A Big Day

Well, today is the big day. My little guy turns 3. Yes, 3!!!

He came into this world at 5:55 in the morning. He hasn't deviated from his early morning arrival. He still wakes up early...everyday. He is really not a fan of sleeping. I think he worries that he might miss something.

He has always had some momma issues.  He kinda likes me.  

When he was a little guy, he wore his daycare workers out.  He would cry and cry.  They thought it was teething issues.  I am pretty sure it was momma issues.  He never cried like that when I was with him.  

He is an ornery little stinker!!  And he loves to pester his sister.



 

He is full of energy.  Constantly on the go.

 

Sometimes he will try to pull off an innocent look.  But I am onto him.  When I find out what he did, boy is he gonna get it.

He is my little guy, my ornery, loud, into everything guy!!!  Happy Birthday C-man!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carrie

Playground Shots

We live only a block away from the school playground.  We haven't gone over there to play as much we should.  Because...well, quite frankly, it has been hot.  REALLY HOT!!  Even at 9:00 in the morning, we have already been hitting the 90 degree mark.

We have been cooped up in the house with the only escape being the city pool.  Last night, I decided that this had to stop.  We were going to get out of this house or else.  I told C-man that as soon as he finished his meal, we would go to the playground.  After some tears (his, not mine) and an hour later, we finally left to play.

He was super excited.

He loved the twisty red slide.

And of course he liked the even bigger slide!!

I was a nervous wreck as he climbed the stairs.

Weeeeee!!

He climbed.

And climbed.

And then he got distracted by the shiny thing.

Up next, the merry-go-round.

Faster, mama, faster!!

Even at 8:30 in the evening, it is still roasty toasty outside. 

Hey, C-man, it's time to go home now. 

Oh man!!!  Noooooo, I don't wanna go.

Do you want to go get a popsicle?

Alright, alright.  Let's go.

Baseball Game Waddle

On this date exactly three years ago, a very pregnant me waddled into the Royals baseball stadium. 

Clint is a huge baseball fan. He wanted to go to a baseball game so bad that even I could taste it.  It was one of those things that we had talked about before moving to NE Kansas.  He was so excited that we would be close and could go to a few games.  The summer came and seemed to be flying by.  It would be just a matter of a few days and we would be welcoming a little boy into our family. 

We met in the entry of our house that hot July evening and he said that he wanted to go to the game.  I was certainly not keen on the idea of sitting in a stadium for 9 whole innings.  He said that he would take Sis with him and that I could stay home.  But, I really didn't want to sit at home by myself.  And, what if?  What if I went into labor?  I would have to drive myself to the hospital.  That would not be cool.  Sissy was 10 days early, C-man could definitely come at anytime.  So I said why not...let's go to the game.

We made it to the game.  We found our seats.  And we sweat.  And sweat.  And sweat some more.  It was so hot and I was huge and miserable.  The one redeeming part of the night...it was $1 Dog Night.  Let me tell you, those were the best hot dogs EVER.  Trust me.  I should know, I ate probably 6!!!  Big mama (as my husband so lovingly called me) ate her fair share of dogs that night.  We sweat for 6 innings, I stuffed myself with hot dogs, and I waddled my way back to our vehicle that was parked so very far away. 

Three days later, C-man made his debut.  What a story I have to tell him of the few days before his arrival.

Thanks for stopping by,
Carrie

Shoe Games

My son has this inability to keep his shoes on in the car.  It is absolutely impossible to make it across town with his shoes still on his feet.  This is rather frustrating to both my husband and I.  We arrive at our destination only to have to wait 5 minutes in the parking lot while someone gets the little booger's shoes on. 

The other day we were in the car.  We really hadn't been on the road for that long when we stopped to run inside a store.  My husband went to get him out of his carseat when he noticed that C-man had taken off his shoes.  Needless to say, Clint was rather frustrated that once again we had to wait to put on his shoes in the sweltering hot parking lot. 

"Dude, if you would just leave on your shoes we wouldn't have to play this game every time we go somewhere."

Not missing a beat C-man piped up, "But, but, but I like playing games.  There's hide-n-seek and freeze tag..."

A Happy Birthday Post

It's my father-in-law's birthday today. He welcomed me into the family like no other. He was/is always giving me heck and I just dish it right back to him. He is a loud and ornery man.  But he is also very tender-hearted. (Don't tell anybody about the tender heart. It will ruin his tough guy reputation.)

He would do anything for us and is absolutely crazy about his grandkids. He has been known to sit outside in the hot Oklahoma sun so he could watch the grandkids play in the pool. He ooo's and ahhh's over my daughter after she gets all dolled up. And he picks on my son like crazy. It's okay though, it means he loves the little blondie.

He can grill a mean steak and anything that he smokes is always divine...turkey, brisket, pulled pork...yummo!! His black bean enchiladas are out of this world.

He is a pretty cool cat. I am certainly glad to have him as my father-in-law.

Happy Birthday Robert!!

Love ya,

Carrie

Hair, Long Beautiful Hair...

My daughter is such a girlie girl.  She is very much a fashionista.  She loves clothes and loves it when her hair looks fabulous.  Like me, she loves Texas hair.  You know, big and poufy with lots of curls.  After she turned 6, she decided that she was going to grow her chin-length hair out.  I have a feeling that this decision was made because of a certain singer with a long blond wig. 

She is now over that certain singer and onto other pop princesses.  She has been thinking of cutting her hair for a while now.  But not too long ago, she heard of Locks of Love.  The public non-profit organization provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.  She decided that she was going to wait to cut her hair so that she could donate her hair to this organization once it got long enough.  She needed over 10 inches.  She finally hit the 10 inch mark and got her hair cut about a week and a half ago.

She was very excited about her hair appointment.  And was even more excited about being able to help another child look fabulous. 

She is a beautiful girl inside and out. 

If you can't tell, I kind of like her.  She's alright, if you are into that sort of thing.

Love,
The mother of the beautiful, kind-hearted girl

PS Thanks for being patient with me.  Life kind of got in the way these last two weeks.  I have been away from my computer and there simply were not enough hours in the day.  I am exhausted but very happy to have had the opportunity to visit family and friends.

Freak July Accidents

I am what some might say...a klutz!  I have learned to embrace it.  I laugh at myself quite a bit.

Last year at the start of July we were gearing up for a long trip to the lake to see our families.  I had already mentally prepared myself for the drive and was in the middle of packing.  We had been enjoying our pleasant Illinois evening when we decided to take Pepper for a walk.  When my daughter asked if she could hold the leash, I didn't think much of it.  After all Pepper is a little dog weighing in at a whopping 20 pounds.  What problems could we have with this scenario? 

Occasionally Pepper gets a wild hair and takes off on a full-on run.  I don't know if it is a breed (Boston Terrier) trait or what but it is a hilarious thing to see.  That is until someone is walking her.  You guessed it...she found that wild hair and she was off.  Sis was holding on to the leash but once Pepper got to the end of the slack in the leash she let go.  I wish I could say that is the end of the story, but it is not.

Pepper did a loop around me with her leash dragging/flying behind her.  As she finished her loop around me the leash got me.  It tightened around my ankles and she kept running.  I received quite possibly the absolutely worst rope burn around one of my ankles.  Water skiing was out of the picture that trip to the lake because the ski boot would rub on my ankle.

Fast forward to this July.  5 days ago.  We were already at the lake.  C-man was wound for sound.  He was on a rampage.  He was excited to be at the lake which multiplies his already wild and crazy by 10. 

He ran out the back door.  I was close on his heels as I flung open the screen door.  I didn't want the screen door to slam so I tried to catch it with my foot.  That's when it happened...I cut my foot on the bottom corner of the door.  I stood there on the deck clutching the railing while I tried to make sense of the pain that I was radiating from my heel.  I told myself I was fine and that I just needed to go find a washcloth and a bandaid.  I hobbled back in the door asked my sis-in-law to watch the crazy boy and so I could clean my wound.  Then the guys came in.  Within a few minutes of looking over my foot they insisted that I go to urgent care.  Once there I received 3 stitches on the deepest part of the cut.

My foot modeling days are over.  I knew one of these days I was going to get the call that I had been waiting for.  You know the one that goes something like this...

Hello?

Yes, hello.  This is the Pretty Feet agency.  Are you the one with the beautiful feet?

Me?  Well, yes. I guess that is me.

Please come to New York so that you can share your feet with the world.  We have commercials, magazine ads, and infomercials that desperately need your wonderful feet.

Um, ok.  But I need to pack. 

Don't worry about it.  We will buy you a brand new wardrobe with matching shoes.

Yes, I was certain that any day now that I would receive that call.  But I am going to have to hang up my foot modeling career.  Nobody wants a foot model with a scar that wraps around the upper part of her ankle or a scar that looks like the number 7 on her heel.

I guess I will have to focus on my other career, Mommyhood.  It pays well, right?  I wonder what the currency exchange is for eye rolls, slobbery kisses, and rotting sippy cups. 

Priceless.

The last 6 days...

The last six days have been pretty wild and crazy.  We drove 7 hours to look at the lake.  Look, is the key word here.  There was blue-green algae that had developed rather rapidly in the lake.  Everyone was advised to stay out of the water because this blue-green junk could make you very sick.  So, we got to look at it.  Isn't it so pretty?  Now if only we could have escaped the hot summer sun overhead by doing a cannonball into the lake, that would have been the ticket.

We celebrated our country's freedom.

God Bless America!!

Before it got dark for the fireworks, we were flown over.

My son loved it.  Look, look, a airplane!!!! 

It was truly a hot, beautiful night until the wind picked up.  Then it became rather dicey.  There were people shouting, boats drifting, people still swimming causing other people to shout at them...you can see how it might have been rather stressful. 

What did I do?  I got the kids out of the way and they performed their newest Veggie Tales song on their make-shift stage.  

Quite possibly the most exciting out of all of that crazy fun with our family was that Sissy and my mom celebrated their birthday together.  Yes, Sissy was born on my mom's birthday!! 

C-man was so excited about Sissy's birthday.  Mainly because that means that his birthday is in just a few more weeks.  He helped her open all of her presents...he was giddy with excitement.

And the birthday girls blew out their candle on their cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Sissy!!  I simply cannot believe that she is a beautiful 9 year old.  She has grown so much and is such a wonderful sweet hearted girl. 

Happy Birthday Mom!!  I hope you had a great birthday and enjoyed your birthday celebration with family, cupcakes, and fireworks.

Now, if you will excuse me.  I am exhausted and I must go cry into my pillow because my baby girl turned 9 today.  So bittersweet!!!