perspective

Gage has been one for just about 2 months now. Where does the time go? He is so fun right now and such a busy little body. As you can see he always is climbing up on the chairs to see what's been left on the table. When he smiles he shows his front teeth and it's cute and cheesy. He loves to be outside, in the stroller or not. Gage's communication is awesome. He signs more, please, thank you, milk, all done, and bye bye, which is also night night. He says, "momma", and "hi" which sounds like ha. He also throws tantrums when he is frustrated and points and grunts to what he wants.
Gage is a momma's boy but recently I have been known to be easily forgotten at the appearance of popcorn. The baby does love his popcorn! His other favorite foods are sweet potatoes, chicken, apples, pears, broccoli, and french fries, in no particular order.
Gage is a walking machine. He prefers to walk now over crawling and is still a climber!
His favorite toys are balls (loves all balls), trucks and trains, pretend phones, and the kids' markers which he isn't supposed to have but someone always gets a hold of. He has been known to color on the floor and most recently has been really into Adelle's lipstick. Messy!
Gage loves to sing songs and clap his hands. At church when I am trying to keep him quiet I take his little hand and spread out his fingers and play that, "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, woop, Johnny," game with his fingers and he loves it. He is completely memorized by it. Does everyone know what I'm talking about there? 
Another thing I must make mention of is the fact that he is an ear rubber. He plays with his ears when he's tired, or my ears, or whoever he is sitting with he will reach for their ears and rub and twist them when he gets tired. It's really sweet. It's also caused me to loose a few earrings. I usually just wear studs, and he likes to twist them right off ;)

It's been fun to just enjoy my sweet one year old. I have been thinking back over the course of the years with my other babies and realizing that uniquely enough now, at this time, I am totally content with just having a one year old. It's such a comfortable place to be and one that I cannot say I have always been in.

I remember when Braxton turned one I went into a crazy baby making mode. I knew that I wanted him and Adelle 18 months apart so as soon as he turned one I was ready to be pregnant. Like, Now! Well, that didn't happen so what do I do but get super paranoid and consumed in the fact that I wasn't pregnant and therefore things were just not going to work out. Thankfully my mom, in her loving, honest manner, one day finally told me, "Andrea, what if Braxton is the only child you were meant to have? Maybe you just need to enjoy him and this stage you are in at this time." Such real words that I needed to hear so badly. Obviously I was already enjoying him but it was a good perspective.

Then when little Adelle turned one I was already 3 months pregnant with Emmett. I must have been a lot younger then or had a lot more adrenaline. Either way that was a busy time and I remember sitting and just soaking up Adelle, knowing that she would soon no longer be the baby.

When Emmett turned one we were in the peak of our family depression. I don't say that to be funny, or casual, but to be honest and even thankful. There was so much stress during this year. I was so scared for my family, my children.  Looking back, their were such bounteous blessings. We always had sufficient. The thought of having another baby though ,was not even one that I considered for a minute. I often wonder if Emmett would be the daddy's boy he is today if it weren't for this year that his dad was out of work and spent so much time with him. This was the year I was barely staying afloat.

So here we are. Life is still challenging and busy. Their is still stress and expectations. There are dreams and fears of the future. There are questions the kids ask that I don't know how to answer. Things don't always go as planned. All I know right now is that things are just as they should be. They have always been just as they should be, I am just a slow learner. So Gage is one and guess what... I love it. Period. Exclamation point!

GO SEAHAWKS!

Lucky for you all the Seahawks are playing tonight so while my love is watching the game, I am gonna catch up on some blogging! Because let's face it... there is always catching up to do!

The wrestling saga continues. Braxton has gone from being super pumped, to crying and wanting to quit, and now finally to accepting the idea that unless he likes being beat up on, he's gonna have to put up a fight! It's been an altering few weeks but finally tonight Jeff reported after practice that Braxton actually fought back. That's progress. Braxton has really good form, but he isn't super aggressive. It's all a learning process but he's getting it. Lucky for him his dad is coaching him 24/7! What's there not to love about that. pun intended ;)

His first tournament was memorable. He got pinned almost instantly in both matches (mind you he wrestled against the last year state champ) but contrary to my suspicions he didn't get upset he just sort of took it and in the end when he got the bronze medal he was as happy as could be.

Jeff thought he was really funny the other day when he took this selfie and made it the wallpaper on my phone. Well, it got funnier than that! I went to Joannes to buy some felt and here I thought I would use my phone coupon. So I pull it up and hand it to the girl who tells me I must wait, it's not time for the coupon yet. So I put the phone down, only to have her pick it up a few seconds later and here is this hilarious selfie of Jeff, just staring at her. lol!! I laughed out loud and then clumsily tried to find the coupon for the poor girl ;) 

I don't know if I was demoted or promoted but I wasn't assigned to bring pie to Thanksgiving this year at Great Mary's. Instead I was put in charge of vegetables so we made the most of it and created this lovely turkey inspired by pinterest. 

Then a few days later we made these table toppers for Thanksgiving Dinner # 3.  My friend who works in a restaurant gave me a ton of corks so I was glad to make use of them. I didn't have to buy any materials to make these. I started them when I was babysitting Colton and he wanted one so bad that I let him take one home. It was so funny. His mom came to get him and he kept showing them to her and asking her to make them.Then later that night when Gage was in bed Jeff and I and the kids made an assembly line and banged the rest of these babies out. Adelle wrote the names. My little school girl.

Turkey dinner # 1 was at our good friends John and Jama's. They hosted their 1st Annual Friendsgiving and it was so fun and relaxing. There were 10 couples who shared a wonderful feast and good conversation at our adult only party. John's mashed potatoes were so, so, good! I am looking forward to this tradition for many more years.

Turkey dinner # 2 was at Great Mary's. It's always the Sunday before Thanksgiving with all my dad's family. My dad fries up his hooligans and we eat them before the Turkey is served. So good.

The night before Thanksgiving was Braxton's first Pack Meeting where he received his Bobcat badge which he earned. The scouting program has always really intimidated me but I must say after reading the beginning of the book and working with Brax we are off to a good start. I think the program is really awesome and Braxton is completely self motivated to do it. 

This is him pinning me with the mother's pin. 

The boys played in the Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving morning. It was such a beautiful day and they were ready for some football. Emmett got the ball and apparently ran the wrong way, only to be told, "run the other way," to which he responded by just running in circles. I can totally see it in my mind even though I wasn't there. Adelle, Gage and I read books for the first part of the morning in our cozy jammies and then we eventually got bundled up and walked down to the school to see the boys. Braxton scored a touchdown!!

I took this picture of my mom after commenting on her Thanksgiving attire. She responded something about Duck Dynasty and although I have never seen the show, I think she is spot on! ;) 

Thanksgiving Dinner #3 was on the official day and it was wonderful. My dad took our 3 big kids out to their place in the morning after the football game and Jeff and I played only child with Gage. Aka we put Gage down for a nap and hung out. Then we eventually made it out to the Bay to my parents where we hung out the rest of the day and ate a yummy dinner with most of my mom's family.
Lesha had been up the week leading up to Thanksgiving so we got lots of cousin time with Carson. He spent the night with us and got to go on lots of adventures with us. School for lunch and recess with Adelle and Brax, soccer with Emmett, and pack meeting.

We all enjoyed a really nice, quiet, long weekend after Thanksgiving. We watched some Christmas movies. We made some salt dough ornaments, did a little shopping, lots of sleeping in and being lazy.

In other news I have a much desired sourdough starter that I started all on my own and that has been thriving for a month. It's been really fun to work with and so far our family's favorite is the sourdough pancakes. They are so, so, good! We've also done pizza dough and waffles. 

Jeff and I are reading this book and I am loving it! Lot's of good food for though in there.

Giving Thanks

 My kids received their own hand painted turkeys in the mail last week. So cute. Thanks Uncle Brent and Aunt Jess!

We hosted friends for a special Thankful Family Home Evening. Here are some poor quality of the kids dancing for us after putting on their own Thanksgiving play.

I love this whole month and the constant reminder it brings to give thanks.

hooligans

Hooligan: A small ( approximately 7 inch ) slimy fish that swims from the bay, up the Nooksack River, to span. Every year on my dad’s birthday. And we eat it. And it’s delicious.
Dad: A large (approximately 6 foot) tall, great man who you can find on the Nooksack River on his birthday, fishing for Hooligans.
Emmett: A medium (approximately 3 foot) tall, sweet boy who fell in love with the one and only Hooligan we caught on our fishing trip.
So we went fishing, two times. Once my parents came along. No luck. Once we decided to voyage out on our own. Minimal luck. Like, we caught one hooligan.
Needless to say, both attempts were on beautiful days/nights and we all enjoyed some good chilly NW fresh air!
On the first attempt we walked the trail by flashlight. That was fun and exciting and a bit nerve racking as a parent.
On the second attempt we had daylight on our side, but not Braxton. He was at a friends and our decision to go was sporadic so he didn’t get to come. Next time!
Jeff held that big, heavy, net in that flowing water for what seemed like forever and we got one fish out of the deal. Once Emmett was introduced to the hooligan, whom he later named, Hooligan, there was no turning back. He carried that little fish. Sang to it, made faces at it, talked to it… and all the while the poor young lad actually thought that fish was alive and listening. Ha. So funny.
Adelle entertained herself by walking along the riverbank all the way telling me, “mom, really, I am not trying to fall in!” Finally I convinced her to climb the trees to see if she had a better view of the fish. It worked at getting her off the bank.
That night we fried that baby, Hooligan, up and ate him. All 4 of us, except for Emmett. He didn’t want to eat his friend Hooligan but he was okay that we did. He was delicious!
Hooligan fishing is a long time tradition in my family. My Grandpa Froberg would go with my dad (and probably Grandma too). My dad still always goes when they are running. He used to take whoever wanted to go with him. That wasn’t usually me! I vaguely remember going one time and I was really young. That was enough fun for me. This may surprise you but I am not so much a tom boy, lol. I do however have tons of pictures of me as a kid, fishing. My brothers usually tagged along with my dad. One time one of my brothers actually fell in the river! I remember them coming home and this particular brother telling us that he saw sharks when he was under water. Talk about a fish tale! There are no sharks in the river! Since my brothers have been gone Jeff has gone with my dad and taken Braxton.
My fondest memory of Hooligans involves me coming home late one night after breaking up with a boyfriend only to see my dad standing at the kitchen sink, cleaning hooligans. He was apparently just the sounding board I needed and I remember joining him in his bloody effort and crying about how over my life was.
I decided I like fishing for hooligans. Everyone along the river was so friendly. “How many you got?” laughter “That’s not going to feed all of you.” laughter “any luck?” more chuckles and laughter. Everyone just outside having a gay old time.
We will definitely carry on this tradition.
You can see what they are here.