Lazy Nights

This post is coming just a couple of days short from when I had intended to write it...There are not many times when this title pertains to this families life. However, the beginning of the week found us spending a Monday night doing everything except our usual rushing around the house. I couldn't help but think how it could have been very different had our sports buff been allowed to participate it 2 sports this fall. Mean old Mom made him choose between soccer and football because both would have been too much for us to handle.
So, we started this last week of September out on a pretty good foot. Among the things that were accomplished on our lazy night were: getting dishes done that had been there for far too long, supper and baths at an unusual early hour, giggles, potty in the "big girl potty", and of course, some pictures while we were just hanging out. Enjoy!

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday Koryn!



My pretty little girl!

Saturday, September 17th marked Koryn's 2nd birthday! What a fun filled 2 years she has brought us already! She is a little girl of many different personalities...even on her birthday she proved that. As we were getting dressed on Saturday morning, I said "Happy Birthday Koryn!" and started singing 'Happy Birthday to you..." Well, let me tell you she DID NOT like this at all! She yelled at me and said "NO!" Hopefully she will learn to love her birthday in years to come, otherwise she is going to have a long road ahead of her.

Holding up the fingers and saying "Two!"

Finally, by the end of the day she was accepting that it was her birthday. She did let me sing to her and she even let me show her how to hold up to fingers and say that she is 2. What a cute little peanut!


Tired out after the party.

We ended up having her birthday party on Sunday so that Daddy would be able to be there. She was definately more into the birthday by the second day! I think she started to understand that birthdays mean eating cake and ice cream and making as big a mess out of it as she wants, presents, and lots of people that love us!! She had a great time opening her presents, although after each one she thought it was time to be done and play with that toy. As we were taking a bath before bedtime, we did our ritual of singing as we rinse off the soap. We sang 'Happy Birthday', among others, and Koryn's version was 'Happy, Happy, Happy!' As you can see from the picture above, it must have been a long day for Dad too!

A very happy birthday to my sweet little girl!!!

Love you to the moon

When Mason was little, "Guess How Much I Love You" was our favorite book. Everytime we would leave each other or go to bed, we would say "Love you to the moon and back again!" Made my heart smile everytime he would say it. Well, we still own that very same book. It isn't in as great of shape as it used to be, but that only means it is used and used well, right?

Koryn is not quite so good at listening to a book being read to her. She lasts MAYBE 2 pages before she gets bored and either tries to turn the pages really fast by herself or she just starts rambling off about something different. As we were on our way home the other night, I simply said "Love you to the moon, Koryn" and that was all it took. She repeated it back to me and I said "And back again". Now she gets quite a kick out of saying this phrase to me. Not only does it make me smile because it is something that we are continuing from when her brother was little, but the way she says it is just so darn cute!! I had to video it last night just so I could share it!

And then there were 4....

Daddy playing with Jarrik while Koryn posses as soon as she sees the camera

It's that time of year again....fall. As much as I love this season, I dread it all the same because with it brings the harvest season. And, what does harvest season mean to us....that our family suddenly went from having 5 members to now having 4 (at least the majority of the time.) Craig informed me about a week ago that they would be starting chopping soon and all of sudden I started to panic. It was one thing when they started last year and I had a 7 year old and a 1 year old. That was doable. Now, though I have an 8 year old, an almost 2 year old, and a 4 month old. Drastic difference. Immediately my mind started thinking of everything that was going on. I think most mothers understand when I say that most of the time we take care of about everything ourselves anyway. But, just knowing that Craig is absolutely not there to rely on is a different story. As with everything else, this too shall pass.

On top of a full work day everyday this week, our agenda includes: football practice, meeting with boss for work, football practice, football game, and then it's the weekend! Enjoy your week everyone!

Daddy's little girl

When we got pregnant the second time, I was secretly hoping to have a little girl. Maybe I shouldn't say secretly since I'm pretty sure Craig was well aware of this. I cried when the ultrasound technician told us that it was a girl and I looked over at Craig and he just smiled and shook his head. This is funny to me since I believe the main reason that I wanted to have a girl was for him, and his reason for NOT wanting a girl were the exact same. All of you that know my husband know that he has always been a little rough around the edges. Well, I knew that the minute he met his little girl his heart would melt. I thought, "This is what is going to settle him down and he is just going to love this little girl to pieces!" Well, I'm not so sure that he has settled down much more, but he definately loves his little girl. They do just about everything together and as much as it breaks my heart when she stands by the window when he leaves, crying saying "Daddy wit you!", it also makes me smile! That moment when you see your little girl loving her daddy that much is just priceless.
One of the things that they do together (and quite well I might add) is lay on the couch. After bath time, Koryn goes right to the couch and lays down with daddy. She has this need to always be holding someones hand. One night I heard Craig as he was trying to scratch his nose saying to her "Koryn you have to let go of my hand for just a second, I need to scratch my nose!" So cute!

This picture is one I coudln't resist sharing. Craig reads his Journal like it is a religion. So, this particular night he had sat down on the couch to read the paper and Koryn sat down with him. He gave her the insert that was in the paper and they sat, just like this for a while. All of a sudden I heard Craig say "Huh" like he had read something interesting. Not too long after, I heard little Koryn repeat him "Huh" like her paper was interesting too. I peaked out our bedroom door and I saw Koryn looking at Craig for his reaction, but he didn't turn her way, so she just went on reading her paper as normal. They are two peas in a pod!

Sweet Corn

Mason doesn't always get too many appearances on the blog. This is mostly because when I decide to do a blog post we are sitting at home and the little ones have done something that is too cute not to take a picture of and share with everyone. While this is happening, Mason is usually out and about doing numerous other activities. So, today he is outside of my office with his best buddy selling some sweet corn. I couldn't resist taking a picture of them while they didn't have any customers out there.

I have to give this kid quite a bit of credit. He is such a trooper being the big brother. I'm fairly sure that no parent intentionally leaves their child out, but it seems that is what happens sometimes. With such a gap in age between him and the younger kids, it just happens that they are doing completely different things. Many days he goes to the farm with his dad and helps out or plays with his other buddy. Many of these days have ended with him spending the night at his friends' house sparatically. He has also had a couple of weekends that he has been invited to go camping. I feel like I don't get to talk to him for sometimes up to 2 to 3 days at a time...isn't this supposed to be when they are about 17?? But, everytime he comes home with a smile on his face and happy to be back home with us. Now, we (or maybe just I am) looking forward to the school year when we will dive straight into sports. First tackle football, then wrestling, and last soccer. Should be a constant busy straight through until May...would we know what to do if we weren't constantly busy?!

Normal?

Well I guess we are back to what we can call normal...although I don't know that it's the same normal anymore. With so much loss recently, it is hard to not feel a sort of emptiness every day. It's almost as if we go through the motions, but don't really live the day like we would "normally" do.

Even so, when you have 3 kids running around you have to try to live for the moment. I have been saying that I might be partially ready for school to start so that we get back to some routine. I would like to think that our whole family runs better when we have a routine (maybe it is just me that is happier when there is a routine so then the whole family runs better :). However, the start of school is a week and a half signals the end of summer. This is something I am not ready for. It seems as though we have tried to cram as much lake time as we could into this summer, but I still feel like we haven't had enough! As if we weren't trying to pack enough into the summer with baseball, swimming lessons, Lake City softball, and just enjoying the nice weather, I have been doing quite a few pictures. As I type, I am cropping images....this only seems to add to the craziness. I told someone the other day that I think I do all of this just to prove that I can (although I really don't know why that is needed!)

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my mini-me and the little man sitting in the bumbo seat. He should not be big enough to do this yet at 3 months should he?!