My Fashionable Boy

Emmett ... my child who causes me both so much angst and so much joy. We have many a confrontation throughout the course of a day, well, throughout the course of an hour. Aaron prayed one night for mommy and Emmett to get along during the day when we are at home alone together :) Funny, but, sadly true. All this to say that due to the number of conflicts we face during the day, I have decided to not let this new found fashion fetish be one of them. I am just going along with it!

We don't really wear jammies at our house, just shorts and big t-shirts. But, Emmett has recently discovered his pajama drawer, and to him it is a treasure chest of undiscovered new outfits. The first day this started Aaron came home and said, "Is there a reason Emmett is in his pajamas?" I said, "Because that is what he wanted to wear, we weren't going anywhere, so I let him." The next day he changed out of his regular bed clothes into jammies. Then, later in the day into a few more pairs. Thankfully they were still clean enough to put back in the drawer. At one point he was wearing jeans with a jammie top. Not something I would have EVER thought I'd let my child wear, but I did ... one less conflict. The third day, I just asked him, "Do you want to put on regular clothes or just stay in your jammies?" He wanted to keep the jammies on. Again, I went along with it. He still ended up changing into many outfits throughout the day.

So, here is my jammie-lovin' boy. We shall see how long this love affair lasts.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Merranda and Tabitha.
Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6).
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. Some family traditions that I grew up with that I am continuing with my own family are summer strawberry picking and jam making, playing the Statler Brothers Christmas CDs at Christmas time, and making chocolate chip cookies and letting my kids eat the dough, but I let them eat WAY more than my mom EVER did.
2. Aaron and I first saw each other at Wal-Mart. About a year later, he came through my checkout and asked me out. We even worked together there for a little while.
3. My first car was a brand new tan 1996 Chevy Cavalier. After getting my license on my birthday and having a family party at our "house" (we were living in a trailer home while our other house was being built), my parents took me up to our new house and had my new car sitting in the garage with a big red bow on top. It is the kind of car I used while in behind-the-wheel, so I felt very comfortable driving it.
4. Aaron and I honeymooned in Chicago about 3 months after our wedding. We were in college and for Spring Break Aaron planned a surprise trip to Chicago for us for a few days. I had no idea we were going. We stayed at my parents' house the night before (I thought he was assembling a headboard for our bed). My sister packed for me and helped him pick out a dress for me. We got in the car to go to church and he kept on driving. We went to the Amtrak Station and he had everything ready to go. He even had a typed out itinerary with certain things crossed out for me to only have a vague idea of what was going on. It was amazing! And, we did it on the cheap. We used our student ids to get into places for reduced prices, and we walked as much as we could instead of using a taxi. We even walked all the way back to the train station with all our luggage (what a haul!), but now we have a story to tell. Our favorite part was probably all the different foods we tried while there.
5. Aaron and I were going to get married on Jan. 1 of 2000, but in fear of the Y2K bug turning off all the electricity around the nation, we opted for the night before ... just to be safe! Funny to think about that now.
6. I love being a part of the delivery of a baby. I insisted on being part of the birth of sister's first born. I was amazed! I didn't feel so much that way about Ethan's delivery. But, I do look back at Emmett's and have positive feelings about it. (I even had it video-taped and I have watched it a handful of times). Sometimes when I think about wanting to have another child or not, I think about the awesomeness of going through another delivery. When my sister had her baby girl and when other people who aren't even close to me have their babies I feel like I missed out on something because I wasn't there in the delivery room. I can't really explain it. I just LOVE it!

Okay, I am such a new blogger and all my friends and family live close to me that I don't even have 6 people to tag. The only other blogger I know is Sue, so I will tag her! I'll tag Jessica, too, so that maybe she'll get into blogging again!

Fall Fun in Summer Weather

With the weather so nice yesterday I had to seize the opportunity before it is gone for good. After Ethan was done with school we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the coolest park to play. The kids have such a blast there. The past few times we've gone it has been pretty quiet, so the kids can run free without too many obstacles. Their imaginations run wild. We were dragons for a while and then bees trying to sting each other. That park's structure is great for playing hiding and chasing games. We just have a great time there. Because it is November, though, the Parks and Rec. have turned off the water. So, due to the warm weather and all the running, the kids were thirsty and we had a 1/2 cup of leftover soda to share among the 4 of them. As we were searching for a water fountain, the kids saw a pile of leaves on the ground under a huge maple tree. Nobody said a word to anyone, but simultaneously the kids all ran to the leaves and gleefully started to play in them.

After the leaf fun we had to get some water. We did a little shopping and Aaron met us at the mall on his bicycle. We played with the train table and Barnes and Noble and then headed to the bluffs to hike. We hiked up our usual "difficult" trail. The trail Ethan loves. But, yesterday, he hated. He cried most of the way up. Brayden came with us, too, and he and Emmett loved the hike. We ended up on a rocky face of a bluff. I, of course, didn't take the camera along to capture that shot. Needless to say, the kids were pretty exhausted after all that physical activity and no naps.

Candy, anyone?

SuperEthan and Emmett the Builder take the candy world by storm.