Here is a picture from off my deck from last Thursday...
we've had about 60 inches of snow so far this month. 
In it's usual blurred fashion, Christmas has come and gone. After some much needed cleaning, my house is almost back to normal. The boys both were spoiled as usual. With Christmases at four houses, it's hard not to be. Gotta love the grandparents! Well, I guess I forgot to upload the pictures, so they'll have to wait.
Matching in their cute Christmas jammies, reading a book.
And a couple from the scouts' Christmas Caroling. Kai was quite a ham!
We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house and had a wonderful dinner. Afterward, we went to visit GiGi for what would turn out to be our last time.
Luke and Daddy on Turkey Day at my sister's house.
Cousin Collin-Ballin enjoying a toothbrush-snack
Uncle Clay tormenting Kai
The day after Thanksgiving we have a parade, fireworks and lighting ceremony, one of my favorite days in CDA....
Brrr... it was cold, Luke and Papa all bundled up
Kai enjoying his hot chocolate
Kai on Papa's shoulders watching the fireworks
It was a little foggy, so the fireworks were hard to see, but still nice.
And a couple random ones from the mall spaceship, every boy's favorite
Lucas and I went with my sister, nephew and dad to Denver for two days this week for my Aunt Barb's funeral. It was a hard trip, both for the reason we went and because Lucas decided sleep was overrated and kept me up most of the night. The silver lining, if there is one is that was great to get to see my aunts, uncles and cousins. Luke absolutely adored my Aunt Patty's girls and Aunt Ruth's boys... I wish we lived closer to them.
Papa pulling double duty
I guess that about catches me up for now...
No matter how much I try to hang on to status quo, it never works. And it drives me crazy. Just when I think I'm cruising along, making progress, all is well, God throws a wrench in my plans. I feel like I got a major wrench recently. This past month, we have had four deaths in our family. And honestly, I don't know what to say about all of it other than I am very sad. That's about all I can say right now. I know the whole "circle of life" mumbo jumbo but honestly right now, I am too raw to care. I like my loved ones right here, with me. Selfish, definitely. Honest, yeah. Some changes just don't feel like they're for the good. After the latest news came, I felt like I wanted to become a hermit and just hold my boys in my arms forever so that I wouldn't miss a moment of their lives just incase I'm taken before I'm old and grey. It makes my stomach turn to think about. I am going to stop now... I feel tears a'wellin.
Going to go kiss my babies... Goodnight.
Dear Malachi,
Being your mom has been the biggest blessing in my life. God had a plan when he brought you to me. I call you "the eternal optimist" because for you, the glass is never half-empty. Your inventions and creations amaze me. Your sense of humor always makes me laugh... even when you don't get the idea of a "punch line". You are such a kind and caring brother to Lucas and I love watching the two of you together. I hope you two always take care of each other. I often wonder if I am smart enough to be the mom of such a gifted child. All the times I crammed for tests and didn't really "learn" things will be coming back to bite me as you grow up. When you were a baby, I used to sing "You light up my life"; and I guess that sums it up. Thank you for loving me so incredibly much and for being such a kind-hearted boy.
All my love,
Mama
Dear Lucas,
Today I woke you up and took you out at 6am to shop and you were in a good mood. Then you played with Grammy while I worked and although you were exhausted, you were still in a great mood. When I came to get you around 1:00 in the afternoon, after missing your first morning nap on top of getting up three hours early, you were still all smiles. You are my sweet, happy, cuddly little man. Not only are you happy, but your happiness is contagious. Everyone around you can't help but smile when they see your handsome little face. I am so blessed to have you as my son. I can't wait until you can tell me all of your hopes and dreams and share with me all of the facets of your personality. I can't imagine life without you. I love watching how much joy you bring to Malachi and your daddy as well. I prayed and prayed that someday I would have you, and I am so incredibly thankful that you are here with us. You have been such a blessing in our lives. The song I sing to you is "You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off of you". I love you baby boy!
All my love,
Mama
I took a much needed break from work and have been vacationing in my living room for about ten days. Luke and I have gotten to play (and nurse) to our little hearts content. For about half of the time, I've had our other kiddo's... this visit has been soooooo bittersweet. It is wonderful to see them, but I am really upset about them moving to Cali. I know it is for the best in my head, but in my heart, it hurts. I am really attached. I find myself saying yes to everything just because I know I probably won't get a chance again. We went to JumpALot (a fav around here) and Triple Play. They had lots of fun. More than anything, I think it will be hard on Kai to lose them and on them to lose Kai. Ok... time to change the subject.
Luke: Needs a haircut
Loves to: shake his head "no" over and over (and want you to do it to until you're dizzy)
Dance Dance Dance, anytime he hears a beat
say "brrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" while playing with cars
play the "where's mama", "where's Lukey" game. For some reason, we can never find daddy.
blow kisses
try to play with the big kids
play with Chad's ears
take one to two steps before giving up and crawling at mach 5
Kai: got a haircut and looks like the guy from Dumb and Dumber (untalented mom + clippers = bad, bad haircuts)
is doing a report on Paul Revere in school and is going to dress up like him. (love ordering costumes a week after Halloween, so cheap!)
started Cub Scouts and is doing his first "go see it" at the Firestation on Friday
thinks everything is up for debate...
knows more about dinosaurs, planets, sharks, bugs, and volcanoes than anyone I know.
Yesterday for Halloween we went to a parade at Malachi's school. Malachi strutted around the gym with his fake muscle chest puffed out like I've never seen before. It was really cute.
Luke waiting to see big brother...
Looking cute in his froggy costume
It was hard to get a good pic of Kai, he's kind of in the background.
Ah, there's superman!
After school we took the boys trick or treating downtown because all the businesses have candy for kids from 4-6. It was a lot of fun and neat to see all the adorable costumes.
Lukey and Grammy
Malachi, cousin Grayson the lion and friend Tyler the pirate
Artificial sugar high!
It's a bird... it's a plane...
It's SUPERMAN!!
Luke has a cold, so after we went downtown, we went over to Nana and Papa's house for a couple hours and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's. It wasn't that cold, but I didn't want to take Luke out much. We planned to go to the harvest festival at a local church, but we decided to just take it easy. Today I think we're going to head to Greenbluff to get some frozen apple pies for G-Pa.
Here are a few recent pictures, it's been a gorgeous fall so far. The first few are from Greenbluff when we went to pick apples and pumpkins. It was so much fun!
Malachi after he picked his first apple...
Goofy faces are his specialty
Luke and cousin Collin
Big boy Luke
Trying to get a good one of the boys together... to no avail.
Fall pics in the yard...
Of course, the best smile he's looking away...
Kai's a climber for sure
The best one we got together...
Writing that just made my eyes tear up. I can't believe my baby is one. It is bittersweet. I love all the new things that I know are coming, but I am sad to lose my "baby". Kai knows that he will always be my baby, and hopefully Luke will too. I love you beautiful boy! You are truly a gift from God and I thank Him every day for you!
I've always loved rocking babies... and since Kai was my only child for over five years, I've never really stopped rocking him. It definitely doesn't happen as often as it used to, but every once in awhile, my big boy needs to be rocked. Tonight, he was especially difficult for Chad and they kept butting heads, and Kai was being a total pain. Chad and I gave him some consequences, one of which was no dessert for the weekend (we've never used this one, but apparently it works wonders, so we'll be using it again). Kai was so upset, I stayed in his room for awhile and rubbed his head and talked to him...I asked him if I could rock him and he enthusiastically obliged. As I rocked him, I asked him if he had any idea how much I loved him. He said no. Then he said "Mama, I love you 1000 hours plus 1000 days plus 1000 miles plus 1000 minutes, to the moon and back and back again."
I. almost. cried.
That's my boy.
So we celebrated Luke's birthday today and had a little party. My parents will be out of town on his actual birthday for my brother Naaman's wedding in New York. Luke had tons of fun at his party, considering he only took a 40 minute nap all day. Since I am a blogger-idiot, they are out of sequence, but you get the idea...
His Cake:
hating his crown
the dairy-free smash cake
his new firetruck
that's some good cake!
A pre-party bath
I love this one!
Little Prince turning one!
Grammy and the boys (Luke, Collin, Malachi, and Grayson)
In other family news, I took an Assistant Manager position with my bank this week. Although I am sad to be away from my boys an extra day a week, I am glad to have a different set of challenges ahead of me.
