Monday, August 31, 2009

this little lady is half way to 2.....

this little gal is now 18 months old....an age where she is into absolutely EVERYTHING! If it's in her reach, she will get it. i'm amazed at just how much she already understands and knows. I now find the sugar dumped out on the floor, my makeup in the garbage and random accesories floating in the toilet. I could follow her around all day and pick up her trail.


just last week it was too quiet, and I caught her sitting (hiding) by herself behind the recliner eating a bag of marshmellows she must have gotten off the shelf. when i found her she shrieked and jumped up to run away. seriously, when did this baby turn into a kid?

Some stats for my record keeping...

*27.5lbs
*34.5 inches tall
*she still LOVES that brown bunny
*she WILL keep up with the other kids, even if she needs to have a full blown tantrum to get their attention.
*favorite words...MINE, mom, & foof (woof)
*she loves to play with her dolls
*she loves her cozy coupe and wagon rides
*she loves to play with my cell phone, and will hold it to her ear and have a conversation
*if she sees you get a diaper out to change her, she automatically runs in the other direction giggling...begging for a chase.
*she knows what she wants and has quite a little temper when she doesn't get it.
*she's down to 1 afternoon nap if she sleeps in appropriately in the morning.
* we usually spend most dinners laughing our heads off at her
*the kids still absolutely love her and look out for her.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

summer highlights....

Since the kids start school tommorow, I figure it's about due time I upload a few summer fotos. This summer will forever be remembered in my mind as "that weird one".

When it began I was on bedrest. While the sun shone brightly, there wasn't much I could do, so we just stayed home.... alot......staring out at the landscape that "wasn't going to happen this year."

It seems once i got the "alls clear" the weather turned slightly fall like and Tim got really busy at work, thus foiling some of our summer plans and productivity. We still stare at the landscape that WILL HAPPEN!

We did make plenty of wonderful memories tho. Tims aunt from Calgary visted for a month, and the kids had a great time getting to know their 2nd cousins.

I think Dylan either caught a frog or found some other "treasure" every single day this summer.

We've caught ALOT of fish, gotten stung by ALOT of bees, eaten enough ice cream to add at least 1 extra lb. to Gloria, spent oodles of hours playing outside with friends, and tracked more than our fair share of sand and mud into the house.

Its been good.

Some highlights.....


Stella and gal pal Juliet "sharing" the coupe.

these 2 always on the look-out for fishwe have a large dirt pile in our "yard" right now, as we anticipate putting a lawn in next month. For now it is the perfect site for a pokemon battle.

last week we camped with wonderful friends and our combined 17 kids.... and had a blast!


rainy day in the camper....


Tims brother Derek got married! After 11 years of marriage, I finally have a sister-in-law! Tim was a groomsman and Syd had the priviledge of being a flower girl! She was thrilled!


We headed out to Grand Haven on "that one hot saturday"

we picked blueberries... we will stick to a larger fruit in the future :)

we celebrated our 11th anniversary, and Tim took me out to a nice restaurant. Afterwards we got ice cream cones in the quaint little downtown and sat on a park bench talking like the good old days!
Sunday afternoons....





Thursday, August 13, 2009

I finished it!


I have been wanting to make a mat for under our kitchen table for many, many months now. But it overwhelmed me a bit. I could never seem to get it started because I knew it would take a bit of time and I would need to work on it "after hours" if I wanted to avoid all the help offered by my very generous little people. Well, I happened upon some free time last week and got it done!

Friday, August 7, 2009

11 years of wedded bliss....

Tommorw we celebrate 11 years of marriage, Tim and I.

When I think back to our wedding, it still to this day makes me smile from cheek to cheek. It was absolutely perfect, though everything "went wrong" ......it rained, Tim called my bluff and followed through in wearing his brown cowboy boots with his tux, our best man almost fainted, a candle was knocked over, my dad forgot to walk in with my mom and had to sprint to catch up, I said "I do" at the wrong time, we were pronounced husband and wife in the wrong state, we missed our honeymoon plane though we had stayed at Hilton O'Hare.....oh the list could go on and on.

I endearingly remember all of those "wrongs". It was absolutely perfect. We were young and in love and that was all that mattered in our world. Fastforward 11 years, we are still just as in love and for that i am thankful. Yes, we've changed and experienced alot along the way, but the love is there stronger.
I will bore you no more with sappiness and nostalgia, instead i will tell you a little story about my Tim and why I love him.

It was the Saturday before Christmas 2006. Austin had just turned 5, Sydney almost 4, and Dylan was just shy of 2.

Tim decided he would take the kids Christmas shopping for the day so that they could buy presents for me. They spent all morning shopping for the usuals....they picked out candles, lotion, books and other sweet randoms.

The hot item that year? The velour pant and hoody combo, easily found at Target. This is what Tim was going to buy for me. After all, that is what delighted his eyes every evening he came home from work ....still does :)

Before leaving to shop, he asked me what size i might wear. I told him to hold it up, but medium or large depending on the length.

So, Tim is tromping through Target with 3 disheveled little kids wearing wet snow boots, sticky from suckers and ready for a nap. It's been a long morning, and Target is their last stop. He is walking through the store looking at the signage and gets a bit confused. He sees the sign for Misses and Women and thinks to himself.... "womens... ah yes, i've definately got me a woman" ....so off to the womens sections they go.

He quickly finds the section displaying a rainbow of velour. Pulling them off the rack, he notices they are not in small, medium, large sizes like i had led him to believe. Most of the sizes are instead numbered in the 20's. Hmm, he thinks on this for a bit. After much internal debate, the logical part of his brain wins out. He figures these must somehow be numbered like mens sizes, because that's the only way to make sense of it.


So he thinks it through. His jean size? ....a 32 waist. He knows back in the day we wore the same jeans, so he goes through the rack and finally settles on a 28. Bless his heart for downsizing me! A true display of love! He thinks to himself ....hmm, they do look a bit large, but you really can't argue with the numbers, they don't lie after all.

Fastforward to Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful evening together. He eagerly watches as I open up my box, and starts to explain that he still has the reciept if I don't like them- because after all, Sydney had the final say on color choice.

I hold them up and try not to laugh. His comment..." Yeah, I thought they looked a little big, but you're always saying you've got wide hips"

Yes indeed, that IS what i say, however, we could both fit in one leg.....but oddly, that is why I love this guy!

Happy Anniversary!