we are back

i have so much to report about our trip to oklahoma that i don't even know where to begin! i plan on using this week to give a travel log of sorts, so tune if you want that info. if you would just rather know the perspective and emotion behind the trip, then jump on over to pete's blog to read his thoughtful take. click here for that post. if that's not enough, then just keep checking back for the rest of the report.

i'm leaving on a jet plane...

heading back home, with my 2 boys, and not with pete. wish me luck on the traveling alone. i know i will love it once i'm there. and sam can't stop talking about going to the farm. i hope it's all he has been hoping for. finally after all these years i've learned that there really is no place like home. lots to report next week.

stickers

love this free download, too. thank goodness for these kind of talented people who let us use their great ideas! these will come in handy for us since will still LOVES putting stickers on everything especially his face!

who will help me bake the bread?

i've been on a mission to make our own bread. awhile ago i read a post on the handmade dress that spoke to me. i loved the daughter recognizing that they live the "slow way". it spoke to me and reminded me that i want to live the "slow way" in so many ways. plus, i, too, love homemade bread. i have been trying to tie this recipe into my weekly routine at least once. the recipe is quite simple and creates a dense but not too dense for sandwiches kind of bread. how to store it you might be wondering? i recently read that homemade bread will stay fresher if stored in a breathable yet tight fabric. that was a perfect inspiration for me to make these bread bags using the boys hands. it was quite simple. i used a dish towel that i cut in half and embroidered the hands on from a pattern i traced. hopefully the bread process, including these cute bags, will be a reminder of slowing down and enjoying the good things in life.

it doesn't take that much time

ok, i've been a little overwhelmed lately (actually most of my life) with all of those little tasks that don't really take that much time but that make such a difference when they are done...

*cleaning the microwave
*wiping out the silverware holder
*changing the paper towels
*dusting the kitchen window sill
*cleaning the front glass door
*mopping the hallway
*dusting the vents
*cleaning the refrigerator

you get the idea. please don't inspect these closely when you are at my house. i still haven't found the motivation to just do it! but maybe someday...

finally done and delivered

remember this blanket? well, it was finished awhile ago but the post was just forgotten until now. it has now been delivered to little Stockton. i loved it so much that i really wanted to keep it. it's a good thing he's so stinking sweet or else it could've easily found a happy home here.

i don't want to miss a thing

6/8
Sam: you completely embarrassed me today! when the fast offering boys from church came by this morning i was just getting out of the shower and was only wrapped in a towel. the doorbell rang, and i knew exactly who it was. pete was at a meeting, so i had not planned on answering the door. however, sam raced for it as i was begging him to please not open it because i didn't have any clothes on. well, before i could stop him he had opened the door and told the 13 year old boys standing at our door that his mom couldn't come to the door because she didn't have any clothes on. thanks, sam! perhaps next time don't be so honest? or better yet, just don't open the door!

Will: you are always so sweet! you are always spontaneously leaning over and kissing me, pete, or sam. we all love it. sometimes sam pretends he doesn't, but i know deep down he really does love it. :) i hope you are always so affectionate.

6/9
today was Emi's birthday. you both love her so much, and i am so grateful you have each other and enjoy each other as much as you do. there's no question sam and emi are best friends. it seems like will and emi have more of a brother/sister relationship. sam couldn't wait for her party tonight. will loved the big lollipops at the party. sam had to get her a light saber for her birthday, and now all you talk about is playing light sabers together. we went to her dance recital tonight. will loved everyone dancing and would clap after every performance. sam not quite as impressed; he informed me that he wants to do dance again but only with boys in his class. :) sam wanted to buy emi the flowers he saw at the recital. instead he picked a flower and was just as happy to give that to her.

6/10
Sam: you don't forget a thing, and tonight your memory was clever. pete told you earlier in the day that you would not be getting a story tonight because of bad behavior. at bedtime i forgot the punishment and told you to go pick out a book. you were a little confused and said "but i thought..." and trailed off and finished with "...nevermind." you so hilariously reminded me of that punishment. you thought you were so sneaky. it was pretty funny though.

Will: you have decided that you like riding your bike in the street. almost everyday lately you have ridden your bike out of the driveway and down the street. i'm not happy about this. i'm just really thankful that one of the cars that came around the corner a few days ago wasn't flying like most do because they had to steer around you before i got to you. PLEASE stop doing this!

6/11
Sam: you have gone back to needing every stuffed animal you own to be in bed with you at night. you sleep with them all right up at your head. it appears you are almost crowded out, but you wouldn't think about getting rid of any of them. you tell me that you love them all so much so you want them all there. that reminds me of exactly how i was as a child; i never wanted to hurt any of the animal's feelings so i had them all next to me.

Will: you absolutely adore cheese sticks! you open the fridge now saying "STICK!" you can get one out of the drawer all by yourself now. you eat at least 3 a day and would eat more if i let you. i think it's your favorite food right now.

6/12
you both have loved picking the strawberries out of our patch in the back yard. sam really loves getting in there and picking all he can find; he especially loves going out in the morning and picking a handful for his oatmeal. will doesn't care much for the actual picking, but he does love eating them. he hovers around like he wants to pick some, but as soon as you offer to help him he runs off to his swing in the apple tree. he would spin and swing in there all day while sam eats himself sick in the strawberry patch.

6/13
dad set up a bike jump in the driveway for you boys today. you both love going off of it. you neither one have ANY fear! norma brought sam down a helmet (will already was wearing one), and sam hasn't taken the helmet off hardly at all this weekend! you both LOVE riding bikes. you both have had your bikes in the house all week because it has been raining, and when you are tired of riding in the house you take them outside and ride in the rain. sam thinks he is ready to have his training wheels off; pete took them off for fun and sam didn't last long before wanting them back on. i love watching will stand at the door saying "bike! bike!"; he wants to ride ALL the time.

another thing... sam has been dying for the fruit stand near our house to open. today he noticed that it was open, so he insisted on going to the stand over anything else. he got corn on the cob and has been eating it raw. he has always loved raw corn on the cob ever since DD gave him an at the farmers market when he was 18 mos. the boy still loves all vegetables. will needs a lesson.

6/14
church was a little rough today; i thought we had finally gotten to a good place when it comes to church. for the most part you will both sit pretty quietly and entertain yourselves. NOT today. sam was constantly pestering will by taking away whatever toy he had until he would scream bloody murder. then will would chuck another toy at the people behind us. every time they gave it back he would throw it at them again. will also kept running off and wrapping himself up in the curtain. sam kept trying to hit me for no reason and just wouldn't obey. it was long and tough. the crazy thing was that after primary sam's teacher told me that sam is the most reverent one in the class. she said he is the only one that sits the whole time and doesn't climb on his chair or hit the kid next to him. she said he always listens and cooperates. well, that's nice to know he's not a wild tiger for everyone! that made the day better.

a sweet little paper doll

i about died when i stumbled upon his great free download from a number of things! i think these are SOO adorable! i know i don't have girls who would probably better appreciate paper dolls, but the boys and i will be printing these off today. i think they might enjoy them for a minute, and then i guess i can enjoy them for a little longer. enjoy! and happy friday!

no crockpot thursday

i didn't need to worry about throwing anything in the crockpot today; i did work, but i had the privilege of having pete home all day since he is out of school. he watched the boys. and made dinner. it was delicious! pasta, cream, tomatoes... you'll have to contact him for the recipe. everything he makes is normally an original creation. i'm grateful for his work at home, supporting me in my work endeavors, and commitment to our family. love you, snoookie!

we'll never move

pete and i have been having the "get out of dodge" bug like crazy lately. i think we are finally lining up on our desire at the same time, so we have been looking at houses. i have to admit that after looking at a home recently i so happy to come back to our home. it feels like home here. i don't think we've been giving our house enough credit. we need sam to remind of us that continuously. EVERY night he reminds us of how much he loves our house and how much he loves his room. after we looked at the last house he was very upset. he was almost in tears saying that he doesn't ever want to move, that he loves our house, and he loves norma across the street. thanks, sam, for reminding me of how great we really do have it here. some things just can't be replaced.

what a ride!

pete and i took the boys to run an errand on the bike this afternoon. we set out with high hopes, but within minutes of entering the store the boys were pulling things off the shelves, running from end to end, and climbing under tables. needless to say we weren't too happy about it. where did we go wrong? we went ahead and bought the boys a snow cone to share afterwards despite our previous good behavior condition. where did we go right you might be wondering. we went right by tossing the snow cone in the garbage after sam wouldn't stop crying and screaming (and i mean SCREAMING!) because will was sharing and spilling and because he didn't want the rain shield up on the bike trailer. i'm sure you can imagine how that might have gone over. for my family who experienced the bear lake canoe incident in 2002, picture that coming outburst coming out of a 3-year-old. yup, it was that bad. unfortunately, i think i know where sam picked up that gene. to add to the hysterical breakdown we were a few miles from home, on our bikes, and stuck in major downpour. so that was our ride... frantic toddler being pulled a couple of miles in a wind & rainstorm. thank goodness for will; he just smiled the whole way home staring at sam occasionally wondering what the heck he was doing. this picture captured it... mom & dad ignoring the situation, will happy to be alive, and sam still hysterical after about 40 minutes.... what a ride!

i don't want to miss a thing

6/2
Sam: you prefer to dress yourself these days. your favorite things to wear are your superman shirt from kol & luk with the red wind pants and your star wars outfit. your snow boots are your shoe of choice, even though it's now summer. i don't fight it. i'm just proud of you that you can dress yourself. you always go into your room and shut the door and won't let anyone in because you want it to be a surprise. :)

Will: you are going to be the little comedian in our family. you are always doing little silly thing like poke your head under the table and then you will laugh like crazy. you think you are so funny, and every time you "perform" we can't help but encourage it by laughing along with you.

6/3
Sam: i'm not thrilled about a few new words and expressions. you have been saying "stupid", "get out of here, idiot!", and "butthead". i'm not exactly sure where you've learned these things, and i'm not exactly sure what to do when you use them. i've just been telling you that we don't use mean words in our family, and i send you to time out to think about nice words to say instead. you had a complete melt down in time out tonight after you called me stupid. you came out crying and saying you were so sorry and wouldn't call me stupid anymore. i hope you won't call me that or anyone else anymore.

Will: i love everything that comes out of your mouth. every time you see a motorcycle you always say "dada!". if you see a basketball goal on the street you always starting chanting "ball, ball, ball!". my all time favorite thing is your "buh-bye!" (bye-bye); you say it and wave anytime you are leaving somewhere. you also say it to people when you are ready for them to go. sometimes when i'm ready to leave and you're not coming i will say bye-bye to you thinking it will make you come. instead you look at me and wave with your "buh-bye".

6/4
i love our costco traditions. no trip to costco is complete without a hot dog and slice of pizza from the snack bar. it's amazing to watch how much smoother this process has gotten over the last year. the 2 of you are so well behaved while eating instead of running all over the place. it's actually really nice. you love riding in the double cart seat together. today the 2 of you were being little stinkers by grabbing the food in our basket and throwing it out. after a few times of telling you no i said we should find a worker to babysit the both of you so i could finish shopping. that did it for sam; he was not about to go for that. will wasn't buying and threw more food out. sam freaked out that i was going to leave him with a worker. he was begging will to stop throwing out food and screaming at me that he didn't want to leave his brother. that certainly had more of an impact than i was expecting. :)

6/5
Sam: i was so proud of you today. we went to a neighbor's house to play on their big bounce house. you were running with your H friend most of the time, but you were always making that your L friend was included. you didn't ever want to leave him behind. i'm so grateful when i see you that aware of including other people. i made sure to praise you for that and you just kept saying your welcome. my greatest hope is to have children that will always be that aware of including all people.

Will: you are so funny to watch every time we play in the water-hose sprinkler outside. you DO NOT like getting wet! however, you love watching sam running around screaming and running through the water. you imitate him by running all over the yard screaming, but you will not run through the water. you've never cared much for water. you don't like swimming much, and you freak out if we ever have to go through a sprinkler on our walk. funny boy.

6/6
Sam: you love going to Texas Roadhouse. you refer to it as the restaurant with the peanuts on the floor. the 1st time we went there and we told you that you could throw the peanut shell on the floor you said "that's weird!" and you won't do it. you still ask all the time if we can go there though.

Will: i have started noticing that you sing yourself to sleep at night. it is so precious! i've been hearing you make noise in bed, so i poked my head in to watch you. you were just laying there singing and mumbling to yourself. you are still so easy to put to bed!

6/7
Sam: you still have a hard time waking up. you will whine/cry for about 20 minutes and will only let me get close to you; i have to hold you non-stop so you can twirl my hair. you still LOVE twirling my hair! you do it all the time when you are tired, and you tell me continuously that you love my hair. i often wonder how long you will have this hair habit. i think it's sweet and wonder if you will still be doing it when you are 10.

Will: your newest expression is "all mine". today at church you got a snack out of the bag and looked at sam and said "all mine!". you don't always love sharing on your own, but if sam ever asks nicely you share every time.

a children's craft collection

i stumbled upon the blog the crafty crow awhile ago and have since used many ideas with my kids. there are oodles of activities (not just making stuff) for all ages of kids. there's also holiday ideas and great book suggestions. also tons of preschool ideas. she posts daily, and her archives are also full of valuable little gems. check it out... you will surely find some ideas for your friday.

introducing my new old table

i've been busy... i've been painting my kitchen table and chairs. i LOVE how they turned out might i add- love it far more than the old yellow oak that they were. oh, and Will loves it, too...



what about you? do you love it, too?

serenity now

thank goodness pete chants that slogan to me on days/weeks like this! it's just been a CRAZY couple of days around here! everyone needs something, and mother is getting a little stretched thin. it's only wednesday! AHHH! SERENITY NOW!

clean, fresh and simple

this is how i want everything in my life to look and feel... just clean and simple.



here's to hoping for a week like that.