Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Holiday Party









Time for the annual school holiday parties. I love it!
I spent hours baking, spray painting cereal boxes, decorating teachers rooms, buying unnecessary crafts that I am sure have all been thrown away by now. But it was fun. And exhausting. And fun.
And the best part.... it's OVER!

Wrestling










If you know our 6 year old at all, you know he likes to WRESTLE! Finally, we were able to find our local high school wrestling team who doesn't require Sunday competition. Jake goes to practice twice a week with an occasional meet.
Saturday was his VERY first, real life wrestling competition. We sat close by yelling his name with all of the excitement and positive affirmations possible.
During each of his battles, I was able to yell and clap for my little wrestler and he was able to turn his head toward my familiar voice as his 48 pound body was being thrashed by another 48 pound boy and he made direct eye contact with his mother. I smiled and cheered. He then sensed my excitement and tried even harder to unravel his body from his opponent.
What a fun day.
And even better...he got a medal.
On the way out of the tournament, Will asked Jake,
"so Jake, did you get your medal because you were good at wrestling, or did everybody get one?"
Jake responded, "Uhhh, I think everybody got one."
But he didn't mind.He was sure it was made out of platinum. A metal worth more than gold.
And that was all that mattered.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween Weeeek-end 2011

Why is it that Halloween lasts for like....3 weeks. Confession: Not my favorite holiday. Not even close. But last night as I sat on my front porch waiting for candy lovers to speak the famous Halloween words for a piece of overly priced chocolate, I looked straight across the street. There sat my neighbor. An older man with his long, white beard, long white hair and old, worn out rocking chair. He was patiently waiting for the adorable, innocent little children come to his home. He anticipated each one. It hit me. In 50 years, it will be me outside on my porch praying for little children to come to my house and bring a little piece of lost childhood into my heart. So now I must do my part. I must visit endless Goodwill stores while putting on a smile for every party. Every celebration. Every bag of candy that I have to buy. Just to do my part. My part for keeping the Halloween tradition alive. For 50 years from now. When I am sitting on my porch, praying. Praying for a glimpse into a long forgotten memory.



























Monday, October 24, 2011

I Must be Going Crazy


Fall Break last week. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
It was great. Sometimes hectic.
I honestly did try really hard to have some new friends over.
NOTHING worked out.
I hate moving,
It's so hard to make new friends.
But.
We actually didn't mind.
We spent the whole week together. Loving it. It was perfect.
So great, in fact, I am sitting here depressed. On the verge of tears.
I had to send my boys back to school today.
I wish we were lying in bed watching Arthur together. Like we did last week.
But we're not.
I hope they are having fun.
And missing me.
Because I sure am missing them.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Did you Ever Wonder?

How God knew to create so many crickets?



He knew how many of these little insects would be squashed in the tiny little hands of one of His most precious creations....
young boys.
Thank you for creating an abundance of crickets.
It eases the pain as I watch the poor, little creatures seep their last breath in the hands of my child...
My children love them.
They love them so much that they accidentally squeeze them too hard.
Again and again.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Pinky Promise







The boys are into this "pinky promise" thing. We wrap our little fingers around each others pinky and "swear". Naturally, my little pink princess also enjoys, and understands the intense pinky promise.
It started a few weeks ago. I lay in her bed to sing Jesus songs. I needed to leave to check on the boys. She was half asleep. She felt my body rolling itself from her warm covers. She rolled over and I promised her that I would return to check on her.
Her eyes were half open when she held out her little hand. She gave me her pointer finger.
"Pinky Promise?"
I wrapped my adult pinky around her gentle, soft pointer.
"Pinky Promise" I answered.
She closed her eyes and went to sleep.
10 minutes later I returned to follow up on my promise.
Her blonde hair and bare chested body lay all coiled up in her pink covers.
I smiled.
I gently bent over, kissed her on the face and whispered in that innocent little ear,
"pinky promise."

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

GEO




Geo, or geeeeg, is the name of Jake's freindly pet gecko. He is also the source of helping (or at least trying to help) Jake get out of the car every morning for school.
We told him that if he could go to school on time, without me walking him in, than he could take Geo to school and show his class.
Jake made a little countdown 3X5 card and scratched off how many days it has been.
Suffice it to say, tomorrow is the big day.
Even after yesterday.
I had to pry him from the car to see him chase after me crying as our van drove away.
I started crying.
I circled the school and returned to see if he had gone inside.
He hadn't.
He had three adults escorting him into the building as he was sobbing.
One of the adults had to brace him from throwing his arms and getting away.
I went home sobbing.
For two hours.
Today we sent him to school with a picture of me and him taped to his folder so that he would always know I was close to him, even when he couldn't see me.
He asked if I could make something with our picture he could keep in his pocket so he could always feel me close.
I did that today.
He loves it.
So, here is to the Mooch.
Another child that shows me how deep a mother's love truly is.
A beautiful little boy who keeps my heart ticking every single day.
My Mooch.

Our picture he carries around in his pocket. I told James I look fat.
James told me it's just my hair that looks like a mess.
Whatever it is, I think it's hot. I'm 31 with three kids. What do you expect???


I hope you like 1st grade, Geo

Monday, September 26, 2011

Man Of The House


So this is usually the man of the House.
But this week he is at a conference.
So.
What happens?
This man of the house, lines up the other two little men of the house and makes them look at him.
This man of the house says, as he leans down to the two little men:
"Where do your hands go, where do your eyes go?"
(much like a drill sergeant)
The two little men put their little man of the house arms behind their back and point their 4 brown eyes up to their dads'.
"What happens when daddy isn't home?"
"We're the Man of the House," the boys respond.
"And what does that mean?" the big man of the house asks.
The bigger of the two little men says,
"we ask mom what we can do to help her."
"Right, and what else?"
Silence.
"Ummmm"
"Oh, I know. We don't chase Naomi around the house pretending to be Zombies so she cries and screams."
"Right. And what else?"
The biggest man turns to the littlest man.
"We put our clothes away?" he wonders out loud.
"Good."
And with that the biggest man of the house leaves in his jump-started white thing we sometimes refer to as his car. We pray daddy makes it back home to us, eventually.
And I am left. With one little girl and two very strong, brave, and handsome little Man's of the House.
And just like their daddy, they took up my whole bed last night.


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

First day of School...In Denver!


Rough start. Uncomfortable polyester pants. Short sleeve white polo shirts. Bad combo for the Mooch. He hates both. I spent the morning drivinig around town looking for a PLAIN white long sleeve t-shirt that he could wear under the polo. He HATES short sleeves. I ran back to the school by 11:00 and had to get special permission from the principal for Jake to wear the long sleeve tee. Oh, brother. It could be a long year.
THis is the ONLY picture of mooch that I could get before school. He actually didn't even get dressed until we were all in the car.



Thanks for getting dressed Mr. 3rd grader.




After School shot of him checking on his pet snake. Making sure he made it through the day without him. You may notice Jake's long sleeve tee shirt in the after school shot, but not in the half naked morning photo. I am such a good mom.




The boys met their teachers a few days ago. They did not disappoint. Each one of the boys in their own way made their first impression. They were true to their personalities.

Jake was first. He didn't let go of me. Not once. We had discussed earlier in the day what we thought his teacher may look like. We decided on scraggly red hair and crooked teeth.
We met his teacher. Quite the opposite. As Hip as can be. Young. A Ms. not a Mrs. I tried to break the ice for Jake by telling his teacher what we thought she was going to look like. Jake smiled. But didn't comment. Again, he never left my leg. Really. My leg. His two little arms hung around my leg as if he were an ornament on a Christmas Tree. On the way out the door his teacher told him to choose a pencil and a sucker. What does Jake say for his first words. "I don't like those." Sweet. I took one.

Next was William. I mean, Will. Sorry. He walked right up and shook his teachers hand. "I have a really big goal right now. Do you want to know what it is?"
The teacher replied in the affirmative.
"I am going to travel as much of the world as a Monarch Butterfly."
"Oh, wow, replied the teacher." She looked at me. She whispered, "I don't even know how far Monarch Butterflies travel, do you?"
I shook my head. We both had an instant silent understanding of what lay ahead for this dear teacher. She turned back to Will. "So when are you going to accomplish this goal?"
"Oh, he responded, by the age of 10."

Welcome to another year my babies. I pray we all get through it together. We had better hold on tight, pray real hard, and get used to stingy, dingy, brown and blue polyester.


Animal Summer





Well, the boys have officially caught two snakes so far this Summer. It's disgusting.
I'm sorry, but it is.
We also housed five caterpillars and watched them transform into beautiful Pink Lady Butterflies. Now that was cool.


Yard Sale






It has been a long, very long Summer around these parts. The boys are going to a brand new charter school that just so happened to not be built in time for the start of school. We enjoyed a few more weeks. Honestly, we have spent most of our time playing in our front yard...doing activities such as these...

We are OBSESSED with making money at our house. We have had several garage sales with our very own clothes (that Jake said didn't fit in his drawer anymore...yeah, right) and of course we made this beautiful jewelry and miniature paper action figures.
We started out stringing Penne pasta onto strands of red curling ribbon and headed out to spray paint it. Did I mention that it has been a looooong Summer?
We sat out there from 10-6. Pretty much all day. I even brought their lunch out to them. By 6:00...no profit. The kids were devastated. Apparently no one wanted to pay $5.00 for a fruit loop and penne pasta patterned necklace.
Dad drove in at 6:00. Just in time to close up shop. He searched frantically for quarters in his car. Perfect. He found $2.00. William settled on selling him a plain pasta necklace for a dollar. James couldn't afford the fruit loo, pasta combo. He actually couldn't afford the plain penne either, but James taught William how to barter.
Jake, on the other hand...was a harder egg to crack. Apparently he didn't have any jewelry only worth only a dollar. All of his goods were worth at LEAST two dollars. James, tried as he may, tried to tell Jake he could either sell him a necklace for ONE dollar, or not make any money at all that day. Jake thought. He decided. His jewelry was worth way more than a dollar. He closed shop empty handed. He turned James; dolar down cold handed. We both laughed. That's our Mooch. The most strong-willed, never yielding child I have ever met. Even if it means he goes broke.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Life Lessons

These are some of our only pictures from our trip to Utah. Thank Goodness Grandpa Geoff set up an archery corner in his backyard, becasue, after all, "Archery and bowling are my only sports." Will Ford






William has had a couple of hard life lessons the last couple of days. First, I was so proud of myself for getting up and completely cleaning out the fish and gecko cages. I mean...serious clean. Unfortunately, I made King's tank (the beta fish) a bit too hot and he was dead within minutes of being released back into his sparkling clean cage. I felt horrible. William was sobbing. He went into my room, kneeled down and prayed for Heavenly Father to bring him back to life. He stuck the fish in a bowl of cool water but nothing happened. My heart broke when he said, "maybe King died because I didn't repent of all of my sins." I about died. I told him that it was completely my fault and I was so, so sorry. I held him in my arms as he cried and through his tears he muttered, "It's O.K. mom. Everyone makes mistakes."

Last night he cracked me up. He said that sometimes reading the scriptures is the "most boring thing ever". I agreed with him and told him that even though it really is boring sometimes, we still do it because Heavenly Father asked us to. Than he responded,
"Did He say anything about following along?"