We MAY have spent the month in our backyard.. MAY have

 

 

The month of May has scurried on through with a quickness around our little world...

The weather reared it's bipolar ugly face this month to the point we were all feeling a little dazed and confused. Its gorgeous, oh no it's raining, oh no its gorgeous, nope its raining, oh wait there's a tornado; duck and take cover, nope just muggy... Dramamine please! 

 

Mothers day came and went...

my boys are truly wonderful and had my fabulous gifts wrapped by the talented gift wrapping expertise of Ms. Pamela Jean! (aka: Jon's mom)  in all pink and gave them to me the night before. Kellen enjoyed opening them for me.. ha  My boys are precious and I'm humbled to have them.

After carrying a child in your body for months and then holding him in your arms for the first time, wow.. watching him grow month to month, raising him, knowing that every decision you make will now ultimately not only affect you but this little person as well.. this little being that is counting on you for everything.. everything!!  There is NO bond in life that compares to this. I will be this little persons defender for my entire life. I can't worry about the parenting skills of others, or judge their decisions for allowing other things or people to come between them and their child.. all I can do is pray continually for MY child to ALWAYS trust and know that my love is unconditional. We were at Chic-fil-a the other day (shocking I know) and Jon and I were sitting right outside the glass of the play area eating lunch and letting Kellen play... He came up to the glass with a random little girl that was in the play area also, and he tells her 'that's my Momma' and was pointing at me and smiling so big. He's proud of his Momma and he doesn't care who knows! I want him to feel that way always.

:)

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(while dad is away the kids will play.)

Babz is a handful and a half.  She chews everything and digs up holes... and How in the WORLD are you supposed to train them to 'potty' outside when it rains every day for a week straight ??? She has doubled in size since we got her a month ago and can no longer fit under the couch. This stresses her because that was the one place she could hide from Kellen when he was toting her around the house one too many times. She'll still try and try though, and then gives up and goes over to the wooden chest (coffee table). she can still (barely) fit. It's a hoot watching her wiggle her way under...takes her forever. ha.  She's good at fetch, knows her name well and will come when she is called always. but the digging and pooping and chewing and cleaning and bathing and scratching and barking.. Another example of that all enduring love Jon and I both have for our kiddo...sigh 

 

'Momma, can we pleeeease go back outside?'

me: 'no baby, its raining.'

K: 'I have a great idea! let's dance and play in the rain!' (with excitement and big smile.)

me: 'sigh' 

(keeping in mind this is the afternoon and we have been outside playing allllllll day prior to this.) boyz  

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The realization that we needed to get this boy some outdoor toys was yelling us in the face this past month, or was that me yelling in Jon's face ? hmmm... lol

(no, I don't do that :)

We hit up Lowe's for the goods to accommodate our outdoor child. A swing set. finally, and woot!  Jon took on the task of putting the entire thing together himself. impressive you say ? Totally! I love that 7 years into being with this guy and he still impresses me with his ability to be so sweet and sensitive and still be allllllll man that can put an entire swing set together single handed! so hot 

:)

 

Kellen was right there beside him every step of the way... watching and helping. There were a few moments of frustration, lets be honest, ha.. but overall it was so awesome watching my boys handle this big ol task. K was so impressed with his daddy...and even more impressed and excited with the swing set.  

Jon is a busy man right now (understatement), and he didn't have the time to do the swing set all at once, so he worked on it in the evenings and on some days just an hour at a time.. so it was a process. But Kellen was so patient. With every new addition he would get so excited. He would just play with whatever was put together. sweet boy

There were a few more stages than this but apparently I forgot I was taking 'stage' pictures.. pretty typical on my part :)  

Can we get a drum roll please........

Viola!
After blood and sweat and time and tired eyes and laughs and curse words,, lol
its finally complete!



 

Talk about one happy little boy. You might be thinking we are pretty excited over something so simple.. and yes, we ARE this excited over something most take for granted. We keep things real and try to teach him to be grateful for everything he has... not to mention my toy is my camera and I take advantage of any excuse to use it.

:)

 

Well, once again, here is my heart wrapped up in one picture. We are pretty content just being together in this backyard.. HOURS will be spent here this Summer! 

 

...and even Babz (Abby) got to go for a slide ride!

Kellen might have enjoyed this a tad more than she did, but she was a trooper none the less.

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Oh, and then there was the snake, EEK

The back of our house is backed up to a farmer's field with cows, spiders, coyotes, rats, snakes... the etc etc goes on and on but I try really hard not to think about it as the older I get the less I want to encounter any of it.. ha

Last week we were all kickin' it in the backyard while Jon finished up the swing and the dogs were barking next door, our dog was barking, kellen was yelling and the birds in the trees behind our fence were going crazy.. I was joking with Jon and was like 'sounds like a real Circus in our backyard today.'  and finally I was like I get why the dogs and Kellen are being loud , but what is up with the birds ??!! So I look up to see what is ruffling those feathers, and plain as day, there is a rather large snake making his way up the bare bark of the top of the tree. and its pretty obvious what he is after, as there is a big ol perfectly made birds nest sitting at the very top of the tree. (this particular part of the tree is just the tall stalk of the tree, no leaves or branches, so its all in plain view.)..

I jump up with the weeby jeebies and i'm like, snake! theres a huge snake trying to get the bird eggs, gross gross gross..

Jon sees it and goes and gets his gun.

The rest is history as you can see from the picture. Listen, I like me some nature, grew up driving 4wheelers, and love to camp with the best of em.. but can't handle snakes. gag-o-maggot! and we'll just call Jon the executioner!

:)