Day 120

Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes w/ Chocolate Lover's Frosting

I'd give up chocolate, but I'm no quitter!
~Author Unknown

Day 119

Gunnar's Transformer


A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Day 118

Sticks


People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross.
~Author Unknown

Day 117

Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values... God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.

~Charles A. Lindbergh

Day 116

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me.
~Erma Bombeck

Day 115

Hello?


Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

~Ambrose Bierce

Day 114

John and Gunn

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

~Clarence Budington Kelland

Day 113

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.

~James Openheim

Day 112

Happy Earth Day


Take nothing but pictures.
Leave nothing but footprints.
Kill nothing but time.

~Motto of the Baltimore Grotto

Day 111

My beautiful boys

Dear First Born

I've always loved you best because you were our first miracle.

You were the genesis of a marriage and the fulfillment of young love.

You sustained us through the Top Ramen years, the first apartment, our first mode of transportation (Feet), and the seven-inch TV we paid on for 36 months.

You were new, had unused grandparents, and enough clothes for a set of triplets.

You were the original model for a mom and dad who were trying to work the bugs out.

You got the strained lamb, the open safety pins and three-hour naps.

You were the beginning!

Dear Middle Born

I've always loved you the best because you drew a tough spot in the family and it made you stronger for it.

You cried less, had more patience, wore faded hand-me-downs, and never in your life did anything first.

But it only made you more special.

You were the one we relaxed with, who helped us realize a dog could kiss you and you wouldn't get sick.

You could cross a street by yourself long before you were old enough to get married.

And you helped us understand the world wouldn't collapse if you went to bed with dirty feet. You were the child of our busy, ambitious years.

Without you, we never could have survived the job changes and the tedium and routineness that is marriage.

To My Baby

I've always loved you best because while endings are generally sad, you are such a joy!!

You readily accepted the milk-stained bibs, the lower bunk, the cracked baseball bat, the baby book that had nothing written in it except a recipe for graham-cracker piecrust that someone had jammed between the pages.

You are the one we held on to so tightly.

You darken our hair, quicken our steps, squared our shoulders, restored our vision, and give us a sense of humor that security, maturity, and durability can't provide.

When your hairline takes on the shape of Lake Erie and your own children tower over you, you will still be our baby!!!

~Author Unknown

Day 110

Chance Nixon


When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

~Mark Twain, 1874

Day 109

Neighbors tree

Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.

~Proverb

Day 108

Dash Point

Don't count the days, make the days count.

~Muhammad Ali

Day 107

Gunnar's first t-ball game of the season

Alone At The Plate

He pulls on the helmet, picks up the bat, and walks to the plate, "gotta hit and that's that."
The crowd starts to yell, the game's on the line, last inning, two outs, the score's nine to nine.
Dad yells, "Go get it," Mom wrings her hands, coach hollers, "hit it" but alone there he stands.
Heros are made in seconds such as this, but he's just a little boy, what if he should miss?
Years after this game's ended and he's little no more, will he remember the outcome or even the score?
No he'll have forgotten if he was out, hit, or a run, he'll only look back on his friends and the fun.
So cheer this boy on, alone with his fate, help him remember with fondness, this stand on the plate.
Spend your time wisely and help in his quest to be a hitter with confidence and always his best.
And when the games over, this boy can stand tall, for you've helped him prepare to give it his all!

~Author Unknown*

*Five years ago Chance's coach gave us this poem on the first day of baseball season.

Day 106

Happy 5th Birthday Isaiah (actual birthday on the 12th)


Let Them Be Little (song lyrics)

I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand
Felt so good in it, no bigger than a minute
How it amazes me, you're changing with every blink
Faster than a flower blooms they grow up all too soon.

So, let them be little 'cause they're only that way for awhile
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh, but let them be little.

I've never felt so much in one little tender touch
I live for those kisses, your prayers and your wishes
And now that you're teaching me how only a child can see
Tonight while we're on our knees all I ask is please.

So innocent, a precious soul, you turn around and
It's time to let them go.

So, let them be little 'cause they're only that way for awhile
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Oh, just let them be little.

~Richie McDonald/Billy Dean

Day 105

Shadow


In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.

~Blaise Pascal

Day 104

Lucas and Gunnar


It is easier to build strong boys than to repair broken men.

~Frederick Douglass

Day 103

Brothers


Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.
~Marc Brown

Day 102

Coby on his way home from his baseball game...they lost...big time!


There's nothing wrong with me a little ice cream won't fix.

~Author Unknown

Day 101

Gunnar's feet


It's hard to believe that the tiny feet that struggle to keep up with your long strides will one day outrun you.

~Author Unknown

Day 100

Teriyaki dinner

One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

~Author Unknown

Day 99

How's your dessert Romi and Beau?

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing clothes, diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, crying, defending.

~Erma Bombeck

Day 98

Chance's amp and bass guitar


Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.
~Janis Joplin

Day 97

Chance

I see children as kites.

You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground.

You run with them until you're both breathless...

they crash...they hit the rooftop...you patch and comfort, adjust and teach.

You watch them lifted by the winds, and assure them that someday they'll fly.

Finally they are airborne;

they need more string and you keep letting it out.

But with each twist of the ball of twine,

there is sadness that goes with joy.

The kite becomes more distant,

and you know it won't be long before

that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds you together,

and will soar as it is meant to soar,

free and alone.

Only then do you know that you did your job.*

~Author Unknown

*About 18 years ago my mom got this little story in a church class. I read it, loved it and knew someday I was going to have kids and that this was probably how it was going to feel. I have kept this story ever since.

Day 96

Gunnar's Green Boots



I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.

~Clint Eastwood

Day 95

Rock On Chance


What I am trying to get across to you; is please take of yourselves and those that you love; because that is what we are here for, that's all we got, and that is all we can take with us. Are you with me?

~Stevie Ray Vaughan, musician, guitarist

Day 94

Happy Easter!!

Sophie and Piper hunting for eggs

Those who hated Jesus thought they had put an end to Him forever when the cruel spikes pierced His quivering flesh and the cross was raised on Calvary. But this was the Son of God, with whose power they did not reckon. Through His death came the Resurrection and the assurance of eternal life.

~President Gordon B. Hinckley, May 1996

Day 93

Easter Eggs

With sorrow unspeakable those who loved Him placed His wounded, lifeless body in the tomb. Gone was hope from the lives of His Apostles, whom He had loved and taught. He to whom they had looked as Lord and Master had been crucified and His body laid in a sealed tomb. He had taught them of His eventual death and Resurrection, but they had not understood. Now they were forlorn and dejected. They must have wept and wondered as the great stone was rolled to seal the burial place.

Then came a new day, a day that ever after was to be the Lord’s day. In their sorrow Mary Magdalene and the other women came to the tomb. The stone was no longer in place. Curiously they looked inside. To their astonishment the tomb was empty.

~Gordon B. Hinckley, May 1996

Day 92

Gunnar and I on our way to see How To Train Your Dragon

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.

~Elizabeth Stone

Day 91

Talk to the hand



If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent.

~Bette Davis