Linked 2013: Comfort

Comfort.
To soothe.

I decided that for this linked theme I would share with you all the comfort items that we have at our house.

Joe:  Coco the monkey
I think he was just a regular stuffed animal until the divorce.  He seemed to quickly move up in rank at that time.  He sleeps with him most nights but is not so attached that he needs to bring him anywhere/sleep with him every night.

do you see Coco's foot?

James:  night-night
Not really sure how it got that name.  It's a small little lovey blanket randomly picked up at a K-mart.  He became attached and we quickly got more.  Now he has one at dad's house, one at school, and one at home.  Thankfully he is not picky about which one he has.  Not looking forward to this summer when we will wean him off of having it when he's upset at school to get ready for kindergarten.  :(  He's definitely attached.

sometimes he lays on top of it -- it's tucked under his chin/chest.  don't judge me because I have not yet bought him a regular bed.  It's a space issue that I just haven't dealt with yet.

up close

a couple of years ago.  Outside nap with the night-night and Jackson.

Me:  Tilly and the pillow
I'm not attached anymore.  I think.  It's been almost 2 years since I've slept with the pillow.  :)  Tilly is second generation.  The first Tilly was worn out so much that her eyes had to be drawn on with marker.  I found this second one in high school, opened her up, and stuffed her.  She was much too thin.  I used to use her head as a pillow and toted her everywhere.  The pillow came to college with me.  I'll grow up at some point in time. 

my bed -- also a source of comfort.  :)

The hole where she was restuffed.

flashback -- the original tilly in the crib with me

there's the original again a few years later and a little faded.  (do you love my wood paneling and strawberry shortcake sheets?)

Please take a moment to check out these wonderful women and what they have to say about "comfort."  Amanda, Hanne, Heather, Heidi, Janet, Jean, Jenn, Kristin, Rhonda, Tracey, and Tracy

all you need is love ♥

So it's Valentine's Day and I have no plans.  Shocking, I know.  I loved Valentine's Day as a child, hated it when I was in college (probably because I always seemed to be single on the holiday), loved it when I was married (we always stayed in and I made lasagna), and now that I'm single again . . . love it.  I've grown up a lot since college.  You're probably wondering how someone can grow so much when college was only a few years ago, right?  Thirteen years counts as a few, right?  :)

At this point in my life, I have no expectations on this day.  I got lots of love from the kids at work and love from my kiddos even though they're at their dad's house tonight.  I came home to a quiet house, Grey's Anatomy, and ice cream.  That's a good day in my book. 

I'm celebrating with the boys tomorrow with a slumber party and brownies in the living room.  So today I thought I'd share some pics of love.  They're all old, but I love them.  See what I did there?

last year's Valentine card - I will always love this

 

i love James' face  (SOOC)

a pic from a wedding i did -- love this couple

last year's father's day gift.  thank you pinterest for all your great ideas.

one of our first pics of a family of 3 - silly -- i love it lots

 So there's my random love pics for the day.  All I need on Valentine's Day any day is love and I get if from two adorable little guys.  I hope everyone had a wonderful day that was filled with love!

Saturday night randomness

Some random things have been floating around in my head so I thought I'd share (along with some random pics).  Why not?  It's Saturday night and I'm crazy like that.  :)

1.  At what point will my children stop interrupting my shower?  James barged in the bathroom no less than three times today for nothing important.  Unless you think finding out what "St." means is so important it can't wait for 3 minutes.  At least I've trained him to shut the door when he leaves again.

2.  I am obsessed with popcorn.  I have made and eaten it at least 3 times this week.  It is my favorite snack.  Some of my staff got me a cool popcorn popper for Christmas.  I finally got stuff cleaned up today and took it out.  Exciting!

Random pic for a random post.

3.  We are currently watching "The Great Muppet Caper."  I'm trying to introduce my children to the classics.  :)  Really though, I was cleaning and came across the movie which I had bought months ago with the intention of putting it in one of my children's stockings.  I forgot.  oops.

4.  I really love this song.  It was on Grey's a long time ago but I was just thinking about it again the other day and keep listening to it.

5.  Like mother, like son -- James starts rambling about Groundhog day and how it's February 2nd and that is today and how he wonders if the groundhog saw his shadow then says how he's getting ready for his bath so he can watch the movie and then (without skipping a beat) asks me where eye boogers come from?  He's a talker like his mama.  He obviously has all sorts of different things to say so he rambles . . . .much like someone else I know.  :)

This picture is not cute.  This is how we roll on the weekends though.  Hanging around the house, doing silly stuff.

6.  I saw this on Ellen and I laughed.  A lot.  That second to last guy -- the McDonald's one that keeps opening the window had me lol-ing.  On a side note -- I love Ellen.  I record her every day -- she makes me happy.

7.  I watched 3 seasons of White Collar in 2 and half weeks.  Now I'm sad that it's currently halfway through the 4th season on TV and I can't watch it because I want to watch the season in order.  Any recommendations on what series to get hooked on next?

8.  My kids lost the remote to the TV.  They took the one from my room when they were watching TV in the living room so they could fight with them.  Seriously?  When did everything in my house become a potential weapon?

My children waiting for me before we left work one day.  Weird.

9.  I often comment on how I don't feel like a grown up.  I still feel like I'm in my early twenties.  How did I get to 36?  I am reminded of my age when my body aches and creaks like it never used to and when I'm doing my hair and see the ever growing population of gray ones in there.  What really hit me about growing older though was something I saw this week. This:

10.  I'm ready for warmer weather.  I want more clothes to fit in the washer (smaller clothes in the summer help with that), I want better gas mileage, and I want to go outside without a coat.  The end.

Warmer weather and crazy hair.  You know you miss it too.  :)

That's right -- 8!

So tonight we had Joe's back to school conference.  Like an open house / meet your teacher, only we had a scheduled time.  We got to bring all of his stuff in and get it situated for when he starts school next week.  We signed all of the emergency information, got his pin number for lunch (which he's keeping under lock and key because they told him he wasn't supposed to share it with anyone), and went to the book fair.  Do you want to know the most impressive thing that happened during all of this?  You'll never guess.  I didn't cry.  That's right.  I held it together.  For today anyway.  :)

He's so excited, he's jumping for joy!

9

Yes.  I've started a countdown.  It will be just be a love fest dedicated to Joe before he leaves me forever.  :)  In all seriousness though, let me show you what had me crying in Target a couple of weeks ago.

Pencils.  It was the beginning of the school shopping and it all hit me.  As I put the pencils in the cart I got a little choke up.  Maybe more than a little.  Just nine more days.  I'm kind of hoping I'll hold up like I did at graduation.  I cried so much about graduating before I actually graduated that when it came time for commencement I was good to go.  I'm hoping this goes the same way so I don't make a fool out of myself come Sept. 6th.  Not that I didn't already make a fool out of myself in Target.  :)

Who wouldn't miss seeing this face?

10

That's right -- 10.  Ten short days before my baby goes to kindergarten.  Not sure where the last five and a half years have gone but they seemed to have gone by too quickly.  Trying to squeeze in all the time I can with him before school.  Next Tuesday will be the first day of the rest of his life.  The years will fly by so quickly with brief summer breaks in between and before you know it, he'll be off to college.  Some of you may be thinking I'm being a little over dramatic here, but I'm pretty sure I'm just the right amount of dramatic for me at this time.

Love him so much. 

Wild, Wild West

The boys have week long "camps" at school.  This week was Wild, Wild West.  We made "Wanted" posters for the preschoolers and school age kids.  They turned out really cute.  We were all supposed to dress up Friday too.  Some of us did.  We don't have a lot of western wear at our house so we stopped at the store and got bandanas.  Jeans, white shirts, and bandanas -- easy enough.  I had a hat to wear and James wanted one too.  After refusing to buy the overpriced pink foam cowgirl hat at Michaels for James, he was not happy with me.  Yep, I said pink foam.  I told him he could try on the one at school.  The one for the pictures.  He took it from my office first thing and didn't take it off all day.  He wore it to the assisted living center during their field trip, he wore it outside to play, if we let him he probably would have worn it for nap (see picture below).  His teacher was able to wrestle it away long enough to let the other kids take pictures.  Who didn't want to take one with the hat?  Why James, of course.  He is so difficult.  I wanted to get a pic of us all together but it just didn't happen.  This is what I got. (And by I, I mean the teachers at school because my children don't really want to cooperate and I think they're getting sick of me shoving a camera in their face.)

The "napping" . . .

The "Wanted" Poster.  Because posing for one just would have been too hard.  Pretty sure that he might be wanted for wearing the hat like that.  (The band goes inside the hat James.)

Joe.  Pretty sure he might be wanted for picking on his brother.

 

And me.  I think I might be wanted for showing up to the fair like this.  To be fair to me, my hair had been in pigtail braids and under a hat all day.  Not really sure I could've went without it.  I do love hats.

What we do at our house.

Ever been bored on a Sunday night?  Well. . . we were tonight.  We cured our boredom with a little bath time photo session.  (The poses were their ideas.)  Have so many other post to do / pics to show but this is my perfect ending to a great weekend.  (More to come on that later.)

Joe was into participating a little more than James.  I was just loving it all.

The little guy . . . 

The not quite as little guy . . .

 

Happy Sunday everyone!

And so it begins . . .

So . . . my "baby" is starting kindergarten in a month.  One month.  ONE MONTH people!  Where did the time go???  I'm an emotional person to begin with but I feel like this might take my waterworks to a whole new level.  I hope that I the tears will come now so I don't make such a fool out of myself that first day of school. 

The boys had their last day of baseball on Wednesday and they got to play a game (they were just practicing skills before).  Everybody had a turn to bat and everyone had a turn to run the bases and score.  It should have been no big deal then when Joe ran across home plate.  But it was.

 

When he crossed that plate his face beamed with pride and my eyes welled with tears.  Thank God I was all Jackie O with my sunglasses on.  I glanced around and did not see any other parents with my problem.  It just all hit me at once.  He is really becoming his own little person and I'm so incredibly proud of him.

My kindergartner:

*sigh*

Hot Days and Mosquito Bite Randomness

One day (not too long ago) it was nice enough to lay out in the sun.  To check out my pedicure against the clear blue sky.

Pretty sure it's time to go those piggies repainted.  Please refrain from commenting about my stunted little toe, I might get a complex or something.  Going right along with that feel free to also keep any comments about how spread apart my toes are to yourself.  I see the looks I get when I go in for a pedicure and they don't even have to use those toe separator thingies.  Back to the topic at hand -- is there a topic?

Do you see how I can just lay there?  It was that one nice summer weekend we had -- you know, the one between the cold and rainy weekend and the stifling humid one.  What we Minnesotans call summer.  One perfect temperature weekend.  Ugh.  Hope that we can have some more. 

Had to make this one big so you could hopefully see his cheek -- what the heck?  Big and swollen.  What is in these Minnesota mosquitos that makes my baby blow up like this.  We had this ear incident:

 

Then the cheek from above and now we're onto his foot.  Ugh.  Anybody have any good ideas for this?

Randomness but it's what's on my mind right now.

4th in Fairmont!

After more than a decade of spending the 4th of July in either the cities or Mandan I traveled down to Fairmont for the weekend.  We left on Sunday and came back today.  It turned out to be a great weekend.  We spent the most of Sunday at the lake with family taking rides on the boat (thanks Dave and Rhonda) and the jet skis (thanks Christi and Kyle).  I skipped the jet skis but enjoyed a boat ride.  I was just happy to visit with everyone since I don't get to see them as often as I'd like.

After all of the swimming and boating we broke out the mini grill for dinner.  We had some hot dogs, chips, s'mores and bacon.  Yep, that's right -- bacon.  Eli insisted there be bacon.  Is there ever a bad time for bacon?  Anyway, we headed over to my aunt Marlene's house and watched a firework display courtesy of Scott and Marti.  We also had more s'mores.  :)  The kids loved it -- the only bad part was the mosquitos.

Monday consisted of hanging out in the backyard with the boys and a bbq.  The boys had a good time playing in grandma's pool and then playing with all of Olivia and Bryan's toys at their house.  We did attempt to watch the fireworks that night but the boys were tired and fed up with the mosquitos so they didn't last very long.  Great weekend with family!

James got new Jibbitz just in time for the 4th.  :)

A little collage of the beach fun that was had.

A few pics of us having our little picnic.

Love this one of Joe's sandy little feet complete with Toy Story bandaid.

Don't know why he just sat in the water but I found it adorable.

One of my favorites.  I didn't even ask them to do it -- that makes it even better.  :)

Sing a Song

So I picked up my little munchkins from their dad's house this afternoon and went to run a couple of errands with them.  The were a little high strung.  We were able to calm down but they still had a little silliness left in them (they probably get that from me).  The car was full of music on the way home but the radio wasn't the source.  They started off singing some sort of Happy Birthday remix to April whose birthday is today and we planned on calling when we got home.  In true Knudson boy fashion as soon as we got home and called April they both were silent.  If only she could have listened to them in the car -- it was too cute.
When the birthday song celebration was done they moved into an original song:
Joe:  "I am BIG!!"
James:  "I am LITTLE!!"
Joe:  "I am BIG!"
James:  "I am LITTLE!!"
Joe:  "I am the best!  No, I mean mommy is the best!"  (and I didn't even have to tell him to say that)
James:  "Mommy!"
Joe:  " I know lots of stuff.  Eight minus one is (long pause) . . . seven.  Four plus four equals eight.  Nine plus nine equals . . . "
James:  "I am LITTLE!"  (keep in mind that this is all in song)
Joe:  "seventy?" 

As much as they drive me crazy this type of stuff just makes my day.  A made up song that lasted a couple of minutes on a car ride home.  Love my boys!  :)