Frisbee Fail

Yesterday Zoe was dying of boredom so when one of her friends from the neighborhood asked her if she wanted to go hang out at the pool, she couldn’t get out of here fast enough.

When she came back home after what seemed a short time, I could tell something had happened, but of course I had no idea what. She just had this look on her face…

When she and Eric went down to the pool another friend of theirs joined them, and he brought a Frisbee. Zoe took a spot on one side of the pool and the friend took a spot opposite her. Zoe got the Frisbee and threw it, but somehow she completely missed her mark and hit a woman in the face with it instead! The woman hadn’t been looking their direction, so it hit her dead in the face, and Zoe nearly melted in a puddle of embarrassment. She said she went over and apologized a million times to the lady and the woman told her it was ok and that she wasn’t hurt. I guess Zoe was just too embarrassed to stay at the pool though, so she grabbed her stuff and came home!

The worst part of the whole thing though, was that while Zoe was apologizing and feeling badly about what happened, she was also laughing her butt off. You know how when you do something embarrassing or just plain stupid you’ll sometimes do that nervous laughing thing…well, that was her; laughing her butt off right in front of the lady she zinged with a Frisbee.

At first, when she told me the story, I didn’t think it was funny and I was worried about the lady she hit in the face…but after it all sunk in, I must have laughed for nearly 20 minutes about it. I can just imagine the scenario, and I am so thankful I wasn’t there to witness it!

Life is Good

It seems like forever since the last time we were all home with nowhere to go. The school year is always so crazy busy with sports and school that sometimes it seems strange that we’re all sitting around the living room at the same time.

Strange, yet awesome.

Landon spent some time playing the Wii.

Harper spent some time discovering his ear.

And Zoe worked on a word search.

Tony and I just quietly reveled in the peaceful family time; watching Landon enjoy his game, Harper his ear, and Zoe her book. Life is good.

For the Love of Popsicles

Why is it only when my to do list is a million miles long that one of my kids decides to get sick? Landon woke up Monday morning feeling a bit off, and ended up spending the day in my bed watching TV. By Tuesday morning his tummy ache turned into a full blown stomach bug, and he spent another whole day between my bed and the bathroom. Wednesday morning he woke up feeling somewhat better, but he said he felt dizzy and tired…I guessed that probably had something to do with the fact that he hadn’t really eaten anything since Sunday night, and after a little food he was feeling much better. Thankfully he’s been much better today and now I’ve just got my fingers crossed that no one else will get it.

One of the many things on my to do list was to get out and weed our front garden. One of the sections out front had more grass in it than flowers and it was starting to look pretty bad. Luckily the weather was decent yesterday evening and I was able to convince Tony to come out and give me a hand. We got it looking nice again, and once we were done, Tony decided he needed a treat…and for him, that means a popsicle.

Somehow Landon found out that his dad had a popsicle, and that meant he needed to have one too.

And then I attempted to get a nice father/son photo of them eating their popsicles. This is what I got:

I still don’t know what all that was about.

Safe

Harper had a ton of hair when he was born. Dark black hair that was so long when he was born it was the first thing anyone who saw him commented on. Zoe and Landon also had quite a bit of hair at birth, but Harper had the most by far. Unfortunately with all that hair was also a little cradle cap, or cradle crap as we like to call it.

As you all know, babies can’t have their first “bath” until the umbilical cord falls off, but that didn’t mean I had to wait to wash that little guys hair! I just had Tony cradle him over the kitchen sink while I gently scrubbed that cradle cap right out of his hair!

As you can see from the picture, he didn’t seem to mind. I can’t believe how tiny he looks. If any one picture sells me on having another baby, that would be the one…not that it would be too hard to convince me or anything, but that picture just melts me.

Tie Dye Tradition

For the past couple of years my kids have made themselves a tie dye shirt during summer break. Usually it’s something they do while we’re on vacation, but this year it was the party favor at Landon’s birthday party. It’s terribly messy and will stain the heck out of anything it touches, but it sure is a lot of fun to do!

Here are this years shirts:

As you can see, Zoe likes hers, but Landon isn’t too thrilled with his. He thinks there is too much white showing…good thing I kept all the left over dye so he can make another one.

Father’s Day

As usual, father’s day snuck up on me and was here before I knew it. I’ve gotten really terrible about sending cards out, but I did make sure to call my dad and let him know I was thinking about him. He and my mom are off visiting family in Oklahoma and I am incredibly jealous. I sure wish I was out there with them.

Anyways, things went pretty nicely for the awesome dad that lives in our house. It may not have been his “ideal” day, but we did try to pamper him and show him how much we love him.

My gift to him was to let him sleep in (all the way to 8am!!!) and serve him breakfast in bed. I made him eggs, bacon, toast and coffee…nothing too crazy, but I did only have one arm available as the other was busy holding a non cooperative baby. Buttering toast with one hand is no easy task, mind you!

Zoe and Landon both made cards and they both had a little gift to give him as well, It was a nice simple day with nothing too out of the ordinary, and sometimes that is the best kind of day there is.

Happy Father’s Day to all you incredible fathers out there, especially mine and my children's. I wish everyone were so lucky.

Don’t Tell the Dog

This past week Landon went over to his friends house to play. When he came home that night he was coughing and sneezing quite a bit, but it wasn’t really a surprise because his friend has a big dog who sheds.

We started talking about said dog, and we both agreed that she is just the sweetest thing and although she makes Landon’s allergies flare up, she’s just too cute not to pet. This particular dog is older and hasn’t had the best health for awhile, and the family is afraid she won’t be around much longer. Landon was telling me how sad he was about that and how he wished that she was younger.

Meanwhile, Ginger had been outside doing her business, and when Landon went to check on her she was waiting by the door. As he walked over to let her in, he said “Let’s change the subject, I’m about to let Ginger in and I don’t want her to know.”

Hahaha!

The funniest thing about it was how serious he was! I don’t know if he thought about what he was saying before he said it or not, but it struck me as funny. I told him not to worry because Ginger had never even met that other dog, so I didn’t figure she’d be too depressed hearing the news! :)

Brand Spankin’ New

I’m finally getting around to scrapping these pictures of Harper’s first day with us. He’s only a few hours old here and we just couldn’t take enough pictures of him! Here are just three of my favorite, but believe me, there are many more!

I wanted to include details from the delivery, but instead of rewriting everything, I took the easy way out and just printed this blog entry.

It really doesn’t feel like all that long ago, and I suppose 10 months isn’t all that long, but he has just changed so much! I feel so fortunate that we have the technology to remember all these precious moments.

Jump!

I took these photo’s the last time we were over at Chris and Lori’s house, but forgot to post them.

They are just too cute not to post and I just love Zoe’s hair in the last one!

Cupcakes in a Jar

There are some amazingly talented people in this world and sometimes I am just in awe of how wonderful a simple idea can be. These people take something very ordinary, like a cupcake, and make them something really special. I read a lot of blogs, but my favorites are typically family style blogs. Whether the blogger be a photographer, crafter or scrapbooker, my interest is usually peaked when I see a great idea I can recreate with or for my family.

Landon isn’t a cake lover, so I’m always trying to think a little outside the box when it comes to his birthday party. I think most people expect cake and ice cream, but since this his day, I like to make it more about him. He seems to enjoy cupcakes, so this year when I came across this post, I knew it was something I could do to make his party a little extra special.

I know the cupcake jars on the other site are much prettier than mine, but I just love how they turned out. The kids seemed to enjoy them and I really liked making them!

Summer Break is Finally Here!

Today was the kids’ last day of school. Zoe finished 11th grade and Landon finished 4th.

I didn’t get to see Zoe this morning before she left because a little miracle occurred (Harper was still sleeping) so I didn’t get a picture of her before school, but I did grab one before she headed out the door for her IB beach party.

 

It’s easier to get pictures of Landon since I still walk him down to the bus stop in the morning, but he was a little embarrassed that I was taking pictures.

Here he is getting on the bus a 4th grader:

 

And here he is returning home as a 5th grader:

Every year I have such mixed emotions when it comes to the kids passing another grade level. Part of me is super proud to have such smart kids who do their best in school, and part of me wants to squish them and put them in my pocket and stop all the clocks because it’s all going by so quickly. And I’m just not ready.

Purslane

These little flowering succulents are called purslane.

They’re annuals, so you have to buy them year after year, but they are worth it.

The flowers open in the morning and close in the evening.

If you go out and pick off the dead one’s each night, they tend to bloom with more regularity. I go out every night and pick off the dead blooms and each morning I think there are more flowers than the day before.

10 Months

So much has changed in the past month. It’s crazy how much more he’s doing compared to only a few short weeks ago!

Here’s the update:

• He can go from lying down to sitting up with no problem at all. He rarely falls over, but it still happens on occasion.
• He pulls himself up to anything and everything at eye level. That means he uses the couch, crib rails, kitchen chairs or even just my pant leg…whatever’s available. Every once in awhile he’ll even let go of what he’s pulled up to and just stand for a few moments before eventually falling over.
• His bottom two teeth are no longer the only chompers he’s got. Now there are four of those sharp little teeth showing and he likes to use them! He’s eating more and more table food, but still relies mostly on formula and baby food to get him through the day. It’s funny though that no matter what I put in front of him, it’s never as good as whatever I’ve got in front of me. I share nearly every meal with him and he loves just about everything I eat. I’m hoping he’ll keep that attitude as he grows.
• He still likes to play with many of the toys in his basket, but I can see that he’s ready for some more advances toys. He still likes to shake his rattles every once in awhile, but they are slowly losing their allure.
• He loves to play in the kitchen cabinet that holds my pots and pans. He opens and closes the doors and pulls out the pots and lids and throws them on the floor making a ton of noise as he goes. I can only stand a little of that at a time, so it’s a real treat to let him loose in there.
• He just loves to swing. It doesn’t matter if it’s the one attached to our deck, or a baby swing we may find at a park, he just loves it.
• He’s been terrible about taking naps, unless I rock/sing him to sleep and even that doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes I have to resort to just letting him work it out in the crib on his own…and I hate it.
• We all think it’s hilarious when we look on the baby monitor and see him standing up in his crib. I' don’t know why it’s funny, but it is.
• He crawls around this house with no problem whatsoever. He’ll be playing with his toys in the living room one minute and off to the library the next. He’s really fast too, so keeping up with him is a full time job. I’m sure walking will be no different…just faster.
• Right now we’re still on a two nap routine, but I fear that may be coming to an end. His sleep pattern seems to be changing some and so far I’m not sure what we’re changing to. I know he’ll be giving up one nap sooner or later, I was just kind of hoping it would be later!
• He gets to go to the pool all the time and he loves floating around in his little boat. He usually last about an hour out there, but I figure that’s pretty good since he’s just floating around. He also likes to go hang out in the baby pool, and is happy to just hold onto the side. He likes watching the other kids and I’m sure he’s memorizing everything so he can try it later!
• He HATES riding in the car for any length of time. He cries and moans and groans the whole way. I am absolutely dreading our trip to South Carolina in a couple weeks. I’m afraid I’m going to have to stay down there forever just because I don’t want to ride in the car for 8 hours on the way back.

I could go on and on, but the moral of the story here is, everything is going as planned. He’s hitting his milestones right on time and is generally a very happy baby…except when he’s in his car seat.

My Gift of Steel

For the first time ever, Tony’s anniversary gift to me was late. He ordered it a bit late, so I didn’t get it until the day after our anniversary, which was June 9th. I was really anxious to see what he had picked out for me though once he told me he got it from Etsy.com! I just love browsing that site and I know there are some amazing things out there, so I couldn’t have guessed in a million years what he chose.

As usual, he chose something that I absolutely love…he truly has a knack for that. Unfortunately, I don’t possess that “knack”.

Scrying Glass Necklace, Dark Steel Swarovski Crystal Copper

Ivy Leaf Necklace Baroque Swarovski Crystal Pendant on Sterling Silver and 14K Gold Fill Chain

Both necklaces were purchased at Polestar and I’ve already had the opportunity to wear both of them. I love their simplicity and think they will compliment pretty much anything I wear…win-win!

Backyard Party

Today we celebrated Landon’s 10th birthday. His real birthday isn’t until July 10th, but I always try to do his party before school lets out because people are usually away for the summer in July and things are just busy enough without adding a party to the mix.

He wanted to have his party at one of the moon bounce places, but I talking him into just having a moon bounce at the house instead…and it turned out to be perfect!

We had a slip and slide:

We played water balloon baseball (really fun, by the way!):

We also played a game where the kids formed two teams and then each team had a giant piece of ice to melt and they were only allowed to use their body’s to melt it! Silly, but fun!

We also tie dyed t-shirts, but I was too busy helping with that activity to get any pictures. I also tried out “cupcakes in a jar”, but that deserves it’s own post!

Landon said he had a good time and that alone made all the work worth it.

Flash!

This is what happens when I use the flash on my camera.

I get this little one’s complete attention. (Please ignore the messy lunch face.)

I hate that the one above is blurry! That’s his new thing…sticking his tongue out. It just pops out whenever he’s thinking of being naughty or when he’s concentrating, or no longer thinking about being naughty but being naughty, or even when he’s being a little shy. It’s cute and so him right now.

The flash is so cool! It just makes him want to scream out loud and kick his little feet!

He wanted to get a closer look, so he made his way up my legs as close as he could get.

And then the flash went off and he was back to squealing and kicking his feet. (Please ignore the messy face and the hair…it was just one of those days.)

Made of Steel

Today my husband and I celebrated 11 years together. After 11 years we are stronger than ever, and I know I’m happier with our life together now than I’ve ever been. Things are good.

Tony likes to try to get me something according to the traditional gift list every year. I usually don’t bother with the list because I know he really just wants video games…seriously, that’s all he wants. But this year I decided I’d try to surprise him with something. And then I found out that this years traditional gift idea was to be something made of steel. Possibly not the best year to get on board with this whole thing, but I did a search and came up with some interesting ideas…like swords, laptops, cars and jewelry, all of which were out of the question.

After shopping around a little, I found these:

I’m not sure if they’re actually made of steel, but I thought they were unique and would be a nice addition to the front garden we’ve been working so hard on. I think Tony was shocked that I bought him these strange looking frogs (and not a freaking video game!) for the garden because he seriously laughed his butt off about them.  He said they are really strange looking, but the kids and I think they’re cool! They are solar powered and glow at night, and I’ll have to get pictures of  them at night some other time because right now we’re having an awesome thunderstorm!

Going Home

I’m slowly chipping away at all these baby photo’s I’ve got printed and sitting on my desk. I’ve had this scrapbook paper for ages, and it just fits this page to a T!

Each time I have a baby, I am always so ready to go home! I know it’s the nurses jobs to check my vitals every 5 seconds, but damn, all I wanted to do was sleep and they just wouldn’t let me!

I couldn’t wait to get to the comforts of home and start our life as a family of 5. Harper wasn’t happy about being put in his car seat, but once we got him all buckled in and moving, he settled down.

Mommy’s Lil’ Helper

He actually isn’t any help, but he does make laundry a little more fun.

One of his favorite things right now is to sit in the laundry basket and have me zoom him up and down the hallway. It’s just a good time for him, but it happens to be a decent workout for me…totally a win-win situation!

Arizona Sun Blanket Flower

Another garden favorite.

These are in Tony’s red/yellow/orange section of the garden. I love that all those colors are in this one flower alone.

Learning to Fly

We had a bird make a nest under our deck. She laid eggs, babies hatched and before we knew it, they were gone. Last week Landon and I made a quick stop in Michaels and whenever we go in there he always wants to get a bird feeder or house to paint. After telling him I wasn’t going to get a new bird house a million times, the following conversation took place.

Landon: When baby birds learn to fly, do they stay with their mom and fly around with her?

Me: Nope. When they learn to fly, they’re on their own.

Landon: Oh man, I could never do that! I’d miss my mama too much.

After he said that he leaned over and gave me a hug…and I melted.

I know he’s a mama’s boy and all that, but I also know that in another few years he won’t feel that way about me because there will be some cute girl he’s more interested in.

So, I’m just writing this down so that I can remember how sweet he was at 9 years old.

And, man is he sweet.

Party at the Vranish House

This afternoon we spent some time over at my brother-in-laws house. They were celebrating Laurens 13th birthday and invited us over to swim and barbecue and just hang out. I’m too tired to write details, so the story of today will be short.

This big girl was so happy to be running around outside!

Landon couldn’t get up in this hammock by himself, so Uncle Chris gave him a hand.

Here’s the birthday girl!

After such hot weather last weekend, the cooler temps this week were a shock! That pool water was cold, and the breeze certainly didn’t help! Surprisingly, Harper didn’t seem to mind one way or the other.

Travis just wanted to dive in and get it over with…

The kids. Freezing their butts off.

Harper climbing Mount Zoe.

Uncle Tony talking to Lea.

Harper fell over and just stayed where he was and Lea decided to join him…they are so stinking cute!