Mother's Day Weekend

We went to visit Grandma in Albany for Mother's Day - of course Brayden was throwing up and each of them had dripping snotty noses, but we still had a great time and got to go to our favorite park in Albany, Takena Park. The trees there are so unique and pretty...I wish I could have figured out how to force the flash on my camera to come on. The boy's cousin, Sierra (mommy #2), also stayed with us over the weekend to avoid going to her brother's baseball tournament in Tigard and we loved having her...

This park is the best because there are so many things for them to climb on. Here is sweet Sierra, so pretty with pink blooms all around her -

It can be quite a challenge taking three little boys to a park and try to keep an eye on all of them at the same time. I turned around to check on Brayden going down a slide and Carter vanished. I called him and he answered but it took me a minute to find him. He was way up in this tree and it reminded me of a trip Jim and I took to Marys Peak before we had the boys and at the top of the mountain Jim found this huge fir tree and climbed most of the way up and hung off the side of it while I took a picture, hoping he wouldn't fall. Carter has no idea how much he takes after his Daddy! Here he is -

Learning To Crochet

I don't have much to share on the blog right now so I thought I'd share what made me smile today :) It left me wondering if this is why my Lovely Grandma was so good at crocheting and if I should pick up the skill myself! Sure we all get mad, but still love each other all the same.....

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of moneytotaling $95,000. He asked her about the contents. 'When we were to be married,' she said, ' my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.' The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?''Oh,' she said, 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls.' A Prayer.......Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man; Love to forgive him; And Patience for his moods; Because Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll beat him to death, because I don't know how to crochet.

Brayden is a 2-Year-Old Today!

Today we have our third two year old together, so hopefully we're ready for it this time :) Brady is so much fun to be around that you just can't seem to take your eyes off of him...so long as you can keep up with him! Here are a few pictures to reflect how the last year has gone for him.

He got to walk on the beach...
He got to ponder a moment atop of Marys Peak...

He got hungry and doesn't like to hold sticky things...
He learned about computers...hmm...He had his own E.T. moments, credit going to his older brothers...He kicked the bottle. Looks like it was a good one, doesn't it?...
Sometimes he got bored when Mommy had to work at the computer. "uh-oh!"...
Alot goes on in a year. There were mad times, there were sad times, there were times when being the youngest just wasn't fair. But overall times were good, times were fun, and he found his own special way of fitting in........right in the center of each of our hearts! Happy Birthday Braybie! ahem, I mean, Brayden. You're just growing up too fast, kid!

Handmade Flowers

You have to do what you have to do to get a bouquet of flowers...The boys made me some 'handmade' flowers (ok, I helped but its all because I'm teaching them early how to treat a lady properly, Ha!) and I thought it would be nice to share this idea as a cute gift for Grandmas on Mother's Day, since nobody can ever remember exactly what day Grandparent's Day really is anyway, plus its easy to mail if you don't live close enough to see each other....then keep some for yourself so you always have flowers in the house :)

Surgery Day & The Bounce-Back-Kid...

Dillon had his tonsils and adenoid glands removed yesterday. It was a long time coming and we are really excited for him to breathe better, sleep better and hear better now! The poor guy has forever been stuffed up day and night, diagnosed with a bit of sleep apnea, and has had his more than fair share of ear infections in the past and I have to say that if I thought I had my hands full before, I'm reconsidering the thought because we're above and beyond that now!

After recovering for less than an hour, (which means his morphine wore off) he was sitting up and playing in the recovery room watching the clock because he knew we could leave at 12:00. Jim left to get some lunch and Dillon wanted to give him a call, then called Grandma, then called Nana, Carter & Brayden to tell everybody how great he was! He got to ride in a wagon on the way to the car and made sure that Daddy recorded the waterfall on the way out for Carter to see - this was his day for ultimate attention and there he was thinking of what would make his brother happy.

We were totally not prepared for how great he felt right after having surgery. We were ready to gently nurse him back to health and snuggle and watch movies all day for a couple of days but instead we couldn't keep him down to rest at all, not even after his dose of prescription Hydrocodone. Really, he is literally the bounce back kid, he was running and jumping around even teasing Carter, nothing phases him! I told Jim that if we weren't the ones who had actually taken him to the surgery center ourselves, I don't think we would have believed that he had the surgery done that day.

Boy, it sure is a hard day when your brother has surgery...here is Carter resting on the couch last night, while Dillon keeps himself busy coloring a fantastic picture of all of his favorite Pokemon characters. All I'm left thinking is that this must have been so much needed, that having the surgery made him feel instantly better than he did before. I've also read several articles about children like Dillon who have a really hard time gaining weight and then have the surgery done seem to 'catch up' and gain a little more weight soon after...so we are pretty interested to see what happens next.

To top it off, yesterday afternoon Dillon said to us, "This is the best day ever! I got to see a firetruck & tractors, I got to ride in a wagon, and I got my very own flowers!"

What? The best day ever? Well, Mr. Amazing, why wouldn't it be?!!

Rockin' Out To Led Zeppelin!

What can I say? I love that our boys love bands like The Beatles & Led Zeppelin...ok, even a few songs by Bread...but thats because they hang out with their Dad in the garage too much...which is great :)

FreeKibble.com

I was recently telling Jim that this summer we should take the boys over to the Humane Society and volunteer to walk some dogs once a week and then he brought home this sticker. An 11 year old girl from Bend started this....you go to the wesite: http://www.freekibble.com/default.asp answer a little triva question, it doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, then they will donate 10 pieces of dog food to the Central Oregon Humane Society every day that you answer a triva question. It doesn't sound like much, but they have collaborated over 100,000 pieces of dog food since April 1st, so every little bit counts! There may be something like this in your area too :)

Nature Books

I'm trying to do a little project with the boys like this everyday. This was so fun to make and I had to share it. I'm excited to finally be outside in the spring air!

Supplies:
~Lunch size brown paper bags
~Rubberband for each book (not too strong though)
~A pencil, strong stick, a few popcicle sticks stuck together - anything for the "binding"
~Hole puncher

Gather 3-6 brown paper bags (don't open them) Punch two holes in the bottom and make sure the holes in each bag line up together.

Stick one end of a rubberband through the back of one set of holes in the bags and loop around the top end of your binding (pencil/stick/popcicle sticks, I used colored pencils) So the binding is on the front of the book.

Then stick the other end of the rubber band through the other set of holes in the back of the book and loop around the bottom end of your binding.

Now you have a little book and all the nature things the kids find outside can be tucked neatly away inside each of the paper bag "book pages"! And you can label what is inside each page/bag. You can even add pipe cleaner handles at the end of the book to make it easier to carry so everything doesn't fall out :)

Cool E's & Silly Kisses

Carter knows how to spell and write his name now, and he has his very own 'signature' E! The video is of Brayden being silly and sharing a kiss with you :)

Cousins!

We were so lucky to have my cousin, Jen come visit us all the way from North Carolina! She got to meet Brayden and I got to meet her daughter, Amelie. We hadn't seen each other since Carter was about 4 months old - so this was such a wonderful treat, and to top it off we got to stay in a great house in Sunriver and go to the Nature Center thanks to Luke & Amelie's Grandma :) It is the middle of March and it snowed in Sunriver, Dillon & Luke are playing outside in the picture above while it was snowing quite a bit, click to see the snow falling! Now they are off to Honolulu this week...snow to sunshine, can you imagine?!

Amelie snuck in a snuggle with Dillon.....Here we are all buckled in the minivan on the way to their Great-Great Uncle Paul and Aunt Maxine's house in Redmond.....


Amelie got a new pair of heels (matching purse & sunglasses too), here she is guarding them from Uncle Paul. Those of you with little girls are sure to fully understand this! Here Dillon & Luke are playing the same organ that Jen & I played when we were kids :) What a great time!

The Entertainer

These were all taken within a 15 second time frame :)

Sure Signs That You Live With All Boys...

There are lots of them sitting at the table... You have little army men perched atop the closet doors and door mouldings throughout your hallway... You not only have fish, but there are frogs & snails living with them too...

You have a rocketship sticker on the back of your cell phone... You have (at least) one VERY messy room in your house, and you purposely stuck fake bugs all over the walls of that room...

You have the ultimate Cars collection... And they thought the picture looked way cooler when the Cars were all crashed up...

They very well may fight, argue, and tease each other all-day-long sometimes, but they still Love each other at night and take turns sleeping on the top bunk and bottom bunk.

I've heard alot of wonderful quotes lately, here is another one...

Meditations from a Simple Path by Mother Teresa

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be good enough.
Give the world your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway."

Just Hanging Out On Top Of The Fridge

All of our boys love to climb and be up high on something (anything) they just can't help but climb on things, so after climbing on Daddy from the floor up to his shoulders a few times Jim sat Carter and Brayden up on top of the refrigerator which they love. Dads always think of the really fun things, don't they? Well, Brady didn't want to get down. He even closed his eyes to "hide" so he wouldn't have to get down, and its funny because one of the phrases he can say now is, "Can't get dooown!"

Dillon sounded out and wrote his first sentence. The boys earn quarters and when they save up enough to buy something they want, we go shopping - Dillon's first written sentence states: "Go to Target" HA! He was so proud (we all were) that he wrote a sentence on his own that he decided to tape it up in a laminating fashion so it wouldn't get ripped by Brayden.

I don't know what it is, but we just think their eyes look so pretty outside playing in the snow, you'll have to click to enlarge to see what I'm talking about :) Brayden decided to pull up a chair and help with the dishes....Its hard to see, but there is a bird feeder right outside that window and there are icicles behind it. Those icicles grew to be longer than the bottom of that bird feeder before we realized that we had better take them off before they pull the gutters down....

A silly thing... The boys had baby washcloths tied around their hands and they were pretending that they were shooting balls out of them, but not just any balls. Dillon said he was shooting "Fire Thunder Balls" and Carter upped the anty and said that he was shooting "Super Thunder 698 Balls" I wonder what Brayden will come up with when hes a little older?

Things I want to remember

Resolutions? I'm terrible at making them and keeping them. I always want to exercise more, eat better, lose more weight, be a better mother/person/wife/friend/family member....blah blah blah. Not to say that I haven't improved myself in any of these areas, because I have, but the only formal resolution I ever made and kept was to recycle and that was 7 years ago and I'm proud to say that is still going strong and that even my children know they can't just throw everything out, its simply a rule and a way of life. Anyhow, instead of making resolutions set into stone that eventually turns into sand and blows away, I find it more meaningful to go through the little things I write down or copy, and keep throughout each year. Just like the recycling, I look at these to be rules and a way of life too. I love writing as much as I love to read, so here are just a few that I narrowed down and wanted to share.....

Things important to me (in no particular order):

~ Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
~ If you don't like hearing the truth (even in a nice way)about yourself or a situation....change it.
~ Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
~ Don’t believe all that you hear….or spend all you have….or sleep all that you want.
~ When you say, “I love you,” mean it.
~ When you say "I'm sorry," mean it.
~ Never laugh at someone’s dream. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
~ Love deeply and passionately, you might get hurt but the only way to live life completely is to feel all that you can feel.
~ In disagreements, fight fairly…you know what is fair, now act like you know.
~ Don’t judge people by their relatives.
~ Talk slowly but think quickly.
~ When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, “Why do you want to know?”
~ Great love and great achievements involve great risk and that no matter the risk, it is still worth taking.
~ Say “bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
~ Be the best listener that you can, if you aren’t a good listener to others, they won’t be there to listen to you when you need someone to just listen.
~ When you lose, don’t lose the lesson. Failure is not a negative word. Failure is how you learn. At the end of the day if you can’t think of anything great you did that day, think of your failures and the risks you took and you will find greatness in yourself all day.
~ NEVER tell a child that something, anything, is too hard for them to try. They can figure it out for themselves once they’ve tried.
~ Be humble.
~ For God’s sake, recycle and reuse all that you can. If this is too hard for you to do, then what is it that you consider easy to do?
~ Do nice and thoughtful things for others without them needing to know who or where the nice deed came from.
~ We are not “raising children”, we are raising our children to become adults so teach and demonstrate to your children the little life lessons that you learn, they may be more important than their fundamental basics of ABC’s and 123’s. Our future is in our children’s hands, so teach them well.
~ Know and believe that you are capable of doing a bit more than you think…probably a lot more than you think.
~ Show great respect to others, don’t just say that you respect them, show it.
~ Don’t purposely decide to look down on others. Nobody is better than the other, we just do the best that we know how to do, and when we know better we do better.
~ Each person has a lot to share and teach others, positive or negative, acknowledge it and grab it while you can. It will only make you a better person.
~ A quote right off a magnet on my fridge, I share this with people that I know will appreciate what it says:
“As you go on in this world always believe in your dreams. Keep looking forward to the future…to all you might be. Don’t let old mistakes or misfortunes hold you down. Learn something new everyday. Be interested in others and what they might teach you. Believe in yourself. So long as you are true to the strength within your own heart…you can never go wrong.”

Kitty Love

Brayden loves the kitties and is very sweet to them...well,ok, most of the time. Here he is snuggling with Milo. The next day, Brady was sleeping a little over his usual nap time and when Jim went to go get him up he found Missy is his crib sleeping with him and she was all curled up with the little doggie that looks just Maddy :)

Bathroom Babbles

I'm trying to make a much better effort of writing little things down, here is a funny one :)
Carter, 01/08 3 1/2 Yrs.

Carter was moving his eyes all around in a funny way and asked if I could do that too. I said, “No I can’t do that right now because I’m wearing my contacts.”

He says “Yeah, you just wear different eyes than me. Why do you wear those eyes?”

“I wear my contacts because my eyes don’t work as good as your eyes do and I don’t see as good as you do. But when I put my contacts in my eyes work as good as yours and I can see just as good as you do.”

He says to me, “Yeah, my eyes work really good because I ate carrots and you didn’t.” Even though I know he knows I ate my carrots too, I forget about it and tell him, “Its good you ate your carrots. I’m older than you and maybe when you get older your eyes won’t work as good either and you’ll have to wear contacts too.”

“Yeah, you’re old, huh?”

“Yes, honey. Now get off the toilet and lets wash our hands.” ....Oh, the conversations that go on while wiping.

We had our first family snowball fight and made our first snowman complete with pine needle hair last week. I had to snap a picture of Jim outside wearing jogging shorts and boots perfecting our snowman while it was snowing quite heavily. I love that he did that :) ..........Dillon and Carter spend a fair amount of time balancing on their heads and this is a pretty common sight to see around our house..........and I had to take this picture of Brayden eating his breakfast at the table, he looks like such a big boy at 20 months old now!