Parenting thoughts....along with some Pictures!

Tanner jumping off the diving board in swimming lessons this past summer. He was absolutely terrified initially, but soon he couldn't get enough of it. I love this picture.

What's that? You didn't know that I actually have three kids, and that one of them is a girl? Her name is Cambree, and, well, she technically isn't mine. At least not all the time.  I think Tanner and Preston pretty much consider her (and her little bro, Bridger) to be their siblings from another mother.  Love this girl! And her family!

 At the Tillamook cheese factory enjoying some ice cream. FYI: it tastes eerily similar to the Tillamook ice cream you buy at the grocery store. For some reason though, all the cheeses, butter, etc at the actual Cheese Factory cost about triple what they do at WalMart. So much for the idea that buying it right at the source would be cheaper.

 What trip to the cheese factory would be complete without a pic in the baby loaf bus?




So it hit me this week. How overwhelming this whole parenting thing is. Now, don't misunderstand that to mean that up until now it has been a cakewalk. Because it hasn't. But the majority of the HARD stuff has been obvious. Sleep deprivation. Sick kids. Loneliness and boredom from being a single parent. Dealing with the cleaning and the bickering and the 'please oh please oh WHY won't you eat your dinner?"

But for some reason IT hit me like a ton of bricks. If these little people are going to learn manners, it will be from me. If they are to learn how clean up and the value of hard work, it is going to be because I teach it to them. If they are going to grow up having memories of traditions and family trips and family home evenings and parents at their important and even not-so-important events, it is going to be because of me. Now obviously it is not all me, because I do have a husband and he is their daddy too. However, he has to be gone. A lot. Thus, leaving everything up to him might not be the best idea.

And so it is that I sat down last week for 45 minutes and played with Preston while teaching him shapes. And I taught Tanner how to can grape jelly as well as some jam. And tonight instead of shooing the boys out of the kitchen, I let Tanner do the dishes. Even if he did get water everywhere, and used a whole lot more of it then was needed. And you know what? I showed him a few tricks on dish washing. Is it sad that I can list off the things I have done in the past week that have made me feel like I am doing okay as a mother? There are times that I feel like giving myself (and Nathan) pats on the back for going above and beyond, and there are other times when I silently want to hang my head because I know that there is so much more I could and should be doing.

 This little man's first time to the beach. And....it was cold! Next time we'll hit either Hawaii or the Atlantic....or at least we will at some point in our lives!

 Tanner's first day of Kindergarten.  LOVE this picture of my boys.  Oh and I love them too.

Tanner modeling the shed that NATHAN BUILT. Just in case you missed that last part. Nathan built this shed. All by himself (umm, well, okay, with a little help from his dad and from Jeremy across the street).  He drew up plans and bought supplies and even went and scrounged in the scrap piles at some construction sites.  I confess, I was less than nice some weekends when he would promise me he would be out there for NO longer than 3 hours, and then would be out there from 10am till 7pm.  Now that it is done though? I am so proud of him! And I love how much it has cleaned up my garage!

Bomber Cross Country!

 At Tomato Street Grill with Coach Kerr and Coach Bartlett.  Jay (aka Coach Barlett) and I agreed to split a meal, which was basically a pizza with salads for each of us. Needless to say, he filled his obligation and ate his half, while I daintily ate a whopping one piece. 

 Coach Kaleta (aka Mary) and me, shwoing off our awesome Richland coaches polos.  We. Look. Awesome. We were roomies on the Spokane trip, and it ended up rather funny.  I am usually the one who is more quiet, cool, and reserved, whereas Mary loves, LOVES to talk. And laugh. A lot. She however, had a 13 hour day at work that particular Friday, and was BEAT after her 2+ hour drive to Spokane. Somehow the whole dinner/coaches' poking fun at each other (sans Mary, who was on her way up), had gotten me really hyper. REALLY hyper. Sufficeth to say, Friday night Mary was the quiet one, and I was bouncing off the walls. Almost literally.

Oh yes, and here we have half of the reason we actually went on the Spokane trip. It was the Regional Cross Country meet, and both our boys' and girls' teams qualified to go. Unfortunately, out of that meet, only 2 of our girls were left to go onto the State meet. 

I have never gotten any "coaches" pictures during my whopping 3 years as a coach, so I insisted on getting some during this overnight trip.  Back in September when I took the job as assistant coach at Richland, I could not have even begun to fathom how much I would love it, and how much I'd love the kids.  The ironic thing about it though, is that I worked at the State cross country meet as an official, not as a coach for Richland. And......for those who were not aware of it, the Pasco (and Chiawana) teams are the ones who pretty much put the whole meet on. So, I spent the day with my Pasco homies.  There were times during the day that I had to stop and remind myself that I am not a Pasco Cross Country coach anymore--I am at Richland now. Halfway through the day I actually left my post at the Finish line and went over to the Richland tent to talk to the coaches and our two girls who had just run. I have to say, it was the strangest feeling--and hard to describe--going from being around my Pasco clan, to suddenly running over to my Richland clan. 

Glimpses of Fall

Tanner and Preston with Grandpa Hall's giant pumpkin!

Tanner announced a long time ago that he wanted to be "an airplane or an airplane pilot" for Halloween.  I left Nathan a website with instructions on how to make a plane. He never actually looked at it, so Tanner's costume is all Nathan's brainchild.

Being the stingy wife I am, I did not give Nathan permission to spend ANY MONEY decorating our trunk for 'Trunk or Treat.'  He insisted it needed decorating, so he made do. This is Nathan's 'baby' costume.