Our Aweful Beautiful Life

Colton, I continue to be blown away (or mad) at what you are asked to achieve in FIRST GRADE. I think my clearest memory from 1st grade was doing a Mother Goose Play in Mrs. LeBeau's classroom at the end of the hallway, acting out all of our nursery rhymes for our parents. I also vaguely remember a red & black plaid phonics book. Fast forward about 30 years....and you're doing math facts and word problems.  You're writing stories with a BMMME set up (beginning, middle, middle, middle, end), and having to use proper punctuation. You've recently memorized the presidents, and sang a song in front of your class to earn a reward trip with Miss Shelton. Thanks for obliging when I asked you to sing for me/the camera, so we could record this precious moment in time.... You're currently working through...or should I say WE are currently working through a research journal on Warren G. Harding. Don't get me wrong, you can totally handle with ease everything t...

Em - just this morning you told me that your knees hurt. We always tease when you get your growing pains that "God is stretching you out to be just as tall as Uncle Trent!"....to which you usually fall into a fit of giggles and soon forget about the pain. Little girl you are growing and changing before our eyes. You are smart. You are funny. You have an infectious sweet grin. You are kind. You are ORNERY. You are shy. Lately, you've been in a bit of a Mommy stage. I'm not sure what the problem is, or why all of the sudden you need me so much. We're trying to get to the bottom of that, and hopefully remedying it, with a bit extra Mom & Me time. I'm not complaining...I love our special carved out time.  We battled back and forth about softball, and you decided you'd play, but only if I coached. Kid, I hope you realize I've never coached before and know very little about t-ball...but if there's one age I can surely dupe into thinking I know wh...

February has gone by in a blink -- we've been keeping plenty busy! Poor Colton's 7th birthday gift was another "date day" with Mom & Dad, and we haven't even gotten to go on that date yet....our weekends have been too packed! The first weekend of the month Jason was involved in a coyote hunting contest and gone pretty much all weekend. We had a playdate with Emery & Abby and kept Reid for Lindsay while she worked.  I ended up winning tickets to the Brad Paisley concert at Purdue and had a girls night out with Nat. And last but not least, Lucy, our newest niece was baptized!!Oh, and Keaton was his typical crazy self, and the big kids did a post-Keaton-bedtime craft for Valentines day! And that was just the first weekend! :) The second weekend we hung around home, then Jason and I had a date night to see The Flying Toasters with a big group of friends. FUN Valentines Day! Sunday we spent most of the day with my parents at church/breakfast (...

Keaton -- our story left off with you climbing out of the crib. Nightly. We remedied that by pulling off the front of your crib and converting it into a toddler bed. You weren't a fan at first, but we figured out a few good snuggles and a little rocking and you were totally cool with your bed. So that became our routine, and it's worked...for the better part of February. Thank goodness.  You have nights were you fight us a first, but we're working through that stage of your life. But you child, you don't want our life to get boring. Or normal. So let's share your latest story. Let's start with last week, when Emmalyn woke us up in the night Sunday, puking. The flu hit. By the pure grace of God, none of the rest of us got it (except for Grandma....sorry Grandma!). Thursday evening you were fairly grouchy, but we figured you were either getting sick, or teething. Or both. Who knows. You can't talk yet, so it's just a guessing game. You were fine Friday...

18 months, and you've already mastered climbing out of your crib. You did it once at the beginning of December while Mom was out of town, but we chalked it up to a fluke. You would again test us a time or two between then and now, but this week, you have officially been deemed a #cribclimber.  You are avoiding naptime like the plague, and you officially climbed out of Grandma Mandy's crib. She was FORCED to snuggle and rock you at naptime. I hear it was absolute torture for her. NOT. That night, you were soo worn out from Colton's party, you didn't give us grief.  Enter Sunday, where you wouldn't nap, so I finally caved and put you in bed with me. Out like a light for 2+ hours. That evening...we put all three of you kids to bed, and the battle raged on. Finally, I caved after a handful of times of putting you back in your crib, and let you hang with me while I folded laundry and Dad plowed the driveway.  This is the only bed you would voluntarily sleep in. You helpe...

Sometimes, I nail this Mom thing. Othertimes, I fail miserably. Like this morning, when I finally broke down and just yelled at you Colton, for not listening. I tried being patient three times, and you continued to do your own thing. By the end of the drive way, I'd had it. I HATE starting our mornings like that, but I don't know how else to get your attention. I HATE the stress of the mornings and getting you all three out the door in a hurry to get where we need to be. I wish I could figure mornings out, so that we could always be sunshine and rainbows before 8am. I hope you know I'm never THAT mad at you for not buckling up when I asked you three times....I'm really just watching out for your safety, and trying not to let the rush of life get in the way of that. I read a lot of blogs. I pin a lot of BRILLIANT ideas. I map out my parenting plan. And then life happens. I'm not calm and using a happy voice like the article suggested I do. (No offense, but old sc...

Seven. Seven years. How will I feel when you turn 10? 13? 16? 21? 40? I have a feeling my response will always be the same....my how time flies. These years arent slowing, but we are trying to soak up the memories and make the most of the day's God gives us with you. Today, January 30, 2015 was no exception. We woke up and amidst getting ready for school, we jammed to Captian Zoom wishing you Happy Birthday. We called your name into the radio station. We made coffee and enjoyed a quick (rare) assist from Dad to get us out the door on time. (And I still managed to leave his school snacks and the snacks for my coworker on the table....I'm brainless even with help!) School let out and you and 4 buddies joined us for a birthday Par-Tay. It was loud. It was chaos. It was friendship. It was basketball. It was playing keep up. It was ice cream cake. We went bowling. We ate Pizza Hut. We had fun. You even let your sister, and Isaac's sister Kate tag along. (Noti...