a party for Charlie

Let me guess, you're thinking... "A party for Charlie... What about Thanksgiving?" 

Right?

Well I had a wonderful Thanksgiving... gorged myself silly and enjoyed every minute.

I just took no pictures...

So, that's why I am not blogging about it...

However.

My sister and her family came into town from California.

She brought Charlie... my favorite niece, for the next few months anyway..until Sara (my sister) has her second child, another girl... then I will have 2 favorite nieces...

And it was Charlies birthday.

Her1st one.

And I got to plan it.

Right down to her outfit.

I had fun.

Too much.

It was splendid.

and to make up for my lack of photos regarding Thanksgiving...

I took about 900 of Charlies 1st birthday party.( I am a fabulous Aunt!... and humble...)

So feast your eyes inter-webby friends, and revel in the awesomeness that is

Charlie and her1st birthday party!

I decided to do a Candy Land theme. Cute, girly, bright.. CANDY!!! Need I say more? I love the picture on the bottom right... such a girly table and 3 boys chowing down on cake...

How cute is she?!?!?!? 

Charlie likes being the center of attention...she gets that from a certain fabulous aunt...

It was a great night of family and friends, cake, pink, presents and small people (kiddos).  I am so happy Sara, Ryan and Charlie were able to come into town... and let me plan a girly birthday party.

It. was. Awesome.

yet, it made me realize... Ryder turns 1 in 7 weeks... and I have not put 1 thought into his birthday...EEEK!

I have some planning to do!

He's gettin' there...

Last evening we were over at my parents house. It was the first time the walker hasn't run off with out Ryder... so he was actually walking behind it, not half-running and then falling on his face behind it. I think it helped that they have carpet... we have hardwood. He looks like such a big boy! And he was super proud of himself... big smiles and squeals, although that came after I turned the camera off...sorry.

and, yeah, it's LATE Novemebr and that Captain is in shorts...

the everyday crazy

Hi.

Remember me? I used to blog here regularly.

Or, at least, semi-regularly.

I now post new and exciting run of the mill, ordinary things all nilly-willy in hopes that maybe someone besides my mom will read.

There is no big, important reason for my big lapse of inter-webby silence... just life, you know?

It got a bit crazy.

and busy,

and maybe a tish bit overwhelming...

but really... that's just life.

And when life gets crazy, busy and slightly overwhelming, sometimes you drop a ball or two (or 9).

What's been going on, you ask?

Well... since you asked...

colds, teething, laundry, some fun side projects, my Grandma had heart surgery, laundry, dishes, feeding kids, changing kids, bathing kids, laundry, getting sucked into a couple of books I couldn't put down , and a big change in our family schedule.

Why the big change? Well 2 reasons. Reason A) is because the Captain is helping coach a local HS basketball team and practices are in the evenings... so no daddy at home. Reason B) is  the Captain lost his job... So now he is home all day, thus disrupting my groove.

see...crazy, busy, tish bit overwhelming...life.

However, it has not kept me from being a mama to my precious, loud, energetic and messy boys.

Lately, we have been enjoying 2 new and entertaining ways to pass the time.

#1. The tunnel.

For his 1st birthday, Rigg received a tent and tunnel from my Aunt.  One of the boys new favorite things is to get the tunnel out and crawl through it, play in it, throw toys down it, look through it, yell in it, and carry it about the house like a dog on a leash.

#2. Playing/Jumping together in the crib.

Both boys love to be in the crib together. Rigg loves the bounce factor and jumps and bounces until I am a bit sea-sick just watching. Ryder is just ecstatic that Rigg is in his crib. So He laughs and giggles at everything Rigg does. And since Rigg mostly jumps, Ryder mostly gets tossed and jumbled about, which he seems to find delightful. Because most of the activity going on in the crib is fast-jumpy-motion...all my pictures are blurry. And though it pains me to put blurry sub-par pictures on my blog, I will suck it up and do it anyway...because you really should see how much fun they have...it is cute, even if it is blurry.

oh... and Ryder got a haircut. And now eats graham crackers.

How to re-do a dresser {part 2}

You might remember from this post, that we were in the process of re-doing an old dresser.

We found the dresser at a local Salvation Army... for a whopping $17!

And then I hatched a plan to make it into a lovely blue-teal wonder.

and I made theCaptain buy paint... too much paint.

(oops... now I am going to have 2 lovely blue-teal pieces of furniture...poor me..hehe)

and then we began.

How to re-do a dresser {part 1}

After Lunch, put kids down for nap.

Breathe deep, satisfying sigh of relief.

Go back outside, surround yourself with drawers and start to paint.

Make sure to carefully record paint color for later reference or touch-ups.

Gaze longingly at still-wet dresser through your kitchen window while waiting for it to dry.

Get side tracked with children and store still-tacky dresser in garage to dry completly.

and then get VERY busy with life... and leave it in garage for another month and a half.

Get upset with yourself for letting your really fabulous dresser sit in the garage all lonely and abandoned.

THEN

Scuff and destress the lovely blue-teal wonder of a dresser.

get that bad boy inside so you can stare at it intermittantly throughout the day.

Take some pics and post to blog on internet so all the world can see how long it took you to complete a project.

Congratsulations... if you followed the above steps, you have successfully re-done a dresser!

Stuff with clothes and enjoy!

for the hard things: giveaway winner!

Well folks, we have a giveaway winner.

You might remember...for the hard things, a book I made to be a help in trials...a sort of handbook in hard times... I wanted to give one away.

And because I want you to share in the excitement of WHO won...

and because I am SO organized and technologically advanced...

I took pictures of the EVENT.

yes... I said EVENT (in all caps) so you would get all excited and hopefully get a tingly feeling run up and down your spine...

Did it work?

no?

No worries, we shall proceed anyway.

First I laboriously and painstakingly counted and labled each comment by number...

with a purple crayon.

Then, I carefully and evenly folded wadded up each cut out number...

Next, it threw them in one of the boys hats,

and had Rigg choose...

He had no idea what was going on, but he was super excited to participate...

and he chose....

can you stand it?

#

Congratsulations Boyka! Email me (carichastain@yahoo.com) with your info so I can mail you your book!

Didn't win? Super bummed? Want one anyway?

Click here to buy one.

my grief story

I have needed to do it for awhile.

It was just time consuming...and work... and time...

and I have no time.

 ever

I have children...not time.

BUT

It is important.

So.

I worked on it.

and now it is done (enough)

I have felt for some time now that my blog needed to be easier to navigate.

Specifically for those directed here to read about Caden... and loss... and grief.

Because my life looks dramatically different now then it did 2 or 3 years ago. And a sad, heart-sick mama who comes here to read about Caden gets smacked in the face with 2 adorable, smiley and very alive little boys... which could be a bit unhelpful to her.

SO.

I needed a one-stop place where all my God-praisin', question askin', soul-searchin', heart-wrenchin', laughin', cryin' and sometimes completely undirected posts could sit all cozy together and wait. Wait for a person in need of a story. One they can relate to... one they can cry with... one they can be sad with... and hopefully laugh along with...

A place for my grief story.

Just that.

No tumor.

No pregnancy tales.

No Rigg stories... no Ryder stories.

Just posts about Caden and God bringing us through the fire.

So here it is... it is over on my sidebar.

If you want to just read about Caden...this is the place.

If you ever direct anyone to my blog because they have experienced a loss... make sure you tell them about the link on the side. Right under Our Story.

My Grief Story.

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Less then a day left for the giveaway!

ENTER!!!

a couple of things...

He WOULD NOT sit or stand next to thing 2...

He would not leave his "name sign"alone...

Getting them to keep their "hair" on was next to impossible

butt  ahem...but when they did

Thing 1 and

Thing 2

were SUPER cute.

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Don't forget about the

for the hard things giveaway!