End of summer fun

The boys spent the night at Grandma's and Grandpa's this last Saturday night. They had a ton of fun playing games, doing crafts and other stuff.

Bryan and I got a whole evening to ourselves. We went to dinner and a movie. As much as we loved the quiet evening it sure is weird not having the boys at home with us.

Sunday, we went to the Oregon State Fair. The weather was perfect. The only thing missing was Julie, Jaden, Rylee and Nathan.

one on one time - Gabey

I think your oldest always holds a special place in your heart because they made you a mommy. Life gets busy and goes fast so I was thrilled and blessed to spend one on one time with my oldest! || Mommy & Gabe date ||

First, we went to Five Guys for lunch. He talked my ear off and asked a ton of random questions. That's one of my favorite things about him. He comes up with the most random questions and he can always makes me laugh.

After lunch we headed to The Tiki Putt. It's a blacklight miniature golf place that I'd wanted to go to all of us (we'll go again i'm sure). It was a perfect date for just Gabe and I though...SO much fun! So glad I got to spend time just the two of us before school starts. 

I'm BAAAAAACK

Been far too long since I've written in here. Can't believe my last post was over two years ago. Lot's has happened...VERY good things and also VERY hard things. I've probably forgotten a lot that I wish I haven't.
I'm done "not living"!! I am going to take each day the Lord gives me and LIVE! I can't control everything, but I can control how I choose to live each day. Down, depressed, lonely, believing lies, attitude, angry, miserable OR joyful, loved, wanted, unselfish, believing truth, content.

I read this quote the other day with some other thoughts:

"Do what you can with what you have where you are"

1. No ones life is perfect.
2. Chocolate helps most things. (course I'm not a chocolate person but this is true for others :)
3. Set goals. You'll mess up sometimes (a lot if you're like me). but keep setting them.
4. Go for a walk & leave your phone at home! Go to church & leave your phone at home! Go to bed & leave your phone in the furthest room away from you! etc.
5. Everyone poops.
6. We all need Jesus.
7. Stay Humble.
8. Life isn't about you. Or me.
9. Keep running your race!! 

WHERE YOU ARE. I think this really hit me. Well we're waiting, still waiting for almost 4 years, BUT for some reason this is where He has us right now. I can't change it. I don't understand it. I've been allowing that to stop me from living. Not anymore.

I love the other thoughts shared after the quote. Such good reminders!

So onto living and seeing where He leads.

Things I never want to forget #46-#50

46. Jayce has been saying something over and over again. Not sure what it is, but Gabe is convinced that he is saying "brains, brains, brains". He says that Jayce is a zombie looking for brains.

47. Jayce is dancing to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot dog song

48. The boy's and I were watching Toy Story 3 and at several occasions specifically when Lotso was being mean. Gabe would look at me start to cry and say "Aw I don't like that. He was really mean" Melts my heart how sensitive Gabe is. I'm thankful for that side of him. It was precious!

49. It is SO cute when Jayce says sorry. It sounds like "Arrrrey" He is talking a lot lately. He says imaginex w and I couldn't figure out that the w part was and one day on the way to school Gabe said he's saying imaginex I summon you.

50. Today: Me "ew Gabe don't drink that it's old."
Gabe "I like it momma my taste buns are different than yours."
Me "your taste what?"
Gabe "we have different taste buns!"
lol

Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

Made this with my boys

 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD requirer of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." ~ Micah 6:8

These seem like pretty simple requests but they are sometimes easier said than done...

I know I need to examine these areas on a regular basis... and apply them to my daily life.

More pumpkin

oh.my.goodness. hello yumminess. 

happy fall.

Runner?

I think I can officially say I'm a runner now. I have ran 27 times since the beginning of June. 49.88 miles 5031 calories gone, and I run my first 5k this next Saturday the 29th. The Color Run  My friend Marcia asked me to do it with her and I am SO excited. It is going to be SO much fun!

I have always HATED running...I was one of those kids in gym class finishing those runs you had to do almost dead last. I love the e-card that is going around...seen it on Facebook and Pinterest because it is...no...was SO me. 

Brothers

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup light butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp. Stevia (or 1 1/2 cups sugar)

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Glaze

2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 Tbsp milk

1 Tbsp melted light butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt; set aside.  In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and Stevia (or sugar).  Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 tsp. vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven.  Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.  To make the glaze, combine confectioners' sugar, milk, melted butter and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.  YUM!

 

Gabe's 1st Train trip to Seattle

My uncle would take me every year on the Amtrak train to Seattle. We would walk all over downtown Seattle. Each year doing something a little different. My favorite memory would be stopping at the bookstore on our way back to the train station picking out a book and reading it the whole way home. I have so many fun memories of those trips.
It's Gabe's turn. We met my Uncle at Union Station at 8am. Got our tickets and some snacks and waited to board the train. Gabe was excited and full of energy.

Gabe was like WHOA that's a big train.

Ready to go. We passed right by Grandpa's work and waved at Grandpa as we went by.

In one of the tunnels. Gabe said, "picture us mamma" lol

We ALWAYS have adventures in my family and I mean adventures. Getting lost, Random snow, 6 hours at one of the stations because of flooding then having to be bused home etc. etc. etc.
It rained the entire time we were there and not just a little rain...A LOT!!!

First thing we did was walk to the Columbia Tower and go to the top. It was cool. I have never been afraid of heights but this actually made me dizzy and kinda nauseous.

Then we went to the Central Library which was fun to see.

We ate at Johnny Rockets for Lunch and hopped on the monorail

This was a random penguin in the mall that Gabe said, "Picture me mamma" :) I LOVE how he says that!

We went up the Space Needle too. Gabe thought we were going to fall out so he hung on to the benches for dear life lol

We walked to the water front. Went to the first ever Starbucks to get coffee and hot chocolate. Went down gum ally Gabe said "GROSSSSSS" (you can tell from his face that he was a little disgusted. I thought it was kinda cool :)

You can't tell but it was POURING DOWN RAIN
It's funny when you're young how time seems to go so slow and as you get older it goes faster and faster. Uncle Min was like we need to get back to the train station. I was like really? Seems like when it was just him and I we fit SO much more things into the day. We did a lot today but it went so fast. We were soaked too. We had to take off our jackets shoes and socks to dry out on the way home. And OH the adventure continues. We were 5 minutes from home when we had to stop because the train hit an abandoned car on the tracks and it was stuck to the train. We were there for 2 hours waiting. They couldn't let us off because we were on an active railway and they aren't allowed. 5 MINUTES FROM HOME! Gabe talked almost the whole way home, both my phone and Uncle Minny's iPod died. Gabe finally passed out around 10 and we came home to snow on the ground. AWESOME FUN day!

Look how big he looks here sniff

Weekly phone dump

Things I never want to forget #41-#45

All Gabey

41. Few things Gabe says that I love:

• Nakin (napkin)
• Fivety (fifty) and Fiveteen (fifteen)
• Cut it out (my dad says this)
• Sumpin (something)
• He says her where he should be saying she. it's cute
• Picture me/us mama

42. After finishing his superhero Popsicle Gabe asked me to read the joke on the stick. It said "What kind of flower gives the best kisses?" Gabe answered "YOU MAMA!" LOVE that feeling

43. Into knock knock jokes. They don't make any sense but boy does he think they're hilarious which actually makes it really funny.

44. Wanting to know if things and people are real (Cartoon characters, God, animals, etc.)

45. Gabe's been sneezing all day today. I said to Bryan "I think he's got a cold." Not knowing he was listening to me he says, "No I don't. It's sneezing day today. Some days are sneezing days. Some days are tooting days...ya know. "Bryan said "no everyday is tootin' day" ;)
Poor kid was so tired tonight and not feeling good he was melting down over everything. I could have put him down at 6:30. At about 6:50 I took Jayce out and daddy laid with him and he was out by 7:15. My poor guy.

Weekly phone dump

- Being silly with my little man before nap
- Bath time
- Driving in the Snow doing errands for mamas b-day with my sista (Jan 17th)
- brotherly love
- Homey G brushing his teeth
- My beautiful Mama and I at her 60th B-day party
- Fun antique decor for mama
- riff raff hiding in the laundry
- Daddy brought us home gifts from San Fran

Gabey asks Jesus into his heart

So I was downstairs in the basement and I heard some pretty loud banging coming from Gabe's room. When I went up to figure out what was going on I found him climbing back into bed after just having drug his heater right up against his bed/blankets. Suffice it to say I was upset because he could have possibly started a fire and if I hadn't checked on him it could have been really bad potentially.

So Gabe got a little freaked out because I was freaked out. He started asking about if he would go to heaven if he died. I asked him if he asked Jesus into his heart. He told me, but that he loved Jesus. I told him that loving Jesus is good, but the only way to be able to go to heaven is to actually ask Jesus into his heart. He asked if that is how mommy's grandma and grandpa went to heaven and I told him it was. I asked him if he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart and he said that he did. Gabe has always had this thing about asking Christ into his heart because he keeps thinking He would be in his real physical heart and he wants Him out of his heart cause that would feel weird. I asked him when he thought of loving mommy and daddy where was it he felt that he loved us. He told me it was in his real red heart not his actual heart. So I told him that he needed to accept Jesus into his real red heart where mommy and daddy are.

I was being really cautious though because I didn't want him to accept Christ based off of being scared of going to hell so I told him he didn't have to do it if he wasn't ready. I then asked him why he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. My fear was he was going to say because I don't want to die and go to hell, but to my happiness his response was "Because I love Him".

The next step was then to have Gabey repeat the prayer with me. Now typically, Gabey doesn't like to pray and if he does then he does it quietly and shyly. I told him he needed to pray and ask Jesus into his heart and he of course countered with he wanted me to pray for him. I explained to him that this was definitely one prayer I couldn't say for him. He had to do it for himself because he wanted to. I agreed to say the prayer for him only so he could repeat it with me because he didn't know what to say. I was trying to figure out how to get him to understand he needed to just repeat it with me. So Gabey likes to occasionally tease me and mommy by constantly repeat what we say and then he dissolves into giggles. I asked him if he likes teasing mommy and daddy by repeating what we say. He of course giggled and said yes. I told him that that is all he needed to do to pray to Jesus with me. I prayed with Gabe and he repeated everything I prayed and when we got done I asked him how he felt and he said "Good".

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday he was telling everyone that he had accepted Christ into his heart!!

Daddy - (Mommy wasn't home)

Teammates Weekend

Went to Teammates this weekend. It was such a refreshing weekend away sans kids. Lots of laughs with friends, Starbucks, sleeping in, dinner with the Akiyamas. Sun and Snow. Good times! Thanks mom and dad for taking care of everything at home!!

Preschool

I've been so behind on my blog, but how could I NOT document Gabey's first day of preschool.

When I first started thinking about preschool for Gabe, I had three I wanted to check out. Gateway, Open Door and SSC Early Learning Preschool. I got information from each. My friend Teresa's daughter went to SSC and that one I had to apply for even if I decided not to go there because Gabe was out of the district so we were put on a list.
I heard about Open Door from my cousin who sent her kids there. I had no doubt that it is a great school, but they were the most expensive. SSC was the cheapest, but we still weren't sure if Gabe was going to get in. We were told that he was #13 on the list. I decided to pursue Gateway too. My sister was sending Jaden to Gateway too. That's where her and Janell went when they were that age. I wasn't feeling right about putting Gabe and Jaden in the same class. I know that Jaden would do well and grow, but I just felt that Gabe would cling to Jaden and not grow, reach out, meet others etc.
We ended up finding out that he got into SSC PTL. He was in the afternoon class. At first I was ok with that, but ended up getting on the list for the morning class. He was #1 on the list. Everything seemed to fall right into place and we found out that he got a spot in the morning class. Besides a couple hard mornings he loves it and LOVES his teacher, teacher Kristen. His face lights up when we walk in each morning. It's been a little difficult for me. I would like to sit in the class a little longer in the morning, but it's hard with Jayce. He wants to stay and play too. He screams and tries to get into everything. Thankful there is an observation room to watch how they do. I want to actually spend more time watching and hopefully find a time where I can volunteer in the class. Find someone to watch Jayce.

I can still remember kissing his lips the first time I saw his newborn face, like it was yesterday. Really. And now he's off to a real, preschool, and I wasn't even sure I was into preschool a few years ago. But I feel almost completely comfortable with it all. I know it's not like he's started kindergarten. (Coming way faster than I want it too though) I didn't need to send him with any supplies or even lunch. But I do have to drive him about 20-25 minutes away as opposed to my roll out of bed, hold Jayce in my arms and drop him off for 2.5 hours. I'm always worried about being late picking him up and so far I've only been late once by 5 mins and he was all smiles. phew.

I love love love being a mommy...through it all. Hard times, sad times, but most of all the good times!

Gabe's 1st day at Preschool (October 4th, 2011)

Pumpkin Day (October 19th, 2011)

Gabe made his very own biscuit

Christmas hand ornaments

I'm one of those people who isn't very crafty, but I'm trying to branch out and one of my goals this next year is to be more creative. I've been finding so many fun, awesome things to do thanks to Pinterest. I LOVE that place!!!
We decided to make Christmas hand ornaments for the grandparents this Christmas and love how they turned out. We had a blast making them too.

Christmastime

I love this time of the year. I love putting up my Christmas decorations, all the traditions, vacation, family time, music, lights...everything. The last couple of years have been a little hard to get into the spirit though. Last year was AMAZING and humbling. We had SO much to be thankful for. God has shown us what true JOY and LOVE is. SO many people blessed us and many different ways. There is NO way to express the gratitude. It still brings me to tears. God is SO good!
Again this year with all of the house issues I had a hard time wanting to put up any decorations, but even though it was a little hard I chose joy and decided to quit being so negative not just for myself but more importantly for my family.
Decided I was going to put up our little fake tree this year...I wasn't sure how Jayce was going to do with it. I actually got up all of my decorations early. Gabe helped me put some of the ornaments on and Jayce actually did pretty well. Only a couple ornaments got broken. The tree was SO tiny and I'm hoping that next year we'll be able to go back to our tradition of getting a real tree again. I missed the smell the most!

Down by the River

Can't remember why we had to go pick up Bryan at Gateway, but since we did I made a spontaneous decision to get dinner and go to the river. I talked to T about a place that they go to all the time called Meldrum Bar park. It was such a relaxing evening as the sun went down. Glad we did it!

Where's Waldo???

walking around our house.



Yep, we didn't waste any time in the walking department. He turned one and took off...I absolutely LOVE the baby wobbly walk!