My Daughter Is Beautiful

...and nurturing, and kind hearted, and smart, and driven and OH SO BOSSY! She reminds me of myself at different times in my life. The hardest part is when she reminds me of me at 16. ugh. But we are blessed that it's a rare occasion. She is the only person in our house who can find all of Konnor's tiny little superheroes. She loves to cook (not quite as much as Konnor), and she loves to eat. She prefers to wear her pajamas, but when called upon to wear normal clothing she is very opinionated about what is acceptable. She can bring out the best, and sometimes the worst in every member of our family. I sometimes remember how scared I was when I was pregnant with her, that I wouldn't be able to love two children equally, or that she would take away from Konnor somehow. During that time I received a blessing in which I was told how important she would be for Konnor. How true it was! I see it more every day, I think about what his life would be like if we had waited until later and not been able to give him a brother or sister and how lonely he would have been. She has her daddy wrapped around her little fingers. Today she made him sit in her room for at least an hour playing some game where you go to sleep and wake up. Bless his heart. I'm so grateful for my kids. Even when sometimes I think it would be nice to have something else to blog about! :)

Are You Mad (too)?!?!

So I realized the only thing I really ever blog about is the kids. No, there isn't anything wrong with that, but I thought it might be fun to try something a little different. Thing is, when you are a stay at home mom of two kids that aren't school age yet, all you do is, well, kids. So I thought it might be fun to see if anyone out there is half as crazy as I am. Maybe it will just prove to me that I need a "mental health day" ;)
Does anyone else watch the show Parenthood religiously every Tuesday night and laugh and cry the entire time? Have you ever run for so long that you forget your running and lose yourself in your own thoughts (whatever they may or may not be) and when you find yourself again you say a prayer of gratitude that you weren't hit by a car or more lost than you actually are? Please tell me that I'm not the only person that finds pretty much any excuse I can to eat cream cheese. Does anyone else bake ridiculous desserts, you know, the ones you spend hours on, just because? I used to think it was a snotty old southern woman thing, but lately I find myself unable to eat most things unless they are homemade. Or is that OCD? I realized Saturday after an ALL day long trip to IKEA and Concord Mills that if shopping were a sport, my mom and I would kick some serious rear, what about you? Do you ever catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror or a picture and think "Man, am I really getting that old?!" and then there's my shoe problem. It started with pumps and boots, and now that I'm a runner has manifested itself in sneaker form. Shoes anyone? or do you have another not so secret addiction? BTW, the kids are great. Not so surprisingly for this time of year they have runny noses. LOL

Hand wash cold seperately

For the past two months Konnor has been in costume. For the first month he was Spiderman. I let him wear his costume around the house a day or two out of the week and on his birthday I let him wear it all day, to stores and even to dinner that night. No big deal right? We aren't forming any ridiculous habits or anything... Since about a week before Halloween he has been War Machine (Iron Man's friend or assistant or something that he saw on an Iron Man cartoon DVD that a friend let us borrow). K, so it's not just a day or two a week now, it's been most every day. He will wear normal clothes out in public (this does not include my mother's house- that is War Machine territory), and he sleeps in pj's at night but as soon as his feet hit the floor he's off to get his costume. Well let me just say, it was starting to show that he was wearing it that much. The stitching at the waist had torn on one side and, to be honest, it was starting to smell. Aarik and I had just held onto hope he would outgrow this phase but, alas, it seems this will last longer than Spiderman. So tonight while Konnor was in the bath I sewed his costume up and after the kids were out of the bath I handwashed it in the bathroom sink. Konnor stood there watching and finally asked what I was doing. I told him I fixed the hole and I was washing his costume. I dunno what type of reaction I did expect but it wasn't the one I got. He looked at me with his sweet little angel face and said "Thank you Mommy" in the most sincere way I've ever heard a 5 year old say Thank You. I'm so glad we didn't throw it away while he was sleeping.

Once Upon A Warm Fall Day

This past week was a gorgeous autumn week. Beautiful leaves, perfect weather and of course I've been sick. But, we still got outside to play one afternoon. We went over to play with Lindsey and Jade at Nana's house so I took a few pictures.

Mckenzie refused to change out of her pj's that day and since I wasn't feeling well I didn't put up too much of a fight. The kids played a game where they have to find a shape, number or color and stand on it.

Jade, Mckenzie and Stuffer got pulled around in the wagon, in their pj's.

Konnor drew pictures of War Machine and Iron Man and he wrote all of the kids names so that the girls could see them. He is really into drawing right now.

This last one is Mckenzie with her dog (and BFF) Stuffer. She sleeps and eats with this dog. Stuffer even has to sit in the bathroom when Kenzie goes potty or takes a bath. We love Stuffer and since he is an important part of our family I thought we should blog about him too.
Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the Autumn...

The Tree in Our Front Yard (this morning)

What I Needed to Hear Today

‎"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it - but all that had gone before." -- Jacob Riis, Photographer and Journalist