Scrumptious

I just love this picture. Lukas is such a little cutie I can't help but share pictures of him. He is still such a happy little guy, I am hoping that that is his personality and he is not just teasing Mama. I am thankful that God, in His mercy, gave me an easy, happy baby after having Nikolas, who was not an easy happy baby, in the least. Nor toddler for that matter.

Our Little Gardener

Here is my little helper with his very own hoe. He was helping Daddy to break up dirt clods and smooth everything out. Well, actually, he was doing a bit more dirt throwing, but he is two and a boy so it's okay.

Not that two and a girl would make it not okay.....







I love seeing my litte boy playing in the dirt and having a great time. I am looking forward to Lukas being able to join him.

So when i plant my seeds that i just bought, how am i going to convince him that he can't play in the dirt anymore..... I didn't think of that before this little episode.





Isn't that a look of a happy little boy?

Taking Time to Teach

At two years old Nikolas wants to do everything Daddy does.
Today, Tone' started building me raised beds for my very first garden. I am quite excited and so thankful that I have a husband who knows how to build things. Even more exciting for me is watching my husband take the time to teach his young son how to build things also. Tone' commented to me later that he would have been done MUCH earlier, but everytime he drilled a hole and went to put a screw in to drill it in, Nik would say, "I do dat!" and would have to hold the drill himself and try to pull the trigger. Nik had so much fun, though, "helping" daddy and Tone' enjoyed watching his little boy trying to be a man. Often as parents it is SO much easier to just do it ourselves and BY ourselves, but the relationships built during teaching times are so important for our future relationships with them as teenagers and young adults. Also, what Tone' is teaching him will be so important for him as a husband and father and to benefit others with his skills.


I could totally be making this up, but it seems like as each generation has children, they require less and less of them, giving them more and more "free time". While i think free time is great for things like making forts, riding a bicycle or some form of exercising or using their imagination, I don't think it is good for things like watching TV(maybe a little:)) , playing video games or surfing the web. (Again, all things in moderation, as I have enjoyed each of those). As I look back on my own childhood the fondest memories are ones in which my parents were teaching me something or including me in the daily work that went on at the farm.
From as young as I can remember my chores on the farm included gathering the eggs, feeding and watering the chickens, ducks and geese,dusting, helping in the kitchen and mowing the lawn. Those were my everyday or once a week chores. Then there were the seasonal chores such as picking fruits and berries from the orchard, mowing the hay, helping with the garden, plucking chicken feathers, pruning trees and numerous other jobs. Not only did they provide me a hard work ethic, but I have such fond memories of working alongside one of my parents or syblings. Except for the time when John, Kellie and I were picking apples and I stepped on a yellow jacket nest and they started swarming out at us and we all took off down the hill. John, being the oldest, was down in no time without a sting. Kellie, who was around 8, was not too far behind and had one sting, if I remember correctly. Then there was me, the baby at 5, still only halfway down the hill with the bees swarming around me. Enter the hero! Big Brother John came back up the hill into enemy territory to save his little sister and getting stung in the process. He picked me up and carried me into the safety of our home where we stripped our shirts off and yellow jackets flew out. I think i received one sting, but my rescuer received a few more:( Okay, so it is kindof a fun memory now that it is past, not sure if my brother would say so though.
Anyway, that was kindof a rabbit trail.

All this to say: My hope with my children is to instill in them not only a strong work ethic, but some life skills and a strong relationship with us along their way to adulthood.

Four Months Old!

Here is our little Lukas at four whole months old enjoying bath time. He enjoys it as it means that Mama is paying attention to him. Something that doesn't always happen with Nikolas wanting all my time.

Here are my fake Yuen Lui pictures:) Complete with the ever present drool hanging off his chin. In case anyone is wondering, as I am often asked, the red mark on his arm is a birthmark. Supposedly it will disappear around two years old. We call it his sailor tattoo as it somewhat resembles an anchor.

Introducing...

The new Mr. and Mrs. John and Sue Graham!

On Saturday I witnessed my father get married to a wonderful lady named Sue Powers. The wedding was beautiful and went well in spite of the air conditioning not working with 90 some degree weather. I truly expected one of the guys to pass out on stage as they sweltered in their black suits. The only other glitch that I saw was the ringbearer didn't quite do his job. And who might that ringbearer have been, you ask? None other than my little Nikolas, of course. I knew it might be a little difficult for him to have to wait in the back of the church while mommy and daddy and all his cousins left him to go up the aisle, so I expected the worst. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but almost. First off, he had been carrying around a green turtle bag, (thanks Kate) and would NOT LET GO and so they managed to stuff the pillow inside the turtle bag. Luckily, mama has a few tricks up her sleeves and "traded" him the bag for my chapstick:) I know, I'm good. Then he didn't want me to leave him, so I told him he could walk with me and he was fine with that....until we had to wait our turn. He's not so good with waiting. So then i finally calmed him down and we started up the aisle, but then the pillow started falling apart and the pins were poking out towards his little hands so I grabbed it before he stuck himself. Well, that didn't go over well and screaming ensued, again. At this point we are about 5 steps into the sanctuary and all eyes, cameras and video cameras are on us. So I somehow had the brilliant idea to trade him my bouquet for his pillow and miraculasly he consented and we started up the aisle happily. Me carrying the ringbearers pillow and the little ringbearer holding a bouquet of roses. I imagine it looked cute, I hope. So we made it to the stage and I was going to have him stand by me, but then he saw daddy on the other side and wanted to go over there. I told him he could, but no, he wanted me to go as well. To sum up, I had to pry myself away from him as my very brave friend, Sheri, peeled him off me and took him out of the sanctuary with EVERYONE watching us.

I suppose you are wondering how I am doing with my dad getting married to someone other than my mom. I suppose this only because I am asked it often, and with good reason as it isn't every day that someone's 69 year old parent gets married. Well, the picture shows half of my emotions on the subject. I am so happy for my father that he has found someone to share the rest of his life with and he could not have found a more wonderful lady than Sue. She has already been such a blessing to me and to my boys and I am looking forward to growing my relationship with her. I also am so grateful that she has stepped into the role of "Amma", as Nik calls her, so lovingly and I know that my children will love her and will only know her as their Grandma Graham. I suppose that is where the other half of my emotions come in.
My children will never know my mom. At least not on Earth. I know that if (I pray "when") they realize that Jesus Christ is the only Way to eternal life in Heaven, then they will get to meet my dear mother, but until then, everyday is hard for me as I so want my mother watching them grow up and helping me to mother them. There are so many instances that I want to call my mom and ask "what did you do to get me to sleep through the night?" or "how did you juggle cooking meals with three children under foot when I have a hard time with two?". It is those "little" questions that only my mother has the answer for that really makes my heart ache. But, she is gone, and I can't change that. I can be grateful, though, for the 28 years she was the best mother ever and I can tell my children about their sweet, funny grandma who now lives with Jesus. And in the meantime, I am so thankful that God has sent another "mother" into my life.

Understanding My Mother

Growing up I remember getting after my mom for asking for kitchen items. I would say, "those benefit the whole family, you shouldn't sacrifice your present for something you should just go out and buy!".
Well Mom, I finally understand your reasoning. Now that I am married, have kids, am living on one income and spending the majority of my time in the kitchen(or so it seems) I realize why my mom didn't just, "go out and buy" whatever she needed or wanted for the kitchen. Because, as the saying goes, "Money doesn't grow on trees!" and even if the item would help in the kitchen drastically I can't just go out and buy things whenever I please if I want to stay home with my children. So that is why I finally understand my mom and her wish list as it has now become mine. For Mothers Day I asked Tone' for an electric skillet and that is just what I got and I was actually excited about it! Next up is my birthday and I am asking for a crockpot, how bizarre is that?! I wonder if I will ever ask for things like climbing shoes or snowboards again? Hopefully one day, like when Nik and Luke and my two girls, (yep, I am having two girls someday, but that's another story) are into sports and activities and we can all do them together.
In the meantime, you can find me barefoot, currently NOT pregnant, and in the kitchen making beef stroganoff in my new skillet.

I'm Becoming Craftier

I have been wanting to recover my kitchen chairs for two years now, (funny that Nik was born two years and one month ago), and didn't know quite how to do it. My very talented sister, Kellie, has recovered her chairs more than once, but I still wasn't sure I could pull it off. When it comes to being a keeper of the home Kellie has been an excellent role model and now that I am a stay at home mom I have been busy trying to follow her lead. So recovering my kitchen chairs has been on my list to accomplish and I am finally doing it!
The great thing about this fabric is that the red matches our couches in the living room perfectly and the browns match our newly painted walls.










Here is what the rest of them look like. Disgusting isn't it??? and that isn't even the one that has Nik's booster chair on it.

















So here is my question to you. Do you like the stripes perpendicular to the back of the chair like in the first picture or parallel like in this last picture? I have already stapled the one perpendicular, but now i am not sure if it looks good that way. This last one I just draped the fabric over to get a feel for it, so it would look even better than this.
Thanks for your help!

First Beach Day of the Year

Wednesday night I spontaneously decided to head to the beach the next morning to hang out with my brother and his family who had been vacationing there all week. When the thought popped into my head I ignored it at first thinking the cost of gas was too expensive to allow a trip to the beach, especially for the day. Then I started thinking that I rarely see my brother, sister-in-law and two nieces and what better place to hang out with them then at the beach. Still seemed silly to go all that way to hang out with someone since they only live 15 minutes away from me, but I had already started packing at that point and decided to go with my spontaneity.

Boy am I glad we went as Nikolas had such a great time! He headed straight for the ocean like there was a magnetic force pulling him in. His cousin Morgan and I had to keep reigning him in as the large waves didn't seem to deter him from heading west.
He also loved chasing the birds and wasn't very happy that they kept flying away.
He spent about 10 minutes jumping along the beach. I think he's part kangaroo as he loves to jump anywhere and everywhere.
This is his cousin Morgan, who he calls "Abby". Abby happens to be Morgans older sister. I think he calls them both Abby as Morgan is too hard for him to say. Thankfully, Morgan loves him anyway:)











I think a balance of spontaneity and schedules are good for mamas and kids alike. Spontaneity keeps life exciting, while schedules keep life sane. I am looking forward to more spontaneous trips this summer.

The Simple Things

Like my little boys socks.
As I was doing laundrey the other day I started lining up our different socks and realized how incredibly cute all the different sizes of socks which are in our family now. To think that two short years ago there was just Tone' and my socks and now they have multiplied! And in another 3 or 4 years they will have multiplied again! Won't that be fun to see. Though I don't know how fun I will be thinking it is as i stand in the midst of a mountain of socks. One thing I know, when they all get to that magical size of sock that everyone wears I am only buying one kind and one color and they will have a communal sock drawer. If only i could get away with doing that with their clothes like the Duggers.

Gone Fishin'

Tone' took Nikolas fishing today with two of Tone's friends and their two kids. Nik looks like a little pro fisherman holding his HuckFinn style pole. He caught a fish pretty quickly and had fun bobbing it in and out of the water. Once on land, though, and Nik wasn't too excited about Mr. Fishy. True to his form, he started crying and wanted the fish back in the water.








Mostly Nik just had fun smacking the water with his pole.





















Apparently Eloise, dressed in pink and purple i might point out, was the only one of the boys (including one of the daddys) who would touch the fish. She kept picking them out of the bucket and they kept flipping out of her hand.

















Willie was a natural fisherman. He knew how to reel it in and then flip the fish onto dry land. He didn't want to touch them either though.













Mama was really happy to have been out shopping with Lukas all day today. Slimy fish, NO THANK YOU!