You are my sunshine,

my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray.

You'll never know how much I love you.

WWith all of this weather lately, I thought I'd look back and enjoy some sunny pictures!  The boys and Tyler and I were all outside awhile back, and we got Wyatt's swing re-roped, and he got to ride in it for the very first time.  I don't know who loved it more, Wyatt, or Wayne and Weston.  They thought it was so cool that their baby was on the big boy swing, and kept stopping him from swinging so that they could hug him and tell him "good job!"  Typical to Wyatt's nature, he just smiled and squealed, whether he was swinging or not!

Even Tyler got in on the action! 

And with that, here's the weather report!!

Sun 5/30/2010	58°	48°	0.06	0	Mostly cloudy	64°	49°
Mon 5/31/2010	62°	49°	0.36	0	Mostly cloudy, showers around	64°	49°

Tue 6/1/2010	64°	51°	0.26	0	Cloudy	64°	49°
Wed 6/2/2010	64°	53°	0.51	0	Cloudy with a chance of rain	64°	49°
Thu 6/3/2010	62°	50°	0.06	0	Mostly cloudy, rain possible	65°	49°
Fri 6/4/2010	63°	49°	0.08	0	A couple of showers possible	65°	50°
Sat 6/5/2010	63°	53°	1.28	0	Rain	65°	50°
Sun 6/6/2010	63°	51°	0.28	0	Periods of rain	65°	50°
Mon 6/7/2010	73°	54°	0	0	Warmer with low clouds	65°	50°
Tue 6/8/2010	73°	50°	0.09	0	Times of clouds and sun	65°	50°
Wed 6/9/2010	61°	49°	0.07	0	Colder with periods of rain	65°	50°
Thu 6/10/2010	64°	49°	0.08	0	Cloudy with showers	65°	50°
Fri 6/11/2010	69°	48°	0.05	0	Clouds and sun with a shower	65°	51°
Sat 6/12/2010	78°	54°	0	0	Partly sunny and warmer	66°	51°
Sun 6/13/2010	79°	55°	0	0	Partly sunny and warm	66°	51°

I've got a "baby watcher"

I am really loving the boys who are 3 1/2 years apart.  It's a fabulous distance between kids.  Yes, it's a little long, and really what's the fun in that, but sometimes... Sometimes I think there is no better way to go!  Wayne is a huge help with Wyatt.  One of his daily chores is to stock all the diaper changing stations throughout the house with diapers (elephants for Weston, jaguars for Wyatt.)  He brings Wyatt toys, gives him snacks, and they have become quite the bath buddies too.  Wayne lets Wyatt splash him, which Wyatt finds to be utterly hysterical.  The echoes of his giggles can be heard throughout the house!

So the other day, I was outside vacuuming out the Denali, and Wyatt was in the house, playing in his excersaucer.  I had all the doors open, so I could keep tabs on him.  Wayne was outside with me, but when I had about 10 minutes of work left to do, we both her Wyatt start to cry.  Wayne ran for the door, quickly turned and said over his shoulder, "No problem mom.  I will be your baby watcher!"  After that, all I could hear was giggling and singing going on.  I finished up my work, and when I got back into the house, I could see that Wayne was keeping Wyatt happy and entertained.  WOW!  I felt like a big voice should be booming, "This lack of interruption was brought to you by your four year old." 

Where has this blogger been?

Has it really been 6 days since I've blogged?  Almost 7?  That has got to be a record for me!  :-)  Blame it on busyness, boys, the weather, or ME.  Take your pick.

Busyness:  I've been working 2 days each week, from 9 to 4, but the past few weeks I've also been putting in some extra hours with projects, so that has been keeping me busy during my blogging time. 


Boys:The boys are in growth stages, all three of them, so I literally spend half of my days preparing, feeding, or cleaning up food.  It's a vicious cycle!  At least I've allowed myself to only sweep under their chairs ONCE each day.  The futileness of this chore was getting to me.  Wyatt is not yet crawling, but his rolling act is really... moving.  And Wayne and Weston have discovered that they can "help" him sit up, move to the toy room, and generally hold and pick him up on their own, so I've had to be extra diligent in my Wyatt's Bodyguard duties. 

Weather:  Since my choice seems to be sunny and cold OR cloudy and hot, I just am at a loss for what my preference is.  Does, "Whatever makes my garden grow" count as an answer?  We are ready for WARM days.  Like warm at 9am warm, and warm until 9pm warm.  Like nothing but shorts on the boys warm.



ME:  All in all, I just haven't felt like blogging.  Shame on me!  Forgive me boys, when you are reading this twenty years from now.  Just know that your mom was busy loving on you during this lapse of journalistic reporting on every tidbit of your lives!

By the grace of God.

Today I had one of those moments as a mom that brings you to your knees, takes your breath away, and causes tears to undeniably roll down down your cheeks.  One of those moments that make all of the middle of the night feedings, poop that's not in a diaper clean-ups, and the I just got barfed on but I'm going to clean up my little guy first moments nothing but a distant, fuzzy memory.

We were riding in the car on the way to Lowe's, down the Mt. Baker Hwy.  The sun had chosen to come out, and the sky was blue with HUGE white fluffy clouds.  Wayne was looking at the clouds, telling me all of the shapes and things he could see in them.  A cat, a dog, a mountain, a boy.  He kept going on and on.  And then, with a huge smile on his face, he screamed at me from the far back seat, "God made them all Mom!  He made them all for me to see.  I love God! He's amazing!"  Where this outburst came from I don't know, but to hear those sweet, innocent, adoring words come from the mouth of a four year old was more than my little mother heart could handle. 

So many times, I think of all the things that I didn't do with our kids, or of things that I did but I shouldn't have done.  Of times that I've cleaned up or done laundry or dishes, instead of snuggling them.  Times when I lost my temper and raised my voice.  Times when I am at a loss of what to do, and I just don't have the energy to keep on going through the day.  The best advice I think my Mom every gave me is this:  Our kids turn out okay, by the grace of God.  It's not my job to be perfect, it's not my job to do everything.  It's my job to do my best, and pray.  Pray for our kids, and put them in God's hands.  His grace is sufficient for me.



2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Why?

Why?  Why?

But why?





If I had a quarter for the number of times each day I answer this question (let alone the number of times I HEAR it) we'd all be going to Hawaii!  And that is closely followed by, "What?"  What is this?  What does that mean?



Most of the time I am pretty patient and answer each question, but sometimes I get stumped.  Today's question that stumped me is this.

Wayne:  What's "awhile."

Umm... Try as I might, I could not put that in terms for a four year old to understand.  Any ideas?

10 months old, but still our baby!

Can you believe that our baby is 10 months old?  I don't know where the time has gone, and I don't know how I could love him any more. He is absolutely the sweetest little guy.  He is so petite, with big blue eyes, and big white teeth, his skin is still baby soft, but he's got such a strong grip that he can hang on to toys when his brothers try to steal them.  He loves to watch all the action but is such a precious little snuggler too.  It took him 10 months, but he is now sitting up really well, without fear of a wipe-out!  He's not crawling, but he does do this really strange crawl thing, while laying on his back and lifting his whole body up so that only his head and his heals are touching the ground, then he scoots.  He must be athletic, right?  :-)  Wyatt still wakes up between 4 and 5am for a bottle, and then wakes up for the morning somewhere between 7 and 10am, depending on what he feels like doing.  Being so laid back, he's really not into a schedule very much, just eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's tired, and is happy all of the time

We love you little buddy!

(and Wayne says sorry for sitting on you, he just wanted to give you a hug!)

The Many Faces of Wayne

For preschool today we had a lesson in feelings and emotions.  What better way to learn and talk about those, than with a camera?

A Fabulous Weekend Outside

What a fabulous weekend, wasn't it? It's just after 5pm on Sunday night, and the temp is still 75 degrees.  Fabulous!  We have SO enjoyed all the being outdoors, and I'm finding that the boys are absolutely rummy by 5pm and in need of a movie in order to make it until bed time.  In fact, Wayne has fallen asleep on the couch for three days in a row, all around 5pm.  Talk about all tuckered out!  

Friday was a busy, busy, busy day.  I don't know what got in to me, but I woke up with tons of energy and a "can-do" attitude that resulted in :  cleaning the whole house, top and bottom; going to the concrete store, Costco, and Walmart with all three boys, pressuring washing, and planting our garden!  The boys have been great, and LOVE playing outside.  They pretty much come and go as they choose, and have lots of toys that they can get at and play with.  Fabulous! 

          

So on Saturday Breanne and Treven came for a quick visit, and by the end of it Treven was down to his onesie, and dirty in that!  Hah!  Such is the norm for a Silves summer weather visit!  He is so stinkin' cute, and so INCREDIBLY busy and fast, and he SO loves his cousins!

Later on in the day, the boys had their tunnels all set up, and my mom stopped by.  Wayne begged her to come in the tunnels with him, and she went for it.  See her feet in this first picture? 

What a good sport of a Grandma she was!  As she was coming out, and laughing hysterically, she looked up and found me with my camera.  What?  Like she didn't think I'd have it within arms reach?  :-)

Today was church, then coffee with Molly, then naps for the babies and more garden planting for Wayne and I.  We do a couple of seed packets each day, it keeps it fun and prolongs the experience, right?  Right.  Tyler will be home in 90 minutes with thai food for us, and we will put the boys all to bed, then sit down for a big night of SURVIVOR!!!!  It's the finale, and at this point I want anyone BUT Russell to win.  If Colby could pull it off, it would be quite the upset!  And seriously, do you think he really is awful at the challenges, or is he playing a different game this time?

Going to see Wayne's Grandpa in the ground

With the nice weather that we've had this week, we took advantage of it and did some good old fashioned Silves family bonding by planting our pots together, then all heading up to the Nooksack cemetery to clean Tyler's Dad's headstone, and put out the pretty flowers.  Tyler and I have been doing this for...  over a decade, but I don't even remember how long.  When we first took Wayne, he was so small, only 6 weeks old.  Here he is, when he was two years old.

I think that this year is the first year that Wayne has really understood that we weren't just cleaning for the joy of cleaning, we were doing it for someone.  He had lots of questions, "Why, why? - Why?" and was also a BIG help in chasing down Weston, who kept running off into the open field.  (Sidenote:  That kid is fast!  And when Tyler had to go get him, he just called out "Who wants ice cream!")  Today when we were talking, he asked if we need to water the flowers that are with his Grandpa in the Ground.  It was all I could do to keep a straight face!  We talked about how each of us has never met him, but how he must have been a great Dad, because he made Wayne's dad, who in Wayne's words (or cousin Ethan's words) is "Awesome!"

Here are this year's colors:  Pioneer Pride!

Wayne enjoys the scrubbing job, and was pretty excited when he got to pour the water for the first time.

Weston on the other hand was running.  I'm not sure what etiquette is, but I since we were the only ones there, I didn't think it was a problem if he played a little leap frog, was it?

Wyatt's first year!

Check out all those good looking Silves boys!  Must be in their genes!  :-)

A one of a kind Mother's Day.

Let me preface this post with a quick note:  If you are looking for a wonderful glowing report of being a mother on mother's day, you'd better go find another blog!  :-)

Mother's Day is usually my favorite holiday, except for my birthday.  When we were trying to have Wayne, I had just found out about my having PCOS and that it may be difficult for me to get pregnant, when my little brother leaned over to me in church and said, "So when are you going to be a mom?  It's about time!"  It was all I could do not to cry, and I swore then and there that I would never take Mother's Day for granted, if we were able to get pregnant.

Fast forward to 5 or 6 years later (you can do the math, I'm too lazy) and after using fertility drugs for the first two with great, quick success, and a third drug-free blessing, I think all the questions surround my fertility have been answered!!!  :-)

So this Mother's Day, as always, I was set to enjoy the perfect day.  Oh nelly, I should have known better.  The day started off with Weston waking up at 5:30 or so, but Tyler took him downstairs to watch TV.  The problem was, 30 minutes later, Tyler fell asleep on the couch and Weston was back upstairs!  He woke up Wayne, and I let them take a bath upstairs while I showered.  Then, Tyler of course was making breakfast, anything I wanted.  An english muffin with egg and sausage sounded good, so away he went.  I was half way through eating it when I thought something tasted funny.  It looked fine, and then I picked it up, flipped it over, and the entire bottom side of the muffin was gray/green with mold.  It was all I could do not to puke!!!!!!!  To add to that, we couldn't all go to church together because Weston and Wyatt were sick, so Wayne and I went.  I was a softie and didn't make him go to class and instead let him come to church.  We were singing, and I was holding him, remembering the first time I held him through a church service, thinking "Yikes!  He's really mine and I get to keep him!"  He was so tiny.  And on Mother's Day, I was struggling to hold him, and I knew that this would be my last Mother's Day that I even COULD hold him, next year he'd just have to settle for sitting on my lap!  He did really well, except for the last 10 minutes where I had to drag him out of church and straight to the car, home, and straight to his room to "get a grip".  Boy howdy, that was fun!  At that point, I had a major, pitiful, hissy fit.  Total hissy fit.  And we were having company in an hour!  Not pretty folks.  

But then, it hit me.  Today is Mother's Day, and it's not about being perfect.  It's not about me even, it's about these three sweet, busy, hungry, silly, fun, adorable boys who have each made me a mom, and who I can't imagine our family without.  And they are growing up.  Day by day.  Some of those days go by fast, and some go by slow, but they are going by all the same.  I see Weston wearing Wayne's hand-me-downs, and then I see Wyatt wearing Weston's hand-me-down's that Wayne first wore, and it makes me sad to know that in a few years my precious little Wy-Wy is going to be big like Wayne.  And then I think of Wayne, and he's going to be... Well I don't know, I haven't experienced being a mom to an 8 year old, but I'm sure it will feel like he's just about to start driving by then!  And with that, we've spent lots of time snuggling and going for walks this week, just because we can.  

Whoa, that was a rant!  Sorry!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, company was coming!  We had Tyler's family over for lunch, for a very simple yet delicious Mexican Delight with salsa, chips, and root beer floats!  We had a very nice time, on a gorgeous Spring-but-almost-Summer day.  We just hung out in the backyard, and with all that warm weather, and all the kids.... a water fight was bound to erupt!!!  Some of my most fun memories of family parties as a kid were of water fights, and I am happy to say that tradition is carrying on with my nieces and nephews.  Even baby Paige was in on the action! 

Enjoy the pics!

First Annual Scheenstra Family Fun Adventure

And yes, the consensus is that after the "first annual" adventure, there will be a second!  After all the planning, and scheduling to get everyone off of work at the same time, and after Ryan finishing seminary school, me finishing tax season, it was FINALLY time... Vacation!!  I just enjoyed being able to focus on the kids, and my family, for three whole days.  It was just long enough, and we were ready to come home, but also felt like we'd had such a wonderful time, that it was worth all the work!

Here's our Itinerary:
Thursday: Leave at 8:30am, shopping at the Marysville outlet, hotel check-in, swimming, tour Tyson and Breanne's place, and then dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe in Southcenter.

Friday: Breakfast, Starbucks, and to the zoo by 9:30. Back to the hotel by 3:00, swimming, happy hour and dinner at the hotel.

Saturday: Breakfast, swimming, Starbucks, Wilcox park, Edmunds street fair, then head for home, home by 4pm.

Things that I don't want to forget:

• It took a lot of convincing and work to get a group shot (I had to bring my tripod!) but I am so glad that I did.  I can't wait to fill a scrapbook with a family picture from each adventure!
• Wyatt is the sweetest, most easy going little guy around.  And he likes to eat.  A lot!  But even Wyatt has his limits, and by the end of day one, he just wanted to be held by me, which I think was a first.  
• Our kids are blessed with amazing grandparents, who love them just as they are, and who can laugh at anything.
• Madelyn is just about the messiest eater I have ever seen.  And she thinks that ketchup is hair gel!!!
• Treven is go-go-go.  And fast!  He can eat a lot too.
• DJ came out again!  Dad first revealed his "cool" shirt on our family houseboat trip to Canada, probably around 10 years ago.  It has been YEARS since I've seen it, and when we walked into the pool area and I looked up and saw him, the look on my face was probably priceless!
• Stuff.  It takes a lot of STUFF to get three little ones to Seattle for three days. 
• Weston is a fish.  That little kid did not want anyone touching him, and he just kicked, kicked, and kicked some more!
• Wayne got fruit loops for breakfast on Saturday, and proceeded to stack and sort them by color, before he would eat the whole stack in one bite.  Weston liked to dip his sausage into the orange juice before eating it!
• Wayne called Embassy Suites, where we stayed, the "Hotella" and could not be convinced that it was just a "Hotel."  
• The Hotella was packed, with hundreds of teenage girls who were there to TRY OUT for a hockey camp in New York.  Talk about competitive!  When we first walked into the lobby and they were all registering, Tara looked around and said, "The hotel is FULL of babysitters!"  
• TGFS - Thank Goodness for Starbucks
• The singing monkeys at the zoo were LOUD.
• While in Edmunds, we walked by someone who muttered under his breath, "Here comes the stroller parade."  You got it buddy!  Do you want to carry these 5 around all day?  I think not!!!
• Breanne does not like birds, and I do not like snakes.  
• The boys had their races on Friday night around the 5th floor hallways of the Hotella.  Tyler was the champion!!!  However, in all fairness, Tyler is a sprinter.  If it would have been a long distance run, Ryan would have won!

Okay, you made it through all the writing, now, it's on to the pictures!  


 

Home, Sweet Home

We made it back by around 4pm this afternoon.  We had a FABULOUS time, with memories to last a life time, and if that's not long enough, then I have 675 pictures too!   More to come.  How will I narrow the pictures?  Even if I pick 10%, that's 67.  I'll aim for the 2-5% range.  Stay tuned!

Just for cuteness' sake