Peace

On our Christmas mantle is the word PEACE.  There are five letters in this word, there are five people in my family, it may seem only natural.  However, there is a story behind why our stocking hang from this word.

This story was born nine years ago when I was expecting my third child.  My husband and I had gone in for a routine ultra sound just after Thanksgiving.  However, this ultra sound was anything but routine.  My doctor could not find four chambers in my baby's heart.  Try as he may, he could only find two chambers.  

We were immediately set up for a follow up ultra sound at another doctor's office that was used to working with high risk pregnancies.  We had to wait what felt like forever, but in fact was probably about three or four days until our next appointment.   I was beside myself with fear for my unborn child and what life would hold for him.   I was in a state of constant worry and crying.  I spent a lot of time praying for my unborn child.

One night, I woke up to a voice telling me 'It is going to be okay'.  My head shot up off the pillow, but the house was dark and everyone was asleep.  What I was left with was an overwhelming sense of Peace.  A Peace that could only be from God as it surpassed my understanding.

When my doctor appointment came, we found that our son's heart did in fact have four chambers and in fact...everything was okay.  That year as I went Christmas shopping I bought our PEACE stocking holders.  Each year I pull them out and am so thankful for the gift of Peace God gave me that year.

My Christmas wish for you is that you too will have God's Peace that surpasses our human understanding.  Merry Christmas!  Peace be with you!

And the Peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:7

Back to School - Boys vs. Girls

My first child was a girl.  When we found out our second child would be a boy my mother told me I would notice a difference in the way a baby boy cried vs. a baby girl.  She even told me that my sister had called her and told her she was right about this.  I never noticed it.

Fast forward to now and I am noticing a big difference between my girl and my boys...this is not a personality difference, it is definitely gender difference.

Last week my sweet live-ins started school.  At the end of each of their days I ask them how their days went, what was their favorite thing, do they like their teacher, what they played on the playground, did they eat all their lunch, etc...

My sweet girl is happy to tell me all about her day, in colorful, vivid detail.  A moment by moment recollection.  When I ask her questions she answers happily and thoroughly.  This process takes quite a while.  Just when I think I have heard it all, we have dinner and I hear it all again and then some.

In contrast, trying to get any information out of my boys about their day is like trying to pull teeth with no hands.  This is how this conversation usually sounds:

How was your day? Fine
Do you like your teacher? Yes
What was your favorite part of the day? Recess
You can't pick recess.  Then nothing.
What did you learn? Nothing
Did you do math?

It is a this point that Live-In #2 pretty much stops answering and Live-In #3 makes a loud sound of frustration.  This is when I realize I like all the colorful vivid detail.  I am used to 13 years of colorful vivid detail. But, my precious boys are not going to give it to me.

I can sum it all up...My girl is her mother's daughter and my boys are their father's sons.

Back to School Letter

Dear Sweet Babies:

I cannot believe another summer has come and gone.  I am am not quite ready for you all to go back to school, but I am so excited for the adventures you will encounter as an 8th grader, 4th grader & 3rd grader!   You are growing up so fast and I am so proud of each of you.

Live In #1: you are growing up to be such a lovely young lady.  I am so proud to be your mother.  I am in awe of your strength of character and your confidence in yourself.  You are inspiring.  I am looking forward to the new experiences you will have at your new middle school and the stories you will tell at the dinner table each night!

Live In #2: you are an amazing boy.  I am honored to be your mother.  You have a absolute sense of yourself.  I have no doubt you are destined to be and do great.  I am eager to hear about all the new wonders you will learn about.  I love learning about our world and the things in it through you!

Live In #3: you are a wonderful boy. It is an absolute delight to be your mother.  You amaze me with your unwavering character and sweet spirit.  The mommy in me wants to keep you as my little baby, but I know you are growing up to be a spectacular young man.  It is a joy to watch you grow and experience new things.

I love you all so very much.  Best wishes for a grand school year!

With All My Love,
Mommy

Brotherly Love

As I wrote my Crazy Hair Post I got to thinking that I am really lucky that my boys actually like each other.

Most of the time....

They never have a problem sharing...

And if you believe that - I have a bridge to sell you...

Live-In #2 often has his arms around Live-In #3

Probably so when I turn my back he will have the upper hand in any shenanigans...

I am sure Live-In #3 is not screaming at me that he is done with pictures already...

And can't you tell Live-In #2 does like to be my model...

I am sure the fact that Santa Claus was coming to town didn't have anything to do with their cooperation for this photo!

My Boys - They do love each other!

I am a lucky Mother!

Memorial Day Weekend Trivia - Part II

For Memorial Day my family and I went with friends to Central Oregon where we encountered, indulged in and endured the following:

1.  Pole Hanging Contest - I feel you must have some pictures to go with this...

Live-In #3 beat everyone with over 8 minutes!

2.  Horses - right next door to our vacation rental were horses.  The girls had so much fun feeding them, petting them and driving them out of their minds!  There was even a baby w/ is's mama!

3.  Rainbow Trout - the boys went fishing and caught fish...Mama Don't Do Trout so we are giving them to grandparents who for some reason like to eat the God awful fish!

Lover & Live-In #3 caught the only fish on the 1st day

4.  Snow - yes it's true.  Not only through the mountain pass, but we watched it accumulate outside our vacation house! On May 28th & 29th we enjoyed endured snow and the frozen temperatures that came with it!  It felt like the middle of winter rather than the cusp of summer!

The Mountain Pass

Right outside our door

5.  Sunshine - at least that is what I think it was...it reminded us that spring was if fact somewhere out there...

6.  A  Double Bed - I have two things to say about this...1st - Thank God I don't sleep on one of these anymore!  2nd - I LOVE MY OWN BED!!!

7.  Martinis - a weekend getaway wouldn't be complete without a martini in hand!  We enjoyed Strawberry Lemonade Martinis and experimented with a Coconut Cream Pie Martini - recipe to follow at a later date!

8.  Strawberry Shortcake - yes my friend made homemade strawberry shortcake and I pronounced 'It Was Good'.

9.  Turquoise Purse - this also requires a picture...

Not my only bargain for the weekend, but probably the most fun!

10.  Odd Shaped Eyebrows - I wish I had a picture for you - but apparently some of the young people of Central Oregon have a fascination with freaky eyebrows.  One woman had completely waxed her eyebrows off and then drew on new eyebrows at least 1-2" above her brow line - oh did I mention it had to have been with a jumbo crayon??  Then one man had waxed his eyebrows into triangles that abruptly went out into a thin line...  Made for some interesting conversation and laughs!


So our weekend didn't include any dolphins, sandy beaches, slushys, bikinis or fruit bats (the last one is compliments of live-in #2), but we had fun with friends and will be talking about this Memorial Day for years to come!

Crazy Hair Day

Live-In #2 & Live-In #3 were very excited about school today...it was Crazy Hair Day and they had a plan.  Mohawks!  Sometimes after they have a shower they will fashion their hair in a mohawk which makes them laugh and giggle.  Which in turn makes my heart get all warm and sappy and then all I want to do is kiss their little faces and snuggle them up!

But today was serious business, they were calling for gel.  Thankfully their sister had some and we went to work on creating a mohawk that would stay...

I didn't have the heart to tell them they may get an award for the cutest, sweetest, handsomest boys in school instead of the boys with the craziest hair. 

On another note, look how Live-In #2 has his arms protectively around Live-In #3...good thing I didn't notice it when I took their picture...I would have gone all gooey and sappy on them and they never would have made it to school on time!

Waiting on Me

My Lover has a phrase he likes to use often 'I've been waiting on you...'.  He will occasionally mix it up with 'I'm waiting on you...' or 'Waiting on you...', but the 'waiting on you' portion of the phrase never changes.

However, today my ears heard a new voice and a new phrase... 'We've been waiting on you...' compliments of Live-In #3.

So I have decided it is time to enlighten men and boys alike...GET USED TO IT!  For the rest of your life you will be waiting on your wife, your mother, your sister, your daughter, your grandmother, your granddaughter, your aunt, your cousin (female of course), your mother-in-law, your sister-in-law, your second cousin twice removed....you get the picture???

Now that we've made this clear...sorry you had to wait on me today...

Happy Easter

I had wanted to post pictures from Easters past today, but I have spent the last 45 minutes rummaging through my photos only to realize that I need some organization!  (don't tell Lover, he will get that 'i told you so' look about this confession...)

Organization is not my only problem, I have been a scrapbooker in my years...and while I haven 't scrapped a page in almost five long years (whaaaa...one day I hope to scrap again) some of my favorite Easter pics from years past are already in my scrapbooks and I can't find the pics on my computer...

But, I did find this pic that I LOVE...it makes me smile...and since he was born on Easter weekend 8 years ago and since this is his birthday week and since I am unorganized and since he is so dang cute...this is the one you get...

Happy Easter Everyone!

Letter to Live-In #3

Dear Live-In #3:

Why do I love you so much?  This is a question I ask you often and you always answer 'because I came from your tummy'.  While it is true that you came from my tummy and I have loved you since before you were born, this is not the reason I love you so much...

I love you so much because you are you.  You are loving, kind, funny, smart, mischievous, loud, just, vulnerable, sweet, caring, and snugglely.  You are way to cute for words.  I am in awe of you.  Without you I would be an incomplete person - you are a part of me.  My heart requires you.

So while I did fall madly in love with you when you were this size...I am still madly in love with you today.

Love,

Mommy

Don't Forget the Birthday Cake

Several years ago I got tired of buying expensive specialty birthday cakes and decided I would try my hand at making my live-ins special day cakes...now that I think of it...this was around the time that instead of buying one specialty cake a year I was going to have to buy three!!  Economics, that's what it was, economincs...

I took a cake decorating class when Live-In #1 was a baby, not because I wanted to make birthday cakes, but because I thought maybe this could be a business for me...I quickly found out - Cakes Were No Business For This Girl...

But because of this whim I had a few supplies in my cabinets and was able to begin with cupcakes for Live-In #2's 1st Birthday...Mickey Mouse: cupcakes frosted red with store bought Mickey decorations and 2nd Birthday...Basketballs and Baseballs (don't remember if there were footballs and I don't want to go grab the scrapbook right now) of course the baseballs were my favorite - I actually had to use a little of what I learned in my cake decorating class for these.

Then Live-In #1 decided she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake birthday with a Strawberry Shortcake Hat shaped cake...Oh Boy...Thankfully my sister (who could probably have a cake decorating business) came to my rescue and came over to help me make this masterpiece.  Since then, every year I make my kids birthday cake.  They are so excited to see what I come up and are easily pleased. 

Over the years we have had Princess Castles, Trains, Treasure Chest, Baseball Field, Transformers, Star Wars, Beaches, Light Sabors, Football Helmets and just plain Whimsical.  They have been fun, but either they are getting harder or my creative mind is mush...But my Live-In's think I can and should be able to do it all! 

So this year Live-In #3 chose to go to a place called Sky High for his birthday.  This place is a big warehouse type building with HUGE trampolines.  Yes, that was plural.  They have a big trampoline area where the walls are also a trampoline, they have a trampoline that you can jump off of and into a pit of foam and they have a dodge ball trampoline area.  So to go with this theme Live-In #3 wanted a trampoline cake!  I had no idea what I was going to do and all the ideas on the internet included fondant...I don't do fondant...but I finally found a cake I thought I might be able to tackle with regular frosting...

If you are a professional cake decorator or even a semi-pro or kind of pro I know you are cringing right now...but Live-In #3 and his friends liked it...and my mama was proud...and that is all that matters. 

P.S.  It tasted better than it looks...

Happy Birthday to My Boy

Eight years ago today I gave birth to this wonderful boy - Happy Birthday My 8 Year Old Baby Boy!!!

Most...if not all...of my posts this week will be a tribute to this wonderful boy of mine.  So strap on your seatbelts and enjoy the ride...

A look back at a year in the life of my boy!

Catching for his Sister

Lemonade Stand

Easter

Boating

Tubing at Shasta

Taking a Stroll on the Water with Daddy

Our Family - Midnight Run on Shasta

Lizard Hunting

Sleeping on a Midnight Cruise at Lake Billy

Mouse Trapping at Lake Billy

Taking off into the Water

I'm the King of the World!

Hi Mom!

Mowing the Lawn for the 1st Time

1st day of 2nd Grade

Tubing at Mt Hood

Brothers

Making Gingerbread Houses

Happy Birthday beautiful boy.  I love you so very much!!

Baseball - Pros & Cons

The Cons of Baseball

Con #1 - Injuries:  My poor baby got hit in the chin by some rookie pitcher!  Oh, that's right - they are all rookie pitchers...ok, I will forgive other boy.  But, look at my poor baby - he took it like a little trooper - wouldn't let mama coddle him...

Con #2 - No Coddling: Whaaa!!!

Con #3 - Late Dinners:  8pm is too late to eat dinner in my opinion, but you gotta do what you gotta do...

Con #4 - Dirt:  My Live-Ins & Lover seem to track in all kinds of dirt.  I had to sit them ALL down and give them a stern lecture about taking their shoes off in the garage...the laundry room is not a mud room - neither is my hallway, front entry, kitchen, family room, etc!

Con #5 - Laundry Hell:  I have my work cut out of me this year. This is the 1st year my Live-Ins have had light colored pants!  AHHHHH!!!

The Pros of Baseball

Pro #1 - The Uniform: - I can't stand it...a boy in uniform is about as cute as they get! It rivals little girls with twirley dresses and bowes in their hair!

Pro #2 - The Dugout:  Enough Said...

Pro #3 - The Side Lines: The best fans...willing to sit out in the rain, cold, sleet and hail...well maybe not all of those, but the fans are great!!

Pro #4 - The Coach:  He is kinda 'HOT' if you ask me!  Hey Coach...will you come home with me??

Pro #5 - The Stance:  Batter Up!

Pro #6 - The Outfield:  That's My Baby

Pro #7 - A Runner on 2nd Base:  That's My Baby!

Pro #8 - Home Plate:  Score!!

Pro #9 - Sportsmanship: - Way to go Team!!

Pro #10 - THE WIN!!!: 12-9, Way to Go Braves!!