Raking, It's Good for What Ails You

You know, I really do enjoy raking....as long as the space is not the size of Grandma Debbie's yard. ;) I just finished raking our front yard and I am sufficiently tired. Matt did part yesterday, I did part earlier today and then had a nap. Just finished up. My arms and hands hurt, but it's the good kind of hurt. It's the get-your-heart-pumping-I'm-using-muscles-I-never-knew-I-had-burn. Raking is great in that there is immediate gratification. You have a messy yard and as you rake it up it looks better and better. Oh, and if you're wondering, the high temp today was 44F. But it felt more like the high 40s. And yes, we should have done this in the fall, but that didn't happen then. That was when Matt was recuperating from working crazy hours and everyone was sick. Our grass is looking a little ill at the moment, but it will perk up when it warms up again. We have bare spots, but thankfully St. Augustine grass has runners and will eventually fill in those spots. Might take a couple of years. That's ok. I'm not worried about it. Hope the neighbors aren't bothered by our poor grass! ;)

Another Milestone

It's amazing to watch your kids grow up. They come into this world completely helpless and dependent upon you. Then they start to notice the world around them, learn to roll, crawl, walk, and talk. You start out as the one and only in their little world. Then they learn to play with others and soon have best buddies other than you. It is a beautiful and amazing thing. 

We have now crossed another milestone with Ethan. He has just learned how to ride a bike! He is mobile! I am so proud of him and so excited for him. It is fun to watch him grow as a little boy. I love to see him learn new things. He was so excited about his new bike! But still nervous and a bit hesitant to ride it on his own. He is so much like me in his approach to new things. It cracks me up....only because he is just like me. I think to others it is probably really annoying and frustrating! ha ha ha! Drives his father nuts! Basically the mindset to new things, to change in general, is this....you have very low expectations and therefore can't be disappointed if it doesn't work out. You still have hope that it will work out, but you can't show that on the outside. So, I come across as really pessimistic. :) Great, I know. But hey, it works for me! Ok, honestly, I know it's not a great approach and I still struggle internally with it. And so I try to be patient with Ethan when he expresses those types of approaches. But what it is, is just the initial fear of the unknown and once I get a bit of confidence I am usually all for it. 

This was Ethan's approach to riding a bike. Ethan and Emma and I went out front and I held onto the back of Ethan's bike for I don't know how long, running back and forth in front of the house until I was sweaty and out of breath, while Ethan built his confidence. He was riding the bike on his own after about the second trip. My role after that was to just lightly hold onto the back of his bike until he felt good. :) Then I had to take a break. In the house we went for pretzels and pop. Anna woke up from her nap and I took care of her. Then out we went again. I told Ethan that I couldn't run the whole way with him anymore since I had to take care of Anna. Not really true, but it was a good reason for me to back off and challenge him mentally a bit. So, we then went from me holding the seat the entire time to me just holding it a few feet and letting him go. Ethan only rode by himself a few feet. We did this for awhile and also started working on getting him to start off by himself. So, he really made great strides! After dinner we went back outside in the dark to show off to his daddy. While we were out there Ethan learned how to start off all by himself! But he was funny in that while I was holding onto the back of his seat he told me all his frustrations about the bike, why he didn't like it, why it was hard, etc. And of course now that he can ride it by himself it is the coolest thing in the world. :)

So, now he's mobile. Wow. My baby boy.

Merry Chris-a-mas!

That's how Austin says it. I love the lingo of 3 year olds. So funny! 

Well, we had a really nice Chris-a-mas. We all went to the Gordon's for their annual Christmas Eve party. Stayed there until Anna was almost a mess. Then we headed home in anticipation of putting all the kids to bed. We got three of them to bed, but the one we thought would for sure go to sleep, did not go to sleep. In fact, Miss Anna was VERY excited to be in her quiet home. She perked right up and was all over the place with lots of smiles and wanting to play. Stinker! All of my kids did this at this age. They like their quiet and familiar home. 

Christmas morning brought the opening of presents (after getting coffee going, of course). Austin busied himself playing with his new race track, Ethan got to business on his new DS game, Anna played with her new toy that lights up and makes all sorts of noise, and Emma worked on her magnetics set with her daddy. Later that afternoon the Martinez families came for dinner. We chatted and played Taboo, ate turkey dinner and cinnamon rolls for dessert, and finished the night off with Rock Band. :) The kids got to bed late again, but they had a great day. 

Today we are relaxing at home, I am sitting here quite tired out and looking at the mess around me. Pav and his wife, Sarah, are coming in tomorrow and I have all sorts of things that I need to do, but they are going to have to wait just a bit. I need to relax! Hosting Christmas is a lot of work! I did get a little snooze today, but what I really need to do is get to bed early tonight. 

I hope you all had a merry Christ-a-mas!

Anna is 1 Year Old!

This past Thursday Anna turned 1 year old. My baby girl! Sigh! She has been so much fun. All of my kids are fun, but with each child it is a little different. Anna is different because she is my fourth and I am so much more relaxed with her. I have really laughed a lot more this first year! 

We had a big birthday party planned for her today! Ok, well, really it was just a great excuse to have a get together at our house. :) The typical first birthday parties I have been to in the past have usually resulted in the guest of honor either crying most of the time b/c of all the commotion or the child slept through the party. I think I might have been impressed with Anna if we had had the party today! (Matt started feeling bad last night and it only got worse this morning. So, we ended up having cupcakes with just our family. And I loved it. It was great!) But Anna surprised me! We got her cupcake ready and sang Happy Birthday...and then she promptly dug in! I couldn't believe it! My other kids either didn't like getting their hands dirty or were just so overwhelmed by this time that they wanted nothing to do with the cake...until you put it in their mouth. :) But Anna dug in, squished it all around in her hands, kept licking her hands off, and thoroughly enjoyed herself! Then off to the bath she headed. 

Hopefully Matt will start feeling better tomorrow, but if it's the same thing I had a couple of weeks ago, then it will take another couple of days of laying around the house. Pray that the kids don't get it.

Words that Rhyme

Austin is interested in words that rhyme lately. I am surprised as none of the other kids ever showed interest in that at such a young age. I think he is interested because he hears Ethan and Emma rhyming words. For example, (and picture this, he usually shouts out the words in the middle of a conversation you are having with someone else, and he won't stop until you have acknowledged him), 

"MAMA! MAMA! WHAT RHYMES WITH CAT? UMMM, SAT, AND HAT, AND MAT! THEY RHYME WITH CAT!" After he warms up with an easy one, next comes the hard one...or so I think. But for Austin? Nope, he's got it covered. 

"MAMA! MAMA! I SAY, MAMA! I AM TALKIN TO YOU! MAMA! WHAT RHYMES WITH CHRISTMAS TREE? I KNOW! MINI ME! AND I GOTTA PEE! DAT RHYMES WITH CHRISTMAS TREE!" Yup, you got it. Never would've thought of those ones. Way to go Austin! 

Musings while Stuck on the Couch

This has been an interesting week. First I had an awful sore throat and incredible achyness that kicked my butt for a couple of days. (I thought I had strep!) I'm still in the process of getting over that. Then this morning, as I was holding Anna in my left arm, I reached over to get something off of the end table with my right hand and something popped in my rib area and was so painful! I recalled what my chiropractor said about how it feels when a rib pops out of place, like an ice pick stabbing you in the side, and sure enough that is about what it felt like. I couldn't take a breath without a sharp pain stabbing my right side. Oh, it was awful! So I called Stephanie and begged to come over because well, I was having trouble breathing. And well, breathing is important. So, out go my plans to actually get out of the house and buy Christmas presents and here I sit with an ice pack on my back. So, for those of you who were going to get presents, my plan was to buy them, wrap them up nice this year and mail them. Now it looks like I will be doing what I usually do, ordering online with a "Merry Christmas" in the notes area. :) It IS easier to do that, but I wanted to do something a little more special this year. Ah well, it's not about the presents anyways, is it? It's about taking extra time to remember our Lord during this season. 

You know, I'm really enjoying Christmas this year with the kids. We already went to see a play, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". I have to admit, I got teary during the performance, not because of the play itself, but because I was so glad to be sharing it with my kids! I didn't get to participate and enjoy the Christmas season as a kid, and I'm finding that my kids love it! And therefore I love it! They love the decorations, the lights, the Christmas songs, and of course they are looking forward to the presents. :) We watched the movie 'Elf' the other night and it was great! It was about Santa Claus (someone who I have had issues with in the past), but my kids know that he is not real and they still enjoy watching shows about him. It's just like Frosty the Snowman or even Transformers. Just one more character. I used to not want my kids to get hung up on Santa, but you know, even if they did it means no more to them than Blue from Blue's Clues. It's been a liberating Christmas season so far this year and I am thoroughly enjoying it! So long as they remember what Christmas really represents I don't mind all the extras that go along with it. And that will be my mission, to make sure I develop fun traditions around Jesus. So, if anyone has any ideas I would welcome them.

Merry Christmas!

Baby Gate is Up!

Well, I have good reason to finally put the baby gate up at the foot of the stairs. Up until now, Anna has just lingered at the bottom of the stairs looking up. She might venture up a few steps, but that would be about it. This morning I was doing emails and such and knew she had gone over in that direction, but it was entirely too silent. Then I heard someone playing with the gate at the TOP of the stairs. Sure enough, it was my sweet pea! She had climbed up the stairs and was playing with the gate. I got there just in time too! As I was heading upstairs, she had pushed the gate so it swung back out over the stairs and she was reaching for it! She has already fallen down the entire flight of stairs once and I don't care to have it repeated. Anna also is cruising around furniture alot these days. She'll be up and running before we know it!