the month of sugar

pumpkin patch october 2012

celebrating sweet amy dibias patwa

she is still fighting, and fighting so hard.  we celebrated this sweet lady for the 3rd year in a row & it was definitely the most emotional one yet. watching her stand up out of the pedi cab and walk over that finish line just brought a flood of tears from all of us but it was also a day to be so thankful. thankful for this friend who still manages to smile the biggest smile even though she is in so much pain. she still wants to know all about me when she has even more going on in her life. she still remembers to do the West Charlotte hand signal when taking our high school girls photo.  she still wants to make our monthly high school girls dinners even though she is constantly attached to her oxygen machine and is always in a wheelchair. and of course we all can't wait for those few precious hours that we get to spend with her on those nights.

i believe in miracles and i believe our God can heal Amy. fully heal. i've seen it happen before and i know amy can be one of those. all we need to do is join in prayer to Him. He listens and He answers but only if we speak to Him. she is still "fighting like a girl" and she is ready to win this battle. let's all pray together for this sweet precious friend. we have too many years ahead of us where we want to share memories together.

so, on to another pretty lady....the sugar month is what i like to call october. now that we have krispy kreme ONE block down the road it has caused quite some trouble...or maybe i should say fun. when the HOT NOW sign is on they are SO GOOD.

we take our doughnuts seriously around this house. down to the last sprinkle.

family photo halloween 2013: this is how we do it (yes that would be Walt under that blue costume)
lucy: cowgirl
henry: spider man
fran: alice in wonderland
walt: monster (a really cute one)

love these two to bunches

alice sporting one shoe off

collecting some loot

checking out the loot....SCORE!

cowgirl and spider man

as long as she had some sugar in her hand she was fine in the stroller but she did do some door to door "tick or teet" as she would say

"why can't we dump our pumpkins yet?"

 

sugar overload!!! of course it was the first thing she went for this morning. i think i will be taking it all to the office for myself. not afraid to do it.

end of summer pics

 

i can't forget to document the end of the summer! too many big moments that we can't let slip by on the blog!

 

end of summer for me meant wrapping up lots of loose ends at work and leaving the office every day right at 5:00 with no work at nights and weekends so i could have more time with my 3 favorite people! it has been sooo nice. back to real reality.  still busy days and weekends but a different kind of busy. normal busy i guess you can call it.

 

both of the kiddos have really been changing so much in each of their own little way. fran is just talking up a storm but at the same time entering her stage of life of being a total challenge. the month of september she decided she wanted to wake between the hours of 5am and 6am every day. that was fun. she has started singing her abc's, twinkle twinkle, and the little monkeys on the bed song. i keep taping them because i don't ever want to forget her cute little voice.

 

henry has really begun to mature in so many ways-- with his thoughts, questions and just the way he completely loves to be responsible and take care of himself and his sister. we had his teacher conference last week and some of the words they used to describe him were: dependable, most resourceful, & best helper.  he must be on a growth spurt because the boy is eating everything in the house! 26 more days till turning FIVE!

 

 

had to photo her first brownie batter experience. she almost stuck her whole head in the bowl. it was a strip down to our bloomies kind of event.

 

 

henry's trip to the dentist.....all clean report (unlike his mom)
 

CGC nine and dine....winner winner chicken dinner

 

fun dinner with my "myers park girls" celebrating my 35th. i'm old! but so thankful to have had each one of these great girls in my life for so long. i love each one of them so.much.
(mary, me, courtney, melissa, catherine & margaret)

 

saving one of the best photos for last.....Emmett Robert: 6 lbs 4 ozs

He decided to come into the world a few weeks early being born on September 20th.  He is so tiny! I have already forgotten how little they are in the beginning!! He has been doing great and Mindy & Jeff are just loving every moment...and so are Honey and Sam!

f & h status update

i thought i was way overdue for a stat/favorites update on f & h.  since we got fran's 18 month appt complete when she was really 20 months just a week ago i figure now is a good time to post it!

 

fran/franniepants/#hardheadedchild

• at 20 months she was weighing in 26 lbs 5 ozs and 33" tall; both the 75th percentile
• as for her head measurement- OFF the charts! the dr measured 5 times and she also had 2 nurses measure twice each.....i tried to explain that we as a family just have large heads! i have had to take several of her dresses and shirts to the alterations just so they can cut the back so i can fit it over her head! if she gets big hair like her momma then she is gonna have a whopper!
• favorite song: justin bieber "baby"; as soon as it starts she goes in to complete dance mode; i love it; a girl after my own heart
• still needs to sleep with 2 paci's- one in hand and one in mouth
• cheese quesadilla would be her number one request for a meal (especially from chipotle; she has downed 3 kids ones before)
• favorite breakfast is granola in yogurt....who would have thought???
• lately she has started to sing "twinkle twinkle"- it's too cute and makes my heart melt
• barney would be her tv show of choice....for all of 2 minutes!
• loves to eat peanut butter by the spoonful
• she loves to name everyone in the family- always seems to start with honey and papa
• when i ask her who her boyfriend is she always answers "gray"; cute little dude in her class
• still hasn't had a haircut & i don't think i will be doing one anytime soon
• when you ask her what her name is her first response is "pinkie!"
• she definitely is a lover of juice, candy, cookies, JUNK! i guess that means i am going to have to share....bummer

henry/hen/#myrulefollower

• just started to TK program at mppc full day; he is still in his same classroom but will be learning lots of new things this year
• has been asking TONS of questions about kindergarten; already wanting to know what time the bus will come (hey buddy- school is one street over!); knows all about the principals office; excited about having homework!
• he wants to be a contractor when he grows up (only because mommy decorates the inside of the houses so i will build the outside of the house)
• still learning to ride his bike but will hopefully be taking those training wheels off soon!
• soccer starts up again next week- whoo hoo!
• he tried to have a sleepover with me in my bed but he totally chickened out at last minute and asked to go back to his bed....what?!?!? so weird!
• totally in to kung fu panda lately
• he is a sponge lately! it amazes us at everything he remembers
• chesely mydosh is who he will marry when he gets older
• when he sings the alphabet he always says "g's" for g and "jake" for j
• he would wear a football jersey every day if i would let him
• he is still the number one cleaner upper in the classroom and is always asking to organize something around the house .....hhhmmm....i think i have rubbed off a little

These two sure do keep us on our toes but at the same time they make us laugh so much. They love each other so much more than I ever thought they would. They also know when we are having a bad day and need that perfect dose of love. We sure are thankful for these two blessings and cannot wait to see what God has in store for our family in the future years!

jackson hole:: july 2012

okay so it has been OVER a month since we vacayed in jackson but i am finally posting our adventure! part of me had no idea which pictures to post so instead i just did pretty  much all of them.  i need carrie to do a post as well because she had so many great ones too. we said we were gonna combine photos but of course we just have done that yet!
to give a background of why we chose jackson for our family destination spot it all goes back to my wonderful bosses at Circa.  Jane & Cindy are two of the sweetest & most generous people around.  we work our butts off every day on crescent avenue but in the end they are always so giving & kind to me and my family.  last christmas they gave us the opportunity to take a vacation to jackson hole & let our whole family stay at jane's house......which i need to say is TOP of the line....felt very much like a ritz carlton! the house was so perfect for all of us and just waking out the back door was like walking in to a mountain paradise.
  i headed out the week before for an installation for a client and then everyone else came out the following saturday. we hit every adventure we could think of....family hike at leigh lake with a picnic lunch, mountain biking, the rodeo, 4th of july town parade, rafting down the snake, yellowstone for a day, & some super yummy restaurants. i would highly recommend it for a fun place for a family vacay spot....of course having the "circafied" home to stay in for the week did make the vacation a full 10 stars!
lots of pics below to enjoy. sorry i have bombarded with so many but i just love each and every one. i couldn't decide which ones to cut. hope everyone is having a great summer!

the entrance to Four Deer Ranch

the back yard view

 

 

 

uncle j provided most of the entertainment for the week

barefoot every day outside- the weather was perfect

ladder toss!! our game for the week

fran decided to try and use it gabby douglas style

bff's forever

 

one day he is going to bite it off!

my handsome man surprised me with a beard! i loved it!!!

pretty little lady

really in to hand clapping games these days. brings back some great memories!

the ONLY time he smiled for me to take his picture without me asking him to smile (the large moose in the background)

taking the canoe out for a spin

 

first day of piggies on this princess

packed up & headed to yellowstone for the day; hoping to spot some bears....ROOOOAAARRR

yeah.....old faithful wasn't so faithful.  kids both said afterwards "is that all it does?!?!"

4th of july parade in town. it really was one of the best parades i have ever seen. we sat on the corner and collected candy & goodies for about 2 hours. Hen & Lucy soaked up every minute.
anyone know somebody who offers smile lessons for 4 year olds??? henry could use just a little help!

short hike out to the snake river from our back yard

family hike at leigh lake

Rodeo Time! Ride 'em cowboy!!!

all prepped for our ride down the Snake River

we really did go on vacation....

this is how Fran feels about her mom not getting around to posting pics about Jackson Hole! we have been back home for weeks now and reality has totally set back in. to do's & work have been constant but hopefully i can get a full post out there soon. i thought i would just tie you over with a few fun pics for now. enjoy!!

 

love this of these two...the greatest uncle EVER

4th of july parade on town square

THIS large animal was in our back yard for about 20 minutes one day! so cool!!

Jackson

"we're going back to jackson....." .....oh  how i so wish that is what we were doing tomorrow but instead it is reality!!! work, school & camp!

just wanted to give you a sneak peek of two of our four cowboys and cowgirls from last week. i flew out two weeks ago for work and everyone else landed down in JH last Saturday the 30th. we packed as much in as possible....float trip, rodeo, parade, hiking, picnics, yummy meals, gondola riding....you name it, we did it!

hopefully a super long blog post will be coming sometime in the next week. carrie & i need to compile our pictures so we can show off what a beautiful place it is.

hope everyone is having a great summer!!!