Ice Skating...take 1

The weekend after Christmas, we took the boys ice skating. I was all geared up and ready to take them before, but the weather was bad and the little one was still sick. Then I thought Christmas Eve or Christmas night would be good but we ended up missing those too. So...Sunday after Christmas, we picked Daddy up from work and went on our merry way. Thinking back, we should have waited until Monday and picked him up. The place was packed so Monday would have probably been a better choice.

Stepping down on to the ice, notice the sign to the left. Ha! They have no idea!



There were so many people, it was hard to get focused on my family to get a shot. But, here are a few...strange people and all. Sour Apple, concentrating hard.



Daddy and Boog.



again



Looks like he is miserable! He assured us he was having fun though.



The had a small square of blocked off ice for the little folks. Boog loved playing in there. He was getting really good and working the skates.



I am sure if we lived somewhere where we could do this more often, he would get really good, fast.



He had a blast!



This one just sat and watched...and got cold hands.



Fun times!



He even liked to fall I think.



Those are some big ole skates!



Daddy



Go Daddy!



Daddy and the big boy.



I can't find my hands!



Looks like I am really moving along!



He would be really good too. He did quite well too considering it has been years since we have been.



Me? Well, my feet hurt...and I was afraid to fall. I did pretty well too though, considering. I was more afraid of little kids falling in front of me. There was no way I could stop.



Boog decided that he could even skate out there without holding our hands. Until this little girl came skidding into him. I grabbed her, a man beside me grabbed Boog, neither of them were hurt thankfully, but it scared Boog.



After skating, we walked around the park to check things out and look for a place to eat. Something smelled wonderful. We never found out what it was though. The little burger joint was super expensive so we decided to leave and get something on the way home. But while we were there looking around, we were approached by a homeless guy, asking for money. He told us his story, how he had gotten in this prediciment and a few other things about himself. My husband only had $2 on him thankfully. I am always weary about handing out cash, so I offered to just buy him dinner. You could tell he was thankful. He inhaled half the food while we were still there, my husband talked to him a bit more while I got the food. I think he did not want to seem to eager to inhale it all but I am pretty sure he did after we left. It was obvious he had not eaten in a while. I cannot imagine being in that place. It broke my heart. It was a great teaching moment for the kids and I am glad my husband is the giving man that he is so that our kids will grow up watching a man that has compassion for others.

It has been super cold around here this last week (we love it!) and I have received several emails from groups that I have been a part of, asking for donations of coats, sleeping bags, blankets and such. One group was donating to the Salvation Army for the homeless and another was donating to a homeless shelter. I took in 4 adult sleeping bags and 2 child sized ones. I have been thinking a lot about our homeless friend and hoping and praying all is well with him. He truly seems like a guy that was at the wrong place at the wrong time and some bad things have happened recently. I hope he was able to find a warm place to stay.

favorite things

these are a few of my favorite things

Happy Birthday Sour Apple

Where has the time gone?! I cannot believe that my baby is 12 today. It seems like only yesterday when he was born, yet it seems so long ago. So much has changed in 12 years. He is growing up to be quite the young man. He is in 7th grade this year, junior high. He is playing junior high soccer. Wow. He changes classes, he has a locker, he is growing up.

Part of this makes me happy, to know that he is growing up. Part of this tears me up, to know that he is growing up. I do not know if I am ready. So much is changing, so fast. He will always be my baby, he will always be my little boy, he will always be one of my best friends. Where does the time go? I can remember him being so little, so sweet and always wanting to be with me. Now, his is bigger, not always so sweet and not always wanting to be with me. He has friends now, he has a life beyond me. That is good. For me, sometimes that is bad. I miss my little boy but I am proud of the young man he is becoming. He may not always be responsible, he may not always be mature, he may not always be reasonable or respectful...he is 12. He can be responsible, he can be mature, he can be reasonable and he can be respectful and most of the time, he is all of those things.

He is a wonderful big brother, most of the time. He loves his baby brothers, he does not always like his sister, that comes with age but I know he loves her, he tells me. It is sweet. He tries to look out for them even though they do not want to be looked out for. He tries to hard to "mother" them.

He is a good boy. He makes me happy, he makes me mad. He is me when I was younger. I think that is why we butt heads the way we do. He is me. We have a special bond. I love him.

When I think back to 12 years ago, so much was different. I was a new mom. I knew nothing. I knew how to love him and that was all I needed to know. I have learned a lot about being a mom over the past 12 years. Some of it I learned the hard way, some of it I am still learning. The one thing that is for sure is that I love my kids with all that I am and all that I have. They mean the world to me.

I love you, my first born. You make me happy and I am proud of who you are becoming. I will always be here for you. No matter what.


I cannot believe how old my little boy looks here!

He has changed so much in the last year, and he changes more each day.

He will always be my baby.

He is so funny. He makes the best faces and has a huge personality.

He is a great big brother. He loves his little brothers more than anything.

I still cannot believe my baby is 12.

Wow.

Happy Birthday Diz! I love you!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our family to yours. Hope you have a wonderful RESURRECTION Day! These first few pictures, with the cross, were taken last night after Church, and what a wonderful service it was, very powerful. We were blessed to have some special friends join us as well.

These bluebonnet pictures were taken by my good friend, Shannon. Didn't she do an awesome job? Of course it does not hurt that the subjects are such gorgeous children either, now does it? And no, I am not one bit biased!

I have nothing profound to say, but if you would like some great Easter reading material, check out MckMama's or Brent's blog for some awesome stuff!

Ramblings...

Happy April Fools to you all! And I should give a quick Happy Birthday to my nephew "K" as well, now let me tell you, that is the perfect child to be born on April 1st if there ever was one.

Well, except maybe for this guy (but today is not his birthday). I don't think it is anyway. Ok, so here's the story about that. I read the Riggs Family Blog regularly, it is Abby's family blog, the little girl with Leukemia. So imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning to see how things were going at the Riggs house...I see a suspension notice that loads almost immediately saying that the blog had been suspended for illegal happenings...WHAT? So, I click and read on and there is a photo of Brent, the dad in the back of a police car, you read on and there is a survey...should the blog be permanently suspended...WHAT? By now I am wondering just what kind of family blog I have been associating myself with all these months...well, needless to say, it was too early in the morning for me to even know what the date was, much less figure out that it was April Fools Day...and it had been years since I had had any sort of a prank pulled on me. HAHA....you got me!

Now you really should go and check it out for yourself. Seems like someone has too much time on his hands. When we are all sleeping soundly in our beds at night, this crazy man is thinking of ways to make our heart stop!

On to other news, I took Sour Apple to the doctor today. He has horrible poison oak all over his lower half. When we were there, we discovered that his top half was covered as well. They ended up giving him 2 shots, thank GOD!! I was about to kill him. All the scratching, fidgeting and such was driving me nuts. I know he was in misery but the kid was driving me totally insane with all of it! Too close of quarters while waiting I guess. But the shots seemed to have done the trick to getting us on the right path. They still look horrible but he said they do not itch near as bad as they had before. Poor guy.

Tonight he had a nice long bath in Aveeno oatmeal then was lathered up with all sorts of goodies we picked up earlier. Hopefully he will be better soon. Especially since Mommy is highly allergic to the stuff. He has already been threatened within an inch of his life if he touches me, is that bad parenting? Nah...

Not me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday, where we can be brutally honest with each other, and live to tell about it. When you are finished here, head on over to MckMama's blog to see a list of more not me's. You will be so glad you did!

Oh boy...my week was looooong! It started out by not having a poor sick baby on Monday. Sour Apple was out of school for the day so we had an ortho appointment then went for lunch and to the mall for some shopping. I noticed that Tutti-Frutti had been sleeping a lot, but really thought nothing of it. I mean he is a baby and they sometimes do that, right? So on with our shopping, and honestly it helped that he was sleeping. Monday night, Sour Apple had a basketball game so off we went, Mr. Sleep All Day in tow. He slept thru most of the game then woke up and smiled and was being all sweet and cute so I am still thinking nothing of it, that is...until we get home.

I decided to take his temp because he had felt hot but we were so busy all day that I did not take the time to do it. I know...horrible parent alert! Well, sure enough, he had a temp. It was low grade but we gave him tylenol anyway since by this time he had gone from Mr. Sleep All Day to Mr. CRABBY PANTS. As the night went on, the temp kept rising so I called the on call service for the Pedi. Well, they were soooo much help. OR NOT! He ended up being up on and off all night long. Wheew. That was tiring. Good thing NONE of that actually happened. I think I would have been too tired to function.

On to Tuesday, we were up early. Or would that actually have been, we were still up? Anyway, I called the Pediatrician's office and was able to get him in for a 10:30 appointment. Did I mention I hate having an appointment at that time? By then, they have plenty of time to get backed up. Oh well, that is for another day. It actually was not that long, considering...So, sure enough, for the first time in his life, Tutti-Frutti has an ear infection, and not just any ole ear infection, TWO ear infections. Poor guy, so off to the pharmacy we go. Good thing he likes the medicine.

You know this couldn't have been on Tuesday because both little boys have music on Tuesdays! So Daddy ended up taking Boog to music while I took Tutti-Frutti to the Dr.

The last few weeks, Wednesdays have been our zoo day. Well this week...not so much. Since we had a sick baby, surely we did not take the 2 little ones to the grocery store for the morning. No, we wouldn't do that. We know how important rest is when you are not feeling well. What kind of parents do you think we are anyway?And since we did not do that, you know we certianly did not go to a second grocery store to find the rest of the organic produce we needed!

Ah, sweet Thursday...since Sour Apple has band after school, I absolutely did not stay home all day long in my pajamas! I also did not keep the little boys in theirs until it was almost time for daddy to get home. I would never do that. I am not that lazy! I would not rush to get myself and both kids ready just before he was due to walk thru the door. Nope, not me!

And Friday, well it most definately was not Boog's last basketball game of the season. They did not hand out trophys to the kids, and they were not just the cutest little things ever, so proud of their trophies! Since it was not the last game, there is no way that one of the moms brought cupcakes for the kids. And since he did not have a cupcake, there is no way that a cupcake could have made it into my car or caused the riot of all riots between 2 of the other children! Good thing there were no cupcakes because that might have gotten ugly and we do not need ugly!

Saturday, Sour Apple did not have a basketball game at 8:15AM! There is just no way that anyone in their right mind would schedule a game that early on a weekend. Of course since it was not that early, I did not have to drag all 4 of the children up at the crack of dark to get ready. That would have just been ridiculous for a weekend, and the one day that they might have actually slept late. Since I was up anyway, after the game, I spent the entire day making fresh organic babyfood for the wee lil' feller. Yummy.

Saturday night...headed to church, we leave 1 hour and 10 minutes before church starts, we live 15 minutes (max) away from the church. Why did we leave that early you ask...well, I wanted to be able to *top off* Tutti-Frutti before leaving him in the nursery and we had 5 children (Lemon Drop had a friend over for the day) off in diffent rooms, for the most part, 3 different rooms for 5 kids. And we were having friends meet us so we wanted to be on time for a change. So, down the hall toward Boog's room first...HOLY BAD IDEA BATMAN! What were we thinking?!? From the looks of what was happening, I am surprised no one called in an excorcist for us. When I say he went ballistic, it is only because I cannot think of another pleasant way to say what was happening to my sweet, loving, perfect 3 year old child! A term that could have been used would be "Goin' Ape S*$#!" to be realistic, at least. We pry him from the stroller, kicking, screaming, thrashing about...get him to a lady in charge and run for our lives. Anyone who knows me knows that this was a HUGE (as in ginormous) step for me. A little while back, I could have NEVER done that. We will leave that story for another day. We get the rest of the kids delivered and make a swing back by Boog's room, we did not hear screeching coming from the room so we had someone check for us just to make sure. He had calmed down so we headed off to enjoy the service and for THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 3 YEARS, we made it thru the ENTIRE service without being paged. Wheew. That was a night. Count that as a victory so off to Chipotle to celebrate! Ha!

Speaking of sleeping late, Sunday, we had nowhere to go...so you know I am totally lying when I say that Boog AND Tutti-Frutti woke me up at 6:45AM! You know, that is a lie because they know how important it is for mommy to be able to sleep late one day a week. My children would never wake me up that early on a day that we did not have to go anywhere at all. And, since I am still sleeping, there is no way that I am actually almost finished with all of the laundry. Quick, everyone take off all of your clothes and go to your room, there will be no dirtying of laundry today!

There is also absolutely no way that I did a post about my precious 3 year old baby shakin' it at his brother. Nope, not me! I mean seriously, this is a family blog!

Ah, and today...who knows what lies ahead for us! Happy not me'ing! everyone. Now, get on over to MckMama's to see what everyone else has not been doing. Makes me feel better anyway.

Oh...and because I am soooo not vain about my own children...I absolutely without a doubt, do not have the most beautiful almost 6 month 5 month old baby in the world, see...

And since we were speaking of that baby...he is totally not getting to the age where he realizes that I have left; therefore, he does not screach like a wild man when I walk away from him! Wheew, good thing too, that might get tiring!

Overheard from the kitchen...

Tonight while cooking dinner, this is what I heard coming from the living room...

*Boog shakin' it at his brother*

Sour Apple: Boog! Put your booty back in your pants!

Daddy: Boog! Get your hand out of your pants!

Boog: *giggling* Why my booty's stickin' out?

Me: *glad I am in kitchen* snickering to myself, so glad to not be a part of that conversation...

The joy of little boys, so glad daddy was home to be a part of that conversation because usually it is always me!

Not me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday, where we can be brutally honest with each other, and live to tell about it. When you are finished here, head on over to MckMama's blog to see a list of more not me's. You will be so glad you did!

I guess I have had somewhat of a boring week...

But, Sunday in particular, I did not play around on the computer instead of cleaning and doing laundry! Nope, not me! I would never do that because I am the perfect wife and mother and we must always have a clean house and freshly done laundry, and it must always be folded and put away!

Saturday night (Valentine's Day) I did not get to have a yummy candlelit dinner alone with my husband after the munchkins went to bed. Nope, not me! This could never happen because when we put the kids down, we always fall asleep too so I know this could not have actually happened!

Friday, I most certianly did not actually get to attend MOPS at our church with 2 small children in tow. Nope, not me! Anyone who knows me knows this could never happen because 1) Boog will not go into kid's church and 2) I do not trust anyone to keep Tutti-Frutti! (There is actually a story and a reason for that one. Also the reason Boog does not stay in kid's church without crying.) So, not sure why I am talking about such a lovely outing that did not happen, or the fact that I had a great time! Woo hoo for MOPS!

Thursday, I did not beg my mother to meet us at Sour Apple's school because he had to turn in a project that should have taken 2 grown men to carry in! Wheew, anyone ever done a salt map? I did not beg her to meet us because surely I alone could juggle a baby, a 3 year old, an 11 year old, a saxaphone with stand and a backpack into the school. I am supermom you know! Thursday afternoon, hubby was outside doing some work to a friend's car and Boog was out with him. While playing outside, Boog did not get a HUGE (as in GINORMOUS) mosquito bite on his cheek! And the bite would certianly not still be there on Sunday as I type this.

Wednesday, I did not convince my wonderful hubby to take us back to the zoo again for the second time in a couple of weeks because it was a beautiful day. Nope, not me! And, since we did not go or have a fantastic time, you will never find pictures of said trip in a post a few days ago titled, Baby Giraffes, Cheetah's and Meerkats...Oh My!

Tuesday, we were not late getting to Tutti-Frutti's music class because we were messing around for too long getting ready. Nope, not us! That would never happen because we are always on time for everything that we do!

Well, I think that pretty much sums up my boring week of things that I did not do. Now, what about you? What did you not do this week? Now, want more fantastic lists to occupy your time, head on over to MckMama's and see what everyone else has not been doing!

Weekly Wednesday plus four...

The smallest, most adorable member of the family...sharing his day of the week, again.

This time we have a Tutti-Frutti with a side of Lemon Drop. Aww, sisterly love...

She loves him, even though she cried when she found out that he too would be a brother, not sister. Once again...

Oooh, hair...

Our gorgeous little lady.

The family ham...

Mr. Cheesy McSmiley Pants

Best I could do last minute with several uncooperating participants...

See what I mean...no help at all! Ha!