Summer Road Trips

This past weekend I had the pleasure of driving three out of my four kids across town and I realized that even though they are growing up, they are just as bad in the car as when they were toddlers.  One was in the back seat trying to tell me a good story about school, one was interupting the entire time to get her two cents in from the other back seat and the one in the front (Jake) was changing the radio station ever two seconds trying to find a song then cranking up the volume once he did! 
I did have a little smile on my face though, thinking back on all the times my own mother used to yell at my sister and I telling us "I hope someday when you have kids they drive you as nuts as you two drive me!"
LOL, you win mom... paybacks!

http://www.zazzle.com/family_road_trip_cartoon_tshirt-235236250652483713?gl=SnakesMom&group=mens&lifestyle=classic&rf=238413649595441313

You know I had to race home and create a family cartoon to showcase these moments we all have seem to have had.  I hope this story brings back some good family car moments for you too!

Gardening With Gramps

For my Mother's Day yesterday I took flowers over to my mom and she needed help on her computer so the kids needed to find something to do, which landed them outside with gramps to work in the garden.

http://www.zazzle.com/grandpas_garden_cartoon_tshirt-235339014420965335?group=mens&lifestyle=classic&rf=238413649595441313

Let's just say say the "help" was not such great help in the garden and gramps had them in the house pretty quickly to play a game of Wii bowling instead.  It was probably a good thing though since it was another chance for grandpa to beat them down on a video game.  :)  Too funny!

Mr. Innocent

When my son Jake was about eight or nine years old he had a pretty good philosophy and that was: “whatever it was, it wasn’t me.”
I even joked and called him the “wasn’t me man” for a few years.
Good thing this did not last long but those days were pretty funny since he was a master at crafting his words skillfully to talk his way out of things he and his twin sister had done.

http://www.zazzle.com/mr_innocent_speckcase-176221932679871155?gl=SnakesMom&rf=238413649595441313

I love how kids are always picking up new things and using them to their advantage, too bad it usually comes back on us parents like it does though. 
Have your kids pulled the wool over your eyes lately?

ZigZag Zeal

My son Jake is a football player.

Youth football is crazy, you never know what you will see at these games. I have seen crazy dad’s who yell at their sons in front of the whole team, trying to re-live some crazy fantasy of their youth.  I am always shocked at the parents more then the kids, if you ever need a good lesson in good & very bad parenting go watch a youth football game.  Anyway, back to my football story...

I love sitting there in the stands watching Jake play even though I am a nervous wreck thinking about what injury is he going to get today the entire time. I love to watch Jake zigzag down the field with such determination and I smile when his teammates offer a hand to get up after a tough play. I love to hear his name over the loud speaker when he has a great play, especially love hearing other parents say “keep your eye on number 45, he is good.”

I loved watching Jake's twin sister on the sidelines cheering for the team, she was a great cheerleader. She was the “flyer”, you know the girl who gets thrown up in the air and relies on other young girls to catch her also known as the give-mom-a-heart-attack landings. She quit the cheer team last year but that’s okay, I love sitting in the stands with her where I know she is safe.

I love that my youngest daughter always looks for Jake on the field, is the first to run to him and hug him after the game and that even though he is a teenager he remembers to hug her back.

To make your own sport's mom shirt click here:

http://www.zazzle.com/personalized_football_mom_tshirt-235092320383545684?gl=Graphix_Vixon&group=womens&lifestyle=fashion&t_text1=JAKE%27S%20MOM&rf=238413649595441313

My favorite football memories of all though is when they have a really tough loss and my son Jake comes out of the locker room and walks back to the car with me slowly because he is so sore and tells me how he much fun he had. That alone is reason enough to love the game of football.

XoXoXoXo

Hugs and Kisses.
There is nothing like a hug when you are hurt or sad.
Nothing even comes close.
A hug from Jake or his sisters can truly turn my whole day around.
It still brings tears to my eyes when I think back to all the times Jake would get scared of something and run to me with his arms straight up in the air, huge tears running down his cheeks from those big brown eyes, saying “momma, momma, momma” the whole way to me.
I often wish I had a magic wand I could wave to get even one of those moments back, but I don’t.
I always thought it was so funny how I could pick him up, give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and like magic the tears went away and it was back to playtime.  Kind of made me feel like I had the magic touch!

http://www.zazzle.com/love_my_cry_baby_boy_necklace-177287953646988167?gl=SnakesMom&rf=238413649595441313

Now that Jake is almost grown and very unlikely as a teenager to ever run to me screaming "momma, momma, momma" with his arms in the air, I can only carry these cherished memories in my heart.
Have you hugged someone today?

Womb Wars

Years ago during my twin pregnancy, I ended up having five ultrasounds before the babies were finally born and a very funny thing was going on in each of those ultrasounds.
I like to call it the “womb wars” because during all of those doctor visits, staring at the little screen I always layed there watching my two little precious babies literally beating on each other.  They were not messing around in there either, it was like something you would see on a WWF episode.
I remember being paranoid that they would be born all bruised up or with black and blue eyes, I even asked the doctor if it was possible for them to hurt each other, which she quickly told me to stop worrying and that they would be fine. 
Jake’s twin sister must have won all those womb wars because even though he was born a full 31 minutes earlier then her, she was the boss long before her arrival.

http://www.zazzle.com/custom_a_princess_like_me_cartoon_speckcase-176330345716649067?gl=SnakesMom&rf=238413649595441313

Jake is about four inches taller then his twin these days but every once in awhile when she gets that little twinkle in her eye, he is still smart enough to take cover!

Unexpected Unbelievable Ultrasound

Finding out that you are going to have twins is very exciting, especially when you are five months pregnant and not expecting it at all, like me.
I was big, very big but the doctor thought the reason I was so big was because my first baby was nearly ten pounds at birth. Yes, you read that right. Imagine my surprise having such a large first baby. Anyway…
When the big day finally came around to have the ultrasound I was so excited and when I got up on the ultrasound table the technician looked down at me and said “let’s start with baby A.”
I laughed at her and replied “I know I am huge but I am not having twins, just one huge baby.”
She laughed and said “okay, well let’s take a look” while she put the cold gel on the giant bulge that used to be my tummy. “Yes, your having twins, this is baby A and this is baby B.”
I just laid there looking at the screen in disbelief and excitement then said calmly “can you tell me the sex of each of the babies if you can see it.”
The ultrasound tech started laughing hysterically.
“Are you kidding me, is there three?” I said.
She stops laughing finally and explains to me that the very moment I had asked the sex of the babies, baby A had been in the right place at the right time, making it very obvious to her that I was going to have a JAKE! She then told me that baby B was going to be a girl, which was a little harder to figure out since thankfully, girls have a way of being a little more discreet.

http://www.zazzle.com/red_bird_with_babies_art_mousepad-144672204525788315?gl=SnakesMom&rf=238413649595441313

Looking back it is hard to believe that was fifteen years ago, one of the best moments of my life.
Have you ever had a unbelievable or unexpected gift from God that changed your entire life?

The Toybox Torture

When Jake and his twin sister were a little over a year old, she came up with a pretty good trick, she would begin the day by using a step stool and climbing into the tall toybox to perch herself on top of the pile of toys until lunchtime. She was smart enough to figure out that if she sat there on top of all the toys that she had all the power, she alone could decide what and if Jake played with for the entire day. She could also bark off orders to Jake to go and retrieve anything she might need that was not inside of the toybox, trust me she had the power that he would in fact scurry off to get anything she asked for.
I was always quite surprised that Jake put up with this kind of monarchy like he did but there really was no way that he would have had the patience or endurance to sit on top of that pile of toys for 2-3 hours at a time like she did and he knew it, he was way too much of a on-the-go kid.
They did talk and share toys the entire time she was in there, but there was the occasional hit to Jake’s head by a toy when he tried to take something out without following the proper procedures, such as begging and pleading for it first.
I think this was yet another way she had her own little way of telling Jake without words that she was in fact the queen of his castle, like he did not already know that!

http://www.zazzle.com/funny_little_girl_cartoon_speckcase-176592956236351536?gl=SnakesMom&rf=238413649595441313

Even at the age of one Jake knew that there can only be "one" and he was not likely to be the "one" anytime soon, unless of course she said he was the "one" for a very brief minute or two.

Stitches, Staples & Shiners!

Jake's Lifetime Injury List Excluding Scrapes & Bruises (everything mom can remember at least)
1. The very first shiner ~ black & blue eye compliments of twin sister smacking him with a building block before the age of one. He can always look back at the pictures of it and see where his troubles all began.
2. Stitches under chin ~ pushed by twin sister and fell into the coffee table, age 1.
3. Staples to the head ~ pushed on the stair steps by twin sister, age 5.
4. Dura bond (medical glue) to the forehead ~ rode bike into corner of the house while looking down watching his feet instead of the driveway, also age 5.
5. Dura bond again ~ ear lobe injury from messing with kitchen cabinets, age 6.
6. Staples on side of head ~ fell outside on back stairs of house, age 6.
7. Staples to back of head ~ rough housing with friend and hit edge of table, age 8.
8. Staples to side of head ~ playing with friends outside, age 9.
9. Sprained wrist ~ Football injury, age 10.
10. Stitches on two fingers ~ Shot by twin sister with BB Gun after letting her use it for the very first time, after a full year of him using it safely by himself, age 11.
11. Bruised ribs ~ Football injury, age 11.
12. Sprained thumb ~ Football injury, age 12.
13. Sprained ankle ~ Football injury, age 12.
14. Surgery to abdomen ~ to fix hernia Jake was probably born with, age 13
15. Bruised tailbone ~ Football injury, age 13
16. Stitches on two fingers ~ Just last week, after pulling a hunting knife out of a bag, after it had wiggled out of it’s case, age 14.

I am pleased to say however that Jake has a incredibly high pain tolerance and has always taken the medical procedures in stride and is usually more upset about the low number of stitches or staples he receives, I guess this lessons the bragging rights at school or something.  Once he even got a doctor to add one staple, after much begging!

http://www.zazzle.com/funny_doctor_cartoon_button-145269752468705774?gl=SnakesMom&rf=238413649595441313

As you can see by the size of this list, Jake is a very injury prone boy, which drives me (mom) crazy!!  I am constantly praying that my little boy has had enough injuries to last him a entire lifetime! Thanks to all the wonderful doctor’s who have used great skill to leave Jake with only a few noticeable scars that are all thankfully under his hair! 
Now, how many staples, stitches or shiners have you had in your lifetime?