Love you, Buddy

So we started a car pool. Today was Mary's day for morning. I waited outside with my three boys at 7:45 in the morning. We sat out there and talked in the light morning breeze. Perfect. 

Mary zoomed around the corner and the mini van door slid open to welcome my two oldest boys. They jumped in. 

I waved and said good bye. Jake quietly motioned for me to hurry and come over. 

"What, what?" I asked. He said nothing. Just kept flagging me over hurriedly before the car sped off.

I ran up to the car. The van window was halfway rolled down. He said nothing.

Just popped his little 8 year old head out and threw his arms around my neck. 

"Love you, mom."

"oh, buddy...you have no idea."

Just how much

I love you. 

Garage Sale

 Will was sitting in the cafeteria at school one day. The topic of favorite pizza was brought to the attention of the table. Will chimed in.
"Little Ceasar's." The group teased him. Apparently, Little Caesar's is the WORST! And Parry's is the BEST. Will was humiliated. He knows that we only get Little Caesar's because it's so cheap. Luckily, he loves it. Such a good boy. I love him.
When our neighbors decided to have a garage sale...I had a GRAND idea. We would join them. Sell our old stuff. And hopefully...hopefully...go out to Parry's pizza so Will could feel part of the group.

 We did it. I prayed for $30! Our efforts payed off. $60 later...we were headed off to a good old night of family fun. Not only did we "sit down" at Parry's, we got cheese bread as well.
And after...well, let's just say we had enough left over to go to...

 31 Flavors!!! Our kids had never been there either. Sorry to any of you Baskin Robbins lovers...but it's not that great. The kids thought it was fun...but nothing that we are dying to re-visit anytime soon.
It was an awesome night!! The kids loved it! And of course, James and I probably loved it even more.
We love these guys!!

Awesome Weekend

 James and the boys heading out to Father's and Son's...Will with his bow and arrow
Jake with his air soft gun...James with his two oldest boys...
All had their favorite things!

 I talked my friend into doing the "dirty dash" race with me. She has a daughter who's friends with Naomi. The girls came with us and cheered us on. They also joined us in the last half mile.
Super Fun! I loved having her with me!!!

Naomi and Sabrina...great names... Naomi towers over all of her best friends. Just came from the doctor and she's 97% for height. I guess that explains her overbearing nature!!!

Our Little Monster is 1, One, Uno

My baby. Literally. My baby.

is 1...

 scared to death...not sure why anything scares this kid after living in our house for a year.

 now he's got it down... sugar:check, blue food coloring: check, tons of attention: check

 hey there, big guy

We were in Utah for his First birthday. Party at Grandma Cheryl's. 

Throw up everywhere an hour later was at Grandma Netties.

Person who got up with him all night with a aching tummy...that would be me. Mom. 

Love you, Buddy.

Will is dying for me to have another baby. He LOVES Luke. He thinks he is the cutest thing to ever be put on this Earth. He says he doesn't even care if God sends us a girl. Wow. 

Cafe Rio

Big Big News. Cafe Rio came to the Ford's in Denver. 

5 minutes away.

Heaven? Yes!

On Tuesday I took the kids there for their last lunch before school, (or jail...whatever you wanna call it) started on Wednesday.

Of course we had to wait in line.

Jake was climbing on the food partition grabbing lids under the 1 inch gap between the window and the counter. He started throwing them at Naomi and Luke.

Will was climbing on the wooden beams that held our spot in line.

He fell.

Hard.

Luke was throwing his head back and so I put him on the floor to crawl.

He crawled around in line pulling on people's pant legs. 

I sat there with a smile on my face. 

I have learned that in these situations you musn't show signs of concern. Then people get nervous. 

They worry about your mental health. 

And I don't need more people than me worrying about that. I've got that down.

At one point a man who was behind me in line smiled and said,

"yeah...I think you should have 4 more."

Obviously bewildered why I had 4 in the first place.

Another lady, a career woman...obviously.

She was dressed like a million bucks. And had on white pants.

Pressed white pants.

That's like a siren that the woman doesn't typically go to Cafe Rio with her four children.

Women who go to Cafe Rio with 4 children don't have the luxury of wearing white pants.

Much less ironed white pants. We don't really iron. Unless someone like our mom tells us our kids clothes are looking a bit wrinkly and offer to iron them for us. Then we know we better reprioratize something. Not sure what. But something.

This white ironed pant woman leaned over and whispered something in my ear.

I'll never forget it.

She quietly said,

"I sure hope you're medicated."

Wow. I thought the smile on my face as I stood in line with my 4 kids vandalizing the place was enough proof that I didn't need to be medicated. 

Ah, well.

Next time I'm determined to pull it off a little better.

Maybe I'll wear pressed white pants. 

5th, 3rd and Kindergarten 2013

One good pair.

At the beginning of the school year, I let me kids buy ONE GOOD PAIR

of school shoes. The boys chose Nikes this year.

Naomi chose those ballerina shoes with a spinning wheel on the bottom so she can dance around the classroom. I have no doubt her teacher will love it. 

Luke also chose Nikes. 

They better last until next August. 

Here's to ONE GOOD PAIR!

5th Grade??? Seriously??? How old am I??? It's amazing everything that has happened in the last decade since this kid was born. Here's to the next decade, kiddo!! You're rockin it!

I called James and told him that we officially have Jake's first "Mugshot." It's like he's trying to look like he's being booked in to jail. He might as well be. This is how much this kid likes school. It's pretty much jail. I have been praying for his teacher for 4 months now. I met her the other day and we both started tearing up. She's seems great and felt my pain for his dislike of school. He's going to do great.
He always does!

Kindergarten. What the heck??? OK, just don't mention her hair.... I originally had it in pretty cute pigtails and then she pulled them out to look like this. By the time she actually got to school...no more pigtails. Just a bunch of thin, blonde hair in a big mop. All the other little girls had all sort of things going on with their hair. Pretty sure their mom's took all morning doing it.
I wouldn't take her any other way. Too much fun this way!!
She came out of the school with a smile on her face but when I asked her how her day was, she completely hammed it up for me.
"It was horrible...terrible. I didn't even get to do ONE thing that I wanted to do. I HAVE to do whatever the teacher makes me." Wow. I was cracking up. Welcome to the next 90 years of your life, girlfriend.

There they are. My babies. My loves. My life. My sister just texted me this morning and said,
"only 179 days of school left." Can't wait!

Baseball Buddy

Will was my baseball buddy this Summer. I love baseball. Watching.

Any age. Doesn't matter. I love it.

I hope he keeps it up.

He's pretty good at hitting.

And catching.

He's also pretty good at not smiling for the camera.

Apparently it is not cool.

And super embarrassing and babyish to like taking pictures.

So he doesn't like to. 

But I still make him. I'm his mom.