Bambi and Laryngitis

I always think of Bambi when Wright is talking. He is the king of generalizing a newly learned word to label all things like it. Like when Bambi learns the word "bird" and calls the butterfly "bird" or "flower" for the skunk. Think of that and you've got Wright. All vehicles (even planes) started out as "tractors". We have now branched out and can say "tractor", "truck", "booby" (bulldozer), "jet", and "ewww" (airplane). All colors are BLUE!!!! and don't try to tell him different!!! All shapes are "hearts", except circles, they are "balls". All drinks are "tea", except soda has become important enough to warrant its own label, evolving into "tea pop" and now just "pop"! Crazy boy!

Journey of course gives Wright a lot to listen to in a day. She currently has a case of the sniffles which is causing her voice some problems. Yesterday, Grandma Jackie said it sounded like Journey was going to lose her voice. I overheard Journey telling her cousin, Kylleen, today that she had bad news for her. Journey said, "Grandma Jackie said I'm going to lose my voice.". . .silence. . .and then Journey asked, "Do you know sign language?" Silly girl!

THANKFUL

I've posted three other new posts tonight-so if you are looking-don't miss those too:) I'm getting caught up on blogging-then on to some organizational goals for the house-okay maybe sleep first!

I don't have any pics from Thanksgiving, but we had a nice time with family and friends as always.

I've been more intentional about giving thanks each night as I lay down to go to sleep. I don't know when I started it-sometime this past year, but it is usually the last thing that I remember as I fall to sleep. . .'thank-you for this family, this husband, these kids, this warm house, this life.' I've never before in my life been as utterly aware of how absolutely BLESSED I am than right now!!!

Halloween FUN

The night before Halloween we hosted a benefit "Wigging Out" event to raise money for my sister, Regina, to help pay for her medical bills in her fight against breast cancer. We had a wonderful turn-out and a great time. We live in an awesome community with great family and friends. The event raised enough money to basically pay the rest of Regina's bills for this year! Everyone was invited to wear a wig or full costume as part of the fun. I got many compliments on my pink bob wig-I'm seriously considering a cut!! Jeff had a gash on his forehead from a farming incident and had we been quicker thinkers, we would have dressed as "Jack and Jill"! I'm happy to say Gina is doing well. She has one more chemo treatment in a couple weeks (YEAH!) and will begin her 6 weeks of radiation around the beginning of the year.






We keep lucking out on Halloween weather-it was another wonderful evening for trick-or-treating. Journey wanted to be a ghost this year and was really into it!! She did inform many that she was Casper the "friendly ghost" so they wouldn't be too scared. I had a few ideas for Wright, but when I saw this skeleton costume-I was sold! Wright wasn't so sure about Halloween for about 1 house, then he got into it! He was running to keep up with Journey from house to house-hauling his basket of candy behind him. When people would open their doors he would hold out his basket and say "num, num" which is his way of saying "treats" (did I mention he has a sweet tooth?) He also admired decorations and lights with great enthusiastic "oohs!" Wright liked to help everyone close their doors before we left each house. Before we left one of the last houses, I asked Wright to tell the woman thank-you for his candy. He quickly reached up and blew her a kiss (his thank-you). She said that was the best thank-you she had gotten all night!

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, JOURNEY!!!

Journey at 1. . .

and 2. . .

and 3. . .

and 4. . .


now 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Journey had a great 5th birthday-although she is now focused on being 7-her favorite number! We had our usual big family dinner the Sunday before her birthday. We went to St. Louis the weekend after and went to a Build-A-Bear workshop where Journey got to build her first (and probably only) bunny which she outfitted in a Halloween outfit and named "Candy Corn Bunny". We then went to the St. Louis City Museum, which is unlike any museum I've been too. Hard to describe-basically designed by an artist, in an old shoe factory, and full of "recycled" and "reclaimed" items, and pretty darn cool!

Journey had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast approximately 360 of the 365 days that she was four years old. I think she just got tired of them right before turning 5-oh she'll still eat them, but she doesn't ask for them EVERY morning now. Journey's vocabulary is expanding at an exponential rate. In the last week, I've heard her use "revolting" and "refrain" (as in to keep from doing something), as well as telling me a "replay" of what happened. Journey loves to have books read to her before bed and we try to get to the library every couple weeks to get new books!!

Journey is wonderfully silly and is a girly girl at times (she almost always wants to wear a skirt or dress to school), but then also not (she'll be hanging from monkey bars or tackling a cousin in same said skirt or dress). She had a friend and her sister over from school after Halloween. This was the first time the girls had been to our house and they went to Journey's room to play dress up with lots of dresses to choose from-Journey came out and asked me if we had clothes for her to dress up as FRANKENSTEIN!!! I must have seemed a bit leery, because then she assured me she would be nice! :)

Journey still has a wonderful imagination and wants to play pretend ALL THE TIME. Journey likes to have her picture taken and loves to pose for the camera. She also likes to try being the photographer too.

Journey is fast and loves to jump and climb. She loves to draw and write and is good at them both. Journey has grown a lot this year-two more inches since last April. It became very noticeable to me that Journey doesn't fit cuddly in my lap anymore-she is lanky and bony-not a little toddler anymore-sniffle.

We're very proud of Journey and love her to pieces!!!!!!!!!!!

First Day of School and Parental Perceptions

I'm catching up on blogging-so forgive the lateness of the upcoming topics, please:) Journey started preschool four afternoons a week this year. She is thoroughly enjoying having an assigned "job" to do every day. She even likes being 'super cleaner' or the person who picks up after everyone else has to get any missed items. Apparently this is a very fun job if you get to wear a Batman mask! Preschool teachers are so awesome! The afternoon class only has around 10 students in it, which I love. I wasn't for sure if I should ask for her to be in the morning or afternoon class, but I am VERY GLAD she is in afternoon. We're putting off the reality of having her at school by 8:00am every day one last year!!! (Thanks to all you smart friends for that advice:) Journey comes home singing new songs many days and brings pictures that she has drawn or painted-I know I can't keep them all, but they are so cute! They had a fire drill early in the school year, and Journey was slightly concerned and very inquisitive about a possible fire for the next few weeks, but has since become less worried about it.

I have noticed my perception as a mother is pretty patterned as of yet. I have high expectations for Journey and sometimes I wonder if I have expected too much of her (since she is my guinea pig in this whole parenting gig). I don't even realize I'm that way until I look back at a picture and think "Oh my goodness, she was so little!" and I'll second guess myself on maybe I was too hard on her! SIGH!! I find myself being somewhat the opposite with Wright-I'm always thinking of him as such a "little guy". As I held him tonight before bed, I honestly thought "there is no way this little baby boy will ever be a big, tall guy like his dad or his uncle Joe or uncle Phillip-no way! He is going to be this little guy forever right!!??? I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to be mom to both of these exceptionally cute and wonderful kids!

T-REX CAFE

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We went on a short family get away to Kansas City during Fourth of July weekend. Journey has really been into dinosaurs the past 6 months or so. She loves the Land Before Time movies. Part of our trip was to visit the T-Rex Cafe. We had been here once before a couple years ago and Journey liked it then too. Both kids just looked around in amazement at the whole place. I have no pictures that show the inside, but it is awesome. The restaurant is split into themed sections like an Ice age section and a Ocean section. Every section is made up to look entirely like the real deal including plants, creatures, and huge animatronic dinosaurs that will move and roar. Our waiter said some kids become frightened and cry and I can definitely understand, but Journey and Wright had no problems with it. We actually sat in the ocean section by the 5,000 gallon salt water aquarium. Stretched above the entire section was an ENORMOUS octopus. The jelly fish lights were pretty cool too! I found out that this T-Rex cafe is one of only two in the U.S. The other is at Disney World in Florida. So if you have a reason to be in K.C. and you have a dinosaur lover in the family-I highly recommend dropping in here!!

I Carly

Jeff's Uncle and Aunt brought this little puppy, Carly, along during some of their visits this summer. Now I'm not a dog person, but this has got to be the cutest dog ever. She was a sweetie and Journey and Wright enjoyed playing with her. I love this sweet picture of Journey and Carly-had to post it!

Great Pershing Balloon Derby

We went to the Great Pershing Balloon Derby in Brookfield, MO on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. Brookfield is just under an hour's drive from Moberly. It was fun, beautiful, and pretty darn cool. We got to watch about 20 balloons set up and take off. We watched about 20 more fly in and try to land in the designated area, much harder to do than it sounds. Then at dusk, we got to walk through 20 balloons during a "night light" event. All the balloons were touching and as you walked through the middle of them and looked up, you saw every color of the rainbow illuminated above you-it was like some fairytale stained glass world.

Anyway, it was well worth the trip even though the kids enjoyed climbing on the three rows of big hay bales at the end of the field as much or more than the balloons.

It was well worth the trip even though Wright gagged on a Skittle on the way over and then proceeded to vomit profusely until every last drop of anything he had even thought about eating was covering him and his car seat.

The trip was also worth it even though I lost my camera at the Balloon Launch Site (which is a fancy label for big, open pasture with lots of people milling about). I had it in my pocket and had gotten some good pictures I thought, but as we drove home at 10pm that night, I realized it had fallen out. Knowing I was not going to drive back the next day for "a lost cause", I had resigned myself to the loss. As most everyone agrees, it's not necessarily the camera you care about, it's the LOST PICTURES.

The happy and somewhat unreal ending was I took a chance and e-mailed the Chamber of Commerce the Tuesday after Labor Day just to give them my name in case anyone found it and turned it in. They e-mailed back that day saying someone had given it to an announcer, who gave it to them, and it was sitting in a desk drawer. They mailed it to me and so here are some of the pics. Of course, my camera (and me) are not professionals and the pictures could never do the real experience any justice, but they are nice mementos for us.

I really wanted to go to the Forest Park Balloon Festival in St. Louis the following weekend, but it didn't work-maybe next year. They had around 70 balloons there!! And I'm definitely going on a hot air balloon ride sometime-we'll see if Jeff will go too.

He's Got the Look!

Wright seems to have lots of admirers! Whenever we go out, people are drawn to him. The old farmers around here love his energy and interest in TRACTORS! Girls of all ages love to talk to him and inevitably come to the same conclusion-he is CUTE (totally agree)! Must be the combination of crazy blonde hair, blue eyes, and happy/energetic demeanor. Whatever it is-it's workin' for him!



Outside=Happy!


Right pointer finger-never leaves home without it!



Yep-He's Cute!

(I may be in over my head with this one.)

Just a Swingin'

Like most kids, ours love to swing. Journey has to try swinging lots of different ways-the normal sitting, the standing, the laying on your belly, laying on your back, and all kinds of other ways. She is very good at getting started, pumping, and climbing high! Wright watches EVERYTHING Journey does and tries to imitate to the best of his ability. He likes swinging in baby swings, but he also enjoys belly swinging on big kid swings! Of course, they are both big fans of the "Under Doggie Push" too! We've done lots of swinging this summer. Hope your summers have been filled with fun too.




Hanging out on our swings.



Journey flying high at Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Larry's!
She loves this "Cebulski" inspired rope swing :)


Makes her hard to catch in a picture though!!!!!!!!!



Wright's getting it figured out too!

SUMMER!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers. It has flown by as usual-BOO! I am happy to say we've enjoyed lots of swimming and time with family and a short trip to K.C. Jeff and I just had our 12th anniversary-yet to be celebrated as our family was stricken with a demonic stomach virus that lasted a couple weeks before it was all done. I start back to work next week and Journey starts 1/2 day preschool next Wednesday (four days a week). Kind of interesting to think she may meet some friends that she'll know the rest of her school career!! Sorry we didn't make any big trips this summer-never has felt like a possibility this summer. Maybe sometime over the school year?? or next summer?? We have many friends and family across the country we'd love to see again. Miss you all!!

OH, JOURNEY!

Journey has gotten into the habit of falling asleep in our bed and then we move her to her own bed, after which there is a 50/50 chance that she will return to our bed in the early morning hours. A while back, Journey started bringing a stuffed animal or two to bed with her. Then Journey was bringing a whole herd of animals to bed with her placing each one in the "perfect" spot on OUR bed! I drew the line after she brought 27 friends to bed with us. I know, world's worst mom. . .read on!

Journey is cracking me up lately! She asked me the other evening as she played outside at dusk if I wanted to "use up the sunlight" with her. How could I refuse?!! This morning we had a storm roll through early with lots of thunder so when she got up, I asked her if she had heard the storm. I said it was a lot of "rumble, rumble." To which she said, "maybe it was my belly." Guess she was hungry!!!!!!!!!!!! Jeff and I have pretty definite parenting ways and it hasn't gone unnoticed by Journey. We jokingly say that Jeff is the "yes, yes man" and I am the "no, no girl". So the other morning I asked Journey if she had any dreams and whether they were good or bad. She quickly said she had a dream and it was GOOD. She said, "Daddy got me a TV for my room!. . .and he said the 'no,no girl' was never coming back!" Yikes! So I said, "I wasn't even in your dream?" She said "no" got a little concerned look on her face and said, "I REALLY WANT A TV IN MY ROOM!" As you can guess I said "no".

Airborne

Jeff has always been interested in flying. He has been really into radio controlled airplanes basically since we moved back in 2007. If you know Jeff, then you know he is quite skilled at building things and I believe he has definitely found a place in radio controlled airplane building. (If we could only make some money at it-but then it wouldn't be as fun right??) Jeff has built-basically from scratch around 5 or 6 planes now. He could go much more in depth in telling you how it is done, but the short version is (forgive me Jeff for the inaccuracies): he picks a real airplane he wants to build a model of. Somehow he gets dimensions and drawings from the internet I believe. He cuts and shapes the body and wings, etc. from foam. Adds the mechanical and engine parts. Does a super nice paint job on it. MONTHS LATER. . .Flies it. Sometimes crashes it. Fixes it. Flies it alot more. Starts thinking about the next one to build.


Jeff strapped our camera to the belly of one of the first planes that he built and took an aerial video of our property-I found that video before he had told me that he did it. Jeff has also strapped roman candles and sparklers to his planes around the fourth of July, lit them, and flew the plane at dusk. That was enjoyed by all! Seems like the best time to fly is in the evenings (as the wind calms down). I'm constantly amazed at Jeff's varied abilities and creativeness. It definitely fits with my "frugality" that he can build all these himself instead of buying them! And as he says, the construction phase is as much or more fun for him as the actual flying! So my husband is a dork, but we love him to pieces!!! Here are some photos of Jeff and his most recent plane.

Enjoying our Pond/Lake!

We are enjoying our pond/lake immensely this summer! I'm not sure if it is quite big enough to constitute as a lake. . . .but anyway we love it. We go on little paddle boat rides when it is not too hot-very enjoyable. It is so nice on a hot day to walk across the back yard to the sand, play there, wade in the water, or even swim a little. The sand has made it out in a small area of the water so that it is not muddy. Jeff wants to haul more sand in to beef up the sand pile again and push more out into the water to have a bigger "non-muddy" swimming area. The first picture above is just the kids playing. The sand pile is used often for general digging, building, burying, and driving of small vehicles. Second is Journey checking out a baby toad. We watched the toads around our pond grow from egg stage-to tadpole-to "froglets" for lack of a better word-to these tiny toads-Journey was quite the tadpole catcher and now no toad or frog is safe!! The last picture is my nephew, Lane, and a bass he caught out of the pond. We can cast a line in and catch a small bass VERY regularly, but every once in a while someone catches a nice one like this too! We always throw them back so come for a visit and fish with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One Cute Cut!

Journey is in a hair phase of "no clips, no ponytails, no braids, no brushing!" She wanted a haircut and that sounded good as summer is upon us! Here are before and after pics. Of course I'm partial, but I think she's as cute as ever:)

BEFORE

AFTER

LOVE

I'm learning as a parent that it is a special kind of heartwarming to watch your children play together and interact (not fight). I'm glad to have caught a couple moments on film to prove to our teenagers down the road that they did get along ONCE UPON A TIME!

A Boy's First Love

Wright LOVES tractors! He gets up in the morning with his "motor" running, says "tatuh" for EVERY motorized vehicle he sees, and pushes his toy tractors, cars, and trucks around most of the day. Wright also loves to ride in real tractors as well as on four wheelers and in big trucks. Books with pictures of vehicles are favorites too. Here are some pics of Wright and Poppy Eugene's tractor. Last is a video of Wright saying "tractor"-it's amazing how he can even make that CUTE!!

WELCOME SPRING!!!!!!!!!

We are so HAPPY to have spring here. Lots of playing in the sand, swinging, and walks! All that fresh air makes for some exhausted kids by bed time. (parents sometimes too) Here are some pics from a little hike into the woods at Jeff's parents' house. Two streams coming together with waterfalls-PRETTY and FUN.

Shower Buddy

Wright has already had more showers in his little life than Journey I think! If he hears the shower go on in our bathroom from any part of the house-he heads that way. Well before he turned one, Jeff was in the shower and Wright was knocking at the outside of the bathroom door saying "DADA, DADA" then pushed it open and headed right in! Yesterday he climbed in the shower with Jeff fully clothed and pushing a tractor! He just sat there and played!! Most of the time he likes to snuggle with Jeff in the shower. With me, he'll want me to hold him some of the time, but most of the time he sits right at my feet and plays with random objects-the ENTIRE shower and I can take a PRETTY LONG SHOWER. If I move a little this way, he moves with me-doesn't ask to be held-just wants his back against me or wants to sit between my feet. Sometimes Journey gets in too and then they play by each other. I actually enjoy those showers greatly!

Before Wright's first birthday when he was feeling absolutely horrible, he couldn't go to sleep due to ear pain. We'd tried all the usual tricks to give him comfort, but at midnight he was still up crying. Finally, (out of desperation), I remembered how Wright liked to snuggle in the shower sometimes. I got him in the shower with me and held him, letting the warm water just pour over him, and he was asleep within a minute. That was a really powerful "Wow I did it!" moment of parenting and soothing my child. I love the shower stall Jeff built in our bathroom if for no other reason than THAT moment!