I two

Two years ago I looked at you for the first time.  I smiled. 

That smile has turned into many more smiles and loads of laughter.  You are the funniest little boy.   We definitely laugh a lot.

I love the way you have been saying “I  2” for the past 4 weeks.

I love it when you walk up to me with a book and say “riiide it.”  Which translated means “read it.”

I love it when I am holding you and you grab my face and squish into your face.

I love how you say “thank you” about everything…. A little Eucharisteo boy in the making.

I love your bear hugs and sweet kisses.

I love watching you play cars and hearing your current favorite phrase “I pay cars” which you say very quickly and matter of factly.

I love watching you eat, you have my love of food.

I love Tuesday and Thursday mornings with you- just us two.

I love how easy it is to turn your bad moods into good moods.  You are a happy kid.

I love your pigeon toed/ bow legged walk/ run

I love the little gap in between your two front teeth.

I love it when people tell me how much you look like me b/c I think you are pretty darn cute.

I love talking to you.  After we carry on a conversation, I am always amazed by how much you understand and how well you can communicate back to me.

I love that I have been able to stay at home with you.   Moments I missed with your brothers, I have seen with you.  However, I also realize that there is no one else to blame but me for your flaws (yes, you do have some… ex, screaming, defiance, dumping cups upside down that still have drinks in them, throwing hard objects at your brothers, and biting Ashton)

I love your independence.  You always want to get out of the car by yourself and when you jump out, you tell me “I jump very higher.”

I love it when you get out of the bathtub by yourself and I see you running down the hall leaving water drops all along the way.

I love hearing you sing.  My current favorite is “You Don’t Always Get What You Want" but I also like hearing you sing your ABC's.

This is you singing "You Don't Always Get What You Want" which is Mantis' spin off of The Rolling Stones, "You Cant Always Get What You Want."

Transalation;  You dont always get what you want.  But if you try real hard, you get what you need.

I love the way you suck on your blanket like Hunter did- it takes me back. 

I love the way you call your blanket “Kiss.”  You will walk around saying “Where Kiss, I want Kiss.” 

I love hearing you talk about all your cars.  You truly love them and will fight at the drop of a hat if your brothers try to take them from you. 

I love the way you keep up with your brothers.  When they are outside tackling each other, you don’t bat an eye on jumping in on the action.  You are going to be tough- that is for sure.

I love hearing you pray.  You start with the first couple lines of the Lord’s Prayer and then move into just saying your family member’s names.  It is precious.

I love the way you are still a momma’s boy.  Your daddy will come home and you greet him enthusiastically, but run straight back to me.

Shep, I love you.  You are always my little boy.  Your baby time is basically  over-  man, time goes by so quickly- and I have cherished every second of it. 

Little boy, I pray for you- that God’s plan for you will lead to extraordinary things for His kingdom.  And remember to always “seek first the kingdom of God.”  If you seek His ways, then all else will fall into place.

Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Love you forever,
Mommy

And Football Goes on Another Week

Question:   How do you judge how great a football game is?

Answer: If I blog about it.

The boys getting ready to go the football game.  Mantis was brave enough to volunteer to take them home and put them to bed by himself after halftime.  Brave Brave man!

 And let me tell you that Friday night's game was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  It was one of those games that came down to the last second, or should I say the last 2.2 seconds.  You can probably guess that it was amazing mainly because we won.  I am so proud of these young men who have put in so many hours training, they were behind by 14 points at the half and managed to pull it back together. 

Friday night will be a true test as we are the underdogs... though our record is 11-1, the 1 came from the team we must play Friday night.  Regardless of the outcome, I am so proud of Chad.  He has definitely been through some coaching valleys and coaching peaks.  It is good to see him be rewarded for the 90 hour work weeks (dont get me started on how much he works).  The community has been behind him from the very beginning even before he had proven himself.

10 seconds after the game winning field goal.

The singing of the alma mater.

And though Friday was an awesome night, Saturday  morning proved to be just as much fun!  Hunter had the great idea of going to the zoo.  The weather was perfect, Chad was home, and we had no plans so we went.  It is the first thing that we have done as a family in..... uh, I dont really know.  I should have grabbed a family picture to prove Chad was there but I didn't.  However, I did get this picture which made us laugh.

I guess the lion was enjoying the cool breeze.  In typical male style, threw his legs apart to "air it out."

I think I get a version of this picture every time.

And a version of this one, however this picture actually had everyone looking and smiling.  MIRACLE!

 

So, though we had an amazing football weekend (with Clemson winning too), I think we had an even better family weekend. 

In the words of my husband... "Go Green!  Roll Wave!"  :)

Those Kind of Friends

As a military brat, I have had a lot of friendships.  I have moved many times and from 4th grade to 12th grade was in 7 different schools.  I would like to think that I have become a pretty good judge of character and am picky about the company I keep.  I am not what most would consider a "friend" person.  I dont need to be surrounded by friends to do my thing.

With that said, I am so thankful for people that pursue friendships.  For example, my best friend in high school- Sami (now Samantha, she had to go formal).  I still love hearing from her, however, she initiated the friendship and honestly, most of the time, she kept the friendship going.  She now has 3 beautiful little girls and though we dont communicate often, I still consider her a great friend.

I went though college with the normal "friendships."  Had girls that liked but nothing that was deep enough to last through the years.  I casually keep up with some of them through facebook.

And of course, in college, I also met my husband... that probably had a lot to do with not having a ton of friends while in school.

I have two amazing sister-in-laws who I consider to be friends.  Sandee, Chad's sister, will call me up just to chat... I wish I had that skill.  She is approachable and is a lot of fun.  Anna, Zach's wife, is one who I could see myself being friends outside of that sister-in-law status.  Distance has never been on our side though as my brother keeps moving her around the country (thanks a lot Zach :(  )  However, Anna is down to earth and funny.

And after living here for 2 years, I am finally starting to make a connection or two for potential "good" friends.

 But this post if for a friend, one who has proven her friendship to me.

Taken summer 2010 @ the beach.

 

Let me tell you a bit about my great friend, Olivia.  Olivia and I met almost 6 years ago in our Sunday School class.  Hunter was a newborn and Olivia says she remembers me.  Blame it on motherhood, but I dont remember meeting her the first time.  She and her husband were visiting our class.  Thankfully, God saw fit to make them permenant fixtures in our class with her husband, Matt, taking over the teaching duties.  Chad, Matt, Liv, and I were all high school teachers.  By the end of 2006 into 2007 we were casual friends- not "call ya up to chat about your day" friends but we would talk at church, Bible Study.

By the time Ashton was born, I knew that Olivia was going to be in that elite category of friends- that category that is just for the best.  Her first son was born in 2008, we went to the beach with her family and another family that same summer (where she could have saved Ashton's life ;) ).  From there it is history.  We have since taken 3 more beach trips together, added 2 more boys into the mix.  We have been through some peaks and valleys together.  We have prayed for each other, counseled each other, been a sounding board for one another.

Olivia, you are amazing woman.  I am so thankful that you pursued this friendship and that you kept it going.  If it wasn't for your persistency then we would not be the friends we are today.  Thank you for all the phone calls and emails.  I really miss you popping into our house just to chat. Doesn't that seem like a long time ago?  I have no doubt that our friendship will withstand the test of time (and distance).  Though beach trips, in the microscopic size house, are close to being a memory, I am sure that we will find other ways (on small budgets) to vacation/ visit together.  I vote to take over my parent's "lake house"  (it is all in your perspective, right?)

 Anyway, this HHHHUUUUGGGGEEEE post is really written to tell you three things.

1- You are awesome!
2- I love you!
3- And HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!!

And, say it with me,

ALL's GRACE,

PS- Mom, I didnt include you in this list of friends because you know you cant be boxed into this category.   ha ha ha! :)

School Project

Hunter brought home instructions to disguise a turkey.  The turkey is trying to avoid the dinner table for Thanksgiving.

 

Hunter and I debated between a E------- football player or a pirate.  When I found out that Chad had extra uniforms that I could tear apart, the football player became the obvious choose... epecially since play-offs begin this week.

Here is Hunter and his turkey.  The turkey is sporting a "customized" uniform made from a high school jersey. 

 

And a close-up of the bird.  Obviously, I blurred out our city name and our last name, but I think he is awfully cute.

 

GO Green Wave!

Finally, the firepit is DONE!

After 8 long months, I finally finished my firepit area in our backyard!  This "little" project turned out to not be one of the those inexpensive DIY projects, but the result speaks for itself. 

Before

(this was taken in February) 

After

Ashton is helping me take pictures.

And another

The view from the steps (here is a post from March when I did the steps)

View from above.  The plan is for the groundcover to take over in between the cracks.  You can see where it is already taking off pretty good on the far side. 

And here is a close up of this fast growing groundcover.  Hopefully, by next summer, all the dirt in between the rocks will covered in this lushness.... I will probably also be cussing it for "creeping" so quickly.

Anyway, there it is.  I will guess that it probably cost me around $350 to $400 to complete but spaced out over 8 months, we didnt really feel it.  I love it and think it adds some completeness to the vastness of our backyard.  But, more importantly, the boys love it.  They pretend back there, throw stuff into the pit, and walk the stones all the time.  

Smores anybody?  :) 



Euchariesteo Part 18

573- Arms raised after goal scored

574- Full mean streaming through a crack in the curtain

575- Sky full of stars

576- End of heat in sight

577- Watching Hunt walk into school by himself

578- Mid week playdate

579- Surprise lunch with Nolan

580- Feeling close to God

581- A great summer Bible study

582- Deepening friendship

583- Lazy afternoons

584- Finding the perfect gift

585- Days of drizzling/ penetrating rain

586- Mums bursting from the front porch

587- Pulling out the hot chocolate

588- Sunglasses without scratches

589- Saturday with my mom

590- Little boys and bow ties

591- New van battery that solved the problem

592- Warm clothes out of the dryer

593- 7" gone

594- Slight leaf color changes

595- Bible stories with the boys

596- Backyard soccer games

597- Sprinkler fun one more time

598- Being able to pick Hunter up from school everyday

599- Morning hugs

600-Hugging away a bad dream

601- I am HIS.

602- Crisp blue sky with the smell of fall

603- Footed pajamas

604- Sweatpants worn all day long

605- Fall birthdays right around the corner

606- Hunter reading sentences

607- Stickers ALL over

608- Eating outside

609- Budgets that work

610- Toys all picked up before bed

611-Bags of monkey grass

612- Bits of Christmas popping up

613- Jacket weather

614- Ashton's ornery

615- Fresh haircut

616- Chad being home on Saturdays

617- Ideas that turn out better than expected

618-Rediscovering cinnamon toaster strudels

619-The grandness of the sun in my eyes after dropping Hunter off at school in the morning

620- Birthday party success

621- New recipe that is good.

622- Warm brownies fresh from the oven

623- Eating the brownies in secret- in the corner so the boys cant see

624- Access to disposable diapers when diarrhea runs rampant

625- A burst of energy to organize the house

626- Another photo wall made from things already in the house

627- Pantry full of food

628- Being in the month of Thanks

Ashton's Stats

Ol' Ashton had his 4 year old appt today and he is still small... not alarmingly so, but compared to his brothers and his parents he is the small fry of the family. He continues to grow but his percentiles go down a bit each year- his doctor is not concerned and said he looked great. The doc gives the height prediction at 5'10". However, he (and I) both think that he will hit a late growth spurt. I will go ahead and throw out my prediction that he will hit 6' based on my brothers (especially Zach) were never the tall guys growing up, but they are both over 6' 2" now.

As you can see below

Height- 39.75" (38%)

Weight- 33.2 lbs (26%)

And just for fun, Hunter's stats at 4 were - height 42.75" (93%) and weight 42 lbs (89%). Hunter hit the 33 lb weight mark at his 2 year old check up... ha ha, talk about different genes!

Another thing about the appt that made me chuckle was on one of the vaccination sheets they give you. Ashton got 2 shots today (though in my opinion it is really 4 since they combine the MMR and chicken pox into one shot and they combine the DTP and polio into one shot.) That sure does sound like a lot of disease (live or not) running around into a small system... anyway... some may remember that Ashton got a bad rash on mostly his face from the first round of the chicken pox vax. I would call it a small case of chicken pox though most doctors say it is not the actual chicken pox.
I thought this side effect was humorous.

Doesn't that "mild rash" that is potentially contagious kind of sound like something? Oh yeah, CHICKEN POX. Love the way doctors word things.

Anyway, Ashton did a great job. He did cry over the shots and whimpered over the finger prick but he did everything the doctor told him to do and politely answered his questions. Hopefully, over the next year, we can pack some meat on those bones of his and keep those percentiles from falling.