"Tell your children of Him, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation." Joel 1:3

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tanner's bowling party

When each of the boys have turned 5, we let them have their first 'friend' party. I gave him a few different choices as to where he would like to have it and he chose bowling. Works for me. No mess at home.
We ended up having it on Monday during the day cuz the kids had the day off. It was a good time for all!















where the heck have I been?

You've gone to bed every night thinking that same thing, haven't you? I knew it. How could I not be online last Friday when I enjoyed my LAST day of daycare?? How is it I never even mentioned the fact that the Vikings won their playoff game...leaving only one more to win to get to the Superbowl.
Well, for one thing the computer has been at Best Buy getting a Windows 7 upgrade. Buh-Bye Vista...I will NOT miss you.
But, on Friday night, as soon as my last and final ever daycare parent arrived...we headed to St. Cloud for the wake of my aunt, Sr. Teresa. She finally lost her year long battle with pancreatic cancer. We never thought she'd make it to even Thanksgiving, much less Christmas and the New Year. But, God has His own timing and He wasn't quite ready for her until now. It's always sad to lose someone you love, but there is a calm about it as well when you know their suffering is over. She looked beautiful and her community of nuns celebrated her life beautifully. They were so loving to all of us and so honoring of Sr. and her life. She had a prayer cross that she held when she prayed and that she held when she couldn't pray any longer. She had told my mom and her close friends that she wanted Tony to have it after she died. He was her Godson and she always had such a softspot for that little stinker. She was holding it until the moment they closed the casket. Her best friend took it out and got it to us after the funeral. I know Tony will cherish it always. She will be dearly missed. Her laugh, her smile, her prayers, and her unconditional love for all of us. We loved her very much.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Logic from a 5 yr. old

Tanner is watching a commercial on PBS that says you should appreciate nature and the next time you're outside you should go and hug a tree.

Tanner: (totally serious and perplexed) Why in the world would anyone hug a tree?

Ahh...my son. I'm so proud.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Celebration

We ate.....

We opened.....

We surprised....

We rode.....

We blew out candles.....

We ate cake....

Dad took pictures.....

Mom took pictures.....

We made sundaes.....

We had fun......


We celebrated.....

We were amazed that our baby turned 5......

Happy Birthday, Tanner Bananer!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Mean kids

What is with these kids that feel like their day won't be complete until they've tortured some other kid? Yesterday morning, Timmy said something about getting called names at school so I asked him what happened. He told me about getting called gay, weird, and other names by a certain 2 boys in his class. This one brat....er, kid....at school sat at the lunch table and told everyone who thinks Timmy is not cool to raise their hand. Half the kids raised their hands. As he told me, his eyes got all red and I knew he was starting to cry. I stood him up and just hugged him tight. As I did, he made a heaving sound and just started to cry right from his gut. The kind that tells you a person is so hurt. I stood there and cried right with him, I couldn't help it. It just breaks my heart. I picture him sitting there eating his lunch and this kid does that to him. This and one other kid have been a pain in Timmy's side for a while now. They gave him crap last year too and we really hoped it would go away after the summer. It did not.

I decided it was time to get the teacher involved so I emailed asking her to call me. When she did I explained what was going on. She said she could tell something was bothering him this morning. She also said that he has told her about kids making fun of his size, but she was not aware of this other stuff. She told me that she is going to get in touch with the school counselor because she knows that, given the 2 names I mentioned to her as problems, it won't be worth it for her to talk to them. Let's just say she wasn't surprised by the things I was telling her.

When Timmy got home yesterday I sat down with him to talk more about the whole thing. I told him that he needed to start sticking up for himself more. He needs to not just shrug and hang his head when these boys say and do hurtful things, but rather he needs to hold his head high, look them in the eye, and tell them to leave him alone. I also told him to try and take away their opportunity to do this to him. Like yesterday when they were in the bathroom....Tim, these 2 boys and 2 of Timmy's friends.....and the one mean kid starts asking everyone who thinks "boy x" shouldn't be here?.....who thinks "boy y" shouldn't be here....Finally getting to 'Who thinks Timmy shouldn't be here? Giving this and the other boy plenty of time to raise their hands and make Tim feel bad again. I told him he should have walked out of the bathroom the minute he started in rather than standing there waiting and knowing where that was going.

I don't know. I realize it's part of being a kid and it's part of growing up for a lot of kids, but sheesh! This is too much. I used the opportunity, as I have before, to tell him to remember how much it hurts when people do this and to never do it to someone else....to never be the kid that another one is going home and crying about. It builds a little bit of character when you have to learn how to turn the other cheek and not let stuff get to you, but man.....does it have to be so dang hard?

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Sunday Snapshot

With the holidays past, I can get back to Sunday Snapshot. As I should since I still have one little kiddo to brag about. It's Trae's turn.


Trae means three...third...a fitting name for our 3rd boy/child. This child was born with more hair than most kids have their first 2 yrs. of life. It was wild. Never did it lay down, it stuck up all over. He got his first haircut at 3 mos. old and NEEDED it!

Trae is my middle boy. He is 8 and in 3rd grade....a really fun age. He has had the nickname (thanks to aunt Mindy) Trae-Dogg....yes, that's a double G, thank you very much. Since he was about 2 weeks old he has been known as Trae-Dogg. So much so that when he had his preschool screening at the age of 4 and the woman asked him his middle name, he answered...with total sincerity....Dogg. His brothers and even his friends at school know him this way. It has stuck and I'm sure will continue to.

He is the one I say could be a comedian when he gets older. He loves to laugh and crack jokes. He's also my most sensitive boy. Too sensitive sometimes. He lets things bother him more than they should a lot of times, and we try and talk to him about not letting things get to him so easily. But...along with the sensitivity comes a sweet heart, and THAT I'll take any day.
He is in wrestling for his 4th year and does really well. He took home a first place trophy in Nov. in his weight class. He's skinny, but fast and tough. A good combination for a wrestler.

He's just moved downstairs into a bedroom with Timmy. He's a bit unsure about being so far away from mom and dad all night, but he's done just fine.

He's very animated when he talks about anything he's excited about and it was fun to hear all his questions about his future sis when we first told the kids the news.
It will be fun to see him with her. He'll be my boy (although not the only, I'm sure) to cry when we get home with her. He's very emotional and cries along with me at sappy movies. I love that.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Time flies

Back to work today....dang this week went fast.