Why Go to the Park

When we can have just as much fun in our own backyard.

Feed the Birds

Grafton loves animals, and even more specifically, ocean life and birds. Whenever we go to the zoo the birds are one of the animals he likes to watch the longest. He comes by this fascination honestly because my Grandmother is also an avid bird lover. In fact, she's known as "The Bird Lady" in the retirement community in which she lives.

For Grafton's birthday my Grandparents decided to help Grafton with his bird watching by buying him a hummingbird feeder, two wild bird feeders, and a bird bath. They came by our house a few days before Grafton's birthday party so that they could spend the afternoon putting everything together.

Grafton's "Nanny GG" explained to him what everything was for and which type of birds each feeder would attract.

We walked to the dirt lot across from our house to find rocks so that Grafton could weigh down the bird feeder. 

My grandparents secretly left some river rocks there for Grafton to find.

Next, it was time to mix the birdseed for the feeders.

The limbs on our trees are not heavy enough to hold the feeders, so we purchased a rod-iron stand to hang them from. Now we constantly have birds at our house from sun up to sun down. Grafton enjoys watching them, filling up the feeders with seed, and replenishing their water every couple of days.

Thank you Nanny & Pappa GG!

Getting Excited

For what, you may ask.  In two weeks from Tuesday my Dad and three siblings from Kentucky are coming for a visit.  The last time my brothers, Nicholas and Caleb, and sister, Arianah, were here was in October of 2007 and Grafton was only 17 months old. They have not met Deklan yet and I'm glad that will change soon.

I've already started planning meals and grocery shopping for their visit.

I'm excited to spend the week swimming, playing games, sight-seeing, drinking lots of coffee, and staying up late visiting. It will be a vacation for all of us!

The Flu Stinks

Especially when one of your kids has it. In this case, it's Grafton. This is the first time in his 3 years he's ever had the flu, so I guess we can be grateful for that.

Friday morning Grafton came in our room at 3:30 AM and said he was sick. He was not kidding! I will not go into details, but it has not been pretty. The way he describes his sickness is, "My tummy is sad."

If he was feeling well, I'm sure he'd love all of the super-star treatment. He's been getting constant tummy rubs, carried wherever he needs to go, he gets to sleep in our room instead of his own, his favorite books are being read to him, the TV has been constantly playing his shows, and he's been hand-fed the little he's felt like eating. Basically, we're at his beck-and-call.

Right now we're 34 hours into this and I believe the worst is over. He finally has some color again, he's actually eaten some crackers and part of a waffle, and he asked for some of his trains to play with. Best of all, we're seeing a smile on his face again!

The Children's Museum

Yesterday the kids and I met up with my friend Tyffany and her two boys to spend the day at a Children's Museum.  Our initial plan was to meet at the museum at 10:30, let the kids play for a while, and then leave and have lunch.

We had to reverse our plans due to a terrible accident on the freeway.  What should have taken me 20 minutes to get there, ended up being over an hour drive!  As a result, our first stop was McDonald's.  

Once we got to the museum, the fun started right away with some giant tubes.

Deklan loved the tubes and even crawled pretty far into them.

After a few minutes of being there, we headed upstairs and Grafton filled an entire room with his loud music.

One of the best parts of the museum was the little grocery store.

Grafton raced cars over and over in the contraption pictured below.

In each section there was an area for crawlers that was separated by a bench for the mom's to sit on. It was nice that Deklan had as much fun as Grafton did.

On our way out, the two oldest boys planted a flower garden.

While we were at the museum my friend Tyffany received word that her dad was having triple-bypass surgery in the morning. She ended up flying to her home state a few hours later so that she could be there for his surgery this morning. As far as I know everything went well, but please keep her family in your prayers. Specifically that her dad will have a quick and complete recovery.  

A Dinosaur of a Party

To celebrate Grafton's 3rd Birthday, we invited our immediate family and Grafton's closest friends (including their families) over for a dinosaur themed party.

For dinner we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and served them along with pasta salad, watermelon, and chips & salsa.

While we were waiting to eat, some of the kids entertained themselves in a bounce house.

Dinner Time!

The kids were happy to help Grafton open his presents.

Grafton's Grandpa H. made him two dinosaur cakes.  They were delicious!

Make a wish!

After all of the traditional birthday festivities, we spent the remainder of our evening in our swimming pool.

So Embarrassed

Last week I took the boys to the mall and while there we went into Barnes & Noble so that Grafton could have a chocolate milk from their cafe.  When we walked into the store I noticed a PEOPLE magazine with Kate Gosselin (from Jon & Kate plus 8) on the cover. I immediately grabbed it as I had been anticipating reading her interview.  I then purchased our items and picked a seat that was convenient for both the stroller and a high chair.  Directly behind us was a college student studying for a math final, and he didn't seem excited that I brought my noisy brood close to him.

I was anxious to read my magazine, so I gave Deklan some puffs (it's like a dry cereal that dissolves quickly for babies to eat) and let Grafton drink his chocolate milk. I should have been paying more attention, because Grafton grabbed my pop out of the stroller and ended up dumping the entire thing on the floor. I quickly jumped up and tried to get the stroller out of the way. While doing so, Deklan grabbed the container of puffs and dumped every one of those on the floor too!

Mr. College Student was not amused, but the Barnes & Noble employee was very nice about it. Needless to say, I quickly grabbed my kids and we left as soon as we could.

Peachy Keen

Seeing that we are currently in the midst of peach season, our family met up with three other families at a local farm to go peach picking.  Before we set out on our peach picking adventure, we stopped by the petting zoo.

To get to the orchard we went on a hay ride. My sister and her lovely family sat across from us.
Before leaving for the farm, Grafton told me, "Mom, I want to pick some peaches for you."  I'm glad he was able to do just that!

Where's Grafton?  

(Hint: Look in the bottom right corner.)

  He's not always in the mood to have his picture taken.

I am currently the only one in our house who likes to eat peaches. Deklan likes peach baby food, so hopefully he'll eat them with me next year.  However, Vince and Grafton like the taste but cannot stand the texture.  As a result, this is my plan for our peaches: peach cobbler, peach smoothies, and I'll eat some the way they are.

My mouth is watering already!

5 Years Ago Today....

Vince and I became husband and wife.  In some ways it has gone by very quickly, but it also seems like a lifetime ago that I was single.

I'm someone who has always had high expectations, and I can honestly say that being married to Vince is better than what I ever expected.  

Vince and I met in his sister's backyard in September of 2002 where my youngest sister was being baptized. At the time I was concentrating on getting through college and not looking to get in a relationship. However, after a couple of conversations with Vince, I realized he was a man who loved God with all of his heart and secretly hoped he would pursue me.

We started dating a couple of months later, but we took it very slow and built a great friendship. He didn't even hold my hand for 4 months!  After a little over a year of dating we were engaged and married 4 1/2 months after that on May 14, 2004.

Our lives have been crazy-busy since then.  We've traveled more times than I can remember, purchased a home, and added two incredible boys to our family.  I don't think our lives will ever change so much in a period of 5 years again.

Here's a look back at our relationship....

We were seriously dating in September 2003

The night we were engaged on December 31, 2003

We honeymooned in Maui and Lizard Island, Australia in May 2004

A trip we took to Ireland in March 2005

Grafton was born 3 days before our 2nd anniversary in May 2006

We went to Disneyland on our own in September 2007  

Deklan joined our family in August 2008

Here we are today, still best friends and very much in love!

I am honored beyond words that this is the man I get to spend the rest of my life with. I couldn't ask for a more loving husband, devoted father to our boys, or man of God.

I can't wait for the next 5 years!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Rachel. When we were growing up our mom would frequently say, "Friends will come and go, but you'll always have your sister." That has definitely been the truth.  

Rachel and I have walked together through each other's most difficult trials and greatest experiences.  Now we have the awesome opportunity of raising our boys together and that is one of the things I have enjoyed the most in this season of our lives.

I hope that my children will have the same bond that we have had with each other.  Not to say our relationship has never been strained (those teen years can be tough).  However, it's refreshing to have someone who you can be completely transparent with and will love you the same anyways.

I feel so blessed to not only call you my sister, but also my friend. 

I pray this next year of your life will be your best so far!

The Birthday Boy's Birthday Day

Grafton's Birthday Party was on Saturday (I will post about that soon), but since today was his actual birthday, Vince and I decided to take him to Build-A-Bear.  Before we left Vince told him he could drive and handed him the keys. Of course Vince was kidding, but Grafton took him seriously!

On our way to Build-A-Bear Grafton said he wanted a black bear with a swimming suit. We found the bear but when he grabbed it from the pile he said it was too "smooshy" and wanted 

the display bear. Vince had to explain to him that he'd get to stuff his new bear and it wouldn't stay flat.

Once the bear was stuffed, Grafton went through the heart ceremony where he gave the bear wisdom, a sense of humor, made it strong, promised to watch his back and....

Made a Birthday Wish!

Next, it was time to give his bear a bath and get him dressed.

Instead of swimming trunks, Grafton picked out a scuba outfit.

Our last step was to print the birth certificate.  Grafton named his bear Fred (I'm not sure where he got that from) and did most of the work himself.

We were all excited to welcome Fred to the family!

Afterwards, we took Grafton to the food court where he had the nutritious dinner of Hot Dog on a Stick.  His favorite!

In order to end his Birthday in style, Fred and Grafton enjoyed some ice cream before bed.

Sweet Dreams Birthday Boy!