random-ness

**Warning Random Post**

* now that Bodie is walking...baby-ness is officially over. this has caused much sadness with my mama heart...especially since Bodie is such a "baby" baby...do you know what i mean? bryson has wanted to grow up since he came into this world...even now he asks me how old does he have to be until he can live on his own and drive a car. just that independent spirit - and i get it...i am it too...i love that part of bryson because it is going to serve him so well in his life...so for that reason his growing up has made me proud and now i am having this opposite reaction with Bodie...watching him grow up makes me sad - a little too much i think.

* look at this picture...Bodie likes to get in corners and just cheese it up...he has been doing it all week - what is that about?


* I am loving Ryan's new maternity series - i followed the one he did for his wife because she also had a homebirth and was due just months after i was due with Bodie - and now he is doing this for their friend and i just love it!

* Bryson was gone last week with his grandparents up north - he grew like an inch and came back with all these new phrases like, "that darn cat" and " oh my word...what am i going to do with all these buttons?" and other very grown up - not-4-ish-at-all expressions that are cracking me up.

* the other pic is of Bryan's near nightly wrastling adventures of which Bodie is now trying to participate - he loves it so much its scary...i have boys...did i mention that - BOYS...capitalized...

*LOVE is in the air! we have been keeping busy this week with making some valentines and some candy necklaces and painting hearts...i am needing a celebration of love these days and intend on many a more craft sesh...plus i have like 10 dresses i need to sew...and some time to sew them...i am excited for some new patterns and can't wait to show you all!

geekdom

i dont know why this has been consuming my thoughts lately...maybe its the american idol auditions we have been watching...but we were having a serious discussion..."what if there were a kingdom of geeks...a geekdom...who would be a part of the royal court?" i thought gamers for sure, but Bryan opposed that thought saying they would definitely be the military...which i see his point, but then what about the LARPers (Live Action Role Players)? I think Entomologists have to be up there...Stephen Hawking is quite possibly King...Dont worry - i would definitely be in this kingdom because Star Wars geeks and Trekkies would make up the majority of the royal subjects...as would D&D guys and Ren Fair people...i think the computer programmers would be the "cool guys" like the knights of the round table? or the Dukes and Duchesses or something? anyway - this is obviously puzzling my brain quite a bit...who would be queen? prince and princesses? who would this guy be? please help...

i want to ride...

we spent the weekend in corona this weekend partly to celebrate my ever-growing nephew Jakob "Buddy"'s birthday. it is always sort of heart stopping in a way to see Buddy because i instantly have a flash forward of what Bryson may be doing in 6 years! we spent the weekend doing corona things like fishing, jumping bikes, hanging in the garage...too bad bryson wasnt around with his sweet new haircut (he is visiting his northern grandparents) - he especially would have loved to see this! (PS Uncle Pete put together this vid too! quite the producer!)

lets go fly a kite..

i cant believe i never posted this! i love having my sister only a mile away! her and pete watched the boys one afternoon and took them adventuring...pete put together this little video and i thought it was so darling!

Where's Bodie?

This is his new favorite game...it gets me every time...plus you can see his new walking skills...

just in case he needed one more reason....

for therapy...here he is...deeply involved in...ummmm...Bible study...

P.S. this is the best children's Bible evah! - not that i have read a ton...only 4 actually...but they use this one at our church and the stories and pictures are a great foundation setting...not too glossed over and not too in depth and very interactional...

dirt magnets

can someone please tell me what is so cool about dirt? what is so tasty about dirt? i just dont get it...

this picture was taken after i had already changed his entire (shirt, pants, socks, shoes, diaper as well - even the diaper was infested with dirt) outfit earlier. so instead of fishing him out of course i grab my camera....

because then he does this...what is this? he eats dirt like it is chocolate pie...i dont get it...

you cant really see his dirt beard too well here...it became a lot more pronounced after his second dip...and then his outfit was changed again...and he got a nice bath...and then the bath had to get a bath...this is the never-ending cycle of cleaning up after boys and i better well get used to it...i suppose...or stopped being so surprised...

haircut evolution

you know when you look back at pictures and your hair is particularly awful in some of those pictures and you ask yourself, "what were my parents thinking?" well...we just may have a little clue on to that..(insert maniacal parental laughter)...you see - bryson is horrible about brushing/washing/touching his hair. and lately we have desperately needed to trim his hair...plus he has been on a stinker-fest lately and just all-around been difficult...so i think bryan took it out on his hair a little...

he buzzed his hair...for like an hour...gave him a sweet fade, and left a little somethin somethin...dont worry - we didnt leave it for long...

but we did leave it like this for a day or so...

bryson was not too thrilled...and it will probably be one of those pictures he looks back on with utter disgust for us as parents :)


and i dont blame him...cause that is one awesome wisconsin waterfall happenin there....



so after a day or so it became this...

and we left the rat tail...because we are going fishing in corona this weekend after all...and he likes it much better :)

A "B" erthday Party

i was not going to have a 1 year birthday party for Bodie. He was born Christmas Eve and the thought of cramming a birthday party in somewhere among the flood of holiday parties sounded absolutely nightmarish. Well fast forward a month after we all have had a chance to recover and add the fact that my mother was going to be in town from Colorado and you get a birthday party. We combined it with a housewarming since we just moved and plus i wanted to have an open house style of party - which worked so well. i wish every birthday party could be an open house style. such a better more manageable flow of people...

anyway...i bought this giant letter "B" about 6 years ago (before i even had my "B" boys) at a flea market and Bryan has given me trouble about it ever since...so i figured that i should have one good reason to use it and decided to theme Bodie's party as a "B" party. all the food/candy/decorations started with the letter "B" - and it was all so random! i ordered 2 huge 3' long Burritos, there was also BBQ (Brisket and Baby Back Ribs thank you!), and broccoli salad, bananas and berries and a brownies (instead of cake) and tons of B candies - baby ruth, butterfinger, black licorice, butterscotch, blow pops....and of course we had Balloons and Beach Balls and well the bunting never quite made it, but it turned out fine nonetheless!

so here are the obligatory birthday *brownie* pictures of the birthday boy - at first he was very unsure...then he became increasingly more certain...then yup...confirmed....its good!

Shmorganize

so i talked a little about our closet problem...so i had to figure some stuff out...it has been nice to start fresh - to be forced to organize things which have not been organized for years. i always thought i was an organized person, but my husband reminds me there is a big difference between being organized and liking things organized. very true. i am also fine with chaos...its my usual state of things. but it does feel nice to be organized once in a while. preferable even.  so one thing i had to figure out was bryan's growing hat and sunglass collection he has amassed since starting Pseudo Rebels...i found this great over the door cap holder and pocket organizer, which organizes not only his glasses, but all his bling and random medallions! i was very happy with this - and so was Bryan!

i also found this organizer rack to help keep our cookie sheets, trays and cutting boards from potentially falling on my head.

this amazing shelf helped us utilize this space under the sink for storage of our glass items.

sorry for the cruddy picture - my sewing was a deal - always unorganized - Bryan could not stand it - so i wanted something i could just shut on it when i wasnt using my machine - we had an odd little space in the kitchen and this cabinet from IKEA worked well!

voila! a sewing station - still a mess - but its okay cause i can just shut it back up when i am done...when i ever start...oh boy i have like a mazillion projects i need to do!

we also lacked the ample drawers we had in our old place. But its good because those drawers were always a mess and never organized and you could never easily find what you are looking for - that is why i am happy to have moved on to our utensil stand (found it at Target).

and finally - the most annoying part of the day for Bryan when he has the kids is trying to track down everyone's shoes, socks, hats, sweatshirts, etc. now we have the family superstation - everyone has their own drawer and i just need to remember to fill it with what Bryan may need so that i get pestered less to look for everything. Also shoes will hopefully religiously go there so there are no more treasure hunting for shoes happening. It is the Itso storage system and you can get it at Target. The little door hides all of Byrson's craft stuff, which is perfect for him to keep organized too!

there are many more finds, but these were some of my favorites - please let me know any other organization secrets you have - i know you got em!