Doubly Special

Trey loves "projects" - it can be coloring or painting or cutting and gluing, anything. A couple of days ago he drew this picture and gave it to me. It is so special and will probably be one I'll keep forever. Without us knowing why, he asked Jeff and me and Roman each what our favorite thing was. He then sat down alone and drew four pictures, representing each of our answers and his own. One reason this is so special is because Roman's answer was that his favorite thing is "sitting on Momma's lap". Could that be any sweeter? It's also so special just because it's fantastic! I mean yes, it's art by a 5-yr-old, but he came up with this great idea and followed it through by himself! I absolutely love it.

Starting in the top left and going clock-wise, here are the answers he got to "What is your favorite thing?"

1. I said: "Playing with you" (note the blocks and ball we're playing with and the sun shining in the window!)
2. Roman said "Sitting on Momma's lap" (which he really does do all the time!)
3. Jeff said "My family", so the picture is me with both boys
4. Trey's answer to the question is going outside to play, so the green part of the picture is him in a doorway (going outside), and the brown part is him running "really fast" outside.

You can't tell me this isn't precious!!!

The Tooth Fairy!

My big five-year-old boy just lost his first tooth. This tooth has been getting progressively looser over the last couple of months, and last night it was finally ready to give up it's hold on Trey. It needed a little help from Daddy, but not much. It didn't really even bleed after. And Trey was so excited when the tooth fairy left him two quarters in exchange for that tooth!

He's proud to say that he has another loose one... I have a feeling we'll be keeping that tooth fairy busy for a few years...

Jars of Clay

Jeff got an exciting opportunity the other night that I must admit I'm a little envious of. :)

We've gotten to be friends with a couple in our cell group - Matt and Karen. Matt is a musician, and it turns out that he knows the band Jars of Clay. And I mean that he knows them personally, cool huh?

Friday night Jars of Clay were playing in Pittsburg along with a couple other bands and Sara Groves, who I love. So Matt invited Jeff to drive out with him where they got to go to the concert, then hang out and watch while the bands did a meet-and-greet, and finally to hang out with the guys in the band! Jeff said they're the nicest guys, he even met the wife and daughter of one of them!

He did also take the time during the meet-and-greet to say hi to Sara Groves and tell her what some of her (very powerful) songs have meant to me. He said her eyes welled up when he was telling her how special they've been to me.

Here is Jeff with Sara Groves:


And with three of the Jars of Clay guys:

Auntie Again!!!

I'm an aunt again!

My brother Corey's wife Mickae had their baby this morning. I talked to her yesterday afternoon when her water broke and they were heading to the hospital. Jacob was born this morning weighing a healthy 8 pounds 10 ounces! Mom and baby are doing well and Auntie would only be happier if she were there holding him!

I have a five-year-old!

Trey's birthday was Sunday, he's five now. I can hardly believe it. So here are five amazing things about Trey, and some pics from his birthday!

1. He is really mature and responsible for his age.
2. He is smart and loves to learn new things.
3. He has recently become very independent in all kinds of ways.
4. He is very creative.
5. He loves to make us laugh!

Here he is having his traditional birthday breakfast of ice cream


After lots of debate we decided to have the party at home and he wanted monkeys. I found a cute pin-the-monkey-in-the-palm-tree game and ordered it online only to find out at the last minute that they were out of stock. So I made my own. (Those are Trey's decorated coconuts on the side and his monkeys he brought down.)


Duck Duck Goose was a big hit!


He didn't even get mad at Roman for "helping" him blow out the candles. What a great big brother!

Busy Week

Thank God I'm feeling better, I need all my strength this week! It's been hectic already and it's only Tuesday night. Jeff threw out his back Sunday evening, so he's taken my place shuffling between bed, shower and couch. While caring for him (although I must say that he hasn't asked for much) I've also been trying to get ready for my in-laws coming to visit and Trey's birthday and party this weekend as well as a friend's baby shower, and bake about 15 dozen cookies for the shower and get all prepared for a few very busy days online with my internet business. I wanted to get as much done in these last couple of days as possible so that I will be free to focus on the business during these next few days while I'm in a position to have a lot of work coming in. If you're a prayer warrior friend of mine I'd love prayers for Jeff's back, my business this week in particular and all our activities this weekend.

I'll let you know how things go, and you can be sure I'll have birthday pictures up next week too!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful. It was our first time having Thanksgiving dinner just the four of us, and we loved it. We watched the parade on TV (the boys especially loved the giant Horton balloon) and lay around most of the morning, then Jeff put the turkey in. I had made some food and food preparations the day before, so I didn't get too overwhelmed. Even though it was the four of us we went all out. We had all the traditional stuff - turkey and stuffing, cranberries (from fresh berries, my fav!) and gravy, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, green beans and corn... and of course apple pie and ice cream pumpkin pie (my grandmother's recipe and my favorite!). We loved it all. Somehow we ended up signing "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" during dinner, which the boys thought was hilarious, especially when we included Nala and Marley... don't ask me how that got started! After dinner we played duck, duck, goose and Go Fish, then we did dishes before pie. We just wanted to have fun, and it was great!

For those of you who have asked, I'm still sick, but getting more and more functional every day. I hope to be in church tomorrow morning. I spent a lot of Thanksgiving morning on the couch, but was really able to enjoy the afternoon of food and fun. Who knows what this awful virus is.

Here are some pics from our Thanksgiving - cranberries just starting to boil, I think that's the prettiest part of cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and dinner served.

I hope your Thanksgiving was great too!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Miserable.

I have been sick for four days now. Yucky, achy, runny nose, sore throat, throbbing head sick. It could be worse, for sure. But it's not fun. I went to my Bible study this morning, desperately wanting to be better, but then came home and crashed, then spent most of the rest of the day on the couch. That's all I really have to say, I just wanted to whine for a minute. Oh, and I should comment that Jeff has wonderfully taken care of most everything while I've been down. He's great. It's too bad that when we're well we wish for a day or two to just lie around doing nothing, but when we're sick we can't enjoy it!

Hedge Apples

Have you ever heard of such a thing? I hadn't! I was at my friend Nicole's house last week and she had these cool knobby green things in her centerpiece that were so neat. I asked her what they were, she said they were hedge apples and they they grow wild in the woods, her boys pick them up for her. I was fascinated!

Then yesterday I was driving in a country-type area and found a road lined with the trees and the ground covered in hedge apples! I pulled over and picked up a dozen or so of them. They're big, like softballs, and heavy. These were frozen solid, so they didn't have any smell until today when they finally thawed out. They smell citrusy and I love it.

I pulled out my Booma's (grandmother's) punch bowl (also a suggestion of Nicole's) and piled them in it. It is a big, cool centerpiece. I think it'll be perfect for Thanksgiving!

Check it out:

I can't believe it!

Roman has been potty-trained for quite a while now (thank you God!), but was still wearing a pull-up at night. I figured it would be a long time before he could stay dry at night since his pull-up was always soaked by morning, and often even soaked right through and his jammies and sheets would be wet.

Wednesday night we came home from our small group and sent the boys up to get ready for bed. Roman soon reported that we were out of pull-ups. I hadn't realized since he usually gets his own. Oops. We were too tired and it was too late to go get some so we told him he was just going to have to keep his bed dry. What I didn't tell him was that I was sure it was impossible and so after he was in bed I got extra jammies and sheets all ready for him for when he woke up wet. I dreaded his call during the night... but it never came. Around 7 AM he called me up and told me he had to go potty... and he was dry! Apparently it was all a mental thing for him, he knew the pull-up was there so he knew it was okay to go. Without the pull-up he knew he had to stay dry. I didn't buy more pull-ups, he went to bed in underwear again last night and woke up dry again. We are SO excited!!!

Go Roman!!!

Tonight's Special

Most days the boys beg me for peanut butter & jelly for lunch, and I often comply. Trey has started asking me lately if he could make it, and I keep putting him off.

Last night I hadn't planned dinner, Jeff was running late and I was going to run out the door as soon as he got home to make it to an appointment. I was upstairs with Roman and Trey came up and asked me if he could make our dinner. He promised he would not use the stove or the oven. I figured he was going to try to make PB&J, so I said yes - but no knives except a butter knife. He headed downstairs to get to work.

After about 10 minutes Roman and I headed down to see what we were eating. Trey had gotten out the toaster from a cabinet, plugged it in and made two pieces of toast. He had a bowl for him and one for Roman, with a piece of turkey lunch meat in each. He added peanuts and separate bowls for some yogurt and I helped him put the butter on the toast. It was adorable! And he was so proud of himself. When did he become so capable and independent???

4000 Hits

Thanks friends for your faithful reading, I've reached 4000 hits! I wonder how many times you laughed at me... :)

A Day to Remember

The other night friends of our stopped over for a bit. I was talking to their five-year-old daughter, Katie, and stopped to check out the scar on her forehead, which is from a library injury, believe it or not. I noticed the scar has faded a lot and told Katie "that was a day I will probably always remember!" Trey was there when I said it to her, but didn't say anything at the time.

The next day the boys and I were enjoying a perfect day of Indian summer. We were playing tag outside, then jumping on the trampoline. Hot and tired, we lay down together on the trampoline to look at the sky. Trey told me to roll over and when I did he started gently scratching my back and Roman copied him. Trey asks me to scratch his back all the time, he loves it, so to him this is something he recognizes as totally special and loving. After a minute they stopped and we still lay there, enjoying the day. Trey asked me "Mommy, is this a day you will always remember?" Happy tears came to my eyes and I assured him it definitely was.

Trey, I will forever remember that beautiful fall day and the sweet way you showed me your love...

Pickles for Pregnancy

Mickae fulfilled an old pregnancy cliche when we went out to dinner as a family and she ordered extra pickles with her burger. We picked on her incessantly and then added our pickles to her plate as well. She ended up with quite a pile of them! This picture was after she'd already eaten a couple of them!

Baby Shower!

'As I said, the main event for my trip to NY was my sister-in-law's baby shower. Mickae married my little brother almost 2 1/2 years ago, and I'm so glad. She's really wonderful and a good fit for my brother. They are expecting their first child sometime around December 17th and I can hardly wait. For three years now Roman has been the baby in my family and Jeff's. It's been fun, but I'm excited for there to be a new baby for me to squeeze! Jacob, I can't wait to meet you! :)

The shower was a big success. We had fun and great food. My mom planned a cool activity where everyone made birthday cards for Jake to open - one each year up to age 18! It was fun and very funny. Mickae was blessed with some great gifts, and I think she had a lot of fun too.

This is the diaper cake I made that we used as decoration, and Mickae got to take all the diapers home to use on Jake!


Here are Mickae and her mom, her mom made that blanket for baby Jake and I'm so glad she got to come up to this shower with us!


And, as is tradition, my mom made a beautiful blanket for her newest grandbaby too:

Blogger Friend

I headed to NY this past weekend with Trey. I was going to be at my sister-in-law's baby shower and Jeff and I decided to make it an opportunity for each of us to have extended one-on-one time with one of the boys. So, Trey came with me and Jeff and Roman stayed home. It was a cool experience breaking up the kids like that. I wouldn't want to do it all the time, but I think once in a while it's good for them.

Trey and I were hanging out with my mom on Friday doing various things and we spontaneously decided to stop at Lollipop Farm to see the animals when we were driving by. (Lollipop Farm is a humane society location with lots of cats and dogs for adoption, some rabbits and smaller animals and some sheep and goats too.)

We pulled in and parked in the half-empty parking lot and as we were getting out of the car a van pulled in and parked next to us. I did a double take when I recognized the driver as my friend Martha! I have known Martha for several years, she and her family are long-time family friends and former neighbors of the Riveras (my in-laws). We don't see each other often now, but regularly keep up on each others' blogs. Martha got out and we laughed and talked. I re-introduced her to my mom, whom she has met a couple of times over the last many years. She had also spontaneously stopped to get some information and hadn't even seen me until she was parked. I believe God has a sense of humor and thought it would be fun for all of us to run into each other. :)

Here are me and Martha in front of the horse statue inside Lollipop Farm:

Enjoying Fall

Despite the coming winter, we have been enjoying the fall.

Out in our back field:


And a fun trip to the zoo:

Cutest Marine Ever

And no, I don't mean my brother-in-law Chris! :)

The boys got their Halloween costumes this weekend and wore them to a Halloween party. Friends of ours, Dan & Kayla have two little ones who are friends with my boys and they put on a family-friendly Halloween party. Jeff missed it, but the boys and I had a blast playing games and eating treats. Check out my adorable Marine and his brother, Batman! (I don't think there are any full-costume pictures of Trey in the ones I'm posting, I'm sure I'll have some more in a couple of weeks!)

Birthday Boy!

My sweet little Roman turned 3 yesterday. Wow. It really does fly. We had a great day, so of course I've included pictures. A little aside about pictures though, my wonderful camera stopped working last week. I'm so upset about it. Because it was Roman's birthday we decided we had to get a camera right away and so we bought a cool little Casio. It's tiny and fits easily in my purse, which is nice. However, we had very little time to get used to it or try out any settings, so I feel like we didn't get all the best pictures from his day. But I did have a camera and did get plenty lots of cute ones, I shouldn't complain. Someday I'll have the amazing camera I dream of...

Anyway, back on track. We had a great day with Roman, he's such a sweet ball of energy... when he's not terrorizing anyone!

One of my favorite traditions we've had with our boys is that the birthday person (and only the birthday person) gets ice cream for breakfast on his/her birthday. So here's Roman, enjoying his special breakfast.


We had a super-cool firetruck birthday party at a REAL firestation. The firemen were great, they were all so nice to him (and us). They gave our group a tour and each kid got to sit in the a firetruck. We had some great friends with us, Roman was surrounded by his friends and their families. It was a blast! Here's Roman when he arrived at the party and put on his "Fire Chief" hat.


Daddy with his birthday boy:


And Roman in the truck. He got to go first as the birthday boy and he loved every minute of it.



As big brother Trey got to go second in the truck, and loved it! I've got to brag a little, Trey is an amazing boy. Like most boys his age though, I knew there was a possibility of jealousy while brother was getting all the attention and presents, etc. So I talked to Trey that morning. He told me he knew it was Roman's special day and that his would come soon. I was so proud of him as he spent the whole day looking out for his brother and celebrating with him. We never had any trouble with jealousy, and he was really able to enjoy the day as big brother.


And of course, a shot of Roman and his cake:


Happy birthday Roman! Every day of these three years has been a gift from God. Life would not be the same without you. I love you.

Bittersweet

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful. We're surrounded by trees turning all different colors. I was driving (I think it was Friday evening), the windows were open, the air was warm, the sun was bright and the leaves were every shade of red, orange and yellow. I was alone in the car (rare!) and had some good music on loud. (No Mom, it wasn't so loud as to damage my hearing, just loud enough that I didn't hear my phone when Jeff was trying to call me... oops.) It was perfect. The bitter part in my "bittersweet" is that I know winter is on it's way and I just don't look forward to the cold and snow and mud and feeling stuck indoors. I'm going to try to keep focusing on the beauty of fall though so that I don't miss it while I'm worrying about winter. I've been at the computer a lot today as I have some stuff going on this week with my internet business, and from my chair here I have a stunning view of trees. They are right outside the window and all afternoon the sun was hitting them making the oranges and yellows glow. Amazing. Too bad my camera isn't working.

So why haven't I been blogging? I don't know. Somehow it's become something I "should" do, which makes me not do it. Hmmm. I need to get my mindset back to it being a fun outlet... I'm going to work on that. :)

I hope you're all well, leave me a note and let me know you've stopped in to read!

Hurricane Ike

I told a few people I would post a couple pics from the storm. These three trees are right along our driveway, I didn't have to go more than a few feet in the woods to get the pics. There's lots more damage in the woods - we were so protected to have no damage to the house or cars. Even our trampoline, though it hopped across the yard, was not damaged! God is good!

Crayons

This is a project the boys and I did a little while ago that turned out pretty neat, but I didn't post it before now!

We went through our big ziploc bag of crayons and sorted out all the broken ones. We took off any wrappers and sorted them by color into a muffin tin (with muffin wrappers in it). When we were ready we put it in the oven at about 200 and it didn't take long for them to melt down. We stirred the up and let them cool before unwrapping them and coloring with our "new" crayons! Bonus: our crayon bag doesn't have any more little crayon pieces!

3 Days of Darkness

Hmm, that sounds like it could be a book title or something, doesn't it? Actually it's the title of our adventure this week. Sunday night central Ohio (as well as many other places) got hit with the remnants of hurricane Ike. He wasn't nice to us. (Although he wasn't nearly as mean to us as he was to Texas and other places!) Our area had very high winds for several hours, it was amazing to see. Trees were bending so hard they were snapping and falling in yards, roads, driveways, and even on an occasional car or house. We were blessed that all of our damage was limited to trees in the woods. There was a tree in the road near us that Jeff worked hard to chop and move so cars could get through, but our cars and house were safe and the trees in our yard escaped major damage.

Our power was knocked out around 4PM on Sunday. A massive number of people in Columbus lost power, and our electric company had sent a lot of employees to Texas to help, so they were scrambling to recover here. When we finally realized it wasn't coming back up quickly, we tried to make an adventure out of it. We went out to dinner (as did what seemed like most of Columbus - some restaurants still had power), lit candles and played Candyland and Chutes and Ladders before heading to bed. The adventure continued for three days. We roasted marshmallows over candles, went to the zoo, played outside, practiced our letters, sang songs and Jeff and I answered (or tried to answer) 100s of questions about electricity and storms!

We were relieved last night when the power returned, but we were also a little sad. It was nice to have that time together without the distractions of tv, computer, laundry, etc., etc.

Absent

I know I haven't been on here much. I've gotten involved in an online business and most of my time on the computer is spent working on that. I'm excited about it and glad to be doing it. I just have to continue to figure out how to balance it with the rest of my life, including not fully giving up blogging and digi-scrapbooking.

Anyway, we had a great weekend camping with my family at my parents' cabin. My parents were there as well as my brothers and their families. If you didn't already know, my "little" brother and his wife are expecting a baby boy in December. I'm super excited to have a new nephew on the way. I got to feel him kicking this weekend... I can't wait to meet you little Jakey! So, counting little Jacob, there were 8 adults, 6.5 kids, 2 dogs (1 dog wasn't there).

Here's a great little video of that "little" brother of mine, he's a pyro. For those of you who've known him over the years, it's true that some things never change. :) That's Trey at the end saying "do it again"!



Here are a few cute pictures from the weekend too...

A favorite camping activity - FOUR WHEELING!!! This is me with the boys and my youngest niece, Vanessa


Jeff and the boys enjoying it too


A beautiful sunset


A cute one of my boys


This is our camping weekend family picture

Fun at the Zoo

Our fun summer activities have continued non-stop! We're tired but loving it. Last week some of Jeff's family was here for the weekend, it was so cool to have them visit.

Yesterday I took the boys to the zoo, we stayed for hour, we were just having too much fun to leave! We saw a tiny baby lemur (monkey) that I thought was adorable. Roman liked that it was orange (they turn gray when they're a little older). We went on the boat ride they always beg for, and most exciting of all, we were charged twice by a 300-pound gorilla! The first time I almost peed my pants. Apparently he's started charging at the glass/fence lately when there are big groups of matching children (we were next to a group) because he thinks they are a bigger pack then his pack and he's trying to show that this is his area. Let me tell you, I do not EVER want to face a gorilla like him in the wild. I have never seen anything like that!

On the other hand, a cute little bonobo (like a gorilla, but smaller) was showing off for us. He was right next to the glass where we were with a few other people and was dancing around and doing somersaults. He was cracking us up, it was adorable!

What a fun day...

Trampoline!

Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Chris surprised the boys with a big trampoline (and enclosure) as an early birthday present. Here they are they're first time on it (they were up late, it took a lot longer than we thought to set it up!):



And a few days later we had a JUMP party and picnic with a bunch of our friends!

Update!

It's been a while since I've been on. I guess we've just been busy busy busy enjoying our summer. Here's an update on some of the things we've done lately. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll use lots of pictures and keep my writing short! :)

We made homemade "sponge-balls" for some water fun:


We also made homemade "foam machines" for some bubble fun!


We had a short but very sweet visit from dear friends, here are my boys with Aiden & Seth:


And of course, we've been into a LOT of dirt!


We made friends with a little green frog:


We had a blast "helping" Daddy build a fort and playing in it. (Turns out Momma is good at a lot of things, but fort-building is not one of them. :)


And, we got a new tire swing and have been swinging a lot. We loved the old tire swing, but it was so big it kept stretching the rope and hitting the ground, so it was hard to actually swing on it.

That's all I have for now, hope you enjoyed the update. I'm off to the fort with Trey!

(PS - Martha & Heather, I responded to your comments in the comment section from my last post, you can check it out!)