Saturday, November 24, 2012

We got our tree today. It's starting to smell like Christmas in our home!

This is the first year in many that we didn't go to a beautiful tree farm out North. We have been spoiled because the Wells & Ruffs have known the owner of that land for years and years and we always tagged along with them to get our tree. Ted's trees are the best, the look, the smell, they are also soft. Not to mention he's a sweet man, and always invited us to his little cabin next to his home. Although most of the Daddy's got way too stressed with our 9 kids(total) running through the vintage cabin~touching, and occasionally breaking things ;) We usually just went inside for a quick treat and group photo. However, not this year, sad! Ted planted a new crop of trees and they are still wee things so it will probably take a couple years for them to get bigger. This year was quite different, still very memorable, for reasons I probably shouldn't mention....hahaha. Nonetheless we all got our trees, and I even got a tiny tree for my front porch. No snow this year, it was actually sunny, and beautiful up on the bluff as always. The kids enjoyed running around the orchard and playing hide & seek. Looking forward to decorating this prickly thing tomorrow with the munchkins. It's a tad early, but we always go right after Thanksgiving, it's just that Thanksgiving came early this year, so I'm a bit discombobulated.
Our tree, to the left behind Shane.  Uh what is with my rather L-A-R-G-E looking hands?  Especially the one on the left, looks like a boxing glove~lol! Go go gadget hands, my goodness!   A funny illusion. 
My little bug, he was very curious about the trees.
I would like to nibble on his face!
Watching all the big kids play hide & seek.  I have lots to post about this sweet faced boy.  He is almost 16 months, yikes, and a small pain in my heart, it's going FAST.

Friday, November 16, 2012

My boy who is very good at entertaining himself!

I had a moment the other day, one of those moments as a mom when you feel horrible about misunderstanding something your child is saying/doing.  Was trying to tidy up as I was leaving the house, you know that scene.  Nolan grabbed a cheerios box that was on the counter that I was about to place in the recycling bin.  I asked him to please stop making more of a mess, and that we needed to get going.  I could hear him tinkering around in the front room.  Again, I was saying to him, please please don't be making more messes, and reminded him I was trying to clean up before we left the house. Well,  a few minutes later I walked around the corner to find him standing there with a cheerios box that he happened to turn into a little masterpiece(in under 5 minutes.)  I felt horrible, he said, "mom I was just making this airplane!"  He was so proud of himself and had a sweet/shy expression on his face.  On the table beside the airplane=scissors, some tape, and a plastic man/pilot.  I love him, he was just trying to stay out of my way so I could tidy up.  He is ALWAYS using his imagination, this is one of my favorite things he's come up with.  He's very resourceful & creative I might add!
Notice the pilot he taped to the top :")
*I found some more photos by NJP on my little camera, these are from June and he must have taken them when we were at Luna for my mom's birthday brunch, they are pretty funny! Found a few others from a couple weeks ago, sharks in a frying pan, lol!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

hal-low-een=

The night of October 31, celebrated by children who dress in costume and solicit treats door-to-door.  Kind of a weird day/event to celebrate if you ask me?  I know the kids have fun but the older I get, the more I dislike this whole day, it's weird, people are weird, and Halloween can be a bit out of control.  Thankfully my kids aren't that in to it either.  Notice the definition said children who dress in costume.  I love that 18-20 year old young men/women come to the door for candy, what in the heck?  AND they are always dressed super weird, and scary!  People come out of the woodwork on this day, creepy!
Enough said. Nolan had a harvest party today at school, it was cute, simple. We had soup for dinner, and headed out in our safe, familiar cul de sac for a little trick or treating. Wanted to post these pictures now, otherwise I probably won't get to it. Hope you all had a fun, and safe day, however it was spent =)
L-E-O the Lion!
A little Lion, Mice, & Darth
Poor little buggy
Our friends/neighbors, The Noyes Boys
Nolan at his Harvest Party this morning.  He is a funny kid, always making me laugh!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Cheer

Olivia finished up Cheer last weekend. She absolutely LOVES it! It is a lot of fun for her, she has 2 really great coaches, and it's a nice group of girls. Liv is really fun to watch~she's got rhythm, has sharp/snappy motions and is a great little dancer.  If I had to guess, I think this sassy young girl will choose dance & cheer for sports if you will~but maybe not, she is only 8 & has lots of other opportunities that await.  Here are a few pictures & videos.  Haven't quite gotten to it yet, but I will post a video of a dance routine they preformed last weekend(last game,) during half time it's really cute!

*Liv is in the back row 2nd to last in the first video, and on the far left in 2/3rd video, it's hard to see on here.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Life is messy, busy, fun, full, often throwing out surprises(the good & bad ones,) did I mention B-U-S-Y ;) but this is the life I signed up for, I am blessed and want to embrace it!

When I started this blog years ago, I had hoped to eventually print out the archives for my children.  I still haven't done it, but hear that blogger does a great job.  My friend Laura has printed off a year at a time, and said blogger sent her a bound book of her posts, and pictures.  I have teased saying that I have to keep up on this because it's the one baby book I have been consistent at for my children.  Needless to say, I have been slacking in the blogging world.  I have several friends and family members who don't live near us that check this, and enjoy seeing the kids, and my family from a distance which is usually on here.
~I often say our life is like a 3 ring circus, and from the middle of the summer til now, it has continued to be.  My children have July, August, & September birthdays, not to mention Liv & Leo's are exactly one week apart, so not much wiggle room with the birthday planning for those two.  Summer was busy with birthdays, and on top of that why don't we just throw an unexpected surgery into the mix.  I found out I had to have a major surgery in August, a week after Liv's birthday.  So it was Leo's 1st birthday, a HUGE day for us to celebrate, then Liv's, my surgery, then Nolan's~whoa, it was crazy!  2 1/2 months later=Things are still crazy and I don't feel like I ever really caught up! 
~My health is obviously very important to me and there was no way that I was going to avoid or get around around the surgery.  It wasn't elective, I HAD to have it.  I was terrified of having it for many reasons.  Really this was one of the scariest things I have ever faced.  Definitely gone through things with my children that have concerned me, but as for me personally, this was it, my big fear, surgery!  My OBGYN had been monitoring a rather large cyst in one of my ovaries for quite some time.  Was having major pain in my ovary this summer so I had an ultrasound and let's just say at that point it needed to be removed before it, well, burst, which is NO GOOD!  The short of the very L-O-N-G is that I had the surgery.  There were many things I had to prepare myself for that would become a life change.  Now, those of you who know me, know that medical things are a major trigger to anxiety in my life.  I am very afraid of procedures, needles, medications, hospitals, the smell of hospitals(other than a newborn baby,) the site of blood, you name it!  My biggest fear was going under Anesthesia, being intubated, and wondering if I'd leave my husband and children on this earth without a mama, or wife.  I know that sounds a little extreme but it is truly how I felt.  Anesthesia is a crazy, yet an amazing thing! My Doctor paired me with 2 amazing anesthesiologists who were so compassionate, and told me they came up with a concoction they had hoped would help with my vertigo and nausea after the surgery(another concern of mine.)  Very fortunate to live in a city with a top notch hospital, and staff who took excellent care of me before, during, and after my surgery!  I have one of the best, well maybe the best :") OBGYN/surgeons on the planet.  He was able to save the ovary that was home to the cyst, which I was prepared to lose.  One of the first things he told Shane when he met with him after the surgery was that the cyst was a lot bigger then he thought, it was the size of a large orange, YiKes!  *Before I forget, I am so thankful that the cyst came back benign.  I had to have some other things done too, and I knew my recovery would take awhile.  I have to say a few days after the surgery I truly did not feel like I was operated on, that actually astounded me.  It was my energy that was gone...truly didn't exist for quite some time, and I felt super out of it for the first few days, in a fog.  I was very wiped out for a good month and a half, and still get exhausted easily. I now understand how important it is to let your body really heal, it takes a long time to heal from the inside out.  Thank God for my husband.  I couldn't have done it without Shane and my recovery never would have gone is well without him being able to take a week off work.  He held down the fort, and managed the house, all 3 kids solo, he's a rockstar Daddy!!!  He is great at it, so I am not surprised!  He looked like Vince Vaughn in Old School walking around everywhere with Leo in the Bjorn, running to the grocery store with the kids, doing it all while I was out of commission.  I love him!  We have great friends who were major blessings too, as well as our family, helping with all kinds of things, especially meals, so grateful! 
~Things are much better now, it seems like The 2nd week of August was ages ago, but it really wasn't.  Still tired, but let's be real :") my almost 15 month old sweet baby boy has YET to sleep through the night, in fact, he still likes to wake up oh 1, 2, 3...maybe even 5 times a night still.  Lord have MERCY!  I have created this though, so I am to blame.  He still nurses, and wants his mama 24/7!  Maybe if I could get back to a workout routine it would help too, well I know it would, but that's not going to happen right now.  I am way too tired to set my alarm for 5 AM to workout, and when we are all finally home together in the afternoon, it's family time, sports, homework, dinner, baths, ay yi yi!  So I hope that in the near future a workout regiment is on my calendar weekly.  Wow, this was a long post, I did however want to share the latest reality of my life.  Also had to post these cards because they have been among my favorites, making me laugh, true motherhood moments!