nice people are nice

I got the sweetest compliment today while we were at Hancock Fabric (for one hour). We had crossed paths with another shopper a few times and then again at the check out. The older lady commented that 'this little guys deserves a medal; I marvel at kids who are as well behaved and quiet as he has been'. It was so sweet of my little man to make us look good today. Of course the craisins, bunny crackers, and benedryl helped.

SO kidding! But not about the snack, it works wonders.

Here is a preview of our family pictures and 18 month pictures that we got taken recently. We had so much fun! I will post more later.

my tummy hurts

Lawrence and I were having some fun after lunch. I was laughing so hard my tummy hurt. Corey came down with the stomach flu Sunday night. Thankfully, Lawrence and I have been spared this round (so far anyway).

I think I was laughing as hard as he was during this. I could have wet my pants. Just so you know, when he says 'DIN' he is meaning Again!

By the way, he got his cast off yesterday :) The dr said he should be walking again in a day or so. I put him down and he took off! He still walks stiff legged like he has a cast on, but that will go away soon. Yea for healing!

fun with pumpkins

A few weeks ago Lawrence and I were able to go to another pumpkin patch. This time with my folks (Nana and Grandpa John). There were a lot of activities that Lawrence could try and we had lots of fun. They even had a slide! That we avoided.

We all picked out pumpkins and Lawrence even got one just his size!

We got to ride the train. I was just glad that my hips fit in the seat.

He is turning into such a little boy.


And of course rode on our first Deere.

We had a beautiful day and especially enjoyed spending it with Nana since it was her birthday!

I have mad a couple fun pumpkin recipes lately and thought I would share:

Pumpkin Fluff Dip

1 16 oz whip cream

1 small instant vanilla pudding mix

1 15 oz pumpkin

1 t pumpkin pie spice

Mix together and serve with cinnamon graham crackers.

* I think that next time I would have several things to serve with it. Maybe some apple slices would be yummy?!

Fluffy Pumpkin cookies

1 15 oz pumpkin

1 pkg yellow cake mix

Mix together and place on cookie tray! Bake at temp on package. Do not overcook.

* I mixed in chocolate chips which made these SO yummy. They are so light and moist. Variations I want to try: spice cake mix instead of yellow. Craisins. Cream Cheese frosting. Muffins instead of cookies.

my turn to vent

What NOT to say to a mother whose one year old has a broken leg:

It's good that it happened now rather than when he is 3 or 4.

NO. It is not good that it happened now. If he was 3 then he could tell us what was wrong when he cries and cries. Are you in pain? Are you frustrated because you can't play? Are you ticked off because I set you down for 5 seconds? If he was 3 then he would be walking around on his cast because he would be stronger and more coordinated.

It is not good that it happened now. It is not better that it happened now than another age. It is not ever good. Grrrrr. That's all. I'm over it.

our first broken bone

Corey's never had a broken bone. I have never had a broken bone. Our one year old son now has his first broken bone. So sad.

Last Saturday we spent a beautiful day outside at the pumpkin patch. We had had a nice time and were getting ready to leave so we could go home and have lunch. On the way out, Corey decided to go down the slide with Lawrence one more time since he had enjoyed it and we might as well get our money's worth, right? On the way down, Lawrence's little foot got caught on the slide and went up underneath both of them. He cried but Corey scooped him up and he was fine. When he got up from his nap we realized that he still wasn't able to walk on it. After a call to the doctor we headed to the emergency room. After xrays they determined that there were no fractures and we headed home.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning and our little man still couldn't walk on his leg or put any pressure on it. Which is really hard to watch, by the way. So we went in to our doctor who suggested more xrays. The hospital had taken pictures of his entire leg and we were confident that the problem was below his knees. So they were able to get better pictures that time. Our pediatrician didn't see any fractures so we headed home with instructions that if he wasn't walking by the following Monday then we needed to come back. As we were pulling in the garage, he calls back with news that the radiologist looked at the xrays also and saw something that he didn't. A very small hairline fracture.

We headed to the office for a cast. It was a pretty quick process and Lawrence handled it all very well. It kinda broke my heart as they bandaged him up for the next 3 weeks. But now he can crawl around and just drags his blue cast along. He has been such a tough little guy and hasn't let the cast bother him much. He has started to pull up to standing now and take a few steps with our hands. It's like he's learning to walk all over again since he is lop-sided. I really think in the next few days he will be walking on it. Which will be so wonderful for me and my back especially. The hardest part for him is falling asleep. It is taking him much longer to get comfortable and fall asleep. Understandable. He complains much less about it then I probably would.

Moral of the story: slides are apparently very dangerous and many fractures occur on them. Heed the warning!

goal accomplished

Today I completed my first fairly long race! It was 10 miles on a very very straight trail. Five miles west, turn around, 5 miles east, done. Easy enough, right?! It actually felt amazing. Okay, maybe not the last 2 miles. That part was pretty rough. But I finished and I ran a good pace (for me). I finished in 1 hour 32 minutes; which averages out to 9 minute 12 second miles.

As I was running I thought about why the heck I wanted to do something like this. And this is what I came up with:

~ When I run I think of Jesus' walk to Calvary carrying his cross. How hard physically and mentally and spiritually that must have been. Although it is hardly a fair comparison, if I can challenge myself in those aspects by running then it brings me closer to my Lord.

~ I did it for my 2 boys that were there to cheer me on along the way. They were the only cheerleaders along the way and they made it to miles 0, 2, 5, 8, and 10. I think it was almost as much work for them! I want to be healthy and fit for my boys and I want it to be a part of our lifestyle.

~ I did it because I can. Today I have my physical health. One day I may not. So between now and then I am not going to waste it. One evening when I was running (downhill) there was a young man that was pushing himself (uphill) in his wheelchair. He was also out getting a work out in. It was so inspiring to me.

~ I did it because it has been on my list of things to do for way too long. I have always had a lot of really great excuses as to why it wasn't the right time. I decided that right now, with a 1 year old, and coming off of the hottest summer ever, was the perfect time. The perfect time to stop making excuses that is.

I am excited to say that there will be more races in my future.

My sweet mom and mother in law drove an hour to watch me!

Love this little man. And I'm pretty sure it is mutual.

cReAtIvE juices

I'm a pretty creative gal. I have my mom to thank for that (thanks mom!). I can't do anything without adding my own little touch. I always have a list of fun "projects" that I want to work on in my spare time. And sometimes my ideas looked a lot cuter in my head. But at least I can say that it is homemade!

-- On a sidenote, I was sent home with my first "class" project last week! I am doing a moms day out program with Lawrence. The first day we were given a piece of paper with the outline of a kid on it (like a gingerbread boy). Our only instructions were to cut it out and decorate it like Lawrence. Oh boy, I thought! I love class art projects! But then my next thought was, 'Ok, Abs. Let's tone it down. You don't want to be that mom that has nothing better to do then perfect your gingerbread Lawrence man. Keep it simple.' And I did! I am not an artist, so I quickly found his newborn clothes and put an outfit on him. Used twine to hotglue on his parted, little man comb over. And printed off a basketball that I taped to his hand (the kid LOVES balls)! And of course added some blue blue eyes! Done. Cute, Free, Quick, Creative!

Back to the point --

I am going to share some of my 'creative juices' on my blog as I complete projects. COMPLETE is the key word. My list tends to grow as projects sit only half finished. But since I am aware of this weakness of mine, then I can focus on it. I came home from Yoder the other day with a brand new project to work on. I am so excited, but I won't allow myself to even look at it. However, it has gotten me moving on some other projects that were collecting dust!

Going back a few months, our little man turned one. I decided that the theme of his party would be frogs. I figured this would be my only opportunity to pick a theme simply because I think they are cute! Next year he will have more of an opinion. Guaranteed.

I started with 1 round cake, 1 8x8 cake and 2 cupcakes. I cut the square cake to make the legs. And by the way, I googled ideas for frog cakes and found something similar so I don't take credit for coming up with the idea; just for adding my own touches. The brown stuff is because it was a marble cake.

After getting his body just right I worked on decorating him. My friend gave me a recipe for a homemade frosting that worked really well and was so yummy also.

I made 2 different greens using a gel coloring from Hobby Lobby and also made blue for the eyes and pink for the tongue. His mouth his licorice. And then I had to add a fly on his tongue made from a chocolate covered raisin and paper. Not only was the fly a cute touch, but it was also funny because Lawrence had just eaten a fly and didn't seem at all disgusted by it!

There it is! Not bad for my first decorated cake! Lawrence wouldn't have anything to do with eating it. Didn't taste enough like broccoli, I guess!