I'm thankful for...

That's what they said...

The kids are always saying cute things.
Allie has been hilarious lately. It seems like I am typing up her funny conversations every day. (on "good Mom days" I keep a word file open and try to write the cute things the kids say)
Anyway, here are a few of our conversations:

Allie's dance teacher is going to have a baby and as Allie is fascinated with all things baby, we chat about it all the time. This time she said,

“Is my teacher going to have a girl baby Sam?”

Me: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her if she is going to have a boy baby or a girl baby.”

Allie: “Actually, I think it’s a girl baby. I’ll tell her that a good name for a girl baby is Sherman!”

Her baby doll is named Sherman (I really don't know why, but apparently it's great for a girl name.)

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We were at the table eating lunch and we saw some deer pass by the door. Allie said

“Mom, do we shoot deer?”

Me: “No, but some people do.”

Allie: “Ryan shoots deer (neighbor who got a deer this last hunt). Why does Ryan want to shoot a deer?”

Me: not wanting to explain “the thrill of the hunt”, I said “Ryan shoots deer so he can eat the meat.”

Allie: “Deer don’t have meat, they have guts.”

Jake: “Allie, you’re adorable.”

Later as I was washing Allie’s hands I said

“Allie, what am I going to do with such a cute girl?”

Allie: (thinking) “uh, you just love me and keep me.”

Me: “Forever?”

Allie: “Yeah, except sometimes when I go to dance and Grandma’s house, and then we all go to Grandma’s house.”

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When I catch Allie doing something she shouldn't be doing (eating play dough, sneaking candy, walking out the door when I told her she couldn't) she says

"Mom, just turn around". Then she continues to do what she wants.

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The kids have a hard time waiting for their birthdays. We usually spend months talking about the events surrounding their birthdays. They love to see others have birthdays, but it is hard not to get gifts too. So after each birthday, we usually run through the list…Jake’s birthday will be next, then Allie, then Daddy, then Sam, then Mom, then Jake again. Today when we went through the list, Allie said “Will Jesus make it for Sam?”I asked her what she meant, she said “Will Jesus make Sam’s birthday?” Jake said “She wants to know if Jesus will make Sam’s cake.” Before I could say anything to answer, Jake said “We’ll celebrate Sam’s birthday for him.” I agreed and said that we would make a cake and have a little party when it was Sam’s birthday.

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It is so cute to watch them figure out this world that we live in. Today I watched Jake and Carson sled down the hill and trek back up. I found so much joy watching them be "kids". I love to see them enjoying the outside. Allie made pink snow with a squirt bottle and food coloring. We only have a skiff of snow because our house is shaded, but they love it.

Now they are asking about Christmas lights. Whenever "Grizz" next door starts to change for the next holiday, the kids get excited. I think the fun in decorating for the holiday comes from watching the kids get excited.

Anyway, I am rambling.

I love my kids...they bring me joy.

Curse those random naps!

I never would have thought that I would be one to curse a napping child. Jake was always a great napper and I loved every minute that he was asleep. It just meant that he would be happy when he woke up.
Allie was a great napper...for a little while. Then we fought long and hard about napping when she learned how to climb out of her crib and the napping phase was over.
Now, we are in a good routine. The kids don't nap, and although I miss the peace and quiet that came with naps, I am okay with the no nap thing. It means the kids go to sleep earlier without as much of a fuss.
So, you can see why I curse naps now. When Allie naps, she is up until 11 requesting water, a bathroom break, a new toy, a song, a kiss...the list goes on and on.
When Jake naps, things are a little easier but not much.
This week, both kids had random naps in random places and we paid for it at bedtime...

Call me Mommy

I love the movie RocketMan. It came out in 1997 and had Harland Williams in it. A couple weeks ago, we had an experience that reminded me of the movie and I wanted to write about it. Not many people have seen the movie, so when I tell my story they look at me blankly and don't get it. So, before I told all of you the story, I looked on Youtube to see if they had the clip that has been running through my head. Of course, I didn't find it. But I did find this one...it makes me laugh out loud, so I'll share it. If you don't like "bathroom humor" as my Mom would call it, then just don't watch. I'll continue my story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOrT0X8i8zI

Last month Jake and Carson were playing in the river bed, and I was in a neighbor's back yard with Allie and a few of my friends. I heard screams, but I couldn't identify the screamer. I started to casually walk toward the screams in case it was a fight that we needed to break up. Then I heard "Jake is trapped under a rock!" and my heart sunk down into my gut.

I guess Jake was climbing down the rocky river bed and a boulder came loose and trapped him under it. When I saw him, the rock was over the bottom half of his body. As I tried to get to him, I was imagining crushed limbs, hours of reconstructive surgery or amputation. I know that sounds pretty dramatic, but it was a big rock and I couldn't imagine a scenario where it wouldn't end badly. There were two other women close by and we all got there to the rock and tried to lift it off of him. It wouldn't budge. Someone else had run for Mike. I was screaming in panic, Jake was screaming in pain, and I couldn't even reason. No one better count on me to be calm in an emergency.
My neighbor Rhonda was calm and she was trying to get us to unify our efforts and lift on the count of 3. Heidi was yelling "where is our Mom adrenaline?" and I was just freaking out. That's where the Rocket Man story comes in. The Commander got stuck under the Mars rover and when Randall came to help him out he says something about how moms can lift 3 times the weight they normally could to save their children. So he tells the commander to "call me Mommy!" Well, it wasn't working for me. I wanted the extra mommy strength, but it just wasn't coming.
When it finally occurred to us that we were going to have to wait for help, Heidi said "shouldn't you calm Jake down?" so I tried to quit cursing and screaming long enough to calm him down. The poor neighbor boys that were looking on are never going to listen to me when I teach them not to use bad language. They got an ear full.
Jake wasn't easily calmed down but Mike got there and he was able to move the rock enough for me to pull him out.

We went home and gave him an inspection. You would not believe it. It's a total miracle, but he was fine. The only way to explain it is to say that it was a miracle. He didn't have even a bruise. His foot ended up being wedged in there pretty tight, but it was in loose gravel instead of being crushed between the two rocks.
It could have been so bad. He could have hit his head. He could have been trapped under the water. There are numerous things that could have made this terrible. We are so blessed.
Instead, we have our Jake and he is walking around as if it never happened. It was a miracle.
So, here are pictures.
This is the one that fell on him.

He was squished between these two. He was sitting on the one that he is standing on now and his legs were under the big one. Crazy huh.

It was a miracle.

So, that's the story. I know it happened a long time ago, but I wanted to write about it and it took me a long time to write because I wanted to include the Rocket Man sketch. Oh well, you'll just have to go watch the movie yourselves... "Call me Mommy!"

I Can?

I got some free fruit again this year, so I went a little crazy making grape juice with the grapes and applesauce with the apples. When I say crazy, I mean staying up until the wee hours of the morning making over a hundred bottles of juice.

The kids "helped"...

p.s. They were only playing with the apples I let them eat. They didn't touch the ones I made into applesauce (just in case you were planning to refuse to eat our new applesauce because you saw these pictures...)

And when they got bored, they started a "Wipe Out Course" in Allie's room.

Needless to say, there were plenty of messes to clean up, but my storage shelves look pretty!

out with the old, in with the new...

I am usually dragging Mike out the door to get our annual family pictures taken. I think he dreads it because there was one year when I made him go out for retakes 3 times! Yes, I can get a little picky about family pictures. I think the biggest thing for me is that we have a big frame (24x24) in our front room. I can't have a picture up there that I don't like! Imagine walking past a picture every day when all you can think is "man, I look pretty big in that picture!"

So, I am picky about the picture. This year I was dragging my feet because of Sam. I was sad that we really never got a picture of us all that I could feel good about blowing up in such a big frame. I felt like we would be getting pictures, and I would know that a big part of our family was missing.

So, I just didn't bring it up. Mike kept reminding me that we needed a new picture. Yes, you heard me...Mike was reminding me. I kept dragging my feet. So he kept reminding me. He would announce that we might not have another nice weekend, or that the leaves were going to be off the trees. Finally I snapped out of my funk and we went to get our pictures taken. My friend Heather took them and I am happy with the result. I took Sam's blanket up there with us and decided that in the future we will have Sam's bear in the pictures.

So, here's the big one...

the old

the new

I also have this really cool barn window that we use as a frame. The road block I faced in updating the pictures in this frame was about Sam again. I always pictured adding new pictures of each of the kids as they got older. I realized that unless I change Sam's picture out for a new one on one of the few days that he lived, his picture would stay the same. Allie and Jake (and any future children) will slowly grow up around Sam's little picture I took when he was 2 days old. That is a little sad for me. I got over it (for now at least).

So, here's that one...

the old

the new

That's all I have to say about that.

The obligatory Halloween post...

So, once again I find myself with so many ideas on what to write about, and I don't seem to make the time to write. I wanted to catch up on past things, but I also wanted to share our Halloween pictures before Thanksgiving...so here you go!

The not so wicked witch...

And the not so fierce lion...

We had a great Halloween this year. I love cute costumes and I love seeing all the neighbor kids in their costumes. Plus, I love candy. So any holiday where you can go door to door begging for candy is pretty cool in my book.

We did have a pretty funny incident on Halloween day. We did the neighborhood parade thing again and I was lazy and didn't walk all around the block with the kids. I stood at the corner and chatted while the kids made the big loop. Pretty soon I saw Allie come up the street with a big smile on her face. I looked for Jake, but I didn't see him. I walked the rest of the way with Allie, turning back periodically to look for Jake...still no Jake. I wasn't too worried because I knew he was with Carson, but still no Carson or Jake. We started eating our pizza and chatting with friends, and still no Jake. The stragglers had made it back, and still no Jake. So I went looking. I was starting to get worried. I yelled his name and asked everyone I saw if they had seen him. I finally found him going door to door and trick or treating on his own with Carson. What those people must have thought of me! (sending a 4 year old out on his own to trick or treat is generally frowned upon).

Jake didn't think there was anything wrong with the idea. He remembered about trick or treating from last year and thought he would go out and do it on his own. Needless to say, he ended up with lots of candy because he got to half the neighborhood while the rest of the kids were at the parade.

By the end of the night, their buckets were so heavy that they didn't mind when I "lightened" their loads by finding any chocolate that looked good to me.

Then, just to make me look like a cool Mom, I decided to post pictures of a few of the projects we did this month. I may not carve pumpkins with my kids (I hate the pumpkin guts), but we did make ghosts out of milk jugs and skeletons out of q-tips. That's cool isn't it?

Just to make you smile...

I was looking for a picture the other day and I came across this forgotten file. I had to share...








Really, the pictures tell the story.