Baby Shower madness

Today we went to a baby shower, and poor Lil Red who didn't get much sleep last night didn't know which bothered him more. Having to share toys, or being in a different room than Mom. Every 5 min he would come in and check on me, share my food, complain about another kid, or try to dump my drink in my lap. If he saw another kid playing with a different toy, he would decide that was the one he wanted. He would let out a howl and come running for Mom to make it right. Unfortunately Mom wasn't siding with him. Let's just say that it was a very long hour and a half! Some advice that was given the new Mom was to "remember in trying moments that these pass and to focus on the child's sweetness". I said, "oh like now!" Everyone thought that was very funny, but I wasn't trying to be, or maybe I was :)
We did make it through though, and b/c I offered to drive a friend, I even managed to socialize a bit, lol. And now the sweet boy is napping. I would be too,but I find myself unable to shut down, but atleast there is peace.

My tale from under the pew

My sister does a "Tales from the Pew" on her blog every Sunday. We've never had anything exciting happen during sacrament. It's usually during Gospel Doctrine or Relief Society. For example one Sunday Lil Red had been flirting with this Sister in front of me and she happened to be the one who was called to say the closing prayer. As she went up to the front, he made a dash down the side aisle. He looked back at me with his taunting smile. I decided if I didn't run after him, he might stay where he was atleast till after the prayer. Nope, he ran for her knees. She smiled down at him and preceeded to say the prayer. Thinking the worst was over. I just kept an eye on him. Unfortunately he caught sight of the piano behind her and before I could make it to the front was pounding on the piano. I was so mortified!
Well this Sunday, we were doing are best to keep Lil Red quiet when his friend, Jason pops his little head under the pew in front of us and babbles his baby talk. Two pews in front of us I see his mom looking frantically for what has become of him. Big Red and I are trying so hard not to bust out laughing. Atleast I was. Lil Red was delighted. When all of a sudden, "Whoosh!", Jason disappeared. His mom had managed to grab his ankles, lol. Lil Red hit all fours on the floor and started calling out, "mom!" as he peered under the bench for his friend. Needless to say, Big Red eventually had to take him out b/c he wouldn't be distracted from finding his friend, lol. So there you have our first Tale not from the pew, but from under it!

Sweet Moments

I was folding laundry a minute ago, and Lil Red came and crawled in my lap and said, "book", as he made the sign for it. I realized immediately that he had decided it was time to sing, Book of Mormon Stories. Usually he only does the book and sometimes folds his arms at the end. This time he did all the motions. It was so cute. Now he is playing like his white teddy is a baby and carrying him around in a basket. It's also sooo sweet. I love my cute baby boy :)
Wish I could give you pics but unfortunately my camera still hasn't surfaced :S

So I just put this typically cute one of him playing in a basket at guitar lessons. He is always climbing into baskets or boxes or (his new love) crawling behind the mountain of pillows on our bed and sliding down behind them. He particurlarly loves to surprise us from there when we don't know he's done that. lol

4th of July Vacation Week w/ Boys

We started out the week by traveling to San Antonio to visit my brother and sister-in-law and do baptisms at the San Antonio temple. This is the view from the temple. They were both pretty sleepy b/c they had a hard time settling down the night before. They always get rambunctious when they visit their Uncle. It was a special experience. Not one that I'll ever forget. It was Isaac's first time to attend the temple. He was funny b/c he has such long limbs and they would try to come up, but his Uncle who didn't want to have to dunk him more than once would shove him down, lol. Then his Uncle started to call him Sister and that woke him up! He said, "Hey I'm not a girl!". Amadeus was so reverent, I was so proud of him. I was truly thankful that I was afforded such an opportunity with my older boys. While we were busy being dunked for our ancestors, Lil Red was having fun at a neighbor's house w/ a cute puppy and a brand new baby! He was in heaven. Afterwards, we all had lunch and headed to Splashtown for some more wet fun. About 30 min after we got there, Lil Red was wading from one baby slide to another and lost his balance and fell into the side of the pool and split his head open! I tell you that was one of the scariest moments of my life. It took me a sec to get the life guards attention and then it seemed all any one could do was ask me how it happened! Finally! I said can we get to medical area and get something to stop the bleeding! They gave us some bandaids and sent us to a mediclinic where we wasted an hour and a half, only for them to send us on to an emergency room b/c they didn't have the tools to take care of such a deep and wide cut on a toddler. His Aunt and I had left the boys to play at the park while we took care of Lil Red. With this new development, we decided to go pick them up. However, we had no way of communicating with them. I swear the spirit must have been talking to my brother b/c they were sitting outside waiting on us for only 5 - 10 min when we arrived to pick them up. We went to the hospital right by the temple. They were fantastic. We were in and getting taken care of within 30 minutes! Everyone was kind and attentive. The doctor let me stay in the room while he did the stitches. It was an amazing experience. They had to put Lil Red under b/c he had 2 stitches on the bottom and 9 on the top. A total of 11! Yes, he bled all over me when it happened. Here is a pic of his stitches. His Uncle said we would have to rename him Frank, lol!

Then we came back home to hang out w/ my grandmother at her 4th of July party at her assisted living home. It was so much fun to see her serenaded by a barber shop quartet. He held her hand and had his other hand on his heart. So cute! Then the next day we went to visit and play at Grandmommy's. Below is a pic of Isaac w/ Lil Red and water guns. Lil Red has learned to shoot them and was having so much fun getting everyone!

Then everyone came over to attend the Katy Tea party and our 4th of July parade in our neighborhood. I wish I had pics of the parade. We did a great job of decorating our stroller, but my camera was lost at the tea party and the only reason I have these pics is b/c my sweet sister-in-law forwarded them to me from her camera. Below is Lil Red at the tea party. We thought they were going to have fireworks, but for some reason they didn't. It was a major bummer. Oh and Lil Red's shirt was picked out by his GrandMommy, who felt it very, very appropriate, lol.

Finally, Sunday we went to my Grandmother's 90th b-day party. She was soooo surprised. It was great. Her son and daughters did a great job planning a sweet program. The great grand kids got to come up and hand her their home made cards. When Lil Red went up, he started to get upset b/c he didn't want her to keep it. And the rest of the night he kept going up and trying to steal it back. I hadn't realized that Marian got the picture of me w/ Grandmother. I'm so thankful. It's a beautiful picture. And it was a beautiful evening.

On monday the boys and I made a trip to Pancho's before taking them back to their Dad's with a friend and her daughter. It was funny seeing them be very macho in front of her beautiful girl. They are growing up way tooo fast! All in all it was a very blessed week and I'm thankful it was filled with so much of family.

Summer at Grandmommy's

While school has been out, Lil Red and I have been making trips to Grandmommy's to learn about gardening and canning. I think Lil Red liked the day we went out there for gardening better. As you can see below, he was able to check out the different kind of plants, he made friend's with his Uncle's dog and decided to cool off in his water dish. That was truly funny. He didn't play in it. He just looked at it. Crawled in shoes and all and sat there for a second and then got out, lol. He just was hot and knew how to cool off! We weeded and sprayed around the plants for ants with a soap solution. Unfortunately, Lil Red recieved his first experience with fire ants! Although, thankfully, I realized what was wrong immediately and he only recieved a few bites. This past Saturday we invested in a pair of tall galloshes for him. So we will be more prepared next time. We tried to go for a ride in the golf cart to check the mail, but the battery was having issues so we pretended instead, lol. We also had a delicious squash bundt cake that my mom made. Very yummy! She gave us mucho, fresh veggies. Then the next weekend our big order came in from the co op. We went over the following monday to can tomatoes. I don't think it would have taken that long, but I wanted stewed tomatoes and you have to use a pressure cooker. If you don't have more than one pressure cooker this process is a LONG one! And I've decided to stick to buying stewed tomatoes. Although it was fun until the end of the day. I left at 11pm b/c poor Lil Red couldn't handle it anymore. But Grandmommy went till 3 am and still had half a box to go! I had so much fun talking about the past with her and learning. I can't wait to go back and have another day there. Oh and I can't forget one of the best things was sitting on the back porch after having cleaned up our potting mess and relaxing with some ice water as we rocked on the porch. We would listen to the breeze rustle the leaves and it was so very peaceful. My mom cracked me up when she looked out over the back and said, " You know it's hot when even the weeds are withering". Said with a real southern drawl. Leave it to Mom to start a new saying :)

Tribute to the Father's in my Life

I find this Father's day that I have much to be thankful for. I had a great Dad, who inspired me to be a better person and loved me through my myriad of life's dissapointments and trials, and what's more celebrated with me my triumphs and happy days. I am also thankful for my ex-husband choosing to be part of his boys' life. Granted there are days that I'm frustrated with his decisions because they wouldn't be mine. But there is no denying that he loves his boys and has endeavored to ensure them of that. I am very grateful for that because I know how important it is to their emotional well being. I am also thankful for a sweet and wonderful Father-in-law. When Big Red and I were dating and I had the opportunity to meet his parents for the first time. I was genuinely touched by the card that his Dad left to ensure me that they approved of me. Hanging out at their cabin reminds me of my days growing up as a little girl and riding the back of my Grandfather's tractor around our property. I truly admire him and his strength of spirit. While he is a quiet man, I have had the opportunity to listen to him as he has imparted wisdom with others and always felt strengthened by it. Knowing my husband has such a father as a role model brings me such happiness. Which brings me to the fount of my happiness on this day. I am so thankful to have been blessed with a righteous man that is as wonderful a husband as he is a Dad. The day Lil Red was born and the love that poured from this man that I married both to me and his newborn son brought me such joy. I love watching him and Lil Red 'work' together. It is already apparent that Lil Red is determined to follow in his father's footsteps. The other day I was discussing this phenomena with my Mom and littlest brother and he said, that Big Red would be a good father to emulate. I so agree. He is kind, hardworking, definitely a doer, and so loving. I find myself over whelmed with my love for him on so many occasions. So happy father's day my beloved!