Frenemies

Its pretty safe to say that Brody and Ryder have a typical brotherly love/hate relationship.  I never know from one moment to the next if they are going to play nicely with one another, or if they are going to be fighting.  Some mornings Brody will climb into Ryder's crib and entertain him until I get up.

Other days, I feel like I'm more referee then mom.

I remember anxiously awaying the day when Ryder wasn't a newborn laying in his bouncer chair.  I looked forward to the interaction between the boys.

I have to say, even with the fighting and screaming, I enjoy their friendship.  Brody is the typical oldest child, constantly bossing and "parenting" his little brother.  I can't even count how many times I've heard him say to Ryder things like, "we don't hit, ryder...."  or "mommy said no, Ryder."

Ryder takes most of this in stride and looks at Brody like, who made you the boss?  But, don't let that fool you.  He also is pretty good at holding his own.  He likes to SCREAM in protest.  ( its enough to grate on anyone's nerves, believe me)

The moments where Brody and Ryder play and get along far outweigh all the moments where they fight.  I look at them and think daily how glad I am that they have one another.  There is really and truly no better blessing we could give them, then each other.  I hope that we are lucky enough to someday give them more siblings.

Mark of a Good Friend

Growing up in my little small town, I had friends...not a ton, but friends.  I never felt like I truly fit in and although I generally liked most of the kids in my highschool I didn't feel like I had a lot of true blue friends.  High school here, in my small home town, often times felt more like survival of the fittest.  I was so busy trying to not rock the boat and to just find a niche, I never really got to be myself.

Then came college.  Really some of the best times of my life.  So much fun.  The thing that I loved there the most was I got to choose my friends.  It wasn't just who I was surrounded with.  Although I do still have friends from high school some of my closest relationships I have as an adult have come from the friends I made at college.

One of these friends was Heidi.  Not only did we room in the same dorms my second semester, but she found a job at a bed & breakfast in Silverton, Colorado during the summer and invited me along for the adventure.

Adventure it was.  We lived in a kind of one room apartment area in the B&B and worked their in the evenings.  During the day we went to work at a hamburger/ice cream place called High Noon Hamburgers.  I don't know that I had ever spent so much time with one person.  You would almost think that we would be at each other's throats.  The truth is, we weren't.  We had a few moments of tension, but never any real fights.  I don't know if I could have lived and worked with anyone as well as Heidi.

Fast forward to 8 years later and Heidi and I both have gotten married, moved a few times, and had a few kids.  Over the years we've kept in contact (probably not as much as we should), and even met up a few times.  Lucky for me, Heidi was visiting her parents in Pinetop and I was able to load up my kids and meet up with her.

Not only was it so nice to see our kids interact and play, but it was REALLY nice to visit Heidi.  I miss my friends!!!  We figured the last time we saw each other was about 3 years ago, and instead of things being awkward we just picked up where we left off.  If thats not true friendship, what is? 

A pic from our adventures and of course my kids aren't smiling, but Heidi's kids look SO cute.  Our 5 kids: Bode-6 (i think), Brody-almost 4, Laine-3, Ryder-almost 2, and Piper-8 months.

Thanks for the play date Heidi!

Our 4th Fun!

A few days prior to the 4th of July my friend, Shelley and I got together to make some patriotic wreaths.  We found this really cute one online, but the lady that made it, didn't leave very detailed instructions on how to make it.  Now, I have never had an original creative thought in my life so I need step by step instructions to do anything creative.  Seriously.  We plowed ahead and decided to try our creative hands at this anyway and after much anxiety, we ended up with these SUPER cute wreaths that I'm proud to say WE MADE!

As if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, I decided to make sugar cookies for the 4th.  I don't know what I was thinking...it takes less than 30 seconds to down about 6 cookies, and about 30 minutes to make those dang 6 cookies....ANYWAY, as usual, with any action going on in the kitchen, my two helpers end up joining me.  I left the kitchen for all of 2 minutes and found them ready and willing to "help."  And they did.  Until they took naps.

 Independence day arrived and instead of hearing the canons they shoot off each year, we had Brody running into our room to inform us that Ryder was up and had pooped.  No big deal, right?  He often times has a stinky diaper waiting for us in the morning.  This morning though, I think Ry was wanting to truly excercise his rights and independence so he had stripped off his jammie bottoms AND his diaper.  Yay.  Every 4th of July should start off with washing sheets. 

After that mess I decided to make us our own pancake breakfast instead of hurrying down to the park and paying for theirs.  The kids were in heaven.  Especially Ry who kept asking for mo'.  We had no other plans really and I thought we'd just hang out at home, but about 40 minutes before the parade started in RV (which is 30 minutes away) we decided to go.  We packed up as fast as we could and headed off.  We got a great spot and made it before the parade got to us.  To make matters better, it was overcast and probably the best parade weather ever.

Our kids loved the parade.  They were handed flags that they waved, thrown candy that they ate, and stayed busy waving to everyone that passed.  I don't think anyone could resist their cute little faces and waves!

We got home and decided to take advantage of the fun going on at the park.  I don't think there has ever been so much going on in SJ for the 4th!  It was great.  For a small price the kids got wristbands that allowed them to go on all the blow up/bounce house things as many times as they wanted.  Brody tried out a few things, but liked the small slide the best and that was the only thing Ryder wanted.  Ryder would make this scared face most of the way down and then get a huge grin when he face planted at the bottom. 

We also got in on the free BBQ lunch offered.  Trevor and I loved it.  Brody and Ryder wanted nothing to do with it.  They wanted more slide time.  Pie eating contests, watermelon eating contests, foot races for the kids, and even SJ Idol was offered in the afternoon, some of which got rained out, but we missed it all because our kids NEEDED to go home for a nap!

 After naps were taken, we ate hamburgers and hot dogs at Trevor's parents house and visited.  We were anxiously waiting for the rain to stop so we could not only watch the fireworks the city was doing in town this year instead of at Lyman Lake, but also so we could light a few of our own that we got at the dollar store!

The rain didn't stop in the early evening, but we went ahead anyway with our own personal firework show.  Trevor got soaked from the light drizzle while me and the kids stood under an umbrella on the porch and tried to not get soaked.  As fate would have it, minutes after our last firework fizzled out the rain ended.  That was okay with us though because it meant we could sit on our deck in the back and watch the fireworks that were being set off at the airport near our house. 

As I looked at our kids, bundled in their blankets and each holding their own little bowl of popcorn with m&m's I couldn't help but feel so lucky.  I told Trevor and he agreed.  Somedays, life gets crazy...my kids stay busy fighting, or I compare myself to others and how I don't have all the things that they have.  I easily forget how good my own life really is.