Wrestling With Dad: By Caity

This happens every day at our house.

John comes home from work and it is MMA central at our house. I know I've referred to this behavior often on this blog, but it is literally the most prevalent activity in our house...some day it may not be. I guess it could be here to stay, but some day John won't be able to take on all three boys and come out victor. 

Caity took it upon herself to capture it on camera. 

I love that John gets down and plays with his boys!

Bumblebees, Wolf-boy, and a Secret Project

We met up with friends at the zoo today.

William and Matthew were most excited about the bumblbees in the flowers.

This is Johnny asking the bird lady if Owls are fast. They had a pretty lengthy conversation. Whenever there is Zoo personnel, Johnny always get an inquisitive conversation going. He loves learning at the zoo and always has so many questions. This time, a couple of workers remembered him from last time. I really love that curiosity about him. 

 Also!! Look what made a comeback:

The wolf-vest has awoken from hibernation and it makes me smile.

While I cooked dinner today, John was looking up and playing country songs (per my request.) The boys were running full speed around the living room-dining room-kitchen hollering and laughing. Usually that overwhelms me, today it just made me happy. Happy they are happy, happy this is my life, happy that it will be life tomorrow as well....I mean, knock on wood, but you get the idea.

Caity has a note on her door saying, "If you need me knock on the door please, I'm working on a special project." (It's my birthday present.)

She just walked out her door and gave a big, what-a-day sigh and said, "Johnny, if you read my sign, you'd know how busy I was for the last hour." 

On way up to Vancouver for an errand, Caity read from a book to Johnny and she had the best voices. She is so fun.

Right now, this is happening:

Dog pile on Dad!!

And costume change....

Blackberry Picking with Myself

Saturday evening I slipped out my front door while everyone was pre-occupied. I listened to conference talks while I walked to a part of my neighborhood I spotted earlier on my run. I squeezed through the fence post and past a wild bush and I arrived. It was time to pick some blackberries.

This is a really terrible picture, but the view was a beautiful little valley of green. The getaway was so peaceful as I picked the plump blackberries. The afternoon was meeting its sunset and the weather was warm with a light breeze. The air smelled like my mom canning blackberry syrup every summer growing up. I meant to only pick a cup or two so I could make a dessert, but there was something so satisfying and addicting about berry-picking, I stayed longer than I anticipated. It was nice to have that thirty minutes to myself.  I reflected on how God had watched over our family in so many tender, specific ways that day, and how I need to be better at recognizing His hand every day. I thought about how excited and surprised John was going to be when I brought home a whole bowl of blackberries. I reminisced blackberry picking with my mom every summer. We would go down the gravel road by the Finley's house with our large popcorn bowls. It was always fun for about five minutes...then it became slave labor (in my 8 year old mind.) We would stain our fingers from picking and stain our shirts from throwing berries at each other. Then for days our house would smell like black berries as my mom canned everything you could possibly can- jams, pie filling, syrups. It was just another yearly tradition I could expect as a kid, but as an adult the magic of it all settles on me in a pleasant way. In a way this time to myself connected me to the comfort of my mom's love, in turn it brought me a more abiding love for my own children. 

All from picking blackberries.

We made milkshakes that night, and a blackberry crisp on Sunday! So worth it.

Daily Squabbles

Every day there are some battles I can 100% count on happening.

1. Which door every one exits the car from. Both Matthew and William guard their respective doors fiercely. All the kids are held hostage for a good two minutes while I negotiate and talk down the situation.
2. If the shirt doesn't have a pocket, Matthew and William have no interest in wearing it. Most days I have to come up with creative names and reasons for boys to lean toward one of their other shirts, since only like three have pockets. William will wear this shirt every day if he could:
   
3. Caity always has to fact check every story Johnny shares. This is tricky because Johnny is a very entertaining story teller and often embellishes detail in a way that isn't necessarily lying. For example, "I ran so fast, I was the fastest kids at my school!" Then caity would interject, "now Johnny that is probably not right, MOOOOOOM! Is Johnny the fastest boy in school? I just don't feel comfortable with him sharing that when it probably isn't true!" In her defense, Johnny has been known to present some pretty big fibs as truths.
4. Matthew's shoes. Always on the wrong feet. Yesterday I didn't even notice this mistake until about 20 minutes outside: (notice the shoes):
   
5. William and Matthew both like sitting on my left side.  At least once a day, a wrestling match ensues over who gets to sit on my left side. The wrestling match typically happens over my legs. It's fun. That was sarcasm. It's not fun.

Had to record these in hopes that someday they will be funny and not exhausting, ha!

Matthew Turns Three

For about six months Matthew has been pacing aisles of every store pointing things out, saying "I want dat for my birfuhday. Oh! And I uh want uh dat for my birfuhday, right mom?" It always cracked us up. So when his birfuhday finally came, he was pretty excited.  I think he was most excited that instead of holding up two fingers, he would get to hold up three, at least that is what he talked about every day leading up to the day.  He also talked about how he was going to have a dragon cake and ice-cream.

I didn't get a ton of pictures from the day, but it sure was fun cuddling him and he didn't mind all the attention on him one bit. 

I found a great tutorial online for the cake and I was pleased with how it turned out!

Here it is before the wings were added. I thought it looked so good! The kids were also impressed and Johnny and Caity told me I could totally win a baking show (that has been a "thing" for them this summer.) We decorated by his bed with zoo animals and strung helium balloons to the foot of his bed. William and I chose out a new animal shirt for him to wear on his Birthday. He was kind of excited about the animals, but mostly excited about the front pocket.

The kids each got a sticky hand, novelty flavored air-heads, and gummy worms at their placemats. Matthew chose all the meals for the day: cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk for breakfast, rice krispie treats (that he helped make,) watermelon and Cheetos for lunch, then pizza and soda for dinner.

I think the best part for Matthew was that everyone included him in everything all day long.

He was in heaven. 

For gifts:

John and I got him a transformer and a set of PJ masks action figures.

Grandpa and Grandma Brassell got him a set of Eric Carle board books.

Grandma and Grandpa Partridge got him a STEM floating experiment kit and a glow in the dark race track.

His Brassell Great Grandparents also sent him a card in the mail with a big, glittery "3" on the cover- that made his day.

I always like to find a moment to connect with the birthday child and really bond. For Matthew it didn't happen until the next day. John had the older kids and Matthew was in complete despair that they left without him. "They are never coming back for meeeee." 

We got in our swimsuits and colored the bathwater green and played with the floating experiment we got from Grandma. We had so much fun laughing and learning, it was seriously the best. 

Back to Matthew's actual day:

When John got home we had Pizza, sang Happy Birthday, talked to grandparents, opened presents, had a water fight in the backyard and FINALLY had Matthew's dragon cake!

It was such a good day celebrating such a special boy.

Matthew is sunshine to our family. He is almost always happy and cheerful. He loves being included and has seriously FOMO (fear of missing out.) I love his cuddles and how he places his hands on my cheek when he's trying to fall asleep. He forgives easily. Matthew's laugh has to be one of my favorite sounds ever. I love watching him copy his big brothers and yet stay so independent and such an individual. 

Dear Matthew,

You were born at such a crazy, hectic time for our family. The moment you entered the world, our life seemed to slow to an almost-halt, and your dad and I were filled with such joy. You were a binding force that kept our family close, focused, and happy. You are a delight and I am so happy you are our little boy.

We love you!

Mom

Also: Finally did Caity's 8th Birthday post here, and her 9th Birthday post here. (playing catch up!)

58...59...60! Ready or Not, Here I Come!

This morning we hopped in our car and went to Rood Bridge park to meet up with friends. It was a perfect weather kind of morning, and we had so much fun chatting, swinging, climbing on the playground, drawing with chalk, and exploring all the side paths in the wooded area.

  The kids got a great game of hide and go seek going. There were so many trails and good spots it was quite an adventure playing, and the kids were in heaven. The game evolved to a boys vs. girls situation. Johnny really looked out for William and Matthew, it was cute watching a line of striped shirts run through the woods from tallest to shortest. At one point William was upset and ready to quit, but Johnny said, "no! You have the best wolf-nose to find the girls!" William was all over that idea as he sniffed his way down the paths. Johnny kept it going saying, "Come on Matthew, we have to follow william's nose!" (Even when Johnny heard the girls giggling in the other direction.)

Sometimes it takes so long to get out if the house, this was such a good way to spend the morning!

Also, I still can't get over how beautiful Oregon is! I mean even at this little park...give me all the green! 

Then we filled our car up at Costco, went inside to return pants and try samples, headed to Target to also return things and spend an hour in the toy aisle.

When we got home for lunch (at 3:00 pm, oops!) we were exhausted and no one even complained about the food, because they were that hungry. They played that hard.

Also! Caity ran my mile with me this morning! It was so much fun doing that with her. I was impressed with what a good pace she kept. Later all the kids ran the mile with John, kind of cool.