Silly Preston

Preston has really been hamming it up lately. I have gotten some funny pictures of him, and they aren't even him just acting up for the camera.

Kindergarten -- check

Brayden's last day of kindergarten was Tuesday. Both the afternoon and morning kindergartens came in the morning and all the parents were invited for an awards ceremony and a picnic. The weather wasn't cooperating, however, so we had to have the picnic inside. The kids sang a few songs and then they gave out awards. Brayden got an award for nearly perfect attendance because he only missed one day of school all year! He also got an award for reading acheivement and a kindergarten diploma.

I can't believe Brayden is already done with his first year of school. It went so fast and I'm a little bit sad that he is growing up and going through school so quickly! I am looking forward to getting to spend every day with him this summer before he starts going to school all day in the fall!

Memorial day camping trip

This past weekend we went on our 2nd annual camping trip with Chris' family. We meet up with Chris' sister and her family in Nebraska, about halfway between here and their house. Chris' dad has a large RV and this year he also brought a big tent. We ended up staying in the tent and it was really nice. It was big and had a divider down the middle so the boys were in their own separate "room". There was a small playground at the campground and the boys took full advantage of it. It was an older playground, but had different equipment than the boys usually see, so they had fun. We also played games and made smores - typical camp stuff. Probably #1 on the boys' list, however, was looking for frogs. There were so many little toads all over the place. Chris and the boys caught a few to keep in a plastic tub at camp but they also had fun just finding them and then kind of chasing them around on the ground. The only downside to the trip was that it rained heavily from Saturday evening till Sunday morning. It wasn't too bad,though, since they had the camper and we had a place to be inside and be dry, but it was very loud that night in the tent and we probably didn't sleep as well as we could've. All in all, it was a fun trip and we look forward to doing it again this summer and then again next Memorial day.

I'm back

Well sorta. We went camping over Memorial Day weekend with Chris' family (more on that later). While we were there, we found out that because of all the rain that Colorado was getting, our basement was flooding in 2 places. Luckily my parents had come over to check on the cats, so they got it mostly cleaned up. Then when we got home on Monday, it started raining again and was flooding really bad. Chris and I were up till 2 in the morning trying to catch up with the water and get it cleaned up. Right now our basement is about 1/3 of the usable size it usually is because we have a whole bunch of carpet pulled back with fans on it to dry it out. It's a mess and it is totally stressing me out, but not much I can do. We are hoping to get a new pad and put everything back together on Saturday. I am REALLY hoping it gets put back together soon as when things are out of place, I get very stressed and grumpy.

My computer was in the area that flooded the worst, so it is out in the middle of the living room with cords stretched all over to the various outlets, but at least it is usable as I have to do my work (and blog - hehe!).

What a crazy day (and it's only 8:30!)....

• Brayden and Preston are upset because I am washing their blankies and they can't have them right now
• Brayden and Logan had a fight this morning because Logan pushed the pillows off the table (come on now!)
• Preston didn't want to come home after taking Brayden to school, so instead I drove around the block and then went home -- seemed to make him happy
• I woke up cranky (don't know why) but had a good quiet time and am really trying to focus on having a good attitude
• I have 4-5 loads of laundry to do today to get ready to go camping this weekend
• I have to finish the packing list and find enough bags to put everything in
• Logan wanted to wear a cut-off shirt like Brayden, but his are all dirty (hence the laundry)
• It's supposed to get all cold and rainy tomorrow, so I want to be outside at least a little and enjoy the nice weather today
• We have to find someone to watch our dog while we're gone ASAP
• I am going to have a ton of work to do today during naptime because they didn't send me any last night

Ode to my sweetie

I never really realized just how much I relied on Chris for help till recently. About a month ago, Chris sprained his ankle really bad. I mean we're talking LOTS of swelling and bruises from his toes to his knee. Even if I did have a picture of it, I think I'd spare you because it was really gross. He still has a little swelling to this day and can't run or anything, but most of the bruising is gone and he can put weight on it now. He was very understandably laid up for a few days and then since then he has tried to return to normal activity, but it usually hurts.

What really impresses me though is how quickly Chris went back to helping me with the house and the boys, even in spite of his pain. Now I'm not trying to say I'm lazy and just sit on the couch all day and order him around, but it is nice to have someone to share the responsibilities with. He also missed out on a few weeks of wrestling with the boys (which used to be a nightly thing), but he started doing that again probably before he was feeling up to it, simply because he knew the boys missed it and that they would enjoy doing it again.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really respect him for not only who he is, but what he does for our family. He is a great man who literally sacrificially loves and serves his family and puts others before himself. I know that Chris is one of my many blessings from God and I am very grateful!

Bubbles

Digging for bugs

My friend Michelle came over to visit last week. We haven't seen each other in about six years, since we were both pregnant with our first baby! It was so good to see her again and to get to visit with her. Our kids had fun playing together too, once they found some common ground! At one point they disassembled our tree ring to look for bugs. They found some good ones (if you can call a bug that). I was pretty grossed out, but all the boys thought it was really cool.

Logan really got into it and tried carrying roly-polys around on a shovel for the rest of the afternoon.

Logan's photo essay

Logan got a hold of my camera the other day and snapped a ton of pictures. He really enjoyed it....these are some of what he took! If I had to guess, I would think it's called "My backyard on a sunny day".

My Mother's Day

Chris and the boys were so good to me this year on Mother's Day. They surprised me yesterday with early an Mother's Day.....flowers, cards and lunch. It was actually nice to go out yesterday with no wait and no overly-tired children from a morning at church!

Brayden gave me a card that told me was as pretty as a sunflower and that I was special because I loved him! It's things that like that make me think I'm doing an alright job, despite the many times I feel where I feel like I am messing up at every turn! Brayden and Logan also gave me a whole bunch of pictures that they had drawn -- their special way of showing love right now.

Then today I got to take a nap and basically just relax. It was a great weekend -- we had tons of family time and it was nice to be pampered a little! I just love being a mother to these three boys and being thanked for what I do is just a bonus!