Merry Christmas

 Here's hoping your Christmas is filled with blessings and miracles galore!

 

I know ours is!!

 

Merry Christmas!!!

Welcome!!!

 Welcome to the world Raegan Michelle Quinn!!!

 

November 27, 2012

1:52pm

 

7 pounds 1 ounce

20 inches long

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas.....

 Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas a little earlier this year around our house.

We typically wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to begin all the decorating and fun, but wellllllllllll.....

This year we decided it best not to wait any longer as we have a special gift arriving very soon!

Ayden was super excited to see all the Christmas decorations going up and decided that he absolutely cannot wait any longer for Christmas to get here.  A little over a month is way too long in his book!

The countdown begins..........

Christmas Parade

 Cold fingers....
Cold toes....
Cold nose....

BUT

happy boys watching firetrucks, motorcycles, dancing critters, dogs, boats, and Santa makes it all worth-while!!

Happy Thanksgiving.....

Today I am ever so thankful for so many things!!

 

I am really thankful that children make up a part of our world.

 

Honestly, I don't know what I would do without them......especially the ones near and dear to my heart!

 

May your day be full of blessings!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Halloween......

Da....da...da!!!

 

Yep, I am a little behind and a little ahead.

 

Makes no sense!

 

Anyhow, here is the little guy at Halloween......

 

Batman to the rescue!!!!!

Mealtime Battle.....

Call me laid back or stupid, but I don't believe in battling my child for control.
Sure, there is much I can do to express my opinion and inform him of right and wrong, but I know that trying to control him will only end up in a blubbery mess.
blubbery mess=me in tears, child in tears, no one listening to each other

He is responsible for his decisions.
He is his own person. Who am I to try to make him someone else?

That is just a losing battle that will make my kid hate me.

And me hate him or at least his actions.

I believe in consequences.
Everything leads up to a behavior and from that behavior a consequence occurs.

Good or bad.

Does that make sense?

I am not going to get too behavioral here but this is really just a long way of saying that I do not force my child to eat every bite of his dinner if he chooses not to eat it at that time. I do not force my child to sit at the table until his plate is clean. I do not sit at his side with a fork full of food trying to coerce him into eating it because then, um, who has the control? I do not feed my child because he won’t do it himself.

I just inform him that if he decides not to eat it, then he is not allowed to have any dessert or treats.


No battles.
Just matter of fact.
And he makes the decision.

 

But, man oh man some nights are harder than others and I feel worse about it than others.  Just sayin’!

Raegan got stuff.......

Raegan got new stuff (well, it got put together).....

The boys got a new box to play with......

They couldn't be more happy!!

Raegan 38 weeks

Here is another picture of the sweet baby girl to be seen for real in the very near future!  But, for now we have to look at these blotchy images and wait.  Not much longer though..........

 

See you soon little one......see you soon!!

Riding Along.....

Check out these handsome boys......

Our world would not be the same without them!!

 

Four-wheeling, cookies, and all...................

 

 

A Boy is...
Scuffed up knees, a freckled nose
with dimples here and there.
A daring, caring, sharing heart
a mass of tousled hair.
Boundless curiosity
the spirit to explore.
Two twinkling eyes, a smiling face
and energy galore!
A love of life, a bit of sass
a source of untold joy.
A wonderment, a dream fulfilled
God's miracle...a BOY!

Rhythm.......

In life there is always a rhythm, we breathe in and out, inhaling and exhaling in one fluid motion. We sleep and we wake. We watch the tide roll in moments before the currents secede and roll back out. There is an ebb and flow. Not every relationship is marked by glittered and sparkly friendship bracelets of spun unicorn mane, in fact most are messy and some even hurt.

“There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” -Leonard Cohen

Just as we can sit along the waters edge in a torrent of crashing waves, we know that sometime soon, the tide will pull those white caps away, receiving them back into the deep and at the same time giving a renewed love for calm inhales and exhales and fresh air.

There will be days when plans don't go as expected, when ideas change and you make memories out of the forced smiles between the cries. Those times will come, they always do. But sometimes without them, the regular days... the days we find ourselves alone in a pumpkin "patch" with happy kids, a cool breeze and perfectly shaped orange gourds, would pass by without the gleam of shimmering golden light being noticed.

 

Oh it's there. The light is always there. Sometimes it's about letting the light in, even through the fracture of misguided expectations... and sometimes it's about shining your own light. Right now? We are trying to do both.

 

Shine on, friends. And if you can do it with a pumpkin or two? Even better. Like, sparkly Autumn unicorn kind of better.

Carving Day.....

Carving away our day.....

Then someone decided eating the pumpkin was a fabulous thing.  Any guesses who that was?

 Lots of fun and cheesy smiles and bloopers to go with......