A year ago tomorrow...

How is this possible?  This picture was taken last year out trick or treating:

Now he barely fits in either the stroller or the bear hat, the paci is long gone (moment of silence for paci) and he's rip ready to go trick or treating in the Hamburger costume!   Looking forward to some fun with the Diddies ransacking their neighborhood tomorrow evening and then bartering for candy with the kids.

- Trick or Treatin' mama

Where to start?

Yes it has been a long time since my last post but in my head I have good reasons, so that should count for something! Since my last post we attended the 100year Pendleton Round Up, Grandma turned 82, Hank continues to kick booty in soccer, Evelyn got braces and is getting a B in Math! Truman turned 2, changed daycare and we've gone through yet another sleep training phase, Rodney is no longer with PopCap and in search of his next adventure and me? I'm just trying to keep up and clearly not spending the appropriate amount of time blogging!

The Round-Up was awesome! Got to see some friends that I haven't seen in awhile, spend the weekend with family and our friends Bryan and Caralie, drink some Ptown and cokes in the LBR, buy Truman some cowboy gear and relive one of the many reasons I love my home town.

The fam ready for the Saturday of Round-Up! Let'er Buck!

Truman in his new Ptown gear - tough enough to wear pink day!

Bryan, Caralie, Myself, Rodney and Jeff in the hospitality bldg bringing down the rent.

Truman and Grandma checking out the Westward Ho Parade

Celebrated Grandma's 82nd bday with a good ol' fashioned fish fry with the trout we caught in August at Wallowa Lake - perfect way to cap off an awesome week~

The birthday girl and her posse

She's still got it! Able to pull fish bones out in one pull.

Truman's second birthday was awesome! Family and friends came over to the house, the sun was shining and cake and ice-cream aplenty. Truman woke up to a new train set and finished out the day with lots of other wonderful toys, books, pj's, blankets and most importantly feelin the love!

That about covers the main headlines...Truman is still working on figuring out how to get to sleep consistently, for some reason its much harder now than it was from months 14-23! His new daycare is awesome, close, in-home, with Miss Maureen who is wonderful! He does projects everyday, learning colors, letters etc and wakes up looking forward to going to 'school' LOVE IT!

Rodney and I are getting ready to have our Birthdays, 35 and 36, holy crap where did that time go? WOW! Looking forward to many more!

- shuwee that about does it mama

Holy busy weekend batman!

Well this weekend we had a state softball co-ed tourney, trip to Jubilee Farm, Hanks first soccer game and his pre-bday dinner at XXX Root beer!  All while dealing with Trumans new found dislike for sleeping! 

I don't even know where to start with the weekend as some of it is a little hazy from sleep deprivation.  The Truman aspect came out of nowhere and I was struggling quite a bit with why it started and how to 'fix' it.  After a few really rough nights of screaming mama, crying, bailing out of his crib, breaking out of his bedroom etc I wasn't quite sure where to start.  After some input from friends and families I converted his crib back into a crib (mostly to slow him down) and stayed within his sites he seems to be able to sooth himself to sleep (starting back from square 1, which I hear we'll do time and again)!

As far as the rest of the weekend our trip to Jubilee farm to pick our fruits and veggies for the week was awesome! it started out with a trip to Target for some rain boots and ended with picking blackberries!  Some pics from our adventure:

Next was a trip to Kent for Rodney's state co-ed softball game, the weather continued to cooperate and we got to see Rx win a game before heading back home to rest up for Sunday!

Sunday morning rise and shine at 6am but at least Truman slept all night in his crib (a win and I'll take it!), Hank woke up ready to take on the day and we spent most of the morning preparing for his very first soccer game, wuhuu!!  He did awesome, scored 3 goals and showed he has that sports instinct that you can't teach.. HE'S GOT IT!  Was a lot of fun watching him in action, I think it would be good for everyone at the next game to have him in the whole time as he tends to get himself into trouble on the sidelines ;) Some pics of the action:

Last on the docket for the weekend, but definitely not least, was Henry's early bday celebration with family at XXX Root beer!  This is quickly becoming our family hang-out and I see many bday adventures here in our future.  GIGANTIC root beer floats all around, and 1 root beer shake for Michele (hanks mom) and burgers, fries, onion rings, fish and chips and the list goes on!  Henry got some great bday gifts and even got on a table and had happy birthday sung to him.. so proud of him!  (Rodney got video that I'm sure is priceless)

So now as I sit here on the couch, enjoying my 'free time', the first free time I've had before 10pm in about 7days, I'm searching for that second wind so I can get us packed up and ready to hit the road to Pendleton tomorrow for a full week of Round-Up activities.. SO EXCITED!! 
(pic from a past Round-up)

-Let-er Buck Mama!

Bloggin aint easy!

Man I had no idea how difficult it would be to stay on top of blogging!  I started out like wildfire and have piddled off here recently.  I'll try to get back in action just in time to blog about the ROUND UP!! LET'ER BUCK!

After watching Food Inc and doing some soul searching we've decided to try and change what and the way we eat so Rodney's been cooking some yummy meals with our Baron Farms meat (grass fed) - tonight is Beef Short Rib tacos YUM!  Tomorrow I'll pick up our first fruit and vegetable package from the Jubilee Farms Co-op!  Next year its from our own garden, going to have to dig deep and find a green thumb somewhere ;)

Hank started kkindergarten this past Monday, what an exciting day! Michele, his mom, says he LOVES it and is up and I imagine he'll be leading the pack in no time.

We celebrated Evelyn's bday last week on the 26th... the big 1-3 going on 17 ;)  Was a great dinner at Benihana's with friends and family... gearing up to start 8th grade next week, holy smokes how is that possible??

Truman is growing before my eyes, I swear everyday I pick him up from daycare he's grown or changed in some way.  Starting to say complete sentences... over and over and over and over and definitely testing his mama!  He's singing songs, ABC's, ba ba black sheep, twinkle twinkle and happy birthday, he's my American idol <3 

Getting ready to enjoy the long holiday weekend with the kids and grandma and grandpa, some house projects are on our agenda... and as Tank says... "I don't know, maybe a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond if there's time".

- busy mama

Vacation!!

Much needed get away for us last week.. this was the first vacation we have taken since before Truman was born, somewhere close to 2 years since our last one! Took the whole fam damily to Wallowa Lake (OR), Rodney found an awesome cabin on the lake, packed the kids, our crap-ton of stuff and loaded up the new Bullington family mobile (71 GMC Suburban) and hit the road.

We took a drive through Wallowa valley with Grandma and got to hear her '100 year old stories', caught fish, played scrabble, rode the bumper boats, went to the top of the world in the gondola, did some tubing in the lake (thank you Deckers!) and made some memories (thank you Mom, Dad, Grandma, Evelyn, Henry, Truman and Hubby!)... all you can ask for! (well maybe a little more sleep but I figure I'll get that in about 18years or so)

We've got over 400 pics and about 20 videos (excellent job family!) Rodney is working on putting them all together, when the masterpiece is finished I'll make sure and post it here as well... until then here is a little glimpse into the fun that was had and what I like to call our 'little piece of heaven'!

The evening view from the deck of the cabin...awesome!


A family dip in Wallowa Lake (sans Truman, he'll get his turn next year) Did I mention it's a glacier made lake?


- back to reality mama

The Birthday Quarter!

We are quickly entering the birthday quarter so it is quite fitting that today Truman got excited about a birthday one of his classmates had... when I picked him up he said 'birtday party mama' and then proceeded to sing the first line of Happy Birthday!  I asked him if he had fun.. 'YEAH', did you have a cupcake? 'YEAH', did you sing Happy Birthday? 'YEAH MAMA' with a big ol smile on his face :)  So I think we are no officially ready for the birthday quarter~

Evelyn's bday is 8/26, I hear Benihana's and a family bbq are on the docket.  Grandma LaVerne kicks off September by turning 81 on 9/10 and Hank the big 6 on 9/16,!  Truman turns 2 on 10/8 and Rodney and I have our bday to finish out the quarter on 10/24... how bout that for a busy couple of months? Its a good thing Truman has figured out the first words to the Happy Birthday song, he's about to get really good at it ;)

On a side note I think we have made it over the paci hurdle, he asks for it in desperate times of need, in the car when he's tired, at bedtime if he's struggling to go to sleep he looks in his woobie pocket hoping paci is there... overall I'm very proud of him (and of me for not giving in)... however now he has taken to sucking on his fingers instead, his thumb, 2 fingers, 3 fingers, his entire hand and sometimes two hands! I'm not sure which is worse? I'm pretty sure he's teething so whatever he needs to do to make his mouth feel better cutting those teeth I'm all for it!

- growing up aint easy mama

The beginning of the end of Paci

So tonight we officially lobbed off the head of Mr Orange Paci... this is the same pacifier that Truman got in the NICU at Evergreen hospital some 22months ago... yes the very same one!  We've had a couple of close calls, one specifically at midnight in Target doing some Christmas shopping when he was 2mo old, a few panicked moments during moves, car rides and the most recent one was having it fall out of the car in the Dr's parking lot only to return 30min later and rescue it from its demise!

Why the same paci you ask? Truman wouldn't have any other, he's a one paci kinda guy.. believe me we tried!

Over the past month or so paci had seen better days, the plastic around the outside had come off and he had successfully tore the actual paci!  I started to worry about... what happens if he rips it and then sucks it down his throat? what if.. what if.. so tonight as I'm looking at his paci, hanging on for dear life, I made the decision to rip off the tip and show Truman that his 'paci was broke' :(  it took a few minutes of explaining paci was broke and that mama couldn't fix it and some coaxing to get him to throw the tip into the garbage but he did it.. I told him how proud I was of him and he smiled only to return to the garbage a few minutes later asking to pull the piece of paci back out (having changed his mind).

Now we have whats left of the paci, he tried multiple times to get it to work as his old friend had but no luck.. however it did take its rightful place in the pocket of his woobie to survive another day!

Bedtime went okay, he gnawed on paci, held his woobie and asked a few 10x just to confirm.. 'paci broke?'  so far no tears for the first night - well, at least for him... I can't make any promises for myself ;)

Grandma posted an 'ode to orange paci' on facebook tonight that says it best..."You were the comfort for our little boy during times of discomfort and times of joy. You've accompanied him to places far and near, you have been his best friend for over a year. So now its time to say goodbye, Your work has been stellar we can not lie. Goodbye Orange Paci you've been such a friend, rest, relax your time is at end."

Orange Paci.. 10/08/08 - 08/09/10 you will be missed!

- another step forward mama