Conversations

I called mom yesterday to let her know I was on my way to pick up my little man and guess who answered the phone:

CH: Hey Momma
Me: Hey Baby
CH: What do'in?
Me: I'm coming to get you, what are you do'in?
CH: see Daddie
Me: you want to go and see Daddy?
CH: yeah
Me: do you remember where Momma said Daddy is? Where is Daddy?
CH: out tawn
Me: that's right, Daddy is out of town tonight.  What are you doing with Nammie right now?
CH: vjsoielkjdfns [mumblings I couldn't understand]
Nammie in the background: vacuuming
Me: oh you are vacuuming?
CH: Yeah.
Me: ok, well tell Nammie that I am on the way to pick you up.  see you in a minute.
CH: Ok, bye bye
Me: bye Baby.

I was in total shock and it was just plain weird to have an entire phone conversation with him.  Normally I hear Mom telling him what to say but this was him talking to me.  It was just weird.  Maybe I shouldn't be so shocked but I was.  I immediately called Justin and told him the conversation and he of course laughed - Collier is always cracking me up!  Continued proof that he is just becoming a big boy all to quickly.

Rain, Rain and MORE Rain

Well, not this week...but last weekend while we were at the lake with these cuties.....

it rained the ENTIRE weekend.  From Thursday night to Sunday afternoon....it rained and basically didn't stop.

But that clearly didn't stop our fun.  Despite having 11 people [5 of those kids] at a lake cabin it was still a perfect weekend. Thankfully it didn't actually storm - no thunder and lightening, just a constant drizzle during the day - which meant that the kids could still get out and swim in the rain.  I went out with Collier for a little while on Saturday and let him jump with Emmie.  Sunday all of the adults were determined to get a little lake time in....a small break in the rain and we hit the water...but not for long!  Because after 4 days of no sun and rain the water was way cooler than normal - we were whimps and only swam for a little while before we bailed. The kids on the other hand were perfectly happy and jumped and swam with no complaints!  The older boys even got a few tube rides in the rain!  Toby won Dad of the year for getting out in the rain to pull them.  ha!

Bottom line is that we got some very special time with some of our favorite people.  I loved seeing how each of the Crews boys interacted with Collier.  He is still talking about them and can't wait to see them again very soon!!!

 They [Justin and Landon] made playdough and this is Baylor trying to teach Collier to toss it in the air like making pizza dough.  He was so patient and detailed in showing Collier.

 We made s'mores...well in the microwave...it was so wet we didn't feel like firing up the grill!! Messy and Yummy, even though we cheated!

Baylor (9) Landon (11) Collier (2) Emmie (3) Corbin (7)

 Thanks Crews family for making the trip!  We had a blast and next time we'll order up some sunshine!  Love yall.

We had the funnest weekend ever!  I was glad to not be traveling and packing and driving!  I made the most of our weekend at home and really enjoyed the whole weekend.

Did I mention how HOT it was?

Friday morning, Mom, Collier and I loaded into the car and headed to Wilsonville to go and pick blueberries.  We arrived around 9:20 and should have gotten there much earlier.  Collier was a very good sport and was interested for the first 10 minutes, he picked berries and put them in his basket and was doing so good.  And then Nammie clued him in to the fact that he could EAT the berries.  Well, little bear ate all his berries and then wanted nothing more to do with picking them.  He walked between mom and I, he then ate a snack, and drank some water and was covered in sweat [all of us were drenched] and had had enough by around 10:30.  Meanwhile, mom and I were picking like crazy.  Getting as low as we could in the middle of those bushes and filling our baskets as fast as we could...we had three to fill and time was running low in the Collier toleration department.  We both rushed and were able to get all of the baskets full....two were filled to the brim and the last one mom basically got full while I headed back to the car to cool off Collier and get loaded back into the car.  It really was fun and I am hoping to go back for one more picking to get enough to get us through winter having fresh blueberries.  I have frozen most of what we picked on this trip.  I also have tried to make anything blueberry that I could think of.  Collier was such a trooper and did so good with just hanging out in the blueberry field.  But he was tired and hot and ready to go by the time we were done and back in the car!

Friday night Justin and I had a date night.  We went to dinner.  Only had to worry about feeding ourselves and had uninterrupted conversations.  We laughed and just enjoyed our time together.  It was quite a special treat to have that time together and get to enjoy one another and just focus on each other.  I don't want to seem as though my motherly duties are any trouble at all...because they are not.  It is an honor to have this sweet baby and I love everything about him - including the interruptions and the crazy dinner time and the toddler fits - he is so special to us!  But it also felt really to focus on being a wife on Friday night and giving my undivided attention to Justin...it just was nice!

Saturday morning Justin and I got a quick run in before getting CH back from my parents!  We then headed downtown to PepperPlace where they have a Saturday Market each week - it is really neat and everything from BBQ, jewelry, crafts and most importantly vegetables!  We went to get some fresh vegi's and I was able to round up tomatoes, green beans, peaches and some local honey.  The down side is that we didn't get down there until just before 10am and it was already HOT.  We were all three drenched again and headed home before actually getting to browse through all of the vendor booths.  We agreed that we need to go back again and get there much much earlier.  This seemed to be the theme this weekend, heat and the need to get outside early as in before 10am because it is already way to hot by that time!


Saturday night we celebrated Poe's birthday and got to play with some sweet friends that we don't get to see as often as we would like.  Jackson and Collier are about 5 months apart and it was fun to see them play together - especially learning how to SHARE!  And the adults got some time to visit as well which is a huge bonus.  Not to mention we ate some really yummy food! I did a terrible job of taking pictures and only captured a few of the kiddo's. I need to do better about that!

Sunday we didn't make it to church, which I was very sad about since it is one of the few weekend that we have been in town.  I am looking forward to fall and getting back into a normal routine.  And just for the sake of keeping it all real here in the bloggy world....Collier only had two bathes this weekend, Friday after blueberry pick'n and then not again until Sunday night.  And with that I nominate myself for mother of the year!

Wanna Guess What We Did.....

I'll be back with lots more details and pictures of our weekend...this was just our Friday morning adventure!

Just Pictures

Interruptions and Potty

Have you ever had a night that just wouldn't work out like you planned? That was my last night.  Here is what I thought had planned

• Go to the grocery right after work (maybe even leave a little early)
• Get home around 5:30 and get dinner started
• Dinner would be turkey tenderloin with a corn salad (I have been eyeing this recipe for weeks and had extra tomatoes from the weekend which the recipe calls for)
• While dinner is cooking, put together a pound cake to bake in time for dessert

But in reality here is what happened

• Didn't leave work until almost 5:00 - so much for leaving early
• Mom called and had left Collier's lovey's at her house (she had dropped him off to Justin so I could go to the grocery and she could go to bible study)
• Grocery was packed, took longer than I planned.  They didn't have the turkey tenderloin that I had a coupon for. went to plan B of pork tenderloin.
• Went to Mom's to get lovey's
• Got home around 6:15
• Got tenderloin in oven
• Started making corn salad and realized that I didn't have any tomatoes, went to plan B and was going to saute a (home grown by my brother) squash and as I cut into it, it was all brown.  went to plan C just rice with meat tonight!  
• Put together pound cake - ready to be put in oven once tenderloin was done
• Tenderloin cooked slow and wasn't done until 7:20, which meant that pound cake didn't go in until about 7:40 and it needed an hour and 40 minutes to cook! 

Oh well, so we had a bland dinner.  No veggies.   Collier was hungry way before dinner was ready which meant that we didn't all sit together as a family and eat.  No one got dessert because we were all in bed by the time it was done.  I had a rotten attitude because things didn't go my way as planned.  I sort of laughed this morning as I was working on my bible study because my night last night was 'interrupted' but if I had just stopped and realized that maybe it was all for the better and just how God wanted it to go (instead of my way) I maybe could have appreciated it a little more and could have been nicer to my husband.  This bible study is really teaching me that God's divine interventions are so much better than my plans and when things don't go JUST as planned that I should just relax and roll with it.  This is the small scale of life's interruptions.  There are much larger and harder interruptions that we are faced with in life and if I could just realize that when I get put out when things don't go my way that I am really doubting God and saying that my way is better than His...which is absolutely not true!  This is a hard lesson to learn but I am so thankful for the timing of this study and the precious girls that I am doing the study with.  It is a huge blessing and keeping me in God's word and learning His truths!  Nothing could be better.

sleeping in Popoo's bed at the lake few weeks ago

I keep going back and forth about when and if to take Collier out of his crib.  I have always said that I wanted to keep him in the crib as long as possible (will he fit in it when he is 15?), it keeps him in if you know what I mean!  But with potty training I have often wondered if I needed to give him the ability to get up to go potty if ever needed. If he can get up to go potty that will also give him the freedom to get up and come to 'dadda's bed' which he really likes and who could blame him?  But I have also expressed how much Justin and I like our bed space child-free!  Last night Collier started crying and calling for me around 12:30am, he sat up called for me and laid back down, sat up a second time and cried out 'potty momma, potty'  but then laid back down again.  I watched for another minute on the monitor and as soon as he sat up again I decided I would just go in and ask him.  I wasn't sure if he was dreaming but also didn't want to risk him wetting the bed.  When I asked him if he needed to go potty he said yes.  I was very worried that this was a ploy for him to get into our bed.  On the way to the bathroom he said 'where dadda bed?'  He did actually need to go potty and I almost didn't get him on the potty in time, I was so proud of him.  I turned his music back on and put him right back into his bed and he went right back to sleep with out a single peep!  I was so thankful that he didn't ask to go to 'dadda's bed'.  I at least know that he will call for me when he needs to go, I would sort of rather take him anyway...not like he can get on the potty by himself at this point anyway!  But he has also slept in big beds for naps in the past several weeks and he does just fine.  It is a big decision for me but I would appreciate any advice and suggestions for the next step in beds... do I put him in a twin or go to a full?  Any thoughts or suggestions from you experienced mom's?  I am thinking maybe in the fall we might transition.  It makes me a little nervous though to be honest!

July 4th

**I started this post yesterday morning and never finished, so I'm a day late**

Happy Birthday America. We are certainly a blessed nation.  We are protected by hero's all over the world who sacrifice so much for our freedom and protection. These hero's make this sacrifice by choice.  I am thankful for our military and their families who continue to do what is needed for us to keep our freedom and independence!  But our ultimate freedom us in and through Christ. It is a privilege to be called a child of God.  He is a God who saves. Who saves me from myself even in spite of myself. .He loves me, He desires a relationship with me, He directs and forgives me. That alone is enough to celebrate.

We spent this weekend at the lake again. It was nice to have an extra day to the weekend. Collier did lots of jumping off of the boat and dock. We even got Ashlyn to jump off the back of the boat.  The two of them had a blast. Ashlyn got Collier to tube...he did pretty good but not yet convinced that he loved it.  Even baby Hayden got a quick ride [all of them rode with Chris]!  If we weren't in the water swimming and jumping we were inside either eating or napping [both are awesome and well cherished by me!].  I only took a few pictures and I haven't taken them off of my camera and if I wait until I do then this post will be several days old, so that will come later in the week :).  But our weekend also consist of July 4th fireworks...not normally by us but we love to watch the fireworks around the lake.  A few weeks ago, while at the lake, our neighbors set off some fireworks during a wedding rehearsal dinner that they had and it scared my little man.  And since that weekend he is now also scared of thunder.  Sunday evening everyone brought out their fireworks and Collier was beside himself.  He only felt safe in 'Nammie's bed' watching Madagascar.  Mom was nice enough to stay inside with him and Dad, Justin and I watched from the deck. Maybe next year we will be able to get out in the boat and watch them from the lake.  It is one of my favorite things to do; just sit and watch fireworks over the water!  So much fun.

I hope that you had an awesome Independence Day weekend with your family!