Bed Time

When Mommy does bed time with the boys, we do a nice calming bath, dress for bed then a book and bed time.

When Daddy does bed time, it consist of rough-housing, wrestling, running around and excitement. So much for a quiet bed time tonight.

Oh well, at least they had fun....

Grandpa

Last Sunday was father’s day. It will be a day that I will always remember. On our way home from church on Sunday evening I got a call from my sister that my grandpa had passed. It hit me hard. Although we are blessed to know he is in a better place without pain and with his heavenly father on Father’s day, we will defiantly miss him. I have cried quite a few tears and I know there will be many more. I have so many wonderful memories of my Grandpa.

When I picture grandpa, I will always see him in his coveralls working in his shop, I was never really sure what he did out there every day, but that’s where he was, in that giant shop filled with tractors, parts, and junk. Although it is hard to pick my favorite memories with Grandpa, most of my favorite ones happen in the front yard of their farmhouse in Bakersfield. Many afternoons were spent on the giant tire swing that he hung on the large maple tree in the yard with a tractor tire that fit all four of us girls at once. Papa would push us as high as he could, two woven lawn chairs were set up on the side of the house where Grandma would watch while enjoying the light breeze.

If we were lucky and ask nicely, Grandpa would hold us on his lap and let us “drive” the big tractors across the field. My first time behind the wheel was driving Grandpa’s pick-up truck across their driveway; my little feet could not even touch the pedals.

Some weekends, Grandpa and Grandma would take Christy, Julie, Bekah and myself camping in their old Winnebago RV; Just us, no parents.

But my all time favorite memory of my Grandpa would be his large brown leather chair that sat in their living room. As soon as he would get up from his seat, we would all run to sit in his chair. There we would sit, and wait, and giggle. Sure enough, Grandpa would come back to his chair and we would giggle some more. He would growl at us, more giggles. Then he would grab us by our feet, sometimes two of us at once, and pull us from his chair followed by tickles and of course, more giggles. The next time he stood up, we would do it again!

So many great memories of our grandpa, so many stories to tell. There was one thing that no one could deny, Grandpa loved his grandkids, and we will always remember the time we had with him.

Caleb Baby Dedication

Sunday, April 3rd our church had baby dedication. Although Scott was out of town during the actual dedication, we decided we were still going to participate. The way Sandals Church does baby dedication is actually pretty cool. In the weeks before the Sunday dedication, they gather the families together one by one and video the family and have a short clip of the parents sharing something about teaching their child about Christ and our belief. (I have a clip of the video that I don't feel comfortable posting here if you would like to see it let me know and I can e-mail it to you.)

Scott was able to share in the video what we are most excited to teach our child about Christ. We discussed it and decided that we want first for our child to understand Christ’s love. Once you understand how great his love is and are able to love others in a Christ-like way, everything will fall into place. His patience, forgiveness, grace, everything starts with love.

Sunday was a crazy morning, rushing to get both boys ready and out the door early for church, I knew I was pushing it but I was still going to make it. That is until I went to walk out the door and I couldn’t find my keys. No blaming the kiddos on this one, it was all me and my forgetful brain. As I am searching the house with Brendan following me around "Keys Mommy? You need keys?" and Caleb crying because I keep passing him without picking him up...I finally find them and we race out of the house to church. I quickly park the car, grab the kids and rush in the door barely making it to the front row just as the movie starts.

My original plan was not to have Brendan with me during service but to drop him off to his class. But with no time, he stayed with me during the beginning part of service. He was so excited to see himself and Caleb up on the big movie screen. Brendan stayed with me up front and was very well behaved, clapped and cheered when the audience did, folded his hands and prayed when the pastor prayed with a loud AMEN at the end. He did ask me a few times when he got to go to “church”. The church gave Caleb (and us as parents) a nice certificate as a reminder of our commitment to raise our child in Christ. He was also given a wonderful Baby’s first Bible with thick board pages easy on baby’s hands.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of us up front at church. But both boys behaved nicely and looked adorable in their matching shirts. I got a few pictures after for you to see.

Sunny Days

I know I have been absent for a little bit. For those of you that didn’t know, Scott was gone for 11 days on a Mission Trip to Belize. My hands were a little full and blogging was not on my top list of priorities. So much was going on, I’m not sure where to even start!

Scott left for his trip late Thursday (March 31st) night, but we didn’t see him after he left for work at 6:30 in the morning. Shortly after Scott left for work, I got a call from Marion saying she was sick and couldn’t watch the boys. This was the first time in the 2 ½ years we have been with her that she called me unable to watch the boys. I called around for childcare and luckily my sister agreed to watch the boys for a few hours while I went into to work to wrap things up on my desk. I did what I could in the morning and went home early to relieve my sis. I visited with Bekah for a bit and then the boys and I spent the afternoon and evening with Tawni and her boys.

Marion called again Thursday night saying she was still sick, I took the day off to be at home with my boys. My sister ended up needing to go to work for the morning, so I got to watch my beautiful niece for half the day on Friday. After the morning nap, my mom called me asking how things were going. She mentioned that usually watching an extra kid for her was a reminder she didn’t want more kids, and asked me if I was ready for number 3? I told her that it was a piece of cake and that I was supermom! Three is no problem, not much different than two, not that I am planning number three… At one point I was able to get all three kids down for a nap and have time to take a nice shower and watch (most of) an episode of Biggest Loser! We spent a lot of time outdoors on Friday, and most of the weekend actually. We hit potty-training pretty hard since the weather was warm enough to not wear pants :-) Both Caleb and Lily enjoyed the sunshine on a blanket, and Brendan ran all over soaking up the sun. Later that afternoon Tawni and her boys came over and we let the big boys play in the water while the sun was out.

Saturday I drug the boys around on a few errands, on our way home I picked up McDonalds to bring home. I told Brendan we were going to eat lunch outside for a picnic. He thought this was the best idea ever and since then has asked several time for “lunch outside”.

I realized that I am not a good housewife.
I spent 3 ½ days home with my kids and didn’t clean at all.
We colored outside,
walked to the park,
had a picnic in our backyard,
built castles with blocks,
played on a slip-and-slide,
cuddled on the couch for the 257th viewing of Monsters Inc,
and just enjoyed each other.

It was on Sunday night I looked around at the
blocks on the floor,
crayons on the kitchen table
and dinner dishes still in the sink.
I decided right then that
I.didn’t.care.

I’m not a stay-at-home mom, and if at the end of the day (or week) this is how my house looks, I’m okay with that. Because at least I enjoyed the time I had with my boys.

(P.S. I’m sorry for the way some of the pictures turned out, my camera is dying and I’m not very happy with it. It is time for a new one. Psst, Scott, that was a hint! Luckily Tawni took a few good pictures for me to use)

Cousins

One of my favorite part of having my sister close by is having our kids grow up together. Growing up, we were always very close to our cousins and I wanted the same for my kids. One of my cousins, Mikey, was 11 months younger than me. And while you will still hear stories of how unhappy I was for him to come as a baby, how I would hit Aunt's belly and I would scream at him sleeping in his crib, but we still grew up very close.

I have been waiting for my sister to have a baby so our kids can be close in age. When I found out she was three months behind me in pregnancy, I was super excited! Now with such close ages, we will be able to do all sorts of things together as our kids get older. During Christmas, we got all three kids dressed in their Christmas outfits together on the couch. I Love that we will have these types of pictures for years and years to come, and as the number grows as Bekah and my brothers have more babies, the holidays and other events will become that much more fun and hectic. I can't wait!

No while this photoshoot wasn't perfect - the only way to get Brendan to sit there was to give him a present to open, and Caleb was so enthralled with Lily's dress (hairbow, shoes, ect) he kept trying to eat her, it was perfect having the three babies together. I will never forget these times we have.

More Park Pictures

I meant to add these on to the Park post yesterday but got distracted...

Park pictures from Saturday, January 22nd. We are getting good use out of the wagon! A trip to the park two weekends in a row? Brendan is as happy as can be!

Just a few more pictures, nothing special. A real post should be coming soon...but I wouldn't hold my breath for it...

Family Photos

This year, since my parents had all their children & grandchildren all in one house for Thanksgiving, we took a few nice family photos. If you are Facebook friends with my parents, and/or follow my dad's or sister's blog, you may be a little tired of seeing these photos over and over again. But they turned out so well, I thought I would also post the family pictures for viewing. Currently, there are 11 of us all together. I can only imagine what the picture will look like in 5-10 years!

The Keys Family: Scott, Caleb, Myself & Brendan

The Atkinson Family: Kevin, Bekah & Lily

(Whats left of) The Reed Family: JT (Bud), Dad, Mom & Jon

The Family Picture

Grammi & Pepa with the grandkidsBrendan was defiantly done with pictures at this point. We were using candy to get a semi-decent shot.

It is nice to have the documentation of the family all together. I will give a Thanksgiving post soon! Just need to gather all the pictures into one spot...