Memorial Day

 

 Memorial Day we drove into Leesburg with Grandma and Grandpa Boyd. 

We stopped by Leesburg's Memorial wall honoring all those who have served their country.

 Looking for Great Grandpa Ponder's name.

 Anne's dad, (Grandpa Ponder) served in WWII. 

I never got to meet him but later that day we went to visit Grandma Ponder and she told me a few stories about their travels together while he was in the Air Force.

She told me they were living in Japan when the war ended. They had three children and had to take a boat to get home. She said the boat was a type of transport boat and even though their husbands were traveling on the same boat, they weren't aloud to be with their families. The men were kept below deck while the women and children stayed in the cabins above deck. When I asked her how long they were on the boat she said about three weeks!!! 3 weeks on a boat with three young children that you have to handle all by yourself? I can barely handle one for 9 hours! 

Women whose husbands serve in the military are made of tough stuff.

(Anne check my facts and set em' straight :)

 It started to rain towards the end of our visit so we had to make a mad dash to the car. Somebody looks cozy.

 We dried off back at Grandma Ponder's house and had dinner with her.

 Then Grandpa Boyd and Collin went missing. When we looked out the window we saw them across the lake. See the little blue and red dot on the other side? They walked around the whole thing :)

 We ended up eating WAY too much watermelon, apple pie, and mint Oreo cookies that day.

I'm so glad we were able to visit the memorial wall. Even though it was such a small amount of names in comparison to how many men and women have served our country, it really touched my heart and made me extra grateful for my life.

 This is what Collin and I saw when we woke up Saturday morning.

Sorry for the graininess. I had to take the picture through our screened porch.

 I feel like I personally haven't been keeping the Sabbath Day holy lately and I wanted to have good habits in place before Collin is old enough to really understand what's going on around him. So Sunday Michael helped me brain storm on a few ideas of reverent things we could do as a Family on Sunday.

 I originally called it our "reverent box" but Michael, trying to be funny, started naming of all these ridiculous things like, "Go out to eat" and "go swimming". When I told him those things weren't appropriate for Sunday he said, "Man mom, you're taking all the fun out of Sunday." So the box was instantly renamed our Fun Box.

It's a little bare right now but I hope to add ideas every Sunday.

Oh, and just so you know, the one in the box says "Make a tent and read scriptures" (had to make sure we kept it a little reverent)

Monday is our FUN day!!!! 

After Collin helped me weed and water my garden (he tends to water himself and me more than my plants)

we watched daddy mow the grass. Collin is becoming pretty attached to his daddy. Every time he gets up he runs through the house until he finds Michael and then gets all excited. I love it :)

 

We went to the pool after Michael finished the yard but did I remember to take my camera!? Of course not!

However I did get pictures of our after pool snack. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Boyd. (But just so you know, Michael and I barely got to eat ANY!)

 

 I found my old Primary Partners book that I use to use when I taught Nursery and Sunbeams so I decided to use it for our FHE lessons.

Monday's lesson was on "I Am a Child of God"

 Collin really got into coloring and gluing his crown together but refused to wear it!

 Thanks for being such a good sport Michael.

I snapped the picture below literally seconds before he ripped it off his head and threw it on the ground.

 For our FHE treat we went and got mine, and Collins FAVORITE treat. 

Chocolate Elvis from Planet Smoothie!!!

I forgot to bring Collin his own cup so I had to share with him. Every time I asked for a sip and went to reach for it Collin would shake his head and smack my hand away. His lips never left the straw and it was significantly lighter when I finally did get it back.

 

We ended the night with Collin's nightly ritual of running and hiding when it's bed time. Except this time his pants were a little saggy. You can thank that heavy diaper from drinking all that smoothie for slowing you down :)

 More proof that Collin loves the water, he brought his float to me and was begging to go swimming this morning. (Yes I'm lazy and let my child wear the same outfit two days in a row. If it's not extremely dirty of course.)

 Here's the tantrum that ensued when I said no :)

Did I mention someone figured out how to take his diaper off? 

The picture's blurry because he took off when he saw me coming after him.

The Kid Loves Water!

Yay! Collin loves the pool this year! Actually, he loves anything to do with water, but that especially includes the pool! 

I just bought him this puddle jumper (life-vest/arm floats) and he's become more adventurous. He begs me to pull him into the deeper parts of the pool now and he thinks it's the funniest thing that he's able to float without me touching him. 

I was a little hesitant to get this because I didn't want him to become too dependent on a float and not learn to swim. But gosh darn it I'm CRAZY!!! Every time he slipped off the stairs and sucked water up his nose it freaked me out. I just knew he was gonna dry-drown when I put him down for his nap later on because he had breathed in too much water.

So really, the floats are for his insanely fear driven mother :) 

When Collin got up from his nap later that day I asked him if he wanted to take a bath in mommy's big bath tub. He was sooooooooo excited! (As you can tell by the picture) I told him he had to wait until I got all his stuff together but when I came back I saw he had started without me. Thank goodness he turned on the cold water and not the Hot!

My Saving Grace

 For months I have been fighting with Collin to get in his car-seat. He runs away from me, he arches his back so I can't buckle him in and he cries like mad. He'll pretty much do anything to keep me from strapping him in his seat. It was making my life miserable. I didn't want to go anywhere because I was too exhausted to fight with him not to mention I was pulling stomach muscles EVERY single time. 

 

I know it was definitely due to many prayers that I finally received the inspiration that would save my sanity...and my back.

My aunt had gotten Collin a Pez candy dispenser a few weeks ago and Collin loves all things candy. So every time we get ready to get in the car I fill his car pez with three pieces of candy and tell him he can have it when he gets in his seat. He climbs in without any fuss! And his treat is completely mess free. 

I LOVE Pez!

 And since he did so well running errands I let him play with water when we got home. I couldn't find anything better to use then an old wipes container but he didn't seem to mind. I think he was just excited that I was letting him dump water on the floor. I was just excited that it was outside and I wouldn't have to clean it up. As opposed to when he fills a cup up from the fridge and then dumps it all over my kitchen floor so he can splash in the puddle.

The Perfect Teacher for an Imperfect Mother

This past Sunday was Mother's Day. I was spoiled rotten, mostly by my husband since Collin is still way too young to know what's going on. I enjoyed being pampered and although Michael was the one who had to cook me breakfast and pick out my mother's day card, Collin still managed to give me a gift all his own. It wasn't jewelry or clothes or anything with monetary value. It was a lesson. A lesson that taught me that everything I thought I knew about being a mother was wrong!  

It all started when we got to church late! When we get to church late it means we have to sit in the overflow. Which meant we were sitting in metal chairs set up on the wooden gym floor. Which meant Collin would have wide open spaces and we wouldn't be able to block him in with the pews. Collin of course knew this and took full advantage of his good fortune. I was determined to get Collin to sit in his seat and when I was met with resistance and the beginnings of a fit I grabbed Collin up and stomped out to the foyer. (I know what you're thinking here, "Who's the child here? You stomped out?" But I assure you that my 3 inch heals on that wooden floor and the force I used to push the door open made for a very intimidating site.) Not convinced? Yeah, neither was Collin. For the next few minutes he cried and squirmed and bucked trying to get me to put him down. I guess he has yet to realize that the person who gave him his stubborn streak was also the one holding him at that moment. So we were locked in this physical struggle, both of us unwilling to give in. And then Collin did something I never expected.

He slapped me in the face! 

I was frozen in shock. Did my child just slap me?

As if Collin was reading my thoughts he did it again!

Don't worry, Collin is still alive and well :)

After we both calmed down I headed back down the hall toward the chapel. I was not in the best mood. As we passed a picture on the wall Collin pointed and said, "Jesus." Collin had hurt my pride just 5 minutes earlier and all I wanted to do was stay mad. But as I turned to the picture my son was pointing to I saw that not only was it a picture of Jesus, but it was Jesus holding a child. (Sometimes I swear kids plan these things) 

I looked at the picture and then down at my son. For the second time that day I was frozen in shock, but this time it was because I suddenly realized why Collin is my son. Heavenly Father knows how I am. He knows all my imperfections and he knows exactly what I need to become perfect. All this time I had thought that Collin had been sent to me so that I could love and raise him to be a wonderful person. And while that is my responsibility, in that split second I realized that Collin wasn't just sent to me, he was sent for me. I might teach him how to read or teach him what the principles of faith and patience mean, but he is teaching me how to apply them. He's teaching me lessons I might never learn on my own. 

I am imperfect in so many ways so my Heavenly Father sent the one person who could help me become perfect.........one day.

If one child can teach so many things imagine what two will do!
I'll either become very saintly or very crazy :)       

Disney

This past Monday we went to Disney with our friends the Halls.

The weather was perfect and we had so much fun!

 Collin whimpered throughout the entire Winnie the Pooh ride, but he LOVED the interactive play area in the line for the ride.  

 We soon discovered it wasn't just the Winnie the Pooh ride Collin didn't like. If it was dark and loud, he wasn't too thrilled.

 One ride he did love, was the Dumbo ride. Apparently he's afraid of loud noises but not heights?

He also enjoyed the train ride we took around Disney.

Climbing up the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

I thought Collin would enjoy the tree house (and he did) but I forgot how many stairs were in this thing. And of course he had to be carried throughout most of it. This was one of those times I think Michael was glad Collin is underweight for his age.

We stopped by the tiki splash zone since Collin has had an obsession with water lately. He walked right up to the totem poles and then suddenly stopped. For the entire 10 minutes that we were there he didn't move an inch. He didn't even move his head. He was watching everything out of the corner's of his eyes. Silly kid. I think all the kids running and screaming kinda overwhelmed him.

This made me laugh. This kid never sleeps unless he's in his bed or his car seat. Even when he's extremely tired he'll keep pushing himself and go into this zombie state, but he's never gone to sleep. So it surprised me when he zonked out and stayed asleep even through two rides. 

Luckily he woke up in time to ride Buzz Lightyear.

What is it with boys and shooting things?

And of course we couldn't leave Disney without stopping by Casey's Corner

However, I believe the highlights of Collin's day was when this family of ducks walked right in front of him. (He was so enthralled)

And when we let him play in this fountain.

That's what I love about toddlers, it's the simple things that make them happy.

We thought these trees looked awesome so we had to include them :)

What a perfect day!