3rd of July

Perhaps this will be post where I learn to add pics. If so... watch out. I may post every hour. Or we may have a rush on posts bc I feel the need to share all my pics from this year. Anyway. Family reunion today. What is soo handy about the family I married into.... is that I have actual friends in the family. Like ones I call, text, go to Bible study with... thus I never mind going to family things.... bc friends are there and its fun! Actually though.... I never minded going to family things anyway... I think they are a good time. Also.... my hubs has some pretty cool sisters... so as long as they are present... fun will be had. Allright.... lets see if I can do these pics.

Yeah!! I did it! Here is baby C3 sleeping his holiday away. Now I am going to try and do some more pics!

This is C2 jumping off the post.... he is yelling "to infinity and beyond"

This is pretty much how everyday goes for me.... lots of wrestling. And if the boys can wrestle their cousins... all the better.

Now if I could just figure out how to crop and make these smaller... we'd be in business.

This is C1 on the carosel... this is from today... but its the same rides we rode on Sunday. They were in heaven getting to ride rides with their cousins.

C2 is pretty sure he is the star of the show.

And the classic 4th of July image.... eating watermelon. Except I love his smile in the first pic... but the second his eyes are open so we have to just go with it.

Then we had a grand finish with a train and some ice cream. Personally... I don't think the train looks like that much fun... but hey. I'm not 3. I love the pic with one of my nearest and dearest frennys. Isn't she pretty?

Allright. Now I am just adding pics because I can. And because fully one half of my followers is my mother.... I know she would love to see pics of the grandkids. Have a happy 4th!

We were trying to get C3 to smile.... he was 5 min before I retrieved the camera. As for when I got the camera... not so much. Come on.... you're almost 3 months old... haven't you learned how to smile on command yet? We'll give him a few more months. With brothers like these... and a cute daddy to hold you... whats not to smile about??

Good evening. Phew. I am one tired mama. I have just had one of those days where you clean literally all day... and in the end it doesn't really look that great because you have been cleaning all day with no time to pick up. If you know what I mean. I washed shower curtains, organized toys, threw away toys, retrieved toys that the boys rescued and threw them away again when they weren't looking, etc. etc. And now I am tired. And I have more laundry. I counted that I would be doing at a minimum 10 loads of laundry today. I think that I have upheld that. If the hubs would get home from irrigating... I would stop cleaning, have a pina colado and chat and fold. Bc I really love chatting and folding and watching the real housewives of New Jersey/New York. My main accomplishment of the day was getting the boys bathroom to not smell of urine. What is it with boys?? I cleaned the whole thing and it still smelled. Then I washed the trash can out... that took care of it. Is this what I have to look forward to for the next 20 years? Ugg.

Allright. That was a really uninteresting paragraph. Urine and curtains. That should be my title. So if someone googles urine they come up to my post. Anyway. Moving on.

Today on a break... I discoved a blog called something like "confessions of a bad mother." You could post what you did that made you a bad mother and it was anonamouys. (who really knows how to spell that word?) Thus... I was thinking of what I would confess. Lets see... here goes.

1. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I have given my baby a bath. He has had a few showers... but we were trying to think of the last time we washed him and we couldn't remember. How bad is that?? So I promptly washed him. PS I lotion his head so he always smells good.

2. My kids use my toothbrush. I can't keep track of thier toothbrushes for anything and thus they just use whoevers is around. And the next part of this... I told one of my dearest friends and I think it changed her opinion of me forever.... my kids squeeze the toothpaste out in a drawer... and after cleaning it up for the thousandth time.... I just started swiping from the pile. I know, thats gross. I wonder if the Frugal Girl would approve?

3. I didn't put sunscreen on my children any time for swimming lessons. And we were out for 2 hours a time. I didn't even think about it! Serioulsy I need to hand over my mom card.

But.... heres the thing. A lot of the confessions weren't like mine. Most were plain awful. One was... "I have 8 children and I never hugged them or told them I loved them." Or, "I have playing with my children, its so boring." "My 15 yr old ran away and I don't want her back." Yikes. I expected light hearted confessions. I wanted to answer each of them. Like go hug your 8 children... what are you waiting for? I don't think I will be visiting that site again. And now I have confessed here so I guess I don't need to!

Shout out to my latest follower. My mom. Note: She could never go to this site because she was/is an amazing mother. She should create a site called "Confessions of an Amazing Mother." How bout it mom? You should totally blog.

Whew. Overwelmed by the upcoming week and weekend.... thus the perfect time to blog. Today I am loading up all 3 boys and heading into town... approx 45 min away to wally world. Must have supplies for a holiday weekend. No doubt it will be fill with NP's finest...thinking of a trip to the park for lunch... but we'll see how generous I am feeling after shopping. On the way it always sounds like a good time idea. Tonight we have our final swimming lesson. Kind of sad about that... I love hanging out at the pool for 2 hours a night. I mainly socialize and watch my kids have fun.... then we go home and they are starving and exhausted. Last night they went to bed by 7:30 and I got a ton of work done after they were asleep. Like folding loads of laundry. Where I discovered my middle child has 15 pairs of jeans. Who needs that many jeans? No wonder I am doing laundry all the time. At swimming C2 stood on the edge of the pool and whipped down his pants to go.... I suppose he thought no one would notice?? I was holding the baby so I jumped up and tried to stop him... but I am not sure that a 3 yr old has the ability to stop in middle. My friends of course thought this was hilarious... I was mortified.

This weekend we have a family reunion on Saturday... which is at a park so that should be fun. Then the 4th of July where we are having people over as well as then going to a bbq. Then next week starts C1's 6th birthday celebration! I am having his first kids party. Which of course involves inviting everyone. I have this thing about leaving people or kids out. I hate it. Which is funny...bc if my kids aren't invited to a party or if just C1 is invited.... I honestly don't care. Its just... as for my house.... I want to be the house where you can bring the little brother who feels left out and he will get a goodie bag. Thus... I currently have approx 20 kids invited. But we are having a pool/squirt gun/water balloon/slip n slide party so I really feel like it doesn't matter how many kids you have. Now I am just praying the weather holds out!

Allright... hopefully it will be a great weekend celebrating the 4th. This is one of my favorite holidays... the decorations are cute... no mad shopping for presents.... and you just gather with friends and family to relax and have fun. So grateful to the military past and present that makes this day possible! Thank you... thank you... THANK YOU!!!!! Shout out to my dad here!!

Strawberries

Two days in a row. I am setting my own personal record right now. Good day here in the heartland. Started off the day picking strawberries out of the world's largest strawberry patch. Ok... not really the world's largest... but it would feel like that to me if I had to be in charge of it. I have the smallest patch and today I told C1 to go pick strawberries... and he was like "there are no strawberries mom." What? And I told he better come up with one and he couldn't. But my dear friend is queen of the strawberries and graciously lets me come pick. So I came home and weeded my garden bc hers was inspirational. PS not going to be planting carrots next year. If I try, please someone stop me.... bc every year I cuss the finding of carrots amongst the weeds. Does anyone have any ideas for how to grow carrots successfully without weeds? The problem is that carrots take a long time to come up and the weeds come up faster. And when I ask does anyone have a solution... I think that is funny bc I have one follower. And I think I have already asked her.

After strawberry picking... comes strawberry processing. I have this great recipe of an old, dear friend Anne. Anne was one of my best friends growing up. Molly and Anne pretty much defined junior high for me. Anne always had the coolest clothes, wore Clinique make up before anyone else did, and introduced me to Teen magazine. And she was nice and pretty and smart. I perhaps could have been smarter if I hadn't spent so much time passing notes instead of paying attention. Remember that? Passing notes instead of texting? I bet kids these days don't even know how to fold a note in a decent triangle fashion. Molly could fold them in the shape of shirt.. she was super cool too. Anyway... made some jam... and I might even enter it in the county fair. I have never entered anything in the county fair... but this year I might. If the jam turns out.

Things I told my children today: "Quit hitting your brother on the head with bread." C2 hitting C1 with a deal of buns. Also had to tell them to get all the gutters out of the pool as while I was fixing lunch... they detached all of the drain pipes from the gutters and had them in the pool.

After berry picking, jam making, and hanging laundry on the line... we went to swim lessons and then I had friend over to sit on the deck and visit. Which will require a whole other post. But a lady at pool had some wise words to share with me. She is a fellow MOB (mother of boys) and we were discussing how to get over wanting a daughter. She said that she prayed about it... and in the end came to the conclusion that God had chosen to bless her with boys. He had not chosen to bless her with girls. And that was that. We don't know why God chooses some blessings for some and some blessings for others... but He is does. Wise words Mrs. Pool Lady.

Music on Blogs

Just did something that I thought I was against. Added a playlist to the blog. Generally they annoy me. But I heard some great songs on a friend's blog and thus had to add some to mine. I am loving this first song. Just heard it for the first time on a blog... and then randomly my mom emailed it to me to listen to it. I love the message. The Loretta Lynn song is just a good description of my life in general! Wonderful Merciful Savior is the song I want played at my funeral. What? You haven't picked out your funeral songs? Wow... how unprepared of you. I am morbid like that. But I love that song!! Had to add some Darius since we just saw him... and I love how descriptive of my life those songs are. Then they are songs that I sing to my children as lullabyes... Baby Mine, and Goodnight my someone. Not my fave version of goodnight my someone... the best is from Music Man... but it will do. Lost in this Moment by Big and Rich... I totally would have played at my wedding if it had been out. Maybe next time. KIDDING. Actually it still reminds me of my wedding. I'll be seeing you is just a beautiful song that always makes me cry. Reminds me of my grandparents. Allright. Pretty sure no one needed an in depth explanation of the songs I chose... but there you go. PS... probably will change my playlist periodically then this post will be obsolete. Although since I only post in spurts... that likely won't happen till next year or something. I can hear the baby stirring...feeding time here on the great plains.

A Nearly Perfect Sunday

Sundays might be my favorite day of the week. They are so peaceful around here. Well... as peaceful as any family of boys gets. I guess its our own brand of peaceful. The great day actually started last night....

Date night. We saw Darius Rucker in concert. So fun. It involved standing at the front of the concert singing and jamming with kids approximately 10 years younger than us. Kids spent the night with grandma... but we did stop and get the baby....C3 can't be away from his mama too long. We came home to a quiet house... and jumped on the trampoline in the moonlight. So beautiful out... I love laying on the tramp and watching the stars.

This morning was church. Always a good time. Well for me at least... I got to hold the sleeping baby.... Hubs was in charge of C2 who... is 3 and does not so much sit in church very well. We went out to eat at a new Mexican restaurant. Yumm. We are huge mexican food fans. The boys had horchata which might be the best horchata I've ever had. After lunch... we went to Cody Park which has these little rides for young kids. And they are cheap... and they serve the best ice cream. It really is good old fashioned fun. We rode the carousel 3 times.... leading dad to ask the question... why do little boys like to ride the carousel when we have real horses to ride at home? I sort of feel sorry for the man... not recognizing the joy of amusement park rides.

Tomorrow begins my final week of maternity leave from work... I am soo loving all my free time. Will be happy to get back to my job... 2 days a week only. So hopefully I will still feel like I have a lot of time at home. This week we have swimming lessons, summer reading program at the library, I need to plan C1's birthday party... and get ready for the 4th of July. One of my favorite holidays. It will involve a parade, homemade ice cream, fireworks and friends. Good times!!

Goodness and Mercy

Funny to me how the cursor lands in the title spot. Ummm.... no post yet.... how can I start with a title? Maybe thats just me. So in an ongoing effort to actually blog... here I am again. Mostly because the laundry just buzzed done, and 2/3 boys are sleeping and 1/3 boys are with their dad... and thus while I should be running like crazy to get things done... I am fiddling with blog backgrounds. And I am NOT loving the larger than life sunflower that is about to come out of the blog and eat you. Yikes. But since I really don't have that much time... its going to stay. And PS since the background was called "Loving Lindsey" and Lindsey was even spelled correctly I thought it was a good omen to try it. But since at the moment I am not Loving Lindsey and I don't even believe in omens I shouldn't have gone with that. Bummer. But... shabbyblogs has some great backgrounds and thus I believe I will find one. Anyway. If I stopped now I could title this, Worlds Most uninteresting/hateful blog entry. Better keep going.


Today has been a wonderful day. On several levels. One which involved a tearful/joyful phone call. Ever have a phone call that you know is going to change someone's life? This was one of those. Can't quit praising God for his Goodness and Mercy. Both of which are now proper nouns apparently. But I am amazed. In a good way. In a way that I am not yet free to elaborate on.

Also a good day.... because my MIL came over and weeded my garden. Without me. Again... unmerited grace and favor from the Lord, through my MIL. I can now look out my window and see by beans and marigolds and zinnas in all their beauty. And if I could upload pics... I would. Right here. But I haven't even mastered the background... so that will have to wait.

Third happiness of the day.... date night. With my dear sweet husband. Yeah!! We are going to a concert at an event in a nearby ( 45 miles) town called NebraskaLand Days. Last weekend it was rodeos (we went... so fun) and this weekend it is concerts. There will be many people there and I love waundering around chatting with people you don't see too often. And fun country music. And really there is nothing better than country music in the summer. Unless its fun country music in the background, sipping rhubarb slush with your bff on the deck... thats pretty good too. Actually... I just love summer and all of its fun actitivies. I didn't growing up... I actually hated summer in Arizona. Now I see the joy in the swimming lessons, the tball, the gardening... all of it has been so awesome this year... I have been soaking it in.

4th... and last happiness of the day. 3 boys. Hubs has decided that since I believe to be from the movie 7 brides for 7 brothers..... that we are actually now going to supply all seven brothers for 7 lucky brides. We'll have to see about that. But as I was holding my newest addition this week C3..... I coudn't stop the tears from flowing... he was just gazing at me smiling... and I was completely in love. As I am with all of them. All 4 really. Everyday am continually amazed by the Lord's grace in my life. If we choose to follow Him...... abundent life will follow. Maybe not the way we imagined.... but oh so much more.

Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life....