Catching up...

Dang, how time flies.  I feel like I have to catch up because I like to look back and have a pretty good record of what we've been doing... but that's a lot to do, especially because I always have to pick the best pictures and edit them, etc. ... why do I make this so hard? Not to mention I can't focus long enough to finish a post. Case in point, I started this one early this morning when Jon and I were enjoying the sunrise (not quite, but close)... and sat down like an HOUR ago to finish and have done about 10 other things besides finish it... [oh wait, now it is the following morning and I'm back to get this darn thing posted... See what I mean?] 

So, quick recap with (mostly) un-edited (and mostly iPhone) pics, then hopefully we'll be back to regularly scheduled blogging!

We had some nice spring weather before it decided to freeze us. I think everyone has been having this kind of weird, back and forth weather, right? It's been great on the nice days to enjoy the yard and the sunny days before we get the realllly sunnnnny (and hot, humid, sticky, yucky) days of summer!

(The Barrett pear blossoms are a common sight in these parts, I've loved having them at each of our homes in the Spring).

(The poor daffodils didn't stand a chance w/Chris around!)

Just before Easter, we had awesome tornado warnings, sirens going off, and HUGE hail. It was nuts. We'd never seen anything like it.

(I know, they look like garlic and crystals, but they are hail! And that is in fact, a quarter.)

Dave got a new trailer for the TRACTOR (mower) and now we feel like farmers out in our *field*. New fun family activity...

Before, they had to take turns riding on Daddy's lap, now they get to ride in the back. I just learned how to mow and drive the thing too (looove mowing!), so I took them on rides today. It's like Disneyland here, seriously. So fun :)

Early March, we headed up to Chattanooga. We went to the children's museum, which they LOVED. I think Ben's favorite place to go is "kid masims".

Ben climbed wayyy up this thing, and helped Chris climb up too...

Jon had so much fun he crashed...

Chris LOVED the art area (mah boy!)

Ben too... he loved rubbing the coins...

And oh boy, the dinosaur area had DRESS UP! Roarrrr!

Jon, just bein' happy...

The roof had the coolest machines where you worked the levers and stuff.

Jon has changed so much lately. He's been busy growing and cutting teeth... SIX and counting! He's jabbering a ton and pulling up on anything he can grab onto to walk around- He can crawl OVER anything, and he's even figured out how to climb the stairs (Mama needs to get that gate installed, oye). And he gets MAD when you are making him do something he doesn't want to do (diaper change, wait for his bottle, etc). He's got an awesome little sense of humor. Still always smiling and cute.

(Hangin' out, eatin' Cheerios with his friend in the baby corner of RS/ Sunday School at church. Thank goodness we have that corner for those two hours, we would not make it!)

(Sidenote: since Chris got this toy for Christmas, he has LOVED "Felipe" the screwdriver from Handy Manny- for a while it was his very favorite thing, so funny!)

Chris has changed a lot too. He's just exploded in the last month or so with so much more to say. Everything is a complete thought- he wants to explain things and direct people. Before every prayer, he has to say who is saying the prayer, and then individually-- who need to close their eyes. He is cracking us up soo much. He's been excited to be able to do more things that Ben can do....

Ben is just something else lately. He's got a definite 4 year old 'tude, but at the same time can be so sweet and just amazes us every day with the things he says and does. He's so imaginative. He really acts like a little adult. Where did my baby go? He just turned four on Sunday and I will save his birthday for it's own post.

Oh, and haircuts, we did that too....

Some videos for your wait....

I know, I need to blog. I have lots of pictures and stuff... but I also have a million "better" things I should be doing,  so until I get to it... here are some videos. I keep meaning to post more of them.

Today's video theme... music. We LOOOVE our music around here.

This one just makes me smile- it was about a month ago. Jon just LOVES his Ben:

And Chris' favorite song...

Ben with his newest fascination, Dave's old trumpet:

New Look (just in time!)

Another face-lift for the blog... just because. I went back to two columns too... it was getting crowded ;)

Aren't they handsome?

Here's one more. My favorite from today:

Oh yeah, there was that one snow day...

So, I'm a little late, but on the first we got an awesome snow storm. I woke up and went to feed Jon, not noticing this out the window:

until I was on my way back across to our bedroom... then I saw it and couldn't wait until the boys woke up. Not long after, I heard Ben through the monitor, "It's snowing outside!" The first thing he did when he woke up was peek outside his window.

This is what it looked like on our street. This was seriously the best snow since I've lived here. Not a ton, but it stuck for a while and was deep enough to gather up and pack.

Look close, you can see the snow falling!

We threw on coats, pants, hats, etc... over the pj's and ran outside to check it out. IT. WAS. FREEEEZING. We didn't last too long. Ben was so cold he didn't go far...

Chris was like, "what? come on guys!"

When we came in, we had to cheer Chris up with promises of hot cocoa...

Which was perfect... it tastes better on a freezing snowy day, I think...

After breakfast, I went out and scooped some snow into a couple of plastic bins and we played in the snow and made snowmen inside at the table where it was nice and warm...

And tasted a little too...

We stayed in our pj's all day I think. I ran outside once more to freeze my buns off and take some more pictures of the beautiful snow before it melted away in the afternoon.

I have more catching up to do, but I'm up wayyy too late tonight :)

Pay it forward...

Yay! Everyone out here was posting this, but everytime I saw it, they already had 3 comments... this time, I'm #3 on Alisha's (second time doing it)!

This is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones!

How fun is that?

(ETA: If anyone reads this later... I actually only have TWO participating comments, even though it says there are three comments. So if anyone else is interested!)

{Promise I'll be back soon to catch up, I know I haven't blogged in a while!}

Remembering Grandpa...

I don't have a lot of memories of my Grandpa Chuck, even though he just passed away this morning. When I was a kid, I have vague memories of a big bear of a man who was very particular about things, like his pool and his car. I remember his laugh. It was full and hearty, like my Auntie Emma's. 

I think I was around 13 when he had a stroke, taking away his ability to communicate normally. It also paralyzed one side of his body, leaving him unable to do things for himself and making him completely reliant on others. For my grandpa, this could not have been easy. He was a strong man who I'm sure didn't like to depend on other people. I remember Grandpa being a golfer. I remember him studying the Bible and working on his car. And playing music, he and Grandma would play and sing beautiful Hawaiian music. 

After the stroke, all of that was gone for him. I can't even imagine living close to two decades of your life trapped in a new body and mind after living a normal life for so long. I know he shed countless tears of frustration and grief as he came to accept his new life. I can imagine that it was very humbling for him to have to be taken care of, even at the most basic level.

I don't feel sad today for Grandpa. He wouldn't want that. I do feel sad for my family, knowing that there is sorrow and a void left by his passing. Most of them were closer to Grandpa than I was. But I imagine my Grandpa is up in heaven now, singing and playing Hawaiian music with his friends and family who had passed on before him. I bet he's got a tee time in the morning. He's loving every minute of being able to walk and talk the way he used to. He's probably dancing tonight, I can just picture him.

I love you Grandpa.

Teeth!

A week ago, Jon woke up with a tooth- FINALLY. I swear he had been working on that thing for months and I worried that it would never break through. But it did, and he seemed much happier. Then on Monday (three days later) he got the other bottom tooth. Poor little dude- no wonder it hurt him so much. But now he is doing much better, and he is so cute with those little pearlies in his smile! 

Falling apart...

Seriously, I was the kid who never broke a bone or got stitches, rarely visited the doctor, had never stayed in a hospital.... I got my first and only (not counting surgery) stitches (3) when I was 18 and cut my finger with a big knife at work.

Then came 2004, three weeks before our wedding- Appendicitis.

At the end of 2006, they took my gall bladder too. 

Last September, Viral Meningitis put me in the hospital for a week. 

And finally, last week, hernia repair surgery?

Am I falling apart or is it just me? I have scars all over my middle, I'm lactose intolerant, and I'm getting tons of gray hairs! Further proof of my old age, I just wrote a blog post about my ailments.

I guess I'm still young enough that my complaining is on a blog ;)

My thigh-highs... anti-embolism stockings... Cute right?

Baby Ethan

This little dude is the newest addition to Dave's family (Sam and Mariann's). He is still so new and tiny- it was so fun to take his pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Lucky numba seven

I usually just ignore tags, but just for you Dana, I will do this one.

And lest you think I cheated... I did look in a few places as you know (I have photos all over, such is my life) and all of them were just really lame- pictures of things I was sending someone, or something equally boring or out of focus. But then I realized that right now there are over 7 photo folders on my desktop just waiting to be filed away, so here is the 7th picture in the 7th folder. It's true :)

This is my grandma- and a little logo doodad that I whipped up for the photo on our family Facebook group. I just have to say that I didn't get the whole attraction of sites like Facebook. I mean, I cannot STAND MySpace. Barf. But Facebook has been amazing. I've gotten back in touch with some dear friends back home and have been able to see/hear more from friends and family all over, since we are all so busy- it's not like we are calling each other and catching up on what's going on in our lives. I think the best thing for me has been that my extended (Hawaiian) family on my mom's side all caught the bug a little while ago, and it's been really fun to have everyone on there. I started a group for the family. It's just fun to *see* everyone there and be able to send a quick hello or I love you or share pictures or thoughts. 

So this is my beautiful Hawaiian grandma, Wanda- for our FB group, Wanda's Ohana :)

Fist bump!

I just can't get enough of this happy little cutie :) 

Christopher's turn... yeah.

So my last posts (I know it's been a while, that's why I'm playing catchup tonight!) were of Jon and Ben, and some were wondering when they would see Chris. You asked for it.

He was sooo not cooperative. This is why I don't really do this with him very often. But I tried. And it was funny. He is so darn cute- he's got those big blue eyes... I just can't capture it. He won't sit still, he scrunches up his face and says "file" (smile) or something equally silly.... it's like pulling teeth to get him to even look in my direction. But here he is anyway....

Just picture it....

I made an attempt to get a new picture of the boys last week. I have this 24x36 frame (for a 20x30 matted picture of the boys) over my mantle and it had a Christmas picture in it. So we had this beautiful 60 degree day and we went outside to give it a shot. We got ONE decent shot, which is what I usually end up with, so I'm okay with that. The outtakes from this one were too funny not to share!

So this was the winner, and is now hanging above the mantle and up in the blog header too...

But this was what I was dealing with in the other 87 shots... What are you yelling? And what is so interesting on your sleeve Chris?

Okay now suddenly the dead brown grass is soooo intriguing? (And for those not in Alabama, that is how grass looks here in the winter!)

No, look at ME! That's right Jon, you're the only one who is listening!! That's my good baby :)

Then Jon leaned over and hugged Ben, it was too cute!

I always get so frustrated doing this because heck if I can even get them all looking at the same time, much less smiling or giving me some kind of pleasant expression. I just pray that one shot will be okay to use, so my efforts weren't in vain! This is why I don't take them to anyone to have pictures done. It's not that I think I'm such a pro, even though I think I do okay... it's because I'm not going to pay someone for this... at least *I* can try again later if it doesn't work out!

Discovery Center: Revisited

So you might remember the Children's Museum that we went to before Christmas. Well, we all headed back there last weekend, this time with Rachel and family too. It was a fun time. The kids had a blast again. They couldn't get enough.

I went through to pick my favorite pictures from the day and ended up with like 35 sooo... I will tell you about a couple faves of each boy then leave you with a little slide show of the rest!

Jon loved just watching everything. He was in the stroller a lot just watching the kids and grabbing at things. We pulled off his tray and pushed him up to this table and he loved playing there. He also loved playing on the floor with the bigger wooden cars and being carried around to see more stuff. He was happy as a clam the whole day!

They had all these dressup wings. The boys loved Jon the butterfly!

Chris, Chris. He loves to dress up and they had engineer overalls and hats. His favorite part was the train you could play on, so he wore this stuff for quite a while, just playing... even though he was almost tripping over his pants, he didn't care. Here he is playing the xylophone on the front of the train and singing "Country Woads" :)

And inside the train. I knocked on the little window and got a big smile and a smush up against the glass. I love this picture!

Ben loved the train "station" ticket booth. He sat in there for quite a while yelling "tickets!" Then I helped him write ont the chalkboard. I actually just told him the letters and he wrote them. He needed a little help with the K and the 7 (and the $) but he was very proud of himself after! Incidentally, the $7 price is what he kept saying when they played in the market part. He would say- "this apple, seven dollars... this potato? seven dollars." Some things were other amounts, but $7 seemed to be his favorite.

He and Caleb played with clay for quite a while, making all kinds of things. Not a surprise- this kid will play with playdoh all day if you let him. I do want to get some other kinds of clay for them to try though!

(You can watch the slideshow change or click the thumbnails)

Love is in the Air (new blog look!)

I redid the look again, this time overhauling the whole thing and learning a bunch in the process :)