I Am Thankful For....

...stair step kids (Abram, Reese, Isaac-nephew)

KUB entertainment in the background.

Today I Am Thankful

I decided to try to do as many "thankful" posts as I can this month. Just as a reminder to myself how blessed I am.  It's hard sometimes when you get caught up in "life" to remember.  It may be confusing because I have a some more October updating to do-but I'm okay with that.

Today I am thankful that I got to spend some one-on-one time with this little guy...

and I am SO thankful he is feeling better.

Today I was pushing him on the swing and he said (while pointing to a big cloud in the sky), "Mama, dat look like da Hulk."

I love that little monkey.

I am also thankful for good friends. Especially good friends who have good kids that can be my kid's good friend (make sense?). According to Abram, one of his "best, best, best, buddies".

Abram Turned 5

Abram turned 5 on a Wednesday.  We had big plans of making over the boys room as part of his present, he was going to have some buddies over that Friday, I was going to make "Creature Power Suits", it was going to be awesome.....

Rewind to his first birthday-we were living outside Savannah and I was making a "cow cake".  My sister came and was "helping" me.  I got distracted and forgot to add oil-this caused a 1a.m. run to Kroger.  Every year I have bought two boxes of cake mix since.  But for some reason every year I am making that late night store run, seriously.  And this year was no different.  You see I had a master plan-and then his preschool decided to do picture day that day.  I was a little nervous for making cupcakes with bright blue icing like he wanted.  Can't you just see it? Preschoolers with blue teeth? Blue icing all over white shirts? Super freaked out mothers that take preschool pictures way too seriously coming after me in their minivans? So I talked to his teachers, and I did really try. I tried my new cake pop making machine, and it failed me. I had gone to a high school choir concert  (and had crazy flashbacks) that a few of the girls from church I work with are in, so I got a late start anyway.  They were an epic failure which caused me at 1am to go back to the original plan.  All good right? I even had my trusty extra cake mix, but what I didn't have was all of the icing ingredients!!! So off I went to Walmart.  The "funny" part? Every. Single. Year. I have had to go to the grocery stpre in the middle of the night. And then after sleeping 3 hours, woke up so that I could make sure this happened.....

The sleepy birthday boy (Kris put their jammies on).....

Abram had got a package in the mail that he had to open.  It was SO sweet-he said as he was opening, "I hope it's something I can share with Reese."

and it was...

His class went to pictures before snack, so that worked out perfect. And then that night we went to the Pizza Kitchen for some awesome food with the family.  Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures. 

Isaac finished off the cupcake!















I was so thankful that we celebrated that night, because then Reese got sick and we had to cancel the party-Abram was SO sad.  But then another blessing-some friends of ours gave us extra tickets they had to the Shriners circus! So Abram and I went with Natalie and Isaac while Kris stayed home with Reese. (Can I just say that even though we left at intermission because it was a forever long/way too late for the kiddos-it was SO good and I was really impressed).

Time is going by too fast. I was rewinding on the blog and going back looking at when he was so little....I'm not going to lie-I got pretty emotional. He is so smart and funny and fun to be with.  He asks the most bizarre and thought provoking questions. He has no idea how loved he is. I am so grateful for him, even when he is leaping into the air-out of the Bishop's seat in front of the congregation and spinning in circles and waving during the primary program at church.......but that is a story for another time.

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!

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....

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.



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.

"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."

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.