Friday Randomness

This week has been very busy for our family! Our church had their annual Kids Summer Adventure this week. My boys are both too young to attend so I was able to babysit for the Moms who are helping out at KSA who had children who were too young to attend as well. I had one helper each day- and we were able to stay at my friend Shannon's house, so we felt like we had plenty of space!

I managed to drink WAY too much coffee while there. It wasn't so much that I was watching more children then I am used to. I think the need to caffeinate myself through out the day stemmed from not being in routine. I know that I do well on routine, and so do my boys. But I also consider myself a fairly flexible person. So this came as a little bit of a shock to me. I longed for Friday (today) so much so that I could wake up, stay at home and hang out with my boys. It's really good for the boys too. It seems like we are all taking a big breath, a sigh of relief, as we stay at home and do what we always do. (Wake up, play for a bit as we get dressed, eat breakfast while listening to Kids Worship. The boys continue playing after breakfast as I do the dishes and keep laundry going, Maxwell goes down for his nap while Miles gets his 1 hour of TV time, and I get my 1 hour of Me time. Max wakes up and we play, or go for a walk. We eat lunch. We play some more. Max gets his second nap, Miles gets quiet time and I get cleaning time or me time again. Miles & I read some stories and or do a craft together. Max wakes up and we have an afternoon snack, play time, daddy comes home and we have dinner, then a family walk or daddy play time with the boys. A night night snack, then to bed for the boys. Keith & I have some down time. End of day.) You can bet that MOST days, that is how it happens. With the occasional Lunch at the pool or something like that. :)

One other thing that is blog worthy... I was given instructions by my physical therapist that I am allowed to start interval running again! (OUTSIDE TOO!) I did my first 15 minute interval run on Wednesday and it went really well! My hip was sore and tight that evening and yesterday morning. But as the day went on it got better, and today it feels just fine! Tonight after Keith gets home I get to do my second interval run since my injury. I am very excited to get back out there! I am even considering a 5K in early September. But I really have to see what August holds for me before paying to do that! :)

Anyhow... below are a few random photos for the past week!

Keith and Miles playing around before bed time!

My handsome little "turtle man." He is teething and this is the face he does when he's drooling a lot!

Miles beautiful curls! I love them!

Miles getting ready for a bike ride around the complex!

I have been feeling the "craft" bug lately and decided to try my hand at a few ideas I found on pinterest. Today I bought some supplies at Michaels and made myself a bracelet. I happen to like it!

Redmond Derby Days 2011

This year we missed the parade portion of Redmond Derby Days because we went to a birthday party instead. However, we were able to go after the party and after naps were taken. It was a sunny wonderful afternoon! Last year Maxwell was 2 weeks old when we went to Derby Days. It's amazing how fast time flies!

For comparisons sake. Here is Maxwell last year at Derby Days:

And here he is this year. Look at that cute little smirk! :)

Here's Miles this year... having fun at the water fountain!

My Boys & I on the firetruck. Were firetruck fans around here.

And another one of the boys and I.

And, of course, you can't just see a firetruck from the outside. You have to get in the drivers seat!

I asked Miles the other day what he wants to be when he grows up. He said he wants to drive a firetruck! And I said "Oh, you want to be a fireman?" And he gently corrected me and said "no I want to DRIVE a firetruck to daddy's work, and I want to work with daddy, and bring all my tools with me." LOL... Ok then! :) It made my heart smile.

Video of Miles dropping in at the skate park

I will let this video speak for itself. :)

Sara Mack

Below is a picture of Sara and I from last week. She and her husband Tim live in Pennsylvania. We love them a lot. We miss them a lot. And we pray that some day we will live closer to each other. But until that day we will continue traveling all across the United States to see each other. Tim & Sara are our forever friends. We will pick up, right where we left off. I realized when they were here about a week ago, that my heart aches for their friendship more when they are around- then when they aren't here. It's like a reminder of just how good we had it with them in our daily lives. And so. We press on. We continue following Jesus as best we can. And we try to cherish the moments we have together instead of linger on how much we miss them. We are blessed beyond words to know them and to call them dear to us.

Sara also happens to be a very gifted photographer. I think she just started taking photos with a super duper cool camera. But she is awesome at everything she does. So it should be no surprise at all- that her photos turned out ultra cool. :)

This is a photo of my little man Maxwell's feet. It is also the photo I have as my header on this blog. Yeah- she's THAT good!

Family photo! This is the best one of the pack! Miles looks especially adorable! He rarely hams it up for the camera! But look at that sweet sweet face!

And then like most toddlers, Miles saw an airplane, and that was the end of a wonderful photo shoot. I still love this one though. Welcome to real life. :)

My sweet family.

The Boys Blankets

My multi-talented and amazing Mom, makes the kiddos blankets when they are born, and I absolutely adore them! Maxwell got his when he was around 5 months old. Up until that point he was using Miles' blanket because it fit so nicely into the crib. But today... 1 day after Max turns 13 months old, I am officially giving him HIS very own blanket! He has seemed somewhat attached to Miles' blanket... so hopefully the love, and warmth that he feels when sleeping under, or on top of Miles blanket, will convert over to his own blanket. Maxwell's blanket is the one with bold colors, and cars/trucks/raceway related. Miles' blanket fit our nursery theme of jungle animals.It has more "natural" colors and animals in the middle. I love love love them both so incredibly much. :) Miles' blanket will be put away for now. And some day when we pull it out again we will reminisce about how little, and amazing Miles was. Our dear firstborn son! And we will do the same with Maxwell when the times comes to put his baby blanket in the closet. Who knows... maybe one of these days my own little boys will have little boys of their own, who will be wrapped and loved on in these very same blankets. Oh- and the best news of all is that this is not the LAST we will see of blankets from my Mom- who my children affectionately call "Mhops." She plans to make them more blankets... I think the next one comes when they turn 12? Something like that. Maybe 10. Anyhow, and at any rate; I am so thankful to have these blankets and will cherish them forever.

DIY Projects

There are lots of projects that I have in mind for the next few months that I would really love to accomplish!

#1: Here is the first inspiration! I will probably do colored photos, and I may use a colored frame. But I am not 100% sure about that. This project is still in the works in my head.

#2: This looks like it would be easy and cute to make!

#3: I want to learn how to knit. Hopefully in the next couple months I will learn the basics so I can start working on projects like these slippers. :)

#4: I have no great place for my jewelry. I don't have a spare drawer around, so I'm going to keep my eye out at thrift stores and yardsales!

#5: Another thing I don't have "lying around the house." So, once I find an old window I can use, I will be all over it!

Uh Mom... A little help here please?

I love Miles for so many reasons. He is adorable for starters. The day he was born, I knew I was doomed. If the child knew how much power he had over me, he would probably eat chocolate and lattes and marshmallows everyday, all day. But I don't let him see that side of me... ever. Ok- sometimes I do.And on those days he has the craziest sugar high anyone has ever seen.

But one of the things that I love the most about him is that he's hilarious! He cracks me up every single day. Today he told Keith a joke. I happened to over hear it and I definitely laughed.

(Miles) Hey Dad, can I ask you a question?

(Keith) Sure Buddy, what's up?

(Miles) Why does the shark live in the ocean?

(Keith) I don't know, why does a shark live in the ocean?

(Miles) Because he wanted to swim with all the other fish's- isn't that

silly Dada?

(Keith) Was that a joke?

(Miles) Yep! Did you like that Dada?

(Keith) Yes! Yes, I liked thatjoke very much buddy!

The other day I was upstairs and all of a sudden I hear Miles say "Uh Mom.... a little help here please?" And when I walked down the stairs I foundhim lying underneath the baby gate! I asked what happened, and he said he didn't know! I asked if he was ok, and he said "yeah" so I ran back up the stairs and grabbed my camera. It was just TOO funny to not take a photo.

I mentioned the other day about how Miles is dropping in at skate park! He is chomping at the bit to get back out there too! As soon as we have some sunshine were going to get him back out there! He is so cute riding around on his little strider bike.

The joy I receive watching my little man, who once upon a time couldn't even hold his head up by himself, is sitting on a bike, riding faster then this mama's heart can handle at times. They grow up so so fast. I will forever cherish my little man.

Who needs facebook when you have Pinterest!

Ok- my friend Becky introduced me to Pinterest. It is this website where you can catalogue cool ideas, share cool ideas, and generally spend a ridiculous amount of time browsing.

This site has made me want to scrapbook again. (Which I haven't been doing due to the fact that my Cricut is on loan to a friend at the moment) and it is making me want to learn how to sew, and knit, and paint, and I really want to learn how to make paper flowers. It has some awesome decorating ideas for our house, and for the boys room. When Keith & I move to a new house, I will be getting all my ideas for redecorating from this very website. I also found some fun dresses that people sewed and posted or "pinned" that I would actually pay $ for. :) It is a beautiful collaboration of everything I love.

Here are a few photos of things I found on Pinterest, that I would love to incorporate in some way into my current house, or in our new house, whenever that happens.

I just love this room for so many reasons.

A fun room- if we have a play room some day I would try something like this!

The leaves are made of paper! Super easy!

I know this painting is harder then it looks, but I could give it a try!

This is a regular dresser, with spice racks attached to the ends for storage and a book case. Who woulda thunk it! :)

And now you can see why I have spent hours since last night checking out this site! And when the boys nap this afternoon... you can bet your bottom dollar... I will be on pinterest.

Why blog when you have facebook?

Ok- after taking a bit of a leave of absence, I am back. Hopefully... I haven't been the best blogger lately and I blame this totally on facebook. Why blog when you can facebook?

But I have come to realize that sometimes I have more to say then one-liners on facebook. So here I am.

As I type this my almost, not quite yet 4 year old is crawling all over me saying "I hungry, I want someting helfy mama, I want someting helfy,

hey mama, what should I have, you haffa sink what I eat mama." Now how would I be able to communicate THAT on facebook? By the way, he decided on his marshmallow cereal, since we don't have any real big marshmallows for his consumption. I guess his definition of "healthy" includes marshmallows!

This morning some of the Moms from my church gathered at a park in Bellevue, which, on most days would have been considered a very

pretty park. But today... well... today was rainy. But did that stop us? Oh no, it did not! The kids played in the rain, and eventually the moms were lured out from under the shelter to keep a closer eye on the kiddos. Miles (my nearly 4 year old, sniff sniff) said it was ok that it was raining.After all, he did have a hood that he could wear to keep his hair nice and dry. The child complains about the sunshine, but finds comfort in the rain. A true Seattle boy, that there one. I should note as well that one of his first words WAS Starbucks, and shortly thereafter, it was latte. And please don't freak, but he gets a "latte" every morning. Ok- really it's a steamer. But if were to ask him, it would be a latte.

I'm not sure

how I got on that tangent. But I did. Cause that's how my mind works. The end.

Well... Miles turns 4 on September 4th, which is 51 days away, but whose counting anyways! (YIKES!) His newest cool trick is that he can drop in on the skate park ramp, and he even "hit" the wall, which is a fancy way to say that he went up on that curved wall thingy. I wonder if he's going to be a cool BMX, extreme bike rider dude. He sure does seem to LOVE the ramps, going fast, and being daring.

And then there is my little man Maxwell- who isn't really ALL that little. He just turned 1 year old on June 17th. He is a snuggler, and kind of loud. You should just ask the people on the

airplane the other week...I should have had them rate his loudness. He is a screamer for sure! Which is super weird, because when he was first born, all he would is do squeak... like a little mouse.

I do believe that is all I will share for today. Until next time!