We just ordered our fourth volume of The Hargrave Clan in hardback cover. 300 pages of written life. Gotta love this blog thing...assuming I get a little better about writing it...
So here is what we have been up to lately, in not a lot of words or detail, and with no pictures. I know--you can't wait to get started.
Matt is amazing. Since he has not been deployed (yay!) he has been put on the rear detachment here at Fort Hood, or "Rear-D" as it is called. He is acting as the Brigade Medical Planner, and the Rear Detachment S1, which handles all personal actions: movements, awards, etc. (I literally just wrote what Matt said. I actually have very little idea what this means, except that he works with a lot of important people, doing a lot of important things, and he stays at work a little longer than before.) But my goodness we are proud of him! The other day he was working on updating his "Love Me" folder and I read over a few of the comments his superiors had written about him, and let me just tell you...wow. I married one heck of a guy :)
I think we forgot to mention that since we found out Matt wasn't deploying back in November, we suddenly realized that all of our preparations in getting him deployed were in vain. Preparations such as trading in our cars and downsizing to just one. Whoops. So we quickly found Matt another little vehicle to run around in. It's a 2006 deep charcoal grey Lexus IS 250 and we like it a lot. It's still a little weird to see Matt in something as small as a car, but I mean, hey. If you have to downsize, a Lexus isn't half bad.
Beyond that, Matt continues to be a fantastic guy around the house, playing with our boys, taking me on dates, fulfilling his calling, and working on projects. Right now he is working on re-staining and re-liquoring all of our kitchen cabinets.Why? Because he can. He has also enjoyed some time hunting on a deer lease, and now I am attempting to retrain my post-pregnancy body to enjoy the flavor of deer meat again. It is looking like that may be a long road with an unhappy ending. But Matt is happy.
I am turning over a new leaf this year. Last year was pretty much shot between being in the fetal position for the first six months, and being exhausted for the second six months. So now that it is a new year I am feeling like I can take on the World. I am deep-cleaning our house from top to bottom (slowly) and trying this new thing called, "Being A Good Primary President" where I actually give more than the bare minimum. I have also started going to the gym again, and I think that may be another long road for me. But I will do it! I feel amazing!
I don't really know what else to say about myself, except that I am a happy girl. the other day Bennett just randomly gave me a great big hug around my waist. I looked down at him and said, "I love this boy" and he looked up at me with his cute little face and said with all the tenderness of a three-year-old, "I love this big girl." And even though he called me big, I thought, I am so lucky.
Bennett is crazy. This kid has a ridiculous amount of energy. He is hilarious though, and I absolutely love him. Since we wrote that last post about all the funny things Bennett had done and said, I realized that I really needed a better system for remembering stuff like that. So I made a cute jar and put it on my kitchen counter. And now whenever Bennett or Patton do or say something cute, I just write it down and stick it in the jar to save for later. I have been doing this since the beginning of January, and there are all ready a ton of little memories in my jar. One day I'll put a bunch on this blog, but here's one that just happened the other day for a little preview:
Matt is ready for work and smelling so good (I love his Old Spice body wash).
Me: "Bennett, come smell your dad. This is what a real man smells like."
Bennett, looking confused: "But Mom, real men don't wear shirts."
He is also doing really well with is letters, and he now knows what most of them say, and he understands the concept that when you put their sounds together they make words. It's exciting to see him learning and he tells me all the time that now he is big like a grown up. And speaking of Bennett's little brain, we discovered this week that he has the ability to remember and repeat, word-for-word, almost any phrase of spoken dialect. This includes full commercials, the tutorial section of his Leappad2, and most song choruses after only a few times of hearing them. I always knew he picked up on things rather quickly, but it was sort of amazing to see what he could remember once we really started testing him. We are considering putting him in TV commercials now (not really. But he could sure learn his lines if he had to).
Patton is crazy in a whole different way than Bennett. For example: the other day Bennett was in his room, so I put Patton on the bed so he could watch him play. Bennett is amazing with Patton, and Patton is completely immobile (still) so I had no fears of anything happening to him, and I left to go do the dishes. Pretty soon I heard uncontrollable laughing coming from both boys, and I thought, "This is too cute! I've got to see what they are doing." So I grabbed my video camera and sneaked into Bennett's room. And what were they doing? Patton was laying on Bennett's pillow, and Bennett was laying with his head pointing toward his foot board and his feet resting on Patton's stomach. And then Bennett would stomp the heck out of Patton's stomach. I mean, hard. As terrorizing as this act sounds (and is, for all intents and purposes) Patton was LOVING it. He would crack up every time Bennett started pounding away on him, and that made Bennett laugh even harder (his "naughty laugh", we call it) and both boys were having the time of their lives. And I am just standing there, thinking, these boys are so weird. So I watched this go on for a little while, but then I felt like I was being a bad mom because I mean honestly, what mother watches her son getting beat to death, and doesn't try to stop it? So I told Bennett he had to quit and Patton started crying because the game was over. Now that's tough love.
Patton is really just a very easy-going guy, who is completely content with life. It is weird that he has only been in our family for six months, because I can't imagine him ever not being with us. I am so so in love with this handsome little boy who is happy to be kicked around...literally.
Our Family is doing great, overall. We have our grumpy days and our tired days, but as a whole things are pretty good. We just got back from a trip to Oklahoma to help Griffin and Ashland move to their new home (pictures and post to follow), and it was so fun to see them all and be a part of that. On the way back to Texas, Bennett got a stomach bug, and the rest of us got colds the next day, but we are all feeling much better now (except Matt, who has allergies like it's going out of style).
For the last couple of weeks it has been winter here and really cold. But I guess that is over now, and we are back to playing outside in the 77 degree weather and love, love, loving the sun. Texas is the best for sun. So until next week, here's to walks in the park and eating ice cream in January.
Life is good.
So here is what we have been up to lately, in not a lot of words or detail, and with no pictures. I know--you can't wait to get started.
Matt is amazing. Since he has not been deployed (yay!) he has been put on the rear detachment here at Fort Hood, or "Rear-D" as it is called. He is acting as the Brigade Medical Planner, and the Rear Detachment S1, which handles all personal actions: movements, awards, etc. (I literally just wrote what Matt said. I actually have very little idea what this means, except that he works with a lot of important people, doing a lot of important things, and he stays at work a little longer than before.) But my goodness we are proud of him! The other day he was working on updating his "Love Me" folder and I read over a few of the comments his superiors had written about him, and let me just tell you...wow. I married one heck of a guy :)
I think we forgot to mention that since we found out Matt wasn't deploying back in November, we suddenly realized that all of our preparations in getting him deployed were in vain. Preparations such as trading in our cars and downsizing to just one. Whoops. So we quickly found Matt another little vehicle to run around in. It's a 2006 deep charcoal grey Lexus IS 250 and we like it a lot. It's still a little weird to see Matt in something as small as a car, but I mean, hey. If you have to downsize, a Lexus isn't half bad.
Beyond that, Matt continues to be a fantastic guy around the house, playing with our boys, taking me on dates, fulfilling his calling, and working on projects. Right now he is working on re-staining and re-liquoring all of our kitchen cabinets.Why? Because he can. He has also enjoyed some time hunting on a deer lease, and now I am attempting to retrain my post-pregnancy body to enjoy the flavor of deer meat again. It is looking like that may be a long road with an unhappy ending. But Matt is happy.
I am turning over a new leaf this year. Last year was pretty much shot between being in the fetal position for the first six months, and being exhausted for the second six months. So now that it is a new year I am feeling like I can take on the World. I am deep-cleaning our house from top to bottom (slowly) and trying this new thing called, "Being A Good Primary President" where I actually give more than the bare minimum. I have also started going to the gym again, and I think that may be another long road for me. But I will do it! I feel amazing!
I don't really know what else to say about myself, except that I am a happy girl. the other day Bennett just randomly gave me a great big hug around my waist. I looked down at him and said, "I love this boy" and he looked up at me with his cute little face and said with all the tenderness of a three-year-old, "I love this big girl." And even though he called me big, I thought, I am so lucky.
Bennett is crazy. This kid has a ridiculous amount of energy. He is hilarious though, and I absolutely love him. Since we wrote that last post about all the funny things Bennett had done and said, I realized that I really needed a better system for remembering stuff like that. So I made a cute jar and put it on my kitchen counter. And now whenever Bennett or Patton do or say something cute, I just write it down and stick it in the jar to save for later. I have been doing this since the beginning of January, and there are all ready a ton of little memories in my jar. One day I'll put a bunch on this blog, but here's one that just happened the other day for a little preview:
Matt is ready for work and smelling so good (I love his Old Spice body wash).
Me: "Bennett, come smell your dad. This is what a real man smells like."
Bennett, looking confused: "But Mom, real men don't wear shirts."
He is also doing really well with is letters, and he now knows what most of them say, and he understands the concept that when you put their sounds together they make words. It's exciting to see him learning and he tells me all the time that now he is big like a grown up. And speaking of Bennett's little brain, we discovered this week that he has the ability to remember and repeat, word-for-word, almost any phrase of spoken dialect. This includes full commercials, the tutorial section of his Leappad2, and most song choruses after only a few times of hearing them. I always knew he picked up on things rather quickly, but it was sort of amazing to see what he could remember once we really started testing him. We are considering putting him in TV commercials now (not really. But he could sure learn his lines if he had to).
Patton is crazy in a whole different way than Bennett. For example: the other day Bennett was in his room, so I put Patton on the bed so he could watch him play. Bennett is amazing with Patton, and Patton is completely immobile (still) so I had no fears of anything happening to him, and I left to go do the dishes. Pretty soon I heard uncontrollable laughing coming from both boys, and I thought, "This is too cute! I've got to see what they are doing." So I grabbed my video camera and sneaked into Bennett's room. And what were they doing? Patton was laying on Bennett's pillow, and Bennett was laying with his head pointing toward his foot board and his feet resting on Patton's stomach. And then Bennett would stomp the heck out of Patton's stomach. I mean, hard. As terrorizing as this act sounds (and is, for all intents and purposes) Patton was LOVING it. He would crack up every time Bennett started pounding away on him, and that made Bennett laugh even harder (his "naughty laugh", we call it) and both boys were having the time of their lives. And I am just standing there, thinking, these boys are so weird. So I watched this go on for a little while, but then I felt like I was being a bad mom because I mean honestly, what mother watches her son getting beat to death, and doesn't try to stop it? So I told Bennett he had to quit and Patton started crying because the game was over. Now that's tough love.
Patton is really just a very easy-going guy, who is completely content with life. It is weird that he has only been in our family for six months, because I can't imagine him ever not being with us. I am so so in love with this handsome little boy who is happy to be kicked around...literally.
Our Family is doing great, overall. We have our grumpy days and our tired days, but as a whole things are pretty good. We just got back from a trip to Oklahoma to help Griffin and Ashland move to their new home (pictures and post to follow), and it was so fun to see them all and be a part of that. On the way back to Texas, Bennett got a stomach bug, and the rest of us got colds the next day, but we are all feeling much better now (except Matt, who has allergies like it's going out of style).
For the last couple of weeks it has been winter here and really cold. But I guess that is over now, and we are back to playing outside in the 77 degree weather and love, love, loving the sun. Texas is the best for sun. So until next week, here's to walks in the park and eating ice cream in January.
Life is good.
