a boy who loves mud/dirt/water/sand/and all around messiness

"The town that eats, sleeps, breathes football"

And what "town" is that, you might ask?

 

It's Raymond.

Raymond, Alberta, Canada. A town of about 3,800 people. The town where Todd grew up. And let me tell you a little bit more about Raymond....

"Comparable to a sports-first mentality in small-town America, the people around Raymond care about the local high school sports teams, almost as much as they care about their faith. The town is well-known for being a deeply religious community. There are six churches and four denominations, but Raymond is best known for its connections with the Mormon faith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There's one main street. The extent of the major amenities include a grocery store, a drugstore, a burger joint, a Subway, and a hardware store." (italics added)  and might I add.... NO traffic lights. Not one.

University of Calgary's head football coach says...

"I just think it's amazing how a group of 20 to 25 kids can come out every year and beat the best teams in Alberta. It's a community environment where the kids eat, live and breathe Comet football. They grow up wanting to play it and they train to play it."

What's all the hype about? The Raymond Comets just won yet another provincial {aka "state" in US terms} championship. The snipets above were taken from this story in the Calgary Herald.

Todd's reaction to the article:

"And you want to deny our boys all of that?!?!! You can't!"

Guess who's still trying to move us up north?

With a father who played Comet football and a year of college ball, and with a grandfather who also played for the Comets, as well as a 17 year professional  football career.... our three boys don't have free agency when it comes to the sport. Big plans are in store for them, whether they like it or not.

Poor boys.

I'll be their advocate, don't you worry.

Question is... Can I really leave the US to live in freezing cold temperatures in a town with less than 4,000 people, cows for neighbors, an airport 3 hours away and no Target?!!

I love my in-laws dearly.... but that's a lot to ask.

;)

a new fav

Is it crazy strange to anyone else that it's Thanksgiving THIS WEEK? Where has time gone? Oh my. We are so excited to celebrate. Bring on the arts and crafts, cinnamon rolls, turkey, pies, breakfast egg casserole, cookies, etc, etc. Maybe our long, rough weekend is making me feel even more excited for Thanksgiving than normal.... I am SO looking forward to it! All Ryder can talk about is how his daddy has FOUR days off of work. Wow. Four days of dad to ourselves. I'm going to have a nap every day, I think!... and maybe I'll be a considerdate wife and let Todd nap while "watching" football. He did work around the clock this weekend and is a walking zombie.

How was your weekend?

a boy who knows what he wants

With Todd home for the weekend and no where to run off to, the kids found their way to our bed Saturday morning for some family cuddling/tickling/flop-on-the-bed time. During a lull in the excitement, Cannon slid off the bed and announced, "Mom, I'm going to get my milk. I be right back!"
And with that, he headed down the stairs.

Well, this is what he returned with.... along with a cup of water in hand.

 

Todd and I could not stop laughing!! This says it all about our Cannon. He's all about food ALL of the time... and he'd eat his, mine and Ryder's dessert if we'd let him. He loves his sweets!

Oh, we sure do love him!

favorite pjs

These new Hannah Anderson jammies from Aunt Kristin are my very favorite! They remind me of The Cat in the Hat, for some reason.

And we love Cat in the Hat, around here!

Hudson is loving tummy time!

He usually lasts 3+ minutes before announcing his disagreement.

And we're loving every little piece of him.

See.... How can you resist this?

I know. You can't!

our day

Today was great. Today was grand. Today, we were together as a family.

The whole day.

Todd had the day off. What a treat for us! We do get days together fairly regularly... depending on the current rotation, but today was different. Today we didn't stay home to catch up on laundry or errands. Today, we left the house. Imagine that. We made our way over to Gas Works Park for the first time. We'll definitely be back.... hopefully soon for some great family pictures.

And hopefully my boys will pose better for someone else other than me...

 

 

coming home

I drove past the hospital last week and caught myself thinking - "I can't believe it's all over!"

There is so much time and energy spent into the preparations of welcoming a baby, and then the little one enters our world in a matter of minutes and everything is forever different. Everything changes. While in the NICU, I do remember feeling like we were never going to go home... that a week was so long. But alas, here we are.

And life, as we once knew it, has changed.

 

We no longer have such a scrunchy, little baby on our hands. This boy is packing on the pounds!

We've said goodbye to that silly IV/stint setup.

And we don't sleep so well anymore. Hudson has decided eating is far more important than sleeping, and I no longer have a handful of nurses holding him off until he really does need his mommy in the wee hours of the night.

Darn gas.

Like clockwork, Hudson and I are now up at 5am each morning trying to get comfortable. Poor little man doesn't know what's hit him... or how to make it go away.

But one thing is for sure... he's still so sweet and cuddly and special to us.

Todd had to work on the day of our departure, so my mom was brave enough to pack up the big boys and venture over to pick us up.

Here we are saying goodbye to our home-away-from-home.

Ready to go!

Welcome party #1.

Welcome (figuratively speaking) party #2.

Glad to be home.

There's no place like home, that's for sure. Our first day was surreal. Even with all of the imagining, it was still a bit overwhelming to sit back and realize we now have three little ones around us. all. the. time.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

our buddy matix

i was lucky enough to take pictures of baby matix well over two months ago. thanks to the craziness of welcoming a new baby into our home, i finally got all of the pics to sarah and chris this week. thanks for being so patient with me, guys!

just want to share some of the cuteness with you... as he is so darling!

1 month and counting

more to come soon