The Boys

This summer by Grutzmacher standards we have not had a lot of family time but I still have been able to squeeze in some quality moments with my boys. As someone who had always dreamed of having 2 little boys I have been blessed with 5 nephews. They all amaze me everytime I see them.

Kai below in the white shirt is at the phase where everything is boring unless he's with his friends. Sometimes he'll invite us to play baseball with him if he needs more players. He's still a good reader and very intelligent, although he insisted on telling us how he doesn't like school. But we know he's just trying to be cool. He still has a great sense of humor and it's always fun to hear the things he has to say. Can't believe when I met him he was only 2 years old.

Aaron on the right is a great big brother and sweet big cousin but can hold his own when he and Kai decide to wrestle. He loves sports and has been working hard to improve at football and baseball. Even though he's the oldest he'll still hang out with me and Tim for a few minutes until he remembers that we are boring adults.

Kayden, in the orange shirt, is one of Abby's best buddies. He loves to teach her all kinds of things from who is spiderman to where is her nose. Even though Abby can barely speak these two always seem to be having conversations. I hope that he'll always look out for Abby like he does now. This summer he has spent a lot of time asking me questions about Abby and asking me to play with him. He gave me a great tour of his big boy room, his house and his backyard last time we were there.

Kristian is protective of Abby too. When she crys or whines he always looks very concerned and I feel like I have to console him more than her. Melts my heart every time. He accidently sprayed her with water once and she cried and cried. Poor little guy looked like he would cry too. He had a long phase where he wanted to mostly be with his Oma and Mama but this summer he has played alot with me and Abby. He took a nice walk with us and kept racing us and winning and laughing at how slow we were. He is a really good listener. Everytime he would get to the corner or a driveway he would stop to make sure it was okay he was still going. He loves to tease and joke and has a great smile that can take you out of your worst mood. I'm so proud to be his Godmother. We still have our strongest bond, our love of food. He'll always come to me at Grandma's house if he needs more juice, crackers, bread or milk. I've been feeding him since he started finger food and plan to spoil him as long as he'll let me. I didn't have a recent picture of him smiling since he is a quick little mover now. Here he is playing so nice with Abby at the 4th of July.

"Hey don't forget about Baby Reiland"

Our youngest little guy is 3 months old and has already been nicknamed "smilin' Reiland". He is such a good natured little guy and cries only when he needs food, changing or sleep. I know that sounds like a lot since thats all babies do is eat and sleep but really you hardly ever her him cry. He's so sociable and will just babble to you and smile at you as long as you are willing to talk to him. Just look at the cute little face, can you ever imagine him being sad.

I feel so blessed to have all these fun loving, smart, crazy buddies. Five is definately better than two.

Experiment

Working full time and coming home to no husband can be physically and emotionally draining. Coming home after a second shift job and your wife and daughter are sleeping is also emotionally taxing. We make it work and make the most of our time as a family. But for me it's just not working anymore.

My mom recently read an article about ways to figure out if you can stay at home or work part time. One suggestion was to try for a few months to live on less income, so for example we are putting away half of my salary towards bills like the furnace and car loan. So far things are working out - we've paid off our furnace 3 months earlier, saved a lot of money on eating out, spent more time at the park, and only had to take from savings once. But we're still scared.

Tim still has one more year of school that we have to pay for and then his student loan bill will come. There are some projects we would like to do on our house. What if something major breaks like my car?

But it would be great to work full time and see my family more. Have more time to mother my child and to not feel so behind at home. And to be honest I would love to nap everyday when she naps. How do others make it work? Should we take the plunge? What are your thoughts?

Food fun

Tim and I thought Abby's favorite part of the fair would be the animals. However, the first animal we really looked at was a pig that stood up and snorted in her face and that was it for her. Any other animals we went to see she would cling to Tim and sometimes timidly put at them and saw "dawg".

In true Grutzmacher fashion her favorite part instead was food. She enjoyed half of my cheese perogies with bacon and sour cream -so so good. Tim tried to give her a bite of his brat bun but instead she ate 1/3 of the saurkraut instead. She enjoyed at least half of my corn on the cob and a large portion of our cream puffs. The only thing she didn't like was deep fried s'more which she immediately spit out on Tim's shirt.

Mostly she enjoyed listening to the bands and saying hi to everyone as she walked in circles to make sure no one was left out of her warm greetings. It was a great day.

Thankful

Today we spent a long time at the park. Apparently too long for Miss Abby because she crawled into her stroller to tell me it was time to go. I had kind of a bummer day but spending time with my sunshine always helps. We went for a long walk and I walked past some sketchy characters. Sometimes that's all it takes to turn my attitude around.

I am thankful to have a place to sleep every night,
A job that pays enough that I don't have to worry about food for my family,
A husband that everyday grows into an even better dad,
A daughter that is healthy and sleeps well.

I'm thankful for family that is nearby and supportive,
for marrying into an amazing family and having a mother-in-law that I can talk to about anything,
for my five amazing nephews.

And today I am thankful for engagements, adoption, and positive pregnancy tests . . . and being able to enjoy all these events without having to plan a wedding or have a baby myself :). Can't wait to boogie at your wedding SZ. Counting the days to the arrival of baby Pindel, baby K and baby bean R. Eager to meet and hold little baby girl H.

Yeah, things are looking better already.

Gresham

This year Abby had her first trip to Serenade Hollow, the home in Gresham my grandparents have. We joined Abby's GGs, Aunt Angie, Uncle Jim, Tricia and Andy. Abby had a bad cold the morning we were going to leave, there was a heat advisory the whole time we were there and the poor girl had 2 teeth and 2 molars coming in. Somehow she still managed to have some fun.

While our sick little sweetheart took some good long naps, her parents enjoyed some quality time canoeing, swimming, taking long walks, kayaking and reading. We played our annual boys vs girls Trivia Pursuit and the boys remain undefeated.

Playing with Daddy

Some light reading




Lots of one on one time with Mommy

Watching Daddy and the boys play baseball

Attempting to enjoy the lake

Her favorite toy GG's xylophone

Girl Chat

The vocabulary of an almost 16 month old girl:

Daddy
TiTi (kitty)
Tee (tree or bush)
Baw (ball)
Wow, sometimes wow oh wow
Up
Mom
Mmmmm (means give me some of that)
Daw (dog - or any other animal in a book or real life)
Hi
Bye
Uh-oh
Oh (when surprised)
Abby (doesn't seem to mean anything, but she says it alot)