Just Boys Being Boys?

I did not have any brothers. Just the two sisters and me. We only had one boy cousin who lived close by when we were growing up. The result of this is that I don't really know a whole lot about little boys. I have been learning about them as my two boys grow up. Fortunately for them, they have their dad around to guide them in the ways of being a boy.
So, in not knowing much about little boys I often wonder if the things that these boys do are just normal little boy things or if they are unique to my little guys. One of those things that has been just driving me nuts these last few weeks, or so, is their apparent innate need to destroy things. Maybe there are mothers all over who are struggling with the same issue. Maybe I just have two destructive little boys who need to learn a lesson about taking care of things. Oh my goodness it drives me nuts!
It is not uncommon for us to be walking through the house or even through a store and boy number one will go out of his way to step on something on the floor. If boy number two is actually walking he will follow suit. There have been a number of toys broken by little hands and feet. There have been a number of things broken from being thrown or run over or whatever method they come up with at the time.
As I watch boy number one go out of his way to be destructive in some way shape or form and boy number two follow suit, I wince and wonder, "is this actually normal?"

Been Awhile

Wow, I hadn't realized that it has been so long since we posted anything! I guess the business of the days leading up to Christmas got the better of us. That last week was pretty exhausting! I have not been online very much and missed reading all of the posts on my favorite blogs. I hope all my friends out there in blog world had a great holiday!

Well, Christmas at our house was chaotic, of course. There is no way around that with 4 small children! It was a wonderful couple of days of celebration, though. The husband ended up with an extra day off work because of an injury I suffered to my knee (there's a whole blog entry to that story!) so, we had him home for a 4 day weekend. That was nice, even with the painful knee!
Christmas Eve service at our church was fantastic. It was a bummer for the husband who missed much of it when he had to take the screaming boy out to the lobby. The older two kiddos really enjoyed the music and the story. It was funny that they didn't recognize Gram's voice as the cow. Everyone involved with the whole production did a wonderful job, we thank you. It was a great service, especially for the children.
The tradition in my husband's family is to open stockings in the evening on Christmas Eve so, we all got together at the Gram and Pappy's house after they were finished with their work at church; with the addition of one very dear friend. I do believe there was a great time had by all. We have a simple dinner with appetizer type foods that we can all "graze" on throughout the evening and, as usual, Gram had some very yummy things for us all to eat. It was so fun watching the kiddos. They ended up opening their stockings after all the adults and they were so excited about watching each one of open our little presents. They were so excited, it was as if they were getting the gifts themselves. Those kiddos are way too much fun! The Gram and Pappy put together some pretty fun stockings for us all. Thanks much. :)
After the Gram and Pappy's house we headed home to do our stockings at our house as the husband couldn't stand to wait until the morning. The kiddos were just as enthusiastic at home even though it was getting insanely late. My favorite comment of the evening was when Maverick opened a little bug magnifier container on a necklace, he said "Hey! I got a girl thing! Why did you get me a girl thing?!" Yes, because when one thinks of playing with bugs they always think of girls. Silly boy! After the opening of stocking gifts at our house the kiddos finally headed to bed. It was midnight, and I hadn't even opened mine yet! I waited for them to go to bed. The hubby and Miss Chris did an excellent job putting together a stocking for me, as usual.
Some pretty fun and useful stuff, thanks guys.
Christmas morning. The kiddos slept in until 10:30 or so. THANK YOU! We opened presents at home and then headed over to the Gram and Pappy's house. We got there much later than planned due to the sleepy little children and those two were very ready to get to the gift giving. :) It is so much fun to watch those kiddos open their gifts and get so excited about what they were given. Mr Maverick was a hoot when he opened "Mine very own scooter!" You should have seen the look on his face. And Sir Kannon with all his books, he was in heaven. Miss Teya loved her pretty little purse and has been carrying it around all day. :) Baby Faith was content to sit with Mommy and doze through the festivities. I can't even begin to describe what a wonderful gift the new computer monitor was for the hubby and me ! WOW! Love it! Thanks a million!
Gram made a wonderful ham dinner for us. I think that is always my favorite part of the day. Sitting down to eat together. There is always delicious food at Gram's house and it's so nice to have that time to just be together and talk and laugh.

So, Christmas and Christmas Eve were very fun days for this little family. We all enjoyed our time together and had so much fun giving out the gifts we had for each other. We also did not forget the reason for the celebration and were so thankful for the birth of our Savior.

I hope those of you out there in the world had wonderful holidays too.

Dear Maverick,

Yesterday was your birthday. You are four now! I can't believe you are four! It seems like a very short time ago that I was holding you as we walked through the apartment singing your "sleepy Maverick" song as you cried and cried in the middle of the night. That was our routine every night for many, many nights. Weeks of nights. I think the neighbors were very happy when we moved out! So, here we are four years later and you still don't sleep through the night!

Maverick, I am so glad you are here. We have a lot of rough times and I often wonder if we will ever make it through an entire day without time outs and such. But, I am so glad you are here. You have a very strong personality and you are so smart and friendly I can't wait to see where it takes you in life!

Here are some things I love about you:

-Your big blue eyes that sparkle when you are happy.

-Your cool surfer dude hair. It really suits your personality! I love the way you look when you have been swimming.

-How loving you are with your little brother and sister.

-How you want to include your big sister in everything you do.

-How you refuse to let anything get you down. You bounce back to your happy self so quickly when things go wrong!

-The stories you tell!

-There is little in this world that scares you. You think you can do anything and you can because you won't let anything stop you. (this drives me crazy sometimes! sometimes? maybe a lot. I believe it will get you somewhere, eventually, though.)

-You have the cutest smile.

-Your fashion sense cracks me up! :)

Maverick, you are such a bright, happy, caring little boy. The people who get to know you are truely blessed. You drive me crazy and you know exactly which buttons to push to make me frustrated or angry but, you also make me smile and laugh and want to hug and kiss you until you can't stand it anymore. Life with you has been an adventure. I can't wait to see what year four will bring.

This makes me sad

I have a friend. A very dear friend whom I have known for many years. This very dear friend of mine is a Christian. This very dear friend of mine hates Christmas. Not only Christmas but this entire holiday season. You see, this friend of mine grew up with parents who were divorced, like me, and, for her, the holidays were about getting passed around from one family to the other and eating more holiday dinners than one person could possibly digest. This friend also has a step-mother who's Christmas focus seems to be purely about the gift giving and this upsets my friend, understandably as that is not what the holiday is really all about.
All that is sad. But, what really makes me sad is that this dear friend of mine doesn't seem to want to get over her dislike for the holidays. She is now out of the situation where she must continue to have the same holiday experiences she had growing up but, she is not over her feelings of dislike for this time of year. I guess it's because it's only her second Christmas away and she has not had enough time to get past it yet. I feel sad for her that she is not able, or maybe not willing yet, to just enjoy the reason for the holiday and celebrate. There is such joy in celebrating the birth of our Savior with friends and family, people that you love. There is such joy using this time to show the people you love how special they are to you and sharing our love for Jesus with each other. I am so sad for her that she is missing out on that joy. I pray that this year she will start to experience it and maybe begin to enjoy her self just a little bit. I wish that there was something that I could do to help her but, I have tried and nothing has worked, she still feels miserable and insists she doesn't like it. I will pray for her.