Part 2 Family Vacation

Our entire trip was seemingly Providential...we looked at the map of our house to our destination in Springfield, Missouri and oh how God works...we had people to stay with along the way.

After leaving our dear friends in Naca no where, we headed further north to Louisiana. My Dad's eldest brother, James and his wife Laura, live near Shreveport. I have not seen them in years so it was a special time to stop and catch up. They had not met any of our boys...and they got Canfield's in full force.

I have many memories of my grandfather grilling, steaks and the grill were his passion, and his eldest son's as well. He offered to grill lunch for us I was ecstatic. It was AMAZING!!!

We stayed for the afternoon but after catching up for a bit we still had to make several more hours and miles to Little Rock area. Where much of our story takes place...and you want to stay tuned for this part of the story.....

My Dad's family, those who are left, live North in many different areas. His Mother, my grandmother, who passed away many years ago, I did not ever really know her...has one sister out of 7 girls still living. She is in the Little Rock area..so we stayed with her and her husband for 2 very fun filled, adventurous days ;)

Now I could just make myself sick right now because I did not take pictures with them. I talked about it several times but unfortunately never got the camera out to capture us together. I am very saddened by this fact. But I have many memories as do the boys...of biscuits, and tea...and shoes...

OH I WILL EXPLAIN...

We arrived around 8:00 pm on Saturday evening to the sweetest host. They stayed up for us to arrive and even waited dinner to eat with us..surely they do not typically eat that late in the evening. My dear sweet great aunt has dimensia, so it was...it would have been tragic if not so comical.

Of course she had a difficult time remembering who I was...and not because she has only seen me a few times in my life..or because it has been about 11 yrs since the last time. Once dinner was ready my great Uncle asked us if we would like some tea, and he explained that he could not have any because he was having a heart test on Tuesday morning and he could not have caffeine. So once seated at the dinner table his wife asks, "would you like some tea?" he replied, "no I can't have tea."

She says, "you can have tea."

"no honey I can't have tea, I am taking a test on Tuesday."

"Well you can have tea...you want some water?"

"No thank you I am fine."

5 minutes later..

"Would you like some tea?"

"No honey I cannot have tea."

"You can have tea!"

"No I can't! I am taking a test on Tuesday."

"you can have tea...you want some water?"

"No honey I am fine! just sit down and enjoy your dinner"

5 minutes later...well you can see where this is going. and on and on it went until dinner was over.

She also "discovered" a new tupperware bowl in her cabinet that she hadn't seen in awhile, and thanked me for bringing it back to me...but then was very confused and asked me how I got it. :)

In the middle of diner she handed her biscuit to her husband and said

"Go heat this up!"

..."okay... sure."

it took him a few minutes and when he returned she asked

"where have you been?"

"I was heating up YOUR biscuit."

"I was going to do that myself!"

LOL the boys thought that was hilarious.

She asked the boys every 5 minutes where there shoes where, especially the baby...he doesn't even own shoes. .. but the NUMBER 1, TOP TEN memory of the trip

Monday morning was our last day to spend at their house. We had to wake up early and get going, but we had been up super late the night before and with myself and 2 boys crammed in a full size bed .. a baby that woke up a few times to nurse...David was crowded with 2 other boys on a sofa bed we didn't get much sleep. So we slept a little longer than intended...

8:30 am I just got baby to lay back down to try and sleep. I was just waiting for his peaceful breathing before I got up. When I hear the door being pushed open...it kept sticking on the carpet so it wasn't a peaceful, smooth entry..finally the door gives way and their is my Aunt walking in ...

"Wake up, it is nearly 9 am you have slept enough. Wake up. Time to get up..."

As I rub sleep out of my eye....

Then I hear crying from Tate out of the other room. Because he had been told to "fix" his shoes and put them on the right feet.

Highlight NUMBER 1 from our trip

Our boys played basketball for HCYA the Houston Home school team. In case you might be thinking...a home school basketball team??? they have sports??? Oh I bet they are terrible...

To put this organization into perspective..My husband coached for a 4A private school for 6 years as head coach. His record....... 1 - 11. Sorry Honey!!!

So Casey and Brayden began their basketball career this year. The boys current 10 and under team have played together for 3 yrs so our boys and a few other young ones were put on a 12 and under. They worked hard but rarely saw the floor. Half way through the year they divided the team and made a 10 and under B team. We had 3 10 yr olds and 3 8 yr olds that had never played organized ball before. At this point David's season had ended so he was able to take the team and coach his own boys. This past week was the 20th annual National's tournament held in Missouri. So we loaded up the "truck" and headed to Springfield MO. And load we did..for 7 people for a 10 day trip....WOWZER!!!! We could barely see the boys heads by the time we were loaded up. We had so much stuff packed they were just heads sticking up over seats.

We left Friday evening and stayed with some good friends in Nacogdoches .. THANK YOU dear friends for the beds, breakfast and company late into Friday..I mean Saturday morning... LOL!

I am trying to break our trip into highlights, because i just don't have enough time to write about it all at once... so here you go. Number 1 highlight, being WAY too crowded in our car than 7 people should feel for a 13 hr trip....because I packed enough stuff for a family of 20....

but I wanted to be prepared. LOL

The boys excited about our first real family vacation!!!! HIP HIP HOOOORAH

This is called CRAZY bed head...

this was only the beginning...first nap we had to wake him from to get in the car..first of about 220 times over our trip. He took it like a Champ though. What a tough cookie #5 has to be....

Our boys playing with our friends kiddos...

Not one more thing is getting in that car...even if we tried really really hard!

It has been forever...

Pictures taken on my IMAC...its about the only way I make it into the photo!!!

So what to talk about...well I am going to be making a move to cloth diapers! After 4 kids I decided it was time to go cloth! Why has it taken me so long. In all my research I am blown away that I didn't change long ago.....I tried with our 4th, and my husband thought it was too late...so you can actually miss the "cloth diaper boat?"....Anyway..this time around we are taking the plunge!

SO any opinions or advice are always helpful! Because I am completely illiterate in this area. But I am researching and trying to learn as much as possible.

We still attend our class every Tuesday for school. Classical conversations. The kids are doing amazing...learning so much! I can hardly believe how much they can absorb. My brain goes to mush after a few simple facts they just keep going. Like the energizer bunny. They especially love playing their tin whistles....and singing all the facts.

So today...Tate comes up with the cutest things to say. He said "I have to go potty" which he always announces to us all...he runs to the bathroom and loudly proclaims.."the light is of" Now this is a HUGE issue with him. He will not go tot the bathroom without the light on. David says to him, "go in your bathroom" bc the light was on in there....Tate responds

"What does that mean, my bathroom?"

OMG, he is so stinkin' cute!!!

He says things like that ALL the time. I NEED to write them down in his journal so I can reflect on them one day...but alas, when to do so, ...thus the reason I have not written on this blog in so long!

Well thats it for now...Oh that reminds me of another Tate..

When he used to pray he would say.."Thank you God for....(whatever he was praying for)" then at the end he closed with "that's it!"

LOVE IT!!!!

Victims of a crime.....

We had our first car theft last night, and no despite what some may wonder it may be tight in the Canfield house, but David and I have not turned into Dick and Jane.....

We were the victims of an unscrupulous crime...what does that word mean anyway...thought is was cool..LOL

David and I actually went to bed decently early, for the Canfield household last night, around 11:00....the last week or so I have been having trouble sleeping and naps do not happen for me. So I am beyond exhausted and every night hoping to finally get that peaceful nights sleep. I finally drifted off....groggily I awake to a noise...what was that??? Did I actually hear something, was I dreaming.....then it came to me, it was the door bell! WHAT?!?!?! Really??? Am I insane now, did I just completely lose my mind.....

"David, did you hear that?" I said.....amazingly he woke up and answered me, tyically it takes an earthquake to awaken the dead...(David while sleeping) and even that sometimes I truly wonder if he would make it if he lived in California and an earthquake hit at night. Anyway, he asked me "Did I hear what?"

"The doorbell"....

He thought I was crazy, he said no there wasn't a doorbell....then someone knocked on our door. THANK YOU!!! I am not crazy!!!! I was a little nervous for a second...

David got up and went to the door, in his drowsiness he almost opened the door without even asking who it was....it was a Police officer. A neighbor had noticed our car door was open and the light was on. But nothing seemed out of place, or missing...at first

They didn't take any of the thousand and one children's books we seemingly collect every time we go somewhere, they missed the crusty old bread that was left from last weeks lunch on the road, and apparently the the car seats covered in food from the last few years didn't appeal to them either.....LOL!

David came back in and said everything was normal nothing was missing, so I asked did you see the GPS??? He looked up at me with a shocked look on his face, Oh yeah....no he didn't see that. It was gone! Strange they would take that over the crusty old bread! What were they thinkin?? Leaving the good stuff.......

Anyway, that was our first time to have our car broken into. And only at midnight, that is actually early think. We are usually still up at that time. So I guess someone out there isn't getting lost anymore...meanwhile where am I right now??

BTW, I do not really have crusty old bread. Lots of books collect in our car and the car seats although have been covered in snacks get washed by me periodically....just clearing that up!

We just realized today, in our less sleep deprived stage...that all of our cords were stolen. Phone chargers, ipod chargers as well as GPS. So frustrating!

A day in the life of 4 boys.......

We discovered a tiny lizard in our house the other evening. Kai, our third, was determined to catch it and catch it he did. Then he picked it up proudly and showed it to me and said in his most adorable voice with many speech issues..."Mommy I want to keep it for my pet."

I thought YAY, my son is awesome he picked up a lizard and liked it, he isn't too cityfied......but I also thought...NO WAY are you keeping that thing in my house!!!

But I explained to him that we do not have an adequate place for him to live, he would miss his Mommy and we do not know how to feed and take care of him so he would probably die if we kept him...or her...

Casey our oldest is by far my most compliant child. He will do or say anything without a fight. He is responsible and mature (for the most part) this helps when you have 3 others running around climbing on everything from the door frames to the roof and wanting to jump off....

Brayden is our dare devil! He started climbing and hanging off of things at an early age. Flips off the diving board before he could even swim well. He doesn't give any thought to the stunts either...such as, "could I break my leg if I attempt this"...no he just runs headlong into whatever catches his fancy and figures out later whether it was worth it or not.

Kai, follows in his footsteps of being a dare devil and trying new and exciting things. As long as he is in conrtol. He doesn't care for stunts that involve other people making him do something but if he can jump off of it, or climb it he is right behind Brayden.

But TATE....he keeps me on my toes! I really wanted to title this blog ~

"A day in my life with Tate"

So here you go...it will not even come close to comparing with an actual day with him...but you can get a glimpse

DAY 1 ~

(Yesterday)

I found him locked in the bathroom, while he was trying to go potty. I thought after several minutes I should probably check on him

I had to unlock the door from outside, and when I opened the door I found the floor soaking wet, he had the toilet brush out on the floor, he was soaked, and the toilet was soaked...I do not even need to explain where all the water came from!

While making lunch he gets so excited...he says "Not ready yet..." about 20 times...and runs around, then he tells me he will get the jelly. I told him no...then there he is in the fridge before I can get him and drops the entire glass jelly jar on the tile floor....do not need to explain the results!

Again, while making one of his many trips to the bathroom, I decide to check on him and find.... him sitting on the potty with a bottle of toothpaste in hand, squeezing away....inside the toilet is about half of the contents

I cannot even tell you how many bottles of soap we have gone through with ihm, EVERYTIME he gest his hands on them he empties all contents into bathtub.

DAY 2 ~

(This is today)

While making another potty trip (I am telling you we have several hundred a day) he calls me and points his finger at me and says "Look"

When I move closer to find out what it is....it is POOP! There is also wet toilet paper on his finger which led me to believe he had been "fishing" in the toilet.

During lunch while my back was turned for a second....I turn back around to find him with the bottle of Arm and hammer baking soda from the fridge dispensing the contents into the shelf of the fridge as well as all over the floor!

Gets his own cereal box out of cabinet, the box is about two of him...and proceeds to open it stick his fat little fist into Cocoa pebbles and bring it out with as large a handful as he can grab...now people you know what happens when anyone, much less a child, grabs a handful of cocoa pebbles.....more than are left in the hand spill on the floor!!! You just can't grab handfuls of those things!

Those are just the events I can remember!!! I am convinced I blot out many more from my mind or I would go insane......Every day is like this with him. I cannot let him out of my sight to do anything....well it is plain to see he cannot got he bathroom without supervision or the fridge....disaster everytime!!!

This is our child who will DO anything!!!! Yes and we as a family will do just about anything for something FREE!!! LOL....Chich fil a wear your favorite sports team and get a free sandwich! So Casey, our poilitican, doesn't want to show favortism so he sports both Texas and A&M, No one said anything to him either!!!

I'm coming back....

I'm BACK BABY.....Well at least for today....I have been ...shall we say just a little bit busy lately! Need I rundown a list of all my tasks as wife to a coach/teacher and mother to 4 BOYS?!?!?! I think not!

But I have missed the blogging world and writing the crazy stories that are really everyday moments for us at the Canfield house! Oh the DRAMA!!!!

Our house is finally completed from the remodel. Everything they say about living in the home while its being remodeled is true....its a nightmare.....but now our home is SO beautiful! It was a blessing and now that its over I can hardly remember not seeing my kitchen table, ...or wait... for that matter any of the walls....everything from the rooms being remodeled was stacked around us in every available space...which is not much considering the house is only 1664 sq ft to begin with....EVERYTHING from the kitchen and living area and master bathroom was stacked in our dining room, the stuff from Tate's room was also divided between dining room and other boys room which is already full with 2 boys belongings. I can't even begin to describe how crazy it was...you can only get the real picture if you came by while it was going on....I had a friend who knew all of it was happening, I had described the disaster to her but when she came over to see me one day she said...

"You didn't tell me it was this bad!"

LOL....Oh yes I did, but you just can't give the adequate words to describe it so people undestand. If you have remodeled your house mainly the kitchen ...then you understand!!! Not cooking for over 2 months, and even if I could have gotten to the stove I didn't have a clue where anything was...bowl, spatula, can opener....

After the house was completed we thought we needed to take on a new project ...we had our floors painted....thats right.....the floors! Not that painted concrete either, we just went straight for something new!!! Painted carpet! After we completed the remodel of our home our living room and Tate's room have new carpet but not the other two bedrooms....so why not try something new......and here is the master mind and designer of that project

Now here is the crazy part...this happened twice in one day. FYI if Tate is left to himself for more than ... oh...say 1 minute he finds something to destroy!!! So he had already been discovered with polish about 10 mintues prior, and somehow he managed to paint his entire leg without getting even one drop on the carpet. I guess he felt like a failure to all busy 2 year old toddlers out there, so to save his reputation he went back and managed to complete the task.

After a week the polish is still on his nail, I cannot get that red off completley!

New photography blog

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! Life is crazy and becoming more so each day! I did want to give you my photography blog address..>I tend to update that a little more because it requires less wording and thought. Just a few pictures from recent sessions or my playing and letting out my artistic side!

http://photography-by-ashleycanfield.blogspot.com/

Anyway...check it out sometime and give me feedback!