home

Right now we have 2 houses one we constantly try to keep clean so someone will want to buy it and one that seems a constant mess as we try to fix it up! I'm really hoping that beginning next week Rick and Ron will be finished with all the hard stuff and we can get in there and begin painting, getting the cabinets in and the floors..... But in the midst of cleaning and working on both houses one thing is for sure the 'home' that we have is still going strong!

Mason still wakes us up when it is exactly a 7 on his clock! I hear a big creak, thump, pitter patter pitter patter as he runs down the hall to touch my shoulder to say "mommy, its a 7 on my cwock" Buzz Lightyear and I proceed down stairs where he bangs the metal folding stool to reach and measure the right amount of coffee for me and daddy then proceeds with his favorite breakfast choice WAFFELS!!! All the while Micah is sound asleep! Once Micah wakes up sometimes he wants to get out of his crib but most days he just laughs, rolls around and doesn't really want you to get him out, but that could be because he knows the FIRST thing we will do is change his diaper (he HATES getting his diaper changed) At breakfast he always asks for "mo milk peas" while tilting his head and flashing a little pout /grin. When he tastes his food he lets you know "mm, tase ood" (yumm tastes good) And if anything gets on his hands while hes eating you'll see him raise his hand and eyebrows to say in a very concerned voice "HAANNS" meaning- oooh I have something on my hand Quick! Get a Napkin! When we ask him most anything his answer will be "yeth" In fact sometimes I ask him a question I know he will say yes to just so I can hear him to say "yeth" However sometimes his answer causes him to wrinkle his eyes and mouth, tilt his head and point his finger as he says " Hmmmmm, dis" or "Hmmmm Yeth" that answer may even be cuter than the simple "yeth" Its also super cute to hear him say "Kaay" When he says it the 'ay' at the end goes up to a higher pitch and he nods his head really quick- hes so happy about it! Hes always been so agreeable, he wants to cooroporate and even in a tough situation, for him, like church nursery, he trys to be so brave and when Chris tells him "Mommy and Daddy wiill be back to get you after you play with your friends" Micah responds with teary eyes and pitiful face and they 'ay' at the end going down a note along with his nodding head "Kaay" For the first time this past Sunday Micah FINALLY seemed to be enjoying himself at church and he turned from his table of toys and swung that little right arm to run as fast as he could to daddy, but this time with a smile vs tears!

During the day Mason has been soo into coloring lately, he will sit and color for an hour at a time easy, paying very close attention to what he should color what, using a mix of crayons and colored pencils. Today he got a set of 3 crayons with a coloring book at a little Stranger Danger meeting we went to and was coloring and needed orange so he just colored lightly yellow and red to make his own orange! I love to see him figure stuff out and look at the pride on his face as he shows me his finished masterpiece! Meanwhile Micah will be off in a corner playing by himself he loves the little people school bus and loves to give his duck a ride, speaking of rides he loves to ride the stick horse we have and says "hosee, hosee" he also likes to pretend Chris is a horse too! When we go to the play set in the back yard Mason loves to pretend he is on the show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and enlists all of us as the crew on his ship: He has named himself "Jake", I'm "Izzy" and Micah is "Cubby" We have played this so much that the other day and everyday since then, as soon as we get to the play set Micah lays down pretending some swamp monster or crocodile has hold of his leg trying to pull him down the slide as he screams "JAKE" clear as day Micah says "JAKE" in a very concerned voice too...its the funniest thing too, Mason thinks I'm participating because I just love to sprinkle pixi dust but really its because I love to watch Micah call for "JAKE" he cant say Mason yet but he calls him "Payson" Micah asks "Payson" to play with him all the time, and he wants him to see what hes doing and he wants to do EVERYTHING "Payson" can!

We have so many fun little memories in this house and I love this house so much and I know its going to be a great one for someone else I just really want it to sell so I can be even more excited about the new memories in the new house! SOOO while figuring out the two houses is kinda crazy the kids that make our house a home are keeping me on my toes and are a constant reminder that the best things in life aren't things!

Micah Babe

Micah babe isnt feeling like much of a baby anymore! He is almost 20 months old but goes right along with whatever his big brother is doing! He asks for a plate for his food- "I pate", climbs up the ladder at the play ground to slide down the tallest slide- "eedy, et, GO!" , counts, loves hide and seek, sings some of his ABC's-its like his brain knows it he just cant get all the letters out, loves to color and draw" uses his manners- "mo mik, peas", Hates going to bed because he's afraid he's going to miss out on something, Loves to hold Pappas bird- "ROosee, I hod Rosie" (and its really so cute to watch him lean his head on his shoulder and point to his arm) Shouts my name "MAMAA" , Runs and swings his little arm as his chubby cheeks shake up and down, Loves to put on his "coks"-crocks, would rather drink from a water bottle or regular cup then a sippy,...the baby is leaving very quick from this kiddo!

Micah got this little name "Micah Babe" from Mason right after he was born, I'm sure he won't keep it forever, especially since he thinks he's soo big! But, tonight I felt like he was still a baby, a moment that is rare these days. Its totally my fault that I just spent the last 30 mins rocking a screaming crying Micah Babe to sleep, (we took him to the raptor center today and he missed his nap, loved the birds but is now over tired and screaming) but, I really didnt mind it at all! He just kept saying, "mamma, daddgee, mamma, daddgee" over and over as little tears streamed down his face, it was so pitiful but as I started to sing Jesus loves me his tears and screams slowed down he stopped saying "mamma, daddgee" and began to just sniff at every other breath but also began to really listen as I sang. I really started to think of the words as well, and found myself holding back tears too. Its amazing what just saying the name of Jesus can do for you and pondering the words: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones to him belong they are weak but He is strong! Yes, Jesus loves me, yes Jesus Loves me, Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so! As I sang and rocked Micah back and forth I found myself praying the song to Micah hoping that just as this simple song was comforting him as I held him that he could always know that he can rest and feel safe in times that he is weak, and he would trust the truth of the Bible that Jesus does love him and that Micah would always know that he is a child of God. And when you think of it, I mean really think of it, in whatever time of trouble all that really matters is that Jesus loves me and I love Him!

Micah is such a caring, tender little boy, even today Mason commented "wow, Micah sure is nice" -Mason said this after Micah had tried to share his push pop with everyone at the raptor center even the birds! Micah IS genuinely nice and kind and tender...something that God put there! I pray God will give me the wisdom to help Micah grow in this gift! And I hope that anytime in life that Micah is in need of comfort or is sad about anything that God would bring the song "Jesus Loves Me" to his mind and that he would be flooded with peace just as he was as I held him a few mins ago!

Lemonade For Sale!

The house has been on the market for awhile now, or to be exact, 37 days, but who's counting? We've had 6 showings, one of them today, but in efforts to draw more attention to our house we thought it may be good for us to participate in the community yard sale. Chris and I enjoy going to yard sales, drinking our coffee, taking a walk finding something you never knew you needed until you got there...BUT...we really don't like the idea of being the one who's hosting a yard sale. Going through all your stuff you don't want trying to make it appealing to someone else, getting up really early, sitting in the heat while people ask you how much money you want for something ...just seems like alot of work...so we don't really "host" them instead we just clear out everytime we get a call that the Kidney Foundation or Inspire will be in the neighborhood, and we always try to "fill our bag for the vet" that comes in the mail or donate to Goodwill and just make our money at the end of the year when we file taxes...BUT this time I gave in, well sorta. I tried asking Patsy, Kristel or Sheila to bring some stuff over or but it didn't really work out and when Kristel mentioned the idea of letting Mason have a lemonade stand I got really excited!! He made a wonderful sign over at Papas house and I took him by the bank to let him ask for some quarters and when I told him he could sale bottles of water, cups of lemonade, and packs of crackers he knew what he wanted to price them at. One quarter for the lemonade, 2 quarters for the water and $1 for the crackers. When Chris got home last night we had the stand all ready and he and Micah practiced selling to Chris and I. I walked up and handed Mason a dollar bill and told him I wanted a bottle of water and without hesitation he took my dollar and opened his cash register and gave me 2 quarters (Chris and I just looked at each other and both were thinking..."did he really know what he was doing and what the correct change was or was that just by chance") So Chris orders next: "Okay Sir, I'll take one water and one lemonade please" Chris gave Mason his dollar and Mason returned 1 quarter back to Chris! This took us back to him playing uno with us when he was 2...he just really likes numbers- like father like son.

Mason went to bed with No trouble because he wanted to have lots of energy to run his lemonade stand! As soon as we finished breakfast Mason was dressed and started bringing his stand out to the driveway! I had like 5 items in the driveway and by the end of the day had sold 2 but Mason and Micah loved the lemonade stand! Right away, as in any business with a partner, Mason and Micah had to work out some issues: Who was going work the cash register, who was going to get the cups, who was going to use the spout to fill the cups... but once we brought out a cooler of water that Micah could push as often as he wanted instead of spilling the goods that were for sale it was pretty much smooth sailing! Business was slow at first but then it started to pick up as Mason yelled to the top of his lungs, "LEMONADE FOR SALE, NICE FRESH LEMONADE" anytime a car would drive by he'd wave and shout as loud as he could, Micah was quick to catch on as well and he began to shout too but his words weren't quite as clear as Masons :) The boys had people say they came because they heard them 8 houses down and figured this must be some good stuff! Chris and I were just sitting in our folding chairs smiling agreeing that we could not think of a better way to spend our Saturday morning!

Nicholas arrived on the scene with some more variety of things to sell! Passion Punch, Suckers, and Pirate Treasure (little bags of rocks and shells) So now we had Mason and Micah, Nicholas and Mary Kaylin and all the kids had a sucker and all the lemonade and passion punch they wanted because everyone agreed that if you work there you get everything for free :) They had lots of neighbors come by, shoppers, and even a visit from their buddy Ben! Nicholas was very excited to have Benjamin as his first "costume" (customer) Mason asked Ben to take over for him while he and Mary Kaylin went into the kitchen to mix up some more lemonade but before going in he gave Ben some detailed training! It was very cute, ...I just actually LOL as I think back on it!

The kids had fun, Mason ended up making well over $10, which he said he was going to save-again, like father like son, and I will NEVER pass up another lemonade stand EVER!

its never too late

So its been almost a year since my last blog post and I find myself often thinking...I really wish I blogged or was writing this stuff down, but then I think, "OH its been too long there is too much to say" But alas, I'm gonna try this again!

And I'm not sure where to begin, I guess with this week! This has been a busy week Mason started his first VBS of the summer (as of now hes going to be attending 3) He LOVES LOVES LOVES it! Hes been telling me all about how Saul was a bad guy who put people in prison that believed in Jesus and he was blind and couldn't see but he was walking down a road and they prayed for him and the scales came off of his eyes and Jesus made his heart soft and Saul became Paul and now hes a preacher for Jesus! Its also fun because he has "friends" that are family in his group: Olivia, Ben, and Nigel! All of us moms were pregnant together and its crazy that they are all getting close to FIVE years old!!

I have been looking forward to the extra one on one time with Micah while Mason plays at VBS but Micah, who is usually the happiest baby alive, hasn't been him self...I honestly think he misses Mason...this whole time that hes had separation anxiety at church and the gym, I've been thinking its because of me...but maybe its because hes not with his brother? That kid is 19 months going on 5 yrs old, he thinks he is a big kid! We went to the pool this week with friends who have kiddos that are even older then Micah who were holding moms hand, unsure of the water or the slide or the waterfall that gets in your eyes as you slide down the slide...where was Micah? Holding my hand? NO NO NO, he was barely able to walk steadily in the pool making his way to the steps to slide down the waterfall slide just like the big kids, clapping and laughing proudly at himself that he too can "do it" I really feel like I no longer have a baby, hes official toddler material, trying to be a big kid too quick.

After dropping Mason off at VBS today I met Christy at Granite Depot to pick out some choices for our new kitchen in our new house on Woodcroft Drive!!! Talk about a tough decision!! There are so many choices and the light in the warehouse is horrible I was so thankful to have someone with me who had already done that and could kinda walk me through that, then I spent the rest of the afternoon calling places trying to get some quotes on what I had picked out! But thats nothing...Chris is really doing all of the work! We work so well together, I pick stuff out and he negotiates all the details and fine print stuff and he is really good at making decisions so that's wonderful for me! Then once we get the stuff I go back to doing my part! We close on the house JUNE 30th its going to be here SOOO SOON and along with it the work! But I am soo looking forward to it! I know its going to have its ups and downs but Chris and I are excited about having a project we are both working on together! Its so fun at night instead of us doing our own thing or watching a random nothing on TV, or surfing nothing on the computer to be thinking and planning and dreaming of plans for our new house, that we are planning on being our forever house. And today I had my first experience working with cement for a craft with the boys so if we need any cement at the new house add that to the list of things I can try to work with!

Okay...I think that was a good start at "getting back to blogging" it really is Never Too Late to record memories of your growing family...even if its only once in a while I need to check in!

ball fields here we come

I knew with two boys eventually the day would come when we would begin preparing for spending our weekends outside at some sort of ball field. What I wasn't prepared for is how excited I would be to have that day arrive! Earlier in the summer me and the girls I was pregnant with (Tamara, Patsy, and Sheila) had began discussing various options for soccer and sadly I had kinda given up hope that we would be starting this new adventure this year because after calling around trying to see if anyone would make an exception to the rule that says, "Participant must be 4 years old by September 1st" and receiving a "no" I was reminded that this is a good opportunity for me to remember that all rules apply to everyone, even my child! But when I received an email back from the rec center saying that it would be okay for him to play I was soo excited that this time the rule didn't apply! Mason and Micah were napping and I read the email and said (out loud) OH YEAH...then I reminded myself that it was quiet time and I should be careful not to wake the boys :D Right away I called the rec center staff and signed Mason up over the phone and asked if they had room for his cousin Nicholas...and YES they did! I was sad that we wouldn't have a team of lots of people we knew because I know it would have been a BLAST to watch Mason, Nicholas, Benjamin, Nigel and Olivia all running around playing soccer together for the first time...but I am overjoyed that Nicholas moved to Charlotte just in time and that I get to watch he and Mason play soccer for the first time together!

When I let Mason in on the news that he was going to get to play soccer you should have seen his cute little face his mouth wrinkled up, his eyes darted to the right and he raised his eyebrows then said "You mean for real"? When I said, "yes, for real" He jumped up and down, squealed, ran around in circles and fell on the ground! He went on to talk about watching his cousin Owen play soccer then came the thousand questions: "Mommy, will Owen be on my team?, Will I sit on a bench?, Who will be my coach?, Will I get to be the goalie?, will I wear a uniform, What color will my team be?...some more running in circles followed by squeals and falling on the ground! What an awesome feeling to watch your child get so excited to finally be able to do something hes been waiting to be "old enough" to do.

Earlier today Sheila brought Owens old Soccer shoes, shin guards and soccer socks by for Mason...as soon as we walked in from her car Mason wanted to try on his new gear and go outside and practice soccer...he called the shin guards hard hats for your legs, pretty creative idea if I do say so myself! Tonight was the 'Parent Meeting'...I made the mistake of telling Mason that there was a parent meeting for SOCCER (all he heard was soccer and that's all he talked about ALL DAY, I must have told him like 20 times that there wasn't a game or a practice but just a meeting and that he wouldn't be playing tonight...I didn't want to stifle his excitement but...uggh... I learned to NOT tell him until we are on our way! During the parent meeting Kristel wrote me a note saying "we are officially "Soccer Moms"...how fun to be sharing that with her! And we will be the BEST SOCCER MOMS EVER!! I just need to get a tripod and some extra memory cards for the camera!

Once we got home Mason wanted to show his new gear to Chris and go outside and play soccer, so I guess he did get to play soccer tonight after all. As we were playing with him Chris and I looked at each other and gave the fake cry and said, "Oh hes getting too big too fast" But even though its sad that he is growing up its so much fun too! I hope that he learns how to have great interaction with teammates, determination, perseverance, grace, compassion, what it means to not be selfish, or prideful and I hope he has fun, I hope he likes it, I hope hes really good at it, I hope he wont get hurt, I am sure he will I just hope I have the right words to say and that Mason will discover that anything he dose he can do because the Lord has given him the talent and ability to do it!

Ready or not rec center here comes our 3 1/2 year old to play in the youth 4-6 year old league!

Milestones

To infinity and beyond! So it seems that the boys are making great strides to meet and complete their age appropriate milestones...who, I wonder, even came up with this idea, that children at a certain age should be able to do ________...in many cases this has caused me to rush to the Internet to surf that specific topic and gather information from other moms who've already helped their child to meet whatever milestone and try to put into practice their advice mixed with my own opinions and then often times I end up letting it go and that's when they accomplish the task! Last year almost to the week, Mason was day potty trained but still needed pull ups for night time. Recently I had begun my Internet research on how to night train your child...well, I've come to realize you cannot "make" someone know how to wake up to pee...they just have to figure that out! But after talking to a mom friend and hearing her idea of keeping track of how many nights her little girl was "dry" with a sticker I decided to give it a try!

We went shopping for Benjamin's birthday gift and Mason wanted all of the Buzz Lightyear stuff too, so I told them that maybe we could take him back to Target to get the toy he wanted once his pullups were dry in the mornings for several days in a row...so we began tracking with stickers and day after day he woke up in the night, (sometimes crying for help, but still waking up wanting to go to the toilet vs the pull up) to pee and in the mornings he was dry! So today was like 9 days in a row so we took a family trip to target and he picked out his toy and Chris just put him to bed with NO pull up...we will see how it goes...maybe I should go to sleep early tonight in case I'm changing sheets in the middle of the night?

Micah is reaching his own milestones as well...He now mainly eats the family meal with an occasional baby food mixed with cereal. He still has no teeth at a little over 9 months old, but hes really good at gumming food! Hes eating toast, soft fruit, turkey loaf, meat loaf, puffs, Cheerios...in fact if you do spoon feed him you have to sneak the spoon in between him feeding himself! Even though hes still a little on the skinny side, he eats a lot! I'm really working on using the "more" sign, but for now banging on the highchair tray is getting him more food!

BUT not for long....This weekend Micah also started clapping...which is basically the sign for "more" Its so cute you can just tell him, "clap Micah" and he'll do it. He and I have actually had some time to play alone, with out his eager big brother, and I sadly realized that I've not been playing as much with him as I did with Mason...I mean we all play together but I guess by 9 months with Mason I was already expecting that he could do a lot, or maybe I was over eager for him to reach all of his "milestones" that I watched closer to see everything he could do? Micah can do plenty! He loves to play "where's Micah" by putting a blanket over his head and pulling it off, he's making great crawling steps reaching and getting one knee under him and ALMOST will crawl! I'm trying really hard to divide my time equally between them and also trying not to compare the two either because, they are both cut from different molds and they are both developing right on time! So there are many more milestones that I'm sure they "should" be able to do and maybe some they are doing that they "shouldn't" be able to do yet...but I'm not paying as close attention so I guess I'll find out at their next doctors visits...and I'm okay with that!

Big Brother and Little Brother

These boys are brothers that's for sure! And they know their rolls very well! Micah is such a good little brother and Mason is a wonderful big brother too! Micah deals with Mason pulling on his fingers taking a toy that hes chewing on out of his mouth, being welcomed from sleep with a boisterous "hello wittle buddy, did you have a good sleep? Did ya, did ya hunh?" Micah, for the most part, is so kind to this somewhat rude awakening by answering Mason with a few quick blinks of his eyes and an immediate smile! Mason LOVES to see Micah and has created several nick names for him that he says with his teeth clinched tight (that's Masons new, excited habit...clinching his teeth, sometimes grinding them = nails on a chalk board for me!): "Little Buddy" "Little Honey" "Babe" "Babes" "Big Guy" and I feel like I'm forgetting one....oh well, it will come to me sometime when I'm away from the computer. Pictured below is a typical moment for the life of Micah and Mason...we were camping and Mason was "helping" set up the tent, while Micah just watched contently from the stroller...Mason realized that Micah was in the stroller and said "aww Wittle buddy can't help" Micah thrilled that Mason came to pay him some attention Laughed out loud! Mason LOVES to make Micah laugh and he will sometimes get carried away in his efforts to make Micah laugh that we have to remind him to be "EASY" which he responds to with, "but hes waffing" (in case you haven't noticed, Mason has replaced the Y for W sounds when hes using any word with an L) Mason is so cute though, he will let Micah pull on his ears, his hair, pinch his face,...anything for a laugh or to make Micah happy. Here it is in action. Micah torturing Mason....and Micah's the one strapped in?? For the first time the other day the boys were in one of these positions and Mason said, "Ouch Micah, don't do that" And I had to gently remind Mason that he may not want to put his head between Micahs hands if he didn't want to get pinched or scratched or pulled on!

Micah LOVEs that he can sit up so well now! And he tries to get to Mason anyway he can! He scoots on his bottom and will reach to an almost crawl position but wont crawl, or doesn't really have the chance or need too because Mason will see what Micah wants and say, "here you go wittle honey" Its so sweet to watch them. I just pray the sweetness continues! I'm seeing little glimpses of Mason having to learn what it means to not be selfish, have patience, be kind, not be greedy, ...and I love it when he makes a hard choice and considers his brother before himself...on his own, that the character trait, we pray for!

Micah watches Mason do everything and kicks his legs, waves his arms and grunts to be where ever Mason is. Micah was so excited to get to be on top of the playground equipment and Mason wanted to be sure to let me know that he would watch out for "babes" and keep him safe.

Here again Mason has his hand behind Micah to protect him from the step, and Micah LOVES that hes doing what Mason is! The two of them have started this little thing while Micah gets his diaper changed, they start making a "aaaahhhhh or oooohhhhh" sound together and they do it till they run out of breath then both start laughing! Its so cute! I love it! Micah is trying so hard to communicate with him!

I was trying to be a "good mom" and make it fair for them both so I thought Micah would LOVE his little turtle pool to splash in while Mason ran and jumped in the splash mat...And he did love it... while Mason was in it with him...but once I had the splash mat set up for Mason Micah wasn't so happy that he couldn't do the splash mat too! Poor Baby!

Mason tried to make Micah happy by saying, "its okay babes, you can just watch me!, Its still fun to play out here"...Mason said that directed to me and I totally understood what he was thinking..."oh, I hope shes not going to make me go back inside because Micah is crying"

In the end, Micah quit crying and did enjoy watching Mason splash and jump, but he still had a very sad face, a face longing to be "big". Oh the joys of parenting. The stress you put on yourself to "be fair or even" When in reality, its okay for them to learn the lessons of considering others better than yourself, to have to wait and watch and be patiently joyful at the sight of your sibling enjoying something even if you can't. If we could figure out how to help these boys understand how to not be prideful, but respectful, how to not be jealous but instead grateful and most importantly how to love each other more than themselves we will be teaching them life lessons! And if ONLY I could keep this idea of parenting in the forefront of my mind as well! Like today when we were having a nice little picnic in the shade and Mason and Chris were playing soccer in the shade but Micah was sad and wanted to go home for a nap...I was wishing that we would have driven separately so that Chris and Mason could continue playing and Micah could go home to sleep. But we didn't have to cars so we all packed up and left. Mason was sad to leave, but not out of control, and I was able to tell him that we love the park and playing soccer but we love Micah too and right now we needed to think of Micah...and Mason understood! Why do we think our kids wont understand things like that? Why don't I make more of an effort to just really explain the truth of why I'm doing something? I'm really gonna work on it! And I'm sure I'll have lots of practice with these two! If Only Mason knew the reality of how much, already, that Micah is watching! I hope they always wanna be together!