2014 Family Campout

The 48th Halloween Campout is in the books.  Obviously I haven't been to all of them, I'm only 27 and I have missed some of them for different reasons but I have many many memories from years of campouts.

Most of the time the Halloween Campout is the only time all year I get to see some of my family members.  Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and their kids, family galore.  Campfires, food, hot chocolate, and a lack of electronics, what's not to love? 

This year we got a little bit of a late start, it had been raining, and it was supposed to rain all day Friday. Combine that with a last minute doctors appointment and we decided to go on Saturday morning.  I look forward to the campout all year and now that I have my own family it's even better.  Dravyn loves every second of it until she gets tired, but to be fair she doesn't like anything when she is tired.  She spent the whole weekend running around and trying to help people with whatever they were doing or just running in circles saying "Look Mommy I've got super speed!" until she crashed and burned.

I am hoping that 52 years from now we will be celebrating 100 years of family campouts and we will still be sitting up half the night laughing and sharing stories around the fire. A big plus will be that by then I will be 79 so even some of the old stories will be new to me. Always look on the sunny side.

The Begining of Fall.

Forget summer, it's too hot, it's to busy, and it's just not as cozy as fall and winter.  Our fall started early, with a pumpkin patch, hay rides, and corn maze at the cider mill. We have carved a pumpkin, with another being painted this morning and on the way to carving, and planning for the family camp out has begun.  I love this time of year, love love love fall and winter.

Despite it being 85 degrees the day we went we still had a lot of fun, and Dravyn was really excited that her grandma and grandpa went with us this year, I think her favorite part was the hay ride, we went around twice and she just loved it.

To Dravyn, Swimming Lessons Take 3

I have taken you to swim lessons every summer since you turned one that makes this your third year and you have moved up from Water Babies to Tiny Tots.  You moved up yesterday mid class and I was in the pool with you, but today you did it yourself.

I was worried because yesterday you fell while walking around in the pool and your head went underwater twice. All evening last night and morning today you just kept telling me you didn't do good and asking me over and over if I remembered you falling.  Everytime you brought it up I told you that I did remember, but that we pulled you right back up and that you were ok, I told you I was so proud of you for how well you did and that you were going to get better at it.

I still wasn't sure as we sat under the canopy at the pool if you were going to let go of me and go with your teacher but when the time came you went right to her and followed her to the pool.  I was so proud of you, so incredibly proud of how brave you were to go when I could see on your face you were nervous and you kept looking back at me on the way to the edge of the pool. I won't lie it hit me like a ton of bricks this intense urge to scoop you up and tell you everything would be ok, but I knew that you needed to do this on your own.  You have grown so quickly, and you are becoming so independent.  I can't even count the number of times I looked over at the pool to check on you during that one thirty minute class, just to make sure you were doing ok and were listening to your teacher, and I even caught you looking at me a few times.  By the end of the class you got out and came right over to me to get a hug and get dried off and to tell me about how you threw the toys and went to get them. I soaked up every detail you gave me even though I saw the whole thing because you were so excited and proud to tell me about how you did it all.

You did great today baby and I am so proud of the girl you are growing up to be.  It's only the beginning baby, it's only the start of all the things you will accomplish this year, I can just tell.

So that picture thing...

I took a few, not one every day but close. Here are some of my favorites since my last post.

I also had an Easter project in the form of using vinyl to personalize my daughters Easter basket.  I don't think it turned out too bad.  It is now weeks after and she still wants to search for eggs almost everyday.  I am loving how she is getting into birthdays and holidays now.

So my next goal is to post again you know, before next month. I really have been slacking lately.

A Birthday and a Demolition Derby

I am 27.  I don't care who knows, I am not one of those "There is no reason to keep celebrating after 21." type of people.  I am over the top in love with birthdays.  They are full of awesome.  Who doesn't love picking a meal you love, having a cake/cookie/brownie/dessert of your choosing, and having a built in excuse to be lazy just one day and not feel guilty for it.  Besides, if you are too old to celebrate things in life you are too old.

My birthday was the 28th, but we started the celebrations the 27th.  My hubby made me yummy kabobs on the grill, and my mother in law and daughter made me some awesome cupcakes!

On my actual birthday not a lot happened I ordered pizza for my birthday lunch and we drove down to my Mummy's house.

Saturday we left Dravyn with her Grummy and went to Joplin, I got breakfast, got to go shopping, hung out with a friend I hadn't seen for way too long and my husband and I had a nice dinner, and stayed in town for the night.

Sunday we went for a walk at the Wildcat Glades walking trail, and went back for some things we didn't buy the day before, headed back to Mummy's house and hung out with everyone there for awhile and then headed home.  My birthday weekend was exactly how I wanted it and I am so glad I have a hubby who spoils me like he does.

This weekend we decided Friday we would go to the Speedway and watch the Demolition Derby, Figure 8 Racing, and UTV racing.  Dravyn has been begging since last year when we went to the track to go again, so we took her with us per her request.  Not even an hour later she was ready to go home, but we made her stick it out and bought her a toy truck to make up for it.

It was a fun night until the drive home when we hit a deer.  We are all OK and the car didn't get too much damage, so I think it counts as a win for us.  It just turned into a looong night.  I was so tired yesterday my brain was just not with it, and we just spent the day relaxing at home.

I don't really have any plans for this week and I think that is just how I want it.  My goal is to finally finish going through baby girls clothes so we can get all the things she has outgrown to storage, and to try to take a picture every day.  I think I can get it done.

Blog Life vs Real Life

So for this post I thought I would do something a little different and show a little peek into what really happens around here.  All of the Blog Life photos were taken by me as usual and the Real Life photos were taken by my two year old, I love seeing what she takes photos of, and love even more that most of them are of me, my hubby, and his parents.  She really loves taking photos of us.

Blog Life :  Cute toddler learning to take pictures of the cooking progress for her future blog.

Real Life:  She was "cooking"  water with tiny amounts of the ingredients I was using over no heat of course so her picture was this.

Blog Life: Look at this yummy chicken alfredo I made!

Real Life:  Look at all these dishes we left.

Blog Life:  Look at all the fun stuff we do!

Real Life:  Where I am more than I should be sitting in front of the computer.

Blog Life:  Look I clean!

Real Life:  What it looks like more than 90% of the time.

Well, that was fun now wasn't it?  I think she is going to get good at this photo taking thing.  You know in awhile when she can actually hold the camera correctly.

School Time!

This week Dravyn started school, and boy does she love it!  We are using Hands on Homeschooling from www.handsonhomeschooling.com.  I have had my eye on this particular curriculum for awhile and finally ordered it.  It got here on Tuesday, so this week we have tried to pick the big points and go for it because we were making up time from missing Monday.

Every morning she goes and gets her Bible and tells me it's time for school.  We read a story, this week was Jonah and the whale, and go over a bible verse, which she is still struggling with but to be fair apostle is a big word for a 2 year old.

There are lots of projects for each day, and baby girl is just loving everything.  Squares have been the focus this week. And she keeps telling me she wants to glue squares every time we have some down time.

Today's project of shaving cream squares did end up a little bit of a shaving cream skating rink, but I'm pretty sure it was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen her do.  She had lots of fun, clean up was easy and all the activities so far have been great for her.  I definitely will be updating with more posts of all her fun school activities!

Valentines Day 2014

This year was the first year that Dravyn "got" Valentines Day.  She kept telling me for almost two weeks before hand that "Valentines means card and balloon".  Her father snuck out the night before to make all her Valentines dreams come true.

First up was grandma's gifts.  Fun Doc McStuffins activities, candy, and a bracelet.

Then Daddy got to wow her.  Just look at the face when she got the card.

The balloon, oh the balloon. She loves that thing.  3 days later and she is still dragging it around the house all day.  After Kevin went to work she wanted to make cards for everyone so she picked 5 pieces of my card stock, one for each of us including herself.  She didn't want me to fold for her or cut for her so the coloring commenced. 

She gave all of them to her grandma and grandpa except for the one she kept for herself.  Kevin and I exchanged cards, ate dinner, and watched Gone in 60 Seconds.  It was exactly what I wanted though if our tradition continues I think I will need to get the movie on blu-ray.

I am so glad that Dravyn has such a great dad.  I am glad that she has someone to show her that "I love you" is not just something you say on Valentines Day.  I am glad that she is starting to understand holidays and that she is so great at sharing.  It is so exciting watching her grow and understand more, I just love the person she is becoming.

I'm Doing Alright.

I am not real fond of days like today.  I had a rough day yesterday and I woke up this morning, walked through the living room that was covered in Dravyn's toys to the kitchen where I pulled out a clean pan and started cooking breakfast around all the dirty dishes that were still there from dinner last night.  After we had eaten and my husband was off to work I was sitting on the couch with my daughter watching cartoons and I got to thinking.

That's when the trouble started.

Sometimes I hate my brain.  It always thinks things like "I am such a bad mother.", "I have no idea what I am doing", and the always popular. "I am never going to catch up".  That last one has been popping up my whole life.  I just keep thinking how am I ever going to figure out how to do this mom thing?  Thankfully that was when I remembered yesterday.

We built a bunch of stuff with her toys.  It took a lot of focus for her to build that "ice cream."

Then she wanted story time.  She read a dinosaur book to her baby all snuggled up in her bed.

Yes we probably watched a little too much Scooby-Doo and ate a little too much junk food.  But she had a good day.  She had fun, and we talked about letters and counted some of her building pieces.  And I decided this morning that I'm doing alright.  We are doing good.  And maybe I don't have a plan for the rest of her life, but I do have a plan for tonight.  It's called Macaroni and Cheese and it's a good plan.

New

Since my last post I haven't really had anything to blog about, but I have done a little redesign on the blog.  New title, new layout, new everything except post.  So here it is, what do you think? Just thought I would make sure everyone could still read this font, if you have any problems just let me know. I will try to have something to post about soon!

A post from yesterday.

Ok, really it is from today, but I planned to write it yesterday so....

I have a two and a half year old.  Her vocabulary is amazing, she can write a's and occasionally b's but only when she wants.  A couple days ago she found a bank statement that happened to be for her savings account.  When I told her it was her money she carried it around the house saying she wanted to go to Taco Bell and get a "burrito, one soft one, money bank account" so I suppose she is starting to realize you have to have money to get things.

The other day she followed me around telling me I was pretty, and beautiful, and smart.  I told her she is beautiful and smart and a good girl, the way I have hundreds of times before and I am glad that it is somewhere embedded in her mind.  I hope it stays there forever and whenever she feels that she is not enough she remembers that she is all those things and more.

Now the truth is that raising a two year old is not all fun and games, which I was reminded of while trying to take her two and a half year photos.  The only way she would sit for it was if I gave her camera to her so that she could take pictures too, easy enough and it created some cute photo ops anyway.

These last two years have flown by, here's to hoping they slow down a little.