Christmas 2009

Merry CHRISTmas! 

Love,

The Greens

Where did 2009 go?

Can it be another year is already gone?  I just can’t believe it!  Wow, so much has happened in our world lately.  The BIGGEST news is that my awesome husband was ordained last month!  He is now a pastor at Northern Hills and I am a pastor’s wife!  I am so proud and excited for my man!  God has us on such an amazing journey…God’s grace is a beautiful and undeserved mystery.  Never in our wildest dreams did we see ourselves here.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from that memorable day…Courtesy of Maria Mitchell, Life Clicks Photography (edited by me:)

Another crazy thing is that my Carson turned 1!  I can’t believe it!!!  He is walking everywhere and getting quite fast.  And I’m VERY pleased to share that his first word was “mama”!  My first/last son to say “mama” before “dada”.  I think he’s working on “no-no”…it sounds like “na-na!”  He eats more than Ryan and AJ together and he loves his milk.  I still think investing in a milk cow would be a wise thing!  Pictures are courtesy of Maria Mitchell, Life Clicks Photography.  (Edited by me:)

And finally…my sweet boy, AJ, turns 4 tomorrow!  Wow, he is such a blessing.  He is just full of love.  I have to share a video I found the other day.  This was when AJ turned one:)  Seriously…how stinkin’ cute is this boy???

Then:

Now:

My nephew turns 5 today!!!

Make a Smilebox postcard

 

The Greens Triumph over the Rocky Mountains (well sort of)

We did it!  We went camping!  This time we actually ate dinner and slept in a tent (well sort of).  So we were in a tent, but didn’t sleep much.  

We had hot dogs and of course s’mores!  The boys had such a good time exploring with their cousins-The Texas Greens!   Although one of the boys was falling every 15 minutes.  My poor nephew, Tyler, fell and ate a mouth full of dirt.  He even got some war wounds out of it.  But they were tough (well sort of). 

It was a great evening of putting up the tent, moving the tent, bear proofing everything-yeah, there have been bears up there.  Golden Gate State Park, by the way, BEAUTIFUL!  I’ve decided Chris and I ROCK at the whole setting up and taking down part.  Seriously!  We could have our scouts badge already, but some people think there’s more to camping than the set up part.  🙂 

So after we had dinner, the kids played, Misty and I took the boys exploring…and then it was time to put baby Carson down.  I fed him and layered him up and put him in the pack ‘n play.  He took awhile to settle down, but finally fell asleep.  Yes!  The night is off to a great start (well sort of).

About 30 minutes later after Carson went down.  Ryan found a huge bug on Carson’s side of the tent.  I did not scream or anything!  And I am telling you this picture does not do it justice, it was a very large bug.  So Ryan’s way of protecting baby Carson and dealing with the bug was to throw, hurl rather, the ball at the tent, which then started a chain reaction-a bad chain reaction.  Carson was startled awake and this made him raging mad.  One thing about my sweet boy is that he can be a bit of a screamer when he is mad or tired. 

We tried to get him to go back down, but that just wasn’t happening.  We got him up with us and so began the night of no sleep.  He nursed and slept on me while I watched the moon travel from one end of the tent to the other.  At the beginning of the night, I snuggled in my new sleeping bag (that would later twist and not zip because I was holding my sweet Carson) and laid comfortably on the surprisingly cozy air mattress (that would be completely deflated sometime later that night) and thought, “This is going to be the best night of no sleep-ever.”   It was wonderful holding that sweet little baby that is crawling everywhere now and will rarely snuggle with me.   Little did I know he would be waking up ever 1-2 hours screaming inconsolably-that part not so pleasant. 

None of us really slept except the boys.  All but poor Tyler, he got altitude sickness and was up most of the night being miserable.  Which later a friend read a story about a baby who had the same camping experience as Carson and they found out it was altitude sickness.  Poor babies! 

I will still say we were victorious!

Things I hear on any given day…

“Do you see that big tornado with dust and debris?

“This is Rocky Canyon, there is an avalanche making fire in the mountains!  Copy that.”

“AJ, let’s color together.”

“He’s (Carson) so happy, Mama!”

“I made it just for my brother.”

“My baby is so cute!”

“Mama!  Come see what I built!  I’m good at building.”

“Oh no!  I see a tornado touching down in the east!”

“Good team work!”

“You’re right, Ryan, you’re right!”

“Yummy, yummy gummy worms!” (peas-I know, I don’t get it either.)

“So how is your day, Mama?”

While listening to Klove:  “Hey!  That’s psalm 106!”  (No kidding!  That came out of my 3-yr mouth!)

“Did you know water makes me happy?”  (Again my 3-yr old!)

“Did you know milk makes me silly?” (Guess who?) 

“Mama, is that cool or what?”

“What do you want to be when you grow up, Mama” 

To which I’d have to reply, “A Mama!” 
…love being a mom!

My Boy is 5!

So my baby turned 5 on May 11th! I’ve been busy trying to turn my little hobby into a business, but I think the real reason I haven’t posted about Ry’s bday is because it makes me sad. :(. Where has the time gone?   My baby is 5 and going to Kindergarten in three short months.  I just can’t believe it, it seems so surreal!  Of course I was so excited for my sweet boy’s birthday, but this one was tough for me.

We started Ry’s birthday bash with my almost famous smiley face pancake breakfast and a Mickey Mouse Playhouse balloon-the boys are loving Mickey right now!  It gets me so excited for Disney!  2010 baby!

We decided to do Ryan’s birthday a little different this year…  If you read my blog last year, (have I really been blogging over a year?) you know we had a Firefighter theme party for his big 4.  Instead of a party we took Ryan, AJ, and his bf Mason to a little place called Amazing Jake’s. 

 

The boys had so much fun at!!!  Ryan drove the bumper cars on his own, rode all of the kiddie rides, played putt-putt, rode shotgun on the go-carts, and even attempted the climbing wall.  Chris & I had so much fun watching them run around and saying yes to (almost) everything.

AJ had so much fun being hooked up on the safety rope and “repelling” down.

Even Chris & I joined in the fun.  I was very eager to climb the wall.  I used to climb quite a bit when I lived in Mexico.  I climbed to what I thought was the top, but missed the very top by one stone.  It took me a bit longer than Chris and I won’t be showing my tush in a harness.  After convincing Chris to climb, he made it up so quickly the following picture is posed because he was all in competition mode and wouldn’t even turn around to take a picture.  Oh, those Green boys.  When I asked him if he remembered what his time was, his response was:  World Championship time.  Oh, those Green boys.

Kroger Mac & Cheese Taste Test

I wanted to really see what the BIG difference is between the various Kroger Mac & Cheeses.  So last night we had a taste test.  Now currently (from my memory-which isn’t saying a whole lot) we have the Value box at around 3/$1, but I think they just raised it a bit.  The Original for about $.50/box and Kroger’s Rich ‘n Creamy for around $.90/box.  While I would’ve liked to add a Kraft box to the test, my limit is under $1/box preferably around $.50.  Now if I have a coupon…that’s a different story, but it still has to be cheaper than the Kroger brand. 

So all the boys (minus Carson-we’re still working with rice cereal:) voted for the Rich ‘n Creamy.  And I preferred the Original, which took me by surprise.  Also, the Rich ‘n Creamy took twice as long to stir, which of course can be a factor when feeding ravenous boys!  Vote for your fav!

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

I had to post pictures from Fossil Rim.  This place was crazy cool!  It’s about 2 hours south of Dallas.  You drive your car through and actually feed the animals by hand!  I was a bit nervous at first, but relaxed after the first few.  Although, I never did brave feeding the ostrich.  The picture we got was the one that bit AJ.  The first animal we meet and poor AJ winds up with an ostrich bite.  That freaked Ryan out so badly that he sat in the back of the van until the last 1/2 of the drive.   He wanted to sit up with us to feed the giraffes.  They were our favorite.  God’s creations never cease to amaze me!

 

Here’s the Cheetos Story…

On the way home, the boys were given a little Cheetos snack on the way home.  We heard them crunching away.  Then I heard less crunching and decided to check it out.  AJ is completely passed out with orange fingers and the Cheetos bag right next to him.  Almost as if he’s guarding it.  He stays like this until we’re about 15 minutes from home.  We hear crunching again.  Again I check.  AJ is half awake and half asleep munching on Cheetos.  A few minutes later the crunching stops and he’s asleep again.  This happens two more times.  It was hysterical!  I love my boys!

Mugs by MAG

My mother-in-law is one of the most talented people that I know.  She is an artist of all kinds and she makes the most amzing pottery!  Her coffee mugs are quite a hit with our friends that stop by.  I’ve decided to call them “Mugs by MAG”.  She had a birthday this week and I wanted to wish her a Happy (belated) Birthday! 

Happy Birthday, MAG!  I sure love you!

Volcano!

Had I known it was so easy to make a volcano, I would have done it months ago!  The boys got a Volcano book for Christmas and in the back there are directions to make a volcano and this weekend I made good on my promise to make a volcano with my boys.  So here we are with the play by play…

Our ingredients: baking soda, vinegar, food coloring and a bit of dish soap

Ryan preparing for the explosion...although we did explain that it wouldn't be loud. 🙂

Here it comes!!!

Ryan is beginning to believe us about the not being loud part. AJ is just loving it!A volcano eruption!Let's do it again! Ryan pours...Aj pours......and we get another volcano!