Happy Birthday Christian (yesterday)!

Happy Birthday Christian!

Yesterday was your birthday. We were not only thankful for all of our blessings, we were also thankful to have spent another year with you!

You are so spirited and passionate and we love that about you. We love that you get excited over the smallest toy and carry it around with you for days. We love that every time Daddy and I hug, you run to get in the middle of it, no matter what you're doing. We love that every time we see you after being gone, you run up and hug us like it's been days since you've seen us. There are so many things we love about you that there simply isn't room on this blog to write it all down. We just love you so much!

I hope you had a good birthday. It's hard trying to do Thanksgiving and a birthday all at the same time. But you seemed to enjoy your smoked turkey and all of your presents. You were surrounded by people who love you and that's what is important.

We are so excited to spend another year with you. Although you challenge us every single day, I really wouldn't have it any other way. I can't wait to see your true personality grow and emerge. I know you will continue to be someone special.

So, happy birthday baby boy. You're a big 8 year old now. This is going to be a great year!

One Word

I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun! It is a list of questions and you are only allowed to answer them with one word.

Where is your cell phone? dresser

Where is your significant other? home

Your hair? blonde

Your mother? sweet

Your father? tough

Your favorite thing? family

Your dream last night? school

Your dream/goal? professor

The room you're in? bedroom

Your fear? regret

Where do you want to be in 6 years? college

Where were you last night? Twilight

What you're not? outgoing

Muffins? love

One of your wish list items? cellphone

Where you grew up? Rome

The last thing you did? laugh

What are you wearing? sweater

Your TV? old

Your pet? hyper

Your computer? laptop

Your life? stressful

Your mood? changing

Missing someone? Buck

Your car? dirty

Something you're not wearing? shoes

Your summer? hot

Love someone? Scot

Your favorite color? pink

When is the last time you laughed? today

Last time you cried? months

Being Thankful!

Well, it's that time of year again. It's time to count your blessings. That's the name of my favorite hymn... "Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done...". Anyway, I digress. Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. Not because I'm not thankful, but because it's become a segue way into Christmas. I'm going to try to be more thankful this year and really appreciate my blessings. I'm always aware that we are blessed, don't get me wrong, but I have discovered that there are things that I miss. For example...

#1- I recently went into Leah's kindergarten class to pick her up. Mrs. Niedrach came up to me and said, "I just want to tell you how happy this child is. The 5th grade teacher remarks all the time that she is just full of life". I was surprised by this statement! My first thought was "really?" How sad! My entire job is to study human behavior and this surprised me about my daughter. I started noticing her and watching her and discovered that yes, she truly is an extremely happy child. All the time. She's full of life and wonder and loves to just be around us. She seeks us out and wants to sit with us and play. She would rather talk to us than play with toys. Everything excites her... even a trip to the store. She is giving and loving and she endeavors to help people. Amazing. I can't take credit for this.. it's the way God made her. It's part of who she is and we should be encouraging and appreciating it more. I'm thankful that it was pointed out to me.

#2- Let's talk about Christian. He's a challenging child, to say the least. But when I think about him this year as opposed to last year, I am so very thankful. This year, he is happy. He likes school, he has friends, and he has matured so much. He recently got into trouble at school and he was issued a punishment. This punishment was difficult, but he persevered through it. It impressed me to see him take responsibility. He is working daily have more self control. We are so thankful for him.

#3- As I've stated before, this school year has really been all about Brady for me. I think about him and worry about him and sometimes, I'm just amazed at him. He has really shown me his personality this year and has grown up tremendously in the past few months. He has shown that he has integrity, perseverance, and compassion. He is studious, helpful, and responsible (almost to a fault). I can start to really see the person that he is becoming. This is both exciting and frightening. I realize that the time where he will be without me is quickly approaching and I hope that we are giving him the tools and support he needs to face new challenges. I am so thankful that I get the opportunity to share in his life.

#4- I'm thankful for Scot. He is an amazing husband and father and he supports whatever we want to do. He gets out and runs with Brady. He plays the PlayStation with Christian. He sits down and lets Leah fix his hair or watches her draw pictures. He turns on my electric blanket at night so it's warm when I get into bed (this may seem like a small thing- but it's HUGE). He's thoughtful and supportive and we're so lucky to have him. We take him for granted sometimes, but we are so thankful to have him.

#5- We have a large support system of family and friends. We have a great family and wonderful friends who we consider family. They share our joy, our outrage, our sadness. I rarely think about this, because I just know that they are there if we need them (and vice versa). However, we are so thankful that they are there and we should appreciate them more!

Ok, I'll stop now. It's the top 5 of many blessings. I could go on and on, but these are the ones I feel that I don't appreciate enough. I hope that this year, you will look at your blessings and see the ones that go unnoticed day to day!

Running!

Ok, so we're about a week out from my epiphany that my son has followed in my footsteps with asthma. We've been to the doctor and obtained an inhaler and we are scheduled for a pulmonary lung test on Wednesday. Tonight we broke out the inhaler to test it out. Cross country is over (can you say "a day late and a dollar short"?) but Brady and I are determined to keep up the running. So, we taught him how to do the inhaler and off we went. Brady claims he has been getting instantly tired and out of breath when running. Tonight we took off and I thought to myself "Hmm... we're running at a pretty fast clip, no wonder he gets tired". I expected him to turn to me and slow it down. He didn't. He smoked me!

I couldn't be more happy to come in last! Love it!

Hiking

We went hiking this weekend. It's part of my "new healthy family lifestyle" plan. I started an exercise plan this past January and now I've decided to force the children on the bandwagon! Yay! It's all a plan to get them away from video games. You can imagine how thrilled Christian is...

So, we started close to home to see how the children would do. Having a 10 year old, 7 year old, and a 5 year old, makes it difficult to choose a difficulty level. We chose Berry as our first destination. It was familiar, close to home and of course, gorgeous!

Leah was so excited to go on a hike and see all of the leaves. She has been looking for "signs of fall" in her Kindergarten class and this was the perfect opportunity to show us what she's learned. She even took my picture at one point! I think we have a photographer on our hands (of course, she needs a better subject)...

Brady loves to hike and he found the perfect spot for pictures...

A boy and his dog. Yes! We took the dog!! She needs exercise as well. She's been eating too many treats lately. My goal in getting the children a dog was to take the dog places and let them learn responsibility. Plus, dogs are just plain fun. If they are well trained, that is. Piper did great and spent most of the time off the leash. We were impressed!

The next day, we decided to go to John's Mountain. I haven't been here since I was 17. We went with Nana and Papa. We had a lot of fun, but this trail was decidedly more difficult.

Daddy got a better workout than all of us...

Even though we had some stops along the way, the view was perfect and worth it!

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

We had fun this Halloween! We did a little less Trick or Treating and went to a festival at our church instead. I felt like Brady needed to have some fun since he wasn't dressing up. Festival 31 was fun and different and we really enjoyed it! I learned my lesson about not taking pictures, so here they are...

Brady made it all the way to the top of the rock climbing wall. Go Brady!

Christian did some sort of body Tug of War thing. He really enjoyed it. I think it was the Clone Trooper outfit that gave him the edge.


Leah went on a pony ride. It was more challenging in her ghost costume, but still fun! After the festival, it was on to Trick or Treating. We got plenty of candy and Mommy and Daddy even stopped at Starbucks for their own treat!

Christian the Clone Trooper!


Leah the Friendly Ghost!



Brady the "I'm too cool to dress up" kid!

A fun night was had by all!