forward it back

365--weeks 27 & 28

yes, you read that right...i am back tracking today. since i am currently in colorado i figured this would be a good time to post a couple of the weeks i missed in the summer.

week 27 (july 2-8)

day 183

a fun evening swim at our friends' neighborhood pool. 

day 184

this is our 4th of july tradition that my mom passed on to my sister and i....making watermelon cookies. of course i had planned on a separate post for this, oh well--maybe next year! 

day 185

we took the boys to a fire work tent off the highway to let them buy some for their very first time. as a kid i used to ride my bike to the firework tent that was always by my house with my money that i scrounged up. every kid has to experience that at least once!

day 186

i was in the kitchen and looked out back to notice easton just chillin' laying on the court. i don't remember where his brothers were but he was out there by himself just having a moment i guess:)

day 187

oh boy, this was the start of the 'club penguin' phase this summer! our little neighbor boy brought over these cards and they would sit at the table under the swing set for hours playing this game. this led to playing 'club penguin' online and to collecting 'puffles' which will show up in future pictures. documenting another phase...

day 188

sweet cooper lovin' on sinbad. 

day 189

my favorite summer salad, i ate this salad everyday for a week and a half (no kidding) and brought it whenever we were invited to a friend's house. 

 

week 28 (july 9-15)

day 190

porter got to spend the whole day with my mom. since we were going to be traveling on his birthday she wanted to have a special day with him and that it was for sure! he got to pick out his presents (one being the knight costume he's wearing) and eat at mcdonalds and lots of other fun stuff. now the other 2 boys are anxiously awaiting their special birthday day with grandma. i believe a tradition has been started, thanks mom:)

day 191

summer evening family walk. 

day 192

sunday lunch at my parent's house after church, the boys went outside after they ate while we continued to sit and visit with my parents. we eventually got up to see what they were doing and found them all sliding in the standing water that was in the yard from the rain we had...in their church clothes mind you! all i could do is get my camera. a photo collage definitely needs to be made from this silliness!

day 193

as of this summer i have a front seat rider...sigh. i think adjusting the seat,rolling the window up and down and messing with the radio are finally starting to get old, or it could be that i threatened if he couldn't stop pressing buttons his short lived front seat days were over:) there were a few things that happened this summer that really opened my eyes to the fact that he is growing up and this was one of them.

day 194

gladiolas transplanted from my parent's yard a few years ago. so pretty! we always seem to be going out of town right when they are getting ready to bloom though:(

day 195

this picture is documenting my husband's space...the garage. this is the one area of our house that i have absolutely no control over and i have learned to be okay with that. (i was also short on ideas today! ha) 

day 196

july 15th, porter's 5th b-day and a repeat picture since i did a separate post about this day.

 

yay--2 weeks down out of the 10 that i'm behind! a little progress but progress none-the-less:)

i have a big day tomorrow here in colorado. for starters we are getting up early and heading to the horseshoe craft and flea market. i can't wait to see what that is like and all the treasures that i might find! then in the evening i am taking my cousin's bridal portraits. that is the real reason i am here. my sweet cousin flew me out here to take her and her husband's pictures. i was/am very nervous because i have never done that before. thankfully i have very encouraging family members and friends so i'm gonna give it a good try. i also have comfort in the fact that one of my photographer friends that lives here is going to shoot with me. needless to say, tomorrow is going to be a very busy and interesting day!

i'm starting to feel like i say the same things over and over but i'm so happy that you've taken the time to stop by. thank you, thank you. have an amazing weekend!
xo  

365--week 38

sshh...i know i'm late at posting this but i'm dating it like i wasn't--hee hee. i guess i can do that huh?!

this will probably be my quickest 365 post as of yet. i'm getting ready to go out of town to colorado all by myself! more details later as i am in my usual before-any-trip-stress-freak-out-mode. i need to travel more to get over that!

enjoy the week.

day 260
 
friday evening on our way to arkansas. no picture of the day yet, hmmm what can i do? oh yeah, i'll stick my head out the window while we're driving down the highway! (good thing a bug didn't fly in my big ole mouth!) of course this reminded the boys of the last time we went to my brother's house and i was yelling out the window so they insisted i do it again for them. what a good excuse to stick your head out of the window and scream and yell like a crazy woman---an inconspicuous stress reliever while thoroughly entertaining my boys!

day 261
 
this is my youngest niece, madelyn. ughh, she is so sweet and petite! very girly but yet likes to play with frogs and is a bit ornery too, definitely my brother's daughter!

day 262
 
out of the blue coop decided he wanted to make a basketball book so we printed some pictures of famous basketball players that he chose from the internet. he put together a sweet little book and then went outside to shoot some hoops with dad. some of the things he wrote go like this "basketball is my favorite sport", " i hope i can dunk on my dad some day", "i hope some day that i can beat michael jordan", "basketball is really fun, you should play some day".

day 263
 
jeremy was able to have some extra time at home while the older boys were in school which meant some good one-on-one time with porter. hulk smash--arghh!!

day 264
 
the only reason these two are sitting with me watching cooper's football practice is because i brought chips!

day 265
 
after school reading time. easton passed down the wimpy kid series to cooper and he's just about done:) ...the cheese touch--ewww!

day 266
 
happy 1st day of fall! the best smelling candle called 'leaves' from bath and body works and the easiest pumpkin bundt cake ever! my friend, candi, gave me the recipe a couple years ago and it quickly became a favorite. it only has 3 ingredients! easy peasy. (1 box betty crocker spice cake mix, 1 can pumpkin, 1 bag nestle cinnamon chips--oh yes, there is such a thing..mmm! mix together, pour into greased bundt pan, bake @ 350 for 40 minutes. that's it. seriously.)

that's all folks! thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week. colorado here i come!
xo

365--week 37

hello there friends. i'm finding myself at a loss for words so i'm just going to start with the pictures for this week. i'm sure i will find more to say as i get going!

it amazes me at how fast a week can go by...

day 253
one of my favorite little dudes along with one of my favorite stores! we had just come from the doctor's office where he got his 5 year old shots so i said he could pick out a little something for being so brave:)

day 254
the boys and i were at a birthday party that was close to jeremy's fire station so we stopped by afterwords to say hi. i was so touched to see the counter in their kitchen full with all kinds of yummy baked goods from the kind people of the community. of course at first i felt like a schmuck that i came empty handed but then i felt so proud of my husband and all of the fire fighters, as i always do, but when it is so much a part of your everyday life you tend to forget. we were even there to witness a couple of moms and their kids stop by the station and drop off the above note. i was really glad the boys got to witness these people thanking their daddy for what he does and it was a reminder for me to not forget. my heart goes out to all the families who lost a loved one on that terrible day.

day 255
easton and cooper went to the creek and came back with a huge sunflower stalk that they had picked for me but it was taller than them! so they cut some fo the flowers off and found a cup to put them in all by themselves. so sweet!

day 256
this is what a trip to the creek usually looks like...not always...but usually. i wasn't thrilled about it this time and they were itching (literally) to get hosed off but i told them they had to let me take their picture since they got muddy--hee hee!

day 257
this was the only picture i took this day. kind of boring but such a huge part of my week...the pick-up line at preschool! (actually the pick-up lines at easton and cooper's schools are worse but they don't have the name signs)

day 258
i never really figured out what they were playing, i think cooper was making it up as he was going along:)

day 259
i know i've posted a similar picture before just with a different view point but this is such a common sight in my backyard. like an almost everyday sight! they found a huge crawdad at the ...you guessed it--the creek! easton wants to take it to his science teacher at school so we'll see. they are such boys and i love it! 

i read a great article this week on a favorite site of mine, the creative mama, it was about gratitude and one photographer's 365/gratitude project. i love the idea, however i think i need to stick to one project at a time! although, i like to think my 365 project reflects the things i'm grateful for in my everyday life too. after reading the article i did stop and make a quick little list of the things that immediately came to my head that i was thankful for so i thought i'd share that with you along with some extra pictures from this week that i loved.

thankful that my kids are able to participate in extra-curricular activities. and could he be any cuter?!
  

today thankful for: (i made this list on wednesday)
*my husband who let me sleep in, got the boys up, fed and ready for school and then dropped them off. he even drove porter to preschool.
*for the kind of friend you can pour your heart out to.
*for the rainy day today and the fact that my garage is finally fixed (thanks to my man) so that i can park in it.
*olive garden left-overs for lunch.
*along with my mom's incredibly addicting cheese-ball she sent home with me this week. (i might not be so thankful for the extra pounds i'm sure it's giving me though!)
*for my surprise-last-minute upcoming colorado trip. (going by myself people!!)
*for the free sample of strawberry muscle milk at the gym...yumm.
*for the huge long smooches right smack dab on the lips that porter's been giving me very frequently lately--love.
*the fact that there is no place we have to be tonight and that jeremy will be home:)

that was my list that literally took me a couple minutes to come up with. i could of gone on and on and i could make a completely different list today. if we all just took a few minutes each day to think of the things we are grateful for i'm sure it would become a habit. let's start noticing and acknowledging the little things that make up our wonderfully blessed lives. it's so much easier sometimes to dwell on the negative and i am 100% guilty of that, but i'd rather go around counting my blessings:)

 
thankful for time i got to spend reading my cloth-paper-scissors magazine. you think i liked it? seems i should've just folded down the pages i wasn't interested in!

thankful for my $7 and $12 target ninja costume finds and for a neighbor boy who loves to play ninja's too!

thankful for a sweet boy who knows my favorite blanket is the white one and bribes me to come cuddle with him by saying that he got it out for me....how can you pass that up?!

well, i told you i would probably find more to talk about as i got going, now i need to stop! we decided last minute to go to my brother's for the weekend in arkansas for an end of the season trip to the lake. so to end, i'm thankful my hubby has this weekend off so we are able to do said weekend trip! what are you thankful for?

xo xo

365--week 36

holy crap! i had no idea i was 10 weeks behind in my 365 project! what in the world--that was not a good idea to let that slide this summer! now i'm determined to get caught up. this really is week 36 but my last 365 post was week 26--sheesh! i thought i would do the current week along with week 27 where i left off but after i got on here i realized i had some serious picture organizing to do! i've already spent way too much time trying to straighten out the mess instead of working on this post so now i'm just gonna give you this current week. i'm just happy to actually get a friday post up!

day 246
on our way to kentucky with my parents as i mentioned in my last post. i sat in the back with the boys and had flash-backs of the excitement and anticipation i had as a kid as we traveled in our old van to my grandparent's house. i loved seeing that excitement shine through in them as we crossed many bridges, saw the st. louis arch and traveled through state after state as we made it to our final destination.

day 247

this incredibly amazing woman, my grandmother, was the main reason for our visit. one of the strongest women i know, she's a fighter i tell you. she has been through so much over the last couple of years. she is struggling with cancer yet again and is currently undergoing chemo treatments. i believe i've mentioned her before in a post months ago. this woman has taught me so much. i love you grandma.

day 248
it was very hard to choose a picture from this day. too much i want to say, too many stories. i really hope i can make myself sit down and write about loosing my other grandma this summer and my thoughts about these two wonderful people and all of the feelings and emotions i've had the last 2 months. the love that these two have for each other and how my grandpa takes care of her is the sweetest thing ever. (i have to stop there...no time for tears now)

day 249
these 2 had a special little thing going on this weekend. grandpa teasing porter and porter teasing grandpa...so funny, made my heart happy. i think my grandpa has a soft spot for porter being the 3rd boy because he was the 5th boy in his family (2 more followed him as well--yikes!) and he knows what it's like. i have a feeling he kind of relates to porter's mischievous nature too--lol!

day 250
porter's first day of preschool...his last first day of preschool.

day 251
love it when they get out old toys that they haven't played with in forever! i'll never get rid of our wooden blocks, such a timeless toy. the remote control tank was near by, i'm sure you can guess what happened next!

day 252
what a lovely picture to end with! sorry about that but i couldn't help myself. i have found him doing his business like this time after time so i finally had to capture it. silly boy.

thank you to all my friends and family who stop by my little blog to see what i've been up to. i'm sorry i'm not consistent and don't really know what i'm doing but i love that you still check on me. you can count on my fridays to be back and hopefully all the things in my head will eventually find their way out. hope everyone has enjoyed this shorter work week and have fun times planned for the weekend. love you all.

xo xo

colorado vacay...day one

i understand this was about a month and a half ago but if you haven't realized yet, i kind of blog to my own beat so to speak. things eventually get posted:)

today the boys and i are traveling to KY, where my grandparents live, for the labor day weekend. so i thought it fitting to post the day we traveled to CO in july since we are basically doing the same thing today. the only difference is jeremy isn't with us due to work but my parents are! this could be quite a day...prayers are appreciated--ha ha!

we left for CO on porter's birthday, july 15th. the morning started out right with presents!
 
i decorated the van the night before so it would be a surprise when he walked outside. i wanted to do something special since he was having to spend his b-day in the car. too bad i didn't get his reaction on video, it was so funny!
 
i have no idea!? LOL!
 
yes, that is a trash can strapped to the top of our van! we drove to CO with painted windows and a trash can on top...classy! it's no secret that i am an over-packer, i admit it. but we were gonna be gone a long time plus we were gonna camp and you have to pack winter type stuff for camping in the mountains. i had this big trash bag of camping stuff and it just didn't fit. we looked online to price those bullet luggage carriers to see if we could just go pick one up on our way out of town. holy moley--we had no idea how expensive those things are! so this was jeremy's genius idea and it worked pretty dang good if i do say so myself despite all the silly stares we got. who cares if we looked like cousin eddie from the movie 'vacation' cruisin' into my sister's lovely denver neighborhood!
 
oh yeah, that's how we roll baby!
 
 
and we're off..
 
of course he had to bring some of his new presents with us!
 
 
killin' time with my camera.
 
 
then it started to rain and i was the one that was upset that the paint was getting washed off our windows!
 
thanks to dvd players and ipods the long drive is bearable.
 
 
 
still a long way to go so i get to enjoy a movie to myself:)
 
oh yeah, a little twilight saga. hmmm, team edward or team jacob? edward? jacob? LOL!
 
there was a glare on my ipod and i couldn't be havin' that! i didn't know jeremy took this until i went through my pics later.
 
this kid cracks me up! can you see the marker all over his leg? he just can't help himself!

of course we can't have a trip without a fake throwing up incident...thank the Lord it was fake!
 
kind of an odd picture to end the day and this post with but this was right before we got there and after 9 or so hours we were all just ready to get out, stretch, relax and eat! my brother was already there and some college friends of ours came over to see us, we had fun visiting with them. my sister was at dinner with all the bridesmaids from my cousins upcoming wedding so she didn't get home until late. she was sweet enough though to think of porter and made him some cupcakes so he could blow out a candle on his b-day. she's so great! so that's how we ended our day, eating porter's birthday cupcakes. i was too pooped to get my camera...sorry buddy.

this was really a great day of travel, no problems. minimal fighting. overall the boys did really well. now i can only hope that this is the case right now as we are traveling again, kentucky bound!

thanks for stopping by as always. hoping to get back on track with my friday 365 posts next week.

have a great labor day weekend everyone!
xo xo