birthday blast

sunday was our funday. it started out with a surprise for samantha—a huge birthday banner and a [semi] clean house (which she requested!). we went to church and samantha was very excited, to say the least, that her sunday school class sang happy birthday to her—complete with the cha cha chas! after church, we went to lunch and then it was time to come home and open presents! samantha was elated with her new barbies, littlest pet shop stuff, jewelry making kit, and american girl books.

then it was off to the zoo with my favorite gorilla, monkey, kangaroo! we had fun riding the camel, train, and tram...

seeing some of the animals...

and samantha was excited to go on her very first paddle boat ride! she even paddled all by herself to let daddy have a rest! ryan, on the other hand, was eager at first, but then decided he didn't want to "go swimming," hence his crabby attitude. thankfully he stayed in the paddle boat and didn't really go swimming!

then we ate our picnic dinner that we brought along. hoping to surprise samantha, i also brought birthday cupcakes. however, paired with the 90 degree heat, our dessert bit the dust.

we made the best of it though!

our day was not complete until we visited the lions and got proof that samantha's mouth was indeed smaller than a lion's (if you've ever had a conversation with her, you would question that fact!) ryan had a lovely meltdown, samantha ran through the misters in the trees, and then we ate some free ice cream!

we went home tired, worn, and warm, but also having had a successful day. it was so much fun giving samantha "the best birthday EVER!!"

i was in a coma for a month

that, or april was never here. i remember march 31st—i had just enjoyed an awesome 4 day visit with my sister and her family. i went to bed that night and awoke on may 1st. i had somehow managed to skip a whole month of my life. (now before y'all freak out, i really wasn't in a coma! my health has not been compromised in any way for the making of this blog post!)

april never came for me this year. well, at least not for my blog.

because if there had an april this year, i imagine it would've looked something like this: 

my sister would come for a visit over easter, and we'd stay up till the wee hours of the morning watching episodes of the office.

my nephew would come home for a visit. 

i'd get to see my totally cute auntie alice in wonderland (you made it on the blog, al!)

i would've gone to minnesota for a week to see my parents, sisters, nieces and nephew, and grandma and grandpa.

my husband's car would get broken into.

i'd let the kids pick rocks at lake superior.

i'd labor over doing my taxes at the last minute, then decide to procrastinate on them and play farmville.... 

my nieces would make their acting debut.

my garden would get planted.

samantha would crack her head open right before bedtime and we'd spend the next hour and a half holding a cold washcloth to her head and google "when does my child need stiches."

we'd have a garage sale.

i would have waited in line forever with the kids to meet spiderman.

but none of that happened. you know, because april was awol. not to worry though. i've reported it to the department of Months & Years that Spontaneously Escape, Leave, and Fade into thin air (MYSELF!) and this fiasco should not occur again.... i hope.

so. how was everyone else's month?!

everything i know about God i learned from my children

i grew up in a Bible-believing, God-fearing, church-going, Christian school-attending home. growing up i learned a whole lot about God and Jesus and the Bible, and i thought i knew it all (which obviously i didn't and still don't!).

and then i had kids. i became a parent. instant love beyond all measure for this tiny helpless babe. from that point on, i started to understand God a lot better. i learned more about God than i thought possible through the miracle of being a mother. and while i'm not comparing myself to God, when you become a parent it's so much easier to understand how God sees us—His unfailing love; His ever presence; His mercy and grace; His omniscience; His forgiveness; His patience. i could go on and on... all these attributes of God became much clearer as i felt the same for my own child. and to think how much more God feels for me!

on to my point... yesterday was a bad day. i would almost go as far as saying it was an awful day. ryan is in the crying screaming fit stage, and we battled all day (and the day before, and the day before). my only reprive was his you're-getting-sent-to-bed-with-no-lunch nap. we even got to end the day with a screaming fit before bed time. you know, because going potty before getting into bed is definitely worth fussing over for 30 minutes.

fast forward to this morning. i was apprehensive about even getting out of bed today. what will set off the attitude bomb today, i wondered. it could be anything—from the color of his socks, to the temperature of his pop tart, to the expression on his teddy bear's face. regardless, it was a new day, and he deserved a new start and a second chance. and i don't think either of us would've been too happy if i left him in his crib today!

we made it through breakfast. we made it through going potty and getting dressed. i was amazed! i laid down on my bed relieved that we hadn't had a meltdown yet. and ryan followed. he climbed up on my bed and for the next 45 minutes, we played. we bounced, jumped, i was his jungle gym, we loved, hid under the covers, hugged, and laughed. "i love you ryan," i said. "love you mama too," he replied. i even got a snotty slobbery kiss. it was beautiful.

as he ran off to play, i continued to lie on my bed, pondering God and the new start that he gives me each day. The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. i'm sure there are days that i throw my own tantrums with God, let's say, yesterday for example. i didn't have the greatest attitude about my day. there were times i was upset, mad, angry, impatient, unloving, uncontent, etc. but because of God's love and his mercy, He has given me a new morning. a new day to start over and be a better wife, mom, and child of God. i can even hear him whispering in my ear, I love you, child.

i love you too, God! and here's my big slobbery kiss: muah!!

But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

Psalm 86:15 NLT

wordless wednesday

it's like getting behind on your bills

that's how i've felt the past three weeks. first you miss one payment, then decide just to wait to pay it with next month's, and something comes up and you need the extra money for new tires or something, then you start hiding the bills so that you won't have to see them, with the hope that they'll go away...

i'm sure all of us have experienced at least something remotely close to that. and no, i'm not behind on our bills right now. but rather my BLOG, and blog reading. (i'll get caught up on everyone's blogs, i promise! i just may not comment on every post!) really i had something half written to post on january 1st, and then that obviously didn't happen, and about 5 different things to post after that. but the more i went without posting something on my blog, the more i wanted to avoid it altogether.

so here's my mass payment ramblings from the last month that have piled up in my head:

Christmas was great! i actually hope to post something on that later. (yeah, we'll just see how that plan turns out...) i learned some things this Christmas though. to name a few...

my 6 year old daughter can still wear size 4T snow pants. albeit they were a tad short, but they worked!

ryan would be satisfied with a train, a car, and an airplane for Christmas.

it's the little things that are special—a spontaneous slow dance to silent night with my husband and children, my 2 year old boy singing sentimental Christmas songs at the top of his lungs, and a homemade, hand-written, heart-shaped note from my daughter that said "i love you SO much mom."

our family does not need 10+ dozen Christmas cookies. case in point—we still have over half of them left.

spaghetti noodles can be mistaken for oral stitches, and vice versa.

i went to MN for 10 days to celebrate Christmas with my family, see my alaska gramma, and met my new grandpa! he had open heart surgery last friday and is still sedated, but getting better. thank you all for your continued prayers for him and my gramma!

my house is a complete and utter disaster. it's like getting behind on blogging—i don't know where to start. hence, i'm blogging today. yeppers, i'm making myself blog right now just so that i can procrastinate on housecleaning. it's a vicious cycle. but hey, at least my suitcase is put away and all the laundry from our trip is done!

i did something really stupid but funny the other night that deserves a post of its own. but just as a teaser, it involves me cooking mounds of food this weekend. let's hope that i don't burn down my house in the process!

samantha got me the perfect brownie pan for Christmas. it was actually very cute, because i knew that's what she was going to get for me. and when the infomercial would come on she would hint around and say, "don't you wish you had one of those, mom?!" and when we were in target one day and i was looking at a bar pan she said sternly, "mom, you don't need to get any pans for brownies or desserts because we have some at home, and maybe you'll get one for Christmas, OKAY?!" all that to say, i love my perfect brownie pan. i hope to write a review with the pros and cons, but you know how i am—in case it doesn't get blogged about, i'll tell you right now that i'd recommend it.

ryan is doing really good. he hasn't had any seizures since the last time i missed giving him his medicine. he is starting to use the right side of his body more, and is getting better at standing up and maneuvering the stairs. and he is definitely developing a mouth like his sister's—loud and never ending!


and now, i feel just a slight bit caught up. see y'all in another 22 days...!

not me! monday

what a fast, busy, fun week! we did NOT have a wonderful thanksgiving with ben's family on thursday. we did NOT eat to our heart's content and did NOT gaze for hours at all the black friday ads.

ben and i did NOT make a spur of the moment decision and we did NOT take his mom up on her offer to have the kids spend the night so we could go shopping on black friday. after deciding we weren't going to go to toys r us at midnight (the line was crazy long) we did NOT go get "dinner" (no we hadn't eaten dinner yet) at the gas station. i seriously did NOT eat a hot dog, half of an apple fritter, and a cappuccino at 1am. really, who would do that?! we did NOT stay up until 2:30am shopping online, go to bed, and then get up at 4am to go to target.

we did NOT have so much fun! after the day was said and done we did not go to target, walmart, toys r us, a different walmart, and a different target. and then on saturday ben did NOT go back to target. two times. we did NOT get a LOT of our Christmas shopping done!

we do NOT have a stack of items to return to walmart and target...

and speaking of Christmas shopping, ben did NOT tell me that he was going to buy me a present. (we normally don't exchange Christmas presents, so this was a surprise!) and then he did NOT tell me that it was in the ebay room. i have NOT been wrestling with the thought of going and finding said Christmas present.

the more i think of it the more i do NOT want to go peek...

i am NOT staying out of the ebay room...


how was your week?! go check out mckmama.com for more not me! monday fun!

not me! monday

last monday i did NOT spend the whole day cleaning for family that was going to come for a visit, only to take a break to go to the grocery store. i did NOT end up coming home with 23 bags of groceries!! and in the 3.5 days that my family visited, we only ate here twice. uh huh... i do NOT have a lot of food in my house!

this past week i did NOT have a blast with my parents and my three nieces (9, 7, & 4 years old) who came for a visit. we had only a couple mishaps while they were here... it was very warm the second night they were here, so i did NOT decide to prop the front door open to cool off the house. we got the girls to bed, dealt with some homesickness, and then got the girls settled in bed again. we were sitting around chatting when i did NOT hear screaming from their room. i bolted upstairs and as i was running down the hall a black cat did NOT come running out of their room and out the front door!!! nope, a stray cat did NOT come in our open front door, go up to the kid's room, and scare the panties off 3 almost asleep overly tired little girls. needless to say, the door stayed closed from then on...

while my family was here ryan slept in our room with us. so he would NOT wake up when ben got up for work. since then his sleep habits have been way off. instead of getting up at 9-9:30, this morning he did NOT wake up before 8am. i am NOT dreading the time change this saturday and having him wake up before 7AM!!! (here is your friendly reminder... daylight savings time ends on sunday, november 1st. don't forget to set your clocks back one our this coming saturday night!)

i have NOT forgotten to give ryan his medicine about 4 nights this week. ugh. i will NOT have to start writing notes as a reminder. and speaking of ry, his neurologist did NOT fail to call me this past week, or the week before with the results from his EEG. and because i don't enjoy calling them and leaving a message for them to call me back, i did NOT decide that i'm just going to wait until his appointment this week to find out the results. besides, dr. h has an accent and i'm NOT afraid that i won't understand her over the phone! so for those of you who have been waiting for results, i will NOT get them at his neuro appointment on friday!

on saturday night we (yes. the whole family. ben included.) did NOT go to joann fabrics to get a couple things. (we were NOT there until closing time!) after we finally left the store, walked to our car, and unloaded our purchases i did NOT decide that i would give the cart a shove toward the store and let it roll there so i didn't have to push it back. well maybe it was the slight breeze, or maybe it was the downward slope of the parking lot, but the cart started going straight towards the store and then did NOT veer way to the left (right in the picture) and was headed right for one of the 5 cars in the parking lot. ben did NOT see what was happening and did NOT sprint over to the cart just to grab it right before it plowed into the side of the lady's car. the lady that was NOT just walking out of the store... i was NOT laughing my head off at what happened, and i'm sure the people that were sitting in their idling car did NOT get a good laugh either! and no, i did NOT draw a picture again just to better explain it...!

happy monday y'all. go visit mckmama for some more not me! monday fun!

wordless wednesday

i ♥ airports

planes have always facinated me. i remember how fun it would be to drive by our tiny small-town airport just as a little puddle jumper plane would come in. and oh what a thrill it was when we would go to the big city and watch the huge planes fly right over the interstate. and it was even better when we'd get to go to the airport and watch them land. you know, back in the day when you could actually do that.

i still love to watch planes.

and i still love to go to airports. especially when you get to do this:

so tell me, what's not to love about the airport?!

welcome home, cam!! we're proud of you!

p.s. look for my 'i hate airports' post in two weeks when we send him off again...

wedding mishaps

my bloggy friend ace is hosting wedding mishaps today. and this comes at a perfect time, seeing as it was our anniversary on monday. what an opportune moment to reminisc about the good & not so good events that took place 7 years ago!

at first i was having a hard time coming up with mishaps. all i could think of was crying bawling in the bathroom at mcdonalds 2 days before the wedding because my mom told me we were going to have lemonade at the reception. lemonade. i was crying my eyes out about LEMONADE!! (remember that mom?!) now i look back and laugh equally as hard about it as i remember crying! and i realize i was maybe a slight bit stressed and a tad bit more PMSy!

but as i went through today, thinking back to that day, a few things came to mind.

morning of the wedding: our reception was going to be outside at a park with a big white tent (without sides) for everyone to sit under (the tent was going to be right next to a pavilion where the food and cake were going to be). so that morning my parents and some other people were getting stuff set up. it was a beautiful day! we prayed away rain for weeks before, but forgot to mention anything to God about the wind. it was a beautiful windy day and stuff was blowing around and off of the tables. my parents had the tent people put a side on the tent, but that didn't help with the pavilion part where all the food was going to be. so my parents went home, dug through their camping gear, and grabbed all the tarps they could find. they went back to the park and somehow secured the tarps to the side of the pavilion. although it didn't look the greatest, in the end it was better than all the food flying around!

right before the ceremony some of the groomsmen were decorating the car. that's not such a bad thing, right? until the spray foam/car paint stuff that my soon to be brother in law was using exploded all over the front of his tuxedo. and it wouldn't come out. i was hid away in my little room (so ben wouldn't see me) and i knew something happened, but no one would tell me what. ben's sister was scrambling around to fix the problem and after the ceremony i found out that she put black mascara on the front of her husband's tux to hide the color. and it worked... we were even able to return the tux without additional fees!

the ceremony went pretty well. no one fainted, it wasn't too hot, and ben didn't cry too much (when we were standing there he had tears in his eyes and i was smiling and kinda laughing at him. ahhh... he was so cute!). but... my pastor forgot ben's last name. so at the end when he announced us he said, "...i now present to you mr. and mrs. ben... *pause*...ben...." everyone started clapping so we didn't have to tell him what to say. but yes, we are mr. and mrs. ben ben.

reception: remember how i said it was a beautiful day? well it was... to us minnesotans! but ben's family came from missouri and illinois and they were FREEZING. i guess we didn't take them into consideration when we planned an outdoor reception. but thankfully walmart and target came to the rescue---they were much warmer with their hoodies on!

i originally planned to write about our honeymoon mishaps... but maybe i'll save that for another day!

so go check out ace's blog to read some more hillarious wedding mishaps! and join in on the fun! even if you're not married, i'm sure everyone has a great wedding story!

me? i'm gonna go have a glass of lemonade...

just for kicks

we were blessed to have my photographically inclined sister heather take family pictures of us yesterday. and let me tell you this was WAY overdue: our last formal family picture we had taken was 18 months ago--ryan was only 6 months old!

the pictures turned out SOOOO good and i'm SOOOO excited to share them with you. but after i edit a couple. and after my sister leaves. (no, i'm not SOOOO excited for my sister to leave...)

so just for kicks*, i changed my header picture with a sneak peek. more to come...sometime!

*pun totally thought up and copyrighted by heather, and used without permission.

more than a memory

today is memorial day. a day that to me, used to be just another holiday. one less day of school. a paid day off work. a good excuse to go to the lake and have a bbq.

but this year i see it a little differently. i actually know people who are serving our country right now in a branch of the armed forces. it hits a little closer to home. :-)


so in addition to remembering those who have served...

grandpa k - US ARMY - served in WWII. he was one of the 4 men in his division who survived normandy on d-day. lived to be 83.

grandpa l - US ARMY - served in WWII as a military police. lived to be 80.

love you and miss you, grandpas!

great aunt margie - US MARINE CORP - not quite sure what she did! :-)

uncle eric - US ARMY - served in the vietnam war. he received a purple heart and a bronze star for a 30 hour ambush he was in.

my daddy - US AIR FORCE - served in the vietnam war translating morse code. he was personally thanked by a pilot whose life he saved when he intercepted enemy code.


...today i am also thinking of friends and family who are serving at home and abroad.

cameron (middle) - US NAVY - surviving boot camp right now!

taylor (left) and cody (right) - US MARINE CORP - will be serving in okinawa.

jacob - US MARINE CORP - serving overseas. actually ON the sea. he's on a ship right now!

nate (left) - US MARINE CORP - serving in afghanistan.

peter (right) - US AIR FORCE - serving in minneapolis, mn.

jeff - US ARMY - serving in afghanistan.

to those who have served and are serving, THANK YOU. your sacrifice means more than you know.

thankful thursday~ketchup style

i mean, uh, catch-up style! it's been FIVE WEEKS (ahhh!!) since i've posted a thankful thursday. this was in part due to my trip to minnesota, having my parents come to kc for a visit, and then recovering from it all! :-)

but don't get me wrong, i have been thankful these past five weeks--thankful for things such as:

1. my family--how close we are and how much we love each other. and most of all, that our kids get along and love each other. even though they only get to see each other about 4 times a year, they pick up right where they left off and have a blast together!

2. midol . . . i kid you not!

3. spontaneously unplanned days at the park. and i'm also thankful that ryan can finally climb up the slide and go down by himself!

4. a daughter that finished her awana book (AND reviewed it) this year. and yes, i'm thankful for the celebratory treat that we got after her awards program!!

5. a photo shoot that went pretty good yesterday!

what are you thankful for today?!

wordless wednesday

thanksgiving by the numbers

6:30 - the time my alarm went off so i could stick the turkey in the oven before going back to bed.

8 - the number of things i made for dinner.

2.5 - how many hours the turkey had been done by the time we ate.

12 - how many people were at our house throughout the day.

80 - how hot (in farenheit degrees) our house was.

0 - the number of stressful minutes i had during the day! seriously!

240 - minutes spent looking through the black friday ads.

2 - how many hours of sleep i got last night.

6 - hours spent battling the crowds shopping this morning.

14 - the number of items i bought today that i will be returning.

359 - days until we do this all over again!


i must say i had a wonderful thanksgiving day. this is the first year we hosted ben's side of the family. i had dreams that the turkey didn't get done and that we ran out of food. but the reality was that the turkey was done way early (it wasn't dry though, thankfully!) and we had tons of food left over! as i was getting ready for the day i was missing my family and wishing i could be with them. then as everyone showed up i realized i was with my family! i am so blessed to have in-laws that i love and get along with! i had such an enjoyable day with everyone!

we had a relaxed day. we the men watched the football game, we played a couple games, spent hours looking through the ads, and all but two people played guitar hero. by the time everyone left it was the kids' bedtime. sweet quietness!

the past 4 years ben and his brother tommy and a bunch the nephews and family camp out at best buy most of thanksgiving afternoon and through the night. they decided not to do that this year since there were no good deals and they really didn't want anything so instead they went to walmart at midnight to see if they could get anything then or if they had to wait till 5am. by the time ben got home it was after 1am. i was still looking through the ads, then ben started his quest of ordering stuff online. it was 3am when i got to sleep, 4am when ben got to bed, and 5am when my alarm went off. i was out the door by 5:20 and went to target, walmart, kohl's (wow... i'm definitely not a kohl's lover. walked in and out in a matter of 5 minutes!), gordman's, and kmart and was home by 9am. then we all ventured out again at 10! it was so nice to go shopping by myself! the crowds weren't too bad (except at kohl's!) and it was great that the kids were sleeping the whole time so that i didn't feel like i had to hurry home!

i had a tiring but fun day. hopefully by monday i'll be recovered and ready to get back into the groove of things. i hope you all had a fun, safe, and happy thanksgiving!

ben's first time carving a turkey. you did a great job hun!

ben's brother tommy and his daughter kasey.

kasey and her boyfriend josh.

friend casey, ben's mom debbie (yes, playing the drums!) and step dad mike.

debbie and friend jason who is married to casey.

friend casey who is married to jason! :-)

cousins! samantha and niece karma. no, not samantha's niece, our niece! figure this out: karma's dad is tommy and her mom is casey. ;-)

ryan LOVES playing the drums! and doesn't he look soooo cute!