Almost Three!

Reed is almost three! Friday, September 24th will be the big day! I can't believe my baby is such a big boy! He is so smart and funny and such a thinker! He is a constant challenge and I wouldn't want it any other way. We have so much fun every day and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful boy. He has grown and changed so much this year, he is really turning into a talker a lot like his Mama and has quite and imagination. He dreams up schemes of things he's going to try and thankfully is still running them by me to see if it is a good idea or to see how I'll react. For example, last week he was going to jump from the deck to the garage roof to the pool, to the neighbors fence, to the shed, to the pool ladder and then in the pool. "I fink that would be fun idea, Mama?" I convinced him to just jump in the pool, but I KNOW I can wait until he doesn't tell me and just attempts these fun ideas! YIKES!!! I'm proud of his bravery but scared to death at the same time, and wish for a little fear for him every now and then! He also has the best smile I've ever seen! It is contagious and just lights up his whole face! It is so ORNERY! He is also very loving, he still likes to snuggle and likes to sit with his Mama on the couch in the mornings until we are both awake to talk to each other. He usually lets me know when it is time by telling me "It's good morning now, Mama!" The one thing we agree on is that is NOT good morning when we both wake up...another trait from his Mama...we need a good 10-15 minutes to wrap our brains around being awake! So happy birthday to my beautiful boy! You are my best boy! I love you so much!

A wet night!

Todd and I made it through Monday Night Football last week and the monsoon at Arrowhead Stadium! We were troopers and stayed for the whole game! We looked like we'd showered in our clothes and dumped water from our shoes, but it was fun! We had the perfect day...An afternoon at the "K" Kaufmann Stadium and a Royals game. The re-done stadium is beautiful and has a lot to offer, we can't wait to take Reed, there is a lot to do for kids that can't sit through a game. There is a great hall of fame that made me miss my dad, he would have loved it! It has a lot of just neat baseball history...the evolution of the bats, balls, and gloves plus all the Royals greats and some rotating items on loan from Cooperstown. I could just hear the stories flowing!

My Little Thinker!

As many of you may have read, Reed and I have been having discussions about God a lot lately. He is the "don't take the Lord's name in vain police!" We have also been learning to say the blessing at the table which involves me saying it and Reed nodding his head in Todd fashion with a big giant grin on his face to confirm I am saying each phrase correctly! He often echos "yes, He is Mommy!" or "yes, great Mommy" after the God is good, God is great part! He may be the next Billy Graham! We have been praying each night before bed in which if he can remember your name, your dogs name, your cats name or anything about you then you will get blessed. I have yet to decide if this is sweet and endearing or a ploy to stay awake as long as possible. I believe that it is the later. This Sunday Reed was adamant that we meet God. He wanted to see him. In his words, "I want to see what Him looks like, Mommy." the best we could do was Jesus, which then brought up the question of "where is Him's mommy and daddy?" Since I told him this was God's Son. Which I was saved by church letting out (we were in the vestibule due to lack of being able to sit still and talking EXTREMELY loudly in church)which was the indication it was time for Sunday school, and there are Thomas the Train engines in the Sunday School room for the 2 year olds! They trumped the God question this week, but needless to say I will be looking for some biblical stories that will answer some questions and maybe give some kind of visual of God. In the meantime I pray for simpler questions to which I know the answers or at least can make up something that will not scar him for life!

It's all most September!

September is upon us and that means the Hackleman's are getting busy!! Football is coming!!!! YEAHH can't wait...the first OU game starts this weekend and I am ready this year. I had a little mental hiatus last year as it was the first season without my dad and that was very hard for me. Silly in some ways, but that was our thing, and it really hit me that he was gone last year when football started and I just had no joy in going. I made myself go to one game and it was very healing. I worked through a lot of guilt and grief that goes with losing someone you love not to mention the grief the Sooners brought me with losing Sam Bradford so early on... the last year has been a work in progress for me mentally but I am good and can gladly say I'm ready for some FB....so BOOMER SOONER, baby!

With September brings my favorite weekend of the year, Cropaganza. I get to stay up all night and scrapbook with my best girlfriends. We do this for a whole weekend with no husbands or children and it is the best! This year we have more time and I have big plans. I hope to get my Grandma Thompson's pictures from her youth in a Heritage album and then spend the remainder of the time on Reed. To make the week even better Todd and I got tickets to Monday Night Football in KC!!! So my perfect 5 days - 3 scrapbooking with the girls, 2 with my husband in KC with MNF at night and a Royals game in the afternoon and then off to pick up Reed at Camp Nana Hackleman's! What more could a girl want?

AUGUST

The month of August has flown by. Coming back from camp I have worked on trying to balance work out by setting some limits and learning to say no, which I am not very good at, but I am trying. The mantra is, family first! Delegate and no the limits! So this month we haven't had that much going on, but just enjoying our family. August is Todd's down time so we did a lot of swimmin' in our pool and Reed has turned into a real fish! He has enjoyed jumping off the ladder doing "Kansasballs" or cannonballs! He is really talking up a storm and starting to have conversations about all kinds of things. He can count and is working on his ABCs. He loves trains and dogs. He wants to play with Truman and Jack everyday! He really has gotten into watching movies and his favorites are "Happy Chipmunks" "Dogs on the Street" and "Dogs on the Mountain"...aka "Alvin and the Chipmunks...the Squeakuel", "Homeward Bound II: Journey from San Fransico" and "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey". He is really funny and very independent. He recently has limited me to two kisses a day because he told me that if he get's three then his lips will get sore! Who knew?!?

JULY

Next in the summer recap was our month of July: Todd was busy with summer sports and it seemed that Reed and I just moved from one event to the other. We enjoyed the 4th of July with our friends and co-workers the Hornbacks. Kori is also Reed's sitter and they have little boy that is Reed's age that is his best buddy! Reed LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the fireworks! A boy after my own heart!

The rest of the month was spent preparing for KAY camp. Reed went to Nana's for the week and was spoiled rotten as usual. KAY camp was the last full week of July and it was a great week with some really awesome kids. The theme was "There's No Place Like Kansas!" and I am proud so say the Hilltop Mary's were the esteemed winners of the Ear of the Year!! We had a fine presentation of the Wizard of Oz complete with the flying monkeys!!

JUNE

JUNE:
The first weekend in June we spent at Derby Days and playing in the water in our backyard. We didn't have the pool up yet, but we had a slip-n-slide and waterguns! What more do you need. Mom and Audrey's boys came up and went with us as well as some of our good friends. It was a hot one but we managed to ride some rides and get wet after to cool off. All in all a really fun day!

Our next big event in June was our baseball player, Rickey Noland's wedding. Rickey was our first boy and he lived with us for two summers. For those of you who were around Rickey became like our own and we just love him to pieces. We were very excited to hear that he would be getting married this summer, unfortunately it was the same weekend as Todd's biggest softball tournament EVER!! So I talked Mom into road tripping with me and Reed to Natchez, MS for the wedding. We took a side trip on the way and visited my college roommate and her family in TX and on the way back. She has a daughter just a little older than Reed and we were grateful for toddler playtime to break up the trip. He did great riding though, and the wedding was beautiful...hot, but beautiful. I can honestly say I've never sweated so much in my life!!! Can't believe the boy got dehydrated in KANSAS! A big thank you to my Mom though, she kept me sane and kept Reed out of trouble...mostly...he did stick his finger in the groom's cake! He has been wanting to go back to Ippissippi for pawrty cake since we got home! In case you didn't know...every party must have cake! This is a Hackleman trait...the love of cake!