Thursday, June 30, 2011

Thoughts About A Mother Bird

As much as I appreciate having no kids right now and all that comes with that- being as loud as I wanted to this morning, going on a walk without the stroller, no tv on, packing and cleaning efficiently, I also miss them terribly! I am sure I miss them way more than they miss me and riding with Aunt Tori was such an adventure for them, whereas for me it was letting go of control (something that isn't super easy for me). Anyways, I found comfort in a momma bird coaxing her little one to try to fly today. It seemed like such tough love and a definite letting go process, but she apparently felt like it was the right time and the little bird we have been watching was out of it's nest. All this made me think of some of the letting go processes that are in the nearer rather than later future and I got a little sad. As much as I want Bailey and Blake to grow up, I also want them to stay small. Mothering small children seems to come with such emotions that sometimes don't make any sense and usually are on both ends of the spectrum. Anyways here are a few pictures of our little birdie. We saw the nest and the broken egg on the grass in late spring. Last week, Luke got out the ladder so the kids could get a look. Today, he was under my car taking a breather from attempting to fly with the mother bird just above me in a tree chirping at him.



Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Permabruise

Poor Blake fell and hit his head yet again in the same spot that he has fallen 3 other times in the last 4 weeks. I really think he may have a permabruise (permanant bruise) there : (. I don't think these pictures do the goose egg justice, but think Star Trek. Talk about feeling like a bad mother having to tell the doctor why you were letting your kid play in the stroller while standing up. Poor little guy. And in case you are reading this Tara we have talked about getting him a helmet : ).



Thankfully he was all smiles as he said bye to me until Fri. And on that note, I better go take advantage of being kid-free and get packing for our trip to CO.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Cars 2

In case you didn't know, Cars 2 came out this past Friday and we were waiting for just the right time to go see it with Katie and Emmy as kind of a repeat of Toy Story last summer. Well, that time was tonight and with the help of Luke watching the boys, Blake and Boone, us girls took advantage of the afternoon. Here are Bailey and Emmy right before we left. They were so excited! Aunt Ali had made Bailey this skirt for her birthday last year and Katie made Emmy a skirt too, with matching shirts for both girls. Katie can pretty much whip up anything cute with her sewing machine.  I'm kinda jealous, but someday she will teach me her tricks.


 Running up to the theatre. Speed, We Are Speed!


The show was cute and Bailey loved seeing the old characters. The new characters were "kinda a little different" in Bailey's words and I don't think it will top the original Cars for us, but fun nevertheless.

So, my part of the fun was the food after the show and here's what I came up with for dinner. A map of Radiator Springs laminated as place mats with different cars on their "homes" and foods to go along with it.


 Some of Flo's Oil.


The Cozy Cone (made from squares of cheese)


The Leaning Tower of Tires


Enjoying the meal.


And I didn't forget about the little boys, but didn't quite go all out for them- they got the bagel bites aka spare tires and Tow Mater's Tater Tots.


Oh, and there was a special guest appearance by....

 McQueen him/herself. Yes, I made Tori dress up as Queeny for the kids.


And here's a few pictures of Bailey in action around the house- the window ledge and the entertainment center are both great places for driving all her cars to the race.




And thanks to Bailey's Gigi she and Blake both have a new car to add to the line up.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Nana's Swim Lessons


Lately, Franny has been working with Bailey on getting her to swim. She even persuaded me to not do swimming lessons and that she could have her swimming by the time we left for CO. I wasn't worried because I have seen so much progress, but this past Thursday she proved good to her word and we have a swimmer. Her recipe was LOTS of patience + LOTS of frequency = SUCCESS! I am one proud momma! Here's our little fish in action. GOOD JOB AND THANKS NANA!!!



Saturday, June 25, 2011

Our Summer So Far

June is flying by and with this heat, no preschool, two very energetic preschoolers and my tiredness during pregnancy, it makes for an interesting combination. Anyways, here's what we have been up, which can be sung to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas although not perfectly and some snapshots to go with it!

On the first day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

What are we doin' today?

On the second day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

WE GET TO MEET MAGGIE MEZGER

On the third day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Let's Go To The Water Fountain






On the fourth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

We HAVE to save the balloons. Owen & Becca NEED Them

On the fifth day of summer, my Bailey said to:

WHY ARE WE RUNNING LATE?

On the sixth day of summer, my Blakey said to me:

BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH (sung to the tune of Bob the Builder)

Note: Blake picked this up right after staying with Owen for a couple of days. He has gotten even better at it. It's funny to me how he keeps looking towards our tv to see if it's on.

On the seventh day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

I Want A Rainbow Snowcone


On the eight day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Owen and Abby will be at Bible School

On the ninth day of summer, my Bailey sang to me:

God is Wild About Me

On the tenth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Mmoommmmyy, Come Get Blakers


On the eleventh day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

I wanna go on a bike ride

On the twelfth day of summer, my Blakers cried to me:

Wha, wha, wha, wha

On the thirteeth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Today's Blue's birthday
  
I  am pretending to be Martha. ( From Martha Speaks)

On the fourteeth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Daddy's An Animal Rescuer

On the fifteenth day of summer, my Bailey complained to me:

MMMOOMMM it's really HOT

On the sixteeth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Look at My Turtle Drawing


On the seventeeth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Mom, I just threw up

On the eighteenth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Can I watch another movie?

On the nineteeth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Let's Go Feed the Ducks




On the twentieth day of summer, my Bailey told me:

I NNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDD Some Space

Note: We are all smiles for pictures, but walks these days are hard because of close quarters.


On the twenty-first day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

I counted Nana's fingers under water

On the twenty-second day of summer, Bailey & Blake said to me:

We want our daddy

On the twenty-third day of summer, my Bailey said to:

Can we get our carpets cleaned every day?

On the twenty-fourth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Another popsicle, please

On the twenty-fifth day of summer, my Bailey said to me:

Blakers, WE DON'T HIT

And that's been our summer so far.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Oh To Be A Kid Again

Where getting your carpets cleaned is the coolest thing ever because mommy and daddy just made you a house to play in and you wonder why you can't do this every day.




Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Do You Need Something Rescued?

Well, if you do then let Bailey know. She has become quite experienced lately with a balloon and turtle rescue, and she even saved Emmy's whole life the other day and might be able to provide you with some assistance. Here's the scoop.

So, it all started with some balloon decorations that we got for Maggie Mezger (Bailey always calls her Maggie Mezger not just Maggie) that didn't quite stay where I put them. Let's just say that had there not been some trees, Kyle and Ali may have not even know we decorated their house for Ms. Maggie's arrival home. Bailey was SO distraught about this and the fact that Owen, Becca, and Maggie NEEDED them that we ended up saving the balloons a day or so later. Now if you follow my sister-in-law's blog then you have already seen these pictures, but here they are for those of you who haven't seen these. Sadly, the balloons were in pretty sad shape once we got there, but that's not what mattered.



Next, on our way home from an anniversary date Luke and I saw a turtle in the road that we decided to save. I took a picture of it to show to Bailey the next morning, but it was late and dark and isn't great. So of course, the next morning Bailey wanted to go on a walk to look for that turtle, which Luke and I had put in a pond right behind our house. Well, we didn't see that particular turtle, we did see another turtle that had gotten stuck trying to climb out of the pond on a steep incline and got stuck between tree stumps. Anyways, Bailey helped me save that turtle, which scurried off so quickly that I couldn't get a picture.


The last rescue was actually saving Emmy's whole life from a mean boy with mean hands who had Emmy in a head lock at the top of the playscape at Chick-fil-A. Bailey has no idea why this boy would want to do this to her sweet friend Emmy, but Bailey had to save Emmy's whole life by pushing the boy off of Emmy releasing the head lock and therefore saving Emmy. The mean boy did not like that his plan was thwarted and thanked Bailey with a punch to the face. I am glad that she and I had a 30 minutes car ride home so that I could get the full story that was told with great emotion, facial expression, and concern for Emmy. The cutest part of the story to me was that once home she went and got a toy all on her own that she wanted me to put in timeout since she had pushed the boy, but she stuck to her guns that she HAD to do it and WOULD do it again if a friend was in danger. What a girl!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Three (Almost Four) Year Olds Thoughts About Her Dad

What's something special about daddy? he likes for me to obey him

How old is daddy? 1 (FURTHER QUESTIONING: So daddy and Blake are the same age? No, daddy's a little bit older. Well, how old is he? 1. Okay, then how old is your Pa? 4. How are you about to be? She showed me four fingers. So you and Pa are almost the same age? Uhhhh, followed by no answer.)

What's daddy's job? fixing the car; well, he also waters his plants

Where does daddy work? at Mezger Homes

What does daddy do at Mezger Homes? he plays (FURTHER QUESTIONING: Really, daddy gets to play all day? Tell me more. Oh, like Bob the Builder. Lofty is probably there.

What's daddy's favorite thing to do? make pancakes

What's his favorite song? Love, Joy, Patience, Kindness, Self-Control (The Fruits of the Spirit Song)

What's daddy's favorite food? well, eggs (scrambled), cause that's my favorite food

What scares daddy? when Blue goes crazy (meaning she gets really hyper and run circles in the yard)

What do you and daddy like to do together? work in the garden, make messes, play in the playroom

If daddy could take you somewhere, where would you want him to take you? an airplane ride

What does daddy always tell you? to obey him

Is daddy good at obeying? YEAH (with big serious eyes), he never gets in trouble. He obeys God SO good mommy.

How do you know daddy loves you? he tells me

What makes daddy sad? when Blake hits me

How are you and daddy the same? we are covered in hair (sung like Gaston does in Beauty & the Beast)

What does daddy love about you? we're friends

What does daddy love about Blake? to hold him and play with him

So this is just a little Father's Day surprise for Luke from Bailey. I got this idea at Tori's graduation party when looking through her memory book. Each year my mom ask her: What do you want to be when you grow up? And it was so fun to look back on her answers. Anyways, I thought I would do a variation of this as a Father's Day card and I know this is a little early, but I thought I would share in case you need a little something from the kids for daddy or grandpa. Plus, Luke doesn't check this unless I tell him to. This should be fun to do every couple of years and look back on the answers. Oh, and if you do this with your kids, then you have to share some of their funny, unique answers with me.

Happy early Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Happy 8 Years To Us!

Looking Back on 8 Years.
What comes to mind is: 3 homes, remodeling 2 of them, with a total of 4 moves. 2 Dogs. Teaching for 4 years and Luke starting his own company. Lots of traveling- Guatamala, Maui, Oahu, Costa Rico plus many camping/hiking and skiing/sight seeing trips! A handful of reunions- 10 year high school reunion and Chicago/Washington DC with the Moses Boys. 2 Kids + 1 in utero. And, and I can't forget Luke's many changing hair styles and also the couple of years I had darker hair. Here are 9 pictures to commemorate all the fun because I just couldn't narrow it down to 8.

Pretty sure this is our second date


Our first Christmas together (married)


So, I was trying to just include pictures of both of us, but this one will forever remind me of the four years it took to remodel our first home. Also that despite the fact that I didn't have a kitchen we still continued our Saturday morning pancake tradition. Just so you can get the picture, I am in the laundry room with unfinished floor cooking on our dog food container.


Trip to Maui


Hiking with the other Mezgers


Bailey's first Halloween


One of our yearly trips back to Aggieland


Bringing Blake home


Luke sent this to me when he and his dad were elk hunting and I was really missing him


Looking forward to many more!!!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Tori's Graduation & Memorial Day

Last weekend, we took an inaugural family trip in the minivan to Santo for Tori's graduation. We are all so proud of little Tori and excited she is headed off to Texas A&M next year.

Valedictorian speech


Sisters Picture


Sister Picture


Bailey with her fake smile, but atleast she is looking and smiling


Despite our best hopes Blake was not able to stay during graduation.
Graduation started at 8 and he was ready to either go to bed or play.
Here's the little stinker still going strong at 10 p.m.


The Tackett Kids & Families
This is usually what we get as far as family photos go, but  I usually don't share these. 
However, check out Luke.
Blake just hit him in the mouth with the keys.
Good job to Tori, mom, and Andrew for not losing your pose.


And thanks to Gigi, Bailey was quite festive for Memorial Day.


Playing with the crazy flower.



Bailey with her Gigi


Blake loves the Gator.
He pretty much sat here for hours over the weekend.


He also had fun on this John Deere ride on tractor.