Ear Tectors Save the Day

A while ago I posted pictures of Wyatt and Cora wearing daddy's "ear tectors", and explained that they usually break them out whenever something loud is going on (vacuuming for example). Today Cora was napping and Wyatt came running back to my room very scared, saying he "heard rain." After some discussion I figured out that he was afraid of the rain because he is now associating it with thunder, which is what he thought he heard. We talked and I tried my best to explain, show and reason that it was sunny outside and the sky was blue (no dark gray rain clouds), and that what I thought he heard was a neighbor doing some work. I thought it was all OK and that he'd go about playing while I finished drying my hair, but apparently he didn't believe me and took matters into his own hands! He found a way to block out the sound and then snuggled up with his "security friends." Don't you wish you could just put on the "ear tectors" every now and then, block out the noise and just take a nap!?

Billy Bob Bice

When Wyatt was only a few weeks old his Grampa John gave him his very own set of "Billy Bob" teeth. Have you seen these? They are these fake teeth you put in to make you look like you have REALLY BAD teeth. Very goofy, good for Halloween or scaring away those door to door sales people. They are quite the thing, and they even make paci's, as we found out. Well, we took pictures of Wyatt with the Billy Bob paci when he was a baby and then I saved it so someday Grampa could have a picture of his next grandchild with this little "heirloom".

Today Cora pointed to the paci basket (she calls her paci her "bice") and said, no demanded "me pick!" After careful consideration she chose the Billy Bob Bice. She had also been into the winter clothes so between her dress up outift and the paci, I had to take pictures!

Preschool Orientation

Yes, it was just the orientation day, but still a momentous occasion for us, so I just had to bring the camera. :)
Today we went to orientation at Wyatt's preschool, Jack & Jill's House. We are so excited that he gets to be part of this preschool, needless to say from the pictures, he is too! He has a wonderful teacher who we know from the CMA Church and the neatest little preschool building. It is out a bit from town, but still less than 10 minutes from the house (very important for mommy), and there is a lama living next door, Wyatt was pretty thrilled! This year he will be in the 3yr/ 4yr old class, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 to 11:30. He is such a lucky boy, of the 11 other children in his class, he is already friends with 9 of them! It should be a wonderful year and a wonderful experience for him. I'll post more pics on the 1st day of school, Sept. 4th.


Wyatt at his cubby and sitting in the cirle time area


Playing with all the fun things at preschool

Kelsey

Any ideas what we are looking at here? This is Kelsey, and yes, she is a squished bug. Wyatt and Cora became completely facinated with her and named her (she was a very big deal, really I'm not in the habit of taking pictures of a dead bugs), Wyatt even went so far as to say "my friend Kelsy." It all started one day when they noticed that a bug had been squished next to the hinge of our front door. It was one of those really big mosquito looking things with the long legs, we call them hopper bugs. So it was big enough for them to see, but since it didn't move anymore it wasn't scarey (Wyatt and Cora are both a little freaked out about flying bugs). Everyday for about a week they would sit there and look at it whenever we came back from being out somewhere. It was really cute how interested they were, enough for Wyatt to name her (though I have no idea where he heard Kelsy) and Cora to learn how to say it. Sadly though, Kelsey didn't last. She started kind of falling apart a few days ago and is now completely gone, Wyatt has stopped looking for her and now looks to see if Kelsey has any friends on our door. Cora still looks for her, which is a little sad, but there is usually a "live" one near the door to look at instead, though from a much safer distance.


Wyatt and Cora checking out Kelsey

A Few Things I've Learned Today

It was quite a day.................

This morning I was reminded of the absolute need for a quiet peaceful morning at home every now and again, just hanging out, reading lots of books and playing with toys, nothing fancy, and no where to be.

At nap, the sweet joy of sleeping on a pillow (for the 1st time)



This afternoon I was reminded of the fun of a summer afternoon playing in the water spraying each other with the hose and eating popsicles.

I was also taught the definition of "grumplies" according to Wyatt. It went something like this, Wyatt: "mama, I have grumplies on my fingers!"

me: "what!?, come here and let me see"

What I saw were little pruny fingers from being in the water for so long - he was calling the little bumps and wrinkles "grumplies"

This evening I learned the hard way that sometimes no matter what you do you WILL NOT get your kids to eat their vegtables. Deceptively Delicious failed me for the first time! They LOVE their Mac Cheese and chicken nuggets (from the store), but when I tried to make them homemade (the healthy way, with hidden veggie puree's) they wouldn't even try a bite. Oh, and it did taste good, my veggie avoiding husband thought it was great.

My car never did leave the driveway today, sometimes that's really nice.

7......My Lucky Number!

View of the stage from our seats on the lawn, kind of far away but they had big screens and it still sounded great! Luckily it had stopped raining by the time we got there!

Us at the concert

Really, it is my lucky number!

This past Monday Mike and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. It has been an amazing and wonderful 7 years (though not with out it's ups and downs), and we both agree 100% that there isn't anyone who we would have rather gone through it with.

We actually celebrated last Saturday, when Mike's parents came over all the way from Pullman (bless them!) to watch the kids for the evening, while we went to a concert! 7 years ago, right before we got married Mike and I went to see one of our favorite bands, Brooks & Dunn, and that was the last concert we went to, until last weekend. We had heard that Brooks & Dunn were coming back this way and it just happenned to coinside with our anniversary! We were so excited to get to go, a whole afternoon, evening, night combo all by ourselves and a great concert too! They put on such a great show, we had a fantastic time! Interestingly, the band they played with was ZZ Top!? I never thought I'd say "I've been to a ZZ Top concert!" Not that I don't like them, they were good to, but I must have mellowed in my near 30 age because they were LOUD!!!!! We only stayed for 4 of their songs and then called it a night.

Mike and I have talked lately about the past year and it has been one of huge growth for our marriage. Up until about a year ago Mike and I each had our relationships with God, but we rarely shared, talked, etc. about them. Over the past year that has all changed and it has made such an amazing difference in our marriage. I'll spare you the mushy details, but we've learned a ton about each other, worked through difficult situations as a team, and just overall grown closer. 7 really was a lucky number for us!

Vacation 2008 pics

Vacation 2008

Ahhhh. I FINALLY got it to work! I took so many pictures of our camping trip the week before last that I couldn't decide what to post and after seeing Gemma's slideshow (thanks!) decided that was the way to go! It took me a long time to figure it out, but here they are!
We spent 5 days the week before last at Fish Hook Park on the Snake River (just out of the Tri Cities) camping, skiing, boarding and just having a great time. We had originally planned to only stay 2 days, as we figured that the kids would get exhausted, not sleep and overall it would be a lot of work. However they really suprised us and did great (even slept later than at home) and we made it 5 days - good thing I brought LOTS of clothes.
We had one yucky weather day, it was really windy which was frustrating because with all the wind here I really didn't want to deal with it while we were on vacation and outside all the time. However, the good thing about this place is that it's less than a 1/2 hour from a decent mall, Starbucks, restaurants, etc. - you know all the essentials. :) So we went to town and went shopping and out to dinner that day. After that the weather was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for more.
Coming here has become quite the tradition in my family, we have been vacationing there for 19 years now and Mike has been coming for 9 of them (we'll have to make t-shirts or something for the 20th year next summer)! It is such an amazing spot. I call it "camping light", it has free hot showers, clean bathrooms, lots of grass and trees (and little dirt), lots of space between sights, room to ride bikes or walk with your stroller, warm weather, playgrounds for the kids, and amazing sunsets over the water - plus all the fun stuff you can do in a boat. OK enough already, can you tell I love it there!?
This year was so exciting for me to see that Wyatt and Cora love it too. I hope we will be able to continue sharing it as a family for years to come.

Years, Days, Minutes Tag

So as I'm catching up on everyone's blogs after being gone all week, I discover that I have been tagged! Actually, thank you Kelly, because as I was reading everyone else's I thought, "Oh, I want to do that!" I feel so "in" now! Anyhow here goes it......................

20 years ago I was

9 and lovin every minute of summer! I played outside with all of the neighborhood kids as much as I could and I remember that it was SO cool to get to play outside when it was almost dark, especially when the neighbor kids' cute cousin was over! I was getting ready to start 4th grade and was glad to be done with the previous year - my 3rd grade teacher wan't the greatest. We did all the usual summer things for our family, camping, skiing and a trip to the ocean.

10 years ago I was

19 and home for the summer between my freshman and sophmore years at WSU. I didn't want to go back to working at the grocery store, and I can't believe I'm going to admit this, so I spent the first part of summer selling Cutco knives! Not the greatest job for a 19 year old, but I ended up with some great knives. Anyhow I landed a way better job soon, working at a Physical Therapy Clinic. I had moved out of the dorms and was planning to move into an apartment with 3 other girlfriends as soon as school started again. Emotionally it was a really rough summer for me, I remember not being overly happy at that time. However things looked up as the year went on and few monthes later I met Mike!

5 years ago I was

24 and living in North Bend because it was Mike's first station after graduating from the police academy. We moved there in May and it was the most beautiful summer, the warmest and driest on record I believe - for the west side. We lived about 3 miles from town, kind of back in the trees in the tiniest little mobile home you've ever seen! It was OK though, it was so good for us to be in a town by ourselves and just focus on us for a while after living apart for almost a year. (The only bummer was I had to drive 30 minutes each way to get to a decent gym, which for those of you who know me, know I did it everyday anyway!) That summer I hiked all over with Boggs, picked tons of blackberries, went fishing with Mike, BBQed on the deck and spent lots of time at Rattlesnake lake. Thinking back on it now, it was one of my favorite summers ever!

3 years ago I was

26 and a new mommy! We had just had Wyatt in May and were still (are still) getting the hang of everything. I remember that I was late for EVERYTHING that summer due to having to wait on a nap, nurse, change a diaper, etc. (how easy that would all seem now!). We had been in Eburg for a little over a year, but I still didn't really know anyone so we either went to the store or stayed home a lot. We took him camping in August when he was only 3 mo old, and he did great - so happy to look at the trees in his pack n play. He just went wherever we did, out to dinner, on road trips, even to a movie once (he slept through it, but I was terrified I'd damaged his hearing!).

So far this past year

I have learned that while I want to do everything and be involved in everything, I need to realise my limits and that I can only stretch myself so thin. I've started to look at being a wife/ mother in a different light. These are roles that God put me in, and wants me to be in, and by doing each of these roles, with His help and to the best of my abilities, I am serving Him. Of course I still try to do more, but am careful not to let it ever compromise the first 2. I feel like I don't remember the first part of the year so well because I was so busy, but in the past few monthes I have been able to take some things off my plate and just be Mike's wife and Wyatt and Cora's mommy.

Yesterday I

Did about 10 loads of laundry! Not kidding - camping for 5 days with kids makes a crazy amount of dirty clothes, everything from bedding to shoes had to be washed. I unpacked all the camping stuff that went in the house, which put me in the cleaning mood, so I cleaned out and organized the pantry and kitchen cabinets. Thanks to Mike working at home and the kids sleeping for 3 hours in the aftenoon, I actually got a lot done. I will admit though that I didn't get the illusive shower until after the kids went to bed and we had take out for dinner.

Tomorrow I will

Get up early to set up the nurseries, check in on everyone and hopefully get to one of the services myself. The goal is the 8am so that afterwards I'll have time to go grocery shopping before lunch. Then in the afternoon we have a birthday party to go to, and tomorrow evening I have some baking and puree`-ing to do (love that Deceptively Delicious) for the week. Busy but fun!

Next Year I will

Be 30, and hopefully have a great 30th birthday story! I rarely think about what things will be like a year from now. I really want to focus on being a better (more supportive) wife, and to make sure I take a little time each day to spend with each of the kids individually. I also want to grow and nurture my relationship with God and try to be more committed in the time I spend with Him.
Wyatt will be 4 and Cora 2. I'm sure she'll be rattling off entire monologues (the girl can talk) and Wyatt will be hitting his T ball into the next neighborhood. I can't say there is much that I "want", I'm so happy with what God has given us. The only one thing that I will say is that I hope we have a boat!

I tag Steph and Amy!