Archive for the ‘family fun’ Category

I’m on a mission – I’m on a mission to get rid of half of everything we own. This house contains enough to furnish ANOTHER house/apartment and clothe another family. That’s a bit much. There are constant piles of dirty laundry in my house. I can never get through it fast enough, so I’ve stopped trying. I don’t like that – my husband doesn’t like that. My well being doesn’t like it either. My goal is to get us back to the basics. I want to be able to keep my house clean AND tidy and have my laundry caught up, so I can spend more time playing with my family and doing things for ME. I’ve filled 2 huge boxes with kitchenware and shoes/clothes. I anticipate filling at least 10 more boxes. I can’t wait.

My aunt passed away in April – my only aunt. We weren’t close. There were many issues and I tried hard to get past them. But, years of habitual lying will break down a relationship. The lying broke down MANY relationships between my aunt and other family members. I’m sad for my mom (her only sibling), my cousins and my grandmother. I pray she’s in a better place.

My mom has recently been evaluated for a heart transplant. She spent almost a month in hospitals – some time was spent with small town doctors not having a clue how to treat her and some time was spent in the 9th best hospital in the country with amazing doctors treating her. I’m 10 hours away from my mom (by car), so my sister is having to deal with the majority of the stress involved. I sometimes feel like I’m being punished for living so far away. I also feel like my husband gets punished for it, which is not fair AT ALL. We, as a family, chose to live here. When I need to be there, I’m there. I hate guilt – especially when it’s adults who are throwing it around.

My oldest son Will played baseball in the spring – he was amazing and had loads of fun.

We spent MANY days at the baseball field watching him play – I love seeing him doing something he loves. He also made the league’s all star team.

We also did our obligatory trip back to see family for the summer. We had a mostly enjoyable time. I won’t go any further than that. We always call it a “vacation” – mostly because my husband is getting paid for it. But, based on the true definition of the word vacation, it’s the exact opposite……

So, as you can see, we’ve been really busy. Some good, some not so good. I guess that’s called life!

Apparently, God likes the look of snow far more than dead grass. Just when I was able to see my entire lawn, He switched it up and dumped a good 5 or 6 inches of that icky, white stuff on us. {I prefer the look of dead grass myself}. That icky, white stuff gave my boys a much needed snow day, where they were able to play outside with friends and just be little boys.

Henry experienced his first snow day, too. I wasn’t sure of the reaction I’d get when he felt the snow, but he loved it. {bad mom alert – he’ll be 2 in April and this is his first snow experience. I hate snow and don’t like to be in it, so I’ve never taken him out in it. I suck.} He loved it so much that when it was time to come in, I had to physically pick him up and drag him in the house. {the temper tantrum thrown once we were in the house was like one I’ve never witnessed from a 22 month old before. Ever.} The snow day was nice for me, too – I didn’t need to set the alarm to get up at 0 dark thirty to get everyone ready for school.

I spend most of my awake hours keeping this little handful out of things. I’m certain I’ll look back on this stuff in a few years and laugh, but right now, it’s incredibly frustrating. I need to find a cabinet lock to put on my pantry – as you can see, he likes to get in it. In fact, he likes to try to SIT in it. Right now, as I try to type this out, I’m sharing couch space with a box of cake mix, some teddy grahams and some boxed dinners. Those Betty Crocker fruit Stickerz packages are thrown all over the living room floor. I have packages of food in my pantry that I can’t identify – he’s torn the boxes up and taken stuff out of boxes, so I have no idea what belongs where. I keep telling myself that I’m going to miss this stuff, so I’m doing my best to just take it all in stride.

I’m working on some cute scrapbook pages that I’ll share here soon. My husband also bought me a sewing machine – YAY!!!! I tried to go to Joann’s and look around yesterday, but someone wasn’t very cooperative and started screaming as soon as we walked in. I can’t wait to start sewing some things.

As you can see, it’s been a hodge podge of sorts around here. We’ve been doing little bits of this and that. Life is good.

Six years ago today, my heart was forever changed by the birth of this little gem of a boy. I’m a better person for knowing him. He makes me see the silly side of life. His laugh is infectious. He has the sweetest smile. He would eat pizza for every meal if I let him. He loves ICarly and Spongebob. And doughnuts.

He has a very tender heart. He loves his brothers. He’s a mama’s boy. He wants very much to please people.

He loves life with every ounce of his being. He gets his feelings hurt very easily. He loves food as much as his big brother loves sports. I think, if given the option, he’d still be in utero. If he couldn’t be in utero, he’d be permanently planted on my lap.

I pray thanks to God every day for letting me borrow this sweet boy for my time here on earth. I’m so thankful God chose me to be his mama.

Happy Birthday, Jake. I love you more than you’ll ever know.

We set out to make this weekend a complete family weekend – EVERYTHING we did, we did as a family. (I did bust out a bit by myself yesterday – with a family full of boys, taking them to a craft store sounds about as fun as a root canal.) It was really nice.

We loaded up our gear and went to the park on Saturday – we planted ourselves under a tree and just hung out. The weather was spectacular. The boys were very well behaved and fun was had by all. It was definitely needed. (My husband works for GM – life in our area isn’t fun AT ALL. It’s rather depressing, so a break from work AND beautiful weather was welcomed.)

It was one of those days that our souls craved. Time without phones and computers and technology. Time completely together as a family, laughing, joking and playing.

Here I sit, counting down to the next vacation. 29 days.

(Side note – I rarely call my children by their real names. I have numerous nicknames for them and some may sound odd and not terribly motherly, but hey, that’s how we roll around here. So, if you see things like “beasts”, please know I call them that with more love than you could ever imagine and they know it!)

My wonderful husband took some vacation time on Friday and took J to play some putt putt. I decided that napping with Henry was far more my speed at the time, so I snoozed for a glorious 2 1/2 hours. After putt putt and during my nap marathon, B and J shopped for these. I received them later Friday afternoon, after Will came home from school.

2 dozen of the prettiest red roses I think I’ve ever seen.

A BEAUTIFUL geranium patio pot! (it’s sitting in the garage because the weatherman suggested we bring plants inside last night…..stupid Michigan weather…..)

I had the best Mother’s Day! An awesome church service started the day and then it was off to buy MORE plants (I bought a lot on Saturday, too!), eat some lunch and then come home to weed the garden and watch my beloved Tigers whoop up on some Indians tail. We ate yummy Chinese take out for dinner and watched AFHV and Extreme Makeover Home Edition as a family. It was truly a fabulous day. For those of you that are mothers, I hope your day was fabulous, too.

Now, please say a little prayer for that geranium patio pot and its contents. I have a black thumb despite my best intentions and I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want those plants to thrive this summer. I purchased SO. MANY. plants this weekend for pots on our deck, so say a little prayer for those, too. They definitely need it.

My husband played in a golf tournament a few months ago. His foursome won The prize was a suite at the Palace of Auburn Hills to watch the Pistons play.

We went yesterday and had so much fun. We didn’t tell the big boys until they were getting dressed – it was like Christmas morning for them We stopped for lunch on the way (to save money on the food there because we all know that food in any kind of stadium, venue, etc. is terribly overpriced and not that tasty anyway). We had a great time watching the game (well, the boys/men watched – the women chit chatted for most of the game. I LOVE sports, but basketball is way low on the totem pole for me). The weather was horrible – snow/rain crud and it was COLD. We stopped to eat on the way home and had a yummy dinner at Red Robin. Henry didn’t nap at all during the day, but he was such a gem. He was so happy and content – not at all something I expected to see because of the lack of sleep. He was just fabulous

My bebes

All my men

Henry and his mama

This past Friday, my little crew headed to Frankenmuth, MI to Bronner’s – the world’s largest Christmas store. It was a nasty, rainy day – PERFECT for a trip to this store. It’s one of my favorite places. If you’re not in the Christmas spirit after walking through this store, there’s a problem. It’s open 361 days out of the year – we only go in November/early December because I have no interest in being in the Christmas spirit in June…lol Here are a few shots from our day!

Henry was mesmerized by the lights

My yummy baby boy and handsome husband

Jake

Will

Jake listening to a message from Santa

Me and the Hankster in my fabulous Mei Tai from www.meitaibaby.com

Proof that Henry actually smiles He doesn’t like the flash on the camera – I can get him to smile, but as soon as he sees the flash, he gets the blank look again. I had to hold the camera off to the side, so he couldn’t see it.

We had a really nice time up there – Frankenmuth is such a sweet, quaint little town!