Mama Funnies - January 25th, 2017

Hey there! Happy New Year!
Yesterday, I found myself going to the bathroom, changing my clothes and chewing gum all at the same time and I stopped and smiled. I probably could have been talking on the phone, too. Then last night as I pulled into the driveway talking to my Grandparents, I told my Grandmother that I wasn't opening the door so that I could finish having my conversation with her because the minute that I open that door the whole world changes.  We do what we have to do, don't we?

Family Portrait by Cameron

So what have we been up to? All things family and all things fun. We tend to stick together from January to March because we're recovering from holiday mode and gearing up for our slew of birthdays, graduations and the final push towards summer!  T-ball is on the horizon and swim lessons are in the works, life is full.

Double Goodness. Brother sunggles & Charlie Brown

We saw our first movie in the theater: Moana. It was so good.
We're still talking about how anger can change a person, even how they look. Oh the lessons on this one, Disney. All the feels.

Our boys are growing up so fast and I constantly find myself trying to remember every little piece.

It's true what they say... Time really is the best gift.

Some of my favorite moments lately:

Over the holidays we visited a light show nearby and Payton cried for Baby Jesus. I've been trying my best to slowly explain what Christmas is really all about. It's a hard concept and so we've added a bit more every year to the story. Payton's version is pretty much about Baby Jesus having a birthday party and everyone coming to the party. It's all very sweet and I love how interested he is. However, in a public setting that's full of Christmas cheer, having your 2 1/2 year old throw a temper-tantrum because he didn't see Baby Jesus can be a little peculiar.

-------------
We surprised the boys with a weekend away to an indoor water park for New Years Eve (my favorite holiday). It was a ball and we really enjoyed the quality time together. These are about the only two pictures I took while we were there. Sometimes it's so nice to be unplugged.

--------------------

P: "Look at that beautiful sunset!"
Me: "Sunrise. In the morning it's called a sunrise. Good morning, Mr. Sun!"
C: "Mom, I'm so lucky."
Me: "Why's that?"
C: "Mr. Sun really likes me. He follows me wherever I go."
Me: "You are lucky! We all are!"

--------------------

P playing with a toy lawn mower as we walk into his classroom and talking to his friend:
"Do you want to ride on my lawn mower? You can ride in my lap."

-------------------
P: "I'm in the water. I need my floatie"
Because every home should have a standard flotation device as toy in their play room.




















---------------------
P: "Can we have a dance party?"
Me: "Of course!"
C: "How does the Charlie Brown song go? Picking on me?"
Me: "Charlie Brown... Charlie Brown... He's a clown... that Charlie Brown."
C: "The other part."
Me: "Why is everybody always picking on me"
C: "Haha I love that part. He says it so funny."

-------------------

Watching them play together, learn together and most often laugh together. The fighting comes occasionally, but we love seeing them grow as brothers.

We hope that your 2017 is sliding into place. 

Definitely a bonus if you've got someone to go down the ride with you, especially if it's your little brother and he's going first.

Zoooom.

Did you see that? We just changed the month on the calendar again and yet, here I am just looking back at 1/2 written blog posts that never made it. I can't be sure, but I swear yesterday was Halloween. Right?

To catch up (a simple version), this house is:

+ making gingerbread houses that fall apart because little boys eat the corners and then nothing lines up correctly. Then they tell everyone we know that I'm not very good at building.

+ drinking peppermint mocha's & holiday punch at gatherings and by the fire at home.

+ reading Christmas cards & Christmas books! I love them. It's probably one of my most favorite things.  Every night we get the mail and gather together to open up the cards to talk about our friends and family and where the card came from. Then before bed we pick one book to read to get us in the spirit. Sometimes, if the book is too long and little boys aren't paying attention we just start singing carols.

+ wanting a snap of something fresh. An adventure, a change, a cleanse of some sort. Hi New Year, I hear you around the bend! :)

+ listening to carols, carols and more carols. Our favorites that we sing nightly are: "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls" but we laugh the hardest at "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"!

+  playing bingo & snowball fights... fake snowballs that is. They are the greatest invention for our family. Small, squishy cotton balls that you can buy by the bucket full and we love and adore every last one. I have a feeling that within the next year or so, we'll have a bucket in every room. That reminds me, warning to anyone that comes over: snowballs are flying at all times so enter at your own risk. Side-note: Cameron and Tim have been doing a map puzzle of the United States every night. Slowly, Cameron is learning/memorizing the states and they love to talk about where everyone we know lives. He's definitely got Texas, California, Tennessee & Florida down.  Don't worry, we're still working on Nevada & Virginia (and all of the others in between).

+ wishing for peaceful and loving hearts.

+ loving family mornings that linger into family afternoons. comfy pajama pants, Christmas shows, cozy togetherness and warm breakfasts. Even if chores are happening at the same time, it sure is nice to not be rushed or scheduled sometimes.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS IN OUR WORLD LATELY:

1.  finding toy cars in the dryer because you're kid hides anything and everything in his pockets and for so long you only checked the adult pockets in this house. not anymore.

2.  we may be a diaper free house in time for 2017 and I'm not sure how to feel.

3.  Tim loves to "Griswold" our front yard for Christmas and now our street has gotten really into it. The kids love to take the "long way" home just to see everyone's displays.

4.  we went to see Santa and Payton was fine talking to him, but the minute that I told him to go give him a hug that kid bolted!

5.  This brotherhood. Oh how I pray that this lasts forever.

6.  Cameron was pumped when they did the letter C as their letter of the week last week, especially when his teacher drew him first on their list of things that start with C! 

2nd Star to the Right and Straight on til Morning

I grew up as a Disney kid. I even accepted a marriage proposal from Goofy (a donut ring in hand) at Disneyland when I was 16. This specific trip though, the one with my own kids, has been on my radar since we got married.  As we were planning, I was getting choked up just thinking about Cameron's expression and his first introduction to Mickey Mouse .  Here's the deal, when you grow up as a Disney kid, the magic never goes away.  It changes and grows, but it's always a part of you and all you want is to share it with another Disney kid.

Leading up to our trip, I received all kinds of advice: from, "take a flask" to an example of one Mom's power point presentation that she sent her family when making their arrangements. I like to think that I fell somewhere in between in my planning.

Today when I talk about the experience I say that Disney has a way of bringing out the highest highs and the lowest lows, and really it all depends on how you handle those highs and lows. I'm not sure if Disney is more different for me now because I'm a parent or if it's more different because it's just different. Probably a little bit of both.

To sum up our day quickly: we were there for roughly 6 hours and we rode 6 rides. We had lunch with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet & Eeyore.  It was a hot and humid 95 degrees and Payton slept in Tim's arms during Pirates of the Caribbean. We lost our patience, complained, argued, and whined. We laughed, got sparkles in our eyes, danced, smiled and sang.  We hugged Pluto, danced with 3 parades and MET MICKEY. 

What's that famous line? "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Ok, so let's put some perspective on it - there's far worse times than a trip to Disney.  However, based on some of the things we saw, we were winning in more ways than one: no one had a giant, unacceptable temper tantrum, no one fell asleep on the ground or just completely lost it. Also, we talked about what we will do differently next time.
Y'all! That means there will be a next time! This is huge!
Because, really, the biggest thing of all was that in the end we
MET MICKEY!!!

This was it. See it?? That's pure joy.
This is also the point where I came so close to bawling like a baby. My throat closed a bit, my eyes swelled and I melted. To the floor. I was mush. I was talking funny and had the hardest time keeping it together. Wedding day, birth of my children.... but this. This is happy.

 Oh and all that patience lost and arguing all went out the window when "Mickey" magically surprised the boys with balloons tied to the stroller when we got back to the stroller parking area.

We may occasionally lose our cool in overwhelming arenas, but we rock at coming together and finding the magic in the moment.
That's really when we're our best.

Out Takes:

The picture in the tea cup? That was right before Tim reached his limit and told me that he didn't want to see my camera for the rest of the day. 

The kids needed a mid-morning snack and Tim went to a concession stand for 2 bananas, an orange and a water. The guy at the concession stand told him that he had never (ever) had anyone buy fruit and a water.

The employees at Disney are a class act. The patrons can, however, leave something to be desired at times.

I hate that everything is calculated now. It's lost the feeling of spontaneous magic that you happen upon as you're walking through Walt Disney's dream... now it has to be planned out and arranged so that you can squeeze it all in. This all happens through an app, which means that everyone has their heads in their phone. Boo! 

We saw a real bunny just hopping around as we were watching a parade.

I can confirm, based on other people's t-shirts that Tim does not work to support my Disney habit, and that we will not be going to Disney to celebrate any of our wedding anniversaries.

Cameron was a pro, the perfect age really. Payton used his sunglasses for protection and clung to Tim if one of the characters was coming around.

I could live on Main Street, USA and watch Disney as it unfolds day in and day out. I'm pretty sure that's why ol' Walt had his secret apartment there. What a character, what a dreamer.

All in? It'll happen again. The magic and the mess.

Thank you for the memories. Thank you for the highs and the lows.

Once a Disney kid, always a Disney kid.

A dream is a wish your heart makes, after all.

The Greats.

Family days

Family nights

Family mornings

Family just-rights

There is something to be said for QT.  something to be said for adventures , firsts and new frontiers.  

I love and enjoy vacations without the kids, but  trips as a family are priceless. Magical. Exhausting and one big beautiful mess.

This summer Tim and I made a pact about vacations with memories and time with "The Greats", our own Grandparents that is. We - ok, maybe I - thought that the kids have reached an exciting age that seems (somewhat) manageable, and so we set off to planning.

In July, we trekked to San Diego to see Great GG & Papa, and my side of the family. There were 25 of us (if I remember correctly) and we soaked in the beach, the sun & (as always) the fun. We attempted the San Diego Zoo and I was a little sad at how much it had changed since the last time I had been there (cough, 20+ years, cough). The best part of the trip was seeing my kids really start to interact and get to know the people that I saw as grown-ups & role models when I was a kid (along with their kids too).  I know just how special these memories are and I treasure every piece of this family puzzle.  I pray that my boys see what I see when they look at these pictures in our hallway.

Last week, we visited the other side of our "Greats" and headed to Florida. Since Cameron's last visit to Florida to visit Tim's Grandmother was when he was 4 months old, we explained to both boys that "Grandma B" (to be clear this is Grandma B as in Benton, not as in 'not A') lived by Mickey Mouse and that they were neighbors. This tid-bit of information was better than cake. For our kids, who had no concept of Disney World, when they heard Mickey Mouse all they saw was the cartoon, "mickey mouse clubhouse". Slowly, we introduced Disney movies: Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Zootopia, etc. We didn't go into specifics about rides, but I did mention things like, "Did you know that Winnie the Pooh and Mickey are friends? I wonder if they'll be at Mickey's house when we visit?"  The boys would respond, "Naaah!" They thought this concept of Mickey's friends being anyone other than Goofy, Donald & Pluto was hysterical.  To say that the idea of a special trip to see Grandma B, celebrate her birthday (we love birthdays!) and the chance to meet Mickey on top of it was highly anticipated, is an understatement.  (I will post later about our day at Disney.)

In Grandma B's little community there was a bustle of golf carts, Cameron "scored a goal" with a putter, friendly faces & even better: Grandma B's love.  It was so nice to spend time with her and see her giggle at these wild boys that always have us on our toes.  She commented on Cameron's sweet tooth that is apparently (to no surprise) just like Tim's was at that age and she loved Payton's facial expressions.  We left with books and treasures of love both tangible and in our hearts.

I'm so very glad that we were able to spend some quality time with our Greats this summer.
We are beyond thankful and so blessed with time. 

If I've learned anything, it's that TIME is the biggest and best way you can show someone you LOVE them. 

Extraordinarily, this summer, we were able to give it and receive it.
That's more than magical.

10 Current Life Lessons

Oh hi there. Hello.

Where have I been? 

Adulting. Parenting. Loving. Wife-ing. Working. Summer-ing. Listening. 

Top 10 Lessons this summer (to date):

1. Traveling as a family is a trip for parents and a vacation for kids.

2.  You want to do it all. Wish you could do it all. That's difficult.

3.  There are still not enough hours in the day.

4.  Connect 4:  Verb. Connecting our family and doing something special together.
Lately we've been all over the map with brotherly love. There's the attention pulls where we give each other turns to talk and they both say the same thing over and over... and over again. There are moments of tears where one is feeling left out and just starts crying to try and shift the balance.  There are quiet times that I overhear: "Payton, do you like me? Do you love that I'm your big brother? Is it fun when I play with you?"  Then there's the "Copycat Disciplinarian" when one tries to reprimand the other or copies the reprimand we're giving. When we CONNECT 4, I really try to connect all of us: put away the phones, let's go do something together.

5.  Parents need a time out more often. It's always fun to get a taste of grown-up-giggles.  You know the ones that I'm talking about.

6.  Seeing people is great, spending time with them is gold.

7.  My kids thrive more in space than in amusements.
It goes without saying that those pictures friends post or pinterest ideas for amazing visits to museums, activities, zoos & parks are great. I start to feel a bit of "mom-guilt" because I don't tend to make time for that stuff. Then when we do it though, the excitement lasts for an hour, maybe two, and they are ready to move on. Put us at the beach, the lake, a pool, a ranch, a campsite, the great outdoors -- they create and move through the space enjoying all of the time we can give them.

8.  {I had a lengthy paragraph about the current political situations that we're in and I chickened out. Let's just say I'm learning to educate myself, and wonder how we're praying that we're going to grow from here.  I desperately need another option to vote for.}

9.  Fireworks never get old.

10.  When I was a new Mom a neighbor gave me stellar advice telling me that whatever challenge (sleeping, showering, etc) I was facing as a new Mom that it would change to something else the very minute I figured out how to overcome said challenge. I loved that advice and as life progresses I've realized that advice goes for everything.  Sh*t happens. Process, come up with a plan & move forward. There's always going to be some other sh*t is just around the corner.  Perfect doesn't exist.  Life is what you do and who you are in between handling the sh*t.  Strength comes from how you handle it. (Ok, I've said sh*t far too many times and my Grandmother reads this: love you, Grandma!) Bottom line... Do something fun when you're down, it's not going to fix it, but laughter is the best medicine after all!

Or if needed, take a minute for yourself, it's a beautiful thing!