The past two days have presented me with lots of photo ops…mainly of my two cuties, but hey, they make great subjects! Here’s a little picture recap of our Tuesday and Wednesday…
Nothing crazy spectacular, but special all the same. These three make life fun!
If you’re not completely appalled at my behavior as a parent and are still reading this blog – thank you! 😉
This past Saturday, we were all so excited that it was supposed to be in the 60’s, so we had made plans to work in the barn and on the chicken house. We got dressed to go out and the stinkin’ wind about blew us over. We worked for a bit and then decided to do something a little more fun (and a little less windy).
There was an antique auction about 45 miles from here so we decided to hit the road! One of the ladies who had a booth in the Ogallala Antique Store decided to sell her collection so we thought we might find some fun things. We were right!
I found this really fun quilt for one of the guest rooms. This picture does not do it justice – you’ll have to check it out in person…
I found some more vintage Fiestaware to add to my little collection…
I fell in love with these hens on nests. They open up and you can put a little something inside…
I LOVE this big, old metal bowl. My fruit is going to look fab in it…
We scored Saywer some vintage dolls and doll furniture for her dollhouse…
I got some incredibly cute needlepoint pillowcases. This one is my fave…
We found some old pie pans and some little cast iron skillets, which Sawyer immediately called dibs on for her outdoor playhouse…
And we found this cute little Kitt and Kaboodle doll in great shape and her horse works like a charm. She is adorable! Someone really liked her, too…
The kids did so well at the auction and were so patient and obedient. Sawyer made friends with a little boy named Travis and they had fun pushing Wryder in the stroller all over the fairgrounds, which he enjoyed as well.
I’m not sure I can pick a favorite…what’s yours?
Sawyer’s Uncle Waco is a pretty special guy. He reminds me a lot of his older brother, whom I adore. He’s incredibly sweet and sensitive, yet manly and protective. He’s a great provider and an incredibly hard worker; like Wrex, I don’t think there’s a thing he can’t do. He is wise beyond his years, yet squirrelly and spontaneous as all get out! He is, hands down, one of my favorite people on the planet! He is a fantastic husband and is going to be an amazing daddy one of these days. I’m so honored to call him my brother, it’s true.
Last year, he married an incredibly special girl, who we all love and cherish, too! She just makes the package all the more sweeter…
Sawyer adores them both! They are soooooo good at playing with her and spending time with her and spoiling her rotten loving her like crazy!
For Christmas, they searched long and hard to find the perfect gift – a tricycle that could be driven on gravely dirt and grass, since we don’t have a lot of cement out here in the sticks.
She was soooooo excited to get it put together so she and daddy worked on it Sunday afternoon.
This trike is so awesome, it even has a bell!
The tires on this thing are massive! It took a little getting used to but then she was off to the races!
We’ve got to work on our steering skills and our leg muscles, but we’ve got the bell ringing down! (Surprised?!) The cat has already gone for a ride and the chickens are getting the memo to steer clear. Pretty sure come summer, she’s gonna be whizzing all over the property!
Thank you, Uncle Waco and Aunt Amber! We love you so much! Come visit soon so you can see me in action!
Saturday was terribly windy, yet again…the house was cleaned (even the blinds!)…everyone had taken good naps and was bathed so we decided to head to town for a rare Saturday night outing!
Daddy bought our supper at the Front Street Steakhouse where Sawyer got root beer in a boot cup…with two straws…and two cherries! What could be better?!
Wryder experienced his first club cracker and fell. in. love. He ate six. Yes, six. Plus applesauce. And bread. And mashed potatoes and gravy. Have I mentioned he likes to eat?
After we finished up our supper, we took a little trip to the bowling alley! Sawyer loved the shoes and got to use a ramp to help her get her ball a little farther down the lane – she had a ball!
She’d cock her hip to the side after every push until she hit some pins – too cute.
Wrex is a really good bowler. He smoked me every game (as did Sawyer, unfortunately). I personally just like to watch his form, if you know what I mean. Ahem.
Wryder got over the whole bowling experience rather quickly. He usually goes to bed at 6:30 so when we started bowling at 6:30, that just didn’t jive with him.
With lots of cuddling in between rolls, he made it until just past the bowling alley parking lot – then he was out!
This was one of the first Saturdays that we really didn’t have a lot going on so it was nice to get out and do something we don’t usually do. Completely enjoyable.
AND?!?
The Broncos are going to the SUPER BOWL!! I LOVE some Peyton Manning. He’s just a classy, professional individual…and he looks a little like my hubby. 😉 And who doesn’t love ex-Red Raider, Wes Welker? Well done, boys!
My heart is full!
I love my kids…something I think you all know by now, yes?! I love them enough that I don’t want to leave their futures’ up to chance in the event that something should (God forbid) happen to Wrex and I. As NOT fun as it is to talk about, I’m a firm believer in being prepared so we spent the day meeting with a lawyer and drawing up our will, naming guardians, estate executors, etc.
The very thought of any of this actually having to happen just about makes me ill but I also know how very important it is. We’ve been witness to a couple of situations where the parents were not prepared and the children ended up with guardians that weren’t desired, huge legal bills were incurred, the children were pawns in a money game…ugly, unnecessary things.
We had put this off long enough and I have sooooooo much peace that this is done. My plan is to be around for a long, long, long, long time and have a few more babies…but we’re never guaranteed tomorrow. We did, however, want to guarantee that our children would be taken care of to the best of our abilities in our absence. These {sweet, cute, kissable} faces are MORE than worth it!
What a great weekend we had! It started out a little rough as we traveled west, stopped for supper and realized we had NO MONEY. My debit card was cancelled as part of the Target debacle and I haven’t received my new one yet and Wrex never carries a wallet, so when we met up in Sterling, he jumped in with us, sans debit card. Sigh. Thankfully, we had a Visa giftcard and some generous friends who let us write them a check and spotted us some cash.
It was cold and snowy all weekend, which made a great atmosphere for snuggling babies! Look at these sweet girls!
Sadly, I spent all my time snuggling and zero time taking pictures. She was just so warm and soft and cuddly – I just couldn’t keep my hands off of her!
We had to make a stop at Wal-Mart to grab some baby food for Mr. Wryder and they had some really fun carts!
Seriously, that was one of the highlights of their weekend!
We had a little pizza snack on Friday afternoon and Wryder tackled me, literally, for the crust. The kid’s an eater!
We popped in and saw the people Wrex used to work for. Their kiddos are SOOOO sweet to my kiddos. They had a ball while we were there!
We stayed with some dear friends – who spoil my kids rotten! They are some of the kindest, most generous people we know and this trip was no exception. They have a wonderful, peaceful, comfortable home and they drug out all the toys they could find for the kids AND let Sawyer decorate cookies. Is there much better in her world? Nope!
It was a fast, fun weekend! We never get to do EVERYTHING we want to do or see EVERYONE we want to see and sometimes that’s hard on me but we try our best. I guess that just means we’ll have to return soon..
Rhoades’, Johannes’, Stukas’, Allbrittens – you’re on our list!
Daddy’s Christmas break is coming to a close. (Insert big, pouty, wailing cry here.) He had a short sale Monday on our way back from Nebraska, so I didn’t really count that one…and I shouldn’t really count tomorrow because we’re going with him…but still, my heart is mourning not having him around all day, every day. We were incredibly fortunate to have him home for 16 days! How awesome is that?! I am sooooo incredibly blessed by his job and his schedule and how much he loves doing what he does. There aren’t a lot of people out that there that can say that, ya know? So while we will miss the added help and his silly jokes and his playful spirit and his uncanny ability to do or fix ANYTHING, we shall hand the local sale barns back their “cute Wrex/Superman/sheriff.” I’m sure they miss him, too. 😉
In celebration of our last day together, we went to town and ate Chinese and played at the park before the cold sets in again.
Tonight, we’re cooking up some yummies to take to a special new mommy in Denver. My bestie had her baby 2 agonizingly long weeks ago and due to several unfortunate incidents I have yet to meet her and IT IS TIME.
So, if you don’t hear from me for a few days, it’s because I’m snuggling new babies and snuggling my man. I’ll be back soon enough…
Today is the last day of 2013 and I’m not all that excited to see it go. It’s been a year of more mountain tops than valleys, so it’s not like I’m just dying to rush it out and ring something else in.
Time just keeps ticking and ticking and ticking on by – where did 2013 go?! Days with my Wrexy seem shorter and my kids keep growing up without permission! While it is such a joy to see the little adults they are becoming, I don’t want to miss a single day with any of them. I want to take it slow and press it all into the wrinkles in my brain so I don’t forget these days. My life with my little family is significantly more blessed than I ever could’ve imagine for myself. Who am I that He would bestow such merciful blessings on me?
We were blessed with a sweet baby boy (on tax day – he’s redeeming it!)…
Sawyer turned 3 and got to celebrate with a host of family and friends…
We got to go on a vacation to Denver and make lots of memories as a family…
Sawyer got to show her first goat…
We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary by bowling as a family…
We traveled to Kansas to witness one of our best friends’ wedding…
I got to act out my obedience to the Lord and start this blog…
Sawyer got to be in our neighbor’s wedding…
We got to spend time with the majority of the Phipps family at a cousin’s wedding…
Add all of that to everyday blessings plus visits from family and friends…
Where did it go? It went by in family dinners, road trips and snuggle sessions…in Cubbies meetings, sale barns and swimming pools…in weddings and pony rides and birthday parties and midnight feedings and suppers in the kitchen and jumps on the trampoline…those everyday moments that make up minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years and LIFE. I sit here sentimental, cherishing each one…
but I shall embrace 2014 just the same.
You are good and do only good; teach me your decrees.
The Lord has been so good to us…and we pray…
…let 2014 be more about You and less about us.
…let 2014 be more full of grace and love and mercy and kindness and self-discipline and joy and less of their oppositions.
…let 2014 be more about Your will and less about ours.
…let 2014 be about YOU. And only YOU.
Happy new year to you and yours!
I’m baaaaaaaaaaaack! Blogging during family time is just not ok. 😉 And I was really busy with two kids at my in-laws. Traveling with small children seems to require a lot of stuff, doesn’t it? I feel like we hauled half of the house to go three hours, yet RaRa has pack-n-plays, high chairs, etc. What did I pack?!?! Regardless, it was TOTALLY worth it! The kids were awesome (they’re the easy part) and we had such a good time making memories with the Phipps family. Here is the remainder of our Christmas celebration in pictures!
It was good to be with family, but oh so good to be home again. We get Wrexy all to ourselves for six more days! Can you say bliss?!!? SO EXCITED! I’m nursing a sore throat (and an overly tired body and mind) tonight but hope tomorrow brings full health – night night!
Since Christmas Eve will end up being a little busy for us with church and all, we decided to let the kids open a fun little present tonight, on Christmas Eve’s eve. I put together a box with new pajamas, snuggly animals, popcorn, pop, cocoa and a little note saying that we were going to have pizza, pop and popcorn for supper while we watched a special Christmas movie!
Sawyer woke up with a fever this morning and hasn’t felt great today. Poor girl. I think the present made her feel a little better.
She was really excited about her new jammies and her teddy! She has a soft place for all things cozy and cuddly.
Brother looked pretty cute in his santa jammies, too. Who doesn’t love a little something on a baby’s tush!?
We had to take pictures in front of the tree, with our new animal friends, no less.
Daddy read one of Sawyer’s favorite Christmas books while I got the pizza ready and Wryder sort of paid attention.
One of Sawyer’s Boz movies had a preview for a movie called The Very First Noel. We are BIG Boz fans and it’s produced by the same company so I assumed it would be good, but I couldn’t find it anywhere! They aren’t producing them anymore and the only used ones I could find were $35. YIKES. Enter YouTube. We found it online and I am sooooo glad we did! If you have the chance to watch it, DO IT! It’s the Christmas story told from a wiseman’s perspective and is incredibly well done. Sawyer loved it, as did the rest of us.
I love having special time with my little family. My parents always did a good job of making Christmas memorable for us and I hope Sawyer and Wryder say the same about us one day.
HE is worth making a fuss about…as are they.