Lia Sophia

Well, I'm officially a Lia Sophia advisor and did my first party last night. It's a long story, but I decided to turn my love of jewelry in to a little mini-business for myself! Ha ha. I'm not sure that it will be much of a career, but a fun venture nonetheless! So...please contact me for any of your Lia Sophia needs, LOL! :)

Wow, it's been a while!

I've been so busy lately that I've really been neglecting my blog. I guess I got frustrated with the last post I did because it takes so long to upload pics now. They must have changed something...I don't know. Anyways...the holdays are in full swing here at the Bordner house. We are all decked out and ready to go. Still need to do lots of shopping though! Over the weekend I told Grant that we were going to put away the pumkins and scarecrows and get out the Santas and snowmen and his response was to clap his hands, jump up and down, and say "Yay! It's gonna be fun!" Then he immediately gave me a spontaneous hug and kiss. That touched me so much and gave me just the nudge I needed to start in on it. It's such a job, but so rewarding to see how much the boys love it. Blake's favorite things are pushing the button on the Little People Nativity and seeing the star light up while it plays "Away in A Manger." He loves it so much that he said, "I kiss," and kissed the little star while it was lit up...so precious! He also loves this snowman we have from Hallmark that sings and plays the piano. It's always been a huge hit ever since Grant was a baby. We've caught Blake kissing and hugging the snowman as well. I bought Grant a little tiny Christmas tree for his room, to decorate with little tiny John Deere ornaments from Nana and Papa and he was beyone thrilled! Simple pleasures, for sure. The tree was $2.49 and it's his prized possession right now. Oh, and one more funny thing...Grant had a fever over the weekend and was just feeling kind of lousy from it. That was his only symptom, so I was just going to wait it out but yesterday he said to me, "I have mud in my ears." LOL!!! So, I called the dr and told them what he said and they laughed and said that they should see him to check for ear infection. Luckily, there was no infection, but Grant gave us and everyone at the drs office a good chuckle. Guess he's full of something, but it's not mud!!! :) Grant had lost about a pound since last time we were there. He weighed 46 lbs and Blake weighed 38 lbs 8 oz. Can't believe that Blake is 3 whole years younger than Grant and only weighs 7 1/2 lbs less than him! Love my boys!

The Sucker Looks Better in Somebody Else's Mouth

We ate at Pizza Hut today after church with my family and a couple of long time friends. Because it is one of our family hobbies, our boys normally do pretty good when we go out to eat. That wasn't the case today. Blake was not his normal sweet chillin' self and pretty much drove Mase and I crazy. We ended up cutting our dining experience shorter than what we usually do because Blake was screaming "sucker" wanting Grant and cousin Torah's suckers eventhough he had one of his own in his hand! As a parent, this is more than frustrating!!! We got out of there as fast as we could, which still didn't feel fast enough. Fun times! We had only been on the road a few minutes when we looked back and saw Blake sound asleep with his sucker still in his mouth! Mase and I both laughed pretty hard at the irony of it all!

The Fro is No "Mo"

Well, Blake was born with tons of dark hair. We were thrilled because Grant had tons of dark hair too when he was born and we were so proud of our boys' thick thatch of beautiful hair. By the time Blake was one year old, his hair had become an issue. It was thick, coarse, curly, and CrAzY!!! It grows every which way, so even when it's short it doesn't lay exactly right. His hair is poofy, even when it's short. My mom always laughs at how Blake's hair doesn't grow, it "swells." Anyways, the hair that we were so proud of when our boys were babies has been a source of great anguish in the fact that they both have HATED getting their hair cut. Grant is fine with it now, but didn't used to be! Blake is still in the hating it with all that he is stage, so we probably go too long in between hair cuts just to avoid the nightmare of it all. This past Saturday, we decided to give Blake his first real "big boy" hair cut. Ovbiously he's had dozens of hair cuts by now, but Mase used the same settings this time that he uses on himself and Grant. I have to admit that even though I will always miss Blakey's curls, I do love his new do. Excuse me for the cheesy title, but "mo" is Blake's way of saying "more" and I just couldn't resist! The following pics were taken right after Blake's hair cut and bath and I think that he looks just a little proud of his new big boy hair cut.

Fall is Here!!!

Once I can admit that summer is over, I love fall! I love decorating for fall, the smells of fall, hot cider, candy corn and peanuts, and my favorite of all...FALL FESTIVALS!!! We have been to four different ones so far this year, and there are still at least two more that I hope to make it to!!! We love going to them and eating the food, buying the crafts, etc. This past Saturday we went to one that we'd never been to and had a blast. We even got to take the boys on their first ever hayride. My mom and dad came later and they had fun as well. I was thrilled because we bought some pumpkins and I was able to finish up my outside fall decorating. I kind of go a little crazy with decorating for fall both inside and outside, but that's because it thrills Grant even more than it does me so I find it hard to stop. I will post more pics later, but it takes forever right now for some reason so these will have to do at the moment...

Grant's Jammies

Here is a silly picture of Grant in some jammies that are way too small. I like to buy ahead when I find good deals, but sometimes I don't come out ahead from doing this. A couple of years ago, after I had bought lots of jammies for the future, Grant decided that he hated them and would only wear a t-shirt and shorts, or comfy pants to bed. Well, now he's changed his mind but that they are all too small. Oh well, hopefully Blakey will wear them. This picture of him cracks me up!!!

Boys Gone Baja!

The boys LOVE riding around in the jeep together!!! This is really the first summer that Grant is to be trusted driving the thing, although I'm not sure HOW MUCH he is to be trusted! He wasn't good at driving at all last summer, but has improved enough this summer that we were able to let Blake ride with him, although I walk/run beside them the whole time! In summer's past, Grant used to call it his "Gee." What a goof ball! So cute to see them together on it! I'm not sure if you can tell, but in one of the pictures Blake is signing "more" because I think he thought I was going to make him get off! We so enjoy watching them giggle and have fun together in the beautiful weather!

Another Year of Preschool!

Grant started another year of preschool a few weeks ago at a wonderful private CHRISTIAN school! He really didn't cooperate for pictures, but I still wanted to share the ones that I did manage to get. I had to take a picture of the mural of Jesus on the wall with the children, because this is what I've always wanted for him...to go to a Christian school and learn about Jesus and THEN learn all of the other stuff! Blake was so excited to go and pick him up and Grant was excited to see him. I surprised him when we got to the truck with some Iron Man silly bandz he'd been wanting. He was thrilled and then gave one to Blake, which thrilled me! We then celebrated by meeting Mase at Arby's for lunch. It was a good day!

Green Smoothie Disaster!

I've gotten onto making "green smoothies" as a way to get some good nutrients into their bodies. You throw in spinach, yogurt, and any other kind of fruit you want and they are wonderful! I even got a new blender for it. Apparently, I wasn't used to using it yet and twisted a little when getting it off, rather than just pulling...and this is what happened!
Mase and Grant were a little disappointed that it ended up all over the counter, so they sampled part of the mess!
Grant's green smoothie mustache.
Made a second batch after we got everything all cleaned up. This is Mase being cheesy or I mean, himself. ha ha
Ahhh, yummy! Grant said, "Tastes delicious!" :)

Toy Story B-Day Party - Grant's 5th & Blake's 2nd

Here is a slideshow from the boy's birthday party in June. I wanted to share these pictures before too much time passes. Enjoy!

It's been a long day...

So I just realized that I had a mispelled word, larger than life, in the title of the blog post I did earlier today. Wow! I'm pathetic! So tired, but did have some fun with the boys. Here are a few pictures from our CrAzY day!!!

"There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24

I've already mentioned that the boys have been fighting a lot lately...well it's been something else around here. Grant has never had much patience with Blake and Blake is so good at pushing Grant's buttons. On some days it just seems like it's constant fighting and I really have to keep them in separate rooms a lot of the time, which makes me sad. I know this is a normal part of having children, but I never expected it to start this early or be this bad and it's really been bringing me down. It's really the main thing I have to discipline about, "Don't hit your brother...don't touch you brother...don't yell at your brother...your brother had that first, give it back..." and the list goes on and on of the same sentences that I must say hundreds of times a day. Sometimes I think I should just tape record myself saying them and have it permanently playing as background noise in the toy room! They love each other dearly, don't get me wrong, but the moments of "brotherly love" are far out numbered by the moments of "brotherly shove." I think the hideous heat and humidity of August really hasn't helped either, as it's just been too hot to let them go outside and blow off some steam. The break in the heat yesterday was a wonderful gift from God. We were able to go outside all morning and it was so enjoyable. The boys were playing and having a blast together, even hugged a few times! I was so thrilled I was almost giddy! I just kept thinking that maybe their relationship is starting to mature. Ever since Blake was born, I've been praying that he and Grant will be dear friends. My sister is such a dear friend to me, and I want my boys to have that special bond. I have such a yearning in my heart for them to be close and I was praying for them as I watched them giggle and play. Then I started praying that above all, their relationship with Jesus would be the one that they hold the most high, even as their relationship with each other matures and hopefully grows sweeter with time. The verse, "There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother" kept coming to my mind and I started thinking that this was what I wanted my next blog post to be about. Of course, night time came and it just didn't happen. We took off this morning to go spend a couple of hours at my sister's house and surprise, - more fighting while we were there. I was so unhappy with Grant by the time that we left that just the stearn "I'm not happy with you look" I gave him as I was strapping him into his car seat brought him to tears. I felt kind of bad about this, but not really, seeing as I was still SO UPSET with him! I purposely drove around before coming home so that I could cool off a bit. I brought the boys in the house, along with a handful of papers they had sent home with Grant from church that I hadn't had the chance to look at yet. Started sipping my frappe from Mcy D's that I had gotten because I felt I deserved it after all of that, and the first paper I look at is his memory verse sheet. What's the memory verse for this week? You guessed it, none other than Proverbs 18:24!!! There I sat... stunned, with goose bumps and of course tears in my eyes! What a MIGHTY and INCREDIBLE God I serve!

"Daddy, Daddy, a giant is coming!"

I was in the shower this morning when this happened, but this is what Mase told me. He was awakened this morning by Grant running into our room shouting, "Daddy, Daddy, a giant is coming!" Mase was groggy, but quickly realized why Grant was saying this, as the whole house seemed to practically be shaking. Blake was awake and jumping like a maniac in his crib and because he's such a bruiser, the loud noise of it can be heard throughout the entire house! Blake really is a giant for his age, LOL, but rest assured there was no giant coming to get us! :) Mase quickly reassured Grant that everything was okay and we've been laughing about it ever since. These boys sure do give us some good laughs! :)

"Praise God, Blake!"

Today I took the boys to meet my mom for lunch at Pizza Hut. While I was driving there (about a 20 min. drive), Grant was just talking away in complete long sentences and I was overwhelmed with joy over the progress he has made with his speech just in the last few weeks. Let me back up a little bit...Grant has been speech delayed and we have been on quite the quest to help him. We've just learned in the last several months that it is probably due to a combination of allergies and the fact that we didn't know he has had chronic fluid on his ears since maybe infancy, thus affecting his hearing which ultimately has greatly influenced his speech. Anyways, it's been quite a journey and that is a whole different story, but anyways...as I was saying...I was overjoyed over the things he was saying to me and the incredible conversations we've been having lately. When we pulled in, we see mom in the parking lot and Grant runs up to her and starts yacking her ear off. By the time we get in and get seated, Mom was in tears over not being able to believe the things he was saying to her and how FAR he's come, little did she know I'd just had all those same emotions. It was a wonderful time together. When Mase got home from work, we all went to Wal-Mart to get groceries. Mase was pushing Blake in the stroller and Grant was walking beside it. Out of nowhere Grant and Blake start hugging and Grant puts his hand on Blake's head and says "Praise God, Blake!" LOL...Mase and I were touched and oh so tickled all at once! This kid cracks us up so much. My Mom always says that she thinks Grant is spiritually gifted. Anyways...I'm doing my devotional later in the evening and I'm reading in 1 John about loving one another and I'm brought back to that special moment between the boys in Wal-Mart. It was so good for me to see because they have been fighting so bad lately and it's been wearing me down for sure. As I'm reading in 1 John, for some reason I feel compelled to flip back to Exodus to find the list of the 10 Commandments and when God first gave them to Moses. However, I went a little too far back in Exodus and came to, get this...the part I had forgotten about..."Moses said to the Lord, 'Oh Lord, I have never been eloquent, niether in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am SLOW OF SPEECH AND TONGUE.'" Then the Lord goes on to say that he will help Moses and then that he will "put words" in the mouth of Aaron, the brother of Moses, saying "I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do." Wow! This just sums up my wonderful day! God is so good!!! Most of my posts won't be nearly this long but I had to share this!

So I turned 30 this summer and I've been inspired. Inspired to try new things. Inspired to chill out and "embrace the journey" because it's going so fast! I can't believe I've been married to my high school sweetheart for 11 years this summer and our two handsome boys turned 5 and 2 at the same time I turned 30. This has been a big summer for me and it's time to turn over a new leaf. I can't tell you how many times I've been listening to the radio, browsing in a store, etc., and the line "embrace the journey" has come up at a particular moment when I really needed to hear it. At first I just dismissed it as a coincidence...but now I realize that it was the Lord speaking to me. Guess He knows He needs to knock me upside the head with something a few times before I get the point. I believe with all of my heart that being a Christian wife and mother is the highest calling God will ever give me and this is a task that I do not take lightly. I'm so passionate about it and take it so seriously that sometimes I think I forget to "embrace the journey" and enjoy every single moment. I want to use this blog to help me capture, remember, and share with you some of the precious moments in my life of being a wife and mama to these Bordner Boys I've been so blessed with. I'm sad to say that I'm not super good about writing things down, so hopefully this will serve that purpose for me. Here we go... let's see how this turns out ...