A Boy & His Dog

These two are so much fun to watch. They wrestle, they chase each other, they greet each other when one comes in. I love watching Ryder walk up to Griffey and pet his ears and talk to him in a quiet voice. I love watching the bond between the two of them and can't wait to watch it continue. A good dog can add so much to a home.

Little Artist

We love Art in this house and we try to find new and creative ways to incorporate art. Usually this involves a box from mom and dad shopping, but today it was a giant board and lots of new paint colors. Just in case you were curious, on this board there is are two suns, monkeys, pterodactyl, turtles, and lots of grass of the bugs to live in. :)

Summer Nights

Beautiful light and beautiful boy. Enjoying a little reprieve from the intense heat tonight.

Muddy Toes

 When it has been so hot and the mud has been gone for awhile you make your own I guess. He was outside playing and kept going to the sink and running the water. I decided to go peek on what was happening and came out to a dino mud scene. Of course we had a bath this morning and of course I had just mopped the kitchen floor, but this was looking like too much fun to say anything. "Mom do you want to see what my dinosaurs are doing in their habitat" he says as he saw me. Rather than grab a towel I went to grab my camera. Love his imagination.

Shell Creek

I try to be a supportive wife and when the hubs needs to go check a property or switch out trail cams or scout some deer, I try to tag along sometimes and just enjoy nature. Every once in awhile it lands us right smack dab into something beautiful. Tonight we ended our night stuffing shells into our pockets at what Ryder named "shell creek". He was amazed by the amount of teeny tiny shells that laid out before him. I am still a bit surprised we got him out of there with no tears. He had a pocket that was full of shells swishing together by the time we left. Love watching these two together and thinking about how far my husband has come as a dad. He is so very patient, kind, and open to enjoying the tiny moments.

You can't really tell by the photo but this was his "mom take a picture of my full pockets". He was proud of his treasures that he found for sure! 

Deer Scouting

Usually this time of year if we go anywhere in the evening it involves taking a long way home with quite a few back roads to do something known as "scouting deer". Ryder has proven himself to be pretty efficient with the binoculars this year and can help daddy find some "monster bucks". They enjoy it and I enjoy looking at all the pretty places out in the country.

CleanUp Time

Our goal and incentive chart this month has been based on cleaning up his toys. I figured this would be a good one to get down with a baby on the way. He has done really well with it and realistically I am sure he will lose all progress when baby comes but it was worth a shot. :)) Found him cleaning up his animals today like this with daddy's hat. How cute is this kid??

Deer Scouting

Usually this time of year if we go anywhere in the evening it involves taking a long way home with quite a few back roads to do something known as "scouting deer". Ryder has proven himself to be pretty efficient with the binoculars this year and can help daddy find some "monster bucks". They enjoy it and I enjoy looking at all the pretty places out in the country.

Frustration

I am sure there are many out there that can relate to the frustration of this moment. Haha.

Stormy Days

We were going to head to the pool today, but the rain had a different plan for us. We decided to sit out and watch the storm come in. I sure hope one day we can live out a ways and enjoy the full view of watching weather come in.

Dinosaur Enthusiasm

As I sat drinking my coffee today, this was my view. Anyone who knows my child knows he is sweet, fearful of lots, calm, and really pretty darn sensitive. Except when it comes to dinosaurs. I don't know what it is about these things but he loves them and he is kind of gruesome with them. I finally broke down and let him watch Jurassic World. He has been asking since it came out. Call me a terrible mom but whatever the kid is freaking obsessed with dinosaurs. I was a little worried about his night terrors as we were prepping him for the movie. I even got on YouTube and let him watch a few scenes to see how he processed it. No questions... lots of cheering. I was a little confused by his enthusiasm and lack of fear. So we watched the movie... I was not prepared for what laid ahead of me. At one point the Indominous Rex grabbed a guy from the head part of his body and swallowed him whole. It was at this point my sweet little sensitive souled boy stood and yelled at the top of his lungs "nice grab dominous". As he fist pumped the air above him. I wish someone would have recorded my face when this happened. He was not phased by the movie and I still giggle at the fact that I felt so much need to protect him when in reality he was more than ready to separate real life vs. fictional.

Northwoods

 The Northwoods

Where do I even start. We are from a large family with not a lot of money growing up. We played outside a lot. We didn't take elaborate vacations. I am pretty sure I didn't even know Disney was a land you could go to. There was a place though, that was magical. This place had no television, no thrill rides, no characters, or anything fancy. In fact we loved to drive down the road at night, turn the car lights off and just marvel at the darkness and the stars. We fished, we played in the dirt, we went on boat rides, and on rainy days we played in the tiny cabin, or begged our mom to let us swim anyways. In this magical place my grandpa would swim to the floating raft (and carry us over the weedy parts) so we could jump off over and over again. My dad was a workaholic at home, but in this place he fished and he laughed and he played with us. He wasn't too tired to listen to our crazy stories. In fact he would designate one day a week to take all the girls out fishing; looking back on it we know he wanted to rip his hair out, but he smiled and said, "just a second sweetie" as he untangled, re-hooked, wormed our hooks, and fixed someone's pole. When we got one... well that was just about the most alive moment I have ever seen my dad. His face lit up and you would have thought we won some sort of lottery. He was in his element and in return this place had a sparkle to all of us. We lost our dad a year ago as many of you know, and our family is still healing. We thought what better place to heal than the Northwoods. So we did it, we found a massive cabin that held all 16 of us (yes it was tight) but we tend to congregate in small rooms with a bag of chips and salsa anyways. Pulling up the the area was heavy, there was a smile missing from our trip. He was with us though, I think we all felt him that week.

The week started out a little rough for me as I spent the second night in the hospital with renal failure, massive kidney stones, and was in active labor because of the pain. I thought for sure this little peanut was coming and the Northwoods was going to have another reason for being special. :) But my body had another thing planned. One 8 inch stent later I was able to go home the next day, but a lot of my week was spent recovering so I don't have nearly as many pictures as I would like, but I wouldn't trade the week with my beautiful family for anything. These people are seriously wonderful. Thank you to them for taking care of me and making sure Ryder always had what he needed. Miss you all and looking forward to our next Northwoods adventure together.

Boys, Ducks, and Water

 These three boys are so cute to watch together. This night was so much fun. I was kind of like a bump on a log there with not feeling well, but I could plop myself on the dock and let the boys play near the water. On this particular night there was a family of ducks (9 of them) resting in the sand. There were not scared of us and in fact swam all around the boys. All three of them thought it was hilarious that Aunt Jess was going to let them get soaking wet in their clothing. What value is there in being an aunt if you can't try to be the fun one right. :)