Friday, February 27, 2009

These are for you babe

Yesterday we spent almost the entire morning at one of my favorite parks. It has many different areas for the boys to explore and keep mama from getting bored with the scenery. Brooks has been under the weather with a cough, so he spent the first two hours sleeping in the stroller while Conner was all over the place with joy for being out of the house. We ended our park adventure with Mama losing her keys, mind you our only set of keys since the spare (well it wasn't the spare then) was lost by the car shipping company (whole nother set of drama), so it ended up being a very long day. I had to get the car towed to the dealer where they will make me a new set and reprogram the car, and get this, they are out of my cars specific key, sooo I wont get my car back until Monday :( Fun times ya'll.

We climbed




We rode
We enjoyed beauty


We hopped


We threw rocks


We made lunch


We smiled


We made music


We saw


We had fun

Someone is one!

Happy Birthday sweet boy! As every mother says when this day comes, I can not believe my BABY is ONE.

I have been meaning to post a picture of this, our improvised bath tub, since, you know, my parents house doesn't have one. What you can't see is that this storage bin is covered in trains, so it is the coolest choo choo bath you ever did see! My dad cut out a hole on the bottom and put in a drain, so folks this is a real bathtub ;)


Also, I gently pride myself for being conscious of the imprint we are leaving on this earth, so any opportunity I get to recycle, I take it. So this bag has become a little joke in my parents home, since it has now gifted ; My mom's birthday present, Brooks' christmas gift, Conner's B'day gift, moms valentines gift and finally Brooks' birthday present!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

I want to hear from you!

One of the best things about having a blog is the comments people leave. Comments let me know you are reading along and it gives me a chance to say hi and it also encourages me to continue blogging, so here is a little tutorial on how to leave me a comment!

At the bottom of each post you will see in small pink letters Posted by Mama Blue at (time) 0 Comments (or it may have a number if someone has already commented)

You will then click on Comments which will bring you to a new page that will have a box on the right hand side that says Leave your Comment

After leaving me your comment (even if it is just a hi) you will choose you identity. If you have a gmail account then you will already be signed in, but if you do not then you will have to chose Annoynomus. Just make sure you signed your comment so I know who to respond to!

Finally push the bright orange button that says Publish your comment


All done! I look forward to hearing from you (that includeds you Mimi and Papa!)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Sleep Tight

Now that I finally have a camera again (that I absolutely love!) its time for me to post about my three year old and his ability to finally be happy at bed time! It only took four weeks of kicking, screaming, climbing out of windows and dog doors, and generally trying to break the house down in the hopes of avoiding having to actually go to sleep for us to get here. I do have to say it is all pretty understandable (although tiresome and emotionally painful) since he has had a lot of change in the last four weeks beyond just moving away from home. Basically his bed has been moved around a lot between trying to find a safe place for him to sleep, house sitting for a week, back home for one night, then off to the ocean for three nights, then back home, a new bed and new locks on the door. All together a lot of change for a little guy. Especially one who does not quite have the speech ability to tell you how he hurts. This has been such a hard time for us, nap time and night time were dreaded because of the above mentioned activities, day time was dreaded because no one was sleeping much and overall we were one bunch of grumpy homesick people. But then we had a turn around two nights ago. Suddenly my little boy was back! I walked out of his room to the sound of singing and laughter, which continued on until he fell asleep some 20 minutes later. I cannot tell you how joyous I am! These past two days he has been so happy, so it is with much joy that I share with you these pictures I took of him tonight as he was going to bed. Praise the Lord for happy sleeping children, and for a God who is faithful in even answering prayers about the lack of sleep one is getting:)

P.S. Yes my son sleeps in the laundry room... but it is the coolest car laundry/bedroom you you ever did see!


He is telling Woody to say cheese for the camera.




Almost Wordless Saturday

Guess who finally got a new camera?! Enjoy







Thursday, February 19, 2009

Rythm

As of today we have now been at my parents house for four weeks and apart from Joseph for six. Only nine more to go until Joseph graduates from his current schooling and heads off somewhere else, not so close to us. When this is all said and done we will have been apart for 6 months, gah! One of the hardest parts about all this is that after the first couple of weeks you get used to being alone, it becomes harder to remember exactly what it was like to have them home, what it felt like when you were wrapped up in a big hug, or simply feeling the joy of looking up from a book to see them smiling at you from across the room. And you know what is the hardest part about all that? The fact that you don't even realize you cannot remember until one day you are laying in bed feeling very alone wondering about life and suddenly you remember your not alone! In that moment though you feel more alone then any other because suddenly your heart aches as it allows you to feel the very real hurt of being away from your spouse, the ache of not remembering and let me tell you, there is a lot of pain with not being able to remember. It is at that moment that I find myself clinging steadfastly to my Father, knowing that He has brought me through these moments with grace. Grace because He has covered my pain and allowed me to "forget", allowed me to not sit in every moment in pain because I "feel" alone, because the reality is that I am anything but alone. The Lord is always with me, giving me the strength to be away from my beloved and the peace to know that this is right, even though there can be moments were this can feel so wrong because we are apart. God has called us to be faithful, and even though it hurts like crazy, I am so thankful to even have the opportunity to be faithful.

Friday, February 13, 2009

By the Sea

We are speanding the weekend out at the ocean, relaxing in this house...


and enjoying this view...
and celebrating this little guys third birthday!
I am enjoying myself and thinking it about time to upgrade from the cell phone camera to a real camera...
ANDDDDDD Happy Valentines day! My valentine pancakes may not be as pink as Trina's, but they were pretty yummy!

A little break

Hey everyone, I wanted to let you all know that I am taking a little bit of an Internet break right now to spend some quality time with my boys. It has been a hard adjustment and we are still trying to get into the swing of things, so time spent on the computer is taking away from that. Just know I miss and love you all! Oh and a certain little boy of mine is turning THREE on Valentines day! Holy cow batman how did that happen?

Friday, February 6, 2009

When doors close God opens a window

Or in Conner case, when Mama makes it impossible to get out of the bedroom by the door, lets go out the window! Yes people, Conner, my sweet sweet Conner climbed on the window sill, removed the screen from its casing, scaled the wall to the nearest foot hold and then promptly sat in the rocks and began playing outside. Thank goodness my parents live in a one story, and thank God they live off the main road tucked into a small pocket of trees. I found him with a screw in hand playing the drums on the side of the house. I wish I could say that was the end of it, but he is a sneaky little on. After putting him back into bed and keeping an eye on the window for 40 minutes I finally went to relax. Well 40 minutes after that I hear a thump thump thump outside on the deck and there comes Conner thumping up the stairs! Soaking wet, since you know it was drizzling out side! Talk about giving Mama a heart attack.
A new playpen has been purchased and the boys rooms switched up, so Conner is sleeping in the laundry room and Brooks is with me. Funny thing is Conner will climb out a window onto rocks, but wont climb out of a playpen onto tiled floor...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Down

This past Saturday Conner was playing out in the backyard with Grandpa, having a grand ole time running up and down the property. My parents have a pretty large backyard, the only downfall is that it is all down hill, well except the part that is going up...So anyways they are both having a grand ole time when Conner falls down for the umpteenth time, but unlike all the times before, this time he lands hands first on a stick full of rose bush thorns. The good news is that only one thorn went into his hand, the bad news is that one thorn went into his hand.

Its now Tuesday and we were just finally able to get this puppy to work its way out as it was pretty darn deep in there. Poor baby has barely been using his hand and would cry anytime you would so much as look at it. So after many many long soaks in a nice warm bath I was able to take his hand captive and as gently as possible squeeze it out. We really weren't sure how much was left in there because you could no longer see anything, but it was getting pretty badly infected and it just hurt him so darn much that I knew something had to be in there. But I was not expecting this to pop out...
sorry about the quality, but my beautiful camera decided to randomly kick the bucket, but for a reference point, it is the size of my baby finger's nail. Lets just say I got a little queasy when this popped out. Conner on the other hand is doing marvelous! For the first time in three and a half days he is actually using his right hand. Thank you Lord!

On a totally different Conner note, today I had to buy a special childproof lock for a handle door to the bedroom we are sharing because he keeps escaping and exiting the house through the doggy door in our bathroom. That's right people, the doggy door, the doggy door that's made for cats I might add. We have been having problems with him sneaking out and hanging out in the hallway, bathroom or right around the corner from where we were sitting. Everything would be quiet, not a sound on the monitor, when suddenly a giggle appears behind you and then the quick pitter patter of feet that now they are about to get in trouble. Or my favorite was when he decided to serenade us with some beautiful music from his guitar. There he was standing behind us all perfectly pose suddenly playing with all the gusto in his being.

But the final straw was the exiting through the dog door, while the others were disobedient of him, this one was and is dangerous. So on the lock went and now as I type this I can hear Conner trying his best to figure out how the heck to get that thing off. Good luck love, but please don't try to hard, because we all know you will succeed. Someday ask me how long it took him at the ripe age of 18 months to remove the child proof door lock from a regular door knob and then how long it took me to return the sucker...


Update~ Guess who was sitting in the hallway not even five minutes after I wrote this post? The good news is the lock works, the bad news is the door does not. Apparently the latch and handle are not perfectly lined up, meaning the door rarely locks in place, meaning a lock for the handle was rendered useless...big huge sigh there. But never fear, just a little twisting here and pushing there and Voila! Latch locks in place and door handle lock is now no longer rendered useless. PHEW!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

This cat sure looks like Nihko, but he doesn't act like him!

This is my first gray baby Riley, the sweetest tomcat in town.