Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday!!


Here's a picture that requires few words.............

Monday, October 27, 2008

Not Me, Mondays!!



I saw this clever idea on another blog (http://www.mycharmingkids.net/)...or two....I wish I could claim it as my own idea...but I can't. So here it goes....

I was definitely not grumpy this past weekend. I did not say that I don't like Saturdays and then escape the house all on my own during naptime. I didn't drive through terrible traffic and wander around JoAnn Fabrics all alone. I definitely didn't enjoy getting out by myself. You can bet I did not sneak a piece of my son's caramel apple when he wasn't looking after church yesterday. And this morning I assuredly did not hit the snooze button and skip my morning workout. I was not at all cold this morning when I headed out with the boys to an appt. We were not almost late as usual since I am always perfectly on time. I did not come back and make my children a healthy lunch of grilled cheese (there were veggies, too!) and get irked when Zakkai did not throw his on the floor. I definitely did not eat a few small bites of the unwanted grilled cheese. I didn't hold my precious sons in my arms and rock with them and read them a story and it sure wasn't a story that I picked because I wanted to hear it more than they did...
I did not sigh with relief when my sweet angels were tucked into their respective beds for a nap and I am not wasting my limited quiet time of the day messing around on the computer instead of cleaning or doing something productive...I am not sitting here wishing I had some chocolate to nibble on as I am not fighting to keep my eyes open....I am not!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Two Little Tiggers....

Two little orange and black Tiggers
soft and furry,
crawling in a hurry,
Two little orange and black Tiggers.
They stop to stare in the mirror
and smile from ear to ear
Two little orange and black Tiggers.
They wrestle and fight,
with their toddler might,
Two little orange and black Tiggers.
Ferocious little faces
and fat soft places,
Two little orange and black Tiggers.
I wouldn't trade them in for money
cause they are my own sweet little honey (s)
Two little orange and black Tiggers.

















Monday, October 20, 2008

My Little Buckeyes:)

We may not live in Columbus anymore but we try to instill the buckeye pride in our sons! They, of course, have no idea what in the world we're talking about when we tell them to say, "Go, Bucks!!" but they humored me on Saturday by posing for pictures....sort of:)
Here's our little spunkmeister wearing my boots that I dug out from my shoe box (and have had for like 8 years!) He is so funny and makes us laugh all the time! He had the biggest smile on his face when we took his picture!
Here's my little helper! My sweet Samuel wants to help me do EVERYTHING! He dusts, he sweeps, he cooks and washes dishes. Because of his recent interest in helping, I promised him we'd make cookies together and we finally did yesterday. I specifically bought red sugar so he could decorate the cookies in his most favorite color (since everything has to be red these days!!) He was a good helper and the cookies are good, too!
My heart swells at moments like this when I can capture my babies on camera without them noticing. They are so very precious to me. I love everything about them: from their soft blond hair and big blue eyes to their sweet little toes:) From their sweet high pitched voices and their baby laughter to their unique personalities. I never imagined I would be blessed with two precious children...and boys to boot! The quiet moments when I can watch them, enjoy them and memorize them don't happen very often (usually when they are sleeping) but I store these precious times in my heart to pull out later and think over the incredibly precious, sweet, innocent, amazing gifts God has graciously blessed me with. Thank you, Lord!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

A 3 year old's logic is frankly, hilarious! We love to listen to Samuel talk about or explain things. Often, they make no sense! Especially when we ask him "Why?" questions...but he's fun to listen to:)
We were driving to the store yesterday and he was noticing the changing leaves on the trees. He decided then that he could look at the red trees (b/c it's his FAV color!), I could look at the yellow trees (my Fav), Daddy got the green trees (again, fav color) and Zakkai could have the orange trees (the leftovers:) So after we run through all of those colors, he says:

"Who's favorite color is blue?

Me: "Mugga's favorite color is blue."

Samuel: "Who's favorite color is purple?"

Me: "Charity and Grandma's favorite color is purple."

Samuel: "Well, who's favorite color is pink?!" I rack my brain but cannot think of anyone.

Me: "I don't know who's favorite color is pink, Samuel. Who do you think likes pink?" He thinks

seriously for a minute and then says,

"Papa's favorite color is pink!!" I lost it and laughed the rest of the way to the store. If you have ever seen Papa, who is a hard workin', Plain City man, you would know that pink is NOT is favorite color! All I could think about was that pink clashes with his reddish beard!

Papa and Samuel

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Mommy moments...

I have a bonified medical condition called....mommy-brain. And I'm not the only one out there that has it either (as scary as that is!) I find myself forgetting how to spell or say the simplest words and I always was a great speller(!!!), I cannot remember ANYTHING anymore: I forget to call or email people, forget about remembering appointments and I'm lucky I can remember my children's names! I have to make lists for everything, including lists to remember my lists!! Never in my life have I been so good about marking things on my calendar: Birthdays? Appts? Events?
Being a mother is, at times, very humbling. Your child could have a screaming tantrum in a store (been there, done that), could say something personal very loudly in public (done that, too!) or you could experience what I experienced today. I have no idea where little boys pick up their nasty habits. Really, I have NO idea because I have no brothers and never thought I'd be a "boy-mom!" So, Samuel has picked up the habit of spitting lately and he when he wakes up and is waiting for me to come in, he spits on the floor and on the bookshelf at the end of the bed....I have stepped in it! He spits out on the playground. It's disgusting!! And today, we were visiting a friend and just before we walked out of her door, he SPIT on her floor!!! Right on the rug! I was SO mortified! I made him apologize and gave him a very long, stern lecture and warning of punishment when we got back downstairs. I mean, spitting on someone else's floor??!! I am so thankful to still have her friendship! Boys!
And before I think too much of these nasty boy-things, I will tell you some cute things the boys have been up to. Zakkai has started to count. He surprised me the other day by chiming in when we were counting with Samuel and beating us to the number 4! You forget that he's listening sometimes:) I already mentioned how much he is talking and one of my favorite words that he says is "monkey" because he says, "bonkey-me". It makes me laugh everytime!
Samuel's imagination has been growing! We make up stories together now and the other night made up one about a bear. We asked Samuel to choose the bear's name. After much thought and deliberation, he chose "Fred." So then a minute into the story, we get to Fred bear's little brother and we have to choose a name for him too. It didn't take long for Samuel to decide that Fred Bear's little brother would be called..."Hoteywater......" Yes, I am not exactly sure where that name came from but we had quite a grand story with Fred and Hoteywater:) He also makes up words randomly and when asked what they mean, comes up with the most elaborate meanings you've ever heard! For example, the other day he came up with the word "chibidibadoo" which (according to this 3 year old) means "that the construction vehicles are resting and they aren't working and they go in the parking lot and ..." Wow, we'll all have some big vocabulary here soon! Too bad no one else will understand us:)
Samuel is also really wants to help me these days. He wants to wash the dishes (yes!) and help cook. He made rice last night and chose our dinner veggie and actually ate all of his dinner (praise, the Lord!!) I must take full advantage of this phase before it leaves! I keep telling him that we'll make cookies together. Maybe that's a good activity for a fall weekend;)

Monday, October 13, 2008

Playing, sickness, the lake and breakfast for dinner:)

Boys playing at Museum of Science and Industry
Driving the John Deere together
Me and My boys (yes, I know that's not proper grammar!)
Buddies
Breakfast for Dinner
The boys are recovering from being sick this past week. They caught the same cold that about 1.2 billion of the population had! We, if you read my last post, had a few rough days but the boys are doing much better. We went to the Museum on Thursday with a friend and the boys had a blast! They spent most of their time in the Idea Factory, a place set aside for young children to explore different things like balls in water, air, etc. And of course, we made a run through the "train room" which is Samuel's favorite room, as I have been informed.
The weather was so beautiful this weekend so we walked down to the lake with the boys. They have so much fun looking for boats, bird and planes and just walking.
We had our second installment of our newest family tradition:Breakfast for Dinner! We, once again, ate dinner (or breakfast:) in our pj's, which Samuel thinks is GREAT fun! How silly to have us mommy and daddy in their pajamas, too! This week we had eggs, maple sausage links, watermelon, apples and creamy pumpkin filled biscuits. Mmmmm... It was really good! It's fun to prepare it and actually look forward to dinner, knowing I won't be getting any fights from the boys about eating. I KNOW there are many other moms out there who experience the food-fights with their kids. I wish, oh how I WISH, I could get through one whole day with no complaining about food! I am storing up this information to remind myself and the boys when they are teenagers and I won't be able to get them to stop eating!!

Friday, October 10, 2008

My DAY....

****Warning: The following story is not for the faint-at-heart (or those who want to throw up when they hear anything about bodily functions)****


Let's talk about Heidi's day yesterday and how it was the greatest day ever.....or NOT! Here is a little glimpse into THE DAY from.....

6:45am Wake up and TRY to get awake enough to exercise
7:15am Drag myself out of bed and do a little exercise (I think) and shower
8:00amish Get cranky, sick children up and dressed and find out toilet isn't flushing well.
8:30am Take sick children downstairs to write about toilet problem in janitor's notebook and proceed back upstairs to have a fight with Child #1 over food (which is become increasingly more often...GRRRR) because the muffins are brown.
9:00-11am Putter around getting out baby clothes that i'm letting a friend borrow, realize they have stains (from WHAT??), wipe snotty noses, try to clean out stains, stop Samuel from antagonizing Zakkai, wipe some more noses, break up another fight and wipe some more snot
11am Begin battle with Samuel over putting on shoes so we can go wash the baby clothes. Samuel proceeds to have a meltdown, sobbing and wiping his red, endlessly dripping nose
11:12am Mommy is SUPER frustrated over the neverending battle
11:20am Finally make it downstairs with: two sick children, one crying, and a gigantic bag of laundry, only to find that the laundry room has been taken over by the lady who uses ALL 9 washers and ALL 10 dryers
11:23am Drag two tired, sick, drippy children and one large unwashed bag of laundry and one frustrated mommy back upstairs
11:30am Strap boys in booster seats and answer knock at door which is Ivan coming to fix the toilet which may or may not be plugged up with a necklace that mommy accidentally flushed 2 weeks ago.....
11:35am Feed boys lunch (thankfully they are quiet at this point)
12:00pm Toilet is still being fixed and children are still eating
12:45pm Children are drugged and sleeping; toilet is fixed. Spend next hour sweeping and mopping for bible study.
2:45pm Child #2 wakes up screaming
2:50pm Discover that Child #2 has had diarrhea and has a VERY sore bottom
3:00pm Deposit sick child into bath tub
3:10pm Carry #2 into room and dry off/dress and go to wake up Child #1
3:15pm Discover that Child #1 also has had diarrhea ALL over his bed
3:18pm Deposit sick child into bath tub
3:45pm Drag two sick but clean children and an even LARGER bag of laundry down stairs....
3:47pm Receive phone call from husband, who after hearing short version about day, offers to make dinner (bless you!)
5:45pm Come home after multiple laundry trips and a visit to the playground only to discover.....that husband forgot about dinner and house group is coming in barely over an hour.....

And after a few other small incidents (which didn't seem quite so small after a trying day)
6:55pm Lay children down to sleep.
7:15pm Lead part of the teaching for house group
10:35pm Fall into a deep, deep sleep:)

And now you know that I am FAR from perfect and that our family on occasion has horrible, no-good, very bad rotten days.....but we're doing much better today!!:) (And I can even smile about yesterday....a little)

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

"Now know AC, know!" That's what Zakkai sings over and over again when we sing the "ABC's!" He is quite a talker now. He knows how to tell us what he wants and how to ask for help. It has definitely helped in the screaming department (although we still get to enjoy screaming episodes on occasion) and he has the cutest little voice:) One funny thing we've noticed is that he has started saying, "Mommy what? Mommy what?" We think it's because everytime the boys call for me, I say, "What?" So now Zakkai just answers for me!

Samuel has been napping less and less and it frightens me terribly! He has always been a great napper and doesn't fight at all with going down but in the past week he stays awake until close to the end of naptime and then when I go to wake him up at 3pm, he's asleep! Drives me crazy! I am SOOOOOOOOOOO not ready to give up naptime. I need that rest time, too! (so I can do things like posting on my blog:) Even if he doesn't sleep everyday, I will still make him go rest because otherwise I just may lose whatever sanity I have left! He is growing so quickly and becomes more adult-like each week. He is very logical when talking to Ben or I, is very helpful with pointing out all the crazy, forbidden things Zakkai does (which is a lot), and enjoys spending lots of time on more bigger boy activities like painting, playing with the small legos, lincoln logs, learning to write his name, learning to read! I think this year will be so fun with him now that we can reason with him and he is getting so independent. But my mother heart is also so sad to see that my baby isn't a baby anymore. Each year that goes by his legs grow a little longer, his desire to cuddle grows a little less and he needs a little less help with things but for now, I kiss those still-baby soft cheeks as often as I can (even as he wipes them off!), steal hugs and enjoy his sweet high pitched voice. He'll always be my baby:)
Samuel~age 2 1/2 weeks
The other day my stomach was hurting so bad and Samuel climbed up on the couch where I was resting for a minute and he said, "Mommy, does your tummy hurt?" I told him, "Yes" it did and then he said, "Mommy, I'm gonna pway for you wight now. Dear Lord Jesus, please help mommy's tummy feel better. Amen!" Then he leans over and peers into my face and says, "Mommy, is it all better yet?!" How could I tell him anything but yes! And you know what? Within a few minutes, it really did feel better! God must love the prayers of sweet children.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Apple Dumplings and Family Traditions


Last night I made some made-from-scratch old fashioned apple dumplings. Can we say YUM??!!! I found the recipe on line and immediately decided they looked worth trying. Forget the store bought pie crust (which is a cuss word to say around my mom!), these were made with our secret family pie crust recipe. And these apple dumplings are baked in a rich cinnamon, vanilla sauce. Oh, I am drooling now! They were so rich that we had to split one. We either need to give some away or we'll come home really fat at Thanksgiving!
And now for family traditions! I grew up with lots of family traditions like: apple picking each fall, shopping at ungodly hours the morning after Thanksgiving, cutting down our own Christmas tree, etc. I really treasure family traditions and would like to have some to pass down to our children. A simple tradition that we are starting is once a week we are having breakfast for dinner! I think it'll be on Saturday night each week and tonight is the first night! We are having Country Sausage, Cheddar and Apple Bake (sounded interesting to me!), Fruit and either Apple bread or a cinnamon swirl bread. The point is to have fun and create a fun memory for our children and maybe even a tradition that they'll want to pass on. Maybe we'll even have our dinner in our pjs:) I'll let you know how it turns out! What family traditions do you have?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A Day of Firsts

Today was a day of some firsts. Today Zakkai said, "Sayuel!" (Samuel) for the first time. I thought he said, "Mule" a few months ago but maybe I was mistaken:) Anyways, Samuel was ECSTATIC!! His face lit up and he said, "Mommy, I just love when Zakkai says my name!" And Zakkai proceeded to say it about 18 more times....

And today Zakkai started giving kisses!! Real kisses. I was playing with the boys and layed down on the ground and he bent over and started kissing my face:) Of course that led to Samuel competing for kisses but a mommy can never have too many kisses from her angels!

And we also met to play with a new friend and her son for the first time. It was a wonderful visit and now the boys have a new friend! They behaved very well except for a strange lapse in their manners when they gobbled up their snack like a couple of wild animals but I guess that could have something to do with the fact that they simultaneously decided to refuse dinner last night......just a guess!



I know I posted these pictures earlier this summer but I just wanted to show you again what BUDDIES these two boys are. They spend every waking moment together and now Samuel has started speaking for them collectively and calling them "these guys." "Mommy, these guys don't like soup." or "Mommy, these guys need a snack." or "These guys need to go outside.." These guys copy off everything the other one does. Sometimes that's a good thing....and sometimes it's not! I'm so glad they are buddies though. It's something I prayed for when Zakkai was in my tummy and I'm so thankful that they have a built in buddy for life!

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