They Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine

While life has not been so "groovy" for Gams these last months, it has not all been tears and sadness.  There are 3 little rays of sunshine that come shining through the darkness to illuminate even the blackest of days.

Niko has come into his full super hero powers.  The Nikoman is enamored of all things Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Robin, Power Rangers etc.  He gleefully runs through the house with his cape (whatever piece of clothing he can find to tie around his neck) just flying.  He most often refers to himself as Batman - and Gams is his loyal sidekick Robin.  My front room is now the "bat cage" and we spend many hours looking for the "bat car" or "hellicopper."  The imagination of this 2 year old is a wonder to behold!

Jalen and Dylan recently celebrated their birthdays.  Jalen turned 8 on the 8th and Dylan turned 5 on the 10th - both in September. They will likely spend the majority of their childhood with combined parties and they seem to be okay with that.  Dejah and Joe put on quite a bash this year with face painting, cupcake decorating, tons of outdoor and indoor games, balloon decorating and quite the appetizer buffet.  Both sides of the family  gathered at their beautiful home in Ingalls and a good time was had by all.  Auntie Leia drove all the way  from St Louis to attend - she's been there for every birthday, including the very first one!

Kathy's Clowns

She Did It Again

I've not posted in a long while. My words and photos have taken on a rather "grey" cast these days - much like the cold, rainy weather this Fall has been. I have only been whispering into the interwebs lately, visiting my blog friends as a quiet observer without much to say. Today, however, I am prompted by motherly pride to break my silence!

The Pioneer Woman is one of the first blogs I discovered (thanks Leia!). I sat quite a spell that first visit...reading, laughing, gaining weight just looking at the recipes, and adoring the images she captured of her "punks" and life down on the ranch. Her photography page is one of my favorites and I look forward to each new post. She has recently started a "photography assignment" feature and subsequent page on flickr where her readers can post their photos. I admit to flooding that pool during her portrait assignment! She then takes some of her favorite images from the pool and features them on her blog. Her most recent assignment was to post "texture" photos. Images that have been post processed with textures added via Photoshop or perhaps some other digital media program. As I was browsing through her photos of note, there was a particular image and name that literally JUMPED off the screen at me! Monkeys Jump had a photo posted on The Pioneer Woman!!!!!!!!! (For those who don't know, I have 2 beautiful daughters and Monkeys Jump -aka Leia- is my first born - Dejah is the youngest and the giver of grandchildren) The little poop didn't even tell me she had posted anything to the pool so while I was browsing the gorgeous images it nearly took my breath away at the familiar photo I saw! This is the second image of Leia's that Ree has admired. The first was this one entered over at I Heart Faces the week that Ree was judging.
So... she did it again.
Congrats baby girl!!!

Here is the link to Ree's post (Monkeys Jump is the 7th image) and to her winning image at I Heart Faces.

Rocky VII ~ Starring Niko Balboa

Little ones have the most amazing ability to heal. Sometimes the healing process is quite "colorful," to say the least - as evidenced by the rainbow currently present on Niko's gorgeous little face.

He looks like he just went a few rounds with Apollo Creed! I'm going to teach him to scream, "Adriannnnnnnnnn!!!" and if I manage to capture that on video, I'll be sure to post it (I know, I'm so wrong in many ways - a Gams with a camera can be a dangerous thing). In the meantime, enjoy the video and pics below!

The Boy Without A Face

My daughter and I spent several hours at the Emergency Room with Niko last Thursday evening. He managed to pull a heavy oak stool-height chair down onto his face. He was simply trying to get up from the floor and some how things went awry. First he fell back and hit the back of his head on the tile floor. If that wasn't bad enough, the chair then fell on top of him hitting him square on the nose! Needless to say there was a lot of screaming (probably as much from my daughter as Niko), swelling, bleeding etc. While Dejah isn't one to run the boys to the doctor for every little thing, this particular injury warranted a "look see" to ensure that no serious head injury was involved. Thank God it was nothing serious and we were sent home after 2 hours of Niko entertaining the ER with his very nasal commentary on everything and everyone. As we left he cheerfully waved and said, "buh-bye, people!"
I only have one question....
Why is it always his face??!!!!! If this keeps up, he'll certainly be known as "the boy without a face!"