the little things...

Who knew that the $10.00 pool from 3 years ago would still be a big hit?

Nice pools in the n'hood and yet - we're in the backyard playing in our baby pool. HA!

I did go and grab a fun pool for the kids for the backyard, but there's some leveling to do - our yard is NOT level at ALL....

So until then, sprinkler, slip and slide, and just somewhere to splash - is all they need....

New Beginnings...

I can't believe it, he's graduating....

Right in front of my eyes, I watched this young man grab a diploma and literally walk across a stage that means ending one chapter and starting a new one.

He, along with his class, beamed with pride. All the while, I sat with proud tears rolling down my cheeks. Proud that I could be there at last minute to watch as the kid who used to chase me around the house when I'd visit, is starting to chase his dreams. Dreams that will come true for him as long as he keeps his focus.

Congrats Nick Nick! You have made me proud to call you my nephew, proud to hold the title of being your Aunt. Your dad would have been glowing with pride to be there. As I watched you walk across that stage, for a moment, I felt like he was right there - smiling down on you... I love you Nicholas!!!

that's how we roll

Both boys got haircuts yesterday and had green gel put in their hair...

...and the youngest decided to take a super short nap, so mama and da boyz rocked the park!

Cuz, that's how we roll.

oh sunny day

AMAZING sunny day!!!

We spent some time enjoying it at the park, it was still a little cool - but the sun was out and very inviting and we had no choice but to let these boys out of the house!!

Nothing like a little dirt tossing...

and some balancing too...

Tomorrow's supposed to be even warmer!! It may just be Springtime around here very soon!!

The sun is the epitome of benevolence - it is lifegiving and warmthgiving and happinessgiving, and to it we owe our thanksgiving.
~Jessi Lane Adams

Valentines Day...

Valentines Day 2010 began early in the morning for mama - I thought this year we'd do a little less commercial stuff and a lot more home baked/made goodies... So, I made the boys (and hubby) hand-dipped milk chocolate and white chocolate strawberries...

I made homemade sugar cookies and cut out hearts, then iced them with some red/white and sprinkles... and finally, used the remaining chocolate melts to dip some pretzels!

The boys each got a tiny gift bag with some Russel Stover chocolates and a little bear with a card, and hubs got his favorite candy in a box w/ a card; little J decided that he wanted to make a homemade card for daddy this morning, so we did that and then presented all of the homemade goodness to daddy as a super special Valentines Day surprise.... and mama got a ONE HOUR MASSAGE GIFT CERTIFICATE at a local Wellness studio!!! I am STOKED!!!

been layin low

I've been laying low this past weekend. Had a strange attack of the gall bladder (pretty certain) and spent most of the weekend taking it easy and relaxing when I could. Hopefully this week I'll be back at it.

Oh, Little J decided all by himself to go from sitting to do "all potty deeds" to standing like a big man to go pee!!! Yay!!!! He also got a new bed and changed to it with no problems, and loves it!! Little man's growing too fast.

Random... I am gonna be honest and say, I did not watch the superbowl - neither of the teams really interested me, so eh. NO. I sat on my bed and watched lifetime movies and got occasional updates by looking at twitter or hearing my hubs downstairs. Instead I watched Identity Theft on LMN and related to it a bit. We have had our turn with that recently, and it sucks.

Well, that was a little random!!! Sorry about that! I just wanted to say HI to all my bloggy friends out there!!

Birthday wrapup

I created a tiny slidshow of photos from our little party for Little J - go HERE.

4 years old...

Oh Dear little J.... four short years ago, this very minute, they were showing you to me for the very first time EVER!! You were stubborn and I was finally convinced of it, and we had to visit the O.R. after almost 24 hours of labor... but you arrived none the less, healthy and peaceful.

Happy Birthday little man - you never cease to amaze me. We love you soooo much!!

my favorite things...

Family

Each year for Christmas, my mom gets me a new Willow Tree figurine.
This year's addition is the one above, of a family of four.
And it hits the nail right on the head by saying "Family, A lifetime of love"

I just received this colorful Friends plaque in the mail, from one of the best friends I've ever had.
A true friendship is rare, and precious.
She lives completely across the country from me, and nothing has ever kept us from being "there" for each other.
Some friendships come and go, and some friendships stay and grow.
I'm SO grateful ours has stayed, and grown...

leg godt

wondering what that blog title is?? It's Danish! Lego®, a name constructed out of the Danish expression leg godt, meaning "play well."

Every day when little J wakes, one of his first thoughts is "mommy, I need to play with my Lego's", and we do - A LOT of the day! Both boys love manipulating these little bricks and people and creating with their own hands what their very minds imagine. You can build almost anything out of Lego's.

We are lucky enough to have a Lego® Store at the nearby mall, and today we ventured out to add to their 'guy' collection. Each of the boys made 3 custom Lego people.

Little J's birthday is literally around the corner, and I picked up a silicone cake mold in the shape of a Lego® man. We're just Lego® crazy around here...

Gives life to the age old saying, "if you can imagine it, you can create it"...

the winds of change

Ahh... serious changes around the BassAckwards household. Stay tuned for updates. It should be as refreshing as this blue sky in this photo. It should relieve stress for ALOT of people in this house... though it may create more work, I think there will be a sweet payoff!!

5 years!

Today marks 5 years for my husband's heart attack and 3-bypass surgery survival! No words can explain how horrified I was to hear the words "you need to come to the hospital quickly, it doesn't look good" from the doctor who called my cellphone at 815am that morning.

He had went in for a routine physical, he asked me to schedule it after having helped a friend move and seemed overly exhausted. The physical threw the doctor a bit of a red flag, so for precaution he scheduled him for a stress test. This exhaustion didn't stop him from playing with our oldest in the back yard and running a relay race with him the night BEFORE the stress test. The stress test did him in, within 5 minutes he had a massive heart attack.

Pure genetics and a fairly sedentary lifestyle (his work is a sit down at a desk type of job). He was slightly overweight, I say slightly because maybe 20#. Otherwise, healthy. So, 815am heart attack, 230pm open heart surgery. There were many obstacles along the way, but the end result is that he's healthy and has a new lease on life. Now we live by the Mediterranean diet, 95% of the time, and he walks almost daily on the treadmill. So far, in the 5 years, he's been told his heart is doing GREAT! We even managed to have a baby almost exactly 1 year after his heart surgery!!

So - 5 years, and his heart is stronger then ever! Whoohoo!

Go GET a CHOLESTEROL TEST! Ask for a lipid profile to show you ALL of your cholesterol and make sure you're healthy!!

We learned alot from the American Heart Assosication books that the nutritionist provided us with after classes we attended. Read up, it's not hard to make some changes and make your heart a healthy heart. We eat this way, our kids eat this way - so we're passing it forward to our kids since genetics (for both of us) plays a MAJOR role in heart health in our families.

sledding

There have been about 3 Christmas' now where we've visited my mom's house and there's been snow. Two of those were when my oldest brother was alive to enjoy this with his kids. During our visit this year, his kids (daughter photo below - and then one of her with her brother down below all of these) were super excited to see the snow and just decided for old times sake to go sledding in grandma's yard!! 'H' couldn't get enough of it, even though it was about 10-12 degree's there!!

Big E took a couple of turns as well and had fun, then ended up with some battle wounds on his hand and took a break from the fun. Little J and I went down the hill a couple of times and he LOVED it!! Broke my heart that Mike wasn't around to see these kids do this. It's the little things in life that I think about, because the little things were the BIG things to him.

N & H are discussing this next race. There were a couple of times they went down sortof tandem. Either way, they both went down that hill laughing and having such a blast! Over and over and over!!!

There is no description for the windchill. It was BITTER. Big E came in with red hands, little J came in with a red face, and N&H had red faces too!

mountain snow and scenery

We headed to my mom's in the NC Mountains this past weekend for a late Christmas celebration, and we stopped along the way for a few photos here and there...This bench just stood out to me all by itself, in the 10 degree weather.

This bridge is located in a place called Little Switzerland, where a recent ice storm snapped trees in half. It looked like a disaster area when we drove toward it. This particular scenic road was still closed. Here's a youtube that some local guy in that area posted after the ice storm.(yes. he's southern!!)

That is NOT an outhouse... but it makes for a pretty cool picture! From my moms backyard!

Those are gigantic icicles hanging from rocks that were on the drive up on the side of the mountain. The rocks usually drip water, and the water just froze in these gigantic clumps!!

A little birdhouse that looked so inviting and warm for a tiny family of birds, in moms backyard!

click any photo to enlarge

a year in photos

click to enlarge

Our year in photos.... Now, on to 2010!!

Christmas 09

Big E was so tickled, he received a Nintendo DS Lite with two games!!

Little J was just as excited to find out that he received STAR WARS LEGO'S!!!!!

"I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month."
~Harlan Miller

Christmas 2009 - Scrapblog'd

the night before Christmas....

....and all through my mind, was flashes of past holidays and memories of that kind.
I thought of our Christmas nights from when I was a just a kid, and appreciate now more then ever - all that our parents did.
It wasn't about the gifts, I won't lie, that was great. But the best memories are of baking cookies, writing letters to Santa, and staying up late.
Christmas specials on TV with my mom, and game (or three) of parcheesi with my dad.. and then off to bed we'd go with nothing but the next day's excitement to be had.
Waking up early, crawling down the hall. We snuck together as siblings, and we had a ball!
Our parents were wide awake, even though we thought they were otherwise. They were laying in their beds, probably so happy that we snuck to the tree to see our surprises.
Those days are forever going to live in my mind, as moments with family - unlike any other kind.
It's our turn now, to start this 'night before Christmas' fun, we baked and had cookies, and we watched a family show and had fun.
Our kids have no clue, what's under the tree. They didn't really make a "list", they'd seem content to wait and see...
The holidays are so precious, and moments are such bliss. I wish I could stop time, for weekends like this.
So... twas the night before Christmas, and all through this house, not a kid was complaining, not even a spouse.
The stockings were laid, under the tree with care (that's just what we do), and gifts were scattered around for the kids, the hubs, and me too!
The kids are all snuggled, warm and safe in their beds. And we'll peek in later, and plant sneaky kisses on their heads.
The morning will come, and coffee will brew. The kids will wake up and sneak a peek at a gift or two.
Christmas (for us) will be spent making memories, and sharing love. All because of our blessings from above.

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

a Christmas gathering

A little bokeh effect (WackyMummy, that's for you) with the Cypress tree we gave our in-laws as part of their gift tonight. The lights in the background with the bokeh effect are from our big tree.

This cute little Cypress will be transplanted into my in-laws back yard and will grow up to 15 feet! It was such an adorable centerpiece for our Christmas dinner tonight

goodies for the celebration

Gifts for and from the family. We enjoyed our time with Mimi and Papaw tonight. To say the least, we had a BLAST!

a very decorative family gathering

Yesterday we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Snow Camp, NC. My Aunt is ABSOLUTELY the Martha Stewart of NC. Her house had 7 full size trees, 4 of them represented seasons. The tree in her master bedroom was GORGEOUS and represented fall, it was also on a spinning stand which made it magical! There were gorgeous draped garlands filled with floral inserts, ornaments and lights. Enough to make Martha Stewarts head SPIN, and my Aunt - made it ALL!!. Every ounce of her home screamed holidays, and it was such a cozy gathering. The snow outdoors just topped it off.

I was bummed that I took the wrong lens, I took our zoom lens and not the 18-55mm that takes wide angle pics. So, I made a little collage of the photos instead. I have the full size ones saved and they're gorgeous to look at, but the only tree I was able to get from top to bottom in the lens I took was the living room tree (green tree)...oh well! The day was wonderfully spent!