Blogging Through 2011...

this is the 6th year that i have done blogging through.....
i went to the first post of every month the wrote the first scentance or line from that post. (not the title...unless there is no text.)
i love looking back and remembering what the beginning of each month held.
here goes....

Janurary: Sweet Dreams by: Robin Jones Gunn

February: usually i post a picture of her looking right at the camera because her eyes are so amazing, but i just love this one

March: 9 months old

April: the only word to describe for how i am feeling today.

May: my hubby and i love to go to festivals.

June: paper....she is facinated with paper.

July: Webster says Liberty is: 1. the quality of state of being free a. the power to do as one pleases b. the freedom from physical restraint.

August: this is one of our favorite groups to "jam" to.

September: this is a photo of my grandparents on their wedding day,

October: it apperars that all of these people are just standing around watching the train that is passing, but in fact, they along with my family were attending the Madison Street Festival.

November: these two kids are the light of my life.

December: this is one of the things that we bought for little guy for Christmas and it is probably one of my favorite things too.

so there you have it Blogging Through 2011. What in the world will next year hold? We shall see.

Sighting

cool house in our area that we went to check out. they have their lights tunes to a local radio station and it's pretty amazing. not sure the picture does the house justice on how grand it all is. there is even lights and stuff on the side that we saw once we drove that way.

to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge for Sighting go here.

Seriously

where has this child come from. my son never did stuff like this (not that he wasn't a mess and into other things) any my niece and nephew didn't do this climbing stuff either. notice the little red bowl on the ground, i guess she used that to climb onto the trash can and i guess she wanted cheese it's. i'm glad my camera was close by. the other day we found her with a stool in front of a door at my mother in laws house trying to get in. like i said, none of the other kids did this......where is she from? :)

Dark

my husband and i bought this fiber-optic tree when we lived in WA state. we held onto it and it is now in my son's room. here is a dark picture if is with my daughter wow-ing at it.

Twinkle

my son's Christmas program at school was yesterday and one of the songs that was sung was Twinkle, Twinkle, Twinkle (that is three Twinkle's) and my finger nail is pretty Twinkley, don't you think?

to participate in the CrazyJoy Challenge go here.

Buy

this is one of the things that we have bought for little guy for Christmas and it is probably one of my favorite things too. I just love it and can't wait to give it to him and start to read the stories.

if you want to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Edge

my sweet little girl was on the "edge" of driving us a little mad today. she gets into one thing after another.

to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Business

so you never want to get all up in someone's ~business~ right? but when that someone is your little sister, she is the beautiful bride, and she has a wedgie that she can't get cuz of her lovely wedding dress....you do what you can to help. one of the bridesmaids snapped this picture. i have to say that i am glad that it came out blurry but also equally glad that we have it. memories..... the things you go for your little sis.

if you want to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Crack

we met some friends at a local state part this weekend. it was such a beautiful day, perfect for some time outside with friends. little guy wanted to look for treasure, baby girl wanted to put stuff in her purse and mommy was looking for a crack. :) this one just so happened to be illuminated by the light of the sun. a crack in between the two walls that made up the outside amphitheater there at the park.

if you want to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge, go here.

Things I am lovin' right now

blue skies with puffy white clouds.......amazing fallish colors......warm things to drink.....toasted bread with apple butter.....creme brulee creamer by coffee mate.....warm blankets.....yummy soup......halloween candy (thanks kids).....my pretty painted fingernails.....the excitement of my sister's wedding in 7 days.....reading a good book.....

Light

these two kids are the light of my life. they are so fun and amazing. i am so blessed to have them as kids. my jumping buzz lightyear and my grumpy lady bug. (note: little girl didn't go as the grumpy lady bug she just sometimes is.)

to link up with the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Us

this weekend my hubby and i got to go out on a date. i can't remember that last time that we went out. we had a gift card to pf changs that we wanted to use so off we went. it was wonderful too. time for US, yummy food, some plum wine, good company, fortunes....not that best one's that we've ever had (not that we believe in them) it was just some good time all around for US.

to participate in this weeks CrazyJoy challenge, link up here.

Mystery in the Library

i can't believe that i am just now getting around to posting this. last weekend i hung out with this group of characters. we had a murder mystery party and were gathered in the library to figure out who killed king henry. it was so much fun and everyone did such a fantastic job gathering their costumes.

Sweet

this was a "sweet" treat. we bought a couple of cupcakes this weekend and this was the one that my husband brought home for us. it was so yummy and "sweet" and it was "sweet" of him to bring one home for us. prefect cupcake for breast cancer awareness month.

to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge link up here.

Wish

i *wish* i had a maid. this morning, while picking up the white grape juice i dropped the whole bottle on the floor. it spilled all over. luckily i was quick enough to scoop it up before any more spilled out. while surveying the spill and then taking the pictures i sighed and though that my *wish* would be for a maid. my fairy godmother didn't show up so the cinderella in me, not the version in glass slippers got down to cleaning. i had just set up an old sheet tent for the kids right before so they were content to watch me from their post under the table covered with the sheet.

to participate in this weeks CrazyJoy challenge, go here.

Assembly

it appears that all of these people are just standing around watching the train that is passing but in fact they, along with my family, were attending the Madison Street Festival, where there is yummy food, crafty stuff, face painting, story troopers, ghost busters, dancing, music, some rides, a kids tent and much more.

to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge, go here.

Fuel

i love getting in the car and already having it fueled up. :) my hubby is so go to do that for me. i think he knows not to leave it to me since i have locked my son in the car twice while putting gas in. embarrassing but true.

to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge, go here.

Attack

viewing this picture of the giant Mowgli, it may appear that he is attacking my children (smile and all)

but upon closer inspection, i believe that they are attack(ing) him.

Rock

while i was putting clothes away this weekend, i came across this t-shirt that is my little guys. he got it for his birthday this year and it is so perfect for him. he loves to rock on his guitar, the drums, his new penny flute, just about any type of musical instrument. it's great. here are two pictures of little guy playing his guitar.

my son......he rock(s).

to link up with this challenge, go here.

Young

this is a photo of my grandparents on their wedding day. i have had it in our house since my husband and i got married 9 years ago. we have another wedding in our family coming up....my little sis is getting married in November and as she was making wedding preparations she mentioned that she wished she could wear Granny's wedding dress, which is pretty funny because that was exactly what i said when we were planning our wedding. it was beautiful and lovely. for some reason she didn't have it anymore so we just look at her pictures and wish. my grandparents have been married for (i'm going to guess (because i am bad with numbers)) 57 years now. here they are, young. i love it.
to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge, link up here

Labor

my husband cuts the grass almost every weekend (unless it doesn't need it.) my little guy loves to be outside with daddy and loves to help cut the grass. i love this picture of him helping out with the grass cutting.

Orange and Lake House Weekend

this weekend we drove three hours to visit my parents at the lake. when little guy spent a week with them in july all he wanted to watch (when it was tv time) was this one pooh bear movie that he called pink pooh bear because the cover was pink. my mom told me that she hid it hoping that we could get him to watch something different. we started with 101 Dalmations. he loved all the puppies. i loved how the dogs called their owners their pets and of course my rolly (he was my fave puppy when i watched it as a kid.....still is) he watched that one two times and then we were able to get him to watch some Peter Pan (another one of my childhood favorites.) he really liked that one too. when i saw that the word was orange i knew that i wanted to get something that happend this weekend while we were at the lake.
yes that is a VHS tape. my parents had a ton of VHS movies and when they got the house at the lake the brought them up here. we happend to have an extra VCR and gave it to them so now we are getting good use out of them. i love it.
more lake pictures below, after the Peter Pan one.
to link up with the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Honey and Little Miss enjoying dounuts

Little Miss eating a powdered donut...her first one

LC and J

Little Guy chilling on the boat ride....waiting to get in the water

First Day of PreSchool

my boys first day of pre-school was yesterday. we ate breakfast and got ready to go. there was no protesting like i thought and he walked into the school ready to go. he got to see one of his friends but they aren't in the same class. when we walked into the class room he dropped his lunch on the floor and tried to make an exit. i reminded him to pick up his lunch (he was proud of his lunch box) and when he turned his back i made my exit. didn't get a phone call from the teachers saying to come get him to i figured he was having a great day and he did. when asked what he did at school he said, played, prayed and ate dinner. he is so awesome. i love this kid

Carry

I wouldn't say that I have an obsession with Vera Bradley, but I very much like her bags.
My first Vera purchase was for my mom. My sister and I got her this purse, or at least it was something like this purse in this color. Before a year was up it as already falling apart so she traded it in for the same shape purse but in this color.
That same year by best friend gave me this tote for my birthday/Christmas.
Two years ago I wanted a new purse for my birthday. I couldn't get this Vera one out of my head,(although mine is the black white and yellow one, not this print) so my mother in law got it for me.
At Christmas time last year I was wanting a new diaper bag for my daughter. I had a couple people tell me that I should get a Vera Bradley one but I didn't want to spend that much on it. I looked and looked and couldn't find one anywhere for a good price so I gave up. The thoughts of wanting one came back and I looked at some local Hallmarks and found that they had some on sale and this is the one that I found and I love it. It wasn't the print that I was looking at and looking for around Christmas but now that I have this one I really love it. It's prefect for me and for my sweet girl. So this is what I carry now.

To link up to the CrazyJoy challenge go here

Historic

I wish that I could say that this weekend we went to New York City and that is why you are looking at small pictures of New York places: The Statue of Liberty, St. Peters Chapel, Central Park and The Empire State Building, but this is just a mini book that I put together after our (me and the hubby) trip to New York City in October 2008. The reason that I am using it for this photo challenge is because I had to get it out when by best friend posted on facebook a question about how to go to New York on the cheap and things to do. I ran straight for the bookshelf and took this little book off and started going through it to give her some ideas. There is so much that is Historic about New York City that just saying the name New York I think historic. So while I wish that I was there in person this weekend I was able to relive our trip through photos, maps, tickets and memorabilia from our trip in 2008.

to participate in the CrazyJoy challenge, link up here.

Jam

this is one of my favorite groups to "jam" to. i think that they only put out 3 cd's as a group and my husband and i have all three of them. they have been played continually. you can see the words wearing off of the cd. one of them we have in the car and there are spots where it skips, it's been played so much. we were able to see Nickel Creek in concert when we lived in the northwest and they were awesome. it may not be the typical music that people "jam" to, blue grass, but it's what we like to "jam" to.

to link up to the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Celebrate

i originally didn't think that i would be finding out what the CrazyJoy word was until last night because we went to visit my parents at their lake house and there is no Internet access and we can't connect to anyone else's, especially not oldfarts. (yes that is someone's user name for their internet.)
however my sister and her fiance came this weekend and they have fancy smart phones so alas i was able to see the CrazyJoy word: Celebrate.
my mom made this awesome cake for my sister (who usually gets a cookie cake fromThe Great America Cookie Company, but again we were at the lake, so she made this pretty thing.) and we went ahead and celebrated all the summer birthdays.
let me give some background. my family: dad, mom, me and sister
birthdays: dad-summer, mom-summer, me-winter, sister-summer
along comes my husband-summer, we have baby number one-summer, then baby number two-summer, my sister is now engaged, her finance-winter (finally i get someone to share the winter with me) not only are they all in the summer, they are all in June and July. So we celebrated six of the eight in our family. it was fun, it was loud, it was wet (we were at a lake and it rained on us when we were out in the boat), it was sweet (the cake of course), it was happy.

to link up with the CrazyJoy challenge go here.

Laugh

i was so torn on what picture to choose from for laugh this weekend. i had three good ones. this one was just too cute so it won. this weekend was my son's 4th birthday. i made cupcakes for the party and once my daughter saw them with the frosting on them she wanted one. she waiting till everyone was able to get them at the party. once it was put in front of her she attacked it. she just loved it. she thought that she was something else when everyone was watchng her and giving her some attention. she just smiled and laughed at the whole family watching her. you would have thought that it was her birthday. funny girl.
to participate in the CrazyJoy photo challenge check out his posthere.

Happy Birthday

to my 4 year old.....i can't believe that my little bitty boy is now four....he is such an amazing human being....he is fully of life....full of energy....such a trooper....loads of passion....loves to sing....gives the best hugs....has come such a long way in the almost 8months he's had his tigger ears....just one special little boy....and all boy too
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET SWEET BOY! I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!

Renew

the CrazyJoy word this week is Renew. immediately when i saw the word i knew what my photograph would be of....my Bible. during Christmas break last year we were visiting my parents and attended the church that i grew up in. there i came across a read the Bible in a year pamphlet. in my 30 years i had never actually committed to reading the whole bible in a year. will i sort of had since i did go to a Bible college and took the classed Survey of the Old Testament and Survey of the New Testament and reading both were required. but i had never decided on my own to do this. something else you may want to know about me is that I'm not a big fan of new years resolutions, i try goals. so this was my goal. but not just to do it to check it off but to have my heart in it and really enjoy it and i really have. the first half of the year has been great and as i am a few weeks into the second half of the year i am excited to read more. so i feel daily renewed with my Bible reading.

Blueberries

shoveling them in
happy to be eating, this girl loves to eat

was he new face for just about everything. i think she may have stopped doing it, so i am glad that i got this picture.

keep them coming mom

Overwhelmed

i am struggling to do what is right when it comes to my little guy.

i am a stay at home mom so there is a reason that i stay at home, to be with my kids and i want to be able to teach him things and be that kind of mommy to him but am having a really hard time with it.

even trying to work, at home, on the things that we do in speech therapy, is a struggle and i can't really think outside of the box to come up with some other way of doing it.

my husband has said before that if we can't do something 100% then we sometimes just don't do it at all and i hated that when he said it but am now feeling like it is so true. no one ever said that being a parent was easy and if someone had then i think i would have a jaw dropping, shocked face, because for sure it isn't easy, especially with a special needs child.

i know that more days in preschool is going to be something that is good for him but hate the idea of it. more days away from me and then i think, what's the point of being a stay at home mom. but then with him home i don't really feel like i am teaching him anything or making a difference in preparing him for kindergarten.

i just have this inner tug of war going on and then to top it all off he has a hearing disability and i have to go up to bat for him. i am the least most assertive person out there and now i have to EXTREMELY stretch myself to make things better for this little guy. and the crappy part about it is that I'm not doing it. i totally asked my husband (who is very assertive) to handle the latest school decisions and while i am thrilled that he is doing it, don't want to do it and love that he wants to be involved in his son's life and decisions i know that he won't be able to always be the one to advocate for our little guy and that scares me because i will have to do it. i am terrified too. i am totally feeling like Moses when he told God that he couldn't be the one to speak to the Israelites because he wasn't eloquent.

if anyone is reading this please pray that whenever and wherever and whoever i have to speak to, to help my little guy in and during his schooling years that i will have the words, thoughts, ability, courage and assertiveness to do what needs to be done for the good of my son. I'm not ready for all of this and i need to be brave.

Liberty

Webster says Liberty is...
1. the quality or state of being free
a. the power to do as one pleases
b. freedom from physical restraint

seeing these two girls (one my niece and the other my daugther (8months apart)) playing on the fourth of July(the power to do as one pleases), in their red, white and blue garb, and if you notice my daugther with her grimice and letting me know to let her hand go (freedom from physical restraint) i guess she wasn't feeling very free at the moment. i feel so blessed to live in a country were my children can play and have fun without a care in the world. (the quality or state of being free)

to participate in this CrazyJoy challenge or future ones check out this site.

Mysterious

this first picture is for theCrazyJoy challenge.

this weekend we had a baby shower for a friend of mine. it was a secret weather the baby was a boy or a girl. she found out last weekend at a shower with her family and she kept a secret from the rest of us for the last week. we had a pink and blue themed shower this weekend and her cake revealed boy or girl? take a look at some of the set up for the shower.

linds hadn't really been craving much but she had been eating a lot of cereal. we had four different types of cheerios and some granola cereal. people could eat it with milk or yogurt or plain.
jules made these cute baby passi's

half of the table was pink and half was blue. i wish i would have gotten a picture from the blue side. we even had pink and blue punch.

linds made her own cake so that she could hide the color of the frosting in the inside. she also made these cupcakes.

so here you go. baby j.crew is a boy. we are so very excited.

this was a big part of my weekend and i chose the first and the last pictures as my CrazyJoy:Mysterious post because it was a mystery to all of us if the baby was going to be a boy or a girl and there is something about pregnancy that is mysterious as well. it's amazing that these little human lives can grow and form and live inside of us for 9 months. it's a mystery as to what this little one will look like. a mystery as to their personality. pregnancy is a mysterious, wondrous thing.