Reflecting on 2011

I could get very sappy about all the accomplishments of the boys this year & how fast they are growing up -  and get really tearful at leaving behind all things 'baby' - but I won't. 

I'm looking forward to 2012 and what's to come for our little family in the corner of OK. 

(I still can't believe I live in Oklahoma)

 Looking to another round of sports, more scrapbooking & sewing, BASEBALL, spring semester of school, the ever expanding vocabulary of the Babe, giving up my committees, and the Man finishing his work rotation so he will be home more through out the year.

I'm very proud of all that we have accomplished and maintained. I'm happy I'm still blogging - beginning my 4th year - oh my goodness!  How is that possible? My goal is to hit post number 1000 this year!  wow! Thanks to everyone who reads and checks in on us.  

But most of all, I'm grateful and thankful - especially for these boys.  The Man and I continue to be blessed over and over again with our health, family and security.  Day-to-day we both get stressed out but we know how lucky we are and are very thankful to God for all that we have. 

Looking onward to 2012!

What are you into now?

 

Mulch + Sidewalk Chalk + Babe = Messy Face

Where's Winter?

Its 60 degrees out today. SIXTY and on its way up.  I really does feel more like spring than winter and I'm not complaining. 

 The Man is home today, so he and Buddy are tossing the football.

 Not sure what LG is doing, but he has an old pan and a golf ball.

 Babe loves to be outside.  I know he really doesn't need a hat, but his hair was wet and I'd rather him be a little extra warm.

 Buddy loves tossing the ball.

So does his Daddy.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We enjoyed a wonderful day of presents and relaxation.

 Santa brought the big boys sleds and wii games and Babe got a little radio flyer scooter.

The year of the sports themed presents for Buddy.  He got a seahawks bedspred, seahawks garden gnome, and a mariners calendar. LG was into legos again and Babe - books, books, and more books!

We all had a good day!

Christmas Eve

Last Day of the 12 Days of Christmas and I worked quickly to get the presents ready.
Special thanks to Grampa and Nana for getting M.E. some Seattle Mariners fleece before they left the valley - so I could make pjs for the boys.

They loved them and I can see they are going to be well worn!  Happily awaiting Christmas!

Nana

Well, its no secret the boys love their Nana and Grampa and its been super nice having them here.
Last night, I managed to capture a little moment of Nana reading books to the boys.  It was so wonderful.

12 days of Christmas

The 12 days of Christmas packages have been a hit so far and its been fun watching the boy's excitment each day with opening them.  Today, the boys got to open a small box with 3 things of red & green tic-tacs.  A super favorite of all the boys.
Babe immediately starts eating his and about half way through, he decided to dump them out and refill his container.

It kept him busy for about 5 minutes.

Christmas Program

Grampa and Nana arrived safe last night and we headed out to eat at a local place that LGs refers to at Ratatouille.  It was Grampa's birthday so we had to celebrate in style.  We had a nice supper but got to bed late.
But the boys rallied right out of bed this morning because today is the last day of school and the Christmas program.  And so the boys got to wear free "dressy" dress.  Not a favorite for M.E.  The boys don't own a lot of dressy clothes because they are boys and boys get dirty and grow fast.

We managed this.  Buddy always has liked ties so he was happy with that but he kept saying he couldn't wear his school shoes because they were tennis shoes.  Well, he doesn't own any others than cleats, so he wore his school shoes. 
LG kept fussing with his shirt being tucked in so we wound up switching him to a sweater.

Here he is at church after his big song.  He did so well singing with his class.  He had the moves and head bob down.  It was great. 
Buddy would play the hand bells and I didn't manage a pic because I was sitting on the wrong side of the church.  But several folks commented on how well he did.  We were very proud.
It was a good show as always.

Soup Supper

We finally managed to get together with one of LGs best friends and his family before the holidays.  It was so nice to see them (it'd been 6 months).  Adam and Carrie were here too and we all brought soups and had bowl after bowl of yumminess.

These three are a mess and they were so happy to be together again.  We will not be waiting another 6 months that's for sure.  

I jinxed myself!

Babe broke his bottle i know i said when its toast, he's done, but....
With him feeling so crummy, I broke down and bought a 3 pk yesterday. It looks like he'll be on the bottle a little bit longer.

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All Time Record!

Here's the story...
Babe hasn't been sleeping well, from drainage, to whining, to crying, being hungry, to being spoilt and last night the croupy cough started.  So to let the Man (who just arrived back from a drill rig late last night), have the bed to sleep without M.E. constantly getting up (like every 45 minutes), I just went to sleep with Babe. 

In the meantime - about 4AM the Man gets up and goes duck hunting, I'm still sleeping with Babe.
Babe wakes up really hungry early and I stumble to the kitchen at 5:55 AM. I remember thinking I have one hour to sleep.

Back in bed with Babe, I fall asleep.  I wake and its light outside.  I flip out, because I know its later than 6:50, my alarm time.  Sure enough, its 7:35.  WHAT? That's the time we are usually leaving for school and now I'm just getting up.  I ran to the boys and tell them what has happened.  They spring into auction getting dressed and ready. We manage to get teeth brushed, hair half combed, uniforms on and pull out of the driveway by 7:48. WOW! 
13 minutes from feet hitting the floor to all 3 boys in the van on the way to school.  
All Time Record. 
I didn't raise my voice one time, they totally understood my urgency.  We got to school at 7:58, 2 minutes before the bell. phew!!! 
If there's one thing I hate, its being late.  the second being lost. 
Buddy was pumped we made it in time, he was super excited about beating the clock. He loves competition.  I wish I could remember his commentary at every turn of the way. It was great. He was saying things like, "this car in front of us is so slow, they must be on the phone.", "Yes, we are going to make this light", "traffic's not bad, we'll make it".  "Do you think we'll make this light? let's count the cars" ,"we'll make it, we have 4 minutes and it'll never take 4 minutes from here", and then in the final stretch a little cheer "Go, Mom!"

LG was still asleep.

Life is Fun and Go, Mom!

Did you figure it out?

I immediately ran back in for my camera on Sunday after I spotted the Man working on the garage door opener.  WHY???
Because we have a perfectly good ladder 5 feet away from him.  Sometimes, we all use the wrong 'tool' for the 'job'!

Advent/12 days til Christmas

Confession - I had every intention of doing the treat/craft/gift thing each day of Advent this year - but it didn't happen.  Life is too busy, but I'm redeeming myself with 12 days of Christmas starting tomorrow. 

Here's the mantle as of today - Days 12 - 3 (two and one are too large for the mantle so I'll hide them under the tree the day of).  Treats safely out of the reach of Babe. 

I have got craft projects, candy treats and little gifts  - thanks to the dollar bins at Micheal's and Target.  

The boys are going to be so, so excited. I can't wait for the joy to begin. 

Now I just need to start actually Christmas shopping. I haven't bought a single gift yet!

What's weird about this Scene?

The garage door opener cog sheared off last week and so the Man decided to take a look at it.  But take a good look at this scene and see you can find what I thought was hilarious??? I'll reveal the answer tomorrow.

Saturday Morning!

LG wanted Christmas pancakes today, so here's what I came up with.

So somehow this photo got flipped. I've tried multiple things to fix it, but to no avail.  So its sideways.  But you can still see my Christmas tree, snowman, candycane and snowflake.  yay!

The boys up early watching cartoons.  They were so sweet snuggling together on the couch.  I think Buddy is still half asleep.

I think its safe-to-say, Babe likes the syrup more than the pancakes, cute shapes or not!

Ten on Ten - Babe Edition!

Here's a glimpse of the Babe over the last week and all that he is into. 

 1 - He is still loving his bottle.  This is the last one and when its toast we won't be replacing it. Dreading that.

2 - We seriously think he is going to be left handed.  Everything of importance he does with that hand and will even switch to it if we hand him something to his right.  He has also pretty much mastered eating with a spoon. That's so nice, again with his left hand. 

3 - He loves wearing hats.  Its so fun to see him walking around with them on. I'm actually kind of glad I have at least one boy who loves hats.  he looks so cute. 

4 - And yes that's mustard on his face in the pic above.  

Last week while I was at the movies, he managed to get in the frig and get the mustard.  He proceeded to open in and squirt is all over the front door and the couch.  Luckily, it was only on one cushion and with some elbow grease and strong carpet cleaner I managed to get it clean. 

He is just so fun right now although he's into everything. 

5 - He also got a magic marker and decorated Buddy's walls, pillows and bed sheets.  Mr. Clean Eraser got it off the walls, but I think the sheets and pillow cases will have his autograph on them forever. 

 Severe bed head - it was time for haircut number 2.

At the salon, Before!

The after!  He looks like such a big boy. 

6 - He doesn't mind haircuts. And again he sat in my lap with no fussing at all. Everyone in the shop just couldn't get over how calm he was.  I was grateful. 

 He adores his big brothers.

 7 - He has learned Buddy's name, but he hasn't quite got LGs name down yet, but soon, he'll be screaming it too.  

 

8 - He loves his animal figures and makes the cow and horse sounds.  Its so adorable. 

9 - He loves the bath.  He got in the tub fully clothed again. At least it wasn't full of water this time. 

 So I ran some water and let him hang out for a bit.  This is how I found him a few minutes later.  Just relaxing.  Who is this kid????

 

10 - He's also obsessed with the floor vents through out the house.  He has learned how to take the registers off and then proceeds to throw anything with in reach down into the vents.  We are having to clean them out about three times a day.   

 

At almost 20 months our lives are full of all things toddler!

This past week...

again I apologize for not blogging...I've been super busy.
Both Monday and Tuesday of last week, I was busy working on the youth program and was at church both nights watching the Narnia's movies in perparation for planning.
Wednesday night, I worked all day at the church office getting ready for our planning meeting.  I was also asked to start keeping up with my hours, as I will be put on staff payroll. WOOHOO! I got a job and wasn't even looking.  I was pretty happy about that and look forward to the extra cash.
Thursday, I took the boys shopping for Buddy's new soccer shoes which are awesome. 
Friday, I worked in the church office and that night was the company party, where we didn't win anything. and the food wasn't even that good. Not sure if we will even go next year.
Saturday, we went to D's basketball game then cleaned on the house, the Man really went to town on the van and cleaned it down to the last spec of dust.  Wow! Then we went to Buddy's soccer game.
And then last night, I went with my friend's from youth group to see Twilight : Breaking Dawn.

It was so good and even better the second time.

I'm also doing December Daily this year, so I'll try to get a post together about that super soon. 

Indoor Soccer

 Buddy started his indoor soccer season on Saturday night.  He has never played indoors before and none of us were sure what to expect. But it was fun, fast-paced and Buddy did great.

 ***These pictures are not good quality. We were in a huge arena type building with poor lighting, while sitting behind dirty, scratched plexiglass and for the first 10 shoots I had my camera on the wrong setting. ugh!

 Buddy here in the middle with the ball.  

He would play the majority of the game and make a goal in the first period.

 Here he is getting ready.  That's one of his best buddy's, Benzo, kicking the ball. They have so much fun together.  Buddy would go on to score twice more in the second period.

Note the shoes... We went shopping for those on Thursday and at first he wasn't sure about bright green shoes, but after a closer look they are lime green with navy trim - think Seahawks... 

That's all it took for him to want them bad.

Buddy and his bud Benzo. They won 12-3!

And I have to admit I like the indoor soccer.  It was pretty cool.