Happy 2nd Birthday, Whittie Scot!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my beautiful blue eyed boy!  


You have been such a blessing to us in so many ways and we are so thankful for the gift of you.

It's The End of The World As We Know It . .

and I'm not feeling fine.  (90's kids will get the REM reference).


Today is the last daw we will have a one year old in the house and I am feeling very sentimental.  Mothering babies has been so much a part of my life for the last eight years.  I am truly sad to say goodbye to that stage of life.  We were blessed with absolutely joyful and easy tempered babies so there were never any stressful moments. No mama-drama stories of pregnancy, labor, birth, or early infancy.  My babies slept through the night relatively quickly and were good sleepers ever since.  I loved everything about being a Momma to babies and I miss those moments of infancy that are so unique.  Making faces at a baby and watching them try to imitate you, all the tiny baby clothes and especially the smell.  That smell gets me every time!


It's not that I don't look forward to and enjoy the toddler stage and the new adventures the children growing older brings to our lives- it's just that babydom is so easy.  You can protect them from so much more when they are babies.  Drawing them to you in a hug makes everything better.  As they grow, they will encounter more and more situations where hugs and kisses won't make everything better and while I know that going through some of the typical tween and teen drama is necessary to form the adults I want them to be, I want to spare them any pain we can and that gets harder the older they get.  


I just want them to know that when I look at them I will always see this...


Walker

Maggie

Willie

Whitaker

and that it has been my honor to be their Momma.  

Work Weekend in my Hometown

Two Friday's ago, I was preparing for a trip to my hometown for a Wedding Work Weekend.  In the midst, I had volunteered to watch Neighbor Boy while Neighbor Mom tended to a school activity for one of the other Neighbor Kids.  It was the perfect scenario.  Willie J love Neighbor Boy and they get along famously.  Things went so smoothly.  Willie J and Neighbor Boy rode their bikes, played outside and then asked to play inside.  They started playing grocery store and asked if they could have some paper and kid scissors so they could make play money.  "Of course" I replied, handing them the stubby scissors and some scrap paper.  

Fast forward a few hours and I am jolted out of my cleaning and packing with a text from Neighbor Mom that says Neighbor Dad is on his way to my house to pick up Neighbor Boy.  I head into the playroom to gather Neighbor Boy and prep him for his Dad's arrival.  Willie J and Neighbor Boy have their heads hidden in a box and they are giggling.  Unaware of the impending doom, I am soaking up the cute giggles that are coming out of the box, thinking sweet thoughts of how cute these sweet boys are and I laughingly pull the box off the boys heads and say with a smile, "What are you boys up to?"

And then I notice it.

GASP!

A GIANT BALD SPOT in Neighbor Boy's hair!

And Neighbor Boy was leaving our house to get ready to be at his Aunt's WEDDING REHEARSAL.

I was devastated, shocked, embarrassed, confused, flabbergasted - you name any adjective that is the opposite of happy, I was feeling it!  When asked why he did it, Neighbor Boy said, "Because my head was itchy!"  I told Neighbor Boy his mom was going to be so angry with me, and he smirks at me and says, "No she won't!  She'll be mad at me!"

Let's just say that I went through some supreme feelings of guilt and was a little afraid Neighbor Mom might come over and kill me.  Or end our friendship, which would be even worse!

But she didn't.  Even though I apologized to Neighbor Dad, I called Neighbor Mom's cell and left her a message with what I hope she found a profuse and authentic apology.  To be fair, I was pretty sure Neighbor Mom wasn't going to be too mad at me because we have had several conversations abotu the lack of control we have over the aforementioned, no longer so cute and adorable boys, however, with a wedding on the line, I had a few moments of fear.  Neighbor Mom and Dad were super kind about my lack of supervision of their child and they graciously forgave me.   They claim it is now a funny family memory.  

A few hours after Neighbor Boy left, I was cleaning up the playroom and as I reached down to pick up the box the boys had their heads in earlier in the day, I jumped back in fear when I found this on the floor . . .

A HUGE clump of Willie J's hair which I mistook for a dead mouse!  Thankfully, a few hours later, we loaded up the van and headed East to my hometown for a Wedding Work Weekend.

Fast forward to Saturday and we were settled in my hometown for Wedding Work Weekend.

Here we are helping my sister and her fiance build a stone patio for the dance floor for their wedding in the field behind my Papa's house.

We were short about 10 rows of brick, even though Enu figured out the square footage.  It should have been perfect, but it wasn't.  We also needed a second load of sand. Luckily, we got ahold of a company within minutes of closing time and we got it just in the nick of time!

We don't have nearly enough equipment in use to build this patio!  

This is about 1/3 of the way through the build.  We have a couple princesses helping us too.

This is my almost 86 year old Papa supervising 4 grand daughters, their spouses/fiancee's, and 7 great grand children laying a 20x20 patio in his field to make a dance floor. He helped unload pallets of pavers too.

Erik has spent a few years helping my mom tear out overgrown shrubs around her house and it's looking beautiful.  We can finally see the beautiful sandstone around the house and the rhododendron's can finally be seen!

Erik put this pond and waterfall in my mom's yard a few years ago and last year the fountain/waterfall didn't work.  My mom thought the pump blew up but it turns out it was just clogged with junk!  Erik drained the pond (accidentally killing a frog in the process - you should have seen those kids looking at the frog guts that he was cleaning out of the pump motor - none of them are going to have an issue with dissecting frogs in biology class) and reset the rocks that had moved from the harsh freeze and thaws of Central PA mountainous winters.

That's not a Star Wars character you see hanging out at the pond - it's just a regular old shop vac that we used to suck out the final inches of water that the pond pump couldn't get.

Whit and Erik checking the pump again.  That little guy loves his Daddy and can't bear to be separated from him.  It is so stinking adorable.

It was a productive and exhausting weekend.  We got all of the projects we wanted done and even managed to stain my mom's patio and put together and set up her new gazebo on the Patio.  All in all Wedding Work Weekend was a great success and I think other than Kevin cutting his hair, there were no real drama's or trauma's to speak of.  With the amount of people we had running around, that was a real miracle!

Next up is the Bridal Shower and in a few short weeks THE WEDDING!  In the meantime, I've got to get through 13 more days of school.

13 more days

13 more days

13 more days . . .

Am I the only one counting down?  I am SOOO ready to BRING ON SUMMER!