Beau's Birthday. Big boy is DOUBLE DIGITS!

I'm not quite sure where the time goes.  There just never seems to be enough time to sit and think (or blog), but to think 10 years have passed since our lives were forever changed, and the bond my husband and I share was strengthened to a level no one could have prepared us for.

10 years ago our son was born.  10 years ago I felt and thought and said, "please save my baby, and just let me die. Please just save my baby. I don't care what happens to me."  Yep. I said those words, because yep, I was sick and I just wanted my baby born healthy. I was so scared. Brian and I were so naive.  And still today I remember VERY LITTLE of August 6th after 2:30PM, but I remember yelling those words.  I remember my husband being so scared. I remember things happening very fast. And I knew we had a baby, but it gets real fuzzy after that.  It's pretty common both Brian and I cry on August 6th.  I think both of us can't believe the miracle of Beau Grant. The day we became a mother and father to a preemie baby.  Everyone has their birth story, and ours is pretty special with Beau Charles Grant.

But we fast forward 10 years later, and now we have a healthy, voracious eating boy, that is built like a brick house. He weighs 120 pounds (whoa) and is 4'11" tall.  Last time I used 4 and 11 to describe him was his birth weight.

He starts 5th grade this Fall. He has the coolest birth mark on the top of his head that results in a wicked blond streak. He has beautiful olive skin. He wears his glasses (rec sports) constantly because he was not gifted with great eye-sight. Brian and I are both to blame for that. And his hands.... well his has sausage links for fingers and I love them.  He is still grabbing for my hand at those random moments.  Moments I stop breathing until he lets them go.  Love that sweet boy, and he makes me crazy at the same time.  As much as I love his admiring qualities, he is 10 years old and has plenty of pre-teen crazy in him. Oh please help us stay calm and this boy to learn some focus and listening skills (something other than listening to Sports Center, please).

Bren and Me Ma making Beau a birthday cake

I'm annoyed with this picture. I rotated it, but it won't save it. So turn your head to read, but this is a note Brenley wrote to Beau.  I think she asked her Dad how to spell birthday, but other than that, this is ALL her.  Gosh she is awesome. It says, "Happy Birthday Beau. I hope you have a great birthday. I love you. We hope you have (a) great time. Love Beau. " Which she meant to put, Love Brenley, but oh well.

Yep. It's August

And that means...Beau's birthday ((!!!!)), football practice, back to school shopping, meet the teacher night, first day of school, schedules, homework, blah, blah, blah. 

Not sure I am ready for this, but here we go. Doesn't help that this is a full travel month for me, but we can do this, because really there is no choice, right?

And now that I've turned a whole year older and my sweet boy is turning two digits, my daughter also can't wait until she gets older. And this is what she wants to do when she gets older (in no particular order): ride in the front seat of the car, get the big red cups at the deli, ride the bus, and buy chapter books like Mom and Beau have. That's it. Gosh. I love her spirit, but if she only knew how much I want to delay those very things for her and keep her little.

Stay tuned for birthday week and our last week of summer fun!! 

P.S. grown up girl is also on the verge of losing her top center tooth. That will definitely be an August post too.

I had a birthday. Yee Hah.

And this was the highlight of my day. I love family, particularly the little ones.

Brenley. I can't help myself.

This girl. She is my other half. She is my best friend. She is full of love and I am so enchanted by her. Every day is something new to learn through her eyes and soul.

Out takes from the life of Bren from our girls weekend.

Shopping Target clearance

After our day of shopping.

Yep. I bought the hat. How could I not?

Picture she drew for her Pa Pa.

Picture she drew for Me Ma.

She wanted me to take this picture too.

And this one too.

She loves to draw. Loves it. 

She helps me do laundry and we sing. She unloaded the dishwasher with her Dad tonight and she danced. Life lessons from a 5 year old, huh??

Dance. Express yourself. Give Love Feeely.

Beau celebrate's turning 10 a few weeks early!

So trying to make our son's summer birthday  - literally a week before school starts - special has proved to be difficult over the past few years, as it is hard to track down friends that are actually staying around town the last few weeks of summer.

This year we tried to get a little jump on things when we saw that the KC Royals were in town against the Detroit Tigers. Two favorite teams, one just happens to be the team his baseball team is named after. And it happened to be a "free" weekend with no other plans. Now the only thing left to do was to convince some parents that they should let us take their child to KC for the weekend?!?

After some thought, and finding two special friends, Mom and Sis stayed home and we let the boys have a fun weekend at the ballpark. From pic's that Dad took and from the look on bub's face when he got home, I am pretty sure he had a good time and this will be a 10th birthday he will remember.  At least I hope when August 6th rolls around he remembers!!!

Making a Difference

So I've been in San Fran this past week for our Spring 2014 sales meeting. Four nights and almost 5 days away from my hubby and kids is tough. Especially tougher with a two hour time difference and long work days.

One experience was very special and I felt like blogging about.  We were doing a team building exercise Monday afternoon and after a lot of sharing and meeting of different people in the entire organization, we ended with an actual exercise of building a bike. I'll spare you the "learnings" of the exercise mostly because you had to be there to really understand, but the end result is we built 44 bikes and donated them to some precious "in need" children that attend a local donation based YMCA.

Our little guy Timothy was so thankful and so happy. It was a humbling experience, and truly one of the best team exercises I have ever participated in.

Here he is with his bike and my team that helped build it. I totally lucked out and got all dudes. I didn't have to touch a thing, but I think they were impressed I knew what allen wrenches were. Score one for mama grant.

If this little boy only knew that it wasn't me and my team that made a difference in his life, but that he made a large difference in my life that day, and hopefully forward.

Enjoy that bike, Timothy!

It is the 1st - Year is half over!

Just a little randomness about where the year has gone. Really. Where has the year gone?  Wasn't I just writing my New Year's Day Post?

But we turn the page on being 6 months away from Christmas. School starts in 5 weeks. We've almost played 50 baseball games this summer, and I am guessing we played about that many basketball games earlier this year.  Before you know it, football practice will start. Geez.  I just need a nap.

The sky after the storm the other night.  It was after 9:00 when I took this. So amazing.