Grifferson

Simply because I am obsessed. How did we get so lucky to get another amazing dog?

Navy Pier {iphone}

Went to Chicago today on our way home. Did a little shopping, stayed in a hotel, and ended our trip with Navy Pier. Such a fun weekend with a couple of my favorites. Lots of walking and very hot and an almost 4 year old who seems to think his legs don't work. :)) Thankful for this sister who loves him like her own and stays patient and will carry him even when her own feet hurt. He may not always show it, but he loves you so much girl!

Looking forward to our November girls trip ladies!!! <3

Cliche

When in Iowa you sit on tractors... it's just want you do. :)) Today we went to a small town fair. There wasn't much at the fair other than tractors and some animals, but we had fun.

Four Legs

This four legged friend is looking a lot bigger lately. Still the same sweet heart and great personality, but I thought he deserved a post.

Peanut

A special little visit with this peanut and her mom this week. Love having them here, she is so stinking cute.

We Gained Another One

With seven children our immediate family seems to be bigger than most. Now add on spouses and three little boys and a little girl and you have one large Thanksgiving dinner. :)) There are 17 of us total now. We welcome Jeremiah into our family and had the beautiful opportunity to celebrate Molly and Jeremiah and their lifelong commitment to each other. It was a beautiful night and Ryder ate up all the attention (yes I know the attention should not have been on him, but it seems to follow him). What a beautiful night with a beautiful group of people.

Be Still My Heart

My dad and my son. heart emoticon There is something so special between the two of them. My dad always says that they are the same person with many years separating them. This picture makes my heart soar and makes my heart sad. Life is so beautiful and completely unfair at the same time.

The Dreaded Eye Roll

Hey Ry, you look pretty darn cute back there with your hair. Can I take a picture of you?

**insert first ever eye roll at me**

Where in the world do they pick this stuff up. Wondering if the eye roll is just instinctual. :)) I am sure this will be the first of many but makes me giggle that I caught it on camera.

Dad's Birthday

It is dad's birthday weekend so we decided to have some fun in Cincinnati. A very short trip, but it was nice getting to spend some uninterrupted time as a family since our summer has been apart. We went to the aquarium, walked around downtown, swam at the hotel, played in a fountain downtown,  went up in a tall building, and went to a lego exhibit. Little man is a bit obsessed with cities right now and talking about tall buildings so he thought it was pretty cool. A very HOT weekend but still so nice.

Cheese Balls

These two are something else. They have a great time when they are together and to be able to watch them grow closer this summer has been such a blessing. I wish with all my heart we could do weekend get together and this bond would continue, but for know we will continue to use our summers to build a friendship.

Dirt Ball

You know that moment when you give your child a bath and then things get quiet for a minute... probably enough said.

You Can Stand Under My Umbrella

As mentioned in a previous post we no longer seem to get to enjoy rainy days on the couch watching movies. When it rains I hear an excited little dude running to get his boots. Today we were playing and he kept offering to keep Griffey dry with his umbrella. I happened to catch this moment when Griffey actually seemed to appreciate the favor. <3

Batman

I was headed home to go to one of my dad's appointments with him and Ryder told me he wanted to paint papaw a picture. I giggled at his get up he had on and wondered if he would continue to paint looking like that. I of course knew the answer already. He cracks me up, after all who doesn't paint in their underwear and Batman mask!

Rainy Days

The days of thinking "movies and rest" during rain days are long gone. I swear when it rains he wants to go out more than when it is dry and sunny. He loves it, I may have created a monster when all my puddle encouraging. If he sees that it is raining out he brings me his rain boots and says, "mom let's go play in the rain".

Sweet Griff

I haven't said much about him because simply put our life is crazy right now. We are living in two different states (that are not right next to each other) and just trying to remember where we put what. But he hasn't had much written about him and he deserves it. I am so head over heals for this little pup. He is seriously such an amazing dog for our family. He is calm, happy, easygoing, sweet, and such a nice puppy. He makes us laugh and I am so very thankful he has joined our family. He is at my feet every hour of the day except when we sleep. He wants to make me happy and is the kind of puppy that you wish you could find. I know I know, you get it. Losing Berks last year was really rough on me but the similarities between the two of them is strong. It makes me happy that we were so fortunate to get such an amazing dog again.

Disappointment

Today was a hard day. As a mom I know we all have them. I am the mom of an overly cautious little dude. We try to talk him into many things and he always turns to us and puts his hand up and says, "mom that is too dangerous". He doesn't try too many new things and is proud of himself when he accomplishes something new, and disappointed in himself when he can't talk himself into doing something he wants to do. Today I had him all talked up to go to the splash pad with me. When we got to the splash pad there were some older kids there and the water was coming down pretty quickly. He was overwhelmed and I knew it wouldn't end well. We left and he was sad. I decided to head over to the local pool to give him a chance to redeem himself. Well without going into depth, that did not end well either. He was so disappointed in himself and I felt terrible because nothing I could say could help him feel the joy of just doing it and having fun.   I couldn't let the day end like that so I stopped by target and got him a pool. We filled it up and he had a blast. He forgot about the other situations was laughing and playing and enjoying the water. I love that he is my quiet, simple boy but I do get sad when I see him feel disappointment in himself.  He's little and doesn't need to have those feelings yet. I know he will get there in his own time and until then I hope I can continue to find things to turn bad days into something to smile about.

Independence Day

We had a great day with family today. A small afternoon lunch and just took it easy. Some of us went out for fireworks afterwards. I think this little face sums it up. He waited patiently for the fireworks to start and when they did his face lit up and his cheeks tightened to a huge smile. Pretty fun to watch your child experience things that you remember the magic of when you were little.

Just Like Papaw

I was cleaning out the car when I looked behind me and saw this little guy wearing grandpa's motorcycle helmet that he got out of the garage. When I asked him what he was doing he said, "being just like papaw". I giggled at the amount that his head filled out that giant helmet and I sighed at the cuteness of his love for his grandpa. <3

Favorite Days of Summer

Today might go down as one of my favorite days of summer. Spending our summer in Iowa has some definite perks to it. Including this little gem right here. We spend the day at the Iowa Children's Museum. We live about 45 minutes from the worlds ggest children museum, but this one was different. It's not huge, but the imaginative play is of control. In one day Ryder got to - work at a pizzeria, grocery store, airport, hospital, dentist office, post office, and grow a garden. He drove an ambulance and an actual airplane. Everything was "his size". I was so impressed with this little museum, it was so geared to the younger age and that is sometimes hard to find. He loved it and I loved watching him play. I remember my mom taking us to a pizzeria that in the basement was a kids grocery and a kids weather station. It was one of the best memories of my childhood. I had a lot of fun watching him experience that same type of imaginative play.

Wedding Celebrations

One of my baby sisters is getting married and I am finding it hard to believe that four out of five of us will be married women. When did this happen? How does time move at such a fast pace? We had such a fun night celebrating Molly and her wonderfulness by a simple night at a beautiful winery with music, wine, and laughter. Love you so much Molly and love celebrating you. #worldsgreatestsisters

Museum Day

I have to admit, I love all this rain. Love these indoor days together. Went to the children's museum today and he loved it. He spent four and a half hours there and could have stayed longer. He was all giggles and kept saying, "mom, we go see something else" in hopes that we weren't leaving after each exhibit. Love this kid. He is seriously so fun to hang out with.

Lights Out

We had a storm rip through here last night, and we lost power for a few hours. Ryder was in the bathtub when the lights went out and he was a little taken back. It took some long conversation to help him understand why this happens and it will be ok. After the conversation he did start to enjoy the dark quiet night. Grandma and Pa-paw got him some camping gear so we decided it was the perfect time to use it! He had a fun bath with his lantern. Makes me think back to the days of my dad and when our electricity went out. I remember a specific time when mom was in Colorado and our lights went out for about three days. Dad set up a campsite in the living room and it was probably one of the most memorable experiences of my childhood. It was just so fun to all be confined to the living room and see dad figure out feeding us and how to entertain all of us kids together. I am thankful for those memories and hope that maybe this was one memory that will stick in my child's head when he thinks back on his childhood.

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Lots of rain here in Indiana. So much so that there are some pretty massive puddles. We ran around the neighborhood tonight with no shoes and came home soaking wet. It was perfect and messy. <3

Daddy's Boy

He is a little obsessed with shooting his bow and I have no idea where he got it from. ;)) Just kidding. He tells dad he is going to shoot some "geese, turkeys, and deer" with this (nerf) bow. We are down to one arrow thanks to the doggies, so it is pretty humorous to him shoot it, sprint for it and load it up again to do it all over again.

Peace & Yelling

This was my view from breakfast today. He was alternating between a mean face and a screaming face, this was kind of a mix of both. No one ever says summer is quiet right?? This little dude is a pretty quiet even tempered little man, so it is funny to me to see this little personality outbursts come out.

Cuteness

... simply because he is cute and starting to look so old. 

... aunts.

What do you get when you leave the room and your child is left with an aunt and his favorite thing - Parmesan cheese?

Yep, this pretty much sums it up... this happened about 4 times and he loved every minute of it.

Sisterhood

Anyone who knows my sisterhood knows it is something special. We have been through a lot together as a family but have always stuck by each other side by side. One of my favorite magazines is Bella Grace I am slightly obsessed with it's nature meets lifestyle meets inner peace way of print. the images are beautiful, the fonts are beautiful, the writing is beautiful. My goal for 2015 was to be published in this magazine and when I wrote my entries you can imagine my excitement when they told me that they would publish two of my submissions and one of those being a story and photographic journey of my sisterhood. <3 Pretty magical seeing those beautiful girls who mean so much to me forever in print for the whole world to see our bond.

Bring On Summer

Thankful to be on summer break with this little guy. I know this summer will not be like our other ones and we will spend a lot of time away from home. I do know that it will be fun to spend so much time together and we will make memories together. <3 this little man and love my time with him more than anything in the world.

Sandbox

We got a new sandbox at our house, we did a severe downgrade in sandbox world. But he could care less, he is just excited he can get out there and dig around. Fun to see his back from the kitchen window again.

Thief

There is a phone thief in the house. When I can't find my phone I can usually assume there is a blonde haired boy either on Instagram or playing 1010. He has an obsession with grabbing it and running and hiding. He loves to scroll Instagram and look at the images of other children. He usually gives himself away by running up and showing me a picture he likes. :))

Smiles For Miles

Went on a hike today and about 5 miles later found our way out of the woods. I am not going to lie it was not all peaches and laughter. In fact we actually had to carry him about the whole five miles (the grass was pretty long and he wasn't having it). But this shot was towards the end of the walk and they were still smiling and laughing at each other. I am very blessed to be able to witness these connections between these two. 

Giggles

Bath time giggles are some of the best.

Boys and their Toys

Daddy was working on his truck and this little nugget decided he needed some help. Then he discovered he could see his refection in the front bar. It was pretty much all cuteness after that point. Between the banging on the front of the truck while dad was underneath it and the giggles from the funny faces being made by himself, it was about all I could take. That sweet smile on the above shot literally makes my heart skip a beat.

Puppy Scratches

Griffey is such a good puppy, he has already learned not to jump and really don't nip bite too much. With Ryder's non adventurous side I couldn't have asked for a better fit. However there are occasional scratches and when it happens Ryder is good about not freaking, but this is usually the face I get while he tells me about it. 

Boys

Life has been so unimaginably hard lately. It seems that I wake up with an elephant on my back. Life is just simply heavy. It's hard and I am sad. I miss being my happy normal self, but it is not lost on my how many blessings I have to help me through this with my dad. Tonight called for a little time to be out in the trees with my boys. It's nice to stop and listen to the quiet and take a deep breathe, life may not be going the way I envisioned it or the way I wanted it right now. But we will be ok, we will get through this together.

Adventures of Ryder and Griffey

We got Griffey on Sunday night, Ryder was already in bed. It gave Jarin and I an opportunity to love on him and get to know him for a few hours. He was nervous, he was calm and really not too sad for a puppy. I was impressed. But you could tell he wasn't too sure of us or this home. We all went to bed and he slept wonderfully for his first night in the kennel. I was so impressed. Then came morning, Ryder work up calling my name. So I grabbed Griff and walked into his room. Ryder instantly rolled out of bed with a gasp and held his arms for his puppy. He was thrilled, and so was Griffey. I saw a light that switched on in this little puppy the instant he saw Ryder. It was like he just knew this was going to be ok. The last few days these two have been instant best friends, what a neat thing to watch as a parent.

Wecome Griffey!

I really don't know what it was that made me do it. I have always grown up saying I will have a golden retriever one day. They have always had a gorgeous sweet look to me. The kind of dog that you know will be your best friend. I have been looking at the English creams for awhile now, I am not sure if it is my dad being sick or just simply needing to find that best friend I lost about 6 months ago. I knew it was time and thanks to my dad who talked me into pulling the trigger on this little guy. Isn't he the cutest!! I am seriously so smitten with him, he is calm, sweet, cautious, and so lovable. Welcome to the family Mr. Griffey. We love you so much already.