Granny's

 

As I've mentioned before, our sweet feisty Granny

moved into a nursing home, to meet her needs that come with

worsening symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

 

It's been a bumpy road, there has been good days and bad.

Especially difficult for my Mom, and her siblings.

As if that wasn't hard enough, there was still her house to take care of.

 

This house is my favorite place on earth.

It's my sister's favorite place on earth.

Probably safe to say it's one of my brother's favorite places on earth.

This gorgeous home, tucked away in a beautiful neighborhood in Leitchfield, Kentucky

has held so many of my most precious childhood memories.

 

Including my siblings, we have all spent so many summer, fall, winter and spring days here visiting.

Although it's forever summer at Granny's in my mind.

 

The last few months, Mom and Dad have been working very hard,

(along with a family friend that also helped clean Granny's house)

to start the long process of cleaning out and organizing everything that was left

after Granny's move to the nursing home.

Amy and I made a few quick trips to bring furniture home that meant something to us,

along with odds and ends that we wanted to fill our homes with.

Things to remind us of Granny, and her home that we cherished so much.

 

Meanwhile, between cleaning, and distributing pieces of furniture between the family,

the house was on the market.

Turns out, a neighbor behind Granny's house (past the woods)

and a family member of one of Granny's long time neighbors...

who happens to be in construction, and wants to remodel... 

and who happened to always love Granny's house...

and who happens to want to keep Granny's little dog Fidgit...

bought the house.

 

A true God send.

A literal answer to prayers.

We all couldn't believe how that worked out so well.

How much easier it was to hand the house over to someone

who will take such good care of it, and love it as much as we do.

Apparently even with the open invitation for us to visit,

"any time we wanted."

 

That was one of the things that hurt the most,

knowing that we might not ever be able to step foot back in to the house.

To have those memories of playing on the stairs,

playing by the creek,

playing baseball in the front yard,

staying up way too late, and drinking too many beers with our cousins,

come flooding back to us.

We will though, with family still in Leitchfield, and an open invitation,

it will be feasible to still visit every once and a while,

and for that I am so very thankful.

 

 

So one last time.

One final visit before the keys were handed over.

The little boys and I packed up, picked up my niece Avery,

and headed down to spend a couple of days and one last night with Mom & Dad

in the almost empty house.

 

I needed to soak up every ounce of this house, & everything that I love about it.

 

The swing inside the open garage.

 

 

The back deck.

 



The endless gravel driveway.

 



 



The barn.

 



  

How the sprinkler always finds the backyard in the summer.

 

 

 

Baseball in the front yard.

 

 

 An abundance of memories, spent with family.

That I know we will all remember, and cherish for as long as we live.

Thankful for a few new ones made on our last visit.

 

I have to admit, I had a melt down while cleaning up the toys left in the front yard,

the day we were leaving.

I just can't believe that this huge part of our lives has come to an end.

Can't believe it came time for our beautiful Granny to need to be in a nursing home.

Can't believe her beloved house, that she and all of us love so much

will be handed off to the next family to enjoy it.

Just can't believe it is that time.

That's how life goes though,

all things must come to an end.

 

We will miss it, so much.



 



End of the Spring Season, Go Indians!

 We have had SO much fun this Spring/Summer in 4 yr old t-ball.

This was the first season Case got a "real" uniform,

and man, was he eating it up.

 

Matt assisted Coach Chris this season, we were blessed to have such a wonderful coach,

 and meeting more awesome baseball families this Spring.

 

 

I helped out with a few of the Team Mom duties,

it was wonderful being involved, and getting to know all of the sweet kids on Case's team.

 

One of my favorites was the night there was a worm in the dugout...

 

 

So stinkin' cute!

 

Even little Rhetter man got into a lot of the action,

he was a welcomed guest into the dug out every practice and game,

and he definitely thought he was part of the team. ;)

 

 

 

Although, he spent most of the games exploring the creek, woods and practice fields behind the t-ball field, followed closely behind by our neighbor and his buddy Joe. ;)

 

We were so sad to see the season come to and end,

we had an awesome team, and loved our weekly practices and games.

We all truly looked forward to each one.

 

 

We never have to drag him out of the house if we mention the word, "baseball."

 

The boy got 2 game balls this season,

you cannot even begin to put a price on the smile after each one.

Absolutely priceless.

 

 

 

Come on, fall ball!



Daddy's Day

We woke up early, before church and made a big breakfast,

then it was present time!

 

Boys couldn't wait to watch Daddy open his presents,

nothing big, a collage of the boys,

and some special crafts Case and Rhett helped with.

I think those are the ones that we always
remember, and cherish the most though.

 

 

Wishing our amazing Daddy a WONDERFUL Father's Day, on his day,

and every single day.



Slow Progress

Last night, we heard, "I neetogo pee pee!" 

He's Mr. Independent, so we usually check on him 

after he's been in there for a few seconds, you know 

to get himself situated. 

("I do it myself! I do it! I try it!)

Then I walked in to see this, such a silly little stinker! 

Hey, I don't care how he goes, as long as he's going! ;)

So here's the update. 

This kid knows how to go on the potty. 

It's totally up to him now. 

If you have met the Rhetter man, 

you know he marches to the beat of his own drum. 

He'd rather be exploring the rock wall of escape, 

than playing with the 12 kids on the playground. 

He'd rather be running around full speed, 

hands in fists, and sprinting than sitting down. Ever. 

He'd rather climb the kitchen drawers...

or completely disassemble the childproof door covers...

or figure out how to unlock every single lock in the house...

or explore every corner of the ball park than watch Case play t-ball...

or wake up in the middle of the night, put on his baseball hat, 

put every toy he can fit into his Halloween bucket 

(don't ask, we don't know) and wake us up to say "Hi!" 

That's our Rhetter man. 

I'm going to have SO many stories for his future wife. 

So here's the thing, 

he goes when he wants to go. 

The first couple of days, he had lots of accidents, 

but slowly through the week started to have a few more 

successful trips.  

Just this past week, he has been telling me, 

even when we are out. 

I haven't changed a pull up, or cleaned up an accident 

in the mornings in a while now! 

Little man usually gives up after nap time,

but we are getting there. 

We have good days and bad days, 

some days he just doesn't ever tell me, all day long. Nothing. 

Then the next day, he uses it 5-7 times! 

 He's getting there though, 

it's funny how different our boys have learned how to use the potty. 

Rhett is muuuch more relaxed about this whole thing. ;) 

Proud of our cute little crazie. 

He's getting so big. 

Sometimes Parenthood is Really Really Hard

...like when you are potty training. 

After a few failing trial runs, 

and talking to my big sister, 

I decided to take the plunge.

I was going to start full on potty training Rhett,

right after Case was out of preschool. 

That way we would have minimal distractions, 

and we could get down to business. 

Day 1: 

We tried the naked route. 

(It worked really well with Case)

Equal parts of accidents and successes.

& several pull up mishaps, he's still very comfortable in them. 

Day 2: 

Rhett went successfully that morning, 

then played at a friends house for a few hours, 

and went in his pull up. 

That evening, he had a few accidents, 

then on to bed. 

Day 3: 

That morning, while washing dishes 

(our dishwasher is broken, ugggh) 

I heard a little voice say, "Uh oh! Mommy!!!" 

I searched for him, 

and found him in the bathroom, 

standing in a puddle of pee...

Hey he was in the right room right?? 

Then about 10 minutes later he went #2 in the potty! 

I was SUPER excited, except that the rest of the day went WAY DOWN HILL from there.

We went to the library and the park after that

(I should have known this was a bad idea, it took us off course)

Rhett took a teeny cat nap on the way to the park from the library, 

and apparently that was enough sleep to completely refuse his usual 2-3 hour nap.

So, a few pull up mishaps happened in that nap time window

while wearing a pull up. 

While Case was napping away, Rhett was getting into everything. 

(He has been super duper clingy, and whiny, 

and downright destructive lately)

Not to mention he has been waking up several times a night, 

I'm talking 5-10 times a night, it's exhausting, he hasn't done that since he was a month old)

SO...

add all of that together, 

then enter 4 accidents in the living room 

while I was sitting right next to him playing leggos, 

I was just down right mad. 

Frustrated. 

Exhausted. 

Matt came home, right after another accident happened, 

and I just felt like crying. 

I couldn't understand why he didn't even seem to care, 

he had been doing pretty well the days before...

then I remembered, 

"Oh yeah, he hasn't had a nap today, and we are both exhausted"

So, I calmed down, put a pull up and pajamas on him, 

popped in a movie and sat down on the couch with him. 

& 2 minutes later...

 Bless his heart. 

We kept pull ups on the rest of the night, tomorrow is a new day. 

Potty training ain't easy.

Last Day of Preschool

Although I can hardly believe it, 

this year of preschool has come to an end! 

This was the first year for Little Blessings, 

and it has been an awesome year.

Amazing teachers, fun field trips, 

& adorable parties

He's made some sweet friends along the way.

and we are in awe of how much he has learned this year! 

Our teachers enclosed a few papers,
showing off their progress from September, January to May
in writing their name.

How precious, and so fun to see the difference!

The last day, we came in at 10am for a party and reception.
(My friend Kelly watched the Rhetter man for me, 
since we all know he wouldn't have sat still for 1 minute :)

We arrived, and the kiddos went to their classrooms,
and the parents went into the little theater room & waited.
Then they all walked in, all in their Sunday best,
and sang a few precious songs to us!
It's so sweet to see their shy, sweet faces up there on stage!

After a few songs, they were each called up to receive their
Preschool Certificate!

 

Then is was lights out,
and a PRECIOUS slideshow of pictures taken throughout the year.

Followed by treats and Good-Byes, and plans for pool dates.

We are so thankful and blessed to have wonderful teachers,
Ms. Jennifer & Ms. Susan
were just absolutely amazing.
I'm also thankful that I was able to help, and sub some this year,
I loved working with these sweet ladies.
(Including Ms.Heather & Ms.Jamie in the 3 year old room)

So after some deliberation, and advice from our teachers,
we have decided to send Case one more year,
as opposed to sending him on to kindergarten this fall.
(Oh my word, how he is old enough to be talking about all of this?)

I know Case will miss his friends this summer,
and I know Momma will miss her days with just one kid for errands. ;)
We are looking forward to summer fun though,
and hopefully have lots of play dates at pools and parks with our school friends!

See you again this fall Little Blessings! 

The Zoo

I love the zoo. 

We don't go nearly enough. 

The last zoo trip we took was July 2010, I was 6 months pregnant with Rhetter, 

and Case was 2! 

The weather around here was finally starting to come around to sunny, pretty days. 

So, one day after church, my friend Kelly and I started to talk about a zoo trip. 

We are both stay at home Mom's, so we decided to head up the next week, on a Wednesday. 

We decided on the Cincinnati zoo, we packed snacks and lunches, 

and headed out early that morning. 

(Oh and Matt and I finally figured out our DVD player system in my truck the 

night before...woo hoo!)

It was HOT, the high that day was 82! 

Even with the heat and the HILLS, oh my holy hills...

...we had a blast.

 This is how we roll... 

Sweet babies. 

They were such troopers. 

Thankfully the zoo has lots of animals inside buildings, 

which gave us lots of breaks from the heat and the sun. 

They all loved the manatees! 

...and Rhett LOVED the snakes. 

The only thing he cried at when we left them! Funny because his Daddy hates snakes.

After eating lunch, and walking up the biggest hill 

I have ever walked up pushing a double stroller IN MY LIFE...

Kelly and I were starting to give each other the Mom looks, 

that this trip needed to start wrapping up. ;) 

The Cincinnati zoo is just too big to see everything in one day, 

at least with little ones that are all under 5. 

We decided to stop quickly to take some pictures in front of the zoo's 

GORGEOUS

tulips, before the kids were all completely wiped out. 

(My big boy wasn't really feeling it though...stinker. :)

Sweet girl...

 

 Case's face...CRACKS me up. 

Best one I got, of course one kid has to be mid blink right? ;) 

 

 Trips like these are always much more exhausting than I realize, 

but always so much fun. 

 

So thankful that I can take the boys on random trips like this, 

and I absolutely love the memories we are building. 

 

Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before we make it back to the zoo! 

Trying to talk Matty into a fall trip... 

:)