3.31.2011

Tiny Tales Thursday...

The joys of having a boy are numerous.

Not as many accessories.
No "fixing" hair.
Only need one nice pair of pants.
Dirt.
Trucks.
Blocks.
NO dolls (which with 2 older brothers, I wasn't a huge fan of)
Once potty trained, the world is their restroom (good and bad).
Tiny little underwear.
Mommas boy. :)

Etc...

However, there are times when I cringe at what may come next...

Last night Radley, Emmy and I were playing in the living room. We were just giggling and laughing and waiting for Daddy to come home. When I look up to see Radley has pulled his pants all the way down and is tugging on well, ya know.

Me: Radley! What are you doing?!?!
Radley: as if nothing is wrong with this picture I itching, Mommy. My peanuts itches.

Oh yes... the joys of having a boy.

3.30.2011

Going green...

We finally got around to planting the flowers we purchased on Saturday! I don't know what motivated me more... not wanting to see the poor fellas die before we even got them in pots or Radley's repeated requests of planting them. 


We have had gorgeous weather for a week or so and wouldn't you know that tonight a cold front (read: 60 degree weather) hit! So I did what all good Moms do; throw some blankets on my almost 10 month old and sit her in a stroller while Radley and I got to work. 

Neither one of them seemed to mind.


Radley went to town on this whole project. For a second, I had visions of him hosting his own show on HGTV. What a beautiful home he would purchase for me himself with all that money! 


He helped me pick which flowers should go in each pot and loved all the spiders and ants and other random little bugs that we would find. Which meant that I was forced to "love" them, too. 


"This is how they grow, Mommy. You have to cover the dirt."

How did he get so smart?


We finally finished as the last bit of sunlight was hidden behind our trees. Luckily Ryan arrived home before this to bathe Emmy and put her to bed. These quiet moments with my little guy are so few and far between and I cherish them so much. 

I love listening to the songs he creates and the stories he tells. His vivid imagination grows as fast as he does... each day becoming more detailed. I could sit and listen to his voice for hours. 


After all that planting we cleaned up our mess and picked the perfect spot for each set. 

I love this bakers rack that was my mommas. I think Ryan keeps wishing I would get sick of it, but I will keep it forever. Isn't it just so quaint?


This watering can and basin were at MaMaw and PaPaws. I look forward to my new set of petunias each year. They stand out so great to the stark white and fit in perfectly with the rusty edges. 




 One of my favorite parts of the year is watching our backyard "come to life". I am so motivated in March and April to nurture it and watch it grow... but somehow around June and July the heat wins. Maybe this year I'll stick with it better! We have big plans for our "Big Back Yard"... 

Stay tuned... 

3.28.2011

Jam packed weekend...

We seriously had a jam packed weekend... I'm almost too tired to recap, but well here goes nothing...


Texas A&M is great for 100s of reasons. The spirit, the tradition, the school pride, the obvious superiority over that "other" school in Texas (love ya, Niki)... but one of my favorite things about my alma mater is simply stated in our core values: Selfless Service. 

The Big Event is a wonderful example of this value. Thousands of students give up one Saturday to just say "thanks" the the BCS community for their support. Ryan and I took full advantage of this selflessness and signed up our backyard as a project! 


Our group of students hard at work (that old flower bed was a LOT bigger/more full of roots than we anticipated!)


They worked so hard! The flower bed is gone and the dead trees outlining the fence are gone! I am so mad that I forgot to take a pic of the trash pile! 


We like to say "thanks" back by providing a yummy lunch!


Remember the before?

Well, this is the "in progress"... 



I'm sure that you can't tell there is much of a difference but we can! Once the grass grows in, our yard will have gained a ton of extra play space for the kids. Now we just have to plant some flowers and rearrange some toys and *maybe* even try to extend our deck... but that will have to wait for a while!

Once we got cleaned up from this project we headed to celebrate a special birthday of Miss Caroline Munson!! She turns three tomorrow and we celebrated at a local gymnastics place!


Cameron and Caroline



This was a great place for a party! The kids had tons to do and were able to blow off TONS of energy which gave us all quiet nights later! Emmy even had some fun on the giant slide... 


Everyone had such a great time and we loved celebrating this sweet girl! Caroline is a doll. She is smart, sassy and spectacularly cute! We love you, Caro... thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you!



It was a fun weekend indeed... up next.... 







Adding a pop of color to our newly expanded back yard... 

3.27.2011

The perfect kind of weather day...

So what do you do at the end of one of those perfect kind of weather days? 

You stack some plates, grab some napkins, utensils and condiments... 


Make a salad... 


Grill some veggies and salmon burgers...


And eat outside of course!


Emmy thought that it was too much fun... 


And Radley could not get enough of that burger!



 What a perfect way to begin a wonderful weekend... 


{pure. bliss}

3.24.2011

Tiny Tales Thursday...

Radley is a pretty observant kid. Once he has discovered something he brings it up over and over again very excited with himself for retaining the information.

We are not frequent travelers but we have stayed in a few hotels which he loves. Our two regular spots are the Hilton and LaQuinta (don't judge - we're frugal). So every time he sees either one of these signs he gets super excited exclaiming "Look, Mommy! It's OUR hotel!"

Our route home from school takes us by the Hilton, so I get to hear this on a regular basis. But on this particular day, he threw in a language lesson.

Radley: Look, Mommy! It's our hotel!
Me: Yes, buddy.
Radley: It's the Hilton. (matter of factly)
Me: Very good. You liked the Hilton.
Radley: That means LaQuinta.

I really wanted to tell him that LaQuinta meant "Denny's" but I couldn't bare to disappoint him.

Radley is also a big fan of churches and as we were driving home the other day spotted one.

Radley: That our church, Mommy?
Me: No, buddy. That's some one else's church.
Radley: Oh. Why isn't anybody there.
Me: Well, I guess it's not time for church right now.
Radley: Oh.
Me: Do you know why we go to church, bud?
Radley: Yes, mommy. Because Jesus wants us to.
Me: to self  I must be doing something right...
Radley: two seconds later And to play with all the toys.

Well, there's that too.

3.23.2011

Rest easy...

In case you have a hard time sleeping. Rest easy knowing that someone over here is fighting for...


Truth. 

Justice


And the American way. 


I don't know who was more excited about these pajamas. Superman (Radley) or Jor-el (Ryan). The have even started calling each other that. I have to admit, it's pretty cute. 

Before...

Check out this disaster of a yard... 



Over grown shrubs...


Sad flower beds... 


Scattered toys...


Dead stuff...



Emmy is saying, "Please Mom and Dad... fix my yard so I can get out of this prison!"


Well, in a few short days and with a little extra help... 


We will be well on our way to a summer paradise.


And that makes everyone happy!

3.22.2011

Three days...


GiGi and Pops graciously offered to watch Radley and Emmy for a few nights since we were no longer able to go to Sherman. We jumped at the chance thought long and hard about it and although we knew it would be hard to be without them for 3 nights, we recognized that my mom and dad raised Jody, Jeremy and me without killing us, so they would be fine with our kiddos, too!

Radley (and Emmy) could not have been more excited. 



As I was loading him in the car he said (and I quote), "It's ok, Momma, we'll be fine. See ya later!"

My ego and heart were a little broken that I didn't get even a tiny tear, but he did make me feel better when he leaned over to blow me a kiss. 

{I would like it noted that I dropped them off... with NO instructions. None. Everyone that knows me should be proud. I am trying to relinquish control.}


So what did we do for THREE whole days and nights?!?!

No one should be surprised that the first thing I did was clean the house. It was beautiful and stayed that way for THREE whole days and nights!! Ahhhhh... I also caught up on Emmy's baby book, some crafting projects and became acquainted with my new friend, Netflix. 

Wednesday night we spent with the HMMs (also sans kids) and our friend Angie. We just sat and talked for hours and had the best time. Ryan even made Cindy cry from laughing so hard. I love nights like those, no plans, no expectations just enjoying the company of friends. 

Ryan did have to work on Thursday and Friday, but that's ok because he got to come home to this...  


Seriously, best dish ever. 

And then Friday was our anniversary which we celebrated at our favorite place in town, Christopher's World Grille. We love to act like we are "regulars" and hope to one day have a booth named after us. It was one of those perfect evenings where the conversation never stops, the food is amazing, the drinks are perfectly prepared and the company isn't too bad to look at, either. 



I can't believe that it's been five years. Seems like just yesterday I was walking down that aisle to my happily ever after. And while every day isn't filled with perfection, our marriage couldn't be a bigger blessing to me. Thanks, Ryan, for all that you do to keep me and our children happy. 


We had a lovely 3 day mini staycation, but seriously missed our kiddos! Thank you so much, Mom and Dad, for being so wonderful. Radley and Emmy had so much fun and love you so very much!!


Want to do it again?

3.18.2011

Playing catch up....

So I've been a little MIA. Sorry. As such, I will be playing a massive game of catch up via ridiculously long post. To keep my 70 readers happy, I may be nice and split it into two posts.

So what have the Kings been up to lately?

1. Fely is doing well with her Chemo treatments. After this round they will go and do more scans to see if the tumor has reacted at all. If it has decreased in size then they will continue treatments. If it has remained the same or gotten bigger, they will decide where to go from here.

We had planned on going to visit her this weekend, but since we all had the flu and Emmy was sick again, her oncologist told us to stay home. Fely's immune system is weak due to the chemo and we don't want to threaten her health any more. This was a tough blow to our plans and especially hard on Ryan since he hasn't seen her since January. I can only imagine how hard it is for him to be so far away from her during this.

Prayer requests: Fely - strength to continue to endure treatments; Troy-  health (he had a stroke 3 weeks ago); Ryan- courage and strength to continue to support his mom even far away.

2. Emmy quit nursing. Cold turkey. This momma was a basket case. To save my "students" and friends that are uninterested in nursing talk the details... I will simply say that at 3pm on Sunday everything was normal. At 7pm (yes, a mere 4 hours later)... I had somehow managed to turn into an acid, fire encapsulated, dragon demon that my daughter wanted nothing to do with. For a week we tried to overcome this "nursing strike" {thank you Google} to no avail.

I had no idea how hard this was going to be. For nine months I shed maybe one tear in that long line of tears with a newborn and in the last 7 days, I have more than made up for it. Thank you to Cindy, my momma, and Ryan for letting me cry. Uncontrollably. For "over reacting" and for just letting me get it out.

There are some upsides:

  • No more hooter hiders
  • Pumpy and I have become even closer
  • And of course this....

Big brother gets to give Emmy her nightly bottles. He loves it, so it makes this momma happy, too.

3. Emmy moved up to the "big girl" bath and had a blast! (until I accidentally almost drowned her... it's hard rinsing off all that hair and trying to hold her up!) We may let her do this from time to time because the two of them had so much fun, but I do like the comfort of the bumbo! :)


4. This is our normal view of Emmy now...


She will crawl until Radley is in her site and then do this... (she is watching him take a bath)


5. Spring has SPRUNG! Now there is 103975397697967972496726 reasons to live in Texas (the first is obviously that we are the best state ever, but that's a different topic for a different day). One of those reasons is the weather that allows us all to be in shorts and flops on March 10. 


Radley loves to stop and pick "flowers" any chance he gets. I kept trying to get the camera to focus on the flower, but I'm just not that talented -- Sarah/Spencer, can you give me some pointers?


Emmy just likes to be outside in the wagon. Can you see those little curls trying to appear? I have no clue how this child has wavy hair, but the humidity brings it out. (I'm a little jealous)



"Radley's playground" is right around the corner from our house. It is the playground at the elementary school that is in our subdivision so it's open to the public. They have 4 separate play areas so even Emmy gets to join in the fun. She loved the swing!


And this big kid just loves to play! The slide, the swings, the rock walls, you name it and he is on it!


He wanted to go down backwards, but I wouldn't let him.



Okay, I think that's enough for one post. If you made it this far... congrats! More to come later...