of ready for potty training-we shall see. He also has been waking up between 3 and 5am most mornings this past week and will only go back to sleep when curled around his Mommy. He loves animals, superheroes, trains, dinosaurs, and is getting really good at climbing things. He loves the playground and doesn't know it yet, but he is about to move into a big boy bed in the next couple of weeks.
Me- I have been busy trying to keep everyone else in line. I have started working with the youth at my church, awesome and exhausting. I turned 34 last Friday, it was the worst. day. ever. I won't go into details (that would be a whining blog), but I just wanted to go to sleep and start over. I did, however, get contacts. That is really exciting and something I have been wanting to do for a while. My sister and my Mom took me out for a birthday do-over on Saturday. We had SO much fun. Got manicures/pedicures (which is something I NEVER do) then when to a nice restaurant-there was no one there because the game was on. There was a band at the restaurant that played 70's and 80's covers. They played every request we had (since there were maybe 20 people there at one time). My sister tried to pressure the waitress to sing to me and she was obviously uncomfortable with the idea, but the lead singer of the band did. And told me I needed to sing with the band because it was my birthday. Before we left, I grabbed some random stranger and asked her to sing -"I Will Survive" with me. We sang, and it was hilarious-I forgot one of the verses because I was so nervous and then made them keep going when I remembered it. The lady I grabbed was really excited and sang over me-and not on all the right notes. I cracked up every time I looked over at her breaking it down. Before she and her friends left she grabbed me and thanked me saying it was the most fun she had had in a long time. When I got home Kris and the boys had got me a cake pop maker and an ice cream cake-made me forget all about the night before. I am in my mid-thirties now-kinda bizarre to think about. It always sounded so old and now I am here and so far so good.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
"All About Me"
It's been a while since I have embarrassed myself via blog, so here it goes.
I have been a Primary (Children's church) teacher many a time, I have also worked daycare many a year, worked in residential treatment, worked with youth groups, etc-I know kids. The "best" part of working with small children is their complete honesty. I have learned many fun facts about parents that I never needed to know. Fun facts that their parents would die if they knew I knew. You catch my drift? So when my oldest became old enough to be in Primary and go to Preschool-I was nervous. I was nervous about the obvious, but then a little more nervous about the unobvious. I wondered what "fun facts" that others would learn when totally taken out of context and coming out of the mouth of my four year old. You want an example? Sure! I was subbing for the music leader in Primary for a few weeks because she had a baby-I stood in the back while they did their opening prayer, activities etc. During sharing time, the person up there asked the kids if they knew what a "trap" was. Abram eagerly raised his hand and gave her details of how to make a "bear trap". The instructions and details seemed to go on for a while. Some of the teachers looked at me, to which I replied, "What? Didn't you know, us Raisors know how to trap us some bears?"
Then, Abram wrote a book.
Unfortunately, I do not have photoshop-so I can't write on the picture to point out specifics-so pay close attention...
Me: "Tell me about this page, and why is your name backwards?"
Abram: "That's me, and I turned into a squid, right by my favorite shape-a circle! And I just wanted to write it backwards."
Me: "Tell me about this page."
I have been a Primary (Children's church) teacher many a time, I have also worked daycare many a year, worked in residential treatment, worked with youth groups, etc-I know kids. The "best" part of working with small children is their complete honesty. I have learned many fun facts about parents that I never needed to know. Fun facts that their parents would die if they knew I knew. You catch my drift? So when my oldest became old enough to be in Primary and go to Preschool-I was nervous. I was nervous about the obvious, but then a little more nervous about the unobvious. I wondered what "fun facts" that others would learn when totally taken out of context and coming out of the mouth of my four year old. You want an example? Sure! I was subbing for the music leader in Primary for a few weeks because she had a baby-I stood in the back while they did their opening prayer, activities etc. During sharing time, the person up there asked the kids if they knew what a "trap" was. Abram eagerly raised his hand and gave her details of how to make a "bear trap". The instructions and details seemed to go on for a while. Some of the teachers looked at me, to which I replied, "What? Didn't you know, us Raisors know how to trap us some bears?"
Then, Abram wrote a book.
Unfortunately, I do not have photoshop-so I can't write on the picture to point out specifics-so pay close attention...
Me: "Tell me about this page, and why is your name backwards?"
Abram: "That's me, and I turned into a squid, right by my favorite shape-a circle! And I just wanted to write it backwards."
Me: "Tell me about this page."
Abram: "This is my family tree, there's me, Reese, you, Daddy, and Obi."
Me: "Why is Obi on the ground?"
Abram: "My teacher said dogs aren't aloud in the tree."
Abram: "Look! Those are my hands! They are my favorite color! Aqua-marine!"
What? Your 4 year old doesn't pay attention to the crayon names in the 64 box?
Me: "Did you cut that out yourself?"
Abram: "Yep!"
Me: "Awesome"
Just as a side note, I covered our address-well, because I don't know who all visits my blog. This is a nice picture, because the funny thing is-our condo is khaki brown, with a blue door, and one window upstairs. Brilliant, if I do say so myself.
No, I wasn't bitter at all about why he thinks he is special....
This is my favorite page. I laughed and laughed over this. If you didn't know us, and you saw this page where my son said "For fun my family likes to wrestle." And one of our family rules is "no biting", would you or would you not picture a family in the ring, standing on top of the ropes coming down with some WWF pose with vampire teeth shown?? Like, there is no biting in the ring? Just saying.
His teachers do not know us.
Honestly, what it looks like from his answers-he had his Daddy on his mind. Kris wrestles with the boys, and sometimes Reese bites. Although the theme we are going for is "No hitting" at the moment. "No biting" is always a positive.
I am thinking about ordering a wrestling shirt and wearing it when I volunteer for the class party.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Fall Soccer 2011
Just another change. We signed Abram up for soccer this year. We have had a practice and their first practice/game was this past Saturday. It's an awesome program. Since this is a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds the set up is like so-the first half hour you do drills/games with your kid. The second half the kids are divided up into teams of three players and they have games that the parents coach/ref. Last Saturday went really well. All of the stereotypical parents/kids are there. My Mom came and helped out with Reese (SO grateful for that Mom) and at first Abram wanted to play with my Mom's phone more that do the drills-however, once we got started he was on fire! And he really liked it. Abram really likes his shin guards because he thinks they are like superhero gear-because they protect his legs. I didn't get a lot of shots, because well...it's sorta hard to coach, ref, and take pictures at the same time. He scored twice though-it was really cute. I ran to him for a high five, and he gave me a hug instead. Thankfully my Mom got some action shots on her phone. So between the two of us we got some good pics.
At the end of each game the parents make a tunnel for the kids to run through. For some reason Abram decided to look back through after going through. Luckily he wasn't run over! I am so proud of him. He did excellent! As did this little guy..
who got to visit the concession stand a few times and hang with Nana during the game.
At the end of each game the parents make a tunnel for the kids to run through. For some reason Abram decided to look back through after going through. Luckily he wasn't run over! I am so proud of him. He did excellent! As did this little guy..
Labor Day 2011
My cousins and their families came down for Labor Day. I have said it before, but it cracks me up about how many pictures we use to have during their visits.....and now, between all of us, and all of our kids-we don't get as much as we'd like. But we did get to go to the lake-my boys first time. I was pretty nervous, and Kris and Matt took the older kids to meet Richie and JJ at the lake, while the girls brought the little kiddos later on. Unfortunately, they didn't have cameras-but Natalie told me that when they got there, Kris went running off the dock into the who-knows-how-deep-water, and Abram (with life jacket on) ran in right after him! Before we got there they were jumping, jet skiing, and tubing. My kiddos LOVED it, and Abram couldn't get enough of the jet ski! I almost had 5 heart attacks while we were there, because of my fearless husband and kids. But we had a great time!
PRESCHOOL, PRESCHOOL!!!
Big changes for our family this year. Good changes, but changes that makes me realize more and more my kids are getting bigger-and I can't make it stop. Abram is going to preschool this year. He LOVES it! I am not going to lie, it was really hard to drop him off. I guess it's because I stay home with my boys, and the thought of letting them into the big, wide world sorta thing. It wore off after the first day-because he loves it so much. He told me he misses me when he's there, but it's awesome. in fact, when we went to the "Meet the Teacher" day-he was playing and asked me, "Do you get to leave now?"
Nana bought him an apprpriate backpack. He goes two days a week, and then on Tuesdays, a few of us Moms from church are doing a co-op preschool where we switch each week, and do a lesson, etc. I don't think Abram has realized that doesn't mean "playdate" yet. But he adores being with his buddies from church too.
Reese, is not a fan of preschool-because: 1. He doesn't get to go. and 2. I think he gets bored without Abram around. I mean, don't get me wrong-I am super fun and all....but not as fun as his brother I guess. I forget that Reese doesn't know what it means to be an only child.....I think it freaks him out a little.
Nana bought him an apprpriate backpack. He goes two days a week, and then on Tuesdays, a few of us Moms from church are doing a co-op preschool where we switch each week, and do a lesson, etc. I don't think Abram has realized that doesn't mean "playdate" yet. But he adores being with his buddies from church too.
Reese, is not a fan of preschool-because: 1. He doesn't get to go. and 2. I think he gets bored without Abram around. I mean, don't get me wrong-I am super fun and all....but not as fun as his brother I guess. I forget that Reese doesn't know what it means to be an only child.....I think it freaks him out a little.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)