Mothers Day 2014

I am incredibly blessed.   I've had good mothers days.  And terrible mothers days.  This year, however, was incredibly perfect.

Ry let me sleep in, and I was woken only by Porter, who brought me breakfast in bed.... A bowl of Trix cereal in a kids' Ikea bowl, meticulously layered on top of a small kids Ike's plate and then a larger adult plate.  I like this boys' presentation. ;-). He also brought me Oj in a cup with a top.  I love him.  I are my cereal half asleep (partially thinking.... Strain the milk... I'm almost positive he doesn't know to use 1% milk and there's a chance he used Amelia's whole milk).  He came upstairs and snuggled with me for a bit, and then later Hudson and Amelia came up to snuggle with me too.  I love snuggling with my kiddos.

I got up and was presented with one of the best Mother's Day presents ever... A journal from the kids. Ry had found an old scrapbook of mine I never completed.... It had one page in it titled "pieces of me" and was about myself in 2005, pre-kids.   He had the kids each draw me a picture and write a note.  It was adorable.  Then I took the kids outside for a few minutes.... The weather was beautiful.

We decided to go out for lunch.  Ry had outback in mind and I knew it would have a long wait.  I figured mcdonalds was in our future.  I called outback and sure enough, 2 hour wait.  No way.   We went to Wendy's.  A little classier than mcD's.  It didn't matter to me.  I was with my family.  It was perfect.

Amelia and Hudson took a nap and Ry made me some raised garden beds for the yard.  We spent all afternoon planting flowers, building garden beds, digging holes and planting veggies.  The kids helped, and played and were filthy by the end of the day.  My mom came over as well and took the kids to the park for a little bit.  We ordered pizza for dinner and finished the evening off with baths/showers all around.  You know you had a good day when you require two showers and your feet are black from soil!  

It was the perfect end to the weekend.  

Winter Updates

• Hudson has become such an awesome reader.  He's blown through the sight word list at school and is reading Junie B Jones books on his own.  So proud of him!   His newest thing is the where's Waldo book and reading the lists in the back to find "extra" things to search for
  
• Porter has also turned into a huge reader lately.  He really likes the magic treehouse books.  He will go through multiple chapters in one sitting.  I often find the boys reading at night and can't bear to make them go to bed when they're voluntarily reading!
  
• Lately the boys have been sharing a room.  I love that every once in awhile they decide they want each others company.  I love peeking in before bed and seeing them sleeping in the same room
  
• Winter has been long.  Too long.  I'm itching to get out of the house and itching for some major changes.  I go from wanting to move out of state to remodeling our house to redecorating rooms to moving to a new house in michigan.  Ryan's feeling it too as he tore apart our 5th bedroom in the basement to drywall it.  And he's great at tear out but apparently hasn't had the motivation to work on the rebuilding part.
  
• Ry is looking into transferring to a different branch of his company- in North Carolina.  We've always wanted to move there but just haven't had the opportunity nor guts. Well, my job is providing far more than any outside the home job could and lucky for me I can work anywhere.  I'm excited at the opportunity but so nervous about the thought of leaving family.  I'm just not sure.
  
• Adding another cup of water to the soup, we've begun exploring the local foster to adopt agencies near us.  I've always wanted to adopt a little girl from china and always have felt like I have a daughter that isn't biological to me out there somewhere that belongs in our family.  Ryan is adopted, though he's never felt a huge pull to adopt.  Or maybe any at all if I'm being truthful.  The biggest reason I've never thought it'd be part of our life was because I worked outside the home and also because of money.  But now I work from home and have a very flexible schedule, and money is not an issue. We have a few friends that foster and have/are adopting and I've really felt this tug to look into fostering to adopt. Ryan is opening up to the possibility- he's up for a 4th child but he's really hesitant about the potential heartache of saying goodbye to a foster child.  So, we will be meeting soon with a local foster to adopt agency to get more details.  I know we would be wanting to foster/adopt a little girl 2 or under.  We've asked the boys what they think about this and they were so excited.  They adore Amelia.  They argued over whose room the new little sister would get to share... They both want to share with a sister hahah!
  
• I am finally discharged from physical therapy for my wrist and have been cleared to go horseback riding again!   Only.... I haven't had the time to go!  I miss riding so much.  But part of me is kind of scared to risk falling on my wrist.  I'm hoping to make it out this weekend.
  
• Porter started wrestling this winter.  He's really doing well and catching on quickly.  Too bad wrestling tournaments are a lot of waiting around to watch 1 to 3 minutes of action.  And it makes me anxious watching these boys wrestle.  Gah!!   But he likes it.  So that's good.  Now to find something that Hudson truly likes.  Hmm.   Not a fan of soccer.  Or basketball.  Or horseback riding (too smelly).  That boy....
  
• Hudson has been going through this really scared phase.  He is scared of the dark, of being alone in a room at home, of waking upstairs alone and even showering alone.  He asks to leave the bathroom door open.  When he takes a shower he says "I feel like a ship is about to gonna fall on my head".  What in the world??!?  He also is terrified of pictures of large ships.  And books about ships.  So strange.
  
• Amelia started going to daycare 2 days a week.  I really needed to have at least one day a week where I had silence in the house- where I can work distraction free.  Miss Marleen wanted her 2 days a week (for consistency) so instead of my grandma watching her on Mondays while I volunteer in the boys' classrooms, she goes to Marleens then as well.  She LOVES it there, and does such a great job.  Of course, I had no doubt that Marleen would love her and she does.  :)  I love that she gets to be around other kids and do projects and crafts, and I get a day to spend with the boys at school and a day to work distraction free.  Win-win in my book!

A permanent fixture

The car topper has become quite the joke.   We've been home from vacation for 5 days and it is still on there.   Last night I was grumpy.  Really grumpy.   And Ryan said he wasn't going to take the effing topper off last night so I said "Then let's see how you like driving that biotch to work tomorrow!"
  

Well... today I had to run errands.  Ran into a friend at Target who, as we walked out to the parking lot, said she couldn't remember where she parked.  

"You wouldn't forget if you had one of these on your car!"

And then at Meijer, as I was unloading the kids, another friend drove by and said "Ma'am... where can I get one of those for my car?"

I about died laughing.  

It's turning into the butt of all jokes.   Awesome.

The. Best. Christmas. Tree. Ever. (if you have a sense of humor)

Fun family traditions?  Uh.  Seems like anytime we try to plan something fun as a family it ends up being a ridiculous stressful event full of whining and irritated huffing and puffing.

Today for example.  We planned to get our Christmas tree   A real one this year.  I also planned to meet a lady at meijer at noon to buy a movie.   I told Ryan this at like 10 am.   Amelia laid down for a nap and at 1130 I decides to wake her up and asked Ry to get the boys coats, shoes and hats on and pack some cheese and crackers while I got Amelia dressed.

Well he had to get himself dressed.  And then mentioned he needed to dump garbage out of the truck (he takes our garbage to his work to dump).  Then the truck was in the back yard (which is gated), so we had to move the van to get the truck out.  The carseats weren't even in the truck.  The chainsaw wasn't in the truck.  Porter was whining and getting pissed because his shoes didn't "feel right".  Hudson was getting pissed because he couldn't get his mitten on right.  Amelia was pissed because she wanted a bottle.  I was pissed because we only had 10 minutes to get across town to meet this lady.  Ughhh.   I was ready to call it quits and just dig out the fake tree yet again.  

But... we made it work.  I called the lady, we got the carseats in the truck, the kids loaded up and we made it only 15 minutes late.  Sure, we were all silent and brooding on the trip out there but once we got to the tree farm (which is a friends' parents tree farm, and was closed so we had the run of the place) our spirits lifted.  The boys were really excited about our new adventure.   

The pickins' were kind of slim for a smaller tree.  These trees were HUGE!  We walked all the way down the path and back and contemplated and discussed and compared and pondered.   Ryan's theory was "We just need to find one that has a good 'body' and we can trim it into a good shape once we're home" Ok.  Remember this, right?   

So we find a few trees that are far too tall.  One would work if we hacked the top off (it was kind of narrower in the middle toward the top) and others seemed like they'd work if we hacked about 4 feet off the bottom and trimmed the sides up a ton.  We finally settled on one that seemed pretty close to what we needed.  It was a little fuller than we'd liked but we figured we can trim it up, right? 

We took a few pictures... my hubby is the best- he carried this huge wooden uh, thing, over so I could set my camera up and use the self timer.   We packed the tree up, and headed home.  

Here's where the fun begins... are you ready for some laughs??  When we finally got around to bringing the tree in it was dark.  Ryan went outside and when he brought the tree in the first thing I thought was "WOAH... way too big."  We obviously either overestimated the size of our house or underestimated the size of that tree.  The second thought? "What the hell happened to the top of the tree and why is there so much trunk showing?!"  (Ryan says "I only trimmed a little off the top!)  I am pretty sure this is why he said to me "I"m going to run up to Menards for garbage bags... and look at their trees." I shot the idea down.  NO!  We went and picked out our tree and we're going to make it work!  Little did I know he'd hacked a hunk of the top off of it! HAAH!

So out to the front yard we went with a hedge trimmer and chainsaw.   Ry cut off some of teh trunk (and I'm pretty sure more of the branches at the bottom because we needed to cut MORE trunk off later), and I went to town with the hedge trimmers trying to shape the tree into a recognizable triangle shape.   The neighbor came by to get his dog (who ran into our yard) and said "That's unique... cutting the top of the tree off instead of the bottom!  Shows you don't follow the crowd, huh?"  HAHAHA!

After oh, an hour?? Who knows... and many many laughs, we finally got our tree looking decent.  Oh my word.   Ryan kept saying we should just go buy another tree and I refused.  No.  This was OUR ugly tree and it is going to be a great memory.  Ugly or not, it's staying.  

TGIF

Well around here I guess it doesn't matter much what day it is anymore.  The days tend to run into each other.

The temps this past week have been SO miserable.  It's been in the mid 90's/low 100's.  WAY too hot for me.  I can't take it.  Not to mention we have not had any rain in.... I don't know how long.  Our grass is brown and crispy.  Yesterday we did get a "flash downpour" for about half an hour.  It poured hard... it hailed a little bit.  I urged the boys to go out and play in the rain to cool off.  They were hesitant (go figure... they'll bust out the hose and mud in a second but rain... "I'm scaaared!") but did go out a little bit.  It cooled the evening off into the mid 70's but it was humid.  Can't win for losing!

It has been so hard to keep our 2nd floor cooled down (where all 4 of our bedrooms are).  We rarely have to use the a/c in the summer, but lately it has been on 24/7.  I finally suggested we turn off the a/c upstairs and have a campout in the basement (thanks Heather for the idea!!).  Amelia and I slept in the guest room (I've totally become a co-sleeping mama with her.  What. the. hell.) while Ry and the boys crashed on the sectional sofa.  We still had to have some fans running though for air circulation.  I can't wait for the heat to break!!

This morning we met Stephanie and her boys at the Chelsea Treehouse.  It was so hot out that even being inside the Treehouse was sweaty and miserable.  We had butt sweat from just sitting and chatting while the boys (red faced and sweaty) ran and played.  We managed to stay about 3 hours and wore the kids out.

This picture cracks me up.... Porter dressed himself and for some reason this combo is something he puts together often (orange striped polo with plaid shorts).  I was cracking up when I noticed him playing with this boy at the Treehouse... they obviously have the same sense of style!  

Tonight Ry took Porter to the Tigers game.  I'm so glad they're getting to spend some one on one time together.  He plans to take Hudson later this summer (though I'm not sure he'll end up enjoying it much).  I feel like I get plenty of quality time with the kids both together and separately, but Ryan doesn't have that opportunity as often.  Porter was SO excited to go.  A few weeks ago or so I had picked up Tigers t-shirts for the boys at the store for Ryan to give to them on their "date night" with Daddy to the Tigers game.  He was so excited about it!

 Hudson, Amelia and I headed to Target to pick up a few things and spent the evening trying to stay cool at home.  Its 11pm and Hudson is still up (watching Toy Story with me for the 2nd time) and we're waiting for Daddy and Porter to get home.  

New Recruit

Yesterday Porter asked if he could change Amelia's diaper.  He was fully confident and told me he didn't need my help because he w=has watched me do it.  Eyes like a shutter, mind like a lens I tell ya! I let him have a go at changing her diaper and he did great!  I woke up this morning to Porter attempting to change Amelia's diaper in my bed.  Well, he can change a diaper and feed her.... sounds like he's ready to pick up the night shift once or twice a week HAHA!

Speaking of the night shift... I've been doing it 100% since she was born.   Now, part of my love of bottle feeding is that I don't have to be relied on 100% to feed the baby.  However, this time around I really haven't minded getting up with her.  I'm soaking up ever second I can spend with her. She's growing so fast.

Friday night, however, I asked Ryan to take over during the night as I had a session first thing in the morning.  The next afternoon he went to take a nap with the boys.  On his way upstairs he stopped and said to me "Now I know why you're so tired all the time...."   AHhhhh.  :)

Mr. No

Awhile back, when we took a parenting class with my therapist (who is amazing at counseling parents and helping out with parenting problems!!), we discussed parenting styles and analyzed our own.  Ryan, not surprisingly, fell into the "drill sergeant" category (authoritarian).  He is Mr. Do-It-My-Way-BECAUSE.  I'm not saying he's a bad parent.  He isn't.  I love that he is not afraid to put his foot down and he is not a pushover.   I tend to be a little more lenient, but I kind of wishy washy back and forth from lenient to drill sergeant depending on my mood (hence the counseling).

I try not to write too much therapy stuff here because this is public, but I know this is an issue many other parents deal with.  Different parenting styles.  Ryan and I have been working for the past year and a half to meet in the middle and become more democratic parents.  We try to give more choices, stand our ground more, not criticize, let the kids deal with their disappointment and consequences that come to them.

Most of the time we do pretty darn well.  Our boys are very strong willed.  They are very persistent and very independent.  They like to try to push the limits whenever they can, regardless of how many times they have been redirected, scolded, told no, directions explained etc.  With that being said, Ryan and I have to be on our game and work hard to maintain consistency.  And now that I'm typing all this out I'm realizing I might be the one knocking things off the rocker.  Anyhow...   Most of the time we're on the same page.  Most of the time we do a good job of maintaining order in the house regardless of what limits are being pushed by the boys.   However, there are still times Ryan falls back onto his "Drill Sergeant" ways and there are times I become too passive only to explode after being pushed too far by the boys.  This is our work in progress.

Lately, however, I've noticed how much Ryan is a Mr. No guy.  Mr. No-All-The-Time.  Okay, I've stated I sometimes tend to be a pushover, but I in no way feel like I give into my kids for no reason at all.  I don't.  I just choose to pick my battles and try to let the boys have some decisions in things as well as have fun in situations that might typically make a child misbehave.  A few examples we've run into recently...

Shopping at Target.  Now, I by far take the kids shopping more than Ryan does and I have my own routine and rules while I'm out with the kids.  Since they have been old enough to ask to play with things at the store I have allowed them to play with toys etc while we shop.  They learned early on that they don't get to keep these items... at the end of our trip they say good-bye and we put them back.  Sometimes we end up with a pile of things in the cart, sometimes we swap throughout the trip as they find different things to keep themselves entertained.  It works for me.  They know that even if they ask to buy it the answer is no and that it is just something to keep them entertained.  So, we're all shopping at Target.  Porter is picking out a toy for a friends' birthday party and it is in the cart (a truck that makes noises).  Hudson is sitting in the front of the cart and reaches back to get the truck and play with it as we shop.  Ryan takes it from him and tells him no.  (and here's where we disagree).  I don't back him up.  I asked Ryan why it is such a big deal for him to play with the truck.  I allow them to play with toys in the cart while we shop and by immediately butting heads with Hudson he's creating a battle that really doesn't even need to be started.  Is it such a big deal that he looks at the toy we're buying for a friend?  Yes, I know... I should back him up.  But I don't.  And he gets ticked.

Today, Ryan is getting ready to go shovel the sidewalk outside before P's basketball game.  Porter excitedly asks if he can help (because he's all ready to go to his game, just waiting on me and Hudson).  Ryan immediately says "No I'm going to shovel and you'er staying inside."  Really???  Is it that terrible of a chore to just say "SURE why don't you come help me?"  Most days during the week when it snows Porter goes outside and shovels the sidewalk for me, and sometimes even the driveway.  It burns some energy and keeps him occupied.  Of course, naughty me, I don't back Ryan up and I ask him "Why?  Why can't he go help shovel?"  And then he is ticked at me and asks when I'll start backing him up.  And I tell him "When you stop being Mr. No All The Time."

I just feel like.... there are SO many times kids are told no during the day.  So many things that deserve a no rather than nit-picky little things like helping shovel the sidewalk.   I do tell them no, lots of times.

You want chips and ice cream for breakfast? Uh... no.

You want to ride your bike to school?  Uhm... no way.

You want to start the fire in the fireplace?  Heck to the no!

And of course there are times when we need/want to tell them no because timing is inappropriate (They want to play a game while I'm cooking dinner, for example... though instead of no I tell them "Sure!  We can play the game AFTER dinner...)

You get my point.....

I just don't want them to grow up always hearing negative.  I want them to have some decision making power, but know that there are limits.  Shoveling the driveway?  I could care less if you want to shovel the driveway!  Go for it!  I hope you always want to do that!  It isn't going to hurt anything and the alternative is an upset kid stuck inside for ME to deal with and explain why Daddy didn't want him to help (to which I have no answer because there really isn't a reason he can't help other than Ryan's first instinct is to say no).

So we have some work to do... some work getting on the same page and some work at slowing down and thinking about what kind of answer to give the kids.  Does anyone else have this problem in their house?  How do you handle it?

I feel bad that I don't always back Ryan up (we do try really hard to back each other up but it seems like so many times lately he's snapped out a "No" to things that really he could have made a fun moment for the kids), but I also know that I don't think it is fair for the kids to always hear no. And in Ryan's defense, I noticed that the rest of the morning and day he was much more intentional with the things he said to the kids rather than negative negative negative.  He let Hudson help him take things up to the attic (which he normally would have been all "Uh NO!") and he set a much more positive mood for the rest of the day.  I applaud him for this, as even though our morning started out rough and grumpy (everyone was in a bad mood because we were all not on the same page), our afternoon went great and we were much more in tune with each other.

Happy 8th Anniversary!

Ryan and I will be celebrating our 8th anniversary on Tuesday.  I can not believe it has been 8 years.  We pawned the kids off on their loving grandparents (Hudson went to Oma's and Dave came to stay with Porter and the dogs), and Ryan and I took off for the weekend!

Our original plans were to go to a resort up at Boyne Mountain but there were issues with the scheduling and our rooms were "overbooked" or whatever.  So, we have a free weekend to use sometime later (oh and after this kid-free weekend, we SOO will be using it!).  Anyhow, we ended up staying in Flint so we could visit Frankenmuth and Birch Run.  (more on that later)

Friday we headed up after my doctor's appointment.  We stopped at Subway for lunch and then went straight to Bronner's... it'd been so long since we'd been there last.  I forgot how HUGE that store is!  It really got me in the Christmas spirit and we had fun browsing the millions of ornaments and decorations.  I sooo want to take the boys there but then... it almost would be crazy to try to take kids there.  GAH.  So busy and sooo many breakables.

After Bronner's we had to wait an hour to have ornaments personalized (for the kids), so we went to a nearby shopping center type place.  It had a lot of neat little shops you wouldn't typically see in a "mall".  We got delish cupcakes and gelato at Sugar High.  YUM.

Afterwards we went back to Flint and ate at Fuddruckers.  Pretty decently priced and good food!  It was our first trip to a Fudd's.

Saturday we headed back to Birch Run to shop.  We couldn't figure out why we could not find a hotel in either city and it turns out that weekend was some big "Deer Widows Weekend" at the Birch Run Outlets.  WHEW.  Busy busy is an understatement.  We got some amazing deals though.  We had lunch at Uno's Chicago (uh... the wait for lunch was an hour and 45 min. EEEK!  We were able to put our name down and shop for an hour then only had a half hour wait).  Their Chicago deep dish pizza was to die for.  YUMM.

We shopped ourselves out and went back to the hotel to rest and then picked ou Outback takeout (just Chocolate Thunder desserts).

It was such a nice, relaxing weekend and was so nice to get one on one time with Ryan.  We definitely need to do this more often!

The Graduate

After years of hard work and dedication... Ryan received his diploma on June 10th.  I was so proud to see him accomplish this... working full time, a wife and 2 kids, a mortgage and so many responsibilities.  Why, yes, it would have been easier had he listend to me long ago about college, but regardless, he did it.  I'm so proud of you Ry!

He loves me

My hubby's handmade my valentines card... At work... While being teased by his co workers. He loves me. And I sure love him too!

Valentine's Day was pretty low key... I tried to do little things for the family to make them feel special.  I hand made Ryan, Porter and Hudson cards... I wrote little "Roses are Red..." poems for them.  The boys  got the robot/monster plates, bowls and silverware from Target $1 spot and some candy and heart shaped lollipops.  Porter has been such a sweetheart lately... he saw his gifts at his spot on the island and said "Is this for ME?  Mom, you're the best! This is great!"  I love love love that kid!


Hudson eats lunch at daycare so I didn't have to make his lunch, but I made Porter a sandwich cut into a heart and he had red foods.... a little debbie (super treat for him!), watermelon, a peach (red outside) and strawberries. 

I had therapy in the evening (good stuff on V-day HAHA!), and when I came home Ry was making dinner... we had spaghetti (because its red!) and garlic bread.  It was a pretty low key evening, we finished watching Home Alone 3 for the 20th time.

11.15.2003

6 years
2,190 days
52,560 hours
3,153,600 minutes

Happy Anniversary, Ryan!

My how times have changed.... after our honeymoon to the Iberostar in Mexico (Riviera Maya), we talked about how we wanted to spend our 5 year anniversary there.

Well, last fall life had different plans for us.... we had a new house, a new baby, lost Ryan's mother and were just not in the place to be able to do such a trip.

This year we tossed around the idea of even a short trip for the 2 of us. I even looked up tickets and packages and priced it out. But then we decided we (ahem... I) really wanted to get our kitchen project underway so again, the big vacation for the 2 of us is put aside.

Even a short trip to Chicago wasn't... isn't... possible as we aren't really sure what we'd do with the boys for a weekend.

Anyhow... we had decided dinner and a movie would suffice... after all, its the time spent together that counts, not the place. But all day I've been feeling under the weather and have slept most of the day. The boys have been cranky and well, life just happens. So, while Hudson and I slept earlier, now Ryan and Porter are sleeping. And neither of us have the desire to get out of our pj's and pretty ourselves up for dinner and a movie.

*sigh*

My, how life changes.

But... I have to proclaim... it IS for the better. I love our little life we've built together and I couldn't imagine these dreams coming true with anyone else.

I love you, Ryan!

Handy Manny

I told Ryan I was going to brag about him on my blog.

"about time" says Ryan.

Ha. Ha. ha.

I am quite proud of my hubby and all his 'Handy Manny-ness'. He has done a GREAT job on our treehouse. Next weekend is shot for working on the house/yard, so I really wanted to spend as much time Saturday and Sunday working on the treehouse as possible. However, we were kicked out of our house Saturday from 9-1 while we had an exterminator come get rid of our caperenter ants. I kind of felt like the day was shot.

Enter awesomest hubby. He somehow talked his dad into helping him get this mond0-heavy-duty swing set arm up. (ok, so maybe there was a little guilting by me.... "Its for your grandson, Dave! Do you know how much it will mean to him?" HAHA!) They really exceeded my expectations too. Originally I wanted just an 8ft swing arm and they DOUBLED it. We now have room for 4 swing-type toys. Right now we have two.

And, they altered my "design" a little bit because I wasn't willing to part with my clothes line and we were nervous about the swing arm being too close to the clothes line. So, the swings are now off the back of the treehouse.



And THEN today he managed to get the posts in for the lower level slide deck and started framing that in. I'm hoping we can get that done slowly throughout this week. Not sure if that'll happen or not... Ry's kind of swamped with school and tomorrow night is Porter's "Meet the team" for soccer.

So, onto pictures. Lots of pictures from this weekend.

Two of my boys and "the project"...

Porter loves the swings. He was so excited about them. He's been bugging me for the past few weeks to swing in the blue dolphin swing we have. However, its too small for him and despite me telling him so, he continues to conjure up ways to get into it (sand bucket... dump truck... etc). The other swing we have is the baby/toddler swing and while he fits in it, it was attached to our big climber's swing arm, which is short, and just wasn't that thrilling of a ride for a 3 year old.

So NOW he has his own big-boy swing!



Hudson spent most of the weekend just hanging out, crawling around the driveway and yard, eating sand, playing with sticks, yadda yadda yadda. He got to swing a bit in the little swing, and other than that he hung out with Addisen on the blanket.
Dave brought over this 4-wheeler for Porter to play with around the yard. Don had picked it up on "Curbside Special" day in Dearborn and it needed a battery and a few other "alterations." Ry fixed it up and ooooh boy... Porter rode that thing around ALL day today. I wasn't sure he'd be able to steer/know how to steer, but he was all over, backing up, driving inbetween small spaces and parking it in the garage.

This weekend went by in a blink. I can't believe its MAY already! I can't believe my little itty bitty baby boy is turning ONE in less than 3 weeks! I'm hoping he learns to walk soon (ha! ) so that he can get around the yard in a little bit of a cleaner way than currently... crawling around the driveway and grass and dirt isn't doing so hot on the pants/knees/shoes.

#28

Happy Birthday to my dear husband... the only person in this world who can put up with me and my crazy ways. We've been through thick and thin, richer and poorer, sickness and health, loving and losing, and so many other trials.

You know me through and through and love me anyhow. You understands me. You forgive me. You laugh with me. And only you would find the humor in me writing this more than a week past your birthday! True "me" style, right babe?

You really are a wonderful dad... truly a big kid at heart.

"Happy Birthday to my dear daddy".... says Porter :)

Valentine's Day Meme

Came across a new meme suited for Valentine's Day this year from Heather's blog.
Care to join in the fun??

What are your middle names?
(Nicole) Lee and (Ryan) Scott

How long have you been together?
11 years this past December

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A couple months

Who asked who out?
I can't remember...

Whose siblings do you see the most?
In order of most to least: My sister, then his sister, then my brother.

Do you have any children together?
Two awesome boys

What about pets?
Two dogs and some sea monkeys

Did you go to the same school?
Yes

Who is the most sensitive?
Probably me

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
As a couple? Does that mean without kids? I don't even know. That question should be "Where do you eat out EVER as a couple?"... We often default to Outback. Or any good pub around. (HAHA I have to agree with Heather's answer...)

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Riviera Maya, Mexico

Who has the craziest exes?
Hmm... I think he has the craziest ex.

Who has the worst temper?
Unfortunately, we both have pretty wicked tempers.

Who does the cooking?
Well, when he doesn't have school, he does. Since he's gone a few nights a week, I take over most of the cooking.

Who is more social?
I am.

Who is the neat freak?
It depends... we both like neat and organized-ness, but it kind of goes in spurts.

Who is the most stubborn?
We are both pretty stubborn.

Who hogs the bed?
I'd have to say him because some nights he snores so loud I resort to moving into the guest room.

Who wakes up earlier?
For work... he does. On the weekends... usually me

Where was your first date?
I don't think we had a "real" first date.... we hung out at and after school. We probably went out to dinner or something.

Who has the bigger family?
We're pretty even.

Do you get flowers often?
Nope, and that's a-ok with me.

How long did it take to get serious?
Well, we were pretty young when we started dating, but I'd say a year or so?

Who eats more?
He does

Who sings better?
Ehh... we both are pretty out of tune.

Who does the laundry?
I do the washing, and usually the folding but as I type Ry's watching Little Einsteins with Porter and folding laundry. I put away most of the boys stuff, and he puts his stuff away and sorts my stuff. We end up pretty even, I guess?

Who’s better with the computer?
Me... although he's catching up with me ;)

Who drives when you are together?
Typically him, but I drive sometimes too.

Who picks where you go to dinner?
We usually both agree where to go.

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
Hmm... like I said we're both pretty stubborn so quite often we'll avoid admitting we were wrong but of course, we both know the truth LOL

Who wears the pants in the relationship?
As in, who makes most of the decisions... who's the "boss".... Well, I usually hold out until I get my way, so I'd have to say me. But Ry would probably disagree.

Who has more tattoos?
Neither of us has a tattoo.

Who cries more?
Me

Who eats more sweets?
Me. Definitely me.

Date Day:

(n) A date that lasts all day/night. No kids. Lots of conversation, laughing and flirting.

Yesterday Ryan and I spent our anniversary on a "date day." I had a session scheduled for this month in Livonia so we decided I'd schedule it for the morning and then spend our afternoon/evening in Canon at IKEA, then go get dinner. Yes, I know... we're SO adventurous. We went to IKEA on our anniversary HAHA! We had a great time though.

Ryan surprised me before we left the house with the 16G Ipod Nano (which we're going to exchange for the 8G because I don't really need the 16G!). I've been wanting one for awhile but really couldn't justify spending money on something frivilous like that. We have a house that needs fixin' up... priorities!

We dropped the boys off with my mom and said farewell and good luck to her (HAHA!) and headed to Livonia. I dropped Ry off at WalMart while I did my session and once I picked him back up I had butterflies in my stomach thinking about Ikea. I couldn't wait to show it to him! I knew he'd love it (which he totally tried to underplay because he knew I was so psyched to show him... dork).

We got to Ikea and decided to browse the second floor before getting lunch. We got a ton of ideas for our house and it was so nice to just spend leisurely time with Ryan without bribing/coercing a toddler to be quiet/sit still/stay by us in the store. It was nice to discuss our ideas together in more than a 15 minute chunk of time between cooking dinner and wiping butts and doing laundry.

There was an annoying lady (with her husband and kid) there that kept following us and we tried to ditch her MANY times but she kept popping back up near us no matter what we did. She was so loud and every kitchen she was like "OH I LOVE this I want this one. Can I get this kitchen? I want to get this one!" Only (call me steropyical) she didn't look like the type of person in the market for a new, expensive kitchen.

We ate lunch... split a Buffalo Chicken Wrap and fries and each had a Chocolate Cake (DELISH!) and then headed downstairs to finish up Ikea.

We loaded up on lots of things:

• This playmat for the playroom.
• Three blue baskets for a soon-to-be shelf above Hudson's changing table.
• A moose and lion hand puppet for the boys' stockings
• A magnetic board for the playroom
• A paper roll and rail for the playroom to mount above the table and chairs they're getting from Ry's dad for Christmas.
• A can opener
• Tongs
• A splatter screen
• Two toilet brushes
• Tealights
• 
  

Funny story about the tongs and splatter screen... Ryan wanted the tongs and when we were in the kitchen area we couldn't find them. As we headed toward the checkout he randomly found some lying in a bin by the Trofast storage systems. SCORE!

Then... as we're in line I remembered LeeAnn buying the splatter screen the last time I was at Ikea. I said "Oh darn! I forgot I wanted to buy one of those splatter screens!" Oh well.. I wasn't about to go all the way back in to the madness of the store for a splatter screen. Well, as we inched forward in our line... what did we find randomly lying on the display rack? A misplaced splatter screen! SCORE again!

And then we found some great deals in the clearance/open box/damaged section:

• We got the Expedit bookcase for $62... it was damaged but just a tiny corner was scraped.... hell, it'll get that scraped being in my house!
• And this clothes drying rack for the basement so I can line dry some things this winter... for $1.99!!! Its missing one of the triangles on the side but hello! For $1.99 we'll rig up a rope!

After Ikea we ran into the resale shop to see what they had and then headed back to Jackson to eat at Outback.

This morning I woke up and it was strange to not have kids to wake up to! I was up at 6am but luckily was able to fall back asleep until 8. When I looked out the window I saw our first dusting of snow... I felt a bit sad that Porter wasn't home so I could see his reaction. :(

5 Years=60 Months=260 Weeks = 1825 Days

In some sense I can't believe we've been married for 5 years but then in another, it almost feels like we've been married forever. I look back to our dating days and all our dreams and goals and hopes for the future and am amazed to see so many of them coming true. Here we are, 5 years later... blessed with 2 beautiful, healthy children, an abundance of friends and family that we adore, a home that we're in love with and in this economy- jobs that provide for us both financially and for our own being.

That's not to say that to get to this point we haven't hit our own share of rough patches. There have been a few sticks in the road, a few potholes here and there and even a nice demolition to get through. But, we've made it and we're still strong and in love and happily married and I can't wait to see what the rest of our lives have to hold for us.

I found our wedding vows in a Word Document on the computer a few months back. I/we (as in... I wrote and he edited/approved) wrote our entire ceremony and vows for our wedding. I was motivated to do this when I heard that my cousin, Amy (who passed away far too young at the age of 25) had done the same when she was married. She passed away the year before we were married and I felt like it was kind of an honor to do something the way she did it. Anyhow... I found our vows and thought I'd post them.

Today I give to you my unending love and devotion.
I promise to stand by your side as we face new experiences,
always growing together, honoring, respecting and
cherishing each other through everything life has in store for us.
I promise to remain faithful to you in good times and in bad,
and in times of sickness and in health.
You are my best friend, and I will love and respect you
with all I have to give and in the only way I know how-
completely and forever.

I love you, honey! Happy 5 years... and many more!

Who is this man...

and where is my husband?

Ryan has been hard at work stripping the hellish wallpaper in our dining room. By himself. And not complaining.

Background: He doesn't do painting/decorating/wallpaper stripping type jobs. He's the guy knocking down walls, installing floors, building shelves etc etc.

Last night we went to work to attempt to get the dining room wallpaper stripped since we're hosting Thanksgiving dinner here in a few short weeks. I've stripped wallpaper in 4 other rooms of our house (5 if you count the playroom I started) and none of the other rooms were half as hard as this room. The vinyl layer of the wallpaper comes off in 1' x 1' little shreds.

Ry went to put Porter to bed last night and somehow bedtime took an hour. *cough* *cough* staller! *cough* *cough*. So I finally got sick of waiting for him and said "I'm done. I'm hiring someone and it'll be our anniversary present. I'm done." And I cleaned up my mess and went on to other projects in the house. Ryan, though, got back to work and worked on the dining room for a few more hours last night and has been working on it most of the day today. MOST OF THE DAY!!! I was helping him a bit earlier and jokingly said "Oh the only reason you're doing this is because I threatened to spend $$ to hire someone to strip the wallpaper and you'd rather buy new phones for our anniversary."

He says.... "Actually, nope. I want to make you happy. A happy wife makes a happy husband."

BWAH HAHA HAHA! Think the dude wants some ice cream?

So proud

I got some great news today from Ryan... he's being promoted! Well, technically not right away, but its in the process.

For the past 2 years or so he's been taking classes for CAD Engineering with the intent to move up in the company he works for. Right now he runs the machines out in the shop, and he wants to get on the other side of the job and do the programming and computer/office part of the job. He still isn't done with his degree, but he's already benefiting from it.

His boss is moving (leaving the company) and today he had a meeting with the other programmer and some other company wigs and starting Monday he'll start training with Jeff and in November he'll have a review to make sure he's doing well with the new job and adjust his salary accordingly.

If I know my husband, he'll do great. He's a quick learner and hard worker. I'm so proud of him!