twelve

years ago I gave birth to this young man...

Happy birthday, Bubba!
So glad God gave us you.
Love you!

one thousand gifts #206-211

206. beautiful fall weather

207. the first night of Bubba's last year of Awana (our club only goes through 6th grade)

208. cheering on the Panthers as they played another good soccer game (even though Bubba’s team lost)

Bubba's the 2nd kid from the right (in the white & black)

209. a new furry friend who just showed up on CJ’s birthday—she’s a beautiful calico, very scrawny, but extremely friendly.  we haven’t seen her in the neighborhood before, so are thinking she was dropped off at the corner near our house.  if she is someone else’s cat, i hope they don’t mind that she seems to have adopted us!

"our" new kitty--Bubba named her Stacie

210. celebrating CJ’s 5^th birthday with family

the birthday boy

opening gifts

211. corn maze fun

castke themed maze with 2 scavenger hunt-type games for the kids to play

which path to take? 

cutie

we made it!

king of the hay stack in mid-jump

we're ready for the hayride

Hope you all have had a "gift" filled week too! 

multitude monday

is it monday again already?  i just about forgot i was going to start posting again today!  here we go...
if you want to see my other multitudes on mondays posts, they began on mother's day with this post.

54. holiday weekend in Duluth with just my hubby!!!   (Thanks AGAIN to my parents for making it possible by taking the kids.)
55. yarn shops!  and getting to shop at 4 in one weekend!  WOOT!
56. a mall to shop at too!  (can you tell we live in the middle of nowhere?)
57. my new purse in a lovely shade of PINK! yes!
58. a couple new outfits too
59. new clothes for my man as well
60. finding a fun gift for hubby's dad (his early b-day/father's day gift)
61. did i mention yarn shops?  well, i should have mentioned my beautiful new yarns and needles too!
62. going out to the movies with my man--we saw Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Kung Fu Panda 2 (in 3D).  and yes, we enjoyed them all.
63. coming home
64. hugs and kisses from my boys
65. my hubby's 45th birthday
66. getting our Bible Bee box on Friday (exciting!!!)
67. dinner with my inlaws (to celebrate their eldest son, of course)
68. the first day of summer swim lessons (today)
69. finding out there's another boy in bubba's level who's "behind" on swim lessons so he's not the only 11 year old in level 4
70. time to knit while bubba was in lessons because cj was being such a good boy
71. planting raspberry plants that were given to me (actually, we were originally getting them for my mom, but she let me have them since she already has a few plants and i didn't have any yet)
72. going for a walk with my little man, cj, to try and find monarch caterpillars (no luck this time)
73. finding tadpoles in our front ditch instead!
74. being the kind of mom who catches tadpoles--eight in all--so we can watch them grow legs

75. accidentally catching THIS while trying to get tadpoles and being thrilled even though we didn't know what it was

76. learning that it's a triops (i couldn't find any info to tell me if they are native to minnesota though)
77. going for a family walk and seeing all kinds of wild strawberry plants in blossom.  (gonna have to keep my eyes on those for berries!)
78. pizza
79. falling asleep to the sounds of a gentle rain and distant thunder
80. waking up to the sounds of birds (the one rather loud and crazy bird that has a bunch of different calls was kind of annoying at 4:30am, but otherwise it's kind of a nice way to wake up)

 
On a side note: I decided to put the tadpoles and triops in the same container.  Mr. Triops (as he's been dubbed) eats mosquito larvae and other stuff like that so I'm hoping he'll clean out any bugs from the ditch water we collected with these critters.  Hopefully he won't be hungry enough to eat the tadpoles! Not sure he'd do that, but you never know...

 

They seem to be getting along well enough, but it's only been a few hours. 

it's a busy life!

I am once again busy home-schooling.  Teaching a 10-year-old everything from Math and Science to History and English (and everything else he needs to learn too!) while attempting to keep a 4-year-old occupied can oftentimes be a real challenge!  Thankfully, CJ now likes playing with Play-Doh and can stay entertained with it for a relatively lengthy period of time which allows Bubba and me to get through a lot of our work in the mornings.  But for read-alouds we need it a bit quieter...he needs to be able to pay attention as I read.  So we wait until CJ's naptime and do our read-alouds then. 

Bubba played soccer again this year.  We have a local home-school/Christian school league with 3 teams.  So there are practices, home games, away games, and even a tournament!   The season is basically done...we had our tournament yesterday.  Bubba's JV team took 2nd place.  It was a long day (and we didn't even have to be there at 9am when the tourney started since our first game wasn't until noon) but it was a lot of fun for the players.  I am glad the season is done though.  As much as I enjoy visiting with the other soccer moms at practices, it takes up a lot of our time and a bit of traveling too.

I'm helping out with our church's Pre-K Sunday School class (CJ's class).  This year I've switched from working with our AWANA Sparks to helping with the AWANA T&T girls.  It's a nice change working with just girls and the older age group (3rd thru 6th grades) is also a nice change of pace for me.

CJ turned 4 on September 30th.  We had a birthday party for him last Sunday--just a small gathering of family, but he really enjoyed spending time with his cousins.   And I celebrated my birthday on Thursday the 7th by watching an afternoon soccer game and then dinner out.

What else have I been busy with? 

Lots of knitting {and crocheting}, of course!

birthday boy

as of 8:15am, i have become the proud mother of a 10-year-old boy. that's right. a whole decade! we've entered the double digits now! only 3 years till he's a teen. oh my.

happy birthday, son! i love you and am proud of the young man you are growing up to be.

his daddy found this Optimus Prime toy at Sam's Club a few months ago and just couldn't resist getting it.

these transformer toys sure are fun for a 10-year-old boy!

have a great birthday, son!

thirty-five

today i get to write about me. you see, it's my birthday today. in just a couple hours from now (at 3:32pm to be specific!) i will have been alive for 35 years. it really doesn't feel like it's been that many though. i think i must've lost a few somehow in the past nearly 10 years of being a parent. where does the time go?

i got a birthday card from a dear friend that i think really expresses this well. here's what it says:

We'll be friends until we can't remember how old we are.
In fact, that may be now! What are we? 26? Around 26. Maybe 25.

surely i'm no older than 26?! i most certainly don't feel it. to be honest, there are days i don't feel old enough to be a parent (let alone have a kid whose age is going to be two digits this year!)


the birthday girl {that's me!} a few weeks ago in boston.

well, to celebrate me, my mother took me shopping last saturday...specifically yarn shopping! we had to drive 3.5 hours to get there, but i got to check out TWO yarn shops in Fargo, ND. (there aren't any LYS...that is, local yarn shops, near my home.) i happily fingered the many different colors and textures of yarn at both shops {yarn petting is so much fun!}, and i now have three more yummy yarns and some new knitting needles too! mom got to shop for quilt fabric and found a pretty print that will be the backing of the quilt she's working on. and we also stopped by Barnes & Noble so i could pick out my b-day present from my hubby--knitting books! (he gave me $50 in gift cards to spend on me. i didn't quite spend all of it, but i got 2 books and a magazine. i can spend the rest later.) all in all, it was a very long, but very enjoyable day.


my yummy new yarns.

birthday boy

Today my baby turns 3! Happy Birthday CJ!!!

Since his birthday is on a Wednesday this year, we decided to celebrate a few days early and had a little birthday party for him on Sunday. It was a simple family get-together, but a nice little party to celebrate CJ.

Staring down the candles before blowing them out {with Daddy's help, of course}.

Present time!

Yesterday we had a minor incident at our home. T came home for lunch as usual and Bubba ran and unlocked the door for him, then proceeded to run away into the living room. CJ was at that point running toward the door to greet T. Apparently a sort of collision occurred and CJ ended up falling and hitting his face on the floor. My poor baby chipped his front tooth! So T took him to see our family dentist who sanded it smooth {it was just a little chip, but the tooth was pretty sharp} and told us to keep an eye on it for a week or so to make sure there aren't any other problems with it. I'm hoping {and praying} that it will be just fine and that his chipped front tooth will just be his signature {as the dentist put it} until it falls out on its own. Thankfully it is just a baby tooth.

CJ's new look. You can see how the one front tooth is now slanted up toward the other front tooth.

It's still a really great smile though, isn't it?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

this is always a special week for our family.

first of all, of course, there is Christmas. it is such a wonderful thing to take time each year to remember the birth of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

we usually go to church for a Christmas Eve service. we were planning on it as usual, but we've changed our plans because it's at 5pm this year. this is a problem since T works until 4:30 and it takes us half an hour to get to church. we could probably get over there (just a few minutes late and really stressed), but then there's the fact that it's right at supper time. dealing with a crabby 2 year old is not my idea of an enjoyable service anytime. so, we're gonna stay home, relax, eat chili, have our own little Christmas service singing carols and reading the Christmas story, and then open our gifts to each other. i don't know about you, but that sounds a lot more fun than dressing up and stressing out!

another reason this week is special is that yesterday (the 23rd) was bubba's 9th birthday. 9 years ago on a cold and sunny Christmas day i brought my sweet baby boy home from the hospital. i remember being very tired and sore, and yet, thrilled to the core to be a mommy. and it's been an adventure in parenting ever since!

we haven't done much to celebrate bubba's b-day, yet, since we're having his party in january, but i decided to give him his new brainmonster hat (and cj got his too so they can match).



he likes it! and cj likes to play with the googly eyes.

aren't they funny hats? when i found the pattern online, bubba saw it and said "oh, cool!" so i asked him if he'd wear one. "yes!!!" so mommy made one for each of the boys.

i originally planned it to be a Christmas gift, but i thought he needed a present to open ON his b-day and since i'd already given him his tamagotchi (and the gift from daddy is being saved for when we have his party), i just had to give it to him as a b-day gift instead. speaking of his tamagotchi, here's what i've had to put up with for the past week and a half that he'd had it.



as you can see, he's totally engrossed in this new toy. and he loves to talk about his tama-family and what they're doing, what he's bought for them, etc. it's gonna get old...fast, but i'm glad he likes it!

as for myself, i've begun yet another knitting project. this time it's for me. i'm making a pair of fingerless mitts so my hands don't get so cold when i'm knitting or typing.

i just remembered...i never posted a pic of the prayer shawl i made. i'd best do that now!



i really like how this turned out. the colors and texture of the yarn makes this shawl super cozy. it's like a warm, fuzzy hug!
and since this prayer shawl was made for megan, i'll just add that we are so happy that she is home already!! (only 3 weeks since the accident!) we know her full recovery will still take some time, but it's amazing that she is home for Christmas! what a wonderful answer to our prayers!

God is Good, All the Time!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

creative gifts

i've been pretty busy the past few days. busy knitting, that is. i'm making hats for the boys. will post pics when i can. all i can say is just wait and see! they're hilarious! also, i've been attempting to read and knit at the same time. i think it's taking me twice as long for both, but i really don't care. i'm enjoying myself!

i'm also working on a few other miscellaneous Christmas projects/gifts. can't say too much about them though--wouldn't want the wrong person to read this and find out what they're getting! ha!

bubba's b-day is on the 23rd, and we were gonna have a party for him last sunday, but we had to postpone it due to unruly weather. he was a bit bummed, so we decided to let him open one of his gifts anyways. i did good. he LOVES his tamagotchi. this is his first virtual pet toy and it's kept him entertained all week. to the point that my new threat is that i'll take it away for a day if he doesn't behave! haha! he had a lanyard leftover from a VBS he attended 2 years ago that he now uses to hang it around his neck. it even matches. blue. cool.

happy birthday to me!

it's my birthday. another year added to my age.

*singing*
happy birthday to me.
happy birthday to me.
happy birthday to mee-ee.
happy birthday to me.

okay, that's enough celebrating.
now to get the boys some breakfast and get on with our day...

cj's bday and other pictures

i was planning on posting a picture from cj's birthday celebration and realized that bubba still had a black eye in those pics. so i figured i'd better tell that story first.

the boys spent the weekend at grandma's and bubba was out riding his bike and was turning too quickly and wiped out. it must've happened so fast that he didn't really even react and although he was wearing a helmet (and thankfully we had no skull fractures!) he did manage to hit his eye/brow on the pavement and it swelled shut.

this is how it looked 2 days later.


and a few days later...


so that by cj's celebration on the 28th, it was better, but not completely gone yet.



now isn't that a cute pic? i love cj's expressions. he got a kick out of us helping him blow out his candles. you might have noticed that we had a sort of "blue's clues" theme going on. cj loves his blue's clues dvds, videos and books. and he's so funny when he runs through the house shouting "a kwoo! a kwoo!"