Memorial Day in Missoula

For Memorial Day Weekend, we drove over to Missoula, MT to stay with my brother.  My mom and dad, sister and brother-in-law came up too.  We were hoping for a nice sunny weekend, but unfortunately it was rainy and chilly.  But we made the best of it, of course!  The girls did some shopping and eating out (duh! - we do that come rain or shine :)  The boys had a football game going on in the front yard....

Caiden could often be heard saying "Come on guys! We need to make a master plan!" Hence, the intense huddle.

Then, everyone participated in some basketball games created by Uncle Jesse's family...and it was a hoot!

We played "Poison" and "Lightning".  Now I don't so much remember all the details and rules to the games but one involved screaming "Poison!" and everyone had to FREEZE in their tracks (hence, the crazy poses) and the other was a bit of a race to make a basket before the person behind you.  I didn't so much rock at the second game, despite the picture of my mad skills below, ha. 

And this is what Paige did while everyone was playing and running around.....Play with the kitties!  And she told me many times over the weekend "this kitty so really likes me."  Yes, Paigey.

And count on my child to find immense entertainment out of a window well.  Note to self:  Get a daylight basement in our next house.

Then we decided to take a stroll on their property to a nearby creek and unbeknownst to us all the drama that awaited us...dun! dun! dun!

It all started with completely calm and normal driving done by Papa...

Then we get to the creek and as everyone is calmly peering into the flowing stream, Papa obnoxiously throws the largest rock ever into the creek and drenches us all.  Well, mostly just Paige, of whom doesn't exactly take a joke so well....but she got her revenge by splashing him back and then she was all smiles....

And THEN, in the midst of the crazy rock throwing and splashing, Caiden runs up the hill and happens to stand in the one and only spot of a giant red-ant hill.  All of a sudden, he comes running down in a panic that a bug was on his hand.  Now, don't judge me, but my initial reaction was to roll my eyes deep into the back of my head.  It drives me crazy that my son and daughter are more afraid of bugs than me.  They panic when a housefly gets into the house and Paige thinks the tiniest of moving creatures is a black widow that is trying to eat her.  So, at first, I paid no attention, and then all of a sudden I see my brother run up to Caiden and start attacking his legs.  And then I noticed the tons of red ants crawling all up his legs and all over his shoes.  And then I felt bad.  So we ripped his pants off and there were several ants that had gotten inside and he was freaking out and I was freaking out.  I so wish I had gotten a picture of him in his underwear!  (and I'm sure he's thankful I didn't, because you know I would have no shame in posting it).  So we get the ants off and his pants back on and I take a closer look at this ant hill, and oh my! Those are some HUGE ants.  And I grew up in Louisiana.  Trust me, I know my red ants!

But the four wheeler rides with his cousins seemed to help him forget about the killer ants...

A fun weekend in Montana!

Paige's End of the Year Preschool Program

Paige has officially finished her first year of Preschool at Happy Hearts and they celebrated with an end of the year program. According to her teachers, by the end of the year she finally would talk to them and occasionally smile at them. Her teacher even told me of a time that she talked in class and another little boy exclaimed, "She can talk! Paige can talk!"

My sweet little Paige is just so, so shy! (Certainly not at home, of course. She is at times the only thing I can hear. But in public.....that's a different story.) I can barely get her to smile and pose for me in pictures, so I wasn't too surprised to see her not smiling in her school pictures. Oh well. On a side note, I will always remember this year as the year of the hair disaster followed by the missing chunk of bangs - a very sad day indeed. But both are beginning to finally grow out and think I just might be over it completely....

It is one of my favorite things to see at the end of the year what all the kids want to be when they grow up. They are always posted along the walls for all to read and Paige did not disappoint...
I love that she got confused! And for the record, that is the first I have heard about her wanting to be a teacher. Maybe she loved preschool more than she let on!


And then all the preschool children serenaded us with tons of cute songs and to my utter surprise, I witnessed my little Paigey actually singing along and doing the hand motions. So cute. And of course, she is standing next to best friend, Adam.


And this was her favorite song to sing (peanuuuuut - peanut butter - and jelly!) and I couldn't get enough of her cute little hand motions.

Talent

An ode to Mothers....

I hope this is as inspiring to you as it was to me...sure makes all the bad days worth it....

::Invisible Mothers::

“It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I’m not a pair of hands ; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’ I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, nocupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.”

-written by Nicole Johnson

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Lots of Randoms....

First off....Books!  Caiden's reading has just taken off in the last couple of months.  He loves books and he's now read cover to cover "Green Eggs & Ham", "Hop on Pop", and "The Cat in the Hat".  (We love Dr. Suess, can you tell?)  He came home from school one day and very excitedly said "Mom, we got to read like bosses today!"..."Bosses??"...."Yeah, you know...with our feet up on the desk."  Love it!  And love Mrs. Nash for making reading so fun!

So lately, Caiden has been noticing that the books I read are "fat" books and he says he wants to read "fat" books.  I told him next year maybe (or maybe the next) he might be ready to start Harry Potter.  He was very excited at this thought!  But for now, he just likes to pretend he's reading "fat" books.  And I just had laugh when I saw this Sunday afternoon....

...of all books, he picked "Lord of the Rings" which I have to admit that I couldn't even get through.  It's not the easiest of reads on my book shelf.  But Caiden has inspired me to attempt to get through the trilogy as soon as I'm done with the next 15 books in line I have waiting :)  Anyway, I'm just so glad he has a love for reading I hope it lasts!

And speaking of reading, this is another one of his favorite things to do, although I don't think there is much reading going on as there is wishing.  We get these lego magazines in the mail every so often and they are filled with amazing lego sets that cost about $200 (yeah, right!)  But a kid can dream....

And lately, this little guy has days where he is so eager to help me around the house.  What?  Yes, it's not often but I take advantage of it to the fullest extent! 

Now on to Paige....

I have a store that I go to where I sell my old clothes and the kids old toys and what not and once in a blue moon I find some half-decent clothes for the kids.  I found this dress for Paige (it's a little big) but she FELL.IN.LOVE.  It was so funny.  I've never seen her so excited to go to church!  And she couldn't stop talking about her new dress.  Casey told her she needed to blow her nose and her reply was "I know. But I just really like my dress."

Crazy kids!