If you know this guy....



you'll want to check out his latest post on his blog! What a nut! The link is on my sidebar (Lazy by Nature). Have a happy day!

Looking Back

I LOVE Christmas! Christmas has always been fun, but when you have little children? Christmas is magical. Tonight I was thinking of all the fun things we will do with our children during this next month, and it got me thinking back to the first Christmas Sam and I experienced as parents. Such fun memories! And every year I get more excited about the new things we can do (since the kids are a little older, of course!) So in the spirit of remembering, here's a "vintage" picture for your viewing pleasure....this is Henry at about 7 months old--his very first Christmas!
And Jonah, at almost 11 months for his first Christmas!

Christmas Decorating

Henry and I decorated the Christmas tree this week. While I was busily making sure that the ornaments were evenly dispersed throughout the tree, Henry was busily hanging as many ornaments as possible on a single branch. Here for your viewing pleasure is an example of his best branch (11 ornaments on one tiny little branch! Impressive, huh?),


and an example of the area just to the right of where Henry was decorating. I suggested putting some ornaments over on this side, but Henry said, "No, mama. I still need to put more here!"

Oh Henry, of course you do!

PS: I did redecorate the tree after he went to bed. I'm not a perfectionist by nature, but I really couldn't handle it! And of course the first thing he noticed when he got up was, "Heeeeyyyyy! You moved all the ornaments!"

Eating Troubles

Jonah has always been our child who would eat anything. There are a few things he doesn't like, but for the most part he can pack in anything. From the time he first started on "solid food," he didn't want baby food. He wanted table food, and lots of it. Also the bigger, the better. He preferred things not broken up into small pieces for him (can you say "choke hazzard?") Basically if you put it in front of Jonah, it would be eaten.

So recently, when Jonah started shaking his head at the dinner table, I thought he was just playing around. He was just sitting there, not exactly eating, so I suggested he take a bite of his dinner. My idea was met with violent head shaking, followed by a shouted, "NOOOOOOOO!!!" The struggle intensified and ended with Jonah being sent to his room. Sam and I actually thought it was pretty funny. He went from this sweet little joyful angel to a rebel in the course of a few minutes. We thought he must be tired. (That's always it, right?)

The problem was not limited to just the one meal, however. Now EVERY meal we go through this same routine. I have tried serving his absolute favorite foods (macaroni and cheese, cheerios, yogurt,) with no luck. I've tried bribing him (you can have this cookie if you eat your dinner!), only to have him throw a bigger fit when I don't give in and just give him the cookie! I'm not sure the kid has eaten a meal in a week!

I think we may have hit the terrible twos. Wait a minute! He's not even two yet! IT'S TOO SOON!!!!! I WANT MY AGREEABLE CHILD BACK!!!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have been going through withdrawal--no internet access for the last few days! We were switching over to a new company, but that company didn't realize that they don't actually offer their services in our neighborhood. So we had disconnected with our original company and then had to wait another three days for them to come back out and re-connect us!

I thought that Thanksgiving might be a nice day to share some of Henry's recent craft projects. There are a few more than are shown in this picture. He also made two more turkeys and a thankfulness chain. But he was really done having his picture taken at this point! :)

We have so very much to be thankful for. I hope all of you had a blessed day and enjoyed Thanksgiving!

What a deal!

I am always very excited to find a good deal. My favorite shopping days are when I can find something that I just have to have for 90% off. I am actually pretty good at hunting down a bargain or a sale. However, I think that my wonderful husband has trumped me in finding the best bargain of the year.

Sam has been looking for a "beater" car to drive back and forth to work (to save wear and tear on his nice truck, and also save money on gas). Last week he called me to tell me he found one and would be bringing it home that day. I happened to be outside as he pulled into our driveway in this cute little Nissan Sentra.......that he paid $100 for!

It's old, it has a lot of miles on it, it has a few dents in doors, but it RUNS! Way to go, Sam! I'm impressed, as usual! :)

New Boots

There is nothing so exciting for my boys as getting new boots. Last week we noticed that Jonah was outgrowing his bright red rubber boots quickly, and Henry's bright yellow rubber boots had more than a few holes worn into them. Sam told them we could go and buy new boots! Hurray!

Off we went to the ranch supply store that we were SURE had rubber boots. No luck. They had plain black ones, but somehow that just didn't inspire joy for my boys! So they were very disappointed. I spent the next day on the phone trying to find a place to buy some fun rubber boots. A helpful lady finally said to me, "Well, I just can't think of any place closer than Target that has those. I'm sorry that I can't help you." Hadn't thought of Target yet!

Off we went. We came home with a pair of bright green "frog" boots and a pair of bright red "ladybug" boots. Henry was a little disappointed that Jonah didn't want matching ones, but Jonah really HAD to have the ladybugs!

So for those who asked, here is a picture of the boots, and by the way--I did not ask my boys to pose for this picture! :)

Stickers

My mom sent the boys some stickers this week. They enjoyed them so much that I thought it might be worthy of a picture!

Some kids wear stickers on their shirts. Henry used to do that, and it makes quite a mess if they go through the washing machine! Some kids put stickers on favorite objects, or windows, or other 'troublesome' areas.

I count myself blessed that my kids just load up their arms! No mess, no scraping to get them off, and they're not all over the house!

They may not last long, but stickers sure are fun!

Loving Texas

For anybody who lives "up North" I would like to apologize in advance for what I'm about to write. Sorry. :)

Texas has such BEAUTIFUL weather! It is the ninth of November and it is 77 degrees at my house! The boys and I spent the morning outside playing on the trampoline and exploring the woods and riding tricycles. We were wearing shorts. Henry got so hot that there was sweat dripping down his face. We made lemonade. Yesterday we went to the park and collected pretty fall leaves.

It's just so unusual for me! The last few years living in Montana were wonderful--it is a beautiful place. That being said, I just don't like being cold. And as pretty as it is, it freezes so early that there is no "fall color" in the leaves. They just freeze and fall off the tree green. A typical day up there would have been capped off by hot chocolate, listening to a chorus of "But my hands are still so cold, Mommy!"

So all in all, this is really pretty heavenly to me!

Homecoming

Yay! Sam comes home today! He's been gone hunting (in Montana!) since last Thursday! The boys have missed him so much--Henry's favorite line this weekend, especially if caught doing something he shouldn't be doing, "It's just because I miss my daddy, so much!" And my sweet little Jonah . . . . . Everytime the door opens, he goes running to it, screaming, "Dadddddeeeeee!" Heartbreaking. All this to say, we're all very glad he's coming home! :)

Another day, another trauma...

I've already posted this blog once (last night) and it disappeared for some reason. So here goes-I'll give it another shot!

The boys had a rough morning. Jonah had to leave the breakfast table to go back to bed-he was just too tired! Later Henry decided to run away from me to avoid a spanking. . . .and he ran straight into a laundry basket-with his face. He split open both his upper and lower lips and had a bloody nose. He is fine, but there was a lot of blood. And Henry was very concerned that I wouldn't put a band-aid on his lip. He's not convinced that it wouldn't stick if we really tried. Turned out Henry needed an early nap too. The boys woke up just in time for lunch. After lunch they went outside to play. . . .and found some fire ants! They came up to the porch screaming-I met them at the door. Henry was barefoot, and Jonah had on socks, but both of them had their feet covered in ants. I quickly noticed they also had ants crawling up their legs. So I stripped them down and ran them inside to the bathtub. They even had ants under their underwear/diaper. Yikes! And it was only 1:30 in the afternoon.

At this point I really just wanted to go crawl in my bed. However, my busy boys had plans to go to a friend's birthday party and also to their cousin's orchestra concert! Our day wasn't over yet! I'm happy to report that the rest of the day actually went very smoothly! The party was at the science center (my boys' favorite place of all!) so it was very fun. And we went from there straight to the orchestra concert. Henry was so excited when he recognized his oldest cousin up on the stage! We all enjoyed the music and I was very impressed with how well they all did! Such talent.

We left a little before it was over (due to some restlessness from Jonah) and got to bring the youngest Smith cousin home with us. The kids each had a helium balloon to entertain them on the way home-very fun! After a late dinner, they brushed their teeth and headed straight to bed. It was an early night for the boys, but they didn't even protest! They were very tired after this full day!

Looking forward to a more restful, uneventful day today! :)

It must be the weather...

I love carving pumpkins. It's one of my favorite parts of fall (which just happens to be my favorite season!). So that probably describes why we usually have more jack-o-lanterns than people at our house. This year is no exception!

I know that once they are carved, they don't last very long. What I didn't know, is that apparently they don't freeze here. In Montana it's always pretty cold this time of year and the jack-o-lanterns would sit outside and kind of wrinkle, but nothing else. The cold weather must have kept them from doing what they do down here....which is grow extremely large amounts of fuzzy, stinky mold!

The pumpkins were starting to look pretty wrinkly, so I went to put them in the garbage can this afternoon. I was not so pleasantly surprised to find that the ones on the ground had sort of melted into the concrete and all of them were completely covered inside with black mold. Yikes! I even had to bring out a scrub brush to clean up the concrete. Lesson learned, I guess! :)

Where's the map?

Henry loves maps. Every time we go to the zoo, he has to have a map. Even though we HAVE to walk the same route every time. Even though we know the EXACT location of every animal. Must have a map!

It is a pretty cute thing, because he hasn't figured out exactly how it works yet. He'll point something out on the map, trace a path from some random place to where he wants to go, and then fold it all back up. "Let's go," he says, "follow me, I know the way now."

The picture above is from the Dallas Zoo, where we don't actually have the entire zoo memorized. Henry decided we were "lost" because we couldn't find the kangaroos that are "on vacation" according to the sign. So he parked himself down in the middle of the path so he could spread out his map and find our way. Such a great little helper!

Be Prepared!

Blanket? Check.

Camouflage Jacket? Check.

Pants hiked up on one leg? Check.

Lunch Box? Check.

Silly Hat? Check.

Just add some crazy red rubber boots, and Jonah's ready for the day!