Mother's Day 2014

So, because I'm getting caught up on past holidays & events from the past handful of months, these posts will be out of order. 

Mother's Day this year was just lovely.  :)

I took my mom to lunch the day before, and I honestly can't tell you the last time I went to lunch with adults only.  For real.  Can't remember.  Needless to say, momma ordered a mimosa and went potty alone.  That's a win in itself.

Mother's Day morning, after I slept in (can I get an amen?!), I was greeted to a little boy saying, "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"...(This was said just like Anna says it to Elsa at the beginning of the movie when she's trying to get her out of bed.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, you clearly haven't watched Frozen enough..or at all)  After I teared up at the homemade card my boys made me (Connar signed his name for the first time on a Mother's Day card for me!  Priceless, am I right?!), my hubby and kiddos took me to breakfast at Harris County Smokehouse (yummy!!).  Then we came home and while I sat in my bed and read magazines, they made me a cake.  It was delicious!  I sat in the rocking chair on the back porch that afternoon as Daddy ran around chasing the boys (it was such a pretty day!), and for dinner we had Rudy's BBQ (man I love those sandwiches and corn on the cob!).

All in all, a fab day was had by all, especially this momma.  :)

I'm more than blessed to call these monkeys mine.  All mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas 2013

I feel kind of weird writing about Christmas seeing as though it was nearly 5 months ago, but I want to be sure to document it as that's my favorite time of the year (and I want to share our fun with you!)!  We had so much fun being back in our house this Christmas, and even though life was still really crazy at that point because we hadn't been back home too terribly long from Korea, we had a great time being with those we love.

Now... Sit back and try to imagine the smell of a fresh Christmas tree as you look through a very condensed version of Christmas 2013 for our family (and yes, this is condensed if you consider it's a lot of December)...

Dash, our Elf, came to visit the boys again this year!

 And boy was he up to some silly stuff and get into some predicaments...

 

We decorated our first gingerbread house this year, which was super fun!

We used this reusable house that my mom gave us (it all snaps together and you just wash all the stuff off when you're ready to break it down and store it), and it worked like a charm!

 

 There might've been a few candies missing here and there by the time Christmas rolled around.  Every now and then I'd catch one of the boys up on a chair "admiring" it.  :)

 I got to spend quite a bit of time on several occasions with these lovely ladies: one sister in law, one better-be-sister-in-law-one-day-or-we're-gonna-have-a-problem, and one sister.  :)

(Anddddd Spencer and Holden were there too in their Mommas' tummies!)

 I love being with them.  :)

We went to Zoo Lights at the Houston Zoo.

 We had my dad over for Christmas at our house, and the absolute BEST thing about this visit was that our sister, Savannah, came to see us!  It had been 2 1/2 years since we had seen her last, so this was a pretty emotional visit for me.  I love her so much, and I wish she never moved so far away from us.  I pray that one day she'll be closer to us, and I mean that in more ways than one.  She's very dear to us, to say the least.

There's nothing like a sister.  Period.

Christmas at my mom's was full of ugly sweaters (and maybe an ugly hair piece and jewelry too!).  So fun!

Hilarious!  When they stood next to each other (and Kaylon up on a stair), they created a Christmas tree with their shirts.

I made the three boys' ugly sweaters:

Ho 1, Ho 2, and Ho 3.  :)

We had the greatest idea this year.  Instead of either buying everyone gifts or drawing names, we said everyone had to buy something for $3 or less for every person's stocking.  There were 11 people other than yourself, so at the very most you could potentially spend $33.  Not only was it great cost wise, but it was actually fun to see what everyone decided to give.  My sister gave me a picture frame of herself (ha!), we got a lotto ticket (T and I actually both won on each of ours), our favorite candy, and even a roll of designed duct tape.  This was genius!

My mom gifted me with two huge scrapbooks from my wedding.  I got married 8 years ago, people.  Hey, better late than never.  :)  I love them, Mom, and they're so special, because I know how much effort and time went into them.  Thank you!

The family that plays together, stays together.  I think the chosen game this year was Battle of the Sexes.

On Christmas Eve before we snuggled the boys into bed, we made sure to sprinkle our Reindeer Food on the front lawn so Santa and his reindeer would stop at our house.

They also laid out their treats for Santa.  We're so lucky that Talton knows exactly what kind of treats Santa wants every year...because it has been known to change from year to year.  :)

Connar also wrote Santa a note.  This is the first time he's ever signed his own note to Santa.  Precious.

We couldn't forget to tell our elf, Dash, goodbye until next Christmas before we went to bed.

C was not pleased with saying goodbye.

But P kissed and hugged him.  :)

After the boys were in bed, Mr. & Mrs. Claus set up Santa gifts and stockings.

I get giddy every year when we do this.  I love this tradition and knowing that our parents once did this for us and theirs for them.  :)

We're taking advantage of how we can get away with small, cheaper Santa gifts while we can.

This Bat Cave is the one thing C asked Santa for.  How easy is that?!

And Mrs. Claus knew that P would love his own Thomas the Train track.

Don't you just love a Christmas tree all lit up at night?

Just standing there with my boys in bed and Santa having already visited made me excited to get to bed myself so I could see my kids' faces as they rounded the corner in the morning to see their new toys.  Isn't it funny how you can get the same excited feeling on Christmas morning to watch your kids open their presents as you use to when it was you opening gifts as a child?  Love that.

Santa even left a note for them!

Our family picture on Christmas morning.  Classic.  That's our life though, right there in that picture.  Silly boys.  :)

Poor thing was just asking about these glasses like two days ago.  We're now in May, so these babies are long gone, dude.  He did have fun using them with his GrammE though.

We like to stay home on Christmas (we don't like the idea of asking the kids to sit in a car driving to various places and leaving all their new toys behind), so after opening presents, we had our annual pancake breakfast and played lots of games together.

It was a great Christmas!  It's hard to believe that we'll be back at this same time in 7 short months.  Crazy how time flies!

Super Connar turns 4!

C's 4th birthday was in November, before T got back from his last stint in Korea.  The night before, while the boys were already fast asleep dreaming of what the next day's party would bring, I was busy in the kitchen whipping up the cupcakes.  It wasn't long before I wasn't feeling well, and all I could think was, "Are you kidding me???"  I mean, really.  There was no time to be sick and nobody to pick up my slack if I was.  But that's just what happened.

At about 6:30 am, after several visits to the bathroom to lose everything I'd eaten the day before and realizing that this wasn't getting any better, I texted my mom something like this:

Need help.  I'm throwing up.

It was bad y'all.  Being alone with two littles while you're physically sick is really really hard.  One boy was in bed just feet away with no idea Mommy is sick on his birthday and the other little boy was standing at the bathroom door laughing at me because he thinks I'm playing and trying to make him laugh every time I make the awful sound of vomiting...seriously, just visualize that for a minute. If my head wasn't in the toilet and using one hand to keep him at bay, I might've laughed at that too.

She and my step dad, Joel, came over an hour or two later and dealt with C and P while I stayed in bed, hoping that time would just make it better.  Well it didn't.

It was time to leave for the party, and I was at my very worst.  I cried as I told my mom that she'd have to take care of the party and everything there, because I just couldn't go.  I was heartbroken.  Not only was I missing my baby's birthday party, he wasn't going to have either parent there because T was still in Korea.  I would've done anything to be there that day, but I literally couldn't stop getting sick.  There was just no way I could've toughed it out at the party.

Luckily, I booked his party at Dewberry Farm, so there wasn't too much to do other than send them with the cupcakes I'd made and directions on what was going to happen.  I'm so thankful that I had enough sense to have his party elsewhere this year instead of at our house (we moved home from Korea only three weeks before this and into our house three days before this.....so I knew I wouldn't have the time or energy for a full out party at our house), because it would've been impossible for me to decorate my house, make food, and entertain the guests at my house.  At least at the farm, they would be entertained by the activities and the food was provided.

As they drove away for the birthday party, I bawled like a baby.  I Skyped T (it was like 2 am his time) with tears pouring down my face.  I know he felt so bad, because he couldn't do one thing to make it better.  After all, he was 7000 miles away.

I crawled back into bed and prayed that I could sleep away the sick, but the absolute opposite happened.  It was awful.  But honestly, what was more awful for me was not being present at C's birthday party.  Thank God for little kids who don't realize much as long as they're being fed cupcakes and having fun running around.  :)

I've already told the family and friends this who showed up and showered him with love and a wonderful time, but I want to say it again here on my blog...

I feel immensely blessed that T and I had all of you there to help C celebrate his 4th birthday when neither of us could be there. I know it was nothing to y'all except going to another birthday party, but it meant the world to us. Thank you for singing, for the gifts, for the hugs, for the help, for feeding P in between running around, and for riding the rides with my precious boys. I wish T and I could've been there sliding down Slide Mountain with them, watching them jump on the big bouncy pillows, or helping them swing in the hay, but I'm so grateful that all of you were there to do that in our place. I cried from my sick bed as you all sang happy birthday to him, not only because I couldn't be there to do it too, but also because I know just how loved he is.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there.  I'm forever grateful to you.

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 We Skyped T in Korea first thing on C's birthday.  Daddy even wore his super hero shirt that we bought for him before he went back to Korea, especially to wear on C's birthday to feel like he was home celebrating our little super hero with us.  C thought it was the coolest thing that his daddy was wearing a super hero shirt.  :)

He showed his daddy his gifts (from us) as he opened them.  The movie he's holding in this picture is special because it's the movie C watched a couple dozen times on a couple of our international flights when we were traveling between Korea and the U.S..  Other than super heroes, this movie is all he could talk about for a while.  :)

I was back in bed at this point hoping to sleep the sick away before it was time to leave for the party, while my mom and Joel entertained the boys...or in this picture, while C chatted PaJ's ear off about all the different super heroes in his new book.

Off to the party they went!

How did 4 years pass so quickly????

Spencer even came to the party with her mommy and daddy, Uncle DJ and Aunt Liz (in the belly)!

Thank goodness for the extra hands of friends and family!  xoxo

DJ Skyped me so I could be there while they sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to C and while he opened presents.  That meant so so much to me.  I'll forever be grateful for that technology.

I don't know why, but both of my kids did this on their birthdays this past year.  Neither of them really like attention directly on them.  They'd be content to skip the song and go straight to the candle blowing.

In this video, you can hear them asking me if I can see C on DJ's phone while he's Skyping me.  When they started singing, I started singing on my end but couldn't quite finish because I was bawling that I wasn't there and because I was so so thankful that I didn't miss singing to my baby on his birthday "at" his party.  I might not have been at the actual party itself, but I'll always have this video to remember that moment.  Thank you, Mom for taking the video for me and DJ for Skyping me.  xoxo

My mom wrote down all the gifts and who gave them so I would know.  This was so helpful the next day when I could actually get out of bed and get a grasp back on life.

 

We were all super heroed out by the end of this party.  He loved all of the gifts so much and still plays with them/uses them almost daily.

This was the boys' first time on Slide Mountain, and they LOVED it!  Can you blame them?  I mean, look at that thing!

 

 

Happy 4th birthday to my personal super hero.  I love you, Monkey!