Three Thought Thursday: Episode 47

1. First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all!!! I'm sitting here on the couch in the early morning hours watching Kolbe and Rudy peruse the pile of Christmas books that just yesterday made the journey from our storage shed to the coffee table. And watching their fascination with the Christmas tree lights in the dark family room too! And enjoying the smell of Baked Pumpkin French Toast pouring out of the kitchen. (Can't wait to dig in!...I'll let you know if it's good!) These are the moments I look forward to each holiday season. They're so special, so magical...little moments that i hope are creating memories in the boys' minds that will last until they have their own families some day.

2. We will be heading over to Mark's mom's house for Thanksgiving today and I'm really looking forward to spending time eating good food and just relaxing. (possibly even sneaking in a cat nap??? With these never-ending colds that the boys and I have had, the waking up at night time has been killing me!) Mark's mom is the queen of side items. It's something I look forward to at each big holiday meal we enjoy over there. Beyond the turkey and ham, I'm sure there will be no fewer than about ten additional items--salad, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, chili (a spicy meat and green chili based topping they like to put on their food), fruit salad, rolls, tortillas...not to mention the desserts! I think when we went by last night there were four different varieties of pie on standby for today. I love getting my plate and getting just a little bit of everything! So yummy! Really, to be honest, the Martha Stewart in me looks forward to hosting our own Thanksgiving meal some day. I know that right now we are in the season of our lives where the grandparents are just desperate to get to spend these special holidays with their grandbabies and I must admit that just showing up and eating is nice. But one of these years it will be our turn to host them. And I'll have the pressure on to create the perfect meal. All the yummy sides included! The boys and I spent yesterday morning making pumpkin pies and then in the afternoon, Miss Lora volunteered to watch the boys for a few hours so that I could put all our Christmas decorations up. While decorating, I threw together some fresh banana bread and the beginnings of this morning's breakfast. Not exactly the full Thanksgiving kitchen explosion but enough to put me in the holiday mood. And getting all the Christmas decorations set up by myself (other than the ornaments, of course...we'll all do those together) was awesome! The boys came home from G-ma's last night to their own little winter wonderland. And again, their faces were priceless!

3. Well last week I wrote about my lethargy surrounding getting my Christmas act together. I suppose saying that I got all of the Christmas decorations up would suffice to say that I've somewhat remedied my problems. And thanks to Amazon, I did get a little bit of shopping done. My Shutterfly order is still entirely in the works though. I did get one little project done. Ok, "little" should only be used to describe the size of this project's pieces. In my mind, I imagined this to be a quick, easy, little Christmas project. And in reality, it took for.ev.er. Really, about half way through I almost threw in the towel or set it aside till next year. But I managed to press on and get them done.

Christmas countdown chains. Two of them- each twenty-four links long to count down the days until Christmas arrives. (One for our family and one for my cousin Mandi's) Growing up, I remember making these with construction paper and a stapler, but I recently had an idea that it would be so cute and easy to have one made out of adorable Christmas fabrics. Cute--yes. Easy--no. Between cutting the fabric, applying interfacing, sewing around multiple times, adding a metal snap to each link...it took way longer than I thought it would. Good thing this guy will probably last forever, because I'm not making one ever again! And instead of getting to staple the paper together every year, the boys will get to snap the pretty links together to make our long chain. Perched beside our advent calendar, I hope it will be a nice little addition to our Christmas collection. On to the next project!

Kolbe Boy is THREE!!!

I'm only about two weeks late on getting this post up, but really, it's been on the to-do list and just hasn't managed to make it to top priority till now. Two weeks ago, on November 9th, we celebrated the day that our first little boy came in to the world. To think of how much has happened since that day! And even to look back to just a year ago and see how much he's changed from two to three. The biggest change being his massive language explosion. He went from saying only a few words at two to unlimited, endless (and I mean endless) chatting. He's still full of spunk, totally boy, and the best big brother that Rudy could ever ask for. The day he came into our lives is the day that Mark and I truly grew up. And we continue to grow and grow as we watch him do the same. Happy Birthday, Little Boy!

We decided to put an end to the big birthday party every year- for every kid- for every birthday and just had a little low key get together with immediate family. As expected, Kolbe loved it and was thrilled with all the excitement. We ate chili, enjoyed cake and ice cream, and got to open presents! Here are the pictures:

Kolbe and Rudy are in love with their baby cousins! Rudy is still learning what to do with babies but Kolbe is just fabulous! He's gentle, sweet, and knows just what to do when. Like I said...the best big brother ever.

Kolbe's only request for his party was a "blue birthday." I suppose he's heard other kids talk about the various themes of their parties and he just decided he wanted "blue." So we decorated his cake with blue M&Ms, had blue balloons, wore blue shirts, etc. He loved it.

Every good big brother should teach his little brother how to sneak a swipe of icing!

One of Kolbe's only gift requests this year was a "Fight Raiders Fight like Pinkies." My mom has had this little stuffed fella at her house for several years. It plays the Tech fight song and it's literally the first thing Kolbe looks for every time we go down there. She searched high and low (as did my brother Dave here in Lubbock) for one for Kolbe but couldn't find one. The company that made them went bankrupt! So Raider Red made the move from Pinkie's to Kolbe's and let's just say that he's been more than thrilled.

Adorable, right!?! Pa bought this awesome pilot jacket for Kolbe at a Nashville airport, of all places! Kolbe is so proud of it. And although the weather hasn't exactly been cold enough to wear it more than once or twice, I think a big cold front is just around the corner! We can't wait to pass it down to all the other Hefferly boys in the future so they can be just like Pa!

Pinkie also gifted Kolbe with a singing and dancing Frosty the Snowman, one of his other winter time obsessions. (Yes, Pinkie is attempting to drive me insane.) Here they are dueling together.

G-ma gave Kolbe a cool new scooter after seeing him thoroughly enjoy Cousin Adan's a few months back. And needless to say, Rudy was not very happy about not having one of his own. And Kolbe wasn't too happy about having to share! Luckily, after witnessing the squabble, G-ma snatched up another for Rudy at super sale.

We had Kolbe's party on the Sunday before his actual birthday. But on the actual day, Uncle Dave came over and ate dinner with us and brought Kolbe an awesome black forest mini-cake so he could blow out candles again! Happy Birthday, Kolb!

Three Thought Thursday: Episode 46

1. Christmas is something like thirty-seven days away. Seriously. Usually by this time, I have my whole shopping list made up, some... or better yet, most of my Christmas presents purchased and a whole game-plan made up for all the little this-and-thats I want to do for the season. Not this year. In fact, I haven't even started on the annual Christmas calendars for the grandparents. Usually they're already ordered by now so I can get the good discount deals! And it's not that I've been too busy to do it. There's been time available. I just haven't really been thinking about it. Or I'll think about it a bit, get a little piece of it pulled together and and then totally get side tracked with something else. And then I walk into a store a see all the Christmas decorations and get that panicky feeling inside. And I know, I know. It's not all about the presents. Really, it's not. As a matter of fact, our family seriously doesn't need anything year. We've been hugely blessed so much already. But I really love the gift giving side of Christmas. While we don't exactly have the money to be giving extravagantly, it's still fun to put thought and effort creating the perfect little something for each little person. (even though on my side of the family, we do draw names. Can you imagine having to buy gifts for the whole clan!?!) So that's my goal for this week: get on the ball with my Christmas game plan. I don't want my favorite time of the year to pass me by! (notice I said "time of the year" and not "season." Brr! Bring back the warmth!)

2. Do you ever have something that's driving you crazy but you can't quite put your finger on it and then all of a sudden it hits you and moves your crazy to absolute nuts? Ok, I probably sound a little off my rocker here, but let me explain. We don't have a tiny house, but we don't have a huge house either. I'd say the house itself is just the right size for our family. But it's always messy. Even when it's clean. Something about it just feels messy. And cluttered. And overwhelming. Part of this problem has been clear as glass to me for a while: our family room furniture. It's big. Like the huge, overstuffed comfy cushy stuff that would be great in a movie room or basement. It's way too big for the room. But I've accepted it and realized that I should just be thankful that I have furniture. It's not like twenty years from now we'll still have these same couches sitting in our family room. (At least I hope not!) But there was still something else nagging me. Something messy. And then a week or so ago Mark made a comment about how it drove him nuts how the large collage of framed pictures on the big red wall in the kitchen never seemed level. And he was right! Even though this wall isn't technically in the family room, it might as well be as it's visible from pretty much any point in the room. When we bought the house it was painted an obnoxious UT burnt orange which had to go immediately. So we went with yellow but that didn't work either. So a few years ago we switched to red. And while I still love red in the kitchen, I realized it's not the paint that just doesn't seem to fit, or the collage of pictures, or even the hideous intercom system motherboard that doesn't even work (seriously, why would anyone need an intercom in a house our size!?!). It's the way too large, way over the top bold textured plaster treatment on the wall. You know, the style that was popular about 10 years ago or so where someone comes in with a huge bucket of plaster and rubs huge random streaks all over the wall in every which way. So that when you hang a picture on it, it can never stay balanced. It's hideous. And it's exactly what's making the social area of our house look messy! Like scribble all over the walls! And there's nothing I can do about it! Literally, to get rid of it I'd have to have someone come in and sand down the entire kitchen and then refinish the walls. It doesn't matter what shade of the rainbow I paint them.  Can't hide ugly. But I did take the collage of pictures down, deciding that, while subconsciously they might have been an attempt to cover up the wall, they were really just emphasizing the messiness of it. In their place I added a few little shelves I had on hand, a mirror to reflect light from the other side of the room, the clock that's always been there, and a couple other little ditties on the shelves to have something there. The one consolation is that the mirror (which previously lived in the guest room/ office/ sewing room) rests on a shelf and completely covers the super 70s intercom.

And that's my rant for the week.

Note to self: Get over it. You have a kitchen. With an eating area. With electricity. Which is far more than many, many people have in this world. Stop sounding like such a brat.

3. Our house has been bombarded by the annual winter cold for the last week or two. The coughing, sniffling, sneezing cold. Started with Rudy, add Kolbe, and finally Mark. Mama Bear is still unscathed, though last night my throat did feel kind of raw. We'll see how today goes. I wish kiddos came in to this world with the natural ability to blow their noses the way they know how to suck. Though I have been lucky in one case. My poor little Kolbe was not born with the ability to suck. But he always has been able to blow his nose. Seriously! I'd say from about nine or ten months on. What a cool trade off! Once he knew the meaning of the phrase "blow your nose," he's been able to do it. I suppose the fact that his mouth and his nose were once completely open to each other internally kind of helped. Rudy is on the more normal side of things. You ask him to blow his nose and he naturally blows out of his mouth. And then when I suction it with the bulb syringe, he gags like crazy. Like to the point where he barfs on my face. For real. I made the mistake of standing him up on the changing table instead of laying him down, thinking gravity would play in to drawing the snot down. But it just made him gag more and as he leaned forward to grab on to me, he up and barfed his juice on my forehead. (Inner self says, Repeat after me: I love being a mom. I love being a mom. I love being a mom!) Lord willing these colds will clear up soon. It doesn't exactly help that children their age can't take cold medicine. All I can really slip them is some Tylenol or Motrin here and there to alleviate some of the pain they must be feeling in their throats. Or as Kolbe says, "The back of my mouf hurts." I guess I shouldn't complain. I don't remember Kolbe's cold being too bad last year, and Rudy, other than a couple days of pink eye when he was three months old and one little bout with the 24-hour bug last February, has never even been sick before. And he's almost two!

A Handsome Little Visitor

We were really blessed to get to see our sweet aunt/ sister-in-law, Casey and our adorable little cousin/ nephew, Jackson a week or so ago. Casey was in Levelland for a wedding and of course she brought the little guy along. We got to see them three separate times, though I only had my act together enough to get good pictures at one of these gatherings. And although Jackson is adorable in pictures, let's just say that he's even cuter in person. We could just eat him up and really hate that they live so far away! (near Boise, Idaho!)

Pinkie flew up for a chance to get to see Casey and Jackson as well as to celebrate Kolbe's birthday. And when she's in town, the boys insist that she sits in the back with them. Even if I'm the only other adult in the car.

We got together at Abby and Andy's for dinner, where the boys attempted to show Jackson all the cool features on the exersaucer.

Pinkie wanted desperately to get a picture of herself with all four grandsons. Here you go, Pinks. This was the best I could do. They're all four in it, right?!

The lack of affection that I experienced with my wild man, Kolbe, has long since been forgotten with Rudy in the picture. He's a kissing machine and will love on just about anyone in his path. In this case, we told him to give Jackson a hug and he went for the real deal.

See what I mean!?! So cute!

I love this picture for several reasons: First of all, the obvious-- Jackson's face is hysterical! The boys were trying to show him how to make the saucer bounce and I guess it caught him a little off guard. Secondly, though Rudy looks nothing like me, I love that he inherited my trademark protruding tongue when he's really focusing on something. And thirdly, doesn't this just say, "Boys" !?! I can see these same exact faces as they push Jackson down the street on a tricycle or something! I love it!

Probably one of my favorite pics of the whole year. Pinkie+John+the camera going off at just the right second= priceless!

Poor Jackson was getting sleepy. Sweet little thing.

We can't wait to see everyone again soon...in just a few weeks at my parents' house for Christmas!

Three Thought Thursday: Episode 45

1. My sweet little boy, Kolbe, turned three this week. Three! Meaning we've officially kicked off his fourth year of life. Sounds strange.  Has it been that long? Or has it been longer!?! Sometimes it seems like both. Because really, the memories of his (dramatic) birth seem like yesterday. Yet, it's honestly hard to remember life before being a mother. I mean, I know it existed and Mark and I managed to not be bored to tears in some way or another, but really, what did we do before kids!?! Kolbe's little life as been such a fun journey of highs and lows and ups and downs. I wouldn't change a single thing about it. In fact, I'm so glad to have gone through everything we have with Kolbe. And glad he was our first. Talk about an initiation into motherhood! I think if I would have had Rudy first, I may not have truly known what it would require to be the mom I want to be. (You know, the whole major self-sacrifice thing.) Kolbe is such a bright, fun, fascinating, energetic, spunky, sweet little boy. The hilarious things he says keep us in stitches daily and his fun, carefree attitude helps remind us that there's so much to enjoy about life. Such as being his mama. It's one of the best things to ever happen to me.

2. Speaking of the years flying by, where has 2010 gone!?! Someone once told me that the older you get, the faster the time goes. I think he must be right. 'Cause right now it feels like last Christmas was so recently and here we are with this Christmas right around the corner. But somehow, the days often seem to take so long. Like the ones where I look at my watch and think, oh come on, bed time! Yet hundreds of days have passed since the year began and still it feels like it just started. Part of wanting to start this whole three-thought-Thursday thing was not wanting to miss anything from this life as a mother. Wanting to be able to keep track of all that really goes on. So in years to come, when I find our house a quieter, a little less rambunctious...a little more lonely...I'll be able to look back and re-live such a precious time. I guess I don't have to wait till then, though. Maybe if I read back through all of my posts from the passing year, I'll be able to see and fully appreciate all that has gone on this year. And not just dwell on how fast it is going by.

3. Of all the new things our home has seen in 2010, the start of my little business has been one of the biggest. At least for me. Most of the males in the house could really care less. 'Cause other than running to the post office, they're pretty much un-aware that it even goes on. I didn't know what to think when starting up the shop. Would I even sell anything? And originally my hopes were that maybe I'd sell something once a week. Or twice on a good week. I had not idea that it would quickly grow into once a day. Which on one hand is super exciting. I love it! But on the other, I feel like I've reached the point where this is as big as I want it to get for now. I promised myself in the beginning that the only way I was going to do this was if I could keep operations to just nap time, and right now I'm about at my max. Each nap time is filled with a list of custom orders or things to make for the shop and while the competitive, business-minded side of me is thinking Great! Do more! The mama side of me is thinking any more than this will infringe on either my mama time or my family time (when Mark gets home). And I really don't want to compromise that. I'll gladly push it to the back of my mind in exchange for time to bake cookies with the boys. Or go drive around with Mark and the kids. But overall, just really exciting to see this actually turn in to something fun, profitable, and challenging for me.

Three Thought Thursday: Episode 44

1. By a rare and somewhat absurd stroke of good fortune, as of Sunday we have a sweet 42" HDTV living in our family room. Yes, us. People that would never in a million years think if owning something like that at this point in our lives. Don't get me wrong. We've dreamed about it while gazing at our old school box-style 27 incher, but it was always a "maybe someday we'll be able to get a fancy TV" kind of thing. I don't think I'm exactly at liberty to disclose how we happened upon such an item, but I'll divulge before too long. Yes, it cost us nothing. And no, we didn't do anything illegal to obtain it. Let's just say a far-to-kind-someone-we-know thought it might look good in our house. Though we certainly feel completely unworthy. I keep glancing over at it and thinking what is that sweet TV doing in the poor-folk's house!?! A totally huge surprise, not expecting it, what-just-happened kind of addition to our week.

2. Did any of you make pumpkin seeds this past weekend after carving your jack-o-lanterns? Growing up, my mom always used to make us a batch while we worked on our pumpkins. I remember a few years when I was really little, thinking they were nasty. Then the older I got, the better they tasted. Kind of like Corn Nuts. I'm not sure what was going on, but I didn't make them last year. This year, I had to revive the tradition. You just can't go wrong with crispy, crunchy, salty, and buttery all in one. Yuuuummmm! The recipe we use is pretty simple:

• boil a quart of water
• add an eigth cup of salt and the cleaned pumpkin seeds
• allow to boil for 10 minutes stirring occassionally
• drain the water and add 2 tbs of melted butter
• spread seeds out on a foil-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt (we use Lowrey's Seasoning Salt too)
• place in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, flipping half way through.
• Watch carefully! Seeds may need a few more minutes or a few less. You know they're done when they're a crispy golden brownish color.
• Enjoy!

If you haven't tried it out, do! They're so good!

3. And lastly, I really haven't had much to whine about with motherhood lately. But alas, a new dilemma has arrive. This past week, our dear sweet RudyRoo figured out how to climb out of his crib. We knew the day was coming but I was just hoping and praying that it wouldn't be till he was at least two. Here we are- twenty months old- and he has it figured out. And the fact that we're so shocked about it just encourages him all the more. Of course we all know that this is dangerous and we can't just let him sleep in his crib and tumble out at night, right? Especially since I've seen him do it will my own two eyes and it's no graceful fall. So a few nights ago I took the front railings off of his crib, turning it in to a toddler bed. And now I'm back to having to sit inside their room or outside the door in order to keep monkeys from escaping. And yes, Kolbe still gets out of bed every.single.night. But he knows what's going on. When we say, "Go get back in bed," he knows that we mean business. Rudy, I'm sure, will figure this out too. But right now, he thinks this is some game. Some adventure where he has free reign of the house. Why stay in bed when there's so much to explore!?! In the dark! And just to think...potty training: round 2 is just around the corner!

Halloween 2010

Here's our Halloween 2010 in pictures! (ok, and some comments too...I can't help myself!)

Working on the pumpkin! Isn't that face just too cute? Where did our baby go!?!

Kolbe was actually into it this year...for about three minutes.

And it was decided that he looked just like Kolbe in pumpkin form.

Easier to tell in the dark!

Kolbe dressed as his patron saint, St. Maximillian Kolbe.

Trick or Treat! Rudy was a candy corn!

Trying to get a picture of the cousins together is like trying to re-create the parting of the Red Sea. Plus, my camera was on some weird setting and I didn't realize it. So much for the photo op! Kinsey and Shelby were adorable in their puppy costumes. Though Kinsey was obviously distraught over the whole situation.



Professional Candy Taster

Our godson, John Hefferly is Fuddrucker's new poster child: World's Greatest Hamburger!

And his dog-brother, Wayne Dog made a great hot dog

Yes, he's sweeter than all of the candy combined!

Stopping by G-ma's house! (my camera died right after this shot so no pics of going to Ben and Erin's or the meltdown that occurred afterward)

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! : )