Football time!

(My future football player)It was exciting to be moving to Nebraska right in the middle of football season with us being Cornhusker fans. Clayton calls it "football game time." We got to enjoy a football game with my friend Leah, whom I have known my whole life, and her family. Their basement is the Nebraska football room and they have every Husker paraphenellia there is!
Clayton and Keegan

The first weekend after we moved here, Brody suprised me with tickets to a game. We had so much fun! I am not a huge fan of football, but being in Memorial Stadium with die-hard fans, seeing the sea of red is quite a breath taking experience.

We got to go to a second game with some of our family.

(Cousin Marcus, cousin Becki, my sister Joni, me and Brody)

(me, my dad, Joni)

Back on the farm

I grew up on a farm in a small town called McCook, 4 1/2 hours west of Omaha. I was a bit of a city girl growing up, but it is ironic, as I have got older my roots have come back to me. I have looked forward to spending time on the farm and helping my dad when Brody and I have traveled back to Nebraska over the years to see family. I never imagined I would end up back in Nebraska! While Brody was in training for two weeks, Clayton and I traveled to McCook to spend some time on the farm. His whole world opened up to a new level! He had so much fun being outside with Pappa feeding the cows, horses, riding on the tractor and exploring the farm. (Pappa's little shadow)

(Feeding cows right behind the house)

He also got to go for a ride on the combine. That is all he can talk about now! Brody bought him the Cars movie and although he has very little interest in watching it, he loves watching the tractor tipping scene and seeing the combine race through the field.

(Trying to eat a hard piece of corn)

While there, my sister and I took the boys fishing at the sandpits. Clayton has learned how to cast his pole and loves to fish so that is all he could talk about while waiting for the boys to get out of school that day.

(Nephews, Logan-Joni's son, Ryan & Clayton)

Ryan caught a huge wiper! Clayton wasn't too sure about the fish and wouldn't even stand near it, but all he could talk about afterwards was "Ryan caught a big fish" with his arms out.

A Season.......

3 years ago, Brody and I packed up our house in Nampa, Idaho and drove 500 miles to our new destination in Chico, California where Brody would start his new job as a sales representative for Stryker Medical. This was a new adventure for us. We left our family for the first time ever, friends since high school, our new home of 1 year and our new church family; everything that was familiar to us. During our month of packing, I struggled with this change, I was comfortable where I was. I envisioned starting our family in our new home and building our life together there.

One Sunday at church our pastor began singing "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman, I broke down crying as I heard the words "Oh no, You never let go through the calm and through the storm. Oh no, you never let go in every high and every low. Oh no, you never let go. Lord, you never let go of me". I then knew that the Lord would take care of us through this change and that this was part of his plan for us. After church was over, a church friend came over to talk to me and said she used to live in Chico and she would give us the name of her friends to get in contact with when we got there. We did contact them and they became part of our Chico family. Right away God put great people in our lives!
Jenna and I were pregnant together with our boys being born 2 months apart. We walked every week in the park up until the day the boys were born. After birth, we needed more of a change, so we started rollerblading. Justin and Brody hit it off right away with their love to hunt! Jenna's parents welcomed us right into their family and we enjoyed many wonderful dinners with them and had lots of laughs.

Elliana, the big sister, was like a big sister to Clayton too. Tucker and Clayton, these two boys together are double trouble!

My dad's sister, Rose and her family, lived 20 minutes from us. We had lots of fun family times eating and playing games. My aunt and cousin Colleen were the first ones to welcome our new baby boy! They even kept Clayton overnight for us several times so we could have daddy/mommy time.

Uncle Don is a huge Cornhusker fan too, and Brody enjoyed watching many games with him.

We had the best neighbors ever! We were welcomed right away when we moved in and were blessed with food and gifts when Clayton was born. We had neighborhood parties and an annual Easter egg hunt for the kids.

After Clayton was born, I started attending mommy/baby educational classes. After the classes ended, us moms formed a playgroup, and we met every week sharing our mothering experiences and watching our little ones grow. It is hard to believe we just celebrated their 2nd birthdays!

(1st Birthday party)

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because you turn has come to share, grown or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it; it is real, but only for a season. Our Chico family/friends touched for lives in so many ways during the 3 years we were there. They will never be forgotten and will be greatly missed! I could probably write a book on our life in Chico with all the memories that were made there. I am so thankful we got to experience life in Chico!

3 years later almost to the day, we said good-bye to the life we had built in Chico and moved 1700 miles to Omaha, Nebraska where Brody took a new job in sales with Bard Peripheral Vascular. We started over once; I have faith that we will do it again!

October

My favorite month of the year; time for pumpkin spice lattes and homemade pumpkin bread, the leaves are beginning to change color and the weather is cool.

This October was a very busy month for us, thus why I am just now updating my blog. It started off by Brody accepting a job in Omaha, NE and ended with moving. I will post more on our move in the next posts.

Clayton and I went with our friends to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch the middle of the month. As you can see Clayton had a blast. We went on a train ride, tractor ride to the pumpkin patch, and played with the farm animals.

He looks like such a little man in this picture!

My mom was visiting and got to go to the pumpkin patch with us too!

We celebrated 2 year birthday's with a party! Clayton and I have been in a mom/baby playgroup since he was born and we have continued to get together and have celebrated two birthday's now with all the little ones. It has been so amazing to watch these little ones grow and share the joys and challenges of motherhood with the moms.

The other thing I love about October is getting our family costume together for Halloween; we started this tradition on Clayton's 1st Halloween. This year we were Scooby-doo and the gang. We did a little trick or treating in our neighborhood and then went to our friends' Halloween party.
After a couple houses, Clayton figured out what he was suppose to do. He was very excited about the candy (he had never seen so much before). He overdosed on sugar that night, and was a little monster who finally when to bed at 11:30! Thank goodness Halloween is only once a year!!

Clayton's Motorcycle Party

(I used the above picture for the invitations. We borrowed our neighbors little motorcycle to take the picture on.)

We celebrated Clayton's 2nd birthday at the park across the street from our house last Saturday. (His actual birthday is this Saturday the 19th and we will be camping for the weekend with friend.) "Practice makes perfect" paid off this year. Last year we had lots of people at our house with dinner and Clayton histarically cried and missed half of the party. I wasn't sure what to expect this year; I just knew I wanted to have it somewhere other than our house and to go simple with just cake. Clayton ended up having a blast and so did all the other kids!

When I decided what to do for the cake I realized it decribes him perfectly at 2 years old: motorcycles, dirt, and rocks. He loves to watch motorcycles and points them out when he hears them "cycle" "vroom, vroom" He loves playing in the dirt in our garden box and loves picking up rocks and throwing them in water.

I started with a 9x13 sheet cake and then also made to round cakes to make jumps for the motorcycles on the cake. I used chocolate graham crackers for the dirt and found rock candy to add to the cake. Clayton was so excited when he saw his cake; too bad I didn't get it on video.

Clayton and his friends waiting patiently for cake.

I found a motorcycle pinata at WINCO. The kids had so much fun trying to break it open. Clayton thought it was so funny to hit it. He looked at everyone and giggled.

My months of planning this party felt much rewarded with the joy my little man expressed on this day. We all had such a fun time!

Beating the Heat

It has been in the 100s for weeks now and we were lucky enough to escape the Chico heat two weekends in a row. 4th of July weekend we camped at Buck's lake with our friends. It was nice and cool there!! We rented a boat for a day. The guys tried their luck with the kids' fishing poles and left behind bait and a princess pole in the lake. We ate and ate, sat around the campfire and had smores, took walks, and played in the water. Jenna and I tried some crafting, but was short lived with toddlers. We were up at sunrise and exhausted by dark!

Elliana, Tucker and Clayton had fun helping drive the boat.

The boys decided to try a sand-mud mask for their hair. They were one big ball of dirt by the time we left. They were right in their element just like their dads, the outdoors. It will be fun when they can go hunting with them and we can have a girls weekend! How many years do you think we have Jenna? Two days is about all I can handle without a shower.

Brody's dad and stepmom came for a visit and we took them to San Fransisco to watch a Giants game. The weather was perfect, in the low 70s. The game was awesome, with the Giant's playing a no hitter game. Clayton had a great time at his first baseball game. He was so fun to watch!

Clayton loved having his "papa" and "ma" visit. He would get so excited in the morning to see them and we all had to gather in the bedroom at bedtime to read books.

8 years

Today Brody and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary. Every year on our anniversary he has gotten me a dozen red roses with a white rose for each year that we have been married. It seems only like yesterday that the red roses over powered the whites. Today as I reflect on those years, the white roses symbolize God's strength and love in our marriage. We were young, 20 and 21. I owe the success of our marriage to my Lord and Savior and am so thankful we found him to be the "Rock" of our marriage. We celebrated our anniversary on Saturday with dinner downtown and a movie to follow. For 2 hours we talked over dinner, we laughed, and enjoyed every bite of our dinner unintterupted by little man. I don't remember the last time we got to have dinner just the two of us. It was an absolutely wonderful evening!
I found this poem a while back and have wanted to frame it with a picture in our room. I haven't found the picture to go with it yet, but I decided to make Brody a card this year and put the poem on the front. Then this evening I found our wedding handouts, with this poem in it. Wow, no wonder I like it so much!

The Promise

Across the years I will walk with you

in deep green forests, on shores of sand,

and when our time on earth is through,

in heaven, too, you will have my hand.

Like father, like son

There is nothing more amazing than watching the man I love be a wonderful father to our "little man". He loves his daddy and loves doing everything he does.

For Father's day, we took a hike in Upper Bidwell Park and the boys played in the creek with Farrah.

A New Hobby

In February I decided I was going to start running with the intentions of training for a 1/2 marathon this fall. I bought my first pair of running shoes and found a Couch to 5K training program to get me going and I started my 10 week training program in March. Little did I know of what this new hobby would sprout. I have found so much joy in running the last 3 months, it has been a time for me to thought process, pray, and just simply have "me time". I have also found wonderful running partners, my family! Brody decided to start running as well and we take turns running with Clayton and Farrah.
I ran my first timed 5K race with Clayton the first part of May and then my official 5K race at the end of my training program a couple weeks later.

Brody and I ran our first race together May 17 in San Fransisco called "Bay to Breakers", a 12K. It was quite an experience to run with more than 30,000 people, some completely naked! It was a crazy first race, but so much fun and such a memorable event for us. I am so thankful to have ran my first race with my best friend.

There is something about having a finish that brings such an amount of accomplishment, joy, victory, and perseverance, knowing the end is near. Persevere, Brody brought this word up one day on a run and I have thought a lot about it lately. Perseverance is how I would describe overcoming the 1 mile hill in the bay to breaker race, overcoming the intense side aches without stopping, or the feeling of just wanting to collapse and quit at mile 5. I came across Everyday Becky and was inspired by her post on perseverance and her beginning journey with running. She had also posted this verse from Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." I love to find scripture that speaks to me. I have also found inspiration in a book that a friend gave me to read, Sole Sisters, stories of women and running. Next to being a wife and mother, I have found a love for running.

I look forward to our next race July 26th in Santa Cruz, the "Wharf to Wharf" 10K !!!

Roughin it

Last minute, we decided to go camping with the other thousands of people memorial weekend. This was our first camping trip with Clayton. We didn't know where we were going to camp or if we would even find a spot. We just took a chance (I prayed real hard that I wouldn't get upset if we drove around all day and found nothing). My prayers were answered, we found the last camping spot at buck's lake and this is the view we got to enjoy. Too bad I couldn't have been in the picture, this would have made a great Christmas card (maybe I will have to photo shop myself in). We had so much fun! It was so nice to thoroughly enjoy my family and not let my mind wander with what needed to be done around the house or what we were doing for dinner. Brody tried fishing a little, Farrah enjoyed swimming and Clayton had fun playing with sticks, building a sand castle with daddy, and walking in the water. I enjoyed the beauty of it all and of course keeping Clayton from getting hurt. He managed to burn his hand on the firepit, hit his head a couple of times and came home full of slivers in his hands and feet. I am suprised we haven't had an ER visit yet with this boy!

Clayton enjoyed his first smore! He says it was "num,num"!

Our two children hanging out in the sticks. These two are equal work, the only difference is we can put Farrah in her kennel or chain her up when she is causing trouble. Three days of camping was about enough for me without a shower!

Motherhood

God created me to be a mother, he gave me the gift to love and nuture his child, but he forgot to leave me any instructions on discipline. Clayton went from a baby one day to a toddler the next and now I feel like all I ever say is "No Clayton", "Get out of there Clayton". You can guess what his new favorite word is, "No"! He says no to everything even when he means yes. If you ask him if he wants to go outside, he will say "no" and run to the front door with a smile on his face.
There is a sweet side of Clayton that he must have got from his mother, right? He loves to give kisses and say "hi" and "bye" to everyone. This last weekend we left him with my Aunt Rose and Uncle Don and they said he was a very good boy. I am thankful for these times where I know I must be doing something right as a mother.

We spent Mother's Day at the Sacramento Zoo with our friend's Jenna, Justin, Elliana and Tucker, her sister, niece, and parents. Thanks Jenna for the nice family photo you took of us! This was Clayton's first trip to the zoo and he loved all the animals.

Here is a picture of the boys, Tucker and Clayton, with their daddy's. They were staying out of trouble on their shoulders. Tucker is Clayton's best buddy. They are two months apart and keep their momma's busy!