Quinny the clown boy...

This last week Quinn has been pretty full of himself.  He likes to make loud noises while staring at his big brother to see when big brother will break and yell at him to stop.  and then he laughs. maniacally.

 

Quinn taking his rightful place on my quilt eating pringles, like a boss.

This look is a bit mischevious...

Dancing with my bubble wrap that came in a package.

 

 We went to the library on Tuesday so that the boys could get out of the house and borrow a few books and movies.  Ronin borrowed a ton of Scooby Doo movies, Quinny some Blues Clues books. We even stayed for story time in the reading room, where they got to do a little dancing...

The boys at the library

bloody lip

 

Quinn decided to bite his lip open on Tuesday as well.  It bled a lot, but once I cleaned it up it didn't look too serious, I tried putting a cold cloth on it, but he wouldn't let me and it didn't seem to bother him.  Poor guy.

Thursday was our Nutcracker night!  Ronin was pretty excited to go see a live production of the Nutcracker, Quinn was content making Rachel chase him and play hide-and-go-seek where he would just lay on the floor and say he was hiding...  Ronin enjoyed the first half of the Nutcracker, but after intermission he passed out in the chair because there was a lot of dancing going on.  He was a trooper and sat very patiently through the entire thing.

Me, Cheyla, Tammie and the boys

Me and Quinn before the play

Ronin and I at the Nutcracker

Ronin checking out where the orchestra should have been...

Us again

It's almost Christmas - so everyone at work is giving chocolate and starbucks gift cards, I got both. yay!

Rory picked up the boys at 4 on Friday and I haven't seen them since... I'll be so happy to pick them up tomorrow at 11!  I miss them so much, this is the most time I've spent away from them, it's really tough not seeing them for so long... I am taking the rest of the week and the following week off to catch up on missing my time with them. 

Quinny drew a picture for me and Kiera.

 

Last weekend I got the new bunny, the very alive one.  It's much bigger than the fuzzy little baby bunny, so I'll have to work on getting it into a bigger cage/hutch later.  It is super messy!  I can't wait for the boys to see it and name it :)  Kiera mostly wants to eat it :(

 

 

Bunny loves carrots - go figure.

 

Take care,

C

 

Glitter everywhere!

The last week the orignal bunny I had bought for the kids just up and died.  Not sure why, but he decided he didn't want to live on this planet anymore and checked out.  Sad, but I'm very happy I didn't bring him home to the kids yet!   I'm going to pick up a different bunny this weekend, a 6 month old so hopefully it's not as fragile... plus we can feed it fruit and veggies since it's older, which will be fun for the kids. 

Driving through some of the nieghborhoods, there is always this one house that goes all-out like the Griswolds, the kids love it:

Pretty crazy...

 

This last week we kept things pretty easy going, doing homework, reading books, and the occasonal glitter craft... which ended up everywhere... and I'm still finding it in places I didn't intend for it to show up.  Like my face.  The toilet.  The cat.  I got most of it out of the grout in the breakfast bar, but it has issues with letting go...

 

Quinn put it in his hair :/

 

That pile ended up on the floor...

 

The one really positive thing for the boys during this divorce stuff is that they've found a lot of strength and companionship in each other lately.  Ronin often has quinn sit on his lap and just hugs him.  It makes my heart melt.  I am sad that this is the push it took to make them close, but glad they have each other.  They need a constant, and they have it in each other.

 

Silly boys cuddling

 

Ronin got "Love A Lot Bear" again for being respectful and helpful to others at school.  Which is good since he got in trouble on Friday for throwing mud with 3 other boys.  The principal had all the moms come and pick up the naughty boys.  I couldn't get too mad at him since I think it's a typical 5 year old thing, but I did the mom thing "don't follow other people - if they jumped off a bridge would you? don't do it again!"  It's not a new thing, and I'm sure it will happen again.  But getting Love-A-Lot Bear means he was at least trying to get noticed for his positive actions.

 

Love-a-Lot Bear

We had to write something in the Love-a-Lot Bear journal, and he drew a picture.

 

We finally got our tree, it's tiny! Ronin picked it out, here it is on my car. haha

Friday before Daddy picked up the boys, I wanted a picture with them :)  Ronin being a ham.

Quinny looks a bit like the incredible hulk... I told him to smile... this is what I got. 

 

My weekend was a really good one, not as up and down emotionally as the previous one.  I got to have dinner with Greg and Robert on Friday, which was delicious and great company :)  Saturday Robert and I went to a 125 Club Christmas party for work, it was a nice time- I got to see some coworkers outside of work and meet their wives.  Sunday I had a ladies Christmas gift exchange.  I got a ton of hand soap for the bathrooms out of it, which I need, because the boys are stinky. :)  Sunday night I cleaned the garage and the pantry out... It felt good to de-clutter a bit... and now I'm looking forward to doing more of that.

 

I love my boys and can't wait for Christmas break!  I am taking the days after Christmas off until the new year school break is over to spend with them.  Not sure what we'll do, but at least we'll get loads of time together, and we'll have a new bunny to pet!  :)

 

Take care,

C

 

 

 

December Begins...

Thanksgiving came and we went to Shari's for dinner because the Chinese food places weren't open.  Good thing I didn't have to fix dinner since Shari's took us in and we ate well there :)

 

One of my Shari's dates, with a straw up his nose...

Going through my purse he put my glasses on, how cute is he?!

Again, with my glasses!

 

After Thanksgiving we got to go to Nana and Papa's house for a few days.  The boys had fun playing with the dogs and running through the house.

Silly boy

We got to make some clay crafts

Drinking their juice boxes

Tina loves Ronin

The usual suspects

Quinn loves this doll...

Painting his crafts

He seems to be pretty happy eating a Twinkie

Our temporary court date came and went, it was decided that Rory get the boys each weekend.  So I have to make the most of my weeknights, which is rough since both them and I are pretty tired by the end of the day, but I'll make it work!  We went and saw Santa Thursday night and then drove through the P.I.R. to see Christmas lights. 

Quinn didn't want to sit on his lap, but was ok sitting next to him.

Quinn was almost smiling here...

 

I took last Friday off since I'm still suffering from the plague... We got to eat breakfast together, drop Ronin off at school, and Quinn and I got to chill and he painted some too.  Mostly he ate the paint.

 

Green teeth.

 

I'm not going to lie and say everything is fine.  I miss my boys madly on the weekend.  It makes me think a lot about life, and how expecting it to be fair is like giving up any control I have in my life.  So the only thing I can control at this point is how I spend my time with the boys.  If I let all the negative stuff get to me then it's only going to take me away from my time with the boys.  The positive is that I get to see the boys every single day except for Saturday.  I am lucky in that respect.  We'll see how things pan out later. 

 

love,

C

Birthday and Beach

Lately things are kind of stressful for everyone, but I'm trying to make it as normal for the kiddo's as possible...  Our next court date is 12/4 and then hopefully things will start to happen and get easier. 

 

Ronin got his school pictures back, pretty handsome boy :)

 

Ronin Kindergarten, 5 1/2 years old

 

Quinn's real birthday was on Monday the 11th.  I had the day off and we went to Chuck E Cheese with Shelley and Sean.

Quinn playing with his balloon, that he eventually deflated by riding it like a horse.

Chuck E Cheese ride

Chuck E Cheese horse

Funny boy

He didn't really like Mr. Cheese

But Animatronic Chuck E. was pretty cool

Juicing

Playing with his new Castle Nana and Papa got him

My wonderful birthday was the very next day.  I was dreading it, but it turned out really nice.  Lots of suprises from friends, and they even came over for cake and "family feud" that night. 

GIANT singing balloon delivered to my desk from Robert :)

 

Pretty flowers attached to giant balloon :)

 

Quinn playing with his new tool bench from Aunt Brooke

Each night before bed Ronin and I write in a "journal" before we do homework and read for the night.  Last night he drew me on a horse, with a lasso (not a balloon).  I love it :)

Me on a horse.

 

Two weekends ago I needed to get away to de-stress and just play with the boys.  I rented a nice beach house and had Cheyla and Nathan come with us.  We had a lot of fun, there were nintendo games and tons of movies and board games.  The kitchen was soooo nice...  Cheyla made a ton of brownies and we had fish pizza.  The boys enjoyed the giant bathtub.  Unfortuntately Ronin got really sick Saturday night and puked a couple of times.  Poor guy.  He was fine by morning though.

Quinny getting his bath

Mommy and Quinn sitting in the giant bathtub

 

Quinn loved climbing up and down the many stairs

Ronin too

Us on the beach

Super cold and windy... brrr....

At Marsh's Museum

Cheyla, Nathan and Quinny

Ronin blocking the sun

He really didn't want to wear the hat...

Oh look there's Jake in the tank!

The boys watching Shark Boy and Lava Girl

 

Quinn at some point put a paper bag over his head and ran up to me (without running into the wall) and said "Look Mommy, I'm a robot!"  it was the cutest thing.  Ronin is really into crafts and projects lately, we need to take a trip to the craft store so he can be creative. 

 

Last weekend the boys got to go with Daddy to their grandmother/grandfathers house all weekend.  I missed them terribly, but I got to have a weekend of not picking up after them or cleaning, or yelling...  it was kind of nice and when I got to see them Sunday they missed me too. 

 

Thanksgiving is this week and I'm looking forward to staying home on Thanksgiving and seeing Nana and Papa the rest of the weekend.  :)

 

Lots of love,

C