Pioneer Days 2011

Every summer one of the things we look forward to around here is our 24th of July celebration, Pioneer Days. Last year, and a couple years before that I did NOT get excited for the 24th at all because I was at the end of my pregnancies and looking pretty similar to Shamu so I absolutely HATED to see every skinny cutely clothed person that came home for all the fun. This year, I wasn't pregnant, but I also am not skinny and I don't have very many cute and new clothes but I decided not to care. I decided we WERE going to have fun no matter what!

On Tuesday and Wednesday night the fun had begun. There was the 3 on 3 basketball tournament as well as the volleyball tournament. Normally, Trevor gets dragged at the last minute into playing on someone's basketball team, but we just steared clear of the middle school where that was being held and watched the volleyball games. I love to go watch this. If I wasn't someone that benefits a team more by NOT PLAYING, I think this would be one of the most fun things to participate in. We stayed both nights until our sleep scheduled kids couldn't take being up any longer.

On Thursday, we skip the free swimming the pool offers because its crazy busy and just went to the chili bean/cornbread dinner for $2 a plate and then the FREE ice cream social. In years past, we haven't wanted to wait in line for the ice cream so Brody has never had an ice cream cone at the social before. This wasn't going to happen this year. Brody got his first ice cream cone all to himself, and Ry may have had a lick or two as well!

On Friday, we went ahead and braved the hot weather at the rodeo! In all the time Trev and I have been married we haven't ever gone to the rodeo. We took the boys, climbed the stands, got filthy, and tried to "cowboy up".....OKAY, not really....but we still had fun, flushed pink cheeks and all. That evening we played like the pioneers and circled our cars just like they did with wagons when they would make camp at the end of a day of traveling. Without fail its either super windy or rains while we eat dinner there. Somehow, someway, that didn't happen! Miracles DO happen! Our spot was basically on a ant hill though, and wouldn't you know Brody got bit? Not fun. You better believe he let us know that too.

Saturday came, and we were off to the parade. It seemed like an above average amount of kids were by us and between the older kids stealing candy right out from under the little kids hands, or parents grabbing it as fast as they could for their little kids, Brody got 1 sucker and we decided that was plenty. He was pretty pleased with the one sucker and didn't even care that we didn't get more. After a little rest we went to the rodeo again.

It seemed like our days were jammed full of fun things to do, and yet between all the activites we attended, eating with our families or hanging out with them, fitting in naps for the boys we still didn't go to everything! There were 3 dances (one was the teen dance) that we decided to completely forego, a steak fry, and a program. Somewhere along the line we even squeezed in a family photoshoot, where our kids behaved miserably (more of those pictures to come)! We went to bed exhausted each night and couldn't have imagined fitting more in!

Overall a very fun Pioneer's day celebration for the Waite's! Now we are just trying to adjust back to a normal pace of life!

Sweet Moments

I distinctly remember when my brother and sister were thinking that whoever thought up "terrible twos" was totally wrong because ages 3 and 4 were far worse. Brody's third birthday is quickly approaching (20 days away to be exact) and although he is still a sweet cuddly boy, the confrontations and meltdowns aare becoming more and more frequent. The "threatening threes" as I like to say, are looming-but last night....well, last night was not one of those I-wanna-pull-my-hair-out-cause-you're-driving-me-nuts nights, last night I wished I could stop the time for just a bit. I thought, please let me be able to remember this kind of moment 30 years from now.

Ryder was alseep and Trevor had gone to bed early because he didn't feel well so Brody and I were up by ourselves to spend some rare one-on-one uniterrupted time together. We didn't spend this time doing anything special, or really anything at all by most standards. But we did get to laugh and talk, share a bowl of popcorn, and sneak in some hugs and kisses. While Brody was snuggled up on my lap he said, "wuv you mom!" and "you all cute, mom" in his still-sick sounding voice. This would be sweet words any day, but I was dressed in baggy un-cute clothes and he'd spent the whole day calling me by my first name "Tay-um" so hearing these simple words made my day complete. I looked into Brody's big brown eyes and just wished I could hang on to this time a little longer. When did my baby, the one that turned me into a mommy-a crazy overprotective mommy-, get so big? Where has the time gone?

Please, please let me remember this time of life always. Please let me remember Brody being small enough to fit on my lap and in my arms. Let me remember the sound of his laugh and sweet little voice. This is the the stuff that makes being a mom so wonderful.

This is just the good stuff.

Kitchen Table Makeover

I wish that the title of this post was dining room makeover, but for now this will do. I honestly look around my house and see little projects in every single room. Not one is completed to my satisfaction and so I have delayed putting any pictures up. However, I couldn't wait to show off my table that got a facelift so to speak.

Nearly 6 years ago, when Trevor and I were dating, we bought this solid oak table at a yard sale. Even then I knew that the light oak color was okay, but not what I had envisioned. So here we are 6 years later and we finally did it. We finally made it into a table that I absolutely love!

The table and chairs were all one light oak color. Originally I thought of painting the bottom half of the table and the chairs black, but changed my mind to white because I wanted the table to have more of a cozy almost country like feel to it.

After the paint went on it was time to figure out what color of stain I wanted for the top. Trevor and I looked and we both really liked this bombay mahogany color, but the more and more I thought about it, I knew it wasn't what I wanted for this table. I really wanted a dark brown. Trevor wasn't thrilled when we came home with the mission oak color I picked....but....I am SO glad that is what I picked! I love it!

Now on to my next decorating woes. I have this cute little corner with a fireplace, mantle, and built-in bookshelves. They are all also that light oak color and just not my fav' so here it is folks:

Tell me, what would you do, all you decorating masterminds? Would you paint everything white? Would you stain the mantlepiece the dark color of my table but all the shelves white? What are all your expert opinions? Help!?

NoBUDDY.....

...like a brother...

'nuff said, right???

Adoptive Parents

One of my best friends from highschool had a beautiful daughter a few years ago, but due to the complications from the birth she was left unable to have any other children. I spent days crying myself so I can only imagine what she and her husband went through.

A couple years ago a miracle happened. A birth mom chose Clint and Tiffany to adopt her baby! It was an amazing experience for everyone involved. That little baby was SO loved!

Now the time has come for them to adopt again. They are super excited to start this new journey and are keeping their fingers crossed that they will be blessed once more.

I have known Tiff for so long and find her to be pretty amazing! Even as I read her adoption profile I was still more amazed. I know there is not much I can do to help but I wanted to post the link to their profile here and ask for you to read it and spread the word about this special family!

https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/25904091/ourMessage.jsf

My Blog

Because I don't journal, I blog. Because I blog, memories, days, moments, are written down and preserved. Because I wrote, I someday will print this into a book. Because I'll have a book, I hope future posterity will read and see what our family life was like.

I love to blog. I love to read other blogs. Just like we all have different personalities, we all have different styles of blogs. I love to see all the different ways people write, take pictures, raise their families, or even just the background choice of their blog.

Ultimately, my blog is for me and for my family....BUT....I do love having other people read my blog. One thing I aspire to do is have a blog that people really WANT to read. I take a little bit from others and try to apply it to my blog. I love a blog that is fun to read. Its nice when a blog has pictures, but a really good blog to me can stand up on its own without a bunch of pictures crowding the post. I also love a blog with beautiful pictures. I don't always love a blog that has so many pictures and no words to accompany them. I know, a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think words can set the tone or tell you things going on in between all the shots. I like blogs that are updated every few days but not one that I have to read on a daily basis.

Does anyone think about their blog as much as I do? Sounds dumb, but at night when it takes me forever to wind down and fall asleep one of the things I think about is the next entry for my blog. In the Anne of Green Gables books, Anne is always "imagining the whole story out in my head" or even whole conversations that a flower might have with another flower. I do this, but with my blog. I have some pretty clever posts imagined out, and then I wake up and its gone from my head. When I sit down to finally write its never ever as good as the first draft I had in my head!

Have you ever read a blog that you really enjoy? I have a lot of blogs to read, but right now I have two favorites. One is a friend that posts not only beautiful pictures, but something enjoyable to read. When she talks about her husband or kids it inspires me to want to be a better mom and especially a better wife. Despite being far away from home and in a foreign country she makes the best of the situation, where as I would be probably pouting about how rough things are. My other favorite blog is an old co-worker of mine. I probably loved working with her more than she enjoyed working with me because she always saw the humor in everything. Her blog is humorous and cleverly written. Reading it makes me feel like I still get glimpses into her life.

I want to be someone's favorite blog to read! I figure, if my blog is enjoyable to read for someone, than when its someday made into a book it will be enjoyable for my kids and family to read too. I want someone to be blog hopping and come across mine and think, "wow! This girl (I know I should say woman or lady but I can barely choke out those words because they sound SO OLD) has a witty way of writing. I love reading her blog!" This is something I aspire for.

Maybe someday I will achieve the kind of blog I hope to have, but for now it'll be a work in progress.

Independence Day 2011

The 4th of July has come and gone already???

Both our families were out of town, so it just left us all to ourselves.

We went to the only fireworks being held in our fire-scarred region, in Round Valley on Saturday night. Our cautious Brody, who has previously been afraid of the fireworks, thoroughly enjoyed the display. And Ry is the opposite of his brother and tends to throw caution to the wind, so he bounced on my lap and smiled until he was too tired to care anymore.

Monday we woke up and did not attend the pancake breakfast at the park, and just had our own at home.

We missed the program, free BBQ lunch, and races held at the park later that hot hot day, but we did buy a little pool and set it up and had a Brody swim instead.
We did make it to the park so we could take some cute pictures of the boys in their patriotic red, white, and blue. It was a great idea, but not one that either Brody or Ryder wanted to be a part of. It is hard enough to get one good picture of one wiggly boy, but throw two kids in and its dang near impossible to get a good pic of both of them at the same time!

Brody got fed up 5 minutes in and not even bribary from Dad could get him to take one decent picture.

We have the best snow cone shop I have EVER eaten from, and they had set up their stand at the park so Brody and I decided to share our first snowcone of the year. It was super tasty and a good reward for mom after the fight she had to put up on such a hot day during our mini wanna-be photo shoot.

You just can't celebrate the 4th of July without fireworks on that day. Luckily for us, I found a few fireworks we could light in front of our house, courtesy of our dollar store! Brody told me as he waited for Trevor to light them that he was so "sy-ked" (excited) to see the fireworks!

And finally to end our enjoyable weekend, after we had begged and tried to coax Brody to say happy 4th of July, he climbed in our bed and said, "happy four-jew-why!"