largen life: canton time

Gotta say that it is retreat going to my parents' house in canton. In the middle of pastures, cows, horses, dogs. And mama takes care of us. kiddos love it. these are some shots from a saturday out there.

 max!!!

 henry & ruthie with gladys & claude. dad said he would live longer if mom would let him get these dogs. 

mama-the grill master.

grilled salmon. you didn't think i cooked this.

 

what my dad was doing while mom was grilling. love how secure he is with his masculinity to not feel he has to grill. must be a good book if he's reading & standing.

 

this bunny has been hanging like this awhile, no ears/mom won't ditch him. sad little easter bunny.

mo ho ho

You know how I like to wrap. Made use of some paint swatches I had & used these great initial stamps from Michael's for my Christmas wrapping. Not that my 4 & 2 year old fully appreciate coordinating wrap job, but it made me happy!

 In motion unwrapping.

 My sweet babies, they were bribed with choco milk to pose for this pic.

 Monkey bread for Christmas morning! Henry's favorite. His comment was that he liked monkey bread much better than pumpkin bread.

honey & big daddy's Christmas visit & these great Melissa/Doug cupcake kit

Happy 2012!!!

Got a wild hair and decided to have a little NYE gathering. Very last minute, which works best for me. Still time to throw together some decorations using things I had: silver/black chargers, brown butcher paper, newspaper for stars & accents. I love a night when both kids & adults can have fun! The weather was great, so the kiddos could run around crazy outside. And SPARKLERS! So simple but so much fun.

christmas memories

Our little fam had a interesting Sunday church experience this past week.

We were asked to light the advent candles at the church service.

When Vicki (one of our associate pastors) asked, I hesitated thinking how this reverent tradition symbolizing Jesus' birth could go south with a 2 & 4 year old in the mix.

But I couldn't pass it up-a special memory RIGHT??? So we covered what you do/don't do while lighting advent candles in front of the church....
-don't pick your nose
-don't hop like a bunny
-hold all questions until after the service
-stop drop & roll if you catch fire
You will be rewarded with M&M's if you be little angels.

So all is going well, had Ruthie's hand & as I am starting to light the last 2 candles......she breaks free and hanks her dress up over her head and ignores my dress swatting. Tim is thoroughly focused on his advent reading and is unaware (how do they have the ability to do this?). I have to leave my flashing daughter to finish my lighting.

It was a big, beautiful music program that Sunday-a full orchestra on stage, who all got a front seat to her show.

I wanted to:
1-roll laughing
2-cry and run my pregnant body out of the sanctuary

The first thing Ruthie asked when we left the sanctuary was,
"Do I get my m&m's now?"
"Sure baby."

Thank goodness that "Jesus loves the little children" & I have convinced myself that He was laughing as much as I really wanted to.

holiday cheer

Okay, pictures with Santa is always something that is just "on the list" for me. And you can see why (above Henry when he was 1.5 with his beloved Santa). I'm sure you have similar story/shot to match this. If you need a bit of cheer, check out more below. I gave a friend a book from this site, it will make you roll. Good one to bookmark for a laugh.

to see more awkward holiday photos

totally tubular

 Okay, so Tim & I had the opportunity to get crazy 80's and attend the jackson jr. league pretty in pink prom. A great band called the Molly Ringwalds played-people go cuckoo over them here. So here I am above, knocked up at prom. Don't these pictures make me look like I live a very fun & exciting life-I'm even impressed. Got get all this fun out before baby boy comes. I'm being dramatic.

 And here we are with our skeeeered friends who were not dressed up in the proper decade, but they promised to do it next year.

 Literally I danced 2 hours straight.

BTW, these are all the sweet (and as shown here-crazy) ladies in my Bible study. They make my life full-lending me maternity clothes, breast pumps (ugh), praying for me, laughing with me, crying with me & dancing with me!!!!

 Tim's 867-5309 iron-on shirt I made for him.

Okay, there were 10 of us packed into my new mini-van. I was determined to make use of my delicate condition and serve as the DD.

You can't fully appreciate Ashley's polka dot dress with the full shoulder pads, but this was an actual dress she wore back in the day & still fit in it fabulously.

new van!

Lots of excitement here lately-we have a new car...to make room for #3. Henry tells everyone about his new van & the first week we had it would play in it every afternoon while Ruthie was napping. Gotta say, I'm loving it. I spaz out in carpool line a bit with the automatic open/close doors, but I am getting it.

sucker butt

So I was quickly swishing through the wal-mark the other day, with 2 cranky, hungry kiddos tearing into our un-purchased food. And I heard this voice from behind me saying "girrrrl, you got a sucker stuck on your bootie". huh? I did a quick hand swipe & I found something that looked like ^that^ swinging right from the middle of my skirted bootay. Gosh. I thanked her and we laughed, knowing i had made her day. But I literally had just made all the aisles of wm in about 10 minutes time with a cartfull of commotion. At least it was just in wal-mart, everyone looks their worst in WM-right?

I can't wait for Ruthie to be old enough to tell me this stuff (lipstick on the teeth, cover-up not blended properly, one earring on, etc.)

I told my friend Sherry my ha-ha & that night she sent me a text that night that just said-"sucker butt", I thought surely it was a weird predictive text thing. No, she was right....I was sucker butt.

largen life

Sweet friends, I was organizing my computer bookmarks tonight & realized there are so many precious blogs out there I mark & never return to...so it made me thankful for you who keep coming back. You are a such a fun part of my little life & thanks for letting me having my space on the web!

 So we passed this car on the road the other day & henry almost flipped his lid. A life size hot wheel car!

 henry & ruthie started school this week & happy to report they are loving it. ruthie would go 5 days if I let her & Henry's main report each day is if he's been able to play with the class' computer. ruthie can almost name all in her class/henry is good to be able to recall his teacher's names.

ruthie and her cousin elizabeth are 2 peas in a pod. elizabeth is 5 years older & is mom junior. they have flowers in their hair, they picked from my sister's backyard. Literally, ruthie called to "mom" yesterday while we were all together-but she said she wasn't talking to me, she was talking to elizabeth.

if this isn't nice

recognize when you are happy! ruthie will sometimes pop out with "this is a good day"-meaning she is having fun at the moment. Because I like to recap our day at night time-saying "today was a good day-right?", talking about the high points (playing with friends, eating a doughnut, poo-poo'ing on the potty). sometimes i miss these happy moments because I think that happy is supposed to hit me over the head.

things that are making me happy:

-tim caving & letting us eat at the mexican restaurant last night (this typically is not enjoyable for him). i love people bringing me food while i sit.

-hearing henry & ruthie play together today in the mcdon's playland. henry singing to  ruthie "don't be scared, don't be scared", while Ruthie is screaming to me AYUDAME, AYUDAME (help me per Dora).

-the baby in my tummy, we are expecting #3!!! that should be at the top, i realize this. God has given us a surprise, answered the prayer I have whispered to Him. I feel blessed beyond what we should be allowed. I am due March 11. I needed to tell Tim in a creative way (note along with beer placed in the garage) so that he would not stroke out on me. He's a CPA, he thinks he's old, I can kinda gloss over the sleepless nights-they still haunt him. He's all on board now, looking for a bigger car and all.

-the caramel cake in my fridge (as shown below). i went straight to the piggly wiggly to purchase after watching The Help. It reminds me of Heloise, who made the BEST caramel cake evah. She surely helped us growing up-she was the best cook & kept mama sane. Mom with 4 girls and dad working alot. She is one of the first people I want to find in heaven, I will need to tell her a real thank-you. I took her for granted, she passed away when I was 16 before I fully realized all she did for us. Heloise's cousin-Christine owns Christine's Back Porch in Canton. And on Tuesdays she serves the best fried pork chops. Each day is great, but the pork chops are how Heloise used to cook hers too. Go try them.

-the boiled peanuts i made yesterday, the first time & they turned out perfecto (rare). i'm pretty sure ruthie & i ate the pound by ourselves.

-thinking about MadMen starting soon.

-the way tim made me a new egg-n-toast after this happened to mine. it was really nice of him. 

henry & tim

henry & tim. 2 peas in a pod. henry will come to tim's side of the bed first in the middle of the night. the first thing henry asks when he wakes up "where's da-da" & then I say "at work", then henry starts crying. every morning.

henry is playing soccer in the fall, tim is really into soccer-STILL PLAYS! He just got him a soccer net the other day to prep.

so henry is not really a mama's boy, more of daddy's boy. now ruthie on the other hand...

happy closet

 let me preface this with...i've never organized by closet by color, but I did on Sunday night! i had some antsy energy and it was let loose on my closet. i was a sneezy mess afterwards, but it was worth it. i relentlessly purged (no comment if you see something that should have been purged) & learned I have the majority in these colors: white, black, & gray. You need to know all this..

SUN!

each year my fam goes to the beach. my fave time of the year. 18 of us all together: my sisters, husbands, kids & parents. i get post-beach depression. I tote beachy things home: driftwood, shells, etc. Will share pics soon of some beach creations. It is hectic, relaxing, fast, low-key all at once. We eat lots of ice cream, a family cooks each night (us=fish tacos), there are spats (glad we aren't pouters), some spazzy dancing pre-dinnertime, my sisters & I delve into high-gear deep conversations in a stolen time away from the little ones (a 15 min. walk down the beach). 

love the sleepy time in the morning as the preteen kids are still snoozing and kiddos are patiently waiting to get to the beach.

ruthie & her cousin (and keeper) elizabeth. i overhear elizabeth say, "now, say yes m'am, ruthie", "say please first"...

the lone picture i got of these 2 together with their perfectly fabulous artificial smiles. no matter-i got it.

chillaxing.

the youngest ones: charlie & ruthie getting crazy on picture night.

highlight of the trip, pushing the buttons on the elebator.

They surprise me sometimes & they sure did with their love of the water, considering they seemed tortured by their swim lessons last month. Ruthie would attack the water, slapping her little body down. She would say she was a mermaid & then wiggle her little booty while she swam.