Blessings in abundance

Merry Christmas Everyone! 2011 was good for our family. We feel so blessed. We had a few changes to our lives this year. The best one being Randy's job with an amazing boss. He enjoys going to work and it's a full-time steady job! A million times better than being a sporadic substitute teacher. It was hard for me, having Randy give up his teaching dream (I was looking forward to vacationing all summer long). But this was a wonderful opportunity for him and he's really good at it. He works for MYCO as a broker. He buys and sells medical laboratory equipment to clinics and hospitals.

Another change we had was moving into a teeny tiny apartment to become assistant managers at the complex. I never knew how whiny people could actually be until I moved here. But it has been a very interesting learning experience for my family. Tripp actually enjoys helping me pick up garbage around the complex and gets mad at people who litter.

Tripp turned 3. He is a wild, athletic boy! He loves to wrestle Daddy and Deklan. He loves learning and preschool too. And he says the best prayers ever. (Sometimes blessing daddy to play Halo) He is a good brother to Deklan. He always tries to console him every time he cries.

Deklan turned 1. He is my master of disaster. He can get into just about everything. He always looks back at us and smiles when he knows he is doing something naughty. He likes to take stuff from me so I will chase him around the island in the kitchen. He loves his Trippy and wants to do everything he does.

I enjoy being a stay-at-home mommy everyday. I love being able to play with my boys whenever I want to. I am grateful for Randy and his willingness to support our little family.

Wishing all of you the best for 2012! Because you know that my family is going to rock it!

When it's not fun to go home...

This is my Grandpa LeFevre. Tomorrow (22nd) is his birthday. He would have turned 71. But he died on the first of this month. This is the most recent picture I have of him. Yeah, that's little 6 week old baby Tripp. I used to pride myself about still having all 4 of my grandparents still living. Now I am down to 3. It's hard to write this without crying, but I feel like more people should know about Grandpa and how much he was loved. Two words that best describe Grandpa: Flannel and candy. That is why they are on top of his casket. Grandpa loved candy so much that he called it medicine. I remember as a child falling off my bike and skinning my knee. Grandpa brought me some "medicine" to make me feel better.
He didn't like flowers. My aunt and the rest of us thought a candy bouquet was more fitting for him. Grandpa was number 7 out of 14 children. They didn't have alot of money growing up and he told us that they would use dried cow pies as frisbees. When Grandpa was a child, he was diagnosed with Polio. One of his legs was significantly shorter than the other which caused him to walk with a limp his entire life. My cousin Victor spoke at the funeral and told the story of how Grandpa would take me, Zayna, and Victor to get coffee with him in the morning. And the funny stares we would get cuz all of us followed Grandpa into the cafe, in a line, walking with a limp just like he did. He always bought us hot chocolate and occasionally we could talk him into buying us some fries as well.

It was hard for me being at Grandpa's house after the funeral. It just felt like he was going to walk in the back door from feeding the animals or walk down the hall with a bag of candy to share with everyone at any moment. Grandpa was generous. I think just about all of his children have lived with him at one time or another as adults. My family lived with him while we were building our house. I remember hearing him laugh at me every morning as I ran into the kitchen, grabbed my breakfast, and ran to school. He was usually smoking at the table and I was trying to avoid getting the smoke smell on me. Not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but I have a ribbon on my shirt with a mini Twix in the middle of it. All of my family members were wearing ribbons like these and several of my cousins wore Grandpa's flannel shirts to the funeral.
Notice how he is only picking out the suckers. Can anyone say "addict." It was just Deko and I who went to Idaho, since he is free on the plane.

My sisters. Funny how we are in order from youngest to oldest.

Darcy, Tera, Me, and Zayna


And this is where the kids hung out during lunch. -right next to the candy bucket.



Grandma Chidester (who just went through breast cancer), me, and my Mom



I went to a "hat and wig" party for her while I was there, but I'll include those pics in a different post.



Not sure if there are any easy funerals. They make me realize how short life really is. Grandpa you were loved and I can't wait to see you again.

Who is that baby?

This is what happens to my sweet baby hair when Deko is left alone with Zayna for a few hours.

Wow, that's a long time!

Can you believe that Randy and I have been married for 7 years now? And what do we have to show for it? 7 years of wild and crazy memories, several jobs to make ends meet, 5 different apartments that we have graced with our prescence, and 2 sweet rotten boys!
We look forward, with excitement, to the next 7 years!

Halloweeny Fun

This is pretty sad, but these are the only pics I have of Halloween. We also had a sweet trunk, but didn't take a pic of it. Oh well, the halloween carnival was a blast. Deko was super cute walking around with his treat bucket. Sometimes he was too fast and the people passing out candy couldn't give him any. He was definitely a little stinker. Someone please teach Tripp how to smile.

Smoothie Babies

My name is Deklan and I'm a smooth-aholic.

When my mom pulls out the blender, I go nuts until I get my smoothie. And when I finish my smoothie, I usually end up drinking half of my mom's smoothie as well. I can't get enough!

My name is Tripp and I am a smoothie master. I can make one mean smoothie. (do you like his battle wound above his eye? Titon and Diesol throw some wild birthday parties!)
Tripp started his traveling preschool and he loves it. He loves to learn and help with anything he can. After I made his lunch, I think Deko got jealous and he went and grabbed the other lunch box. Sorry baby, have to wait awhile till you get to go to school.

All ready to go to school!
Don't look at me, I never dress this kid!

Let me tell you...

You may think you have the best boss in the world, but no worries, I'll correct you. Because Randy has the BEST boss ever! Last week he paid for our family to have our pictures taken. And the lady got my rotten boys to smile for the camera -it's hard to get them to smile at the same time. And then he took everyone in the office on a retreat to a beautiful beach house. We got there before anyone else and got a grand tour of the place. Randy also picked out the best bedroom in the house for us. A king size bed with a bathroom with a jacuzzi right off of it. This home is awesome. My favorite part was the outside shower to rinse all the sand off of us before we went into the house. The first night we were there we stayed up late playing games with everyone. My favorite was "I never..." Where someone says something they have never done and if anyone has done it, they have to get up and switch chairs. Last one standing is "it." I got to learn some interesting things about Randy's coworkers and their spouses. The funniest of all was when we learned that one of the men has worn women's underwear.Bryan's daughter has been in major pranking mode ever since she got back from girl's camp. So one morning after we ate breakfast, we found this in our room:
This is Cameron. He was a good buddy for my boys.

Tripp got to go with everyone and dig for clams. I stayed in the house while Deko was napping and Randy was out on a crazy 4-wheeler adventure with the boys.
Randy and Ben playing Ladder golf. The water was right in the backyard. It was beautiful. The word "perfect" came to mind several times while we were there.

Ben brought his boat and gave Randy and Deko a ride.

Look at this little surfing goof ball!

This guy has taken about 7 steps in a row so far. I think he'll be running around soon.

Future Football Star?

I know there aren't any pics of me, but I promise I was there. It was fun and beautiful. Randy and I both commented on how relaxed it was. We were very comfortable with everyone that it felt more like a family reunion. And after we got home, we had only a day and a half to pack up and go to Ocean Shores for a week. The owners of Randy's company let us stay in their condo right on the beach for a week for free. It was amazing! Check post below to see all the fun we had.

Ocean Shores

We were able to stay in a condo right by the ocean for a week. I loved waking up and looking out the window and seeing the ocean in the morning. It was awesome! Randy loved driving on the beach (I think it's crazy that they let you do that). I was afraid we would get stuck. We saw a bus full of senior citizens who got stuck in the sand and had to be towed out. This was Tripp's favorite place: Sharky's. Everytime we drove by it (and we drove by it a lot) he asked if we could go in again. It was only a gift shop, not that exciting. But the shark is pretty sweet. The boys and I had fun playing in the sand on the beach. I brought kites, sand toys, a bucket, and this crazy foam airplane that didn't last very long.Willy came and played with us the first day we were there. We were told to expect cold weather. But we had a few warm sunny days to play in.
I love this pic. Like Father like son. Too bad I didn't have Tripp flying a kite in this pic as well.

Deklan's favorite thing to do: Eat the sand.We found a dead crab on the beach.

And this is as close as Tripp got to it.

We enjoyed running from the water. Once I wasn't fast enough and got my leg all wet.

I like this pic too. Seems like it could have some inspirational quote under it or something. I'm not feeling very inspiring at the moment so I won't write anything.

This was the view off the deck of the condo.

There was a family fun center we went to that was pretty entertaining.

We found out that Tripp is a superb putter

And that I putted better with Deko on my back. I gave him to Randy half way through the course.

The next Tiger, I just know it! (If he could only hold the putter the right way)

We were able to play at a Community Center for free because of where we were staying. We swam in the pool, played air hockey, and a game I loved. Not sure what it's called, maybe shuffleboard?

Any of you know what this is? It made me think of Survivor cuz they've played a game like this on that show a few times.

We went to a free museum too. The boys loved it!

Captain Trippy, Arg! I love Deko's face! He's so excited.

This was Deklan's favorite. When you opened the doors, the frog croaked at you. He was dancing to the frog's ribbit noises.

Tripp loved the sharks

We went and checked out the Jetty. We found a barely alive crab there. For some reason Tripp wasn't afraid of this one but he was scared of the dead one.

The water came in and soaked my foot before Randy took this pic. That's why my leg looks so funny.

Found a nice man to take a pic of us.

Sweet name don't you think, Kare? My favorite part was being able to run on the beach. It was amazing! I've never ran on a beach before and I loved every minute of it, even the sand in my shoes. I also loved watching the sun set on the ocean. Tripp loved seeing all the deer everywhere. He kept asking us, "Where's Bambi?" Randy said mini golf was his favorite, even though Willy beat him by one point. And we all know Deko's favorite part was trying to destroy the condo and eating as much sand as he could get his hands on. This was a fun, relaxing, free vacation. I need more vacations like this one!